GEOLOGY 



pebbles in such gravels are to a large extent composed of the materials 

 of all the older gravels and are therefore very mixed. The remarkable 

 point about them is the evidence they afford of the recrudescence of 

 glacial conditions, 1 at all events near Nottingham. The Beeston gravels 

 are wonderfully contorted, 2 and so are those at Spring Close, Lenton 3 

 and Gamston. The pressing of pebbles into the Triassic Marls at the 

 Nottingham sewage-farm excavations and the contortions of the same 

 Marls at Ratcliffe-on-Trent are apparently related phenomena. There is 

 no alternative to the conclusion that these contortions were produced by 

 stranded ice, and it was not the same ice that brought the pebbles, since 

 some of them came from the east. 



This conclusion is to be borne in mind in reference to the other point 

 of interest in relation to the Trent gravels. Their wide distribution to 

 the east of Newark and beyond the limits of Notts to the other side of 

 the Lincoln gorge, suggested to Mr. Penning that the Trent had changed 

 its course since they began to be deposited,* having originally reached 

 the sea along the lower course of the Witham. A study of the higher 

 course of the Trent gives little support to this hypothesis, for it preserves 

 throughout the same relation to the Trias and Rhaetic, and there is no 

 sign of change in this respect near or north of Newark. On the other 

 hand the gravel is carried at least as far as Fledborough, near which is a 

 buried channel, larger and deeper than the present Trent. 5 Meanwhile 

 the occurrence of glacial conditions at a later date affords the means by 

 which gravels originally deposited on one side of the Lincoln gorge 

 might be carried to the other side across a low watershed in a manner 

 which cannot be dealt with here. 



3. The alluvium of the Trent calls for little remark. It is fairly 

 abundant all along the course of the river, and especially so on the west 

 side of Newark opposite the gravels on the east. The Trent has 

 obviously varied its course considerably within the limits of its alluvium 

 in comparatively recent times, since here and there the remains of various 

 animals have been buried beneath it. Thus teeth of the mammoth have 

 been reported from Island Street, Nottingham " and near Wilford ; antlers 

 of the red deer near North Clifton 7 ; and antlers of the red deer, bones 

 of the ox and horse and a human skull (described by Professor Huxley 8 

 as belonging to a dwarf race commonly found in Irish tumuli) are re- 

 ported by Mr. Drake from Muskham. 7 These are usually found at a 

 depth of 25 to 30 feet. 



4. Blown Sand is found on the east side of the Trent from North 

 Collingham to North Clifton. This being N.N.E. of the great spread 

 of alluvium above mentioned may indicate prevalent S.S.W. winds in 

 this district. Another area of blown sand is at Misterton in the extreme 

 north of the county. 



Cf. Deeley, loc. cit. 



J Shipman, Midi. Nat. vol. v. ' Shipman, Geol. of Lenton. 



* A. J. Jukes-Browne, >uart. Journ. Geol. Sac. vol. xxxix. and Geol. Survey Mem. sheet 83. 



5 Fox-Strangways, Stuart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. liv. 



6 White's Directory, 1864. 7 Geologist, vol. iv. 8 Ibid. vol. v. 



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