184 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1903 
forces ; by slow continuous forces its shape is still being 
modified. But the history of a valley, like human history, 
may be varied by episodes. It may have its invasions 
and its revolutions. The lower Severn Valley, we are 
told, was once invaded by the sea. It is some 70 years | 
since Murchison taught that the Bristol Channel and the 
Irish Sea were connected by a marine strait, which ran up 
between the Malverns and the Cotteswolds, and was con- 
tinued northward by way of Shropshire and Cheshire, thus 
converting Wales into an archipelago. This theory was 
accepted by Strickland, Hull, James Buckman, Symonds, 
W. C. Lucy and many others. It seemed, indeed, to 
have been permanently adopted as a chapter in the 
geological Yertus Receptus. However, I venture to 
challenge it, leaving you to decide between the old opinion 
and the new. 
The most important evidence adduced to prove the 
former existence of “‘ The Ancient Straits of Malvern,” is 
the occurrence of marine shells in the sands and gravels 
which are found at several points near Worcester and 
between Worcester and Tewkesbury. Murchison des- 
cribes* a section at Kempsey, south of Worcester, situated 
about 30 feet above the river, in which were found Ostrea 
edulis, Anomia ephippium, Turritella terebra, Purpura 
lapillus, Trochus cinerarius, and Murex erinaceus, besides 
a few specimens of doubtful identification. W. C. Lucy 
states,” on the authority of Symonds, that at Upton-on- 
Severn the following molluscs were collected :—Purpura 
lapillus, Turritella, a portion of a worn Cardium, and 
fragments of Cyprina [slandica. Mr Lucy also mentions? 
that in 1865 Sir W. Guise found in gravels at Beckford, a 
specimen of Luctna borealis, a common recent marine 
shell. T. G. B. Lloyd* collected “a few fragmentary 
1 Silurian System, p. 532. 2 Proceedings, Vol. v., p. 83 3 lbid, p. 85. 
4 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1870, p. 221. 
