Queries and Answers. 199 
saw a large orthoceratite; which, though not perfect, appeared to me to resemble the Orthdceras 
striata, as figured in Vol. II. p. 252. fig. 68. * } : y ; 
The Carboniferous Limestone near the Wrekin.—1 take this opportunity of sending a remarkable 
fossil shell, from the 
carboniferous lime- 
stone in the vici- 
nity of the Wrekin, 
near Wellington, in 
Shropshire; it is 
known among the 
workmen by the 
name  Owl’s-head 
( fig. 40.), the protu- 
berances and curve 
of the shell, when 
held up, giving a 
rude representation 
of the head, eves, 
and beak of that 
bird, — Id. 
The posterior segments of trilobites, of which there are three specimens, certainly belong to 
A’saphus caudatus ; the fourth specimen, which is said to be a complete animal, is only the cen- 
tral lobe of the anterior segment of the same species of animal, that is, the portion between the 
eyes. The large shell, if it is a shell, is new to me; it may possibly be the surface of a coral. 
The small shell is, I think, Nerita spirata, Min. Conch., 463. The Owl’s head is the cast of the 
interior of a Prodicta, nearly like Prodtcta personata of Mineral Concholozy.—J. D.C. 8. 
Our correspondent may find some accurate details of the Malvern district, illustrated by maps, 
in the Transactions of the Geological Society, where he will observe that the highly interesting 
peculiarities displayed in this quarter have by no means escaped the accurate investigation of men 
of science. In Coneybeare and Phillips’s Geology, a work which cannot be too highly commended 
to the perusal of geological students, are some notes relative to the same district. ‘The great and 
the reduced geological maps cf England and Wales also exhibit the boundaries of the formations 
to which the notice of our correspondent has reference. We fear the trial for coal at Cradley will 
be ineffectual ; at all events, the details of the strata through which the shaft passes will be in- 
teresting if it can be communicated to us. 
The specimens of organic remains, furnished by Mr. Lees, are scarcely perfect or characteristic 
enough to answer the purpose of engraving. Should such be met with, and they be sent to us, 
they shall be figured. As references to most of these fossils should in due time be found in this 
Magazine, it is desirable that the figures should be taken, when practicable, from specimens that 
are not mutilated. — 22. C. T. 
A Mass of fused Green Porphyry has been received from Mr. John Brown 
of Castle Hill, Colchester. To produce complete fusion, the mass was 
broken to the size of small peas. A large fragment, subjected to the same 
degree of heat as the small fragments, was merely vitrified on the surface. 
Mr. Brown is desirous of knowing whether experiments of this kind have 
been frequently made before. — John Brown. Castle Hill, Colchester, Dec. 8. 
1829. 
© A very unusua! Appearance in the Sky. — Dear Sir, I was travelling on the evening of the 10th 
of July, along the high road between Quatre Bras and Namur, when a very unusual appearance 
in the sky attracted the notice of myself and of fourteen or fifteen other persons, fellow-passengers 
in the diligence, As I have never met with the mention of a similar phenomenon, I have 
thought fit to trouble you with a memorandum of it, in the hope that some of your scientific cor- 
respondents may be induced to explain it in a more satisfactory way than I have attempted below. 
The day had been, till two hours after noon, extremely wet, and rain had fallen previously to 
that time, for twenty-three hours ; the whole country, in fact, had been deluged with rain for 
many weeks: consequently, the exhalations were continual and excessive, and the air filled with 
vapour. The evening of the 10th was, however, full of promise of some coming change ; and the 
clouds began to move off about three o’clock, P.M., before a strong breeze from the $.E. At six 
we had got beyond the line of those gentle acclivities in the neighbourhood of Ligny and Som- 
breffe (celebrated in the battles of June, 1815), and had obtained a prospect over the extensive 
open country beyond the little valley of the Orneau. It is at Mazy where the range of hills at the 
back of the Meuse first bound the horizon ; and it was at Mazy that we first saw the appearance 
in question. The sun was nearly behind us; but, in the direction of the Meuse, from which we were 
distant nearly 5; Brabant leagues (say 11 English miles), we distinctly saw rays of light, as of the sun, 
issuing from a Jow bank of clouds, which seemed to be stationary and to hang over the valley of 
the river, and piercing the intermediate clouds (as openings occurred in the course of their sepa- 
ration from each other), in long diverging lines stretching towards the meridian, so as to give the 
idea of a rising sun, and in the same manner as J] have seen him rising in a cloudy morning over 
the same country. So strong was the resemblance to that of the sunbeams, that one might easily 
have imagined we were travelling directly contrary to our route. It occurred to me, that it 
might be the reflection of the actual sunbeams from the surface of the Meuse, refracted by a body 
of vapour, which again reflected them in a line nearly parallel with that of their incidence. The 
rays were broad and well defined, of a whitish light, and diverging from a centre which seemed 
luminous, and had such an appearance as the sun would have if behind a cloud, such, indeed, 
as the sun actually had at the time, in the opposite quarter of the heavens. If the Meuse be sup- 
posed too far for us to have seen a reflection from it, even in that bold and open country where 
the eye ranges over an uninterrupted sweep of woodland and meadows, might not the phenomenon 
I allude to have been caused by the simple reflection of the sun from a cloud ? but as the clouds 
were not quite stationary, that supposition is not likely to be the correct one. 
These mock sunbeams lasted nearly half an hour, when they disappeared instantaneously. The 
following day was beautifully clear, and the air so calm and warm, that a party of ladies, whom I 
joined at Namur, preferred floating down the Meuse to Liege in a boat, to a land journey on the 
excellent road which runs along the banks of the river; but the following days were wet and 
