528 ON THE NEWER PLIOCENE PERIOD IN ENGLAND. 



neighbourhood of Brandon laminated clay is found under Boulder- 

 clay; but there is more than one laminated brick-earth in the 

 country. No man in England had worked at these beds more 

 steadily and industriously than Mr. Wood, and no one was more 

 ready to communicate his accumulated facts to other geologists. 

 His opinions on the beds in question were entitled to the highest 

 consideration. 



Prof. Hughes gave expression to the general feeling of sympathy 

 in the Society with Mr. Wood in his serious ill-health. He re- 

 garded the quartz-pebble gravel of the highest plateau of East 

 Anglia as older than any of the Boulder-clay of that area. He did 

 not agree with Mr. Wood that the cannon-shot gravel might be 

 formed by the debacles from melting ice, nor did he think that 

 the Moel-Tryfaen beds are of the age assigned to them by the 

 author. He regarded the oscillations of level in Post-pliocene 

 times as being of a local character, and not of the widespread 

 kind suggested by Mr. Wood. 



Prof. Seelet said that the views of ancient physical geology 

 enunciated by Mr. S. Wood were of very great interest. He 

 especially referred to his views on the mode of excavation of valleys 

 by estuaries rather than by the existing rivers in those valleys. 

 He agreed with Prof. Hughes as to the correlation of the drifts on 

 the east and west of England. He did not think these facts, how- 

 ever, affected the truth of Mr. Searles Wood's views. He supported 

 the view that the plateau-gravels are of marine origin. 



Mr. De Eance said that sands and gravels at Blackpool at low 

 elevations contain the same shells as those at high levels at Maccles- 

 field ; and he regarded all the deposits as formed on a subsiding 

 area, the sands and gravels creeping up the hill-sides from the lowest 

 to the higher levels. The sands and gravels are more persistent at 

 different levels than are either the Upper or Lower Boulder- clay. 

 He could not regard the finely stratified Boulder-clay of Midland 

 and North-western England as being formed in any way by land-ice. 

 The valley of the Eibble cuts its way right through all the glacial 

 deposits, while valley-gravels lie upon all of them, alluvium and 

 peat lying at the bottom of the valley. 



Mr. Charleswoeth spoke of the great readiness of the author to 

 assist those working in the same field. He quite agreed with him 

 in his views concerning the Bed Crag. 



Mr. Jtjkes-Beowne supported Mr. De Banco in the view that the 

 Chalky Boulder-clay was not formed by land-ice. He also thought 

 that the author was mistaken in supposing that there was any 

 evidence of erosion between the Lower and Mid Glacial in the 

 Cromer section. 



Prof. JxJDD expressed his sympathy with the author in the illness 

 which prevented his presence at the Meeting. He thought that 

 the existence of great transported blocks, like those of Ponton cutting 

 and the neighbourhood, could scarcely be accounted for by any land- 

 ice theory of the formation of the Chalky Boulder-clay. 



The President also expressed regret at the absence of the author, 

 who had done such valuable work in a most difiicult field of research. 



