38 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
information as our colonial coiTespondent desires, through the facility with which 
questions could thus be brought before hundreds of readers, and a greater amount 
of instruction would, by these means, )>e received tlian in ordinary course could be 
expected from any specially appointed secretary or other otticer. At all events, we 
lay ourselves ojien for receijjt of foreign or colonial communications, and for the 
examination and notice of such foreign and colonial fossils and specimens of rocks 
and minerals, &c., as may be transmitted to us caiTiage-free, holding such speci- 
mens at the direction of the proprietors, or disposing of the same in any inexpen- 
sive manner. 
Pkotest against the use or Initials by Correspondents. — "I eagerly 
look for the Geologist as the first of each mouth comes round ; and I heartily 
wish it success. To me, however, and I doubt not to more of your readers, the 
interest and usefulness of the work is lessened by the number of minor communi- 
cations which appear under anonymous signatures. Periodicals of this class effect 
one most important purpose — that of making known the ' whereal)outs ' of local 
workers in Geology, and thereby enabling persons to come into mutual communi- 
cation who might otherwise never have heard of one anotlier. But the system of 
initUd-sirjnatare shuts the door against all this. To take a case in jioint ; — one of 
your early numbers contains a conunuuication from a Correspondent at Hanvich, 
writing for some local information, but having appended to it sim})ly his initials. 
Now, I am particularly interested in the Geology of Harwich, and most anxious 
for correspondents in that district. Had the writer in this case given his name, 
I dare say I coidd have been of service to him, and most likely he in return might 
have helped me. When I became, in 1837, proprietor of i\Ir. Loudon's well 
known Magazine of Natural History, I found no diflicidty in abolishing the uutial 
system, except in certain cases ; for every now and then there may be reasonable 
gi'ounds for writing incog. Of the inconvenience which may result from it, 
the case of your Bristol coiTespondent, Mr. Higgins, who offered to exchange 
inferior Oolite Fossils, is a notable example. Edward Charlesworth, York." — 
While we agree with Mr. Charlesworth as to the desirableness of coiTespondents 
writing under their proper names, we also think it would not be right of us to 
insist upon this point. Many of the (piestions in om "Notes and Queries" 
department are without doubt very modestly asked, and yet, while they are really 
highly useftd to other students and beginners in the science, they are not uncom- 
monly of such a simple character that many who ask them would be unwilling to 
put tliem iniblicly in their own names. To our principal articles the names of the 
writers are always put, unless we are expressly enjoined n ot to print tliem. We think, 
however, that om- correspondents should enclose their cards with these anonymous 
communications, that we might individually, in our capacity of E(htor, lie enabled, 
with the concurrence of the respective parties, to place them in communication 
with each other where desiral)le. It seems to us, moreover, that when geologists, 
as in Mr. Charlesworth's case, desire further conunuuication with any particular 
correspondent writmg anonymously, or imder an initial, they might intimate their 
wishes in another number of this Magazine, or offer certain seiwices, as was so 
kindly done by Mr. Sanders of Bristol, in rejily to W. S. (Vol. I. p. 161). We desire to 
make this journal as useful as possible ; but the nimiber of communications we 
receive, of an anonymous character, evidently attests the existence of a feeling of 
a very general character. In respect to the " Notes" themselves, we concur to the 
fullest extent in the real advantage of the author's name being attached ; the 
fact of a note being printed at all in this journal suflSces to acknowledge its worth, 
and the suppression of the name of the person resjjonsible for tlie fact stated is not 
just to Science. 
Physical Geology of Weardale. — " Dear Sir, — I am living on the Car- 
boniferous Fonuation, in a narrow valley cut down from the Millstone-grit to the 
Basalt, the depth of the valley being several hundreil feet ; and, as I am a most 
ardent admirer of Geology — in which science, however, I am only a tyi'o — I have 
been led away often into a train of speculations seeking for a solution as to the 
character of the forces that excavated this channel. I soon perceived that water 
was the oidy agent ; but how was it employed ? Was it by the present stream, 
by oceanic currents during submersion, or by the abrasion of waves when the sea 
