1826.] Scientific Notices — Miscellaneous. 467 



varies in this respect about six feet. After removing a slight 

 covering of coarse gravel, we find a thin bed of clay, of different 

 shades of brown, passing into yellow colours, as we descend. In 

 the upper, or brown clay, are found shells of the following spe- 

 .cies: — Those marked with an asterisk are doubtful. Buccinum 

 reticulatum,* Nerita glaucina, Tellina tenuis,* Cardium edule, 

 Venus striatula, Venus Islandica, Nucula rostrata, young. Pec- 

 ten obsoletus, Anomia Ephippium, young, Balanus communis, 

 Balanus rugosus. Echinus esculentus. 



" A skilful conchologist would discover many others, from the 

 numerous traces of them in the clay. Those shells appear to 

 •have been deposited generally in an entire state, and many are 

 found with both valves in their natural position. The Balanus 

 is still slightly attached to the Venus or Pecten ; and the spines 

 of the Echinus are found clustered in the clay inclosing its 

 fragments ; so that they must have been either covered by 

 .water to a considerable depth, or thrown on a beach not much 

 exposed to waves. Few of them, however, can be extracted 

 entire, as several of the species are always in a state of gritty 

 chalk ; but many complete and beautiful specimens of the Pec- 

 ten can easily be procured. Few of their fragments appear on 

 the exposed part of the beach, but, during summer, many may 

 be seen a few feet under water." 



We lately received several specimens of the Buccinum 

 Lapillus from Shetland, which were found alive on the margin 

 of a lake in the island of Yell, about a mile and a half from the 

 sea. The lake has an outlet by a small rivulet. The shells are 

 somewhat thinner in their texture than their congeners on the 

 rocks of the neighbouring coast, and are all of the banded 

 variety of that shell, or crossed with dark-coloured lines. That 

 these shells had been carried to that locality by water-fowl is 

 not unlikely ; and the outer lip of the shells being somewhat 

 broken, may have occurred in the attempt to extract the animal 

 as food. But the fact of the animals being alive when the spe- 

 cimens were picked up, goes to prove that shell-fish may be 

 brought to live in fresh-water ; and the experiments undertaken 

 by Mr. Arnold, of Guernsey, at the suggestion of Dr. Mac Cul- 

 loch, and the discovery of live cockles at a distance from the sea 

 by Mr. Witham, leave little I'oom to doubt that many species of 

 fish may be transported to, and live and propagate in, inland 

 fresh-water ponds and rivulets. — (Edin. Journ. of Science.) 



MiSCELLAiNEOUS. 



2. Query respecting Sound, said to be produced by the Rupture of 



the Tendo Ackillis. 



GENTLEMEN, ^pn7 26, 1826, 



Mr. Stanley, in an Anatomical lecture delivered in the Theatre 



2h2 



