South-western Coal District of England. 261 



coal, called the rock-vein, lying under a bed of the Pennant rock 20 feet thick ; 

 and upon this lie 3 seams of coal alternating with shale. These have been 

 worked to the S. and S.E. of the village of Brislington, in the valley north 

 of Queen's Charlton, and at Burnet, but are now abandoned. [See Mr. Stra- 

 chey's paper above referred to in the Philosophical Transactions for 1719, 

 and the 19th Coal-section in this Memoir]. They dip to the north nearly, in 

 an opposite direction to the beds on the north of Brislington, proving that this 

 part of the trough forms a very narrow tongue, in the hollow of which these 

 seams repose. 



In pursuing the western border of the shale, we next find a series of 7 coal- 

 seams, which either are or have been worked, in the parish of Stanton Drew, 

 and at Bishop's Sutton, Clutton, Faringdon-Gurney, and a little to the south 

 of Midsummer Norton. (See the 20th and 21st Coal-sections.) In the parish 

 of Stanton Drew and near Clutton these seams lie almost immediately on the 

 Pennant rock. In some of the most northern works in the parish of Stanton 

 Drew, as at the Bromley pits, 2 miles to the S.S.E. of Pensford, these seams 

 dip to the east ; but from this point the line of their drift appears to be very 

 tortuous. At Sutton, and on the drift of the Sutton beds, 1 mile to the north- 

 east of it, they dip to the south-east. They are said to have been proved dip- 

 ping to the north-east, to the south of the other seams now worked at Clutton ; 

 and are certainly found 4 miles to the south-east of Sutton, at Faringdon- 

 Gurney*, dipping as before to the south-east. Lastly, they are said to have 

 been found dipping to the north-east |^ of a mile to the south-west of Midsum- 

 mer Norton. Some of the coal-seams, worked to the north of Holcombe, may 

 perhaps, to judge from their position, be referred to this part of the series. 



Immediately within the last series of beds on approaching the centre of the 

 trough, we find a series of coal-seams, the most important, extensive, and best 

 ascertained in the whole basin. The crop of these seams ranges a little to the 

 east of the former through the parishes of Stanton Drew, Clutton, Littleton, 

 Paulton, Midsummer Norton, and Writhlington, the dip varying from east 

 to north-east. The strata in all the contiguous coal- works dip towards Rad- 

 ford as a centre ; thus at Dunkerton, Priston, and Houndstreet, which lie to 

 the north of Radford, the dip is more or less truly to the south. The highest 

 in this series of coal-seams, the Withy-mill vein, is worked only towards the 

 centre of the basin, at Radford, Clan Down, Timsbury and Welton ; cropping 

 out before it reaches Paulton. (See the 22d and following Coal-sections.) 



* The coal at Faringdon frequently contains veins and druses of calcareous spar. 



