NA TURE 



iMayi, 1S77 



heat of London sensibly affects Greenwich, mostly by raising the 

 temperature of the air in winter and at night, when it might be 

 expected to do so with the greatest effect ; and that the tem- 

 perature at Greenwich by day in summer is depressed by the 

 smoky atmosphere hindering the transmission of the sun's rays 

 when they are most potent. II. S. Eaton 



Croydon, April 24 



Ancient Characters at Cissbury 

 Two years ago some marks were discovered at the entrances 

 of galleries in one of the pits at Cissbury, which appeared to 

 h.-ive been scratched on the chalk with a flint instrument. They 

 were suspiciously like figures or masons' marks, but yet had all 

 the tints of age, and resembled more or less early letters.' The 



little woodcuts I /C , . I |S represent the forms with sufficient 



exactnes'. Other marks found shortly afterwards in a second pit 

 were thought to be merely a trellis pattern. In attempting to cut 

 them out of the rock, the chalk wus broken into fragments, but 

 fortunately rubbings had been previously taken. 



The doubt as to the genuineness of the above marks was 

 removed by the further discovery, in September, 1875, of a third 

 set (again at the entrance of a gallery) in another pit at Ciss- 

 bury Camp. They were arranged in two lines, the lower one 

 presenting all the appearance of an inscription. A number 

 of detached blocks, with distinctive marks upon them, weie 

 found in this pit amongst the ru'nble with which it was filled. 

 One of these blocks, which was discovered about five feet below 

 the surface, had four definite marks scratched upon it at even 

 distances. 



Up to the time that this third pit was opened no distinctive 

 marks had been met with, except those above-mentioned, though 

 there were many thousand accidental pick-marks on the walls 

 and loose chalk. 



I have now the satisfaction of mentioning that upon examining 

 with more care the marks found in the second pit, the diagonal 

 scratches of the trellis prove to be eight branching characters of a 

 peculiar form. The vertical scores which cross them turn out to 

 be later additions, cut with a finer tool than the serrated flint 

 that has left its mark on the more superficial and broader lines of 

 the characters beneath. In the following woodcut the vertical 

 lines are not shown, and the rune-like forms are placed slightly 

 further apart than is actually the case ; the characters themselves, 

 however, arc facsimiles" : — 



Tracings and photographs have beep submitted to Trofessors 

 Sayce and Rhys, and also to Dr. Haigh and other pal^o- 

 graphists, who all consider the marks to be characters, though 

 unable at present to give an opinion as to their date. But several 

 on the detached blocks found near the surface, it is thought, may 

 possibly be Anglo-Saxon. 



Some of your correspondents may perhaps be able to say 

 whether similar forms have been met with elsewhere. Can it be 

 that the blanching charactersareexamplesof the symbols alluded 

 to in the traditions of the Bards? 



I may mention that Dr. Haigh thinks that the Celts had 

 writing distinct from and earlier than the Oghams ; and he has 

 noticed on the stones of a sepulchral chamber at Keryaval, in 

 Brittany, signs very like letters. J. Park Harrison 



The Rocks of Charnwood Forest 

 It has been a matter of regret to geologists that Mr. Plant 

 has not published in some accessible form his stores of knowledge 

 on Charnwood. We cannot tell how far our facts may be new 

 to him, but we believe that we have been able to make consider- 

 able corrections in and additions to all contained in Jukes, 

 Ansted, Coleman, or the Survey Memoir. 



■ •y,mrn. AnllirKjwl. hist-. No. i3, p. 2G5. 



' Tlie last character, on the right of the inscription, li.is IjLun corrected 

 by lengthening the upirer su-uke. in the rubbing it was acciUeutally tlc- 

 '.athcd from the crosb-lines. 



We are glad to find Mr. Plant supporting us on the intrusive 

 character of the syenites. But the question can hardly be re- 

 garded as previously settled. Mr. Coleman leaned to the idea 

 of their priority to the stratified rocks. Prof. Jukes to their being 

 contemporaneous, and Prof Ansted to their being metamorphic. 

 When in N.vniRE (vol. xv. p. 97) Prof Green suggested the 

 first of these views no one adduced any pi oof to the contrary. 

 Of all that Mr. Plant sa>s we were well aware, but could not 

 regard the evidence as conclusive. Our opinion is founded on 

 the examination of actual contacts between syenite and sedi- 

 mentary rock, a thing which so far as we know has not pre- 

 viously been described. 



We are well acquainted with the very curious " altar stones" 

 which are doubtless of volcanic origin, but these and the rocks 

 of Bardon no more prove the Markfield syenite to be intrusive, 

 than the ashes and breccias of the Borrowdale series prove the 

 intrusive character of the Wastwater granite. Further, we 

 cannot admit any connection between the Bardon "green- 

 stones" and the Markfield syenite. T. G. BONNEY 



St. John's College, Cambridge, April 28 E. HiLL 



Yellow Crocuses 



Several years ago I observed that snowdrops which I had 

 introduced into my garden were destroyed by poultry getting in 

 among them at the hungry season when these ate in blossom. 

 I recollect placing a bantam cock in the garden, and observed 

 that he pecked hastily at a few of the blossoms, and then left 

 off. I then tore up pieces of writing-paper and spread them 

 over the newly turned-up soil. These were hastily visited and 

 as hastily dropped by a few of the poultry. Next I procured 

 some Indian corn, and scattered it among the poultry for the 

 first time. A f-w hens tried to swallow a grain here and there, 

 but left the most of them. It required two or three days' expe- 

 rience to get them to feed on the Indian corn, and a very short 

 time taught them to exclude snowdrop blossoms from their bill 

 of fare. May not the case of the crocuses mentioned by Mr. 

 Renshaw be explained as similar to that of schoolboys, who 

 eagerly try a bright unknown berry and soon leave off when it is 

 unpalatable ? At least so I explained the fact of my snowdrops 

 being more fiercely attacked on their first appearance in the 

 garden than ever they have been since. 



Our glen in a few weeks will be made beautiful by the blos- 

 soms of the bird-cherry, which grows plentifully on the margin 

 of the streams and the waysides, attaining much larger dimen- 

 sions than those given by i\Ir. Bentham in his " Handbook of 

 British Flora," many of the trees being twenty feet high. The 

 caterpillar of the pale spotted eimine moth feeds so eagerly on 

 its leaves that I have, in some summers, seen the trees reduced 

 to ugly skeletons by the middle or end of July. In autumn the 

 beautiful red berries of the Guelder-rose adorn our thickets, but 

 if " fruit has become beautiful so as to point it out to birds for 

 the dissemination of the seed," we do not seem to have the birds 

 which care for these berries, as only three weeks ago I pulled 

 some fine clusters from a bush growing in a sheltered nook. 



Tynron/ Dumfriesshire, April 2i James Shaw 



I-N'CLOSED is a letter that I had from my friend. Dr. Grierson, 

 Dumfriesshire, a month ago, complaining of a pair of ducks that 

 had gobbled up almost every one of his yellow crocuses, and 

 only the yellow ones. I am further informed by Mr. John V'oung, 

 Ilunterian Museum, Glasgow, that the habit of the sparrows 

 taking the yellow crocuses without touching the blue or striped 

 has been long known to him. David Robertson 



The Ship-Worm 



Teredo iiuvalis certainly is able to endure a long continuance 

 of freshwater. At the town of Brisbane (Queensland), piles, 

 &c., are sheathed with "Muntz metal" to prevent its attacks. 

 The river is subject to long-continued freshes. I remember one 

 which lasted at least ten days, and during that time ocean-going 

 steamers could not ascend to the town, the flood was so power- 

 ful. Brisbane is situated far below the cxtmnc salt-water flood, 

 but whenever there is a fresh in the river, of even smiU amount, 

 the water at that town is (according to my recollection) rather 

 more fresh than salt at the end of each ebb tide. 



I never saw Teredo there, but I took its existence for granted, 

 from the fact that piles, &c., were protected with meta.!, and the 



