T. M. READE ON RIPPLE-MARKS IN DRIFT. 267 
17. Riepie-marks in Drirt in SHRopsHire and CuEsHirE. By 
T. Metiarp Reape, Esq., C.E., F.G.8. (Read February 20, 1884.) 
Amone all the published notices of drift deposits that I have read, I 
cannot call to mind any description of ripple-marks as forming 
features in that formation*. Of course if the drift was formed 
under land-ice we should not expect to see them;. but if, as I 
maintain, a very large part of it has been laid down in water, then, 
under favourable conditions, they should be found. 
I was much pleased on examining,in the early part of 1883, a section 
in the Old-Park-Field sand-hole, at Ketley, near Wellington, Shrop- 
shire (to which I had been directed by my friend Dr. Callaway), to 
notice in a stratified deposit of drift-sand three distinct beds of ripple- 
marked laminz, most beautifully displayed in section. The following 
is a sketch of the deposit (fig. 1). The position of this sand-pit is 
Fig. 1.—Section at Ketley, 
near Wellington, Shropshire. 
- 
LN SDD SKS OAT L 
—~ So 7 = 
ee  )  Ripple-marks: 
loamy sand. 
= Finely laminated 
- 
on the south side of Watling Street. I measured one of the ripple- 
marks in bed No. 1, and found it was 9 inches from crest to 
erest, and 17 inch high; the fall of the wave indicated that the wind 
producing it was from the N.W. The figure below (fig. 2), drawn 
to a scale of $ inch to the foot, will more fully explain its form. 
* Note (March 1884).—Mr. Mackintosh, describing a section of Boulder-clay 
(Low-level Boulder-clay) at Egremont, Cheshire, says, “'The surface of this bed 
|‘ Middle sands’ according to him, but an included sand bed according to my 
classification] presents the appearance of having been finely ripple-marked im- 
mediately before the tranquil deposition of an inch in thickness of leaf-like 
laming, which within the vertical space of a few inches graduate into typical 
upper clay.” 
Mr. Jukes-Browne informs me that there is at South Ferriby, in Lincolnshire, 
a bed of indurated sand a few inches thick beautifully ripple-marked on the 
upper surface, which underlies the Boulder-clay and overlies a thin bed of gravel 
resting on the chalk. It was previously described by Mr. Searles Wood (Q. J. 
G. 8. vol. xxiv. p. 150), who states that there is a similar bed below the Hessle 
clay in the Hessle quarry. 
Mr. Lamplugh, in reply to an inquiry, says, ‘‘ Ripple-marks are by no means 
uncommon in our cliff sections [about Bridlington], being generally in beds of 
sand and sandy clay, interstratified with the Purple Boulder-clay.” He has 
given an example of one of the best of them in the Geol. Mag. for Sept. 1879. 
SS SS ee ee 
