VOL. XVI. (3) THE LOWER SEVERN 241 
THE LOWER SEVERN 
VALLEY, RIVER AND ESTUARY 
FROM THE 
WARWICKSHIRE AVON TO THE BRISTOL AVON 
BY 
T. S. ELLIS 
Twenty-seven years ago, in February, 1882, I stood 
in the same place and, before the Philosophical Society 
of the School of Science here, read a paper entitled 
“On some Features in the Formation of The Severn 
Valley, as seen near Gloucester.” To this, printed at the 
time, I shall have occasion to refer as my paper of 1882, 
for most of the views which I now hold on the Natural 
History of rivers in general and on that of the Severn in 
‘particular, were expressed or crudely suggested then. 
- Thad noticed that the Severn, having come from the 
Welsh hills in a south-easterly direction, through rocks 
of the older formation, to the area now forming the Vale 
of Gloucester, turned at Tewkesbury, and took a south- 
westerly direction. Thus it went back at right angles to 
its former course, through hills continuous with those 
through which it had come and of similar formation. 
I had noticed, too, that while the tributary streams on 
the right bank of the Severn in this neighbourhood in- 
cline towards the line of stream in the usual manner, 
those on the left bank are directed against the line of 
stream, so that the two seem to form continuous, oblique 
lines across the river. I had noticed, also, that the Valley 
