ensued; the town-clerk claiming it in the name of the lord of the manor,
while the beadle, with a confused idea about mines being royal property,
leaped into the hole, and, in the Queen's name, took possession of
everything. A desperate struggle ensued, in which several geologists were
laid straight upon the _strata_, and were converted into secondary
deposits on the surface of the earth; when the lamplighter, coming by,
recognised the hard iron substance as the large main of the Equitable
Company. It became therefore necessary to relinquish any further
investigation on the spot originally chosen, and the matter was postponed
to another day, so that the great crustaceous and carboniferous question
remains exactly where it did, to the great injury of the harmony and good
feeling that has never yet prevailed, though it is hoped it some time or
other may prevail, among the inhabitants.

But though public investigation of geological truth is for a time at a
stand-still, we are glad to be able to record the following remarkable
instance of private enterprise:--

A very active member of the association--the indefatigable Mr.
Grubemup--determined to leave no stone unturned for the purpose of making
observations, went out, attended by a single assistant, and made a
desperate attempt to turn the mile-stone in the Kensington-road, in the
hope of finding some geological facts at the bottom of it. After several
hours' labour before day-break, to avoid interruption from the police, he
succeeded in introducing the point of a pickaxe beneath the base of the
stone; and eventually he had the satisfaction of removing it from its
position, when he made the following geological observations:--He found a
primary deposit of dark soil, and, on putting his spectacles to his eyes,
he distinctly detected a common worm in a state of high salubrity. This
clearly proved to him that there must formerly have been a direct