800 REPORT—1896, 
In bed No. 5 (laminated mud or clay) I have not yet found any fossils. 
In the lower Boulder-clay (6) marine fossils are occasionally got, but it is, 
generally speaking, much obscured by talus along the river banks. 
The Boulder-clays in fresh cuttings often look as if they were massive, but 
weathered exposures often show lines of stratification, and sometimes there are 
thin horizontal bands of sand or gravel through them. 
Striated stones are got in them lying beside perfectly unscratched and angular 
stones, and far-travelled stones and boulders are got beside those of the district. 
The Boulder-clays, generally speaking, take their colour from the formations on 
which they rest, or at Jeast from one not far away. 
About the middle of the county some stones and boulders from the north are 
mixed with those from the south. . 
At about 700 feet of altitude in certain districts there is no Boulder-clay to be 
seen on top of the sand and gravel, the latter being well bedded and the gravel well 
rounded. 
Up to 800 feet in the open country there are many drums of drift, and in the 
narrow glens under certain conditions the drums are got up to a much higher alti- 
tude, the Boulder-clay reaching to over 1,700 feet, and the sands and gravel inter- 
bedded with it to over 1,000 feet. 
‘In the sand and gravel beds there are cecasionally large boulders, as well as in 
the laminated mud. 
The interstratified beds are sometimes much contorted 
Under the Boulder-clay the rock is sometimes crushed, the fragments being 
often mixed into the bottom of the clay. 
The Boulder-clay appears sometimes to have been dragged a bit, and then the 
stones are more intensely striated and the sheily fragments scratched. 
Sometimes the stones are standing on edge in the Boulder-clay. : 
The ‘25 foot’ beach always rises on a platform cut out by the waves, but the 
‘40-foot’ one is sometimes seen resting on drwms of Boulder-clay. 
The great bulk of the marine shells occur as fragments, although there are some 
very good specimens. 
The fragments are mostly sharp-edged, and many have the epidermis, a few being 
scratched and polished. 
The fossils that turn up most frequently are: Astarte compressa, Astarte 
suleata, Cyprina islandica, and Leda pernula. 
The occasional being: Pecten islandicus, Cardium, Natica, Buccinum or Fusus, 
Littorina littorea (worn), Plates of Balani, and burrows of bering sponges. Many 
fragments cannot be determined. 
What looks like Melobesia (sticking to stones) has turned up in three localities. 
3. Notes on the Superficial Deposits of North Shropshire. 
By C. Catuaway, D.Se., F.GS. 
The author gives a sketch of observations on the sandy and shingly deposits 
that lie scattered over the plain of North Shropshire. They are found as high as 
1,100 feet at Gloppa, while erratics occur on the Longmynd hills as high as 
1,050 feet. That the gravels and sands are of marine origin is inferred from their 
arrangement, which is similar to that of ordinary littoral deposits, and from their 
abundant molluscan fauna, which is entirely marine. Under the former head 
attention is called to the frequent occurrence of ripple-marks in the sands, and 
under the latter it is remarked that the comminuted condition of many of the 
fossils is to be expected from littoral conditions. It is pointed out that, in the 
~ eastern part of the area, chalk flints are abundant, which is hardly consistent with 
a north-western derivation; while the discovery of a Cornbrash fossil in the sands 
at Wellington proves derivation from the east or south. In conclusion, the author 
insists upon the decisive fact that the hills and crags of the area do not present the 
rounded outlines to be expected in a glaciated district. 
