252 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1909 
In the middle one the Severn is entrenched between hills, 
or high ground, which form with the greater hills on 
either hand, an eastern and a western division of the main 
valley. We may be sure that the river settled into the 
line of its present channel as the principal line of stream 
before the two lateral valleys were denuded. The middle 
valley would not have been excavated if one had been 
already open on either side. All these three lines of 
stream existed at the same time. In Mr Vernon Harcourt’s 
description of the Ribble estuary, he points out the 
existence of three channels there as if this were remark- 
able; but, in fact, it is in more or less complete form to 
be seen in every wide estuary. The tributaries on each 
side keep open a channel on that side, while the main 
stream tends to a middle course. The question how far 
up the Severn Valley estuarine conditions have formerly 
existed is open to question, but in these three divisions 
of it I see a relic of three streams, each of them a part of 
a great river or estuary, linked together just as we now 
see in great rivers occupying wide valleys and in the low- 
water channels of estuaries. The river here is, indeed, 
intrenched in its own channel, but there are gaps in the 
hills or high ground on either side, which, at various levels, 
may have linked together all three divisions of the valley 
more freely than they are now. 
The eastern division of the valley is continuous from 
Evesham downwards between Bredon hill and the Cottes- 
wolds, following the line of the escarpment of the Oolites 
throughout. In the upper part it is occupied by the 
Aschurch and Evesham railway. In a cutting made 
during the construction the Rev. W. S. Symonds found 
evidence, in marine shells, of former estuarine conditions. 
The most remarkable feature in the eastern division of 
our valley is the inclination of the streams against the 
line of the river, mentioned in my paper of 1882 as 
