VOL. xIV.(3) THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS 193 
in favour of “The Ancient Straits of Malvern” was con- 
fined to this region, and my object was to point out the 
insufficiency of that evidence. I do not assert that the 
sea has never occupied this section of the valley. I mere- 
ly contend that the proof of such occupation has yet to be 
produced. 
I need hardly point out that the subject I have been 
discussing is closely connected with questions of larger 
import. I have said that the marine shells in our 
lower Severn gravels have been transported by the river 
from Shropshire. But how did they get into Shropshire ? 
The same species are found in gravels at Gloppa, on the 
north-western border of that county, at an elevation of 
over 1,100 feet. It would therefore seem as if the Salopian 
area in the Drift period was submerged to at least that 
depth. But, if the middle Severn valley was under 1,100 
feet of sea, is it likely that the lower Severn area escaped 
submergence? We may escape this difficulty by adopting 
the hypothesis that the marine shells at Gloppa and other 
parts of Shropshire were scooped up from the bottom of 
the Irish sea by an ice-sheet, and pushed uphill to the 
high levels where we now find them. There are strong 
objections to this view, but if we could adopt it, our 
problem would be greatly simplified. The sequence of 
events would then be somewhat as follows. Ice-sheets 
moved southwards as far as the lower Severn valley and 
the northern margin of the Cotteswolds, bearing on their 
surface the huge boulders of granite and felsite found near 
Worcester and Evesham, as well as the accumulations of 
flints and quartzite pebbles spread so widely over War- 
wickshire and Worcestershire. On the retreat of the 
glaciers, atmospheric and fluviatile forces rearranged and 
partly denuded the deposits formed during the Ice Age. 
Rain and streams carried down detritus to the rivers, and 
the rivers re-distributed it at lower levels. So far as I 
