446 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



returned, however, a few hours after my friends with an appetite that satisfied 

 them if i had been with the fairies, they had not supplied me with any substantial 

 entertainment. I believe, then, this cavern had been an ancient lead mine, which, 

 since disuse, had fallen in ; but the friends I met then have years since finished 

 their raundine probation, and I have had no inducement to visit a^ain the ' Fairy 

 Cave.'— F. G. S." 



Volcanic Eetjption at GuEiiNSEY in the Thirteenth Century. — The fol- 

 lowing extract may be of interest to the readers of The Geologist ; the original is 

 in quaint Latin : — Extract of a letter from Adam de Marisco, to Grossetete, Bishop 

 of Lincoln, on the 7th of March of one of the years in the middle of the thirteenth 



century. Translation: "What conjecturer can think what is the meaning of a 



prodigy, unheard of in past ages, made known publicly by the violence of fame 

 in these days ? Namely, that at the isle of Guernsey — a place bordering, as it 

 were on the two kingdoms of France and England — globes of fire are perceived 

 to leap up very frequently out of the depth of the sea on to the eminences of the 

 earth, devouring even the rocky masses and other materials with an irrepressible 

 conflagration, and the inhabitants being driven away, after everything has been 

 reduced to cinders, [the flames] conflicting fiercely v>^ith warlike encounters, [like] 

 bands of armed people in the place of conflagration, and, after the conflict has 

 ceased, withdrawing [themselves] into unknown retreats. Shall we then think 

 that anything else is in question but that, while the wicked run mad, the elect 

 lament, praying that these and other things unusual in our age, shown by the 

 clement providence of the Supreme Lord of Ages, may be turned to good. I do 

 not presert myself as the author of this so wonderful novelty, but I recite what was 

 reported in my hearing by a testimony above all exception.^^ This is as nmch of 

 the letter as relates to the volcanic eruption at Guernsey. I have translated it 

 very literally, and word for word. You can mend the language if you like. I 

 think it is the latest notice of any volcanic action in our islands. — T. Wright, 

 Sydney Street, Brompton. 



Transition Beds op the Chalk. — A pleasant hours' walk from Beauvais 

 brings the traveller to the open fields of Bracheux, and, in the old pit at the very 

 summit of the hill, he will find a good development of the lower tertiary marine 

 beds of Woolwich and Reading ; another short hour brings him to the village of 

 Laversines, where the usual upper chalk of the plateau is displayed. In an 

 abandoned pit concealed by the trees of an orchard, close to the churchyard, 

 accessible through some cottage gardens, lies a bank which has the appearance of 

 earthy chalk, with yellow stains. This is a mass of sandy, calcareous earth, of 

 limited extent, but well displayed,. It lies evenly on the chalk, and rises to the 

 surface in a knoll, covered with woodland. The upper portion is friable — the 

 lower more compact. Fossils are extremely abundant ; but principally as casts, 

 badly preserved. The Astrcea corals, spines of Cidaris, and casts of Area, are 

 extremely numerous. Mons. Graves, in his excellent work (Essalsur la Topographie 

 Geognostique du Department du L'Oise, 1847), gives a list of fifty-three determin- 

 able species, of which twenty- three are Maestrichtian, and only two found in the 

 overlying white chalk. The impression derived from an inspection of the rich 

 accumulation of debris is, that it constitutes the rubble-bed of a deposit ; all other 

 trace of which, in these parts, has been removed by the crowding and grinding 

 action of the lower tertiaries ; but how their mass of tender materials could have 

 been protected from the forces which pounded up so much besides, it is difficult to 

 conceive. — S. R. P." 



A dmis.^ion to the Geological Society op London. — " Dear Sir, — I should very 

 much like to be a member of the proposed " Amateur Geological Association," and 

 trust to hear much more about it iii your next number. Would you also kindly 

 inform mo in what way gontiomen become Fellows of the Geological Society ? 

 h\ oihcr wovd^, what constitutes an F.G.S.— Yours thankfully, R A C - H A C, 

 Si. Ivos, Hunt.:," — Follows of the Geological Society of London are elected by 

 b;illot, iifUv li;vviiig been nominated hy three Fellows, one of whom at least must 



