HEREFORD DISTRICT. 15 



meadows we now behold. But how often has the Wye again and 

 again shifted the bed of its stream and itis shingle beaches, since it 

 first began to deposit its alluvium above the lacustrine silt ? My 

 friend; Mr. Curley, informs me that the lake silt was reached in 

 the sewerage excavations at Hereford, at the depth of thirty or forty 

 feet. 



The investigation of the drifts of the Severn and Avon leads 

 us to believe that there was a period when broader rivers than 

 the existing Severn and Avon flowed through a chain of broad 

 watey lakes upon the Avon, and down a marine estuary of the 

 Severn. These rivers deposited their shingle, and have left their 

 proofs in beds of sand and rolled gravel, twenty feet above the 

 highest flood-mark of the existing rivers. Tliese are the low level 

 drifts of Mr. Prestwich, and tliey contain in great numbers the 

 remains of the animals that lived upon those river shores. The 

 elephant, the rhinoceros, cave lion, cave bear, hyoena, and others 

 were the denizens of oiir county. 



These di-ifts of an ancient Wye are developed near Hereford. The 

 Infirmary stands upon their shingle; and Mr. De Blaquiere has 

 lately been fortunate enough to find in them a Mammoth's tooth. 

 It is in good preservation, but water- worn. These drifts should be 

 carefuUy watched. 



A hundred or two hundred feet above these low level drifts, 

 we find the high level drifts of Prestwich. In my own dis- 

 trict of the Severn straits, I can point to several examples, but 

 never have I seen so really good and interesting a section as at 

 Wilcroft, Lugwardine, which I have already alluded to.* jSTowhero 

 have I seen such large boulders imbedded in the drift. We want 

 fossils from these interesting deposits. I liave succeeded in pro- 

 curing a few fi-om the Severn high level drifts, but they were few 

 and far between. They belong to the Mammoth, and the long- 

 haired Ehinoceros. Search, geologists of Herefordshire, and botanists 

 hkewiss ! With aid and observing eyes we do not know what light 

 we may yet throw on these, at present, dim and indistinct records 

 of a byegone age. Search among the drifts of the Wye, the Lugg, 

 and the Arrow ! 



Frome District, p. 13. 



