Bath Natural History Society, 375 



whicla liad been recently discovered. These have all been laid down 

 and marked in the map of Edinburgh deposited with the Society. 

 Their general directions bear north-west and south-east, and cross 

 the strike of the strata. Some geological writers have referred them 

 to a common centre of volcanic disturbances. His observations did 

 not support this idea. They seemed more disposed to run parallel 

 to each other, and were perhaps connected with lines of faults, and 

 are the result of disturbances which fractured and fissured the crust 

 of the earth towards the close of the Carboniferous era. 



Bath Natueal History and Antiquarian Field-clitb, March 

 10th, 1869.— Mr. Charles Mooee, F.G.S., gave the result of his 

 Eesearches in the Drift-deposits of the Bath basin. The Author 

 alluded to the changes which had occurred during recent geological 

 times in what have been called our everlasting hills. The drifts 

 deposited immediately upon the upper beds of the Lower Lias had 

 originally been derived from these hills, and from the rocks forming 

 the edge of the basin in which they lie. A short descrij)tion was 

 then given of the geology of the district, ranging from the 

 Carboniferous Limestone at Grammar Eocks to the Great Oolite 

 which caps the hills around. The Author suggested the possibility 

 that if the Secondary deposits were removed, the upturned edges of 

 this limestone would be found much fissured and disturbed not far 

 below our feet. Eeference was here made to the great probability 

 that a fault passed through the Bath basin, throwing down the beds 

 on the south side about 300 feet. The Post Pliocene gravels, in 

 which the Mammalian remains are found, were attributed to the 

 action of fresh water, and considered to have been deposited in the 

 valleys since the district liad assumed its present physical con- 

 figuration. Their source might be looked for in the higher grounds 

 through which the streams flowed, though some of the materials 

 have been derived from a considerable distance, as the presence of 

 Mountain Limestone, Old Eed Sandstone, and other foreign pebbles 

 indicated. 



The physical conditions and the Fauna of the Bath district 

 during — 1st, the Historic period ; 2nd, the Pre-historic ; 3rd, the 

 Post-pliocene period, were then described. Of the Historic period, 

 which he would limit to the Eomano-British, or Eoman times, 

 evidence appeared in the testacea, and other remains from two 

 Eoman coffins dug up near Sydney Buildings. A list was given of 

 the shells and other contents which had been washed in through the 

 interstices of the lid. 



Subsequent to this period of the Eoman occupation there appeared 

 to have been an interregnum, during which the city was deserted 

 and became converted into a swamp. Evidence of this, Mr. Moore 

 thought, might be found in the fresh water accumulations through 

 which the foundations of the new hotel had been laid. Here, as 

 also in sinking for the railway bridge near Twerton, a vast quantity 

 of bones of horse. Bos longifrons, roe deer, sheep, goat, hog, and dog 

 have been found. The land and fresh-water mollusca associated 



