GRAVAMEN. (from Lat. gravare, to weigh down; gravis, heavy), a complaint or grievance, the ground of a legal action, and particularly the more serious part of a charge against an accused person. In English the term is used chiefly in ecclesiastical cases, being the technical designation of a memorial presented from the Lower to the Upper House of Convocation, setting forth grievances to be redressed, or calling attention to breaches in church discipline.
GRAVE. (1) (From a common Teutonic verb, meaning “to
dig”; in O. Eng. grafan; cf. Dutch graven, Ger. graben), a place
dug out of the earth in which a dead body is laid for burial, and
hence any place of burial, not necessarily an excavation (see
Funeral Rites and Burial). The verb “to grave,” meaning
properly to dig, is particularly used of the making of incisions
in a hard surface (see Engraving). (2) A title, now obsolete,
of a local administrative official for a township in certain parts
of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire; it also sometimes appears in the
form “grieve,” which in Scotland and Northumberland is used
for sheriff (q.v.), and also for a bailiff or under-steward. The
origin of the word is obscure, but it is probably connected with
the German graf, count, and thus appears as the second part of
many Teutonic titles, such as landgrave, burgrave and margrave.
“Grieve,” on the other hand, seems to be the northern representative
of O.E. gerefa, reeve; cf. “sheriff” and “count.”
(3) (From the Lat. gravis, heavy), weighty, serious, particularly
with the idea of dangerous, as applied to diseases and the like,
of character or temperament as opposed to gay. It is also applied
to sound, low or deep, and is thus opposed to “acute.” In
music the term is adopted from the French and Italian, and
applied to a movement which is solemn or slow. (4) To clean a
ship’s bottom in a specially constructed dock, called a “graving
dock.” The origin of the word is obscure; according to the
New English Dictionary there is no foundation for the connexion
with “greaves” or “graves,” the refuse of tallow, in candle or
soap-making, supposed to be used in “graving” a ship. It may
be connected with an O. Fr. grave, mod. grève, shore.
GRAVEL, or Pebble Beds, the name given to deposits of
rounded, subangular, water-worn stones, mingled with finer
material such as sand and clay. The word “gravel” is adapted
from the O. Fr. gravele, mod. gravelle, dim. of grave, coarse sand,
sea-shore, Mod. Fr. grève. The deposits are produced by the
attrition of rock fragments by moving water, the waves and
tides of the sea and the flow of rivers. Extensive beds of gravel
are forming at the present time on many parts of the British
coasts where suitable rocks are exposed to the attack of the
atmosphere and of the sea waves during storms. The flint
gravels of the coast of the Channel, Norfolk, &c., are excellent
examples. When the sea is rough the lesser stones are washed up
and down the beach by each wave, and in this way are rounded,
worn down and finally reduced to sand. These gravels are
constantly in movement, being urged forward by the shore
currents especially during storms. Large banks of gravel may
be swept away in a single night, and in this way the coast is laid
bare to the erosive action of the sea. Moreover, the movement
of the gravel itself wears down the subjacent rocks. Hence in
many places barriers have been erected to prevent the drift of
the pebbles and preserve the land, while often it has been found
necessary to protect the shores by masonry or cement work.
Where the pebbles are swept along to a projecting cape they may
be carried onwards and form a long spit or submarine bank,
which is constantly reduced in size by the currents and tides
which flow across it (e.g. Spurn Head at the mouth of the
Humber). The Chesil Bank is the best instance in Britain of
a great accumulation of pebbles constantly urged forward by
storms in a definite direction. In the shallower parts of the North
Sea considerable areas are covered with coarse sand and pebbles.
In deeper water, however, as in the Atlantic, beyond the 100
fathom line pebbles are very rare, and those which are found
are mostly erratics carried southward by floating icebergs, or
volcanic rocks ejected by submarine volcanoes.
In many parts of Britain, Scandinavia and North America there are marine gravels, in every essential resembling those of the sea-shore, at levels considerably above high tide. These gravels often lie in flat-topped terraces which may be traced for great distances along the coast. They are indications that the sea at one time stood higher than it does at present, and are known to geologists as “raised beaches.” In Scotland such beaches are known 25, 50 and 100 ft. above the present shores. In exposed situations they have old shore cliffs behind them; although their deposits are mainly gravelly there is much fine sand and silt in the raised beaches of sheltered estuaries and near river mouths.
River gravels occur most commonly in the middle and upper parts of streams where the currents in times of flood are strong enough to transport fairly large stones. In deltas and the lower portions of large rivers gravel deposits are comparatively rare and indicate periods when the volume of the stream was temporarily greatly increased. In the higher torrents also, gravels are rare because transport is so effective that no considerable accumulations can form. In most countries where the drainage is of a mature type, river gravels occur in the lower parts of the courses of the rivers as banks or terraces which lie some distance above the stream level. Individual terraces usually do not persist for a long space but are represented by a series of benches at about the same altitude. These were once continuous, and have been separated by the stream cutting away the intervening portions as it deepened and broadened its channel. Terraces of this kind often occur in successive series at different heights, and the highest are the oldest because they were laid down at a time when the stream flowed at their level and mark the various stages by which the valley has been eroded. While marine terraces are nearly always horizontal, stream terraces slope downwards along the course of the river.
The extensive deposits of river gravels in many parts of England, France, Switzerland, North America, &c., would indicate that at some former time the rivers flowed in greater volume than at the present day. This is believed to be connected with the glacial epoch and the augmentation of the streams during those periods when the ice was melting away. Many changes in drainage have taken place since then; consequently wide sheets of glacial and fluvio-glacial gravel lie spread out where at present there is no stream. Often they are commingled with sand, and where there were temporary post-glacial lakes deposits of silt, brick clay and mud have been formed. These may be compared to the similar deposits now forming in Greenland, Spitzbergen and other countries which are at present in a glacial condition.
As a rule gravels consist mainly of the harder kinds of stone because these alone can resist attrition. Thus the gravels formed from chalk consist almost entirely of flint, which is so hard that the chalk is ground to powder and washed away, while the flint remains little affected. Other hard rocks such as chert, quartzite, felsite, granite, sandstone and volcanic rocks very frequently are largely represented in gravels, while coal, limestone and shale are far less common. The size of the pebbles varies from a fraction of an inch to several feet; it depends partly on the fissility of the original rocks and partly on the strength of the currents of water; coarse gravels indicate the action of powerful eroding agents. In the Tertiary systems gravels occur on many horizons, e.g. the Woolwich and Reading beds, Oldhaven beds and Bagshot beds of the Eocene of the London basin. They do not essentially differ from recent gravel deposits. But in course of time the action of percolating water assisted by pressure tends to convert gravels into firm masses of conglomerate by depositing carbonate of lime, silica and other substances in their interstices. Gravels are not usually so fossiliferous as finer deposits of the same age, partly because their porous texture enables organic remains to be dissolved away by water, and partly because shells and other fossils are comparatively fragile and would be broken up during the accumulation of the pebbles. The rock fragments in conglomerates, however, sometimes contain fossils which have not been found elsewhere. (J. S. F.)
GRAVELINES (Flem. Gravelinghe), a fortified seaport town of northern France, in the department of Nord and arrondissement
