460 PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS. CHAP. 



gravel containing pebbles of quartz rock (the red grit) in the Vale 

 of the Warwickshire Avon generally ; and in the Vales of the 

 Evenlode, Cherwell, and Thames. This pebble drift is marked on 

 the hills of Wychwood Forest, Wytham, and Bagley Wood, on the 

 edges of the Cherwell Valley, on the lower surfaces about Abingdon, 

 Dorchester, and Wallingford, and on parts of the chalk hills of 

 Chiltern and the eastern extremity of Ilsley Downs. But Shot- 

 over and Brill, the whole range of the Cotswold, the country 

 about Chipping-Norton, that west of Banbury and east of the 

 Cherwell, are left free from the drift, which yet is marked in a 

 considerable part of the upper drainage of the Nen. 



The map which represents these extremely interesting facts is 

 described as ' shewing the manner in which the Lickey sandstone 

 pebbles have been drifted from Warwickshire, through two low 

 points the escarpment of the oolite limestone, at Moreton-in-the- 

 Marsh, and on the north of Banbury and have been spread over 

 the country along the valleys of the Evenlode, the Cherwell, and 

 the Thames, and also on the north of Buckingham/ Masses of 

 larger size than usual lie on the fields about Bladon and Hand- 

 borough, crown the heights of Wytham, Cumnor, and Bagley 

 Wood, and occur on the Chiltern hills above Henley. 



The operation of a great flood, a deluge, coming from the north, 

 north-west and north-east, with spoils of the highlands in these 

 directions, before the excavation of the Oxfordshire valleys, is as- 

 sumed by Dr. Buckland to explain the facts he has recorded. 

 Cumberland and Cham wood Forest have yielded the quartz, f el- 

 stones, gneiss, porphyry, and trap ; the red sandstone of Bridgnorth 

 and the midland districts has supplied the hard quartzite ; Spilsby 

 and Lincolnshire red and white chalk, and flints. The red quartzites 

 in particular were carried down the whole Vale of Thames to 

 Maidenhead and Kensington ; but in some of these cases they 

 occur in the valley, and must be noticed again with the f low 

 level' gravel. 



The freedom from this gravel of all the higher oolitic country 

 west of the Evenlode, which Dr. Buckland's map represents, is 

 confirmed by the special researches on the subject of Mr. Hull d , 

 who was engaged in the geological survey of the district. Under 



d Proceedings of the Geol. Soc., Nov. 1855, with a map. 



