FIFTY YEARS GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE BRISTOL DISTRICT, 51 
H. N. Davies described a human skeleton from Gough's Cave, 
Cheddar 1 (1904) and a small Bone-Cave at Walton near Clevedon 
was described by him 2 and by the present writer 3 in 1907. 
Although the Rhaetic rocks are very widespread and well 
developed in the Bristol district, they are as a rule only rarely and 
temporarily well-exposed. Consequently any new sections are of 
special interest. Such sections were described at Redland by Mr. 
W. H. Wickes 4 (i9oo) and at Emborough by Prof. Lloyd Morgan 
and the present writer 5 (1900). 
The construction by the Great Western Railway Company of 
the South Wales direct line from Wootton Bassett through 
Chipping Sodbury to Filton, which was in progress during the 
last years of the 19th and the beginning of the present century, 
provided a splendid section of almost the whole stratigraphical 
succession from the Old Red Sandstone to the Corallian. Brief 
accounts of the exposures were given by Messrs. H. B. Wood- 
ward and A. Strahan 6 in 1899, 1902, and 1903, while Dr. A. 
Vaughan and the present writer described the Jurassic rocks 7 in 
1902 and the Rhaetic rocks 8 in 1904. Mr. (now Dr.) A. R. Short 0 
(1904) also described several Rhaetic sections in the Bristol district, 
including those of the South Wales direct line, and in 1903 10 
reverted to a subject which had already been considered by H. B. 
Woodward and by B. Thompson — the origin of the Cotham 
Marble. 
During this period too, several new theories were brought for- 
ward to explain the peculiar Rhaetic Bone-bed, which is so char- 
acteristic of the Bristol district, and is well seen at Aust. Mr. 
Short (op. cit. 1904) considered it was formed during a stormy 
period after the sea had made its first irruption into the dried up 
or silted up level surface of the Keuper lake. Mr. W. H. Wickes 11 
(1904) ably worked out an ingenious theory attributing the Bone- 
bed to the accumulation of the remains of migratory shoals of fish 
and of the reptiles which preyed on them, while Mr. L. 
Richardson 12 maintained that the Bone-beds were simply accumu- 
1 Q.J.G.S., Vol. LX, pp, 335-348. 
2 Proc. Bristol Nat. Soc, 4th Ser., Vol. I, pp. 188-189. 
3 Ibid. pp. 183-187. 
4 Ibid., n.s., Vol. IX, pp. 99-103, and Proc. Geol. Ass., Vol. XVI, 
pp. 421-423- 
5 Proc. Bristol Nat. Soc, n.s., Vol. IX, pp. 109-117. 
6 Summary of Progress of Geol. Surv. for 189S, pp. 188-194 ; Ibid, for 1901, 
pp. 59-60; Ibid, for 1903, pp. 171-173. 
7 Q.J.G.S., Vol. LVIII, pp. 719-752. 
8 Ibid. Vol. LX, pp. 194-214. 
9 Ibid. Vol. LX, pp. 170-193. 
10 Proc. Bristol Nat. Soc, n.s., Vol. X., pp. 135-149. 
11 Ibid. pp. 213-227. 
12 ' Geology in the Field/ p. 333. 
