75 
years since a former member of this Society, the late Mr. F. 
Looney, F.G.S., in speaking of the superficial gravel found 
in this neighbourhood, at page 23*, says : — “ Imbedded in 
the gnavel near the river courses are occasionally found the 
stone celts of the ancients, from which it is presumed that 
the rivers, since the country was inhabited, have either sawn 
their beds deeper or much exceeded their present volume of 
water ; several large trees have been dug up from the sand 
and gravel ; part of one is now lying near the residence of 
the Rev. J. Clowes, at Kersal Moor, which was dug from 
the Show Field on his estate, at upwards of 20 feet elevation 
above the present level of the river. A case more illus- 
trative of this was beautifully shown in the winter of 1820, 
during the cutting away part of the high ground at Castle- 
field, near the tunnel mouth ; for sixteen feet below the 
level of the grass a wooden box was found. It was square 
and formed of four upright posts, driven into a bed of clay ; 
the sides and bottom were closed in with logs of wood ; the 
logs were rudely hewn, had been riven, not sawn, fro^ five 
to six inches square ; some greenstone boulders lay at the 
bottom, and the whole was covered with sixteen feet of 
sand and gravel; twelve feet of the lower part had never 
been disturbed, the continuity of the layers being unbroken. 
SECTION. 
Alluvium, four feet. 
Layers of gravel, twelve 
feet, unbroken. 
Box. 
Layer of clay. 
Gravel.” 
* List of Organic Remains, &c., and where found, to accompany Mr. Elias 
Hall’s Introduction and Map, by Mr. Francis Looney, member of the Literary 
and Philosphical Society of Manchester, published in 1836. 
