Highgate Resin. 675 



scure traces of vegetable matter were occasionally to be seen, 

 — we were unable to discover any traces of fossil remains. 



The general aspect of these beds is strikingly like those si- 

 tuated immediately above the London clay at Hordwell, and 

 little doubt remained in the mind of either of us that they 

 were in reality identical with them. This opinion was far- 

 ther confirmed when we examined the beds occurring below 

 Webster's upper marine formation, at a small chine on the 

 north side of Totland Bay, where we found seams of white" 

 sand and of greenish marl, containing Potdmomya angustata 

 in as great abundance as in similar beds at Hordwell, and 

 presenting so close an approximation to those beds, both in 

 their mineral and fossiliferous characters, as to render it diffi- 

 cult, if not impossible, to determine from which locality a 

 hand specimen might have been taken. It is probable that 

 these seams at Headon Hill would be found equally abound- 

 ing in the Potamomya if we could obtain a view of the spa- 

 ces covered by the talus from the cliffs above. — J. S. Bower- 

 bank. — 19, Critchell Place, Hoxton ; Nov. 20th, 1838. 



Highgate Resin.— & large, round, and rather flat specimen 

 of the resin obtained from the excavations of the London and 

 Birmingham railroad near Chalk Farm, was found on exami- 

 nation, to be very much impregnated With the sulphuret of 

 i'on. After exposure to the air for a short time, the mass se- 

 parated into several fragments, exhibiting rounded cavities 

 filled with solid iron pyrites, as if it had passed into the sub- 

 stance of the resin in a fluid state. The portion of the resin 

 in immediate contact with the pyrites was unchanged. 



In another specimen which I discovered on breaking a Sep* 

 tarium from the Highgate Archway, vegetable remains were 

 quite close to the resin : this is an interesting fact, tending to 

 show that, like amber, it probably had its origin in vegetable 

 juices. I have not met with any remains of insects. 



Like other resins it is electric, although in a less degree 

 than amber. The following are all the localities, as far as I 

 know, where it has been found. — Highgate Archway ; Isling- 

 ton excavations of the London and Birmingham railroad; 

 Bayswater ; and Wolchow. 



From this place I have collected several London clay shells, 

 and among them is an unfigured volute closely resembling the 

 Voluta Lamberti of the crag, differing from it however in hav- 

 ing a longer spire, and in being more oval. Mr. J. D. C. 

 Sowerby has given it the name of Voluta Wether ellii.* — N. 

 T. Wetherell.— Highgate, Nov. 22nd, 1838. 



* See the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal 

 of Science, Vol. ix. No. 56, December, 1836, p. 463. 

 Vol. II.— No. 24, n. s. 3 y 



