Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/387

 calcareous concretions. These rest upon strata of the fetid varieties, and underneath these last there an other strata of yellow clay and cream coloured limestone, and in the lowest part of the series I observed in the clay a thin bed of dark coloured limestone full of shells. In this lower yellow clay there is no gypsum.

§ 49. The lyas strata do not extend far inland from the coast. There are here, as in the country to the east, long ridges composed of them, but the surface is very little broken. There are some quarries in the parish of St. Decumans, others near the road from High Bridge to Rydon, and upon the slope of the hill eastward of Donniford.

§ 50. Westward of Minehead, in the lower part of the southern face of North hill, near Venniford, there is found a small insulated patch of the lyas strata. There is a quarry by the side of the road, and it extends in a north-west direction upon the slope of the hill as far as East Lynch, where also there are quarries. It appears to be confined to a space of about half a mile in length, and one-third of a mile in breadth. The strata in the quarry at Venniford dip at an angle of about 30° a little to the west of north: those at East Lynch are horizontal. The occurrence of this detached portion of the lyas strata is very remarkable, being above six miles distant from the last appearance of the lyas at Blue Anchor, and the high ridge of Hayden Down intervenes, which is wholly composed of the grauwacke series.

I should also notice that immediately below the quarries at East Lynch, the rod rock, with grey patches appears in the side of the road. This is, I believe, the most western point where the lyas strata are found in England.

§ 51. About three miles westward of the river Parret, there occurs on the sea-shore one of the most remarkable features of