HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



127 



Leads to effacement of unworthy self 



While honest trade replaces early pelf. 



To learn this lesson why should man be loth. 



Increase of knowledge means the moral growth. 



Then why forge chains the intellect to fetter? 



To follow truth is juster, wiser, better. 



Oh fertile thought ! that first in Lyell's mind 

 Arose to teach and permeate mankind, 

 Gave man a hope that from efifect to cause, 

 Through smallest change to trace great Nature's 



laws, 

 Showed how continuous action without break 

 Made eloquent the rocks, the ocean speak I 

 Showed order in disorder through the whole, 

 And gave to Mother-Earth a living soul. 



Anthropomorphic notions of a God 

 That ruled his creatures with an iron rod. 

 Were well devised to govern stiff-necked Jews, 

 Who should have followed right, but did not 



choose. 

 Such infant views our souls scarce now demand. 

 Though in the storm we still may see His hand. 

 Say not that man is obstinately blind 

 To all but second causes close confined. 

 For still the Final Cause his thoughts must leaven, 

 And lift him up from Earth to brighter Heaven. 

 ^^'ith sacred things true science will not meddle, 

 Nor even stop to guess the mighty riddle, 

 Humbly content with steady light to shine, 

 And show some beauties of the Great Design. 



Thus Darwin worked, and all his mind was bent 



To find the truth through full experiment. 



Pushing afar into the realms of thought 



With facts he laboured on, for truth he wrought. 



Till Nature pleased had lifted up the veil 



To show to other minds a further trail. 



A nobler life of thought could scarce be found. 



Calm yet eloquent, simple though profound. 



Most just to others, honest to a fault, 



Of scientific men the very salt, 



Thy dear example, Darwin, shall infuse 



New life in those who ways of science choose ; 



To England's honour shall these names appear, 



Newton and Darwin, Bacon and Shakspere. 



April z-j, 1882. A. Conifer. 



''WHftwnfflifflwi 



Early Nesting. — With reference to Mr. Whel- 

 don's account of an early or late blackbird's nest, I 

 have in print notice of a blackbird's nest containing two 

 eggs having been found in Cheshire early in January, 

 1876. I have in my own collection a very curious 

 blackbird's egg taken near Liverpool in October, 1877. 

 I may add that a colony of jackdaws near here 

 commenced building in January, and on the 27th two 

 nests contained eggs. — If. If. Collinge, Leeds. 



THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE OF 

 THE HALKYNS. 



THE Carboniferous Limestones exposed in the 

 Halkyn Mountain quarries deserve great atten- 

 tion from geologists, because some sections show the 

 uppermost 70 feet of that formation, from which all 

 the ordinary limestone fossils are met with mixed 

 with others which serve as a connecting link with 

 strata next in order. For example, small specimens of 

 the bivalve Lingula are occasionally found at Halkyn ; 

 this is exceedingly rare in the Carboniferous Limestone. 

 From the valley of the Dee the ground is a continual 

 rise, culminating in the Halkyn mountain quarries ; 

 the succession of limestone beds from the valley to 

 the hill-tops are amply shown by a number of quarries 

 in every direction. The magnificent sections thus 

 exposed, if placed in one vast cliff, would form an 

 entire thickness of about Soo feet of limestone. The 

 formation by violent upheaval of the Welsh hills is 

 admirably illustrated in many of the sections, the 

 contorted bands clearly demonstrating the violent 

 forces which built up these mountains. Some parts 

 will be found richly fossiliferous, others in which 

 organic remains are scarce ; splendid bands of en- 

 crinite marble are worked from beds lying imme- 

 diately below the upper 70 feet (Abado beds). This 

 encrinite marble occurs at the St. Patrick's Mine in 

 three layers of perhaps two feet thickness ; it is a 

 hard limestone, crammed full of partially destroyed 

 encrinite stems, and is capable of taking a high 

 polish. The utter confusion of the headless encrinite 

 stems proves how sudden and violent must have been 

 the means of their destruction. It is curious to 

 observe how great pieces of stone arc here moved 

 from one part of the quarry to the other by means 

 of wooden rollers and levers, possibly in the same 

 manner as the Egyptians brought their huge blocks, 

 2500 years ago, for the building of the Pyramids. Lead 

 mines are frequent in the neighbourhood of Halkyn, 

 from which many thousand tons of ore are annually 

 raised. It occurs in large veins running either hori- 

 zontally with the strata, or less frequently vertically. 

 Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to reach 

 the productive veins, consequently abandoned shafts 

 are met with all over the hills. I would warn 

 visitors against walking in the dark over these Halkyn 

 hills ; the result might easily prove fatal to a pedes- 

 trian. 



The lowest bands of limestone contain no organic 

 remains with the exception of foraminifera ; they are 

 as pure carbonate of lime as chalk, that is, something 

 over 90 per cent. The Abado beds have little more 

 than 50 per cent, of lime, the rest being made up of 

 alumina and silica. It would be interesting to de- 

 termine whether the intervening beds are purer 

 carbonate of lime as they descend towards the lowest, 

 and, granting it to be so, if the same rule holds good 



