1870. ] LLOYD—AVON AND SEVERN VALLEYS. 203 
the Avon Valley, near Cropthorne in Worcestershire, which are 
referred to by Sir R. I. Murchison in his ‘ Silurian System.’ My own 
investigations are merely an extension of those commenced by 
Strickland, to whose writings I am much indebted for valuable in- 
formation, and many suggestions. 
In July 1868, a paper was read by Mr. E. Cleminshaw, at a 
meeting of the Nat. Hist. Society of Rugby School, on the river- 
gravels of the Avon in the neighbourhood of Rugby; and this was 
followed in the published report by a note written by Mr. Jas. M. 
Wilson, F.G.S., which I recommend as worthy of the attention of all 
who are studying Postphocene geology. I must also refer to a short 
paper by the Rey. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S., called “‘ Remarks on the Drift 
in a part of Warwickshire” (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii.). 
In Sir R. I. Murchison’s chapters on Drift, in the ‘ Silurian System,’ 
the subject of the northern drift is extensively worked out. 
General description of the River and Valley of the Avon.—The 
Fig. 1.—Section across the Valley of a Tributary of the Avon. 
Distance 2 miles. 
S.W. N.E. 
Railway- 
Rugby. cutting. Stream. Clifton. 
, i] t 1 
| 
Sea-level. 
a, a, a. Drift of Upper series. 6, Alluvium. 
c, c. Lower Lias clay and limestone. 
river Avon rises near Naseby, in Northamptonshire, whence, taking 
a south-westerly course by Rugby, Warwick, and Stratford-on-Avon, 
it flows past the town of Evesham through a narrow bend of the 
valley, below which it enters a broad alluvial plain, and, following a 
tortuous course by Fladbury, Cropthorne, Pershore, and Defford, 
finally enters the Severn at Tewkesbury, having accomplished a dis- 
tance from Rugby, as measured along the valley, of about sixty-four 
miles. Its principal affluents are the Swift, the Leam, the Arrow, 
and the Bow. ‘The basement rocks, which belong to the district of 
the valley between Rugby and Tewkesbury, occur in the following 
order :—Lower Lias limestone and clay from Rugby to King’s Newn- 
ham; New Red marl and “ waterstones” from King’s Newnham 
to Cloud Bridge; Permian conglomerate from the latter place to 
within a few miles of Warwick, where the Keuper series reappears ; 
between Stratford-on-Avon and Tewkesbury the Lower Lias clay 
predominates, the Keuper marls occupying only a narrow area of 
about six miles in width between Stratford and Evesham, and 
occurring again on a line of fault near Fladbury. Bredon Hill 
is an outlier of Blue Lias clay and Inferior Oolite. 
Description of Transverse Sections.—In a section taken across the 
valley of a tributary stream between Rugby and Clifton (fig. 1), 
a, a, a represent beds of Boulder-clay, quartzose flinty gravel. 
