Correspondence — Mr. Collins-, Mr. D. Mackintosh. 569 



of that country. Some of these old sands and gravels have been 

 made to do duty for the " middle sands and gravels," while in other 

 places the so-called " Upper Boulder-clay " is a glacialoid drift, a 

 meteoric drift, or an aqueous drift, in which a few blocks or frag- 

 ments of stone can be found, still retaining some ice-scratches. 

 Wexford, October 5, 1875. Gr. HENRY KlNAHAN. 



FORMATION OF A MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 Sir, ^-An effort is being made for the establishment of a Mineralo- 

 gical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Will you permit me to 

 call the attention of your readers to this fact, and to say that I shall 

 be happy to give information on the subject to any persons who may 

 desire to become members. 



The objects of the Society are — ■ 

 To simplify Mineralogical Nomenclature. 

 To determine and define doubtful mineral species. 

 To study the Paragenesis of minerals. 

 To record instances and modes of pseudomorphism with their accompanying 



phenomena. 

 To measure, determine, and illustrate forms of crystallization, especially the 

 irregularities and peculiarities of particular planes, or of crystals from particular 

 localities. 

 To discuss systems of classification, and to establish a natural system. 

 To collect, record, and digest facts and statistics relating to economic mineralogy. 

 To promote the exchange of specimens ; and, generally, 

 To advance the Science of mineralogy. 



The rules and regulations to be ultimately adopted will be decided 

 upon by the votes of jDrobably the first 100 members. 



57, Lemon Street, Truro., J. H. COLLINS. 



September Ylth, 1875. 



ORIGIN OF ESCARPMENTS AND CWMS. 

 Sir, — Several years ago you kindly published a number of articles 

 by me on Denudation, and likewise the answers they elicited from 

 several well-known geologists. The substance of these articles was 

 afterwards incorporated with my work entitled " Scenery of England 

 and Wales, its Character and Origin," in which, among other sub- 

 jects, I entered into a detailed consideration of the origin of escarp- 

 ments and cwms, especially the very typical cwms of North Wales. 

 Since then Mr. Kinahan has written a work on the Surface-geology 

 of Ireland, which to a great extent is a repetition in different words 

 of the kind of arguments I adopted in reference to England and 

 Wales ; and Mr. Goodchild in several recent articles in the G-eol. 

 Mag. has (evidently without being aware of what I had written) not 

 only used many of my arguments against Subaerialism in substance,, 

 but. in several cases, coincidentally expressed them in nearly the 

 same words. This will be seen from a comparison of some portions 

 of Mr. Goodchild's articles with the following quotations from my 

 work on England and Wales : — " Carrying away the blocks and 

 fragments, the removal of which must, in a general way, have kept 



pace with the recession of the cliffs the power of a moving 



crust of land-ice several thousand feet thick to excavate cwm-shaped 



