460 



and Stanton Wick, there is an extensive area of Pennant sandstones, 

 which dip eastward at a moderate angle, and pass beneath the 

 Coal measures of Stanton Wick and Pensford. 



As to the district between Pensford and Compton Dando some 

 uncertainty exists. The mines thei-e have not been worked during 

 the present generation, aud very little local information can be 

 obtained ; but there would appear to be several distinct groups of 

 coal outcrops lying above the Pennant. One of these comes to the 

 sui-face a little to the west of Stanton Wick, its presence being 

 indicated by a double row of old shafts ; another is seen between 

 Stanton Wick and Pensford, ^where there is a second line of old 

 pits ; and a third group of seams appears in the cuttings of the 

 North Somerset Railway, near Publow. The latter, after some 

 experiments, I am disposed to corelate with the Radstock series, 

 and the others probably belong to the Farrington group, but at this 

 point faults may have led to a multiplication of outcrops. I 

 believe Mr. Prestwich's opinion is that near Pensford the 

 carboniferous system attains its greatest vertical depth, there being 

 a greater thickness of unproductive strata above the Radstock 

 group than at any other part of the coal-field. 



Passing on by Newton St. Loe, where there is a small patch of 



Coal measure strata, chiefly Pennant, we arrive^at Brislington, and 



here we enter upon what is by far the most important area of 



exposed Coal measures in the entire district. It extends without 



break from Brislington to Cromhall, a distance of 13 miles, and 



attains its greatest width between Stapletou and Bridge Yate, 



where ^it may be traced for five miles. Within this area, aud 



near its southern end, occurs the great Kingswood anticlinal, 



extending across the entire basin from Bristol to Wick, 



Kingswood Hill, from which the disturbance takes its name, 



forms the summit of the ridge, the strata on one side dipping 



southward towards Brislington, while those on the northern side dip 



northward towards Mangotsfield. Certain gritty sandstones which 



occur in the summit of the ridge were at one time believed to form 



part of the Millstone grit, and they were so coloured in the earlier 



ordnance maps ; but it is now generally acknowledged that they 



are ordinary sandstones belonging to the Coal measures. Although 



