49° 



NATURE 



[Sept. 20, 1883 



meter— taken by Capt. Winchester, R.N.R.— was 43 08'. It 

 should be, I think, " inner semiciiameter." The first circum- 

 solar bow has a semidiameter of 41° 37'. That is almost neces- 

 sarily invisible. The second circumsolar bow has a semidiameter 

 of 43° 52', and is rarely visible. I have no doubt that was the 

 bow witnessed on board the Norham Castle on August 16 

 Athenaeum Club, September 7 C. M. Ingleby 



Flint Flakes Replaced 



As this subject has been more than once adverted to in 

 Nature, the following recent instances of placing flint flakes 

 on to their original position may be interesting: — 



Whilst examining the relics from Cowper's Camp, Epping 

 Forest, in Mr. Raphael Meldola's house last month, I looked 

 over a small number of flakes collected from one spot in the 



Fig. i. 



rampart of the camp, with remains of burnt wood and late Celtic 

 pottery. I immediately saw that several of the flakes had been 

 struck from the same block of flint, and after a short examina- 

 tion I managed to replace two as illustrated, one-half real size, 

 in Fig. 1. Tlie front of the two conjoined flakes is shown in 

 the lefthand bottom figure, the side at B, the top at c, and the 

 line of junction at D D. Behind EE are two cones of percu - 

 sion, one belonging to each flake, and at F is the depression into 

 which the cone of the missing frontal flake at one time fitted. 

 The fractured part of the flint is deep chocolate brown, and 

 lustrous, and the bark of the flint is dull ochreous ; the flakes 

 are undoubtedly artificial, and as old as the rampart o( the 

 camp, not less than two thou-and years. This example, with 

 other relics, will be placed in the Guildhall Museum. 



Greater interest attaches to the replacing of Palaeolithic flakes, 

 as these are enormously older than Neolithic, and the chances 

 are so very much against lighting on a perfectly undisturbed 

 Palaeolithic position. 



At Fig. 2 is illustrated (one- half actual size) two Palaeolithic 

 flakes from the " Palaeolithic floor " at Stoke Newingtan Com- 

 mon, found and replaced by me. The front of the conjoined 

 flakes is shown at u and the side at H. I found the lower flake 

 two days before, and some distance from where I found the 

 upper one ; but as I have a method of placing newly found 

 sharp flakes on a table, arranged temporarily in accordance with 

 their colour and markings, I speedily saw that the upper flake 

 would fit on to the bwer one. Each flake has a cone of percus- 

 sion, as shownat J K, and the upper flake has a well-marked 



depression at L, corresponding with the missing flake, which, if 

 it had been found, would have fitted on to the front of the two 

 conjoined examples. Both flakes are sharp and slightly stained 

 with the ochreous river sand which overlaid them. Both (espe- 

 cially the upper one) show unmistakable signs of having been 

 used as scrapers, the upper curved edge (and that edge only) 

 being worn away by use. The worn upper edge of the super- 

 imposed flake at M M is distinctly shown in the illustration. A 

 small intermediate piece belonging to the position at N I did not 

 find. Both are naturally mottled in a peculiar manner, and the 

 pattern and colour of the mottling exactly agree. 



WORTHINGTON G. SMITH 



NOTES ON THE POST-GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF 

 THE COUNTRY AROUND SOUTHPORT 



SINCE the writer carried out the geological survey of 

 the western coast of Lancashire in 1868 he has con- 

 stantly been asked, "Is there any geology to be studied 

 at Southport ? Is not the country a sandy expanse fringing 

 peat-mosses of ceaseless monotony ? " The meeting of the 

 British Association this week at Southport renders this a 

 fitting time to reply to these questions ; for, strange as it 

 may appear, in these apparently unpromising surroundings 

 exists a record of the complete sequence of events from 

 the commencement of the Glacial episode down to the 

 present time. The sand dunes, rising to 50 and even 

 80 feet in height, that form so prominent a feature be- 

 tween Liverpool and Southport, rest upon a wedge-shaped 

 mass of sand blown from the coast by westerly winds 

 over the thick peat-mosses that intervene between the 

 coast and the rising ground about Ormskirk ; the surface 

 of the Glacial beds, with the overlying deposits, dip 

 steadily towards the sea, and fragments of peat are fre- 

 quently trawled up by the fishermen. 



Beneath the sand dunes on the sea coast the peat is 

 seen cropping out, and at the base of the peat occur the 

 roots of forest trees embedded in clay beneath, while 

 trunks of trees lie scattered in many directions, but gene- 

 rally with their heads lying to the north-east, as if they 

 had been blown over by a gale from the south-west. The 

 bases of the trunks are left standing in the places where 

 they grew ; all appear to have been broken off at a uniform 

 level, and it is most probable that through the drainage 

 being obstructed water surrounded the trees, which gra- 

 dually became rotten at the point of contact of the air 

 and the water, and thus the way was prepared for the 

 effects of storms and hurricanes. Sections of these beds 

 near High Town, at the mouth of the Alt, will be found 

 of great interest, Sections also occur on the coast at 

 Dunkirk, near Crossens. At the Palace Hotel, Kirkdale, 

 a boring was put down in 1867, that proved the sand to 

 be 78 feet in thickness, resting on 18 inches of peat, which 

 occurs at about 90 feet beneath high-water mark. When 

 the land stood this amount above its present level, the 

 coast would range in a straight north and south line from 

 St. Bees Head to the mouth of the Clywd at Rhyl, but 

 there is no reason to suppose that this amount represents 

 the subsequent submergence since the era of the peat in 

 Lancashire and North Wales. It is far more probable 

 that when the trees flourished, found at the bottom of 

 the peat fringing these coasts, this coast nearly coin- 

 cided with the present twenty-fathom line, which passes 

 from Anglesea round the Isle of Man ; in that island the 

 same sequence of postglacial deposits is found, and the 

 Irish elk alike occurs in the grey slags beneath peat. 



At the mouth of the Ribble very interesting sections 

 occur at Freckleton and Dow Brook ; the latter is 

 crossed by a Roman road, and has upon it a " Roman 

 bath," only ten feet above the present high-watermark, 

 proving the elevation of this coast has not been great 

 since Roman times. The same fact is brought out by 

 the interesting find of Roman coins near Rossal land- 

 mark, near Fleetwood, which were found in a salt-marsh 

 clay lying on the peat beds, at about eight feet below the 



