782 REPORT —1896. 
object of this paper is to record the result of close attention given to the subject 
for many years. 
Half a mile south-west of the Leasowe Embankment, and about 100 yards from 
Seabank Cottages, there is an old weather-beaten brick and stone house, known as 
the ‘ Warren,’ and evidently the oldest in the neighbourhood. According to the 
G-inch Ordnance Map, the distance between the house and the sea was about 150 
yards, when the country was surveyed in 1871, but I found it to be 70 yards in 
1890, 55 yards in March 1894, and only 45 yards in May 1896, and the residents 
have ts me the position of several high sand-hills that once formed part of the 
lost land. 
In an affidavit, filed in a recent case concerning the extension of the Embank- 
ment, George Banks states that he had been born and had lived in the house ever 
since. It was only 60 yards from high-water mark aft spring tides in 1892, 
‘whereas when he first remembered it the house stood at least 350 yards from 
high-water mark at spring tides, and the land washed away included some sand- 
hills 80 and 40 feet, and one 50 or 60 feet in height.’ 
The greatest erosion by the sea along the coast has taken place at Dove Point, 
about 350 yards to the south-west of the house. In 1862 there were two ‘ perches’ 
constructed of timber, one being 10 yards from the edge of the sand-hills, which 
were then about 12 feet high, and the other 150 yards behind, near the boundary 
of the inclosed land. The seaward Perch is shown in the frontispiece of the 
‘Geology around Liverpool.’ On January 20, 1863, this Perch had become close 
to the edge of the cliff and fell down on the shore, its original position being indi- 
cated by several masses of masonry and large stones which had formed the foun- 
dation of the structure. The Perch was re-erected on the sand-hills, and is shown 
on the 6-inch map, but it was afterwards removed, with the one behind, to the 
north-east of the ‘ Warren,’ so that neither of them is now in the place shown on 
the map. The foundation stones still lie on the shore in their original position. 
In consequence of the continual erosion by the sea the stones have gradually 
become further from the coast line, and in September 1894 the distance was 144 
yards, showing the erosion of the coast from 1863 to 1894 to have been between 
4 and 5 yards per annum. In May 1896 the distance had been increased to 152 
yards, proving an erosion of 8 yards in 20 months, but as they included two 
winters the loss would be 4 yards per annum. 
South of Dove Point the erosion gradually decreases, but 50 yards of the sand- 
hills have been washed away on the north-east of Sandhey, though not in recent, 
years, as there is now a fringe of grass growing in the denuded bay for about 100 
yards, when it gradually dies away. The grounds along the sea-front at Sandhey 
are protected by an embankment and groins, which arrest the encroachment of the 
sea. Beyond, in front of Hoylake, there is no erosion, and the Red Stones at 
Hilbre Point protect the land from the sea. 
5, Oscillations in the Level of the Land as shown by the Buried kiver 
Valleys and later Deposits in the Neighbourhood of Liverpool. By 
T. Metiarp Reapg, F£.G.S. 
The author, after describing the extensive post-Glacial deposits on the coasts of 
Lancashire and Cheshire, consisting of blown sand resting upon a peat- and forest- 
bed, which again rests upon scrobicularian clays and silts—the tree remains, con- 
sisting of stools of oak, Scotch fir, and birch rooted into the estuarine deposits— 
shows that the whole series rest upon an eroded surface of the low-level marine 
Boulder-clays and Sands, which again repose upon the Triassic rocks. The surface 
of the Trias, whether Bunter or Keuper, is worn into a system of hills and valleys 
which are largely obscured and filled up with Boulder-clay. 
After a discussion of these facts the author concludes that they point to the 
existence of three land surfaces—the first in time being pre-Glacial or at least 
pre-Boulder-clay ; the second, post-Glacial, represented by the buried eroded surface 
