204 LIAS OF ENGLAND AND WALES: 
The lower beds, comprising sands and dark blue and brown 
sandy clays, with tough blue cement-stone nodules, were exposed 
in the road-cutting west of Hurcot. At New Cross, and to the 
south of West Lambrook, loamy micaceous clays, like the beds at 
Mudford near Yeovil, have been worked to a depth of 6 feet, for 
the manufacture of red bricks and drain-pipes. The total thick- 
ness of these lower beds may be about 150 feet. 
At South Petherton the sands below the Marlstone, as observed 
by Moore, are well shown at the end of North Street, in the 
hill descending towards Martock. Eastwards we find few sections 
of the lower beds, but they form a fertile tract, and the soil is well 
adapted for orchards, the cider of Tintinhull being of local repute. 
Here and there as at Sock, we find laminated micaceous and 
sandy shales, with calcareous bands and nodules of ochre and 
" race " ; and these beds rest on clays which throw out springs. 
Much of the ground about the junction of the Middle and Lower 
Lias is heavy and wet in winter-time, and many of the footpaths by 
the roadsides at Chilthorne Domer, and Tintinhull are raised, and 
paved with slabs of Lower Lias, owing to the wet and muddy 
state of the roads. South of Mudford there are two brickyards, 
where bricks, drain-pipes, and flower-pots are manufactured. The 
beds consist of about 6 feet of brown loamy clay with thin 
bands of micaceous ironstone ; but no fossils appear to be preserved. 
At South Petherton the Marlstone (3 feet 6 inches thick) has 
been extensively quarried, and from a section on the north side 
of the town, were obtained many of the Brachiopoda, figured by 
Davidson, from the Middle Lias. Moore remarks that the 
organic remains are here especially abundant, and on the whole 
in better preservation than in most other localities.* Dr. Wright 
mentions that the best specimens of Ammonites margaritatus and 
A. Engclhardti came from this locality, t Fine examples of Pleuro- 
tomaria anglica have also been obtained. 
A pit west of Norton, near Ham Hill, showed the following 
section : 
FT. IN. FT. IN. 
r Brown ochreous and loamy clay, 
with dark brown clay at the base, 
Upper Lias | resting in pipes on the bed below - 2 to 3 
(Basement <( Rubbly light earthy limestone and 
Beds). | marl, with Ammonites communis, 
iA. bifrons, A. serpentinus, Rhyn- 
chonella Bouchardi, &c. - 7 
Pale earthy and iron-shot limestone, 
passing down into blue and brown 
iron-shot limestone, crowded in 
places with Belemnites and other 
^ fossils (base not shown) - - 1 6 to 2 
The Marlstone has also been quarried to the east of Holy Tree, 
where it is 2 feet 6 inches thick. In this neighbourhood it is 
known as " Due Stone,"J a term applied to a somewhat similar 
* Proc. Somerset Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 137. 
t Lias Ammonites (Palseontogr. Soc.), p. 95. 
j This term, as elsewhere noted (p. 296), is probably of Celtic origin (Dhu 
Stone). 
