TRANSAGJIONS OF SECTION C. 651 i 



At one point tlie tiiassic beds rose to ■within about 2 feet of the top of the 

 cutting, the ground being nearly level. 



At the fault blocks of triassic rocks were dragged over on to the Permian 

 marls. The marls were greatly mangled, and some erratics of large size 

 (andesites, &c.) were involved in their mass. At the base of the marls a coarse 

 bed of hard breccia occurred and its surface was striated from N. 65° W. It was 

 observed that this sui'facc was about 16 feet lower than the triassic sandstone, and 

 therefore the strire could not have been produced by floating ice, for ice which 

 could clear the ridge to the westward could not ground at a lower level. 



The bands of Ardwick limestone had been much ice-worn, and from each 

 outcrop a long train of boulders stretched away to eastward. 



A large boulder of coal measure sandstone (not local) lay embedded in the 

 base of the boulder-clay, and having lodged against its eastern end a large mass 

 of Ardwick limestone derived from an outcrop to the westward. The upper 

 surface of the sandstone boulder was scratched from N. 50° W. This stone had 

 probably been dragged by land-ice across the limestone, and had torn off a mass 

 which in a transit of 50 yards brought it to a stand, tearing it out of the ice which 

 moved on and glaciated the upper sm-faee of the boulder. Fragments of each 

 formation were carried to eastward of the parent mass, but never to westwards. 

 Several large erratics were observed and, Mith one exception, all had their long 

 axes in approximately the same direction, viz. — a few degrees north of west. 

 The exceptional direction was about N. 20° W. 



The author is of opinion that the agreement between the direction of — ■(!) the 

 boulder-transportal ; (2) the intrusions of boulder-clay ; (-3) the orientation of 

 large boulders ; and (4) of ice-scratches upon rock-surface and the upper surfaces 

 of boulders, constitutes proof of the action of land, and not floating, ice. 



8. The Lava Beds of California and Idaho, and their Relation to the An- 

 tiquity of Man. By Professor G. Ekedeeick Wright, LL.D., 

 F.G.S.A., Oberlin, Ohio, U.S.A. 



A brief account was given of the extent of the basaltic beds on the Pacific 

 Coast, and evidence was presented in proof that they were in the main of post- 

 tertiary age. 



New evidence, collected by Professor Wright and by Mr. Geo. F. Becker, 

 was presented confirmatory of the genuineness of the Calaveras skull and other 

 human remains reported upon by Professor Whitney as from under the lava fiow 

 of Table Mountain, near Sonora, California. Evidence was also presented of the 

 discovery of a small clay image under the western edge of the lava plains of 

 Idaho, at Nampa. These lava outbursts are correlated with the Glacial period in 

 the eastern part of the continent, 



9. Beport of the Committee on Excavations at Oldhury Hill. 

 See Reports, p. 353. 



10. Freliminary Notes on the Excavations at Oldhury Sill. 

 By Joseph Prestwich, D.G.L., F.B.S. 



No rock-shelters like those in Central France have yet been discovered in this 

 country. In France they occur in a cretaceous district, where the strata weather 

 luiequally, so that projecting ledges of rock are left over recesses worn out by 

 natural agencies, and adapted by palreolithic man for his rude dwelling-places. 

 Large numbers of flint and other implements, mixed with the debris of animals on 

 which he fed, afford proofs of his habitation. Sites presenting somewhat similar 

 adaptabilities occur on Oldhury Hill, near Ightham, in Kent. This hill rises 

 above the level of the surrounding Lower Greensand to the height of 600 feet, 

 and is capped by some of the hard siliceous grits of the Folkestone beds, which 



