38 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



large extent of Salopian country. Among localities 



to be specalised is Aymestry (a place which has 



given its name to one of the uppermost Silurian beds). 



Craven Arms station, near Church Stretton, is a 



capital place for the student to make for if he wishes 



to be placed at once on Silurian ground. The 



Aymestry limestone may here be seen forming the 



bold hills of View Edge and Stokesay camp, and 



this limestone will in places be found literally 



abounding with the well-known and characteristic 



fossil brachiopod Pentamerus KnighHi. The Garden 



House quarries at Aymestry will be found capital 



collecting grounds. Indeed, a good many of the fossils 



iigured by Sir Roderick Murchison in his " Silurian 



•System," were obtained at these quarries. Nearly 



•every village in the neighbourhood has several 



-outcrops of or quarries into the rocks, where abundant 



fossils maybe hammered out. The commonest of the 



fossil corals are Cyathophyllum (often well known 



among the quarrymen and others, by the name of 



"petrified ram's horns," in allusion to the irregular 



way in which the stony corallum usually twists), 



Heliolites inter stinctus, Halysites, Omphyma (one 



•species of which, O. subturbinata, is a very widely 



and plentifully distributed Silurian coral). 



The Malvern Hills also afford several noticeable 

 localities where the Silurian strata yield fossil corals. 

 The Woolhope Valley is especially to be mentioned, 

 and here the commonest corals to be exhumed are 

 ■Omphyma (several species), Cyathophyllum, Haly- 

 sites, Zaphrentis, Astnea, &c. The best localities 

 hereabouts are Checkley Common, Warslaw, and Dor- 

 mington (the limestone at the latter place appears to 

 be simply an ancient and very local coral-reef ; it is 

 wonderfully full of fossils of various kinds). The 

 Silurian rocks of the Malvern Hills are nearly 

 everywhere plentiful in fossils, although evidences of 

 the reef-building corals only occur here and there. 

 The following are all capital collecting grounds : 

 Netherton Valley, Stonesway, about Nenning's Farm, 

 Colwall Copse, the quarries along the Marthon 

 jroad, Martley, and Blaisdon Edge (where extensive 

 quarrying of the Wenlock limestone is carried on). 



The lateral foldings of the Upper Silurian strata of 

 North Wales have frequently obliterated the organic 

 remains, or left them represented by only feeble impres- 

 sions. Of course, except a few single and solitary corals, 

 we should not expect to find — nor do we find — fossil 

 •corals abundant in any other than limestone deposits, 

 all other strata being formed in more or less muddy 

 water, as the nature of the sediments shows ; whilst 

 coral animals are noted for their love of clear water, 

 and their dislike to turbid. Hence in such beds as the 

 Bala limestone, we frequently find abundance of 

 fossil corals. One of the best localities we know of 

 is Mynydd Fronfrys (already alluded to in former 

 articles), a few miles' walk from Llangollen. In an 

 old quarry along the Oswestry road there is a perfect 

 feast of fat things in the shape of abundant and 



beautifully preserved Silurian fossils, and the spot is 

 so quiet, and in the midst of such delightful and 

 little visited Welsh scenery, that our readers would 

 be thankful for directing them to the place, if it were 

 for that alone. 



The Coniston limestone, which runs an irregular 

 course through the Lake District, is in places full of 

 fossil corals, and in the neighbourhood of the little 

 town which gives to this stratum its name may be ob- 

 tained lilonticulipora, Stenopora (or Favosites) fibrosus, 

 Petraia, the latter now known to be only natural casts 

 of Cyathophyllum, &c. Some lovely spots may be found 

 where there is good geologising on these beds. One of 

 the best we know is the road to Troutbeck, near Win- 

 dermere. This road crosses the hill where the limestone 

 crops up, and the walls by the roadside are formed of 

 the local rock. They are perfect museums, but it 

 will be noticed that nearly all the fossils occur as 

 casts or impressions, and the rock is often quite per- 

 forated or "rotten" from the abundance of these 

 casts. This is due to the lime, which formerly entered 

 into the composition of the fossils, having been all 

 gradually dissolved away by the rain water which has 

 been percolating these fossiliferous rocks, ever since 

 they were converted into dry land. Among the most 

 abundant of the fossils is the Favosites fibrosus, per- 

 haps one of the widest distributed of all Silurian 

 corals. Many varieties of it are known, and among 

 others one which is seen encrusting univalve shells, 

 as if it had destroyed them, after the fashion which is 

 still practised by some mechanically parasitic zoo- 

 phytes in modern seas. The stone walls about Apple- 

 thwaite Common are often very full of small kinds of 

 fossil coral as impressions of Cyathophyllum, Favosites, 

 Heliotes, &c. 



( To be continued.) 



MICROSCOPY. 



Habirshaw's Catalogue of the Diatomace^e. 

 — We are very sorry to hear that there is no probability 

 of the French edition of Habirshaw's catalogue being 

 published. Therefore it is desirable to withhold the 

 proposed subscriptions for the present. 



Another Method of Mounting Microscopic 

 FUNGI. — I suppose that in all branches of microscopy 

 each worker has his own particular mode of manipu- 

 lation which, to him, seems better than any other, 

 and in which, perhaps, he is most successful. In 

 Mr. Williams's interesting and instructive paper on 

 "Mounting Microscopic Fungi" in the January 

 number of SciENCE-Gossir for 1879, he describes a 

 process of mounting which is frequently used for dry 

 objects with more or less success, but which, I think, 

 in some respects at least, can be improved upon. 

 For some time past I have used wooden slides for 

 objects which require a moderately deep cell, and I 

 have always found them to answer exceedingly well. 



