THE SEVERN AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 625 



The Sewage Question. — The important bearing of these obser- 

 vations on the conclusions of modern engineers as to the fate of 

 sewage poured into tidal waters need scarcely be pointed out. It is 

 certain that the faecal residues which destroy the purity of our 

 streams, and serve as breeding-matter for disease-germs, do not 

 obtain at once a safe burial in the sea, but linger with us for days 

 or weeks, or may be for months, wandering with the ceaseless 

 oscillation of the tides ; while a part never reaches the sea at all, 

 but is strewn with impartial hand at the foot of every town which 

 the tidal current reaches and defiles. 



In conclusion, I desire to offer my best thanks to my friends 

 Messrs. T. J. Hanson of Weston-super-Mare, T. Jones, E.G.S., of 

 Newport, Mon., F. G. Evans and J. Storrie of Cardiff, for their 

 kindness in sending me specimens for examination. 



Note. — Since writing this paper I have received from my brother 

 Mr. Edgar W. Sollas of London, specimens of mud taken from the 

 banks of the Thames near London Bridge. On examination I find 

 in them characteristic sponge -spicules, Suberitic and others, indica- 

 tive of marine origin. 



Discussion. 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins said that he congratulated the author upon 

 the way in which he had dealt with the phenomena which he had 

 brought before the Society. The bearing of his remarks upon the 

 sewage question was very important. The physical change implied 

 by the submarine forest in the area examined by the author, and 

 which Prof. Dawkins had studied for many years, was to be 

 observed all round our coasts where the shore was a shelving one. 

 The forests of oak, yew, and Scotch fir occupy a belt stretching from 

 about Ordnance datum to below low-water mark, and he had iden- 

 tified the short-horned ox, goat, sheep, and hog among the animals 

 discovered in them at various points. Between Porlock and Mine- 

 head he and the Rev. W. H. Winwood had found numerous Hint 

 chips and flakes. The forests, therefore, were flourishing in the 

 age of the domestic animals, or the Prehistoric period, most pro- 

 bably in the Neolithic stage of that period, and formed a belt 

 extending from our shores to an unknown distance seawards. With 

 regard to the section at Porlock Weir, he could not agree with the 

 author that there was a second bed of peat. It was, as Mr. Godwin- 

 Austen describes it, merely a surface-growth of Iris. 



Dr. Hicks said that he could quite confirm, from personal obser- 

 vation, the views of the author in regard to the extension westward 

 of the old forests. That the mud went landward instead of seaward 

 was a point with important physical bearings. He remarked upon 

 the distribution of the materials according to their weight and 

 volume. 



Mr. Whitaker said that the paper had an interest from the 

 analogies of the Severn deposits with others of a like kind. He bad 

 recently been working near the Wash, the low land bordering which 



