VOL. XVI. (3) THE LOWER SEVERN 255 
(4) A wide expanse of meadow land, formerly a 
lake, fig. 8. 
(5) A narrow gorge through an out-crop of Keuper 
Sandstone, fig. 8. 
Utterly disbelieving in the view that streams work 
“headwards,” and quite unable to see what guiding in- 
fluence would direct their heads towards each other, I 
suggest that the plateau, or meadow-expanse, or lake, as 
the case may be, on the upper side of such a divide, 
marks the transition from a continuous line to diverging 
streams, the upper one flowing in a reversed direction. 
I may add, that in the area adove the divide between the 
Leadon and the Denny Brook (fig. 7) is an expanse of 
meadow-land formerly a marsh. To this my attention 
has been directed by Mr M. P. Price, of Tibberton Court. 
I propose now to take the line of Severn downwards, 
beginning at Upton-on-Severn. Just below is one of 
those curious curves, which I am accustomed to call 
sickle-shaped. \t will be seen that the handle pointing 
upwards forms an awkward angle with that which repre- 
sents the blade of the sickle: but, if we produce the line 
of the handle up the stream, it will be seen that above 
the town this line—which is really a relic of an old arm 
over the river—joins the stream above it as a complete 
loop, enclosing an area in which the town stands. The 
old looping is even now, at times of high flood, renewed, 
when the town is on an island. At Tewkesbury, a great 
meeting place of streams, is a similar feature. Below 
Deerhurst is a swing to the left, round the Hasfield 
meadows, explained, as I say, by the flowing-in, on the 
convexity, of the Chelt. Passing on down a charmingly- 
pretty valley at Ashleworth, we come to the Long Reach: 
here we have an illustration of a most important prin- 
ciple :—the river is straight, not because there is anything 
which has “checked its natural tendency to wander,” but 
