308 Messrs. Buckland's and Conybeare's Observations on the 



elephantj horse, and stag, having been found at Shockerwick on the east of 

 Bath, at Newton and at Shirehampton. The tooth of a rhinoceros has also been 

 found in flint gravel on the oolitic summit of Kingsdown near Bath. But still 

 more striking illustrations of the diluvian theory are afforded on the summits 

 of some of the eminences belonging to the Mendips. In several of the hills 

 toward the western extremity of this chain many fissures in the mountain 

 limestone are filled by stalactite mixed with ochre, enveloping and sometimes 

 cementing fragments of the adjacent limestone, and in these masses bones have 

 occasionally been found imbedded. The most remarkable instance of this 

 occurred to the south of Hutton in some pits opened about the middle of the 

 last century by a Mr. Glasson. Their exact locality is immediately above 

 the south-east angle of Hutton wood in the Ordnance Map. They are now 

 partially filled up, but might be re-opened for examination with very little 

 trouble and expense. For the details relating to this fissure, extracted from 

 Mr. Catcott's manuscript, we beg to refer to Mr. Buckland's Reliquice Dilu- 

 viance, page 57. Ochre is still procured from similar fissures in the limestone 

 at Banwell on the Mendips, and at Congresbury on the south-western extre- 

 mity of Broadfield down ; but we have not yet heard of bones being discovered 

 at either of these places. 



Elephants' bones have been found, according to Mr. Catcott, in loose rubble 

 at the depth of 4 fathoms on the summit of Sandford hill to the east of Hutton. 

 Mr. Miller has found those of the horse, encrusted with stalagmite, in a cavity 

 in the mountain limestone near the turnpike on Durdham down. 



2. On the alluvial deposits. 



The marshes which skirt our district on the south have evidently, at a 

 period comparatively recent, formed estuaries, which have gradually been 

 filled up by sediments of mud from the Severn and other tide rivers flowing 

 into them, and by the growth of Zostera marina and such other plants as 

 concur to produce peat on the sea-coast and in salt marshes. These estuaries 

 have finally been rescued from the sea by artificial embankments, the position 

 of which has often been determined by that of elevated natural banks of 

 muddy sediment, or by the high beaches of shingle which the tides have in 

 many places thrown up. Were these barriers removed, the sea would at 

 spring-tides reclaim its former territory, and, washing the base of Glastonbury 

 hill, show the propriety of its ancient appellation, "the Isle of Avalon." 



These estuaries seem originally to have been shallow, the natural sub-soil of 

 lias or red marl, or of the diluvial gravel covering them, being usually found at 

 an inconsiderable depth. On this base reposes a bed of blue clay, being the 

 mud, apparently, which once formed the bottom of the estuaries ; and this 



