210 



have deposited it where the angle of inclination is greatest, but for the 

 interposition of some considerable barrier similar to that which a land- 

 slip would produce. 



It is necessary, however, to account for the formation of a barrier of 

 sufficient height and bulk to form an embankment capable of retaining 

 water covering a considei^able area, and in attempting to do this, much 

 must of necessity be left to conjecture, but the appearance of the ground 

 suggests an explanation of the matter by no means improbable. The 

 steep slope above the line of springs already referred to as the upper 

 escarpment, doubtless owes its present shape to land-slips, occasioned by 

 springs issuing from beneath, and if we suppose that at some distant 

 period a slip of considerable magnitude took place from this slope, the 

 material of which after passing downwards to the more level surface 

 above the lower escarpment, and there for a time becoming Stationary, — 

 we have a dam formed, and, as the springs followed the same course, a 

 pond would be the result ; the land shells and sediment would be 

 brought into it by means of the springs and land-floods, and the shelly 

 bed is accounted for. 



But the dam has totally disappeared, and its disappearance as well as 

 its formation has to be explained. The same cause which led to its 

 existence will, however, account for its destiiiction. The embankment, — 

 never perhaps settled upon a very solid foundation, — might, in a period 

 of an excessive flow of water, have again become in a state of move- 

 ment, and it is not unreasonable to suppose, that it passed over the 

 lower escarpment, which is only about 80 yards distant, and was ulti- 

 mately wasted in the long slope of the hill. 



The formation of a pond as the consequence of a land-slip is not 

 inconsistent with the known results of the action of springs issuing from 

 the beds of the Fullers-earth. Thus, at Brimscombe, three miles distant, 

 these springs have in some former period caused an extensive slip of 

 Fullers-earth, which is now found covering the bottom of the valley, in 

 a stratum of considerable thickness, its original position being at an 

 elevation of at least 400 feet above the valley ; and at ChaUbrd, in the 

 same locality, there is at this time, and from the same cause, another 

 mass of Fullers-earth, covering a surface of about two acres on its way 

 downwards into the valley. 



Although there are no remains of land-slips of any magnitude now to 

 be seen on the slope of the Fullers-earth on Stroud Hill, yet it is 

 apparent from the disturbed condition of the surface of the beds below, 

 that extensive sUps have taken place from those beds ; and it is singular 



