Gents Mag 1794 p.326

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	introduction
	list, 4th qtr 18th century
	continued from
	Gentleman's Magazine 1794 p.326 A NATURALIST'S RAMBLE IN THE NORTH. (Concluded from p.113). AFTER leaving Levens, the park, and river, we soon reached Heversham. This village presents the Malva Sylvestris to the North country Naturalist; a plant which he considers as a botanical acquisition. We also picked up by the way the Bromus Madritensis, and the Convulvulus Arvensis. Nothing more worth recording occurred until we came to the junction of the Bela with the Kent on the Sands. Here the thermometer, placed in the fresh-water of the channel at eight in the evening, stood at 60°, with which observation we closed the labour and recreation of the day, intending to renew them early the next. The amusements of our walk were undoubtedly many, but it could be called fatiguing, as the length of it did not exceed eight miles. August 2. In pursuance of our last night's resolution, we were on the sands soon after five in the morning. The days was fine, and we determined to follow the shore in order to pick up what curiosities might happen to fall in our way. But it soon appeared that our journey had not been well timed; for, the tides were neap, and the gulls had cleared the deserted channel of the greatest part of the marine animals that are found in it at the time of spring-floods. These sands are skirted on both sides with calcareous rocks; those on the East side, which bound the shore we examined, are frequently high and naked, and run in a zigzag line; their direction is nearly from North to South as far as Arnside, but afterwards it inclines considerable to the East, whiile the opposite coast continues in the former course, or nearly so; thus the width of the channel is gradually enlarged. The strata are for the most part well formed; but the rocks are, in some places South-east of Arnside, composed of mis-shapen masses, not at all stratified. This lofty bank of limestone abounds with petrifactions, principally of Lithophyta; but the petrified valves of a species of Pinna are sometimes found in it, as well as those of the Cardium Edule and other bivalves. The joints of the strata are in some places stained with a red substance, proceeding from the blood-stone which they contain. This mineral contains much oxyd of iron; its colour is reddish brown; its specific gravity 4.992; one surface is generally convex, the other is less, and concave; the sides are for the most part marked with converging fibres. Another uncommon fossil is found here, the Stirium Marmoreum of Linnaeus, or fibrous limestone; its specific gravity is 2.728; fire converts it into lime; it disolves in the vitriolic, marine, and nitrous acids, and contains carbonic acid gas. We heard that variety of the Motacilla Trochitus, called in Westmorland a Strawsmear, singing in a woody declivity close to the beach, after the same bird had been silent for more than three weeks in the interrior part of the country. It weighs 6 1/4 dwts. The bill is slender, nearly equal; the tongue
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