554 Mr. Strickland on the Geology of the line 



termined in consequence of the want of sections. For the present, therefore, the 

 above-mentioned elevation of 544 feet is the greatest which can be assigned with 

 certainty to the superficial gravel or "Northern Drift" of this part of England. 



The next locality where gravel occurs is at Sugars Brook*. This deposit con- 

 sists of quartzose pebbles, commonly less than three inches in diameter, and rarely 

 equal to six. No stratification is observable. The surface of the bed is about 

 twelve feet above the brook, and from its low position it appeared likely to belong 

 to the fluviatile class, and to contain mammaUan bones ; but though many thousand 

 tons of gravel have been raised for the use of the railway, I have not been able to 

 learn that any organic remains have been found in it. 



From this point no more gravel occurs on the line of the railway for the next 

 sixteen miles ; but a few hundred yards east of it, at Abbott's Wood, is an exten- 

 sive deposit of quartzose gravel, mixed with ferruginous sand devoid of flints, and 

 resting upon lias clay. Here also large quantities of gravel have been extracted, 

 but the evidence of the engineers and workmen is unanimous as to the absence of 

 organic remains. 



§ 5. Marine erratic gravel with flints. — It was stated in a paper read at the Liver- 

 pool meetingt, that the gravel to the south-east of the Avon in Warwickshire and 

 Worcestershire abounds in flints, indicating a current from the chalk district lying 

 to the eastward, and accordingly no sooner does the railroad pass that river than we 

 find a very large per centage of flints in the gravel. The village of Bredon stands 

 on a platform about seventy feet above the ordinary surface of the Avon, capped 

 with an extensive deposit of this kind of gravel from ten to fifteen feet thick J. It 

 reposes on an uneven surface of has, and is mixed with much ferruginous clay. 

 Its height above the Avon valley, though slight, has been sufficient to protect it 

 from the modifying effects of fluviatile agency, and hence the extensive excavations 

 near Bredon have furnished no example of mammalian bones. 



§ 6. Fluviatile gravel. — The only instance of this description of detritus on the 

 railway-line is on the two flanks of the Avon, at Deffbrd and Eckington§. On 

 either side of the river is a tabular platform, the surfaces of which do not exceed 

 forty-Jive feet above the Avon ; and they are capped by about ten feet of gravel, 

 precisely similar in composition to the flinty gravel of Bredon, but with this im- 

 portant difference, that it contains an abundance of mammalian remains. These 

 were found chiefly in the cutting in the north of the village of Eckington. The 

 bones occur principally at the lower part of the gravel, and often on the surface of 

 the subjacent lias clay, about thirty-five feet above the river. They are accompanied 

 with numerous freshwater shells, agreeing in species with many of those enumerated 



* See Plate XLVIII. fig. 1, upper line. X See sheet No. 7. and Plate XLVIII. fig. 5. 



f See Report of Brit. Assoc, vol. vi. Sections, p. 62. § See slieet No. 9, and Plate XLVIII. fig. 5. 



