212 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



with diminutive short-stemmed daisies, which are 

 certainly perennial, for we can find them at all times. 

 On the exposed and bleak moor-top we occasionally 

 meet with holly or hawthorn bushes growing in small 

 hollows. From a little distance these bushes look 

 like patches of moss, for they do not rise above the 

 surface of the surrounding moor. They grow per- 

 haps a foot in height, and three or four feet in 

 diameter, quite filling the hollow in which they have 

 found a shelter, and their leaves and branches are so 

 close that we may step on them quite firmly. — H. 

 Snoivden Ward, Ilkley. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



Glacial Action near Grasmere. — If any 

 geologist adopts Mr. Pearce's valuable recommenda- 

 tion to examine the moraines of Easdale, let him by 

 no means miss those in the upper parts of Langdale 

 and Borrowdale, which are more striking. — William 

 West, Bradford. 



Glacial Action near Grasmere. — In reference 

 to a note (p. 189) by Mr. Horace Pearce, I may say 

 that I have frequently observed and studied the 

 moraine heaps of the Lake District. There are many 

 such in the upper part of Ennerdale, around Greenside 

 reservoir, in Greenup valley, and all over the summit 

 of the Stake Pass, &c. Their appearance is often 

 very impressive, peopling the solitude as it were, and 

 imparting thereto a most weird-like aspect. We are 

 told that they were deposited by glaciers descending 

 the mountain-ravines ; but we think that this ice- 

 origin is not by any means clear or correctly assigned. 

 Their substance is very compact, being formed of 

 earth and pieces of rock rough and rounded. The 

 ground between them is soft and boggy, and fre- 

 quently traversed by streamlets. We opine that the 

 uppermost or highest summit of these moraines repre- 

 sents the height of the original valley ; and the earth 

 and rubbish between them has been swept away by 

 wild, wintry, tempestuous floods sweeping tumul- 

 tously from the mountains in their windward rear. 

 Hailstones and pieces of solid ice may have aided 

 in the disruption ; but the idea of a glacier descending 

 and carving its way along these intermediate spaces 

 seems highly absurd and untenable. Moreover we 

 have frequently noted that the top of the moraine 

 corresponds exactly in height with the water-swept 

 exposure of the hill-walls around, so that it is ex- 

 tremely probable that the agency which caused the 

 one phenomenon occasioned also the other. — P. Quin 

 Kegan, LL.D. 



For Mounting Chalk Organisms. — Take some 

 of the soft chalk from the hollows on the exterior of 

 flints, and which, when damp is of the consistency of 

 putty ; place it in a large tube and shake well ; repeat 



the washing until all milkiness has disappeared. 

 Take a small quantity and dry it, then put it into a 

 test tube, with sufficient turpentine to rather more 

 than cover it, and boil to expel the air and evaporate 

 the bulk of the turpentine. When the turpentine has 

 almost disappeared, drop in some pure Canada 

 balsam, and heat it for some time to evaporate the 

 turpentine. The balsam with its contained organisms 

 can then be taken out of the tube and placed upon a 

 slide or covering-glass, and heated still more, to 

 harden the balsam, taking care not to boil it, and 

 when sufficiently hard mounted and finished at once. 

 — C. Upton. 



To Mount Coccoliths from Chalk. — Take a 

 small quantity of whiting, and shake up in a test tube 

 with about twice its bulk of water, and allow it to 

 settle. Immediately the heavy portion has settled, 

 pour off the apparently clear water which will be 

 found to contain most of the coccoliths. Some of 

 this water should then be taken up into a rather fine 

 pointed pipette, and the upper end plugged and stood 

 point downwards upon a clean cover glass upon which 

 should be placed a drop of rain or distilled water. 

 The coccoliths will subside into the drop of water 

 which can then be evaporated, and the coccoliths 

 mounted in pure balsam. Very little but coccoliths 

 will be found upon the slide. — C. Upton. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Bird Sounds. — In reply to C. C. S. I beg to say 

 the landrail or corncrake often makes a very peculiar 

 hoarse grating kind of noise in the evening. As 

 regards the other noise, Markwick says : " I have 

 frequently shot a bird which haunts the tops of trees 

 and makes a sibilous noise, but it always proved to be 

 the common willow-wren or chiff-chaff; but I can 

 scarcely think this is the bird to which C. C. S. 

 refers. The note of the yellow-hammer is a singular 

 prolonged sibilant note, and it may be that. There is 

 a bird that makes a noise not unlike the sharpening of 

 a saw ; I have heard it in woods ; can you tell me its- 

 name ? " 



N.B. An exhaustive paper on the different notes 

 of birds at different periods would be a boon to 

 naturalists. — Mark A ntony. 



Preparing Lettuce-leaves. — How can I pre- 

 pare the leaf of the lettuce to show the caliciferous 

 vessels as figured in Thome's " Botany " ? — W. IV. 



Variety of Herring-gull. — I should like to 

 have full particulars of the bird mentioned last 

 month, as I should be glad to publish a description 

 of it (or any other variety) in my " British Birds." — 

 *S". L. Mosley, Beaumont Bark Museum, Hudders- 

 field. 



Spots on Sycamore Leaves. — The black spots 

 on sycamore leaves, about which W. B. Drummond 

 inquires at p. 167, are a fungus Rhytisma acerinum ; 

 there is a similar parasite, B. salicinum, on leaves of 

 some willows. — H. IV. Lett, M.A. 



