EE VIEWS. 



277 



ing of a water-gliost or demon. In tlie Anglo-Saxon the word has the same 

 meaning. Beov. 838, IIU, 2854 :— 



" And on ydum slog, 

 Nicems nihtes." 



" And on the waves I slew 

 Nicors by night." 



Odiim was called, according to Snarro, Nikarr, or Knickarr, and when the 

 Scandinavians were converted to Christianity, the god was metamorphosed 

 into the popular Devil, by way of opprobrium. Thus, " Old Nick" became a 

 surname of Odin and the Devil. 



J. Kemble, in the glossary to the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, explains the 

 word ; thus, Nicor (m) monstrum fluviatile, a nick or nix. Ohd nehhar, 

 whence the name of the beautiful river (the Neckkar) upon which Heidelberg 

 stands. Old Nick, ealdnicor Sathanas. 



I send you these few imjDerfect remarks in the hope some of your numerous 

 correspondents may have heard of similar pits in other neighbourhoods ; and 

 it will be curious if they bear the same popular name. 



The superstitious feeling of the people living near them appears to connect 

 them with something which the Scotch would call uncanny. — I am, dear Sir, 

 yours truly, Joftn Brekt, Barton. 



Pleistocene Deposits neae, Livehpool. — Sir, — I have read in your jour- 

 nal Mr. Morton's communication relative to the northern drift, or Pleistocene 

 deposits, near Liverpool. 



Mr. Morton says it is " assumed" that the clay, &c., was dropped from melt- 

 ing icebergs. The assumption seems to be a certamty, from the fact that the 

 majority of the fossils found in the Pleistocene beds are common existing 

 species, and all of them such as are of arctic or glacial origin. 



On the Cheshire side of the Mersey, between Seacombe and Egremont, there 

 is, as Mr. Morton is doubtless aware, a capital section of the clay and gravel 

 beds. In this clay occurs Nucula ohlonga^ which no longer, I think, finds a 

 place in our recent fauna. It is some years since I examined these beds, but I 

 remember to have found there what does not frequently occur in Pleistocene 

 strata, a ripple-marked surface separating in one place the sands from the clays. 



Perhaps Mr. Morton, or some of the members of the Liverpool Geological 

 Society, may be able to confirm this. 



Can you inform me where it is possible to obtain a copy of King's Mono- 

 graph of the Permian Possils. — I am, yours &c., M. T. B., Darlington. 



Professor King's Monograph of the Permian Possils is one of the publica- 

 tions of the Palaeontographical Society. Any of the back volumes can be 

 obtained for the amount of the annual subscription of one guinea. Dr. Bower- 

 bank, of 3, Highbury- grove, is the treasurer. 



REVIEWS. 



Answer to Hugh Miller and Theoretic Geologists. By Thos. A. Davies. New 

 York : Budd and Carlton. London : Sampson, Low, Son, and Co. 1860. 



Por some time past we have had rather a plentiful production of discussive 

 works upon the concordance or non-concordance of the so-termed biblical and 

 geological accounts of creation. We have already questioned, on more than 

 one occasion, whether geologists or theologists are as yet properly prepared 



