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which have occurred in this district, not so much the effects of water and 

 atmospheric action upon exposed escarpments like those now exhibited to 

 us, as those of an enormous erosive force upon a vast tract of nearly- 

 level country. As it is clear that this erosive force must have at first 

 operated upon the surface, we may assume that it commenced during its 

 slow emergence from the sea. 



What may have been the highest bed in continuous sequence ever 

 deposited here, we have no means of judging, but we know that denudation 

 had affected beds, from those of the Great Oolite to the lower portion of 

 the Fullers-earth Clay, upon which the freshwater deposit lies, before the 

 latter could have been formed. As its organic remains are piincipally of 

 creatures living under existing conditions near the spot where they 

 are found, we may be sure that the excavating process had continued in 

 operation upon the undei'lying beds for a lengthened period. As the fall 

 of the upper beds towards the vale is manifestly produced by the exca- 

 vation of others beneath tliem, we must infer that this took place at a 

 period very remote as I'egards historical time ; for the removal of these, 

 which were probably loose Pisolitic beds, or the UiDper Lias Sands, can 

 only be attributed to the time, at which the eroding power had produced 

 the outline of the jn-esent basement beds of the Cotteswolds. 



Series of falls, leaving terrace after terrace of rocky beds, displaced by 

 the removal of the last-named strata, resting at various distances from 

 each other upon the sides of the hills, and at different angles of inclination, 

 may be seen so frequently, as at Haresfield, that we cannot hesitate to 

 ascribe the deep covering of oolitic detritus, which almost everywhere 

 here renders it difficult to ascertain what beds are really in situ beneath, 

 to a similar origin. The fact of finding the freshwater formation accom- 

 panying the dislocated beds in their descent, is sufficient to prove that 

 it occupied the same relative position to these, as that in which we find 

 it, prior to their fall. 



The excavation of the vale still continued far below this point, as we 

 subsequently learn from the examination of the mass of dejwsit by which 

 great cavities have been partially refilled ; we must consequently conclude 

 that the freshwater bed must be at least as ancient, if not more so, 

 than any formed at a level below those wliose excavation caused its 

 displacement. We cannot doubt that during the whole period of 

 denudation here, the dry land was peopled by animated groups analogous 

 to those wliich inhabited the siirrounding country, and, as organic remains 

 can be our only guides to any trustwortliy approximate conclusion upon 

 the first point, and what the character of the land might be, we will 

 proceed at once to examine them. 



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