2 Dawkins, Discovery of Elephas antiquus at Blackpool. 



Blackpool cliffs, which rise to the north to a height of over 

 lOO feet above the sea, and are mainly formed of 

 glacial sands and gravels capped by an upper brown clay. 

 These cliffs are rapidly being attacked by the sea, and have 

 undoubtedly covered the spot where the Elephas antiquus 

 was found. The clay in question, therefore, belongs to 

 the Lower Boulder-clay series of the Lancashire and 

 Cheshire plains, as defined by the Geological Survey of 

 Great Britain.* 



The question next to be considered is how did the 

 tooth under discussion come to be embedded in the 

 Lower Boulder-clay? It cannot be answered without 

 examining the origin of the materials found in the boulder- 

 clay. All the boulders, pebbles, and sand and fine clays 

 of which it is chiefly composed have been picked up by 

 glaciers in their course from the hills to the sea. In this 

 case the transported blocks o^ stone from the hills of the 

 Lake district and of the Highlands of Scotland point out 

 the position of the ice sheds. It is, however, very im- 

 probable that these materials were deposited by the melting 

 of the glaciers on the land, because the coarser and finer 

 elements have been dropped together without the sorting 

 action of the glacier streams, which invariably carry the 

 clayey element far away from the sands and gravels 

 which are left behind to form the moraine. There is no 

 instance on record of horizontal sheets of boulder-clay, 

 like that of the Lancashire and Cheshire plain, being 

 formed in any part of the world by ice melting above the 

 level of the sea. There is, on the other hand, clear proof that 

 the boulder-clay was deposited in the sea. The marine 

 shells which occur in it, up to 1,200 feet above the sea, 

 and more particularly the foraminifera which range in it 



* Memoirs of Geological Swvey, C. E. De Ranee ; Geology of the Country 

 round Blackpool, Foulfon, and Fleetwood. 



