Conglomerates underlying the Carboniferous Limestone. 207 



A subsequent period of drought would leave these deposits 

 dry, and any local flood afterwards would cut a gully through 

 them and fill it in with local material, the whole being covered 

 again in time of universal heavy rains. Evidence of such 

 desert conditions occurs in the beaut ifiil rounding of many 

 of the sand grains, especially noticeable in the red sandstones 

 of Blind Beck, and in the three foot conglomerate band of 

 Nor Gill, Sedbergh. The red colour, too, suggests desert 

 conditions. 



The second point brings up the question of the age of these 

 beds and also what is to be regarded as the Basement Con- 

 glomerates. This latter can only be settled when the whole 

 area is considered, but at present, for the purposes of this 

 work, all the conglomerates and sandstones overlyg the 

 Silurian and older rocks up to the first limestone beds of 

 the Carboniferous Limestone are being included. The colour 

 seems to be no criterion, and is probably only caused by 

 small differences of physical conditions during deposition. 



Further east, in Pinskey Gill, there is an interesting 

 suite of rocks, described by Garwood and others, which will 

 be dealt with in a later communication. The beds described 

 above seem to be cut off by a fault on the east as marked on 

 the map, and this will be taken as the bounding line for 

 the present account, as also must the small local faults in 

 Stakely Beck form the bounding line in the north-west. 



: o : 



A new fungus, containing a deadly poison, has been discovered in 

 Germany. Owing to the scarcity of foods the habit of using champignons 

 and wild plants as food has much increased. In 19 17 a person died 

 after a meal of mushrooms, at Aschersleben . It was not possible at 

 that time to identify the species. Quite a number of similar accidents 

 happened in 1919 and 1920. At last Dr. Ricken, with the assistance 

 of the botanist Ert Soehner, Munich, identified the fungus as a hitherto 

 unknown variety, Inocvbe lateraria Ricken. The Pilz-und KriiHterfreund, 

 a scientific periodical published by an association of mycologists 

 and botanists, contains a coloured plate showing the fungus in its various 

 phases of development, with descriptions. 



Among the reprints recently issued by the Smithsonian Institution 

 are : — ' Paleobotany, A Sketch of the Origin and Evolution of Floras,' 

 by E. W. Berry ; ' Sphagnum Moss : War Substitute for Cotton in 

 Absorbent Surgical Dressings,' by G. E. Nichols; 'A Pleistocene 

 Cave Deposit of Western Maryland, ' by J . W. Gidley ; ' Sexual Selection 

 and Bird Song,' by C. J. Hawkins ; ' The Psychic Life of Insects,' by 

 E. L. Bouvier ; 'The Fundamental Factor of Insect Evolution,' by 

 S. S. Chetverikov ; ' The Direct Action of Environment and Evolution,' 

 by Prince Kropotkin ; ' Marine Camoufleurs and their Camouflage ; 

 " The Present and Prospective Significance of Facts regarding the 

 Coloration of Tropical Fishes,' by W. H. Longley ; ' Reptile Recon- 

 structions in the United States National Museum,' by C. W. Gilmore, 

 and ' On the Law of Reversible Evolution,' by B. Petronievics. 



1921 June 1 



