NOTES AND QUERIES. 



197 



the foundations of St. Enoch's church, Glasgow ; another at the " Tontine- 

 buildings," at the Cross ;" and a third in digging the foundations of the new- 

 prison. In the British Museum, the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical 

 Society at York, and in the collections of other societies, at Edinburgh, Glas- 

 gow, Newcastle, &c., will be found other examples. — Yours, Edward Tindall, 

 Bridlington. 



Vegetable Eossils in Elint, &c. — Will you be so kind as to inform me 

 in your " Notes and Queries" whether any vegetable matter has yet been dis- 

 covered in flint ? I have been anxiously reading any articles in the " Geologist" 

 on fossils from flints, but find no mention of such. My regards were particu- 

 larly directed to the subject, by discovering embedded in red flint what appears 

 to be a portion of Cora'llina officinalis, as a living specimen would be called, 

 with this difference, that the stem seems formed of ndnute threads jointed at 

 intervals. The fossil, though small, is quite distinct, and the terminal cera- 

 midia look like little pearls. The surface of the flint in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the coralline, if it be such, is of a chocolate colour. 



I shall be much obliged if you will have the goodness to direct me to some 

 not expensive work on the limestone and lower slate formations of Ireland. 

 — Very truly yours, A. de S. M. 



The flints of the chalk occasionally contain fragments of fossil wood, and 

 more frequently the spores of Algals, the so -called Spiniferites of ManteU's 

 " Medals." Other vegetable fossils are rare in the flints. Possibly the minute 

 CoraUina-like object in the flint referred to may be a Nodosaria, one of the 

 elongated beaded Eoraminifera. We camiot call to mind any Avork treating of 

 the limestone and slates of Ireland. 



Evidences of Ancient Ice-action near Liverpool. — Dear Sir, — The 

 new red sandstone in this neighbourhood is usually covered with deposits of 

 hard clay, containing rounded stones of aU sizes, from that of a pea to those 

 five or six feet in circumference ; in some cases they are scratched and polished. 

 There are also beds of sand and gravel containing shells, which are generally 

 beneath the clay. The whole of these deposits are referred to the " boulder- 

 clay," or "northern drift." It is assumed that the clay, sand, gravel, or 

 boulder-stones were all dropped from melting icebergs as they descended from 

 more northern latitudes. I am not aware that we have hitherto had any other 

 evidence in this district than that afforded by the boulders, though that evi- 

 dence is very conclusive. During the month of May last my attention was 

 called to the subject by indications of ice-grooves and furrows on the high 

 ground between Parkhill-road and the Dingle. The sandstone-rock belongs to 

 the conglomerate-beds of the bunter-sandstone. The strata dip ten degrees to 

 the east. The striated surface has been covered by nine feet of boulder-clay, 

 part of which was removed some years ago for brickmaking. One specimen 

 exhibited the strongly marked parallel lines and deep grooves which ex- 

 tended across it. The surface from which it was obtained dips five degrees to 

 the north-east. The direction of the lines is north-west by north, or more 

 correctly, forty-two degrees west of north, allowing twenty -four degrees for 

 variation. About ten yards were at first visible ; but, by employing a labourer 

 to clear away some of the clay, at least twenty square yards have been observed, 

 and no doubt the same appearances extend over a considerable extent of surface 

 beneath the boulder-clay. If this worn surface resulted from the action of ice, 

 it must have been from the grounding of icebergs as they passed over the por- 

 tion of rock upon which it is found. In the vaUey beyond Eastham the 

 boulder-clay contains many fragments of red sandstone, which seem to have 

 been derived from the high land already alluded to, and afford further indica- 

 tions as to the direction of the prevailing currents of the glacial sea. — Geo. 

 H. Morton, E.G.S., Liverpool. 



