South-western Coal District of England. 305 



rocks on the coast of South-Wales^ westward from Dunraven to its termina- 

 tion in the Atlantic Ocean, 



Below Aust the lias is absent for a considerable interval on the right bank 

 of the Severn. It re-appears, however, in one insulated point, remarkable for 

 its contracted dimensions, viz. Gold-cliff, which has before been mentioned, in 

 the centre of the marshes of Caldecot level. Gold-cliff is a hillock not exceed- 

 ing 30 feet in height, and containing little more than an acre of ground. On 

 its summit once stood an ancient priory. Its face toward the Bristol Channel 

 presents a vertical section about 30 feet high, of which the upper part consists 

 of lias, and the lower of red marl. This section, however, is now almost en- 

 tirely concealed by a high sea-wall, erected in front of it. The name of Gold- 

 cliff is derived from the iron -pyrites in the lias, as we may collect from the work 

 of Gyraldus Cambrensis, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century*. The 

 occurrence of the lias in the neighbouring parish of Llanwern, and further to 

 the westward in the county of Glamorganshire, has been noticed in the intro- 

 ductory chapter. 



On the left bank of the Severn the occurrence of the lias between Henbury 

 and Almonsbury has been before noticed. Between Aust passage and the town 

 of Berkeley it forms insulated caps on the summits of Oldbury, Eastwoods, 

 and White-cliff park ; and from Pyrton passage it is continuous in a southern 

 direction nearly in a straight line to Sodbury, occupying the valley interme- 

 diate between the calcareous border of the coal-basin and the great escarp- 

 ment of the oolite. Near Sodbury it touches the outer edge of the low escarp- 

 ment of old red sandstone and mountain limestone, and commences that pro- 

 trusion into the interior of the basin, which has already been described in the 

 2d chapter. Within the coal-area the lias constitutes extensive and some- 

 what elevated platforms, crowning the acclivities formed by the newer red 

 sandstone, and sometimes supporting higher platforms of oolite. These hills 

 stand completely insulated from one another by numerous intervening valleys, 

 and exhibit on their sides the same series of strata in the planes of those strata 

 prolonged. 



Gotham hill near Bristol is an example of one of these hummocks, being 



* " Non procul inde stat rupis marina, Sabrinis supereminens fluctibus, quae Anglorum lingui 

 Gould clyffe vocatur, hoc est rupis aurea, eo quod aurei colons saxa praeferat, sole repercussa 

 miro fulgore rutilantia. 



Nee mihi de facili fieri persuasio posset 



Quod saxis tantum dederit Natura nitorem 



Frustra, quodque suo fuerit flos hie sine fructu. 



Si foret, &c. 



2r 2 



