234 Geology. 



Fresh water Alluvial cl.iys with great numbers of fresh 

 water and land shells, seeds, &c. ... ... 8 o 



Mammalian gravel ... ... ... 4 o 



Lower Lias, a series of alternating beds of blue clay 



and stone ... ... ... ... 36 7 



(Chas. Moore, B. N. A. and A. F. Club, vol. it., p. 44, 1869.) 

 Beneath the Alluvial covering of our valleys, 



River Gravels. . " .... 



deposits of gravel are found at varying heights 

 above the present river, bothln the main valley and those of 

 Box and Limpley Stoke, joining it from the N.E. and E. 

 Several beds have been opened up from time to time, at 

 Freshford, Larkhall, Bathampton, Twerton, and at Victoria 

 gravel pit on the Midland Railway. The beds at this latter 

 place attain the highest elevation of any hitherto worked, 

 being over 100 ft. above the present river. All these pits 

 have yielded Mammalian remains, Elephas primigenius, 

 and antiquus, Rhinoceros tichorinus. Bos primigenius, Equus 

 caballus ; and at Freshford was found Ovibus Moschaius 

 and Reindeer. But nowhere as yet has the most careful 

 research been rewarded by the finding of any implements 

 of human manufacture associated with those extinct animals 

 in our immediate district. Varying from 4 to 10 ft. thick, 

 these gravels rest generally on an eroded surface of Lower 

 Lias clays. At Freshford, however, they lie in a trough 

 excavated in the Inferior Oolite, and are made up chiefly 

 of the Lias and Oolite of our hills, with sub-angular and 

 rolled Chalk flints and Greensand-chert, the latter more 

 sparsely represented. Associated with these are Millstone 

 Grit, Old Red, and Mountain Limestone from the more 

 distant Mendips. ( Vide " Froc" B. N. H. and A. F Club, 

 vol vi.,p. 331.) 



Space does not admit of a more detailed description of 



