446 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
returned, liowevei', a few hours after my friends with an appetite that satisfied 
them, if I liad been -with the fairies, they had not supplied mo with any substantial 
entertainment. I believe, then, this cavern had been an ancient lead mine, which, 
since disuse, had fallen in ; but the friends I met then have years since finished 
their mundine probation, and I have had no inducement to visit again the ' Fairy 
Cave.'— F. G. E." 
Volcanic Eiiottion at Gueknset in tiid Thirteenth Century. — The fol- 
lowing extract may be of interest to the readers of The Geologist ; the original is 
in quaiiit Latin : — Extract of a letter from Adam de Marisco, to Grossetete, Bishop 
of Lincoln, on the 7tli of March of one of the years in the middle of the thirteentli 
century. — Translation: " Wiat conjecturer can think what is the meaning of a 
prodigy, unheard of in past ages, made kno^ra publicly by the violence of fame 
in these days ? Namely, that at the isle of Guernsey — a place bordering, as it 
were, on the two kingdonis of France and England — globes of fire are perceived 
to leap up very frequently out of the depth of the sea on to the eminences of the 
earth, devouring even the rocky masses and other materials with an irrepressible 
conflagration, and the inhabitants being driven away, after everything has been 
reduced to cinders, [the flames] conflicting fiercely with warlike encounters, [like] 
bands of armed people in the place of conflagration, and,' after the conflict has 
ceased, withdrawing [themselves] into imknown retreats. Shall we then think 
that anything else is in question but that, while the wicked run mad, the elect 
lament, praying that these and other things unusual in our age, shown by the 
clement providence of the Supreme Lord of Ages, may be turned to good. I do 
not preser.t myself as the author of this so wonderflil novelty, but I recite what was 
repoi'ted in my hearing by a testimony above all exception." This is as nuich of 
the letter as relates to the volcanic eruption at Guernsey. I have translated it 
very literally, and word for word. You can mend the language if you like. I 
think it is the latest notice of any volcanic action in our islands. — T. WRicnT, 
Sydney Street, BromjJton. 
Tbansition Beds of the Chalk. — " A pleasant hours' walk from Beauvais 
brings the traveller to the open fields of Bracheux, and, in the old pit at the very 
summit of the hill, ho will find a good development of the lower tertiary marine 
beds of Woolwich and Reading ; another short hour brings him to the village of 
Laversines, where the usual upper chalk of the plateau is displayed. In an 
abandoned pit concealed by the trees of an orchard, close to the churchyard, 
accessible through some cottage gardens, lies a bank which has the appearance of 
earthy chalk, with yellow stains. This is a mass of sandy, calcareous earth, of 
limited extent, but well displayed,. It lies evenly on the chalk, and rises to the 
surface in a knoll, covered with woodland. The upper portion is friable — the 
lower more compact. Fossils arc extremely abundant ; but principally as casts, 
badly preserved. The Astroja corals, spines of Cidaris, and casts of Area, are 
extremely numerous. Mens. Graves, in his excellent work (Essai sur la Topographic 
Gcognostique du Department du L'Oise, 1847), gives a list of fifty-three determin- 
able species, of which twenty-three are j\Iaestrichtian, and only two found in the 
overlying white chalk. The impression derived from an inspection of the rich 
accumulation of debris is, that it constitutes the rubble-bed of a deposit ; all other 
trace of wliich, in these parts, has been removed by the crowding and grinding 
action of the lower tertiaries ; but how their mass of tender materials could have 
been protected from the forces which pounded up so much besides, it is difficult to 
conceive. — S. R. P." 
Admission to the Geological Society oi? London. — " Dear Sir, — I should very 
much like to be a member of the proposed " Amateur Geological Association," and 
trust to hear much more about it in your next number. 'Would you also kindly 
inform mo in what way gentlemen become Fellows of the Geological Society ? 
In other words, what constitutes an F.G.S. — Yours thankfully, R A C - II A C, 
St. Ives, Hunts." — Fellows of the Geological Society of London are elected by 
ballot, after having been nominated by three Fellows, one of whom at least must 
