By JAMES PARSONS, B.Sc, F.G.S. 
OR comparison with the typical section at New Clifton, 
-L described by Mr. W. H. Wickes, the following notes 
on two sections in the immediate neighbourhood may be of 
interest, as throwing some light on the physical conditions 
under which the beds were deposited. 
The first section to be described is exposed about 200 yards 
north of the cutting where Mr. Wickes* measurements were 
taken. The Black Shales are there shown resting uncom- 
formably on a platform of Carboniferous Limestone, evidently 
the result of marine denudation. From the thickness of 
Black Shales accumulated on this platform it must have been 
submerged early in Rhsetic times, but in the Triassic Period 
may have existed either as an island, or more probably as 
the end of a small peninsula — a continuation of the Lime- 
stone ridge extending from the main plateau of the Downs, 
along Coldharbour Lane, as far as St. Alban's Church, 
where Lias rests directly on the Carboniferous. The absence 
of any cutting to the immediate north of Cold Harbour pre- 
vents us from saying whether the Triassic land was directly 
continuous from New Clifton to Westbury or not, though on 
the north side of the Henleaze district the Black Shales rest 
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