HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



141 



different as possible from those wrought by the action 

 of other denuding agents. Further on is a little stack 

 of limestone, the vertical faces on all but the side 

 fronting the sea, bevelled and striated, and close by, 

 a similarly glaciated high shelf — forming together a 

 tiny valley or gateway, admirable as an illustration of 

 how a glacier pouring down a valley, adapting itself 

 to the rocky channel, grinds smooth the rough places 

 in the bottom and sides. Fragments of polished and 

 striated surfaces and rubbings on paper of strice from 

 the above described spots are at Dr. Keegan's dis- 

 posal, should he wish to see them. — James Hornett. 



Eozoon Canadense. — Sir J. W. Dawson has 

 recently given in the " Geological Magazine " some 

 new facts regarding Eozoon Canadense. Though the 

 form of this body is ordinarily regarded as indefinite, 

 well-preserved specimens show that the normal shape 

 of young and isolated examples is a broadly turbinate, 

 funnel-shaped, or top-shaped form, with sometimes a 

 depression on the upper surface. Other forms are 

 rounded or dome-shaped masses. In sections more 

 or less cylindrical, depressions or tubes may be seen. 

 If Eozoon was an organism growing on the sea-bottom, 

 it would be liable to be broken up, and in this 

 condition to constitute calcareous sand or gravel ; 

 examination of Laurentian limestone frequently reveals 

 the presence of Eozoon. Cryptozoum, whatever be its 

 zoological relations, is found in the Cambrian rocks 

 under the same conditions as Eozoon in the remark- 

 able imitative forms of:gneiss, laminated limestone 

 with serpentine, and various other laminated or 

 banded materials which are often found in collections 

 or specimens of Eozoon. 



Bedfordshire Clays, &c. — At a meeting of the 

 Bedfordshire Archaeological and Natural History 

 Society held at Bedford (April 12th) Mr. A. C. G. 

 Cameron, Geological Survey, read a paper on the 

 "Clays and Bricks of Bedfordshire." He described 

 the geological formation of the country, and entered 

 at length into an examination of the clays and the 

 localities in which they exist. The manufacture of 

 bricks and kindred fabric out of Oxford clay was given 

 in considerable detail ; and the nature of the soils and 

 subsoils touched on from an agricultural point of view. 

 With regard to the Ampthill Clay, there is a thick 

 mass of it exposed in the cuttings of the Midland 

 Railway near Ampthill Station. At the northern 

 entrance to the tunnel, there are several noticeable 

 layers of stone, manifestly concretionary and containing 

 fossils. These concretionary stones lie amongst the 

 clay in a contrary way to the bedding. To the south 

 of the tunnel, the clay is blacker and contains Kim- 

 meridge forms of fossils. Professor Seeley has 

 correlated the clay with septarian concretions in the 

 Ampthill cutting with those of the St. Ives and 

 neighbouring brickyards, localising it as the Ampthill 

 Clay. It may, therefore, be considered as a passage 

 bed between the Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays. The 



lecturer said he must not omit to mention a characte 

 of the Ampthill Clay which he thought justified his 

 bestowing on it the term " troublesome," an epithet 

 which any one who has anything to do with that 

 portion of the line will endorse. This is its 

 sensitiveness to the weather, the result of which is 

 that the cutting presents an appearance of disorder 

 more compatible with that of a line in course of 

 construction than with that of an established road over 

 which for so long so many trains have daily run. As 

 is well known, huge masses of the clay become 

 detached from the sides of the cutting and slide 

 forward with a tendency to fall upon the line. This 

 is frustrated by the expedient of burning the clay on 

 the spot, constructing with it platforms at the foot of 

 the slopes. These present a rough surface, arrest the 

 progress of the sliding mass, and preserve the rails 

 intact. If grass were grown on these slopes, it is not 

 improbable as the surface is added to by the growth 

 of the vegetation, the slides would be of less frequent 

 occurrence, if not entirely stopped. 



The paleontological and lithological characters of 

 the Oxford Clay as exhibited at the various brick- 

 works were also described, reference being made to 

 the use of the word " glass" for selenite amongst the 

 workers in Oxford Clay, in connection with selenite 

 in Germany, being sometimes popularly called 

 Francnglas, or Marienglas. The brickyards on the 

 Clapham road, Box End Kempston, Bletsoe, 

 Sharnbrook, and others at a greater distance from 

 Bedford, are opened just beneath a bed of yellow 

 sand and bluish loam, the " mild clay " of the builders. 

 To this sandy bed, the basement bed of the Oxford 

 Clay, the name of " Kelloways Rocks " has been 

 given from Kelloways, in "Wiltshire, where it was first 

 brought into notice by William Smith, the father of 

 English geology. In old times, owing to the difficulty 

 of transporting road metal, local stones were much 

 more used than they are now ; thus the rock at 

 Kelloways was then used for that purpose. At 

 Bedford it is characterised by hard lumps or 

 "doggers" of calcareous sandstone that lie very 

 prominently amongst the sand and loam. Beyond 

 the town, which partly stands on it, the Kelloways 

 can be traced up the valley as a fairly persistent bed 

 or narrow belt of sandy soil, out from which the hard 

 stone or " dogger " is seen protruding. — Beds. Times. 

 April 21, i{ 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Early Nesting of the Chaffinch and 

 Blackbird. — My attention was drawn the other 

 day to the fact, that a chaffinch's nest with five eggs 

 was got on the 1 6th January, at Craigfin, May bole, 

 Ayrshire. Yesterday I visited the farm, and found 

 the report correct, the tenant kindly gave me parti- 

 culars. The nest was found in the side of haystack, 

 an unusual site for the species to build. When it 



