LOWER CHALK—NORTH WILTSHIRE. 
159 
Another place where several small but successive sections in the 
Lower Chalk may be seen is Ridgeway Lane, north of Alton Priors. * 
The lowest of these, about 50 feet above the base, is in ordinary 
Chalk Marl, full of minute grains of glauconite, and many shells 
of Inoceramus latus, d’Orb. The second is 20 feet higher, and shows 
a bed of hard grey chalk with less glauconite ; this has the aspect 
presented by the hard beds which consist principally of comminuted 
shell fragments. The third exposure is about 10 feet higher and 
shows soft, blocky, grey chalk containing both glauconite and white 
mica in small flakes. About 70 feet higher, i.e., about 150 feet 
above the base, is greyish-white chalk containing siliceous nodules 
and concretions of a bluish-grey colour, like those found at Eastcott 
and Collingbourn. 
Siliceous chalk, but without concretions, was also seen in a small 
excavation north of Ailing ton at about the 500 feet contour. 
A good section of the lower 50 or 60 feet of the Chalk Marl is 
seen in a chalk pit east of Compton Bassett and along the neigh¬ 
bouring roadway. The bank east of the quarry shows 15 or 16 feet 
of soft, grey marly chalk, which is very argillaceous at the base, and 
the Chloritic Marl crops out just below. At the top of the bank 
is about 6 feet of firm blocky chalk, and 12 or 14 feet of similar 
chalk are exposed in the quarry face ; this blocky chalk is full of 
minute grains of glauconite. Southward in the roadway several 
courses of much harder chalk weather out in distinct ledges, and 
microscopic examination of these showed them to contain much 
colloid silica in minute globules. 
The roadway ascending the hill south of Cliff Pypard traverses 
the lower part of this zone, but the original section is now much 
talused and obscured. Judging from specimens, which I owe to 
the kindness of the Rev. E. H. Goddard, of Cliff Pypard, and 
from information supplied by him, there do not appear to be any 
hard beds here like those of Compton Bassett, all the chalk seen 
being greyish-white and blocky, but the highest part weathers 
into small flaggy slabs. Near the bottom of the main cutting, 
and just below the contour-line of 600 feet, the chalk is greyer and 
rather harder, and examination shows it to be full of small 
glauconite-grains ; this probably marks the beginning of the 
passage into Chloritic Marl, and, though chalk extends much 
farther down the slope, it is probably in masses which have 
slipped from their original position. Mr. E. Meyriok and the 
members of the Marlborough Natural History Society obtained 
fossils from this cutting and sent them to me for determination 
(see list on p. 163). 
Mr. F. J. Bennett informs me that on the top of the hill over 
looking Broad Town, and by the side of the high road leading north¬ 
ward, are two quarries in the Lower Chalk about 60 feet above its 
base. The first shows about 10 feet of grey flaggy chalk ; the second 
shows the following section : — 
* For the specimens and measurements of this section I am indebted 
to my colleague, Mr. F. J. Bennett. 
