These last,

Liverpool does not stand upon the coal measures. however, come to the surface, and crop out at about seven or eight miles eastward of the town, near Prescot; and at about the same distance westward, near Parkgate. Thus it is reasonably supposed that the new red sand-stone of Liverpool, and of the hundred of Wirral, rests upon, and fills up a large Above that most import

basin formed by the coal measures.

ant system rests the Pacilitic group (meaning variegated), to which the rocks under, and around the town belong. But of this group several members are wanting, the most important of which is the Permian of Murchison; a system which formed, so to speak, in the extinction of living organisms, the transition period between the paleozoic and secondary epochs. We find, however, variegated marl, and the triassic system or new red sandstone. This is the upper group of the Pœcilitic system, embracing the "Marnes irisées" and "Gres bigarré" of the French, and "Keuper" and "Bunter sandstein" of the Germans. The Muschelkalk, so abundant on the continent between the Keuper and Bunder sandstein, is entirely wanting. Above it, in geological series, though not met with here, rests the Lias.

The new red sandstone of Liverpool consists of various strata of friable sand, marl, clay, sandstone, micaceous slaty clay, and quartzoze sandstone; these strata, of different thicknesses, being all regularly stratified with cach other: their prevailing hue is red, though they pass through a variety of colours-from almost pure white to chocolate; they are also found yellow, blueish, green, and brown-these being often curiously intermixed, and supplying to this form of the new red sandstone the appropriate name of variegated sandstone. Inferior to, and outlying this new red sandstone formation, we find the coal measures, which must have been subjected to considerable disturbances anterior to the deposition of the triassic system, since the sandstone strata are unconformable with the carboniferous system. The formation of the new red

sandstone has doubtless arisen from the disintegration of older rocks and deposition of this alluvium in fitting localities. Though in many places local detrition may have produced the rocks in question, there is no doubt that much is due to northern drift. Large granitic boulders, characteristic of this drift, are found to the north-east of Liverpool, and probably the oxide of iron, which gives colour to the new red sandstone, has resulted from the decomposition of metamorphic rocks, of which these are remnants.*

"The sandstone, in its mineralogical character, is evidently of mechanical origin, having been a sedimentary deposition in water, under various degrees of disturbance, and consists entirely of the comminuted ingredients of older rocks. In some beds its texture consists of fine grains of quartz, cemented together by an argillaceous red oxide of iron; in others it occurs in grains of pure silex, the facets of which present a resplendent appearance on exposure to the sun. Many beds irregularly abound in nodules of indurated clay, together with a multitude of small pebbles of quartz, felspar, old red sandstone, greywacké, basalt, and granite, being portions of older rocks disintegrated by the constant attrition of water. In other beds the new red sandstone appears as a coarse quartzoze conglomerate, with an argillaceous cement, containing an abundance of small nodules of a yellowish brown clay. The greater portions of these beds have disseminated particles of mica, which in some instances give the sandstone a slaty texture."

Subsequent to this formation of the new red sandstone, (with its three subdivisions or beds, namely, the Lower Red, Central Yellow or White, and the Upper Red, the whole amounting to a very considerable thickness), powerful forces

* On both sides of the Mersey that peculiar semi-metallic substance, Iserene, is met with, presenting itself as a black powder in a wave-like form on the surface of the loose sand, and being accompanied by grains of iron is highly attractable by the magnet.

from below disturbed the order, and produced those upheavings of the land which we now observe. A number of trap dykes may be observed protruding themselves through the sandstone in various parts of the neighbourhood-as at St. Domingo-lane and Mere-lane, at Everton, &c; and on the face of the rock on the north side of St. Augustine's church, there is a large fracture running eastwards, shewing an elevation of the stratum on one side of three or four feet above that on the other side of the fracture. Many similar instances are to be found in the district. Thus was formed the low range of hills (none exceeding three hundred feet above the level of the sea) in Wirral, which run nearly due north and south, and have their escarpements, with one or two exceptions, towards the west. One of the most striking exceptions is Flaybrick or Bidston-hill, where the escarpement is towards the east. The strike of the rock is towards the south-west; and, though the angle of inclination varies considerably, the general dip of the strata is from seven to eight degrees to the south-eastward. At Storeton-hill there is an anticlinal fault at the axis of elevation, and the strata dip at the same angle on each side. Thus also was formed the depression in the Mersey, the rising ground upon which a part of Liverpool stands, and the valley which runs near to Huyton, not to mention subordinate depressions and elevations.

Above the sandstone we meet with clay, forming unconformable beds, of very variable thickness, attaining along the shores of the Mersey, as at Seacombe and Egremont, a depth of above thirty feet, whilst near the Magazines it assumes a regularly stratified appearance, the lowest stratum being about fourteen feet in thickness, and the uppermost (which is much finer, and free from the large angular fragments of sandstone found in the lower stratum) being less than two feet. In some places it forms a mere superficial covering. This clay contains an innumerable quantity of rounded boulders of various sizes, from three feet in diameter to the smallest pebble. It

extends over all the flat land around Liverpool, especially northward, and is extensively diffused over Wirral, occupying all the hollows and depressions in the new red sandstone.

The coast from Hoylake, in Wirral, to Southport on the north, is low, and skirted by sand-hills and broad sands dry at low water, whilst a little inland are found peat mosses, some of considerable extent, remaining in a state of nature, and uncultivated. These contain many large trees and other remains of extensive forests. The greater portion, however, of the tract in which peat moss occurs is now in a state of cultivation, and almost daily the features of the country are becoming modified from the advancing state of agriculture. There is little doubt that at some remote period a dense forest extended itself from the borders of the Ribble southwards along the coast, occupying the tract near the estuary of the Mersey, and the northern and western parts, if not the whole, of Wirral at the present time may be seen, along the shore of Wirral, at Leasowe, and near the mouth of the Alt, north of Liverpool, a very considerable number of trunks and roots of gigantic trees in the position in which they originally grew, whilst extensive tracts of peat are found below the sand-hills, and even down to low-water mark. There is reason to believe that there is going on along this coast a gradual subsidence of the land- (Picton); and that very considerable changes, in this as in other respects, have been effected even within the historical periods. The author now quoted, thus remarks, and probably with perfect truth, "That the sea has here gained enormously on the land, is not a matter of supposition and hypothesis, but can be proved by the testimony of many now living, and the recorded statements of others no longer in existence."

The hundred of Wirral (the history of which has been admirably described by Mr. Mortimer) contains about sixty thousand acres of land, consisting principally of clay and sand, for the most part now artificially mixed together, except in

particular districts. On this account, "the terms' clayey loam,' and 'sandy loam,' as the sand or clay predominate, are the most accurately descriptive of the Cheshire soils. Sandy loam is met with in Wallasey, West Kirby, and the estuary of the Dee, but clay abounds in every part of Wirral. The soil is very thin in most parts, with a substratum of rummel or clay." -(Mortimer.)

"This district," remarks Mr. J. Cunningham, F.G.S., to whom we are so much indebted for our knowledge of the Geology of this locality, "has become celebrated in geological records, in consequence of impressions of a huge Batrachian, called by Professor Owen the Labyrinthodon, having been found at Storeton-hill, at a depth of between thirty and forty feet from the surface. The impressions were found in the clay, in five different superimposed beds, occupying a depth of from five to six feet, and were associated with impressions of tortoises, lizards, and crocodiles, and of that singular and extraordinary animal called the Rynchosaurus, which Professor Owen has shown, was a creature having the body of a reptile, with the beak and feet resembling those of a bird. This animal was pronounced by that distinguished comparative anatomist, to be one of the most extraordinary that he had ever investigated.

"These remains, however interesting to the geologist, were superseded by the novel discovery of impressions of rain-drops which were found in three different beds. These indicated different meteorological conditions of the atmosphere; one showing a heavy shower, accompanied with a high wind, the two others, from the smallness of the pit marks, and the more superficial depths to which the drops have penetrated the clay, were apparently more gentle in their character. The impressions of gigantic Fucoideæ have also been found in the rock, and at different depths: one at Woodside was exposed for several years on the margin of Wallasey Pool, now occupied by the new docks. Several were found on a bed in Storeton