542 T. Hellard Rcade- 



s 



III. — The Tkesent Aspects of Glacial Geology. 1 

 By T. Mellard Beade, C.E., P.G.S. 



INCE I joined this Society I Lave devoted special attention 

 to Glacial Geology, commencing with an investigation of 



the Pleistocene deposits in the neighbourhood of Liver] I. and 



gradually extending my observations to adjacent areas, and finally 

 generally to England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. I have 

 therefore thought that the " Present Aspects of Glacial Geology " 

 would form a fitting subject for my closing Presidential Address. 



My first published papers deal mostly with the Low-level Boulder- 

 clays and Sands, of which we possess an excellent development in 

 Lancashire and Cheshire. Latterly I have extended my studies 

 to the High-level Shelly Sands and Gravels, and Boulder-clays. 

 These observations are noted in papers which have appeared in 

 the Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, our own 

 and the Proceedings of other societies, and in the Geological and 

 kindred Magazines; consequently, though the work has been 

 continuous and connected, it cannot be studied as a whole without 

 considerable labour, which few would care to enter upon. 



The object of my present address is to compress the leading 

 facts into a convenient compass, and to bring out the salient results 

 and conclusions as they bear upon the present position of 'the 

 Glacial question. 



The whole of the Lancashire and Cheshire plain, from the sea- 

 level up to about 400 feet, and in places 600 feet, is covered 

 by a continuous mantle of Boulder-clay and sands, broken only 

 by areas where the Triassic or Carboniferous rocks protrude through 

 it, either from the absence of original deposition or from after- 

 denudation. This series of deposits I have called the Low-level 

 Marine Boulder-clays and Sands. These clays, as a rule, contain 

 distributed through them, in a greater or less degree, fragments 

 of shells and some perfect ones. I myself have recorded forty-four 

 species. 2 The majority of the shells are of species that now live 

 in the adjoining seas, mixed with a few others of a more northern 

 type, such as Astarte borealis, which may be considered the typical 

 Boulder-clay shell of our neighbourhood. Occasional examples of 

 more southern forms occur, such as Venus Chione. The fades of the 

 shells does not lead one to think that they lived in water of a very 

 low temperature. An examination of the Boulder-cla3\s from several 

 localities, notably from the cutting of the Seacombe Branch of 

 the Wirral Railway, and from Cook's Lane, Great Crosby, 3 show 

 that they sometimes contain, and probably more frequently than 

 is known, a profusion of Foraminifera, which tell a stoi'y not very 

 different to the molluscan l-emains. 



On the other hand, throughout these clays, which are commonly 



1 Presidential Address to the Liverpool Geological Society, 1S96-7, by T. Mellard 

 Eeade. C.E., F.G.S., F.E.I.B.A. 



2 Q.J.G.S. 1874. 



3 Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc. 1894-5 and 1895-6. 



