130 MR. W. BROCKBANK ON THE 



well- sinkers and contractors where the clay has been 

 penetrated. At the Levenshulme Print Works, half a 

 mile further eastwards, an Artesian well was sunk some 

 years ago by Messrs. Aitken Bros., and by the kindness of 

 Mr. Thos. Aitken I now exhibit the section, the particulars 

 of which are given in the Appendix. It shows the thick- 

 ness of the Lower Boulder-clay and sands to have been 

 82 feet in all to the New Red Sandstone, and the total 

 depth penetrated before the water-supply was obtained, 

 450 feet, the borings leaving off in the New Red Sandstone 

 pebble-beds. 



Half a mile further eastwards, at a place called Sandfold, 

 some deep borings were taken, with a view to Sir Joseph 

 Whitworth's proposal to purchase a site for his works ; 

 but the sands and clays were found so thick that it was 

 abandoned. The Upper clays here come in, and a great 

 thickness of sand intervenes, producing much water. It is 

 interesting to note, by the way, that Mr. Aitken has in his 

 possession a fragment of a Roman ' ' cinerary "-urn found at 

 Sandfold in a thin black seam which occurred in the sand- 

 pit. It is thus clearly shown that from Slade Lane east- 

 wards, for a considerable distance, the Boulder- clay is of 

 immense thickness, some 80 feet in fact ; and, supposing it 

 absent, we should have a very marked ridge formed by the 

 Levenshulme limestone, at least 70 feet above the Red 

 Sandstone floor which lies before it. Whether this arose 

 from denudation or from the effect of the fault is a problem 

 which further researches may possibly solve. I incline at 

 present to atttribute it to the upheaval of the strata to the 

 west of the great fault at Slade Lane. 



It will be seen that in this section we start from the New 

 Red Sandstone at Withington and end with the same for- 

 mation at Levenshulme, that the limestones at Slade 

 Lane are brought to the surface by a great fault, and that 



