Sand

Abstract

I HAVE recently been favoured with a reprint of Mr. J. G. Waller's paper upon sand, read before the Quekett Microscopical Society. The subject is so full of interest that I trust I may be allowed to give it a wider publicity in your columns. To render the study of practical use to geologists and physicists, the first step appears to me to ascertain whether it is possible to distinguish with certainty, by aid of the microscope, sand that has been worn by action of wind from sand that has been for long exposed to surf, and this again from sand brought down by torrents. The degree of rounding and the average size of the grains would be, I presume, among the chief characteristics, and it is to be hoped that naturalists abroad will kindly forward examples of undoubted blown and torrential sand, so that this point at least may be settled.