NUTES AND QUEKIES. 
197 
the foundations of St. Enoch's church, Glasgow ; anotlier at tJie " Tontine- 
buikliugs," at tho Cross ;" and a tliird in digging the foundations of the new 
prison. In tlic British Museum, Hic Museum of tlic Yorkshire Philosophical 
Society at York, and in the collect ions of other societies, at Edinburgh, Glas- 
gow, Newcastle, &c., will be found other examples. — Yours, Edwakd Tindall, 
Bridlington. 
Vegetable Fossils in Flint, &c. — WiU you be so kind as to inform me 
in your " Notes and Queries" whether any vegetable matter has yet been dis- 
covered in liint ? I have been anxiously reading any articles in the " Geologist" 
on fossils from flints, but find no mention of such. My regards were particu- 
larly du-ected to the subject, by discovering embedded ui red flint what appears 
to be a portion of ComUina officinalis, as a living specimen would be called, 
with this difference, that the stem seems formed of minute threads jointed at 
intervals. The fossil, though smaD, is quite distinct, and the termmal cera- 
midia look like little pearls. The sui'face of the flint in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of the coralline, if it be such, is of a chocolate colour. 
I shall be much obliged if you wiU have the goodness to direct me to some 
not expensive work on the limestone and lower slate formations of Ireland. 
— Very truly yours, A. de S. M. 
The flints of the chalk occasionally contain fragments of fossil wood, and 
more frequently the spores of Algals, the so-caUed Sjnniferites of Mantell's 
" Medals." Other vegetable fossils are rare in the flints. Possibly the minute 
CoraUina-like object in the flint referred to may be a Nodosaria, one of the 
elongated beaded Foraminifera. We cannot call to mind any work treating of 
the limestone and slates of Ireland. 
Evidences of Ancient Ice-action near Liverpool. — Dear Sir, — The 
new red sandstone in this neighbourhood is usually covered with deposits of 
hard clay, containhig rounded stones of all sizes, from that of a pea to those 
five or six feet in circumference ; in some eases they are scratched and polished. 
There are also beds of sand and gravel containing shells, which are generally 
beneath the clay. The whole of these deposits are referred to the " boidder- 
clay," or "northern drift." It is assumed that the clay, sand, gravel, or 
boulder-stones were all di'opped from melting icebergs as they descended from 
more northern latitudes. 1 am not aware that we have hitherto had any other 
evidence in this district tlian that afforded by the boulders, though tiiat evi- 
dence is very conclusive. Dui'ing the month of May last my attention was 
called to the subject by indications of ice-grooves and furrows on the high 
ground between Parkhill-road and the Dingle. The sandstone-rock belongs to 
the conglomerate-beds of the buiiter-sandstone. The strata dip ten degrees to 
the east. The striated surface has been covered by nine feet of boulder-clay, 
part of which was removed some years ago for brickmaking. One specimen 
exhibited the strongly marked parallel lines and deep grooves which ex- 
tended across it. The surface from wliich it was obtained dips five degrees to 
the north-east. The direction of the lines is north-west by north, or more 
correctly, forty-two degrees west of north, allowing twenty-four degrees for 
variation. About ten yards were at first visible ; but, by employing a labourer 
to clear away some of the clay, at least twenty square yards have been observed, 
and no doubt the same appearances extend over a considerable extent of surface 
beneath the boulder-clay. If this worn surface resulted from the action of ice, 
it must have been from the grounding of icebergs as they passed over the por- 
tion of rock upon which it is found. In the valley beyond Eastham the 
boulder-clay contains many fragments of red sandstone, which seem to have 
been derived from the high land already alluded to, and afford fiu-ther indica- 
tions as to the direction of the prevaUiug currents of the glacial sea. — Geo. 
H. Morton, F.G.S., Liverpool. 
