102 Mr. G. R. Tate on Asplenium germanicum. 



Feet. 



1. Columnar basalt at Snableazes 64 



2. Metamorphic shale, with Phillipsia mucronata, &c 7 



3. Limestone, mth encrinal stems and mountain limestone fossils. 14 



4. Basalt, columnar at Ratcheugh, where it is 80 feet in height, 



but thinning out, and stratiform at Snableazes, where it is 

 only 2 



Below this are shales, sandstone, coal, and other limestones. 



Although the phsenomena described have a bearing on the 

 question, I do not attempt at present to discuss, whether these 

 basalts have been overflows, taking place while the carboniferous 

 beds were in course of deposition, or dikes injected laterally 

 amongst them subsequently to that period. The marked effect 

 of the intrusion of basalt on the sedimentaiy strata may, however, 

 be noticed. Some of the limestones above the basalt at Rat- 

 cheugh have been changed into granular marble ; the shales below 

 the Dunsheugh basalt are converted into porcelain jasper, and 

 where in direct contact with it, into a black mineral, with a con- 

 choidal fracture similar to Lydian stone. When the basalt above 

 the shale is thin, organic remains are found ; but where there is 

 a considerable mass, the organisms have been completely obli- 

 terated. 



Nearly one quarter of a mile south of Dunsheugh, a limestone 

 quarry is on Hawkhill Farm. A tough, red clay, with some large 

 and many small boulder stones scattered through it, overlies this 

 limestone. The surface immediately below this clay is polished, 

 scratched, and grooved, the limestone is bright and smooth like 

 that of marble artificially polished, and the scratches and grooves 

 have a general direction of from north to south. As the quarry 

 is not at present worked, the members of the Club, when visiting 

 it, could not obtain a complete idea of the phsenomena presented 

 when a large area had been laid bare. The facts, however, were 

 carefully noted three years ago, and a description given in a paper 

 published in the first volume of the ^ Transactions of the Tyne- 

 side Naturalists,' where these polished and scratched rocks are 

 viewed in connection with the Boulder formation in Northum- 

 berland. 



Notice of Asplenium germanicum. By Geo. R. Tate, Alnwick. 



This rare fern I have, this month, discovered on the basalt at 

 Kyloe Crags, Northumberland ; and as it has not been observed 

 before in England, a brief notice of its characters and distribution 

 may not be unacceptable. 



Asplenium germanicum, Weiss. Fronds linear-lanceolate; 

 pinnules alternate, narrow wedge-shaped, notched at the top. 



