NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



313 



ness, in a dark grev clay-slate, liavinor the same dip-strike as the accom- 

 panyins: rocks." The " Grauwacke " of this part of the coimtr}^ consists 

 generally of stone-grey rock, alternating -u-ith beds of slate ; the thickness 

 of the masses of each kind being very variable, in some cases a few inches 

 only of slate or hard rock, in others from fifty to a hundred feet of either. 

 Some of the hard masses contain pebbles, usually about the size of a pea, 

 but often as much as one or two inches in diameter. Occasionally the rock 

 is massive, and so much altered by metamorphic action, that were it not 

 for the pebbles it mig^ht be mistaken for a greenstone. 



A case similar to this was reported by Professor Harkness to the British 

 Association in 1852, at Eattenside, near Greskin. about four miles above 

 the Beatock station on the Caledonian Railway ; the anthracite is seen in 

 the Evan Water, and this can be traced E.N.E. to Hartfell, and from 

 thence into Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire." Of the rock which contains it 

 he says, " This slate extends E.X.E. and W.S.W. It is seen at Stobo, in 

 Peeblesshire, and in the summit cutting of the Caledonian Eailway, where 

 it shows great thickness. From thence it extends westward through 

 Lanarkshire and the north-east of Dumfriesshire to Cairn Eyan, in Wig- 

 tonshire." 



Dr. Whitty thinks, that " as those Silurian or Grauwacke rocks of the 

 Pentland Hills and south of Scotland are admitted to be the counterpart 

 of our Grauwacke rocks in the North of Ireland, and are in fact a con- 

 tinuation of the same formation, it is more than probable that the anthra- 

 cite of the county of Cavan is a production of the bed in Scotland, and 

 extends all the way between them, through the counties of Down, Ar- 

 magh, and Monaohan." A trial pit was sunk by Dr. Whitty at Kell, and 

 a specimen of the anthracite analvsed : its composition being carbon 

 77-64 water 4-35. ash 1801 (=10000). "It contains no bitumen, and 

 therefore is ill-suited for ordinary domestic purposes, but would answer 

 well for burning lime or bricks and drying malt, when mixed with a small 

 portion of bituminous coal or turf to ignite it. Once made red, it gives 

 out a powerful heat, and continues it a great length of time. It will also 

 be found most efficient for smiths' work." 



It is well worth while to keep these facts before the geological world ; 

 and it should not be forgotten that in the south of Scotland graptolites 

 are very prevalent in the anthracite, or rather in the anthracite shales. 



FuETHER Notes ox Humax Skulls from Heatheky Burn Cave, 

 Weardale, Durham ; with a Notice of the Eiver-bed Skeleton 

 from Leicester. — I have been asked to give a few supplementary remarks 

 on the fragmentary human remains from this cave, in addition to those 

 made by Professor Huxley (' Geologist,' vol. v. p. 204). The observa- 

 tions made by him led him to express an opinion that the Weardale re- 

 mains belonged " to the same race of rather small and lightly-made men, 

 with prominent superciliary ridges and projecting nasal bones," as the 

 Muskham, Towyn-y-Capel, Sennen, Borris, and Blackwater skuUs. In the 

 spirit of these observations I cordially concur. 



Particular description of the remains being, however, requisite, I pro- 

 ceed to remark that no perfect skull has hitherto been found in the 

 Heathery Burn Cave. The most perfect, though not the most charac- 

 teristic, is the one of which Mr. Mackie has given an excellent drawing (p. 

 201), and which I shall denominate A. Another skull is only represented 

 by the osfrontis and a small part of the parietal, and is far more striking. 

 I name this B for facility of description. 



The calvarium, or vertex of a skull marked A, is not that of an aged in- 

 dividual. A large part of the frontal suture is persistent. The frontal 



YOL. Y. 2 S 



