82 report— 1877. 



Denbighshire — Cheshire. 



Mr. D. Mackintosh records a boulder in a brick-pit a short distance S. of 

 Wrexham. Its length is 9 ft. ; breadth 4| ft. ; depth unknown ; and it is 

 associated with Eskdale granite. Trot. Hull recognizes it as Lower Keuper 

 (calcareous conglomerate) in all probability from some part of the escarp- 

 ments of the Delaniere or Peckforton hills, the former about 20 miles N.E., 

 and the latter about 12 miles E. of Wrexham. The boulder is imbedded in 

 Upper Boulder-clay, with its characteristic whitish-grey fractures. It fur- 

 nishes an important instance of the intercrossing of the directions in which 

 boulders have been transported, as it must have come at nearly right angles 

 to the course of the Eskdale granite boulders, with which it is associated. 

 The transporting agent was probably floating ice. Mr. Mackintosh bas made 

 further observations on the derivation of some boulders already known. 



In the neighbourhood of the Dee and the Mersey the most conspicuous erratic 

 in the Boulder-clay consists of a rock which bas been called " greenstone," but 

 to which the name of hornblendic felstone may be applied. At Dawpool, near 

 Parkgate (where an immense number of bouldors have been left on the sea- 

 beach by the encroachments of the waves on the clay cliffs), the two largest 

 of these hornblendic felstone erratics measure 7 X 5 x 4 ft. and 6 x 4 X 4 ft. 

 Their most conspicuous companion erratic is Criffel granite, from the S. of 

 Scotland. In the new dock excavation at Bootlc, near Liverpool, boulders of 

 the same character predominate, though the principal granite with which 

 they are associated is Eskdale granite, from near Bavenglass, Cumberland. 



Bepcated observations failed to discover any streams of these boulders in 

 the Lake-district, either by themselves, or in company with the great exodus 

 of Eskdale granite, which is still represented by thousands of blocks scattered 

 between the Eskdale fells and the sea-coast. Mr. J. Geikie and Mr. Home 

 pronounced specimens sent to them to be from the outskirts of the Criffel- 

 granite area ; and also regarded a few specimens of associated Silurian-grit 

 boulders to be derived from the S. of Scotland. Lake-district Silurian-grit 

 erratics, however, are associated with granite at Dawpool, as well as Enner- 

 dale syenite (streams of which may be seen between the mouth of Enncrdale 

 and the sea), Wastdale scree-rock, Dudden fclspathic breccia, &c. 



The extent to which these different assemblages of erratics from different 

 points of the compass have become mixed up and interwoven is one of the 

 most unexpected results at which an observer could have arrived. 



Warwickshire— Staffordshire. 



The Bev. J. Caswell, St. Mary's College, Oscott, has examined the district 

 in the neighbourhood of the college, and supplies the following list of boul- 

 ders met with (p. S3). The numbers (thus, 50-43) refer to square miles of 

 country, as described iu the Beport of the Geological Section of the Birming- 

 ham Natural-History Society (British Association Beport, 1873, p. 191). 



Staffordshire, 



Mr. F. C. Woodforde reports a number of boulders in the neighbourhood 

 of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle. Most of the small ones, which were 

 exceedingly abundant, have been moved by man, and are used on some roads 

 as marks along the sides of ditches. Great quantities have been used to 



6 



