us 



TIlE GEOtOGlSl^. 



Drift near Oswestry. — "Dear Sir, — At and around Oswestry we liave a 

 deposit of local drift of considerable thickness. The gravel and boulders being 

 for the most part fragments of the adjacent rocks of millstone-grit, mountain- 

 limestone, Silurian shales, and of igneous rock, from the bands with which this 

 locality is intersected. I am anxious to ascertain if, mixed up with, or overlying, 

 or contiguous to, this local deposit, any of the * Northern Drift ' exists. And I 

 have thought that probably you might, through the pages of the Geologist, aid 

 me in recognizing the latter deposit. I am, dear Sir, &c,, D. C. Davies, Oswestry." 



Much valuable information relative to Mr. Davies's inquiry will be found in Sir 



E. I. Murchison's " Silurian System," p. 628, &c. We abstract the following notice 

 from this work : — The ' Northern Drift ' reaches almost to London on the eastern 

 side of England, and covers large tracts of country along the borders of Wales. 

 In Lancashire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire it consists, 

 in some parts, of thick masses of clay ; in others, of sand and fine gravel ; in all 

 of which large boulders of granite are mixed up with some local detritus and sea- 

 ehells of existing species. Near Wrexham it forms masses of vast thickness, 

 containing a variety of granite-pebbles, mixed up with a large proportion of the 

 adjacent Welch rocks, including the coal-measures ; and the same distribution of 

 materials prevails to Oswestry,, where the northern course of the drift seems to 

 have been checked by promontories of the Carboniferous rocks. 

 .^I'lant from Coal-measures of the Elled Patch. — " Dear Sir, — In my col- 

 lection of the coal-flora from the Elled Patch (see page 126) I have the original 

 specimen of the enclosed sketch, and of which I can find no description, and am 

 rather at a loss to know of what kind it may be. I have therefore drawn it, in 

 the hope that Mr. Bunbury, or some other experienced geologist or botanist, will 

 enable me to find out its name. I may here suggest that it would be an exceedingly 

 useful thing if anybody possessing an unique or interesting fossil, would take the 

 trouble to draw it to the best of his power, and send it to the pages of the 

 Geologist, to be inserted or not, according to circumstances ; for I am sure that 

 by so doing, a number of valuable, and, perhaps, unknown specimens will be 

 brought into notice, and help to elucidate many doubtful points. The fossil which 

 I have attempted to delineate is apparently the fruit of an equisetaceous plant, 

 and is about one- third longer than I have here represented. It is evident that the 

 shorter stem is not a branch of the other, because it will be noticed that they are 

 reversed in position, the long one being upside down. The stem is jointed at 

 tolerably regular intervals, and marked with Mnt, longitudinal, and irregular lines. 

 The fruits, which are ill-preserved in the long stalk, are opposite, almost similar, 

 and are not composed of imbricated scales, like the Lejpidostrohus variabilis, but each 

 scale is distinct, and fitting into those around it. At a is an enlarged view of a 

 scale, which is three-sided, and stands out in the uppermost fruit very distinctly. 

 As a rule, fossil fruits are scarce in the South Wales coal-fields, with the exception 

 of Lepidistrobiis variabilis and L. ornatus, both of which I have frequently met 

 with. I have also specimens of L. pinaster, but CarpolitJies and Trigonocarpum I 

 have never found here.— Yours truly, G. P. Bevan, Beaufort." [See Plate xi.] 



Derivation of Names of Fossils. — " Sir, — May I be allowed to suggest to 

 your correspondent, Mr. Morris, that the value of his contributions on ' British 

 Fossils ' would be very much enhanced by giving the etymology of the names of 

 each fossil, in connection with its stratigraphical position. By this means the 

 labour of the student of palseontology would be much facilitated, and be made 

 considerably more interesting and satisfactory. I can conceive of nothing 

 more wearying and tedious than having to load the memory with unmean- 

 ing, arbitrary names ; and such are most of the names of the fossils to the young 

 student who has had no means of acquainting himself with the history of their 

 discovery, or the peculiarities in their respective appearances, or resemblance to 

 some known form of animal or plant, from which they have been named. As Mr. 

 Morris has already gone far in his papers on ' The Stratigraphical Order of British 

 l^ossils,'he may perhaps be induced to favour the readers of your very useful 

 ^!^! f separate papers on ' The Etymology and Pronunciation of the Names 

 ot British Fossils.'— Yours, &c., Mark Fryer, 3 St. James' s-square, Bristol."— 



