92 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND : 
OUford near Frame to Bath, and Dundry. 
At Oldford, north of Frome, there is a large quarry in the 
Inferior Oolite, showing nearly 25 feet of well-bedded stone, as 
follows: 
FT. lie. 
Bubbly oolite - - - - - -30 
Pale shelly oolite - - 3 6 
Pale chalky oolite - - - - -30 
Pale oolite, 4 layers - 13 3 
Brown sandy oolitic and sparry limestone, like Doulting 
Stone, with Serpula - - 2 
One large Nautilus was observed, but fossils are very scarce. 
The stone is employed for building-purposes, &c. 
The Cromlech in Orchardleigh Park, comprises two large blocks 
of stone, one about 11 feet high; and these are composed of 
Inferior Oolite. 
The peculiar characters of the Oolite where it rests on the 
Carboniferous Limestone have been noticed in reference to the 
Doulting Stone. North of Frome more remarkable changes 
appear in the rock, it becomes very siliceous and seemingly 
" cherty " in places. Here it rests on an irregular surface of 
the Carboniferous Limestone, which is also cherty ; and bosses of 
the older rock protrude here and there, much in the same manner 
as we find near Button and Southerndown in Glamorganshire, 
where peculiar modifications of the Lower Lias rest on the same 
rock. The occurrence of hard blue and grey siliceous beds in 
the Inferior Oolite i near Frome has been noticed by De la 
Beche* and also by Mr. J. McMurtrie.f 
In the cutting of the road leading from Whatcomb Farm, 
north of Frome, to Bradford's Bridge near Spring Gardens, the 
following beds were seen : 
Gravel and sand, clay and ochreous debris 
T P rv r*. f Chert and decomposed " cherty rock." 
Inferior Oolite ( gandy limestone p 
Carboniferous Limestone, cherty in places. 
In the railway-cuttings to the north, we find hard pale very 
oolitic stone, shelly in places, and bluish-grey in centre ; while 
north-east of Vallis Bottom, a quarry by the railway showed 
about 25 feet of oolitic limestones, resting on hard grey shelly 
and oolitic limestones in massive beds, siliceous in places. The 
" cherty rock " is decomposed, where it comes to the surface, and 
gives rise to an ochreous soil. This fact is interesting as ochre 
was at one time worked in connection with the beds of chert;/ 
Lias on Harptree Hill 
Mr. Teall who examined microscopic sections of this Inferior 
Oolite, found it sometimes to contain grains of oolite, organic 
fragments, pellets, and a few quartz grains in a matrix of calcite ; 
at other times the oolitic grains were obscure and apparently 
* Mem. Geol. Survey, vol. i. p. 287. 
t Proc. Bath Nat. Field Club, vol. T. p. 98. 
