LIVERPOOL AND WIRRAL. 



sandstone has doubtless arisen from the disintegration of older 

 xocks and deposition of this alluvium in fitting localities. 

 Though in many places local detrition may have produced the 

 rocks in question, there is no doubt that much is due to 

 northern drift. Large granitic boulders, characteristic of this 

 drift, are found to the north-east of Liverpool, and probably 

 the oxide of iron, which gives colour to the new red sandstone, 

 .has resulted from the decomposition of metamorphic rocks, of 

 which these are remnants."*^ 



" The sandstone, in its mineralogical character, is evidently 

 of mechanical origin, having been a sedimentary deposition in 

 water, under various degrees of disturbance, and consists en- 

 tirely of the comminuted ingredients of older rocks. In some 

 beds its texture consists of fine grains of quartz, cemented 

 together by an argillaceous red oxide of iron ; in others it 

 occurs in grains of pure silex, the facets of which present a 

 resplendent appearance on exposure to the sun. Many beds 

 irregularly abound in nodules of indurated clay, together with 

 a multitude of small pebbles of quartz, felspar, old red sand- 

 stone, greywacke, basalt, and granite, being portions of older 

 rocks disintegrated by the constant attrition of water. Tn 

 other beds the new red sandstone appears as a coarse quartzoze 

 conglomerate, with an argillaceous cement, containing an 

 abundance of small nodules of a yellowish brown clay. The 

 greater portions of these beds have disseminated particles of 

 mica, which in some instances give the sandstone a slaty 

 texture." 



Subsequent to this formation of the new red sandstone, 

 (with its three subdivisions or beds, namely, the Lower Bed, 

 Central Yellow or White, and the Upper Red, the whole 

 amounting to a very considerable thickness), powerful forces 



• Ou both sides of the Mersey that peculiar semt-nietalHc substance, Iserene, is 

 met with, presenting itself as a black powder in a wave-like fomi ou the surface of 

 the loose sand, and being accompanied by grains of iron is highly attractable by the 

 magnet. 



7 



