ROBERT POCOCK. 159 



difficulty by the activity and perseverance of a person 

 at the hazard of his life. The market-bell was rung 

 and the town alarmed, when two engines were sent 

 over, but the fire was extinguished without them. 



" Thursday, 28th. Men digging to trace the ruins 

 of the old Gravesend Church. 



" Friday, 29th. Miss Tucker and Miss Rashleigh 

 called and brought some shells and fossils. Miss 

 Tucker is a botanist, and informed me the spiral orchis 

 grows about Wingham. (Mem. There never has been 

 a spiral orchis in Scotland yet : 1822.) 



" Monday, December 2nd. Walked to old churchyard 

 [St. Mary's, Gravesend], and brought away paving 

 tiles with greenish glaze upon them on one side. They 

 carried somewhat the appearance of Roman bricks or 

 tiles, but were not so long and broad, nor thick, so we 

 may date them of the date of the church. 



" Tuesday, 3rd. Preparing chalk fossils for 

 London. 



" Wednesday, 4>th. Bought two whiting pouts with 

 flat-fish. 



" Thursday, th. Sat up last night and counted 

 Gravesend clock striking twelve, and from five to ten 

 minutes after I heard some distant clock strike, which 

 surprised me, as I have read that the church of St. 

 Paul's, London, was once heard about the same dis- 

 tance, viz., twenty-two miles. How was the wind last 

 night ? Sent yesterday evening a box of fossils to go 

 by Newman's coach to Miss L. 



"Friday, 6th. The Berwick ship sailed for Yan 

 Diemen's Land. To-day made many small boxes to 

 pack fossils in. 



" Saturday, 7th. Frances Pocock came to see me, 



