108 
FLORA OF THE AVON-BED. 
in which to deposit a large mass of such material. Accordingly 
a staging was erected on the river-bank, the barges were brought 
alongside, and by means of steam cranes and tramways some 
thousands of tons of dredgings were tipped into the quany. The 
bulk of the matter scraped up from the bed of the river was 
broken limestone and alluvial mud, with a good proportion of 
town and ship rubbish, potsherds, brickbats, and bones of past 
generations of domestic animals who had been consigned to a 
watery grave. From the Basins came also a quantity of ashes 
and refuse thrown overboard from the ships in harbour. All 
this was tipped from the trams by manual labour until the bed 
of the quarry became raised above the level of the tow-path, and 
then the trams were hauled up the incline by steam-power, men 
continuing to distribute the contents, and no horses were em- 
ployed on the work. The limestone rubble and heavier matters 
of course remained where they were thrown, but the semifluid 
mud flowed lava-like into untouched recesses and depressions of 
the surface. In this way a space of about half an acre was 
covered with dredgings to a depth of from ten to twenty feet, 
and then it was necessary to cease operations in order that the 
mass might drain and settle before making further additions. 
This brings us to the winter of 1889. As time went on and the 
spring advanced, the soil, now drained and washed free from salt 
by the rains, became firm enough to walk upon. Very shortly I 
was surprised to notice the appearance of a profuse and varied 
vegetation, both on the stony rubble-beaps and on the softer 
alluvium around ; and as this developed, surprise gave place to 
wonder at the interesting character and strange luxuriance of 
the plants which during the summer successively came into 
prominence. Attentive periodical examinations of this botanical 
El Dorado revealed the presence of many species native on the 
banks of the Avon above and below Bristol, but not heretofore 
found at or near this spot, viz. : — 
