Correspondence — Mr, John Plant. 109 



BADEN POWELL AND CHARNWOOD FOREST. 

 Sir, — The posthumous paper in your March number, by Baden 

 Powell, appears out of date. More than half of its material had ap- 

 peared in print before it was written in 1859 ; and the few new 

 points it contains have been told over and over again during the last 

 decennary. But what I wanted especially to note was a correction 

 of the opening statement in the article, '' That the Geology of Charn- 

 wood Forest was first systematically investgated by Professors Sedg- 

 wick, Whewell, and Airy in 1833." Your readers will find in the 

 Annals of Philosophy, Jan., 1824, an elaborate memoir, with a good 

 geological map and woodcuts, by William Phillips and S. Luck 

 Kent, ''Observations on the Kocks of Mount Sorrel, Charnwood 

 Forest, and Grooby." This memoir is 20 pages long, and excepting 

 the antiquated nomenclature, is as sound in its principles, accurate 

 in its details and classification of the rocks, as are any of the recent 

 Memoirs of Charnwood Forest, the Geological Survey, Mr. Jukes, or 

 the recently published memoir by Professor Ansted. 



From another remark in Mr. Baden Powell's paper, anyone would 

 suppose that the district of Charnwood Forest had been a neglected 

 field, whereas for many years past, and remarkably so of late, the 

 local geologists of Leicester, of whom I am proud to be one, have 

 explored every yard of its area, and are well acquainted with every 

 geological feature to be found about its rocks. Their labours may 

 not find a place in the Quarterly Journal of the London Geological 

 Society, but they are to be found in the memoirs and transactions of 

 several local societies. 



John Plant. 

 Peel Park, Salford, 

 5th February, 1868. 



CLASSIFICATION OF GRAPTOLITES. 



Sir, — I must ask you for leave to say a few words in reply to 

 Dr. Nicholson's in your last. 



1. The Graptolites have been supposed to be related to the 

 Ctenostomatous Polyzoa — the Ctenostomata have corneous polv- 

 paries like the Graptolites. Dr. Nicholson dismisses the question of 

 their Ctenostomatous affinity, because the Polyzoa " as a rule" have 

 Calcareous tests ; a "-summary" process indeed. Dr. Nicholson has 

 yet to make the acquaintance of the Ctenostomata, for the '' free 

 and corneous Polyzoa," of whose existence he is "perfectly aware," 

 are a novel group of real or imaginary animals very different from 

 the fixed Polyzoa to which Busk gave the name. 



2. Dr. Nicholson changed his views after I pointed out, in the 

 Geological Magazine, his errors, and his progress in knowledge 

 followed step by step my corrections. Your readers will form their 

 own estimate of that " honesty" which accepts these corrections and 

 publishes them without acknowledgment. 



3. I ventured to suggest that somehow Dr. Nicholson had con- 

 founded gonophore with gonotheca, but such an error was so gross 

 and so fundamental, that I suggested it with diffidence. Now Dr. 



