July 9, 1903J 



NATURE 



225 



The sections will not meet on Saturday, September 

 12, that day being set apart for excursions. Six whole- 

 day and two half-day excursions have been arranged, 

 and provision has been made in all for about a thousand 

 porsons. The excursions will be to (i) Manchester, 

 visiting the works of the British VVestinghouse 

 Electrical and Manufacturing Company at Old Traf- 

 ford. Opportunity will also be given of inspecting 

 the new Technical School, the John Rylands 

 Library, and the Chetham Hospital; (2) Stonyhurst 

 College and Whalley; (3) Ribchester and Hoghton 

 Tower; (4) Windermere; (5) Chester; (6) The Wirral 

 Peninsula. Specially prepared pamphlets will be 

 issued as guides to the excursions. The VVestinghouse 

 Co. has kindly promised to entertain the Manchester 

 party to luncheon, and similar hospitality has been 

 offered by the authorities at Stonyhurst College and by 

 the Chester Society of Natural Science, Literature, and 

 .\rt at Chester. The afternoon excursions on Saturday 

 comprise drives to Hoole (the scene of the labours of 

 Jeremiah Horrocks, the astronomer), Rufford Old 

 Hall, and the ancient churches of Ormskirk and 

 Halsall. 



On the concluding day of the meeting, Wednesday, 

 September 16, the following unofficial excursions have 

 been arranged for the afternoon :^(i) Port Sunlight, 

 Cheshire, Messrs. Lever's model village and soap 

 works; (2) the Diamond Match Works at Seaforth, 

 Liverpool; (3) the Cunard s.s. Lucania at Liver- 

 pool. On the Thursday following the meeting, oppor- 

 tunity will be afforded of visiting the Prescot Watch 

 Works (a revived Lancashire industry), the British In- 

 sulated Wire Co. 's works at Prescot, the Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire Railway Co. 's works at Horwich, and 

 two collieries at Wigan. It has also been arranged 

 for a steamer to run to Llandudno on this day. 



Southport has made rapid advances in every direction 

 during the last twenty years. Since 1883 much of the 

 town has been rebuilt, the promenade has been widened, 

 the marine parks and lake constructed, and many other 

 important works of improvement have been effected. 

 The Municipality of Southport is in the forefront of 

 local government, and to its enterprise is in a large 

 measure due the remarkable development of the town 

 in recent years. Lord Street, the principal thorough- 

 fare of the town, is a magnificent boulevard a mile 

 long and rtiore than eighty yards wide, with broad foot- 

 ways bordered by trees, suggesting comparison with the 

 streets of continental rather than with those of Eng- 

 lish cities. The Municipal Gardens in Lord Street, in 

 front of the Town Hall and Cambridge Hall, have be- 

 come since last year, especially for visitors, the centre 

 of life and movement in the town. Here the Cor- 

 poration Military Band plays two or three times daily, 

 and at night the trees are lit up with thousands of 

 electric lights, the effect being striking and unique. 



A handbook, or guide to the district, is being pre- 

 pared, a copy of which will be presented to each mem- 

 ber attending the meeting. The book will be illustrated 

 and will contain specially prepared maps illustrating 

 the topography and geology of the district. The dis- 

 trict, roughly speaking, is that portion of south-west 

 Lancashire lying between the rivers Ribble and Mersey. 



The following subjects will be dealt with in the hand- 

 book : — "Sketch ot the History of Southport"; 

 " Meteorology," by Mr. Joseph Baxendell, Borough 

 Meteorologist; "Health," by Dr. J. J. Weaver, 

 Medical Officer of Health ; " Geology and Physical 

 Features of the District," by Mr. E. Dickson and Mr. 

 H. Brodrick; " Botany," by Mr. Henry Ball and Mr. 

 W. H. Stansfield; " Marine Zoology," by Prof. W. A. 

 Herdman, F.R.S., and Mr. Isaac C.Thompson; 

 " Coleoptera," by Dr. G. W. Chaster and Mr. E. 

 Burgess Sopp ; " Mollusca," by Dr. G. W. Chaster; 

 NO. 1758, VOL. 68] 



"Mosses," by Dr. J. A. Wheldon ; and " Antiqui- 

 ties," by Mr. W. Brunt. Mr. G. Napier Clark 

 is contributing a chapter on Jeremiah Horrocks, 

 the astronomer, and his connection with the dis- 

 trict. The scientific portion of the handbook is 

 being prepared under the direction of the South- 

 port Society of Natural Science, and the general 

 editors are Dr. G. W. Chaster, Mr. Geo. E. Johnson, 

 and Mr. F. H. Cheetham. 



In connection with the meeting and with the excur- 

 sions, the following notes on the Southport district will 

 be of interest. For the paragraph dealing with geology 

 I am indebted to Mr. Harold Brodrick, for those on 

 botany to Mr. Henry Ball, and for those on zoology to 

 Mr. Isaac C. Thompson. 



Geology. — The geology of the Southport district has 

 for the most part to do with the Glacial and post-Glacial 

 deposits. Of the older formations only comparatively 

 small areas are exposed, having been entirely covered 

 by Glacial deposits which have only in few places been 

 denuded to the underlying strata. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Parbold, some ten miles inland, is a good ex- 

 posure of Millstone Grit, while the Coal-measures may 

 be well seen about Wigan, the Wigan coalfields being 

 some of the most productive in England. Two small 

 sections of the Permian rocks, with a thin stratum of a 

 true magnesian limestone, may be examined in the beds 

 of two small streams near Parbold. These beds have 

 been proved to be fossiliferous, but only slightly so, not 

 more than a dozen fossils in all having been found in 

 them. Underlying the Boulder-clay, within eight miles 

 of the coast and exposed in several places, are consider- 

 able deposits of the Keuper and Bunter divisions of the 

 Trias. 



In probably no part of England can that combination 

 of clay, sand and gravel known as the Glacial Drift be 

 better studied than in this district. Overlying the 

 older formations, in some cases to a depth of more than 

 one hundred feet, the Boulder-clay has suffered both 

 denudation and erosion. By the latter action a range 

 of prehistoric sand-dunes has been formed several miles 

 inland of the present coast. These dunes offer several 

 exceedingly interesting problems, and papers will be 

 read before the Geological Section on this subject. 

 Further inland, near Tarleton, are several large de- 

 posits of Glacial sand and gravel containing a consider- 

 able number of shells of an arctic type. 



The Boulder-clay itself is of great interest, contain- 

 ing, as it does, boulders of Silurian Grits and Carboni- 

 ferous Limestone from north Lancashire, Eskdale and 

 Buttermere granites, and also several local granites and 

 grits from the south-west of Scotland. These clays 

 also contain a large number of Foraminifera, mostly of 

 an arctic type. 



A very large area is covered by peat mosses which 

 have formed in the beds of old lakes and also covered 

 the surrounding districts. These peat mosses in places 

 are twenty feet in depth, and in them many canoes hol- 

 lowed out of single tree trunks have been found. One 

 of these, 17 feet long, will be on view during the visit of 

 the Association. 



The coast is fringed with a line of sand-dunes for a 

 distance of some fifteen miles, while the whole of 

 Southport is built on ground formerly covered with 

 dunes, which have been levelled ; in some places, as 

 near Formby, six miles south of Southport, these dunes 

 are more than three miles in width and rise to a height 

 of more than 80 feet. The sand of the dunes is composed 

 of materials eroded from the Triassic sandstones and 

 then cast on to the shore by the sea, from where it is 

 blown into dunes by the prevailing westerly winds. A 

 considerable area in the estuary of the Ribble to the 

 north of .Southport is covered by a salt marsh formed 

 by the deposition of silt at the meeting of the waters of 



