Miss Eyton — Newer Deposits of North Shropshire. Ill 



with tlio lower parts of the marine terraces, wliilo the l>aso is situated, 

 generally siioaking, about 20 ft. above tlio present stream and river 

 system, there is another scries of drifts, so closely resembling the 

 former, that in some situations it is difficult to avoid confusing them, 

 as they contain all the materials of the older drift, and often assume 

 the same rounded contour. The principal distinguishing character- 

 istics are, 1st : The presence of quartzite pcbljles from the Triassic 

 conglomerate, generally in considerable numbers. 2ndly, The 

 entii-e absence of any trace of shells. These drifts are principally 

 composed of the re-assorted and degraded materials of the marine 

 beds, so thoroughly "washed and sifted" as to destroy all organic 

 remains, with the addition of the round quartzite pebbles, pink, 

 white, and yellow. They correspond in many particulars to Mr. 

 Kinahan's " Esker Drift," ^ but they differ in one respect — the 

 presence of a large number of flints in some of the beds. Boulders 

 of grey granite sometimes occur in connection with them. They do 

 not occur genei-ally in terraces, but are spread out over most of the 

 flat country, though they sometimes form mounds and banks on the 

 sides of river valleys. They are, I think, the remains of an older 

 and more powerful stream and river system than that now in 

 existence, aided, probably, by extensive floods, occasioned by melting 

 snows, and possibly by the action of land ice.^ Had they been 

 arranged by marine currents, we could hardly fail to find some 

 traces of marine organisms, considering how abundant these are in 

 the older drift, and how invariably they fringe the courses of such 

 currents, tidal or otherwise, in the present sea. 



The Werf, a small tributary of the Severn, flowing from a few 

 miles east of Shifnal, through Eyton and Beckbury to Bridgenorth, 

 cuts its way through high banks and mounds of drift, assuming all 

 the outward contour of marine terraces, but composed principally of 

 materials from the neighbouring Trias, and — at least between Cos- 

 ford and Beckbury — without shells.^ The beds occur on both sides 

 of the valley, from 50 to 100ft. above the stream; and one of the 

 most striking facts connected with them is the way in which the 

 stream cuts into them, forming its own bed of mud and silt — not 

 gravel. Some of the mounds between Eyton and Beckbury lie end- 

 ways to the stream. 



On the banks of the river Tern, near Crudgington, there occurs a 

 gi'avel bed, containing numerous flints, crushed and chipped, having 

 evidently been exposed to some grinding process. 



In the neighbourhood of Merrington Green the re-assorted dmfts 

 are found occupying the valley of the Perry, where they likewise 

 contain flints, and also lying upon hiU-sides, and occupying many 

 positions to which no stream now in existence could possibly have 

 borne them. Those deposits near the Perry are easily distinguished 

 from the older gravel by being bedded. In one place, near Yeaton, 



1 Geol. Mag., Dec, 1869, p. 569. 



2 See Rev. 0. Fisher's "Denudations of Norfolk," Gf.ol. Mag., Dec, 1868. 



3 Marine diifts do occur, I am told, on the banks of this stream, nearer to Bridge- 

 north. 



