68 



NO TES— MAMMALIA. 



Badgers near Horncastle. — During- the winter a pair of badgers 

 (Meles meles) have been seen in the plantations at Scrafield, about four 

 miles east of this ; and one has been recently trapped in Scrivelsby, three 

 miles distant. 



On Monday, 25th September 1S99, our Southwold hounds, when cub- 

 hunting- at Tathwell, started a fine badger, which gave a good run before 

 it was finally run into and despatched. — J. Conway Walter, Langton 

 Rectory, Horncastle, 17th February 1900. 



Otter on Simon's Fell, Ingleborough.— A female Otter {Lutra Intra) 

 was recently shot on this spur of Ingleborough at an elevation of 2,000 feet; 

 it weighed nearly 10 lb. From traces in the snow it was evidently following 

 the course of a mountain stream. — J. Walling Handby, Austwick, Lan- 

 caster, 13th February 1900. 



Foxes on Ingleborough. — Latterly Foxes ( Vulpes vulpes) have become 

 somewhat numerous in this locality. Their chief haunt is a spot known as 

 the 'Arks," a tumbled mass of Silurian boulders on the Nf.E. side of the 

 peak. Here during summer, when the eye rests upon immeasurable vistas 

 of rug-ged hills and heather-clad lowland vales, Reynard finds a hiding-- 

 place. When winter comes and snow covers the ground he is traced to his 

 lair by keepers who place themselves in positions amongst the rocks to 

 shoot their quarry when bolted by dogs. It is somewhat exciting sport, 

 requiring at times much endurance to withstand the almost Arctic cold 

 which generally prevails at that altitude during winter. Two recent 

 captures, both dogs, weighed 18 lb. and i6^> hb. respectively, and, in 

 pursuance of an old custom, were exhibited at the leading farmhouses, 

 a small gratuity being invariably paid to the exhibitor, presumably as a sort 

 of toll. — J. Walling Handby, Austwick, Lancaster, 13th February 1900. 



NOTE— GEOLOGY. 



Moraine at Filey. — The visitor to Filey who wishes to obtain a bird's- 

 eve view of the great moraine which dammed back the waters of- the Rye, 

 and converted the estuary of the Vale of Pickering into a vast lake, should 

 start from Gristhorpe Station on the N.E.R. and, passing throug-h the 

 village of Gristhorpe, make for a white farmhouse in the direction of the 

 cliffs. Turning then to the right across a field, he will reach a point not far 

 from the Wyke, where he can see below him the long curved ridge of the 

 moraine, stretching- from near Gristhorpe, through Muston, to Hunmanby 

 Gap. From no other standpoint is this moraine so distinctly revealed. 



That this moraine was once considerably higher is probable from the fact 

 that the southern portion of it is continued on the very top of the Chalk 

 Wolds to Speeton Mill, at an elevation of over 400 feet. Sub-aerial denuda- 

 tion has considerably lowered it, but it was sufficient at the time, in 

 combination with the ice-wall of the Scandinavian glacier, to produce the 

 effects noted above in the first paragraph. From this ice-wall, beside 

 the quantity of sand, gravel, and boulders, which constitute a moraine, 

 a vast amount of intensely muddy water was always escaping, which, in the 

 comparative stillness between the ice-front and the moraine, or between 

 the ice-front and higher land, gradually sank and accumulated, containing 

 innumerable stones and boulders, dropped haphazard into the mass of mud. 

 This constitutes the Boulder Clay Cliffs of Yorkshire, the clay itself seldom 

 extending far inland except in Holderness, which was only a wide bay of 

 the sea. 



Probably the glacier, in advancing or retreating, by its weight con- 

 solidated this mud, which in places is very compact, especially at Carr 

 Naze, Filey, but throughout Yorkshire the boulder clay is so intermixed 

 with streaks of sand and laminated clays, that I cannot believe that it was 

 formed under similar conditions to the Scottish Till, which is almost as hard 

 as cement. — Edward Maule Cole, Wetwang, 12th February 1900. 



Naturalist, 



