508 Notiees of Memoirs— Prof. W. Watts— Mt. Sorrel Granite. 



A description of tlie skull in the British Museum (Natural History), 

 accompanied by figures, will be published shortly, when I shall more 

 fully discuss its relations with the fossils described by the French, 

 the American, and the German palaeontologists. 



The generic name Leptodon has to give place to Pliohyrax, the 

 former being preoccupied by Sundevall's genus of Falconidae (]83o). 



I. — Note on the Surface of the Mount Sorrel Granite, By 

 Professor W. W. Watts, M.A., F.G.S.V 



IT has long been known that, when first exposed in the quarries, 

 the granite of Mount Sorrel exhibits a smoothed, grooved, and 

 slightly terraced aspect. As the surface, when first discovered, was 

 covered with boulder-clay, it has been concluded that it was produced 

 by glaciation. The writer has long had doubts with regard to this 

 interpretation, and recent excavations near Mount Sorrel have thrown 

 a new light on the phenomenon. At Hawkley Wood and Nunckley 

 Hill a similar but smaller surface has recently been exposed which 

 is covered by undisturbed Keujser Marl, while a second surface, 

 exposed at Nunckley Hill, has boulder-clay abutting on it. Thus 

 the grooving, terracing, and smoothing, like so much of the scenery 

 in Ciiarnwood Forest, was originated in Triassic times, though locally 

 it may have been somewhat modified by glaciation. The writer 

 wishes to thank Mr. R. F. Martin for calling his attention to these 

 newly exposed surfaces. 



II, — Note on Barium Sulphate in the Bunter Sandstone of 



North Staffordshire. By C. B, Wedd, B.A., F.G.S.^ 



(Communicated by permission of the Director-General of the Geological Survey.) 



SPECIAL attention has been directed by Professor F. Clowes to 

 the deposition of barium sulphate as a cementing material 

 of Triassic Sandstone near Nottingham, and he has mentioned 

 numerous places, on the authority of Mr. J. Lomas, where the same 

 mineral has been observed in Triassic rocks. ^ 



It may be interesting to record another locality. In a cutting of 

 the North Staffordshire Eailway (Audley Branch), three-quarters of 

 a mile south of Alsager Road (Talke) Station, a section of Bunter 

 Sandstone in Merelake Hill shows the cross-like marks common 

 in the Keuper Sandstone of Cheshire and Staffordshire, and due to 

 barium sulpliate crystals. A partial analysis, made by my friend 

 Mr. R, Hornby, of the Red Bunter Sandstone of Merelake Hill, 

 showed a considerable quantity of barium sulphate. Occasional 

 veins filling joints consist of barytocelestite, which may also be 

 seen in other sections of the Bunter of Merelake Hill. 



1 Abstract of a paper read before Section C (Geology), British Association, Dover 

 Meeting, September, 1899. 



• Proc. Roy. Soc, vol. Ixiv, p. 374. Eeferences to previous papers are given in 

 this article. 



