1869.] WHITAKER CONSUMPTION DEATH-RATE. 431 



was brought to the sea by glaciers, or floated by ice. Most of the 

 rounded larger stones, excepting where they are the remains of sea- 

 beaches in situ, were carried from sea-coasts by floating ice, and 

 dropped with or without finer drift matter into ordinary marine 

 deposits then in course of being accumulated. In many places these 

 deposits lay out of the way of receiving additions from floating ice. 



(4) Marine deposits extend up hill-sides, cover upland valleys 

 and plateaux, and stretch along the bases of escarpments (as in 

 Derbyshire) where few or no erratic boulders or stones are to be 

 found. At high levels the identity of these deposits with so-called 

 drifts is rendered probable by the fact that the finer matter compo- 

 sing them is seldom entirely*, though generally mainly, of local de- 

 rivation, and likewise by the fact that they graduate by impercep- 

 tible degrees into erratic drifts at lower levels. 



(5) The absence of rounded stones in superficial accumulations, at 

 high levels, may be attributed to the positions in which they occur 

 having been unfavourable to littoral attrition, or to the sea having 

 not continued long at a stationary level. Though the angular stones 

 in these accumulations are local, they often occupy positions to which 

 they must have been drifted from short distances. 



(6) Unless the term drift be limited to erratic stones contained in 

 clay, sand, and gravel, the general covering of hilly districts f, so 

 far as it is distinct from merely fallen or washed-down detritus, 

 freshwater alluvium, and the efl'ect of disintegration in situ, ought to 

 be included in the term drift deposits. 



7. 0)1 the Connexion of the Geological Structure and Physical 

 .Features of the South-east of England ivith the Consumption 

 Death-rate. By W. Whitazeb, Esq., B.A., E.G.S. 



[Abstract.] 



The author stated that his investigation of this subject, which was 

 carried on in conjunction with Dr. Buchanan, was suggested by the 



'^ In Derbyshire, near Buxton, the limestone is covered with a brown clay 

 graduating into sandy loam, which in some places is scarcely distinguishable 

 from the covering of the Yoredale and Millstone- Grit strata of the neighbour- 

 hood, and both may be found graduating into drift deposits with erratic stones 

 at lower levels. The clay on the limestone is distinct in colour and composition 

 from the miderlying coating of decomposed limestone. The latter is produced 

 by the chemical action of the rain-water which the clay prevents from running 

 oif. Here, as in the Furness district, smoothly sculptured rock-surfaces, where 

 they are covered with clay, are becoming minutely pitted and disfigured by 

 pluvio-chemical action. These surfaces, under dry loam, or in the open air (where 

 rain-water quickly runs off), are smoothly, regularly, and curvihnearly hollowed, 

 rounded, basined, channelled, and funnelled. 



t The marine origin of the general detrital covering of elevated areas in 

 Scotland is admitted by Mr. James Nicol (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxv. 

 p. 283) and by Mr. James Geikie (Geol. Mag. vol. v. pp. 22, 23), who speaks of 

 " angular Gravel " and " mounds of debris " on hill-sides as having been accumu- 

 lated by the sea. 



