



VIII. On the Strata in the Neighbourhood of Bristol. 

 By RICHARD BRIGHT, m.d. 



MEMBER OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Read 15th November, 1811.] 



With Notes extracted from the Communications of 

 GEORGE CUMBERLAND, Esq. 



HONORARY MEMBER OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



_A_N elevated ridge of land divides the vale of Bristol from the 

 plain which is watered by the Severn. The parallel strata which 

 compose this ridge rise towards the north-west at an angle of about 

 45° emerging from beneath the horizontal beds upon which the 

 lower part of Bristol is built, and are afterwards broken off as they 

 come in succession to the surface. At the base of the western 

 escarpment of this ridge the lowest of the highly inclined strata abut 

 with their broken edges against the horizontal beds of another for- 

 mation, which there occupy the plain forming low hillocks almost to 

 the Severn. The Avon passing through a precipitous ravine cuts 

 all these strata almost at right angles to their planes, and exposes a 

 section of them which may easily be observed, and has supplied me 

 with the principal materials for the present paper. 



In the channel of the New River at Bristol a stratified red and 

 yellow sandstone may be observed in strata nearly horizontal, but a 

 little inclined to the north-west. The thickest of these strata are 



