A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



portion of the great Trent basin. The nature of the Pleistocene succession 

 in this area has been described by Mr. R. M. Deeley, who separated the beds 

 into no less than eight sub-divisions l in the following order : 



Newer Pleistocene Epoch. 

 Later Pennine Boulder-clay. 

 Interglacial River-gravel. 



Middle Pleistocene Epoch. 



Chalky Gravel. 



Great Chalky Boulder-clay. 



Melton Sand. 



Older Pleistocene Epoch. 



Middle Pennine Boulder-clay. 



Quartzose Sand. 



Early Pennine Boulder-clay. 



Mr. Deeley drew his conclusions from a large number of isolated sections ; 

 but the detailed mapping of the ground, which has since been undertaken, does 

 not entirely bear out these ideas. The main fact drawn from the study of the 

 Drifts is that they are of two distinct ages ; a lower one having its included 

 fragments, consisting principally of quartzite pebbles and fragments derived 

 from the west or north, and an upper one containing detritus of the Chalk 

 and Oolites derived from the east. These occupy the relatively higher ground 

 throughout the district, and appear to have formed one vast sheet rising 

 gradually to the watershed, and falling equally gradually on the other side. 

 This sheet, which seldom has a thickness of more than iooft., is cut through 

 by all the principal streams of the district ; so that the solid strata are 

 exposed in nearly all the valleys, while the Drift is found capping all the 

 ridges between them. 



The greater part of this Drift is composed of Boulder-clay, but there are 

 also large quantities of sand and gravel, which occur at various horizons in 

 the clay, although principally between the two clays mentioned above, and 

 also associated with the Chalky clay. The thickest deposits of gravel are in 

 the southern part of the county around Lutterworth, in the neighbourhood of 

 Market Bosworth, and on the higher ground about Tilton and Skeffington. 



The greatest elevation at which the Drift is found is on the Charnwood 

 Hills, where it occurs slightly above the 600 contour line, and on Life Hill 

 near Billesdon, where it rises to 730 ft., which is the highest ground in 

 the neighbourhood, so that there is no evidence as to what its maximum 

 elevation may have been. The Boulder-clay is thickest in the country to the 

 south of Leicester ; it is also of considerable importance as far north as the 

 high ground about Six Hills, but thins out to the north of the Charnwood 

 Hills, and along the valley of the Trent, beyond which it soon disappears. 



The Drift occasionally contains large transported masses of Oolite, Chalk, 

 and Marlstone, which appear to be the result of coast ice acting along the 

 shore at a period when the country was partially submerged. One of these 

 occurs to the north-west of Melton Mowbray. It is a mass of oolitic lime- 

 stone ; and as far as can be made out from old quarries, and the fragments 



' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xlii, 437. 

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