Madam How and Lady Why [89]
first?
More about the new rocks being lower than the old ones, though they lie on the top of them.
Well, look here, at this sketch.
A boy piling up slates? What has that to do with it?
I saw you in Ireland piling slates against a rock just in this way. And I thought to myself--"That is something like Madam How's work."
How?
Why, see. The old rock stands for the mountains of the Old World, like the Welsh mountains, or the Mendip Hills. The slates stand for the new rocks, which have been piled up against these, one over the other. But, you see, each slate is lower than the one before it, and slopes more; till the last slate which you are putting on is the lowest of all, though it overlies all.
I see now. I see now.
Then look at the sketch of the rocks between this and home. It is only a rough sketch, of course: but it will make you understand something more about the matter. Now. You see, the lump marked A. With twisted lines in it. That stands for the Mendip Hills to the west, which are made of old red sandstone, very much the same rock (to speak roughly) as the Kerry mountains.
And why are the lines in it twisted?
To show that the strata, the layers in it, are twisted, and set up at quite different angles from the limestone.
But how was that done?
By old earthquakes and changes which happened in old worlds, ages on ages since. Then the edges of the old red sandstone were eaten away by the sea--and some think by ice too, in some earlier age of ice; and then the limestone coral reef was laid down on them, "unconformably," as geologists say--just as you saw the new red sandstone laid down on the edges of the limestone; and so one world is built up on the edge of another world, out of its scraps and ruins.
Then do you see B. With a notch in it? That means these limestone hills on the shoulder of the Mendips; and that notch is the gorge of the Avon which we have steamed through.
And what is that black above it?
That is the coal, a few miles off, marked C.
And what is this D, which comes next?
That is what we are on now. New red sandstone, lying unconformably on the coal. I showed it you in the bed of the river, as we came along in the cab. We are here in a sort of amphitheatre, or half a one, with the limestone hills around us, and the new red sandstone plastered on, as it were, round the bottom of it inside.
But what is this high bit with E against it?
Those are the high hills round Bath, which we shall run through soon. They are newer than the soil here; and they are (for an exception) higher too; for they are so much harder than the soil here, that the sea has not eaten them away, as it has all the lowlands from Bristol right into the Somersetshire flats.
* * *
There. We are off at last, and going to run home to Reading, through one of the loveliest lines (as I think) of old England. And between the intervals of eating fruit, we will geologize on the way home, with this little bit of paper to show us where we are.
What pretty rocks!
Yes. They are a boss of the coal measures, I believe, shoved up with the lias, the lias lying round them. But I warn you I may not be quite right: because I never looked at a geological map of this part of the line, and have learnt what I know, just as I want you to learn simply by looking out of the carriage window.
Look. Here is lias rock in the side of the cutting; layers of hard blue limestone, and then layers of blue mud between them, in which, if you could stop to look, you would find fossils in plenty; and along that lias we shall run to Bath, and then all the rocks will change.
* * *
Now, here we are at Bath; and here are the handsome fruit-women, waiting for you to buy.
And oh, what strawberries and cherries!
Yes. All this valley is very rich, and very sheltered too, and very warm; for the soft south-western air sweeps up it from the Bristol Channel; so the slopes are covered with fruit-orchards, as you will see as you get out of the station.
Why, we are above the tops of the
More about the new rocks being lower than the old ones, though they lie on the top of them.
Well, look here, at this sketch.
A boy piling up slates? What has that to do with it?
I saw you in Ireland piling slates against a rock just in this way. And I thought to myself--"That is something like Madam How's work."
How?
Why, see. The old rock stands for the mountains of the Old World, like the Welsh mountains, or the Mendip Hills. The slates stand for the new rocks, which have been piled up against these, one over the other. But, you see, each slate is lower than the one before it, and slopes more; till the last slate which you are putting on is the lowest of all, though it overlies all.
I see now. I see now.
Then look at the sketch of the rocks between this and home. It is only a rough sketch, of course: but it will make you understand something more about the matter. Now. You see, the lump marked A. With twisted lines in it. That stands for the Mendip Hills to the west, which are made of old red sandstone, very much the same rock (to speak roughly) as the Kerry mountains.
And why are the lines in it twisted?
To show that the strata, the layers in it, are twisted, and set up at quite different angles from the limestone.
But how was that done?
By old earthquakes and changes which happened in old worlds, ages on ages since. Then the edges of the old red sandstone were eaten away by the sea--and some think by ice too, in some earlier age of ice; and then the limestone coral reef was laid down on them, "unconformably," as geologists say--just as you saw the new red sandstone laid down on the edges of the limestone; and so one world is built up on the edge of another world, out of its scraps and ruins.
Then do you see B. With a notch in it? That means these limestone hills on the shoulder of the Mendips; and that notch is the gorge of the Avon which we have steamed through.
And what is that black above it?
That is the coal, a few miles off, marked C.
And what is this D, which comes next?
That is what we are on now. New red sandstone, lying unconformably on the coal. I showed it you in the bed of the river, as we came along in the cab. We are here in a sort of amphitheatre, or half a one, with the limestone hills around us, and the new red sandstone plastered on, as it were, round the bottom of it inside.
But what is this high bit with E against it?
Those are the high hills round Bath, which we shall run through soon. They are newer than the soil here; and they are (for an exception) higher too; for they are so much harder than the soil here, that the sea has not eaten them away, as it has all the lowlands from Bristol right into the Somersetshire flats.
* * *
There. We are off at last, and going to run home to Reading, through one of the loveliest lines (as I think) of old England. And between the intervals of eating fruit, we will geologize on the way home, with this little bit of paper to show us where we are.
What pretty rocks!
Yes. They are a boss of the coal measures, I believe, shoved up with the lias, the lias lying round them. But I warn you I may not be quite right: because I never looked at a geological map of this part of the line, and have learnt what I know, just as I want you to learn simply by looking out of the carriage window.
Look. Here is lias rock in the side of the cutting; layers of hard blue limestone, and then layers of blue mud between them, in which, if you could stop to look, you would find fossils in plenty; and along that lias we shall run to Bath, and then all the rocks will change.
* * *
Now, here we are at Bath; and here are the handsome fruit-women, waiting for you to buy.
And oh, what strawberries and cherries!
Yes. All this valley is very rich, and very sheltered too, and very warm; for the soft south-western air sweeps up it from the Bristol Channel; so the slopes are covered with fruit-orchards, as you will see as you get out of the station.
Why, we are above the tops of the