204 
Notes and Comments. 
contours of the land in the Permain and Triassic areas had 
been collected and examined. This supports the conclusion 
that, immediately prior to the oncoming of glacial conditions, 
the land stood at not less than ioo feet above its present level. 
The fissures and depressions of the Middle and Upper Mag- 
nesian Limestones on the eastern side of the Shell-Limestone 
reef have been instrumental in preserving relics of the material 
brought by the earliest ice-sheet which invaded the district 
from the North Sea. This material proved to be absolutely 
devoid of the ordinary glacial erratics of the North of England 
and Scotland, found in the overlying main Drifts. Several 
narrow vertical fissures are filled with masses of red sandstone, 
red, grey, and green marl, peat and masses of peaty wood, and 
Magnesian Limestone, both of immediately local occurrence 
and of material strange to the district. 
PRE-GLACIAL DEPRESSIONS. 
The Scandinavian Drift proper occurs about midway 
between Hartlepool and Seaham Harbour, and occupies a 
position near the middle of the stretch of coast-line where the 
red fissures are seen. It has been preserved in a pre-Glacial 
depression and fissure in the underlying Magnesian Limestone, 
extending over slightly under a quarter of a mile. It is 
represented by a transported shelly clay containing a fauna of 
Arctic affinities, which recalls that of some of the basement 
clays of Flamborough and Holderness. Among other erratics 
a big boulder of titaniferous syenite was found resting immedi- 
ately upon the Magnesian Limestone near the southern end 
of this section ; special notice was taken also of a very big 
laurvigite-syenite (5 feet long) and two rather smaller rhomb- 
porphyries lying on the shore opposite this place. All the 
stones (between 300 and 400 specimens) found in this clay 
were collected and examined. The greater part of them are 
well-glaciated crystalline rocks, many of which (the typical 
Christiana eruptives) certainly are, and the greater part may 
be, of South Norwegian origin. Permian limestone, red 
sandstone, chalk, and splintered flints also occur. The appar- 
ent absence of any East Scandinavian rocks in Durham was 
noticed, and an explanation offered. The early retreat of the 
Scandinavian ice from the Durham coast, as also its relation 
to the English and Scottish glaciation, was discussed. 
SCOTTISH ROCKS. 
Later than the fissure-filling material are certain water- 
deposited gravels and sands, which occupy shallow depressions 
underlying the main Drift seen on the coast. They are notice- 
able for containing a rather large proportion of gneissic and 
schistose rocks, olivine-basalts, etc., in this case presumably 
Naturalist, 
