NOTES AND QUERIES. 391 



silicate of magnesia accumulates. A smart blow shivers the mass, and leaves 

 the nucleus bare. Great abundance of talc in various forms strews the shore 

 resembling leaves, fiat plates, &c. 



The tusks and bones of the Elephas primigenius are found here when the 

 cliff falls down — a circumstance which frequently occurs when the sea under- 

 mines it. 



Nearly opposite this place, when the spring-tides recede, a number of trunks 

 and branches of large trees are seen at low- water mark, partially buried in the 

 mud, and evidently the denizens of some ancient wood which has been sub- 

 merged when the sea encroached on these . shores. The wood is 

 black, and when dry as hard as ebony, making good posts for gates, field- 

 rollers, &c. 



I may also mention that about a mile out at sea, off Hampton, is the Pan 

 sand, where large quantities of Roman pottery have been dredged up. Several 

 fine paterse of Saurian ware have been found, and lately a mortarium in good 

 preservation. This last was sent to the British Museum. It is a little ccrious 

 that within these few weeks some paterse and other "Roman utensils quite 

 similar to those found on the Pan sand have been dug up at St. Sepulchre's, 

 Canterbury. In some instances the same makers' names were stamped upon 

 the articles dug up at Canterbury and upon those found at sea. 



I send you these rough sketches of incidents occurring in my rambles, pre- 

 suming they may be of some slight interest to your readers. — I am very faith- 

 fully yours, John Brent, Barton. 



[The marks noticed in the sand are probably the old tubes of Sabellae, if the 

 sand is of marine origin ; or worm-tubes if a freshwater deposit. It would 

 be worth while for the observer to compare the tubes formed now by the 

 Sabella common in the sands of the Kentish shore with the objects he describes. 

 I have seen what I believe to be Sabella-tubes in the Lower Greensand in a 

 cutting on the camp-ground at Shorncliffe, near Folkestone ; and if the sand 

 at Hackington, near Canterbury, be a Tertiary marine sand, as I suppose it to 

 be, it is probable that Sabella-tubes would occur in it. These tubes being 

 held together only by glutinous matter, would not be very solid, and probably 

 in a fossil state, would exhibit the puzzling conditions referred to by Mr. Brent. 

 The sand in which they would occur would most probably be incoherent, and 

 they are therefore very like to be exposed by wind action as stated. — 

 Ed. Geol.] 



The Earthquake at Mendoza. — Mendoza was a city containing twenty 

 thousand souls, and presented all the appearance of a flourishing and increasing 

 place. There remains to-day but a small chapel, the only building that with- 

 stood (perhaps owing to its foundation not being deep) the fearful earthquake 

 which reduced the city in five minutes to a heap of ruins, under which were 

 buried more than two-thirds of its population. Of those that were able to 

 make their escape, some were seriously hurt, others lost their senses in the 

 terror created by this awful phenomenon. 



The earthquake declared itself on the 20th of March last, at half-past eight 

 o'clock at night ; the shock was so violent, the fall of the houses so rapid, that 

 the inhabitants had not time to effect their escape, and were crushed to death. 



The hour of the night in which the catastrophe took place, being a time when 

 the city was in repose (for the inhabitants were an industrious race, of 

 simple habits, and the town devoid of the amusements of large capitals) 

 tended to increase the confusion and the number of victims. 



The earth continued to open in several places, emitting violent streams of 

 water, and then immediately closing up again. 



A singular circumstance is related, namely, that this lamentable occurrence 



