that part of the order of the House, which requires your Committee to examine into the conveyance of His Majesty's mails between Holyhead and Howth.

Your Committee consider the information which has been given by so many distinguished practical engineers and shipbuilders, as extremely valuable; and that every praise is due to them, for the readiness and zeal with which they have con-tributed to render the inquiry of your Committee of general utility. Not only the Post-office, but all private companies engaged in steam-boats, may obtain great assistance from opinions derived from such extensive sources of science and experiment; at the same time that the public will be benefited by those various improvements which they suggest, and which will be the natural consequences of the persevering efforts of the great talents which distinguish these professions in Great Britain.

Your Committee, in expressing their opinion in respect to the proper establishment of steam-boats at Holyhead, concur decidedly with the great majority of the witnesses, who say that not less than four steam-boats ought to be employed on this service. They recommend that the vessels should be built of very strong timbers, put together, filled in, and diagonally fastened, according to Sir Robert Seppings's plan; and that they should be coppered and copper-fastened throughout. They approve very much of the plan of a steam-boat as described by Messrs. Maudslay and Field, who say, "A steamvessel and engine to encounter a gale that would bring a stout frigate under her double-reefed topsails, or a good cutter under a three-reefed mainsail, should be a vessel of about 200 tons; both vessel and machinery exceedingly strong; her form, under water, that of the fastest schooner; the centre of gravity kept as low as possible; the projecting works on the sides added to the proper body of the vessel; the rigging to strike completely; the chimney formed to cut the wind; with two fifty-horse engines every way proportioned to the strength of the vessel." Your Committee conceive the evidence, which has been given before them, removes all doubts in respect to the practicability of putting engines of this power in a vessel of 200 tons.

Your Committee are of opinion, that every part of an engine for a Holyhead steam-boat should be made of wroughtiron, except where there is no risk of breaking, and should be effectually proved before using it, by a proper proving machine; that the boilers should be made of copper; and that the air-pump, buckets, rods, and valves, should be made of copper or brass.

R 2

Your

Your Committee particularly recommend, as indispensably necessary for œconomy as well as safety, according to the opinions of all the witnesses who were examined to this point, that a professional engineer should be employed to reside constantly at Holyhead, to superintend the machinery and inspect the engine-keepers. And also that each vessel should be supplied with an extinguishing fire-engine, and with two large boats in addition to the ordinary ship's boat.

From the great advantages which may be derived from revolving furnaces, your Committee feel anxious that a proper experiment should be tried to ascertain whether they can be used in place of the common fire-places.

[The Report concludes with some suggestions relative to the management and fares of the steam-boats between Holyhead and Dublin, as well as the Custom-house arrangements, docks, roads, and Post-office regulations.]

XXII. Fossil Bones on the Coast of East Norfolk. By Mr. RICHARD TAYLOR..

To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal.

GENTLEMEN, BEG to communicate an extract from some geological memoranda made during an excursion a few days ago along the Norfolk coast, from Cromer southward;-my object being chiefly that of pointing out the localities of an extensive stratum of osteological remains.

Throughout the course of the cliffs which form the eastern boundary of this county against the German Ocean, from Happisburgh to the north of Cromer, may be traced, at intervals, along the base of the clay cliffs, a remarkable stratum containing an abundance of fossil wood and the bones of large herbivorous animals mineralized by iron. The thickness of this singular bed does not exceed two feet, and frequently not more than one. It varies in its material, from a red ferruginous sand to an ochreous coarse gravel cemented by iron, and often divided into septa by a coarse ferruginous kind of crystallization, accompanied by thin, flattened, and circular cakes of very hard argillaceous red-coloured stone: others are spherical, from the size of a hazel-nut to that of a hen's egg, and resemble the seed-vessels figured in the first volume of Parkinson's Organic Remains.

The vicinity of the stratum which I shall proceed to describe, is always indicated by the abundance of these stones, which are washed to the base of the cliffs, and, being too hard

to

to be readily injured by attrition, are sometimes accumulated in considerable quantities. Many of the nodules having been split into laminae by the operations of the air, moisture or frost, are again united by a cement of hard ferruginous sand; and in this state some of the fossils and bones are discovered.

The most numerous organic substances here are those of vegetable origin, in various degrees of preservation and mineralization, from the state of black and rotten peat wood to that of a ponderous iron-stone, somewhat flattened by pressure, as I believe is the case with all fossil wood. When any portion of this stratum is exposed horizontally on the beach, fragments of oak-wood several feet long are often uncovered by the waves. It is probable that the bed containing this wood extends along the coast, below the level of the sea, much more to the south than Happisburgh; for large masses in all stages of preservation are continually thrown up on the beach as low down as Caister, Winterton, and Palling. We should even be correct in stating it to be an extension of the well-known stratum at Watton-cliff and Harwich. The part of the Norfolk coast where it is most conspicuous, is at Overstrand, about three miles south of Cromer. Here some small springs of chalybeate water ooze out of the ferruginous bed before noticed, imparting to the pebbles of the beach and to the waters left by the tide a strong tinge of bright brown or red. Here and there are scattered heavy nodules of radiated pyrites, which are brilliant when broken, and of the colour of brass; and a strong sulphurous smell is emitted, particularly in warm weather. Some pieces of iron thickly incrusted with ferruginous sand and shingle were completely metallic at the core.

A few of the flattened stones have casts and impressions of shells upon their surfaces, particularly some species of Astarte or Venus.

But the most important amongst the organized remains here are the reliquiæ of land animals, of which the elephant and the deer are the most conspicuous. A fine grinder of that which bears a close affinity to the East Indian elephant was recently detached by me from this stratum. It is ponderous and discoloured; for it is probable that iron now forms one of its chief component parts and has added much to its weight. The plates which remain are nine in number; the enamel is perfectly white, and the intermediate spaces are of a deep black : the whole length of the triturating surface is about six inches, and when perfect was originally much longer. See Plate II. fig. 2.

Embedded with this was what I conjectured to be the upper part of the skull of an animal equal in size to the ele

phant.