T. Mellard Reade — Fost-Qlacial Geology. 103 



the tests of the shells only are affected by it, the casts being 

 unaltered. On placing some of the Leasowe specimens in the acid 

 they all effervesced away, showing that they could not have been 

 derivative from the Chalk, and must have lived where now found. 

 On testing the Bruges specimens with acid the same thing 

 happened with no siliceous remainder, so that I think Mr. Wright 

 is justified in now thinking that this species was living where found 

 in the Bruges sand and silt. 



Textidaria globulosa is a form very rare in British waters, but 

 common in the Chalk, occurs in abundance in the Leasowe Beds, and 

 also in the Bruges silt. Globigerina cretacea was found rare in 

 the Boulder-clay at Kiverside, Seacombe, Cheshire, and Textidaria 

 globidosa very rare in the Crosby Boulder-clay. (See Proc. Liver- 

 pool Geol. Soc, vol. viii, session 1898-99, p. 361, and ibid., vol. vii, 

 session 1895-96, p. 389.) 



TJie Post- Glacial Deposits represent a icell-marked Geological 



Episode. 



As I have proved in many previous papers,^ these mai-ginal beds 

 around our Island contain records of several oscillations of the level 

 of the land, cumulatively giving evidence of a well-marked period of 

 time between the dying out of the Glacial epoch and the incoming of 

 historic time. 



It is well worthy of note that the deposits bear a characteristic 

 physical resemblance to each other, whether found in England, 

 Scotland, Ireland, or Belgium, being evidence of the widespread 

 and persistent nature of the conditions under which they were laid 

 down. The fauna and flora are analogous, and we further find the 

 silts associated with Scrobicidaria piperata are distinguished by the 

 presence of Globigerina cretacea, a species of Foraminifera not now 

 found living in the British Isles. The peat-and-forest beds show 

 that our Island was covered with forest trees, of which this marginal 

 band has been preserved by being covered up with a growth of peat 

 and deposits of silt, sand, and blown sand. There is good evidence 

 that the climate of this period was milder and more continental than 

 the present one. 



It may be noted as interesting that the royal fern, Osmunda 

 regalis,' is found in the superior peat at the Alt mouth, and 

 also what is not uncommon in peat beds, viz. the wing 



1 See papers previously referred to ; also many minor papers in the Proceedings of 

 the Geological Society of Liverpool, and the following: "A Problem for Irish 

 Geologists in Post-Glacial Geology," Journ. Roy. Geol. Soc. Ireland, n.s., vol. ii, 

 pt. 4, pp. 255-258; "Oscillations in the Level of the Land as shown by the 

 Buried Hiver- Valleys and Later Deposits in the Neighbourhood of Liverpool," 

 Geol. Mag., 1896, pp. 488-492. As bearing upon the same subject, see also 

 an excellent paper by Mr. A. Strahan, " On Submerged Land Surfaces at Barrv, 

 Glamorgaushire," with notes on the Fauna and Flora by Mr. Clement Reid: 

 Q.J.G.S., vol. Hi (1896), pp. 474-496. 



^ I showed this fern embedded in the peat to the members of an excursion 

 party of Section C at the twenty-fourth meeting of the British Association at 

 Liverpool, 1896. 



