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CRUMLIN BRIDGE AND PONTYPOOL. 



June 19th, 1868. 



A joint meeting of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club and the Cardiff 

 Naturalists' Society took place on Friday, at Crumlin, in • the Ebbw Vale, 

 and passed off very successfully. 



The Woolhope members having picked up their President at Abergavenny, 

 came in sight of the Blorenge, the great corner-stone of the South Wales coal 

 field. This fine bold hUl consists of Old Red Sandstone at the base, and Car- 

 boniferous Limestone at the top with a slight covering of Millstone Grit. After 

 sku-ting Llanover Mil to Pontypool Koad station, the railway then strikes 

 suddenly into the Coal basin through a gorge of Coal measure Sandstone, and 

 passing the town of Pontypool, and the Crumlin ponds, quickly reaches the 

 celebrated iron bridge over which it passes "by order," at a rate "not exceeding 

 eight miles an hour." 



The members of the Woolhope Club were the first to arrive at the trysfn^ 

 place, and at once transacted the ordinary business of the meeting. The follow- 

 ing new members were elected : — John Jones Men-iman, Esq., Kensington ; John 

 Mortimer Bowen, Esq., Chancefield, Talgarth; Thos. Edward Williams, Esq., 

 Talgarth ; Mr. Thos. Adams, Marden Comt ; and Mr. John Andrews, Bosbury ; 

 and some others were proi30sed. Still they had time to admu'e the fine view 

 of this remarkable Viaduct from tlie bank of the station before the Cardiff train 

 arrived. It soon did so, however, and then, under the guidance of G. Phillips 

 Bevan, Esq., the whole jjarty went on to the bridge, then through a trap-door 

 to a boarded platform between the girders, and so crossed back again to the 

 other side. A train passed over as the passage was made, and the vibration it 

 caused was certainly very considerable. Mr. Bevan here pointed out the chief 

 features of the bridge— the lightness and strength of the open iion work, its 



