vol. xx. (2) NOTES ON COTTESWOLD-MALVERN REGION 
129 
Severn since the Roman invasion. The summer level of the 
river at the Diglis Locks near Worcester is now 34.65 feet above 
Ordnance datum. The river level rarely falls below it, but this 
occurred in the dry summer of 1887. The stream has cut its 
channel through silt and other deposits (Class F) to a depth of 
about 20 feet below the level meadows bordering the stream. 
Sections in the banks between Worcester and Gloucester 
show the successive laminae with thin seams of carbonaceous 
matter, small pebbles, and an occasional boulder. In some of 
the alluvial flats (“ Hams ”) these deposits extend to a depth 
of about 35 feet, with Drift pebbles at the base. At Tewkesbury 
the upper layers have yielded flint flakes and Roman coins, 
horns of the stag, roe-deer and Bos longifrons and tusks of wild 
boar, the vertebra of a small wfliale, and freshwater shells 
( 188 , pp. 59-60) . 
Beds of peat and submerged forests occur in many parts 
of the district, mainly near the rivers. Lucy describes a section, 
exposed in constructing the docks at Sharpness, having a 
maximum thickness of 14 feet and containing many forest 
trees, including an oak 80 feet in length and with a diameter 
of 5 feet at the base. A few Drift pebbles ware found in the 
peat ( 117 , p. 113). In the estuary near Westbury-on-Sevem 
peat and the boles and stools of trees are now visible. This bed 
is fully described by Prevost and Reade in No. 147 , pp. 15-46. 
Peat beds at Over Bridge, Epney, and Stroud have been 
recorded. 
Near Dursley there is a deposit of Calc-Tufa winch is still 
in progress of augmentation ( 142 , pp. 81-89). 
Very little coarse gravel is now r carried down by the Severn 
even in times of flood, and it is evident that the thick beds of 
clean gravel and sand that lie above the river up to heights 
of about 100 feet could not have been formed under present 
conditions even wflien the stream flowed more rapidly at a 
greater height above sea level. 
During the last century the Severn w r as deepened to provide 
a minimum depth of 10 feet below Worcester for navigation 
purposes, an operation that was carried out by the construction 
of locks and w r eirs, by excavating the hard Keuper Marl and 
