310 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
(pines). Some of the specimens are extremely liard, and consist almost entirely 
of silica and oxides of iron. They may easily be dug out of the soft sandstone 
with a small cpud. A mop-stick, having a small strong piece of flat iron fastened 
at one end, is a very useful instrumsnt in these geological rambles. I have some 
very fine specimens, and one deposited in the Leicester Museum, and another in 
my possession, measure 12 inches in diameter: they show the Sternbergia (cast of 
pith), with the discoidal spaces, medullary rays, rings of growth, the lace-like 
net-work round the small pithy centres, warty excretions of the bark, &c. Other 
specimens are entirely endogenous and look like bundles of very fine reeds, all 
cemented together. I should take exception to the remark that " the Syenites of 
Mount Sorel protruded thi-ough the slates of Charnwood." There is no evidence of 
this ; on the contrary, what evidence there is upon tliis point is against this view ; 
and I incline to the opinion that all the granites and syenites found on the flanks 
of the slates are of older date than the slates. They certainly did not produce 
the upthrow of the anticlinal, as they arc not found along this line, the small 
patches of igneous rook marked in the maps being of a basaltic character. There 
is no spot where the junction of the syenite and slate is exposed, although in some 
places they approach within a very few yards, yet a considerable deptli of red 
marl conceals the actual junction, and still no disturbance of the dip of the slate 
is found to occur at tliese places. The extreme south end of the anticlinal is 
exposed in a quarry near Hallgate, the slate dipping each way, yet touching at 
the top I have here obtained a fine pentagon of coarse-grained basalt ; but the 
upheaving rock, whether basalt or syenite, does not appear to have burst through 
the anticlinal to any extent, merely tilting the slates up. At any rate, I think 
neither the syenites nor granites of Mount Sorel, Groby, Markfield, nor the 
phorphyritic rocks of Bardon, High Sharpley, &c., have been the cause of the 
upheaval of the slates, — James Plant, Princess Street, Leicester. 
TuiAssic Stkata. — The letter of your correspondent. Rev. P. B. Brodie, and his 
recent discovery of a fine specimen of fish from the Upper Keuper Sandstone, in 
the neighbourhood of Rowington, again recals to my mind the regret I have felt 
that the few rare fossils from this very interesting and somewhat obscure forma- 
tion, are not collected at somo one locality easily accessible to all geological 
students. The finest collection is in the Warwick Museum ; another collection is 
at the Leicester Museum; and some specimens are at the Geological Society and 
at Jcrmyn Street Museum. 1 have a number of specimens iu ray own possession. 
It would, however, be much better, if any use is to be made of them in working 
out the paUuontology of the British Trias, if they were all deposited at some one 
place ; and this course might lead to the production of a monograph on the Trias 
of Britain, a great and much-felt want. Let me warn young geologists not to 
confound this Keuper Sandstone, which lies ahove the Red Marl, with the Keuper 
Sandstone lying helow that stratum. Somo allusions to thi.s formation, that I have 
read, have not kept this distinction sufficiently clear. The Lower Keuper Sand- 
stone formerly classed ,as No. 1 of the Eunter scries of beds, and cdled at times 
" Water-stones," or " White Beds," is a very extensive formation, both vertically 
and horizontally, and probably will be found to be the equivalent of the 
" Aluschelkalk," thus completing the British Triassic group. The Upper Keuper 
Sandstone is extremely local in its development, rarely exceeding two miles in 
Iiorizoutal extent, nor more than 80 or 00 feet in vertical depth. In several locali- 
ties where I have examined it (although continuous for miles, running in and out 
in an irregular line), it is not more than from 10 to 20 yards in horizontal width, 
and from 4 to 12 feet in vertical depth. — .James Plant, Princess Street, 
Leicester. 
PossiL Whale. — Dr. Allman, Professor of Natural History in the University of 
Edinburgh, recently visited Stirling to inspect some cetaceous remains excavated 
iu a clay-field, adjoining Mr. Christie's brick-works on the shore. The whale is 
computed to have been about forty feet in length, and the skeleton is considci-ed 
to be the most ctmipletc specimen as yet discovered in North Britain. Professor 
Allman recommended that the bones should be united by a qualified articulator, 
and preserved in a nuiscum. — J. J., Inverness. 
