2i6 Geology, 



Field, Mr. Robert Kidston, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., who has per- 

 mitted me to make use of his paper ("' On the Fossil Flora of 

 the Radstock series of the Somerset and Bristol Coal Field" 

 Trans. Royal Soc. Edinb., vol. xxxiii.,. part. 2), states that 

 from this area several of the species described by Brogniart 

 were obtained, and that it is richer in fossil plants than any 

 other coalfield in Britain — not only in the number of species 

 it contains, but also in their excellent state of preservation. 

 Besides the specimens in our Bath Museum named by Mr. 

 Kidston, Mr. McMurtrie, of Radstock, possesses also a very 

 fine collection of fossil plants from the JRadstock series. 



Before passing onwards it may be well to 

 allude briefly to the faults, characteristic of 

 the locality. Without attempting to explain the origin of 

 the Mendip upheaval, it is a well-established fact, that 

 it has had far-reaching consequences in the disturbed 

 strata to the north in the neighbourhood of Nettle- 

 bridge and Wells, where the beds have not only been 

 raised perpendicularly, but ha,ve actually been doubled back 

 upon themselves, so that instead of dipping northwards they 

 now dip southwards towards those hills. Resting upon the 

 lower division, two masses of Carboniferous Limestone 

 occur at Luckington and Vobster, beneath which there can 

 not be any doubt that coal has been won. It is difficult, by 

 any amount of complicated faults, to account for the abnor- 

 mal position of these beds, otherwise than by an inversion 

 from the Mendips, though this may possibly seem to some as 

 a flight into the regions of romance. Mr. McMurtrie states 

 that we seek in vain for anything analagous to it or approach- 

 ing it in interest amongst the other coal fields of this country; 

 and to find its counterpart, we must cross the Channel to 

 the mining district^ of Belgium and France. 



