82 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



hypothesis sounds very speculative, but there are some remarkable pieces 

 of evidence in its favour. 



1. Near Gloucester and adjacent to the rivers Severn and Leadon, 

 coarse gravels, probably fluvio-glacial in origin, cap hills at about 

 200-280 O.D., the present valley floor being about 25 O.D. 



2. Three drift-capped hills, Dripshill {ca. 240 O.D.) between Worcester 

 and Upton, and Leopards Grange (320 O.D.) and Crookbarrow 

 (280 O.D.), both near Worcester, are all quite close to the river 

 which floods at about 40 O.D. Sands occur at 200 O.D. near 

 Peachley north-west of Worcester. In the Salwarpe basin near 

 Elmbridge boulder clay caps the hill at 231 O.D. This is in the 

 pre-Glacial depression referred to above as lying east of the present 

 Severn valley. 



3. In the Avon vale supposed Welsh drift occurs at Wolford (ca. 350 

 O.D.), and at the Campden Tunnel (520 O.D.),^ both near 

 Moreton-in-the-Marsh. In the same district, as already mentioned, 

 the Moreton Chalky drifts lie at a level of 449 O.D. and actually 

 form the water-shed between the Thames and Avon. All these 

 occurrences are on the south side of the vale, and are only con- 

 nected with the South Warwickshire. Plateau by a few hill-top 

 outliers, such as Idlecote Hill (435 O.D.), Long Hill near Loxley 

 at 415 O.D., and the hill-tops at 415 and 446 O.D. near Eatington. 



Welcombe Hill (350 O.D.) and Cracombe Hill (377 O.D.), both 

 capped by thick drift, are close to the Avon, which is about 125 O.D. 

 and 70 O.D. in their respective neighbourhoods. 



These facts tend to show that at the time of the glaciation the valley 

 floor was much higher than now. 



4. On the south-west slopes of the Clent-Lickey range, there are at 

 Money Lane, Wildmoor, sixty feet of horizontally bedded sands 

 capped by thirty feet of horizontal coarse bouldery gravels which reach 

 to about 730 O.D., the whole banked against a steep slope of Bunter. 

 Similar confirmatory sections can be seen near-by and also at Combe 

 Hill, Barnt Green. It seems impossible for such horizontally 

 bedded sands to have originated except in a lake, and equally im- 

 possible for a lake to be held up in this position except by means 

 of a large glacier in the lower ground to the west. Out in this 

 direction there are a number of hills near Bromsgrove, Chaddesley 

 and Belbroughton, the drift capping on which proves that they, 

 too, were once under the ice sheet. Here it varies in height from 

 350 to 519 O.D. 



5. The great sand mounds of the Stour valley and the sands and gravels 

 at high levels near Churchill seem to demand a large lobe of ice to 

 account for their presence there ; and the composition of these 

 drifts, which are practically free from northern erratics, makes it 

 clear that they are unconnected with the Main Irish Sea glaciation. 



* The ' Campden Tunnel Drift ' as now exposed above the Tunnel contains 

 north-eastern elements. 



