Possibly a deep channel may exist towards the Atlantic; but we know that none extends as far up as Bristol. Near Bristol the Severn Tunnel was carried through Carboniferous and Triassic rock, and showed that no buried channel is found much below the present one, which here happens to be scoured by the tides to an exceptional depth. The bottom of the old channel cannot be more than 40 feet below the bottom of the present channel known as The Shoots.
It may be that the Severn was once prolonged seaward as a swift river falling in a series of rapids over hard ledges of Palaeozoic rocks; but of this there is no evidence. It also does not seem probable, for all the geological indications go to suggest that west of Bristol the Channel coincides in the main with a wide area once occupied by comparatively soft Secondary or even Tertiary rocks. However this may be, we can only trace an ancient post-glacial channel cutting to about the same depth as the channels of the other rivers, and the lowest submerged land-surface of Barry Docks corresponds quite well with an alluvial flat formed when the river ran at that level. Here again we seem to find the river cutting to an ancient base-level which was about 60 feet below the present sea.
The reader may perhaps think that this point, the limited range of the upward and downward
