Correspondence — A. R. Hunt. 475 



X. — Brief jS'otices. 



1, The Hils Basin. — Dr. H. von Koenen discusses the disturbances 

 of the Hils Basin ia the Jahresb. Niedersach. geol. Yer. 

 Hannover, 1913. He describes it as "a basin due to compression, 

 with uptilted margins, its interior being filled with essentially 

 younger beds less strongly influenced by the pressure ". 



2. Waters of Kharga. — Mr. G. W. Grrabhamhas published in the 

 Cairo Scientific Journal (No. 61, vol. v, October, 1911) a paper 

 dealing with the mechanics of wells, the choking of boreholes by 

 deposition, and the exhaustion of strata. This is a reply to Mr. H. J. L. 

 Beadnell's paper, and the whole discussion is interesting and instructive. 



OOI?.E,ES:E>03Sr3DE!lSrOEl. 



A SUPPOSED SUBMERGED FOREST IN SOUTH-WEST SCOTLAND. 

 Sir, — In your review of Mr. Clement Reid's book on submerged 

 forests you cite the statement that in " Scotland the jN'eolithic deposits 

 seem to be raised beaches instead of submerged forests ". There 

 is what appears to be a submerged forest bed in a small creek called 

 Brighouse Bay, a little west of the estuary of the Dee on the coast of 

 Gralloway. It was incidentally noticed in a paper published by the 

 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1875. Some presumably large 

 antlers of (red) deer were recorded as from the "submerged forest". 

 The district is outwardly much like that of South Devon, viz. with 

 low-level beach-platforms, drowned valleys, and what seem to be 

 submerged forest clays. The paper referred to is on the exploration 

 of the Borness Cave, and the mention of the submerged forest is on 

 p. 11 of the reprint. The late Mr. A. J". Corrie and myself were 

 solely responsible for the geological part of the report, and we were 

 guided by the South Devon raised beaches in our identification. 

 It is quite possible we were mistaken. Perhaps some of our readers 

 may be acquainted with Brighouse Bay. 



Torquay. 



September 8, 1913. 



NOTE ON THE NAME ' CHARMOUTHIAN '. 



Sir, — D'Orbigny in 1852 divided the Lias into three stages which 

 he called respectively the Sinemurian, the Liassian, and the Toarcian, 

 and in 1864 Mayer-Eymar proposed the name ' Charmouthian ' to 

 take the place of d'Orbigny's Liassian. As pointed out by Mr. W. D. 

 Lang in this Magazine (1912, p. 284), this middle stage of d'Orbigny 

 and Mayer-Eymar included more than has usually been assigned to the 

 Middle Lias in England. I am not now concerned with the grouping 

 of the zones, but with the form of the name which has been adopted by 

 most French geologists in preference to the Pliensbachian of Oppel. 



The name is, of course, taken from the little town of Charmouth in 

 Dorset, near which the Middle Lias is well exposed in the cliff's, but 

 it is unfortunate that Mayer-Eymar should have tried to latinize such 

 a name as Charmouth without making any inquiry as to its ancient 

 form. It is a recognized custom or rule that when such names are 



