Leaves from the Ship Canal. 217 



the sea side. This loose sand continued on either side of 

 the two arms of the river, and ended in a layer of clay 

 extending from the surface and sloping downwards on 

 either side towards the river arms, not many yards from the 

 opposite banks of the ancient river course. A few inches 

 below where these leaves were found occurred a layer of 

 ballast, and in order under that boulder clay, 6 feet thick, 

 coarse gravel, 3 feet, then the new red sandstone. 



On further opening out the cutting towards Manchester, 

 at about the same depth from the surface (24 feet exactly) 

 this bed of leaves occurs more or less continuously for more 

 than 800ft. It is in several layers divided by thin beds of 

 sandy clay ; in one place the four or five layers, with the 

 clay between, reached a thickness of 1 5 inches. These leaves 

 differ slightly from the others, in that they contain a good 

 percentage of moss mixed with them, but are evidently 

 about the same date, being at the bottom of the deep layer of 

 sand under the top soil and clay. The deposit is about 800 

 feet (nearer Liverpool) from the old junction of the Mersey 

 and Irwell. The accompanying diagram of this section was 

 kindly provided for me by Mr. Hunter, another of the 

 Manchester Ship Canal Engineers. 



When the leaves were removed from the sand they 

 were very damp, and possessed a dirty olive-green colour. 

 They lay very evenly on each other, so that they could 

 easily be separated into layers, each layer showing some 

 perfectly formed leaves, many of them differing from 

 the surrounding ones in colour, some being more or less 

 touched with yellow or other delicate shade, and it was 

 remarkable how free the}- were from sand, twigs, or 

 debris : there was mixed with them, however, the fruit of 

 certain trees and plants. It is evident from the remarkable 

 state of preservation of these leaves and fruit, that they 

 must have been suddenly immersed and imbedded, and it 

 might be assumed that this took place somewhere about 



