VOL. XVII. (3) SEVERN PLAIN IN GLACIAL EPOCH 369 



Brook, together with the thick gravels at and around Beck- 

 ford, Bredon, and Shutonger, and the Drift pebbles and flints 

 in the surface-soil between Evesham and Tewkesbury. 



A small number of the water-worn flints may have been 

 transported from the north, since they occur at several places 

 near the Severn, as at WoUerton,' Shrewsbury,^ Strethill, and 

 Bridgenorth.^ 



Around Worcester the Drift constituents of the superficial 

 deposits are mainly composed of pebbles and sand derived from 

 the Permian and Triassic breccias and conglomerates of Wor- 

 cestershire and Staffordshire, together with a considerable 

 number of rocks from more northerly sources, including 

 Welsh lavas, Eskdale and Galloway granites, Arran pitchstone 

 and Ailsa Craig eurite.* These occur less frequently in the 

 gravels below Worcester, and are rarely seen south of Upton- 

 on-Severn. 



A sub-angular boulder of Criffel granite now in the 

 Worcester Museum was found in gravel at Cornmeadow, 

 about two miles above Worcester, one mile from the Severn 

 and about 54 feet above it. Large erratics are rarely found 

 far from the river in the area under consideration. 



" East of the Severn. — In approaching the river from 

 the east ?. diminution of the proportion of Jurassic ddbris in 

 the superficial deposits is observable, and the fine and light- 

 coloured sands become mingled with grains of a brown or 

 deeper red colour. 



The more important Drift deposits lie near the rivers 

 Severn and Avon as at Worcester, Kempsey, Beckford, and 

 Gloucester. Beyond the distance of about a mile from the 

 rivers the Drift pebbles are in places thinly scattered over the 

 land, as at Shurdington and Bentham. It is recorded by 

 Lucy that a small seam of gravel with quartz pebbles was 

 found at Hatherley Road, Cheltenham.' At Ripple there are 

 beds of gravel containing a great variety of rocks including large 

 rounded boulders of Millstone Grit, some weighing r\ cwt.,^ 

 and pebbles of Malvernian granite. 



1 Dr. C. Callawav, Geol. Mag., Nov. 1896, p. 483- 



2 Mackintosh, Q.J.G.S., vol. xxxv., 1878, p. 446. 



3 Maw, Q.J.G.S., vol. xx.. 1864, pp. 130-9- 



4 George Gray, Brit. Assocn. Reports, 1892, p. 20. 



5 Proc. Cott. N.F.C., vol. vii., 1880, p. 56. 



6 Symonds, Severn Straits, p. 34. 



