S . Miss Eyton — Lake-basin in iShropsmre. 



one principal outlet, the difficulty is explained. Probably, too, much 

 of this gravel is the remains of an older drift, re-sorted and arranged 

 by the river, since the lake period. 



Passing onwards to Bigwood quarry, we find the low shallow 

 vaUey, through which the river flows, intersected by a bank of New 

 Eed Sandstone. And here, I doubt not, was once a fine example of a 

 cliff", cut through by the river ; but alas, the hand of the destroyer 

 has been at work, and the face of the cliff" is completely quarried 

 away, for building stone, defacing every natural trace. Probably a 

 dam once existed between this point and Crudgington, composed of 

 drift, partially filling up the opening in the sandstone, which might 

 then have been much narrower. The river water being thus pounded 

 back upon the low land, helped to form the lake, and the bursting or 

 gradual wearing away of the dam, to drain it. 



Leaving the river, and passing on the inside (that is the lake side) 

 of the bank, we are struck with its curved outline, forming a section 

 of a basin, such as we may often see in the high ground surrounding 

 a recent lake. Following the Market Drayton Eailway, we find that 

 it here cuts through a bed of grey mud, such as might have been 

 deposited by a sheet of still water. 



Long-lane brick-field is situated seven-eighths of a mile from the 

 river on its left bank, and about eighteen feet above its present level. 

 It consists of two layers, red clay, with numerous pebbles, 4:ft. ; 

 stiff bluish clay, with rootlets, 5ft. The upper of these layers is 

 composed of much the same materials as the lowest bed of Crud- 

 gington drift. Pebbles of flint and granite, both pink and grey, are 

 equally common, with the denuded Eed Sandstone, and fragments of 

 Carboniferous limestone, from Lilleshall. I picked up one curious 

 specimen of the latter, containing stems of encrinites, standing up in 

 relief, the limestone having been weathered away between. The blue 

 clay, which I suppose to have formed the original lake bottom, (the 

 pebbly clay having been drifted over it, ) contains numerous rootlets, 

 showing that the water must here have been shallow enough, to allow 

 of the growth of bog plants. Underlying the whole is a layer of 

 loose, coarse sand. 



I should be inclined to assign a date to this lake about contem- 

 porary with the low level drifts. Since that period it must have 

 been gradually filling up, until the ground became firm enough to 

 afford a hold for the roots of forest trees. Then came a later period, 

 when, by the choking-up of the small streams which drained it, 

 probably occasioned by falling trees, it was re-converted into a 

 swamp, from which condition it appears to have been gradually 

 subsiding at the time of the compilation of Doomsday-book. The 

 local designations, often refer to this period, as Kinnersley, (Kin- 

 naird's eye, or island,) Eyton, (Isle town,) &c. Lastly, the period 

 of artificial drainage, which took place within the last himdred 

 years, and has converted it into excellent pasturage, and, in places, 

 arable land. 



Note.— Two teeth, believed to be those of Equus fossils, have beea found in the 

 low-level drift on the margin of the Weald-moors. — G.E. 



