Reports and Proceedings— Geological Society of London. 45 
then usually under the name of the subject, are given in the present 
catalogue, the publication of which is in a great measure due to the 
liberality of the Government of New South Wales. J. M. 
ete @lbo eS) AN) 2 ke @ CAE EIN SS? 
————<——— 
GronogicaAL Society oF Lonpon. 
November 15, 1882.—Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., Vice-President, 
in the Chair.—The following communications were read :— 
1. ‘“‘ The Drift-beds of the North-west of England and North Wales. 
—Part 2. Their Nature, Stratigraphy, and Distribution.” By T. 
Mellard Reade, Esq., C.E., F.G.S. 
The author stated that the first part of this paper, read in 1873, 
treated of the low-level Boulder-clay and sands, specially in relation 
to the contained shells. Since that time he has been diligently collect- 
ing information to enable him to treat of the nature, origin, and 
stratigraphy of the Drift lying between Liverpool and St. Bees and 
Liverpool and Caernarvonshire. He finds that, in the basin of the 
River Mersey, the Triassic rocks underlying the low-level Boulder- 
clay and sands are cut up by a system of pre-glacial valleys, in some 
cases presenting very precipitous sides and not in all cases following 
the present course of the rivers. If the mantle of clay and sands 
could be stripped off, we should have scenery differing considerably 
from the present surface-features. These pre-glacial valleys are, in 
parts of their courses, considerably below the present low-water level. 
Where the rock has been bared and it is of a nature capable of 
retaining striations, we almost invariably find it planed and grooved 
in a direction approximately from N.W.; and when the rock is soft, 
it is broken up into rubble and red sand. 
Upon this débris of the ‘Trias lie the low-level Boulder-clay and 
sands of the plains, the clay lying immediately on the rock being 
frequently, but not invariably, of a sandier and harder nature than 
the upper beds. Lines of erosion of a local nature, but often of con- 
siderable extent, often occur at the top of this clay and then die 
out; or there are thin or thick beds of sand and gravel intercalated 
at the junction and also dying out. Sometimes sand and gravels 
underlie this harder clay; but the larger mass of the low-level clay is 
of a more plastic nature, and is used in brickmaking. Intercalated 
sand-beds also occur in this, and sometimes the clay gets stonier again 
near the top. 
If we trace the drift from the sea up each river-valley to the high 
lands, we see at once that the nature of the clay gets more intimately 
connected with the rocks in the basin above. This is specially notice- 
able in the Ribble valley, where the brown marine Boulder-clay 
gradually, above Milton Bridge, gets replaced by a drift composed 
almost wholly of the débris and grindings of the Carboniferous Lime- 
stone and grits above. In the mountain-districts, also, the drift 
becomes more localized both in Cumberland and Wales. 
The author’s conclusions are that an ice-sheet, radiating from the 
mountain-district of the English lakes and the south of Scotland, 
