of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway. 555 



in Mr. Murchison's Silurian System (p. 555) as found in a similar position at 

 Cropthorne, a few miles higher up the Avon. The most abundant species are the 

 Oyclas amnica and C cornea. Great numbers of the bones have been broken and 

 lost by the carelessness of the workmen ; but those which have been preserved, 

 and which are in the cabinets of the Worcestershire Natural History Society, of 

 Mr. Fowler of Cheltenham, Mr. Dudfield of Tewkesbury, and my own, are refer- 

 able to Elephas primigenius, Hippopotamus major, Bos urus, and Cervus giganteus ? 



On the north or opposite side of the Avon, about twenty feet above the river, 

 bones of Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus and Hycsna spelcea, accompa- 

 nied with freshwater shells, occur beneath a few feet of gravel and under similar 

 circumstances to those at Eckington. 



In endeavouring to account for the presence of freshwater shells and bones at 

 this part of the railway-line, and their absence in all other portions of the district 

 described, I can offer no other explanation than that formerly proposed **, viz. that 

 after the beds of marine gravel had been deposited where we now find them, and 

 had been laid dry by the elevation of the land, a large river or chain of lakes ex- 

 tended down the valley of the Avon at a height of from twenty to fifty feet above 

 its present course, and that the gravel previously brought into the district by marine 

 currents was remodified by the river-stream and mixed up with remains of Mam- 

 malia and MoUusca which tenanted its banks or its waters. 



§ 7. Local gravel. — This occurs abundantly at Cheltenham f, and consists exclu- 

 sively of detritus from the oolite and lias of the vicinity J. The composition varies 

 from the state of gravel to fine calcareous sand. ' No bones or other terrestrial re- 

 mains have occurred in it, and it is therefore referred, in the absence of other evi- 

 dence, to a marine origin. 



§ 8, Modern alluvia. — No formations of any importance belonging to this class 

 occur on the line of the railway, except the peaty deposits on the banks of the 

 Avon and its tributary streams. In sinking through this peaty soil for the foun- 

 dation of the bridge over the Avon at Defford, a human skeleton was found at the 

 depth of eighteen feet from the surface. 



Conclusion. — On a general review of the sections afforded by the Birmingham 

 and Gloucester Railway, although they do not present us with any very striking 

 or novel phsenomena, yet we may justly attach some value to the evidence they 

 afford of geological facts, whether as confirmatory or as corrective of those pre- 

 vious researches which were undertaken without the assistance now furnished by 

 the railway cuttings. In conclusion, let me again express a hope that the time is 

 not far distant when this Society may be in possession of a set of coloured sections 

 of every railway in the kingdom. 



* See Report of Brit. Assoc, 1837, vol. vi. Sections, p. 6^. f See Railway Sections, sheet No. !• 



\ See Mr. Murchison's Outlines of the Geology of Cheltenham, p. 28. 



