I12 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1903 
evidences of ice action in the Gloucestershire area are 
limited. Still, these erratics at various elevations, remain 
to be accounted for, and it seems necessary on any explana- 
tion to call in the aid of ice in some form. Unfortunately, 
the typical evidences of the work of ice, which we see 
nearer to the mountain areas—those cradles of the glaciers— 
in the form of planed and striated rocks, are absent, as 
is also the evidence of submergence conveyed by the 
presence of shells of molluscs and marine foraminifera. 
It is necessary to approach the study from the northern 
areas to adequately recognise the strength of the evidence 
that the land, during part of the glacial period, was sub- 
merged. Marine shells of recent species are met with in 
the high-level, shelly sands of Moel Tryfaen; at Maccles- 
field; and at Gloppa; in the Wicklow Mountains in 
Ireland; and in Ayrshire in the south of Scotland. This 
is cumulative evidence of enormous strength; and we 
must therefore look for evidences of submergence to a 
less extent in the south-west of England, though, as might 
be expected, the further we recede from the central area, 
the more attenuated does the evidence become. It is 
extremely probable that ice-action in the periphery of this 
area was not of great importance—otherwise we should 
find the evidences of it in striated boulders or pebbles. 
Unfortunately, also, no embedded marine or fresh water 
shells occur to help us. The evidence is largely of a 
negative nature. 
All that I can say, so far, is that in my opinion the 
Moreton-in-Marsh gravels, from the varied assortment of 
included rocks, are Northern Drift, due to floating ice and 
partial submergence ; I confess only to holding these views 
tentatively, in the absence of a better explanation. The 
view held by the Honorary Secretary that they were laid 
down by a river in Tertiary times, seemed too great a 
draught on geological time, taking back ice-work into a 
