Origin of the Cheddar Cliffs. 33 



periods of deposition are involved in mystery ; but it seems to 

 be generally admitted that it must have been a kind of sea- 

 ooze left by retiring waters during one or more submergences 

 of the land. In later times, it has been re-arranged by sub- 

 aerial and subterranean fresh- water streams. 



The Cheddar caves are regarded by the natives as the 

 greatest source of attraction. One, in particular, has become 

 very celebrated for its stalactites. But as it is probably sur- 

 passed in this respect by caves in Derbyshire and elsewhere, 

 the main attraction of the Cheddar ravine must ever lie in the 

 almost unparalleled grandeur of its cliff scenery. In this 

 ravine there are many caves, little known and seldom visited, 

 which present phenomena more interesting to the geologist 

 than stalactitic concretions, however much the latter may 

 resemble any earthly or unearthly objects the guide or the 

 visitor may fancy. On the left side, walking from Cheddar, 

 before reaching the Strait, there is a cave with a very conspi- 

 cuous entrance at some height above the road. It has apparently 

 been scooped out, or at least enlarged, by an inwardly- directed 

 agent, such as sea waves, and not by an out-flowing fresh- 

 water stream. On the right side, at various altitudes, there 

 are many caves. In nearly all of them the roof is more or less 

 rounded, and the sides here and there smoothly hollowed out 

 into pot-shaped cavities. In short, the interior of these caves 

 display obvious signs of the action of water, charged with a 

 sufficient amount of solid matter to enable it to round and 

 smooth limestone rock ; and the position in which the rounded 

 and smoothed surfaces often occur, would seem to point to the 

 action of powerful waves as the only adequate explanation. It 

 is true that fresh-water percolates through crevices in lime- 

 stone districts, and the Cheddar brook has its visible source in 

 several streams which flow out of subterranean cavities near the 

 south-west end of the ravine ; but it is not very difficult for 

 one who is familiar with the peculiar forms resulting from the 

 inward and upward gyratory action of the waves of the sea to 

 distinguish these forms from marks left by fresh- water streams. 

 The latter tend to wear their channels downwards, and can 

 never produce smooth vaulted roofs, hanging or inverted pot- 

 holes, arched entrances, and other characteristics of sea-worn 

 caverns. 



Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins (to whom the scientific world is so- 

 much indebted for the exploration of Wookey Hole Cavern, a 

 few miles from Cheddar*), believes that the Cheddar ravine is 

 an immense unroofed cave, the abstraction of the rocks once- 

 filling the now vacant space having been effected by atmo- 



* See first paper on Wookey Hole, in the " Quarterly Journal of the Geo- 

 logical Society." 



VOL. XII. — NO. I. D 



