of ike Neighbourhood of Bristol. 243 



The magnitude of the hmsstone strata is various ; they sel- 

 dom are less than three feet in thickness, and frequently they 

 are observed to be six or seven feet thick. We sometimes see 

 the beds of a black colour, from a deep impregnation of bituminous 

 matter, in which case they exhale a foetid smell when rubbed si- 

 milar to that of sulphuretted hydrogen. It should be remarked, 

 that tiie beds are sometimes very much traversed by contem- 

 poraneous veins of calc spar. It is not uncommon to find these 

 veins of great thickness, they then approach to the character of 

 true veins. 



In some places we find a highly indurated sandstone of a 

 grayish and oftentimes of a reddish colour and splintery fracture 

 resting upon and dij^ping in a conformable direction with the 

 limestone. A!)out Clifton it is rather extensively distributed, 

 forming' several hills. Paragon Buildings are built upon it, and it 

 is behind this row that the junction of the sandstone and lime- 

 stone can verv well be traced. York Place also stands upon it, 

 from which spot it continues and forms the whrde of Brandon 

 Hill, and much of the space between Brandon Hill and Paragon 

 Buildings is composed of this rock. We likewise trace it 

 through Mr. Tynclal's Park, and on Kingsdown. 



In all the above-mentioned places it reposes upon the moun- 

 tain limestone, as is the case also at Week. It is likewise seen 

 at the foot of Almonsbury Hill, in the cross road leading from the 

 Gloucester to the Old Passage road, and in several places about 

 Olverton. Besides the indurated sandstone, which perhaps 

 according to the Wernerian nomenclature should be called a 

 qnartzy sandstone, and which, as far as I know, is only met with 

 above the limestone, there are two other rocks which occur but 

 partially, and lie below the limestone in a conformably inclined 

 position — a siliceous pudding-stone and a red sandstone. 



The relation which these rocks bear to the indurated sandstone 

 and limestone is beautifully displaved by the section which some 

 grand convulsion of nature has made of the rocks below Bristol. 

 If we follow the path on the left side of the river Avon, where 

 the stratification is best observed, we observe these formations 

 occurring in regular succession. The first rock that comes in 

 view after passing the ferry at Rowniiam, is the indurated sand- 

 stone, which at no great distance ceases, and is observed resUng 

 upon the hmestDne. The limestone then commences and con- 

 tinues uninterruptedly for about two miles. Opposite Cock's 

 Folly it terminates, and then succeeds the puddiiig-stone, the 

 matrix of which is a grayish-white sandstone cementing round 

 pebbles of quartz. In some of the beds the gravel is so abun- 

 dant that the matrix is hardly to be perceived, and in other 

 ntrata it is so thinly distributed that the rock better deserves 

 Q 2 the 



