181 
the Irish Sea. The flat surfaces and hollows of underlying 
rocks appear to have afforded lodgment for it in much 
higher places than sloping sides of rock at a lower level. 
Near the shores of the Irish Sea it is very simple, being- 
composed of brown till covered with a thin deposit of fine 
forest sand, as seen near Ormskirk. At Manchester it is 
composed of lower gravel, till, and upper sand and gravel, 
while at Heywood and Poynton, near the base of the Pen- 
nine chain, the beds of the last named sand and gravel are 
parted by several beds of loam and clay.” 
In a Paper published in the Society’s Memoirs by Mr., 
now Professor, Hull, F.R.S.,* that geologist classes the drift 
and recent deposits of the basin of the Mersey and its 
tributaries, as follows : — 
Recent — 1 . Valley gravel and river terraces. 
2. Upper boulder clay or till, Bolton, Halshaw Moor, 
Clifton Moss, Moston, Oldham, Newton Heath, Denton, 
Cheadle Hulme, &c. 
3. Middle sand and gravel, Bolton, Pendlebury, Prest- 
wich, Kersal Moor, Heywood, Middleton, Blackley, Gorton, 
Stockport, Poynton, Wilmslow, Prestbury, Macclesfield, 
Crewe, &c. 
4. Lower boulder clay or till, Monton, Salford, Man- 
chester, Heaton Norris, &c. 
At page 455 of the same paper the author says, “The 
middle sand is, unfortunately for its consistency of character) 
not always free from bands of loam or clay. One of these, 
which is largely used for brick making near Prestwich, 
Heywood, and Rochdale, occurs about the centre of the 
mass, and divides the sand into two main beds, the upper of 
which frequently occurs in detached hillocks. This bed, 
however, is of very local occurrence, and thins out south- 
ward.” At page 458 he gives a general section to shew the 
arrangement of the drift deposits between Manchester and 
# Note, Yol. 2. (Third series), page 431. 
