Reports and Proceedings. 365 
Mancuester GEOLOGICAL Soctety.—At a late Monthly Meeting, 
held in the Museum, Peter Street, Andrew Knowles, Esq., President, 
in the chair, Mr. Sarnrer, of Macclesfield, read a paper upon the 
Macclesfield Drift-beds, and a description of a Fulgurite recently 
found in a sand-pit at Macclesfield. 
For the last two years extensive operations have been carried on 
in the neighbourhood of Macclesfield, in the formation of a new 
Cemetery. It comprises about 25 acres, and consists chiefly of the 
Marine Drift-deposits. At its southern extremity there is a valley 
about 100 feet in depth, with a sloping ascent extending northwards 
to about 600 feet ; and during the process of draining and levelling 
the ground, the nature and character of the strata, &c., were 
thoroughly exposed. Commencing from the brook upwards, we 
have first the Boulder-clay which forms its bed; it is a of a dull 
reddish-brown colour, very firm and tough, and is extensively used 
about Macclesfield, in the manufacture of tubing, bricks, &c. The 
valley-gravel overlies this clay ; also soft loam and peat-bog, the 
latter being of variable thickness, from a few inches to 6 or 8 
feet. Trunks of trees, chiefly fir, oak, birch, and hazel, were dug 
out of it; likewise some acorns and nuts. Connected with the 
brook, deep drains were cut diagonally at different levels on the hill- 
side to the height of 30 feet. These cuttings showed thick un- 
stratified beds of wet and dry sands and gravels, with loam, of varied 
consistence and colour, the latter chiefly ochreous ; likewise a few 
detached masses of Boulder-clay ; and the whole series was pretty 
well packed with pebbles and boulders, and rough pieces of rock of 
all sizes and character. With the exception of those embedded in 
the Till or Boulder-clay, nearly all the rest have been derived from 
the higher levels, as the valley became gradually formed ; and here 
some very large blocks of granite and porphyritic greenstones were 
dug out. 
At the above height, tram-roads were laid one above the other, at 
intervals, across the acclivity, and the deposits were laid bare, and 
cut into in all directions. ‘The exposed surface extended east and 
west to about 500 yards in breadth, and 60 feet in height, with a 
southern incline of about 500 feet. The surface-soil was about 18 
inches thick, and below it, for 3 or 4 yards, was a deposit of 
soft ferruginous clay or marl, mixed with coarse sand or gravel ; 
the whole crowded with water-worn pebbles and boulders, and 
irregular masses of rock, apparently of almost all ages, sorts, and 
sizes, and from all quarters of the compass. Below these accumu- 
lations stratified beds appear, consisting generally of both fine and 
coarse sand and gravel, with shingly pebbles, and some thin clayey 
beds, with a few thin layers of broken coal or shale; and, although 
for the most part the stratification is even and regular, yet in some 
places there exist oblique laminations with occasional curvings, and 
also intercalations of false- and current-beddings. There occurred 
likewise some remarkable vertical and diagonal interruptions, or 
intrusions, of very fine, clean, and bright running sand or gravel, of 
a light-brown colour. 
