CiRC. No. 70. 



Other trees ?). Now, the peat, which is very thick, is the top layer of 

 the alluvial strata, with the sandy fdVest-bed lying under it on Hatfield 

 Moor, and the root-branches of the aboriginal forest may yet be seen 

 in situ in the beds of some of the deep wide drains, if the recent wet 

 has not filled them with water. All around the fenny plain rise up 

 dwarfish barfs or bosses of Triassic Sandstone, capped with gravel at 

 Hatfield, Ackholme Common, Woodhouse, and Hill Wroot. At 

 Lindholme is a lake of sixteen acres extent, made by digging out the 

 bed of the old river Don, which was warped up after Vermuyden had 

 diverted its stream — and which is fed by springs from the White 

 Quicksand which lies eighteen feet below the surface of the moor. 

 On the west front of Lindholme Hall are two large stones, as to which 

 it is uncertain whether they are glacier- borne or placed there by 

 human agency. 



Geology. 



Dr. H. W. Arbuckle, of Thorne, states that geologically the 

 district rests upon the triassic rocks, new red sandstone in the western 

 part, red marl with bands of gypsum in the eastern part. These are 

 however more or less covered up by a series of post-tertiary beds, the 

 usual sequence of which, from above, is as follows : — (i) Warp, a loam 

 deposited from the river, by natural or artificial agency ; (2) Peat, 

 with the remains of an ancient forest at the base ; (3) Sand ; (4) 

 Shiny laminated clay ; (5) Gravel and sand. Through the super- 

 jacent beds, the triassic rocks, capped with more recent gravels, rise 

 here and there, forming low eminences above the level plain. 



Botanology. 



Mr. F. Arnold Lees supplies the following note : — ' Owing, 

 possibly, to its relative inaccessibility, and the known similarity of its 

 soil and surface to the much larger tract of Thorne Waste with Goole 

 Moor, the gradually encroached-upon area embraced in the term 

 Hatfield Chace (formerly sixteen, now under nine square miles in 

 extent), has held out so few attractions, raised such slight hopes of 

 good ' finds,' that it has found few botanical chroniclers. I have 

 twice crossed it myself, and the Goole Society, in Dr. Parsons' time, 

 visited it, in both cases without turning up much that was rare or 

 not-to-be-expected. At this late period of the year most Phanerogams 

 will be in an advanced or seeding condition ; and probably the wide 

 dikes draining the Chace will best repay careful examination. 

 Pondweeds, Charas, and other aquatics should be diligently fished 

 up, however common they look, in situ, to the eye, as in these a few 

 species new to the locality, or even to the Riding, may well reward 

 search. Freshwater alg^e will be abundant, and on the peaty-sandy soil 

 where shaded by birch thickets, or fir-trees, a fair crop of Fungi may 

 be confidently hoped for, considering that a very dry summer militates 

 against prevalence of this class of plants in all but normally wet 

 localities, no matter how plentifully rain may fall at the eleventh hour. 

 0/nphalia umbelliferus, Amanita niuscarius, and Lepista nuda are the 

 only fungi I recollect as attracting my attention when last there, but 

 Lentinus tigrinus and Panus stypticus have occurred just over the 

 county border in the Isle of Axholme, near Wroot, and a sharp look 

 out should be kept for the allied Xerotus degener, a dry umbrella-like 

 little species, with a thin grey striped cap, and branched membrane-like 



