UPPER LIAS: DUMBLETON. 2b'7 
directed. The quarries are no longer worked to the extent that 
was formeily the case, but the one sometimes noted as Alderton 
quarry, was at the south-eastern corner of the hill, while the 
Dumbleton quarry was towards the east. 
The Fish- bed is an interrupted band of limestone formed of 
yellow nodules, blue inside, evidently much like the Fish-bed of 
the Upper Lias of Ihninster. It has yielded remains of 
Saurians, and of the Fishes l*cptolepis } Pachycormus, and 
Tetrayonoleiris discus ; Insects including forms allied to Libellula ; 
and Cephalopods with the Ink-bag preserved. 
About 2 feet above the Marlstone, Mr. R. F. Tomes obtained 
two species of Corals, Thecocyathu* tuberculatus and Troc/iocyathus. 
Ammonites Holandrei, A. serpentinus, Aptychus, Belemnites, 
Euomphalus (?) minutus, and Inoceramus dubius, have also been 
recorded. So that altogether there is a remarkable similarity be- 
tween the beds and those of the neighbourhood of Ilminster, 
although in Gloucestershire these Basement Beds are much thicker 
than are the equivalent strata in Somersetshire. 
Prof. Judd in 1875, suggested that the name " Dumbleton 
Series " might be applied to these Paper-shales with Fish and 
Insect Limestones* ; and it is a name that may be useful when 
we wish to particularize these fossiliferons beds. Nevertheless, as 
elsewhere remarked, the preservation of the characteristic fossils 
is somewhat local and independent of the sedimentary accumula- 
tions, and although we have evidence of these Fish and Insect 
Limestones at intervals from Somersetshire to Lincolnshire, it is 
hardly possible to make any general stratigraphical distinction 
between them and the beds grouped as the zone of Ammonites 
serpentinus. 
The section at Alderton (Dumbleton), in 1887, was as follows : 
FT. IN. 
Brown clay with blocks of pale-grey earthy 
limestone. Belemnites - - - 16 
Pale marly clay - - - fi 6 
Paper-shales with lenticular earthy ^ 
Upper Lias 
fissile shaly limestone (Fish and Insect 
A* , i nssue siiaiy mnesioiie ^risii a 
* Bed) in the upper part; the Decls are 
brown on top and bluish-grey below, ^about 20 
Beds). 
passing down into paper-shales with 
crushed Ammonites 
Shales with Lepttena -J 
Hard brown sandy ferruginous and mica- 
ceous limestone, with Ammonites spinatus, 
Belemnites (abundant), Nautilus, Avicula 
inwquivalris, Limea acuticosta, Pecten 
Middle Lias -^ aquivalvis, P. lunularis, Pleuromya cos- 
tata, Rhynchonella tetrahedra, &c. (seen 
to depth of 3 feet). 
Micaceous and sandy shales with ironstone- 
nodules, Belemnites, Pleuromya costata, 
The quarry has for some time been abandoned, and the lowest 
beds of the Upper Lias were not clearly shown. A list of the 
* Geol. Rutlaiid, pp. 58, 79. 
