386 Notes and Comments. 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE GYPSUM. 



The Mincralogical Magazine for September contains W. 

 A. Richardson's paper on ' The Micro-petrography of the 

 rock-gypsum of Nottinghamshire,' which has already been 

 referred to in these pages. He gives the following summary : — 

 (i) Microscopic examination of rock-gypsum reveals a wide 

 range of structure, and many mctamorphic types are repre- 

 sented. In the nodular masses there seems to be a dependence 

 of grain and structure on the size of the mass. (2) Anhydrite 

 appears as cores only in very large nodules, and would appear 

 to originate under physical conditions • established when 

 concretionary growth reached a certain stage. In the main 

 seam, anhydrite is distributed without regard to the size and 

 form of the bed, and in lamellae alternating with gypsum. 

 (3) Microscopic evidence supports the view that the main 

 seam, chiefly originated by sedimentary deposition, possibly 

 modified by some segregation during deposition ; and that 

 the nodular types are concretionary in origin. (4) The 

 metamorphic characters are secondary effects of pressure 

 originating in the partial or complete hvdration of the anhy- 

 drite. 



QUARRYING 3,000 B.C. 



Mr. S. McPherson, under the above title, has an article 

 in The Quarry for October, in the course of which he says that 

 Adam ' is said to have dug a cave before he even cut down — or 

 tore down — a fig leaf with which to cover his nakedness.' 

 Mr. McPherson goes on to say, ' What did he cut out the rock 

 with ? Even if he used one of the stone instruments which 

 our forebears used in olden times for various useful purposes, 

 such as clubbing their wives and' so forth, he must have had 

 something to make the stone tools with. Speaking of the 

 weapons of the Stone Age, reminds me that recent investi- 

 gations have proved that the Yorkshiremen of that age went 

 outside the Ridings of Yorkshire for the flints with which to 

 make their knives and axes, not, as a writer (lryl\' pul> it, 

 to avoid the indelicacy of braining a neighbour with a chip 

 of his own doorstep, but because the material was better.' 

 Later on in his notes, Mr. McPherson adds, ' During the last 

 two years a vast stone-axe factory was discovered in Penmaen- 

 mawr by Mr. S. Hazledine Warren, so we lind tliat cjuarrying 

 at Penmaenmawr took place no less than 5,000 wars ago. 

 Literally thousands of these axes were discovered in every 

 stage of manufacture. Some were rough, resembling the 

 earlier flint work of the palaeolithic age ; others were polished 

 in the neolithic style. And the chief scientific interest of 

 this great discovery of 1919-1920 lies in the fact that the stone 

 used is not a flint, but a granite.' l'nfortunaul\-, Mr. 



.Naturalist 



