450 MR. E. M. DEELET ON THE PLEISTOCENE 



ance towards the top of this portion of the section in tolerable 

 abundance, the matrix at the same time changing to a rusty-coloured 

 sandy clay. The pebbles mostly have their longer axes in a hori- 

 zontal position. Many of them are finely striated, grooved, and 

 polished. About 5 feet of silty ochreous-brown sand and pebbles 

 separates the redeposited red marl and sandy clay from the over- 

 lying Boulder-clay. This consisted of about 8 feet of light-brown 

 stiff clay, purple along the numerous ramifying joints, and thickly 

 studded with pebbles and boulders of various sizes and shapes, 

 mostly beautifully polished, scratched, or fluted. The largest 

 boulder exposed, a mass of Carboniferous Limestone, measured 20" X 

 16". The pebbles most numerous are quartzite and quartz, frag- 

 ments of coal, ironstone, white and black marble, chert, purple 

 Coal-measure sandstone, and Millstone Grit. Many of the pebbles 

 were evidently fragments of larger boulders which had been crushed 

 in transit. Though the deposit shows little or no trace of regular 

 stratification, the boulders are rudely arranged with their longer 

 axes horizontal, and the clay varies vertically in texture in a manner 

 indicative of aqueous action. There was no very marked line of 

 division between any of these beds. All the appearances point to 

 the conclusion that they were deposited in quiet water, local rocks 

 only occurring at the bottom, and foreign materials coming in in 

 greater abundance as the glaciers approached and deposited sand, 

 mud, and boulders in the quiet water. 



The high escarpment overlooking the Trent at Hemington is 

 capped by very similar Boulder-clay. 



Still further south, south of Long Whatton, is another consider- 

 able mass of this Boulder-clay. The high ground south of this 

 village is covered by it. On the north-west it extends from 

 "Whatton Eises along the hill for at least half a mile in a south- 

 westerly direction, and covers the whole of the hill-top as far as 

 Oakley Wood and Paradise Hill on the west. There are no sections 

 of any depth to be seen ; but at one or two points the character of 

 the deposit is displayed. On Paradise Hill some trenches cut for 

 drainage-purposes exposed a reddish-brown Boulder-clay, with occa- 

 sional beds or patches of reddish-brown coarse sand containing 

 carbonaceous matter (decomposed coal). The boulders were Carbon- 

 iferous sandstone and striated limestone, Keuper sandstone, chert, 

 and other Pennine rocks. 



This mass of clay is an outlier of the series of deposits cut through 

 during the construction of the Charnwood Railway. 



Along the northern edge of the Charnwood Hills, and covering 

 the lower ground through which the railway passes, the country is 

 covered by thick masses of Older Pleistocene Boulder-clay. Though 

 it is very probable that some of these clays were formed by Early 

 Pennine ice, the deposits have been so greatly disturbed and 

 e- arranged by the ice-flow of the Middle Pennine stage, that I 

 shall regard them all as belonging to this stage. 



The Charnwood Railway runs nearly due west from Loughborough 

 to Whitwick, along the northern edge of the Charnwood-Porest 



