93 



and fall inwards, under the influences of water, frost and exposure. 

 Further portions of roof fall in, above and below the first fracture. 

 This process was, doubtless, helped in geological times by earth- 

 movements. Earthquakes then must have been far more frequent 

 and severe than we have ever known them in England. So, by 

 a combination of these processes, the beginning of a gorge was 

 formed. Such a gorge may be described as a chain of lapsed 

 caverns, of which the roofs have fallen in and the debris has been 

 gradually removed and smoothed out by water. The process 

 is, of course, an enormously slow one, and in the case of Cheddar 

 it began in later Carboniferous times and was continued through 

 the vast ages of the Jurassic period. In this district the principal 

 lines of subterranean drainage through fissures and caves seem 

 to have been established for countless centuries, and no further 

 changes seem probable under present conditions. But in the 

 Carboniferous Limestone of Yorkshire, there are gorges where the 

 roof of a section has quite recently fallen, and in one instance a 

 huge gorge can be seen — not so deep as Cheddar, but nearly iooft. 

 deep — the lower part of which is still arched over by the roof, 

 which has not yet been broken through. In this there are evidences 

 of several super-imposed caves, caused by the stream forsaking 

 one channel for a lower level, forming a lower cave there, and then 

 forsaking that for a third line of drainage lower again. Probably 

 this was the case at Cheddar, the great depth of which suggests 

 such a sequence of events. This is possible because the water 

 always tends to flow in the same direction, owing to the fissures 

 and lines of bedding being usually constant in the same mass of 

 rock. In an old gorge little evidence is left of the successive steps 

 by which the water gradually descended, owing to the sides of 

 the cliffs having been long ago smoothed off by water and frost, 

 hence the original walls of the caverns are seldom preserved. 



This, then, is the theory, now accepted by all geologists, as 

 to the wonderful process by which this magnificent chasm has 

 been formed ; and that by forces which Nature still employs around 

 us. You may wonder what has become of the stream which 

 in past ages accomplished such notable work. It is beneath the 

 present road, and still flows amongst fissures and channels down 

 the line of the gorge. Probably it is forming other caves, and 

 thousands of years hence there may be a further deepening of 

 Cheddar Gorge by the falling in of the ground we now stand upon. 

 This stream can be heard on a still day rushing underground at a 

 point a little way down the road, and it issues near the lower 

 caverns to form the large pond at the entrance of the village. 



It may be of interest if I conclude with a reference to the 

 celebrated stalactite . caves. Water flowing through cracks and 

 passages in the limestone soon becomes saturated with dissolved 

 carbonate of lime, and this tends to be deposited on surfaces lower 

 down over which the water flows slowly, or from which it dips. 

 Thus, by gradual deposition of lime, are built up the beautiful 



