HARDWICK&S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



235 



which have been regarded as the fundamental gneisses, 

 that we have yet much to learn before any satisfactory 

 solution can be given regarding the true position of 

 the rocks of that district. The presence of these 

 conglomerates interstratified with the so-called funda- 

 mental gneisses, is a clear proof that there must have 

 been a pre-existing land from which these erratics have 

 been derived, and another proof that we are not yet in 

 a position to draw the hard-and-fast line between one 

 period and another, nor can we dogmatise as to which 

 are the oldest rocks, or even say which is the oldest 

 form in the life-history of the globe. Mr. Thomson 

 then referred to the striking similarity which existed 

 between some varieties of the graphic granite that 

 had been discovered in the above locality and some 

 varieties considered to be of organic origin. It seems 

 highly improbable that such an extensive series of 

 metamorphic rocks should be destitute of the remains 

 of organic life. There is abundant evidence that 

 during the period they were being desposited there 

 were great sheets of both marine and fresh water. Mr. 

 Thomson said that he merely meant to record the 

 discovery of conglomerate, and reserved the describing 

 of it in a more detailed manner till some future 

 occasion. 



Collectors of prehistoric antiquities are warned 

 against fabricated specimens of articles purporting to 

 belong to the age of bronze, and to have been among 

 the remains of lake-dwellings, and in the beds of 

 rivers. There is a regular manufactory of these things 

 near the lake of Bienne, and bronze swords are being 

 offered at a hundred francs each which are not worth 

 as many centimes. 



The Musk-Ox in England.— In a recent number 

 of the "Geological Magazine," Mr.W. Davies, F.G.S., 

 announces the discovery of the teeth of the musk- 

 ox (Ovibus moschatus) in the brick-earth, at Cray- 

 ford in Kent. The specimens belonged to an indi- 

 vidual of large size. The distribution of the existing 

 musk-ox is now limited to the barren land of Polar 

 America, between the 60th and 83rd parallels of 

 latitude. , 



Micro-Palaeontology. — We have received the 

 catalogue of species, sections, and material, supplied 

 by Messrs. G. R. Vine & Son, of Attercliffe, Sheffield. 

 The gradually increasing desire on the part of 

 students to know more of the micro-palaeontology 

 of our rocks has induced these gentlemen to master 

 all the details of this intricate study. Mr. Vine, jun., 

 has devoted his attention to the foraminifera and 

 entomostraca, and Mr. Vine, sen., has devoted much 

 time and labour to the polyzoa and other organisms. 

 We were much pleased to notice the importance 

 attached by the general committee of the British 

 Association to Mr. G. R. Vine's labours, by their 

 making him a grant of ,£10 to enable him to continue 

 them. 



Glaciers in Saxony.— Prof. Credner has just 

 discovered polishings and groovings on the surface of 

 porphyritic rocks in Western Saxony, and concludes 

 from these and other facts that the Scandinavian ice 

 reached as far as the neighbourhood of Leipzig, 

 and to the southern border of the North German 

 plain. 



"Chemical Denudation in relation to 

 Geological Time."— Under this heading Mr. T. M. 

 Reade, F.G.S., has published three thoughtful and sug- 

 gestive papers. One Of them, "Geological Time," was 

 his presidential address to the Geological Society of 

 Liverpool ; another a paper read before the Royal 

 Society, on " Limestone, as an Index of Geological 

 Time" (which we thought so highly of as to reprint a 

 lengthy abstract thereof in our columns) ; and a third 

 on "The Geological significance of the Challenger 

 discoveries." We are glad that Mr. Reade has been 

 prevailed upon to issue these most interesting 

 essays in their present attractive shape. They are 

 published by David Bogue, 3 St. Martin's Place, 

 London. 



The United States Geological Survey — 

 We have received from Dr. Hayden all the publi- 

 cations of this survey from its commencement. What 

 a vast mass of laboured research is here represented ! 

 In one of the "Bulletins," Mr. W. H. Holmes 

 describes a remarkable geological phenomenon which 

 occurs on the slopes of Amethyst Mountain, in the 

 now well-known "Yellowstone Park." On the 

 mountainside, which rises to between 2000 to 3000 

 feet above the river valley, there are exposed at 

 different levels, a series of silicified trees, many rooted 

 in position as they grew, and from twenty to thirty 

 feet in height, while others, broken and worn, are 

 lying at length. Some of the latter are of great size, 

 the fragments measuring as much as eighty-two feet 

 in diameter. The series of sandstone and conglomer- 

 ates in which the trees are imbedded is more than 

 5000 feet thick, forming a vertical mile of fossil 

 forests. The woody structure is for the best part 

 well preserved, but where cavities have been formed 

 in the trunks by the rotting of the wood, they are 

 lined with crystals of amethyst, smoky and other 

 varieties of quartz. 



The Miocene Flora ofthe North of Ireland. 

 —At the recent meeting of the British Association, 

 Mr. W. H. Baily, F.G.S., Palaeontologist to the Irish 

 Geological Survey, reported on this subject. He 

 stated that the fossil plants occur in a deposit of 

 brown and red matter lying between two sheets of 

 basalt. Twenty-five species of plants have been 

 determined. They are most closely allied to the 

 fossil flora of North Greenland, although some of 

 the species occur in the Bovey Tracey deposit, in 

 Devonshire. 



