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THE GEOLOGIST. 



(pines). Some of the specimens are extremely hard, and consist almost entirely 

 of silica and oxides of iron. They may easily be dug out of the soft sandstone 

 with a small fipud. A mop-stick, having a small strong piece of flat iron fastened 

 at one end, is a very useful instrument in these geological rambles. I have some 

 very fine specimens, and one deposited in the Leicester Museum, and another in 

 my possession, measure 12 inches in diameter: they show the Sternbergia (cast of 

 pith), with the discoidal spaces, medullary rays, rings of growth, the lace-like 

 net-work round the small pithy centres, warty excretions of the bark, &c. Other 

 specimens are entirely endogenous and look like bundles of very fine reeds, all 

 cemented together. I should take exception to the remark that " the Syenites of 

 Mount Sorel protruded through the slates of Charnwood." There is no evidence of 

 this ; on the contrai-y, what evidence there is upon this point is against this view ; 

 and I incline to the opinion that all the granites and syenites found on the flanks 

 of the slates are of older date than the slates. They certainly did not produce 

 the upthrow of the anticlinal, as they are not found along this line, the small 

 patches of igneous rock marked in the maps being of a basaltic character. There 

 is no spot where the junction of the syenite and slate is exposed, although in some 

 places they approach within a very few yards, yet a considerable depth of red 

 marl conceals the actual junction, and still no disturbance of the dip of the slate 

 is found to occur at these places. The extreme south end of the anticlinal is 

 exposed in a quarry near Hallgate, the slate dipping each way, yet touching at 

 the top. I have here obtained a fine pentagon of coarse-grained basalt ; but the 

 upheaving rock, whether basalt or syenite, does not appear to have burst through 

 the anticlinal to any extent, merely tilting the slates up. At any rate, I think 

 neither the syenites nor granites of Mount Sorel, Groby, Markfield, nor the 

 phorphyritic rocks of Bardon, High Sharpley, &c., have been the cause of the 

 upheaval of the slates. — James Plant, Princess Street, Leicester. 



Triassic Strata. — The letter of your correspondent, Rev. P. B. Brodie, and his 

 recent discovery of a fine specimen of fish from the Upper Keuper Sandstone, in 

 the neighbourhood of Rowington, again recals to my mind the regret I have felt 

 that the few rare fossils from this very interesting and somewhat obscure forma- 

 tion, are not collected at some one locality easily accessible to all geological 

 students. The finest collection is in the Warwick Museum ; another collection is 

 at the Leicester Museum ; and some specimens are at the Geological Society and 

 at Jermyn Street Museum. I have a number of specimens in my own possession. 

 It would, however, be much better, if any use is to bo made of them in Avorking 

 out the palccontology of the British Trias, if they were all deposited at some one 

 place ; and this course might lead to the production of a monograph on the Trias 

 of Britain, a great and much-felt want. Let me warn young geologists not to 

 confound this Keuper Sandstone, which lies above the Red Marl, with the Keuper 

 Sandstone lying below that stratum. Some allusions to this formation, that I have 

 read, have not kept this distinction sufiiciently clear. The Lower Keuper Sand- 

 stone formerly classed as No. 1 of the Bunter series of beds, and called at times 

 " Water-stones," or " White Beds," is a very extensive formation, both vertically 

 and horizontally, and probably will be found to be the equivalent of the 

 " Muschelkalk," thus completing the British Triassic group. The Upper Keuper 

 Sandstone is extremely local in its development, rarely exceeding two miles in 

 horizontal extent, nor more than 80 or 90 feet in vertical depth. In several locali- 

 ties where I have examined it (although continuous for miles, running in and out 

 in an irregular line), it is not more than from 10 to 20 yards in horizontal width, 

 and from 4 to 12 feet in vertical depth. — James Plant, Princess Street, 

 Leicester. 



Fossil W hale. — Dr. Allman, Professor of Natural History in the University of 

 Edinburgh, vcfontlv \-isitc(l Stirling to inspect some cetaceous remains excavated 

 in a clay-lield, adidiinivjc Mr. Christie's brick-works on the shore. The whale is 

 computed to have been about forty feet in lenpcth, and the skeleton is considered 

 to l>e the most complete si);H'iincu as yet discovered in North Britain. Professor 

 Allman recommended that tlie bones should be united by a qualified articulator, 

 and preserved in a museum. — J. J., Inverness. 



