528 Correspondence— Mr. F. Chapman. 



He then goes on to say : " It is worth adding that, not very far 

 from the Eotorua district, in the now famous gold-fields of the 

 Thames, an eminent but dogmatic and hasty geologist many years ago 

 prophesied that no gold could there ever be found." As the Thames 

 gold-fields were well established fifteen years or more before 

 Professor Posnett came to Auckland, this charge must rest on second- 

 er third-hand evidence ; for, to the best of my knowledge, the 

 prophecy was never published. As I was living in Auckland at the 

 time of the discovery of the fields (1867), I should certainly have 

 heard of it if any scientific man had said publicly that no gold 

 would be found at the Thames. When Professor Posnett was in 

 Auckland he could easily have investigated the truth of club gossip, 

 and he should have done so before repeating it as a well-attested 

 fact. I therefore call upon him either to produce his evidence or 

 to acknowledge that he has done the very thing he is blaming, 

 geologists for doing, namely, made dogmatic statements without: 

 giving any hint that they may not be true. F. W. Hutton. 



Christchl-rch, New Zealand. 

 3lst August, 1900. 



THE AGE OF THE EAISED BEACH OF SOUTHERN BEITAIN. 



giR^ — Mr. Tiddeman's extremely interesting note in the October 

 Number " On the Age of the Eaised Beach as seen at Gower " seems 

 to be supported by several facts, which I had observed and already 

 published with regard to the Eaised Beach in Sussex. The section 

 to the west of Brighton exhibits, near the top, a distinctly festooned 

 arrangement of the lines of bedding, which can be best explained 

 on the supposition of the occurrence of interbedded ice-masses.^ 

 Another important point is the discovery of two species of Ostracoda 

 of northern habit in the Sussex Eaised Beach.- And further, the 

 Eubble-Drift immediately above the Eaised Beach at Aldrington 

 shows decided evidence of a continuation of a rigorous climate, for 

 here there are some blocks of almost pure foraminiferal sand, very 

 friable, but with their own wavy bedding preserved, which leads 

 one to conclude that these fragments were transported in a frozen 

 condition.^ I may also, perhaps, be allowed to draw attention to 

 the excellent sections of the Eaised Beach and Eubble-Drift which, 

 can now be visited at Copperas Gap, near Portslade-by-Sea, but 

 which is being rapidly cut away by the work of sand excavation. 



Frederick Chapman, A.L.S. 

 Ill, Oakhill Eoad, 

 Putney, S.W. 



1 Transactions of the Union of Soutli-Eastern Scientific Societies, 1900, p. 58. 

 - Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xvi, pt. 6, p. 263. 

 3 Ibid., pp. 267, 268. 



