HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



■z(i() 



ARRENURUS PERFORATUS—h. NEW 

 WATER-MITE. 



DURING the past season I found a very beautiful 

 and curious water-mite, and as I have not been 

 able to find a figure or description of it in Miiller, 

 Koch, or Walckenaer, I believe it has not before 

 been figured, or described ; and therefore send you 

 a camera outline sketch, as seen with a two-thirds 

 object glass, and A eye-piece. The general colour 

 of the body is light dull brick red, insensibly shading 

 off to green at the edges ; as in other arrenuri it is 

 •chitinous, and covered all over with circular mark- 



Fig. 149. — New Species of Water-Mite {Ai-rcnurus perforatus). 



ings, reminding one of a coat of mail ; the eyes when 

 properly illuminated are ruby red, the oval impressed 

 line is somewhat irregular in shape, and very distinct ; 

 the tail is green, thick at the sides and thinned in the 

 middle in a wedge-shaped fashion. In the centre near 

 the posterior border is a heart-shaped perforation, 

 very conspicuous, from which circumstance I have 

 given it the name perforatus, above this is situated 

 a dark rather spear-shaped projection, under which 

 there is a light-coloured elevation almost of the same 

 shape, but broader and longer. The legs and palpi 

 are green, the two posterior legs are well supplied 

 with long swimming bristles, and six hairs project 

 from the tail as shown in the figure. If any readers 

 of Science-Gossip have seen this mite figured, 

 or described, I shall be glad to be referred to the 

 paper or work containing it. 



C. F. George. 

 Kirton Lindsey. 



NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 

 JERSEY. 



By Edward Lovett. 



[Continued Jrom page 226.] 



Geology, 



^ /"ERY little has yet been done with regard to a 

 V systematic investigation of the geology of 

 Jersey, and although the island is of small dimen- 

 sions, it presents difficulties in connection with the 

 arrangement of its rocks, greater than are met with 

 in wider areas. We have, however, reason to believe 

 that this investigation is being undertaken in an 

 efficient manner by a local geologist. 



In this paper we would simply follow the coast- 

 line of the island, enumerating in succession the 

 chief features which present themselves, together with 

 any point of special interest as regards the rocks, &c., 

 as they occur. 



Starting at the harbour of St. Helier, and pro- 

 ceeding eastwards, we notice the large mass of pink 

 syenite upon which the fort is built ; this hard, close- 

 grained rock stands as a proof of the former existence 

 of a vast area that has been removed by decomposi- 

 tion and weathering. The whole of the coast-line in 

 this locality is low and shelving, leaving at low tide 

 an enormous expanse of rugged rocks, which are 

 barely covered at high water, these, stretching round 

 St. Clement's Bay, La Rocque, and Grouville Bay, 

 are composed principally of diorites and greenstones, 

 with veins of pink syenite, forming a beautiful con- 

 trast to the rich dark colour of the diorites. In some 

 spots these veins are extremely abundant, and are 

 accompanied by other veins of a dense basaltic lava. 



Near La Rocque, the syenite contains some mag- 

 nificent crystals of quartz. During some excavations 

 many of these were obtained; they fell free when 

 detached from their matrix, and some presented the 

 curious form of being cone in cone, yet each separate 

 from the other. The majority of these crystals 

 measured over twenty-five inches round the base of 

 the apex. These diorites, &c., terminate, so far as the 

 coast-line is concerned, at Gorey, where the rocks 

 again rise to a considerable elevation ; a little beyond 

 this we meet with a purple clayslate-looking rock 

 which forms a small headland ; this, upon examination 

 appears however to be part of the remarkable rhyolite 

 which is so well shown on the corresponding portion 

 of the north coast which we shall presently reach. 



St. Catherine's Bay, which now follows, is a very 

 characteristic one ; the two cusps of the bay are two 

 headlands, being the continuous ridges of high ground 

 running inland and forming a long valley, the wasting 

 of which, by the sea, has formed the bay Following 

 the sea-margin of this valley, it will be seen that the 

 rocks, which are much torn and bent in the direction 

 of the trend of the valley, are overlaid by a mass of 



