64 



Memoir on the Geology of the Shore of the Severn, in the 

 Parish ofAwre, Gloucestershire. 



(Communicated by the Rev. Charles Pleydell Neale Wilton, M.A., of St. John's 

 College, Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, one of His Majesty's 

 Assistant Chaplains in the Colony of New South Wales, and Editor of the 

 Australian Quarterly Joiurual.) 



The interesting researches of individuals, of whatever descrip- 

 tion they may be, if not made generally known, will lose all 

 their value, and must of necessity die with them. As it is 

 by the concentration of the investigations of many, that we can 

 hope to arrive at any degree of perfection in scientific subjects, 

 and as that which may remain unnoticed by one man may be 

 developed by another, so is it the duty of every one to con- 

 tribute his own share to the general fund. The present is 

 not the age in which to sit down quietly within our own homes, 

 framing theories, and then wondering at the creatures of our 

 imagination ; but it is, on the contrary, that of active and 

 spirited research — an age in which fact is, for the m.ost part, 

 substituted for hypothesis, and the results of a careful inves- 

 tigation for the visions of fancy. In no one subject of science 

 does the public mind appear to take greater interest at the 

 present day, than in the study of geology ; and however parties 

 may disagree as to the period or periods, the mode or modes» 

 in and by which the present appearance of things on the sur- 

 face of the earth has prevailed, still it is gratifying to observe 

 them going on amicably together, keeping the same end in 

 view, the enlargement of knowledge and the extension of truth. 



During the period of five years, in which I held the curacy 

 of Awre in Gloucestershire, when that excellent and learned 

 man, the late Ven. Charles Sandifold, M.A.*, Archdeacon of 

 AVells, was Vicar, it was my practice, from time to time, more 

 particularly after the high tides which wash away great por- 

 tions of the bank of the Severn, to examine with attention 

 the geological phenomena of its shore. 



In my researches, several new and interesting particulars, 

 which form the subject of the present paper, were presented to 

 my notice. In many instances, however, from not possessing 



♦ Formerly Tutor of Trinity Hall. See a memoir of him in the Gentleman's 

 Magazine for June, 1826. 



