140 Correspondence — Dr. A. von Koenen, and E. H. Tiddeman. 



OALCEOLA SANDALINA. 



Sir, — Eespecting the paper of Eev. T. E. E. Stebbing, " Notes on 

 Calceola sandalina, Lam.," in the February Number of the Geo- 

 logical Magazine, I must call the attention of English geologists to 

 another paper on the same subject, published 1869, in the '"Zeit- 

 schrift der Deutschen geologischen Gesellschaft," pp. 647-688, pi. 

 xviii. and xix. 



The author, Dr. Kunth, of the University of JBerlin, (one of our 

 most promising and cleverest geologists, and one of the most de- 

 plored victims of the French rifle bullets at the battle of Saarbriicken, 

 1870,) has explained in this paper, in a most satisfactory and^com- 

 plete way, as he used to do in all his papers, the structure, the 

 law of crescence of Calceola sandalina, and its relation to the other 

 Palaeozoic Zoantharia rugosa, and to the recent Coi'als. (See also his 

 paper in the same journal, 1870, pp. 24-43, pi. i.) This, I hope, 

 will keep the priority to the more complete paper of Dr. Kunth. 



Univeksity of Marburg, Germany, A. VoN KoENEN. 



February 19 th, 1873. 



THE AGE OF THE NOETH OP ENGLAND ICE-SHEET. 



Sir, — In replying to Mr. Fisher's letter in your last Number, I 

 am happy to say that I had read his valuable papers, and with much 

 interest; but when using the word "trail," I meant it in its ordinary 

 English sense, and not in that special sense to which he would appro- 

 priate it. Nor was I referring to his papers when using the word ; 

 for I am not aware that he has called attention to that particular 

 phenomenon, the overturning of basset edges, which I was describing 

 when I employed it. So far as I understand from Mr. Fisher's 

 writings, his " trail " is almost a synonym for till, except that he 

 applies it to the till of what he considers a particular epoch. 



Mr. Fisher objects to my speaking of " the Glacial Period " : I 

 must be content to shield myself behind eminent geologists, who 

 have done, and still do, the same when speaking of general glacial 

 phenomena or of deposits of indeterminate glacial age. 



As to the age of the Ice-sheet of the Irish-Sea basin, I am unable 

 to say whether or no it is synchronous with Mr. Fisher's Trail 

 Period. I have already tried to show that it was subsequent to the 

 occupation of West Yorkshire, Lancashire, etc., by the Mammoth, 

 tichorine Ehinoceros, cave-hyaena, and cave-bear, and that these 

 animals probably never returned to that area again. 



It is quite possible that here too (as pointed out by Mr. James 

 Geikie for Scotland) palaeolithic man may have lived with these 

 animals whose remains are associated with his works in the South 

 of England. For certainly the complete absence of palaeolithic 

 implements and fauna over co-extensive areas which have been over- 

 ridden by the Ice-sheet is a significant coincidence. 



To whatever scene or act of the glacial drama we may assign the 

 great ice-sheet, one thing is certain, that it was succeeded by a 

 period of depression, well marked by marine sands and gravels up 



