86 



THE SEVEEN TUNNEL SECTION. 



mucli resembling a trougli, excavated out of the lower beds 

 of tlio Old Red Mai'l. ... It attains a maximum tliick- 

 ness of nearly foui'tceTi feet, and, as it I'isea near tlio surface, 

 tliins out to a few inches. It is composed mainly of oak, 

 alder, beech, and hazel, and towards the top of it some 

 nuts of the latter were found quite perfect. Some of the 

 oaks wore of considerable size, indeed one was quite a 

 giant of tho forest, measuring, as it lay, 80 feet, and 2 foot 

 9 inches in diameter at tho top. The base was a good deal 

 decayed, a,nd, <as far as could be ascertained, exceeded 5 feet 

 in diameter. . . . Where the peat was the thickest, 

 and within about two feet of the bottom of it, were found 

 a fine head of Gervus elephus, antlers and jaw bones of rathei 

 a small decsr, head of horse, and Bos kmgifrons, skull oi^ a 

 dog, and tusk of the boai'. On showing Pi-of. Church, of 

 Cirencester, the head of the Oervus elophus, he pointed out 

 to mo what had escap(!d my observation, that the antk;rs 

 had been cut off, apparently by some rude implenunit." 

 (Loc. cit. 1872, p. 112-1:3.) 



2. Tho Trias. — These beds call foi' but few remarks. 

 Overlying the Palteozoic beds is a band of Dolomitic Con- 

 glomerate of variable thickness, — ^twenty-eight feet in Shaft 

 No. 3 ; four feet in the Sudbrook Shaft, No. 4. It consists 

 of limestone fragments embedded in a very hard reddish 

 mati'ix. The fragments vary from half an inch to two feet 

 or more in diameter. Some of them have peculiar striae, 

 described by Prof. Sol las in tho Geol. Hag. for Pebruary, 

 1882. 



Above tho Dolomitic Conglomerate lies tho Keupor Marl, 

 C5 feet in thickness, containing, as at Aust Cliff, beds of 

 gypsum. 'I'his is succeeded by yellow and white Saiidst(nie, 

 13 feet thick. Mr. Cliarlea Richardson informs me that 



