316 
the Avon. Mammalian remains appear to be totally wanting. 
Chalk flints are so extremely rare in it around Birmingham as to 
prove that the materials were transported from the north. At 
Mosely it is upwards of 80 feet thick, and consists of rolled pebbles, 
rarely exceeding 4 inches in diameter, of various granitic and 
quartzose rocks and altered sandstones, imbedded in a clean ferru- 
ginous sand; and a bed of sand 30 feet thick, without pebbles, 
occurs in the middle of the gravel. Between Cotteridge and Wytch- 
all is an erratic boulder, or shapeless mass of porphyritic trap, 
about 5 feet by 4, with the angles slightly rounded. At the Lickey, 
gravel analogous to that near Birmingham, but with a large pro- 
portion of slate rocks, attains, on the line of the railway, a height of 
387 feet, and at the Lickey Beacon of more than 900 feet. Sugar’s 
Brook is the next locality noticed by Mr. Strickland, but from that 
point no gravel occurs for sixteen miles. Near Abbot’s Wood is 
another extensive deposit of quartzose gravel and ferruginous sand, 
devoid of flints and resting upon lias. 
Marine erratic gravel with flints.—These accumulations commence 
immediately south of the Avon. The village of Bredon stands on a 
platform, seventy feet above the ordinary level of the Avon, com- 
posed of lias with an uneven surface, and capped with 10 to 15 
feet of this gravel. It contains no mammalian remains. 
Fluviatile gravel.—The only example of this drift, on the line of 
the railway, occupies the two opposite flanks of the Avon at Defford 
and Eckington, north of Bredon. At these localities the surface is 
a tabular platform which does not exceed forty-five feet above the 
Avon, including a capping of ten feet of gravel precisely similar to 
the flinty gravel of Bredon, but containing abundance of mammalian 
remains. They were chiefly found in the cutting north of Ecking- 
ton, at the lower part of the deposit, and often on the surface of 
the lias clay ; and are referrible to Elephas primigenius, Hippopotamus 
major, Bos Urus, and Cervus giganteus ? On the north, or Defford 
side of the Avon, the remains of Elephas primigenius and. Rhinoceros 
trichorhinus have been obtained. Associated with these bones are 
numerous freshwater shells, agreeing with those found at Crop- 
thorne *; the most abundant species being Cyclas amnica and C. 
cornea. In endeavouring to account for the presence of these re- 
mains at only one point in the line of the railway, Mr. Strickland 
states that he can offer no other explanation than that previously 
proposed by him f, namely, that after the beds of marine gravel had 
been deposited and laid dry by the elevation of the land, a large 
river or chain of lakes extended down the valley of the Avon, at a 
height varying from twenty to fifty feet above its present course ; 
and that the gravel previously accumulated by marine currents, was 
remodified by the river, and mixed up with remains of mammalia 
which tenanted its banks, or of mollusca which inhabited its waters. 
Local gravel—This species of detritus occurs abundantly at Chel- 
* Silur. Syst., p. 555; and Proceedings, vol. ii. pp. 6 and 95. 
+ Reports of British Association, vol. vi. Sections, p. 64, 
