482 Horace B. Woodward — A Ramble Across, the Mend'ips. 



fracture, which took place in the crust of the earth at sorae former 

 period — perhaps not a very remote one, geologically speaking — so 

 that they may be looked upon as a sort of volcanic eruption, al- 

 though unaccompanied by the ejection of lava and ashes, which 

 render active volcanos such undesirable neighbours. 



We must not omit to have a look at the Museum of the Bath 

 Literary Institution, where a grand series of fossils has been de- 

 posited by Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S. On the walls we see speci- 

 mens of those large reptiles which flourished in the Liassic period : 

 the Ichthyosaurus and the long-necked Plesiosaurus, forms which 

 you may see restored in the gardens of the Crystal Palace, and whose 

 fossil remains have been found in such abundance in the famous 

 quarries at Street, near Glastonbury. The collection is particularly 

 interesting, as being mainly a local one, and most of the specimens 

 were obtained by Mr. Moore himself. Not the least interesting is a 

 tray containing about 70,000 minute fish remains, collected from a 

 vein in the Mountain Limestone at Holwell, near Frome ; also the 

 cuttle-bones from the Upper Lias near Ilminster, with the ink-bags 

 which still retain the remains of their once fluid ink (sepia) .^ 



Leaving Bath, we will proceed along the Upper Bristol-road, 

 which leads to New Bridge, taking a last peep at the grand river- 

 valley, which, higher up, between Bathampton and Freshford, is 

 very picturesque ; where the hill-sides are well-wooded, and here 

 and there studded with fir-trees. The Great Oolite, or Bath stone, 

 is quarried on the summits of these hills; — the excavations would well 

 repay a visit — the stone is often regularly mined, and it is easily 

 worked out, as it is comparatively soft before it is exposed to the 

 atmosphere, when it hai'dens and forms capital building stone. 

 "When we examine it closely, we find it composed of a number of 

 small round grains, like the roe of a fisb ; whence originated its 

 name of Oolite, or roe-stone. In the valley we find patches of 

 gravel ; these have yielded the remains of animals which, in com- 

 paratively recent times, inhabited the country ; such as the elephant, 

 rhinoceros, wild boar, and musk ox or arctic buffalo. 



Gravel has been dug in the park opposite the Eoyal Crescent, and 

 there a fine tusk of the mammoth, or elephant, was noticed not long 

 ago by the Eev. H. H. Winwood, F.G.S. 



In the cutting near the Weston station, on the new Midland Eail- 

 way, we find a very interesting section of the Lower Lias lime- 

 stones ; and beneath them, of the White Lias (Ehsetic beds), contain- 

 ing at its base the well-known Cotham, or Landscape marble, of 

 which polished slabs are so often seen on our mantel-pieces. 



After crossing the river near Twerton, we come soon upon some 

 Lias quarries which yield famous Ammonites, a foot and eighteen 

 inches in diameter. This species is named after Dr. Buckland, of 

 whom it is told, that having one day obtained a large specimen 

 which had lost its inner whorls, he placed it over his head and 



1 In the Museum of the Geological Society of London there is a painting executed 

 in foEBil sepia. 



