113 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Mr. Sopwitli, explained at considerable length his model of 
the Forest of Dean, which occasioned an animated and inter- 
esting discusson of various mining matters and exposed the 
exclusive system of colliery proprietors, by which they occasioned 
the loss of all their observations_, much to the detriment of 
science. 
Dec. 22nd, 1842. James Heywood, Esq., E.R.S. in the chair. 
Mr. Binney read some notes on the Lancashire and Cheshire 
Drift. 
This formation may be divided conveniently into local and 
foreign. 
^'The first consists of angular fragments of rocks, found Ipng 
on the coal measures, and new red sandstone, derived from the 
strata on which they occur, and seldom containing rocks trans- 
ported from a distance, arranged without any order of stratifica- 
tion, and appearing as if they had been formed by the up- 
heaving of the strata, or as if some heavy body had passed over 
and crushed and displaced them. The distributed fragments of 
coal-rocks, in the valley of the Irwell, at Clammerclough, and in 
the cutting at Roccress, between Stalybridge and Mottram, and 
the beds of sand, of a yard or two in thickness, above the upper 
new red sandstone, so generally found on that rock in the neigh- 
bourhood of Manchester, are good examples. The study of this 
deposit forms a very interesting subject for the investigation of 
persons acquainted with the action of icebergs on lines of coast, 
or the effects of glaciers ; but, on the present occasion, I shall not 
pursue it further. The foreign drift maybe dividedinto — 1st, Beds 
of stratified and unstratified gravel and sand, containing well- 
rounded pebbles of the primitive, primary, and older secondary 
rocks, seldom exceeding the size of a man^s fist. 2nd, ^'Till/' the 
thick deposit of marl, or brown clay, mixed with pebbles of various 
sizes, without any order of stratification. 3rd, Beds of stratified 
fine gravel and forest sand, found on elevated land. 4th, A bed, 
and sometimes beds, of strong brown clay, of very variable thick- 
