X. On the Strata at Whorlbury Camp, in Somersetshire.
By GEORGE CUMBERLAND, Esq.
honorary member of the geological society.
WHORLBURY CAMP is a considerable Roman station situated
just above Weston-super-Mare on a high and well defended promontory
that projects into the Severn sea. At the foot of the
promontory, and at its northern extremity, is a small island, connected
to the main land by a bank of rocks, and always accessible
at low water. The island contains about three acres of green sward,
the remainder of the surface consisting of limestone rocks, which
are deeply excavated. It serves during the sprat season as a place
of resort for fishermen, who have extended their sprat-bangs from
the island to the main land.
A narrow horse road forms the descent from the downs in the island to the level of the sea, and it is just where the road begins to quit the sward on the left hand side opposite the sea, that a narrow stratum of soft red sandstone appears. This sandstone is of the consistence of schist at its surface, and has its laminæ divided by a hardened ochreous marl. Its whole thickness is about 6 feet, and it dips at an angle of about 47°.
