HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



139 



EOZOON CANADENSE. 



Is it a fossil or only a stone ? 



A difficult question to answer I own ; 



First found by Logan — the subject of strife — 



Dawson and Carpenter brought it to life. 



Was it, oh, was it the chambered abode 



Of animal jelly, or living sarcode ? 



Protruding itself through shell nummuline 



In young pseudopodia? Oh, it was fine ; 



In form so jjerfect it filled with surprise — 



This foraminifer of wonderful size ! 



'Twas no use to doubt, they cut up so rough 



And air'd their authorities, this was enough, 



Though you felt in your secret heart it was stuff. 



Carpenter, F.R.S. — not a mechanic — 



Stuck to his guns — it was surely organic. 



Two Galway professors. King and Rowney, 



Held just as stoutly 'twas merely stony, 



And under the microscope could divine 



Nothing but calcite and green serpentine. 



Vitruvius "ophite" — a very good name ! 



Oh ! fighting it was for truth or for fame ! 



Cracks meant "canals," the "nummuline layer" 



These pundits thought was not at all clear ; 



" Asbestiform," or something or other 



It was — one word 's as good as another 



To the unlearned public, who thought it odd 



Such strife should be stirred by extinct Rhizopod. 



At last, as some thought not one whil loo soon, 

 The world scientific killed Eozoon, 

 So sing those savants who can see by us 

 Or through the eyes of Monsieur Moebius. 

 The creature of Dawn got its quietus 

 "When he to the last discourse did treat us. 

 So geologists now will merely just mention 

 This fossil extinct found in the Laurentian. 



A. Conifer. 



Sea-beaches on Hillsides.— At a meeting of the 

 Geological Society of London, Mr. D. Macintosh, 

 F.G.S., gave a sketch of the progress of discovery 

 connected with the Moel Tryfan deposits. He then 

 described certain phenomena connected with these 

 deposits, to which little or no attention has been 

 devoted by other observers. After identifying the 

 local 'stones and indirectly local erratics, he traced 

 the derivation of the far-travelled erratics which 

 came from the N. and N.W. He drew particular 

 attention to an extensive exposure of slaty laminae, 

 the edges of which have been bent by a force assailing 

 the hill from the N.W. ; and as these edges have 

 been shattered so as to form parcels of slate-chips 

 covered by, or rolled up in laminated sand, along 

 with parcels of clay, he endeavoured to prove that 

 a stranding of the floating ice which must have 

 brought part of the erratics (including numerous 

 chalk-flints), will alone account for the phenomena. 

 After describing patches of gravel and sand in other 



parts of Carnarvonshire, referring to the Three- 

 Rock Mountain deposits in Ireland (which must have 

 come from the N.W.), and briefly noticing the drifts 

 on Halkin Mountain, Flintshire, he entered upon 

 the main subject of his paper, namely the discovery 

 of an extensive series of marine drifts, includino; 

 (besides deposits on flat ground) about twelve hillocks 

 or knolls, consisting of rounded gravel and sand, and, 

 in at least two instances, containing gravel-pits with 

 numerous shell fragments. They extend along the 

 east side of the northern part of the mountain-range 

 which runs between Minera and Llangollen Vale, 

 and are situated at levels between iioo and 1300 feet 

 above the sea. The gravel is largely made up of 

 rounded Eskdale-granite pebbles, and during his last 

 or fourth visit to the district, he found a large granite 

 boulder on the axial summit of the ridge, about 

 1450 feet above the sea, showing a submergence of 

 the mountain to at least that extent. He went on 

 to assign reasons for believing that the sea lingered 

 longer at the level of the sand and gravel knolls than 

 lower down and higher up, so as to allow time for 

 the extra rounding of the pebbles, accumulation of 

 erratics, and multiplication of Mollusca ; for he could 

 discover no reason for supposing that the mollusks 

 which left the shells did not live on or near the spot 

 in the littoral or sublittoral zone. He then described 

 a small exposure of high-level rounded gravel and 

 sand near Llangollen, and dwelt on the remarkable 

 fact that the marine deposits on Moel Tryfan, 

 Three-Rock Mountain (Ireland), Minera Mountain, 

 and in Macclesfield Forest, occur at about the same 

 altitude above the sea-level. After proposing a 

 provisional classification of the drift-deposits of 

 North Wales and the Pennine hills into zones, show- 

 ing probable variations in the rate of submergence, 

 he concluded by discussing fhe question whether 

 the submergence was caused by the subsidence of 

 the land or the rising of the sea, without venturing 

 to express any decided opinion on the subject, but 

 inclining to the former idea. 



Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 

 — Part I. of vol. vii. of the j^roceedings of the above 

 association contains, amongst other matter, the fol- 

 lowing : Address by Professor T. R. Jones, F.R.S., 

 &c., at the opening of the session, 1880-81 ; papers 

 on " Some Recent Researches among Pre-Cambrian 

 rocks in the British Isles," by H. Hicks, Esq. M.D., 

 F.G.S. ; "The Zones of the Chalk," by Professor 

 Morris, F.G.S., &c. 



Goldfish. — Those of your readers who keep gold- 

 fish may be glad to hear that they are very fond of 

 frog spawn, and eat greedily the common hornwort, 

 Ceratophyllum. These fish, in order to be kept in 

 good health, require plants growing in the aquarium, 

 and to be fed occasionally on small red worms. — 

 S. A. Brenau, Clk., Allan Rock, Co. Tyrone. 



