222 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 12, 
side of the main valley, between Evesham and Tewkesbury, isolated 
patches of the unstratified quartzose flinty gravel of the lower series 
occur on its upper edge, at Green Hill, Evesham, and Mount Pleasant, 
Pershore, whilst over portions of the main valley itself similar beds 
are distributed at elevations varying from 103 feet to 67 feet above 
the river. At the southern base of the same part of the main 
valley, stratified deposits of ‘‘ Local Drift” are met with, containing 
a small percentage of quartzose pebbles, flints, and quartzose sand, 
as at Beckford, where marine shells and mammalian remains haye 
been found. They appear to extend around a considerable portion 
of the lower part of Bredon Hill, and may perhaps be considered 
to form a sort of link serving to connect the unstratified gravel 
of the lower series of the Avon district with the stratitied beds of 
the Severn valley which contain marine shells and mammalian 
remains. I have also attempted to show that the freshwater beds 
of gravel and brick-earth constitute platforms, divided throughout 
their length by the present river, but capable of being classed as 
one deposit, which appears to me distinguishable from the adjacent 
unstratified beds of the lower series. 
On reviewing the phenomena presented by the drifts of the 
Severn valley, we find, for the most part, but little resemblance 
between them and the superficial deposits of the Avon valley and 
district. In some localities there are compact beds of loamy gravel, 
rarely containing marine shells, which somewhat resemble the un- 
stratified drifts of the lower series in the Avon valley. In others 
we encounter cleanly washed stratified sands and gravels, such as 
have not been found in any part of the Avon district. The absence 
of any deposit resembling the freshwater gravels and brick-earths 
of the Avon valley and some of its tributaries is remarkable, their 
position with regard to the river being occupied in the Severn val- 
ley by beds containing a few traces of marine shells and, occasionally, 
mammalian remains. 
Remarks on the Evidence bearing upon the origin of the Freshwater 
Gravels of the Avon Valley. - 
Leaving out of the question any speculative attempts to correlate 
the drifts of the upper and lower series in the districts of the Avon 
and Severn, as being premature in the present state of our know- 
ledge of the subject, I propose to confine the following observations 
to the evidence deducible from the facts already known regarding 
the probable conditions which gave rise to the accumulation of 
freshwater gravel in the Avon valley. ‘The supposition, made by 
Strickland, to explain the occurrence of gravel containing fresh- 
water shells and mammalian remains at Eckington and Defford, 
and its connexion with the unstratified quartzose flinty gravel at 
Bredon, is as follows :—* 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 >levation of the land, a large river, or chain of lakes, extended 
