6 
SECT. IV.—SOIL AND SURFACE. 
Beginning with the lowest grounds, the Vale of 
Severn extends through the county from north to south 
about thirty miles in length, and from a quarter of a 
mile to a mile in breadth, containing probably ten thou¬ 
sand acres of a deep and rich sediment, deposited from 
time immemorial, by the waters of this river, and 
by the streams it receives from the contiguous country, 
in what was probably originally an unformed ravine; 
this sediment consists in some places of a pure water 
clay adapted for brick-making, but generally of a rich 
mud fertile and favourable to vegetation ; it consists of 
rich meadow and pasture, on which are fatted great 
numbers of sheep and cattle. The channel of the 
Severn is generally about eighty or one hundred yards 
wide, sometimes more considerably; and five or six 
yards in depth, its fall about one foot in a mile, being 
about thirty feet in the extent of the county; in the 
lower part of the county it becomes a deep still water, 
uniting with the tide ; in floods, the channel is not suffi¬ 
cient to contain the water, though in the summer season 
it sometimes sinks to less than a yard in depth in the 
middle and upper parts of the county, so as to be scarce¬ 
ly navigable. 
The Warwickshire Avon enters the county above 
Evesham, and running through it including its various 
windings above twenty miles, falls into the Severn, 
near Tewkesbmy, and is navigable for barges all through 
the county; its banks, like those of the Severn, consist 
pf rich meadow and pasture. 
The Teme from Wales and Shropshire, enters the 
county 
