137 
ance with these quaternary beds in a northerly direction, 
as far as the banks of the Ribble. What I have seen in these 
districts has fully borne out the statement which I made in 
that paper, that the sand and gravel which rests on the 
Lower Till, or Boulder Clay, is, in turn, itself “ overlain by 
an Upper Till, or Boulder Clay, quite as important, both in 
thickness and extent as that which lies below it.” The 
succession of these drift deposits which I then ventured to 
submit in modification of that by Mr. Binney, F.R.S.,* was 
as follows : — - 
Recent... 1. Valley Gravel and River Terraces. 
r 2. Upper Boulder Clay, or Till. 
Drift... < 3. Middle Sand and Gravel. 
v 4. Lower Boulder Clay, or Till. 
I wish now to describe a remarkable section visited by 
me a few months since on the Banks of the Ribble at Bal- 
derston, some distance below Ribchester. It is shown on 
the south bank of the river at Jackson’s Bank Wood. In 
this district, the Ribble meanders over a wide alluvial plain, 
hollowed out of a larger valley of older date, which is over- 
spread to a great depth by drift deposits, so that it is only 
at intervals the solid formations appear from below, even in 
the bed of the river itself. At the elbows of the river the 
banks, which are often 150 to 200 feet in height, are gene- 
rally composed of quaternary deposits, and the river is ever 
wearing away these soft materials, which frequently come 
down in great landslips, and are carried downwards to the 
sea. My visit was made a few days after the great flood of 
last November, when the river rose 50 feet above its bed — 
overflowing the alluvial plain, and bringing down vast 
masses of its banks. 
At Jackson’s Bank Wood the river makes a fine sweep, 
* “ On the Drift Deposits of Manchester and its Neighbourhood.” Mem. 
Lit. & Phil. Soc., vol. viii., 2 series. 
