Geological Society. 525 



mammalia occur, and the submarine drift which covers most parts 

 of the island*. 



He divides the detritus into fluviatile and marine ; and the latter, 

 according to its origin, into local and erratic ; and this, according to 

 its composition, into gravel with flints and without flints. 



Marine erratic gravel without flints\. — Commencing his details with 

 the Birmingham end of the line, Mr. Strickland shows, that these 

 accumulations occur extensively on all sides of that town, and at in- 

 tervals along the line of the railway till it approaches the valley of 

 the Avon. Mammalian remains appear to he totally wanting. 

 Chalk flints are so extremely rare in it around Birmingham as to 

 prove that the materials were transported from the north. At 

 Mosely it is upwards of 80 feet thick, and consists of rolled pebbles, 

 rarely exceeding 4 inches in diameter, of various granitic and 

 quartzose rocks and altered sandstones, imbedded in a clean ferru- 

 ginous sand ; and a bed of sand .30 feet thick, without pebbles, 

 occurs in the middle of the gravel. Between Cotteridge and Wytch- 

 all is an erratic boulder, or shapeless mass of porphyritic trap, 

 about 5 feet by 4, with the angles slightly rounded. At the Lickey, 

 gravel analogous to that near Birmingham, but v/ith a large pro- 

 portion of slate rocks, attains, on the line of the railway, a height of 

 387 feet, and at the Lickey Beacon of more than 900 feet. Sugar's 

 Brook is the next locality noticed by Mr. Strickland, but from that 

 point no gravel occurs for sixteen miles. Near Abbot's Wood is 

 another extensive deposit of quartzose gravel and ferruginous sand, 

 devoid of flints and resting upon lias. 



Marine erratic gravel toith flints. — These accumulations commence 

 immediately south of the Avon. The village of Bredon star.ds on a 

 platform, seventy feet above the ordinary level of the Avon, com- 

 posed of lias with an uneven surface, and capped with 10 to 15 

 feet of this gravel. It contains no mammalian remains. 



Fluviatile gravel. — The only example of this drift, on the line of 

 the railway, occupies the two opposite flanks of the Avon at Deflbrd 

 and Eckington, north of Bredon. At these localities the surface is 

 a tabular platform which does not exceed forty-five feet above the 

 Avon, including a capping of ten feet of gravel precisely similar to 

 the flinty gravel of Bredon, but containing abundance of mammalian 

 remains. They were chiefly found in the cutting north of Ecking- 

 ton, at the lower part of the deposit, and often on the surface of 

 the lias clay ; and are refcrrible to Elephus primigenius, Hipjwpotaniux 

 major, Bos Urtm, and Cercus gigantcus ? On the north, or Defford 

 side of the Avon, the remains oi Ji^kphas jjrimigenius and Rhinoceros 

 trichorhinus have been obtained. Associated with these bones are 

 numerous freshwater shells, agreeing witii those found at Crop- 

 thorne+; the most abundant s])ecies being Cijclas amnica and C. 

 cornea. In endeavouring to account for the presence of these re- 



* See Rui)orts of the British Association, vol. vi.. Sessional Meetings, 

 p. 61. 



+ Northern drift of Mr. Murchlson, Silur. Syst., p. 523. 



\ Silur. Syst. p. 555 ; and Proceedings, vol. ii. pp. G and 95 ; [or L. 

 and E. Phil. Mag., vol. iv. p. 148 ; vol. v. p. 297.— Edit.] 



