226 JRevieiDs — G. H. Morton — Liverpool Geology. 



IV. — The Geology of the Country Around Liverpool, including 

 THE North of Flintshire. By G. H. Morton, F.G.S., etc. 

 Second Edition. Pp. 287. (George Philip and Son, London, 

 1891.) 

 ~Vr EARLY eight-and-twenty years have elapsed since the former 

 _LM edition of this work was published. During the interval Mr. 

 Morton has laboured with great enthusiasm and with much patience 

 at the rocks that lie within a distance of about twenty miles from 

 Liverpool. He now gives a particular account of the Carbon- 

 iferous rocks, to our knowledge of which, and especially of the 

 Carboniferous Limestone of Flintshire, he has largely added. This 

 Limestone is probably the most attractive formation within easy 

 reach of Liverpool, and the palaeontology of its several subdivisions 

 has been carefully worked out by Mr. Morton. The Cefn-y-Fedw 

 Sandstone overlies the Carboniferous Limestone, and probably repre- 

 sents the Yoredale Series and Millstone Grit of other districts. 

 These beds and their subdivisions, together with the overlying Coal- 

 measures of North Wales and South-west Lancashire, are duly 

 described. Permian beds occur in some localities near Liverpool ; 

 but over much of the area to which reference is made, where the 

 strata are known only from the evidence obtained by shafts and 

 borings, there is a considerable diflSculty in distinguishing between 

 Permian and Bunter. 



The Bunter Beds, having a thickness of nearly 2000 feet, comprise 

 Lower and Upper Soft Sandstones, with intermediate Pebble-beds. 

 Mr. Morton in describing the Pebble-beds finds it convenient to 

 divide them locally into a lower division with numerous pebbles 

 and an upper division, with few or no pebbles. The Keuper Sand- 

 stone and Marl succeed. The Sandstone is of especial interest on 

 account of the " Footprint bed " that occurs (about 124 feet from 

 the base of this division) in the Storeton quarries. Among the 

 tracks are those named Cheirotherium Storetonense by Mr. Morton, and 

 they are illustrated in a series of plates. The name of this familiar 

 genus is now unfortunately changed, and the animal is designated 

 Chirosaurus Storetonensis (Lydekker, Cat. Foss. Kept, and Amphib. 

 Brit. Mus. Part iv. 1890, p. 216). Footprints of BhyncJiosaurus are 

 also described and figured. 



Some space is devoted to the microscopic characters of the rocks, 

 and to Faults and Denudation ; and a number of longitudinal 

 sections are described. Then follow accounts of the building-stones 

 and other economic products, a list of minerals, and remarks on 

 the subject of Water-supply. Some of these matters might better 

 have been treated at the end of the volume, for the author now 

 proceeds to describe the Pleistocene deposits. Among the more 

 interesting of these deposits are those found in the Caves of Ffynnon 

 Beuno and Cae-gwyn that contains relics of " Pre-glacial " Mammalia, 

 or more strictly speaking of forms older than the Boulder Clay of 

 the neighbourhood. Mr. Morton quite agrees with Dr. Hicks in 

 regarding the Mammalia as older than the Glacial Drift, and believes 

 that all the objections raised in opposition to this view have been 



