HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



93 



to point out what a loss it is to oceanography that 

 such descriptions should be erroneously made, and in 

 the majority of cases there would be no difficulty in 

 giving a more correct description. It may be said 

 that the soundings can always be overhauled after- 

 wards and the results given to the world ; but this is 

 only done in isolated cases, and the results are not 

 very accessible. Again the descriptions recorded in 

 the charts are generally taken from those noted when 

 the sounding is taken, when observations as to colour, 

 scent, and stratification should also be noted. I 

 would like to suggest that soundings taken with the 

 ' ordinary tube sounders, should be preserved in glass 

 tubes closed at both ends by corks. The soundings 



from the ossiferous deposits of the true caves) are held 

 to be representatives of the " rubble-drift," which 

 is of a variable character. The author discusses the 

 views of previous writers on the origin of the accumu- 

 lations, which he classes together as " rubble-drift," 

 and points out objections to the various views. He 

 considers that they were formed on upheaval after a 

 period of submergence which took place slowly and 

 tolerably uniformly ; and that the absence of marine 

 remains and sedimentation shows the submergence to 

 have been short. This submergence cannot have 

 been less than iooo feet below present sea-level, 

 and was shortly brought to a termination by a series 

 of intermittent uplifts, of which the "head" affords a 



Fig. 51. — A f b, c, d, glass tube (can easily be cut to any length with a file) ; k k, corks closing ends ; s, s', s", s", sounding 



from tube. 



being forced directly from the sounding-tubes into 

 the glass tubes ; their preservation is then much more 

 perfect than in the ordinary way. A label affixed to 

 the tube gives locality of sounding, notes as to 

 colour, scent, stratification, and surface of sounding, 

 etc. The figure illustrates this. — D. Wilson Barker, 

 66 Gloucester Crescent, N. W. 



The following papers were read at a recent 

 meeting of the Geological Society. " The Raised 

 Beaches, and ' Head,' or Rubble-Drift, of the South 

 of England : their Relation to the Valley-Drifts and 

 to the Glacial Period ; and on a late Post-Glacial 

 Submergence. — Part II." by Joseph Prestwich, 

 D.C.L., F.R.S., F.G.S. The ossiferous deposits 

 of the Caves of Gower are shown to be contem- 

 poraneous with the raised sand-dunes between the 

 beaches and the "head," and reasons are given for 

 supposing that the elevation of land which preceded 

 their formation need not necessarily have been greater 

 than 120 feet. The mammalian fauna of these caves 

 is the last fauna of the glacial or post-glacial period, 

 and the head, or "rubble-drift," marks the closing 

 chapter of glacial times. Evidence is given for con- 

 sidering that the "rubble-drift" has a wide inland 

 range, and that to it are to be referred the "head" 

 of De laBeche, the subaerial detritus of God win- Austen, 

 the angular flint drift of Murchison, and in part the 

 "trail" of Fisher and the "warp" of Trimmer, 

 as well as other deposits described by the author. 

 The accumulation is widespread over the South of 

 England, and occurs in the Thames Valley, on the 

 Cotteswold Hills, and on the flanks of the Malverns. 

 The stream-tin detritus of Cornwall, and the ossiferous 

 breccia filling fissures (which must be distinguished 



measure, sufficiently rapid to produce currents radiat- 

 ing from the higher parts of the country, causing the 

 spread of the surface-detritus from various local 

 centres of higher ground. The remains of the land 

 animals killed during the submergence were swept 

 with this debris into the hollows and fissures on the 

 Surface, and finally over the old cliffs to the sea and 

 valley levels. Simultaneously with this elevation 

 occurred a marked change of climate, and the tem- 

 perature approached that of the present day. The 

 formation of the 'head ' was followed in immediate 

 succession by the accumulation of recent alluvial 

 deposits ; so that the glacial times came, geologically 

 speaking, to within a measurable distance of our own 

 times, the transition being short and almost abrupt 

 In this paper only the area in which the evidence is 

 most complete is described. The author has, how- 

 ever, corroborative evidence of submergence on the 

 other side of the Channel. "The Pleistocene De- 

 posits of the Sussex Coast, and their Equivalents in 

 other Districts." By Clement Reid, Esq., F.L.S., 

 F.G.S. The gales of last autumn and early winter 

 exposed sections such as had not before been visible 

 in the Selsey Peninsula. Numerous large erratic 

 blocks were discovered, sunk in pits in the Brackle- 

 sham Beds. These erratics included characteristic 

 rocks from the Isle of Wight. The gravel with erratics 

 is older, not newer, as is commonly stated, than 

 the Selsey " mud-deposit " with southern mollusca. 

 Numerous re-deposited erratics are found in the mud- 

 deposit, which is divisible into two stages, a lower, 

 purely marine, and an upper, or Scrobicularia mud, 

 with acorns and estuarine shells. At West Wittering 

 a fluviatile deposit, with erratics at its base and stony 

 loam above, is apparently closely allied to the mud- 



