PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 13 



known but water which would level gravel in this 

 manner. 



The water then receded, leaving the land probably some 

 fifty feet higher than it is now, and it was during this 

 period the present submerged forests and peat beds, like 

 those at Sharpness, grew. A rise of one-hundred-and- 

 twenty feet would be sufficient to make nearly the whole 

 of the Bristol Channel dry ground, with probably a river 

 running through it of nmch the same size as the Severn 

 is now at Gloucester. 



A distinguished French writer — M. Belgrand — beHeves 

 that when the Glacial period was brought suddenly to a 

 close, it was succeeded by the peat deposits, owing to 

 the diminished rain-fall leaving the rivers clearer, and under 

 conditions favorable for the growth of peat, which, he 

 shews, never takes place in river valleys subject to frequent 

 and heavy floods ; but always in valleys where springs 

 abound, and the floods are few and not turbulent. 



The ground afterwards sank, and although there may 

 have since been some oscillations in level they have 

 probably been unimportant. 



In looking at the valley before us few persons are, 

 perhaps, aware of how great a change would be effected 

 by a depression of the ground to the extent of one-hundred 

 feet. The present level at the Gloucester Gaol is onlv 

 thirty-six feet above the sea — at St. Michael's Church 

 at the Cross, about the highest point in the City, sixty-six 

 feet — at the Lunatic Asylum, eighty-nine feet — Upton-on- 

 Severn Church, fifty-one feet, and Worcester Cathedral, 

 eighty-seven feet. Instead of the present fertile plain, 

 there would be a large inland lake, which it once was. 



May we not say with Tennyson — 



There rolls the deep, where green the tree, 

 O earth what changes hast thou seen ! 

 There where the long street roars hath been 

 The stillness of the central sea. 



