Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 29.djvu/283

 its glaciation to any general ice-cap radiating from the Pole. He thought that the ice-sheet was general over the northern part of the British Isles, and on a much larger scale than was usually admitted — and that one of the obstacles to its recognition was the later glaciation along the valleys, which was more conspicuous than the older traces, and another the difficulty which some people had in ignoring the present coast-line.

Mr. J. Clifton Ward stated that in the northern parts of the Lake district he had found that the direction of the ice-flow must have been mainly to the north.

The Author, in reply, remarked that in Greenland, whatever might theoretically be the case, ice is pushed for scores or hundreds of miles down into the sea, until it gets out of its depth, and eventually floats off as icebergs. He pointed out the correspondence of the main valleys of Ireland with glaciations on the surface of rocks from Scotland, and exhibited specimens and rubbings in illustration of various characters of weathering and wear from different natural causes.

February 5, 1873.

Thomas Checkley, Esq., 70 Lichfield Street, Walsall ; John Mackenzie, Esq., Government Examiner of Coal-fields for New South Wales, Newcastle, N. S. W. ; John Ollenshaw Middleton, Esq., 1 Ebenezer Terrace, Plumstead Common, S.E. ; Walter Rowley, Esq., 74 Albion Street, Leeds ; and George William Shrubsole, Esq., Victoria Road, Chester, were elected Fellows of the Society.

The following communication was read : —

The Oolites of Northamptonshire. By Samuel Sharp, Esq., F.S.A., F.G.S. Part II.

[Plates IX. & X.]

Introduction.

In accordance with the intimation given in my First Part of a Memoir upon the Oolites of Northamptonshire, I now beg to offer the Second Part of that Memoir.

The limited district of which I treated on the former occasion afforded facilities for its division into four areas, and for describing the beds and the order of their superposition in each ; and thus, by a comparison of the beds and their sequence in the several areas, for arriving at a right understanding as to the geology of the whole district.

The field to which I now direct attention is much more extended, and is of a character that will not allow of such a systematic division. I hope, nevertheless, to be able to convey clearly that which I have to communicate.

The main feature of my First Part was the description and con-

vol. xxix. — part i. Q