694 REPORT— 1887. 



5. A comparative Study of tlie Til! or Lower Jjoulder-Glay in several of tlie 

 Glaciated Countries of Europe — Britain ., Sca'iidinaiiia, Oermany, Siuitzer- 

 land, and the Pyrenees. By Hugh Miller, F.B.S.E., F.O.S., Assoc. 

 B.S.M. 



The sections of foreign till examined by tlie author occur chiefly in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Trondhjem Fjord, in Norway, at Berlin and Leipzig, in Germany, 

 near the Lake of Geneva, in Switzerland, and in the valleys of the Pyrenees- 

 directly south from Pau, in southern France. Li these countries and in Britain the 

 till bears an identical character. It is not more variable throughout Europe than 

 the author has found it to be in Scotland and northern England. On the basement- 

 gneiss at Christiansuud, in south-western Norway, it is the same as on the basement- 

 gneiss of Sutherlandsliire ; in the great limestone vallej^ of Eaux Chauds, in the 

 Pyrenees, it is scarcely to be distinguished from the till of the limestone valleys 

 of Yorkshire. In all the places mentioned (more doubtfully at Berlin and Leipzig) 

 it bears the unmistakable character of a grouud-moraine accreted under the direct 

 ■weight of glacier-ice. Its essential character is that of a rude pavement of glaciated 

 debris ground from the rocks over which the glaciers have passed, with its larger 

 boulders firmly glaciated in situ on their tipper sides in the direction of ice-move- 

 ment, and with a tendency to the production of fluxion structure here and there in 

 the matrix, due to the onward drag of the superincumbent ice. In mere indis- 

 criminateness of composition (which is a character much emphasised by glacialists) 

 the till is not to be distinguished from boulder-claj's formed inider berg- or raft -ice, 

 such as the highest marine claj^s of the Norwegian coasts which are stuck pro- 

 miscuously through with boulders derived from the glaciers of the interior. The 

 glaciation of boulders in situ the author tinds to be a crucial distinction ; ho readily 

 detected this ' striated-pavement ' character in the tills of all the districts above 

 mentioned except Leipzig and Berlin, where the boulder-clays resemble the upper 

 boulder-clay (Ilessle Clay) of the eastern seaboard of England and Scotland, and 

 in the sections examined by liiui contained no large blocks. 



6. Second Report of the Committee for exploring the Cae Gwyn Cave, North 



Wales. — See Reports, p. 301. 



7. 0)1 the Discovery and Excavation of an Ancient Sea-heach, near Brid- 



lington Quay, containing Mammalian Remains. By James W. Dayis, 



F.G.S. 



During several years past occasional remains of animal.o, of older types than 

 exist at present in the neighbourhood, have been found at the foot of the chalk 

 clift" nearest Bridlington Quay. The remains, consisting of a part of an elephant's 

 tusk, an antler of Cervus ^ner/aceros, bones of Bison or Bos and others, have gene- 

 rally been found after a more than ordinarily violent sea has washed down a portion 

 -of the clays and sand at the foot of the cliff'. In May 1884- Mr. Clement Reid, 

 of H.M. Geological Survey, had his attention drawn to the section by Mr. J. E. 

 Mortimer, of Driffield, and he made a slight excavation' and obtained mammalian 

 bones. During the spring of the present year tlie attention of the Council of the 

 Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society was drawn to the section, and it 

 was decided to vote an expenditure of 10/. for the further exploration of the 

 section. The consent of the proprietor, the Rev. J. Lloyd Greame, of Sewerby Hall, 

 was readily and gracefully accorded, and INIessrs. Lamplugh and Boynton, of Bridling- 

 ton Quay, very kindly took charge of the work, and by their constant presence whilst 

 the work was proceeding secured trustworthy and reliable evidence of the position 

 and character of the beds and of the objects found in them. 



The ancient cliff of chalk at the base of which the old beach is deposited ex- 



• Geology of Ilolderness, &c., by Clement Eeid, 1885. — Memoirs of the Geological 

 Survey. 



