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NORTH-WEST OF ENGLAND AND NORTH WALES. t)J
occurs at Tranmere Pool and at Hooton, thus bearing ont the in-
ferences drawn from the Lancashire side *.
At Upton, in May 1873, I examined with Mr. Shone a san dhole
which showed a section of current-bedded sand and gravel with
rolled pebbles of Red Sandstone mixed with erratic pebbles (fig. 8):
in it the usual shell-fragments occurred. The whole was overlain
by a thin bed of Boulder-clay of irregular thickness, containing only
a small proportion of stones. I have very seldom found rolled
pebbles of Triassic rocks, except in some of the clay of the dock-
excavations on the Lancashire side ; and this is worth bearing in mind.
The same section, excepting that the sand is of a flesh- or reddish
colour generally, was to be seen at the Backford sandhole. Here
the valley is about 50 feet deep, and must formerly have been
filled with sand, which Las been denuded.
Fig. 8. — Section in Sandpit, Upton.
mm
a. Sands and gravels.
b. Bed of gravel containing many rounded pebbles of red sandstone.
c. Current-bedded sands containing beds of gravel, in which are many
fragments of shells, especially in the gravel.
d. Boulder-clay with few stones.
Hehby and Frodsham. — Ascending the Mersey, the Boulder-clay
skirts the foot of the Helsby and Frodsham hills which overlook the
upper marshes of the Mersey. When, however, we follow the
valleys which ramify among these hills, we find they are largely
filled with a sandy drift not unlike that at Backford. A section
disclosed by a well I sunk at the late Mr. George Eastee's house,
about a mile from Helsby, showed 20 feet of yellow flesh-coloured
and red sand, evidently arranged by water, with a seam of clay
about the middle of it, the whole resting on soft rock.
On the northern face of Helsby Hill, about halfway up, a cutting
at the side of a road showed the following section (fig. 9), the rela-
tion of the Drift to the escarpment of Helsby Hill being shown in
fig. 10.
Valley of the Weaver. — From Frodsham up to the Grand Junction
Yiaduct the river Weaver runs through a deep valley cut in the

• " Buried valley of the Mersey," Proc. of Greol Soc. of Liverpool, Session