PEAT BOGS AKD TURBARIES. 93 



elevated lands which Surround them, at the leA-el of hijrh 

 water. The tldes of the Bristol Channel are remarkable 

 for the great height to -which they rise, compared Avith 

 those on the south coast of Devon, arising frora the peculiar 

 form of the shores of that asstuarj, being funnel-formed, 

 and exposed to the füll force and action of the tidal wave 

 of the Atlantic ocean. The spring tides rise at the Holmes 

 to the height of 40 feet or more, and to this cause we 

 attribute the vast extent of marsh land on the borders of 

 the Bristol Channel, whilst on the coast of the English 

 Channel at Lyme, the rise is only 17 feet. The silty 

 bottom is sometimes in the form of sand, as at Westhay 

 in Meare ; at others, deposits of marine exuviaj, which 

 have been driven up into banks in the interior of 

 these marshes, and have also formed lines of a former 

 shore, easily to be traced along many parts of the 

 border of King's Sedgemoor, at Sutton-Mallet, Compton- 

 Dundon, under Ham-hill, Othery, Middlezoy, and Weston- 

 zoyland. The etymology of the latter villages indicates 

 their Situation in the " Sowey," or " Zoyland" — that is 

 sea-land. 



The subjacent clay does not contain shells, but the allu- 

 vial deposit abounds with both marine and fresh-water 

 Shells. At the present time the sea would overfiow these 

 moors, if it were not excluded by banks and tide sluices in 

 the rivers ; as the ordlnary level of spring tides is above 

 the surface of the adjoining lands near Glastonbury, and 

 the moors around Meare, Wedmore, Axbridge, and on the 

 borders of the great Brent Marsh. There is a record 

 in the church of St. Benedict, Glastonbury, of the height 

 to which the water of an inundation of the sea, rose. 



The substratum of these marshes is red marl, which 

 occasionally rises up into ridges of moderate elevation, 



