324 
Superficial Gravels and Clays. 
[July. 
2. Ealing and Neighbourhood . — The superficial deposits 
around Ealing have been noticed by many observers. In 
the works of Prof. Prestwich and Mr. Whitaker are to be 
found many references to them. Colonel Lane Fox,* in 
1872, gave an excellent detailed account of the gravels and 
clays around ACton, and showed in several sections the po- 
sition of the flint implements and of the mammalian 
remains found in them. This memoir has been of great 
assistance to me in the study of the same deposits in the 
adjoining parish of Ealing. My own opportunities have 
been numerous for gaining a knowledge of their distribution, 
and of the nature and relation of their different component 
parts. In addition to the large gravel-pits which are always 
open, the small pits which are sunk at the building of every 
new house, for the purpose of obtaining sand and gravel, 
have supplied sections all over the district. In the cuttings 
made for widening the Great Western Railway unusually 
fine and continuous sections were exposed between ACton 
and Hanwell, or right across the parish of Ealing from east 
to west. 
Westward from Ealing there are large gravel-pits on each 
side of the Brent, at Hanwell, and in making the founda- 
tions for widening the railway-bridge, sections of the lower 
part of the valley of the Brent at this point were exposed. 
Deep cuttings for sewers have given nearly continuous sec- 
tions in a north and south line across Ealing ; and, lastly, 
the construction of the new branch railway from Turnham 
Green to Ealing, now in progress, has given me opportuni- 
ties for checking the results obtained in the other sections. 
I made careful notes of all the sections at the time they 
were exposed, and soon found that there were certain domi- 
nant features that ran through the whole with remarkable 
persistency. Further study showed that these features ran 
parallel with those observed in the glacial beds at Finchley. 
In the large gravel-pit at Castlehill Station the gravel 
comes to the surface at the western end, but at the eastern 
side it is covered with about 2 feet of unstratified brown 
clay, and presents the section shown in Fig. 10. 
Both westward and southward the clay, a, 1, thins out, 
and the subsoil consists of the gravel, a, 3, and the flints 
that had been scattered through the clay before it was de- 
nuded. In the railway-cutting opposite the gravel-pit the 
gravel, a , 3, came to the surface. Going eastward it was 
* Quart. Journ, Geol, Soc., vol, xxviii., p. 449. 
