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SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 439 
many of the ancient roads of the district, and is known not to have taken 
place in post-Roman times. The marine shells occur as boulders in the Boulder 
Clay which forms the sides of the valley, and have no significance as regards 
its post-Glacial history. Lastly, in the same map Alford Brook is also repre- 
sented as a continuous stream connecting the Dee and the Gowy by Tattenhall. 
Such a continuation of this brook can never have existed. There is, in fact, 
no geological evidence that the broad alluvial lands extending up to and beyond 
Warringtor ever drained in post-Glacial times in any other direction than 
between Liverpool and Birkenhead. 
The difficulty is not lessened by the fact that the navigation of the Dee 
estuary is intricate for small vessels and impossible for large. Notwithstanding 
this, the Irish packets sailed from Parkgate for many years, and it was not 
until the channel in its meanders through the shifting sands betook itself to 
the opposite side of the estuary that Parkgate ceased to be a port. Chester 
as a port had been abandoned in 1449. In 1700 an Act was passed to enable 
the Mayor and citizens to recover and preserve the navigation, and in 1833 
a banked artificial channel had been made, and upwards of 7,000 acres re- 
claimed. About 1870 a bank was carried from Burton Point to Connah’s Quay, 
but it was broken by a high tide, and the area enclosed by it was overflowed, 
and so remained for many years, until the Cheshire Lines branch railway was 
constructed. (Maps showing various stages in the reclamation of the estuary 
are reproduced in the Geological Survey Memoir on Flint, &c.) 
In the meantime Liverpool was developing. In the twelfth century it was 
a small fishing village. In 1715 the first dock was built—that is, about the 
time when the Mayor and citizens of Chester were striving to recover their 
river. At the present day Liverpool is one of the great ports of the world. 
The problem, then, on which I wish to see light thrown by this discussion 
relates to the preference shown through several centuries for the estuary of 
the Dee, and the apparent neglect of the open tideway of the Mersey. It is 
no new question, for so long ago as 1849 Sir James Picton, in a paper on 
changes of level of the West Coast of England (Proc. Lit. and Phil. Soc., 
Liverpool, vol. v., p. 113) commented on the ignoring of the Mersey by the 
Romans, and speculated on the Mersey estuary having had no existence until 
after the Roman occupation. 
For my own part I can only suggest that the land surfaces which were 
not submerged until the close of Neolithic time still extended so widely in the 
estuary and on the adjacent coasts as to create difficulties in navigation. There. 
may, however, have been geographical and political reasons depending on other 
than geological considerations. 
3. Mr. C. B. Travis.—Recent Geological Changes on the Northern 
Shore of the Mersey Estuary. 
The area described forms part of the South Lancashire coast on the north- 
eastern side of Liverpool Bay, between Waterloo and Hightown. 
This tract of coast, about four miles in length, consists superficially of 
Blown Sand, which in places rises in dunes to elevations of 30 to 50 feet. The 
sand lies on a platform of post-Glacial deposits, which are well exposed on the 
foreshore in a fine section about a mile in length and 50 yards in breadth. 
These deposits consist of the ‘Upper Peat and Forest Bed,’ underlain by Grey 
Sands and Silts, which rest in turn on unexposed Boulder Clay. The bed- 
rock which has not been exposed along the coast has been proved in borings 
to consist of an undulating surface of Keuper Marl, while inland at a short 
distance Keuper Sandstone outcrops. The River Alt breaks through the sand- 
hills at. Hightown, and flows along the shore in a southerly direction, falling 
into the Victoria Channel at Crosby. 
During the past ten years marine erosion has been very active along this 
coast, and the sandhills between Crosby and Hightown have suffered severely. 
This is due to tidal action and to changes in position of the River Alt on the 
foreshore, leading to a considerable lowering of the level of the beach. The 
_ Peat and Forest Beds and associated sediments are being rapidly fretted away, 
while the dunes have been cut back to a maximum distance of 85 yards within 
eight years. This wasting of the coast has caused the destruction of valuable 
