Field Notes. 



225 



with the author's extraordinary bad luck, such specimen has generally 

 been lost or stolen. Two unexpected but not surprising illustrations 

 occur in figs. 308 and 309. These represent the front and side views of 

 the fractured lias nodule found in the boulder clay at Scarborough a year 

 or two ago, which was to have formed the subject of a paper on ' Glacial 

 Man in Yorkshire ' at the British Association Meeting at York, but didn't. 

 In the present work it is recorded as from the ' Lower Trias,' and was 

 found at Sewerby, but we recognise it all the same. Like Mr. Smith, the 

 present writer examined it several times. Mr. Smith calls it ' a more 

 than usually fine specimen,' and a ' magnificent specimen of pre-glacial 

 man's handiwork.' In the opinion of the present writer, this unusually 

 fine implement is a perfectly natural nodule, and was not touched by man 

 till picked up ' with difficulty ' ! out of the boulder clay at Scarborough. 

 And as Mr. Smith admits it is one of his best pieces of evidence, he confirms 

 the impression already stated by an examination of his drawings, viz., 

 that his specimens are practically all perfectly natural forms, which, 

 in Mr. Smith's eyes, seem to shew some semblance to weapons. There is 

 no doubt that a brief search upon any beach, or in any river bed would 

 yield dozens of such specimens as Mr. Smith figures — in fact, he admits it 

 himself. 



There is one direction in which Mr. Smith has neglected his subject,, 

 and we would commend the matter to him in case a second edition of his 

 book is called for. In streams, and gravel pits, and on the beach, are 

 numerous egg-shaped stones, sometimes quite ' mellow.' May not palaeo 

 lithic man have kept pigeons and chickens, and may not these be his pot 

 eggs ? And how do we know he didn't play golf ? 



In his early remarks the author states ' May I hope that the substance 

 of this volume will prove a revelation to the scientific world ? It has been 

 such to myself.' And it has been to us. The volume weighs three and a 

 half pounds, and there is no index. 



FUNGI. 



Geaster fornicatus in Lines. — Mr. F. Mills sends two 

 fine specimens of this curious fungus from Torksey. They bear 

 a strong resemblance to children's dolls, or models of the pigmies 

 who chipped the small flints ! Mr. Peacock records some 

 taken in Bottesford Parish in 1869, and one since, I think, 

 from Torksey. Is it ' comparatively rare,' or easily overlooked 

 on account of its protective colour ? — W. Fowler, May 

 5th, 1909. 



GEOLOGY. 



Vertebra of Codfish in the Holderness Gravels. — 



A vertebra from the glacial gravels at Kelsey Hill, found by 

 Mr. George Sheppard, has been kindly identified by Mr. E. T. 

 Newton, F.R.S., as that of a cod-fish. This is an addition to 

 the fauna from this deposit, though the species has been re- 

 corded from the pre-glacial beach at Sewerby. — T. Sheppard* 



igog June i.j 



P 



