MlbCELLANEA. G9 



on the shore near Ryhope, several large specimens of Xylophaga 

 dorsalis. This is, undoubtedly, a true native of our coast. A 

 year or two ago the Rev. Geo. C. Abbes obtained from a 

 Whitburn fisherman a branch of a tree, dredged up in deep 

 water, containing several full grown individuals. — Ibid. 



Oil a peculiar Reticidated Appearance on the surface of a Clay 

 Bed on the beach near Whitburn. — A heavy gale in the autumn 

 of last year laid bare a large tract of clay, a little below high 

 water mark, on the beach at the south end of Whitburn Sands, 

 near to the spot where a submerged forest is known to exist. I 

 had an opportunity of examining the locality, and found that the 

 denuded clay was eighty or ninety yards in length, but was 

 much narrower, not extending down the beach more than fifteen 

 or twenty yards. The whole surface was coarsely reticulated in 

 a peculiar manner, the meshes being very irregularly five or six 

 sided, and of various sizes — some measuring two or three feet 

 across, others not more than as many inches. The lines com- 

 posing the net-work stood up about two inches above the general 

 surface, and were as broad as high; they presented on their 

 upper side a shallow groove, which could be traced throughout 

 the whole of the reticulation. There seems only one way of 

 accounting for this curious appearance. From excessive dryness 

 the surface of the clay must at one period have cracked in a 

 reticulated manner; afterwards it must have been moistened 

 again, and then subjected to some lateral pressure, causing the 

 cracks to close and the sutures thus formed to rise up, retaining, 

 nevertheless, an indication of the junction in the shallow groove 

 before alluded to. If this be the correct explanation of the 

 phenomenon, it seems probable that the clay underlying the 

 sand of this portion of the shore is being pushed down the beach ; 

 and as this clay is, I believe, that on which the submerged 

 forest rests, this fact is of some importance to the geologists of 

 our district, for it may materially affect the question respecting 

 the subsidence of this coast as indicated by the present position 

 of this prostrated forest. — Ibid. 



On the Occurrence of Natica Sordida and other Rare Shells 



