JReiieirs — Geological Snrvpy—Sninmarij of ProgreHn. 5'23 



Mr. J. B. Hill, anil Mr. S. B. Wilkinson have been busily at work, 

 while in North Staffonl shire Mr. Walcot Gibson reports a coiisiderable 

 extension of the Coal-measures under Little Madeley and Craddocks 

 Moss.^ He notes also liis discovery of a new bed of iron-ore in the 

 Fenton Park Clay-pits, and an analysis of the rock is contributed by 

 Dr. Pollard. 



Various inembers of the staff furnish notes on Permian, Tri;is, 

 Jurassic, and Cretaceous rocks, and they give many particulars of the 

 Glacial drifts. Mr. Harker's observations on the Tertiary igneous 

 rocks of Skye deal largely with the very nuuierous basaltic sills 

 which have been intruded into the basaltic lavas. These sills are 

 for the most part younger than any of the great plutonic intrusions 

 of basalt or granophyre. 



In illustration of the work done on the Glacifjl Drifts we may 

 refer to the observations made by Mr. G. W. Lamplugh in the 

 neighbourhood of Uttoxeter in North Staffordshire. He remarks 

 that the prevalent Drift of the higher ground is a red sandy loam, 

 or, more rarely, clay, containing numerous rounded quartzite and 

 other pebbles derived from the Banter (which frequently show the 

 characteristic pittings). together with an occasional partially rounded 

 fragment of hard sandstone probably derived from the Carbonifeious 

 rocks. The absence from a great part of the district of stones larger 

 than one foot in diameter, and of any showing clear proof of 

 glacial striation, together with the sandy character and local 

 derivation of the material, seem to render the term 'boulder-clay' 

 somewhat inapplicable to this deposit. Evidence was obtained, 

 however, that in spite of its abnormal composition and general 

 resemblance to ' rain-wash,' the material is the local equivalent 

 of the true Boulder-clay of contiguous tracts, and has had a similar 

 derivation from the moving mass of land-ice by which the whole 

 country has been covered. The clearest proof of this was furnished 

 by the presence of well-glaciated surfaces of Lower Keuper Sand- 

 stone at an elevation of 700 feet above O.D. (almost the highest 

 ground in the neighbourhood), which were uncovered towards the 

 end of last year in the large quarries at Hollington. These surfaces 

 were directly overlain by the usual pebbly loam of the district, of 

 rather unusual thickness (from 10 to 2o feet), and the direction 

 of the striae— W. 20° N. to E. 20° S, — shows that the movement 

 of the ice has not been determined by the shape of the ground in 

 the vicinity nor by the presence of the elevated Carboniferous 

 Limestone tract of the Weaver Hills a few miles to the northward, 

 but has been consequent upon the pressure of the great ice-sheet 

 ■which was piled up over the lower ground to the westward and 

 north-westward. As this is the only locality in the district where 

 there is any rock sufficiently coherent to exhibit such traces of 

 glaciation, it is fortunate that the quarry-sections should afford such 

 opportune exposures. 



Further evidence that the pebbly loam must be regarded as 

 a local, variety of the Boulder-clay of the great ice-sheet is afforded 



1 See paper read by Mr. Gibson in Section C, Brit. Assoc, meeting at Dover. 



