194 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



to point to a contrary conclusion. It is singular how little use 

 appears to have been made of the microscope in these investi- 

 gations. Marine clays almost invariably yield specimens of 

 foraminifera and kindred forms which are strictly sea-water 

 genera, yet except by our fellow-member, Mr. Joseph Wright, 

 the boulder clays do not appear to have been systematically 

 searched for them. It has for long seemed to me that one of 

 the most useful and interesting branches of investigation into 

 the glacial clays would be the careful microscopic examination 

 and classification of all the boulder clays in the country, not 

 merely of one sample from each bed, but of samples taken both 

 from the top and bottom of each, especially where there is any 

 apparent difference in their bedding or composition. Their 

 height above the sea level should also be approximately recorded. 

 Were this done generally over the country, and it has already 

 in our district been well begun, and the tracing of erratics, in 

 which so much also has already been done, completed, we 

 should then be in a position to attempt to reconcile, or other- 

 wise deal with, the conflicting theories. So far as this section 

 of the country is concerned the Geological Committee of the 

 Club cannot do better than in continuing the work they have 

 so energetically commenced, and if they can persuade a suffi- 

 cient number of competent observers in Great Britain to take 

 up the microscopic investigations of the boulder clays there, 

 the geologists of Britain will be in a fair way to solve the great 

 glacial problem. 



Joseph Wright, F.G.S., after complimenting the President 

 on his interesting inaugural address, proceeded to refer to the 

 boulder clay and its origin. He mentioned that with geologists 

 in the North of Ireland it had always been considered as a 

 marine deposit, and so long ago as 1841 General Portlock in his 

 report on the geology of Londonderry recorded the occurence 

 of marine shells in this drift. Subsequently S. A. Stewart 

 published in the Club's Proceedings a list of the mollusca of the 

 boulder clay in which he recorded the occurence of shells from 

 a number of North of Ireland localities, proving that the clay 



