THE CONTENTS AND ORIGIN OF THE GRAVELS 
AROUND HULL. 
By TuHomas SHEPPARD. 
(Read March rst, 1899.) 
HE gravels within easy access of Hull are all being steadily 
worked to meet the requirements of the city, the result 
being that local geologists have a fair chance of studying the 
different beds as they are exposed. Some of the gravels are 
made up entirely of stones which have been derived from rocks 
occurring close by ; whilst others contain pebbles and boulders 
not to be matched zw sztu for scores of miles, nay, their home in 
some cases must be looked for on the other side of the North Sea. 
Some of the gravel beds are full of fragments of chalk, others 
contain much sand. Some have shells, others mammalian 
remains, whilst still others have neither of these. At times the 
fragments are very angular, though beds of waterworn pebbles and 
boulders are frequent enough. 
It cannot be supposed that these different beds, with such 
varying characteristics, were all formed by one agent or at 
one time. Taking for granted, therefore, that the different 
gravels have been formed at different times in different ways, it 
remains to put them into some sort of order. To classify 
them according to the relative proportion of certain rocks, or 
according to the presence or otherwise of bones or shells, would 
be not only inconvenient but impracticable. The best method, 
at any rate for the purpose of these notes, is probably to put them 
under three heads according to age, viz., Pre-Glacial, Glacial, and 
Post-Glacial ; that is to say, zs¢, the gravels formed immediately 
before the Glacial Period, which are therefore wzder the glacial 
beds ; 2d, those formed by the action of the ice, directly or 
indirectly, during the Ice Age, the gravels in this instance forming 
part of the glacial series ; and 3rd, those laid down afver the ice 
had cleared away, these gravels being newer than, and therefore 
upon the glacial beds. 
To deal with them in the order suggested ; we first have the 
Pre-Graciat Deposits. Here at once there is a difficulty. The 
gravels at Hessle, which are composed almost exclusively of 
angular pieces of chalk and flint, and are covered by boulder-clay 
of the “Hessle” type, I have placed under this head. These 
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