Pd 
1870.] LLOYD—AVON AND SEVERN VALLEYS. 215 
Peat-beds.—A bed of peat about 8ft. thick, resting on gravel, 
was cut through some years ago at Chadbury; init many horns of 
Red Deer were found. 
Modern Alluwium.—tThis deposit of alluvial silt, containing layers 
of vegetable matter, mammalian remains, and land and freshwater 
shells, seems to be continuous from Rugby to Tewkesbury, increasing 
in thickness as we descend the river, from about 6 ft. to about 
15 ft. In the neighbourhood of Rugby, near Little Lawford, a well- 
known discovery of mammalian remains and shells was made in the 
year 1815, of which a short account is given in Dr. Buckland’s 
‘ Reliquize Diluviane.’ I believe that the Rev. Andrew Bloxam, then 
residing at Rugby, was the first person to call Dr. Buckland’s atten- 
tion to the discovery. In a letter to me, in reply to a query about 
the meaning of the term “ drift,” as applied by him to the deposit in 
which the remains were found, Mr. Bloxam says, ‘‘The drift in your 
plan, as far as I can remember, was alluvial loamy soil, at the 
bottom of which, just above the clay (Lias?), was a layer of a few 
inches thick of a black peaty kind of deposit, in which the bones 
were deposited, some of which, however, had sunk into the clay 
beneath.” Dr. Buckland remarks, in his work, that the bones ap- 
peared not in the least degree mineralized, and had lost scarcely 
any thing of their animal matter and weight. 
As a general rule, the mammalian remains have been found, ac- 
cording to all accounts, either resting immediately on the surface of 
the basement clay or else in the lowermost beds of the freshwater 
gravels. The land and freshwater shells have been pretty much 
confined to the lower beds in the few localities where they have 
hitherto been found; with the exception of the case recorded by 
Sir R. Murchison, near Bricklehampton Bank, the bones &c. usually 
have occurred singly, and the shells were well preserved, with 
their valves often in contact. No stone implements, as yet authen- 
ticated, have, I believe, been found in the superficial deposits of the 
Avon valley. 
List of Mammalia from the Freshwater Deposits of the Avon, com- 
piled from Mr. Dawkins’s Table. 
Canis lupus. | Bison priscus. | Rhinoceros tichorhinus. 
Hyzena spelea. Hippopotamus major. | EHlephas antiquus. 
Cervus tarandus, Sus scrofa. H. primigenius. 
C. elaphus. Equus caballus. 
Norn,— Canis lupus is found in the Table under the locality “ Tewkesbury.” 
VOL, XXVI,—PART I. Q 
