MIDDLE MAS: MKXDIP IIIM^. 209 
senting in places conglomeratic characters. Little would be 
known of the fossils of these beds, but for the researches of 
Charles Moore : nevertheless the testimony of the organic remains, 
which arc sometimes obtained from fissures that may have received 
infilling at different periods, must necessarily be received with 
caution. (See p. 97.) The following section at Whattej was 
noted by Moore : 
FT, IN. 
Clay an;l debris of Inferior Oolite, 
A/I -in T- f Grey laminated marl - - - I 2 
e Lias \ Grey marl, very fossiliferous - - - 10 
Carboniferous Limestone. 
He stated that " the fossilifcrous marl at Whatley is in great 
part composed of dismembered Pcntacrinitcs, but the same thin 
deposit has yielded 64 species of organic remains ; of these 
the most varied are the Bruchiopoda, of which there are present 
the genera Argiope, Crania, Leptana, Rhynchonella, Spirifcrina, 
Sucssia, Terebratula, Terebratulina, and Tkccidcum."* Moore 
remarked that occasionally the fossiliferous marl is converted 
into a thin indurated limestone, difficult to separate from the 
older rock on which it rests. 
The method of occurrence of this fossiliferous bed and its 
organic remains, were compared by Moore with a similar accu- 
mulation at Fontaine-etoupe-Fotir in Normandy, described by 
M. Deslongchamps, ns of Middle Lias age. Upper Lias beds also 
occur in that country under similar conditions. (Seep. 229.) 
Moore observed that " within two miles of Whailey, the Middle 
Lias i again present under very peculiar conditions at the hamlet 
of Holwell. On the Carboniferous Limestone at this place, and 
extending as far as Cranmore, are deposits of conglomerate of 
Middle Lias age, almost undistinguishable lithologicully from the 
older rocks. . . . Not only does the Middle Lias conglomerate 
fringe the ancient coast-line at this point, but it has been carried 
down for great depths into the viens and fissures of the limestone, 
the infilling* in one of the quarries occupying nearly a third the 
length of the section, one of the Liassic veins being fifteen feet in 
breadth. From the side of this, about fifty feet from the surface, 
was extracted a block but a few inches square, containing fourteen 
species of gasteropoda of Middle Lias age, and all of them new 
to this country ."f The lists given by Moore, from these localities 
of Whatley and Holwell, contain forms found elsewhere in Lower, 
Middle, and Upper Lias. (See p. 98.) 
Moore has recorded the presence of the Middle Lias ( \Iarlstone) 
at Mells, resting directly upon the Coal-measures. It was pene- 
trated in sinking a shaft, and found to be 9 feet in thickness. It 
* Proc. Somerset Arch, and Xaf. liist. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 155; and Q.imrt. Journ. 
Geol. Soc., vol. xxiii. pp. 477-480. 
f proc. Somerset Arch, and Xat. Hist. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 157; Quart. Journ. 
Geol. Soc., vol. xxiii., pp. 482, &c. 
E 70859. 
