NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



77 



to this natural facing, the Tvhole expense of digging out the corner of the cliff, 

 and the building of two rectangular walls of ^Drick to support and protect the 

 artificiid face of the cliff thus excavated might have been avoided; for so 

 smooth a surface resting so nearly at the true angle of repose as the plane of 

 the slickenside there presented, would have been perfectly safe without any- 

 extraneous support whatever. 



Any one travelling along the Brighton, Croydon, or North-Kent railways^ 

 or, indeed, any one visiting any large chalk -pit or cliff-section can, we think, 

 hardly fail to notice slickensides of greater or less extent. 



In the lower beds of the white chalk, and in the lower beds of the grey 

 chalk, there are cones of chalk having glossy slickensided sm-faces, the origin 

 of which I have never been able to account for, unless we regard them as con- 

 cretionary masses shifted, squeezed, and polished by the " creep" of the beds. 

 Specimens of these may be got by hundreds in the nodular white chalk between 

 the Archcliff and Shakespeare tunnels at Dover, and from the grey cludk of 

 Abbot's Cliff and the Pelter. In the upper white chalk in the cliffs near the 

 castle at Dover, smaU planes of sHckensides of a few inches in extent arc of 

 common occurrence, completely passing through shells such as terebratulse, 

 spatangi, and other fossils. 



The marly veins in the white chalk containing fish-remains are often pene- 

 trated by numerous small slickensides. 



It is curious how so acute and talented an observer as Mr. Ansted shoidd 

 have fallen into such an error. — Editoii of " Geologist." 



Mamm^^lian Kemains neak Salisbury, &c. — Sir, — Having noticed from 

 time to time communications from various correspondents respecting the locali- 

 ties in wliich mammalian remams have been discovered, and deeming tliat it 

 is from the comparison and arrangement of the accumulated evidence of sejjarate 

 individuals that any important results will be derived, I have presumed to 

 trouble you with one or two instances that have come under my obseiTation. 



The pleistocene deposits lying to the west of Salisbury, and exposed in 

 several brick-yards adjacent to the road leaduig to "Wilton, seem pecidiarly rich 

 in mammalian remains. Durmg the past sunnner there have been obtained 

 teeth of the leptorliiue, and tiehorhme rhinoceroses, the mammoth, red-deer, ox, 

 a portion of the jaw of a tiger, with a tooth m situ, the bones of a diminutive 

 species of rat, and the coproute of a hysena. 



Fossils of a similar character to some of these have recently been discovered 

 in the neighbourhood of Northampton. When excavating for the extension of 

 the gas-works, a peaty gravel bed was exposed about sixteen feet below tlie 

 surface, which contained abundant remains of deer, maimnoth, and rhinoceros ; 

 associated with these were great quantities of dark discoloured wood, 

 amongst which w^ere recognised the oak, elm, and hazel — the nuts also of the 

 last mentioned were very numerous. 



The pleistocene deposits around Luton have recently been frequently dis- 

 turbed, but as yet have yielded no remains of mauunals, the characteristic 

 fossils being water-worn fragments of belemnites, serpulse, encrinites, and giy- 

 phseffi, apparently derived from the lias. If you would kindly assist me by any 

 information respecting the geology of South Bedfordshire, you would greatly 

 oblige yours truly, Silex, Luton. 



Tertiary Strata at Peckham Rye. — Dear Sir, — Some notes having 

 appeared in former numbers of the " Geologist," on the deposits on the south- 

 east side of London, I may call your attention to a bed which has been met 

 with in excavating the high-level sewer at Peckham Rye. The deposit is 

 about eight inches in thickness, and consists in part of a hard argillaceous lime- 

 stone, in which are embedded layers of paludinse, with occasionally traces of a 

 large bivalve, which I believe to be a miio. 



