91 



Let us look around the country between Wick and Bitton. It 

 is a valley running north-east and south-Avest by compass, and 

 from Bath, bears from north-west to north-west by north. At 

 Tracy Park, after descending from the Oolite, we come on the 

 Lias, at a height of about 270 feet above the level of Bath springs : 

 (here we find iron pjrites). Turning our steps to the left, we 

 gradually descend until we come to the Druidical stones, and 

 here, or a few yards to the south, we come on the New Eed 

 Sandstones at a level of about 207 feet above Bath. Bearing 

 south-west by compass, we traverse the New Red Sandstones at 

 Wick Couit, passing the shaft of a forsaken coal mine, just on the 

 banks of the river Boyd opposite Wick (and here the leA^el is 115 

 feet above Bath). A little to the south and west following the 

 Boyd, we come on the Coal measures, which we retain till near 

 Bitton. 



It is the Avhole of this valley, and also the valley that is a 

 continuation of it to the north and east, following the Boyd, that 

 on the one side branches towards Pucklechurch, passing the 

 Magnesian Conglomerate at Cleve Bridge, and on the other hand 

 leads towards Codrington Court — an area that I should estimate 

 at about eighteen square miles. That, I look on, as the source of 

 the Bath springs. Here we have in close connection the Eed 

 Sandstone and Marls, containing chloride of sodium and sulphate 

 of lime : at Wick the Magnesian Conglomerate gi^ang carbonate of 

 magnesia ; at Tracy Park evidences of iron in the form of pyrites, 

 and the Avhole valley giving evidences that the Coal measures 

 exist and extend at least the whole length of the valley, and far 

 to the south, probably under the whole of Lansdown Hill and 

 under the valley of Bath, the dip of the strata being on the Avhole 

 towards Bath and Batheaston, and therefore the drainage being 

 in that direction. 



It may be said that this space is not sufficient to supply the 

 water for the Bath springs ; but when we see that this area 

 contains upwards of five hundred million square feet, and that 



