294 Darbishire— Macclesfield Drift-beds. 
gravel, ‘to give them the true Drift-character and the necessary red 
tinge.’ 
So authoritative an exposure of tricks that had been imposed on 
the would-be scientific, and on the guardians of public collections, 
ever anxious to fill their cases with novelties, could not but attract 
attention. The proceedings of the Society were reported in the 
Manchester papers on the Ist of March, and the particulars of the 
Macclesfield frauds were speedily copied into several papers of 
general or scientific character in London, Liverpool, and elsewhere.* 
Mr. Plant stated that a few shells and a number of fragments had 
occurred in the beds in question, but did not indicate what species 
he supposed to be thus genuine. 
It happens that these Macclesfield fossils have occupied a good 
deal of my attention during the past winter, as being interesting in 
themselves, and as taking an important place amongst many similar 
series which I have studied for some years past. As lam myself con- 
vinced not only of the genuineness, but also of the peculiar interest, 
of the fossil shells discovered in the Macclesfield Drift-gravels dur- 
ing last year, and as I believe that Mr. Plant’s statement is caleu- 
lated to throw discredit, even to a far more serious extent than the 
forgeries themselves, upon those specimens which are veritable fos- 
sils of these deposits, I have sought this opportunity of laying before 
the Society that received, and under whose name Mr. Plant published 
his revelations, a full list of the remains which I believe to be of 
scientific value, that is to say genuine, together with such details 
and evidence in support of that view as I have at command. As 
my present object is solely the vindication of the character of the 
fossils in question, I will not now enter into details on the specially 
geological features and peculiarities of the Macclesfield Beds, or of 
their series of fossils. 
For the purpose of my argument it is necessary, however briefly, 
to refer to the shell-bearing marine Drift of this and other localities. 
Within the limits of the ‘Boulder-clay Formation,’ as it is commonly 
seen in England, there are often found beds of sand and fine and 
coarse gravel, of rounded and water-worn pebbles, comparatively 
free from clayey admixture. These beds exhibit more or less dis- 
tinct stratification, and frequently also those abundant and compli- 
cated layers of subordinate deposit, and those peculiar classifications 
of materials within short distances, which tell unmistakeably of the 
action of tidal or other currents of considerable, variable or inter- 
mittent power. These beds frequently yield to the painstaking 
observer a few much-worn bits of broken shells, often undistinguish- 
able as to species; but here and there, under favourable circumstances, 
more completely preserved specimens may be met with, and a variety 
of forms discriminated. 
These beds occur in several places in Lancashire, Derbyshire, and 
Cheshire, and in North Wales. They are exactly represented in 
* Also in the Gronocican Magazine, vol. i. p. 179. 
