NOTES AND QUEKIEt^. 



B91 



the kilns above Caversliam, where there are lying about many blocks of lime- 

 stone from it, which are very full of fossils. This " basement-bed" is a loam, 

 or sandy clay, of a general dull brown colour, with occasional seams of gi-een- 

 sand containing shells in a very perfect state, until one attempts to get them 

 out ; flint-pebbles, often in beds, ironstone-nodules, and masses of limestone 

 are of frequent occurrence. The limestone is very often nothing but a mass 

 of fossils, generally the Ditrupa plana. The following fossils have beea found 

 in the "basement-bed" at the various places above-noted. : — Naiica glcmcimides, 

 n. sp., Calyptroea trocJiiformis, Fimis, Fleurotoma, Scalana, Peciuncidus hrevi- 

 rostris, Cytherea obliqua, Carclmm niteus, C. Flumsteadiense, C. sp.. Pinna, 

 Modiola elegans. Oyster, Ditmpa plana, and Cancellaria (?). Of the London 

 Clay itself i do not remember any good sections. 



The low-level-gravel is thick and plentiful near Reading, far too much so 

 indeed to suit a field-geologist, as it hides other beds, and makes their boun- 

 daries doubtful. Mammalian remains may pernaps be found in it, as they have 

 been in the same bed near Maidenhead and at Hurley, near Great Marlow. It 

 is made up almost wholly of flints, chiefly sub-angular fragments, but partly in 

 the state of rounded pebbles ; the latter derived from the wearing away of 

 older Tertiary beds. 



A more detailed account of the sections here noticed, and of some others in 

 the neighbourhood, will be found in the above-mentioned memoir, which will 

 be published very shortly. — I am, yours truly, William Whitaker. 



P.S. Since writing the above I have had occasion to spend a couple of days 

 at Reading, and I then noticed a section of the basement-bed of the London 

 Clay, at the kiln at Woolwich Green, nearly a mile to the south of Theale 

 station. The section is chiefly in the London Clay itself ; but at the northern 

 end the " basement-bed" has been cut into. Not much more than a foot of it 

 is now to be seen ; but in that small thickness there are two or three beds of 

 fossils, in which I noticed at least fifteen species. In the course of a few 

 weeks, when this bed will be cut further back, I should think that, with care, 

 many good fossils might be got from it. — W. W. 



Age oe the Wexford Schists, &c. — Deah Sin, — Will you be so kind as 

 to oblige me by inserting in your next publication, and by way of adjunct to my 

 paper which appeared in the " Geologist" of February last, that I consider 

 the Wexford schists, slates, and grits, composing the coast -line from Dollar 

 Ray in the south to Arthurstown or Kingsbay in the north, as identical with 

 the Longmynd or Cambrian rocks of Wales ; and that the Llandeilo beds at 

 Duncannon referred to in my former observations lie in a trough or depression 

 among the more ancient deposits. 



About twenty years since I obtained one species of OldJiamia and Arenico- 

 lites from the district now referred to — ^near Aldridge Bay, in the county of 

 Wexford. This I showed to oflficers employed on the government survey and 

 to other geologists ; but the specimens which I had procured after a laborious 

 research were regarded as not exhibiting sulficient organic structure to allow 

 of their being admitted on the list of fossils found in the United Kingdom. 



I now make known my claim as to being the first to record the fact of the 

 existence of Longmynd or Bottom-rocks in the county of Wexford. I laboured 

 for several years among those old rocks, breaking stratum after stratum for 

 many miles, therefore feel much interest in everything relating to their history. 

 —Dear sir, yours truly, Thomas Austin. 



Lamellar Structure of Rocks. — Sir, — I would feel obliged if you 

 could give any information respecting the lamellar condition of rocks long sub- 

 ject to the action of the waves ? Balls of earth exposed to them soon become 

 hardened into concentric layers ; and many large boulders are to be seen on 

 the shores here whose centres are perfectly compact and as hard as granite, 

 the influence of the sea in crystallizing and moulding them being quite visible 



