152 Notes and Comments. 
the succession of the Ashgillian strata in Ashgill Beck and the 
adjoining tract. An account of the lithological. characters 
and lists of the fossil contents of the various divisions were 
given, and confirmatory sections from Coniston Village to 
Appletreeworth Beck described. A comparison was made 
with the beds of the Cautley district which he had previously 
described. Some fossils which have not yet been found in the 
Lower Ashgillian of the Cautley district occur in the beds of 
that division at Coniston. From a study of the fossils of the 
Coniston tract and of other areas in Britain and the Continent, 
it would appear that a two-fold division of the Ashgillian strata 
which is of more than local value may be made. The lower 
division is characterised by the abundance of Phillipsinella 
parabola, and the upper by the profusion of Phacops mucronatus. 
EFFECT OF SMOKE ON LICHENS. 
Mr. G. T. Porritt writes:—At a recent meeting of the 
Linnean Society a paper entitled, ‘The Lichens of South 
Lancashire,’ was read by Messrs. J. A. Wheldon and W. G. 
Travis. After referring to the enormous industrial develop- 
ment of South Lancashire during the last century, the authors 
pointed out the deterioration of the flora which had conse- 
quently ensued, and entered into details as to the results of 
the effects of air-pollution by coal smoke on cryptogamic 
vegetation, and more particularly on lichen growth. They 
were of opinion that South Lancashire shows the deleterious 
effects of smoke on vegetation over a larger area than perhaps 
any other part of Great Britain. In the discussion which 
followed, the President of the Society, Professor E. B. 
Poulton, remarked on the similar changes which the insect 
fauna in the same district had undergone, probably owing to 
the same causes as those which had affected the lichens. As 
melanism in lepidoptera (the characteristic to which Professor 
Poulton alluded), is probably much more prevalent in South- 
West Yorkshire than in South Lancashire, it would be an in- 
teresting study for our South Yorkshire botanists to investigate 
and ascertain whether our lichens have also been affected as in 
South Lancashire. 
GEOLOGISTS IN BOWLAND. 
The members of the Yorkshire Geological Society visited 
the Forest of Bowland during Easter week-end, and the 
Yorkshire Observer gave the usual racy accounts of the work 
accomplished. From that source we learn that the old question 
of the origin of the Reef Knolls was discussed on the spot. 
Dr. Vaughan satisfied himself that the general assortment of 
fossils found in the knolls of Bowland was similar to the 
assortment of fossils found in other knolls both in Wales and in 
Naturalist, 
