LOWER CHALK—DEVONSHIRE. 
141 
From the foregoing account of the exposures in Branscombe 
cliffs it will be seen that the Cenomanian is here a very variable 
group, consisting of three separate beds, each of which varies greatly 
in thickness. The lowest of the three is the most local, often thin¬ 
ning out entirely in a very short distance; the highest seems to 
thin out very gradually westward, but the middle bed nowhere 
quite thins out, and remains where the other two are absent. 
There is, however, an interesting section in a quarry about a 
quarter of a mile JST.N.W. of Branscombe Church, on the eastern 
slope of Culverhole Hill. This is : — 
, ft. in. 
/ A C • 11 J • 
Turonian (Bubbly soil and whitish nodular chalk - - -20 
\Hard yellowish limestone, nodular at base - - - 1 0 
rB. Hard compact whitish gritty limestone, with 
q green-coated nodules at top - - - - 0 9 
eil T - A. Rough gritty and pebbly rock, with casts of 
1 shells and sandstone pebbles, and Ceriocava 
v ramulosa near the base. 6 6 
Selbornian. —Massive calcareous sandstone - - - - 15 0 
Bed B is similar in character and in thickness to the corre¬ 
sponding bed in the cliff sections, while that lettered A seems to 
be the portion which I have there called Al. It is one homogeneous 
mass from top to base, coarsest at the bottom, but without any 
divisional plane, and not specially compact or shelly at the top. It 
would seem therefore that the Bed A2, so persistent in the cliffs, is 
here absent. 
There were formerly good sections in the quarries on Culverhole 
Hill, but these are now disused and overgrown. 
Returning to the cliffs west of Littlecombe Hollow, the beds rise 
to such a high level and the cliffs present such an unbroken face 
above the lower slope that the Chalk cannot be reached without 
dangerous climbing. On the shore below Weston cliff, however, 
there is a fallen block which shows that all three beds of the Ceno¬ 
manian group have come in again at that place. This block gave 
the following measurements : — 
ft 
B. Hard rough whitish limestone, with rather large quartz 
grains, green-coated lumps in the upper half, Holaster 
subglobosus - .1 
A 2 . Very hard compact limestone, with many shells and 
Bryozoa, Trigonia vicaryana and Am.[Acanth.\Hlantelh 2 
Al. Rough shelly calcareous grit, with large quartz grains, 
Pectens, Sponges, and Ceriocava ramulosa - - - 1^ 
A few inches of hard chalk with scattered quartz and glauconitic 
grains adhere to the top of B. 
Crossing Weston Gap, we come to that part of Dunscombe cliffs 
which is known as Kempstone Rocks, and which seems to be part of 
the cliff face in its natural position. It may be noticed, however, 
that while the Cenomanian base in Weston cliff rises to the 500 feet 
contour, at Kempstone Rocks it has fallen to about 430, the pro¬ 
bability being that a fault with downthrow to the west runs along 
the valley between Weston and Dunscombe. 
