1870.] LLOYD——AVON AND SEVERN VALLEYS. 217 
Part Il. Tur Surerrtcrat Deposits or tHe SEVERN VALLEY AND 
ADJOINING District. 
Introductory Remarks.—In order to carry out the object I had in 
view at the commencement, of making the descriptions of the facts 
belonging to the subject of this paper in a great measure supple- 
mentary to those of others, [ shall limit myself, as much as possible, 
to a statement of such of them as I believe have not yet been 
brought under the notice of the Society. 
Tnterature of the Subject—Sir Roderick Murchison,. I believe, 
first brought under the notice of geologists, in the ‘ Silurian System,’ 
the discovery of marine shells and mammalian remains in the drift 
of the Severn Valley, near Worcester; but, as far as I am aware, 
no detailed account of the facts connected with the nature and mode 
of occurrence of the gravels and clay of the Severn valley and its 
neighbourhood was published until a paper appeared (in the Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soc. 1864, vol. xx. page 130) entitled “‘ Notes on the 
Drift Deposits of the Valley of the Severn in the neighbourhood of 
Coalbrook Dale and Bridgnorth,” by Mr. Geo. Maw, F.G.8., in which, 
after mentioning the names of other geologists in the same field, the 
author described some remarkable sections of deposits containing 
marine shells. 
At page clxvi of the Strickland Memoirs the following passage 
occurs :—‘ Dr. Falconer conceives that there exists in the valley of 
the Severn an old flwviatile Pliocene deposit of great extent, con- 
taining the usual association of Pliocene mammalia—lephas anti- 
quus, Hippopotamus major, Bison, Deer, &c., with freshwater shells ; 
and also overlying beds of gravel, which are described as Hstuarine, 
and drift-gravel containing a few marine shells; Cardiwm and Tur- 
ritella, and the mammalian remains of the Glacial period—lephas 
primigentus, Ethinoceros tichorhinus, Reindeer, Horse, &c.” See Dr 
Falconer’s views (Proce. Geol. Soc. 1856-57, page 5, &e.). Wishing to 
refer, if possible, to the original remarks of so eminent an authority 
as the late Dr. Falconer, I sought for the reference given, but with- 
out finding there any allusion to the subject of the foregoing quota- 
tion. I then wrote to Sir W. Jardine, who informed me that the 
reference alluded to was to be found in vol. xiii. page 307 of the 
Journal; but up to the present time I have failed to discover it. 
Referring to the account of the Severn valley and its geological 
features between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth, given in the paper by 
Mr. Maw, already mentioned, I need only add that below Bridg- 
north the river continues its general §.S.-easterly course as far as 
Tewkesbury, passing over beds of New Red marl for a great part of 
the distance. As we approach the town of Worcester the valley 
opens out into a broad undulating vale, about 7 miles in width, ex- 
tending from the base of the Malverns on the west to the narrow 
watershed on the east, which separates it from the valley of the 
Avon. The tide rises up as far as Tewkesbury ; but the Severn, like 
its affluent, the Avon, is much altered in its natural course by locks 
and weirs. 
Q 2 
