Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 35.djvu/814

50. On some Superficial Deposits in the Neighbourhood of Evesham. By the Rev. A. H. Winnington Ingram, M.A., F.G.S. (Read June 25, 1879.)

Subsequently to the late Mr. T. G. B. Lloyd's paper on the superficial deposits of the Vale of Evesham being written, the gravels of the lower series on Green Hill near Evesham have been extensively opened, and disclosed flints of about the weight of 10 lbs. These are so very perfect and unworn by water, presenting generally the same appearance as if they had just been taken from the matrix of the chalk, that floating ice seems to be the most probable agency which brought them to their present elevation, about 120 feet above the level of the Avon. An abundant deposit of flints of the same size and character occurs near Moreton-in-Marsh; and a large block of chalk was discovered in the railway-cutting at Aston Magna. So it is reasonable to conclude that the flints of Green Hill, some of which present glacial marks, were conveyed by shore-ice down the vale of Moreton, through the depression in the Cotswolds forming at that time what might be called the Straits of Mickleton, to the position which they now occupy. A thin layer of fawn-coloured clay resting on a slight stratum of subangular pebbles, at the base of excavations for brick-earth at Bengeworth, well merits the attention of geologists; it and the sand immediately above have yielded entire heads and horns of Bos primigenius and Bison prisons, antlers of Cervus tarandus, and many unwaterworn shank and other bones of large mammals. From the same clay a fine tusk of a Hippopotamus has come to light. Above this mammaliferous seam of clay rest 20 feet of sand and loam, containing numerous uninjured and unopened specimens of Unio ovalis. This formation is, at its surface, about 60 feet above the level, and half a mile from the present channel of the Avon, and appears to have been laid down in a tranquil backwater or reach in the stream which then flowed with a greater volume of water during the season when the deep snow was melting, or in some early pluvial period. On the opposite bank of the river, at Evesham, about a quarter of a mile from its modern course, occurs a formation of similar character and depth; and the clay there has contributed, in a well sunk through the sand interspersed with river-shells, an antler of a Reindeer. The discovery of a tusk of the Hippopotamus points to the fluviatile origin of the clay; and most likely the River-horse was a denizen of the great stream at the period when the carcasses of Reindeer floated down it on ice, which, stranded and melting, left their bones in the sediment to excite the speculation of geologists of our day.