March 31, 1892] 



NA TURE 



5ii 



in the basalt- lava, so as to give trustworthy indications of the 

 real movements of the ground. Perturbing causes which would 

 have kept the pendulum in agitation, such as wind, the passing 

 of people, carriages, &c., had not on that day to be taken into 

 account. 



I think it rather improbable that secondary and subsequent 

 shocks, coming from the same centre as the first one, were the 

 cause of the observed fact : a much more probable explanation 

 would be that the whole hill on which the Observatory is built 

 maintained during the whole time the particular state of 

 trembling produced by the first shock. 



Roccadi Papa, Rome, March i8. Emil Oddone. 



Striated Surface under the Cromer Drift. 



At the beginning of the present month (March) there were 

 some good Forest Bed exposures in the neighbourhood of 

 Cromer. Somewhat less than a quarter of a mile south-east of 

 East Runton, there was an exposure I had not noticed before. 

 It consisted of a smooth, hard surface of ferrugineous sand, 

 not unlike some of our Trias beds, except that below it 

 became softer. This slab of sandstone projected six yards 

 obliquely from under the cliff, or rather talus in front of 

 the cliff, with a slight dip to the west inwards, its out- 

 ward face rising one foot above the sand of the fore- 

 shore. Upon the outer or longer exposed part there was no 

 indication of striae, but toward the inner or more recently 

 exposed portion faint grooves could be distinguished, becoming 

 more distinct the nearer it approached the cliff; two feet from 

 the cliff they were distinct and numerous. The main direction 

 of striae ran due north and south, a few crossed from the north- 

 north-west and north by east, but none deviated from the 

 general direction beyond these points. They extended entirely 

 across this part of the exposure, viz. 4 feet, and continued 

 as far as the surface could be uncovered. Resting immediately 

 above, as far as could be made out among the recent talus, 

 was the highly-contorted drift sand and loam usually observed 

 hereabouts ; no flint nodules, stones, or boulders could be seen 

 in them, and it is difficult to understand how these, if they had 

 been present, could groove the bed so persistently in one 

 direction when shoots took place. 



About half a mile to the south-east and one mile to the north- 

 west, the cliff sections this year show the soft sand and loam 

 beds bent into anticlines, thrust back to a vertical position like 

 a pack of cards on end, their central axes pointing to the north. 

 This form indicates that the force came from the same direction 

 as the mean striae engraved upon the underlying surface. Three 

 points of interest will be observed : — 



(i) That the ice which caused the striations could hardly have 

 contorted the beds above them ; it probably shrank back and 

 allowed the drift to be deposited, and then encroached once 

 more and contorted the overlying beds. 



(2) Soft beds of sand and loam could not be twisted or con- 

 torted into ribbon forms unless a considerable load lay above to 

 prevent them breaking up and becoming disarranged. 



(3) We should hardly expect to find strire preserved upon 

 a comparatively soft surface under what looks like bedded 

 sand or loam ; but unfortunately this point cannot be clearly 

 established in consequence of talus obscuring the bed im- 

 mediately above ; but, bearing upon this point, it may be inter- 

 esting to state during the summer of 1890 I found at Penrhyn, 

 Nevin, Carnarvon Bay, a highly glaciated and striated rock 

 surface which had been recently exposed. This roche moutonnh 

 was overlain by a drift cliff of bedded sands and loams loo feet 

 high, resembling the Cromer drift in every respect except the 

 contortions ; these striations were from the east-north-east or 

 seaward side also. William Sherwood. 



Sutton Coldfield. 



Pilchards. 

 In this far-off corner of the world the news has only just 

 reached me that my name has been quoted in your valuable 

 columns with Mr. Cunningham's article on the growth of the 

 pilchard or sardine. As it is a matter which much interests me, 

 I should like to have a word or two on the subject. Person- 

 ally, I have no doubt as to the identity of the pilchard and 

 sardine. Seeing the matter has been so well threshed out by our 

 greatest ichthyologists— Couch, Day, and Giinther--the spawn- 

 ing of the fish being only a question of local conditions, and not 



NO. 1170. VOL. 4Sl 



even giving us aid in determining the species — note the doings 

 of the herring when about this work around the islands of 

 Great Britain, which keeps shedding its roe for eleven months 

 out of the twelve in these waters. As to the question of the 

 English pilchard being so much larger than those of other 

 countries, this to my mind is a subject oi grave doubt, and I fear 

 Mr. Cunningham's informants have not looked up the matier 

 thoroughly. 



When I was a juror in the London International Exhibition 

 in 1883, in the Spanish department we gave awards to exhibitors 

 who had pilchards of the same size and cure as those of Corn- 

 wall. Again, the principal markets for our Cornish pilchards 

 are those of Italy. But in this business we are not alone, for 

 side by side with our fish are the Spanish pilchards, cured like 

 our own ; generally they are a little smaller than ours, answer- 

 ing to our summer fish. 



But in this past season they are decidedly our rivals, and in 

 such quantities as to bring the price down in such a manner as to 

 leave us with scarcely a margin of profit through their being 

 just equal in size to our Cornish output. 



In the past season we calculate that Cornwall and Devon have 

 sent out about 25,000 casks of pilchards into Italy ; but we should 

 not be surprised to find that Spain has sent forwards into the 

 same country over 30,000 casks. 



We began the season by sending our fish forwards in Septem- 

 ber, and were rather surprised to find the Spanish merchants 

 had glutted the Italian markets with fish in August, and the 

 imports went on till near Christmas, which seems to indicate 

 they were catching pilchards on the coasts of Spain in the 

 summer and autumn of the year. When this question of the 

 size of the pilchard has been fairly looked up, I think it will be 

 found the size of the fish of any coasts will be chiefly governed by 

 the facts that abrupt and exposed coasts, having a heavy sea and 

 strong tides along them, will have the strongest and largest fish 

 swimming in its waters ; while the bays, and narrow and 

 protected seas and inlets, will have the young, weak, and smaller 

 fish in them, the nature of the foods having the lesser influence. 



I have been led to believe the Bay of Douarnenez is the 

 deepest bay on the coast of Brittany, and in it is carried on the 

 largest fishery'for young pilchards on the French coasts ; while 

 off the more abrupt parts of the coast of Spain the pilchards are 

 large, like those on the exposed parts of Cornwall. And no 

 doubt if the French coasts were well looked up, the same facts 

 would come out respecting the fish there. 



Fortunately for the French and Spanish fishermen, up to date 

 they have not interfered with the food of the young pilchard ; 

 or, if they have, evidently they have substituted another in its 

 room, viz. cods' roe ; hence they have these little ones in their 

 bays still ; but we have driven out ours by starvation, as will be 

 seen further on. 



I was rather surprised to read Mr. Cunningham's statement 

 when he said I had told him that I had never seen pilchards in 

 Cornwall of the same size as the French sardines, for really 

 I have seen millions just like them for size. 



Possibly the error came from my misunderstanding his 

 question, as we cannot see or get them now because of our 

 altered conditions. 



If Mr. Cunningham will consult F. Buckland's familiar history 

 of British fishes (p. 109), he will see a letter from me confirming 

 my statements, and written in the year 1872. In the year 1884 

 I received the medal of the Falmouth Polytechnic Society for 

 exhibiting a series of small pilchards, showing their growth and 

 ages in six stages — the smallest being less than an inch in length 

 — up to the two years old full-grown pilchard. 



Before the railway ran into our county, our bays were full 

 of these little fishes in the summer months ; and when our 

 seines inclosed pilchards, the first question was their size, as 

 pilchards under eight inches in length were useless for exporting 

 purposes ; consequently small fish were quickly turned back into 

 the sea alive. 



But sometimes, in the excitement and darkness of the night, 

 the men were mistaken in the size of the fish, and took them 

 into their boats ; and when the daylight undeceived them the 

 fish had to be carted off for manure. I have often seen them on 

 our piers, piled up four feet high and hundreds of feet in length, 

 waiting the waggons. 



But all this has passed away, and we have not one pilchard 

 seine left here to inclose pilchards should they again visit us. 

 But their coming is very improbable, as the quantity of fond 

 necessary for their sustenance is so much diminished that if the 



