A Peat Bed in the Drift of Oldham

Abstract

WE have here lately discovered a bed of peat intercalated with beds of undisturbed “glacial drift.” I believe this phenomenon, if not unique, is very rare in England, and may, therefore, be interesting to your readers. In the depth of a section of 14 feet there are two thick beds of drift with washings of fine clay, and, midway in the section, a well defined bed of peat with a maximum thickness of 18 inches. Another bed of peat, somewhat less clearly defined, and not so true as the former, is likewise present, the two beds having beneath them a thin band of exceedingly fine clay of a bluish grey colour, which evidently is the equivalent of the “seatings” or “floor clays,” which so invariably accompany our seams of coal. The beds of drift that inclose the peat are alike in some of their main features, but unlike in others. In both boulders are in great abundance. In the bed beneath the peat there are bands of fine clay, coarse sand, or grit, pebbles, and boulders; the upper, with very little variation, is uniformly made up of arenaceous clay and a great number of boulders. It is almost certain that at the close of the pleistocene period the upper deposit, that is, the one above the peat, could not have had a thickness of less than 75 feet. These deposits are the “upper drift” of the geologist. The beds beneath the peat, judging from their composition—boulders, pebbles, gravel, and fine sand—and the presence in the latter of “current bedding,” probably represent the “middle drift.” The “lower drift” beds are absent here. May I add that some of the mosses, which seem to make up the bulk of the peat, are in an excellent state of preservation, and are now under examination for identification. A considerable number of fragments of beetles, of undetermined species, are likewise amongst the finds.