336 Correspondence — Horace B. Woodward. 



Beclie, Buckland,^ and others, but their origin has never been clearly 

 explained. Much material, no doubt, is due to the disintegration 

 of the Chalk in situ, in helping to form a sort of " Glay-with-flints," 

 which is everywhere conspicuous on the Chalk hills, and in some 

 cases where the Chalk has been entirely removed, the flints have 

 become mixed with the disintegrated chert of the Greensand. This, 

 too, as Mr. Whitaker has pointed out, is partly due to the attenu- 

 ation of the Lower Chalk and the consequent nearness of the Upper 

 Chalk with flints to the Greensand. The Greensand itself has been 

 partly broken up by the action of the weather, and partly by the 

 not-to-be-overlooked action of the plough. There is still, however, 

 much to account for in the amount of chert detritus, and also in the 

 occurrence of quartz joebbles. The smaller quartz pebbles may be 

 derived from the "Chalk with quartz grains" at the base of the 

 Chalk series, described by De la Beche, but the larger ones have 

 not been so locally derived. 



When we look to this probable Boulder-clay near Yarcombe, we 

 may admit an agency which will account for the dispersion and 

 wearing of the superficial deposits now found on the hills, and 

 which certainly can no more be attributed entirely to atmospheric 

 agencies in action in the area, than to river action. It seems rather 

 premature at present to call in tlie agency of a " South of England 

 Ice Sheet," as might be inferred, perhaps, from Mr. Croll's patient 

 investigations, and I should prefer attributing the formation of the 

 deposits to marine agencj^ during the Glacial-submergence, with 

 the assistance of an occasional iceberg. However, until the country 

 is worked out in detail, it is not well to theorize further. 



HORAOE B. WOODWAKD. 



Stockland, neau Honiton, 

 lO^A June, 1874. 



P.S. — June 2ot]i — Subsequent investigations liave confirmed my opinion as to 

 this Boulder-clay. Deposits similar to those at Little Down, have been found by 

 Mr. Ussher and myself between White Staunton and Howley, and in other localities 

 in this district. H.B.W. 



The Sandwell Pakk Trial Sinking. — The success of this im- 

 portant sinking having now been fully achieved by the finding of 

 the tliiclc coal at a depth of 418 yards, and of a thickness 20 feet 

 6 inches, it is proposed to furnish some account of the fossils met 

 with and the general character of the Eed rocks passed through 

 before reaching the reputed Coal-measures. Prof. Eamsay, LL.D., 

 r.E.S., Mr. Carruthers, P.E.S., and the Editors of the Geological 

 Magazine, will take part in the proposed work, which will be 

 brought out under the patronage of the Eight Hon. the Earl of 

 Dartmouth, upon whose estate the sinking has taken place. Further 

 particulars will shortly be published by Mr. Henry Johnson, the 

 Engineer and Secretary of the Company, Trindle-road, Dudley. The 

 shares of the Company are now worth a thousand guineas each, with 

 one hundred guineas paid up. 



1 Dr. Buckland noticed the presence of Grey wethers—" Siliceous breccia, like 

 Hertfordshire puddingstone " — at Sidmouth and Black Down. Trans. Geol. See, 

 2nd series, yol. ii. p. 126. 



