NOTES AND QUERIES. 



355 



bence occasioning very heavy works. In one place the bed of the stream had to 

 be causewayed with large stones for a considerable distance. The rock has had 

 to be deeply cut in several parts, and the cuttings exhibit beautiful sections of 

 quartz-rock and mica-schist, disposed in such regular and thin strata, dipping 

 from north-east to south-west, as to suggest the idea that the whole are only 

 altered Silurian rocks, hardened by internal heat. The inequalities scooped out 

 by ancient currents among the rocks have subsequently been filled w-ith a very 

 hard deposit of clay and gravel, forming what is called northern drift or till, so 

 very hard as, sometimes, to be mistaken for conglomerate-rock ; and indeed, in one 

 spot, for a few hundred yards, this deposit was contracted for to be removed as 

 solid rock, which it was believed would have occasioned a tunnel in the line of the 

 railway. Under the pickaxe, however, the whole gave way gradually, and no rock 

 in situ was met with at the point in question. Cliffs of the boulder- clay and gravel 

 overhang the railway, sometimes disposed in grassy terraces, and sometimes 

 covered with beautiful clumps of birch, oak, and ash trees ; and these cliffs, a 

 little way below the Adaduct across the Spey, extend down the river's side in high, 

 naked precipices, exhibiting one of the deepest and most extraordinary series of 

 clay and gravel beds to be seen in any part of the Highlands." — J. Jameson. 



Geology of Much Wenlock. — " Sir, — Can you inform me of any works on the 

 Geology of Much Wenlock and the Brown Clee and Caradoc Hills (Salop), with 

 their prices ? also, when you expect to publish the ' Glossary ' spoken of in the 

 March number of the Geologist, page 115 ? Thanking you for your kind answer 

 to a former query, and Mr. Plant for his valuable information in the last number 

 of your magazine, I remain, your's, &c., M. S., Ashby-de-la-Zouch." — The best 

 work on the Wenlock districts is Sir Roderick 1. Murchison's " Silurian System," 

 published in 1839, price £8 8s. Sir Roderick's condensed memoir on the 

 Silm'ian System was published in 1854, price £1 10s., under the title of " Siluria," 

 a new edition of which book is now passing through the press, and will be im- 

 proved by many very important additions. 



It is our intention to commence the glossary on the completion of Professor 

 Morris' " Stratigraphical Catalogue of British Fossils." 



Roman Mines in Wales. — Mr. Thomas Wright, the eminent antiquary, is 

 preparing a work on the Roman mining-districts of I^orth W ales and the border- 

 country, viewing them especially with regard to archteological and historical 

 results. Any information relating to traces of Roman mines, or of ancient 

 workings of any kind, will, we know, be very acceptable to him. Such investiga- 

 tions bring archaeology into close connection with geology, and we shall be glad 

 if this notice should elicit any information from our readers to the advantage of 

 Mr. Wright's work. Geological notices of these old iron and gold-works would be 

 interesting to many of our readers. 



The Collecting oe Recent Shells. — Fossils eeom Coal Steata. — " Sie, 



WiU you please tell me in your next number of the Geologist, how I 

 may get animals out of delicate univalve shells, such as Helix, Lymngea, &c. ? 

 In the roofs of coal-mines, there are many large nodular iron-stones, in which 

 are many shells very like Ammonites, i.e., they are spiral, but much thinner in 

 the middle than at the edges, and when ground down do not show any septa like 

 Ammonites; what are they ? When is the best time of the year to collect shells ? 

 My work on conchology gives no instruction to beginners, hence these questions j 

 it is Capt. Thos. Brown's Land and Freshwater shells."— S. H., Huddersfield.— As 

 other sciences besides geology are embraced in the study of the earth, we reply to 

 this query respecting living shells, and partly, also, because whenever information 

 respecting recent animals or plants has a tendency to elucidate geological investi- 

 gations, we shall not deem such questions irrevalent, as they will enable us to 

 make suggestions, of more or less value, in their elucidation. The best instrument 

 for extracting molluscous animals from their shells is an ordinary needle firmly 

 inserted in a penholder or cylindrical stick, and afterwards bent or " hooked" 

 in the flame of a spirit-lamp. The best time of the year to collect shells is in the 

 late autumn, when the annual or periodic addition of shell-matter has been 

 completed and solidified — the new portions in their early stages being gelatinoug 



