180 Brief Notices. 



Hull. In this cuse the indications given \>j three experienced 

 'dowsers' were "absolutely at variance with one another", and the 

 actual site of the well was not ascertained. We hardly think the test 

 was a good one, because the well has a constant supply of water, and 

 it is not improbable that the underground water extends beneath the 

 whole area. Other experiments were made in different localities ; in 

 one case in reference to a drain, with an abundant flow of water, 

 a few feet from the surface ; in another case above a 3 inch water- 

 main, the water being turned on and off at irregular intervals. The 

 results showed that no dependence could be placed on the indications 

 of the divining-rod. Again, experiments made to find gold and silver 

 coins placed beneath saucers and cushions showed conflicting results. 



4. The Fossil Horse of Bishop's Stortford forms the subject of 

 a short article by Mr. E. T. Newton [Essex Naturalist, vol. xvi, p. 132, 

 February, 1911). Attention was drawn in 1909 by the llev. Dr. A. 

 Irving to the discovery of the entire skeleton of a horse at a depth 

 of 2£ feet from the surface at Bishop's Stortford. Dr. Irving was 

 disposed to regard the remains as of Neolithic or Bronze Age, and 

 Professor J. C. Ewart drew attention to resemblances between the 

 Bishop's Stortford horse and examples from Walthamstow, believed to 

 be of about the same approximate age. The horse of Bishop's Stortford, 

 however, was larger, and Mr. Newton observes that the bones "present 

 no characters which would indicate their being of prehistoric age ; on 

 the contrary, their agreement with the bones of modern horses points 

 rather to a much more modern origin". 



5. "Western Australia. — Bulletin No. 36 (1910), issued by the 

 Geological Survey of that country, contains an interesting series of 

 " Paloeontological Contributions". Dr. G. J. Hinde describes the 

 Fossil Sponge Spicules in a rock from Princess Royal Township, 

 Norseman District. The specimen, a soft white siliceous rock, was 

 found to consist almost entirely of the spicular remains of siliceous 

 sponges, with no traces of other organisms. In age it is probably 

 newer than Cretaceous. Dr. Hinde remarks that " Besides spicules 

 which resemble those of existing sponges, there are many in the 

 deposit closely similar to detached spicules in material dredged from 

 a depth of 3,000 fathoms off the south-west coast of Australia, and 

 also to the spicules in the fossil sponge deposit at Oamaru, New 

 Zealand, which is considered to be Upper Eocene in age ". Other 

 spicules belong to species found in European Cretaceous rocks. The 

 rock was probably formed in the open ocean and at a considerable 

 depth. 



Mr. E. A. Newell Arber describes some fossil plants, Otozamites 

 Feistmanteli, Zigno, and Pagiophyllum, indicative of the occurrence of 

 Jurassic strata near Mingenew and Mt. Hill in Western Australia. 



Mr. R. Etheridge gives an account of Oolitic Fossils from the 

 Greenough River District. They include the following European 

 species : Serpula conformis, Goldf., Rhynchonella variabilis, Schloth , 

 Alectryonia Marshi, J. Sow., Ctenostreon pectiniformis, Schloth., 

 Pecten(?) cinctus, J. Sow., and Trigonia Moorei, Lye. New species 

 of Modiola, Cucullcea, Ostrea, Pleurotomaria are described and 



