128 



On the Natural History, Geology, d'c, of Sharpness Point District. By 

 John Jones. Read at the Cheltenham, Meethig, 1863. 



How little is popularly known of the river to which the second 

 rank in England is universally accorded, may be inferred from the fact, 

 that in a novel by a writer of deserved repute, published, let us say, 

 within the last ten years, a gentleman is made to take up his fishing rod 

 and to throw a fly on the Severn, in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Bristol, without, so far as we have obsei-ved, attracting the notice of the 

 professional critics, by whom the work in question has been reviewed. 



It may be, that the author himself performed an experiment, sui generis, 

 and was fortunate enough to realize his expectations ; but we feel con- 

 fident that no other individual would think of fly-fishing, in water of 

 about the colour, and nearly the consistency, of pea-soup. In truth, we 

 believe, that with the exception of those persons who win their bread 

 from its waters, few of the dwellers upon its shores, in the lower part of 

 its course, care to know more of it than is revealed to them in the 

 immediate vicinity of their own homes. No steamers laden with 

 pleasure- or lucre- seeking passengers ply upon it, above the mouths of the 

 Bristol Avon and the Wye. The low-lying shores of its Estuaiy, con- 

 sisting of dead levels of alluvium, through which it flows for many 

 miles, possess no scenic attractions which can bear the briefest com- 

 parison, with those of its above named tributaries ; its turbid waters are 

 therefore frequented only by the wanderers' who navigate the craft, 

 which since the opening of the Gloucester and Berkeley canal, in the year 

 1827, have brought supplies of cereals, timber, and other merchandize, 

 for the popiilous districts of the Midland Counties. 



The few and transitory glimpses of it, obtainable from the South Wales 

 Railway, are eminently unsatisfactory. On the ebbing or flowing tide, 

 a few scattered sails, or the dark smoke of a steam-tug may arrest 

 the eye ; and at low water, a few fishermen, armed with hand-nets, may 

 be seen wading slowly, or standing perfectly stUl, in the 'pools' left here 

 and there in the sad expanse of sandy mud or muddy sand, conveying the 

 idea of beings, fated to abandon all human habits and instincts, and to 

 adopt those of the patient but ever hungry heron. 



Although this unflattering description is not likely to attract the 

 attention of the ordinaiy tourist, yet we do not despair of convincing 



