73 
Watchet, in Somersetshire. The fine crystallized specimens 
for which Bristol was famous came from Pyle Hill, close by 
the station, but south of the line, where the Celestite was 
found by the workmen in considerable quantity, just below the 
datum line, when making the Bristol and Exeter Railway and 
goods sidings, and at a spot which will never be opened again. 
My old friend, Professor Etheridge, informs me that of all the 
best crystals, large pale blue tinted specimens, some are in the 
Museum of Natural History at Bristol, but probably the largest 
from that locality adorn the collection of the Museum of 
Practical Geology in Jermyn Street, London. 
Leaving Pyle Hill, and crossing the Avon, we are in 
Gloucestershire, where, on Durdham Down, in 1874, some 
curious forms of blue crystals of Celestite were obtained from 
fissures in the Carboniferous Limestone. 
At Clifton, which is near Durdham Down, large quantities 
of Celestite were, later on, thrown up whilst excavating for 
house foundations and drains between Alma and Oakfield 
Roads; and at Cotham. The mineral was also found in small 
quantities when making the Clifton Station Railway cuttings. 
The late Mr Tawney, M.A., F.G.S., published an account of 
this with full particulars ; and since that time a valuable paper 
has been written by Mr Norman Collie, Student in the Chemical 
Laboratory of University College, Bristol, with the title, “On 
“the Celestine and Baryto-celestine of Clifton.”* It is interest- 
ing to notice in this paper the information that Celestite has 
long been known as one of the most abundant minerals in the 
neighbourhood of Bristol. Also that, “in works written at the 
“beginning of the century, Bristol is mentioned as one of the 
“few localities where it might be found.” (page 292.) 
In an account sent me in 1875 by Mr E. B. Tawney, he 
refers to the celestite at Aust in these words :—“In the Aust 
“« Cliff section the Red Marls, which come in below the Green 
“Marls, are given by Sir Henry de la Beche as 102 feet thick. 
“They here contain a great abundance of gypsum, both in 
® Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists’ Society, New Series, Vol. IT., 
Part III. (1878-79.) 
