NOTES AND QUERIES. 
127 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Glacial Action in Walei?. — " At the mouth of a lateral valley opening into 
the vale of the Itlion, in Radnorshire, at the turnpike-gate above Llanhadam 
Fynydd, tliere is a low hUl somewhat in advance of the slopes of the underlying 
schistose rocks. A road-cutting exposes a section of this hill about fifty feet from 
its base, and the same from its sunnnit. It is seen to be composed of materials 
far different to those of the soft coarse rocks around, being, in fact, a collection of 
boulders aiul angular fi-agments, with smaller pebbles and mud. The excavation 
made by the stream at the base of the hill shows the same confused collection of 
large stones, little-rolled, with coarse detrital material. The boulders are prin- 
cipally gritty portions of the Silurians found in the hills at the sources of the 
stream. The residual products of a glacier appear to be here apparent. — S. R. P." 
Mammalian Remains. — " Dear Sir, -The remains of Mammalia in the 
Dover Museum are very few, and are mostly those of INIammoth. The collection 
consists of, large tusk of IMammoth, another large tusk, apparently of a different 
species, trawled up in the North Sea, oft" Holfoi'dness ; remains of jNlammotb, and 
large stags' horns, from Faversbam ; Elephants' grinders, dredged up on the 
Calais oyster-ground, off the French coast ; part of upi)er portion of a bear's 
skull, from the Cherry Gardens, Folkestone ; cores of horns of Bos, from Faver- 
sbam ; remains of Mammoth and of Bos, from Heme Bay. — Yours, &c., Charles 
Gordon." 
Landslip at the Isle of Portland. — "In the Isle of Portland, early on 
Sunday morning, December 26th, an unusual kind of noise was beard by some of 
the inhabitants at the village of Chesil, compared, by the narrator, to the con- 
tinual falling of a stone wall. On the return of daylight it was found to have 
proceeded from the sliding away of a large extent of under-cliff, covering an area 
of fi'om twenty to twenty-five acres, whicli had caused the sinking of an enonnous 
mass of broken stone, the debris of the adjoining cpiarries, and the accunuilation 
of very many years. The scene of the occurrence is on the west side of the island, 
overlooking the great west bay, about 200 or 300 yards from the village of Chesil. 
A slight sinking had been ol)served by one of the quarrymen on the i)revious 
afternoon, but it was not until an hour after midnight the general mass gave way. 
The main clift", or escarijuient, is, at this point, about 200 feet above the level of 
the sea ; the north end is 495 feet, but with a considerable southerly dip. The 
upper strata of the Isle of Portland are the Purbeck, or fresh-water limestone, 
alternating with layers of clay or dirt, as it is here called ; one ©f which seams 
contains the fossil trees and Cycadcxe. Below this is the trae Portland-series, 
consisting of beds of stone interspersed with bands of chert and flint, and termi- 
nating with the Portland-sand. Below all these the Kimmeridge-clay — the 
formation which yields the well-known bituminous schist — forms the general 
substratum of the island. It forms the anchorage ground of the Portland road- 
stead, and is the stratum on which the Chesil-beach has accumulated. The 
immediate cause of the landslip undoulitedly has been the action of the springs 
from behind and above passing through the numerous fissures in the beds of solid 
limestone, and carrying away in their course the soft and yielding clay ; and thus 
undermined, the superincumbent mass has sunk downwards and outwards. In 
ascending from the beach, the visitor will be fii'st attracted by the low under-clifi 
of Kinnneridge-clay, which, from lateral pressure, has been pushed forwards 
beyond the beach into the water, and forced upwards with the shingle over it, so 
as to present an escarjunent, or outer face, towards the sea. The condition of the 
displaced under-clift' is, more or less, the accompaniment of all landslips on the 
coast, and was remarkably exhibited in the gi'eat landslip near Lyme Regis^ De- 
cember 25th, 1839. On that occasion, the argillaceous stratum of under-clifi was 
tilted up to a height of thirty feet, leaving a corresponding depression behind, 
which soon became filled with the fresh water issuing from the main land. At 
Portland, a small pond only has been formed. A little way up the cliff, a singular 
