452 Transactions. — Geology. 



It is possible that at some former period a glacier may have overflowed 

 these hills although there is no evidence of it, for the steepest slopes face 

 the mountains ; but if such has been the case it could not in any way 

 account for the facts we wish to explain. A glacier certainly did not deposit 

 rounded stones in large flat plains, and as these stones have evidently been 

 brought down by the river, it follows that any glacier action that might at 

 one time have existed here must have been entirely obliterated by the river 

 gravels long before the phenomena we are now discussing came into 

 existence. We may therefore dismiss all notions of a glacier as a cause. 

 All the gravels in the neighbourhood have certainly, as I have said, been 

 brought down by the river. But is it possible that the river could have 

 deposited them at exactly the same level on both sides of the hills ? I think 

 not. But supposing, for the present, that this is possible, can river action 

 alone account for the rest of the facts ? 



The steep sides of the col in the Gorge Hills and underneath the gravels, 

 as shown by the railway cutting on the left bank of the river, prove that the 

 col itself was cut by the river. This col must have been subsequently 

 filled up with shingle and silt to the level of the highest terrace inside the 

 col, that is to 148 feet above the present river-bed, or 58 feet above the 

 bottom of the col. After that the river must have once more cut down 

 through the shingle and rock and excavated its present gorge. It is evident 

 that the river could not have commenced cutting the col until shingle had 

 been piled up as high as the rocky spur out of which the col has been cut ; 

 for until that was done, it could not overflow the spur, but must have run 

 round it. Now not only is there no trace of a river-bed on either side of 

 the hills, but the shingle is not sufficiently high on either side to cover the 

 spur ; and as the river could not have piled up shingle over the spur with- 

 out also piling it up to at least the same height on either side of the hill, it 

 follows that this shingle, which must formerly have existed on both sides of 

 the hill, has been since removed. 



There is evidence in the two racecourse hills, and in the gravel beds 

 round the eastern base of the Malvern Hills, previously mentioned, that the 

 shingle did, at one time, reach a level some 50 or 70 feet higher than at 

 present, and consequently it must at that time have completely covered 

 Little Gorge Hill and a large part of the spur ; but not Gorge Hill itself, 

 which would still have projected more than 100 feet above the plain. The 

 river may, therefore, at that time have run over the spur at the eastern base 

 of Gorge Hill, and gradually excavated the col. But it seems to me im- 

 possible that the river after cutting the col, could have left it and swept off 

 all the shingle to exactly the same level on each side of the hills, and then 

 have returned to the col to cut the gorge. My reasons for thinking so are, 



