; 
) 
bias 
o 
. 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 95 
and occurs in different states of decomposition and alteration, hut none of it remains 
sufficientiy perfect to prove what kind of wood it was. The potter’s clay is not in 
the !owest position in the neighbourhood, but at a slight elevation ; and close to it, 
indeed, within the space it occupies, occur some of those natural drains so common 
to the mountain limestone of Ireland, expressively called by the peasantry “swallow 
in holes ;” these carry off all the surplus water which accumulates in the pits, one in 
particular having been used to drain them whenever they were opened. Having sunk 
through about fifteen feet of white clay, containing small fragments of plants ‘which 
unfit it for the manufacture of pipes, a bed of lignite is reached, of varying thick- 
ness, from which parts of trees four or five feet in length could be raised without 
» difficulty. Beneath this occurs the purest and best clay, which is white, with some- 
times a pale shade of blue, is soft, and has a soapy feel. Lower than it no person 
has penetrated, one of the reasons assigned being that they were prevented by springs 
of clear water, then bursting upwards through the clay and filling the pits, accom- 
panied by so offensive an odour of sulphuretted hydrogen as could scarcely be endured. 
Even now the place is not quite free from a mitigated form of this unpleasant cir- 
umstance, which, as stated by Dr. Griffith, attends the occurrence of potter’s clay 
and lignite in many other places in Ireland, such as at the south-eastern margin of 
Lough Neagh, counties of Tyrone and Antrim; in the parish of Clonoe, in county 
Tyrone; and near Lough Ree, in Roscommon. Of the lowest found clay, which 
burns white, have been manufactured very good tobacco pipes, and many articles of 
finer ware, as cups and saucers, &c.; while that above the lignite makes beautiful 
buff and dun-coloured tiles; the most inferior of it has been used for bricks. The 
lignite has been often used as fuel, but it gives forth a heavy and peculiar smell while 
burning, and is associated with black shales, traces of which were seen near the 
mouth of one of the pits. No shells were met with in any part of this clay. 
Mr. James Yates exhibited a fossil cone, the propertyof Mr. T. Wetherell, F.G.S., 
probably from the greensand formation. He explained the appearances which prove 
that it belonged to the proper Conifer, illustrating his statement by producing spe- 
cimens of recent cones belonging to the Cycadezx. . 
The PresipEnT exhibited another fossil from the lower Oolite, in the south of 
England, which, in the opinion of Mr. Yates, belonged to the Cycadeex. This was 
not a cone, but a stem. 
BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY, incitupinc PHYSIOLOGY. 
Dr. Harvey, in taking the chair, referred to the fact, that the position he then 
occupied had been assigned to the late Dr. Ball. He then proposed that the meet- 
ing should adopt the following resolution :—<“‘ Resolved, that we hereby express our 
deep regret at the loss we have sustained by the recent sudden death of Dr. Robert 
Ball, an early and constant supporter of the British Association, and who had been 
named President of the Natural History Section on the present occasion; and that 
this tribute of marked respect to his memory is due not merely on account of his 
great merit as a naturalist and promoter of science, but much more to his personal 
character as a kindly, high-minded, and honourable man.” 
Bortany. < 
On the finding of Cnicus tuberosus at Avebury Hills. 
By Professor J. Buckman, F.L.S. 
The author records the discoyery of the above thistle, in the situation above 
named, and in the vicinity of C. acaulis and C. acanthoides. He regards it as a re- 
markable but not very permanent or yery frequent variety of C. acaulis. _ 
