LOWER LIAS: PL 1 ETON PASSAGE. 139 
Clays with bands of cherty limestone were noted by Weaver at 
Inglestone (Ingatestone) Common between Wickvvar and 
Hawkesbury Upton ; and there Ammonites, Gri/plia>a, Lima, and 
Ostrea were obtained.* 
At Tites Point, Purton (or Pyrton) Passage, there were 
formerly some good exposures of the Lower Lias limestones 
alternating with clays and marls. The beds were rich in fossils 
and attracted attention at a very early date, for they are mentioned 
by J. Woodward in 1706.f The fossil-beds were exposed in 
ledges at ebb-tide along the Severn shore ; and the beds abutted 
against the Silurian rocks, for Weaver J mentions (1819) that the 
actual contact of the older rocks with the Lias was observable 
" at low water, at the landing place immediately under the 
Passage-house.'' Twenty years later, the Lias was no longer 
visible, for as pointed out by Murchison, the process of encou- 
raging the mud of the Severn to accumulate upon lines of pile and 
osier, effectually buried the Liassic ledges beneath a slimy 
sediment. 
The limestone appears to have occurred in impersistent^ and 
more or less nodular masses, and among the fossils recorded are 
Ammonites Bucklandi, Nautilus, Belemnites, Pleurotomafaa 
anglica, Gryphaa, Lima, Pentacrinus, &c., representing in the 
main the zone of Am. Bucklandi. Probably beds both at lower 
and higher horizons were exposed, for Hippopodium ponderosum 
has been mentioned ; a form that usually occurs at a higher stage 
in the neighbourhood of Cheltenham. 
The Rev. P. B. Brodie, who has given some account of the 
beds, obtained among other fossils a specimen of Involutina 
liassica, a Foraminifer, in form like a Nummulite.^[ 
A little way inland there was a section exposing bluish-grey 
shales and nodular grey limestones from which I obtained 
Ammonites anyulatus, A. Bucklandi, Gryphceaarcuata, and Lima 
yigantea. 
Fretherne, Westbury-on- Severn, and Stroud. 
For some distance between Purton Passage and Tewkesbury, 
the Severn takes a winding course that roughly follows the 
strike of the Lower Lias. 
At Hock Crib, Fretherne, the Lower Lias is exposed in the 
low cliffs bordering the river. The beds are a little disturbed, 
as they undulate and arc slightly displaced at one point. The 
section was described in 1853 by the Rev. P. B. Brodie,** and in 
more detail, in 1883, by Mr. W. C. Lucy.ff 
The beds comprise about 40 feet of clays or shales with ibout 
10 bands of limestone ; the latter forming ledges and platform, on 
* Trans. Geol. Soc., ser. 2, vol. i. p. 3 JO. 
f Nat. Hist., Foss, England, vol. i. part 2, p. 80 ; vol. ii. pp. 8, 25 
j Trans. Geol. Soc., ser. 2, vol. i. p. 330. 
Silurian System, p. 450. 
I] Proc. Cotteswold Club, Vol. i. p. 243, and Geologist, vol. i. p. 72 ; see also 
J. Jones, Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. iii. p. 134. 
IT T. R. Jones, Geol. Mag. 1864, p. 193. 
** Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. i. p. 241. 
ft Ibid., -vol. viii. p. 131. 
