5,66 Geological Society : — M. Roemer on the 



The amount of polish and scratches varies with the nature of 

 the rocks. In the valley of Zermatt and Riifelhorn, rocks of ser- 

 pentine are most exquisitely polished; so also are the granites on 

 the sides of the glacier of the Aar, vi'here they have not been long 

 exposed to the action of the air. Gneiss and limestone do not pre- 

 serve their polish under similar exposure, but retain it while they are 

 protected by ice or a covering of earth. 



These facts seem to show, that the striated and polished condition 

 of rocks beneath and on the sides of glaciers, is due to the action of 

 the ice, and of the sand and fragments of stone forming the mo- 

 raines which accompany it. 



On a bed of lignite near Messina, by Dr. R. Calvert. 



About thirty years ago. Dr. Calvert discovered a bed of lignite, a 

 quarter of a mile from Messina, up a Fiumera to the left of Fort 

 Gonzago. It cropped out to the north at an angle of about 45°, 

 and was at least a yard in thickness. The lignite was swept down 

 a precipice by the country people to make room for sticks to burn 

 lime with ; a superb quarry of which was then worked on the oppo- 

 site side of the field. Dr. Calvert laid in a winter stock of the 

 lignite ; the dragoons used it in their forge, and the commander of 

 the forces in his kitchen. Owing, however, to the unskilfulness of 

 the people who dug the lignite (soldiers and officers' servants), the 

 roof fell in, and the property above being injured, the excavations 

 were stopped. Some of the lignite emitted a bad effluvia when 

 burned. 



A letter from Richard Greaves, Esq., addressed to Dr. Buck- 

 land, and dated June the 6th, 1840, on the discovery of bones of 

 birds, fishes, and mammalia, in the limestone cliflf at Eel Point in 

 Caldy Island, and about eighty feet above the sea. 



A note from Mr. Hamilton, Sec. G.S., addressed to Dr. Buck- 

 land, on the irregular occurrence of rounded fragments of rock 

 crystal, throughout the Hastings sands, in the neighbourhood of 

 Tunbridge Wells. Mr. Hamilton's principal object is to call atten- 

 tion to the inquiry whence the fragments were obtained ; and to 

 the assistance which this knowledge would afford in determining the 

 origin of the other materials forming the Hastings sands. 



A letter, dated May 6th, 1840, from M. Roemer, of Hildes- 

 heim, to Dr. Fitton, on the chalk and the subjacent formations to 

 the Purbeck stone inclusive in the north of Germany. 



a. Chalk with flints. — This formation, presenting characters which 

 exactly agree with those of the chalk of England, is found only in 

 the island of Rugen. It there consists of a white limestone, with fre- 

 quent layers of flints, and includes the same fossils. 



M. Roemer is of opinion that the Rugen deposit is of the age of the 

 Maestricht beds, though most geologists believe it to be younger. 



In the north of Germany there are very thick deposits of sand- 

 stone and sandy marls, which correspond, M. Roemer says, to 

 the upper subdivision of the chalk formation. The characteristic 

 fossils are Callianassa (Pagurus) Faujasii, Belemnites mucronatus. 



