HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



•Callaway that there are two Pre-Cambrian series in 

 Anglesey. He differed from the author, however, in 

 regarding the so-called granitoidite as constituting 

 'the lowest and not the highest member of the series 

 of Pre-Cambrian rocks. He stated that some of the 

 breccias associated with the halleflintas contain 

 pebbles of the granitoid rocks, and are therefore of 

 ■younger age than the latter. He admitted, however> 

 that some of the points must be regai^ded as in an 

 ■unsettled state, owing to the faulted condition of the 

 district. Professor Ramsay argued against the principle 

 ■of identifying rocks as of different ages by their 

 ■mineral characters as studied by the microscope. He 

 argued that the altered rocks of Anglesey are the 

 metamorphosed representatives of the Cambrian, 

 'because the unaltered Cambrian are found striking 

 directly towards the altered strata, and both are 

 ■overlain by the Arenig. 



The Physical History of the Cretaceous 

 a^'LlNTS.— I have to-day seen Mr. H. P. iVIalet's 

 •observations on the above subject in this month's 

 Science-Gossip, and thank him for stating his 

 objection to my hypothesis in so concise and courteous 

 a manner ; as I am inclined to believe the difference 

 between us to which he alludes, is, after all, rather 

 imaginary than real. I am now engaged in the 

 completion of a second paper on the Flints, which 

 AviJl appear in the February number of "The Annals 

 land Mag. Nat. Hist." As this will supply a good 

 deal of additional information on all the material 

 ipoints of my hypothesis, I trust you will agree with 

 ■me in thinking it better that I should not enter on the 

 ■ question here.— 6^. C. IVallkh. 



"A Day's 'Elephant Hunting in Essex." — 

 •Under this title a capital paper appears in the first 

 part of the Transactions of the Epping Forest and 

 'County of Essex Naturalist's Field Club, from the able 

 pen of Mr. Henry Walker, F. G.S. No more attractive 

 -descriptions of the Thames Valley gravels and their 

 -elephantine fossils could be desired. 



York Museum.— The fine collection of 12,000 

 :specimens of fossils made by the late Mr. E. Wood, 

 iF.G.S., of Richmond, Yorkshire, chiefly from the 

 ■Carboniferous Limestone formation of the neighbour- 

 hood, has been purchased by Mr. W. Reed of York, 

 and by him presented to the well-known museum of 

 that city. Mr. Reed had previously presented to the 

 York Museum his fine collection of red crag fossils, 

 ■second in value only to those in the Ipswich Museum. 



Siberian Rhinoceros. — "Nature" states that 

 the body of a colossal rhinoceros has been discovered 

 •m the Werchojanski district, imbedded in the bank 

 of a small river. A good deal of the body was sub- 

 sequently washed away, but the skull was sent to 

 St. Petersburg. It is said to belong to a species 

 intermediate between the Rhinoceros tkhorhiiuis and 

 ihe living rhinoceros. 



The Old Red Sandstone and the Carboni- 

 ferous Formation. — In a paper published in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Mr. 

 J. Nolan, M.R.I. A., of H.M. Geological Survey 

 of Ireland, states that from evidence adduced, more 

 especially with regard to the old red of the North of 

 Ireland, in his opinion the old red sandstone should 

 be considered rather as the base of the carboniferous 

 system, than a distinct formation. 



Proceedings OF the Geologist's Association. 

 ■ — Nos. 8 and 9, vok vi., of the Proceedings of the 

 above Association are to hand, containing (in addition 

 to the accounts of the various excursions), papers 

 on " Th.e Fish Fauna of the Yorkshire Coal Field," 

 by James H. Davis, F.G.S. ; " The Geology of the 

 Bristol District," by Professor W. J. Sollas, F.G.S. ; 

 "The Geological and Other Causes that affect the 

 Distribution of the British Flora," by G. S. Boulger, 

 F.L.S., F.G.S.; "The Classification of Rocks," by 

 the Rev. J. F. Blake, F.G.S.; "A Petrological 

 Classification of Rocks," by Professor E. Renevier, 

 F.C.G.S. ; and " The Geology and Physical Features 

 of the Bagshot District," by the President, Professor 

 T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S. 



The Great Sxow-storm of January iSth., 

 1881, AND ITS Geological Lessons. — The recent 

 severe weather has not been without its practical 

 lessons in more ways than one, and many of its results 

 must have attracted the notice of geologists to the 

 manner in which the "glacial period " acted upon 

 the land in leaving those evidences of its existence 

 which are so frequent in the northern part of these 

 islands. In one chalk-pit in this locality, I was 

 noticing one day when the temperature had risen 

 several degrees above freezing-point, that there was 

 not an interval of a minute between the falling of frag- 

 ments, riven from their bed by frost, some of them 

 large and heavy, from the sides of the pit. These frag- 

 ments fell for the most part upon a large drift tliat 

 had collected in the shelter formed by this ridge, and 

 which had become hard and compact from the small 

 grains of the snow which composed it, and the slight 

 rise and fall of the succeeding temperature. This 

 model glacier did not apparently slide, as it was not 

 of sufficient Weight, but at its lower end there were 

 small caverns, into which a cat might have entered, and 

 from these there flowed small streams of water, rolling 

 in their course minute fragments of -chalk and debris 

 washed out of the slope over which they ran. These 

 little blocks were deposited in model "moraines" 

 at the point where the force of the streamlet was in- 

 sufficient to carry them further, in fact the lower end 

 of this melting snowdrift scattered over with pieces 

 of chalk from the overshadowing ridge was a perfect 

 model of an existing glacier, and was thus of great 

 interest in, to a certain extent, illustrating the action of 

 these powerful engines of erosion and transportation. 

 Another remarkable phenomenon was the formation 



