PROCEEDINGS OE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
193 
stone, sometimes water-worn, together with rounded sandstone and lime- 
stone pebbles, occur in abundance, embedded in the clay, and the whole is 
surmounted by the remains of the denuded rocks which once occupied the 
next position in ascending order. 
In the quarries near Sandy Gate, Habergham Eaves, 462 feet above the 
level of the sea, the drift is from 30 to 50 feet deep. It consists of dense 
blue clay at the bottom, and gradually passes into dark brown near the 
top. Large boulders of sandstone, similar to that which lies beneath, oc- 
cur in these deposits, few of which appear to have suffered from the action 
of water. From their positions in the clay it may readily be inferred that 
they may have fallen from the faces of the cliffs which then probably bor- 
dered the ancient seas. Portions of encrinital limestone also occur ; and 
there is no lack of rounded fragments of cannel, together with sandstone, 
gannister, and limestone pebbles. 
In similar drift at Swindon, about two miles east of Burnley, 800 feet 
above the level of the sea, and just under the Pennine chain, large boulders 
of New (?) Red Sandstone are occasionally found in connection with abun- 
dance of rounded limestone. In former times the farmers have washed 
the drift in Swindon valley, and have burnt the limestone thus obtained in 
kilns, the ruins of which still remain in several places. 
During the formation of a main sewer in Traftilgar Street, Burnley (1862), 
the workmen found a large boulder of grey granite. It was firmly em- 
bedded in yellowish clay, at a depth of about 15 feet from the surface. En- 
crinital limestones were also plentiful in this cutting. These deposits over- 
lie the Thin Mine of the Burnley top beds ; the cannel bed, which is the 
next in ascending order, having apparently been washed away. 
In various localities extensive pebble-beds occur, indicating former beds 
of rivers, or the margins of ancient seas and lakes. Several of these bear 
evidences of powerful currents, which, from the set or inclination of the 
pebbles, appear to have flowed across the country in a N.E. to S.AV. di- 
rection. This is very evident from an examination of the inclination of 
the debris in most of the sections previously noticed, but especially in one 
which exposes a portion of the grit series between Haslingden and Ilelm- 
shore. This inclination of the stones, found in pebble-beds and drift de- 
posits generally, appears to be capable of affording more information to 
geologists respecting currents, etc., than has yet been noted. Prior to the 
upheaval of the Pennine chain, a broad strait must have stretched across 
portions of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, and perhaps jNTorthumberland, 
thus connecting the present Grerman and Irish seas ; and the current 
through this strait must have run from N.E. to S.W., as indicated by the 
inclination of the pebbles and boulders in these drift deposits. Portions 
of floating icebergs from the north of Scotland, broken off from the edges 
of the glaciers, and charged with portions of granite and the older rocks, 
would then find their way down this channel, and becoming stranded in 
the shallow bays, would drop their cargoes of boulders among the silt at 
the bottom of the turbid waters. Eed Sandstone boulders mig]\t perhaps 
be drifted in a similar manner from the neighbourhood of the Tees, or from 
the cliffs of what is now the Vale of York. Encrinital limestone, not 
water-worn, might also be transported from the north, by the same mode 
of iceberg carriage, to the deposits in which they are now found. Or again, 
if we adopt the conceptions of Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Hull of the wasting 
of a vast North Atlantic continent, the same results would evidently be 
obtained. 
On the gradual upheaval of the Pennine chain, the sea would conse- 
quently retire, both on the eastern and western sides of the country, 
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