can be seen in relation to the lower Keuper, but the upper beds, if they are present, are all covered by drift. At Wallasey upon the yellow sandstone of the upper Bunter, the conglomerate beds repose; these are succeeded by the yellow beds of the Keuper, but the upper subdivision of that formation, is lost by the great upthrow of the Bunter to the east. At Storeton, the quarries are in the lower Keuper sandstone, but the basement bed is only visible at the bottom of the deeper excavations. It does not crop out to the west as shown in the Geological Survey map, but is thrown down both to the east and west, between beds of the upper Bunter sandstone. The northern quarry is rather higher than the others, and the white sandstone shows a tendency to change gradually to the yellow beds that are the next in the order of ascent. The per-oxide of iron which binds the grains of the lower Keuper sandstone together, varies considerably in its power of uniting them, quite independently of changes in colour. The white, yellow, brown, red and black colours assume many curious stains and markings, and the sandstone itself, even where the colour is uniform, after having been exposed to the atmosphere, has, by the removal of its softer parts, left curious projecting ridges, and spongiform surfaces. The sun-cracks in the marl bands are generally filled with sandstone adhering to the overlying stratum. The marl presents other indications of atmospheric phenomena, such as rain marks, running water, salt crystals, and other appearances, for which it is difficult to account. The ramifications are The sandstone beneath the beds of clay is sometimes covered with ramous and branching ridges, which have been considered by some to be remains of fucoids. Such appearances are well known at Storeton. never seen to cross each other, a circumstance very much against an organic origin, while the plain upon which they rest does not seem to be ripple-marked. The surface appears as though it had been acted upon by the atmosphere, but this cannot have been the case, for it is well authenticated that the ridges existed when the bed was first uncovered. The Keuper sandstones, of which these Storeton beds are a good example, were named "Waterstones," by G. W. Ormerod, Esq., F.G.S., from the percolation of water along the beds of Marl dividing the strata. The cause of these plant-like forms may have originated from the denuding agency of the water continually passing over the sandstone upon which the marl rests, before the superincumbent stratum was removed. The water of the copious spring at Storeton, must formerly have flowed over the bed, where the supposed fucoidal marks exist. The only traces of organic remains consist of the footprints of Emydians and Batrachians. On the Lancashire side of the Mersey, the Keuper formation is also developed. The lower sandstones can only be observed near Liverpool, in the neighbourhood of Harrington, Toxteth Park. The Bunter formation forms the rapidly-rising ground above the docks. The strata of which it is composed, coordinates with the variegated sandstone of the Red Noses, beyond New Brighton, and which no doubt exists beneath the yellow Bunter beds of Oxton. The latter seem to have been partially denuded on the Lancashire side of the river, for at Harrington the conglomerate beds of the Keuper rest directly upon the variegated Bunter beds; and the base line can be traced and examined over a considerable space, without any trace of the yellow sandstone until we approach the Mersey Iron and Steel Works, when they are faintly observed beneath the Keuper, upon which the wind-mill is built. It is very conclusive that about 50 feet of the upper Bunter had been removed by denudation before the overlying beds of the Keuper were deposited. The base of the Keuper laid down in the Survey map takes almost a straight line from the mill at Harrington, north to St. Augustine's Church, in Shaw Street. At the former place it is open for examination, and presents a coarse sandstone, with pebbles and nodules of marl, being very similar to the same bed at Oxton and Flaybrick, excepting that it is of a light red shade of colour, instead of being white or variegated like its Cheshire representatives. Elsewhere the base line of the Survey can only be seen in St. James's Cemetery, where blue and grey laminated fine-grained sandstones, with thin marl partings repose upon a considerable thickness of yellow sandstone. The following sections will show that it is probable that these yellow beds were mistaken for those of the Bunter which occur in Wirral, though even then the basement bed, so remarkably uniform in its character, could with difficulty be supposed to be identical with the blue and grey marl stones, so conspicuously displayed at the embankment on the eastern side of the cemetery. These sections will also prove that the yellow strata which strike through the town from north to south, always dipping to the east, belong to the lower Keuper sandstone. Mr. Hull has informed me that he was "very uncertain with regard to the section which is exposed to view in the cemetery," and that he took the bed of grey marl as the best he could find. We may therefore consider it as a provisional line, now that we find it to be incorrect. Taking the base of the Keuper as displayed at Oxton and Flaybrick as a typical example, we find its exact representatives in each of the three following sections. The red conglomerate of Harrington no doubt co-ordinates exactly with the red and white one of Flaybrick, and also with the still lighter conglomerate of Oxton. The line of outcrop in Wirral is correctly laid down on the map of the Geological Survey, except at Storeton hill already alluded to. W. An examination of the railway tunnels under the town has thrown important light upon this subject. The results enabled me to define the precise base of the Keuper at three different points otherwise inaccessible. The tunnel from Wapping to Edge Hill has laid open the upper Bunter and the lower Keuper sandstone, the conglomerate base with the yellow sandstones over it, interstratified with thick beds of red, blue, and grey laminated marl stones; but two faults have thrown up the strata to the east, (just as is shown in the Harrington section,) causing the upper part of the Keuper to have been denuded, or cut off by the greater up-throw of the Bunter formation to the east. SECTION at HARRINGTON.-HALF A MILE. River Mersey. Conglomerate beds of the Bunter. Keuper Sandstone reposing on Upper Bunter. I am much indebted to the Directors of the London and North-Western Railway Company, and to their late Secretary Henry Booth, Esq., for affording every facility to the most minute and lengthened examination of the strata shown in each tunnel. The white sandstone of the old quarry in Rathbone Street-now covered up-certainly belongs to the lower Keuper sandstone. The yellow strata of the cemetery repose upon it. SECTION THROUGH WAPPING TUNNEL.-ONE MILE. River Mersey. Keuper Sandstone reposing on Upper Bunter. More than twenty years ago, Mr. Higginson discovered the footprints of Emydians-small land tortoises-in this Conglomerate beds of the Bunter. W. quarry, and though at that time we knew nothing of the superposition of the rocks in this neighbourhood, that observation is of the utmost importance now, being sufficient in itself to prove a considerable extension of the Keuper, westward of the line laid down in the map of the survey. Near Kirkdale in the fields to the west of Scotland Road, the lower Keuper sandstone crops out upon the surface. The ends of the lowest beds form a steep escarpment towards the valley of the Mersey, and are obscured by Boulder clay. A very short distance to the east a fault throws up the yellow beds of the upper Bunter, which extend with a slight easterly dip, until they are cut off by the rise of the conglomerate beds of the Bunter formation at Everton. It is the same great fault which is represented as throwing up the latter in each of the sections. SECTION at EVERTON.-THREE QUARTERS OF A Mile. River Mersey. Conglomerate beds of the Bunter. Drift. Keuper faulted against Upper Bunter. The line of out-crop of the basement-bed of the Keuper formation in Wirral, and in the district about Liverpool, is drawn upon the map exhibited. Commencing north of Harrington, after having been twice thrown down by faults-one only of them being noted on the Survey map-it runs almost due north, under St. Michael's Church, west of St. George's Hall, by Limekiln Lane, and a ridge of rock to the west of Scotland Road, where it turns gradually round to the east, and is cut off by a fault, half-a-mile south of the prison. Between this fault and the great up-throw below Everton, there is a narrow space of upper Bunter, which probably |