76 T. Mellard Reade — An Ancient Glacial Shore. 



others of the same genus of very robust proportions ; and some of 

 these have received the names of 0. Benedeni,^ 0. gibbosissima, and 

 0. Forestii,^ while others have been identified with 0. crassa and 

 0. quadrans.^ So far as the present writer can judge, none of these 

 robust teeth are capable of being satisfactorily distinguished from 

 the species 0. crassa of Agassiz, originally descinbed from the 

 Miocene of the Rhine Valley ; * and it is under the last-mentioned 

 name that they are recorded in the British Museum Catalogue. 



It is now of interest to announce that the same form of robust 

 tooth has lately been obtained from the English Pliocene. The 

 specimen was discovered by Mr. T. W. Reader, F.G.S., in the Red 

 Crag of Hemley Hall, near Woodbridge, and it is shown of the 

 natural size from the external and lateral aspects in the accompany- 

 ing figures. As indicated by its shape, the tooth must have occupied 

 a postero-lateral position in the mouth, probably in the upper jaw; 

 and a specimen most closely approaching it is described by Lawley 

 from the Pliocene of Italy under the name of Oxyrhina quadrans.^ 



In general aspect, of course, the new fossil is at first sight 

 suggestive of a tooth of the so-called Otodus obliquus, wanting the 

 lateral denticles. The specimen, however, is quite unabraded and has 

 not the appearance of a derived fossil ; while it is certain that the 

 absence of denticles is not the result of fracture. It may be that 

 some such robust teeth are abnormal examples from the dentition of 

 Otodus obliquus ; but, in default of all proof of this possibility, it 

 seems advisable to retain the nomenclature here adopted. 



V. — An Ancient Glacial Shore. 

 By T. Mellard Ebade, C.E., F.G.S., F.E.I.B.A. 



IN a cutting of the Seacombe Branch of the Wirral Railway at the 

 present moment is to be seen a deposit which cannot be other 

 than a glacial shore. ^ It is about 18 inches thick, covered by a 

 bed of Boulder-clay some 8 feet thick, and has been exposed by 

 the cutting for a distance of 16 chains running south-east and 

 north-west, to the south-east of the point of intersection of the 

 Railway with Poulton Road. The rise is 16 feet in this distance 

 at a regular up-grade towards Poulton Road, and the average level 

 about 60 feet above O.D. Transversely to the Railway it is about 

 level, and over the whole of the area — 1056 feet by 30 feet:=3520 

 superficial yards — the deposit occurred and was excavated by the 

 steam navvy. The bed is composed of pretty clean sand with 

 some small gravel, and is crowded with shell fragments in all 

 stages of decay. It is precisely like a modern beach in constitution, 

 extent and slope, but what renders the fact more certain is the 



1 H. Le Hon, "Prelim. Mem. Poiss. Tert. Belg." (1871), p. 6, mth figure. 



2 E. Lawley, " Nuovi Studi Pesci, etc., CoUine Toscane" (1876), p. 31. 



^ E. Lawley, ihid. and "Studi Comp. Pesci foss. coi viv. generi Garcharodon 

 Oxyrhina, e Galeocerdo^^ (1881), p. 112, pi. iv. {Oxyrhina), fig. 2. 



* L. Agassiz, " Eech. Poiss. Foss." vol. iii. (1843), p. 283, pi. xxxvii. fig. 16. 



5 Op. cit. 1881, pi. iv. {Oxyrhina), fig. 2. 



8 I am indebted to Mr. Henry Beasley, the Hon. Sec. of the Liverpool Geological 

 Society, for calling my attention to this interesting bed. 



