Note 4 — THE CASTLE OF CHEPSTOW, Monmouthshire.

From the form of the British Channel, says De la Beche, and the absence of a free passage for the waters, such as exists at the Straits of Dover, in the English Channel, westerly winds force up and sustain a great body of water, thereby raising the sea above the mean level several feet. During such phenomena, it is said, the body of water in the river assumes a convex surface. In the great storm of 1703, the tide flowed over the top of Chepstow bridge, inundating all the low land, and washing away whole farm-yards and incalculable stock.