PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 97 



placed or constructed in the extended and winding river 

 valleys, the sides of which are largely composed of porous 

 jointed limestones, in places much faulted, and often 

 with no continuous watertight bottom along them. 



There are many localities and areas to anv extent in the 

 great flats of the Oxford Clay between Cricklade and 

 Lechlade, but reservoirs here must be constructed bv 

 excavation, which probably would not be entertained on 

 many grounds ; great superficial extent and necessarv depth 

 being an objection to such a mode of construction. 



The courses of the rivers above Lechlade named in the 

 previous pages, the nature of the valleys through which 

 they flow, and the almost universally porous character of 

 the Oolitic Rocks on the eastern slope of the Cotteswolds 

 (or west of the Evenlode) does away with the chance of 

 constructing reservoirs of sufficient capacity to receive for 

 storage the very large volumes of water from an area 

 teeming with pure and inexhaustible springs. 



It is impossible to examine the extensive plain of the 

 Oxford Clay over the wide expanse of countrv east and 

 south of Lechlade, and bordering the Thames on both 

 sides, from the mouth of the Churn near Cricklade to 

 Castle Eaton and Kempsford, and on to the confluence of 

 the Coin, west of Lechlade, and thence to Buscot Weir, 

 Kelenscott, and Eaton Hastings, without believing that 

 much of the lost water to the Thames from the high 

 ground to the north-west must continue its underground 

 drainage upon or over the Lower Oolite Rocks underlving 

 the Oxford Clay of the plain in an easterly direction. No 

 trials by deep boring or wells west of Oxford, along the 

 Valley of the Thames, have ever tested the nature or 

 condition of the Upper Cotteswold Rocks that range 

 below the Oxford Clay,* for doubtless they spread or 

 extend under the wide plain to the Valley of the Ock. 



* The nearest is that near Burford, which penetrated the Lias, Oolite, and Triassic, 

 and 225 feet of the Carboniferous Rocks. 



