NOTES AND QUERIES. 



421 



gravel-pit, which has been worked in the years 1858, '59, '60. They bciong to 

 Mr. Ingram, of the Royal Gardens, and were found at abont the depth of 

 fifteen feet from the surface. The upper soil for about four or five feet is 

 sandy loam, then there is six or seven feet of red gravel, and three or four feet 

 of washed gravel, m which the bones were found. 



It may be a question whether the old bed of the Thames in ancient times 

 may not have passed in this direction, or whether the river may not formerly 

 have been much broader than at present. — Q. 



The Geology of Malta. — Dr. Gavina Giulia, a Maltese geologist, pub- 

 lished a short time since, in the " Ordine" of La Yaletta, some observations on 

 the constitution of that island, which are not without interest. After establish- 

 ing, with Professor Eorbes, that the strata of Malta belong to the Eocene, or 

 lovv'er tertiary formation, he adverts to the fact that fossil remains of mam- 

 moth have been found on the island, including a piece of tusk seven and a-half 

 inches in length. Now, as it is not to be supposed that such huge animals as 

 the mammoth, the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus, traces of all which have 

 been found there, could have existed in so circumscribed an area as that of 

 Malta, it is not to be denied that at a more or less remote period it must have 

 formed part of the Continent, and must have been detached from it by some 

 convulsion. The mammoth has never been found in tropical latitudes, and 

 Professor Owen limits its existence to the northern hemisphere, vdthin the 

 forty-ninth and sixtieth or seventieth degree of latitude ; but the discovery of 

 the primitive elephant or mammoth at Malta shows that it must have been dis- 

 persed much farther south than has been generally admitted. 



Mammalian Remains. — About thirty-eight years since, i. e. 1803, the 

 greater part of a skeleton of an elephant, with teeth and tusks, and teeth and 

 many bones of a rhinoceros were found " embedded in loam, in the midst of an 

 extensive accumulation of gravel," at Petteridge Common, Surrey. (See Man- 

 tell in Brayley's "History of Surrey," vol. i., p. 129, ed. 1811.) 



Toads Living when Shut in Plastek foe, Yeabs. — " M. Seguin" (says the 

 " Medical Times"), " wishing to ascertain what amount of truth there is m the 

 marvellous tales told of batrachians being found living within the substance 

 of stones, has undertaken some experiments upon the matter. He enclosed 

 some toads very firmly in plaster, and left them for years in the middle of these 

 blocks of factitious stone. At various intervals he has broken some of these 

 blocks, and has found a certain number of the toads alive. One of the animals 

 had remained thus deprived of air during ten years, another twelve, and a thu-d 

 fifteen years. Two still continue enclosed, and as M. Seguin is very old, and 

 fears that these two blocks may be lost to the purposes of science, he offers 

 them to the Academy of Sciences, in order that it may hereafter test the truth 

 of the phenomenon. M. Plourens announces on the part of the Academy its 

 willingness to accept them, intending, after a verification of tlie dates of seques- 

 tration, to have the plaster broken in presence of a commission ad liocP 



Waste op Land by the Sea.^ — It is stated by a recent able writer on this 

 subject, in treating of the action of the sea upon its coasts, that on the coast 

 of Yorkshire four yards a year is the rate of decay. This loss for one million 

 of years amounts to no less than two thousand two hundred and seventy-two 

 miles ; and even at one yard of annual loss, Yorkshire must once have extended 

 five hundred and sixty-eight miles further eastward than it now does. — J. J. 



Nagasaki Coal Mines. — Her Majesty's ship " Roebuck" has been cruising 

 outside, testmg the Japanese coal, and trying to find out where the principal 

 mines are in this vicinity ; she proceeded to Yeddo direct, to try and obtain 

 permission from the Emperor to see the mines, and how they are worked, or 

 could be worked, and if possible to make contracts for regular supplies. An 

 engineer who is on board her states that from the appearance of the difTerent 



