South-western Coal District of England. 237 



file of the Avon. We will now trace this ridge in its progress eastward fiom 

 the Bristol Channel. 



The limestone of the detached hillock, whereon Clevedon church is built, 

 dips to the S.S.E. ; it presents a low cliff towards the sea. To this hillock 

 succeeds a narrow flat, to the north of which the hills rise to the height of 

 about 300 feet, and soon separate into two branches. That diverging to the 

 N.N.E., and skirting the coast, is called towards the south, Walton Down, distin- 

 guished in the distance by the castle built on its highest point as an object 

 from a neighbouring seat ; to the north it is called Weston Down : of this 

 branch we shall have occasion to speak in the sequel. That ranging to the 

 eastward is the chain of Leigh Down. Near the point of divergence Leigh 

 Down is completely broken through by a defile, along whose eastern brow the 

 park of Sir A. Elton extends. On entering this defile from the south, we see 

 the mountain limestone cropping out to the north, at an angle of 60**, from 

 beneath the dolomitic conglomerate, and rising into steep and almost mural 

 banks. The northern part of this ravine will be described hereafter. From 

 Sir A. Elton's park to Wraxall the ridge is very narrow, and the dip of the 

 limestone very regular, being a little to the east of south, at an angle of 60°. 

 Towards the middle of this interval the ridge is traversed by two deep gullies, 

 which, winding across it, include between them the insulated summit of Cad- 

 berry castle, crowned by Roman entrenchments. From this commanding- 

 position an excellent bird's-eye view may be obtained of all the ranges of the 

 district. The chain is loftiest towards its centre above Failand's inn, where it 

 is about 500 feet above the sea. Near Kencot Cross, the brook, which flows 

 westwards from Flax-Bourton by Nailsea Moor to the Bristol Channel, quits 

 the open valley that would seem to be its natural passage, and, taking a cir- 

 cuitous course, plunges into a rocky defile, cleft through a spur from Leigh 

 Down. From Kencot Cross to the Avon, Leigh Down forms the border of the 

 principal coal-basin : but the junction of the limestone with the coal-measures 

 is very generally concealed by overlying beds of newer red sandstone and dolo- 

 mitic conglomerate. On the southern hanging of the spur above noticed, 

 where the road to Barrow branches off" from that to Congresbury, the lowest 

 of the coal-measures, the millstone-grit, of a hard and cherty character, may 

 be seen reposing on the limestone. The same grit, similarly placed, consti* 

 tutes the pointed summit conspicuous by its clump of trees above Ashton 

 church. Here we may observe on the confines of the two formations the alter- 

 nations of shale, grit, and limestone, which we have termed the upper limestone 

 shale; and the same is continued behind Ashton Hall to the defile of the 

 Avon close to Rownham ferry. Along this line, from Ashton to the Avon, 



