NOTES AND QUERIES. 



271 



to indicate truly freshwater conditions for the formation in which it is 

 found. 



3. " On Glacial Surface-markings on the Sandstone near Liverpool." 

 By G. H. Morton, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author here noticed the occurrence of glacial grooves and scratches 

 at— 1st, Toxteth Park, the direction of the stri^ being JN". 42° W., at 

 120 feet above the sea ; 2nd and 3rd, at Boundary-lane and New-road, 

 Kirkdale, the strise being 15° W., and at about 80 feet above the sea. 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



Corylacej: in a bed of Lignite under Silt. — The following brief 

 description and sketch of a deposit in which I recently found nuts of the 

 Corylacese, those of the Cotylus Avellana, or common hazel-nut, may 

 interest your readers. 



The lignite bed in which the said nuts are observed, is the part of the 

 embankment of a small stream or burn in the neighbourhood of the village 

 of Whiteinch, forming the boundary between two counties. The lignite 

 bed appears from its position, the lower portion being on a level with the 

 water of the burn which when in flood rises a little above it, to crop out 

 and to be a portion of the lignite strata several feet under the surface. 

 The embankment is only about sLx feet in height. In the sketch {a a) 

 represents fine sand containing organic remains, undoubtedly cainozoic, 

 fragments (teeth, etc.) of mammalia, coprolites, and small fossil portions of 

 flora, perpendicular in position. Mixed with the sand I found fragments 

 of quartz, round in shape, and belonging to that formation termed locally 

 the till, or drift. And I may here remark that quartz balls from the 

 drift, smoothed and i3erfect in form, are frequently seen in the walls or 

 Dikes in this neighbourhood. Under a portion of the sand or clay [h] and 

 the lignite bed [c c) the lignite is mixed with black mud, and contains 

 flora not in a fossil state, as is the case with the fragments in the sand {a a) 

 but in a state almost per- 

 fect, i. e. the portions of ^^ JinjjiTDi^^ 



the hazel or birch branches !^a'^^t ^^r^^ ^^^^^^^:^--j - ~ — '^ cl^ 

 are not fossilized, and have .z^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^y^^^^^^^jj^v 



only lost a small portion .c-^'^'^ ^^^ ^ ^^^^jj^^ ^^ ^^^R 



of their bark; the position 



of the stems is horizontal. Intermixed with the mud of the lignite and 

 almost on a level with the burn, are the nuts in abundance, and not in the 

 least subject to any pressure from the lignite above them, but at the same 

 time prevented by the mud from being removed by the water of the stream 

 when in flood. The black dots in the sketch shows their position in the 

 lignite, which like the hgnites of the Continent exhibit the true dicotyle- 

 donous structure. 



This remarkable deposit appears to be a fluvio-marine bed, or fluviatile 

 accumulation. The lignite is undou.btedly still forming, and the position 

 of the nuts makes me imagine that the force which pressed the silt (« a) 

 down upon the vegetable remains was the Drift, which appears" from the 

 position of the clay (6) to have come in a northern direction. After pass- 

 ing under a bridge, the Dumbarton road, the stream joins the Clyde, 

 which doubtless originated the low long valley-terrace, of which the lignite 

 bed just described forms a part. " These terraces," Mr. Page remarks, 

 " have long attracted attention, and point to a time when many of our 



