33 



though I believe that nearly double this latter area is occupied by 

 the coal measures, which, on the western side of the basin, are 

 covered up by the New Red Sandstone and Lias series, which 

 overlie the deeper seated Palaeozoic rocks; so that a line extending 

 from Tytherington and CromhaU Heath on the north and west, 

 to Earthcott, Patchway, Filton, and Bristol on the south, would 

 indicate the probable extension of the coal measures beyond its 

 now assigned limits; and the overlie on the eastern side, from 

 Golden Valley to Yate Station, covers also a considerable and 

 important area of valuable coal. Again : it is the lower series of 

 coals, the "Lower Coal Measures," that are thus covered up 

 along the western borders by these newer rocks, and it must be 

 through them that all attempts to find and win the coal must 

 take place and be carried on, if ever attempted, and which ere 

 long I hope to see done. This lower series of coals, &c., as they 

 occur at Kingswood, St. G-eorges, &c., are a marked and grand 

 feature in the structure and economical value of the district, 

 there being no less than 18 seams of coal, possessing a united 

 thickness of 42 feet of workable coal; and several of these 

 seams are associated with argillaceous ores of (siderite) ton 

 of great value, and which are now for the first time being 

 systematically worked (and will he smelted) in the Bristol 

 district. Applying this fact therefore to the northern enfid and 

 western side of the basin, where there is every reason to believe 

 they exist also, it is not improbable that in time both the 

 lower coals and their associated argillaceous iron ores may be 

 successfully worked. 



Pennant. — Resting upon the Lower Coal Measures, and dividing 

 them from the upper series, there occurs over the whole area of 

 the Bristol Basin (north and south) a series of coarse-grained 

 Micaceous Grits and Sandstones, red, grey, and brown in colour, 

 about 1000 feet in thickness, and apparently highly charged 

 with the oxides of Iron disseminated homogeneously through the 

 mass. This persistent rock is termed the Pennant Sandstone, 

 and is magnificently developed in the gorge of the Avon at 

 Hanham and Brislington, and also at Mangotsfield; it is 

 evidently the matrix and storehouse for the ores of Iron in the 



