LOWER CHALK—SOUTH DORSET. 
OP 
at 6, 12, and 30 feet above the base. The thickness of the glau¬ 
conitic chalk at the base is about 3 feet, and the dip is about 5° 
to the east. “ The [Belemnite] marl-bed rises from the beach 
300 yards west of the ledge of Chert Beds and reaches the top of 
the cliff 280 yards west of Holworth House/ 7 In Mr. Strahan’s 
section (Geology of the Isle of Pur beck, Plate ix.) the Lower 
Chalk is shown as over 100 feet thick, but the Belemnite Marl has 
been drawn too high up, making the Middle Chalk too thin. A 
dip of 5° for 300 vards brings in 78 feet, and this is probably 
about the real thickness of the Lower Chalk. 
The late C. J. A. Meyer kindly communicated the following note : — 
“ At the base of the massive chalk in the cliff-face there is a bed 
about three feet thick containing green grains and small phos- 
phatic fragments. This rests on a rough bed about six inches 
thick, full of green grains and nodules, with many fossils (see list 
on p. 100), resting on a bed of grit which has an eroded and 
perforated surface/' 
Inland, along the line of the great Bidgeway fault, there are 
few exposures of the Lower Chalk, it being for the most part faulted 
down out of sight. 
Professor Barrois found a quarry open near East Chaldon which 
showed its lower beds and the basement bed ; from chalk with 
siliceous concretions he obtained Am. [ Acanth . ] Mantelli, Scaphites 
cvqaalis, Inoceramus striatus, and Lima semiornata.* 
Higher beds are exposed in a small quarry north of Bin- 
combe church, where the following section was seen by Mr. W. 
Hill and myself in 1893: — 
ft. 
Meljbourn Rock (?), rather hard nodular chalk, 4 feet seen - 
Hard smooth chalk in lenticular beds with marly partings 14 
Tough grey marl.- - 5j 
Hard white chalk -.- - 3 
Firm chalk in thick beds, containing siliceous nodules with 
flint cores .- - 9 
In a chalk-pit half a mile west of Little Cheney (east of 
Bridport) Mr. Strahan saw the following section:— 
Lower 
Chalk. 
41' seen. 
(Hard nodular chalk, partly laminated and partly made 
of streaky chalk alternating with rough nodular- 
bands. A few flints in lower part 
Grey marl or shaly chalk 
Massive chalk with 1 inch of blue clay at base 
Sandy white chalk (base not seen). 
Beds not seen. 
. Chloritic Marl (top not seen) - 
Upper Greensand—Calcareous grit, seen for - *• 
ft. in. 
25 
1 
9 
1 
3 
2 
6 
0 
3 
0 
0 
0 
G 
0 
Recherches sur le Terr. Cret. Sup., 1876, p. 86. 
4219. 
g 2 
