(VOL. XIV. (1) MENDIP ARCHIPELAGO 59 
MESOZOIC GEOGRAPHY 
OF 
THE MENDIP ARCHIPELAGO, 
BY 
L. RICHARDSON, F.G.S. 
(Read March 5th, 1901). 
The district south of Bristol is particularly rich in 
marginal deposits; as might be expected from the 
long continued pre-Rhetic denudation. In places this 
denudation was continuous until far into Jurassic 
times, to be terminated by a more or less continuous 
subsidence of the area under Mesozoic seas. As regards 
age, these marginal deposits synchronize with the 
normal deposits of Keuper, Rhetic, Lower Lias, Middle 
Lias, and Inferior Oolite. The“ Dolomitic Conglomerate,” 
of Keuper age, is the most massive Mesozoic conglomerate 
in the Mendip district, as its pre-Keuper history would 
suggest. 
Analogous present day phenomena explain that history. 
On the south-eastern side of Wastwater, is the escarp- 
ment known as “The Screes.” From the summit to 
about a third of the way down it consists of a range of 
crags ; at lower levels, however, the rocks am situ are 
concealed under a vast accumulation of loose debris.’ 
The existence of screes (or glidders) proves that the cliffs 
were at one time considerably higher and more precipt- 
tous than at the present. 
Screes existed in pre-Keuper times in the Mendip 
district; and denuding agencies acted upon them, 
1 D. Mackintosh, “The Scenery of England and Wales ” (1869), pp- 169, 172. 
