BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



297 



On the occurrence of Boulders in the valley of the Colder, 

 by Mr. J. Travis Clay, 



The author describes the valley of the Calder as a narrow, 

 and almost always level tract of land^ bounded on both sides 

 by upright hills of the regular coal strata, and destitute of 

 boulders. The level of the valley is composed, near the 

 surface, of sand, clay, and small pebbles ; but at the depth 

 of five feet there is a bed of much larger boulders, chiefly 

 derived from the neighbouring rocks, and also many of 

 granite. The peculiarity of the deposit consists in its being 

 confined to this narrow stripe, frequently not a quarter of a 

 mile in width, yet extending continuously east and west for 

 man}^ miles ; the author had traced it from Hebden Bridge, 

 near Halifax, to Wakefield, a distance of twenty miles, and 

 he had no doubt it extends further east, till it unites with 

 the great mass of drift occupying the vale of York. The 

 author considers this deposit to have originated when the 

 elevation of the land was much less, in which case the level 

 parts of the country would be submerged, and the narrow 

 dales of Yorkshire sea-lochs, like those of Scotland, along 

 which glaciers detached from the Cumbrian mountain would 

 be floated in every direction. 



Mr. Philips remarked, that the granite of these boulders resembled 

 that of Ravenglass, and not the granite of Shap Fell ; the others were 

 common Cumberland and Westmoreland rocks, the metamorphic rocks 

 of Hart Knot, and some belonged to the gadnister of the coal. He con- 

 sidered these phenomena as belonging to the same class with the disper- 

 sion of the rocks in the neighbourhood of Manchester. 



On the occurrence of Vegetable Remains in the new Red Sand- 

 stone of Staffordshire, by Mr. J. Dawes. 



The strata in which these remains occur, were exposed in 

 forming a canal between Birmingham and the coUieries near 



