NOTES AND QUERIES. 



349 



I brought down some large blocks of bard " anthracite" and " culm," of which 

 there is a bed about two feet wide, nearly vertical, in fine limestone-shale. I 

 also got iron of a good quality, but Professor Medlicot has condemned both. 

 I can't help it : I did not j)ut them there. Coal and iron are also on the Hyma- 

 layas; but Mr. Henwood, r.G.S., condemned them both. Doctors differ, but in 

 spite of all, the bad coal and bad ore make good iron, and Mr. Sowerby is 

 superintending the erection of extensive iron works on the spot. I know for 

 a fact, which he has mentioned, that in other cou.ntries the appearances are not 

 the same as in England, and he who depends only on what he has seen there, 

 is foolish to condemn dissimilar appearances in other countries. In South 

 Africa I have seen iron-beds in gneiss rock, the ore as bright as new-wrought 

 steel ; a few miles off the ore quite black and highly polarized ; in another, 

 huge blocks of brown oxide, quite hollow, when broken perfectly black and 

 shiny inside, a fine black haematite. At the Spring Fontein mines the copper 

 is entirely red like oxide of iron. With such experience, I think it foolish to 

 condemn what does not exactly coincide with our past experience. 



When I have time you shall look over the diary of my sojourn in Cashmere. 

 Though it may not be sufficiently scientific to interest you deeply, there may 

 be a few amusing facts to pass half an hour over. I hope to repeat my visit, 

 as I saw some fine fossils in the limestone rocks ; but they are so precipitous, 

 even so old and experienced a traveller as I had much trouble to get over 

 them. — Most sincerely yours, John Calvert, E.G.S. 



Pleistocene Deposits near Liverpool. — Dear Sir, — I take this early 

 opportunity of confirming the observations of your correspondent with regard 

 to the above interesting deposits. In the neighbourhood of Liv^erpool Pleisto- 

 cene sands underlie the boulder-clay throughout the district, being seen to 

 advantage on the opposite shore of the Mersey, between Seacomb and Egre- 

 niont, and are frequently observed in artificial excavations. They contain 

 recent shells, but I am not able yet to prepare a list of them. " Palse bedding" 

 widely preT ails, and in the locality Mr. I)arling mentions, a most interesting 

 ripple-marked surface exists just where the sands end, the hollows of the 

 ripples being filled by the superincumbent boulder-clay. At the last meeting 

 of the Liverpool Naturalists' Eield Club, I pointed out similar beds of sand 

 beneath the boulder-clay at Hall, ten miles from Liverpool. — Yours truly, Geo. 

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



Manufacture oe Stone Axes. — Sir, — A market gardener at Redworth, a 

 small village about seven miles north-west of Darlington, dug up a short time 

 ago in his garden a stone hammer. The portion of the garden where it was 

 found has, until very lately, been pasture, and may not have been disturbed for 

 centuries. The axe was found at a depth of three feet from the surface. It 

 is about eleven inches long and four and a-half broad. One end of it is flat or 

 hammer-shaped, and the other is edged ; there is also a hole for a handle. 



I do not write to you about the mere fact of its being found, but to inquire 

 whether you can give me any information as to the probable method of its 

 manufacture. 



The hammer, or axe, is made of basalt, locally called " blue stone," of which 

 there is now a quarry at Bolam, distant about four miles from Redworth. 

 How could so hard a substance as the material of which the great whia-dyke 

 is composed be wrought and bored as this axe has been ? Could it be done 

 without using some metal ? Though, if metals were known, why manufacture 

 stone implements ? 



To fashion it by friction would be a work of gigantic labour ; and how 

 could the hole for the handle be made ? 



I must confess myself completely puzzled, and hoping you can enlighten me, 

 I am. Sir, yours most obediently. Inquirer. 



