." , Correspondence — J. G. Ooodchild. 381 



horizons, have been deferred for a second volume, and we can only 

 hope that though, greatly to the regret of his colleagues at the 

 Museum, Dr. Gregory has taken himself to fresh fields, the work he 

 has 80 ably begun may yet be carried to a successful end. 



The Bx-yozoa are notoriously a difficult group, though they are 

 a most fascinating study owing to the beauty of their forms, which 

 jBUst strike even the most casual observer on turning over the 

 admirably executed plates which conclude the volume. 



FORMATION OF MARITIME PEAT. 



Sir, — It may interest some of the readers of this Magazine to 

 learn that a remarkable illustration of the mode of formation of beds 

 of maritime peat is at pi'esent to be seen on the shore in a small bay 

 near the Bucket Eocks to the east of this town. During a heavy 

 flood one day late in the past autumn great quantities of leaves were 

 washed into the Tweed from the numerous woodlands, parks, and 

 hedgerows adjoining its banks, and in course of time were drifted 

 out to sea. A south-east wind prevailed at the time, and the flotilla 

 of leaves, on reaching the quieter water of the sea off the river 

 mouth, were gently wafted shorewards in the direction of the 

 sheltered bay referred to. As they floated they were evidently 

 first sorted out, in accordance with their buoyancy, and then were 

 quietly deposited at the foot of the cliff as the tide fell. They form 

 a sodden mass of leaves quite five feet in thickness at several places, 

 which extends along the shore for several hundred yards. 



An old resident, long acquainted with the coast there, tells me 

 that the same thing happens almost every year; but that each year's 

 deposit is generally washed seaward again, sooner or later, after it 

 has been laid down. 



As might be expected from the nature of the deposit, the con- 

 stituents of which have been arranged solely with reference to their 

 powers of flotation, it includes a small percentage of dried materials 

 which the sea-water has floated from various parts of the shore. 

 Bits of paper, straws, dried fronds of Fucus vesiciilosns and F. serratus, 

 coated with Spirorhis, and pieces of Lammaria encrusted with 

 Membranipora, occur in small proportion, and there are a few 

 fragments of corallines. Talitriis locusta, both dead and living, is 

 rather common. 



The mass is not divided by any beds of mud or sand. The 

 general aspect of the deposit differs but little from that of such 

 beds of maritime peat as occur, for example, at Elie in Fifeshire 

 and at Maryport in West Cumberland, both of which are usually 

 regarded as evidences of former changes of level of the land. Yet 

 it must be obvious, from a consideration of the facts above noted, 

 that similar deposits must frequently be laid down in the vicinity 

 of large rivers, in quiet nooks both at the sea-level and beneath it, 

 if the vegetable remains in the latter case have soaked long enough 

 to become water-logged. J- Gr- Goodchild. 



Berwick, Juli/ 4, 1900. 



