244 EXAMINATION OP THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS. 



excellent work. It is a great thing to walk much, to get a thorough 

 geogi-aphical idea of the tract of country you are about to examine. 

 Suppose at the meeting of your " committee on the drift deposits" you 

 with a friend have undertaken the examination of a district including, 

 say ten square miles. Then the best thing to do is to learn this Uttle 

 region thoroughly, to master the course of every brook and streamlet, 

 the position of every house and hedgerow. The number of new facts 

 that are sure to turn up will surprise you. 



A complete list of what has already been written upon the drift 

 would more than fill one number of this magazine. " The Great 

 Ice Age," by Mr. Jas. G-eikie, (2nd edition, 2-is., Daldy, Isbister, and Co.,) 

 is an excellent book. Mr. Searles V. Wood, jun., is another high 

 authority on the subject, to whom I am personally indebted for much 

 kind advice. Unfortunately Mr. Wood's papers are chiefly in the 

 "Journal of the Geological Society "or in the "Geological Magazine," 

 but it may safely be said that no one has done more remarkable and 

 original work in connection with the glacial deposits (chiefly of the 

 eastern counties) than Mr. Wood. In " Geological Sui-vey Memoirs," lately 

 published by Mr.de Ranee ("Superficial Geology of S.-W. Lancashire," 17s.) 

 and by Mr. S. B. J. Skertchley (the "Fen-Land," 40s.) we get, of course, 

 most rehable and interesting information, but the price of these works is 

 to individuals almost prohibitory. Such works, however, may well be 

 added to the hbraries of all our societies. I will endeavour to review 

 these two books in our next (October) number. In H. B. Woodward's 

 " Geology of England and Wales" (Longmans, 14s.) there is also a good 

 and full resume. 



No very special training is needed on the part of those who are 

 willing to lend a helping hand. For instance, we want to know how far 

 the chalky boulder clay of the eastern counties extends to the west and 

 south, and also the relations to it of certain beds of flinty gravel and 

 sand. Now everybody knows the appearance of a lump of chalk and a 

 piece of flint, and we ought to be able to fix the westward extension of 

 these beds to a certainty. I have never seen the clay full of bits of 

 chalk in size from a pin's head upwards, at any point west of Charnwood 

 Forest, but then I have not enjoyed many opportunities of examining 

 the drift of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, &c. The flinty gravel 

 appears to stretch fui-ther west, but what is its Mmit in this 

 direction? Again, in the midland district we hold the key to the 

 correlation of the deposits of the east and west coasts. It is now thought 

 that the glacial deposits of Lancashire and Cheshire are of a later date 

 than the " mid-glacial sands " and chalky clays of the east coast. We 

 must endeavour to track each set of deposits as far inland as possible, 

 and observe their relative behaviour. 



With this branch of geological study is bound up the question of the 

 origin of man. If in the Victoria Cave, near Settle, clear evidence is 

 obtainable of pi'e-glacial or inter-glacial man, why should not other 

 evidence of his presence in the centre and north of England be 

 found ? 



