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commenced, was defensive — not aggressive — and therefore has not 

 rendered merely passive results. 



Some idea of the alternately destructive and recompensating action of the 

 river at this point, may be formed from the following information which has 

 been communicated by W. B. Clegeam, Esq., the resident engineer of the 

 Gloucester and Berkeley Canal Company : — " The sub-contractor of the Canal 

 between the Cambridge Arm, and Purton, tells me that he retains a distinct 

 recollection of the excavation for the foundation of the bridge walls and 

 platform at the Shepherd's Patch, which is now a mile and a quarter 

 distant from the Severn, and that at a depth of from 15 to 16 feet below 

 the present surface of the meadows, which are called the New Grounds, 

 they came to the old river mud, upon which were the footmarks of sheep 

 and cattle, as distinct, and sharply defined as though they had been made 

 the day before, extending over a considerable area. These marks were 

 filled up with pure clean sand and mud ; sometimes in separate deposits, 

 sometimes mingled together. The mud excavated and exposed to the 

 action of the air, dried and divided into laminte about the eighth of an inch 

 in thickness, showing the quiet tidal deposits. I think you may rely 

 on these facts, as my informant is an observant and intelligent man. The 

 work referred to was executed thirty-nine years ago." 



Similar facts were observed also at the Cambridge Arm, at a distance 

 of about a mile from the last-named locality. 



This is interesting, as teaching us that the Severn silt probably extends 

 inland between the points indicated, to a very considerable distance, 

 and that the deposit has been swept away and replaced numberless 

 times ; and showing how simply, naturally, and perfectly, traces of life so 

 readily effaceable as footprints, may be preserved. 



Should further conservative measures now in contemplation, and of 

 which the preHminaries have been executed, be carried out, another 

 very extensive tract of fertile land will in the course of a few years be re- 

 claimed from the river here. 



If it be interesting to observe the gradual change of vegetable and 

 animal life, which takes place upon draining a small marsh or pond, 

 and submitting its soil to ordinary culture, how much more so must it 

 be to watch the sea shore, or that of an estuary gradually accommodating 

 itself to the conditi6ns of inland existence ; ,and this we may do here. It is 

 just at this spot where the struggle for preponderance, between the estuarine 

 and marine conditions and forms of Hfe is going on. Congers of consider- 

 able size prowl over the sands before us, and are sometimes left stranded upon 

 them. Porpoises, and even whales, have been taken far above us; indeed, it 

 is upon trustworthy record that a man was killed, while bathing at Worcester, 



