I.—On an Old Lake-basin in Shropshire

Extract

The district known as the Wealdmoors of Salop is an ancient lake-basin about seven miles in length, by four in width. It lies east of the Wrekin, from which the ground slopes gradually down to it. On the S.E., the high ground of Lilleshall, and its vicinity, rises more abruptly, and on the N.E. extremity it is intersected by the river Tern, which probably formed the principal outlet. The centre of the basin is filled with peat, containing remians of oak and hazel trees, very much decayed, and matted together by thick layers of fibrous roots, and in the lower part, by a species of moss, of which the fibre is too fine for the Sphagnum, but which it is impossible to identify, on account of its decayed condition. This peat attains a thickness of about six feet. Some years ago, a bronze celt of fine workmanship, and which is considered to have been manufactured since the commencement of the iron age, was found imbedded in it.