8o  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  GEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY.  [May  1 893, 
impression  of  the  Author  that  the  Quartzose  sand  is  marine,  and 
that  it  indicates  an  intermittence  of  the  cold — suppositions  which 
seem  to  be  due  to  ideas  then  prevailing  rather  than  to  any  positive 
proof,  since  there  is  no  mention  of  any  fossils. 
Coming  next  to  the  Middle  Pleistocene  deposits,  he  regards  the 
Great  Chalky  Boulder-clay  in  the  Trent  basin  as  chiefly  a  ground- 
moraine,  though  in  places  it  presents  indications  of  an  aqueous 
origin.  This  also  is  underlain  by  a  sand  known  as  the  Melton 
Sand,  in  which  detritus  of  Cretaceous  age  first  appears  in  abundance, 
and  here  again,  according  to  the  views  of  the  Author,  there  is  a 
suspicion  of  a  milder  climate.  The  Pennine  rocks  in  this  Boulder- 
clay  he  thinks  were  derived  from  the  Older  Pleistocene  deposits 
over  which  the  ice  passed.  This  view  necessitates  an  extraordinary 
want  of  activity  on  the  part  of  the  Pennine  glaciers,  during  the  very 
culmination  of  the  Glacial  Period,  which  is  not  easy  to  account  for. 
Consequently  he  calls  in  the  aid  of  a  depression  in  the  Pennine  axis, 
which  would  admit  the  approach  of  Continental  ice  without  inter¬ 
ference  from  local  English  glaciers.  In  a  recent  communication 
to  the  4  Geological  Magazine  1  for  1893,  p.  33,  he  appears  to  hold 
the  same  view  ;  for  he  considers  that  the  only  way  of  accounting 
for  this  absence  of  local  glaciers,  while  the  Scandinavian  ice-sheet 
advanced  over  the  country,  must  be  based  on  the  assumption  that 
it  occurred  during  a  period  of  submergence.  He  admits  that  the 
present  opposition  to  such  a  view  is  very  strong,  though  possibly 
based  on  inadequate  grounds.  In  West  Staffordshire,  Mr.  Heeley 
considers  that  the  entire  Middle  Pleistocene  deposits  are  probably 
represented  by  gravels  and  sands,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  in  this 
area  fragments  of  marine  mollusca  are  stated  to  be  of  frequent 
occurrence. 
In  the  Hewer  Pleistocene,  according  to  Mr.  Deeley,  there  was  a 
re-elevation  of  the  Pennine  chain  and  of  the  Trent  Valley,  thus 
apparently  producing  a  change  in  the  direction  from  which  the 
materials  of  the  deposits  were  derived ;  and  a  river-gravel  which  he 
regards  as  interglacial  now  occupies  terraces  at  various  heights 
along  the  valley  of  the  Trent  and  its  tributaries.  This  was  suc¬ 
ceeded  by  the  later  Pennine  Boulder-clay  stage,  which  marks  the 
return  of  local  ice-action.  He  observes  that  whilst  the  Older 
Pleistocene  Boulder-clays  are  partly  sedimentary,  these  later  deposits 
are  almost  entirely  unstratified,  and  when  pebbles  and  boulders 
occur  a  fair  proportion  of  them  are  flint.  In  many  cases,  he 
says,  it  is  scarcely  correct  to  call  this  moraine  a  Boulder-clay,  for 
