334 Correspondence — Mr. A. Sarker. 



mucli more extensive than lias been hitherto supposed. Specimens 

 are described, taken from thirteen outcrops. 



3. " On the Origin of the Permian Breccias of the Midlands, 

 and a Comparison of them with the Upper Carboniferous Glacial 

 Deposits of India and Australia." By E. D. Oldham, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author first describes the Permian breccias of the Midland 

 Counties of England, which he had the opportunity of examining at 

 Eastertide of the present year. He describes the characters of the 

 breccias, and concludes that they were formed subaerially as gravel- 

 fans by rivers charged with a maximum load of sediment, and 

 therefore incapable of performing any appreciable amount of erosion. 

 An examination of many of the fragments at Abberley and some at 

 Church Hill reveals the presence of scratches, which occur in such 

 a manner that the author believes they existed on the fragments 

 before they were transported, and discusses the evidence for their 

 production by ice or soil-cap movement, deciding in favour of the 

 former. 



A short description of the Upper Carboniferous deposits of India 

 follows, and it is pointed out that they differ markedly from the 

 deposits of Britain. Amongst other things the separation of different 

 pebbles by considerable interspace of matrix, and the bending of 

 stratification - planes round a pebble as though the pebble had 

 dropped from above, are noted, and it is maintained that floating ice 

 alone will account for these pebbles being dropped into the Indian 

 deposits. Finally, it is remarked that the so-called Upper Car- 

 boniferous deposits of India and the Permian deposits of the 

 Midlands of Britain may be practically contemporaneous, as main- 

 tained by the late Mr. H. F. Blanford, indicating a possible 

 simultaneous existence of glaciers in England, India, and Australia. 



coI^I^Es:poI5^z^:E]I^^o:E. 



NORWEGIAN EOCKS IN THE ENGLISH BOULDER-CLAYS. 

 Sir, — Anyone familiar with the Boulder-clays of our East Coast — 

 or, I may add, with the methods of working customary among 

 field-geologists — must have read with astonishment Sir Henry 

 Howorth's confident suggestion that the records of " so-called 

 Norwegian boulders " are due to material brought by ships as 

 ballast. In the first place, he clearly has no idea of the immense 

 profusion of these boulders, hundreds of which may be observed in 

 as many yards on some parts of the Holderness beach. This is in 

 places where the Basement Clay is exposed in the cliffs and to the 

 south of such places, i.e. in the direction of movement of the beach. 

 If, however, Sir H. Howorth can find an adequate explanation of 

 this in the statistics of ship-wrecks, he still has to meet the fact 

 that these boulders are found not only on the beach but in the clay. 

 Five years ago I examined and described specimens of the Laurvig 

 augite-syenite collected by Mr. Lamplugh from the Basement Clay 

 of Dimlington and Bridlington Quay. This was merely that my 



