524 Correspondence — Rev. G. Crewdson. 



one would not be surprised to learn that Zoology and Palgeontology 

 in tbe Natural History Museum had been recombined together as 

 representing Animal Biology ; in fact, the late Director, Sir William 

 Flower, and the present Director, Professor Ray Lankester, have 

 both strenuously aimed at bringing the recent and extinct forms of 

 animal life together into one seines. It is remarkable that not- 

 withstanding the various attempts to change the existing order of 

 things (as e.g. that of the Kew authorities to absorb the Botanical 

 Department into tbe Kew Herbarium, and the plan suggested 

 by Professor Maskelyne, many j^ears ago, to transfer the Mineral 

 Collections to the Royal College of Chemistry, or to the Royal 

 School of Mines), they all failed, and these departments still remain 

 firmly united to the Natural History Museum, and the Geological 

 Department still enjoys a separate and distinct existence. 



It would be impossible in a brief notice like the present to give 

 an adequate notion of the amount of labour bestowed in working 

 up the historical records of the Museum in the past 150 years, 

 presented to us in this interesting volume, bringing out as it does, 

 in an orderly and succinct form, the story of the three great 

 Departments and of the Librai"ies attached to them ; but to any 

 person interested in the progress of Natural History in this country 

 this book will afford the greatest pleasure, not only to read, but to 

 possess, as a most valuable work of reference for all time. ■ 



coI^I^:Es:F'OI^^XD"£]^^G:E]. 



ICE-ACTION ON WINDERMERE. 



Sir, — As one of the party that visited the cliffs in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cromer in connection with the recent meeting of the 

 British Association, I was greatly interested, as we all were, with 

 what we saw and with the able exposition given by Mr. Clement 

 Reid ; and it occurred to me that what I have observed of ice-action 

 on a small scale when Windermere, in 1895, was completely frozen 

 over might be of some interest to students of ice-action on a far 

 grander scale in past ages, of which we see traces in the present day. 

 I was encouraged in this view by some of the members of Section C 

 to whom I mentioned what I had seen. I will simply state the facts 

 without attempting to found any theory upon them. 



During the Winter in question Windermere was frozen throughout 

 its entire extent, the ice attaining a thickness in many places of seven 

 to eight inches or more. Wherever there was a considerable expanse 

 of water, as for instance between Thompson Holme and the northern 

 shore of Miller Ground Bay, a distance of about two miles, the 

 expansion which takes place in freezing forced the ice up on the 

 shore wherever the slope was sufficiently gentle to permit of this. 

 The striation produced by this glaciation was clearly to be seen 

 below the ice where the bottom was chiefly composed of clay. 

 Where the shore was composed of loose shingle the ice in its 

 pi'ogress ploughed its way through it. raising a bank of from one 



