172 



24. — Miscellaneous Notes and Observations. 



[Read 9th November, 1876.] 



Geology. 



Boulders in the Neighhourliood of Bimtingford, Herts. — I have 

 recently found, in the parish of AYestmili, near Bimtingford, 

 several boulders from one to two feet in diameter, and more or less 

 sub-angular or rounded in shape, which appear to be undoubtedly- 

 Mountain Limestone, and which in all probability have been trans- 

 ported by ice from the hills of Derbyshire, as this district is the 

 nearest, and at the same time the most elevated, in which the 

 Mountain Limestone is found on this side of the eastcm watershed 

 of England. Several of these blocks I noticed in di-aining a stiffish 

 soil, about two feet below the surface, and some twenty feet 

 probably above the surface of the Chalk, and at a height of about 

 fifty feet above the River Rib. They do not show any groo\T.ngs 

 or striations. Smaller pieces of the same rock are not uncommon 

 in these parts, and I have found one small mass which appears to 

 consist of Millstone- giit, also a well-known Derbyshire rock. 



Large boulder stones in this neighbourhood are not of common 

 occurrence. The largest I have noticed consist of the well-kno^vn 

 Hertfordshire "plum-pudding stone." There is one at Standon which 

 is over five feet in length, and from one to two feet in width. 

 Boulders of the older Paleozoic rocks I have not yet noticed, but 

 small boulders of more recent rocks, frequently consisting of a fine- 

 grained compact sandstone, distinctly glaciated and striated, and 

 generally sub-angular in character, are not of unfrequent occur- 

 rence. 



The country about here is all Chalk, more or less covered with 

 stiffish soil, clay, and flint-gravel. The valleys trend from north 

 to south. The gravel beds apparently do not contain either im- 

 plements of any kind, or any fragments of rocks transported from 

 a distance. — Ji. P. Greg, Coles Park, Bimtingford. 



Malacology. 



Supposed Recent Extinction of Cyclostoma elegans in North Herts. 

 — In this, the northern pait of the county, Cyclostoma elegans seems 

 to be extinct, and I am anxious to know whether it is found in 

 other parts of the county. The shells are here, however, very 

 numerous in the sub-soil and chalk rubble forming the supcrfioial 

 part of Tumuli and other scattered renuiants of the old surface of 

 the land as it existed anterior to tlie present state of cultivation. 

 They are rarely found with tlic operculum, but this does occa- 

 sionally remain in the raoutli of tlie shell. I presume therefore 

 that as far as this locality is coiu'erned Cgclostotna elegans may be 

 jegarded as the latest fossil foi-m, liaving but recently become 

 extinct. In Dr. 8. P. Woodward's ' Manual of tho MoUusca,' C. 

 e%an« is figured from (!hailt()u, Kent, and its liabitat is given as 



