286 Correspondence— R. Mallet, R. Tate. 



Perhaps this has scarcely been taken into sufficient account by those 

 who have considered the transportation of boulders by floating-ice. 

 If there really was a considerable mid-glacial submergence — of 

 which I cannot but think there is ample evidence both in Cumbria 

 and in Wales — is it not quite possible that westerly winds prevailed 

 at certain seasons, which might drift large quantities of boulder- 

 bearing ice from the Shap district without the aid of permanent 

 ocean- currents ? The difficulties involved in the theories of Messrs. 

 Croll, Belt, Goodchild, and others of the same extreme school, 

 certainly press upon me — and I think I may say also upon others of 

 my colleagues — increasingly, as the country becomes more and more 

 familiar in its features. It is indeed a most startling thought, as 

 one stands upon the eastern borders of the Lake-mountains, to fancy 

 the ice from the Scotch hills stalking boldly across the Solway, 

 marching steadily up the Eden Yalley, and persuading some of the 

 ice from Shap to join it on an excursion over Stainmoor, and bring 

 its boulders with it. 



The outlying northern parts of the Lake-district, and the flat 

 country beyond, have indeed been ravaged in many a raid by our 

 Scotch neighbours, but it is a question whether, in glacial times, the 

 Cumbrian mountains and Pennine chain had not strength in their 

 protruding icy arms to keep at a distance the ice proceeding from the 

 district of the southern uplands, the mountains of which are not 

 superior in elevation. Let us hope that the careful geological 

 observations which will doubtless be made in the forthcoming 

 scientific Arctic Expedition will throw much new light on our past 

 glacial period. J. Clifton Ward. 



Keswick, April 2Qth, 1875. 



THE MECHANISM OF STEOMBOLI. 1 



Sir, — It is quite immaterial to the validity of the mechanism of 



Stromboli which I have suggested (Proc. Eoy. Soc. 1874) whether 



the bottom of the crater be 300 to 400 feet, or be 2,000 feet above the 



sea-level, as no physicist reading the above paper can fail to see. 



"Westminster, 19 May, 1875. Eobt. Mallet. 



SPHENONGHUS EAMATUS, A EH^TIC FOSSIL. 



Sir, — I beg to record my discovery a few days since of a large 

 Sphenonchus, in the bone-bed of Aust Cliff, a genus hitherto unknown 

 in the Khastic formation. I have compared it with a specimen of 

 8. hamatus in the Bristol Museum, obtained from the Blue Lias at 

 Keynsham, (an unrecorded find, by-the-bye), and fail to find any 

 points of difference, except that of size ; the Khastic specimen being 

 about half as large again as the other, which agrees well with the 

 Lyme Eegis type figured by Agassiz. Ealph Tate. 



92, City Eoad, Bristol, May 19th, 1875. 



1 See Mr. Poulett Scrope's critical examination of Mr. Mallet's paper in the Geol. 

 Mag. for 1874, New Series, Decade II. Vol. I. pp. 529-542. See also Mr. J. W". 

 Judd's article on Stromboli, Geol. Mag. 1875, Dec. II. Vol. II. No. V. for May, 

 p. 210. J 



