Manchester Memoirs, Vol. hi. (19 12), No. 10. 3 



siliceous. Quartz grains predominate, while there are 

 present zircon, tourmaline, rutile, and a little mica. With 

 the possible exception of a few sponge spicules, it is 

 remarkably free from organic matter. The quartz grains 

 are rounded, and the general impression conveyed is that 

 of a lake or rain deposit of boulder clay. While smaller 

 organic remains are very rare, the antlers, and in some 

 cases the skull and bones, of red deer {Cervus c/aphus) 

 have been obtained from this deposit. There is in the 

 Manchester Museum a portion of a left antler, 19 inches 

 long and 9} inches in circumference at the base, showing 

 three tines which were obtained from these. Other 

 specimens have been seen in various cottages in the 

 vicinity, but it was not possible to secure them. 



The clay last summer (1910) extended for some 

 hundreds of yards along the shore, and was in places 

 fully twenty yards wide, standing about a foot above the 

 level of the sand {PI. I., Fig. i). During the course of 

 the winter considerable erosion has taken place, and the 

 seaward edge has been cut back. 



Upon the clay the rhizomes and swollen stem-bases 

 of the common reed {Artindo PJiragviitcs) are to be 

 found, of which the roots penetrate the upper part of the 

 clay. This layer is only about an inch thick, and is 

 succeeded by 6 — 9 inches of peat, largely composed of the 

 decayed leaf-bases of a coarse grass or sedge, which form 

 definite tussocks as the sea washes the smaller particles 

 away. From washings of this peat, seeds of two species 

 of Car-ex, and also a badly pressed tuberculated seed 

 looking like a Lychnis, have been obtained. 



Next above this, with their roots imbedded in the 

 peat, and occasionally running into the cla}', the trees orf" 

 the forest layer are found. They appear to have been 

 mainly birches ; trunks of small trees may be seen lying 

 prostrate in the peat, while the stools of others are 



