Scientific Intelligence — Geology. 207 



inconvenience. One of the workmen, thinking it might be inflam- 

 mable gas, lighted a lamp with the design of lowering it, but had 

 not an opportunity ; for no sooner had the match been kindled, 

 than the whole took fire and blazed up to the height of twenty feet, 

 with an explosion that was heard to the distance of three quarters of 

 a mile. Two individuals were scorched and somewhat injured by 

 the explosion. After the first explosion the gas continued to burn 

 at the bottom of the pit for twelve days before it was extinguished. 

 Since this occurrence, which happened on the 17th July, the gas has 

 continued to issue without abatement, and is frequently set on fire for 

 the amusement of visitors. 



The sound of the gas, as it issues from the drilled hole, resembles 

 the noise of water boiling in a steam engine, and the quantity dis- 

 charged is sufficient to heat a small steam boiler. Seven years ago 

 the gas from a spring in the vicinity accidentally took fire, and 

 burned three or four days. In the summer of 1842, a well was dug 

 in Wethersfield (sixteen miles from the well I have described), to the 

 depth of fifty feet, when carbu retted hydrogen was also found. A 

 labourer, in attempting to descend with a lamp in the evening for 

 his tools, was killed by the explosion. — American Journal of Science 

 and Arts, vol. xlix. No. 2, 1845, p. 406. 



7. Glacier Markings in South Wales. — Mr Trevelyan, in a let- 

 ter to Dr Buckland, directs his attention to certain polished and 

 scratched surfaces in the valley of the Conway, on the ascent of 

 Moel Siabod, and in other places near Snowdon. The author con- 

 sidered that these and other markings he had observed, were indica- 

 tions of the former presence of glaciers in these localities. — Quar- 

 terly Journal of Geological Society, No. 3, p. 300. 



8. Destroying Effect of Dry Wind on Cliffs. — I was much struck, 

 during a short tour in Norfolk and Suffolk in July last, by the very 

 rapid destruction of the land under the influence of various causes, 

 which I saw in progress on the coast of those counties, but more 

 particularly in the neighbourhood of Cromer, where my attention 

 was attracted to an active agent in the work of destruction, and one 

 which, I think, has hitherto been scarcely noticed. The weather, 

 when we arrived at Cromer, was very dry, and a strong wind was 

 blowing from the NE., carrying inland quantities of fine sand de- 

 tached from the face of the tertiary cliffs ; whilst the coarser grains, 

 fragments of crag fossils, and gravel, being thus loosened and under- 

 mined, fall to their base, accumulating in some places to the depth 

 of several feet ; and then the denser parts of the sand-beds, and the 

 thin layers of clay which the wind could not affect, stand out in high 

 relief, exhibiting, in a striking manner, the very curious contortions 

 of these beds, so well described by Lyell. In this way, I believe 

 that a high wind on a dry day is sometimes more destructive to the 

 clilTs than when it is combined* with rain, which prevents the sand 



