370 A'otes and Comments. 



GLACIAL DEPOSITS. 



In the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literarv 

 and Philosophical Society, Vol. 62, part 3, Mr. J. Wilfred 

 Jackson has a paper on ' The Association of Facetted Pebbles 

 with Glacial Deposits,' in which he concludes ' In this paper 

 facetted and wind-worn pebbles are described from three 

 localities near Manchester, and from three others in th^ Wirral 

 peninsula ; in one case below the Lower Forest -bed of Cheshire. 

 The mode of occurrence shows the pebbles to be post-Glacial 

 and pre-Neolithic in age. They have been acted on by sand- 

 blast at some time after the deposition of the Glacial beds on 

 which they lay, and in this respect they agree with similar 

 pebbles found in North Germany and in North America. A 

 large number of pebbles have been split or fractured before 

 being acted upon by the blowing sand, and it is suggested that 

 the splitting is due to frost action. It is suggested that an 

 intimate connection exists between the period of wind-erosion 

 and the laying down of the Shirdley Hill Sand by aeolian action 

 in early post-Glacial times. This sand usually rests on the 

 Boulder-clay and is sometimes separated from it by a gravel 

 bed. The latter and the several deposits of facetted pebbles 

 appear to occupy a somewhat analogous po-^ition with regard 

 to the Drift to that of the basement bed, or ' Steinsohle,' of 

 the Loess of the North German Plain, where facetted pebbles 

 are of frequent occurrence. The presence of the pebbles below 

 the Lower Forest-bed of Cheshire is of importance, as it 

 pushes the period of wind erosion well back in post-Glacial 

 times, as the forest is prior to the estuarine deposits of the 

 25-foot submergence, and the latter are regarded as very early 

 Neolithic. It is concluded that the facetted pebbles do not 

 furnish conclusi^/e evidence of a dry climate or steppe con- 

 ditions obtaining in this country in post-Glacial times.' 



YORKSHIRE NATURAL SCIENCE. 



The following letter, signed b}' Mr. T. Sheppard, appeared 

 in some of the Yorkshire papers on November 23rd : — ' I notice 

 that an inaugural meeting of the Yorkshire Natural Science 

 Association will be held at the LIniversity, Leeds, on Saturday, 

 Prof. W. Bateson being the President-elect. Its first object 

 shall be " To afford opportunities for intercourse and co-opera- 

 tion amongst those interested in Natural Science (Chemistry, 

 Physics, Botany, Zoology, and other Natural Sciences)." 

 Another object is "To arrange for visits to places of scientific 

 interest." Apparently the various officers have already been 

 nominated. It seems to me that this Society is largely going 

 to cover the same ground as that of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union, which has very similar objects, and which for so many 

 3'ears has been doing such excellent work in the county, as 



Naturalist, 



