78 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



The other portion of this deposit, which is not so hard, contains melaniae and 

 cyrense resembling those from Charlton, together with oysters and fresh-water 

 mussels with the nacre preserved. I have other shells from this deposit which 

 I cannot name— one in shape resembles the marine mussel. 



I have not been able to make a section, but I believe that this bed is 

 situated beneath forty or fifty feet of clay. The sewer at this spot was nearly 

 filled up when I last visited it, but shells may be obtained from the heaps 

 thrown out at the side. I observed no pebbles or sand, which are so common 

 at Woolwich and Blackheath. I should feel obliged to any_ of your readers, 

 who may have visited this place, for information as to the position and correla- 

 tion of this bed, and also whether any remains other than shells have been 

 found there. A friend informs me that he has found the elytron of a small 

 beetle in the limestone. — Yours truly, C. Evans, Hampstead. — Some few 

 spines and very fragmentary portions of fish have been collected. — Ed. Geol. 



Supposed Traces of Human Manufacture. — Sir, — The very interesting 

 question which has been opened up lately by the discovery of implements of 

 human manufacture in the drift beds of Amiens, Abbeville, and other places 

 abroad, reminds me of a very curious relic, apparently of an exceedingly 

 remote date, which was stored up in the Museum of Natural History at Derby 

 when I paid a visit to that interesting collection, rather more than six years 

 ago (August, 1853). It was nothing more nor less than a very antique- 

 fashioned smoking-pipe, which had been found in connection with fossil bones 

 in undisturbed strata at a depth of sixteen feet or more beneath the surface of 

 the soil (if I mistake not) in the neighbourhood of Derby. This reHc of a 

 bygone age was, from the extraordinary position in which it was found, 

 regarded by its discoverer as of very remote antiquity, and the placard which 

 was written over it to attract public observation was not unnaturally worded 

 " Geological Problem." Erom the pencU memorandum I made in my pocket- 

 l)ook, I find that it was accompanied by the following explanation in a letter 

 addressed to the curator of the museum : — " I send you a geological problem. 

 The accompanying tobacco-pipe was found in the Blue Band, the same stratum 

 that contained the bones, &c. It lies sixteen feet deep, and is nine inches 

 tliick. It has gravel above and below. The pipe is not of modern manufac- 

 ture. I hear that similar pipes have been found near Gainsbro'. — Yours, dear 

 sir, F. J. Jessop. To J. Jones, Esq." 



Of course, if the undisturbed condition of the strata could be proved with 

 regard to this relic, it could not have been used for the purpose of smoking 

 tobacco ; and if my memory serves me right, there was no appearance of olea- 

 ginous carbonization in the pipe which could indicate that it had been so used, 

 1)11 i possibly it may turn out that this rude instrument had been employed for 

 smoking some narcotic herb, for Herodotus makes mention of the fact that a 

 Scvlliiaii tribe were in the habit of exciting themselves by the smoke of some 

 v(>gelal)h' ))io(liiction. It is not unlikely that the art of smoking was practised 

 long anlrct'ilnil to the discovery of the "narcotic weed"^(^r excellence. Per- 

 liaps some of your I'oaders living in the neighbourhood of Derby may be able 

 lo give you furllu'r ])aTticulars about this alleged geological problem, or if not, 

 Ibe mere relVreuce to the finding of other human implements than the rude 

 cells of Hint in positions evidencing great antiquity of deposit, may lead to the 

 nuMition of many similar discoveries in different parts of the world.— I am, 

 Su', yours very tridy, Erancis E. Statham, E.G.S., Walworth. 



iMn.HMENTs in TiTE DiiiFT.— Eroui a note which I made at Beauvais, in the 

 sumimn- of 1858, I find that the museum of that city contains several speci- 

 mens ol rude Hint tools of the same kiiul as those found at St. Acheul. I made 

 a sketch of (>no of them at that time, to record the difference between these 

 and (he urilinary celts, though I was then unaware of any difference in theii' 



