io Jackson, Facetted Pebbles with Glacial Deposits. 



in the district, represented by a bed of peat, lying at a depth of some 

 28 feet below high-tide level. 



Though the human evidence is so scanty in the case of the post- 

 Glacial series of the Cheshire coast, there seems just reason to assume, 

 from the analogous position of the estuarine series between the 

 Lower and Upper Forest-beds to that of the Belfast section, that 

 some portion at least is of Neolithic age. Unfortunately the well- 

 defined Neolithic floors in this neighbourhood, at Red Noses, near 

 New Brighton, and Hilbre Point, near Hoylake, do not lend any 

 assistance in this correlation, as they are not definitely associated 

 with the estuarine clay and forest-beds, both being situated on rocky 

 eminences above the shore. They only tell us that Neolithic man 

 was certainly present in the neighbourhood. 



The geological horizon, therefore, of the facetted pebbles at 

 Dove Point can safely be regarded as pre-Neolithic, as in the other 

 cases dealt with. 



The mode of occurrence shows that, both at Dove Point and 

 other Wirral localities, and in the Manchester area, the pebbles were 

 acted on by sand-blast after the deposition of the Glacial beds on 

 which they lay, and in this respect they agree with similar pebbles 

 found in North Germany and in North America, these being gener- 

 ally regarded as post-Glacial in age. 



Resting on the Boulder-clay in certain places in the Liverpool 

 district is a deposit of sand variously known as the Upper Drift Sand 

 (Morton), 1 Washed Drift Sand (Reade), 2 and Shirdley Hill Sand (De 

 Ranee). 3 It is generally regarded by local geologists as a post- 

 Glacial deposit and is considered to be a blown sand of earlier age 

 than the marine silts and forest remains exposed on the coast. It 

 is irregularlv developed in the area between Southport and Garston, 

 and is recorded inland as far as Bickerstaffe, Skelmersdale, Rainford 

 and Kirkby. Its thickness is very variable, and, as might be ex- 

 pected from the nature of such a deposit, it occurs at times on high 

 ground and not on low, and vice versa. 4 " In some localities it is re- 

 ported to rest on a basal gravel-bed. 5 Beds of peat are occasionally 

 met with in this sand and an examination of this peat exposed at 

 Aintree has yielded an interesting assemblage of plant remains 

 which have been described in detail by W. G. Travis. 6 



The exact position of the Shirdley Hill Sand with regard to the 

 Lower Forest-bed is not clear, but both Reade and Morton definitely 

 place it below that horizon. It appears to be quite clear, however, 

 that the sand is anterior in age to the period of submergence which 



1 Morton,, op. cit., p. 212. 



2 Reade, op. cit., pp. 47-51. 



3 De Ranee, op. cit., pp. 662-663 ; ibid. " The Superficial Geology of the 

 Country adjoining the Coasts of South-West Lancashire, 1877" (Mem. 

 Geol. Survey). 



4 W. G. Travis, Trans. Liverpool Botanical Society, Vol. I., June, 1909, 

 pp. 47-52 ; see also Geological Sketch Map by Harold Brodrick, in British 

 Assoc. Handbook to Southport, 1903. 



5 Reade, op. cit., p. 48. 



6 W. G. Travis, op. cit., pp. 47-52. 



