332 RejDorts and Proceedings — 



Welsh Border." By Aubrey Strahan, Esq., M.A., F.G.S., H.M. 

 Geological Survey. By permission of the Director- General. 



Part I. South Lancashire and Cheshire. 



The average direction of the large number of glacial striae which 

 have been observed in the neighbourhood of Liverpool is N. 28° W. 

 Further up the Mersey there is a slight deflection towards the east. 

 Two instances only occur of stria? having a totally different direction, 

 namely E.N.E. The stria? themselves seldom furnish any evidence 

 as to the direction in which the ice travelled, but the edges of the 

 strata have in many cases been bent back from the north-west. 

 The materials of which the drift is composed, both matrix and in- 

 cluded boulders, have also travelled from the north-west. The sands 

 and gravels also are arranged in long banks, trailing away from the 

 south-west sides of the rock-hills, in such a way as to show that 

 they were distributed by currents from the north-west. The stria? 

 are found in connexion with the Boulder-clays, in which the actual 

 presence of ice is abundantly proved. Presumably the same agent 

 that distributed the Boulder-clay also striated the rock-surface and 

 moved from the north-west. 



Part II. The Welsh Border., 



The striations within the Welsh Border also show a general 

 parallelism, but in a direction E.N.E., the few exceptions that occur 

 being close to the Border. The direction in which the drift has 

 been transported shows a corresponding change ; though analogous 

 in arrangement to the Lancaster drift, it has all travelled from 

 W.S.W. to E.N.E. The boundary between the northern drift of 

 the English side and the western drift of the Welsh runs approxi- 

 mately along the coast, bending inland here and there, and cutting 

 inland across parts of South Flintshire and Denbighshire. The 

 transportation of the Welsh drift has taken place across the lines of 

 the principal hill-ranges and valleys. Occasionally the two drifts 

 shade one into the other, or are mixed together; but as a general 

 rule the far-travelled northern drift overlies the more local deposit, 

 and is easily distinguishable by its different materials and by its 

 being comparatively stoneless. 



It may be concluded that : — 



1. TJie striae on the English and Welsh sides respectively, while 

 showing variations among themselves, by a marked preponderance 

 in one quarter of the compass, indicate a direction of principal 

 glaciation, this direction being on the English side from about 

 N.N.W., and on the Welsh from about E.S.E. 



2. The direction of glaciation in both districts agrees very closely 

 with that of the transportation of the drift, but is only locally 

 influenced by the form of the ground. 



3. The stria? are by no means universal, but are found almost 

 exclusively in connexion with those beds in the drift which contain 

 evidence of the actual presence of ice. 



