no NOTES, ORIC.INAL AND SELECTED. 



gravels were not formed under the sea. I have failed to find evidence of tlie 

 presence of the sea in Essex in glacial times, and it seems a pity that Mr. Dalton 

 does not mention one of the hundri-ds or thousands of sections which in his 

 opinion prove the deposition of the BoulJer-clay and the subjacent sands and 

 gravels in the sea. I know that two marine shells were found in gravel near 

 Thaxted ("Memoirs of the Geological Surve}', Sheet 47" [1878], pp. 33, 42), 

 and that many have been found in Norfolk, but the presence of marine shells is 

 not conclusive proof of submergence (A. Geikie, " Text Book of Geology " [ 1885], 

 p. 897), and a doubt has been expressed whether these shells are contemporaneous 

 with the beds in which they are found (H. B. Woodward, " Geology of England 

 and Wales" [1887J p. 504). 



In answer to Mr. Dalton's request for evidence of the passage of an ice-sheet 

 over part of the area between the Thames and the Humber I would refer to the 

 remarks of Mr. Skertchly in the " Great Ice Age," by James Geikie (1877), pp. 

 354-362, and to Clement Reid, " Geology of Cromer," (1882), p. 1 14, an J H. B. 

 Woodward, on the "Glacial Drifts in Norfolk " Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. ix. p. 122 

 (1885).— I a-n, etc., 



Horace W. Monckton. 



3 Pump Courts Temple. 



NOTES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



Wild Swans inland in Essex. — For upwards of a month the " Sedgy Lea " 

 has been a solid highway for thousands of skaters and pedestrians. A good 

 long-distance skater might travel from Limehouse to Hertford, if he were oblivious 

 to rough ice and did not object taking to the towpath frequently in order to pass 

 the locks and clusters of ice-bound barges. On Monday afternoon, January 

 19th, about four o'clock, a striking phenomenon was witnessed by myself and 

 several other persons near Pigott's Lock, Edmonton. Suddenly, coming from the 

 east, appeared a f^ock of Wild Swans, which, with necks outstretched and shrill 

 clamour, flew low over the river, going west. It was a pretty sight, the rays of 

 the setting sun gleaming on their pure white plumage. Wild Swans (these were 

 probably " Whoopers," Cygnits miisicus) are not uncommon, I believe, on the Essex 

 coast in severe winters, but it needs an Arctic climate, like that of the last weeks, 

 to induce a flock to venture so far inland. — Henry A. Cole, Buckhurst Hill. 

 [Under the title "Visitors from the North-West," a correspondent (" E. B., 

 Wakes Colne Rectory "), wrote as follows to the '• Essex Standard " on January 

 2lst: "About four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, whilst walking on Wakes 

 Green, I observed a remarkable flight of birds, travelling at a great height and a 

 rapid pace, in a south-easterly direction. On they came, all from the north-west, 

 glowing at that time with the ruddy fires of the setting sun, battalion after 

 battalion, forming a wide and sweeping semicircle. They had in every case an 

 advanced guard, and these also acted as a rearguard to t -.e battalion in front, thus 

 keeping all the battalions in touch with each other. They did not make a [lerfect 

 semicircle, as the leaders formed a sort of wedge in front, clearing a course, as it 

 were, and showing the wa}^ to those behind them. Whence came they ? We can 

 hardly reply, in the language of Longfellow, in ' Evangeline ' — 



" ' Birds of pass.-\gc sailed through the leaden air, from the ice-bound 

 Desolate Northern bays, to the shores of tropical islands.' 



