110 



the probability of how far the Oolite extended to the westward, 

 and fortunately we have some evidence left to guide us, as it 

 occurs on the outliers of Robins Wood Hill;* Oxenton, Bredon, 

 and extending to Meon, clearly proving that the Valley now 

 intervening between those outliers, and the main hills, was 

 once conterminous. 



The only point at present where I have met with Oolitic 

 Gravel west of the Severn, is at Highnam, and there it has 

 more the appearance of having been carried in by an eddy, 

 probably from somewhere near ; but still there is, I think, every 

 reason to believe that at the period when the N.D. Pebbles 

 were left on the Cotteswolds, the Oolite covered over the 

 'New Red, extending probably to May Hill and Malvern, which 

 hills had not then assumed their present rounded appearance, 

 their flanks coming further eastward. Professor Ramsay (143) f 

 seems to be of opinion that the Valley of the Severn existed 

 before the Glacial epoch, because Boulder and Boulder Drift 

 are found as far as Tewkesbury, and therefore before the 

 Glacial epoch this part of the Severn ran very much in the same 

 course as it does at present. 



'• Then," he says, " the country sank beneath the sea, and 

 Plinlimmon itself (where the river rises) was buried in part, or 

 possibly altogether, beneath the waters. When the country 

 again emerged, the old system of river drainage in that area 

 was resumed, and the Severn, following in the main its old 

 course, cut a channel for itself through the boulder Clay, that 

 partially blocked up the original valley through which it ran. 

 But when that original valley was formed thi'ough which the 

 older Severn ran, no man can yet say, although England, having 

 probably been above the sea during greater part, or perhaps the 

 whole of the undoubted part of the Miocene epoch, it is likely 

 that some of our great contours were then first begun; or if 

 not begun, carried on and very seriously modified." 



* Chosen is capped with the Communis zone of the Upper Lias, the Oolite 

 being denuded. 



t " Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain." 



