
TRANSACTIONS OF THD SECTIONS. 63 
On the Geology of Saint Ives, Huntingdonshire, and its Neighbourhood. 
By J. Kine Watts. 
The principal formations in the neighbourhood are the upper greensand, the 
gault, and the Oxford clay, with great quantities of drift gravel and sand in certain 
localities. The ‘upper greensand is however but ill defined, being only occasionally 
met with, as near Woodhurst and at Needingworth, and then but to a small extent. 
The gault formation is well defined, and is in some places of great thickness. All 
the elevations and hills near this town‘are composed of it. The lower greensand 
is seen outcropping in patches a few miles distant, as between Elsworth and Hilton, 
and also between Over and Willingham. There is a beautiful outcrop and elevation 
of this formation at Haddenham some miles off on the road to Ely, being a further 
continuance of the line. The Oxford clay extends to a considerable distance 
southward, and a great part of the district towards Fenstanton, Hilton, and Coning- 
ton is of this formation. The drift gravels and sand are found in many places 
immediately under the top soil; in some places very coarse, and at others as fine 
as quick-sand. In some of those drifts occurred good specimens of Echinus, 
many Belemnites and Ostree, much water-worn. The above-mentioned range of 
gault hills are well defined and interesting. At the westward end of the range near 
the town, the gault passes downward apparently to a great depth ; and at this place 
many Ammonites, Gryphee, Belemnites, Hamites, and Terebratule are found. The 
Ammonites occur of various sizes, some very small, and others weighing many 
pounds. Belemnites have been found upwards of a foot in length. This ridge trends 
eastward towards Somersham, and about 2 miles from St. Ives towards that place, is 
a district of rich land, called St. Ives Heath, which was formerly part of the royal 
forests, but disafforested in the reigns of Henry IJ. and III. This heath was in by- 
gone times of celebrity, on account of its medicinal spring or spa, and an establish- 
ment formerly stood there for the use of invalids who resorted there for the waters. ° 
An interesting account of the water in the above-mentioned spring was published in 
the 56th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, by Drs. Layard and Morris. It 
is to be regretted that this spring should have been choked up and destroyed. Fol- 
lowing the range of hill, which now turns eastward, we arrive at the cutting on the 
Wisbeach and St. Ives Railway, in the parish of Bluntisham. In this cutting iron 
pyrites were found in great abundance, a great quantity of selenite, and specimens of 
Ostrea and Belemnites. The elevation proceeds on to Holywell, and there breaks off, 
the river running below. 
On the opposite side of the river, in the parish of Over (Cambridgeshire), is a con- 
tinuance of this ridge of low hills, and the Cambridge and St. Ives railway cuts 
through the southern side thereof. In this cutting a great variety of fossils were found, 
many smooth nodules crystallized within, and large boulders of hard sandstone.- 
In this cutting, at a considerable depth, was found a large Ammonite, and 17 ver- 
tebrze, and a paddle of a species of Plesiosaurus; and also one vertebra of another 
Saurian, which were forwarded to Prof. Owen. 

On the Eskers of the Central Part of Ireland. By R. Younc, C.E. 
After having described the peculiar character of the country between Dublin and 
Galway, and the absence of mountain chains, the sluggish character of the streams, the 
immense tracts of bogs, the numerous gravel pits, and the enormous stretch of carboni- 
ferous or mountain limestone; the author went on specially to take up and discuss the 
phznomena invariably associated with the district—gravel, diluvium and bogs. Like 
Mr. Griffith, he attributed the growth of the bogs to the gravel hills and diluvium, which 
acted as barriers to the free discharge of the drainage from the land, and caused in some 
cases extensive lakes, of which we have many evidences in the mar] beds and callow 
lands along the Shannon, Suck, Brusna, &c. He divided the diluvial ridges of the coun- 
try under two distinctive forms :—Ist, the gravel hills, which, he said, are sometimes 
confounded with eskers, from their bearing at times a resemblance to them in form and 
composition, though their character is distinct, and which seem to have been thrown 
down from agitated water, as there is little appearance of stratification; and 2ndly, 
the eskers proper—well defined, narrow ridges of pure gravel or blue-water gravel— 
which, when not washed through by pent-up waters, can be distinctly traced, many 
