LOWER CHALK—SOMERSET AND DEVON. 117 
3. Somerset and Parts of Devon. 
Under this head we shall include all the inland tracts which lie 
to the westward of those already described. In Somerset, south 
of Crewkerne, are two small outliers of Lower Chalk, and to the 
westward is a larger outlier, capped by Middle Chalk. West o 
Chard there is another irregular tract of Chalk, broken by many 
faults, but stretching southward beyond Chardsto'ck, and north¬ 
ward to the high ground west aiid north of Combe St. Nicholas. 
West of Chardstock there is a small outlier of Chalk near 
Whitehouse and Brinscombe Farm, and further west is a longeC 
.one running north and south through the village of Membury, 
which is about four miles N.N.W. of Axminster, this outlier being 
brought in by a fault. 
Near Crewkerne the Lower Chalk presents the same features 
as in West Dorset, and is about 90 feet thick. At Chard it is 
thinner, probably from 60 to 70 feet, consisting of (1) the basal 
nodule-bed, which is a fairly hard rock full of fossils and phospliatic 
nodules ; above is (2) glauconitic chalk passing up into white chalk, 
and finally (3) grey and buff mails. At Membury there seems to 
be still 50 or 60 feet of Lower Chalk, but though this differs from 
that of Chard it shows no sign of passing into sandstone, like that 
to be described in the next chapter. 
Crewkerne and Chard. 
A good exposure of the lowest part of the Chalk can be seen in the 
road-cutting west of Warren Hill, about 2-|- miles west of Crew¬ 
kerne. Lying on the surface of the hard calcareous sandstone, 
which forms the top of the Greensand, is a loose glauconitic 
marl, full of quartz grains, and containing some phosphatic nodules 
and fossils ; this passes up into soft glauconitic chalk, the quartz 
and glauconite disappearing about 4 feet from the base, the material 
then becoming a greyish-white chalk, which dries white, and con¬ 
tains scattered siliceous nodules, some of them having a black flint 
centre. Of this chalk about 8 feet are seen, and higher beds were 
formerly quarried to the westward in Holcombe Copse; the total 
thickness of the Lower Chalk here must be from 80 to 90 feet, 
for nodular chalk like Melbourn Rock was seen in the cutting 
on St. Rayn’s Hill about 100 feet above the Greensand. 
There are two quarries in the white Lower Chalk on Shave Hill 
south of Crewkerne, one at the south end above Seaborough, and 
one near the north end of the outlier. Both show featureless and 
homogeneous white chalk without fossils. 
There are many old quarries in the tract between Crewkerne and 
Chard, but none of them now show anything of special interest. 
Near Chard the best section is that of Snowdown Hill quarry, 
west of town. A view of this is given in Fig. 28; the Selbornian 
