OBSERVATIONS OF A CYCLE TOUR, 



BY 



S. S. BUCKMAN, F.G.S. 



(Read March 2 1st, 1898.) 



In the summer of last year my wife accompanied me on 

 a short cycle tour through some of the counties of West 

 and Central England. The observations which I made 

 during the journey have a general connection with lessons 

 learnt in our own neighbourhood, wherefore they may 

 not be unsuitable for placing before the members of the 

 Club. 



We started one morning from Charlton Kings, on the 

 road to Coomb Hill. The route lies over a Lower Lias 

 plain, and the changes by which this broad, flat vale has 

 been produced are certainly remarkable. The sea of the 

 earlv Jurassic Period, of course, once covered this area, 

 because the Lias is now beneath the road ; but the non- 

 geological mind docs not at once grasp the idea that the 

 sea of the post-liassic period also covered it, depositing 

 strata like those of Leckhampton and Cleeve Hills. Yet the 

 outliers seen on both sides during the ride — Bredon and 

 Churchdown — are relics of such strata. Still less is it 

 generally understood that the Cretaceous rocks must also 

 have overspread all thisdistrict. Yet thcsea, whichdeposited 



