140 CORRESPONDENCE — GLEANINGS. 



anywhere in the neighbourhood that the capture may be deemed 

 excusable. This is, I believe, the first occurrence of the bird in the 

 district, and I have no record of its having been obtained in Oxford- 

 shire. —Oliver V. Aplin, Bodicote, Oxon, May, 1881. 



A Boulder. — In sinking a well at this village the men have brought 

 up with the blue clay a boulder of about 6cwt., ice-polished on one 

 surface, and very distinctly marked with striffi, showing glacier action. 

 The stone is very hard and seems to be oolitic (limestone.) I shall 

 have the stone placed in my garden, as, although many small boulders 

 occur here, I have seen none marked like this one. — A. M. Rendell, 

 Coston Rectory, Melton Mowbray. 



Flint Implements. — Whilst staying a few days in January Last 

 with my brother, the Rev. R. H. Hart, Vicar of Hunston, about eight 

 miles south of Lincoln, I availed myself of the opportunity to examine 

 the sections now being made by the construction of the new line of 

 railway from Sleaford to Lincoln ; and coming upon some old river 

 gravel, which the men were getting to grind up with lime, I was 

 struck by its appearance, and the reasonable probability of finding 

 flint implements amongst it. I had not examined it long before 

 finding three flint chips, (a sketch of which, natural size, I forward,) 

 perfectly sharp and unworn. I found them about five feet from the 

 surface, the gravel being covered with about eighteen inches of peaty 

 soil. This was about ninety yards due north of the beck and twenty 

 from the road, where crossed by a railway bridge. I may add that 

 the chips have been examined by Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, who 

 pronounces them genuine. I hear that the gravel has since been 

 covered. — Thomas Hart, Blackburn. 



(Blearous. 



Pigmy Elephants. — Bones of three small species of elephants have 

 long been known to occur in the caves and rock-crevices of Malta and 

 Sicily ; the smallest of these (Etephas Falconeri ) did not exceed 2ft. Gin. 

 in height; another (E. melitentis) averaged 4 feet in height to the 

 shoulder, and a third may have been 7 feet high. The occurrence of 

 numerous bones of these extinct elephants in Malta proves a former 

 connection of that island with Italy on the one hand, and with Africa 

 on the other ; a submarine ridge is in fact known to exist at this point 

 by which the Mediterranean is divided into two deep basins, lying east 

 and west of Malta respectively. 



The Geological Survey. — At the School of Mines' dinner on Dec. 17, 

 Professor Ramsay, the Director-General of the Survey, announced that 

 the Geological Survey of Ireland would probably be finished in 10 or 1'2 

 years; in England all the map work might he done in 4 or 5 years, 

 unless they were then ordered to make a map of the superficial 

 deposits, which would be of great value to agriculture, and would 

 necessitate the re-survey of a large part of England. 



The Trias. — At a recent meeting of the Geological Society, Mr. C. E. 

 De Ranee (of the Geological Survey) remarked that the Kcuper Beds 

 below the Red Marls were now divided into the Waterstones, soft 

 current-bedded sandstones called Frodsham Beds, which denoted 

 entirely different physical conditions, and coutained the millet-seed 

 grains, and then the Lower Keuper Building Stone ( I.alnjrinthodon 



