Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/367

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feet in thickness, and dips northward about 18°. The signs of stratification are not very distinct in the conglomerate, but the beds appear to dip at the same angle and towards the same point as the superficial sandstone. This conglomerate is called Popple rock (Pebble?) by the quarries, and is worked on account of the nodules of limestone, which are picked out and made into lime.

§ 24. Opposite Bickham farm near Timberscombe, and at the foot of the hill which may be considered the eastern termination of Dunkery beacon, another modification of the conglomerate occur. It is composed of large irregularly-shaped flat masses of limestone imbedded in a pale green sandy clay. Between these masses there is interposed a conglomerate of smaller sized fragments, very analogous to that found at Tivington, and the whole series is covered by a friable red marly sandstone. The limestone is similar to that found in the conglomerate at Alcombe. The lower part of the valley on the south side of Grabbist hill is chiefly meadow land, but in some places where the ground is broken, as in the road near Wotton Courtney, and in the road from Timberscombe to Minehead, I observed a red marly sandstone with grey patches containing thin strata of a small sized very compact breccia composed of fragments of a white indurated clay, united by a cement of clay mixed with calcareous matter, and here and there small cavities in it lined with calcareous spar. This compound I did not find in any other part of the district.

§ 25. The valley which separates the Quantock hills from the mountainous country to the west does not present a uniformly even surface: there is along its whole extent a succession of low hills having a longitudinal direction parallel to that of the valley. There are two ranges of these hills, but the most conspicuous are on the side of the Quantock hills. The whole of this valley is occupied