BLOWN SANDS. 54/ 



through the upper layers of shelly ferruginous sand, dissolves the carbonates 

 of lime, or of iron, which are re-deposited as cementing materials, on the evapora- 

 tion of the water as it filters through the lower strata of the porous accumulation.^ 



Near the Land's End the surfaces of the granite are in places worn and polished 

 by Blown Sand." 



Blown sand occurs at Braunton Burrows, again at Burnham and Woodspring 

 in Somersetshire, near Candleston Castle, South Wales, and at Barmouth. 



Blown sand hills fringe the coast between Bootle near Liverpool, and Crossens 

 near Southport, rising to a height of 70 or 80 feet. In the opinion of Mr, 

 T. Mellard Reade they cannot have taken less than 2500 years in accumulating. 

 At Formby they extencl inland for nearly two miles. In this district, and in that 

 of Wirral, there are sand dunes, the base of which Mr. De Ranee found to 

 consist of a bed of sandy silt, the result of wind blowing sand into pools in which 

 peat was forming. This bed contains Bilhynia tciitaciilata, and is known as the 

 Bithynia Sand.^ 



Blown Sand occurs at Walney Island, and again on the Lancashire coast there 

 are the Leven Sands, between Ulverston and Cartmell. Further north hillocks of 

 Blown Sand are found south of Seascale, near Drigg, and at the mouth of the river 

 Irr, in Cumberland. At this locality certain "vitreous tubes" or Fulgurites due 

 to the action of Lightning have been found to extend to a depth of 40 feet in the 

 Sand.* Fulgurites, which are formed by the fusion of the grains of loose sand, are 

 sometimes more than 2 inches in diameter. One specimen of Fulgurite found in 

 the Drift Sand of Macclesfield extended to a depth of 22 feet.'^ 



The Shirdley Hill Sand, named by Mr. De Ranee in 1869, from a hill near 

 Ormskirk, is regarded as partly marine, but mainly Blown sand, belonging to the 

 ancient sand dunes of an old line of coast. It is to be seen in cliffs on the north 

 bank of the Mersey between Hale and Garston.^ There is a ridge of sand hills on 

 the north coast of the Isle of Man. 



The "Links " on the coast of Northumberland are hillocks of Blown Sand from 

 forty to seventy feet high, and one hill, at the mouth of the river Lyne, is stated by 

 Mr. Topley to rise to a height of eighty-seven feet. Blown Sand occurs north and. 

 south of Hartlepool, at Holy Island or Lindisfarne, at Sancton in Yorkshire, and 

 again at Donna Nook and Spurn Head in Holderness. 



On the borders of the Lincolnshire Marshland,' and along the Norfolk coast, 

 north of Burnham, Holkham, and Wells, there are picturesque hillocks of Blown 

 Sand, known in the latter county as Meals. Similar hills occur also at Bacton, 

 Eccles, and Winterton. Eccles Church, in 1839, was partially smothered in 

 Blown Sand, but this has been drifted further inland, so that now the ruins of 

 the church are on the foreshore."^ Much sand is blown against and over the top 

 of the hills near Cromer, while the cliffs themselves are in places wasted by the 

 ■winds blowing sand from veins or seams in the Contorted Drift. 



On the western borders of Norfolk and Suffolk, Sand-floods have been ex- 

 perienced on several occasions. Thus in the year 1668, part of Santon (Saiidtoivn) 

 Downham, between Brandon and Thetford, was overwhelmed by sands from 

 a warren five miles to the south-west. This sand had, in the course of a century, 

 travelled four miles, and covered more than one thousand acres of land.^ The 

 sandy wastes of West Norfolk, known as the Breck District, and which were the 



^ Hunt and Rudler, Descriptive Guide to the Museum of Practical Geology, ed. 

 4, p. 36. 



2 R. W. Fox, Q. J. xi. 549. 



^ De Ranee, Superficial Geol. S.W. Lancashire, p. Ill, 



* Trans. G. S. ii. 528 ; v. 617 ; G. D. Gibb, Geologist, ii, 195. 



5 A. H. Green, Memoir on Sheets 81 N.W. and S.W. (Geol. Surv.), p. 76. 



'' De Ranee, G. Mag. 1883, p. 506 ; Superficial Geol. S. W. Lancashire, p. 58; 

 Strahan, Geol. Chester, p. 30, 



■^ Jukes-Browne, Science Gossip, 1879, pp, 242, 265. 



^ See Lyell, Principles of Geology, ed, 12, vol. i, p. 518. 



9 T. Wright, Phil, Trans, iii. 722 ; see also F, J, Bennett, Geol. Diss, etc. 

 (Geol, Surv.), p, 15. 



