224 EEPORT — 1886. 



In the drift at Clarendon Park, south-east of Leicester (310 feet)^ 

 many hundreds of boulders have been exposed during recent excavations. 

 Some of the millstone grit blocks must have travelled forty or fifty miles. 

 Lumps of coal were also found which must have travelled seventeen 

 miles from the north-west. 



Dr. Crosskey and Mr. Fred W. Martin record a group of boulders found 

 on the road between Shiffnal and Tong. This group consists of a fine 

 collection of Lake rocks and Criffel granites. They evidently travelled 

 together to their present position. A catalogue of these boulders will be 

 given in the next Report. 



The Committee call especial attention to the grouping of the erratics 

 found in different districts, and also to the evidence presented that the 

 Chamwood district was the centre of local ice action. 



On the Glacial Phenomena of the Midland District. By Dr. Ckosskey. 



The object of the paper is to indicate some of the problems raised by 

 the glacial phenomena of the Midland district, and point out tbe typical 

 sections by which they ai-e illustrated. 



It is necessary to avoid the confusion caused by the vague use of the 

 term ' boulder clay.' Seven or eight different beds have, in fact, been 

 designated by the term ' boulder clay ' ; and it has become absolutely 

 necessary to separate the deposits from each other and record their distinct 

 characteristics. 



The first question is. What are the lowest deposits of glacial age in 

 the Midlands ? What is found at the base of the masses of clay, sand, and 

 gravel scattered over the district ? Is there any deposit of the age of the 

 lower boulder clay or Till of Scotland ? The lowest of the beds known in 

 the Midlands may be seen at California, near Harborne. It consists of a 

 thick clay filled with angular and striated erratics of Welsh origin, com- 

 pactly pressed together and intermixed with fragments of rocks from the 

 locality, and is about 480 feet above the sea. This boulder clay is fol- 

 lowed by a series of sands and gravels, which are covered by a consider- 

 able mass of tenacious ' india-rubber ' clay with erratics scattered 

 somewhat sparsely through it ; and this upper clay is capped by a second 

 series of sands and gravels, more or less intermixed with clay. 



The lower boulder clay is more intensely glacial in character and more 

 analogous to the Scotch Till than any other yet described in the district. 

 Whatever its origin, it belongs to the period of extreme ice action. Of 

 another type of boulder clay an example may be seen at Wolverhampton. 

 This boulder clay contains a mixture of erratics. A large number of its 

 erratics are from the Lakes and some are fi'om Scotland, while flints from 

 the east also occur. In the ordinary Scotch Till, when the trend of the 

 valleys radiating from the central eminences is followed, the course over 

 which the erratics travelled can be traced. But the Wolverhampton 

 boulder clay marks the meeting-place of erratics from various quarters. 

 An example of a third series of beds, possibly belonging to the same age, 

 may be seen in a cutting at Soho, near Birmingham, where clays and 

 sands, containing erratics, are strongly contorted. While the material of 

 these beds is probably lower glacial, the contortions must have been sub- 

 sequent to its deposition, and indicate the work of another age. How 

 far this series of lower beds may be attributed to the action of land ice 

 or of floating ice is an open question. 



