HA RD WICKE ' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i47 



footing by, fitfully tinkling their bells ; and now 

 there again arises the voice of admonition, for "You 

 have yet a two hours' walk before you arrive at the 

 end of the plateau," says the herdsman; "and the 

 next time that you come here you had better ascend 

 from Collonge. 



We start to our feet and dance away like ignes 

 fatui across the moorland, where the yellow gentians 

 stand up like church spires, until, having bounded 

 over dyke and fence, we discover ourselves to be 

 down in a deep and shady dell where a monster 

 plume-thistle, the Cnicus rhaponicum, lies top-heavy 

 like a snake in the grass ; and then, as we scramble 

 out of the gorge, a double-headed carline thistle 

 glimmers satiny-white. Indeed, it would seem from 

 the frequency of fasciated composites in these parts, 

 as if flowers of this description had a tendency to 

 become larger and more showy, while those which, 

 like the orange Hieraciiwi aurantiacum, produce 

 rayed and rayless blossoms, and thus unite in them- 

 selves the two great classes, would indeed appear 

 as if they were fresh from childhood, for now we 

 know that there breathes a living whisper from these 

 shores. 



But the citron-glow on Mont Blanc, whose profile 

 is that of a bearded hero lying in state, has faded, 

 and transfigured, his garments and visage are shining 

 ghostly and blue, while the lower mountains that 

 compose his bier, pale and wan, have taken on 

 themselves the look of dragons of the prime. The 

 shrill noise of the leaf-crickets now rings incessantly 

 on the ear, and we hasten and stumble over nobs and 

 rocks of offence to the Treize- Arbres, 1 1 72 metres, and 

 then quicken our pace to a run down the rough and 

 winding fir-shadowed road conducting to the Pas de 

 l'Echelle. We have arrived on the brink of the 

 precipice, the home of the Doronicwn pardalianchus. 

 Is the descent yet possible ? Feeling, like blind men, 

 with stock and sticks for the rock-cut steps, awkward 

 in the prime, crossing planks that give hollow groans, 

 staying our feet lest we should trip and plunge head- 

 long, we at length emerge on to a blurr of white with 

 the faintest dark selvage and tinge of grey, the only 

 indication of a foot-track, and now all seems white. 

 No, safe at last, the quarryman's lamp is in our 

 faces, and the watch-dog is barking loudly at our 

 heels. 



The evening lamp sends its accustomed ray, the 

 spoils of the Saleve lie upon the table, and the red- 

 legged grasshoppers, contrary to their wont, are 

 chorusing the rumble of the wheels and the tintin- 

 nabulation of a harmonicon. And then what a 

 mingled sentiment whispers from the flowers ! Here 

 is the meally guelder rose of the Surrey hills, the 

 grass of Parnassus of the Highland moors, the 

 fragrant butterfly-orchis, and the mountain-vanilla, 

 and one lovely blue Irish gentian, the last of the 

 season. Here, likewise, are pinks that innocence 

 might gather for a button-hole. Is the pride of the 



Cheddar cliffs among them? How vain is the 

 question. Brown, Jones, and Robinson, have all 

 along been calling the auriculas, primroses, the 

 narcissus they have taken to be a kind of lily, and 

 they cannot distinguish between the Spirea aruncus 

 and the Japanese Hoteia. The morning shines, and 

 I revisit my den of grasshoppers. The female yet 

 lives, but around her repose her lovers, dead and 

 mutilated. Were it not better when summer is over 

 to fade thus, when all fair things are fading away ? 

 she seems to say in speechless agony. How much 

 better are we than they ? 



DETRITAL CHARACTER OF THE LOWER 

 GREENSAND OF THE WEALDEN. 



By H. W. Kidd. 



HAVING given some account of the pebble bed 

 of the lower greensand of Godalming in 

 Science-Gossip for February 2nd, 1880, I take the 

 liberty of sending you a few observations respecting 

 the detrital character of the lower greensand. 

 Speaking roughly, the lower greensand of Surrey 

 and Kent is a mass of coast-line debris from top to 

 bottom. By referring to the diagrams annexed to 

 Mr. Etheridge's paper on " The Position of the 

 Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks in the 

 London Area," "Popular Science Review," N.S., 

 vol. iii. p. 279, fig. 2, it will be seen at a glance 

 how the greensand of Reigate passes under the north 

 downs and thins out against the palaeozoic rocks of 

 Devonian and Silurian age. Now if we bear in 

 mind that the rise of the strata towards the south is 

 of comparatively modern date, and quite foreign to 

 our present subject, we shall easily see how the waves 

 of the advancing greensand sea would break up and 

 sweep back the old rocks, spreading out sand and 

 shingle over the fresh-water beds of the Wealden. 



Now, whether we take Reigate, Godalming, ^or 

 Maidstone, or any place on the outcrop of the lower 

 greensand, north of the Wealden, the facts remain 

 essentially the same. As long ago as 1856, when 

 next to nothing was known of the distribution of 

 rock masses beneath London, Mr. R. A. C. Godwin- 

 Austin pointed out in a paper on the " Possible 

 Extension of the Coal Measures beneath the South 

 Eastern Part of England" (Proc. Geol. Soc, vol. 

 xii.), that the materials of which the greensand debris 

 is composed could only have been derived from 

 palaeozoic rocks. Speaking of the greensand of our 

 south-eastern counties, he says: "The materials 

 which compose the shingle-beds are identical with 

 those of the Farringdon gravels which have been 

 already described, and I cannot do better therefore 

 than borrow a few lines from that paper : — * The 

 mineral character of the pebbles which compose the 

 gravel suggests considerations of much interest in the 



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