Queries and Answers. 



199 



Saw a large orthoceratUe ; which, though not perfect, appeared to me to resemble the Orthoccras 

 striata, as figiir-ed in Vol. II. p. 2,32. tig. 68. 



The Carboniferous Limestone near the IVrekin. — I take this opportunity of sending a remarkable 

 fossil shell, from the ^«<5fjr5SJ^r>^ /ifl 



carboniferous lime- ^-<«s^^^Smm>>^ 4?vJ 



stone in the vici- 

 nity of the Wrekin, 

 near Wellington, in 

 Shropshire ; it is 

 known among the 

 workmen by the 

 name Owl's- head 

 {fig. 40.), theprotu. 

 l)erances and curve 

 of the shell, when 

 held up, giving a 

 rude representation 

 of the head, eyes, 

 and beak of that 

 bird.— M 



The posterior segments of trilobites, of which there are three specimens, certainly belong to 

 A'saphus caudatus ; the fourth specimen, which is said to be a complete animal, is only the cen- 

 tral lobe of the anterior segment of the same species of animal, that is, the portion between the 

 eyes. The large shell, if it is a shell, is new to me ; it may possibly be the surface of a coral. 

 The small shell is, I think, Nerlta spir^ta, Min. Conch., 4()3. The Owl's head is the cast of the 

 interior of a Producta, nearly like Froducta personata of Mineral Conchology. — J. D. C. S. 



Our correspondent may find some accurate details of the Malvern district, illustratetl by maps, 

 • in the Transactions of the Geological Society, where he will observe that the highly interesting 

 l)eculiarities displayed in this quarter have by no means escaped the accurate investigation of men 

 of science. In Coneybeare and Phillips's Geology, a work which cannot be too highly commended 

 to the perusal of geological students, are some notes relative to the same district. 'I"he great and 

 the reduced geological maps of England and Wales also exhibit the boundaries of the formations 

 to which the notice of our correspondent has reference We fear the trial for coal at Cradley will 

 be ineffectual ; at all events, the details of the strata through which the shaft passes will be in- 

 teresting if it can be communicated to us. 



The specimens of organic remains, furnished by Mr. Lees, are scarcely perfect or characteristic 

 enough to answer the purpose of engraving. Should such be met with, and they be sent to us, 

 they shall be figured. As references to most of these fossils should in due time be found in this 

 Magazine, it is desirable that the figures should be taken, when practicable, from specimens that 

 are not mutilated. —R. C. T. 



A Mass of fused Green Porphyry has been received from Mr. John Brown 

 of Castle Hill, Colchester. To produce complete fusion, the mass was 

 broken to the size of small peas. A large fragment, subjected to the same 

 degree of heat as the small fragments, was merely vitrified on the surface. 

 Mr. Brown is desirous of knowing whether experiments of this kind have 

 been frequently made before. — John Brown. Castle Hilly Colchester^ Dec. 8. 

 1829. 



t A very unusual Ajypearance in the Sky. — Dear Sir, I was travelling on the evening of the 10th 

 of July, along the high road between ^uatre Bras and Namur, when a very unusual appearance 

 i n the sky attracted the notice of myself and of fourteen or fifteen other persons, fellow -passengers 

 in the diligence. As I have never met with the mention of a similar phenomenon, I have 

 thought fit to trouble you with a mem.orandum of it, in the hope that some of your scientific cor- 

 respondents may be induced to explain it in a more satisfactory way than I have attempted below. 

 The day had been, till two hours after noon, extremely wet, and rain had fallen previously to 

 that time, for twenty-three hours ; the whole country, in fact, had been deluged with rain for 

 many weeks ; consequently, the exhalations were continual and excessive, and the air filled with 

 vapour. The evening of the 10th was, however, full of promise of some coming change ; and the 

 clouds began to move ofF about three o'clock, P.M., before a strong breeze from the S.E. At six 

 we had got beyond the line of those gentle acclivities in the neighbourhood of Ligny and Som- 

 breffe (celebrated in the battles of June, 1815), and had obtained a prospect over the extensive 

 open country beyond the little valley of the Orneau. It is at Mazy where the range of hills at the 

 back of the Meuse first bound the horizon ; and it was at Mazy that we first saw the appearance 

 in question. The sun was nearly behind us; but, in the direction of the Meuse, from which we were 

 distantnearly Sj Brabant leagues (say 11 English miles), we distinctlysaw rays of light, as of the sim, 

 issuing from a low bank of clouds, which seemed to be stationary and to hang over the valley of 

 the river, and piercing the intermediate clouds (as openings occurred in the course of their sepa- 

 ration from each other), in long diverging lines stretching towards the meridian, so as to give the 

 idea of a rising sun, and in the same manner as I have seen him rising in a cloudy morning over 

 the same country. So strong was the resemblance to that of the sunbeams, that one might easily 

 have imagined we were travelling directly contrary to our route. It occurred to me, that it 

 might be the reflection of the actual sunbeams from the surface of the Meuse, refracted by a body 

 of vapour, which again reflected them in a line nearly parallel with that of their incidence. The 

 rays were broad and well defined, of a whitish light, and diverging from a centre which seemed 

 luminous, and had such an appearance as the sun would have if behind a cloud, such, indeed, 

 as the sun actually had at the time, in the opposite quarter of the heavens. If the Meuse be sup- 

 posed too far for us to have seen a reflection from it, even in that bold and open country where 

 the eye ranges over an uninterrupted sweep of woodland and meadows, might not the phenomenon 

 I allude to have been caused by the simple reflection of the sun from a cloud ? but as the clouds 

 were not quite stationary, that supposition is not likely to be the correct one. 



These mock sunbeams lasted nearly half an hour, when they disappeared instantaneously. The 

 following day was beautifully clear, and the air so calm and warm, that a party of ladies, whom I 

 joined at Namur, preferred floating down the Meuse to Liege in a boat, to a land journey on the 

 excellent road which runs along the banks of the river; but the following days were wet and 



