VIII. On the Strata in the Neighbourhood of Bristol.
By RICHARD BRIGHT, M.D
member of the geological society.
[Read 15th November, 1811.]
With Notes extracted from the communication of
GEORGE CUMBERLAND, Esq.
honorary member of the geological society.
An elevated ridge of land divides the vale of Bristol from the
plain which is watered by the Severn. The parallel strata which
compose this ridge rise towards the north-west at an angle of about
45° emerging from beneath the horizontal beds upon which the
lower part of Bristol is built, and are afterwards broken off as they
come in succession to the surface. At the base of the western
escarpment of this ridge the lowest of the highly inclined strata abut
with their broken edges against the horizontal beds of another formation,
which there occupy the plain forming low hillocks almost to
the Severn. The Avon passing through a precipitous ravine cuts
all these strata almost at right angles to their planes, and exposes a
section of them which may easily be observed, and has supplied me
with the principal materials for the present paper.
In the channel of the New River at Bristol a stratified red and yellow sandstone may be observed in strata nearly horizontal, but a little inclined to the north-west. The thickest of these strata are
