Cambridgeshire, 545 



the successive layers of sand, clay, shells, and other rejecta- 

 menta incident to a sea beach, we find, where its bed was 

 chalk, the surface covered with loose flints ; in some places, 

 the chalk is perforated, by the action of the water on small 

 pebbles, to the depth of several inches. The principal fact 

 to which I would particularly direct the attention of your zoolo- 

 gical readers is, that, in a pit near Postwick Church, the upper 

 surface of the chalk, in its whole extent (about thirty yards), 

 is perforated by an animal belonging to a genus of the family 

 Tubicolae {Jig. 100.); but which, as far as I have at present been 

 jQQ able to ascertain, is undescribed. That 



an animal of the same nature still 

 exists in the present seas is certain, 

 as there is scarce a specimen of the 

 Septaria dredged up off Harwich, for 

 making Roman cement, but exhibits 

 traces of its boring powers. I have 

 also a specimen of oolite excavated 

 by Pholades, the exterior surface of 

 which is closely perforated in the same 

 way. If any of your intelligent cor- 

 respondents can point out the genus and species of the animal 

 to which these perforations can be referred, I shall feel greatly 

 obliged. The subject will be fully entered into in my forth- 

 coming sketch of the Geology of Norfolk ; and, without the 

 information here sought, it would necessarily be incomplete. 

 I am, Sir, yours, &c. — Samuel Woodward, NormcJi, Jan, 16. 

 1832. 



CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 



Collectors and Collections in Natural History in the University y Toivn^ and 

 County of Cambridge. — Sir, I send you a list of such collections of natural 

 history as I at present recollect in this neighbourhood, and will endeavour 

 to increase it for you by further enquiry. The four collections belonging 

 to the university are unfortunately little accessible even to the members of 

 the university, and still less so to the public at large. These are, in fact, of 

 no real utility, except to the professors themselves ; and, were it not for 

 the prospect of better days, in which the force of public opinion will at 

 length compel the university to provide some better establishment for her 

 museums, it would really be quite disheartening to go on labouring day by 

 day in the accumulation and arrangement of specimens which are destined 

 to remain concealed, and perhaps doomed to rot, without one particle of 

 benefit being derived from their existence. However, there is at length 

 some hope of our obtaining museums which will be placed on as liberal a 

 footing as our public library. 



f Zoology and comparative anatomy. Rev. Professor Clark. 

 Four university J Geology, Rev. Professor Sedgwick, 

 collections 1 Mineralogy, Rev. Professor Whewell. 

 t Botany, Rev. Professor Henslow. 



' Vol. v. — No. 28. n n 



