133 



cessful. From the same cause, the fine, higlily coloured lichens which 

 cover the sea wall, liave lost their attractions. 



Crossing the wooden- bridge, over the sluice which allows the waste 

 waters of the canal to escape, we approach the place at which the 

 ferry boat from Pyi'ton on the opposite side lands its passengers, the names 

 of both being probably derived from the same Anglo Saxon elements of 

 Per-tun, "the dwelling on the pier," and evidencing the antiquity of 

 the ferry, the rights pertaining to which are still strictly enforced by 

 the lessee. 



An interesting chapter in practical Geology may be read by the 

 initiated from this spot. 



We stand neai-ly upon the summit of the protnided Silurian dome, 

 represented in a coloured section, published in the first edition of 

 Murchison's " Silurian system," and may find in abimdance under our 

 feet, characteristic shells and corals of the upper Ludlow beds, though 

 much damaged by the action of the tidal waters. The colour of this 

 rock diffei-s so little from that of the Old Red Sandstone beds which once 

 rested immediately upon it, and still flank it, that the precise point of 

 contact is dtfiicult to discover. 



Upon the opposite shore, full in our view, are the Old Red Sand- 

 stone Rocks which form the upturned edges of the Forest of Dean 

 coal basin, the equivalents of the cornstones, and show at a glance, by 

 the well marked anticlinal lines of their strata, dipping from one point 

 towards Lydney, and from another towai-ds Gloucester, the wave-like 

 character of the motion of the subjacent beds, by which their elevation, 

 with that of the Silurian Rock, just mentioned, was eflfected, and their 

 curvatures produced. The transverse section, showing how this last passes 

 under the others, appears to us to be of equal interest to the published 

 section, and we have here ventured to produce it, from such observations 

 as the constantly changing bed of the river has enabled us to make ; 

 remarking that from the inaccessibility of the former, the club would 

 confer a boon upon its members by re-publishing it. 



Walking along under the cliff, towards the Berkeley Ai'ms Inn, from the 

 seat, in front of which, the finest view of the district, to be seen from the 

 river, may be obtained, we arrive at the mass of Old Red Sandstone, 

 anticlinal to that over which we have just pased, upon which the house 

 stands, although, from the amount of silt deposited within the last ten or 

 twelve years, the point of junction is obscvu-ed ; and crossing the road leading 

 to the Pier, we come at once to the lias beds, which form the well-known 

 Pui-ton section, reposing unconformably upon the same. Some forty 

 years since, the principal channel ran under this cliff, but, from the 



