484 



just sufficiently out to set, as it were, in a frame, without obscuriiig 

 the fine and precipitous rock masses on the north side. Time thus 

 passed swiftly away, and the head of the ravine was reached, when 

 voices were heard in the far distance proceeding from several of the 

 members who had hurried on in fi-ont, evidently intent upon other 

 enjoyments than those of lingering amid the beauties so richly 

 spread around them by Nature's bountiful hand. After crossing 

 the Warren the object of their impatience was at once discovered, 

 for, by some unaccountable prescience on their part, they had 

 ascertained that the Vice-President had provided cakes and 

 ale at the Wairen House. Ample justice having been done 

 to the refreshments so kindly provided by Mr. Scai-th, under 

 his guidance the remaining portion of the Warren was tra- 

 versed, and standing on the top of the limestone anticlinal, 

 bearing traces on all sides of the effects of rain, frost, and 

 other atmospheric influences, in splitting up and detaching 

 the limestone blocks, the distant points in the charming view 

 around, so much enhanced by sunshine and shadow, were pointed 

 out. After a rather precipitous descent, which somewhat taxed 

 the powers of the elders, a delightful little sunny nook was chosen 

 at the bottom of the ravine, where the Secretary gave some notes 

 on the geology of the district, of which the following is an outline. 

 •' Since leaving home this morning, he said, the Club had traversed 

 a varied and most interesting geological ti'act. Stalling from the 

 eastern edge of the Somersetshire Coal Field, they had crossed 

 from the Oolitic escarpment of the hills in the neighbourhood of 

 Bath over the Lias, a patch of the New-red-sandstone, the Pennant- 

 sandstone (in which the Bristol tunnels were cut), and finally 

 emerging on the New-red again they had followed that formation 

 to the foot of Broadfield Down, a mass of Mountain limestone, one 

 of the western boundai'ies of the Bristol coal-field. Before entering 

 more particularly upon the geology of the Down, he explained the 

 term coal-field or coal-basin — gave a general idea of the agencies 

 which had caused the various dislocations so familiar to all those 

 who know anything of the coal measures, with especial allusion to 

 the paper read by Mr. Hull before the British Association at 

 Liverpool (1870), and then described the form of the coal- 



