135 



19. MiSCELLAXEOrS jN'oTES AND ObSEETATIONS. 



[Read 8th June, 1876.] 



Section of the Strata 2^assed through in boring at the Colne Valley 

 Waterworks — From the level of the engine-house floor * a well of 

 10 feet diameter is sunk to a depth of 95 feet in chalk and flints. 

 To a depth of 140 feet below this there is a bore of 11 inches 

 diameter, which passes tlu'ough the following strata : — chalk and 

 flints, 87 feet,— hard rock chalk, 12 feet, — soft chalk, 3 feet,— 

 hard rock chalk, 16 feet, — soft chalk, 1 foot 6 inches, — hard 

 grey rock chalk, 20 feet 6 inches, — Total depth 235 feet. — William 

 Verini, Bushey Heath. 



The Ermine Street traced hy its Vegetation. — Some years ago, 

 while driving between Hertford and "Ware, I noticed that the 

 buttercups and other meadow flowers grew in such a manner as to 

 make a distinct broad band across the meads near the New River 

 Head. About that time I happened to ride along that portion of 

 the old Roman road, the Ermine Street — or, as the authors of the 

 'Flora H crtf ordiensis ' call it, Herman Street — and I was struck 

 with the fact that the road was much of the same width as the 

 band of buttercups. On examining the Ordnance Map, I find that 

 the floral band and Roman road are in exactly a straight line, and 

 further, that this straight line produced joins the present north 

 road beyond Buntingford, and coincides with it as far as, if not farther 

 than Royston.-|: 1 mentioned this to a very intelligent man, and he 

 told me that in a certain field north of the River Lee, now used as 

 a nursery garden, the corn used to change colour in a similar band ; 

 and I find this field is also in the direct straight line. I have some 

 hopes of finding some fui'ther links between Ware and Bunting- 

 ford, but hitherto I have not been able to spare the time required 

 for such a purpose. Since the year I first noticed the band of 

 flowers I have again seen it, but with nothing like the same sharp- 

 ness of outline. — Richard B. Croft., Great Cozens, Ware. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



Note on the LarvcB of the Goat Moth. — In the spring of 1875 

 I sent a short account of the finding of a number of larvae of the 

 goat moth (^Cossus ligniperda) in the trunk of an oak tree then 



* The engine-house floor is 203 feet above mean sea-level. — Ed. 



t According to Chaimcy ('Hist. Antiq. Herts,' — 1700) the Ermine Street 

 passed " thro' Hertford, on the south side of Ware Park, to Wadesmill, and so 

 forward to Eoyston," coinciding, as shown on his map, with the present north 

 road from Wadesmill to Eoyston. — Ed, 



