irotND NKAB BLACKPOOL. 



131 



present forming on the shore below, but the till No. 4 pre- 

 sents a very different appearance, and bears no analogy to any- 

 thing now in the course of formation along the line of the 

 neighbouring coast. The angular and striated characters of 

 the rocks mingled together promiscuously, large and small, 

 without any arrangement, some upon their edges, others in- 

 clined, and some again quite flat, must puzzle any observer to 

 account for them by the action of waves or ordinary currents 

 of water. Upon comparing them with the stones now found 

 lying upon the beach below, it is quite evident that the rocks 

 are of the same kind, and that all the latter have been derived 

 from the cliflTs; but the action of waves, during years, has evi- 

 dently worn away the sharp edges, and defaced the striae from 

 most of the specimens. Few persons, however, are at all 

 aware how short a space of time suffices to round the most 

 sharp-edged piece of hard greenstone, washed out of the cliff 

 and subjected to the action of the waves below. A mass of 

 till full of angular stones being undermined by the sea, 

 falls, the clay is soon washed away, and the stones are thus 

 brought within the action of the water, and, in one short 

 month, the waves have so effectually done their work of attri- 

 tion that the roc*ks are as round as if they had been rolled 

 about for years. 



An opinion expressed by me, in a paper on drift deposits 

 previously referred to, as to the till of Lancashire having been 

 deposited at the bottom of a sea in which floated numerous 

 icebergs, I am more and more confirmed in. However the 

 beds of sand and shingle found above the till may answer to 

 the term "raised beach," the till itself bears no evidence of any 

 such condition, but ought rather to be termed a raised bottom. 

 It has thus been affected by considerable movements since its 

 deposition, and much twisted and contorted, as numerous sec- 

 tions of it and the silt sufficiently prove. Many parts of it 

 appear to have been subjected to much erosion and denuda- 

 tion prior to the deposition of the beds "now covering it. Most 



