Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixii. (19 18), No. 9. 3 



The materials of which these hiUs are chiefly composed belong to 

 the Drift deposit No. 2 of Binney's 1847 classification, 1 and are the 

 so-called " middle sand and gravel " of various authors. 2 



On first being exposed, the Pendleton section showed a depth 

 varying from 6 to 20 feet, according to the slope of the hill and the 

 inclination of the new road (Light Oaks Road) cutting through the 

 Drift mound in a westerly direction. On the northern side of this 

 road, and in another running from it northwards, the beds consisted, 

 in descending order, of a small thickness (about 2 feet) of grass- 

 covered sandy soil, dark in colour, and containing, at the base, 

 •scattered flint cores and flakes, including a few " pigmies." These 

 scanty remains are insufficient to furnish conclusive evidence as to 

 date ; but they possibly indicate a Neolithic floor. This is rendered 

 probable from similar occurrences elsewhere (see p. 6). 



Below the soil-bed came a bed of lighter coloured sand, which, 

 like the overlying soil, was noticeably devoid of stratification. This 

 zone was about 2 feet in thickness and rested immediately upon a 

 thick series of current-bedded Glacial sands with lenticular beds of 

 small gravel and rolled coal-pebbles, and, in places, lenticular patches 

 and layers of loam, the whole being much faulted. The Glacial 

 sands themselves were remarkably free from stones. 



On the southern side of Light Oaks Road the section, except 

 for some weathering, is at present much the same as when first ex- 

 posed. It differs considerably from that of the opposite side. At 

 the Claremont Road end the beds consist of sand and gravel, but 

 farther west, about the position of the 200-foot contour-line on the 6- 

 inch Ordnance Survey map, reddish clay with rounded stones replaces 

 the sand and gravel as a surface deposit. The clay occurs in bands of 

 varying thickness, separated by thin layers of fine sand : it shows 

 some contortion in places, and book-leaf layers are frequent. These 

 beds rest immediately on current-bedded sands similar to those of 

 the northern section. According to borings, made by the foreman 

 in charge of the excavations, the greatest thickness of clay here is 

 5 feet 6 inches. This rests on some 30 feet of sharp sand entirely 

 free from clay bands. This section is bisected by a short road 

 running southward, and at one corner of this road a deposit of fine 

 sand is seen filling what appears to be a slight depression or gully 

 in the clay surface. Sand is also present overlying the clay in 

 another portion of this road : this sand is apparently devoid of 

 stratification. 



The absence of the intervening deposits between the northern 

 and southern sections (removed in making the road) renders it difficult 

 to correlate the two sections with accuracy, but from the presence 

 of a thin band of clay near the top of the sands at the lower or 

 western end of the northern section one is led to the conclusion 

 that the reddish clay rapidly thins out here. There was no trace 

 of its extension over the sands at the eastern end before these beds 

 were cleared away. 



1 Manch. Lit. and Phil. Soc, Vol. VIII., 1847, p. 204. 



2 Geol. Surv. Memoirs, " Bolton," 1862 ; " Oldham," 1864, etc. 



