506 C. E. de Rance—Sections around Southport. 
which have been carefully described by Mr. Binney, Mr. Mackintosh, 
and by myself, and recently by Mr. Mellard Reade. The lower 
clay is more closely packed with stones than the upper, and no 
signs of stratification are seen, which are always to be found in the 
Upper Boulder-clay on close examination. 
On the Cheshire coast good sections of the Drift are ic be seen in 
the banks of the Mersey at Egremont, and between Hastham and 
Hooton Park, and on the banks of the Dee between Parkgate and 
West Kirby. 
The Upper Boulder-clay is sometimes very finely laminated, this 
is particularly the case in the brick-pits near Wigan. ‘This clay is 
locally called “ buck-leaf marl,” probably meaning “ book-leaf.” 
Alluvium.—In the valley of the Ribble the Glacial deposits are 
often masked, near Preston, by old river terraces, marking successive — 
stages in the process of denudation of the valley since the Glacial 
episode. 
This is also the case in the valley of the Irwell, in which 
well-marked river-terraces extend for miles, and have suburbs of 
Manchester built upon them. 
The alluvial floor of the river Ribble consists of fine loamy 
material resting on peat with trunks of trees, lying upon rough 
river gravel—followed towards the estuary of the river, the peaty 
bed gains in importance, and is continuously connected, with the 
thick peat mosses occupying so much of West Lancashire, which 
in the lowland plain reach a thickness of 20 to 30 feet. 
The peat beds are well seen at Blowick near Southport, and at 
Rossal and Pilling, near Fleetwood. At Blowick and from there 
down to Hightown they rest on grey clays of estuarine origin ; 
these are well seen at the mouth of the River Alt at Hightown, 
where the clay is overlaid by peat, tree trunks and roots, which are 
covered at high tide. 
The Presall Shingle underlies the peat in the district lying between 
the Wyre and the sea, it is an old beach a little older than the Grey 
clays, near Southport, the latter is underlaid by the Shirdley Hill 
Sand which is partly marine, and partly blown; at Shirdley Hill it 
rises into a range of ancient Sand Dunes. At Fleetwood estuarine 
clays overlie the peat, and in the clay have been discovered Roman 
coins. 
Blown Sand.—The prevalent wind on the coast blows from the 
W.S.W., and passing over the long extent ‘of fore-shore, carries 
inland large quantities of sand, which rise in Dunes to a height of 
80 feet above the sea. The passage of these sands have in the neigh- 
bourhood of Formby overwhelmed cultivated fields and gardens, and 
near Birkdale the name of the Lost Farm alone recalls the existence 
of a once prosperous homestead. Of later years the growth of the 
Starr Grass, or Marram, as it is locally called, has much arrested its 
onward progress. The sand between the Dunes is to some extent 
cemented together by lime, the result of the decomposition of the 
shells of mullusca in the sand hills, and supports small sheets of 
water, locally called “ slacks,” around which grow many rare plants. 
