AND SOME OF ITS EFFECTS. 255 
may be often observed that the surface-soil is of very unequal 
depth, as in the following diagrammatic section of Ithell’s sand- 
pit at Upton, Chester :-— 
Figy,.2: 
oO aa? oo 
02,0000 
(me 
Boo OO o%ov00,0 
200% oD a0002 
oo 22 02 do ef ots 
A. Surface soil. C. Sand and Gravel. 
B. Boulder Clay. | D. Bunter Sandstone pebbles. 
The soil A—A rested on the undulations of the Upper Boulder 
Clay B-B, and the latter on the undulating surface of the Middle 
Sands and Gravels C—C, whilst a curved layer of local pebbles 
of Bunter Sandstone (D) followed the curvature of the beds 
A, B, C. These lines of curvature, so frequent at the junction 
between the Upper Boulder Clay and the Middle Sands and 
Gravels, have been often, I think, erroneously interpreted as 
evidences of unconformity, contemporary erosion, or contortion. 
I venture to express the opinion that such appearances are in 
the vast majority of instances the results of the subterranean 
erosion of the heterogeneous deposits of the Glacial Drift. 
If it be established that the Drift sands and gravels com- 
monly occurring under the Upper Boulder Clay have been 
subject to subterranean erosion, thereby causing a lateral sub- 
sidence of the clay, it follows that in low-lying districts 
submerged Peat and Forest-beds would be the natural con- 
sequence. Such conditions do prevail along the low belt of 
land forming the coast-line of the N.W. of England and Wales, 
from Lancaster to Great Orme’s Head, and submerged Peat 
and Forest-beds are matters of common occurrence. After 
storms, remnants of such beds are often laid bare between 
high and low-water marks along the whole of this coast, and 
between the Ribble and the Dee these exposures have been 
watched and noted by careful observers for many years. 
Perhaps the best sections are those exposed from time to time 
between the Dee and the Mersey, on the Cheshire shore at 
Leasowe. 
Mr, G. H. Morton, in the first edition (1863) of his ‘Geology 
of the Country around Liverpool,’ gives a section of the Peat 
and Forest-beds at the locality mentioned.’ 
The strong resemblance which Mr. Morton remarks between 
the Peat and Forest-beds and the Coal Measures may be due 
to like causes in the past and present. In other words, what 
will explain the origin of submerged Peat and Forest-beds may 
also be helpful in clearing away many difficulties in connexion 
1 Op. cit. p. 48. 
