204 Prof. T. G. Bonney—Pebbles in the Bunter Beds. 
hour (the least speed necessary to move pebbles of this size), one 
would think they would have been reduced to sand. Moreover, on 
Prof. Hull’s theory, the pebble bed should surely increase in thick- 
ness and in the relative size of the pebbles as we follow it either 
to the north-east or north-west. But on the contrary the pebbles 
become fewer and ultimately disappear, as the Bunter is followed 
towards North Notts on the one hand, or towards Liverpool on the 
other; while in the Carlisle district Mr. T. V. Holmes has lately 
shown that the Keuper beds are the only Triassic strata present. 
The lines of false bedding of the Bunter beds point almost invariably 
to currents sweeping from the west or north-west.” 
He also holds that the Bunter beds were formed in an inland 
sea, but refers them to the action of Httoral currents, rather than to 
more distinetly fluviatile action, as I have suggested. 
As regards the first paragraph, Mr. Harrison (no doubt uncon- 
sciously) entirely misrepresents my argument. I did not refer the 
bulk of the pebbles to the Torridon Sandstone of Scotland, but to 
the Quartzites which overlie it; these two very distinct rocks, he 
obviously (in the passage which I have quoted) supposes to be identical. 
My argument was, (a) that the most abundant quartzite in the 
Bunter was exactly like that of the N.W. Highlands, and to my 
eyes differed from that of the Lickey or of Hartshill; (0) that 
though “one quartzite may be very like another quartzite,” ' yet this 
identification was strengthened by finding with these quartzite 
pebbles others of a sort very like the Torridon Sandstone ; the latter 
rock being of a most marked character, and very different from any 
other that I know in Britain. Thus Mr. Harrison must locate in 
his Utopian central ridge (which I infer from his words must be 
West or North-West of Staffordshire, where it will be rather in the 
way of the drift of the materials) not only a quartzite like that of 
the N.W. Highlands, but also a grit with the characteristics of the 
Torridon, and felsites like those of Scotland, differing from all I 
know in the English Midlands or Wales. I may also ask to what 
source he refers the quartzite pebbles of Arran (for instance) which 
are indistinguishable from those? of the Bunter beds of Stafford- 
shire, and lie in a red sandstone, just like Bunter sandstone, mingled 
with schists and a variety of Scotch rocks. 
Mr. Harrison’s objection of the distance, which ought to have 
“Iknocked the Scotch pebbles to sand,” I meet with a simple negative. 
Pebbles, less hard than the quartzite, can travel quite as far as this.’ 
1 J must admit that Mr. Teall in his valuable note to Mr. Harrison’s paper shows 
that the Lickey quartzite presents in some of its microscopic peculiarities a very.close 
resemblance to that of N.W. Scotland and of the Bunter. This, while it deprives 
me of one point in my argument, does not of course establish an identity between 
the Bunter pebbles and the Lickey quartzites, but only shows that both have derived 
their materials from a common source (no doubt Hebridean rocks). In some respects, 
however, his specimens (which he kindly allowed me to see), do not seem to bear out 
Mr. Harrison’s conclusions. 
* Be it remembered that I have admitted the presence of more than one quartzite 
here. I speak of the highly altered compact-looking quartzites, which I maintain 
I can distinguish from the others in almost every case. 
® The greater European rivers during some periods in their history must have trans- 
ported gravel quite as far as this. See, for instance, Lyell’s Antiq. of Man, chap. xvi. 
