39 



limestones, dipping at the same angle would therefore approach still 

 nearer to Bath, and probably, from the fact that they were found in 

 sinking for coal at Batheaston some years ago, an anticlinal of these 

 older strata may pass under the city, and if we could remove 

 the later secondary deposits, their upturned edges, much fissured 

 and disturbed, would be found not far below. Above these follow 

 the new red sandstones, to be seen west of the Twerton tunnel, and 

 they were met with at the point where the hot springs were tapped 

 a few years back in Kingsmead Street. In this district they are 

 thin and of comparatively little geological interest. The rhsetic 

 beds, till lately but little known, which come between the new red 

 sandstone ar I the lias follow, and which at my suggestion are now 

 classed as a separate formation. They may be seen in the rail- 

 way cuttings of Newbridge Hill and Willsbridge. These are imme- 

 diately succeeded by the lower lias, which with the above beds 

 having their outcrops to the west and a slight dip to the east, pass 

 under Bath, the lower lias being the sub-stratum on which all the 

 drift and alluvial deposits in the basin have been accumulated. 

 The beds above the lower lias which form the edge of the basin are 

 met with in the escarpments of the hills, and are, in ascending 

 order, the middle lias, the upper lias, the inferior oolite, the fuller's 

 earth, and the great oolite. 



In the paper before referred to I have shewn that some of the 

 secondary beds have thinned out very considerably in this part of 

 the country, and this is the case with the middle and upper lias 

 and the inferior oolite. Taking the south side of Bath these 

 formations are found at the base of Beechen Cliff, the latter being 

 not above 30 feet in thickness instead of 175 as in Gloucester- 

 shire. These are capped to the summit by the fuller's earth. The 

 edges of these formations are now generally much covered by 

 siib-aerial materials from the higher beds, so that it is seldom they 

 are well exposed. The middle and upper has and inferior oolite 

 continue along the base of the escarpment through the Lyncombe 

 Valley, and may be met with under the Abbey Cemetery. As a 

 general rule the Canal will be found in the retentive clays of the 

 upper lias, shewing the discrimination of William Smith, in thus 

 catching the springs which occui- at the junction of these beds with 



