282 ME. G. W. LAMPLUaH ON GLACIAL 



migM be rubbed to a paste between the fingers, and others, again, 

 from which every particle of shelly matter had been removed, so 

 that there remained only the casts in clay ; and yet they were pro- 

 bably all living at the same moment, have all been imbedded 

 in the same matrix, and have diFered only in their distance from 

 the surface. 



I think it is probable that the beds in which the shells were so 

 admirably preserved have not been elevated above sea-level since 

 their deposition. 



In spite of the position and condition of these shells, I do not 

 think any I found in these sections were in place, that is to say, 

 have lived where they occurred, though I dare say that the descrip- 

 tion of the beds which I have given above will not be thought to 

 bear out this conclusion very satisfactorily. Yet such was the im- 

 pression given me by a careful study of the beds, and I believe 

 that the whole mass of drift, including the shells, has been pushed 

 up into the gully by ice in its passage southward across Esquimault 

 Harbour, It is possible that a truly marine deposit may still 

 exist in the deeper recesses of the gorge below the dock-floor, 

 and I was at first inclined to think that some of the stratified 

 seams I examined might form part of such a bed; but as these 

 appeared to be mere patches in till, the shells occurring in nests, 

 and as the bedding dipped steeply towards the adjoining rocky 

 cliff — unlikely conditions in a sea-bottom — I think it is safer to 

 consider that the whole of the sections seen have been disturbed 

 and removed by ice. Indeed, if this conclusion be not accepted, I 

 see no other alternative than to regard il;e whole mass of drift 

 exposed in these sections as of marine origin, since the shells were 

 not confined to the bedded portion, but were scattered through the 

 unstratified mass also, and no line could be drawn between the 

 shelly and shell-less clay. 



So far as the irregular distribution of the species was concerned, 

 I might have been examining sections in Yorkshire such as I de- 

 scribed to the Society two years ago * ; in fact, in many particulars 

 there was an extraordinary similarity to the English beds, so that 

 one had occasionally to look at the surrounding landscape to dispel 

 illusions. Leda occurred in one place, Niicula in another, and 

 Cardium and Saxicava everywhere, just as at Bridlington. 



Balanidae coated many of the smaller pebbles, and had sometimes 

 grown so large and thick as quite to overshadow and hide their 

 foundation, but they were often on the underside of the pebble as 

 it lay in the clay and not in the attitude of life. Some of the 

 pebbles which were thus coated were angular chips of rock re- 

 sembling that found in the neighbourhood. Except in the stratified 

 seams the shells were scattered at random through a rather loose 

 blue-grey stony till (which weathered to a pale yellowish brown at 

 the top), sometimes in separate valves, sometimes with valves 

 united, in the latter case often crushed together and broken. 

 Boulders were decidedly more plentiful and larger in the upper than 

 * Quart, Journ. Geol. See. vol. xl. p. 312. 



