76 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



At all events, might it not be wortli the while of geologists, as well as anti- 

 quarians to have the Saint Acheul patch of drift cut through the middle to see 

 if any more conclusive evidence of its being a place of burial cannot be dis- 

 covGrccl. 



It is by no means uncommon to find tumuli constructed of one material — say 

 earth— at the bottom, then stone over that, and again a thii-d material— as 

 gravel or sand— over all, thus artificially^ producing an appearance of stratifica- 

 tion, such as I learn the elevation at Saint Acheul presents. The_ idea which I 

 have seen maintained that the hatchets are a natural production I cannot 

 imagine will find many adherents. No doubt they have been chipped into form 

 by art, let the means of their present position be what it may. 



In 1835 I read a paper here in which I showed how exactly Job's description 

 of the Leviathan talhes with that of the Megalosaurus, and his description of 

 the Behemoth with that of the Iguanodon, and I then broached an idea that 

 although the Wealden era was the flourishmg period of Megalosaurian and 

 Iguanodonic existence, I saw no reason why individual animals of those species 

 should not have been found existing stUl on the earth in Job's time, though 

 rapidly becoming extinct (my paper was inserted in the " London _ Magazine," 

 for April 1835). Now, having committed myself to such an opirdon as that, 

 you will see I cannot be prejudiced against any theory which would make man 

 and mammoths contemporaries to some extent, and therefore have not adopted 

 the tumulus idea from prejudice. — I am, sir, youi'S truly, Tho. Thompson, 

 Wilton, near Hull, December, 1859. 



Silurian Rocks at Abehgele, &c. — Dear Sir, — I shaU be much obliged 

 if you or any of your readers will kindly furnish me, through the pages of the 

 " Geologist," with, an abstract of the late Mr. Bowman's paper on a smaE 

 patcli of Silurian rocks west of Abergele, published in the second volume of 

 tlie "Proceedhigs of the Geological Society." 



And perhaps Mr. Price, of Bnkenhead, who appears to be acquainted with 

 the locality, will inform me if he knows whether the dark fossiHferous shale, 

 usually rich in Terebratulae, Chonetes, and the smaller Producti, developed at 

 various points along the North Wales belt of Carboniferous limestone towards 

 the top of the series, is exhibited in any of the sections in the neighbourhood 

 of Llysfaen, Llanddulas, and Abergele. 



With many thanks for kind answers to former queries, dear sir, yours truly, 

 David C. Davies, Oswestry. 



Mr. Bowman's remarks are given in an abstract occupying a page and a-half 

 in the Proceedings of the Geological Society (vol. u., pages 666, 667), a copy 

 of wliich we have despatched to our correspondent. We insert his commu- 

 nication for the purpose of facilitating his inquiries by replies from Mr. Price 

 and other readers. 



Slickensides in the Chalk. — Professor Ansted, in his answers to ^Ir. 

 Price's query, No. 21, states that slickensides do not occur in the chalk, I 

 must diU'cr from that assertion, inasmuch as I know that slickensides are, at 

 least of very comnion occurrence in the chalk of the Kentish coast between 

 Deal and Folkestone, es])ecially between Deal and Dover will the investigator 

 lind mmuM-ous slighi faults or partings dislocatiiig the strata to the extent of a 

 foot or two, the surfaces of the opposing planes presenting all the usual cha- 

 racUn-s of ordinary slickensides. I am also well acquainted with one of consi- 

 derable extent, wliich might, during the construction of the South-Eastern 

 Baihvay Umwvl througli the noted Shakespeare's cHff, have been turned to 

 practical ami prolitablo account. An extensive slickenside-plane extended dia- 

 gonal Iv across the month of tho tunnel for the whole vertical height of the 

 clitV, there varying from on(^ luuuired and fifty to three hundred feet m height. 

 Had this been tidvcn advaniagc of, and the siu-plus chalk cleared away carefully 



