NOTES ANt) QUERIES. 
409 
lilu'iioiupua tlierc rcfcrretl to, as presented by him, gives at once an air of in- 
coliercuec and iniprobatjility wiiicli renders palpable the falseness of tlie at- 
tempted logic applied. Tlic moment we api)iy tlic medium time, we have no 
more such inconsistencies as rapidly precipitated rocks containing countless 
myriads of organic remains, but which were made up in fact not seldom of the 
S'ound-do^\^l and well-worn particles of beings that naturally lived and naturally 
ed. With time brought in as an element, the volcano, intermittent in action 
and terrific in energy, seems to pour forth its volumes of molten lava over the 
surfaces of former lands, and ever and anon the subterranean force heaves up 
the ground, and combats with tlie destr\icliou of the ever-wasting sea. 
There is nothing in the grand conclusions of Geology to excite merriment ; it 
is a pious and a holy study, and if not undertaken ui such a spirit had better be 
left alone. If any^vhere it be unpopular, it must be where ignorance or siUy 
timidity prevails, and not wliere trutlil'ulness and investigation lind earnest 
votaries ; if its knowledge is not more widely spread it is only because the 
state of education is not sufficiently advanced for its beauties and sublimities to 
be properly understood, or because men want time for its proper pursuit. No 
one with a mind duly capable of reflection and of elevated thought can feel 
indifferent to the history of the earth on wliich he dwells, and over which his 
race reigns predommant. 
We have printed our correspondent's communication, however, in its entirety, 
considering his general remark of a seemmg want of logical mference to be m 
many cases just, as far as the mere appearance goes, and as being a valuable 
liiut to obscure writers to improve their styles of composition for the benefit 
of those wlio peruse their works, as well as for the general advantage and pro- 
gress of knowledge. 
CHALK-sroNGES OF YORKSHIRE. — Dear Sir,— Noticing in No. 13 of your 
Magazine the recpiest for a paper on the Sponges from the Yorkshire Chalk, I 
beg to state that steps are about to be taken by me to ensure faithfid drawings 
of aU the species of those curious fossils, of which I liave been collecting 
specimens for the past twenty years. 
I am now making a selection which I intend to have drawn, and to publisli 
with a short account of the localities where they were found, so as to enable 
visitors and amateur-geologists to obtain such fossils themselves. 
I believe that there is not any work which contains figures of one tenth-part 
of the species met with, and many of the forms are not, as yet, placed in the 
museum-collections at York, Hull, or Scarborough. 
I shall have much pleasure m showing my collection to geologists visiting 
this town. — Yours, &c., Edw. Tindall, BridUngton. 
First British Fossil Beaa'er. — As all notices of mammalian remains ap- 
pear to be of value at this period of most interesting investigations, I have sent 
you an abstract of one by Mr. I. Okes, from the "Transactions of the Cambridge 
Philosophical Societv" for 1822, of the first fossil beaver found in England. 
From aU that L oeen recorded by naturalists of the abode and habits of the 
beaver, as also from its anatomical pecuKarities, it is generally concluded that the 
fossil beaver of this country is not only of the same, or a nearly aUicd species 
as the existing kmd, but that it has once been indigenous to Great Britam. 
The fossil remains referred to in Mr. Okes paper consist of the left halves 
of two lower jaw-bones and other portions of four skulls, dug up in 1818 by a 
workman about three miles south of Chatteris, in Cambridgeslm-e, in a bed of 
the old West Water, formerly a considerable branch of communication between 
the Ouse and the river Ncn, but which, according to the fen-people, has been 
choked up for more than two centuries. 
The accuracy of this tradition is proved by the following order of Council, 
printed in Dugdale's " History of the Fens." 
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