106 



Camp on the other side of the ravine, called Stokesleigh 

 Camp, which remains quite perfect, was also examined. A 

 brief account and a rough plan of these Camps will be found 

 in the volume of the Journal of the " British Archaeological 

 Association for 1857," and a very full account in Sayer's 

 " History of Bristol." It is well that some notice should be 

 taken of these interesting earth works, as Bower Walls will 

 soon be entirely obliterated by the advance of building. 

 These three Camps give an idea of the great importance of 

 the navigation of the River Avon in very remote times, and 

 furnish a clue to the early origin of Bristol. 



In April, a most interesting expedition was made to the 

 Willsbridge section (figured by Mr. Charles Moore, in " Quart, 

 Journal Geological Society," vol. xxiii. part 5), on the Bath 

 and Mangotsfield line. Leaving the train at Keynsham, the 

 Members walked along the new cutting to Bitton, passing 

 good sections of the lower lias (Am. Buchlandi beds) and 

 drift gravels, which are four feet thick in some places, and 

 consist of pebbles from the mountain limestone, pennant, 

 " Bitton sawyers" (a hard siliceous close grained sandstone), 

 lias, oolite, flint, &c. An engine and trucks under the 

 superintendence of Mr. Donaldson, the engineer of the line, 

 conveyed the party from Bitton to the last cutting near 

 Mangotsfield, where a most instructive section of fire clays, 

 shale, and sandstones, with occasional seams of coal cropping 

 up at the surface, is exposed. Owing to the disturbances 

 which have taken place here, the beds are much dislocated 

 and almost vertical ; the coal seams, about three feet thick, 

 afford good fuel for the navvies' fire. On the upturned 

 and almost vertical edges of the shales repose wedge-like beds 

 of clay and coal, which seem almost like a later deposit or 

 in-filling. Leaving the trucks at Oldfield Common, Mr. 

 Moore conducted the Members down the line to his section, 

 passing a great thickness of pennant deeply coloured with 



