110 Miss Eyton — Newer Deposits of North Shropshire. 



Fusus antiquus appears to be characteristic of the whole series, from 

 the Blue Clay upwards ; Tellina solidula, Astarte arctica, Gardium 

 edule, and Gardium ecMnatum range upwards, from the clayey gravel 

 of Merrington-green. Not that there may not be some other species 

 in a very fragmentary state in that bed, but the chief point to be 

 noticed is the total absence of Gyprina Islandica and Turritella com- 

 munis — ^both so characteristic of the sandy gravels — the coarse, strong 

 fragments of the former of which could hardly escape attention; 

 while the latter, from its shape, is peculiarly formed to resist de- 

 structive influences. In Norfolk, the range of Tellina solidula com- 

 mences much lower down, at the base of the whole glacial series.^ 

 Mr. C. J. "Woodward gives a list of twenty -two species of shells, 

 from the sandy gravel of Lilleshall, of which two species — Natica 

 clausa and Scalaria communis — have not been found, I believe, in any 

 other locality in Shropshire. Of another species in his list — Lutraria 

 elliptica — I have found some doubtful fragments near Ketley Brook. 

 Mr. G. Maw, in the list appended to his paper,^ enumerates thirty- 

 nine species found by him in the Severn Valley beds, of which the 

 greater number are also common in the other localities mentioned in 

 this paper — or at least fragments of them, for perfect specimens are 

 somewhat rare. To these I have to add the following, collected 

 from the sandy gravels in the different localities above named : — 

 Astarte elliptica, Gardium Norvegicum, A. compressa, Nucula nucleus, 

 Mactra subtruncata, Trophon clathratus, Lucina borealis (?), Mangelia 

 rufa — making 50 species from these beds at present known. The 

 authority used is Messrs. Forbes and Hanley's work on British Mol- 

 lusca.^ Mr. C. J. Woodward mentions Trophon Banff erius {? Bamffius) 

 among his collection, but the specimens of Trophon that I have found 

 do not, I think, belong to that variety. 



By placing these sands and gravels on the horizon of the Middle 

 Drift, another point is decided, namely, the age of the Boulder-clay 

 on the "Welsh coast. Although this formation does not extend so 

 far south as Moel Tryfaen, it is very well exhibited in the neighbour- 

 hood of Abergele, as a dark-red clay, containing numerous subangular 

 and striated blocks of limestone and other rocks.* Near the village of 

 Colwyn, west of PenmaenEhos mountain, there is exhibited a section 

 where the clay has been removed, and the middle sands and gravels 

 deposited in its place. I do not remember any locality where the 

 actual contact is seen, but there can be no doubt, to any one who 

 carefully examines the relative position of the beds, that such is the 

 case. As in the section described at Howth,*^ the Boulder-clay rests 

 immediately upon the Carboniferous Limestone. This position de- 

 finitively decides it to be the early, not the later, Boulder-clay. 



At a range of altitude, the higher elevations of which correspond 



1 Gfol. Mag., Oct., 1868, p. 452. 2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1864. 



3 These shells are all drifted specimens, washed up by the waves, in a dead state, 

 with the sand and shingle of the beach. They are most frequent where the deposit is 

 bedded, and both valves are never found joined. 



* See "Drift-beds of Llandi-illo-bay," Geol. Mag., August, 1868. 



6 Geol. Mag., Dec, 1869. 



