140 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



Sorame and elsewhere ; and he stated that he was now enabled to add 

 two new localities near Bedford — Summerhouse Hill and Honey Hill- 

 to those already known as having furnished similar weapons. 



2. " On some Becent Discoveries of Flint Implements in Drift Deposits 

 in Hants and Wilts." By Mr. John Evans. 



Flint implements having recently been found on the seashore, about 

 midway between Southampton and G-osport, by Mr. James Brown, of 

 Salisbury, and also at Fisherton, near Salisbury, by Dr. H. P. Blackmore, 

 of that place,* the author visited these localities in company with Mr. 

 Prestwich, and gave the results of his observations in this paper. 



After describing the implements from near Southampton, and having 

 shown that their condition is identical with that of the materials composing 

 the gravel capping the adjacent cliff, Mr. Evans proceeded to review the 

 evidence of the great antiquity of these remains, which rested mainly on 

 the circumstance that these gravel-beds, like those of Heculver, are of flu- 

 viatile origin, although now abutting on the sea. 



In like manner the author then described the Fisherton implements, 

 and the gravel-pits from which they were obtained. The relation of the 

 high-level gravels (in which the implements were found) to the lower-level 

 gravels of the valley of the Avon was next discussed, and the geological 

 features of the former deposits particularly described, lists of the fossils 

 (including mammalia and land and freshwater shells) being also given. 

 Mr. Evans came to the conclusion that the fossils bore evidence of the cli- 

 mate, at the time when they were deposited, having been more rigorous, at 

 any rate in the winter, than it now is ; and to this cause he attributed the 

 comparatively greater excavating power of the early Postpliocene rivers. 



Manchester Philosophical Society. — January 12, 1864. — The Presi- 

 dent, Mr. Binney, made some remarks on the Lancashire and Cheshire 

 Drift. In the year 1841 he first attempted to class the drift-deposits 

 found in the neighbourhood of Manchester, in a small paper with a map, 

 which he prepared for the Statistical Society of Manchester. In that me- 

 moir he divided the foreign drift in the ascending order : — (1) Lower sand 

 and gravel ; (2) till ; (3) upper sand and gravel ; and he described the more 

 modern deposits found in valleys ; (4) as valley gravel. This order he 

 adopted in a paper read before the Manchester Geological Society on the 

 22nd December, 1842, "Notes on the Lancashire and Cheshire Drift," and 

 printed by that Society in their Proceedings of 1843. In that paper, in 

 treating of the upper beds of sand and gravel, he says, " At Manchester, it 

 (the higher drift) is composed of lower gravel, till, and sand and gravel ; 

 while at Heywood and Poynton, near the base of the Pennine chain, the 

 beds of sand and gravel are parted hy several beds of loam and clay." 

 Again, in speaking of No. 3 deposit, he says, "The gently-rising lauds of 

 the two counties are generally composed of this deposit. It varies much 

 both in its composition and thickness. Near the sea at Ormskirk, the till 

 is sometimes found without it ; but as you proceed to the east it makes its 

 appearance, and gradually thickens until it attains its greatest thickness 

 near the base of the Pennine chain : not only does it increase in thickness, 

 but it becomes more complex, and contains beds of clay, marl, and loam of 

 several yards in thickness. The country lying between Manchester, Bolton, 

 Bury, Rochdale, Ashton, and Stockport, for the most part is upon it, and 

 forms one great sandbank, which continues south into Cheshire." The same 



* This discovery has heeu recorded already in the ' Geologist,' and we trust the ac- 

 knowledgment will be duly made in the Quarterly Journal of the Society. 



