Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 377 



tliirteen phytolithaires, a circumstance which seemed to indicate that 

 the earth or clay was a fresh- water tertiary deposit. 



3. The Geognostical Position of the Nummulitic Formation.-^ 

 M. L. llutimayer, in his researches on the nummulitic formation, 

 arranges it in the tertiary class; and also the Alpine macigno, or 

 Hetrurian formation, which in Switzerland lies over it. He arranges 

 in the same formation the whole series of the sandstone of Gurnigel, 

 of which the sandstone of Ralligen, and of Taviglianaz are but a 

 modification. 



4. Marks of Glacial Action in Ireland, — In a late visit to Ire- 

 land, I have observed undoubted evidence of glacial action in the 

 polishing and scratching of rocks in several parts, as near Limerick, 

 on the sumniit of the cliffs at Kilkee (on the coast of Clare), and at 

 Howth near Dublin. These points appear to me all too remote from 

 any mountain or valley in which a glacier could have originated, for 

 that to have been the cause of their appearances ; and, taken in com- 

 bination with similar instances which I have found in several parts 

 of the east coast of Scotland and in Wales (likewise remote from any 

 spot adapted for a glacier), I am inclined to the opinion that they 

 have resulted from a great part of these islands having at one period 

 been entirely covered with ice, like some of the Arctic regions at the 

 present day. It has also often occurred to me, that the action of a 

 mass of ice in motion, is to be observed in the broken edges of some 

 of the softer slaty or shaley rocks, especially where the beds are 

 nearly vertical, and their upper termination appears to have been 

 broken or pushed aside, and, generally, in one direction, by the pass- 

 age of a heavy mass over it, when, from the softness of the rock, it 

 could not bear such a shock without fracture. This appearance ex- 

 tends sometimes for several feet between the surface-soil and the 

 more solid rock, several good examples of which may be seen on the 

 cliffs extending from Arbroath towards the Red Head, Forfarshire ; 

 on the summit of this promontory, the rock, being much harder, has 

 not been shattered, but shews marks of polishing and scratching. 

 May not the enormous triturating power of such a coating of ice, as 

 well as that of glaciers and icebergs, have formed, from the destruc- 

 tion of the rocks with which they have come in contact, much of the 

 deep subsoils (clay, sand, &c.) with which great part of these islands 

 abound ? — W. C, Trevelyan (NettlecombCy I6th February 1849). 



ZOOLOGY. 



5. Fertile Mules. — ^M. Wagner announced to the Academy of 

 Sciences of France that he has received from M.de Naiizio, Director of 

 the Royal Veterinary School of Naples, a memoir of great physiolo- 

 gical interest, which he laid before the Society, accompanied with the 

 following observations. The memoir is entitled, Intomo al concept' 

 mento et alba flgliatura de una Mula, 18 pages, 4to. 



It is well known, says M. Wagner, that the rearing of ihe mule 



