﻿Correspondence — E. H., the late Mr. Edw. Wood. 575 



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♦ 



THE LATE MR. EDWARD WOOD, J.P., F.G.S. 



SiK, — Your obituary notice (Geol. Mag. Oct.) of the late Mr. 

 Wood, of Eicliniond, omits a circumstance in his life which the 

 writer may not have known — but which ought not to be left un- 

 recorded. 



Mr. Wood was a man with a warm and feeling heart ; and some 

 years ago, when it was the fashion for ladies to wear seabirds' wings 

 in their hats, gangs of merciless ruffians used to put out in boats 

 from the coast towns of the north-east of England for the purpose 

 of capturing the birds (which breed on Flamborough Head) while 

 sitting on their nests. Not satisfied with this, they would often 

 tear the wings from the bodies, retaining only the former, and 

 throwing the latter into the sea. 



During Mr. Wood's geological excursions he became a witness to 

 this revolting practice, which he determined if possible to put an end 

 to. He foresaw that unless this was done the whole race of sea- 

 birds on that coast would be exterminated. He immediately put 

 himself in communication with gentlemen of influence in that part 

 of the country, described with natural indignation what he had seen 

 with his own eyes, and obtained their aid in bringing the matter 

 before members of Parliament. He also went up to London and 

 had interviews with members of the Government and of both 

 Houses of Parliament, and at length had the satisfaction of seeing a 

 Bill carried into law, for the protection of seafowl during the 

 breeding season. All who love the feathered tribes, therefore, owe 

 a debt of gratitude to Mr. Wood, of Eichmond, Yorkshire. 



Dublin, \Wi October, 1877. E- H- 



TRIPARTITE ORIGIN OF THE BOULDER-CLATS OF THE NORTH 

 WEST OF ENGLAND. 

 Sir, — From repeated examinations of a number of constantly 

 varying sections around the estuaries of the Dee and Mersey, I have 

 been led to adopt the theory of a tripartite derivation of the con- 

 stituents of the two Boulder-clays — the normal sand and coarse grit 

 from the local Triassic, Permian, and Carboniferous sandstones ; the 

 abnormal clay (of which the deposits mainly consist) from " mud " 

 issuing from beneath glaciers (chiefly in the Lake District) when 

 they descended as low, or nearly as low as the sea-level ; the equally 

 abnormal erratic stones transported and dropped into the slowly 

 accumulating clay by floating coast-ice, the sea having been too 

 shallow to float icebergs, which indeed would either directly or 

 indirectly have disturbed the surface of the middle sand (which, 

 away from the mountains, almost invariably indicates the prevalence 

 of extremely tranquil conditions) when the upper clay began to be 

 deposited. The clay may have been partly worked up from the 

 local shales and so-called marls, but its wide distribution, general 

 uniformity of character, and great amount, are clearly incompatible 

 with the idea of its having been mainly of local derivation. 



