NOTES AND QUEEIES. 
271 
to indicate truly freshwater conditions for the formation in which it is 
found. 
3. "On Glacial Surface-markings on the Sandstone near Liverpool." 
By G. H. Morton, Esq., F.G.S. 
The author here noticed the occurrence of glacial grooves and scratches 
at— 1st, Toxteth Park, the direction of the strise being jS". 42° W., at 
120 feet above the sea ; 2nd and 3rd, at Boundary-lane and New-road, 
Kirkdale, the strise being N. 15° W., and at about 80 feet above the sea. 
NOTES AND QUEEIES. 
CORTLACEJE IN A BED OF LlGNITE UNDEE SiLT. — The following brief 
description and sketch of a deposit in which I recently found nuts of the 
Corylacese, those of the Cor^ylus Avellana, or common hazel-nut, may 
interest your readers. 
The lignite bed in which the said nuts are observed, is the part of the 
embankment of a small stream or burn in the neighbourhood of the village 
of Whiteinch, forming the boundary between two counties. The lignite 
bed appears from its position, the lower portion being on a level with the 
water of the burn which when in flood rises a little above it, to crop out 
and to be a portion of the lignite strata several feet under the surface. 
The embankment is only about six feet in height. In the sketch (a a) 
represents fine sand containing organic remains, undoubtedly cainozoic, 
fragments (teeth, etc.) of mammalia, coprolites, and small fossil portions of 
flora, perpendicular in position. Mixed with the sand I found fragments 
of quartz, round in shape, and belonging to that formation termed locally 
the till, or drift. And I may here remark that quartz balls from the 
drift, smoothed and perfect in form, are frequently seen in the walls or 
Dikes in this neighbourhood. Under a portion of the sand or clay (Jb) and 
the lignite bed (c 6) the lignite is mLxed with black mud, and contains 
flora not in a fossil state, as is the case with the fragments in the sand {a a) 
but in a state almost per- _ 
feet, i. e. the portions of JHrn-itiiiij^ijl gTM^^ 
the hazel or birch branches ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1^^—-^^::^=^=^^^^^ 
are not fossilized, and have 
only lost a smaU portion -:: ^^~^ = ^^'^ ^^^ ^^^J^Zz r-:z^^^^^ 
of their bark ; the position 
of the stems is horizontal. Intermixed with the mud of the lignite and 
almost on a level with the burn, are the nuts in abundance, and not in the 
least subject to any pressure from the lignite above them, but at the same 
time prevented by the mud from being removed by the water of the stream 
when in flood. The black dots in the sketch shows their position in the 
lignite, which like the lignites of the Continent exhibit the true dicotyle- 
donous structure. 
This remarkable deposit appears to be a fluvio-marine bed, or fluviatile 
accumulation. The lignite is undoubtedly still forming, and the position 
of the nuts makes me imagine that the force which pressed the silt (a a) 
down upon the vegetable remains was the Drift, which' appears from the 
position of the clay (6) to have come in a northern direction. After pass- 
ing under a bridge, the Dumbarton road, the stream joins the Clyde, 
which doubtless originated the low long valley-terrace, of which the lignite 
bed just described forms a part. " These terraces," Mr. Page remarks, 
'* have long attracted attention, and point to a time when many of our 
