139 



Another feature of great interest in this district, to which our attention 

 was fii-st called by Mr. Clegram, is the existence of an extensive bed of 

 peat, in wliich are fo\md trunks and roots of trees, principally oak, in 

 the ordinary state of what is popularly known as Bog-oak. These may 

 be best seen on the sides and in the bed of the watercourse called the 

 Royal Drough, in the excavation of which they wei'e first brought to 

 light. They are accompanied by the catkins of hazel, and the leaves of 

 waterflags and other plants, which show that they could not have been 

 transpoi-ted far from the place in which they grew. The thickness of the 

 peat-bed is from four to five feet, and it is some feet below the level 

 of high- water mark, covered by brick-eai*th, of the same character as 

 that still deposited by the Severn, to the depth of ten or twelve feet, 

 indicating that it must have been submerged to a sufficient depth, for 

 this accumulation to have been formed upon it, and subsequently uplifted 

 to its present position. The same deposit is found on the opposite bank 

 of the river, in the parish of Awre, and, as we are informed, on Walmer 

 Common, in the parish of Westbury-on-Sevem, at Whitminster, and 

 in other places near Gloucester, from which its extent may be inferred. 

 We are not aware that these facts have been previously noticed by other 

 writers. 



The trees, when fairly uncovered in excavation, occur in great numbers, 

 and very large "Stag Horns" were found amongst them, some of which are 

 said to have been taken to Berkeley Castle. 



An entire skull of the Bos jyrimigenius was found in the Severn, not 

 very far from Sharpness Point, nor the spot where the fresh water 

 of the Royal Drough, on the bank-cuttings of which these trees are 

 now best seen, and which runs in places through the peat bed, stUl keeps 

 open a channel through the sands. 



The transition from old geology to new is easy enough in theory, but 

 it would be difficult to find another locality, where recent changes have 

 been effected to the same extent as in this. 



Many of the older inhabitants of Purton have assisted in the discharge 

 of cargoes of stone and coals upon the canal banks, from vessels which 

 could not now approach them from the Severn within the distance of 

 nearly a mile, the operation of the breakwaters erected by the late Earl 

 Fitzhardinge, having converted, within their recollection, a large tract, 

 once washed by the tidal waters, into fertile soil. The quantity of stone 

 applied to the construction of the breakwaters, to which we have frequently 

 referred, has been enormous, and each has been the work of many years ; 

 but though the cost of them may not be commensurate with the value of 

 the land reclaimed, it must be remembered that the work, when first 



