196 
SUB-AEKIAL DENUDATION 
The notches in the harder rocks are beautifally wooded; their 
banks, in this early Spring-time, are thickly carpeted with bright 
Spring flowers, while the whole air seems resonant with the 
notes of song-birds. 
1 1 . — Conclusion. 
I have thus tried to explain how the physical features of the 
district N.W. of Bristol are determined, in general and in detail, 
by the geological structure ; and how all these features are the 
product of denudation, general and special. 
That the Avon Gorge itself is a product of denudation was, 
as we have seen, long ago pointed out by Professor Jukes. But 
there still remain sceptics even in the ranks of geologists. My 
main object in this paper has been to enforce the truth of this 
explanation by showing that it applies to all the minor gorges 
through which the tributaries of the Avon flow. And I would 
invite the sceptics to consider, first, the case of such minor 
notches as are cut by the Chapel Brook and the Markham 
Brook ; then such an one as is cut by the Stoke Trym ; then 
that much more marked gorge which is cut by the Henbury 
Trym through the Blaize Castle limestone ridge ; and finally 
rise from this to the Avon Gorge itself. If they still remain 
sceptics, I must confess m}^ incompetence to help them to rise 
into orthodoxy. I can onty assure them that the hypothesis of 
any faulting action along the line of the gorge is completely out 
of the question. That is proved by the Middle Limestone 
Shales. 
The Clifton Gorge, the result as I contend of special 
denudation, forms so striking a physical feature that it cannot be 
overlooked. It appeals at once to the imagination. The results 
of general denudation, on the other hand, do not affect us in the 
same way. It is only the geologist who can rightly estimate these 
results. We cannot so readily realise the absence of vast masses 
