42 Reports and Proceedings — 



westward of the scene of that accident, took place last night. A 

 stream of half-liquid peat, over a hundred yards in width, and 4 or 

 5 feet deep, flowed suddenly through the town into the harbour, 

 blocking up the streets, wrecking one or two houses in its path, and 

 surrounding others so as completely to imprison the inhabitants. 

 Fortunately, as the night was wet and stoi'my, almost every one was 

 within doors, and the few who were in the wrecked houses escaped 

 in time. One child was, unfortunately, smothered in the peat, whose 

 body has been recovered, but no other casualties are known to have 

 occurred. An old man is, however, reported to be missing this 

 morning, and it is feared he may also have perished, as part of 



his house is almost filled with peat The slip was caused, 



apparently, by the unusually heavy rains which have fallen during 

 the last few days, and which the drains constructed by Mr. Bailey, 

 the Surveyor, in 1878, proved insufficient to carry off. Deeper and 

 wider cuttings will now be made, and I trust that the recurrence of 

 any similar catastrophe may thus be prevented. The town of 

 Stanley is, however, from its situation and the mass of peat-bog on 

 the high ground behind it, always to some extent exposed to danger 

 of this nature in times of unusually heavy rainfall. — I have, etc. 



" (Signed) Arthur Barkly. 



"The Eight Hon. Earl Granville, E.G.. &c., &c., &c." 



2. " On the Drifts of the Vale of Clwyd, and their relation to the 

 Caves and Cave-deposits." By Prof. T. M'Kenny Hughes, M.A., 

 F.G.S. 



The author divided his subject as follows : — I. Introductory 

 Eemarks; II. The Drifts, viz. (i.) The Arenig Drift, (ii.) The St.- 

 Asaph Drift, (iii.) The Surface-Drifts ; III. The Caves, viz. (i.) The 

 Caves themselves, (ii.) The Cave-Deposits; IV. Conclusion. 



He exhibited a table showing the tentative classification he pro- 

 posed. II, (i.) The Arenig Drift, he said, might be called the 

 Western Drift, as all the material of which it was composed came 

 from the mountains of Wales ; or the Great Ice-Drift, as it was the 

 only Drift in the vale which contained evidence of direct ice-action. 

 He traced its course from the Arenig and Snowdon ranges, by stride 

 on the solid rock and by the included fragments, a large proportion 

 of which were glaciated. There are no shells in this drift. 



II. (ii.) The St.-Asaph Drift might, he said, be called the Northern 

 Drift, as it was the deposit in which fragments of north-country 

 rocks first appeared ; or the Marine Drift, as it was, excepting the 

 recent deposits at the mouth of the estuary, the only drift in the 

 vale which showed by its character and contents that it was a sea- 

 deposit. It contained north-country granites, flints, and sea-shells, 

 of which he gave lists. Most of them are common on the adjoining 

 coast at the present day, a few are more northern forms. None of 

 the rocks are striated, except those derived from the Arenig Drift (i.). 



II. (iii.) The Surface-Drifts included the older and newer alluvia 

 of the rivers, the Morfa Rhuddlau Beds or estuarine silt, the recent 

 shore-deposits or Rhyl Beds, and all the various kinds of deposits 

 known as talus, trail, rain- wash, head, run-of-the-hill, etc., of which, 



