43 



On Wednesday, the weather being doubtful, the drive to 

 Burrington Combe was postponed, and instead the train was 

 taken to Cheddar; here the party visited the renowned cavern 

 which is remarkable for the great abundance, variety, and 

 preservation of the Stalactites. There are other caverns in 

 the same series of fissures, but not so fine in this respect. 

 The high cliffs are here very picturesque, (on the ledges of 

 which grow the Cheddar pink, several specimens of which 

 were obtained by the members from the cottagers), and as 

 the dip of the strata is in places clearly marked, they present 

 a most difficult problem in accounting for the course which 

 the vast fracture has taken; for fracture it must be, since 

 merely the very slightest traces of denuding action are 

 visible. Thence the party continued their route to the 

 Banwell caves, where an enormous mass of bones of oxen 

 mixed with other cave debris exists, as if a whole herd had 

 met with their death in some fissure, and their bones had 

 accumulated in one spot, where by chance the opening 

 was made. The weather was most unfavourable, but 

 Dr. Rolleston and Mr. Parker succeeded in making their way 

 after some half -hour's exploration to the farthest end of a 

 cave at Loxton, where bones have been found, and some 

 enormous specimens of bos primigenius. In the evening 

 some further discussion took place, chiefly on cave questions, 



Thursday morning, after visiting the Bishop's palace and 

 grounds, the party started in a drag over Milton hill on the 

 way to Priddy. They first examined a cutting on the road 

 side where the New Eed Quartz rock and the Rhoetic beds up 

 to the Lima beds, occur in a short section, the banks however 

 were much overgrown since Messrs. Brodie and Parker took 

 the section.* Passing by the numerous barrows, they 



* Notes on a section of Lower Lias and Bhoetic beds near Wells, by the Rev. 

 p. B, Brodie, M.A., F.O.S., journal of the Geological Society, Deeember eth, 1865. 



