NORTH-WEST REGION OF CHARNWOOD FOKESr. 97 



of rock appear to have been rubbed away from the crests of a series 

 of small ridges ; but commonly the ridges are sharp. Hence we 

 seem entitled to assume that, if ever an ice-sheet came so far south 

 in England, it did not pass over the Charnwood Hills. Uoulder- 

 clay, however, has been occasionally seen in outlying places, as at 

 Mount Sorrel and Croft Hill, resting on the granitic rock. Eut 

 erratics of local rocks have evidently been distributed both over the 

 Forest and from it as a centre. Por instance, over the low ground, 

 in the valley N.N.E. of One Barrow Farm, we noticed a scatter of 

 erratics of ashy rock, among which was one boulder of agglomerate 

 (full 4' x3' X Ig'j, which appeared to correspond with those which 

 crop out on Gun Hill, from which a shallow depression comes down 

 to the valley. On Jiardon large blocks are scattered in a sort of 

 •' head," overlying a patch of Keuper, rather more than 650 feet above 

 the sea ; these must have come from the upper part of the hill, and 

 there has evidently been a scatter of blocks from Peldar Tor and the 

 neighbouring region over the lower ground to the west. They lie, 

 where the soil is thick and no rock can be near the surface, at 

 distances and in positions to which they cannot possibly have rolled 

 from any crags now visible. In short, there is frequent evidence 

 of a considerable scatter of fragments over the Forest region, which 

 we can only attribute to the action of ice. Further, the Heports of 

 the Erratic-Blocks Committee of the British Association prove that 

 the Forest has been the centre of a considerable and extensive 

 dispersion*. The granite of Mount Sorrel has been identified 

 resting on the surface, or lying in Upper Boulder-clay at elevations 

 ranging from the bed of the Soar Valley, i. e. about 150 feet above the 

 sea, up to as much as 280 feet above it. Blocks of the *' southern 

 syenite '' have been observed about 4 miles away to the south, and 

 210 feet above the sea. The rock is scattered over a considerable area 

 to the S.E. of the present outcrops at Groby and Markfield ; and the 

 Mount-Sorrel granite with other Charnwood rocks may be recog- 

 nized in boulders at various places over a region extending from 

 Leicester to Coventry and from the latter town to Stockton t. 



From the above evidence it is clear that during the time of the 

 Upi)er Boulder-clay Charnwood Forest was an independent centre 

 of dispersion for erratics, which, especially in a S. and S.AV. 

 direction, reach more than 20 miles away+. The vertical limits 

 already mentioned make it ver}'' improbable tliat the ground has 

 been overflowed by a northern ice-sheet ; large local glaciers are 

 out of the question. Hence transport by coast-ice during partial 

 submergence seems most in accordance with the facts ; and if the 

 Boulder-clay were a terrestrial formation, what explanation is to 

 be given of the cetacean bone which has been discovered in it§ ? 



* See Reports of Committee : Brit. Assoc. Eeport, 1883, 1886, 1888. 



t Tuekwell, JBrit. Asaoc. Report, 188(), p. 627. 



I 1 observed, in the autumn of J 889, blocks of more than one kind of rock 

 (among them sjenite), whicli appeared to me to be from Charnwood, built into 

 the very ancient masonry of Brixworth Church. — T. G. B. 



§ Brit. Assoc. Report, 1888, p. 124. 



