Short Notes and Queries. 



141 



FURTHER REMARKS BY MR. J. TIN BALL. 



A remarkable peculiarity of the workings is the great number of 

 prostrate trees, viz., oak, birch, and hazel ; and the nutshells of the 

 last are plentifully distributed in the surrounding peat, and the per- 

 forations in their sides seem to indicate that this small wood was 

 then the abode of the nuthatch which doubtless thus punctured the 

 shell for the purpose of getting at the kernel, as the modern habits 

 of this bird abundantly prove. 



This peat bed is covered by a few inches of clayey soil, (evidently 

 derived from the adjoining beds of shale) surmounted by a growth 

 of grass and rushes, and the whole having been surface drained, has 

 been used as grazing land. 



Former visitors to these very interesting diggings have dignified 

 them by the appellation of a submerged forest \ I can safely say there 

 is no evidence of submergence in the case, and I attribute the covering 

 of the fallen timber and peat to the natural disentegration and 

 denudation of the shale on the north side by the ordinary operations 

 of nature. 



The Rainfall of February 

 (Huddersfield). — The total this 

 month has been 3*01 inches, in 22 

 days (including five days on which 

 snow fell). The heaviest fall 

 occurred on the 14th, when 0-47in. 

 was registered. The total amount 

 of rain since J anuary 1st has been 

 3 '96 inches against an average for 

 1866-75 of 5 '92. The ten years' 

 average for February is 2-59 — 

 slightly under the figure given 

 above. The month has been 

 warmer than often, west and 

 south-west winds having been 

 prevalent, and only seven days of 

 east and north-east. — J. W. Rob- 

 son. 



DaWon, ISilx March, 1876- 



Bradford Naturalists' Society. 

 — Meeting Mar. 7th, the president, 

 Mr. E. Margerison, in the chair. — 

 The president read a paper on 

 ^' The Generation of Animals." 

 Worms, millipedes, and polyps 

 were first considered ; he then 

 gave a detailed account of fishes 

 and birds, from the laying of the 

 eggs, describing the various pro- 

 cesses the animal passes through to 

 iis hatching, and gave a minute 

 account of the progress of vivipa- 

 parous animals from their impreg- 

 nation to birth. He quoted the 

 various ideas held by Hippocrates, 

 Aristotle, Harvey, Bufibn, and 

 others on the subject. A very 

 lively discussion followed the read- 



