142 Transactions of the 



are other spots known on the same property where these moss in- 

 crustations exist. This little outflow, with several others, helped to 

 feed a stream or streams that ran for some considerable distance 

 before falling into the river Keedwater, — as Longfellow beautifully 

 says, with poetic licence — 



" Mute springs 

 Pour out the rivers' gradual tides," — 

 " Aud, babbling low amid the tangled woods, 

 Slip down through moss-grown stones with endless laughter." 



By the help of a pickaxe and spade some of these incrustations 

 were removed from beneath the water, and treasured up until his 

 return here. The specimens sent to me had very much the appear- 

 ance of a keratose sponge, densely incrusted with inorganic matter — 

 carbonate of lime. The masses averaged about 3 inches in height, 

 and measured from 4 to 5 inches round the upper part. 



Upon ordinary examination, the bases that had been adherent 

 to the shallow bed at the fall of the spring, were noticed to be very 

 compact, whilst the upper portions presented a more or less open 

 moss or sponge like appearance, and where the small stems or cross 

 junctions had been accidentally broken, a minute dark round aper- 

 ture could be seen occupying the centre of the ramifications. On 

 the outside, there remained in the hollows, some earthy and sandy 

 matters, but nothing beyond these to indicate the nature of the body 

 that had furnished the nucleus for the incrustation ; nor did the 

 microscopic examination by a low power lead to anything more. 



Some small pieces about half an inch long were sawn off from 

 the top, middle, and base of one of the pieces. These were set in a 

 small beaker with some diluted acetic acid, and the solvent action 

 of the acid kept up until the pieces were dissolved. On looking 

 across the vessel at the light, several very small flocculent substances 

 were noticed depending from the bubbles of gas on the surface. 

 These were lifted out of the fluid by a fine hooked platinum wire, 

 and examined on a slide under the microscope, when amongst the 

 debris of organic matters — evidently portions of vegetable tissue, 

 chiefly softened decayed coarse and fine stems and stem leaves of 

 (bog ?) moss, one or two fine septate filaments of a confervoid alga 

 with other matters, such as starch grains, butterfly or moth scales, 

 empty ova cases, hairs and claws of insects, ligneous fibres and par- 

 ticles of sand, yet not a single diatom — was seen a minute well- 

 preserved fungus-looking plant, consisting chiefly of microscopic 

 coarse and fine tubular threads and branches, terminating in small 

 globular, oval, or variously-shaped heads or conceptacles, varying 

 in colour, due probably to decay, from a brown to a very pale 

 almost colourless greenish yellow ; the whole plant being woven 

 as it were in a most intricate manner over and into the decayed 

 debris of the moss structure. {Vide Fig. 1.) 



