It having been determined to open a sewer where the old Hookham-road meets with the ancient Roman footpath at Snivey, the junction of which gives name to the modern town, the Geological Association passed a strong resolution, in which it was asserted, that the opportunity had at length arrived for solving the great doubt that had long perplexed the minds of the inhabitants as to whether the soil in the neighbourhood was crustaceous or carboniferous. The _crusta_ceous party had been long triumphing in the fact, that a mouldy piece of bread had been found at two feet below the surface, when digging for the foundation of a swing erected in a garden in the neighbourhood; but the _carboni_ferous enthusiasts had been thrown into ecstacies, by the sexton having come upon a regular _strata_ of undoubted cinders, in clearing out a piece of ground at the back of the parson's residence. Some evil-disposed persons had the malice to say that the spot had been formerly the site of a subsequently-filled-up dusthole; but the _crusta_ceous party, depending as they did upon a single piece of bread--_all crumb_ too--however genuine, could not be said to have so much to go upon as the _carboni_ferous section, with their heap of cinders, the latter being large in quantity, though of doubtful authority. However, the opening of the sewer was looked forward to with intense interest, as being calculated to decide the great question, and all the principal geologists were on the spot several hours before operations commenced, for the purpose of inspecting the surface of the ground before it was disturbed by the spade and pickaxe of the labourer.