46 Notes on Wiltshire Geology and Paleontology. 



I have had more than forty years' experience in my native county 

 of Somerset, and still doubt if another lifetime would exhaust the 

 marvellous history which, when minutely studied, is to be read 

 within its borders ; for, with few exceptions, there are to be found 

 the representatives of almost every geological formation. Occasional 

 rambles across its borders into Wiltshire have, however, enabled me 

 to refer to a few points that may be of interest. 



Meeting your Society in the town of Bradford -on- Avon, I ought 

 not to forget making a reference to a former townsman, the late 

 Mr. Channing Pearce. He was one who as a geologist was far in 

 advance of his time, and blessed as he was, in addition to acute 

 geological observation, with ample means to forward his tastes, had 

 assembled before his death one of the most interesting geological 

 collections out of London ; and, had he lived, would probably have 

 been the historian of Wiltshire geology and palaeontology. He was 

 my first geological friend, and for some time we corresponded 

 without having had a meeting. When it came it was a curious one. 

 The little town of Ilminster — where I lived — before the advent of 

 railways, was the high road for travellers into the West of England. 

 Without any notice or introduction an individual, throwing open 

 the doors of the room where I was sitting, rushed in, out of breath 

 and bespattered with mud, asking hurriedly, " Are you Charles 

 Moore ? " My first conviction was that he was an escaped lunatic, 

 but the explanation came that he was Channing Pearce, of Bradford, 

 who, whilst the coach-horses were being changed, had found his 

 way to me, but had lost his equilibrium in turning a corner on the 

 way. 



The great variety found in Somersetshire geology, and many of 

 its peculiar physical characters are chiefly due to the uplift of the 

 Mendip range. There is no doubt that the palaeozoic rocks of 

 which these hills are composed where they disappear, near Frome, 

 pass beneath the secondary beds of Wiltshire, and continuing under 

 London, where their presence has been proved by a boring of 1050 

 feet, come again to the surface on the other side of the channel ; the 

 carboniferous limestone and the coal measures being found in the 

 Boulonnais, and there is, therefore, every reason to believe that the 



