Report of Meetings. By James Hardy. 281 



The girth of the horn, or rather the flint of the horn, at the 

 junction with the skull is exactly one foot ; the length from the 

 junction with the skull to the point is two feet three inches. No 

 tusks or teeth of the wild boar are preserved, but Mr Hughes 

 had heard of their occurrence. After some hours of animated 

 conversation the three visitants took their departure well enve- 

 loped in water-proofs and other antipluvial defences. Out- 

 side, the bursts of rain dashed against the windows ; the trees 

 were in violent agitation swayed by the outrageous gusts of 

 wind; and the torn-off leaves were blown into the air like 

 startled flights of birds, or dropped streaming to the ground. 

 The storm increased to a gale in the evening. 



Next morning a pair of chimney-swallows were sporting about 

 the place. There are four martin nests attached to the house > 

 but the martins generally leave about the 15th of September- 

 This year a pair of sparrows took possession of one of the nests. 



Mr Hughes shewed me the moss that furnishes the marl. It 

 occupies a curved hollow among low hillocks of drift, composed 

 of gravel and clay, and is of considerable extent. The cavity, 

 which looks as if the upper portion was once intersected by a 

 small rivulet runs up to near the top of a small rounded hill 

 where it terminates like the rounded head of a "hope." The 

 peat is of a good depth ; and at its bottom lie the stems of great 

 oak trees that had once grown on the dry margins and had been 

 prostrated apparently by a gale from the north. Some hazel 

 nuts were picked up. In the peat were fragments of rolled 

 white sandstone and porphyry, which might have been washed 

 in by surface water. The marl underlies the peat and the trees. 

 The shells, which are numerous in the marl, are those of fetid 

 stagnant water. I thought I could discern traces of Chara 

 hispida. The water is drained away by a very deep ditch, which 

 keeps constantly running, Carex ccespitosa is abundant in the 

 marshiest part of the moss. 



This accumulation of marl has more than once been adverted 

 to in the Club's "Proceedings." In vol. I., p. 41 (1834), Mr 

 James Mitchell describes the deposit. Oak and willow trees, 

 acorns and hazel nuts, appeared in the peat, but no animal re- 

 mains. Out of the marl two complete skeletons of red-deer, with 

 large branching antlers had been extracted. They were standing 

 in an upright position. A list of the shells collected from the 

 marl is given ; which according to corrected nomenclature were : 



Jl 



