CORRSPONDENCE. 77 
plentiful, but after that they began gradually to lessen in numbers, and 
from the 1st of January to the 8th inst. (when I observed a small flock of 
avout twenty of the former flying over) I did not see one. Redwings left 
earlier, about the second week in December, and I have only seen one 
(on the 11th instant) since. Song Thrushes have been very scarce, and 
Blackbirds not nearly so numerous as usual. We have had more berries 
on the trees this time than some years when the birds did not leave us. 
Have any of your readers observed alike migration of the Thrush family ? 
It would, I think, be interesting to know if it was general, and if the 
birds left England or merely went south. Five Hawfinches and two 
Snow Buntings (Hmberiza nivalis) have been observed here this season, 
the latter is a very rare winter visitor.—O.V.A., Bodicote, Oxon, Feb. 12. 
Tae Ancient InHABITANts oF THE Correswotps.—In the neighbourhood 
of Cheltenham and Stroud there are distinct remains of the existence of 
four different races of men before the Roman occupation of the country. 
1.—A small, long-headed race, not exceeding 5ft. 5in., occasionally 
discovered doubled up beneath a heap of earth or clay. 2.—A tall, long- 
headed race, exceeding often 6ft., found in round barrows, with central 
kist made of unhewn stone walling, and covered with slabs, several 
bodies being placed together in the kist. 3.—A mixed race, varying in 
stature from 5ft. din. to 5ft. 6in. or 8in. Their remains are found in the 
chambers of long or heart-shaped barrows. No traces of metal have 
been discovered in any of the above burial places. 4.—The remains of a 
short-headed athleticrace. They are connected with the dressed stone kists, 
with cinerary urns, burned bones, and metals. The first race, the most 
ancient, may be represented by the Eskimos; the second race the same 
people, located under more favourable circumstances ; the third race 
may represent the Ancient Gaels, who named the rivers and most 
conspicuous objects, and were the constructors of all the unhewn stone 
works at Avebury, Stanton Drew, &c., &c. The fourth race may be said to 
represent the Welsh Cymri, the Belge of Cesar, or what are called the 
Aneient British. They introduced metals, practised cremation, and 
erected Stonehenge, and all the other dressed-stone works. They were 
followed by the Romans, &c.—Hernry Birp, Bath. 
GARNETS IN CHARNWooD Rocks.—Garnets are of frequent occurrence 
in metamorphic rocks such as gneiss, tale-schist, dolomite, &c. The best 
known British localities are the neighbourhood of Dartmoor, Botallack 
in Cornwall, and Saddleback and Keswick, in Cumberland. I have long 
felt rather surprised that this mineral could not be detected in the rocks 
of Charnwood Forest, and their absence in the coarse slates and grits 
seems confirmatory of the view so ably advocated by Professor Bonney 
and the Rey. E. Hill that these rocks have really not undergone very 
intense metamorphism, and that the crystals of felspar, quartz, &c., 
which they contain were ejected with the other material from volcanic 
vents, and are not products of subsequent alteration. To-day, however, 
in minutely examining some specimens I collected last summer, I was 
pleased to find many small garnets in the curious rock we call gneiss, 
which is found at one point only, viz., Brazil Wood, about half-way 
between Mountsorrel and Swithland. Here this gneiss is in contact 
(unless a diorite dyke intervenes) with the edge of the great granitic mass 
which forms Mountsorrel and Buddon Wood. In the specimen I have 
before me the garnets are very small, (not more than one-tenth of an 
inch in diameter,) almost black in colour, and so thickly crowded that there 
are about fifty in asquare inch. It is possible that this gneiss may turn 
out to belong to a distinct series of rocks from those which form the rest 
of Charnwood Forest, but unfortunately it is entirely isolated by the 
surrounding red marls of the Trias, so that its relations to the slaty series 
cannot be traced.—W. J. Harrison, F.G.5. 
N 
