260 
LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND: 
The evidence is therefore in favour of the mass of the Great 
Oolite (over part at any rate of the Dorsetshire region) having 
been eroded, and there is consequently a local break between the 
Forest Marble and Fullonian formation, marked by the rich 
fossil-bed which has been identified with the Bradford Clay. 
It is interesting to find that in the Geological View and 
Section through Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, published by 
William Smith in 1819, he noted the sequence of strata beneath 
the Cornbrash in the southern county as follows : 
[Forest Marble.] 
[Fullonian.] 
f Clay. 
< Forest Marble. 
I Clay. 
Place of the Upper Oolite. 
fClay. 
1 Fuller's Earth Bock. 
I Clay. 
Smith thus recognized the true position of the Great Oolite, as 
independent of Forest Marble and Fuller's Earth, and he showed 
it in his section as wedging out towards the outcrop. (See also 
Fig. 80). 
FIG. 81. 
Section at Avoncliff, Bradford-on-Avon. 
f 5. Coarse wedge-bedded oolite. 
I 4. Marl. 
Great Oolite. -| 3. Shelly oolitic limestone. 
2. Bag (Roof-bed). 
\l. Freestone. 
The first traces of Great Oolite appear in the scarp between 
Hassage and Norton St. Philip. To the north-east of Hassage we 
find exposures of oolite overlaid by clays and shelly limestone of the 
Forest Marble ; and again east of Lower Baggeridge, an old quarry 
showed rubbly oolite resting on earthy limestone and clay, with 
Rhynchonella variant, &c., belonging to the Fuller's Earth. 
