SUCCESSION IN THE TKENT BASIN. 469 



Another large stretch of similar gravel covers the high land north 

 of Eggington. The railway-cutting east of the station passes through 

 this deposit, and two fine sections are exposed south of the point 

 where the railway crosses the Burton Road. 



In the valley of the Trent, and capping or resting upon the 

 southern side of the low range of hills forming the northern escarp- 

 ment of the river between Pindern and Weston, there are long 

 patches of high-level river-gravel, evidently formed by currents 

 running from higher to lower levels down the valley. There are 

 three distinct patches forming, not including breaks, about, two miles 

 and three furlongs of terrace reaching a breadth of about three 

 hundred yards. This gravel is the most elevated interglacial deposit 

 of the Trent I am yet cognizant of. It rests at a height above the 

 river considerably in excess of the Older and Middle Pleistocene 

 Boulder- clay at Sheldon and Swarkestone. From this it would 

 appear that when the Trent first began to excavate its Newer Pleis- 

 tocene valley, it flowed over a considerable thickness of Boulder- 

 clay which had been deposited during the two previous epochs. 



The most westerly patch of gravel extends for about half a mile 

 along the hill-top in an easterly direction from Stenson Lock. Two 

 exposures occur, one at each end of the deposit. The most westerly 

 section shows about 15 feet of stratified gravel, with beds of sand. 

 Towards the centre of the section the sand beds reach a considerable 

 thickness, and, by their oblique bedding, indicate currents down the 

 valley. Flints are extremely numerous, occasionally as large as 

 thirty-two pound shot. They were probably derived directly from 

 the Great Chalky Boulder-clay to the west, over which the river was 

 at that time running. 



The next portion of this high-level terrace extends for about a 

 mile from Barrow Old Elm to Swarkestone Lowes. At its western 

 end it rests against a small outlier of Chalky Clay, the presence of 

 which was ascertained by boring when mapping this patch of gravel. 

 About the centre of the deposit, on the east side of the road leading 

 from Sinfin Moor, a gravel-pit shows it to be a red stratified gravel 

 with sand beds. 



The easterly patch rests upon the sandstone near Weston-on- 

 Trent, and extends from Weston Cliff across the railway for nearly 

 a mile in a north-easterly direction. Two good exposures may be 

 seen — one near the cliff, and another just north of the railway. The 

 height of the upper surface of the gravel is here about 74 feet above 

 the present fiood-level of the Trent. 



A still lower terrace may be traced from a point a little to the 

 south-east of the church, and through Weston to within about half 

 a mile of Aston. There is a small exposure at the southern 

 extremity, not far from the church, and another to the west of the 

 road at the north end, on the line of section, fig. 3. In both these 

 terraces the steep escarpment which once overlooked the river has 

 been obliterated by the glaciers of the succeeding epoch ; but the 

 steep bank and almost horizontal floor against and upon which the 

 gravel rests yet remain. 



A still lower series of terraces (similar to those I have noticed in 

 aJ.G.S. No. 168. 2x 



