204 THE GEOLOGIST. 



same parish, and feel satisfied they are the actual results of lightning ; 

 and whilst preparing this paper, I have come across a flagstone on the 

 northern side of the Marylebone Road, running on the south side 

 of Park Square, Regent's Park (two-thirds of the way towards the 

 eastern end of the square), which contains one of the finest examples 

 I have yet seen. The age of these flags T am unable to determine ; * 

 but at any rate, by thus drawing attention to the subject, I hope it will 

 lead to the discovery and preservation of fossil specimens, even in the 

 oldest sandstones, for there is no reason to doubt the existence of 

 electrical influences at the very earliest ages of our planet. 



LOCALITIES OF FULGURITES. 



Britain.— Fossil in sandstone flags Dr. Gibb. 



DRiaa, Cumberland Mr. E. L. Irtoii. 



EsKMEALS, in larger sand-banks near the same placet. Mr. Richd. Falcon. 



LANCASHIRE, coasts of , Greg and Lettsom. 



Carisbrook, Isle of Wight Dr. Bigsby. 



Dover, Chalk CMs J Mr. S. J.'Mackie. 



Germany ■ M. Ribbentrop. 



Massel, Silesia Herman. 



La Senne, Heatli of Paderbarn, Westphalia , . . Dr. Hentzen. 



Nietleben, near Halle on the Saale. 



Regenstein, near Blankenburg. 



PiLLATJ, near Konigsberg, Eastern Pmssia. 



Dresden, vicinity of Dr. H. K. Fiedler. 



T IT arte Country, Africa. 

 Natal do. 



Lake of Two Mountains, Canada § Dr. Gibb. 



Pinnacle or Toluca, Mexico Humboldt. 



Maldonado, Rio de la Plata ........ Mr. Darwin. 



Bahia, Brazil. 



* These flagstones are probably from the lower carboniferous rocks of Yorkshire ; 

 at'Ieast, nearly all London is paved with such flags. — En. Geol. 



t Near this spot are the remains of an old Roman encampment ; and occasion- 

 ally coiris, with other objects of interest, are turned up. 



t This histance referred to by Dr. Gibb was a case of a double or furcated 

 perforation in a thick layer of clay covering the Castle Hill at Dover, made by a 

 powerful stream of lightning, which, when a lad, I saw strike the ground at an 

 elevated point. It can scarcely be called a fulgurite, as the clay was only coated 

 on tlie surface with bluish-grey beads and grains, powdered, as' it were, 'like the 

 bloom of a peach. The perforations forked at about nine inches from the upper 

 surface of the soil, apparently divided by one of the numerous angular fragments 

 of flint which abound in the subsoil, and were of sufficient dimensions for me to 

 put my arm with my walking-stick into them. The branches had divergent 

 chi-ectiims, ;is jioarly as I can remember, of 30° or 35° on either hand from an 

 n_n;i,uiii;ir\ ihtcnnediate vertical line. Their forms were irregularly angiflar, with 

 ridges, as m the fulgurites,, but tliey were of far larger diameter than any of the 

 latter objects I have ever seen.D—S. J. M. 



^ AVhen stvolUno- over the sand-banks of the hills at this place, when a youth, 

 1 discovered subst;;inos which I now believe were these tubes. 



I 



