NOTES AND QUERIES. 
295 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Geological Pearls. — " The inquiry in a late number of The Geologist, 
• Have geologists ever found any fossil pearls among the oyster and other beds of 
fossil shells V has induced me to forward the result of some investigations which 
I have very recently been can-ying on, not originally with the expectation of dis- 
covering pearls, but, having observed in several instances bodies in chalk which I 
have thought fit to denominate 'pearls,' I will at once proceed to tell you the 
tale respecting them ; premising that I am aware they are not the bodies which 
your correspondent ' Enquirer ' is in search of 
" I have been employing and amusing myself by examining microscopically spe- 
cimens of chalk from various localities. I followed the method of disintegratnig 
the chalk, ' by scrubbing it with a nail-bnish in water,' adopted by Mr. Lonsdale. 
The first specnnen I examined was taken from a drifted mass of chalk lying upon 
the Kinimeridge Clay in a pit at Ely ; on placing minute i^ortions of it, moistened 
with water, in the field of my microscope, I observed, among the particles usually 
met with, a number of spheres of various magnitudes, such as I had never heard 
of before ; the majority of them are perfect circles, having the appearance of 
slightly depressed spheres, their surface exliibits a shght degTee of polish, and 
some are certainly subpellucid ; such is the appearance of these bodies when 
viewed under a thin stratum of water, with transmitted light ; but, if examined 
when dry, with reflected light, aided by the bull's-eye, they are opaque, with a 
subcrystalline, marbly surface ; in short, when seen under water, they reminded 
me so of the ' urinary pearls ' occasionally met with in the bladder of the horse, 
that I have been induced to term them 'geological pearls.' They are soluble 
in dilute hydi'ochloric acid. I have crushed them, with the desire of seeing if their 
internal stracture be fibrous, as in ' urinary pearls,' but I have not at present 
succeeded in detecting that structure. It is probable that they may possess a 
central nucleus, inclosed in concentric laminpe, as m oolitic bodies. I am decidedly 
of opinion that the spherical is the characteristic form of these bodies, still I have 
seen some of an oviform, or piriform, and, very rarely, a bilobed, form; if any may 
be said to be amorjjhous, those have a somewhat botryoidal surface. 
" In the chalk from Cherry Hinton, near Cambridge, I found plenty of ' pearls,' 
and an abundance of RotaliiB and Textidari;ie. In a fragment of chalk-marl from 
Burwell, in Cambridgeshire, I did not detect any of the splierical bodies. Grey 
chalk from Whittington, near Stoke Ferry, in West Norfolk, a stratum of the 
lower chalk, contains an abundance of the ' pearls.' Foi'aminifera appeared to be 
not very numerous ; but, as the portion of chalk examined was exceedingly minute, 
the proportion of these organisms camiot be accurately judged of The chalk of 
Swanham (medial chalk) fm'nished gi'eat plenty of ' pearls ; ' that also from 
Hitcham, in its vicinity, contains these ' pearls,' but not in such abundance as 
the chalk of SwafFham ; m it I obseiTcd one of a pyriform shape, or rather oviform, 
with a stem to it. 
" The Norn'ich Chalk (upper chalk) has about the same proportion of 'pearls' 
as the chalk from Hitcham, and an abundance of Foraminifera. 
"Where they are most abundant, you meet with a regidarly gi-aduated series of 
these bodies, from the smallest to the largest ; and by measurement I found the 
former y^Vo of an inch in diameter, the latter aJs, so that, if allowed to be those 
precious bodies, we must consider them ' seed-pearls ' only. The above described 
bodies are very unhke Xanthidia. — C. B. Rose, F.G.S., Great Yarmouth." 
The Chapter on Fossil Lightning. — "De.\^r Sir,— There is an eiTor about 
Dr. Fiedler's Dresden specimen, at page 203, which is sure to be noticed, unless 
