Correspondence . 



419 



having been obtained from the shore. Indeed, one may venture to suspect 

 that the story of Hull pavements of ' stones out of Iceland ' may have 

 been founded only on the guess of sonie observant old mariner who 

 recognised the black ' cobbles ' as being like the country -rock of Iceland, 

 and unlike any quarry -stone or flints of the neighbouring home-country. 

 If, however, any of the old pavements are still in existence, and are found 

 to consist entirely, or almost entirely, of basaltic rock, it would afford 

 strong confirmation of Harrison's statement. The Holderness shore- 

 cobbles are always a heterogeneous mixture. 



At the end of the sanie chapter, Harrison has a quaint reference to 

 fossils (ammonites?) which is worth quoting. He sa^^s : — ' Finally, 

 I myself have seen stones opened, and within them the substances of 

 corrupted worms like unto adders (but far shorter), whose crests and 

 wrinkles of body appeared also therein as if they had been engraved in 

 the stones by art and industry of man.' — G. W. Lamplugh. 



Sheahan, in his ' History of Hull,' 1866 edition, page 55, has the 

 following ; — ' Leyland says, that " at such tyme as al the trade of 

 stockfisch for England cam from Isleland (Iceland) to Kingston, bycause 

 the burden of stockfisch was light, the shipes were balissed with great 

 coble stone brought out of Isleland, the which yn continuance paved al 

 the toun of Kingston throughout.' Camden gives pretty nearly the same 

 account. Tickell thinks it more probable that they were brought from 

 the Spurn Head or places adjacent, where plenty of them were to be had ; 

 but Mr. Frost tells us, that in the year 1400, paving stones constituted a 

 part of the cargoes of two Dutch vessels, which arrived in that year, 

 the ]\Iariknight, of Amsterdam, having brought to the port 40,000 ; and 

 the Skenkewyn, of Dordrecht, 16,000. In both of these instances (he 

 continues) the paving stones appear to have been imported on account of 

 the masters of the vessels, and it is therefore not improbable that they 

 were brought for the two-fold object of ballast while on board, and of 

 sale for paving the streets when landed. ' 



There can be no dovibt the ballast from Iceland was brought into Hull 

 and used for paving the streets. The late George H. Hill, a former 

 President of the Hull Field Naturalists' Society, frequently told me 

 how, when a boy (which would be about 1840), he used to watch this 

 ballast being unloaded, and occasionally secured from it zeolites and other 

 mineralogical specimens. 



Nowadays the streets of Hull are paved with wood or asphalt, and the 

 City flatters itself that it is one of the best paved cities in the country. 

 Consequently we are not likely to-day to satisfy Mr. Lamplugh 's curiosity 

 on the question of paving cobbles, even in the old parts of the town. 

 There are, however, a few yards and dock-wharves still paved with 

 cobbles, but these are obviously from our own coast. I have examined 

 them during the last few days, selecting different points, and the follow- 

 ing is the average per cent, of the rocks represented, clearly indicating 

 that the sources of the cobbles in the few pavements remaining was the 

 Holderness coast or central Holderness gravel pits : — 



Per cent. 

 Basalt ... ... ... ... ... 33 



Quartzite and hard sandstone ... ... 21 



Carboniferous limestone ... ... ... 13 



Pink granites ... ... ... ... ... 10 



Quartz porphyries ... ... ... ... 5 



Cheviot porphyrite ... ... ... ... 4 



White granite ... ... ... ... ... 4 



Lias limestone ... ... ... ... 3 



Magnesian limestone ... ... ... ... 3 



Rhomb-porphyry ... ... ... ... 2 



Lidianstone ... ... ... ... ... i 



Gneiss ... ... ... ... ... i T.S. 



19-21 Dec. 1 



