50 A Reply to Mr. Carr's Letter, 



at the aorthern end of the district which I am surveying, 

 had not then heen seen by me : but having since visited every 

 part of the Woodlands and been frequently full in view of 

 the great town whence Mr. Carr dates his letters, when in 

 the neighbourhooJ of Ashton, Duckenfield, Hyde-Chapel, 

 Wernelh-Low, &c., I can now speak as confidently of nu- 

 merous valleys which discharge into the river Mersy con- 

 taining the " alluvial flats" of no ancient lakes, as I can of 

 all others which I have yet any where seen. 



Not having had an opportunity yet, of seeing the lake 

 districts of Westmorland, Cumberland, &c., f will say 

 nothing of existing lakes, but doubtless, from none of these 

 giving way^ and becoming valleys, common as Mr. C, sup- 

 poses such events to have been, the circumstances between 

 their situation and ordinary valleys, must be essentially dif- 

 ferent, according to his own principles, page 386. 



The remark which I made (page 4-45) on the very incon- 

 siderable quantity of native or local alluvia, to be found on 

 the eastern side of the grand ridge of the island, applies with 

 all its force to the western side of the same ridge. Here i 

 considerable quantity of f()r,eign alluvial matters is depo- 

 sited, consisting principally of a reddish earthy mixture 

 called Marl*, very unlike anything which the strataof these 

 parts produce, and containing numerous and large highly 

 rounded boulders of granite of different sorts, with other fo- 

 reign boulders, principally of a blue colour, and most of 

 which seem to be venigenous fossils, and not fragments of 

 any rock, the granites excepted : these too are as often lodged 

 en the tops of high hills, as they are in the valleys ; of which 

 Werneth-Low near Hyde Chapel is an instance, the verv 

 top of which hill exhibits numerous and very large ancient 

 pits/ whenie our forefathers took this foreign alluvia for 

 mafling of their lands. 



At Hyde Lane, which is but a short ride from Manches- 

 ter, Mr. Carr may have the opportunity of seeing, perhaps, 

 the finest instance of an excavated valley, (Godley Brook,) 

 and of a denudated surface, which is any where to be seen 



* VVluch seems the same as sir John Stanley has.described, in H, Holland'; 

 Agricultural Report on Chesluire, p. 319. 



in 



