MiDDLE CHALK—SOMERSET 
429 
Tiie total thickness existing at any place is probably not more 
than HO feet, but no actual measurements could be obtained. 
It will be convenient to describe first the sections near Crewkerne 
and Chard, then those at Membury, and finally that near Wid- 
worthy. 
Crewkerne and Chard 
There are no good sections between Crewkerne and Chard, 
though the road cutting on St. Bayn Hill must originally have 
shown a clear face of this zone and its junction with the Lower 
Chalk. Hard nodular chalk, like Melbourn Bock, can be seen in 
the bank at a level of between 730 and 740 feet, and higher up 
there is some tough yellowish-white chalk mottled with grey, 
containing many Inoceramus mytiloides; still higher there is 
firm, compact white chalk. 
On Snowdown Hill, west of Chard, the Middle Chalk is at a high 
level, its base being probably at about 660 feet, and the top of the 
hill being over 700 feet. On the western slope of the hill and at a 
lower level there is a larger area of Middle Chalk brought in appa¬ 
rently by a fault which runs nearly north and south. 
On the south side of the main road, where the surface level is 
about 630 feet, is a large old quarry. It is not now worked, and 
the only visible face showed about 15 or 16 feet of firm bedded 
chalk with several layers of nodular chalk and a few scattered 
Hints, which are solid and black inside, with a thick rind. The 
nodular layers give a bedded appearance to the chalk, and one of 
them has a pink tinge in places. Inoceramus mytiloides , Rhyn¬ 
chonella Cuvieri, and Terehratula semiglobosa were common. 
Dr. Spicer, of Chard, also possesses a number of Galeritcs sub- 
rotundus which probably came from this quarry. Evidently the 
chalk here belongs to the highest part of the Rhyne. Cuvieri zone, 
and it shows a slight dip to the south-east. 
Further on, to the north of the road, and just below the 600 feet 
contour, is a smaller quarry in beds which are not far above the 
Melbourn Bock ; near the top is a markedly nodular layer in which 
a very large Ammonite was embedded, broad and almost nautiloid 
in shape ; around and inside this the chalk was breccia ted or con¬ 
glomeratic, like that at Okeford (see p. 425). Inoceramus mytiloides 
and Rhynchonella Cuvieri were also found here. 
At White Staunton, 3 miles north-west of Chard, a small tract 
of chalk is faulted down between tracts of Upper Greensand, and 
a quarry in this south of the church shows a few feet of firm white 
chalk with some nodular lumps in the upper part. Inoceramus 
mytiloides is fairly common; two small Rhynchonella Cuvieri and an 
Ostrea curvirostris were also found, but no flints, so the horizon 
is probably about the middle of the Rh. Cuvieri zone. 
South of Chard a tract of Middle Chalk comes in between 
Forton and Chardstock House. A quarry less than half a mile 
west of Forton exposes hard nodular chalk (apparently the top of 
the Melbourn Bock), passing up into looser nodular chalk which 
