216 LIAS OF ENGLAND AND WALES: 
In the shales No. 7, I obtained small specimens of A. marr/aritatus and 
Belemnites vulgaris. The lower beds (I and 2) were regarded by Witchell 
as belonging to the zone of A. Henleyi; and specimens of Pholadomya 
ambiffua, Unicardium cardioides, and Pleuromya costata, which occur in the pit, 
and apparently come from this horizon, are much like specimens from the 
same zone on the north of Dumbleton. 
The Marlstone has been observed by Witchell at Rock Mill, 
and further north, in the valley bet \veen Stroud and Painswick. 
Northwards along the borders of the Cotteswold Hills there 
are few sections in the Middle Lias; the Marlstone forms a small 
terrace near the foot nf the hills, hut the beds are best shown in 
the outliers of Churehdown, Oxenton, Dumbleton, and Bredon. 
There are no good sections on Robin's Wood Hill. At Church- 
down the Marlstone has been, in former years, largely quarried for 
road-metal anil other purposes. The beds have been described 
by Murchison and others,* but the brst account is that by Dr. F. 
Smiths, of Cburchdown. He describes the beds below the Upper 
Lias as follows : 
FT. IN. 
C Yellow marly sands, with ferruginous con- 
-.,.,,, | cretions, and nodules yielding Ostracoda (i OtoG 8 
<( Rock-bed ; impure nine limestone weathering 
brown, ferruginous, graduating into thin- 
[_ bedded marlstorie - - 10 
The yellow marly sands are grouped with the zone of Ammo- 
nites spinatus. They contain this and other Ammonites, Gry- 
phcea cymbium, &c. 
The Marlstone-rock is marked as the zone of Ammonites mar- 
garitatus, though no doubt it is equivalent to beds elsewhere 
included in the horizon of A. spinatus. At Ilminster and Yeovil 
A. spinatus and A. maryaritatus occur together. Here at 
Churchdown Dr. Smithe has found A. Engelhardti (found also 
at Ilminster, &c.), Pecten aquivahis, Cardium iruncatum, Rhyn- 
chonella acuta, R. tctrahcdra, fcc.f 
At Aldertou and Dumbleton the thickness of the Marlstone is 
about 14 feet, but the beds are not now fully exposed; and 
further references to them will be given in the account of the 
Upper Lias at those localities. Fossils similar to those recorded 
from Churchdown have been obtained. J I obtained Ammonites 
nitescens, A. spinatus, Bclemnitcs breviformis, Mmliola scalprum, 
Pccteiiy and Pleuromya costata: these fossils were named by 
Messrs. Sharman and Newton. (See p. 267.) 
There are no good sections of the Middle Lias in the escarp- 
ment near Cheltenham, although the beds are occasionally exposed 
in ravines and dep lanes. Northwards by Gretton, and again to 
* A section showing 14 feet of Marlstone, was given by Murchison, Silurian 
System, p. 18; Geol. Cheltenham, 1834, p. 27; Ibid, Ed. 2, by Buckman and 
Strickland, p. b8. 
| Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. vi., 1876, p. 349. 
J Murchison, Geol. Cheltenham, Edit. 2, by Biu-kman and Strickland, p. 40 ; 
F. Smithe and W. C. Lucy, Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. x.. p. 207. 
