452 MR. E. M. DEELET ON THE PLEISTOCENE 



western end, and consisted of 5 or 6 feet of brown loamy sand, 

 unstratified, and containing very few pebbles, but full of small 

 decomposed bits of coal. This passed up into an unstratified reddish 

 Boulder-clay, full of pebbles and varying from a few inches to 2 feet 

 in thickness. This was succeeded by brown clay with pebbles, but 

 few traces of coal. Eesting upon this clay, but occupying the 

 eastern end of the cutting, was 4 or 5 feet of clean red and yellow 

 sand, with dark seams and a few pebbles, and obliquely laminated 

 in parts. There was no marked line of division between the clay 

 and the sand, and the former inosculated with the latter in a manner 

 which left no doubt as to the aqueous origin of the Boulder-clay. 

 JSTo flints were anywhere seen. I have not ventured to correlate 

 this sand with the Quartzose Sand, owing to its local nature. 



In the valley of the Soar there are many good sections. At Sileby 

 brick-yard, near the Cemetery, the Keuper marl is covered by about 

 five feet of morainic Boulder-clay with striated rocks. 



Still further south, at Thurmaston brick-yard, about 8 feet of 

 brown aqueous Boulder-clay rests upon the marl. It is full of 

 striated rock-fragments, chiefly Lias and Trias, but Carboniferous 

 limestone, sandstone, and ironstone also occur. The boulders lie 

 horizontally in the clay, which here contains interstratified beds of 

 sand and loam. At the west end of the pit the deposit becomes 

 quite gravelly, and the beds of loam, gravel, and Boulder-clay have 

 been forced over the underlying marl, which is much crushed and 

 contains streaks of sandy clay intruded from above. 



At the Leicester-Abbey section the intensely false-bedded Quart- 

 zose Sand becomes horizontally bedded in the upper four feet, and 

 then changes suddenly into brown or reddish -brown Boulder-clay. 

 We have here indications that the rapid currents of the Quartzose- 

 Sand stage disappeared on the approach of the Middle Pennine ice, 

 an eff'ect partly caused perhaps by a decrease in the depth of the 

 submergence. 



Mr. Beasley's sand-pit at Aylestone, south of Leicester, though 

 showing great signs of ice-action, is yet sufficiently undisturbed to 

 show the arrangement of the sands and Boulder-clays. Here the 

 Quartzose Sand is succeeded by a reddish Boulder-clay containing 

 Charnwood, local, and Pennine rocks. The one deposit graduates 

 into the other without signs of disturbance, the change from sand to 

 Boulder-clay being due to change of sediment and the absence of 

 strong currents. The Charnwood boulders occur chiefly near the 

 junction of the clay with the sand, especially the large boulders, an 

 arrangement pointing to the action of local glacial conditions in the 

 Charnwood Hills. It would seem that before the actual approach 

 of the main Pennine ice-flow local Charnwood glaciers sent out ice- 

 bergs, and coast ice distributed their burdens upon the bottom of 

 the surrounding sea in which the muddy sediment was collecting. 

 The section I am now referring to has been very much disturbed by 

 the ice of the Great Chalky Boulder-clay stage, for great masses of 

 the lower sand have been torn up, thrust upon the Middle Pennine 

 clay, and mixed up with the Chalky clay which occurs above. 



Though the Middle Pennine Boulder-clay covers large areas in 



