115 



bank ; a like peat bed is met with at Lydney, about two miles 

 lower down on the opposite side of the river, and in sinking for 

 a well for the Severn and Wye Railway, a section was made by 

 Mr. G. Keeling, the engineer, to whom I am indebted for it. 

 [See plan.'] 



I have in my possession the head with horns attached of a 

 remarkably fine Bos primigenius which was found about 16 

 years ago in the bed of the Severn, between Holly Hazle and 

 Lydney, by a man named Hart, when digging for sand out 

 of the river in a new channel, and which is now however covered 

 by 20 to 30 feet of sand. These horns were found lying on a hard 

 marl rock, but doubtless came out of the forest. Peat has been 

 found at Berkeley PHI, and it also occurs at Awre, which is on 

 the west side of the Severn, and higher up the river. 



There are other Peat Beds in the valleys, but they are 

 probably of more recent origin, some most likely since the 

 Roman occupation of this country: they occur nearer the surface, 

 and are covered by detrital matter from the hills adjacent. 



It will, I think, be seen in comparing the various Peat Beds, 

 that the position and peculiar mammalian remains of Cromer 

 would indicate it to be of greater age than those of Hull, 

 Grimsby, Porlock, and Holly Hazle ; and that the points of re- 

 semblance between Holly Hazle and Porlock are more marked, as 

 might be expected from their occurring in the Bristol Channel 

 estuary. The principal difference is in the upper bed of silt above 

 the forest bed. At Porlock there has clearly been a deposit of sea- 

 mud, proved from the presence of Scrohicularia, which is absent 

 at Holly Hazle, biit occurs at Hull and Grimsby. The silt at 

 Holly Hazle is most likely nearly all of fresh water origin, pro- 

 bably brought down by land floods. Again at Porlock there are 

 no remains of the fine clay beneath the peat, which has for its 

 base a thick bed of angular detritus, while at Holly Hazle it is 

 only a thin band.* 



*As Mr. Godwin- AusTEX remarks the finer particles may have been 

 washed away, and from the examination I made of the angular detritus 

 of like character, but not in the same position, which attains many feet in 



