128 



NOTES ON THE DRIFT DEPOSITS 



Cardium aculcatum. — Common at Blackpool. 

 C'orbula ineguivalvit. — Pound occasionally at Blackpool. 

 Psammobia solidula. — Very common at Blackpool. 

 Ostrea edulis. — Often washed up at Blackpool. 



Professor Edward Forbes* appears to have examined the 

 drift deposits in some parts of Lancashire, as he notices the 

 solen siliqua, mactra lutraria, a dentalium, found near Pres- 

 ton, and nassa reticulata, as occurring in them, elsewhere. 

 However, he names no particular localities, except that of 

 Preston. Doubtless, he did not visit Blackpool cliffs, or his 

 well practised eye would soon have discovered the specimens 

 above enumerated, and procured by me from that place.f 



No. 3 is a stratified deposit of fine silt of a brownish colour, 

 containing few stones. It is about two feet in thickness. 

 Very few shells have, as yet, been found in it by me. The 

 most remarkable feature which it presents, is its contorted 

 annearance. In the cliff below the Royal Edward it forms 

 a complete arch, dipping northwards and southwards ; another 

 flexure of a similar character, and dipping in like manner, is 

 seen at North Fell, thus clearly shewing that it has been sub- 

 ject to considerable movements since its original deposition. J 

 It is placed upon the brown stony till next described. 



* On the connection between the distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora 

 of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected their area, 

 especially during the epoch of the Northern Drift, by Edward Forbes, F.R.S., 

 L.S., G.S., Professor of Botany at King's College. London, vol, i. of the Memoirs 

 of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, p. 3C7, et seq. 



■f* Long after both the writing and reading of this paper, indeed, just before it 

 went into the printer's hands, I obtained a sight of the Rev. William Thornber's 

 very interesting historical and discriptive account of Blackpool, published as 

 far back as 1837. At p. 128 the author says, "After most diligent inquiries 

 I have never ascertained that any fossil bones, teeth, &c., of animals, terrestrial or 

 marine, have ever been discovered imbedded in the marl; shells, however, in 

 every repect similar to those now existing on the shore, namely, hucdnum unda- 

 tum, pui'pura lapillus, nassa reticulata and macula, murex erinaceus, Jusus anti- 

 quus, turritella ierebra, liltorina vulgaris, cardium, cohinatum, and edule, tellina 

 solidula and tenuis, mactra solida and sultruncata, &c., I have taken out of the 

 cliffs and gravel strata." 



J The lilts beds at North Fell are three or four in number. The lowest part of 



