Miscellaneous, 587 



ON THE ERRATIC BLOCKS OF THE SKIDDAW DISTRICT. 



Sir, — Having been away from home, I have only just seen Mr. 

 Mackintosh's paper in the October number of your Magazine. I 

 have not time now to enter into details about it, from which also I 

 should be precluded by my position in the Survey. I think too that 

 the interesting papers by my colleagues, Mr. De Eance and Mr. 

 Ward, have pretty well exhausted the subject ; and a very important 

 paper, referring chiefly to the Glacial action round Bowfell, was read 

 the other day before the Manchester Philosophical Society, by Mr. 

 Brocklebank. 



I would, however, ask Mr. Mackintosh how he accounts for the 

 fact that in the drift in Dunmail Eaise no traces of Skiddaw Eocks, 

 either Slate or Granite, are to be seen. Mr. Mackintosh finds 

 marine drift in Kirkston Pass, at a level of at least 1,300 feet above 

 the sea. Dunmail Eaise is less than 800 feet, and a current passing 

 thi'ough it from North to South would, if bearing icebergs, bring 

 fragments of the rocks of Skiddaw, which may be seen from the 

 Pass any clear day. 



I believe I am right in stating that all the boulders of Skiddaw 

 Granite that have been found are in a line passing through Bassing- 

 thwaite and Troutbeck. Geo. Hyde Wollaston. 



H.M. Geological Suhvet, Geasmeee, Nov. 22, 1870. 



IMIISOIEXjXi JLIsTEOTTS . 



Award of Golb Medal of the Eotal Sooietv to Thos. 

 Davidson, Esq., P.E.S., P.G.S., V.P. Pal. Soc. Lond.— We are sure 

 it will gratify our geological friends to learn that Mr. Davidson has 

 been awarded one of the Eoyal Medals of the Eoyal Society, in re- 

 cognition of his valuable contributions to Palaeontology. It is not 

 our intention to enter into an account of Mr. Davidson's labours on 

 the Brachiopoda here, as we hope to do so more fully in our volume 

 for next year. We may, however, mention that he has already pub- 

 lished 2,090 pages of text, and 336 plates, the latter drawn with 

 his own hand. The greater part of Mr. Davidson's labours have been 

 published by the Pal^ontographical Society, of which he is the Vice- 

 President : many of his plates will also be found adorning this 

 Magazine. 



The Coal-fields of New South Wales. — Mr. William Keene, 

 Examiner of the Coal-fields, in his official report for the year 1869, 

 states that the quality of the New South Wales coal is year by year 

 better appreciated. In Madras it meets English coal at equal prices, 

 and it is greatly esteemed for gas manufacture. New works are in pro- 

 gress in various directions. He has examined seams more than 700 

 miles to the north of Newcastle, belonging to the same deposits, 

 worked near this town in New South Wales ; and he remarks that 

 the whole coal-field may claim to rank with the most extensive in 



