44 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



extremity of the neighbouring island of Brecqhou a 

 syenitic rock which the author considered to be a 

 metamorphic stratified rock. The form of Jersey he 

 showed to be due to granitic rocks, which on the N., 

 S. and W. have resisted the action of the sea, while 

 the waves have scooped St. Ouen's, St. Brelade's, St. 

 Aubin's and Grouville bays out of much softer 

 volcanic ashes which form the mass of the interior of 

 the island. On the N.W., Rozel consists of a con- 

 glomerate of rolled pebbles connected with volcanic 

 ashes which has well resisted disintegration. He traced 

 the varying degrees of crystalline character to be found 

 in the volcanic ashes, and argued that it was due to a 

 slow process of crystallisation going on in the solid 

 mass, but most marked and carried to the farthest 

 point, where the rock was most easily permeable by 

 steam and gases. He described granitic veins in a 

 felsite rock at Cotil Point, which have the appearance 

 of having been injected in a state of fusion from the 

 neighbouring mass of granite ; but other evidence 

 showed the granite to be older than the felsite, so that 

 the author concluded these veins to have been filled 

 by materials derived from the granite, not in fusion, 

 but by a process analogous to that by which 

 ordinary quartz veins are filled." — J. II'. Can: 



Obituary. — Death has been busy among Geo- 

 logists. Mr. Edward W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., died 

 at the close of the year. No man worked so much 

 for Lancashire geology, or did so much to bring in 

 young recruits and help them as he. We received 

 our first field lessons from him, more than twenty 

 years ago. Peace to his ashes ! It will be a long 

 time before his name can possibly drop out of English 

 geology. Mr. Charles Moore, E.G.S., of Bath, has 

 also "joined the majority." An indefatigable worker, 

 a gentle-natured man, labouring for years under ill- 

 health enough to have soured many a man, neverthe- 

 less he bore it manfully and patiently, and generously 

 gave both his knowledge and his fossils to the service 

 of the public. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



A VISIT TO A Welsh Stone Quarry. — The 

 November number of Science-Gossip i88i, has a 

 very interesting paper on this subject, by E. Halse, 

 A.R.S.M. He has come to conclusions as to the 

 condition of the rocks, which he calls making, " our 

 strata tell their own tale." With all deference to this 

 history it is just possible that there may be a different 

 story. In offering it to the pages of Science-Gossip 

 I lay down no dogma, I do not say that Mr. Halse is 

 wrong, but my conclusions are drawn from nature, not 

 from books. In his conclusion the beds are con- 

 sidered as water deposits, as such we must treat them. 

 In conclusion 2nd he writes, " after consolidation they 

 were tilted up." — I read this page in another way. 

 The beds, having been deposited by water, were once 

 in the condition of mud, — they are now hard as the 

 water left them ; they necessarily contracted. This 

 contraction produced the effects described. There was 



no occasion for tilling up, and no force for it. 3rd* 

 " Heated water from certain depths below the surface 

 of the earth containing silica in solution filled up 

 these veins. ' There was no occasion for hot water ; 

 silica is held in cold solution ; quartz veins are formed 

 by percolation from above, not from below. The 

 "crystals of iron pyrites" were formed by the 

 filtering process of metallic matter, the whole iron and 

 silica, were in one solution, but were deposited by 

 their varied densities. 4th, "The rocks were next 

 subjected to tremendous lateral pressure, producing 

 undeveloped cleavage." As in No. i, there was no 

 occasion for pressure ; the contraction by drying gave 

 the character described. It is asked, "What is the 

 meaning of the want of parallelism of these plains of 

 cleavage ? " This subject was fully explained in 

 " The Biography of Dust," chap. xiv. Mr. Halse tells 

 us it is the result of great mechanical pressure on the 

 strata." We are not told how this force came, and no one 

 of this pressure school has explained it ; there is how- 

 ever a reading of this page of nature that seems to 

 explain the case. Cleavage takes place along the line 

 of grain, exactly as wood splits along its line of fibre. 

 The rock in question was deposited by water ; when 

 this is still, the grain of deposit is vertical, cleavage 

 is the same. The grain of deposit varies with the 

 water force, and the lines of cleavage do the same. 

 Mr. Halse allows a change of density in the rock ; if the 

 water force is the same then the heavy matter subsides 

 in one line, and the light at another ; as quartz ran 

 through both formations, it followed the line of grain 

 in each, and necessarily lost its parallel. Under either 

 of these natural and certain actions the effect is pro- 

 duced without more pressure than that caused by the 

 gravity of the material. In reference to the conclusions 

 formed on fig. 143, it is often found that joints by 

 silica are more adhesive than the rock itself. If these 

 remarks can be of any use in getting at the truth, they 

 will be as valuable to ]\Ir. Halse as to any other ot 

 your readers who think of these things. — //. jP. Malet. 



Folklore. — In my note in your last number with 

 reference to the names applied to the commoner 

 species of Orchis in the ^^'esternIJOwlands of Scotland 

 the words " Balderry " and " Balderries," appear (by 

 mistake of the printer) as " Baldberry " and " Bald- 

 berries."— A'. T. 



Collecting Otolites. — I am collecting Otolites, 

 and should be obliged to any one who would answer 

 the following queries. I see by books that I ought 

 to find three bones on each side, but I have as yet 

 never succeeded in finding more than one in any iish 

 operated on. I know that in the human ear there are 

 three, the malleus, incus and stapes ; are these three 

 supposed to exist in fishes cemented into one, or are 

 two to be found in a cartilaginous state, and only one 

 ossified ; and if so, which is the ossified one, andhow 

 can I find the other two ? What I do find is one 

 bone enveloped in a gelatinous mass, lying in direct 

 contact with the base of the brain. I have operated 

 on the heads after more or less boiling ; perhaps there 

 is a method of treating them which will allow of more 

 structure being made out, if so, I should like to 

 know how ; I can find nothing like an auditory canal, 

 membrane, &c. I also find it difficult to identify any 

 except the most common fish ; is there any list of 

 synonyms as regards fish names ? The fishmongers 

 give names which I cannot find in books ; for instance, 

 some time ago I purchased a fish called by the sellev 

 a gorball ; 1 have not yet found its proper name. It 

 was an eel-like animal, 22 inches long, weight 2S 

 ounces, dorsal fin commencing just in front of the tail, 

 where it was an inch high, gradually diminishing till 

 it ended close behind the head, lower fin from tad to 



