NORTH-WEST OF ENGLAND AND NORTH WALES. t)J 



occurs at Tranmere Pool and at Hooton, thus bearing ont the in- 

 ferences drawn from the Lancashire side *. 



At Upton, in May 1873, I examined with Mr. Shone a san dhole 

 which showed a section of current-bedded sand and gravel with 

 rolled pebbles of Red Sandstone mixed with erratic pebbles (fig. 8): 

 in it the usual shell-fragments occurred. The whole was overlain 

 by a thin bed of Boulder-clay of irregular thickness, containing only 

 a small proportion of stones. I have very seldom found rolled 

 pebbles of Triassic rocks, except in some of the clay of the dock- 

 excavations on the Lancashire side ; and this is worth bearing in mind. 

 The same section, excepting that the sand is of a flesh- or reddish 

 colour generally, was to be seen at the Backford sandhole. Here 

 the valley is about 50 feet deep, and must formerly have been 

 filled with sand, which Las been denuded. 



Fig. 8. — Section in Sandpit, Upton. 



mm 



a. Sands and gravels. 



b. Bed of gravel containing many rounded pebbles of red sandstone. 



c. Current-bedded sands containing beds of gravel, in which are many 



fragments of shells, especially in the gravel. 



d. Boulder-clay with few stones. 



Hehby and Frodsham. — Ascending the Mersey, the Boulder-clay 

 skirts the foot of the Helsby and Frodsham hills which overlook the 

 upper marshes of the Mersey. When, however, we follow the 

 valleys which ramify among these hills, we find they are largely 

 filled with a sandy drift not unlike that at Backford. A section 

 disclosed by a well I sunk at the late Mr. George Eastee's house, 

 about a mile from Helsby, showed 20 feet of yellow flesh-coloured 

 and red sand, evidently arranged by water, with a seam of clay 

 about the middle of it, the whole resting on soft rock. 



On the northern face of Helsby Hill, about halfway up, a cutting 

 at the side of a road showed the following section (fig. 9), the rela- 

 tion of the Drift to the escarpment of Helsby Hill being shown in 

 fig. 10. 



Valley of the Weaver. — From Frodsham up to the Grand Junction 

 Yiaduct the river Weaver runs through a deep valley cut in the 



* " Buried valley of the Mersey," Proc. of Greol Soc. of Liverpool, Session 

 1872-73. 



