22 A HANDBOOK FOR SOUTHPORT. 



for cultivation the greater part would have remained sand to 

 the present day, containing only a trace of organic matter. 

 The space in question begins at Waterloo, and extends 

 almost unbrokenly, though with varying width, to Crossens, 

 Southport thus occupying what is nearly the north-western 

 extremity. The greatest width is at Formby, where the 

 tract of blown sand is nearly three miles across. The 

 narrowest part is at a point which would be represented by 

 a line drawn from the mouth of the river Alt to Orrel-hill 

 Wood. The extent of the whole is from 14,000 to 15,000 

 acres. The bed of sand varies considerably in depth, thin- 

 ning out inland, and undergoing every possible superficial 

 change, some of the higher dunes rising to as great an 

 elevation as seventy-five feet above the mean level of the sea. 

 The average thickness of the entire deposit has been 

 estimated at about twelve feet. Underneath the blown 

 sand there are variously arranged beds of peat and silt, 

 red loam, boulder clay, and laminated blue clay, or sili- 

 ceous silt ; while here and there occur intercalated beds of 

 soil which have been at some period under cultivation but 

 have again been covered up. Sections in the courses of 

 streams, and in artificial openings, often indicate as much as 

 four or five feet of peat. The surface of these peat-beds 

 appears to dip towards the sea, and near the coast the cover- 

 ing of sand is usually three or four feet in depth. At 

 Formby the peat crops out upon the shore, and here, also, 

 the presence of numerous stumps of trees certify the ancient 

 presence of a forest. The very low level of the peat near 

 the sea declares pretty certainly that in past ages there has 

 been a considerable amount of local subsidence. The result 



