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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



CONDUCTED BY EDWARD A MARTIN, F.G.S. 



To whom all Notes. Articles and material relating to Geology, 

 and intended for Science-Gossip, are, in the first instance, 

 to be addressed, at 6g, Bensham Manor Road, Thornton Heath. 



Foreign Stones in' the Chalk. — Mantell 

 speaks in his " Isle of Wight " of having discovered 

 in 1822, in the chalk marl near Lewes, " fragments 

 of green chlorite schist." 



Geology of Bournemouth. — A memoir of the 

 geology of the country around Bournemouth has 

 been issued by the Geological Survey in explana- 

 tion of the new series map of the neighbourhood. 

 It is illustrated by some of the characteristic 

 fossils of the district. 



Geology of Ireland. — We have received an 

 interesting catalogue of " Geological Irish Views " 

 from Mr. R. Welch, of Lonsdale Street, Belfast, 

 Ireland. Mr. Welch's views in his " Geological 

 Series" are well-known for their excellence and 

 for their representative selection, as he is an 

 expert in the subject, as well as having the advice 

 of the leading Irish geologists. 



" The Theory of the Earth". — The Geological 

 Society of London has decided to publish part 

 of the third volume of Hutton's "Theory of the 

 Earth," at a cost not exceeding £'io. The 

 manuscript is in the Society's possession, and 

 Sir Archibald Geikie, who urged the desirability 

 of its publication, has offered to edit the manuscript. 

 One thousand copies are to be produced in a style 

 uniform with the first and second volumes. 



Norwood and Croydon Notes. — Recent ex- 

 cavations which have taken place for sewering 

 purposes in Thornton Heath have opened up 

 numerous sections of Tertiary Beds. The section 

 from north to south across the recreation ground 

 showed the gradual rise of the Woolwich Beds, 

 which continued along the Carew Road, Beulah 

 Road East and Boswell Roa-d, where specimens 

 of Ostvea were plentiful within 4 feet of the surface, 

 the superincumbent beds being post-tertiary gravel 

 and sand. The gravel thickens westward, giving 

 risfe to some of the well-known Croydon gravel pits, 

 but the tertiaries again appear at Waddon, only to 

 disappear before reaching Cold Harbour Farm, as 

 shown by the new bore-hole, where chalk was pierced 

 into at once. East from the Thornton Heath Recrea- 

 tion Ground and approaching the Norwood Hills, a 

 pit of Oldhaven grey sand was opened up when the 

 houses in the Stewart Road were built. This is 

 close to the railway station. In the cellar dis- 

 covered beneath the recently demolished Collier's 

 Water Farm, the same sand was seen to a depth of 

 five feet, beneath three feet of loam. On the top 

 of the hill from the Crystal Palace to South 

 Norwood Hill, angular gravel in a ruddy, sandy 

 matrix, appears to be continuous the whole of the 

 way, as shown by numerous excavations made in 

 the road and seen by me. It is not so partial as 

 marked on the Survey maps. 



Earth Heat.— According to Sir William 

 Thomson the general climate of our globe could 

 not have been sensibly affected by internal heat at 

 any time more than 10,000 years after the com- 

 mencement of the solidification of the surface. 

 Present internal heat influences temperature only 

 to about one seventy-fifth of a degree. 



Geological Specimens. — A catalogue from 

 Mr. T. D. Russell, of 78, Newgate Street, E.G., is 

 enough to make the collector's " mouth water." 

 Special collections are arranged to illustrate 

 "Earth Knowledge," Geikie's "Class-Book," 

 Judd's " Student's Lyell," Rutley's " Mineralogy," 

 etc. ; also type series for prospectors. The col- 

 lections of fossils range in extent from seventy 

 to 1,200 specimens. We notice that Mr. Russell 

 has for sale a fine collection of Trilobites from the 

 Upper Silurian of Dudley. 



Geological Nomenclature. — When William 

 Smith issued his geological map in 1815, such 

 names as London Clay, Kentish Rag, Cornbrash, 

 Lias, Forest Marble, passed into accepted geological 

 nomenclature. Smith's education was that of the 

 village school, and such as he also gave himself. 

 Hence, as Sir Archibald Geikie says, he did not 

 invent euphonious terms from Greek or Latin 

 roots, but was content to take the rustic or 

 provincial names in common use over the districts 

 he traversed. This is now a distinct advantage to 

 young students in geology, who find in the names 

 of the formations they examine reminiscences of 

 the districts visited. The question of abolishing 

 such names as Chalk, Gault, etc., and to substitute 

 geographical names only, which was brought 

 before the International Geological Congress, is 

 not likely, I am convinced, to receive much support 

 from English geologists. Such local names are 

 too firmly rooted in our geological literature to be 

 abolished by resolution. 



Glacial Deposits. — When considering the 

 claims of the two schools of glacialists to be the 

 exponents of the true theory of the deposition of 

 boulder clay, it is as well to remember that Sir 

 Henry Howarth claims to see in the action of vast 

 floodings of water on a wide scale the true origin 

 of the drift. He claims that the theory of ice- 

 sheets is directly at issue with the known physical 

 qualities of ice. Geological evidence points to the 

 former occurrence of local glaciers on a large scale, 

 but the phenomena to be explained are attributable 

 to the widespread action of water subsequently 

 to the existence of the great glaciers. Glaciers 

 themselves will not explain the existence of the 

 drift, spread out, as it is, not as moraines, but in 

 continuous sheets. They cannot explain the 

 separation of the drift into beds of gravel, sand 

 and clay, the known debris of glaciers being mixed 

 and heterogeneous ; nor do they explain the 

 existence of marine shells in glacial beds, nor the 

 moving of boulders and erratics from lower to 

 higher levels. The action of water on a wide 

 scale is alone capable of giving a satisfactory 

 explanation. On the other hand, there are many 

 geologists at the present day who see in the action 

 of now existing glaciers all that is necessary to 

 explain the existence of what they believe to be 

 these old-time moraines. It must be admitted, 

 however, that the explanation of the existence of 

 marine shells on Moel Tryfaen, etc., by imagining 

 them to have been pushed there by ice without 

 any submergence of the land at all, is extremely 

 far-fetched. 



