34 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
splieroitlal, and iu some places columnar Basalt, — a study to the Victorian 
geologist, little, if any, less instructive than the trap-surmounted hills of 
Ardeche or the volcanic district of Auvergne. 
Melboia-ne, Sejptemher 9, 1863. 
NOTES A^sD QUEEIES. 
The Geaham Shoal. — Several notices have lately appeared in the 
' Times ' upon the re-discovery of Graham Shoal, off the coast of Sicily, 
and lying near] 3^ in the track of the mail-steamers running between Mar- 
seilles, Malta, and Alexandria. There had been for several years rumours 
that the shoal had sunk to such a degree as to be no longer dangerous to 
shipping. To verify this, her Majesty's ship Argus, Captain Ingram, was 
sent in October, 1861, and employed for several days in searching for the 
shoal, without success ; and from the report of her survey, supported by 
the opinions of the fishermen of Sciacca and Girgenti, it appeared that the 
accumulation of cinders and scorice that had been heaped up by an erup- 
tion of a submarine volcano, and formed the shoal, had gradually dis- 
persed. 
When Etna was reported last summer to be in a state of eruption, Mr. 
Almona, of the Peninsular and Oriental steamship Valetta, mentally 
connected the fact with Graham's Slioal, considering the same causes that 
were influencing the larger mountain might also afi'ect the hidden crater, 
and he determined to give the old spot of the shoal a wider berth in passing. 
The late survey of the ' Growler ' has found the bank again ; and whether 
the ' Argus's ' search was in fault, or that it has newly again come to the 
surface, must be a matter of surmise. 
Ceetaceous Teeebeatul^. — One of the species described by Mr. Lan- 
kester in your JSTovember number {T. 3Ioiito7iiana, D'Orb.) is a common 
shell in the Lower Greensand of Godalming. Of the other [T. clepressa, 
Lam.), I found a fine specimen at Shanklin, in 1861. The specimen figured 
on PI. XXI. Fig. 5, scarcely, however, represents T. depressa, as in that 
species the deltidium is ?w one piece. — C. J. A. Meyee. 
AYasium has been described by M. Bahr as existing in Norwegian 
orthite, in that of the island of Haenshohm, as well as in the orthite of 
Ytterby. He finds it in the state of oxide associated with silica, alumina, 
iron, yttria, ceria, didymia, lime, manganese, etc., but these minerals 
hard]}^ ever contain more than one per cent, of wasa, or the oxide of 
Wasium. A paper by M. Nickles is recorded in the Comptes Kendus of 
the French Academy, in which the existence of Wasium, as a simple body, 
is disputed, and reasons assigned for believing Wasium to be oul}^ a com- 
plex oxide, or yttria coloured with a little oxide of didymium or terbium. 
Sections on the Lewisham and Tunbeidge Eailway. — Dear Sir, 
— In the course of last summer a tunnel was commenced on the new line 
of railway from Lewisham to Tunbridge, in the neighbourhood of Elmsted 
Lane, Bromle3^ ^vhere a very interesting and highly fossiliferous deposit 
has been brought to light. 
A considerable tract of country around Bromley is occupied by a thick 
deposit of rounded flint pebbles in sand, concreted portions of which have 
long been known as the " Bromley Oyster Conglomerate." 
