REVIEWS. 
277 
ing of a wat-cr-f^liost or demon. In llic Aiiglo-Saxoii the word lias the same 
meaning. Beov. 838, mi, 285-1. :— 
" And on ydum slog, 
Niceras uilitcs." 
" And on the waves I slew 
Nicors by night." 
Odinn was called, aceording to Snarro, NikaiT, or Knickarr, and when the 
Scandinavians were converted to Ciu-istianity, the god was metamorphosed 
into the ])0[mlar Ucvil, by way of opprobrium. Thu.s, " Old Nick" became a 
surname of Odin and tiie Devil. 
J. Kcmblc, in the glossary to the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, explains the 
word ; thus, Nicor (m) monstrum Huviatile, a nick or nix. Ohd uehhar, 
whence the name of the beautiful river (the Neckkar) upon which Heidelberg 
stands. Old Nick, eald nicor Sathanas. 
I send you these few imperfect remarks in tlie hope some of your numerous 
correspondents may have heard of similar pits in other neighbourhoods ; and 
it will be curious if they bear tlic same popular name. 
The superstitious feeling of the people living near them appears to connect 
tlicm with sometiiing which the Scotch would call uncaimy. — I am, dear Sir, 
yours truly, John Bkent, Barton. 
Pleistocene Deposits near Liverpool. — Sib, — I have read in your jour- 
nal Mr. Morton's communication relative to the northern drift, or Pleistocene 
deposits, near Liverpool. 
Mr. Morton says it is "assumed" that the clay, &c., was dropped from melt- 
ing icebergs. The assumption seems to be a certainty, from the fact that the 
majority of the fossils found in the Pleistocene beds are common existing 
species, and all of them such as are of arctic or glacial origin. 
On the Cheshire side of the Mersey, between Seacombe and Egremont, there 
is, as Mr. Morton is doubtless aware, a capital section of the clay and gi-avel 
beds. In this clay occurs Nucula ohlon.ga, which no longer, I tliink, finds a 
place in our recent fauna. It is some years since I examined these beds, but I 
remember to have found there what does not frequently occur in Pleistocene 
strata, a ripple-marked surface separating in one place the sands from the clays. 
Perhaps Mr. Morton, or some of the members of the Liverpool Geological 
Society, may be able to confirm tliis. 
Can you inform me where it is possible to obtain a copy of King's Mono- 
graph of the Permian Fossils. — I am, yours &c., M. T. B., Darlmgton. 
Professor King's Monograpli of the Permian Fossils is one of the publica- 
tions of the Palajontog: ajihical Society. Any of the back volumes can be 
obtained for the amount of the annual subscription of one guinea. Dr. Bower- 
bank, of 3, Highbury-grove, is the treasurer. 
REVIEWS. 
Answer to Hugh Miller and Theoretic Geolor/ists. By Tnos. A. Davies. New 
York : Rudd and Carlton. London -. Sampson, Low, Son, and Co. 1860. 
For some time past we have had rather a plentiful production of discussive 
works upon the concordance or non-concordance of the so-termed biblical and 
geological accounts of creation. We have ah-eady questioned, on more than 
ouc occasion, whether geologists or theologists are as yet properly prepared 
