NOTES AND QUERIES. 



135 



Manchester Geological Society, Tehruary 16. — On tliis day tlie 

 members of this Society made an excursion to Burnley, under the direction of 

 the President, Sir James Kay Sliuttleworth, Bart., F.G.S. After the dinner, 

 the President described the valuable seams of coal under the Gawi:horpe estate, 

 and Mr. Pickup described the strata at the pit belonging to Messrs Thursby 

 and Scarlett at Spa Clough. IVIr. Binney drew attention to the bed of JJ^iio 

 robiistus as being two hundred yards above the Habergham, or assumed Aiiey 

 mine of Pull-edge ; whilst at Wigan the same bed was only forty-seven yards 

 above the Arley-mine. In the dining-room were displayed Mr. Wild's' ex- 

 cellent collection of fossil tish-remains fi'om Pull-edge, and shells from the 

 Lower Coal-measures, as also extensive and valuable collections of fossil plants 

 from the Burnley Coal-field belonging to Messrs TVTiittaker and Birtwell. Mr. 

 J. Mushen of Birmingham exhibited some beautiful casts of cystideans. 



Ordhian/ Monthly Meeting, Februan/ 28. — A paper was read on "Over- 

 Wmding in Coal and other Mines," by Thos. Wynne, Esq., P.G.S. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Mr. Page's Handeook of Geological Terms. — We have received a con- 

 siderable number of communications upon various points of pronunciation. 

 We have reserved these for a time, with a view to their publication together in 

 our next number. We hope, therefore, that any intended suggestions or re- 

 marks may be forwarded to us early in the present month. 



Limestone Veins in Shale at the Base of the Old Red Sand- 

 stone. — Sir, — A few days since I obseiTcd some irregular vertical veins, or 

 thin dykes of dark grey compact limestone, crossing a nearly horizontal bed of 

 red shale hi and near the local base of the Old Red Sandstone, w^hich rests un- 

 conformably upon beds very seldom, and then but slightly calcareous. The 

 shale in which they Avere observed is separated from the overlying Carbon- 

 iferous Limestone by a considerable thickness of yellowish sandstone, of which 

 over two hundred feet is exposed. As these veins do not contain fossils, and 

 there is nothing else to show that the limestone was derived from organic 

 sources, while the thickness of the intervening sandstone is against the 

 supposition that it was deposited by uifiltration from the Carboniferous 

 Limestone. Perhaps you, or some of your other readers will say how 

 an occurrence so unusual may be accounted for. — I am, etc., A. B. W., 

 Templemore. 



Biblical Chronology of Man. — Sir, — In reference to the vexata questio 

 of the age of man on the earth as connected with the works of human art 

 lately found in Prance, one point of consequence has, I think, been hitherto 

 overlooked, viz., that we are not confined by the authority of the Bible to 

 the period of six thousand years for the date of man's creation upon the earth. 

 Phyres Clinton, in the appendix to his " Pasti Hellenici," mentions the fact 

 that most of our old Bible manuscripts vary much in their chronology, chiefly 

 in the dui'ation of life assigned to the patriarchs before the Plood, and also be- 

 fore the time of Abraham. So considerable is this variation that I believe I am 

 not far wTong in stating that twelve thousand, or even twenty thousand years 



