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glacial period, the action of ice, in the form of frozen snow, 
must have assisted in widening the gorge and carrying the 
detritus into the plain. 
At the request of the President, Mr Wethered gave his 
views on the origin of the gorge, and said he could not accept 
the cavern theory as explaining it. He had seen very extensive 
underground channels in the great Mammoth Cave, which had 
originally been the beds of underground rivers, but all these 
retained clear signs of water action. It might be argued that 
such signs would be obliterated in a gorge like Cheddar, by 
atmospheric influences, but still he should expect to find some 
traces on the right-hand side where the strata had been pro- 
tected. He believed the gorge commenced with a fissure, and 
if they viewed the landscape from a distance, it appeared as 
though the limestone hills had been thrown into a series of 
synclinal and anticlinal curves. These of course were produced 
by lateral pressure, and thus the strata would be subjected to an 
enormous strain. In the case of the anticlinal in which the 
gorge occurred, it seemed to him the tension had been so great 
that a fissure had resulted, which took the line now traversed 
by the gorge. This fissure had been widened by atmospheric 
influences, which process was still going on, chiefly on the 
left-hand side ascending the gorge, and he pointed to the slopes 
now covered with limestone débris in proof of his assertion. 
The President remarked they were fortunate in having 
two of their members with them, General Pearse, who had 
visited the cave at Adelsberg, and Mr Wethered the Mammoth 
Cave in America—the two largest in the world—and asked 
them to say a few words about them. General Pearse said at 
Adelsberg there were thirty-two miles opened up, and it 
was necessary to go a mile into the interior of this cavernous 
hill before the great beauties of this marvellous cave were 
seen. A huge dome 800 feet high, and about 1200 to 1400 feet 
in diameter, then burst on one’s view. On the sides are tiers 
and tiers of roadways. and bridges, the latter spanning a rapid 
stream six to eight feet wide. The river serpentines four times, 
and in some places is above and at others below where you 
