ON THE EROSION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 379 



rest upon peat, the surface of which is beneath high-water mark. d. They 

 are preventer! from increasing by the plantation of ' Starr ' grass. In the centre 

 of the area is a village called Great Meols, which name is believed to be of 

 Danish origin, and tj indicate that sand was there at that period. A very 

 remarkable series of antiquities derived from this coast are preserved in the 

 Liverpool Mus-eum, ranging from Neolithic flint implements to coins of nearly 

 all the English monarchs. 



Liverpool to Lyliliani. 

 By Chakles E. De Kance, Stoke-upon-Trent. 



1. Liverpool to Lytham. 



2. Between Liverpool and Southport a belt of sand dunes intervenes between the 



coast and the inner country, ranging in width from half a mile at Seaforth to 

 3 miles at Formbj'. a. Between Liverpool at the mouth of the Mersej', and 

 Hesketh Bank at the mouth of the Ribble, no cliff occurs, to. Banks of 

 boulder, 20 to 30 feet high, occur at Hesketh Bank and Freckleton Point on 

 either side respectively of the trumpet-shaped opening of the estuary of 

 the Ribble. 



3. North and south. The Ribble estuary east and west. 

 ■4. West to north. 



5. to. No shingle occurs over the whole of this coast-line, there being no material to 

 furnish it except a little between Freckleton Point and Lytham. 



e. From S.S.W. to N.N.E. 



7. a. (1) 27-8 feet. to. 14-6 feet (Princes Dock, Liverpool). Highest spring above 

 O.D. 12-65 feet ; neap high mark above O.D. 7-25 feet ; Ordnance datum 0-80 

 foot ; true mean water-level below O.D. 0-68 foot; old dock sill, Liverpool, 

 below O.D. 4;'75 feet; Mersey tide gauge zero below O.D. 10'75 feet; lowest 

 low water below O.D. 14-75 feet. (2) At Crosby 950 yards; at Ainsdale 

 1,800 yards. Outside the Channel very extensive sandbanks occur several 

 square miles in extent. 



S. Between Liverpool and Southport, sand ; between Southport and Hesketh Bank 

 of estuarian clays very finely laminated, especially on the coast margin. From 

 Freckleton Point to Lytham Sand very large sand banks occur at the mouth 

 of the estuary of the River Ribble. 



9. Between Liverpool and Southport only a few scattered and far-between pebbles 

 occur ; these are probably seaweed-borne. 



X5. No. 



16. Between Hesketh Bank and Crossness a very large area of marsh land was 



reclaimed by the late Mr. J. Fleetwood, of Bank Hall, for which he received 

 the medal of the Societj' of Arts. a. At Southport the Corporation has reclaimed 

 by embanking of tidal foreshore during the past twenty years, making building 

 land within sea-walls, and a further large tract occupied in gardens, and a 

 marine lake protected by embankments, the present high-water mark being 

 half a mile from that of 1869. to. Southport is about 1,600 yards from the 

 old coast -line, and is out of the water at equinoctial low tide. 



17. A very extensive area between Waterloo, north of Liverpool, and Meols, north of 



Southport, being 3 miles across jit Formby over the whole of the distiict. 

 c. The sandhills stoj) at Meols, the supply of sand being cut off by the 

 estuarine clays forming the foreshore, d. Stopped by planting, e. Avimo- 

 jyliila arinidiiiacea, or marram, is everywhere grown. In 1690 the deep-water 

 channel left Formby, and sand began to blow, covering up the churchyard 

 and streets; but, in North Meols, Jameson in 1636 describes the sandhills. 

 It is probable they are of older date, as in William II. 's reign Roger de 

 I'oicton gave the monks of Lancaster the tithes of ' Melis,' and that name 

 would indicate sandhills, as it is still used in Iceland for sandhills, there 

 made up of volcanic sand. 



