576 Correspondence— Dr. Irving. — Obituary— 0. Silvestri. 



I can only express again my regret that I did not re-write the 

 ohjectionable passage which has called forth this friendly protest 

 from one for whom I entertain the most sincere regard ; yet I think 

 that results arrived at independently have a value, even if they are 

 not "novel." 



Wellington College, Berks. IRVING. 



THE ELEVATION OF THE WEALD. 

 Sir, — In Mr. H. VV. Monckton's idea as to the " retreat of the sea " 

 in connexion with the marine abrasion of the Weald anticlinal (see 

 Geol. Mag. September, 1890, p. 395), he has got a glimpse of what 

 has been obvious enough to most students of geology for the last 

 quarter of a century. For at least that period of time Sir Andrew 

 Kamsay's view of the marine abrasion of the original arch of the 

 Weald anticlinal, followed by atmospheric waste and erosion 

 (determining the present features of the country) has been before 

 the world in his valuable and suggestive work, "The Physical 

 Geology and Geography of Great Britain." Mr. Monckton seems 

 to consider the area of the deposition of the Wealden series to have 

 been approximately conterminous with the present area known as the 

 Weald. In the light of what we know of a great series of Tertiary 

 movements in Central and Western Europe, it must be rash in the 

 extreme to assume that the present relations of sea and land are 

 any index of what they were in even later Mesozoic time. The 

 statement, that, "from some undetermined period [extending at least 

 as far back as the Purbeck, loc. cit.^\ until the formation of the 

 Gault the south-east of England was an area of depression, and the 

 progress of depression was more rapid upon an east and west line 

 which now forms the anticlinal of the Weald than either to the north 

 or south of it," is in flat contradiction to Prof. Green's constructive 

 sketch of the old Wealden Estuary (see " Physical Geology," pp. 

 294-6). I commend this to Mr. Monckton's attention. 



In his concluding paragraphs it seems he has done me the honour 

 to reproduce partly some arguments as to the non-commensurate 

 elevation of the Weald, which I put before the Geological Society 

 in June last at a meeting at which he was present. These 

 arguments are given in a more complete form in my paper in the 

 Geol. Mag. for September, 1890, pp. 405-6. 



Wellington College, Berks. 



OBITTJAKY. 



ORAZIO SILVESTRI. 



We regret to record the death of this distinguished Sicilian Geologist and Chemist, 

 which occurred at Catania on August 17, alter much suffering. Prof. Silvestri has 

 contributed largely to our knowledge of the workings and chemistry of Etna, and to 

 the general geology of Sicily, while his masterly paper on the genus Nodosaria, and 

 his interesting papers on the works of Soldani are of great interest and value to 

 students of the Foraminifera. 



Erratum.— In Geol. Mag. November, 1890, p. 501, fourteenth line from top of 

 page, for "These are," etc., read There are, etc. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



