188 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1903 
end, and the result of wave-action would be a straight 
cliff. However, we now know, with some precision, how 
the irregularities in the escarpment were caused. They 
were potentially determined before the lower Severn 
valley had come into existence. Owing chiefly to the 
researches of members of this Club, it is ascertained that 
rivers from Wales once crossed the area, which has since 
become the valley, to feed the ancient Thames, and that 
the present tributaries of the Severn run along the lines 
of these streams at a much lower level, those on the east 
being reversed in direction, and flowing north-westerly. 
The latter set of affluents drain the Cotteswold escarp- 
ment, and carve out valleys, leaving the intervening 
masses to stand out as the “ headlands” of Murchison. 
Murchison also believed he found traces of marine 
action in what he described* as “masses of sand and 
shingle” . . “at the base of these oolitic hills.” At 
a later date, Prof. E. Hull? noticed what he considered to 
be ancient sea-beaches at higher levels, “usually about 
700 feet above the sea.” I do not think that any modern 
geologist will confirm these conclusions. W. C. Lucy? 
in 1869 dissented from Hull’s opinion. Another member 
of our Club, Edwin Witchell,* writing in 1882, describes 
how accumulations of gravel are formed by sub-aerial 
weathering, and shows that even in quarries frost and rain 
quickly produce a talus. Without debating the matter 
further, it will perhaps be sufficient to point out that the 
fragments of oolite forming the patches of gravel on the 
slopes of the Cotteswolds are not water-worn, while the 
gravelly deposits at the foot of the hills contain no 
evidence whatever of marine action. On the contrary, the 
red sand associated with the gravel rather suggests deriva- 
tion from the Midland Counties, by fluviatile action. 
1 Loc. cit., p. 530. 2 Mem. Geol. Surv. of Great Britain, 1857, pp. 87, 88. 
3 Proceedings C.N.F.C., 1872, p. 89. 4 The Geology of Stroud, p. 89 
