Earthen Vase found in Boulder Clay at Stockport, gr 



The red sand is the drift of a desert which existed 

 before the glacial period. The boulder clay is the residuum 

 of an ice age. The alluvial clay, gravel,' and mould repre- 

 sent a portion of the genial age wherein we live. 



I know no reason why there should not have been 

 inhabitants in Britain during the glacial epoch, for are 

 there not Esquimaux in Greenland, Laplanders in 

 Europe, and Samoyedes in Northern Asia. If human 

 beings can now live in these glacialised districts, it 

 must have been equally possible in Britain when similar 

 conditions existed. There is, however, a remarkable 

 absence of evidences of human occupation in the remains 

 found in the boulder clay, of which so much has been 

 excavated for industrial purposes in Great Britain. 



My own observation is that the boulder clay at the top 

 is fissured as if a stream had coursed over its surface and 

 worn runlets on its face. Now, if any hollow vessel were 

 dropped into one of the fissures at a time when a river 

 flowed over it or it was a lake, it would have become filled 

 with boulder clay if an inrush of alluvial clay, sand, and 

 gravel came down, crushing in the sides of the fissures, and 

 burying it therein. The river or lake which in all proba- 

 bility at that time filled the Portwood valley, gradually 

 lowered as the red sandstone rock was washed away by 

 the Mersey, the bed of which river is now 53 ft. below the 

 level of the place where the vase was found. Hence, it is 

 required to ascertain the length of time it would take to 

 abrade for a depth of 53 ft. the Permian and Triassic 

 rocks in order to ascertain the date of the vase before you, 

 for there can be little doubt but that this vase was 

 deposited after the boulder clay was laid, before the 

 alluvials covered it, and when the river bed was 53 ft. 

 higher than it is now. 



It is hardly fair to take Niagara as a basis of cal- 

 culation for the recession of a river, for it is a lofty fall 



