The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE BASIN OF THE SEVERN AND THE BRISTOL CHANNEL. 97
virtue of their medicinal springs. TVTiilst the Malvern HUls are covered with
villas and hotels, the Forest of Dean, to the south of them, has become a great
centre of industry, abounding in coal and iron. Dean Forest, notwithstanding its
coal-pits and blast furnaces, is a picturesque district, comprising some 26,000 acres
of wUd woodland, producing some of the finest timber in the country.
Of the ranges which bound the vale of the Severn on the east, the Cotswold
Hills, rising in Cleeve Hill to a height of 1,13-1 feet, are the most important.
These hiUs are named after their "cots," or shepherds' huts, and have in turn
given their name to one of the most highly prized breeds of sheep, whose excellence
is due to the short and savoury grass which grows upon the oolitic rocks. This
Fig. 53.
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Pkomoxtories axd Beach of Westox-svpee-Make.
Scale 1 1 195,000.
range terminates in the hills which form so fine an amphitheatre around Bath, on
the Avon, and may be traced even beyond that river, where there are a few
heights belonging to the same geological formations. The environs of Bath
are well known for their fossil wealth. Here cuttle-fish of gigantic size have
been found, which still retained pigment fit for use, notwithstanding the coimt-
less ages that must have elapsed from the time of its secretion by the Kving
organism.
Towards its mouth the valley of the Severn is almost shut in by spurs thrown
off from the mountains of "Wales and the range of the Cotswolds. To the north of
this ancient barrier the vale of Gloucester widens, its shape being that of a
triangle whose apex lies in the south. The rocks spread over the vaUey of