Correspondence — T. Mellard Reade. 139 



and a rider coal (sulphur), about 9 inches thick ; then more clunch, 

 etc., and at about 88 yards a stratum of sulphur coal, of very good 

 quality of its kind, and more than a yard thick. We then had many 

 different measures of clunch clay, etc., etc., and several rocks, and 

 then the measures were : 



FT. IN. FT. IN. 



Rider of Smut Coal 4 Brown Clod, witli ligM-coloured 



Brown Fireclay 2 balls of Ironstone 5 



Grey Rock 2-4 Smut Coal 2 



Strong Blue Binds 12 Black Clod, with dark-coloured 



Dark Fireclay 6 balls of Ironstone 5 



Bat 1 6 Smut Coal (good) 3 4 



Batty Coal 1 O' Dark Clod 2 



Smut Coal (very good) 4 Smut Coal (good) 3 6 



Some of the above measurements (he says), may not be exactly 

 correct, but they are given as near as I at present know them." 

 Any one looking at this section will sse the importance of the deposits 

 and their total dissimilarity from the younger Coal-measures. 



Albhighton, Wolverhampton, Daniel Jomes, F.G.S. 



Ftb. dth, 1873. 



CTCLAS CLAY. 



SiK, — In describing the Post-glacial deposits of West Lancashire, 

 Mr. C. E. De Eance repeats in your last Number the statement that 

 the peat of the lower plain or that below the 25 feet contour line 

 rests on " Cyclas and Scrobicularia Clays." As the whole of the 

 deposit — which is of considerable thickness — had been previously 

 described by him as " Cyclas Clay," I am at a loss to know whether 

 the Scrobicularia Clay alluded to is that intercalated in the peats; 

 or whether he has changed his views on the subject, and considers 

 the deposit to be of a mixed fresh-water and marine .character. If 

 he has changed his views, it is due to the public that such should be 

 stated, otherwise' they may be misled by his previous papers and by 

 the geological sheets of the district, in which the peat of the lower 

 plain is stated to rest on " Cyclas Clay," 



Having searched in vain for Mr. De Eance's " Cyclas Clay" ever 

 since I read his interesting paper in the Journal of the Geological 

 Society (1870, p. 665), I consider myself entitled to speak on the 

 subject. For the details of my investigations I must refer those 

 interested to my paper on "'The Post-glacial Geology of the Mersey 

 Estuary" in the Geological Magazine of March, 1872, and to the 

 more detailed description, with map and sections, in the Transactions 

 of the Liverpool Geological Society, 1872. In these communica- 

 tions I have proved by the most ample evidence that the whole of 

 the beds in question are of marine origin, and have named them the 

 " Formby and Leasowe marine-beds." Until the facts brought 

 forward by me are disproved, it is vain to go on repeating that the 

 peat is underlain by "Cyclas Clay"; and unless tins is done, the 

 mis-description in the Geological Map 90° S.E. ought to be at once 

 corrected. T. Mellard Reade, C.E., F.G.S. 



Heath Hoxtse, Blundellsands, Livekpool, 

 Uh February, 1S73. 



