146 



The calcareous incrustations of this Chara here, are also worthy of 

 exatnination for the number of microscopic creatures attached to them, 

 particularly of Carchesium, Zoothamnum, and the Vorticellate Animalculce 

 in general. 



Upon leaving this spot, we ascend the sea-wall for the better enjoyment 

 of the glorious prospect aroimd us, but are immediately brought back to 

 the subject of which we have been treating. The sight of wattle-stakes 

 still thrusting their heads through the soil of what would at a short 

 distance appear to be rich pasture land, reminds us that the vale of 

 Gloucester for many miles further inland, even at so recent a period as the 

 Roman occupation of Britain, must have presented conditions very similar 

 to those around ns, and that the valuable meadows which generally bear, 

 in the counties of Worcester and Gloucester, the name of " Hams," have 

 been reclaimed by operations, and industry, similar to those of which we 

 are considering the traces. 



A glance at the geological chart will show us in the Island of Alney, at 

 Gloucester, and at Arlingham, for example, how great has been the deposit 

 made by the river : and the knowledge of the fact, that water- worn 

 stepping stones, Eoman coins and fibulse, have been found in river mud, fi'om 

 12 to 14 feet below the surface level of Gloucester Quay, at a considerable 

 distance inland from it, must convince us, that not later than the Eoman 

 occupation, at least, lakes or morasses must have existed where we now 

 find fertile meadows. The discovery of rows of wattles, (precisely like 

 those before us,) at a stiU greater depth below the surface, in the 

 excavation known as "Tabby Pitt's Pool," must satisfy us that all 

 the tracts of this district coloured in the maps as alluvial, have 

 been recovered from the river in a similar manner, by intercepting 

 its deposits. Wliether these restrictions upon the encroachments of 

 the Severn, were commenced by the Eomans or by the Saxons, we know 

 not, although fi-om the statements just made, we may with greater 

 probability ascribe them to the last-named people, and form a 

 tolerably correct idea of the state of the country at the period we have 

 more particularly referred to. Few amongst us would attempt to refute, 

 after a careful consideration of the data upon which they are based, the 

 conclusions at which MURCHISON and Buckman have arrived, as set forth in 

 the treatise upon the " Straits of Malvern," published by the Professor 

 afew years since ; but it may be new to many, in connection with thealleged 

 antiquity of a race of men which once inhabited this country, to learn that a 

 tradition of the existence of such a " strait " has come down to us from early 

 times, in the pages of Nennius. We may reasonably infer that the recession 

 of the sea, which has left strewn amongst the gravel beds of Upton-on-Sevem, 



