128 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



them, in a greater or less degree, fragments of shells 

 and some perfect ones. I myself have recorded 

 forty-four species." Again he continues (pp. 545 

 and 546) : " A large part of Ayrshire is covered with 

 similar shelly boulder-clays from sea-level to 1061 

 feet at Dippal. These Ayrshire high-level shells 

 have, in the majority of cases, been taken, not from 

 sand and gravel beds, but from boulder-clay, and in 

 that respect they are most important and unique. 

 In Moel Try fan the shells are found in sands and 

 gravels at 982 feet; on the range of hills from Miaera 

 to Llangollen from 1000-1200 feet; also in sands and 

 gravels at Gloppa, near Oswestry, at 1100-1200 feet; 

 and near Macclesfield at a level of about 1200 feet. 

 In Ireland marine shells can be traced almost from 

 sea-level to a height of over 1000 feet." 



"Again," continues the same author, "if we look 

 broadly at the distribution of these shelly deposits, 

 we find that they occur all round our maritime coasts 

 in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Wales, in Cumberland 

 and Westmoreland, Wigtonshire and Ayrshire, and 

 along the eastern coast of Ireland. The same is 

 to be said of the eastern coasts of England and 

 Scotland." 



That a very considerable change of sea-level has 

 taken place in some parts of the British Islands would 

 appear to a zoologist the most logical conclusion after 

 an examination of these " high-level shelly sands and 

 gravels," but the shells contained in them are now 

 generally supposed to have been carried there frozen 



