336 Correspondence — Mr. A. Strahan. Miscellaneous. 



lie argues on the basis of the following: "The character of the 

 stages by which one rock passes into another in the field may suffice 

 by itself to prove that one of them is derived from the other." 

 This also may be assented to ; but the case when one rock is diorite 

 and the other a quartz-schist, will, for few minds, be included 

 amongst those in which such evidence does suffice. 



Dr. Callaway illustrates his meaning by a piece of underdone 

 beef, as though the matter were one of simple contact or thermo- 

 metamorphism ; but when he can show us how, by slicing, rolling, 

 squeezing, or roasting, to convert a piece of lean meat into fat, or 

 vice versa, he will introduce a novelty into the kitchen, and experi- 

 mentally illustrate what he wishes us to believe in the case of rocks. 



Port Said, I2th June, 1895. J. F. Blake. 



PHOSPHATIC CHALK AT TAPLOW, BEEKS. 



Sir, — I hear from Mr. Lodge, estate agent to W. H. Grenfell, 

 Esq., Taplow Court, that phosphatic chalk has been met with at a 

 point 870 yards N.E. by E. from the pit which I described in the 

 Quart. .Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xlvii, p. 356 (1891). The section 

 in the new excavation is given by Mr. Lodge as follows :— 



ft. in. 

 Beading Beds | Clay with a layer of greensand and flints 



( at its base 110 



f Chalk 8 



Upper Chalk \ Phosphatic Chalk 2 



[ Hard white Chalk 



21 

 It differs from the section at the pit in the phosphatic chalk being 

 eight feet below the base of the Tertiaries instead of twenty feet, 

 and in the phosphatic layer being apparently only two feet thick 

 instead of eleven feet. There are no differences distinguishable 

 imder the microscope between the phosphatic beds of the two 

 localities. 



28, Jekmyn Street, S.W. A. Strahan. 



nv^^CISCEXiXjJ^ITEOTJS- 



Mr. Thomas William Newton, the Assistant Librarian of the 

 Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, after a service of 

 nearly thirty-five years, has retired from office under the Treasury 

 Order relating to age. Mr. Newton was joint compiler with the 

 late Mr. Henry White of "A Catalogue of the Library of the 

 Museum of Practical Geology and Geological Survey," published 

 in 1878. This work contains references to about 28,000 volumes, 

 and although a partial dismemberment of the library took place in 

 more recent years, it is still considered a most important compendium 

 to geological literature and other subjects of the natural sciences. 



