528 Correspondence — Mr. D. Mackintosh. — Mr. S. Parry. 



ME. EEADE ON DRIFT-SEaUENCE, AND MR. MILNE ON COAST-ICE. 



Sir, — In answer to Mr. Mellard Reade's letter in your last, I ought 

 to state that my object in calling attention to the Liverpool section 

 was mainly to show that the Brick-clay of the N.W. of England is 

 fully entitled to the epithet Boulder-clay ; and that it is an original 

 Boulder-clay, is proved by the number of limestone pebbles it con- 

 tains which exhibit fine wTiite scratches which would have been 

 dimmed if not effaced by a process of re-transportation. The 

 Liverpool drift-section does not show the three-fold division clearly, 

 but even there we find gravel-beds full of erratic pebbles which must 

 have been washed out of a pre-existing glacial clay (of which only 

 hummocky patches remain), and their strise effaced during an inter- 

 glacial period when the transportation of striated stones had ceased. 



You have lately published two very important articles on sea-ice, 

 especially the article by Mr. Milne, which I think may be regarded 

 as settling the question relative to the superiority of coast-ice as a 

 transporting agent, and (with the exception of the more typical 

 roches moutonnees) as a glaciating agent. That floating coast-ice did 

 most of the work of transportation, and (so far as stones are con- 

 cerned) glaciation, may be safely inferred from the glacial phe- 

 nomena of the N.W. of England and Wales, as I have endeavoured 

 to show in many articles in this Magazine, and in the Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. D. Mackintosh. 



HUMAN REMAINS BENEATH BOULDER-CLAY? 



giR^_In the present Number of the Geological Magazine, 

 p. 476, there is an instance recorded of flint implements, mam- 

 malian bones, etc., found in Brick-earth below the Boulder-clay in 

 East Anglia. 



I thought it might interest the readers of the Geological Magazine 

 sufiiciently, to justify me in recording the following which came 

 under my notice the other day (16th inst.). 



While some men were engaged in a brick pit by Yoryd, Ehyl, 

 they dug up, from a depth of 4 feet of slaty clay, a human skull 

 with four teeth attached, a rib and piece of shoulder-bone; above 

 the clay is a thickness of 3 feet of sand. 



I am not competent enough to assign the right date to this clay, 

 but believe it to be older than the Boulder-clay which is very plen- 

 tiful in this district. A little inland from the above, the Boulder- 

 clay lies in a great thickness above the slaty clay, with a band of 

 peat and trunks of trees in some place intervening ; but as we 

 approach the sea, the Boulder-clay is wanting, and the following 

 section is found : 



Soil 



1ft. Sin. 



Shingle with shells 



2 



Sand with shells 



2 



Slaty clay 



2 



Peat 



3 



Slaty clay, depth not known. 







Saml. Parey. 



Rhyl, Oct. I7th, 1876. 



