9i 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Mr. Calvert Clapham states that " at Speeton it (the Eed Chalk) is in 
some places a soft red clay, and is used to colour bricks and red pottery." 
^Vhenever the Eed Chalk is found soft, like clay, at Speeton, it is because 
of its being displaced from its original bed and ground to a powder by 
large masses of white chalk which overlie the red chalk, falling upon 
it, and then the rains falling upon, or small streamlets passing through it, 
give it the consistency of " soft red clay ; " but it is not to be found in a 
soft clayey state in situ. I must beg respectfully to state, that Mr. C. 
Calvert is labouring under a mistake, when he states that the red chalk is 
used at Speeton for colouring either bricks or rough pottery : it is not so 
used ; but an article verj^ much the same in colour is used, viz. Venetian 
red, a sample of which I enclose for your inspection, and remain, 
Your obedient servant, 
Edw. Tindall. 
3Iammalian and Human Retnains, Isle of Portland. 
Sir, — y^W\ you allow me to send you some remarks relating to an ac- 
count, in the ' Times ' of the 1st of January last, of some human and 
other bones which have been discovered associated together in fissures of 
the rock of Portland Island, during the building of the fortifications 
there ? 
The following is the passage in the 'Times:' — "The sections of the 
wonderful geological strata which form the Island of Portland are seen 
for the first time, in the straight rocky walls of the ditch, in all their 
curious variety. What is most singular is, that at regular intervals of 
twenty-five or thirty yards, and commencing about twenty feet below the 
surface of the ground, are a series of vertical faults or gaps, about two 
feet wide, which, as far as can be judged, penetrate to the lowest sub- 
strata of the island, and traverse it completely from north to south. In 
these extraordinary clefts, human bones have been found, with those of 
w ild boars and horns of reindeer, not fossilized, but with all their osseous 
structure as perfect as if they were not fifty years old." 
In 'Willis's Current Notes ' for August. 1852, there is a nearl}^ similar 
account of human and other bones found in the fissures of the Portland 
rock. The account says : — " It appears that in the year 1844. some human 
bones were discovered on the ledges of a fissure in a quarry belonging to 
Mr. Weston, at different depths, from twenty -five to forty feet. These 
fissures run parallel w ith each other throughout the island, from north- 
east to south-west, at stated distances, varying from forty-five to sixty feet, 
and the quarrymen say that they always know when they are coming near 
to them from the form the upper layers of loose stone and rubble assume, 
losing their longitudinal stratification, and having all the appearance of 
having been dragged out of their position by a mighty rush of water from 
above into the fissure. These fissures do not extend to the surface-soil by 
five or ten feet, and run down to the blue clay, through the several strata 
of stone, etc., to the depth of from eighty to a hundred feet, having many 
ledges or shelves in them, and generally covered with stalactitic forma- 
tions. On several of these ledges a number of bones of all kinds of ani- 
mals were found, including those of the human species. These were pre- 
served and shown by Captain Manning to the late Eev. Dr. Buckland, on his 
next visit to the Castle ; but the doctor having doubts as to the place where 
they were found, accompanied Captain Manning to the fissure, where a 
lad was let down who brought up more of the bones in his presence. 
