Abstract
This chapter discusses the valley of Wookey Hole and the Gorge of Ebbor. Wookey Hole, with its subterranean river, lies at a level approximately equal to the similar risings of Cheddar and Wells, 170 feet above sea level. But Ebbor, though so near, is far above, cutting through the main ridge of Mendip. Once one enters the Gorge of Ebbor nothing but Carboniferous Limestone is visible, though the Dolomitic Conglomerate forms the walls of the outer and lower glade. At Wookey Hole, nothing but Dolomitic Conglomerate—of Upper Triassic (Keuper) Age—is to be seen; this being covered, east and west, by Rhactic and Lias beds. When the pre-Triassic Gorge of Wookey Hole was becoming filled with the debris of Triassic age, Ebbor Gorge was nonexistent, though a considerable depression must have existed at its northern end, now filled with conglomerate. Therefore, it would appear that the Ebbor Gorge belongs to a system of drainage of Mendip that came into existence when the earlier Gorge of Wookey Hole had fallen out of use through submergence. In that hole, a mass of debris filled a large cavity, not yet entirely excavated, and, most exceptionally, only one bone, a tibia of Cave Lion, was found in it.
Published Version
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