14 HILLS AND VALES. CHAP. 



existing valleys, sometimes with fresh- water shells, and other marks 

 of land occupation. 



Yet ancient as is this great Vale of the Severn, there is reason 

 to regard it as having been, at least in great part, formed by 

 excavation of the once more extended strata ; an excavation 

 which separated the hills of Bredon and Dumbleton from the 

 Cotswold ranges on the east, and stripped the lias from the red 

 marls which it once covered, probably, to the foot of the Malverns. 

 In short, this Vale was not formed (as some have been) by original 

 synclinal structure, or by subsidence, but by denudation through 

 the agency of the sea, and atmospheric vicissitudes. The beautiful 

 outlying hills of Bredon, Dumbleton, Robin Hood, &c., are all 

 monuments of this denudation; f metse 5 (so to speak) left by nature 

 as proofs and measures of her work. The agencies employed will 

 occupy attention in a future page. 



The stratified deposits which appear in the Vale of Severn, be- 

 tween the Malvern Hills and the Cotswold escarpment, are 



Upper lias deposits. 

 Middle lias (marlstone). 

 Lower lias. 

 Rhaetic beds. 

 Eed marls. 



Sections taken across the Vale from the Malvern summit to 

 Bredon Hill present the appearances as shown in Diagram V. 



Diagram V. M. Malvern ridge. V. Vale of Severn. B. Bredon Hill. 



The Vale of Severn and Avon may be regarded as elevated from 

 50 to 300 or 400 feet in the district we are considering. 



Ascending now the steep western cliff of the ever-breezy oolitic 

 hills, and thinking of the time when it was beaten by the rough 



