117 



of the other. But at Gloucester, it seems no longer possible to correlate 

 the beds with those higher up the valley. Mr. Sy.monds, who has made a 

 study of this intricate subject, informs me that he has " never seen any 

 gravels near Gloucester which he can correlate with the well-marked ter- 

 races, near Worcester, at Upton, and on the Avon, at Cropthorne." He is 

 disposed to consider all the drifts near Gloucester, as belonging to the 

 High Level series, such as those of Tunnel Hill, near Upton, and Shut- 

 honger, beyond Tewkesbury. 



The obscurity which surrounds this question is further complicated in 

 the Gloucester district by the difficulty of measuring the effect of tidal 

 action, which must be largely taken into account in any computation of the 

 forces which contributed to the formation of the existing gravel-beds ; forces 

 which must not only have disturbed and re-arranged the materials of olden 

 drifts, but must have been the means likewise of commingling with the 

 gravels borne downwards by the natural current of the river, a large pro- 

 portion of detritus derived from beds in an opposite direction. Our col- 

 league, Mr. John Jones, expresses an opinion derived from a long study of 

 these estuarine conditions, that a large proportion of the transported deposits 

 in the lower portion of the course of the Severn owe their origin to such 

 influences, and that the limestone and chalk flints which are there met 

 with in such profusion, may be traced to beds which have been denuded 

 and broken up to the south-westward, in the direction of the present 

 outflow of the river. 



The ftu-ther prosecution of this question, which is one fiiU of novelty and 

 interest, I strongly recommend to the Cotteswold Club, as being well within 

 the scope of their observation, and one which wiU repay a long, careftil, and 

 elaborate study. There are teachings, depend upon it, which have yet to 

 come from these phenomena, wluch it will tax the skill of our ablest 

 geological experts to develope. 



Wednesday, 14th of May. The Club met at Cardiff, with a view to an 

 examination of the Junction-beds between the Lias and the New Red 

 Sandstone, at Penarth, of which beds the section at that locality is one of 

 the most complete and instructive to be met with in the West of England, 

 extending from the Lima-beds of the zone of "^m. planorbis" to the base 

 of the Lias, thence through the so-called Ehaetic beds of Moore, and a 

 considerable thickness of the uppermost Keuper deposits. 



The party commenced their observations at the Northern extremity of 

 the excavations above the new dock, where the following succession of 

 beds was measured and tabulated in ascending order from the Keuper 

 marls: — 



