58 



The recent deposits, wkich at Stroud are about 40 feet below 

 those at the higher level, are generally found not far below the 

 present beds of the streams. They occur in the Nailsworth 

 Valley; in the valley of the Frome below Stroud, where the 

 bed is about 100 yards in breadth, and they probably extend 

 several miles further down the river. In the excavation at 

 Stroud the gravel rests upon an undulated surface of Lias 

 cleanly excavated, as if the process of excavation had suddenly 

 terminated, and the deposit of gravel had immediately 

 commenced. There is an appearance of stratification in the 

 finer portions of the gravel, but from its discoloured and dirty 

 condition, it is manifest that the volmne of water acting upon it 

 was small, as compared vsdth that by which the older gravels 

 were formed, the latter being perfectly clean. 



The close of the period during which these deposits were 

 made would seem to approach near to, if it be not actually, 

 within that of man; and although no human remains have 

 hitherto been found in them, yet it is not improbable that the 

 formation of the peaty deposit by which the gravel beds are 

 covered up, is owing to the damming of the river by human 

 agency and for human purposes. Still a long period of time 

 would be required to produce the present state of the surface of 

 the ground. The deposit of peat has been formed and com- 

 pressed into a bed two feet thick, and upon this a bed of clay 

 has been deposited, varying in thickness, at different parts of 

 the locality, from two to five feet, and as this clay bed must be 

 attributed to the overflowing of the river in times of flood, 

 assisted by the washings of the adjoining land, its formation 

 must have been at a slow rate, tending to carry back the deposit 

 of the gravel to a remote period. 



The formation of the gravel drifts of the valley of the Severn 

 generally, is a large subject, and worthy of systematic investiga- 

 tion. I do not assume, in this brief paper, to deal with it farther 

 than is necessary to account for the more recent deposits of 

 gravel in the beds of the present streams of the district as 

 illustrated by the section at Stroud, and I have altogether 

 referred to the subject in a general way, rather for the purpose 



