80 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
perfect fossil fish in the upper Kenper sandstone, near Warwick. This terminated 
a very pleasant meeting. 
The last meeting of the Club was held on the 1 5th of September, at Henley 
in Arden, and was entirely devoted to archajology. 
The nest meeting was fixed to take place as usual at Warwick, in February 
next, when the chief business of the Club will be transacted, and places of meeting 
settled for the year ensuing. 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
A CoREESPONDENT writcs : — " I beg leave to remark that, within this year 
(1857), several fossil bones have been discovered in the Lias on the beach between 
this place " (Charmouth) " and Lyme Regis, which, in my humble opinion, go a 
great way to overturn the general opinion that the Lias contains no fossil remains 
of Mammalia. I will, at an early period, endeavour to transmit you a sketch of two 
in ray own possession, and two others in that of a gentleman of my acquaintance, 
who is engaged in pursuits similar to my own. Both of us are zealous collectors — 
not Geologists, I beg to observe, although we have some specimens which I doubt 
not would be highly interesting to a professed Geologist." 
Neophyte. — A silicate is one of those bodies which are called by chemists 
" salts." A " salt" is a compound which is the result of the union of an " acid ' 
with a " base." In the case of a silicate the acid which unites with the base is 
silicic acid or " silica," the material of flints, rock crystal, &c. ; and an alcaline 
Bilicate is silica in union with an alkali as the base. The silicates of potash and 
soda (both alkalies) are soluble in water, and thus rocks containing them may be 
broken up by the action of water, which dissolves the soluble silicate away, causing 
the other ingredients to fall to pieces. 
X. Y. Z . — Algse are not sponges. They constitute a natural order, consisting 
of aquatic plants, both murine and freshwater, of which seaweeds are 
familiar examples. Many of them, especially the freshwater ones, are microscopic 
objects. — Silt is the fine sediment which is carried down by rivers and deposited 
on their banks and at their mouths, sometimes in such quantity as to form 
banks, which block them up, or at least render the navigation intricate and 
difficult. 
Jane E. B. — " Ptericthys " means " a winged fish," and is derived from the 
Greek words pteron, a wing, and icluhus, a fisli. 
0. N. Y. — Woodward's "Recent and Fossil Shells," published by Weale, will 
answer your purpose. 
Verbum Sap. — Your suggestion is useful, and has been under consideration, 
but there are difficulties in the way of carrying it out. A vocabulary for each 
number of the Magazine would occupy more room than could be afforded for such 
a purpose. Most elementary works on Geology contain a glossary of terms ; we 
must content ourselves with giving the meaning and etymology of words when 
asked for them. Fossils are frequently represented in situ, but those which are 
found in the bed "a confused mass of stems, calices, and arms," as the Woodocrini 
are described to be, cannot, of course, be drawn in this manner. 
T. V. writes as follows : — " To the Editor of the Geologist. — Sir, If any of your 
readers will give me the names of the localities in the neighbourliood of Durham, 
that possess interest for Geological students, it will much oblige." 
