HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



93 



Yew-Tree Poisoning Cattle (p. 44).— I am 

 old enough to remember an unsettled controversy on 

 this point in " Gardener's Chronicle," 1848. It came 

 up again in 1854 and was then closed in two letters, 

 the conclusion being that we must admit the leaves 

 of the yew to be "poisonous," but they are not fatal 

 unless taken in quantity in a fasting stomach. It 

 would be desirable for your recent correspondent to 

 tell the public whether the horses of which he wrote 

 were all fasting or not. I am not able to search the 

 G. C. later than 1854.— W. Gee, Freshford, Bath. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



The Dicynodon in the Elgin Sandstones. 

 — For many years past this formation has been a 

 much-debated ground to geologists. Some affirmed 

 it was the new red sandstone— others, that it must be 

 the old red. Geology is expected to throw light on 

 the modern doctrine of evolution. The latter theory 

 maintains, above all things, the gradual development 

 of life on our earth. The debated formation above 

 alluded to looked like the old red sandstone; but 

 there had been a little fossil terrestrial reptile, of 

 high organisation, called Telerpeton, found in it many 

 years ago. Now, according to the law of succession 

 of life upon the earth, this reptile had no business to 

 be found in the old red sandstone formation. Its 

 proper place of appearance was much later on. 

 Other incidental fossil remains were found associated 

 with the Telerpeton, all of which suggested them to be 

 of much later date than the old red. When the British 

 Association met at Aberdeen in 1885, there was an 

 excursion to the quarry in the Elgin sandstone where 

 the reptilian remains had been found, and a geological 

 discussion took place. Within the last few weeks 

 there has been a new find of fossils in the same 

 quarry. These will not only settle the debate, 

 geologically and evolutionistically, but they are full 

 of novelty besides. In South Africa there is a well- 

 known formation, which has been fully regarded all 

 round as equivalent in age to the new red sandstone 

 of Cheshire and Warwickshire, that has produced a 

 variety of fossil extinct reptiles, which have not 

 hitherto turned up anywhere else. Among the 

 recent " finds " in the Elgin sandstone of Scotland 

 are the remains of the chief fossil reptile hitherto 

 found only in South Africa — a creature called 

 Dicynodon. So a few extra fossil bones have 

 practically settled two generations of geological 

 discussion, and Evolution is again justified of her 

 children. 



Post-Glacial Time.— A paper on this subject by 

 T. Mellard Reade, C.E., F.G.S., has just been read 

 at the Geological Society. The author showed that 

 there exists on the coast of Lancashire and Cheshire 

 an important series of post-glacial deposits which he 



has studied for several years. The whole country to 

 which his notes refer was formerly covered with a 

 mantle of low-level marine Boulder-clay and sands, 

 and the valleys of the Dee, Mersey, and Ribble were 

 at one time filled with these glacial deposits. These 

 glacial beds have been much denuded, especially in 

 the valleys, where the rivers have cleared them out,, 

 in some cases, to the bed rock. Most of this de- 

 nudation occurred during a period of elevation 

 succeeding the deposition of the low-level Boulder- 

 clay. On this eroded surface and in the eroded 

 channels lay a series of post-glacial beds of a most 

 interesting and extensive nature. They consist of 

 estuarine silt and Scrobicularia-clay covered by ex- 

 tensive peat-deposits, containing the stools of trees 

 rooted into them. Upon these lie, in some places, 

 recent tidal silts, and on the coast margin blown 

 sand and sand dunes. The series of events repre- 

 sented by the denudation of the low-level Boulder- 

 clay and the laying down of these deposits is as 

 follows : — 1st, elevation succeeding the glacial period, 

 during which time the Boulder-clay was deeply 

 denuded in the valleys. 2nd, subsidence to about 

 the 25-feet contour, when the estuarine silts and 

 clays were laid down. 3rd, re-elevation, repre- 

 senting most probably a continental connection with 

 the British Isles, during which time the climate was 

 milder than at present, and big trees flourished 

 where now they will not grow. 4th, subsidence to- 

 the present level, the submersion of the peat and 

 forest-beds, the laying down of tidal silt upon them, 

 and the accumulation of blown sand along the sea- 

 margin extending to a considerable distance in an 

 inland direction. It was estimated, from a variety 

 of considerations, that these events, all posterior to 

 the glacial period, represent a lapse of time of not 

 less than 57>5°° years allotted as follows : — 40,000 

 years for the elevation succeeding the glacial period 

 measured by the denudation of the Boulder-clay in 

 the valleys, 15,000 years for the accumulation of the 

 estuarine silts, clays, peat, and forest beds, and 2500 

 years for the blown sand. 



The Geologists' Association. — The last part 

 of the" Proceedings" contains papers on "The 

 Formation of Agates," by W. J. Lewis Abbott ; on 

 "The Geology of Cornwall," by T. H. Collins, and 

 " Notes on the London Clay and its Deposition," by 

 J. Starkie Gardner, etc. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Eccentricities of Insect Life. — The following 

 notes may interest your correspondent, Peter Kirk*. 

 and others : — The past season has been a fairly good, 

 one for entomologists. One peculiar feature in the 

 abundance of lepidopterous insects has been the 

 recurrence of the yellow underwing moth {Tryphcena 

 protuiba) in fairly large numbers. This moth was, 



