PA nits Pst hb Fm a Pati ahaa i nace ee eae LIBRARY OF R. D. LACOE For the Promotion of Research in PALEOBOTANY and PALEOZOOLOGY RETURN TO SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WASHINGTON, D. C. AR A SEES fg. [FERN Ey Hoes free. . fs3 fees ic fez ies S<$l. fae eas SAN ne \ as Wit Ne ea t) | om 1 7 ey a Merl, ee i ik | aa “Yy, 1 ab: st Ml feboratin a ee a ee Mee S Pe Aig PER At aS ie inte i a ss mM] NE Yor, Ot Pf ae eye aa Oe Noy SRG a e a — a 4] i (Ga aie g Sfact Bese x C * a fees Font « fe 3 Srary Gan Be fgottingis ond Tinea ee PROCEEDINGS - . or THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. NOVEMBER 1838 to JUNE 1842. VOL. THa:, nels e dacs cay nage LONDON: PRINTED BY R. AND J. E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STRERT 3 ee SOLD AT THE APARTMENTS OF THE SOCIETY, = SOMERSET HOUSE. 1842. CONTENTS. VOL. III. SESSION 1838-1839. Ow some Fossil Remains of Paleotherium, Anoplotherium, and Che- ropotamus, from the Freshwater Beds of the Isie of Wight. By Ea ARCMOINVENS LISU Lal Sethe waceeaal horas oon ine since caiic-ataiicnde eckeene page 1 On the Drift from the Chalkand Saal below the Chalk in the coun- ties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, &c. By James Mince UNUM Sy ec cieecr. pi rnuie a watisustensece nine Se svesanes ce Seater enna eee 3 On the Jaws of the Thylacotherium Prevostii. By Richard Owen, [BGs ABs (SOR BEES eae ME RISE LR SAE RAH BN) RA RCC RMN Clem A Ete titats | A Notice on the Formation of Metallic Veins by Voltaic Agency. By NN ICD USO Sectsien race cae Nan paar hyenas ctceaiasnaes cok teth eco eee g On Mastodon Teeth from the Crag, and the occurrence of a parti- cular Bed containing Echini in the Coralline Crag at Sudbourne. Dy apt Mex ander (picccecn.ac+-- ere rle rete. Aero Seeears seam posse 16 A few brief Remarks on the Trap Rocks a Fife. ‘By Cheney John Titlkeycquvavense D)aID Fa Slam reer Senien here Aedneatdaces esaacseseeseehseeenabose scence | LE An Account of Footsteps of the :Cheirotherium, and other unknown Auimals, lately discovered in the Quarries of Storeton Hill. re the Liverpool Natural History Society...........c..cscceccesceeeees coe 12 On Casts in Sandstone of the Impressions. -of the. Hind, Foot of a gigantic Cheirotherium, from the New Red’ Sandstone of Cheshire. By sir Philip Egerton, Barts, MPs... 2. ..csnccce once GleicisMoelsiois iol Re Ie 14 A Notice of Four differently characterized octane: traced from Casts procured at Storeton. By James Yates, Esq. ........0..000000s 14 On the Phascolotherium. By Richard Owen, Esq. s...2....s.ss0.0cee, 17 On the structure and relations of the presumed Marsupial Remains from the Stonesfield Slate. By William Ogilby, Esq. ............... 21 ‘On the Discovery of the Basilosaurus and ‘the Batrachiosaurus. By Emehendetianan MDs ie St ee ee ee 23 On the Teeth of the Zeuglodon Pea Madileas of Dr. Harlan). By Pie ARGG OVC lS Qe ee coca cceenil ores wae ote seten can cakencee eae 24 On the Occurrence of Graptolites in the Slate of Galloway. By Se Lays TBS a yeaa nae eh MA Sc 28 On the Geology of the Pelgihountood of Lisbon. By Daniel Sharpe, TDI louecina dete bee COMB se haem Balanites None NAM dee cratered ad 29 1v On a probable Cause of certain Earthquakes. By M. Louis Albert TINGS Sere Ae ae a cM aR RES CCR RIELiPS a page 37 Annual Report, 15th February, 1839 ......... aaceegteagese sence wnecee OEE Address on presenting to Chevalier Bunsen the Wollaston Medal awarded to Professor Ehrenberg. By the Rev. Prof. Whewell, HERES HY Guise ve cise silen cate ecttticerdstde phe io berate Scie se Rar eps cele eee opis ceeteet sens Reply to the President's Address on receiving the Wollaston Medal awarded to Prof. Ehrenberg. By Chevalier Bunsen .............0++++ Anniversary Address, delivered 15th February, 1839. By the Rev. Prof. Whewell An Account of Impressions and Casts of Drops of Rain, discovered in the Quarries at Storeton Hill, Cheshire. By J. Cunningham, Pee eee meas ee SOP eee ee ress nse aseFCOEEE sesso ssseesesesseseeedDOSsasssseeseeessrese Observations respecting a Slab of Sandstone impressed with Cheiro- therium Footsteps, at Mr. Potts’s, in Chester. By Sir Philip Bee ombw artec Mb Pars s spistiec «asco casislale aepotieen aeee ORE ceo noe ROC Ene oe EEE On a Slab of Sandstone, exhibiting Footmarks. By John Taylor, HUE EISG ES teh. Pn otis, came emtencise neler etnaine sere eens sloieelce dete oteetieietsl eeaseieiee POPS S Ore e eS Oe ser eerrasese ses raeese sere OBES CsesesrenseOSoreanssee On Swallow Holes near Farnham; and the Drainage of the Country at the Western Extremity of the Hog’s Back. By Henry Lawes PROM GE MISE nave aisceeencd wecusicnomocntabaeet« caccenes acaar mes seeee ore ae eae On a deposit of Greenstone overlying Sandstone, in Southern Africa. Biya @ ante, CHALLOTS, », sastsapisieat see deteiiamemse oteo-( inctectacistc easter eee eee On the N.W. part of Asia Minor, from the Peninsula of Cyzicus to Koola, with a Description of the Catacecaumene. By J. W. Ha- milton, Esq. PCF eee eset eo ere sees see OSSEEesescesscererseseseS POOOCers TOPO ORsssree Description of a Tooth and part of the Skeleton of the Glyptodon. By Richard Owen, Esq On as much of the Transition or Grauwacke System as is exposed in the Counties of Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. By the Rev. Dawid Walliams? ?. 7.8... 0290 2G MS eae AE OS Cn ca ee On the Climate of the Newer Pliocene Tertiary Period. By James SHAME, MUS O). od cet aise sien alsisitng sic ojalealsiee nels eatinnesae se -te st echo eee eee eee On some Fossil and Recent Shells, collected by Capt. Bayfield, R.N., in-Canada. By Charles Lyell, Wsqes-qcar-scncey coor. cca eee eee meee An Extract from a Letter addressed to Dr. Fitton on the Wealden of the North of Germany. By F. A. Roemer, Hannoy.Amts-Assessor. On the Older Rocks of Devonshire and Cornwall. By R. I. Murchi- son, Esq. and the Rev. Prof. Sedgwick ...............ceseeesenceesceess On the Structure of South Devon. By R. A. C. Austen, Esq. ....... On the Fish-beds of the Old Red Sandstone near Cromarty. By IME Gr es. cc ccc teccccecceeee eee ee cate eae eels ee eRe Ree On the London and Plastic Clay Formations of the Isle of Wight. Bigs OW EL DAT Ky (ESC ccc nese ses aleiciaehl se) aetelsnecem ts eee sogsbo505 On Tortuous Casts of Vermiform Bodies in Sandstone. By — At- KiMSOMs SQ esc cssesiecueowscsieacisssecelssleieololavan aiseiecsseneiielstasiieeeeteene SOOO i i i ee i rd On the relative Ages of the Tertiary Deposits, commonly called Crag, in Norfolk and Suffolk. By Charles Lyell, Esq. ..........:.esseeeeee 41 58 59 61 99 100 100 101] 102 102 108 115 118 119 120 Wi On the Wells in the Gravel and London Clay in Essex; and on the Geological Phenomena disclosed by them. By James Mitchell, MONT UPR IO eee et re shot cia nl icianee isis es cieidasnhi ie sic ns aafelc chip ac «cues ca te page Notice of Outbursts of Water from the Chalk. By James Mitchell, HE eR) eure ets aera AeciAcistaisaine Saisie eficlajninnia’ aslajeietae ios o.cs'e jei,cielosoae serge caeecis On the Remains of Insects, and of a New Genus of Isopodous Crus- tacea, from the Wealden Formation i in the Vale of Wardour. By the IRews PRS a BSe Bigeye ieee pe a meee cr Eta N Meena ee Dame co ah RMN CY sae On the Geological Relations of the several Rocks of the South of Ire- loutlespiyetichard Grittith,, HSq. ccc.sccn,s.secscsressicutsnsven eee: sacs On Bones of Mammoths found in the deep Sea of the English Chan- nel and German Ocean. By Capt. J. B. Martin ..................65 On a Molar of the Elephant found near Watchet; and on Roman Pottery dredged up in the Thames. By Sir J. Trevelyan............ On five Fossil Trees found in excavations at the Manchester and Bolton Railway. By John Hawkshaw, Esq.........s.escceceessseesees Notice of some Undescribed Remains from the London Clay. By Nathomel i. VWetherell pMsqs cc sbi « «i053 dedsinatctadne ae vaalis ccielahsinimcbiseee 1839-1840. On the Relations of the different Parts of the Old Red Sandstone, in which Organic Remains have recently been discovered, in Scotland. vane ialcolmsoms” MW). ccemics «csicasic tee nlesidec cases scqucs cemcessuananes On Showers of Ashes which fell at Sea, off the Cape de Verde Islands. BAEC VEO VN cul. ClAT Ke: scpiagdaias ode ances soe siewenee fenecdue aerate reese Notice of the Declaration of the Master and Crew of a Chilian Schooner, respecting a supposed Submarine Volcanic Eruption. Bye Aer Old elewela MNS. aattstescece a. sae sassacuisisec ee vaeene can cmaadeueettces On Depressions produced on the Surface by excavating Beds of Coal. PEN TLO CLC OMS Cat. claasice's op aisiocie asicoemsecsacsenscecesesecan sean et a aeeee On the relative Ages of the Tertiary and Post-Tertiary Deposits of the Basmpot the Clyde. By Richard Owen; Hsq. i... ..scsccccsesesoceuet On the Fou! Air in the Chalk and Strata above the Chalk near Lon- Hone yates Mitchell, Vi Dic. s. vascasesese estas edo adasdescaaeeeee On the Head of an Ox found in the Alluvial Banks of the Modder, SouLmnnntcancsby AY. G.. Bain, Msgs sic. ougscesssee sscsoancsleefeen cae On the Origin of the Vegetation of our Coal-fields and Wealdens. By deplach Abeaumont,Hisq.% sate... sass se ih- coemeiagaots ost oo temenh (osm On the Fossil Fishes of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Coal-fields. By W. C. Williamson, Esq. ...... FE ap ete rials sijes kad seach abgehoh qaer daipa-r eee Notice of the Geology around the Shores of Waterford Haven. By NSH SHOT bolViajOns 1s Via.eehae tine detds Wh eedds -ebicbicnaGkieeiaok's aoe Iinee «hee Description of the Soft Parts, and the Shape of the Hind Fin, of the Ichthyosaurus. > By Richard Owen, Esq. 0.0... 2.iesci cssevesten cea On the Grauwacke of West Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. By the Reve Davide Williaants: 7540s ae ee A RETA BGs, I AD eaetaie Ole 141 145 146 vi Description of the Fossil Remains of a Mammal, a Bird, and a Ser- pent, from the London Clay. By Richard Owen, Esq. ......... page 162 On the Locality of the Hyracotherium. By W. Richardson, Esq. ... On the Carboniferous and Transition Rocks of Bohemia. By D. T. PANIES COCMMIES GAY NseR aS aa roetcemacie Mecenes cle wet rene ctcees cae ce niece fee sleeves On Paramoudras, and the Drift of Norfolk and Suffolk. By the Rev. J. Gunn On the Boulder Formation and associated Freshwater Deposits com- posing the Mud Cliffs of Eastern Norfolk. By Charles Lyell, Esq. Notice of Earthquakes at San Salvador in 1839. By — Chatfield, Consul Cee meee ees O es ee OOO esesrcrseeeeessee sesso essenesseoe Shere Seesesesseenene On Orthoceras, Ammonites, and other cognate genera; and on their position in the Animal Kingdom. By R. A. C. Austen, Esq. ...... Extracts from a Memoir to accompany the Second Edition of Mr. Greenough’s Geological Map of England and Wales. By G. B. Ercenoug hh), HSg)::nnrinn chee ceee EAN HUN tea Whoa 0 ee Sn On the Detrital Deposits of part of Norfolk. By J. Trimmer, Esq.. Feb. 5, 1840.—Proceedings of a Special General Meeting to consider a Bye-law to enable British Subjects, residing in British Colonies, and not known personally to the Fellows proposing them, to be nominated as Candidates for Election. Also to consider the Ar- ticles of Agreement by which Mr. Greenough proposed to transfer the Copper Plates of his Geclogical Map to the Society Annual Report, 21st February, 1840 sec eteccesenses Pace ewer ee BoP Bderneseesrsanvesccsser eos Address on presenting to Mr. James de Carle Sowerby one year’s Proceeds of the Wollaston Fund. By Dr. Buckland, Pres. G.S.... Address on presenting the Wollaston Medal awarded to M. Dumont. By the Wev.. Prof: Buckland, ‘Pres: (GIS hrs. teeaherccelecseeeees : Reply to the President’s Address on receiving the award of the Wol- lastun Proceeds for one year; by Mr. J. de Carle Sowerby ......... Reply to the President’s Address on receiving the Wollaston Medal awaraed to ME Duntomt > iby We iittom, ID). ys... crtaeerae Anniversary Address, February 21, 1840. By the Rev. Prof. Buckland, Presidents tol BY OS STS Melfeu S OES UT Eh a ke ee Further Observations on the Fossil Trees found on the Manchester and Bolton Railway. By John Hawkshaw, Esq. .............02.00005 ; ‘On the Characters of the Fossil Trees found on the Manchester and Bolton Railway ; and on the Formation of Coal by gradual subsi- dence.) By J.-H: Bowman; ssq.ise icniat cen. ddveens te oeeteeee meeclclaas dete On the Beds of Clay immediately below the Coal-seams of South Wales, and on Coal-boulders in the Pennant Grit of that district. Big WV. Co, Log ams Msi. 1 yai5 5 cgsaia mpitbt's ath p skis eppycasoriah bsotee sash eRe ‘On the Rocks which form the West Shore of the Bay of Loch Ryan. Byde ©. Mooi, Fis ins opus secs cgsy «piobipsiice net ssc cen ouieaticels Bas niectaneeael Ree On the Siliceous Bodies of the Chalk, Greensand, and Oolites. By Je SBowerhank, FS. .c seme spblacie case iad eictise -BeNOy neler ac Cee 166 167 180 185 278 ‘On the Age of the South Devon Limestones, By W. Lonsdale, Esq. 281 Vil On the Bone-caves of Devonshire. By R. A. C. Austen, Esq.. page 286 On the Great Fault called the Horse, in the Forest of Dean Coal- DEAE Ne BUG des Baas aise ti seid rainebe ab ole dutaeegeineaae aaeetaniese vee Remarks on the Structure of the Royal George, and on the Condition of the Timber, &c. recovered in 1839. By Mr. Creuze ............ On Part of Borneo Proper. By G. T. Lay, Esq. ..........::eceseeeeeeee On the Subsidence of the Coast near Puzzuoli. By C. Hullmandel, 128Glo ceocdonogenda op ponoGNdocoNoSUENToADGONNIUDOABOCUAGNONN \As07dDIGOGNSeSCOOND ANS On some Geological Specimens from Syria. By W. C. Williamson, RISC caecace cs cccese « die ea duicie Sais ceprs se oa eloiisies shat Nempidoialgetreeianea esa REC Ie On a few detached Places along the Coast of Ionia and Caria, and on the Island of Rhodes. By W. J. Hamilton, Esq. ..............-ces00 Notice of Specimens from the New Red Sandstone, considered by the Author to be Casts of Alcyonia. By — Ottley, Esq. ............... Description of the Remains of a Bird, a Tortoise, and Lacertian Sau- rian, from the Chalk. By Richard Owen, Esq......0...scssceeesseeere On the Classification and Distribution of the Older Rocks of the North of Germany and of Belgium. By the Rey. Prof. Sedgwick 287 289 290 290 291 293 298 298 ca et uemlleeVELIBCISON, BSC. 66. cceecs wactee cae «cu aextts auaieecissent ace Yeiae 300 On a Mass of Intrusive Trap near Bleadon. By the Rey. D. Wil- TAMAYO ects cee aso! SGollas wlohe SU. A iaaitene 68 se eaatteakdaaens toe ALG Fae 313 On the Geology of the Line of the Birmingham and Gloucester Rail- wasn) vsyidih Strickland; Msgs ects. lcs seetedee. chia of oak 313 On Beds and Masses of Coral Rock at a distance from the sea in the Mauritius. By Capt. Lloyd........ peered Ao gopsdao=~ ssoctbougnee) t4oceds: 317 Notice of the Mineral Veins of the Sierra Almagrera. By J. Lam- VSI, TESG | ncondedouunenes Juco rnUnspamcnnucreaecose nse. cmesleepseceti -ctlieieaeerta 318 On the Sierra de Gador and its Lead Mines. By J. Lambert, Esq... 319 On the Polished and Striated Rocks which form the Beds of Glaciers in to} Asis. j daVokwolAGASsIZiis asad. .thhisa wciaee isd Lied eishass ob ak 321 Notice of Birds’ and other Bones in the Limestone Cliff at Eel Point, Caldyelstand.. By KGreavess Hsq.t....s.-.iboccek ee seo teene uee cota 322 On a Bed of Lignite near Messina. By R. Calvert, M.D. ............ 322 On Fragments of Rock-crystal in the Hastings Sand. By W. J. Ha- ISIN ISU aie crets ets ciieta sclera ste vei eaislo ci sis seis ropaate oareicheilale aebieise stceeiclste sie eletier 322 On the Chalk and Subjacent Formations to the Purbeck Stone in- clusive, in the North of Germany. By Herr Ruemer ............... 323 Notice of Saurian Remains found near Hythe. By H. B. Mackeson, BSG es jaa el dn ere SBodsoccicnPcobeucrnae ns bonbec @stnadobscRos spectre scbese Sonate Aaiacls 325 1840-1841. On Glaciers, and the evidence of their having once existed in Scot- land, Ireland and England. By Prof. Agassiz .................s.0e00 327 On the Evidence of Glaciers in Scotland and the North of England, Hirst Part. Bypthe ReviProfs Buckland... 22002 VAs. ARG 8 332 On the Geological Evidence of the former Existence of Glaciers in - Forfarshire.’ By C. Lyell, Esq. PRR e meee eee ee Saat ss eesaasersoeeseeesse 337 vill On the Evidence of Glaciers in Scotland and the North of England, Second Part. By the Rev. Prof. Buckland ........0.scse0s..e00ee page 345 On the relative Connexion of the Eastern and Western Chalk Denu- damonsiyn Bye Je, Manting Weg) lerekty.crth as te thera es ebsites 349 On the Geology of the Island of Madeira. By James Smith, Esq.... 351 ‘On the Illustration of Geological Phenomena by means of Models. By T. Sopwith, Esq. ..-...0iscesdseectsiecseeseeescsaseresereesersearsenenes 351 On the Geology of Aden. By Frederick Burr, Esq..........0.---..0.00- 355 On the Teeth of Species of the Genus Labyrinthodon, from the Ger- man Keuper and the Sandstone of Warwick and Leamington. By Profs Owens ets aN SOE TRE A, POG, ae a tec ete tate 357 Observations relative to the Elevation of Land on the Shores of Waterford Haven during the Human Period, and on the Geological Structure of the District. By Thomas Austin, Esq..........6.--.6... 360 On the Freshwater Fossil Fishes of Mundesley, as determined by Prof. Agassiz. By C.\Liyell) Hsq. 010... nei shs,ecceceweecsteceese rosie 362 On the Geological Structure of the Wealden District, and of the Bas Boulonnars?= “By. Wr Hopkins; Esqs. i). tecwie css ence p aacie eee 363 Awnual, Report, Feb. 19th, W841 vi)... neal as ae ore ae sep eae 367 Address on presenting the Wollaston Medal awarded to M. Adolphe Brongniart. By the Rev. Prof. Buckland, Pres. G.S.............000.- 384 Address of Dr. Buckland on presenting to the Foreign Secretary the Wollaston Medal, to be forwarded to M. Adolphe Brongniart ...... 384 Reply.ot Ma. We la Beche,. Wor, Sec. Strata in the N cighbourhood of Christiana; in” poNorway....By..C. Lyell, Esq. :ccccccccsccessscezessstss odIAS we RORe Oe : Anniversary Address, February’ 19th, 1841. By the Rev. Prof. Buck- land, TOE 3 J hci Gr S hoeeabdb bes uot sgor gabe BHpNaE uaAME BENS E se dbadeneactnecnc 465 469 ERRATA. Page 15, bottom line, for Herculis read Hercules. -, 101, line 1, for George Long, Esq. read Henry Lawes Lone, Esq; Th onhsg Lodge, Surrey. 102, — | 2 from bottom, for Katakekaumene read Catacecaumene. 103, — 12, for:Aiom read Afiom. 103, — 31, for Marmara read Marmora. 104, — 1, for Mulverkieui read Meulverkieui. 105, — 8 from bottom, for Dimirji read Demirji._ 126, —| 23, for miles 7ead inches: 309, — 20, Sor per gal. read per quint. 314, — 31, for Hadnor read Hadsor. 315; — 27, after Bredon dele Hill. 315, —''3 from’ bottom, for sessional read sectional, 316,.— 13, for 387 read 587. 316, — 34, for trichorhinus read tichorhinus. 730, — 21, for p.12 read p. 712. 341, — 3 ‘from bottom, for John read James. 436,. — 12, for Hereforshire read Hertfordshire. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART OF THE THIRD VOLUME. SESSIONS 1838—1839, and 1839—1840. / Page Agassiz, Prof. + On the Polished acl Striated Rocks which form the Beds of UReH ARICLSEUUREN SANDS) vice aicins bea oeegandoonobaebocesee PegborbdrenSobonobacsbobudoagcodooter abeour CHATFIELD, Consul. Notice of Earthquakes at San Salvador in 1839 ......sssceeseees CiLaRKE, Rev. W. B. On Showers of Ashes which fell at Sea, off the Cape de Verde ISIE EVGIS! sar condoadbandanedrigumenedunet GonURBpobodRins aeons PB inc osoduaGaes ate Creuze, Mr. Remarks on the Structure of the Royal George, and on the Con- ~ dition of the Timber, &c., recovered in 183Q.....ccccsssoscerceceereee CunnineuHaM, J., Esq. An Account of Impressions and Casts of Drops of Rain, disco- vered in the Quarries at Storeton Hill, Cheshire ...... tive ede ecevae tes EGERTON, Sir Philip, Bart., M.P. On Casts in Sandstone of the Impressions of the hind Foot of a gigantic Cheirotherium, from the New Red Sandstone of Cheshire Observations respecting a Slab of Sandstone impressed with Cheirotherium Footsteps, at Mr. Potts’s, in Chester ...cccsesceesee Firron, W. H., M.D. Reply to the President’s Address on receiving the Wollaston Medal awarded to M. Dumont .........ccceseseeneceecoees Wek hielo data aoa Fiemine, Rev. John, D.D. A few brief Remarks on the Trap Rocks of Fife ...... uae veveeed ci: Fox, BR. W., Esq. A Notice on the Formation of Metallic Veins by Voltaic Agency Greaves, R., Esq. Notice of Birds’ and other Bones in the Limestone Cliff at Eel Moin sCldyotsland sc ccerscncssacracsscuessen+-sinenusecensaens ects ees relekld Greenovues, G. B., Esq. Extracts from a Memoir to accompany the Second Edition of Mr. Greenough’s Geological Map of England and Wales ......... Grirrity, Richard, Esq. On the Geological Relations of the several Rocks of the South OMe] an aes catiatapinndslotwariewtepeceet ase vatluen pac deneniseeee nae Gunn, Rev. J. On Paramoudras, and the Drift of Norfolk and Suffolk ......... Hamitton, J. W., Esq. On the N.W. part of Asia Minor, from the Peninsula of Cyzicus to Koola, with a Description of the Catacecaumene ...........5+6. On a few detached places along the Coast of Ionia and Caria, and on the Island of Rhodes .............--.cececceccceessevtearecceesece On Fragments of Rock-crystal in the Hastings Sand ........ ... Haran, Richard, M.D. On the Discovery of the Basilosaurus and the Batrachiosaurus Hawxsuaw, John, Esq. On Five Fossil Trees found in excavations at the Manchester Fuad ei So) hao ol aveel Dh Wie Wee edeipedde sdunnebebe i uddbasbtdloabonncocedcictaae Reese Page 145 289 CONTENTS. iil Page Hawksuaw, Jolin, Esq. Further Observations on the Fossil Trees found on the Man- chester and Bolton RAMI WAY aaice oineesenlag con reece segede ty aeestet ane: 269 HuLumanpEL, C., Esq. On the Subsidence of the! Coast near Puzzuolt, J. oi acccwcetees 290 Lampert, J., Esq. Notice of the Mineral Veins of the Sierra Almagrera ............ 318 On the Sierra de Gador and its Lead Mines ........ Lest Big. Saree 319 Lay, G. T., Esq. On Part OM BOMEOPPROPEH A. We si. eusopesbececeteduccstacrens centers 290 Liverproot Natura. History Socizty. : An Account of Footsteps of the Cheirotherium, and other un- known Animals, lately discovered in the Quarries of Storeton Hill 12 Luoyp, Capt. On Beds and Masses of Coral Rock at a distance from the sea in the Mauritius ......sccccsesseveees sheereeate del Uaceteomnoaeawese tiatets 317 Logan, W. C., Esq. On the Beds of Clay immediately below the Coal-seams of South ‘Wales, and on Coal-boulders in the Pennant Grit of that district 275 Lone, Henry Lawes, Esq. On Swallow Holes near Farnham; and the Drainage of the Country at the Western Extremity of the Hog’s Back.........0+0... 101 LoNSDALE, W. On the Age of the South Devon Limestones ¢.....0c....ceccsseeeeee 281 Lys, C., Esq. On the Occurrence of Graptolites in the Slate of Galloway ...... 28 On some Fossil and Recent Shells, collected by Capt. Bayfield, R.N., in Canada ........ssccccesscceeees aabne TGs oad at kta es sone oNaNs - 119 On the Relative Ages of the Tertiary Deposits commonly called Crag, in Norfolk and Suffolk ............ SPIRE TEN Si CPI OL BL? SERN | 126 On the Boulder Formation and associated Freshwater Deposits composing the Mud Cliffs of Eastern Norfolk ....... Uoeceedtcle BOL Macxeson, H. B., Esq. Notice of Saurian Remains found near Hythe ............eseeeeee 325 Matcotmson; G. J., M.D. On the relations of the Different Parts of the Old Red Sandstone, in which Organic Remains have recently been discovered in Scot- Metin cle ep aise seetens ccieleicleteitets selelasieiste siioceisioaisie'scleleinelonisseseisteactfaiciee eyaeteetesteteed 141 Martin, Capt. J. B. On Bones of Mammoths found in the deep Sea of the English Channel and German Ocean ......scecscecnceceencseeeneececscecsseaecens 138 Mixer, Mr. On the Fish-beds of the Old Red Sandstone near Cromarty ... 124 Mitcuey, James, LL.D. On the Drift from the Chalk and Strata below the Chalk in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, &c. .......-....4+. 3 On the Wells in the Gravel and London Clay in Essex; and on the Geological Phenomena disclosed by them ......e.1...ssse-+00- 131 Notice of Outbursts of Water from the Chalk ........-sssscseseee 134 On the Foul Air in the Chalk and Strata above the Chalk n near LONGON ....cesccccccseeeccecceccssccesceccececcsreeceenecenscececssensesesenace 151 Moors, J. C., Esq. On the Rocks which Kae the West Shore of the Bay of Loch Ryan ...ccceceeeseececeeeeeseescssneeeesceaeecescseuaacecsertesseesccceuueeeees 277 Murcuison, R. I., Esq., and Sspewicx, Rev. Prof. On the Older Rocks of Devonshire and Cornwall....:-.ess.s0065, 121 iv - CONTENTS. Murcuison, R. I., isq., and Sepewick, Rev. Prof. — On the Classification and Distribution of the Older Rocks of the North of Germany and of Belgium .........e0sseeeees Cinaieita= cleus = site Necxer, M. Louis Albert. On a Probable Cause of Certain Earthquakes .....+...+ Leataenes Ocixtsy, William, Esq. On structure and relations of the presumed Marsupial Remains from the Stonesfield Slate ......... pie pinel= Peis gi seta Egon eiag keto bteErar=t eeeee Ortiey, —, Esq. ; Notice of Specimens from the New Red Sandstone, considered by the Author to be casts of Alcyonia ...e0c.....ssseaseere eeeseenaete Owen, Richard, Esq. ‘ On some Fossil Remains of Paleotherium, Anoplotherium, and Cheropotamus, from the Freshwater Beds of the Isle of Wight ... On the Jaws of the Thylacotherium Prevostit ...1.+s.sesees Baas Onithe Phascolotheniviia oe. ocss,eeessscceessiascecees¥ettneteeaterene On the Teeth of the Zeuglodon (Basilosaurus of Dr, Harlan) .... Description of a Tooth and Part of the Skeleton of the Glyptedon Description of the Soft Parts and the Shape of the Hind Fin of the lchthiyosavrUS...-..--cecs.- cee ec cose cesses ene sa deeeeieGelaceioh saad eee Description of the Fossil Remains of a Mammal, a Bird, and a Serpent, from the London Clay ........cscsssesceseeneecsoree Ses 98s spears Description of the Remains of a Bird, a Tortoise, and Lacertian Saurian, trom. the Chal kiticpase coe: ) cecil b «ceetesiesls «wilde soioitom ses auttece Ricuarpson, W., Esq. On the Locality of the Hyracotherium ...... woah oniev ete eiepah vot teees Roemer, Herr. ‘ met: An Extract from a Letter addressed to Dr. Fitton on the Weal- denjof the Northyof, Germany . vncptoad: vores -tine wave ds - sp ong he db ometh tects On the Chalk and Subjacent Formations to the Purbeck Stone inclusive, in the North of Germany ............ Beet sepa ease sient oe Szpewick, Rev. Prof., and Murcuison, R. I., Esq. On the Older Rocks of Devonshire and Cornwall .............: On the Classification and Distribution of the Older Rocks of the North of Germany and of Belgium ..............cesseeseecee as sao pe sia SuHarpe, Daniel, Esq. On the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Lisbon..........s....0 Smitu, James, Esq. On the Climate of the Newer Pliocene Tertiary Period ......... On the Relative Ages of the Tertiary and Post-tertiary Deposits Olthe basin ofthe Clyde). 2..c.5... cs. + dumieat kvnenorencct raven eae : Sowersy, Mr. J. de Carle. Reply to the President’s address on receiving the award of the pViollaston: Proceeds, for one “year, “\2ss.<2.-<08--<4b 3d cashier bese tee SpeciaL GENERAL MEETING, To consider the Articles of Agreement by which Mr. Greenough proposed to transfer the Copper Plates of his Geological Map to HEP SOCIOL: oes vasies scitdeity “ied - eapispeocdts am cea vepeactth cbeacesheaeh cee To pass a Bye-law to enable British subjects, residing in British Colonies, and not known personally to the Fellows proposing them, to be nominated as Candidates for election...........cescescsss STRICKLAND, H. C., Esq. On the Geology of the Line of the Birmingham and Gloucester Mra yranye amas ese er acuine «scsi sca eenec cae cee cme neae see onoce dees wee : Taytor, John, Jun., Esq. On a Slab of Sandstone, exhibiting Footmarks......s.essesesoonees Page 300 100 CONTENTS. TREVELYAN, Sir J. On a Molar of the Elephant found near Watchet ; and on Roman Pottery dredged up in the Thames.........-..-.+ widuie oy cae ts 533000 TRIMMER, J., Esq. On the Detrital Deposits of part of Norfolk ........... Su stogdo nnn. ; WETHERELL, Nathaniel J., Esq. Notice of some Undescribed ‘Remains from the London Clay... WHEWELL, Rev. Prof. Address on presenting to Chevalier Bunsen the Wollaston Medal awarded to Professor Ehrenberg............s-sssecseenececeeeees Anniversary Address, delivered 15th February, 1839 .........00« Wituiams, Rev. David. On as much of the Transition or Grauwacke System as is ex- posed in the Counties of Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall ......... On the Grauwacke of West Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall ... On a Mass of Intrusive Trap near Bleadon ........ seocboascaesoobe Wituiamson, W. C., Esq. On the Fossil Fishes of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Coal-fields On some Geological Specimens from Syria .........s-.ccseeseeeees Yates, James, Esq. A Notice of Four differently characterized Footsteps, traced from WaAstspPLOCUed at SLOVELOMnecaccs-'cteacis sees «cee ace- etme ds erie eneims 140 58 61 115 158 313 153 291 i PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vot. III. 1838. No. 59. Nov. 7, 18838.—The Society assembled this evening for the Ses- sion: John Davies Gilbert, Esq., F.R.S., of Eastbourne, Sussex, was elected a Fellow of this Society. A paper was first read, ‘‘ On some Fossil Remains of Palzeotherium, Anoplotherium, and Chzropotamus, from the freshwater beds of the Isle of Wight,” by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.S., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. Some years previous to 1825, Mr. Thomas Allan, of Edinburgh, _ found in the freshwater beds at Binstead in the Isle of Wight, a tooth which was subsequently determined by Mr. Pentland to be a molar of the Anoplotherium commune*; and in 1830, Mr. Pratt found in the same quarries teeth of one species of Anoplotherium and of two species of Palzotherium+; and thus the freshwater strata of the Hampshire basin were proved to contain remains of some of the Pa- chydermata which had been discovered in the gypsum quarries of Montmartre. The specimens described by Mr. Owen in this paper were col- lected by the Rev. W. Darwin Fox, at Binstead and Seafield; and being numerous and well preserved they have enabled the author to establish a still greater agreement in the remains of the two locali- ties. Of the genus Paleotherium, the collection contained teeth and bones of P. medium, P. crassum, P. curtum? and P. minus ; and of the genus Anoplotherium, teeth of A. commune and A. secun- darium. The most important specimen, however, in the collection is a right ramus of the lower jaw of the Cheropotamus, wanting only one false molar, a small portion of the symphysis, and the top of the coronoid process. This genus was established by Cuvier from an imperfect fragment of the base of the skull, with six molar teeth on each side, and a small portion of a ramus of the lower jaw with the canine ? and two spurious molars. He nevertheless proved from the form of the teeth, the glenoid cavity, and the zygomatic arches, that the animal be- _* See a paper by Dr. Buckland, Annals Phil., New Series, vol. x. p. 360. + Geological Transactions, Sec. Ser., vol. iii. p. 451. VOL. III. B 2 longed to the Pachydermata and was most nearly allied to the Pec- cari. In some points, however, in which these remains deviate from the Peccari, they were shown by Mr. Owen to indicate an approach to the carnivorous type, and this affinity he showed is further exhi- bited in the specimen found by Mr. Fox, in the prolongation back- ward of the angle of the jaw, a character which in the class Mam- malia has hitherto been found almost exclusively in the carnivorous order, and certainly in no pachydermatous or other ungulate species of Mammal. In the jaw from the Isle of Wight the angle is more compressed and deeper than in the bear, dog, or cat tribe; and it is not bent inwards in the way which peculiarly distinguishes the mar- supial jaws, and which so neatly characterizes the Stonesfield mam- miferous remains. The condyloid process in the Cheropotamus is raised higher above the angle of the jaw than in the true Carnivora; and it is less convex than in the hog or peccari; and the coronoid process is more developed than in the peccari. In the wavy out- line of the inferior border of the lower jaw, and in the teeth, which are well developed in the jaw described by Mr. Owen, a close re- semblance is displayed in the Cheropotamus to the peccari. The jaw contains three true tuberculated molars and three conical false molars with double fangs, which molars are relatively larger than in existing Suid, and an anterior tooth, which Cuvier in the Paris basin specimens considered to be a canine, but which is situated closer to the symphysis of the jaw than in any of the Suide. Mr. Owen then observed, that the occasional canine propensities of the common hog are well known; and that they correspond with the organization of the genus which offers the nearest resemblance among the existing Pachydermata to the carnivorous type of struc- ture. In the extinct Cheropotamus we have evidently another of those beautiful examples in paleontology of links tending to com- plete a chain of affinities which the revolutions of the earth’s sur. face has interrupted, and for a time concealed from our view. It is interesting also to perceive that the living subgenus of the hog tribe which most resembles the Chxeropotamus should be confined to the South American continent, where the Tapir, the nearest living ana- logue of the Anoplotherian and Paleeotherian associates of the Che- ropotamus, how exists. The author then offered some remarks on a jaw discovered by Mr. Pratt in the Binstead quarries in 1830, and considered by him to be allied to the genus Moschus*. On comparing the jaw with ‘the corresponding part of the Moschus moschiferus, which it resem- bles in size, Mr. Owen has found that in the fossil the grinders are relatively broader, that the last molar has the third or posterior tu- bercle divided by a longitudinal fissure, that the grinding surface is less oblique, and that the coronoid process differs from that of the Moschus and other ruminants, but strongly bespeaks an affinity with the Pachydermata. Among the genera of the Paris basin established by Cuvier, the * Geological Transactions, Sec. Ser., vol. iii. p. 451. 3 Dichobune exhibits characters which connect the Pachydermata with the Ruminantia, and thus exhibits another of those extraurdinary unions of characters which in existing Mammalia belong to distinct orders. In the Dichebune the posterior molars begin to exhibit a double series of cusps, of which the external present the erescentic form, so that the teeth of the Dichobune murina might be mistaken for those of true Ruminantia. In the lower jaw of the Dichobune the antepenultimate and the penultimate grinders have two pairs of cusps, and the last grinder three pairs, of which the posterior are small and almost blended together, so that when worn down they appear single. In this respect, as well as in the form of the ascending ramus of the lower jaw, Cuvier states, in the Ossemens Fossiles, that the Dicho- bune “ prodigiously resembles” the young Musk Deer. Now with respect to Mr. Pratt’s specimen, Professor Owen ob- served, there is undoubtedly a close resemblance to the Musk Deer, but the differences are sufficiently great to forbid its bemg placed among the Ruminantia, while there is a still nearer resemblance be- tween it and the genus Dichobune. The Isle of Wight specimen being somewhat larger than the D. deporinum, and the ascending ramus differing in form and approaching that of the true Anoplotheria, Mr. Owen considers that it indicates a new species, which until the form of the anterior molars and incisors is known, may be referred to the genus Dichobune, under the name of Dichobune cervinum. A memoir “On the Drift from the Chalk and strata below the Chalk in the Counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Hun- tingdon, Bedford, Hertford, and Middlesex,” by James Mitchell, Esq., LL.D., F.G.S., was then read. The drift which is so extensively distributed over the above coun- ties, consists chiefly of stiff blue and yellow clay, varying from 4 to above 70 feet in thickness; and it contains masses and small fragments of chalk, chalk flints, primary, secondary and other rocks, and fossils from nearly every secondary formation in England. In some local- ities the clay forms the mass of the drift, but in others it contains or rests on beds of sand and gravel; and it is often overlaid by a deposit, occasionally exceeding 50 feet thick, of sand, gravel, and chalk flints. The principal locality in Norfolk, mentioned by the author, is Cromer, the cliffs near which vary in height from 100 to 150 feet ; the lower half consisting of blue clay charged with masses and frag- ments of chalk, unaltered chalk flints, and secondary and primary rocks ; and the upper half of sand and gravel, capped by 2 feet of ferruginous sand, in some places black. ‘The same general descrip- tion, it is stated, will apply to the cliffs for 12 miles east and west of Cromer; but they occasionally present most extraordinary con- tortions of the beds. The other localities in Norfolk, alluded to by the author, are in the parishes of Pulham St. Mary Magdalen, Pulham St. Mary the Virgin; and a pit one mile from Harleston towards Diss, where 4 feet of blue clay, abounding with chalk peb-. B 2 4. bles, are overlaid by 2 feet and underlaid by 10 feet of gravel and flints: the author also states, that the clay with chalk pebbles ex- tends between Harleston and Diss, the latter town and North Lop- ham, and thence to Norwich, Dereham, and Swaffham. In Suffolk it was examined by him at Lowestoff, particularly in the cliff on the north side of the town, where he obtained the following section: Wovered'slope te cco cehe cot tants nae Mowecet Black Sand. ewe. ss cps cn eee eer ee ios Red and yellow sand............ Pile Ae Neha 15-— Blue clay, with fragments of chalk, chalk flints, \ poate. Oolite amd Was’... ote pee cleat ee gee Redvand yellow sand: © ce 4) yee eee ee 2 — @Woversdeslope? oF. cies «net - csree a eee 20 — 65 In the sea cliff a quarter of a mile north of Southwold, in Suffolk, the clay contains a bed of sand two feet thick ; in the same county he like- wise noticed it near Woodbridge, between Wrentham and Wangford, and near the road from Wangford to Southwold. ‘The localities in ‘Essex mentioned by the author are Maldon, Kelvedon, Braintree, Castle Hedingham near Halstead, Navestock, and Upminster; in Cambridgeshire, Ely and between Caxton and Arrington; in Hunting- donshire, the districts between Huntingdon and Peterborcugh and Huntingdon and Caxton; in Bedfordshire, Castle Hill, 6 miles east of Bedford; in Buckinghamshire, the line of the London and Bir- mingham railway, near Fenny Stratford and Leighton Buzzard, where it rests on the lower greensand, and is overlaid by gravel containing rounded fragments of ferruginous sandstone ; in Middle- sex the only localities mentioned are Finchley and Muswell Hill; in Hertfordshire the clay was not noticed by the author, though the gravel abounds with fragments of secondary and other formations. A description is then given of the transported rocks either inclosed — in the clay or accumulated in beds of gravel. They consist of hard and soft chalk, flints, oolite, cornbrash, lias, sandstones, mountain limestone, mica slate, trap, granite, syenite, porphyry, &c. The principal localities mentioned are the Stags Inn near Diss, the Holy- well and Witlingham near Norwich, Ballingdon Hill near Sudbury; between Peterborough and Huntingdon and thence to Caxton, also between that place and Arrington; in Hertfordshire these accumu- lations are said to abound around Buntingford, Hare Street, Puck- eridge, Much Haddam, and Newnham near Baldock : a few specimens occur around Hertford and at Ware Mill, and Wade’s Mill, 15 mile from Ware. ‘The pits at Muswell are particularly noticed, and the collections from them formed by Mr. Wetherell and Mr. Frederick Pusey ; but the specimens of rocks are said to be not nearly so nu- merous, nor the size of the masses so great as in Hertfordshire, Hun- tingdonshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk. Besides the smaller fragments two large boulders are described. One, consisting of granite and computed to weigh a ton and a half, 5 lies by the road-side on the north of the village of Hare Street ; and it is so thoroughly rounded that the author had great difficulty in detaching a fragment. The other boulder occurs at Baldock, and consists of hard chalk containing common black flints. It is about 3 feet 9 inches high above-ground, 24 feet long, and nearly 2 feet broad. The current by which the drift was accumulated, the author con- ceives came from a point to the east of north, and he is of opinion that the materials have been derived in part from Scandinavia and in part from the destruction of strata, which once occupied the site of the German Ocean. After the deposition of the clay, Dr. Mitchell believes, that there was a violent action which accumulated the beds of gravel in some places to the depth of above 100 feet (Beaumont Green, 110 feet; the Isle of Dogs, 124 feet); and that this action will account for the clay not being found in more places, and being occasionally associated with beds of gravel. The paper concludes with a slight allusion to a similar north-east drift, north of the counties enumerated in the title; and it is stated that grey quartz boulders continue to be thrown in at Spurn Head, Yorkshire, similar to those which are found in some of the vales of the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, and Leicester. Fragments of | mountain limestone, lias, oolite, grey quartz, white quartz, and hard chalk are said to occur about Mount Sorrell. Nov. 21, 1838.—A paper was first read ‘“‘ On the Jaws of the Thylacotherium Prevostii* (Valenciennes) from Stonesfield,” by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.S., Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons. . Doubts having been recently expressed by M. de Blainvillet, from inspection of casts, respecting the mammiferous nature of the fossil jaws found at Stonesfield, and assigned to the Marsupialia by Baron Cuvier, Mr. Owen brought the paper before the Society, to meet the objections and give a detailed account of the fossils from a careful inspection of the originals. In this communication, however, he confined his description chiefly to the jaws of one of the two genera which have been discovered at Stonesfield, and characterized by having eleven molars in each ramus of the lower jaw, reserving to a future occasion an account of the remains of the other genust. Mr. Owen commences by observing that the scientific world pos- sesses ample experience of the truth and tact with which the illus- trious Cuvier formed his judgements of the affinities of an extinct animal from the inspection of a fossil fragment; and that it is only when so distinguished a comparative anatomist as M. de Blainville questions the determinations, that it becomes the duty of those who * Comptes Rendus, 1838 ; Second Semestre, No. 11, Sept. 10, p. 580. T Ibid., No. 8, Aout 20, p. 402 ef seq.; No. 9, Planche; No. 17, Oct. 22, p. 727; No. 18, Oct.:29, p. 750. - t See postea, p. 17. 6 possess the means to investigate the nature of the doubts, and re- assure the confidence of geologists in their great guide. When Cuvier first hastily examined at Oxford, in 1818, one of the jaws described in this paper, and in the possession of Dr. Buck- land, he decided that it was allied to the Didelphys (me semblérent de quelque Didelphe*) ; and when doubts were raised by M. Con- stant Prevost, in 1824+, relative to the age of the Stonesfield slate, Cuvier, from an examination of a drawing made for the express pur- pose, was confirmed in his former determination ; but he added, that the jaw differs from that of all known carnivorous Mammalia, in hay- ing ten molars in a series in the lower jaw: (‘il [the drawing] me con- firme dans ]’idée que la premiére inspection m’en avoit donnée. C’est celle d’un petit carnassier dont les macheliéres ressemblent beaucoup a celles des sarigues; mais il y a dix de ces dents en série, nombre que ne montre aucun carnassier connu.” Oss. Foss. 111. 349. note.) It is to be regretted that the particular data, with the exception of the number of the teeth, on which Cuvier based his opinion, were not detailed ; but he must have been well aware that the grounds of his belief would be obvious, on an inspection of the fossil, to every com- petent anatomist: it is also to be regretted that he did not assign to the fossil a generic name, and thereby have prevented much of the reasoning founded on the supposition that he considered it to have belonged to a true Didelphys. Mr. Owen then proceeded to describe the structure of the jaw; and he stated that having had in his possession two specimens of the Thylacotherium Prevostii belonging to Dr. Buckland, he has no hesi- tation in declaring that their condition is such as to enable any ana- tomist conversant with the established generalizations in compara- tive osteology, to pronounce therefrom not only the class but the more restricted group of animals to which they have belonged. The specimens plainly reveal, first, a convex articular condyle; secondly, a well-defined impression of what was once a broad, thin, high, and slightly recurved, triangular, coronoid process, rising immediately anterior to the condyle, having its basis extended over the whole of the interspace between the condyle and the commencement of the molar series, and having a vertical diameter equal to that of the ho- rizontal ramus of the jaw itself: this impression also exhibits traces of the ridge leading forwards from the condyle and the depression above it, which characterizes the coronoid process of the zoophagous marsupials; thirdly, the angle of the jaw is continued to the same extent below the condyle as the coronoid process reaches above it, and its apex is continued backwards in the form of a process ; fourthly, the parts above described form one continuous portion with the horizontal ramus of the jaw, neither the articular condyle nor the coronoid being distinct pieces as in reptiles. These are the characters, Mr. Owen believes, on which Cuvier formed his opinion of the nature of the fossil; and they have arrested the attention of * Ossemens Foss., tome ili. p. 349. + Annales des Sciences Nat., Avril, 1825; also the papers of Mr. Bro- derip and Dr. Fitton in the Zoological Journal, 1828, vol. ili., p. 409. G) M. Valenciennes in his endeavours to dissipate the doubts of M. de Blainville*. From the examination of a cast, the latter, however, has been in- duced to infer that there is no trace of a convex condyle, but in place thereof an articular fissure, somewhat as in the jaws of fishes; that the teeth, instead of being imbedded in sockets, have their fangs confluent with or anchylosed to the substance of the jaws, and that the jaw itself presents evident traces of the composite structure. In answer to the first of these positions, Mr. Owen states that the portion of the true condyle which remains in both the specimens of Thylacotherium examined” by Cuvier and M. Valenciennes, clearly shows that the condyle was convex, and not concave. It is situated a little above the level of the grinding surface of the teeth, and pro- jects beyond the vertical line, dropped from the extremity of the coro- noid process, but not to the same extent as in the true Didelphys. In the specimen examined by M. Valenciennes, the condyle corre- sponds in position with that of the jaw of the Dasyurus rather than the Didelphys; it is convex, as in mammiferous animals, and not concave as in oviparous. The entire convex condyle exists in the specimen belonging to the other genus, Phascolotherium, now in the British Museum, but formerly in the cabinet of Mr. Broderip. Mr. Owen is of opinion that the entering angle or notch, either above or below the true articular condyle, has been mistaken for “‘ une sorte d’échancrure articulaire, un peu comme dans les poissons.”’ The specimen of the half-jaw of the Thylacothere examined by M. Valenciennes, like that which was transmitted to Cuvier, presents the inner surface to the observer, and exhibits both the orifice of the dental canal and the symphysis in a perfect state. The foramen in the fossil is situated relatively more forward than in the recent Opossum and Dasyure, or in the Placental Insectivora, but has the same place as in the marsupial genus Hypsiprymnus. The symphysis is long and narrow, and is continued forward in the same line with the gently convex inferior margin of the jaw, which thus tapers gradually to a pointed anterior extremity, precisely as in the jaws of the Marsupial Insectivora. In the relative length of the symphysis, its form and position, the jaw of the Thylacotherium precisely corresponds with that of the Didelphys. In addition, however, to these proofs of the mammiferous nature of the Stonesfield remains, and in part of their having belonged to Marsupialia, Mr. Owen stated that the jaws exhibit a character hitherto unnoticed by the able anatomists who have written respect- ing them, but which, if co-existent with a convex condyle, would serve to prove the marsupial nature of a fossil, though all the teeth were wanting. In recent marsupials the angle of the jaw is elongated and bent inwards in the form of a process, varying in shape and development in different genera. In looking, therefore, directly upon the infe- rior margin of the marsupial jaw, we see in place of the edge of a * Comptes Rendus, 1838; Second Semestre, No. 11, Sept. 10, p. 527 et seq. 8 vertical plate of bone, a more or less flattened triangular surface or plate of bone extended between the external ridge and the internal process or inflected angle. In the Opossum this process is triangu- lar and trihedral, and directed inwards with the point slightly curved upwards and extended backwards, in which direction it is more pro- duced in the small than im the large species of Didelphys. Now, if the process from the angle of the jaw in the Stonesfield fossil had been simply continued backwards, it would have resembled the jaw of an ordinary placental carnivorous or insectivorous mam- mal; but in both specimens of Thylacotherium the half-jaws of which exhibit their inner or mesial surfaces, this process presents a fractured outline, evidently proving that when entire it must have been produced inwards or mesially, as in the Opossum. Mr. Owen then described in great detail the structure of the teeth, and showed, in reply to M. de Blainville’s second objection, that they are not confluent with the jaw, but are separated from it at their base by a layer of matter of a distinct colour from the teeth or the jaw, but evidently of the same nature as the matrix ; and secondly, that the teeth cannot be considered as presenting an uniform com- pressed tricuspid structure, and being all of one kind, as M. de Blainville states, but must be divided into two series as regards their composition. Five if not six of the posterior teeth are quinque-cus- pidate and are molares veri; some of the molares spurii are tricuspid and some bicuspid, asin the Opossums. An interesting result of this examination is the observation that the five cusps of the tuberculate molares are not arranged, as had been supposed, in the same line, but in two pairs placed transversely to the axis of the jaw, with the fifth cusp anterior, exactly as in the Didelphys, and totally different from the structure of the molares in any of the Phocz, to which these very small Mammalia have been compared: and in reference to this comparison, Mr. Owen again calls attention to the value of the cha- racter of the process continued from the angle of the jaw, in the fossils, as strongly contradistinguishing them from the Phocidz, in none of the species of which is the angle of the jaw so produced. The Thylacotherium differs from the genus Didelphys in the greater num- ber of its molars, and from every ferine quadruped known at the time when Cuvier formed his opinion respecting the nature of the fossil. This difference in the number of the molar teeth, which Cuvierurgedas evidence of the generic distinction of the Stonesfield mammifercus fossils, has since been regarded as one of the proofs of their Saurian nature; but the exceptions by excess to the number seven, assigned by M. de Biainville to the molar teeth in each ramus of the lower jaw of the insectivorous Mammalia, are well established, and have been long known. ‘The insectivorous Chrysochlore, in the order Fere, has eight molars in each ramus of the lower jaw; the insec- tivorous Armadillos have not fewer ; and in one subgenus (Priodon) there are more than twenty molar teeth on each side of the lower jaw. The dental formule of the carnivorous Cetacea, again, de- monstrate the fallacy of the argument against the mammiferous cha- racter of the Thylacotherium founded upon the number of its molar $ teeth. From the occurrence of the above exceptions in recent pla- cental Mammalia, the example of a like excess in the number of molar teeth in the marsupial fossil ought rather to have led to the expectation of the discovery of a similar case among existing mar- supials, and such an addition to our zoological catalogues has, in fact, been recently made. In the Australian quadruped described by Mr. Waterhouse under the name of Myrmecobius an approxima- tion towards the dentition of the ‘Thylacotherium is exemplified, not only in the number of the molar teeth, which is nine on each side of the lower jaw in the Myrmecobius, but also in their relative size, structure, and disposition. “Lastly, with respect to the dentition, Mr. Owen says it must be obvious to all who inspect the fossil and compare it with the jaw of a small Didelphys, that contrary to the assertion of M. de Blainville, the teeth and their fangs are arranged with as much regularity in the one as in the other, and that no ar- gument of the Saurian nature of the fossil can be founded on this part of its structure. With respect to M. de Blainville’s assertion that the jaw is com- pound, Mr. Owen stated, that the indication of this structure near the lower margin of the jaw of the Thylacotherium is not a true suture, but a vascular groove similar to that which characterizes the lower jaw of Didelphys, Opossum, and some of the large species of Sorex. In a memoir to be brought forward on another occasion, Mr. | Owen intends to describe the other genus found at Stonesfield, and for which, on account of its marsupial affinities, he proposes the name of Phascolotherium. A notice by R. W. Fox, Esq., was afterwards read, ‘‘ On the Formation of Metallic Veins by Voltaic Agency.” In this communication Mr. Fox says, that he has succeeded not only in forming well-defined metalliferous veins in a crack in the middle of masses of clay by means of voltaic agency, but also in im- parting to the clay a laminated or schistose structure ; the veins and laminee being perpendicular to the voltaic forces. In some instances only a pair of plates, or in preference copper pyrites and zinc, were employed to produce-the voltaic action ; but a constant battery con- sisting of several pairs of plates was much more effective. Among the veins thus produced in clay, Mr. Fox mentions oxide and carbo- nate of copper, carbonate of zinc, oxides of iron and tin. Veins of carbonate of zinc were formed, sufficiently firm to admit of being taken out in plates of the size of a shillmg. Mr. Fox then describes a vein formed in pipeclay, by Mr. Jordan, by five pairs of cylinders, in three weeks. ‘The clay divided an earthenware vessel into two cells, into one of which, containing the copper plate, a solution of sulphate of copper was put; and into the other, or zinc cell, a solu- tion of common salt. Well-defined veins were thus produced of carbonate and oxide of copper, and carbonate of zinc parallel to the laminz, into which the clay divided; as well as another of carbonate and oxide of copper at right angles to them. On dividing the mass 10 of clay in the direction of the principal horizontal vein, the carbonate of zinc was found on the negative side, or towards the copper plate; and the carbonate of copper nearest the zinc plate: and as the for- mer must have been derived from the zinc plate, it is curious to ob- serve such a complete transposition of the respective metals. Mr. Fox is of opinion that these results have a strong bearing on the numerous mineral veins and beds which are found conformable to the direction of the lamine of the containing rocks, as well as on those veins which traverse the lamine of the conformable veins. An extract was afterwards read from a letter addressed by Captain Alexander to the Secretary, explanatory of casts of portions of Mastodon teeth from the crag, and on the occurrence of a particu- lar bed containing Echini in the coralline crag at Sudbourne. The larger cast was taken from a Mastodon tooth found on the shore at Sizewell Gap, about seven miles from Southwold. When the original came into Captain Alexander’s possession, crag adhered to it in considerable quantity; and he has no doubt that it had been washed from Easton, about 14 mile north of Southwold. The weight of the tooth is 2lbs. 54 0z., its length is about 6 inches, and its breadth 34 inches; and although it had been washed eight miles, only three of the crowns had been injured. ‘The other cast is from a fragment of a young tooth found by the author in the crag at Bra- merton. Capt. Alexander found also the canine tooth of a large carnivo- rous animal in the crag at Easton. At Bramerton he obtained also five crabs, three of which were almost perfect. At Sudbourne, near Orford, in a bed of very fine coralline crag, he found several beau- tiful Echini; and in a thin, argillaceous layer in the centre of the same bed, the greater part of the vertebral column of a fish, the re- mains of crabs, and the ear bone of a whale, which had apparently been water-worn before it was enclosed in the crag. To this stratum Captain Alexander calls particular attention, as he believes it would be found to be rich in organic remains, if it were properly examined. December 5th.—William Long, Esq., of Hart’s Hall, Saxmund- ham; George Lloyd, Esq., M.D., Newbold Terrace, Leamington; Edward Wilson, Esq., of Abbot Hall, Kendal; Edward Strutt, Esq., M.P., of St. Helen’s, Derby, and South-street, Grosvenor-square ; Mr. Thomas Evans Blackwell, Hungerford, Wiltshire; John M. Herbert, Esq., Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge ; and Charles Collier, Esq., F.R.S., Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, Earl’s Terrace, Kensington; were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read, entitled ‘“‘ A few brief Remarks on the Trap Rocks of Fife,” by the Rev. John Fleming, D.D., and commu- nicated by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. The trap rocks of Fifeshire are referred by Dr. Fleming to three distinct epochs of volcanic action; and he says that the products of 11 each epoch are not more decidedly characterized by dissimilarity in their relationship to the associated sedimentary rocks than by dif- ferences in their composition. The traps of the first epoch occupy the northern portion of the county from Stratheden to the estuary of the Tay, constituting the eastern extremity of the Ochils. They appear to be coeval with the grey sandstone (Arbroath pavement), and to rest upon, as well as to be variously associated with the old red sandstone, and to be covered by the yellow sandstone which supports the mountain limestone. Viewed on a great scale, they consist of amygdaloids containing ir- regular masses of porphyry, clay-stone, clink-stone, compact felspar, green-stone, and trap tuff: they also contain thin layers of slate- clay and grey sandstone. ‘The whole of the igneous rocks are de- cidedly stratified ; and though the beds are thick and variously bent, they have, in general, the same dip as the superior and inferior sedi- mentary formations. The materials of which they are composed, Dr. Fleming conceives were spread out under water, partly as lava and partly as ashes; and that several of the peculiarities of rocky structure have been produced by corpuscular action. Two vertical greenstone veins traverse this group in an easterly direction. One of them may be traced along the north side of the Ochils from the neighbourhood of Newburgh by Norman’s Law to Luthrie, a distance of nearly six miles: the other, observable at Alva and Dollard, on the south side of the Ochils, may be traced nearly forty miles by Monymeal to Hilton Bridge, north of Cupar. Several cross veins of greenstone and felspar likewise occur. The trap rocks of the second epoch form the southern margin of Stratheden, and may be considered as constituting a ridge parallel with the Ochils, from near St. Andrews to Stirling; but several branches or patches of the same age have been observed in the counties on the south of the Forth. ‘These traps consist almost ex- clusively of greenstone, which in a few instances is earthy and amygdaloidal. ‘They cover, in many places, the lower beds of the coal-measures; on the East Lomond they are intermixed with the mountain limestone; and at Wemyss Hall Hill, south of Cupar, they overlap the limestone, and are in contact with the yellow sand- stone. These two groups of trap rocks, the author is of opinion, were produced while the associated strata of old red sandstone and coal- mheasures were horizontal; and that they have undergone, equally with the sedimentary formations, the movements which gave the strata of the Ochils and the ridge south of Stratheden the southerly dip. He is also of opinion, that the greenstone of the second group may have furnished materials for the great veins, which traverse the older one. The traps of the third epoch occur chiefly along the shores of the Forth, and in the higher coal-measures. They consist of basalt with olivine, amygdaloid, greenstone, wacke, and trap tuff; and they fre- quently contain fragments of limestone, flinty slate, slate-clay, bitu- minous shale, sandstone, and coal. They appear to have been pro- 12 duced while the associated sedimentary strata were horizontal, and to have undergone with them the same disturbing movements*. An account of Footsteps of the Chirotheriumf, and other unknown animals lately discovered in the quarries of Storeton Hill, in the pen- insula of Wirrall, between the Mersey and the Dee, communicated by the Natural History Society of Liverpool, and illustrated with drawings by John Cunningham, Esq., was then read. In the early part of last June, there were discovered in the Store- ton quarries, on the under surface of several large slabs of sandstone, highly relieved casts of what the workmen believed to have been human hands; and the circumstance having been made known to the Na- tural History Society of Liverpool, a committee was appointed, who drew up the report communicated to this Society. The peninsula of Wirrall consists of new red sandstone; and to- wards the northern extremity, the formation may be separated into three principal divisions. The lowest is composed of beds, slightly inclined towards the east, of red or variegated sandstone, occasionally abounding with pebbles partly derived from the coal-measures ; and in the bottom strata either angular or little water-worn. Seams of marl are very rare in this division, the argillaceous matter being con- fined to nodules or concretions of clay of the same colour as the sandstone. The middle division consists of white or yellow sandstone, in some places argillaceous, and frequently containing round concretions of clay, and pebbles. ‘The strata are separated by seams of white or mottled clay, occasionally almost imperceptible, but sometimes se- veral inches thick. The uppermost division is formed of red or variegated sandstone, inclosing also nodules of clay and pebbles of quartz ; and it abounds with strata of red marl. The Storeton quarries are situated in the middle division; and the casts which have hitherto been noticed, occurred on the under sur- face of three beds of sandstone, about two feet thick each. The strata incline 8° to the north-east, but they are traversed by several faults, which range in the strike of the beds. The authors of the re- port are of opinion, that each of the thin seams of clay in which the sandstone casts were moulded, formed successively a dry surface, over which the Chirotherium and other animals walked, leaving im- pressions of their footsteps; and that each layer was submerged by * For further particulars, see Mackenzie on the Ochils, Mem. Wern. Soc., vol. il. p. 1; Fleming on Scales in the Old Red Sandstone of Fife- shire, Edinb. Journ. Nat. and Geograph. Science, Feb. 1831; and on the Mineralogy of the Neighbourhood of St. Andrews, Mem. Wern. Soc., vol. ii. p. 145; also Neill’s Daubuisson, p. 215. + This name was first applied provisionally by Professor Kaup, to si- milar casts discovered, towards the end of 1834, in the sandstone quarries at Hesseberg, near Hildburghausen. See Dr. F.R.L. Siekler’s Letter to Blumenbach, 1834; also, Die Plastik der Urwelt im Werrathale bei Hildburghausen, with plates by C. Kepler, and an introduction by Dr. Siekler, 1st part, 1836; and Dr. Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise, 1836... 13 -a depression of the surface. The lowest seam of clay was so thin, that the marks penetrated into the subjacent sandstone. The fol- lowing account.is then given ofa hind foot and a fore foot, selected from slabs in the Museum of the Royal Institution, Liverpool. Hind Foot, consisting of five digits;.one of which, from its resem- blance to a human thumb, has been generally distinguished by that designation. Inches. Total length from the root of the thumb to the point of the se- LOUD! BOG cody deed me ean In IR PUR ant= et Mae eae Toke wer rs 9 Extreme breadth from the point of the thumb to the point of HED WOME LOSES GEE Cine enC ene ecto oon mmne re Eras ae Ler MUMmACKOSS (CMe Alay, oi. eyuusie me, losdi icy chees inictnaleya choumeneects Length of the curved line extending from the root of the thumb POMIES MOU GE Pe ee PR ecd sha certian Fae hol H's op igo, cpi eps aR UE Breadth of the ball of the thumb . Relief of the ball of the thumb from the surface of the slab. Length of the first toe from the root to the point ........ oe HRemetnmotmtme SCCOMM GIEtO o.5.) sce a 4 950, :5 Semin ono, © or si aualin ole, eke Me WecEmolmt net nindvarbtOpeit: Weak) cece setae 6 Bees: abo Sasi Sie, foes See Were theolathe fourth GUttO. 26.5 sey 14 tas) syaregsr so eytce sls apt ene averse breadtn, or the first three toes... . 1. 4 asics a Average breadth of the fourth toe rather less than. . cP Relief of the second toe, which presents the greatest promi- MONEE sovocecu es cb6domengouoddo FO po ba oobogU HO GOUe OS oo = o> bole Slotol—tolto|e tole He bho One hind foot has been observed which measured 12 inches in its greatest length. Judging from the appearance of the casts, the sole of the foot must have been amply supplied with muscles, the casts of the ball of the thumb and the phalanges of the fingers being prominent. The digit, which has been called a thumb, is of a tapering shape, and is bent backwards near the extremity, where it ends in a point. It is extremely smooth, and there is no satisfactory evidence of either a nail oraclaw. ‘The toes are thick and strong, and had probably three phalanges each, and at the terminations are traces of stout, conical nails or claws. The sole of the foot is supposed to have been covered bya slightly rugose skin, the folds of which are stated to be distinctly visible in the casts of the toes. Fore Foot. Perfect impressions of the fore feet are extremely rare, owing either to the animal having used those feet lightly, or to the impressions having been obliterated by the tread of the hind feet. ‘The best preserved cast exhibits a thumb and three toes, being deficient of the fourth. The dimensions, which are generally half those of the hind foot, are as follows: Inches. Length from the root of the thumb to the point of the second toe . Le tahoe Total breadth not ascertained it in - consequence of the absence of the fourth toe. 14 Inches Breadth: Of the talons 3514...c eke, let. CCG ete Gee. Oo: «ic, Sh ceee 13 Wveneth ofttive thumibeis Joc) flys. sets he oa ede ee ee Se ee 24 Breadth of the ball)of theithumab....05. 5. oh esioe . oe oak oe ee Length of the first toe ...... feb ge Ry cene Mises SAE ere SE 2 deena thiotthe second (OG) sche csicd Bik eee cee cibe a oe 2i enethvor whe third toe rch. ssn ese erase eae ace 2: icventestibreadthyof, the t0es.).. 2a.) 4), a ae ioe ees SORBET 3 2 The thumb is slightly bent back, and pointed, and the toes were armed with nails. Traces of one animal have been observed in a continuous line on a slab ten yards long. The length of the step varies a little, but in general, the distance between the point of the second toe of one hind foot and the point of the same toe in the hind foot immediately in advance, is between 21 and 22 inches. Each fore foot is placed directly in front of the hind, and the thumbs of both extremities are always towards the medial line of the walk of the animal. Some further observations are given by the authors with respect to the progression of the animal, on the supposition that the digit conjectured to be a thumb, was really the first. Conceiving such to be the case, they state, that the animal must have crossed its feet three inches in walking, for the right fore and hind feet are placed 14 inch on the /e/t side of the medial line, and the left fore and hind feet 14 inch on the right side of the same line. ‘The casts of the Chirotherium, although the most remark- able, are by no means the most numerous, which exist on the Storeton sandstones. Many large slabs are crowded with casts in rilievo, some of which are supposed to have been derived from the feet of saurian reptiles, and others from those of tortoises. Occa- sionally the webs between the toes can be distinctly traced. “It is impossible,’ say the authors of the report, ‘‘ to look at these slabs and not conclude, that the clay beds on which they rested, must have been traversed by multitudes of animals, and in every variety of di- rection.” A note by Mr. James Yates was then read, giving a brief account of sketches of four differently characterized footsteps, traced from casts procured at Storeton, each of which is distinct both from the casts of the Chirotherium and the web-footed animal mentioned in the preceding report. A paper was afterwards read ‘‘ On two Casts in Sandstone of the impressions of the Hind Foot of a gigantic Chirotherium, from the New Red Sandstone of Cheshire,’ by Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.G.S. These specimens first came under the notice of Colonel Egerton about 1824, and they were placed in the author’s cabinet in 1836; but it was not until the recent discovery of the Chirotherium at Storeton, that their true nature was suspected. The exact locality, 15 at which the specimens were discovered, is not known; but it is pro- bable, that they were obtained from the neighbourhood of Colonel Egerton’s residence, near Tarporley, and from one of the beds of sandstone, which alternate with the red and green marls in the upper part of the new red system in that part of Cheshire. The casts, which consist of a rather soft and coarse sandstone, were evidently formed in the impressions of two hind feet; and though they have suffered from exposure to the weather for twelve years, yet they are sufficiently perfect to have enabled Sir Philip Egerton to take the measurements of the different parts, and draw up the accompanying comparative table. It is necessary to state, that though he preserves the use of the term thumb for the conve- nience of comparison with previous descriptions, yet he is of opinion that the marginal digit which has been so designated, is not the re- presentative of the fifth, but of the first toe. Large Chi- Hessberg Storeton rotherium Direction of the Measurements. Chirothe- Chirothe- from near eee Hiecee tne acelicalthe peintee che ai: OS Tae ength from the heel to the point of the MARLO GRORRS seeds este Sisk woabe:s: s/aucvere a versus on aS tea Length from the heel to the point of the Beet reuse ees ees occ tere seciclan c apaie scores ep o8 43 eu Length from the heel to the angle between the list ginal Pinas: Goesbeecoododede } Satiela cu heuae 10 0 ———— 2nd and 8rd toes 4 4 5 8 10 se dsrd and 4th toes 4 0 i Bl oo. il '@ Greatest breadth across the insertions of GINS TOES > coded: Hp age Dep Ee tee Pay ee 8 5 Breadth from the point of the thumb to e AGE LOC MMMEMIN (545 cic rejeshele sinilot le es sie 6 ste oss fY ae Dan0 Breadth from the thumb to point of 4thtoe 6. 3 OS 0R-s- NOG Breadth across the sole below the thumb... 3 6 Bi Deo BG <0) Breadth from Ist toe-point to 4thtoe-point 4 6 4 6 9 0 From these measurements it appears, that considerable differences exist in the three specimens of Chirotherium. Upon comparing the footstep from Hessberg with that from Storeton, it will be found, that the former is thicker and more clumsy than the latter; that the sole is shorter and broader, and the toes wider and longer. The most important discrepancy, however, is in the position of the thumb, which is placed much nearer the heel in the Hessberg specimens than in those from Storeton. The cast from near Tarporley re- sembles the latter more than the former; it nevertheless differs con- siderably in the proportion of the breadth to the length of the sole, which is greater; and in the proportions of the length of the toes to the length of the sole, which is less than in the Storeton specimens. It is also distinguished by the greater divergence of the toes from each other. From these differences and the gigantic size of the Tarporley specimen, the author conceives that the animal which made the im- pression was a distinct species; and he proposes for it, in compli- ance with the adage ex pede Herculem, the name of Chirotherium Herculis. hy The eae, tt Cry Pheer een” PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. ¢ Vou. III. 1838—1839. No. 60. Dec. 9, 1838.— A paper on the “ Phascolotherium,” being the second part of the ‘‘ Description of the Remains of Marsupial Mammalia from the Stonesfield Slate,’ by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.S., was read. Mr. Owen first gave a brief summary of the characters of the “« Thylacotherium,”’ described in the first part of the memoir, and which he conceives fully prove the mammiferous nature of that fossil He stated, that the remains of the split condyles in the spe- cimen demonstrate their original convex form, which is diametrically Opposite to that which characterizes the same part in all reptiles and all ovipara ;—that the size, figure and position of the coronoid process are such as were never yet witnessed in any except a zoophagous mammal endowed with a temporal muscle sufficiently developed to demand so extensive an attachment for working a powerful carnivorous jaw;—that the teeth, composed of dense ivory with crowns covered with a thick coat of enamel, are every where distinct from, the substance of the jaw, but have two fangs deeply im- bedded in it ;—that these teeth, which belong to the molar series, are of two kinds; the hinder being bristled with five cusps, four of which are placed in pairs transversely across the crown of the teeth, and the anterior or false molars, having a different form, and only two or three cusps—characters never yet found united in the teeth of any other than a zoophagous mammiferous quadruped ;—that the general form of the jaw corresponds with the preceding more essen- tial indications of its mammiferous nature. Fully impressed with the value of these characters, as determining the class to which the fossils belonged, Mr. Owen stated, that he had sought in the next place for secondary characters which might reveal the group of mammalia to which the remains could be assigned, and that he had found in the modification of the angle of the jaw, combined with the form, structure and proportions of the teeth, sufficient evidence to induce him to believe, that the Thylacotherium was a marsupial quadruped. Mr. Owen then recapitulated the objections against the mammi- ferous nature of the Thylacotherian jaws from their supposed imperfect state ; and repeated his former assertion, that they are in a condition to enable these characters to be fully ascertained : he next reviewed, first the differences of opinion with respect to the actual structure VOL, III. c 18 of the jaw; and, secondly, to the interpretation of admitted appear- ances. 1. As respects the structure.—It has been asserted that the jaws must belong to cold-blooded vertebrata, because the articular sur- face is in the form of an entering angle; to which Mr. Owen replies, that the articular surface is supported on a convex condyle, which is met with in no other class of vertebrata except in the mammalia. Again, it is asserted, that the teeth are all of an uni- form structure, as in certain reptiles; but, on reference to the fos- sils, Mr. Owen states, it will be found that such is not the case, and that the actual difference in the structure of the teeth strongly sup- ports the mammiferous theory of the fossils. 2. With respect to the argument founded on an interpretation of structure, which really exists, the author showed, that the Thylaco- therium, having eleven molars on each side of the lower jaw is no objection to its mammiferous nature, because among the placental carnivora, the Canis Megalotis has constantly one more grinder on each side of the lower jaw than the usual number; because the Chrysochlore among the Jnsectivora has also eight instead of seven molars in each ramus of the lower jaw; and the Myrmecobius, among the Marsupialia, has nine molars on each side of the lower jaw ; and because some of the insectivorous Armadillos and zoophas gous Cetacea offer still more numerous and reptile-like teeth, with all the true and essential characters of the mammiferous class. The ob- jection to the false molars having two fangs, Mr. Owen showed was futile, as the greater number of the spurious molars in every genus of the placental fere have two fangs, and the whole of them in the Marsupialia. If the ascending ramus in the Stonesfield jaws had been absent, and with it the evidence of their mammiferous nature afforded by the condyloid, coronoid and angular processes, Mr. Owen stated, that he conceived the teeth alone would have given sufficient proof, especially in their double fangs, that the fossils do belong to the highest class of animals. In reply to the objections founded on the double fangs of the Basilosaurus, Mr. Owen said, that the characters of that fossil, not having been fully given, it is doubtful to what class the animal be- longed; and, in answer to the opinion, that certain sharks have double fangs, he explained, that the widely bifurcate basis support- ing the tooth of the shark, is no part of the actual tooth, but true bone, and ossified parts of the jaw itself, to which the tooth is an- chylosed at one part, and the ligaments of connexion attached at the other. The form, depth and position of the sockets of the teeth in the Thylacothere are precisely similar to those in the small opos- sums. The colour of the fossils, Mr. Owen said, could be no ob- jection to those acquainted with the diversity in this respect, which obtains in the fossil remains of Mammalia. Lastly, with respect to the Thylacothere, the author stated, that the only trace of compound structure is a mere vascular groove running along its lower margin, and that a similar structure is present in the corresponding part of the lower jaw of some species of opossum, of the Wombat, of the 19 Balena antarctica, and of the Myrmecobius, though the groove does not reach so far forwards in this animal; and that a similar groove is present near the lower margin, but on the outer side of the jaw, in the Sorex Indicus. Description of the Half Jaw of the Phascolothertum—This fossil is a right ramus of the lower jaw, having its internal or mesial sur- face exposed. It once formed the chief ornament of the private collection of Mr. Broderip, by whom it has since been liberally pre- sented to the British Museum. It was described by Mr. Broderip in the Zoological Journal, and its distinction from the Thylacothe- rium clearly pointed out. The condyle of the jaw is entire, stand- ing in bold relief, and presents the same form and degree of con- vexity as in the genera Didelphys and Dasyurus. In its being on a level with the molar teeth, it corresponds with the marsupial genera Dasyurus and Thylacynus as well as with the placental zoo- phaga. The general form and proportions of the coronoid process closely resemble those in zoophagous marsupials ; but in the depth and form of the entering notch, between the process and the condyle, it corresponds most closely with the Thylacynus. Judging from the fractured surface of the inwardly reflected angle, that part had an extended oblique base, similar to the inflected angle of the Thy- lacynus. In the Phascolotherium the flattened inferior surface of the jaw, external to the fractured inflected angle, inclines out- wards at an obtuse angle with the plane of the ascending ramus, and not at an acute angle, as in the Thylacyne and Dasyurus ; but this difference is not one which approximates the fossil in question to any of the placental zoophaga; on the contrary, it is m the marsupial genus Phascolomys, where a precisely similar relation of the inferior flattened base to the elevated plate of the ascending ramus of the jaw is manifested. In the position of the dental foramen, the Phascolothere, like the Thylacothere, differs from all zoophagous marsupials, and the placental fere ; but in the Hypsiprymnus and Phascolomys, marsupial herbivora, the orifice of the dental canal is situated, as in the Stonesfield fossils, very near the vertical line dropped from the last molar teeth. ‘The form of the symphysis, in the Phascolothere, cannot be truly determined; but Mr. Owen is of opinion that it resembles the symphysis of the Dzdelphys more than that of the Dasyurus or Thylacynus. Mr. Owen agrees with Mr. Broderip in assigning four incisors to each ramus of the lower jaw of the Phascolothere, as in the Didelphys; but in their scattered arrangement they resemble the incisors of the Myrmecobius. In the relative extent of the alveolar ridge occupied by the grinders, and in the proportions of the grinders to each other, espe- cially the small size of the hindermost molar; the Phascolothere resem- bles the Myrmecobius more than it does the Opossum, Dasyurus or Thylacynus ; but in the form of the crown, the molars of the fossil re- semble the Thylacynus more closely than any other genus of marsupials. In the number of the grinders the Phascolothere resembles the Opossum and Thylacine, having four true and three false in each maxillary c2 20 ramus; but the molares veri of the fossil differ from those of the Opos~ sum and Thylacothere in wanting a pointed tubercle on the inner side of the middle large tubercle, and in the same transverse line with it the place being occupied by a ridge which extends along the inner side of the base of the crown of the true molars,and projects a little beyond the anterior and posterior smaller cusps, giving the quin- quecuspid appearance to the crown of the tooth. This ridge, which, in Phascolotherium, represents the inner cusps of the true molars in Didelphys and Thylacotherium, is wanting in Thylacynus, in which the true molars are more simple than in the Phascolo- there, though hardly less distinguishable from the false molars. In the second true molar of the Phascolothere, the internal ridge is also obsolete at the base of the middle cusp, and this tooth presents a close resemblance to the corresponding tooth in the Thylacine ; but in the Thylacine the two posterior molars increase in size, while in the Phascolothere they progressively diminish, as in the Myrmecobius. As the outer sides of the grinders in the jaw of the Phascolothere are imbedded in the matrix, we cannot be sure that there is not a smaller cuspidated ridge sloping down towards that side, as in the crowns of the teeth of the Myrmecobius. But, assuming that all the cusps of the teeth of the Phascolothere are exhibited in the fossil, still the crowns of these teeth resemble those of the Thylacine more than they do those of any placental Insectivora or Phoca, if even the form of the jaw permitted a com- parison of it with that of any of the seal tribe. Connecting then the close resemblance which the molar teeth of the Phascolotherium bear to those of the Thylacynus with the similiarities of the ascending ramus of the jaw, Mr. Owen is of opinion that the Stonesfield fossil was nearly allied to Thylacynus, and that its position in the marsupial series Is between Thylacynus and Didelphys. With respect to the supposed compound structure of the jaw of the Phascolotherium, Mr. Owen is of opinion that, of the two linear impressions which have been mistaken for harmonié or toothless sutures, one, a faint shallow linear impression continued from between the antepenultimate and penultimate molars obliquely downwards and backwards to the foramen of the dental artery, is due to the pressure of a small artery, and that the author possesses the jaw of a Didelphys Virgi- niana which exhibits a similar groove in the same place. Moreover, this groove in the Phascolothere does not occupy the same relative position as any of the contiguous margins of the opercular and den- tary pieces of a reptile’s jaw. The other impression in the jaw of the Phascolotherium is a deep groove continued from the anterior extremity of the fractured base of the inflected angle obliquely downwards to the broken surface of the anterior part of the jaw. Whether this line be due to a vascular impression, or an accidental fracture, is doubtful; but as the lower jaw of the Wombat presents an impression in the precisely corresponding situation, and which is undoubtedly due to the presence of an artery, Mr. Owen conceives that this impression is also natural in the Phascolothere, but equally 21 unconnected with a compound structure of the jaw; for there is not any suture in the compound jaw of a reptile which occupies a corresponding situation. The most numerous, the most characteristic, and the best marked sutures in the compound jaws of areptile, are those which define the limits of the coronoid, articular, angular, and surangular pieces, and which arechiefly conspicuous on the inner side of the posterior part of the jaw. Now the corresponding surface of the jaw of the Phascolo- there is entire; yet the smallest trace of sutures, or of any indication that the coronoid or articular processes were distinct pieces, cannot be detected; these processes are clearly and indisputably continuous, and confluent with the rest of the ramus of the jaw. So that where sutures ought to be visible, if the jaw of the Phascolothere were composite, there are none; and the hypothetical sutures that are apparent do not agree in position with any of the real sutures of an oviparous compound jaw. Lastly, with reference to the philosophy of pronouncing judg- ment on the saurian nature of the Stonesfield fossils from the appearance of sutures, Mr. Owen offered one remark, the justness of which, he said would be obvious alike to those who were, and to those who were not, conversant with comparative anatomy. ‘The accumulative evidence of the true nature of the Stonesfield fossils, afforded by the shape of the condyle, coronoid process, angle of the jaw, different kinds of teeth, shape of their crowns, double fangs, implantation in sockets,—the appearance, he repeated, presented by these important particulars cannot be due to accident; while those which favour the evidence of the compound structure of the jaw may arise from accidental circumstances. A paper was afterwards read, entitled “‘ Observations on the Structure and Relations of the presumed Marsupial Remains from the Stonesfield Oolite,” by William Ogilby, Esq., F.G.S. These observations are intended by the author to embody only the most prominent characters of the fossils, and those essential points of structure in which they are necessarily related to the class of mammifers or of reptiles respectively. For the sake of putting the several points clearly and impartially, he arranged his observa- tions under the two following heads :— 1. The relations of agreement which subsist between the fossils in question and the corresponding bones of recent marsupials and insectivora. 2. The characters in which the fossils differ from those families. Mr. Ogilby confined his remarks to marsupialia and insectivora, because it is to those families only of mammifers that the fossils have been considered by anatomists to belong; and to the interior surface of the jaw, as the exterior is not exhibited in any of the fossil specimens. 1. In the general outline of the jaws, more especially in that of the Didelphys (Phascolotherium) Bucklandii, the author states, there is a very close resemblance to the jaw in recent imsectivora and insectivorous marsupials ; but he observes, that with respect to the 22 uniform curvature along the inferior margin, Cuvier has adduced the same structure as distinctive of the Monitors, Iguanas, and other true saurian reptiles, so that whatever support these modifications of structure may give to the question respecting the marsupial nature of the Stonesfield fossils, as compared with other groups of mammals, they do not affect the previous question of their mammiferous na- ture, as compared with reptiles and fishes. ‘The fossil jaws, Mr. Ogilby says, agree with those of mammals, and differ from those of all recent reptiles, in not being prolonged backward behind the articulating condyle ; a character in conjunction with the former relation, which would be, in this author’s opinion, well nigh incon- trovertible, if it were absolutely exclusive ; but the extinct saurians, the Pterodactyles, Ichthyosaurt, and Plesiosauri, cotemporaries of the Stonesfield fossils, differ from their recent congeners in this respect and agree with mammals. Mr. Ogilby is of opinion that the con- dyle is round both in D. Prevostii and D. Bucklandii, and is there- fore a very strong point in favour of the mammiferous nature of the jaws. ‘The angular process, he says, is distinct in one speci- men of D. Prevostii, and, though broken eff in the other, has left a well-defined impression ; but that it agrees in position with the insec- tivora, and not the marsupialia, being situated in the plane passing through the coronoid process and the ramus of the jaw. In the D. Bucklandii, he conceives, the process is entirely wanting; but that there is a slight longitudinal ridge partially broken, which might be mistaken for it, though placed at a considerable distance up the jaw, or nearly on a level with the condyle, and not at the inferior angular rim of the jaw. He is therefore of opinion that the D. Bucklandii cannot be properly associated either with the marsu- pial or insectivorous mammals. ‘The composition of the teeth, he conceives, cannot be advanced successfully against the mammiferous nature of the fossils, because animal matter preponderates over mineral in the teeth of the great majority of the Insectivorous Cheir- optera, as well as in those of the Myrmecobius, and other small marsu- pials. In the jaw of the D. Prevostii, Mr. Ogilby cannot perceive any appearance of a dentary canal, the fangs of the teeth, in his opinion, almost reaching the inferior margin of the jaw, and being implanted completely in the bone; but in the D. Bucklandit, he has observed, towards the anterior extremity of the jaw, a hollow space filled with foreign matter, and very like a dentary canal. The double fangs of the teeth of D. Prevostii, and probably of D. Buck- landi, he says, are strong points of agreement between the fossils and mammifers in general; but that double roots necessarily indi- cate, not the mammiferous nature of the animal, but the compound form of the crowns of the teeth. 2. With respect to the most prominent characters by which the Stonesfield fossils are distinguished from recent mammals of the insectivorous and marsupial families, Mr. Ogilby mentioned, first, the position of the condyle, which is placed in the fossil jaws ina line rather below the level of the crowns of the teeth; and he stated that the condyle not being elevated above the line in the Dasyurus 23 Ursinus and Thylacinus Harrisii, is not a valid argument, because. those marsupials are carnivorous. The 2nd point urged by the author against the opinion, that the fossils belonged to insectivorous or marsupial mammifers, is in the nature and arrangement of the teeth. The number of the molars, he conceives, is a second- ary consideration ; but he is convinced that they cannot be separated in the fossil jaws into true and false, as in mammalia; the great length of the fangs, equal to at least three times the depth of the crowns, he conceives, is a strong objection to the fossils being placed in that class, as it is a character altogether peculiar and unexampled among mammals; the form of the teeth also, he stated, cannot be justly compared to that of any known species of marsupial or insec- tivorous mammifer, being, in the author’s opinion, simply tricuspid, and without any appearance of interior lobes. As to the canines and incisors, Mr. Ogilby said, that the tooth in D. Bucklandit, which has been called a canine, is not larger than some of the pre- sumed incisors, and that all of them are so widely separated as to occupy full five-twelfths of the entire dental line, whilst im the Dasyurus viverrinus, and other species of insectivorous marsupials, | they occupy one-fifth part of the same space. Their being arranged longitudinally in the same line with the molars, he conceives, is another objection, because, among all mammals, the incisors occupy the front of the jaw, and stand at right angles to the line of the molars. With respect to the supposed compound structure of the jaw, Mr. Ogilby offered no formal opinion, but contented himself with simply stating the appearances; he, nevertheless, objected to the grooves being considered the impression of blood vessels, though he admitted that the form of the jaws is altogether different from that of any known reptile or fish. From a due consideration of the whole of the evidence, Mr. Ogilby stated, in conclusion, that the fossils present so many import- ant and distinctive characters in common with mammals on the one hand, and cold-blooded animals on the other, that he does not think naturalists are justified at present in pronouncing definitively to which class the fossils really belong. Jan. 9, 1839.—Alexander Jack, Esq., Captain in the 30th Regi- ment of Bengal Native Infantry ; George Cunningham, Esq.,Harley- street; Rev. Samuel Wilberforce, M.A., Brighston, near Newport, Isle of Wight; Rev. William Bilton, of Port Hill, near Bideford; and Richard Clewin Griffith, M.D., Gower-street, Bedford-square ; were elected Fellows of this Society. A notice was first read on the discovery of the Basilosaurus and the Batrachiosaurus, by Dr. Harlan. The first remains of the Basilosaurus, which came under Dr. Harlan’s notice, were a vertebra and some other bones found in the marly banks of Washeta river, Arkansas territory. In the autumn of 1834, he examined another collection discovered in a hard lime- stone in Alabama, and consisting of several enormous vertebre, a humerus, portions of jaws with teeth, and some other fragments sup- } 24 posed to belong to the same animal. In the matrix of the vertebra from the Washeta river was a fossil corbula, common in the Alabama tertiary deposits, and specimens of nautilus, scutella, and modiolus of extinct and new species; sharks’ teeth have also been found in a similar rock in the vicinity of the locality from which the other collection was procured. Dr. Harlan was originally inclined, from the struc- ture of the teeth, to consider these fossil remains as having belonged to a marine carnivorous animal; but from an examination of the bones he was induced to conclude, that they were portions of a new genus of Saurians, for which he proposed the name of Basilosaurus. Dr. Harlan then briefly described a portion of an upper jaw of a Saurian discovered by a beaver trapper, on or near the banks of the Yellowstone river in the territory of the Missouri, imbedded in a hard blue limestone rock. On first inspection Dr. Harlan believed, from the structure of the teeth, the mode of dentition, and the po- sition of the anterior nares, the fragment belonged to an Ichthyo- saurus ; but as it differs entirely from that genus in having separate alveoli, and in the form and position of the intermaxillary bones, while it approaches in the latter characters the batrachian reptiles, he has formed for the fossil a new genus designated by the name of Batrachiosaurus. A paper was afterwards read, entitled, ‘‘ Observations on the Teeth of the Zeuglodon, Basilosaurus of Dr. Harlan,’ by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.S. Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons, London. During the recent discussions respecting the Stonesfield fossil jaws, one of the strongest arguments adduced and reiterated by M. de Blainville and others in support of their saurian nature, was founded on the presumed existence in America of a fossil reptile possessing teeth with double fangs, and called by Dr. Harlan, the Basilosaurus. To the validity of this argument, Mr. Owen refused to assent, until the teeth of the American fossil had been subjected to a re-examination with an especial view to their alleged mode of implantation in the jaw; and until they had been submitted to the test of the microscopic investigation of their intimate structure with reference to the true affinities of the animal to which they be- longed. The recent arrival of Dr. Harlan in England with the fossils, and the permission which he has liberally granted Mr. Owen of having the necessary sections made, have enabled him to determine the mammiferous nature of the fossil. Among the parts of the Basilosaurus brought to England by Dr. Harlan, are two portions of bone belonging to the upper jaw ; the larger ofthem contains three teeth; the other, the sockets of twoteeth. In the larger specimen, the crownsof the teeth aremore or less perfect, and they are compressed and conical, but with an obtuse apex. The longitudinal diameter of the middle, and most perfect one, is three inches, the transverse diameter one inch two lines, and the height above the alveolar process two inches and a half. The crown is trans- versely contracted in the middle, giving its horizontal section an hour-glass form; and the opposite wide longitudinal grooves which 25 produce this shape, becoming deeper as the crown approaches the socket, at length meet and divide the root of the tooth into two se- parate fangs. ‘The two teeth in the fore part of the jaw are smaller than the hinder tooth, and the anterior one appears to be of a sim- pler structure. A worn-down tooth contained in another portion of jaw, Mr. Owen had sliced, and it presented the same hour-glass form, the crown being divided into two irreguiar, rounded lobes jomed by a narrow isthmus or neck. The anterior lobe is placed obliquely, but the posterior parallel with the axis of the jaw. ‘The isthmus increases in length as the tooth descends in the socket until the isthmus finally disappears, and the two portions of the tooth take on the character of separate fangs. It is evident that the pulp was originally simple, but that it soon divided into two parts, from which the growth of the ivory of the teeth proceeded as from two distinct centres, now separately surrounded by concentric striz of growth, the exterior sending an acute-angled process into the isthmus. The cavitas pulpi, which is very small im the crown of the tooth, contracts as the crown descends, and is almost obliterated near the extremity, proving that the teeth were developed from a temporary pulp. The sockets in the anterior fragment of the upper jaw are indistinct and filled with hard calcareous matter, but a transverse horizontal section of the alveolar margin proves, that these sockets are single, and that the teeth lodged therein had single fangs. In the anterior socket, there is an indication of the transverse median contraction, showing that this tooth resembled in form, to a certain degree, the posterior tooth. A plaster cast of a portion of the lower jaw af- forded the only means of studying this part of the fossil. It con- tains four teeth, of which the two posterior are nearly contiguous, the next is at an interval of an inch and a half, and the most an- terior of two inches from the preceding. The last tooth is more sim- ple in form than those behind, and it has been described as a canine. This fragment of the lower jaw thus confirms the evidence afforded by the fragments of the upper jaw, that the teeth in the Basilosaurus were of two kinds, the anterior being smaller and simpler in form, and further from each other than those behind. Mr. Owen then proceeds to compare the Basilosaurus with those animals which have their teeth lodged in distinct sockets, as the Sphyrzena, and its congeners among fishes, the Plesiosauroid and Cro- codilean Sauria, and the class Mammalia; but as there is no instance of either fish or reptile having teeth implanted by two fangs in a double socket, he commences his comparison of the Basilosaurus with those Mammalia which most nearly resemble the fossil in other respects. Among the zoophagous Cetacea the teeth are always si- milar as to form and structure, and are invariably implanted in the socket by a broad and simple basis, and they never have two fangs. Among the herbivorous Cetacea however, the structure, form, num- ber and mode of implantation of the teeth differ considerably. In the Manatee, the molars have two long and separate fangs lodged in deep sockets, and the anterior teeth, when worn down, present 26 a form of the crown similar to that of the Basilosaurus, but the opposite indentations are not so deep; and the entire grinding sur- face of the molars of the Manatee differs considerably from those of the Basilosaurus, the anterior supporting two transverse conical ridges, and the posterior three. The Dugong resembles more nearly the fossil in its molar teeth; the anterior ones being smaller and simpler than the posterior, and the complication of the latter being due to exactly the same kind of modification as in the Basilosaurus, viz. a transverse constriction of the crown. ‘The posterior molar has its longitudinal diameter increased, and its transverse section approaches to the hour-glass figure, produced by opposite grooves. There is in this tooth also a tendency to the formation of a double fang, and the establishment of two centres of radiation for the calci- gerous tubes of the ivory, but the double fang is probably never com- pleted. The teeth in the Dugong moreover are not scattered as in the Basilosaurus. Mr. Owen then briefly compared the teeth of the fossil with those of the Saurians, and stated that he had not found a single instance of agreement in the Basilosaurus with the known dental peculiarities of that class. From the Mosasaurus the teeth of the American fossil differ in being implanted freely in sockets and not anchylosed to the substance of the jaw ; from the Ichthyosaurus and all the lacertine Sauria in being implanted in distinct sockets, and not in a continuous groove; from the Plesiosaurus and crocodilian reptiles from the fangs not being simple and expanding as they de- scend, but double, diminishing in size as they sink in the socket, and becoming consolidated by the progressive deposition of dental substance from temporary pulp in progress of absorption. In the Enaliosauria and the Crocodilia, moreover, there are invariably two or more germs of new teeth in different stages of formation close to or contained within the cavity of the base of the protruded teeth ; but the Basilosaurus presents no trace of this characteristic Saurian structure. From the external characters only of the teeth, Mr. Owen therefore infers, that the fossil was a Mammifer of the cetaceous order, and intermediate to the herbivorous and piscivorous sections of that order, as it now stands in the Cuvierian system. In consequence however of the Basilosaurus having been re- garded as affording an exceptional example among reptilia of teeth having two fangs, though contrary to all analogy, and as the other characters stated above, may be considered by the same anatomists to be only exceptions, Mr. Owen procured sections of the teeth for microscopic examination of their intimate structure and for com- paring it with that of the teeth of other animals. In the Sphyreena and allied fossil fishes which are implanted in sockets, the teeth are characterised by a continuation of medullary canals, arranged in a beautifully reticulated manner, extending through the entire substance of the tooth, and affordimg innumerable centres of radiation to extremely fine calcigerous tubes. In the Ichthyosaurus and Crocodile the pulp cavity is simple and central, as in Mammalia, and the calcigerous tubuli radiate from 27 this centre to every part of the circumference of the tooth, to which they are generally at right angles. The crown of the tooth in these Saurians is covered with enamel, while that part of the tooth which is in the alveolus is surrounded with a thick layer of cortical substance. In the Dolphins which have simple conical teeth like the higher reptiles, the crown is also covered with enamel and the base with cementum. But in the Cachalot and Dugong the whole of the teethis covered with cementum. In the Dugong this external layer presents the same characteristic radiated purkingian corpuscles or cells as in the cementum of the human teeth, and those of other animals ; but the cementum of the Dugong differs from that of the Pachyderms and Ruminants in being traversed by numerous calcige- rous tubes, the corpuscles or cells being scattered in the interstices of these tubes. Now the crowns of the teeth of the Basilosau- rus evidently exhibit in many parts a thin investing layer of a substance distinct from the body or ivory of the tooth, and the mi- croscopic examination of a thin layer of this substance proves it to possess the same characters as the cementum of the crown of the tooth of the Dugong. The purkingian cells are, in some places, scattered irregularly, but in others are arranged in parallel rows. The tubes radiating from the cells are wider than usual at the com- mencement; but soon divide and subdivide, forming rich reticula- tions in the interspaces, and communicating with the branches of the parallel larger tubes. These are placed, as in the Dugong, perpen- dicular to the surface of the tooth, but they are less regularly arranged than the calcigerous tubes of the ivory, with which, however, they form numerous continuations. There is a greater proportion of ce- mentum in the isthmus of the tooth than elsewhere; and the worn- down crown of the tooth must therefore have exhibited a complicated structure. ‘The entire substance of the ivory of the teeth consists of fine calcigerous tubes radiating from the centres of the two lobes, without any intermixture of coarser medullary tubes which charac- terize the teeth of the Iguanodon; or the slightest trace of the re- ticulated canals, which distinguish the texture of the teeth of the Sphyrena and its congeners. The calcigerous tubes undulate regu- larly, and like those of the Dugong, exhibit more plainly the pri- mary dichotomous bifurcations, and the subordinate lateral branches given off at acute angles: they also communicate with numerous minute cells arranged in concentric lines. Thus, the microscopic characters of the texture of the teeth of the great Basilosaurus are strictly of a mammiferous nature; and Mr. Owen further showed that they differ from those of the fossil Eden- tata, which are also surrounded by cementum, in the absence of the coarse central ivory ; and confirm the inference respecting the position of the fossil in the natural system drawn from the external aspect of the teeth. Mr. Owen then adduced further proofs of the mammiferous and cetaceous character of the Basilosaurus, from the structure of the vertebrze which proves that the epiphyseal lamine were originally separated from the body of the vertebrz, but were afterwards united 28 to it. In the bodies of the smaller vertebre the epiphyses are wanting, and Mr. Owen agrees with Dr. Harlan in infering from the common occurrence of this condition, that there were originally three separate points of ossification in the body of the vertebree; a character never noticed in the vertebrz of Saurians, but a most pro- minent one in those of the Cetacea. Another argument in favour of the mammiferous and cetaceous nature of the Basilosaurus is de- duced from the great capacity of the canal for the spmal chord, which in the Cetacea is surrounded by an unusually thick plexiform stratum of both arteries and veins. ‘The cetaceous character is further manifested in the short antero-posterior extent of the neura- pophyses as compared with that of the body of the vertebre; in their regular concave posterior margin, and the development of the articular apophyses only from their anterior part: also in the form and position of the transverse processes, which however present a greater vertical thickness than in the true Cetacea, and approach in this respect to the vertebrze of the Dugong. With respect to the other bones of the Basilosaurus, Mr. Owen stated, that the ribs in their excentric laminated structure are pecu- liar, and unlike those of any mammal or Saurian. The hollow structure of the lower jaw of the Basilosaurus, which has been ad- vanced as a proof of its saurian nature, Mr. Owen showed occurs also in the lower jaw of the Cachalot, and is therefore equally good for the cetaceous character of the fossil. In the compressed shaft of the humerus, and its proportion to the vertebre, the Basilosaurus again approximates to the true Cetacea, as much as it recedes from the Enaliosaurians; but in the expansion of the distal extremity and the form of the articular surface, this hu- merus stands alone; and no one can contemplate the comparative feebleness of this, the principal bone of the anterior extremity, with- out agreeing with Dr. Harlan, that the tail must have been the main organ of locomotion. Mr. Owen, in compliance with the suggestion of Dr. Harlan, who, having compared with Mr. Owen the microscopic structure of the teeth of the Basilosaurus with those of the Dugong and other ani- mals, admits the correctness of the inferences of its mammiferous nature, proposes to substitute for the name of Basilosaurus that of Zeuglodon, suggested by the form of the posterior molars which re- semble two teeth tied or yoked together. A paper, ‘‘ On the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Lisbon,” by Daniel Sharpe,” Esq., F.G.S., was commenced. Jan. 23, 1839.—H. Sockett, Esq., Barrister at Law, Swansea; John Thomas Barber Beaumont, Esq., County Fire Office, Regent- street; and Rev. Thomas Rees, LL.D., F.S.A., Woburn-place, were elected Fellows of this Society, , A notice on ‘‘ the Occurrence of Graptolites in the Slate of Gal- loway in Scotland,” by C. Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S., was first read. On examining some specimens of slaty sandstone and shale, col- lected by Mr. John Carrick Moore, on the shore of Loch Ryan in 29 Galloway, Mr. Lyell discovered distinct remains of Graptolites, re- sembling those found in the Silurian strataof England and Sweden. As Mr. Lyell is not aware of these zoophytes having been before observed in Scotland, and as organic remains are exceedingly rare in the great range of slaty sandstone and shale, which extends from St. Abb’s Head to Galloway, he considers the discovery of a fossil, affording a test of the relative age of those beds, not unimportant. The strata contaiing the Graptolites are nearly vertical, and their strike is west-south-west and east-north-east. Mr. Sharpe’s paper ‘‘ On the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Lisbon,” commenced at the meeting held on the 9th of January, was then concluded. In 1832, Mr. Sharpe laid before the Society, a short account of the geological structure of the neighbourhood of Lisbon* ; but having since that period resided for a considerable time in the same district, he gave in the paper read on the 23rd instant, the result of his more extended and matured acquaintance with the country. The tract described by Mr. Sharpe, is bounded towards the north by a line extending from Torres Vedras by Sobral to Villa Franca, and in the south by the coast from Cape Espichel to St. Ubes; and the whole of its area is about 650 square miles. The formations are arranged by the author in the following order, the local names having been taken from the points where the strata are best exhibited : Tertiary. (a.) Upper tertiary sand.—(6.) Almada beds.—(c.) Lower tertiary conglomerate. Secondary. (d.) Hippurite limestone.—(e.) Red sandstone.—(/.) Espichel limestone.—(y.) Slate clay and shale.-—(h.) San Pedro limestone.—(z.) Older red conglomerate. Igneous Rocks.—Basalt.— Granite. TERTIARY FORMATIONS. The tertiary deposits occupy a tract, only a portion of which is included within Mr. Sharpe’s district, as they extend in a north-east direction to Abrantes, a distance of eighty miles, and in a south-east to Alcacer do Sal, a distance of fifty miles. ‘The Tagus flows through the tract from Abrantes to the sea, but the greater part of the ter- tiary strata are situated to the south of the river.- (a.) Upper Tertiary Sand.—This formation consists of about 100 feet of fine gray quartzose sand, and 150 feet of coarse quartzose ferruginous sand and gravel. It constitutes nearly the whole of the tertiary district, south of the Tagus, included within the author’s sur- vey. The strata are usually quite horizontal, except at the edges of the basin, where they rest upon the inclined beds of the subjacent deposits; and the author did not observe any instance of their having been disturbed. They generally repose upon the Almada limestone, but near Aldea do Meco, to the north of Cape Espichel, they are in contact with the red sandstone formation. No traces of * Proceedings, vol. i. p, 394. 30 organic remains have been noticed in any part of these sands. In the lower beds a mine of quicksilver was worked profitably during the last century near Coina, south of the Tagus; and the gold dust for which the sands of that river have been so long celebrated, Mr. Sharpe believes, is derived also from the lower or ferruginous sands. (.) Almada Beds.—A complete section of this deposit is not ex- hibited in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, and the strata are so very irregular both in thickness and composition, that it is difficult to connect the sections displayed at different localities. ‘The strata are best exposed in the cliff south of the Tagus, between Trafaria and Almada. The whole of the series is arranged by Mr. Sharpe in three groups, the uppermost consisting of limestone and sands, the middle of blue clay, and the lowest of another series of limestones and sands: but Mr. Sharpe does not attach much value to the sub- division ; as the same fossils are found in the beds above and below the blue clay. The deposit constitutes a triangular tract on the Lisbon side of the Tagus, extending from that city to Verdelha, a distance of about fourteen miles ; it also caps some hills between Belem and Fort St. Julian. South of the Tagus, it forms the cliffs already mentioned; and a band which ranges from St. Ubes northwards to Palmella, and thence south-west to within a mile of Aldea do Meco, skirting the flanks of a ridge of secondary formations. A detached mass of the Almada beds occurs at the western end of the Serra de San Luiz, between St. Ubes and Azeitao, abutting unconformably against the elevated edges of the beds of red sandstone, and another is on the shore at the foot of San Felippa near St. Ubes. North of the Tagus, the beds incline from 5° to 10° to the south-east; but to the south of the river between St. Ubes and Aldea do Meco, the dip varies from 25° to 30°, and conforms to the position of the band with respect to the ridge of secondary rocks, being to the south-east between St. Ubes and Palmella, andto the north-west between the latter town and Azeitao. Thebeds of the detached mass near the western end of the Serra de San Luiz, dip about 30° north, and those of the mass on the shore at the foot of San Felippa, 80° towards the older red conglomerate, having been thrown over beyond the perpendicular. On the coast at Casilhas near Almada, the level of the strata is affected very con- siderably by faults. North of the Tagus a fault cuts off the tertiary strata at Oeiras, the Almada beds forming one bank of the stream, and the Hippurite limestone the opposite; but the strata of each deposit are horizontal. In Lisbon the Almada beds rest uncon- formably on the Hippurite limestone ; but between the city and Ver- delha, conformably on the lower tertiary conglomerate. In the band ranging from St. Ubes by Palmella towards Aldea do Meco, they repose in general also conformably on the red sandstone. The greatest height attained by the formation is the Castle Hill near Pal- mella, the summit of which is 930 feet above the level of the sea, and at this point two lines of disturbance meet. Fossils are very abundant in some of the beds, but sufficient attention has not yet been paid to them to permit their being compared with the organic remains of other tertiary districts. A long-hinged oyster, Ostrea 31 longirostris, Mr. Sharpe considers identical with a species common in the tertiary deposits of the south of Spain. Small quantities of quicksilver have been found in several places in a bed of sand im- mediately above the blue clay or central division of the formation. (c.) Lower Tertiary Conglomerate-—This deposit consists in the upper part of distinctly stratified conglomerates, composed of lime- stone pebbles imbedded in a calcareous matrix; and in the lower of sands, grits, gravel, and marl. Within the district examined by Mr. Sharpe, it occurs only on the Lisbon side of the Tagus, forming a band from that city by Odivellas, Camarate, Loures, and Tojal, to the neighbourhood of Alhandra, on the banks of the Tagus, and skirting the western and north-western boundary of the Almada beds. ‘The conglomerate occurs also on some of the detached hills between Belem and the Bay of Cascaes. ‘The deposit dips to the south-east under the Almada beds at an angle of 10° or 15°, but in the lowest strata the dip is 30°. For a short distance south of Alhandra, the conglomerate rests upon the red sandstone, but throughout the remainder of its range upon basalt. No organic remains were noticed in the deposit. SECONDARY FORMATIONS. In few countries can the separation between the tertiary and secondary formations be more strongly marked than in the neigh- bourhood of Lisbon. ‘The deposits of the older class of rocks, Mr. Sharpe states, were disturbed and denuded previously to the com- mencement of the tertiary epoch, and an immense mass of basalt is interposed between the newest of the secondary rocks and the most ancient of the tertiary series. (d.) Hippurite Limestone.—The upper part of this formation con- sists of alternations of marl and limestone, succeeded by beds of limestone containing thin horizontal beds of flint; and the lowest part of various strata of compact limestone ; amounting in the whole to a thickness of above 500 feet. ‘The formation is confined to the north of the Tagus, where it presents several distinct bands, which rest upon the red sandstone, and are overlaid by basalt. ‘The most southern tract extends from Cascaes Bay nearly to Loures; another irregular strip ranges from Montelavar to a little to the eastward of Bucellas; and a third district, commencing near Villa Franca, stretches to the north beyond the range of Mr. Sharpe’s district. A portion of Lisbon also stands upon Hippurite limestone. In some parts, especially on the coast, the dip is slightly towards the south-east, but from Loures to beyond Bellas it varies from 30° to 50° in the same direction. The strata do not always rest con- formably on those of the subsequent red sandstone, for near Cas- caes, the limestone beds are horizontal, and the sandstone on which they lie is inclined at a considerable angle. ‘The narrow valley of Alcantara, close to Lisbon, is the line of a considerable fault, the strata dipping in opposite directions from the valley, or 15° towards the west, and 10° towards the east. Another anteclinal line inter- 32 sects the upper part of this valley ; and at the point where the two disturbances cross, considerable derangement of the strata is produced. In one quarry Mr. Sharpe noticed eight small faults, and the walls of the rocks on each side of the fissures had a beautiful polish. Though the author has adopted the term Hippurite limestone for this deposit, yet he did not discover any remains of that genus, but great abundance of spherulites, some of them probably of known species, and other fossils of the family of Rudista. He obtained also a considerable number of shells including Ezogyra flabellata, Pecien quadricostatus and Pecten striato-costatus. (e.) Red Sandstone.—This formation consists of various sands, sandstones, marls, and limestone, which are grouped by Mr. Sharpe in the following manner : Upper Division.—Ferruginous sands, sandstones, and coloured marls. Middle Division.—Calcareous sandstones and coarse limestones. Lowest Division.—Coarse sands, sandstones, and grits. The extent of country, composed of this formation, is very con- siderable. North of the Tagus, the red sandstone covers the greater portion of the area to the westward of the tertiary strata and Hip- purite limestone, the only tract belonging to other deposits being the hills at Cintra, and the lower ridges immediately surrounding them. A denuded strip of sandstone is also exposed between Loures and Cape Sinchette. South of the Tagus, the red sandstone forms a tract of variable breadth, extending from Palmella to the coast, a little north of Cape Espichel. The beds of this formation are greatly affected by faults and vary much in the angle of inclination, but the prevailing dip is towards the south-east throughout the districts on the Lisbon side of the Tagus. In the tract between Palmella and the coast, the strata have also been disturbed by considerable faults, but their usual dip is north, or north-west, at a high angle. Near Lisbon, the connexion of the red sandstone with the subjacent for- mations is not often exposed. North of Cintra the sandstone rests almost horizontally upon inclined strata of Espichel limestone, shale, San Pedro limestone and granite. South of the Cintra hills, it reposes very irregularly upon the Espichel limestone: and south of the Tagus, with every degree of want of conformity, upon the limestone of the Serra d’Arrabida (Espichel limestone); and in a great variety of positions upon the lofty peaks of the older red con- glomerate of the Cavoens and the Serra de San Luiz near St. Ubes. Lignite occurs im several places, and in sufficient quantities to have led to unsuccessful researches for coal. Sulphur also thickly en- crusts some of the sandstone strata; and gypsum has been worked near Santa Anna, south of the Tagus. Mr. Sharpe is of opinion, that the tepid springs of Estoril, near Cascaes, may derive their virtues from the sulphureous strata; and that the hot springs of Caldas da Rainha may owe their sulphureous qualities to similar strata. The only organic remains found in the sandstones, are vegetable impressions and seed-vessels ; but in the calcareous beds, corals and od shells occur, and Mr. Sharpe has been able to identify some of the latter with the Perna rugosa, Trigonia literata and Terebratula in- termedia, of the English secondary oolitic series. (f.) Espichel Limestone.—This formation constitutes the flat, outer band which encircles the Cintra hills, also the range of hills be- tween Cape Espichel and Cezimbra, and most probably the Serra d’ Arrabida near St. Ubes. At the first of these localities, it consists of thick beds of gray coarse limestone, alternating with thinner ones of shale or marl; at the second, of a similar limestone with fewer layers of shale; and at the Serra d’Arrabida, of compact gray lime- stone with no partings of shale, except towards the bottom of the formation. Around the hills of Cintra, the strata dip as from a centre, at angles varyimg from 20° to 75°; between Cape Espichel and Cezimbra their inclination is from 45° to 70° to the north; and in the Serra d’ Arrabida the prevailing dip is also to the north at a high angle, but at the west end of the Serra it varies from north to north- west and north-east; whilst in the northern side of the Serra de Vizo, or the eastern prolongation of the Serra d’Arrabida, the dip is toward the south. In the Cintra district the limestone rests con- formably on the subjacent formation of shale ; between Cape Espi- chel and Cezimbra, and in the Serra d’Arrabida the bottom beds are not exposed, and consequently the connexion withthe inferior de- posits is not visible ; but in the Serra de Vizo the limestone reposes quite unconformably upon highly inclined strata of the older red con: glomerate. The organic remains of this formation are principally casts of shells, which are not easily separable from the matrix. One of the specimens obtained by Mr. Sharpe closely resembles a Trigonia from the green sand of Blackdown. (g.) Shale.—The upper portion of this deposit consists princi- pally of shale, varying a good deal in character; the middle of indurated shale alternating regularly and conformably with beds of trap from five to twenty feet thick, and the lowest of dark shale. Near Ramalhao, where the formation is best displayed, there are from twenty to thirty distinct alternations of igneous rocks and shale, the latter being altered and indurated ; but in the cliff at the Praia de Adraga, where the deposit is diminished to about 200 feet, there is only one bed of igneous origin. The formation rests with perfect conformity on the San Pedro limestone, dipping on all sides from the central granite axis of Cintra, at angles from 30° to 60°. (h.) The San Pedro Limestone forms an inner zone around the Cintra hills, resting upon the granite. The upper beds are dark gray and earthy; but as the limestone approaches the granite, it gradually passes into a crystalline marble. At the village of San Pedro the following series is exposed :— Dark gray compact limestone several hundred feet chicky) Gray limestone with very slight traces of crystalline texture, and towards the bottom granular...... 200 feet Coarse crystalline marble, white or gray and white 100 f 34 Coarser crystalline marble, usually gray, but towards the bottom bluish white, and still coarser ...... 100 feet Granite. The same gradual change may be traced all around the Cintra hills, wherever the limestone can be seen resting upon or approach- ing the granite. The lines of stratification are scarcely affected by the change in the structure of the stone, and the dip is from the granite at angles between 40° and 70°. Imperfect casts of a bivalve and an univalve were found in this limestone by the author. (i.) Older Red Conglomerate.—This formation occurs only west of St. Ubes; and though Mr. Sharpe describes it the last of the sedimentary series, yet he is not certain respecting its relative geo- logical antiquity. Near St. Ubesit rises from beneath the red sand- stone and the Espichel limestone, and it is therefore older than either of those rocks. The conglomerate consists of rounded peb- bles of white or ferruginous quartz, with a few of jasper, mica slate, and limestone. They vary from half an inch to more than a foot in diameter, and are firmly imbedded in a coarse ferruginous sandstone. The highest ridge of the Serra de Covoens consists of this forma- tion, also the eastern end of the Serra de San Luiz, the higher parts of the Serra de Vigo, and the coast from St. Ubes to the foot of the Serra d’ Arrabida. At the eastern end of the Serra de Co- voens and in the Serra de San Luiz, the dip of the beds is to the north, at angles varying from 30° to 50°; at the eastern end of the Serra de Vigo they incline about 30° to the south ; more to the west- ward, in the same serra, they are in some places vertical, in others they dip about 50° to the north; and at the Torre de Outao, at the foot of the Serra d’ Arrabida, they are inclined about 70° north-east. The description of the sedimentary rocks is followed by an attempt to compare each formation with its probable equivalent in other parts of Europe; but as the Lisbon fossils have not yet been examined with sufficient care, Mr. Sharpe does not venture to draw any positive conclusions. Of the tertiary series, the Almada beds alone offer any terms of comparison, and these are not very satisfactory. The fossils col- lected by the author are said to differ from those of the London clay, with the exception of one species, which is considered iden- tical with Natica similis ; but a long-hinged oyster, Ostrea longi- rostris, abundant in the Almada beds, agrees with a fossil common in the tertiary strata of Baza, Lorca and Alhama, in the south of Spain, described by Brigadier Silvertop; and Mr. Sharpe from an examination of these deposits, as well as from the agreement in the oyster, is induced to consider the Murcia and the Lisbon series as of the same age. The Hippurite limestone, Mr. Sharpe has no doubt, is the equiva- lent of the extensive formation in the south of Europe characterized by the abundance of remains belonging tv the family of Rudista, and considered the representative of the chalk and greensand series of England and the north of France. 39 The red sandstone Mr. Sharpe considers to belong also to the secondary system, in consequence of his having obtained from it specimens of Terebratula intermedia, Perna rugosa, and Trigonia hiterata. Of the formations below the red sandstone, the author offers no data for establishing a comparison with deposits in other parts of Europe further than that the Espichel and Arrabida limestones may be of the same age as the limestone of the rock of Gibraltar, and that the shale near Cintra may be the equivalent of the shale which underlies the Gibraltar limestone, and constitutes a considerable portion of Andalusia. He is also of opinion, that the Cintra shale is of the same age with the immense deposit of similar composition, which covers the centre of the province of Alentejo, extending from Alcacer do Sol to the confines of Algarve. The older red conglomerate of the neighbourhood of St. Ubes, Mr. Sharpe considers as probably identical with the conglomerate largely developed on the banks of the Vonga, and which rests upon mica slate a little to the south of Oporto. IGNEOUS ROCKS. Basalt.—The principal deposit of this rock forms one of the most important features in the geology of the district to the north and west of Lisbon, occupying an irregular area, estimated to be not less that eighty square miles. It is difficult to define its limits without reference to an accurate map; but it may be stated to form a tract of very varying breadth, from the shore west of Belem by Queluz, and Odivellas to Loures. In the neighbourhood of the last village, in turns S.W. and N.E., ranging in the former direction to the neighbourhood of Montelavar, and in the latter nearly to Verdelha on the banks of the Tagus. Besides this immense continuous mass, many of the hills north of Oeiras, near the mouth of the Tagus, are capped by basalt, evidently outlying patches, once connected with the great deposit. Basalt also forms the summit of the hills near Sobral and St. Sebastiano, resting upon the red sandstone. It has been already stated, that beds of trap alternate regularly and with- out any appearance of disturbance with the central division of the shale formation near Cintra. The rock varies considerably in character, and is occasionally columnar. Itisstated to have frequently the appearance of a black indurated clay with an irregular schistose cleavage, and breaking into very irregular rhombs. The only beds which rest upon the basalt belong to the tertiary series, but it overlies both the Hippurite limestone and the red sandstone. To the westward of Loures, it cuts through these formations; and the red sandstone, to the south of the line of intersection, has been brought to a level with the Hippurite lime- stone to the north of the line. The strata of Hippurite limestone to the north are nearly horizontal, while those of the red sandstone, and limestone to the south, are highly inclined. Hence Mr. Sharpe D2 36 infers that the great mass of basalt was poured forth from fissures in the neighbourhood of Loures. The cliffs in the bay of Cascaes exhibit fine sections of basaltic dykes and disturbances; and on the beach west of Cezimbra masses of basalt are intruded into strata of red sandstone, which exhibit great marks of disturbance. ‘The Espichel limestone and the red sandstone have been also greatly elevated at the Castle Hill at Ce- zimbra, by a trap rock of which the date is uncertain. Although the author had innumerable opportunities of observing the junction of the basalt with the beds below it, yet in no instance did he observe any change in the characters of the subjacent rocks. The alteration produced in the beds of shale, which alternate with trap rocks near Cintra, has been already noticed. Mr. Sharpe con- siders these igneous strata to have been ejected contemporaneously with the deposition of the shale, and to be consequently older than the great coating of basalt. The Espichel limestone, in contact with the trap near Cezimbra, is also altered, being of a crystalline texture to a distance of fifty feet from the igneous rock. Granite is found only in the neighbourhood of Cintra, forming a range of hillsabout seven miles in length and fivein breadth. ‘Their greatest altitude is less than 2000 feet. The prevailing rock is a true granite consisting cf nearly equal proportions of quartz and felspar with a little mica; but towards the western end of the chain, syenite and porphyry occur. In the central portions of the hills, the granite is coarsely grained, and splits into large irregular blocks; but on the flanks it is schistose, finely grained, cleaves into rhombs, and might be mistaken for a sandstone. Veins of large-grained granite, however, occur in the schistose variety, and veins of finely-grained in the coarse central masses. Mr. Sharpe then describes, in detail, the dislocations in the sedi- mentary strata on the flanks of the granitic hilis; and he shows that all the formations, from the San Pedro limestone to the Espichel, have been dislocated, and thrown into highly inclined positions, but the details cannot be clearly understood without the aid of sections. It may however be stated, that in consequence of the red sandstone resting in nearly horizontai strata against the inclined beds of the lower formation, the latter was disturbed previously to the de- position of the sandstone, and that consequently the irruption of the granite of Cintra took place at a period anterior to the origin of the sandstone. Mr. Sharpe describes also with considerable minuteness the dis- turbance near Palmella, south of the Tagus; and he infers, from the relative position of the strata, that there have been, in that district, considerable elevations at four distinct periods. The paper concludes with some observations on the earthquake of 1755; and the author shows, that its effects were entirely confined to the tertiary strata, and were most violently felt on the blue clay belonging to the Almada beds, on which the lower part of the city is constructed. Not a building on the Hippurite lime- stone, or the basalt, was injured. 37 Feb. 6.—Matthew Dawes, Esq. of Southwield, Bolton ; Capt. Alexander, H. P. Royal Staff Corps, Acre’s Fold, Suffolk; John Cunningham, Esq., Hope Street, Liverpool; and S. R. Pattison, Launceston, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper ‘“‘ On a probable Cause of certain Earthquakes,” by M. Louis Albert Necker, For. Mem. G. S., was read. The object of this memoir is to show, that some earthquakes may be due to the falling in of the roof of cavities, produced by the sol- vent or erosive powers of subterranean bodies of water on beds and masses of gypsum, rock salt, limestone, marl, clay or sand. M. Necker was induced to enter upon the inquiry in conse- quence of the earthquake which desolated, in 1829, a considerable part of the country on the banks of the Segura, in Murcia, having occurred in a district, which is stated to contain no volcanic or trap- pean rocks; and because the event was unaccompanied by any of those phenomena which, he conceives, precede, attend, or follow true volcanic earthquakes. Of the places where earthquakes have been felt without there being any traces of volcanic or trap rocks, but where gypsum is known to occur, and in which, from that mineral being, in his opi- nion, of comparatively easy renewal, he supposes, caverns exist, M. Necker more particularly mentions Bale, Nice, Navarroux, Oleron, Maulen, Bagnorre de Bigorre, and the Gave Maulen, in the Py- renees ; he also alludes to the shocks which were felt at Clanssaye, near St. Paul-trois-Chateaux; in the department of the Drome, from the Ist of June, 1772, to the end of December, 1773, and he states, that though Clanssaye stands upon a tertiary deposit, yet it is probable that the gypseous formation of the hills to the east- wards having a westerly dip may pass beneath it: likewise to the earthquakes which affected Kronstadt in Transylvania, Odessa, Bucharest, Lembourg in Gallicia, and Kieff, with other towns in that part of Russia, early in 1838, and in the vicinity of which gypsum is believed to exist. Among the limestone tracts, in which caverns abound, and earthquakes are not unfrequently felt, M. Necker enu- merates Fiume, Buchari, Trieste, Lissa in the Adriatic, and Foligno. In the above instances M. Necker supposes, that cavities having been formed by the action of bodies of water, the roof gave way, and, falling upon a solid floor, produced in the strata a motion which extended laterally and vertically, and gave rise to the pheno- menon of an earthquake. He is further of opinion, that air con- fined in the caverns being also set in motion by the subsidence of the roof, would cause undulations in the overlying strata. To illustrate his views, M. Necker described the vibrations produced in the walls of a house which he occasionally inhabits at Geneva, by the blows of a blacksmith’s hammer upon an anvil placed in a vault, and these vibrations always appeared to him completely analogous to the motion which he experienced in the same room during the earth- quake on the 19th of February, 1812. He likewise stated, that M. Virlet perceived, in a coal-mine, a shock resembling that of an 38 earthquake, by the falling in of some works at the distance of a quarter of a league. With respect to the shocks felt at Nice, the author says, that he had carefully compared the list published by M. Risso, with the ac- counts of eruptions of Vesuvius and Etna; and that though some of the earthquakes had preceded, by very short intervals, certain powerful eruptions of those volcanoes; yet, in very many instances, the shocks appear to have been quite independent; and that a considerable number of eruptions, both of Vesuvius and Etna, had not been felt at Nice. Hence, he infers, that, in this case, there may have been earthquakes due to volcanic, as well as non- volcanic, agents ; and that Nice, standing upon a gypsum forma- tion, may have felt the effects of volcanic eruptions im consequence of a predisposition in the undermined ground, without which they would not have been perceptible at the surface. M. Necker objects to the earthquake in Calabria, in 1783, being considered of true volcanic origin, because it was unaccompanied by any disengagement of heat, lava, smoke, acid, or sulphureous pro- ducts; because the surface of the ground was depressed, not ele- vated; because only sand and water were ejected through the fis- sures and circular or star-like cavities formed in the ground, and be- cause there was no eruption of Vesuvius or Etna. The earthquakes in the valley of the Mississippi, during 1812, he conceives were non-volcanic, in consequence of no lava having been poured forth, nor any acid or other vapours emitted. He alluded to a letter by Mr. Stanley Griswold, dated Kaskahia, Illinois, the 22nd of Dec. 1812, which describes some of the phenomena of the earthquakes,— particularly the subterranean noises resembling thunder, the cracks formed in the ground, the issuing of ‘“‘ a something”’ like smoke, or warm aqueous vapour, accompanied by a great quantity of sand, the ejection of carbonised wood, coal, and pumice, a quantity of which is said to have been collected on the Mississippi, the drymg up of lakes, and the raising of the bed of the river. To some of these statements M. Necker objects. He conceives that the smoke, or warm aqueous vapour, which is mentioned only from the reports of others, and not decidedly, may have been mistaken for vapour produced by water striking against an immoveable obstacle. The occurrence of pumice, he conceives, is very doubtful; and, as it is mentioned by no other author, he withholds his assent till the sub- stance has been examined by a competent mineralogist. M. Necker dissents from the Cutch earthquake in June, 1819, being considered volcanic. ‘The elevation of the Ullah Bund, he conceives, was effected by the subsidence of the ground towards Sindree, or to a movement on a fixed axis. ‘The materials thrown out by the shocks were only black mud, sand, wrought iron, and nails, and could not therefore, he says, have been produced from any great depth. The earthquakes on the coast of Cumana, and the Caraccas, M. Necker considers to be non-voleanic ; and that when the number and ; 39 violence of the shocks felt in that part of America are considered, he is of opinion, that the agreement of the earthquakes, in April, 1812, with the simultaneous eruption of the volcano of St. Vincent, was fortuitous. In 1772, the little group, situated some leagues to the north of the chain of the Caucasus, and composed of the trachytic moun- tains called Pechstein, and the calcareous hill Metschuka, was shaken by an earthquake. The warm springs, known by the name of the baths of the Caucasus, issue from the foot of the limestone hill, and deposit, as well as all the cold brooks, considerable quanti- ties of calcareous tuff. It might be supposed, observes M. Necker, that the thermal springs indicate the existence of some portion of the original heat of the trachyte ; and that the earthquake of 1772, by which a portion of the hill, Metschuka, was engulphed, was only the effect of volcanic activity. This, he says, is possible; but it ap- pears to him much more probable, that the cold and warm springs had formed large cavities in the limestone hill, the falling in of the roof of which produced the shock and attending phenomena. The earthquakes in Jamaica in 1692, M. Necker is of opinion were non-volcanic, because there were only subsidences of the ground, and because only water, sand, and gravel were ejected. The earthquake in the plain of Bogota, 16th November, 1827, he is tempted to consider non-volcanic, the country being gypsiferous and saliferous; but he admits that it may have been of a mixed nature, in consequence of the great adjacent volcano of Popa- yan being, at the same time, in activity. The earthquakes on the coast of Chili, he is of opinion, may have a similar origin. M. Necker gives a list of earthquakes extracted from Mr. Lyell’s “« Principles of Geology,” and arranges them under the heads—vol- canic, non-voleanic, and of doubtful origin. In the first list he includes the earthquakes felt at Ischia, February 2nd, 1828; Java, 1699, 1772, and 1786; Sumbana, April, 1815; Quito, Feb. 4, 1797; Sicily, March, 1693, 1790; Guati- mala, 1773; Kamtschatka, 1737; Peru, Oct. 28, 1746; Iceland, 1725; Teneriffe, May 5, 1706; Sorea, (Moluccas) 1693; Lisbon, Noy. 1, 1755. Non-Volcanic.—Murcia, 1829; Lahore, Sept. 1827 ; Lissa, in the Adriatic, 1833; Foligno, Jan. 15, 1832; Cutch, June 16, 1819; Cumana, Dec. 14, 1797; the Caraccas, March 26, 1790; Calabria, . 1783 to 1786; Bechstan, 1772 ; and Jamaica, 1692. Doubtful Origin. —Bogota, Nov. 16, 1827; Chili; Quebec, Dec. 1791; Nipon, Japan, August 1, 1783; and Martinique, 1772. Thus, though M. Necker reduces considerably the power of vol- canic agents, yet he is far from denying that a weak volcanic move- ment may be propagated over considerable surfaces; and he men- tions, in conclusion, the following instances, as not generally known, of probable connexions between earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The great eruption of Vesuvius, which commenced the 21st of Fe- bruary, 1822, was preceded by an earthquake at Geneva, and in the province of Bugey, in France, on the 19th of February ; and, before 40 the eruption of October of the same year, the environs of Aleppo, in Syria, had been convulsed during the whole of August; the most violent shocks having taken place the 13th of the same month ; and on the 14th of August an earthquake was experienced at Laybach in Carniola; On the 19th of February, 1825, the town of St. Maure, in the Ionian Islands, was almost destroyed by an earth- quake, felt also at Corfu and Prevesa. During the night of the 20th and 21st of February, 1825, there were several shocks at San Veit in Carinthia; and on the 21st of February, and for five days after, dreadful earthquakes were felt at Alger and its environs. The 25th of February, 1828, Vesuvius, which had been very quiet from 1822, commenced a new eruption. There were earthquakes at Trieste during the night of the 13th and 14th January, 1828, at the Island of Ischia on the 2nd of February, and all over Belgium the 23rd of the same month. Lastly, M. Necker deems it not impro- bable, that the earthquakes felt in Hungary, Transylvania, Gallicia, Wallachia, and the south of Russia, at the commencement of 1838, were the precursors of the eruptions of Vesuvius and Htna during the summer of the same year. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vor. III. : 1839. No. 61. AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 15th February, 1839, The following Report from the Council was read :— The Council have again the satisfaction of congratulating the Society on the increased number of its Fellows, and of stating that the number of its members now amounts to 831, thereby not only proving the prosperity of the Society, but showing that the interest taken by the public in Geological Researches continues undiminished and unabated. The number of Fellows at the close of 1837 was, according to the annual report, 738; but in consequence of errors which had crept into the returns of former years, the real number of Fellows at the close of 1837 (exclusive of Honorary and Foreign Members, and Personages of Royal Blood,) was only 731. During the year 1838, 31 Fellows were elected and admitted, besides 5 more who had not paid their admission fees at the close of the year During the same period there were 16 deaths and 4 resignations, the number of Fellows therefore increased from 731 to 742, but that of Honorary Members was reduced from 41 to 37, and that of Foreign Members from 53 to 49. In consequence of these alterations the total number of Members, as compared with the returns of last year, appears to be reduced from 837 to 831 ; whereas, owing to the cir- cumstances mentioned above, there is really an increase from 828 to 831. It was stated in the Report of last year, that the Council consi- dered it desirable, that the laborious and difficult duty of cataloguing and arranging the collections should devolve upon an officer whose time should be given to that single object ; but that there was great difficulty in finding any one with the necessary qualifications willing to undertake the office. Since that period, a Curator was ap- pointed, a gentleman in every way competent to the office; and the Council hoped, that under Mr. Wood’s care the arrangement and ca- taloguing of the collections would have been rapidly carried on, in a manner no less satisfactory to the wishes of the Members than advan- VOL, III. KE 42 tageous to the interests of the Society, and the advancement of Géo- logy. ‘They have to state, however, with regret, that Mr. Wood has been compelled, in consequence of ill health, to give in his re- signation, which they have felt it their duty to accept. For the great value of his services the Council refer to the Report of the Museum Committee. The Council have also great satisfaction in calling the attention of the Society to the state of the finances. The receipts of the last year have exceeded the expenditure by the sum of 440/. 2s. 2d.; but it should be observed that the largeness of this surplus is mainly owing to the fact, that no expenses have been incurred by the pub- lication of Transactions. In furtherance of the recommendation contained in the Auditors’ Report for 1833, that the Council should, from the surplus income of the Society, make such investments in the Government Funds as would create a capital equal to the amount of sums paid in lieu of annual contributions, they have to state that they have invested all the compositions received during the past year, amounting to the sum of 155/. 18s. 6d., and a further sum of 138/. lls. 6d. from the balance in the banker’s hands, making altogether the sum of 2941. 10s. The value of the funded property of the Society is now about 1790/., or within 15497. of the sums (83839/.) received from 106 compounders, and exceeds by 836/. the sums received for composi- tions since the recommendation of the Auditors in 1833. The Council have resolved ‘‘ that the Wollaston Gold Medal and 20/. be assigned to Professor Ehrenberg of Berlin for his researches and discoveries respecting Fossil Infusoria.” Report of the Committee appointed to examine and report on the state of the Museums and Library. Your Committee have to report that Mr. Wood, having been ap- pointed in May last Curator of the Museum, entered immediately upon the duties of his office. The result of his labours during the last eight months may be mentioned under the two following heads : first, the British; and secondly, the Fereign Collection. British Collection.—The Curator has been employed in completing the arrangement of the rocks and organiv remains belonging to for- mations ranging from the newest tertiary to the lias inclusive. To begin with the crag; it was stated in the Repcrt of the Museum Committee of last year, that Mr. Lonsdale had then for the first time set in order and named the suite of fossils of that formation which were in the possession of the Society, and that they then filled ten drawers. Mr. Wood finding this series very incomplete, has added to it most liberally from his private cabinet, and has by this means augmented the species of mollusca and corals from about 100, of which they before consisted, to no less than 400, besides inserting many specimens in a more perfect state, of species of which the So- ciety already possessed some individuals. Duplicates, moreover, of many species common to the upper and lower crag have been intro- duced for the sake of comparison ; and the localities of all Mr. Wood's 43 specimens, verified from his own observations, have been carefully noted on the tablets. By these important donations the number of drawers containing organic remains of the crag has been increased from 10 to 27. Mr. Wood has at the same time prepared a new catalogue of the whole of this part of the collection. Three drawers of shells from the freshwater and upper marine strata from Headon Hill and Hordwell Cliff have now been introdu- ced for the first time, the specimens having been almost all present- ed by Mr. Wood from his private cabinet. Of the Wealden beds (including the Purbeck) 6 drawers of or- ganic remains and several of rocks have been arranged, which con- tain specimens presented by Dr. Fitton. Of the Kimmeridge clay, 3 drawers of organic remains, besides several of rocks also, principally given by Dr. Fitton; of the Coral Rag, 8 drawers, containing organic remains from various con- tributors; of the lower calcareous grit, 3 drawers, the specimens of which were previously unnamed; of the Oxford clay, 2 draw- ers of organic remains; of cue rock, 2; of cornbrash, 3; cf forest marble, 4; of Bradford clay, 3; of great oolite, 12; of pation rior oolite, 9 ; ae marlstone, 4, consisting principally of specimens presented by Mr. Murchison. Of lias, 12 drawers, into which fossils presented by Lord Cole have been mtroduced. Of all the above 73 drawers of organic remains from the Britisia Secondary Rocks Mr. Wood has provided new catalogues. ' The labours of the Curator have not extended to the arrangement of the fossils of the formations below the Oolitic series, including the Lias: we beg however to state shortly the condition of the et seum as respects these deposits. The New Red Sandstone has hitherto presented few organic: re- mains, but most of those which have been found, including the shells and ichthyolites of the Keuper, and some of the plants of the “ Bun- ter Sandstein ” are in our collection. Of the Magnesian Limestone we possess some good and charac- teristic specimens (a few of which still require to be named), but the donation of some of the characteristic fishes and rarer saurians of this formation are still important desiderata. The Museum is pretty abundantly stored with Organic remains of the Carboniferous System, particularly with plants of the Coal beds and shells of the Mountain Limestone, but still we beg to invite col- lectors tg enrich it by donations, particularly of fishes from the dif- ferent strata of this vast group. The arrangement of the Fossils of the Old Red Sandstone and Silurian Systems has been undertaken by Mr. Murchison. Foreign Collection.—This collection consists of 700 drawers of specimens of rocks and organic remains from all parts of the world, exclusive of the British Isles, arranged topographically. The Cura- tor has drawn up an index catalogue, and affixed letters and nnm-. bers to the drawers referred toin the catalogue. ‘This work, recom- mended by the Museum Committee of last year, has, from the ex- E2 44 tent of the collection, occupied a considerable portion of the Cura- tor’s time and labour. Your Committee have to report that there are now no more va- cant drawers in the Museum, and recommend that no time be lost in procuring 4 new sets of drawers, to be placed in the Lower Mu- seum. In conclusion, your Committee cannot sufficiently express their regret that the state of Mr. Wood’s health has compelled him to tender his resignation, as both his industry, scientific acquirements, and liberality as a donor, have so materially promoted, during the short period which he has devoted to our service, the value and ge- neral usefulness of our Museum. In regard to the Library, the Committee have only to express their satisfaction at the mode in which the several objects are ar- ranged and catalogued, so as to fulfil, as far as is attainable, the de- sire which has ever been felt to render all the collections of the So- ciety easy of access, and available to the use of the several members, and the furtherance of Geological Science. CHARLES LYELL. RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON. GEORGE BELLAS GREENOUGH. Comparative Statement of the Number of the Society at the close of the years 1837 and 1838. 3lst Dec. 1837. 31st Dec. 1838. Fellows having compounded ...... BOSE ote. 3 Meda 106 =a Contributing (Test Hi ae) io nate ate ate) ieee cts —~ Non-resident ............ SOO ahi lela ceuae 393 731 742 Elionorary:, Members 2: oye See ris ael ccekokoet el eae 37 Foreign: Members)” <:,.5... 2 ae ee DelRerschslckut erat sts 49 Personages of Royal Blood........ SO Tebie aie Haid OS Sy 3 828 831 Number of Fellows, Compounders, Contributors, and 73] Non-residents, 31st Dec. 1837 .............- Add Fellows elected and paid during 1838 ...... 31 762 Deduct wWeccased’!C) eh Ne atisevr a1 pe 16 restored) LG ut pile a oe |asne cao 4 20 Total number of Compounders, Contributors and 789 49 Non-residents, 3lst Dec. 1839 * The numbers in this column differ from those given in nike return for 1838, in consequence of the corrections mentioned in 1 the preceding report. 45 Number of Fellows liable to Annual Contribution at the close of 1838, with the alterations during the year. Number at the close of 1837 ................ 252 Deduch Weceaseds 4.2 aes: wae ee 3 esipemedh) Wi PM anit aie 4 Compounded yy Tea kak 1 Residents who became can : 12 FEsi@entsy Nis Garanyeaiiy.. Se SU 232 Add, Non-residents who became Resi- 9 Gemts! SATS ign OnE aN) Residents, elected, paid, and not \ 9 compounded. M4.) ita —= ll 243 The following Donations to the Museum have been received since the last Anniversary :— British and Irish Specimens. Fossils from Bognor ; presented by James Laird, M.D. F.G.S. A Mass of Ostrea Gregarea from near Oxford ; presented by the Rev. William Buckland, D.D. F.G.S. Specimens from the North Lancashire Coal Field; presented by Charles Dawes, Esq. F.G.S. A Tetragonolepis (Agassiz), from Barrow-upon-Soar, Leicestershire ; presented by the Rev. John Pye Smith, D.D. F.G.S. Remains of Fossil Fishes from Goldworth Hill, near Guildford ; pre- sented by Allan Sibthorpe, Esq. Fossils from the Chalk of Berkshire; presented by Richard Gran- tham, Esq. F.G.S. Shells from the Crag of Felixstow; presented by the Rev. Belfield Dennys. Minerals from Cornwall; presented by Captain Beaufort, R.N., Hon. Mem. G.S. The Collection of Minerals, Fossils, and Geological Specimens be- longing to the late Nathaniel John Winch, Esq., Hon. Mem. G.S.; bequeathed to the Society by Mr. Winch. Fossils from the Mountain Limestone of Kirkby Lonsdale and Cli- theroe; presented by the Rev. J. Fisher, F.G.S. Specimens of Fish Scales in Flint ; presented by the Rev. J. B. Reade. Fossils from Under Barrow, near Kendal; presented by Gilpin. Gorst, Esq. F.G.S. 46 Casts of Bones of Reptiles discovered by Dr. Mantell in Tilgate Forest, formerly in the Mantellian Museum at Brighton, and now in the British Museum ; and Fossils from the Lower Green Sand ; presented by Gideon Mantell, LL.D. F.G.S. Fossil Pinnas from Honey Pen Hill, near Bristol; presented by George Cumberland, Jun. Esq. Mass of New Red Sandstone, with impressions of Chirotherium footsteps from Birksbeck, Warwickshire; presented by Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq. V.P.G.S. Cast of the Jaw of the Cheropotamus ; presented by the Rev. W. Dar- win Fox. Fossil Turtle from Harwich; presented by 8. R. Heseltine, Esq. Gryphea sinuata from the Lower Green Sand; presented by Mr. Binsted. Casts of Calymene Blumenbachu, Asaphus caudatus, and Encrinites moniliformis; presented by Mr. Isaiah Deck, F.G.S. Specimens of Chalcedonic Flints from Wiltshire; presented by the Rey. Charles Watkins. A Series of Fossils from the Crag; presented by Searles Wood, Esq. F sone from the Crag near Southwold; presented by Captain Alex- ander, Royal Staff Corps, F.G.S. Foreign Specimens. ‘Specimens of Copper and Malleable Iron Ore from Southern Africa ; presented by Captain Sir James Alexander. Rock Specimens from the Seychelles Islands; presented by J. Har- rison, Esq. Fossils from the Himalayas ; presented by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart. M.P. F.G.S8. Specimens from Upper Assam; presented by Dr. McClelland. Cast of a rare specimen of Hamites articulatus from the Oolitic formation, Normandy; presented by the Marquis of Northamp- ton, F.G.S. Cast of the Head of the Mastodon longirostris from Eppelsheim ; presented by Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart. M.P. F.G.S. Specimens from Boulogne and Guernsey; presented by Robert Cole, Esq. Specimen of Plagiostoma from the Gulf of California; presented by — Hodges, Esq. Specimens from Central France; presented by George Poulett Scrope, Esq. M.P. F.G.S. Specimens of Obsidian, Manganese containing Silver and Native Quicksilver, from Mexico; presented by John Taylor, Hsq., Treas. G.S. Trilobites and Corals from Hudson's Bay ; presented by the Earl of Selkirk, F.G.S. Specimens from Saint Helena; presented by, Ease Searle, Esq. F.G.S. 47 Geological Specimens from Columbia River and other parts of North America; presented by the Earl of Selkirk, F.G.8. Belemnites from Mount Joli; presented by John Vincent, Esq. Specimens from Christiania ; presented by Rev. W. Bilton, F.G.S. Specimens from Western Africa, between Sierra Leone and Fer- nando Po; collected by Captain Vidal, K.N. Specimens from the Island of Ascension, collected by Lieutenant Bedford, R.N., and specimens from Gibralter; presented by Cap- tain Beaufort, R.N., Hon. Mem. G.S. Specimens from Lisbon; presented by William Edmond Logan, Esq. FIGIS: Specimens from Southern Africa and the Cape Verde Islands; pre- sented by Lieut. Nelson, Royal Engineers. Specimen from the Limestone of Bermuda, containing a Cyprea vi- tellus; presented by Lieut. Symonds, Royal Engineers. Specimens from the neighbourhood of Lisbon; presented by Daniel Sharpe, Esq. F.G.S. MIscELLANEOUS. Statigraphical Model of the Under Cliff, Isle of Wight; presented by Levett L. Boscawen Ibbetson, Esq. F.G.S. Fossil Infusoria, and Artificial and Natural Silica from recent Infu- soria, and Glass manufactured from living Infusoria; presented by Professor Ehrenberg. Recent Corals; presented by William Richardson, Esq. F.G.S. The Lisrary has been increased by the Donation of about 180 Books and Pamphlets. Cuarts anp Maps. Admiralty Charts, Sailing Directions and Tide Tables, published du- ring the year 1837; presented by Captain Beaufort, R.N., by di- rection of the Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners of the Admi- ralty. Map of the Maritime County of Mayo, in Ireland, in twenty-five sheets; by William Bald, Esq. F.G.S. F.R.S.E. M.R.LA. &e. ; presented by Mr. Bald. Sheets 49, 50, 66, 67, 68, 72 of the Ordnance Map, in continuation of the Trigonometrical Survey of Great Britain; presented by the Master General and Board of Ordnance. Sheets 4, 6, and 10 of the Geological Map of Saxony ; presented by the Council ef Mines of Saxony. Map of the settled part of New South Wales, showing the situation of the principal rocks; by Major T. L. Mitchell, F.G.S; pre- sented by. Major Mitchell. Ordnance Townland Survey of the County of Westmeath in forty-’ two sheets, including title page and index; presented by Colonel Colby, by direction of His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ire- land. The following Lisr contains the Names of all the Persons and Public Bodies from whom Donations to the Library and Museums were received during the past year. Academy of Sciences of Paris. Acland, Sir Thomas Dyke, Bart. M.P. F.G.S. Admiralty, ‘The Right. Hon. the Lords Commissioners of the. Ainsworth, William, M.D.F.G.S. Alexander, Captain Sir James. Alexander, Captain, F.G.S. Allen and Co., Messrs. American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia. Asiatic Society of Calcutta. Atkins, Henry Martin, Esq. Atheneum, Editor of. Bald, William, Esq. F.G.S. Beaufort, Captain, R.N. Hon. Mem. G:S. Bedford, Lieutenant, R.N. Berwickshire Naturalist’s Club. Bilton, Rev. William, F.G.S. Binsted, Mr. Bohmen, Gesselchaft des Vater- landischen, Museums in. British Association. Brongniart, M. Adolphe. Bronn, Herr, H. G. Bucke, Charles, Esq. Buckland, Rev. Professor, D.D. F.G.S. Cambridge Philosophical Socie- ty. Charlesworth, Edward, Esq. F.G.S. Colby, Colonel, R.E. F.G.S. Cole, Robert, Esq. Conrad, — Esq. Cooper, Daniel, Esq. Cotta, M. Bernhard. Cumberland, George, jun. Esq. Darwin, Charles, Esq. Sec. G.S. Dawes, Charles, Esq. F.G.S. De Blainville, M. H. D., For. Mem. G.S. Deck, Mr. Isaiah, F.G-.S. | De Luc, M. J. A. Dennys, Rev. Belfield. Depot Général de la Marine Francaise. Desjardins, M. Julien. Dufrénoy, M., For. Mem. G.S. Ecole des Mines. Egerton, Sir Philip Grey, Bart. M.P. F.G.S. Ehrenberg, Professor, Christian Gottfried. Elie de Beaumont, M. Léonce, For. Mem. G.S. Faraday, Michael, Esq. F.G.S. Fisher, Rev. J. C., F.G.S. Fox, Rev. W. Darwin. Geneva, Natural History Society of. Geological Society of Dublin. Geological Society of France. Gorst, Gilpin, Esq. F.G.S. Grantham, Richard, Esq. F.G.S. Grateloup, Dr. Griffith, Richard, Esq. F.G.S. Hamilton, William R.., Esq. Pres. R.G.S. Harrison, J. Esq. Hausmann, Professor, For. Mem. G.S. Heath, J. B., Esq. Helvetic Natural History So- ciety. 49 Heseitine, S. R., Esq. Hisinger, M. W. Hodges, —, Esq. Heeninghaus, M. Fred. Wm. Ibbetsor, Levett L. Boscawen, Esq. F.G.S. Institution of Civil Engineers. Jackson, Charles T., M.D. Johnston, James F. W., Esq. F.G.S. Kenyon, John, Esq. F.G.S. Laird, James, M.D. F.G.S. Lea, Isaac, Esq. Leeds Literary and Philosophi- cal Society. Liebig, Justin, Ph. D. Linnean Society of London. Logan, William Edmond, Esq. F.G.S. Loudon, John Claudius, Esq. Lyell, Charles, Esq. V.P.G.S. Maclaren, Charles, Esq. Madras Literary Society. Mammatt, Edward, Esq. F.G.S. Mantell, Gideon, LL.D. F.G.S. McClelland, John, M.D. Michellotti, Sig. Giovanni. Mining Journal, Editor of. Mitchell, Major T. L., F.G.S. Modena, the Scientific Society of. Murchison, Roderick Impey, Esq. V.P.G:.S. Murray, John, Esq. Nelson, Lieut., R.E. Northampton, Marquis of, F.G. 5 Numismatic Society of London. Ordnance, Master General and Board of. Paoh, Sig D. Reade, Rev. J. B. Redfield, W. C., Esq. Repertory of Patent Inventions, the Proprietor of. Richardson, William,Esq.F.G.S. Royal Academy of Berlin. Royal Academy of Brussels. Royal Asiatic Society. Royal Astronomical Society. Royal College of Surgeons. Royal Geographical Society of London. Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. Royal Irish Academy. Royal Lisbon Academy. Royal Polytechnic Society of Cornwall. Royal Society of London. Scarborough Philosophical So- ciety. Scrope, George Poulett, Esq. MEP SE GeS! Seale, R. Francis, Esq. F.G.S. Selkirk, Earl of, F.G.S. Sharpe, Daniel, Esq. F.G.S. Shepard, Charles Upham, Esq. Sibthorp, Allan, Esq. Silliman, Prof., M.D. For. Mem. G.S. Sismonda, Prof. Angelo. Smith, Rev. John Pye, F.G.S. Society of Arts. Symonds, Lieut., R.E. D.D. Taylor, John, Esq. Treas. G.S. Taylor, Richard, Esq. F.G.S. Tenore, Sig. Thurmann, M. J. Travers, Benjamin, Esq. Treasury, Lords Commissioners. of. Turmer, Wilton John, Esq. Van der Maelen, M. Vanuxem, Professor. Vidal, Captain, R.N. Vincent, John, Esq. | Von Meyer, Herr Hermann. 50 Walker, Francis, Esq. F.G.S. Whitby Literary and Philosophi- ‘Warner, J. E., Esq. cal Society. Watkins, Rev. Charles. Wood, Searles Valentine, Esq. Wernerian Society of Edinburgh. Winch, Nathaniel John, Esq. Hon. Mem. G.S. Zoological Society of London. Yorkshire Philosophical Society. The following Persons were elected Fellews during the year 1888. January 3rd.—David Thomas Ansted, Esq. of Jesus College, Cam- bridge; James Black, M.D. of Bolton-le-Moor, Lancashire ; Alex- ander Wilson, Esq. of 34 Bryanstone Square ; and Major Henry Bullock, of 31 Harley Street, Cavendish Square. January 3lst.—Edward Mammatt, Esq. of Ashby de la Zouch, Lei- cestershire ; John Hawkshaw, Esq. of Salford, Lancashire; and John Carrick Moore, Esq. of Queen’s College, Cambridge. February 21st.—Jose Estavao Cliffe, Esq. of Cuijaba, Brazils; and William Blount, Esq. of 12 Cumberland Place. March 7.—Charles William Hamilton, Esq. M.R.I.A. of Dominick Street, Dublin. March 21st.—Richard Henry King, M.D. of Reigate, Surrey ; John Warden Robberds, Esq. of Norwich; Edward Lloyd, Esq. of 6 Bloomsbury Square ; and Lieutenant George Tremenheere, Ben- gal Engineers, 33 Somerset Street, Portman Square. April 4th.—Thomas William Maltby, Esq. M.A. of Turnham Green, Middlesex ; William Taylor, Esq. B.A. of 14 New Ormond Street; Mr. Isaiah Deck, of Cambridge ; and William Ainsworth, M.D. April 25th.—Egerton V. Vernon Harcourt, Esq. M.A. Nuneham, Oxfordshire; George Crane, Esq. of Yniscedwyn Iron Works, Swansea ; Mr. James Tennant, of 149 Strand; C. W. Grant, Esq. Captain Bombay Engineers, of Bury, near Gosport ; and Benja- min Fonseca Outram, M.D. of Hanover Square. May 9th.—Joseph Skilbeck, Esq. of Highbury Place, London ; Rey. John Hymers, Fellow and Tutor of St. John’s Ccllege, Cam- bridge ; .and Rev. Walter Davenport Bromley, of Wootton Hall, Staffordshire. June 6th.— William Stark, Esq. of Norwich. November 7th.—John Davies Gilbert, Esq. F.R.S. of Eastbourn,. Sussex. December 5th.— William Long, Esq. of Harts Hall, Saxmundham ; George Lloyd, M.D. of Newbold Terrace, Leamington ; Edward Wilson, Esq. of Abbot Hall, Kendal; Edward Strutt, Esq. M.P. of St. Helen’s, Derby, and of South Street, Grosvenor Square ; .Mr. Thomas Evans Blackwell, Civil Engineer, of Hungerford, Wilt- shire; John M. Herbert, Esq. Fellow of St. John’s College, Cam- bridge ; and Charles Collier, Esq, F.R.S. Deputy Inspector-Gene- ral of Hospitals, of 1 Earl’s Terrace, Kensington. December 19th.—James John Adams, Esq. M.R.C.S., 39 Finsbury Square. 51 Deceased Fellows :— Compounders (2): William Henry Booth, Esq.; Michael Shepley, Esq. Residents (3): Sir Abraham Hume, Bart.; Andrew Martin, Esq. ; Sir John Nichol. Non-residents (11) : Lord Ribblesdale ; George Harvey, Esq. ; Rev. William Carey, D.D.; Lieut.-Col. Montgomery; Rev. Robert Halifax ; Edward Ord Warren, Esq.; Major Benjamin Blake ; Sir James Edward Colebrooke, Bart. ; Sir John Hall, Bart.; Sir Michael B. Clare, M.D.; William Salmond, Esq. Foreign Members (4): Professor A. Desmarest ; Count de Montlo- sier; Baron E. F. de Schlotheim; Count Sternberg. Honorary Members (4): Benjamin Bevan, Esq.; Right Hon. Chief Baron Joy; Rev. George V. Sampson; Nathaniel John Winch, Esq. List of Pavers read since the last Annual Meeting, February 16, 1838. February 21st.—On part of Asia Minor, between Hassan Dagh and the Salt Lake of Kodj-hissar, and thence to Cesarea of Cappa- docia and Mount Argeus; by W. J. Hamilton, Esq. Sec. G.S. March 7th.—On some remarkable dikes of Calcareous Grit at Ethie, in Ross-shire; by Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq. F.G.S. On the connexion of certain Volcanic Phenomena, and on the Formation of Mountain chains and Volcanos, as the effects of Continental Elevations; by Charles Darwin, Esq. Sec. G.S. March 21st.—Note on the Dislocation of the Tail at a certain point, observable in the Skeletons of many Ichthyosauri; by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. A Synopsis of the English Series of Stratified Rocks, inferior to the Old Red Sandstone, with an attempt to determine the successive natural Groups and Formations; by the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, V.P.G.S., Woodwardian Professor in the University of Cambridge; (commenced, and concluded May 23). April 4th.—A description of Lord Cole’s Plesiosaurus Macrocepha- lus; by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. April 25th.—Notes on a small patch of Silurian Rocks to the West of Abergele, on the North Coast of Denbighshire ; by J. E. Bow- man, Esq., and communicated by R. I. Murchison, Esq. V.P.G.S. — A Notice on the occurrence of Wealden Strata at Links- field near Elgin, on the remains of Fishes in the Old Red Sand- stone of that neighbourhood, and on Raised Beaches along the adjacent Coast; by J. G. Malcolmson, Esq. F.G.S. ———-— On the Origin of the Limestones of Devonshire; by Robert Alfred Cloyne Austen, Esq. F.G.S. May 9th.—An Account of a Fossil Stem of a Tree lately discovered in the Coal Measures near Bolton-le-Moor ; by James Black, M.D. EGS. 52 May 9th.—On the distribution of Organic Remains in the Strata of the Yorkshire Coast ; by W. C. Williamson, Esq., Curator of the Manchester Natural History Society. —On the State in which Animal Matter is usually found in Fossils; by Mr. Alfred Smee, Student of King’s College, Lon- don, and communicated by Professor Royle, M.D. F.G.S. May 28rd.—A Synopsis of the English Series of Stratified Rocks, inferior to the Old Red Sandstone, with an attempt to determine the successive natural Groups and Formations ; by the Rev. Adam Sedgewick, V.P.G.S., Woodwardian Professor in the University of Cambridge. (commenced March 21st.) June 6th.—On Spiriolinites in Chalk and Chalk Flints; by the Marquis of Northampton, F.G.S. —_— A Note to accompany Specimens of Quicksilver Ore, from the Mine San Onofre, near the town of El Doctor, Mexico; by John Taylor, Esq. Treas. G.S. Extract from a letter to John Taylor, Esq., Treas. G.S.; by Mr. Frederick Edmonds, explanatory of some Speci- mens of Obsidian, from the town of Real del Monte, Mexico. — Notice of a Specimen of the Ower’s Rock, nine miles south of Little Hampton, Sussex ; by Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq. V.P.G.S. ——_—— On the discovery of Fossil Fishes in the Bagshot Sand at Goldsworth Hill, four miles south of Guildford; by the Rey. Professor Buckland, D.D. F.G.S. ——-—On the Discovery of a Fossil Wing of a Neuropterous Insect in the Stonesfield Slate ; by the Rev. Professor Buckland, D.D. F.G.S. —_———— On some Species of Orthocerata; by Charles Stokes, Esq. F.G.S. November 7th.—A Description of some Fossil Remains of Palzo- therium, Anoplotherium, and Cheropotamus, found in the Isle of Wight; by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. —_—_——_ On the Drift from the Chalk and the Strata be- low the Chalk, in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cam- bridge, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hereford and Middlesex ; by James Mitchell, Esq. LL.D. F.G.S. November 2lst.—On Two Jaws of the Thylacotherium Prevostit (Valenciennes) ; by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S., Hunterian Pro- fessor in the Royal College of Surgeons. A Notice on the Formation of Mineral Veins by Voltaic Agency; by R. W. Fox, Esq. An Extract from a Letter addressed by Captain Alexander, of the Royal Staff Corps, to the Secretary, on the dis- covery of two Mastodon Teeth, near Southwold. December 5th.—A Notice on the Trap Rocks of Fifeshire ; by the Rev. John Fleming, D.D. An Account of the footsteps of the Chirotherium, and five or six other unknown animals, lately discovered in the 53 Quarries of Storeton Hill, between the Mersey and the Dee; communicated by the Natural History Society of Liverpool, and illustrated with Drawings; by John Cunningham, Esq. December 5th.—A Note on four distinct varieties of Impressions, not including those of the Chirotherium; by James Yates, Esq. F.G.S. On the Footsteps of a Chirotherium, from near Tarporly, Cheshire; by Sir Philip Egerton, Bart., M.P. F.G.S. December 21st.—On the Phascolotherium ; by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. On the Structure and Relations of the presumed Marsupial Remains from the Oolite of Stonesfield; by William Ogilby, Esq. F.G.S. January 9th, 1839.—A Letter addressed to the President by Dr. Harlan, on the Basilosaurus and Batrachiosaurus. On the Zeuglodon (Basilosaurus); by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Sur- geons. January 23rd.—On the Geology of the vicinity of Lisbon; by Da- niel Sharpe, Esq. F.G.S. February 6th.—On a probable cause of certain Earthquakes ; by Professor Louis Albert Necker, For. Mem. G.S. Sums actually Received and Expended ReceEIPts. Balances in hand January 1, 1838: oe! ise dL eRe Se Banker (including 49/.19s. Wollaston Pond yee os ce MAAN RAE ih SE: 130 11 O ACCOUMIb AMIE he icc ectee elec telecine 40 0 0 — 170 11 0 Arrears : ee, doge hed, PNGIMTISSIONALECCS 75 fhe eh sok eek cle ere 56 14 O Annual ‘Contributions... 2.7. 2.72: 98 3 6 =a nO Ordinary Income: Lav Saumas Annual Contributions.............. 659 8 O Admission Fees: Loe Sat ls Residents(11)...... 69 6 0 Non-Residents(18).. 189 0 0 — 258 6 0 ————— 917 14 90 Compositions : Les gla, ROuTpaAtrolesOs: Le) eae eeees eeeenety le) Olam) ese) Onevat 2910 Ss. 6d.) ee ee 2 ON SaaS —— 155 18 6 ese ae PIGANSACEIONS Wigs: so rAd Ae ee ee 273 14 O BROCCCONMG'S:” - (2. Aha eae | eee S70 os 282) Sl Wollaston Donation Fund, Interest on OSAle liseilideis Per Centamueduced sa se ie sone 32 10 4 Luss eee Dividends, 5001. 3 per cent. Consols ...... 1 0 O Ditto, 13111. 19s. 6d.3 per cent. Red.6months 19 13 7 Ditto, 14121.12s.9d. ditto 21 3 10 ae HH OG £1769 9 9 We have compared the Books and Vouchers presented to us with these Statements, and find them correct. Signed, WOODBINE PARISH,] 4. ons BRAN CIS BAILY, o5( see ee during the Year ending December 81, 1838. PayMENTS. Bills outstanding: Sh Se G0 ee sete Collector’s poundage..........sscecsencesseseeers 210 6 Scientific Expenditure .......scscesescesseseeees 3 4 6 Bb ANISAGELOMS ameter ceiie ce wsisaisienisicaeslorteiealee’s'ale 310 0 ParochialiMatesmecececckecsestecnonsssaestasccesns 015 O ZO OUTS MLUALe Se eictatcerie sisiis otislacie sieteielelesistetelesteeieieie 3 0 0 House Expenditure ..........:scseesesseresensecs 219 6 13 Ne) General Expenditure: £36 Gols Rep aAS OL LBI@USS cosaosssonoasbeocoanaodooannonde See House Expenses .......00e Cacgecsscsccscseaseess 201 ORES paxesm le aLOCiMialumass iseceveasecimmiccencsircleutincs AVE RUASSESSEM I seeioene cine cineneasseercemesteceecics GEN Sh TRO OrS IRETES: gagaoccodeconoorecosoddodoann doodan00 298 5 4 Tlouscholdghurnitunes secsecseasseeekees seeenen 33 5 © a PINEM ov fececccasetemece sheacasces see 40 8 268 14 5 Mea saagan CO ye ee. Be ee ee Cia ae Din 0) 20) Salaries and Wages: el Sh 3 Assistant Secretary........sssessescesserseseaees 125 0 O (CRITRAIOLP) sbagecenonca deb sooddncndacacacnesdoccacdaece 62 10 O WIGS ae aicemie ca omecewstnond sate esies soctetslclee'ss sie as 110 12 6 Porter and Housekeeper ..........esseeeeeseeees 70 0 O SGT aIa Game reece stn teu me tcc teense sminccir 30 12 O Collector’s Poundage..........eecsceeessereeseeeens 386 14 0 435 8 Scientific Expenditure Be: eras in RRR es eee 59 es. Stationery and Miscellaneous Printing.............. 34 14 0 Investment in the Funds Be No a ee AO eg) MeaMOre VCC HIN GS cee: lias tee es aha sae eae Oe 46 4 4 Cost of Publications : ESHA Os ale pBranSAaCtlOmsi osha aicsieceaatatenissisciicccaneacecsesice 42 13 9 JERORSEGWAGS scosarsvoodsndesqonsassac0nosec0eqn800 (ATO oO — 117 12 9 Contribution repaid ...... iy ke es a) So Award of Wollaston Fund: MrwOwen,, Medal ....-ccseccescersoscetacsrssee 10 10 O ditto. Balance of Proceeds.............. Oi OmnO) 31 10 O Balances in hand Jan. 1, 1839: eae EME Banker (including 502. 19s.4d. Wollaston Fund) 433 2 0 PA CCOUNtaliteemereeeetee rieniecrtciecismnces smeitesitce sta 40 0 0 Ary Gh) £1769 9 9 @xaeate isi Vauation of the Society's Property ; 31st December 1838. PROPERTY. Depts. £. s. d.| Bills outstanding : Pogo = Whe Ee hin ln Balances in hand, including 501.19s.4d.Wollaston Fund 473 2 0) Household Furniture .......... 20 0 O Arrears due to the Society : ieee HORS: « sgomecacnsotnene seuss i UE) Admission Fees.............. 81 18 0 Scientific Expenditure ........ sae ld 0-0 ; Annual Contributions ........ 421 1 0 Ay Oe Teas = aso Bee ee oe Ser 0) Cash belonging to the “Wollaston Fund” ........ 5019 4 506 14 | Arrears not likely to be received................ 160 0 O Estimated value of unsold Transactions. 808 16 0 P Proceedings . 30 0 0 250 19 4 838 16 0 2 7151. 1s. 1d. Stock, 3 per cent. Consols 657 0 0 Balance in favour of the Society ................3037 12 8 1412/. 12s, 9d. Stock, 3 percent. Red...1313 0 0 ——— 1970 0 0 £3788 12 0 £3788 12 0 [N.B. The value of the Collections, Library and Furniture is not here included: nor is the ‘Donation Fund,’ insti- tuted by the late Dr. Wollaston, amounting at present to 10847. 1s. 1d. in the Reduced 3 per cent. Annuilies; the dividends thereof being appropriated to the purposes of the Founder. | JOHN TAYLOR, Treasurer. Jan. 29, 1839. ‘papnpoul a1v suoitsodwog ou sydiasayy payeuysa aaoqu ayy uy Sees b Fl FSSI¥ be veel ¥ OL Z& °° puny uoNRUOG UO\sEI[OA\ ,, 243 Jo yueWAo}du” |S 9 80I 0 0 O91 (cc otc t ct tt 78? paatasat aq 03 Ajayly yOu sivadiy 0 0 ORG (6S) GEM? co ce tsr score eo eo et OOOO Aya100¢ ayy ysulesdu g0uvleg 0 O O08 tein tein sie sialnleeleeies ole ee ees eiee cob soe erec GID IGOOT O O OOG wrrrrrrrrressesserteres seeeceeercereessHOMIeSURLT, :suonvoyqng joysog |O OL 1 Ie ou 10016 OMI 00 0G ccctttttstrttttteest sss sSunaayy sgj vay |Ol € 13 7! O}Ip ‘pay ‘quad dad e “PG “sz WZIPI CNG 0 0 09 “°° ** Sunutg snoauyljaosipy pue Aiauoneig|/O OL 2 == SHINONT g 105090) ue a aad ¢ 700 ane ) @O Ogle e082 2o 0829 epee O66 Dd Solo Eine MMROS | i2 —Ol os .DUN YY UOEUOG, NOSE[[O Ai 35 UO SPUSDIATG 7 Bae O 0 GG cttrtttttsessereeeeseeeeees gFepuNOg S,10199T]09 0 0 OIE Se antes erat cee OF GE ceetttestsseeeesenseeeeessneee seeeeeeees ea BATaS 0 0 OI SSUIPII001g 0 O OL eeccoscescossccecesen JadaayosnofFyT pure I9}I0g 0 (0 008 eoos2e0 ++ or70e@ 2 2 oo SUOIIVSUBL, jo a[US Ono seteaeseveeceessesserooovenseestoreesossenoes® HOTT) Foe die. Se = 0 O r 0-6 seseaeaceceecassevsoeseosssees £11199 JUISISSY “SORE uu Soupjeg| ©: 505 O96. Ree sm Sant Malena ag Uh OSCE Srcrrarenecered O OL FG ceiteretteeesereeeeserss (GT) syuapisay OO OTL vitertereseteereseerees*saanatunyy ployasnozy ee oa neeeiipe. (0) oO O8I oso tee eceeeeesceersecveesersosuad xy asnoFy ISSI A es Been athe hosniisieee-vtosedode Garam 0 0 SI9 °° °° (SMOTTAg 00%) SUOIINGIQUOD jRDUNY 0 0 GT titties genogy jo sireday : payvuysa Beg] Jo auloouy AseuUIpIC a Gr Og2 : ainjipuodxq tee) ; : 00 OF criti ttt ttt t tees setters aus 19 prgog ccc (qaays woreny UOTJBNILA 9G) “BESl “ISIE ‘oeq suIpurisyno syqaq -BA 938) *8S81 YS g ‘90 ‘44a100g 94} 0} anp Sivodiy ~ ps "% wpe 083 é ‘GALVWILSHA SUSNAd Xa ‘CULIAd Xa ANOONYI 8 "6S81 tvah suinsua ay, Lof SILVNILST, 58 The Reports having been read, it was resolved :— - That they be received and entered on the Minutes of the Meet- ing, and that such parts of them as the Council may think fit, be printed and distributed among the Fellows. The President then announced that the Wollaston Medal and £20 had been awarded by the Council to Professor Ehrenberg of Berlin, for his discoveries respecting Fossil Infusoria; and in delivering the Medal with the accompanying sum of money into the hands of the Chevalier Bunsen, who was present, Mr. Whewell addressed him as follows : Mr. Bunsen, I have great pleasure in delivering into your hands the Wollas- ton Medal, which the Council of this Society have awarded to your countryman Professor Ehrenberg, for his discoveries respecting Fos- sil Infusoria. ‘These discoveries, eminently striking and curious to all intelligent persons, are full of the most lively interest for Geolo- gists. Such discoveries area just reward of M. Ehrenberg’s merits, since he had prepared himself for this success by a profound study of natural history, by persevering and scrutinizing researches, and by extensive and enterprising travels. We gladly give this medal asa proof that we sympathize in the admiration which these discoveries have excited throughout scientific Europe. To many others, and to myself in particular, there is an additional source of pleasure at having such a communication to make to M. Ehrenberg, in the circumstance of our having recently become ac- quainted with him, and having seen personally in our own country the evidences of his talents and genius, his simple and strenuous love of knowledge. We beg you to communicate to him with this medal the expression of our admiration in his labours, our deep inter- est in their results, and our warm wishes that he may long have granted him the health and energy and opportunity which their suc- cessful prosecution demands. Allow me to say also, that we trust that this token of our respect will be kindly received by M. Ehrenberg’s countrymen as well as by himself, and that they will accept it as a testimony how gladly we do honour to the profound knowledge and patient research which distinguish that great branch of the European family. I rejoice to be able to deliver this medal into the hands of a distinguished coun- tryman of Professor Ehrenberg; and I cannot but add, as an addi- tional ground of satisfaction, into the hands of one, who, by his wide acquaintance with men of science and learning, and with their works, is so well prepared to sympathise with their honours and successes, as he is by his nature prompted to rejoice in excellence of every kind. The Chevalier Bunsen acknowledged the distinction conferred upon Professor Ehrenberg in the following terms :— 59 Sir,—I feel highly gratified by the honour conferred upon me, of receiving at your hands the valued acknowledgement of the merits of my distinguished countryman, Professor Ehrenberg, and I beg to return thanks, not only in my name, but also in that of Baron Bu- low, as the representative of Prussia in this country, who is prevented by official business from being present on this occasion. Nobody can be more able or inclined to appreciate duly the value of this distinction than Professor Ehrenberg. I know from himself that it was by England in particular that he wished his researches to be examined and approved ; andit was especially by this illustrious Society, so worthily presided over by one whose name is also in Ger- many equally dear to the friends of religion and moral philosophy, and to the followers of the exact sciences: it was to this Society, I say, to whose tribunal he was desirous to submit the judgement of the merits and importance of his discovery. Indeed, the honour you have decreed him to-day is only the public confirmation and so- lemn badge of that kind and encouraging interest which he met with from the members of this Society, and for which he felt the most sincere gratitude. But this feeling, Sir, will not be confined to himself: the honour of the prize awarded to him this day amongst so many illustrious competitors of all nations, will be deeply felt by the whole literary public of Germany : it will, I trust, form a new link in that intel- lectual union between the two great and enlightened nations, which have so many ties of common interest, and so many objects of warm and deep sympathy ; an union which must become every day more and more intimate, and prove productive of the most beneficial con- sequences, not only for the progress of science in the whole range of human intellect, but for the welfare of humanity at large. The flattering manner in which you have been pleased to allude to myself obliges me to say a few words on my own behalf. I feel only too much how entirely I must attribute those expressions to the kindness that inspired them, knowing how inadequate my own merits are to deserve them. But I rejoice sincerely at having this opportunity offered to me, publicly to express my feelings of grati- tude for the kind and generous reception I have constantly met with in this country, which for so many years and for so many and good reasons, has been the object of my love and of my admiration—feel- ings which will ever remain engraven on my heart, and with a par- ticularly gratifying reference to this day. It was afterwards resolved :-— 1. That the thanks of this Society be given to Professor Whe- well, retiring from the office of President. 2. That the thanks of this Society be given to William Henry Fitton, M.D. and Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq., retiring from the office of Vice-Presidents. 3. That the thanks of the Society be given to Henry Boase, M.D., Viscount Cole, M.P., Marquis of Northampton, Professor Rovle, M.D., and Thomas Weaver, Esg., retiring from the Council. F 2 60 After the balloting glasses had been duly closed, and the list ex- amined by the scrutineers, the following gentlemen were declared to have been duly elected the Officers and Council for the ensuing year : OFFICERS. PRESIDENT. Rev. W. Buckland, D.D., Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Oxford. VICE-PRESIDENTS. G. B. Greenough, Esq. F.R.S. & L.S. Leonard Horner, Esq. F.R.S. L. & E. Charles Lyell, jun. Esq. F.R.S. & L.S. Rev. Adam Sedgwick, F.R.S. & L.S., Woodwardian Professor in the University of Cambridge. SECRETARIES. Charles Darwin, Esq. F.R.S. William John Hamilton, Esq. FOREIGN SECRETARY. H. T. De la Beche, Esq. F.R.S. & LS. TREASURER. John Taylor, Esq. F.R.S. COUNCIL. Professor Daubeny, M.D.F.R.S. | Sir Charles Lemon, Bart. M.P. & L.S. F.R.S. Sir P. Grey Egerton, Bart. M.P. | Prof. Miller, M.A. F.R.S. R. I. Murchison, Esq. F.R.S. & W.H.Fitton, M.D. F.R.S.&L.S. L.S Prof. Grant, M.D. F.R.S. Richard Owen, Esq. F.R.S. Rev. Prof. Henslow, F.L.S. Sir Woodbine Parish, K.C.H. W. Hopkins, Esq. M.A. F.R.S. BRS: Robert Hutton, Esq. M.P.| George Rennie, Esq. F.R.S. M.R.I.A. Rev. Prof. Whewell, F.R.S. 61 Address to the Geological Society, delivered at the Anniversary, on the 15th of February, 1839, by the Rey. Wittiam Wuewe 1, B.D. F.R.S. President of the Society. GENTLEMEN, TueE Reports which have been read show that the Society is still in a state of progression as to numbers, although in consequence of some oversights in preceding periods, the comparison of this year’s statement with that of last year does not at first sight give an accu- rate view of our progress. I venture also to speak of our pecuniary condition as prosperous, although, in the Estimates for the present year the expenses exceed the income. ‘This excess admits of explanation: the estimated ex- penses include the cost of publishing a Part of our Transactions, and as this occurs only about once in two years, the whole expense ought not to be considered as belonging to one year. Stoves and other articles of furniture, expenses not likely to recur, have also inflamed the debtor side of our account. There is one considerable article in our estimated expenses, of which payment may not be required, but from which I confess I should be sorry to see the Society liberated. I speak of the salary of our Curator. In my address last year I stated that the Council had it in contemplation to make some arrangement by which Mr. Lonsdale’s labours, then far too heavy, should be lightened. This was done, I believe to the satisfaction of every one, by separating the office of Curator from that of Assistant Secretary, and to the former office Mr. Wood was appointed, with asalary of 125. The Council found in Mr. Wood’s zeal and knowledge every reason to congratulate themselves on the possession of such an officer; and have heard with regret that the state of his health compels him to resign his office. I trust, however, that the Council will be able to provide some means of rendering the Society’s Collection useful, without allowing Mr. Lonsdale to be again burthened with a complication of duties inju- rious to him and inconvenient to the Society. Although, as I have said, I look without any inquietude upon the state of our funds, it is impossible not to allow that such an aspect of them makes it necessary to attend to economy wherever it is 62 possible. There is one part of our establishment to which I am com- pelled, most reluctantly, to apply this remark; I mean, our Library and Museum. I fear that we must consider ourselves as under the necessity of confining within very narrow limits any assistance which can be rendered to those departments from our general funds. And yet we cannot look at these parts of our establishment, and especially at the Library, without seeing that they do in fact re- quire very material additions. Our Library, which ought to possess all the best books and maps which bear upon our science, is desti- tute of many of them, especially of the more modern works, to an extent which we should hardly any of us find tolerable in our private libraries. This deficiency interferes materially with the utility of the Society, and is indeed inconsistent with its character. We shall, I trust, all agree that it is a state of things we ought to remedy. At no period of the history of this body has there been found wanting, when the occasion demanded it, a liberal and gene- rous spirit among its members; and I am fully persuaded that at the present day the love of the Society has not waxed cold among the Fellows, nor have their purse-strings become rigid. It has ap- peared to me, that when a definite list of our deficiencies is laid before you, it will not be found difficult for each person to find in such a list some article, book or map, which it will gratify him that the Society should possess as his gift. In this or in some other way I do not doubt that we shall be able to bring up the condition of our Library to that which the time and our position require. The Council have adjudged the Wollaston medal for the present year to Professor Ehrenberg, for his discoveries respecting fossil In- fusoria and other microscopic objects contained in the materials of the earth’s strata. We all recollect the astonishment with which, nearly three years ago, we received the assertion, that large masses of rock, and even whole strata, are composed of the remains of mi- croscopic animals. ‘This assertion, made at that time by Professor Ehrenberg, has now not only been fully confirmed and very greatly extended by him, but it has assumed the character of one of the most important and striking geological truths which have been brought to light in our time: for the connection of the present state of the earth with its condition at former periods of its history, a problem now always present to the mind of the philosophical 63 geologist, receives new and unexpected illustration from these re- searches. Of about eighty species of fossil Infusoria which have been discovered in various strata, almost the half are species which still exist in the waters: and thus these forms of life, so long over- looked as invisible specks of brute matter, have a constancy and durability through the revolutions of the earth’s surface which is denied to animals of a more conspicuous size and organization. Again, we are so accustomed to receive new confirmations of our well-established geological doctrines, that the occurrence of such an event produces in us little surprise; but if this were not so, we could not avoid being struck with one feature of Prof. Ehrenberg’s dis- coveries ;—that while the microscopic contents of the more recent strata are all freshwater Infusoria, those of the chalk are bodies (Peridinium, Xanihidium, Fucoides,) which must, or at least can, live in the waters of the ocean. Nor has Prof. Ehrenberg been con- tent with examining the rocks in which these objects occur. During the last two years he has been pursuing a highly interesting series of researches with the view of ascertaining in what manner these vast masses of minute animals can have been accumulated. And the result of his inquiries is*, that these creatures exist at present in such abundance, under favourable circumstances, that the difficulty disappears. Inthe Public Garden at Berlin he found that workmen were employed for several days in removing in wheelbarrows masses which consisted entirely of fossil Infusoria. He produced from the living animals, in masses so large as to be expressed in pounds, tri- poli and polishing slate similar to the rocks from which he had ori- ginally obtained the remains of such animals; and he declares that a small rise in the price of tripoli would make it worth while to manufacture it from the living animals as an article of commerce. These results are only curious; but his speculations, founded upon these and similar facts, with respect to the formation of such rocks for example, polishing slate, the siliceous paste called hetselguhr, and the layers of flint in chalk, are replete with geological instruction. As the discoveries of Prof. Ehrenberg are thus full of interest for the geological speculator, so have they been the result, net of any fortunate chance, but of great attainments, knowledge, and labour. The author of them had made that most obscure and difficult portion * Abhandl. Kon. Ak. Wissensch. Berlin. 1838. 64 of natural history, the infusorial animals, his study for many years ; had travelled to the shores of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea in order to observe them; and had published (in conjunction with Prof. Muller) a work far eclipsing anything which had previously appeared upon the subject. It was in consequence of his being thus prepared, that when his attention was called to the subject of fossil Infusoria, (which was done in June, 1836, by M. Fischer) he was able to produce, not loose analogies and insecure conjectures, but a clear determination of many species, many of them already familiar to him, although hardly ever seen perhaps by any other eye. The animals (for he has proved them to be animals, and not, as others had deemed them, plants) consist, in the greater number of examples, of a staff-like siliceous case, with a number of transverse markings ; and these cases appear in many instances to make up vast masses by mere accumulation without any change. Whole rocks are composed of these minute cuirasses of crystal heaped together. Prof. Ehren- berg himself has examined the microscopic products of fifteen locali- ties, and is still employed in extending his researches; and we already see researches of the same kind undertaken by others, to such an extent, as to show us that this new path of investigation will exercise a powerful influence upon the pursuits of geologists. We are sure therefore that we have acted in a manner suitable to the wishes of the honoured Donor of the medal, and to the interests of the science which we all in common seek to promote, in assigning the Wollaston medal to Prof. Ehrenberg for these discoveries. Although it is not necessary as a ground for this adjudication, it is only justice to Prof. Ehrenberg to remark, that his services to geology are not confined to the researches which I have mentioned. His observations, made in the Red Sea, upon the growth of corals, are of great value and interest; and he was one of the distinguished band of scientific explorers who accompanied Baron von Humboldt ‘in his expedition to the Ural Mountains. And I may further add, that even since the Council adjudged this medal, Prof. Ehrenberg has announced to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin new discoveries ; particularly his observations on the organic structure of chalk; on the freshwater Infusoria found near Newcastle and Edinburgh, and on the marine animalcules observed near Dublin and Gravesend; and, what cannot but give rise to curious reflections, 65 an account of meteorite paper which fell from the sky in Courland in 1686, and was found to be composed of Confervz and Infusoria. I now proceed to notice some of the most conspicuous names, both among our own countrymen and foreigners, which have been removed by death from our lists since last year. In Sir Abraham Hume the Society has lost a member who was at all times one of its most strenuous friends and most liberal supporters, -and especially in its earliest periods, when such aid was of most value. Indeed he may in a peculiar manner be considered as one of the Founders of the Society. English geology, as is well known, evolved itself out of the cultivation of mineralogy,—a study which was in no small degree promoted, at one time, by the fame of the mineralogical collections of Sir Abraham Hume and others. The Count de Bournon, exiled by the French revolution in 1790, brought to England new and striking views of crystallography, resembling those which Hat was unfolding in France ; and was employed to arrange and describe the mineralogical collections of Sir John St. Aubyn and Mr. Greville, and especially the collection of diamonds of Sir Abraham Hume, of which a description, illustrated with plates, was published in 1816. Some years before this period a few lovers of mineralogy met at stated times at the house of Dr. Babing- ton, whose influence in preparing the way for the formation of this Society was mentioned with just acknowledgement in the Pre- sident’s Address, in 1834, by Mr. Greenough; and certainly he, more fitly perhaps than any other person, could speak of the merits and services of his fellow-labourers. Of the number of these Sir Abraham Hume was one; although not, I believe, one of those who showed their zeal for the pursuits which associated them by holding their meetings at the hour of seven in the morning, the only time of the day which Dr. Babington’s professional engagements allowed him to devote to social enjoyments of this nature. Out of the meetings to which I refer this Society more imme- diately sprung. The connection of mineralogy with geology is somewhat of the nature of that of the nurse with the healthy child born to rank and fortune. The foster-mother, without being even connected by any close natural relationship with her charge, sup- plies it nutriment in its earliest years, and supports it in its first infantine steps; but is destined, it may be, to be afterwards left in 66 comparative obscurity by the growth and progress of her vigorous nursling. Yet though geology now seeks more various and savoury food from other quarters, she can never cease to look back with regard and gratitude to the lap in which she first sat, and the hands that supplied her early wants. And our warm acknowledgments must on all due occasions be paid to those who zealously cultivated mineralogy, when geology, as we now understand the term, hardly existed; and who, when the nobler and more expansive science came before them, freely and gladly transferred to that their zeal and their munificence. The spirit which prevailed in the infancy of this Society, and to which the Society owed its permanent existence, was one which did not shrink from difficulties and sacrifices; and among the persons who were animated by this spirit Sir Abraham Hume was eminent ; his purse and his exertions being always at the service of the body. He gave his labours also to the Society by taking the office of Vice- President, which he discharged with diligence from 1809 to 1813. He died in March last at the great age of ninety, being then the oldest person both in this and in the Royal Society. Mr. Benjamin Bevan was a civil engineer, and throughout his life showed a great love of science, and considerable power of promo- ting its purposes. He instituted various researches, theoretical and practical, on the strength of materials; and it was he who first proved by experiment the curious proposition, that the Modulus of Elasticity of water and of ice is the same. In 182] he wrote a letter to the secretary of this Society, recommending that the form of the surface of this country should be determined by barometri- cal measurements of the heights of a great number of points in it,— the barometer which was to be used as a standard being kept in London. Mr. Bevan and Mr. Webster were commissioned to pro- cure a barometer, and Dr. Wollaston recommended one of Carey’s barometers, but it does not appear that any further steps were taken. I may remark that recent researches have further con- firmed the wisdom of Mr. Bevan’s suggestion, that heights should be measured, as all other measurements are made, from some fixed conventional standard, instead of incurring the vagueness and in- consistency which result from assuming the existence of a natural standard, such as the level of the sea. 67 Nathaniel John Winch was born at Hampton Court in the year 1769, and after a voyage into the Mediterranean, and travels in various countries in Europe, settled at Newcastle-upon-Tyne as a merchant. He had early paid great attention to botany, which he continued to cultivate during a long life, and kept up a correspond- ence with all the leading botanists in Europe. He was one of the earliest, and always one of the most active members of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle; and, in conjunction with a few of his friends, gave to that town a scientific and cultured cha- racter, which still distinguishes it. He was one of the honorary members of this Scciety ; and contributed to its meetings, in 1814, “ Observations on the Geology of Northumberland and Durham,” and in 1816, “ Observations on the Eastern Part of Yorkshire,” * which were printed in the fourth and fifth volumes of our Trans- actions. In these he stated his object to be to combine with his own observations much interesting information on the subjects of the quarries, and coal and lead mines, of those districts, which had long been accumulating, and was widely diffused among the professional conductors of the mines. And these memoirs, though not contain- ing much of originality in their views and researches, were, at the time, of considerable utility. He died May 5th, 1838, and, by his will, left to this Society a very considerable and valuable mineralo- gical collection, now in our Museum. Mr. William Salmond, of York, was one of the persons who was most zealously and actively engaged in the examination of the cele- brated Kirkdale Cavern. He measured and explored new branches of the cave in addition to those first opened, and made large collec- tions of the teeth and bones, from which he sent specimens to the Royal Institution of London, and to Cuvier at Paris. The bulk of * Besides these papers, Mr. Winch published: ‘’ The Botanist’s Guide through the Counties of Northumberland and Durham. By N. J. Winch, J. Thornhill, and R. Waugh.” 2 vols. 1805.—‘*‘ Flora of Northumberland and Durham.” In the Transactions of the Newcastle Natural History Society, vol. 2.—‘‘ An Essay on the Geographical Distribution of Plants through the Counties of Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland.” First edition, 1820; second edition, 1825.—‘‘ Contributions to the Flora of Cumberland.’’ 1833.—‘‘ Addenda to the Flora of Northumberland and Durham.” 1836. 2 68 his collection was deposited in the Philosophical Society at York, then newly established. I now proceed to notice our deceased Foreign Members. Fran¢ois-Dominique de Reynaud, Comte de Montlosier, was born at Clermont in Auvergne, April the 16th, 1755, the year of the ce- lebrated earthquake of Lisbon. He was the youngest of twelve children of a family of the smaller nobility of that province, and was remarkable at an early age for the zeal with which he pursued va- rious branches of science and literature. Count Montlosier must ever be considered as one of the most striking writers in that great controversy respecting the origin of ba- saltic rocks, which occupied the attention of mineralogists during the latter half of the last century ; and to which, in so large a degree, the progress and present state of geology are to be ascribed. The theory of the extinct voleanos of Auvergne, the subject of his researches, was the speculation which gave the main impulse to scientific curi- osity on this point. It is true that he was not the originator of the opinions which he so ably expounded. Guettard, in 1751, had seen, vaguely and imperfectly, that which it now appears so impossible not to see, the evidences of igneous origin in the rocks of that di- strict: and the elder Desmarest, whose examination of them began in 1763, had made that classification of them, which is the basis, and indeed the main substance, of the views still entertained with regard to the structure of that most instructive region. His map of the district, published in 1774 (in the Transactions of the Academy of Paris for 1771, according to a bad habit of that body still prevail- ing), exhibits the distinction of modern currents of lava, ancient currents, and rocks fused in the places where they now are, which distinction supplies a key to the most extraordinary phenomena, while it reveals to us a history more wonderful still. But striking and persuasive as this view was, and fitted, apparently, to carry with it universal conviction, the theory which it implied, collected, as it seemed at the time, from one or two obscure spots in Europe, was for a while resisted and almost borne down by the opposite doctrine of the aqueous origin of basalt ; which came from the school of Freyberg, recommended by the power of a connected and com- prehensive system,—a power in science so mighty for good and for evil. Montlosier’s Essay on the Voleanos of Auvergne, which ap- 69 peared first in 1788, was, however, not written with any direct reference to this controversy, but was rather the exposition of the clear and lively views of an acute and sagacious man, writing from the fullness of a perfect acquaintance with the country which he described, in which, indeed, his own estate and abode lay. In its main scheme, although Desmarest’s is mentioned with just praise*, the object of this Essay is to criticise and correct a work of M. Le Grand d’Aussy, entitled Voyage en Auvergne. But as the main additions to sound theory which this work contains, (a point which here concerns us far more than its occasion and temporary effect), we may, I think, note the mode in which he traces in detail the effects which the more recent currents of lava (those which fol- — low the causes of the existing valleys) must have produced upon the courses of rivers and the position of lakes ; and the idea, at that time a very bold and, I believe, a novel one, that lofty insulated ridges and pinnacles of basalt, which tower over the valleys, have been cut into their present form by the long-continued action of fluviatile waters, aided by a configuration of the surface very dif- ferent from the present. The striking and vivid pictures which Montlosier draws of such occurrences, are to the present day sin- gularly instructing and convincing to those who look at that region with the geologist’s eye. After publishing this essay, M. Montlosier, aman of varied and commanding talents, became involved in the po- litical struggles of his time, and was an active member of the National Assembly, to which he was sent as Deputy of the Noblesse of Au- vergne. In his place there he resisted in vain the proposals for the spoliation of the clergy ; and one speech of his on this subject was very celebrated. After witnessing some of the changes which his unhappy country had then to suffer, he became an exile, and resided in London, where for some years he was the editor of the Courier Francais, a royalist journal. Under the empire, he returned to France, and was employed in the Foreign Office of the Ministry, but recovered little of his property except a portion of a mountain, which was too ungrateful a soil to find another purchaser. The situation however could not but be congenial to his geological feelings ; for * After mentioning Guettard, he says, ‘“‘ Les mémoires de M. Desmarest, publiés quelques années aprés, entrainérent tout-a-fait opinion pub- lique.”” (p. 20.) 70 his habitation was in the extinct crater of the Puys de Vaches. The traveller, in approaching the door of the philosopher of Ran- dane, had to wade through scoriz and ashes; and from the deep basin in which his house stood, a torrent of lava, still rugged and covered with cinders, has poured down the valley, and at the distance of a league, has formed a dike and barred up the waters which form the lake of Aidat ;—a spot celebrated by Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of Clermont in the fifth century, as the seat of his own beautiful residence, under the name of Avitacus. It is curious to remark that Sidonius does not overlook the resemblance between his own moun- tain and Vesuvius: «¢ mula Baiano tolluntur culmina cono, Parque cothurnato vertice fulget apex.” In this most appropriate abode M. de Montlosier was, in his old age, visited at different times by several distinguished English geolo- gists, some of whom are now present ; and invariably delighted them with his unfading interest in the geology of his own region, his hospi- table reception, and I may add, his lofty and vigorous presence, ac- cording well with his frank and chivalrous demeanour. His ardour of character had shown itseif in early age: “ From my first youth,” thus his Essay opens, “I occupied myself with the natural history of my province, in spite of repulse and ridicule.” The same spirit in- volved him in other struggles to the end of his life; and, indeed, we may almost say, beyond it. He took a prominent part in the political controversies of his day; and few works on such subjects, which appeared in France in modern times, produced a greater fermenta- tion than his “ Mémoire 4 consulter” on the subject of the Jesuits. In this work he maintained that the position of the Jesuits in France was dangerous and illegal; and he must be considered as the ori- ginator of that movement in consequence of which their body was, a few years later, suppressed by the government. The expression of his opinions respecting the conduct and influence of the clergy of his country was condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities, and was deemed by them of a nature to exclude him from that recognition of his being a son of the Catholic church, which is implied by the per- formance of the funeral rite according to its ordinances. This, how- ever, did not prevent the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the military stationed at Clermont from showing the regard which his #1 intercourse with them had inspired, by attending his sepulture in great numbers. He was buried in a spot previously selected by himself, in the crater of the extinct volcano in which his abode was, in the middle of the scenes which he had from his earliest years loved and studied, and taught others to feel a deep interest in. He died at the age of 83, on his way to Paris in order to take his seat in the Chamber of Peers, of which he was a member*. Anselme-Gaétan Desmarest, honorary member of the Royal Academy of Medicine, and Professor of Zoology at the Royal Veterinary College of Alfort, was the son of Nicolas Desmarest, who has just been mentioned as the predecessor of Montlosier in his theory of the volcanic origin of Auvergne. The son also em- ployed himself upon the same district; and published an enlarged and improved edition of his father’s map of Auvergne ;—a work which is still spoken of with admiration, for its fidelity and skil- ful construction, by all who explore that country. But the labours of the younger Desmarest were principally bestowed upon the other parts of natural history. We possess in our Library, extracted from various journals, and presented us by the author, his “ Notes on the impressions of marine bodies in the strata of Montmartre,” published in 1809; his “ Memoir on the Gyrogonite,” published in 1810; to which he added, in 1812, the recognition of the analogy of this fossil with the fruit of the Chara, pointed out by his brother- in-law M. Léman; his review of a work by M. Daudebard de Fer- russac, on the Fossils of Freshwater Formations, in 1813; his me- moir on Two Genera of Fossil Chambered Shells, in 1817; and his “Natural History of the Proper Fossil Crustaceans,” published in 1822 along with M. Brongniart’s “ Natural History of Fossil Tri- lobites.” In the “ Dictionaire d’Histoire Naturelle,” the article Ma- * Besides his “Essay on the Extinct Volcanoes of Auvergne,” M. de Montlosier was the author of the following works: ‘‘ Memoire 4 con- sulter sur un Systeme Religieux et Politique tendant 4 renverser la Re- ligion, la Société et le Tréne”’ (1826). <‘‘ Dénonciation aux Cours Roy- ales rélativement au Systeme Religieux et Politique signalé dans le Mé- moire 4 consulter,’”’ (1826). ‘‘ Mémoires de M. le Comte de Montlosier sur la Révolution Francaise, le Consulat, Empire, et les principaux Evénements qui ont suivis 1755-1830.” Of this work two volumes have appeared, which bring the narrative down to the author’s quitting the National Assembly in 1790. 72 locostracés, which contains a complete account and classification of : Crustaceans, is by M. Desmarest, with others on the same subject. In this work all the articles on Crustaceans had originally been as- signed to Dr. Leach ; but when the lamented illness of that distin- guished naturalist prevented his finishing this task, it was committed to Desmarest, who carefully studied the labours of his predecessor ; and, with most laudable industry and self-denial, made it his business to follow his method as closely as possible. He also published a separate work on Crustaceans in 1825. Count Kaspar Sternberg was one of those persons, so valuable in every country, who employ the advantages of wealth and rank in the cultivation and encouragement of science. He belonged to a younger branch of one of the best and oldest families in Bohemia; and was closely connected with the persons of most elevated station in that country. He was born the 6th of January, 1761, and re- ceived a distinguished education at Prague; not only, as was then common among the Bohemian nobility, through private tutors, but by following the public course of the university. He was created Canon of the Chapter of the metropolitan church at Ratisbon, which, obliging him to receive the lower degree of holy orders, bound him | to celibacy. At Ratisbon, then a considerable place, and the seat of the Diet of the German empire, he formed friendships with seve- ral eminent persons, and especially with Count Bray (afterwards Bavarian minister at various courts), a man of letters, and a distin- guished botanist. Count Sternberg also cultivated botany, and be- came an active member of the Botanical Society of Ratisbon. Du- ring the time that Germany was a prey to the miseries of war, he retired to his hereditary country seat Brzezina, in the circle of Pil- sen, in the north-western part of Bohemia. Here his attention was early drawn to the coal formation, of which mineral he possessed an extensive estate at Radnitz. He soon formed the intention of pub- lishing representations of the fossil vegetables belonging to the coal strata. These had already begun to excite the attention of geolo- gists. Some of these works, containing notices on such subjects, preceded the existence of sound geology, as the Herbarium Diluvi- anum of Scheuchzer, the Sylva Subterranea of Beutinger, and the Lapis Diluvii Testis of Knorr*. At the beginning of the present * To the earlier works on this subject we may add Martin’s Petrificata ee century, Faujas de St. Fond had published in the Annales du Mu- séum some impressions of leaves, not indeed belonging to the coal, but to a later formation. These impressions were examined and determined by Count Sternberg, in the Botanical Journal of Ratis- bon, in 1803. In the following year appeared the first truly scien- tific work on this subject, the “ Flora der Vorwelt” of Schlotheim, in which the great problem which was supposed to demand a solu- tion was, Whether the vegetables of which the traces are thus ex- hibited belong to existing or to extinct kinds? Count Sternberg was in Paris when he received the work of Schlotheim, and he stu- died it carefully by the aid of the collections which: exist in that metropolis. He published in the Annales du Muséum a notice on the analogies of these plants, but concluded with observing, that a greater mass of facts was requisite; and that, these once collected, the general views which belong to the subject would come out of themselves. Bearing in mind this remark of his own, when fortune, after the storming of Ratisbon in 1809, set him down in the midst of the great coal formations of Bohemia, he proceeded forthwith to manage the working of his mines, so as to preserve as much as possible the most remarkable impressions of fossils. Combining his own speci- mens with those found in other places, he began to publish, in 1820, his “Essay towards a Geognostic-botanical Representation of the Flora of the Pre-existing World.” In this work he not only gave a great number of very beautiful coloured engravings of vegetable fossils, but also attempted a systematic classification of them. But he stated, in the first portion of his work*, that the problems, im- portant alike for botany and geology, which offered themselves, could only be solved by combined labours on a common plan; and after mentioning the various European Societies to which he looked for assistance (among which he includes this Society ), he adds, “ Bo- hemia and the hereditary states of the Austrian empire, I am ready, with some friends of science, to make the subject of continued in- vestigation.” The specimens of which he published representations, with many more, formed the Count’s collection at his castle of Brze- zina; but he declared in the outset, that as soon as the National Bo- Derbiensia, published 1809; and Parkinson’s Organic Remains (1804), which contains many plates of vegetables. * Hrster Heft, p. 16. WON. Wate G 74 hemian Museum at Prague was provided with the means of receiving and displaying this collection, the whole should be transferred from Brzezina to the capital. This was afterwards done; and in this and other ways he was one of the principal founders of the Museum at Prague. He also gave notice, that while the collection continued in his own residence, it was open to the inspection of every lover of science, even in the absence of the Count himself. The publication of Sternberg’s Flora der Vorwelé went on till 1825, after which it was discontinued till 1838, when two parts ap- peared, terminating the work. In this last publication he states that he is compelled to give up this undertaking, having been in a great measure deprived of sight for two years, so that he was obliged to devolve the greater part of such labours upon MM. Corda and Presl. His hearing also failed him. He adds, however, that though thus no longer able to pursue the path which he has trodden for twenty years, he shall not fail to render to the science, of which he was one of the founders, any service which may be in his power. This pub- lication was the crowning labour of his life, for he did not long sur- vive it; he retained, however, to the last the elasticity and activity of his mind. He died very suddenly at his country seat already mentioned, on the 20th of December, 1838, being carried off by apoplexy in his 78th year. In his own country his influence was highly salutary : he directed his attention especially to the improvement of the national educa- tion ; and we cannot be surprised at finding such a person very soon at the head of nearly all the institutions for literary and public pur- poses. He founded the National Museum of Bohemia, of which he was the President; gave to it his library and his various collections, and further enriched it at various periods of his life. He was, in- deed, zealous in all that concerned Bohemian nationality, and was an accomplished master of the language and literature of his country : since his death I am assured that there is hardly one Bohemian of any class who does not mourn for him as for a most respected bene- factor. Throughout Germany, he was looked to by all who felt an interest in science with a respect and regard which he well merited. The emperor Francis held him in the highest esteem; he gave him the title of Privy Councillor, and the Grand Cross of St. Leopold, held in that monarchy as a distinguished honour. In the preceding sketch I have mentioned Schlotheim as one of 75 the predecessors of Count Sternberg in fossil botany. Although this writer died in 1832, and was an honorary member of this So- ciety, he has never been noticed in the annual address ; I may there- fore here add a few words with reference to him. Baron E. F. von - Schlotheim was Privy Councillor and President of the Chamber at the court of Gotha, and his collection of Petrifactions has long been celebrated throughout Germany. Besides his Flora of a Former World, or Descriptions ef remarkable Impressions of Plants, which appeared in 1804, he published, in 1820, ‘ Petrifactenkunde, or the Science of Petrifactions according to its present condition, illustrated by the Description of a Collection of petrified and fossil remains of the animal and vegetable kingdom of a former world.’ And in 1822 and 1823 he published Appendixes to this work. His collection was also further made known by articles in Leonhard’s Mineralogical Pocket Book and in the Isis. After his death a new description of this collection was announced, but whether it appeared I am not able to say. Schlotheim’s introduction to his account of his collec- tion contains some extensive geological views. It is only justice to M. de Schlotheim to add here what is said of him by M. Adolphe Brogniart, whose own labours on fossil vege- tables have been of such inestimable value to the geologist, and are every year increasing in interest. ‘“ Almost half a century,” he says, “ elapsed, during which no important work appeared on this subject. It was not till 1804 that the ‘ Flora of the Ancient World, by M. de Schlotheim, again turned the attention of naturalists to this branch of science. More perfect figures, descriptions given in detail and constructed with the precision of style which belongs to botany, and moreover some attempts at comparison with living vegetables, showed that this part of natural history was susceptible of being treated like the other branches of science: and we may say, that if the author had established a nomenclature for the vegetables which he described, his work would have become the basis of all the succeeding labours on the same subject.” In attempting a sketch of the subjects which have occupied the attention of the Society during the year, I should wish to retain that G2 76 distribution of the science of geology according to which T arranged my remarks in the Address which I had last year the honour of reading to the Society; I mean the primary division into Deserip- tive Geology and Geological Dynamics; the former implying a de- scription of the rocks of the earth’s surface according to an esta- blished classification of strata and formations; and the latter dealing with the study of those general Jaws and causes of change by which we hope to understand and account for the facts which Descrip- tive Geology brings before us ;—in short, the present condition and the past history of the earth’s crust. But as the laws of permanence and change, with regard to organized beings, differ very widely from the dynamics of brute matter, we may conveniently make a separate study of the relations of organic life to which geology conducts us, and may mark it by the name Palaontology, by which it is com- monly known. I will add that it still appears to me convenient, for the present, to divide Descriptive Geology into two portions,—the Home circuit, in which the order of superposition has already been established with great continuity and detail ; and the Foreign region, in which we are only just beginning to trace such an order. [I shall also, as before, take the ascending order of strata. According to this arrangement of the science, I shall venture to bring to your re- collection a few of the points to which our attention has mainly been called during the past year. DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 1. Home (North European) Geology.—When I stated that De- scriptive Geology has for its task the reference of the rocks of some portion of the earth’s surface to an established classification into strata and formations, it was implied, that the more common employ- ment of the descriptive geologist must be to refer the rocks which he examines to some classes already fixed and recognized ; but it could hardly fail to occur to you, that from time to time the leaders in this study will be called upon to execute a more weighty and ele- vated office, in framing the classifications which other observers are to apply ; in drawing the great lines of division and subdivision which fix the form of the subject; in setting up the type with which ex- amples are to be compared ; in constructing the language in which wel others are to narrate their facts. Steps of this kind have formed, and must form, the great epochs in the progress of all sciences of classification, and especially in ours ; and I need not remind you how great the importance and the influence of such steps amongst you have been. To pronounce at once upon'the success of such steps must always be in some degree hazardous; since their success is in fact this, that they influence permanently and powerfully the re- searches, descriptions, and speculations of future writers ; and there are few of us who can pretend to the foresight which might enable us to say, in any special case, how far this will be so. Yet the great works of Messrs. Murchison and Sedgwick, tending to the establish- ment of a classification of the strata below the old red sandstone (works which, on all accounts, we must consider as a joint under- taking), appear already to offer an augury which can hardly be doubtful, of this influence and permanence. Mr. Murchison’s ap- pellation of the “Silurian System” has already been adopted by “MM. Elie de Beaumont and Dufresnoy, who have given it currency on the continent: M. Boué and M. de Verneuil announce the dif- fusion of “ Silurian” rocks in Servia and the adjacent parts of Turkey in Europe; our own members, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Strickland, have extended their range to the Thracian Bosphorus; M. Forch- hammer, of Copenhagen, visited the “ Silurian region” to endeavour to recognize the rocks of Scandinavia; and MM. Omalius D’Halloy and Dumont have just explored it, to establish a parallel between its deposits and those of Belgium. It will be observed that some of the districts thus mentioned are out of the limits of our geological Home circuit ; and if the identification be really and permanently established in these cases, will extend the limits within which the pa- rallelism of geological series can be asserted: and this is, in effect, what we have a right to look for, sooner or later, in the progress of geological science. As we must be careful not to apply our domes- tic types without modification to other regions, so must we take care not to despair of modifying our scheme, so that it shall be far more extensively applicable than it at first appeared to be. Of this pro- gress of things examples are too obvious and too recent to require to be pointed out. The labours of Professor Sedgwick refer to the “Cambrian System,” which lies beneath the Silurian System, occupying much of North 78 Wales, Cumberland, and a great part of Scotland; while the Silurian System spreads over a great part of South Wales and the adjoining English counties. The classification of the rocks of this portion of our island to which Professor Sedgwick has been led, though laid before you only at a recent meeting, is the fruit of the vigorous and obstinate struggles of many years, to mould into system a portion of geology which appeared almost too refractory for the philosopher’s hands; and which Professor Sedgwick grappled with the more reso- lutely, in proportion as others shrank away from the task perplexed and wearied. I need not attempt any detailed view of his system: his First Class of Primary Stratified Rocks occupies the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebrides, and appears in Anglesea and Caernar- vonshire ; the crystalline slates of Skiddaw Forest, and the Upper Skiddaw slate series come next. Above these is his Second Class, or Cambrian and Silurian System. The Cambrian is divided into Lower and Upper Cambrian, of which the former includes all the Welsh series under the Bala limestone; the two great groups of green roofing slate and porphyry on the north and south sides of the mineral axis of the Cumbrian mountains (of which groups the position had previously been misunderstood), and parts of Cornwall and South Devon. The Upper Cambrian System contains a large part of the Lammermuir chain; a part of the Cumbrian hills, commencing with the calcareous slates of Coniston and Windermere ; the system of the Berwyns and South Wales; all the North Devon, and a part of the South Devon and Cornish series. Ascending thus through a series of formations distinguished and reduced to order by the indefatigable exertions and wide views of Professor Sedgwick, we arrive at the Silurian system ; and here we must seek our subdivisions from the rich results of the labours of Mr. Murchison. These subdivisions were published in the summer of 1833. Like the Cambrian, the Si- lurian is divided into a Lower and an Upper*System, the former in- cluding the Llandeilo flags and the Caradoc sandstones ; the Upper Silurian Rocks being the Wenlock shale and limestone, the Lower Ludlow, the Aymestry limestone, and the Upper Ludlow, which finally conducts us to the Tilestones or bottom beds of the Old Red Sandstone. That these various series of Cambrian and Silurian rocks are really superposed on one another; that they are justly separated into 79 these groups; and that the smaller groups are truly of a subordinate nature, divided by lines less broad than those which bound the great series of formations ;—these are points, of which the evidence must be sought in the works to which I refer. ‘The evidence adduced by Prof. Sedgwick is mainly to be found in the great fact of super- position, supported by the circumstances of dip, strike, cleavage, mineral character, and all the great incidents of mountain masses. To proofs of this kind Mr. Murchison is able to add the testimony of organic fossils, of which a vast and most instructive collection is figured in his work. These fossils of the Silurian system, amount- ing in all to about 350 species, are essentially distinct from those of the Carboniferous System and Old Red Sandstone. This being so, the establishment of these great divisions is supported by that geological evidence which properly belongs to the subject. In detecting order and system among the monuments of the most obscure and remote periods of the earth’s history, it may easily be supposed that it has been necessary to employ and to improve all the best methods of geological investigation. Prof. Sedgwick’s classification of the oldest rocks which form the surface of this island has of course been obtained by a careful attention to the po- sition and superposition of the mineral masses, and by tracing the geographical continuity of the strata, almost mile by mile, from Cape Wrath to the Land’s End. In this manner he has connected the rocks of Scotland with those of Cumberland; these again with these of Wales; and the Welsh series, though more obscurely, with that of Devonshire and Cornwall. In this survey he has constantly kept before his eyes a distinction, known indeed before, but never before so carefully and systematically employed, between the slaty cleavage of rocks and their stratification; for the directions of these two planes, though each wonderfully persistent over large tracts, never, except by accident, coincide. He has taken for his main guide the direction of the strata, or, as it is called, the strike of the beds; and in such a course, the theory of Elie de Beaumont respecting the parallelism of contemporaneous elevations, whether true or false, could not fail to give an additional interest to geological researches, conducted on so large a scale as those of Prof. Sedgwick. Mr. Murchison’s mode of investigation may be described thus: that he has applied, for the first time, to the rocks below the Old Red Sand- 80 stone, the method of classification previously employed with so much success for the QOolites. It is truly remarkable, that Nature has placed in this our corner of the world, series, probably the most complete which exist, of both these groups of strata; and as the Oolites of England have long been the type of that portion of Euro- pean geology, the Silurians of Wales may perhaps soon be recog- nized as the standard members of a still more extensive range of deposits. As if Nature wished to imitate our geological maps, she has placed in the corner of Europe our island, containing an Index Series of European formations i full detail. The Carboniferous, Old Red, Silurian and Cambrian systems have, by many writers, up to the present time, been all comprehended in the term “transition rocks”, so far as that term has been used with any definite application at all. The analysis of this vague group into these distinct portions removes the confusion and perplexity which have hitherto prevailed in this province of geology. Prof. Sedgwick has further proposed to apply the term Paleozoic, and Mr. Murchison that of Protozoic, to the rocks which constitute the Cambrian and Silurian systems. How far these appellations are useful, we shall see when we have had speculations presented to us in which they are familiarly used ; for necessity is the best apology, and convenience the best rule, of innovations in scientific language. In the names applied to the members of the Silurian system, Mr. Murchison, following those examples of geological nomenclature which have been most clearly understood and most generally adopted, has borrowed his terms from localities in which standard types of each stratum occur. If the Silurian system be as exclusively diffused as some indications seem to imply, we may find the Ludlow Rocks in Seandinavia, and the Caradoc Sandstone even in Patagonia. Whether a like identi- fication of the more ancient rocks of the Cambrian series with the lowest formations of other countries be possible, may perhaps be (for the present) more doubtful. I have spoken of Mr. Murchison’s work as if it had formed part of our Proceedings, ‘as indeed almost every part of it has done, al- though it now appears in a separate form. And I will add, that it is impossible not to look with pleasure upon the form in which the work appears, enriched as it is in the most liberal manner, with $1 every illustration, map and section, picturesque view and well-marked fossil, which can aid in bringing vividly before the reader all the instructive and interesting features of the formations there described. The book must be looked upon as an admirable example of the sober and useful splendour which may grace a geological mono- graph. Having been tempted to dwell so long on this subject from my conviction of its importance, I must the more rapidly proceed with the remainder of my survey. Mr. Bowman sent us, “ Notes on a small patch of Silurian Rocks to the west of Abergele.” In this investigation, which is interesting to us as the first application of Mr. Murchison’s Silurian System, the author found strata of which some could be, by means of fossils, identified with the Ludlow rocks. Mr. Malcolmson has, by the remains of fossil fishes, shown that the calciferous conglomerate of Elgin represents the old red sandstone of Clashbinnie, as the Rev. G. Gordon had already supposed. Fi- nally, proceeding to higher strata, we have to notice a trait of the fossil history of the coal strata near Bolton-le-Moors, contributed by Dr. Black. A stem of a tree thirty feet long, and inclined at an angle of 18° in a direction opposite to the strata, was discovered, having upon it a Sternbergia, about an inch in diameter, extending the whole length of the stem, which had been, while living, a para- site plant, like the mighty existing creepers of the tropical regions. The most curious addition to cur fossil characters of strata, are the footsteps discovered on the surface of beds of the new red sandstone. It is well known that several years ago such marks were discovered at Corncockle Muir, in Dumfries-shire. Since that time similar discoveries have been made at various places, and espe- cially in 1834, in the quarries of Hesseberg near Hilbergshausen ; and to the animal which had produced the impressions then disco- vered, the name of Chirotherium was provisionally applied by Pro- fessor Kaup. In the quarries of Storeton Hill, in the peninsula of Worrall, between the Mersey and the Dee, marks were discovered strongly resembling the footsteps of the Chirotherium of Kaup: these were described by a committee of the Natural History Society of Liverpool, and drawn by J. Cunningham, Esq. Mr. James Yates has also described footsteps of four other animals from the same quarries; and Sir Philip Egerton has given us a description $2 of truly gigantic footsteps of the same kind, which he terms the Chirotherium Herculis. Mr. Strickland gave us a notice of some remarkable dikes of cal- careous grit which occur in the lias schist at Ethie in Ross-shire, and which had already been remarked by Mr. Murchison, in his examination of the coast of Scotland, in 1826. They appear not to have been injected from below, but filled in from above. Mr. Williamson’s “ View of the Distribution of Organic Remains in part of the Oolitic Series on the Coast of Yorkshire,” was the welcome continuation of a labour of the same kind already exe- cuted for the lower portions of the series, and promised to be con- tinued for the upper. Among the contributions to the fossil history of the oolites, we must also place Dr. Buckland’s “ Discovery of the fossil wing of an unknown Neuropterous Insect in the Stonesfield slate.” This stratum, the Stonesfield slate, has, during the past years, occupied the Society in the consideration of its fossils in no small degree; but the speculations thus suggested belong to Pale- ontology rather than Descriptive Geology. Mr. Murchison’s notice of a specimen of the Oar’s rock, which stands in the sea off the coast of Sussex, nine miles south of Little Hampton, shows it to agree with some of the rocks in the greensand or Portland beds; and its thus belonging to the strata below the chalk falls in with the remark of its occurring between the parallels of disturbance which traverse the Wealden of Sussex on the north, and the Isle of Wight on the south; for these disturbances and other facts agree well with the notion of protruded strata between. ‘The wealden strata themselves have been observed by Mr. Malcolmson, at Linksfield, near Elgin. It is remarkable, that these strata had already, very unexpectedly, been found by Messrs. Murchison and Sedgwick in the Isle of Skye. I have also to notice Dr. Buckland’s account of the discovery of fossil fishes in the Bagshot Sands at Goldworth Hill, near Guilford. As these fossils resemble those of the London clay, Mr. Liyell’s opinion that the Bagshot Sands were deposited during the eocene period is strongly confirmed. The freshwater beds of the Isle of Wight, which had already supplied specimens of some of the Pachydermata of the Paris basin, have furnished an additional supply of rich fossils, which have been 83 examined by Mr. Owen. He has found them to contain bones of four species of Palzotherium, and two species of Amplotherium ; also a jaw of the Cheropotamus, a fossil genus established by Cu- vier; and another jaw closely resembling that of a Musk Deer, which Mr. Owen refers to the genus Dicobune, a genus also established by Cuvier upon the fossils of the Paris basin. Such discoveries, falling in with the conclusions obtained by the researches of previous phi- losophers respecting the tertiary period of the earth’s history, and supplying what they left imperfect, cannot fail to give us great con- fidence in the results of those investigations, and to enhance our ad- miration of the sagacity which opened to us this path of discovery. Dr. Mitchell gave an account of his attempts to trace the drift from the chalk and strata below the chalk, as it exists in the coun- ties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hertford, and Middlesex. This drift I had occasion to notice in my- Address last year, in reference to Mr. Clarke’s elaborate geological survey of Suffolk; and I then stated that this diluvial deposit is known in the neighbourhood of Cambridge by the name of brown clay. Dr. Mitchell has shown that this deposit is of greater extent than we were before aware. But still to determine with precision its principal masses, total extent, and local modifications, would be a valuable service to the geology of the eastern part of our island. As my order requires me to take the igneous after the sedimentary rocks, I must here notice Dr. Fleming’s “Remarks on the Trap Rocks of Fife,” which he distinguishes into three epochs ;—those of the eastern extremity of the oolites, which are variously associated with the old red sandstone ;—those which run from St. Andrew’s to Stirling, which were produced after the coal-measures ;—and those which occur along the shores of the Forth, which occur in the higher coal-measures. 2. Foreign (South European and Trans-European) Geology.— In the survey of the progress of our labours which I offered to your notice last year, I stated, that in proceeding beyond the Alps, and I might have added the Pyrenees, we no longer find that multiplied se- ries of strata, so remarkably continuous and similar, when their iden- tity is properly traced, with which we have been familiar in our home circuit. Yet the investigations of Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Strickland . 84 appear to show, that we may recognise, even in Asia Minor, the great formations, occupying the lowest and highest positions of the series, which are well marked by fossils, namely the Silurian and Tertiary formations ; and also an intermediate formation correspond- ing in general with the Secondary rocks of the north, but not as yet reduced to any parallelism with them in the order of its members. Besides these sedimentary rocks, in this as in most other countries, there are found vast collections of igneous rocks of various kinds, which interrupt and modify, and may mask and overwhelm, the fossiliferous strata. A paper has been communicated to us by Mr. Hamilton, “On a part of Asia Minor,” namely, the country extend- ing from the foot of Hassan Dagh to the great salt lake of Toozla, and thence eastwards to Cesarea and Mount Argzeus, and thus occupying a part of the ancient Cappadocia. It appears that in this district the igneous rocks occupy a large portion of the surface, and the sedimentary strata which are asso- ciated with these are not easily identified with those which occur in countries already examined. The district examined by Mr. Ha- milton contains a limestone belonging to the vast calcareous lacus- trine formation of the central part of Asia Minor, and beneath this, a system of highly inclined beds of red sandstone, conglomerates and marls, which are perhaps connected with the saliferous deposits of Pontus and Galatia; but which could not be satisfactorily com- pared with the beds of the south of Europe, for want of the occur- rence of organic remains. In only one instance did Mr. Hamilton observe the trace of organic bodies in the sandstone: these were impressions resembling fucoids, and similar to those found in the Alpine limestone near Trieste. Mr. Hamilton ascended to the summit of Mount Argeeus, which had not previously been reached by any traveller, which rises abruptly from the alluvial plain of Cesarea to the height of 13,000 feet. We have another contribution to the geology of the countries exterior to the Alps and Pyrenees in Mr. Sharpe’s memoir on the geology of Portugal. He has examined with great care the neigh- bourhood of Lisbon, and has traced the superposition of the strata, naming the most conspicuous of them from the places in which they are well exhibited. His series (exclusive of igneous rocks) consists of San Pedro limestone (which rests upon the granite). 85 slate clay and shale, Espichel limestone, red sandstone, hippurite limestone, a lower tertiary conglomerate, the Almada beds, and the upper tertiary sand. In the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, for 1831, Baron Eschwege had examined a geological section taken across the mouth of the Tagus, and passing from the granite of the Serra of Cintra, to that of the Serra of Arra- bida. But his identifications of the Portuguese beds do not agree: with those of Mr. Sharpe, and have indeed the air of proceeding on the arbitrary assumption of a correspondence between this and other parts of Europe. Thus Baron Eschwege has referred both the San Pedro and the Espichel limestones to the magnesian limestone; the red sandstone formation he considers as Bunter Sandstein, while Mr. Sharpe refers it to the age of our Oolites: the hippurite limestone (now acknowledged to be the equivalent of our chalk and greensand) M. Eschwege makes tv be Jura limestone ; and the Almada beds he would have to be Plastic Clay and Calcaire Grossier. Mr. Sharpe is very properly attempting, bya further study of the organic fossils which he has procured, to confirm or correct the identifications to which he has been led. It is only by thus starting from different points, and tracing strata by their conti- nuity, that we can hope to cover the map of Europe, and finally the world, with geological symbols cf a meaning fully understood. PALHONTOLOGY. The portion of our subject which we term Paleontology, might at first sight seem to form a part of zoology rather than of geology ; since it is concerned about the forms and anatomy of animals, and differs from the usual studies of the zoologist only in seeking its materials in the strata of the earth’s crust instead of upon its sur- face. Yet a moment's thought shows us how essential a part of our science the zoology of extinct animals is; for in order to learn the history of the revolutions which the earth has undergone, we must seek for general laws of succession in the remains of organic life which it presents, as well as in the position and structure of its brute masses. And since such general laws must necessarily be expressed in terms of zoology, it becomes our business to define those terms, so that they shall be capable of expressing truths which 86 include in their circuit the past as well as the present animal and vegetable population of the world. An example of this process has occupied a large portion of our attention during the past year. It appeared to be a proposition universally true, that the oldest strata of the earth’s surface con- tained cold-blooded animals only ; and that creatures of the class mammalia only began to exist on the surface after the chalk strata had been deposited and elevated. And when, to a rule of this tempting generality, a seeming exception was brought under our notice, it became proper to examine, whether the anatomical line, which enables us to separate hot-blooded from cold-blooded ani- mals, had really been rightly drawn; and whether, by rectifying the supposed characteristic distinction, the exception might not be eliminated. The exception on which this very instructive point was tried, consisted in a few jaw-bones of a fossil animal, which, though occurring in the Stonesfield slate near Oxford, a bed belong- ing to the oolite formation, had been referred by Cuvier to the genus Didelphys, and thus placed among marsupial mammals. In August last M. de Blainville stated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris his reasons for doubting the justice of the place thus as- signed to the fossil animal. Founding his views principally upon the number and nature of the teeth of the fossil, he asserted that the animal, if a mammal, must come nearest the phocz ; but he ra- ther inclined to believe it a saurian reptile; following, as he con- ceived, the analogies offered by a supposed fossil saurian described by Dr. Harlan of Philadelphia, and termed by him Basilosaurus. M. Valenciennes, on the other hand, asserted the propriety of the place assigned by Cuvier to the fossil animal, although he made it a new genus; and gave to the species the name Zhylacotherium Pre- vost. The controversy at Paris had its interest augmented when Dr. Buckland in September carried thither the specimens in ques- tion. From Paris the controversy was transferred hither in No- vember, and principally occupied our attention at our meetings till the middle of January. One advantage resulting from the ample discussion to which the question has thus been subjected, has been, that even those of us who were previously ignorant of the marks by which zoologists recognise such distinctions as were in this case in question, have 87 been put fully in possession of the rules and the leading examples which apply to such cases. And hence it will not I trust be deemed presumptuous, if, without pretending to any power of deciding a question of zoology, I venture to state the result of these discus- sions. It appears, then, that some of the marks by which the under jaws of Mammals are distinguished from those of Saurians are the following : (1) a convex condyle ; (2) a broad and generally elevated coronoid process, (3) rising near the condyle; (4) the jaw in one piece ; (5) the teeth multicuspid, and (6) of varied forms, (7) with double fangs, (§) inserted in distinct sockets, but (9) loose and not anchylosed with thejaw. In all these respects the Saurians differ ; ha- ving, for instance, instead of a simple jaw, one composed of six bones with peculiar forms and relations, and marked by Cuvier with di- stinct names; having the teeth with an expanded and simple fang, or anchylosed in a groove, and so on. Of course, it will be supposed, by any one acquainted with the usual character of natural groups, that this line of distinction will not be quite sharp and unbroken, but that there will be apparent transgressions of the rule, while yet the unity of the group is indubitable, Thus the Indian Monitor and the Iguana, though Saurians, violate the second character, having an elevated coronoid process ; but then it is narrow, and this seeming defect in our second character is further remedied by the third; forin those Saurians there is a depressed space between the condyle and the coronoid process quite different from that which a mammal jaw exhibits. Again, the teeth of Crocodiles, Plesio- saurs, and the like, are inserted in distinct sockets; but then they have not double fangs. The Basilosaurus was supposed to be a sau- rian with double-fanged teeth, but that exception was disposed of afterwards. And as there are thus saurians which trench upon the characters of mammals, there are mammals in which some of the above characters are wanting: thus the condyle is slightly or not at all convex in the Ruminantia ; there is no elevated coronoid pro- cess in the EKdentata; the Dolphin and Porpoise have not multi- cuspid teeth; the Armadillo has not varied forms of teeth, nor has it double fangs to its teeth, which also the fossil Megatherium has not. Still, upon the whole, the above appears to be the general line of distinction. Even if one or two of the above nine marks were wanting to prove the animal a mammal, still if the great ma- _ 8& jority of them were present, our judgment could not but be decided by the preponderance of characters. But if all the above characters of mammals are present, and all those of saurians absent, it seems to be a wanton scepticism to doubt that the animal was really warm- blooded. Now it was asserted by Mr Owen, who brought this subject be- fore us, that this is the case; that all the characters which I have enumerated above exist in the Stonesfield jaws. If we satisfy our- selves that this is the case, I do not see how we can avoid assenting to his opinion,—that the animal belonged to the class Mammalia. Every such question of classification must resolve itself into two ; that of the value, and that of the existence of the characters. If we assent to Mr. Owen in his view of the former, we are then led to consider the latter. M. de Blainville, at least in his first examination, had laboured under the disadvantage of forming his judgments from casts and drawings only of the Stonesfield bones. Under these circumstances, he had denied several of the above characters; he had held that the teeth in the Thylacotherium are uniform; and that they are con- fluent with the jaw; and that the jaw is compound. These state- ments Mr. Owen, resting upon a careful examination of the speci- mens, contradicts. ‘The assertion of the compound nature of the jaw is occasioned by a groove near the lower margin of the jaw, which however is not so situated as to represent the saurian sutures but is completely explained by supposing it to be a vascular canal, such as exists in the Wombat, Didelphys, Opossum, and similar ani- mals. Another specimen, at that time the property of Mr. Broderip, but now very properly placed in the British Museum, exhibits a ' jaw similar indeed to the Thylacothere, but belonging to a different genus ; and to this species Mr. Owen has given the name Phasco- lotherium Buckland. Both these generic names imply that the animals are pouched animals; and in addition to the reasons which led Cuvier to this opinion, Mr. Owen has noticed in the fossils an in- flection of the lower edge of the jaw, which, so far as has been hitherto observed, occurs in Marsupials, and in them alone. As if this question had been destined to be settled at this time, the only remaining doubt with regard to the possible existence of 89 double fangs in the teeth of a saurian was removed by the arrival in London of Dr. Harlan with his “ Basilosaurus.” That gentleman, with great liberality and candour, allowed sections of the fossil to be made in such a manner as to expose the structure of the teeth. And these being examined by Mr. Owen, and compared with the general laws of dental structure which he has lately discovered, it appeared that Dr. Harlan’s fossil was by no means a saurian, but an animal nearly allied to the Dugong, to which Mr. Owen pro- poses to apply the generic name of Zeuglodon, expressing the con- joined form of its teeth. I have not hesitated to lay before you the view of this subject to ‘which I have been led by the discussions in which we have been engaged, notwithstanding the very great authorities which incline to the other side of the balance. Among these I hardly know whether I am to reckon Mr. Ogilby, who laid before us a very in- structive communication, in which, without deciding the point, he pointed out the difficulties which appear to him to embarrass both views, and especially to contradict the opinion of the marsupial nature of the animal. I have dwelt the longer on this controversy, since it involves con- siderations of the most comprehensive interest to geologists, and, we may add, of the most vital importance. For—de swmmd reipub- lice agitur,—the battle was concerning the foundations of our phi- losophical constitution; concerning the validity of the great Cuvierian maxim,—that from the fragment of a bone we can reconstruct the skeleton of the animal. This doctrine of final causes in animal structures, as it is the guiding principle of the zoologist’s reasonings, is the basis of the geologist’s views of the organic history of the world ; and, that destroyed, one half of his edifice crumbles into dust. If we cannot reason from the analogies of the existing, to the events of the past world, we have no foundation for our science ; and you, Gentlemen, have all along been applying your vigorous talents, your persevering toil, your ardent aspirations, idly and in vain. Besides the important investigations thus referred to, we owe to Mr. Owen other paleontological contributions. The genus Chero- potamus, established by Cuvier from an imperfect fragment of the bone of a skull, was asserted by him to be a Pachyderm most nearly VOL. Ill. I 90 allied to the Peceari, A fragment of a lower jaw of the same genus, found by Mr. Darwin Fox in the Isle of Wight, confirms this view, but indicates in some points an approach to the carnivorous type. And it was remarked as interesting, that the living genus of the hog tribe which most resembles the Cheropotamus, the Peccari, exists in South America, where the Tapir, the nearest living analogue of the Anoplothere and Paleothere, the associates of the Cheropo- tamus, also occur. Another jaw, found by Mr. Pratt in the Binstead quarries in 1830, and resembling that of the Musk Deer, Mr. Owen refers to a new species of Cuvier’s genus Dicobune, under the name Dichobune cervinum. Mr. Owen has also given us a description of Lord Cole’s specimen of Plesiosaurus macrecephalus, which he com- pares with Mr. Conybeare’s Plesiosaurus Dolichodeirus, by establish- ing an intermediate species, founded upon a specimen existing in the British Museum, and termed by him Plesiosaurus Hawkinsit. Besides tracing the analogies which connect these with each other, and comparing them with the two great modifications of the saurian tribe, the crocodiles and the lizards, Mr. Owen presented his remarks on the form of the Plesiosaurian vertebre, founding them upon a general view of the elements of which all vertebree are constituted. To the communications thus made to us, we may add Mr. Owen’s determination of another animal, of which the remains brought from the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres, are among the many treasures of this kind which we owe to Sir Woodbine Parish. This animal, of gigantic dimensions, appears to have been allied to the Megathe- rium, but with closer affinities to the Armadillos; and it probably possessed the characteristic armour, of which, in the Megatherium, the existence is perhaps problematical. Mr. Owen has termed it Gilyptodon, from the furrowed shape of its teeth. In another communication Mr. Owen endeavoured to account for the dislocation of the tail of the Ichthyosaurus at a certain point, which is observable in many of the fossil skeletons of that animal. This circumstance, so remarkable from its general occurrence, and which Mr. Owen was the first to observe, he is disposed to account for by supposing a broad tegumentary fin to have been attached to the tail for a portion of its length, the position of which fin must, he conceives, have been vertical. I-cannct close my enumeration of the valuable contributions for 91 © which we are indebted to Mr. Owen, without remarking how well our anticipations have been verified, when, in awarding him the Wollaston medal last year, we considered the labours which we thus distinguished as only the beginning of an enlarged series of scientific successes; and how well also Mr. Owen’s own declaration, that he should lose no available time or opportunity which could be applied to paleontological research, has been borne out by the services he has rendered that branch of our science. In the remainder of my review of what has been done among us in Paleontology I must necessarily be very brief. I have already mentioned the discovery of fossil fishes in the Bagshot sand. These fishes have supplied three new genera, which Dr. Buckland has distinguished and has named Edaphodon, Passalodon, and Ameibo- don; of which the two first offer combinations of the cl.aracters o1 bony and cartilaginous fishes. Mr. Stokes has given us his views of the structure of the animal to which belonged those fossils with which we are so familiar under the name of Orthoceratites. He is of opinion, that these fossils, in their living condition, existed as a shell, enveloped within the body of the animal to which they belonged. He has distinguished three genera of these shells, to which he as- signs the names Actinoceras, Ormoceras, and Huronia. ‘The Mar- quis of Northampton also has examined those minute spiral shells which occur in the chalk and chalk flints, and have been termed Spirolinitess And, finally, under this head I must mention Mr. Alfred Smee’s paper on the state in which animal matter is usually found in fossils. Mr. Austen’s hypothesis of the origin of the limestone of Devon, though belonging in some measure to Geological Dynamics, may perhaps be mentioned here, since he explains the position of those beds by reference to the habits of the coral animal. Mr. Austen has already shown himself to us as an excellent observer ; and in con- structing geological maps, a task requiring no ordinary talents and temper, he has earned our admiration. We shall therefore not be thought, I trust, to depreciate his labours if we receive with less confidence speculations in their nature more doubtful. As we can hardly suppose the calcareous beds of Devon to have had an orig‘n different from those of other countries, we cannot help receiving with some suspicion a doctrine which would subvert almost. the HZ 92 whole of our existing knowledge of the relations of fossiliferous beds of limestone. GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS. In that part of geology which I have termed Geological Dynamics, and which investigates and applies those causes of change by which we may hope to explain geological phenomena, we may still observe that fundamental antithesis of opinion which has long existed on the subject ;—the division of our geological speculators into Catastro- phaists and Uniformitarians ;—into those who read in the rocks of the globe the evidence of vast revolutions, of an order different from any which those of man has survived ;—and those who see in the con- dition of the earth the result of a series of changes which are still going on without decay, the same powers which produced the ex~ isting vallies and mountains being yet at work about us. Both these opinions have received their contributions during the preceding year: Mr. Darwin having laid before us his views of the formation of mountain chains and volcanos, which he conceives to be the effect of a gradual, small, and occasional elevation of continental masses of the earth’s crust; while Mr. Murchison gathers from the re- searches in which he has been engaged, the belief of a former state of paroxysmal turbulence, of much deeper rooted intensity and wider range than any that are to be found in our own period; and M. de Beaumont, in France, has endeavoured to prove that Etna and many other mountains must have been produced by some gigantic and ex- traordinary convulsion of the earth. Both Mr. Darwin and M. de Beaumont refer to the same examples; and while M. de Beaumont conceives that the cones of the Andes must have been formed by an ~ abrupt elevation, caused by subterranean force, Mr. Darwin has maintained the opinion, that these lofty summits have been gra- dually tlirust into the place which they occupy by a series of suc- cessive injections of molten matter from below, each intruded por- tion of fluid having time to harden into rock before it was burst | and again injected by the next molten mass. For how otherwise, he asks, can we conceive the strata to be thrust into a vertical po- sition by a liquid from below, without the very bowels of the earth gushing out? Without attempting to answer this question, we may observe, that when we suppose, as Mr. Darwin supposes, a vast por- 93 tion of the earth’s crust, the whole territory of Chili for example, to rest on a lake of molten stone, there is considerable force in M. de Beaumont’s argument :—that when such a fluid is raised to the top of a mountain ten or twenty thousand feet high, the pressure upon the crust which is in contact with the fluid must be more than a thousand atmospheres ; and who, fe too asks, flatters himself that he knows enough of the interior machinery of volcanos, to be cer- tain that this vast pressure, acting upon a large surface, may not, by some derangement of its safety-valve, the volcanic vent, produce effects to which we cannot assign any limit ? In speaking of Mr. Darwin’s researches I carmnot refrain from ex- pressing for myself, and I am sure I may add for you, our disap- pointment and regret that the publication of Mr. Darwin's journal has not yet taken place. Knowing, as we do, that this journal con- tains many valuable contributions to science, we cannot help lament- ing, that the customs of the Service by which the survey was con- ducted have not yet allowed this portion of the account of its results to be given to the world. Although not communicated to us, but to our Alma Mater the Royal Society, I may notice Mr. Hopkins’s endeavours to throw light upon such subjects as this by the aid of mathematical reason- ing. ‘The researches of Mr. Hopkins respecting the effects which a force from below would produce upon a portion of the earth’s crust, have already interested you, and wouid be of still greater value if the directions of faults and fissures which result from his theory did not depend very much upon that which in most cases we cannot ex- pect to know, the form of the area subjected to such strain. Mr. Hopkins has since been employing himself in tracing the conse- quences of another idea, truly ingenious and philosophical, and which a person in full possession of the resources of mathematics could alone deal with. Some of the effects which the sun and moon pro- duce upon the earth (as the precession and nutation,) include the attraction of those bodies upon the interior portion of the earth, and have hitherto been deduced from the theory by mathematicians, upon the supposition that the earth is solid. But what if the central portion of the earth were fluid? What ifit appeared, by calculation, that the fluid internal condition would make the amount of the pre- cession of the equinoxes, or of the nutation of the axis, different 94 from that which the solid spheroid would give? What if it ap- peared that the precession and nutation thus calculated for a fluid interior agreed better with observation than the result hitherto ob- tained by supposing the earth solid? If this were so, we should have evidence of the earth’s interior fluidity, evidence, too, of a per- fectly novel and most striking nature. But to answer these ques- tions is far from an easy task ; the precession of the solid earth is a problem in which Newton erred, and in which the greatest mathe- maticians of modern times have not found their greatest strength superfluous. Yet how incomparably more difficult in all cases is the mechanics of fluid tlfan of solid bodies! It may, therefore, require more than one trial before any satisfactory solution of the problem can be obtained. Mr. Hopkins has attacked it by the aid of cer- tain hypotheses, and the result is, so far, not favourable to the de- cisiveness of this test of the interior condition of the earth; but not- withstanding this state of things, I venture to say on your behalf, Gentlemen, that an idea so full of promise of that which we so much desire, and which seems to be so utterly out of our reach, the knowledge of the condition of the centre of the earth,—that such an idea is not to be lightly abandoned*. * The following are the results at which Mr. Hopkins has arrived, sup- posing the earth to consist of a homogeneous spheroidal shell filled with a fluid mass of the same density as the shell :— 1. The precession will be the same, whatever be the thickness of the shell, as if the whole earth were solid. 2. The lunar nutation will be the same as for the solid spheroid, to such a degree of approximation, that the difference would be inappreciable to ob- servation. 3. The solar nutation will be sensibly the same as for the solid spheroid; unless the thickness of the shell be very nearly of a certain value, some- thing less than one fourth the earth’s radius, in which case this nutation might become much greater than for the solid spheroid. 4. In addition to the above motions of precession and nutation, the pole of the earth would have a small circular motion, depending entirely on the internal fluidity. The radius of the circle thus described would be the greatest when the thickness of the shell should be least ; but the inequality thus produced would not, for the smallest thickness of the shell, ex- ceed a quantity of the same order as the solar nutation; and for any but the most inconsiderable thickness of the shell, would be entirely inappre- ciable to observation. Mr. Hopkins intends hereafter to consider the case of variable density. 95 M. Necker, of Geneva, offered an addition to the causes of con- vulsions of the earth, which are contemplated by our Geological Dynamics, in a paper in which he ascribed the earthquakes which took place in the southern provinces of Spain, in 1829, to the falling in of strata, the subjacent gypseous and saliferous masses being washed out by subterraneous currents. Without denying all influence to such a cause, we may observe that it does not appear likely that there would be thus produced, simultaneously, any greater effects than those which are known to have occurred from the falling in of unsupported mines; and these have never approached in their scale to any except the smallest earthquakes. While geologists are thus looking in all directions for causes which may produce the phenomena which they study, it is natural that the powerful, but as yet mysterious influences of electricity should draw their attention. Mr. Robert Were Fox has endeavoured to show, that by voltaic agency, a laminated structure, and deposits of metal in cracks, resembling metallic veins, may be produced in masses of: clay. The experiments are of an interesting kind, and it can hardly be doubted that voltaic agency had some influence in such cases as those described by Mr. Fox; although Mr. Henwood and Mr. Stur- geon have failed in attempting to reproduce his results, and although results much resembling these occur in cases where no electrical ac- tion is suspected. But we may remark that the conditions under which such voltaic effects are produced have not yet been attempted to be defined with any accuracy ; and that till this is done, the reality of such agency can neither be verified nor applied to geological speculations. — _ A’reflection which naturally offers itself upon this review of our recent career, is this :—that different portions of the science of geo- logy advance with very different rapidity. Descriptive Geology is con- stantly and actively progressive: facts are accumulated by observers in every land; and though facts are, in truth, of no value, at least for any purpose of science, except so far as they are reduced to some classification, yet on the other hand, sound classifications are perpe- tually, almost necessarily, suggested, when observation is vigilant and persevering. Even if we at first express our facts in terms of a 96 false classification, we find afterwards the means of translating them into the language of a true one. And the spirit of geological ob- servation is so widely diffused, and so thoroughly roused, that I trust we need not anticipate any pause or retardation in the career of Descriptive Geology. I confess, indeed, for my own part, I do not look to see the exertions of the present race of geologists sur- passed by any who may succeed them. The great geological theo- rizers of the past belong to the Fabulous Period of the science ; but I consider the eminent men by whom I am surrounded as the Heroic Age of geology. They have slain its monsters, and cleared its wil- dernesses, and founded here and there a great metropolis, the queen of future empires. They have exerted combinations of talents which we cannot hope to see often again exhibited, especially when the condition of the science which produced them is changed. I consider that it is now the destiny of geology to pass froin the heroic to the Historical Period. She can no longer look for supernatural suc- cesses, but she is entering upon a career, I trust a long and prosper- ous one, in which she must carry her vigilance into every province of her territory, and extend her dominion over the earth, till it becomes, far more truly than any before, an universal empire. Such are the prospects of Descriptive Geolegy ;—of the geology of facts and classifications. To our knowledge of causes we can look with no such certainty of its progress being steady and rapid; or rather, we are certain that the advance must be slow, and may be often and long interrupted. For it is not an advance, to suggest one or another hypothetical cause of change, without assigning the laws and amount of the change: it is hardly an advance even to calculate the results of our hypotheses on assumed conditions. To obtain by induction, from adequate facts, the laws of change of the organic and inorganic creation,—this alone can lead us to those discoveries which must form the epochs of Geological Dynamics. And we have yet to learn, whether man’s past duration upon the earth, whether even that which is still destined to him, is such as to allow him to philosophize with success in such matters ;—whether, not individuals only, not a generation alone, but whether the whole species be not too ephemeral, to penetrate, by the unassisted powers of its reason, into the mystery of its origin :—whether man, placed for a few cen- turies on the earth as in a school-room, have time to strip the wall oi of its coating, and count its stones, before his Parent removes him to some other destination. And now, Gentlemen, I approach the close of my task, and of the office which has imposed it upon me; an office which has been to me a source of unmingled gratification. The good opinion implied by your selection of me, the good opinion of such a body of men, was an occasion of sincere and earnest self-congratulation,—a self- congratulation hardly damped by my consciousness of an imperfect acquaintance with your science ;—since I trusted that you, though not unaware of my defects, had judged that good will, and a dispo- sition to look at the subject in its largest aspect, might in some measure compensate for them. And if I needed other grounds of satisfaction in the employment which I am thus bringing to its close, I might find them in the reflections I have just been led to make in the progress and prospects of the science with which you are con- cerned. For it has ever been one of my most cherished occupations, and will, I trust, long be so, to trace the principles and laws by which the progress of human knowledge is regulated from age to age in each of its provinces. To have had brought familiarly under my notice, in a living form, the daily advance of a science so large and varied as yours, has been, as it could not but be, a permanent and most instructive lesson ;—perpetually correcting lurking mis- takes, and suggesting new thoughts. And if, while I have looked at your science in this spirit, you have thought me worthy to be called to preside over your body for two years; and if, during that time, you have not repented of your choice, as I have not found my views inapplicable to the subjects which have come before you; I may, I would believe, find in this some ground for confiding in the trains of thought which have thus led me to such a position; and may hope that, however arduous be the task of framing a philo- sophy of science suitable to its present condition, and of using such a philosophy as a means of furthering knowledge in general, still, that in this task, to which our age is so manifestly called, [ too may be a helper. I trust that you will excuse these few words uttered with reference to my own peculiar pursuits, since these include yours also, and are my only claim to your indulgence. And now, Gentlemen, that I may trespass upon that indulgence no longer, I once more thank VOL. III. I 98 you in all earnestness and sincerity for your good opinion which placed me in this chair, and for the kindness and support which I have on all occasions received from you ; and with my best wishes for your prosperity, and that of your science, I resign my office inte abler hands. PRINTED BY RICHARD AMD JOHN E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. ~ Vou. III. 1839. No. 62. Feb. 27.—Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, Esq., F.L.S., of Burrows Lodge, Swansea, was elected a Fellow of this Society. A paper was first read, entitled ‘‘ An Account of Impressions and Casts of Drops of Rain, discovered in the Quarries at Storeton Hill, Cheshire,” by John Cunningham, Esq., F.G.S. The author commences by stating, that no person acquainted with Geology, can doubt of rain having fallen during remote ages of the world, because to its destructive and transporting powers many of the sedimentary strata must have owed their origin. He also ob- serves, that the vast forests which flourished anterior to the era of the new red sandstone, and are now treasured up in beds of coal, could not have existed without abundant supplies of atmospheric waters. Mr. Cunningham refers likewise to Mr. Scrope’s account of the permanent preservation of the effects of a shower, which fell on extremely fine ashes, thrown out by Vesuvius during the eruption of 1822. The drops of rain formed globules which resembled in shape and motion those produced by sprinkling water on a dusty floor; and the globules afterwards hardened into pellets, which accumulated, at the bottom of a slope in some places, into beds a foot or more thick; and they afterwards became so firmly agglutinated, that it re- quired a smart blow from a hammer to break the mass. The effects of rain described by Mr. Cunningham, are, however, of a kind entirely different from those produced on the ashes of Vesuvius. They were discovered by him in the sandstone quarries in which the footsteps of the Chirotherium were found*; and he was the first to assign their origin to the effects of rai. The under surface of two strata, at the depth of 32 and 35 feet from the top of the quarry, present a remarkably blistered or warty appearance, being densely covered by minute hemispheres of the same substance as the sandstone. ‘These projections are casts in relief of indentations in the upper surface of a thin subjacent bed of clay, and due, in the author’s opinion, to drops of rain. On one of the layers of clay, they are small and circular, as if pro- duced by a gentle shower; on the other, they are larger, deeper and less regular in form, indicating a more violent operation, * See the Memoir by the Committee of the Natural History Society of Liverpool, p. 12. VOL. III. K 100 possibly accompanied by hail. On the surface of these layers of clay there are also impressions of the feet of small animals, which appear to have passed over the clay either during the showers or not long before, as the footsteps are indented by the drops of rain, but to a less degree than the untrodden parts, in consequence, the author conceives, of the pressure which the clay had undergone beneath the feet of the animals. Ripple marks are exhibited also on the surface of many sandstone strata in the same quarries; and the rain marks as well as the sharpness of many of the footsteps prove, that the clay was not covered by water during the shower, or while traversed by the animals; and Mr. Cunningham, therefore, is of opinion that the con- ditions necessary to the preservation of such impressions, particu- larly of the rain drops, would be a return of water over surfaces which had been left uncovered during an interval too short for the desiccation of the laminz of clay before the shower fell; and which were sufficiently soft to receive the impressions, as well as tenacious enough to retain them, until the return of the water which filled the prints with sand. Another condition is, that the velocity of the water charged with the sand was not sufficient to overcome the tenacity of the clay, or disturb the impressions of the rain drops. The author adds, that Dr. Buckland has suggested to him, that the interyal between the rise and fall of tides over extensive sandbanks, the sur- face of which was between the level of high and low water, might have afforded daily occasions for the fulfilment of all the conditions ; and that it is not easy to explain the alternate exposure to air and submersion under water without appealing to the flux and reflux of © tides. An extract was then read from a letter addressed to Dr. Buckland, by John Taylor, jun., Esq., F.G.S., on a slab of sandstone, exhibit- ing footmarks, and supposed to be from the Kelsall quarry, at the foot of Delamere Forest, but now in a pavement in the house of Mr. Potts, of Chester. A letter was next read, addressed to Dr. Buckland by Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.G.S., respecting the same slab; and accompanied by a tracing of the foot-marks, by Miss Potts. When the slab was first laid down, there were no indications of the footsteps, and Sir Philip Egerton explains, in the following manner, their origin in a homogeneous stone and subsequent development, The weight of the animal on the soft sand compressed the yielding materials in the vicinity of the foot, and the print having been filled with sand, the stone, on becoming indurated, would present a nearly uniform texture. The action of the weather, on the flag being exposed, would remove the softer portions of the surface, and the denser parts surrounding the impressions of the feet, would resist the same operation, and present in relief the outline of the foot. The flag contains the prints of three hind and two fore feet, the latter bearing nearly the same proportions to the former as in the other, species, but Sir Philip Egerton could not make accurate 101 measurements, because the markings are not all on one plane; the length of the stride he was also unable to determine, in consequence of the impressions in the same line being all of the right foot. There are distinct marks of claws on several of the toes. A paper was next read, ‘‘ On the occurrence of numerous Swallow Holes, near Farnham; with some observations on the drainage of the country at the western extremity of the Hog’s Back,” by George Long, Esq., and communicated by C. Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. Farnham stands at the foot of the chalk hills, upon a deep bed of loam, which appears to overlie the gault. Upon the chalk, imme- diately to the north of the town, is the castle, beyond which the tertiary strata commence and rise to a considerable height, forming the great mass of hill known by the name of Farnham Beacon, Tun- bury, or the Lawday House. On the north side, this hill presents, for the greater part, an abrupt precipice, under which several streams are thrown out; but on the south there are landsprings only, which occupy the gullies for the greater portion of the year, and occasion- ally become formidable torrents. These rivulets pour down the tertiary clays until they arrive at the chalk, where they plunge into the ground and disappear, except during very heavy rains, when the surplus waters are carried off by gravely channels in the chalk. The principal object of the paper is to describe the seven swallow holes between Clear Park and Farnham Park, anda minute account is given of each. They occur in Clear Park—-Lower Old Park Gully— Clay-pit Gully—near the Potter’s Clay-pit—in the Hop-grounds, aboye the turnpike a little west of the Odiham-road—near the en- trance of the pleasure ground in Farnham Park—and near the end of the avenue at the east of Farnham Park. The water absorbed by the holes in Farnham Park is supposed to reappear at the Bourne-Mill- ‘stream; and though soft where it sinks into the chalk, itis hard and unfit for use, where it again breaks forth. The existence of under- ground currents was further proved by a well sunk at Hale Farm, which gave the following section : Son duanehsnavel tie ihe eo aon Ua 6 feet. lay (potters!) 1. 8 Mies has A en Seeee Peon G: Ratle aMpretavel a Awe, 2) i iete ene Cea lD Playi(natters! Fished idk Sy AOS rahe 14 or 15. Clay, blue (London?) lowest 2 feeta green sand 24. Jelena clave Sad dts ose Us eect a 20 or 30. At that depth a spring was reached, which was supposed to be the Bourne-Mill-stream, and the instrument went down rapidly many fathoms, through a chalk mud. The well-sinkers afterwards came upon chalk with many flints, and finally breaking their instrument, left 80 feet of it in the earth, having bored altogether to a depth of 176 feet. The green-sand tract, described in the second part of the memoir, and drained by a stream which flows northward through a gap in the chalk at Runfold into the London basin, is bounded on the north K 2 102 by the straight line of the Hog’s Back, and on the south by a semi- circular range of the low hills extending from Seale on the east by Crooksbury Hill to Moor Park on the west. The surface of the tract being sandy and naturally bibulous, the proprietor of the farm has ren- dered it more retentive by a system of marling, and the rain water being consequently less absorbed than formerly, it is collected in an excavation called White-ways End Pond, at the western end of the Hog’s Back. From this pond a small stream flows towards Run- fold, and passing thence across the depressed chalk, continues its course to the county stream, or Blackwater river, receiving appa- rently a small augmentation from a spring at Andrew’s hop-kiln. This gap in the chalk at Runfold, not having been hitherto noticed by geologists, Mr. Long conceives, that it deserves to be recorded among the apertures of the North Downs. An extract was last read from a letter addressed to Mr. Lyell by Capt. Charters, F.G.S., and dated Cape Town, Nov. 12, 1838. During an extensive tour through the colony, Capt. Charters’s attention was drawn to a vast deposit of greenstone, overlying the horizontally stratified sandstone which occupies so large a portion of Southern Africa. The following localities are mentioned in the letter. A hill close to Fort Beaufort, on the Kaffir frontier. The banks of the Great Fish River, near the small town of Cradock, in the neighbour- hood of which quantities of spherical masses of trap are heaped to- gether, the surrounding sandstone mountains being of considerable elevation, and having their flanks and sometimes their tops very fre- quently covered with loose fragments of trap. On the right bank of the river and about a mile from the town, is exhibited a section, consisting in the lowest part of inclined strata of clay slate, in the middle of horizontal beds of sandstone, and in the uppermost of masses of trap. The same geological structure prevails in passing through the Tanka district, behind the Winterberg range to Shiloh, and thence to Colesberg, near the Orange river. From Colesberg, Captain Charters proceeded to Graf Keynet by the Schneeberg, and he found that the only variation in the nature of the country, consisted in a considerable diminution of the quantity of greenstone. The left of a narrow gorge through which the Sunday river passes, presents an abrupt precipice 300 feet high and as many yards long, composed of columnar greenstone resting at its foot on horizontal strata of sandstone. March 13.—Major George Walker Prosser, Cambridge Terrace, Regent’s Park; William Sanders, Esq., Park Street, Bristol ; Wil- liam Marshall, Esq., M.P.; and Robert Blagdon Hale, Esq., M.P., Alderly Park, Gloucestershire ; were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper on the geology of the North Western part of Asia Minor, from the peninsula of Cyzicus, on the coast of the sea of Marmara, to Koola, with a description of the Katakekaumene, by William John Hamilton, Esq., Sec. G.S., was read. 103 The memoir is divided into two parts, the first containing an ac-. count of the country between Cyzicus and Koola, the second a description of the Katakekaumene. The line of route taken by Mr. Hamilton from Cyzicus, ascends the valley of the Macestus to the sources of that river near Simaul, then crosses the Demirji chain, and afterwards passes through Kars- kieui and Selendi to Koola, in the Katakekaumene, the whole distance being about 170 miles. ‘The principal leading feature of the district is the Demirji chain reaching from Pergamum on the west, to the lofty mountain of the Ak Dagh or Shapkhana Dagh on the east, and it is prolonged in that direction by a lofty range which extends H.S.E. to Morad Dagh, south of Kutahiyah, and thence by Aiom Karahissar to Sultan Dagh, an extension of one of the chains of Mount Taurus, so that the Demirji range forms a portion of the central axis of Asia Minor. The country traversed by Mr. Hamilton is also intersected by numerous hills, some of which exceed 1200 feet inheight. The lake of Maniyas is another marked feature in the district. The for- mations of which the country is composed, are,—1, schistose rocks with saccharine marble; 2, compact limestone resembling the scaglia of Italy and Greece; 3, tertiary sandstones; 4, tertiary limestones ; 5, granite; 6, peperite; 7, trachyte; 8, basalt. Between Kespit and the Demirji chain is a deposit of white marl, which Mr. Ha- milton is of opinion, was accumulated in an ancient lake drained by some of the igneous operations which dislocated the horizontal tertiary limestone, and formed the traverses in the high hills between Kespit and Susugerli. 1. The schists are composed of gneiss, mica slate, and clay slate, and they are associated with crystalline limestone. Argillaceous schists and marble occur between Cyzicus and Erdek; and thickly wooded hills, 1000 feet in height, which rise abruptly from the shore of the sea of Marmara, are capped by a fine marble. A little further eastward are extensive quarries of the same stone, to which Cy- zicus was partly indebted for having been ranked among the most splendid cities of antiquity. The limestone is interstratified with indurated marls and shales of various colours; the whole dip- ping from 70° to 80° S.E. by S.: and near Erdek S.W., or in each instance from the granitic nucleus of Cyzicus. Similar schists occur in the Demirji range, and in the Katakekaumene, associated with limestone. Between the 33rd and 34th miles from Simaul towards Koola, is a low ridge of hills of saccharine limestone, rising above the plateau of horizontal limestone, and belonging to the same formation as the hills about Koola. In the Katakekaumene, the older system of vol- canic cones is situated on these schists, and the newer in the ad- jacent alluvial plains, an important distinction accounted for in the description of that district. 2. Compact Limestone resembling the scaglia of Italy and Greece occurs only south of the lake of Maniyas, and at the foot of the range of hills near the town ofthesamename. It is associated with beds of shale. A micaceous sandstone, which forms a range of broken and 104 water-worn hills between Milverkieui and the valley of the Susugerli or Macestus, is considered by Mr. Hamilton, to be perhaps of the age of this limestone, as well as the high and broken range of hills be- tween Ildij and Kespit. 3. Tertiary Sandstones.—Vhis formation is very extensively deve- loped, and consists of micaceous sandstones, sands, marls, and shales. No organic remains were noticed in it by the author. It ranges southward from the village of Susugerlifor about two miles. At the eastern extremity of the Demirji chain, where it was traversed by Mr. Hamilton, thinly laminated micaceous sandstone rests against the granitic nucleus, and extends thence to the South for nine miles. This formation is also exhibited about 16 miles from Simaul, underlying irregularly and conformably the peperite, and at the 18th mile the junction between the peperite and the sandstone is well ex- hibited. The lower volcanic beds are contorted, and consist of large masses and boulders of primary, igneous, and scoriaceous rocks; the beds, however, gradually become finer in the ascending order, and nearly horizontal in their position. In the sandstone the author noticed no fragments of volcanic matter. At the 19th mile, how- ever, there appears to be a gradual passage or interstratification be- tween the upper beds of the sandstone and the lower beds of the peperite. The sandstone and peperite extend along the valley of the Selendichai, and the former constitutes the hills between the valleys of the Selendi and the Hermus, and is capped by the white limestone. The beds throughout the country are nearly horizontal, except where they have been disturbed by igneous rocks. 4. Tertiary Limestone. 'This deposit Mr. Hamilton considers as belonging to the great lacustrine formation which occupies so large a portion of Asia Minor, but within the range of country described in this paper, it appears to be destitute of organic remains. It pre- sents table lands composed of beds of white, compact, or thinly la- minated limestone resembling chalk, and sometimes containing no- dules of opaque white flints, and sometimes extensive beds of tabular flint. Near Kespit it is chalky, as well as 8 miles further south. It forms the hill on which stands the castle of Bogaditza, at the south- eastern extremity of the plain of the same name. South of the De- mirji chain, and about eleven miles from Simaul, a white limestone overlies peperite, and a few miles further, rests upon trachyte. About the 19th mile, trachytic conglomerate overlies horizontal beds of white marl irregularly associated with beds of quartz pebbles. Between the valleys of the Selendi and the Hermus white limestone rests upon the micaceous sandstone, the volcanic products having thinned out. About the 35th mile, in the bottom of a ravine, Mr. Hamilton noticed the following section : Lowest part, gravel and loose beds of sand.... 30 feet. Alternations of marls and sands, the former pre-| 5 dominating in tl t athide: Sethe mppenmary ee eee VARGO DIn rel PR iTS SRT a aye See AAO 5 to 6. Mr. Hamilton believes that the last bed passes into the white lime- stone. The hill above the ravine is capped by basalt in some places 100 105 feet thick, but a stratum of sand is occasionally interspersed between the limestone and the basalt. South of the Hermus an insulated patch of limestone is also overlaid by basalt, and around its base are lava streams which have flowed from the volcanic cones near Koola. The lower part of this patch of limestone is converted into a yellow jasper-looking substance, with a bright conchoidal fracture. 5. Granite occurs near Cyzicus, where it is a finely grained, gray tock, which decomposes rapidly; but it contains large masses of hornblende, and is sometimes traversed by veins of felspar. It throws off the adjacent schistose rocks, which dip from it in opposite di- rections. Granite apparently forms also the axis of the Demirji range. 6. Peperite.—This deposit is extensively developed in many parts of Asia Minor. It is distinctly stratified, but it has sometimes a crystalline or vitreous aspect, and contains crystals of hornblende as well as much glassy felspar. Within the range of Mr. Hamilton’s route it occurs about 24 miles south of the village of Susugerli; also 9 miles south of Simaul: and a little further the author ob- tained the following descending section : 1. Hard volcanic tuff, slightly crystalline, but containing many boulders and pebbles of trap, with numerous concretions of green marl, 12 feet. 2. Soft whitish volcanic earthy tuff, containing small frag- ments of pumice, 10 feet. 3. Hard crystalline but stratified rock. About the 11th and 12th miles from Simaul, peperite is overlaid by a white limestone ; between the 15th and 16th it rests upon pro- truded masses of decomposing trap or syenite; and half a mile further a mass of trachytic or trap conglomerate, forming the point of separation of two valleys, has been raised up subsequent to its de- position by a protrusion of trap, as the conglomerate, which is much contorted, adheres to the side of the trap; and near the 16th mile, it is underlaid by the micaceous sandstone. The beds are occasionally horizontal, but where the peperite has been affected by the trachyte, they are variously inclined. 7. Trachyte and Trachytic Conglomerate.—Several varieties of this rock occur within Mr. Hamilton’s district. ‘The points more par- ticularly mentioned are, one mile south of Kespit, where it forms a ridge of hills; the village of Kalburja, 7 miles S.W. of Kespit; also near the town of Bogaditza, whence a high trachytic range ex- tends for a considerable distance east and west, succeeded by a less elevated district of the same rock, which continues beyond Sin- gerli to the foot of the Dimirji mountains. In this district the tra- chyte varies greatly in colour, is generally soft, decomposes easily, and the author was often unable to decide whether it was an aqueous deposit of volcanic sand, or a subaqueous igneous rock. To the east of Singerli is a large mass of red porphyritic trachyte, considered by Mr. Hamilton to be a coulée which has flowed from the high rugged hills to the south-east. The trachytic rocks continue up the valley of Macestus for several miles. It is also extensively developed south of 106 the Demirji chain between Simaul and Koola, particularly about the 13th or 14th mile from the former, and is overlaid by white lime- stone. About the 19th mile, in some places, cliffs of trachytic conglo- merate rest upon the peperite, and in others the trachytic conglo- merate overlies horizontal beds of white marl belonging to the white limestone, and interstratified as before stated, with irregular beds of quartz pebbles, 8. Basalt is exposed south of the Demirji chain at several places, but more particularly near and in the Katakekaumene. A spur of porphyritic trap occurs about two miles south of Su- sugerli. Hot Springs burst forth in great force about 75 miles east of Singerli. Their temperature is supposed by Mr. Hamilton to be equal to that of boiling water. Extensive depositions, in one part 8 or 10 feet thick, occur around the mouths of the springs; and a strong sulphureous smell accompanies the emission of the water; but where the temperature had become sufficiently low to permit the water to be tasted, no peculiar flavour was perceived. After flowing a mile and a half and turning several mills, the water is used for a warm bath. ‘The rock from which the springs rise, is a greenish brown porphyritic trap. Some copious hot springs issue near the lower beds of the tertiary white limestone, a little north of Koola, the temperature varying from 123° to 137° Fahr. ‘Two of them are situated in the centre of the ruins of an unknown ancient city. Mr. Hamilton perceived a slight development of sulphuretted hydrogen as. The Katakekaumene.—The extent of this interesting tract is much less than is assigned to it in published maps, being not more than 7 miles from north to south, and 18 or 19 from east to west. After alluding to his first visit to it in company with Mr. H. E. Strickland, and refering to that gentleman’s account of a portion of the district*, Mr. Hamilton describes minutely the two systems of volcanos, di- stinguished by the state of preservation of the craters and of the coulées: he defines also the course of each lava-current, and points cut its attendant phenomena—but these details admit of only partial abridgement. The volcanic products are basalt, lava, and ashes, the first being confined to the more ancient craters, and the last to the more modern. The numerous older cones are further distinguished by being situated on parallel ridges of gneiss and mica slate, and the newer, only three in number, by being confined to the intervening alluvial valleys. This important distinction Mr. Hamilton explains on the supposition, that the elevation of the schistose ridges produced cracks, through which, as points of least resistance, the first eruptions of lava found vent ; and that these openings becoming subsequently plugged up, by the cooling of injected molten matter, the schists were rendered so solid, that when the volcanic forces again became active, the lines of least resistance were transferred to the valleys. * Proceedings, vol. ii., p. 425. 107 The coulées from the ancient craters appear to have been partly under water, as their surface is, in some places, covered with sedi- ment and turf; but the lava streams from the modern are bare, rugged, and barren, and the craters are surrounded by mounds of loose scoriz and ashes. In addition to the comparative view given by Mr. Strickland of the phenomena of the Katakekaumene and Central France, Mr. Hamilton enters into a more extended investigation of points of resemblance, including other portions of Asia Minor. The great volcanic groups of Mont Dore, the Cantal, and Mont Mezen, Mr, Hamilton conceives are represented by Ak Dagh, Morad Dagh, the trachytic hills east of Takmak, Hassan Dagh, and Mount Argeus. The modern volcanic period of Central France he com- pares with the Katakekaumene, as respects the composition of the lavas, their arrangement at different levels, and the cones being scattered, not collected in great mountain masses. The Katake- kaumene, in Mr. Hamilton’s opinion, exhibits also additional evidence, that the disposition of comparatively recent volcanos is coincident with the strike of the granitic axis, from the interior of which the volcanos have burst forth. The author also alluded to other com- parative phenomena noticed in Mr. Strickland’s paper. Lastly, he pointed out two distinctions :—in Central France streams of igneous products may be traced from the most ancient volcanic masses of Mont Dore, but in Asia Minor none have been detected which could have flowed from Ak Dagh, or Morad Dagh. In France, also, trachytic eruptions occurred during the deposition of the lacus- trine limestone; but in the Katakekaumene, they appear to have preceded that of the white limestone, or are associated with only its lowest beds. In conclusion, the paper gives a general summary of the geological phenomena of the country south of the Demirji range. The relative antiquity of the vast lake or sea in which the strata were deposited, cannot be determined, as the micaceous sandstone forming the lowest series of beds is apparently destitute of organic remains, and Mr. Hamilton, therefore, does not attempt to compare that deposit with any European formation. ‘The sandstone, he con- ceives, was accumulated upon an irregular surface of schistose rocks and crystalline limestone, and before the elevation of the Demirji chain. Upon the sandstone were deposited in the north of the district the beds of peperite, derived probably from subaqueous volcanos; and upon the peperite and the micaceous sandstone, the white limestone, which is the highest sedimentary rock. The drain- age of the lake, he is of opinion, took place during the earliest volcanic eruptions of the Katakekaumene. Three well-defined periods of igneous operations may be traced. The first is marked by the masses of basalt which cap some of the plateaux of white limestone, and were ejected previously to the country assuming its present configuration, and to the formation of the valleys. Mr. Hamilton considers that the basalt flowed under water, and probabty but a short time before the drainage of the lake. The second period is characterized by the currents of basalt and 108 lava from the ancient system of volcanos in the Katakekaumene, and was subsequent to the formation of the present valleys, as many of the lava streams may be traced into them. The coulées which flowed towards the Hermus from the crater or Karadevit near Koola, present an inclined plane, the surface of which is not more than 150 or 200 feet above the present bed of the river; but they must, at one period, have been under water, as the lava is covered | with a sediment which fills its crevices and smooths its asperities. The third period belongs to the more modern system of cones, the lava of which is as rugged and barren as the recent coulées of Etna and Vesuvius. Of the date of these eruptions, Mr. Hamilton offers no opinion, merely remarking that the craters are mentioned by Strabo, and that there is no tradition of their activity. March 27.—William Harris, Esq., of Charing, Kent; Rev. Robert Norgrave Pemberton, of Church Stretton, Shropshire ; Rev. Alex- ander Thurtell, A.M., Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge ; and Searles Valentine Wood, Esq., of Bernard-street; were elected Fellows of this Society. p A paper was read by Prof. Owen, F.G.58., entitled a “‘ Description of a Tooth and part of the Skeleton of the Glyptodon, a large qua- druped of the Edentate order, to which belongs the tessellated bony armour figured by Mr. Clift in his memoir on the remains of the Megatherium, brought to England by Sir Woodbine Parish, F.G.S.”’ The first notice of the remains of a fossil large edentate Mammal associated with a tessellated bony armour, is an extract from a letter addressed by Don Damario Larranaga, Curé of Monte Video, to M. Auguste St. Hilaire, and appended to Cuvier’s account of the Megatherium in the Ossemens Fossiles, t.v.p.179.(1823). The bones were discovered near the surface in alluvium, in the Rio del Sauce, - a branch of the Saulis grande, and consisted of a femur 6 to 8 inches in width, but short, and in every respect like the femur of an Armadillo; also a portion of a tessellated bony armour. The tail is described as very short and very stout, and to have had a bony armour, which was not verticellate or disposed in rings. Similar fossils are said to occur in analogous strata near the lake Mirine, on the frontier of the Portuguese colonies. ‘The notion that the remains found in the Rio del Sauce belonged to the Megatherium, rests solely on the circumstance of Don Damario Larranaga having inserted the word Megatherium as the synonym of his gigantic fossil ‘‘ Dasypus.” Je ne vous écris point sur mon Dasypus, (Megatherium, Cuvier.) The next observations bearing upon the present subject are con- tained in Weiss’s Geological Memoir on the provinces of San Pedro do Sul, and the Banda Oriental, (Berlin Trans., 1827). These re- mains consisted of part of a femur of a Megatherium, without any associated armour, found at a deserted Indian camp near the Queguay, a tributary of the Uruguay ; of portions of osseous tessellated armour, apparently unaccompanied by bones, discovered on the Arapey chico, in the province of Monte Video; and of bones of the extremities and fragments of armour found near the Rio Janeiro. The whole of 109 these remains were collected by Sellow, the Prussian traveller, and after his death the last-named collection of bones and armour were submitted to Prof. D’Alton, by whom they have been described, (Berlin Trans., 1833,) and who states, that they are not the remains of the Megatherium, but of a large edentate animal more nearly allied to Dasypus. In 1832, Mr. Clift laid before the Geological Society a memoir on the remains of the Megatherium brought to England from Buenos Ayres by Sir Woodbine Parish. In the collection of which they formed a part, were fragments of bony tessellated armour, one of which was figured but not described by Mr. Clift, because the fragments were not associated with the remains of the Megatherium ; there were also a portion of a jaw and several other bones, which were found in connexion with portions of a bony armour in the bed of arivulet at Villaneuva, about 95 miles south of Buenos Ayres. On the examination of the last-mentioned remains when they first arrived in England, it was evident both to Mr. Clift and Mr. Owen, particularly from the conformation of the alveoli in the jaw, that the bones did not beiong to the Megatherium ; and that the dentition of the extinct species differed more widely from that of the existing subgenera of Ar- _ madillos than the respective dental characters of the latter differ from each other. As the portions of the skeleton were not sufficient to en- able Mr. Clift to determine satisfactorily the characters of the animal, no account of them was given in his memoir on the Megatherium, but they form the subject of Mr. Owen’s paper, of which this is a notice. Soon after the arrival of Sir Woodbine Parish’s collection, the Col- lege of Surgeons had casts made of the bones, and presented them to different museums, including the Jardin du Roi, where they were examined by M. Laurillard and Mr. Pentland. ‘These naturalists also concluded, especially from the bones of the foot, that the re- mains were not portions of the Megatherium, but of a gigantic Armadillo. More recently, Sir Woodbine Parish received an account of the discovery, in the bank of a rivulet near the Rio Matanza, 20 miles south of the city of Buenos Ayres, of a perfect skeleton and bony covering, and with the description, he also received a fragment of a tooth and a drawing of the animal. On examining the tooth, Mr. Owen found, that it belonged to an animal referable to the Edentata of Cuvier, but indicative of a new sub-genus of the Armadillo family ; and for which he proposed the name of Glyptodon, in reference to the sculptured character of the tooth. Subsequently, he compared the tooth with the alveoli in the fragment of the jaw in Sir Wood- bine Parish’s collection; and he found that the peculiar longitudinal ridges in the sockets precisely corresponded with the flutings in the tooth itself, whereby he was enabled to prove, that the bones dis- covered with the tessellated coat of mail at Villaneuva appertained to the same species as the more perfect skeleton and cuirass found near the Rio Matanza. Judging from the drawing transmitted to Sir W. Parish, the Glyp- todon differs from the Megatherium not only in the form and struc- 110 ture of the teeth, but in the number, which appears to be eight on each side of each jaw; and from all known Armadillos in the form of the lower jaw, as well as in the presence of a long process de- scending from the zygoma, in both which respects it resembles the Megatherium. According to the same figure, the tail was protected by a narrow bony covering on the upper surface only, and was net encompassed by it as in the Armadillos. Mr. Owen then proceeds to describe the remains of the Glyptodon which have arrivedin England. The molar tooth is only a fragment, but the grinding surface and upwards of an inch of the crown are perfect, the whole length being about two inches. There is no in- dication of a diminution in any of its diameters from the grinding surface to the opposite end, and the alveoli in the fragment of the jaw terminate abruptly without any contraction. The teeth are more compressed than those of the Megatherium, and differ from them in intimate structure, resembling in this respect the teeth of the Armadillos. From all known Armadillos, the Glyptodon, how- ever, is distinguished by the tooth having on both the outer and inner surfaces two deep grooves, each extending from the opposite sides about one third of the transverse diameter of the tooth and through its whole length, dividing the grinding surface into three portions, joined together by the contracted isthmus interposed between the opposite grooves. The teeth thus exhibit a more complicated form than those of any known Edentate, and seem to indicate a transition from that family to the Pachydermal Toxodon. The fragment of the jaw discovered at Villaneuva consists of a portion near the extremity of the left ramus, and includes three alveoli, which slightly increase in size as they are placed further back. The humerus, of which the distal half has been received, agrees most nearly with that portion of the humerus of the Dasypus, but the internal condyle is not perforated; the depressions also above the trochlea, both in front and behind, are relatively deeper, and in the side opposite the deltoid trochanter there is a rugged raised surface for a muscular insertion, of which Mr. Owen has not perceived any thing analogous in the Armadillos. From the humerus of the Me- gatherium it differs in not presenting the extraordinary expansion of the distal extremity exhibited in that animal; but the internal con- dyle in the Megatherium is also imperforate. The radius of the Glyptodon corresponds very nearly with that of the Armadillo, but it differs from the radius of the Megathere in being three times less in every dimension, and by well-marked dif- ferences in all the details of structure. The ungueal phalanges of the Glyptodon approach most nearly those of the species of Dasypus; but in their shortness, as compared with their breadth and depth, they resemble still more the ungueal phalanges of the Pachyderms. Mr. Owen is of opinion that they were encased in strong, short, hoof-like claws; and that they exhibit rather the base of an anterior column of support to an animal clad in a ponderous cuirass than instruments especially designed for EEL scratching or digging. There cannot be a greater contrast than is presented between the short, broad, and flat phalange of the Glyp- todon, and the long and compressed claw-bone of the Megatherium. Of the posterior extremity of the Glyptodon, the tibia, which is anchylosed to the fibula, presents the structure characteristic of the tibia of the Armadillos; while in the Megathere the corresponding bones deviate widely in their proportions, and in the conformation of the distal articular surface from those of the Glyptodon. The con- formation of the astragalus, caleaneum, the cuboid, scaphoid, and internal cuneiform bones, also of the metatarsals of the three middle and largest toes, the three phalanges of the second and middle, and the distal phalanges of the third and fourth toes, were described in great minuteness, but it is not posstble to abridge the details. Mr. Owen, however, stated that when the bones of the hinder ex- tremity are arranged in their natural juxta-position, they present a foot of such singular proportions as to be without a parallel in the animal kingdom. The nearest approach to its broad, thick, short, and massive proportions is made by the skeleton of the fossorial extremity of the Mole ; but it is the fore foot only of this animal that can be com- pared in the compressed figure of the metacarpals and proximal and middle phalanges with the singular hind-foot of the Glyptodon. The hind foot of the Mole resembles in the lengthened metatarsal and pha- langeal bones that of the existing Armadillos, and the generality of quadrupeds. ‘The true structure of the hind foot of the Megatherium is not known, but in the terminal phalanges it differs most widely from those of the Glyptodon. In the former, the compressed length- ened shape is as extreme in the claw-bones as, in the latter, is the depressed, shortened figure. In the Glyptodon, the hind foot, like the fore, appears to be expressly modified to form a base to a column destined to support an enormous superincumbent weight; while in the Megatherium the toes were free to be developed into long and compressed claws, such as form the compensating weapons of de- fence of the hair-clad Sloths and Ant-eaters. The ungueal phalanges of the Armadillos, in their shorter, broader, and flatter form, make a ‘much nearer approach to those of the Glyptodon ; and it may be readily admitted that the hind foot of the Glyptodon is an extreme modification of the same general plan of structure as that on which the foot of the Armadillo is constructed; but if the differences in the tarsal bones (described in the paper) exceed those which are traceable between one species of Armadillo and another, a fortiori, the antero-posterior compression of the metatarsals and phalanges, and the total suppression in those of the ginglymoid trochlear articula- tions are indicative of a difference of general habits, as great as is usually observed in animals of distinct but nearly-allied genera. Thus both the dental modifications and the locomotive organs prove that the Glyptodon cannot be called an Armadillo without making use of an exaggerated expression ; still less can it be considered a species of Megatherium ; but it offers the type of a distinct genus, which is much more nearly allied to the Dasypodoid than to the Megatherioid families of Edentata. For this genus Mr. Owen had proposed a name 112 indicative of its dental peculiarities, and, as the present species agreed with the Armadillos in its dermal armour, he preferred the name of EeuPtodon clavipes, in relation to the peculiar modification of the oot. Mr. Owen then showed that the portions of tessellated armour described and figured by Weiss are identical in structure with those brought to England by Sir Woodbine Parish, and that the bones which were found with the armour in both cases belonged to animals specifically identical. He next entered upon the inquiry, Had the Megatherium a bony armour? and he concluded from a comparison of its skeleton with that of the Armadillos, that it had not. In the pelvis of the Armadillo there are twelve sacral vertebree anchylosed to- gether, and the spines of the vertebrz are greatly developed antero- posteriorly, forming a continuous vertical ridge of bone, bearing im- mediately the superincumbent weight. In the Megathere the sacral vertebre are only four in number, and are not anchylosed, and the spinous processes are comparatively small, not locked together, as in the Armadillos, but separated by intervals as in the Sloths. In the Armadillos, the weight of the cuirass is transferred from the sacrum to the thigh-bones by two points on each side. One of them, the ischium, is anchylosed to the posterior part of the sacrum, the other point is formed by the conversion of the iliac bone into a stout three- sided beam passing straight from the thigh-joint to abut against the anterior part of the sacrum, where the weight of the shell is greatest,—a structure which is wanting in the Megathere. In no species of Armadillo is the ilium expanded, while in the Megathere it is greatly developed, resembling that of the Elephant in size, form, and position ; and among the Edentata the nearest approach in this portion of the skeleton is to be found among the Sloths and Ant-eaters. The most striking point however, in the structure of the Armadillos, with reference to the support of a bony covering, is the remarkable production of a part of the vertebra from above the anterior articular process on each side, in a straight direction upwards, outwards, and forwards, to nearly the height of the true spinous processes. Now, these oblique processes, which are developed only in the loricated Edentata, beautifully correspond in form and use with the tie-bearers in the architecture of a roof, and are entirely wanting in the Me- gathere, the structure of this part of the vertebral column of that animal corresponding with the character of the vertebrze of the hair- clad Sloths and Ant-eaters. Mr.Owen noticed other supposed adap- tations in the skeleton of the Megathere to sustain a bony covering, as the breadth of the ribs, but the ribs of the Sloths and Ant-eaters are broader than those of the Armadillos. The paper contained a tabular account of the discovery of twelve skeletons of the Megathere, and in no instance did any portion of bony armour occur with or near the bones. A notice was also given of the remains of a Glyptodon, found in the left bank of the Pedernal before its junction with the Sala, an affluent of the Rio Sante, near Monte Video, and preserved in the museum of that town. From the accounts which have been given of these remains they appear to 1138 have belonged to the same species as that described in the paper. An allusion was also made to some portions of bony armour ob- tained in the Rio Seco, in the Banda Oriental, and similar in struc- ture to the specimen of the Pedernal. One of the portions was the covering for the tail. It was hollow to its extremity, and pre- sented in its concavity, vestiges of caudal vertebre very distant from each other. In conclusion, Mr. Owen observes, that having brought together evidence of the remains of five specimens (found in the Rio Seco, Rio Janeiro, Villaneuva, Pedernal, and the Banda Oriental) of a large Edentate species undoubtedly covered with armour, and more or less corresponding with the characters of the Glyptodon, and having established the characters of that genus on both dentary and locomotive organs; he trusts that he has at the same time vindicated the opinion of Cuvier with reference to the Megathere, by proving it to be, by its tegumentary covering as well as its osseous system, more nearly allied to the Ant-eaters and Sloths than to the Ar- madillos. J ate HEY PROCEEDINGS or THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vor. III. 1839. No. 63. April 10.—John Manning Needham, Esq., Chiswell Street ; Samuel Wright Fearn, Esq., St. Peter’s, Derby; Barratt Edward Lampet, Esq., B.A., of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Haver- stock Hill, Hampstead; and John Laurence, Esq., High Street, Leicester; were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was read, “‘ On as much of the Transition or Grauwacke system as is exposed in the counties of Somerset, Devon, and Corn- wall,” by the Rev. David Williams, F.G.S. The author commences by stating, that his views of the general structure and arrangement of the country are original and independ- ent, but that he does not in the least impugn the originality of the observations and inferences of other geologists. He mentions, that in a communication read before the British Association at Dublin (1835), he used the following expression in remarking on the broad outline of the structure of Devonshire with respect to the relative position of the strata containing plants and culm: “ the clay slate (without the intervention of gneiss or mica-slate) dips away from the granite of Lundy on the one hand, and from the granite of Dartmoor towards it on the other;” and that in a paper sent to the Meeting of the British Association at Bristol (1836), but received too late to be read, was inserted this passage: “‘ the same beds bemg brought up to the surface at either extremity” (Exmoor and the north of Cornwall) ‘‘ contain in their great intermediate trough all the strangely contorted rocks and carbonaceous shales we there witness.” Mr. Williams then alludes to an error which he made in the paper read at Dublin, by considering the mineral axis of Dartmoor to be composed of the strata he calls the ‘‘ Morte Slates,” but which he corrected in a paper read at Liverpool (1837); he notices also another error which he had made in supposing that the same beds (the Morte slates) were brought up among the granite of Dartmoor, -and which he did not discover till the spring and summer of 1838, when he perceived that ‘the two superior members of the North Devon group, Nos. 7. and 8. are brought up in the south in pre- cisely the same order and relation in which they descend on the north,” having previously overlooked this natural simplicity of arrangement. VOL. III. L 116 The chief objects of the paper are to show, that the strata can be divided into certain groups, distinguished by well-marked lithologi- cal characters; and that there is a gradual passage from the lowest part of the uppermost or culm deposit into the series next below it, and that similar passages are presented in each of the other underly- ing groups. ‘To the intermediate strata the term neutral is applied. The whole of the beds are assigned to the transition or gray- wacke class, and are arranged in descending order under the fol- lowing nine heads, the topographical names being derived from the localities where the strata are best exposed :—9. Floriferous slates ; 8. Coddon Hill grits; 7. Trilobite slates; 6. Wollacomb sand- stones; 5. Morte slates; 4. Trentishoe slates; 3. Calcareous slates of Linton; 2. Foreland and Dunkerry sandstone; 1. Cannington Park limestone. Only 9. 8. and 7. are described in the paper; the other six, confined, the author believes, to the north of Devonshire and the south of Somersetshire, being reserved for future consi- deration. 9. Floriferous slates and sandstones.—This term 1s proposed for the series of beds containing culm, to avoid the ambiguity of the word ** carbonaceous,” and as preferable, in the author's opinion, to *“‘ culmiferous,” plants being very generally distributed, and culm confined to a small area. The sandstones are finely micaceous, tough, externally of a rusty or dull purple colour, and internally of a dull olive, and they are stated to be totally distinct from any others in the country. The shales or slates are commonly dark-coloured and friable, but at Forrabury and Bos Castle they constitute roofing slates, resembling those of the inferior groups, though much dete- riorated by a combination of pyritous anthracite. One variety, called Adder Limestone, is a fine hone slate. The culm forms great insu- lated elliptical “‘ bunches,” sometimes gradually thinning out, and sometimes being suddenly nipped off. The strata are strangely contorted, and these disturbances have entailed on the country its physical features of rapidly succeeding hills and valleys; but Mr. Williams conceives, that the curvatures are confined to No. 9. and the two upper divisions of No. 8. and that they are due to lateral pressure produced by the upheaval of the granite of Dart- moor. ‘The area occupied by the “‘floriferous deposit” is stated to be 50 miles in a west and east direction, and 25 in a north and south. 8. Coddon Hill Grits —On the confines of this formation the floriferous sandstones become thin-bedded and coarsely laminated, and after a series of alternations and gradual transitions, are finally succeeded by the well-characterized Coddon Hill grits. This series is divided by the author into grits, limestones, and dark slates, con- necting the floriferous sandstones (9.) with the trilobite slates (7.) ; and Mr. Williams asserts, that more regular passages from one system of beds to another cannot exist, there being no want of conformity, and that as the constituents of one deposit gradually decrease those of the other gradually increase. The grits are stated to be lithologically distinct from any other in the country. They 117 are slightly calcareous, fine-grained, flinty, thin-bedded, and dark- coloured, but often striped of different tints; and from containing @ varying proportion of felspar, occasionally assume, on decompo- sition, a resemblance to some of the harder chalks. The wavelite of Devonshire occurs in these grits. The following localities are mentioned where the passage from the floriferous strata into the Coddon grits, and thence into the trilobite slates, may be advan- tageously examined: the neighbourhood of Bampton, Morebath, where the turnpike road to Hatchet intersects the grits—the back of Swimbridge, four miles east of Barnstaple—Rumson Lane, a mile south of Barnstaple, and Fremington Pill, below Pen-hill, on the west of Barnstaple. Organic remains are very rare in the grits, Mr. Williams having found only a few fragments of Crinoidea and a chambered univalve. The grits are associated, about the middle of the series, with large insulated lenticular masses composed of beds of dark lime- stones alternating with strata of black shale, containing plants and flakes of anthracite; also Goniatites and Posidonia. ‘These len- ticular masses may be traced, in the north of Devon, from Barn- staple to Bampton, and in the south from Launceston to Drew- steignton. To the east of Bampton and Drewsteignton the shales not only thin out, and the whole mass becomes calcareous, but the author says, that there is an upper suite of thick-bedded coral lime- stones. These changes are stated to take place at Hockworthy, Holcomb Rogus, Westleigh, Chudleigh, and Ashburton, emerging at each locality except the last, from below the floriferous slates, and accompanied by the Coddon Hill grits. At Ashburton, how- ever, he states, that a fault brings the limestone abruptly in contact with the trilobite slates, the passage beds not being exhibited. The Coddon Hill limestones are succeeded by the lowest division of No. 8, consisting of the series of slaty beds which forms the passage into the trilobite slates (No. 7.). 7. Trilobite Slates.—This group is characterized, in some locali- ties, by an abundance of trilobites, particularly in the north of Devon, and at Landlake in the south. It constitutes the low southern flank of Exmoor, ranging from Baggy and Diamond Points on the British Channel eastward to Shawley; and Mr. Williams conceives that it constitutes the south of Devonshire and the whole of Cornwall, with the exception of the granitic and other igneous masses. The limestones of Trenalt, Petherwin, Landlake, Ply- mouth, Newton Bushell, Denbury, and Torbay, are placed in it by the author; but in the north of Devon he knows only two localities at which limestone has been observed in this division. Organic remains are abundant in the calcareous beds, and are well preserved. The author estimates the thickness of the group to be 84 miles. The strata in the north of Devon and south of Somerset inferior to No. 7, Mr. Williams proposes to describe in another paper. April 24.—James William Farrer, Esq., F.S.A., John-street, Berkley-square; C. B. Rose, Esq., of Swaffham, Norfolk; and L 2 118 William Haughton Stokes, Esq., M.A., Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read ‘“‘On the Climate of the newer pliocene tertiary period,’ by James Smith, Esq., F.G.S. During an examination of the fossils contained in the marine beds which indicate the latest changes in the relative level of sea and Jand in the west of Scotland, Mr. Smith observed, that many of the most common shells in the raised beds of the basin of the Clyde are identical with species found by Mr. Lyell at Uddevalla in Sweden*; and he has been induced to conclude from the arctic character of the testacea, that the climate of Scotland during the accumulation of these beds was colder than it is at present. On showing some of the fossils, which are apparently extinct, to Mr. Gray, that naturalist noticed their great resemblance to arctic species. The shells still living, though not known on the coasts of Great Britain, but found in the raised deposits of the Clyde, M. Deshayes has determined to be inhabitants of the northern seas, viz. Natica clausa, which occurs as far north as Spitzbergen; Fusus Peruvianus, erroneously considered by Lamarck to exist on the coasts of Peru, but which is an inhabitant of the seas at the North Cape; Tellina proxima, Astarte multicostata, Turbo expansus, Velutina undata, (also on the coast of Newfoundland) ; and Pecten Islandicus, erroneously considered by some conchologists, according to M. Deshayes and Mr. G. Sowerby, to occur in a living state on the coast of Scotland. The Cyprina Islandica, which is abundant in the raised deposits, Mr. Smith has not found alive in the waters of the Firth of the Clyde. The following summary is given in the paper of shells found in the newer pliocene deposits in the British Isles. 14 hg CoV aaa a Fy eA tila ik aI 190 species. Mand and freshwater sees ee aa ee ae 57 247 Of these there are recent British Marine Speciesrnni .0o ca aces 77 - aloo Land and fresh water’... ,2J...2.... 54 OO a) Recent in Arctic seas ..........-. 7] European and Indian seas 1 Extinchor unknowm ..¢.. soe. 19 ——— Mr. Smith also mentions the occurrence in the newer pliocene of Sicily, of several species now found living only in more northern European seas; and he infers from them, that the climate of Sicily was at one period colder than it is at present. Four species are * Phil. Trans., 1835, Pl. 1. 119 mentioned in the paper, Panopea Bivone, Bulla ampulla, Arca papillosa, and Bulbus Smithit. A paper was then read, entitled, ‘‘ Remarks on some fossil and recent shells, collected by Capt. Bayfield, R.N., in Canada,” by Charles Lyell, Esq,, V.P.G.S. Several eminent conchologists having observed that the English crag contains shells, which seem to indicate a somewhat colder cli- mate than that which now prevails in our latitude; and it having been supposed that a similar inference may be deduced, with still greater certainty, from the abundant occurrence of many arctic species in the marine newer pliocene strata of Scotland and Ireland, Mr. Lyell was induced to examine carefully a collection of shells procured by Capt. Bayfield, and consisting partly of fossils from the most. modern tertiary deposits bordering the Gulf of Saint Law- rence, and partly of recent testacea from the gulf itself. The shells were obtained principally at Beauport (lat. 47°) 2 miles below Quebec and 100 feet above the St. Lawrence, but similar species are met with on the north side of the St. Charles, 3 miles from Beauport, and at Port Neuf, 40 miles above Quebec, in the latter instance at heights varying from 50 to 200 feet above the level of the river. The deposits near Quebec fill a valley formed in a horizontal | limestone, containing Trilobites and Orthocera, and they resemble those forming in the bed of the St. Lawrence. They consist of strata of sand, gravel, and stiff blue elay, the last composing the bottom of the series, and the first the uppermost part. Numerous boulders occur at different levels, not resting upon each other, but dropped apparently at widely distant intervals of time, from masses of ice on which it is supposed they had been floated. Some of the shells are broken, but many are perfect, and have both their valves together; and it is impossible to imagine that the clay, sand, gravel, and boulders could have been drifted together, into their present position, by a violent rush of water, as the fragile Terebratula psit- tacea is found perfect, and with its interior appendages complete. On first examining the shells, which are found principally in the upper sandy bed, Mr. Lyell was struck with their great resemblance to those which he had collected at Uddevalla in Sweden. The Savicava rugosa, so predominant there, is particularly mentioned by Capt. Bayfield as the most abundant shell in the tertiary strata of the St. Lawrence; and the Natica clausa and Pecten Islandicus are very common at each locality. The fossils of Beauport, however, con- sidered as a whole, by no means agree with the marine shells inha- biting the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but, as far as they have been ex- amined, possess a decidedly arctic character, the species ranging from the Gulf to the border of the north polar circle, or being found in the newer pliocene of Scotland and Sweden; and on the contrary many of the most conspicuous of the living testacea of the St. Lawrence are wanting in the tertiary deposits. The following list of some of the fossil species is given by Mr. 120 Lyell on the authority of Dr. Beck : Mya truncata (var.), found fossil in Bute, and living in the St. Lawrence; Mya arenaria and Saai- cava rugosa, recent in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; Tellina calcarea, fossil at Bute; Tellina Grenlandica, which exists in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and at Icy Cape; Mytilus edulis; Pecten Islandicus, found living in the North Sea, and fossil in Scotland; Terebratula psittacea, which occurs on the coasts of Greenland and the Feroe Islands ; also at places intermediate between them and the entrance of the Baltic; Natica clausa, recent in Greenland and fossil at Ud- devalla; Scalaria Grenlandica, S. borealis, Tritonium fornicatum, T. Anglicanum, all now existing in the Greenland seas, the last being considered by some authors as a variety of Buccinum undatum, and the T. fornicatum being also found living on the Irish coast, and fossil at Dalmuir and in Scotland. On the other hand, many of the shells living in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and most conspicuous for their size, are wanting in the collections of fossils hitherto ob- tained, as the Mactra solidissima, Erycina Labradorica, Purpura, allied to P. Lapillus, Natica Heros, and Rostellaria occidentalis. The torrents and rivers which flow into the St. Lawrence wash down annually into that estuary great numbers of tertiary fossil shells, so that they become mingled with the living testacea. The latter, however, may be generally distinguished by retaining their colour, animal matter, or ligaments; but it is more difficult to di- stinguish those shells which have been derived exclusively from the tertiary beds. Nevertheless, Mr. Lyell has little doubt in assigning to them the specimens of Balanus Uddevallensis and the Fusus _allied to F. lamellosus, which have been dredged up off Cape Bic, as they are all in the same condition as the Beauport fossils. The climate of Canada being now excessive, it is natural to find in the Gulf of St. Lawrence many northern and arctic species, without any mixture of tropical forms, for the latter cannot resist severe cold, though they range far towards the southern polar latitudes, where a low mean annual temperature prevails. Mr. Lyell, therefore, con- ceives that during the period immediately antecedent to the present, the climate of Canada was even more excessive than it is now; and that the shells resembled still more closely the small assemblage now living in high northern latitudes. He is also of opinion, that this extreme cold may have coincided with the era of the principal transportation of erratic blocks, an inference supported by the masses of rock irregularly dispersed among the clay. He further be- lieves, that a more equable though cold climate may have preceded immediately that condition; and that there may have been more than one oscillation of climate at the modern period, the last having been connected with the geographical changes which upheaved the shelly deposits of Canada 200 feet above the level of the St. Law- rence, and converted them from submarine deposits to dry land. An extract was next read from a letter addressed to Dr. Fitton by Herr Roemer, of Hildesheim, on the Wealden of the North of Germany. 12] The Wealden formation, including the Purbeck stone, is extensively developed in the north of Germany, and is overlaia a great argillaceous deposit containing marine shells, similar bo. to the oolitic and cretaceous systems. Of the fossils found in the Wealden of England, almost every species occurs in Germany, in- cluding even the minute Cypris tuberculata, C. granulosa, and C. Valdensis. Last autumn, Herr Roemer discovered the Wealden with its characteristic shells, near Bottingen, in the High Alps. He possesses also the Lepidotus Mantelli of the English Wealden, from Saxony. ‘The Portland sand occurs in the north of Germany, but the Portland stone and the Kimmeridge clay are so intimately con- nected by their fossils, that the intermediate sandy beds cannot be considered as a separate deposit. The chalk with flints occurs pos- sibly in the Hartz. The greensand series is extensively developed, the Flammenmergel of Hausmann being the upper greensand of England, and the quader-sandstein the lower. Herr Roemer be- lieves that the gault also exists in Northern Germany. A paper was then read on the classification of the older rocks of Devonshire and Cornwall, by the Rev. Professor Sedgwick, F.G.S., and Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq., F.G.S. In a communication read in 1837, the authors explained their general views respecting the older rocks of Devon and Cornwall, but having recently changed one part of their classification, they have hastened to place their reasons for doing so upon record, before the Geological Society. On three out of four of the essential points in their former communication, the authors’ views remain unchanged ; they adhere to the belief, which they were the first to put forth, that the greater portion of Devonshire belongs to the true carboniferous system, and that the succession and lithological cha- racters of the different mineral masses in North and South Devon, which they then pointed out, remain unaltered. In proof of this there were suspended, during the reading of the paper, the same sections as were exhibited at Bristol in 1836. The change, there- fore, which they propose, is to remove the lowest rocks from the Cambrian and Silurian systems to the old red; and their reason for making this alteration is founded on zoological evidence recently obtained, which shows that the organic remains of these deposits are of a peculiar character, approaching in the upper division, the fossils of the carboniferous strata, and in the lower, those of the Si- lurian system; as well as upon the previously ascertained regular sequence or passage from the carboniferous strata, through all the subjacent series of deposits. The fossil plants of the culm basin having been formerly deter- mined to be, as far as recognizable, true coal measures remains, and the deposit having been therefore assigned to the era of the carbo- niferous system, the order of superposition being also clear, the strata underlying the coal basin might naturally be referred to the old red sandstone, if the organic remains found in them, belonged to a natural group, intermediate between the fossils of the carboni- 122 sand Silurian systems. Subsequent examination has proved : such is the case; but this distinction could not have been ascer- aned had not Mr. Murchison published his work on the Silurian system. In the order of sequence there is now no difference of opinion between the authors and Mr. De la Beche and Mr. Williams, the only point on which the agreement is not common, being the class to which the formations should be assigned. The authors then explained that their sections both in S. Devon and N. Cornwall indicate, with some limited exceptions, a passage downwards, the transition being stratigraphically true, whether the beds be examined along the banks of the Taw, near Barnstaple, on the north, or to the west of Launceston, on the south of the great trough. The authors next gave an approximate list of the fossils, collected by themselves or placed at their disposal by the Rev. R. Hennah, _ Major Harding, and the Rey. D. Williams, referrmg them to the great mineral groups to which they belong, both in North and South Devon. Descending order in North Devon.—The shells in the uppermost group, beneath the culm, as at Barnstaple, in the North of Devon, and South Petherwin, near Launceston in the south, approach ge- nerally forms of the carboniferous system, consisting of Goniatites of new species, and of spined Producti and Spirifers, entirely unlike the species found in the Silurian system, but resembling those ob- tained in the mountain limestone. The same group contains also new species of Trilobites and Crinoidea. In the next underlying formation in the north, er the sandstone group, ranging from Baggy Point by Marwood and Sloly, occur new species of Cucullea, Avicula ? Cypricardia, and Orthocera ; one cast also has been obtained, undistinguishable from Bellerophon globatus of the Silurian system. In the same series are found casts of plants of considerable size, but in Professor Henslow’s opinion, quite distinct from any known coal measures remains. In the third descending group, but few fossils have yet been found, yet it has been ascertained to contain one of the varieties of Producta common in the overlying groups, and similar to the spi- nous species of the mountain limestone ; also a coral (Favosites po- lymorpha,) previously found in England only in the Upper Silurian rocks. The next descending series of beds, or the arenaceous deposits of Linton, contains few fossils, except towards its lower part, where calcareous matter re-appears, and in that portion a Spirifer has been obtained resembling the S. attenuatus of the mountain limestone, and a new species of Orthis, a genus characteristic of the Silurian system. In the Quantocks, which the authors consider as formed of the oldest strata in North Devon, organic remains appear to be rare, the principal hitherto procured consisting of Favosites polymorpha. South Devon.—Having thus shown that in North Devon there is 123 a regular succession of strata characterized by distinct fossils differ- ing more and more in descending order from the organic remains of the mountain limestone, and approaching those of the Silurian sy- stem; the authors proceed to enumerate the order of the groups and the imbedded fossils in South Devon and the North of Cornwall. They show a similarity of succession of deposits and of organic remains in the upper groups, but they state that in consequence of the protrusion of the granite, there is in the lower a considerable difference in mineral type, especially south of Dartmoor. They refer, however, to their former memoir for ample details respecting these counties, and for proofs that they were correct in placing the great calcareous masses of Plymouth and Chudleigh on the same parallel as the lowest calcareous strata of North Devon. In -conclusion, the authors show, that the variation in Devon- shire and Cornwall from the ordinary type of the old red sandstone in Herefordshire and adjoining counties, cannot be admitted as a valid argument against assigning the slates and sandstones of these counties to that system, because the variations in composition of other formations within limited areas is equally great. They show also that the absence of the true carboniferous limestone in Devon- shire cannot disprove their present classification, because in Western Pembrokeshire that limestone is wanting, and the coal measures rest on older formations. In consequence of mineral character being no longer indicative of age, and the term greywacke being lithologically applicable to beds of every class of rocks, and as Devonshire affords the best type of the fossils of this intermediate system, the authors propose to substitute the term Devonian for old red sandstone ; and they hope that the organic remains, discovered in that county, will enable continental geologists to detect in their own country, a system of strata hitherto supposed to be almost peculiar to the British Isles. ‘The authors acknowledge the assistance they have received from Mr. J. Sowerby; and that Mr. Lonsdale first suggested, from their fossil contents, that the limestones of S. Devonshire might prove to be the representatives of the old red sandstone. A paper was afterwards read on the structure of South Devon, by Robert A. C. Austen, Esq., F.G.S. This communication is supplementary to a memoir read in 1837 *, and its object is to show the general relations of the various bands of slates, limestones, and sandstones in South Devon. Commencing with the older deposits east of the Teign, there ap- pear— Ist. Slates, but of which little is seen. 2nd. A band of black stratified limestone of variable thickness and slaty structure. It contains much carbonaceous matter, thin seams of anthracite, also corals and Brachiopoda. It is associated with irregular beds of contemporaneoustrap. The band is stated to range from Staple Hill on the east, through Bickington, Ashburton, * Proceedings, vol. ii., p. 584. 124. Buckfastleigh, and Dean, near which the limestone ends; but the calcareous slate and limestone of the south of Cornwall, Mr. Austen considers to be of the same age. ‘These beds dip south. ord. Fine-grained schists and roofing slates. 4th. The Plymouth limestones, which cannot be traced west- ward further than Whitesand Bay, but to the eastward they are considered by Mr. Austen to be represented by the limestones of Dunwell, Shilstone, Ugborough, Fowley-cumber, North Huish, Sto- verton, Great and Little Hampston, &c. 5th. An arenaceous deposit, often coarse and resembling old red sandstone ; but sometimes conglomeratic, and then not distin- guishable from the new red of Devonshire. Its upper conglomeratic portion ranges from Plymouth Sound and Bigbury Bay, to Modbury and Blackdown; its lower portion cuts the Dart a little below Tot- ness, and rises into lofty hills, east of a line passing through Berry Pomeroy, Marldon, Cockington, and Barton. It contains limestone south of Yealmpton, and at Sequers Bridge; also several thin bands on the Dart, and beds at Berry, Marldon, Collaton, and Yal- berton. Organic remains are not uncommon in this arenaceous di- vision. Only the fine-grained beds show a slaty cleavage. The limestone is confined to its northern limit, and has a southwardly dip ; but all the lines of roofing slate are to the southern with either ver- tical or northern cleavage dips. As the intermediate country about Modbury presents many undulations, Mr. Austen suggests that the slate beds of the south may be the equivalents of the limestone on the north; in which case the passage downwards into the mica slate and gneiss of the Prawle Point may be the equivalents of No. 4, ina metamorphic condition. 6th. The limestones of Torbay, &c., which are said to constitute the newest deposits of the series, not being covered by any formation into which they pass. The carbonaceous rocks of central Devon are stated by Mr. Austen to form no part of the above system, but to rest upon it uncon- formably. May 8.—Thomas Griffin, Esq., of Cheltenham; John Griffith, Esq., Finsbury-place, South ; and Robert Fitch, Esq., of Norwich ; were elected Fellows of this Society. An extract from a letter addressed to Mr. Murchison by Mr. Miller of Cromartie, was first read. The fish beds in the old red sandstone of the neighbourhood of Cromartie, are very extensive. They are overlaid, where not denu- dated, by a thick stratum of soft yellow sandstone; and are under- laid by a deposit consisting of red sandstone, containing in the middle a chocolate-coloured conglomerate, similar to that of the Findhorn. The bold cliffs of the Moray Frith present fine sections of the old red, including the fish beds. ‘The letter is accompanied by illustra- tive drawings exhibiting the succession, range, and dip of the strata. Mr. Miller gives also an account of a series of faults in the Burn of Ethie, one of which, he conceives, may be traced nearly north to the town of Cromartie. 125 A paper was first read, On the London and Plastic Clay for- mations of the Isle of Wight, by Mr. Bowerbank, F.G.S. The object of this communication is to show that there are no zoological distinctions between the London and Plastic Clays. Mr. Bowerbank first examined closely the strata of White Cliff Bay, and found the ascending order of the beds to be as follows :— Chalk. 1. Variegated clay, principally red, corresponding with 6 and c in the Alum Bay section*.... ean 2. Dark greenish grey sand, like that of the lowest 25 art ots Alin Mai. glean acaispey reaps ner ov Red and yellow, samds))./1)2)s:c)a)tcceyars eid es) <1 27 — 4, Dark greenish grey sand and clay, similar to 65 — (iva inns Bene sete ye oe they et Leper ere era ©. Red and yellow sands like those of Alum Bay 30 — 6. Dark greenish gray sand and clay, in which were found Venericardia planicosta, Cari} and other London clay fossils............ Hea meoAL Cd SANG Si) sagaauerrcecse conc esednead adcens 6 — 8. Dark greenish gray sand and clay.......... 186 — At different points in this interval the author found small Nummulites, with Lon- don clay species of Venus, Voluta, Ceri- thia, &c., and in one place large Num- mulites like those obtained at Bricklesome Bay, Sussex, associated with Venericardia planicosta, and other London clay shells. Sia) WEI ERR! SEUSS eae ela se Oe ddd gold t 10 — 10. Dark greenish gray sand and clay like No.8. 54 — 11. Variegated sands like those of Alum Bay.... 38 — 12. Greenish gray, brown, and greenish brown This bed contains lignite, sharks’ teeth, Voluta luctator, Ostrea, and numerous other shells characteristic of the London Clay. 13. Yellowish sandy clay, without fossils ...... 26 — 14. Greenish sand similar to that of the upper marine in Colwell Bay, and containing ub parently, the same Venusica\:\ py\-419 oie 15. Yellowish sand without fossils............ 14 — Beyond this point, freshwater beds, enclosing abundance of Po- tamides, are displayed. The above section proves, in Mr. Bowerbank’s opinion, that in White Cliff Bay there is an alternation of London and plastic clays throughout 525 paces, and that London clay fossils not only occur abundantly in the part which corresponds with the great mass of * See Mr. Webster’s section in Sir Henry Englefield’s Isle of Wight, Geol. Trans., 1st series, vol. ii., Pl. 11. 126 that formation in Alum Bay, but are likewise found in the beds, Nos. 8. and 6, which occur below it. Mr. Bowerbank then described the strata in Alum Bay, taking Mr. Webster’s section as the base of his observations; and he pointed out, that in the beds of greenish gray sand and clay marked d in that section, and below the variegated sand and clays which underlie the London clay, he found the followmg shells, charac- teristic of that formation :—Venericardia planicosta, Cardita marga- ritacea, Mya intermedia, Cardium semigranulatum, Nucula similis, N. amygdaloides, Turritella conoidea, T. elongata, T. edita, Murex innexus, (Brander) Buccinum desertum, and Cancer Leuchii. In the variegated sands and clays no fossils were found. An extract from a letter, dated Newcastle, 14th February, 1839, and addressed to Dr. Buckland, by Mr. Atkinson, was then read. This letter accompanied a series of slabs of fissile or slaty mica- ceous sandstone, presenting the tortuous casts of vermiform bodies, either impressed in the stone or in relief. The more perfect casts are marked by a longitudinal line, and closely-set transverse fine strie. The bed from which the slabs were procured, belongs to the carboniferous formation near Haltwhistle in Northumberland. The following is the succession of strata presented by the quarry : Compact sandstone... 60. oie sce. de. ec enneeeraeces sve Red marly sandstone, with shells.............. 10 miles. Micaceous blue and white sandstone, containing the casts, the largest of which are found near the 18 f, centre of the bed. The stone splits into thin eet: flags, and is used for roofing................ Wonmpact sandstone, hen ee ie oie OM Limestone containing in one part a few oe Brin ae ‘RETITE TONS) ih ene A Bhar aS Borg ie 3 chal samy arate The strata dip 154° to the $.S.W. Mr. Atkinson is of opinion that the impressions are principally due to worm-tracks. A paper was afterwards read, “On the relative ages of the ter- tiary deposits commonly called Crag, in Norfolk and Suffolk,” by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. This paper contains the results of Mr. Lyell’s examination of the crag, with reference to the three following points:—First, The direct superposition of the red to the coralline crag, as originally pointed out by Mr. Charlesworth in 1835 : Secondly, Whether the remains of mammalia are really imbedded in regular and undis- turbed marine strata in the Norwich crag: Thirdly, Whether the proportion of recent shells, as compared to the extinct, is decidedly larger in the crag of Norwich, so as to indicate a posteriority in age relatively to the Suffolk crag. 1. Of the superposition of the red on the coralline crag, the author found distinct proofs in the sections at Ramsholt and Tat- tingstone, aS previously indicated by Mr. Charlesworth, and in 127 quarries near Sudburne pointed out to him by Mr. Bunbury. At Tattingstone the coralline crag consists chiefly of greenish marl, with discontinuous layers of stone, and the number of corals is very small; but both at that locality and Ramsholt, the red crag rests on denuded beds of the coralline. At Sutton, near Wood- ‘ bridge, Mr. Lyell was enabled to ascertain, by the assistance of Mr. W. Colchester, that the red crag in some places abuts against a vertical face of the coralline, as well as overlies it; and that in consequence of the irregularities in the outline of the face, the two deposits have a deceptive appearance of alternating. He also ascertained, in addition to the above evidence, that the older or lower strata must have acquired a certain consistency before the newer were accumulated, because the calcareous sand or comminuted shells and zoophytes, of which the former are composed, is perfo- rated to the depth of 6 or 8 feet from the surface by the tortuous borings of pholades, the shells of which are frequently found at the bottom of the tubes, the remainder of the perforations being filled with the sand of the superjacent red crag. The most northern point to which the coralline crag has been traced, is Sizewell Gap, several miles north of Thorpe. 2. With respect to remains of mammalia being imbedded in undisturbed marine beds in the Norwich crag, Mr. Lyell stated, that an examination of this crag in the neighbourhood of Southwold and Norwich had convinced him, that instead of the deposit being purely marine, it is fluvio-marine, containing every where an inter- mixture of land, freshwater, and sea-shells, with the bones of mammalia and fishes. The formation is exposed along the coast, at Thorpe, near Aldborough, where it may be seen at low-water resting on the coralline crag; butit is most largely developed in the neighbourhood of Southwold, where the author examined it accom- panied by Capt. Alexander. In that district, it varies greatly in character, consisting of irregular beds of sand, shingle, loam, and laminated clay; but it appears to have been in some places tran- quilly accumulated, as specimens of Nucula Cobboldie, Tellina obliqua, and Mya arenaria, occur with the valves united, and not worn by attrition. In the same beds, however, are procured rolled fish- bones, and remains of the elephant, rhinoceros, horse, and deer. Capt. Alexander found at the base of the cliff, in a bed about 6 inches thick and rich in marine shells, the tooth of a horse within a large Fusus striatus. That gentleman also possesses a tooth of a mastodon, washed out of the cliffs between Dunwich and Size- well. In tracing the Norwich crag from Easter Bavant northward to- wards Kessingland, Mr. Lyell found in it layers of flinty shingle ; and he consequently refers to this formation, those strata of sand and shingle, on the coast, which resemble the sandy portions of the plastic clay of the London and Hampshire basins. In some of the inland pits of Norwich crag near Southwold, the author found mammiferous remains associated with a variety of Cyrena trigonalis, a shell common in the freshwater deposit of Grays, and elsewhere. 128 In the neighbourhood of Norwich the deposit forms patches of very variable thickness, resting upon chalk, and covered by a dense bed of gravel. It is best displayed at Bramerton, Whitlingham, Thorpe, and Postwick, and consists of sand, loam, and gravel, en- * closing marine, land, and freshwater shells, with ichthyolites and bones of mammalia; and Mr. Lyell says, it was evidently accumulated near the mouth of ariver. The late Mr. Woodward describes the chalk of Postwick as having been drilled by marine animals before the deposition of the crag; and the Rev. Mr. Clowes found in a per- foration in the chalk at Whitlingham the shell of a Pholas crispatus, the remainder of the perforation being filled with crag. Among other proofs that the strata were gradually deposited, the author mentioned Capt. Alexander’s discovery of an elephant’s tusk, with many serpule attached to it; and he infers from this fossil, that the remains of the mammalia were really washed into the sea of the Norwich crag, and were not subsequently introduced by diluvial action, as some observers have suspected. ‘The freshwater shells, although most diligently searched for, are less abundant than marine, and the terrestrial are still more rare; but Mr. Wigham has found in one bed at Thorpe, a great predominance of fluviatile tes- tacea. In the same pits he obtained a mastodon’s tooth at the bottom of the deposit, near the chalk, associated with pectens and other marine shells. In the beds at Postwick, he also discovered, in 1835, part of the left side of the upper jaw of a mastodon, con- taining the second true molar. This fragment Mr. Owen has been able to identify with the Mastodon longirostris of Eppelsheim. In the same bed, Mr. Wigham also obtained the teeth and jaw of a field-mouse, larger than those of the common species; likewise remains of birds, and several species of fishes. ‘The horns of stags, bones and teeth of the horse, pig, elephant, and other quadrupeds, have been obtained at Postwick, Thorpe, Bramerton, &c., near Norwich; and this association of remains of the mastodon and horse, both in Norfolk and on the continents of Europe and America, Mr. Owen considers as a subject not without interest. Mr. Lyell examined also the crag north of Norwich at several pits between that city and Horstead, and ascertained that it was of the same kind, resting upon chalk, and overlaid by gravel. He found in it Fusus striatus, Turritella terebra, Cerithium punctatum, Pectunculus variabilis, Tellina obliqua, T. calcarea, Cardium edule, - and Cyprina vulgaris. 3. On the third point, the relative antiquity of the Norwich to the Suffolk crag, and the degree of resemblance of its shells to those of existing series, the memoir contains much very valuable inform- ation. The author acknowledges his obligations for assistance during his researches, to Mr. J. B. Wigham, who has nearly doubled the number of Norwich species of testacea; to Mr. Searles Wood, who gave Mr. Lyell free access to his fine collection of crag fossils; and to Mr. G. Sowerby, for the careful comparison and de- termination of the recent species; he also acknowledges the aid afforded him by Mr. Fitch of Norwich, and Capt. Alexander of Southwold. 129 The total number of species in the Norwich crag, rejecting those varieties formerly considered to be distinct species, is 111, of which 19 belong to land or freshwater genera. This comparatively small number of species, whether compared with the testacea of the Bri- tish seas or the Fauna of the Suffolk crag, and not due to want of activity on the part of collectors, or a paucity of specimens, Mr. Lyell explained by showing, that in seas, the water of which is only brackish, as that of the Baltic, or any great estuary, species are far less numerous than in the salt sea, latitude, climate, and other conditions being the same. A similar scarcity of species exists also im the fluvio-marine deposits alone the Rhine, between Basle and Mayence. Of the 92 marine shells of the Norwich crag, Mr. Wood has recognised 73 species found in the red crag, and therefore it might be inferred that the two formations are nearly of the same age; but on applying the test of the proportions of recent species, Mr. Lyell ascertained that the Norwich crag, both with respect to the marine and the freshwater shells, contains between 50 and 60 per cent., whereas in the red crag there are only 30 per cent., and in the coralline but 19. Mr. Charlesworth had previously implied that the Norwich beds were the most recent, by stating his belief that shells had been washed out of the red crag into the Norwich; and both he and Mr. 8S. Wood had recognised in the Norwich beds a nearer approach to the existing British Fauna. The only known freshwater testacea of the red crag of Suffolk were collected by Mr. S. Wood at Sutton, and consist of three specimens of Auricula myosetis and one of the variety of Planorbis marginatus, with a slightly prominent keel: both of these shells occur in the Norwich crag. Among the other freshwater species of the Norwich crag is the Cyrena trigonalis, found also at Southwold and Crostwick. ‘The land shells consist of Helix hispida, H. ple- bium, and a species found at Southwold by Capt. Alexander, bearing a strong resemblance to Helix Touronensis, so common in the faluns of Touraine. All the 92 marine species, except two or three, are found either in the red crag or living, so that a very small number were peculiar to this period. It is important to notice, that a large proportion of the recent shells in the coralline crag have not been met with in red or Norwich; but this absence Mr. Lyell attributes to the fragile nature of many of these shells, and in some cases to their having been peculiar to deep or tranquil seas. In determining the above results, the utmost care was taken to exclude all those shells which might have been washed out of the red crag into the Norfolk, or did not live in the waters by which the latter was deposited. - Should these numerical conclusions hereafter require some mo- dification, still the Norwich crag will be referable to the older Pliocene period, and the red and coralline to different parts of the Miocene. From an equally careful examination by the author, Mr. Wood, 130 and Mr. G. Sowerby, of the testacea obtained in the superficial lacustrine or fluviatile deposits at Cromer and Mundesley in Norfolk, Stutton, Grays, Ilford, and other places near London, it appears, that the proportion of recent shells in those accumulations is still greater than in the Norwich crag, exceeding 90 per cent., and, con- sequently, that they must be placed among the newer Pliocene strata. In a paper communicated to the British Association at Bristol in 1835, Mr. Charlesworth adopted a similar chronological arrange- ment of the formations above the London Clay in the eastern coun- ties, placing the coralline crag at the bottom of the series, the red crag next in ascending order, then the Norwich (mammaliferous) crag, and, highest, the lacustrine strata. In that paper Mr. Charles- worth states, that the proportion of recent to extinct species had not then been determined ; and Mr. Lyell remarks, it is satisfactory to find, that the paleontological test of age, derived from the relative approach to the recent Fauna, is perfectly in accordance with the independent evidence drawn from superposition and the included fragments of older beds. The memoir contains also a general comparison of the fossils of the crag with those of the faluns of Touraine. When M. Desnoyers, in 1825, assigned a contemporaneous origin to both these formations, Mr. Lyell dissented from the conclusion, Ist. because the per-centage of recent species then ascribed to the crag, and determined chiefly from fossils of the Norwich beds, was greater than that of the Tou- raine deposit; and, 2ndly, because the fossils are not only almost entirely of distinct species, though only 300 miles distant from each other, but that the Fauna of the crag has a northern aspect, and that of Touraine an almost tropical character. A recent examina- tion, by Mr. 8. Wood, of a series of Touraine shells procured from M. Desjardin by Mr. Lyell, has proved, that there are not 10 per cent. of species identical with sheils of the crag; but an examination of the same series by Mr. G. Sowerby and the author has led to the conclusion, that the recent species are in the proportion of 26 per cent. Mr. Lyell, therefore, now accedes to the opinion of M. Des- noyers, that the red and coralline crag may correspond in age, ge- nerally, with the faluns of Touraine; and he is of opinion that the difference in the character of the two Faunas may be explained by there having existed at that epoch, a more equable climate, similar to the one experienced at present on the east coast of South America, where, in lat. 39°, occur, in a living state, a large Oliva, a Voluta, and a'Terebra; and that a geographical barrier, like that of the Isthmus of Suez, which separates the widely different Faunas of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, may have intervened between the region of the crag and the faluns of 'Touraine. The paper concludes with a list of the testacea of the Norwich crag, determined by the author, Mr. S. Wood, and Mr. G. Sowerby*. * The memoir is printed in the Magazine of Natural History forJuly, 1839. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vot. III. 1839. No. 64. May 22.—William Fane De Salis, Esq., M.A., Carlton Gardens, and George Fleming Richardson, Esq., of the British Museum, were elected Fellows of this Society, and Professor Ehrenberg of Berlin was elected an Honorary Member. A paper was first read, ‘‘On the Wells found by digging and boring in the gravel and London clay in Essex, and on the geolo- gical phenomena disclosed by them,” by Dr. Mitchell, F.G.S. Essex consists chiefly of London clay, but that portion of the county which lies to the north-west of a line drawn from Harlow to Ballingdon Hill, near Sudbury, and the long ridge extending from Purfleet to East Tilbury, are composed of chalk. Extensive districts, however, are covered by thick deposits of gravel, sand, and other detritus, varying in depth from 10 to 300 feet. In Wakering Marshes and Foulness Island, there are 300 feet of sand between the vegetable soil and the London clay. The wells formed in the gravel are supplied by land springs, the water, when enough, being collected in a reservoir excavated in the London clay. They are often not more than 12 feet in depth; but it is impossible to estimate the number of feet to which they must be sunk in any district, on account of the great inequalities of the outline of the chalk. At Stanway, near Colchester, the clay was found to be 45 feet from the surface; but at the Union work- house, less than a quarter of a mile distant, and on the same level, it was necessary to sink 60 feet before it was reached. "When the London clay forms the surface there are no land-springs, as the clay is generally impervious to water; but in some places it is sandy, and permits the percolation of water. That much of the rain which falls in Essex penetrates downwards, is evident from the smallness of the number and size of the brooks and rivers. Very little water enters the Lea on the west side; and into the Thames only four streams flow between the Lea and Purfleet. There are three rivers, the Crouch, the Blackwater, and the Coln, but they are small, and can carry off only an inconsiderable portion of the water, which falls on about a million of statute acres. The London clay in Essex is of great but variable thickness. It is seldom, however, that its actual dimensions can be ascertained, for though the depth of the wells is known, accurate details of that at which the clay commenced and terminated have not often been VOL. III. M 132 preserved. Dr. Mitchell gives the following list of the total depth of wells, selected from a very large number: Dtratlordyas Cnet ce Meee nce 247 feet. LINCO a itl ee aM ls csi nla 301 — Wasniam rallye nee Ns eee s 4045 — IBTOOK-Strecb Utena cele ste cree aes 340 — Upminster yo veee seers eat 192 — iParsonage;“Warley .f.- ts mer ee 390 — Grange Hill, near Fairlop .......... 398 — HTD un Gan Te AS tre ea 344. — Battle:Bridgest::...2. 2 oe 390 — Ferry-house on the Crouch.......... 360 — Rochford Union workhouse............... 3830 — Wraikernnoe Marshes vio a) seiner 400 — Foulness Island sie Meaney a on 460 — clay, 100 to 160 Clay-street, Walthamstow ...... eoee 190 — Loughton, in Epping Forest ........ 324 — Rppine yy ev cee i. . Sak Seka 270 — Horsley Park, near Ongar.......... 340 — OCI tt Se entnna ee aan ns. ere 370 — BTAIMtTeeH es paeetenom etn vars ae tee) Mees This variation the author conceives, is partly due to the uneven- ness in the surface of the chalk; but in some instances to the un- dulatory nature of the country, the difference in the depth of the wells agreeing with the increase in the rise of the ground. When this is the case, the bed in which the water is found is the same in the adjacent wells, and consequently the variation in the outline of the surface is due to denudation, and not to unequal elevation. Thus, in the two wells close to the turnpike at Romford, water was found at the depth of 100 feet, but half-way up the hill between Hare-street and Havering Ate Bower at the depth of 250 feet; at Bocking it was obtained at 370, but at higher ground, at Braintree, close adjoining, at420. Again, at the union workhouse in Rochford, the well is 330 feet deep, and at Stroud Green, on the road to Rug- leigh, where the surface is higher, it was necessary to sink 390 feet. - At North Fambridge is a well 388 feet deep, the water rising to within 10 feet of the top: but at another well in the same parish, dug in lower ground, there is a constantly flowing stream. In the New River Company’s well at the end of Tottenham Court Road, chalk was found at the depth of 150 feet; but in that near Pond-street, at Hampstead, the main spring in the bed of sand between the London clay and the chalk, was 330 feet from the surface. The London clay in Essex varies greatly in colour, being in some places yellow or red in the lower part, but in many localities it is blue to the bottom. It is sometimes uniform in composition through- out, but more frequently, even when only 100 feet in depth, divided into two or three portions by beds of sand. In the well at the site 133 of Fairlop Fair it was 398 feet thick, and uniform throughout. In the Dengey and Rochford hundreds, where the clay is from 300 to 400 feet in thickness, it is divided by beds of sand into three or four parts. A bed of sand also usually occurs between the clay and the chalk. These alternations Dr. Mitchell is of opinion, indicate successive periods of turbulence and tranquillity. A sufficient supply of water is sometimes obtained in the first bed of sand, but it is more often necessary to sink to that resting imme- diately on the chalk, on reaching which a vast volume of water rushes up, and compels the well-digger to ascend precipitately to the surface. Cement-stones are sources of great impediment, par- ticularly to well-borers, a week or fortnight being occasionally spent in punching through a single mass. At the bottom of the clay a layer frequently occurs, and is technically called the water-rock, because, being penetrated, a powerful spring rushes up. The water is sometimes, but not very often, combined with a saline substance, probably sulphate of magnesia, as that salt is abundant in the waters of the London clay in Surrey, and solid magnesia occurs at Stamford Hill, near London. Foul air is not unknown in the wells, though it has done little harm in Essex. Its nature has not been ascertained, but Dr. Mitchell conceives, that it is probably sulphuretted hydrogen, as in Middlesex and Hertfordshire that gas has been most destructive. Inthe chalk of Surrey carbonic acid gas is very troublesome, and has sometimes produced fatal effects. There is, perhaps, no part of the world where artesian wells are more general, or are more useful than in Essex. In the vale of the Lea they have been bored with the greatest facility and at a small expense. In Waltham Abbey the cost is usually about 16/. In the district of Bulpham Fen, seven miles south from Brentwood, they yield a large supply of water. In the marshes, as well as along the coast, and in the islands of Essex, they have proved of the greatest utility. Formerly, in some seasons, when the ditches became dry, the cattle suffered, the fishes died, and the farmer lost severely on his stock ; but by the aid of artesian wells the ditches are now kept full all the year, and the farmer and landlord are accordingly bene- fited. In Foulness Island there are no natural springs, and until. lately no water, except atmospheric, collected in the ditches. In hot seasons this water became putrid, but the inhabitants and the cattle continued to partake of it as long as it lasted; and supplies were then obtained, at the distance of seven miles, from the east end of the island. Artesian wells now keep the ditches full of fresh and sweet water, labourers are obtained at reduced wages, and farmers of a higher class are beginning to reside on the island. Wallisea, Mersea, and other islands have profited in a similar manner. A great addition is made annually to the land along the coast of Essex, and valuable districts, one amounting to five hundred acres, and another to between one hundred and two hundred, have been recently protected by embankments. Outside of these inclosures are tracts of sand, estimated equal to 33,000 acres, not yet covered with vegetable mould, but dry eight hours out of every tide. To- M 2 134 wards the close of 1837, preparatory steps were taken for forming a company to inclose these sands, but Dr. Mitchell is of opinion that they would not yield in 300 years a rental of 300 pence. To this paper was appended a notice, by the same author, of con- stant and occasional outbursts of water from the chalk. The localities of constant outbursts are, the Bourne Mill, near Farnham ; the head of the river Mole, near the church at Merstham ; (this river flows south of Ryegate to Dorking, below which town the bed of the river is dry insummer, but an abundant stream passes under the chalk, and reappears lower down;) Leatherhead, close to the Guildford road; the powerful spring near the church below Croydon; Orpington; the Holy-well at Kempering, on the south side of the North Downs; the spring a quarter of a mile west of Sittingbourne; Birchington, in the Isle of Thanet; the Lyddon Spout in the cliffs between Folkstone and Dover; the Holy-well, at the foot of the cliffs forming Beachy Head, one mile from East- bourne; the spring which is the source of the Chadwell, and the main spring of the Amwell. Occasional Outbursts\—The Bourne, near Birchwood House. During the last outburst, which was in the spring of 1837, the water flowed in great volume to Croydon, and continued to do so for six weeks. Later in the same year, another rivulet burst forth in Gatton Park, between Merstham and Ryegate; and a third in Nonsuch Park, near Ewell. A communication was next read, entitled, ‘‘ A notice on the dis- covery of the remains of Insects, and a new genus of Isopodous Crustacea belonging to the family Cymothoide in the Wealden For- mation in the Vale of Wardour, Wilts,” by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S. The quarry in which these fossils were found, is situated near the village of Dinton, about 12 miles west of Salisbury. Not having been worked for two years, its structure could not be clearly ascer- tained, but the following section may be considered as affording a near approximation to the order of the beds. 1. Clay, forming the surface, a few inches. Ze INV bite ylimestOnenmn ey ie nar eerie 3 inches. eda eae ect eu oloke le ake tole toca 2to3 — 4, White limestone, similar to No. ah 3 to 4 containing shells and cypris.... i a. 5. Crystalline grit with cyclas ...... 2 — GeO lAN ADS cg nicis thle cee feeee eich teat 2 — 7. Clay, with layers of grit.......... 30 — SMC Lays aicizte te etatann tele cloiteye Menee erekere 2to3 — 9. Light brown sandstone, full of small cypris and cyclas, and consisting in the lower part of comminuted SHEDIS Sh it's te arte su)lole oh} take ecto. 10. Blue and lower clay, abounding with fragments of shells......eescee Ue Einin-bedded).ertties. a0 2 teeis 2 ee 2 inches. 12. Fibrous carbonate of lime........ \ nS eeng Gunitare ie yoy hice gooey go grins Beha te 6 — 14. Fibrous carbonate of lime........ 15. Soft shelly sandstone. . 2 — 16. Light brown and blue ‘limestone, 7 abounding with the Isopodous | Crustacean ; in the lower part, la- > 6 — minated and numerous cyclades, | and a few small oysters........ 17. Blue compact grit, full of impres- | , pis Stons Ofcy clas. st 1m a: rs 18. White laminated crystalline lime- stone, very different from that forming Nos. 2 and 4. Water—ainferior strata not visible. The Isopods in the bed No. 16 often occur in clusters. Lenses of the eye are sometimes detectable in the limestone, and more rarely attached to the head; traces of legs have also been observed, but no antenne, In the same bed the elytron of a coleopterous insect was discovered. Among the heaps of debris, consisting of sits and. limestones, derived apparently from beds subjacent to No. 18, but not visible, Mr. Brodie found fragments of a limestone different from the varie- ties in the preceding section, being generally coarser, softer, and less compact, and often white on the edges, but blue in the centre. It passes into a grit, in which he procured oysters, numerous bones and palates of fishes, and a tooth of a saurian. The limestone is full of a large distinct species of cypris; it contains also traces of car- bonized wood, impressions of small plants, some of which resemble grasses; likewise remains of Isopods, a few bivalves, apparently cyclades, one fragment of a univalve, and, dispersed throughout its substance, insects and small fishes, sometimes microscopic. The insects discovered by the author consist chiefly of coleoptera, but he procured a beetle with the antenne attached, about half an inch in length; remains of a Homopterous insect, and probably of several species of Dipterus, presenting distinctly, in some specimens, the wings, legs, and striz of the abdomen; also a wing of a Libellula. Mr. Brodie believes that this is the first instance of the discovery of insects in a Wealden formation; and he observes, that for abun- dance and variety of specimens, the beds of the quarry resemble more a tertiary (Aix and Céningen) than a secondary deposit. Mr. Brodie infers, from the occurrence of oysters in some of the layers, that the beds were accumulated in an estuary which afforded considerable variations in the nature of the sediment accumulated, and of the animals by which it was frequented. In conclusion, the author states, that he is indebted to Mr. Owen for determining the characters of the fossil Isopod. 136 A letter was afterwards read, addressed to the Rev. Dr. Buck- land, President of the Society, by R. Griffith, Esq., P.G.S. of Dublin, respecting the geological relations of the several rocks of the South of Ireland. This communication was accompanied by a copy of Mr. Griffith’s Geological Map of Ireland ; and its principal object is to explain why he has coloured, as old red sandstone and carboniferous limestone, extensive districts of the counties of Kerry, Cork, and Waterford, which had been previously considered to be transition. The geological base of these counties is clay slate passing into quartzose slate, quartz rock, and occasionally conglomerates. ‘This is particularly the case in the peninsula of Corkaguinny or Dingle in the county of Kerry; and as the succession of rocks forming the south of Ireland is well exposed in that district within a short dis- tance, Mr. Griffith selected it for the purpose of explaining his views. The lowest formation on the sea-shore at Brandon Bay consists of black and red clay slate, and gray quartz rock. The beds are nearly vertical, but occasionally dip 70° or 80° to the south. In some lo- calities near the Bay, the slates alternate with red and gray quartzose conglomerates ; and on the western coast of the peninsula, at Doon- guin, Ferriter’s Cove, and Filaturrio, S.E. of Dingle, the slate con- tains Orthis, Terebratule, corals, &c. This series is succeeded, un- conformably, by beds composed of rolled masses of quartz and mica slate, in an arenaceous base, and it is assigned by Mr. Griffith to the old red sandstone. On the summit of Cahirconree mountains, this conglomerate, associated with beds of fine-grained red sandstone, dips to the east at an angle of 10°. Proceeding eastward, in ascending order, the conglomerate disappears, and the formation consists of red and reddish-brown quartzose sandstone, alternating with coarse-red slate, flagstone, and occasionally green slates. These strata are succeeded, conformably, by a fine, yellowish-gray sandstone, forming the commencement of the carboniferous series. The sandstone con- tains Calamites, and at Gortaclay, 2 miles west of Curreen’s Bridge, indistinct bivalves. Its upper beds alternate with coarse and fine dark-gray clay slate, abounding with Product, Spirifere, Tere- bratulz, Encrinites, corals, and other fossils. Continuing to ascend in the series, beds of carboniferous limestone, containing the same organic remains, alternate with the fossilliferous slate; then appear strata of gray, fine-grained, indurated sandstone, alternating in the upper part with slate; next, a series of strata of limestone and greenish- clay slate, containing the same fossils; beyond which the slate gra- dually disappears, and the whole mass is composed of limestone. In the flat central space between Curreen’s Bridge and Castle Island, are probably shale and limestone. Near Castle Island occurs the upper limestone, abounding in nearly every known fossil of the carboni- ferous limestone of Ireland; and eastward of Castle Island is dis- played, in conformable position, the millstone grit, the lower shales of which contain, in considerable quantity, Encrinites, Posidonie, Spiriferee, Product, Ammonites, Orthocera, &c. 137 The change effected by Mr. Griffith in this district, consists in removing the dark-gray and greenish-gray fossilliferous slate at Curreen’s Bridge from the transition series to the lower part of the carboniferous limestone system, in consequence of its resting con- formably on the sandstone, and dipping regularly under the lime- stone, as well as on account of its fossils. Mr. Griffith then describes a line of country between Mount Leinster, in the county of Wexford, and the sea-coast south of Cork. This district presents a succession of east and west valleys, in which flow the Suire, Blackwater, Bride, and Lea, with intermediate ridges, more or less elevated. ‘The valleys are occupied by lime- stone, beneath which, in each instance, are, in descending order, the carboniferous slates, yellow sandstone, red slate, quartz rock, the conglomerate and subjacent greywacké, thus presenting the whole of the former section with the exception of the millstone grit. Since the reading of his paper on this district at the Meeting of the British Association at Newcastle, Mr. Griffith has revisited the country, and found that his views of its structure, given in that paper, are perfectly correct ; and during his examination he directed his attention more particularly to the limestones in the neighbour- hood of Cork. A detailed section from French Furze, south of Cur- rigoline to Middleton and Broomfield, intersecting the limestones of Cork Harbour, was exhibited and described in the paper. It displays the same succession of formations, namely, carboniferous limestone, carboniferous slate, yellow sandstone, red slate, and quartz rock. To prove more particularly the correctness of his views, Mr. Griffith gives a minute account of the structure of the Monavollagh Mountains, in the county of Waterford. The base of these moun- tains consists of greywacké, covered unconformably by alternations of coarse-red or brownish conglomerates, coarse-red slate, and red quartzose slate. From Crotty’s Rock the conglomerates are suc- ceeded southward by alternations of coarse-red slate and quartz rock, the latter being interstratified, in descending towards the Blackwater, with beds of roofing slate, which occur only in the upper portions of the red slate series. On approaching the Black- water, the clay slate is succeeded, conformably, by yellowish-white sandstone, and sandstone slate, containing casts of Calamites. These strata are again overlaid, conformably, by the greenish-gray im- perfect clay slate, which alternates with the limestone of the valley of the Blackwater. The limestone of this valley is connected with that of the counties of Cork, Tipperary, &c., allowed by other geo- logists to belong to the carbomiferous limestone of Ireland. ‘The dip of the limestone strata in the valley of the Blackwater varies from 20° to 75°. Mr. Griffith then shows, that a similar though reversed order of succession prevails south of the valley; but as the strata dip southward 80°, they apparently overlie the limestone, the deceptive character being due to the contortions of the for- mations. It is not possible to follow the author throughout his details, but 138 he shows, as before stated, that there is a regular sequence of for- mation throughout the country to Cork Harbour, the only variations being in the direction and amount of the dips due to undulations in the formations, and in the strata themselves. The localities de- scribed in greatest detail are the valleys of the Bride and the vicinity of Cork. Mr. Griffith is of opinion, that the bands of carboniferous lime- stone in the valleys of the south of Ireland are only patches of a vast deposit which once covered the old red sandstone and transition districts. The memoir was accompanied by an extensive collection of fossils illustrative of the different formations of the country, but more particularly of the Cork limestone. This collection was presented by Mr. Griffith to the Society. June 5.—J. B. Wigham, Esq., of Heigham, Norwich, was elected a Fellow. A paper was read, ‘‘On bones of Mammoths found in the deep sea of the English Channel and German Ocean,” by Capt. J. B. Martin, Harbour-Master, Ramsgate, and communicated by Sir John Rennie, F.G.S. The Ramsgate fishermen employed in trawling in the North Sea and English Channel, frequently bring up in their gear, fragments of fossil bones. These remains being generally charged with worms, and covered with fetid marine substances, are seldom ca- pable of being preserved; but specimens in a good condition are sometimes procured, and of the greater part of these, Capt. Martin has been the fortunate purchaser. The following is a list of the principal specimens : 1. A tusk, 9 feet long, and 8 inches in diameter at the lower end; but the part containing the alveolar cavity is wanting, and therefore its length or greatest diameter, when perfect, cannot be ascertained. The outside consists of very thin laminz, and the interior of a soft substance resembling putty. ‘The specimen was found in 1827, and is in the possession of Mr. Forster of Ramsgate. 2. In 1835, a very large decayed bone, and a tusk 11 feet long, but so soft as to be cut through with a knife, the centre bemg of the consistence of pipe-clay, were dredged up between Boulogne and Dungeness. The bottom of the channel, at that point, con- sists of blue clay charged with rounded pebbles. 3. In 1837, a fisherman, trawling between the two shoals called Varn and Ridge, and in 21-fathom water, enclosed in his net a vast mass of bones, but of which only a humerus was preserved. The upper articulation is wanting, but the length of the portion obtained is 38 inches; the circumference of the upper part of the shaft, 31 inches; of the centre, 20 inches; of the part just above the condyle, 31 inches: and the width of the condyle is 10 inches. ‘The Varn and Ridge lie in the mid-sea between Dover and Calais, forming a line of submarine chalk hills, which trend 139 towards the north, and are parallel with the cliffs on the opposite sides of the Channel. The Overfalls and Galloper Sands, continu- ations cf the same line, are also steep, having deep gullies in their intermediate spaces filled with boulders and muddy ground. 4, A tusk, 78 inches long and 12 inches in circumference, but the part containing the alveolar cavity is wanting. Its curvature is equal to a semi-circle, turning out. It was trawled up at the back of the Goodwin Sands. Capt. Martin has also a fragment of a fossil tree from the same locality. 5. In the early part of 1839, a nearly perfect femur of a mam- moth was obtained about midway between Yarmouth and the coast of Holland, in 25 or 26 fathoms, low-water. The length of this femur, from the ball of the socket-joint to the lower condyle, is 49 inches ; the circumference of the ball, 24 inches; of the upper part of the shaft, 42 inches; of the centre, 18 inches; of the lower part above the condyle, 29 inches. 6. Two molars of the mammoth brought up in the gear of the fishermen, in different parts of the English Channel, and likewise in Capt. Martin’s cabinet. Mr. Fairholm of Ramsgate has also in his possession a molar of a mammoth, found in King-street of that town, in red clay resting upon chalk. Independently of the remains of mammalia, the fishermen are occasionally impeded in their operations by large masses of various descriptions of rock. Some of these blocks are much worn and rounded; but the remainder never present that irregularity of form which might lead to the supposition, that they had composed part of shipwrecked cargoes, With respect to the distribution of the animal remains and the boulders, Capt. Martin states, that they are never found on the summits of the banks or shoals, but in deep hollows or marine valleys; and that they thus agree, in position, with analogous re- mains and masses of rock found upon dry land. An extract from a letter addressed to Dr. Buckland by Sir John Trevelyan, Bart., was then read. That gentleman possesses a very large molar of an elephant, found 38 years ago in the bed of the Severn near Watchet. He also states, that Roman pottery has been frequently dredged up during the last 50 years from the estuary of the Thames near Margate; that there is an island off Herne Bay, called Pot Island, on account of the quantity of earthenware found near it. A Roman vessel, laden with pottery, is supposed to have been wrecked in the neighbourhood of this spot. \ paper entitled, ‘‘ Description of five Fossil Trees found in the excavations for the Manchester and Bolton Railway,’ by John Hawkshaw, Esq., F.G.S., was next read. The largest of these trees was discovered about two years since, and the other four during the spring of the present year (1839), in 1 that portion of the Lancashire coal-field intersected by the railway. They are all in a vertical position with respect to the plane of the bed, which dips about 15° to the south; and they stand in a straight line, though obliquely to the strike of the strata. The dis- tance between the first and the last is about 100 feet, but the inter- mediate trees are not equally distributed. ‘The roots are imbedded in a soft argillaceous shale; and in the same plane with them is a bed of coal 8 or 10 inches thick, which has been ascertained to extend across the railway, or to the distance of at least 10 yards. Just above the covering of the roots, yet beneath the coal-seam, so large a quantity of Lepidostrobus variabilis was discovered enclosed in nodules of hard clay, that more than a bushel was collected from the small openings around the base of the trees. ‘The trunks were wholly enveloped by a coating of friable coal, varying from 4 to of an inch in thickness; but it crumbled away on removing the matrix. The internal casts of the trees consist of shale traversed beneath the place of the bark by irregular longitudinal flutings less than 4 of an inch broad, and about 2 inches apart. These markings, however, are stated to be very irregular. Mr. Hawkshaw also mentions indications of a waving, irregular, fibrous structure. The dimensions of the trees are as follows: Circumference. Height. No. 1, 154 feet at the base, 74 feet at the top...... 11 feet. DOA ni ie aera i cyt emcee nudge els 25 — IN GEC Gis eaeer. S cia a ea Cana eaten ete tones ran erne tia tae 3 INA hE see Se Beas ey Catemeepe te ate 5 — IONS SAT bom ice cn vue sree uate mee oersiete er: renee 6 — No. 2 has three large spreading roots, nearly 4 feet in circumfe- rence; and they separate 5 or 6 feet from the trunk into 8 branches. The roots of Nos. 3 and 4 extend apparently but a short distance ; those of No. 5, as far as exposed, are five in number, 4 feet in cir- cumference, solid and strong, and are presumed to extend to a con- siderable distance. ‘The position of No. 1 prevents its roots from being exposed. Respecting the genus to which the fossils belonged, no positive opinion is offered. The paper concludes with some observations on the disputed question, whether the plants associated with coal, grew on the spots where they have been found. Mr. Hawkshaw adiits, that the ver- tical position of trees does not prove that they had not been drifted : but he conceives, from the experience which a residence in South America has afforded him, that it is more difficult to suppose that five drifted trees could be deposited erect in one spot, than that they grew where they occur. Mr. Hawkshaw has not only prevented the trees from being re- moved, but he has had them protected, as far as possible, from the action of the weather. A paper was then read, entitled «‘A notice of some Organic 14] Remains recently discovered in the London Clay,” by Nathaniel Wetherell, Esq., F.G.S. The fossils described in this communication, were found about three years since in the excavations on the line of the Birmingham Railway, between Euston Square and Kilburn. They occurred at depths varying from 12 to 40 feet, and generally in small hard nodular masses of a pale-brown colour. Some of the specimens, when cleared from the matrix, are oval or spindle-shaped; others are cylindrical and branched, varying in diameter from half an inch to less than a tenth, and in length from 2 to 5 inches; and several are flabelliform, with a more or less rugose surface, the width of the largest being 4 inches and three quarters, the length about 5 inches, and the thickness half an inch. ‘The whole of the speci- mens are more or less covered with small oviform grains, occasion- ally furrowed down the middle, and generally distributed without any definite arrangement, but in some instances are disposed in rows, the grains being chiefly placed parallel to their longer axis. Besides the above more regular-shaped masses, Mr. Wetherell has obtained a vast quantity of others, which present no definite form, but are composed of small rough angular bodies, generally amor- phous internally, but occasionally composed of concentric lamelle. These specimens are likewise often more or less covered with the oviform grains, some of which may also be discovered in the sub- stance of the specimen. ‘The author referred to a description by Mr. Richardson, of branched bodies, in the London clay near Herne Bay, but which are not covered by the oviform grains*. Mr. Wetherell offers no opinion relative to the true nature of these fossils, leaving their determination open to the result of future researches. Lastly, a paper was read “‘ On the relations of the different parts of the Old Red Sandstone, in which organic remains have recently been discovered, in the counties of Murray, Nairn, ea and In- verness,” by J. G. Malcolmson, M.D., F.G.S. The author commences by stating, that in a paper Ca before this Society in April 1838+, he announced, that Mr. Martin had discovered fossil scales and bones in the old red sandstone under the cornstone four miles to the south of Elgin, and that he had him- self ascertained that many of the specimens belonged to fishes from Clashbinnie, since figured in Mr. Murchison’s Silurian System { under the name of Holoptychus Nobilissimus. A careful exami- nation of the Ichthyolite beds discovered by Mr. Miller on both sides of the south Sutor of Cromarty, convinced the author, that they also belong to the old red sandstone; and he has identified several of the fishes found there with those of Gamrie, Caithness, and Orkney; and this identification M. Agassiz confirmed with reference to the Cromarty species of Cheiracanthus, Diplopterus, and * Geol. Proceedings, vol. ii., p. 78. + Ibid., vol. ii. + Plate, 2 dis. 142 the remarkable fossil called by that naturalist Coccosteus; the Gamrie species of Acanthodes, M. Agassiz likewise recognised among the Cromarty specimens. Mr. Murchison has given further proof of the age of the Caithness beds by showing that the Dipterus macrolepidotus so common in them, is found also in the tilestone or lowest member of the old red sandstone of England. Dr. Malcolmson then proceeds to describe the discoveries recently made by himself, the Rev. G. Gordon, and Mr. Staples, of fossil fishes in a district of old red sandstone, extending from the village of Buckie, near Cullen, to Culloden Moor, 6 miles south of Inver- ness. The southern parts of this tract are occupied by primary rocks, which send off spurs and transverse ridges into the sandstone country, and they are likewise exposed in different places within its area. Wherever the contact of the two classes of rocks is exhibited, the old red sandstone rests on the edges of the older formations, dipping 8° or 12° a little west of north. The granite series also terminate at the junction with the sandstones. The old red sandstone Dr. Malcolmson divides into three portions, the lowest of which he calls the Inferior or Great Conglomerate; the middle, the Central or Cornstone division; and the uppermost, the Fine Grain Sandstone and Quartzose Conglomerate. The lowest division is shown to belong to the great conglomerate at the base of the old red sandstone of Sutherland and Ross. The beds of which it consists are exposed in ravines on the right bank of the Nairn to the east of Inverness, also in the ravines above Cawdor Castle; but at Rait Castle they thin out, or were denu- dated, according to the author’s view, before the deposition of the upper beds. On the east side of the hill of Rait they reappear, and extend along the Burn of Lethen for several miles. They occur also at Binnie in the vale of Rothes, south of Elgin, and along the Spey. The division consists of partially-rounded fragments of the primary rocks of the neighbourhood, cemented by a calcareous and ferruginous sandstone. The Cornstone division consists of sandstones, calciferous concre- tions, conglomerates, and marls, and contains scales of the Holopty- chus Nobilissimus and other fishes; also teeth and ichthyodorulites of new genera. This fossilliferous rock is exposed for a short distance at Scot-craig near Elgin, resting on the great conglomerate, and it passes below the cornstone of Elgin. Resting on the Elgin cornstones is a series of very beautiful white and yellow siliceous sandstones, containing pebbles of quartz, gneiss, and granite. It may be traced from Quarry Hill near Elgin, to Burge, 34 miles east of Forres, extending over a considerable part of the north-eastern district of Murray. Dr. Malcolmson next describes, in detail, the cornstone series as it is displayed on the banks of the Findhorn, particularly where it is exposed between the gneiss and the Cothall limestone*, various * Dr. Malcolmson refers to Prof. Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison’s paper on this district for other information respecting the Cothall limestone, Geol. Trans., 2nd series., vol. III., p. 151. 143 remains of fish having been found there; and at Altyn, where he obtained scales of Holoptychus Nobilissimus, and abundance of Ichthyolites identical with those at Scot-craig near Elgin; also a section through the middle and inferior sandstones on the Burn of Lethen. Along this burn, from Earlsmill to Cald Hame, fine sections of sandstones, calciferous conglomerates, and marls similar to those of the Findhorn beds, are laid open, and the same organic remains are found in considerable numbers, with the addition of buckler-shaped bones allied to Cephalaspis. ‘These beds rest at Cald Hame on a deposit of thin-bedded red sandstones and hard conglomerates, which are succeeded by a considerable thickness of heematitic red schistose sandstone, resting apparently on the Clunes limestone, containing Ichthyolites. These slaty beds resemble the upper red sandstones of Cromarty and Ross. In a small quarry in the grounds of Lethen, thin seams of shale and clay dip under the red sandstones, and contain nodules resembling those of Gamrie, and bituminous layers and remains of the species of Cheiracanthus common at Clunes; also plants resembling Fuci. Beneath the shales are a few feet of soft white sandstone, succeeded by the great inferior conglomerate. The finest fish, often of a plum-blue colour, have been obtained from an excavation on the farm of Lethen-bar, in large nodules enclosed in a soft, reddish-brown schist, probably a prolongation of the shales. At Clunes, a mile to the eastward, similar remains occur in a stratum of clay and decomposed shale. The author has ascertamed, by careful comparisons, that the known species obtained at the above localities are the same as those found in Orkney, Caithness, Cromarty, and Gamrie, and belong to the genera Dipterus, Diplopterus, Cheiracanthus, Cheirolepis, Osteole- pis, Coccosteus, and another singular creature, which he proposes to describe hereafter. The plants above noticed, and fish scales, are also found near the hill of Rait in a ridge of red schistose sandstone. The fossils of the valley of the Nairn are then described. Frag- ments and casts of tuberculated scales and bones, resembling some of those of Lethen-bar, occur at Balfreish in a compact light-blue limestone, containing angularfragments of gneiss, porphyry, &c., and an overlying conglomerate. At the S.E. extremity of Culloden Moor, and opposite the Druidical temples of Clova, are beds of bituminous shale, and a black calcareous rock, similar to the Caith- ness pavement, some of which contain nodules, often very small, enclosing fish scales and vegetable impressions. The bituminous rock, Dr. Malcolmson is of opinion, is continuous with that at Inches, 4 miles to the west, and 2 south-west of Inverness, described by Prof. Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison, and shown by them to be a prolongation of the bituminous schists of Caithness and Strath- peffer. The banks of the Spey, the Burn of Tynat, and the strata at Buckie in Banffshire, have been discovered by Dr. Malcolmson and the Rev. G. Gordon, to contain the same remains. The localities mentioned are the beds of shale and red sandstone opposite Dipple, 144 where remains of the Coccosteus, Dipterus, and Osteolepis magus, occur. ‘These beds are overlaid by others resembling those which cover the Ichthyolites of Lethen and Cromarty. Following the strike of the Dipple beds into Banffshire, the author and the Rev. G. Gordon discovered, at the Burn of 'Tynas, 4 miles E. of Fochabers, a similar series ‘of shales and sandstones containing Ichthyolites, enclosed, as usual, in flattened nodules. Many fine specimens of species common to Lethen, Cromarty, &c., were procured in the highest stratum. At Buckie, the inferior conglomerate is partially covered by patches of a red schistose sand- stone, in which a tuberculated bone, similar to those in the Burn of Tynat, was found. The shore near this point is said to exhibit fine examples of a raised beach. From the facts contained in the paper, the author concludes, 1. The primary strata were thrown into highly-inclined positions before the deposition of the old red sandstone. The elevation of the secondary strata to their present position, he conceives may have been produced by elevation in the line of the Grampians, or of the Great Caledonian Canal, subsequent to the accumulation of the Purbeck beds at Linksfield. 2. The great conglomerate and red sandstones containing Dipteri, Cheiracanthi, &c., represent the Orkney, Caithness, and Gamrie strata in Scotland, and the inferior beds of the old red sandstone of England. 3. The superimposed marly conglomerates, sandstones, and marl- stones, with a distinct series of fossils, are equivalents of the central division of the old red sandstone system to the south of the Gram- pians, and in England. Lastly, That there are no indications of the coal strata. Dr. Malcolmson terminates his memoir by stating, that the Gam- rie Ichthyolites clearly belong to the old red sandstone, and not to the coal measures. This being the last evening of the Session, the Society adjourned, at the conclusion of its business, to Wednesday, the 6th of No- vember. ERRATA. Page 15, bottom line, for Herculis read Hercules. — 101, line 1, for George Long, Esq. read Henry Lawes Long, Esq., Hampton Lodge, Surrey. — 126, — 23, for miles read inches. INDEX TO THE COMMUNICATIONS READ DURING THE SESSION 1838—1839. Agxanper, Capt., F.G.S. On Mastodon Teeth from the Crag, and the occurrence of a par- ticular bed containing Ichini in the Coralline Crag at Sudbourne.. Annuau Report, 15th February, 1839 .........ecsecseceeee BS a uiastae san Arxrnson, —, Esq. On Tortuous Casts of Vermiform Bodies in Sandstone .......2.c«. Austen, R. A. C., Esq. Ontthe Structure of South) Devon sc... cescncecssctsscerceacccecesueee Bowerrsank, J. S., Esq. On the London and Plastic Clay Formations of the Isle of Wight Bronte, Rev. P. B. On the Remains of Insects anda New Genus of Isopodous Crus- tacea from the Wealden Formation in the Vale of Wardour ...... Cuarrters, Capt. On a Deposit of Greenstone overlying Sandstone in Southern ANGTELEZ i, odode BeSnoaaabRabCe SoooudeudécucodseRnooGoRDI6Go0 BU Dee aaetias feoeeecees Cunnincuam, J., Esq. An cesar of Impressions and Casts of Drops of Rain, disco- vered in the Quarries at Storeton Hill, Cheshire ............sessese0s Ecrrton, Sir Philip, Bart., M.P. On Casts in Sandstone of the Impressions of the hind Foot of a Gigantic Cheirotherium, from the New Red Sandstone of Cheshire.. Observations respecting a Slab of Sandstone impressed with Cheirotherium Footsteps, at Mr. Potts’s, in Chester .........essssse0 Fremrine, Rev. John, D.D. A few Brief Remarks on the Trap Rocks of Fife ............0c.00 Fox, R. W., Esq. A Notice on the Formation of Metallic Veins by Voltaic Agency Grirritn, Richard, Esq. On the Geological Relations of the several Rocks of the South Git linellevatsl .Aookascacbacecospanenonpaseucdoadesodaco0d pod oaasosoonasthen shaded 35 Hamitton, J. W., Esq. On the N.W. part of Asia Minor, from the Peninsula of Cyzicus, to Koola, with a Description of the Katakekaumene......... s,s... Haruan, —, M.D. On the Discovery of the Basilosaurus and the Batrachiosaurus... Hawxsuaw, John, Esq. On Five Fossil Trees found in excavations at the Manchester and Bolton, Riatlwaye.g tedscses cases sedseccascaucens ScbQuacidbadsaossunuss0 Liverroot Naturat History Society. An Account of Footsteps of the Cheirotherium, and other unknown Animals lately discovered in the Quarries of Storeton Hill......... Lone, Henry Lawes, Esq. On Swallow Holes, near Farnham; and the Drainage of the Country at the Western Extremity of the Hosts Baek) cesvocceets a Page 10 4] 123 125 134 102 99 14 il Lyext, Charles, Esq. On the Occurrence of Graptolites in the Slate of Galloway ...... On some Fossil and Recent Shells, Collected by Capt. Bayfield, BuaNews ©amaday prisms cen sce ccenmen st clges seteletiellaas(sltsilalislels-(cisrts On the Relative Ages of the Tertiary Deposits commonly called Crag, in Norfolk and Suffolk .........ccsccsecoeeeecenssenees gd000006 a0000 Matcoimson, G. J., M.D. On the Relations of the Different Parts of the Old Red Sandstone, in which Organic Remains have recently been Discovered in Scot- keine, AoBpseReosoagocbooacossSocsbbecatsooadsoudadooodcacdn AAAS asad suecteeeete Marri, Capt. J. B. On Bones of Mammoths found in the Deep Sea of the English Channel and German Ocean) See ante, p. 1. 163 posterior and inner side convex: it supports three principal cusps, two on the outer, and one on the inner side; there are also two smaller elevations with a depression on the summit of each, situated in the middle of the crown, and the whole is surrounded with a ridge which is developed into a small cusp at the anterior and external angle of the tooth. The three true molars closely correspond with those of the Cheropotamus. The sockets of the canines indicate that these teeth were relatively as large as in the peccari. The bones of the head are separately described: the palatal processes of the maxillary bones are shown to be rugous, as in the peccari; the eye to have been full and large, as indicated by the size of the optic foramen and the capacity of the orbit, equalling an inch in vertical diameter: the general form of the skull is described as partaking of a character intermediate between that of the hog and the hyrax, though the large size of the eye must have given to the physiognomy of the living animal a resemblance to that of the Ro- dentia. These indications, Mr. Owen says, scanty though they be, of the form of a species nearly allied to the Cheeropotamus, are extremely interesting, on account of the absence of similar information regard- ing that genus. The resemblance of the molar division of the dental system in the new genus, for which the name of Hyracothe- rium is proposed, and the Cheropotamus, is sufficiently close to warrant the conclusion, that the canines and incisors if not similar would differ only in form and proportion ; and that hence it may be ventured to solve analogically some of the doubts entertained by Cuvier respecting the dental characters of the Cheropotamus, and to affirm confidently that it had canines in the upper as well as the lower jaw. The incisor teeth with the ossa intermaxillaria are wanting in the specimen of the Hyracotherium, and have not been found in any fragment of the Cheropotamus. 2. The remains of birds described in the paper consist of a sternum, with other bones, and a sacrum, the former belonging to the collec- tion of the late John Hunter, in the Royal College of Surgeons, and the latter to the cabinet of Mr. Bowerbank. Both the speci- mens were obtained from Sheppey. The Hunterian fossil includes the sternum nearly entire, the proximal ends of the coracoid bones, a dorsal vertebra, the distal end of the left femur, the proximal end of the corresponding tibia, and a few fragments of ribs. Mr. Owen first shows, in approximating to which of the three great groups of birds, terrestrial, aerial, or aquatic, the Ornitholite belonged, that from the length of the sternum and the remains of the primary in- termuscular crest or keel, it could not have been a strictly terrestrial bird, though these characters do not prove that it was a bird of flight, as they occur in the Penguins or other Brachyptera, which have need of muscular forces to work their wings as paddles under water. In the present fossil, however, from the lateral extent and convexity of the sternal plate, the presence and course of 164 the secondary intermuscular ridges, the commencement of the keel a little way behind the anterior margin of the sternum, Mr. Owen says there is no affinity with the brachypterous family. The cora- coid bones or posterior clavicles, he also shows are less available in determining the habits of the Ornitholite, as they relate much more closely to the respiratory actions than to the movements of the wings, and are strongly developed even in the Apteryx. There re- mained consequently for comparison the ordinary birds of flight ; and of these, the native species, which resemble the fossil in size, first claimed Mr. Owen’s attention. Though the sternum is not complete, yet sufficient remains to have enabled him to set aside the Gallinaceous, and those Grallatorial and Passerine birds which have deeply incised sternums, and to restrict the field of comparison to such species as have the sternum either entire, or with shallow pos- terior emarginations. After a rigid comparison of the minor struc- tural details and pursuing it from the sea gulls and other aquatic birds upwards through the Grallatorial and Passerine orders, omitting few British species, and no genus, he at length found the greatest number of correspondences in the skeleton of the accipitrine spe- cies. The resemblance, however, was not sufficiently close to ad- mit of the fossil being referred to any native genus of Raptores: the breadth of the proximal end of the coracoid removes it from the owls (Strigide), the shaft of the same bone is too slender for the Falconide ; and the femur and tibia are relatively weaker than in many of the British Hawks or Buzzards. It is with the Vultures that Mr. Owen has found the closest agreement; but he says the fossil indicates a smaller species than any known to exist in the present day, and is probably a distinct subgenus. The professed ornithologist, Mr. Owen remarks, may receive with reasonable hesitation a determination of family affinities arrived at, in the absence of the usual characters deduced from the beak and feet; but in the course of a long series of close comparisons, he says, he has met with so many more characters, both appreciable and available in the present problem, than he anticipated, that he confi- dently expects, in the event of the mandibles, the bones of the feet, or the entire sternum of the bird in question being found, they will establish his present conclusion, that the Sheppey ornitholite is re- ferrible to a member of the group of Accipitrine Scavengers, so abundant in the warmer latitudes of the present world. The: Ornitholite in Mr. Bowerbank’s museum consists of ten sa- cral vertebrze anchylosed together, as is usual in birds with a con- tinuous keel-like spinal ridge. Four of the vertebree are analogous to the lumbar vertebrze in the mammalia, and they are succeeded by five others, in which, as in the Vultures, the inferior transverse pro- cesses are not developed. This character, however, Mr. Owen says, is not peculiar to the Vulturide. Though the part of the fossil pre- served is eminently characteristic of the class of birds, yet it is not calculated to throw light on the closer affinities of the species to which it belongs: nevertheless it supports rather than affects the 165 determination of the Hunterian specimen. For the apparently ex- tinct bird indicated by these fossils, the name of Lithornis vulturinus is provisionally proposed. 3. Mr. Owen commences his description of the remains of an ex- tinct species of Serpent found at Sheppey, by pointing out the es- sential characters by which the vertebree of an Ophidian Reptile are distinguished. Vertebre joined enarthrodially by a deep anterior transversely oblong cup and a corresponding prominent posterior ball, and fur- ther articulated by projecting posterior oblique processes, wedged liked the carpenter’s tenon into a mortice, excavated in the anterior oblique processes of the succeeding vertebra, supporting moreover on each side of the fore part of the body an oblong convexity for the moveable articulation of the rib, can belong, Mr. Owen ob- serves, to no other than a reptile of the Ophidian order. One of the specimens described in this portion of the memoir, consists of about 30 vertebre possessing the above characters; also of a number of long slender ribs, having expanded concave vertebral extremities cemented irregularly together by a mass of indurated clay, and it forms part of the Hunterian collection of fossils; an- other specimen, consisting of 28 vertebree, and some others of less magnitude, belong to Mr. Bowerbank’s collection. All the speci- mens, Mr. Owen considers, are referrible to the same species, and they were all found at Sheppey. The vertebre in each specimen present the same conformation, and nearly the same size, being equal in this respect to those of a Boa Constrictor 10 feet long. They belong to the ordinary dorsal or costal series, and differ from those of the Boa and Python in their superior length as compared to their breadth and height. The ridge continued from the anterior to the posterior oblique processes on each side is less developed: the oblique processes themselves do not extend so far outwards; and the spinous process is narrower in its antero-posterior extent but longer. In the first two of these differ- ences, the fossil agrees with the Linnean Coluber and its subgenera, but differs from the Crotalus ; and in the remaining points it differs from Crotalus, Coluber, Naja and Trigonocephalus. The long and comparatively narrow spine, the outward prolongation of the upper angle of the posterior oblique processes, the uniform convexity of the costal protuberance, the uneven or finely wrinkled external surface of the superior arch of the vertebra, are characters which distinguish these Ophidian vertebrze from those of any other genus of the order with which Mr. Owen has been able to compare them. He therefore proposes to call the species provisionally Paleophis To- liapicus. The ribs are hollow as in all land serpents. From the agreement in the configuration of the under surface of the body of the vertebre of the fossil with that in the vertebree of the Boz and Pythons more nearly than with the Colubri, and in none of the differences above noticed indicating any obstacle to the 166 entrapping and destroying a living struggling prey, as well as from the length (11 feet) which it may be inferred the creature attained, Mr. Owen concludes it was not provided with poisonous fangs. Serpents of similar dimensions exist in the present day only in tropical regions, and their food consists principally of the warm- blooded animals. Mr. Owen therefore in conclusion states, that had no evidence been obtained of birds or mammals in the London clay, he would have felt persuaded that they must have coexisted with the Paleophis Toliapicus. A paper was afterwards read, entitled ‘‘ Observations on the lo- cality of the Hyracotherium,” by William Richardson, Esq., F.G.S. In 1829, when Mr. Richardson first examined the coast from Whitstable to Herne Bay, it presented an uniform, geological struc- ture, composed of a capping of vegetable mould, under which was a stratum 3 or 4 feet thick of yellow brick earth, containing in the upper part rolled and angular flmts, mammalian remains and fossils derived from secondary strata; and beneath, forming the mass of the cliff, was London clay of a dark brown colour, abounding in septaria, selenite, pyritous wood, teeth and vertebree of fishes, Nau- tili with other characteristic marine testacea, Encrinital and Penta- crinital remains, and crustaceans. The whole of the line of coast undergoes rapid desradation\i in con- sequence of the encroachment of the sea and land springs; and the changes thus annually produced,effect great alterations in the physical outline of the cliffs. ‘The geological structure, however, presented by them in 1829 remained for the greater part the same in the autumn of 1839, except at the part called Studd Hill. At this point, the dark brown incoherent clay had been removed, and a deep blue, tenacious one exposed. A change had also taken place in the character of the fossils, the marine remains having gradually become less promi- nent and been replaced by others of a fluvio-marine character. In the autumn of last year, Mr. Richardson could not find a single ma- rine shell, and only a few fragments of crinoidal stems. Terrestrial vegetables have, however, become so prodigiously abundant, that he has obtained at different times above 500 fossil cones, fruits, and other seed-vessels ; and fragments of small trees converted into py- rites occur in so great quantities, that they have been removed by barge loads for ceconomical purposes, and become a source of con~ siderable profit to the neighbouring peasantry. These remains pre- sent no indications of having been transported from a distance. Neither land nor fresh-water shells have been observed. From the abundance of vegetables, and the knowledge that Nature ever directs her means as well in number as in fitness to particular ends, Mr. Richardson inferred, that remains either of quadrupeds or birds would be found in Studd Hill; and though his search was long fruitless, it was at last rewarded by the discovery of the portion of the Hyracotherium described by Mr. Owen in the preceding memoir. January 8, 1840, Robert Fellows, Esq., LL.D., Dorset Square ; 167 and James Philip Kay, M.D., the Albany; were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read, on the carboniferous and transition rocks of Bohemia, by David T. Ansted, Esq., F.G.S. After alluding to the difficulties which beset the researches of a geologist in a country so little frequented as that visited by himself, and noticing the granite and gneiss mountains which constitute the south-eastern and south-western boundaries of Bohemia, he proceeds to the main object of the memoir. The district described by Mr. Ansted is included within a triangle, having the country between Luditz and Pilsen for a base, and Prague for its apex; and its struc- ture is explained by a series of sections from Luditz to Pilsen— Radnitz to Rakonitz—Zebrak to Ginetz—and Przilep to Karlstein, all of them being more or less in the dip of the strata. The formations composing the district, are granite, gneiss, graywacke, coal mea- sures, trap rocks and accumulations of superficial debris. It is stated that a line drawn from Eger on the west to Prague on the east would completely separate the sedimentary deposits of a newer date than the carboniferous system from the coal measures and transi- tion rocks ; and that the latter occur only to the south of the line. Near Eger is a small local deposit of upper tertiary sandstone, men- tioned by Mr. Ansted on account of its containing myriads of fossil infusoria cases. Section 1. Luditz to Pilsen.—Luditz stands upon a range of round topped gneiss hills, but in a depression between two of them, and about 3 miles from the town, is a bed of thinly laminated micaceous sandstone, containing a few obscure vegetable markings, and believed by Mr. Ansted to be a recent deposit. Proceeding in the direction of Pilsen, the gneiss is succeeded by a hard cherty stone, considered by the author to belong to a rock which underlies the coal mea- sures in other parts of the country, but to have been protruded at this pomt by igneous agency. The next hill is formed of trap, and beyond it, is a bed of similar cherty sandstone, covered up towards the S. E. by the red conglomerate on which Manotin is built. To the south of this town, slate rocks are finely developed for several miles, forming precipitous cliffs, with the strata dipping to the S.E. They are covered in part by gravel, and are succeeded by rotten shales, assigned by Mr. Ansted to the graywacke system. These shales are visible for only a short distance, being superficially replaced by a thick covering of gravel, which extends for ten miles. At the end of that distance, hills of sandstone commence, and contain near Pilsen workable seams of coal. The sandstone is coarsely grained and not very coherent ; and the coal bands, which are accompanied by shales, are of variable thickness. The dip is very small, and to the S. E., but the stratification is totally unconformable with the gray- wacke. Pilsen is situated on a little stream, which unites close to the town with the Beraun; and the eastern limit of the sandstone seems to be a small tongue of coarse grit, which reaches the Beraun, and exposes a bed of coal on its western bank. At that point, how- 168 ever, the graywacke comes in, having been brought up by a mass of trap. Section 2. Radnitz to Rakonitz—The direction of this section is nearly 8S. and N., Radnitz bemg about 12 miles east of Pilsen, and Rakonitz 20 miles east of Luditz. Radnitz stands upon an in- conerent coal measure sandstone ; and two bands of coal are worked a little south of the town. Beyond the sandstone rises a hill of graywacke shale, protruded, Mr. Ansted believes, by the agency of a mass of trap visible a short way off. ‘To the north of Radnitz is an abrupt hill of the shale, considered to have been also brought up by a fault; and on its northern face commences a broad valley formed of coal measures, and bounded at its further extremity by another hill of graywacke, likewise thrown up by a fault. Coal is worked on three sides of this hill. The graywacke continues thence for six or seven miles, when the coal sandstone again constitutes the surface for a short distance (2 miles), and, after another interval occupied by graywacke, reappears forming the country around Ra- konitz. Section 3. Zebrak to Ginetz.— This section refers to a more southerly part of the district, and traverses a portion of the coal measures situated south of that line of graywacke which extends from Pilsen to Prague, and separates, except at one point, the coal field connected with the two first sections, from the district about to be noticed. At Zebrak, the pomt just mentioned, the coal measures intersect the graywacke range, in consequence apparently of a fault ; and the section commences at Zebrak in graywacke shale near the junction of the coal measures with the graywacke. These shales extend to Horzowitz, where they are overlaid unconformably by the coal sandstone, which constitutes the surface of the country for about two miles. At that point is a hill, on the summit of which occurs a cherty sandstone considered by Mr. Ansted to be the base of the coal measures and to have been forced up into its present position. ‘The beds dip about 60° S. E., and rest apparently upon a very coarse, hard, red conglomerate, to which succeeds a vast de- velopment of shale, containing occasionally ‘Trilobites. This divi- sion of the graywacke series, is at some distance, covered again by the conglomerate upon a change of dip, and then continues nearly three miles to Ginetz, with the strata moderately inclined to the N.E. At that town a band of limestone cccurs reported to be rich in Trilobites. Section 4. Przilep to Karlstein.—This section is parallel to the last and crosses the line of country between Pilsen and Prague. Two or three tolerably thick beds of coal are worked near Przilep and supply Prague with fuel. Fossils also are not deficient. About 6 miles towards the north-west, other but inferior beds of coal are wrought ; but towards the east, the coal thins out between lofty pre- cipices of shale, which form a narrow gorge. Pursuing the line of section towards the south-east, the direction of the dip, and at no great distance from Przilep, the coal basin is shut in by the steep 169 face of a hill. At this point, Mr. Ansted believes, that the lower beds of the coal measures are not only brought up, but are bent over the upper, because, though the dip of the strata is to the S. E. or in the direction of the section, yet, on the summit of the hill above mentioned, is exposed an excellent natural surface of chert; and in a quarry near the top the inclination of the beds is about 25° S. E. or in the regular dip of the coal measures; and in a narrow valley at the bottom of a somewhat rapid descent, the lowest division of the greywacke is exposed dipping S. or actually overlying the coal measures. This inversion of superposition, Mr. Ansted explains by assuming, that the granite comes near the surface, and that by its agency the graywacke has been thrown into a trough, and its lowest beds so brought up as to be made to rest against inverted beds of the coal measures. Proceeding in the line of section, the author found in graywacke shale, portions of a Trinucleus, Trilobites or- natus. (Trans. Prague National Mus. Soc. 1833.*) The graywacke shell extends with contorted strata to an anti- clinal hill of limestone, beyond which occur broken and rotten shales, then limestone, next shales again, and lastly the picturesque limestone hill of Karlstein. Further south is a valley of graywacke bounded by an altered rock, which is succeeded by granite. The Karlstein limestone is stated to be identical with that at Ginetz, (see section 3) and the two other localities in the present line of section. It is ofa pale blue colour, very hard, contains several species of Orthocera and Trilobites, and is of great ceconomical importance. The recurrence of the same limestone at different points, Mr. Ansted explains, by supposing, that the granite in these cases, is also near the surface, and that a displacement of it, bent the yielding shales, but snapt asunder a brittle band of limestone once continuous, the portions of which not removed by subsequent operations, are ex- hibited at the points mentioned in the line of section ; and that the consequences of these operations have been, a disturbance in the re- gular succession, and an exhibition of the beds in the following order : granite, altered rocks, newest graywacke with limestone, oldest gray- wacke, coal measures. In conclusion, Mr. Ansted offers the following observations as the resuits of his examination of this portion of Bohemia. The gray- wacke series is imperfectly developed, presenting at only one spot a passage upwards into the carboniferous series, and no passage down- wards into the graywacke, resting always unconformably upon it; the secondary rocks are also very imperfectly developed, the mountain limestone being absolutely wanting, and the only indications of beds newer than the coal measures being a red conglomerate, into which they pass upwards. The flora of the coal measures is how- ever well known to be rich, and to have yielded near Radnitz the fossils described by Count Sternberg. A genus allied to Scorpio is * Impressions of shells were also found by the Author in a greyish sand rock, a little nearer Prague; and the Trinucleus is found at Zebrak and Praskoles, on the south side of the high road about 10 miles south of Beraun. 170 also stated to have been found in them. The fossils of the grey- wacke are said to be not very numerous; but the Trinucleus ap- pears to be abundant on the line of road between Prague and Pilsen ; and in a gorge near Lodentz, about fourteen miles from Prague, is a quarry which yields shells and other organic remains; and on the opposite side of the road, near the same spot, similar fossils may be obtained. ‘Trilobites occur at Ginetz, and Orthocera at Karlstein ; and both these localities and the neighbourhood of Prague are men- tioned as rich in organic remains. The Trinucleus Caractaci is stated to occur near Zebrak.* A letter was afterwards read, addressed to Dr.Buckland, P.G.S. by the Rev. John Gunn, and dated Dec. 21st, 1839. This letter was accompanied by three paramoudras from the chalk near Norwich; and they had been selected by Mr. Gunn on account of one of them presenting a tuberculated exterior, a character which he states a paramoudra commonly assumes when it is in contact with horizontal lines of nodular flints; and the other two had been chosen because Belemnites and shells are imbedded in their sub- stance. The letter contains some observations on the irregularities in the surface of the Norfolk chalk, and on the pipes or sand galls by which it is penetrated. With reference to these tubular hollows, Mr. Gunn refers to Mr. Lyell’s description of them, read at the meeting of the British Association at Birmingham, but he calls at- tention to their being constantly filled in the district examined by himself, with sand, gravel, or crag, to the total exclusion of all ma- terials belonging to the strata between the chalk and the crag; and he therefore infers, that the sand galls were not eroded during the eocene period, but that during that long period the Norfolk chalk was denudated. The letter was also accompanied by some specimens from the boulders contained in the diluvial (drift) strata of Norfolk and Suf- folk. Mr. Gunn is of opinion that these masses of rock indicate what were the strata that formed the shore against which the (so- called) diluviai waves washed; and that the masses were borne out to sea in a similar manner to the portions of cliff now annually de- stroyed by the waves. If the bottom of the present sea were raised, he says it would present features analogous to those of the crag and diluvial formations of Norfolk and Suffolk. * See the fossils of Caradoc sandstone, Silur. Syst. pl. 23, f. 1. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. 1840. No. 67. Jan. 22.—William Laverack, Esq., of Catherine Hall, Cambridge ; Zacharius Daniel Hunt, Esq., Aylesbury, Bucks; Robert Maulkin Lingwood, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., Mordiford, near Hereford; the Rev. William Strong Hore, M.A., Stoke, Devonport; Joseph Dobinson, Esq., of Egham Lodge, Egham, Surrey; and Walter Ewer, Esq., late of the Bengal Civil Service ; were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was read on the Boulder Formation or Drift, and asso- ciated freshwater deposits composing the mud cliffs of Eastern Norfolk, by Charles Lyell, jun. Esq., F.G.S.* The cliffs described in this memoir extend from Happisborough or Hasborough lighthouse to near Weybourne, west of Cromer, adistance of about twenty miles, and vary in height from sixteen to 400 feet. Mr. Lyell first examined them in 1829, and subsequently in 1839; and the details given in the paper are the results of the observa- tions made during the two visits. The changes produced by the destruction of the cliffs, have enabled him to explain some of the more complex phenomena presented in the sections exposed in 1829. The greater portion of the cliffs consists of the boulder formation or drift, which is partly stratified and partly unstratified, and for the latter he has adopted the term “till,” employed in Scot- land to designate a similar deposit. Other formations are occa- sionally exposed, but the whole series is nowhere exhibited in one vertical section ; it may however be stated to be composed of the following beds, in ascending order :—1.Chalk—2. Norwich crag—3. freshwater accumulations with subterranean forests,—and 4. the boul- der formation or drift. This line of coast, Mr. Lyell says, is ably treated of by Mr. R. C. Taylor (Geology of East Norfolk, 1827) and Mr. S. Woodward (Outlines of the Geology of Norfolk, 1833), in works, the result of careful personal surveys, and containing original observations of great merit. 1. Chalk.—This formation is occasionally displayed at the foot of the cliffs in horizontal beds, but it claims notice more especially on account of the masses which protrude from the face of the cliffs mear their base, or are enveloped in layers of the drift. Three of he more remarkable of these protuberances rise from the beach * This memoir is published in the London and Edinburgh Phil. Mag. for May 1840. VOL. III. \ P 172 near Trimmingham. ‘They are noticed in Mr. Greenough’s geolo- gical map of England, and are stated by Mr. R. C. Taylor to be continuous with the solid beds of chalk, which extend from the base of the cliff outwards under the sea. ‘The most southern mass was, in 1839, twenty feet high, a few yards in apparent thickness, and extended along the beach about 100 feet. ‘The surface of the chalk, where in contact with the drift, inclined at an angle of about 45°, and the beds of gravel, sand, and finely laminated clay, composing the newer deposit, presented a similar dip; but at the distance of a few hundred yards to the south, they recovered their horizontality, and at the top of the cliff behind the chalk protuberance, but not immediately over it, the strata of drift are likewise horizontal. Mr. Lyell is of opinion, that both the chalk and the drift have been acted upon subsequent to the deposition of the greater part of the latter, by some common movement, either sudden or gradual, and that this remark applies to the two other masses. He is further of opinion, that the effect was produced probably at the upheaval of the country above the level of the sea. The second or middle pro- tuberance is near the first, and the front of it measured, in 1839, sixty-five yards, and its height was from fifteen to twenty feet. ‘The third and most considerable mass extended 106 yards, and projected about thirty beyond the general line of the cliff. The beds in one part were nearly vertical, but in another only slightly curved; and the strata of drift, which were in contact with the mass, were also verti- cal, though in the lofty cliff behind they were but moderately inclined. At both visits, the northern end of the mass of chalk rested on blue clay, containing broken flints. Some of the Preventative Service men informed Mr. Lyell, that in digging a well at Trimmingham at the top of the cliff, chalk was reached at the depth of 120 feet, though the height of the cliff is stated to be about 400. Without relying on the accuracy of these measurements, Mr. Lyell is of opinion, that the protuberances may belong to a much larger mass of chalk, form- ing the nucleus of the hill called Trimmingham Beacon. In other localities further to the north, where masses of chalk are included in the stratified drift and till, and accumulations of white chalk rubble enter largely into the composition of the cliff, chalk crops out in the interior at a short distance from the sea. The cliffs in front of Over- strand, south-east of Cromer, consist of clay and sand ; but at the hamlet itself is a chalk pit, in which the strata are much disturbed and associated with accumulations of chalk rubble. If the progress of destruction continues, the frontage towards the sea will in time present a face solely of chalk. Another remarkable mass of chalk protrudes from the drift at Old Hythe Point, about three miles and a half west of Sherringham. ‘To the west of Sherringham, the fun- damental chalk with horizontal layers of flints rises a few feet above high water mark, and is generally covered by a ferruginous breccia of angular chalk flints, and locally called ‘‘ The Pan,’ in some parts of which both entire and broken shells of the Norwich crag are found. On approaching from the eastward the mass of chalk, which is eighty feet high, the horizontal beds of drift suddenly give place to a vertical i 173 wall several feet thick of alternating layers of loam, clay, and chalk rubble; and on the opposite side of the pinnacle of chalk are other vertical beds of drift, but of a different character, being composed of unrolled flint gravel next the chalk, then layers of sand, and aiter- wards yellow sand with loam. Beyond these vertical beds, the strata of drift are first waved or contorted, and at a greater distance re- cover their horizontality. The relative position of the pinnacle of chalk with the fundamental, was not visible in 1839, but Mr. Lyell inferred that the two were not connected*. Between 1829 and 1839 it altered its form considerably ; for at the former period, two masses of chalk were exhibited, but the eastern, or the one since removed, consisted of re-deposited chalk or rubble. Between Cromer and West Runton, and near the bottom of the cliff, is a large mass of pure white chalk traversed by several rents, and arched over by alternating beds of laminated clay and sand, the whole being twenty-five feet high. At Lower and Upper Runton are other masses of chalk; and near the Cliff End, Weybourne, the fundamental chalk rises above the level of the shore, presenting a waved outline, and covered by a bed of flints mixed with crag shells. 2. Norwich Crag. The most south-eastern point at which this formation has been seen is at Bacton Gap, where a thin layer of it was found, about the level of low water, in the form of a ferruginous breccia with shells resting on the chalk and covered by lignite. The next example occurs at Cromer, where it also constitutes a thin stra- tum seen at very low water resting upon chalk, and containing the usual characteristic fossils. It is also found between the chalk and freshwater beds at Runton; but it is only between Old Hythe Gap and Weybourne that it appears, in its usual characters, above the level of the sea. Mr. Lyell describes two points where the chalk is in contact with several feet of shelly sand and clay, con- tainizg pebbles and the shells of the Norwich crag, and overlaid by clay and loam without shells. Half a mile from Cliff End, Wey- bourne, the following section was displayed in a cliff about forty feet high : Horizontal chalk with flnts ............ 8 feet. Sand and flint pebbles with crag shells .... 1 foot. Fine sand with perfect crag shells ........ 10 feet. Sand and pebbles without shells.......... 3 feet. Unstratified clay or till with flints........ 10 feet. ‘The shells are well-characterized Norwich crag species. At the extremity of the cliff near Weybourne is an interesting section ten feet high, in which the strata are bent into an arch. 3. Freshwater deposits, with beds of lignite and subterranean or sub- marine Forests. These accumulations occur for the most part in patches a) * In consequence of the late heavy gales, the base of the cliffs was laid open, and Mr. Simons of Cromer has informed Mr. Lyell, that the pinnacle rests upon the crag or pan, and therefore confirms the above opinion. It also appeared that on both sides of the pinnacle there was a mass of till be- tween the stratified drift and the pan. April 1840. P22 174 at the bottom of the drift and immediately upon the chalk or crag. They are most largely developed at Mundesley and Runton, under- lying the drift at the latter locality, and partly cotemporaneous with it and partly superimposed upon it, at the former. The shells con- tained in the deposits are with few exceptions existing British species ; and Mr. Lyell consequently infers that the entire forma- tions of the mud cliffs, both freshwater and drift, belongs either to the latest period of the newer pliocene tertiary era, or to the post tertiary period. Hasborough has been long celebrated as one of the principal submarine forests of East Norfolk; and Mr. Lyell quotes the description by Mr. R. C. Taylor respecting the deposits gene- rally. (See Geol. of Norfolk, pp.’7 and 23.) He has not seen the stools of the trees in situ, owing to the state of the beach during his visits, but he has no doubt of their existence, from the testimony of independent witnesses, particularly of Mr. Simons of Cromer. During the winter of 1838-1839, a bed of lignite centaining bones of Elephants, pieces of wood, and roots of trees 2m situ, was exposed at Woolcot Gap, between Hasborough and Bacton, by the removal of a mass of incumbent drift thirty feet thick. At this point, therefore, the lignite bed was ascertained clearly to underlie the drift; and at other localities, the same extension inland has been proved by simi- lar destructions of the cliffs; Mr. Lyell consequently observes, that after the chalk, previously covered in part at least with Norwich erag, had been overspread with layers of sand and clay, the surface was converted into dry land, on which forest trees grew; that the sur- face was again submerged, the trees broken off near their roots, and gradually buried, with their branches, leaves, and occasionally bones of land animals, beneath the drift. ‘The following details are given of the points which more particularly engaged the author’s attention. Munpestey. North and south of this town, tlie cliffs vary in height from forty to seventy feet, and consist in their lower part of blue clay or till covered with stratified yellow sand and loam; but at Mundesley the cliff is only twenty or thirty feet high, and is occu- pied for several hundred yards by a freshwater deposit covered with about ten feet of flint gravel. The freshwater beds are irregular in extent, and consist of brown, black and gray sand and loam mixed with vegetable matter, sometimes almost passing into a kind of peat containing much pyrites. A few layers of rounded flint pebbles are interspersed in the mass. The bottom of the deposit was not visible ; but Mr. Lyell is of opinion, that it is not much below the level of the sea, Mr. Simons having seen chalk zm situ at Mundesley at low water. In 1829 a mass of till was prolonged into the fresh- water beds at their southern junction with the drift'in such a man- ner as to imply the contemporaneous origin of the lower part, at least, of both formations. The interpolation of this freshwater ac- cumulation, Mr. Lyell conceives, may have been effected by a small river flowing through the banks of drift during the subsidence of the cliffs, and depositing its earthy contents, with the drift wood and other transported materials. The shells obtained by the author, Mr. Fitch of Norwich, and Mr. J. B. Wigham, are Paludina impura, 175 P. minuta (Strickland), Valvata cristata, V. piscinalis, Limnea glu- ‘mosa, L. peregra, Planorbis albus, var., P. vortex, P. levis (Alder), -yclas pusilla, and C. cornea: of those eleven species, nine are British, and only two unknown in a living state. Fragments of Unios and Anodons also occur. The insects found in the Mundesley deposit consist of elytra of beetles, especially of the genus Donacia, presenting when freshly exposed their beautiful colours. Mr. Curtis is of opinion that there are two species of Donacia, both pos- sibly identical with British insects: the same entomologist has also detected the thorax of an Elater, an elytron of one of the Harpalide (Harpalus ophonus or H. argutor), also another which he confi- dently refers to Copris lunaris, a British beetle. The remains of fishes collected by Mr. Lyell and Mr. J. B. Wigham are considered by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns and Mr. Yarrell to belong to the genera Perch, Carp, Pike, and Trout. The horns of the Irish Elk are re- ported to have been found in making a road to the beach some years since. he common and best preserved vegetable remains, are seed- vessels of an aquatic plant, referred by Mr. Brown to Ceratophyllum demersum. West Runton Gap, two miles anda half from Cromer. A fresh- water deposit, on the east side of this point, contains many of Mun- desley shells, and passes unequivocally beneath about seventy feet of unstratified drift, while a thin bed of subjacent Norwich crag is interposed between it and the chalk. The beds are black and peaty. Twelve species of shells have been obtained by Mr. Lyell and Mr. Fitch, and determined by Mr. George Sowerby to be Paludina vivi- para, P. impura, P. albus, P. marginatus, Valvata piscinalis, Limnea palustris, L. stagnalis, Planorbis imbricatus, Ancylus lacustris, Cyclas appendiculata, C. cornea*and C. amnica, var.? also a species of Ano- donta. The Cyrena trigonula has not yet been observed in these deposits, though it accompanies a similar assemblage of shells at va- rious localities in Suffolk and Essex. From the occurrence of two species of shells distinct from any at present known in a living state, Mr. Lyell refers these freshwater deposits to the newest tertiary epoch; whether the fishes and plants of Mundesley are all referrible to existing species cannot be deter- mined without fuller evidence. With respect to the mammalian re- mains, he says it is extremely difficult to speak with certainty of the exact beds from which they may have been derived, because they are picked up at the base of the cliffs, after portions of the drift had been removed by the sea. It is the opinion of collectors, however, that they are chiefly derived from the freshwater beds, and more particu- larly the lignite, where it rests immediately upon the chalk or patches of Norwich crag. These remains belong to the Elephant, Rhinoce- ros, Hippopotamus, Horse, Ox, Pig, Beaver, Deer, &c.; but as the Norwich crag underlies the drift at Cromer and Weybourne, and frag- ments of crag shells are dispersed through the latter, Mr. Lyell sug- gests, that some mammalian remains may have been washed out of the crag into the drift; but, he adds, none of the characteristic crag fish-bones have been noticed in it, and that such bones of land ani- 176 mals, as have been distinctly obtained from the marine crag, are more rolled than those found so abundantly in the mud cliffs. Drift. This important formation is strictly analogous in charac- ter with that which has been called in Denmark and Sweden the boulder formation, and which, from the numerous erratics included in it, presents so remarkable a feature in the superficial geology of Scandinavia, the countries surrounding the Baltic, and those ex- tending thence, uninterruptedly, to the borders of Holland, to re-ap- pear in Norfolk and Suffolk. Mr. Lyell believes, that the boulder- fragments in all these districts were accumulated on ground perma- nently submerged, and not by one or many transient rushes of water over land previously emerged ; and he therefore prefers using the term drift instead of that of diluvium, by which the deposit has been generally designated. The subdivisions of stratified and unstratified (till) materials exist in Scandinavia and Scotland as well as m Norfolk, and therefore indicate some peculiarity in their distinct mode of origin; yet in all these countries, as Mr. Lyell observes, part of the till was accumulated contemporaneously with the strati- fied drift, and both are often identical in composition; the distinc- tion consisting solely in the arrangement of the materials. The only recent deposits precisely similar in character known to the author, are the terminal moraines of glaciers; and he has no doubt, that similar accumulations must take place in those parts of every sea, where drift ice, charged with mud, sand and blocks, melts, and the earthy materials are allowed to fall tranquilly to the bottom. ‘The occasional intercalation of stratified matter in the till, or the association of the two on a larger scale, he is of opmion, may be ex- plained by the temporary action of currents during the melting of the ice. The pebbles and erratic fragments of,larger dimensions found in the Norfolk drift, consist of granite, porphyry, greenstone, lias, chalk, &c. No fossils have yet been obtained in the drift from which the era of its formation can be inferred; and this absence of cha- racteristic organic remains, Mr. Lyell says, marks also the boulder formation in Scandinavia and Scotland. Near Upsala, however, he has seen large erratics resting on stratified beds corresponding in age to the till of that neighbourhood, in which numerous shells pe- culiar to the Baltic were imbedded ;—a fact which leads him to at- tribute, to some parts at least of the boulder formation of Scandi- navia, as recent an origin as can possibly be ascribed to the Norfolk | drift. At their commencement near Hasborough the cliffs are not more than twenty feet high, and are composed generally of blue clay co- vered with yellow sand, both, in some places, being stratified with great regularity. At some points where the stratified reposes on the unstratified, the surface of the latter is very uneven, and was evidently in that condition when the superior deposit was thrown down upon it. In 1829 the section at Hasborough was sand and loam thirteen feet—till, eight to sixteen feet—laminated sand and clay, partly bituminous, and inclosing compressed branches and leaves of trees, one and a half feet. ‘The cliffs between Has- 77 borough and Bacton Gap (about three miles) consist generally of the lignite or forest bed at the bottom, overlaid by till containing boulders of granite, quartz and fragments of Norwich crag shells; then in ascending order, laminated blue clay ; and at the top strati- fied yellow sand; the entire height being from thirty to forty feet. Between Bacton Gap and Mundesley the cliffs are higher, and con- sist of drift with boulders; and they exhibit the first fine exemplifi- cations of contortions, and of folded or contorted beds resting upon others which appear to have undergone no disturbance. From Mundesley to Trimmingham, the cliffs in the lower part are com- posed of till containing fragments of white chalk, and the upper of stratified drift. Whether the lignite bed is interposed between the chalk and the drift all the way, Mr. Lyell could not ascertain; but he found about a mile north-west of Mundesley, at the bottom of the cliff, a substratum inclosing numerous flattened leaves and branches. To the north-west of Cromer, the drift cludes a much larger quan- tity of chalk rubble than to the southward. Disturbance of the strata. Yn no portion of Great Britain, Mr. Lyell observes, are there evidences of more complicated disturbances of a modern date than in the mud-cliffs of Norfolk, or disturbances more difficult to explain. In many parts of the cliffs the beds are twisted and contorted into every possible curvature, and the replica- tions are in some instances so numerous, that a bed may be inter- sected three times in the same vertical well or boring. Occasionally the beds are vertical ; sometimes they present concentric crusts enve- loping a nucleus of sand, gravel or chalk, occasionally more than twenty feet in diameter. One instance, mentioned by Mr. Lyell, con- sists of a nucleus of blue clay successively surrounded by layers of white sand, yellow sand, striped loam and clay, laminated blue clay : and in another case he counted thirty distinct strata enveloping a nu- cleus of sand. These strange bendings, twistings and other irregu- larities are not continuous, though characteristic of the greater por- tion of the cliffs, but are in some cases limited to a small area, both in vertical height and lateral extension. Occasionally they range from the top to the bottom of the cliff; but not unfrequently beds thus disturbed rest upon others perfectly horizontal. To account for these phenomena, Mr. Lyell says, is extremely difficult, and he prefers leaving their final elucidation to the assist- ance which future sections may afford to offering any positive ex- planation. The nuclei, he is of opinion, are only the inner portions of a series of strata bent into a convex form, as the removal of portions of the cliff gradually develop other layers within those which had formed previously an apparent nucleus. When the disturbed beds are in the immediate vicinity of protuberances of chalk, he is in- clined to think that the greater resistance offered by the hard masses of chalk at the time the country was raised above the level of the sea might have produced a disturbance in the yielding strata of drift ; but he thinks that this explanation will not account for all the phenomena presented in the neighbourhood of the chalk pinnacle at Old Hythe Point, near Sherringham. Where the disturbed strata are associated 178 with indications of partial subsidences, he admits that the effects may have been produced by landslips; and that it is possible to account for contorted strata resting upon others, which are horizontal, by supposing that the latter were not operated upon by agents which set the superincumbent masses in motion. ‘To account, however, for some of the more complex phenomena of the coiled or contorted drift, he proposes an explanation founded on the effect of drifted ice upon loose materials. In the account given by Messrs. Dease and Simpson, of their discoveries in the arctic regions*, it is stated, that in latitude about 71° N. and longitude 156° W. they found a long low spit of land, named Point Barrow, composed of gravel and coarse sand, and in some parts more than a quarter of a mile broad, which the pressure of the ice had forced up into nume- rous mounds, resembling at a distance huge boulder rocks. Mr. Lyell also states, that so many facts have come to his knowledge of the manner in which masses of ice, even of moderate size, in the Baltic, and still more in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, push before them large heaps of boulders, that he can scarcely doubt of its power to produce, under favourable circumstances, phenomena si- milar to those exhibited in the mud cliffs of Norfolk. The intercalation of huge masses of solid chalk, and of chalk rubble, in the body of the drift, Mr. Lyell also states is not easy, under all circumstances, of being explained. With respect to the masses of solid chalk, he thinks they may, in part, be accounted for by the action of the sea on the ancient line of chalk cliffs, before or during the deposition of the drift, and by which pinnacles or needles of chalk would be undermined, thrown down and subsequently en- veloped in the till or stratified clay and sand: he also explains the occurrence of accumulations of chalk rubble unmixed with any of the adjacent materials, by considering the rubble as the talus of former chalk cliffs, buried up at a later period by drift. In describing the boulders associated with the drift, Mr. Lyell re- fers to Mr. R. C. Taylor’s memoir for an account of their nature and great diversity of character. On the shore near Cromer, Mr. Taylor mentions some derived from the cliffs, four tons in weight : one called Black Meg standing six to eight feet high; and another composed of granite being nearly six feet in diameter. Mr. Rose is quoted as an authority for the occurrence of boulders several tons weight, in the till, in the interior of Norfolk. It is impossible, Mr. Lyell states, for those who have seen the boulder formation of the countries surrounding the Baltic, to doubt that the so-called dilu- vium of the east of England had a similar origin. Of the sources from which the blocks were derived, he conceives that some of them may be ascribed to rivers flowing from the westward, and transport- ing masses of ice charged with detritus derived from secondary Strata, in the same manner as the St. Lawrence annually sends down into the gulf shoals of drifting ice, laden with fragments of rock and other earthy materials ; but he is inclined to think that a * Journ. of Royal Geograph. Soc., vol. vil. p. 221. 179 portion of the boulders and smaller masses may have been obtained, as proposed by Dr. Mitchell, from strata which once occupied the site of the German Ocean. The blocks of primary formations, he as- signs to a northern origin. Feb. 5.—Alexander Robertson, Esq., of Inverugie House, in the county of Moray; and William Sharpe, Esq., President of the Bradford Philosophical Society, were elected Fellows of this Society ; M. Puillon de Boblaye, of Paris, Professor Adolphe Brongniart, of Paris; and Professor Gustav Rose, of Berlin, were also elected Foreign Members. The President first read from the chair, an extract of a dispatch from Consul Chatfield, dated San Salvador, Oct. 10, 1839, and forwarded to the Society by Mr. Backhouse, by direction of Vis- count Palmerston. San Salvador is very subject to earthquakes, and on the 22nd of March, 1839, it experienced a strong shock, which was followed during nearly a fortnight, by ten to twenty daily, though of less force. ‘The shocks were afterwards continued at intervals, but as they were not unusually violent, they attracted no particular at- tention. On the first of October, at 2 a.u., a powerful earthquake was felt, and at 3 o’clock a second, which nearly demolished the town. The shocks were afterwards repeated with alarming violence and frequency, and at the date of the dispatch, not a house re- mained standing secure. The shocks were supposed to originate in operations immediately beneath the town, as places five or six miles distant had received no injury ; and the motion was considered to have been decidedly perpendicular. A paper was next read, on Orthoceras, Ammonites, and other cognate genera; and on the position they occupy in the animal kingdom, by Robert Alfred Cloyne Austen, Esq., F.G.S. The object of this memoir is to examine whether the fossil shells to which it refers, have been properly classed; or whether they do not belong to a higher order than that in which they are generally placed. Mr. Austen is of opinion that the shells of cephalopods were enveloped in the body of the animal; first, on account of the appa- rently extreme tenuity of certain genera, as Turrilites, Scaphites, Clymene, Cyrtoceras, Baculites, and Ammonites, which would render the shell extremely liable to injury. Secondly, from the mouths or openings of the outer chambers of some cephalopods being exceed- ingly contracted, as in the genera Scaphites and Baculites, in which the upper edge of the outer chamber is so nearly in contact with the body of the shell, or is so bent over, that the chamber could not have served, he conceives, as a place of retirement for the animal: certain Orthocera, O: pyriforme, O. ventricosa, are also mentioned by Mr. Austen as having the last chamber closed, or perforated only for the passage of the siphunculus; and he refers to the capacity of the outer chamber of Ammonites Calloviensis, A. depressus, A. canalicu- Jatus, A. discus, A. sublevis, A. Gervillit and A. funiferus, being so 180 greatly diminished as to have rendered it difficult, ‘‘ nay impossible,” for the animal to have retreated within it. In the third place, Mr. Austen observes, that more awkward contrivances in progressive motion could not well be conceived than the shell of the genus Hamites, on account of its form, supposing it to have been external; as well as the thin shells of Orthocera and Baculites, on account of their great length. He then compares the structure of the Nautilus with that of the fossil extinct cephalopods, and from the greater thickness of the shell of the Nautilus he infers, that the shells of the extinct genera were internal. From the liability of those external shells to be in- jured, and thus rendered incapable of performing the office of a float, he also infers, that the fossil shells were internal ; and he adds, that he has searched in vain for an instance of such a shell having been repaired by the animal. On these grounds, therefore, he proposes to remove the fossil extinct cephalopeds from the order Tetrabran- chiata, to which the Nautilus belongs, and to place them on the supposition that they were internal shells, with the Spirula, in the order Dibranchiata. The memoir to accompany the Second Edition of the Geological Map of England and Wales, by George Bellas Greenough, Esq., V.P.G.S., was then read. Mr. Greenough first points out the changes which have been made in the topography of the present edition of his map; he then alludes to the alterations in the table of formations, and in the boundaries ; and afterwards explains the principles by which he was guided in the choice of the pigments used in colouring the map. Of the six copper-plates upon which the first edition was en- graved, four and the lower portion of the fifth, have been used again ; the upper portion of the fifth and the entire sixth are new. The southern sheets were drawn originally, in part, at least, from those of the Ordnance Survey: for the topography of the northern, good authorities are still wanting; and the inaccuracies of the east- ern are geologically of little importance: for thus much of the map therefore new copper plates were not thought necessary ; not so for the remainder. To do justice to the great mass of information which is now possessed of Wales, and Siluria more especially, a detailed and scrupulously correct drawing was essential. Such a drawing the ad- mirable maps which have recently issued from the Ordnance press have afforded Mr. Greenough the opportunity of obtaining; and the result will, he trusts, be approved not merely by professed geologists, but by all who feel an interest in the progress of art, more especially when exerted in furtherance of science. Having always felt the close connexion which necessarily exists between the outward form of a country and its geological struc- ture, Mr. Greenough has made it a primary object to represent with distinctness and fidelity all undulations of the surface as far as the scale of the map would allow. In the first edition more than thir- teen hundred heights are distinguished, and in the present more ist” than fifteen hundred. Equal attention has been paid to hydro- graphy. ‘The course of rivers and brooks has been drawn neither fancifully nor negligently, and in the new parts will be found mi- nutely correct. The names of the smallest streams have been also diligently sought and recorded; and those of rivers are generally inserted both at their mouths and at their forkings. In the table of formations the following changes have been made. The upper and lower members of the green-sand, formerly united, are separated by a streak of gault. The fuller’s earth, the upper lias marl, and the marlstone are separated from the other members of the Cotswold series. The new red sandstone group has been dissected after the manner of the Germans; and in Siluria the divisions first established by Mr. Murchison have broken up the unity of the greywacke formation. In determining the boundaries of the strata, Mr. Greenough has added to his own personal experience that of other competent ob- servers ; and he acknowledges among the most valuable communi- cations, those of Mr. De la Beche, Mr. Jukes, Mr. Logan, Mr. Mac- Lauchlan, Mr. Milne, Mr. Murchison, Prof. Sedgwick, Mr. Sop- with, Mr. Strickland, Mr. J. Taylor, Mr. N. Wood, Mr. Lonsdale, Dr. Fitton and Mr. J. Phillips. On comparing the geological boundaries of the old map with those of the new, Mr. Greenough hopes to be excused for indulging some slight feeling of self-congratulation. ‘Though almost every part of the kingdom has undergone within the last twenty years a rigid scrutiny owing to increased facilities of investigation, yet the geo- logical errors of the first edition are far less grave and numerous than might reasonably have been apprehended. The only errors which he thinks require to be specified, are a false colouring in Leicester- shire of small extent, arising from accidental carelessness, and that in Devonshire and Cornwall due to imperfect information *. The lower deposits of these counties, as formerly represented, consist either of clay-slate with cross courses of elvan, or greywacke slate, with its usual suite of greywacke, transition limestone and culm. In place of these is now presented Old Red Sandstone, with subordinate bands of limestone, mountain limestone and coal. This change, Mr. Greenough says, will no doubt appear uncalled * Mr. Greenough states in a note, that between the representation of the Cornish and Devonian rocks, and that put forth in a small skeleton map by Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison, the resemblance is so obvious, that it is necessary for him to notice only the difference. The object of their map, he says, was to disconnect the Devonian from the older transition beds, in his to connect them. Hence the colour chosen by them presents a con- trast to that of. the Cambrian, which he proposes to term the lower killas system; while that which he has chosen presents an attempt, however im- perfect, at approximation. ; The Devonian rocks, Mr. Greenough has always believed, and still be- lieves to agree with those of the Hartz; and if Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison arrive at the same conclusion, they will only confirm, by the high authority of their names, the correctness of a doctrine laid down in the former edition of the map, as well as the present. , 182 for, when he states, that in the metalliferous rocks of Tavistock tunnel, Redruth and St. Agnes, &c., he still recognises all the cha- racters of Wernerian clay-slate; and in the tract formerly coloured as greywacke, all the characters of that group as it exists in the Hartz, the district where the term originated, and to which therefore, in all cases of doubt, the geologist is bound to appeal in dernier ressort, as the true and undoubted type of the greywacke formation. Hence, continues Mr. Greenough, it becomes necessary to observe, first, that the characters which Werner assigned tu clay-slate are not confined to it; and secondly, that the old red sandstone has obtained admission into this part of his map only by a sacrifice of its independence, and upon condition of taking rank there, but as an integrant member of the greywacke formation. The term greywacke, if employed in a mineralogical sense, Mr. Greenough says, may safely continue to be used to designate that granular compound of semi-crystalline fragments cemented by clay-slate, found in rocks of every epoch in the Grampians, in Car- diganshire, the Tarantaise, along the whole range of the Alps, the Carpacks, the Apennines, &c.; in a geological sense, if employed at all, it should be strictly confined in its application to the Hircynian system and its equivalents. The English language, he adds, is rich enough to dispense with a word which has long since been objected to with reason as being harsh in utterance, as well as uncertain in signification, and therefore he thinks geologists ought to abstain from all further use of it. The phrase old red sandstone is equally superfluous. Therefore, he ven- tures to apply the designation of Upper Killas to the series of beds above the Silurian, and that of Lower Killas to the series below the Silurian. To the terms Devonian and Cambrian, Mr. Greenough entertains the following objections : 1. If by Devonian system is to be understood only a part of the rocks of Devon, there is lost the only name whereby the whole can be designated. 2. If this name be applied to denote the agreement of the Devon rocks with those of Herefordshire and other midland counties, the only name is lost whereby may be denoted (what is equally worthy of being denoted) their disagreement. 3. The expression “‘ Devonian system” is just as applicable to the culmiferous beds of Devon as to the beds beneath them. 4, The name of an English county is not a proper designation for an extensive European range. 5. The title Cambrian system, according to its natural and ob- vious signification, should include all the rocks of the principality,— among others the very system to which it is opposed, the Silurian. Mr. Greenough then adverts to Mr. Bakewell’s including the old red sandstone and mountain limestone in the transition class, (Introduction to Geology, 5th edit. p. 135, 136,) and quotes at length Dr. Macculloch’s description of the old red sandstone as laid down in that author’s System of Geology (vol. il. p. 213, et seq.). This description, he says, characterizes in every important particular 183 the killas and shillot beds of Devonshire and Cornwall; and he therefore considers himself fully entitled, on lithological evidence, to assign to these rocks that place in the general series which they occupy in the present map. The evidence to be derived from Pa- leontology, though incomplete, he is of opinion, also points out to the same conclusion. The <<‘ earthy sooty limestone’? which rests conformably on these beds near Barnstaple, Holcomb Rogus and West Leigh, with a south- erly dip, and rises again with a contrary dip at Launceston and South Petherwin, Mr. Greenough considers on zoological evidence to be the representative of the true mountain limestone. Under these circum- stances, he thinks it highly probable that the culm limestone of Barnstaple, &c., occupies the same place in the general series as that which in other countries forms the floor of our coal-field; and con- sequently that the superincumbent shales, marked with vegetable im- pressions, are legitimate members of the great carboniferous system. If further evidence on this subject be required, Mr. Greenough says, there is still in reserve another argument with which Mr. Murchison has kindly supplied him, derived from his recent re- searches in Germany,—an argument of analogy. The transverse sections in descending order from the well-known coal-field of Westphalia (notably in the zone between Hagen and Iserlohn) exhibit clearly a descending order from the productive coal strata, through beds representing the English millstone grit, and then through various schists and sandstones, with minute plants re- sembling those of the culm-measures of Devon; next through bands of flag-limestone, undistinguishable from the black limestones of Barnstaple, and, like them, containing Posidonia and Goniatites, and associated with bands of flinty slate. (Kiesel- schiefer). Passing to still lower strata of schists and psammites, other calcareous courses appear, including the great limestone of ale tract, which contains the same fossils as the limestone of South Devon ; and finally, these are underlaid by greywacke and subordinate courses of limestone, — which rise into the higher mountains of the region, and contain Homalonoti, Pterinez, and other shells characteristic of the upper members of the Silurian System. In the third place, Mr. Greenough explains the principles by which he was guided in the choice and distribution of colours. In the choice of pigments he sought the most transparent, the most distinct ; those least subject to fade by exposure to air, light, or damp ; those which are most soluble, and those of which the ingre- dients will not act chemically one upon another. In the distribution of pigments, he endeavoured to accommodate the colour of the pigment to that of the substance represented ; to apply to substances mineralogically similar, similar tints; to sub- stances mineralogically dissimilar, dissimilar tints; to place in juxta- position those colours only which would either harmonize or contrast, as the occasion might require; to confine the opake colours to those parts of the map which are least charged with engraving ; to reserve the most forcible colours for the smaller spaces; to denote marked 184 differences in adjoining rocks by strong opposition of hue; to avoid spottiness ; and lastly, to apply the brightest colours to the centre, carrying them off by gradation towards the extremities. All these objects, Mr. Greenough states, can rarely be attained in any case, but all were taken into consideration before the colouring of any portion was finally decided upon. He then alludes to the attention which is necessary in the ap- plication of the pigments, and the difficulties of securing unifor- mity of tint as well as correctness of boundaries; also to the ne- cessity of employing artists of acknowledged skill and established character. As the accomplishment of the above requisites requires great care, and is necessarily attended with considerable expense, Mr. Greenough enters at some length into the application of machinery to geological mapping. He shows, that by the employment of shaded grounds the number of tints may be diminished, and colours not be required to do more than they can perferm ; and that where the shade is produced by lines repeated at small intervals, there is obtained a tint cheaper, purer, brighter, more constant and uniform, more durable, and far less injurious to the engraving beneath than any wash. ‘The breadth, depth, and mutual distance of the lines being all capable of modifi- cation, a large series of such lines may be obtained, varying from the faintest grey to absolute black, every one of which being neutral, must harmonize with whatever colour may happen to be next to it. The direction of the lines also may vary indefinitely ; and a further resource may be obtained in the use of dots; and the form of these again may be varied indefinitely, When engraved lines or dots are employed, not as single tints, but as a eround for other. tints, they have the great merit of subdividing a formation without destroying its unity. Mr. Greenough availed himself of this expedient in laying down the beds of the Weald and of the Cotswolds. The preparing of an uniform system of tints, and inducing its adoption, Mr. Greenough states is not very easy of execution on the old plan; first, because the number of substances to be distinguished varies indefinitely, according to the nature and object of the several maps in which the uniform system is to be employed; secondly, be- cause different minds frame different schemes of classification, and enlarge or diminish the groups as their own good pleasure or the na- ture of the countries represented may suggest ; thirdly, because the same colour employed under different conditions, would lead to very different optical results, being in perfect harmony when applied to one map, when applied to another, painfully discordant. Though the list of formations in elementary books is not long, yet the number of divisions and subdivisions which require admission into geological maps very constantly exceeds the number of tints which the most practised eye can discriminate; nor is it expedient, under any circumstances, that these tints should be repeated. 'To over- come this difficulty, Mr. Greenough proposes the combination of co- lours with linear shadows; and he indulges a hope that it will not be found difficult, by the judicious application of this simple contrivance, 185 to give to the geological map-maker the blessing of an easy, copious, elegant,eprecise, and universal language. To the Memoir are appended an Alphabetical Index to the Hills, and a list of the Hills arranged according to counties. A paper was afterwards read, “ On the Detrital Deposits of part of Norfolk, between Lynn and Wells;’ by Joshua Trimmer, Esq., F.G.S. The part of Norfolk described in this paper, is bounded by a line drawn from Lynn through Fakenham to Wells. The secondary strata consist of chalk and a band of green-sand and Kimmeridge clay on the borders of the Wash. The crag is considered to be wanting ; but above the chalk are two deposits, neither of which, in Mr. Trimmer’s opinion, is due to ordinary, long-continued marine action, but to pow- erful currents of water. The upper deposit consists of ferruginous sand or loam, containing numerous chalk flints, and a few fragments of red chalk, ferruginous sandstone, quartz rock, trap, porphyries and other formations. Mr. Trimmer does not pretend to identify any of these rocks with those of Scandinavia; but he says, if some of them have not been derived from that country, he knows of no other de- posit in that part of Norfolk in which Scandinavian detritus is to be found. He has not seen any fragments actually imbedded of suffi- cient size to merit the appellation of boulders, though such masses are often placed to protect the angles of houses and gateposts. The lower deposit is composed of the ruins of chalk mixed with variable proportions of argillaceous and arenaceous materials. In its purest form it resembles chalk, but in adjoining sections it is often lam- inated with irregular layers of sand or gravel, or so much mixed with them, as to assume the appearance of a gravelly, calcareous loam. Near Lynn it consists of fragments of chalk in blue clay. It is in general destitute of detritus foreign to the chalk, Mr. Trimmer having noticed in it only one small pebble of sandstone. Unabraded tabular masses of flint, from 12 to 24 inches broad, are dispersed irregularly through it. In neither of the two deposits has the author found any organic remains, except those derived from the chalk or the oolites. The depth of these accumulations varies so greatly, that within a few hundred yards the chalk may in one place be barely covered by a film of sand and gravel, and in another be overlaid by a bed 20 feet thick. The deepest and purest bed of chalk-rubble examined by Mr. Trimmer is at Gallows Hill, near Burnham Market, and consists in its upper portion of finely comminuted chalk, partially worn fragments of chalk, and tabular, unabraded flints; but the lower four feet con- tain irregular layers of sand, which in one part increase to a lenticu- lar bed of-rounded and angular flint gravel. The surface of the chalk-rubble is constantly indented with sand- galls, many of which Mr. Trimmer assigns to the action of currents of water; and he suggests that those which are cylindrical and a few inches in diameter, descending obliquely into the body of the rub- ble, may have been formed by eddies, whirling pebbles in their vortex. & 186 » A sand-gall 20 feet in depth at Gallows Hill, may, he says, be ad- vanced as an objection to this hypothesis. The phenomena pre- sented by the sand-galls are stated to agree with those mentioned by Mr. Lyell in his paper read before the British Association at Birmingham. The sides are stated to be lined with yellow clay, stained black in some parts; and between the galls, the chalk-rubble is separated from the superincumbent gravel by a nearly continuous layer of similar clay, from one to two inches thick. The sand-gall at Gallows Hill, 20 feet deep, is described in detail, and stated to terminate upwards in a depression in the chalk-rubble. Its trunk is filled with flint pebbles enveloped in ferruginous sand, and in gene- ral more water-worn than those in the horizontal bed of gravel. The author found in it one perfectly rounded pebble of quartz rock. At the time he examined the district, he had not read Mr. Lyell’s paper on sand-galls, and therefore made no observations relative to their being the effects of acidulated water; and he will not venture to assert, that there were no fragments of chalk in the sand-gall de- scribed by him; but he says, if they exist, they are so much more rare in the gravel which fills it, than in that of the superincumbent bed, as to give to the contents of the sand-gall a very different as- pect. The surface of the bed of gravel was indented in a similar manner to that of the chalk, the furrows cutting through layers of loam and sand; but the line of separation between it and an overly- ing loosely aggregated mass of ferruginous sand, was not so neatly defined as between the bottom of the gravel and the surface of the chalk-rubble. In conclusion, Mr. Trimmer explains, that his reasons for assuming that the two deposits were not produced by long-continued marine action, are founded on the condition of the materials composing ‘them. The chalk alone is worn to smooth pebbles, and in some cases the abrasion even of it is not complete; the flints also im- bedded in the rubble, are as sharp as in their native strata; and those contained in the gravel beds have undergone little more attrition. He calls attention, lastly, to the importance of determining, whether the deposits described in this paper have any equivalents in the cliffs of Cromer. On the same evening, after the ordinary business of the Society had been transacted, a Special General Meeting was held to consider the propriety of passing a Bye-Law, to enable Geologists residing in the British dependencies, and being British subjects, but known to Members of the Geological Society only by their works, to be re- commended as Candidates for election into the Geological Society, as Ordinary Fellows, such persons not being eligible into that class by Section III. Clause 3, or into the class of Foreign Mémbers by Section VIII. Clause 1. And further, to consider the articles of agreement upon which Mr. Greenough proposed to assign to the Geological Society the copper plates and manuscript description of the second edition of his Geological Map of England. 187 The following resolutions were passed unanimously : I. That British Subjects residing in British Colonies and desirous of becoming Fellows, but known to Members of the Geological So- ciety only by their works, may be recommended as Candidates into the class of Ordinary Fellows, and balloted for in the usual manner, provided, that instead of one of the proposers certifying to personal knowledge, three Fellows of the Society shall certify their acquaint- ance with the works or scientific attainments and respectability ‘of the Candidate. Il. That the Articles of Agreement by which Mr. Greenough proposes to transfer to the Society the Copper-plates and Manuscript description of the Second Edition of his Geological Map of England and Wales, be adopted and approved*. Ill. That the thanks of the Society be given to Mr. Greenough for his great exertions in preparing the Map, which he has so liber- ally made over to the Society. * For the principal Articles of the Agreement, see the secend page of the Annual Report, postea, p. 190. , VOL. IITe Q se ‘gags Bie ib yen uF (Bt, ro} On seals PROCEEDINGS THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vor. III. 1840. No. 68. AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 21st February, 1840. Tue following Report from the Council was read :— It is with great satisfaction that the Council are again enabled to congratulate the Society on the increased number of its Fellows, which, at the close of 1838, was (exclusive of Honorary and Foreign Members, and Personages of Royal Blood) 742. During the year 1839, 36 new Fellows were elected and admitted, besides 7 more who had not before paid their admission fees, making an addition of 43 new Fellows, whilst during the same period there were 9 deaths and 8 resignations, which leaves an absolute increase of 26, thus making the total number of Fellows at the close of 1839, 768. On the other hand, during the same year the number of Foreign Mem- bers was diminished by 2, there having been 3 deaths and only one election. The number of Honorary Members and Personages of Royal Blood remains the same as at the last Anniversary, viz. 40; the total number of Members is therefore increased from $31, the num- ber at the close of 1838, to 855. In directing the attention of the Society to the state of the Fi- nances, which show an excess of Expenditure over Income to the amount of 346/. 14s. 2d. during the last year, the Council consider it their duty to state that this excess has been mainly caused by the expense incurred in preparing for publication the part of the Trans- actions now on sale, the whole of which excess may therefore be considered as capital vested in the Stock of Transactions. At the same time they feel it their duty to observe, that the expenses of the year 1839 have been considerably within the estimates prepared and laid before the Society at the last Anniversary. The whole amount of the three compositions received during the last year has been funded, although one Compounder has died during that period. It will thus be seen that the Council steadily persevere QZ 190 in the principle recommended in the Auditor’s Report for 1833, viz. of accumulating an amount of capital equal to that of sums received for the total number of existing Compounders. The number of Compounders at the close of 1839 was 108, and the value of their compositions was 3244/. 10s., while the estimated value of the funded property of the Society is now 2010/., or within 12347. 10s. ot the whole amount received for actual compositions, a much nearer ap- proach than the Society has ever yet made to the object which it has in view. The Council have to state that, following up the plan with regard to the salaried department of the Society which was laid down in the Report of 1838, Mr. Woodward has been appointed to the office of Sub-Curator, and that they have every reason to expect, from the manner in which he has entered upon his duties, that the Curator will be enabled to devote more of his valuable time to the other business of the Society. A new Part of the Transactions has been already published since the last Report, and another is ready to be laid upon the table in the course of a few days. The Council has also to announce that the following Bye-Law has been passed, in strict compliance with the prescribed forms, to enable British subjects residing in the Colonies and not personally known to Fellows of the Society to become Members : That British Subjects residing in British Colonies and desirous of be- coming Fellows, but known to Members of the Geological Society only by their works, may be recommended as Candidates into the class of Ordinary Fellows, and balloted for in the usual manner, provided that instead of one of the proposers certifying to personal knowledge, three Fellows of the So- ciety shall certify their acquaintance with the works or scientific attain- ments and respectability of the Candidate. The Council have further the great satisfaction of informing the Society that Mr. Greenough has generously transferred to the So- ciety the copper-plates of the second edition of his Geological Map of England, on conditions, which received the sanction of the Spe- cial General Meeting, held on the 5th of February, the Articles of Agreement having been duly prepared and drawn up by the Society’s Solicitors. The principal conditions of the transfer are, that the Map shall be published by the Society, who shall defray the cost of paper, printing, colouring, &c.; that these costs shall be reimbursed to the Society from the sums received on account of copies sold, the price of which is also fixed in the Articles of Agreement; and that the surplus received from such sales shall be paid over annually to Mr. Greenough, until he shall have been repaid the sum of 7187. 2s. 5d., the cost of drawing and engraving, incurred by him in the prepara- tion for the second edition of the said Map; after which the copper- plates are to remain the absolute property of the Society. The Council have resolved that the Wollaston Gold Medal be as- signed to M. Dumont of Liége, for his Memoir, Map, and Sections of the Geological Constitution of the Province of Liége, published in 1832, and that one year’s interest of the sqid fund, amounting to 191 32/. 10s. 4d., be assigned to Mr. James Sowerby, in order to facili- tate the continuation of his researches in Mineral Conchology. Report of the Museum Committee. The Committee has to congratulate the Society on the great pro- gress which has been made in’ the arrangement of the collection during the past year. The most important feature in this progress has been, Ist, the determination by Mr. Lonsdale of Plants'‘from the Coal, presented’ by Sir P. Egerton, Messrs. Hutton, Murchison, Stokes, Meade and others, occupying fifty drawers. Qndly, The working into the cabinet of the valuable collection of Silurian fossils, filling thirty-six drawers, presented in former years by Mr. Murchison; and the comparison by Mr. Lonsdale of the names accompanying the specimens with published figures and de- scriptions. Besides these steps in the arrangement of the English series, eleven drawers of shells and corals from the mountain lime- stone have also been named. Also more than forty specimens of Saurian remains from the Lias, together with miscellaneous speci- mens from the Diluvium of Essex, Crag, Pliocene strata of the Clyde, London Clay, and Chalk Marl. Labels, containing generic or specific names, localities, references to books, and the names of donors, have been affixed by Mr. Wood- ward to all the above-mentioned rocks and fossils: corresponding entries have also been made by him in the hand catalogues. The specimens above alluded to, many of which have been now intro- duced for the first time into our English collection, occupy no less than 160 drawers. Four new Cabinets, ordered by the Council at the last Anniver- sary, have been placed in the Lower Museum, and have been already in great part filled. The Committee have learnt with pleasure that the number of per- sons who have made use of the Society’s collections during the past year has considerably exceeded that of the years immediately pre- ceding. Mr. Woodward entered upon his appointment as Sub-Curator on the 1st of June. Since that period his time has been fully employed in the labours above mentioned, in affixing new bracket labels to the larger specimens,—in drawing illustrations for the Evening Meet- ings, and in attending the visitors who have consulted the Society’s Museum. The Committee cannot conclude this Report without congratula- ting the Council on the success which has attended the new arrange- ments which were made last year in regard to the duties of the Cu- rator and Sub-Curator. By relieving Mr. Lonsdale from attendance on visitors to the Museum, and from many secretarian labours in la- belling and cataloguing specimens, they have enabled him to devote his energies far more successfully than on any former occasion to the classification of our English collections, and we have pleasure in ex- 192 pressing our admiration of the varied and profound acquirements which he has displayed in determining since the last Anniversary the names of so many species of fossil plants, shells, corals, and saurian reptiles. LIBRARY. With respect to the Library the Committee have only to report that 160 volumes and pamphlets have been added, and have been duly entered into the catalogue. (Signed) CHARLES LYELL. CHARLES DARWIN. PH. GREY EGERTON. Comparative Statement of the Number of the Society at the close of the years 1838 and 1839. Dee. 31st, 1838. Dec. 31st, 1839. Fellows having compounded . . 106 Sa ae LOS Contributing wees. 2a Sueur eee ———. Non-residents . «0 393. ..2 . « 405 742 768 Honorary, Members ../ =) \- ys yl) ) eSilglys on a sso Foreign Members. . By halt AO Palins, oS 2 cline Personages of Royal Blood. Bhs Uixbiite wns 3 831 855 General Statement explanatory of the alteration in the Number of Fellows at the close of the years 1838 and 1839. Number of Fellows, Compounders, Contributors, and \ ie ' Non-residents, 3lst December, 1838 .... . * Add Fellows elected during 1839 and paid . . . 36 in former years and paid in 1839 7 — 43 785 Deluct. Meceased is ay See aes Ye ee ee eSIGNed’ 5) yous, oy ae — 17 Total number of Fellows 3lst Dec. 1839 . . . . . #421768 1990 Number of Fellows liable to Annual Contributions at the close of 1839, with the Alterations during the year 1839. Number at the close of 1838 . . . . . . 243 Deduct, Deceased Or sate 6 Resigned RBM oi. heey eo Compoundedeems-a ean cge on a) Became Non-residents 3 — 18 225 Add, Elected during 1839, paid aa 4 not Compounded : Elected during former years and 5 paid in| 1S SO Reem! Non-residents who became Re- il sident and did not Compound — 30 Total number as above . .. .. . + 255 Deceased Fellows: Compounders (1): Davies Gilbert, Esq. Residents (6): Earl of Caledon; Henry Hubert, Esq.; William Taylor Esq.; William Shutt, Esq.; Sir John St. Aubyn; Colonel Silvertop. Non-residents (2): Louis Hunton, Esq. ; Captain Alexander Gerard. Foreign Members (3): Professor Esmark ; Professor Mohs; M. Carlos de Gimbernat. The following Persons were elected Fellows during the year 1839. January 9th.—Captain Alexander Jack, Bengal Native Infantry ; George Cunningham, Esq. of 41, Harley Street; Rev. Samuel Wilberforce, M.A. of Brighton, Isle of Wight; Rev. William Bilton, M.A. of Port Hill, near Bideford; and Richard Clewin Griffith, M.D. of 10, Gower Street, Bedford Square. January 23rd.—H. Sockett, Esq. of Swansea; John Thomas Barber Beaumont, Esq. of Regent Street; and Rev. Thomas Rees, LL.D. of 39, Woburn Place. February 6th.—Mathew Dawes, Esq. of Acres Field, Bolton; Capt. Alexander, Royal Staff Corps, Southwold, Suffolk; John Cun- ningham, Esq. of Hope Street, Liverpool; and S. R. Pattison, Esq. of Launceston. February 27th.—Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, Esq. of Burrows Lodge, Swansea. March 13th.—Major George Walter Prosser, of 22, Cambridge Ter- race, Hyde Park; William Sanders, Esq. of Park Street, Bristol; _ W. Marshall, Esq. M.P.; and Robert Blagdon Hale, Esq. M.P. of Alderley Park, Gloucestershire. Loa “March 27th.—William Harris, Esq. of Charing in Kent; Rev. Robert Norgrave Pemberton, of Church Stretton, Salop; Rev. Alexander Thurtell, A.M. of Caius College, Cambridge; and Searles Valen- tine Wood, Esq. of 13, Bernard Street. April 10th.—John Manning Needham, Esq. of Chiswell Street ; Samuel Wright Fearn, Esq. of St. Peter’s, Derby; Barratt Ed- ward Lampet, Esq. B.A. of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge ; and John Laurance, Esq. of High Street, Leicester. April 24th.—_James William Farrer, Esq. F.S.A. 7, John Street, Berkeley Square; C. B. Rose, Esq. of Swaffham, Norfolk ; and William Haughton Stokes, Esq. M.A. of Caius College, Cam- bridge. May 8th.—Thomas Griffin, Esq. of 25, Lansdowne Place, Chelten- ham; John Griffith, Esq. of 16, Finsbury Place, South; and Robert Fitch, Esq. of 19, Castle Meadow, Norwich. May 22nd.— William Fane De Salis, Esq. M.A. of 5, Carlton Gardens; and George Fleming Richardson, Esq. of the British Museum ;—and Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, was also elected a Foreign Member. June 5th.—J. B. Wigham, Esq. of Heigham, Norwich. November 6th.—George Samuel Fereday Smith, Esq. of Manches- ter; William Taprell, Esq. of 8, Caroline Place, Mecklenburgh Square ; and Edmund Morris, Esq. of 68, Oxford Terrace, Hyde Park. November 20th.—John Williams, Esq. R.E. Lieutenant of the Royal Engineers employed on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. December 4th.—Angus Friend Mackintosh, Esq. of 18, Chenies Street, Bedford Square. December 18th.—William Sidney Gibson, Esq. of 39, Essex Street, Strand. The following Donations to the Museum have been received since the last Anniversary :— British and Irish Specimens. Bones from the Crag of Easton and Bulchamp Pit, Suffolk ; Be sented by Capt. Alexander, F.G.S. Corals from the Mountain Limestone of Lough Erne; Remains of Mammalia found in the Black Bog of Dunshaughlin, County of Meath; and Cast of the Femur of a Saurian or Shotover Hill; presented by Viscount Cole, F.G.S. Plants from the Pembrokeshire Coal Field ; presented by Henry Still, Esq. F.G.S. Fossils from the Lias near Cheltenham; presented by R. B. Grant- ham, Esq. F.G.S. A polished Specimen of Spongus Labyrinthus in Flint, from Sussex; presented by the Marquis of Northampton, F.G.S8. Section of an Aleyonite in Flint; presented by the Rev. Charles Watkins. 195 Shells from the recent deposit on the banks of the St. Lawrence; presented by Charles Lyell, Esq. V.P.G.S. Fossils from the Ludlow formation near Ludlow ; presented by the Rey. W. R. Evans. Fossils from the London Clay; presented by N. T. Wetherell, Esq. F.G.S8. A Slab of New Red Sandstone from Eaton, Cheshire, with ripple- marks and impressions of Cheirotherium footsteps ; presented by Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart. M.P. F.G.S. A collection of Fossils from the South of Ireland; presented by R. Griffith, Esq. F.G.S. Fossils from Cornwall; presented by Gideon Mantell, LL.D. F.G.S. Portions of a Tortoise from the Freshwater Strata of East Cowes, Isle of Wight; presented by the Rev. W. Hennah. Shells from the Coralline Crag at Gedgrove, and a Slab of Coralline Crag from Sudbourne ; Cast of a Mastodon’s Tooth dredged up off Easton, in June 1839; presented by Capt. Alexander, F.G.S. Slates; presented by Leonard Horner, Esq. V.P.G.S. Specimens of Venericardia planicosta and of Nummulites from the London Clay; presented by James Bowerbank, Esq. F.G.S. Tiles from the Forest Marble and Purbeck Slate of Lady-Down; presented by Miss Benett. Specimens from Muswell Hill, and the London Clay near Chalk Farm ; presented by N. T. Wetherell, Esq. F.G.S. Specimens of the Rocks of Waterford Haven; presented by Major T. Austin. Specimens from Abereiddy Bay and from a Peat Bog near Fishguard ; presented by H. MacLauchlan, Esq. F.G.S. A Fossil from the Chalk at Merstham ; presented by Newman Smith, Esq. Three Paramoudras from Norfolk; presented by the Rev. John Gunn. Fossils from the Chalk near Charing; presented by William Harris, Esq. F.G.S. Specimens of Beekite from Devonshire; presented by Angus F. Mackintosh, Esq. F.G.S. Part of a Fossil Tree from Portland; presented by John Fisher, Esq. F.G.S. Foreign Specimens. A Specimen of Polished Agate from Constantinople; presented by Edward Clark, Esq. F.G.S. Minerals from Nova Scotia; presented by Abraham Gesner, Esq. A Collection of Fossil Shells from the Apennines; presented by Sig. Michellotti. Shells from the Pampas of Buenos Ayres; presented by Sir Wood- bine Parish, K.C.H. F.G.S. Shale with impressions of Plants from Philadelphia; presented by Gideon Mantell, LL.D. F.G.S. Rocks from New Zealand and the Gold Coast ; presented by Charles Lyell, Esq. V.P.G.S. 196 Fossils from Malta; presented by Miss Emily Attersol. Specimens from Jamaica; presented by the Rev. Harry Jelly. Hippurites and Spherulites from the Pyrenees and the South of France; presented by G. B. Greenough, Esq. V.P.G.S. Specimens from Neuchatel; presented by Dr. Malcolmson, F.G.S. Slice of the Limestone of the Rock of Gibraltar mounted upon Glass ; presented by Mr. Darker. Fossil Wood from Mount Wellington, New South Wales; presented by Josias Lambert, Esq. F.G.S. Ammonites from the Tartary side of the Himalayas; presented by ~H. Clark, Esq. Specimens of the Volcanic Rocks of St. Helena; presented by John Clark, M.D. Specimens of Lava from the Island of St. Vincent; presented by H. J. Brooke, Esq. F.G.S. MIscELLANEOUS. Casts of Echini and Shells; presented by M. le Prof. Agassiz. Impression in Tin-foil of Nereites Cambrensis; presented by the Rev. J. B. Reade. Scale for weighing Letters; presented by John Taylor, Esq. Treas. G.S A Series of Specimens illustrative of the external characters of Rocks ; presented by G. B. Greenough, Esq. V.P.G.S. The Lisrary has been increased by the Donation of about 160 Volumes and Pamphlets. CHARTS AND Maps. Geological Map of Germany and the neighbouring States, and Geo- . logical Map of the N.W. of Germany, by Frederick Hoffmann ; presented by the Rev. Prof. Whewell, F.G.S. Pilote Frangais, 4€me partie-—2. Carte des Mers du Nord, entre 48° et 75° Lat. Nord.—3. Carte générale des Bancs de Terre Neuve.—4. Carte des Cotes meridionales d’ Afrique et de l’entrée du Canal de Mozambique.—5. Carte du Canal de Mozambique et de Ile de Madagascar.—6. Carte des Iles situés a l'Est et au Nord- est de Madagascar.—7. Carte des iles Sumatra, Java et Borneo ; presented by the Director-General of the Depot for the Marine of France. Nos. 71 and 74 of the Ordnance Map, in continuation of the Trigo- nometrical Survey of Great Britain; presented by the Master- General and Board of Ordnance. Ordnance Survey of the County of Kildare, in 42 Sheets, including Title and Index; presented by Colonel Colby, by direction of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 19 a ( The following List contains the Names of all the Persons and Public Bodies from whom Donations to the Library and Museums were received during the past year. Academy of Sciences of Paris. Admiralty, The Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners of the, Agassiz, M. le Prof. Alexander, Capt., F.G.S. American Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia. Asiatic Society of Calcutta. Athenzeum Club. Athenzeum, Editor of. Attersol, Miss Emily. Austin, Major T. Beaufort, Captain, R.N. Hon. M. G.S. Benett, Miss. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. Bilton, Rev. William, F.G.S. Bland, Thomas, Esq. F.G.S. Botanical Society of London. Bowerbank, J. 8., Esq. F.G.S. British Association for the Ad- vancement of Science. Brongniart, M. Alex., For. Mem. G.S. Brooke, H. J., Esq. F.G.S. Buckland, Rew Professor, D.D. Pres. G.S. Cambridge Philosophical Society. Catullo, M. Tommaso Antonio. Charlesworth, Edw., Esq. F.G.S. Clark, John, M.D. Clark, Edward, Esq. F.G.S. Clark, H., Esq. Colby, Colonel, R.E. F.G.S. Cole, Viscount, M.P. F.G.S. College of Civil Engineers. Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Woods. Coxe, Leonard S., Esq. F.G.S. Dalmont, M. W. Darker, Mr. Darwin, Charles, Esq. Sec. G.S. Daubeny, Prof., M.D. F.G.S. Degenhardt, M. Charles. Depot Général de la Marine Francaise. De Serres, M. Marcel. De Waldheim, M. G. Fischer. D’Omalius D’Halloy, M. J. J., For. Mem. G.S. Dumont, M. A. H. Ecole des Mines. Egerton, Sir Philip Grey, Bart. M.P. F.G.S. Evans, Rev. W. R. Fisher, John, Esq. F.G.S. Fitton, W. Henry, M.D. F.G.S. Forbes, Professor, F.G.S. Forschhammer, Dr. G., For. M. G.S. Frederick, Major-General. Geneva, Natural History Society of. Geological Society of Dublin. Geological Society of France. Gesner, Abraham, Esq. Goeury, M. Grant, Professor, M.D. F.G.S. Grantham, Richard, Esq. F.G.S. Granville, A. B., M. D. F.G.S. Grateloup, Dr. Greenough, G. B., Esq. V.P.G.S. Griffith, Richard, Esq. F.G.S. Griffith, William, Esq. Gruithuisen, M. Gunn, Rev. John. Gussone, M. Harris, William, Esq. F.G.S. Hebden, Edward, Esq. Hennah, Rev. W. Hodson, Mr. J. S. Horner, Leonard, Esq. V.P.G.S. Humboldt, Alex. Baron Von, Foreign Member G. S. Hunter, W. P., Esq. F.G.S8. 198 Institution of Civil Engineers. Jackson, Charles J., M.D. Jameson, Professor, Hon.M.G.S. Jelly, Rev. Harry. Johnston, J. F. W., Esq. F.G.S. Lambert, Josias, Esq. F.G.S. Linnean Society of London. Loudon, John Claudius, Esq. Lubbock, J. W., Esq. Lyell, Charles, Esq. V.P.G.S. Mackintosh, Angus Friend, Esq. F.G.S8. MacLauchlan, H., Esq. F.G.S. Madras Literary Society. ~ Malcolmson, J. G., M.D. F.G.S. Mantell, Gideon, LL.D. F.G.S. Michellotti, Sig. Giovanni. Miller, Prof. W. H., M.A. F.G.S. Milne, David, Esq. F.G.S. Murchison, Roderick Impey,Esq. V.P.G.S. Museum of Natural Hist., Paris. Nasmyth, Alex., Esq. F.G.S. Nattali, Mr. M. A. Newman, Edward, Esq. Northampton, Marquis of, F.G.S. Numismatic Society of London. Nutt, Mr. D. Ordnance, Master-General and Board of. Parish, Sir Woodbine, K.C.H E.G.S. Portlock, Major, R. E., F.G.S. Quebec Literary and Historical Society. Reade, Rev. J. B. Redfield, W. C., Esq. Repertory of Patent Inventions, the Proprietor of. Ridgway, Mr. Roberts, George, Esq. Royal Academy of Berlin. Royal Academy of Brussels. Royal Asiatic Society. Royal College of Physicians. Royal Geographical Society of London. Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. Royal Irish Academy. Royal Medico-Botanical Society of London. Royal Polytechnic Society of Cornwall. Royal Society of Edinburgh. Royal Society of London. Royle, J. Forbes, M.D. F.G.S. Scarborough Philosophical So- ciety. Schultz, Don Guillermo. Scientific Society of London. Sedgwick, Rev. Prof., F.G.S. Sharpe, Daniel, Esq. F.G.S. Shepard, Charles Upham, Esq. Silliman, Prof., M.D. For. Mem. G.S Sismonda, Prof. Angelo. Smith, James, Esq. F.G.S. Smith, Newman, Esq. Smith, Rev. J. Pye, D.D. F.G.S. Still, Henry, Esq. F.G.S. Studer, M. B. Taylor, John, Esq. Treas. G.S. Taylor, Richard, Esq. F.G.S. Tenore, Sig. Van der Maelen, M. Vaughan, William, Esq. Walker, Francis, Esq. F.G.S. Watkins, Rey. Charles. Weaver, Thomas, Esq. F.G.S. Whetherell, Nathaniel, Esq. F.G.S. Whewell, Rev. Prof., F.G.S. Willimott, J., Esq. F.G.S. Wood, Neville, Esq. Woods, Henry, Esq. Zoological Society of London. 199 List of Pavers read sincethelast Annual Meeting, February 15,1839. February 27th.—On impressions of drops of rain, on slabs of new red sandstone, in the Storeton quarries, Cheshire, and coeval with the formation of the strata, by John Cunningham, Esq. F.G.S. —_________ Extracts from two letters addressed to Dr. Buckland, one from John Taylor, jun. Esq. F.G.S., On a slab of sandstone containing impressions of Checrotherium Hercules, at the house of Mr. Potts of Chester ; and the other from Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart. M.P. F.G.S., On the peculiarities of the impressions. On the occurrence of Swallow-holes near Farnham, and on the drainage of the country at the western extremity of the Hog’s-back, by Henry Lawes Long, Esq., communicated by Charles Lyell, jun. Esq. V.P.G.S. ———— A letter from Capt. Charters to Charles Lyell, jun. Esq. V.P.G.S., dated Cape Town, 12th of November, 1838, On the occurrence of Greenstone resting upon the horizontally stra- tified sandstone at various localities in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. March 13th.—On the Geology of the North-western part of Asia Minor, from the Peninsula of Cyzicus on the coast of the Sea of Marmora, to Koola, with a description of the Katakekaumene, by W. J. Hamilton, Esq. Sec. G.S. March 27th.—On a tooth and part of the skeleton of the Glyptodon, a large Quadruped of the Edentata order, to which belongs the tessellated bony armour figured in Mr. Clift’s description of the Megatherium, and supposed by some Naturalists to belong to that Animal, by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S. Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. April 10th.—On as much of the Transition or Grauwacke system as is comprised in the Counties of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, by Rev. D. Williams, F.G.S. (1st Part.) April 24th.—On the Climate of the Newer Pliocene Period, by James Smith, Esq. of Jordan Hill, F.G.S. ——— Remarks on some Fossil and Recent Shells collected by Capt. Bayfield, R.N. in Canada, by Charles Lyell, Esq. V.P.G.S. Extract from a letter addressed to Dr. Fitton, F.G.S. by Herr F. A. Roemer, dated Hildeshiem, 20th of March, 1839, On the Wealden of the North of Germany. Classification of the older Rocks of Devonshire and Corn- wall, by Rev. Adam Sedgwick, V.P.G.S. Woodwardian Professor in the University of Cambridge, and Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq. F.G.S. i A Notice on the general relations of the various bands of slate, limestone, and sandstone in South Devon, by R. A. Cloyne Austen, Esq. F.G.S. A Notice on the exact position in the old red sandstone of the bed containing fossil fishes, and exposed in the cliffs of the Moray Frith, by Mr. Miller. 200 May Sth.—On casts or impressions of Vermiform bodies on thin Flag-stones, belonging to the Carboniferous series near Halt- whistle in Northumberland, by G. C. Atkinson, Esq. On the London and Plastic Clays of the Isle of Wight, by J. S. Bowerbank, Esq. F.G.S. On the relative ages of the Tertiary deposits, commonly called Crag, in Norfolk and Suffolk, by Charles Lyell, Esq. V.P.G.S. May 22nd.—On the Wells formed by digging and boring in the Gravel and London Clay in Essex, and on the Geological Phzeno- mena disclosed by them, by James Mitchell, LL.D. F.G.S. On Outbursts of Water from the Chalk, by James Mitchell, LL.D. F.G.S. Notice on the discovery of the Remains of Insects, and a new Genus of Isopods, in the Wealden Formation, in the Vale of Wardour, by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S. Observations respecting the Geological Relations of the several rocks of the South of Ireland, in a letter addressed to the Rev. Dr. Buckland, Pres. G.S. by Richard Griffith, Esq. F.G.S. and Pres. G.S. of Dublin. June 5th.—On remains of the Mammoth dredged up in the English Channel and German Ocean, by Capt. J. B. Martin, of Ramsgate. A description of five Fossil Trees found in the excava- tions for the Manchester and Bolton Railway, by J. Hawkshaw, Esq. F.G.S. —_—— A Notice of some Organic bodies recently procured from the London Clay, by N. T. Wetherell, Esq. F.G.S. On the relations of the different parts of the Old Red Sandstone, in the Counties of Moiray, Nairn, Banff and Inverness, by John Malcolmson, Esq. F.G.S. November 6th. A Notice of Showers of Ashes, which fell on Board the Roxburgh, off the Cape de Verd Islands, in February 1839, by the Rev. W. B. Clarke, F.G.S. —_——_— A Letter from Alex. Caldcleugh, Esq. F.G.S. dated Santiago de Chili, 18th of February, 1839, containing the decla- ration of the Master and part of the Crew of the Chilian brig Thily, of the discovery during the evening of the 12th of Febru- ary of three volcanic Islands, about thirty leagues to the east of Juan Fernandez. ———— A Letter addressed to Charles Lyell, Esq. V.P.G.S. by John Buddle, Esq. of Newcastle, On depressions produced in the surface of the ground, by the excavation of beds of Coal. On the relative ages of the Tertiary and Post-Ter- tiary deposits of the basin of the Clyde, by James Smith, Esq., of Jordan Hill, F.G.S. ——— On the noxious Gases emitted from the Chalk and overlying strata in sinking Wells near London, by James Mitchell, LL.D. F.G.S. November 20th.—An extract from a Letter addressed to Dr. An- drew Smith, by A. G. Bain, Esq., dated Graham Town, Cape of 201 Good Hope, February, 21st 1839, announcing the discovery of the skull and piths of the Horns of an Ox. Communicated by Charles Darwin, Esq. Sec. G.S. November 20th.—On the origin of the vegetation of our Coal-fields and Wealdens, by J. T. Barber Beaumont, Esq. F.G.S. —_—_—_——_——— On the Fossil Fishes of the Yorkshire and Lanca- shire Coal-fields, by W. C. Williamson, Esq. oo On the Geology around the shores of Waterford Haven, by Major T. Austin. Communicated by the President. December 4th.—A description of some of the soft parts, and the shape of the hind fin, of the Ichthyosaurus, as when recent, by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S. Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. Supplementary Memoir, On as much of the great Grauwacke system as is comprised in the group of West Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, by the Rev. D. Williams, F.G.S. December 18th.—On the Fossil remains of a Mammal (Hyracothe- rium), a Bird, and a Serpent from the London Clay, by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S. Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. ——___—_—— On the locality of the Hyracotherium, by W. Ri- chardson, Esq. F.G.S. January 8th, 1840.—On the carboniferous and transition rocks of Bohemia, by D. T. Ansted, Esq. F.G.S. On some points in the structure of Paramoudras, and on the Boulder accumulations of Norfolk, by the Rev. John Gunn. Communicated by the President. January 22nd.—On the Boulder formation or drift, and associated freshwater deposits composing the Mud Cliffs of Eastern Norfolk, by Charles Lyell, Esq. V.P.G.S. February 5th.—An extract from a Dispatch from Mr. Chatfield, Her Majesty’s Consul General at San Salvador, dated Oct. 10, 1839, giving an account of the earthquakes felt in that city during part of 1839, and communicated to the Society by direction of Vincent Palmerston. On Orthocera, Ammonites, and other cognate genera, by R. A. C. Austen, Esq. F.G.S. ——__- The Introductory Memoir to the New Edition of the Geological Map of England and Wales, by G. B. Greenough, Esq. V.P.G.S. explaining the principles upon which the Map has been constructed. a On the detrital deposits between Lynn and Wells, in Norfolk, by Joshua Trimmer, Esq. F.G.S. 202 Sums actually Received and Expended RECEIPTS. Balances in hand, January 1, 1839: eee Si Oe meses Banker (including 50. 19s. 4d. Wol- laStontF cnaG) eten 5 neers acy us 433 2 0 ACCOUNEATE 0512 u cpeienahe st eich. hs SE: 40 0 0 — 473 2 Arrears : ; at SumeOe Ncimissionsbiees (ee oe ees: 52 10 0 Annual Contributions ............ 124 19 0 Se i Ordinary Income: Le. Spine Annual Contributions.............. 602 3 6 Admission Fees: ec esamecle Residents (15)...... 94 10 O Non-Residents (21) . 220 10 O —— 315 0 0 ———— 917 3 Compositions : ee eS andi MRwol at sle NOS i. sconces ohces aye ontaO: MO) OneatOsSi7 se oA Noto ce eso eee Oem wo —— ry) nESPnr (ls FR RAMSACtIONS| (kh. Fee an eal, 83) 2) 10 erocecdinps: Mi eke SLi Ree Steer k: 10 17' —~O — 93 19 Wollaston Donation Fund, 12 months’ In- terest on 1084/. 1s. ld. Red. 3 percents........... 32 10 £. 8. Dividends, 6 months 5001. Consols........ 7 10 0 Ditto, 6 months 7151. 1s. ld. Consols.. 10 14 6 Ditto, 12 months 14121. 12s. 9d. Red. SEPEVICEMUS) olen 0 ot eens RMON rete: Ag 1) 8 — 60 12 £1846 3 0O We have compared the Books and Vouchers presented to us with these Statements, and find them correct. Signed, FRANCIS BAILY, ROBERT HUTTON, AUDITORS. Feb. 1, 1840, SAMUEL CHARTERS, during the year ending December 31, 1839. 203 PAYMENTS. Bills outstanding : £. sd. £& Ss. d Scientific Expenditure ...... goonoosgo0ecaaaaRAACGNS 33 0 House Expenditure ........cccccscscsscesscccecserens AN 0) SE WELSIRaLeStatececccsaceuetsereces seestccecsecscors Bf LE Ore) Household Furniture ......cscccscccsesscceecces os BT @) MIATISACEONSHIsecesmbess case cesotbecaceconeeuencaseests 45 7 0 Stationery ....... =n0dc00n SoncsSsoonseo2an0008000 seq0ede 314 6 73°33) '3 General Expenditure : ees Rieparsjot EVOUSE .cciac-+s0s.secesccasendecocssascace gO) LO) 10 House Expenses ....... .00080000000 nogoacobooD0NAGNe 199 1 3 PRaxesspeAarochialamecsrcnscscecarecesocseecesse sci ccs 14 2 8 MEASSESSEM Broencnseccecceeseseeesenscdecsaceecens 93 3 8 FROOGMEVALES eer cease eooesine cae cinceeetasiesiecicieciestecsis 19 8 8 Household Furniture ...cccccscsscsssecseccvccssove 96 18 3 Linen... .c0sescess Duele seis be cuentas 4 18 il 364 4 3 THSUTANCE! Sei oe os eevee hs ea no dieticians sae a de, OnmaG Salaries and Wages : £. s. d. Curator’ ........0. ceccese ate Baictae seaehireies Mecsas Apona LO UMDCULALOLseccivsatiocsciwete cece sccciecs oo sdecseccseens Ti LOMO) Glenkoaeae cc. tarcscceasenetacae Mifaleahais wiseelsrsisiecis eae 61 5 O Porter and Housekeeper ..........0000sseeeeres Bos OO 30) SELVANGPR ais cecescersseccaceesece poDdSH4SQ0OODO0DAS0G000 31 18 3 Collector’s Poundage.......+. A Sasia vers siegeaveeaee 27 2 O Scientific Expenditure ... Wes Stationery and Miscellaneous Printing... etbowe watetters 45 4 0 Investment in the Funds 9410 0 MeaiiOrVICe LNs 8 af crates as. o : ees 49 11 0 Cost of Publications : ARISING. iiranisactlonsmesserseesessonetes Penadeorereets eR Re 448 7 1 BrOCeedIN Sul. ccroseccsecseseccsearlessesiiee 9199000000000 63 13 O Fl Ore Contributions repaid ............ : Spates od Award of Wollaston Donation Sumdle eS. Prof. Ehrenberg, Medal .............. ndomerooad 1010 O Balance of Proceeds ...... pen On ONO, 30 10 0 Balances in hand: BS Ge Gs Banker (including 52/.19s. 8d. Wollastom Fund) 108 8 2 Accountant.....ccss0e CSCO RSEEREOS poaesersaneueseeseas 40 0 0 148 8 2 VOL. III. £1846 3 0 ee Oe Varvuation of the Society's Property; 31st December 1839. PROPERTY. eS. Balances in hand, including 52/.19s.8d.WollastonFund 148 8 2 Arrears due to the Society : £. s. dad. Admission Fees ............ 50 8 0 Annual Contributions ........ 499 5 6 MranSaChlONSisesci enn ece. cen . 0 15-0 — 553 8 6 Estimated value of unsold Transactions .......... 923 8 6 Proceedings. 30 0 O Value of Funded Property, 2212/. 12s. 11d. Consols tg ON erate ca arele oie ehiew 2 bo 0dcle sem ce wns «kypeg ONO 020 £3665 5 2 [N.B. The value of the Collections, Library and Furniture as not here included: nor isthe ‘‘ Donation Fund,” insti- tuted by the late Dr. Wollaston, amounting at present to 10847. 1s. 1d. in the Reduced 3 per cent. Annuities; the dividends thereof being appropriated to the purposes of the Founder. | JOHN TAYLOR, Treasurer. Feb. 1, 1840. DEBTS. Bills outstanding : Ep as ae 8e 1 Scientific Expenditure .......... 10 0 0O Solicitors Account ............ 20 0 0 House Expenditure; :¢.c....... 0 0 0 Collector's Poundage .......... 210 0 Repaus of House .. eens... ps 4 1) 0 41 ll 0O Cash belonging to the “Wollaston Fund”........ 5219 8 Arrears not likely tosbe received... 0.0447. 52 180) 0 20 274 10 8 Balance in favour of the Society ................3390 14 6 £3665 5 2 & GI LesiF TL G ZG °°°° °°" "7" Kya10g a4j JO AMOAvY UT soURleg vy & O82 P OL SS 9° °° 774 puny UoJsEITOAA ,, YN) Jo yuauAO|duIy 0 0 OSI soi ei) een = Ha NTQ0aN aq O} AyOyL] JOU sivaaTy 0 0 0&9 0 O Og cisieleleiieielssiaeivie=i< leis shivlecieisies nae ee sien OUT aSDOO NT, O 0 OGG tititttetersseseneeresereereseeeees SHOMOUSUBAT, > SUOIJVOI]GNg JO 480 0 0 GG Scien pene Cee ge SUN OOIN TOs 0 0 GG ccc’ '%°** Sunulg snosureosipy pue Arau0ineig 0 0 09 ees SIN IPUa Ng OGL 0 V Gor 0 0 Ss eeeecccovccccccvceecs **- osepunog $,10}99][09, OB GR ettsenseneesesteneeneseesseveveosenvenneee eg TBATaG Ol DO Ol wer raset eee eeeeen ee sadaayasnoxy pur 10110 OO GL, titettsenseestenteessesesevesssareveseeseees S11QTS) 0 0 FQ “iteeteetessestetereseesenseerenees rOyBIN“qng oO (0) G6I Bae ee ee oo EOE e CO Mace 3 CORD NOK ) : SasBA\ pue Salve OF OF 0c 0 O OB “T° TOULT puv sinjluIn,g ployssnoyy O O 006 DAOTTSOOROOIsOGOONIOOGHIOOOO OOS Ia abt [ asnoyy HO. Go noon oad Meestersenes goUvanSUy oO O 09 eeoereesconesses Ceooseoreeeseanseoneeee SOxey, oO (0) GI Ao evoaeaesoeneDeosseSCeDrL NLC” asnoyy jo siredoyy 1D Se ess : ainjipuodsg [etauay 0 IL Ib °*°'**** Qaays-uonenyeA 90g) ~SuIpueysyno s}qaq (a ‘CaLVWILSA SASNAdXa “OFST Lvah susnsua ay7 JOf SALVIWILSH € SI ZE8tF TO We ol Ol *S Cee = Pesala 0341p OIG IE ~ ‘POL “S81 78014 ‘s[osuoD syjyuOM g UO spuaplAIg ce puny uolwuog UO WLI[OAA ,, UO SpuaplAIg Ole 0 0 OI 2) SSR oie see SMSO SOIT 0 0 008 ‘coc ct cc tt 8s suoraesuezy, Jo a[eg DSF GGG 0 OL LST °° sereeeeenres (OT) s}U9pIser-W0 NT O OL #6 Poo SO OIG OOOO OO (a) IEEE YEE IS Ee CE :S90,J WOISSIUIpY CQ tt (smoTpag GQZ) suoTINgyUOD jenuuy : payeulysa GES] Jo awoouy Areuipig ECG LOND SEO TE CCD Oh) EO ODED (yaays-uonent “VA 98S) “*6E81 381g °90q ‘AjaI90G 94} 03 anp SavaLIy “oF ‘daULIdAd Xa ANOONI 206 The Reports having been read, it was resolved : That they be received and entered on the Minutes of the Meet- ing, and that such parts of them as the Council may think fit, be printed and distributed among the Fellows. The President then announced that the Wollaston Medal had been awarded to Prof. Dumont, of Liége, for his Memoir, Map, and Sections on the Geological Constitution of the Province of Liége, published in 1832; and one year’s interest of the Wollaston Fund to Mr. James de Carle Sowerby, in order to facilitate the continuation of his researches in Mineral Conchology. On present- ing the Medal to Dr. Fitton, who had been requested by M. Dumont to receive it on his behalf, Dr. Buckland said :— Dr. Firton, I am highly gratified that it has become my duty on the present occasion, to commit to your care as the Representative of our common friend, Professor Dumont, the Wollaston Gold Medal, which has been awarded to him by the Council of this Society for his Me- moir on the Geological Constitution of the province of Liége pub- lished at Brussels in 1832. The grounds of our tardy recognition in 1840, of the merits of a work published so long as eight years ago, are the same that in 1830, prompted the Judges appointed by the Academy of Brussels, to select this Memoir as most worthy of the Prize then proposed by that Academy, for the best Geological description of the province which has formed the subject of M. Dumont’s successful labours. In the work thus doubly crowned, the Author has described the mineralogical and zoological characters of the rocks which occupy this district, and determined in minute detail, the relative places in order of succession, and the superficial extent of each subordinate division of the several formations. He has also illustrated the same by an accurately coloured Geological Map, and by coloured Sections, showing the general disposal of the strata in their original order of deposition, and the extraordinary derangements and dis- turbances that have subsequently thrown them into a state of almost inextricable confusion. In the execution of this work, M. Dumont has evidenced unusual powers of discriminating and accurate obser- vation, combined with a high capacity of reducing the minutiz of local details under the dominion of enlarged and masterly theo- retical generalizations. Advancing at the early age of twenty one, to a task of gigantic labour, in a region where the unexampled dis- turbances, and almost incredible complexity of its component strata had baffled the sagacity of the most experienced geologists, this extraordinary youth at once withdraws the veil of confusion which had hitherto disguised the stratigraphical arrangements of his native province, and as it were, by an intuitive touch, reduces to order the entangled and almost incredible pheenomena of dislocation, con- 207 tortion, and inversion which had perplexed his predecessors in the same field of observation. In addition to the scientific value of M. Dumont’s exact and la- borious researches, in illustrating a high and difficult problem in positive geology, his work assumes a place of great statistical and commercial importance, as describing the structure and contents of a rich and productive carboniferous district containing eighty-three beds of valuable coal; and its practical utility has been fully shown, by the fact of a second edition having been required to supply the demands of the landed proprietors, and persons practically interested in the operations and products of the coal mines. The geological tribunal of Brussels, including the highly distin- guished geologist Omalius d’Halloy, at once appreciated duly, and rewarded as they deserved, these brilliant discoveries ; but the phee- nomena represented on M. Dumont’s map and sections were so un- usually complex and improbable, that the geologists of England could not but forbear to admit their reality, until it was fully confirmed by our personal examination, with the aid of that new light which M. Dumont’s discoveries had thrown upon them. The result of such inquiry has been a full corroboration of M. Du- mont’s representations, and at this late hour we at length come for- ward with the homage of our tardy but sincere acknowledgements ; a duty too long delayed, from the exercise of precaution in its admi- nistration, but for this very reason now become more urgent, when the grounds for conscientiously discharging it have passed the or- deal of severe and critical investigation. It is for this great work then on the geological constitution of the Province of Liége, such as in 1832 it issued from the hands of a young, and then unknown individual, and apart from any more recent attempts to identify the Belgian formations with those of England, that our Society has awarded to M. André Hubert Dumont their Gold Wollasten Medal for the present year; in testimony of their admiration of the almost precocious talents then displayed by him, and of their sense of his worthiness to fill the distinguished scientific position to which he is now advanced, as Professor of Mineralogy and Geology in the Col- lege of Liége. Dr. Fitton, on receiving the Medal from the hands of the Presi- dent, said, that he had been requested by M. Dumont to express his great regret that unavoidable duties prevented his appearing in person on this occasion. M. Dumont’s letter states with deep feeling his sense of the honour which the Geological Society of London has thus conferred upon him, and his hope that he may soon be enabled to come into England, for the purpose of extending his personal ac- quaintance with the members of this Society, and of being enabled, with the aid of their knowledge, to perfect the comparison of the ancient strata of Belgium with those of this country. The Society could not but anticipate great advantage to Geology from the ap- plication of M. Dumont’s talents to the comparative inquiries to which his letter alludes. 208 On presenting the prize awarded to Mr. James de Carle Sowerby, Dr. Buckland said :-— It is with no small pleasure that I rise to perform the duty of placing into your hands the award that has been made to you by the Council of the Geological Society, of one year’s interest of the Wol- laston Fund, in order to facilitate the continuation of your researches in Mineral Conchology.—The services are great which have been rendered to Geology by the extremely useful and well-timed work on fossil shells, which was many years ago begun by your excellent father, and continued by him to the end of his life, and has been since conducted by yourself; and the association of his name with that of Dr. Wollaston, recalis to my mind, as it must to the minds of most of my hearers, pleasing and grateful recollections of the bene- fits which during their lives they both conferred on this Society, and which their works will have extended to all our contemporaries and successors in this department of scientific inquiry. It was your father’s peculiar merit to be one of those accurate and enthu- siastic observers of nature, who have in modern times contributed so much to remove from science the rugged and austere aspect under which it used to be presented ; and who by facilitating to every one the means of advancing pleasantly in its pursuit, have, in an essential manner, promoted, and given popularity to the study of Botany and Conchology. It is to Mineral Conchology, which he so especially promoted, that we who are occupied with the investigation of the structure of the earth, have in modern times been mainly indebted for evidences which have led to the establishment of many of the most important stratigraphical distributions, that have been founded on the suc- cessive changes in animated nature which are made known to us by the study of fossil shells. It was on this foundation that Cuvier and Brogniart established their important divisions of the marine and freshwater strata of the Tertiary formations, which have since been more minutely distributed by Mr. Lyell into the eocene, pliocene, and miocene series, according to their relative numbers of extinct and recent species of fossil shells. It was on a similar foundation that Mr. William Smith rested his identification of the Secondary strata of England. It is on the same basis of conchological evidence that Mr. Murchison has founded his fourfold subdivisions of the Silurian portion of the Transition rocks; and it is chiefly to the illu- mination which this branch of Palzontology has shed upon the changes that took place on the surface of the earth, whilst its strata were in process of formation, that we owe the rapid advances in geological knowledge which have been made since the commence- ment of the present century. To this rapid progress, arising from the introduction of the evidences of mineral Conchology, your own publications and those of your family have largely contributed; you have further co-operated materially in advancing our inquiries by your personal assistance, at all times cheerfully and liberally ren- dered, to all your fellow labourers in the same fields of scientific research, who stood in need of your aid, for the elucidation of mi- 209 nute distinctions in the characters of fossil organic remains, which have at this time become so important an element in geology. The volumes of the Transactions of this Society, and other publi- cations by many of its Members, including myself, bear further tes- timony to the importance of your labours, in illustrating our works with drawings and engravings of fossil shells and plants, expressing their characters with a degree of accuracy and truth, which no pencil or burine but those of a scientific artist could possibly accomplish ; and I am sure I give utterance to the feelings of all our fellows now around me, when I thus publicly acknowledge the services you have rendered both to ourselves, and to the science we cultivate ; and ex- press the satisfaction with which we thus publicly recognise the va- lue of your exertions. Mr. Sowerby then expressed himself in the following terms: Sir, I hardly know what to say, so deeply do I feel the unexpected and kind award bestowed upon me by this Society, but I must as- sure you, that I am extremely grateful for the honour done me. When, Sir, you spoke of my father, you excited feelings most dear to me, and I have long felt that I have experienced more consideration than I have deserved, in consequence of the esteem that has ever been attached to his memory. But I must have been a most un- grateful son had I not, after his persevering and kind instructions, done something for the advancement of Natural History. What little I have performed, especially for Members of this Society, has been for the love of Science; and I feel far more than amply re- warded by the honourable present I have just received at your hands. You have stated, Sir, that you take a pleasure in associating the name of Wollaston with that of Sowerby; I shall never forget the kindness and patience with which Dr. Wollaston communicated information. When the reflecting goniometer was first completed by him, he spent several hours one morning with me in his study mea- suring the cleavages of various minerals related to hornblende and augite which I took to him for his opinion ; and at another time he indulged me with an equally long lesson on the chemical exami- nation of minute portions of minerals. Little did I think at that time that I should ever share encouragement continued by his bounty, after his departure from this world ; but I have lived to feel that his benevolence lives beyond the grave. Sir, I receive this award as a trust reposed in me, and hope that I shall not be found wanting in carrying out the object the Council has in view. I beg sincerely to thank the Society for the confidence placed in me. 210 Address to the .Gcological Society, delivered at the Anniversary, on the 2\st of February, 1840, by the Rev. Proressor BucKLAnND, D.D., F.R.S., Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, President of the Society. GENTLEMEN, By the Report just read, you have seen that the state of our Society is one of steady and salutary progression ; forty-three new Members have been added to the List of our Fellows, from which seventeen have been removed by death, or resignation, leaving our actual number 768, with an increase of twenty-six during the last year. ‘The vacancies that have occurred upon our foreign list have been supplied by three highly distinguished cultivators of science on the Continent, each preeminent for his successful labours in high departments of our subject, namely : Major Puillon de Boblaye, in Positive Geology, Professor Adolphe Brongniart, in Vegetable Paleontology, Professor Gustave Rose, in Crystallography and Mineral Analysis. We are rich in property, though our funds are, at this moment, low; but they will speedily be repaired by the sale of two large and costly parts which have been added to our Transactions. The Reports of the Library and Collections in our Museum are satisfactory. The chief additions to the former consist of presents from Authors and Members of the Society. Our principal bene- factor has been Mr. Greenough, who has given us a Collection of the older Authors,—supplying many of our deficiencies in the Literature of Geology and Mineralogy. Considerable progress has been made in the arrangement of the Cabinets by our Sub-Curator, Mr. Woodward, under the superintendence and directions of Mr. Lonsdale; one hundred and sixty drawers of rock specimens and fossil remains having been labelled, and in part catalogued, since the meeting of last year. It is satisfactory to find that the number of persons who come to study our Collections has been much in- creased. Our entire establishment continues to receive the inestimable advantages it has long enjoyed, from the zealous superintendence, and scientific acquirements of our Curator, Mr. Lonsdale. 211 Our Wollaston Medal has been awarded to Professor Dumont, for his Map, Sections and Memoir on the Geological Constitution of the Province of Liége, published in 1832. And one year’s interest of the Wollaston Fund has been presented to Mr. James De Carle Sowerby, to facilitate the continuation of his researches in Mineral Conchology. More than a quarter of a century has now elapsed since I became a Member of this Society ; and fifteen years have passed since I was first placed, by your kindness, in the honourable position of filling this Chair, at that important period of our history when we received the national recognition of a Royal Charter. I shall never cease to consider it one of the brightest rewards of my labours in geology, that my name is enrolled in that charter, as the first President of the Society in its corporate capacity. Since that important epoch, our chartered body has received from the Government of the country the valuable sanction and advantage of an establishment in the very convenient apartments of Somerset House, which we now occupy. The number and character of the scientific labourers who have joined our ranks, and the volumes added to our Transactions, since these events, show that such en- couragements have not been conferred on a society disposed to slumber under the sunshine of prosperity ; but that, aided by these advantages, we have endeavoured to maintain a steadily progressive course, in the great work of illustrating the physical structure of the ~ earth. It is not my duty, on the present occasion, to notice geological memoirs or subjects which belong to years preceding that wherein I entered upon my present office. The usual practice rather con- fines me to the most remarkable events of the last twelve months, during which I have had the honour to fill this chair. MUSEUM OF G@CONOMIC GEOLOGY. Among the most important of these events, we recognise with gratitude, and confident anticipation of great advantage, both to science and the arts, the establishment, by Her Majesty’s Govern- ment, of an institution hitherto unknown in England, namely, a 212 Museum of Giconomic Grotocy. This is to be freely accessible to the public at stated periods, in the Department of Her Ma- jesty’s Woods and Forests, and Public Works, for the express object of exhibiting the practical application of geology to the useful pur- poses of life. In this Museum a large store of valuable materials has already been collected and arranged, chiefly by the exertions, and under the direction of Mr. De la Beche. In it will be exhi- bited examples of Metallic Ores, Ornamental Marbles, Building- stones and Limestones, Granites, Porphyries, Slates, Clays, 7 Marls, Brickearths, and Minerals of every kind produced in this country, that are of pecuniary value, and applicable to the arts of life. Information upon such subjects, thus readily and gratui- tously accessible, will be of the utmost practical importance to the miner and the mechanic, the builder and the architect, the en- gineer, the whole mining interest. and the landed proprietors. ‘The establishment will contain also examples of the results of Metallur- gic processes obtained from the furnace and the laboratory, with a collection of Models of the most improved machinery, chiefly em- ployed in mining. A well-stored Laboratory is attached to this department, conducted by the distinguished analytical chemist, Mr. Richard Phillips, whose duty it already is, at a fixed and mo- derate charge, to conduct the analysis of metallic ores, and other minerals and soils submitted to him by the owners of mines or pro- prietors of land, who may wish for authentic information upon such matters. The pupils in this laboratory are already actively employed in learning the arts of mineral analysis, and the various metallurgic processes. A second department in the Giconomic Museum will be assigned to the promotion of improvements in Agriculture, and will contain sections of strata, with specimens of soils, sub-soils, and of the rocks from the decomposition of which they have been produced. To this last-mentioned collection proprietors of land are solicited to contribute from their estates labelled examples of soils, with their respective sub-soils ; and all persons who wish for an analysis of any sterile soil, for the purpose of giving it fertility, by the arti- ficial addition of ingredients with which nature had not supplied it, may here obtain, at a moderate cost, an exact knowledge of its 213 composition, which may point out the corrective additions which it requires. This portion of the Museum will more especially exhibit the relations of geology to agriculture, in so far as a knowledge of the materials composing the sub-strata may afford extensive means of permanent improvement to the surface, a MINING RECORDS OFFICE. A third department, which it is proposed to add to this establish- ment, is an office, for the preservation of such records and docu- ments relating to subterranean operations throughout the country, as are important to be preserved for the information of future gene- rations. To the keeper of these records will be assigned the duty of ar- ranging the documents which may be transmitted to him from all parts of the kingdom, by any engineers, mineral surveyors, and proprietors of mines and coal works, who may be willing to send them; particularly maps, sections, and under-ground plans, which will record the state of each mine, when it is abandoned, for the information of those who at a future period may be disposed to bring it again into operation. This office will be accessible to all persons interested in obtaining the information it will afford. To this collection several engineers of most extensive experience in the mines of Newcastle and Cornwall have promised large con- tributions. The keeper will make copies of documents of this kind, which proprietors of mines, who cannot conveniently part with the ori- ginals, may lend, for the purpose of being preserved in this national collection. The public importance of such a records office was submitted to the Lords of Her Majesty’s Treasury by a Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, assembled at New- castle in August, 1838; it being notorious that great losses of life and destruction of property have resulted both at Newcastle and in other coal mines throughout the kingdom, from the imperfect pre- servation of records of the operations previously conducted in them, and that still greater losses will inevitably ensue hereafter, unless advantage be taken of the experience of living engineers and coal 214 proprietors, who are willing to place in a public national repository copies of the documents they possess relating to their respective mines. In 1834, the attention of the public was called to this subject by Mr. T. Sopwith*, an eminent civil engineer and mine surveyor at Newcastle; and this gentleman is preparing a practical book of instructions on the subject of drawing geological and mining plans, the conducting of subterranean surveys, and examining mineral dis- tricts, with a view to the preservation of such information respecting the state of each mine at the period when it may be abandoned, as may be useful when further proceedings are afterwards commenced therein, or in its vicinity. A museum of ceconomic geology, comprehending institutions of this kind, demonstrates, even to the unlearned, the advantages that result from science in its application to the extraction of the trea- sures which Providence has laid up in the rich storehouses of the interior of the earth ; and by exhibiting the results obtained from the elaboration of these materials, by the industry of man, in the workshop and at the forge, will afford a full and satisfactory reply to the question so often raised by persons to whom the value of the truths of pure science and philosophy, pursued for their own sake, are unintelligible,—and by whom everything is appreciated merely according to its immediate subserviency to the acquisition of wealth, or its ministration to the daily necessities or conveniences of human life. BUILDING-STONE COMMISSION. Another event which marks increasing attention to the practical importance of geology, is the publication of a Report to the Commis- sioners of Her Majesty’s Woods and Forests, from a Commission appointed by the Lords of the Treasury ; containing the results of an inquiry into the qualities and durability of the various Building- stones of this country, with a view to the selection of the best ma- terial to be employed in erecting the New Houses of Parliament. The results of this inquiry have been arranged in Tables, which represent the composition, colour, weight, size, cost, durability, &c., of all the most important kinds of stone that have been used in an- * See Sopwith on Isometric Drawing, p. 50, et seq. 215 cient edifices in England; the Commissioners having judiciously appealed to that which is the most severe test of the durability of any stone, Viz. the existing condition of the decorated architecture in our most ancient buildings. The Norman portions of the Church of Southwell, in Nottingham- shire, constructed of magnesian limestone, in the twelfth century, have been found to afford an example of stone which combines strength and durability with applicability to ornamental carved work, in a degree surpassing all other kinds of stone that have been em- ployed in the most ancient fabrics of this country; the sharpest of the mouldings and carved enrichments of that church being throughout in as perfect a state as when first executed. The keep of Koningsburgh Castle, near Doncaster, built also of the magne- sian limestone in that vicinity, offers another proof of the durabi- lity of certain beds of this formation, exceeding that of any other building-stone in Great Britain, which is equally fit for ornamental purposes. But there are also varieties of magnesian limestone, such as that of which York Cathedral is built, which are in far advanced stages of decay, where they have been used for mouldings and ar- chitectural decorations. The general result of this elaborate inquiry into the durability of the different varieties of magnesian limestone is, that the stone re- sists decomposition in proportion as it is more perfectly crystalline ; a result, the cause of which is further illustrated by the experi- ments of Professor Daniell, which show that the nearer the magnesian compounds approach to equivalent proportions of carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia, the more crystalline they are. No investigation has been made by these Commissioners as to the capabilities of granite, porphyries, and other kinds of stone, which are inapplicable to the decoration of edifices without enor- mous expense. The Report is followed by valuable tabular lists of the most re- markable ancient fabrics in England, specifying the materials of which they are constructed, and their various conditions of preser- vation or decay, as they are respectively built of sandstone, or of oolitic, shelly, or magnesian limestone. To these are added tables of the chemical analysis, weight, cohe- 216 sive power, specific gravity, and power of absorbing water, of many of the building stones most largely employed in England. I consider this Report as of the highest value, in showing the general advantages which may be derived from connecting scientific knowledge with practical arts; and I trust we shall hear no more of such discreditable and unfounded assertions as, not long ago, passed uncontradicted, at a meeting of an architectural society in London, that Stonehenge is made of statuary marble. GEOLOGICAL COMMITTEE OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL SCCIETY. The appointment of a Geological Committee, by the English Agricultural Society, at their meeting in Oxford, in July last, shows the sense entertained by that numerous body of landed proprietors, and cultivators of the soil of England, of the important services which may be rendered to them, by the application of geological knowledge to the improvement of the productive capabilities of the land. It is well known to geologists that an almost unbounded supply of mineral manure may be found in the sub-strata, which in very many districts are composed of ingredients different from those of the surface. So constant are the characters of many of the beds of the geological groups which pass in long and narrow bands from one side of England to the other, that a single experiment, carefully conducted, on any one stratum of each formation, with a view to ameliorate its soil, by an admixture of the ingredients of some other adjacent stratum, will afford an example which may be followed with similar results in distant parts of the kingdom, through which this same stratum passes, in its course across the island. Experiments, therefore, conducted by the owners and occupiers of land, under the advice of this Geological Committee, aided by the facilities for the analysis of soils now afforded by the laboratory of the Museum of CZconomic Geology, may shortly enable us to realize at least some share of the success that attended Lavoisier’s application of chemistry to agriculture in France*. * Tt was said of Lavoisier, that in ten years he doubled the produce of his land in grain, while he quintupled the number of his flocks. No doubt this report is much exaggerated. 217 SCHOOLS OF CIVIL AND MINING ENGINEERING IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF DURHAM AND LONDON. The increasing demand for education in practical science has been recently provided for in the University of Durham, by the establish- ment of a course of instruction in Civil and Mining Engineering, with lectures in the Mathematical sciences, Chemistry, Metallurgy, Mineralogy, Geology, Surveying, Mapping, and Drawing, in addition to Ancient and Modern Languages. To theoretical instruction in such parts of these branches of knowledge as bear more especially on Practical Engineering, are added at Durham occasional survey- ing excursions, both in the field and underground, conducted by a practical civil engineer. More than thirty young men have, during the last year, been actively engaged in this new department of aca- demical study.* The locality of Durham, upon the margin of the great Newcastle coal field, and in the vicinity of the lead mines of Alston Moor, and Weardale, is in a peculiar degree favourable for a school of mining and civil engineering; enjoying advantages of position similar to those of the great Saxon school at Freyberg, near the mining dis- tricts of the Ertzgebirge and the Hartz. The University of London also is taking measures to institute examinations of Candidates for certificates of proficiency in Civil Engineering, and the arts and sciences connected with Mining. In University College, London, courses of preparatory experi- mental lectures and exercises in Natural Philosophy have, during the last year, been provided for the students in that establishment, who are destined for the Profession of Civil Engineers. And in King’s College, London, a course of lectures in Civil En- gineering, and Sciences applied to Arts and Manufactures, is at this time attended by more than fifty students, who have the opportunity of adding practical to theoretical knowledge in a workshop and la- boratory established for their use. SCHOOL OF MINES IN CORNWALL. Another proof of the direction of public attention to the col- lateral branches of our science has, within the last twelve months, * See Durham University Calendar, 1839, p. 10. 218 been afforded by the establishment in Cornwall, of a school for the instruction in Sciences and Arts connected with Minine, of young men who are to be engaged in conducting the important subterra- nean operations of that county. The want of such a school had been pointed out by Mr. John Taylor, in his Prospectus of a School of Mines in Cornwall, February 7, 1825, and in his Records of Mining, published in 1829. It has at length been instituted chiefly through the exertions and at the expense of Sir Charles Lemon. This incipient school, and the University of Durham, form almost solitary examples in England, of such scientific establishments as are nearly universal in the mining districts of the Continent. The experiment has begun in Cornwall with Courses of Lectures in - Mathematics, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Mineralogy, by three pro- fessors ; and a course of instruction, by a practical surveyor, in Al- gebra, Drawing, and the Use of instruments: and during the next year, still further additions are contemplated. POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY OF CORNWALL. To the zealous exertions of Sir Charles Lemon, and of many intelligent and active individuals at Falmouth, the county of Corn- wall is also indebted for the establishment of a Polytechnic Society, which, during the few years of its existence, has been attended with extraordinary success. One of its chief objects is to encou- rage, by rewards, the invention and improvement of machinery, of which so large an amount is essential to the working of the mines. Another object is to collect materials for expressing the quantity and value of the mineral and other produce of the county ; and to con- struct tables indicating the diminished longevity, and diseases, which, in a peculiar degree, affect the Cornish miners, and do not prevail amongst those employed in Collieries. It appears, froin a paper published in the Sixth Annual Report of this Society, (1839, ) that the average duration of a miner’s life is less, by many years, than that of the agricultural labourer in the same district; the ap- parent causes of this frightful evil being the inevitably imperfect ventilation of many of the veins or lodes in which the miner works ; and, partly, the extreme fatigue of ascending from great depths by ladders, instead of being lifted by machinery, as the workmen are 219 from coal pits: these pits also are usually susceptible of more per- fect ventilation, than the metalliferous lodes in Cornwall. The attention of this Society is strenuously directed to the dis- covery of remedies for these tremendous evils, which affect no fewer than a population of 28,000 persons; that being the proportion of the inhabitants of Cornwall, who are occupied in working the mines. LOCAL MUSEUMS. Another circumstance which marks the progressive advance- ment of public feeling as to the value of geology, is the increasing disposition to form local museums in our provincial towns. At the meeting of the British Association, at BIRMINGHAM, in August last, after a strong expression of opinion, in the Section of Geology, as to the benefit likely to accrue to science from the esta- blishment of Provincial Museums, for the local productions of each neighbourhood, the justness of the suggestion was so fully recog- nised, that, in the adjacent town of Dudley, before five days had passed, a public museum had arisen from contributions, out of the ca- binets of private collectors in that town; presenting to the Asso- ciation a more perfect assemblage than was ever seen, of the exqui- site organic remains found in the limestone of that district, which has long been the classic type of a formation widely and abundantly distributed over the globe. About this time also a provincial museum was formed at Brap- FORD, in a district abounding in splendid examples of the vegetable remains which pervade the Yorkshire coal field; where the exten- sive collieries now wrought will furnish abundant materials for a collection, destined to illustrate the history of the extinct forms of vegetable life, which have produced the coal. The museum at Lreps, also, possesses a valuable collection of fossil vegetables from the coal field in its neighbourhood ; and the West Rrpine GEOLOGICAL Society, formed under the auspices of Earl Fitzwilliam, on the plan of holding quarterly meetings at different towns of the Riding in succession, is diffusing a taste for Geology, and affording ground for appreciating its practical importance, to numbers of intelligent persons, whose local occupations, and property in the coal and iron mines, will enable them to enlarge the fossil Flora and Fauna of our country. VOL. III. S 220 ROYAL INSTITUTION OF SOUTH WALES. From the first Annual Report of the Royal Institution of South Wales, published during the last year, we learn that the Swansea Literary and Philosophical Institution, hitherto supported by the town and neighbourhood, has been expanded, under Royal patronage, to the whole southern division of the Principality ; and is now establish- ing its Museum and Lecture Rooms in a large and commodious edifice in the town of Swansea, under the presidentship of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, Esq. The position of this Institution, in the midst of a great mining and manufacturing district, is peculiarly favourable for collecting facts illustrative of geological phenomena, more especially those of the Coal formation ; and much has already been done by Mr. Logan, to develope, with extreme accuracy and minuteness of detail, the stratigraphical succession of the rocks composing this formation ; and to show the number and nature of the events which attended - their original deposition, as well as the subsequent derangements that have affected them. Mr. L. L. Dillwyn, also, is attempting a classification of the coal plants of the South Wales Bason; with a view to ascertain, by means of a comparative collection in the Swan- sea Museum, whether there exists any specific difference between those of the upper and lower beds of the carboniferous series. BRITISH MUSEUM. The accessions lately made to the British Museum form another subject, of high importance in our Review of the Geological Pro- ceedings for the past year. At the head of these is the purchase, from Mr. T. Hawkins, of an additional series of the remains of fossil Saurians from the Lias formation; which, added to his former collec- tion, already placed in this national repository, present an unrivalled series of species in the extinct families of Ichthyosaurus and Plesio- saurus, once inhabitants of Britain. Equally important was the acquisition, in a former year, of the unique collection of still more gigantic and not less monstrous Reptiles, from the Wealden forma- tion of Kent and Sussex, obtained by purchase from Dr. Mantell. The possession of these several collections places the Museum, where it ought to stand, at the head of all existing repositories of 221 organic remains, almost exclusively the productions of England ; and. it is due to his late exertions, whilst Chancellor of the Exche- quer, that I should bear this public testimony to the services which Lord Monteagle has rendered to science, by supplying the means of placing these unrivalled collections in our national repository ; where their constant presentation to the view of its thousands of daily visitors cannot fail to attract increasing attention to the won- derful discoveries of Paleontology. These important public events, occurring beyond our walls, and having a direct and immediate tendency to enlarge the field of our labours, form an epoch in the history of our science, and place Geology before the country in a new and more widely popular aspect than it had occupied before. The past year has been also distinguished beyond all precedent, by the number and value of the GEOLOGICAL MAPS it has produced. GEOLOGICAL MAP OF CORNWALL AND DEVON. The first map which I shall mention, affords another example of the recognition by Government of the importance of our subject, by their having attached a geological department to the Ordnance Survey of England and Wales. The first fruits of this appoint- ment are the splendid Maps of Devon and Cornwall, and a part of Somerset, coloured after the surveys of Mr. De la Beche; and it may be truly said of them, that they are more beautiful in their execution, more accurate in their details, and more instructive in the ceconomical and scientific information they give respecting mines, than any maps yet published by any government in the world ; affording documents to which we can at length with pride appeal, in reply to the reproach that has so long, with too much truth, been cast upon us, that England alone, of all the civilized nations, has abandoned to gratuitous individual exertions, and the liberality of amateurs in science, the great work of exploring and delineating the mineral structure of the country ; and ascertaining the nature and extent of the subterraneous produce, which lies at the foundation of the industry of its manufacturing population, and to which the nation owes no small portion of its wealth. The statistical importance of this first portion of the Ordnance Geological Map of England will be duly appreciated only by those, who know the extent of the property embarked in the mining inter- S$ 2 222 ests of the Western counties, and are aware that the annual value of the mineral produce of Cornwall and Devon alone has recently amounted to 1,34.0,000/. In the chapter on (Economic Geology, which forms part of the Memoir connected with his Map of Cornwall and Devon, Mr. De la Beche has placed, in a more prominent light than has ever yet appeared, the bearing of. geological researches and mineral statistics upon political ceconomy; and proves, by tabular documents, the important fact, that the average value of the annual produce of the mines of the British Islands amounts to the enormous sum of 20,000,0002.*, of which about §8,000,000/. arise from iron, and 9,000,000/ from coal. Should this inquiry be extended through the endless departments of art, industry and commerce, which have their origin in the manufactories of metals, and in the power of steam, derived exclu- sively from the application of coal, the vast national importance of mineral statistics, and of models, maps and sections, on which alone their details can be effectually recorded, must be apparent to every one. Still more extensive will be the statistical and political importance of the next portion of this great work, now in progress by the same highly accomplished geologist, which is to comprehend the coal and iron districts of Monmouthshire and South Wales. _ GEOLOGICAL MAP OF ENGLAND. You have this day the satisfaction to see suspended in your meet- ing room a new edition of Mr. Greenough’s Geological Map of Eng- land, which has for many years formed the glory of this Society. It is truly gratifying to observe how small a change this new edi- tion exhibits, either in the general dispositions, which it represented nearly a quarter of a century ago, or in the complicated details of the boundaries of the different formations. Some alterations appear in the Greensand series, the Wealden, the Lias, and the New red Sandstone. The principal additions are the introduction of the Si- * See Geological Report on Devon and Cornwall, p. 624, and note, 1839. In this estimate the value of the copper is taken in the ore, before fusion ; that of the iron, lead, zinc, tin and silver, after fusion, in their first mar- ketable condition —as pigs, blocks and ingots. The coal is valued at the pit’s mouth, 223 lurian divisions made in the slate rocks, by Mr. Murchison, in the border districts of England and Wales; and the new distribution very recently assigned to the slate rocks of Devonshire and Corn- wall. A great improvement also has been made by the substitution of an entirely new Map of Wales and Siluria, founded on the Ordnance surveys of those regions, of which no accurate physical map ex- isted at the time of Mr. Greenough’s first publication. Another improvement in the execution consists in the union of linear shadows with the colours representing the superficial extent of the strata. The combined effects of these elements of expression, judiciously employed, has been to exhibit, more distinctly, the subdivisions of formations, without destroying the unity of the general mass to which they belong. By the frequent introduction also of conven- tional signs, and figures of reference, Mr. Greenough has produced a more condensed assemblage of scientific information, of varied kinds, than has been put together in any map of equal extent yet published. Extreme attention has also been paid to the physical features of the country, and in the orographic details more than 500 heights are given. The hydrographic features also are deli- neated with scrupulous exactness. GEOLOGICAL MAP OF IRELAND. The last summer has witnessed the production of Mr. Griffith’s large and splendid Geological Map of Ireland, containing the results of nearly thirty years’ investigation, by that eminent geologist and civil engineer. Mr. Griffith had supplied an outline of this map published in the Report of the Railway Commissioners for Ireland, 1838. It is obvious that the information thus conveyed, as to the nature of the materials of which the island is composed, affords the most solid basis for sound calculation as to the future improvement of Ireland by the application of its natural resources. GEOLOGICAL MAP OF A LARGE PORTION OF EUROPE. During the last year we have also witnessed the publication of a beautifully coloured general Geological Map of Germany, France, and England, and parts of the adjoining countries, compiled from 224 the larger original maps of Von Buch, Elie de Beaumont, and Greenough, by Professor Von Dechen, in one large sheet, published at Berlin.* This map exhibits the geological details of a larger continuous portion of the surface of the earth than has ever before been put together with so much exactness, and set forth on such eminent authority. It also presents to the statesman and political ceconomist the most important portions of central Europe, under the new aspect of the natural divisions of the mineral formations, of which each country is composed ; showing that in every region the nature and disposition of the substrata lie at the foundation, not only of its agricultural productiveness, but also of its capability of supplying the materials, which form the basis of its industry and arts. As an historical document, this map demonstrates the rapid progress of our science, and the state of maturity which it has attained. Thus far I have occupied your attention with external matters of extraordinary interest in the history of our science, which show that geological knowledge is spreading its salutary influence, more widely and rapidly than heretofore, over the practical business of the country. I now proceed to consider the communications made to the meetings of our Society during the past year. POSITIVE GEOLOGY.—DEVONIAN SYSTEM. In the Home Department of Positive Geology, the most striking circumstance has been an announcement by Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison of the conclusion to which they were led by Mr. Lonsdale’s suggestion in December 1837, founded on the interme- diate character of the fossils in the Plymouth and Torbay limestone, —that the greater part of the slate rocks of the south of Devon and of Cornwall belong to the old red sandstone formation. The order of the observations which have led to this important result, is nearly as follows :— In a paper read at Cambridge, during the winter of 1836-37, Professor Sedgwick considered the fossiliferous slates on both sides of Cornwall to be of the same formation, and coeval, or nearly so, with the calcareous rocks that lie between the slates of South Devon. * Schropp and Company, 1839. 225 In 1836 and 1837 also*, Messrs. Sedgwick and Murchison pro- posed to transfer the culmiferous or anthracitic shale and grits (Shil- lot and Dunstone) of North Devon to the carboniferous system ; withdrawing them from the grauwacke in which they had before been included, and thus assigning a much more recent date than heretofore to the strata which occupy nearly one third part of the map of Devonshire. But the relations of the slates and limestones of South Devon still remained to be determined ; the mineral characters of the former being different from those of the old red sandstone beneath the car- boniferous group, in many parts of South Wales and in Hereford- shire, while the true position of the limestones (e. g. those of Ply- mouth, Torbay, and Newton Bushell, ) was doubtful. At this period, (1837,) the fossils of this district were examined by Mr. Lonsdale and Mr. Sowerby, to whom the organic remains, both of the car- boniferous and Silurian systems, were familiar. It was soon per- ceived, that while some of the South Devonshire fossils approached to those of the carboniferous strata, and others to those of Siluria, there were still many species which could not be assigned to either system; the whole, taken together, exhibiting a peculiar and inter- mediate paleontological character. Mr. Lonsdale therefore sug- gested, that the difficulties which had perplexed this inquiry could be removed by regarding the limestones of South Devon as subor- dinate to slaty rocks, which represent the old red sandstones of Here- ford, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland,—their true place in the series of Devonshire being intermediate between the culmiferous basin of North Devon, and the Silurian strata,—if the latter exist in that county. The value of this suggestion was not at first appreciated; but after the lapse of more than a year, Mr. Lonsdale’s views were adopted (March 1839) by Messrs. Sedgwick and Murchisont, who * Tn August 1836, at the Meeting of the British Association at Bristol; and in a paper read before the Geological Society, May and June, 1837, now published in the Geological Transactions, Second Series, vol. v., Part 3. + Itis to be observed here, that Mr. Murchison, having previously shown that the fossils of the Silurian era are distinct from those of the carboni- ferous period, had also pointed out ‘‘ the vast accumulations” (in which few fossils had at that time been discovered) ‘‘ then known to separate the two systems.” He mentions especially, that ‘‘the fishes of the old red 226 soon afterwards applied this new arrangement not only to the groups of Devonshire originally under review, but with a boldness which does credit to their sagacity, extended it to the whole of the slaty and calciferous strata of Cornwall, till then known only as grau- wacke, clay-slate, or killas; assigning to those strata, likewise, the date of the old red sandstone, and resting this determination entirely on the character of the fossils. This change—the greatest ever made at one time in the classification of our English formations— was announced in a memoir read before the Geological Society in April 1839; the authors then also proposing for the whole séries (including both the old red sandstones of Herefordshire, and the fossiliferous slates and limestones of South Devon and Cornwall,) the new name of “the Devonian system,” and expressing their belief, that many of the groups hitherto called grauwacke, in other parts ot the British Islands and on the continent, would ere long be re- ferred to the same geological epoch. The proposed alteration, therefore, will terminate the perplexity hitherto arising from the circumstance, that the o/d red sandstone of Werner has been frequently confounded with the new red sandstone formation of English geologists. It also explains the cause of the English old red sandstone having been rarely recognised on the continent :—for if the Devonian slates afford the normal type of this formation, whilst the marly sandstones and conglomerates of Herefordshire are abnormal exceptions in it, we see the reason why their slaty continental equivalents, like the greater part of the South Devon slates, have been referred to the undivided Wernerian forma- tion of grauwacke. Mr. Austen, in a communication relating to the structure of the south of Devon, has identified the caleareous slate and limestone of the south of Cornwall with the limestones of this district, and con- siders that of Torbay among the newest deposits in the latter series. sandstone—entirely distinct as to form and species—are as unlike those of the Silurian system, as they are to those of the overlying carboniferous system :’ adding, “that he has no doubt, although at present unprovided with geological links to connect the whole series, that such proofs will be hereafter discovered, and that we shall then see in them as perfect evi- dence of a transition between the old red sandstone and carboniferous rocks, as we now trace from the Cambrian, through the Silurian, into the old red system.”’—See Silurian System, p. 585, line 22, e¢ seq. 227 The Rev. D. Williams also has communicated two papers re- specting these disputed rocks, which he refers to the transition or grauwacke system, and endeavours to show that the strata of De- vonshire can be distinguished into certain groups by their litholo- gical characters. Mr. De la Beche in his map of Devon and Cornwall, published in 1839, has adopted divisions of the strata, similar to those of Pro- fessor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison, as to their order of sequence ; applying, provisionally, to the culmiferous rocks the name of Car- bonaceous series, and to the Devonian and Cornish slates the appel- lation of Greywacke. We know also on the authority of Mr. De la Beche that tin mines are worked in carbonaceous rocks at Owlescomb near Ashburton, on the east side of the Dartmoor granite, and on its west side at Wheal Jewel near Tavistock. He further informs us that one of the richest tin mines now worked in Cornwall, namely the Charles- town mine, east of St. Austle, is in a fossiliferous rock containing Enerinites and corals, and that the same corals occur also near tin mines at St. Just; and in the neighbourhood of Liskeard the Rev. D. Williams has found slates which contain vegetable impressions, dipping under other slates which are intersected by lodes of tin and copper. From these new facts, we learn that the killas and other slate rocks of Cornwall and the south of Devon do not possess the high antiquity which has till lately been imputed to them; and that tin occurs, as copper, lead and silver have long been known to do, not only in slate rocks that contain organic remains, but even in the coal formation. Soon after the publication of the views of Messrs. Sedgwick and Murchison, a similar change was applied by Mr. Griffith to the south-west portion of his geological map of Ireland. In a paper that accompanied the presentation of this map to us on 22nd of May last, he states that he has now coloured, as old red sandstone and carboniferous limestone, extensive districts of the counties of Kerry, Cork, and Waterford, previously considered of higher anti- quity ; imputing his former erroneous opinion to the identity in lithological character of the shales and grits of the old red sand- stone and carboniferous systems, with the older rocks in the transi- tion series, 228 Mr. Griffith has also demonstrated by sections the unconform- able position of the carboniferous and old red sandstone formations, which overlie older and more highly inclined slates in the counties of Kerry, Cork, Waterford, and Wexford. Mr. Charles William Hamilton has likewise adopted similar changes; and believes that the slates which occupy a large space between the Mourne Mountains and Dublin are equivalent to those near Cork, which he now transfers to the old red sandstone. Mr. Greenough, in the new edition of his map of England, repre- sents nearly the same boundaries and order of succession in Devon and Cornwall as we find in the maps of Mr. Dela Beche and Messrs. Sedgwick and Murchison ; but in his memoir connected with the map, adopting the name of Carbonaceous series for the culmife- rous rocks, he substitutes that of Upper killas for the Devonian system of Sedgwick and Murchison, (including under that term the old red sandstone of Herefordshire,) and Lower killas for the slates inferior to the Silurian system, which they have termed Cam- brian. Mr. Greenough, in his memoir, also shows by quotations from Dr. MacCulloch, that the undisputed old red sandstone of the north of Scotland exhibits, at intervals, the same great changes of mineral character, that occur in the strata intermediate between the Carbo- naceous and Silurian systems in the west of England and on the borders of Wales; and justly infers the inadequacy of any one term to characterize formations which vary so much in lithological com- position, that at one place they present the condition of a fine- grained silky slate, at another of sandstone, and at a third that of coarse gravel and conglomerate rock. Thus, with respect to the slate rocks of Devon, Cornwall and Wales, the difficulties are reduced to those of an unsettled nomen- clature ; whilst nearly all parties are in unison as to the fundamental fact of referring the slates of South Devon and Cornwall to the epoch of the old red sandstone formation. The term grauwacke, however, I rejoice to think, will not be condemned to the extirpation which has been threatened from the nomenclature of geology; it may still retain its place as a generic appellative, comprehending the entire transition series of the school of Freyberg, and divisible into three great subordinate formations:—the Devonian system of Sedgwick and Murchison being equivalent to the upper grauwacke, the Si- 229 Jurian to the middle grauwacke, and the Cambrian system to the lower. In this threefold distribution of the vast series of strata which have hitherto been indiscriminately designated by the common term grauwacke, we are, as it were, extending the progressive operations of a general inclosure act over the great common field of geology ; we propose a division, founded on measurements, surveys, and the study of organic remains, analogous to that. of the secondary strata, from the chalk downwards to the coal formation, established by William Smith, and to the separations of the once undivided ter- ritory of the great tertiary system, effected by Cuvier and Brongniart, Desnoyers, Lyell, and Deshayes. To the uninitiated in geology, rectifications in the distribution of strata upon so large a scale may seem calculated to shake confi- dence in all the conclusions of our science ; but a contrary inference will be drawn by those who know that these corrections have never been applied to conclusions established on the sure foundation of organic remains, but to those rocks only of which the arrangement had been founded on the uncertain character of mineral compo- sition. COAL FORMATION. The Society has received from Professor Ansted a paper on the Carboniferous and Transition Rocks of Bohemia, a country which he visited last summer, directing especial attention to the district between Prague, Luditz and Pilsen, which he has illustrated by sec- tions made from personal observation. Above the fundamental granite and gneiss he found extensive deposits of grauwacke, on which lie, in unconformable superposition, disconnected patches of the coal formation. The age of this coal is well known, from the fossil Flora of Count Sternberg, who resided in the midst of it near Swina, to be identical with that of the great Coal formation of En- gland. Mr. Ansted gives information also as to the action of trap rocks in producing disturbances of the strata in this district ; and re- specting dislocations, by which the grauwacke is several times placed on a level with the coal measures, whilst in some cases the strata are inverted and the coal measures laid beneath the grauwacke. We have received an interesting communication from Mr. Hawk- shaw respecting a remarkable disclosure made in the Bolton Railway, 230 six miles north of Manchester, of five fossil trees in a position vertical to the plane of the strata in which they stand. ‘The roots are im- bedded in a soft argillaceous shale immediately under a thin bed of coal. Near the base of one tree, and beneath the coal, more than a bushel of hard clay nodules was found, each inclosing a cone of Lepidostrobus variabitlis. The bark of the trees was converted to coal, from one quarter to three quarters of an inch thick; the sub- stance which has replaced the interior of the trees is shale; the cir- cumference of the largest of them is 154 feet at the base, 74 at. the top, and its height 11 feet. One tree has spreading roots, four feet in circumference, solid and strong. By the care of Mr. Hawkshaw these trees have been preserved, and a covering is erected over them. ‘The attendant phenomena seem to show that they grew upon the strata that lie immediately beneath their roots. Mr. Barber Beaumont, in a communication respecting these same trees, considers that no drifted plants occur in coal fields, and that all the vegetables which are now converted into coal, grew upon swampy islands covered with luxuriant vegetation, which accu- mulated in the manner of peat bogs; that these islands, having sunk beneath the sea, were there covered with sand, clay and shells, till they again became dry land, and that this operation was repeated in the formation of each bed of coal. In denying altogether the pre- sence of drifted plants, the opinion of the author seems erroneous ; universal negative propositions are in all cases dangerous, and more especially so in geology: that some of the trees which are found erect in the coal formation have not been drifted, is, I think, esta- blished on sufficient evidence; but there is equal evidence to show that other trees, and leaves innumerable which pervade the strata that alternate with the coal, have been removed by water to con- siderable distances from the spots on which they grew. Proofs are daily increasing in favour of both opinions: viz. that some of the vegetables which formed our beds of coal grew on the identical banks of sand and silt and mud, which being now indurated to stone and shale, form the strata that accompany the coal; whilst other portions of these plants have been drifted, to various distances, from the swamps, savannahs, and forests that gave them birth, par- ticularly those that are dispersed through the sandstones, or mixed with fishes in the shale beds. 231 The cases are very few in which [ have ever seen fossil trees, or any smaller vegetables erect and petrified in their native place. The Cycadites and stumps of large Coniferous trees on the surface of the oolite in Portland, and the stems of Equisetaceous plants described by Mr. Murchison in the inferior oolite formation near Whitby, and erect plants which I have found in sandy strata of the latter formation near Alencon, are examples of stems and roots over- laid by sediment and subsequently petrified without removal from the spots in which they grew. At Balgray, three miles north of Glasgow, I saw in the year 1824, as there still may be seen, an un- equivocal example of the stumps of several stems of large trees stand- ing close together in their native place in a quarry of sandstone of the coal formation. In a paper on the sinking of the surface over coal mines, Mr. Bud- dle has shown that the depressions produced on the surface by the excavation of beds of coal near Newcastle-on-Tyne are regulated by the depth and thickness of the coal, the nature of the strata above it, and also the partial or total extraction of the beds of coal. The accumulation of water forming ponds in these superficial depressions, and the sinkings of a railway, have afforded accurate measures of the amount of the subsidences in question. WEALDEN AND PORTLAND FORMATIONS. In the north of Germany Mr. Roémer, of Hildesheim, has identified beneath the Cretaceous system, the Purbeck stone and beds of the Wealden formation, with nearly all its characteristic shells, and three minute species of Cypris. He has also found the Portland sand and the upper and lower Green sand and the Gault clay, in the north of Germany. He has, moreover, found the Wealden forma- tion near Bottingen in the High Alps. CHALK FORMATION. In extension of our knowledge of the Chalk formation, the Rev. J.Gunn has sent us a short communication, accompanied by a litho- graph representing the columnar disposition of some Paramoudras to the height of many feet one above another in the chalk of Norfolk. The history of these enormous urn-shaped flints, which were first noticed by Professor Buckland in an early volume of our Transactions, 232 Ist series, vol. iv. p. 413. pl. 24., is still involved in much obscurity. Their form is most probably due to siliceous matter collected around and penetrating throughout the substance of gigantic spongiform bodies ; but we have yet to learn the reason why they are occasion- ally placed in single vertical rows, almost like the joints of a basaltic column, sometimes nearly touching, but not articulating with one another. A paper has been read by Mr. Henry Lawes Long on the occur- rence of numerous subterraneous chasms or swallow-holes in the chalk on the west of Farnham, with observations on the drainage of the country near the west extremity of the highly-inclined ridge of chalk, called the Hog’s Back, between Guildford to Farnham. The land- springs immediately on the north of Farnham descend southwards in open gulleys over tertiary strata, until they arrive at the narrow band of chalk which passes under Farnham Park, where they are suddenly engulphed in transverse fissures or swallow-holes, through which they pass under ground to a considerable distance, and again break forth on the southern side of the chalk. Seven of these swallow-holes occur near Farnham, from some of which the water emerges in sufficient force to turn a mill. They are probably con- neeted with subterranean faults and transverse fractures, the origin of which was coeval with the elevation of the narrow band of chalk, which forms the Hog’s Back, and which, near Farnham, is inclined at a high angle to the north. The water that now passes through the Farnham swallow-holes may tend to enlarge the chasms through which it takes its subterraneous course, by dissolving slowly the chalk of their sides in the small quantities of carbonic acid which rain-water usually contains. Similar transverse fractures, on a greater scale, have given origin to the chasms, which, being enlarged by denudation into transverse valleys, afford outlets through the high escarpment of the chalk to the rivers that, rising within the Weald, flow through the escarpment of the north Downs into the valley of the Thames, and through the escarpment of the south Downs into the sea, viz. to the Wey, the Mole, the Darent, the Medway, and the Stour, through chasms in the north Downs; and to the Arun, the Aduz, the Ouse, and the Cuckmere, through chasms in the south Downs. Dr. Mitchell has communicated a paper on Artesian and other 233 wells, in the gravel and London clay in Essex, showing that water occurs under the London clay at various depths; the deepest at Foulness Island, being 460 feet. He attributes this inequality in part to unevenness in the surface of the subjacent chalk. On reaching the chalk a large volume of water usually rushes up. Ar- tesian wells are now general in Essex, where they are of the greatest utility in districts that have no natural springs. He also gives an in- teresting list of localities, both of constant and intermitting springs, some of them very powerful, that burst out from the chalk. Dr. Mitchell has also communicated an account of deleterious gases that occur in wells in the chalk and strata above it near Lon- don. The most abundant of these, namely, carbonic acid gas, issues very partially and only from certain strata, and produces sometimes effects fatal to persons employed in digging wells. Sulphuretted hydrogen is occasionally met with in chalk ; and both sulphuretted hydrogen and carburetted hydrogen occur in beds immediately above the chalk. SUPERCRETACEOUS FORMATIONS. In illustration of the history of the Eocene division of the tertiary strata, Mr. Bowerbank has concluded, from his personal observations at White cliff bay in the Isle of Wight, that there are no well-defined zoological distinctions between the London and plastic clays, but that in the cliffs of this bay the same shells are common to alternations of these clays with one another. At Alum bay also he found many London clay fossils in beds of greenish grey sand and clay below the variegated sands and clays referred by Mr. Webster to the pla- stic clay. A similar rectification was sometime ago proposed by Professor Sedgwick. We have also witnessed during the past year the commencement of a valuable publication by Mr. Bowerbank on the fossil fruits and seeds of the London clay, illustrated with very numerous and accu- rate engravings by Mr. James Sowerby. The great attention the author has long paid to the remains of fruits and seeds which occur in such vast abundance in the Isle of Sheppy, whence he has collected not less than 25,000 specimens, place him in a position peculiarly advantageous for the object before him. In this work drawings will be given of the anatomical structure of 234: many of these fossils, as seen under the microscope. The simple ex- pedient Mr. Bowerbank has adopted of preserving these fruits in jars of water, has kept him in the entire possession of every specimen ever placed in his collection; whilst of the thousands of similar fossils that have been deposited in other collections, including that at the British Museum, nearly all have perished from the decompo- sition of the iron pyrites with which they are always penetrated. Mr. Lyell has communicated to us a paper full of elaborate detail of facts, and of ingenious speculations respecting the Boulder forma- tion, or drift, associated with freshwater deposits, in the mud cliffs of Eastern Norfolk. These cliffs are in some places 400 feet high, and consist of chalk, crag, freshwater. deposits, drift mud and sand, stratified and unstratified ;—with superficial accumulations of flint gravel. The centre of his observations is the town of Cro- mer; he considers the Boulder formation to have been accumulated on land permanently submerged, and not, by one or many, transient advances of water over dry land, and therefore proposes, as Mr, Murchison and others have already done, to substitute the term of Drift for that of Diluvium, which many other writers have assigned to it. The Drift, or Diluvium, is of two kinds; one composed of sand, loam, clay, and gravel, all regularly stratified ; the other con- sisting of clay, not divided into beds, and containing boulders of granite, trap and other rocks. _ This clay is known on the east and north-east coast of Scotland by the name of Till. He considers the stratified Drift and Till to be contemporaneous formations, and compares the latter to moraines formed at the termination of glaciers. He imagines that drifted masses of ice, charged with earthy matter and fragments of rock, may have deposited the Till as they melted in still water, and the occasional intercalation or juxta-position of stratified materials is ascribed to the action of currents on materials also falling from melting icebergs. Mr. Lyell refers the complicated bendings and tortuous foldings of many beds of this formation near Mundesley and Cromer to la- teral pressure from drifting ice, especially where extremely con- torted beds repose upon undisturbed and horizontal strata. But he admits that some of them may be due to landslips of ancient date, and which had no connection with the present line of cliffs, At 235 the bottom of the boulder formation, and immediately above the chalk, extensive remains of a buried forest occur, the stools of the trees being imbedded in black vegetable earth. From the position of this forest a vertical subsidence of several hundred feet and a subsequent rise of the land to the same amount is inferred. This forest and a bed of lignite are connected with fluviatile or lacustrine deposits, which occur about the level of low water below the drift; but at Mundesley they are partly above it, and the freshwater shells which they inclose being nearly all of British species show that they, as well as the contemporaneous drift, all belong to the newer Plio- cene period. In an Address formerly delivered from this chair, in 1836, and in a subsequent edition of his “ Principles of Geology,” as well as in his “ Elements ” Mr. Lyell has called our attention to some differ- ences of opinion which had been expressed by several eminent con- chologists as to the number of fossil shells of the crag of Norfolk and Suffolk which could be identified with living species. So great was the discordance of the results at which M. Deshayes, Dr. Beck, and others seemed to have arrived, that their announcement was calculated materially to impair our confidence in the applicability of the chronological test so much relied on by Mr. Lyell for the clas- sification of the tertiary formations ; namely, that derived from the proportional number of recent and extinct species discoverable in each deposit. In the hope of arriving at some definite conclusion on this important point, Mr. Lyell visited Norfolk and Suffolk du- ring the last year, and having obtained a considerable collection from the crag near Norwich and Southwold, he instituted, with the assistance of Mr. Searles Wood and Mr. George Sowerby, a thorough comparison between them and recent species. The fossil shells of this formation, which the author calls the Norwich crag, are partly marine, and partly freshwater, and indicate a fluvio-marine origin, and the proportion of living species was found to be between 50 and 60 per cent. This deposit, therefore, the author refers to the older Pliocene period. A similar examination was then made of 230 species of shells from the Red Crag in Mr. Wood’s museum, and it was found that 69 agreed with living species, being in the proportion of about 30 per cent. This group therefore Mr. Lyell ascribes to the Miocene VOL. III. at 236 era. A collection of 345 species of Coralline Crag shells in Mr. Wood’s cabinet was then compared in like manner, and sixty-seven were determined to be identical with recent species, being about 19 per cent. Mr. Lyell, therefore, considers that the Coralline Crag is also Miocene, although belonging to a more remote part of that period than the Red Crag. Having obtained from M. Dujardin a collection of 240 shells from the Faluns of Touraine, he found with Mr. George Sowerby’s assistance that the recent shells were in the proportion of twenty-six per cent., so that he has now come round to the opinion long ago announced by M. Desnoyers, that upon the whole the Crag of Suffolk corresponds in age with the Faluns of Touraine, both be- ing Miocene, although the species in the two countries are almost entirely distinct, those of England having a northern and those of France a sub-tropical character. I am also informed by Mr. Lyell, that out of 400 marine and freshwater species, from the Kocene strata of the London and Hampshire basins, Mr. G. Sowerby was scarcely able to identify two per cent. with living shells. It is satisfactory therefore to observe that the test of age derived from the relative approach to the recent Fauna is in perfect accordance with the in- dependent evidence drawn from superposition. We ascertain for example by superposition that the freshwater strata of the mud cliffs of East Norfolk rest on Norwich crag, and are the newest forma- tion of all. They are then followed in the descending series by, Ist, the Norwich, 2ndly, the Red, and 3rdly, the Coralline Crag, beneath which is the London Clay. The same order of sequence is indi- cated by the organic remains considered independently, and simply with reference to the degree of their correspondence with the ex- isting Fauna. It has been known for many years, that near Bridlington, in York- shire, sand and clay containing marine tertiary shells had been ex- posed on the coast. From an examination of the shells collected there by Mr. Bean, Mr. Lyell finds the deposit to agree in age with the Norwich Crag. I cannot conclude these remarks without observing, that some part of the confusion and apparent inconsistency of the opinions of different conchologists, respecting the age of the Crag, must have arisen from the intermixture of fossils derived equally from 237 the Norfolk and Suffolk beds, or from strata, some of which now turn out to be referable to the Older Pliocene, others to the Miocene period. From an examination of some fossil shells, identical with recent species collected by Capt. Bayfield from the most modern deposit near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and near Quebec, Mr. Lyell infers, that the climate of Canada was colder than now during the era im- mediately antecedent to our own times. Theshells, which were de- termined by Dr. Beck, differ in great part from those now living in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, agree more nearly with arctic genera and species, and resemble those which Mr. Lyell collected at Udde- valla, in Sweden; whereas, if the living shells most abundant in the Swedish and Canadian seas are contrasted, they differ almost en- tirely. From notes sent by Capt. Bayfield, it appears that at different depths in the stratified sand and clay containing the fosils shells, near Quebec, insulated boulders are numerous, which, it is presumed, have been brought down at distant intervals by drift ice, and have dropped to the bottom of the sea as the ice melted. While Mr. Lyell, by the aid of Dr. Beck’s determination of fos- sils, had adopted these views respecting the climate of Canada, Mr. James Smith, of Jordan Hill, had been led by independent observa- tions to a similar conclusion respecting the climate of Scotland during the Newer Pliocene era, arguing from the arctic character of the Testacea found in the raised beds of the valley of the Clyde, and other localities. In the first of two papers communicated by this author, he regarded all the deposits abounding in recent shells in Scotland and Ireland as belonging to one group; but in his second memoir he contends that there are two distinct formations on the Clyde, in the older of which there are from ten to fifteen per cent. of extinct or unknown species of shells, which he refers to the Newer Pliocene system of Lyell ; whereas all the species found in the newer, which he calls Post-tertiary, exist also in the present seas. During this Post-tertiary period, which is considered to have been anterior to the human epoch, an elevation of at least forty feet took place on the shores of the Clyde. Mr. Smith affirms that the Till, or unstratified accumulation of clay and boulders, belongs not to the Post-tertiary, but to the older Pliocene division. 4 40, 238 IGNEOUS ROCKS. The principal communication we have received on rocks of igne- ous origin has been from our Secretary, Mr. W. I. Hamilton, who has read an interesting paper on the north-west part of Asia Minor, from the Peninsula of Cyzicus to Koola, with a description of the Kata- kekaumene. Between Cyzicus and Koola the principal stratified rocks are schist, with saccharine marble, compact limestone resem- bling the scaglia of Italy and Greece, tertiary sandstones, and tertiary limestones. The igneous rocks are granite, peperite, trachyte and basalt. The tertiary limestones are referred to the great lacustrine formation which occupies so large a part of Asia Minor. Hot springs burst forth near Singerli from a porphyritic trap rock. The Katakekaumene is a volcanic region, extending about seven miles from north to south, and from eighteen to nineteen east and west. It presents two systems of volcanic craters and coulées: the older of them are placed on parallel ridges of gneiss and mica slate, and the newer in the intervening valleys; hence he argues, that when the latter eruptions took place, the lines of least resistance to subter- raneous expansion were in the valleys. The streams of lava from the more recent cones are bare and rugged, like the coulées in cen- tral France. Three periods of eruption are traced: the first, ha- ving produced basalt, which caps the plains of white limestone, and was ejected before the formation of the valleys; the second, marked by currents of lava from the more ancient system of volcanos in action since the formation of the valleys; the third resembling the coulées of Etna and Vesuvius, and mentioned by Strabo, but of which there is no historical tradition as to the period when they were in activity. We have a notice by the Rev. W. B. Clarke of a shower of ashes that fell on board the Roxburgh off the Cape de Verd islands in February, 1839, the cause of which ‘was not apparent. ‘The sails were covered with a fine powder, resembling the ashes of Vesuvius, which was probably derived from an eruption in the Cape de Verd group. PALEONTOLOGY. In the department of Palgontology Prof. Owen has, during the past year, contributed many papers, with his usual zeal and ability, 239 to the elucidation of this most essential and perhaps most generally interesting branch of our subject. At the head of these we must place his determination of a tooth and part of a jaw of a fossil mon- key, of the genus macacus, with part of the jaw of an opossum, and the tooth of a bat, in Eecene strata of the English tertiary forma- tion. These remains were found at Kingston, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, by Mr. Colchester, in strata which Mr. Lyell has referred to the London clay; thus proving the existence of quadrumanous, marsupial, and cheiropterous animals in this country during the Eocene period. We have now evidence of fossil Quadrumana in the tertiary formations, not only of India and Brazil, but also of France and England; respecting which Mr. Owen has observed, that they appear under four of the existing modifications of the quadrumanous type: viz. the tailless ape (ylobates ), found fossil in the South of France; the gentle vegetable-feeding Semnopithecus, found fossil in India; the more petulant and omnivorous Macuacus, found in Norfolk; and the platyrrhine Calhthrix, found in Brazil. This genus is peculiar to America, and its extinct species is of more than double the stature of any that exists at the present day. This geographical distribution of Quadrumana adds further weight to the arguments derived from the tropical aspect of vegetable re- mains that abound in the London clay at Sheppy, showing that great heat prevailed in the European part of the world, as well as in India and South America, during the Eocene period. The probability of high temperature is further corroborated by Mr. Owen’s recent recognition of four petrified portions of a large serpent (Paleophis Toliapicus), eleven feet long, and in several points resembling a boa, or python; and also of a bird allied to the vultures (Lithornis vulturinus), all from the London clay of the Isle of Sheppy; wherein the occurrence of fossil Crocodilians and Testudinata, and of fossil fruits, having a tropical aspect allied to cocoa-nuts and many other fruits of palms, has been long known. Can we account for these curious facts without supposing that at the Eocene period of the tertiary epoch, the very clay on which London now stands was in the condition of a nascent spice-island, its shores covered with basking reptiles, and the adjacent lands waving with cardomums and palms, and thuias and cypresses, with monkeys vaulting and gamboling upon their branches, and gigantic 240 serpents entwined around their trunks; the seas also swarming with sting-rays and saw-fishes, with chimeras and enormous sharks? for all these together with countless shells of pearly nautili occur among the fossil remains of the numerous extinct species of fishes, which, during the early ages of the tertiary period, crowded the tepid seas of our now humid and chilling climate. Mr. Owen has also determined the character of a new genus of Pachydermatous animal (Hyotherium) intermediate between the Hyrax, hog, and Chzropotamus, found in the London clay at Herne Bay, near Margate, by Mr. Richardson. Mr. Lyell having submitted to Mr. Owen some fossil teeth from the Red Crag of Newbourne in Suffolk, they proved to be refer- rible to the leopard, bear, hog, and a large kind of deer, and afford the first example of mammalian remains being found in England in any of those divisions of the Crag which Mr. Lyell, in a paper already alluded to, has ascribed to the Miocene period; these ge- nera are known to occur in the Miocene formations of France and Germany. The numerous Mammalia in the fluvio-marine crag of Norwich, are decidedly of a later date; among these Mr. Lyell enumerates the teeth and jaw of Mastodon longirostris, a tusk of an elephant with serpulz attached, and bones of a horse, hog, and field- mouse; there occur bones of birds, many fishes, and numerous shells, partly marine, and partly fresh-water and terrestrial. The recent discoveries in Brazil by Dr. Lund of extinct Mam- malia, that probably lived in some late portion of the tertiary epochs, form a new and important chapter in Paleontology. The largest of these are referrible to more gigantic forms than at present exist of families now peculiar to South America—e. g. to Sloths and Armadillos ; just as most of the fossil mammalia of New Holland belong to families and genera which are still peculiar to that country. In a paper on one of these animals from Buenos Ayres, Mr. Owen has shown that the bony armour, which several authors have referred to the Megatherium, belongs to the Glyptodon, an animal allied to the Armadillo, and of which a head containing teeth, and attached to a tessellated bony covering of the body and tail, resembling those of an Armadillo, has been lately found near Buenos Ayres, and is figured by Sir Woodbine Parish in his interesting work on that country, 1838. 241 The Glyptodon differed from the Megatherium in the structure and number of.the teeth, and from all known Armadillos in the form of the lower jaw, and the presence of a long process descend- ing from the zygoma; and approached in both these respects to the Megatherium. ‘The teeth differ from those of Armadillos, in ha- ving two deep grooves both on the outer and inner surface, are more complex than those of any known Edentate, and indicate a passage from that family into the Toxodon. The ungual phalanges are wholly unlike those of the Megatherium, and most nearly resemble those of Dasypus, but are short broad and flat, and seem to have been covered with hoof-like claws. The form of the foot most nearly resembled that of the fore foot of the Mole. Having ap- propriated to the Glyptodon the armour supposed to belong to the Megatherium, Mr. Owen next proves that the latter animal was unprovided with any such bony covering, arguing from a compari- son of its vertebral column and pelvis with that of the Armadillo; and from the absence of the oblique processes, which in the lori- cated Edentata resemble as to form and use the éze-bearers in carpentry, that support the weight of a roof. The vertebral con- ditions of the Megatherium are nearer to those of the Sloths and Ant-eaters. We have accounts of twelve skeletons of Megatherium, not one of which was found to be accompanied by bony armour. Cuvier considered the Megatherium more nearly allied to the Ant- eaters and Sloths than to the Armadillos. Captain Martin has found that many parts of the bottom of the English Channel and German Ocean contain in deep water the bones and tusks of Elephants. They have been dredged up be- tween Boulogne and Dungeness, in the mid-sea between Dover and Calais, and at the back of the Goodwin Sands; also mid way between Yarmouth and the coast of Holland. In 1837 a fisherman enclo- sed in his net a vast mass of bones between the two shoals called Varn and Ridge, that form a line of submarine chalk-hills between Dover and Calais. Captain Martin says these bones do not occur on the top of banks or shoals, but in deep hollows or marine valleys. Sir John Trevelyan possesses the molars of a large Elephant from gravel in the bed of the Severn, near Watchet, and we have long known that the bones of Elephants occur in great abundance in the oyster grounds off Yarmouth. 242 In subterranean Ornithology three important discoveries have been made during the past year; the first in the Eocene formation by Professor Owen, who has recognised the fossil Vulture before alluded to in the London clay of Sheppy ; the second, by Lord Cole and Sir P. Egerton, who have acquired from the chalk of Kent the hu- merus of a bird most like that of an Albatross, but of larger and longer dimensions; the third by Professor Agassiz, who has found in Switzerland, a nearly entire skeleton of a small bird (not unlike a Swallow), at Glaris, in the indurated blue slate beds of the lower region of the chalk formation. We know that the bones of a Wader, larger than a Heron, have been found by Mr. Mantell in the Weal- den formation of Tilgate Forest ; and that the Ornithichnites in the New Red Sandstone of Connecticut have been referred to seven species of birds. We have an interesting accession to our knowledge of the ana- tomy of the Ichthyosaurus in Mr. Owen’s description of the hinder fin of an Ichthyosaurus communis, discovered at Barrow-on-Soar by Sir Philip Egerton; this fin distinctly exhibits on its posterior margin the remains of cartilaginous rays that bifurcate as they approach the edge of the fin, showing in this respect a new approximation to the fin of a fish, and more fully justifying the propriety of the name Ichthyosaurus. Traces are also preserved of scutiform compart- ments on the integument of the fin. It is singular that this struc- ture should never have been observed in any of the numerous spe- cimens from Dorset and Somerset that have come under our notice ; whilst at Barrow-on-Soar, from whence the paddle in question was derived, even the fibres of the skin and folds of the epidermis are sometimes accurately retained *. Mr. Owen’s first part of his report on fossil Saurians, read at the British Association at Birmingham in August last, forms the com- mencement of a most important addition to the history of extinct reptiles. His recent investigations in Odontography have also sup- plied to the geologist a new and most efficient instrument of investi- gation, enabling him to distinguish genera of extinct animals by the microscopic structure of their teeth ; and as, of all fossil remains, the teeth are the parts most perfectly preserved, and in the case of cartila- vinous fishes the teeth and spines are generally the only parts that * See Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise, Pl. 10. 243 have escaped decomposition, this method assumes an especial im- portance in fossil Ichthyology, as affording exact characteristics of animals long swept from the surface of the earth, and whose very bones have been obliterated from among the fossil witnesses of the early conditions of life upon our planet. By this microscopic test applied to the family of Sharks, Mr. Owen has confirmed the views of Agassiz respecting the affinities between the living Cestracion and the extinct genera Acrodus, Ptychodus, Psammodus, Hybodus, Co- chliodus ; in the case of animals also of the higher orders, he has settled the much-disputed places of several extinct gigantic Mam- malia by the same unerring test. Thus he has shown the supposed reptile Basilosaurus to be a Cetaceous mammifer, allied to the Du- gong ; the Megatherium to be, as Cuvier had considered it, more nearly allied to the Sloth than to the Armadillo; and the Sauro- cephalus to be, as Agassiz had supposed it, an osseous fish. Dr. Malcolmson, in amemoir on the Old Red Sandstone of the north of Scotland, has done important service in showing that the rocks composing that group are divided into three formations, the two lower of which are clearly distinguished from each other by their fossil fishes. The cornstone or central formation is charged with numerous remains of Ichthyolites, including Holoptychus nobilis- simus, a new species of Cephalaspis, and other forms not yet de- scribed. The lower division, consisting in this region of conglome- rates, shales and sandstone, is characterized by the genera Dipterus, Diplopterus, Cheiracanthus, &c., of Agassiz, as well as by the oceurrence of a singular Ichthyolite, which seems to offer close analogies to certain forms of Crustacea. By help of these Ich- thyolites, the author has been enabled to connect certain strata of Orkney and Caithness, and determine their relations to the beds of Old Red Sandstone containing fossil fishes in the basin of the Tay, and in the border counties of England and Wales, where they had been described by Mr. Murchison. Mr. Williamson, in a notice on the fossil fishes of the coal-fields of York and Lancaster, says that these coal measures are very rich in Ichthyolites, which abound so much at Middleton colliery, near Leeds, that the workmen have given to one bed the name of fish coal ; they are usually in fine bituminous shale above and below the coal, and most frequent in the roof immediately above it, where, as 244 at Burdie House, near Edinburgh, there is a thin seam of coprolitic matter ; they are rarely mixed with any great quantity of vegetable remains. In the lower measures of Lancashire they are associated with Goniatites and Pectens, and in the higher measures of Lan- cashire and Yorkshire with freshwater shells allied to Unio, and with Entomostraca. Exact observations as to facts of this kind are of inestimable importance, for it is only by careful induction from a sufficient number of such-like phenomena, and from similar de- tails as to the local distribution and condition of animal and vege- — table remains in the marine and fluvio-marine and lacustrine depo- sits which compose the carboniferous series, that we shall arrive at a solution of the grand problem of the formation of coal. CRUSTACEANS. The Rev. T. B. Brodie has discovered in the Wealden formation near Dinton, in the vale of Wardour, the remains of Coleopterous and Hymenopterous insects, and anew genus of Jsopodous Crustacea in the family Cymothoide. ‘The Isopods are clustered densely to- gether ; the lenses in their eyes are sometimes preserved; there are also traces of legs, but of no antenne. With them he has found a large species of Cypris. The insects are chiefly small Coleoptera ; there are several species of Dipterous, and one Homopterous insect, and the wing of a Libellula. Mr. Brodie’s discovery is the first yet made of insects in the Wealden formation, and also the first example in a secondary formation of Isopods that approximate in form to the Trilobites of the Transition series. WORMS. An addition has been made to fossil Helmintology by Mr. Atkin- son of Neweastle-on-Tyne, who has found in slabs of micaceous slaty sandstone, from the carbonaceous series near Haltwhistle, tortuous casts of vermiform bodies of various sizes, some almost an inch in diameter, and several feet in length; the surface of many of these is thickly marked by transverse rings and a longitudinal groove, similar to those in the largest recent marine sand worms, e.g. the Leodice gigantea. The integument of some of these worms con- taining chitine, like the covering of insects, seems to have endured long enough to fix impressions of the transverse rings upon the 245 sand; and the habit of swallowing large quantities of earth and sand, which we observe in many recent worms, may explain the presence of the large portion of sand, now indurated to stone, which occupies the interior of the impression of the skin. Since many casts are found upon the same slab, these worms must have been very numerous at the bottom of the sea, when the sandstone was in pro- cess of formation. Similar impressions of Annelids on the Cam- brian rocks are figured by Mr. Murchison in Pl. 27 of his great work on the Silurian System. ICHNOLOGY. About twelve years ago we witnessed the creation of a new de- partment in geological investigations, viz. the science of Ichnology, founded on the evidence of footsteps made by the feet of animals upon the ancient strata of the earth ; this new method commenced with the recognition of the footmarks of reptiles on the New Red Sandstone near Dumfries, and not long after (1834) was followed by most curious and unexpected discoveries in Saxony and Ame- rica. The Chirotherium of Hessberg and Ornithichnites of Con- necticut were among its early results. Our own country has during the last two years been abundantly productive of similar appearances in many localities. - In recent excavations for making a dock at Pembray, near Llanelly, in Pembrokeshire, tracks of deer and of large oxen have been found on clay subjacent to a bed of peat, the lower peat being moulded into the footsteps ; similar impressions were also found upon the upper surface of the peat beneath a bed of silt, and bones both of deer and oxen in the peat itself. Footmarks of deer have been also noticed in Mr. Talbot’s excavations for a harbour near Margam bur- rows on the east of Neath. Near Liverpool Mr. Cunningham has successfully continued his researches begun in 1838, respecting the footsteps of Chirotherium and other animals in the New Red Sandstone at Storeton Hill, on the west side of the Mersey. These footsteps occur on five con- secutive beds of clay in the same quarry, the clay beds are very thin, and having received the impressions of the feet, afforded a series of moulds in which casts were taken by the succeeding depo- sits of sand, now converted into sandstone. The casts of the feet 246 are salient in high relief on the lower surfaces of the beds of sand- stone, giving exact models of the feet and toes and claws of these mysterious animals, of which scarcely a single bone or tooth has yet been found, although we are assured by the evidence before us of the certainty of their existence at the time when the New Red Sandstone was in process of deposition. Further discoveries of the footsteps of Chirotherium and five or six smaller reptiles in the New Red Sandstone of Cheshire, War- wickshire and Salop, have been brought before us by Sir P. Eger- ton, Mr. I. Taylor, jun., Mr. Strickland, and Dr. Ward. Mr. Cunningham, in a sequel to his paper on the footmarks at Storeton, has described impressions on the same slabs with them, derived from drops of rain that fell upon thin laminz of clay inter- posed between the beds of sand. The clay impressed with these prints of rain drops acted as a mould, which transferred the form of every drop to the lower surface of the next bed of sand deposited upon it, so that entire surfaces of several strata in the same quarry are respectively covered with moulds and casts of drops of rain that fell whilst these strata were in process of formation. On the surface of one stratum at Storeton, impressed with large footmarks of a Chirotherium, the depth of the holes formed by the rain drops on different parts of the same footstep has varied with the unequal amount of pressure on the clay and sand, by the salient cushions and retiring hollows of the creature’s foot; and from the constancy of this phenomenon upon an entire series of footmarks in a long continuous track, we know that this rain fell after the animal had passed. The equable size of the casts of large drops that cover the entire surface of the slab, except in the parts im- pressed by the cushions of the feet, record the falling of a shower of heavy drops on the day in which this huge animal had marched along the ancient strand; hemispherical impressions of small drops, upon another stratum, show it to have been exposed to only a sprinkling of gentle rain that fell at a moment of calm. In one small slab of New Red Sandstone found by Dr. Ward near Shrewsbury, we have a combination of proofs as to meteoric, hydro- static, and locomotive phenomena, which occurred at a time incal- culably remote, in the atmosphere, the water, and the movements of animals, and from which we infer with the certainty of cumulative cir- 24:7 cumstantial evidence, the direction of the wind, the depth and course of the water, and the quarter towards which the animals were passing ; the latter is indicated by the direction of the footsteps which form their tracks; the size and curvatures of the ripple-marks on the sand, now converted to sandstone, show the depth and direction of the current; the oblique impressions of the rain drops register the point from which the wind was blowing, at or about the time when the animals were passing. Demonstrations founded solely upon this kind of circumstantial evidence were duly appreciated, and are well exemplified, by the acute author of the story of Zadig ; who from marks he had noticed on the sand, of its long ears, and teats, and tail, and from irregular im- pressions of the feet, declared the size and sex, recent parturition and lameness of a bitch he had never seen; and who from the sweeping of the sand, and marks of horse-shoe nails, and a streak of silver on a pebble that lay at the bottom of a single footstep, and of gold upon a rock against which the animal had struck its bridle, inferred that a horse, of whose existence he had no other evidence, had recently passed along the shore, having a long switch tail, and shod with silver, with one nail wanting upon one shoe, and having a bridle studded with gold of twenty carats value. In addition to the commencement of Mr. Bowerbank’s publication on the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay, before alluded to, we have hailed with satisfaction the announcement, by Professor Henslow and Mr. Hutton, of their intended continuation of the Fossil Flora of Great Britain, conducted for some years by Dr. Lindley and Mr. Hutton, and lately suspended. A Dictionary of the terms and language of geology has long been a desideratum to young students, to whose early progress the tech- nical terms of the science have hitherto presented formidable im- pediments. This want has been recently supplied by two publica- tions of this kind, one by Mr. George Roberts, author of the History of Lyme Regis; the other by Dr. Humble. During the last year the Society has received no communication on Mineralogy ; and almost the only volume that has been published in England on this much-neglected subject, has been a small but highly elaborate treatise on Crystallography by Professor Miller, of the University of Cambridge. In this treatise the author has adopted 248 the crystallographic notation proposed by Professor Whewell in his paper on a General Method of calculating the Angles of Crystals, and the laws according to which they are formed, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1825 ; and Professor Neuman’s method of indicating the positions of the faces of a cry- stal by the points in which radii, drawn perpendicular to the faces, meet the surface of a sphere. The expressions which have been thus obtained are remarkable for their symmetry and simplicity, and are all adapted to logarithmic computation, and for the most part new. NOTICE OF DECEASED MEMBERS. In proceeding to speak of the losses which, during the past year, our science has sustained by death, I shall offer my first tribute of respect to the memory of one, whom a predecessor of mine in this chair has justly called the father of English geology; since to his discoveries we owe the first diffusion of exact knowledge as to the order of superposition of the secondary formations which occupy so large a portion of our island, and the first demonstration of that constancy of the organic remains, which he proved to be cha- racteristic of the component strata of each different formation. It was the especial merit of Mr. Wirtram Smirtu to establish a series of types of these groups, many of which have been adopted as classical, in such a manner as will perpetuate his name among the original discoverers of the age in which he lived. If, as it has been truly said, the honour of the first discoveries in tertiary geology belongs to France, where the labours of Cuvier and Brongniart gave to this great division of the strata of the earth a systematic arrangement before unknown, so the establishment of the types in secondary geology, from the chalk down to the new red sandstone, is due to England ; and the discovery of the leading natural divisions of that important portion of them which consti- ‘tutes the oolite formations, was almost exclusively the work of Mr. William Smith. His earliest publication was a treatise on irrigation, 1806, a sub- ject on which his experiments gained him a medal from the Society of Arts. In 1801 he printed proposals for publishing accurate delineations 249 and descriptions of the natural order of the various strata that are found in different parts of England and Wales, to be illustrated by a small geological map*. This work was never completed, but it led to the publication of his large map, in 1815, for which the Society of Arts awarded him their medal and a premium of £50. In the same year also his stratigraphical collection of organic remains was purchased for the British Museum; this collection having formed the basis of his two separate volumes, entitled “Strata identified by their Organized Fossils,” 1815, and “a Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils,” 4to, 1817. During the six years which followed the publication of his map of England, he put forth twenty geological maps of English coun~ ties on a larger scale, and several coloured sections across the south of England, and a general Geological Section of England and Wales, from London to Snowdon. Among his unpublished papers were found unfinished and in part printed, an introductory work on geology, and preparations for a volume on Cconomic Geology, both illustrating the original- ity of his views. Mr. Wittiam Situ entered on the field of his honourable ex- ertions as a Civil Engineer and Mineral Surveyor at a time when his labours in geology were but little appreciated, and almost solitary. Amidst difficulties and discouragements, and at intervals snatched from the duties of a laborious profession, he accomplished the gi- gantic work of a general mineralogical survey of England, founded almost entirely on his own personal observations, which he ulti- mately recorded in a map of fifteen coloured sheets, published by subscription in 1815. Inevitable delays retarded the appearance of this work nearly to the time when a more detailed and perfect map, by a distinguished president of this Society, eclipsed in some degree the fame which would have accrued to its author had it been published earlier, even in the less perfect form to which he had advanced it some years before. The sense entertained by this Society of the value of the scientific services of Mr. Smith, was marked by their award to him of their first Wollaston Medal, in 1831; and was accom- * The original coloured copy of this map, dated 1801, was presented by Mr. Smith to our Society, and is now in the Museum. 250 panied by the just and eloquent eulogium pronounced on that oc- casion by Professor Sedgwick. In the same year also the British Association assembled at York made successful application to go- vernment for a pension, which was settled upon Mr. Smith for life ; and at the meeting of this Association at Dublin, 1835, the Univer- sity conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law. Mr. Smith was one of those remarkable persons whom strong natural sense and acute powers of observation occasionally enable to triumph over the disadvantages of a defective education. His attention was first called to physical inquiries, by the cbserving, when a boy, that a large stone which he was lifting under water in search of eels, could be moved with much more ease, than if the same stone had been on land. His juvenile curiosity was excited to learn the cause of an occurrence so surprising to him; and this first step led him, at the age of eighteen, to enter the profession of a surveyor and civil engineer. His early professional occupations from the year 1791 to 1799, whilst surveying collieries, constructing a part of the Somerset coal canal near Bath, and preparing reports respecting a supply of water for the Kennet and Avon Canal, and the trade it was likely to derive from carriage of stone and coal, &e., placed him in daily contact with geological phenomena espe- cially calculated to illustrate the order of superposition of the English strata, and laid the foundation of his future discoveries. By carefully noting the characters of the beds which he found in juxtaposition, and making comparative sections in various direc- tions in the vicinity of Bath, he ascertained that an uniform order of succession pervades the groups exposed in the escarpments of the hills in that part of England, and that this uniformity is attended by a similarity in the organic remains of certain beds, which differ entirely from those of the groups above and below them; by dili- gently collecting and collating these remains, he drew the inference, ‘that each group of strata contains extraneous fossils peculiar to itself. His next step was to infer that the strata thus identified by himself in Somerset and Wiltshire were not of insulated and local occur- rence, but formed parts of the great system of deposits extending over England; and thus, after many years of intense labour and continual travel, he succeeded in extending the principles first 251 caught sight of in the neighbourhood of Bath, into that philoso- phical generalization which became the basis of his geological map of England. Before Mr. Smith had quitted his occupations in Somerset and his residence at Bath, he indicated on a coloured map the geologi- cal structure of that neighbourhood. This document, dated 1799, is in the museum of our Society. He had also arranged his col- lections of rocks and their organic remains in the order of succes- sion and continuity of the several strata; but neglecting to ap- propriate to himself the merit of these discoveries by immediate publication, he liberally imparted a knowledge of each, as it gra- dually arose, to his private friends, through whose oral communi- cations they obtained such general currency, that their real author was frequently lost sight of or unknown. I was myself indebted to Mr. Smith, though at that time a stranger to me, for my first know- ledge of the order of succession in the oolitic series. This I derived from information imparted to me by the late Rey. B. Richardson of Farley Castle, who had himself acquired it from Mr. Smith. A ta- bular view of the superposition of the English strata, written by Mr. Richardson, from the dictation of Smith in 1799, at the house of the Rey. Joseph Townsend, in Bath, and since also presented to this So- ciety, forms a documentary proof of the extent of his discoveries be- fore the conclusion of the last century. In 1817 he planned the beautiful museum of Scarborough, in which he employed his original and instructive method of repre- senting, by sloping shelves passing one beneath another, the inclined . position of the strata; each shelf bearing the fossils that are re- spectively characteristic of the stratum it is intended to represent. These works of William Smith undoubtedly place him in the position of an original discoverer, who was the first to establish, on an enlarged basis of evidence, the important facts of constancy in the order of superposition, and continuity in the horizontal ex- tension of the strata of this island; and to prove that each of these strata is characterized by organic remains peculiar to itself. But it must not be forgotten, that both in this country and on the conti- nent, other investigators, many of them no doubt unknown to him, were simultaneously collecting similar evidence in support of this great physical generalization. It only enhances the value and con- VOL. III. U 252 firms the accuracy, of Mr. Smith’s conclusions, that the results of other independent inquiries were found to be in perfect harmony with his own. It is known to all who are acquainted with the productions of the school of Freyberg, that Werner had pointed out the importance of petrifactions as affording a basis for the ar- rangement of geological formations, the same in principle, though confirmed by less extensive details, than those which Mr. Smith elicited from the oolitic series in England. Professor Jameson has expressly stated that Werner was aware that petrifactions are com- paratively rare in the transition rocks, increasing in number in the newer series.of that division, and becoming still more numerous in the Floetz formations: he had further remarked, that the animals of the earliest periods are of the lowest and most imperfect class, namely zoophytes; that in ascending through newer and newer formations, we meet with shells and fishes and marine plants, all different from any living animals and vegetables of the present earth ; that in the newest formations we find the remains of existing genera with those of land animals and land plants. Werner had also noted, in some detail, the order of succession of the strata of the Muschel-kalk of Germany, founding his divisions upon the changes he observed in the petrifactions it contains; and thus announcing the principle of making distinctions in strata upon the nature of their organic remains. The same principle had been previously caught sight of and par- tially elaborated by Lehman in Germany, and by other observers in France, where its application to tertiary strata received the fullest demonstration, in the great discoveries of Cuvier and Brongniart within the basin of Paris. In our just admiration of our country- man, therefore, we must not lose sight of the merits of his contem- porary labourers on the continent; and whilst we honour him as the father of English Geology, let us also pay just homage to those who had started before him in the same course, wherein it was his undisputed merit to have arrived first at the goal. Mr. W. Smith was born on the oolite formation at Churchill, in the county of Oxford, in 1769. When a child he was in the habit of collecting Terebratulz from the oolite rocks in the fields of his native village, which he used as substitutes for marbles. As an engineer he was employed in works of irrigation and drain- 253 age in many parts of England ; as well as in stopping out the sea from breaches through which it had invaded the marshes of Norfolk, | 1806, 1807, &c., and in the draining off the water of Mismer lake in Suffolk into the sea. He was the engineer also of the Ouse na- vigation in Sussex. In 1809 he was engaged in the restoration of the hot springs at Bath. In 1821 he recommended to Col. Braddyl to search for coal (beneath the magnesian limestone) on an estate in which is now situated the great South Hetton Colliery. No colliery in Northumberland had been worked, at that time, under the magnesian limestone. Mr. Smith’s principles of drainage have been applied with much advantage near Bath, Woburn, and in Norfolk. Finding the town of Scarborough to be very ill supplied with water, he excavated in the interior of the hill of Falsgrave Moor, two or three miles distant, a subterranean reservoir, in which he collected, from streamlets percolating that hill, sufficient water for the permanent supply of the town*. From his early days to the latest period of his life he tells us that he had the habit of looking on the ground yf. Mr. Smith’s last public employment was in conjunction with Mr. De la Beche and Mr. Barry, in the Commission for reporting on the best building-stone for the new House of Commons{. During the later years of his life he resided near Scarborough superintending the estates of Sir John Johnson at Hackness ; and dying at North- ampton, in August 1839, aged seventy-one, after a few days’ ill- ness, at the house of his friend Mr. Baker, the historian of North- amptonshire, on his way to the Meeting of the British Association * An account of this curious work is published by himself in the Phi- losophical Magazine for June 1827. + See a paper by himself on Quartz in Soils, published in Charlesworth’s Magazine for July 1837. { For more detailed accounts of the life of Mr. Smith, and of the amount and value of the services he rendered to Geology in England, I must refer to Dr. Fitton’s masterly and candid investigation of this question in the Edinburgh Review, Vol. XXIX, p. 310, &c.; to Mr. Conybeare’s In- troduction to his Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales, 1822, p- 45; to the Address of Professor Sedgwick to this Society, 1831; and to a biographical notice by his nephew Professor John Phillips, in the Maga- zine of Natural History, New Series, 1839, p. 213. ug 254: at Birmingham, was interred in the church-yard near the west end of the beautiful Norman church of St. Peter, in Northampton, which stands on the Oolite formation. He had often expressed a wish to be buried in this formation, on which he was born and educated, and the history of which he had so much elucidated. A monument will be erected to his memory in St. Peter’s Church by subscription of members of the Geological Society of London. It was not the least of the services which have been rendered to our science by Mr. Smith, that he was during many years the geological preceptor of his accomplished nephew Mr. John Phillips, in whom he has bequeathed to us a pupil, who has shown, by pub- lications of the highest order in various departments of Geology, the soundness of the instructions received from his affectionate uncle. Mr. Davies GILBERT was one of the earliest members elected into this Society, at its formation in 1808. During two years he served as a Vice-President, and for six years was a member of our Council; and though he communicated no papers, he took a lively interest in all our proceedings, and was ever prompt on all public occasions to promote the welfare and forward the great objects of our institution. His paternal name was Giddy: he was descended in the line of both his parents from very respectable families in Cornwall, and on the maternal side of Davies, allied to the noble family of Sandys; in 1817 he assumed the name of Gilbert, on succeeding to the pro- perty of his wife’s uncle, Mr. Charles Gilbert, of East Bourn, in Sussex. Having been privately educated in Cornwall, he became, in 1785, at the age of eighteen, a gentleman-commoner of Pembroke College, Oxford, where, being of more studious habits and more ma- ture attainments than is usual with students of his age, he associated chiefly with the senior members of his College. Dr. Parr, writing at this time to the late master of Pembroke, speaks of Mr. Giddy, then twenty-three years old, as “the Cornish philosopher,” and adds, that “‘ he deserves that name.” To this College, as well as to the University, his affectionate and devoted attachment endured to his latest hour, and he became on several occasions a liberal benefactor towards improvements in 255 Pembroke and its vicinity. During many years it was his great delight to pass a few days at Oxford, and he always considered the diploma Degree of Doctor of Laws, conferred on him by the Uni- versity in 1832, as one of the most gratifying events of his life. During his early residence his taste for chemistry and othe! branches of physical science had introduced him to the acquaint- ance of Dr. Beddoes, at that time a resident Member of Pembroke College, and who subsequently dedicated to him his pamphlet on mathematical evidence. This acquaintance was the remote cause of the first step in the public life of Sir Humphry Davy; when Mr. Giddy, who had discovered young Davy’s genius for chemistry whilst yet a boy at Penzance, introduced him to Dr. Beddoes, to assist in his laboratory at Bristol, little dreaming that he should himself one day become the successor of this boy in the chair of the Royal So- ciety. Mr. Davies Giddy was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1791, and subsequently of the Antiquarian, Linnean, Geological, and Astronomical Societies of London. He was also an honorary member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Irish Aca- demy, and of the New University of Durham. In 1814 he was elected first President of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall and afterwards Vice-Patron of the Cornwall Royal Polytechnic So- ciety, in both which offices he continued till the day of his death. He held the distinguished office of President of the Royal Society, during three years, from 1827 to 1830, and contributed several im- portant papers to their Transactions; one upon the Mathematical Theory of Suspension Bridges (vol. 116, 1826, Part I., p. 202); also a Table for facilitating the Computations relative to Suspension Bridges (vol. 121, 1831, p. 341); a third paper, entitled Observa- tions on Steam Engines (vol. 117, 1827, p. 25); and a fourth on the Efficacy of Steam Engines in Cornwall, with Investigations of the Methods best adapted for imparting great Angular Velocity (vol. 120, 1830, Part I., p. 121;) likewise a paper on the nature of Negative and Imaginary Quantities (vol. 121, 1831, p.91). He also printed three Addresses as President of the Royal Society, 1828, 1829, 1830*. * Mr. Gilbert was also the author of the following papers in the Quar- terly Journal of Science and the Arts: Observations on the properties of 256 In 1804 he was returned to parliament for the borough of Hel- ston; and. in 1806 for Bodmin, which place he represented till 1832. During that time he was continually called on by the House of Com- mons to serve on committees of inquiry touching scientific and finan- cial questions, on which latter subject he published a letter, entitled “‘ A plain Statement of the Bullion Question.” He was Chairman of the Committee for rebuilding London Bridge, which he caused to be widened ten feet. The rectification of the national standards of linear dimensions and capacities, was undertaken upon his motion for an address to the Crown. In his native county also, his authority was continually appealed to on scientific questions, and calculations of practical importance in the machinery of mines and steam-engines; and he was ever ready on all occasions to devote his time and talents to the service of his friends and of the public. In 1792, on the occurrence of a riot. in Cornwall, whilst he was a young man, holding the office of sheriff, there being no soldiers in the county, he performed, for the last time that such an event has occurred in England, the military duty of calling out the posse-comitatus. Few persons excelled Mr. Gilbert in bringing the results of much contemplative study to bear on the business of life; his strong point lay in the application of high mathematical knowledge to practical purposes, and in calculating the amount of effective power to be derived from the use of mechanical forces, judiciously com- bined. For the exercise of this talent his beloved native county offered unusual opportunities ; it also afforded him abundant mate- rials for gratifying his taste for antiquarian researches ; and the fruits of his labours as a biographer and local historian were presented to the public in 1838, in four 8vo vols; this work is entitled The Parochial History of Cornwall, founded on the manuscript histories of Mr. Hals and Mr. Tonkin, with additions and various the Catenarian Curve with reference to Bridges by Suspension, vol. x. p- 230; On the Ventilation of Rooms, and the Ascent of Heated Gases through Flues, vol. xiii. p. 113; Investigation of the Methods used for ap- proximating to the Roots of Affected Equations, vol. xiv. p. 353; Re- searches on the Vibrations of Heavy Bodies in Cycloidal and Circular Arches, vol. xv. p. 90; On the General Nature and Advantages of Wheels and Springs for Carriages, the Draft of Cattle, and the Form of Roads, vol. xviii. p. 95; On the Vibration of Heavy Bodies, vol. xx. p. 69. 257 appendices by himself, and brings down the account of families and descent of property in that county from the death of those biogra- phers, about the middle of the last century, to the present time. Mr. Gilbert’s additions and criticisms form no small part of its value ; he has introduced also copious scientific notices by Dr. Boase and other modern authors, relating to the geology of the county, a sub- ject, he observes, of such recent origin, that the very word does not occur in Chambers’s Encyclopedia printed in 1783. In acknow- ledgment of his indirect influence upon this science, I am bound to state with gratitude that my Bridgewater Treatise would never have existed, had not the appointment to write it been conferred upon me by Mr. Gilbert whilst President of the Royal Society. Mr. Gilbert was an assiduous collector of ancient traditions, le- gendary tales, songs and carols, illustrating the manners, sports, and pastimes of the peasantry of Cornwall ; and he was a writer of several anonymous letters and papers in the Gentleman’s Magazine. He possessed great memory and powers of quotation and anecdote, enriched by vast stores of traditional information as to the personal history of many of the most distinguished individuals of his time, much of which will have perished with him. It has been truly said of him by a contemporary biographer, that “ His most endearing talent was his power of conversation. It was not brilliant; it was something infinitely beyond and better than mere display ; it was a continued stream of learning and philosophy, adapted with ex- quisite taste to the capacity of his auditory, and enlivened with anecdotes to which the most listless could not but listen and learn. “ His manners were most unaffected, child-like, gentle, and na- tural. As a friend, he was kind, considerate, forbearing, patient, and generous; and when the grave was closed over him, not one man, woman, or child, who was honoured with his acquaintance, but will feel that he has a friend less in the world. Enemies he can have left not a single one.” During the last twelve months his strength had been rapidly de- clining, but he retained full possession of his intellectual faculties till within a few hours of his death; he breathed his last in the bosom of his family at East Bourne, on the 24th of December last, in the seventy-third year of his age. An exact and admirable representation of his finely-formed head and intelligent countenance 258 is preserved in a bust by Westmacott in the Hall of Pembroke Col- lege, Oxford. Sir Joun Sr. Ausyn, who died during the last year, was one of the founders and early Vice-Presidents of the Geological Society, and was among its most firm and valuable friends and supporters at that perilous moment of its existence when the struggles and op- position which attended its first establishment had nearly crushed it in the bud; he was also a liberal contributor to the supplies at that time requisite for its advancement. He subscribed largely also to the funds then raised for the publi- cation of Count Bournon’s crystallographic work on Carbonate of Lime, and for enabling Dr. Berger to undertake his tours in Corn- wall, preparatory to his geological description of that county. The meetings held for the purpose of forwarding Count Bour- non’s work by some of the most distinguished mineralogists of that day, when collections in geology were rare, was one of the steps that brought together our first founders: many of them were till then strangers to each other, and being thus accidentally introduced, they resolved from thenceforth to cooperate for the furtherance of objects in which they felt a common interest, and became the germ of the Geological Society. Sir John St. Aubyn was at this time occupied, like his friends Sir Abraham Hume and Mr. Greville, in making large and costly additions to his cabinet of simple minerals, the nucleus of which consisted of the specimens he had purchased of Dr. Babington in the year 1799, and which are described by Babington in his cata- logue (one vol. 4t0) published in the same year. These specimens had previously been the property of Lord Bute. The position of his seat at Clowance, in the centre of the greatest mining district of Cornwall, afforded facilities for acquiring the most choice productions of that great repository of mineralogical trea- sures, and of these facilities he assiduously availed himself during many years. His other seat on the picturesque granitic pinnacle of St. Michael’s Mount in the bay of Penzance (the Ictis of Dio- dorus, from whence the Romans exported tin to Gaul), placed him in another position of high geological and mineralogical advantages ; the granite veins that intersect the killas at the base of this classic mountain being among the first described and most instructive in- 259 stances which Cornwall affords, of the important phenomena of the injection of granite into slate, and the metamorphic condition of the slate thence resulting ; whilst a well-exposed tin vein at the base of the ancient fortress and monastery that crown this insulated mountain, affords specimens of Apatite, and is more richly studded with minute but perfect crystals of topaz than any other vein known to exist in this country. These easily accessible examples of pha- nomena, most highly interesting to the mineralogist and geologist, he carefully preserved for the inspection of the numerous visitors that are continually attracted to this spot—of threefold interest, to the antiquary, the artist, and the mineral philosopher. A similar zeal for the preservation of interesting scientific objects induced Dr. Jenner to preserve, for the benefit of geological visitors, a rock which presented the rare phenomenon of organic remains intermixed with toad-stone, on the side of a trap dyke intersecting old red sandstone at Newport, near his residence at Berkeley. To the nucleus formed by Dr. Babington’s collection, Sir John St. Aubyn made large additions, not only from the productions of Cornwall, but also from foreign countries, particularly the mines of Germany and Hungary, many of which are no longer wrought. This collection was very rich in the ores of gold, silver, copper, and other metals, and particularly in native diamonds and gems. The arrangement of it was begun by Count Bournon, but subse- quently completed after the system of Mohs. In 1834 he presented the bulk of his collection to the Devonport Civil and Military Library, of which he had been annually appointed President from its formation in 1827 until his death; and a collec- tion of Duplicates to the museum of Saffron Walden, near which place he then resided. He was an active member of the Geological Society of Cornwall, and of many scientific institutions in London ; had a knowledge of Chemistry, Conchology, and Botany; and was a patron of the fine arts and a collector during his whole life. In Brigadier CHar_es SILVERTOP the Society has lost the au- thor of many interesting communications to our Evening Meetings on the Geology of Spain, the mineral structure of which, notwith- standing its proximity to France and England, and the long-con- tinued military operations of both these nations upon its territory, is less known than that of any other portion of civilized Europe. 260 The unhappy circumstances of the country have long abstracted the attention of the Spaniard from researches of science, and the dif- ficulties of travelling in the midst of civil commotions have deterred even the enterprising spirit of neighbouring geologists from endea- vouring to fill up the lamentable blank which Spain still presents upon the scientific map of Europe. Brigadier Silvertop, though occupied in the professional engage- ment of arms, was not forgetful of the pursuits of science. He pub- lished the substance of his communications to this Society in a small volume, 1836, wherein he gives a sketch of the widely-disseminated deposits of tertiary beds in the provinces of Granada and Murcia, accompanied by a general view of the volcanic and other rocks of the same district, illustrated by sections, which represent the configura- tion of the ground, the relative height of the ridges, and the super- position of the strata. He died at Rennes, in June last, on his way to the Pyrenees and Italy. Mr. Louis Hunton was the author of a paper printed in our Transactions on the Upper Lias and Marl-stone of Yorkshire, showing the limited vertical range of the species of Ammonites and other Testacea, and illustrating their value as geological tests. His observations are founded on the details of the section of Easington height, near Whitby. Jens Esmark, Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Christiania, was one of the many disciples of the school of Frey- berg, who imbibed from their master an enthusiastic devotion to his theories, which largely contributed to stimulate into activity that ge- neral spirit of geological inquiry, the expansion of which, during the present century, has produced such unexpected and extensive dis- coveries in the development of the structure of the earth. In 1794, deeply imbued with the doctrines of Werner, he went to Vienna to prepare himself for a tour through Hungary; after this he remained some months at Chemnitz, and visited the other chief mining districts of Hungary, Transylvania, and the Bannat, and crossing the Carpathians to Wielitzka and Cracow, returned to Saxony by the mines of Tarnovitz in Silesia. In 1798 he published, at Freyberg, the result of his observations, in a small octavo volume, giving descriptions of the mines he visited, and their respective productions, and expressing his conviction of 261 the truth of Werner's opinion as to the Neptunian origin of the pu- mice and obsidian (even that of the Lipari Island), as well as of trap and granite. A translation of his remarks on the Geological History of the Globe was published in the Edinburgh New Philo- sophical Journal, (1827) vol. vi. p. 107. The most important portion of this paper consists in its bearing his evidence to show that the greater part of Norway has, at some period, been covered with ice, and that the granite blocks, so abundant in that country, have been brought to their present place by glaciers. In 1829 Professor Esmark published a Tour in Norway*, con- taining many measurements of heights, and he was the first to mea- sure the lofty mountain of Schneehatten. He also published various detached Memoirs on Mineralogyt. He is said by Otte to have been the first discoverer of chromate of iron in Norway; and the Norwegian datolite, which was also discovered by him in 1806, was at that time named Esmarkite. He published a short notice on tellurium, in the 3rd vol., Ist se- ries, of our Transactions. His residence at Christiania, in the vicinity of iron, copper, and silver mines, and of the School of Mines and Agriculture at Konigs- berg, gave full scope to his taste and talents, and also afforded oc- casion for the exercise of those courteous attentions which have, during many years, been gratefully acknowledged by scientific tra- vellers in Norway. He once came to England, and was a member of the Wernerian Natural History Society of Edinburgh. He was an excellent chess-player; and in appearance, countenance, and the fine form of his head, resembled Mr. Davies Gilbert, whom it has been my painful duty to associate with him in the catalogue of the losses we have sustained during the last year. Don Cartos pe GimBERNAT, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Munich, was the son of a physician of Barcelona, and, from political motives left his native country at the commencement of the French Revolution for Paris, where he passed many years. He had previously studied at Freyberg under Werner, and visited England, where he became acquainted with Townsend, our Spanish * Reis von Christiania nach Drontheim. + In the Magazin for Naturnidenskaberne. 262 traveller, and with Dr. Hope, of Edinburgh; giving to the physical sciences the attention usually required of students for the medical profession, and continuing to cultivate them in his later years. He was more particularly attached to Chemistry, Geology and Mine- ralogy, and analysed the waters of many hot mineral springs, and found azote in all. The medical virtues which he ascribed to these springs, raised him high in the estimation of the Swiss. M. Gimbernat published accounts of his discovery in the thermal waters of Aix in Savoy, Baden, and other warm springs in Switzer- land, of a mucous organic substance, (formed, as he fancied, by chemical precipitation, from azote and carbonic acid,) which he thought was more nearly allied to animal than vegetable matter, and to which he gave the name of Zoogene; and he also supposed that he found the same substance in the thermal waters of Ischia, and in waters produced by the condensation of the steam disengaged from Vesuvius. A similar mucous substance, in the thermal sulphureous waters of Roussillon, was supposed by Professor Anglada, of Mont- pelier, to be a chemical product, from elements held in solution by the waters at the time they issued from the earth, and deposited by them in a flocculent form when they come in contact with the air. De Saussure, however, Decandolle, Dillwyn, and Daubeny*, founding their opinions on the structure it exhibits under the micro- scope, refer this gelatinous substance to minute Conferve; but the more recent discovery, by Ehrenberg; of infusorial animals in the warm springs of Bohemia, gives some probability to the supposition that these may be mixed with Conferve in the so-called zoogene of Gimbernat. The decomposition either of Conferve or of In- fusoria would afford the azote found in zoogene; but their presence would transfer the origin of this organic substance from simple che- mical agency to the instrumentality of organic life. On quitting Naples, in 1820, he retired to Switzerland, where he fell into bad health and reduced circumstances, and died at Geneva in 1839f. Freperick Mons, Professor of Mineralogy in Vienna, was born at Gernrode, in the Harz Mountains, about 1770. He lost his * On Organic Matter in Sulphureous Springs, Linn. Trans., London, vol. xvi. 1833. + A short notice on Sulphate of Soda is published by Gimbernat in our Transactions, vol. ii., second series, p. 331. 263 father, a merchant, very early, and was expected to succeed him in the business; but his predilections for science, particularly for ma- thematics, had marked him out for higher destinies. He began his studies, 1796-98, at Halle, and continued them in the mining institution at Freyberg. We find him in 1802 at Vienna, occupied in describing the mi- neral cabinet of the banker Von der Null, where he first conceived those views which he afterwards developed in his system of mine- ralogy. His fondness for geology and the art of mining induced him to visit Styria, Saltzburg, Carinthia, Carniola, Hungary and Transyl- vania, &e., and he received from the Austrian Government, in 1810, a commission to examine those parts of Passau, Austria, and Bohe- mia, where porcelain clay is found. Having thus attracted the notice of the Archduke John, and un- dertaken a journey to Styria in 1811, he was nominated Professor of Mineralogy inthe Johanneum, at Gratz. In 1818 he visited England with Count Bretiner, who had been his pupil at Gratz; his conferences at Edinburgh with Jameson, whom he had known at Freyberg, made a strong impression on the Professor, in favour of what he called the “ natural-history- system” of mineralogy, which he in part adopted, and first made known to British mineralogists in 18Z0*, and afterwards more fully explained in 1821+ and 1822¢. On the death of Werner, in 1817, he was called to the chair of Mineralogy in the Mining Academy of Freyberg; but in 1826 went to reside at Vienna, as Professor of Mineralogy, and Super- intendent of the Imperial Cabinet. In 1804 he published a volume of practical importance, containing “A Detailed Account, illus- trated with a Ground Plan, of the Mines and Mining Operations at Himmelsfiirst, near Freyberg.” In this work he describes, not only the geological relations and mineral products of these mines, but gives full details as to the methods of working them ; their buildings and machinery, ventilation and drainages, preparation of the ores, receipts, expenditure, &c. His great work on Mineralogy, or “the Natural History of the * Third edition of his System of Mineralogy. + Manual of Mineralogy. t Encyclopedia Britannica, 264: Mineral Kingdom,” is best known in this country by its translation, published at Edinburgh, with considerable additions, by his pupil, Mr. William Haidenger, in 1825, 3 vols. 8vo. In the method of arrangement proposed by Mohs in this work, he founds his classi- fication solely on external resemblances and differences, and dis- plays a most profound knowledge of all the productions of the mineral kingdom. This devoted pupil, friend, and successor of Werner died in Italy, 20th September, 1839, at Agardo, near Belluno, having undertaken a tour into that country for the purpose of studying the pheno- mena of volcanos*. He was an honorary member of the Royal and Wernerian Societies of Edinburgh. It has been said of Mohs, and may be said of many distinguished cultivators of this department of natural science, that he was too consummate a mineralogist to be a good geologist. The sustained attention to minute details, which is indispensable to the recognition of individual minerals, gives such a habit to the mind, that it cannot easily recoil from the state of tension, which is induced by the con- tinual study of minutize, to that expanded condition which is essential to apprehend the magnificent generalizations of geology. For similar reasons, an extremely skilful delineator of botanic details would pro- bably be incapable of expressing the grand and general features and effects of forest scenery, or landscape, from his habits of overstrained attention to the details of individual trees and plants that occupy the foreground of his picture. Captain ALEXANDER GERARD, of the Bengal Native Infantry, was one of three brothers, all distinguished by their enterprising spirit, and zealous scientific researches in the Himalaya Mountains, the sons of Dr. Gilbert Gerard, who wrote the well-known “ Insti- tutes of Biblical Criticism,” and grandsons of Dr. Alexander Gerard, author of works which have been translated into various European languages, and of a standard “ Essay on Taste.” Having been born at the University of Old Aberdeen, in which his father was Theological Professor, he had early imbibed a thirst for knowledge and for scientific pursuits; and at the age of sixteen * His funeral was celebrated with much ceremony expressive of public respect, and attended by a long procession of miners, each bearing in his hand a burning torch. 265 he entered the military service of the East India Company. Ha- ving considerable abilities as a surveyor, and being desirous of travelling, he soon got an appointment, and was sent to survey the province of Malwa, where he prosecuted his instructions under a burning sun, with great accuracy and constancy of purpose. He procured at his own expense the most costly instruments, and un- dertook several surveys in the Himalaya Mountains, suffering every vicissitude of heat, cold, hunger, and all the ills which could beset a traveller, with a degree of cheerfulness which was remarkable ; but a residence of thirty years in India, passed chiefly in the endu- rance of these hardships, laid the foundation of that decay of health, which has lately brought him to a premature grave. Captain Alexander Gerard was well known in the East as a sci- entific traveller, having, in company with his brother, the late Dr. James Gerard, penetrated the Himalaya Mountains through seve- ral passes before unknown to Europeans. While contributing, by his maps, to benefit geographical science, he never lost sight of what was novel and interesting in the geology, botany, and zoology of these stupendous regions, and various occasional papers have appeared from his pen, comprising valuable information on these subjects. We owe to this enterprising officer and indefatigable barometrical observer, our first knowledge of the structure of that portion of the Himalaya Mountains which forms the upper region of the Valley of the Sutlej, and is chiefly primitive. In this north- west extremity of India, on the frontier of China, he ascended to the astonishing height of 19,411 feet, on the mountain Tahigang, the summit of which he estimated at 22,000 feet above the sea. A small collection of geological specimens made by him has been recently laid before this Society ; it was formed in the district of Speetee, in Chinese Tartary, at the elevation of from 12,000 to 19,000 feet above the level of the sea, and between the latitudes 31° 30” and 32° 30” north, and longitude 77° and 79° east. On the confines of Chinese Tartary, at the height of 16,200 feet, he found a region of limestone containing Ammonites. The same shells occur nearly at the same height near the Niti and Manna Passes. In Thibet he observed millions of organic remains, lying at extra- ordinary altitudes, and forming vast and rocky cliffs. At the eleva- tion of 17,000 feet were seen detached fragments of rocks, bearing 266 the impression of shells, which must have been derived from still higher peaks; one cliff was a mile in perpendicular height above the nearest level. He first appears as the companion of Herbert in his survey of the course of the Sutlej, 1819. (Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 339.) In the same vol. p. 469, he published observations on the climate of Subathu and Kotgerh. His labours in completing a geogra- phical survey of the valley of the Sutlej are the subject of a paper by the late Mr. H. T. Colebrooke in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of London, vol. i. p. 343. From the diary of this survey, Mr. Colebrooke selected notes of Geological observations; and from specimens then collected, duplicates were sent to our Society. Upon these notes, and on Captain Gerard’s letters, written during his survey in the middle valley of the Sutlej, a sketch of the Geo- logy of the Himalaya was prepared by Mr. Colebrooke and pub- lished in the Geological Transactions of London*. The second volume of Sir W. Lloyd’s recent narrative of a jour- ney in the Himalaya, contains an account of Captain Gerard's at- tempt to penetrate on the north side of the Himalaya by Bekhur, to Garoo and the lake Manasarowara, near the source of the Sutlej. These letters are interspersed with many interesting geological ob- servations respecting the mineral productions and nature of the rocks of the country over which he travelled. He found the inclination of the strata to be usually perpendicular to the direction of the range, presenting long continuous slopes on the side towards which they dip, and terminating abruptly in rugged precipices towards the axis of the mountain chain. Near Bekhur, at the north side of the Hi- malaya, on the margin of the great table land of Tartary, elevated 15,786 feet above the sea, he mentions the occurrence of gravel studded with Ammonites, not far from the Hookeo Pass, which presents mural precipices of limestone. In one excursion in the Himalaya he fell in with the late Bishop Heber, who devotes a long and eloquent passage in his journal to the expression of his praise and admiration of the scientific talent and enterprising spirit of Captain Gerard. He was an excellent Persian scholar, and acquainted with several other oriental lan- guages. * Vol. i, second series, p. 124. 267 ba He performed many of his surveys under a burning sun, the thermometer ranging from 100 to upwards of 112 degrees. As many of his observations were required to be taken at mid-day, the consequences were frequent suffering and illness from strokes of the sun; but he continued his labours until his health totally failed. He died at Aberdeen in December last, at the age of forty-seven, having apparently sacrificed his life to the promotion of science, stimulated in his labours by the wish to benefit mankind, without the hope of worldly remuneration. To his late equally zealous and indefatigable brother, Dr. James Gilbert Gerard, surgeon of the Hill corps stationed at Subathu, and the companion of Captain, now Sir Alexander, Burnes, in his perilous journey through Central Asia, we owe the discovery of extensive collections of fossil shells in the Himalaya mountains, at the height of 17,000 feet. The greater part of these closely re- semble shells that occur in the Oolite formation of Europe, particu- larly Ammonites and Belemnites; whilst a few, e. g. Orthoceratites and Spirifers, are similar to shells we find in rocks of our Transition Series. The Rev. R. Everest has described and figured some of these in the eighteenth volume of the Asiatic Researches. His third brother, Captain Patrick Gerard, is remarkable as the author of a Meteorological Journal, kept in 1819-20 at Kotgerh, Subathu, and the intermediate places in the Himalaya mountains, and recording hourly observations during nearly two years*. * See Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. il. p. 615. VOL. IIl. on " 268 After the Reports had been read, It was then Resolved :— 1. That the thanks of the Society be given to Charles Lyell, Esq. and the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, retiring from the office of Vice-Pre- sident. 2. That the thanks of the Society be given to Professor Daubeny, M.D.; Sir Philip Egerton, Bart. M.P.; Dr. Grant; Rev. Professor Henslow; Sir Charles Lemon, Bart. M.P.; and Richard Owen, Esq. retiring from the Council. After the Balloting Lists had been duly closed and the lists ex- amined by the Scrutineers, the following Fellows were declared to have been elected the Officers and Council for the ensuing years. OFFICERS. PRESIDENT. Rev. W. Buckland, D.D. Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Oxford. VICE-PRESIDENTS. G. B. Greenough, Esq. F.R.S. & L.S. Leonard Horner, Esq. F.R.S. L. & E. Sir Woodbine Parish, K.C.H. F.R.S. Rey. William Whewell, B.D. F.R.S. Professor of Casuistry in the University of Cambridge. SECRETARIES. Charles Darwin, Esq. F.R.S. William John Hamilton, Esq. FOREIGN SECRETARY. H. T. De la Beche, Esq. F.R.S. & L.S. TREASURER. John Taylor, Esq. F.R.S. & LS. COUNCIL. Arthur Aikin, Esq. F.L.S. R.1. Murchison, Esq. F.R.S.L.S, Francis Baily, Esq. F.R.S. L.S. E. W. W. Pendarves, Esq. M.P. Viscount Cole, M.P. F.R.S. F.R.S. W. Hz. Fitton, M.D. F.R.S. L.S. || Philip Pusey, Esq. M.P. F.R.S. W. Hopkins, Esq. M.A. F.R.S. || George Rennie, Esq. F.R.S. R. Hutton, Esq. M.P. M.R.LA. || Daniel Sharpe, Esq. F.L.S. Charles Lyell, Esq. F.R.S. L.S. || Rev. Adam Sedgwick, F.R.S. William H. Miller, Esq. M.A. L.S. Woodwardian Professor Professor of Mineralogy in in the University of Cam- the University of Cambridge. bridge. _ PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vo. ITI. 1840. No. 69. Feb. 26.—A paper was first read, entitled “‘ Further observations on the fossil trees found on the Manchester and Bolton railway ;” by John Hawkshaw, Esq., F.G.S. Since Mr. Hawkshaw’s former communication, another fossil tree has been found on the opposite side of the railway. It is about three feet in height, and three feet in circumference, and stands on the same thin stratum of coal as those first discovered, and perpen- ‘dicularly to the surface of the bed. Mr. Hawkshaw is, therefore, strengthened in his belief, that the trees grew in the position in which they are found. After this notice of the recent discovery, he proceeds to describe the effects produced in hot and moist climates on felled or pro- strated solid dicotyledonous trees. The tropical forests with which he is acquainted from personal examination, are situated in Vene- zuela on the shore of the Carribean sea, and between the 8th and 10th degrees of north latitude, and the 65th and 70th of west longi- tude. In these forests a few months are sufficient to destroy the interior of the largest tree, little more being left than an outer shell, consisting chiefly of the bark. Mr. Hawkshaw noticed this pecu- harity more frequently in dicotyledonous trees, having a proper bark, than in monocotyledonous vegetation, excluding necessarily those always hollow; and he does not remember to have seen a single in- stance of a paim similarly acted upon. Sometimes the portion of the dicotyledonous tree remaining on the ground, presented very much the appearance of the founder’s mould, when the pattern has been withdrawn from the sand, and before the metal has been run in; and by this kind of decay, a cavity is formed from which a fac simile of the tree might be cast. In other cases, prostrated trunks having the appearance of being solid, have yielded to the pressure of his feet, and proved to be only hollow tubes. Dangerous accidents have also occurred from temporary bridges constructed of dicotyledonous trees having given way beneath the passenger, though there was no outward indication of decay. The bark of these trees had changed but little, though nothing of the interior remained but dust, and a few remnants which crumbled beneath the slightest touch. * Ante, p. 139. VOL. 111, "4 270 The low and flat tracts in which this destructive operation goes on most rapidly, are those in which, from the deep rich soil and excessive moisture, all below the tall forest trees and larger palms is occupied by canes, bamboos, and minor palms. Such tracts would be most easily submerged; and in Mr. Hawkshaw’s opinion they might hereafter present a seam of coal, which would afford but few distinct traces of palms and forest trees. These phenomena, he says, may explain in part, why so few distinct forms remain of the num- berless forest trees, which must have formed a portion of the vege- table kingdom, at the time of the accumulation of our coal deposits. Mr. Hawkshaw does not attempt to explain the process by which dicotyledonous trees are rendered hollow in tropical forests. He expresses doubts respecting tne probable nature of the Calamites of the coal measures, and offers no explanation of the means by which they have been preserved in so greatabundance. If the coal be considered as the debris of a forest, he says, it is difficult to ac- count for not finding more trunks of trees than have been discovered in our coal basins; and he observes, it is only perhaps by allowing the original of our coal seams to have been a combination of vege- table matter, analogous to peat, that the difficulty can be solved. In this case, he is of opinion, but a few isolated trees might be ex- pected to be found, and that the remains of vegetable forms most frequently discovered, would only be confirmative of the antiseptic qualities of their original nature, as previously advanced by Professor Lindley, and not of the number or importance of their particular genera at the time of their deposit. In conclusion, Mr. Hawkshaw says, that whatever opinion may be drawn from what is conjectural in his paper, it will be obvious, that though fossil remains may be found filled with a mechanical deposit, and containing traces of other vegetables, yet that this con- dition does not prove, that the plants were originally hollow, nor even render it the most likely hypothesis, as they may haye been hard wood-trees, the centre of which had been removed by natural processes, A paper was then read, “‘ On the characters of the fossil trees lately discovered near Manchester, on the line of the Manchester and Bolton railway; and on the formation of Coal by gradual subsidence ;” by John Eddowes Bowman, Esq., F.L.S. communicated by the President. The paper commences with a few preliminary remarks on the theory of repeated subsidences of the land during the carboniferous zra; and on the drift theory, the author being of opinion that the former receives much support from the phznomena presented by the fossil trees found near Manchester, and that it affords in return great assistance in explaining the peculiarities of their position. Mr. Bowman does not deny that plants may have been carried into the water from neighbouring lands, as in the instances of fern-fronds and other remains scattered through the sandstones and shales ; but he conceives it is difficult to understand whence the vast masses of 271 vegetables necessary to form thick seams of coal could have been derived, if drifted ; and how they could have been sunk to the bot- tom, without being intermixed with the earthy sediment which was slowly deposited upon them. He is of opinion also, that without a superincumbent layer of mud or sand, to retain the hydrogen during the process of bituminization, ordinary caking coal could not have been formed. Another difficulty, connected with the drift theory, Mr. Bowman says, is the uniformity of the distribution of the vege- table matter, throughout such great areas as those occupied by the seams of coal, extending in the instance of the lower main seam of the great northern coal field, over at least 200 square miles; and in that of a thin seam below the gannister, or rabbit coal, in a linear direction of thirty-five miles from Whaley Bridge to Blackburn. On the contrary, he believes, that it is much more rational to sup- pose, that the coal has been formed from plants, which grew on the areas now occupied by the seams,—that each successive race of vegetation was gradually submerged beneath the level of the water, and covered up by sediment, which accumulated till it formed an- other drysurface for the growth of another series of trees and plants,— and that these submergences and accumulations took place as many times as there are seams of coal. He also explains the thinning out of the seams and other strata of the coal measures, by irregu- larities in the mode or extent of the depressions. Mr. Bowman then proceeds to the examination of the phenomena presented by the fossil trees discovered on the line of the Manchester and Bolton railway, and described by Mr. Hawkshaw in his paper read on the 5th of June 1839, (see p. 139.) and in the preceding communication (see p. 269.) : it will be necessary tv notice there- fore only those points which did not claim that gentleman’s more particular attention. Mr, Hawkshaw describes generally the mark- ings on the internal casts of the trees; but as it is difficult to convey a correct notion of their waved and anastomosing characters either verbally or by reduced drawings, Mr. Bowman applied paper to the surface of the stems and carefully traced the grooves or furrows by following them exactly with an instrument. The only indications of scars, which he could find after a long and close search, were at one point near the base of the largest tree, and though indistinct, his practised eye recognised them to be those of a Sigillaria. He de- tected also in some parts, on the ribs of the same tree, the fine wavy lines so often visible on decorticated specimens of that family. In describing the second tree, he alludes to a deep wedge-shaped rift on the south-east side, which had been coated with coal, and is strongly marked with wavy lines, like those on the surface of thé al- burnum of a gnarled oak. On the fifth tree, he discovered a longi- tudinal concavity on the north side, and he states that it resembles the impression which would be left in a dicotyledonous tree, by the pressure of a parasitic plant. The characters of the roots are also detailed at considerable length, paricularly their mode of bifurcation, and position with respect to the horizon. From a careful consideration of the phenomena pr esented by the ¥2 272 fossils, Mr. Bowman is convinced that they stand where they origin- ally flourished; that they were not succulent, but dicotyledonous, hard-wooded forest trees; and that their gigantic roots were mani- festly adapted for taking firm hold of the soil, and in conjunction with the swollen base of the trunks to support a solid tree of large dimensions with a spreading top. Towards the close of 1838, in forming the railway tunnel at Clay- cross, five miles south of Chesterfield, a number of fossil trees were found, standing at right angles to the plane of the strata. The tunnel passes through the middle portion of the Derbyshire coal measures, which there dip about 8° to a little north of east. The bases of the trees rested upon a seam of coal fifteen inches thick. ‘The exterior of the stems consisted of a thin film of bright coal, furrowed and marked like the Stgillaria reniformis ; and the interior consisted of a fine-grained sandstone. Mr. Conway, who supplied Mr. Bowman with an account of the discovery, infers, from the information which he obtained, that there must have been at least forty trees found, and judging by the area excavated, he is of opinion that they could not have stood more than three or four feet apart. ‘There were no traces of roots, the stems disappearing at the point of contact with the coal. Several specimens of Stigmaria ficoides were also noticed by Mr. Conway, lying horizontally and about three feet in length. With reference to fossil trees in general, and especially to those near Manchester, Mr. Bowman proceeds to show still further; Ist, that they were solid, hard-wooded, timber trees, in opposition to the common opinion that they were soft or hollow; 2nd, that they ori- ginally grew and died where they have been found, and consequently were not drifted from distant lands ; and, 3rd, that they became hol- low, by the decay of their wood, from natural causes, similar to those still in operation in tropical climates, and were afterwards filled with inorganic matter, precipitated from water. 1. In’stating his reasons for believing that the coal measures’ casts were solid timber trees, Mr. Bowman alludes to the rifting of the bark of modern forest trees, in consequence of the expansion caused by the annual addition of a layer of wood between the bark and the alburnum ; and to the thickening or swelling of the base of the trunk and main roots, and the apparent lifting up of the latter out of the soil, in old trees, by the greater annual increase of the upper part or that nearest to light and heat. These phenomena in vegetation were illustrated by a diagram, which exhibited the form of the base of the stem and the root of a sapling, and of a full-grown tree. The author, in applying these characters to the fossils of the Manchester and Bolton railway, alludes to the irregular, longitudinal and disconti- nuous or anastomosing furrows on their surface, to the swelling out at the base of their stems, and to the divergence as well as the angle of dip or downward direction of their roots. These characters, he says, are not observable in soft monocotyledonous trees, their stems never expanding laterally, and being as thick when only a few years old and a foot high, as when they attain the height of 60 or 100 feet. Their roots also, instead of being massive and forking, generally pre- 273 sent a dense assemblage of straight succulent fibres, like those of an onion or hyacinth. Analogy, therefore, as far as outward shape and habit are concerned, he adds, is strongly in favour of the fossils having been solid timber trees. Mr. Bowman then combats the view, generally entertained, that fossil stems with perpendicular furrows, as in the Sigillaria, were succulent or hollow plants*. He states, that good specimens of de- corticated Sigillariz exhibit fine straight, and curled or gnarled striz, similar to those on the alburnum of many modern forest trees ; and that this character, in conjunction with others, renders it almost cer- tain, that the fossils had a separate back,—a feature which is consi- dered in vegetable physiology to be a proof of a woody structure. He also alludes to the existence in many of the decorticated parts of their fossil trees of little prominences like those in barked timber; likewise to the scars left by the disarticulation of leaves; and he ac- counts for the general absence of the latter on large and old trunks, by their having been obliterated, in consequence of irregular expansion from the deposition of new layers of wood: he notices moreover the absence in small Sigillarize of the irregular furrows observed on large specimens, and due in his opinion to the unequal expansion by the addition of new layers of wood. In support of these proofs of the original solid nature of the trees, Mr. Bowman exhibited polished slices mounted upon glass of portions of a similar fossil tree dis- covered in sinking a shaft 300 or 400 yards N.W. of those found on the line of the railway. The slices were made from a portion which ex- hibited within the carbonized bark, a patch browner, heavier, and more compact than the rest. In these slices, made under Mr. R. Brown’s direction, that gentleman discovered in the transverse section, the uniformity of vascularity which is evidence of coniferous structure ; and in the longitudinal section parallel to the medullary rays, the ex- istence of these rays. ‘The slices therefore exhibit proofs of dico- tyledonous structure, and considerable probability of that structure being coniferous. The important evidence however of coniferous structure deducible from discs in sections parallel to the rays, was not obtained, the vessels having apparently undergone some alteration. 2. With respect to the second point, that the trees grew and died on the spots where they are now found, and that they were not drifted from distant lands, Mr. Bowman says, the arguments in favour of the formation of beds of coal by a series of subsidences of the sur- face on which the vegetables that produced the coal grew, naturally lead to the inference that the trees associated with the coal also flourished on the same spots. In opposition to the opinion that trees would naturally float in an upright position in consequence of the greater specific gravity of the base and roots, he asserts, that the * Specimens of recent dicotyledonous wood from New Zealand, lent to the author by Mr. R. Brown, were exhibited on the table of the Meeting Room. They displayed both upon the bark and the naked wood, longitu- dinal ribs and intermediate furrows as regular as those on Sigillariz ; and therefore prove that these characters are not incompatible with a dicotyle- donous structure. 274 trees would maintain that position only as long as they floated, and that they would fall and lie prostrate when grounded on shoals or cast ashore. He agrees with Mr. Hawkshaw in the opinion, that it is more difficult to account for a number of great trunks being de- posited in the position of the fossils in the Manchester railway, than to imagine that they grew on the surface of the bed on which they now stand. ‘Their position on a bed of coal is another proof, Mr. Bowman conceives, that the trees were not drifted, for if they had been transported by currents of water they might equally have been imbedded in the alternating shales or sandstones. If beds of coal are the accumulated remains of many generations of a luxuriant ve- getation, the rich compost thus formed, Mr. Bowman argues, would be well suited for the growth of trees. Again, the angle at which the roots of the fossil trees, particularly of that distinguished by him as No. 2, dip towards the bed of coal, is considered by the author evidence of the trees being in their original position, because, had they been drifted, the roots would have been bent upwards, by the downward pressure of the trunk, when the water had left them. The appearance of the roots being cut off, where in contact with the coal, he is of opinion, may be explained by the fermentative process having dissolved the vegetable texture below the surface. The stems and upper portions of the roots standing above the coal, he explains by reference to similar phenomena in peat marshes, in which the bases of the trunks of ancient forest trees stand with the roots exposed, owing to the shrinking of the surrounding peat. 3. In discussing the third point, that the trees became hollow from the decay of their wood, and were filled with sedimentary matter after their immersion, Mr. Bowman refers to the facts re- corded in the preceding paper by Mr. Hawkshaw (see ante, p. 269.) ; and in confirmation of them states, that Mr. Schomburgk during his four years’ travels in Surinam repeatedly observed similar pheno- mena. Mr. Bowman then proceeds to explain the processes by which he conceives the fossil trees were gradually submerged—their upper branches torn off—their interior removed by natural decay,—their bark converted into coal,—their central cavities filled with sediment ; and the whole buried beneath the stratum of shale or sandstone in which the trees were discovered. He afterwards applies the phe- nomena which he believes these processes produced to the condition and position of the trees and the arrangement of the surrounding sedimentary matter. The author then enters into the inquiries, Ist, the time which the trees may have required to attain their dimen- sions; and consequently the minimum of years requisite for the accu- mulation of the vegetable matter; and, 2ndly, what thickness of vegetable matter was necessary to form the stratum of coal nine inches thick, over which the trees stand. Mr. Schomburgk is of opinion that a dicotyledonous tree which would require in temperate climates one hundred years to attain a certain diameter, weuld arrive at the same dimensions within the tropics in sixty or eighty years. The largest of the fossil trees forming the immediate subject of the paper is equal in circumference to an oak of 130 years growth in 275 this climate, or about 100 for a climate equal in temperature to that of the tropics. Allowing therefore that some time elapsed after the commencement of vegetation on the surface of the then dry land before the trees began to grow, Mr. Bowman infers, that 100 years must be the minimum of time which would be required for the production of the vegetable matter out of which the nine inches of coal were produced. With respect to the depth of the stratum of vegetable matter from which it was formed, Mr. Bowman takes for his data, the thickness of the bed of coal, nine inches; the distance between the top of the seam and the bottom of the trunk under the arch formed by the roots, fifteen inches; and for the distance to the surface of the ground, four inches, or in all twenty-eight inches ; whereby he infers that the thickness of the solid coal is equal to about one-third that of the vegetable matter out of which it was produced. A paper was lastly read, ‘‘ On the character of the beds of clay ly- ing immediately below the coal seams of South Wales ; and on the occurrence of coal-boulders in the Pennant grit of that district ;” by William Edmond Logan, Esq., F.G.5. Immediately below every regular seam of coal, in South Wales, (and nearly 100 are known to exist) is constantly found a bed of clay, varying in thickness from six inches to more than ten feet, and called the underclay, undercliff, understone, pouncer, or bottom stone. It is so well known to the collier, that he considers it an essential ac- companiment of the coal; and only where it ceases, does he give up his expectation of finding coal. Seams which have thinned out in one portion of a work, have been recovered in another by following this bed. The underclay is always more or less argillaceous, but it is never without a considerable admixture of sand; and in most cases it yields a very good fire-clay; which, though generally tough when freshly cut, yet crumbles on exposure into a mass of a grey colour. Oc- casionally it is quite black, in consequence of the presence of carbo- maceous matter, and it then sometimes resists the effects of the weather. Under a part of the lowest seams of coal between Swan- sea and the Bury river, it is a hard, durable, finely grained, siliceous stone. It is however by containing innumerable specimens of Stig- maria ficoides, that these beds are most strongly marked, other portions of the coal measures presenting the same mineral composi- tion. ‘The stems of the Stigmaria, which are usually of considerable length, always lie parallel to the plane of the bed, and nearer te the top than the bottom; and they are occasionally compressed, their diameter varying from two to six inches. ‘Their long slender pro- cesses, covered with a pellicle of carbonaceous matter, form an en- tangled mass, and traverse the beds in every direction, vertically, horizontally, and obliquely ; but Mr. Logan has never been able to trace them to their termination, though he has followed single pro- cesses for considerable distances. Portions of the stem of the Stig- maria are found in other parts of the coal measures, but it is only in the underclay that the fibrous processes are attached to the stem 276 or associated with it. Mr. Logan, however, states, that if such specimens exist in other strata, they are not so likely to be ex- posed, as those beds are less worked than the underclay. In some instances, the Stigmaria, with its processes, is found equally abundant in the roof as in the floor of a coal pit, but in such cases the roof has been ascertained to be the underclay of an immediately overlying bed of coal. Mr. Logan then quotes at length, Steinhauer’s account of the Stigmaria, as it gives the best explanation he has seen of the ex- ternal botanical character of the plant, as well as of its position in the beds in which it occurs; the only point in which his experience induces him to differ from Steinhauer, being the vertical extent to which the fibres range. Mr. Logan has never traced them in that direction more than seven or eight feet from the stem, though he admits they may have an horizontal range of twenty or more feet. (American Phil. Trans. New Series, vol. i. p. 265, 1818.) When it is considered, that over so considerable an area as the coal field of South Wales, not a seam has been discovered without an underclay, abounding in Stigmaria, Mr. Logan says, it is impos- sible to avoid the inference, that there is some essential and neces- sary connexion between the existence of the Stigmaria and the pro- duction of the coal. ‘To account for their unfailing combination by drift, seems to him unsatisfactory; but whatever may be the mu- tual dependence of the phenomena, he is of opinion, that it affords reasonable grounds to suppose, that the Stigmaria ficoides is the plant to which may be mainly ascribed the vast stores of fossil fuel. In the second part of the paper, Mr. Logan gives an account of boulders or rounded fragments of coal, contained in the coal mea- sures themselves. The thickness of the coal deposit of South Wales, he says is equal in the deepest part to 12,000 feet, and that consequently a long period must have been required for the accumulation of the materials, and that any fact which may assist in ascertaining its length, cannot fail to possess some interest. ‘The occurrence of these boulders he is of opinion bears upon the subject. From a layer of indurated clay, two inches thick, lying on the top of a seam of common bituminous coal, and covered by hard sand- stone, at Penclawdd on the Bury river, he obtained. in the spring of 1839, a worn, rounded mass of cannel coal, six inches long, four inches wide, and two inches thick. The discovery of this singular specimen having excited attention to the subject, it was ascertained that in the quarries of the enormous mass of sandstone forming Cilfay hill and the Town-hill range from Swansea to the Bury river, there occur many irregular conglomerate beds, formed of innume- rable pebbles and small boulders of coal, sometimes four inches in diameter, mingled with sand and pebbles of ironstone; and there have been also found in them small boulders of granite and mica- slate. Many impressions, coated with coal, of Sigillarize and other plants, occur in the mass ; and the difference of age between this coal and that of pebbles, he says, is beautifully illustrated in numerous 277 cases, where the softer coal of the plants has been pressed down upon the harder coal of a layer of the pebbles, by the cleavage of the former, however distorted the plant may be, presenting an uni- form parallelism, while the cleavage of the coal forming the pebbles is parallel with the sides of the pebbles, which are inclined in all possible directions. The pebbles consist principally of the common bituminous coal of the neighbourhood, but two have been found composed of cannel coal, the only seams of which, existing in the lower measures, occur about 2000 feet below the conglomerate bed. The Cilfay sandstones and the measures at Penclawdd, in which the first-mentioned pebble was found, form part of the Pennant grit ; and there is reason to believe, that throughout the whole of this great mass of sandstone, about 3000 feet thick, occasional beds of coal pebbles are to be met with: but Mr. Logan has not seen any associated with the lower measures. March 11.—Rev. Richard Taylor, M.A. of the Bay of Islands, New Zealand; Graham Francis Moore, Esq. Brick Court, Temple ; and Samuel Smith, Esq. of Combe Hurst, Kingston, Surrey, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read, ‘On the Rocks which form the West shore of the Bay of Loch Ryan in Wigtonshire, N. B.” by John Carrick Moore, Esq. F.G.S. The peninsula of the Ryans extends about thirty miles from N. to S., and is about seven miles across at its greatest breadth, or from Stranraer to Port Patrick. In the geological maps of M. Necker, Dr. Macculloch, and Mr. John Phillips, it is coloured as part of the great graywacke chain, stretching from the Irish sea to St. Abb’s Head, and the chief part of the rocks composing the peninsula, Mr. Moore says, undoubtedly belongs to that epoch; but he has ascer- tained from an examination of the district during the summer of 1839, that others of a more recent date also exist. The portion of the peninsula particularly described by the author, extends about eleven miles from north to south, and about five from east to west; and is bounded on the W. and N. by the Irish sea, and on the E. by the Bay of Loch Ryan. The formations of which it consists are—l. Graywacke, 2. Trap rocks, 3. Coal measures, and, 4. a red breccia. 1. The graywacke constitutes the greater part of the district, the beds being nearly vertical and the prevailing strike E. by N. At the northern extremity, near the Corsewall Lighthouse, are beds of conglomerate composed of rounded masses of granite, with peb- bles of serpentine and other rocks. In the little bay of Sloughna- garry, at the most southern point, where the graywacke shows itself, Mr. Moore found in a slaty rock alternating with compact beds, an abundance of fossils, determined by Mr. Lyell to be graptolites. 2. The trap rocks occur at two points, one near the northern ex- tremity of the peninsula, on the farm of Balscallock, constituting a 278 dyke of amygdaloid greenstone which cuts through the graywacke and is lost in the sea; and the other is near Loch Connell, where a mass of greenstone extends in a westerly direction for nearly two miles. At both localities, the trap intersects the graywacke ; but at neither point could the author find it in contact with the coal or over- lying breccia. 3. Coal Measures. A deposit consisting of beds of red and white sandstones, clays and micaceous shale, similar to those of the coal- field of Ayr, has been long known to exist in the district, and has led to several fruitless researches for coal. The deposit may be traced for about nine miles, forming a narrow band parallel to Loch Ryan. The beds are in general moderately inclined to the E. or S.E. In a quarry on the farm of Clachan, Mr. Moore found re- mains of Stigmaria ficoides, and in another, on the farm of Chal- lock, an abundance of Calamites. 4. Red Breccia. This rock extends from the bay of Sloughna- garry to the farm of Dumlae, a distance of eight miles, forming a ridge from 200 to 300 feet high, between the coal measures and the shore of Loch Ryan. It consists entirely of irregular fragments of graywack cemented by a red clayey sand, but in some places it passes into lamine of red sandstone. The beds are nearly horizon- tal or dip slightly to the S.E., and rest on the coal measures. As Mr. Moore did not detect any organic remains in the breccia, nor find any rock overlying it, he does not offer an opinion respecting the period of its formation. A paper was afterwards read, “On the Siliceous Bodies of the Chalk, Greensand and Oolites ;’ by Mr. Bowerbank, F.G.S. The author commences by stating, that naturalists and geologists have long considered the form of tuberous masses of flint found in the upper chalk to be due to alcyonia or sponges, but that he is not aware of this opinion having been proved to be correct. It was Professor Ehrenberg’s observations on siliceous bodies which first induced him to obtain thin slices of flint with the intention of pro- curing specimens of Xanthidium. In the examination of these slices, he was struck with the frequent occurrence of patches of brown, re- ticulated tissue, spicula and foraminifera, and he was induced to infer, that the patches of tissue were the remains of the organized body, possibly a sponge, to which the flint owed its form. With this belief, he commenced his inquiries by examining thin slices of flints obtained from various localities, and he found in all of them, a per- fect accordance in the structure and proportion of reticulated tissue, in the number of spicula, and in the occurrence of Xanthidia and Foraminifera. The following are the general appearances which the slices of flint exhibit when mounted upon glass. With a power of about 120 linear, the slice presents the appear- ance of a stratum of a turbid solution of decomposed vegetable or animal matter containing foraminifera, spicula, Xanthidia, and fre- quently fragments of the brown tissue. In a specimen from North- fleet the mass of the spongeous portion exhibited numerous cylin- 279 drical contorted canals, which from their uniformity and minuteness of diameter, Mr. Bowerbank considered to be the incurrent canals of the sponge; and other orifices of greater diameter, to be the excur- rent. Very frequently, when little of the reticulated substance of the sponge remains, its former presence, the author says, is indicated by the siliceous matter resembling a congeries of gelatinous globules, mould- ed by the tissue amid which it was deposited ; and the globules, when traced to the edges of the patches of spongeous texture, were found to agree in size and form with the orifices of the supposed incurrent canals. In cases where no traces of the sponge can be detected, Mr. Bowerbank thinks, that the mode in which the spicula, foraminifera and other extraneous matters are dispersed equally in all parts, and not precipitated to one portion of the flint, indicates that the organ- ized tissue in which they were entangled, retained its form and tex- ture sufficiently long to allow of the fossilization of these remains in their original places ; and that the nature and position of these bodies strongly indicated the former spongeous nature of the flint. When tlie chalk is carefully washed from the exterior of a flint, and a portion examined as an opake object with a power of about fifty linear, it exhibits a peculiar saccharine appearance, with deep circular excavations, having fragments of extraneous matters partly imbedded or adhering to them. If the surface be further cleansed by immersion in diluted muriatic acid, till effervescence ceases, spicula may be detected on the sides of the deep circular cavities; and if, again, a piece a quarter of an inch in diameter, presenting the rough- est aspect, be examined under a power of 120 linear, illuminated by a Leiberkuhn, the surface, under favourable circumstances, will pre- sent a complex mass of small, contorted tubuli, occasionally fur- nished at the apex with a minute perforation. The structure and other characters of the tabular flints are stated to accord perfectly with those of the nodular masses, except that the under surface has a still more marked spongeous aspect, and that spi- cula and foraminifera are more abundant. The absence of any ap- parent base or point of attachment in the great mass of nodular chalk flints, the author says (considering them undoubtedly of spongeous origin) may be accounted for by supposing that the gemmule was originally attached to some minute fragment of a shell or other sub- stance, and that its further development took place while recumbent on the mud or silt. The perpendicular and oblique veins of flint between Brighton and Rottingdean, are reported to present exactly the same internal characters as the tabular and nodular flints, and to agree externally with the former. The occasional existence of a fissure filled with chalk, in the centre of the vertical layers, Mr. Bowerbank conceives, may indicate that the sponge had grown from the two sides of the crevices, but had not in all places been able to unite. The sides of these flint veins are not studded with foraminifera in a manner simi- lar to that of the tabular horizontal layers. Mr. Bowerbank next examined the flint with which Echinites and shells of the chalk are often entirely or partially filled and enveloped, 280 and he states, that, the results were the same, both with reference to the exterior and the interior of the flint. In those cases in which the Echinite is only partially filled, he infers that the portion so occu- pied was originally a sponge, because its surface is uneven; for had the flint been deposited in an empty shell or Echinite, it would pre- sent an uniformly flat surface. Again, he states, that the projecting of the flint through the two openings of the Echinite, with an ex- tension to a greater or less distance, is owing to the sponge having grown outwards through these orifices; and the envelopment of an organic body by a tubular mass of flint, he explains by reference to the habit of recent sponges to invest testacea or other marine bodies. In some cases, he has found minute but deep depressions on the surface of flints filling Galerites, and immediately opposite to the aibulacral pores; and he ascribes the origin of the depressions to streams of water drawn in through the orifices to supply the wants of the living sponge. Mr. Bowerbank was afterwards induced to extend his examination to the flints which invest the zoophytic bodies of the Wiltshire chalk. By carefully cleaning the interior of some of these flints, he discover- ed spicula projecting from all parts, however different the character of the inclosed body ; and the spicula appeared to have no reference to it, none of them being found on its surface. Under the micro- scope, the investing flint presented in every respect the same appear- ance as that exhibited on the lower surface of the tabular flints, ha~- ving fragments of minute corals and small shells attached to the in- ner surface. A thin slice exhibited the usual organic contents of the common flint. He, therefore, infers that the tubular flint which in- closes the zoophtyes, owed its origin also to a sponge which invested the organic nucleus. A comparison of the characters presented by the spongeous re- mains of the flint, with a collection of recent sponges, has induced Mr. Bowerbank to conclude that the fossils cannot be referred to any of the established divisions of existing sponges. On examining the cherts of the greensand of Fovant in Wilt- shire in the same manner, he found that the only differences between them and chalk flints, existed in the coarser texture of the spongeous fibre, the greater size of the interstices of the network, and the larger dimensions of the imbedded extraneous bodies. The cherty nodules of the upper greensand of Shaftesbury afforded similar appearances. A black, semi-transparent nodule, with an outer coat resembling ag- glutinated sand, was found under the microscope to contain nume- rous contorted canals of various sizes, and a considerable number of beautiful green spicula. Two chert casts of Spatangi from Shaftes- bury afforded results analogous to those obtained from chalk Kchi- nites. Slices from a great variety of the greensand cherts of Lyme Regis presented characters which agreed with the cherts of Fovant. A specimen of flint from the Portland stone of Tisbury, and another from Portland, gave a greater quantity of cellular structure than any of the previously noticed cases, and the texture bore a greater affi- 281 nity to that of the freshwater sponge, than is exhibited in the flints of the chalk or the cherts of the green sand. With respect to the causes of the deposition of the flint, Mr. Bower- bank objects to the supposition, that it was influenced by the silice- ous spicula of the sponges, because the flint is in no case limited or determined by their immediate presence, but is, in all instances, bound- ed by the extent of the animal matter of the sponge. He has fre- quently observed that the large excurrent canals in the chalk-flint spongites are not filled with silex, and that the spicula projecting into them have not the slightest incrustation of siliceous matter upon their surface ; while on the contrary, wherever a single tube or a thin layer of tubes has been projected from the mass into the chalk, the silex has been attracted to it. He conceives also, that the retention of the spicula and extraneous matters in all parts of the flint, may be accounted for, by supposing that the animal matter was the attractive agent, acting equally throughout the whole body of the sponge. In support of his argument he adduces the siliceous shells of Blackdown, and the siliceous corals of the Tisbury oolite and the mountain limestone, which contain no spicula, and in which it cannot be supposed that previously existing siliceous matter was the attractive agent. Lastly, the pyritous fossils of the London, Kimmeridge, Oxford and other clays, are also mentioned as exam- ples of animal and vegetable substances having exercised an attract- ive influence. March 25.—Morgan John O’Connell, Esq., M.P; John Samuel Enys, Esq., of Enys, in the county of Cornwall; Thomas Joyce, Esq., of ‘L'rinity College, Cambridge, and Bath ; John Eddowes Bowman, Esq., F.L.S., Hulme, near Manchester; and Viscount Valentia, of Arley Hall, Staffordshire, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read “ On the Age of the Limestones of South Devon ;” by W. Lonsdale, F.G.S. The object of this communication is to show the nature and limits of the author's claim to having been the first to infer from zoological evidence that the limestones of South Devon would prove to be of the age of the old red sandstone; and it was drawn up at the request of Mr. Murchison, in consequence of the subsequent adoption and ex- tension of the proposed classification by Professor Sedgwick and that gentleman; and at the request likewise of Dr. Fitton, in conse- quence of the same views having been applied to some of the in- fra-carboniferous formations of Belgium and the Boulonnais. The paper commences with a summary of the opinions previously enter- tained respecting the age of the limestones. ‘The authors quoted are, Woodward, 1722; Da Costa, Maton, Playfair, Berger, L. A. Necker, De Luc, T. Thomson, Kidd, W. Smith, Brande, W. Phillips, Hennah, Greenough, Sedgwick, W. Conybeare, J. J. Conybeare, Buckland, Dufrénoy, Elie de Beaumont, De la Beche, Prideaux, Boase, J. Phillips, Austen, Murchison, Bakewell and J. de Carle Sowerby. By these geologists the limestones are placed in the primary, trans- 282 ition or graywacke and carboniferous series; Mr. Prideaux being the only author who ascribes them in part, and on mineral characters, to the old red sandstone; and Mr. J. Phillips, in his article on geo- logy in the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, hesitating to place them in a definite position, in consequence of the resemblance of many of the shells to species found in the mountain limestone. Mr. De la Beche, in his memoir on Tor and Babacomb Bays, also states that the limestones of that district rest on old red sandstone; and in his Report on Cornwall and Devonshire (1839), he says, “‘ that those who rely very exclusively on the character of organic remains would prohably feel disposed to consider the Torbay and Plymouth beds as equivalent to some such rock as the old red sandstone.” ‘The au- thor of the paper refrains from all reference to the memoirs of the Rey. David Williams and Mr. Weaver, because his attention is more particularly confined to the limestones of South Devon. In allu- sion to the diversity of opinions which have been entertained respect- ing these rocks, even on some occasions by the same geologist, he is of opinion that it must be ascribed to the want, at the time the memoirs were written, of that preponderating weight of evidence which enables the mind to rest steadily on its own decisions; and that if a better result be now attainable, it must be ascribed to the mass of evidence, which has been recently accumulated in various parts of the kingdom. Until the organic remains of the mountain limestone and Silurian system had been determined, the former over- lying and the latter underlying the old red sandstone, and shown by Mr. Murchison to graduate regularly into that formation, and to contain perfectly distinct suites of fossils, it was impossible to de- termine the age of a series of beds, the fossils of which were in part new, and in part closely allied to carboniferous shells ; and procured from a region but partially examined, without a base line, beset with faults, and traversed by igneous rocks. Mr. Lonsdale then proceeds to show, what was the zoological evi- dence on which he ventured in December, 1837, to conclude that the South Devon limestones would prove to be of the age of the old red sandstone. Previously, he had examined in part the corals of the Silurian region and South Devon, and ascertained that some of the species are common to both; he had also examined with Mr. J. Sowerby, Mr. Hennah’s valuable collection of fossils from the neigh- bourhood of Plymouth, and had become aware, from the decisions of Mr. Sowerby, that certain of the shells could with difficulty, if at all, be distinguished from mountain-limestone species; and that some were distinct. In December, 1837, he examined with Mr. Austen a portion of that gentleman’s collection of Newton. Bushel fossils, and though he ventured to differ from some of the identifi- cations with mountain-limestone species pointed out to him, yet these shells, agreed so much in aspect with testacea of the carboni- ferous fauna, that he could not doubt there wasa connexion between the beds from which they had been obtained and the mountain lime- stone system: the same collection also proved that, associated with these shells, were corals of Silurian species. He had also been in- 283 formed by Mr. Austen, that in beds connected with the limestone, the Calceola sandalina had been found. It was therefore by com- bining the amount of the above evidence, the presence in the same strata of shells, identical, or nearly identical, with mountain-limestone species, of Silurian corals, the Calceola sandalina, and a numerous distinct testacea, that he suggested the South Deyon limestones would prove to be of an age intermediate between the carboniferous and Silurian systems, and consequently of that of the old red sand- stone. In alluding to Professor Sedgwick and Mr, Murchison’s adoption of the suggestion in 1839, and their bold application of it to all the older sedimentary rocks of Devon and Cornwall, the au- thor states, that the fullest testimony is borne in the papers, con- taining their present views of the structure of those counties, of the source whence the suggestion was derived. Appended to the notice was a list of fossils, necessarily very in- complete, from the limited nature of the materials at the author’s command. It consisted of sixty-three species; twelve considered common to the Carboniferous and Devonian limestones, forty-two peculiar to the Deyonian strata; and nine, seven of which are corals, common to the Devonian and Silurian formations; doubts were, however, entertained respecting the identification of the two species of shells. The author then observes,—should it be urged that it was unjustifiable to assume, from organic remains alone, the age of the Devonshire limestone, it may be replied, that in a district of which little in 1837 was positively known, which is cut off by the granite of Dartmoor from the only base line of the country, the culm measures of central Devon, proved in 1836 by Prof. Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison to be the representative of the true coal mea- sures, organic remains were the only test by which the age of strata so situated could be determined; and in support of his argument, he advanced the recent establishment in Cutch and the Desert to the east of it, from the examination of suites of fossils breught to England by Capt. Smee and Capt. Grant, and others procured by Colonel Pottinger at the request of Colonel Sykes, of a series of beds unquestionably of the age of the oolites of England, the fossils agreeing in their general characters with those of that geological epoch in this country, and being in many instances specifically undi- stinguishable. In this case, mineral characters and order of superpo- sition would have been valueless guides, for the rocks are totally differ- ent in character from those of the same age in England; and there was no predetermined series of beds from which an order of super- position could be derived. Another instance was noticed of the value of organic remains, if rightly applied, in determining the relative age of a distant region, and in this case of one inaccessible to Europeans, in the Ammonites obtained from the Tartar side of the Himalayan mountains. These fossils prove the existence in that unexplored country, of rocks of the secondary epoch, by possessing that peculiar character in the sutures, which is not found in Am- monites of any other epoch; they are moreover accompanied by Be- lemnites, 284 In advocating the value of fossils, the author, however, begs it may be clearly understood, that he would not expunge from the geologist’s consideration, the aid to be derived from order of super- position, and under a right control, from the use of mineral compo- sition and lithological structure; and he would advise the observer not to depend upon his own limited sources of knowledge, but to seek the aid of the philosophical zoologist, who can teach him to reason justly on the distribution of animal life,—the accidents to which it is liable-—the changes which such accidents may produce, or the means provided by nature to resist them,—and on the effects which a permanent alteration in the inhabiting medium may work in the form and size of a shell or coral. Of the importance of organic remains in identifying districts less widely separated, the two following instances were noticed. In M. Dumont’s work on the geology of the province of Liege, pub- lished in 1832, and justly valued for unravelling the structure of a most intricate country, the strata immediately beneath the mountain limestone are divided into three systems, but without any definite comparison with the formations which underlie that deposit in England. At the meeting of the Geological Society of France, at Mezieres, in September, 1835, Dr. Buckland proposed the following first comparison between the systems of M. Dumont and the sub- divisions of the Silurian system established by Mr. Murchison :— Systeme calcareux supérieur. ..... Mountain limestone. (Old red sandstone wanting. ) Syst. quartzo-schisteux supérieur. . The Ludlow rocks. Syst. calcareux inférieur........The Dudley and Plymouth lime- stone. Syst. quartzo-schisteux inférieur.. The Caradoc sandstone. (Builth and Llandeilo flags wanting.) Terrain Ardoisier. This comparison was principally founded on the resemblance of the corals with those obtained at Dudley and Wenlock. M. Constant Prevost pointed out the resemblance of the calcaire bleu of the systéme calcareux inférieur of M. Dumont with the Plymouth limestone, and of the marble of Heer, subordinate to the systéme quartzo-schisteux supérieur, with the limestones of Babacombe. Mr. Greenough, however, doubted the identity of the Plymouth ‘and Dudley limestones, and he stated that he had remarked the total absence of the Dudley Trilobites in the systéme calcareux inférieur. During the Mezieres meeting, Dr. Buckland identified certain beds beneath the mountain limestone near Namur, Di- nant, and Huy, and at Engis, with the old red sandstone*; and at an ordinary meeting of the Geological Society of France, in December, 1837, M. Rozet repeated his belief, that the old red sandstone is well developed between Dinant and Namur; and M. * Tn the “ Outlines of England and Wales ” (1822), the Rev. W. D. Cony- beare places all the Belgian beds between the carboniferous limestone and the transition slates in the old red sandstone.—Note, 468. 285 Constant Prevost stated, that he had also during the Mezieres meeting, determined its existence in those districts. In i888, M. Dumont visited England for the purpose of examining the Silurian region; and on his return to Belgium, he laid before the Royal Academy of Bruxelles a table, differing from that of Dr. Buckland only in drawing more closely the terms of com- parison, and in identifying the two upper divisions of the Terrain Ardoisier with the Cambrian system. He stated also, in a report which accompanied the table, that the old red sandstone was most probably wanting in Belgium, or, if it exist, that it must be considered as a great development of the superior part of the Upper Ludlow Rock. In M. Dumont’s work, before mentioned, lists are given of the fossils from each system; and on examining them, for the purpose of determining how far the comparison of the Belgian and Silurian systems could be established by organic re- mains, the author of this notice ascertained, that out of twenty-two species, only four could be considered as peculiar to the Silurian system; and of these he believes two may be erroneous identifica- tions ; that five species are common to the Belgian beds and the mountain limestone, and thirteen to the Belgian and Devonian systems. ‘These lists, Mr. Lonsdale states, are small, but, he adds, they bear internal evidence of having been carefully drawn up with- out any preconceived theory; and he conceives that they afford sufficient proof that the beds from which they were obtained do not belong to the Silurian system, but partake of the same inter- mediate character as the Devonian limestones. The other case, alluded to in the paper, refers to the older beds of the Bas Boulon- nais. ‘These strata were identified by M. de Verneuil in 1838, with the Silurian series of England, particularly a bed of limestone containing corals and other fossils with the Wenlock limestone ; and M. Dumont, who examined the country with M. de Verneuil, states im his report to the Bruxelles Academy, that his four systems occur in the Boulonnais. The above bed of limestone, M. Rozet had also, in 1828, placed below the old red sandstone; but in a subsequent memoir, published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles (xix. p. 145. 1830), he assigns it to the old red sandstone. At the Meeting of the Geological Society of France at Boulogne, in Sept. 1839, and at which some of the Fellows of the Geological So- ciety of London assisted, the identification of the Boulonnais beds with the Silurian system was fully admitted. When, however, doubts were recently thrown out respecting the age of the formations in the Liege districts on account of the nature of their fossils, Mr. Mur- chison, who was present at the Boulogne Meeting, stated to the author of this notice, that if the Liege country had been wrongly identified, the older beds of the Boulonnais had been wrongly iden- tified also. To determine the question, as far as fossils would assist, Mr. Murchison procured, by the kind assistance of M. Dutertre Yvart, a collection of specimens in the Museum at Boulogne. An examination of these specimens with published lists, proved that the inference was just, and that there exists in the Bas Boulonnais, the VOL. III. Z 286 same mixed assemblage of mountain limestone, Silurian and Devo- nian, or peculiar fossils, as in the province of Liege and in Devon- shire. A note ‘‘On the Bone Caves of Devonshire,” by R. A. C. Aus- ten, Esq., F.G.S., was then read. Mr. Austen commences by noticing the two theories which have been proposed to account for the introduction of the bones of ani- mals into caves—one, which accounts for their presence on the belief that they were dragged in by hyzenas or bears inhabiting the caves ; the other, which supposes that the bones were drifted in by diluvial waters. He then proceeds to give his own explanation of the phe- nomena presented by Kent’s Cave and Yealmpton Cavern; but he says it is not his intention, by doing so, to propose a general theory for ossiferous caves. ‘In the Devonshire caverns, mentioned above, remains of the Ele- phant, Hog, Rhinoceros, Horse, Ox, Bear, Hyena, and Cat, gene- rally bearing marks of teeth, are intermingled. With reference to the means by which they were collected, Mr. Austen observes, the habits of the Hyzena are now better known than formerly, and there is little in them to warrant the conclusion that the fossil bones were collected by that animal. He says, on the authority of Cuvier, that hyeenas “‘se tiennent solitaires dans les parties montagneuses,”’ (last Edit. Oss. Foss.) least of all do they inhabit caves; that they have not the courage to attack any formidable animal, preferring the pu- trid flesh and bones, which they find in their nightly prowlings : that they never drag away their prey, but devour it greedily on the spot: and he adds, on the authority of M. Marcel de Serres, who has observed the habits of the Hyzena in Africa, ‘“‘ that its gluttony is equalled only by its cowardice.” The Lion, on the other hand, seeks solely for living prey, which it prostrates at one spring, and then conveys to its lair. The Afri- can lion has been known to carry off a bullock, and its constant abode is in chasms, caves, or on overhanging ledges of rock. Mr. Austen is therefore induced to believe that the cavern bones were in the first instance the prey of the larger feline animals, and that during their absence the hyzenas visited the caves to feed upon the fragments of the partially consumed prey ; and in support of this view he quotes the passage from Johnson’s Field Sports, given in the Reliquie Diluviane (p. 22): “ they feed on small animals and carrion, and often come in for the prey left by tigers and leopards after their appetites have been satiated.” What the large feline animals were, Mr. Austen says, is not im- portant, as they resemble each other in their habits. The remains of a Felis as large or larger than any now known, have been found in the Plymouth and Hutton caves, and the canine and molar figured by Dr. Buckland from Kirkdale, are said by Cuvier to differ im no respect from those of a lion. (Oss. Foss. IV. 151.) The remains of a fossil lion have been also found in the caves of Gailenreuth, the province of Liege, Mialet and Jobertas (Dép. du 287 Gard), Lunel-Viel, Joyeuse, Ardeche, Fouvent, Fausan (Dép. de lV Herault), and in Kent’s Cavern. It is known that the Lions of the present day will attack every one of the animals, the remains of which are found in Kent’s Hole, and other caves; and if it should be urged that the most powerful lion could not carry off the bodies of the great pachyderms, Mr. Austen says, that an examination of a very large proportion of the remains taken from Kent’s Hole has proved that the bones and teeth of the Elephant belonged to young animals; and he quotes Dr. Buck- land’s statement, that the ten elephants’ teeth discovered in Kirkdale cave belonged to extremely young animals. (Rel. Dil. p. 18.) The conclusions, therefore, which Mr. Austen wishes to draw are, Ist, that the carcases were dragged into the bone caves by powerful feline animals ; and 2ndly, that hyenas picked and gnawed the bones after those animals had satisfied their hunger, and while they were absent. He also objects to the belief that some of the German caves are filled with the animal matter of countless generations of bears, as the decomposition of one carcase, he says, would have driven the living bears from the cave; but he believes the prevailing fossil re- mains in each locality indicate only what animals were most abun- dant in the district, and consequently most frequently fell a prey to the powerful Felide: thus in the low grounds about Yealmpton, Kent’s Hole or Kirkdale, herbivora may have been most abundant, and bears in the region of the Hartz. April 8th.—Richard Vaughan Barnewell, Esq., Queen’s Bench Walk, Temple, was elected a Fellow of this Society. A paper was first read, “ On the Great Fault, called the Horse, in the Forest of Dean Coal Field;” by John Buddle, Esq., F.G.S. The term fault is used in this paper in the miner's signification, or for any interruption in the regular deposition or range of a bed. The Horse Fault, therefore, is not a displacement of one part of the stratum by a dislocation, but a local thinning out of a bed of coal, and a substitution of sandstone for it. The Horse has been traced in the Coleford High Delf seam, the 23rd in the descending series, or the 3rd from the bottom, and the only one in which it is clearly developed, for about two miles; and its known breadth varies from 170 to 340 yards. The only point at which it has been tunneled through in a transverse direction, is under Barn Hill enclosure, between Brixslade and Howler’s Slade valleys, and its width is there about 200 yards. The upper surface of the seam of coal, to a considerable distance on each side of the Horse, undulates considerably, producing depressions called “ lows,” and great varieties in the thickness of the bed; but the pavement composed of the ordinary argillaceous deposits, which accompany the seam throughout the basin, preserves nearly its ordinary regu- larity. The roof of the seam consists of the strong sandstone which usually reposes upon the Coleford High Delf, but a layer of black slaty substance is sometimes interposed between it and the coal. Z2 288 This sandstone extends to the surface, varying in thickness accord- ing to the undulations of the ground, but at one point over the Horse, the thickness is 94 yards. The sandstone sometimes passes into a conglomerate, containing fragments of coal, ironstone, and vege- table remains; also quartz pebbles, similar to those which abound in “ the pudding-stone,” a deposit between the carboniferous limestone and the old red sandstone, and which attains a considerable eleva- tion in the adjoining hills. The sandstone also encloses concre- tions of highly indurated, ferruginous sandstone, scattered irregu- larly throughout its mass ; and angular fragments of obliterated casts of vegetable remains, formed likewise of highly indurated sand- stone. The coal under the lows is generally mixed with particles of the sandstone of the roof; but it contains no boulders, angular frag- ments, or pebbles, as asserted by some observers; the supposed boulders and fragments being, Mr. Buddle observes, the concre- tions and vegetable remains of the roof, alluded to in the preceding paragraph. The fall of the Horse conforms to that of the strata or S. 31° E., but whether the “ fault” rises with the seam of coal to the outcrop on the S.E. side of the basin, remains to be proved. In the trans- verse section, the bed of the Horse is nearly horizontal. There are no indications on the surface by which the Horse can be traced beyond the limits explored under ground; and whether it produces any change in the overlying seams, can be determined only by future works. Mr. Buddle infers, that it does not descend any lower than the Coleford High Delf seam, in consequence of the evenness of the floor, and the entire absence in it of sandstone. In its underground characters, the Horse is similar to the “‘ washes” or aqueous deposits in many coal-fields, but it differs in not under- lying a river bed, or being in the bottom of a valley, and in not extending to the surface. In the Newcastle coal-field all the ‘‘ washes” cut through the whole of the strata, from the surface to that on which the wash reposes. In the workings of the Park End Colliery in Park End High Delf seam, which is situated 50 fathoms higher in the series than the Coleford High Delf, and two miles to the S.E. of the point to which the Horse has been traced, a great succession of “lows” has been found in crossing the line of the Horse, but no fault corresponding with the Horse. The coal is deteriorated in the same manner as in the Coleford seam. This colliery is situated beyond the centre of the basin, and where the strata rise in the opposite direction. Fu- ture workings alone can determine if there be any connexion be- tween the Horse and these “ lows.” In the direction of the Horse there is also an extraordinary oval depression of the Coleford High Delf, the centre of the seam being 20 feet below the ordinary level; and it remains to be proved if the Horse presents the same characters under the de- pression as elsewhere. From the phenomena exhibited by the Horse and the adjacent 289 coal-seam, Mr. Buddle is of opinion, that the fault and seam occupy the site of a lake, which existed during the deposition of the latter, and that the carbonaceous matter, which forms the seam, was accumulated while the water was deep and tranquil; that the undula- tions on the surface of the coal were occasioned by the action of the water when the lake was discharged ; and that the Horse occupies the bed of the stream by which the complete drainage of the lake was effected. The sandstone of the roof, and that which fills the lows, he conceives, on account of the fineness of the grain, were tran- quilly deposited. A paper was then read, entitled, “‘ Remarks on the Structure of the Royal George, and on the Condition of the Timber, Iron, Cop- per, &c., recovered during the operations of Col. Pasley, in the Sum- mer of 1839;” by Mr. Creuze, of Her Majesty’s Dock Yard, Ports- mouth, and communicated by Captain Basil Hall, R.N., F.G.S. The Royal George was accidentally sunk at Spithead on the 29th of August, 1782, and as the specimens described in the paper were recovered during the summer of 1839, they had consequently been immersed in a tide-way of salt water fifty-seven years. She was the first ship of war built on the principles recommended by the committee appointed to inquire into the superiority of the vessels in the Spanish and French navies; and was commenced at Wool- wich in 1746, and launched the 1st of February, 1756. The Royal George was consequently, when sunk (1782), twenty-six years old. The great agent in the work of destruction of the timbers had been “the worm”. This insect had gradually, by its innumerable perforations on every exposed portion of the wreck, destroyed the fibrous tenacity of the wood, and reduced it to such a state as to permit the wash of the tide to remove the surface layer by layer. The quantity which had been thus destroyed, Mr. Creuze considers, from the parts recovered, to have been almost the whole of the upper portion of the ship, including the topsides above the line of the mid- dle deck ports ; and he is of opinion, that in another half century the same agents might have destroyed every part of the hull above the surface of the mud, if Col. Pasley’s operations had not been under- taken. The timbers which had been protected by the mud, were found to be solid and firm ; but the only exposed wood which has escaped the ravages of “the worm” is the ash of which the dead-eyes were made. A portion of one of these timbers, which accompanied the paper, and had formed a part of the exterior surface covered with mud, bore no marks of “the worm.” The copper sheathing ap- pears to have suffered very slightly, several whole sheets having been found to be of the average weight per square foot of that now used. This state of preservation Mr. Creuze assigns to galvanic action. The copper nails are also nearly perfect. The cast-iron guns which have been recovered, were so soft when first brought to the surface, that they were easily abraded by the finger nail to the depth of at least ¢gth, and in some parts of 4th of an inch; but they have gradually 290 hardened on exposure to the atmosphere. The brass guns were appa- rently as sharp in their ornamental castings, and as sound, as at the period of their immersion. A fragment of tarred rope-yarn exhi- bited a remarkable instance of durability. It is supposed to have formed part of the sea-store, of the Royal George, or of one of the cables used by Mr. Tracey in an attempt to raise the ship soon after she was lost. A piece of 23-inch cable-laid cordage, made from the yarns of this junk, bore 21 cwt. 3qrs. 7lbs.; a piece of similar cable, from yarn spun in 1830, bore only 20 ewt. 1 qr. 7 lbs .; but another manufactured from yarn spun in 1838, bore 23 ewt. 1 qr. 7 lbs. The paper contained various details respecting the construction and measurement of the Royal George, and of the different descrip- tions of timber used in building the ship. Appended to the Me- moir was also a catalogue of twenty-three specimens sent for exhi- bition, a portion of each of which was presented to the Society's Museum. A letter, dated November, 1839, was afterwards read, addressed to Dr. Mantell by Mr. C. Hullmandel, “ On the Subsidence of the Coast near Puzzuoli.” It 1813, Mr. Hullmandel resided during four months in the Ca- puchin Convent, which is situated at the entrance of Puzzuoli, and on the seaward side of the road towards Naples. The oldest friar, styled zl molto reverende, then ninety-three years of age, informed Mr. Hullmandel, that when he was a young man, the road towards Naples passed between the convent and the sea, but that from the gradual subsiding of the soil it had been obliged to be changed to its present course. During Mr. Hullmandel’s residence, the refec- tory and the entrance-gate were from six to twelve inches under water, whenever strong westerly winds prevailed. Thirty years previously such an occurrence never took place. The small wharf at Puzzuoli was also constantly under water during westerly winds. Mr. Hullmandel therefore infers, that as it is not probable the archi- tect of the convent would have so placed the ground-floor as to ex- pose it to inundations, or the builder of the wharf would have so constructed a landing-place as to render it liable to be overflowed ; —a gradual subsidence of the soil has been going on for many years, and that this change tends to corroborate the opinion re- specting the differences of relative level which have taken place in the Temple of Jupiter Serapis. A notice was next read, “ On part of Borneo Proper ;” by G. Tra- descant Lay, Esq. Communicated by the President. The country visible in the background, on approaching the estuary into which the river of Borneo flows, is of variable, though nowhere of considerable elevation. ‘Towards the east; however, is a remarkable range of mountainous ridges, rising one above an- other like steps, and trending, the author supposes, towards Kini- balu, the most lofty point in the island. 291 Borneo Proper consists, as far as Mr. Lay’s observations extended, of sandstone; but near the mouth of the river is a little island on which coal is found, and called by the natives Pulu-cheomin, or Mirror island, in allusion, it is supposed, to the brightness of the coal. Mr. Lay says, if he understood his informant rightly, a large supply of fuel might be obtained from the island. Lignite is also found by the natives in sandstone in a deep valley or ravine, not far from Borneo city, and believed by the author to be that called Kianggi. The bed extends obliquely from one side of the ravine to the other, forming an angle of about 45°, with the direction of a rivulet, which flows through the valley ; and it is stated to be more than two yards in breadth. The valley is accessible by a path called Jalan-subrek, and conspicuous from the palace of the Sultan, but it is steep, rugged, and narrow. ‘The distance from the water-edge is less than two miles. The whole of the peninsula lying on one side of the river is formed of very steep hills, which gradually become more lofty towards the south-west. Upon the main land, or oppo- site side of the river, the ridges are supposed to range at right angles to the mountains. They are composed, generally, of a soft sand- stone, alternating with clay; but on the summit of one of the hills, Mr. Lay noticed the outcrop of a hard red sandstone, formed of round and angular masses of quartz, particles of black mica, and a ferruginous cement. A paper was last read, “On some Geological Specimens from Syria;” by Mr. W. C. Williamson. The specimens were sent to England by Mr. Heugh, to whom the author states, he is indebted for a few notes respecting the local- ities, whence they were obtained. The chief districts are the vici- nity of Beyroot, especially Mount Gebeel Suneen, which forms the part of the Lebanon range immediately above Beyroot. The tri- angular tongue of land, on which that town is built, is about four miles in extent from the mountains to the coast, and it presents an undulating surface, some of the higher points attaining 500 feet above the level of the sea. The formation of which it is composed, is a hard cream-coloured limestone, which exhibits in the cliffs along the sea-shore numerous veins of flint; and it is in one part of the coast overlaid by a soft calcareous rock, occasionally 100 feet thick. The latter stone is easily wrought, and is employed as a building material, being better able to resist the effects of the earthquakes than the harder and more compact rock. On ascending Gebeel Suneen from the flat plain, which extends along its foot, and is 400 feet above the level of the sea, the follow- ing rocks are passed over :—- Compact limestone........... sae . 1200 to 1500 feet. Coarse siliceous conglomerate, “containing thin seams of lignite, and fragments ai SHINGSOUS WCOU sraseebadageoobobebce coscqoasadee 800 Wompace MmMestOMes-n.-seersnendeaaaeeseas se O00 292 A very ferruginous rock, composed of mi- nute grains of sand, thickly coated with hydrated oxide of iron ..................... 50 feet. A seam of oysters, which may be traced completely around the mountain ......... Compact limestone, forming the summit of Che mMOUntaii. a DOULEEes.- nee secleciseeccieo ae OO In a break in the side of Gebeel Suneen, and extending for some distance along the upper part of the lower conglomerate, is a basaltic dyke, which shoots upwards into the compact limestone. It is about 100 yards wide, and begins, as well as terminates, very abruptly. Except a small hillock near the sea of Tiberias, this is stated to be the only trap seen by Mr. Heugh or his friends throughout the whole of Syria. The fossils from the middle bed of limestone are generally casts, but are assigned by the author to the genera Dolium, Buccinum, Nerinea, Turritella, Venus, Crassatella?, Hippurites, Trigonia, Cardium, Lucina, Nucula, and Spatangus. In a soft limestone at the village of Ba-abda, and also on the banks of the Zamies, are found large drusy geodes of quartz, and some- times of chalcedony. Among the other fossils contained in the collection, are specimens of Clupea brevissima (Agassiz, Tab. LXI., f. 6-9.). They occur in great numbers a little above Tripoli, on the way to the Cedars, and about thirty miles north of Beyroot. None of the fossils, except the fishes, having been identified with described species, Mr. Williamson does not venture to determine the precise age of the beds from which they were obtained; but he is of opinion that the fossils are more nearly allied to the organic remains of the cretaceous series than to any other. The Dolium, he says, bears a strong resemblance to the D. nodosum of the Eng- lish chalk, and a species of Venus to the V. angulata of the green sand. Nerina, he states, on the authority of Mr. Daniel Sharpe, are found near Lisbon associated with Hippurites. ~ PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vo. III. 1840. No. 70. April 29.— Abraham Gesner, Esq., residing in Nova Scotia; the Rey. James Cartmell, M.A., Christ Church, Cambridge; and Alger- non Sydney Aspland, Esq., Lamb’s Buildings, Temple, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read, “ On a few detached places along the coast of Ionia and Caria; and on the island of Rhodes ;” by William John Hamilton, Esq., Sec. G.S. The localities described in this paper are, 1. Fouges (anc. Phocea); 2. Ritri (anc. Erythre); 3. Sighajik (anc. Teos); 4. Scalanuova, near Ephesus; 5. Boodroom (anc. Halicarnassus); 6. Cnidus; 7. Island and shores of the Gulf of Syme; and 8. Rhodes. : 1. Fouges is situated in a small bay at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Smyrna, and all the formations in its neighbourhood ex- amined by Mr. Hamilton are volcanic. On the north side of the bay, a range of hills, from 300 to 400 feet high, extends several miles to the eastward, and consists in the uppermost part, of beds of smooth semivitrified red and gray trachyte, containing numerous cavities lined with mammillated chalcedony. The trachyte passes down wards into a soft, white, pumiceous sandy rock. The greater part of the hills to the north of the bay are composed of the same for- mation, traversed, in several places by north and east, narrow trap- dykes, which have altered the adjacent rocks into an imperfectly banded jasper. About one mile to the north-east of Fouges, Mr. Hamilton noticed a mass of black hornstone, and to the west and north-west, near the water’s edge, trappean and amygdaloidal rocks, overlaid by the pumiceous sandstone. ‘ 2. fitra is situated on the shores of the bay of Erythrze, opposite the island of Scio; and the geological structure of the neighbouring district consists of red crystalline, apparently stratified trachyte, and of blue or gray, more or less, crystalline limestone, with associated sandstone. The two latter rocks are of anterior date to the trachyte, but Mr. Hamilton could not determine their relative geological age, as they appear to be destitute of organic remains. The beds of lime- stone are sometimes vertical. On the shore near the Acropolis the author noticed also vertical strata of indurated shale and jasper, and near the juncture of the trachyte and limestone, to the north of the Acropolis, that the calcareous beds were much shattered. The two VOL. III. ZA 294 long islands which form the anchorage, are also composed of blue semi-crystalline limestone, without traces of bedding. 3. Sighajik.—A rich alluvial plain, connecting the harbours of Sighajik and Teos, gradually rises to the eastward, towards the mountainous district, which extends to Smyrna. ‘To the west the plain is separated from the sea by a range of hills composed of thickly-bedded, white, cretaceous limestone, resembling closely the limestone near Smyrna, described by Mr. Strickland*. In some places it is underlaid by beds of sandstone, and sand containing cal. careous concretions. Just above the ruins of Teos, the limestone is very thinly bedded, with slightly micaceous marly way-boards, the inclination of the strata being 15° to the west ; and near the ancient harbour the white limestone is underlaid by a hard, brown, micaceous sandstone, associated with beds of hard nodular limestone, evidently belonging to a much older formation. Low undulating hills of this sandstone bound the plain to the north-west. One of the two insu- lated remarkable hills, seen from the anchorage, also consists of it, the other being composed of vertical beds of blue marble, probably belonging to the same formation. To the north-west of the plain, this marble passes into a beautiful breccia, associated with strata of brown sandstone. Mr. Hamilton saw no igneous rocks im situ, but numerous blocks of greenstone are scattered about the country. 4. Scalanuova.—This town stands upon an insulated hill of blue semi-crystalline limestone, part of the western chain of Mount Mes- sogis. The limestone is similar to that which occurs near Ephesus and Mount Prion, where it is associated with beds of yellow mica- ceous sandstone. 5. Boodroom.—The castle is built upon an insulated rock of simi- lar limestone, connected with beds of argillaceous shale, of various colours. The hills to the north of the town, and on which are trace- able the walls of the Acropolis of Halicarnassus, consist of the same formation, interstratified at one point with thin projecting bands of siliceous limestone. The low hills near the shore, and on which the ruins of Halicarnassus stand, are composed of horizontal beds of volcanic sand and trachytic conglomerate, formed chiefly of angular fragments of brown porphyritic trachyte. Five or six miles to the south-west of Boodroom is the conical hill of Chifoot-Kaleh, 1000 feet high. It consists entirely of reddish trachyte ; and all the coun- try between it and Boodroom is composed of trachyte or trachytic conglomerates. The hills to the west of Chifoot-Kaleh are also tra- chytic, with indications of columnar structure. Trachyte likewise forms part, if not all, the promontory of Karabaghla, and the islets to the westward of it. The north-east dip of the limestone of Bood- room, Mr. Hamilton thinks, may be owing to the protrusion of the igneous rocks of Karabaghla and Chifoot-Kaleh. The shore abounded in one place with pebbles of pumice. 6. Cnidus is situated near the extremity of Cape Krio, the west- ern end of the south shore of the Gulf of Cos. The whole peninsula is formed of blue semi-crystalline limestone, shale and sandstone, * Geol. Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 538; Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. v. p. 393. 295 the strata dipping near the extremity of the promontory 45° to the south-west, but increasing to a higher angle towards the east-north- _ east. The following is given by Mr. Hamilton as the general structure of the country :— Summit of the peninsula towards the west, thin-bedded calcareous shale and blue limestone, thickly bedded and cavernous. Eastward of the ruins, it is in some places interstratified with a hard greenish sandstone, resembling graywacke. ‘The sides of the hills are oc- easionally obscured, by a loose limestone breccia of more modern origin. The hills rise rapidly towards the east and north-east, and at the» distance of two miles exceed 2000 feet in height. Their summit is a narrow ridge, a quarter of a mile in length from north-west to south-east, and consists of laminated calcareous shales, dipping 45° to the south-west. These shales present a very steep escarpment towards the north-east, but are overlaid towards the south-west by the blue limestone. 7. Island and shores of the Gulf of Syme.—The Gulf of Syme is separated from that of Cos by a narrow isthmus. ‘The island is an uniform mass of grayish-white compact scaglia, with occasional bands and nodules of siliceous limestone. In some places the lime- stone is thickly bedded, but in others thinly, with way-boards of marl; and in one locality it was observed to rest on greenish sand- stone. The thinner-bedded variety is sometimes reddish, and re- sembles the limestone of Mount Atairo, in the island of Khodes. The strata are occasionally horizontal, but on the brow of the high table-land above the town of Syme and in other districts they are inclined from 30° to 35° to the north and north-north-west; and beyond the harbour of Panermiotis 20° to the south and south-south- east. Mr. Hamilton found no organic remains in the island. The southern shore of the gulf consists of the same whitish com- pact scaglia, with nodules of flint and jasper. Some portions of it are a breccia, composed of fragments of white limestone in a pale red paste, or of red limestone in a white paste. At the eastern extre- mity of the gulf, a thinly bedded limestone alternates with bands of pale red jasper, the strata dipping 50° north-west; but in some places they are curiously contorted. The jasper increases in quantity towards the north-west, the limestone becoming less prominent. Mr. Hamilton did not land on the north side of the gulf, but several points appeared to him, viewed from the sea, to consist of a brown arenaceous conglomerate. 8. Rhodes.—The northern half of the island, the portion visited by the author, consists chiefly of tertiary marine deposits, of se- condary limestone and of scaglia, with sandstones and conglome- rates. No igneous rocks were observed in situ, but numerous pebbles of greenstone and other traps were noticed in the conglo- merates near the centre of the island. TERTIARY STRATA.—These consist of a shelly testaceous lime- stone, sandstone, and conglomerates, and éxtend! in a zone of varia-~ Zaz 296 ble breadth, having a quaquaversal dip, along those parts of the island visited by the author. At the north-east end, the tertiary strata rise into high and considerable hills, which stretch across the island from east to west. The following is the order of succession :— 1. Summit of the hills three miles, south-south-west of the town of Rhodes. Sandy gravel and conglomerate consisting of Feet. pebbles ofiseaglia i.) Vy een ie ye 10 to 13 Fine sand, with indications of false stratifica- tions, true dip 5° north-east.............. 10 to 15 Gravelieer ie! mg. Oc ity aha eRe SO TSN Rd 8 Sand, with perpendicular veins of marl...... 10 to 12 Sand, with concretions of marl ............ Sang, with bands on marl ) oi) a" see ee 2. These beds repose on an extensive formation (considered to be from 200 to 300 feet thick) of yellow, calcareous, shelly conglo- merate, the beds of which dip 10° to north-east. It contains nume- rous shells of the genera Pecten, Cardium and Venus, and it is the stone principally used in masonry. It extends to the town of Rhodes, and re-appears to the south of the table-land in nearly horizontal beds, some of which are very arenaceous. It is extensively de- veloped in several places along the coast, as far as Lindo, where it rests unconformably against the secondary limestone. - 3. A bed of sandy marl, containing thin bands of calcareous marl. Thickness not great. 4. A thick bed of conglomerate and gravel, extending a consider- able distance to the south and south-west, and rising into lofty hills, which form steep and broken cliffs on the western cvast of the is- land, several miles from Rhodes. It thins out gradually further south, resting at the entrance of a deep valley, upon upraised beds of blue and white scaglia and sand. Near Archangelo, half-way between the town of Rhodes and Lindo, a similar system of tertiary rocks is extensively developed. About one mile north of Lindo Mr. Hamilton noticed between the tertiary and secondary series a thick bed of large limestone peb- bles, with sometimes quartz pebbles and boulders, cemented by a hard calcareous paste. This conglomerate rests immediately on the blue limestone, filling up its interstices ; and it is considered by Mr. Hamilton to be the lowest tertiary deposit. SEconDARY Rocxs.—The greater part of Rhodes consists of sea- glia, generally considered to be the equivalent of the cretaceous sy- tem of Europe. It is composed, (1.) of red and brown sandstones with conglomerates ; (2.) of whitish gray and red scaglia limestone ; and (3.) of blue limestone; but the last deposit Mr. Hamilton considers to belong to a different epoch. 1. The sandstones and conglomerates occur near the centre of the island, and apparently form the upper division of the deposit. A red conglomerate, which is found between Apollona and Embona, dips 50° to the south-south-west, and rests conformably upon whitish- 297 gray scaglia. At the same locality exist indurated red marls and sandstone grits; and at the north-north-west foot of Mount Atairo is another bed of conglomerate, containing chiefly boulders of green- stone, and a greenish granular rock, but inclosing also rounded masses and pebbles of the gray scaglia of the neighbouring hills. The greenstone was not seen by Mr. Hamilton 27 sztw. 2. The scaglia limestone is chiefly developed in the lofty ridge of Mount Atairo (anc. Mons Atabyrius), which is from 3500 to 4000. feet in height. The summit is a narrow ridge about two miles long, extending from north-east to south-west, or nearly in the di- rection of the axis of the island. The bed dips from 15° to 20° to the south-east. The upper portion consists of thick-bedded gray scaglia, witheut flints; lower down occurs a thinly-laminated lime- stone, with tabular masses or beds of flint; and still lower, the beds are again thicker and the flints are nodular. The total vertical di- mensions of these deposits is from 800 to 900 feet. Beneath them, the scaglia is interstratified with a red marly limestone, and further down the hill are thick beds of scaglia without flints. Below the village of Embona, situated to the north-west of the mountain, a greenish compact sandstone crops out from beneath the limestone of Mount Atairo, and dips to the south-east. The range of hills to the north-north-east consists also chiefly of the gray limestone, which rests on the red and brown sandstones. Mr. Hamilton did not ascertain how far the formation ranges to the north-west. The Acropolis of Camiro, on the east coast of the island, and six miles north of Lindo, stands upon an insulated table-rock of whitish compact scaglia, encircled at its base with tertiary strata. 3. The blue limestone is classed provisionally by Mr. Hamilton with the secondary rocks; but he is of opinion it may be of the same age as the limestone of Halicarnassus, and belong to a much older system. It occurs extensively along the east coast, particularly near Lindo, where it forms high and steep hills, against which remnants of horizontal strata of tertiary limestone rest at a considerable height. The Acropolis of Lindo is situated upon beds of it, having an incli- nation of 20° to 25° to the north-west. It occurs likewise further north, between Rhodes and Archangelo, where it forms the high ridge of hills about two miles from the shore, and the low ridge of rocky islets in the middle of the plain, and parallel to the coast. OxpeR Rocxs.—The only locality at which these are satisfac- torily shown, is half-way between Archangelo and Lindo, and close tv the shore at the bottom of a deep bay. At this point the blue limestone, which in its lowest beds is hard and siliceous, and dips between 60° and 70° to the north-west, is underlaid constantly by a hard, black, schistose, crystalline rock, like the limestone of the Bosphorus. In conclusion, Mr. Hamilton gives the following general state- ments: 1. The scaglia is more abundant in Rhodes and the south of Asia Minor than further north, and is apparently a prolongation of the scaglia which constitutes the mass of Mount Taurus. Num- mulites have been found in it near Adalia, and Mr. Hamilton ob- 298 tained near Deenair a species resembling one found in the scaglia of the Ionian Islands. 9. Igneous rocks are much more rare towards the south, and do not appear so often associated with the scaglia as with the older limestones. 3. Trachyte and other igneous products almost constantly accompany the blue semi-crystalline limestone, as at Erythrea and Boodroom. 4. In the absence of organic remains, Mr. Hamilton hesitates to state positively whether the blue lime- stone is an altered rock, or is an older formation which has been raised to the surface; but he is inclined to adopt the latter opinion, in consequence of the resemblance of the limestone to that near Constantinople, which is associated with schists, containing trans- ition fossils. A letter from Mr. Ottley, of Exeter, was then read, “On some specimens from the new red sandstone,” considered by the writer to be casts of Alcyonia. The specimens alluded to in this letter were found by Mr. Par- ker in a quarry about two miles from Exeter, in the road towards Bath. In the lower part of the quarry coarse sandstones and fine conglomerates occur, and in the upper a flat, flaggy sandstone. The beds dip 10° or 12° to the south-east. Interstratified with the con- glomerate is a looser red sandstone, in which the branched conere- tions, considered to be of aleyonic origin by Mr. Ottley, principally occur; but they have been found also in the conglomerates, and the sandstone of the upper part of the quarry. A paper was afterwards read, entitled, “ Description of the re- mains of a Bird, Tortoise, and Lacertian Saurian, from the chalk ;” by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.8. Bird.—The three portions of Ornitholite were obtained by Lord Enniskillen from the chalk near Maidstone, and were recognized by him and Dr. Buckland as belonging to some large bird. One of the bones is nine inches in length, and has one extremity nearly en- tire, though mutilated, but the other is completely broken off. The extremity, partially preserved, is expanded. The rest of the shaft of the bone has a pretty uniform size, but is irregularly three-sided, with the sides flat and the angles rounded : its circumference is two inches and a quarter. The whole bone is slightly bent. The spe- cimen differs from the femur of any known bird, in the proportion of its length to its breadth; and from the tibia or metatarsal bone, in its triedral figure, and the flatness of the sides, none of which are longitudinally grooved. It resembles most the humerus of the Al- batross in its form, proportions and size, but it differs in the more marked angles bounding the three sides. ‘The expanded extremity likewise resembles the distal end of the humerus of the Albatross, but it is too mutilated to allow the exact amount of similarity to be determined. . On the supposition that this fragment is really a part of the hu- merus, Mr. Owen says, its length and comparative straightness would prove it to have belonged to a longipennate natatorial bird, equalling in size the Albatross. 299 The two other portions of bone have been crushed, but Mr. Owen ‘states that they belong to the distal end of the tibia, the peculiar strongly-marked trochlear extremity of which is well preserved. Their relative size to the preceding bone, supposing that, specimen to be part of a humerus, is nearly the same as in the skeleton of the Albatross. There is no bird now known north of the Equator with which the fossils can be compared. Tortoise —The remains of the Chelonian Reptile consist of four marginal plates of the carapace, and some small fragments of the expanded ribs. The marginal plates are united by the usual finely- indented sutures, and each is impressed along the middle of its up- per surface with a line corresponding to the margin of the horny plate which originally defended it. The external edge of each plate is slightly emarginated in the middle. These plates are narrower in proportion to their length than in any of the existing marine Che- lonia ; and they deviate still more in the character of their internal articular margin, from the corresponding plates of terrestrial Che- lonia; but they sufficiently agree with the marginal plates of the carapace of the Emydes, to render it most probable that these cre- taceous remains are referable to that family of Chelonia which live in fresh water or estuaries. Lacertian Saurian.—This fossil belongs to the collection of Sir Philip Egerton ; and it consists of a chain of small vertebre in their natural relative position, with fragments of ribs and portions of an ischium and a pubis. The bodies of the vertebra are united by ball and socket-joints, the socket being on the anterior and the ball on the posterior part of the vertebra; and they are further proved to belong to the Sau- rian class of reptiles by the presence of many long and slender ribs, as well as by the conversion of two vertebree into a sacrum, in con- sequence of the length and strength of their transverse processes. The remains of the ischium and the pubis are connected with the left side of the sacrum, proving incontestably that this reptile had hinder extremities as well developed as in the generality of Sau- rians. Of these extremities, as well as of the anterior and of the head, there are no traces. Mr. Owen then proceeds to determine to which division of Sau- rians, having ball and socket vertebral joints, the fossil should be referred. In the crocodilian or Loricate group, the transverse costi- gerous processes are elongated, and three, four, or five of the verte- bree which precede the sacrum are ribless, and consequently reck- oned as lumbar vertebra: in the lacertian Saurie there are never more than two lumbar vertebrae, and those which have ribs support them on short convex processes or tubercles. In the fossil from the chalk, the ribs are articulated with short processes of the kind just mentioned, resembling tubercles, and they are attached to the sides of the anterior part of all the vertebre, except the one immediately preceding the sacrum. ‘These charac- ters, Mr. Owen says, in conjunction with the slenderness and uni- form length of the ribs, and the degree of convexity in the articular 300. ball of the vertebre, prove incontestably, that the fossil is part of a Saurian, appertaining to the inferior or lacertian group. The under surface of the vertebrae is smooth, concave in the axis of the spine, and convex transversely. As there are twenty-one costal vertebre anterior to the sacrum, including the single lumbar, the fossil, Mr. Owen observes, cannot be referred to the genera Stellio, Leiolepis, Basiliscus, Agama, Lyriocephalus, Anolis, or Cha- meleon, but that a comparison may be instituted between it and the Monitors, Iguanas, and Scinks. In conclusion, he states, that in the absence of the cranium, teeth, and extremities, any further approxi- mation of the fossil would be hazardous, and too conjectural to yield any good scientific result. May 13.—John Ruskin, Esq., of Christ Church, Oxford; W. J. West, Esq., of Tunbridge Wells; and Frederick Dixon, Esq., of Worthing, were elected Fellows of this Society. A memoir was commenced “ On the Classification and Distribu- tion of the Older or Paleozoic Rocks of the North of Germany and of Belgium, as compared with formations of the same age in the Bri- tish Isles ;” by the Rev. Prof. Sedgwick, F.G.S., and Roderick Im- _ pey Murchison, Esq., F.G.S. May 27.—William Humble, M.D., of Worthing, was elected a Fellow. The memoir “ On the Classification and Distribution of the Older Rocks of the North of Germany,” &c., by Prof. Sedgwick and Mr. - Murchison, commenced at the previous meeting, was concluded. In an introduction of considerable length, the authors enter on a historical review of the different steps by which they had been led, during the former year, to place nearly all the older slates of Devon- shire, and a considerable part of the slate rocks of Cornwall, in a group intermediate between the carboniferous and Silurian systems, and therefore coeval with the old red sandstone of Herefordshire. To the vast group of slate rocks, so defined, they proposed the name of Devonian System; and their leading object in visiting Belgium, the Rhenish provinces, the Hartz, &c., was to ascertain whether in any of those countries there was a group of strata (no matter of what mineralogical character) with Devonian fossils, and in a position intermediate between the carboniferous and Silurian systems. Should such a group exist on the continent, then would the Devonian sy- stem be established, not merely on plausible arguments derived from its suite of fossils, but also on the more direct evidence of natural sections. With these views the authors endeavoured (1.) to ascertain the natural descending order of the formations on the right bank of the Rhine, between the Westphalian coal-field and the chain of the Taunus. (2.). To ascertain the same order in Belgium, and among the ancient rocks on the left bank of the Rhine, north of the Hunds- ruck. 301 In the course of the summer they also made (with similar objects) several traverses through the Hartz, and one long traverse from the Thuringerwald to the north flank of the Fichtelgebirge, in the hope of bringing into relation with their previous observations, the country which has become so celebrated from the labours of Count Munster. The authors follow this order in the descriptive parts of their paper. But before commencing their detailed sections, they explain at some length the method of determining the order of superposition among rocks, like those of Belgium and the Rhenish provinces, which are not only much contorted, but often in a reversed position. This order of superposition can be made out only by sections, which are of two kinds, vertical and horizontal. Vertical sections, where the strata are not inverted, not only indicate the natural group of strata, but their true order of superposition, both of which may often be ascertained on a single line of traverse. But horizontal sections, showing the intersection of successive groups of strata with the ac- tual surface of the country (and represented by the colours of a geological map), can only be examined by following the lines of strike. The colours of such a section (if derived from strata origin- ally conformable) must show the masses, however contorted, in their true juxtaposition. Hence we may define from the horizontal sec- tions of a country a true consecutive geological series; and if the relative age of any two contiguous terms be known, the relative age of all the other members of the section may be inferred with cer- tainty, though the formations be in an inverted position, as seen on the line of any one vertical section. It was by this laborious method of “horizontal sections,” or, to use his language, by determining the symmetry of position of the several formations, that Professor Du- mont first disentangled the perplexing phznomena of the Belgian provinces. The authors, after acknowledging the great value of this principle, state that they endeavoured never to lose sight of it in estimating the value and interpreting the meaning of the many vertical sections they examined in their long traverses through the provinces they describe. § 1. Coal-fields of Westphalia, c.—The authors commence their descending sections, on the right bank of the Rhine, with the pro- ductive coal-field, which occupies an irregular triangular area, bounded towards the north by greensand and cretaceous deposits, towards the south-east by older formations, afterwards to be de- scribed, and towards the south-west by an irregular line, skirting the low country near the Rhine, and passing near Mulheim, Ketwick, Werder, and thence to a point a few miles north-east of Elberfeldt. In its lithological character and fossil contents it is not to be di- stinguished from the coal-fields of England. It is affected by many anticlinal and synclinal lines, which have brought a lower and un- productive portion to the surface, and thrown the productive por- tions into a number of irregular troughs, ranging in the direction of the strike, east-north-east. The lower and unproductive coal-field is composed in part of coarse grits, well exposed on the banks of the Ruhr, between Her- 302 decke and Sehwerte, and of yellowish and light-coloured sandstones and grits, with thin seams of coal and impressions of plants ; and the strata are underlaid by dark gray micaceous slates and thin-bedded hard sandstones, of great thickness, marked by many obscure impres- sions of small plants. The lowest member of this series contains much dark pyritous shale (Alaun Schiefer of the Germans), and reposes on the upper calcareous zone of Westphalia (mountain limestone). Several sections are described which confirm this order of su- perposition. ‘The authors then state that this lower division of the coal-field is greatly expanded towards the north-east ; that it is litho- logically almost identical with the great eulm-field of Devon, and resemble it also in its numerous impressions of small plants. It is the Flotzlehrer Sandstein of the German geologists, and had been regarded by them as the highest member of the graywacke series ; but in the recently published map of Von Dechen, it is placed on ‘the parallel of the millstone grit of England. § 2. Carboniferous limestone of Westphalia (Berg-Kalk), Kiesel Schiefer, and bituminous limestone, §e.— Theauthors next describe the limestone which commences at Cromford, near Ratingen, and ranges east-north-east to Velbert. Thence deflecting to the valley of Re- grath, north of Tonnesheide, it is cut off, and does not form a con- tinuous band (as represented in all the German maps), with a lower limestone, which commences a few miles further south, and ranges through Metman to Elberfeldt. Near Cromford the limestone is thick-bedded, and in its structure and fossils resembles the great scar-limestone of England. For proofs the authors give several de- tailed sections, and quote published lists of fossils. In its range to the east it becomes more cherty, and abounds in casts of the stems of Encrinites, so as to resemble the screw-stones of Derbyshire. At several places (e.g. Isenbugel, Velbert, &c.) the connexion of the limestone with the upper series is well exposed. ‘The upper beds of limestone pass into dark flat-bedded flinty slate, which is overlaid by psammite and shale, with thin courses of flinty slate, and these dip under the lower members of the coal-field. Again, there is at Vel- bert a clear proof that the limestones, screw-stones, and flinty slate, dip under the alum-slates of the neighbourhood. Following the strike of the county still further to the east, the limestone range loses its mineral character; but a large group of strata (dipping under the alum-slates above-mentioned, and resting on dark shales, like those which form the base of the limestone) oc- cupy the exact place of the carboniferous limestone in the transverse sections. ‘The group is characterized by dark flinty slate (Avesel Schiefer) and dark and often fetid thin-bedded limestone, and so closely resembles the culm-limestone series of Devonshire, that the description of one formation might almost serve for the other. Like the culm-limestone, it also contains many Goniatites and Pessidoniz ; and among the latter, the Possidonia Becheri of Devon. It wants, however, the numerous species of mountain limestone fossils of the beds above-noticed, a fact which the authors explain by a reference toa change in all the physical conditions of the deposit. This group, 303 following all the sinuosities of a most contorted country, and some- times doubled back upon itself for many miles together, may be traced by its Kiesel Schiefer and Possidonia schists, and sometimes by its black fetid limestones, to the eastern limit of the chain of older rocks near Bleiwasche and Stadtberge. § 3. Devonian System.—The authors next describe the rocks im- mediately inferior to the carboniferous groups. The mountain lime- stone of Cromfort, above-described, rests on dark-coloured shale, but the descending section is much obscured by overlying deposit. In the long range of the same series, from Elberfeldt to Menden, there are many clear transverse sections, exhibiting in greater or less per- fection-‘the following descending order—(1.) Immediately under the lower limestone shales are many reddish bands, with calcareous con- cretions, in which the Possidonia and some of the species of the superior groups are still found. (2ndly.) These are succeeded by a well-marked range of psammites and coarse flagstone. (3rdly.) From beneath the psammites rise a series of shales, and bands of psammite of dark colour, with here and there thin courses of inferior limestone, in which we find flattened Goniatites, and shells of a species different from those of the overlying formations, among which especially is noticed the Yerebratula aspera of Schlotheim. These are, therefore, considered as forming a part of an inferior system, and the first and second groups of the section may be regarded as made up of beds of passage between the carboniferous system and that which is below it. ‘The sequence here given is compared with the highest beds of the Devonian series, immediately under the culm measures, and with the yellow sandstones of Ireland described by Mr. Griffith. 3a. Lower Limestone of Westphalia, gc.—This limestone rises immediately from below the third group of the preceding section. Its range (from the neighbourhood of Ratingen, in the valley of the Rhine, to the confines of Hessia) is described in detail. Its changes of mineral structure—its separation here and there into two zones— its contraction in one place and its great expansion in another—its enormous flexures and occasional inversions of position—its re-ap- pearance at Warstein and Attendorn, in consequence of such flex- ures,—ail these phenomena are noticed in their turn. As a whole, it has so great a resemblance to the limestone of South Devon, that through large tracts of Westphalia the two could not, by a series of land specimens, be distinguished from one another. ‘The fossils of this limestone are very abundant, and several sections are given in detail, to show their local distribution. Among the most character- istie and abundant in these sections the following are enumerated : Stromatopora polymorpha, S. concentrica, Favosites ramosa, Favo- sites polymorpha, F’. spongites, F'. Gothlandica, Strygocephalus Bur- “im, Gypidium, Terebratula aspera, Turritella coronata, T. bilineata. (Schlotheim), Buccinum spinosum (Sowerby), &c. &c. From all these facts, it is inferred, that this lower limestone of Westphalia isia true Devonian limestone, exactly or very nearly on a parallel with the great limestone of South Devon. 304 Local and detailed lists are added, and detailed sections are given, connecting the whole series both with the upper and lower forma- tions, especially one from the Possidonia schists and black limestones, near Schelke, through the Devonian limestone, and to the lower formations exposed on the banks of the Lenne, towards Altena. In this section there is no ambiguity, and the defective evidence in the sections of Devonshire, when we endeavour to connect the culm- measures with the South Devon limestone, is here amply supplied. The authors then describe in detail the sections at Paffrath, near Bensberg, on the right bank of the Rhine, near Cologne, where the same Devonian limestone occurs, with a magnificent series of fossils ; its position is, however, reversed, as it seems to dip under the lime- stone near Bensberg, which is referred to the upper part of the Si- lurian system. To the same geological epoch the authors also refer the compli-. cated metalliferous deposit of Dillenburgh, and the limestones of the Lahn in the country of Nassau. At the former place the great con- tortions and the extraordinary intrusions of trappean rocks make the relations difficult; but, considered on a great scale, the vast fossil- iferous and calcareous group reposes on rocks considered of the Si- lurian age: it contains a true Devonian group of fossils, and its upper portion at Herbon is surmounted by a Possidonia schist, per-. fectly identical with that of Westphalia. The limestones of the Lahn at Dietz, Weolburg, Wetzlar, &c., are still more unequivocally Devonian ; and though the alternating masses of limestone and schist are of enormous thickness (rivalling in that respect the whole series of limestones and slates in South Devon), and the sections often obscure, yet in descending the Lahn from Dietz to Nassau and Bad Ems, they had a proof that the calcareous system is underlaid by Silurian rocks. The appearance of these Devonian deposits near the eastern limit of the old rocks, on the right bank of the Rhine, is accounted for by enormous undulations, which have repeated over again, in three or four great parallel troughs, the formations which appear in their true place in Westphalia, on the northern limit of the same ancient formations. § 4. Silurian System.—The authors next describe the great se- ries of rocks which rise from beneath the lower Westphalia lime- stone, and state that in the long range from Elberfeldt to Iserlohn the descending order is unequivocal. The passage downwards is sometimes effected by flagstones, with bands of shale, containing thin calcareous courses. In other places, the shales are more abun- dant, occasionally becoming much indurated ; and in the range to- wards the north-east (for example, near Meschede) this group be- comes greatly expanded, and contains many quarries of roofing-slate, with a true oblique cleavage. This part of the series is compared. with the shales under the Eifel limestone, and with the Wissenbach slates, which underlie the Devonian limestone series of Dillenburg. The great difference in the development of this group produces a great difference in the fossils, but on the whole, they are regarded as forming a passage between the Devonian and Silurian types. A 305 list of fossils is subjoined, and the authors regard the numerous Go- niatites as rather connecting the group with the overlying Devonian rocks; while the trilobites and orthoceratites, &c., some of which cannot perhaps be distinguished from known Silurian fossils, seem to link it to the Silurian system. Below the preceding comes a group of vast thickness, composed of earthy schistose beds, passing on one hand into shale, on the other into coarse slate, and alternating indefinitely with bands of psammite, sometimes passing into coarse arenaceous flagstone, sometimes into thick beds of sandstone. Nearly throughout are occasional obscure vegetable impressions, and in the upper part are courses of lime- stone and caleareous bands, with innumerable impressions of fossils. In the lower part, the limestone bands seem gradually to disappear, and the whole passes into a formation of graywacke and graywacke slate, in some rare instances producing a good roofing-slate. For many miles south of the undisturbed range of the lower Westphalia lime- stone, the prevailing dip is about north-north-west. The country round Siegen is regarded as a kind of dome of elevation, composed of the lower part of this series; for still further south the dip is re- versed to the south-south-east ; and in a traverse from Siegen to the Taunus, across the strike (a distance of about fifty miles), the same dip is continued, with very few interruptions. Considering their high inclination, this fact seems to give an almost incredible thick- ness to the deposits in question. But the vertical sections do not give the order of superposition ; for at Dillenburg, and on the Lahn, two great Devonian troughs are brought in among the older strata, without any general change of dip; and if we accepted the vertical sections as the sole proofs of superposition, we must place the Devon- ian and a part of the carboniferous series under the chain of the Taunus. The authors therefore endeavoured to apply the method of Professor Dumont, and found their results confirmed by the sections of the lower Lahn. Many other local details are given, and the authors having deter- mined the geometrical position of the great mineral masses, next at- tempt to define their age from their fossils. In the arenaceous and calcareous group under the lower Westphalia limestone, many spe- cies of the genus Pterinea (Goldfuss), Homalonotus, Orthis, &c. &c., begin to prevail. Along with these are forms at present unknown in England, e. g. Hysterolites of Schlotheim, and two species of Del- thyris,—D. macroptera and D. microptera (Goldfuss). The same groups of fossils are found on the banks of the Rhine; and in a quarry near Unkel are many fossils of the genus Orthis, among which were O. pecten, O. flabellula, O. rugosa. Along with them was Terebratula Stricklandii, and the group was considered charac- teristic of the lower Silurian rocks of England. On a review of the whole evidence, the authors place this vast succession of strata in the Silurian system, without professing to separate the several parts into distinct groups, on a parallel with the several groups of the Silurian system of England. This is forbid- den by the absence of distinct calcareous bands, and also by the 306 great vertical range of some of the fossil species, which are found almost from the highest beds to the lowest of the whole series. Several lists of fossils are then given, in confirmation of these gene- ral views; and it is thence concluded, that the great sequence of coarse earthy schists, calcareous bands, arenaceous flagstones, psam- mites, &c., are the representatives of the upper Silurian system, and that the lowest quartzose, graywacke, flagstone, roofing-slate, &c., which in some places have no fossils, and in others have numerous repetitions of a few species of the genus Orthis, belong to the lower Silurian, or upper part of the Cambrian Systems. Part II. Older formations on the left bank of the Rhine.— The Hartz. Upper Franconia, &c. § 1. The authors commence with a short description of the phy- sical region extending from the coal-field of Belgium to the south- eastern flank of the Ardennes, and then in like manner describe the country between the same coal-field and the limestone of the Eifel. They afterwards discuss, at some length, the methods used by Pro- fessor Dumont to determine the superposition of the natural groups; and partly from considerations derived from the symmetrical ar- rangement of the mineral masses, and partly from the direct evi- dence of sections, especially in the Hifel country, show that the geological sequence has been correctly determined. So far adopt- ing the views of Professor Dumont, the descending order in the provinces above-mentioned is as follows :— (12) Coal country.) 0/2.) a0.3 Terrain Houillier. (2.) Anthraxiferous country. Terrain Anthrazifera. (3.)' Slate country.) 42.04 Terrain Ardoisier. The second of these divisions is subdivided into four natural groups or systems, viz. Upper calcareous system; Upper quartzo- schistose system; Lower calcareous system; Lower quartzose-schi- stose system. The slate country is also divided into three groups,—Upper, Middle, and Lower. The order being assumed as fixed, the next question is as to the British equivalents of the successive divisions or subordinate sy- stems. Respecting the Belgian coal-field, there is no doubt: it is on the same horizon with the great coal-fields of England. Through a considerable part of its south-eastern boundary it is inverted, so as to dip under the older formations; but on a part of its northern boundary the older formations emerge in their regular order. The upper limestone of the second division is undoubted moun- tain limestone. The only question, then, is respecting the equiva- lents of the three lower divisions of the Terrain Anthraxifera, which are, by Professor Dumont, respectively classed with the Ludlow rock, Wenlock limestone, and Caradoc sandstone formations. This classification is not accepted by the authors, for reasons stated in detail. The upper quarézo-schistose system is separable at two parts very different from one another: the higher, often characterized by an 307 open-grained yellowish psammite; the lower (with many variations of structure, and with occasional subordinate calcareous bands) abounding in a dull greenish-gray earthy schist, not unlike the “‘mudstone” of the Ludlow rocks. But the higher grits and psam- mites pass insensibly into the bottom beds of the upper limestone (mountain limestone), and contain a series of fossils so near the carboniferous type, that it is difficult to draw a line between the two deposits; and the lower earthy schists do not contain (among the specimens brought away by the authors) one single species found in the Ludlow rock. The lower limestone of the second division is then described in detail, both as seen in Belgium and the Eifel. The authors dwell some time on the remarkable association of the Eifel dolomites with voleanic rocks of different ages: but they contend that the disloca- tion and contortions of the older strata, and their changes of mine- ral structure, are not generally due to the more recent igneous erup- tions. A comparison of the lists of fossils from the Eifel and lower Belgian limestone, show that they belong to a group identical with that of the lower limestone of Westphalia and the limestone of Paf- frath, and that they present the closest analogies with the fossils derived from the limestones of South Devon; some of the most abundant species, both of shells and corals, being identical in all the localities. Hence the authors conclude, that the second and third members of the Terrrain anthraxifera of Professor Dumont form a part of the Devonian system, and not a part of the Silurian system. Lower quartzo-schistose system.—tIn Belgium it is harder and more quartzose than the upper division, and also of more varied mineral structure ; and in its upper portion contains some thick beds of conglomerate, which, from their mineral structure and the supposed analogies of the lower limestone with the mountain limestone of England, have been classed with the old red sandstone. Without attributing any value whatever to these conglomerates, as terms of comparison with English formations, and regarding them only as mineral accidents, the authors place them near the base of the De- vonian system, and consequently near the lower limit of the old red sandstone. In the Eifel, the system is better developed and more fossiliferous, and exhibits the following descending order; (1.) Calcareous shales, forming the base of and passing into, the limestone; (2.) Indurated shales, alternating with sandstone and flagstone, occasionally of a reddish colour; (3.) Sandstone, flagstone, arenaceous slate, quartz- ite, &e., gradually passing into a slate formation. The authors re- fer to various lists of fossils, and conclude that, though several spe- cies are in common with those of the overlying Devonian system, yet that as a group they-are distinct: 1st. Because the carboniferous species disappear; 2ndly. Because some of the most characteristic species of the lower limestone (such as the Strygocephalus Burtini, &c.) are wanting; 3rdly. Because new (and Silurian) types begin to abound; more especially shales of the genus Prerinea, several 308 species of Orthis, the Homalonotus Knightii, Calymene Blumenbaehii, &e. They further remark, that the species of Silurian fossils which appear in the Eifel lists are mostly derived from the lower shales, which are regarded as beds of passage. Along with known Silu- rian fossils there occur also (as remarked in deposits under the Westphalian limestone, Part I.) many other fossils, Delthyris mi- croptera and D. macroptera, &c., in great abundance. The lower quartzo-schistose rocks of Professor Dumont are therefore placed in the Silurian system, but without any attempt to subdivide it into distinct portions analogous to those of England. And as there is no well-defined separation between this system and the overlying Devonian, still less is there any well-defined separation between its lower limits and the central slate rocks of the Ardennes. The slate country of the Ardennes is subdivided into three groups of slate rocks,—Upper, Middle, and Lower. All the fossils ob- tained by the authors from the upper group are of Silurian types. From the middle and lower groups they obtained no fossils: but as all the groups are linked together, and the upper is placed by its fossils in the lower part of the Silurian system, they assign the two lower groups to the upper Cambrian system. They then enter on some mineralogical details connected with the structure of the slates of the Ardennes; and among the crystalline beds of the lowest group (which they regard as only an altered portion of that which is next superior), point out some examples of slates derived from a cleavage transverse to the beds, and intersected by a true second cleavage plane, a rare phenomenon among the slates of England; but noticed by the authors among some rocks on the south coast of Devon and the north coast of Cornwall. § 2. Formations between the Hifel and the Hundsruck.—Left bank of the Rhine, c.—Crossing the strike of the beds from the Eifel to the Moselle, by several distinct traverses, the authors met with the same series of deposits in descending order: viz. Ist. Calcareous shales; 2nd. Arenaceous flagstones and shale; the upper part fre- quently exhibiting a reddish tinge, and with portions more or less caleareous, and the lower part passing into a great formation of arenaceous flagstone, indurated slate and coarse slate, and ocvasion- ally of fine quartzite. The series is here and there highly fossili- ferous, containing several species of Pterinzea, Delthyris; Orthis, &c., occasionally presenting obscure impressions of plants, and casts of a large Homalonotus, of a Silurian species. The sequence, deter- mined more by the symmetrical position of the great mineral masses than by direct superposition, as seen in vertical sections, gradually passes into rocks of a more decidedly slaty structure, and almost without fossils. Passing to the right bank of the Moselle, and in the same way making traverses through the chain of the Hunds- ruck (which is elevated on the line of strike, 7. e. east-north-east), they again had an ascending series, and thence concluded that the whole chain was only a portion of the great system under the Eifel limestone in an altered form. ‘The Silurian fossils discovered among the crystalline quartzites and schists of the chain (e. g. one or two 309 species of Orthis, a large winged Delthyris, &c.), confirmed this view. Hence also the chain of the Taunus, which is the physical prolongation of the Hundsruck, must be referred to a similar place in the general series; a conclusion at which the authors also arrived from an examination of the sections on the right bank of the Rhine, though obscured by the enormous development of masses of con- temporaneous trap ( Schaalstein). The authors then give some details respecting the trappean and voleanic rocks on both banks of the Rhine, and conclude, that the quartzite and chlorite slates, &c. of the Hundsruck and Taunus are but altered forms of a great Silurian group under the Eifel lime- stone; and that the causes which at an ancient epoch dislocated, contorted, and mineralized the strata, have perhaps not yet entirely ceased, and that the hot springs of Wisbaden and bubbling fountains of Nassau, may be referred to their last expiring efforts. On a review of all the facts stated in this and the preceding Part of their communication, the authors conclude, (1.) That from the carboniferous deposits of Westphalia and Belgium, to the lowest fossiliferous deposits of the Rhenish provinces, there is a great and uninterrupted series of formations, which are in general accordance with the British series, though the subordinate groups do not admit of direct comparison; (2.) That, considered in a broad point of view, the natural successive groups of strata and the natural suc- cessive groups of fossils, are in general accordance; but as the boundaries of the physical groups are ill defined, so also the bound- aries of the fossil groups are ill defined, and pass into or overlap one another; (3.) That as there are no great mineralogical interruptions, producing a discontinuity and a want of conformity among the de- posits, so also there seems to be no want of continuity among the groups of the great paleozoic series of animal forms. If the ex- treme terms be compared together, all the objects are dissimilar ; but if the proximate fossil groups be put side by side, there are many points of resemblance, and many of specific agreement ; (4.) That the Devonian system is, therefore, a natural system, not merely made out, as in England, by a plausible interpretation of fossil evi- dence, but defined, in the Rhenish provinces, both by its group of fossils and its place in a true descending section. And as the old red sandstone of Herefordshire passes on the one hand into the car- boniferous limestone, and on the other into the upper Silurian rocks, without interruption, it follows, that the Devonian system, as above defined, is contemporaneous with, and the representative of, this old red sandstone. § 3. Chain of the Hartz —Fichtelgebirge, §c.—The general strike of this chain is nearly the same as in the provinces before described (4. e. east-north-east), and therefore almost at right angles to the prevailing direction of the chain, as laid down on a geological map. The mineral structure and the fossils are also nearly the same, and the numerous contortions throw the same difficulties in the way of determining the true order of superposition ; and these difficulties are greatly increased by protruding masses of granite, which have VOL. III. 2B TR pA 310 not only altered the structure of all the neighbouring rocks, but literally broken the chain into fragments, several of which are thrown into a reversed position. The igneous rocks of the region are stated to be of four kinds: (1.) Trappean rocks in beds and protruding masses, nearly on the line of strike; (2.) Granite, sending veins into the older slates and trappean rocks; (3.) Quartziferous porphyry in masses and dykes, identical in structure, and apparently in relation with the Elvans of Cornwall; (4.) Trappean rocks (melaphyre, &c.), associated with the rothe todte liegende and coal-measures on the south-eastern skirts of the chain. Silurian fossils are found in several parts of the Hartz, but the authors saw no rocks which they could compare with the central slates of the Ardennes, or the oldest slates of the Rhine; but they give two sec- tions which ascend into a higher system. The first is from Huli- genstein to the neighbourhood of Clausthal, and appears to give the following ascending order : 1.) Devonian limestone, well characterized by its fossils. (2 A series of psammites and shales, with one or two species of Possidonia. (3.) A series of coarse sandstones and grits, surmounted by shales and psammites highly charged with plants, and mineralo- gically resembling the Devon culm-beds. Plants are, however, found below the Devonian limestone, and even thin bands of culm; and the section is obscure: but if the in- terpretation given to it be correct, a part of the country near Claus- thal rises into the carboniferous series. Their next section commences with the limestone of Ebingerode (on the south side of the Brocken mountain). The limestone abounds with Devonian corals and other fossils, and some parts of it cannot be distinguished from the lower limestone of Westphalia. Other parts of it are pierced with trappean rocks and are overlaid by ferriferous deposits; in which respects, as well as in its fossils, it is strictly analogous to the Devonian limestones of Dillenburg and the Lahn. Again, the ferriferous bands are overlaid by black shale, containing Kiesel schiefer, and (if we are not misinformed) contain- ing Possidonia schist. ‘The analogy presented with the uppermost part of the Devonian series in Westphalia seems, therefore, perfect. From these facts the authors conclude, that the older rocks of the Hartz are chiefly Silurian and Devonian, with a few traces of the lower carboniferous. If the great contortions and strike of the Rhenish provinces were produced contemporaneously with those of the Hartz, then must the great derangements of the Hartz have taken place after the de- posit of the Belgian and Westphalian coal-fields. But the principal dislocations of the Hartz must have taken place before the deposit of the red conglomerates, sandstones, coal-beds and trappean masses, which rest on its eastern flank. Hence the authors conclude, that none of these red conglomerates are of the date of the old red sand- stone; and that the coal-beds belong to the highest part of the car- 311 boniferous series, where it passes into the base of the new red sand- stone. Lastly, The authors describe a hasty traverse, made from the Thuringerwald through the forest of Upper Franconia, and thence to the north flank of the Fichtelgebirge. On the northern limits of the section (the strike and many accidents of position remaining as before) were rocks with a true slaty cleavage, which might (at least mineralogically ) be compared with the upper slates of the Ardennes ; and further south, the analogy was confirmed by bands of limestone, with stems of Encrinites, but with very few other fossils. Still further south occur a few impressions of plants, and the whole system ap- pears to be at length overlaid by a series of limestones and schists, some of which are very rich in fossils. One of these zones of lime- stone (the lowest according to Count Munster) rests on calcareous slates, containing a cardiola of the upper Ludlow rock. It is in this zone that the Clymenia is most abundant. Goniatites, Orthocera- tites, &c., are abundant in a higher zone; and the series is overlaid by a limestone with many species of true carboniferous producte, &c., and identified with the mountain limestone. From these facts the authors conclude, that the fossiliferous region near Hoff (south of the Fichtelgebirge) belongs to the Devonian system, with the exception of the highest beds, which are carboniferous. Such are the results arrived at by the authors, which seem to be in general accordance with one another, and to bear out the clas- sification they proposed for the older British formations. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. 1840. No. 71. June 10,—Charles Lashmar, M.D., of Croydon, Surrey ; William Henry Tancred, Esq., M.P., and Lord Stavordale, Old Burlington- street, were elected Fellows of this Society. Eleven communications were read. 1. A notice of a mass of trap in the mountain limestone on the western extremity of Bleadon Hill, Somersetshire, and on the line of the Bristol and Exeter Railway, by the Rev. D. Williams, F.G.S. This is the first discovery of trap iz situ in the Mendip Hills or in Somersetshire, with the exception of the Hestercombe granite, de- scribed by Mr. Horner*, and a slate porphyry, observed by Mr. Wil- liams, alittle north of Simmon’s birth, in Exmoor. The rock varies in character from a granular to a porphyritic and amygdaloidal greenstone. It occurs near a line of fault, which has brought the lias on a level with the carboniferous limestone ; and when first ex- posed on the eastern side of the railway cutting, it appeared to be conformably interstratified with the limestone; but the cutting of the western side (the line of railway ranging north and south) has subsequently proved that the trap is clearly intrusive, intersecting at a considerable angle the limestone beds. On the east side the trap is in contact with the lias, but no change appears to have been produced in that formation, though the mountain limestone is stated to be considerably altered. The trap at the lower part presents a broad bed-like mass, but it rapidly diminishes in its upward course through the limestone thinning away entirely. Mr. Williams states, that the limestone appears to have yielded along the line of one of the north-west joints. He acknowledges his obligation to Mr. Peniston, the resident engineer, for a correct section of the cut- ting. 2, A memoir descriptive of a “ Series of Coloured Sections of the Cuttings on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway,’ by Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. The author commences by expressing his regret at the irre- coverable loss, which science has experienced, in full advantage not having been taken of the valuable geological information, which has been exposed by the railway cuttings in different parts of England during the last ten years; and he suggests the propriety of each * Geol. Trans., 1st Series, vol. 3. p. 348. VOL. III. 2c 314 ine of railway being systematically surveyed by a competent ob- Server, while the cuttings are in progress. Anxious to contribute towards so desirable an end, Mr. Strickland gladly yielded to a request made to him by Captain Moorsom, the chief engineer of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, to un- dertake a geological survey of the line; and he expresses his obliga- tions to that gentleman and to Captain J. Vetch for the valuable as- sistance they afforded him. The line was originally surveyed by Mr. Burr, when only the trial shafts had been sunk, and before the cuttings were commenced; but Mr. Strickland bears testimony to the accuracy of the account which Mr. Burr laid before this So- ciety.—(Geol. Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 593.) The direction of the railway ranges nearly parallel to the strike of the strata, and therefore intersects only the new red sandstone and red marl, the lias, and superficial detritus. New red sandstone and red marl.—The lowest rock exposed be- longs to the new red or bunter sandstone, resting on the anticlinal axis of the Lickey, ten miles south-south-west of Birmingham, and one mile south of the termination of the altered rock, or Lickey Quartz*. The sandstone is there thick-bedded, soft, and red, and dips on the western flank about 5° west-south-west, and on the eastern 5° east-south-east. In Grovely Hill, on the north-east of the Lickey, it passes occasionally into a hard quartzose conglomer- ate with a calcareous paste}; and at Finstal, on the south-west of the Lickey ridge, the upper portion of the sandstone is light-coloured, and contains obscure vegetable impressions, being a prolongation of the stratum, with similar impressions, at Breakback Hill, on the west of Bromsgrove {. On each side of the Lickey, the sandstone is conformably overlaid by red marl, which extends on the north-east to Birmingham§, and on the south-west to Stoke Prior and the neighbourhood of Hadnor, where the railway intersects a ridge of lias. On the north side the marl is there cut off by a fault, but on the south, at Dunhamstead, the following juncture section is exposed :— (a.) Lias clay with contorted beds of lias limestone. (.) White micaceous sandstone, with numerous speci- mens of asmooth oval bivalve . . . . . 2 Feet Gees )i Matas, Clay iieie di) iaihin'e. olilog, evga eyiee wate ea ke Ula mae @s) Grey, marl | iio) suihe ey ve dates Cay halle mea ae aS (Es) GRedimarl ey iar Tiel ae eles ibeo W ot 3 » Mry Owen then compares dhe Senegtaine of the’ ‘section: of a écioth procured)in the sandstone:of Coton-End Quarry, and lent to;him by Dr. Lloyd of ‘Leamington. ‘The itooth nearly resembles in ssize-and form the smaller teeth:of Labyrinthodon figured by Prof. Jager. All the peculiarities of the labyrinthic'structure of the Keuper tooth are so ‘clearly preserved ‘in this’ cee al ae niffeiionests are: jade of! a specific nature: ‘At the upper-part.of the tooth a tity lagen a cAnaiivedt besides a sesetinte of cement; is inflected’at each groove towards: the centre,of the dentine ; but about’ the middle of the tooth the’ enamel) disap- * Mr. Owen has subsequently ascertained that this is not true enamel, but a layer of firm dentine, separated’ from the test bya ee stratum of fine calcigerous cells. Ns 202 360 pears, and the convolutions consist of imterblended layers of cement and dentine. ‘Thus, on the supposition that the tooth of the Laby- rinthodon of the German Keuper be capped with enamel, its extent must be less than in the tooth of the Warwick sandstone. The inflected folds are continued for a greater relative distance before the lateral inflections commence than in the German species, and the anfractuosities are fewer in number, and some of the folds are reflected backwards from near the central pulp-cavity for a short distance before they terminate. The modifications of the complex diverging plates of the dentine hardly exceed those of a specific character, and the dentine itself is composed of calcigerous tubes of the same relative size and dispo- sition as in the Labyrinthodon Jaeger. In a section taken from the middle of a smaller and relatively broader ‘and shorter conical tooth from the Warwick sandstone, Mr. Owen found that the anfractuosities were more complicated, with numerous secondary and tertiary foldings, and the external layer of cement was relatively thicker than in the Lab. Jaegeri. The generic identity of the Reptiles, indicated by the teeth from the Warwick sandstones, with the Mastodonsaurus of the German Keuper, Mr. Owen believes to be fully established) by the concord- ance of their peculiar dental structure above described. And in con- clusion, he says, if, on the one hand, geology has in this instance really derived any essential aid from minute anatomy, on the other hand, in no instance has the comparative anatomist been more in- debted to geology than for the fossils which have revealed the most singular and complicated modification of dental structure hitherto known ; and of which not the slightest conception could have been gained from an investigation, however close and extensive, of the teeth of existing animals, A paper was next read, entitled ‘‘ Observations relative to the Elevation of Land on the shores of Waterford Haven during the Hu- man Period, and on the Geological Structure of the District ;” by Thomas Austin, Esq. ‘The shore on the west side of Waterford Haven, from the rock of Passage to Woodstown, a distance of three miles, presents an almost uninterrupted cliff of clay and gravel, composed chiefly, if not wholly, of detritus of old red sandstone, and enclosing a bed from one to four feet thick of Cardium edule, with other marine testacea of exist- ing species, and a few land-shells. ‘his bed of! shells:is not con- fined exclusively to the coast, but it extends inwards to the distance of eight miles, distinct traces of it occurring between Waterford and Tramore, and at several intermediate points. Inthe alluvial valley of Woodstown, close to Newtown Head, the shells: rest onan ancient peat bed, raised but a few inches above the sea-level. On the eastern side of Waterford Haven beds of similar shells occur at the same level; also in the cliff north of Bluff Head, at the height of eight feet.. The greatest elevation at which the shelly beds have been ob- served by Mr. Austin in the county of Waterford, is. forty feet. 361 Immediately north of Newtown Head, at the point where a gradual rise takes place in the cliff, the greater part of a human skeleton was found resting on its back, five feet three inches below the surface, and about the same distance above high-water level, in the centre of the shelly bed. ‘The Cardium edule was as numerous in and around the skeleton as in other portions of the bed, many of them being lodged in the cavity of the skull. Mr. Austin carefully examined the conditions under which the skeleton was found, and he is con- vinced that the ground had never been disturbed for sepulture, the continuity of the shelly bed being unbroken where the skeleton oc- curred, and no specimens of the Cardium edule being dispersed at random through the incumbent loam. He is therefore of opinion, that the body was washed into the estuary during the period when the shelly bed was accumulated; that it was arrested at the point where it has been found by the rise in the level of the bed; and that consequently an elevation of the country has taken place since the commencement of the human period. From an extended examination Mr. Austin is convinced, that the estuary now limited to Waterford Haven formerly covered a much larger area, as proved, in part, by the patches of shells noticed above ; and that the change of relative level has been slow and uniform, producing no local disturbances ; and he is further of opinion, that the operation may be still in progress Mr. Austin then gives a general description of the geological structure of the two shores of Waterford Haven and of the adjacent districts. The formations consist of mountain-limestone, old red sandstone, schistose strata, considered to be of the age of the Silu- rian system on account of the fossils found near Duncannon Fort and Newtown Head, and trap rocks. ‘The mountain-limestone constitutes Hook Point, the southernmost headland of the Wexford side of the Haven. It is succeeded to the north, conformably, by a red or yellow sandstone, containing obscure vegetable remains, also thin seams and nodules of anthracite, like- wise some small masses of black copper ore. These beds are assigned by the author to the upper part of the old red sandstone. They are succeeded in regular descending order by various marls, sandstones and conglomerates, composing the mass of the formation, and esti- mated to be 1600 feet thick. A series of contorted and tilted slaty beds are then presented; but at Broom. Hill, the conglomerates of the old red sandstone reappear with the same dip towards the south. Immediately north of this promontory the slates recommence, and are displayed in unconformable juxta-position with the old red sand- stone, the latter dipping southwards, and the former at a higher angle nerthwards. From Broom Head to Arthurstown the slates consti- _ tute the whole line of coast, except at Duncannon Fort. The strata are, for the greater part, variously contorted; but near Arthurstown they dip 70° to the north, and are overlaid by beds of old red sand- stone, which also dip to the north, but at an angle of only 30°: At- Duncannon Fort an impure limestone occurs, containing Trilobites, corals and testacea, and considered by Mr. Austin to be analogous to species found in the Silurian system. 362 ‘On the opposite or Waterford side of the Haven the old red sand- stone occurs at Creden Hill and Knockavelish Head, eminences cor- responding to Broom Hill; a small patch of it is displayed a little to the northwards, inserted unconformably in the slate series ; and it forms the rock of Passage, a prolongation of the old red sandstone near Arthurstown. Between Knockavelish Head and Passage the slate series prevails, except near Newtown Head, where trap-rocks are exposed. A little to the north of that headland are some highly inclined fossiliferous strata, corresponding in position to the beds near Duncannon Fort on the opposite side of the Haven ; they are visible only at ebb-tide. The trap-rocks constitute the point on which stands Duncannon Fort ; Newtown Head is also formed of trap; and Mr. Austin is’ of opinion that the same mass strikes westwards to Tramore and thence to Great Newtown Head; where it is lost in the St. George’s Chan- nel. Along this line, wherever the trap comes to the surface, the slates are tilted. With respect to the numerous contortions exhibited in the schist- ose rocks, Mr. Austin ascribes their existence to lateral ‘pressure, which he says must have been excessive; and he is of opinion that a considerable portion of the upper part of these contorted beds has been removed by denudation. A paper by C. Lyell, Esq.,; F.G.S.,) was afterwards read, ‘‘ On the Bresliwatel Fossil ees of Mundesley, as determined by M. Agassiz.” In a memoir on the evilded formation and asetrtelal freshwater deposits of Eastern Norfolk*, Mr. Lyell stated, on the authority of Mr. Yarrell and the Rev. L. J enyns, that the scales and teeth of fishes which had'been then procured ‘in the fluviatile beds of Mundesley belonged to the EHsox lucius, to a trout or an undeterminable species of Salmo; to a carp, ae iiees the Cyprinus vee and 'to a distinet species of Perca. This collection, with some additions Leeently sent to the author by Mr. Wigham, was examined by M: Agassiz during his late visit to England. The decision of Mr. Jenyns with respect tothe distinet- ness of the perch, M. Agassiz fully confirmed’; but he was of opinion that the pike differs from the Esox luctus; and that the supposed carp is aspecies of Leuciscus ; and’that the ‘trout is not truly a eile al- though one of the same great family. °° From this examination, therefore, Mr: Lyell says it is athe that these remains belong to species’ ‘not identical with any European freshwater fishes’ hitherto: described; but that'they nevertheless be- long to an ichthyological fauna; more modern and more: nearly re- sembling the’ recent wus any ses with which M. Agassiz is ac- quainted in a fossil state: Similar remains’ have been found by Mr: Lyell at’ Runton, near Prorkey, but both there and at Mundesley the associated testacea all ia to living: freshwater species ; even the Paludina minute Siete * See Proceedings, ante, ps 171, 363 land), which Mr. Morris has pointed out to the author to be iden- tical with the P. marginata of Michaud, a living French species. It is a question therefore, the author states, whether these unknown fishes may not still mhahit the rivers and lakes of the more northern parts of urope or America, especially as M. Agassiz is at present unacquainted with the freshwater fishes of Norway, Sweden, Spitz- bergen, Iceland, Greenland, Labrador and Canada, and even of the northernmost parts of Scotland and the Shetland Islands; and in conclusion Mr. Lyell says, it seems natural to look northward for types analogous to the Mundesley fishes, because the beds in which they occur were deposited contemporaneously with the drift accu- mulated by the agency of floating ice. Feb. 3.—A paper was read, “‘ On the Geological Structure of the Wealden District, and of the Bas Boulonnais,” by William Hopkins, Esq., F.G.S. This paper is divided into two.parts. In the first the author de- scribes the phenomena of elevation presented in the two districts comprised respectively . within, the boundary of the great Chalk escarpment of the south-eastern part of England, and an exactly simi- lar escarpment forming the inland boundary of the Bas Boulonnais, The former is well known as extending fromthe coast at Folkstone; by Seven Oaks, Godstone, Farnham, Petersfield, etc., round to. the coast again at Beachy Head. On the opposite side of the channel, the escarpment, commencing at Wisant on the north, forms nearly a semicircle, of which Boulogne is not far. from the centre. If we conceive the northern Weald, escarpment continued from Folkstone to Wisant, and the southern one from Beachy Head to the southern extremity of the Bas Boulonnais, it will be seen that. the whole tract ~ comprised within the Chalk would be a regular oval, except that its axis instead of being straight is ewrved, so as to incline towards the S.E. in its eastern portion. ‘These two districts are thus connected by relative ppsasion not less than by a community of geological cha- racter. . In the second part of his paper, the author compares the laws 2 the existing phenomena in these districts with the results given by his ‘ Theory of Elevation,’ published in the Transactions of the Cam- bridge Philosophical Society (Vol. VI. Part I.). I. The lines of elevation in the Wealden district are partly marked by an anticlinal arrangement of the beds, and partly by strong flex- ures, forming one-sided saddles. .The latter have been termed by the author lines of flecure. The central portion of the district is first described. The following lines of elevation are found init. 1. Hastings Line.—This line runs to the north-east. of Hastings towards Battle. It has been mentioned by. Dr. Fitton and other geo- logists. /The author had not had time.to examine it himself. 2. Brightling Line.—This is strongly anticlinal, and runs along the high ridge of Brightling Down.as far as Heathfield Park, where its distinct features are lost.. The author has not ascertained whether it is a continuation of the Hastings line. 064 8. Wadhurst Line.—This line runs by Wadhurst and Hawks- hurst, to the south-west of which place it is lost. It also ranges westerly along the ridge between Wadhurst and Mark Cross. 4. Crowborough Line.—Crowborough Beacon stands on what must ~ be regarded as the great central ridge of the district. The anticlinal line runs near the Beacon and is continued westerly to the north of Balcombe. No traces of it: however are distinguishable beyond Horsham. 5. Cuckfield Line.—This line: extends parallel to that last described, and immediately to the north of Cuckfield. It is not to be traced far to the west of that place. To the east it iscontinued across the Brighton railway, where it was very distinctly exhibited in the new cuttings. 6. Frant Line-—At Lamberhurst this line is distinctly marked. It proceeds westward along Frant Hill, where its evidence, however, is not very distinct. It appears to be lost entirely not far to the west . of Frant. 7. Bidborough and Brenchley Line.—Bidborough Hill is onuiea by a strong flexure of the beds by which the Hastings sand is brought up from beneath the Weald clay. Brenchley Hill is formed in the same manner, but presents a more distinct anticlinal arrangement. These hills are separated by a wide transverse valley of denudation, but there can be little doubt, it is conceived, that they belong to the same line of elevation. The dislocation is also continued westward, but with less distinctness, across the Medway. All these lines preserve a remarkable parallelism with each other and with the curved central avis of the district. The author also describes several transverse valleys of the central portion of the district, and states the evidence on which he believes them to have originated in transverse dislocations. 8. Greenhurst Line.—This line has been described by Mr. Martin, by whom it was first detected. It is distinctly marked from a point south-west of Pulborough, whence it runs not far from and parallel to the chalk escarpment, till it strikes into the chall at Piecomb. Its continuation westward is not very distinct, but east- ward it is strongly defined at Lewes. Several remarkable transverse valleys across the greensand ridge are also found in the south- western part of the district, and present evidence of haying originated in transverse dislocations. ‘Their directions are as neatly: as possible perpendicular to that of the Greenhurst line. 9. Line from Farnham to Seven Ouks.—This line runs parallel to the chalk escarpment of the North Downs and near to it. Itisa line of flexure, with a great dip to the north, but without the cor- responding dip to the south necessary to form an anticlinal arrange- ment, except in one or two localities. Towards the west it runs immediately at the foot of the Hog’s Back with a dip, which, near its western extremity, amounts to 70 or 80 degrees. Near Guildford it passes by the foot of the hill on which Margaret’s chapel stands. . To the east it passes south of Dorking and Reigate to the summit of Tilburstow Hill. Itis afterwards continued by Limpsfield to the east of Seven Oaks, as formerly described by Dr. Fitton. At some points 365 between these last-mentioned places, the line assumes a distinct an- ticlinal character. | Transverse valleys exist in the greensand ridge of this part of the * district as well as in that on the southern side. The author also alludes to what he conceives to be incipient valleys of this descrip- tion, and states his reasons for believing them to be indications of transverse fractures. He conceives this opinion to be strongly cor- roborated by the existence of the perennial springs by which these valleys are characterized. Several are pointed out, especially in Leith Hill and the Seven Oaks ridge overlooking the valley of the Weald. Transverse river-courses through the Chalk escarpment form one of the most striking features in the geology of this district. The ana- logy which they bear to the transverse valleys across the greensand ridges would seem to leave no doubt of their being referrible to the same physical cause ;’ and as there are in many instances direct evi- dence which renders the origin of these latter valleys in transverse fractures highly probable, the same conclusion appears almost equally probable with respect to the river-courses through the Chalk. In the evidence of dislocation which the Chalk itself affords, there is nothing, however, very conclusive; but it must be témistnbered, that the evidence of faults is- always difficult to detect in a massive forma- tion like the Chalk, possessing not more than two general divisions which admit of distinct identification. The central chalk ridge of the Isle of Wight is traversed in like manner by three transverse valleys, two of which are river-courses. The author has pointed out some direct evidence in support of the conclusion, that the central one (that of the Medina) has originated in transverse dislocation. Bas Boulonnais.—With respect to the structure of the Bas Bou- lonnais, it is only necessary here to state, that the author has recog- nized three parallel lines of dislocation commencing at the coast and running in a direction coinciding with that of the lines of elevation of the Weald, supposing them produced across the Channel accord- ing to the law which they follow on this side of it. The southern- most of these lines passes immediately to the north of Boulogne. II. In the second part of this paper, previously to his comparing the observed phenomena with theoretical deductions, the author recapi- tulates some fundamental points of his theory. It is assumed, that an elevatory force has acted simultaneously at every poit of the lower surface of the elevated mass in each district throughout which the phenomena of elevation are observed to follow the same law. This force is not supposed to have been necessarily of uniform in- tensity throughout. If it has been greater in one portion of the district than in the rest of it, a corresponding modification will be produced in the directions of the lines of elevation, or a deviation from those positions in which they would have existed had the in- tensity of the force been uniform throughout. If the force has been uniform, the directions of the lines of dislocation and elevation will depend on the form of the boundary of the surface of the elevated area. If this be given, these directions must be investigated on me- chanical principles ; and if the force be supposed to have acted with VOL, III. PART II, 2H 366 greater intensity in any assigned portion of the district, the corre- sponding modification in the directions of the lines must be deter- mined. This has been done by the author in some particular cases in the memoir above referred to in the Transactions of the Philoso- phical Society of Cambridge. ; Any irregularity in the cohesive power of the elevated mass will haye but little effect on the general directions of the lines of eleva- tion; but if there be any considerable continuous portion of the di- strict throughout which the elevated crust is thinner, and therefore lighter and weaker, the effect will manifestly be the same as if the crust had been of uniform thickness throughout, and had been acted on in this particular portion with a force of greater intensity. Con- sequently the modifications in the lines of elevation will be the same, whether they arise from a weaker crust or a greater intensity of force. In the application of this theory, the boundary of the area under which the elevatory force has simultaneously acted must be de~ termined as nearly as may be by the actual boundary of the dis- turbed district, throughout which we recognize a character of con- tinuity in the phenomena of elevation. That portion of the district also in which the force may appear to have acted with greater in- tensity must be determined by the existing indications of greater elevation. Thus it is conceived, that a simultaneous effort of the elevatory force was made throughout the whole tract extending from the Bas Boulonnais on the east, beyond the Wiltshire Chalk on the west, and from the Vale of Pewsey and the valley of the Thames on tHe north, beyond the southern coast of this country on the south. The Wealden district, with the Bas Boulennais, presents us also with a case, in which it is presumed, from its greater elevation, either that the disturbing force acted there with greater intensity, or that the elevated crust was there thinner, than in the other part generally of the district. Assuming such to have been the case, the author points out what would be the general directions of the lines of eleyation throughout the Wealden and the Bas Boulonnais, and comparing them with the lines described in the first part of his pa- per, he shows the remarkable accordance which exists between the results of observation and of theory; an accordance which he considers as strongly confirmatory of his theory as applied to this district. Hence the author. concludes, that the fissures or dislocations in which he conceives all the observed lines of elevations (whether faults, anticlinal lines, or lines of flexure,) to have originated, must haye been produced by one simultaneous and momentary effort of the elevatory force. It is not, however, to be regarded as a neces- sary consequence of this conclusion, that the whole elevation of the district was thus produced at once; it might be in some degree pro- duced by previous, and in a considerable degree by subsequent movements; but it would seem at least highly probable, that that general movement which produced the dislocations of the elevated mass, and impressed upon it its present distinctive characters, should have been the most energetic of those repeated movements to which the whole elevation has probably been due. PROCEEDINGS. a OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. TIT. Parr Il. 1840—1841. No. 75. AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 19th of February, 1841. Tue following Report from the Council was read :— The Council have again the satisfaction of commencing their An- nual Report by announcing the progressive increase of the Society during the past year. ‘The number of Fellows has increased from 768 to 781, there having been 35 new Fellows elected and admitted, besides 3 others elected in former years, but who had not paid their admission fees, making an addition of 38 new Fellows ; while, during the same period, there have been announced 20 deaths and 5 resig- nations. The number of Foreign Members has at the same time been diminished by 1, there having been 4 deaths and 3 elections ; while that of Honorary Members and Personages of Royal Blood has been reduced by deaths from 40 to 35; the total number of Mem- bers is therefore increased from 855 to 862. It should, however, be observed, with regard to the number of deaths, which appears greater than usual, that the names of several persons are included in this Return who had died in previous years, but whose decease was not known to the Society. It is most gratifying to the Council to be able to state that the Finances of the Society are in a flourishing condition, showing an excess of income over expenditure during the past year to the amount of 1657. 19s. 6d. The Council have to announce that three Fellows have compounded during the year 1840, and that in furtherance of the recommenda- tion contained in the Auditors’ Report for 1833, the whole amount of their compositions has been invested in Consols ; the number of Compounders remaining the same, viz. 108, there having been three deaths during the same period. ‘The value of these 108 composi- tions is 3402/., not 3244/. 10s. as erroneously stated in the Report of last year (which i is the value of only 103 compositions). While VOL, III, PART Il, 2H 368 the value of the funded property of the Society at the present price of Consols is 2086/., or within 12167. of the sum received for con- tributions. The Council have also to state to the Society, that the third part of Volume V. has been published since the last Anniversary, and that the first part of Volume VI. is in the press. The Council having con- sidered the adoption of a fuller page advisable, the breadth will be increased for the future without any additional expense. The Coun- cil have also determined that with each Part a list of donations shall be printed, on an improved plan, whereby the bulk of the last part of a volume will be diminished, and the expense more equably. di- vided to the purchasers of single parts. In consequence of the great change which has taken place in the postage, the Council have determined that the Proceedings shall for the future be sent to the Non-resident as well as Resident Fellows ; but have ordered that for this purpose they shall be printed upon thinner paper, so as to reduce the weight of each number to within a single postage. The Council have also to state to the Society, that in consequence of numerous expressions of regret at the early termination of the Meetings in June, they have considered it desirable to call. a Special General Meeting to consider the propriety of extending the present and future Sessions to a Second Evening of Meeting in June. The Council have resolved that the Wollaston Gold Medal be awarded to M. Adolphe Brongniart for his work on Fossil Botany. Report of the Museum Committee. The Committee appointed to examine the Society’s Museum haye to report that it-has been greatly enriched during the year by new donations, and that considerable progress has been made in its ar- rangement. Without: specifying a considerable number of miscel- laneous fossils worked into different parts of the collection, it may he stated that the number of newly-arranged drawers in the British and Irish series amounts to no less than 112, and by far the greater part of these are filled with newly-acquired specimens. Among the principal additions, the Committee may call attention to a fine series of rock specimens from the various subdivisions of the lias. and oolitic formations, collected and presented by Mr. Lonsdale. ‘They occupy 20 drawers, and are intended to illustrate the various: changes in lithological character which each of the dif- ferent members of the oolitic series undergo in their course’ from Oxfordshire to the Humber. © Another important accession consists of specimens of rocks and fossils explanatory of the mineral and paleontological characters of the Devonian system, from Devonshire and the neighbouring coun- ties, filling 27 drawers. The trap rocks also of Cornwall and Deyon. have been newly arranged, and occupy 18 drawers. Ten drawers have been added to the carboniferous or mountain-limestone series of England, including a large suite of specimens from the Isle of 369 ~Man. Many specimens also of fossils from the English chalk have been worked into their respective places in the series. In the Scotch collection many fossil plants and fishes from the coal-measures have been arranged and named by Mr. Lonsdale and M. Agassiz. A most valuable present has been received from Lady Gordon Cumming, of 120 specimens of fossil fishes from the old red sandstone near Forres, all of which were named by M. Agassiz during his late visit to. London. The new accessions made to the Irish collection consist of 28 drawers of fossils from the mountain-limestone, the greater part of which were formerly presented by the Earl of Enniskillen, Sir Philip Egerton, Mr. Weaver, and Mr. Griffiths, and which have been named by Mr. Lonsdale. The Committee have to express their regret, that a still more complete suite of the corals of this formation, obtained by Lord Enniskillen in Sligo and Fermanagh, and which were lately sent off from Belfast to the Society by him, were lost in the Thames steamer wrecked off the Scilly Islands. Besides the fossil fish of the old red sandstone, before alluded to, M. Agassiz has examined generally all the Ichthyolites in the British series, and has named among others those of the crag of Norfolk and Suffolk, the London clay, and the cretaceous, Wealden, and oolitic formations. In conclusion, the Committee have to remark, that in carrying into effect the arrangement of the Museum above alluded to, the la- bour of selecting the specimens, and of specifically determining and naming the fossil shells, corals, plants, and other organic remains, has devolved exclusisely upon Mr. Lonsdale. Mr. Woodward has been employed in affixing to the specimens labels descriptive of the names, localities, names of donors, and references to books; and has in the course of the year finished in this way 81 drawers, making at the same time hand-catalogues for the fossils of the English series. Besides these occupations, and the preparing of enlarged illustrations and other arrangements for the Evening Meetings, much of his time has been devoted to the students and numerous visitors who have inspected the Society’s Museum, ‘and the Committee are’ of opinion that he has discharged his several duties with zeal and assiduity. Among the principal donors to the Museum during the past’year, the Committee have to notice Lady Gordon Cumming, to whom the Society is indebted for the fossil fishes of the old red sandstone before mentioned, and Baron de Meyendorf, from whom we have received a fine specimen of crystallized native gold from Ekaterinen- bourg, and also a specimen of platinum from the mines of Tagil. As all the drawers now in the Museum are full, the Committee beg to recommend to the Council that four new cabinets, capable of containing 84 drawers, be immediately ordered, the estimated cost of which is 51/7. _ Liprary. The Library has been increased during the past year by the dona- 2H 2 370 tion of about 150 volumes and pamphlets, and the titles of these have been duly entered into the catalogue by Mr. Nichols. Among the donations to the Library we may mention the numbers hitherto published of M. D’Orbigny’s new and valuable work en- _ titled ‘‘ Paléontologie Frang¢aise.’’ The Society also continues to receive from the Board of Ordnance and the Admiralty the maps and charts published by them respectively. CHARLES LYELL. LEONARD HORNER, R. I. MURCHISON. Comparative Statement of the Number of the Society at the close of the years 1839 and 1840. Dec. 31st, 1839. Dec. 31st, 1840. Compounders.......... a eee 108) (2. teat sadp les Residents} iitdak sachets alleen PED SPE AR UM 258 Noneresidents: jaiaiii antine vemos AL) De ith eak> Menace 415 768 781 Honorary Members........ 37 pe Be Foreign Members.......... 47 peur rich Personages of Royal Blood.. 3 rn 3 — 87 ——__— 81 BBB oa 862 General Statement explanatory of the alteration in the Number of Fellows, &c., at the close of the years 1839 and 1840. Number of Fellows, Compounders, Contributors, and 768 _ Non-residents, 3lst December, 1839 ............ Add Fellows elected during 1840] Residents ...... 16 anda). soiiecreyeace ti aes Non-residents .. 19 — 35 Ditto in former years and paid | Residents ...... 2 Hy ASAD ost, Perdue ssa bh «6 PNORETESIOEMES 4 not ru 806 Detiot, Compoundens s:i93 sac laspalles ee ot Gaiaateione Deceased Residents 523i bocnisn od erase ke 8 Non-residents a5: cc wa mE ero eS Med aiiitys oon ais ce cue se an eer 5 ——— 95 Total number of Fellows 31st December, 1840, as above 781 371 Number of Honorary Members, Foreign Members, and Personages of Royal Blood, Dec. 31,1839 ........ BY Add, Foreign Members elected.............. ire Gheit 3 20 Deduct, Deceased Honorary Members. ............ 5 Foreign Members... s:204).).7si5l4 » aah re Say. Total number of Honorary Members, &c., at the close of 81 Pe40 as angthedasty pares ntroctodd 119 19 9 ; 740 Map Account: ..\0. ccakeinoyhouamys 3 Heber: le cal taunt SOO Contributions repaid... <2 2... Be wf. si.) Em Sie eet 12 Award of Wollaston Donation Fund : ces S44 Oe M. Dumont, Gold Medal.................. 550000000 10 10 O Mr. James Sowerby, One Year’s Proceeds ... 3210 4 —_ 43 Balances in hand: Soe Sue Banker (including 421. 9s, 8d. Wollaston Fund) 258 10 8 ACCOUNTANLE......000.0- 050008 saree seissaatcienicesieee ste 40 0 O “ 298 16 6 10 Soo, OF oo @ 8 £2304 3 I1 = Varuation of the Society's Property; 31st December 1840. Property. : Desrs. £. s. d.| Bills outstanding : : ERS aN cap esi Balances in hand, including 421.9s.8d.WollastonFund 298 10 8 Scientific Expenditure ........ - 10 0 . Soliviten’s: Account - = 45 %...220: 0 : Arrears due to the Society : oo eter Admission Fees.............. 33 12 0 House Expenditure .. .. wwwnoe e i) Sooooos Annual Contributions ........ 424 4 5 ee : Poundage Be S-:: | PPansaetions ..2s......5.¢520. 2 > 2°10 eS VAE ee SE ee i . MapAccount:.......... cc 5 7 0 Annual Contribution overpaid 1840 3 Se Se aot 7 ae Pat 2 Cash belonging to the “Wollaston Fund” ...... 42 9 8 Estimated value of unsold Transactions .......... 998 Arrears not likely to be received.............. 180 0 0 5 Proceedings. 35 0 0 Som Value of Funded Property, 2318/. 4s. 8d. Consols ig 7 8 POI =. oaefGieds ie deh <1 sesante on; incest» 2 e000 0 | Balance in favour of the Society..............3606 1 6 £3883 9 2 £3883 9 2 [N.B. The value of the Collections, Library and Furniture is not Here included: nor is the ‘* Donation Fund,’ insti- tuted by the late Dr. Wollaston, amounting at present to 1084/7. 1s. 1d. in the Reduced 3 per cent. Annuities; the dividends thereof being appropriated to the purposes of the Founder. | Signed, JOHN TAYLOR, TREASURER, Feb. 2, 1841. fs PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. Parr II. 1841. No. 76. Feb. 24.—The Honourable Charles Ashburnham, of Eaton Place; John Pringle Nichol, LL.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow; William Ick, Esq., Curator of the Phi- losophical Institution, Birmingham; and James Butler Williams,. Esq., Professor of ‘Topography and Hydraulics in the College for Civil Engineers, were elected Fellows of this Society. M. A. H. Dumont, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Liege; M. Louis Agassiz, Professor of Natural History at Neuchatel; Professor Georg Gottlieb Pusch of Stuttgart; and M. G. P. Deshayes, author of ‘ Description des Coquilles Fossiles des Environs de Paris,’ were elected Foreign Members of this Society. A paper, entitled ‘‘ Description of parts of the Skeleton and Teeth of five species of the genus Labyrinthodon, from the new red sand- stone of Coton End and Cubbington Quarries; with remarks on the probable identity of the Cheirotherium with that genus of extinct Batrachians,”’ by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.S., F.R.S. In a paper read on the 20th of January, Mr. Owen described the peculiarities in the structure of the teeth of the Labyrinthodon (see ante, p. 357); and having been favoured by Dr. Lloyd, since that paper was written, with thé)loan of all the reptilian remains obtained from the new red sandstone of Warwick and Leamington, deposited in the Museums of those towns, and having been liberally per- mitted by the Committees of the Institutions to examine the teeth by the microscopic test, he gives, in this paper, a minutely detailed description of the fragments submitted to his examination, and points - out their relative connexion to each other, and the laws by which he has been enabled to determine that they all belong to the genus Labyrinthodon, and confirmatory of the Batrachian nature of the - Wurtemberg fossil. The specimens which Mr. Owen has examined are referable to five species, to which he has applied the names,—1. Labyrinthodon salamandroides, 2. L. leptognathus, 3. L. pachygnathus, 4. L. ven- tricosus, and 5. L. scutulatus ; and he describes successively the cha- racters exhibited by the bonies assignable to the 2nd, 3rd and 5th species. Labyrinthodon leptognathus.—The remains which Mr. Owen con- siders as portions of this species, consist of fragments of the upper and lower jaws, two vertebr, anda sternum. They were found in the sandstone quarries at Coton End, near Warwick. The portions of the upper:jaw show that the maxillary or facial VOL. III. PART II. 2k 390 division of the skull was broad, much depressed and flattened, re- sembling the skull of the gigantic Salamander and of the Alligator ; and the outer surface of the bones was strongly sculptured, as in the Crocodilian family, but of a relatively larger and coarser pattern. The fragment described contains the anterior moiety of the single row of small teeth, or 30 sockets, and the base of one of the great anterior tusks. The bases of the serial teeth project directly from the outer wall of the shallow socket, there being no alveolar ridge external to it. The large anterior fang is three times the size of the first of the serial teeth, and the size of these gradually diminish as they are placed further back ; the length of the common-sized being about two lines, and the greatest breadth one-third of a line. The apical two-thirds of each tooth is smooth, but the basal third is fluted, and anchylosed to the outer wall of the socket. The breadth of the upper jaw, opposite the middle of the dental series, was two inches six lines; in proceeding backwards the jaw gradually expands to three inches, and in proceeding forwards narrows, but in a less degree towards the anterior extremity, and then slightly widens or inclines outwards on account of the large tusks. Where the upper jaw is entire, a portion next the median suture, four lines in breadth, is separated from the maxillary bone by a longitudinal harmonia, and corresponds with the position of the nasal bone in the Crocodile. On comparing the structure of the cranium of the Labyrinthodon with the Batrachian condition of the same part, Mr. Owen shows ~ that an important difference will be found to exist. In both the ccaducibranchiate and perennibranchiate species, the upper maxillary bones do not extend horizontally over the upper surface of the skull, but leave a very wide interval between the maxillary and nasal bones ; and the palatal processes of the former contribute as little to form the floor of the nasal cavity: in the Crocodiles, on the contrary, the palatal processes of the maxillary bones extend horizontally in- wards, and meet at the middle line of the roof, forming an unbroken floor to the nasal cavity. In the Labyrinthodon the superior max~ illary bones, as already shown, extend inwards to the nasal bone, constituting with it a continuous roof to the nasal cavities ; but the palatal processes, instead of reaching to the middle line, as in the Crocodiles, are very narrow, as in the Batrachia. The osseous roof of the mouth is principally composed of ‘a pair of broad and flat bones, analogous to the divided vomer in Batrachia, but of much greater relative extent, approaching, in this respect, those of the Menopome, and defending the mouth with a more extensive roof of bone than exists in any Lacertian reptile : ‘* physiologically, there- fore,’ observes Mr. Owen, ‘‘the Labyrinthodon, in this part of its structure, comes nearest to the Crocodile; but the structure’ itself; morphologically, is essentially Batrachian.” In the Menopome and gigantic Salamander, a row of small teeth extends transversely across the anterior extremity of the vomerine bones: and the occur- rence in the Labyrinthodon of a similar row, consisting in each palatine bone of three median small teeth and two outer larger ones, marks most strongly its Batrachian nature; and from the outer- 391 most tooth a longitudinal row of small and equal-sized teeth is con- tinued backward. along the exterior margin of the’ palatine bone. The whole of this series of palatal teeth is nearly concentric with the maxillary teeth. In Lacertine reptiles the examples of a row of palatal teeth are rare, Short, and situated towards the back of the palate, upon the pterygoid bones, as in the Iguana and Mosasaur. In Batrachia the most common disposition of the palatal teeth is a transverse row placed at the anterior part of the divided vomer in Frogs, the Meno= pome and gigantic Salamander, and at the posterior part in certain toads. In the Amphiume, on the contrary, the palatal teeth form a nearly longitudinal series along the outer margin of the palatine bones. ‘The Labyrinthodon, as already shown, combines both these dispositions of the palatal teeth. The posterior palatine apertures are more completely circumscribed by bone than in most Batrachi- ans, occupying the same relative position as in the Iguana. The posterior margin only of one of the anterior apertures is exhibited in this specimen, but from its curve Mr. Owen infers that the two apertures were not confluent, as in the Crocodile, the Freg, or the Menopome, but that they were distant, as in the Iguana. . From the physiological condition of the nasal cavity Mr. Owen is disposed to believe that the Labyrinthodon differed from the Ba- trachians and resembled the Saurians, in having distinct’ posterior nasal apertures surrounded by bone, and that its mode of respiration was the same as in the higher air-breathing reptiles. In the shed- ding and renewal of the maxillary and the transverse palatal teeth, Mr. Owen shows that the process took place alternately in each row, as in many fishes, whereby the dental series is always kept in an efficient state. The author then diterbes a portion, sixteen inches long, of the left ramus of an under jaw from the Warwick sandstone, and con- sidered to belong to the same species as the bone just described. It is slender and straight, and the symphysial extremity is abruptly bent inwards, and it presents, Mr. Owen says, almost as striking a Batrachian character as any of the bones just mentioned. The an- gular piece is of great breadth, extending on both sides of the jaw, and is continued forward to near the symphysis, forming the whole of the inferior part of the jaw, and extending upon the inner as far as upon the outer side of the ramus, the inner plate performing the function of the detached os operculare in the jaw of Saurians. ‘The dentary bone is supported upon a deep aud wide groove along the upper surface of the angular piece, which also projects beyond the groove, so as to form a strong convex ridge on the external side of the jaw, below the dentary piece. This character, which in the large bull-frog (Rana pipiens) is confined to the posterior part of the maxillary ramus, is in the Labyrinthodon continued to near the an- terior extremity. The teeth are long and. slender, gradually dimi- nishing in size towards the anterior portion of the jaw, and the fragment presents a linear series of not less than fifty sockets, placed laternately a little more internally; and at the anterior inflected 2k 2 _ 392 part of the jaw is the base of the socket of a large tooth. The an- terior portion of the jaw being broken off, it is uncertain if the serial teeth were continued externally to the anterior tusk, a remarkable ichthyic character noticed in another species of Labyrinthodon. The sockets of the teeth are shallower than in the upper jaw ; the outer wall is more developed than the inner, and the anchylosed bases of the teeth more nearly resemble, in their oblique position, those of existing Batrachia. Mr. Owen then describes the micro- ‘scopic structure of the teeth, and he shows that, between the apex and the part where the inflected vertical folds of the cement com- mence, the tooth resembles, in the simplicity of its intimate struc- ture*, that of the entire tooth of ordinary Batrachia and most rep- tiles; and in the lower or basal half of the tooth the structure described in the previous memoir commences, and gradually in- creases in complexity. From the long and slender character of this ramus Mr. Owen shows that the length of the head, as compared with the breadth, approximates more nearly to Crocodilian propor- tions than to the ordinary Batrachian ones; but that among existing Batrachia it resembles most nearly the Amphiume. A dorsal vertebra from Coton End, which is next described, pre- sents still further evidence of the Batrachian nature of the Laby- rinthodon, in having concave but not deep articular cavities at the extremities of the body, a condition now known among existing rep- tiles only in the Gecko, and in the lower or perennibranchiate divi- sion of Batrachians. The body of the vertebra is elongate and sub- compressed, with a smooth extended, but not regularly curved sur- face, terminating below in a slightly produced, longitudinal, median ridge ; and it exhibits the same exceptional condition in the Repti- lian class as do the vertebre of existing Batrachians, in having the superior arch or neurapophysis anchylosed with the centrum. From each side of the base of the neural arch extends obliquely, outwards and upwards, the remains of a thick and strong transverse process; and from their strength and direction Mr. Owen gathers indications of a necessity for an expanded respiratory cavity, and that they supported ribs. ; A symmetrical bone, resembling the episternum of the Ichthyosau- rus, is also described. It consists of a stem or middle, which gradu- ally thickens to the upper end, where cross-pieces are given off at right angles to the stem, and support on each a pretty deep and wide groove, indicating strongly the presence of clavicles, and thus point- ing out another distinction from Crocodiles, in which clavicles are wanting. In concluding the description. of these remains of the Labyrintho- don leptognathus, Mr. Owen says, that they prove the fossil to have been essentially Batrachian, with striking and peculiar affinities to the higher Sauria, leading, in the form of the skull and the sculptu- ring of the cranial bones, to the Crocodilian group, and in one part of the dental structure, in the form of the episternum, and the bi- * See anté, p. 359. 393 concave vertebre, to the Ichthyosaurus; while in the bony palate there is a deviation from the Batrachian character, and a resemblance to the Lacertian type. Another marked peculiarity in this fossil is the anchylosis of the base of the teeth to distinct and shallow sockets, by which it is made to resemble the Sphyrena and certain other fishes. From the absence of any trace of alveoli of reserve for the successional teeth, Mr. Owen believes the teeth were reproduced, as in many fishes, especially the higher Chondropterygii, which formed the Amphibia natantes of Linnzus, in the soft mucous membrane which covered the alveolar margin, and subsequently became fixed _ to the bone by anchylosis, as in the Pike and Lophius. No remains of the locomotive organs of the L. leptognathus have yet been found. Labyrinthodon pachygnathus.—In detailing the remains of this spe- cies, consisting of portions of the lower and upper jaws, an anterior frontal bone, a fractured humerus, an ilium with a great part of the acetabulum, the head of a femur, and two unguial phalanges, Mr. Owen dwells on further Batrachian characters and certain peculi- arities of structure, and shows the points in which it agrees with the L. leptognathus. A portion, nine and a half inches long, of aright . ramus of a lower jaw is first described; and in addition to the cha- racters common to it and the fragment of the lower jaw of the LL. leptognathus, in the structure of the angular and dentary pieces, the author shows that the outer wall of the alveolar process is not higher than the inner, as in Frogs and Toads, the Salamanders and Menopome, in all of which the base of the teeth is anchylosed to the inner side of an external alveolar plate. ‘The smaller serial teeth are about forty in number, and gradually diminish in size as they approach both ends, but chiefly so towards the anterior part of the jaw. The sockets are close together, and the alternate ones are empty. The great laniary teeth were apparently three in each sym- physis, and the length of the largest is considered to have been one and a half inch. A section through the base of the anterior tusk above the socket exhibits the structure described in Mr. Owen’s first memoir ; but a section of the second tusk, also taken above the socket, exhibited avery simplified modification of the labyrinthic arrangement, presenting a disposition closely analogous to that at the base of the teeth of the Ichthyosaurus. The apical half of the tusks has a smooth and polished surface, and the pulp-cavity is continued, of small size, into the centre of this part of the tooth. In the serial teeth, which in other respects, except size, correspond with the preceding descrip- tion of the tusks, the central pulp-cavity is more quickly obliterated, but the alveoli are large, moderately deep and complete: the texture of the teeth is dense and brittle. The base of each tooth is anchy- losed to the bottom of its socket, as in Scomberoid and Sauroid fishes; but the Labyrinthodon possesses, Mr. Owen says, a still more ichthyic character in the continuation, preserved in this speci- men, of a row of small teeth anterior and external to the two or three larger tusks. A double row of teeth thus occasioned does not exist in the maxillary bones, either superior or inferior, of any Batra- chian or Saurian reptile; in Mammalia it has been noticed only in 394 the upper jaw of the hare and rabbit, and in Fishes only in the lower jaw. A fragment of the superior maxillary bone is also described, and its chief deviation from the Crocodilian type of structure is the con- tinuation of the palatal plate of the intermaxillary bone for about an inch to the outer side of the base of the external plate or pro- cess; while in the Crocodiles the external wall of the intermaxil- lary bone is united by the whole of its outer margin with the maxillary, and is thence continued along the whole outer contour of the intermaxillary bone. Now in the Labyrinthodon the inter- maxillary bone presents the same peculiar modification of the Ba- trachian condition of this bone as in the higher organized Batra- chia, the palatal process of the intermaxillary extending beyond the outer plate both externally and, though in a less degree, internally, where it forms part of the boundary of the anterior palatal foramen, whence the outer plate rises in the form of a compressed process from a longitudinal tract in the upper part of the palatal process ; it is here broken off near its margin, and the fractured surface gives the breadth of the base of the outer plate, stamping the fossil with a Batrachian character conspicuous above all the Saurian modifica- tions ‘by which the essential nature of the fossil appears at first sight to be marked. In the anterior frontal bone, Mr. Owen says, there are also indi- cations of Crocodilian structure. Its superior surface is slightly convex, and pitted with irregular impressions ; and from its poste- rior and outer part it sends downwards a broad and slightly con- cave process, which the author considers the anterior boundary of the orbit. This process presents near its upper margin a deep pit, from which a groove is continued forwards; and in the correspond- ing orbital plate of the Crocodile there is a similar but smaller fora- men. From these remains of the cranium of the Labyr. pachygnathus, it is evident, Mr. Owen states, that the facial or maxillary part of the skull was formed in the main after the Crocodilian type, but with well-marked Batrachian modifications in the intermaxillary and inferior maxillary bones. The most important fact which they show is, that this Sauroid Batrachian had subterminal nostrils, leading to a wide and shallow nasal cavity, separated by a broad and almost continuous palatal flooring from the cavity of the mouth ; indicating, with their horizontal position, that their posterior aper- tures were placed far behind the anterior or external nostrils ; whereas in the air-breathing Batrachia the nasal meatus is short and vertical, and the internal apertures pierce the anterior part of the palate. Mr. Owen therefore infers that the apparatus for breathing by inspiration must have been present in the Labyrintho- don as in the Crocodile ; and hence still further, that the skeleton of the Labyrinthodon will be found to be provided with well-developed ribs, and not, as in the existing Batrachia, with merely rudimentary styles. Since the essential condition of this defective state of the ribs of Batrachia is well known to be their fish-lke mode of generation 395 and necessary distension of the abdomen, Mr. Owen likewise directs attention to the probability that the generative economy of these fossil reptiles may ee been similar to that of existing cro- codiles. A fragment of a vertebrh presents analogous characters to the vertebra of the L. leptognathus previously noticed. Of the few bones of the extremities which have come under Mr. Owen’s inspection, one presents all the characteristics of the corre- sponding part of the humerus of a toad or frog, viz. the convex, somewhat transversely extended articular end, the internal longi- tudinal depression, and the well-developed deltoid ridge. The length of the fragment is two inches, and the breadth is oetiee lites: The ridges are moderately thick and compact, with a central medul- lary cavity: In its structure as well as in its general form, the present bone agrees with the Batrachian, and differs from the Croco- dilian type. Again, in the right ilium, about six’ inches in length, and in the acetabulum, there is a combination of Crocodilian and Batrachian characters. The acetabular cavity is bounded on its upper part bya produced and sharp ridge as in the frog, and not emarginate at its anterior part, as in the crocodile. Above the acetabulum in the frog the ilium gives off a broad and depressed process, the lower ex- tremity of which is separated from the acetabulum by a smooth con- cave groove, both of which are wanting in the crocodile, there being only a slight rising of the upper border of the acetabulum. ‘These characters, however, are well developed in the Labyrinthodon: but the process, instead of being depressed is compressed, and its mternal extremity is pointed and bent forwards, representing the rudiment of the long anterior process of the ilium in the Batrachia anoura ; but it does not attain in the Labyrinthodon the parallel of the an- terior margin of the acetabulum, and the bone terminates in a thick truncated extremity a few lines anterior to the acetabulum ; an essential feature of resemblance to the Crocodiles and difference from the Batrachians. But the most marked difference in this fossil from the crocodile is the length of the ilium posterior to the aceta- bulum, in which it agrees with the analogous portion of the frog and other tailless Batrachia; while, on the contrary, there is an agreement with the Crocodilian type in the mode of articulation to the vertebral column. In the frog a transverse process of a single vertebra abuts against the anterior extremity of the produced ilium. In the crocodile the transverse processes of two vertebre are thick- ened and expanded, and joined to a rough, concave, articular surface occupying the inner side of the ilium, ‘and a little posterior to the acetabular cavity. In the Labyrinthodon is a similar well-marked, rough, elongated, concave, articular surface, divided by a non-arti- cular surface, and destined for the reception of the external extremi- ties of two sacral ribs. The Labyrinthodon likewise agrees with the crocodile in the lower part of the acetabulum being completed by the upper extremity of the pubis, the anterior and inferior part of the ilium offering an obtuse process at the posterior part of the lower boundary of the acetabular cavity. 396 As the fragment of the ilium was discovered in the same quarry as the two fragments of the cranium and the portion of the lower jaws Mr. Owen thinks they may have belonged to the same animal ; and if so, as the portions of the head correspond in size with those of the head of a crocodile six or seven feet in length, but the acetabu- lar cavity with that of a crocodile twenty-five feet in length, then the hinder extremities of the Labyrinthodon must have been of dis- proportionate magnitude compared with those of existing Saurians, but of approximate magnitude with some of the living anourous Batrachia. That such a reptile, of a size equal to that of the reptile whose remains haye just been described, existed at the period of the new red sandstone, Mr. Owen says, is abundantly manifested by the remains of those singular impressions to which the term Cheirothe- rium has been applied. Other impressions, as those of the Chezro- therium Hercules, correspond in size with the remains of the Laby- rinthodon Salamandroides, which have been discovered at Guy’s. Cliff. The head of a femur from the same quarry in which the ilium was found, is shown to correspond in size with the articular cavity of the acetabulum. The two toe-bones, or terminal phalanges, © are stated to be strictly Batrachian, presenting no trace of a nail, and from their size are referred to the hind-feet of the L. pachygnathus. Thus, observes Mr. Owen, all these osseous remains from the Warwick and Leamington sandstones agree in their essentially Ba- trachian nature, and, in this interesting conclusion, with the fossils of the German keuper; and he concludes this portion of the memoir with some observations respecting the so-called Cheirotherium foot- steps. He has long believed that they were the foot-prints of a Ba- trachian, and most probably of that family which includes the toad and frog, on account of the difference of size in the fore and hind ex- tremities ; but, in consequence of the peculiarities of the impressions, he has always considered that the animal must have been quite distinct in the form of its feet from any known Batrachian or other reptile. Now then, he observes, we have in the Labyrinthodon also a Batrachian reptile, differing as remarkably from all known Ba- trachia and from every other reptile in the structure of its teeth : both the footsteps and the fossils are, moreover, peculiar to the new red sandstone; and though the generic name Labyrinthodon may be susceptible hereafter of being expanded to the appellation of a family, yet, he asks, may it not be justifiable to consider the term Cheiro- therium as one of the synonyms of Labyrinthodon ?. Labyrinthodon scutulatus—The remains, to which this specific designation has been applied by the author, composed a closely and irregularly aggregated group of bones imbedded in sandstone, and manifestly belonging to the same skeleton ; they consist of four vertebre, portions of ribs, a humerus, a femur, two tibiz, one end of a large flat bone, and several small osseous, dermal scute. The mass was discovered in the new red sandstone at Leamington, and was transmitted to Mr. Owen by Dr. Lloyd in the summer of 1840. The vertebre present biconcave articular surfaces similar to those of the other species. In two of them, the surfaces slope in a parallel direction obliquely from the axis of the vertebre, as in the dorsal 397 vertebre of the frog, indicating an habitual inflexion of the spine, analogous to that in the humped back of the frog. The neurapo- physes are anchylosed to the vertebral body. ‘The spinous process rises from the whole length of the middle line of the neurapophysial arch, and its chief peculiarity is the expansion of its elongated sum- mit into a horizontally flattened plate, sculptured irrregularly on the upper surface. A similar flattening of the summit of the elongated spine is exhibited in the large atlas of the toad. The body of the vertebr agrees with that of the L. leptognathus. The humerus is an inch long, regularly convex at the proximal extremity, and expanded at both extremities, but contracted in the middle. A portion of a somewhat shorter and flatter bone is bent at a sub- — acute angle with the distal extremity, and resembles most nearly the anchylosed radius and ulna of the Batrachia. The femur wants both the extremities; its shaft is subtrihedral and slightly bent, and its walls are thin and compact, including a large medullary cavity. The tibie are as long, but thicker and stronger than the femur. They had lost their articular extremities, but exhibited that remarkable compression of their distal portion which characterizes the corresponding bone in the Batrachia: they likewise have the longitudinal impression along the middle of the flattened surface. The length of the more perfect shaft is 2 inches 1 lme. The precise nature of the broad flat bone, Mr. Owen had not determined. With respect to the osseous dermal scute, Mr. Owen remarks, that though they form a striking instance of the Crocodilian affinities of the ILeamington fossil, yet as these detached superficial bones are the most liable to be separated from the fragmentary skeleton of the individual they once clothed, the negative fact of their not having been found associated with the remains of the Labyrinthodon in _ other localities proves nothing in regard to a difference of dermal structure between the Leamington and Warwick species. Indeed no anatomist, he says, can contemplate the extensive development and bold sculpturing of the dermal surface of cranial bones in the Labyrinthodon pachygnathus and L. leptognathus without a suspi- cion, that the same character may have been manifested in bony plates of the skin in other parts of the body. Admitting for a moment this structure to be proved, to what extent, asks Mr. Owen, does it affect the claims of the Labyrinthodon to be admitted into the order of Batrachians in which every known species is covered with a soft, lubricous and naked integument, without scales or scutze? In reply, he says, that the skin is the seat of variable characters in all animals; and, apart from the modifications of the osseous and dental systems, and other intimate organs, is apt to mislead the naturalist who is inquest of the real affinities of a species: and he instances the Trionyx, as an example of a soft- skinned animal among Chelonian reptiles. Lastly, Mr. Owen shows, that, previously to the discovery of the fossils described in this memoir, the only Batrachian remains which had been found in beds anterior to the epech of the Molasse is the fragment of a skull, on which Prof. Jaéger founded his Salamandroides giganteus. 398 » March 10.—Donald Maclean, Esq., M:P.; His Grace the Duke of Richmond, Portland-place ; Joshua Milne, Esq., F.L.S., Stam- ford-hill, and William Lowe, Esq., Montague-street, Russell- -square, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper ‘‘On the Geological Structure of the Northern and Cen- tral Regions of Russia in Europe,” by Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq., P.G.S., and M. E. de Verneuil, V.P.G.S. of France, was commenced. March 24.—Rey. James Prince Lee, M.A., aie cone: Charles D. Archibald, Esq., F.R.S. and F.S.A., York Terrace, Regent’s Park, and Samuel Pett, Esq., Regent-street, were elected Fellows of this Society. The reading of the paper on Russia, by Mr. Murchison and M. E. de Verneuil, was resumed and concluded. ‘The Memoir, of which the following is an abstract, is the result of a journey through the Northern and Central Governments of Russia in Europe, made during the summer of 1840, a verbal account of some of the chief points of which, accompanied by a new geo- logical map of those regions, was offered to the public at the meet- ing of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, m September 1840. Introduction.—The authors preface their memoir with a sketch of the condition of geolegical knowledge concerning the flat and cen- tral countries of Russia in Europe anterior to their visit, and show that the early efforts of Strangways* had not been followed up by any connected attempt to establish the classification and succession of the older sedimentary deposits on the true principles of the order of their superposition, and their distinctions by organic remains. They point out, however, that certain elements of the subject had been prepared; first, by the map and descriptions of Strangways; secondly, by the publication of the paleontological works of Fischer de Waldheim, Pander, and Hichwald; thirdly, by the recent. re- searches of Colonel Helmersen in ne Waldai Hills; and fourthly, by the important zoological distinctions indicated by M. Leopold. de Buch, who, on hearing of the plan of the voyage of the authors, ex- pressed his belief (from the examination of certain fossils alone) that the triple subdivision of the paleozoic rocks into the Carboniferous, Old Red, and Silurian systems, as indicated by Mr. Murchison}, would be found to prevail in Esthonia, Livonia and Courland. After alluding to the vast importance to the Russian empire of a correct knowledge of the subsoil of these flat regions, the authors. explained the scheme which they had devised, before they left their own countries, for ascertaining the data required. Aware of the two great difficulties which are opposed to the examination of this region, —the slight altitude of the masses above the sea, and the vast quan- tity of drift or the slight superficial detritus which obscures the fun- damental rocks,—they overcame these obstacles by examining, in succession, the banks of the rivers between the longitude of St. * Geol. Trans., First Series, vol. v. ; Second Series, vol. t. ‘+ Silurian System and map. 399 Petersburgh and of Archangel, which, flowmg from N.N.W. to S.S.E., or transverse to the only apparent: lines of elevation, might be expected to offer the evidences required. ‘They also ascended the great Dwina, from the White Sea to Oustiug Veliki; and afterwards extended their researches to the south of Nijnii Novogorod, in order to determine the relations of the secondary rocks to those older deposits with which they had become familiar. In terminating these introductory explanations, the authors dwelt with pleasure on the valuable assistance they had received, particu- larly m the early part of their tour, from the Baron A. de Meyen- dorf*, now executing, by order of his Imperial Majesty, a statistical survey of Russia, who endeavoured to combine geology and natural history with the chief object of his expedition by attaching to it two excellent naturalists, Count Keyserling and Professor Blasius. They further testified ‘their warm thanks tu the Russian minister, the Count de Cancrine, who specially aided this geological inquiry, and they also acknowledged their obligations to Count Nesselrode, Count Alexander Strogonoff, Baron Humboldt, Baron Brunnow, and Gene- ral Tcheffkine. They further expressed their sense of the value of the services of a zealous young geologist, Lieutenant Koksherof, without whose aid the authors could not have accomplished their task. A geological map and'sections illustrated the description, and the characteristic fossils of each group were laid upon the table. Crystalline Rocks, Metamorphic Rocks, Trap Rocks, Physical Geo- graphy, &c.—Before they proceed to describe the sedimentary de- posits in their order from 8. to N., or from the older to the younger strata, the authors mention some peculiar varieties of gneiss which occupy the little islands of the White Sea near Onega, one of which is charged with garnets. They then give a brief sketch of the altered condition of the sedimentary strata on the western shore of the lake Onega, where they are pierced by masses of greenstone and trappean conglomerate. A few words explain how the Waldai Hills, the great watershed of Central Russia, afford the best means of reading off the succes- sion of the older strata. The rivers Msta, Wolkoff, Siass, &c., which flow from the south to the north, having short courses, neces- sarily occupy deeper rents, and therefore expose on their banks better sections than those streams, which, descending on the other side of the crest, glide along on a very slightly inclined plane to the south. By examining the banks of the north-flowing rivers, the older formations were: found to succeed each other in the following ascending order :— 1. Silurian Rocks.—The oldest sedimentary deposits of Russia (those on which St. Petersburgh is situated) are clays, sandstone, limestone and flagstone, which from their position and organic re- mains are considered the equivalents of the Silurian system of the British Isles. The detailed order of these beds was long ago given by Strangways; but at the early day when he wrote, the study of organic remains was not sufficiently advanced to enable him to de- * Assisted by M. Zenofief. 400 termine the exact place of these beds in the geological series, nor to point out their true relations to the adjacent masses. Many of the fossils have since been described by the native authors, Pander and Eichwald, and recently some very characteristic forms by M. de Buch. The Silurian deposits consist in ascending order of blue clay, inter- mediate grit, and overlying limestone, &c. In the first of these no organic remains have yet been found; and the intermediate sand- stone or grit is alone distinguished by a remarkable form unknown in western Europe (the Ungulite), which the authors consider to be nearly allied to Orthis. They likewise discovered in this grit one small shell resembling a Pecten. In the limestones, and certain overlying flagstones first described on this occasion, organic remains abound; and they agree well in the leading characters on which the Silurian system was established, viz. that the forms of Trilobite, Orthoceratite, and Orthis are distinct from the types of the overly- ing members of the palzozoic series. The most prevalent fossils are the Orthoceratites vaginatus, Asa- phus expansus, Illenus crassicauda, the peculiar Crinoidean Sphero- nites (allied to the Ischadites of the Upper Silurian rocks), and a vast profusion of many species of Orthis. Although, upon the whole, the Silurian fossils of Russia differ more than those of Sweden from British species of the same age (as might indeed be expected from their more remote distance), certain shells are identical with those published from England; among which are enumerated, Leptena depressa (L. rugosa, Dalm.), Leptena sericea, Lingula Lewisii, Orthis canalis (O. elegantula, Dalm.), &c.; and according to M. Eichwald, two or three species of Trilobites*. With the exception of some very trivial dislocations in the low hills south of St. Petersburgh, the Silurian rocks are so uniformly horizontal, that in the fine quarries on the banks of the Wolkoff, the — authors were able to prove a difference of 2° or 3° to the S.S.E, only by pouring water on the surface of the rocks. These Silurian deposits occupy the islands of Oland, Gothland, &c. in the Baltic, and trend along the shores of Esthland in a broad band from W.S.W. to E.N.E., till they are lost under vast heaps of granitic detritus between the lakes Ladoga and Onega. Near the latter, these deposits are deflected to the north, and there meet with great ridges of trappean rocks, which run from N.N.W. to 8.8.E. In that region all the deposits are in a metamorphic condition; the limestones present no distinct traces of fossils; and the authors ha- ving satisfied themselves that there was no chance of observing any further evidence of a descending order between such rocks and the great primarized granitic chain of Scandinavia and Russian Lapland, the boundary of which they coasted, confined their attention to the ascending order of the strata, which is clearly exhibited on the banks of the Wolkoff and at other places. 2. Old Red, or Devonian System.—That the pie strata are the * See Professor Kichwald’s work, published since the authors’ visit to Russia, entitled ‘ Silurische-Schichten-system in Msthland.’ 401 true equivalents of the Silurian system, was determined not only by their aspect and fossil contents, but by their being overlaid by other rocks which are completely identical with the ‘Old Red System ”’ of the British Isles, as defined by Mr. Murchison*. This system is of great extent in Russia. It passes from Livonia by the lakes of Ilmen and the Waldai Hills, and is extended over a vast region to the N.E., where it constitutes a large portion of the shores of the White Sea. This system consists of flagstone, clays, marls, corn- stones and sandstones, the whole bearing a considerable resemblance to some red deposits of the same age in our isles, but differing by containing copious salt. springs and much gypsum. It was the oc- currence of so much salt and gypsum that led previous writers to consider these deposits an equivalent of our new red system, which, being found to conta the same minerals in the western parts of Europe, had been even termed by some, the saliferous system. That the red deposits (red and green) are, however, the true equivalents of our old red sandstone, is demonstrated, not only by order of superposition, but also by the many organic remains which they offer. Fishes are the most distinguishing fossils of this great Rus- sian system, and among these are species (notably the Holoptychius Nobilissimus, Murchison, with the Coccosteus, Diplopterus and Cteno- ptychius of Agassiz), forms which occur in deposits of the same age in Scotland. ‘The fishes are in abundance, and a work, illustrative of them, is now preparing by Professor Asmus, of Dorpat, near which University they abound The authors have traced these fish-beds for a great distance, occupying several stages in the system, and each stage characterized by péculiar species of ichthyolites. The zoological contents of this system are also of great value in illustrating and confirming the palzozoic classification proposed by Messrs. Sedgwick, Murchison and Lonsdale; or in other words, the evidences found in Russia leave no doubt that the old red and De- vonian systems of rocks are identical. The Orthis subfusiformis, O. striata, Spirifer calcarata, S. trapezoidalis, Productus caperatus, Te- rebratula prisca (large var.), and Serpula omphaloides, shells distinct from those of the carboniferous system, but similar to those which occur in Devonshire, Westphalia, Belgium, and other places (in de- posits which have been shown by these authors to be of the age of the old red sandstone), are found in Russia in the same beds with the fossil fishes of the old red sandstone of the British Isles. Still more striking, observe the authors, are these cumulative proofs, when it is stated, that although in France and Germany there are scarcely any lithological equivalents for the British old red system, yet, that in extending researches far to the east, this mem- ber of the series is found to resume very many of the same mineral characters which distinguish it in the central and northern parts of the British Isles; and then under similar conditions it contains the ichthyolites of the British deposits. 3. Carboniferous System.—In the northern regions of Russia, the lower or calcareous part only of the carboniferous system exists, which in the Waldai Hills, near Wytegra, on the Onega, and in * See Silurian Researches, p. 165, and ‘Table with the Map. . 402 many other places, is seen to overlie the old red sandstone,’ The © inferior beds consist of incoherent sandstones and bituminous shale; which sometimes contain thin beds of impure pyritous coal, and im- pressions of several plants well known in the carboniferous system of our own islands. ‘These are surmounted by various bands of limestone, the lowest of which only have occasionally some minera- logical resemblance to the mountain limestone of Western Europe ; other beds being lithologically undistinguishable from the magne- sian limestone of England; some from a pisolite; a third and very prevalent band of considerable thickness is milk-white, and not more compact than the caleaire grossier of Paris.- This white Productus limestone was traced by the authors from the neighbourhood of Moscow to beyond Archangel (and they ascertained that it ranged far into the country of the Samoiedes), a distance of not less than 1000 miles. This formation has also a mineral resemblance to chalk, in being loaded with thin bands of flints, sometimes concretionary, in which shells and corals occur. Associated with this formation, on the banks of the Dwina, about 200 wersts above Archangel, and south of Siisskaia, are splendid bedded masses of white gypsum, which, for many miles, present at a little distance all the appear- ance of white limestone*. With these grand gypseous deposits, in which are occasionally large concretions, two or three thin bands of limestone alternate, in one of which the authors detected fossil shells (Avicula) which are new to them. Other peculiar bands near Ust- Vaga, which are rather higher in the series, contain a Productus approaching to P. scabriculus, with Pectens and Corals. The carboniferous limestone of Russia is highly fossiliferous, and from the normal and unaltered condition of most of the beds, the fossils are generally in an excellent state of preservation. Among them are many well-known British species, the lower beds being distinguished by the large Productus hemisphericus so well known in' the same lower beds of England and Scotland; and the white beds being loaded with many of the species published by Fischer, Phillips and Sowerby, such as Productus Martini, P. punctatus, San- guinolaria sulcata, Spirifer Mosquensis, Cardium aleforme, Cidaris vetustus, together with the abundant and characteristic Russian coral, Chetites radians (found, according to Mr. Lonsdale, in the carbo- niferous limestone of Bristol, &c.), and the Lithostrition floriformis, one of the most characteristic fossils of the English carboniferous limestone, &c. Owing to its mineral aspect, the age of this rock. had, till within the last year, been misunderstood; but Colonel Helmersen having observed its position in the Waldai Hills and its association with certain beds of coal, and having ascertained the nature of the fossils through the examination of M. von Buch, he first gave out in Rus- sia, that it must be considered the true mountain limestone.” The authors have completely confirmed this view, by ascending and de- scending sections, and have largely extended it. * See M. Roberts’s account of these white cliffs, which he supposed to be limestone.— Bulletin de la Soc. Géol. de France, 1840: 403 Newer Red Formations.—The manner by which the authors were led to believe in the existence of newer red deposits, forming a vast basin in the governments of Vologda, Nijnii, Kostroma, is explained at some length, by describing the ascending section of the Dwina, and by details relating to the structure of the banks of the rivers Volga, Okka, &c. ‘They show that, although this great red series of the central government agrees with that of the north, in contain- ing salt and gypsum, yet that it differs from the ‘old red” group in the lithological and zoological character of its marls, limestones, and fine conglomerates, none of the fishes or organic remains before alluded to being anywhere discoverable. In expressing their sus- picion that this newer red system may be found eventually to contain the equivalents of the upper coal measures, lower new red sandstone (rohie-todte liegende), magnesian conglomerate, Zechstein, and the Trias of German geologists, the authors reserve their opinions on such details until they have accomplished a tour to the Ural Moun- tains, on the western flanks of which they hope to detect the evi- dences required ; it being very difficult to trace the exact sequence in the flat and obscure regions over which they followed these de- posits to so wide an extent. Oolitic or Jurassic Series.—Certain rocks of the oolitic series have been long known to exist in the centre of Russia, and some of the fossils of this series were sent to England by Mr. Strangways. The beds of black shale which rest at once on the great red forma- tion along the banks of the Volga, between Kostroma and Nijnii Novogorod, belong unquestionably to the middle oolite, as they con- tain Ammonites and Belemnites, closely approaching, if not identical in species with those of the Oxford clay and “‘ Kelloway Rock” of Smith. Other fossils found near Jelatma, Kacimof' and Moscow exhibit close relations to the fauna of the Lias as well as to that of the mid- dle and lower oolite. Having examined a suite of specimens from Moscow, Professor Phillips confirms the views of the authors, who are disposed to think that the middle and lower oolite, as well as the Lias, are all represented in Central Russia simply by beds of black shale with subsidiary courses of oolitic marlstone, concretions, &c. Near Moscow these shales repose directly and conformably upon the carboniferous limestone. Among the fossils of the group on the Volga and the’ Okka are Ammonites flevistria, A. Gulielmi, A. Konigu, A. sublevis, with Gryphea Maccullochii?, &e. Among the fossils from Moscow are Ammonites of many species, some of which are figured by Fischer, others ‘are described by Professor Phillips, for this memoir. Belemnites absolutus (B. sulcatus, Miller); Serpula tetragona, Sow.; Amphidesma? donaciforme, Phill. ; Lima proboscidea?, Sow.; Pecten Fisherii, N.S., Inoceramus dubius, Sow.; (P. rugosus, Fischer) Terebratula serrata, Sow.; T. acuta, Phill. These forms characterize the lower oolite and lias of the British Isles. _Ferruginous Sand.—The shales of the oolitic series are covered by ferruginous sands, occasionally green, which contain large flat- tened concretions of grit (the Moscow millstones); but never having observed fossils in this rock, the authors are unwilling as yet to hazard an opinion regarding its age. With the exception of certain 404 “very recent deposits, these grits are the youngest solid strata in the northern half of Russia in Europe. Chalk.—The cretaceous system is largely developed in the south, near Simbirsk, and in the Crimea; but on this occasion the authors did not extend their tour to the chalk districts. Tertiary Deposits._-The white shelly limestone of Crimea, and its relations to the underlying chalk, have already been described by one of the authors*. Such deposits have not yet been discovered in any of the northern or central regions of Russia. Post Pleiocene (Pleistocene).—It was formerly the general belief, that the great masses of superficial detritus, whether clays, sands or blocks, which cover so very large an area of the northern region, were all referable to one epoch (diluvian) in which the bones of great extinct quadrupeds were also imbedded. The duration of their journey was not sufficient to enable the authors to make many di- stinctions of age between these different masses; but they have commenced this division by the discovery of beds of clay and sand on the banks of the Dwina and Vaga, upwards of 200 miles south of the White Sea, which contain twenty-two species of shells, many of which still preserve their colours, and which, having been referred to Dr. Beck, of Copenhagen, have been pronounced by him to be all of modern northern species. Mr. Lyell states that they are identi- cal with the Uddevalla group described by him in Sweden. Mr. Smith adds, that these shells are nearly all the same as those which he has found in various ancient elevated sea bottoms around the coasts of Scotland. In referring twenty of these to modern arctic species, Mr. G. Sowerby doubts if a certain Mya has ever been found recent, and states that a Cardium, approaching to C. ciliatum, is dif- ferent from any northern form he is acquainted with, and near to certain Australian types. This discovery, in which they were assisted by Count Keyserling, who accompanied the authors in their tour to Archangel, is conceived to be of high geological interest, as it de- monstrates that, during the quasi modern period, the whole of the vast flat country of north-eastern Russia was beneath the sea for a considerable time, the eastern boundary of that sea being probably the slopes of the Ural Mountains. Drift and Erratic Blocks.—Overspreading all the formations, and greatly obscuring them, is a vast mass of detritus, the large granitic _ and other crystalline blocks of which have excited much attention, from the days of Pallas to the present time. This detritus, the blocks of which have all been derived from the north, is shown to have been deposited under the sea, or in other words, upon a sea bottom, since it covers the above-mentioned shells. Notwithstanding the obscuration occasioned by this wide-spread- ing drift, it is stated that the nature of the subsoil, or fundamental deposits, can often be surmised from the colour of the superficial clay and sand, and the materials of small detritus, the surface of the. Silurian zone being grey, that of the old red, red; whilst the cover of the carboniferous limestone is often charged with many broken * M. E. de Verneuil, 405 flints derived from the underlying beds of that formation, some of the siliceous fragments of which have been transported further south- wards, and spread over the regions occupied by the newer red and oolitic. deposits. \ Thus, ‘as all the larger and harder blocks can be Shown to have been carried from the mountains on the N.N.W., so in passing to the S.S.E. the finer ingredients, or matrix of the de- tritus, is found. to change by the successive additions of materials derived. from the denudation of the different members of the pake- ozoic series. There is no instance of any substance having been transported from S. to N., except by the modern action of streams, and by local. causes dependent on the present configuration of the land. Near Nijnii Novogorod large blocks of a very peculiar trap- pean conglomerate were detected, which had been derived from a rock in situ.N. of Petrazowodsk, a distance of nearly 600 miles. In endeavouring to account for the immense distances to which these blocks had been transported, the authors expressed 1 their belief that they, had been floated in former icebergs, which breaking loose from ancient glaciers; which they suppose may have existed in Lapland and the adjacent tracts, were dislodged upon an elevation of the northern chain, and impelled southwards into the sea of that period, in which the post pleiocene shells, to which allusion has been made, were ac- cumulated. In the relation of the blocks to the sea shells, they, con- ceive that. Central. Russia presents an exact parallel (though on a much grander scale) to the phenomena described by one of the au- thors in the central counties of England, where a similar collocation was accounted for, by supposing that the northern blocks were borne thither in vessels of ice, which in melting’ dropped them upon what was then a sea bottom*. Glacial -Action.—After alluding to the works of Séfstrém and Botlingk upon the supposed “ diluvial’’ currents of Scandinavia and Lapland, as evidenced. by the parallel strie and polishing of the sur- face of the hard rocks of these regions, the authors describe the most southerly of, the scratches, which came under their notice near Pe- trazowodsk, on the lake Onega, no such markings having anywhere been. observed in Central Russia. They then examine the applica- bility. of the glacial theory, as proposed by M. Agassiz, to the tracts of Russia.under review: Starting from what they conceive to be an axiom, that. the advance of every modern glacier depends upon the superior altitude of the ground behind it, they show, that if certain parallel strie, observed by M. Bétlingk, and others noted by them- selyes, are to be taken as proofs of the overland march of glaciers, such bodies must often have been propelled from lower to higher leyels... For the proofs of this they refer to the eastern sides of the Bothnian Gulf, where M. Botlingk found the striz (“‘ diluvial schram- men’) directed in common with the boulders from N.W. to S.E.; and yet any glaciers which bore these blocks must have advanced from Scandinavia, across the Baltic Sea, and then have ascended the rocky tract in question. - Again, near Petrazowodsk, in the isles ‘ * Silurian System, Pp. 535, et seq. VOL. INI. PART II, 21 is 406 ° of the lake Onega, the authors observed such striz exactly parallel to the major axis of the lake, N.N.W. and 8.S.E., evenfrom a good many feet under the clear fresh water, and thence rising to the height of twenty,feet above the summer level of the lake on the sloping surfaces of the rock. They then argue, that in this tract there are no hills of sufficient altitude on the N.N.W. to account for the de- termined forward direction to the S.S.E.; and as a still further rea- son for rejecting the application of the ‘‘ Alpine glacial theory” to this country, they add, that as the striz in one region have all a- given and. parallel direction, so must the supposed’ glacier not only have moved on as it were without a cause, but also have maintained an incredibly enormous advancing front of many hundred miles in length ! BiG RR Without pretending to offer a complete solution of so difficult a problem, and; after stating that many additional and even experi- mental researches. are required in relation'to the power of water, drift, and ice, they cannot avoid suggesting as a probable explana- tion of the chief, phenomena in the North of Russia, that currents strongly determined in given directions by the® elevation of the northern continental masses, might dislodge and set. in movement icefloes and detritus, which, grating upon the bottom of a sea, may have produced the. parallel strie. They are the more confirmed in this hypothesis, by the fact, that the longer axes of the lakes and stony ridges.of Northern Russia have generally the same direction ; so that the.supposed icebergs and land detritus would necessarily be borne in that.direction. By adopting this view, the existencé of the post pleiocene shells of the Vaga and the Dwina, and their relations to the overlying drift from the North, are in harmony; and whilst admitting so much of the glacial. theory as to allow, that in former days glaciers probably advanced. further to the South and oceupied many insulated tracts, and to a much greater extent than’ at the present.day, the, geologist, they conceive,-is alone called’ upon’ to define and limit.the area of Jand in Scandinavia and Lapland, oncé covered with:solid ice, in dog which he must of course exclude from such agency, the vast countries now covered by erratic blocks, which he ean demonstrate were deposited upon the bottom of the sea. Angular, block-ridges.on lake.and river Banks——On the western shore of the great lake of Onega, the attention of the authors was directed, by Colonel Armstrong*, to three parallel ridges’ of large angular blocks of hard grit (old red sandstone?), which occur at heights, varying from.:20 or-30 to 150 feet. or more above’ the level of the water. As these blocks were identical in ‘composition with the solid subjacent rock, and also quite angular, it was at once evi- dent that they had not been drifted, but simply rent from the solid rock which forms that side of the lake. On a first inspection, the authors were disposed to think that these appearances might have been caused by upheaving or vertical shocks of earthquakes, which they presumed might be among the last signs of the great igneous * Director of the Imperial Iron Foundries of Petrazowodsk, % : 407 action which had once been so dominant in these northern tracts; and they were unable to account for them satisfactorily, until they detected the results of modern action of river ice, which completely explained the lacustrine case. About 80 miles above Archangel they met with a ridge of large angular blocks of white limestone piled up between ‘the’ road on ‘ which they travelled and the river edge, and about 20 or 30 feet above the stream. Having ascertained that this great river was pe- riodically subject to occasional extraordinary rises in the spring, and | that on those occasions it bursts and throws up upon its banks blocks of ice to heights of 20 or 30 feet above its ordinary level, they had at once a solution of the phenomenon; for the blocks of white lime- stone had evidently formed parts of the subjacent strata, which, projecting into the mud and water on the edge of the Dwina, had been first entangled in ice, and rent off at their natural joints upon the expansion of the ice by which they were upheaved into their present position, taking their present irregular talus shape when the ice melted away from them. Believing, therefore, that the angular ledges on the lake of Onega were similarly formed, the authors see in them the proofs of the lakes of Northern Russia having formerly stood at much higher levels, from which the waters, they suppose, have been let off by successive elevations of the land; and they fur- ther think, that the diminution of shallow lakes, and the conversion of marshes into land within the historic period in Northern Russia, strongly corroborate the rise of this portion of the earth. . Conclusion.—In recapitulating the chief point of the first and prac- * tical part of their Memoir, wherein they establish, they trust, on a sound. basis, the general classification of the Paleozoic Rocks of Russia in Europe, the authors remark, that the fact of some of the deposits of such high antiquity being found.to stretch in horizontal and almost unbroken sheets over spaces of a thousand miles in length, in a very slightly solidified or lapidified state, is the more interesting when coupled with the absence, throughout the same regions, of all plutonic or igneous rocks. ‘This phenomenon must, it is conceived, exercise considerable influence upon geological theory, it being now apparent, that the lithological nature of the most ancient subsoil of Russia in Europe is such as to compel geologists to reject the con- clusion, that in proportion to their antiquity the strata have been hardened or crystallized by any general radiation of central heat; for in these wide tracts such crystalline and hardened state is clearly seen to be purely metamorphic, and dependent exclusively on the vicinity of rocks of igneous protrusion, in receding. from which to the South all the strata described are at once found in their normal soft condition. o aor In taking leave of the Society, the authors explained some of the chief objects of their journey to the Ural Mountains, Orenburg, &c., on which they were about to proceed. Note.—After these sheets were sent to press, Mr. Murchison re- ceived letters from his friends and fellow-travellers, the Baron A. de Meyendorf and Count A. Keyserling, in which the researches of 108° : these gentlemen in the South of Russia are explained. « ‘These let- ters communicate important additions to the results already offered to the Geological Society, particularly in regard to the extension and development of the carboniferous system. The geological map which has been prepared by their labours, and from those of other Russian authorities, agrees with that of Mr. Murchison and M. de Verneuil, exhibited to the Society, in the fundamental classification of the rocks which occupy the northern and central governments of Russia, and in the lines of demarcation between the Silurian, Devo- nian or Old Red, Carboniferous, Newer Red, and Oolitic Systems ; but it is copiously enlarged, by showing the extension of the car- boniferous system over a very wide area, ranging from near Witepsk, by the south of Tula and Kaluga, to the S.E. of Cazan. A vast spread of chalk and tertiary deposits directly overlies these carbo- niferous limestones, which rise again from beneath these younger formations in the great carbonaceous tract of the Donetz, the southern edge of which consists of the granitic steppe.» A sec- tion made by Count Keyserling and Professor Blasius to the south of Kaluga, indicates a succession from what these naturalists be- lieve to be the lower beds of the carboniferous limestone, contain- ing Spirifer Mosquensis, into superior strata of sand and shale with coal, subordinate to bands of limestone containing the Pro- ductus hemisphericus, the coal beg associated with much red earth, and overlaid by the upper carboniferous limestone. They also express their belief that the millstone grits which have been alluded to near Moscow must be considered of tertiary age, as similar beds overlie true chalk. , _- Mr. Murchison takes this opportunity, in the name of his feitonms M. de Verneuil and himself, of recording his sense of the value of the additional data which are due to the labours of Baron de Mey- endorf and his associates, and trusts that after an exploration of the flanks of the Ural, and other tracts near Orenburg and in the South, all the chief facts will have been obtained for the construction of a general geological map of Russia in Europe. Count Keyserling, who has traced the shales with. Ammonites near Ust-Sisolsk (N. Lat. 61°, E. Long. 51°*), has indeed contri- buted most powerfully to these results, both by his patient obser- vation, sound knowledge of natural history, and by his barometrical admeasurement of heights,—a point of great geological importance in those central parts of the country where the strata are not de- ranged. . By one of his observations, it appears, that the younger pleiocene deposits on the Dwina, which he detected in company with M. de Verneuil and Mr. Murchison, are about 150 feet above the White Sea. Count Keyserling, now at St. Peterburgh, will accompany the authors in their journey to the Ural Mountains this summer.—March 26. oat * Similar Jurassic beds had been previously observed by M. Strajeske in the N. Ural, Lat. 64° north, and their fossils are described by M. Leopold de Buch in his recent work, ‘ Beitrage zur Destibarasiai der Ceblrestfonne: tionen-in Russ-land.’ PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. Parr Il. 1841. No. 77. April 7.—John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Old Burlington Street ; Edward Bilke, Esq., Stamford Street; Thomas Chapman, Esq., Arundel Street, Strand; Frederick Walter Simms, Esq., Bletchingley, Surrey; John Lee, LL.D., F.R.S., Hartwell House, Buckingham- shire; and Viscount Alford, M.P., Carlton Gardens, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read, entitled «‘ A Notice on the Occurrence of Triassic Fishes in British Strata,” by Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.G.S. Were the muscheikalk abstracted from the continental series of beds called the Trias, and the keuper made to rest on the bunter sandstone, Sir Philip Egerton says, it would be difficult, if not im- possible, to define the proper limits of these formations. The new red sandstone of England, the equivalent of the trias, presents this difficulty, every endeavour to find the muschelkalk having failed ; and therefore geologists are compelled either to consider the keuper, the upper member of the trias, to be also wanting, or to be merged in the mass of alternating marls and sandstones comprising the new red series. Lithological structure, consequently, being of no value, paleontological evidence, the author says, becomes of great import- ance. The beautiful results arrived at by Mr. Owen respecting the Batrachian remains found near Warwick, tend, Sir Philip Egerton ~ states, to render the existence of the keuper extremely probable, though a specific identification with the analogous fossils of the German keuper has not been ascertained. The only instances on record of muschelkalk fishes found in Great Britain, are scales from the Bone Bed at Aust Cliff, and referred by Professor Agassiz to Gyrolepis Albertii and G. tenuistriatus, common continental muschel- kalk fishes. This bed it is well known occurs at the base of the lias, and rests conformably on the green and red marls of the new red sandstone. A thin stratum replete with remains of saurians and ichthyélites occupies a similar stratigraphical position near Axmouth ; and Prof. Agassiz, during his visit to England in the autumn of 1840, identified in a series of specimens obtained by Miss Mary Anning, one Placoid, two Lepidoid, and one Sauroid fish, with well-known VOL. III, PART II. 2M 410 mus¢chelkalk species. He also determined the existence of fifteen other species from this deposit, none of which have been yet noticed in the continental Triassic group. ‘Two, if not three, of the above muschelkalk ichthyolites are also found at Aust; and a comparison of the Aust and Axmouth species gives five as common to the two localities, twelve as confined to the former, and two to the latter. The only conclusion, Sir Philip Egerton states, which he feels justi- fied in advancing from the facts adduced in this communication is, that the beds in question, hitherto considered as belonging to the lias, must be removed from that formation, inasmuch as they pre- sent a series of fishes not only specifically distinct from those of the lias, but possess in the Ganoid genera the heterocerque tail, an or- ganism confined to the fishes which existed anterior to the lias. Appended to the paper is a systematic catalogue, compiled from the ‘ Poissons Fossiles,’ of the Ichthyolites hitherto described, from the keuper and muschelkalk of the Content, together with those recently discovered at the Aust Passage and near Axmouth. The following extraet from that document contains the species common to the Continent and England :-— Continental Localities Order. Genus‘and Species. English Localities. and Formations. Placoid. Hybodus plicatilis. Axmouth. Passim. Muschelkalk. Ganoid. Gyrolepis Alberti. Ibid.—Aust. Passim. Tbid. iy tenuistriatus. [bid.— Ibid. Passim. Ibid. 5 Saurichthys apicalis. Ibid. Bayreuth. Ibid. A letter, dated Helsingfors, January 5th, 1841, from Professor Nordenskidld to Mr. Lyell, ‘On Furrowed Rocks in Finland,” was then read. In consequence of Sefstrém’s observations on the lines which traverse the surface of the Scandinavian mountains, Professor Nor- denskidld has been induced to attend to similar phenomena in Fin- land, and he states, that he has noticed lines on almost all moun- tains from Lapland to the south of Finland, ranging with few devia- tions from N.N.W. and N. to $.8.E. and 8. On the highest cliffs they are seldom visible on account of the surface being worn, but wherever the rocks are overlaid with sand and earth the lines are easily discovered on the covering being removed. Professor Nor- denski6éld has likewise discovered shallow furrows, from three to six feet wide, on the surface of the north and south sand-ridges or pla- teaux which separate the water systems of Finland. | He has traced them for more than fifty fathoms maintaining the same directions as the lines upon the mountains, and he has noticed that they are sometimes near each other. The localities mentioned in the letter are—near the church of Kemi; between Antila and Raukula post- stations on the road from Tornea to Uleaberg; and at a place in Carelia, some miles from the iron-works at St. Anna in Suojerfoi parish. In searching for -iron-ore near Helsingfors, a shaft twenty feet 411 deep was sunk in alluvial soil; and Prof. Nordenskiéld observed on the surface of some fragments which had been blasted from a rock at the bottom of the shaft, similar lmes to those which occur on the mountains, but he was unable to determine their direction, the exca- vation being filled with water and mud. As the rock was twenty feet below the surface of the water in the Finnish Gulf, this fact, Professor Nordenskiold says, proves that the lines which traverse the mountains exist also at least twenty feet beneath the level of ‘the Gulf. Another phenomenon of this nature lately observed by him is a furrowed rock of gneiss, not far from Porkala, but six wersts from the shore. ‘The rock is flat and not very large, and at the height of nine feet above the medium level of the water, is one of the round holes called by the Swedes, “ Giants’ Pots,” but of an unusually large size, being about three feet by two and a half feet. It was somewhat larger within, and sixteen feet deep. Professor Nordenskidld had the water and detritus which it contained taken out, and found at the bottom numerous perfectly rounded stones mixed up with the mud. The sides of the Pot were exactly ground, and as resplendent as gneiss can be made. At the east side the brim was somewhat rounded, and well marked with a number of large, flat, east and west furrows, showing, in Professor Nordens- kidld’s opmion, ‘‘ that the stones and waves had on that side driven. in the brim at the time of its formation.” On the opposite side the margin was quite sharp, as if the rock had been broken away since the cavity had been ground. On the surface of the rock were north and south lines similar to those on the mountains, and they inter- sected the east and west furrows mentioned above ; Professor Nord- enskiéld therefore infers that the lines were made subsequent to the formation of the Giants’ Pot. With respect to the level of the water in the Finnish Gulf, the following changes are shown to have taken place. On the little island of Fussaro, some miles from Hangévdd, and in the open sea, a mark which was made in the year 1754 is now twenty Swedish (194 English) inches above the medium height of the water; an- other which was cut in 1800 is about nine inches; and a ‘third excavated in 1821 is about: five Swedish inches. At St. Petersburg and Cronstadt it is believed that no change has taken place since 1645. A letter, addressed to Dr. Buckland by Mr. Thomas Bailey, ‘‘ Qn the Gravel’ Deposits in the Neighbourhood of Basford,” was next read. The parish of Basford is situated in a valley ranging nearly north and south where it enters the great Trent vale. On the eastern boundary, which is a very elevated district, commences an extensive argillaceous bed containing comparatively few pebbles ; on the west are the coal-fields of Radford and Bilborough; on the north-west occurs the magnesian limestone which extends beyond Mansfield ; 'and on the north is the elevated tract or ancient forest of Hurwood, 2m 2 412 occupied by great accumulations of gravel and sand, agreeing in cha- racter with those in the neighbourhood of Basford. In the midst of the valley in which Basford is situated are lower ridges of hills, mostly ranging in the direction of the valley, and containing beds of gravel quite as thick (two to eight feet), and interspersed with boul- ders as large as those found in the hollows or lower parts. Mr. Bailey is of opinion that none of these deposits were accumulated by fluviatile action, or by any uniform agent operating during long pe- riods, but by a tumultuous commotion, when the surface of the earth was in a different state to that which now prevails with respect to hill and dale—the deposits being very unequal in thickness, con- torted in position, and composed of materials very irregularly asso- ciated as regards nature and size. The transport of the drift in one direction, the author says, appears to have been sometimes checked by arush from an opposite point, by which means the materials were forced into ridges having an axis of loose sand. Some of these ridges, he conceives, may have been produced by intermediate hol- — lows having been scooped out, and subsequently filled with gravel. Mr. Bailey does not offer any positive opinion respecting the di- rection by which the detritus arrived at its present situation, but he thinks it could not have been transported from the S. or 8.E., as it contains no pebbles of Charnwood and Mount Sorrel sienite, or of lias or lias-fossils, or of gypsum ; nor from any point between S.W. and N.W.., on account of the absence of mountain-limestone pebbles, and as the fragments of chert which it contains differ from the chert of the Derbyshire strata. Had the drift come from the west, he states, 1t ought to contain detritus from the coal-fields which occupy the whole district between Basford and the Derbyshire limestone hills, whereas he has found only one or two small pieces of what might be called jet. He has also never obtained any specimens of magnesian limestone, though that formation occupies almost the whole country to the north-west and north. Mr. Bailey therefore suggests, that the gravel was drifted from a district between the north and east points. The mass of these deposits consists of fragments of coarse quartz- ose rock, frequently tinged in a great variety of ways. Many of the pebbles of sandstone are traversed by white veins which project above the general surface: other specimens are rolled portions of quartzose conglomerates, and the greater part of the materials com- posing them appear to have been much worn, before they were in- closed in the cement; but some of the fragments have sustained very little abrasion by removal from their native bed, preserving all the sharpness of recent fractures. Small masses of iron-ore are not of unfrequent occurrence. Mr. Bailey has seen only one specimen of mica-slate. Many fragments of trap are found in these deposits and some of them are of considerable size, constituting the largest blocks in the deposit, and sometimes weighing two or three hundred pounds ; they are often much worn as well as decomposed on the surface. Fragments of porphyry likewise are not rarely met with; and masses 413 of greenstone, or a compound of hornblende and felspar, are also mentioned by the author. No freshwater or marine shells have been discovered in these accumulations. ~. Organic remains derived from other deposits are very rare, with the exception of casts of vegetable origin, Mr. Bailey having found only two impressions of shells. Siliceous fragments of stems of Sigillaria and Stigmaria occur in every pit, retaining more or less in- dubitable marks of their origin, and occasionally exhibiting on the surface a smooth, coffee-brown-coloured coating. One specimen in the author’s possession, measuring nearly four anda half feet in cir- cumference, and weighing about 200 pounds, is stated to retain what appears to be a portion of the original bark. A large series of specimens accompanied the memoir, and was pre- sented by the author. A letter, dated February 1840, from Mr. Thompson of Yarrells, near Poole, in Dorsetshire, and addressed to Dr. Buckland, was after- wards read. The object of this communication is to give an account of a bormg in search of water at the Union Workhouse, Longfleet, near Poole. The first land-sprmg was tapped at the depth of 36 feet, the sur- face of the ground being about 90 feet above low tide in Poole Har- bour. The water was abundant and rose four feet. The next spring occurred at the depth of 127 feet, and others burst forth at 131 feet, 140 feet, 142 feet, 150 feet, 156 feet, 165 feet, 167 feet and 185 feet, from the surface. They all flowed to the same height, and appeared, Mr. Thompson states, to have been fed from the same source. he next spring was encountered at the depth of 235 feet, in a bed of white sand; it flowed six feet higher, and was more abundant than any of the preceding. The spring which issued from the bottom bed was still stronger, and rose 23 feet higher than any of the others, or to within 24 feet of the surface. The lowest pipe introduced into the boring had a diameter of three inches ; it was worked with “ two-lift pumps,” the section-pipe of each being two inches bore, for nine hours incessantly, during which 25,728 gallons were discharged. An analysis of the water was made by Mr. J. H. Cooper, and a gallon was found to contain 95 grains of solid matter, or 44 grains of oxide of iron, the remainder consisting principally of common salt with a small admixture of sulphate and carbonate of lime, and a trace of oxide of manganese. At Hamworthy, near Poole, another boring has been made, within 100 yards of the harbour, to the depth of 314 feet, through a series of beds similar to those penetrated at Longfieet, and a similar series of springs was tapped; but as the boring was commenced at 80 feet lower level, or only 10 feet above low tide in Poole Harbour, all the springs flowed over the surface, though not strongly. ‘This boring was abandoned on account of the sand which accumulated in the pipe. 414 The following is a section of the strata at the Longfleet Union Workhouse :-— ( Depth No. of from the the Bed. Nature of the Bed. Thickness. Surface. Feet. In. - Feet. In. ie blackecittand sand"! fuca. ss. eee eee ce 40 4 0- De Gravel: esti. aie ene. oe ele «aera eres eee le 40 8 0 oar Line yellow sande est ws ae Crelsccre seer el 15 O 23 0 AeiOlay sc. s <: Se CEP eae 23 25 3 5. Fine yellow gant bS i aoa Opeth oO ae ome Gayp bine Drow saad “os sts 6’. seers ate ta hes 23 31 0 7. Coarse brown sand and water .. oF 6 Oeme Ba iG lawareiees 2 Sa Marae Beaten eye a tate Ge Ue 3) 38 0 9 Hard fine blue sand . Bio eM ol Sa aah bi ma S10 57 0 LOS Ditto, with white pebbles). ys Gees P48) 59 9 eee Elardicoarse! blue"samd >. 2). VME aa 1 3 61 O ae bonne: Dime asarid Mees 210 SSeS WO eae 22 0 83 0 13. ‘Coarse dark red sand.'. 2 0Y 022 50, Vee. 10 84 0 eer sulphorettorimons ae) oes) yh Seer 03 84 3 Wark brown Clayses So kesis, eon, VV Ae eee 85 9 HOn pW ite claymamdasantes. fen enn loe ciate 39 89 6 IZ) slight: ble clay: eee | Sekt etme ae Sheek 210 1106 Se War keblue clay inaeaeyey stearate ee ote een eae 20s pn dh236 Oy Select blues claty Waser na en ahh Sh ee ts eke lee 40 116 6 20. are hip ne rock seek Ae Si eae ae eee 20") 4183.6 2a Red sandstone | SW Scere r ha Suntoe Rae 16° 120.0 2a Wiohtiphue roclos yeti sah: iano es ae 2:0 >>9122).0 230 Waeht bile’ Clay "ha cette Ch, ANE Sa Ba 10 123.0 a4. Coarse light blue’sand* 2... 1228 22.5 re Oe ea 200 Wark bliieclay ee. Senet ete hate eae 10 +1280 26. Coarse ight brown sand]. 20) 22 ae 3 6* 13816 Blears DIC Clay amie Me, Le Cate ue 3.0 138456 28. Black sand and petrified wood .......... 20, 0 ASGMG 29e alight brownuelay it, eae) hk ae wes 30 139 6 30. Fine blwe sand oso SNe ame “0 6* 140 0 31. White clay and yellow sand........ Dene 20S aa) pone hock (ictallic) arly set) selena Pe Re eeene 08 1428 oo. iaieht brown sand’: '. cu Se, oe eet 7 68 Tale 34. Very hard light rock. . IL Os ae Bok) kine blue Saude: 4 Oui = cn ERIe, Reon nce 5 0* 156.2 36. Fine blue sand and clay (with a cuneeyts 5y Op aoe of. bight brown sand-rockss. gal vay sae 4 0® 165 Of 38. Dark brown Sandee). S01) a Bie, Tate oe 240") SGHeO 39. Yellow sand and dark brown clay........ LOR GlintaO 40. YeHow sand and white clay............ On6 ee Web * The strata marked with an asterisk are those which threw out springs. + The inches are omitted in the MS. a) Depsh No. of from the the Bed. Nature of the Bed. Thickness. Surface. : Feet. In. Feet. In. Mere Darke prowl Clay’ sli. eins wel cee Bares a8 Oe Ges ol 7SK0 aon eWark clay and black’ sand 2220.0. < 7 0* 185 0 43. Light brown clay (hard crustevery 6in.).. 44 0 229 0 44, Hard blue sand-rock (blue clayin lamine). 20 231 0 4B5 oo NAVAS ISEETTI I ae Sn a nce ERA Gal ee 4 3* 235 3 OEM MEN ORCA ile aa). ssc No eles odie erate 15 0 250 3 MMOH ACKAGIAY so tags ii 6S wade ere = che ie im hee ae Sie mn Psy) 0) PRO MPMPPRLORVANNCLOVG ihe oe e oye/'e a chepeie ages sick geige 6 30 2600 SE PROEOMGAY Miao ois ici Ws, etelaiwicie EU ey, Prtueue ove. lL OU” 26F.0 OB MANNE ALG SAI VP n>. 12). cuss yee, sities itaieh cus «aaa o 0 2660 A letter, dated Glasgow, January 16, 1841, from Mr. Craig to Dr. Buckland, ‘‘ On the Boulder Deposits near Glasgow,’’ was also read. The sand- and gravel-beds of the banks of the Clyde are found, Mr. Craig states, in many places besides the adjacent districts ; and though wherever he has examined them they are superimposed on the till, yet he does not know if they always occupy that position. At Chapel Hall, at the height of 350 feet, a bone of a Mammoth or Mastodon was found in a bed of laminated sand containing quartz pebbles with fragments of coal-measures and overlying till. Similar beds of sand occur near Eagleham, twelve miles south of Glasgow ; and near Galston in Ayrshire, at the height of 500 feet. The sand- beds near Toll Cross on the Hamilton road extend nearly to Broom House Toll, where they rest on till. East of Glasgow the sands lie in the form of a dyke between beds of clay, and extend from the river to the College, where they are cut off by the whinstone dyke which ranges through the city. On the other side of the Clyde they reach as far as Mr. Dixon’s iron-works, but further down the river their thickness is not great. At Mr. Smith’s property of Whiteinch twelve feet of sand overlie thirty of soft clay and sand. The bed containing recent shells at the entrance of the Arkleston Tunnel*, near Paisley, is 80 feet above high-water level ; and a simi- lar bed at Port Glasgow is 40 feet. In both instances it is overlaid by laminated sands similar to those at Toll Cross, and on which the greater part of the city is built. Their highest level in Glasgow is about the same as that at Arkleston. ~ i The boulders are found almost throughout the basin of the Clyde where denudation has not taken place subsequent to their deposition, except in the elevated trap districts, where they are very rare; the only instances mentioned in the paper are the Baker’s Reservoir on * At this tunnel a bed of coal is stated to have been changed by trap into a bed of pyrites; but a stratum of limestone, though only two feet from the trap, is reported to retain its organic remains. bn) Aca the summit of the trap range of Kilpatrick, and Cochney Loch; nor do they appear on those strata which have been upheaved by trap. On the side of the road near Cartlane Bridge is an accumulation of very large primary and transition boulders without till,. forming a kind of escarpment on the brow of a very precipitous bank leading to the valley of the Tee. The opposite slope is crowned with beds of sand. ‘The level of these beds is stated to be 550 feet above the sea. Near the source of the Avon isa deposit of sand and gravel 50 feet thick; and similar beds occur at Greenock Mains, on the Ayr road from Muirk Kirk. West of these deposits, on White Haugh Water, are enormous beds of till. Boulders or fragments of compact flesh- coloured felspar and reddish porphyries are very rare in this district, but are common in the higher parts of Lanark and Ayr, where these rocks form dykes or beds in old red sandstone. Mr. Craig has never found the slightest trace of the coal-measures north of the trap which forms its northern boundary, The following is a summary of the author’s observations respect-— ing the nature of the boulders at Bell’s Park, and the extent to which they have been scratched :— Greywacke, similar to that which is associated with slate near Rose Neath, and mica-schist above Lass on the borders of Loch Lomond. Blocks very abundant, generally smooth, angles rounded, scratches longitudinal, seldom or never crossing each other. Porphyritic traps and basalts are next in abundance ; a few of the basalt-blocks are scratched, but none of the porphyritic. Granite.—The felspar large-grained ; masses few in number, much rounded, very smooth, not scratched. Old red sandstone and conglomerate.-—Abundant, much rounded, never scratched. ‘The conglomerate blocks are very like a variety near Glen Sannox m Arran. Quartzose rock.—Blocks not abundant, very smooth ; more rounded than any other, not scratched. Coal sandstone.—Blocks angular, scratched longitudinally. Frag- ments of iron-stone rare and angular, but smooth. Carboniferous limestone.—The masses belonging to this forma- tion are next in abundance to those derived from the traps. When large they are much scratched longitudinally and transversely ; and the angles are sharp. “ A note by Mr. Murchison on a Section and a List of Fossils from the State of New York,” by James Hall, Esq., was likewise read. Mr. Murchison says, that in consequence of the researches of Mr. Featherstonaugh, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Hall, Mr. Vanuxem, Mr. R. C. Taylor, and other geologists, large tracts in the British colonies in North America and in the United States have been for some time known to be composed of formations containing Silurian, old red sandstone and carboniferous fossils. Mr. Hall’s section, presenting ~ a tabular view of the succession of formations, commences with the red sandstone of Blossburgh in Pennsylvania, proved to be the repre- 417 sentative of the old. red sandstone or Devonian system of Great Bri- tain, in consequence of its inclosing remains of Holoptychius and Coccosteus. ‘This deposit is succeeded in descending order by others, referable, on account of their testaceous remains, to the lower part of the same system, and these are again underlaid by limestones and shales, especially at Lockport and Rochester, charged with Ptilo- dictya lanceolata and other Silurian corals and fossils. The lowest deposit alluded to by Mr. Hall is the Medina sandstone. The: fol- lowing sectional list, in descending order, is copied from his com- munication :— Red sandstone. Sandstone and shale, abundance of fossil shells. Shale, with thin layers of sandstone ; Fucoides, abundance ; few shells. Green and black shale, several hundred feet, thick. Black shale. Moscow shale. Encrinal limestone. Ludlowville shale. Thin mass, with Bellerophons. Shale. Thin limestone, with fossils. Marcellus shale. Limestone, with hornstone. Onondaga limestone. Onondaga saliferous group, containing gypsum and salt-springs. Lockport limestone. Rochester shale. Limestone. Green shale, with fossils. Pentamerus limestone. Green shale and iron ore. Red and grey sandstone, Medina sandstone*. With respect to the Onondaga saliferous group, Mr. Murchison points out its extremely low geological position, resting upon a cal- careous stratum, which has been proved by its organic remains to be the equivalent of the Wenlock limestone ; and he states that it is of higher antiquity than the oldest salt-bearing beds of Russia. Mr. Murchison also alludes to the great value of Mr. Hall’s communica- tion in proving the wide application of the paleozoic succession esta- blished in Great Britain. — April 21.—Joseph Cox, Esq., of Wisbeach, and Hugh Fraser, Esq., of Newton, near Inverness, were elected Fellows of this So- ciety. * For detailed accounts of the New York Devonian and Silurian Systems and their Organic Remains, see the Geological pee of the State for 1838, 1839, 1840. * — 418 A paper ‘* On the Geological Phenomena in the Vicinity of Cape Town, Southern Africa,” by the Rev. W. B. Clarke, F.G.S., was read. Mr. Clarke commences by stating, that having derived no advan- tage from the labours of previous geologists, his remarks must be regarded as independent of any prior description. He arranges his ‘details under the heads of Physical aspect, Mineral structure, and Geological changes. . 1. Physical aspect.—The leading physical features are the mag- nificent serrated mountains called Blue Berg or Hottentot’s Hol- land, which stretch northward for many miles into the interior; and the promontory which extends from Table Mountain to the Cape of Good Hope. Each of these ranges consists of flat-topped masses interspersed with pyramidal or pointed peaks, and separated by deep ravines ; and Mr. Clarke states that their outline is evidently owing to deep vertical fissures intersecting horizontal strata, proving also that the Table Mountain is not a solitary example of the fea- ture to which it owes its name. A level area extends from the base of the Blue Berg to the shore; and between the southern termina- tion of that range and Table Mountain, is the low sandy district called the Table Flats, forming an isthmus between Table Bay and False Bay. A prominent but subordinate physical feature is the Lion’s Hill, situated below Table Mountain; at the entrance of the Bay is Robben’s Island, and between the base of the Blue Berg and the shore is a low range of hills of limited extent. False Bay is bounded on the west by the Cape Promontory, atl on the east by a continuation of the Blue Berg, presenting the same physical structure and geological aspect as the Promontory. Mineral structure and position.—In detailing the composition of the rocks and the associated pheenomena, Mr. Clarke describes sepa- rately, and in the following order, first, each of the principal physical masses ; namely, the Lion’s Rump, the district between Green Point and Camp’s Bay, that between Camp’s Bay and Cobler’s Hole, the Kloof, and Table Mountain; and secondly, the modern deposits, springs and detritus. The Lion’s Rump.—The lowest deposit at the Lion’s Rump varies in characters from a glossy soft slate to a hard and siliceous, as well as a crystalline schist, and occasionally to a rock as close-grained as - bassanite. The partings of the masses are stated to be frequently lined with a substance resembling soapstone and serpentine; and the intersection of the joints giving the strata a somewhat columnar structure, the rock presents a basaltic aspect. The true line of bed- ding is not easily to be distinguished, but the author is of opinion that it ranges between north and south. The cleavage, where it can be detected, is nearly perpendicular to the horizon. Overlying these schists and composing the upper part of the hill, is a yellowish, argillaceous and sandy laminated rock, which presents the same jointed structure and cleavage as the schist; and owing to the in- tersection of the joints, the beds divide into wedge-shaped masses, or@regular prisms with pyramidal terminations. Mr. Clarke is of 419 opinion that the subjacent schistose rocks have been intruded into - or amongst these upper beds, and he states that the grooved and fluted surfaces betray the intensity of the forces with which the slaty masses were ground against each other. He mentions a quarry below the Lion’s Rump at the back of Cape Town, as an example of the disturbed position of the schist and overlying sandy rock. He suggests that the schists may belong to the Cambrian, and the super- jacent beds to the lower portion of the Silurian system. The schistose rocks occur also in Robben’s Island ; and on the other side of the Lion’s Rump they form a reef of hard rock along the shore, occurring at intervals at the bottom of Table Bay, and re-ap- pearing in the rounded low range upon the opposite coast. Grooves and scratches, as well as ripple-marks, are very prominent on many of the slabs. 2. District from Green Point to Camp’s Bay.—The rocks which form the general base of the Lion’s Hill are stated to be best exa- mined along the flat shore which skirts it, and where the successive formations crop out. ‘The slate rocks gradually attain a nearly ver- tical dip as they recede from the Lion’s Rump ; and between their out- crop in the sea, where they form the first line of barrier rocks, and Green Point, they first change into mica-slate, which soon becomes charged with hornblende, then presents a mottled aspect, and gneiss is ultimately exposed in contact with granite. At the immediate junc- tion of the gneiss with the granite the former is stated to be in some places superficially black and vitreous, extremely hard, as vesicular as lava, and to be most curiously contorted. Masses of true Lydian stone and other metamorphic rocks are stated to be intercalated be- tween the ridges of slate. The true beds in the vicinity of the gneiss range from S.E. to N.W., but where that rock first appears, the strata, as well as the sandstone, dip under the Lion’s Rump at an angle of 82° towards the N.E. One line of joints, called by the author cleavage-joints, is stated to be inclined 18° to the W.S.W. ; and some of the intercalated beds are said to have similar joints dipping 23° to the N.W. Directly under the Lion’s Head, where the gneiss is in contact with the granite, the beds alter in their direction about 5° to the west, the cleavage joints changing also to a'range of 30° to the west; and the strata on the shore are in utter confusion. At this point commences a series of highly curious quartz veins, which intersect the gneiss, passing in some places through the joints, as if of posterior origin to the change which pro- duced that structure im the rock, and they throw off from each side numerous branch veins, often at right angles to the main vein. The gneiss is described as overlaid by granite, and the quartz veins to be most numerous adjacent to it. Veins of granite are likewise visible on the shore, intersecting the gneiss near the junction of the two formations; and numerous instances of the entanglement of the granite and gneiss were noticed by the author, the fragments of the latter, inclosed in the former, being almost invariably coated by quartz. It is also stated, that veins of quartz traverse the entangled portions exactly in the same manner as the solid mass of gneiss; 420 and that the entanglement is nearly always in connexion with the joints, pointing out, Mr. Clarke is of opinion, that all these pheeno- mena are due to one cause; and he is further of opinion, that the si- lica in the quartz veins was deposited from a state of vapour. ‘The granite is generally large-grained; but where it forms veins, either in the gneiss or in the great mass of granite, it becomes finely grained. The whole of the shore from this point is granitic, as well as the ‘Lion’s Hill, except the cap of sandstone. The junction of the granite and the gneiss cannot be satisfactorily traced owing to the covering of vegetation, but the granite is flanked by nearly vertical or upturned beds of gneiss and slate, and is capped by horizontal beds of sand- stone, which are penetrated by granite veins. ‘These phenomena, Mr. Clarke states, clearly establish the induction, that though the periods may have been distant, the schistose rocks owe their elevation to the up-burst of the granite before the deposition of the sandstone ; and that subsequently the granite has been re-heated and further elevated, carrying with it the whole area described to a higher level. 3. Camp’s Bay and Cobler’s Hole-—Granite extends along the shore and around Camp’s Bay, lining the edge of the sea with huge rounded blocks, and the masses zz situ are traversed by deep fissures. Near the cottages situated on the road which winds round the mid- dle portion of the Lion’s Head and passes over the Kloof to Cape Town, two trap dykes intersect a soft decomposed granite. Under the Lion’s Head at Cobler’s Hole, and 400 feet above the level of the sea, the granite ledges, for a vertical height of 10 or 12 feet and 30 yards in horizontal extent, are stated to be covered with shingly soil or an elevated beach, having imbedded shells of the same species as now inhabit the neighbouring ocean; and they are so firmly fixed in the soil or to the granite pebbles, as to require some trouble to extract them entire. ; 4. The Kloof.—A vein of trap near the summit of the pass tra- verses the granite, which is there also in a state of decomposition. About six feet above the road, the dyke is interrupted by a horizon- tal shift of eighteen inches to the west. At the Kloof is another dyke, which is described in Dr. Abel’s work*. 5. Table Mountain.—The eastern side of this mountain is formed of granite for nearly two-thirds of its vertical height. On the flat ground at Wynberg occur large blocks of granite perfectly rounded, — and the granite floor has the same smooth and rounded surface. The flat between Wynberg and Constantia has also a substratum of granite, with a covering of blown sand or vegetable soil. . On the opposite side of False Bay and the Cape Flats granite again rises into lofty mural precipices, capped, as on the west side, by sandstone. It therefore constitutes the fundamental rock of the — whole of the district south of the Lion’s Head, and is everywhere, except at the flats between Table and False Bays, crested by hori- zontal beds of sandstone. ‘The soil of the vineyards of Cape Town * Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China, &c., 1818. 421 and Constantia is derived from the decomposition of the granite; and the clay of which it consists is either overlaid or contains a hard layer consisting of quartz pebbles and ferruginous matter. Mr. Clarke does not class this clay, occasionally 100 feet thick, with modern or recent formations, because it occurs at the Lion’s Head in gullies, whither it could have been transported only by causes no longer in operation ; it is moreover everywhere covered with enormous blocks of sandstone, and occasionally of granite, but is not mingled with them, except at the Kloof, and in the beds of the excavating tor- rents; he is therefore of opinion that it was accumulated during the period when the whole mass of granite lay beneath the waters of the sea. The sandstone which enters so largely into the geological consti- tution of the Cape district, and forms the upper part of Table Moun- tam, has not yet yielded any organic remains; but in a very similar sandstone, resting upon granite, at Cedar Berg and other parts of the colony, true Silurian Trilobites, with other fossils of that age, have been found*. ‘The Cape sandstone is stated to resemble in - mineral character the Caradoc more than the old or new red sand- stone, and the altered portions are said to be closely analogous in appearance to the Lickey quartz rock. Many of the beds are soft and white; others are hard, dark-coloured, and very ferruginous ; and some are composed of a quartzose conglomerate. Large hol- lows or excavations, such as exist where the sea beats against a sandstone cliff, appear in all the sandstone escarpments, plainly show- ing, Mr. Clarke observes, that the sandstone of Table Mountain was once a cliff acted upon by the sea, and the boulders of that rock on the slope beneath bear, he says, unequivocal signs of the action of currents of water. No beds decidedly calcareous were observed by - Mr. Clarke; but he mentions a stalactite forty feet long exhibited at Constantia, and the occurrence of similar stalactites on the sides of the mountain at Houts Bay, as indications of the existence of bands of limestone or calcareous sandstone. He also alludes to the two hills of limestone at Cape Agulhas. Modern Deposits.—These are confined to the dunes along the coast at the foot of the Blue Berg, the sand ridges on the Cape Flats, and the drift sand on the wide space under the slope of the Cape Promontory towards Constantia. Mr. Clarke also includes in them the concretions or calcareous sand tubes formed around the roots and stems of marine plants near Green Point, and at other lo- calities. These accumulations generally assume the form of an elongated tumulus, and are occasionally from 30 to 100 feet.thick. The author also alludes to the vegetable and other debris brought to- gether by the rains, and to the commencement by this means of an embryo lignite formation on one side of the Cape Flats. Springs.—The well-water in Cape Town is considered unwhole- some. Under Table Mountain is a spring which rises from the gra- nite, and is computed to throw out daily 150,000 gallons; and at * For an account of Dr. Smith’s discoveries at Cedar Berg see Mr. Murchison’s Silurian System, p. 583. 1839. 4.22 Newlands near Wynberg is a spring of sufficient volume to work two mills, and to discharge daily 850,000 gallons. That these springs are not the result of accumulations from the heights, is proved, Mr. Clarke says, from their not varying with the season, and because the water cannot be made to rise above the level at which it appears. Detritus.—The accumulations described under this head are en- tirely local, being derived from the subjacent or neighbouring rocks. The smooth and rounded granite boulders also do not extend beyond the range of the granite, but Mr. Clarke is of opinion that the ancient currents which flowed over the Cape Flats may have assisted in their partial removal, and may have rounded some of them. In the in- terior, masses of granite, similar to the Tors of Dartmoor, are stated to occur. Geological changes.—The first points noticed by Mr. Clarke, are the protrusion of the granite through the slates at the Lion’s Head, the consequent vertical position of the schistose beds, the occurrence of fragments of granite in blocks of sandstone; and the proofs deducible from the granite veins which penetrate and alter the gneiss, as well as traverse the superincumbent sandstone, of the granite, since its first elevation, having been re-heated. He also alludes to the quartz veins which are crossed by others of the same nature, as evidences of there having been two periods of action during which the rock was fissured _ and veins formed; and to the trap dykes, as proofs of igneous acti- vity since the consolidation of the granite. He likewise mentions the softening or the decomposition of the granite where traversed by trap dykes. The author next describes the changes in the relative level of land and sea. Everything, he says, tends to confirm the inference, that the whole country was at a comparatively recent period under water. Thus the shingle beds, resting upon granite, at Cobler’s Hole, prove an elevation of at least 400 feet since the present species of testacea inhabited the adjacent seas; and he adds, ‘“‘ ‘The water-worn masses of sandstone and the hollows in the beds of that rock zn situ, iden- tical with those now produced by sea-waves beating against a cliff, equaliy prove the condition of previous elevation ; and the steep sides of the granite, in parallel lines of coast, also lead to the conclusion that they were so modified by currents acting in lines coincident with their direction.” ‘The occurrence of marine shells in the sand at the Cape Flats likewise shows that the sea once covered that district ; and the grooves and scratches at the Lion’s Rump, Mr. Clarke observes, justly lead to the inference of elevation. Before the commencement of these changes in the relative level of land and sea, False Bay and Table Bay must have been united by a sheet of water more than sixty fathoms deep, extending over the flats, and the Cape Promontory must have been an island. To the action of the sea at that period Mr. Clarke attributes the production of the felspathic clay, and its accu- mulation at the Lion’s Rump; and to the action of currents at an earlier period, when the summit of the Table range lay as islands and reefs not far above the level of the sea, the removal of the sand- stone and the excavation of the granite at the Kloof, also the denu- 423 dation and rounding of the ridge of the Lion’s Hill, the denudation of Robben’s Island, and the production of those terraces, which from the summit of Table Mountain appear to stretch gradually down- wards to the Cape of Good Hope. The separation of the Lion’s Rump and the Devil’s Mountain from the Table Mountain, and the fissures throughout the range, the author conceives were pro- duced during the elevation of the country. Proofs of changes of re- lative level of sea and land are stated to be equally apparent in the interior ; and Mr. Clarke says, that the inspection of an accurate map will convince the inquirer, that Southern Africa must have been an Archipelago. In conclusion, some general observations are made on the great similarity in the geological composition of Southern Africa and New South Wales. a ik A perce bites: Ei ade pe BAG ' Mi oy 7 : ait Ve . sere Chae : ane rhe, hove’ our be vb jain 89. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. Parr II. 1841. No. 78. May 5.—John Young, Esq., M.P., Baillieborough Castle, County of Cavan; R. H. Cheney, Esq., of Badger Hall, near Shiffnal; William Evans, Esq., M.P., Allestree Hall, Derbyshire, and Park House, Kensington Gore, London ; and John Houseman, Esq., Endsleigh-street, Tavistock-square, were elected Fellows of this So- ciety. In conformity with Section VI., Clause 8, of the By-Laws, the Chairman read, for the first time, the names of the following Fellows proposed by the Council to be removed from the Lists of the Society on account of arrears of annual contributions :-— Thomas Alderson, Esq., John Crawfurd, Esq., Sir George Duckett, Bart., John Dunston, Esq., John Hanson, Esq., and James Har- field, Esq. A Memoir ‘ On the Distribution of the Erratic Boulders, and on the contemporaneous unstratified Deposits of South America,” by Charles Darwin, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., was read. The extensive regions more particularly noticed in this paper are the plains traversed by the Rio Santa Cruz (lat. 50° S.); Tierra del Fuego, including the coasts of the Strait of Magellan, and the Island of Chiloe (lat. 43° S., long. 73° W.). Patagonia.—Between the Rio Plata and the Rio Santa Cruz, Mr. Darwin did not observe any boulders, and the only one he no- ticed in ascending the first 100 miles of the latter river was a mass 7 feet in circumference, about 57 miles from its mouth, or 100 from the Cordillera. At 100 miles from the coast, or 67 from the near- est slope of the Cordillera, transported blocks first occur, and 12 miles nearer the chain they are extraordinarily numerous, consisting of clay-slate, felspathic rocks, chlorite schist and basaltic lava. They are generally angular, and some of them are of immense size, one being 60 feet in circumference, and projecting from 5 to 6 feet above the surface of the ground. The vast open plain on which they lie scattered, is here 1400 feet above the level of the sea, and its surface is somewhat irregular, owing partly to denudation and partly to the protrusion of hummocks and fields of lava. The plain slopes gently and regularly towards the Atlantic, where the sea- cliffs are about 800 feet high; but towards the Cordillera it rises more abruptly, attaining near the chain an elevation of 3000 feet. VOL. Ill. PART II. 2N 426 The highest peaks of the Cordillera in this part of its range do not. exceed 6400 feet above the level of the sea. The following section, exhibited in the banks of the Santa Cruz in longitude 70° 50’ W., is given by Mr. Darwin to illustrate the nature of the plain on which the boulders rest. : feet. 1. Gravel, or well-rounded shingle, coarsely stratified, bear- | : : : 5 212 ing chiefly on its surface great angular erratic blocks. . 9. -Basalticdavar: sez sais tees es Tee ick eee ae arnt 322 3. Variously coloured thin strata, the lower ones contain- ing minute pebbles of the same nature as the boulders, 588 with the exception of the lava ........ 0... 0000000: 1122 Bed of the Santa Cruz, above the level of the sea........ 280 1402 The shingle bed (1.) extends uninterruptedly to the coast, where it is certainly of submarine origin ; and from the general similarity of its nature, Mr. Darwin is of opinion, that it was all accumulated under the same circumstances. The contrast in the means of trans- port between the deposits (3.) and (1.), the former consisting of fine particles and the latter of large pebbles and immense blocks of the same rocks with the former, is noticed by Mr. Darwin as an inter- esting circumstance. The valley of the Santa Cruz widens, on approaching the Cordil- lera, into an estuary-like plain, which has an elevation of only 440 feet; and it is believed by Mr. Darwin to have been submerged within the post-pleiocene period, because existing sea-shells were found near the mouth of the plain, and because terraces, which, near the coast, certainly are of recent submarine origin, extend far up the valley. Around this estuary-like plain, and between it and the great high plain, is a second plain, 800 feet in height, the surface of which, as well as the bed of the river in this part, consists of shingle with great boulders. Some of these are of granite, sienite and conglomerate, rocks, which were not observed by Mri:Darwin on the high plain; and on the contrary, the boulders of basaltic lava which were so numerous there, were entirely absent from this lower plain and the river-course. From these circumstances, and likewise from the immense quantity of solid matter which must have been removed in excavating the valley of the Santa Cruz, the author infers that the boulders on the intermediate plain and in the bed of the river, between 80 and 40 miles from the Cordillera, are not derived from the wreck of the high plain, but were transported from the Cordillera subsequently to the modelling of the country, and within, or not long before, the period of existing shells. Mr. Darwin did not observe erratic blocks in any other part of Patagonia, but he states, on the authority of Capt. King, that large fragments of primary rocks occur on the surface of the great plain which terminates at Cape Gregory, in the Strait of Magellan. =~ 427 Tierra del Fuego, and Sirait of Magellan.—Yhe eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego is formed of large outliers of the Patagonian form- ation, fringed “by deposits of more recent origin. These lower plains, varying in height from 100 to 250 feet, have been elevated within the post-pleiocene period ; and they consist of finely grained argillaceous sandstone arranged in thin horizontal or inclined lamin, and often associated with curved layers of gravel. On the eastern borders of the Straits of Magellan, and at "Elizabeth Island, Cape Negro, Nuestra Sefora de Gracia, all within the Straits, as well as along the line of coast extending to Port Famine, the sandstone passes into, or alternates with, great unstratified deposits, either of an earthy nature and whitish colour, or of a hardened coarse-grained mud of a dark colour, both containing angular and rounded fragments as well as great boulders of sienite, greenstone, felspathic rocks, clay-slate, hornblende-slate, and quartz. ‘These are arranged without the slightest indication of order, and are derived from mountains at least 60 miles distant to the west or south-west. Sometimes the mass is divided by beds of stratified shingle, North of Cape Vir- gins, near the entrance of the Strait, it alternates with beds of argil- laceous, horizontally laminated sandstone, often thining out and becoming curvilinear at each end. The inclosed fragments must, in this case, have been transported at least 120 miles. Though Mr. Darwin observed only two boulders imbedded in this deposit, yet ~ as he did not notice any scattered on the surface of the country, he concludes that the boulders which occur in vast numbers on all the beaches have generally been washed out of the cliffs: in St. Sebas- tian’s Bay, however, on the east coast of Tierra del Fuego, he found many blocks in a protected position at the base of a naked cliff 200 feet high, entirely composed of thin strata of finely grained sand- stone ; he therefore infers that, in this instance, they must have been derived from a thin superficial deposit. From the form of the land where these boulders occur, it is clear, Mr. Darwin states, that long anterior to the present total amount of elevation, a wide channel must have connected the middle of the Strait of Magellan with the Atlantic; and from the occurrence of boulders on the low neck of land near:Elizabeth Island, that at the same period a straight channel must have existed between Otway Water and the eastern arm of the Strait. As the present currents off Cape Horn set from the west, Mr. Darwin says, it is probable that the ancient currents had a similar direction, and this inference, he adds, is in accordance with the fact, that the boulders and smaller fragments have been transported from mountains to the west. Navarin Island, and several adjacent isletsioff the extreme southern parts of Tierra del Fuego, are fringed at about an equal height by an unstratified boulder deposit, very similar to that of the Strait of Magellan; and in Beagle Channel, which separates Navarin Island from Tierra del Fuego, it occasionally alternates regularly with layers of shingle. This extensive deposit resembles, Mr. Darwin states, the ‘Till > of Scotland, and the boulder formation of Northern Europe and the 2n 2 428 East of England. The interstratification of regular beds, the occa- sional appearance of stratification in the massitself, the juxta-position of rounded and angular fragments of various sizes and kinds of rock derived from distant mountains, and the frequent capping of gravel, indicate some peculiar but similar origin in this deposit of the above widely separated regions. Mr. Darwin follows Mr. Lyell in believ- ing that floating ice, charged with foreign matter, has been the chief agent in its formation ; but he adds that it is difficult to understand how the finest sediment was arranged in horizontal lamine, and coarse shingle in beds, while stratification is totally, and often sud- denly, wanting in the closely neighbouring till, if it be supposed that the materials were merely dropped from melting drift ice ; and he is disposed to think that the absence of stratification, as well as the curious contortions described in some of the stratified masses, are mainly due to the disturbing action of icebergs when grounded. He believes also that the total absence of organic remains in these deposits may be accounted for by the ploughing up of the bottom by stranded icebergs, and the impossibility of any animal existing on . a soft bed of mud or stones under such circumstances. In confirm- ation of the disturbing action of icebergs, Mr. Darwin refers to Wrangeli’s remarks on their effects off the coast of Siberia. Chiloe.—North of latitude 47° and between it and the southern ex- tremity of Chiloe, the author landed at several points, but saw no boulders; and he explains their absence by the coast being at a distance from the Cordillera, and separated from it by intervening high land. At Chiloe erratic boulders, often of great size and consisting of granite and sienite, occur in vast numbers along the whole line of the east- ern and northern beaches, as well as on the islets. parallel to the eastern coast, and on the land at the height of upwards of 200 feet ; but the author did not observe any on the western coast at the two points which he examined, nor during an excursion of 30 miles across the high central portion of the island. Chiloe consists, as far as Mr. Darwin ascertained, of mica-slate and volcanic formations, extensively bordered, but chiefly on the eastern and northern sides, by a horizontally-bedded tertiary sandstone and volcanic grit. On the eastern coast, the land is indistinctly: modelled into successively rising plains, the surfaces of the upper and the whole thickness of some of the lower being in general composed of stratified shingle. A few boulders occur in this gravel; and as the shores have been extensively denudated, Mr. Darwin infers that most of the very numerous blocks on the beaches were originally included in it. At the northern end of the island, the granitic and sienitic boulders are intermingled, but 30 miles to the southward, the author noticed only granite blocks. ‘The parent rock he believes lies in the Cordillera; and several of the varieties of granite and sienite at the northern end of the island are stated, on the authority of an intelligent resi- dent, to form whole’ mountains in Reloncavi Sound, on the opposite part of the main land. The larger masses were quite angular, and resembled fragments at the foot of a mountain. One block measured 429 15 feet in length, 11 in breadth, and 9 in height ; another, of a pen- tagonal form, 11 feet on each side, and at one part projected 16 feet above the sand, in which it was partly buried. At the extreme northern point of Chiloe, a headland 250 feet high is joined to Lacuy peninsula by a low neck of land; and from its composition, height and stratification, Mr. Darwin ascertained that it was once continuous with the opposite coast. The boulders were much more numerous on the isthmus and its sides at the height of 150 feet, than on any other part of the surrounding coun- try; and as the sea must have flowed over this isthmus in a channel, previous to the amount of elevation, ascertained to have taken place here within the post-pleiocene period, the position of these boulders proves, according to Mr. Darwin, even more clearly than the cases occurring in Tierra del Fuego, the evident relationship between their distribution and the lines of anciently existing sea-channels. In the southern half of Chiloe, and on one of the Chonos islands, the author discovered a deposit of hardened mud, including far trans- ported, angular and rounded fragments, and resembling the till of the Straits of Magellan. In a layer of loose sand at the base of the cliff in the latter locality, he noticed a quantity of comminuted ma- rine shells with a fresh aspect ; and at Chiloe he also observed, at a point where a mass of till passed into finely grained laminz, small fragments of a Cytherea. With respect to the age of the boulder formation of Chiloe, Mr. Darwin offers no precise remark, but he says that it probably occurs within the post-pleiocene period, because at a height of 350 feet on the peninsula of Lacuy, and therefore considerably above the level of this formation, a great bed of existing sea-shells was observed, and neither the boulder nor accompanying beds appear to have been of deep-water origin. Similar evidence was adduced respecting the age of the till of Tierra del Fuego. North of 41° 47’ 8. lat., Mr. Darwin did not observe on the Pacific side of South America either boulders or till; nor any north of the Straits of Magellan, on the shores of the Atlantic side; and he accounts for the absence of erra- tic blocks in the latter region by its great distance from the Cor- dillera...He is also strongly of opinion that till will be found to be limited to the latitudes in which true boulders occur. Glaciers, &c.—In the concluding part of his memoir, the author offers a few remarks on the glaciers of Tierra del Fuego, and on the transport of the boulders. He did not disembark on any glacier, but in the Beagle and Magdalen channels he passed within 2 miles of several. The mountains were covered with snow, and the gla- ciers formed many short arms, terminating at the beach in low per- pendicular cliffs of ice. Their surface, to a considerable height on the mountains, was perfectly clean and of a bright azure colour; and the former condition he ascribes to their shortness, to their not being flanked by overhanging precipices, and to their not being formed by the junction of two or more smaller streams. The de- scent of the glaciers, Mr. Darwin states, cannot be very slow, as vast masses continually break off with a great noise, and produce a tu- 430 multuous surf on the adjacent beaches. The glaciers in the Beagle Channel were generally bordered by a tongue of land composed of huge fragments of rock, and many boulders were strewed on the neighbouring shores. The glacier which he approached most closely descended to the head of a creek formed on one side by a wall of mica-slate, and on the other by a broad promontory from 50 to 60 feet high, on which he landed: it appeared to consist en- tirely of enormous masses of granite. This promontory, he con- ceives, was once a lateral meraine, and as it projects nearly half a mile beyond the extremity of the glacier, and is covered with old trees, he infers that the glacier has diminished in length to that ex- tent. ‘ Mr. Darwin says it is impossible to explain the distribution of boulders without the agency of ice, but he adds, that neither the till of the Strait of Magellan which passes into, and is irregularly inter- stratified with, a laminated sandstone containing marine remains, nor the stratified gravel of Chiloe, can have been produced like ordinary moraines. The boulders, likewise, on the lower levels at the head of the Santa Cruz river, he considers, could not have been distributed in their present position by glaciers, the surface having been modelled by the action of the sea; and the little inclination of the high plain from the ridge of the Cordillera to where the boulders occur, as well as the absence of mounds or ridges on it, and the form of the fragments, render it very improbable that they were pro- pelled from the mountains by ancient glaciers. Hence, he con- cludes, that the blocks of Tierra del Fuego and Chiloe were certainly transported by floating ice, and most probably those of the low and high plains of Santa Cruz. Finally, he is of opinion, from the ge- neral angularity of the blocks, and from the present nature of the climate of the southern parts of America, which favours the descent of glaciers to the sea in latitudes extraordinary low, that it is more probable that the boulders were transported on the surface of 1¢e- bergs, detached from glaciers on the coast, than imbedded in masses of ice, produced by the freezing of the sea. May 19th.—Joseph Wickenden, Esq., Secretary of the Birmingham Philosophical Institution, was elected a Fellow of this Society. In conformity with Section VI., Clause 8, of the By-laws, the Chairman read the names of the following Fellows proposed by the Council to be removed from the Lists of the Society on account of arrears of annual contributions :-— Thomas Alderson, Esq., John Crawfurd, Esq., Sir George Duckett, Bart., John Dunston, Esq., John Hanson, Esq., and James Harfield, Esq., for the second time; and Joseph Backwell, Esq., and William Parker, Esq., for the first time. A paper ‘‘ On the Agency of Land Snails in corroding and making deep Excavations in compact Limestone Rocks,” by the Rev. Pro- fessor Buckland, D.D., F.G.S., was first read. 431 During the meeting of the Geological Society of France at Bou- logne, in September 1839, Dr. Buckland’s attention was called by Mr. Greenough to a congeries of peculiar hollows on the under sur- face of a ledge of carboniferous limestone rocks. They resembled at first sight the excavations made by Pholades, but as he found in them a large number of the shells of Helix aspersa, he inferred that the cavities had been formed by snails, and that probably many ge- nerations had contributed to produce them*. A few years since, the Rev. N. Stapleton informed the author that he had discovered at Tenby, in the carboniferous limestone on which the ruins of the castle stand, perforations of Pholades 30 or 40 feet above high-water level; but having recently examined the spot, Dr. Buckland ascertained that these excavations were the work of the same species of Helix as that which had formed the cavities in the limestone near Boulogne, and he found within them specimens of the dead shells as well as of the living. The mode of operation by which the excavations were made, he conceives, is the same as that by which the common limpet (Patella vuigata) corrodes a socket in calcareous rocks, and he is of opinion that the corrosion is due to the action of some acid secreted from the body of the limpet or helix. That the perforations, both at Boulogne and Tenby, were not the work of Pholades, Dr. Buckland says, is evident. Ist. From their size and shape, which, instead of the straight and regular form accurately fitting the shell of the animal by which each hole was perforated, are tortuous, irregularly enlarging and contract- ing, and rarely continuous in a straight line. ‘The holes moreover are often separated by only a thin partition, or are confluent. 2Qndly. Because they are wanting on the upper surface of the -projecting ledges of limestone, whilst on the sides and lower sur- faces of the ledges they are excavated to considerable depths. The above reasons, Dr. Buckland says, against the excavations having been made by any marine lithophagous animal, are favour- able to the hypothesis which refers the production of them to snails. These animals, he observes, could find shelter only on the margin and lower surface of the projecting rock, and the irregular form of the confltient cavities correspond with that of the clusters of snails in their ordinary latitat and hybernation ; and if to these reasons be added the fact of finding both living and dead shells in the excava- tions, the evidence, the author conceives, is decisive as to the agency of snails in producing the phenomena under consideration. In conclusion, the author offers some remarks on the means by which these hollows have been corroded having been overlooked, in consequence, he suggests, of their having been probably referred to the action of the weather, or water, or to original iene in the composition: of the stone. _ A paper ‘‘ On Moss Agates and other Siliceous Bodies,’ by John Scott Bowerbank, Esq., F.G.S., was then read. : In a paper “On the Origin and Structure of Chalk-flints and * See Bulletin Geol. Soc. France, vol. x. p. 434, 1839. 432 Greensand Cherts*,” Mr. Bowerbank inferred that the sponges from which he conceives those bodies originated, differed from recent kera- tose sponges only in having possessed numerous siliceous spicula. Since that paper was read, the author, however, has found in true keratose sponges from Australia}, as well as in the sponges of com- merce from the Mediterranean and the West Indiest{, siliceous spicula in great abundance. All discrepancies, therefore, between the extinct and modern types of a portion of the animals under con- sideration, he says, is now removed. In these prefatory remarks, Mr. Bowerbank likewise states that there is at present only one known species of recent sponge (S. fistularis) the fibre of which is truly tubular. The author then proceeds to detail the evidences of the existence in moss agates from Oberstein and other parts of Germany, as well as from Sicily, and in green jaspers from India, of the remains of sponges, in the following order: lst, the proofs of the fibrous struc- ture; 2nd, of the preservation of gemmules; and 3rd, those of the existence of vascular structure. ‘The specimens were examined as opaque objects, with direct light concentrated by a convex lens. The number of agates amounted to nearly 200, and that of green Jaspers to about 70. 1. Fibrous structure.—Though polished agates afforded Mr. Bow- erbank, in almost every specimen, strong evidence of spongeous origin, yet the structure and arrangement of the fibres were seldom per- fectly preserved throughout, presenting every intermediate state from complete decomposition to the most distinct spongeous tissue. The siliceous matrix of these remains exhibited a clear and frequently crystalline aspect, but the prevailing tint of the enclosed organic matter was bright red, brown, or ochreous yellow ; occasionally, how- ever, the fibre was milk-white or bright green. The colourimg mat- ter was generally confined within the bounds of the animal tissue, leaving its surface smooth and uninterrupted; sometimes it occurred only in the interior of the tubular fibre, the sides being semipellucid or milk-white ; whilst in other cases not only the fibre was com- pletely charged with colouring matter, but the surface was also shghtly encrusted with it. In an agate believed to be from Sicily, the greater part consisted of a confused mass composed of innume- rable bright red fibres with no perceptible remains of surrounding structure, but near the margin of the specimen the tubuli were as perfectly preserved as in a recent sponge, presenting a semi-pel- lucid and horny-looking substance enveloping red fibres. In those instances in which the red pigment did not appear to have entered” the tube, the structure was best preserved, and Mr. Bowerbank states that such ought to be the case, as the fibres of the Spongia jistularis, though hollow throughout, are closed near the natural ter- mination. The tubes in the Sicilian agate anastomosed in the same * See Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. vi. Part 1. 1841. Proceedings, vol. ili. p. 278, 1840. + Annals of Nat. Hist., April 1841. t Microscopic Journal, vo]. i. No. 1, p. 8, 1841. 433 manner as the fibres of the Mediterranean sponge of commerce, and in the places where they were intersected they frequently exhibited the internal cavity. These characters, the author remarks, prove that the red fibre is the cast of the interior of the tube, and its dia- meter, he adds, is as nearly as possible the same as that of the hollow of the tube. In a moss agate from Oberstein the walls of the best-preserved tubuli were charged with red pigment, and the internal cavity was filled with pellucid silex, while the portion which had suffered most from decomposition was a confused bright red mass with obscure traces of fibrous structure. In the green jaspers from India the organic remains were found to be generally better preserved than in the moss agates of Germany and Sicily, and admitted of being recognised as distinct species. The green colouring matter was confined, with very few exceptions, within the boundaries of the sponge-fibre, the surrounding matter consisting of minute pellucid radiating crystals. Some of the spe- cimens examined by Mr. Bowerbank were furnished with minute contorted tubuli, very similar to those which are described in his for- mer paper*™ as occurring upon the surface of chalk-flints. In other _ specimens the fibres were not disposed in the same manner as in the sponge of commerce, but in a series of thin plates, resembling very much the macerated woody fibres of the leaves of some endogenous plants. Only one recent species, from Australia, is known to Mr. Bowerbank to exhibit this structure. No spicula are mentioned by the author in either the agates or jas- pers, and but one instance of the occurrence of foraminifera. The whole of the sponges contained in the green jaspers, Mr. Bowerbank refers to that division of the keratose which he has called Fistularia. 2. Gemmules.—A specimenof Indian green jasper, which had under- gone so great decomposition as to prevent the original fibrous structure from being detected, presented innumerable globular vesicles of nearly uniform size. Many of them were simple and transparent, and could be recognised as organic only by the regularity of their size and form, and by having universally dispersed over their outer surface minute irregular black particles; but by far the greater number of them had in their interior a globular opaque body, about one-third their own diameter. Associated with these vesicles were numerous small fibrous masses resembling minute keratose sponges, the largest of which were five or six times the diameter of the vesicles; but the smallest were identical in nature with the nucleus, though in a higher state of development. In other specimens from the same mass of jasper, larger vesicles were found more sparingly imbedded amidst the fibrous tissue of the sponge. From these characters and their resemblance to those of the ova of some recent sponges, Mr. Bower- bank has little doubt that the vesicles are the fossilized gemmules of the sponges which gave the form to the siliceous masses in which they are imbedded. An agate supposed to have come from Oberstein, presented characters which, Mr. Bowerbank is of opinion, indicated * Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. vi. Part 1. 1841. VOL. III. PART II. : 20 434 gemmules in an immature state, or in different stages of development, fixed to the fibre of the sponge ; and in another specimen, believed to have been received from the same locality, gemmules in different conditions were sparingly scattered amid the tissue. If this idea of the development of the gemmules i situ be correct, it will account, the author thinks, for the frequent occurrence of small detached patches of minute sponge-fibre in well-developed and large- sized tissue. Several other specimens, considered by Mr. Bower- bank to contain gemmules in different stages of development or de- composition, are described in the paper, particularly an agate from Antigua in the possession of Mr. R. Brown; and one from Ober- stein, which contained vast numbers of small, pellucid, yellow glo- bules, bearing a strong resemblance to the minute granules which occur in the gelatinous or fleshy sheath surrounding the fibres of the sponge of commerce, and which are probably incipient germs. In accounting for the preservation of the gemmules in a fossil state, Mr. Bowerbank refers to the covering of the ova of birds, fishes and reptiles ; and he says, it is natural to expect that the gemmules of the sponge should be similarly protected, and therefore preserved after the decay of the sponge from which they derived their origin. 3. Vascular structure.—In a species of recent Turkey sponge, and in some others from Australia*, Mr. Bowerbank detected in the homy sheath which invested the solid fibre, minute anastomosing vessels ; but he has not observed a similar vascular covering on the external sur- - face of the two specimens of Spongia fistularis which he has examined. The co-existence, however, of this sheath with a tubular fibre, he states, he has discovered in specimens of Indian green jasper. On examining with a power of 60 linear a thin polished slice, he found that some well-preserved tubes, of greater size than the rest, had, on their external surface, a coating of a darker colour than the other parts of the fibre, and were evidently analogous to the vascular sheath of the keratose sponges of commerce. On employing a power of 500 linear, the presence of a reticulated vascular structure was exhibited as distinctly as in the recent sponge, particularly where a portion of the originally horny or fleshy part of the sheath had un- dergone a slight degree of decomposition. ‘This structure. Mr. Bowerbank has also detected in two fragments of flint-pebbles. The characters exhibited by this external coating are not the only evidences of vascular structure which the author found during his examination of the organic remains inclosed in moss agates and Indian green jaspers, for he discovered in the centre of the tube which exhibited the sheath, a dark thread penetrating the cavity for a considerable distance, and when examined with a power of 500 linear, it assumed the appearance of a spiral tubular thread, frequently obscured by irregular patches of a substance which the author con- ceives may have been glutinous animal matter. In another specimen of green jasper the spiral course of this curious tissue was much less obscure, and when examined with a power of 800 linear its tubular * Microscopic Journal, vol. i. No. 1, p. 10. 435 nature was evident. The same tissue also lined the cavity of almost every fibre of the sponge which was stated to exhibit a structure com- posed of foliaceous plates, like the skeletons of the leaves of some endogenous plants. In an agate, probably from Oberstein, Mr. Bowerbank says, he detected other evidences of tissue of an exceed- ingly remarkable character. The fibre, which was very large, had been apparently surrounded. by a villose coat, and wherever, by po- lishing, a longitudinal section had been exposed, one or two minute vessels of uniform diameter and simple structure were visible in the centre of the fibre, and ranging in the direction of its axis. At irre- gular distances within these vessels the author discovered pellucid round globules, the diameter of which varied from the 1000th to the 2380th of an inch, the diameter of the vessels ranging from the 1000th to the 2000th of an inch. In other parts of the interior of the fibre were opaque or semi-pellucid spheres, and in different por- tions of the agate were considerable numbers of larger, opaque, round bodies, the whole of which Mr. Bowerbank considers to be gemmules in various states of development ; and he thinks it is extremely pro- bable that thevessels containing the globules were true ovarian ducts. In support of this inference Mr. Bowerbank describes another agate, in which there were no appearances of well-defined anastomosing fibres, but which exhibited numerous long and simple thread-like fibres apparently much decomposed, as their substance consisted sometimes of a congeries of minute separate particles, and sometimes of straight or curved lines composed of minute black bodies. In other cases these strings of incipient gemmules were contained within the boundaries of the tubes, and then presented rarely more than a row of single gemmules; but occasionally the diameter of the vessels appeared to have been much enlarged, and the gemmules were indiscriminately dispersed within its cavity. In some instances also they exceeded in diameter the vessel or its remains, as if they had outgrown and burst their natural boundary, or the walls of the latter had contracted. From the close resemblance in the structure and contents of these vessels to those contained in the large sponge- fibre first described, Mr. Bowerbank has little doubt, whatever may have been their original nature, that they are the same kind of tissue, under somewhat different conditions. In all the agates and jaspers which have been microscopically in- vestigated by the author, the spaces not occupied by remains of spongeous texture were filled with silex or chalcedony arranged in bands which conformed more or less to the outline of the enclosed fossil. Where, however, the matrix consisted of radiating crystals, the decayed animal remains frequently appeared to have been impelled forward, in the same manner as the decomposed cellular portions of fossil wood have often yielded to the erystallizing process of the as- sociated mineral matter. Egyptian jaspers, Mocha stones, &c.—The author has examined also numerous specimens of polished Egyptian jaspers, which, when viewed as opaque objects, by direct light and with a power of 150 linear, were found to consist of finely comminuted light buff or brown irregular granules, cemented by semi-transparent silex, very much : 436 resembling the state in which it exists in chalk-flints and greensand cherts, and to the variations in its colouring matter the banded ap- pearance of the jaspers is due. Imbedded, but very unequally in the layers composing the jaspers, Mr. Bowerbank discovered hun- dreds of beautiful foraminifera closely resembling those found in chalk-flints, and often difficult to distinguish from the species found in the Grignon sand of the calcaire grossier. The Mocha stones which the author has examined, presented no indications of organic structure, the moss-like delineations and other appearances, resembling beautiful, thin, reticulated tissues, being due to dendritical or metallic infiltrations. In the larger pebbles of a mass of Herefordshire pudding-stone, Mr. Bowerbank discovered the characteristic spongeous structure of chalk-flints. In conclusion, the author dwells upon the difficulties attending the study of the bodies which he has examined and described, in consequence of the little attention which has been paid, with few exceptions, to the structure of recent sponges; and he states that - the aspect of the latter, when viewed by the unassisted eye, is so different from that which it presents when seen under a high micro- scopic power, that those who have not been accustomed to study recent sponges with that aid would never recognise a similar struc- ture im the fossils described by him. He also shows that the pre- valence of keratose sponges over those belonging to the genus Hali- chondria is what might naturally be expected, as the spicula which - form the skeleton of the latter would be less likely to be preserved in their original position than the horny fibres of the former. Lastly, the author alludes to the great share which sponges have had in the production of the solid strata of the earth’s crust, Among the donations presented to the Society's Museum and an- nounced at this Meeting, were the following :— A series of fossils from the mountain-limestone of the county of Kildare, presented by the Earl of Enniskillen, including Amplexus Sowerbii. Terebratula reniformis. Retepora? laxa. ——_———— resupinata. Fenestella membranacea. Spirifera glabra. Cheetetes. — pinguis. Asaphus obsoletus. ~— rotundata. Isocardia oblonga. ———-— attenuata. . Producta sulcata. Pileopsis vetusta. Martini. -Euomphalus pentangulatus. scabricula. Orthoceras giganteum. hemispherica. ——— inequiseptum ? analoga. Nautilus cariniferus. Terebratula hastata. —— dorsalis. cordiformis. ————— compressus. platyloba. Remains of the Mammoth, found in a gravel-pit in the parish of New- ington, near Sittingbourne. Presented by William Bland, Esq. Graptolites from Clarbeston, six and a half miles N.E. of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. Presented by W. H. Scourfield, Esq. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vout. III. Parr II. 1841. No. 79. June 2.—John Augustus Beaumont, Esq., of Regent Street, and William Vernon Guise, Esq., of Rendcombe Park, Gloucestershire, were elected Fellows of this Society. In conformity with Section VI., Clause 8, of the By-Laws, the names of the following Fellows, proposed by the Council to be re- moved from the lists of the Society on account of arrears, were read from the Chair for the second time :—Joseph EEOC Esq., and William Parker, Esq. «On the Faluns of the Loire, and a comparison of their Fossils witn those of the newer Tertiary Strata in the Cotentin, and on the relative age of the Faluns and Crag of Suffolk,” by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. In a paper ‘‘ On the Crag of Norfolk and Suffolk,” read in 1839 *, Mr. Lyell stated, that when M. Desnoyers assigned in 1825 a con- temporaneous origin to the Crag and the Faluns of Touraine, he dis- sented from the conclusion; first, because the per-centage of recent species then assigned to the crag, including the Norwich beds, was greater than that ascribed by M. Deshayes to the shells of Youraine ; 2ndly, because almost all the fossils in each locality were of distinct species, though only 300 miles apart; and 3rdly, because the fauna of the Suffolk crag had a northern, and that of Touraine an almost tropical aspect, notwithstanding the geographical proximity of the two districts. In 1839, however, when he compared, with the as- sistance of Mr. G. Sowerby, a large collection of Touraine shells, and ascertained that the recent species amounted to 26 per cent., a nearly similar result to the one at which he had previously arrived respecting the red and coralline crag, he was induced to adopt M. Desnoyers’ views. As some doubts nevertheless remained in his mind respecting the localities and true geological position of certain shells assigned to the Faluns, and as he was desirous of determining the range Soares of the organic remaims of the English crag, as well as northwards of those of the Faluns, and ascertaining whether the fossils of the most northern of the Falun deposits approached _ nearest in character to the shells and corals of the English crag, Mr. * Proceedings, vol. il. p. 171, 1839. VOLIII. PART II. 2P 438 Lyell examined in the summer of 1840, first, certain of the newer tertiary deposits in La Manche, particularly those near Valognes, and: between Carentan and Coutances; then the tertiary strata in the neighbourhood of Dinan and Rennes; and afterwards those along the course of the Loire from Nantes to Tours and Blois, extending his researches northwards of that river as far as Savigné, and south- wards to Bossée and Pontlevoy. ‘The following notices contain sum- maries of the observations made at each locality. Crag. Tertiary strata near Valognes.—The first geologist who explored the Cotentin was M. De Gerville. M. Desnoyers, m his memoir on that part of Normandy (published in 1825), shows that the newest secondary rock near Valognes is Baculite limestone*, and that it is overlaid by patches of tertiary strata, of the age of the Paris basin ; but he does not allude to any deposit of more recent date. By the advice of M. De Gerville, Mr. Lyell visited a marl-pit at the farm of Cadet, near Ranville la Place, eight miles south-west of Valognes, and he found it to abound with Suffolk crag shells. He obtained twenty- nine species of Testacea, fifteen of which Mr. Searles Wood has identified distinctly with crag species, and seven doubtfully, the most abundant shell being Lucina radula. In M. De Gerville’s col- lection from this locality, Mr. Lyell saw a specimen of the Falun va- riety of the Voluta Lamberti, or of what he considers to be a distinct species of Voluta. It is stated to haye been found under an oyster- bed, and beneath the stratum containing the above shells. Carentan.—At St. George de Bohon, five miles south-west of Ca- rentan, is another deposit of Suffolk crag fossils. -In travelling south from Carentan this formation is first met with at the hamlet of La Flaget. It consists of an iron-stained calcareous tufa, or an agere- gate of fragments of organic remains, and is in some places thirty feet thick. The shells are dificult to extract, but Mr. Lyell ob- tained fourteen species; also three species of corals, and a caudal tubercle of a Raia, all of which haye been identified with Suffolk crag fossils. Among the shells are numerous fragments of the large Terebratula variabilis. The corals and some of the Testacea are com- » mon to the Faluns of Touraine, but none of the distinguishing fossils of the latter have been discovered in the Carentan deposits. : Sainteny.—In sinking a well at this place, more than sixty feet of a white calcareous aggregate of comminuted shells were passed through. At Longueville, one and a half mile from Sainteny, is a soft caleareous stone, consisting of innumerable casts of fragments of shells, among which Mr. Lyell detected the Pecten striatus of the Suffolk crag; and a similar rock occurs at the farms of Blehou and Raffanville, several miles distant. The fossils obtained. at these lo- calities could not be satisfactorily determined, but Mr. Lyell is of * Mr. Lyell examined this limestone, and recognised its resemblance to the uppermost chalk at Faxoein Seeland. See ‘ Proceedings,’ vol. ii. p. 191,_ and ‘ Geol. Trans.,’ 2nd Series, vol. v. p. 248, for an account of the Faxoe deposit, 439 opinion that they agree with those which are found near St. George de Bohon, except that he observed no fragments of the Terebr -atula variabilis. As far as they can be identified, they consist of Suffolk crag species, and they do not appear to possess a character interme- diate between the Suffolk fauna and that of the Faluns. Mr. Lyell saw no recurrence of this crag further south, and the most northern point at which he noticed a deposit of the age of the Faluns of Touraine was near Dinan, sixty geographical miles to the south-east of Sainteny, the intermediate country consisting of ancient strata and crystalline rocks. Fatuns. _ Dinan.—M. Desnoyers does not describe the Falun near Dinan, although he alludes to it. The neighbourhood of Dinan is en- tirely composed of granitic rocks ; but at the village of Evran, situated: near a stream which flows into the Rance, seven miles south of Dinan, is a Small tertiary deposit, consisting of ten or twelve feet of white corallme and shelly sand, overlaid by a bed of stiff, reddish-brown clay, of very variable thickness. The great irregularities presented at the junction of the two strata, and the occasional projection of continuous layers of the sand into the clay, Mr. Lyell explains by supposing that the former at the time of its denudation, and _pre- yiously to the deposition of the clay, possessed a certain amount of hardness, which allowed of its being undermined. At the bottom of the sand occur large oysters, different from the common ‘Touraine species O. virginica ; and in the same quarries Mr. Lyell found many corals,. fragments of Echinodermata, sharks’ teeth, ribs of the Laman- tin, vertebre of a Delphinus, and a tooth of a Mastodon. Some of the bones were buried in a solid semi-crystalline limestone, in which casts of shelis are common. The formation occasionally assumes a concretionary or travertine structure: at Le Quiou it is micaceous, and splits into flags; and at the village of Pas de Hac some pinnacles of soft, white, calcareous aggregate present in the lower part fine examples of cross-stratification. At St. Juvat the variety of building-stone called La jauge, and com- posed of comminuted organic remains, resembles the deposit near Sainteny, but the occurrence of casts of cones and large Cypreee convinced Mr. Lyell that it must be assigned to the Faluns. It -is overlaid by a bed of clay of variable thickness, having been _ very irregularly denudated; and it is penetrated by cylindrical hol- lows, similar to the sand-pipes in the English chalk. From these localities Mr. Lyell obtained twenty-six species of shells, one Cir- riped, five species of Echinodermata, five of corals, and seven of fishes, besides the remains of Cetacea and Mammalia before men- tioned. The shells are for the most part identical with species found in the Faluns of Touraine; the whole of the corals are well- known ‘ouraine fossils; and the fishes, according to M. Agassiz, have been all found in the molasse of Switzerland, with the excep- tion of one species, Carcharias megatodon. In the solid limestones of 2 Pa 440 the localities above enumerated, many of the shells, which in several places in Touraine are beautifully preserved, occur only as casts. Rennes.—The country between Dinan and Rennes consists of an- cient rocks. M. Desnoyers states, in the memoir before alluded to, that tertiary beds of the age of the Paris basin and of the Faluns eecur near Rennes, but Mr. Lyell is not aware of any published ac- count of the fossils. In the ancient quarries of St. Gregoire, to which he was conducted by M. Pontallier, he found corals and easts of shells of Touraine species; also a large Spatangus, a claw of a crab, and teeth of sharks, imbedded in soft and hard hmestones similar to those near Dinan. At La Chaussairie, five miles south of Rennes, oceurs a perfectly distinct limestone, containing Milliolites and casts of marine shells, resembling those of the Paris basin; and. associated with it are green and blue marls, enclosing freshwater Testacea. The deposit is of small extent, and rests upon transition strata; but Mr. Lyell suspects that it is m places overlaid by the ruins of the true Faluns, and that from these were derived the re- mains of a Lamantin and a tooth of Carcharias megalodon, found in the debris of a shaft sunk at La Chaussairie. Nantes.—The district between Rennes and Nantes consists of transition and granitic rocks, but there are many detached patches of Miocene strata around Nantes. At Les Cleons ts a soft coralline limestone, containing pebbles of quartz and spangles of mica, the fundamental rock of the country being mica-schist. Mr. Lyell ob- tained from the limestone six species of corals and five of 'Testacea, the whole of which, capable of determination, belong to Touraine fossils. In the museum at Nantes he saw specimens which indicate the existence of Falun strata’ at Le Loroux, Vieilleville and Limousi- niere, places within thirty miles of Nantes; also other organic re- mains which prove that Eocene strata occur at Cambon. Angers.—Mr. Lyell was prevented from examining the pits north of this place, but he was presented by M. Millet with an extensive suite of shells and corals, collected by that gentleman. Of fifty- seven species of Testacea, all but thirteen occur in the Faluns near Tours, Savigné and Pontlevoy ; but the fact of there being thirteen peculiar to the Angers district induces Mr. Lyell to suspect that the fossils depart more than those of other localities from the common type. The collection contains also only nine species which can be positively identified with known recent shells, and one which is doubtful, giving about seventeen per cent. of existing species, a much smaller proportion than was obtained by the author in other localities. Doué.—At this town are extensive quarries of a calcareous build- ing-stone, composed of comminuted shells and corals, and exposed to the depth of forty feet. The beds are horizontal, but exhibit highly inclined cross-stratification. From the marl-beds at La Gré- — zille, and the calcareous sand and limestone of Renaudan and Tllet, villages situated six or seven miles north of Doué, Mr. Lyell pro- cured twenty-four species of corals, four of Echinodermata and three of fishes ; also a few species of shells, the most conspicuous bemg the large Pecten solarium. In the great abundance of corals and Echi- 44] noderms, and the small number of Mollusks, Mr. Lyell states that this deposit presents a perfect analogy to the white or coralline crag ef Suffolk; but that its fauna is as distinct, with respect to species, from the fauna of the coralline crag, as the other localities of the Faluns of the Loire generally. Savigné.—Between Doué and Savigné the country consists partly of the Eocene freshwater formation, which extends thence almost continuously to Paris, and partly of Craie tufeau. Near Savigné the Falun is composed of limestone, containing most of the Doué fossils. © The result of Mr. Lyell’s labours in this neighbourhood gave the following amount of organic remains, obtained chiefly from a pit which he had made near the point where the road from Savigné to Channay divides from that leading to Courcelles.. The total number of species of corals which have been determined amounts to eighteen, of Echinodermata to two, of Testacea to seventy-six, and of fishes to four. Mr. Lyell also obtained an upper molar of a deer, and a molar of the Cherepotamus Cuviert. Of the shells, only ten species were not found by the author at other Falun localities near the Loire; and twenty-three species, or about thirty per cent., have been identified with recent shells. Among the fishes is Lamna contortidens, a spe- cies which occurs in the Suffolk crag. The tooth ascertained by Mr. Owen to belong to the C. Cuvieri, affords, Mr. Lyell states, an- other instance of a mammifer common to Evcene and Miocene pe- riods. District south of Tours.—The immediate neighbourhood of Tours consists of cretaceous valleys, with intervening platforms of Eocene freshwater strata. ‘Che Faluns occur from twelve to sixteen miles to the south, at Louans, Manthilan and Bossée. At Louans the de- posit is exposed in pits from four to five yards deep, and consists of white and yellow marl, formed, to a great extent, of comminuted shells and corals. From this bed Mr. Lyell obtained 180 species of shells, many very small, and generally overlooked by collectors ; the corals hitherto determined amount to only six species. Of the Tes- tacea he procured all the species, except thirty-three, at other loca- lities ; and the recent species have been ascertained to be about forty- nine, or in the proportion of twenty-six per cent. At Bossée he ebtained» 129 species of Testacea, forty of which, or thirty-two per cent., have been identified with living shells; and of the entire num- ber Mr. Lyell found all except thirteen in some of the other Faluns. Six species of corals,and remains of Lamna and Myliobates, have been also ascertained to occur at Bossée; and a posterior molar tooth which Mr. Lyell procured there, Mr. Owen has proved to belong to the Dichobunes, a genus of Pachyderms, found likewise in the Eocene strata of France and the Isle of Wight. Pontlevoy.—At this town, thirty miles south-east of Tours, a patch of white Falun marl rests on the Eocene freshwater formation. In the pits east of the town Mr. Lyell procured perfectly preserved shells; and fragments of the Eocene freshwater limestone are found in the Falun bored by Petricolz, and full of their shells. The. marl is usually covered by three feet of red clay, sand and mould: Mr. 442. Lyell :found here the first) specimens of the shell, generally con- sidered to be the Voluta Lamberti of the English crag, but which he believes to differ from it. During his researches at Pontlevoy he procured 163 species of shells, forty-five of which, or twenty-five per cent., have been identified with existing Testacea ; and on comparing the whole number with a collection’ of 180 from Louans, 106 were found to be common to the two localities: Only thirty-four of the Pontlevoy shells were not procured by Mr. Lyell, at some other Fa- lun locality. Not more than six species of corals have yet been as- certained to occur in this district. The other localities near Pont- levoy examined by Mr. Lyell are Sambin and Contres. At the former the white Falun, containing hard flags, is covered by a great deposit of red, ferruginous, stratified gravel, with grains of quartz and flint derived from the Eocene freshwater formation ; and it bears a striking resemblance’ to the gravel-beds which overlie the red crag in Suffolk... Immediately east of Sambin, as well as between Conrtres and Soing,: Mr. Lyell found specimens of the Ostrea virginica asso- ciated with fragments of other Testacea, which identified the deposits from which they were obtained with those of Touraine. ‘These ide- tached Faluns imply, ‘he says, that a large part of France, now drained by the Loire and its tributaries, was submerged during the Miocene period, although it is only at.a few isolated points that the evidence can be detected of the long time this submergence must have lasted, and of the distinctness of the fauna which then lived, both from that now existing, and still more from that of the ante- cedent Eocene epoch. General Remarks.—Previously to his tour, Mr. Lyell considered that the collections which he had seen from the Loire might be di- vided into two groups, the larger resembling a Mediterranean or even @ more northern fauna, and the smaller a tropical one; and that some of the shells composing the latter came from inferior beds of the de- _ posit, or from patches of Falun of more ancient date than others : he also suspected, that where the tropical forms abounded, there would be found asmaller proportion of recent shells: He is, how- ever, now convinced that all the shells belong to one group, or that the forty-four crag species were really contemporaneous in Touraine with the large! cones, Cypreeas, Fasciolarias, and other tropical forms of '‘Testacea. At Bossée, where he found these large-univalves, as well as the Astrea, Lunulites, and Dendrophyllia, most fully developed, he obtained the greatest proportion of recent shells, or thirty-two per cent., the average being twenty-five. In making the examinations upon which these results depend, Mr. Lyell states that he always had recourse: to ithe assistance of Mr. G. Sowerby, and in doubtful cases to that of Mr. E. Forbes, or some other conchologist ; and that he excluded from his calculations:a great many species-of which he did not possess perfect’ specimens, or a sufficient number: to enable the» specific identification to be confidently proved. _ Of the corals collected. by the author,:forty-three spécies have been determined by Mr. Lonsdale; only seven of which, or fifteen per cent., agree spe-— cifically with those found in the Suffolk crag. This per- centage in 443 the Polyparia is almost exactly the same as that which has been ob- tained from a comparison of the Testacea. Some of the genera of corals, fossil in Touraine, as the Astra, Lunulites, and Dendrophyllia, have not been found in European seas north of the Mediterranean; ne- - vertheless the Polyparia of the Faluns do not indicate a climate warmer than that which now prevails on the southern coasts of Europe. The next general question considered by Mr. Lyell is, whether the Faluns of the Loire and the English crag can be referred to the same geological period, eighty-five per cent. both of the corals and the shells being of distinct species. ‘‘ Can,” he says, ‘‘such a con- clusion be embraced on the ground of the corresponding degree of analogy which both deposits bear to the existing fauna, and to the extremely wide departure which both the crag and the Faluns make from the fossils of the Eocene period ?”’ When Mr. Lyell compared in 1839, with the assistance of Mr. Searles Wood and Mr. G. Sowerby, the Suffolk crag shells in Mr. Wood's cabinet, the proportion of recent species in the red crag was found to be about thirty per cent., and in the older or coralline about twenty, or, including both, twenty-five per cent., the same amount as in the Faluns of Touraine ; the analogy of the recent crag-shells being almost entirely to shells of the British seas, and that of those - of the Faluns mostly to Mediterranean species. The argument which might be derived in favour of the more modern origin of the crag, from the recent species being precisely those of the neighbouring seas, while the existing species of the Faluns are not to the same extent, Mr. Lyell combats by stating that the whole assemblage of English crag genera and species departs very widely from that of the ad- jacent seas, consisting of northern and southern forms. Thus the Glycimeris, Cyprina and Astarte are northern genera, and of the ‘Astarte there are about fourteen species ; and of genera now known as existing only in equatorial latitudes, are Pyrula, Lingula, and some others. The fact, that four-fifths of coralline crag Testacea are ex- tinct, implies high antiquity ; as well as the sixteen species of Echino- derms found inthe crag being unknown as recent species: The author therefore refers both the crag and Faluns to the Miocene epoch, notwithstanding the specifie-discordance of their fossils, and he is of opinion that this disagreement may be diminished when the two faunas are better known. ‘The difference between the Testacea of the British coasts and of the Mediterranean is pointed out ; and if. the greater distance of these seas from each other than of the eastern shores of England from the Faluns should be urged as an objection to the inference that the crag and Faluns belong to one epoch, Mr. Lyell - calls attention to the difference in the Testacea on the opposite sides of the isthmuses of Suez and Panama, though these tracts are very incon- siderable, both in height and breadth. That landexisted in the imme- diate neighbourhood of the Faluns, Mr. Lyell says, is proved, from the occurrence of the remains of terrestrial Mammalia, and of land and freshwater shells, though they are of rare occurrence, compared with the’marine reliquiz ; and if it formed a barrier between the district oc- cupied by the crag and that by the Faluns, the more northern charac- 444 ter of the crag fauna might be due to the sea in which it lived opening to the north; and in support of this opinion he alludes.to the rapid tran- sition in the southern hemisphere from a district possessing a mild and equable climte, in which tropical forms of Testacea exist with others common to high latitudes, to one of extreme cold. Lastly, Mr. Lyell says, whatever speculations may be indulged, it is clear that the fos- sils of the crag and Faluns are almost entirely different from those of the London clay and Paris basin; that at least one-fifth of the fossil shells, both in the crag and Faluns, are identical with recent species ; that fifteen per cent. of the shells and corals of the Faluas are spe- cifically identical with those of the Suffolk crag; and that the sup- posed difference of climate indicated to the Testacea and Polyparia is by no means so great as some observers have supposed. Mr. Lyell nevertheless does not attach such importance to the per-centage of recent shells in the present state of knowledge of all the recent species, as to deduce from this source alone a positive inference regarding the precise agreement in age of the Faluns and the crag, merely stating that both deposits are referable to the Miocene epoch ; and as the red and coralline divisions of the Suffolk crag were not formed at the same time, so he conceives there may have been shades of dif- ference in the relative age of the Faluns and the crag. Ameng the donations of organic remains to the Museum announced at this Meeting were the following :— Crania, from the great oolite of the neighbourhood of Bath. Pre- sented by W. Walton, Esq. Pleurotomaria ornata (Defrance), Nautilus excavatus (Sow erby), Astarte Menardi? (Deshayes), from Burton, near Bridport. Pre- sented by E. H. Bunbury, Esq., Sec. G.S. Teeth of Otodus obliquus (Agassiz), from the London clay, Wal- ton, Essex. Presented by W. Taylor, Esq., of Blakeney, Norfolk. Sigillaria Knorrii (Ad. Brongniart), Clee Hill, Shropshire. | Pre- sented by Thomas Bottfield, Esq., F.G.S. Chetetes —, from the carboniferous limestone, Castle Espie Quarry, county Down. Presented by Capt. Jones, R.N., M.P., F.G.S. June 16.—The following papers were read :— 1. “ Description of a Newer Pliocene Deposit at Stevenston, and of Post-Tertiary Deposits at Stevenston and Largs, in the County of Ayr,” by the.Rev. David Landsborough, and communicated by _ James Smith, Esq:, F.G.S. > The Newer Phocene Deposit.—This stratum was discovered in 1839 in opening two coal-pits in the parish of Stevenston. After penetra- ting from thirty to thirty-five feet of sand, a bed of blue clay, nine feet thick, was passed through, and found to contain marine fossils of the newer Pliocene epoch. All the species have been obtained in other deposits of the same age in the basin of the Clyde, except two, — Astarte borealis, which occurs in a fossil state in the crag and living in the Arctic seas, and Astarte propinqua, a new shell. Mr. aude borough gives a list of the twenty-seven species collected by him, 445 to exist in the Arctic seas, and two, Natica glaucinoides, a crag fossil, and Astarte propinqua, are believed to be extinct. Post-Tertiary Deposits—The author prefixes to his account of these beds a notice of the older formations in that part of Ayrshire. The prevailing rock is red sandstone, which, at almost every. point on the coast, has been worn, by the former action of the sea, into cliffs, which indicate a change of level of about forty feet. The ter- race at the base of the cliff, Mr. Landsborough states, ray be con- sidered a marine raised beach, and the shells contained im it are, with two exceptions, one of which is doubtful, of existing species. At Ardrossan, a deposit twenty feet above the level of the sea, and at Kelly, the soil which covers the base of the inland cliff to the height of thirty feet, are full of common marine shells. Similar beds are stated to occur in the islands of Arran, Cumbra, and Inch Mar- nock. In the parish of Stevenston, immediately under the vegetable © soil, is a bed of shingle, in which forty-seven species of shells com- mon on the adjacent shores have been found. It rests upon shale. perforated in many places by the Pholas crispata, of which the shell, in a very friable state, is generally found within the cavity. At Largs the shore rises to the height of twenty feet above high water. Under a bed of loam, from five to ten feet above the sea- level, is a sandy stratum one foot thick, from which Mr. Lands- borough has obtained specimens of Millepora polymorpha, and seventy species of marine shells, the whole of which are well-known inhabi- tants of the British seas, except two species of Rissoa, one of which had been previously found only in the crag, and the other is referred with doubts to the Rissoa Harveyii of Mr. Forbes. Respecting the age of this deposit, Mr. Landsborough states, that 160 species having been found in it by Mr. Smith and other geolo- gists, it would be rash to infer from the above two exceptions, ‘‘ that there is a difference in the faunas of the existing period of sea-level and of that which preceded it; but he thinks it is not improbable that some change may have taken place during the very long period in which the inland cliff was formed by the slow wasting of the sea ; and he adds, the position of the bed at Largs, being ten feet under the surface, indicates a considerable antiquity, although its age must be much newer than that of the Phocene strata, in which there is a decided proportion of extinct Testacea. Lists of the shells found by the author at each locality accompany the paper. ; 2. A letter from Capt. Alexander, F.G.S., ‘‘On the Annual De- * struction of Land at Easton Bavent Cliff, near Southwold.” From careful observations, made during the last five years, Capt. Alexander is of opinion, that the local statements, of 350 yards in breadth having been destroyed at Easton Cliff in about thirty-five years, are not much overrated, as, during that period,-a nearly square field, containing twelve and a half acres, has been entirely removed by the sea, and as only three acres remain of another which con- 446 sisted of eighteen and a half. This ratio of loss, he says, has ex- tended along the whole range of the cliff except at the extreme south end. During the five years that Capt. Alexander has personally watched the action of the sea upon this coast, the annual loss in breadth has been at least seven yards. About. 200 yards in rear of the lowest part of the cliff is a tract, consisting principally of marsh land, which is beneath the level of the sea, and extends in different directions to Bungay, Beccles and Halesworth, and was undoubtedly occupied, Capt. Alexander states, at no very remote period, by extensive rivers flowing into an estuary connected with the German Ocean. The letter was accompanied by a section constructed by Mr. R. Alexander, and which gives the following bearings of two churches at each end of the cliff :— - South ee —Southwold church, 22° 30' 8. of W.; Blyborough church, 7° 30’ N. of W. North End.—Roydon church, 14° 3! 45" N. of W.; caps ahavtehy 30° E.-of N. The bearing of the edge of the cliff, at the two extickalaesl 1s stated to be 43° 7! 30" E. of N. 3. A paper entitled “ Description of Cuttings across the Ridge of Bromsgrove Lickey, on the line of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway,’ by Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. When Mr. Siiuicland laid before the Society, in June 1840*, a description of a series of coloured sections on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, the cuttings on the Lickey not haying been completed, he was prevented from detailing the phenomena exhibited on this part of the line. The present communication is) therefore supplementary to the former memoir. Where the cutting crosses the ridge, it has been excavated to the depth of fifty-six feet, and exhibits, Mr. Strickland states, clear proofs of the disturbance which attended the elevation of the Lickey. The lowest rock which has been exposed is a mass of hard, grey, brown- ish or reddish, compact or coarse-grained sandstone, occupying a horizontal distance of about seventy yards, and rising gradually to the north-east to the height of twenty feet. At the point where it attains this visible thickness, it is suddenly cut off by a nearly ver- tical fault. The strata dip about 60° to the east-south-east, or from the trap composing the Upper Lickey. No organic remains having been noticed, it is dificult, Mr. Strickland states, to fix the precise geological position of the deposit ; but he is inclined to assign it, on mineral : characters, to the lower new red, sandstone of Mr. Mur- chisont. 5 These highly inclined strata are arerlontl imeonfornialy. by a vast mantle-shaped mass of conglomerate, belonging to the ‘‘ upper new red” or Bunter sandstein. The bedding of this deposit is so irre- gular that great accuracy of dip is not attainable ; but to the east of * See ante, p. 113. + Silur. Syst., p. 54. p y 447 the fault the inclination is about 5° to the east-south-east, and to the west about 5° to the south- south-west or south ; and the slight de- parture from horizontality i is strongly contrasted with the high incli- nation of the lower sandstone... The resemblance of this “deposit, consisting of rounded pebbles in soft red sandstone, to ordinary gravel is so perfect, that Mr. Strickland was at first induced to con- sider it as superficial detritus; but its true nature is* proved by its containing numerous wedge- shaped masses of red sandstone and red marl, and by its being overlaid at each extremity of the cutting by the regular thick-bedded sandstone, which again is Sieh ounted: by red or Keuper marls. At least nine-tenths of the pebbles consist of white and crystalline, or brown and granular quartz, the latter doubtlessly derived, Mr. Strickland states, from such altered sand-. stones as exist in situ in the Lickey. The remainder of the pebbles. are composed of various traps, chiefly porphyritic, and often decom- posed into clay. Boulders also occur of a hard ‘quartzose conglo- merate, derived, the author believes, from the old red system ; like- wise pebbles of chert, containing casts of Spirifers and Crinoidea. Patches of grayel overlie the red sandstone on, the flanks of the Lickey, sometimes filling up considerable irregularities in its surface, but none were exposed on the summit of the Tidge. The gravel re- sembles the conglomerate of the new red candietane: as it consists chiefly of the same materials, but it may be distinguished by con- taining many fragments of slaty rocks, and by the whiter colour of the pebbles. It attains on the line of the railway a height of 544 feet*; and as the graveily soil which has been stated to occur on the Lickey Beacon at an elevation of 900 feet may, Mr. Strickland says, belong to the new red conglomerate, the gravel on the line of the railway occupies the highest position which can with certainty be assigned to the northern drift of that part of England. The point of greatest interest exposed in this cutting is the uncon- formability of the lowest rock to the overlying conglomerate. As- suming that the former is correctly identified with the “lower new red,” it follows, Mr. Strickland observes, that a tolerably exact geo- logical date is obtained for the principal protrusion of the volcanic rocks of the Lickey + ; and that they must have been erupted after the deposition of the lower new red, and before that of the upper new red. It is also probable, he states, that the pebbles of the conglo- merate were in great part derived from the shattered upheaved strata in the immediate vicinity. The author further infers, from the fault in the upper conglomerate beds, that additional elevations of the Lickey region took place at a later date, and threw the superior strata into an anticlinal position. He also suggests that some of the dis- * The height of 587 feet, given in the corrigenda at p. 316, has been as- certained to be incorrect. + The age here assigned to the trap rocks of the Lickey coincides, Mr. Strickland says, with that attributed to them, as well as to the trap rocks of Abberley and Malvern, by Mr. Murchison, though the want of uncon-' formability between the upper and Jower new red strata was apparently unknown to that gentleman. (Silur. Syst., p. 67.) 448 locations connected with the Lickey may have occurred subsequently to the deposition of the lias, as the faults which have affected that formation and the new red sandstone in Worcestershire and Warwick- shire appear, he says, to have radiated from the Lickey*. 4. “ Description of a Model of Arthur’s Seat and the King’s Park, Edinburgh,” by J. Robison Wright, Esq., F.G.S. This model was constructed on a horizontal scale of ten inches to a mile, but for the vertical scale double that: dimension was em- ployed, to render the crags perceptible to the eye. The included area 1s between two and three square miles, extending from Edin- burgh on the west to Duddington on the east, and from Holyrood Palace on the north to Prestonfield on the south. The author notices in his description the structure and phznomena successively exposed in proceeding from Edinburgh eastward ; but as the details have been chiefly extracted, with acknowledgment, from Mr. Maclaren’s pub- ‘lished work on Fife and the Lothians, it is not considered necessary to give an abstract of them. 5. “ Notes by Mr. Maclauchlan, F.G.S., to accompany some Fos- sils collected by himself and Mr. Still, F.G.S., during their employ- ment on the Ordnance Survey in Pembrokeshire.” Taking for a base-line the northern boundary of the Llandeilo flags laid down by Mr. Murchison, the author proceeds to describe a section extending from near Llanhuadain on the south, to Dinas Head on the north. At Potter’s Slade, a little north-west of Llan- huadain, a conglomerate dips to the northward, and is traceable westward to Ford, and eastward towards Llangan, where a sandstone conglomerate occurs containing Trilobites and shells. Proceeding on the line of section, the conglomerate is succeeded first by sand- stone and sandstone shales, and then at Clarbeston by limestone with carboniferous shales, dipping northward, and containing Graptolites and casts of shells. Similar carbonaceous shales exist on the west of Clarbeston, at St. Catharine’s Bridge, near Camrose; also at Rudbaxton, and on the east at Long Ford, near Llandysilio. They have in some localities been unsuccessfully worked for coal. Grap- tolites have likewise been found in calcareous shales at Robleston, about a mile north-west of Camrose. At Llys-y-fran, north of Clar- beston, the carbonaceous shales are succeeded by roofing-slates, which at Mynydd Castell-bythe (Castell-y-furoch, Ord. Map) and Morfel alternate with trap. On the summit of Mynydd Pontfaen, sandstone with coarse slates occurs, and between the summit and Pontfaen, trap again alternates with slates. The summit of Mynydd Llanllawer consists of coarse-grained, rudely columnar greenstone, flanked on the northern declivity of the mountain by coarse sand- stone of trappean aspect. This rock is overlaid by roofing-slates, which extend nearly to Dinas Head, where a hard conglomerate sandstone, containing crinoidal remains, is exhibited. All these strata are represented in a section as dipping towards the north. * See Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol.'v. pp. 3338, 335. ‘ 449 In Aberreiddy Bay, about twelve and a half miles to the south- west of Dinas, slaty beds with a northwardly dip, and apparently prolongations of the schists on the line of section, contain the Grap- tolithus Murchisonii and G. foliaceus of the Llandeilo flags, also nu- merous casts of an Euomphalus, resembling the K. perturbatus of that formation, and a species of Lingula. Although these slates differ in lithological characters from the Llandeilo “flags, yet Mr. Maclauchlan is of opinion that this difference may have been pro- duced by the masses of trap which are associated with the slates. The conglomerate sandstone of Dinas Head, which occurs also in Newport Bay and at Trewyddel, near Cardigan, is stated to resem- ble one of the conglomerates of the Caradoc sandstone described by Mr. Murchison ; and the crinoidal stems which it contains, to agree with analogous remains found by Mr. Murchison in the Caradoc sandstone at Little London, May Hill *. In addition to the phenomena which occur in the immediate vi- cinity of the section, Mr. Maclauchlan alludes to indications of anti- clinal lines near Narberth and at Camrose, in Southern Pembroke- shire ; also at Solfach, south-east of St. David’s, and at Porthllisky, to the south-west of that city. At the latter village the dip changes to the westward, and continuing to alter, assumes in Whitesand Bay a northwardly direction. This dip also prevails at St. Laurence, thirteen miles east of St. David’s Head; at Leweston, three miles south of St. Laurence, and at Long Ford, about two and a half miles south of Llandysilio. Trappean ash also is stated to oecur near green- stone at Penbury (Penberry, Ord. Map) Hill, two and a half miles north-north-east of St. David’s; at Lianllawer, two miles south-east of Fishguard; and at Carningley, one mile south of Newport. Though the summit of the principal Pembrokeshire chain is roofing-slate, yet. trap-rocks occur near the top, and are described by the author as continuous through the district, extending to Plumb- stone Mountain (five miles north-west of Haverfordwest) and to St. ~David’s Head, reappearing at the Bishop and Clerks and the Hat and Barrels rocks, and at the Smalls light-house. At Fishguard and Strumble Head, three miles west of Fishguard Bay, the trap is co- lumnar. On the north-east of the chain at Whitechurch (Eglwys- wen), six miles south-east from Newport, on the east at» Llanfirnach (Llanfrynach, Ord. Map), and on the south at Llanglwydwen, are beds of dark carbonaceous shale, which have been fruitlessly worked for culm; they appear to mantle round the trap, but preserve a northerly dip; they are accompanied by lead-veins, one of which, at Lianfernach, has been worked-successtully. At Llanglwydwen Bridge are indications of copper in a lode in contact with a considerable bed of limestone. Mineral veins also exist along the coast, from Newgate, in St. Bride’s Bay, to St. David’s Head. 6. “ Description of some remains of a gigantic Crocodilian Sau- rian, probably marine, from the Lower Greensand at Hythe; and of * Silur. Syst., Plate 20, fig. 19. 450 5 Teeth from the same formation at Maidstone, referable to the genus Polyptychodon,” by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.S. The fossil saurian remains from the lower greensand discovered by Mr. H. B. Mackeson include portions of ‘the iliac, ischial and pubic bones, a large proportion of the shaft of a femur, parts of a tibia and fibula, and several metatarsal bones. In consequence of the absence of vertebra and teeth, the determination of the specific characters of this Saurian is, the author states, a subject of great difficulty, and he therefore confines his remarks, in the present paper, to indications of the. characters by which it differs from previously known extinct genera of Saurians.. In the first place, Mr. Owen shows, from the femur and other long bones having no medullary cavities, but a central structure composed of coarse cancelli, that the animal of which they formed’ part was of marine habits; he, however, adds, that the principal bone beimg a femur, independently of the size and shape of the metatarsals, at once| negatives the idea that these remains belonged to the cetacean order; and that the form and proportions of the metatarsals equally forbid their reference to any other mammalian genus. : Jremur.—The portions of this bone secured by Mr. Mackeson in- clude about the two distal thirds, excepting the articular extremity. Its length is two feet four inches, its circumference in the middle or smallest part of the shaft is fifteen inches six lines, and at the broken distal end, two feet five inches. ‘These dimensions prove that the animal was equal to the most gigantic described Iguanodon*. If the supposition of the proportion of the femur which has been pre- served be right, this bone, Mr. Owen says, differs from that of the Iguanodon, not only in the want of a medullary cavity, but also in the absence of the compressed second trochanterian process which projects from the outer side of the middle.of the shaft, and which forms one of the several curious analogical relations between the Iguanoden and Rhinoceros. The bone also expands more gradually than in the femur of the Iguanodon, and the posterior part of the condyles must have been wider apart in consequence of the posterior inter-condyloid longitudinal excavation being longer and wider. Va- rious other minor points of difference are noticed by the author. Tibia and Iibula.—The portion of a tibia which has been preserved is compressed near its head, and the side next to the fibula is slightly concave. The longest transverse diameter is eight inches nine lines, and the two other trausverse diameters at right angles to the pre- ceding give respectively three inches three lines and two inches six lines. The bone soon assumes a thicker form, its circumference at about one-third from its proximal end being sixteen inches six lines. The cancelli occupying the central portion of the bone are arranged in a succession of layers around a point nearest the narrower end of the transverse section. Lower down the tibia again becomes compressed, and towards the distal end the transverse section exhi- * Femur of the [guanodon,—length, 4 feet 6 inches ; smallest circum- ference, 1 foot 10 inches, ; 451 bits a plate bent towards the fibula, and its narrowest transverse diameter is two and a half inches. The portion of the fibula is eleven and.a half haere long. In the middle it is flat on one side, slightly concave on another, and convex on the two remaining sides. It presents the same cancellous struc- ture as the tibia, but the concentric arrangement of the layers of cells is more exact. ‘Towards the opposite end of the bone the con- cave side becomes first flat and is then pruduced into a convex wall, terminating one end of a transverse section of a compressed and bent thick plate of bone. Metatarsals.—These bones, Mr. Owen says, exhibit. the charac- teristic irregularity of length of the crocodilian metatarsals., Of two imbedded in the rock, and considered by the author to be the mner- most and second, the former or smaller measured one foot in length, and the latter two feet, having a diameter of eight inches at its greater and of four inches five lines at its narrowest or middle part, and of six inches at its other extremity, which was imperfect. ‘lhe whole of the bone within the compact outer crust consisted of cells varying from a half to two-thirds of a line in diameter. Portions of four other detached metatarsals are described. Ilia, Ischia, Pubis, and Coracoid Bone.—These bones, the author states, also conform to the crocodilian type. ‘The remains of the ilia are flat and nearly straight, and they gradually but. slightly widen towards one end. Of one ilium, a portion, twenty-five inches long and ten inches across at the broadest end, is preserved, and of the other a fragment twenty inches in length. The mesial extremities of the pubis and ischium are preserved in the same block of stone. ‘The pubis, Mr. Owen states, differs from the crocodilian type in its greater breadth. ‘The portion exposed im this block is principally convex, but it becomes concave towards the opposite or median margin. At its broadest part it is thirteen - imches across, and its length is seventeen inches. This expanded extremity is rounded, and the diameter of the corresponding ex- panded extremity of the ischium, which is obliquely truncated, is nine inches. In another block of stone the expanded extremity of the opposite pubis is preserved, and measures fourteen inches across and twenty-two inches in length. The bone, considered by Mr. Owen to be a coracoid, is two feet in length and seventeen inches in its greatest breadth, and it varies in thickness from three to five inches. ‘The breadth of this bone in- dicates, the author states, the great development of the muscles de- stined for the movement of the fore-leg, whence he infers that the anterior extremities were more powerfully and habitually used in progressive motion than in the Crocodiles, and that they were con- sequently provided with a webbed modification of the hand. Mr. Owen then enters upon the question of the identity or affini- _ ties of the Hythe remains with any of the known marine genera of the saurian order, the texture of the long bones being conclusive against their having belonged to the terrestrial genera, the Iguano- don and Megalosaurus. 452 The length, thickness, and indications of condyles in the femur, and the length, thickness, and angular form of the metatarsal bones, place, he says, the Plesiosaurus and the Ichthyosaurus’ out of the pale of comparison ; as well as the Mosasaurus, the locomotive ex- tremities of which are considered to have been flattened paddles. The superior expanse of the pubis and the broad coracoid (?), with the form of the femur and the gigantic proportions of the bones, for- bid a reference to any subgenera, recent or extinct, of the crocodilian reptiles ; and he shows that it is distinct from the Poikilopleuron of M. Deslongchamp by the long bones of that Saurian having medul- lary cavities. Saurian Teeth from the Lower Greensand.—These teeth, described by Mr. Owen in his ‘ Odontography’ under the name of Polypty- chodon, are characterized by the crown presenting numerous closely set longitudinal ridges, which are continued, of nearly equal length, to near the apex of the crown. In their size and simple conical form the teeth of the Polyptychodon resemble those of the great sauroid fish, Hypsodon, Ag. , but may be distinguished by the solid compact structure of the dentine, which is resolved by decomposition into successive cones ; and also by the ridges on the exterior of the crown of the Hypsodon’s teeth being alternately long and short, and ter- minating abruptly at different distances from the base, the interspaces between the longer ridges widening as they approach the apex. ‘The tooth of the Polyptychodon is slightly and regularly curved, and in- vested with a layer of enamel of a clear, amber-brown colour, and of which the ridges are composed, the surface of the outermost layer of dentine being smooth. A tooth from the lower greensand near Maidstone has’a crown three inches long, and one inch four lines across the base. It consists of a body of compact dentine composed of successive lamelliform cones, and has a short and wide conical cavity at the base. From the teeth supposed to have belonged to the Poikilopleuron, the specimens above described differ in the ridges on the crown being greater in number and more closely set, as well as in the form of the teeth being nearly circular instead of elliptical; fromthe teeth of the Pliosaurus they differ also in being round and not three-sided, and in having longitudinal ridges over the whole surface of the crown ; and from the teeth of the Mosasaurus they differ in being ridged and not smooth. In conclusion, Mr. Owen states, that as the Hythe Saurian is di- stinct from all other described Saurians, and as these teeth belonged to a great Saurian also undescribed, and further, as the Maidstone tooth was found in the same formation as the Hythe fossil, so it may be convenient to consider all these remains for the present to have belonged to the genus Polyptychodon, originally ie for the animal which was provided with the teeth. PROCEEDINGS OF - THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. Ill. Parril. - 1841. No. 80. June 30.—The following papers were read :— 1. “Abrief note to accompany a series of specimens from Lockport, near Niagara, in the State of New York,”’ by William Jory Henwood, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. Mr. Henwood commences by calling attention to Mr. J. Hall’s Geological Reports of the fourth division of the State of New York, particularly to that for 1840, which contains an important stratigra- phical account, with lists of organic remains, of the beds near Lock- port (p. 452), and in which the deposit called the Lockport lime- stone is placed in the lowest portion of a series of beds considered by Mr. Hall to be the equivalents of the Wenlock limestone. Mr. Henwood likewise especially alludes to that geologist’s description of several beds classed with the Wenlock limestone of the State of New York, but which have no representative in Shropshire and the adjacent counties. At Lockport the strata are nearly horizontal, and are well exposed in a section of great length, and about 100 feet in altitude, along the banks of the Erie Canal. The uppermost bed Mr. Henwood believes to be the Lockport or Wenlock limestone; and it is succeeded in descending order by several other thin beds of similar or slightly va- rying characters, and they are all traversed by joints, the principal bearing about magnetic N. and 8. Organic remains are stated to be abundant in these limestones. The next subjacent formation is the Rochester shale, considered by Mr. Hall to be the equivalent of the Wenlock shale. It extends to the bottom of the section, except at a few points, and consists of beds of green shale abounding in organic remains, including Asaphus longi- caudatus ?, Homalonotus delphinocephalus, Platynotus Boltoni, Ortho- _ ceras annulatum ?, Conularia ?, Leptena transversalis, L. depressa, Terebratula aspera, Avicula striata ?, Curyocrinites ornata*. Beds of limestone occur in the shale at irregular intervals, but they contain no organic remains. At the few points where the cutting has penetrated the shale, a bed of limestone is exposed, and is stated to contain, on the autho- rity of Mr. Forman, who has made the fossils of the district his par- * The above species have been determined by specimens which Mr. Hen- wood presented to the Society. The Asaphus longicaudatus is distinguished from the fossil described by Mr. Murchison in the absence of the large pro- tuberance “on the anterior edge of the buckler,” Silur. Syst., p. 656. VOL. III. PART II. : 2Q 454 ticular study, Orbicule and other organic remains; and the same -gentleman informed Mr. Henwood, that beneath this limestone there are strata of sandstone enclosing fucoides and leaves of plants. At Rochester the Genessee traverses a channel 500 feet wide and 80 feet deep, and falls in the middle of the town over a ledge of that . depth, composed of beds of quartzose limestone and calcareous sandstone containing shells, and abounding in hollows lined with sta- lagmitic incrustations. 2. ‘‘Notes to accompany a series of specimens from Chaleur Bay — and the river Ristigouche in New Brunswick,” by Mr. Henwood. Granite constitutes the lowest rock in the neighbourhood of Ba- thurst (47°40'N. lat., 65° 42’ W. long.), appearing about a mile from the town on the banks of the Nepisiguit, and extending up its course for three miles; it is often traversed by granite veins of a finer and more quartzose nature, particularly at the Pabineau falls. For the whole of the above distance it is surmounted by the sandstones and conglomerates of the coal-measures, the bedding of which conforms almost perfectly to the surface of the granite. Near Long Meadow, a greenish slate-rock, very much contorted in the cleavage | planes, is m contact with the granite and overlaid by a coarse quartzose conglo- merate with apparently a ferruginous basis, and belonging to the coal-measures. The greenish slate extends to the grand falls, con- taining numerous quartz veins, and occasionally, as at the chain of rocks, irregular masses of greenstone. Granite also runs for some miles up the courses of the Little and Middle rivers, and near Molloys, on the latter, it is overlaid by a thick-bedded greenish slate, which is traversed near the junction of the two rocks by numerous granite veins. In the bed of the Little river, about eight miles from Bathurst, a fine glossy clay-slate ap- pears. Afine deep blue clay-slate forms both banks of the Tattigouche from the sea to Clarke’s Camp, a distance of twenty-two miles, and is overlaid near Blackstock’s Mills by the quartzose conglomerate of the coal-measures ; while-at the Tattigouche falls a reddish brown rock contains numerous small vermicular and nodular masses of oxide of manganese. At this spot Mr. Henwood found a portion of an encrinite, the only organic body seen by him. The coarse sandstones and quartzose conglomerates of the coal- measures extend, Mr. Henwood believes, over the greater portion of New Brunswick, being continuous, so far as he could discover, from Fredericton (45° 55!’ N. lat., 66° 45’ W. long.) on the St. John’s river, to Boice’s town, Newcastle and Chatham (about 47° N. lat., 65° 30' W. long.), on the Miramichi river, and thence to Bathurst, to the northward of which they apparently terminate. In the last-men- tioned locality so great abundance-of vegetable remains have been found, charged with vitreous and the blue and green carbonates of copper, that mining operations have been conducted for the purpose of procuring the metallic minerals; but the quantities obtained have not repaid the expense, though the ores have been found over a con- siderable tract. The bed containing the copper lies between two strata 455 of a coarse quartzose conglomerate, and appears to be a soft bluish shale, enclosing in some places abundance of ferns and other plants. Wherever there are any traces of woody fibre, the copper appears to have been attracted to them ; but the largest quantity of ore has been obtained in small nodular concretions, the centre of which is some- times composed of vitreous copper and the exterior of copper pyrites, or the reverse; whilst a few nodules have been found to consist wholly of vitreous copper, and a still fewer wholly of pyrites. Some portions of the shale give out, on being broken, a most powerful garlic or arsenical odour. At the Capes, about ten miles east of Bache the sandstones con- tain thin beds of coal, and the greater part of the plants which ac- companied the paper was obtained from them. The coal is bitumi- nous and stated to burn well; but the quantity is too small to be worked profitably. On the beach Mr. Henwood noticed enormous quantities of nodular iron-stone, though he was able to discover in situ only a few in one of the beds of sandstone. Towards Belle Dune, on the coast of Chaleur Bay, hummocks of ser- pentine, traversed by small veins of steatite and calcareous spar, rise through the sand; and ina few places beds of sandstone and conglo- merate, assuming a flinty character, are in contact with the serpentine. Some of the strata of conglomerate are displaced or heaved by certain joints; but other joints traverse the strata without displacing them. At Chambers’s, near Belle Dune Point, is a quartzose ferrugimous limestone, which contains remains of Favosites polymorpha and other corals. The beds ‘strike about N.E. and S.W., and dip 20° S.E. At Dumerisque’s on the Ristigouche, near Dallsusies the western extremity of Chaleur Bay, Mr. Henwood observed a series of strata, extending less than a quarter, of a mile in length, and bounded by two trap dykes, beyond which he was unable to detect any traces of the beds. The strike of the strata was nearly N.E. and S.W., and dip | from 40° to 50° towards the 8.E. The following ascending sectional list is given by the author: 1. Lowest bed, impure limestone, containing species of Cyatho- phyllum, Favosites, and Syringopora, also crinoidal remains. 2. An impure limestone not very well exposed, but it contains Favosites Gothlandica, Producta depressa, Atrypa aspera ? 3. Calcareous shale abounding with Producta depressa, and yielding also a species of Cyathophyllum and of Favosites, likewise Atrypa aspera. 4. Calcareous shale, distinguished by the author as the Trilobite bed, on account of the remains found in it. In addition to the un- determinable portions of Trilobites, Mr Henwood procured specimens of Producta depressa with fragments of Orthocera and other Testacea. 5. Calcareous lower earthy shale, in which Producta depressa and other shells and Crinoidea are stated to be abundant, but corals few in number. 6. Earthy shale, containing numerous specimens of Favosites, cri- noidal stems, Producta depressa, Leptena euglypha, Atrypa aspera, and several of apparently unnamed species. 2a2 456 A few other beds much decomposed rest upon No. 6, and lime is stated to be apparently more plentiful in them. 7. Above these the strata are more gritty, and fossils are rare, but the specimens obtained by the author include Atrypa aspera, = obscure traces of vegetable remains. 8. Resting upon No. 7. is a shelly limestone, agreeing sisparlnult m dip and strike with the subjacent strata. The fossils are for the greater part the same as in the other beds, consisting of Producta depressa, Atrypa aspera, and a Spirifera which occurs also in No. 6. The rock near Dalhousie is a reddish slate, in which Mr. Henwood sought in vain for organic remains. ‘The dip of the laminz is 70° to the S.E. On the opposite side of the river in Lower Canada, the strata con- sist wholly of a brick-red sandstone. . Near Cambellton, both the Canadian and the New Brunswick banks of the Ristigouche are composed of sandstone and conglomerate with imperfect fragments of vegetable remains. The strata are cut through by numerous trap dykes, many of which have produced faults, but man equal number of instances no similar effects are visible. _At John Pratts, seven miles above Cambellton on the New Bruns- wick side of the Ristigouche, is a slaty limestone enclosing Crinoidea and a few other obscure organic bodies. The beds dip W., and strike 20° E. of N. A thin-bedded limestone, in which the author could discover no fossils, extends to the Maramajaw, and thence to the Up- salguilch river. . In some places it is much traversed by trap dykes, and at the Little Falls of the Upsalguilch by dykes of felspar porphyry resembling the Cornish elvans. The strike of the strata is N. and S., and the dip W. 3. “ Onthe locality and geological position of Cucullea decussata,” by Joshua Trimmer, Esq., GS: The object of this communication is to determine the geological formation to which the siliceous casts of the Cucullea decussata really belong, it having been stated that they occur at Faversham in Kent*,” m a bed of greenish siliceous sand, placed by Mr. Webster above the chalk+ ; in the upper greensand of Kent, but with a doubt}; in the lower greensand of Kent and Sussex, and in the greensand of Black- down §. The fossil was first described by Mr. Parkinson, who states, on the authority of the late Mr. Francis Crow, that it was found at Faver- sham associated with a silicified shell exactly agreeing with the Strom- bus pes Pelicani of the Devonshire whetstone pits; but he adds, that it is specifically different from the Cucullza of Devonshire, and he * Parkinson, Org. Rem., vol. iii. p. 171. Min. Con., vol. iii. p. 8. Geol. Trans., Second Series, vol. ii. pl. 1. Pp: 212. Tae Geol. Trans., First Series, vol. ii. p. 195. t Geol. Trans., Second Series, vol. iv. pl. 2. pp. 203, 356. Ibid., vol. i. pl. 1. p. 213; vol. iv. pl. 2. pp. 128, 157, 356. § Ibid., vol. iv. pl. 2. pp. 240, 356. 457 proposes to designate it by the name of C. decussata. ‘The collection of the late Mr. Crow, now in the Canterbury Museum, contains three specimens of this fossil, which, with two others presented by Mr. E. Crow to the Geological Society, are said by the author on the au- thority of that sentleman, to have been found in digging a ha-ha at Nash Court, about two miles from Faversham. Mr. Trimmer like- wise mentions as independent evidence of these fossils having been found at Nash Court, that it is stated on both editions of Mr. Greenough’s Map, that siliceous fossils occur there. A careful examination of the specimens presented to the Geologi- cal Society by Mr. E. Crow, has verified the correctness of Mr. Parkinson’s opinion, that the Faversham shell is plage) distinct from the Cucullzez of the greensands. The strata of Nash Court, Mr. Trimmer says, undoubtedly belong to the lowest sands of the London clay, and to that portion which is very near the junction with the chalk. In the village of Boughten, not far from Nash Court, Mr. Trim- mer has examined two sections situated to the east and west of the 50th mile-stone, and nearly on a level with the ha-ha, in which the Cucullea decussata was found. ‘The strata consisted of white and ferruginous sand with layers of ferruginous clay, in some parts con- siderably indurated. He did not observe any organic remains, but shells are reported to have been found im the eastern section. Ata greater elevation on the side of Boughton Hill, and a little below the junction of the sands with the brown clay, which forms the sum- mit of the hill, are courses of geodes of a ferruginous sandstone very like some of the Wealden sandstone, and lined with mammillary sili- -ceous deposits and quartz crystals. Casts of plastic clay shells are oceasionally found in the:sandstone, but more abundantly in the al- ternate layers of indurated ferruginous clay. From a bed four feet thick of this sandstone worked in a quarry in the wood on the side of Boughton Hill, Mr. Trimmer obtained casts of Calyptrea trochi- formis, ‘Rostellaria Sowerbu (Strombus pes Pelicani of Mr. Parkinson), Potamides intermedium, and a Venus which has been considered a variety of V. ovalis, but is clearly distinct. Similar remains are stated by the author to occur in the upper part of the cliffs at Reculver, _ either in loose masses, or sand slightly indurated. In conclusion, Mr. Trimmer acknowledges the assistance which he received in pre- paring the communication. 4. “A description of a portion of the skeleton of the Cetiosaurus, a gigantic extinct Saurian Reptile occurring in the Oolitic forma- tions of different portions of England,” by Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.G.S. The remains described in this memoir consist of vertebre and bones of the extremities obtained by Mr. Kingdon from the oolite quarries of Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire ; of vertebree and other bones from the oolite of Blisworth, near Northampton, transmitted to the author by Miss Baker; and of other remains from the oclite of Staple Hill, Wotton, three miles north-west of Woodstock ; from . the oolite near Buckingham ; the Portland stone at Garsington and 458 Thame, in the collection of Dr. Buckland: Mr. Owen has likewise examined a vertebra and some bones of the extremities of the same saurian from the Yorkshire oolite, and preserved in the Scarborough Museum. Caudal Vertebre.—A caudal vertebra from near Buckingham, which presented the anchylosed neural arch entire, but with the transverse, oblique and spinous processes broken off, equalled in di- mensions a middle caudal vertebra of a full-sized whale, the antero- posterior diameter being five inches, the transverse eight inches six lines, and the vertical seven inches. The sides and under part of the centrum are described as very concave; and the shape of the articular extremities as nearly circular, with a greater concavity in the anterior one than in the posterior. The posterior heemapophysial articular surfaces slope downwards and forwards in the form of semi- circular facets for nearly two inches upon the under surfaces. The neurapophyses commence close to the anterior surface of the cen- trum, their antero-posterior extent being three and a half inches, and they meet at a rather acute angle above the spinal canal. The vertical diameter of the spinal canal was one inch nine lines, the transverse two inches, and the breadth of the base of the neural arch, from the outside of the neurapophyses, five inches three lines. The transverse process is developed from the centrum just below the neu- rapophysial suture. In all the caudal vertebre of the Cetiosaurus the posterior half of the centrum is left uncovered by the neural arch. The substance of another fractured vertebra, showing the upper third of the centrum, presented an uniform coarse spongy texture ; whilst in a third specimen, which exhibited also a similar texture, the layers affected a direction parallel with the articular extremities for about half an inch from their surfaces, and inclined to the longi- tudinal course in the intermediate space. This structure, Mr. Owen states, proves that the vertebra cannot belong to the Pozkilopleuron Bucklandi. A caudal vertebra also from Buckingham, and assigned by Pro- fessor Owen to the middle part of the tail, on account of the de- velopment of short, narrow transverse processes just below the neurapophysial sutures, exhibited a centrum of a subtrihedral form, with one angle inferiorly and the other two at the origin of the transverse processes, but all three largely rounded off. The marginal circumference of the centrum was convex, and separated from the lateral or free surface by a rough, irregular, elevated ridge, the in- ferior part of which encroached upon the under surface of the ver- tebra in the form of two semicircular facets, both anteriorly and posteriorly. The free surface of the vertebral centre is marked by the coarse lines of the bony fibrous structure, decussating like an irregular net-work. The spinal canal of this specimen did not sink into the body of the vertebra. The size of this vertebra, and the proportions and position of neurapophyses and hemapophysial arti- culations, might suggest a relationship of the animal to which it belonged with the Cetacea; but it differs, Mr. Owen says, in the concavity of the terminal articulations, which show no sign of sepa- ration as laminar epiphyses, and more particularly in the place of 459 the origin of the transverse process being close to the neurapophysis instead of proceeding from the middle of the side of the centrum. In these deviations from the Cetacea, the Cetiosaurus approaches, the author states, the saurian order. Mr. Owen then describes, with his wonted minuteness and _per- fect acquaintance with the subject, other caudal vertebre found at Blisworth, but it is not possible to abridge the details. Among the remains discovered near Chipping Norton are eleven caudal vertebrze without transverse processes, and therefore assigned by the author to the terminal half of the tail. They progressively diminished in transverse diameter from five inches to two inches, but without losmg in equal ratio their length, which continues the same, or five and a half inches in the vertebra which has only three inches and three lines of breadth, five inches in that which is two inches and nine lines broad, and four inches in that which has a breadth of two inches. These eleven vertebre do not constitute, Mr. Owen shows, a regular sequence, but detached links of the ter- mination of the spinal column. In all the existing genera of Cetacea the posterior caudal vertebrze become shorter in proportion to their thickness, and the terminal ones are depressed. ‘The slender elon- gated form of the corresponding vertebre in the Cetiosaurus, is, Mr. Owen shows, a striking crocodilian character ; and he adds, it is im- portant to observe that not any of the series of caudal vertebra de- scribed in this paper exhibit the vertical canals or perforations of the side of the centrum or base of the transverse process which so pe- culiarly characterizes most of the cetacean caudal vertebre. In his comparison between the vertebre of the Cetiosaurus and the Poikilopleuron, Professor Owen states that the caudal vertebrz of the former resemble those of the latter and most other reptiles from strata below the chalk in the articular surfaces being slightly concave ; and the vertebrze of the Poikilopleuron, especially in the elongated and rounded form of the body ; in its median compression, and in the articulation of the hemapophyses to the inferior part of _ the vertebral interspaces, though they are larger ; on the contrary, the Cetiosaurus vertebre differ in their proportions, in their structure, as in the absence of the remarkable medullary cavity in the middle part of the centrum of the Poikilopleuron; in the shortness of the neurapophyses as compared with the centrum; and in other minor points, which are fully detailed by Professor Owen. The author then proceeds to institute further comparisons between the vertebr of the Cetiosaurus and other reptilia: thus he shows that they differ from the vertebre of the Crocodilians in retaining the cylindrical form of the body to the end of the tail, instead of being compressed and four-sided ; that there is no trace of the ver- tical median division which the bodies of the caudal vertebre pre- sent in Iguane, Anolides and other Lacertians; that they are not only larger than in the Megalosaurus, but relatively longer ; that they differ from the anterior caudal vertebre of the Iguanodon, which are nearly as large, in the absence of the well-marked con- cavity below the transverse processes, in the form of the centrum not being so quadrilateral, and especially in the transverse breadth 460 of the inferior surface being less; and from the posterior caudal vertebree of the Iguanodon, which slightly increases in length, in being less compressed and the centrum not having a triangular form ; the slender terminal caudal vertebre of the Iguanodon are also hex- agonal, and not cylindrical as in the Cetiosaurus. As there is no known extinct saurian which can so nearly com- pete in size with the Cetiosaurus as the Iguanodon, it is fortunate, Prof. Owen observes, that the distinguishing characters are so well marked and easily recognizable. Dorsal vertebra.—The only portion of a dorsal vertebra described in the memoir is the extremity of a spinous process, the posterior surface of which is rough and flattened, 4 inches across, at about the same distance below the end of the spine; the sides are traversed to a certain extent by a longitudinal ridge, anterior to which they are concave and smooth, but their anterior margin is again flattened and rough, though it is not so broad as the posterior. In referring all the vertebre described in this paper to the same species of saurian, Prof. Owen admits that they present a somewhat greater variety of form and proportion in different regions of the tail than is observable in that part of the vertebral column im the smaller and recent species of Crocodile or Lizard; not only beco- ming larger in proportion to their thickness, but increasing slightly in length for a short distance as they recede from the sacrum. They appear likewise to exchange from a cylindrical to a subtriedral form of the body, but to resume the cylindrical shape in the termi- nal half of the tail. ‘These modifications, he says, are possible, as in the Plesiosaurus brachydeirus ‘still greater discrepancies in the proportions of the vertebre prevail ; and they are infericr in degree to any of the modifications which distinguish the vertebrze of known genera of saurians from those under consideration, in pointing at their distinguishing features from the hitherto known sauria; and in thus treating ef them collectively, the inference that they belong to the same gigantic species is, the author observes, almost irresist- ible, that they belong to a new and distinct genus, which, on ac- count of the vertebre approximating im size and structure to the vertebrz of the whale, he has termed Cetiosaurus. In the cuttings for the London and Birmingham Railway near Blisworth, there were found, scattered over an area of 12 feet by 8 feet, the following remains :—1. A bone resembling the episternal - of an Ichthyosaurus, the length or antero-posterior extent of the preserved portion of the median plate being 14 foot, and the breadth of the posterior fractured ‘end 5 inches, from which it gradually ex- pands to the root of the side branches, where its breadth is 1 foot. From its obtuse termination _to the end of the longest branch is 24 feet, and from this end to that of the opposite branch 41 feet. 2. The remains of a coracoid and scapula apparatus of equally gi- gantic proportions. 3. A fragment, considered to be the shaft of a humerus, 1 foot 9 inches in length, 6 inches in diameter across the middle and 8 inches across the widest end. 4. A portion of the oppo- site humerus. 5. Another fragment, believed to be part of a radius .or ulna, about a yard in length, 6 inches across the proximal end, 461 and 5 inches across the middle of the shaft. 6. A slightly curved portion of a rib, a yard long and from 13 to 2 inches thick. 7. Five caudal vertebrz agreeing in dimensions with the vertebrze of Chip- ‘ping Norton. Numerous fragments of long bones without a trace of a medullary cavity have been found at Chipping Norton, and correspond in mag- nitude with the vertebre. The articular surfaces which are pre- served are covered with large tubercles for the attachment of thick cartilages. The best preserved fragments are considered to belong to metacarpal or metatarsal and phalangeal bones, and are therefore, Prof. Owen says, decisive evidence against the cetacean nature of the animal; but he adds, they possess characters by which they may be distinguished from the corresponding bones of known ex- tinct gigantic saurians. One of these bones, believed to be a meta- carpal or a metatarsal, is double the bulk of the largest analogous bone of a full-grown elephant, though the metacarpals or metatar- sals are much smaller in proportion in Saurians than in Pachyderms. The bone is 7 inches in length, 9 in circumference in its middle, 5 in the antero-posterior diameter of its proximal end, and 4 inches 8 lines in the transverse diameter of the distal end. A proximal phalanx is shown to be remarkable for its short and broad propor- tions, which are more massive than those of the phalanges of exist- ing Crocodilians or of the Poikilopleuron. An ungueal phalanx, also found at Chipping Norton, was 6 inches in length, 24 in breadth, and upwards of 3 in depth. It was slightly curved, obliquely compressed, obtusely terminated with a shallow, concave, trochlear articular surface, divided by a vertical convexity ; it was marked on each side by a smooth curved groove, 3 inches in length, with the concavity downwards, and the lower edge pro- Jecting beyond the upper at the posterior part of the groove; but it is shown to be by no means produced in so large and thick a ridge as that which characterizes each side of the more depressed and broader phalanx of the Iguanodon. From the ungueal phalanges of that Saurian it differs m being much less compressed from side to side and less curved downwards. It vastly surpasses in size any of the ungueal phalanges of the Poikilopleuron. A smaller ungueal phalanx, resembling in general shape the above, was found at Chip- ping Norton; and portions of metacarpal or metatarsal bones, agree- ing in form and size with the fragments obtained at Chipping Nor- ton, have been discovered at Buckingham: also a fragment 8 inches long, which Prof. Owen considers to have belonged to a radius, a fibula, or a long distal phalanx. With reference to a comparison of the remains of the Cetiosaurus with those of the Polyptychodon, the bones of the extremities pre- sent in both cases the cancellous structure throughout the central part, which indicates aquatic rather than terrestrial habits. Prof. Owen states that he has not found any of the remains of the extre- mities of the Cetiosaurus to agree exactly in shape with those be-. longing to the Polyptychodon; also that no specimen of a tooth agreeing in characters with the teeth of the Polyptychodon has been detected in secondary strata inferior to the greensand. Certain 462 large conical teeth, found in the Malton oolite, may, Mr. Owen thinks, appertain to the Cetiosaurus, but he is of opinion that they more probably belong to the Steneosaurus. — In conclusion, it is stated that the vertebrz described in the paper prove the existence of a saurian genus distinct from the Mega- losaurus, Steneosaurus, Poikilopleuron, Plesiosaurus, or any other large extinct reptile, remains of which have been discovered in the oolitic series ; that the vertebrze, as well as the bones of the extre- mities, prove its marine habits; and that the surpassing bulk and strength of the Cetiosaurus were probably assigned to it with car- nivorous habits, that it might keep in check the Crocodilians and Plesiosauri. 5. “On the age of the Tertiary beds of the Tagus, with a Ca- talogue of the Fossils,” by James Smith, Esq., of Jordan Hill, PGS During a visit to Portugal in 1840, Mr. Smith made a collection of the organic remains in the tertiary deposits near Lisbon, for the purpose of ascertaining their relative geological age. Since his re- turn to England he has carefully examined the collection, assisted by Mr. George Sowerby, and ascertained that the series of beds from which they were obtained belong to the miocene division of the tertiary system, and to that portion of it which includes the Bordeaux and Dax beds, rather than to any other yet described deposit. He has, however, determined, by a careful comparison of the Lisbon fossils with those given in the works of MM. de Basterot and Grateloup, and with his own ‘collection of Bordeaux organic remains, that there is a greater difference than can be ascribed to geographical distance alone; but he hesitates to assign to the Lis- bon beds either a more ancient or a less ancient date. The propor- tion of recent shells, he states, affords no assistance, as, according to M. de Basterot, the existing species in the Bordeaux basin equal 23 per cent., and according to M. Grateloup, 37 per cent., whilst Mr. Smith’s collection of Lisbon fossils gives 28 per cent. The author is fully convinced of the soundness of the principle of determining the comparative age of a tertiary deposit by the proportion of recent species; but he is of opinion, on account of the great difficulty of defining species, that it is only possible to arrive at an approximation sufficiently near to decide to which of the great divisions of the tertiary system a set of beds may belong, and not to the precise relative antiquity of two deposits of nearly the same age. _ " Prof. Agassiz has decided that several of the new species of Lis- bon shells occur in the molasse of Switzerland, and he considers the two series of strata as nearly contemporaneous. Mr. Smith refers to Mr. D. Sharpe’s memoir on the neighbour- hood of Lisbon*, for a description of the mineral structure of the formation, confining his own remarks to pointing out the localities and position in the series from which the fossils were obtained. * Proceedings, Geol. Soc., vol. iii. p. 28, 1839; also Geol. Trans., Second Series, vol. vi. p. 1. A list of tertiary shells is given in p. 118. 463 In the upper beds, consisting of sand and gravel, and known as the Golden Sands of the Tagus, Mr. Smith found no organic remains ; but in the next inferior series of strata, composed of yellow sand, calcareous sandstone and blue marl, the Almada beds of Mr. Sharpe, marine remains abound. Of upwards of 150 species collected by the author, 124 have admitted of being carefully determined, and of these, 20 are new, 51 occur near Bordeaux, 17 in the Faluns of Tou- raine, 15 in the Sub-apennine and Sicilian beds, 8 in the London and Paris basins, and 35 are recent. Several of the species also occur in the tertiary deposits of Vienna, Switzerland, Turin, and the Morea. a list of five new species of Echinodermata is also given, one of which M. Agassiz has identified with a Molasse species. The fol- lowing fishes have likewise been determined by M. Agassiz :— Oxy- rhina Xiphodon, a Bordeaux ichthyolite; Carcharias productus, C. megalodon, which occurs in the London basin; Galeus aduncus, and Lamna denticulata; also a species of Delphinus. Appended to the paper is a descriptive catalogue of the new spe- cies by Mr. G. Sowerby, and drawings of the shells by Mr. G. Sowerby, jun. 6. ‘Some remarks on the Silurian Strata between Aymestry and Wenlock,” by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. Two points are more particularly discussed in this paper :—Ist, the inferences which may be drawn respecting the dislocation of strata from the position of fossil corals in the bed in which they occur, and of the subsidences which beds containing Polyparia underwent during the accumulation of the upper Silurian strata; and 2ndly, certain features in the physical geography of the district between Aymestry and Wenlock, dependent on geological structure. 1. Inferences from the position of Corals, &¢.—The corals which abound in the Aymestry and Wenlock limestones, in the neighbour- hood of Aymestry, retain, Mr. Lyell states, the position in which they grew, the points of attachment being inclined towards the lower part of each stratum, and the convex surface of the hemispherical masses being upwards. At Lower Lye, near Aymestry, this arrangement is advantageously exhibited near the junction of the Wenlock limestone with the lower Ludlow formation, in consequence of the layers of shale or mudstone marking more clearly the stratification than in places where the limestone is almost exclusively an aggregate of or- ganic remains. The Rev. T. 'T. Lewis has also noticed some rare instances of the roots and base of the stem of an Encrinus growing on the top or convex surface of a coral. ‘These facts, with the great size and extent of the corals, (the Catenipora escharoides sometimes spreading continuously in a horizontal direction for nine feet and even more, and a hemispherical mass of Cyathophyllum in the Lud- _low Museum being four feet in diameter) imply, Mr. Lyell states, the slow accumulation of the materials composing the upper Silurian strata. The vertical position of the corals with respect to the plane of strati- fication is sufficiently general to deserve particular attention, with a 464 view of determining the amount of dislocation which the enclosing beds may have undergone, and of deciding in some cases whether the strata have been completely inverted; but considerable caution, the author says, is necessary in the application of this test, and that the inference must be drawn, not from a single specimen or a few corals being reversed or inclined, but from the prevailing disposition of the great masses. At Gleedon Hill and Bradley, near Wenlock, he no- ticed that some of the Polyparia, particularly beds of Catenipora, main- tained their original vertical direction, while others were inclined or reversed and mingled with broken stems of Crinoidea, leaving no doubt upon his mind that the dislocated specimens were fragments which had been broken off by the action of the waves, and thrown down upon the reef. From the inquiries of Mr. Darwin and other naturalists, it appears that stone-corals do not flourish at a depth exceeding 120 feet. Without assuming that the habits of extinct species were precisely similar to those now living, Mr. Lyell says, it may nevertheless be inferred from analogy, that the stone-corals of the Silurian period did not live at a depth of many hundred feet; and, consequently, that those parts of the Wenlock limestone in which the corals pre- serve their natural position, were produced at a moderate depth from the surface. This conclusion, he shows, is also supported by the occurrence of the inverted and broken corals noticed above, and as- sociated with others in the position in which they grew. A further inference drawn by Mr. lyell from the limited depths at which corals grow beneath the surface of the ocean, is the sub- sidences which must have consequently taken place during the accu- mulation of the upper Silurian strata. Thus in the Gatley escarp- ment near Aymestry, he shows, that the lower or Wenlock coralline limestone is separated from the upper or Aymestry limestone by more than 400 feet of mudstone or lower Ludlow strata, and that in the same neighbourhood a great thickness of mudstone, amounting at the New Bridge, Ludlow, to 700 feet, is superimposed on the Ay- mestry limestone. It is, therefore, evident, he says, that at least two great subsidences took place during the accumulation of the up- per Silurian strata of Herefordshire and Shropshire, the first of which carried down the Wenlock limestone to a depth exceeding 500 feet, to allow the deposition of the lower Ludlow beds and the Aymestry limestone ; and the second of which depressed the whole of these formations to a depth sufficiently great to permit the upper Ludlow strata to be deposited upon the surface where the Aymestry corals had grown. He thinks, however, from analogy, that the sinking of the bed of the ocean probably went on during foe whole period, ‘but perhaps at different rates. 2. The attention of the author was drawn to the phenomena which form the subject of the second point in the communication, by _ the Rev. T. 'T. Lewis; -but before he enters upon their details, he - states, that the effects of upheaval and denudation on the upper Si- lurian strata of this part of England are strictly of the same order as those in the Bernese Jura, described by M. Thurmann*; there —* Essai sur les Soulevemens Jurassiques. 465 being in the latter case an upper oolite or coral rag, reposing on Ox- ford clay, which is succeeded by an inferior oolite resting upon lias, in the same manner as the Aymestry limestone reposes on the lower Ludlow mudstone strata, and the Wenlock limestone on the Wen- lock shale ; and there being in both countries two escarpments of cal- careous-rocks, each having at its base a soft, argillaceous formation. The fact which Mr. Lewis pointed out to the author is, that in the Wenlock Edge, the lower escarpment, consisting of Wenlock limestone, forms an uninterrupted ridge ; while the upper escarpment, composed of Aymestry limestone and associated Ludlow rocks, is di- vided into many knolls by transverse breaks; but that after crossing the Onny, we find that, in the district between Shelderton and Ay- mestry, the pheenomena are reversed, the upper or Aymestry limestone escarpment being undivided, and the lower or Wenlock limestone ridge being formed: of knolls. The cause of this difference, Mr. Lyell is of opinion, exists in the variations in the thickness of the limestones, and their consequent amount of resistance to denuding agents. In the Wenlock Edge, the calcareous strata which form the summit are from 50 to 80 feet thick *, and there are many solid beds in the underlying shale; on the contrary, in the upper escarp- ment, the capping of Aymestry limestone is inconsiderable: and in the district between Shelderton and Aymestry, where the phenomena are reversed, the Aymestry limestone, with the accompanying solid beds of the upper Ludlow, is from 80 to 90 feet thick, but the Wen- lock is of inconsiderable dimensions. In each instance, moreover, the two escarpments are so near to each other, that it is highly im- probable that there could have been any great difference in the amount of fracture and fissuring, or that they were not equally _ affected by the same movement. } In conclusion, Mr. Lyell alludes to Mr. Murchison’s description + of the transverse valleys or fissures which divide the Aymestry and Ludlow beds into knolls in the ridge which ranges parallel to Wen- lock Edge; and he calls upon those geologists who may have the op- portunity, to examine carefully the escarpment of the Edge itself, for the purpose of ascertaining if there be any traces of the prolongation of these fissures. Should they be found to exist, Mr. Lyell says, the comparative integrity of the escarpments may be attributed with still greater confidence to the resistance of the limestone beds which constitute its upper part. 7. ‘Notes on the Silurian Strata in the neighbourhood of Christ- iania, in Norway,” by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. In a paper read at the Meeting of the British Association at Li- verpool, in 1837, Mr. Lyell inferred that the fossiliferous strata in- vaded and altered by granite in the neighbourhood of Christiania belong to the Silurian period, in consequence of their containing Graptolites and Catenipora{; and in this communication he states * See Mr. Murchison’s Silurian System, chap. xvii. + Silurian System, p. 236 et seq. { See Seventh Report of the British Association, Notices and Abstracts, p. 67; and Athenzum for 1857, No. 516, p. 683. 466 that, by the assistance of Mr. Lonsdale, he has been enabled to as- certain that the fossils contained in the transition rocks of the islands and shores of the fiord of Christiania agree most nearly with those in the lower part of the English Silurian system; and, Mr. Lyell adds, that in mineral character the Norwegian rocks also resemble more closely that part of the system as exhibited in Shropshire and Radnorshire than the upper. The two principal divisions of the Christiania group consist, first, of dark shale, slate and clay, some of the beds being highly calcareous, - and enclosing Graptolites, Trilobites and other fossils; also of beds of grit; and secondly, of strata of smoke-grey limestone abound- ing in corals, and of sandstone, shale and conglomerate. Prof. Keil- hau, who has long studied these formations, of which the beds are much disturbed, inclines to the opinion that the second division is the uppermost deposit. Among the fossils common to the Chris- tiania series and the English lower Silurian strata are Culymene punc- tata, Trinucleus Caractici, Orthoceras conicum, Bellerophon bilobatus, Pentamerus oblongus and Graptolites Murchisonius: other species of Trilobites, which are not British, partake of the same type as those which characterize the Caradoc sandstone or Llandeilo flags. In the island of Langoen in the fiord of Christiania, a few miles from Holmstrand, Mr. Lyell examined a limestone rich in fossils. It dips regularly towards the west, or in the direction of Holm- strand; and he believes that it constitutes, together with the quartz- ose sandstone near that town, one of the uppermost divisions of the Christiania formation. Among the corals which he obtained from the limestone, the following have been determined as identical with British species ; and as five of them have been found in En- gland, hitherto, only in the upper Silurian strata, and others both in the upper and lower, Mr. Lyell is of opinion that the Langoen deposit may indicate a passage from the lower to the upper Silurian rocks. Stratigraphical position in the English Genus and Species. Silurian System. Catenipora escharoides .... Aymestry limestone to Llandeilo flags. Ptilodictya lanceolata... .... Wenlock limestone. Stromatopora concentrica .. Wenlock limestone and shale. ‘Fayosites Gothlandica ....Aymestry limestone to Caradoc limest. fibrosa ..... 2 1): Dittos ditto. polymorpha? .. Upper Ludlow and Aymestry limestone. Limaria fructuosa ........ Wenlock limestone and shale. Millepora? repens........ Wenlock limestone. The same beds also contain Huomphalus subsulcatus, Producta euglypha, and Cytherina Baltica. A series of fossils lately obtained at Christiania by Mr. Bunbury, lead to precisely similar results*. The total number of species con- * Mr. Bunbury has informed Mr. Lyell that Asaphus expansus, Illenus crassicauda and a Spheronites, common in the Silurian strata of Christiania, are also characteristic, according to M. de Verneuil, of Silurian beds near St. Petersburg. These species are apparently unknown in England, but My. Lyell suggests that the Russian strata containing them will probably prove to be lower Silurian. 467 a tained in Mr. Lyell and Mr. Bunbury’s collections amounts to sixty, at least one-third of which are unknown as British—a want of agree- ment, Mr. Lyell observes, which may be partly ascribed to an im- perfect knowledge of the Silurian Fauna of both countries, and partly to the laws which influence the geographical distribution of existing animals. ‘The author does not deny, that, when the more ancient rocks were formed, the marine species may not have enjoyed a wider geographical range than now; for when coral reefs existed between the 50th and 70th degrees of latitude, a more uniform tem- perature must have prevailed than at the present day; but he con- tends that there are no data for imagining that the same species were ever universally distributed. A description of the igneous rocks of the fiord of Christiania is not within the object of this communication; but Mr. Lyell states, that the island of Langoen is traversed in an east and west direction by several dikes of greenstone, from two to three feet thick, but with- out dislocating the strata ; he likewise mentions, that the junction of the quartzose sandstone of Holmstrand with a vertical dike of felspar — porphyry thirty feet thick, is finely exhibited at Smorsteen. The same porphyry also overlies the sandstone at Engnaes. ‘The trap’of this district passes into a reddish granite, and the contact of the latter with horizontal, thin beds of Silurian limestone and shale is exposed to the height of fifteen feet at Sotfjeld, N.E. from Holmstrand; and the contact is visible on the opposite side of the fiord. At the line of junction the limestone is white, and the shale is converted into Lydian stone. No veins of granite penetrate the fossiliferous strata in that neighbourhood, as at some places near Christiania ; and the occurrence of a breccia at one point, where the limestone joins the plutonic rock, induced Mr. Lyell to suspect that the latter had been there protruded in a solid form. - Among the donations to the Museum announced at this meeting, and not connected with the papers which were read, were the follow- ing organic remains :— From Grays in Essex, presented by Mr. J. Morris. See Mag, Nat. Hist., vol. ix. p. 261, 1836, and N.S. vol. ii. p. 539 and p. 546, 1838. Psidium pusillum. Achatina acicula. Henslowianum. Valvata antiqua. — amnicum. — piscinalis. Cyrena trigonula. Bithynia denticulata. Unio pictorum. From Stutton in Suffolk, presented by S. V. Wood, Esq., F.G.S. For a notice of the remains found at Stutton, see Mr. Morris’s paper, Mag. Nat. Hist., Second Series, vol. 11. p. 543-544, 1838. Psidium amnicum. Planorbis albus. Cyrena trigonula. Lymnea truncatula. Helix pulchella. ——— palustris. Carychium minimum. Paludina marginata. Succinea amphibia. From Faversham in Kent, presented by Joshua Trimmer, Esq. Cyclas rivicola. Psidium amnicum. Helix hispida. virgata ? Succinea amphibia. Planorbis marginatus. —-———. vortex. Lymnea peregra. Valvata piscinalis. Bithynia denticulata. From Touraine, presented by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. See ante, p. 487, et seq. Mactra triangula. ’ Crassatella concentrica. Erycina, 2 n. s. Corbula complanata. — carinata. Tellina donacina. Lucina columbella. Venus casinoides. Astarte scalaris. aes TES Artemis exoleta. Cardium andres. — 2. sp. Cardita affinis. — nuculina. ——— trapezia. 2 Omssel, depressa. Arca antiquata. umbonata. lactea. Pectunculus glycimeris. —_—_—___—. Cor. — Chama lazarus. Pecten striatus. — scapellum. Ostrea virginica. Crepidula ¢ ‘eibbosa. Vermetus SHitermeaicranee — gigas. Siliquaria anguina. Helix Turonensis. Ringicula buccinea. Nerita furcata. Natica varians. alba. — Valenciennesii. Trochus incrassatus. — geminatus. crenulatus. — Audebartii. Turritella Linneel. Cerithium tricinctum. crassum. 2n.s: Pleurotoma crassata. oblonga. ——__—__. tuberculosa. n. s. Fasciolaria nodifera. Fusus rostratus. Nn. Ss. Pyrula, n. s. Murex erinaceus °? grandis. — n.s. Purpura angulatus. Buccinum callosum. graniferum. elegans. Terebra plicaria. Columbella, 2 n. s. Mitra tenuis. fusiformis. Cyprzea coccinella. — — elongata. —— affinis. Erato cypreola. Ancillaria glandiformis. conoidea. elongata. Conus acutangulus. = OPT Se The whole of the specific determinations in the above lists are given on the authority of the donors. This being the last evening of meeting for the Session, the Society adjourned to Wednesday, November the 8rd. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. Ill. Parr II. 1841. No. 81. Address delivered on the Anniversary, February 19th, by the Rev. Professor Buckland, D.D,, P.G.S. GENTLEMEN, : 4 Durine the second year in which I have had the honour to occupy this Chair, the state of our Society has been in every respect satis- factory and progressive. On comparing our list of Members at the beginning of 1840 with that of the same period in 1841, we find that, notwithstanding the large amount of losses occasioned by death, the last year has produced an increase of thirteen Members, making our present List of Fellows 78], and our total number 862, including thirty-two Honorary Members, forty-six Foreign Members, and three -Personages of Royal blood. Four distinguished promoters of Geo- logical knowledge have been proposed for election into our list of fifty Foreign Members: viz. Prof. Dumont, of Liege, to whom we gave our Wollaston Medal last year for his Discoveries in Belgium. M. Pusch, distinguished for his Geological and Palzontological researches in Poland. M. Deshayes, long celebrated for his publications in Mineral Conchology. Prof. Agassiz, whose various and extensive works in Natural” History, and more especially his grand work on Fossil Fishes, have permanently registered his name among the great discoverers and most philosophic Naturalists of our time. Our Wollaston Medal has been awarded to one of our Foreign Members, M. Adolphe Brongniart, for his valuable discoveries and publications in Fossil Botany. Our Funds:have been replenished by the sale of our Transactions, and our Household Establishment is in all respects satisfactory. The Museum has been enriched by many donations, and great. progress made in its arrangement by Mr. Lonsdale, assisted by Mr. Woodward. In the British and Irish Series, 112 drawers have been nearly filled with new specimens, including 20 drawers full of a fine series of rock specimens from the subdivisions of the Lias and Oolite formations collected and presented by Mr. Lonsdale, 27 drawers full of specimens of Rocks and Fossils explanatory of VOL. III. PART II. ZR ! 470 the Devonian System, and 18 drawers illustrating the Trap Rocks of Devon and Cornwall. There are also 10 new drawers, illustra- ting the Carboniferous, or Mountain Limestone, of England and the Isle of Man. Many Fossils also have been arranged in the Series ~ from the English Chalk. Valuable additions have been made to our Scotch Collection of Plants and Fishes from the Coal measures; and 120 specimens of fishes from the Old Red Sandstone near Forres, have been presented: by Lady Gordon Cumming, and named by Agassiz. All our other Ich- thyolites. from the British Series have also been named by Agassiz. In the Ivish Collection 28 drawers have been arranged from the Mountain Limestone, presented by the Earl of Enniskillen, Sir P. Egerton, Mr. Weaver and Mr. Griffith. In effecting these arrangements, the determination of the organic remains has been made by Mr. Lonsdale, and the description of the names, localities, and references to books duly registered by Mr. Woodward, your Assistant Curator, who has been advantageously occupied also in preparing enlarged Illustrations of the papers read at our Evening Meetings, and in assisting the students and numerous visitors in your Museum. 81 other drawers have also been labelled and catalogued by Mr. Woodward. Baron de Meyendorf has presented to us a fine specimen of erystallized native gold from Ekaterinenburg, and a specimen of platinum from Tagil. : About 150 volumes have been added to our Library, including all . the published numbers of D’Orbigny’s “ Paléontologie Francaise.” The maps and charts published last year by the Board of Ordnance and the Admiralty, have also been presented to our Collection. In reviewing public transactions connected with Geology, con- ducted beyond. the limits of our establishment, and of the deepest interest to us, as furthering our primary object, of advancing the knowledge of the structure of the earth, we gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of Her Majesty’s Government in the departments of Woods and Forests and of the Board of Ordnance, and also that of the Trustees of the British Museum, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Institution of Civil Engi- neers ; and in these cooperations we recognize an increasing feeling and general acknowledgement, not only of the scientific importance, but also of the pecuniary value and statistical utility of geological investigations ; in directing the researches of industry to those points where they may be profitably applied, and in preventing such waste- ful expenditures of capital, as, under ignorance of the internal struc- _ture of the earth, and the peculiar productions of each geological “formation, we have, in times past, seen thrown away in ruinous searches after coal, where the slightest knowledge of geology would have given certain information that no coal could possibly be found. Never more shall we witness a recurrence of such unpardonable waste of public money as that which is said to have been lavished in sending lime from Plymouth to build the fortress of Gibraltar on a rock, itself exclusively composed of limestone. 471 MUSEUM OF Q@CONOMIC GEOLOGY. The collections of this establishment, attached to the office of the Board of Woods and Forests in Craig’s Court, Charing Cross, have very materially increased during the past year ; and it is un- - derstood that arrangements are making for the purpose of opening them gratuitously to public inspection on stated days in every week. The well-known Secretary of the Polytechnic Society of Cornwall, Mr. Jordan, has been appointed the keeper of the Mining Records, which are to be preserved in this Museum, and are already freely communicated. Here will be also large collections of Models, illustrative of ma- chinery used in mines, as well Foreign as British; so that not only will the British miner be enabled to compare the machinery em- ployed in different parts of his own country, but he will also find that adopted in foreign countries. It is understood that any one desirous of making drawings of these models for the purpose of erecting machinery from them, will be permitted to do so under proper regulations. In addition to this collection of Models of Mining Machinery, there will be other Models, illustrating the mode of working mines in different localities. A very beautiful model of the celebrated Doleoath Mine in Cornwall is now in the collection; and we understand that Mr. Sopwith is preparing for this Museum models _ of the coal fields of the Forest of Dean, and of Northumberland and Durham*. Models illustrating the mode of working coal, and of ventilating the collieries in the North of England, are also in preparation. From all these the public may receive valuable, con- densed, and gratuitous information as to the mode of occurrence of minerals within the earth, the various methods of working mines, aud the machinery by which coal and metallic ores are brought to the surface and fitted for the market. There will be also models illustrating the Metallurgic processes, and samples of the various stages of these processes, and their final results. The agriculturists are availing themselves of the facilities afforded by the laboratory, and analyses of soils have become numerous. It is in Contemplation also to have lectures on various branches of (E¢o- nomic Geology, including Building Materials, Agricultural Che- mistry, Geology, Mineral Analysis and Metallurgy. The official director of this rising establishment is our indefati- gable colleague and Foreign Secretary, Mr. De la Becher. ORDNANCE MAP. The Members of this Society will rejoice to hear, that in con- sequence of representations from the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and from other scientific and commercial * These models will be upon a scale of true proportions ; that is, the scale of height and of horizontal distance being the same. + For further account of this establishment, see my Address to the Geo- logical Society, 21st February 1840. ZR2Z 472 bodies, respecting the inadequacy of the scale of one inch to a mile, which has been hitherto employed in the Ordnance Map of England, the Lords of the Treasury have ordered the survey of the remainder of the Northern part of England ; viz. the six counties of Lancaster, York, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland, and the whole of Scotland, to be made on a seale better suited to purposes of public utility as well as of science. The proposed new scale being, as in the survey of Ireland, six inches to a mile, will allow the insertion of minute and valuable geological details, to the reception of which the one-inch scale is wholly inadequate: it will also be of vast advantage for all those profitable commercial pur- poses that are connected with the supply of mineral fuel to the ~ manufactures, and with the productions of the other great mining districts of the North. The paramount importance of supplying to the coal owners of this great district that best of all foundations of knowledge as to the structure and extent of the mineral riches of a country, which is afforded by a large and correct map, is too obvious to be insisted on. In connexion with the Ordnance Geological Survey, we may con- gratulate ourselves on the information, that Mr. John Phillips, having examined the fossils of the older rocks of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset for the Ordnance Report on these counties, is now en- ~ gaged with the organic remains of East Somerset, Gloucester, Mon- mouth, and South Wales: this appointment is the more important, because we have lately been taught more forcibly than ever the value of organic remains as affording the best test to identify geo- logical formations. This appointment of Mr. J. Phillips, and the com- mission not long since given to Mr. De la Beche, to colour geo- logically the Ordnance Map of the West of England and the district of the Coal formation of South Wales, afford almost the first example of the tardy recognition by the British Government of the vast public importance of the practice which has for nearly twenty years been acted on in France and in the United States, in appointing a commission of eminently qualified scientific men to survey and report on the Mineral and Geological productions of the country, and express the same by colours on the most perfect maps. To supply this deficiency, a large geologically coloured map and deli- neation of the strata of England and Wales was published in 1815 by Mr. William Smith, under the encouragement of Sir Joseph Banks, and a large number of individual subscribers ;.and in 1819 .a much more perfect physical and geological Map of England was 2 published at the voluntary cost, and by the gratuitous exertions of several Members of this Society (chiefly those of Mr. Greenough), more complete than any Map on a similar scale and extent yet pro- duced by the official labours of any Government in the world. BRITISH MUSEUM. You will learn with satisfaction, that in the month of June last, in consequence of an application from the British Association for - 473 the Advancement of Science, the Trustees of the British Museum have made an order to transfer to the collection of recent shells in that great National Establishment the duplicates of fossil shells, and other fossil remains cf invertebrate animals in the Museum, that they may be arranged with the analogous recent genera and species *. No systematic zoological arrangement of fossil animal remains has yet been made in any public Museum of this country ; on the Con- tinent such arrangements are not unfrequent; a voluminous col- lection of this kind in the University of Bonn has greatly facilitated and enhanced the value of the arrangements of fossil Zoophytes, radiated, annulate, and molluscous animals, in the splendid publica- tions of Prof. Goldfuss. Such a collateral arrangement of their extinct prototypes by the side of existing species is not only most important to the science of Geology, but. is on other grounds in- dispensable to the perfection of every arrangement of the produc- tions of the Animal Kingdom; inasmuch as every collection in zo- ology must-be essentially and very largely defective which excludes all notice of the congenerous extinet species which so many ex- isting families present only in a fossil state, and omits the still more numerous remains of extinct genera that occur exclusively among the relics of those former conditions of the globe and its inhabitants, " whereof our knowledge is due entirely to the researches of Geology. In illustration of fis’ subject, a series of fossil Tertiary shells from Bourdeaux has been presented to the Museum by Mr. James Smith of Jordan Hill, near Glasgow. During the last year the British Museum has also received an accession of a large and splendid Plesiosaurus of a new species, and eleven fect long, dan in the lias at Granby, near Belvoir Castle, and presented by His Grace the Duke of Rutland; and of many fine specimens of Fossil Plants from the English, eat from the Sile- sian and Bohemian coal-fields. RAILWAY SECTIONS. - You will rejoice to hear, that at the late Meeting of the British Association at Glasgow, measures were taken, by the appointment of a Committee, and a grant of money from the funds of the Associa- tion, to begin the important work of collecting and preserving in- formation as to the structure and mineral riches of the country, which is now accessible in sections of the strata exposed in cuttings on the numerous railroads in various parts of the United Kingdom. As many of these traverse important mineral districts on the Coal formation, and will speedily be covered up, much valuable informa- tion which they are calculated to afford will be lost, unless advantage be taken of the present moment. It was proposed that the Sections thus procured should be deposited in the public Mining Records * The fossils in the collection formed by Mr. William Smith to illus- trate the British Strata, being a classical document in the annals of Geology, are exempted from the operation of this order. ATA: Office at the Board of Woods and Forests, and a Committee was appointed to represent to Her Majesty’s Government the expediency of having accurate descriptions and drawings taken, at the public expense, of the geological features exhibited in the cuttings and > excavations of railroads throughout the kingdom; these are now easily accessible, whilst the railways are in process of formation, and an accurate knowledge of them may be of great scientific as well as commercial importance in future times, when the sections now laid open are covered up. I am gratified to inform you that many influential members of the Institution of Civil Engineers have expressed a zealous desire to cooperate with us in carrying into effect this measure, in which they are so pre-eminently qualified to render most efficient assistance. DISSECTED GEOLOGICAL MODELS. A valuable communication has been lately made to us by Mr. Sopwith, an active Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers as well as of our own Society, showing, by a series of small models constructed of differently coloured plates of wood, the advantage of expressing in a solid form those fractured conditions of the strata, a right understanding of which is of the greatest importance, both to the working of coal mines and of metallic veins. Many of the com- plicated phzenomena of curvatures and complex intersections of plane - surfaces cannot be adequately represented by any kind of geome- trical drawings or plans; to the perfect knowledge and ceconomical working of a mineral district, it is essential that the subterranean relations of all the strata should be correctly known and expressed in an intelligible form :—lIst. The original order of stratification. 2nd. The amount of dislocation by fracture. 3rd. The changes of the surface produced by denudation; and all these can be intelli- gibly and simultaneously expressed by models. The deceptive appearances frequently caused by faults or frac- tures, are represented by dissecting and making the models move- able in the direction of these faults, « so that the strata may be restored to their original: position, and again shifted or dislocated. The still further difficulties which arise from the denudation of the upper por- tions of the dislocated strata, can be adequately expressed only by the solid fac-simile of nature which a model affords. Among the subjects represented in the models prepared by Mr. Sopwith, are the relative position, depth, and upcast and downeast dykes of the component strata of the Newcastle coal-field, and the strata of the great carboniferous limestone series, with their nume- rous intersections by mineral veins, in the extensive lead-mine di- stricts of Alston Moor and. Crossfell. All the varied and complex pheenomena of these highly valuable repositories of coal and lead, which are continually perplexing and impeding the progress of the practical miner, are made perfectly intelligible, when their details are expressed in a dissected model. The mercantile value also of these mineral districts is obviously dependent, first, upon a correct knowledge of the amount of coal and mineral veins which they 475 may contain, and, secondly, upon a knowledge of the most advan- tageous methods of extracting their contents. Cases are often exhibited in these models of deceptive indications of coal upon the surface, when, in consequence of complex faults, small portions only of the broken strata remain below; whilst in other cases, many and valuable beds of coal may exist below, where few or no traces of it appear upon the surface. Mr. Sopwith has founded these models on observations made during extensive practice, as a mineral surveyor, at Newcastle and Alston Moor. The principle of their construction is available to represent all kinds of geological phzenomena, and has been applied by him, on a large scale, in a model of the entire coal-field of the Forest’ of Dean, in which the exact extent and thickness of each bed of coal becomes instantaneously apparent on the removal of the upper laminz of the model ; each component stratum of the coal- field: being represented in its proper place by a moveable lamina or stratum of wood, on which a register may be kept of the quanti- ties of coal that are from time to time extracted from the collieries. The model also at once indicates the most advantageous mode of working every portion of the coal-field. It is of no small importance to the future welfare of the nation, so dependent as we are become for our commercial prosperity upon a continued supply of mineral fuel, that similar models to that of the Forest of Dean, which has been made by Mr. Sop- with for the Office of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, should be also made of other coal-fields, and preserved in the Mining Record Office, attached to that department, as permanent registers of the amount of coal which is year by year extracted from each of these subterranean main-springs of our commercial activity. By reference to such models, an estimate may, at any time, be formed of the quantity of coal that remains for future consumption ; the amount of which will be the measure of the possible duration of our country’s exalted position among the kingdoms of the earth. | The idea of expressing, by coloured sections, the alternations and accidents of stfata, had occurred many years ago to Mr. Farey, who, in his “ History of Derbyshire” (1815), has engraved two large plates (Pl. III. and Pl. IV.), expressing, in coloured diagrams, many similar complex phenomena of faults and fractures, and also the va- ried effects of denudation, in cases where the edges of strata, in the sides of valleys, vary in superficial extent according to the angle at which thesé strata may be inclined. MINERAL CONCHOLOGY. Your last year’s grant of the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund to Mr. Sowerby, has produced the publication of two new numbers of his Mineral Conchology, and a third number is on the point of being published *. * During the last year, Mr. Lyell has called the attention of geologists to the importance of a discovery made in 1837, by M. de Longchamps and 476 Professor Agassiz has caused to be prepared for sale or exchange at the Museum of Neuchatel a series of casts of the internal cavi- ties of 101 recent bivalve and 101 recent univalve shells, for the purpose of illustrating fossil genera and species, the shells of which have in many cases entirely perished. He has also caused to be prepared for sale at the same establishment casts of 500 species of fossil Echinoderms—all these casts have recently been added to the collection of shells in the British Museum. PHOTOGRAPHY. A valuable application has been made by Captain Ibbetson of | a Photogenic process for rapidly producing perfeet drawings of fossil shells on metallic plates, from which, when fixt by. the en- graver’s tool, lithographic transfers may be rapidly multiplied to an almost indefinite extent. This process promises to be applicable to organic remains of every kind, and consequently of great utility. in Paleontology. From a beautiful fossil starfish I sent by one day’s mail to Captain Ibbetson, in London, I received, by the next mail, a parcel of most exact impressions, taken from a photographic drawing, transferred to stone by the process above mentioned. PHYSICAL GEOLOGY. It is not long since, in the Transactions of the Cambridge Phi- losophical Society (Vol. 1V., 1838), we rejoiced, to see a mathe- matician of such high authority as. Mr. Hopkins, in a paper. en- titled “ Researches in Physical Geology,” adopting this term as one of acknowledged and deserved aeceptance in our nomenclature, and to find him asserting, “ that we are now arrived at that stage of geological science, in’ which we are able to reeognize certain well- defined geological phenomena distinctly approximating to geometri- cal laws,” and following up this assertion by the first example of a geo- logical investigation conducted on principles supplied by mathematical analysis. The apparent irregularities which the disturbances of the globe seem at first sight to present, being thus reduced under the do- minion of mathematical calculation, we hail in this paper the com- mencement of a series of physical deductions, explanatory of the law of parallelism, which is so constantly observed in the case of mineral veins, faults, and anticlinal lines; and referring this law to a mecha- nical cause, demonstrable by the test of exact geometrical proof. We have recently witnessed another investigation of this -high order, respecting the necessary relations between observed) pheeno- mena and the physical cause to which they owe their origin, in a communication to our Society by Mr. Hopkins “ On the parallel lines of simultaneous elevation in the Weald of Kent and Sussex*.” In M. Tesson, of fossil shells of the genus Conus, in the Lias or Inferior Oolite of Normandy, near Caen. Fossils of this family have long been known to abound in the Tertiary strata, and supposed not to occur in any lower formation. * A district long ago and ably illustrated by the researches of Mr. Mantell 477 this highly philosophical paper, he shows that these lines exactly correspond with the deductions of mathematical theory, resulting from the hypothesis of the elevation having been caused by an ex- pansive force acting from below upon stratified rocks, within the nearly elliptic area of the Wealden formation, in the S.E. of England, and the Bas Boulonnais. Prepared with the geometrical results of theory as an antecedent basis of his observations, aud introducing this new and most efficient auxiliary as a fundamental element in the machinery of Descriptive Geology, he has added to the views of preceding observers a ma- thematical precision, which forms the commencement of a new method of demonstrative investigation, more exact than has been hitherto applied to problems of such universal extent as those re- lating to the causes that have produced the movements of stratified rocks in every portion of the globe. Assuming theoretically the application of an expansive force acting uniformly upwards within an elliptic area, he finds that the longitudinal fissures thereby produced would nearly coincide with the outlines of the ellipse, forming cracks that are portions of smaller concentric ellipses, parallel to the margin of the larger ellipse; and that these longitudinal fissures would be numerous, and parallel to the strike of the elevated strata; and would also be interseeted per- - pendicularly in the direction of the dip of the strata by many trans- verse fissures. In all these fundamental deductions from theory, Mr. Hopkins finds an almost mathematically exact coincidence with ac- tual observation of the longitudinal and transverse fractures in the Weald; the former are respectively parallel to the strike of the N. and S: Downs which bound the area of the Wealden district, and are convergent to a point near Petersfield; the latter pervade many minor longitudinal ridges in the same district, and are most obvious in the well-known transverse valleys that intersect at right angles the chalk escarpments of the North and South Downs, form- ing the only outlets of the nine rivers that take their origin within the ellipsoid area of the Weald. Many of the minor transverse valleys that intersect the minor longitudinal ridges, give origin to perennial springs, which are thrown out by the dislocation of the strata, where the faults to which these valleys owe their origin intercept the progress of the subterranean waters, by breaking the continuity of the strata they percolate. From these fundamental observations, he concludes that the Weal- den district owes its elevation to one simple elementary cause acting simultaneously, and perhaps at successive intervals, at every point within the area in question ; and producing dislocations, not, as some have supposed, along one single central axis of elevation, on the long diameter of the ellipse, but simultaneously on many lines, and causing many minor elevations parallel to the curvatures of the margin of the ellipsoid area in question. The theory of the simultaneous action of the moving forces within all parts of the elevated area, does away the mechanical difficulty 478 of forming these fissures by a force applied only along one single axis of elevation ; whilst the entire series of phenomena accords with the hypothesis of a broad expansive force acting below, not along one single line, but generally and uniformly under the whole district, with equal intensity at every point. In this great physical problem, the form of the elevated area is a most important element, and in the case of the Weald, its elliptic form is highly favourable to the comparison which has been insti- tuted by Mr. Hopkins: other important elements are the constitu- tion of the strata, their equable thickness, equable cohesion, and the direction of their natural joints. In the same simultaneous elevations that have extended from Boulogne through the area of the Wealden formation to the east of Hampshire, near Petersfield, Mr. Hopkins would include also ~ (as Dr. Fitton has done in his observations en the Strata of the South-East of England) the parallel elevations of Portsdown, the Isle of Wight, the Purbeck and Weymouth districts, and the vales of Tisbury, Pewsey and Highclere, on the west and north margins of Wilts and Hants*. . _ Mr. Hopkins has also arrived at similar conclusions respecting the longitudinal and transverse fractures which he has investigated in the mountain limestone and coal formations of Derbyshire; com- mencing, as in the present instance, with a theoretical investigation of the mathematical results of expansive forces acting from beneath, and comparing these results with observations on the longitudinal fissures and transverse fractures examined by himself in Derbyshire, and with the answers returned by practical miners in that district to a series of printed questions as to facts which theoretical calcula- tions had indicated as probable, and which have been fully verified by the answers thus obtained. In these Memoirs of Mr. Hopkins on the Wealden district, and on Derbyshire, we have the first instances of the geological investi- gation of any portion of the earth for the express purpose of exem- plifying a theory founded on the solution of a mechanical problem ; the results he has obtained in the coincidence of the phenomena with the mathematical theory by which they have been tested, have een remarkably approximate, and make us feel that the time is arrived when the investigations of geology have begun to exalt themselves beyond the exquisite and delicate investigations of Mi- neralogy, and the grand and universal laws of co-existence that give dignity and beauty to Paleontology, into those lofty regions of General Physics which connect them with the most sublime demon- strations of Astronomy. It may be seen, by reference to the Ordnance Geological Survey of Cornwall, that the elevations and depressions of the older slate rocks in the West of England have been attended by numerous * The term “ Valleys of Elevation” was first introduced to English Geology in a paper ‘“‘ On the Valley of Kingsclere and other Valleys,” by Dr. Buckland.— Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. ii. part 2. 1827. ae parallel fissures and faites fractures, similar to those in the Weald of Kent and Sussex. In the mining districts of Cornwall, particularly near Redruth, these rents and fissures are known in all their various and curious details, from their having been excavated in search of the metallic ores which they contain. The main direc- tion of these fissures being east and west, they are intersected, like those in the south-east of England, by transverse fractures or cross courses, running nearly north and south. Both these systems in - Cornwall obviously result from the same mechanical laws which have not only caused transverse fractures to intersect the longitudi- nal lines of elevation, in the districts of the Weald and Derbyshire, ; where Mr. Hopkins has demonstrated their accordance with the the- oretical laws of physical induction ; but will be found to have affected every mountain chain produced by angular elevation upon the sur- face of the globe. _ Inthe Annals of Philosophy, 1821, p.453, I published a Memoir on the Structure of the Alps, in which it was shown that all the rivers which descend on the north side of this greatest European moun- tain chain, escape from longitudinal valleys parallel to the general axis of elevation and to the.escarpments of the elevated strata, by a _ series of gorges transversely intersecting these escarpments ; in the same manner as the four gorges, that intersect the Chalk escarp- ment of the South Downs, give outlet to four rivers formed in lon- gitudinal valleys on the south side of the central axis of the Wealden elevation, namely, the Arun, Adur, Ouse and Cuckmere rivers; whilst five gorges in the escarpments of the North Downs give exit to five rivers formed in longitudinal valleys on the north side of the same central axis of the Weald, namely, the Wey, the Mole, the Darent, the Medway, and the Stour. An objection has been sometimes raised to the theory which at- tributes the existing position of inclined strata to elevation, grounded onan assumption that the same relative positions of the strata in moun- tains and the valleys adjacent to them may have been caused by the subsidence of the lower parts of the strata into the basins, as by the elevation of those portions which now occupy the highest place ; but these objections are overruled by mechanical and mathematical reasons, arising from observation of the relative positions of the dis- located strata on each side of the “ upcast dykes” or faults that run parallel to these assumed lines of elevation; namely, that the dislocated strata, in almost all cases, occupy the place which an up- ward movement would have given to them respectively on each side of the fault, and which they could not have received from a downward movement under any process of depression*. * It is due to the memory of Mr. Farey, the cotemporary and fellow- labourer of Mr. Wm. Smith, that we should here notice the fact of his having many years ago presented to this Society an unpublished section across the Weald of Sussex, along the road from London to Brighton, to which due:credit. was not then attached. In this section, together with the general direction of the component strata of the district, as given in the sections of Mr. Mantell and Dr. Fitton, he introduces a series of 480 . Mr. Martin, of Pulborough, has also resumed his consideration of the structure of Western Sussex, and of the antielinal lines of the London and Hampshire Basins published in 1828 and 1899, with a paper on the relative connection of the eastern and western chalk denudations; in which he traces westward, from the Wealden district of Sussex, a system of six nearly parallel anticlinal lines, across the high table-land of chalk in Hants, Wilts, and Dorset; three of these lines of elevation proceed westward from the Wealden district, and three penetrate the chalk in an easterly direction from _the valleys of Wardour, Warminster, and Pewsey. The continuity of these lines is eccasionally interrupted for considerable intervals, and again resumed on the same parallel along’the great elevated plain of the chalk. Mr. Martin traces the most northerly and greatest of these anti- clinal lines from the vale of Peasmarsh, between Guildford and Godalming, along the entire base of the North Downs, eastwards to the sea at Folkstone, and westwards to Farnham, Alton, and Popham Beacon, where it terminates in the’ high flat dome or table- land of chalk. The most southerly anticlinal line extends from Green- hurst, near Steyning, eastward to Lewes, and along the base of the’ escarpment of the South Downs to East Bourne and Beachey Head ; and westwards by Midhurst and Petersfield to the Downs of East Hampshire, through which it emerges in valleys of elevation at East and West Meon, and in the valley between St. Giles’s and St. Cathe- rine’s Hill at Winchester. The central anticlinal line of the Wealden he traces westward from Hazlemere to Liphook, Selbourne, and Can- dover near Arlesford, and Beacon Hil! near Amesbury. The anticlinal elevation of the valleys of Wardour, Warminster, and Pewsey, after advancing some miles eastward into the chalk, terminate in the high table-lands of Salisbury Plain and the North Hampshire Downs, which form a great flat dome of elevation be- tween the counties of Sussex, East Somerset, and North Wiltshire. _ Mr. Martin considers many of the higher crests and ridges that run in an eastern and western direction above this elevated plain, to be due to saddle-shaped elevations on one’ or other of the great lines of fracture that attended the upward movement of the chalk. In the details of his paper he confirms and extends the observations of faults, twenty-five in number, between Ryegate Hill upon the North Downs and Clayton Hill on the South Downs, representing minor movements and longitudinal fractures parallel to the great escarpments that bound the area of the Weald; many of these faults have been recognised where he had . placed them by Mr. Hopkins. Mr. Farey also, in his “‘ View of the Agri- culture and Minerals of Derbyshire,”’ 1815, has given an account of great systems of faults and denudations in Derbyshire and five adjacent counties; together with the coloured figures before alluded to explanatory of the na- ture of faults and dislocations, or tilts of the strata, and the subsequent effects of denudation upon them ; which, though not confirmed in all their details by modern observations, show him to have been a most ingenious original observer, whose merits in this department have not been suffi- ciently appreciated. 48] Mr. Mantell and Dr. Fitton, upon the very interesting district which forms the subject of their common investigations *. POSITIVE GEOLOGY.—EXTENSIVE RECOGNITION OF SILURIAN AND DEVONIAN SYSTEMS ON THE CONTINENT. We may congratulate ourselves on the advance that has been made during the past year, by the extension of our knowledge as to the existence of the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous systems over large districts of the continent of Europe. In my last address I endeavoured to explain the reason why the old red sandstone formation, which occupies so very extensive a place in England, had been scarcely anywhere recognized on the Continent ; namely, because we had till lately failed even in our own country to refer to this system those extensive slaty forms of it, which, both here and upon the Continent, had been referred to the grauwacke of the Wernerian series, and had applied the name of old red sand- stone only to a part of this formation, which had hitherto been con- sidered as the type of the whole, namely, to the red marly, sandy, and conglomerate strata of Herefordshire and the adjacent counties, * In his Geological Memoir on a part of Western Sussex, Mr. Martin put forth in 1828 some judicious remarks, showing, on the theory of de-* rangement and denudation, that the Weald of Kent and Sussex, as well as the London and Hampshire Basins, had a common origin in a system of elevatory movements posterior to the formation of the tertiary strata. He considers that the strata which compose these basins, and were originally horizontal, suffered great disruption in the act of forming basins, either by the elevation of the sides or subsidence of the central portions of each basin; that in this operation deep and extensive fissures were formed in certain parts of the strata thus disturbed, analogous to those we see in the elevation and cracking of the flour which covers the fermenting nucleus of dough in a baker’s trough; that the great undulations of the strata are not due to original deposition, but result from subterraneous movements, attended by enormous pressure. Mr. Martin also makes some judicious observations on the too-prevalent habit of using the term chalk basin in a manner that seems to imply local depressions peculiar to the site of each so-called basin, forgetting that the chalk itself (although it forms a very convenient and obvious geological horizon) is only an intermediate layer in a succession of basin-shaped strata; and contends that as the forma- tions supermcumbent upon and subjacent to it have a conformable dis- position, it is just as correct to call them London clay, or greensand, or galt basins, as chalk basins. Again he observes, respecting the deposits of the basin of Paris, that their occurrence elsewhere in horizontal and appa- rently undisturbed positions, indicates the strata above the-chalk to be of a date anterior to their present curvilinear disposition in the form of basins, He further shows, that the act of denudation was not confined to the di- strict of the Weald along the lines of movement in which the greatest elevations took place, but equally laid bare the highest summits of the chalk hills and elevated plains, and swept away much of the contents of the basins; and endeavours to establish the connexion of these elevations and subsidences with diluvial action, by showing that. an adequate cause for this action maybe found in the elevatory movements produced by forces acting upwards from the interior of the globe, 482 omitting the Killas and other slate-rocks of the Devonian system, which have now been shown to appertain to it. I further stated, that it would probably be found that this Devo- ~ nian system includes a large amount of strata upon the continent of Europe, which had been hitherto known by the Wernerian name Grauwacke ; and expressed my satisfaction that this name was likely to retain its place in the nomenclature of geology, as a generic term co-extensive with the transition series of the school of Freyberg, and divisible into three great subordinate formations, namely, the De- vonian, Silurian, and Cambrian systems. The labours of Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison in the Rhenish provinces and adjacent parts of Germany, in the summer of 1839, have furnished important additions to our knowledge of the older rocks of the continent, and brought them into comparison with the recently established paleozoic types of England; the first efforts of those authors were directed to the right bank of the Rhine, where taking the coal-field of Westphalia as a fixed horizon, they proceeded to deduce therefrom the descending order of the older formations which emerge southwards from beneath that deposit, and established a perfect sequence along a frontier of fifty miles in length, from a true coal-field with carboniferous limestone down- wards into Silurian rocks, by passing through an intermediate group loaded with Devonian fossils*. ; In following out these strata to the E.N.E. the authors were astonished at the vast flexures, first laid down by Von Buch and Hoffman, and since more elaborately made out by Von Dechen and Erbreich; and perceived that the shales become more crystalline and slaty, and charged with mineral veins, and the limestones assume * This order was not made clear until some startling difficulties were overcome. All the German authorities had laid down as one continu- ous: band (defining the same as berg-kalk), the limestone which at Ra- tingen is undoubtedly true mountain-limestone, and the calcareous zone which passes from W.S.W. to E.N.E. by the towns of Elberfeldt and Iserlohn. Now although at a first glance the physical features of the country seemed to favour this view (which was indeed adopted in the new map of Von Dechen), the close examination of the authors detected, that whilst the Ratingen limestone contained the fossils of the carboniferous system, that of Elberfeldt and Iserlohn was charged with different types, most of which exist in the lower limestone of Devonshire. Having assured themselves, therefore, that there was an error in the works of previous observers, they returned to Ratingen, and following the carboniferous limestone eastward along its strike they found it to be separated from that of Elberfeldt, gradually changing in its structure, and passing into thin-bedded black limestone associated with much flinty schist (kiesel schiefer) and chert, and assuming the lithological characters and fossils of the black or culm-limestone of Devonshire. This black limestone is overlaid by unproductive measures of the coal series, similar to the upper strata of the great trough of North Devon, and is underlaid by psammites, schists, and limestone (Elberfeldt and Iser- lohn) containing Devonian fossils, and reposing upon schistose and grau- wacke rocks which contain Silurian‘ fossils. 483 _the state of marble or highly ferriferous rocks; these strata are also abundantly interrupted by ridges of Trap and frequently cnverted, the carboniferous and Devonian deposits plunging under the older Grauwacke or Silurian rocks. Our authors also found that the Devonian strata reappeared in irregular troughs among the Silurian Grauwacke (often with in- verted inclination) in various parts of Nassau; many of the lime- stones, particularly on the river Lahn, being identical, both in structure and in coralline remains, with the beautiful marbles of Babbacombe, Torquay, and Plymouth. In many parts of this re- gion the strata are in a highly mineralized condition, copper and lead ores, as well as the more prevalent iron mines, occurring at intervals; whilst numberless eruptive rocks diversify the surface ; and the strata, particularly those of the Devonian age, alternate with a peculiar stratified contemporaneous trap-rock called ‘“‘ Schaal- stein,’ the more schistose varieties of which contain Devonian fossils. The various mineral waters of Nassau are supposed to be due to the last expiring effects of the same causes which produced, in former times, the numerous eruptions of Greenstone, Porphyry, and other igneous rocks. The quartz rock of the Taunus mountains, the southern limit of the region they examined, is considered to be an altered deposit of the Silurian epoch*. The authors next institute a comparison of the formations of Westphalia and Nassau with those of Liége, the Ardennes, and Eifel on the left bank of the Rhine. Starting from the country around Liége, which M. Dumont has rendered classic by his illus- trations and his map, Messrs. Sedgwick and Murchison confirm the ' views of that author, and bear testimony to the great value of the method employed by him in bringing into symmetrical condition that highly tortuous and convulsed tract. They admit that he has most successfully demonstrated the replicatures of the different members of the Carboniferous and infra-carboniferous systems, and established on clear physical evidence, the fact that whole basins have been znverted. ‘They differ from him, however, in the compa- rison he has made between the older rocks of his own country and those types of classification which the authors have_ established in the British Isles. In his table of comparison, M. Dumont supposes that the Old red sandstone of England has no equivalent in Belgium, and that the formations which there occur beneath the Carbonife- rous limestone (his éerrain anthraxifere) are the equivalents of the Silurian system; our authors show that the psammites, schists, and * The most characteristic Devonian Mollusca are Strygocephalus, Gypi- dium, two or three species of Turritella, Euomphalus, the Terebratula of Devonshire, with the very peculiar trilobite, Brontes flabellifer of Goldfuss. The upper members of the Silurian system are distinguished by Orthoce- ratites, Homalonoti, and other Trilobites, Pterineze, Orthis, &c., some’ of which are identical with species found in the Silurian region ; with these are some remarkable forms not yet detected in the British Isles, such as Delthyris macroptera and D. microptera. 484 limestones next below the coal-field and carboniterous limestone of Liége are the exact equivalents of the series which in Westphalia represent the Devonian system. The fossils are the same as those of Elberfeldt, Paffrath, and Devonshire. These beds also contain fishes of the genus Holoptychius, which Agassiz has identified with types of the old red sandstone; and on all these grounds, as well as by complete lithological and stratigraphical passage into the over- lying carboniferous group, our authors establish that the terrain anthraxifére of D’Omalius and Dumont is, like the schistose rocks — of Devonshire, the true equivalent of the old red sandstone. ~The mountains of the Ardennes consist in their upper members of equivalents of the Silurian system, as indicated both by order of in- fraposition to the Devonian rocks, and by containing the same types of fossils which characterize the Silurian strata on the right bank of the Rhine; whilst the oldest slaty rocks, in which no fossils have been discovered, are presumed to be in the parallel of the. Upper Cambrian group. The limestones of the Eifel, well known by their fossils, lie in a basin supported by Silurian rocks, and are identical with the lower Devonian limestones of Liége, Westphalia, and Nassau ; whilst the shales beneath them graduate into Silurian grauwacke, and contain so many Silurian species that (together with the well- known schists of Wissenbach on the right bank of the Rhine) they are considered to form the uppermost members of the Silurian di- vision. A similar succession to that from the Eifel to the Ardennes is. observable between the Fifel and the Hundsruck, the upper Silurian flagstones being highly fossiliferous, but much contorted and dis- turbed and altered in their mineral condition ; the banks of the Moselle offer the finest proofs of such disturbances. The fossils found in the quartzose rocks of the Hundsruck prove this mountain chain, which is a prolongation of the Taunus, to be, like it, of Silu- rian formation. In the Hartz, the authors traced the same succession of mineral masses, each characterized by their peculiar fossils; and, if possible, in still more dislocated positions. In one section, however, they point out a tolerably regular descending order, from the mining tracts of Clausthal, where the beds are the equivalents of the car- boniferous strata (floetzlehrer sandstein of the Germans) down to limestones charged with Devonian types; but in other parts, as near Goslar, the still older Silurian’ rocks occur upon the flanks of the Brocken, and overlie the Devonian schists ; whilst it is shown that the granite of the Brocken was in a molten condition after the formation of these old rocks, fragments of which full of shells are found included in this Granite. Other sections show that the chain has subsequently been heaved up “en masse,” and all the secondary strata on its northern flanks set on edge, and in some instances in- verted, from the Muschelkalk and New red sandstone to the Green- sand inclusive. The authors believe that the last great dislocations of the Hartz may be due (as suggested by Von Buch) to the erup- 485 tion of the Porphyry, which on the southern and south-eastern limits of the tract is associated with the newest Coal strata and the oldest beds of the New red system (Rothe todte liegende). The Thuringerwald is considered to exhibit the same succes- sion of the older strata as the Rhenish provinces and the Hartz, the: central masses being equivalents of the Silurian and possibly of the Upper Cambrian group; but the authors, having passed ra- pidly over these parts, attach importance only to their observations on the southern limits of that region, near the foot of the Fich- telgebirge, where they indicate a clear descending series, from the true Mountain-limestone with large Producti into lower fossiliferous limestones and slaty rocks, the fossils of which have been elabo- rately described by Count Munster, and which they place in the parallel of the Devonian system. The authors express their very great obligations to Mr. Lonsdale, whose intimate knowledge of the Devonian fossils has enabled them, to speak with confidence, and whose advice has often dispelled ob- securities which must ever attend the elimination of the order of succession of rocks which have been so extremely dislocated, and in many instances so much altered. They also acknowledge the valu- able cooperation of their friend M. de Verneuil, who accompanied them during a portion of the time devoted to this laborious survey, and to whose intimate acquaintance with the older fossils they are largely indebted ; and who, uniting with his countryman M. d’Ar- chiae, will describe the Mollusca of these regions asa sequel to the geological memoir of the authors. Mr. Murchison’s recent journey over large tracts of Russia was intended to test the accuracy of the new classification of the pale- ozoie rocks upon a still wider scale than any to which it had been applied. Believing from the works of Strangways, Pander, and Eichwald, that some members of these formations occur near St. Petersburgh, and pronipted by the suggestions of M. Von Buch, that the threefold succession of Carboniferous, Old red, and Silurian systems would be found to’ prevail in Livonia and North-western Russia, Mr. Murchison, accompanied by M. E. de Verneuil, has made during the last summer a most extensive and instructive tour in Russia. The principal results of this journey were offered to the Geological Section of the British Association in September last at Glasgow, showing that the Silurian rocks occupy several islands in the Baltic and large parts of Livonia and Courland, and range by St. Petersburgh to the W.N.W. Qn the south they are overlaid by a great red formation which was formerly supposed to be the New red sandstone on account of its saliferous and gypseous beds, but which is now proved to be the Old red sandstone by containing the Ichthyolites which characterize that deposit in the British Isles; these fishes, Holoptychius, Coccosteus, Diplopterus, &e., are associated _ with Mollusca similar in species to some of the fossils of the Devonian. rocks of England, Belgium, and the Rhine. The old red or De- vonian rocks of Russia, spreading over a very wide area, are sur- _ mounted in the Waldai Hills by Mountain or Carboniferous lime- VOL. Ill. PART Il. ZS 4:86 stone; the latter formation (in great part resembling in mineral condition a Tertiary deposit of white limestone) may be said to range from Moscow to Archangel, and even into the country of the Sa- moides, preserving the same lithological and geological characters, and occurring almost universally in horizontal unbroken masses for the distance of nearly one thousand miles. Thus the examination of Russia has not only confirmed the paleeozoic classification of the Carboniferous, Devonian, and Silurian systems, but has given new materials for the establishment of correct geological theories as to the formation of the surface of the globe; for we now learn that deposits of this high antiquity have been left in undisturbed posi- tions over very large areas, and that under such circumstances their structure has undergone little or no modification; whilst the large Producti of our Mountain-lmestone occur in Russia in a white deposit, resembling the most incoherent parts of the Cal- caire grossier of Paris. The general results and details of this im- portant examination of Russia will shortly be brought before our Society. DEVONIAN SYSTEM. After reviewing the vast European extent which the equivalents of the Old red sandstone have been shown to occupy on the Conti- nent, we cannot forget how much we owe to the sagacious and exact researches of Mr. Lonsdale, set forth in his most masterly and highly scientific communication to us respecting the age of the limestones of South Devon, wherein, after showing the state of for- mer erroneous and inconsistent opinions upon the subject, he de tails the steps that led him to infer from zoological evidence alone, that they were of an intermediate age between the Carboniferous and Silurian rocks. Mr. John Phillips had already observed the resemblance between many of these Devonian shells and those of the Mountain-limestone, and Mr. De la Beche had long ago noticed the position of the Tor- bay limestones to be incumbent on strata of Old red sandstone ; and in 1839 suggested that their organic remains would seem to indi- eate relations to this formation. The cause of the obscurity that overhung this subject arose partly from the absence of any evidence from superposition, in consequence of the insulated place which these rocks occupied in the south of Devon; and partly from the non-existence, until a recent period, of any extensive catalogues of the organic remains of the Mountain-limestone and Silurian systems with which these fossils of South Devon might be compared. In 1837 Mr. Lonsdale had ascertained, from an extensive colla- tion of the shells and corals of the south of Devon with those of the Silurian system supplied in the catalogue of Mr. Murchison, and of the Carboniferous system in that of Mr. J. Phillips, that a large — proportion of the Devonian fossils presented a character interme- diate between those of the formations which lie above and below the Old red sandstone; and therefore concluded that the strata in which they are found must be subordinate parts of this intermediate \ 487. formation. The suggestion was adopted by Mr. Murchisen and Pro- fessor Sedgwick in 1839, and at once shed forth a new and brilliant light that has rapidly dispelled the darkness in which the slate rocks of this extensive formation had, until this discovery of Mr. Lons- dale, been involved. The first application that was made of this new instrument of identification to the continental rocks led to the immediate solution of the difficulties that had attended the attempts of preceding observers to ascertain the equivalents of the English series in the districts adjacent to the coal-fields of Liége and in the Bas Boulonnais; and we have already noticed the vast extent to which, during the past year, a similar identification has been carried in the Rhenish provinces and in Russia. We should, however, not forget, that, by the recent examination of Russia, the distribution of fossil animals has been found to be materially connected with mineral conditions; for Mr. Murchison and M. de Verneuil have shown us, that with the resumption of its red and green characters, the vast Old red system of that empire resumes the very same zoological types as in the North of Scotland. A short time will probably produce an abundant recognition of the same palzozoic classification in America, We have long been learning an instructive lesson as to the comparatively small value of mineral character in determining the age of strata, where there is no opportunity of appealing to the test of superposition ; and organic remains have been found to supply the surest and safest criterion whereby formations can in such cases be made out; thus, the evi- dence of fossil shells has recently enabled us to identify the Oolite formation in Cutch and the deserts adjacent to the Indus, and on the Tartar side of the Himalaya Mountains. Cases of this kind teach us to appreciate even still more highly than we have been wont to do, the paramount value of Paleontology in determining geological equivalents. } ORIGIN OF COAL. In the early part of last year some very interesting papers came before us tending to throw light on the obscure and difficult ques- tion of the formation of coal. Mr. J. Hawkshaw, having communicated to us in June 1839 a de- scription of several large fossil trees found in a cut on the Bolton Rail- way, near the Dixon-fold Station, five miles and a half N.W. of Man- chester, standing immediately upon a thin bed of coal perpendicularly to its surface, has added a statement of further facts, confirming his opinion that these trees grew in the place and position where they are now found. His reasons are grounded on observations he made near the shores of the Caribbean sea, on the rapid decomposition of the trunks of solid dicotyledonous trees in hot and moist climates. This decomposition in a few months entirely destroys the timber, leaving only the bark unbroken and hollow, like an empty mould in a foundry ; the form of this bark remains perfect after the interior is reduced to dust. He infers from this example, that it does not follow that fossil trees in the coal formation were originally hollow because we 282 488 find their interior entirely filled with indurated clay or sand, since it appears from effects now proceeding in tropical climates, that the entire bark may have retained its place and form and have been filled with sand or silt after the interior of the trees had rapidly perished. Similar observations as to the rapid decay of timber have been made by Mr. Schomburgh. Mr. J. E. Bowman also has endeavoured to prove that coal has _been formed from plants which grew on the present areas of the coal seams, and that these beds of vegetable matter were at suc- cessive intervals submerged, and covered by sediments, which ac- cumulated until they formed a surface fit for the growth of an- other series of land plants; and that these processes were repeated in the production of each bed of coal. In this manner he would explain the uniformity in thickness of individual coal. beds over very large areas. He further admits, that other trees, branches, and leaves, may have been drifted from the neighbouring lands, and scattered through the beds of shale and sandstone, whilst they were in process of accumulation upon the subsiding or subsided beds of coal. Mr. Bowman agrees with Mr. Hawkshaw in believing the large trees upon the Bolton Railway, near Manchester, to be in their native place and position, and to have been dicotyledonous. He further mentions a similar case of at least forty trees, only three or four feet apart, found in 1838, standing erect upon the wpper surface of a seam of coal fifteen inches thick in the railway tunnel at Clay Cross, five miles south of Chesterfield; these had no traces of large roots, and their exterior consisted of a thin film of coal, furrowed and marked like a Sigillaria reniformis ?, the interior being occupied by fine-grained sandstone. Mr. Bowman considers the trunks of fossil trees in the coal formation, which are thickened at their base, and terminate in large expanding forked roots, to have been dicoty- ledonous, whilst the monocotyledonous trees maintain throughout a nearly uniform thickness, and their roots probably consisted of an assemblage of succulent fibres ; and argues, that if beds of coal were, like modern peat bogs, the accumulated remains of many genera- tions of vegetables that grew upon the spot, they may, during such process of gradual accumulation, have afforded a surface adapted for the growth of the trees in question. He attributes the fact of the roots standing above the upper surface of the coal, as we some- times see the roots of fir-trees above the surface of peat, to the shrinking of the vegetable matter in which they grew, and considers the actual thickness of each bed of solid coal to be about one-third that of the vegetable mass from which it has been derived*. * JT wish to correct an errorinmy Address of last year (p. 230), where it is stated, that the place of the roots of the upright trees discovered in the Bolton Railway was immediately wider a thin bed of coal; the fact is, that. they were all above this coal: the difference is material, for if the roots be all above the coal seam, these trees, like fir-trees in a peat-bog, may have grown upon the accumulating bed of vegetable matter which is now con- verted to coal. The theory that coal, like peat, owes its origin to vegetables that grew on 489 Mr. W. E. Logan has also communicated to usa series of minute results of extensive examinations made by himself, and in many cases confirmed by Mr. De la Beche, on the character of the beds of clay immediately below the coal seams in South Wales, from which it appears that immediately beneath every bed of coal in that extensive district is a substratum, called the wnderclay, varying in thickness from six inches to more than ten feet; and that this un- derclay so universally and inseparably accompanies nearly a hundred seams of coal throughout South Wales, that the collier seldom finds coal where this substratum.is wanting: it is usually a fire-clay, con- taining sometimes an admixture of sand, and near Swansea passes into a hard, fine-grained, siliceous sandstone. This never-failing sub- stratum of the coal is everywhere characterized by the exclusive presence of innumerable remains of Stigmaria,ficoides, the stems of which are often of great length, and usually parallel to the plane of the bed, and more abundant near the top than the bottom of the underclay. From each of these stems there proceeds a series of very long and narrow leaves, forming an entangled mass, which traverses the fire-clay in| every direction and to great distances ; fragments of the stems of Stigmaria occur in other parts of the coal formation, but in the underclay alone are the long thin leaves at- tached to them. In 1818 the Rev. H. Steinhauer published in the American Philosophical Transactions, vol. i. p. 273, a similar ac- count of the occurrence in the English coal. formation near Brad- ford in Yorkshire, of continuous stems and leayes of Stigmarie, dif- fering from those lately observed by Mr. Logan only as to the greater vertical range to which the leaves extended. Mr. Logan has traced them in a vertical direction seven or eight feet from the stem, and . more than twenty feet horizontally *, and concludes that it is im- possible to account for these phenomena by any theory of drift. He further supposes the Stigmaria to be the plant of which fossil coal is mainly composed. I think we may derive, from the important facts above quoted, a the spot it now occupies, has been entertained by DeLuc, Macculloch, ‘Jameson, Brongniart, Lindley, and other writers, but I have nowhere be- fore seen such convincing proofs of this hypothesis as are furnished by the facts advanced by Mr. Hawkshaw, Mr. Bowman, and Mr. Logan, taken in connexion with one another. * Mr. John Craig, of Glasgow, in an excellent paper on the coal forma- tion of the West of Scotland read to the British Association at Glasgow, 1840, remarks that “‘ the Stigmaria jicoides is frequently found in the shales, with the leaves attached to the stem and spread out laterally, in a manner which never could have occurred had the plant been drifted from a distance. The ripple-marks also (he adds), which are observable on almost all the shales and laminated sandstones throughout the whole carboniferous forma- tion, show that these portions of the coal strata were deposited in very shallow water.” I learn from Mr. Binney that stems andleaves of Stigmaria abound in the beds of clay or fine sand that lie immediately below many beds of coal in the district of Manchester. 4:90 probable illustration of the processes by which the formation of a coal-field has been conducted. We may assume the areas now co- vered with coal to have been extensive flats and estuaries, receiving at intervals, during seasons of flood, large deposits of silt and sand, interspersed with leaves and broken branches and trunks of trees, drifted down with the detritus of not far distant lands. We may conceive large portions of the surface of these sedimentary deposits, after the cessation of the floods by which they were respectively transported, to have become the site of broad and shallow ponds or lagoons, which were speedily filled with a matted mass of floating stems and leaves of Stigmaria, to the exclusion of all other plants, ‘in the same manner as the social plant, Stratiotes aloides, now crowds the ditches and shallow ponds in Holland, until the water is filled with a dense assemblage of individuals of this single species, leaving no intervals for the growth of any other plants. We may further admit, that by the deposition of mud or silt between the stems and leaves of Stigmaria, the bottom of each lagoon might have been overspread with the earthy sediments that compose the beds of fire- clay immediately below the coal; and that the same lagoon, after the deposition of these sediments, continued crowded with Stigmarie, accumulating on one another until they had entirely filled the lagoon with a matted mass of stems and leaves, as modern shallow lakes are gradually filled up and converted into peat-bogs. The surface of the lagoon thus changed to a morass may forthwith have become covered with a luxuriant growth of marsh plants, e. g. with Calamites, Lepidodendra, Sigillariz, &c., the exuvize of which formed a super- stratum of vegetable matter convertible to coal, resting upon a sub- _ stratum composed exclusively of remains of Stigmarize. The re- gions which were the site of this vegetable growth may, by success- ive subsidences, have been so reduced below the level of the water, as to make them the receptacles of alternating deposits of sand and clay (now converted to strata of sandstone and shale) between the several beds of incipient coal. During these processes, successive series of lagoons may have covered large portions of each last- formed drift; and every lagoon becoming the site of a renewed growth of Stigmariz, may thus continuously have been laying the foundation and nourishing the materials of future beds of inestima- bly precious fuel. In the case of beds of coal that alternate with marine deposits, it has been suggested that extensive subsidence of the estuaries on which lacustrine and terrestrial plants were growing, may have re- duced these estuaries below the level of the sea, where the sub- merged strata of vegetable matter became covered with beds of en- crinal limestone and other marine sediments; and that as these re- - ceived upon their surface further sediments of sand and mud drifted by land-floods into the salt-water, the estuaries were gradu- ally filled up, and again converted into lagoons, upon which a re- newed growth of lacustrine and land plants forthwith began to ac- cumulate the materials of other beds of coal. Both in the marine and the freshwater strata that alternate with 49] the coal-beds, we appeal to the three same intermitting and alternate processes of subsidence, drift, and vegetable growth; the subsidence being in the former case to a depth below the level of the sea, in the latter case to a depth which left the last-formed strata in a po- sition to become the site of vast swampy flats and shallow lagoons. In both cases intermitting accumulations of the earthy materials of the strata over the subsided districts are referred to the transport of sand and mud by powerful land-floods over areas which by subsi- dence had acquired a place that. made them receptacles of the de- tritus of distant mountains; as we now see vast sheets of sediment transported from the Rocky Mountains and spread over the great flats and vast estuaries of the Red River, the Missouri, and the Missisippi. The regions on which these ancient alternations of salt- water and fresh-water deposits were going on, must in the mean time have presented extensive surfaces that were periodically os- cillating between small distances above and below the level of the sea. The concentric rings of growth which may be counted in a trans- verse section of the large coniferous trees whose roots are found resting on the upper surface of a coal-bed, may be quoted as evi- dence of the time during which it was fixed in this its place of growth ; and as such trees may probably be found on the surface of many successive beds in the section of a coal-field, each stage of trees affords a chronometer by which we may calculate the number of years that intervened between the growth of each bed of coal. In the Neweastle collieries, after the excavation of the coal, short trunks of trees drop down frequently from the roof of the mine, leaving vertical cavities, which the miners call pot-holes; these trees probably grew upon the surface of the vegetable mass by which the coal has been formed; and the occasional assemblage of large num- bers of cones and seed-vessels of the same species, €.g. of Lepido- strobus and Trigonocarpum, upon one spot, seems to indicate that they dropped into their present place from the trees on which they grew. Should the above hypotheses be correct, we may expect to find corresponding differences of organic structure on microscopic exa- mination of the vegetable remains in the lower and upper portions of many beds of coal; and the attention of observers may at this time be profitably directed to the examination of thin slices of coal, carefully selected from different regions of the same bed, for the purpose of ascertaining whether differences exist between the com- ponent vegetables of the upper and lower regions of individual strata, sufficiently obvious and constant to justify us in referring the lower region of certain strata to a sub-aqueous, and the upper re- gion to a sub-aérial origin. Should an entire bed of coal exhibit no other vegetable structure than that of Stigmaria, it may be inferred that these plants had not so far filled up the lagoon in which they grew, as to convert it to a sub-aérial swamp, before fresh floods of water from the land overwhelmed these sub-aqueous ve- getables with sand and silt. Should we find another coal-bed with- 4972 out any Stigmaria, and interspersed through its whole vertical ex- tent with Calamites and other sub-aérial plants, indicating a swampy soil, we may conelude that the vegetables which formed this bed of coal grew upon humid and swampy flats adjacent to lagoons ; and that whilst the latter were accumulating beneath their shallow waters the materials of a future bed of coal, formed exclusively of the aquatie Stigmaria, the adjacent flats were simultaneously accumula- ting materials destined for a similar funetion from the sub-aerial swamp-plants of the same era. But in the compound ease of coal formed by the conversion of a shallow lagoon into a morass, we should find in the lower portion, next aboye the fire-clay, no other plants than the aquatic floating Stigmaria, and in the upper region of the same bed no traces of Stigmaria, but many kinds of sub- aerial plants ; whilst in its middle region we should discover a con- tact of aquatic with sub-aérial plants. We may explain the frequent occurrence of erect trees immedi- ately above the upper surface of a bed of coal, as in the cases we have spoken of near Bolton and Chesterfield, by supposing the roots of these trees to have found support and nutriment in the entangled remains of other plants which had preceded them on the same spot, as the Scotch firs grow in peat without touching any subsoil ; but cases of trees thus standing erect are comparatively rare exceptions to their ordinary state of prostration, caused either by decay or tem- pests, or by the violence of the eurrenits that submerged and buried with sand and silt the morasses in which they grew. Fragments and large stems of trees that are found truncated at both ends, and inclined in al! directions in thick beds of sandstone, like the coniferous trees at Craigleith and Newhaven, near Edin- burgh, seem to have been torn from their native bed and drifted with the sand to the place in which they are now imbedded. Mr. Logan and Mr. L..L. Dillwyn have discovered pebbles or rounded fragments of coal in certain grit beds of the coal forma- tion, from’ which we learn that some of the older beds of coal had assumed an indurated state before the deposition of the more re- cent strata of this great formation, the total thickness of whieh in South Wales'is 12,000 feet. At Penclawdd, on the Bury river near Swansea, Mr. Logan first found, in 1839, a rounded pebble of can- nel-coal in a bed ‘of clay; he subsequently discovered that in the Pennant grit of Kilvey Hill, near Swansea, there are many con- glomerate beds containing pebbles of coal, intermixed with sand and pebbles of ironstone, and very rarely with boulders of granite and mica-slate. The pebbles are chiefly of common bituminous coal; two only have been found composed of cannel-coal, the only seams of which known in the lower coal-measures are 2000 feet below the Pennant grit. Mr. Logan believes that coal-pebbles oe- cur throughout the whole mass of the Pennant sandstone, the thick- ness'of which is 3000 feet, but he has seen no such pebbles in the lower coal-measures. Mr. Buddle has lately found similar pebbles of coal in the Pen- nant grit of the Forest of Dean. 493 PARTIAL DENUDATION OF COAL DURING THE CARBONIFEROUS EPOCH. We have received from Mr. Buddle an interesting paper upon a curious phenomenon in the Forest of Dean, improperly called the Horse. Fault, being neither a slip nor dislocation, but only an in- terruption of the continuity of a bed of coal, called the Coleford High Delf, produced by the thinning out of the coal and substitu- tion of sandstone in its place. The extent of this Horse has been traced about two miles in length, with a breadth varying from 170 to 340 yards. Besides the total absence of coal in this inter- rupted portion of the High Delf seam, the upper surface of this seam on each side of the so-called Horse presents an undulating line, causing the thickness of the coal to vary considerably, whilst its lower surface is symmetrical with the subjacent floor of shale, which continues uninterrupted, across the space occupied by the Horse. The_bed of sandstone next above this High Delf coal- seam is very thick (in one place 94 yards), and occasionally inter- spersed with pebbles of quartz and fragments of coal, and angular fragments of indurated sandstone containing casts of coal-plants. That portion of it which is called the Horse, fills the space sup- posed to have once been occupied by the denuded portion of the coal-bed. Mr. Buddle considers this denudation, and also the undu- lations on. the upper surface of the coal, to have been caused by currents of water passing over and removing portions of the stratum of vegetable matter which formed the coal before the deposition of the sandstone, which has filled these inequalities on the surface of the Coleford High Delf seam, and also the broad interruption of its continuity called the Herse Fault. It is clear that violent currents must occasionally have been in action whilst the carboniferous strata were in progress of accumula- tion, for without them no kind of pebbles could have found access to the conglomerate beds that occur in this formation ; whilst the passage of water over the lower strata of the carboniferous series may have torn off fragments both from the lower sandstones and the lower seams of coal, which the pebbles derived from them show to have been then consolidated. BLACK BAND OF IRONSTONE IN SCOTLAND. A most important discovery has recently been made in the coal formation of the West of Scotland, of several beds of ironstone (lo- cally called the Black Band), which are of such great importance in the manufacture of iron, that its application to the smelting furnace has lately raised the value of a single estate at Airdrie more than 10,0007. per annum. ‘There are several beds of this ironstone, va- rying from fourteen to twenty-two inches in thickness; they contain very little clay, and nearly as much carbonaceous matter as serves to calcine the iron ; for this reason it is more valuable than the clay ivonstones hitherto used, of which in this Scotch coal-field there are sixty-six. As it is probable that similar beds of this most valuable 494 kind of iron ore may have hitherto been overlooked in other coal- fields, the attention of all coal-owners cannot too soon be directed to the discovery of the “ Black Band” upon their own property *. COAL FORMATION IN WIGTONSHIRE. Mr. Carrick Moor has given us a paper on the West Shore of Loch Ryan in Wigtonshire, showing that sandstones and shale of the coal formation form a narrow band nine miles in length parallel to Loch Ryan; in some parts of which have been found Stigmaria ficoides and Calamites, but hitherto no useful beds of coal. On these coal-measures rest nearly horizontal beds of a red sandstone breccia, and beneath them greywacke, probably Silurian, abounding in graphtholites. COAL IN SICILY, NEW ZEALAND, NEW HOLLAND, BORNEO, SOUTH AMERICA, AND KERGUELEN S LAND. At a time when steam navigation is assuming a character of in- calculable importance to the world, the discovery of coal in any maritime position in distant regions that lie upon the great commer- cial highway of nations, demands the attention of all whose duty or interest it is to facilitate the means of rapid intercourse between the most distant extremities of the habitable globe. Respecting Sicily, we have been informed by Dr. Calvert that he has himself seen a bed of good tertiary coal three feet thick, close to Messina, in a Fiumera to the left of Fort Gonzago, from which thirty years ago the English commander and himself laid in a stock for their winter fires, and which was used by our dragoons for their forge ; although this is probably of tertiary formation, it may, like that of Cadebona, afford useful fuel. From New Zealand I have seen a specimen of coal very like that of Staffordshire, found on the north shore of the southern island, near Cape Farewell, by the crew of a boat accidentally landing at the base of a cliff, in which the first thing noticed was a bed of coal three feet in thickness projecting over their heads. This coal in all * Mr. Hawkshaw’s observation as to the manner in which flashes of bi- tuminous mud, from putrescent lagoons, overflow the country adjacent to them, in the tropical regions of Venezuela, on the arrival of rains after a season of drought, may illustrate the cause of the presence of the large quantity of inflammable matter which occurs in the rich iron ore of the so-called Black Band. A similar discharge of bituminous mud from lagoons over the surface of certain beds of growing vegetables in the time of the coal formation, may have been the cause of converting the beds thus overflowed and impregnated with bitumen into Kannel or Candle coal; and an argument in favour of this hypothesis is supplied by the fact of the microscopic structure of. the plants in Candle coal being more distinctly and universally preserved throughout the entire mass, than in ordinary coal. Similar bituminous irruptions may have caused the sudden death and perfect preservation of the fossil fishes that swarm in certain beds of highly bituminous shale of the coal formation, as also in the copper slate of the Hartz, and other bitu- minous shales. 495 probability will not only have material influence on the future de- stiny of the neighbourhood in which such a valuable repository of fuel has been found, but will also facilitate the intercourse by steam between this rising colony and our flourishing establishments in Van Diemen’s Land and Australia. ‘ In New Holland, in 1840, the Australian Company sold about 27,000 tons of coal at Newcastle on the river Hunter, with a rapidly increasing demand. And we learn from the Port Phillip Gazette, Oct. 28, 1840, that at Western Port, near Port Phillip, an exploring party has discovered coal of excellent quality, but at some distance from water-carriage. Mr. Tradescant Lay has also laid before us.a notice of the ex- istence of coal, or valuable lignite, in the island of Borneo: should a large supply of it be found in this island, it may become a station of inestimable value for effecting intercourse by steam between China, India and Australia, and the great islands of the Malay Ar- chipelago. It appears by recent accounts from Valparaiso, that an abundant supply of good coal has lately been obtained at Talcahuano, with which the steamer Peru has made a successful voyage to and from Copiapo*. We have just learnt from Captain James Ross that good coal has been discovered in Kerguelen’s Land in the Southern Ocean. CHALK. Mr. W. Hamilton has found, near the ruins of Teos, a white ecre- taceous limestone resembling that described by Mr. Strickland near * Asno more coal is in process of formation, and our national prosperity must inevitably terminate with the exhaustion of those precious stores of mineral fuel which form the foundation of our greatest manufacturing and commercial establishments, I feel it my duty to entreat the attention of the legislature to two evil practices which are tending to accelerate the period when the contents of our coal-mines will have been consumed. The first of these is the wanton waste which for more than fifty years has been committed by the coal-owners near Neweastle, by screening and burn- ing annually in never-extinguished fiery heaps at the pit’s mouth, more than one million of chaldrons of excellent small coal, being nearly one-third of the entire produce of the best coal-mines in England. This criminal destruction of the elements of our national industry, which is accelerating by one-third the not very distant period when these mines will be exhausted, is perpetrated by the colliers, for the purpose of selling the remaining two- thirds at a greater profit than they would derive from the sale of the entire bulk unscreened to the coal-merchant. The second evil is the exportation of coal to foreign countries, in some of which it is employed to work the machinery of rival manufactories, that in certain cases could scarcely be maintained without a supply of British coals. In 1839, 1,431,861 tons were exported, and in 1840, 1,592,283 tons, of which nearly one-fourth were sent to France. An increased duty on coals exported to any country, excepting our own colonies, might afford aremedy. See note on this subject in my Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 535. 496 Smyrna, where it contains Hippurites; he found the same lime- stone also in the Peninsula of Cape Krio, near Cnidus, at the south-west extremity of the Gulf of Cos ; and blue crystalline lime- . stone at Seala Nuova, and at Boodroom on the hills north of the town, under the remains of the Acropolis of Halicarnassus. The island and shores of the Gulf of Syme are also composed of a mass of compact white scaglia or chalk with bands and nodules of sili- ceous limestone. The greater part of the Island of Rhodes is composed of chalk containing flints, forming a prolongation from the chalk of Mount Taurus, and partially covered with tertiary strata. In Mount Atairo, the scaglia rises to a narrow ridge nearly 4000. feet high. The Acropolis of Camiro also stands on atable-rock of chalk. In Rhodes the chalk is partially covered with tertiary formations. Mr. W. C. Williamson has furnished a notice on some fossil shells from Syria, collected chiefly on a part of the Lebanon range im- mediately above Beyroot: the rocks are here composed of hard cream-coloured limestone containing many veins of flint; the shells, of which twelve species have been sent home, one of them a Hip- purite,; and a single fish, Clupea brevissima, Ag., tab. 61. f. 6, mndi- cate a near alliance to the chalk formation. We have similar evidence of chalk on Mount Lebanon in the well-kuown fishes from that range, which Agassiz refers to the epoch of the cretaceous deposits. IGNEOUS ROCKS. We have, from the Rev. D. Williams, an account ofa mass of trap, intersecting the mountain limestone, red marl and lias at the W. end of Bleadon Hill, on the Bristol and Exeter Railway. It resembles in its character that of Hestercombe, on the flank of the Quantoe Hills N.W. of Taunton, and is the first discovery of trap connected with the line of elevation of the Mendip chain. This protrusion of trap is attended by a remarkable fault, which brings the edges of bent strata of lias into contact with those of mountain limestone. Mr. Penistone has also supplied an instructive section of this cut- ting. The nearest known trap rocks to the Mendips are that of Hesereonibe in the Quantoe Hills just mentioned, and that near Tortworth and Berkeley. In a paper on the Isle of Madeira, Mr. Smith of Jordan Hill has supplied, I believe, the first geological description of this island, the structure of which has long been a desideratum to geologists. Little has hitherto been known. beyond the fact that all its shores and its general aspect are volcanic; Mr. Smith has at length discovered sections at the elevation of about 2000 feet, in the central part of the island, which exhibit compact limestone, containing fossil re- mains of Conus and many other shells of the tertiary period. No- thing is visible beneath this limestone, but above it are lofty preci- pices which exhibit several beds of sub-aérial lava, lapilli and ashes, alternating with beds of soil converted to brick by the beds of lava incumbent on them. In some of these volcanic beds of loose tex- 497 ture, there occur abundant remains of small roots of trees converted to carbonate of lime, in which few traces of structure have been preserved. I have occasionally seen similar remains of roots, in a. state of lac lune, in loose caleareous sand, and gravel-beds in En- gland, e.g. in the coralline gravel of the lower greensand formation at Coxwell, near Faringdon, and in a diluvial sand and gravel-pit near Claydon in Buckinghamshire. _ We have, from Mr. W. Hamilton, a notice of the existence of vol- canic formations near the Bay of Fouges (the ancient Phocea), on the N. extremity of the Gulf of Smyrna, principally trachyte, passing downwards into pumiceous sandy rock, and traversed by trap dykes which have altered the adjacent rocks into imperfect jasper. At Ritri also, on the Bay of Erythrz, opposite Scio, he found trachyte asso- ciated with limestone and sandstone older than the trachyte, the limestone being sometimes vertical; near the Acropolis he found vertical strata of indurated shale and jasper, and calcareous beds much. shattered... On low hills near the shore, and on which the ruins of Halicarnassus stand, Mr. Hamilton has also found beds of voleanic sand and trachytic conglomerate; and from Boodrcom, six miles S.W., to the hill of Chifoot-kaleh, trachyte, or trachytie con- glomerates ; he found trachyte also on the promontory of Kara- baghla. SUBSIDENCE OF THE LAND AT PUZZUOLI. In a letter on the subsidence of the coast near Puzzuoli, Mr. Hul- mandel has shown cause to believe that a gradual subsidence of the soil has been going on for many years, from the fact communicated to him by the oldest friar (aged 93) in the Capuchin Convent at the entrance of Puzzuoli, that the road towards Naples, which when he was young passed between the Convent and the sea, has been obliged to be changed in consequence of the gradual subsiding of the soil. In 1813, the refectory and entrance-gate were from six to twelve inches under water when the wind blew strongly from the west; such submersions were unknown thirty years ago. ROCKS OF RECENT ELEVATION. We have from Captain Lloyd an account of an enormous coral reef, almost entirely surrounding the voleanie island of Mauritius ; near the Riviere de ‘Galets the sea has worn a barrier of coral from five to fifteen feet high, into most fantastic shapes; and at a considerable distance in the interior of the island, there occur two headlands of coral twenty-five feet above the level of the sea, which present the same marks of abrasion as the reef now exposed to the waves. The observatory stands on a bed of hard coral ten feet above high-water mark, and at several places in the interior of the island are large blocks of coral surrounded with the debris of marine shells and broken corals. These phenomena seem explicable only on the theory of a recent elevation of those parts of the wee on which these coral reefs occur. 498 LEAD-MINES IN SPAIN. We have, from Mr. J. Lambert, an account of the lead-mines of the Sierra Almagrera in the S. of Spain, in the province of Almeria. The principal vein occurs in clay-slate resting upon mica-slate, and its direction is nearly N. and S.; its greatest breadth, in 1840, was nine feet, its chief produce galena with carbonates of lead, iron, and copper: near it are the remains of old workings by the Romans, with large heaps cf slags and ancient scorie. At the foot of the Sierra Almagrera are strata of tertiary formation. We have also from Mr. Lambert an account of other lead-mines in the Sierra de Gador, between the Sierra Nevada and the Mediterranean. This range is principally composed of transition limestone, alternating ‘with clay-slate and talcose slate: these mines also were worked by the Romans ; the lead occurs in smaJl masses or nests, and also in veins and branches of limited extent, which intersect each other and communicate with the nests. At the mine of Arnafe, a bed of lead one foot thick, and accompanied by clay, occurs between two beds of limestone. Similar beds are found in all the mines on the W. declivity of the Sierra. In the interior of the Sierra the Bed exhibit great sisi feseTSe forming crests and hollows, that contain the greatest masses of ore, conforming to all the modifications of the bed. No lead has been found at a greater depth than 200 yards. At the bottom of many fissures, fragments of ore are found asso- ciated with pebbles of the limestone. The best mines will soon be destroyed by improvident methods of working. PALZONTOLOGY. MAMMALIA.—OSSIFEROUS CAVERNS. Mr. R. A. C. Austen, in a notice on the bone caves of Devon- shire, at Torquay and Yealmton, disputes the opinion that the bones, in these caves, many of which are evidently gnawed, have been dragged in by the agency of hyenas, founding his objection on the assumption that modern hyznas “do not inhabit caves,’ "and “‘ never drag away their prey, but devour it greedily on the spot.” Mr. Austen must have overlooked the evidence of Busbequius, quoted in my ‘ Reliquiz Diluviane,’ p. 22, Ist edit., ‘“ Extrahit- que cadavera, portatque ad speluncam suam,” and cannot have heard of the gnawed bones in the Oxford Museum, extracted by Col. Sykes from the depth of eighteen feet in a cave, at the mouth of which he shot both the male and female hyzena that inhabited it, and descending its interior ran his head against a putrid portion of an ass which stuck across and obstructed the passage. Mr. Austen is disposed. to substitute the agency of lions for that of hyzenas in the work of collecting the bones that are so abundant in the caves of Devonshire, and correctly states that the bones of lions, or a large Felis, larger than a lion, have been found in nearly all the ossiferous caverns. Now in all.the caves of which I have any experience, the remains of lions are very rare in comparison with the 499 number of hyzenas’ bones in the same cavern; and without denying to these few lions their lion’s share in the work of killing their prey and eating the flesh, I must claim the bones as the perquisite of their more ossifragous brethren, and demand justice to the hyzenas, as the chief, I do not say the exclusive, agents in dragging them to their dens. The proportion of teeth in the cave of Kirkdale indicated one lion to nearly 100 hyenas. REPTILES. Professor Owen, in a recent paper on the teeth of the Labyrintho- don (Mastodonsaurus of Jaeger), a genus common to the keuper of Germany and to the lower sandstone of Warwick and Leaming- ton, has added another example to the many before produced by him, of the immense importance of microscopic odontology in geo- logical investigations. Two years have scarcely elapsed, since, by the application of this infallible test, he at once transferred the supposed reptile Basilo- saurus of Virginia to a genus allied to the Dugongs in the class of Mammals; and as if in recompense for this abduction from the fa- mily of Reptiles, he has now, by the same microscopic test, removed even the supposed approximation in the form of the teeth of the Mastodonsaurus to that of a Mammal, and shown it to be nearer that of Ichthyosaurus than of any other animal. Professor Jaeger had already shown, by the basilar bones of the head, that his Masto- donsaurus was a huge Batrachian reptile allied to the Salamanders, and its teeth, not yet submitted to microscopic examination of their transverse section, presented no apparent peculiarity of internal structure ; it was reserved for the microscope of Owen to discover within this tooth a condition of cerebriform convolutions or laby- rinthoid gyrations, hitherto unknown in the entire animal kingdom ; and on this just ground he substitutes the characteristic name La- byrinthodon for that of Mastodonsaurus, which implied affinities that have no existence. The fang of the tooth of the Ichthyosaurus offers the only known approximation to the plan of that of the Labyrinthodon, but ona more simple scale, and had been hitherto considered the most com- plex condition of dental structure in the family of Reptiles; in both these animals the external layer of cement is inflected inwards to a certain distance from the circumference towards the centre in straight and vertical folds at pretty regular intervals, which are oc- cupied by dentine radiating from the interior of the tooth; but in the tooth of Labyrinthodon, this dentine, or ivory, is composed of calcigerous tubes 7z/55th of a line in diameter, radiating and con- verging with primary curvatures and secondary undulations in a manner unexampled in the history of dentition. This gigantic Ba- trachian prototype of the Bull Frog, Mr. Owen has discovered to be the author of the footsteps ascribed to the so-called Chirothe- rium. Teeth of two smaller species of Labyrinthodon have been found by Dr. Lloyd in the sandstone of Warwick, and although no 500 English teeth of the Stutgard species have yet been submitted to the microscope, Mr. Owen strongly suspects that the cast of a large jaw containing several teeth, from Guy’s Cliff, near Warwick, the original of which has been mislaid in the Oxford Museum, is iden- tical with the Labyrinthodon Salamandroides of Stutgard; thus almost demonstrating the evidence required by Mr. Murchison and Mr. Strickland * to show the identity of the Warwick and Guy’s Cliff sandstones with the keuper of Germany. Mr. Owen con- cludes, that if on the one-hand geology has derived essential aid from minute anatomy, in no instance has the comparative anatomist been more indebted to geology than for the fossils which have re- vealed the most singular and complicated modification of dental structure hitherto known, and cf which no conception could have been gained from an investigation of the teeth of living animals. Professor Owen has communicated to us a Report on two new fossil reptiles, recently acquired by Sir P. Egerton from the chalk of Kent: one cf them a tortoise, allied to the Chelonians which now live in fresh water, or in estuaries; the other a small Saurian, which has teeth generically distinct from any known Lacertians, and resembling the points of stout packing-needles; to this new lizard in the chalk he has given the name Raphiosaurus. ( Mr. Mackeson has discovered in the bottom of the lower green- sand formation near Hythe a very large tibia and several other bones which he refers to the Iguanodon, spread in the quarry over a length of fifteen feet; in the same quarry were a large Ammo- nite, a Gervillia, and other marine shells characteristic of the lower greensand. We have in these bones another case similar to that of the nearly entire skeleton of Iguanodon found in the greensand near Maidstone, and transferred with Mr. Mantell’s collection to thie British Museum; showing the duration of the Iguanodon to havé extended beyond the period of the Wealden freshwater formation into that of the greensand. In both these cases the carcases must have been drifted into salt water from some not far distant land, the site of which we cannot conjecture to have been nearer than Devonshire, Normandy, or the Ardennes. ; , ICHTHYOLITES: Respecting the bone-bed in the Severn near Aust Passage, and at Axmouth Cliff near Lyme, Regis, which has hitherto been referred to the bottom of the lias formation, Sir P. Egerton,and M. Agassiz have found ichthyological reasons for considering it to be connected with the Triassic or new red sandstone group ;: because they find in it the teeth of four species of fishes hitherto discovered only in the mus- chelkalk or grés bigarré, and never in the lias, viz. Gyrolepis A/- berti, G. tenuistriatus, Saurichthys apicalis, and Hybodus plicatilis. It remains to examine the bones of the larger animals in this stratum to ascertain how far they agree with the Saurians of the Triassic system or of the Lias.. The teeth of Ceratodus, figured by Agassiz, * Geol. Trans., N.S., vol.'v. p. 345. 501 aa many other teeth in the bone- bed not yet described, are un- known in the lias. During the past year great additions have been made to our stores of knowledge, and specimens in fossil Ichthyology, by the presenta- tion to our Museum of a very large and rich collection of fishes from the lower beds of the old red sandstone near Forres, which we owe to the zeal and liberality of Lady Gordon Cumming of Altyre. Her Ladyship and her eldest daughter have further contributed most accurate and exquisitely finished drawings of many fossil fishes from the same locality, in illustration of Dr. Malcolmson’s paper on the old red sandstone. These ladies have also supplied many other drawings to the forthcoming volumes of Professor Agassiz. Further information on the fishes of the old red sandstone has been acquired by the diligent researches and extensive collections made in the same department of Paleontology by many scientific gentle- men in the counties of Caithness, Elgin; Nairn, Aberdeen, Forfar and Fife; following up the researches that were begun in this al- most new and most curious subject by Dr. Fleming, Professor Sedgwick, Mr. Murchison, Dr. Traill, Dr. Maleolmson and Mr. H. Miller. The three great subdivisions of the old red sandstone in these counties, with their characteristic genera of fishes, have, by these extensive researches, been fully corroborated, whilst a vast increase has accrued to the known number of species of fishes which appear to be peculiar to the upper, middle, and lower regions of this area formation. The visit of Professor Agassiz to Scotland in September last, and the grant to him by the British Association of 100J. to aid in col- lecting materials for the publication of a memoir on the fossil fishes: of the old red sandstone, have opportunely afforded a concurrence of circumstances most favourable to the diffusion of a new and brilliant light on our future researches in this very ancient depart- ment of Paleontology. Before he left Scotland, Professor Agassiz had recognised, in va- rious collections he visited in that country, undescribed Ichthyolites sufficient to enable him to establish fifteen genera, and more than forty species, the greater part of them not yet named, in the old red sandstone formation*. We have in these details a palaeontological confirmation of the fact that the old red sandstone is a system di- stinct from any other formations; all its numerous Ichthyolites being different from those of the carboniferous system above it, and also different from the few fishes yet found in the upper region only of the Silurian system next below it. Mr. Murchison, during his extensive tour in Russia, in the late summer, has enlarged our knowledge of the range of these cu- rious fishes and of the old red sandstone over vast regions in the * The names of these genera are Acanthodes, Cephalaspis, Cheiracan- thus, Cheirolepis, Coccosteus, Ctenacanthus, Ctenoptychius, Diplacanthus, Diplopierus, Glyptolepis, Holepiychieg Onchus, Osteolepis, Platygnathus, Pterichthys. VOL. Ill. PART II. 27 ° 502 north-east departments of Europe. Thus the ichthyological faunz of the old red sandstone has within a few years been found to be one of the richest and most prolific kind ; and its extinct species are much more curious and remarkable than those of any other forma- tion, by their deviation from the conditions of existing genera and species. Their most characteristic feature is an immense develop- ment of bony matter and enamel on the surface of the skin, thus approaching to the external dermal skeleton of Crustacea and In- sects. One of these fishes, the Pterichthys, is so largely and almost entirely encased with bony plates and scales, that it was at first mis- taken for a fossil Water-beetle. The nearest analogies we find among modern fishes to the great development of bony matter and enamel upon the head and scales of many of these ancient species, is that afforded by the large ex- ternal bones which form the head and large bony dermal scales upon the body of the modern Sturgeons, which further agree with - these fossils in having no internal bony skeleton. Another analogy occurs in the large external bones of the head of the Flying Fish, and of the common Gurnard. These bones are also beautifully studded with ornamental tubercles, arranged in symmetrical groups like gems and pearls on a jewel. This cha- racter is most strongly dominant in the tuberculated bones of the fossil genus Coccosteus. The enormous proportion in the size of the head to that of the body in the Gurnard, affords another ap- proximation to a condition of frequent occurrence in the extinct genera of the old red sandstone, and which has given its character- istic feature to the genus Cephalaspis. Another frequent character in the fossil fishes of the old red sand- stone consists in the absence of any internal bony skeleton, as in the modern Sturgeons. The large bony dermal scales, first noticed many years ago in the old red sandstone of Fife by Dr. Fleming, and then referred by him to a fossil Sturgeon, have been confirmed by Prof. Agassiz as belonging to a genus nearly allied to the modern Stur- geon, and like it possessed a cartilaginous skeleton, of which no traces remain in the fossil state. Among living fishes, a further analogy to this cartilaginous condition of the internal skeleton has recently been found by Pro- fessor Owen in the Siren, a fish of equivocal aspect, provided with lungs as well as branchiz, and considered as a reptile by preceding writers; it lives in the muddy bottoms of the shallow lakes of Seu negal, which are periodically dried up, the fish meantime remaining immured alive in a kind of cocoon of indurated mud. In the car- tilaginous skeleton of this existing Siren from Senegal, the anatomy of which has been admirably demonstrated by Professor Owen, we find a beautiful analogy to the cartilaginous condition of the skeleton of many of the most ancient fossil fishes ; and this analogy explains the circumstance of the frequent absence of any remains of an in- ternal bony skeleton within the often perfect dermal covering of many species of fishes in strata of the older formations. From these recent discoveries in Scotland, and the examination of 503 the unexampled collections of fossil fishes in the museums of Lord Enniskillen and Sir P. Egerton, and in other cabinets in this country and on the Continent, Prof. Agassiz has now extended his total number of species of extinct fossil fishes to more than 1700, of which nearly 250 new species have been the fruits of his recent visit to Great Britain and Ireland. I have elsewhere spoken of the ines- timable value of the discoveries of Agassiz in the department of fossil ichthyology, not only in relation to geological investigations, but also to zoology and physiology. In his history of the rapid progress he has made within the last six years, it has been duly and gratefully acknowledged by him, that his now voluminous work, the ‘ Poissons Fossiles, must at an early stage have ceased for lack of funds, without the liberal support it has received from a large list of subscribers in this country, and from pecuniary grants of the British Association. . In the necessary preparations for this large and costly work, M. Agassiz had accumulated in his portfolio a splendid collection of drawings, chiefly by Dinkel, not less beautiful as works of art, than precious as being the originals of the plates in his great scientific monument, the ‘ Poissons Fossiles;’ but, engaged as he is in a mul- titude of other costly and splendid scientific works, the Professor of Neufchatel was anxious to employ the capital thus locked up in his portfolio in a way more profitable to science, by causing it to fructify in the production of other publications. By a recent acci- dent this fact came to the knowledge of Lord Francis Egerton, who forthwith proposed to become the purchaser of this entire collec- tion of original drawings, about 1200 in number, permitting M. Agassiz to retain at Neufchatel the unpublished portion of them as long as may be convenient for the completion of his work. Such opportune and liberal interference to advance the progress of a work of pre-eminent scientific value is becoming of a nobleman long distinguished as a patron of Art, and whose conviction thus sub- stantially shown of the value of researches which are rendering such inestimable service to Science, evinces his Lordship’s worthi- ness of his position as President of the Geological Society at Man- chester *. FOSSIL CRUSTACEANS. GIGANTIC SPECIES OF EURYPTERUS. It will be in the recollection of those among us who have watched the progress of the recent rapid discoveries of fossil fishes in the old red sandstone, that at the Edinburgh Meeting of the British Asso- ciation (1834) a most anomalous fossil from the old red sandstone of Clashbinnie, in the county of Forfar, and considered by the disco- verer to be a fish resembling the Angel Fish, was rejected by Agassiz -from that class of animals; whilst neither he nor any other natu- * M. Agassiz has acknowledged in some of the leading scientific jour- pals of the Continent the liberality with which Lord Francis Egerton has thus come forward to facilitate the progress of researches, in which the sci- entific world is deeply interested. Die GZ a Fa) 504 ralist could even conjecture to'what class in the animal kingdom it should be referred, and in this enigmatie state it was left by Agassiz in the notice given of it in bis ‘ Poissons Fossiles.. At the late Meeting at Glasgow, this enigma found its solution by our recog- nising in the College Museum some of the most perplexing charac- ters of the Clashbinnie fossil in two large specimens of Eurypterus in sandstone from the coal-field of that neighbourhood. We had before seen, at the Edinburgh Meeting, a remarkable fossit Crus- tacean, nearly of the size and form of a large Molucca crab, found by Dr. Simson in the carboniferous limestone of Kirkton near Bath- gate, between Edinburgh and Glasgow; and Dr. Harlan had de- scribed and figured a smaller species: of Eurypterus from the ear- boniferous limestone of the United States (see Fourth Report of British Association, 1834, p. 643). We have, therefore, now ex- tended our knowledge of the range of this very remarkable family of Crustaceans from the sandstone and limestone of the coal forma- tion downwards into the old red sandstone. M. Fischer de Waldheim has lately discovered a new species of Eurypterus, J. tetragonophthalmus, in the transition formation of Podolia, nearly allied to the small species in the grauwacke of West- moreland in New York, on whieh this genus was founded by Dr. Dekay. (Annals of the Lyczeum of Nat. Hist., vol. i. p.375, pl. 29.): FOSSIL ARACHNIDANS. In the family of Arachnidans we have an account by M. Corda, in the Report of the National Museum of Bohemia, 1839, of a second new genus of fossil Scorpioid, Microlabis Sternbergii, dis- covered by the late Count Sternberg in 1838, in the same quarry -with the new genus Cyclophthalmus, found by him a few years before in a similar sandstone of the coal formation at Chomle, near Rad- nitz, in Bohemia*. M. Corda places this new fossil in the class of Pseudo-scorpions, near the Chelifer and Obisium of Leach: it is larger than the living Obisiwm carcinoides. . In this, as in the Cy- clophthalmus Sternbergii, the skin is preserved in several parts of the bedy in the state of a brown, semi-transparent, horn-like substance, over which pores of the trachez and indications of hairs are di- - spersed at regular intervals. The enduring nature of the peculiar substance (chitine or elytrine), of which, like the elytra of beetles, the skin of scorpions is composed, explains the cause of its perfect preservation in such ancient sandstone. M. Corda justly considers these two fossil scorpioids of Bohemia (the only two of which any aecount has been yet published) to be among the most remarkable discoveries of modern times. The Marquis of Northampton has recently acquired four new species of fossil spiders, one of them imbedded in the lithographic stone of Solenhofen, the other three from the freshwater formation of Aix. The Solenhofen fossil has ten legs, and is considered by * Figures of this unique fossil are given in pl. 46’. of my Bridgewater Treatise. 505 Mr. J. E. Gray to be nearly allied to the genus Nymphon, the living species of which are found parasitic on marine animals; and in the same stone with it is a fossil Ophiura, to which, when living, it may have been attached. Each of the three from Aix has eight legs; they are all probably freshwater spiders of the genus Argyroneta, and two of them are of the same species. In the same freshwater limestone with one of them is an impression resembling a Chelifer or Book Scorpion, having the claws of a scorpion but not its tail. FOSSIL INSECTS. We noticed last year Mr. Brodie’s discovery of the wing of a Li- bellula and other insects in the Wealden freshwater formation near Dinton, in the vale of Wardour, in Wiltshire. Mr. H. E. Strickland has more recently found a very perfect fossil wing of another Dragon- fly in the lias of Warwickshire, near Evesham, on which the opake spot usually found at the anterior margin of the wing in Libellulide is distinctly marked. The nervures on this wing closely resemble those on recent species, and approach most nearly to the genus fishna. The occurrence of Libellulide has not hitherto been no- ticed in any formation older than the lithographic stone of Solen- hofen, in the upper region of the oolite series; and the dis- covery of a species so nearly allied to the existing genus A‘shna in the lias formation, where it is associated with reptiles differing so widely from existing forms as the Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosau- rus, leads to curious speculations respecting the fauna of this early period. The discovery of land insects in strata that are, for the most part, crowded with marine remains, is explained by supposing multitudes of insects to have been occasionally drifted by tempests into the sea. In the Proceedings of our Society, vol. ii. p. 688, is a notice by myself of a hitherto unique example of a large neuropterous wing in the Stonesfield slate, a marine formation at the top of the in- ferior oolite, more nearly allied to the Demerobius than to any other modern insect. With this Hemerobioid are found at Stones- field abundant elytra of coleopterous insects, and the bones of in- sectivorous marsupial quadrupeds and Pterodactyles. In the Mu- seum of the University of Glasgow I saw, in September last, re- mains of some small hymenopterous insects attached to fragments of coal from the neighbourhood of that city, but of these no carefui examination had then been made. A large wing of a neuropterous insect, resembling the living Co- rydalis of Carolina, in a nodule of clay iron ore, probably from the coal-field of Staffordshire, has been figured by Mr. Murchison in his ‘ Silurian System ’ (Wood-cut 13, letter a, p.105,) from a specimen in the Museum of Mr. Mantell. FOSSIL RADIATA. The history of fossil radiated animals has, during the last year, received a valuable accession from the publication, by Professor 506 Agassiz, of the second part of his description of the fossil Echino- dermata of Switzerland*. The family of Cidarides forms the exclusive subject of this me- moir, being the most numerous of all the families of Echinites, and at the same time the earliest form under which shells of this kind appear to have existed; they are the only family that occurs so early as the muschelkalk, whilst no other family of Echini is found in formations older than the Jurassic, in which the Cidarides are most numerous; they abound also in the cretaceous and tertiary formations, and in our actual seas+. In the Jura mountains they are most nu- merous in a stratum, called Yerrain a Chailles, abounding, with other littoral shells, near the middle region of the oolite formation. Professor Agassiz has also published the first monograph of an- other splendid work, ‘ Monographies d’Echinodermes, vivans et fos- siles, which will be extended to ten or twelve parts, to be completed in three or four years, and will contain about 150 plates, some of them coloured, from careful drawings of this most beautiful class of shells. Collections of casts of all the fossil species of this class known to M. Agassiz may be obtained by purchase, or in exchange for objects of natural history, at the Museum of Neufchatel. In the family of Star-fish two new fossil genera have been recently established by Mr. Gray{, one of these, Comptonia, founded on a specimen from the whetstone pits in the greensand of Blackdown, Devon, recently acquired by the Marquis of Northampton ; it is preserved in the state of beautiful chalcedony, and explains the in- termediate character of the genus Ceelaster of Agassiz. The other new genus Fromia, comprehends the curious tesselated star-fishes found in the chalk, and also a recent species found i in various parts of New Holland. Professor Agassiz will shortly send an artist to England, to figure for his great “eile on living and fossil Behinadeniee the individual specimens which Mr. Gray has described in his Monograph on Star- fish. It is a new and important feature in the progress of zoology and palzontology, that this much-neglected department of radiated » animals is at length receiving that attention which, from the time of Henry Linck, who dedicated a large volume on this subject to Sir Hans Sloane (1738), to the moment when it has recently been re- sumed by Nardo, Agassiz, and Gray, it has so long merited in vain. SPONGES IN CHALK FLINTS. ‘Mr. Bowerbank, in a paper on siliceous bodies in the chalk, green- sand, and Portland oolite, has applied the evidence of microscopic * Mémoires Nouveaux de la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles, vol. iv. + Cidarides have recently been found in the carboniferous limestone of the Mendip Hills, near Frome, by Miss Bennet, and by myself in the car- Donn eTeus limestone near Donegal, in 1811. { See Monograph on Star-fish, Ann. Nat. Hist., No. 36, Nov. 1840, p. 175. 507 observation to confirm the opinion long entertained by many natu- ralists, that the tuberous forms of chalk flints and chert are due to organic bodies acting as nuclei, or centres of attraction, to the silex of which these tubereles are composed. Mr. Parkinson, in his interesting work on ‘Organic Remains of a Former World’ (1808, vol. ii. p. 87 et seg.), had noticed acicular spicula, which he found to be common to fossil sponges and fossil Aleyonia; and in pl. 7. fig. 8. of the same vol. he represents the magnified appearance of cruciform spines in a fossil Alcyonite resembling the Alcyonium cynodium of Linnzus, and quotes Donati as having described and delineated them before him. It has also long been known that a large proportion of the chalk flints in Wilts, Oxon, and Bucks, con- tain, within a grey external siliceous crust of variable thickness, a nucleus of semi-transparent flint, often of a purple tint, and exhibit- ing distinctly a congeries of tubes and net-work, nearly allied to modern Aleyonia; these Alcyonia were supposed to have acted as nuclei, or centres of attraction, which became first surrounded by the crust of grey flint, bearing no traces of organization, and subse- quently penetrated by a kind of red or purple chalcedony, taking the place of the particles of animal matter as they gradually decayed. This hypothesis has been modified by Mr. Bowerbank, whe has superadded the agency of parasitic sponges, which he supposes to have attached themselves to the aleyonic nuclei, and also to Echini and other shells, forming round these organic nuclei a covering or crust of sponge, which assumed, in its mode of growth, those irre- gularly tuberculated forms that are so common in, and are almost peculiar to, chalk flints. Having submitted to his microscope thin slices of chalk flints, in search of Foraminifera and Xanthidia, he observed, together with them, patches of brown reticulated tissue and spongiform spicula pervading the entire mass of the flints under examination ; this spongi- form structure was further pervaded by many tortuous cylindrical and minute canals of uniform diameter, which appeared to be the incurrent canals of the sponge, and by other orifices of greater dia- meter, resembling excurrent canals. He thinks that the mode in which the spicula, foraminifers, and other extraneous bodies are equably dispersed throughout the silex, shows that these bodies were entangled in the spongiform tissue in which their fossilization has taken place. With respect to the Echini and other shells, which are more or less filled with, or surrounded by grey flint, he supposes the para- sitic sponges to have grown both around and within the cavity of these shells, and in the case of Echini to have sometimes protruded outwards, sending forth branches through their orifices from the parasitic sponge within. He cites the parasitic habit of some modern sponges, which are found investing shells and other substances, in support of this hypothesis. In chalk flints from Wiltshire he found the spongiform structure aud spicula pervading the grey crust that enclosed many zoophytic | nyclei; but within these nuclei were neither spicula nor any of the 508 nunute extraneous bodies which are frequent in the tubular spongi- form crust. The character of these fossil sponges differs from that of any recent sponge. In chert from the greensand of Fovant, Wilts, and from Lyme Regis, Mr. Bowerbank found a similar but coarser texture; and also in chert casts of Spatangi from the greensand near Shaftes- bury. In chert from Portland and Tisbury he found similar cellular tissue, but larger, and in texture more like the modern freshwater sponge. Mr. Bowerbank supposes the organic matter of the sponges and zoophytes to have afforded to the silex stronger centres of attrac- tion than were offered by the siliceous spicula of the sponges ; and there is a geological consideration which seems to favour the hy- pothesis, of the siliceous matter of chalk flints whilst in a semifluid state having been segregated from the compound mass of lime and silex of the nascent chalk beds, by the attraction of some organic body, in the facts that the upper region of the English soft chalk, which most abounds in flints, is nearly pure carbonate of lime; whilst the lower region of the hard chalk is usually destitute of flints, and ‘has silex diffused throughout its entire substance. I cannot, how- ever, but think there is something too exclusive in Mr. Bowerbank’s theory as to the universal presence of parasitic sponges in the ex- ternal crust of every chalk-flint, and which admits of no case in which an Alcyonium or any kind of extraneous body in chalk may, without the co-operation of a sponge, have become externally in- vested with a crust of silex of the same kind with that which he allows to have been attracted to corallines and aleyonic bodies by the animal matter they contained. MICROSCOPIC SHELLS. Mr, Tennant has informed me that a microscopic examination of the Stonesfield slate by Mr. Darker, and of other oolites, has re- cently shown them to be crowded with remains of organized bodies, invisible to the naked eye. I learn also from Mr. Tennant that abundant microscopic organic remains have recently been discovered _in thin slices of certain beds of carboniferous limestone from Derby- shire; similar results may shortly be expected from a microscopic examination of the chert of the same formation. We must not however be tempted by these discoveries to rush suddenly to the rash and unwarranted conclusion, that all limestone and all silex is of organic origin. It has not yet been shown that the granules resembling the roe of fishes, which give character to the oolite formation, and abound oc- easionally in limestones of the triassic, carboniferous, and silurian series, have any necessary connexion with organic bodies. We may - with Ehrenberg admit and admire the extent of microscopic cham- bered shells and Infusoria, which he has shown so largely to pervade the chalk and other calcareous and siliceous formations, without claiming an exclusively animal origin for the entire substance of all rocks in which lime or silex are the principal ingredients. “ 509 When we recollect what great discoveries have been already made in the investigations of fossil botany by means of the microscope, and look to the inestimable value of the information obtained by Professor Owen, as to the structure of the teeth of fossil fishes, rep- tiles, and mammals, and see the wonderful results of the application of this new power to the examination of chalk and flint by Professor Ehrenberg, Mr. Lonsdale and Mr. Bowerbank, we may justly con- gratulate ourselves on the commencement of a new epoch in micro- scopic palzontology. GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS.—GLACIAL THEORY. During the last year M. Agassiz has introduced a new and power- ful machinery into the Dynamics of Geology, by asserting the claims of ice to be admitted to the list of locomotive forces that have operated largely not only in forming morains (7. e. mounds and ridges of gravel and clay intermixed with large fragments of rocks) on the flanks and at the lower extremity of existing glaciers, but also in transporting erratic blocks with the detritus of morains to distant regions, and re-arranging them by the force of floods that originated in the melting of ice and snow. In the month of June 1840, a notice was read to us by him on the polished and striated surfaces of rocks in the beds of glaciers in the Alps; and another notice in the following November, on the evidence of the existence of glaciers in Scotland, Ireland, and En- gland. In the summer of 1840 he published in ‘Switzerland, in his ‘Etudes sur les Glaciers,’ a description of facts which lie at the foundation of this question, illustrated by a splendid series of plates, representing the actual condition and residuary effects of existing - glaciers in the Alps. These phenomena are so essentially prelimi- nary to the investigation of the evidences of ancient glaciers in regions where they are now unknown, that no man is fully quali- fied to enter upon this question who has not prepared himself by the study of modern glaciers with a special view to their residuary phenomena, which have been overlooked, or referred to other causes by preceding observers in Alpine regions. After due acknowledgment of the discoveries of Scheuchzer, Gru- ner, De Saussure, Hugi, Venetz, and Charpentier, M. Agassiz exa- mines the origin of glaciers in the transformation of snow into solid ice, the different conditions of this ice in its various stages of ad- yancement, the causes of its movement, the history of the detritus that falls upon it and is transported along its surface and lodged in the form of morains upon its sides and at its lower extremity, and the modifications of these morains by the waters of temporary ponds and lakes formed upon and within the glaciers. He also investi- gates the action of modern glaciers in polishing and producing striz, ridges and furrows, and rounded bosses resembling wool-sacks (Roches moutonnés of De Saussure and Roches bosselées of Hugi), on the surface of the hardest rocks over which they pass; and also in grinding to the state of pebbles fragments of rocks that are forced along their bottoms, and in transporting to great distances large 510 blocks of stone interspersed through the substance and poised upon the surface of morains. Within the records of history the lower terminations of many gla- ciers have varied considerably, and the morains left by them in the valleys show the extent to which the ice has descended in times comparatively modern. Agassiz has recognized the association of similar residuary phenomena not only in valleys of the Alps below the level of the present glaciers, but along the whole south-east flank of the mountains of the Jura, which run parallel to the Alps at the distance of fifty miles on the north-west side of the great valley of Switzerland. He finds on the Jura limestone, at various heights, from the level of the Lake of Neufchatel to three thousand feet, evi- dences from which he infers that glaciers descending the great valleys of.the Alps have extended across the entire valley of Swit- zerland over the lakes of Neufchatel and Geneva (then converted into ice), until their course was stopped and deflected in directions parallel to the Jura by the obstructing barrier which this mountain- chain presented. These evidences consist, 1st, in erratic angular blocks of the granite of Mont Blane, and other rocks from the high Alps, lodged on the south-east face of the Jura in insulated positions, and frequently upon banks of sand and gravel analogous to the mo- rains now forming in the Alps; 2ndly, in the frequent occurrence of polished surfaces, strize and furrows on the Jura limestone, similar to those now produced at the bottom of existing glaciers; 3rdly, in the coincidence of these striae with the direction in which a glacier from the Alps would have been deflected by the barrier presented to it by the Jura, and their non-coincidence with the slope of these moun- tains; 4thly,in the existence upon the polished surfaces of the Jura, limestone of funnel-shaped cavities (couloirs), and small indentations similar to the lapiaz we see daily forming at the bottom of glaciers by small and temporary cascades descending through cracks and chasms of the ice. M. Agassiz contends, that this quadruple series of phznomena, which are common to the south-east slopes of the Jura, and to the bottom of existing glaciers in the Alps, is inexplicable on any theory of aqueous action apart from ice; and still further argues that the concurrent appearance of similar phenomena in other re- gions of the world justifies the inference that these also have been the site of glaciers. He moreover infers, that very large portions of the now temperate regions of the globe have for a long period been enveloped with a winding-sheet of snow and ice. In November 1840, the evidence of the existence of glaciers in Scotland and the north of England has been brought before us in three communications: the first detailing the observations of M. Agassiz and Dr. Buckland conjointly during a recent tour in Scot- land ; the second recording Dr. Buckland’s observations in Scotland, Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmoreland; and the third containing evidences of glacial action collected by Mr. Lyell in Forfarshire and the valley of Strathmore. The phenomena in Scotland, wherein M. Agassiz and Dr. Buck- ae land recognized the evidences of glacial action, consist in the union of rounded, polished, striated and furrowed surfaces with morains and transported blocks, analogous to the similarly associated phzeno- mena upon the Jura and in the Alps. They are described in the six following localities. 1st, the morains on the summit level of the road between Inverary and Loch Awe: 2ndly, the rounded, polished and striated surfaces of granite near the water’s edge at the ferry of Bun- awe, and the morains adjacent to it near Mucairn: 3rdly, the polished and striated surfaces of granite, between high and low water, at the ferry of Ballahulish on Loch Leven: 4thly, the rounded, po- lished and striated surfaces, accompanied by morains, in Glen Roy and the valley of the Spean; from the position of which they infer that the lake, to which many writers have referred the origin of the parallel roads of Glen Roy, was caused by two glaciers descending from Ben Nevis across the valley of the Spean, in the same manner as in 1818 a temporary lake was formed by a barrier of ice in the _ Val de Bagnes above Martigny; and as at this time, a barrier formed’ by the glacier of Miage protruding across the Allée Blanche is the sole cause of the Lake Combal, which would immediately be left dry like Glen Roy, should any cause remove the protruding barrier of the glacier of Miage*: a fifth locality, in which there is the same con- eurrent evidence of morains loaded with transported blocks, and of rounded and polished surfaces on the sides and bottom of a moun- tain valley, occurs near Sir George Mackenzie's residence at Coul, at the south-west base of Ben Wevis: the 6th and last locality visited conjointly was the site and neighbourhood of the town of New Aberdeen, where the polished surface of the granite had been no- ticed by Dr. Fleming, and where remodified detritus of morains forms the hillocks of gravel between the town and the sea on the north side of the estuary of the Dee, and cliffs of gravel and till or boulder clay occur on the south of the same estuary. In another communication Dr. Buckland records his observation of similar phenomena in the valley of Strathmore; in the highland valleys of the Tay and Tumel; on the north-east-shoulder of Schie- hallion; in the high pass of Glen Cofield, between Taymouth and Strathearn; in Glen Lednoch and Glen Turret, on the north of Comrie ; on the sides of Loch Earne; and in the valley of the Teith between Loch Katerine and Doune. In the lowland districts he notices also the occurrence of rounded, polished and striated surfaces upon the top of the basaltic rocks of Stirling Castle, on the north face of the Castle Rock at Edin- burgh, at Blackford hill, on Calton hill, the Costorphin hills, and other hard trap rocks near Edinburgh, many of which have been de- scribed and attributed to diluvial action by Sir James Hall. In Northumberland Dr. Buckland describes an immense accu- - mulation of morains, or detritus of morains, at the east base of the Cheviots, near Wooler. And in the lake districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland he found the sides of many mountain valleys and gorges, by which the waters of these lakes have their exit to the * See Captain Basil Hall’s Patchwork, vol. i. p. 114. 512 adjacent plains, to bear marks similar to those produced by glaciers, viz. rounded, striated and polished surfaces, accompanied by the accumulation of mounds of gravel and erratic blocks in the low countries subjacent to them. Mr. Lyell has read a paper on the evidences of the action of ice in Forfarshire, and has re-examined that county in order to satisfy himself whether the boulder formation of the district, which he had previously regarded as the effect of drift-ice on submerged land, might be explained by the agency of ice acting on land already elevated above the sea. This latter conclusion he is now inclined to adopt, | believing that it is favoured by the mounds of transported materials bearing the form of morains, and for the most part unstratified, which occur on the sides of almost every valley in the Grampians, and sometimes across the glens at right angles, and almost blocking them up. He finds this opinion further confirmed by the local distribution of rocky fragments, and the evidence of their descent from higher to lower levels; and, lastly, he thinks that the rarity of organic re- mains in the till or boulder clay lends support to the same view. He mentions several deep lakes in the Grampians in Forfarshire, on the lower sides of which enormous accumulations of mud, gravel and angular blocks are strewed, which are derived from precipices on their higher side ; these materials would have filled up the lakes, unless we suppose them to have been formerly occupied by ice. The effects of drift-ice in producing alternations of stratified and unstratified deposits, and in causing curvatures in strata of sand and gravel, while underlying beds remain horizontal and undisturbed, were treated of last year by Mr. Lyell in a paper on the mud-cliffs of Norfolk. But in Forfarshivre the till, or unstratified matter containing boulders and angular blocks, is found everywhere underlying the stratified sand and clay; had the whole deposit been accumulated -under water, we might have expected alternations ; Mr. Lyell there- fore conjectures that the older till may have been formed in great part when the glaciers were gradually advancing over the country, at the period of the first coming on of a colder climate, and that portions of the morains may have become subsequently stratified in temporary lakes, or during floods in those valleys where stratifi- cation is observable. Another feature in the distribution of the transported materials of Forfarshire and Perthshire is a continuous stream, from three to three and a half miles wide, of boulders and pebbles, traceable from near Dunkeld by Coupar and the south of Blairgowrie into Strathmore, and thence in a straight line through the lowest depression of the Sid- Jaw hills from Forfar to Lunan Bay, a distance of thirty-four miles. No great river follows this course, but it is marked everywhere by lakes or ponds, which afford shell-marl, swamps, and peat-mosses, commonly surrounded by ridges of detritus from fifty to seventy feet high, consisting in the lower part of till and boulders, and in the upper part of stratified beds of gravel, sand, loam, and clay, which in some instances are curved or contorted ; the form of the included spaces is sometimes oval, sometimes quadrangular. No organic re- TS, - mains have been found in the surrounding ridges, but they resemble greatly in form the mounds of detritus which may once have con- stituted the lateral, transverse, or medial morains of a great glacier. -Mr. Lyell compares the chain of this part of the Grampians to the Alps, the parallel chain of the Sidlaw hills to the Jura, and Strathmore to the great valley of Switzerland ; and the resemblance, he says, is increased by the occurrence in Strathmore and on the Sidlaw hills of blocks derived from the Grampians. He is of opinion that the agency of ice moving upon dry land may account for many appearances which are inexplicable on any other hypothesis, and that this theory must not be rejected because it fails to remove at once every obscurity ; especially as various other geological causes, such as oscillations of level in the land, the temporary submergence of portions of it during the supposed glacial period, and the action of drift-ice, may all have co-operated with glaciers to produce the boul- der formation. He also hints, that the glaciers of Switzerland, being situated eleven degrees further to the south, can present but an im- perfect analogy to the state of things which may once have prevailed in Northern Europe; it is to Sandwich or Kerguelen’s Land, or to South Georgia, and other regions of the southern hemisphere cor- responding in latitude to Scotland and England, that we must look for instruction; for these southern and antarctic lands are buried summer and winter beneath perpetual snow, which reaches even to the sea-coast, and yet in the case of South Georgia this perpetual snow is distant only nine hundred miles from Terra del Fuego, a country placed in the same latitude and yet clothed with luxuriant forests. Assuming therefore that the Grampians, Alps, and Jura, and all Seandinavia, were once permanently overspread with snow, he thinks we cannot therefore conclude that the whole globe between the fortieth parallel and the poles was invested simultaneously with a sheet of ice, nor even that the general climate of the whole earth differed materially from that prevailing in our own time. Mr. Murchison, in an admirable chapter (c.39.) of his Silurian Sy- stem, on the Position and Mode of Transport of Boulders which oceur in the Northern Drift, has stated good reasons for believing that such a change of climate may have taken place at the epoch of the trans- port of erratic blocks as permitted the formation of icebergs on the shores and rivers of Cumberland, Scotland, and Ireland; which be- ing drifted southwards, strewed their load of large stones and gravel over the bottoms of then adjacent seas. He also quotes with appro- bation the ingenious imagination by Mr. C. Darwin, of a proportional distribution of the land and water in central and northern Europe, very different from the present, and under which the southern part of Scotland might present an island “almost wholly covered with everlasting snow,” having each bay terminated by ice-cliffs, from which great masses yearly detached would transport fragments of | rocks to distant regions; and infers, that as in other parts of the world there are conditions in which ice becomes a motive power, such conditions may also have existed in our latitudes. Mr. Murchison has also proposed to explain the dispersion of 514 erratic blocks now resting on beds of clay and sand containing recent species of arctic shells over large districts in the interior of Russia, by supposing “that they had been floated in icebergs, which break- ing loose from ancient glaciers in Lapland and the adjacent tracts, were drifted southwards into seas which have been since laid dry.” He further suggests, that icebergs loaded with detritus may, by grating upon the bottom of these seas, have produced the parallel strize and polished surfaces on the rocks over which they were drifted ; and con- cludes with admitting so much of the glacial theory as to allow that in former days glaciers probably advanced further to the south, and occupied many insulated tracts, and to a much greater extent than at the present day. We learn from Professor Hitchcock’s excellent work on Element- ary Geology (August Ist, 1840), that parallel striz and furrows, accompanied by rounded and polished surfaces of all the harder rocks, and that vast longitudinal mounds and tumuli of detritus, and erratic blocks sometimes at the distance of many hundred miles from their native place, have been lately observed in so many provinces of the United States, that these pheenomena may be placed inthe eategory of geological constants in North America. They have been noticed in Maine, New York, New England, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, at various elevations, sometimes from 3000 to 4000 feet above the level of the sea; the prevailing direction of these striz and furrows is from N.W.to S.E. We have also long been familiar with the streams of erratic blocks that have been traced south and south-eastwards from the moun- tains of Scandinavia to the shores of Germany ; and more recently Sefstrom and Botlingk have informed us that polished striated and furrowed surfaces are also of constant occurrence in Norway, Sweden, Finiand, and Lapland, their mean direction being, like the course of the erratic blocks, from N.W. to S.E. Botlingk, however, has ob- served that some of these furrows have centres of dispersion (as in the case of those produced by modern glaciers that radiate from the Alps), and follow the direction of the major axis of each valley, whilst the general direction of the strize on the summits in Scandina~- via is from N.W. to S.E. He, moreover, states, that in the south of Sweden the striz incline southwards, but on the east of Lapland northwards to the icy ocean; the same conformity in the direction of the striz with that of the major axis of each valley, occurs also in Scotland, Cumberland and North Wales. Thus we find, that not only the highest and northern mountain groups in the British Islands, but vast regions also of the continents of Northern Europe and of North America have been subjected to the same great physical forces, glacial and diluvial, under much colder conditions of the northern hemisphere than prevail at present ; _and this apparently at a time intermediate between the extinction of European and American elephants by cold, and the creation of the human race. We have not yet, however, sufficient materials for the full admeasurement of the amount of influence which has been ex- ercised by ice in its various forms upon the surface of the globe, and 515 the following are important desiderata. With respect to elongated ridges and tumuli of gravel, it remains to discriminate how far they may have been derived from, or modified by, the action of ice under one or more of the three following conditions: 1. Were they lodged by glaciers alone, without the agency of water, in the form of mo- rains on their flanks and front? 2. Have they been stranded by icebergs loaded with gravel upon the shores of lakes, or estuaries, or seas? 3. Have they been dropped in deep water by floating and melting icebergs, and re-arranged by whirlpools and conflicting cur- rents in the form of oblong reefs and groups of obtuse cones which they actually present? Another large field of inquiry must be forthwith entered upon, in the distinctions we shall have to make between raised sea-beaches and: each of the three last-named resi- duary effects of glacial action. With respect to scorings also and dressings on the ‘surfaces of rocks, it is very desirable that we should find some criterion where- by to distinguish between the grinding effects of glaciers marching slowly along dry land, and of icebergs dredging the bottom of the sea, and of large stones and gravel drifted simply by water, in pro- ducing strie, grooves and furrows, together with rounded and po- lished surfaces on the rocks over which they respectively advance. I see not yet by what test we may distinguish these residuary phenomena where they occur in regions now remote from either of the causes most competent to their production, viz. in countries that now enjoy a temperate climate and are in some cases elevated nearly four thousand feet above the level of the sea; for where the sup- posed agent is ice armed and transfixed with stones projecting like the teeth of a file from its base and sides, the effects of similar in- struments on similar materials would probably be the same, by what- | ever cause a slow progressive motion may have been imparted to them; and whether on dry land or beneath the sea. It remains, moreover, to ascertain to what extent the sudden elevations of land may have-produced great movements of water and diluvial inundations by gigantic waves, analogous to those which are occasioned by modern submarine volcanic action ; and to inquire into the effects that may have been produced on the sides and bottoms of valleys of denudation by the driftimg of the hard — materials that must have been swept through them at and after the time of their excavation. - A further subject of inquiry is, whether there be parallel striz and furrows on the truncated and abraded surfaces of older rocks that haye been overlaid by more recent strata, after an interval in which these surfaces had been exposed to the action of the sea. In cases of this kind that have come under my observation, the surfaces have . only been cut off transversely and ground smooth, like the shores of the present seas; but they have no such parallel strize as those which are of general occurrence beneath diluvium or drift*; nor * They are sometimes also perforated by lithodomcus molluscs, and other- wise beset with parasites, which indicate a period of tranquillity between the action of the forces by which they were shorn away or made smooth, and the deposition of the stratum that was subsequently formed over them. 516 have large erratic blocks from distant regions been found mixed with the gravel of any of the older conglomerate rocks. One great cause of the difference of opinion between the dilu- vialists and the glacialists, is the exclusiveness with which each party would insist upon the agency of the cause which they respect- ively adopt: the diluvialist apparently errs in refusing to admit the agency of glaciers in mountain valleys that are below the existing limits of ice and snow; whilst Agassiz may have erred in urging too far his theory of expansion as the great locomotive power of glaciers over regions whose surface is too little inclined to admit their pro- gression by the force of gravity; a middle way between these two extreme opinions will probably be found in the hypothesis, that large portions of the northern hemisphere which now enjoy a temperate climate have at no very distant time been so much colder than they are at present, that the mountains of Scotland, Cumberland, and North Wales, with great part of Scandinavia and North America; were within the limits of perpetual snow accompanied by glaciers; and that the melting of this ice and snow was accompanied by great debacles and inundations which drifted the glaciers with their load of detritus into warmer regions, where this load was deposited and re-arranged by currents at vast distances from the rocks in which it had its origin. The contest will probably be settled, as in most cases of extreme opinions and exclusive theories, by a com- promise ; the glacialist will probably abandon his universal covering of ice and snow, and be content with glaciers on the elevated re- gions of more southern latitudes than now allow of their formation ; the diluvialist, retaining his floating icebergs as the most efficient agents in the transport of drift and erratic blocks to regions distant from their place of origin, may also allow to glaciers their due share in the formation of morains and striated surfaces, in latitudes and at elevations that are no longer within the zones of perpetual’ congelation. NOTICE OF DECEASED MEMBERS. In His Grace Joun late DuKE oF BepForD, our. Society has to ‘deplore the loss, in which many other public scientific bodies parti- cipate, of a truly English nobleman, who was a liberal patron and an accomplished cultivator of literature, science and the arts. The department of science to which he was most attached was Botany, which he pursued, not only by collecting in the park and_ gardens and conservatories of Woburn the most choice and beauti- ful vegetable productions of every region of the earth, but by print- ing four splendid botanical works on the four great vegetable fami- lies of Grasses,- Heaths, Willows and Pines*. In the cultivation of * 1. Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis, by Sinclair, 1816. 2. Hortus Ericeus Woburnensis, 4to. 1825. 3. Salictum Woburnense, 1829. 50 Copies. 4, Pinetum Woburnense, 1840. 100 Copies. None of these works were ever permitted to be offered for sale. 5i7 the latter family, like his friend the late Lord Grenville, he took especial delight ; but whilst, to cite his own words from a letter to Sir William Hooker, “The study of nature in the productions of the Forest, the Garden and the Conservatory formed one of his most favourite pursuits*,” he was not less attentive to literature and the study of the fine arts; and his taste and knowledge in the latter department are attested by two sumptuous volumes, the one relating to the Woburn marbles, the other to the history of the house of Russellt. His love of botany led him by necessary connexion to horticulture and agriculture; and with a just appreciation of the value of science in its application to these most useful arts, he main- tained in the gardens of Woburn an extensive collection of the various kinds of Grasses; as being that family of plants which beyond all. others is of paramount importance, in affording the grand supply of nutriment.to man and beast. In still further eluci- dation of the practical advantages to be derived from a scientific knowledge of these most useful members of the vegetable kingdom, and their adaptation to various soils, culture and climates, he sup- plied materials for the publication by his gardener, Mr. Sinclair, of an account of experiments on the produce and nutritive qua- lities of different grasses and other plants used as the food of the more valuable domestic animals; with practical observations on their habits, the soils best adapted to their growth, and the sorts most. profitable for various kinds of pasture lands, and for alternate husbandry, accompanied with the discriminating characters of their species. Whilst thus dedicating his hours of leisure, his garden and estate to the great national work of affording an example of a ready method to increase the amount of the agricultural produce of the country, he felt a further gratification in the consciousness that he was carry- ing out the plans of his elder brother, to whom he had been devo- tedly attached, and who had been cut off (a.p. 1802) in the commence- ment of a highly enlighteried course of agricultural improvements. The same affectionate feelings induced him to continue through life the valuable system of practical instruction to the cultivators of the soil of England which his predecessor had begun. He saw and duly appreciated the importance of teaching by example rather than by precept in a matter so palpable as the growth of two ears of corn where only one had grown before; and in a subject not less interesting to the owners and occupiers of the soil than to the nation, viz. the communication of knowledge as to the best methods * In another letter to Sir William Hooker he says, “to botany I am more indebted than it is possible for me to express. From tiat pursuit, under the blessing of God, have mainly been derived to me the health of my body, the culture of my mind, my relaxation at home, my enjoyment in the fields; many of my most agreeable and honoured acquaintances, and several of my dearest friends.”’ + 1. Outline Engravings and Descriptions of the Woburn Marbles. — 2. Historical Description of Miniatures in Enamel, by Bone, from family portraits at Woburn Abbey. VOL. III. PART II. ZU 518 of improving the breed of stock; and in doing this to large assem- blages of farmers at the annual sheep-shearing at Woburn, he anti- cipated by more than a quarter of a century the universal feeling that has recently given birth to the Royal Agricultural Soeiety of England, and proclaimed to the nation the necessity of applying the discoveries of science to the improvement of agriculture. His Grace was also an extensive planter, and well aware of the advantages of scientific management of woods and forests; a matter too much neglected in this country, but which forms the subject of special education in almost all the other states of Europe. In relation to Geology, His Grace had studied with more profit than usually attends the speculative consideration of such subjects, the effects of actual causes in filling up estuaries and marshes, and gradually converting them into valuable land; and by the artificial process of warping and silting to preserve and fix the tidal sedi- ments, he co-operated with nature in this effective process of transmuting swamps and shallow lakes into the most fertile corn- - fields and verdant meadows. The excavations that came under his review in the operations of deep draining in the fens, called his attention also to the phenomena of bog timber and peat, which seem frequently to have grown in situations below the high-water level of the sea; and he had formed just and lucid theoretical views as to the difficult problem of the causes and conditions which ‘could admit of the growth of peat mosses and forest timber in such si- tuations. j The most important of the great works of drainage undertaken by the late Duke of Bedford was that called the Nene outfall drain- age; it consisted of a new tidal channel for the river Nene, about seven miles long, commencing six miles below the town of Wis- beach, and terminating in the sea. The engineers employed in this great operation were the late Mr. Rennie, Mr. Telford and Sir John Rennie. The difficulty of the operation consisted in its being cut through light incoherent sand, liable to be moved by the flux and reflux of the tide. The new channel was dug to nearly half the depth required (about eleven feet), when the old course of the Nene was dammed up, and its waters being turned into the new _channel, in a few weeks deepened it eleven feet more, with an in- clination of about four inches per mile, precisely as the engineers desired and had anticipated. The bottom of this channel is from 80 to 100 feet wide, and its surface at high water from 200 to 300 feet. The object of this measure was to turn the course of the Nene from the shallow and shifting sands of its natural estuary in Cross Keys Wash ; and to improve at the same time the navigation of the Nene, the drainage of the district, and the communication between the counties of Norfolk and Lincoln. By its successful execution the surface of the river at low water has been reduced nearly eleven feet, thus producing an outfall sufficient for the per- fect drainage of a most valuable tract of fens; ships of 400) tons have taken the place of shallow barges in the Nene;' the trade of Wisbeach has been increased from 50,000 to nearly 120,000 tons 519 a year; a bridge and embankment have been substituted for a long and dangerous shallew ford between Norfolk and Lincolnshire ; and 1500 aeres of the old estuary have already. been recovered from the sea, whilst more is in progress of recovery. A further collateral advantage has attended this work, from connecting with ita portion of the great Bedford level, imperfectly drained by His Grace’s an- cestors ; so that a district called the Worth Level, containing 50,000 acres, and adjacent districts, amounting altogether to 60,000 acres, has now a perfect drainage in the wettest seasons through the new channel of the Nene, and has become one of the most fertile and prosperous agricultural districts in England, in which agues and marsh fevers exist no more. The general level of these fens being about midway between high- and low-water mark, the drainage is accomplished by self- acting sluices, which open to let out the water during the ebb, and are shut by the pressure of the rising tide. Under the preceding imperfect drainage the fens depended chiefly on the tedious and uncertain action of windmills for lifting the water above the im- pediments that obstructed its passage to the sea. Of this great work ‘of national improvement the late Duke of Bedford was the mainspring and chief conductor; the large extent of his Grace’s property in the district naturally gave him the greatest interest in its suecess, and threw the chief direction of the measure upon his hands; and the generosity and perseverance with which he deyoted himself to the superintendence of it inspired a general confidence throughout .all the parties engaged with him in this costly and - arduous undertaking. I learn from Sir John Rennie’s report and estimates on the im- provement of the navigation of the river Nene, and for the more efficient drainage of Moreton’s Leam Wash and Whittlesea Mere ; and from a pamphlet lately published (1840) by Mr. Tycho Wing on the navigation of the Nene, that a further grand work of dram- age is in contemplation under the auspices of the present Duke of Bedford and Earl Fitzwilliam, for draining, by means of the Nene outfall, Whittlesea Mere and a large district of contiguous fens, at a cost of £360,000, with a proposed benefit of recovering 5000 acres from their present condition of shallow lakes and morasses, and of giving a perfect drainage to 50,000 acres besides those now. 0c- eupied by these lakes *. Many and honourable are the wreaths that intertwine to form the civic crown of John late Duke of Bedford, the just reward of his various and unceasing labours to advance the useful and or- namental arts of peace, and ameliorate the condition of his country ; * We may form some estimate ‘of the public as well as private benefits resulting from operations of this kind, from the case of a tract of fen im the Isle of Ely, called Padsols, of which, in the year 1800, 800 acres were sold for 800s.; in 1816 part of this fen was let for 2s. 6d. an acre; in 1832, when the drainage was nearly completed, it was let for 10s., and is now let for 40s: an acre. The rent of this whole district has increased seven- fold since 1830. 2U2 520 but from none of these labours will he derive more lasting fame, and — a higher title to the gratitude of posterity, than from the great im- provements in the agriculture of England which have followed from the example he has set; and from the completion he effected, of that great and difficult operation, the perfect drainage of the fens connected with the Bedford Levels. In this drainage he has finished a work fraught not only with private emolument to himself and the other proprietors of the vast tracts of valuable land recovered from a state of unwholesome and unprofitable swamps ; but pregnant also with national advantage, by augmenting the productive powers of the soil of England; and glorious, as forming the consummation of a work of ages, which beginning with the Roman conquerors of Britain, and continued at various intervals by the successive possessors of the country, has received its full accomplishment under the auspices of the noble family of Russell. In Mr. Ricuarp Bricut, of Ham Green, near Bristol, the Society has lost one of its first members. He was both a patron and cul- tivator of geology and mineralogy in a generation earlier than our own. Born in 1754, he died in 1840, at the age of 86. Throughout the more busy years of his life he was an intelligent merchant, much engaged in promoting the commercial improve- ments of his native city. Honest, warm, and disinterested, he won early and maintained steadily, during a period of more than sixty years, the universal love and respect of his neighbours ; and the best proof of this lay in that most enviable power he had acquired of conciliating and guiding men of all sects and opinions in the pursuit of objects of public utility, and the perfect confidence with which his friends resorted to his judgement and advice in the more deli- cate affairs of private life. Upwards of sixty years ago Bristol possessed many zealous and intelligent individuals who understood the value of science and had cultivated it; and several had already made good progress in form- ing valuable geological collections ; Catcott had bequeathed a large and interesting collection of minerals and organic remains to the Bristol Library. Bristol was then the cradle of English geology ; Townsend, Richardson, and Smith resided in its immediate neigh- beurhood, and there Smith commenced his most important genera- lizations. A love of chemistry acquired in youth under Priestley and Aikin, a personal intimacy with Whitehurst, and a commercial connexion with mines of Cornwall, made Mr, Bright an early collector, and William Smith and Richard Phillips lent him their willing assist- ance. Though the metropolis was never his place of residence, he availed himself of frequent visits thither in earlier years to acquire an ex- tensive and accurate knowledge of the pursuits of men of science. Before he had reached the age of manhood in 1774, we find him interested in the best construction of chemical furnaces, and study- ing Dr. Black’s ‘ Tables of Double and Single Attractions.’ In 1780 he was a member of a private Philosophical Society in London, 521 composed of names* which are to this day almost all held in re- spect or reverence. It met once a fortnight, on Friday evenings, at the Chapter Coffee House, from seven till nine. When Davy quitted Penzance for Clifton and assisted Dr. Bed- does in delivering chemical lectures, Mr. Bright’s attachment to the science revived with double force. He attended these lectures with eagerness and delight ; established a well-appointed laboratory in his own garden; and the tarnished dollars, which in 1800, on the announcement of Volta’s discoveries, assisted in forming a galvanic pile, are still preserved. About this time he was much interested in the discovery of large masses of sulphate of strontian in the fields adjoining his house at Ham Green. Specimens of these, beautifully crystallized, were found in nearly an horizontal stratum immediately under the soil: at the same spot, the magnesian conglomerate has since yielded specimens of meiomite. Mr. Bright’s influence and taste and knowledge of architecture were often employed in behalf of his native city. The library, the infirmary, the asylum for the blind, the college, the observatory, are among those establishments for which in succession he has la- boured ; and on none did he bestow more of his time and thought than on The Bristol Institution, both at the period of its formation in 1822, and for the eighteen years which intervened between that and his these Pesan ail establishments of this kind were at this time new experiments, and when political feelings were strong, he co-operated most efficiently with his friends Dr. Beake, then Dean of Bristol, Mr. Harford, Mr. Sanders, and The Rev. W. D. Cony- beare, to induce men of all parties to meet together on that neutral ground,—the formation of a scientific society for a common object ~ to promote the study of the works of nature, and the advancement of literature, s science, a and art. Amid all his various scientific interests, mineralogy, geology, and fossil osteology claimed the first place. Cuvier’s researches were noted and abstracted in 1835 as earnestly as Adair Crawford's work on Heat was in 1779. He was as eager to possess and examine specimens of the fossil Infusoria of Ehrenberg at the age of 84, as he had been when scarcely twenty to hail a new discovery of his friend Dr. Priestley ; and he felt as glad and excited in forming a personal acquaintance with the eminent geologists who came to the meeting of the British Association in 1836, as he had formerly been in his introduction to Franklin at Paris in 1777. At the age of 82, when bodily infirmity prevented him from taking any very active part in the proceedings of the British Association assembled at Bristol, he made his house and collections at Ham Green access- ible to all its members. He was at that moment ardently following _ * Dr. Hunter, Dr. Crawford, Dr. Price, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Kier, Dr. Cleghorne, Dr. Quin, Dr. Wells, Messrs. Nairne, Aubert, Whitehurst, Horsefall, Jones (afterwards Sir William), Howard, Bolton, Kirwan, Black. hall, Bright, Benjamin Vaughan. 522 up the very latest discoveries in geology, and adding to his cabinet, with all the fervour and delight of youth, fresh accessions from the stores of organic remains, then newly discovered at the base of the Himalaya mountains. He has published nothing. His name however may remain as- sociated with the progress of science, by his liberal co-operation with Professor Whewell and the members of the British Association in the erection of a machine for registering the tides of the Avon upon a cliff overhanging that river, within the grounds of his resi- dence at Ham Green, upon the very spot (though at the time it was unknown to be so) from whence Captain Sturmy made his observa- tions which were transmitted to Sir Isaac Newton. During three years Mr. Bright undertook the special care and superintendence of this machine. The results of this register were peculiarly valuable in establishing the diurnal variation of the tides: "When a machine of much superior construction was, after the lapse of three years, erected at the Hotwells, the original gauge at Ham Green became useless, and was removed. The new gauge is under Mr. Bunt’s im- mediate care in operation as it was in construction, and his unre- mitting observations have already been rewarded by experimental proof of a very important general law, so recently announced, that it is possible I may be the first to give the intelligence to many of those who hear me, viz. that the variations of atmospheric pressure, as indicated by the barometer, exert a regular and very considerable influence on the height of high water in the Avon; an increase of atmospheric pressure, by which the mereury was raised one inch, producing a depression of fourteen inches’ in the height of the water. In his death our Society has to lament the loss of, I believe, the only father, who, during many years, has, together with two sons, been among the number of its most zealous and efficient members. To one of these sons, Dr. Richard Bright, we owe an early paper in our Transactions, on the Geology of his father’s neighbourhood. He has travelled in the less-frequented parts of Europe, and published records of his journeys both in Iceland* and Hungary ; the medical profession also acknowledge their obligation to him for several im- portant works. In the Rev. Dr. Cooke, of Tortworth Rectory, in Gloucestershire, we have lost a zealous member, whose early life was passed, before Geology was heard of, in academic pursuits as a Fellow and Tutor of Oriel College, Oxford, and whose taste for literature and the fe arts, and acute perception of the beauty of natural objects had prepared his mind to appreciate the value of those ad- ditions to natural knowledge, which the discoveries of geology caused to burst upon him, after he had passed the meridian of life. He was, in his early days, a frequent visitor of North and South Wales, with a view to the enjoyment of natural scenery; and from * He accompanied Sir George M‘Kenzie, and contributed to his work on Iceland. 523 the time when he first became initiated in the mysteries of geology he found this enjoyment infinitely enhanced, by adding to the plea- sures he derived from the contemplation of fine scenery, the further delight arising from the fascinating study of the subterranean struc- ture of the earth, and of the organic remains of a former world. From the year 1818, when he became a member of our Society, until the infirmities of age arrested his activity, few summers passed in which he did not make some excursion to the most instructive geological lecalities of England, to enrich his cabinets with stores of well-selected organic remains, and follow up the progress of the most recent discoveries. Dr. Cooke was a near relative of our valuable and frequent cor- respondent, Mr. Weaver, and a fellow-labourer with him in his researches on the neighbourhood of Tortworth, published in the first volume of the second series of our Transactions. He was a man of taste, talent and energy, in whom, after early cultivation in another school, the ardour of geological pursuits became the ruling passion, which, together with all his mental faculties, continued: unabated to the last. Dr. Du Garp, one of the Honorary Members of the Society, maintained during a long life of professional practice in the town of Shrewsbury, the reputation of a well-informed and benevolent man. Highly esteeming the active cultivators of science, he wel- comed them to his home, and threw open to them without reserve the stores of his local knowledge. He bestowed continual attention to all the geological discoveries in that neighbourhood, and made collections both of minerals and organic remains, which he pre- sented to the Natural History Society recently established in Shrews- bury, among which are some remarkable minerals from the ridges of Caer Caradoc, and from the mining tract on the western flank of the Stiper Stones. I am assured by Mr. Murchison that the geological and topo- graphical knowledge of ,Dr. Du Gard were of considerable use to him in his, investigation of the Silurian System near Shrewsbury, and that its value was much raised by the very friendly manner in which it, was invariably communicated., Gn this point, indeed, I can myself speak with grateful recollections, for .in the first geological tour which I ever made ( 1810), I was indebted to him for valuable information, and for minerals from Caer Caradoc, which he pre- sented through me to the Oxford. Museum. Dr. Du Gard made analyses of several springs of mineral water, near the junction of in- trusive rocks with the older sedimentary deposits. Of two of these, Prolimoor near Wentnor and Admaston near the Wrekin, he pub- lished printed notices. Rosert Fercusson, Esq., of Raith, F.R.S. L. & E. & H.S., M.P. for the Kirkaldy district of Burghs, and Lord Lieutenant for the county of Fife, was elected into our Society in February 1809, soon after its formation on the 13th of November, 1807. In 1810 he was made one of the Trustees of the Society, and placed on. the list of our Vice-Presidents, in which office he remained during the 524 _ four years following. He was on all occasions a most liberal con- tributor to the wants of the Society. He assisted also in providing for the publication of Count Bournon’s work on Crystallography, and was a firm friend and supporter of that distinguished mineralogist, of whose aid he availed himself in forming one of the finest mineral collections of that time. When, in the infancy of our establishment, an attempt was made to withdraw from the Geological Society all those members who were Fellows of the Royal Scciety, Mr. Fergusson steadily adhered to that line of conduct which our then President, Mr. Greenough, recommended, and which proved successful. He was an active member of our Council, and took great interest in all our proceed- ings, and was a frequent contributor also to our collection of minerals and Library; besides many other books, we are indebted to him for a complete series of the Journal de Physique, the numbers of which were transmitted at his cost as soon as published. Mr. Fergusson was generous and amiable in disposition, courteous in manners, an ardent lover of truth, tolerant and charitable to- wards those from whom he differed in opinion ; his hospitable man- sion at Raith was ever open to the cultivators of science; the dis- ciples of the school of Playfair found there an especial welcome, Leslie -had a room in his house, and a workshop for himself when- ever he chose to come. With Leslie he visited Cambridge in 1806, in the time of Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke ; mineralogy and the Huttonian theory being at that time the principal scientific ob- jects of his attention. During the peace of 1802 he travelled on the Continent, and visited Constantinople, Greece and Paris, where, and likewise at Constantinople, he met Dr. E. D. Clarke. He never published any scientific memoirs, but was eminent as an enthusiastic patron of science and an encourager of knowledge of every description; mineralogy, geology and the fine arts were his favourite pursuits; he had a sound judgment in matters of geological theory ; and was to the last one of our most steady friends and coadjutors, and among the most frequent attendants at our Meetings. In his death the Geological Society has to deplore the loss of one of its earliest associates, and most zealous and liberal supporters. Mr. Joun Gipson was a native of Yorkshire, engaged in large ehemical works at Stratford-le- Bow in Essex, to whom we are indebted for our first knowledge of the existence of fossil remains of extinct ani- mals in the cave at Kirkdale. Being on a visit to his friends near Helmsley in 1821, his attention was attracted by some bones he found thrown upon the road, together with stones from an oolite quarry adjacent to the church at Kirkdale. He at once perceived that they were not, as the quarry-men supposed, the bones of cattle that had perished by some murrain and been cast into a chasm of the rock, but that they were derived from animals no longer existing — in the country. These bones were in quantity sufficient, not only to supply the cabinets of gentlemen in the neighbourhood, but also to enable Mr. Gibson to bring a collection of them to London, 525 therewith furnishing an extensive cabinet of his own, and distribu- ting liberally his duplicates to several public museums in London, including the British Museum, the Museums of the College of Sur- geons and that of the Geological miele of which Society he im- mediately became a member. Mr. Gibson’s attention being thus awakened to the consideration of organic remains, he soon discovered that, at Stratford-le-Bow, he was living in a land once inhabited by pachydermata that were contemporaneous with the ancient inhabitants of the cave of Kirk- dale ; and soon added to his rich osteological collection from York- shire the remains of elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotami, oxen and deer, which abound near Stratford in the brick-earth pits, that are extensively excavated at Ilford. In his death we have to deplore the loss of an acute and zealous discoverer and promoter of Pale- ontology; and it has become the bounden duty of all the cultivaturs of this science, and more particularly of myself, to record our sense of the judicious sagacity and liberality of Mr. Gibson, but for whom the catacombs of Kirkdale might never have been heard of, and their records of our Yorkshire Hyzenopolis might have perished without finding an interpreter. Dr. Larrp. Our ingratitude would be unpardonable, if in re-' viewing the list of our losses during the past year, we omitted to pay our tribute of acknowledgement to one, who though personally known to but few of our present Members, has laid a deep obliga- tion upon every individual among us by the services he rendered at the first formation of the Geological Society in 1807, as the colleague of Mr. Horner in the laborious functions of our secretariat. We are well aware of the labour and difficulties of the unobtrusive, but most important duties which devolve on this department in all pub- lic establishments; and that an efficient-secretary is always among the greatest benefactors, and usually the mainspring of the move- ments of infant societies. During the three first years of the exist- ence of the Geological Society of London, we find the name of Dr. Laird associated with that of Mr. Horner in the unwearied and zealous discharge of the laborious functions which the establish- ment of a new Society, under circumstances of formidable opposi- tion from high quarters, inevitably entailed upon the public-spirited individuals who were thus efficient in laying the foundation of that prosperous and useful career in which for more than thirty years we have proceeded. Dr. Laird was the intimate friend of Dr. Babington, with whom he passed much of his time, assisting him in his correspondence, and occasionally aiding him in his profession. In Dr. Babington’s house were held the first meetings of the individuals who, having come together chiefly for the purpose of mutual improvement in his favour- ite science, Mineralogy, soon transferred their attention to the more comprehensive master-science of Geology. Geology at this time had made comparatively little progress in England, and as the services of a pupil of Werner, Dr. Berger of Geneva, were then available, Dr. Laird was very instrumental, together with Dr. Ba- 526 bington, in making the necessary arrangements and pecuniary sub- scriptions to engage Dr. Berger to travel, first in Devonshire and Cornwall, and subsequently in the Isle of Man and north of Ireland, and to prepare the geological accounts of these districts, which appear in the three first volumes of our Transactions, forming curi- ous and instructive documents as to the state of geological know- ledge in England thirty years ago. Dr. Laird never published any paper, either scientific or medical, nor contributed to our Proceed- | ings; but we owe to him the judicious selection of our motto from the ovum Organum, which still stands on the first page of, every volume of our Transactions. Having served three years he retired from the office of Secretary to devote himself to the practice of his profession, and not long after, being in the prime of life, was seized with a paralytic stroke, which obliged him to pass the remainder of his days in close retirement. Dr. Laird was an excellent mineralogist, possessed considerable talents, extensive information in his profession, and a most cheerful disposition, and was greatly esteemed and beloved by his brethren ; and although for many years cut off from any active intercourse with our proceedings, has left his name enrolled high on the list of our first and essential benefactors. Mr. Rospert F. Seavey M.R.A.S., and lately in the East India Company’s Civil Service at St. Helena, was a member of a family long established in that island; he is known in geology as the au- thor of a work, published in 1834 by Ackermann, on the Geognosy of the Island of St. Helena, illustrated in a series of views, plans and sections, accompanied with explanatory remarks and observa- tions. He was also the constructor of a beautiful and, elaborate large plaster model of the island of St.. Helena, now in the Hast India Company's Military College at Addiscombe, founded .on sur- veys and observations made by himself during a period of fourteen years. In an instructive series of coarse but very effective litho- graphic plates, which form the chief material of his volume on St. Helena, he has so graphically represented the peculiar, conditions of the different varieties of igneous rocks which chiefly. compose this island, that an eye experienced in the various appearances of beds and dykes of lava and basalt, at once feels conscious of the fidelity of the portraits he has given of the different modifications of the ver- tically columnar stracture of the horizontal strata, and of the hori- zontally columnar structure of the dykes represented in his views of many portions of this island. Some of these plates express the fantastic shapes and castellated forms of residuary insulated frag- ments, both of dykes and columnar strata, which are familiar to us in the voleanie rocks of Puy en Velay, and in the Vivarais and Valence. St. Helena is bounded on all sides by inaccessible pre- cipices, of which many extensive views are given in the engravings. Besides the numerous varieties of scorie, lava, and basalt, of which the island is mainly composed, he states it to abound, especially in the southern quarter, with hills of stratified limestone devoid of shells: whilst in three or four parts of the island there occur ma- 527 @B rine shells of a single species now unknown upon the present coast, accumulated in large quantities at various heights above the level of the sea, e.g. on Flagstaff Hill at 1900 feet, not imbedded in stratified limestone, but lodged upon projecting flats on the sides of the hills, and in one instance on an extensive plain. In a large amphitheatre near Prosperous Bay Hill, at the base of perpendicular precipices nearly 1000 feet high, and now frequented by birds, they find, buried at various depths in the detritus of tor- rents, innumerable skeletons of other birds, now unknown in the island, e. g. the Phaéton ethereus and. Diomedea exulans. This bone- bed extends a mile in length, and from-1 to 350 yards in breadth, and is from 10 to 90 feet deep. Similar remains are found also at the base of another hil! called Sugar-loaf Hill. In the southern quarter of the island the limestone hills give ori- gin to inexhaustible springs of the purest water. In the whole island, he notices. the occurrence of 245 springs; whilst in the barren island of Ascension, which is composed entirely of volcanic rocks, he says there is but one diminutive stream of fresh water, and he attributes the superior fertility of St. Helena to the abundant presence of limestone and calcareous substances. In 1830, Mr. Seale arranged and prepared a printed catalogue of a large collection of the minerals, rocks, shells, and miscellaneous articles in the Deadwood Cabinet at St. Helena, which shows him to have possessed considerable knowledge in mineralogy and con- chology. Sir JEFFERY WYATVILLE, R.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S., born Au- gust 1766, was the son of Mr. Joseph Wyatt, an architect of consider- able ability at Burton-on-Trent, and received his professional edu- cation under his uncles, Mr. Samuel Wyatt, a man of great. skill and knowledge, and the more celebrated Mr. James Wyatt, who was for some time Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Works, and President of the Royal Academy*. In the year 1799 Mr. Jeffery Wyatt had obtained such knowledge and skill in his profession, and attracted such public notice by the drawings he exhibited at Somerset House, that he received com- missions from many persons of distinction, and began the world “ on his own account.” From this time his reputation increased rapidly, and in comparatively a few years he was engaged in more works for the principal nobility than generally falls to the lot of the most highly favoured architects ; his talent as an artist at the same time gained him the honour of being chosen an Associate of the Royal Academy. He was employed by the late Marquess of Bath in considerable _ works at the ancient Elizabethan palace of Longleat, the improve- ments of which he executed with such judgment, that it laid the * From the age of 12 to 17 his ruling passicn was to enter the navy, and twice he ran away from home and school, under the influence of a strong desire of going to sea, which had been excited by reading Sir Walter - Raleigh’s History of the World. He had a narrow escape from joining the Royal George, shortly before she went down at Spithead. 528 * foundation of his architectural success, as well as secured the respect and friendship of its noble possessor. He was also employed pro- fessionally at Chatsworth, Woburn, Ashridge, Wollaton, Bretby, Gopsal, Belton, Lilleshall, Golden Grove, and more than 100 of - the principal mansions in 35 out of the 40 English counties, and 4 of the 12 Welsh counties. But the work which henceforth will be inseparably connected with his name, in which his genius had the greatest scope, and from his successful accomplishment of which ~ he has received the admiration and approbation of the nation, is the restoration of the ancient royal palace of Windsor Castle to the style of its founder, Edward III. No sooner had he begun this great national work in 1824, than the Royal Academy granted him the full honours of an Academician, and on the day of laying the first stone of these restorations, his royal patron, King George IV., conferred on him authority to change his name to Wyattville. This honour, marking the commencement of these great works, was but a foretaste of that entire confidence and approbation with which His Majesty distinguished him, and which received their public acknowledgement in the first act the King performed on returning to inhabit the Castle, namely, on December 9th, 1828, conferring on him the honour of knighthood. Thus publicly distinguished by the approbation of George IV., Sir J. Wyattville went on with these restorations during the remain- der of this king’s reign, and through that of King William IV., whose condescending friendship and full confidence he also en- joyed. Her Majesty Queen Adelaide also introduced him to her brother, the reigning Duke of Saxe Meiningen, for whom he made many designs, and from whom he received the Grand Cross of the Ernestine Order of Saxe Meiningen. Honoured and adorned with these trophies of his art, he brought his works to their completion in the reign of her present Majesty, who granted to him for life the use of the Winchester Tower, as a residence in Windsor Castle, an honour he had first re- ceived from King George IV., and again from his late Majesty. He terminated his career in iantien on the 18th of February, 1840, aged 74, and was buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. As an architect, his most remarkable quality was judgment, a perfect knowledge of the purposes of his art, and great command of the resources by which they may be accomplished. He possessed great taste, more especially in Gothic architecture, and had a .- refined perception of the picturesque. During the last ten years of his life, Sir Jeffery Wyattville spent much of his time in preparing for publication a series of plans and views, illustrative of the present state of Windsor Castle. They were nearly completed at the time of his death, and are now in progress of publication by his son-in-law and his executors: two numbers, with twenty-eight engravings, have been published; the remaining number, accompanied by an archeological essay, will shortly appear. He was a man of honour and honesty, and extraordinary talent in 529 his profession. A memoir of his life has been printed by Mr. John Britton, with a print from a picture by Sir T. Lawrence, 1834. NicHoLas AYLMER Vicors, Hsq., M.A., Honorary D.C.L., F.R.S., M.R.I.A., F.S.A., F.L.S., F.H.S., F.G.S., M.R.L, M.P., &c., was in 1803 admitted a Gentleman Commoner of Trinity College, Ox- ford, in which his son is now a graduate; but before the expira- tion of sufficient time for taking a degree, he became an officer in the Guards, and served with the army in Spain. Returning to Oxford, he took his first degree of B.A. in 1817, and M.A. in 1818, and in 1832 was created an Honorary D.C.L. The department of science to which Mr. Vigors particularly devoted himself was Ornithology; but although not much versed in the researches of positive Geology, he duly appreciated the value of our science in its relation to Zoology, as supplying a large contingent to the whole amount of the animal kingdom; fully feeling how imperfect every view of Zoology must necessarily be that takes no account of that large extinct portion of the several classes of animals, of which our only knowledge must be derived from Paleontology. In 1825 Mr. Vigors was one of the most efficient fellow-labourers with Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir H. Davy, in laying the founda- tion of the Zoological Society of London, a Society which has now its agents and correspondents in every quarter of the world ; and by his zealous and active co-operation with the first members of this Society, in the office of secretary during its earliest years (from 1826 to 1833), he has been largely instrumental in accelera- ting the recent rapid diffusion of exact knowledge in Zoology throughout the country. At the formation of the museum of the Zoological Society, he presented to it the whole of his valuable collection; an act of liberality which was duly acknowledged by the Society, when, in 1833, he resigned the office of secretary to attend to the duties of his seat in parliament. Before the foundation of the Zoological Society, he was a most active promoter of the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society, established Nov. 29, 1823, on the celebration of the second cente- nary of the birthday of Ray. He was also the first institutor and editor of the Zoological Journal, which continued until the Zoolo- gical Society commenced the publication of its Transactions and Proceedings, when the Zoological Journal ceased, and its supporters - transferred their contributions to the publications of that Society. Mr. Vigors appears to have been the first who applied to Orni- thology the principles of classification advocated by Mr. William S. M‘Leay, in his Hore Entomologice ; and his papers illustrative ef this new method of investigation are published in the Linnean Transactions and the Zoological Journal. His “Observations on the Natural Affinities that connect the Orders and Families of Birds,” were communicated by the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society, and read before that Society in December 1823*. * Linn. Trans., vol. xiv., p. 935. 530 In the beginning of this memoir he recognizes the assistance which has been afforded to Zoology by the sister science of Geology, in adding the remains of a former world to enrich the stores and supply the deficiencies of the present time, increasing the materials of zoology to an extent, which the most sanguine views of its culti- vators could scarcely have anticipated. To the fifteenth volume of the Linnean Transactions he contributed, in conjunction with Dr. Horsfield, a Description of the Australian Birds in the Collection of the Linnean Society, arranging them according to their natural affinities, with general Observations on the Zoology of New Hol- land. His sketches in Ornithology, and observations on the leading affinities of some of the more extensive groups of birds, form a series of instructive and valuable memoirs in the Zoological Journal; in the second volume of which, p. 391, in a memoir on the arrangement of the genera of birds, he published a tabular . sketch, representing a summary of his views of the affinities and analogies of the generic groups he proposes to establish in this family. These masterly essays give evidence of an acute and deli- cate perception of the distinctions of species, combined with power- ful comprehensive views of the relations of genera to each other, and to the families which’combine to make up the entirety of the .animal kingdom. They are also interspersed with a variety of illustrations from ancient authors, which show him to have had considerable taste and extensive knowledge of classic literature. In 1811 he published his “Inquiry into the Nature and Extent of Poetic License,” an ingenious and elaborate work, of which a second ‘edition appeared in 1813. His later works in Natural History appear in the Transactions of the Linnean and saga Societies, and in the Zoological Journal. In Mr, Witrsam Macture we have lost an early and useful ve bourer in the field of geology, to whom we owe the first connected and systematic accounts of the structure of North America reduced to a comparison with that of Europe. He was born at Ayr in 1763, and educated in that town. In 1782 he visited New York, and returning to London became a part- ner in an American mercantile house. He visited France several times between 1782 and 1796, when he went to Virginia and closed his business there as'a merchant. In 1803 he returned to Britain, and was appointed a Commissioner for settling the claims of the United States against France. From Paris, as a centre, he after- wards made scientific tours over a large portion of Kurope. In 1807, returning from Europe, he commenced single-handed the Herculean task of exploring the geology of the United States; and after several years of labour, during which he crossed the Al- leghany Mountains not less than fifty times, he produced a geological map of the whole country, which, though it gives only the Wer- nerian classes of rocks, forms a most valuable outline, and is a monu- ment’ of great industry, perseverance and intelligence*. His first observations on the geology of the United States, ac- * See Hitchcock’s ‘ Elementary Geology,’ 1840, p. 283. 531 companied by the first geological map of that country, were read to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Jan. 20, 1809, and published in the sixth volume of their Transactions, part 1. In these Transactions also (vol. i. New Series) he published a se- cond paper, read May 10, 1817, upen the same subject, with a geologically coloured map and sections, in which his views were improved and ‘corrected by eight years’ additional observations in the United States, and by a geological tour over a great portion of Europe. This admirable paper was reprinted at Philadelphia in 1817, in a separate Svo volume, entitled, ‘“ Observations on the Geology of the - United States of America, with remarks on the effect: produced on the nature and fertility of soils by the decomposition of the different classes of rocks.” On this important subject, of the connexion of geology with agriculture, Mr. Maclure has clearly shown that the fundamental basis of the agricultural resources of every country must rest on the condition which its soil derives from the rocks or strata that have supplied the materials of which it is composed ; and wisely profiting by his suggestions, the different governments of the United States have caused geological surveys to be made of their respective districts; fully aware that not only the agricultural condition. of every country must depend on the nature of its soil; but its future capabilities of: becoming ‘the site of extensive manufactures must also mainly depend on the presence or absence of subterraneous stores of fossil fuel. Mr. Maclure’s publications upon the geology of this most import- ant part of the Western Hemisphere are marked with the finest ap- preciation of the just philosophical principles of geological research, and a spirit of combination and generalization of the largest and boldest character, yet never running wild. His map, which pre- sents the synoptical result of the whole, is unrivalled by anything produced before that time. Adopting the Wernerian arrange- ment, he is far superior to Werner in the philosophical character of his mind; his colours represent primitive, transition, secondary, and what he calls alluvial, which are mostly tertiary, on the east of the Alleghany chain. Under this class he has ineluded the lower cretaceous formations of New Jersey, which he remarks may pro- bably prove to be secondary.’ The great simplicity of the: struec- ture of America, and more extensive continuity of its formations as compared with those of Europe, greatly facilitated his task ;. his map is therefore a very near general approximation to what: would even now be given; his secondary rocks include what would now be called Silurian and Carboniferous, and he notices the absence of the chalk of Europe and of the Jura limestones. Of course he could not enter into the distributions of the Silurian and Carboni- ferous groups; but he observes, that a red sandstone seems the basis of the whole, and this he calls old red. The more exact local description of portions of the Carboniferous and Silurian groups, and the identification of the lower cretaceous deposits of greensand 532 in New Jersey and skirting the Mississippi below the junction of the Ohio, are the principal materials of importance which have subse- quently been added to his spirited and_ masterly original sketch. His introductory remarks show that he was equally well acquainted with the general outline of the geology of Europe. He declines entering on the subject of organic remains, not. as unaware of its importance, but because they “‘ had not yet been ex- amined.” In his preface occur some remarks which may show how unjustly the earlier geologists have been charged with too great in- clination to depart from the ordinary laws of nature : “In all specu- lations on the origin, or agents, which have produced the changes on this globe, we ought,” he says, ‘to keep within the boundaries of the probable effects resulting from the regular operations of the great laws of nature, which our experience or observation have brought within the sphere of our knowledge.” It is remarkable that Mr. Maclure mentions galvanism as an agent which may have co-operated in changing and metallizing rocks: “A galvanic pile,” he says, “ may be formed in the stratifications of a mountain, as - well as in a chemist’s laboratory.” His treatise ends with two chapters on the probable effects of the decomposition of different classes of rocks on the nature and ferti- lity of soils; being an attempt to apply geology to agriculture. He is the father of American, much more than Smith is of English, geology ; and American geology is especially important, because in America and in Russia we have two of the largest classes of forma- tions, the Silurian and Carboniferous, developed at the distance of half an hemisphere. We may, with good cause, congratulate our- selves that this comparison will shortly be consummated by the distinguished author of the ‘ Silurian System,’ whom we have this day elected to be our President for the ensuing year. In 1822 Mr. Maclure published some speculative conjectures on the probable changes that may have taken place in the geology of the Continent of North America east of the Stony Mountains (Sil- liman’s Journal, vol. vi. p. 98), in which he considers that a very extensive lacustrine condition of the upper country prevailed before these waters were discharged by the gorges that give exit to the present great rivers, and observes, that “the large masses of granite, some of them weighing tons, which are scattered over the second- ary strata between Lake Erie and the Ohio, while there is not an atom of granite in place nearer than the north side of the Lake, would seem to point at the only mode by which they could probably be transported—viz. by supposing the Lake extended thus far, and that large pieces of floating ice from the north side might have car- ried those blocks with them, and dropped them as the ice melted in going south; the fact of few or no blocks being found south of the Ohio, shows that the southern sun melted the ice before it got so far. (Silliman’s Journal, 1893, vol. vi. p. 102.) It must be no less gratifying to the family of Mr. Maclure than it is to the great scientific family of the investigators of nature throughout the world, to learn that the Academy of Natural Sci- bes ences of Philadelphia has appointed a member of their body to de- liver a discourse in commemoration of their venerable and respected President and benefactor; to whom, “as the pioneer of American geology, the whole country owes a debt of gratitude, and in his death will acknowledge the loss of one of the most efficient friends of science and the arts ;” and who, “asthe patron of men of science, even more than for his personal researches, deserves the lasting re- gard of mankind*.” Mr. William Maclure died, 23rd March 1840, at San Angel, near the city of Mexico, where, during some years, his declining health had obliged him to seek a more genial climate than the United States, and he has left a large property to the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, of which he was Presidentt. Professor BLUMENBACH died at Gottingen on the 22nd of Ja- nuary 1840, in the 89th year of his age: he was born at Gotha, May 11, 1752, and early imbued with a taste for natural history and me- dicine by his father, a native of Leipsic, who died in 1787, in the office of Pro-rector and Professor in the Gymnasium at Gotha. At the age of 17, a.p. 1769, he began his academical career at Jena by the study of literature under Baldinger, and of natural history and archeology under his relative Professor Walch, and three years after proceeded to Gottingen to complete his studies, where he im- mediately became intimate with Heyne, Professor Bittner, and Mi- chaelis, whose son was then a fellow-student in medicine. The rich collection of voyages and travels to which he had access in the li- brary of Professor Walch, suggestéd to him, as the subject of his exercise for his Degree of Doctor, a dissertation on the native va- rieties of the human race, which became the first germ of his future extensive researches in Anthropology, in which he derives the three great varieties of the human family from a primary stem of the Caucasian race. His first public employment was a gratuitous undertaking to arrange the cabinet of natural history which the University. had purchased from Professor Bittner, which soon brought him favourably to the notice of the minister and curator of the University. In 1775 he was appointed a Private Teacher in Natural History; in the following year an Extraordinary Pro- fessor, and in 1778 an Ordinary Professor of Medicine and Natural History in the University of Gottingen. In 1784 he became a Member of the Royal Society of Géttin- gen; in 1788, a Counsellor; and in 1812, perpetual Secretary of the Class of Physics and Mathematics in the same Society. In 1816 he was appointed a Member of the Superior Council of Medicine, and in 1821, a Commander of the Guelphic Order. His talent as a lecturer, and profound knowledge of medicine, anatomy and na- tural history, soon made Gottingen a centre of attraction to the students of all Germany; nor did this attraction cease during a _ * Silliman’s Journal, vol. xxxix. July 1840, p. 212. + Besides the works above mentioned he published an “ Essay on the Formation of Rocks,”’ and a work in three volumes, entitled ‘‘ Maclure’s Opinions.” VOL. Ill. PART Il. SES 534 brilliant career of more than fifty years. In 1784, his celebrated lecture on the eyes of the White Negro* awakened an intense in- terest throughout the scientific world, and, together with his Inau- gural Essay upon the native varieties of the human race, became the nucleus of his future works on the Natural History of Man. In 1790 appeared the first Decad of his collection of skulls of dif- ferent nations, a subject which continued among the most favourite themes of his study, from its first commencement in his Inaugural Dissertation, to his last essay upon a Macrocephalus in 1833. . On the celebration of the Jubilee of his Doctoriat, Sept. 19th, 1825, the company of the most distinguished naturalists and medi- cal practitioners of Germany then assembled at Gottingen resolved, on the suggestion of Rudolfi, to testify their gratitude for the be- nefits they had individually received from his oral instructions and published works, and to perpetuate the memory of this remarkable assembly, by the foundation of a travelling Fellowship in honour of Blumenbach, and by a medalt, bearing on its obverse three skulls of the European, Ethiopic and Mongolian races. The expressions of piety, gratitude, and affection which are re- corded in the elder Sommering’s celebrated Inaugural Dissertation give utterance to feelings, in which the pupils collected around him during more than half a century have, without exception, partici- pated. He was the great precursor of Cuvier in comparative anatomy, and was the first to demonstrate the value of this science in its re- lation to pathology, and to convince mankind of the truth of the observation of Haller—that physiology has been more illustrated by comparative anatomy than by the dissection of the human body, so that henceforth this subject must become an essential part of medical education. The present is not the fit occasion to enter into a discussion of the unrivalled merits of his lectures on pathology, comparative anatomy, natural history, and physiology; nor to set forth the number and nature of his multifarious publications on these sub- jects, and also on archeology, literature, and the fine arts, which, during a period of sixty years, enriched the Commentaries of the Royal Society of Gottingen, and the medical, literary and philo- sophical periodicals of Germany ; nor does the time permit me to enter on an analysis of his lucid and instructive Manuals, which were soon translated into foreign languages, and became the text- book of teachers of comparative anatomy and physiology through- out Europe; I shall rather call your attention to his acute percep- tion of the value of organic remains in relation to geology, as affording evidence of past changes and revolutions which have af- fected the surface of the globe. In his two celebrated Essays on the Archeology of the Earth, 1801 - * De oculis Leucaethiopum et iridis motu. Soc. R. Gott., v. vii. p. 29— 62. ’ { With the follewing inscription, ‘‘ Nature Interpreti, Ossa Loqui Ju- benti, Physiophili Germanici, 19 Sept. 1825.” : 535 and 1806, he expresses his concurrence with Leibnitz in comparing the petrified remains of organic bodies to the documents which hi- storians discover in medals, inscriptions, and monuments of ancient art ; and regards them as affording no less certain chronological evi- dence of physical changes during the construction of the earth, than we extract from coins and medals respecting events which they re- cord in the history of mankind. He judiciously explains the occasional discovery of human bones and works of art in contact with the relics of extinct species; and views the changes that occur in the fossil remains of the successive strata as true indications of consecutive changes in the past condi- tion of the globe. ** Mundi naturam totius ztas Mutat, et ex alio terram status excipit alter.”’ _ Lucret. The frozen rhinoceros of Pallas, and remains of herds of extinct elephants on the ice-bound shores of Siberia ; the bones of the same extinct species of elephants and of rhinoceros, mixed with those of lions and hyzenas in the caverns of the Hartz, and in the gravel be- neath the very town of Gottingen, led him to infer, as we have now additional reasons for doing, the former existence of a nearly tropical and uniform condition of climate over the now temperate and frigid portions of northern Europe, wherein these animals were formerly indigenous ; and in further evidence of high temperature in these northern latitudes, he appeals to the quantities of fossil amber so abundant in the north of Germany, and to the extinct species of insects which the amber so frequently contains. He had carefully inspected in the Museum of Schaffhausen the fossil remains of Ciningen, and recognized their proximity to the existing flora and fauna of Switzerland ; among these he enume- rates small rodent animals, birds, frogs, numerous aquatic insects, and leaves and blossoms of plants, which more recent discoveries have referred to a freshwater formation of the Meiocene period. He had distinctly recognized the fossil beaks of extinct cuttle- fish in the muschelkalk of the Heimberg, and the septa and siphon of the Orthoceratites of Clausthal; and from the family of Ammo- nites, which he knew to be numerous in species beyond most other fossil shells, he had selected that remarkable example from the Hi- malaya mountains called the Salagram*, specimens of which were subsequently placed in our museum by the great oriental scholar Mr. Henry Colebrook. The Salagram is a hollow cavity or mould bearing the impression of Ammonite, included in concretions of lias from the bed of the Ganges near Patna, which Indian superstition has sanctified as a mystic symbol of the Metamorphosis of Vishnu. (Specimen Archeologiz Telluris, § 10.) He duly appreciated the differences between the remains of the copper-slate, and muschelkalk and transition limestone within the limited vicinity of Gottingen; and further observed the degrees of * This specimen was given to him by the chaplain of a Hanoverian regiment who brought it from India. Zen) Am 536 perfection in the structure of fossil animals, receding gradually inte more and more simple forms of organization, as he traced them backwards from the extinct Mammalia of the caverns to the remains of molluscous and radiated animals in the transition rocks; and though his premises were few, he rightly drew from them conclu- sions, less extensive, but similar to those which forty years of fur- ther observation over large portions of the earth have more fully established, as to the antiquity of the globe. His love for archeology led to his making a collection of antique gems. He had also a collection of engravings by the older masters, and of ancient woodcuts, which he valued as indiees of the progress of science at the time when they were imade. Blumenbach was a wise and good and profoundly learned man ; born with considerable talent, and well educated from his childhood, he passed his whole life in the best literary and scientific society ; and being placed in an influential academical position, he poured forth daily, during more than half a century, from his rich reservoirs of knowledge unceasing streams to instruct and benefit mankind. His biographer Mark (Gottingen, 1840) enumerates more than a hun- dred distinct publications of his on various subjects, among which are some biographical sketches of professors and other distinguished men. He possessed a happy, lively and cheerful disposition; was a man of most punctual and temperate habits, ate always the same moderate quantity of food, and was never intoxicated in his life. He abandoned smoking at 66; at 86 he left off taking snuff; and eould read small print without spectacles at 88. Blumenbach seemed born for the express functions of a Professor: from morn- ing till night, his academic duties were his daily occupation and de- light ; and the works of his leisure hours are a register of the pro- gress of discovery in many branches of natural science during more than half a century in which he flourished. As a lecturer his style was familiar, playful, and not unfrequently jocose, always animated and sometimes eloquent, leaving a clear understanding and deep remembrance of the matter he wished to impress upon his hearers ; he was the personal friend, as well as preceptor, of all his pupils, of whom great multitudes have expressed their gratitude in dedications of their works to the teacher from whom they de- rived the rudiments of their knowledge. In 1791 he visited London, which he named the sixth quarter of the world, and was honourably received by Sir Joseph Banks and the Royal Society, where he assisted at the opening of six mummies, respecting which he published a paper in the Philosophical Trans- actions ; he was also honoured with a command to visit King George the Third at Windsor. In 1803 he accompanied the King of Bavaria on a tour to the Hartz and Magdeburg. In 1806 he went to Paris on diplomatic business connected with the University of Gottingen, and was introduced by Lacépéde to the Emperor Napoleon. At the celebration of the centenary jubilee of the University of Gét- tingen, in 1825, the King of Hanover forgot not to visit the house of his old preceptor, which, in 1786, he had so often frequented as: 537 a student together with his two royal brothers, the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Kent. In Professor Blumenbach: the world has sustained a loss of one of those men of extraordinary genius whose talents are destined to exert a large influence on the knowledge and opinions of the age in which they live, and to advance permanently the progress of those sciences to which they have devoted their attention. M. J. M. Brocuant DE Vittiers, Member of the Institute of France, Inspector-General of Mines, and Professor of Geology at the Royal School of Mines in France, and Foreign Member of the Royal‘and Geological Societies of London, was the heir of an an- cient family, the members of which had held magisterial office and seats in the parliament of Paris. In early life he had applied him- self to the study of the law, but the events of the Revolution having changed his destination, he became a student at the Ecole Poly- technique, and in 1794 was the first pupil admitted to the Ecole des Mines, upon its remodelled establishment, of which he after- wards became one of the most distinguished ornaments. In 1800, at the age of 22, he was appointed Hingineur en Piéd, and pub- lished the first volume of his ‘ Treatise on Mineralogy, in which he set forth an analysis of the principles of the-Wernerian system, which had given so much celebrity to the school of Freyburg and were then but little known in France; and this work led to his ap- pointment as successor to the Abbé Hauy in the office of Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the Heole des Mines, at that time transferred to Pesay in Savoy. From this favourable position he made frequent excursions with his pupils into the adjacent regions of the Alps, and gathered materials for his classic descriptions of a portion of these mountains, till then considered as primitiye, show- ing them to appertain to more recent formations, which he referred to the Wernerian transition system, and which subsequent observa- tions have proved to belong in part to the secondary series. _ On these excursions, he shared with his pupils the frugal repast of the chalet and the bed of straw, admitting them to the most un- reserved and instructive communication with him. In 1814, when Pesay was restored to the king of Sardinia, and the School of Mines again transferred to Paris, he returned with it, and continued to lecture on mineralogy and geology, each course occupying a year. In 1823 he was charged with the great national work of super- intending the construction of a geological map of France by two of his pupils, M. Dufrénoy and M. Elie de Beaumont, which he lived to see brought almost to the very point of publication. The follow- ing year he visited England, accompanied by M. Dutrenoy and M. Elie de Beaumont; and on this occasion he was fortunate in finding at home, in their respective districts, many of the most active geologists of this country, to whom it was a subject of gratification that they were permitted to conduct these distinguished visitors over many of the most instructive scenes of their special investiga- ‘ 538 ‘tion, wherein are found some of the most interesting sections and most important features in English geology. In 1824 he became Divisionary Inspector. and Member of the Council of Mines: in the duties of this department his judgment and experience were of essential value to the public service; he in- troduced new and beneficial regulations for the general administra- tion of the mines ; he was also the cause of great improvements in the manufacture of glass at St. Gobin, being one of the most active directors of that celebrated establishment. In 1833, M. Brochant assisted M. Elie de Beaumont and M. Du- frénoy in procuring an order from the government for the prepara- tion of geological maps of the Departments, on a larger scale and with fuller details than the great geological map of France, now nearly completed*. His health had for a long time suffered, and his death was accelerated by excessive zeal in the discharge of his many public duties, which prompted him continually to exert him- self beyond his strength, and terminated the career of his useful life at the age of 67, having long enjoyed the dignity of an Officer of the Legion of Honour, and Member of the Institute of France; he has carried with him to the grave the love and veneration of all. He was a man of remarkable integrity and kindness of heart ; he hada taste for literature and poetry ; wasaskilful, well-informed and judicious engineer; and performed with zeal the duties of a Pro- fessor for more than thirty years. At his death he was one of the oldest Members of the Council of Mines. He has left behind him fruits of his solid and useful labours, that will long be of service to his country. Some years before his death, M. Brochant’s health no longer per- mitting him to lecture, he appointed his pupils, MM. Elie de Beau- mont and Dufrénoy, to perform his duties; the former in the geolo- gical, the Jatter in the mineralogical portion of his lectures: these gentlemen have since been confirmed in their office as permanent lecturers. At his burial on the 19th May 1840, funeral discourses were pronounced by M. Migneron, Inspector-General of Mines, and by his early friend and colleague, M. Alexandre Brongniart. M. Puitipre-Louts Vourtz, Inspector-General of Mines, and Member of the Council of the Geological Society of France, was, like the immortal Cuvier, a native of Alsace, and for many years held an appointment in the direction of the mines of that province; which about, two years before his death he quitted for a higher station in the Bureau des Mines, that required his residence at Paris, where he died, March 29, 1840. 5 Besides the usual accomplishments of his profession, he possessed a very accurate and extensive knowledge of organic remains, of which he has left proofs, in many valuable and ingenious monographs published in the ‘Mémoires de la Société d’Histoire Naturelle de '* A considerable number of these are already completed, and deposited in the Mining Archives at Pavis. 539 Strasbourg,’ and in his labours to enrich and organize the museum of the capital of his beloved native province. In this museum it was the delight-and glory of his life, and a continual gratification of his patriotic feelings, to devote, gratuitously, a large proportion of his time and talents to the setting in order one of the most perfect, and most methodically arranged collections of organic remains, espe- cially those of the oolitic and new red sandstone or Triassic* series, that exists upon the Continent. In acknowledgement of his services to fossil botany in illus- trating the flora of the new red sandstone formation, M. Adolphe Brongniart has dedicated to him the genus Voltzia, being one of the most characteristic forms of Conifers in that formation, and abound- ing in the Grés Bigarré at Sultz les Bains, on the east side of the Vosges near Strasburg. f In the Ist vol. of the ‘Mém. de la Soc. d’Histoire Nat. de Stras- bourg,’ he published a valuable memoir descriptive of the character and contents of the new red sandstone at Sultz les Bains. He was also the author of some good technical papers connected with his pro- fession, published in the ‘ Annales des Mines.’ His observations on Belemnites, published in the ‘ Memoirs of the Society of Strasbourg,’ and separately as a monograph in quarto, at Paris, 1830, is a mas- terpiece of exact demonstrative description and accurate reasoning upon the structure and relations of these internal shells of extinct Molluses allied to the modern cuttle-fish; not less beautiful and exact are his representations and reasoning as to the elopeltis, or dorsal lamina of Belemnites, published in the Strasbourg Memoirs. In 1836 he published a very ingenious memoir on the curious fossil shells long known by the name of Trigonellites and Tellinites pro- blematicus, and recently called Aptychus, showing them to be the opercula of Ammonites. In the Solenhofen quarries he has recog- nized nine kinds of these shells, and altogether twenty-five species of them, which he reduces to three groupst. He shows the internal structure in each group of Aptychus to differ from that of every known shell, and to resemble that of opercula. He does not, how- ever, infer that all the genera of Aimmonites possessed opercula. I know not any more beautiful example of inductive reasoning and sound logical conclusions than those which pervade the argument pursued in M. Voltz’s memoir on these problematic Tellinites, which have so long perplexed all preceding observers}. All these works show M. Voltz to have been a Paleeontologist of the first order, possessing great powers of exact observation, with a mind capable of pursuing processes of refined and difficult analysis, and acute to discover analogies, and draw sound and logical conclu- sions from the oftentimes difficult and complex premises before him. * See Alberti’s Monographie des bunten Sandsteins, &c. 1834. + Cornei, Imbricati, Cellulosi, ‘Journal de |’Institut,’ 1 sec., Nos. 190, 196, 202, referable to three families of Ammonites. t In 1829, M. Riippell had shown that one of the forms of Aptychus from Solenhofen was the operculum of a Planulite. 540 ‘His name will endure, embalmed in his works among the many precious contributions which our day has added to the illustrations of the history of extinct organic beings that formed the ancient population of our globe. GENTLEMEN, I have now arrived at the close of my official functions in this Chair, the duties of which have been to me, during the last two years, a continual source of unmingled satisfaction. I have wit- nessed with delight the unanimity and energy which mark the course _ of your proceedings, and tend still further to exalt the high position as a science to which Geology is now advanced. It would indeed be painful to me, could I feel that, in quitting the Chair; in which your kindness has for the second time required my services, my con- nexion with this Society would in any way be loosened, or my ex- ertions to promote its interests in the least degree abated. And in resigning my office to my friend and fellow-labourer in your ser- vice, Mr. Murchison, I know I consign it to him who yields to none of us in zeal for the welfare of this establishment, and whose more than European reputation, as the author of the ‘ Silurian System,’ will reflect honour upon yourselves, who have this day placed him in the distinguished office of President of the Geological Society of London. INDEX TO THE COMMUNICATIONS READ DURING THE SESSION - 1840—1841. Aeassiz, Prof. On Glaciers, and the evidence of their having once existed in Scotland, Ireland and England ...............0. Sd duaopdacconngaceces00r ALEXANDER, Capt. On the Annual Destruction of Land at Easton Bavent Cliff...... ANNUAL REPORT, Feb. 19th, 1841 ..ccc...ccseseccccsccccccccecsoeererces Austin, THomas, Esq. Observations relative to the elevation of Land on the Shores of Waterford Haven during the Human Period, and on the Geo- logical Structure of the District ..........c.sscscecessssccececsveccecences Baitzy, Tuomas, Esq. On the Gravel Deposits in the Neighbourhood of Basford ...... BowERBANK, JamEs S. Esq. On Moss Agates and other Sieenns BOGS precede deerlesceasesests BuckLanp, Rev. Prof. On the Evidence of SUS in Scotland and the North of En- Plans: Wurst: Part = trterciowtariataretaer-retoaterrateteltatelsateeleisislegle aciele otc wateientebletate est cles SCGOMNG! TEEVAE spococaacsnodsocscadspocooooooCLDGSDocNUECodocbuOLeecUSUsceH oC Address on presenting the: Wollaston Medal awarded to M. Adolphe? Bromeniart! SRvQI 28. UDA Gees oda besdnd. Ja scltebene ds ewes: On the Agency of Land Snails in corroding and making deep excavations in compact Limestone Rocks ........0...escevercoenceeenes Anniversary Address, Feb. 19th, 1841 ...s.......scecesereeesceerers Burr, Frepericsn, Esq. On the Geology of Aden ie. 22. Qijiecactvcs det seaser eee RAMOGTIOR, CuarKeE, Rev. W. B. On the Geological Phenomena in the vicinity of Cape Town, Soubherm> AGricak? Uso foswsckos.cdveseeids see teitesacldeaens ee ceelclot isle sbilelstertstets Craie, J. Esq. On the Boulder Deposits near Glasgow....... os odpabounsbadastcbsced Darwin, C. Esq. On the Distribution ofthe Erratic Boulders, and on the contem- poraneous unstratified Deposits of South America .........:.see008. De Verneuit, M. E., and Murcuison, R. I. Esq. On the Geological Structure of the Northern and Central Region of Russia in Europe .....sc.ccsceceeeeeee sh SEP Renee ncie batten uiceltaa alae Ecerton, Sir P. Bart. M.P. A Notice on the Occurrence of Triassic Fishes in British Strata Henwoop, W. J. Esq. A Brief Note to accompany a Series of Spee eas from Lock- leit, ween INTER) Gaeeneebsdoocsodoaden cocococupeTOsURPCored incsdeedeentees Notes to accompany a Series of Specimens from Chaleur Bay and the River Ristigouche, in New Brunswick ....-.ssssseeeceeeeecees VOL. III. PART Il. ZY Page 327 445 367 360 411 431 332 345 384 430 469 355 418 415 425 398 409 542 INDEX. Page Hopkins, W. Esq. On the Geological Structure of the Wealden District, and of the Bas Boulonnais..............0 eb ndadesooddbenadbeaG Raleelctaisle nee chigeometesetaan 363 LanpssporovueH, Rey. D. Description of a Newer Pliocene Deposit at Stevenston, and of Post Tertiary Deposits at Stevenston and Largs .........csseeseseees 444 Lists oF FOSSILS PRESENTED TO THE MUSEUM... ecos-seceees 436, 444, 467 LyELL, C. Esq. ; On the Geological Evidence of the former Existence of Glaciers ATA OTLATSINITS shes wicis sais ub a ciscaceistats orotate tlorele Seta ors oiele araie ore ateiateleietere Te eieta eee ces 337 On the Freshwater Fossil Fishes of Mundesley, as determined lO EOS JASEISEIIZ choogneeguaSondabbo sens osUsoOnanFonandcoc Soskasdessooe onc 362 Onithealunsvot the Mores Soci sec ettaeclsaniceetr else steclee tenet eaeite 437. Some Remarks on the Silurian Strata between Aymestry and Weenloclt} si sez) sensei aiaeoaee « cchdd- -koeataks panaes base geieen a eenea sae aee wee 463 Notes on the Silurian Strata in the Neighbourhood of Christiana, iM) INIGTRA NE aadneos -ronodobooccacanrjacrosecc igo ssonsccasscccoeencn-ss- Sebeiddeck 465 MactaucHuian, H. Esq. Notes to accompany some Fossils collected by himself and Mr. Still during their Employment on the Ordnance Survey in Pem- [OIK0) SSIS ccoboricgdac occa deus ebneecenuot bunOLudaArobadsansccotodasecudes A o 448 Martin, P. J. Esq. - On the relative Connexion of the Eastern and Western Chalk ID Yerrine eyeorNSs5qscqcnooaoncudonoodsedaesd ce mid acieuiedaicine ate bonsen cere eee 349 Murcuison, R. I. Esq. A Note on a Section and a List of Fossils from the State of New York, by James Hall, Esq.....c0ci.ccscesscssecceenecsees spose de ea bee det 416 Murcuison, R. I. Esq. and Dr VERNEUIL, M. E. On the Geological Structure of the Northern and Central Re- BionS Of Russia 1N HULOpe.....scccsccorceeerecccecesssessacsessccresssoeass 398 NorpDENSKIOLD, Prof. On Furrowed Rocksin Finland:.........c..ccscncseosstscesvcesssevncss 410 Nortices respecting Defaulters and their Removal from the Lists of the DOGEbY, cates. aruinw. dese toasebis~ eho tpisdais ogseeiab « «iam aaa 425, 430, 437 Owen, Prof. On the Teeth of Species of the Genus Labyrinthodon, from the German Keuper and the Sandstone of Warwick and Leamington.. 357 Description of Parts of the Skeleton and Teeth of five Species of the Genus Labyrinthodon, from the New Red Sandstone of Coton End and Cubbington Quarries, with Remarks on the probable Identity of the Cheirotherium with that Genus of extinct Batra- CHAI sie sie amisiateteaisic sibs bree aise ec eiaiwreiats Sarebovotaie ie ice eietaiein aus ie etaiotaieles wise e micros 389 Description of some Remains of a Gigantic Crocodilian Saurian, probably marine, from the Lower Greensand at Hythe, and of Teeth from the same Formation, referable to the Genus Polypti- CHOON. ....0c0ceeee000cbee tuts ova slelid snes cep nae rasiaseteececensbiierseesuaraen nena 449 Description of a portion of the Skeleton of the Cetiosaurus, a gigantic extinct Saurian Reptile, occurring in the Oolitic Forma- tion of different portions of England...........-...- Seseiisiact sep/saiienesield _ 457 Smiru, Jamzs, Esq. On the Geology of the Island of Madeira....... Seuebdemcenemesnetecd 351 On the Age of the tertiary Beds of the Tagus, with a Catalogue Of the, Fossils). csuscesscmessessssceevenses » a Perbsials ara eureiyeis weitiome sige tap eSnie oa 462 Sopwith, T. Esq. Ou the Illustration of Geological Phenomena by means of Models ....cecseseccres seSasiecea csinhh ewe aoe epics ot esiasbiavieiefuiniee curves HOBOHOND a! INDEX. SpectaL GENERAL MEETING. Notice of a Resolution passed to extend the Session beyond one evening of Meeting in June.............+- earalereGismigeietesniame eine si eiotas STRICKLAND, H. E. Esq. Description of Cuttings across the Ridge of the Bromsgrove ILIA pongnonaboe ont npc ESE a PEO EERO H ORAL OSU CR SOGC SCI OrcEC AGS Ha neeaa arias MC ABE THompson, Mr. An Account of a Boring for Water at the Union Workhouse, Longfleet, near Poole...... SEC aa kr eee eM AEHOA RRB Ae HN SEAR AAMGSEGHSBON Trimmer, Josuva, Esq. On the Locality and Geological Position of Cucull@a decussata... Wottaston MEDAL. : Address of Dr. Buckland on presenting to the Foreign Secretary the Medal to be forwarded to M. Adolphe Brongniart............... Mr. De la Beche’s Reply............ opnasGngcabsnooonasacocooedeensccans Wrieut, J. R. Esq. Notice of a Description of a Model of Arthur’s Seat and King’s Bates cave ses s6cgoonas SPORE RAE NORGE AL SpooeRbedeudeda Gagatsossiaeaceceueet teen CORRIGENDA. Page 314, line 31, for Hadnor read Hadsor. 315, — 27, after Bredon dele Hill. — 315, — 8 from bottom, for Sessional read Sectional. ~ — $16, — 13, for 387 read 587. — 316, — 34, for trichorhinus read tichorhinus. — 431, — 3 from bottom, for John read James. — 436, — 12, for Herefordshire read Hertfordshire. 543 Page eye. is Sots in eas PATRON, Bay. 7. Aiden yet E Bievamee ita pie pare ey vreb teeta An it : Cee cnancibhy goin ot te dois. 11 gat Pa Obs. Si. Fieta Me oi fees ie ROR. sek pel I me ang om i = BE a dep ca Svelperh¥c dd troy nekes fee ees hes pate nod cath palates ie ge te See N a, Ek. jd hein ox emew sa ina to nee aries Me 4 Seer ates Chet arate a any ie Crdp ates ee eee shige Ba AS ’ ‘ Move digi Ri ae pata Pabst ene pehoelt ah 3 sarge veries brig ng eee ¥2 Swe; Et Ae ©. i oe a bite - : Aas Ga ees Od odd Lan? Noaail aah Ue Danes pt aA. PARP toes EYES Fie a ake Pee Ae vile. ba Chit Cavities? Bintan of tHe Pacer sey Mageisoey id Rima. Sey Ela! on ptaranddarainb anit Psebek neces ies; Protin: Cen iat Paine ey he, ; pests 7 BRA on bath @e Dyes, a ie andar het a JSR re ay ae: Oat 48 epee : pve ese sonnel bese we ads enti el axidhebra nok boar sede is of the haat cot therais ae that Graye.t = one Pies ion ‘td SORE Hemoaerk! TPeouphks amaxsce:,. kom “the” Lares Granade beth iy ipan: she Ronis iFe palace Hedeyables to tin ME sien eee CR ee eee «Sys taeda Rise cptan e nie Se gpiganai atte Cour ass D . atl ant iateted ales af Pine imtiah srg ashing J Aw ES, ins ean ue ca a. toe: risen ee feat RA tind Satine AL ts Bae ertinty Mae Th ale PRES eg, thy Th: ete Bicdes eit Leena | whine PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. TI. Parril. 1841—1842. No. 82. Nov. 3.—Joseph Martin, Esq., of Swansea, was elected a Fellow. A memoir, entitled “ Supplement to a ‘ Synopsis of the English Series of Stratified Rocks inferior to the Old Red Sandstone,’ with Additional Remarks on the Relations of the Carboniferous Series and Old Red Sandstone of the British Isles,’” by the Rev. Adam Sedg- wick, F.G.S.,Woodwardian Professor in the University of Cambridge, was begun. Nov. 17.—Charles Nicholson, M.D., of Sydney, New South Wales, was elected a Fellow. Professor Sedgwick’s paper, commenced at the preceding meeting was concluded. The author states that his former synopsis* is now modified ; Ist, by the new classification of the stratified rocks of Devon and Corn- wall (Devonian system) ; 2ndly, by a larger knowledge of fossils de- rived from some of the groups described ; 3rdly, by new observations made during the past summer in the south of: Ireland, the south- western parts of Scotland, and in the north of England. New Rep Sanpstone.—1. Hxgland.—It is shown, by sections de- rived from Warwickshire, that the upper part of the new red sandstone is sometimes unconformable to the lower part, which represents the magnesian limestone and lowest division of the new red sandstene sroup. Itis also shown that the coal-measures pass into the overlying new red sandstone series through the intervention of bands of red marl alternating with two bands Of". freshwater limestone, the whole beds of passage being loaded with common coal-plants. The author then discusses the sections near Whitehaven. They show no passage from the lower new red sandstone (rotheliegende) to the coal-mea- sures; but they show that the flora of the cval-field existed appa- rently in full perfection during the period of the lower new red sand- stone: of this flora he has obtained many new specimens. He states that the additional facts lend support to the suggestion thrown out by Mr. Murchison and himself respecting the age of the coal-field on the flanks of the Hartz. 2. Scotland.—The new red sandstone of Dumfries-shire is continu- ous with that of the plains of Carlisle, and is seen overlying the coal- measures from the valley of the Esk, near Canobie, to the neighbour- - * Vol. ii. p. 675. \ VOL. III. PART II. 22 546 hood of Dumfries. Near the latter place it is in mineral structure the same with the red sandstone of Corncockle-moor, and, at both places, the red flags contain impressions of footsteps. The author therefore asserts that the red sandstone near Loch Maben (visited by Mr. Murchison and himself in 1827) was rightly placed in the new red group. The lower divisions of the new red sandstone series do not appear to range into this part of Scotland. To the north of the Galloway chain (the great southern grey wacke chain of Scotland), the new red series almost dies away, and is seen in very few parts of Scotland. The author found no traces of it between Girvan and the mouth of the Clyde. _ Coupling this fact with the great development of red sandstones in many parts of the true carboniferous series of Seotland, he concludes that the highest stratified beds of Arran do not represent the new red sandstone, but {more probably) a portion of the carboniferous group. ‘To the upper: conglomerates of Arran there is however no counterpart in England ; and the exact place of the red beds which overlie them is still left in some doubt ; but these upper conglomerates may perhaps be compared with some great trappean conglomerates which are subordinate to the Scotch coal-fields. CaRBONIFEROUS sERIES.—The author briefly notices the changes in this series during its range from the northern counties of England into the basin of the Tweed, where a coal-field occurs developed after the Scotch type, and far below the great coal-field of Newcastle. He then discusses shortly the carboniferous deposits of Scotland, which are divided as follows, in descending order :— 1. The rich coal deposits with numerous beds of coal; in their subordinate beds of shale, ironstone, fire-clay, and fossils, presenting the closest analogies to the great English coal-fields. Their exact place in a general scale cannot however be determined, as they offer no passages, like those above noticed, into any higher formation. 2. A great group with many thin bands of carboniferous limestone, alternating with sandstone and shale; and generally with well-defined thick beds of limestone at the top of the group, so as to form the base of the most productive coal-fields. This group also contains beds of coal, but generally of inferior quality. The alternating sandstones are not unusually of a red colour. 3. Beds of red sandstone, shale, &c.—They undergo many modifica- tions of structure and colour, and are in some places of great thick- ness. In some of their higher portions they contain coal-plants, and even thin bands of coal; but they pass downwards by grada- tions the most insensible, and blend themselves with the old red sandstone. Examples of such passages are found on the north side of St. Abb’s Head, on the north shores of the Solway Firth, and on the coast of Ayrshire. The Dumfries-shire carboniferous groups are developed after the Scotch type above described; which is the more remarkable, as the groups on the south side of the Firth conform to the English type. Near Whitehaven there is no passage from the carboniferous lime- 047 stone to the old red sandstone; and the thickest beds of limestone are at the bottom, and not (as in Scotland) at the ¢op of the calca- reous series. The author then notices the geological map of Scotland, and states that Dr. M‘Culloch has not merely introduced much con- fusion by givmg the mountain limestone series and the old red sandstone a common Colour; but that he has committed a great error in principle, by confounding, along a considerable part of the country bordering on the north shores of the Solway Firth, the new with the old red ‘Sandstone: Op Rep Sanpstonr.—The author, after briefly noticing the ex- traordinary irregularity in the development of this formation in the British Isles, compares the old red conglomerates of Cumberland with those on both sides of the Galloway chain. In these localities they often form unconnected masses resting on the edges of the greywacke; but in Galloway they are not only more largely de- veloped than in the north of England, but show, as above stated, many passages into the overlying carboniferous groups. Ireland.—He then briefly notices the sections which, in the south of Ireland, connect the old red sandstone with the overlying car- boniferous deposits, and form a good passage from one formation to the other. The sequence is complete, and there is nothing to mark any interruption of the deposits. He adopts Mr. Griffith’s classifi- cation, as most agreeable to the physical character of the groups and to their suites of fossils. . In the south of Ireland the lower carboniferous shales (of Mr. Griffith) pass into the state of roofing-slates with a transverse clea- vage, resembling the black slates at the base of the culm measures of Devonshire. ‘The great coal-field in the west of the island overlies the mountain limestone; but it puts on the form of the culm mea- sures of Devon, and was formerly considered as a great transition group. These facts appear to remove a difficulty in classification which was presented by the mineral structure of the Devon culm series. The author, by way of conclusion, affirms that the Scotch and Irish sections enable us to show that no new formations can be i in- terpolated between the old red sandstone and carboniferous series, inasmuch as the sequence is complete. In like manner, the sections in the Silurian country show that no member is wanting between. the old red sandstone and the Ludlow rock. Hence he concludes . that, from the lower divisions of the new red sandstone down to the. Llandeilo flagstone, there is one continuous unbroken sequence in which no term is wanting. Hence also the argument for the true place of the Devonian system is complete. For any formation, with fossils intermediate between the carboniferous and Silurian systems, must have an intermediate position,—must therefore be on the par- allel of some part of the old red sandstone, which fills that whole intermediate position. But allowing the above sequence to be com- plete, there may still be great difficulties in fixing the lines of de- 222 548 marcation by which it is to be finally subdivided. For example, the lower carboniferous limestone, and the carboniferous slates of Ire- land, appear to overlap and descend below the base line of the car- boniferous series of England: and the same remark appears to be applicable to the lowest beds of the carboniferous series of Seotland. And there are similar difficulties in determining the best base line for the old red sandstone, as appears from sufsequent details. Sections of North Wales, &¢.—The author next discusses two sections illustrating the structure of North Wales. One is drawn from the Menai Straits, in a direction about E.S.E., so as to cross the Berwyn chain and end in the carboniferous series near Oswestry. The other is drawn from the Berwyn chain to the carboniferous limestone range on the north side of Denbighshire. Fhe greater portion of the first section crosses the older beds (the Cambrian system) which strike towards the N.E. The other section intersects the upper series (Silurian system) which strike towards the N.W., passing (in some places unconformably) round the beds of the older system. From a consideration of the whole evidenee the rocks are grouped in the ascending order, as follows :— 1. Chlorite slate, quartz rock, and mica slate of Anglesea and Caernarvonshire. These are placed at the base of the section: and form a distinct class ; and nothing is discovered in this part of the section which is perfectly analogous with the Skiddaw slate, or first Cumbrian group, to be after deseribed. 2. The old slate series of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire, alternating indefinitely with bands of porphyry and felspar rock : the group is of enormous but unknown thickness, and is bent into great undulations, the anticlinal and synclimal lines of which are parallel to the strike of the chain. Through wide tracts of country it is without fossils ; but at Moel Hebog, Snowdon, and Ghder Fawr, ' encrinites, corals, and a few species of bivalves have been discovered in it. It ends with the calcareous beds which range from Bala ta the neighbourhood of Dinas Mowddy. This is ealled the Lower Cambrian group. 3. The next group (the Upper Cambrian group) commences niet the fossiliferous beds of Bala, includes all the higher portion of the Berwyns, and all the slate rocks of South Wales which are below the Silurian system. Its slate beds are less crystalline, and its general structure is more mechanical, than the preceding group, and it contains incomparably more fossils, which (though there are many extensive portions of the group without fossils) are disseminated through the more calcareous beds m great abundance. Many of the fossils are identical in species with those of the lowest divisions of the Silurian system, nor have any true positive epelaereal characters of the group been well ascertained. In many parts of South Wales it is separated oa the Silurian system by great faults and derangements of the strata, marked by a broad band of rotten non-fossiliferous schist. At the north end of the Berwyn chain it appears to pass by insensible gradations 549 into the lower division of the ppc system (the Caradoc sand- sell . The last natural group (the (Shileketon system). For all details coaleanes this system the author refers to the abstracts of Mr. Mur- chison’s papers, and to his published works. The author then describes a series of sections :— (1.) East of the Berwyns, in which the Caradoc sandstone is finely developed; containing the Llandeilo flagstone and other cha- racteristic calcareous and shelly bands. (2.) The sections north of the Berwyns, connecting Montgo- meryshire with Denbighshire. The ascending series derived from these sections is described as follows :— (1.) A series of beds several thousand feet in thickness, and’at the north end of the Berwyns apparently forming a passage between the Upper Cambrian and lowest portion of the Silurian system. (2.) Bands of calcareous slate with numerous organic remains of the ‘‘ Caradoc sandstone,’ surmounted by roofing slate. (8.) Series of flagstones, more or less calcareous, with many Or- thoceratites and two species of Cardiola, &c.; overlaid by, and associated with, irregular masses of roofing slate with a trans- verse cleavage. (4.) Flagstones and rotten slates, many parts m an imperfect state of induration, and the whole surmeunted by the carboniferous limestone.—Of the preceding section the lower part of No. 3 is identical with the series of Long Mountain in the Silurian sections of Mr. Murchison; but No. 4 is mineralegically un- like anything he has described, although it has been found by Mr. Bowman to contain, in its highest portion, some of the fossils of the Upper Ludiow rock. It appears from these details that the Silurian system, although its subdivisions are obscure from the absence of the Wenlock and Ludlow limestones, is very fully developed in North Wales. An examination of the few Snowdonian fossils of the author gives the following results :— (1.) Impressions of corals (Turbinolopsis ?) (Cwm Idwal and Moel Hebog). (2.) Stems of Encrinites (Cwm Idwal). (3.) Orthis pecten, O. Actonia, O. flabellulum, O. canalis ( Snow- don and Moel Hebog). He has many fossils from different parts of the Berwyn chain; and he believes them (as stated in a former abstract) to be nearly all known Silurian species, but they have not yet been carefully examined. He possesses also a good series of fossils from the eastern side of the Berwyns, and from portions of the more northern sec- tions; but as the whole series is unequivocally Silurian (extending from the Llandeilo flagstone to the Upper Ludlow rocks), he has not thought it at present necessary to trouble the Society with any enumeration of species. From a review of these facts he concludes, that in the great-sec- 900 tion of North Wales there is no positive zoological distinction in the successive descending groups, however vast in thickness or di- stinct in mineral structure. It is not by the addition of new species, but by the gradual disappearance of the species in the higher groups, that the successive groups are zoologically characterized. Below the Caradoc sandstone there seems to have been very few new types of creation, as far at least as we have learnt from any positive facts in the country here described. This conclusion is nearly in accord- ance with a statement made by the author in a former paper, viz. “The difficulty of classification by organic remains increases as we descend, and is at length insurmountable ; for in the lowest stratified groups, independently of metamorphic structure, all traces of fossils gradually vanish; and the great range of certain species through numerous successive groups, and the very irregular distri- bution of fossils even in some of the more fossiliferous divisions, add greatly to the difficulties of establishing true definite groups even within the limits of our island. The difficulties are indefinitely in- creased in comparing the formations of remote contments. But these circumstances are compensated by the magnificent scale of development cf the successive groups, and their wide geographical distribution. Taken together, they have a great unity of character ; and even in remote continents they seem to form a common base, from which we may hope to compute the whole series of secondary and tertiary deposits that surmount them.” Cumbrian groups, exhibited, in ascending order, in a section from Keswick through Kendal to Kirkby Lonsdale :— 1. The group of Skiddaw Forest, &c., the lower part of which ests on the granite, and passes into a system of crystalline strata resembling the rocks of the first class in North Wales; the upper part abounds in a fine dark glossy clay slate, interrupted here and there by beds of more mechanical structure. The whole is of great thickness, almost without calcareous matter, and without any trace — of organic remains, and forms the mineral axis of the Cumbrian - mountains. 2. A group essentially composed of quartzose and chloritic roof- ing slates alternating with mechanical beds of coarser structure, and also with innumerable igneous rocks (compact felspar, felspar porphyry, brecciated porphyries, &c. &c.) which partake of all the accidents of the slates. It is of enormous thickness, and rises into the highest mountains of the country; and though chiefly developed anythe, south) side. of the preceding group (No. 1), it also appears extensively on the north side of the lower group, which thus forms a mineral axis—a fact not yet noticed in any of the published geo- logical maps. ‘Though abounding in calcareous matter, it has no organic remains. ‘This group is bounded by calcareous slates, which extend from the south end of Cumberland to the neighbourhood of Shap Wells, and have been described by the author in a former paper. (See Transactions uf Geclogical Society.) 3. The next group extends from the calcareous slates. (above 351 noticed) to the carbeniferous rocks, &c. which surround and cut off the older series*. The highest part of the ascending section is shown on a line which descends to the Lune near Kirkby Lonsdale. The other sections are much less perfect. —The whole group is sepa- rated, provisionally, into two divisions. The Lower division commences with the calcareous slates above mentionedt. The beds over the caleareous bands are composed of slates and flagstones, hard bands occasionally passing into thick, hard, arenaceous beds of greywacke, &c. It is supposed to end a little to the north of Kendal ; but its upper limit is not defined, and there are no distinct calcareous bands to assist in connecting it with, or sepa- rating it from, the upper division. ‘The fossils derived from the lower portion of this division are Lower Silurian. Among the fossils in the possession of the author, which have as yet been very imperfectly examined, Mr. Lonsdale has found among the corals Catenipora, Porites, Favosites, Ptilodictya, all of known Lower Silurian species, and one or two new species. Among the shells are three species of Leptena and five species of Orthis, all of described Caradoe sandstone species; in addition to which there are one or two new species of Orthis. With the above are also found Airypa affinis and A. aspera; also Terebratula bipartita. With the above occur many specimens of Tentaculites annulatus ; also several Trilobites, among which are Asaphus Powisii, Isotelus Bar- yiensis, and a new Paradoxite, &c. All the above fossils are found in the calcareous slates. The Upper division is composed of arenaceous flagstone, with im- perfect slaty bands, and with beds of hard greywacke. It is gene- rally of a grey, bluish-grey, or greenish-grey colour, rarely of a red- dish colour. It has some calcareous portions, but no beds of lime- stone fit for use; and, near Kirkby Lonsdale, ends with red fossilife- vous and flaggy beds containing concretionary limestone, which are overlaid unconformably by the marls and conglomerates of the old red sandstone. The fossils of the above group (which is of great thickness, though partially repeated by undulations) are of one type. * In a geological map lately presented by the author (which professes only to be a copy of a map made by himself nearly twenty years since), he represents all the beds above the calcareous slates of one colour. He does this, because he is unable to fix the demarcations of the several divi- sions of the whole group. As he considered the whole to represent the Silurian system he wished to represent the surface by three colours; but he found it impossible, even approximately, to represent their boundaries. And even with a simpler system of two divisions, he is unable, at present, to define correctly their line of demarcation; nearly all the middle portions of the sections being devoid of fossils. t+ When a former abstract was published, the author placed these beds on the parallel of the Bala limestone, over which the slates of the Ber- wyns and all the Devonian slates were provisionally arranged; but since the removal of the Devonian system to a place superior to the Silurian, the sections present no real ambiguity. The calcareous slates above described are true Lower Silurian, and not a part of any sub-Silurian group that is represented by the older recks of South Wales. 552 Several species are new, e. g. two or more species of Pterinza, &c. : but the great majority of speeimens, whether from the hills south of Kendal, or from Kirkby Moor, are Upper Silurian; or in the beds Mr. Murchison places at the base of the old red sandstone (tile- stone). Le following list is made out by Mr. Sowerby from what the author considers a very imperfect collection :— _ Terebratula nucula. _ Trochus helicites. Orthis lunata. | Turbo Williamsii. — - Leptena lata. Very abundant. | Natica. Spirifera interlineata. Turritella obsoleta. ) Very Cypricardia cymbiformis. | crn. | abun- Avicula rectangularis. conica. dant. — retroflexa. | Orthoceras trochleare. Cucullea antiqua. | Calymene Blumenbachii. Bellerophon trilobatus. From the above lists we obtain this definite information, that the lower division is Lower Silurian, and that the upper division ends at the very top of the Silurian system, and includes beds which have been classed with the old red sandstone—an arrangement which is natural in South Wales, but is not sanctioned by the Westmoreland sections. The want of-good mineral or fossil groups to distinguish the mid- dle portion of the section, makes the real difficulty of representing the divisions on a map. The author then briefly noticed two other sections ; one from the Shap granite, through the fossiliferous slates, &c., to Howgill Fells. These, in their range southwards through Middleton Fells, &e., are placed in the upper division, though not im the highest part of it, which is described above. ‘They contain very few fossils, but those which have been found are of the Upper Silurian system. Lastly, the author briefly mentioned the phenomena of another ascending transverse section from the western end of the calcareous slates, as follows :— (1.) Calcareous slates (Caradoc) of Millum in Cumberland. (2.) Quartzose flagstone, coarse pyritous shale and slate, &c. (3.) Roofing slates of Kirkby Jreleth. (4.) Second band of calcareous slates, also with Lower Silurian fossils... (5.) Upper series of flags and roofing-slate extending to the neigh- -bourhood of Ulverston ; and in turn overlaid by coarser beds, which, however, in a section continued to Morecambe Bay, did not show any of the upper fossil bands. © Ireland and South of Scotland.—'The author then shortly notices some sections in the counties of Waterford and Kerry (to which he was conducted by Mr. Grifth). They exhibit a fine sequence of true Lower Silurian rocks, but do not show their relations (at least in any section seen by the author) to the older non-fossiliferous slates 553 of the south of Ireland. Hence, though excellent examples of a group of upper ‘fossiliferous slates, they do not offer any help as to the number and order of the natural groups into which the great in- fra-carboniferous series may be conveniently divided. He then points out that the grouping of the older strata in the south of Ireland, now given by Mr. Griffith, is not only sanctioned by the sections, but gets rid of a great supposed anomaly,—-viz. the re-appearance of the carboniferous fossils at different levels on a general descending: sec- tion of the older rocks of Ireland. The author then briefly notices the fossils in the true Silurian rocks in the north of Ireland, in progress of publication by Captain Port- lock. They form an admirable series, but the sections do not appear to connect the group of rocks containing them with the older forma- tions, so as to lend much help in their subdivisions or grouping. Mourne mountains, Galloway chain, &e.—After a few details re- specting the mineral structure, strike, altered rocks, granite veins, &c., of Downshire, the author proceeds to notice the Galloway chain (which extends from the Mull of Galloway to St. Abb’s Head). Its prevailing strike, like that of the Mourne mountains, is about N.E. by E.; and this is sometimes persistent, even in the neighbourhood of protruded masses of granite. It is generally made up of beds of a hard arenaceous greywacke, sometimes of a very coarse structure, sometimes finer, and occasionally passing into a good roofing slate, —generally it is without fossils; but the Graptolites foliaceus (first noticed by Mr. Carrick Moore) occurs, though rarely, among the finer slates. In these respects the chain is analogous to that in Pembrokeshire, where the same fossil occurs in the slates below the Lower Silurian rocks of Mr. Murchison. He then notices a ridge of rocks visited by Mr. Carrick Moore and himself, which breaks out from under the carboniferous basin of Girvan-water in Ayrshire. It contains many fossils, among which Mr. Sowerby finds three or four new species of Orthis, Tentaculites, Atrypa, and one or two species of Terebratula. Near it, and probably forming a part of it, is a small mass of limestone, with many corals and some Trilobites, the latter unfortunately lost by the author. Mr. Lonsdale states that the corals are difficult’ and obscure, but there is a true Favosites fibrosa, probably also a Favosites spongites ; and there are, among the specimens, several small hemispherical corals which may be young Stromatopora concentrica. From this evidence he would be inclined to refer the limestone to an Upper Silurian or Devonian group. From the number of Orthidia, Mr. Sowerby would refer the fossiliferous slates to the Lower Silurian ; but the whole mass, including slates and limestone, is of small extent, and seems to form but one group, which may be considered as Silurian. ‘ ‘To show the position of these beds, the saghon gives a transverse section from the Solway Firth over the Galloway chain to the fossil group above mentioned. The groups on the section appear in the following order, beginning at the south end :—1. Old red sandstone. ‘2. Greywacke of the Galloway chain. 3. Granite. 4. Greywacke 554 of the Galloway chain on the north side of the axis. 5. Unconform- able masses of old red sandstone. 6. Coal-basin of Girvan-water. 7. Fossiliferous slates and limestone rising from under the coal series. Conclusion.—It appears, from the preceding synopsis, that there is a continuous and apparently uninterrupted sequence of deposits from the lower beds of the new red sandstone formation to the low- est known strata of England; that beds of masses of limestone ap- pear here and there in the descending series ; and (with the excep- tion of the mountain limestone) that they are neither so continuous nor so fixed in their place as to offer any good bases for the general classification of the groups; that the divisions into which the de- scending series may be separated often pass into one another, so as to make their demarcations doubtful or arbitrary; and that, in the lower divisions, organic remains gradually disappear. The great divisions of the descending series hitherto ascertained are as fol- lows :— 1. Carboniferous.—Passing in some places at its upper limits into the lower new red sandstone. 2. Old red sandstone.-—Passing in its upper limits (Scotland and Ireland) into the first division, and including the slate rocks, &c., of Devon and a part of Cornwall. 3. Silurian.—Passing in its upper groups into the old red sandstone. All the country described by Mr. Murchison as superior to the Llan- deilo flags, separated into three groups—upper, middle, and lower. East of Berwyn chain, lower group. North of the Berwyn chain (Denbighshire), upper, middle, and lower groups; but with a new mineral type, and without any upper bands of limestone. West- moreland : upper group largely developed, and including fossils of the tilestone ; middle group without limestone bands or fossils ; lower group with many characteristic fossils. Horton and Ingleton, mid- dle and upper groups. Ireland (Waterford and Kerry), lower group. Scotland (Ayrshire), Silurian group, but not defined. 4. Sub-Silurian, or Upper Cambrian.—The old rocks of South Wales below the preceding division ; containing Graptolites, but no well- defined calcareous band, and very few fossils. A part of the Berwyn chain based on the Bala limestone. The upper part of the roofing slates, &c., of Cumberland, immediately under the Caradoc limestone (of Coniston, &c.). Slates of Charnwood Forest? Slates of the Mourne mountains, of the Galloway chain, &c. 5. Lower Cambrian.—The great slate group of North Wales be- low the Bala limestone. The old roofing slates of Cumberland. 6. Lower Cumbrian, or Skiddaw slate-—Slates of Skiddaw Forest, lower part metamorphic. Provisionally arranged in this place, the chlorite slates, &c., of Anglesea and Caernarvonshire. A letter addressed to Dr. Fitton, by Mr. Lyell, and dated Boston the 15th of October, 1841, was then read. Mr. Lyell’s attention, between the period of his arrival in the United States and the date of his letter, had been principally devoted 555 to the grand succession of Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous strata in the state of New York and on the borders of Pennsylvania, having been accompanied during a portion of his tour by the States’ Geologist, Mr. J. Hall; but he had also visited, in company with that gentleman, the Falls of Niagara and the adjacent district, and he states, that he purposes to communicate a paper on the phenomena of the recession, drawn from new arguments, founded on the position of a fluviatile deposit below the Cataract. He expresses his intention of also communicating a notice of five localities of Mastodon bones which he had visited, digging up some remains himself, and collecting the accompanying shells, which he says, seem to have been neglected. He had likewise examined, accompanied by Prof. Silliman and his son, the new red, with intrusive trap, in Connecticut; and, assisted by Mr. Conrad, he had collected fossils in every member of the cretaceous system in New Jersey*. The principal object, however, of the present communication is, to point out the extension to the United States of Mr. Logan’s generalizations on the beds of fire-clay containing Stig- maria, formerly laid before the Society in a paper on the coal-field of South Wales. Mr. Lyell had met Mr. Logan at New York, pre- viously to that gentleman’s visit to the anthracite coal-field of Penn- sylvania, and he adverts to the delight which Mr. Logan must have felt in witnessing the occurrence of beds of Stigmaria fire-clay to an extent far exceeding what could have been expected. On the con- fines of the states of New York and Pennsylvania, Mr. Lyell found remains of Holoptychius and other fishes in the old red sandstone, and at the bottom of the overlying coal series a thick quartzose conglomerate ; and he says that the coal-measures, with their im- bedded plants, bear an exact analogy to British coal-measures, both in detail and. as a whole. In investigating the coal district of Bloss- berg, Mr. Lyell had for a guide Dr. Saynisch, president of the mines. The first point which they examined presented three seams of bitu- minous coal resting on fire-clay containing Stigmariz, with the leaves attached to the stems, and extending in all directions through the clay; and they observed, in a gallery lighted on purpose, that the stems seen im situ were very nearly all parallel to the planes of stra- tification, only one being in an oblique position. Every stratum underlying a coal-seam examined by Mr. Lyell, presented the same phenomena, except one, and in that case the bed was so sandy that it could not be considered as a fire-clay. The thickness of these Stigmaria deposits varied from one foot to six feet. The roof of the Blossberg coal-seams consists usually of bituminous slates, but occa- sionally of very micaceous grit, and it contaims great varieties of _* Mr. Lyell mentions incidentally having observed between Easton and Trenton, on the Delaware, and in 40° of north latitude, that all the trees were barked on one side, at the height of twenty-two feet above the present level of the river, owing to a freshet and stoppage by ice in the spring of 1841. The stuccoed parts of the houses were also strangely scraped; and in one place the canal, the towing-path of which is twenty-two feet above the river, was so filled with gravel that carriages did not cross by the bridges. 556 ferns, as well as other plants, agreeing, generically at least, with those common in the British coal-measures. Mr. Lyell next examined the anthracitic coal-district at Pottsville, on the Schuylkill, in the southern part of the Alleghanies. ‘This district had been examined and described, as well as modelled, by Mr. R. C. Taylor, and the model had been inspected by Mr. Lyell previously to his visit. The whole of Pennsylvania has been mapped by Prof. H. D. Rogers, by direction of the State Legislature. Mr. Lyell refers to this survey, and he states that, by consulting Prof. Rogers’s map, it will be found that the Alleghanies, or more properly the Appalachians, which, viewed geologically, are 120 miles broad, consist of twelve or more great parallel ridges, or anticlinal and syn- clinal flexures, having a general north-north-east and south-south- west strike, but in Pennsylvania a nearly east and west strike prevails. The strata are most tilted on the southern border of the chain, where their position is often inverted, and the folds become less and less towards the central ridges and troughs, which again increase in breadth the more northward their position, till at last-the beds are almost horizontal. The oldest formations also are chiefly exposed in the most southern or disturbed regions, where syenite and other plutonic rocks are intruded into the lower part of the Silurian series. It has long been observed, that the anthracitic coal is confined to the southern or Atlantic side of this assemblage of small parallel chains, and that the bituminous occurs in the more inland or less disturbed region; the conclusion, therefore, Mr. Lyell states, seems inevitable, that the change in the condition of the coal was a concomitant of the folding and upheaval of the rocks. The conversion, moreover, is most complete where the beds have been most disturbed; and there are tracts in Pennsylvania and Virginia, near the centre of the chain, where the coal is in a semi-bituminous state. Chemical analysis, likewise, has shown that a eradation from the most bituminous to the most anthracitic coal may be found in crossing the chain from north tosouth*. The associated shales, &c., of the disturbed regions exhibit no alterations. It has also been supposed that the anthracite belonged to the trans- ition, and the bituminous coal to the secondary period; but this be- lief, Mr. Lyell says, has been gradually abandoned, as the knowledge of the geological position and the fossil plants of the coal-districts have become better known. Both the anthracitic and the bituminous coal overlie the old red sandstone, and contain the same ferns, Si- gillarie, Stigmariz, Asterophyllites, &c.; and they are as abundant and perfect in the anthracite as in the bituminous coal. At the first point where Mr. Lyell, accompanied by Prof. Rogers, examined the Pottsville coal-measures, the strata are nearly vertical, being cut off by a great fault from the less inclined beds which form the northern prolongation of the measures. They present thirteen beds of anthracite, the lowest of which alternate with * See papers by Prof. H. D. Rogers, Dr. Silliman, &c. 3 557° the uppermost strata of the coarse underlying conglomerate. ‘The southern wall of an excavation from which the coal had been re- moved, and which wall occupied the place of the underclay, pre- sented impressions of the stems and leaves of Stigmaria; and on the more solid and slaty beds of the opposite wall, or original roof, there were leaves of Pecopteris, reed-like impressions, and Calamites. In the slightly inclined northern continuation of the coal-measures, Mr. Lyell observed in the Peachmount vein, three miles north-east of Pottsville, a bed of anthracite eight feet thick, overlaid by the usual roof of grey grit, and underlaid by blue clay or shale with Stigmariz. Impressions of ferns were likewise noticed in the coal itself. Only one instance was met with in the Pottsville coal-district, _by Mr. Lyell and Prof. Rogers, of a Stigmaria, placed at right angles to the plane of stratification. The Pottsville, or southern anthracitic coal-field of Pennsylvania was illustrated by a section resulting from the former labours of Prof. Rogers, under whose guidance Mr. Lyell examined the coun- try. ‘The following’ remarks may explain the general structure of the country ; the names applied to the formations are not, however, those previously employed by the American geologists, but those suggested by Mr. Lyell, in conformity with the conclusions at which he arrived after his tour in New York, and a comparison of the strata of that state with their British equivalents. ‘The contrast between the relative importance of most of the Silurian and Devonian groups in Pennsylvania and in New York, Mr. Lyell states, is very great, arising from a larger portion of sandstones and grits in the Pennsylvanian rocks. The section extends from north of Pottsville to the country ranging immediately south of Orwigsburg. To the south of the vertical coal-measures and the subjacent conglomerate there are displayed successively—tIst, a vast series, composed of red shales 3000 feet thick, of grey sandstone 2400 feet thick, and of red sand- stone 6000 feet thick, the whole being considered by Mr. Lyell as portions of the old red sandstone ; and 2nd, of olive-coloured shale containing Devonian fossils. The dip of the strata is either nearly vertical or inverted. Still further south, and a short distance north of Orwigsburg, the olive-coloured shales are succeeded by very highly inclined or inverted beds of upper Silurian rocks flanking a protruded band of lower Silurian strata; and lastly, on the southern confines of the section is a trough of the Devonian olive-coloured shales resting on the upper Silurian strata. Beautiful exhibitions of the underclay with its associated plant, and of the overlying roof with its distinct remains, were observed by Mr. Lyell and Prof. Rogers at Tamaqua, in the southern coal-field. The thinning out of the grits and conglomerates of the west causes the beds of anthracite to be brought more nearly together in this district; and Mr. Lyell says, the decrease in the thickness of the in- tervening strata prepares the observer for the union of several of the seams still farther east, and for the enormous thickness of the anthra- cite at various places near the village of Mauch Chunk, or Bear Mount, particularly at the well-known Lehigh-Summit Mines. At 558 this pomt a mass of anthracite forty feet thick, deducting three in- tercalated fire-clays and a fine thin vein of impure coal, is quarried in open day, a covering of forty feet of sandstone being entirely re- moved. In the south mine, where there is a sharp anticlinal fold in the coal, the Stigmaria-clay, four feet thick, was well seen, with nearly forty feet of coal above it and four below. In the Great mine Mr. Lyell observed the following section :— Top, yellow quartzose grit. Coal, two or three inches of the uppermost part of the bed being in the state of dust, as if they had been crushed or rubbed by the yellow quartzose grit...... 5 feet. Ble firesclayy, wath: tle Marice ae ees) scam asm eden 15 inches. Coal, including two or three seams of an impure slaty DIESE TERE Ge cer ey ge ee eee eee a tte Hee hint 25 feet. Blue fire-clay with Stigmariz............... Silda 2 feet. Coal, with an intervening layer of hard, bituminous slate 8 feet. . The anthracite, as in other parts of these coal-measures, often exhibits a texture exactly like that of charcoal; and frequently im- pressions of striated leaves, exactly resembling, as pointed out by Prof. Rogers, those of liliaceous plants, particularly the iris. Mr. Lyell, accompanied by Prof. Rogers, afterwards examined the Room Run mines, on the Nesquahoning, where he saw a splendid exhibition of Stigmariz in a bottom clay, one stem, about three inches in diameter, being no less than thirty-five feet m length. In the roof of slaty sandstone were impressions of Pecopteris, Glos- sopteris, and other ferns. At Beaver Meadow, or the middle coal-field, a bed of anthracite is overlaid as well as underlaid by Stigmaria blue clay ; the upper fire- clay, however, soon thins out, and is replaced by sandstone. No coal rested upon it, but Mr. Lyell observes that the carpeting of coal may not be always large enough to cover the flooring of fire-clay, or some change of circumstances or denudation may have interfered with the usual mode of deposition. Upon the whole, Mr. Lyell says, the accumulation of mud and Stigmariz was, in Pennsyl- vania as in South Wales, the invariable forerunner of the circum- stances attending the production of the coal-seams. The two ex- treme points at which he observed the Stigmaria-clay, Blossberg and Pottsville, are about 120 miles apart in a straight line, and the ana- logy of all the phenomena at those places, and still more on both sides of the Atlantic, is, he says, truly astonishing. In conclusion, Mr. Lyell states, that he had just received a letter from Mr. Logan, announcing the existence of the bottom clay, with Stigmariz, in Nova Scotia; and that Mr. Logan had visited Mauch Chunk. 599 Among the Donations to the Museum announced at the Meetings held during November were the following :— Silurian Fossils*, presented by Dr. Fitton, F.G.S.:— Upper Ludlow Rock. Petraia. ? (from Mr. Davis). Favosites fibrosa. Gomey quarry, near Presteign. alveolaris. Near Aymestry. Gothlandica. Mortimer’s Cross, near Shobden hill. Graptolithes. Evenjob hill, near Presteign. Encrinital stems. Serpulites longissimus. Cypricardia undata. Atrypa affinis. Terebratula pulchra. navicula. Orbicula rugata. Leptena lata. Orthis orbicularis. Spirorbis Lewisii. Pleurotomaria? Corallii. Natica parva. Orthoceras Ibex. — bullatum. Specimen of the ‘‘ Fish-bed.” Aymestry Limestone. Pentamerus Knightii. Orthis Euomphalus carinatus. Lower Ludlow Rock. Ptilodictya lanceolata. Graptoiithes. Leptena euglypha. — depressa. Pleurotomaria Lloydii? Orthoceras virgatum. ——_-_—— fibrosum. pyriforme. Lituites gigantea. Wenlock Limestone. Cyathophyllum turbinatum. Cystiphyllum Siluriense. Acervularia Baltica. Astreea ananas. Catenipora escharoides. Porites pyriformis. Llan Stephen. Near Aymestry. . Gomey quarry, near Presteign. Llan Stephen quarry. Tre-ricket ; quarry below Llan Ste- phen church; near Mortimer’s Cross, road to Shobden hill. Near Shelderton. ? (Mr. Davis). Near Mortimer’s Cross, road to Shob- den; Llan Stephen church quarry. Near Mortimer’s Cross, road to Shob- der hill. Stansbatch, Herefordshire. Llan Stephen church quarry. Near Presteign. Mocktree hill, Herefordshire. Stansbatch. Ludford, near Ludlow. Mocktree hill, Herefordshire. Leintwardine. 9 Aymestry quarry. ? Old quarry, top of hill near Aymestry. Ibid Tre-ricket, right bank of Wye. Mocktree hill. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Wenlock. Dudley. Wenlock. Dudley. Wenlock. Dudley. * The species given in this list, and in those containing Silurian fossils presented by Mr. Weaver and Mr. Gray, (pp. 560, 561.) are figured in Mr. Murchison’s work on the Silurian System. 560 Wenlock Limestone. Favosites alveolaris. Wenlock; Wenlock Edge. — Gothlandica. Wenlock Edge. ———- polymorpha? Dudley. Stromatopora concentrica. Wenlock. Aulopora tubzeformis. Dudley. —? consimilis. ibid. Millepora repens. Ibid. Limaria fruticosa. Ibid. clathrata. Ibid. Fenestella prisca. Ibid. Calymene Downingiz. Ibid. —— tuberculata? Ibid. Asaphus caudatus. Ibid. Cypricardia? Ibid. Terebratula crispa? Ibid. Atrypa galeata. Ibid. - aspera. Ibid. affinis. Ibid. tenuistriata. Ibid. Spirifera striata. Ibid. Leptzena euglypha. Ibid. — depressa. Ibid. Wenlock. Euomphalus rugosus. Wenlock Shale. Graptolithes Ludensis. Calymene concinna ? Burrington, near Ludlow. Bed of the Onny above wooden bridge, next to Stretford bridge. Burrington; Nash Scar wood. Bed of the Onny above Stretford bridge. Asaphus longicaudatus. Trinucleus Caractaci. Caradoc Sandstone. Petraia ? Corton turnpike, Presteign ; Nash Scar. Graptolithes foliaceus? Avicula orbicularis? Atrypa hemispherica. Pentamerus obiongus. Orthis grandis. Soudley quarries. Horderley quarry. Corton turnpike, Presteign. Nash woed ; Folly wood, Nash Scar. Quarries north-east of Hope Bowdler. Horderley ; bank of Onny, Cheney Bellerophon bilobatus. Longville. Llandeilo Flags. ~ Asaphus Buchii. Right bank of Wye. Silurian Fossils presented by Thomas Weaver, Esq., F.G.S. ; from the neighbourhood of Tortworth, Gloucestershire :— Upper Ludlow Rock. Orbicula rugata. Lower Ludlow Rock. Pleurotomaria Lloydii? Pyrton Passage. Pyrton Passage. Wenlock Limestone. Paradoxides quadrimucronatus. Skeay’s quarry. Cypricardia i Ibid. Wenlock Limestone. Leptena depressa. Evomphalus funatus. Cornulites serpularius. Caradoc Sandstone. Petraia 2 Favosites. Ptilodictya lanceolata. Calymene? punctata. Atrypa lens. Leptzena tenuistriata ? Orthis alternata. callactis. Littorina striatella. Turbo? Prycez. Pleurotomaria angulata. Lloydii. Turritella cancellata. Orthoceras conicum. Actinoceras ? Tentaculites annulatus. Bellerophon dilatatus ? 561 Falfield. Ibid. Whitefield. Long’s quarry, Charfield Green. Cullimore’s quarry. Long’s quarry. Ibid. Avening Green. Woodford Green. Long’s quarry, Charfield Green. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Pyrton Passage. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Casts of Fossils from the Wenlock Limestone ; presented by Mr. John Gray of Dudley :— Hypanthocrinites decorus. Cyathocrinites rugosus. pyriformis. capillaris. — tuberculatus. Marsupiocrinites czelatus. Bumastus Barriensis. Asaphus caudatus. Homalonotus delphinocephalus. Dudley. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Thid. Ibid. Barr, near Wallsall. Dudley. Ibid. - From the Carboniferous Limestone of Ireland; presented by Captain Jones, R.N., M.P., F.G.S. For a description of the Fish palates see Agassiz’s ‘ Poissons Fossiles.’ Chztetes 2 Psammodus porosus. —— rugosus. Petalodus Hastingsiz. Cochliodus oblongus. Helodus mammillaris. 3 o oO oa) Palatal Castle Espie,.county Down. l County Armagh. J Fossils from the Upper Carboniferous Shales near Glasgow ; pre- sented by Mr. John Purdue, junior :— Nucula attenuata. Fleming. tumida. Phillips. Terebratula hastata, var. 6. Sowerby. Spirifera Urii. Fleming. Orthis filiaria? =~ Phillips. Producta setosa. Ibid. - VOL. III. PART II. Ure’s Rutherglen, pl. xv. fig. 5. Geol. Yorks. pt. 2. pl. v. fig. 15. Min. Con. tab. 446. fig. 3. Ure’s Rutherglen, pl. xiv. fig. 1 Geol. Yorks. tab. xi. f.3. BoE Paine. Ibid. tab. viii. f. 9. 3A 562 Pleurotomaria atomaria, Phillips. | Geol. Yorks. pl. xv. f. 11. Orthoceras suleatum. Fleming. An. Phil. vol. v. p. 202. pl. 31. fig. 6. Bellerophon Urii. Ibid. Ure’s Rutherglen, pl. xiv. isi 9. Fossils presented by H. E. Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. :— Keuper Sandstone. Amphidesma? Keuperi. \ Hybodus Kuperi. <« Bone-bed.”’ Impressions of a small bivalve. Bushley. Shrewley Chien’ Warwickshire. The following specimens are from Coomb Hill, Gloucester. . The species were determined by Mr. Strickland. Hybodus minor. Gyrolepis Albertii (scales). ———- medins? Pycnodus? (palatal bone). 2 ; at : Nemacanthus monilifer. f (SPines): eee ne Acrodus minimus. Coprolites and small vertebr. Saurichthys apicalis. Palzosaurus ? (tooth). Lias (lower). For descriptions and figures of the species see Sowerby’s Mineral Conchology and Phillips’s Geology of York- shire, part 1. Corbula? cardioides. Phillips. | Bredon. Pachyodon Listeri. Sowerby. Vale of Evesham. ——_——— ovalis. Id. Ibid. Hippopodium ponderosum. Id. — Bredon. Gervillia it Ibid. Plagiostoma e 9 feet above “ bone-bed,” Coomb hill. Gryphza M‘Cullochii. Id. Bredon. — incurva. Td. Defford, Worcester. Pleurotomaria Anglica. Id. Bredon. Ammonites obtusus. Id. Ibid. — Turneri. Id. Ibid. Fossils presented by S. Stutchbury, Esq., F.G.S. :— Lias..For descriptions of species see. Sowerby’s Mineral. Con- chology, and Mr. Stutchbury’s paper on the genus Pachyodon,, Ann. Nat. Hist., March 1842. The species named by Mr. Pratt are described and figured by that gentleman in the Annals of Natural History, November 1841. Pachyodon Listeri, ovalis, ————- hybridus. Vale of Belvoir. crassiusculus. Ibid. concinnus, Ibid. attenuatus, Ibid. : ‘Acrodus nobilis (Agassiz). _ Keynsham, near Bristol. Oxford Clay.. Belemnites ——? Christian Malford, Wilts, Belemnotheutis (MS. Pearce). Ibid. Ammonites Elizabethz (Pratt). Ibid. —-———-— Gulielmi. Ibid. ° _ =——- Konigi. Thid. 563 Fossils from Ilminster ; presented by Mr. C. Moore of Bath :— Marlsione. Pecten zequivalvis, Sowerby, Mineral Conchologv. Alum Shale. Ammonites Walcottii. ——— falcifer. ——-—-— annulatus ———_ Hildensis? —_—. i Sowerby, Mineral Conchology. Young and Bird, Geol. Yorkshire Coast. _. Fossils presented by S. Peace Pratt, Esq., B:GiSascs— Oxford Clay. Serpula vertebralis. Christian Malford, Wilts. Belemnotheutis —? (MS. Pearce). Ibid. Ammonites Brightii (Pratt). —— Comptoni (Id.). Ibid. Ibid. ————~— Gowerianus (Young). Ibid. ————- Kénigi (Sow.). Forest Marble. - _Trigonia pullus (Sow.). Fuller's Earth. Cyclolithes. Pholadomya ambigua, Sowerby. Mya angulifera. Id. Astarte rotunda ? Id. Isocardia minima. Id. concentrica. Id. Trigonia. Modiola gibbosa. Id. plicata. Id. Pinna ampla. Id. Lima gibbosa. Id. Ammonites modiolaris. Id. : Ibid. Near Farleigh Castle, S.E. of Bath. Near Dunkerton, betweeen Bath and Radstock. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Wells road, near Bath. Near Dunkerton. Thid. Ibid. Wells road, near Bath. Ibid. Fossils from the Oxford Clay, Christian Malford, Wilts; presented by Mr. Rich of Bristol :— Avicula. Belemnites. Belemnosepia (Buckland). Belemnotheutis (MS. Pearce). Ammonites Elizabethz (Pratt). Ammonites Gulielmi (Sow.). —- Comptoni (Pratt). —— Brightii (Id.). Aptychus. Fossils from the Gault of Copt Point, near Folkstone ; presented by H. B. Mackeson, Esq. The species not marked with an asterisk _ are figured in the Mineral Conchology ; those with an asterisk are figured in the plates which illustrate Dr. Fitton’s memoir “ On the 564 beds below the Chalk,’”” Geol. Trans. vol. iv. part 2, and in Dr. Man- tell’s Fossils of the South Downs. Turbinolia? Kénigii, Mantell. *Pyrula Smithii. Pentacrinites Rostellaria Parkinsoni. Nucula pectinata. Belemnites attenuatus. ovata, Mantell. Nautilus minutus. *Venericardia tenuicosta. Ammonites splendens. Tnoceramus sulcatus. : —- varicosus. Terebratula biplicata. ————- tuberculatus. Dentalium ellipticum ? a — lautus. *Solarium ornatum. Hamites attenuatus. — conoideum. intermedius: *Natica canaliculata. Polyptychodon. *Auricula inflata. Fossils from the Lower -Freshwater Deposit, Binstead, Isle of Wight ; presented by James Smith, Esq. of Jordan hill, F.G.S. :— Bulimus ellipticus. Limneza longiscata, Limnza maxima. Saurian tooth. Mammalian remains from Perim Island, in the Cambay Gulf; presented by Captain Fuljames. For notices of the structure of the island; and of the fossils found in it, see Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. v. p. 288 et seq., 1836. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. Parr II. 1841—1842. No. 83. Dec. 1.—Samuel Stutchbury, Esq., A.L.S., Curator of the Philo- sophical and Literary Institution, Bristol, Commander Owen Stanley, _of H.M.S. Britomart ; James John Berkeley, Esq., Harpur Street, Bloomsbury ; and John Wallace, Esq., Carshalton Lodge, Surrey, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read, entitled, ‘‘ Report of the Destruction by Earthquake of the Town of Praya de Victoria, on the 15th of June, 1841.” By Mr. Consul Hunt; communicated by direction of the Right Hon. the Foreign Secretary of State. The town of Praya stood at the east end of the island of Terceira, and contained 562 houses; near it were the villages of Lageas (523 houses), Villa Nova (206 houses), Agoalva (244 houses), Fontinha (203 houses), and Fonte do Bastardo (144 houses), the total popula- tion being about 9000 souls. The town of Praya had been on a former occasion (1614) totally destroyed by an earthquake, and Angra, the capital of the island, situated twelve English miles distant, was considerably injured, the shocks being severely felt in the island of St. Michael. Although menaced durimg many earthquakes, Praya had escaped injury from that time till the 12th of June 1841, when, at 4 p.m., a violent shock was felt, and with diminished force to the westward. At twenty-five minutes past five, a second, more powerful shock was experienced, and through- out the 13th.of June, tremblings were felt at short intervals. At 4 a.m. on the 14th a perfectly perceptible undulation destroyed all those buildings which had been previously weakened, but during the remainder of that day the island was visited by only occasional slight shocks. On the 15th, at 3 a.m., violent tremblings and horizontal undulations of the ground commenced, and continued, with intervals of ten minutes, and a duration of about 10 seconds, until 30 minutes past 3 o'clock, when a strong, vibrating and distinctly visible rocking motion was communicated to the surface, and threw down the un- destroyed portion of Praya, several churches and houses of the adja- cent villages, and considerably injured the remainder, as well as many elevated public buildings in other parts of the island.. The ground then remained comparatively at rest until 40 minutes past 2 A.M. on the 16th, when a violent earthquake did further damage ; but from that period no additional injury was sustained, though the VOL, III, PART II, 3B 566 island did not resume a permanently quiescent state till the 26th of June. The number of houses thrown down is estimated to be 800, but several others must. be rebuilt, and-of the remainder the greater number require extensive repairs. During the whole of these earthquakes the motion was greatest at Praya, diminishing in force to the westward, and every convulsion was preceded by a loud subterranean or submarine noise to the east- ward of Terceira, which so exactly varied in intensity with the force of the succeeding shocks, that the noise became not only the harbinger but the measure of the severity of the earthquake Arent an English mile in length was formed in the ground, extending from the shore to the westward. j 53%) Bg The less severe shocks were not felt beyond Terceira: others were experienced, of apparently equal force, at St. George’s, about fifty miles to the south-west, and at Graciosa, about the same distance to the north-west of Praya; but only the earthquake which destroyed that town was felt, though not powerfully, at the capitals of Pico, sixty-eight miles south-west, and of St. Michael’s, the same distance to the south-east. At Fayal, eighty-five miles west by south, and at the eastern end of St. Michael’s, 105 miles south-east by east, ne mo- tion was perceived, as far as Mr. Consul] Hunt had been able to aseer- tain. If the shocks felt about 30 minutes past 3 o'clock on the morning of the 15th of June, in the several islands, be divided into four degrees of intensity, each interval, the author says, will be found to contain a distance of about seventeen miles, the eastern end of Terceira being on the first degree, or seventeen miles from the centre of eruption; the western end thirty-four miles; Graciosa and St. George’s fifty-one, and the capitals of Pico and St. Michael's sixty-eight miles. The latter places, equally distant from the centre of eruption, experienced shocks ef equal degrees of diminished force, . Bae Mr. Consul Hunt then alludes to Buffon’s notice of submarine ex- plosions between St. Michael’s and Terceira, attended by earthquakes in those islands, and the appearance of newly formed islets; also to the throwing up of Sabrina, near St. Michael’s, in 1811, the effeets of which were powerfully felt in that island, but not in Tereeira, fifty miles distant; and, on account of these phenomena, he, in conclusion, advises mariners to keep a sharp look-out for shoal water on approaching Terceira from the eastward. A paper, entitled “‘ Some Geological Remarks made in a Journey from Delhi, through the Himalaya Mountains, to the frontier of Little Tlibet, during 1837,’ by the Rev. Robert Everest, F.G.S., was then read. The author's route, after quitting Delhi, lay through Seharun- pore, the Keeree pass in the Sevalik hills, and Mussoori to the Jumna,, thence nearly north-west to the valley of the Paber, as far as Roo- roo, where it quitted the course of that river and crossed the moun- tain range to Rampore. It then ascended the valley of the Sutluj to the Leo River, and terminated near the Khealkhur Fort, on the 567 frontier of Little Thibet. ‘The country consists of alluvial depasits, the tertiary strata of the Sevaliks, a vast sandstone depasit, an ex- tensive clay-slate formation containing limestone and sandstone, yarious ‘metamorphic rocks, greenstone and granite. sandstone ee which stretches many miles in a south- west and south-east direction, following the course of the Jumna, and re- sembles, in mineral characters, the transition quartzose sandstones of Hurope, It alternates, though rarely, with layers of soft tale slate, and a few miles to the southward of Delhi with clay slate. To the south-west, a little beyond Goongony, and in other localities, sienitic roeks are connected withit. No fossil remains have been discovered in the formation. At Delhi the strata are highly inclined towards the east-south-east. From Delhi to beyond Seharunpore, a distance of more than 100 miles, the surface of the country consists of a fine sandy soil, and contains nodules of kunkur, similar to alluvial granitic or primary detritus brought down by the Jumna. Beyond Seharunpore the tertiary beds of the Sevalik range commence; but Mr. Everest alludes to their mammalian remains only for the purpose of remarking, that no portions of the wild elephant, which now abounds in that district, have been found in the tertiary strata; and he quotes, as an analo- gous ease, the absence of the bones of the Asiatic elephant in the mammalian deposits of the Irawaddi. From these facts he infers that the present species did not co-exist with the Hlephas primige- nius, the mastodon, or the associated mammifers. The chain of the Himalayas, which rises like a black wall on the opposite of the valley of the Dhoon, or that which separates it from the Sevalik hills, consists, where crossed by the author (about 77° 58! E. Jong.), of strata highly inclined to the north-east, and com- posed of dark blue or variegated clay slate, sometimes sufficiently hard to be used for roofing slates, but generally soft, of compact, dark blue and black carbonaceous limestone, and of highly conso- lidated quartzy sandstone resembling that near Delhi. No organic remains have been noticed in these beds. Dykes of greenstone con- taining diallage were observed by the author. From Mussoori* (lat. 30° 25'; long. 77° 55! E.), Mr. Everest de- scended to the Jumna, over beds similar to those just described, and of slate containing angular fragments. In the bed of the river the strata are very much disturbed. Beyond the Jumna the rocks con- sist of purplish clay slate, often passing into quartz slate and tale slate. The general dip is to the north-east, but the angle of incli- nation is stated to vary from nearly horizontal to vertical. Beyond the village of Luchwarree, not far from the Jumna, occur blocks of ereywacke similar to those observed in the descent to that river. ‘Thenee to the heights of Deobun, the most lofty point between the Jumna and the Tonse (lat. about 30° 47’, long. about 77° 48! E.), * The degrees of latitude and longitude given in this abstract must be considered only as approximations, 3B2 568 the strata present little variety, but the last 2000 feet of ascent con- sist of rugged, black and grayish blue limestone, similar to that at Mussoori. The descent towards the Tonse exhibits slates similar to those previously described, dipping between north and east. They are occasionally intersected by greenstone containing pistacite, and passing in some places into hornblende slate and serpentine. At the village of Kundah, before reaching the Tonse, limestone reappears, highly inclined to the north-east, and extends to the bridge. The bed of the Tonse, and of its tributary the Paber, are filled with boulders of gneiss, and they occur at heights of 200 feet above those rivers. The slate rocks, in ascending the river-valleys, change in their composition from that previously exhibited; containing, first, frequently nodules and layers of quartz, and, though rarely, of fel- spar, and afterwards passing into well-defined gneiss ; and still fur- ther, as at Raeenghur and Rooroo, different varieties of gneiss alter- nate with talc-slate, quartzose slate and mica slate. ‘This progress- ive change, from the party-coloured earthy slates of Mussoori to crystalline schists, on approaching the higher ranges of mountains covered with perpetual snow, perfectly accords, Mr. Everest states, with what he had previously observed in two journeys to the sources of the Ganges and the Jumna. The dip of the beds in the valleys of the Tonse and Paber is to the north-east. At Rooroo Mr. Everest quitted the course of the Paber and crossed the mountain range to the valley of the Sutluj. The highest point which he attained on this ridge was only 8000 feet above the level of the sea, andit was then, the middle of April, nearly free from snow. From the view which this pass afforded, the author ascer- tained that the country shelves or declines from the north-east to the south-west, the mountains between the north and east rising far above the limits of forests and being white with snow, while among those to the westward or southward few peaks appeared above the range of forests, and little snow was seen. The rocks composing this moun- tain range consist near Rooroo of mica slate, with a very slight dip to the east and south-east, but the inclination of the beds in ascending towards the pass becomes considerable, but in the same direction. North of Kersole (lat. 31° 25!, long. 77° 33! E.) gneiss appears dipping south and south-east, and approaching occasionally granite in cha- racter. Thisrock ranges half way to the Sutluj, where black, com- pact limestone, and black, glimmering, soft slate are exposed. Near the junction of the Nuggur with the Sutluj, strata of crystalline, white quartz slate dip to the south, and are traversed by a mass of greenstone, which first rises vertically through the strata, then passes horizontally between them, and finally bursts upwards and projects above the surface. Where the position of the greenstone conforms to the bedding of the slate, the laminz of mica and hornblende assume a similar arrangement, and where the greenstone intersects the slate, those minerals have a position vertical to it. A gradual passage from greenstone into the quartz slate was likewise noticed by the author. About two miles below Rampore (lat. 31° 34’, long. 77° 30'), in the valley of the Sutluj, quartz slate alternates with chlorite 569 slate and tale slate, the dip being to the west and south-west at a considerable angle. Above Rampore the rocks first consist of alter- nations of white quartz slate and clay slate, the strata being much disturbed ; and afterwards of tale slate associated with greenstone or hornblende rock, dipping north-east. Before reaching Seran, gneiss containing kyanite appears, and extends with occasionally interve- ning masses of granite to Nasher (lat. 31° 47’, long. 77° 46! E.). On the opposite side of the river at that place are precipices of slate traversed by white veins; but at the bridge, a large-grained white granite with tourmalines appears, and extends, in connexion with mica slate and gneiss intersected by granite veins, seven days’ journey to Akbah (lat. 31° 56’, long. 78° 8'E.). At this village granite also occurs, but separated from that rock by a narrow ravine is a low promontory of clay slate and dark flinty slate dip- ping to the north. Beyond Akhbah the Sutluj bends to the north, and on both sides of the river the outline of the rocks is considerably softened in consequence of their being evidently composed of perish- able clay slate similar to that at Mussoori; but in the more distant ranges, granite, mica slate and gneiss may be detected by the rugged outline and the great height of the rocks. This clay slate, Mr. Everest says, is not of later origin than the granite and crystalline schists, because it is penetrated by veins of granite which may be traced to the great masses of that formation. The dip of the slate on one side of the river is west, and on the opposite apparently east. Beyond Lipi, a few miles from Akbah, are precipices of clay slate, tale slate, and dark flinty slate interstratified with greenstone. After quitting Khanum the country becomes still more desolate, and the strata consist, first of earthy slate, m some places carbonaceous, in others brecciated, then of greyish green highly consolidated green- stone, and afterwards of masses of blackish and brownish grey com- pact limestone. The valley of the Namkulling, a small tributary of the Sutluj, presents a fine section of these strata, the upper part being composed of the limestone and the lower of the slate. The dip from Khanum is between west and south-west. From Seenum (lat. 32° 5', long. 78° 16' E.) Mr. Everest proceeded across the Hun- gung pass, 14,837 feet above the sea. The ground being covered with snow, little of the structure of the country was visible, but projecting strata of reddish brown compact limestone appeared on the crest of the hill. The view northward presented bare rocks as far as the eye could reach, but from the softness of the outlines, Mr. Everest infers, that the strata belong to secondary or tertiary deposits. Rugged ridges of primary rocks resembling dykes cross this dreary expanse. Beyond Hango (lat. 32° 12’, long. 38° 18’ E.) beds of reddish and greenish grey compact limestone alternate with earthy and car- bonaceous shale, the dip being to the north-west, and blocks of greyish quartzose sandstone are scattered over the surface. These appearances extend to the heights above Leo, where the earthy shales are traversed by veins and layers of granite, and at the point of contact are changed into mica slate. In the descent to the village, nearly 2000 feet, the granite veins gradually increase in number, pre- 570 and pistacite ; but the earthy strata are stated to occur at higherlevels: On the opposite side of the river is a section several thousand feet in vertical dimensions intersected by a net-work of granite veins and crossed by black staitis derived from the carbonaceous layers. On opening on the hollow in which the village of Change is situated earthy strata again appear. This poift was the boundary of Mr. Everest’s journey, aid he was prevented from éxamining the locality which produces the Ammoiiites and other fossils obtained by Dr. Gerard ; but he believes, from the information stipplied by the natives, that they are niet with abundantly beyond the froiitier, imbedded in black compact limestone and earthy carbonacéous shale. Mr. Everest fuither states, that since his joufney Captain Hutton has discovered therm within the froiitier. In the course of the memoir the author mentions having seen at Séénum the skin of a “ leopard” recently killed neat the village, though large quatitities of snow were then (May) lying upon the ground, and that he has frequently observed in February and March their tracks on the snow as high as the limit of the forests. He also States that he has observed monkeys at the height of full 8000 feet above the sea in thé same months whet the ground was covered deep with snow, feeding in great ntimbers on the seeds of the fir cones. A paper was afterwards read containitig a“ Description of the Re- wiains of Six Species of Marine Turtles (Chelones) from the London Clay of Shéppey and Hatwich.” By Richard Owen, Esq., F.R.8:, F.G.S.; Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. The author commences by quoting the generalizations given ih the latest works which treat of Fossil Chelonians; and examines the évidente oi which those froin the Eocene clay of Sheppey had been referred exclusively to the freshwater genus Hmys by Cuvier and others, and he pints owt the circumstances which invalidate the coiiclusions that had been deduced from it. He then proceeds to deseribe the fossils and to show the characters by which he has éstablished the existence of five species of marine turtles from the London Clay at Sheppey; and a sixth species from the same fotma- tion near Harwich. 1; Chelone breviceps.—The first species, fourid at Sheppey, is called by the author Chelone breviceps, and its unequivoeal marine nature was recognised by a nearly perfect cranium, wanting only the occipital spife, and presenting a strong and uninterrupted roof; extended from the parietal spine on each side over the temporal openings; the roof being fornied chiefly by a great development of the posterior froiittals. Further evidence of its marine origin exists in the large sizé and lateral aspect of the orbits, their posterior boundary extend. ing béyond the anterior margin of the parietals ; also in the absence 571 of the deep emargination which separates the superior maxillary from the tympanic bone in freshwater tortoises, especially the Hmys expansa. In general form the skull resembles that of the Chelone Mydas, but it is relatively broader, the anterior frontals are less sloping, and the anterior part of the head is more vertically truncate: the median frontals also enter into the formation of the orbits in rather a larger proportion than in C. Mydas. In Chelone imbricata they are wholly excluded from the orbits. The trefoil shape of the occipital tubercle is well marked; the laterally expanded spinous plate of the parietal bones is united by a straight suture to the post-frontals along three-fourths of its extent, and for the remaining fourth with the temporal or zygomatic ele- ment. These proportions are reversed in the Emys expansa, in which the similarly expanded plate of the parietals is chiefly united laterally with the temporal bones. In other freshwater tortoises the facta plate in question does not exist. The same evidence of the affinity of the Sheppey Chelonite in question to the marine turtles is afforded by the base of the skull :-— the basi-occipital is deeply excavated ; the processes of the pterygoids which extend to the tympanic pedicies are hollowed out lengthwise ; the palatal processes of the superior maxillary and palatine bones are continued backwards to the extent which characterizes the existing oo. and the posterior or internal opening of the nasal passages ,ina proportional degree, carried further back in the mouth. The er opening of the zygomatic spaces is wider in the Sheppey Che- lonite than in the Hiys expansa. The external surface of the cranial bones in the fossil is broken by small irregular ridges, depressions, and vascular foramina, which give it a rough shagreen-like character. The lower jaw, which is preserved in the present fossil, likewise exhibits two characters of the marine turtles ; the dentary piece, ¢. g., “forms a larger proportion of the lower jaw than in land or fresh- water tortoises. The under part of the symphysis, which is not larger than in Chelone Mydas, is slightly excavated in the fossil. In the rich collection of Sheppey fossils belonging to Mr. Bower- -bank, there is a beautiful Chelonite, including the carapace, plastron, and the cranium, which is bent down upon the forepart of the plas- tron; and which, though mutilated, displays sufficient characters to establish its specific identity with the skull of the Chelone breviceps just described. The outer surface of the carapace and plastron has the same finely rugous character as that of the cranium, in which Wwe may perhaps perceive a slight indication of the affinity with the ‘genus Trionyx. The carapace is long, narrow, ovate, widest in front, and tapering towards a point posteriorly; it is not regularly convex, but slopes away, like the roof of a house, from the median line, resembling in . this respect, and its general depression, the carapace of the turtle. ‘There are preserved eleven of the vertebral plates, the two last aloae 572 being wanting. The eight pairs of expanded ribs are also present, with sufficient of the narrower tooth-like extremities of the six an- terior pairs to determine the marine character of the fossil, which is indicated by its general form. Other minute characters are detailed ; and a comparison with the Chelonite from the tertiary beds near Brussels, figured by Cuvier, is instituted. : th The sternum of the Chelone breviceps, although more ossified than in existing Cheloniz, yet presents all the essential characters of that genus. ‘There is a central vacuity left between the hyosternals and hyposternals ; but these bones differ from those of the young Emys in the long pointed processes which radiate from the two anterior angles of the hyosternals, and the two posterior angles of the hy- posternals. The xiphisternals have the slender elongated form and oblique union by reciprocal gomphosis with the hyposternals, which is cha- racteristic of the genus Chelone. The posterior extremity of the right episternal presents the equally characteristic slender pointed form. With these proofs of the sternum of the present fossil being modi- fied according to the peculiar type of the marine Chelones, there is evidence, however, that it differs from the known existing species in the more extensive ossification of the component pieces: thus, the pointed rays of bone extend from a greater proportion of the margins of the hyo- and hyposternals, and the intervening margins do not present the straight line at right angles to the radiated processes. In the Chelone Mydas, for example, one half of the external margin of the hyo- and hyposternals, where they are contiguous, are straight, and intervene between the radiated processes, which are developed trom the remaining halves; while in the Chelone breviceps about a sixth part only of the corresponding external margins are similarly free, and there form the bottom, not of an angular, but a semicircular interspace. The radiated processes from the inner margins of the hyo- and hy- posternals are characterized in the Chelone breviceps by similar mo-" difications, but their origin is rather less extensive ; they terminate in eight or nine rays, shorter and with intervening angles more equal than in existing Chelones. The xiphisternal piece receives in a notch the outermost ray or spine of the inner radiated process of the hy- posternal, as in the Chelones, and is not joined by a transverse suture, as in. the Emydes, whether young or old. * The characters thus afforded by the cranium, carapace, plastron, and some of the bones of the extremity, prove the present Sheppey fossil to belong to a true sea-turtle; and at the same time most clearly establish its distinction from the known existing species of Chelone ; from the shortness of the skull, especially of the facial part as compared with its breadth, the author proposes to name this extinct species Chelone breviceps. : 2. Chelone longiceps.—The second species of Sheppey turtle, called Chelone longiceps, is founded upon the characters of the cranium, ca- rapace, and plastron. The cranium differs more from those of exist- 573 ing species, by its regular tapering into a prolonged pointed muzzle, than does that of the Chelone breviceps by-its short and truncated jaws. The surface of the cranial bones is smoother ; and their other mo- difications prove the marine character of the fossil as strongly as in the Chelone breviceps. The orbits are large, the temporal fossee are covered principally by the posterior frontals, and the exterior osseous shield completely overhangs the tympanic and ex-occipital bones. The compressed spine of the occiput is the only part that projects further backwards. The palatal and nasal regions of the skull afford further evidence of the affinities of the present Sheppey Chelonite to the Turtles. The bony palate presents in an exaggerated degree its great extent from the intermaxillary bones to the posterior nasal aperture, and it is not perforated, as in the Trionyxes, by an anterior palatal fora- men. The extent of the bony palate is relatively greater than in the Chelone Mydas ; the trenchant alveolar ridge is less developed than in the Chel. Mydas ; the groove for the reception of that of the lower jaw is shallower than in the existing Cheloniz, or the extinct Chel. breviceps, arising from the absence of the internal alveolar ridge. The present species is distinguished by. the narrowness of the sphenoid at the base of the skull, and by the form and groove of the pterygoid bones, from the existing Chelonie, and @ fortiori from the Trionyxes; to which, however, it approaches in the elongated and pointed form of the muzzle, and the trenchant character of the alve- olar margin of the jaws. The general characters of the carapace are next given, and a spe- cimen from Mr. Bowerbank’s collection is more particularly described. This carapace, as compared with that of the C. breviceps in the same collection, presents the following differences : it is much broader and flatter; the vertebral plates are relatively broader ; the lateral angle, from which the intercostal suture is continued, is much nearer the anterior margin of the plate; the C. longiceps in this respect re- sembling the existing species: the expanded portions of the ribs are relatively longer; they are slightly concave transversely to their axis on their upper surface, while in C. breviceps they are flat. The ex- ternal surface of the whole carapace is smoother, and although as depressed as in most turtles, it is more regularly convex, and sloping away by two nearly plane surfaces from the median longitudinal ridge of the carapace. Among the minor differences of the two Sheppey fossils the author states, that the first vertebral plate of C. longiceps is more convex at its middle part, and sends backwards a short process to join the second vertebral plate, in which it resembles the C. Mydas. The second plate is six-sided, the two posterior lateral short sides being attached to the second pair of ribs, in which the present species differs from both C. Mydas and C. breviceps. The third vertebral plate is quadrangular instead of the second, as in C. breviceps and C. Mydas. The impressions of the epidermal scutes are deeper, and the lines which bound the sides of the vertebral scutes meet at a more open 574 angle thati in the C. breviceps, in which the vertebral scutes have the more regular hexagonal form of those of the C. Mydas. The plastron is more remarkable than that of the C. breviceps for thé extent of its ossification, the central cartilaginous space being reduced to an elliptical fissure. The four large middle pieces, called hyosternals and hyposternals, have their transverse extent relatively much seater, a8 compared with their antero-posterior extent, than iti C. breviceps. The median margins of the hyosternals are deve- loped in short toothed processes along their anterior two-thirds; and the médian margins of the hyposternals have the same structure along thei posterior halves. Rae The xiphisternals are relatively broader than in C. breviceps or in uny Of the existing spécies, atid aré united together by the whole of their median margins: The éntostérnal piece is flat on its under surface. Perna, * Each half of the plastron is mové regularly convex than in C. My- das. The breadth of the stérnum along the median suture, uniting ‘the hyosternals and hyposternals, is five inches; and the breadth at ‘the junction of thé xiphisternals with the hyposternals is two inches. Thé posterior paft of the cranitiii is preserved in this fossil, with- drawn beriéath the anterior part of the carapace ; the fracture shows the osseous shield covering the temporal fossee ; and the pterygoids temiin; exhibiting the wide aid deép groove which runs along their under part. It has been most satisfactory, the author says, to find that the two distinct species of the genus Chelone, first détermined by the skulls ofily; shotild thus have been éstablished by the subsequent observa- tioi of their bony cuifassés ; and that the specific differences mani- fested by thé cuirasses should be proved by good evidence to be cha- racteristi¢ of the two species founded on the skills, Thus the portion of the skull preserved with the carapace first deseribed; served to identify that fossil with the more perfect skull of the Chelone brevieeps, by which thé species was first indicated. And, again, the portion of the carapace adhering to the perfect skull of the Chelone longiceps equally served to connéct with it the nearly complete osseous buckler, which otherwise, from the very small frag- mefit of the skull remaining attached to it, could only have been assigned conjéctirally to the Chel. longiceps ; an approximation which Would have been the more hazardous, since the Chel. breviceps and Chel. longiceps are not the only turtles which swarm those aiicient seas that received the enormous argillacéous deposits of which the isle of Sheppey forms a part. 3. Chelone latisculata.—A considerable portion of the boty cuirass of a yoting turtle from Sheppey, three inches in length, including the 2nd to the 7th vertebral plates, with the expanded parts of the first six pairs of ribs, and the hyosternal and hyposternal elements of the carapace, most resembles that of the Chelone coniceps in the form of the éarapace, and especially in the great transverse extent of the above-named parts of the sternum; it differs, however, from the Chel. longiceps and from all the other known Chelonites in the great 575 relative breadth of the vertebral scutes; which are nearly twite as broad as they are long. - The céntral vacuity of the plastron is subcircular, ard, as might be expected, from the apparent nonage of the specimen, is wider thafi in the Chel. longiceps ; but the toothed processes given off from the ifner tiargin of both hyo- and hyposternals aré small, sub- equal, regular in their direction, and thus resemble those of thie Chel. longiceps. The length of the expanded part of the third rib is oné inch seveii lines ; its aiitero-posterior diameter or breadth, six lines; in the form of the vertebral extremities of the ribs and of the vertebral plates to which they até articulated, the present fossil résembles the Chel. aad ‘hé author knows of no recent example, however, of the Cheloiie that offers Such varieties in the form of its epidermal scutes as would warrant the present Chelonite being considered a variety merely of the Chel. longiceps ; and he therefore indicates the distinct species Which it seéins to represent, by its main distinctive character, under the name of Chelone latisculata. 4. Cheloné convera.—The fourth species of Chelone, indicated by a nearly coriplete cuirass, from Sheppey, holds a somewhat inter- mediate position between the C. bréviceps and C. longiceps; the ca- rapace beilie fiarroweér and more convex than that of C. coniteps ; broader, and with a concavity arising from a more regular curvature than in C. breviéeps. The expanded parts of the ribs have an inter- mediate length with those of the two Chelones with which this spe- eimeén is eompared; and therefore is a difference independent of age. The distinetion of C. convecd is still more strikingly established in the plastron, which in its defective ossification more nearly resembles that of the existing species of Chelone. All the bones, especially the xiplisternals, are more convex on their outer surface than in other turtles, recent or fossil. ‘The internal rays of the hyosternals are divided into two groups; the lower consisting of two short and strong teeth projecting inwards, while the rést extend forwards along the inner side of the epistéinals. Thé sdine character may be ob- Setved in the corresponding processes of the hypostetnals, but the éxtérrial process is relatively much harrower than in C. breviceps. The following differences are stated to distinguish the sternum of C. convexa from that of C. Mydas. ‘The median margin of the hyo- sternals forms a gentle cutve, not ab angle: that of the hyosternals is likewise curved, bit with a slight notch. The longitudinal ridge on thé external surface, and near the median margin of the hyo- and hyposternals, is less marked in the Sheppey fossil ; especially in the hyposternals, which are characterized by a smooth ound in their - middle. The suturé between the hyo- and hyposternals is nearer to the external transverse radiated process of the hyposternals. The me- dian vacuity of the sternal apparatus is elliptical in the Chel. con- vera, but square in the Chel. Mydas. The characteristic lanceolate form of the epistérnal bone in the -séfitis Cheloné is well séen in the present fossil. 576 The true marine character of the present Sheppey Chelonite is likewise satisfactorily shown in the small relative size of the entire femur which is preserved on the left side, attached by the matrix to the left xiphisternal. It presents the usual form, a slight sigmoid flexure, characteristic of the Chelones; it measures one inch in length. In an Emys of the same size, the femur, besides its greater bend, is 14 inch in length. 5. Chelone subcristata.—The fifth species of Chelone from Sheppey, distinguishable by the characters of its carapace, approaches more nearly to the Chelone Mydas in the form of the vertebral scutes, which are narrow in proportion to their length, than in any of the previously described species; but is more conspicuously distinct by the form of the 6th and 8th vertebral plates, which support a short, sharp, longitudinal crest. The middle and posterior part of the first vertebral plate is raised into a convexity, as in the Chel. longiceps, but not into a crest. The keeled structure of the sixth and eighth plates is more marked than in the fourth and sixth plates of Chelone Mydas, which are raised into a longitudinal ridge. The characters of the carapace are then minutely described. Sufficient of the sternum is exposed in the present fossil to show, by its narrow elongated xiphisternals, and the wide and deep notch in the outer margin of the conjoined hyo- and hyposternals, that it belongs to the marine Chelones. The xiphisternals are articulated to the hyposternals by the usual notch or gomphosis; they are straighter and more approximated than in the Chel. Mydas; the external emargination of the plastron differs from that of the Chel. Mydas in being semicircular instead of angular, the Chel. subcristata approaching, in this respect, to the Chel. breviceps. . The shortest antero-posterior diameter of the conjoined hyo- and hyposternals is two inches seven lines. The length of the xiphi- sternal two inches six lines. The breadth of both, across their middle part, one inch three lines. The name proposed for this species indicates its chief distinguish- ing character, viz. the median interrupted carina of the carapace, which may be presumed to have been more conspicuous in the horny plates of the living animal than in the supporting bones of the fos- silized carapace. 6. Chelone planimentum.—This species is founded on an almost entire specimen of skull and carapace of the same individual, in the museum of Prof. Sedgwick; on a skull and carapace belonging to different individuals, in the museum of Prof. Bell; and on a carapace in the British Museum; all of which specimens are from the London clay at Harwich. The skull resembles, in the pointed form of the muzzle, the Chel. longiceps of Sheppey, but differs in the greater convexity and breadth of the cranium, and the great declivity of its anterior contour. The great expansion of the osseous roof of the temporal fossz, and the share contributed to that roof by the post-frontals, distinguish the present, equally with the foregoing Chelonites, from the fresh- 577 water genera Emys and Trionyx. In the oblique position of the orbits, and the diminished breadth of the interorbital space, the pre- sent Chelonite, however, approaches nearer to Trionyx and Emys than the previously described species. - Its most marked and characteristic difference from all existing or extinct Chelones is shown by the greater antero-posterior extent and flatness of the under part of the symphysis of the lower jaw, whence the specific name here given to the species. Since at present there is no means of identifying the well-marked species of which the skull is here described with the Chelonite figured in the frontispiece to Woodward’s ‘ Synoptical Table of British Organic Remains,’ and alluded to without additional description or characters as the ‘ Chelonia Harvicensis’ in the additions to Mr, Gray’s ‘ Synopsis Reptilium,’ p. 78, 1831; and since it is highly probable that the extensive deposit of Eocene clay along the coast of Kssex, like that at the mouth of the Thames, may contain the relics of more than one species of our ancient British turtles, the author prefers indicating the species here described by a name having refer- ence to its peculiarly distinguishing character, to arbitrarily associa- ting the skull with any carapace to which the vague name of Harvi- censis has been applied. Besides the specimen of Chelonite from Harwich, in the museum of Norwich, figured by Woodward, there is a mutilated carapace of a young Chelone from the same locality in the British Museum. This specimen exhibits the inner side of the carapace, with the heads and part of the expanded bodies of four pairs of ribs. It is not suf- ficently entire to yield good specific characters, but it demonstrates unequivocally its title to rank with the marine turtles. It is figured in Mr. Keenig’s ‘ Icones Sectiles,’ pl. xvi. fig. 192, under the name of Testudo plana. The carapace of a larger specimen of Chelone, from the coast of Harwich, was purchased, by the British Museum, of Mr. Charles- worth, by whom a lithograph of the inner surface of this Chelonite, of the natural size, has been privately distributed, without description. The carapace in the museum of Prof. Sedgwick, forming part of the same individual (Chelone planimentum) as the skull above described, exhibits many points of anatomical structure more clearly than the last-mentioned Chelonite in the British Museum ; it also displays the characteristic coracoid bone of the right side in its natural relative position. The resemblance of this carapace in general form to that of the Chelone caretta is pretty close; it differs from that and other known existing turtles, and likewise from most of the fossil species, in the thickness and prominence of the true costal portions of the expanded vertebral ribs, which stand out from the under surface of the plate through their entire length, and present a somewhat angular obtuse ridge towards the cavity of the abdomen. In the large proportional size of the head, the Chelone planimentum corresponds with the existing turtles; and that the extinct species here described attained larger dimensions than those given above, is proved by a fossil skull from the Harwich clay, in the collection of 578 Prof. Bell, which exhibits well the charaeter of the broad and flattened symphysis, A carapace of a smaller individual of Chelone planimentum from the Harwich coast, with the character of the inwardly projecting ribs strongly marked, is likewise preserved in the choice collection of the same excellent naturalist, One of the hyosternal bones enclosed in the same nodule of clay testifies to the partial ossification of the great; since the Hmys or Cistudo HKuropea still abounds on the Con- tinent, and liyes long in our own island in suitable localities: but the case assumes a yery different aspect when we come to the con- viction, that the majority of the Sheppey Chelonites belong to the true marine genus Chelone; and that the number of species of the Eocene extinct turtles already obtained from so limited a space as the isle of Sheppey exceeds that of the species of existing Chelone. Notwithstanding the assiduous search of naturalists, and the attrac- tions to the commercial yoyager which the shell and the flesh of the turtles offer, all the tropical seas of the world have hitherto yielded no more than five well-defined species of Chelone, and of these only two, as the C. Mydas and C. caretta, ave known ta frequent the same locality, It is obyious, therefore, that the ancient ocean of the Hacene epoch was less sparingly inhabited by turtles; and that these presented a greater variety of specific modifications than are known in the seas of the warmer latitudes of the present day. The indieations which the Sheppey turtles afford of the warmer climate of the latitude in which they lived, as compared with that which prevails there in the present day, accord with those which all reference to this interesting point. That abundance of food must have been produced under such in- fluences cannot, Mr. Owen states, be doubted ; and he infers, that to some of the extinet species—which, like the C. coniceps and C. platy- gnathus, exhibit either a form of head well adapted for penetrating the soil, or with modifications that indicate an affinity to the Trio- nyxes—was assigned the task of checking the undue increase of the extinet crocodiles of the same epoch and locality, by devouring their eggs or their young, becoming probably, in return, themselves an oc- casional prey to the older individuals of the same carnivorous saurian, su, 93 is re saccasss. $6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. II. Parr II. 1841—1842. No. 84. Dec. 15.—A paper “‘ On the Glacia-Diluvial Phenomena in Snow- donia and the adjacent parts of North Wales,” by the Rev. Prof. Buckland, D.D., F.G.S., &c., was first read. Dr. Buckland commenced by noticing the paper of the late Mr. Bowman inserted in the December Number of the Philosophical Magazine, in which that author states he had not been able to discover any appearances in the valleys of the Conway, the Lugwy, and the Ogwyn, also visited by Dr. Buckland during the last autumn, decisive of glacial action, though he does not mean to deny altogether the former existence of glaciers in North Wales. Dr. Buckland entirely agrees with Mr. Bowman in considering that two kinds of polished and striated surfaces described in the paper above noticed, are not due to the action of ice or water, but to con- tiguous plane surfaces having mutually impressed each other, the striz, moreover, coinciding in direction with the dip of the strata*. He then proceeds to describe the phenomena which came under his own notice and that of Mr. Sopwith, who accompanied him during his excursion in October last. The chief scene of his investigation was the portion of Carnarvon- shire known by the name of Snowdonia, including the seven valleys which radiate from Snowdon and its adjuncts; namely, the valleys of the Conway, the Ogwyn, the Sciant, the Gwyrfain, the Llyfni, and the Gwynant, nearly the whole of which have their sides and bottoms polished and scored with strize parallel to the mean direction which either a glacier or an overwhelming stream of water would assume in descending the valleys under the existing contour of their surface. Each valley, with its attendant phenomena, is described in the order in which it may be most conveniently visited by persons approaching Snowdonia by the Holyhead road. Valley of the Conway.—Both above and below the falls of the Conway, a few spots which had been recently laid bare, presented the same rounded and polished surfaces, accompanied by flutings and striz parallel to the direction of the valley, which are produced by existing glaciers in the high mountain valleys of Switzerland. Similar phenomena are likewise exhibited near the road-side in descending the valley from the falls of the Conway to Llanrwst, * Tnstances of similar appearances are mentioned by Dr. Buckland as oc- curring on the Portland stone of the south-east flank of the Jura near Neu- chatel, also on the carboniferous limestone near Liége. VOL, II. PART II. 3c : 580 particularly near the junctions of the valleys of the Machno, the Lledr, and the Llugwy. The late Mr. Underwood also noticed, in 1824, polished and striated surfaces on the sides of one of the valleys which descends from Llynn Cwlyd, on the north-east shoulders of the lofty ridge which divides the valley of the Conway from that of the Ogwyn*. The limestone of the Ormes Head, in front of the estuary of the Conway, is also mentioned in the paper, but not from the author’s inspection, to exhibit striated and polished surfaces. The elevated plain of Pen Tre Voelas presents the only instance noticed by Dr. Buckland in the valley of the Conway above Llanrwst, of large accumulations of unstratified detritus bearing the aspect of morains. ‘They are most apparent along the road from Pen Tre Voelas to Yspytty Evan, a distance of two miles; they occur also on the left bank of the Conway, west of Pen Tre Voelas, and for more than a mile on the east side of the village. Mr. Bowman, in the paper in the Philosophical Magazine, states, that if these mounds and hillocks ever were lateral morains, they have been modified by the action of water; and in this opinion Dr. Buckland coincides. Valley of the Llugwy.—A good example of glacial action, the author states, may be seen between the bridge of Pont-y-Gyffyng and Capel Curig, consisting, first, of dome-shaped or rounded masses (soches motonnés) ; secondly, of rounded portions of hard rocks, which, where they had been protected from the weather, exhibited polished, fluted and striated surfaces, the lines ranging parallel with the direction of the valley ; and thirdly, of a mound. of gravel or a morain close above the dome-shaped hummocks, and immediately in front of the point of confluence of the upper valley of the Llugwy with that of Nant-y-Gwryd. From the elevated amphitheatre which surrounds the lake of Flynnon Llugwy, situated north of the road from Capel Curig to Bangor, a vast morain or.congeries of detritus and boulders, Dr. Buckland states, has descended into a broad mountain yalley, where it extends more than one mile eastward from the upper end of Llynn Ogwyn. It is flanked on the north, west and south by the Llugwy, which there takes a sudden turn. The base of this morain is composed of small detritus, but its top is crowded with large blocks, almost in contact with each other. None of these could, from the outline of the surrounding country, have arrived at their present position by falling from a landslip, but their disposition accords, says Dr. Buckland, with that of thousands of blocks now deposited by Alpine glaciers; and he adds, it is dif- ficult to imagine how any current of water possessing sufficient ve- locity to move them to their present position could have failed to sweep away the mounds of small gravel on which they are lodged, or how drifting icebergs could have failed to drop scarcely one single block along the valley of the Llugwy beyond the limited area where * Dr. Buckland has in his possession sketches made in 1824 by Mr. Underwood, which represent surfaces of rocks near the lakes of Llanberris and in the ‘valley of the Conway near Llanrwst, furrowed, fluted, striated and polished in precisely the same manner as the surfaces of the Corstor- phine Hills and other trap rocks near Edinburgh. 581 so many thousands are accumulated. If, on the contrary, it be sup- posed that a glacier descended southwards from Flynnon Lluewy, it would have entered this valley at the summit level which divides the waters of Llugwy from those of Llynn Ogwyn; and from this point, Dr. Buckland states, it may have sent two branches, one through the valley of the Llugwy into the vale of the Conway, and the other westwards into the valley of Nant Francon. Valley of the Ogwyn.—The Ogwyn springs from a little lake on the south shoulder of Carnedd Dafydd, the summit of which is 3426 feet above the level of the sea, and a mile of rapid descent conducts it into Llynn Ogwyn. If at any time, observes Dr. Buckland, the moun- tains of Carnarvonshire were the site of lasting snows and glaciers, each of the triple series of wild amphitheatres between the summit of the Glyder and the south margin of Llynn Ogwyn must have poured forth a stream of ice to unite with those descending from | Llynn Ogwyn into the valley of Nant Francon, over the crest of porphyritic slate rocks down which the Ogwyn forms a cascade where the high road crosses that river by a bridge. Immediately above this bridge the barrier of hard rocks upholding the waters of Llynn Ogwyn present8 a remarkable group of those rounded, dome- shaped bosses which Prof. Agassiz so strongly insists upon as evi- dences of the action of ice; and their position during the glacial period would have been analogous to that of those over which the slowly moving cascade of ice now descends from the mer de glace into the valley of Chamouni. ‘Their actual forms also are stated to be identical with those which occur beneath every similar cascade of ice in Switzerland. ‘These rounded rocks have been weathered, but quartz veins which traverse the masses and project two inches above the surface, are polished and rounded on the edges. The lower ex- tremity of the valley of Nant Francon, about one mile from the Penrhyn slate-quarries, is thickly studded with dome-shaped hillucks rising amidst the meadows like giant mole-hills, and in a position where they would have formed the base of the great vomitory of ice descending that valley. For two or three miles towards Bangor, particularly near the village of Bethesda, there were exposed in nu- ‘ merous places where the gravel had been recently removed, polished surfaces fluted and striated in a direction parallel to that of the valley. Dr. Buckland saw no indications of undisturbed morains in the valley of the Ogwyn, but he is of opinion that they may have been partly obliterated by the rush of water which transported the northern drift, and effected a lodgement of it on Moel Faban at the end of the glacial period. Valley of the Sciant and Lianberris—This valley has its origin near the sources of the Gwryd, at the lofty pass of Pen-y-Gwryd, between the highest summits of the great Glyder and of Snowdon, and its course north-westward, for about eight miles from the pass to the lower lake of Llanberris, presents the finest examples Dr. Buckland has seen in Great Britain of an almost uninterrupted continuity of naked rocks, which have been modified by mechani- eal attrition, and left in a state not distinguishable from that of 3c 2 582 the mountain troughs now mouided by the action of Alpine gla- ciers. The crest which divides this valley from those of Nant-y- Gwryd and Nant Gwynant, forms, Dr. Buckland is of opimion, the highest centre in Snowdonia, from which three glaciers may for- merly have descended the valleys through which the Sciant, the Gwryd and the Gwynant now flow. At the point where the road from Llanberris to Capel Curig crosses the highest point im the pass, the rocks are shaped into flattened domes and oblong bosses, but they are too much weathered to exhibit any striz or flutings. For about three miles from the crest of the pass to the church of Llanberris, a kind of under-terrace which divides the river from the crags overhanging the left flank of the valley, presents a suc- cession of low dome-shaped and rounded projections, and of fur- rowed, fluted, striated and polished surfaces. The two most pro- minent localities are the rocks behind the office of the copper- mine, and between the great water-wheel at the slate-quarries and the lower end of the lake: these phenomena were observed and sketched by Mr. Underwood in 1824. A third locality, of easy ac- cess, is a rock immediately above the bridge, about 200 yards from the Victoria Hotel. ‘There are no traces of morains in this yalley, except at its lower extremity, about one mile below the north- western end of the lake, where innumerable blocks are scattered over a high plain near the village of Cwm-y-Glo, and rest on a sub- stratum of gravel. Valley of the Gwyrfain or Forrhyd river.—The Gwyrfain has its | origin in the lake Llyn-y-Gader, situated in the high table land which divides this valley from that of Bed Gellert. On the east bank of the lake Llyn-y-Gader is a cluster of dome-shaped bosses, and other similar examples abound on the adjacent broad and ele- vated mountain plain of Llyn-y-Gader, between Llyn Cwellyn and Bed Gellert; and overhung by the highest summit of Snowdon on the east, and by the lofty mountains of Y Carn and Mynydd Mawr on the west. This plain, Dr. Buckland is of opinion, may have formed during the glacial period a field of ice, the two chief outlets of which were Llynn Cwellyn on the north and Bed Gellert on the south; while a third vomitory, he conceives, may have passed westward from the highest peak of Snowdon along the valley of the Nantel. Valley of the Nantel or Lyfni.—At the upper end of this valley, close to the copper-mine of Drws-y-Coed, a polished surface of the slate rock exhibits flutings and striz in the normal position of these phenomena, namely, parallel to the direction of the valley. At a series of slate-quarries on the north margin of Lake Llyniau, the surfaces from which the drift had been lately removed were also polished, fluted and striated with lines, in the same direction as that of the valley, or from east to west. The Dorothea Quarry, near Tal-y-Sarn, affords a splendid example of these surfaces, where the deep deposit of overlying unstratified gravel, clay and large boul- ders has been removed. One of these blocks also exhibited strize on the flat sides, and parallel to the longer axis, but intersected by 583 a few transverse lines. A porphyritic slate rock, at the point where the Nantel railroad crosses the turnpike road, presents similar phz- nomena. All these appearances, Dr. Buckland states, are consistent with the hypothesis of their being the effects of a glacier descending westward from Snowdonia through the valley of the Lyfni. Mr. Trimmer had previously (Oct. 1836) pointed out to the author po- lished and striated surfaces at the great slate-quarries near the lower end of this valley. The thick accumulation of unstratified gravel over the slate-quarries is referred by the author to northern drift. Valley of the Gwynant.—Between Pen-y-Gwryd and Llyn Gwy- nant, the rocks which have been uncovered at a few points are also polished, fluted and striated in lines ranging from north to south, parallel to the valley. A more obvious example is stated to be exhi- bited near Bed Gellert, about 100 yards below the bridge of Pont- aber-glaslyn, and a few scorings of the rock occur between Pont- aber-glaslyn and Bed Gellert. The trough of this valley for six or seven miles, from Llyn Gwynant to Bed Gellert and Pont-aber- glaslyn, is studded at intervals with clusters of dome-shaped hillocks, having had all their projections ground away by some powerful abrading agent. One of these masses near the turnpike gate, at the north-east end of Bed Gellert, is intersected by quartz veins which project about two inches above the surface, but preserve, as usual, their polished and rounded outline. The preceding details establish, Dr. Buckland states, the frequent occurrence, in the seven principal valleys of Snowdonia, of those phenomena which are considered by Prof. Agassiz as proofs of gla- cial action, and consist of obtusely rounded, dome-shaped rocks— furrowed, fluted, striated and polished surfaces—and the occasional accumulation of mounds of detritus with boulders resting on their surface. The author then proceeds to consider the remodification of glacial detritus by violent inundations; recalling the reader’s attention to the fact, that the only two cases stated in the paper of deposits re- sembling morains are both on the south-east side of the great moun- tain cham, one at Pen Tre Voelas, high up in the valley of the Conway, the other in a high mountain valley near Llyn Ogwyn. He then shows, that on that side of the chain there are no traces of those accumulations of far-transported materials which oecur on the north-west flank of Snowdonia, and consist of pebbles of granite , as well as other rocks derived from Anglesea, Cumberland, or Ireland, associated with fragments of existing species of marine shells and a tumultuous mass of other detritus. ‘These drifted materials are found high up on the flanks of the mountains; namely, on Moel Tryfan, at the height of 1392 feet, and at Moel Faban, more than 1000 feet above the valley of the Ogwyn near Bethesda*. From the former point they gradually descend to the plain which extends to the shore near * See abstracts of Mr. Trimmer’s paper, vol. i. pp. 8381, 419; also Mr. Trimmer’s memoir in the Transactions of the Dublin Geol. Soc., vol. i. pp. 286, 335. | 584 Carnarvon, covering the whole of its surface; and Dr. Buckland is of opinion that their position may be due to a great diluvial wave or ma- rine current, advancing from the north and propelling before it the materials of which the drift is composed. Similar detritus exists also on many of the lowersea-cliffs on various parts of the coasts of Carnarvon- shire, Cardiganshire*, Denbighshire and Cheshire ; likewise in the vale of Clwyd, where the author, in 1836, found, on the property of Mr. Lloyd, near the Cefn Cave, fragments of marine shells associated with the usual detritus}; and he infers, from the fact of Mr. Trimmer and Dr. Scouler having discovered recent marine shells and drifted pebbles over the bones in the cave, and from the admixture of the bones of mammifers with diluvium in Kirkdale, Torquay, and other caverns, either that those caves were submerged subsequently to their having been inhabited, and again raised above the level of the sea, or that vast irruptions of water, apparently loaded with icebergs, had over- whelmed the country. Dr. Buckland also calls attention to accumu- lations of similar detritus spread over the plains of Cheshiret, Staf- fordshire, Shropshire§, &c.; also to a hill of diluvium about six miles south-west of Carnarvon, crowned by the camp of Dinas Dindle, pointed out to him by Mr. Trimmer in 1836. ‘The beds of gravel and clay composing the hill are strangely contorted, and though their phenomena were inexplicable to him at the time he examined the spot, he is now disposed to think that the curvatures are due to the lateral pressure of icebergs, after the manner suggested by Mr. Lyell in a paper on the cliffs of the Norfolls coast]. In conclusion, Dr. Buckland says, he must refram from entering on the general subject of Diluvium and Drift, a sufficient number of facts not having been accumulated to admit of final conclusions. His present object has been only to bring forward new evidence of the action of glaciers and bodies of driftmg water in the highest mountain-passes of Snowdonia and the subjacent valleys, and to show that there, as in the mountain groups of Cumberland and Scotland, if it be admitted that both glaciers, moving upon dry land, and icebergs, floating on water, have produced deep and last- ing impressions, by friction, upon the surface of the hardest rocks over which they passed, and that both have also transported detritus and erratic blocks to regions distant from their native source, to each of these causes may be assigned its proper function, without assuming the exclusive agency of either of them. * Mr. W. E. Logan has called Dr. Buckland’s attention to the occurrence of chalk flints in drifted gravel near Cardigan, over a space of twenty-four square miles. Some of the mounds of gravel are from 80 to 100 feet high. Mr. Logan attributes the origin of these chalk flints to a current from the north. ; t For accounts of the diluvial phenomena of this district, see vol, i. p. 402; also Reports of British Association, vols. v. and viii., and Jameson’s Edinb, Journ. vol. xxiv. p. 423. t Notices of Sir P. Egerton’s papers, vol. ii. pp. 189, 415. § Abstracts of Mr. Murchison’s paper, vol. ii. pp. 77, 230 ; also Silur, Syst., chap. xxxvii. || Ante, vol. iii. p. 171. q Ibid, pp. 332, 345, 585. A paper was afterwards read, “‘ On the occurrence of the Bristol Bone-Bed in the Lower Lias near Tewkesbury,” by Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. ; After alluding to the occurrence of the bone-bed at various places between Westbury and Watchett, also at Golden Cliff and St. Hilary in Glamorganshire, and at Axmouth, Mr. Strickland proceeds to describe its characters at three newly discovered localities, many miles to the north of the points previously known, namely, Coomb Hill, between Tewkesbury and Gloucester, Wainlode Cliff, and Bushley. 1. Coomb Hill, four miles south of Tewkesbury*.—In lowering the road through the lias escarpment during the summer of 1841 a con- siderable surface of the bone-bed was exposed, and its contents were rescued from destruction by Mr. Dudfield of Tewkesbury. The fol- lowing section is given by Mr. Strickland :-— -) Fite) one eeWeell awrsclaia iia ory sta soccens wopi'e, si Scoyere ee Pea: Pee By Maastlimestome oy, eid vias usp iit) 6s. ae Lael at De 0 38 She Mellow cla yin cn arissirtx, 13) jessie «S338 Seer D700 4. Nodules:ofilias limestone io, .i0s!i is s@ccqaiaa O 6 bp srowi Clay a) neSnbranh sold eid) ia We lacin ers porn karu aO 6. Impure pyritic limestone with Pectens and small bivalves. ....4.... Shes bie ties, iii aid Oiagno 7. Black laminated clay ........ 68 fins. « itIShe 8 5,0 8 Hordy grey, pyritic limestone © av. ure ia oo 0 2 9. Black Jaminatedislary,) lid leieias) aubdecne eth. «1 bh pl 10. Greyish sandstone .........5. PSST ora Ost La -Blackilaminatedsclay: i}. sci. dasacigeisesa- eiih « Tig 36 12s Bone=bed, noarstaimanonaswoiay.oud, Laue lbank Oy bd MBs talack:, laminateds la yay... (2/0, «fiat, crea capes 3 66 14. Compact, angular, greenish marl,..:...... 25 0 Mp UC OENAE | sec ca pened panics Nepaitch ncvsefahee <2 = SUG Ha gil 2614 @ = fe) Dip about 12° east. 64.8 The bone-bed, No. 12, rarely exceeds one inch in thickness, and frequently thins out to less than a quarter of an inch. It consists in some places chiefly of scales, teeth and bones of fishes, and small coprolites cemented by iron pyrites, but in others the organic re- mains are rare, and are replaced by a whitish micaceous sandstone. The osseous fragments,, Mr. Strickland states, have the appearance of having been washed into the hollows of a rippled surface of clay, and of having been subjected to slight mechanical action. The ex- istence of gentle currents is further proved, he says, by the presence of small rounded pebbles of white quartz, a substance of very rare occurrence in the liassic series. The only shell found in the bed at * Mr. Murchison has noticed the section formerly exposed in this escarpment, but at the time he examined the district, Mr. Strickland says, the banks were obscured by debris, and the bone-bed did not attract his attention. See Mr. Murchison’s Account of the Geology of Cheltenham, p: 24, plate, fig. 1, and Silurian System, pp. 20, 29, pl. 29, fig. 1. 586 Coomb Hill is a smooth bivalve, but too imperfect to be generically determined. 2. Wainlode Cliff, three miles west-south-west from Coomb Hill.— The section exposed at this locality has been laid open by the action of the Severn, and consists of the following beds :— Ft. in. 1. Black laminated clay, inclosing, near the top, a band of lias limestone with Ostree ...... 22) .0 2. Slaty calcareous sandstone, with a peculiar staal species Of PEcten) te a.. ja. 1 selena aie: Oo 4 3.) black laminated sclay,li) so. As comps aul loixs wtejagene Seal) 4. Bone-bed, passing into white sandstone...... 0 3 Dee colack; laminated yclay inn «: ss: kuaityssenayels dgexe Rint DieiKO 6. Light green angular marl .......... pdousegti 4,233 40 7. Red marls, with zones of a greenish colour.. 42 0 Dip very slight to the south. 9 8 7 The bone-bed is far less rich in organic remains, accumulations of fragments of bones and coprolites occurring at rare intervals; and its prevailing character is that of a fissile, white, micaceous sand- stone, sometimes acquiring a flinty hardness. The upper surface of the bed is ripple-marked, and in some cases presents impressions considered by Mr. Strickland to have been probably made by the claws of crustacea. A small bivalve is also the only shell found in the bed. The stratum No. 2, the author says, is evidently a con- tinuation of No. 6. of the Coomb Hill section. 3. Bushley, two miles and a half west of Tewkesbury.—The inter- section of the lias escarpment by the Ledbury road near Bushley afforded Mr. Strickland the following section :— . Black laminated clay, about .............. 10 . Lias limestone ~splackJamimated Clay oye eesyht wiley ety neer eae 6 . Compact slaty bed with numerous small bi- valves, and the Pecten of Wainlode and moh eS S OROE Coomb Fills So. gerecencs) 4 ead ered sacnycle 0.8 dD blackdammatedsclaync shack. ulcng ein eae 92.50 6. White micaceous sandstone, with impressions of two species of bivalve shells .......... 1b 4thO qeelack laminated (Chay frien ebateysid << fafbye oAeenene Qi jai Se Omeenis uy mania aboutese ie aac ak thee eee 20 O 9. Red marl —_— - So ere es Pe ee Pec e ee oo ewe ee eh hl ee ° fo) Dip akout 8° east. 4G, ail The sandstone bed, No. 6, agreeing precisely with that at Wain- lode Cliff, Mr. Strickland does not hesitate to consider it the repre- sentative of the bone-bed, though organic remains are wanting ; and he points out the identity of the stratum No. 4. with the beds Nos. 2. and 6. of the preceding sections. The author also refers to the railway section near Droitwich (see anté, p. 314), and identifies with 587 the bone-bed the two-feet band of white micaceous sandstone six feet above the top of the green marl, as it contains the same inde- terminable small bivalve. He has also examined sections of the lias escarpment at Norton near Kempsey, and Cracombe Hill near Evesham, and has invariably detected, a few feet above the base of the lias clay, a thin band of white sandstone containing the same shell. The bone-bed at Axmouth, Watchett, Aust, Westbury, and other southern localities, occupies precigely the same geological position, or a few feet above the top of the greenish marls which terminate the New Red system, though much more rich in organic remains ; and Mr. Strickland draws attention to this remarkable instance of a very thin stratum ranging over a distance of about 112 miles. The great abundance of fossils in some parts of this stratum the author considers an indication that a much longer period probably elapsed during its deposition, either on account of the clearness of the water or of a gentle current which prevented the precipitation of muddy particles, than while an equal thickness of the less fossiliferous clays above or below it was accumulated. The list of organic remains given in the paper includes scales of Gyrolepis tenuistriatus ? and Amblyurus ; teeth of Saurichthys api- calis, Acrodus minimus, Hybodus minor, Pycnodus? ; others bearing an analogy to those of Sargus; portion of a tooth with two finely serrated edges, and considered as probably belonging to a saurian allied to the genus Palegosaurus ; a tooth of Hybodus De la Bechet (H. medius, Ag.), a ray of Nemacanthus monilifer ; small vertebra of a fish ; bones of an Ichthyosaurus ; coprolites ; and the casts of the bivalve before mentioned. Mt. Strickland next alludes to Sir Philip Egerton’s paper on the Ichthyolites of the bone-bed (ant, p. 409), and he states that the bed cannot be of the age of the muschelkalk, as it overlies the red and green marls, which he considers to have been satisfactorily shown to be equivalent to the Keuper sandstein of Germany; and that the occurrence of muschelkalk fishes associated with lias Ich- thyolites only justifies the inference that certain species survived from the period of the muschelkalk to that of the bone-bed. There are yet stronger grounds, Mr. Strickland states, for placing the bone-bed in the liassic series in the remarkable change a few feet below it, from black laminated clay to compact ‘‘ angular” marl, greenish in the upper part and red below; and he adds, the trans- ition is so sudden that it may be defined within the eighth of an inch ; moreover no marl oceurs above the line nor black laminated clay below it ; and although, in the case of the bone bed, an arena- ceous deposit similar to the Keuper sandstein is repeated, accom- panied by some triassic organic remains, yet, the author adds, this does not invalidate the evidence of the commencement of a new order of things, or of*an interesting passage into the liassic series from the triassic system. Lastly, Mr, Strickland notices the occurrence of precisely analo- 588 gous bone-beds in the Upper Ludlow rock, described by Mr. Mur- chison in the ‘ Silurian System’ (p. 198), and in Caldy Island, near the junction of the carboniferous limestone with the old red sand- stone ; and he offers some remarks on the bone-beds being found in all the three cases near the passage from one great geological system of rocks to another. Among the presents announced at the evening meeting, the Presi- dent drew particular attention to a copy of the great Geological Map of France, executed by M. Dufrénoy and M. Elie de Beaumont, and he expressed the great gratification he felt in reading to the Society the following letter :— Paris, le 10 Decembre 1841. Mownsizeur LE Presipent,—Nous avons eu Vhonneur de vous ad- dresser il y a peu de jours, un exemplaire de la Carte Géologique de la France et du premier volume de 1]’Explication qui doit Paccom- pagner. Nous vous prions de vouloir bien l’offrir en notre nom a la Société. La bienveillance avec laquelle nous avons été accuillies par la Société et par plusieurs de ses membres lors du voyage que nous fimes en 1823 en Angleterre pour en étudier la géologie, nous fait ésperer qu’elle accueillera également avec indulgence le travail qui nous lui présentons. Nous n’oublierons pas que les belles dé- couvertes faites en Angleterre sur les terraines stratifiés nous ont servi de modéles dans |’exploration que nous avons fait de la France, et nous remercions les membres de la Société qui ont bien voulu nous initier a l’étude de la géologie Anglaise de l’appui quils nous ont preté dans nos travaux. Veuillez, Monsieur le Président, etc.,; Durrenoy. Ere pe Beaumont. To this letter the following answer was addressed to M. Dufrénoy and M. Elie de Beaumont by Mr. Murchison :— Geological Society of London, Somerset House, December 16, 1841. GENTLEMEN,—At a meeting of the Geological Society of London held yesterday, I had the honour to present, in your name, the copy of your great Geological Map of France recently received by us. On that occasion I read the letter of the 10th instant with which you had honoured me, and I characterized it as containing the highest compliment which has been conferred upon the Geological Society of London since my connexion with it. To learn from such truly eminent geologists, that the principles of classification of the sedimentary rocks of England, as formerly studied by yourselves in eur island, had led you tu undertake the splendid work which you have now so successfully completed, is indeed the highest tribute which the practical geologists of Britain can receive. I have directed your letter to be inserted in our Proceedings, whilst on my part I beg to assure you, that I shall seize the oppor- 589 tunity, which the approaching Anniversary of the Geological Society affords me, of expressing fully my deep sense of the inestimable value of your labours. IT have the honour to be, &c. &c., R. I. Murcutson, Pres. Geol. Soc. London. . January 5, 1842.—Charles Tremenheere, Esq., of the Bombay Engineers; William Kennett Loftus, Esq., of Caius College, Cam- bridge; and John Scandrett Harford, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., of Blaize Castle, near Bristol, were elected Fellows of this Society. ** A Notice on the Fossil Bones found on the surface of a raised Beach at the Hoe near Plymouth,” by Edward Moore, M.D., F.L.8., was first read. At the Meeting of the British Association at Plymouth, Dr. Moore read a paper on the same subject as that which forms part of the present communication*. In this notice he first alludes to the discovery of the beach by the Rev. R. Hennah in 18277, and to Mr. De la Beche’s account of numerous anciently raised beaches in Devon and Cornwall{; he then briefly describes the characters of the beach, its position in a hollow in the limestone rock, 100 feet wide, 70 feet deep, and, at its base, 35 feet above the present high water mark. He also notices a projecting ledge of limestone stretching several hundred feet southward from this spot, and which sustained a mass of sand, with rolled pebbles and blocks, some of them two or three feet in circumference, and forming a hill twenty to twenty-five feet high, containing patches of loose sand with fragments of Patella and Buccinum. It was, says the author, easily traced by several patches along the rocks, and proved, by its structure and contents, to be a continuation of the same beach. Dr. Moore likewise briefly describes another deposit 100 yards westward of the beach, and at a greater elevation, being 88 feet above high water, 50 feet in extent, and-10 in thickness, covered irregularly by soil. The animal remains more particularly enumerated by Dr. Moore consist of a molar and part of the jaw of a young elephant; a femur of a rhinoceros; maxillary bones of a bear, with the malar and pala- tine processes, and two teeth in each; an entire right lower ramus with teeth and tusks, the latter much worn; four separate tusks ; several fragments of long bones; fragments of jaws of the horse con- taining teeth, numerous loose teeth, portions of long bones, and two caudal vertebree; likewise portions of a deer’s jaw containing teeth. The quantity of the bones which has been found is stated to be equal to several bushels. The vertebrae of a whale, much rounded, were also discovered, with undeterminable portions of ribs. The animals * Atheneum, No. 721, and the volume of Reports of the British Asso- ciation for 1841, Trans. of the Sections, p, 62 (published 1842). + Seealso “ A Succinct Account of the Lime Rocks of Plymouth,” by the Rev. R. Hennah, 1822, p. 58. + Manual of Geology, 3rd Edition, p. 173, 1833; also Report on the Geology of Cornwall and Devon, p. 423, 1859. 590 to which the above remains belonged, are considered by Dr. Moore to have coexisted with those which inhabited the caves of Devon- shire. The author then enters upon a defence of the opinions contained in his paper read at Plymouth, respecting the mode of accumulation of the bones. He states that these osseous remains cannot have been derived from the emptying of some cave, because the mass of superincumbent matter which has been removed from above the beach proves that the bones must have been deposited where they were found at a very ancient period, and long before they could have been affected by human agency. There are also no known cayes containing bones sufficiently near. On the contrary, says Dr. Moore, if the sea was at one time at the level indicated by the beach, the Hoe must have been an island accessible by animals at low water, and there appears no obstacle to the supposition that the bears might have selected the beach to devour their prey; and the stranded whale may have added to the banquet. Whether the bones were drifted or not, their occurrence on the top of the beach, and not in it, prevents, the author says, any identity of time in their origin; but that the beach previously existed, and was of marine origin, is proved by the resemblance of the deposit to a modern beach, and its containing sea-shells of the existing period, although few in number. That the deposit is not the result of glacial action, the author observes, is probable from the want of any indication of such action in the neighbouring district; and though he does not presume to assert that this may not be a cause of drift generally, and even of the upper deposit in the same locality, yet he contends that the dissimilarity in the composition of the lower deposit sustains him in the supposition of its being of different origin, and really a deposit from the sea. Lastly, Dr. Moore, in reference to the present posi- tion of the beach far above any point attained by the sea during the greatest storms, states that the deposit must have been elevated by natural causes ; and that, however uncertain the exact period of such an event, it seems to have occurred at a time probably more recent than the epoch when the extinct animals disappeared. Appended to the paper, is a notice of a specimen of perforated limestone taken from the Hoe Lake quarries, eighty-five feet above the present level of high water, and Dr. Moore maintains his belief that the perforations were formed by Pholades, and not by snails. A paper was next read, entitled ‘‘ An Account of the Contortions and Faults produced in the Strata underneath and adjacent to the great Embankment across the Valley of the Brent, on the Great Western Railway,” by J. Colthurst, Esq. ; communicated by George Bellas Greenough, Esq., F.G.S. The author was induced to lay this paper before the Society, be- cause he conceives, that, in the phenomena exhibited by the sub- sidence in the Brent embankment, there may be found the cause of many of the contortions, faults and dislocations of strata, especially | 591 among sedimentary rocks, and which are commonly attributed to the agency of forces acting from below rather than to pressure from without. The embankment is fifty-four feet in height, and rests on vegetable soil, beneath which are four feet of alluvial clay; then occurs a bed of gravel varying from ten to three feet in thickness, but which thins out in some places, and under it is the regular London clay, traversed in almost every direction by slimy joints. The surface of the coun- try gradually slopes towards the Brent, the difference of level between the south side of the embankment and the Brent being about twenty feet. On the night of the 21st of May 1837 the embankment began to settle, and in the morning it was found that the foundation had given way, and that on the south side, or towards the Brent, a mass of ground, fifty feet long and fifteen feet wide, had protruded from under the earthwork. During the four succeeding months this mass con- tinued to increase in dimensions, and the disturbance to extend, so that the surface, for a considerable distance from the base of the embankment, had assumed an undulated outline, and the subjacent beds, where cut into, exhibited corresponding curvatures, overlappings and cracks, the whole of which are described in the memoir, but can- not be rendered intelligible without diagrams. In the embankment itself the symptoms of failure were confined to a settlement of about fifteen feet, and a large fissure near the top, on the side opposite to that where the foundation had vielded, and which extended the whole length of the slip. To this fissure, and its dip towards the disturb- ance at the base of the embankment, the author particularly directs attention, as he infers from it the nature and inclination of a fault exhibited in the diagrams which illustrate the memoir. At the end of twelve additional months, during which the embank- ment continued to slip, and the disturbance at the base to increase, Mr. Brunel directed a supplementary earthwork or terrace to be thrown down upon the swollen surface, and it was an effectual re- medy. Up to this time the total subsidence had exceeded thirty feet ; and the swollen ground, which extended nearly 400 feet in length, and from seventy to eighty feet in width, had attained an average height of ten feet, with a horizontal motion of fifteen feet ; but the general disturbance ranged to a distance of 220 feet from the foot of the slope, or to the Brent, the bank of which was forced five feet forwards : the faults varied from thirty feet to two feet, and th contortions had attained a curvature, the semi-axis of which was irt many places eight feet. ‘The author then dwells on the magnitude of the disturbance, and on the effects which may have been produced in the strata com- posing the earth’s surface, by pressure from above. He says, that in consequence of the great inequality in the thickness of the sedimen- tary rocks, due to the conditions under which they were deposited, great inequality of pressure must have arisen, and consequently con- tortions and faults have been produced, varying in amount according to the thickness and the degree of consolidation in the strata them- selyes. In support of his argument, the author quotes a passage 592 contained in Mr, Greenough’s ‘ Critical Examination of the Principles of Geology,’ and which asks the question whether contortions may not have taken place where clay alternates with limestone or silex, in consequence of an unequal rate of consolidation (p. 77). The author also alludes to the theory of Sir James Hall, but chiefly to prevent its being ‘“‘ mixed up in any way with the subject of this paper, or the inferences it contains?’ and lastly, he wishes it may be clearly understood, that. while he advocates the explanation of many geolo- gical phenomena by means of pressure from without, he does not propose that all geological disturbance should be attributed to it; nor does he deny that many, and more especially the most consider- able, irregularities in the structure of the earth may and must be assigned to other causes. «* Notice on the occurrence of Plants in the Plastic Clay of the Hampshire Coast,” by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.8., was then read. The cliffs to the east Ail west of Bournemouth are composed of horizontal strata belonging to the plastic clay formation. Hast of the town they consist of white and yellow sands, the former con- taining fragments of wood. Further along the shore the cliffs are higher, and beds of clay full of vegetable remains appear under the sands. About half a mile beyond, a stratum of fine white sand, three or four feet thick, situated near the middle of the cliffs, con- tains impressions of ferns; and a layer of sand and clay is full of small leaves. ‘The subjacent strata of clay are separated by thin layers of vegetable matter. Somewhat further, beds of white and yellow sand and sandy clay abound with beautiful leaves, and the surface of the strata is in some places covered with a thin layer of iron-sand containing impressions of ferns. In most cases, the vari- ous coloured sands are divided by beds of clay, and their fossil con- tents are distributed in layers at rather distant intervals. My. Brodie did not discover any shells. Several of the fossil plants are stated by the author to belong to the Lauraceze and Amentacez; but he says that these, as well as others which he arranges among the Characee and Cryptogami, and some of which he has not determined the characters, are all generically distinct from any British plant, and belong to those of a warmer climate. When the sandstone is freshly broken the epidermis of the fossil frequently peels off, leaving the impression of only the fibres. These remains often form masses of some thickness; and, from their state of preservation, must, ‘he author states, have been deposited tranquilly beneath the waters. A paper ‘‘ On the Mouths of Ammonites, and on Fossils contained in laminated beds of the Oxford Clay, discovered in cutting the Great Western Railway, near Christian Malford in Wiltshire.” By J. Chaning Pearce, Esq., F.G.S., was lastly read. Mr, Pearce commences by stating, that his attention was first di- rected to this part of the railway by the impression of a crushed _ | Ammonite procured at Cheltenham in April 1841, but that he was prevented from examining the locality for three or four months. 593 _ The following section of the beds is given by Mr. Pearce :— ARAM ual soil 25 eI, HT BO PES OD deat: MG rave SII SESE OOO RL PISS 8 — 3. Four or five bands of laminated clay, al- ternating with sandy clay, almost en- tirely composed of broken shells.... 6 — 4. Clay, containing Gryphea bilobata. The objects of the author are, first to draw attention to the organic bodies discovered in the laminated clay; and secondly, to describe the various forms which the mouth of the Ammonite assumes in dif- ferent species and in different stages of growth in the same species. The fossils obtained from the laminated clay are stated to be as follows:—1. A succulent plant. 2. Lignite, with oysters sometimes affixed to it. 3. Crustaceans, supposed to have inhabited the dead shell of the Ammonite*. The specimen described is stated to have a finely tuberculated and delicately thin covering; the tail to have the appearance of being divided into three portions, finely corrugated towards their edges; the body to have on each side internally five or more processes; and the head to be furnished with several short arms and two long ones jointed a little above the head and ter- minated in two claws, the longer being serrated on its inner edge. 4. Another allied crustacean is stated to have also an extremely thin and finely tuberculated covering ; to be furnished with two long arms of similar shape, each terminated at its extremity by one claw, and two others projecting from about the centre, and passing off poste- riorly are two fan-like processes of similar shape. 5. Trigonellites, two species. 6. One valve of a Pollicipes. 7. The remains of an animal considered to have been probably allied to aSepia. 8. Shells of the genera Unio, Cyclas, Astarte, Avicula, Gervilla, Pinna, Nu- cula, Rostellaria, Turritella, Ammonites +, Belemnites, and an animal to which he has applied (since the paper was read) the name of Be- lemnotheutis. In describing the last fossil, he states that the lower part is conical, blunt at the apex, and chambered internally like the alveolus of a Belemnite, with an oval siphunculus near the edge of the chambers; that it has a brown thick shelly covering which gra- dually becomes thinner towards the superior part; that immediately above the chambers is an ink-bag resting on what resembles the upper part of a sepiostaire, and composed of a yellow substance finely striated transversely, being formed of laminz of unequal den- sity; that in some specimens, broken longitudinally through the middle, are exposed long, flat, narrow processes of a different struc- ture ; that immediately beneath the superior contraction are two long feather-like processes, and one or more which are short, indica- * To this organic body Mr. Pearce has given since the paper was read the name of Ammonicolax. + Since the paper was written Mr. Pearce has consulted Mr. Pratt’s ac- count in the Magazine of Natural History for November 1841, of Oxford clay Ammonites, and ascertained that he possesses[ 4. Lonsdalii, A. Brightix], [A. Gulielmi, A. Elizabethee], A. Comptoni, and A. Konigz. The fossils included between brackets the author considers to belong to one species. 594 ting, the author thinks, probably the situation of the mouth. With reference to the first part of the paper, Mr. Pearce also notices an animal allied to Sepia or Loligo, one side being covered by a pen resembling that of the Loligo, and having immediately underneath it, at the junction of the middle with the lower third, an ink-bag resting on what resembles a sepiostaire. He mentions likewise ten or twelve species of fishes, but without giving names ; also coprolites. 2. Respecting the form of the mouth of the Ammonites and the changes at different periods of growth, Mr. Pearce states his belief, that the terminal lip or mouth has a different shape in the young shell of almost every species, but assumes in the old’a straight out- line, and that he has been aware of this circumstance several years. Of cases of young shells with differently shaped lips, he mentions Ammonites Brongniarti (Inf. oolite), A. sublevis (Oxf. clay), A. ob- tusus (Lias), A. Kenigii (Kelloway Rock, the mature shell is stated to have a straight mouth), A. Calloviensis (Kelloway Rock, the lip of the old shell is stated to be slightly contracted and to terminate with gently undulating sides), 4. Walcottii (Lias), and A. Goodhalli, fur- nished in the mature state with a single horn-like projection at the front of the mouth. In addition to these species he enumerates those noticed in the preceding part of the paper. Mr. Pearce is further of opinion that at different periods of the formation of the shell the la- teral processes were absorbed and reproduced, and that therefore they are found in various stages of growth, but are invariably want- ing in the mature shell. In some species in which the successive mouths were much contracted or expanded, the new shell the author says was continued without the absorption of the lip, leaving a highly projecting rib or a deep furrow”. After a careful examination of upwards of twenty species in his collection, with perfect mouths of all ages and from different strata, not including the Oxford clay, Mr. Pearce has found the external chamber to vary considerably in extent, occupying in some speci- mens the whole of the last whorl, but in others less than one-third, and without reference to age or species; and he therefore suggests that the young animal of the Ammonite filled the whole of the outer chamber, extending also to the extreme points of the lateral pro- cesses in those species which were provided with them ; and thereby not only received support but afforded protection to a portion of the shell extremely liable to injury. In old individuals he is of opinion that the animal when quiescent was entirely contained within the last chamber. ; At the Meeting held on the 15th of Dec. 1841, portions of the stems and other parts of Cyathocrinites quinquangularis, C. planus ; Platycrinites levis, Rhodocrinites verus, Actinocrinites triacentadac- tylus and Poteriocrinites from the mountain-limestone of Preston, were presented by Mr. Gilbertson to illustrate certain characters de- scribed by the late Mr. Miller in his work on Crinoidea; also spe- cimens of a species of Aulopora from the same formation. * The author was not acquainted with M. Al. d’Orbigny’s work, Pad. Francaise, when he wrote the paper, and was not aware of the views given. in it respecting the mouth of the Ammonite. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. Parr II. 1842, No. 85. Jan. 19th.—‘‘A Memoir on the Recession of the Falls of Niagara,” by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S., was read. The general features of the physical geography of the district tra- versed by the Niagara between Lakes Erie and Ontario, Mr. Lyell says, have been described with a considerable approach to accuracy by several writers. Prof. Eaton, in a small work published in 1824*, gives a correct section of the formations between Lewistown and the Falls of Niagara, and also refutes the hypothesis of the Lewis- town escarpment being due to a fault by an exposition of the true structure of the country. Mr. R. Bakewell in 18307, published an account of the country adjacent to the Falls, and Mr. De la Beche in 1831}, endeavoured to point out the gradual manner in which the receding Falls, if they should ever reach Lake Erie, would dis- charge the waters of the lake; Prof. D. Rogers also in 1835 § showed distinctly, that, as the Falls retrograde, they would cut through rocks entirely distinct from those over which the waters are now precipitated, and correctly represents the superior limestone at Buffalo as newer than the limestone of the Falls, though he omits the intervening saliferous formation. Mr. Conrad likewise, in his Report for 1837/||, first assigned all the formations of the country to the Silurian system ; but to Mr. James Hall (1838) @ is due the merit of having shown the true geological succession of rocks of the di- strict. The contents of the memoir may be divided into two parts: I. an account of the successive strata of the Niagara district; and II. a description of the phenomena exhibited by the Falls. I. His sketch of the geology of the district, the author states, is derived either from the published surveys of Mr. Hall, or from the information he obtained while travelling with that gentleman in the State of New York during the autumn of 1841; and he acknow- ledges the great advantage he derived from the facilities thus afforded him. The strata between Lakes Erie and Ontario appear to belong to the middle and lower portions of the English Silurian system, and * Mr. Lyell’s attention was called to this work by Mr. Conrad. + Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, 1830. + Manual of Geology, three editions, 1831,p. 55; 1832, p.55; 1833, p. 60. § Silliman’s Journal, vol. xxvii. p. 326. || States’ Report of the Geology of New York. q{ Geological Report of the State of New York for 1838. VOL. Ill, PART II. 3D 596 they are divisible into the following five principal formations: Ist. the Helderberg limestone; 2nd, the Onondago salt group; 3rd, the Niagara group; 4th, the Protean group ; and 5th, the Ontario group, 1. The Helderberg limestone, which has derived its designation from the range of mountains of the same name, and is the newest formation of the country, is exposed where the Niagara flows out of Lake Erie, and on account of the organic remains with which it abounds, it is considered to be the equivalent of the Wenlock rocks of Mr. Murchison’s Silurian system. The correctness of this stra- tigraphical position Mr. Lyell has verified by an examination of the succession of formations from the coal-field on the borders of Penn- sylvania to the group in question, the intervening deposits consist- ing, first, of old red sandstone, having at its bottom a large develop- ment of shales and sandstones called the Chemung and Ithaca for- mations, but containing organic remains which resemble those of the Devonian system; and then 1000 feet of Ludlowville shales with fossils analogous to those of the Ludlow rocks of Mr. Murchison. The superposition of this vast horizontal series is beautifully ex- posed in the banks of the Genessee and other rivers ; and near Le Roy as well as elsewhere, the Helderberg limestones crop out from be- neath them. On account of the middle portion containing nodules and layers of chert, the whole deposit was first called the corni- tiferous formation by Prof. Eaton. In this part of the State of New York, and still further to the west, in Upper Canada, the limestone is only 50 feet thick, whereas at Schoharie in the Helderberg moun. tains, 300 miles to the eastward, its thickness is 300 feet. 2. The Onondago salt group.—This series of beds, Mr. Lyell says, is extremely unlike any described member of the European Silurian group. With the exception of a stratum of limestone at the top containing Cytherina, it consists of red and green marls with beds of gypsum, the former being undistinguishable from the marls of the new red system of England; and they are also destitute of fossils. Salt springs are of frequent occurrence, but no rock salt has been disco- vered in the group. ‘The breadth of the zone of country occupied by the deposit is not less than 16 miles, and Mr. Hall infers from it and the slight southerly dip of the strata, that the entire thickness in the neighbourhood of the Niagara is at least 800 feet, an estimate con- firmed by the nearest sections eastward of the river. In some parts of the State of New York the thickness is not less than 1000 feet. Along the Niagara the formation has been greatly denuded, and is covered by superficial drift, except at a few places. 3. The Niagara group.—This series of beds commences near the rapids, above the great cataract. It comprises, Ist, the Niagara, or Lockport limestone, and 2ndly, the Niagara, or Rochester shale; and it contains in both divisions fossils identical with those of the Wenlock limestone of England, with others peculiar to North Ame; rica. The limestone at the rapids and the Falls is 120 feet thick; the upper 40 feet, being thin-bedded, have given way to the frost and the action of the stream, but the lower 80 feet, being massive, forms at 597 the cataract a precipice, beneath which occurs the shale, also 80 feet thick. 4. The Protean group.—Under the water at the base of the Falls crop out the higher beds of this formation, the name of which has been derived from the variable nature of its component strata. In the district more particularly described in this paper the group is only 30 feet thick, but farther to the eastward it attains thrice those dimensions. On the Niagara it consists of 25 feet of hard limestone, resting on 4 feet of shale; while at Rochester, eighty miles to the eastward, it comprises, among other beds, a dark shale with grapto- lites, or fossiliferous iron ore, and beneath them a limestone full of Pentamerus oblongus and P. levis, considered by Mr. Conrad to be one species. On account of the occurrence of this shell, the whole of these strata have been separated from the Niagara series, 5. Ontario group.—About half a mile below the Falls the upper- most beds of the Ontario group crop out. At the whirlpool they have a thickness of 70 feet, and at Queenstown of 200, but to the latter dimension must be added 150 feet of inferior beds, exposed be- tween Queenstown and Lake Ontario. The entire group consists of 1. Red marl with beds of hard sandstone in its Met, CUUISIOM ee cece oi sia vee ce Pe ics eee 2. White quartzose strata, so hard as to form at Queenstown a ledge projecting beyond > 25 — Pic taGe Othe) CSCanpMenity srs i: ae crs er. 3. Red marl and sandstone.................. 250 — 70 feet, Other divisions of the group, coneealed beneath the waters of the lake, may be studied in the cliffs of its eastern and north-eastern shores. ' Mr. Lyell next proceeds to give a brief account of the geographical distribution of the formations cr groups. ‘The strike of the beds be- ing east and west, and the dip very slight towards the south, the sections exposed along the Niagara afford a key to the structure of a large portion of the State of New York, the same deposits having been traced eastward through a region 40 miles in breadth by 150 in length, and westward to a much greater distance. ‘The Helder- berg and the Niagara limestones constitute platforms which ter- minate in parallel escarpments, from twenty to twenty-five miles apart, about sixteen miles of the intervening space being occupied by the saliferous group. The Helderberg escarpment, to the east of Buffalo, is 50 feet high; but in the neighbourhood of the Nia- gara it has been denuded and is half buried beneath drift ; it is how- ever resumed in Upper Canada, and eastward it may be followed to the river Hudson. The Niagara limestone escarpment presents at Lewistown and Queenstown a cliff 300 feet high, which may be traced eastward nearly 100 miles and westward for a much greater distance. The limestone series, however, constitutes only the up- permost third of the escarpment, the remainder bemg composed of the Protean and the Ontario groups ; the whole section being as fol- lows :— 3D 2 598 1. Niagara limestone, lower beds............- 30 feet. 2. Niagara, or Rochester shale... 2.1... .....- 80° 32 eProtean Med sian, 5120) 2 yehee leek teeter epee Ve tts 30 — 4, Ontario group: red marl, with hard beds in 70 Phe MS PEK) PAT tin | Se sv. ce stebn ey naiel eaeeehens cl —_—_—: quartzose grey sandstone, Re pwatly Dare ullee Ore. iia). tens, sien title iar er tet etiote 6. —— ered marlin.) (OIG. a) ey ecee veky 100 — 335 feet. Though only the lower beds of the Niagara limestone occur in the escarpment at Lewistown, yet, in consequence of the gentle rise of the strata to the north, the summit of these lower beds is at a higher level than that of Lake Erie. The whole of the Niagara platform is covered irregularly with hillocks of drift, beneath which the lime- stone is polished and furrowed. From the foot of the Queenstown escarpment to Lake Ontario, a distance of six or seven miles, is a low tract, consisting of sandstones belonging to the Ontario group, and dipping like the preceding beds slightly to the south. A section which accompanied the memoir to illustrate the pre- ceding details corresponds, the author says, in all essential particu- lars with one previously published by Mr. Hall; but the whole suc- cession of beds has been verified by Mr. Lyell in more than one line of section, from north to south. He is induced to believe, from. a comparison of English Caradoc and Llandeilo fossils with suites of organic remains examined in America, that a series of beds which underlie the Ontario group, and termed by American geologists the Mohawk group, may be older than the lower Silurian rocks, and wanting in England. II. On the Recession of the Falls.—The following measurements, Mr. Lyell says, are of great importance in speculating on the past or future recession of the Falls. ‘The distance from the point where the Niagara flows out of Lake Erie to the Falls is sixteen miles, thence to the limestone escarpment seven miles, and from this point to Lake Ontario about seven more. From Lake Erie to the commencement of the rapids, fifteen miles and a half, the river falls only 15 feet; but from the top of the rapids to the great cataract the descent is 45 feet; and the height of the Falls is 164 feet, perpendicular. From the base of the Falls to Queenstown, seven miles, the difference of level in the river is about 100 feet; but from that place to Lake On- tario, seven miles further, it is only 3 or 4 feet. If the Falls were ever at Queenstown, they must, the author observes, have been about twice their present height, having lost a small portion of the dif- ference by the southern inclination of the strata, and rather more than 100 feet by the rise of the bed of the river. With respect to the opinion of the Queenstown escarpment being due to a fault, Mr. Lyell states, that the strata on the banks of the Niagara, both above and below Queenstown, presenting the same relative position as at Lockport or Rochester, the escarpment must 299 - be entirely due to denudation; and he has no hesitation in attribu- ting this escarpment, as well as the Helderberg, to the action of the sea; these great inland cliffs having far too great a range to have re- sulted from a former extension and higher altitude of Lake Ontario. The next question, whether the ravine through which the Niagara flows is to be regarded as a prolongation of the Queenstown escarp- ment and referable to the same period, or has been cut through by the river, is, the author states, of greater difficulty. From his own observations, he concludes that the ravine has been formed by the river; but he assumes, that a shallow valley pre-existed along the line of the present defile, resembling the present one between Lake Ernie and the Falls. His reasons for conceiving that the river has been the excavating agent, are, lst, the ravine being only from 400 to 600 yards wide at the top, and from 200 to 400 at the bottom, between Queenstown and the Whirlpool; 2ndly, the inclination of the bed of the river, 144 feet per mile, being everywhere cut down to the regular strata; 3rdly, the fact that the Falls are now slowly re- ceding; 4thly, that a freshwater formation, which the author ascribes to the body of water which flowed along the original shallow valley, exists on Goat Island and half a mile lower down the river, and could not have been deposited after the Falls had receded farther back than the Whirlpool. Mr. Lyell considers that the indentation of about two acres on the American side of the Niagara, and not re- ferable to the action of that river, is no objection to the theory of the recession of the Falls, because he conceives that the stream flowing down it could have effected the denudation, aided by atmospheric agents; and because a similar objection might be founded on a ra- vine on the Canada side opposite the Whirlpool, where several par- allel gullies have been deeply eaten into by streams. The charac- ters of this ravine were carefully examined by Mr. Lyell and Mr. Hall, and appear to have escaped previous observers. .What was anciently a ravine joins the defile of the Niagara at this point, but it is entirely filled with horizontal beds of drifted pebbles, sand and loam ; the first, near the bottom of the deposit, having been cemented into a conglomerate by carbonate of lime. This is the only interrup- tion of the regular strata along the course of the Niagara; and Mr. Lyell observes, it is desirable to ascertain if it be a prolongation of the ravine which intersects the great escarpment at St. David’s, west of Lewistown. The author states, that he is by no means desirous of attaching importance to the precise numerical calculations which have been made respecting the number of yards that the Falls have receded during the last half century, as there are no data on which accurate measurements could be made; and because fifty years ago the district was a wilderness. Mr. Ingrahaw of Boston has, however, called his attention to a work published by the French Missionary, Father Hen- _ nipen, in which a view is given of the Falls as they appeared in 1678. Goat Island is represented dividing the waters as at present; but besides the two existing cascades, a third is depicted on the Canada side, crossing the Horse-shoe Fall at right angles, and appears to 600 have been produced by a projection of the Table Rock. In the de- scription Father Hennipen states, that this smaller cascade fell from west to east, and not like the other two, from south to north. Seventy-three years afterwards, in 1751, a letter on the Falls, by Kalm, the Swedish botanist, was published in the ‘Gentleman’s Ma- gazine.’ It is illustrated by a plate, in which the third Fall is omit- ted; but the writer states in a note, that at that point the water was formerly forced out of its direct course by a projecting rock, and turned obliquely across the other Fall *. Mr. Lyell then proceeds to show what are the geological evidences of the former prolongation of the river’s bed, on a level with the top of the ravine through which the Niagara now flows. The existence on Goat Island of strata of marl, gravel and sand, containing fossil freshwater shells, was known before Mr. Bakewell’s paper on the Falls was published, and they have been more recently described by - Mr. Hall+; and Mr. Lyell states, that he was very desirous of ascertaining how far they extend on the banks of the river, or whether they could be detected below the present Falls. On the south-west side, in a cliff 12 feet im perpendicular height, a bed of gravel, 7 feet from the surface, contains eight species of fluviatile and one of terrestrial shells, determmed for the author by Dr. Gould of Boston, the whole of the former now living in the wa- ters of the Niagara, and some of them even in the rapids. At the south-west extremity of Goat Island this deposit must be 24 feet thick, and it rests on the Niagara limestone. On the right bank of the river, opposite the island, are two river-terraces, one 12 feet above the stream, and the other 12 feet higher; and both have been cut out of this freshwater formation. In making a mill-dam some years ago, the same species of shells as those on Goat Island were thrown out, and Mr. Lyell had still an opportunity of col- lecting them. He was also shown a tooth of the “Mastodon Ameri- canus,’ which, with another tooth and a bone of the same animal, were discovered in the deposit 13 feet from the surface. From in- formation given to the author by Mr. Hooker, the guide, the forma- tion was found half a mile farther down the river, at the summit of the lofty precipice, 6 feet deep and composed chiefly of gravel. It contained in abundanee Cyclas rhomboidea, Valvata tricarinata and Planorbis parvus. ‘This patch of gravel demonstrates, therefore, the former position of the river at a level corresponding to that of the present summit of the cataract, and half a mile below the existing Falls. It proves however, Mr. Lyell says, much more; for im order that such a fluviatile deposit should have been accumulated in water tranquil enough to allow those shells to exist, there must have been a barrier farther down; and he is of opinion it may be safely placed as low as. the Whirlpool, or three miles from the present Falls. If * The author has observed distinct signs of recession in strata of the Silurian and Devonian epochs at the Falls of the Genessee in Rochester and at Portage, at the Fall of Allen’s Creek below Le Roy, near thé town of Batavia, and at the Falls of Jacock’s river, three miles north of Genessee. + Report for 1838; 601 this be admitted, then, the author says, ‘“‘we may be prepared to concede that the still narrower ravine beyond the Whirlpool was excayated by the river cutting back its course.” A similar terrace, consisting of the Goat Island deposit, is di- stinctly seen also on the Canada side, and at about the same level between the Falls and the Whirlpool; but its extent, height and fossil contents have not been investigated. If, Mr. Lyell observes, the river continue to intersect its way back, the sediment now depositing in its bed, above the Falls, will be laid dry in places, and cut into in the same manner as the Goat Island deposit. Assuming that the cataract was once at the Queenstown escarp- ment, allowance must be made, in speculating on the probable time which has elapsed in cutting the ravine, for a very different rate of retrocession at different periods, dependent on the changes in the formation intersected, especially of those which successively constituted the base of the precipice. At Queenstown and Lewis- town the fundamental rock, at the period when the Falls were there, was a soft red marl, and the river acted upon the same deposit for about three miles, where the rise in the channel, combined with the dip of the strata, caused the superincumbent hard quartzose beds, 23 feet thick, to form the base of the precipice. From this point the retrocession must have proceeded much more slowly for about a mile, or to the Whirlpool, where a small fall of 6 or 8 feet still marks the place of the highest beds of the sandstone. After, Mr. Lyell says, the cataract had remained nearly stationary for ages at this point, it next receded more rapidly for two miles, having soft red marl 70 feet thick to erode its way through; but beds of greater solidity, con- sisting of grey and mottled sandstone and Protean limestone, amount- ing in all to 30 or 40 feet, then offered a greater resistance, and con- tinued to retard the backward movements of the Falls, the Protean limestone occurring at the base of the present precipice. Lastly, the author offers some observations respecting the future retrocession of the Falls, quoting the opinions entertained by Mr. J. Hall (Report for 1838) on the effects which the strata above the existing cataract will have on the progress of the river, and pointing out results similar to those given by Mr. De la Beche in his ‘ Manual of Geology.’ But all predictions, Mr. Lyell says, regarding the future history of the Falls may be falsified by the disturbing agency of man. Already a small portion of the waters of Lake Erie is carried off to supply the Welland canal, and another canal on the American side of Niagara; and numerous mill-races have been projected and others will be required along both sides of the river, as the population and wealth of the country increase. Many cities also, situated to the eastward of the great escarpment and at a lower level, may in aftertimes borrow water from Lake Erie, especially as the continued felling of the forests causes streams which were formerly constant to become dry in summer; and it must not be forgotten that Lake Michigan has lately been made by a cutting to feed the Illinois river, and that whatever quantity of 602 water is abstracted from the upper lakes is taken away from the Niagara. Feb. 2nd.— Sketch of the Geology of the South of Westmore- land.” By Daniel Sharpe, Esq., F.G.S. The object of this communication, the author says, is to describe the Silurian rocks and the old red sandstone of the south of West- moreland, to define approximatively their geographical boundaries, and to compare their lithological structure and stratigraphical phe- nomena with the equivalent formations previously noticed in other parts of the kingdom. The author, in alluding to the published labours of those who preceded him in the same district, mentions the memoir of Mr. J. Phillips on a group of slate rocks between the Lune and Wharf*, | Prof. Sedgwick’s on the Cumbrian mountains}, Mr. J. G. Mar- shall’s on a section between the Shap granite and Casterton Fell{, and Prof. Sedgwick’s Geological Map of Westmoreland; also the abstract of his memoirs on the English stratified rocks inferior to the old red sandstone §. The different formations are described under the heads of,— 1. Coniston Limestone; 2. Blue Flagstone Rock; 3. Windermere Rocks ; 4. Ludlow Rocks; and 5. Old Red Sandstone. - 1. Coniston Limestone.—This calcareous band, which has been laid dowr in great detail by Prof. Sedgwick, was adopted by Mr. Sharpe as the base of his inquiries. It usually rests upon dark brown shale, and consists, in its lowest part, of a hard, dark blue, slaty limestone, from fifty to sixty feet thick at Low Wood; and in the upper, of thin beds of dark brown shale, alternating with others of blue limestone, which gradually diminish in thickness, and totally disappear towards the top of the formation. The bottom bed of limestone contains very few organic remains, but the shales and thinner calcareous bands abound with casts. A list of fossils given by the author includes fifteen Silurian species, seven of. which be- long to the iower Silurian rocks of Mr. Murchison; and the author places the Coniston limestone and associated shales on the parallel of that division of the Silurian system, but without attempting to define its exact relative position. Mr. Marshall, on the authority of Mr. J. Sowerby, places the Coniston limestone on the parallel of the Caradoc limestone. An exact account of the strike and dip of the rock, the author says, will be found in Prof. Sedgwick’s memoir, but the general bearing of the strike of the beds throughout the western part of their course is stated to be north-east, though on appreaching Shap more nearly east and west; and the ordinary dip is stated to be south-east, with an inclination rarely less than 30°, ~ and frequently exceeding 60°. * Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. iii. part i. p. 1, 1829. t Ibid, vol. iv. parti. p. 47, 1835. t Proceedings of British Association for 1889. § Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 675; Atheneum, No. 736; Proceedings, vol. iil. p. 541, 603 2. Blue Flagstone Rock.—The shales of the last deposit pass up- wards into a dark blue flagstone, the strike of which is parallel to that of the Coniston limestone, and the dip is conformable. It is stated to range from the west of Coniston by the village of Torver, the head of Coniston Lake, also south of the Ambleside road to Low Wray, and thence from the east side of Windermere, by Trout Beck and Kentmere, to the neighbourhood of the Shap granite. The faults which affected the Coniston limestone series extend into this deposit. No organic remains were found by the author, but he is of opinion that their absence may be owing to the rearrangement of the constituent particles of the rock when they assumed the slaty structure. 3. Windermere Rocks.—This vast series of beds, to which Mr. Marshall applied the name of Blawith slate, succeeds conformably to the blue flagstone, and is arranged by the author into three groups, which he calls the lowest, middle, and upper divisions. A line drawn from Coniston Water Head to Lindale, a distance of twelve miles, would cross the beds at right angles to the strike ; and though the same strata are, according to the author, frequently re- peated in a succession of parallel anticlinal ridges, yet he is of opinion that the total thickness of the formation exceeds 5000 feet. 3a. Lowest Division.—This portion of the Windermere rocks con- sists of gray schistose grits and argillaceous slates, containing thin beds of limestone on the banks of Coniston Lake. The strata are stated to be much affected by cleavage lines. The usual strike of the beds at the foot of Coniston is said to be north-east, but great variations are shown to occur in other portions of the district, in con- sequence of anticlinal ridges which range north and south. The boundary between this division and the middle one passes from the foot of Coniston Water to the ferry on Windermere, and thence by the foot of the valley of Kentmere, across Long Sleddale at Murth- waite Crag, south of Tebay Fell, Langdale Fell and Ravenstone Fell, to Rathay Bridge, but it is much affected by dislocations. The general range of the division, Mr. Sharpe states, may be traced by the grits and slates forming a series of bold hills which stand out in relief above the tame rounded masses of the argillaceous schists of the middle division. The author alludes to a band of calcareous slates shown by Prof. Sedgwick to range from Blawith to the south-west, but he states that he failed to find its eastern continuation ; he alludes likewise to Mr. Marshall’s account of having found lower Silurian fossils in it; and he is induced, on this account, to conceive that the calcareous band may form the uppermost portion of the lower Silurian rocks. The lowest division of the Windermere series is stated to be well exposed on the shores of Coniston Lake. 3b. Middle Division.—This deposit consists of read argillaceous rocks, usually striped or banded gray, blue, or white, and sometimes brown; it contains also beds of soft shale and hard grits similar to those of the lowest division. On the west side of Windermere the usual strike is north-east, but to the eastward of the lake the strata 604 are stated to be thrown into great confusion by faults ranging north and south. The boundary between this and the upper division is drawn by the author from Newby Bridge to Witherslack ; but from Whitborrow to the Lune, the southern edge of the deposit is over- laid unconformably by various rocks of more modern date. East of the Lune the Windermere rocks are stated to be less concealed ‘by other formations, the southern boundary ranging from a little east of Barbon to Barbon Fell House, where it is again overlaid by carbo- niferous limestone. The only traces of organic remains mentioned by the author are some crushed specimens, one of which he considers to be a Phragmoceras. 3c. Upper Division.—This division consists of hard, compact, purplish greywacke, little affected by cleavage, and can be distin- guished from the Ludlow rocks only by the absence of fossils. ‘The strata are greatly disturbed by north and south anticlinal faults. The division is exposed in only two limited districts; one south of Windermere, and the other east of the Lune, constituting Barbon Beacon and the western end of Casterton Fell, all the intermediate district being occupied by newer formations. 4, Ludlow Rocks.—This series rests, the author says, unconform- ably on the Windermere beds ; but the want of conformity is stated to be inferred, not from the usual evidence of irregular deposition at the passage beds, but from the relative position of the two formations, the Ludlow rocks resting, in different places, on the middle and upper divisions of the Windermere series. The deposit is composed of hard, purplish gray, argillaceous strata, and though imtersected by several cleavage plains, does not possess a slaty structure. The lines of stratification are usually well marked by thin rotten layers full of casts of shells, the intermediate portions being devoid of organic remains. ‘The range of the Ludlow rocks, as limited by the author to beds which contain fossils, and commencing west of Kendal Fell, is stated to be a narrow strip at the base of Underbarrow Scar; and on the east of Kendal Fell, isa patch on the Tenter Fell, north-west of Kendal. In the valley of the Kent, the Ludlow rocks are con- cealed by newer deposits ; but east of the valley they constitute the high anticlinal ridge of Benson Knot and Helme, the top of the latter, however, being old red sandstone ; they occupy also all the countiy thence to the Lune, except the highest point of Lupton Fell, where the Windermere rocks are brought to the surface, being bounded on the west, south, and east by mountain limestone or old red sandstone. The usual strike of the beds is said by the author to be north and south, and the dip either east or west, the strike conforming to the direction of the principal faults. The chief anticlinal north and south ridges are stated to be Benson Knot, Helme, Old Hutton Common, and Lupton Fell: several east and west faults are likewise mentioned in the paper ; asin Lambrigg Park and Fell, in Mansergh Common, west of Lunesdale, and at Old Town. A gradual passage from the upper beds of the Ludlow rocks into the tilestone of the old red sandstone is exposed at the top of Helme at Old Town and the southern part of Mansergh Common; and 605 the author is imduced to infer, from eleven of the twenty-five species found in the bottom beds of Herefordshire occurrmg also in the upper Ludlow rocks of that district, and from seven of the remaining fourteen species occurring low in the Ludlow rocks of Westmoreland, that the beds which have been considered to form the bottom of the old red sandstone ought to be included in the Silu- rian system. A further argument in support of this arrangement is drawn from the fact, that where the old red sandstone rests on the Windermere rocks these doubtful beds are wanting, the shells bemg found only where the Ludlow rock occurs. A list of thirty-four species of fossils is given m the paper, con- sisting almost solely of Ludlow Testacea figured in Mr. Murchison’s work, but the author does not state positively to what portion of the Ludlow series the Westmoreland beds ought to be assigned. 5. Old Red Sandstone.—The following distinct districts, composed of old red sandstone, occur within the area described by the author : (a.) that in the valley of the Lune and the neighbourhood of Kirkby Lonsdale; (4.) those near Kendal and in the valleys of the Kent, Sprint, and Mint; and (c.) that near Shap and Tebay. 5a. To the old red of the valley of the Lune, above Kirkby Lons- dale, the author assigns the bed of loose conglomerate and red clay, which he says dips under the scar limestone of Casterton, the lime- stone being inclined to the south-east at an angle of 30°, and the conglomerate to the east by north at an angle of 25°. The want of conformity is stated to be more manifest to the westward ; for where the limestone bends round by Kirkby Lonsdale bridge it dips 25° or 30° to the south-south-east ; at Catshole quarry the strata are arched with a north-west strike; at Hollin Hall quarry the dip is south-west 30°, and at Teamside 40° south-east; but the old red sandstone dips throughout, as far as the beds can be seen, to the east. At Caster- ton the loose conglomerate is 100 feet thick, and passes downwards into red marl, occasionally mottled blue, and estimated to be fifty feet thick. This marl rests on alternating beds of red marl and red sand- stone, beneath which is a considerable deposit of dark red tilestone and light-coloured sandstone, forming the passage beds into the Lud- low rocks. The total thickness is estimated at 1000 feet. To the north of the Casterton fault, the lower beds of the old red sandstone are stated to be raised up and exposed, far to the eastward of their position below Casterton ; and above this spot the right bank of the river is said to be composed of the lowest beds of the tilestones and the passage beds into the Ludlow rock, but the left bank to consist of tilestones and red sandstones. ‘The dip is east, at an angle of 25°. Mr. Sharpe also assigns to the old red sandstone, but not definitive- ly, the bed of brown gravel, or of brown clay full of pebbles, which covers the whole of the valley of the Lune to its junction with the Rathay, and up that valley nearly to Sedbergh. It forms a line of low hills on each side of the Lune, resting on the northern edge of the tilestones above Barbon Beck, and conceals the junction of the Ludlow rocks on the right of the Lune with the Windermere rocks on the left of that river. 606 56. Several limited patches of old red sandstone occur in the neighbourhood of Kendal, the remnants, in the author’s opinion, of a once continuous mass. They consist, near Kirkby Lonsdale, of red conglomerates, red marls, and red and light-coloured sandstones, with tilestones, which pass downwards into the Ludlow rocks. Some of these patches, as on the top of Helme and at Monument Hill, two miles north-east of Kendal, have been raised to a consider- ably higher level than the rest of the formation. Three miles above Kendal the old red sandstone is well exposed on the banks of the Sprint, consisting of Mooserconglomerateyyy in. Hehe 60 to 80 feet. Red! mand bay. iaiales SNe eked ae a 50 — Thin-bedded red sandstone.. ... 30 — The strike of the beds is north by west, and the dip east by north 10°, and they are unconformable to the adjacent older rocks. Similar beds are slightly exposed in the banks of the Mint, near Lavrock Bridge, striking east, and dipping 5° north, a bearing different from that of all the neighbouring rocks. ‘They are separated from a more extensive patch about Greyrigg by an anticlinal ridge of the middle division of the Windermere rocks, but they cover a considerable area capped by nearly horizontal beds of mountain limestone. Around Kendal is another doubtful deposit of brown gravel, and the castle stands upon it. 5c. Shap and Tebay.—The course of the Birkbeck, from its rise above Shap Wells to its junction with the Lune at Tebay, intersects a deposit of old red sandstone, and the same deposit extends for some distance eastward up the valley of the Lune. It consists of the usual triple division, but the passage beds into the Ludlow rocks are entirely wanting, and the lower beds thin out im ascending the valley from Tebay. It rests on the lowest portion of the Winder- mere series. ‘The dip is only 5° or 10° to the north-east. On the opposite side of the ridge which separates the Lune from the Low- ther, the old red again occurs in the valley of the latter river, the intervening ridge being occupied by masses of the doubtful brown gravel. Throughout this district the lowest beds of the mountain or scar limestone rest conformably on the old red sandstone. General Remarks ; or comparison of the Westmoreland strata with the equivalents in other parts of the kingdom.—The triple division of the Westmoreland old red sandstone, the author says, agrees re- markably with that of Herefordshire, as already stated by Mr. J. Phillips in his work on the Fossils of Devonshire; the only differ- ences being the disaggregated state of the conglomerates, and the absence of the cornstones as well as of the Ichthyolites. The gradual passage from the bottom of the old red sandstone into the Ludlow rocks also coincides with the phenomena described in Herefordshire by Mr. Murchison. The Ludlow rocks of Westmoreland will also bear comparison with those of the border counties of England and Wales; but, owing to the absence of the Aymestry limestone, it is not possible, the author states, to fix the exact relative position of the former with respect to the latter, but he says that they exactly 607 agree with the upper division of the upper Silurian rocks of Den- bighshire, as described by the late Mr. Bowman*. With respect to the Windermere series, the author likewise hesitates to place it on an exact parallel with any of the subdivisions of the Silurian as described in Mr. Murchison’s work, but he states that it precisely agrees in part with lower divisions of the Denbighshire upper Silu- rian rocks, both in general characters and the details of the com- ponent strata. The Coniston limestone Mr. Sharpe, as already stated, prefers to consider as a lower Silurian deposit, than as the equivalent of any one of the members of that series of rocks. The author then enters upon the inquiry of the principal epochs of disturbance and elevation of the Westmoreland rocks; and he shows, Ist, that the earliest period of disturbance was connected with the outburst of the Shap granite; inferring, from the conform- ity of the Windermere rocks with the Coniston limestone, that all these series were deposited before the outbreak of the granite ; 2nd, that the old red sandstone resting horizontally on the elevated rocks of Shap Fell, proves that this formation was accumulated after the disturbance consequent upon the protrusion of the granite; 3rd, that all the faults which affect the old red sandstone, or any newer formation, are more modern than the outburst of the granite. Although difficulties attend the fixing of the age of the Ludlow rocks relative to the outburst of the granite, on account of the complicated irregularity of the position of the former, yet the author thinks, that from the want of conformity of the Ludlow rocks to the Windermere, and from the faults which traverse them extending into the old red sandstone, that they were deposited subsequently to the protrusion of the granite. Having thus defined the limit of that event, Mr. Sharpe proceeds to show its effects. In the south of Westmoreland, he says, it threw ito a high angle the strata of Coniston limestone and Windermere schists, and produced the great east and west faults around Coniston and Windermere, as well as in Middleton and Cas- terton Fells; likewise the dislocations of the Coniston limestone, with their prolongations in the valleys of Coniston, Esthwaite, Win- dermere, Kentmere, Long Sleddale, &c., which are not continued into the Ludlow rocks. These valleys, or lines of cracks, Mr. Sharpe says, are quite distinct in character from the north and south syn- clinal valleys in those rocks; he is also of opinion that the valley of the Lune had a similar origin, but the older rocks bemg con- cealed by newer deposits, its resemblance to the other valleys 1 is less complete. Mr. Sharpe did not observe any proof of the Ludlow rocks having been disturbed anterior to the deposition of the old red sandstone, but, he says, there is abundant evidence of both those formations having been dislocated before the accumulation of the mountain limestone, as the limestone of Kendal Fell rests in a nearly horizontal position upon the upraised edges of an anticlinal ridge of Ludlow rocks, from which a covering of old red sandstone is considered to * Atheneum, No. 719, Aug. 7, 1841. 608 have been partially denudated; the anomalous manner in which the limestone overlies the old red sandstone of Kirkby Lonsdale is, he says, another instance, The principal north and south faults of the Ludlow rocks, and a portion of the Windermere schist, between Windermere and the Lune, are, however, considered by the author to be of later origin than the mountain limestone, and he particularly refers to the disturbances at Natlands, Farleton Knot, Hutton Roof, Lupton Fell, Witherslack, Whitbarrow and Kendal Fell, Lastly, the author calls attention to the successive elevation of hills in one direction by forces acting at different periods as a phenomenon which has not received the thought it deserves; and he points out as an instance the Windermere schists forming the high chain of Middle- ton and Casterton Fells, which chains, he says, were elevated from the north at the period of the eruption of the Shap granite, nearly as they are at present, for they formed, he states, the boundary of the great hollow in which the Ludlow rocks were deposited; and the great faults which cross the Fells in an east and west direction were, he is of opinion, formed at the same period, the mountain limestone not havmg been broken through by the faults in which the Rathay, the Dee, and the Barbon traverse the chain: yet this chain of hills has been elevated, he adds, in the same north and south direction subsequently to the deposition of the mountain limestone, the whole band of limestone resting upon their eastern flanks having been thrown up to a high angle, and in some places much disturbed. In consequence of the unanimous consent to the proposition moved at the Meeting held on the 19th January by Mr. Greenough, and seconded by Mr. Horner, that the President should ascertain whether His Majesty the King of Prussia would condescend to allow his name to be enrolled in the list of royal personages, and that if the permis- sion were obtained the President should make the necessary arrange- ments to carry the same into effect, Mr. Murchison stated at this Meet- ing, from the Chair, that having ascertained from His Excellency the Chevalier Bunsen, that His Majesty would accept this tribute on the part of the Society, he had, in the presence of one of the Vice-Presi- dents, the Secretaries, the Treasurer, and several of the Fellows, re- quested His Majesty to inscribe his name in the Obligation Book of the Society, assurmg him at the same time, ‘that English geolo- gists can never forget the debt of gratitude they owe to the country which has produced a Von Humboldt, a Von Buch, and an Ehren- berg, nor to the Monarch who is the Friend and Patron of those di- stinguished men.” REE N ASE anys Sa tse Fe aa ; wt bi “ie SP OTE arent Sait ato ae pit ATR? te enunaalh tie “ wie Diese bape Wye jibe wo hie MCA ion ate ileontly alle ane ih 0, ¥ ints é i bol ¥ ‘capt es ar : fies oat) es See deg Oe in dot satatkanier ts Sank hiv) aba. a ehh 4 abd Perea eee ‘lesen givin PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. Parr II. 1842. No. 86. AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 18th of February, 1842. Tue following Report from the Council was read :— In calling the attention of the Members to the state of the Society, the Council have the satisfaction of being able to report that the number of Fellows has increased during the past year from 781 to 784, while the number of Foreign and Honorary Members, and Per- sonages of Royal Blood has remained the same, viz. 81, thereby making a total increase of from 862 to 865. During the year 1841, 31 new Fellows were elected and admitted, besides 2 others who had been elected in the previous year, but had not paid their admission- fees, making a total of 33 new Members. On the other hand, there have been i3 deaths and 9 resignations, besides 8 Fellows whose names have been removed for non-payment of arrears, making a loss of 30, to be deducted from the increase of 33, leaving a clear increase of 3. The number of Honorary Members has been decreased by 4, while that of the Foreign Members has been augmented by the same number. The Council have to state, that although the expenditure of the last year has exceeded the income by the sum of 186/. 2s. 1d., the sums expended did not exceed the estimated outlay for the year, but that the deficiency has arisen from the receipts on Admission Fees and Annual Contributions being less than the average amount. They have however adopted a code of instructions, by which it is hoped that the Annual Contributions will for the future be more regularly received, and that accumulation of arrears prevented which has obliged them to enforce the bye-law respecting defaulters. ~ The Council have also to announce that eleven Fellows compounded during the last year, and that the whole of their compositions have been funded, thereby raismg the amount of the funded property of the Society from 2086/. (the amount last year) to 2410/7. At the close of 1841 the number of Compounders was 117, and the amount received from them in lieu of Annual Contributions was 3685/. 10s., VOL. III. PART II. 3E 610 making a difference of only 12757. 10s., between the amount of con- tributions received from existing compounders and the value of the funded property. The Council have also to announce that the First Part cof Vol. VI. of the Transactions has been published during the past year, and that the Second Part is in the press. ae The Council have resolved that the Wollaston Gold Medal for 1842 be awarded to Leopold von Buch, for the eminent services which he has rendered to Geology by his extraordinary and unre- mitting exertions during a long series of years, and for his recent researches in Paleontology; and that the sum.of 24/,, the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund, be granted to Mr. Morris to as- sist him in his intended publication of a tabular view of British or- ganic remains. Report of Museum Committee, 1842. The Museum contains the following collections :— . A systematic collection of simple minerals. . A systematic collection of rocks. . A systematic collection of recent shells, Borie . A systematic collection of organic remains, arranged with the rocks’ specimens. . A systematic collection of rocks of England. . A systematic collection of rocks of Scotland. . A systematic collection of rocks of Ireland. . A systematic collection of rocks of foreign countries, . A systematic collection illustrative of detached subjects in geo= logy. 10. A systematic collection illustrative of alteration of rocks in con tact with granitic and other mineral veins. . 11. A systematic collection illustrative of varieties of concretions structure, cleavage, weathering, &c. He OS DD £0 GO NF On OF No. 1.—A systematic collection of simple Minerals. The number of drawers appropriated to this department has been increased since the last anniversary from 60 to 74:>) This statement, however, by no means conveys an adequate idea of thé real exten- sion of the collection, : which may be estimated to have been increased nearly one-third, The collection, was completely re-arranged im 1831, and an alphabetical catalogue made of the specimens: During the last twelve months the arrangement has) been’ revised and im- proved and the catalogue completed up to the present time: No. 2.—A systematic or oryctological collection of Rocks. This collection, if considered independently, consists for the most part of the Freyberg Collection, and several suites presented some time since by Mr. Greenough. Its growth has of late been stinted by want of sufficient accommodation. ; A large proportion of the specimens given by Dr, MacCulloch, 611 though incorporated with the Scotch collection, properly belongs to this head. Steep No. 3.— Recent Shells. This collection was arranged some time ago, but its place having been lately shifted, the arrangement has been necessarily disturbed; a short time, however, will bring it into order again. This series might be ‘easily extended if thought desirable. No. 4.—Organic Remains. It has been at different periods in the contemplation of the Society to form a collection of organic remains, arranged after the same manner as the recent shells, but this object having been considered secondary, it has been as yet but very imperfectly attained: it has also been hoped. that, in deference to the recommendation of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, these two col- lections would have been undertaken on a scale commensurate with their importance by the British Museum. They appear to your Committee to belong properly to that establishment, and they deeply regret that the governing body of the Museum have not begun to carry into. effect the above-mentioned recommendation. Your Committee suggest the advantage, when time permits, ot forming an index to the fossil shells, either according to a natural system, or alphabetically, so that any person may knew in what drawer a given species can be found without searching catalogues of separate formations. _ No. 5.—Of the Rocks of England, fossils included, arranged in the : order of superposition. This bemg by far the most important part of the collection, re- quires a more detailed statement, It occupies 641 drawers. . The following table contains a list of its members and the space occupied by each :— Albuvitime 20 O84 22004 4 | Lower greensand ........ 27 Diluviune Yi 92 22210 94.85 204 oO Weald clay? gor oti 7yp0% 3 Cavern remains.......... BU CoBastines sand’ /ifi2 24) 20% 19 Postitertidry 415229998, A) ¥--\. Purbedh* beds: 00 9 2), Us0e 8 Boyey-eoals . 22s 2.6 Pi} “Portland: stone i! P20 11 Nortolk crag S23) 20022 2140.3 4+ Kimmeridge clay .. 0254504 Red. crag. - 202%, S27 RiieeOk OMS 1) Carel rae Ie gue 2ioweT) Log Coraline, cragy, aysuics -w aie Te vals Oxtonducleiy a) i aibies ine 4 Wpperdreshwaters: 5 4-)¢.: jam ie lowly, TOC) Soty vee 3 Wppenmarme.. vs .1; wiv oveni GowabrashQis. oo. 0. 6 Lower freshwater ........ ox. IMogesGmarblery: i epee Tey eiondon clay. °-2.°3..°. ‘22... 26 | Upper Moorland sandstone 4 ET ASEICL Clay foc tene: 2s) celsy cca ae' Path. Eon Clays 5 2 caer ae ee 2 CEU GEN A ge an eRe vis... 3D | Great oolite, includmg 29 (Ginellien ces aaah Rae ae eelarerteds 2 Stonesfield slate .... Upper greensand ........ 13 | Oolitic coal-shale and 2 Coe ene ore ee. sandstone of Yorkshire } 3HQ 612 . Fuller’s earth...........: 2 , Lower culm-measures .... 2 Inferior oolite ... 21 Herefordshire red sandstone 8 Alum shale of Whitby, &c. 2 | Devonian beds .......... 22 Marlstomer ty cte Soc s creeps e 10°) Uppersindlow, °..32.". 7... ee UTES) AOE Aa RS is 31 | Aymestry limestone ...... 38 Red irdand esheets et 3: vip luowernsiardlow. © 22. sleep ie 5 Red"sandstone™.. 7... o.<,. 13 | Wenlock limestone ...... 15 Magnesian limestone...... 16 | Wenlock shale .......... 3 INodtsrodt} ie 2s. akin 3 | Upper Silurian (South 3 Coal-measures .........- 72 Weales)i ieee eee IMIS POMC TIC gn oe eos aac 3 | Caradoc sandstone ...... 15 Upper limestone shale .... 2 | Llandeiloflags .......... 6 Carboniferous limestone .. 43 | Pre-silurian ..... Plt 8 Your Committee are of opinion that this portion of the collection at least should be pressed forward towards completion,—that the de- siderata, whatever they are, should be made extensively known; it is the part which experience has shown to be the most attractive and interesting both to foreigners and natives; it is the part most easily arranged, and the utility of which is the most apparent, and it is also that of which the deficiencies can be most readily supplied. It would be well to direct the Curator to make out a list of defi- ciencies to be printed in the Proceedings. Supplementary Specimens. Schists from Isle of Man. . Ameleseariern ts < MONG ON > ss g) Granite, porphyry, ¢ ‘ereenstone........ 6 IDE Ase A yaoi mule tbs". te betel dl SENPCMEIME i)... 20. lacunae. ae pokes lel ole eee POE Hy rye AL RLS Eee 4 Drape. Las prions, Tet he sheet ee Sire 24 The Committee submit to the consideration of the Council whether it might not be expedient, till the value of mineralogical character is more clearly ascertained, to throw the whole of the non-fossilife- rous rocks into series No. 2; and whether, in order to afford more space for the display of the fossiliferous, it might not be advantageous to deposit the whole of series No. 2. in trays, according to the plan already acted upon, under the sanction of a committee, in reference to the specimens from South America ; by this expedient forty addi- tional drawers might be obtained for the fossiliferous beds. No. 6.—Scotland. Occupies 91 drawers, viz. Alluyial . fe eR Ll Ome tee voces Con iene 9 Bincenes fags elie he boy wae ES 1 Carboniferous limestone 3 Oolitic series, fienn Elgin, 8 Old red..... 2S ees ety i U5) Morayshire, &c. ‘I Sandstones (uncertain) .. 2 TGVAIS. CR Shek ae. Ol a vate bee Bis aiehit 0) My een W MES GONG eon scie aeae New nedes). Boe ai ee: 4 Quartzirock Isis. oe sos ee 613 preilaccousischist) xs. :sisis(2 (Oei[n Basalt este senrwenies alc 1 Whiea, slate vee. 6. .-.. | Porphyry’. .2.. oo 8 Veer (CONSISS) GA ORG ears Sah 7 Canney. 3.8 858 score aos 4 P@TVSCOME V he eile isis vohoine, « » 1 Gramnpianss4..0. ose ee Hypersthene and hornblende 1 | Orkney ................ 1 MeHPEMEMerI)./. 74. . A. Soo ||, woletlandias Skee. . se ee 3 (Gxeenstone: Ise oe gh! . 2) | “Wiesternlsles ; . 524i Ae pAmipedaloidy, 2 /c.,2,. setae, 2 A large collection of fishes from Lethen near Forres, presented by Lady Gordon Cumming, is in progress of arrangement. No. 7.—Irish collection. Arranged according to counties. The following list shows at once the arrangement and the relative proportion of the specimens :— Doneral iy. 2 Sie aa Rae i 8 a] Mayor cet. ayes es vere 4 JAS ETT ES TS tna sae re 1 | Roscommon, Galway, 9 Mendonderry’.....-.,0-em>- 2 Meath, Lowth........ i JERE ir SIS IGG CLR iG 2a Gare: © ete Lae es ee, WOM sats acs. = s SRY 3 jk Da bluate faa te stn eae 5 Carlow and Leitrim ...... Ta. Waeklow, 2 oe sao ae Shi oe ermanae hy occa se sue one @ it Werty. =. sm SLPS Te 8 PANERAI Ss «ene Siolige oz ete UScah Cone oka. coir eee 8 ROMEO PS eireveile fauelia leh ctievsusisle a4) 4 S IP NN acerlorehe Segemascn ata 1 Many fossils from the mountain limestone of Ireland have been received from Lord Enniskillen. The Museum Committee of last year, 1841, recommended four new cabinets, containing eighty-four drawers, at a cost of £51; but it has not been deemed prudent to incur that expense. No. 8.—The Foreign collection. In the foreign collection, organic remains have been distributed in forty-five drawers, of which twenty-six were gained in conse- quence of the South American specimens being removed into cases. A large portion of the fossils were presented to the Society, with their names accompanying them; but these in every case have been compared by Mr. Lonsdale with the descriptions given in the best works,—those which were sent without names have since been ex- amined and named by Mr. Lonsdale: some, however, of the fossils require further examination, and their names being fairly copied out. In the foreign department of the Museum, the most interesting ad- dition, during the past year, have been six drawers of Silurian fossils from New York, presented by Mr. Henwood; and four drawers of fossils from the carboniferous series of Russia, presented by General Tcheffkine. Mr. Lyell also has deposited a valuable series of shells from the tertiary beds of Touraine. The following tion :— Total Drawers. PZ bev enee ese ya + aM 3 feGland. os sede ac diy 6 Faroe Islands... .. fed cet 2 Aerie ss ee ooh 2 Pomeden: #220. ve. psuaees 5 Norway. dete Pst eee wu Russia : Northern andCentral.. 7 Volhynia * .. Y3aiiira 1 OP NAS See ee See eR » —10 Polants Sa ee ae 1 AStrialt ca 4) abs wineenlan 2 VELA dares is. 0 Aa RO erate 4 Gyno lays a Schima eonhe ish tes 4 Prana yy isc oe 20 — 30 Bavaria : Including Franconia. . 25 Saxony, various localities 1 Freyberg Harte icstanioss: ibak 7 Thuringia teos obi eae 1 Flelizoland. te Seo AMOVern sO, ys. Duchy of Baden........ Duchy of Nassau ...... Electorate of Hesse Cassel Rhenish Prussia........ 87 Belgium : Province of Liege.... 2 Provinceof Limbourg.. 20 Province of Brabant .. 3 Province of Hainault... 3 Province of Anvers 1 statement contains a summary of the foreign collec- Total Drawers. France : Chain of the Vosges. enon Departments. Narde aioe. «, 3 See 4 Seine Inf. Eure, Cal- 9 vados, La Manche ‘Seine (basin of Paris) 32 ATGOEMMES 55/5 .4che eee 1 LGiket ose eteeee ae 1 Indre et Loire...... 1 Haute Vienne a ) Cantal yaaa oss te sossue Euy de, Dome 2. sa. 14 , Maine et Loire. oo 32 Pet Morbihan and Illé J 1 Vilaine 422.5 Haut Rhin 3.3.2. 1 Basshhing ye eae 6 Haute Saone .>.... 3 Doulas oar ee Sir cee ik CObe Gs ae eee Papi! Saone et Loire 1 HROUGe: Herat: alee 2 Haute Leite. § caaxt are Ardéche, 1.38 oe 1 Herault ie ania ae Pyrénées Orientales 1 et Arniége:, cs Hautes Pyrénées.... 1 Gironde Wen ee aa 2 Basses Pyrénées .... 1 Bouches du Rhone... 3 105 Spain : Province of Granada... 8 Provineeof Bareelona.. 1 Gibraltar Portugal : Province of Entre 1 Douro e Minho.. } ProyinceofEstremadura 4 —= D 615. Total a Drawers. States of Sardinia : ~ Duchy of Savoy...... 13 : Principality of Piedmont. 6 County of Nizza...... 2 Island of Sardinia.... 1 Switzerland : Cantons. Maud’ ...:...: 296781) .2 5 Glaris#iod. fob. sbastt. 2 Bernesistl bos.canmdlos i BeBassin' : 3.2. 1 Neuchatel’)... 0... 2 Valais - 4 Genévery és zanonii ie. I —16 Austrian Italy: Province of Vicenza... 5 Province of Padua. . 2 Province of Verona .. 2 — 9 Papal States ser, 8 Kingdom of the two Sicilies: INEIGSS e eeeoeee ae 14 RCI) ene Gee ales siesnpe —19 Malta 22.20%. wae y 4 Graham Island :....... 1 (GreeGe: fs ote Velie. 3 Ionian Republic......., 1 ANsiadvinior ee ee ee cs is Syria (Palestine) ...... coe Russian Armenia ...... 1 [PGTRS ais Saetnes Cac caaeeien Pen 7 Cuteme ese 8 India ; Provinces, Gurwal and Lahore... 7 Delhi, Ajmeer, plains 5 - and Khandesh.... = IMM Ka leno slo anaeceor pier Khandesh... ....azo-ti 1 Arungabad,.....+.....6 Bejapoor, 2.26 aul. 1 Mysore . ..) Diss d -- 1 Carried up =-19 Total Drawers. xe Brought up 19 Malabar. ......2uatao 3 Hyderabad and Presi- dency of Madras. , Northern Circars -)... Gundwana Berar cee e ot ee we eos e cove veae eceeovese Birman Empire Cochin China Chinays sno ass Coast ae Ces, sad yee land of Loo-Choo, . | Db HO Indian Archipelago : Sincapore, Borneo,Pulo Nias, Pulo > Fenang, Sumatra. . dares Java eer eo 2 6 oe 2 oe 8 ee Egypt | Isle of France Southern Africa St. Helena ‘Ascensione?). i 722.80. 178) @apede! Verde 9/1 1272298. Madeira eo+s 0 Pees cores e@ersc ee ee ee bee wee eo oe @ee es ve oo Ce a Greenland Coasts of Baffin’s Bay, Hudson’s Bay, Mel- } ville Island, &c..... fealorad ones ree Arctic regions Canada Newfoundland .. Cape Breton Nova Scotia eee e ee 2 ee 8 Be oe ecveeore eco ere @Oore oe e eee cor eeorevece eoevoervrss oo United States: MaineandNewEngland 3 Massachusetts oe Carried over — 6 616 Total Total Drawers. Drawers. Brought over 6 Republic of New ope 9 Connecticut ........ 3 Tada ss OTe ae Te New Yorkhiis. bade 11 Venezitelany inva a | New, JerseyoalY\ i. saab 3 Maryland. taal) esas 6 Brazils : Georgia and Delaware. 2 Prov. Rio Janeiro.... 1 Pennsylvania ........ 4 San Paolo and San Wenthicky: <3 35> eds: 1 Catharina ...... South Carolina me 1 Minas Geraes ...... 4 West Florida.... Rio Grande del Norte. 1 —37 Pernambuco and Bahia. 1 — 8 Galitorniaty: «. een 1 Republic of La Plata : West Indies : Prov. of Buenos Ayres .° 5 [EXERT IS sean oles 4 Straits of Magellan .... I Bahama » AG Guer :p 1 South Sea Islands...... 1 Barbadoes ....... Be at aIMaICE css ewer 3 Australia : Barbuda eM ee 1 S.E. districts.... 0.5. 26 Aanbig ets 0097 i Td aa 16 Western districts .... 3 Montserrat ........ 1 Norther” 2) 1.3 5 Guadaloupe ........ 1 Van Diemen’s Land... 4 PGS PlGM CTE) ca eek one ayeve 1 —38 Stevincent ass... 3 Mri dads isc y4) 9 wes s 2 aa Nos. 9, 10, and 11 do not appear to require notice. The South American specimens have been stowed in trays fitted to wooden cases of coarse materials and low price, but so as to be readily accessible ; and this plan answers so well, that it may be de- sirable, while the finances of the Society are low, to dispose in like manner of many other parts of the foreign collection, it being di- stinctly understood, however, that the existing arrangement is not to be broken up, and that specimens of unconnected districts shall never be allowed to occupy the same tray. LIBRARY. Your Committee have great satisfaction in bringing under the notice of the Council the judicious manner in which the Library has been arranged by Mr. Lonsdale. The whole of the volumes have been ticketed, lettered, and numbered, and to each of these a refer- ence has been made in the Catalogue. The works have been dis- tributed under the following heads :— Letters. 1.) Transaetionsio) unl. sc. Bevcne A, B, C, D. 2 NProceedimpsiisl... . . ho. donnos E. 3.- Pemodieale Beat. 4 dic. be ook F and G. 4. General Treatises on Geology.. H. 617 eiPractical Geology); A .co8 NS. .. Ld. GAyMameralogyss oi 2h03 0. eM e eee: fie Crystallography, Metallurgy, coos Nally Sap ODOR TAD gs Gui fc pice 9 caqreih : Tea GHEMVIStly. "sccyetoee onus Rjaieleld hens fue N. Oey PHYSICS. OC the cya aatadiorsls Sonebnys Pore Te Niatiral Histony:: 4 2-1-1. te» bensyeeree R. Your Committee have further to call the attention of the Council to the catalogue of all the Geological works and treatises im the Library, which also has been constructed by Mr. Lonsdale for the most part since the last Report. This important catalogue, which is bound and ready for use, is distributed in six folio volumes, viz. Topography, 4 vols.; General Treatises, 1 vol.; Works and Memoirs on Organic Remains, | vol. The collection of Maps has received some valuable additions, among which may be specified the Geological Map of France, of Messrs. Elie de Beaumont and Dufrénoy; a series of Charts from the Admiralty; and the newly published sheets of the Ordnance Surveys and the Survey of India. G. B. GREENHOUGH. C. DARWIN. E. H. BUNBURY. Comparative Statement of the Number of the Society at the close of the years 1840 and 1841. Dec. 31, 1840. Dec. 31, 1841. ConMpOUNGers ees ea ss 1 Ui hagelc sears ase ie Lg ERGSIOEUES cs\ch aia t Sete sn ccs « DeliX Shy Adie 5 RSS 201 INONZKESICENES 7. 5. Sse aleue'e : AUD) ord asit Xs 416 781 +2 784 Honorary Members........ 32 -aislo meee 28 Foreign Members ........ BOM he Nes shetelate 50 Personagesof Royal Blood... 3 ...... 3 — &1 — 8l 618 General Statement explanatory of the alteration in the Number of Fel- lows and Honorary Members, &c., at the close of the years 1840 and 1841. Number of Fellows, Compounders, Residents, and Non- residents, 3lst ‘of December; 1840 ..... cee 4 ue Add, Fellows elected durmg former] Resident ...,... 1 years, and who paid during 1841 \ Non-resident I — 2 Fellows elected during 1841, and | Residents...... 22 WhO paid ....4--.+eecoeseee J Non-residents . 51.9 — 3l 814 - Deduct, Deceased Compounders...........-. sVEuaraog — Residents....... RAE gTY AO SHO! 5 — = Non-residents, sa (0 sail dds ae 5 +50 if68 ReMOyaG yee. ee iy, ee eee ar sacar GH ete eS EROSIPNOG os iver ivien « bis S hers ina oD ONee ——- 30 Total number 31st December, 1841, as in the last page... 784 Personages of Royal Blood, 31st December, 1840 . Number of Honorary Members, Foreign Members, ee 8] Hoo worcicosvembers elected) (2% 2)... siete ee er AG : 4 Deduct, Honorary Members, deceased .... . ik Gia Sidon o.¢ 4 =e Total as in last page .... 81 ae Number of Fellows liable to Annual Contribution at the close of 1841, with the Alterations during the year. Number at. the close of 1840; 6:6 siss255522.5450022% - 258 - Add, Elected in previous years and paid in 1841...... oe oe Elected during 1841 and paid........ Nooo ds aa 22 Non-residents who became Residents ..... SI SD 7 288 Dedicth- Deceased... o/h eee cee nn. east sie Merete eee 5 INSANE A Reenomeo OI oHDG wi PSO Sos 09.05 9 Wompoundensmwrs wc i) ee slate ete etolenele 11 Became Non-resident, .).).... 2.4 see eee SS aS. TVEMOVCD eee cis © E veleie sinke tae vekotae token reise 4. — 37 Total as in last page .... 251 619 Deceased Fellows :— Compounders (2): Sir Francis Chantrey ; B. G. isi Esq. Residents (5): Richard Atkinson, Esq.; J.T. B. Beaumont, Esq. ; George Birkbeck, M.D.; General Sir R. 8S. Donkin; E. F. Hat- ton, Esq. Non-residents (6): J. E. Bowman, Esq. ; Peter Ducane, Esq. ; George ae Esq.; J. P. Hicks, Esq.; R. King, M.D.; Viscount Va- entia Honorary Members (4): W. B, Almond, M.D.; Daniel Ellis, Esq. ; ; John Hawkins, Esq.; 5. B. Lupton, Esq. Fellows removed from the Society on account of arrears of Annual Contributions (8): Thomas Alderson, Esq.; Joseph Backwell, Esq.; John Crawfurd, Esq.; Sir George Duckett, Bart.; John Dunston, Esq.; James Harfield, Esq.; John Hanson, Esq.; Wil- liam Parker, Esq. The following Persons were elected Fellows during the year 1841. January 6th.—John Dakin Gaskell, Esq. of Prospect Hill, near War- rington; and the Marquis of Bute. January 20th.—William Lindley, Esq. of Adelphi Terrace ; Colonel Edgar Wyatt; and James Hastie, Esq, Broad Street Buildings, . February 24th.—The Hon. Charles Ashburnham, late Chargé d’Af- faires at Rio Janeiro, Eaton Place ; John Pringle Nichol, LL.D., _ Professor of Astronomy in. the Univ ersity of Glasgow ; William Ick, Esq. Curator to the Philosophical Institution, Birmingham ; and James Butler Williams, Esq. Civil Engineer, cf Purton, near Swindon. March 10th.—Donald Maclean, Esq. M,P., of Wilton Castle, Bi- shop’s Auckland, Durham; His Grace the Duke of Richmond,K.G., F.R.S., &c,; Joshua Milne, Esq. of Stamford Hill; and William Lowe, Esq. Montagu Street, Russell Square. March 24th.—Rey. James Prince Lee, M.A., Head Master of King Edward’s Sehool, Birmingham; Charles D. Archibald, Esq. York Terrace, Regent’s Park; and Samuel Pett, Esq. Regent Street. April 7th.—John Forbes, M.D., Old Burlington Street; Edward Bilke, Esq. Stamford Street; Thomas Chapman, Esq. Arundel Street; Frederick Walter Simms, Esq. Bletchingley, Surrey ; John Lee, Esq. LL.D., of Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire ; and Viscount Alford, Carlton Gardens. April 21st.—Joseph Cox, Esq. Wisheach; and Hugh Fraser, Esq. May 5th.—R. H. Cheney, Esq. of Badger Hall, near Shiffnal; W. Evans, Esq. of Allestree Hall, Derby ; and John Houseman, Esq. Endsleigh Street. May 19th.—Joseph Wickenden, Esq. Birmingham. June 2nd.—John Augustus Beaumont, Esq. Regent Street; and William Vernon Guise, Esq. of Rendcombe Park, Gloucestershire, Noy. 8rd.—Joseph Martin, Esq., Swansea. Nov. 17th.—Charles Nicholson, M.D., Sydney, New South Wales, December Ist.—Samuel Stutchbury, Bay. Curator of the Philoso- -620 phical and Literary Institution, Bristol; John Wallace, Esq. of Carshalton Lodge, Surrey; James John Berkeley, Esq. Harpur Street, Bloomsbury ; and Commander Owen Stanley, of H.M.S. Britomart. The following Persons were elected Foreign Members. February 24th.—M. A. H. Dumont, Professor of Geology and Mi- neralogy in the University of Li¢ge; M. Louis Agassiz, Professor of Natural History at Neuchatel; Herr Georg Gottlieb Pusch, of Stuttgart ; and M. G. P. Deshayes, of Paris. The following Donations to the Museum have been received since the last Anniversary :-— British and Irish Specimens. Specimens of Meomite from the Magnesian Limestone Conglomerate of Ham Green, near Bristol; prpsontaa by B. H. Bright, Esq. F.G.S. Specimens of Fishes’ Teeth from the Norwich Chalk; presented by R. Fitch, Esq. F.G.S. Specimen of Leptena distorta; presented by — Glasspoole, Esq. Specimen of Cyprina Morrisii from the Cemetery, Lower Norwood ; | gpresented by Mr. Warren. Fossils from the Mountain Limestone of Kendal; presented by J. Prestwich, Esq. F.G.S. Fossils from the Oxford Clay of Wiltshire, and the Forest Marble and Fuller’s Earth near Bath; also remains of Crustacea from the Upper Greensand, Chard; presented by S. P. Pratt, Esq. F.G.S. Specimen of Chalk Flint from Great Hollingbury, Essex ; presented by Thomas Chapman, Esq. F.G.S. Fossils from the Mountain Limestone, County of Kildare; presented by the Earl of Enniskillen, F.G.S. Fossils from Clasberton, Pembrokeshire; presented by W.H. Scour- field, Esq. Remains of the Mammoth, found in a gravel-pit in the parish of Newington, near Sittingbourne ; presented by William Bland, Esq. Specimen of Cheietes radiatus from the Mountain Limestone of Castle Espie Quarry, and Palatal Teeth of Fishes from Armagh ; presented by Capt. Jones, R.N., M.P., F.G.S. Two Teeth of Otodus obliquus from the London Clay, Walton, Essex; presented by William Taylor, Esq. Specimens from the Clee Hill Coal-works, Shropshire ; presented by Thomas Botfield, Esq. F.G.S. Crania from the Great Oolite near Bath; presented by W. Walton, Esq. Fossils from the Inferior Oolite, Burton, near Bridport ; presented by E. H. Bunbury, Esq. Sec. G.S. 621 Rock Specimens from the Smalls Lighthouse; presented by Lieute- nant Sheringham, R.N. Fossils from the Chalk near Charing, presented by William Harris, Esq. F.G.S. Specimens from the Gravel of Cold Fall Wood, near Muswell Hill ; presented by N.T’. Wetherell, Esq. F.G.S. Specimen of Pecten lamellosus from the Portland Oolite ; presented by A. F. Mackintosh, Esq. F.G.S. Specimens from the Maidstone Lower Greensand; presented by Mr. Indermaur. Remains of Mammalia found in Peat, in making a new Dock at Woolwich; presented by B. G. Snow, Esq. F.G.S. Specimens from Pembrokeshire ; presented by H. Maclauchlan, Esq. F.G.5. A Series of Freshwater and Land Shells from the Newer Pliocéne deposit, Stutton, Suffolk; presented by S. V. Wood, Esq. F.G.S. A Series of Freshwater and Land Shells from Swale Cliff, Herne Bay, and Faversham, Kent, and Fossils from Boughton Hill; presented by Joshua Trimmer, Esq. F.G.8. Specimens from the neighbourhood of Ilfracombe, from the Dilu- vium of Norfolk, and a Slab of Sandstone, with impressions of footsteps, from Storton Hill, near Liverpool; presented by Rev. Prof. Buckland, D.D., F.G.S. Specimens of Cucullea decussata found-at Nash Court, near Faver- sham; presented by E. Crow, Esq. A Conection from the Old Red Sandstone of Auchmithie, near. Arbroath, and a Specimen of Limestone furrowed by drifted Sand; presented by W. C. Trevelyan, Esq. F.G.S. Fossils from the Freshwater beds, Isle of Wight; presented by James Smith, Esq. F.G.S. Fossils from the Silurian Series of Shropshire, &c.; presehted by W.H. Fitton, M.D., V.P.G.S. A Collection of Silurian Fossils from Pyrton and Tortworth, Glou- cestershire ; presented by Thomas Weaver, Esq. F.G.S. Ammonites from the Oxford Clay between Wootton Bassett and Chippenham; Specimens of Pachyodon; and Palatal Teeth of Acrodus from the Lias; presented by Samuel Stutchbury, Esq. F.G.S8. A Specimen of Kelloways Sandstone from the neighbourhood of Oaksey, Wiltshire ; presented by Charles Richardson, Esq. Fossils from the Upper Carboniferous Limestone Shales near Glas- gow ; presented by Mr. John Purdue, Jun. Ammonites from the Lias Clay near Cheltenham ; presented by R. B. Grantham, Esq. F.G.S. Ammonites and Belemnites from the Oxford Clay near Christian Malford, and a Geode from the Red Marl, Clevedon, Somerset- shire ; presented by Mr. Rich. Slabs of Hutton Roof-stone, exhibiting vermicular impressions ; presented by J. Rofe, Jun., Esq. F.G.S. ; Specimen of Trochus from the Lower Greensand near Maidstone ; presented by C. W. Martin, Esq. M.P. 622 Crinoidal Remaims from the Mountain Limestone; presented by Wm. Gilbertson, Esq. Fossils from the Lias of Gloucestershire ; presented by H. BE. Strick: land, Esq. F.G.S. Fossil Plants from the Plastic Clay, Bournemouth, Hants ; presented by Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S. Remains of the Bear and other Mammalia from the raised beach, Plymouth ; presented by Thomas Gill, Esq. M.P. Specimens from the Drift near the raised beach, Plymouth; pre- sented by Edward Moore, M.D. Psammodus porosus and other Fossils from the Mountain Limestone. near Kendal ; presented by Daniel Sharpe, Esq. F.G.8. Casts of the Molat of a Mastodon from the Crag, and of a Molar of a Hippopotamus from Happisburgh ; presented by Robert Fiteh, Esq. F.G.S. Cast of a Cranium of Rhynchosaurus from the New Red Sandstone neat Shrewsbury; presented by Mr. J. Tennant, F.G.S. Foreign Specimens. A Series of Fossils from America; presented by R. I. Murchison, Esq. Pres, G.S. Specimens of the Kimmeridge Clay of the Boulonnais, and a Mass of Quader sandsiein from near Magdeburg g; presented by Rey. ~ Prof. Buckland, D.D., F.G.S. Bottle of Water from she Artesian Well of Grenelle, and Specimens of the Sand and Mud deposited by the Water; presented by the Earl of Lovelace. Fossils from the Inferior Oolite of Bayeux, in Normandy; pre- sented by 8. P. Pratt, Esq. F.G.S. Specimens of Rocks from beyond the Antarctic Circle ; presented by E. F. Hurry, Esq. A Bislee Roh of Specimens from the Azores, Canaries, Spain and Portugal; presented by Comte de Vargas Bedemar. A Series of Tertiary Shells from Touraine; presented by Charles Lyell, Esq. V.P.G.S. Fossils from the Coal-measures and Limestone of New Brunswick, - &c., and from the Limestone and Shale of Lockport ; presented by W. J. Henwood, Esq. F.G.S. A Collection of Mammalian Remains from Perim Island; presented by Captain Fuljames. Fossils from Port Philip, Australia; presented by Richard Owen, Esq. F.G.S. Specimens from the North-west Coast of Australia; presented By Captain Wickham, R.N. A Series of Specimens frgm Java; presented by J. Rigg, Esq. Fossils from the Cliffs beyond the N.W. bend of the Murray, Southern Australia; presented by Captain Grey. Specimens from Heligoland; presented by G. M. Stephen, Esq. 623 » MiscELLANEOUS. Twelve Four-Inch Geological Models; presented by T. Sopwith, Esq. F.G.S. Model, coloured geologically, of part of the Swiss Jura, by M. Gressly; presented by Prof, Agassiz; for. Mem.G.S. The Lisrary has been increased by the Donation of about 280 Volumes and Pamphlets. a ee Cuarts Anp Maps. Sheets Nos. 75 to 79, 82 and 87, of the Ordnance Map, in continua- tion of the Trigonometrical Survey of Great Britain ; presented by the Master General and Board of Ordnance. Ordnance Townland Survey of the Counties of Galway, 139 sheets ; of Queen’s, 39.sheets; and of Wexford, 56 sheets; presented by Colonel Colby, by direction of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The. Charts, &c. published by direction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty during the year 1840; presented by Captain Beaufort, R.N., by direction of the Right Hon. the Lords Com- missioners of the Admiralty. Hodgson’s Map of Westmoreland, and Greenwood’s Map of Cum- berland; coloured geologically by Prof. Sedgwick; presented by Rev. Prof. Sedgwick, F.G.S. Carte Géologique de la France, par MM. Dufrénoy et Elie de Beau- mont, in Six Sheets; presented by the Authors. Section XVI. of the Geological Map of Saxony; presented by the Council of Mines of Freyberg. Sections of the Line of the Great Western Railway from Paddington to Reading, and of the Kemble Cutting in the line of the Chelten- ham and Great Western Railway, coloured geologically by J. B. Williams, Esq. F.G.S.; presented by Mr. Williams. Map of Arabia Petra, the Holy Land, and part of Egypt, by Mr. Richard Palmer; presented by Mr. R. Palmer. Bartlett's Index Geologicus ; presented by the Author. Three Pencil Drawings: of Ammonites from the Oxford Clay near Chippenham ; presented by S. P. Pratt, Esq. F.G.S. Lithographic Impression of Fossil Fucoids found in the New Red Sandstone formation, Cheshire; presented by F. Marrat, Esq. Lithotint Print of Fossils; presented by Mr. G. Scharf. Impression of an Engraving of Cidaris margaritifera ; presented by Mr. John Purdue, Jun. A Series of 19 Lithotint Prints; presented by C. Hullmandel, Esq. Coloured Engraving of the Thames Pokanel ; presented by Sir I. M. Brunel, F.R.S, 624 The following List contains the Names of all the Persons and Public Bodies from whom Donations to the Library and Museums were received during the past year. Abich, Dr. H. Academy of Sciences of Paris. Adams, J. J., Esq., F.G.S. Admiralty, The Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners of the. Agassiz, Prof. L., For.Mem.G.5. American Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia. Apjohn, James, M.D. Atheneum, Editor of. Bartlett, G., Esq. Bedemar, Comte de Vargas. Bischof, Gustav, Ph. D. Bland, William, Esq. Boston Society of Natural Hi- story. Botfield, Thomas, Esq., F.G.S. Bouton, M. Louis. Bright, B. H., Esq., F.G.S. Bekah Deas for the Ad- - vancement of Science. Brodie, Rev. P. B., F.G.S. Brunel, Sir I. M. Buckland, Rev. F.G.S. Bunbury, E. H., Esq., Sec. G.5. Prof.,.2.D.D., Cambridge So- ciety. Catullo, Prof. T. A. Chapman, Thomas, Esq., F.G.S. Committee of Council on Edu- cation. Craig, John, Esq. Cramer, Herr C. Crow, E., Esq. Philosophical Darwin, Charles, Esq., F.G. 8. Desor, M. E. De Zigno, Sig. A. D’Hombres-Firmas, M.le Baron. D’Omalius D’Halloy, M. J. J., For. Mem. G.S. D’Orbigny, M. Alcide. Dufrénoy, M. Ecole des Mines. Egerton, Sir P. G., Bart., M.P., F.G.S. Eichwald, Dr. Elie de Beaumont, M.L. Enniskillen, Earl of, F.G.S. Fischer de Waldheim, M. G., For. Mem. G.S. Fitch, Robert, Esq., F.G.S. Fitton, W. H., M.D., V.P.G.S. Freyberg, Camas of Mines of. Fuljames, Captain. Geneva, Natural History Society of. Geological and Polytechnic So- ciety of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Geological Society of France. Geological Society of Manchester. Gilbertson, William, Esq. Gill, Thomas, Esq., M.P. Glasspoole, —, Esq. Gordon, Alexander, Esq. Grant, Prof., M.D., F.G.S. Grantham, R. B., Esq., F.G.S. Grateloup, Dr. Greenough, G. B., Esq., F.G.S. Grey, Captain. Griffin, Richard, Esq. Gutch, J. W. G., Esq. Harris, William, Esq., F.G.S. Hausmann, Herr, J. F. L., For. Mem. G.S. Henwood, W. J., Esq., F.G.S. Hullmandel, C., Esq. Hurry, E. F., Esq. Indermaur, Mr. Ireland, The Lord Lieut. of. Johnston, Prof. J. F. W., F.G.S. Jones, Capt. R.N., M.P., F.G.S. Koch, Mr. Albert. Kranz, Herr. 625 Liebig, Prof. Justus, M.D. Linnean Society of London. Literary Fund Society. London Electrical Society. Lovelace, Earl of. Lyell, Charles, Esq., V.P. G.S. Mackintosh, A. F., Esq., F.G.S. MacLauchlan, H., Esq., F.G.S. Madras Literary Society. Mantell, G. A., LL.D., F.G.S. Marrat, F., Esq. Martin, Capt., K.B. Martin, C. W., Esq., M.P. Martins, Charles, M.D. Michelotti, Sig. Giovanni. Microscopical Society. Moore, Dr. E. Moscow, Imperial Society of. Mougeot, M. A. Moxon, Charles, Esq. Munich Academy. Murchison, Roderick Impey, Esq., Pres. G.S. Nattali, Mr. M. A. Naumann, Dr. C. F. Necker, M. L. A., For. G.S. Nicklin, P. H., Esq. Mem. Ordnance, Master General of the. Ouchterlony, Lieut., F.G.S. Owen, Prof., F.G.S. Palmer, Mr. R. Petzholdt, Dr. A. Phillips, John, Esq., F.G.S. Pratt, S. P., Esq., F.G.S. Prestwich, J., Esq., F.G.S. Purdue, Mr. John, Jun. Quetelet, M. A. Repertory of Patent Inventions, the Proprietor of. Rich, Mr. Richardson, C., Esq. Rigg, J., Esq. Rofe, J., Jun., Esq., F.G.S. VOL, III, PART II. ~~ Rogers, H. D., Esq. Royal Academy of Berlin. Royal Academy of Brussels. Royal Agricultural Society of England. Royal Asiatic Society. Royal College of Physicians. Royal College of Surgeons. Royal Geographical Society of London. Royal Irish Academy. Royal Polytechnic Society of Cornwall. Royal Society of Copenhagen. Royal Society of Edinburgh. Royal Society of London. Royle, J. Forbes, M.D., F.G.S. Russell, Lord John.» Sablonkoff, Lieut.-Gen. Alex. Scharf, Mr. G. Schimper, M. W. P. - Scientific Society of London. Scourfield, W. H., Esq. Sedgwick, Rev. Prof., F.G.S. Sharpe, D., Esq., F.G.S. |; Sheringham, Lieut. R.N. Silliman, B., Esq. Silliman, Prof.,M.D., For. Mem. G.S. Sismonda, Prof. Angelo. Smith, James, Esq. F.G.S. Snow, B. G., Esq., F.G.S. Society of Arts. » Sopwith, Thomas, Esq., F.G.S. Stephen, G. M., Esq. Strickland, H. E., Esq., F-.G.S. Stutchbury, S., Esq., F.G.S. Taylor, Richard, Esq., F.G.S. Taylor, William, Esq. Tcheffkine, General. Tennant, Mr. James, F.G.S. Trevelyan, W. C., Esq., F.G.S. Trimmer, J., Esq., F.G.S. Urquhart, David, Esq., F.G.S. Vander Maelen, M., F.G.S. Von Glocker, Herr E. F. SFr 626 Von Olfers, Herr J. F. M. Wickham, Capt. R.N. Von Pansnér, Dr. L. Wiggins, Jolin, Esq., F.G.8. Williams, J. B., Esq., F.G.S. Walker, F., Esq., F.G.S. Wilme, B. P., Esq. Walton, W., Esq. Wood, 8. V., Esq., F.G.8. Warren, Mr. Worcestershite Natural History Washington, National Institti- Society. tion at. Weaver, Thomas, Esq., F.G.8. | Zoological Society of London. Wetherell, N. T., Esq., F.G.S. List of Parmrs read since the last Annual Meeting, February 19, 1841. February 24th.—Description of parts of the Labyrinthodon leptogna- thus, and Labyrinthodon pachygnathus, from the Lower New Red Sandstone of Warwickshire, by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.S.,; Hun- terian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. March 10th.—On the Geological Structure of the Northern and Central Regions of Russia in Europe, by Roderick Impey Mur- chison, Esq., Pres. G.S.; and M. E. de Verneuil, Member of the Geological Society of France. April 7th. —Notice on the occurrence of Triassic Fishes in British strata, ee Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.G.S. —__ Note on a list of Fossils, anda Section from Lake On- tario to the State of Pennsylvania, by James Hall, Esq., of Albany, and Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq., Pres. G.S. —_—_— A letter from Prof. Nofdenskiold to Charles Lyell, Eisq., on Change of Level and Furrowed Rocks in Finland. A letter to Dr. Buckland, from Mr. Bailey, on the Sua. eee in the parish of Basford, near Nottingham. A letter addressed to Dr. Buckland by Mr. Thomp- son af Yarrells, near Poole; on an attempt to obtain Water by boring. On Boulders near Glasgow, by J. Craig, Esq.; com- municated by Rev. Dr. Buckland, Professor of Geology and Mine- ralogy in the University of Oxford, F.G.S. April 21st.—On the Geological Phenomena in the vicinity of Cape Town, Southern Africa, by Rev. W. B. Clarke, F.G.S. May 5th.—On the Distribution of the Erratic Boulders, and on the contemporaneous unstratified deposits of South America, by Charles Darwin, Esq., M.A., F.G.S. May 19th.—On the Agency of Land Snails (Helix aspersa) in cor+ roding and making deep Excavations in compact Limestone Rocks, by Rev. Dr. Buckland, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the DEELEY of Oxford, F.G.S. : On Moss Agates and other Siliceous bodies, by James Scott Bowerbank, Esq., F.G.S. June 2nd.—On the Faluns of the Loire, anda comparison of their Fossils with those of the newer Tertiary strata in the Cotentin, 627 and on the relative age of the Faluns and Crag of Suffolk, by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. June 16th..-On Newer Pliocene and Post-Tertiary Deposits at Ste- _ venston in ee by the Rey. D. Landsborough. On the Annual Destruction of the Cliffs near South- evel, by Capt. Alexander, F.G.S. Gn the Cuttings across the Bromsgrove Lickey Range, Bi puek Edwin Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. _- - Description of a Model of Arthur’s Seat, &c., Edin- Gureh. i iv R. Wright, Esq., F.G.S. Notes on part of Pembrokeshire, by H. Maclauchlan, pone e eee or oe Se Esq., F. G.S. —_-— On Saurian Remains founds in the Lower Greensand, near Hothe, by H. B. Makeson, Esq., by Richard Owen, Esq., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons, F.G.S. June 30th.—Notes to accompany a series of Fossils from Lockport. and New Brunswick, by W. J. Henwood, Esq., F.G.S. On the Locality and Geological Position of Cucullea decussata, by Joshua Trimmer, Esq., F.G.S. —— Description of a portion of the Skeleton of the Cetio- saurus, by Richard Owen, Esq., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons, F.G.S. ~ On the age of the Tertiary beds of the Tagus, with a Catalogue of the Fossils, by James Smith, Esq., of Jordan Hill, 184 Gaisy —————— Some Remarks on the Silurian Strata between Ay- mestry and Wenlock, by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. ——— On the Silurian Strata in the neighbourhood of Chris- tiania, by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. November 3rd.—Supplement to a former paper on the Classification of the Older Rocks of the English series inferior to the Old Red Sandstone, by the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, F.G.5., Woodwardian Professor in the University of Cambridge. November 17th.—A letter from Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S., to Dr. Fitton, V.P.G.S., on some of the Carboniferous and Older Rocks of Pennsylvania and New York. . December Ist.—A Report by Consul T. Carew-Hunt, on the De- struction of the Town of Praya de Victoria, in the Island of Ter- ceira, on the 15th of June, 1841. Communicated to the Council by order of the Earl of Aberdeen. -— Some Geological Remarks made during a Journey from Delhi, through the Himalaya Mountains, to the frontier of Little Thibet, by fhe Rev. Robert Everest, F.G.S. Description of the Remains of six species of Marine Turtle (Chelone) from the London Clay of Sheppey and Harwich, by Richard Owen, Esq., F.G.S., Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Surgeons. December 15th.—On Diluvia-Glacial Phenomena in Snowdonia and adjacent parts of North Wales, by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, F.G.5., Professor of Geology and ere in the University of Oxford. oF 628 December 15th.—On the occurrence of the ‘‘ Bristol Bone-bed” in the Lower Lias near Tewkesbury, by H. E. Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. January 5th, 1842.—On a Raised Beach near Plymouth, by Dr. E. Moore. On the effects produced by an Embankment on the line of the Great Western Railway, by Joseph Colthurst, Esq. On Fossil Plants from the Plastic Clay, by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S. ——— On the Mouths of Ammonites, by J. Chaning Pearce, Esq., F.G.S. January 19th.—On the Recession of the Falls of Niagara, by Charles Lyell, Esq., V.P.G.S. February 2nd.—Sketch of the Geology of the South of Westmore- land, by Daniel Sharpe, Esq., F.G.S. 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Siig Can tens Seale Banker (including 421. 9s. 8d. Wol- laston tnd) set eho eee 258 10 8 Accountant to meet current expenses. 40 0 ° 0 — 298 10 8 Arrears : So eSohi als Admission Hees? i: Grenade coe abet: Ses LO iG Annual Contributions ............ 59 17 .0 Mapieek .o.eeenie hi ape ica 5 0.0 ——_——— 81 13 0 Ordinary Income: Lee Sy othe Annual Contributions..........., - 69 B20 Admission Fees: £. ss ood Residents (22)...... 138 12 0 Non-Residents (9).. 94 10 @ — 2332 2 ~0 . ——— =O ye 11 40 Compositions : ns gSe tne Eight at 317. 10s. each :@. 2.2. 8/252" 0 70 Whee at 28i07s. cach see rol i paceaadl on) 387, 1 ies Ss Male Transactions (sold) .,............ 248 14 0 Proceedings (sold)...,............ 10 16 0 — 259 10 Geological Map. A aed Sy Pee bem eer 48 10 Wollaston Deduuon nal, 12 aon Interest on 10841. 1s. 1d, Reduced 3 percents. .,............ 32, 10" a4 Dividends : £.s. thee Six months on 22] 21.12s.11d.Consols 33 3 9 Ditto, 25651.11s. 8d. Consols .... 38 9 8 ee e/a £2054 9 5 We have compared the Books and Vouchers presented to us with these Statements, and have found them to be correct. Signed, A. AIKIN, JOS. PRESTWICH, Jun., >Aupirors. Jan, 21, 1842, DANIEL SHARPE, 63] during the year ending December 31, 1841. PAYMENTS. Bills outstanding : His Sons ices Scientific Expenditure ..............see0e0s See onan ou OL LEO) HS LTS) (oro pRAcunsetprapeddcooqadmaccbesbnagnsbecs 10 12 0 HUCCEOMIGpLUALES) bao nisiansaecleiiaeieaiscimeine te vcesbise 218i EvavisABtlOns) ccs’ cece vesaeieoes Oar carob eantiogac GoO0 Or 216 6 Collectpris Poundace (...4.s.ccscsesscsascsoeees an 8B Os O ; ——— 2] ll General Expenditure: 239 stl Repairs of Huse ........sssseecceccceccses veces -.- 24 19 10 HEPOWSC WOK MCUSCS) Pacate osc ctes cus tecasedaressaeese 175 Bt 9 Maxps, Alssessed a fo. c Sia ncsarscssecctonensteece sss PO Vis Sewers’ Rates ....... ee, eee Rean teed oe sche seabeennes 213° 0 IEOGESWHALCS' coc caesdtiet. sels Ciesssad cneteecgenees sop EL Oo eS rarochial Bates i. tee scsasec ote bse trers hase coweee V7 13.. 4 EFousehoid sHiirnituke: ussesssthetssaeetsecseee © pais Ce ple 4 TANEM, soncgawstevahts osteacapiactes Sesees, V4. Lie - 282 6 Insurages: . 6.6. 2 a. Peak oO de ae i Se Ved Pola eee EO We Salaries and Wages : £: §. a; Euvaton es eeiks jeas saieesaose soso aoedocagdsannessoobs 125: 9 -O Sub- (Car al Ory Hoe sols aceceac ies tonsebineseaseeecges POCO (OC aS avr 0: Shee) ie sek carictitlemeontasisisnecciesnecuaveseeetesticeds 84 0 O Porter and Housekeeper ........-.esee0e sctesaaitens 72 6 8 WSBEVATICN it shadaieg GN cetacschaestsccsessctesesctcllnes 33 4 0 Collector’s Poundage ..........-..eseeeees manson es 31 4 2 Gratuity to Mrs. Beauchamp ........0....essee0es 2OMOn@ 465 14 Scienmhexexpenditurey +. 2.02 2) ee Pe ol sypoO4 erg Stationery and Miscellaneous Printing......... Pe eA Investment of eleven Compositions in Consols ...... 346 10 Power of Attorney to transfer Stock...,............ Mig Testor Meetings haeqeee eee bor eo oo SE BSG Cost of Publications : eae Sou Ge Transactions ............ casoosadauoseocad wactiaegsepsoenct Ole teh ino IPLOCCEAINGS) seveceseadaceceosccccresnceesaress-s-eqrne OS ce LO ie Belay Soa Ole iain Ao ee phe _ Eo Eee See 2.2), tees OO. EL Contribution for 1840 repaid Se en eae ee ere Boz Award of Wollaston Donation Fund: £, ae a: M. Adolphe Brongniart, Gold Medal............ 10 10 O Bre Horbesneh Sqr steer deste emersecte seree scence 30 0 O 40 10 Balances in hand: ~ cS. Ge Banker, including 34/, 10s. 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The President then announced that the Wollaston Medal for 1842 had been awarded to M. Leopold de Buch, for “the eminent ser- vices he has rendered to Geology by his extraordinary and unremit- ting exertions during a long series of years, and for his recent re- searches in Paleontology ;’ and that the balance of the proceeds for the year had been awarded to Mr. Morris, “ to assist him in his in- tended publication of a tabular view of British Organic Remains.” Previously to delivering the Medal to Mr. De la Beche, the Foreign Secretary, to forward to M. de Buch, Mr. Murchison said,— GENTLEMEN, Since geology has been a science no individual has more success- fully applied a powerful mind to its cultivation, or more liberally ex- pended his private means in advancing its progress than Leopold von Buch. The chief works by which his fame was reared are well known; but with the numberless memoirs printed and published at his own charge and gratuitously distributed, I regret to say, English geologists are by no means sufficiently acquainted; and justice can- not be rendered to him until the whole of his researches are brought before the public in a combined form. In the mean time we offer our Medal to this distinguished man, to show that we seek to re- ward him not only for his acknowledged great works, but also for those efforts to advance science, which are too little known. Such, for instance, is the large geological map of Germany, including the Alps and adjacent regions, published without allusion to his name, and commonly known as the map of Martin Schropp and Co.; a most remarkable production, whether we consider the date of its publication or the expenditure of mind, labour, and money which it must have cost the author. And although the result of these la- bours has since been improved upon by the efforts of several of his gountrymen, among whom the names of Hoffmann and Von Dechen stand prominently forward, it is well to know that no one has more untiringly contributed new information to his younger friends than Von Buch. When a traveller at Berlin, upwards of two years ago, and lost in admiration at the progress which physical geography and geological maps were making in that metropolis, I was much surprised to learn, that M. von Buch had in his possession an un- published geological map of Bohemia, all, be it observed, worked out by his own patient observations on foot. Aware, from a former rapid survey of that country, that our knowledge of Bohemia was still very imperfect, I obtained from the author a coloured copy, which I first exhibited to the British Association at Glasgow (1840), and which I now present to the Geological Society. Again, after successfully developing, in the spirit of a true phi- losopher, the recondite phenomena of the metamorphism of rocks 634 by the most laborious pedestrian efforts, have we not seen, that as years rolled on and our veteran leader began to feel, that the toil of gaining the mountain crest must soon pass from his own limbs to those of younger men, he has so vigorously applied his mind to Paleontology as to throw new lights over this department of our many-headed science? No sooner did he grapple with this task, and that too when he had passed the meridian of life, than he dis- played the same originality of mind which had marked all his pre- vious inquiries. Subjecting the family of Ammonites to revision, and convinced that their innumerable species were not founded on true natural distinctions, he took the lines of suture as a basis, and thereon established a limited number of normal or typical forms, each characteristic of certain strata. The Terebratule, so common in all the secondary strata, were next passed in reyiew, and types were fixed upon, to which a number of slightly varying forms were referred, a work which our French brethren have considered so important, that they have republished it in the Transactions of the Geological Society of France. Then followed his illustration of the fossils of South America, collected by his great countryman Hum- boldt. Whilst I merely enumerate these works, I may be allowed to say a few words respecting his last published volume, “On the Fossils of Russia,” because, together with my associates, M. de Ver- neuil and Count Keyserling, I have had the means of forming an opinion of its value. Simply furnished with collections of organic remains from various parts of the Russian empire, M. de Buch, without ever visiting the country, assigned to each form he exa- mined its position in the geological series. As the researches of my friends and myself have confirmed, to a very remarkable extent, the aceuracy of the geological views of M. von Buch, drawn from such sources only, you will surely agree with me, that this work affords a most remarkable proof of the acumen of its author and of the efficacy of organic remains in identifying distant strata. But, Gentlemen, I haye already said more than enough to explain the grounds of the award of the Medal to one of the leading charac- ters of the age, and who has exercised a most powerful influence on the present state of our science. The substantial claims of Leopold von Buch are those of a profound and original thinker, and of a most enterprising field geologist, who, casting new and broad lights upon the history of the earth, has gloriously toiled throughout » life in our cause, and who, though leaded with the highest academic honours, is continually putting forward fresh claims upon the admi- ration and gratitude of his associates. On delivering the Wollaston Medal to the Foreign Secretary, the President said,— Mr. De ra Becus, ; I consign to you the Wollaston Medal awarded to M. yon Bueh, requesting you to convey it to that eminent man. It was the inten- tion of His Excellency the Prussian Minister, Chevalier Bunsen, to have been present on this oceasion; and whilst we must all regret 635 that ill health alone has prevented so distinguished a man of letters ~ from honouring us with his presence, I rejoice that no geologist is better qualified than yourself to be the medium of communication with our great associate, for no one among us is more intimately ac- quainted with those researches of M. de Buch on which his chief fame rests. Express to him, I beg, our heartiest wishes for the eon- tinuanee of his good health, and that he may long live to call forth from us proofs of the deep sense we entertain of the value of his labours. Mr. De la Beche, on receiving the Medal, expressed the great, gratification it afforded him, that his office of Foreign Secretary rendered him the channel through which the Wollaston Medal was to be transmitted to the distinguished geologist to whom it has this year been awarded. The works of Von Buch, he observed, are teo well known and appreciated to require notice; they have most ma- terially assisted in the great advance which geology has made, and recent publications have proved that his love of science was as ardent as ever, and that the importance of the labours in which he was en- gaged was undiminished. On presenting the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund to Mr. Morris, the President addressed him as follows :— Mr. Morris, The Council of the Geological Society have awarded to you the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund during the past year, to assist you in preparing for publication a table of British Organic Remains, in which you have been for some time engaged, and which, from the specimens laid before us, we believe will be of very great service in promoting the accurate study of Geology. The value of the table of the late Mr. Woodward has been acknowledged; but his prema- ture death having prevented him from enlarging its sphere as our science advanced, a new and much more comprehensive work has been urgently demanded. Tam happy that the task of meeting our wants has been undertaken by one well qualified, like yourself, by diligent research and a competent acquaintance with Natural His- tory ; whilst in thus consulting your own wishes, the Council of the Geological Society is persuaded that they are acting in the very spirit of Wollaston’s bequest, not treasuring uw) money parsimoni- _ ously, but expending it liberally upon the very fitting occasion which - your ability and research have called forth. To which Mr. Morris replied,— Srr,—I cannot sufficiently express my grateful thanks to the So- ciety for the unexpected compliment that has this day been conferred has aetuated the Council in awarding to one almost unknown to them, this honourable testimonial of their approbation, and not less flattering to me, Sir, is your kind and courteous manner in com- municating the same; and I trust that my efforts for the promotion of geological science, which haye already entailed upon me so many 636 obligations to various members of the Society, may still excite their willing co-operation towards perfecting a catalogue of British Fossil Remains, from which the geologist may reason with confidence, and which the naturalist may consult with advantage. It was then resolved :— 1. That the thanks of this Society be given to the Rev. Prof. Whewell, retiring from the office of Vice-President. 2. That the thanks of this Society be given to Francis Baily, Esq., the Earl of Enniskillen, Daniel Sharpe, Esq., and James Smith, Esq., retiring from the Council. After the Balloting Glasses had duly closed, and the lists examined by the Scrutineers, the following gentlemen were declared to have been duly elected the Officers and Council for the ensuing year :— OFFICERS. —<>-_ PRESIDENT. Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S. Hon. M.R.LA., &c. VICE-P RESIDENTS. Rey. W. Buckland, D.D. Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Oxford. C. G. B. Daubeny, M.D. F.R.S. & L.S. Reg. Prof. of Botany in the University of Oxford. ; W. H. Fitton, M.D. F.R.S. & L.S. Charles Lyell, Esq. F.R.S. & L.S. SECRETARIES. Edward Herbert Bunbury, Esq. William John Hamilton, Esq. M.P. FOREIGN SECRETARY. H. T. De la Beche, Esq. F.R.S. & L.S. TREASURER. John Taylor, Esq. F.R.S. COUNCIL. Arthur Aikin, Esq. F.L.S. Leonard Horner, Esq. F.R.S.L.S. Robert A. C. Austen, Esq. Robert Hutton, Esq. M.R.LA. Charles Darwin, Esq. F.R.S. Gideon A. Mantell, LL.D. F.R.S. Sir P. Grey Egerton, Bart. M.P. || Joseph Prestwich, jun. Esq. F.R.S. Rev. Prof. Sedgwick, F.R.S. L.8. G. B. Greenough, Esq. F-.R.S. || Earl of Selkirk, F.R.S. LS: Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq. Sir W. J. Hooker, K.C.H. F.R.S. || Henry Warburton, Esq. F.R.S. 637 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, R. I. Murcuison, Esa. F.R.S. GENTLEMEN, ALTHOUGH acquainted with my intended absence from this country during many months of the past year, you nevertheless honoured me with the station which I occupy, kindly intimating that the ac- tive pursuits of geology should not be a bar to the enjoyment of the chief distinction which you can confer. In thanking you sincerely for that proof of your good opinion, permit me to say, that if the presiding over a body of gentlemen so well knit together for a com- mon purpose, were all that you expected from me, light as well as agreeable would be the task. A charge, however, of a more serious nature is the composition of an anniversary discourse, in which I am expected to treat of the progress of geology during the past year. So very expanded is the present condition of our science, that he who attempts to give a clear synopsis of all that has been done in different parts of the globe, even in one year, and to in- dicate the desiderata to be accomplished, must make himself master of numerous foreign works. An active observer cannot well exe- cute such a task. On the other hand, if your President should simply review the last year’s proceedings of our own Society, he will but poorly serve you, for our abstracts make you well acquainted with the prominent facts and opinions of the authors. I will, therefore, adopt a middle course, and without attempting a complete sketch of the progress of geology, or tirimg you with a dry analysis of our performances, permit me to select for your consideration what I con- sider to be the chief subjects of present geological interest, whether foreign or British, and so class them that their bearing upon the advance of our science may at once be seized. If in so doing I should fail to illustrate points which some of you may consider to be better suited to this address than those which I bring before you, T trust you will recollect how brief is the season during which I have been able to detach myself from my own line of inquiry, and how imperfectly, therefore, I have been able to study the works of my contemporaries. : OBITUARY. Before we enter upon the consideration of the progress of geo- logy, let us pay our homage to the memory of those deceased Fel- lows who laboured to promote our science. On this occasion we have to mourn over one whose genius has won for himself an imperishable name. By the purest feeling of the beauties of nature, by the manly simplicity of his character, and by his sterling good sense, CHANTREY was led to his peculiar excellences as an artist. Admiring him for his unrivalled excellence in art, we geologists loved him also for the endearing ‘qualities of the man. Sir Francis Chantrey was a member of our Council, a frequent attendant both at our social meetings and in the rooms of the Society, and on all occasions was happy to serve us, though inyari- ably on one condition, that he was never put prominently forward. 638 If then his presence has often debarred us from expressing in his hearing those sentiments of esteem with which he inspired us, we have this day, alas, the opportunity of giving full utterance to our sorrow. Even as working geologists his memory has claims upon us in more than one department of our own science. Lest his bio- graphers should not glean the facts, I must now state that we have benefited by his sound advice concerning the application of colours to our geological maps, and on the best means for preserving or- ganic remains, which presented difficulties from their size, their condition, or the nature of the rock in which they were imbedded ; and upon several occasions he has assisted us by superintending the moulding of osteological specimens which have been brought to this country, and of which it was important to obtain casts. Indeed at all times was his assistance freely given where it could be useful, and his chisel even has been employed in dissecting from their ma- trix the bones of fossil reptiles. Snatched from us in the zenith of his bright career, the strong bias of his mind shines forth in his splendid bequest to the Royal Academy. Persuaded (from whatever cause arising) that art is not a acai encouraged in our country, he has decreed that Bri- tish genius shall no longer droop for want of enlightened assistance. His munificent endowment of native art is Chantrey’s proudest monu- ment, and must, indeed, produce effects far beyond the portals of out national gallery. But whatever may be the ultimate effect of this patriotic bequest, we must gratefully admire the spirit which dictated it, and ever feel a just pride in having had so good a man for our waim friend, so great a sculptor for a co-operating associate. Mr. BowMAN, whom we have very recently lost, was a naturalist who, as far as his other avocations permitied, did much good service in practical geology. His chief attainments lay in botany, and he is the author of several publications upon that science. Residing formerly at Wrexham, he acquired a very intimate knowledge of the carboniferous tracts to the south and west of that town, and he communicated to myself a good deal of valuable, original matter connected with them and the adjacent older rocks, shortly before the ‘Silurian System’ appeared. He afterwards favoured this So- ciety with some very excellent details concerning a group of Upper Silurian rocks in Denbighshire, and their junction with old red sandstone and mountain limestone, pointing out some essential mine- ral variations in these rocks upon the northern frontier of Wales, as compared with the typical strata of the same age in Shropshire, and the centre of the Silurian region. After he removed his resi- dence to Manchester, where he died, he pursued science with te- newed zeal, and was one of the most active promoters and officers of the Geological Society of that town. To be convinced indeed of his ardour and research, you have only to refer to the first volume of the Transactions of the Manchester Society, and you will find that four out of eleven memoirs are from the pen of our late asso- ciate. I shall also have occasion in the sequel to advert to a short memoir upon the glacial question which is amongst his most recent 639 productions *. His loss in Manchester must indeed be seriously felt, and from my own knowledge I can state that his absence is not. only to be regretted in these rooms, but also that his presence will be much missed in the approaching assembly of the British Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, for he had been a frequent attendant at former meetings, and had never failed both to communi- cate papers and to serve in any office in which he could be useful. In estimating his character, I should say that Mr. Bowman took a high place in that class of authors who silently but steadily ad- vance science by short and clear monographs on subjects with which they are familiar. As the class is not large, so can we ill afford to spare the assistance of one who, like Mr. Bowman, really distin- guished himself in this modest but highly useful walk. By the death of Mr. Tuomas Epineron of Glasgow, we lose one of the old and valued members of the Society, and whose name is honourably associated with that of the early school of Scottish mine- ralogists. Every geologist who has had occasion to visit the West of Scotland, found in his house a hearty welcome, and in his beautiful museum much instruction respecting the vast variety of simple mine- rals in which that region abounds. At the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Glasgow, he filled the office of one of the local secretaries, on which occasion he was untiring in his exertions, and unbounded in his hospitality, whilst he was of signal use in cementing the bonds of kind feeling between his countrymen and the men of science who came among them as visitors. Having been informed that Mr. Edington’s minerals must be disposed of; I beg to express my hope that a collection so choice, ° and so highly esteemed by mineralogists, may find some enlightened purchaser worthy of its contents. _Among our other deceased Fellows, I have still to mention three whose names are connected with our pursuits, Mr. Snow of High- gate, Dr. YeLLoty, and Mr. M¢Engry. The first of these gentlemen was not only a frequent attendant at our meetings, but an assiduous collector of fossils and a donor to our museum, particularly after the excavation of the Highgate tunnel, during which operation he be- came possessed of a fine series of shells of the London clay. Dr. Yelloly was a firm supporter of this Society at a period when it was struggling for existence under the auspices of our first Presi- dent, Mr. Greenough, and real and efficient friends were put to the test. Dr. Yelloly was among the foremost of these as an active member of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, which body afforded the rising geologists their first place of meeting in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where our founders set up their standard of independence, and claimed to have an existence as uncontrolled by the Royal So- ciety, as the medical men who aided them sought at the hands of the College of Physicians. The advantages which science has reaped from this independence of action and division of labour is now, indeed, admitted even by those who were opponents and have lived * Philosophical Magazine, November 1841, 640 to see our success. In late years, as in early life, Dr. Yelloly was forward and at his post when any liberal measure was proposed connected with the progress of science; he took an active part in the formation of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and when that body met at Birmingham he performed the duties of President of its medical section. The Rey. J. M¢Enery, a Roman Catholic clergyman, and a zeal- ous fossil osteologist, was first brought into geological notice by his labours in the bone-caves of Devonshire, near Torquay, where he resided. His prolonged researches in these caves produced an im- mense collection of fossil bones of the same species of quadrupeds as those which occurred in the celebrated Kirkdale cavern. The most striking inference from this collection, was a perfect demon- stration of the agency of hyzenas in collecting the herbivorous ani- mals into caverns during long periods, proved by the absence of rolled bones and the abundance of fractured osseous fragments bearing the marks of having been gnawed by teeth; in short, con- firming in a very remarkable manner the inhabited cave theory propounded by Dr. Buckland. Mr. M‘Enery’s collection of the bones of British cavern quadrupeds, which is one of high merit, will, I understand, be soon disposed of to the public; and I trust that part of it at least will find a resting-place in our great national collection at the British Museum. PaLmozoic GEOLOGY. SILURIAN—-DEVONIA N—CARBONIFEROUS. It was long after a true principle of classification, founded on the succession of organic life, had been applied to the tertiary and secondary rocks, that the same method was used to work out the order of the oldest strata in which the remains of animals have been — discovered. My own efforts, directed for several years to this end, have been so distinctly recognized by those whom I now address, as establishing a step by which the relative age of the older fossili- ferous strata has been subsequently developed, that I ought to apolo- gise for offering, on this occasion, even the shortest historical sketch of the process by which we have arrived at our present paleeozoic classification. Some statement seems, however, to be called for, now that the subject is passing into many hands and into various countries. Having satisfied myself, after a labour of eight years, that I had amassed all the materials requisite to establish the ex- istence of a sequence of rocks distinct from the Old Red Sand- stone and Carboniferous Limestone, and having applied local names to each of the ancient formations so situated, I was strongly urged by many scientific friends, both at home and abroad, to propose some general name for the whole group. I fixed upon the ancient geographical term “ Silurian,” which was approved of, and has since been adopted, not merely in my own country, but in the most distant parts of Europe and in America*. No sooner, however, * When Ostorius, the Roman general, conquered Caractacus, he boasted 641 had it been proposed, than another seemed requisite to charac- terize the older slaty rocks, on which the newly-named Silurian system reposed. For these an eminent continental geologist sug- gested, in a letter to myself, the classical word “ Hercynian,” de- rived from the Hartz mountains, where the rocks might be pre- sumed, from their antique aspect and mineral character, to be of re- moter age than the soft argillaceous Silurian types of Britain. Alive, however, to the danger of mingling assumptions, drawn from lithological structure, with proofs derived from unequivocal suc- cession of organic remains, and knowing that in our own country there was, in fact, a vast mass of ‘slaty rocks on which the Silurian strata reposed, and which my friend Professor Sedgwick had long studied, I urged him in describing these rocks which he had made his own, to fix on a general British geographical name. He then adopted the name of Cambrian. Nothing precise was known’ at that time of the organic contents of this lower or Cambrian system, except that some of the fossils contained in its upper members at certain prominent localities were published, Lower Silurian species. Meanwhile, by adopting the word “Cambrian,” my friend and myself were certain, that whatever might prove to be its zoological distinctions, this great system of slaty rocks, being evidently inferior to those zones which had been worked out as Silurian types, no ambiguity could hereafter arise. On the other hand, the adoption of any term derived from a part of the continent, where we had not made ourselves masters of the true sequence, might involve the whole subject in confusion. This would in reality have occurred had the word “Hercynian” been selected, for subsequent researches have taught us, that the greater portion of oldest rocks of the Hartz are younger than the Silurian system, and that their antique impress is due to metamorphic action*. In regard, however, to a descending zoological order, it still remained to be proved, whether there was any type of fossils in the mass of the Cambrian rocks different from that of the Lower Silurian series. If the appeal to nature should be answered in the negative, then it was clear, that the Lower Silu- rian type must be considered the true base of what I had named the Protozoic rockst+; but if characteristic new forms were discovered, then would the Cambrian rocks, whose place was so well established in the descending series, have also their own fauna, and the paleozoic base would necessarily be removed to a lower geological position. In a very comprehensive memoir, recently read, which, when pub- lished, will throw a clear light over the ancient rocks of the lake di- stricts, as compared with their equivalents in Ireland, Wales, and Scot- that he had blotted out the very name of Silures from the face of the earth. A British geologist had, therefore, some pride in restoring to currency the word Silurian, as connected with great glory in the annals of his country. * See Geological Transactions, vol. vi. p. 288. + Shortly afterwards Professor Sedgwick proposed the word “ Palzo- zoic”’ as a general name for all the older groups, which, preferring to my own, I immediately adopted as involving no theory, VOL, III. PART II. 3G 62 land, Professor Sedgwick has answered this appeal himself*.' Re- éxamining all the ancient fossiliferous rocks iti Cumberland, he has become convinced that they are there divisible into two great zones, referable to Upper and Lower Silurian types, the former surmounted by old réd sandstone and carboniferous limestone, and the latter re- posing on some of the oldest sedimentary rocks of our islands, the Skiddaw slates; in which no organic remains have been detected. Numerous fossils from the Berwyn mountains, Snowdonia, and other Cambrian tracts, which he colleeted many” years ago (but which, owing to the want of space at Cambridge, have been only lately unpacked), have been recently subjected to the same interrogatory; and have given the reply, that vast as the thickness of strata may be, the same forms of Orthis which typify the Lower Silurian rocks; not only range through what had been termed the Upper Cambrian (Bala, Berwyns; &c.), but also throughout the: whole of North Wales. In the mean time other observers had been working out detailed facts which pointed to the seme conclusions. “In a part of Cumber- land, Mr. James Marshall had established the presence of Silurian deposits, where it was formerly supposed still older rocks prevailed, and more recently Mr. MacLauechlan of the Ordnance Survey, has shown us that all the slaty, and im parts metamorphic tracts of Nortli Pembroke; which are coloured in my Silurian map as Cambrian, or im other words, as strata beneath the Llandeilo flags, contain many of the same forms as the Lower Silurian rocks. Before these inquiries had taken place at home, the researches of Professor Sedgwick and myself in Germany and Belgium, and of M. de Verneuil and myself in Russia, had led to the same conclusions, viz. that wherever it exists, the zone of fossiliferous strata characterized by the Lower Silurian Orthide, are the oldest beds in which organie life has been deteeted, and that many of the subjacent rocks, sometimes even when in the form of gneiss, mica schist, tale schist, chlorite slate, &é. aré nothing but metamorphic rocks, in less altered parts of which the same typical fossils are observable. If then our researches teach us that the term Cambrian must cease to be used in zoological classification, it being in that sense synonymous with “Lower Silurian,” we'see the true value of having established a type like the latter, whieh being linked on through in- termediary groups to overlying formations, the age of which was previously well known, we have arrived gradatim, and without hypo- thesis, at the apparently true base of the zoological series in Europe. It is right, therefore, that I should announce that the conventional line which was set up in the map of the Silurian region, between the Lower Silurian and the Cambrian rocks, and which has been adopted by Mr. Greenough, has no longer any reference to strata identified by distinguishing organie remains, for the same fossils are found in strata on each side of that demarcation. Such lines of division, however, when viewed as the signs of local phenomena, are not- * Proceedings, No. 82, p. 541. fy 53h 643 withstanding highly useful, both as indicating changes of litholo- gical character, great lines of disruption and lower divisions of the same palzozoic group. In short, all researches up to this day have led to the belief, that the Lower Silurian fossils were the earliest created forms, and that this “protozoic” type prevailed during that vast succession of time which was occupied in the accumulation Of - all the older slaty rocks, until the Upper Silurian period, when new creatures were called into existence, and when the earlier forms diminished and were succeeded by a profusion of chambered shells which so abundantly characterize that epoch. This, Gentlemen, is I trust a good step gained. To establish upon sound data the true theory of organic succession in the oldest forms of life, is surely important, and we ought to rejoice that the Bri- tish islands have afforded us the means systematically to work out the question. Ascending then from these lowest types, the Upper Silurian zone is one of great distinctness in England, and in the Baltic—in the northern provinces of Russia and in North Ame- rica; the Wenlock, Dudley and Ludlow fossils having been abun- dantly found in both hemispheres. As soon, however, as we have advanced through this zone, a new era is announced by the pre- sence of the earliest Vertebrata. The minute and curious fishes im the uppermost bed of the Ludlow rock, are the earliest precursors of many singular ichthyolites which succeed in that enormous for- mation, termed from its mineral character in Scotland and parts of England, the Old Red Sandstone. But im this as in nearly every other deposit, lithological characters are fugitive, and the red, green and yellow sands of the North, are found even in our fclands) as in Devonshire and the adjacent tracts, to be replaced by black schists and limestones. But here again zoology enables us to in- terpret the language of nature, for it was merely by seeing the letters of the alphabet spread out before him in a cabinet, and without even having visited the country, that Mr. Lonsdale was led to conceive that a large portion of this tract, though very dissimilar in mineral aspect, would prove to be of the same age as the Old Red Sandstone. I need not tell you how the researches of Professor Sedgwick and myself, which first indicated the presence of some members of the carboniferous system of that tract, after- wards confirmed these views, nor need I remind you that we have since extended them to various parts of Germany and Belgium, for the abstracts are already in your Proceedings and the memoir is about to appear in your Transactions. I must here, however, acquaint you, that the paper by ourselves upon the Rhenish provinces is admirably illustrated by a description of the Devonian fossils of that region, prepared at our request by M. E.de Verneuil and M. d’Archiac, in which many new genera and species are established, and the group is delineated with close- ness. of research and profound knowledge of natural history. In the same communication these authors offer a general table of Palawo- © zoic fossils, which in sustaining in the strongest manner the true intermediate character of the Devonian system, as suggested by- 362 644 Mr. Lonsdale, seems to be one of the most valuable documents yet presented to our consideration, in leading us to view the palzozoic rocks as a great tripartite series composed of the Carboniferous, De- vonian, and Silurian systems. Further, I would specially draw your attention to the enlarged views of our French coadjutors, derived from extensive study,in which they estimate the relative increase and decrease of various genera and species of fossils in the three divisions of the earlier periods, and show that whilst a few species (twenty only in upwards of 2750 distinct species or well-marked varieties) range throughout the tri- partite series, yet that each system has a distinctly typical fauna, whe- ther we derive our conclusions from researches in our own parts of Europe, or from an examination of American and Russian forms*. Whilst speaking, however, of this table, I must at the same time do justice to one of our own countrymen, Mr. Austen, the value of whose researches in Devonshire you have had previous oppor- tunities of estimating. I have recently seen a MS. table prepared some time since by this able geologist, but the use of which he has liberally granted to Mr. Morris, who is preparing that general synoptical view of British organic remains, the publication of which you have resolved to encourage ft. In remote countries, the palzeozoic classification of Silurian, De- vonian, and Carboniferous types has been extended, by my com- panions and myself, from Russia in Europe into Asia, and, may I add, that an inspection of some fossils of the far-distant Altai leads me to conclude that the examination of that chain will afford the same results? Though our own naturalists have not yet penetrated to Pekin, the Russian Major of Engineers, Kovanko, has acquainted us with the existence of an extensive coal-field not far from that metropolis{ ; and if time and the wear and tear of life permit, I despair not of planting the Silurian standard on the wall of China, by approaching it through the country of our old allies. Again, Southern Africa and the South Seas have afforded their quota of Silurian fossils, but above all other foreign countries, North America appears to be rich in rocks of the same age. Of this fact indeed the Geological Society received the clearest evidence in the excellent section of Mr. James Hall, and the fine suite of organic remains which accompanied it§. We have thus the most convincing * M. de Verneuil has, with my full consent, enriched this general table of comparison by the addition of the names of all.the new species and characteristic paleozoic types collected in our two visits to Russia, and the description of which we are now preparing.—March 1842. + See previous account of the Award of the Wollaston Fund, p. 635, + Journal des Mines de Russie, 1838, p. 191. § Geological Proceedings, vol. iii. p.416. I was very much struck with the clear, unpretending, and workmanlike manner in which Mr. J. Hall had the kindness to communicate his views to myself, respecting the Si- lurian and other paleozoic rocks of the United States, in the letter which was read to the Society; and 1 am glad to find that this able geologist has been of great service to Mr. Lyell in his present tour in America, Mr. 645 proofs that the primeval cras were distinguished by a wide if not universal spread of the same genera and species of animals. We have yet to analyze the enormous tracts of Australia over which British influence extends, before we can be said to have gathered to- gether all the palzozoic data which are essential to a sound general classification. The travels of Cunningham, Mitchell, Grey, and others of our countrymen, permit us however to conclude that the ancient strata of these regions may eventually be worked into a classification approaching to our own. In that singular country, in which so large a portion of the existing terrestrial and marine fauna differ so essen- tially from those of every other region, it is curious to detect in the rocks: many fossil Corallines and Mollusks* closely analogous to the Silurian species of the British Isles, thus adding another proof to many we already possess, that the same climatological and physical conditions were very widely spread during the earlier ages of the earth. Slender as our information is as yet respecting the natural history of that wide and detached continent which British industry is reclaiming, we cannot but anticipate a rapid accession to our knowledge, now that some highly-gifted naturalists are esta- blished in it. Whilst I simply allude to Mr. W. MacLeayt and Captain Philip King, whose researches are directed to branches of science connected with our own, itis my duty to mention more spe- cially the Rey. W. B. Clarke, a member of this Society, who has pre- viously contributed to our Proceedings and Transactions, and who in his recent voyage to Australia has afforded us fresh evidence that his leisure hours will still be employed in geological pursuits. A short residence at the Cape of Good Hope enabled him to com- municate to us a memoir on the structure of that colony, which seems to confirm what we had previously learnt from Herschel and Smith concerning its northern limits, and leads us to conclude that rocks of the Silurian age constitute the chief sedimentary masses of the southern promontories, though often much altered by the intru- sion of igneous rocks. Having alluded to Australia, I cannot refrain from expressing my delight, that Captain Grey, whose sketches of his arduous jour- neys in the wildest portions of that land are already placed among our standard works of travels, and whose future researches are cer- tain to enrich our knowledge, should happily have been selected to J. Hall has since forwarded to me his memoir, entitled ‘Notes on the Geology of the Western States.’—Silliman’s Journal, vol. xlii. p. 51. * See Mitchell's Expedition into the interior of Eastern Australia, vol. i. chap. 1; vol. ii. chap. 15. ; Although Trilobites so characteristic of the protozoic xra have not yet been detected, my friend Mr. MacLeay acquaints me that he has re- cently recognized the first fossil crustacean found in Australia, a macrourous decapode, which being discovered by Mr. Emery of the Beagle, has been brought home by that officer, and through Dr. Fitton has found its way into our museum. “This crustacean (writes Mr. MacLeay) is nearly allied to Thalassina, and is interesting as a specimen from being the first fossil crustacean, and I believe the only one yet found in New Hollana,”’ 646 rear the nascent establishment of Adelaide, at the same time that a most valued member of our own body, Sir John Franklin, is ren- dering Van Diemen’s Land a school of natural knowledge. Under the more euphonous name of Tasmania (derived from its real discoverer Tasman), the intrepid polar voyager, though now un- aided by the great zoologist, the companion of his former toils, assembling together a few men of science and letters, has founded the “ Tasmanian Philosophical Society,” to the. first Number of whose published labours, printed at Hobart Town, I beg to refer you as containing an introduction and several memoirs which would do credit to any Society in this metropolis. The geological articles contained in it refer only to the structure of Kerguelen’s Land, and fossil wood from Macquarrie Plains; but.as some very remarkable fossils of very ancient forms have already been procured from the vieinity of Hobart Town, I trust that the energy of the governor and his known devotion to our pursuits, will induce him to procure from some one of the intelligent scientific staff which surrounds him, a detailed account of the position and relations. of these organic re- mains, the possession of a good suite of which is still a desideratum in the Geological Society of London*. In estimating the progress of inquiry in this department of geology in our own country, the recent work of Professor Phillips upon the Paleozoic fossils of Devonshire and the adjacent tracts claims our special attention, not only on account of the talent which he has shown in describing many new forms, but also on ac- count of the classification which he suggests. We are already sig- nally indebted to this author for inquiries in various departments of geology, and especially for his volume upon the organic remains of the Carboniferous Limestone, Without the previous existence of that work, there might have been some difficulty in asserting that the Silurian is, asa whole, independent of the Carboniferous system, The recent inquiry is a part of his duty in a public office in which he is fortunately employed, and the suggestion of which does infi- nite honour to Mr. de la Beche, and credit to the government who sanctioned the appointment.. From Devonshire the Ordnance geo- logical forees, directed by these able leaders, have moved into the Silurian region. Doubtless, under such discerning eyes, and with such a number of assisting hands as are now turned into this for- merly deserted tract, many new forms may be expected to appear. If, however, the Silurian catalogues should be much augmented * The geological notices in the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, consist of a description of some silicified wood from Macquarrie Plains by Dr. J. D. Hooker, and a sketch of the mineral structure of the northern part of Kerguelen’s Land by Dr. M*Cormick, both attached to Captain James Ross’s expedition. The latter acquaints us that this tract is exclu- sively composed of trappean (basaltic) and metamorphic? rocks, with the exeeption of certain truncated and dismembered beds of ¢oal which are traceable at intervals, pretty much J presume, like the broken and isolated pertions of coal which are found in the trap rocks of the northern end of the Isle of Skye. ; 647 and. enriched. by the labours now so vigorously directed to that point by government authority, I trust that geologists will parden the omissions and defects of the person who first toiled to unravel the phenomena of that region, assisted only by a very few of its kind inhabitants*. . Such personal eonsiderations are, however, of little moment, and I pass from them te that. which is of real importanee, the establishment of the best paleeozoie classification. Now the first question is, have any such new lights been thrown upon the subject of the elder.rocks by the recent work of Mr Phillips upon Devonshire, as to change the nomenelature previously adopted both at home and abroad, and to substitute for it that pro- posed.by Mr, Phillips, namely, Upper, Middle, and Lower Paleozoic strata? I confess that as I read this volume I perceived none, ex- cept that after describing the species, the author shows that the fos- siliferous strata of the Eifel are the equivalents of those of South Devon, a point, however, whieh had been previously established. by Professor Sedgwick and myself. > re - Adopting from ourselves the word “Paleozoic,” Mr, Phillips: ex tends however its original meaning, and applies it to all the strata con- taining organic remains, from the oldest formation to the Magnesian limestone inclusive. His Lower Paleeozoie rocks are admitted to be exactly synchronous with those which were worked out as types under the name of Silurian, and yet he entirely omits that term in his parallel table of equivalents, in which he styles them “ Transition and Primary Strata;’ whilst for the ordinary names to parallel with his “ Middle Paleeozoies,” the much newer terms of Eifel and South Devon are made use of—terms of comparison, it will be recollected, which were introduced by Professor Sedgwick and myself long ufter the establishment of the Silurian type. I ask those geologists who supported me by their approbation throughout my labours, if the name first proposed by him who worked out and defined a system of classification, is to be suppressed when not only no evidence is brought to disprove its value, but when succeeding observers in various parts of Europe and America have sanetioned it. But as this is now simply a subject of nomenclature, and my facts are not disputed, let us see whether for all the practical purposes of our science, the term Silurian, as first proposed, ought to be preferred, in use, to the term * Lower Paleozoic,” which is to supplant it. * In preparing my work I derived much assistance from a valuable 6ri- ginal MS. on the Structure of Shropshire by Mr. A. Aikin, the earliest modern geologist, who, with his associate Mr. I. Webster, worked in this field; whilst my chief co-operating friends were the Rev. T, T. Lewis of Aymestry, Dr. Lloyd of Ludlow, and Mr. Davies of Llandoverey.. It is; however, to Mr. Lewis that I am more indebted than to any other person, for he had acquired a yery accurate knowledge of the order of the strata, of his neighbourhood before I yisited it. He was, indeed, my companion in the field in visiting several important localities, and as I can truly say “hee meminisse juvat,”’ 1 sincerely thank a friendly eritic in the Edinburgh Review, April 1841, for having dwelt upon these facts in the history of the *‘ Silurian System.” Es 648 The word was chosen because it was liable to no misconceptions, and never could lead to false theoretical deductions. It is, as be- fore stated, simply a geographical name, derived from a region con- taining newly defined types of succession. When subsequently we used “ Paleozoic” as a comprehensive term for all the older rocks, Professor Sedgwick and myself intended to apply it generally to that great series which embraces the Carboniferous, Devonian or Old Red Silurian and Cambrian groups. In extending the paleozoic range so as to include the magnesian limestone, Mr. Phillips does so because that formation contains some species of Producti very analogous to carboniferous forms. But he knows well that rocks of the same age in Germany and in our own country, contain the remains of several species of Saurians, and the recent exploration of Russia (1841) further establishes the important fact, that deposits in the very same place in the series as the magne- sian limestone, and loaded with Producti, are also charged with Sau- rians. What, then, are the zoological bases which ought to define the _ boundary lines between large groups of strata? Are they the verte- brata or invertebrata? If such a great feature of change in animal life as the earliest appearance of Saurians is to be taken as the limit of one vast geological division, we must exclude the magnesian lime- stone from the older series, and Mr. Phillips's proposed extension of the term Paleozoic cannot be sustained. Adopting this principle of the vertebrata as our guide, we may go on to say, that the true Silu- rian type ceases in the ascending order at that band of rocks which, in truth, forms the very uppermost layer or summit of the Silurian strata, in which the lowest order of vertebrata or fishes first appear, and then having ascended through another vast series, loaded with peculiar ichthyolites, we may announce a new era in the magnesian limestone or zechstein, where we meet in the Saurians with another and higher class of the animal kingdom, wholly unknown in the in- ferior beds. It was, I beg to say, on this principle that I formerly proposed to divide the strata of England into seven great systems, as expressed in the small map of England which accompanies the map of the Silurian region. I do not assert that this general classi- fication of the British geological series should be preferred to that of Mr. Phillips. He may contend that the universally distributed mollusk affords a more useful horizon line than any class of the higher order of animals. I merely state the case, and I hope fairly, to show that whether geographical terms be ultimately adhered to or rejected, all nomenclature founded solely upon our present know- ledge of the distribution of animal and vegetable life, must be liable to change with every new important discovery, whilst that terminology which involves no such hypothesis, but is simply based on the proofs, that within a given region certain groups of beings are included, can never be gainsaid. _It is on these grounds, there- fore, that I am encouraged to hope, that the word “ Silurian,” which has been warmly sanctioned by the classic authority of Von Buch, which E. de Beaumont and Dufrénoy have engraved upon their splendid map of France, and which our fellow-labourers in 649 America have adopted, will not be obliterated to make way for other names which are not founded upon any mew distinctions, stra- tigraphical or zoological. So long, gentlemen, as British geologists are appealed to as the men whose works in the field have established a classification, founded on the sequence of the strata and the im- bedded contents, so long may we be sure that their insular names, humble though they may be, will, like those of our distinguished leader William Smith, be honoured with a preference by foreign geologists, who, looking from a neutral ground, are sure to be the most impartial judges. The perpetuity of a name affixed to any group of rocks through his original research, is the highest di- stinetion to which any working geologist can aspire. It is in truth his monument, and therefore, gentlemen, I trust you will pardon me if I have occupied you too long with the allusions to this point, and which have been elicited by the work of one for whom I enter- tain so high an esteem as Mr. Phillips. I will therefore only add my hope, that now when the term Silurian has been so widely spread, the Director of the British Geological Ordnance Survey, who encouraged the author of the ‘System’ to propose a separate name for the types he had worked out, will not permit the labours of his friend to be submerged, and thus seem to convey to foreign geologists the idea, which is indeed far removed from the truth, that there are any real differences between his views and my own on this important subject. In terminating these considerations, I beg geo- logists to recollect, that I never entertained the idea that the local types around Ludlow and Wenlock would be found applicable in detail to strata of the same age in distant places; on the contrary, having shown that even within a very limited radius such subdivi- sions varied with varying conditions, it was a leading and constant object of my work, to demonstrate that the broad divisions of Upper and Lower Silurian alone, could be maintained as terms of distant and foreign comparison. There are two short communications by Mr. Lyell on the older rocks to be noticed. ‘The first is on the strata between Aymestry and Wenlock, in which he dwells on the assistance to be derived respecting the amount of dislocation in strata, by attentively no- ticing the deviation from a vertical position of the inclosed corals ; but he adds that great caution should he used to distinguish between those specimens which may have been torn from their position with reference to the horizon while growing and inverted, and those which have lost their original mode of growth by subsequent dislocation of the strata. From the known habits of recent corals, Mr. Lyell also infers that the Silurian strata must have undergone successive de- pressions during their accumulation, as beds of Polyparia belonging to the Wenlock limestone are overlaid by many hundred feet of sedimentary matter. In the second communication Mr. Lyell offers some remarks on a series of fossils from the neighbourhood of Chris- tiania, and he infers from the evidence they afford, that the lime- stone to which they belong is of the age of the Lower Silurian rocks ; and on similar grounds he places the limestone of the island of Lan- 650 goen, one of the highest beds of the country, in an intermediate position between the upper and lower Silurian rocks, constituting a passage from the one to the other. The last memoir which has been read before us on the British Palzeozoic rocks, relates to their development in a part of West- moreland, and is from the pen of Mr. D. Sharpe; and I rejoice to see so clear and systematic a workman enlisted in the survey of the older rocks. Agreeing on some essential points with Professor Sedgwick and Mr. James Marshall, particularly in reference to the superior and inferior limits of the Upper Silurian group, this author, who had previously made himself acquainted with the best types of the Silurian rocks, conveys to us additional details of this interesting tract, in which he has distinguished upon a map the Upper Ludlow rocks, as characterized by many fossils, from an inferior slaty for- mation which lies between them and calcareous bands charged with Lower Silurian fossils, Dividing this intermediate formation into three sub-groups (by only mineral characters however), he gives to the whole the local name of “ Windermere Rocks,’—a term which T understand he only uses until by the discovery of fossil evidences he may be able to refer these beds to their proper Silurian equiva- lent. If I were allowed to judge from the experience of one visit to a part of the country described by Mr. Sharpe, in which I found Orthoceratites in mountains marked by him as “ Winder- mere Rocks,” and also from his own showing, that these rocks are included between types of the higher portions of the Upper and Lower Silurian strata, such intermediate formation must be on the parallel of the Wenlock strata, which in many parts of the Silurian region, as well as in the North of England—(i. e. wherever the subdividing limestone and fossils are suppressed) can only be recog- ‘nized under the general term of lower members of the ‘ Upper Silu- rian Rocks,’ As Mr, Sharpe proposes to revisit the country, and to extend his researches from Westmoreland into Laneashire and Furness, he will have ample opportunity of confirming or rejecting my surmise. In regard to that portion of the memoir which points out the existence of many faults and anticlinal lines, I am not pre- pared to say to what extent they accord with the previous obser- vations of the great geologist of the lake country, Professor Sedg- wick, or of his precursor, Jonathan Otley. I would now speak of a work which has recently appeared, entitled ‘The Old Red Sandstone, or New Walks in an Old Field. From a pretty accurate acquaintance with the tracts from which Mr. Miller has taken his title, I can assure you that the walks of this author had been little trodden, and that his claims to originality are very just. It is impossible to peruse his pages without delight in tracing how the strong mind of Mr. Miller has enabled him to rise step by step from the stone quarry of his, and 1 may add my own, native county Ross-shire, to a place in literature and science which few reach, even with all the support derived from an expensive education; or without admiring the ability with which this unassisted observer first succeeded in putting together the dislocated fragments of the 651 very singular fish, called Pterichthys by Agassiz, long before that creature was first understood. Look again to the clear and ge- neral view which this author takes of the greatest of Scottish de- posits, and how well he conveys to unpractised readers a true idea of its position, importance, and diyisions, and you will agree with me that in Mr. Hugh Miller we have to hail the accession to geo- logical writers of a man highly qualified to advance the science. Few persons, and too often least of all those who are, if I may so speak, professed geologists, succeed in imparting to others, who have not studied the seience, a clear conception of their views. In this respect the character of Mr. Miller’s work is admirable, for it por- trays the means by which the author acquired his knowledge, and, from its persuasive manner, is worth, to a beginner, a thousand di- dactic treatises, I hoped before now to have seen in print the very valuable me- moir prepared by Dr. Malcolmsen long ago, on the divisions and development of the Old Red Sandstone in the North of Scotland. This delay has been caused solely by the desire that the descrip- tion of the various fishes which he has pointed out as character- izing the different stages of the deposit should be given by Pro- fessor Agassiz. The numerous avoeations in glacial and other geo- logical inquiries, as well as, I regret to say, his partial ill health, might alone have led us to account for the postponement of this labour by M, Agassiz; but in a recent letter to myself he has also given the following important reason :—‘‘ When I promised you to eccupy myself with the determination of the fossil fishes of Dr. Malcolmson, I believed that it would be as easy a task to me as the determination of other ichthyolites, and I had no doubt that your Devonian system must reveal quite a new world in the class of fishes so very different from existing species. The effort has thrown upon me the obligation of prodigious labour, to arrive at some precise re- sults as to these curious objects; and without giving you something very imperfect, which I look upon as yet to be unworthy of pub- lication, I must have recourse to your indulgence for the delay.” Regretting sincerely that injustice seems to be done to Dr. Malcolmson by this delay, I have, I confess, a pleasure in know- ing that Professor Agassiz will well investigate all these curious animals before he pronounces his final opinion. I can even assure him, that strangely formed as these Scottish types may be, he has yet to hear of some still more marvellous fishes which the Devonian or Old Red system contains in assuining its Russian dress. In that empire, where in some mountain tracts the system is black, slaty, and erystalline, there are also vast undulations and plains in which it is composed of slightly coherent, red, green, and yellow sands, shales, and limestones. In some of these beds, near Dorpat, Professor Asmus ‘has detected. gigantic fishes, which he is now describing; and Mr. Pander, so distinguished by his paleontological works on the en- virons of St. Petersburgh, is preparing an account of others, some of which are specifically identical with those of Scotland. I cannot venture to anticipate what these naturalists will shortly lay before 652 the public, but I may be excused from announcing, that the mo- ment I exhibited to Professor Asmus some drawings of the Scottish old red sandstone fishes, his eye at once fell upon the Pterichthys as probably the type in miniature of an enormous creature, five times the dimensions of our largest specimens, which is found in rocks on which the University of Dorpat is situated. Anxious that we should no longer be without some representatives of these Palzo-ichthyolites, whose bones are so gigantic that they were formerly supposed to belong to mighty Saurians, I requested Dr. Asmus to prepare casts of them, which he has obligingly executed, and of these I now present a set to the Society, as one of the fruits of distant comparison resulting from my Russian travels, and as a_ memento of the instructive researches of Professor Asmus. With the mere announcement, however, of these mighty fishes I must now take leave of the animals of primeval days, by saying that the car- boniferous fossils of Russia are most singularly in accordance with those types which have been so ably elaborated by Mr. Phillips, Mr. Sowerby, and other geologists in our own country, a point to which I hope to call your attention at the next Anniversary. SECONDARY ROCKS. Pursuing the inquiry in the ascending order, the long period which is specially marked by the presence of gigantic reptiles is now before us. It commences with the magnesian limestone (the Zechstein and associated rocks), and terminates with the cretaceous system. In this wide field Professor Owen has taken the lead as a palzontologist, and will shortly lay before the world the results of his researches into the extinct Saurians of our island. Of this work I cannot speak, but from the knowledge we possess of Pro- fessor Owen's consummate acquaintance with comparative anatomy, and of his wonderful ability in detecting the minutest character in masses of bones obscured by matrix and mutilated by accident, we may anticipate that this work will enjoy the proud distinction of becoming a text-book with every natural philosopher in every part of the world. The points of this great inquiry to which he has called our attention during the last year, are the teeth and ske- letons of five species of his newly-formed genus Labyrinthodon, found in the new red sandstone of Warwick; the whole of which, after a most elaborate comparison with all collateral and congenerous forms of different families of reptiles, he proves to belong to Batra- chians, but with striking and peculiar affinities to the higher Sauria. From the evidence afforded by the comparative dimensions of one species of Labyrinthodon found in the same quarry, Professor Owen likewise shows that the anterior and posterior extremities must have been of disproportionate magnitude, according well with those of the Cheirotherium, and he therefore infers, and with great apparent justness, that the Labyrinthodon and the Cheirotherium were one genus. In a second memoir upon certain remains from the Oolitic Series, he has established a genus of Saurians equa! in size to the whale, and in a third upon the remains of a crocodilian Saurian 653 from the “ Lower Greensand,” he concludes, from the same uner- ring evidence in the form and texture of the bones and teeth, that they are quite distinct from any Saurian hitherto described ; and he therefore refers them to his new marine genus Polypty- chodon. Whilst I delight in seeing that the tenants of those ancient oceans have met with so competent an expositor, I cannot but re- gret that my place should net at this moment be occupied by our own Conybeare; for the founder of the genus Plesiosaurus would have taught you to admire a multitude of comparisons and osteo- logical adjustments contained in the results of Mr. Owen’s researches. Though unequal to enter into a discussion of his merits, I can, how- ever, in common with all my brother geologists, express to him my deep sense of gratitude for the successful efforts he has made to point out to us new links in the scale of nature’s works. On the subject of Saurian remains our knowledge has also been increased during the past year by Dr. Mantell, in a memoir commu- nicated to the Royal Society, on the lower jaw of the Iguanodon, and on the remains of the Hyleosaurus and other Saurians disco- vered in the strata of Tilgate Forest. Not pretending to have ade- quate acquaintance with the subject treated of by Dr. Mantell, lam glad that our old and valued associate is once more before the pub- lic with one of those original researches with which, during the last twenty-five years, he has so much enriched our science, and which have obtained for his name so high a place in the volumes of the great Cuvier, as to render any eulogium on my part superfluous. Valuing as I do the arduous labours of a man, who, like Dr. Mantell, has occupied the few leisure hours at his disposal, first in discover- ing, next in dissecting from their stony bed, and lastly in describing the specimens; I am bound to observe that such merits deserve, as they have obtained, the highest praise which working geologists, like ourselves, can offer. In thus estimating, however, the value of Dr. Mantell’s researches, I must be permitted to say (and in the most friendly spirit), that whilst I understand the propriety of the motive which led him to communicate his last memoir on the Iguanodon to the same Society to which he had addressed his first account of that Saurian, I regret that he should not have communicated to our- selves other paleeontological memoirs, the consideration of which, I must say, pertains particularly to the Society over which I preside. So long as the Royal Society produces volumes adorned by the writings of the first mathematicians, physiologists, and chemists of the age, so long will it maintain its high place, little heeding our humbler pursuits. Two memoirs have been read before us to illustrate the celebrated ‘¢ bone-bed,” which, lying at the base of the lias, and in contact with the uppermost members of the new red system, has hitherto been classed with the former deposit. The first of these, communicated by Sir Philip Egerton, is entitled “On the occurrence of Triassic Fishes in British Strata ;” the second is ‘‘ On the occurrence of the Bristol Bone-bed in the Lower Lias, near Tewkesbury,” by Mr. H. Strickland.. The fact to which Sir Philip Egerton adverts is, that out 654 of a series of specimens from this bed at Axmouth and Aust, M. Agas- siz determined four species to be well-known forms of the Muschel- kalk, whilst fifteen were unknown in-that deposit or any other part of the triassic group; and Sir Philip concludes, that the beds in question ought to be removed from the lias, not only because the fishes are specifically distinct from those of that formation, but be- cause the forms of the ganoidians possess the heterocerque tail, a form which the classification of Agassiz confines to deposits of higher antiquity. This reason ought to have great weight, and might, if unconnected with others, at once dispose us to move our base line of the lias some few feet higher. _ A fresh-eut section of the Gloucester railway had exposed at Combe Hill, near Cheltenham, the same singular bone-bed which is so well known at Axmouth and at Aust. From an intimate knowledge of that country, I can recognize the fidelity with which Mr. Strickland identifies certain thin layers of sandstone and prit at the bottom of the lias extending to the north with the adjacent bone-bed, which in its further extension loses those ichthyolite characters for which it is so remarkable over an area in our isles as wide, indeed, as that of the famous “ Ktipfer Schiefer” inGermany. Now in Gloucestershire the bone-bed described by Mr. Strickland contains not only fishes, many of which are of new species, but also many sheils, some of which are supposed to be of forms intermediate between those known in the lias and the keuper. In this case, therefore, we are probably in the same position as the inquirer into the Paleozoic rocks, who stands upon the beds of passage from the Silurian into the Old Red or Devonian rocks before adverted to. In both eases, when he finds forms which - belong to the inferior and superior systems, whether he may draw his boundary line above or below these equivocal strata, seems at first to be of small importance ; for, as with the progress of research, we must expect to find an infinite number of strata which contain fossils indicating a transition from lower to higher formations, so must the lines of separation which geologists set up between forma tions be liable to undergo small alterations. Adhering, however, to the belief, that in the sequel those limits will most prevail which are most made to depend on great changes in animal economy, I think that the conclusion of Sir Philip Egerton, as based en the existence of the fishes with heterocerque tails, must lead us to place the “ bone- bed” as the uppermost limit of our New Red System, or in other words, as the last-formed stratum in which such ichthyolites appear. A point connected with an important previous deduction has been determined by Mr. Strickland in a cutting of the Gloucester rail+ road. The period at which the Lickey trap rocks were erupted, is now proved by actual sections to be that which from colla- teral circumstances had been surmised by myself. By observing that the New Red Sandstone of the Upper Lickey lies unconform- ably upon a mass of Red Sandstone, Mr. Strickland has demon- strated that the disturbance and elevation of the ridge took place after the deposit of the Lower New Red Sandstone, and anterior to the accumulation of the New Red, properly so called. In this fact 655 some geologists may sée an additional reason for classing the Lower (New) Red Sandstone with the coal-measures, both having partaken of the same elevatory movements. Though such a consideration alone ought not to guide us in classification, the facts so recently put forward by Professor Sedgwick of the prevalenee of plarits of earboniferous species in this red sandstone, both in Cumberland atid in Warwickshire*, and the similar data, which I ascertained in Stafz fordshire, Shropshire, &c., may eventually lead us to consider all the sandstones beneath the magnesian limestone as naturally contécted with the carboniferous era, 4 view which my last researches in Rus- sia have also led me to adopt. In this respect, mdéed, the deposit agrees well with the rothe-todte-liegende of foreign atithors, which, ike our Lower Red Sandstone, contains both carboniferous plaits, and occasional thin seams of coal. From Mr. Trimmer we have received an account of the true geo- logical position of the Cucullea decussata, verifying that which was originally assigned to it by Mr. Webster, and confirming the just- ness of Mr. Parkinson’s opinion, that the species is distinet from the Cucullzz of the greensand, though in some more recent publications the Faversham fossil has been considered identical with the Cucul- lez of Blackdown. TERTIARY ROCKS. An important addition to our knowledge of the relations of the Tertiary rocks of Europe proceeds from the pen of Mr. Lye. On comparing the fossils of the Faduns of the Loire with those of the Cotentin, and again, by a comparison of both with the crag of Swf- folk, Mr. Lyell has corrected a view which he had formerly adopted, that these deposits were not formed during the same epoch. By an attentive examimation of different tertiary localities in Normandy, some of whieh seem to have escaped the notice of former ebser- vers, he has ascertained the existence of matiy of the true Suffolk erag fossils in deposits extending southwards as far as Sainteny. He then deseribes the Faluns, properly so called, at Dinan, Renies, Nantes, Angers, Dowé, Sevigné, and the tracts S. and S.E. of Tours, in some of which the great abundance of corals and echinoderms, and the small number of mollusks, present a perfect analogy to the white or coralline crag of Suffolk, though the fauna is quite distinct im species from the fauna of the coralline crag. From the existence of a number of detached points of Faluns, Mr. Lyell infers that a large part of France, now dramed by the Loire and its tributaries, was submerged during the Miocene period. Finally, he convinces himself that all the shells of these Freneh deposits belong to one group, and that they are really contemporaneous with the crag of Suffolk, though there may be shades of difference ir their telative ages. It is well to observe that so sound a geologist as Mr. Lyell does not shrink from identifying two distant deposits in which eighty- five per cent. of the fossils are of distinct species, fifteen species * See Geological Proceedings, November 1841. 656 only being found common to the two, because he shows that both these deposits correspond exactly in the analogy which they bear to the fauna of the present day. Having also detected freshwater and land remains in the intervening tract, Mr. Lyell further offers us a satisfactory explanation of how the Miocene Faluns of the Loire and our Suffolk crag should be contemporaneous deposits and yet so different in contents, the seas in which they were respectively accu- mulated having been separated by dry land; that in which the crag was deposited opening to the north, and those in which the Faluns were accumulated opening to the south. Mr. Lyell’s works being before us, I seize this opportunity of con- gratulating the Society that a geologist possessing his powers of classification should now be occupied in studying the structure of North America. In that wide field, in which for the last few years the native observers have been gathering together both a vast pro- fusion of valuable detailed sections, as well as many general com- parisons with our own divisions, it is impossible that a good Euro- pean geologist can fail to reap an abundant harvest; and whether it be in his own tertiary domain, of which he has so largely ex- tended our knowledge, or by grappling with the Paleozoic rocks, which in that vast continent are developed on so splendid a scale, our science is sure to profit from such a revision as our associate will be enabled to present to us. He has indeed already given us an earnest of his future communications, first in a letter to Dr. Fit- ton, on the older deposits in the state of Pennsylvania, and cites evidences in one tract confirmatory of the theory of terrestrial and lagoon origin of coal-beds, which was pointed out by Mr. Logan, who, having led the way in this inquiry, is now extending it in America. Notwithstanding the real value justly attached to these views, which have been supported by the labours of Mr. De la Beche, and which received an ample illustration in the last discourse of Dr. Buckland, I must caution geologists against applying this theory generally to all coal-fields because -it has been found true in some, for it is manifest, that in those tracts (and they are numerous and large) where marine shells, ironstone and shale, filled with large fishes, alternate with beds full of plants, confusedly piled together, it will be impossible to account for the origin of coal by subsidence or overflow of masses of vegetation 77 széz. In.a recent communication on the Falls of Niagara, Mr. Lyell has taken the opportunity of explaining the sections of the American geologists who have described them, from Mr. Amos Eaton, who first showed the order of the strata, though his comparisons with British types were erroneous, to those of Conrad and James Hall, who have successfully placed these groups in parallel with our own Silurian strata. In showing the varied alternations of the hard and soft rocks which form the Silurian system of that region, and the exact inclination of the strata, Mr. Lyell exhibits chronometers of the probable retrocession of the falls, indicating where the river has worked back more rapidly when it had to recede through soft shale and sand, and how the solid barriers of limestone have pre- 657° sented greater obstacles. These data are indeed only more correct and more detailed illustrations of the general phenomena advo- cated by Bakewell, De la Beche, and the American geologists, that the recession is chiefly due to the water undermining soft shale and sand from beneath ridges of harder rock which are successively plunged into the abyss. It is well however to observe, that, from an inspection of the country, Mr. Lyell has modified his former view, that the letting off or bursting of the Lake Erie might be the ultimate result of the retrocession of the Falls, for he now seems to incline to the belief, that owing to the nature of the strata through which they will have to work back, the final result will be the formation of long and dangerous rapids; while he justly points out how the formation of canals and the demand of water for the use of the lower country, which is passing from a state of forest to one of cultivation, will cause a gradual diminution of the upper lakes, and thus prevent a future catastrophe. But the chief point of interest in this memoir seems to me to be the inference deduced from the oceurrence of beds of ancient fluviato-lacustrine shells near the top of the cliffs bounding the defile of the Niagara, and necessarily high above its present bed, that the river has worn down its channel through a tract, in which the former water-courses (probably a succession of lakes or lake rivers) flowed on a much higher level; and he gives a strong reason for believing that the river has been the chief agent in this denudation, by stating that the channel in which it flows is not in any part the scene of dislocations or faults. MICROSCOPICAL RESEARCHES. The microscopic examination of fossil bodies was much enhanced in yalue when D’Orbigny astonished us by its application to the smaller cephalopods or foraminifera of the tertiary and cretaceous rocks, and by presenting us both with valuable descriptions and en- larged drawings and models. The discoveries, however, of Ehren- berg, and the much higher magnifying powers employed by him, opened out as it were a new former world of life, when he proved that certain strata were almost if not entirely composed of JInfusorie so minute, that millions were included in a cubic inch of rock. In advancing his observations, this naturalist has recently asserted that certain species of animals of this class, which are now living in seas and estuaries, were in existence when the cretaceous rocks were formed. This announcement cannot but fail to arouse the lively attention as well as the surprise of geologists, who, relying upon what all the other departments of paleontology had developed, had come to the belief, that no form now living was created until after the completion of what are termed the Secondary rocks. If this discovery of the illustrious Prussian be substantiated, we see in it another proof, in addition to those which I have adduced in the previous pages, of the danger of as yet attempting to establish a nomenclature founded solely on the fauna and flora of former conditions of the planet. No terminology appeared less likely to be shaken than that proposed for the tertiary rocks by Mr. Lyell, nor could more time, thought and VOL, III, PART II. 3H 658 caution have been bestowed than he gave to the consideration of the names for the subdivision of the Tertiary Series, as founded on a great philosophical view. Whatever objections some persons might entertain to the upper divisions of his system, the characters of which were made to depend on a greater or less per-centage of existing species, there could be little doubt, from the multitude of previous researches, that his term “Eocene” was at all events secure from criticism. Many practical geologists believed that the close of the Secondary period was marked by some great agent of change, which in modifying the surface was followed by the creation of new races of animals. A few only argued that such a disruption or break in the sequence of organic life must be a partial phenomenon, and that as observations extended, we should find parts of the earth, where transition strata of the supra-cretaceous age would fill up the hiatus which seemed apparent between the chalk and the tertiary strata over wide tracts of Europe. Such transitions, for example, it was contended, were observed by Professor Sedgwick and myself in the Austrian Alps, but the justness of our views was then combat- ed by Boué, a geologist of great experience and research, whilst M. de Beaumont, M. d’Orbigny, and M. Michelin have since decided against us, the first mentioned by a visit to the spot, the two others by analogies worked out in the South of France. If our adversaries should prove correct, the microscope of Ehrenberg has done more than the eyes of the geologist ; for whilst in the case of Gosau* the number of tertiary-like genera, such as Volutes, Cerithia, Mitra, &c., and the absence of all Ammonites and Belemnites constituted - our case, the discovery of the Prussian microscopist goes to prove, from specific forms, that the Eocene or dawn of the present fauna had its germ in rocks as old as our chalk; and thus if we should be led to adopt his views, which however we can only do after some time and with great caution, the only barrier line which was abruptly placed between two formations as a general phenomenon, would be shaded off so as imperceptibly to connect the Secondary and Tertiary states of organic life. In our own country this department of the science, which is in * In regard to Gosau I must in candour state, that M. d’Orbigny has discovered in the upper greensand, ‘‘Craie chloritée,” at Uchaux near Vaucluse, thirty-one species of Ammonites associated with some of the same species of Corais and Univalves, which occur at Gosau, and M. Mi- chelin had indeed previously discovered other Gosau forms of corallines supposed to be of the age of the “ gault”’ deposits, and thus no doubt seems to. remain that the myriads of ¢ertiary-like shells, and the absence of Am- monites and Belemnites on which Professor Sedgwick and myself rested our chief conclusions, cannot be assumed as proofs of the age of the Gosau rocks. It still, howeyer, remains to be ascertained, whether this peculiar development of the cretaceous system of the Alps (in which one Am- monite only has been discovered and no Belemnite) is not after all a link between what has been called Tertiary and Secondary. At all events, the nea on the flanks of the Alps at Kressenberg, &c. lead to this con- clusion. 659 a state of great advancement through the labours of Owen, Brown, Stokes, and other naturalists, has been cultivated with much zeal in one department by Mr. Bowerbank. Having formerly shown that the flints and cherts of the cretaceous system were originally com- posed (at least in great part) of sponges, he has lately pointed out, that the fossil bodies in question did not differ as he had supposed from the horny sponges of commerce, having recently discovered siliceous spicula in the latter. After a detailed and laborious exa- mination of moss-agates and jaspers from Oberstein, Sicily, and Hindostan, he sees in them all the proofs, more or less distinct, of tubular fibres—of what he believes to be gemmules—and the exist- ence of vascular structure, and hence he infers, that sponges have had a still greater share than he originally supposed in the produc- tion of the solid strata. In the Egyptian jaspers Mr. Bowerbank detects between the layers composing a specimen hundreds of foraminifere, often difficult to distinguish from species known in the ealeaire grossier of Paris. Though as geologists and mineralo- gists we may be startled by the announcement of signs of former life in the geodes of Oberstein, because they are certainly, like our trap nodules of Scotland, inclosed in rocks of plutonic origin, I am quite prepared to admit, with Mr. Bowerbank, that in many jaspers, at all events, the mieroscope should develope former types of life. When we consider the short period which has elapsed since these, the very minutest secrets of our solid strata, have been revealed to us, and by how few inquirers they have been studied, we may well admire the results. At the same time, seeing the great difficulties attending the study of these minute bodies, and the possibility that a certain amount of error may arise from the examination of such of these organisms as are imperfect under very high magnifying powers, I quite coincide with your late President, that we ought not to adopt too rapidly all the conclusions of the microscopists, however we must cordially thank them for the steps they are endeavouring to establish. , PROVINCIAL GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. When presiding over this Society ten years ago, I congratulated my associates on the increasing taste for our science by the rapid rise of provincial scientific institutions*. ._ I will not now endeavour to enumerate all these Societies, since through my ignorance I may ~ omit to mention some which are well entitled to notice; but I will simply advert to two of the most recently established of these bodies, and whose objects are exclusively the same as our own, viz. the Man- chester Geological Society, and the Dudley and Midland Geologieal Society. The first of these, presided over by Lord Francis Egerton, has just published the first volume of its Transactions, which contains much good local geology, from the pens of our deceased member Mr. Bowman and Mr. E. W. Binney, and valuable descriptions of * Geol. Proceedings, vol. i. p. 377. 3 HQ 660 fossils by Capt. T. Brown. I am glad to find that the shells deli- neated for the first time in this volume, and which occur in the lower red marls at Collyhurst near Manchester, are now admitted to be in beds, which are equivalents of the magnesian limestone, an opinion it will be recollected which was expressed when these fossils were first brought to our own halls by Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Phillips*, thus offering a fresh proof that with newly-discovered li- thological conditions, the same formation is often found to be diver- sified with remains unknown to us in the rocks of the same age which preserve their ordinary mineral charaeters. Of the still younger Geological Society of Dudley, I have sincere pleasure in saying, that its first anniversary festival, at which I was requested to deliver an inaugural address, was eminently successful in uniting together the gentlemen of property in the neighbourhood with practical miners and fossil collectors, and there can be no doubt that an establishment so supported, and which is founded on ground so replete with countless subterranean phenomena, must have an honourable and a useful career. I refer you to the excel- lent Report of the Dudley Provisional Committee, a perusal of which, whilst it acquaints you that their museum contains some unique specimens and many worthy of a visit, will convince you that it is directed by men of scientific discernment and zeal, who can well de- scribe and appreciate the value of such a collection, I rejoice in the formation of these provincial societies, being con- vinced that they will work out details of great ultimate value; and whatever may be the objections to free trade among nations, I have no hesitation in proclaiming the benefits of free trade in geology, because I know that our own volumes have risen in value, and | our ranks have swelled in numbers, with the birth and growth of our younger friends and rivals. FOREIGN GEOLOGISTS—PRUSSIAN SCHOOL. Let us now consider the progress which our science has been re-- cently making on the continent of Europe. The visit of the King of Prussia to our country upon the auspi- cious occasion arising out of the birth of our future Sovereign, was marked by an event most gratifying to our feelings. To’ testify to His Majesty your sense of his gracious and warm patronage of the cultivators of geology, and “to prove that English geologists can never forget the deep obligations they owe to the land which has produced a Humboldt, a Von Buch, and an Ehrenbergt,” you elected His Majesty a Fellow of the Society. The condescension with which His Majesty subscribed our obligation book, and the interest with which He examined our collections within these walls, will be remem- bered by us with just pride. Attended by the great philosophical * See Geol. Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 392, and Silurian System, p. 50. + The above words were spoken by the President in admitting His Ma- jesty as a Fellow of the Geological Society. 661 traveller whose researches have opened out the widest fields to the inquirers in every department of Natural History, we who have drunk at the fountains of knowledge poured forth by Humboldt, must in- deed rejoice in the day when our veteran associate appeared in our halls as the chosen friend of the Prussian monarch. Honour be to the King who has the wisdom and discernment to attach such a man to his person and his fortunes! Any effort of mine to do justice on this occasion to the eminent services which Baron A. von Humboldt has rendered to science, would be both presumptuous and misplaced ; but I must seize this opportunity to assure you, that if his valuable life should be prolonged for a short term, the public will be fur- nished with convincing proofs that his brilliant mind can yet confer on us the choicest gifts. Let others more competent to the task dwell on the high merits of his inquiries into the distribu- tion of terrestrial magnetism and various branches of physical sci- ence which have already appeared, or are nearly ready for the press, in a stupendous work embracing nearly all natural know- ledge; be it for us, however, to estimate the skill with which he has developed, and the power with which he has applied the laws of climatology and physical geography to explain many problems in the earth’s structure. Having myself been favoured with the perusal of some pages of a work on the distant parts of the Russian empire, which will very shortly be published, I venture (however incompetent to offer an adequate analysis of its merits) to assure you, that this work will shed fresh lustre on the head of its author and of his associates _Rose and Ehrenberg, in elucidating the metamorphism of rocks, the origin of gold veins, and the epoch of formation of the gold alluvia of Siberia ; whilst in expounding the great sources whence the civi- lized nations of antiquity derived their precious metals, Humboldt, the geographer, the geologist, the botanist, the man of universal science, will appear before you as an antiquary and etymologist, not inferior in erudition even to his late illustrious brother. In correcting the errors which had crept into our maps respecting the direction of the great mountain-chains of Central Asia, he places before us, and on the grandest scale, a striking coincidence between the state of mineralization of various parallel meridians, or N. and S. chains, and happily contrasts them with the different characters of those which have an east and west direction. These splendid generalizations, like others previously known to us, results arising from a long life of scientific research, are of so extended and diversified a character, that whilst we all applaud, few of us are capable of justly estimating their whole bearing upon the progress of science. Although his duties to his sovereign alone prevented our confer- ring upon this great chieftain in science an honour commensurate with his high deserts*, as Englishmen we may always reflect with * Allusion is here made to the proposed national British scientific festival in his honour, which Baron Humboldt was compelled to decline. 662 delight, that when Humboldt appeared among us he received the universal homage which is so justly his due, and which his enlight- ened and benevolent monarch must have been proud to acknow- ledge as one of the highest compliments we could offer to himself and to his people. In explaining the motives which induced the Council to award the medal of this year to M. von Buch, I have necessarily dwelt not only upon the former great services rendered by that eminent geo- logist, but also to his recent paleontological works. So actively indeed is he employed, that even whilst I write he is preparing a monograph on the genus Productus, thus offermg fresh evidence of his sagacity and indefatigable research. Ehrenberg, to whom I have elsewhere alluded, is daily adding to his conquests over the invisible realms of nature, and Gustaf Rose has written on the metamorphism and mineral structure of the Ural with so much ability, that it will be my special business to dwell at some length on this topic on another occasion. In the construction of improved geological maps of various parts of the Prussian dominions, Professor von Dechen still pursues his useful and meritorious career. His large and detailed map of the Rhenish provinces, in-which he has been aided by Erbreich and other good geologists of the Prussian school of mines, is I be- lieve completed. Two years ago M. von Dechen kindly furnished me with an unfinished copy, which has served as the model, from which has been taken the small map prepared for the Transac- tions to illustrate the memoir on the Rhenish provinces by Professor Sedgwick and myself. You must not, however, Gentlemen, judge of the very high merits of the original from the reduced skeleton map which we publish, and I beg you to consult the former as one of the most valuable documents of this nature yet offered to. the public, particularly in the elaborate delineation of every variety of igneous, metalliferous, and metamorphic rocks, in a region so stri- kingly replete with them. Silesia has also occupied much of the time ~ of M. von Dechen, in some districts of which he has marked the existence of bands of carboniferous limestone as distinguished from the Devonian, Silurian, and older members of the paleozoic series. Oeynhausen, the old associate of Von Dechen, and so well remem- bered by many of us, has recently bored in search ef salt springs through upwards of 1000 feet of lias near Pyrmont, a fact which ought to teach us great caution in estimating what may be the maximum thickness of deposits. In our own country, the accu- rate method which Mr. De la Beche employs to test the thick- ness of deposits, will eventually give us, I trust, close approxima- tions to the facts; and I learn from him that some of the ancient strata (the carbonilerous for example) which have been aceumu- lated in basins are enormously more thick than we had supposed, whilst others extending, like the Old Red Sandstone, over wide areas in lofty escarpments, will not prove to have those dimensions we had assigned to them. When, indeed, we consider that all shales, sandstones, &e. were once nothing more than the blue and 6638 black, and red mud, or sand which occupied the bottom of seas in former epochs, it seems as difficult to decide from general observa- tions on the maximum thickness of any great deposit, as it would be to insist on the utmost depth of the ocean without the survey of the hydrographer. ‘The borer and the field engineer must therefore combine to enable us to speak with precision on the vertical dimen- sions of strata. RUSSIAN AND NORTHERN SCHOOL. Not having yet personally visited Sweden, Norway, and Den- mark, Iam not prepared to say what progress our science has re- cently made in these states, but | may remark, that the beautiful map of Norway by Keilhau has scarcely received the attention which it merits; and we may be sure that the countries of so good geolo- gists as himself and our associate Forchhammer, cannot be lagging behind in the general onward movement. In regard, however, to Russia, I am enabled to speak with some confidence, after the two visits which I have paid to that country. Gratified as we were, not only by the most hospitable reception, but also the kind assistance afforded us by every Russian, from the Em- peror to his humblest subject, it was a real source of delight to my associates and myself in our first visit to trace throughout the north- ern regions of that vast empire, the same paleozoic divisions which have been proposed as types in the British Isles. During the last summer we extended our researches to the distant Ural, the Siberian plains, and the steppes of the south; and afterwards terminated the whole of these observations by a general transverse section from the sea of Azof to the Baltic. Although we carried with us into Russia, what may be called the geological key of that great country, by which the chief subdivisions and relations of these rock masses have been established, let me say that Russia herself contains naturalists and geologists who would rank high in any land. In paleontology, Eichwald and Pander have already largely contributed to our know- ledge ; the first, by numerous local works, and recently by his illus- trations of the Silurian strata in the Baltic provinces of Russia; the latter, by his very original researches into the fossils of the same strata, the lithological characters and detailed relations of which were first given by our own Strangways. Professor Asmus of Dorpat is about to enrich us, as I have already stated, with a most curious and elaborate work on the fishes of the Old Red or Devonian system. The great steps, however, which Russia is now making in field geology and stratigraphical arrangement, are owing to the clear and well-defined view of this subject which has recently been adopted by the Imperial School of Mines at the suggestion of the energetic chief of their staff, General Tcheffkine, who, under the orders of the enlightened Minister, Count Cancrine, has taken the surest means of advancing practical geology, and of rendering many officers of his corps well acquainted with our subject; not only by adopting the suggestions of those qualified to judge respecting the formation of geological maps, but by so increasing the fossil eollec- 664 tions of the Imperial School of Mines, that it is now furnished with many illustrations of the sedimentary deposits of the empire, even from the remotest parts of the Altai and the countries bordering om China. It will be my duty and pleasure very shortly to bring before ~ your notice the names of many officers of the Russian corps of Mines, ~ whose labours were of material use to myself and associates in our distant explorations ; but I cannot resist naming at once Colonel Hel- mersen, the inspector of the establishment, who whether he be viewed as a physical geographer, a geologist, or as a writer, has rendered most valuable service to Russia by his luminous and attractive descriptions of the structure and outline of various parts of the empire, including the most remote tracts. I beg also to refer you to the five published volumes of the School of Mines, as works containing much excellent matter, and highly creditable both to the government which pro- moted their publication, and to the officers whose memoirs they con- tain. In the mean time, besides what is doing on the Neva, a periodical work on Russia has appeared at Berlin under the title of ‘ Archiv fiir Wissentschaftliche Kiinde von Russland,’ by the enterprising travel- ler A. Erman, of which two parts are published. Together with va- rious memoirs on physical geography, history, language, antiquities, and physics, the editor has added a sketch of the recent advances in the geology of Russia, and illustrates his views by the publication of a small outline map of the empire. In the estimate of the geological steps in Russia which various labourers have accomplished, I rejoice to see the name of our countryman Strangways placed where it ought to be, as the first who applied the methods of modern practical geo- logy to that empire, by the publication of his general map in the year 1822. Nevertheless it is too certain, as M. de Verneuil and myself informed you last year, that when we first visited St. Petersburgh in 1840, this map, though published in our Transactions, was, as far as we could ascertain, unknown to the men of science in that country. In the first memoir on Russia, we specially directed your attention to the merits of Strangways, and we shall have ample opportunities here- after of reverting to them. What I have now to observe in reference to the map of M. A. Erman is, that in his account of it, the special researches and the new points which my friend M. de Verneuil and myself established, are merged with what I must consider the copies of our views. The source whence the chief materials were ob- tained, is sufficiently proved indeed by the words “ Silurische und Devonische schichten” engraved upon the map, particularly when coupled with the fact, that M. de Verneuil, Count Keyserling, and myself are the only geologists who traced the older groups to the White Sea, aided materially, as we have previously acknowledged, in a part of that region, by the Baron A. de Meyendorf, and for a short time by Professor Blasius. The original observations which we made were inserted by myself on a map which was shown at Moscow and St. Petersburgh in August, and to the British Association at Glasgow, in September 1840. On this map the range of the great bands of Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous rocks from St. Petersburgh 665 and Moscow to the White Sea, with a vast basin of red deposits in the governments of Vologda and the Middle Volga, were laid down, T assert, for the first time, and thus established the essentially di- stinguishing features of subdivision of the North of Russia. After the application of this basis, Colonel Helmersen, to whom I have alluded, put together in the ensuing winter a small general map of Russia in Europe, in which he inserted the result of the labours of M. de Verneuil, the Baron A. de Meyendorf, Count Keyserling, Professor Blasius, and myself, acknowledging our services as well as those of all previous observers. The map of M. Erman which followed, was prepared by the Baron A. de Meyendorf and his companions, who extended the knowledge which they acquired with M. de Verneuil and myself to some of the central and southern parts of Russia, and thus marked a new step in the development of the structure of the empire. Since that time, the extended geolo- gical researches of the expedition in which my friends M. de Ver- neuil and Count Keyserling were associated with me, aided by Lieut. Koksharof, and an independent survey of Colonel Helmer- sen, have thrown a new light over the structure of various parts of the central, eastern, and southern regions, and have rendered ne- cessary considerable changes in all previous maps. As a mere pre- lude, therefore, to what may hereafter appear, I have, with the aid of my associates, coloured a small general sketch-map of the em- pire, including the Ural chain, which as it will shortly appear before you in a published form, I only mention in this place to assure you that it differs very essentially from all previous maps. Whilst on the topic of Russia, I will now state, that if on ac- count of the preparation of this discourse and other official duties I had not been greatly occupied, I might before now have present- ed to you some of the results of the second visit to that country. In the mean time, however, my colleagues, M. de Verneuil and Count Keyserling, have been sedulously comparing our collections of fossils, and reducing a vast number of barometrical observations, whilst with their cooperation I have already completed a general table of superposition of Russian deposits, which, with a section across Russia, and the map above alluded to, are now nearly ready for publication. My brother geologists will feel that a general table of classification ought to be the finishing stroke in illustration of any country previously little known, and respecting which so much confusion prevailed. We offer it, however, in the persuasion that its leading divisions will be supported by the evidences hereafter to be brought forward, and we simply put forth this table (which was drawn up at Moscow after our second journey ) to convey to the cul- tivators of our science the chief results of our inquiries, and to place them upon record as bearing date from September 1841. Among these results I will now merely allude to the first an- nouncement of some of them, in a letter of the above date, ad- dressed to Dr. Fischer de Waldheim at Moscow, in which the two points most dwelt upon were the discovery of a large central dome or axis of Devonian rocks, which separates Russia in Europe into 666 two great north and south basins of very dissimilar characters; and the classification of certain cupriferous deposits of sand, marl, lime- stone, &c. under the term of “ Permian system.” As the explana- tion of the reasons which led to the suggestion of this name will be shortly offered to you in full detail, I should not now occupy your time by alluding to it, had not the mention of the word already called forth from M. A. Erman the remark, that these deposits have been long known to other observers. I admit that they were mineralo- gically known, but I deny that their geological position had been determined by any competent geologist previous to the researches of myself and friends; and I contend that there was no Russian formation concerning whose age so many contradictory opinions had been expressed. As a proof of this, 1 may state that the illus- trious Humboldt himself assured me in the spring of last year, that it was the great point to which he hoped our Jabours would be di- rected. So strongly indeed was the difficulty of placing these strata in their correct geological horizon felt by Russian observers, that Major Wangenheim von Qualen, who had long and patiently studied them in stéw, and Dr. Fischer, who had ably described many of their fossil contents, at once abandoned the field to my associates and myself; and put us in possession of all their knowledge, avow- ing their inability to arrive at a satisfactory geological conclusion. I was, therefore, surprised to read the premature criticism of M. A. Erman; the more so, as that author has called a large portion of the great limestone of Russia, Jurassic, which we have ascertained to be carboniferous, and to form the support of the hitherto anomalous system, which we shall endeavour to place in parallel with its equi- valents in Germany and the British Isles, by showing its place in the order of superposition, and by describing the fauna and flora by which it is characterized as a distinct type intermediate between the Carboniferous and Triassic systems. FRENCH SCHOOL. From the northern parts of Europe let us now pass to the consider- ation of the chief points of progress which our opposite neighbours are making. The publication of the splendid geological map of France, executed by Messieurs Elie de Beaumont and Dufrénoy, is indeed a subject of gratulation for the scientific men of all coun- tries. Commenced in 1827, the map would have appeared five or six years earlier, had not the engraving of it led to unexpected delays. The part surveyed by each author is easily defined. France was divided by a line, proceeding from Havre, through Alencon, Avallon, Lyons, and Marseilles, to the Mediterranean. The western part was assigned to M. Dufrénoy, and the eastern to M. de Beau- mont; but each was empowered to extend his observations, not only beyond the line of division, but also into those parts of the neighbouring countries which are included within the limits of the map. The authors pursued their researches separately for several years, but as soon as they had settled the bases of classification they united 667 to survey those points which required their conjoint examination, and by this means they finally established a perfect agreement in all the parts of their great undertaking. During the last five or six years, since the main features of the map were completed, the re- sults have been communicated to every geologist who sought in- formation, as I myself have experienced in my visits to Paris; and the authors, accepting in the mean time the contributions of others, have brought the map to its present degree of perfection. Wishing to popularize geology in France, and to give their la- bours an extended sphere of usefulness, Messieurs de Beaumont and Dufrénoy have published, with the first volume of explanations which accompanies the large map, one on a reduced scale, giving an exact idea of the disposition of the mineral masses, and facilitating the comprehension of the admirable descriptive memoirs contained in the volume. A desire has been often expressed, as you know, that all geolo- gists might come to an understanding on the choice of colours, so that geological maps might be a sort of book written in a universal language. This idea, as our own great geological geographer Mr. Greenough has found, is more plausible in theory than practicable. In the selection of their colours, I confess, I regret that our foreign associates have not employed the normal colours used in the map of England, but then we must recollect that the principle of their co- louring was decided and put into execution long before the publi- cation of Mr Greenough. ‘The authors of the French work have however done well in giving one colour only to each great natural division of rocks, and they have distinguished the subdivisions by conventional signs, in a similar manner to that employed in the map of the Silurian region and Mr. Greenough’s map of England. The advantage of this certain method of showing the relations which exist between the different parts of the same formation, is now thoroughly recognised. : Under the modest title of explanation of the map, the authors will publish three quarto volumes, of which the first only has yet appeared, and judging from this specimen we have a right to con- clude that they will form one of the most splendid and usefui works ever executed on the geology of a-great country. In the intro- ductory chapter of the published volume the general principles of the science are admirably given, and the succeeding chapters are occupied by descriptions of the “ Massif central de la France: Presqwile de Bretagne, Ardennes: Vosges: Montagnes littorales du Département de Var: Terrains Houillers.” The authors have di- vided their descriptions into great geographical regions, beginning with the most ancient formations; and I cannot resist expressing how much pleasure it has given me to see that these eminent men have adopted the divisions and nomenclature which have been proposed for the paleozoic rocks of England. In the other volumes the authors will describe the more recent formations, reserving for the conclusion, the account of those parts of France where the ele- vated and dislocated sedimentary deposits present problems most 668 difficult of solution, and which continue to raise doubts in the minds of the best and most experienced observers. In their de- scription of the rocks, the authors, faithful to what may be called the “ natural method,” have classed together all those which appear to have a common origin, such as granites, porphyries, basalts, tra- chytes, &c. In short, the geological map of France, and the volumes of ex- planation to accompany it, will form one of the finest monuments raised to science in our era, and must be constantly consulted by those who wish to understand the spirit of that school of geology, which has cast such a brilliant light over France and throughout Europe. Doubly grateful indeed is the production of the work to ourselves, for in presenting it to this Society its authors have assured us that it was in our own islands they first acquired that knowledge of classification which led them to attempt the great enterprise, the completion of which so well sustains the high repu- tation they enjoy. Further, when we recollect that the knowledge of our foreign associates was one of the first fruits of the general peace, well may we now view the noble structure they have reared upon such a basis, as a convincing proof of the advantages con- ferred on science by the friendly intercourse of nations, which now rival each other only in advancing science and art! Another most important work undertaken in France during the last year, is ‘La Paléontologie Francaise’ of M. Alcide d’Orbigny. Early initiated into the study of organic bodies and the anatomy of mollusks, this naturalist has acquired, during his extended travels, a good knowledge of positive geology ; and he is therefore peculiarly qualified to carry into effect his arduous enterprize of describing the fossils of France in the order of the formations. He has com- menced this vast undertaking by publishing during last year 139 plates, and upwards of 500 pages of text, on the Cephalopods of the Chalk. It is only necessary to glance over the figures, to perceive the care with which the different parts of the fossils are delineated. I particularly recommend to your notice the new genera, named by M. d’Orbigny “Ancyloceras” and “ Towoceras,’ and which added to the “Crioceras,” recently introduced into the science, increase that infinite variety of forms in which the great Ammonite family expanded, previously to its total disappearance from the living world. - The Cephalopods, very rare in the upper beds of the chalk, oc- cur in such prodigious quantities in the lower parts, and particularly - in the “ Neocomian”’ group, as defined by continental geologists, that they occupy all the Numbers hitherto published of the ‘ Palé- ontologie Francaise. The Ammonites have heen the object of espe- cial study to M. d’Orbigny, and have led him to conclusions of the highest interest, both zoological and geological. In the former respect, his observations on the external characters of Ammonites, and on the limits of their natural and accidental varieties, of the differences of sex, and particularly of age, are entirely original. Following these remains through the period of their development, 669 ‘he describes the transformations they undergo, and investigates the laws of such changes. The chambers, or the internal characteristics of Ammonites, the importance of which was long ago indicated by Von Buch, have presented new featuresto M. d’Orbigny, which are easily applied to the purposes of classification. I speak of the di- stinction of the “ selles et lobes en parties paires et impaires,” accord- ing as they are cloven at the extremity, or terminate in a conical point. Combining this characteristic with that of the length of the dorsal lobe, and with those afforded by the exterior ornaments of the shell, the form of the back and mouth, between which there is almost always a coincidence, M. d’Orbigny has made twenty-one natural groups, of which eleven had been already established by Von Buch, and ten are new. Of these twenty-one groups, seven are peculiar to the Jurassic or Oolitic formations, ten to the cretaceous, and four contain species common to both. M. d’Orbigny points out the modifications of species through time and space, and shows the relation that exists between certain forms and the beds which contain them. He recognizes three new creations or replacements of the species of Ammonites during the cretaceous period, and thus establishes, on zoological data, three divisions of natural groups;—first the Neocomian*, second, the Gault, and third, the Upper Greensand (Craie chloritée), and the White Chalk; and he estimates that in this triple succession of de- posits, the Ammonites gradually decrease according to the numbers seventy-five, forty-two, and twenty-seven, to disappear finally with the uppermost chalk or Maestricht beds, and before the tertiary epoch. The total number of determined species of Ammonites in the great eretaceous system of France is 144, according to M. d’Orbigny, and with the exception of three, which are common to the Gault and the Upper Greensand, all the other species are divisible into groups, each of which is peculiar to one of the three great divisions of this system, and may be considered characteristic of it. Although the species have been thus replaced several times during the cretaceous period, there exists, however, among them a certain affinity of forms which differs sufficiently from the general characteristics of the Juras- sic Ammonites to constitute the beds containing them a truly distinct and separate series. We may congratulate M. d’Orbigny on having. begun his ‘ Paleontology ’ with the fossils of this period: for whilst the labours of the English, particularly the admirable general views and detailed descriptions of Dr. Fitton, and the works of Dr. Mantell, have contributed to a good acquaintance with the northern chalk and greensand, it must be confessed that there is ample room for research in the southern type. * We have to learn why the very well-defined British formation, the Lower Greensand, seems to be suppressed and merged by our opposite neighbours in the “ Systeme Néocomien.”’ Cannot the Lower Greensand be pre- served and the Neocomian be considered as a marine equivalent of our Wealden? 670 ' In consequence of the numbers of fossils sent to M. d’Orbigny from all parts of France, and which I had the pleasure last spring of seeing on his tables, a new light may be thrown by the ‘ Paléon- tologie Francaise’ on the classification of the sedimentary masses of the Alps and Apennines; the limestones of Greece, Turkey in Eu- rope, Palestine, the coasts of Africa, and in fact of the whole circuit of the Mediterranean, the chief formations of which are at present arranged in the cretaceous epoch. I might now notice the recent labours of M. Rozet, M. Leymerie, M. Rolland du Roquand, M. Duval and others, whose memoirs have been partly published in the volumes of the Geological Society of Franee, but such duties pertain to the office of the President of the French Society, and doubtless, the eminent man* who is now at the head of it will do ample justice to these authors. BELGIAN SCHOOL. In Belgium, the most important works that claim our aftention for the year 1841, are,—Ist, the completion of the field survey of the Geological Map of Belgium by M. Dumont, which was begun more than four years ago, and has been pursued with the zeal and ability manifested by the author in his first publication, and which we had so much pleasure in rewarding with our Wollaston Medal. I learn, however, that the appearance of the map may be delayed in con- sequence of the time necessary to complete its engraving: 2ndly, I may notice a great paleontological work, undertaken by M. de Koninck, several plates of which I examined last spring in Paris. This young naturalist, already known by his works on Conchology, is about to give us, in fifty or sixty plates with descriptions, an account of all the fossils of Belgium, from the Lower Silurian to the coal-fields inclusive, whether published or not. This work, of which the first Numbers have appeared, will doubtless be of great assistance in completing the classification of the paleeozoic rocks of Belgium, the lithological and mineral characters and lines of demar- cation among which had been so faithfully and clearly described by Mons. d’Omalius d’Halloy, and Professor Dumont. OTHER FOREIGN COUNTRIES. From France and Belgium I shall, in the sequel, direct your atten- tion to certain works which have appeared in relation to the Alps, where the glacial theory more particularly is at present the great subject of debate. I would now carry your attention to the southern parts of Germany and to Italy, but with the exception of an able memoir by Professor Sismonda of Turin, ‘ Osservazioni Geologiche sulle Alpi marittime, &c., and a Monograph of the fossil Murex by Michelotti, I have not been able to make myself acquainted with the recent literature of our science in those tracts, though I have no doubt that they have been illustrated by good workmen, of whose labours I may be enabled to speak at our next Anniversary. On * M. Cordier. 671 that occasion, I will further endeavour to take a view of the last advances which geology has made in the other quarters of the globe, whether in the numerous British Colonies, or in the United States, or in those parts of Asia and Africa which have been re- cently explored. In respect to American geology, I have, however, to notice two short communications to ourselves by Mr. Henwood ; the first on the beds near Lockport and at Rochester, in which he sustains, by aid of a series of organic remains presented to the Society, the views respecting those strata entertained by American geologists; and the second on parts of New Brunswick, particularly the coal-measures which extend over a wide area, and rest in some places upon granite and in others upon schistose rocks; and he shows that though gra- nite veins penetrate the slate, not one is to be found in the coal- measures: hence he infers, that the schists are the oldest rocks of the country, and the coal-measures the newest. THE GLACIAL THEORY. The last subject I will advert to is that of glacial action, which has recently occupied the thoughts of many geologists. From a study of the Alps, where Venetz and Charpentier led the way in showing that a connexion existed between the erratic blocks and the advance of glaciers, Professor Agassiz has deduced a glacial theory, and has endeavoured to generalize and apply it.even to our own countries, in which effort he has been supported by my prede- cessor in the Chair. In the following observations, I will endeavour to point out what new materials have been brought forward, abroad and at home, to enable us to reason correctly on this difficult ques- tion, and I will then suggest some essential modifications of the new hypothesis. As propounded by Agassiz, the glacial theory, even in its appli- cation to the Alps, has met with an opponent in the person of Pro- fessor Necker de Saussure. In the first volume of a work which he is now publishing, M. Necker treats, in great detail, the whole sub- ject of superficial detritus connected with the northern and western watershed of the Alps, and gives us the fruits of many years of ob- servation. Adding very considerably to the list of phanomena of transported inaterials collected by M. A. de Lue, he takes his own illustrious ancestor, De Saussure, as his model, and following in the track of the historian of the Alps, he endeavours to enlarge and improve upon that great observer’s suggestions. Pointing out the di- stinetions between two classes of detritus, viz. one of high antiquity and another of modern date, M. Necker contends that the enormous masses of the ancient drift or diluvial detritus have a direct con- nexion with the actual configuration of the surface, because the chief part of them has been derived from the centre of the chain, the flanking and lower mountains, and even the strata on which it rests, having contributed comparatively little to the great advancing body. Examining the high valleys about Chamouni and the foot of Mont Blane, and finding massive walls from 300 to near 600 672 feet in height, composed of this ancient diluvium in its coarsest form, near the extremities of certain glaciers, he concludes that they were once the moraines of glaciers which melted away and retired from them. He then goes on to suppose that when the re- cession of the glaciers took place (an effect which he refers to the same cause as De Saussure) such transversal moraines formed dykes standing out at some distance from the mountain and barred-up lakes formed by the melting of the snow and ice. These lakes, at length swollen to excess, are supposed to have burst through the moraine barrier, and to have drifted the materials of which it was com- posed into the lower countries. M. Necker believes that when these ancient glaciers existed, the Alps were considerably higher than at present, and he judges that such was the case, because the “aiguilles” of Mont Blane have been lowered very considerably in our own times. Arguing that great blocks are never found at the foot of mountain chains which have not permanent glaciers, of what De Saussure called the “first class,” he cites many negative examples, and brings forward the Pyrenees, where no true erratic blocks are seen, as a proof that the minor or second class glaciers, which there occur, never advanced sufficiently far to dam up water-courses, and thus to form those great lakes, to the letting off of which and to the destruction of vast moraines, he attributes the presence of large boulders in the Alps. I must, however; remind M. Neeser, that if he assumes that all great erratic blocks are to be referred to some neighbouring chain, now the seat of glaciers, he forgets the cases in Scotland and England, and indeed many others, far removed from mountain ranges, and which must be classed, as I shall presently show, with submarine deposits. Indeed by far the widest spread of erratic blocks with which we are acquainted, extending over the plains of Germany and Russia, must have taken place (as I believe at least) when those flat regions were beneath the sea, for recent observations have shown, that the blocks constitute the uppermost or last surface deposit in tracts which exhibit, here and there, proofs of having been an ancient bottom of a sea. But without extending his theory to other parts of the world, it does not appear to me, even when confined to the Alps, that M. Necker explains satisfactorily how the granite blocks of Mont Blanc should lie upon the Jura, by any reference to sub- aérial debacle; for if we are to imagine the deep hollow of the lake of Geneva, filled up with gravel, sand and mud, and forming an in- clined talus from the centre to the flanks of the chain, the subse- quent scooping out of this enormous mass of materials involves an intensity of degradation as difficult to believe in as the former extreme elimate of Agassiz, by which thousands of feet of snow and ice are supposed to have occupied the same deep valley. I ought not to omit to state that one of the chief elements introduced by Agassiz into this question, the polished and striated surfaces of the rocks, has not yet been alluded to by this author, but will be treated of in his second volume. In the mean time, however he may fail to account satisfactorily 673 for the transport of the very distant great blocks, we have to thank M. Necker for the additional materials, which seem to establish one fundamental fact in reference to the Alpine case, viz. when this detritus was cast off, the gorges and flanks of the chain had nearly the same reference to the central crest as that which now prevails. If this be proved, the theory which depends chiefly upon the sup- position, that a great elevation of the centre of the chain broke off the ice and dislodged the glaciers, is deprived of its chief basis. In what manner Professor Agassiz can account for the Alps being a great centre of dispersion when at a lower level, is indeed a part of his theory which is not easily comprehended. On the other hand, whatever we may think of M. Necker’s hypothesis, it must be ad- mitted that the facts adduced by him support one essential point of the glacialists, by connecting the presence of blocks with the exist- ence of glaciers in the Alps, the former being, as he states, inva- riably found both in the southern and northern watersheds of those mountains, and at the mouths of the great transverse ravines which lead up to the regions of perpetual snow, and in all such cases he allows that the condition of the blocks is highly indicative of their having once formed part of the “moraines” produced by former — glaciers. But the important point, that the glacier is the chief source of the origin of erratic blocks, is entirely denied by another antagonist to the theory of Agassiz, who has appeared in the person of M. Godeffroy *. After the observations of two summers in the Alps, this author has become convinced that the materials of the so-called moraines have not been derived simply by the glacier from the solid rock in the higher mountains, but are the re-arranged portions only of a great pre-existing diluviai deposit, which had been accumulated in the radiating valleys during a period of great disturbance, anterior — to the existence of glaciers in that latitude. Describing (like M. Necker) one of these “trainées” as having a continuous length of fifteen leagues, he infers that such a mass could never have been deposited by a glacier proceeding from mountains of no greater alti- tude than the Alps. Arguing that glaciers are merely the condensed or central portions of vast accumulations of snow, forced downwards into the gorges by increasing volume from above, the chief novelty of M. Godeffroy’s work is contained in the opinion, that in advancing, these bodies of ice cut through the ancient diluvium or drift, just as a plough-share cleaves the soil (“‘presso tellus consurgit aratro” being his motto), and threw up some portions into lateral moraines, as well as pressed before them others to form terminal moraines. _ To the crystalline and mechanical changes which the snow has undergone in its passage into solid ice, is attributed much of the confusion and irregularity of outline so visible in the “aiguilles” and other icy masses of the Alps; and to the same disturbing ac- tion is referred the rounded and worn exterior of the boulders in * Notice on les Glaciers, les Moraines et les Blocs Erratiques, 1840, VOL. III, PART II. — sii 674 moraines, as contrasted with comparatively angular blocks of the pre-existing drift which have not been in contact with the glacier. I refer you to the work of M. Godeffroy for the explanation of the manner in which he supposes the surface of the advaneing or re- treating glacier was subjected to lateral overflows or “ écroulemens ” of stones, gravel, and earth, and also for his theory of medial mo- raines ; but I now bring to your notice his ingenious effort to solve one of the very difficult climatological problems in the Alps. Having shown how the lower valleys must, from year to year, become more and more encumbered with detritus, he seizes this fact to explain by it alone, both the well-known retreat of the glaciers and the fact brought forward by Venetz and other observers; viz. that roads which existed in certain former passes of the High Alps are now quite choked up with snow and ice-—a fact which has been supposed to indicate a sensible decrease of temperature within the historic era. M. Godeffroy contends, that in ancient times, when the gorges were more open, and the heaps of detritus at the entrance intb the lower valleys were less in size and fewer in number, and when consequently the glaciers easily extended to greater distances, the continual and unrestricted supply of snow and ice from many affluents more than countervailed the loss through atmospheric action; but that as the obstacles increased at some distance above the terminal moraine, the lower ends of the glaciers not being so fed as to regain in one sea- son the melting losses of the previous year, the inevitable result was a successive shrinkage and retrocession of the mass. ‘The in- crease of snow and ice in the upper passes, and the blocking up of the roads, are explained by the same agency ; for as soon as the de- scent of the glacier from the higher to the lower Alps was im- peded, it would follow, that the frozen matter of the higher re- gions, deprived of its previous exit, must find its way into the ad- jacent upper depressions, and there form those mers de glace which have obstructed the road-ways or passes of our ancestors. Thus is the supposed anomaly explained without recurring to any change of climate*. In that part of our own country to which the glacial theory has been applied, Mr. Charles Maclaren, already known to you by ex- cellent geological treatises, has recently published a well-condensed, small work explaining the views of Agassiz. The phenomena of glaciers and the general doctrines derived from their study being explained, Mr. Maclaren proceeds to analyze those cases of trans- ported detritus in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh to which the theory had been supposed to apply. *T hoped to have been able to quote the opinions of Professor J. Forbes on this vexata questio, because it is well known that he was a companion of Professor Agassiz in the Alps during the last summer, but this distinguished cultivator of physical science has not yet published his views on the action of glaciers as affecting the surface of the earth, though he has given to the public a very ingenious sketch, descriptive of a peculiar parallel striation in the solid ice of glaciers.—Edinburgh New Philoso- phical Journal, January, 1842, 675 A year and a half only has elapsed since Professor Agassiz and Dr. Buckland seemed to think, that this district was as rich in proofs of the action of glaciers as many other parts of Scotland which they visited, and as I happened to witness the efforts of my predecessor in this Chair to attach Mr. Maclaren to his views, I must be permitted to direct your attention to the practical results at which this gentleman has arrived, in some prominent cases. Observing blocks of greenstone on Arthur's Seat, which, from their peculiar structure, must have been transported from Salisbury Craigs, a lower hill, and separated from the former by an abrupt val- ley, Mr. Maclaren infers, that if the present surface of the land be argued upon (and in all questions of glaciers this is a postulate), nei- ther glacier, nor iceberg, nor current will explain the fact. It is un- necessary that I should here examine this author's hypothesis, by which in order to solve the local problem, he restores the inclined stratified masses of Salisbury Craigs to such an extent as to give them an altitude in ancient times superior to that of Arthur’s Seat ; for whether we adopt his ingenious view, involving a mighty sub- sequent denudation, or suppose that in the oscillations of this plu- tonie tract the former low and high points of land have been re- latively depressed and elevated, it is obvious, from the very strue- ture of the rocks, that in both cases a subaqueous, and not a sub- aérial condition is called for to explain the appearances, and this too, be it recollected, on the summits of the highest hills in the im- mediate vicinity of the Scottish metropolis, in and around which the action of glaciers has been supposed to be visible at much lower levels ! Among the examples of the scratched and polished surfaces of rocks near Edinburgh, I do not perceive that the glacialists have grappled with certain appearances on which Dr. Buckland for- merly dwelt with so much pleasure, viz. the grooved or channeled surfaces of the Braid Hills, first pointed out by Sir James Hall, and which the great chemical geologist attributed to a powerful rush of waters. When I visited the low ridge in question with Dr. Buckland and other friends*, my conviction was that these grooves, though then attributed by Dr. Buckland to glacial action, are due neither to that agency, nor to any rush of waters, but are simply the result of the changes which the mass of the rock underwent, when it passed from its former molten or pasty condition into a solid state. These appearances differ essentially from ordinary gla- cial scratches or scoringst. ‘They are, in fact, broad undulations or furrows, and instead of trending from the higher grounds to the Firth ef Forth, as would naturally be the case if they were due to the expansion and descent of glaciers, they rise up to the very summit of the low ridge in a direction transverse to its bearing, and with no neighbouring point of ground higher than that on which they occur. On clearing away the thin turf which barely co- * Dr. Graham and Mr. Maclaren were of the party, in Oct, 1840. + Plaster casts of these exist in the Geological Society. 312 676 vered the rock, some of these undulations in the surface appeared wide enough to contain the body of a man, and though observing a rude sort of parallelism, their forms were often devious. As their surface was smooth, not much unlike the usual aspect of the so called “moutonnés” rocks, the glacialists of our party at first seemed to be proving their case, when suddenly a discovery destroyed, at least in my opinion, their theory ; for in the adjacent quarries of the same hill, at a much lower level, and upon beds just uncovered by the workmen from beneath much solid stone, other sets of undulations or grooves were detected, so like to those upon the summit of the hill, that a little atmospheric influence alone was required to complete their identity. My belief therefore is, that the undulations were caused by the action which took place when the stone was solidified. Phenomena of a similar nature to the Scottish have been since observed in Wales by our late Fellow, Mr. Bowman. Captivated by the glacial theory, and having himself endeavoured to show that it could even be as successfully applied to the South as to the North of Scotland, he examined the highest region of Wales, with the geological structure of which he was previously familiar, half convinced, @ priori, that he would naturally find in those moun- tainous tracts some proof in support of the new views which he had adopted. He, however, quitted that country without having been able to observe any evidence whatever in favour of the Alpine theory, though his journey enabled him to detect several examples of striated rocks, which in unskilful hands might have been mistaken for the effects of glacial action; and these he holds up as warning beacons. After stating that there are, in his opinion, no terraces which any follower of Agassiz can construe into “ moraines,” whether terminal, medial, or lateral, on the flanks of the mountains of Snowdon, the Arenigs, or the Berwyns, he describes three distinct and differently formed sets of parallel markings which he observed in the newly uncovered surfaces of the schistose Silurian rocks, and shows satis- factorily how such appearances, as well as the tops of the joints, might be mistaken by cursory observers for scratches, although they are in fact due to structure. Unlike Mr. Bowman, Dr. Buckland has not confined his views of the action of glaciers to Scotland, but applies them largely to the North of England and to Wales. He has recently endeavoured to satisfy us, that the rocks on the sides of the chief valleys in the lat- ter country which open out from a common centre of elevation are striated, worn afd polished in the direction of the present water- courses, and these he conceives to be evidences of former glaciers, which filled up all the valleys radiating from Snowdon to a distance of many miles from a common centre. I confess I see almost insur- mountable objections to this view. Apart from other evidence, the very physical geography of this tract is at variance with the construc- tion of such an hypothesis. In the Alps, and indeed in every other part of the world in which they have been observed, the length of gla- ciers is in ratio to the height of the mountains from which they ad- 677 vance, or, to use the words of Agassiz, from which they expand. Now whilst in the present days, a small glacier hangs to the sides of a mighty giant like Mont Blane, having the altitude of 15,000 feet, our Welch hills, having a height only of 4000 feet, had glaciers, by the showing of Dr. Buckland, of a length of many miles. Again, in the same memoir, which fills so large a portion of the principality with glaciers, the author comments upon certain facts already well known to us, viz. the existence upon Moel Tryfane and the adja- cent Welch mountains of sea shells of existing species, at heights of 1500 and 1700 feet above the sea, where they are associated with mixed detritus of rocks transported from afar, all of which have travelled from the North, the hard chalk and flints of the North of Ireland being included. How are we to reconcile these facts with the theory that the greater part of the country in question was frozen up under the atmosphere in some part of the same modern period? Unable otherwise to explain how marine shells should be found on mountains which are supposed to have been previously and during the same great period occupied by terrestrial glaciers the accumulation of ages, Dr. Buckland invokes anew the aid of the old hypothesis of a great wave. This wave, rolling from the north, must have dashed over the mountains to a height of near 2000 feet, depositing as it went gravel, boulders and fragments, derived from places 200 miles distant, and transporting also marine shells in its passage. But is it not more natural and accordant with all the data upon which our science has been reared, to suppose that when such shells were deposited, the parts of the mountains so affected were permanently beneath the sea, than to call into play the assumption of the passage of so mighty a wave? At one moment the argument used is, that scratches and polishings of rock must have been done by ice, because in existing nature it has been found that ice can produce such effects; and in the same breath we are told that beds of shells have been placed on a mountain by an agency which is truly supernatural. In fact, the “glacier” theory, as extended by its author in proving too much, may be said to destroy itself. Let it be limited to such effects as are fairly deducible from the Alpine phenomena so clearly described by Agassiz, and we must all admire in it a vera causa of exceeding interest; but once pass the bounds of legitimate induc- tion from that vera causa, and try to force the many and highly diversified superficial phenomena of the surface of the globe, into direct agreement with evidences of the action of ice under the atmosphere, and you will be driven forward, like the ingenious author of the theory, so to apply it to vast tracts of the globe, as in the end to conduct you to the belief, that not only both Northern and Southern hemispheres, but even qguast tropical regions, were shut up during a long period in an icy mantle. Once grant to Agassiz that his deepest valleys of Switzerland, such as the enormous chasm of the lake of Geneva, were formerly filled with solid snow and ice, and I see no stopping-place. From that hypothesis you may proceed to fill the Baltic and Northern Seas, cover Southern 678 England, and half of Germany and Russia with similar icy sheets, on the surfaces.of which all the northern boulders might have been shot off. But even were such hypotheses granted, without we also build up former mountains of infinitely greater altitude than any which now exist, we have no adequate centres for the construc- tion of enormous glaciers which imagination must create in many regions to account for the phenomena. The very idea which records the existence of these vast former sheets of ice is at variance with all that is most valuable in the works of Charpentier, Venetz, and Agassiz, whose data, as carefully eliminated from Alpine pheeno- mena alone, would naturally teach us never to extend their appli- eation when those conditions are absent, viz. the mountain chain, by the very presence of which the pheenomena are explained. But though the Alpine glacial theory be new, the scratches and polished surfaces of rocks are by no means of recent observation. Many Swedish miners, from the days of Tilas and Bergman, failed not to remark how their mountain sides were furrowed, and in our own times, Sefstrom* of Sweden, and Bohtlingk of Russia, have not only narrowly traced them over wide regions, but have endeavoured to account for them. The first of these authors remarked that nearly all the hard rocks of this country had a “ worn or weather side,” and a highly escarped or “lee side,” the former being exposed to the North and the latter to the South; and having further shown that the detritus had generally been carried from N. to S., he called the worn face the “ weather side,’ and the higher and jagged extremity of such ridges the “lee side.” Extending his observations to many hundred places, he divided these scratches into what he calls normal and side furrows, showing that in the latter there are frequent aber- rations from the persistent courses of the former. Although he had been at first disposed to think, from the data in a given country around Falun, that the normal lines were invariably from N. to S., he afterwards discovered that in large tracts of the South of Sweden the direction was from N.W. to S.E., and in others, particularly along the coasts of Norway, from N.E. to S.W.; all these facts being re- corded on a map, which is a most valuable document. _ Since Sefstrom’s work was published, M. Bohtlingk, a young Russian naturalist of great promise, but, alas! prematurely carried to the grave, extended his researches to the northern territories of Russia. Observing that the dominant direction of the scratches in parts of the governments of Olonetz and Archangel was from N. to &., and that along the edges of the Bothnian Gulf their course was from W. to E., he passed the summit level of Rus- sian Lapland, and fourid that there the drift had no longer been transported from N. to S., or from N.W. to S.E., but, on the con- trary, from S.E. to N.W.; or, in other words, that the blocks of Lapland had been carried northwards into the shores of the Polar Sea. In a recent letter to Mr. Lyell, read before this Society, Pro- fessor Nordenskiold has accurately recorded the phenomena of this * See Taylor’s Scientific Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 81. 679 class observed by him in Finland, and he shows that there the blocks and striz proceed from N.N.W. to S.S.E. The theory of Sefstrom and his followers is, thaf a great flood, transporting gravel, sand and boulders, was impelled from the north over pre-existing land, and that the deviations from the N. and 8. direction are due only to various promontories by which the flood was deflected. .So convinced was this author that with local aberrations all the transport throughout the whole of Europe had taken place from north to south, that he not only travelled over the whole of Germany and saw nothing except materials streaming in the same direction, but even carried with him his northern drift into the Austrian and Bavarian Alps. I will not waste your time by pointing out the errors into which his hypothesis, though founded on data good within a limited radius, led this author. Every one who has studied the Alps (and the facts were well known before the days of glacial theories), is perfectly aware that the de- tritus on their flanks has been shot off eccentrically from the higher central masses. The observations indeed of Béhtlingk give the same result upon a very grand scale in the North, and explain what Sefstrém, with all his valuable labour, had left unknown, viz. that the Scandinavian mountains, as a whole, had produced exactly the same detrital result as the Alps, having poured off their detritus in all directions from a common centre, the northern chain differing only from that of central Europe by the much wider range to which its blocks and boulders were transmitted. My own belief, Gentlemen, as you know, has been, that by far the greatest quantity of boulders, gravel, and clay distributed over our plains and occupying the sides of our estuaries and river banks, was accumulated beneath the waters of former days. ‘Through- out large tracts of England we can demonstrate this to have been the case by the collocation of marine shells of existing species with far-transported materials. It was the association of these testacea with foreign blocks in the central counties of England which first led me to attach a new and substantial value to that view of glacial action which had been so well advocated by Mr. Lyell before Pro- fessor Agassiz came forward with his great terrestrial and general theory. I am bound to say that wide researches during the last two years havé strongly confirmed my early views*. I could not travel in the autumn of the year 1840 around the shores of the highlands of Scotland, without being convinced that the terrace upon terrace, presented on the sides of some of the great valleys, and often high upon the sea-ward hills of the bays opening out to the ocean, were nothing more than the bottoms of former seas and estuaries which had been successively desiccated. I coincide, therefore, entirely with Mr. C. Darwin in his very in- genious explanation of the probable formation of the parallel roads of Glen Roy (Phil. Trans., 1839, p. 39). Since then that excellent observer has borne out similar views in a paper read before our * See Silurian System, p. 536. 680 own Society. In this memoir, estimating the different changes of the sea and land, and showing to what extent the solid strata were depressed, whose relative histories he thus reads off, he traces the shingle beds from the edge of the sea, where they are in process of formation, to considerable heights inland; and estimating how blocks were transported from the great Cordillera within, or not long before the period of existing sea shells, he explains the far- transported boulders by their being carried to the spots where they lie in vessels of ice. The melting of these icebergs he conceives to have been the chief agent in forming such masses of clay, gravel, and boulders, as constitute the “till” of Scotland, whilst the con- fusion and contortion of their imperfect strata is considered by him to be necessarily due to the grounding of icebergs in the manner formerly suggested by Mr. Lyell. To the same powerfully disturb- ing agent he attributes the general absence of organic remains in these deposits ; and, lastly, he infers that it is much more probable that the great boulders were transported in icebergs detached from glaciers on the coast, than imbedded in masses of ice produced by the freezing of the sea. M. de Verneuil and myself had previously brought before you some new results, arising from our first expedition to Russia. We endeavoured to show the utter inapplicability of the Alpine glacial theory to vast regions of Northern Russia, though the surfaces of the rocks are scored and polished, and far-travelled blocks occur throughout a wide area in isolated groups, because much of this detritus has travelled over extensive tracts of low country, from which it has ascended to levels higher than the sources of its ori- gin. Hence we inferred, that the onward persistent march (in many parts up-hill) of a body of glaciers, having a front of many hundred miles in extent, is irreconcileable with any imaginable sub- aerial action. On the other hand, it was proved, by the presence of sea shells of an arctic character, that the “terra firma” to which some of the blocks had been transported, had been the bed of the Northern or glacial Sea at the period of this transport. We then attempted to explain how the parallel striz and polishing of the surface of rocks of unequal altitudes was reconcileable with the submarine action of ice, by supposing that ice floes and their de- tritus might be set in motion by the elevation of the Scandinavian continent, and the consequent breaking up of great glaciers on the northern shores of a sea which then covered all the flat regions of Russia ; and we further stated our belief, that the bottoms of these icebergs, extending to great depths, must have every here and there stranded upon the highest and most uneven points of the bottom of the sea into which they floated ; that where the bottom was hard rock, the lower surface of the iceberg, like the lower surface of a glacier, would grate along and score and polish the subjacent mass ; that where the bottom consisted of tenacious mud or clay, the ice- berg once fairly stranded would be retained till it melted away, entirely or in part, whilst it would be more frequently borne over sand-banks, on account of their less resistance. In this manner, we 681 endeavoured to explain not only the scratches and polish of hard submarine rocks, but also why large blocks are often found on former submarine hills, and why (in Russia at least) such blocks are more frequently associated with clay than sand. These views were indeed first expressed at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association, when I strove to reduce a large portion of the Alpine glacial theory to considerations depending upon the fact, that during the era of the dispersion of the large blocks, by far the greater portion of our ‘cqntinents were beneath the sea. Mr. Maclaren, to whom [ have already adverted, has recently im- proved this view, by showing how the parallel scratches and grooves ranging from N.N.W. to 8.S.E., and the dispersion of blocks in that direction, are reconcileable with the union of currents from the N., set in action, as above supposed, by a great polar elevation which acted as a “ centre of dispersion ;” but, as this author adds, a broad current would also set continually eastward along the immersed re- gions included in the temperate zone ; and hence, he says, that when the icebergs were drifting southwards from the poles, they would na- turally be carried to the S.E. by a stream compounded of the two currents. After reasoning upon the wide application to which the view of floating iceberg action is capable, and how many of our pre- sent terrestrial appearances it will explain, Mr. Maclaren adds, “ Mr. Murchison’s hypothesis, if adopted, does not exclude that of Agassiz. On the contrary, it may be assumed, that while the glacial condition (which caused the great accumulation of ice in the northern re- gions) continued, every mountain chain, which then had an eleva- tion of 2000 or 3000 feet above the sea, would be encrusted with ice, perhaps as far south as the latitude of 40°. Each of these would be on a small scale what the polar nucleus was on a great scale, a centre of dispersion.” In the memoir upon Russia by M. de Verneuil and myself, one observation, however, occurs which has not found its way into the abstracts, and which, therefore, I may advert to, as explaining why the rough detritus of mud, sand, clay and boulders so very seldom contains marine remains. Such heaps are made up cf materials which we consider to have been imbedded in a true terrestrial glacier, and therefore, though detached, and flcated to a distance, they never could afford more than ¢errestrial detritus; and if to this be added the consideration of how the stranding of such masses would destroy animals in the vicinity, as suggested by Darwin, we may rationally conceive why so few shells have been discovered in this coarse de- tritus, whilst we readily perceive why the stones impacted in it should be scored and striated, and often polished. Besides the great advancement of our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism, which at some future day may be connected with our la- bours, the Antarctic expedition, under the distinguished navigator Captain James Ross, has, as might have been expected, thrown con- siderable light upon the glacial theory. A few years only have passed since the existence of an enormous mass of ice-clad land in ~ the antarctic region, was announced by an American squadron of 682 geographical research. This great icy tract, which was described as exhibiting hills and valleys, and even rocks upon its surface, has entirely disappeared in the short intervening time; for Captain Ross has sailed completely through the parallels of latitude and in the same longitude which it was said to occupy. As we cannot suppose that the American navigators were deceived by atmospheric phenomena, so must we believe that what they took for solid land, was one of the enormous accumulations of ice called “packs,” the great source of those numerous ice islands, which periodically encumber the South- ern Seas. Continuing his progress towards the South Pole in almost open sea, Captain J. Ross discovered, as he proudly says, “ for the honour of England,” the southernmost known land, which he named Vic- toria, and which he coasted for more than eight degrees of latitude. This land rises in lofty mountain peaks, from 9000 to 12,000 feet in height, perfectly covered with eternal snow, from which glaciers descend, and project many miles into the ocean, terminating in perpendicular lofty cliffs. The rocks which could be examined _ were of igneous origin, and near the extreme south point of his ex- ploration, or in S. lat. 77° 32', long. 167° E., a magnificent voleano was seen in full action, emitting flame and smoke at an altitude of 12,400 feet. Further progress to the southward was then impeded by an enormous barrier of ice, or glaciers 150 feet high, which stretched from W.N.W.to E.S.E., and which the bold seaman traced in continuity for 300 miles, to long. E. 191° 23', and lat. 8. 78°. That this barrier was a true glacier was inferred from the existence of a very lofty chain of mountains behind it, the tops of which, as seen from the mast-heads, were estimated to be a degree of latitude to the south of the sea-face of this great wall of ice, at not more than half a mile from which the soundings were at 318 fathoms deep, and upon a bed of blue soft mud. Here then the geologist is pre- sented with abundant matter for speculation. Volcanos in the midst of eternal polar snow and glaciers, with seaward faces as wide as some of the continental tracts, which, from the strie and polish on their surface, and the wide dispersion of blocks and detritus, are sup- posed to have been affected by former terrestrial glacial action. Whilst, however, we have here the proof that existing glaciers ad- vance some few miles into the sea, we are also informed that the ice ceases suddenly against an ocean 2000 feet deep, and thus we are led to conclude that many glaciers, which may formerly have extended themselves into the sea, had a length, the extent of which, whether like this antarctic example, or those which have been measured in the Alps, was proportioned to the altitude of the ancient mountains against which they rested. By the same reasoning we may infer that the striz and polish of rocks, or accumulation of coarse detritus, and large blocks which are only to be observed in places far beyond the limits that are now established between mountains and their depend- ent masses of ice, cannot be due to the advance of former solid gla- ciers, but must rather be referred, as I have argued, to the floating away of vast packs and icebergs liberated from centres of congelation. 683 But besides the submarine operations now in action, and which may serve to explain most of our ancient phenomena, it has been shown that in Russia and other cold countries there are several actual sub- aerial processes, by which large blocks are accumulated at different heights by the expansion of the ice of rivers, or have been piled up by the glacial action cf former lakes, when at much higher levels *, leaving lines of coarse angular blocks. » I desist, howeyer, in this place from entering further into the many features under which the existing agency of ice may be viewed apart from the results of the movements of glaciers, More than enough has indeed already been said: for so long as the greater number of practical geologists of Europe are opposed to the wide extension of a terrestrial glacial theory, there can be little risk that such doc- trine should take too deep a hold of the mind. But whilst we may have no fear of this sort in Kurope, I have lately read with regret certain passages in the Anniversary Discourse of Professor Hitch- cock of the United States. In North America, striated, scored, and polished surfaces of rocks, proceeding from N. to S. for vast di- stances, occupy, it appears, at intervals a breadth of 2000 miles, and ave seen on hard rocks at all levels from the sea-shore to heights of 3000 and 4000 feet. Professor Hitchcock tells us, that these phenomena and the accumulations of gravel and blocks had always been inexplicable, until the work of Agassiz unexpectedly threw a flood of light upon his mind. If Professor Hitchcock could de- monstrate what he now seems to believe, that the great mass of the continent of North America was formerly covered with ice, he must first prove that it was not at that period below the level of the sea ; but as yet no facts are before us to lead us to doubt that the great accumulation of detritus and the transport of blocks did take place beneath the waters in that country. In justice, however, to this author, it must be said, that in expounding the glacial theory he ingenuously acknowledges the great difficulty of believing that solid masses of ice 3000 to 4000 feet thick, covered the whole region; that no action of a glacier will explain the persistent striation of the surface of an entire continent from N. to S., and that the direction of the boulders and the strie is to a great extent up-hill. When these and many other difficulties shall have been carefully weighed, our transatlantic friends may be disposed to modify their views, par- ticularly when they find that the existence of glaciers in Scotland and England (I mean in the Alpine sense) are not yet, at all events, established to the satisfaction of what I believe to be by far the greater number of British geologists. * Geological Proceedings, Murchison and De Verneuil on Russia, vol. ili. p. 406. joAniveNaEiy Address. Philadelphia, April 1841, p. 24. I must be excused for stating that Professor Hitchcock has entirely misconceived my views, when he places my name among those who had espoused the Alpine glacial theory. My efforts have been invariably directed towards its limi- tation, nay, to its entire rejection as applicable to by far the largest por- tions of the surface of the globe. 684 The presence of Mr. Lyell at this time in North America, is in- deed, most opportune, for whatever changes his mind may have re- cently undergone, no geologist has more strenuously laboured to make himself master of all its bearings, or more systematically en- larged our knowledge of this disputed subject. Possessing as he now does the advantage of observation on a large scale, I have little doubt that he will account for the wide dispersion of blocks in America from N. to S. by referring to a cause quite as general and quite as aqueous as that by which he originally sought to explain the phenomenon in Europe*. _ Although the consideration of this subject has already carried me beyond the limits I had prescribed to myself, yet I cannot quit it without reminding you, that the greatest geological authorities on the continent, led on by Von Buch who has so long studied these phenomena in his native land, are opponents to the views of Agas- siz. Even whilst I write, I find that M.de Beaumont has just com- municated to the Institute of France, a report on the results of a journey through Lapland, Finland, and the north of Europe, by his countryman M. Durocher, in which grouping the facts with great per- spicuity, he handles the whole subject with his usual master’s hand, and points out the value of the previous observations of Von Buch, Brongniart, and other writers. M.Durocher conceives that the phe- nomenon of the transport of erratic matters has proceeded from two successive and distinct operations: the first a great current from the pole, to which the striz and polish of rocks, and the deposits called Osars are referred ; the second, the transport of the distant blocks by vessels of ice, when all that part of Europe which they cover was subjected to the immersion of an icy sea. He does not agree with M. Bohtlingk, that the point of departure of the current can be placed in Lapland, but supposes it to have proceeded directly athwart those regions from the polet. But the point to which I * See Principles of Geology, 2nd edit. vol. i. p. 342; and Elements of Geology, Ist edit. p. 136. + M. Durocher has made two valuable observations in showing us that the striated and polished surface of the hard rocks is sometimes covered by accumulations of sand and detritus; and that although proceeding in a general sense from the north, the furthest transported blocks are so distri- buted as to indicate radiation from certain mineralogical centres, much in the same way as our blocks of Shap granite have, on a less scale, been scattered from one point of distribution. In stating, however, that in the progress of these transported masses to the south, granitic blocks always constitute the outermost zone, it appears to me that M. Durocher has ge- neralized beyond the field of his own observation. In Russia, for example, M. de Verneuil and myself traced greenstone blocks to the same southerly latitudes as granites. The blocks between Jurievitz and Nijny Novogorod are composed of quartz rock and of the peculiar trappzean breccia known in Russia as ‘“‘ Solomenskoi-kamen,”’ the parent rocks of which we examined in situ near Petrazowodsk (Geol. Proceedings, vol. iii. p.405), whilst the extreme boundary of these boulders extends to Garbatof on the Okka, S.W. of Nijny Novogorod, and consequently very far beyond Kostroma, the limit assigned to them by M. Durocher. Again, if M. Durocher prolongs the 685 now specially advert is, that in his skilful analysis of this memoir our eminent foreign associate admits floating ice as a vera causa to explain the drift of blocks, just in the same manner as in common with Lyell, Darwin, and others, I have been endeavouring to explain the phenomenon during the last three years, and thus the inference which was drawn from plain facts is admitted, viz. that the chief tracts covered by erratic blocks were under the sea at the period of their dispersion. (Sil. Syst. p. 536.) Thus far had I written, Gentlemen,—in short I had, as I thought, - exhausted the glacial subject at all events for this year,—when two most important documents were put into my hands. The first of these is the discourse of my predecessor, who has so modified his first views, that I cannot but heartily congratulate the Society on the results at which he has now arrived. I rejoice in the prudence of my friend, who has not permitted the arguments of the able ad- vocate to appear as the sober judgment of so distinguished a Presi- dent of the Geological Society. In fact, it is now plain that Dr. Buckland abandons, to a great extent, the theory of Agassiz, and admits fully the effects of water as well as of ice, to account for many of the long-disputed phenomena. Whilst this admission in- — volves the concession for which we have been contending, viz. that. the great surfaces of our continents were zmmersed, and not above the waters when by far the greater number of the phenomena on the surface of rocks was produced, I reject for those who entertain the same opinions as myself, the simple division into “ glacialists” and “ diluvialists,” into which Dr. Buckland has divided the com- batants on this question; for to whatever extent the former title has been won by Agassiz and himself, we who have contended for the submarine action of ice in former times, analogous to that which we believe is going on at present, can never be merged with those who, under the name of diluvialists, have contended for the rush of mighty waves and waters over continents. Besides glacialists and diluvialists, my friend must therefore permit me to call for a third class, the designation of which I leave to him, in which some of us desire to be enrolled who have advocated that modified view to which the general opinion is now tending. The other point to which I allude, and bearing at once on this view, is a discovery which our Librarian has just made without — quitting the apartments which he so truly adorns. In the Ameri- can Journal of Science for the year 1826, Mr. Lonsdale has de- northern drift to the flanks of the Ural Mountains he is decidedly in error, for there is no coarse detritus whatever on the fianks of that chain, whether derived from the north or from itself. Of the Tehornoi-Zem, or black earth of the central regions of Russia, to which, quoting Baron A. de Meyendorf, M. de Beaumont refers in a long note, I will now only say, that having stu- died the nature and extent of this singular deposit over very wide regions, I intend, with the help of my fellow-travellers M. de Verneuil and Count Keyserling, to lay before the public very shortly a sketch of its relations to the northern drift and other superficial deposits of Europe. 686 tected a short, clear, and modest statement, entitled “ Remarks on Boulders, by Peter Dobson,” which, though little more than one page in length, contains the essence of the modified glacial theory at. which we have arrived after so much debate. First deseribing in a few lines the manner in which large boulders, weighing from ten cwt. to fifteen tons, were dug out in clay and gravel, when making the foundations for his own cotton factory at Vernon, and seeing that it was not uncommon to find them worn, abraded, and scratched on the lower side, “as if done (to use his own expression ) by their having | been dragged over rocks and gravelly earth im one steady position,” he adds this most remarkable sentence:—“ J think we cannot account for these appearances, unless we call in the aid of ice as well as water, and that they have been worn by being suspended and carried in ice over rocks and earth under water.’ To show also that he had read much and thought deeply on this subject, Mr. Dobson quotes British authorities to prove, that as ice-floes constantly carry huge masses of stone, and deposit them at great distances from their original situation, so may they explain the trans- portation of foreign boulders to our continents. Apologising therefore for having detained you long, and for having previously too much extended a similar mode of reasoning, I take leave of the glacial theory in congratulating American science in haying possessed the original author of the best glacial theory, though his name had escaped notice ; and in recommending to you the terse argument of Peter Dobson, a previous acquaintance with which might have saved volumes of disputation on both sides of the Atlantic. In the mean time, however we may attempt to account for the transport of boulders, the striation and polish of rocks, and the ae- cumulation of superficial detritus, we cannot quit the glacial subject without avowing our obligations to Venetz, Charpentier, and Agassiz, and above all to the last, for having brought the agency of ice more directly into consideration as a vera causa, to explain many pheeno- mena on the surface. Even we who differ from Agassiz in his ge- neralizations, and have not examined the Alps since the theory was propounded, should not hastily adopt opinions which may be modi- fied after a study of the glaciers in situ. “ Come and see” is the bold challenge of the Professor of Neuchatel to all who oppose him, and sanguine as to the correctness of his opinions, he is certain that many will be converted if they would but observe the phenomena on which his views are based. Truly we must acknowledge, that he was the first . person who roused our attention to the effects produced by the bottom of an advancing glacier, and if geologists should eventually be led to believe, that certain parallel scratches and striz on the rocks were in some instances due to glaciers moving overland, but in many other cases were produced by icebergs, we must remember that the fertile mind of Agassiz has afforded us the chief means of experi- mentally solving the problem. In conclusion, Gentlemen, it is gratifying to reflect, that not- withstanding the vibrations of opinion which have been caused by 687 ™~ the introduction of glacial action among geological dynamics, the fundamental principles of our science remain entirely unaffected. Conspicuous as it may appear through the attractive descriptions of Agassiz, or the eloquence of Buckland, the glacial theory must be considered an episode only in the records we are labouring to pre- pare of the grand changes of the planet. Let not, therefore, geology be decried as a science without fixed principles, because her culti- vators have recently differed upon a point which, though connected in theory with the science, has no bearing whatever on its uses nor upon the many fundamental points which it had previously established. Your labours, Gentlemen, and those of your foreign associates, have already afforded proofs of the regular succession of the strata, and have traced their chronology ; you have accurately marked the revolutions which have interrupted the sequence of by-gone races; you have explained the origin and position of various mineral sub- stances essential to mankind, the dependence of geographical and agricultural products upon geological laws, and have shown how antagonist forces proceeding from the interior have modified the earth’s outline, and been the cause of mineral wealth,—in a word, by your patient study of the masses you have acquired a true know- ledge of the structure of the surface of the globe. By these achievements the geologist has earned his best trophies, and has shown that the principles of his science are based upon the unerring laws of nature. Let then the shortness of his bright ca- reer incite us to renewed exertions, so that if at the close of life our vast subject should still present some unexplained phenomena, we may at all events have won the race in our own generation by esta- blishing new landmarks in the rapidly increasing delta of natural knowledge. P piste r gh ine 2 3 me eke a ohn shi apa orbs Paral ogish «i EN! ny Ly BE MOY be Dish OY jainess AG wihasn). ewe dal A {4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. Ill. Parr II. 1842. No. 87. February 23.—Hugh Falconer, M.D., Superintendent of the East India Company’s Botanic Garden at Saharunpore, and Alexander Busby, Esq., Cassilis, Hunter’s River, New South Wales, were elected Fellows of this Society. A memoir was read, entitled, “ Report on the Missourium now exhibiting at the Egyptian Hall, with an inquiry into the claims of the Tetracaulodon to generic, distinction,” by Richard Owen, Esq., _ F.G.S., &c. The author commences with some remarks on the manner in which the Missourium is set up, and after poimting out certain mistakes, as well as the readiness with which Mr. Koch, the proprietor, corrected an error respecting the first pair of ribs, he states that the necessary reform in the juxtaposition of other parts of the skeleton could be effected only at a great expense. Mr. Owen then proceeds to consider the species of animal to which the skeleton is to be referred. It was, he says, a mammi- ferous animal, and while the anterior extremities disprove the ex- istence of clavicles, they establish that the fossil belonged to the Ungulata. The enormous tusks of the upper jaw further show that it was a member of the proboscidean group of Pachyderms, and that the molar teeth prove it to be identical with the Tetracaulodon or Mastodon giganteum. With respect to the horizontal position of the — tusks in the skeleton exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Mr. Owen states, that it may have arisen from compression, the tusk of the Mas- todon, like that of the Elephant, being inserted by a nearly straight cylindrical base in a socket of corresponding form, and can be rotated in any given direction when the natural attachments are de- stroyed by decomposition ; and he alludes to the skeleton exhibited in London in 1805, in which the tusks were bent downwards. Having, by a series of comparisons of the teeth and bones, which the author does not conceive it necessary to recount, arrived at the conclusion that the Missourium is either a Tetracaulodon or Masto- don, he next considers the relations in which these supposed distinct genera stood to each other; premising that Mr. Koch’s skeleton illustrates the osteology of the gigantic Mastodon far more com- pletely than has been done by any other collection of North Ameri- can fossils brought to Europe. The genus Tetracaulodon was founded by Dr. Godman on the lower jaw of a young Proboscidean VOL. III, PART II. 3K 690 naving two tusks projecting from the symphysial extremities. Mr. W. Cooper of New York, however, suggested that the Tetracaulo- don was nothing but the young of the gigantic Mastodon, and that the tusks were lost as the animal became adult. This opinion has been also advanced by others, but without being illustrated by any analogies; and it has been opposed by Dr. Isaac Hays, in an elabo- rate memoir on additional specimens, which he states present all the proofs necessary for refuting the opinion that Dr. Godman had committed the error of describing as a new animal the young of a known species; and he observes with respect to Mr. Titian R. Peale’s suggestion that the lower tusks might be only a sexual di- stinction, “‘ that it is impossible in the existing state of our know- ledge, and with our present materials, to confirm or positively refute this suggestion.”’ The most recent opinion on the subject, Mr. Owen states, is contained in the last edition of the ‘ Ossemens Fossiles,’ in which M. Laurillard, after alluding to the opinion that the lower jaws with tusks may be immature Mastodons, proceeds to say, ‘‘ others have been led to believe that the lower jaws of every age which haye tusks belong to a different species of large Mastodon: some charac- ters taken from the form of the jaw would seem to justify that opi- nion.”’—Oss. Foss. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 373, 1836. Mr. Koch’s collection of detached bones contains, Mr. Owen states, a number of lower jaws with the molars of Mastodon gigan- teum, which prove the important fact, that an animal of the same size and molar dentition as the Mastodon was characterized in the adult state by a single tusk projecting from the symphysial extremity of the right ramus, and that the two inferior tusks are manifested only by immature animals. Mr. Owen then details the evidence by which he arrived at the conclusion that the Tetracaulodon of Dr. Godman is the immature state of both sexes of the Mastodon giganteum, that in the adult male only one of the lower tusks is preserved, and that in the adult female both are wanting. 4 A table is given in the memoir of the measurements of six lower jaws of full-grown animals; three which retained the right tusk or exhibited its socket, and three in which the tusk was wanting, and the socket more or less obliterated; and Mr. Owen says that the dimensions prove the close similarity in size and proportions between the lower jaws of Mastodons with and without the tusks; and further that no individuals of the same species could resemble each other more closely in the conformation of the molar teeth. In both, the inner boundaries of the molar series are parallel, and the inter- space is of the same breadth: the general form of the ascending ramus and the symphysis, the place and size of the great foramina for the dental nerves and vessels, are alike. The only differences consist in the Tetracaulodon * having larger condyles, and the outer side of the horizontal ramus beg less convex and prominent; the # The author retains the term Tetracaulodon in bis description for the male Mastodon, 691 coronoid process also is higher; and the broad canal, which is im- pressed upon the upper part of the symphysis, is nearly straight, not sloping down to the deflected part as in the Mastodon; but the breadth of the canal is the same in both, though the symphysial part — of the jaw is larger and broader in the Tetracaulodon than Mastodon. These differences, Mr. Owen observes, may relate to the additional motions of the lower jaw, connected with the uses to which the in- cisor may have been put. _ ‘The incisor in full-grown Tetracaulodons or male Mastodons is a comparatively small, cylindrical and straight tusk, projecting forwards and a little downwards ; its circumference is five inches; the length of the projecting part of the most entire of three specimens was five inches, but an unknown portion had been broken off; the socket was three inches in depth, uniformly one and a half inches in diameter, and slightly concave at its termination. With regard to these incisor teeth and the importance attached to them as a generic distinction, Prof. Owen says, it must be remem- bered that in many species, both of Cetacea and Pachyderms, incisors as well as canines vary in relation to the age and sex of the same species of animal. In the male Dugong the upper incisors are pro- truded, scalpriform, and of unlimited growth, while in the female they are concealed, cuspidate, and solid to their base. In both sexes the lower jaw is provided at its deflected extremity with six incisors, which disappear in mature animals, only one or two remnants being occasionally discoverable in the cancellous sockets. In many of the Hog tribe, incisors are present in the young animal, but are lost in the full-grown. The most remarkable case, Mr. Owen says, of distinct conditions of incisors, teeth or tusks, relative to age and sex, is in the Narwhal. In this animal the young of both sexes haye equally developed on each side of the upper jaw a single tusk, one of which grows rapidly in the male, constituting the well-known long, spirally twisted tusk, while the other remains stationary ; but both continue rudimental in the female. Were the Dugong and the Narwhal extinct, and to be judged of only by their fossil remains, the skulls of the two sexes of the herbi- vorous cetacean, viewed irrelatively, would doubtless, Mr. Owen observes, be referred to two distinct species, though the identity in the molar teeth might impress the more cautious paleontologist with a strong suspicion of their generic identity ; but the cranium of the male Narwhal, with its unsymmetrical distortion, increased by an enormous tusk, would, it can scarcely be doubted, be referred to a genus of Cetaceans quite distinct from that which the edentulous and more symmetrical skull of the female would be considered to represent. In determining the real nature of differences in these extinct animal remains, Mr. Owen says it is necessary to inquire what other modifications are associated with those of the tusks ;—are the more essential parts of the dental system, as the grinding teeth, alike or different in the jaws with tusks and without tusks? Do the jaws 3K 2 692 | themselves and the other parts of the skeleton offer the modifications of form which usually attend distinction of species? Above all, are the same characters presumed to distinguish the genera, present in the young as in the adult skulls? are there, for example, young Mastodons as well as young Tetracaulodons ? The youngest of five full-grown Tetracaulodons or male Masto- dons, examined by him, had “two molats and half of a third deve- loped in each ramus; the first or antepenultimate having three trans- verse ridges, each divided into two tubercles; the second also three bicusped ridges ; and the third two ridges extricated, and two others within the alveolar cavity. In the next jaw in the order of develop- ment, the third ridge of the last molar was extricated ; in the third specimen the antepenultimate grinder had been shed, and the last molar exhibited the same degree of development; in the fourth jaw the ultimate molar was fully extricated, exhibiting four bicuspidate ridges and a talon; and the fifth or oldest Tetracaulodon retained its penultimate but worn grinders, the two anterior ridges of the last molars being a little abraded, and the talon being developed into a pair of small tubercles. A series of jaws of female Mastodons (Mastodon proper of Dr. Godman and Dr. Hays) presented the same order of development. Having already shown that the molar teeth are identical in number and form in the Mastodon and Tetracaulodon, Mr. Owen proceeds to point out their correspondence in the mode and order of succession. The lower jaws of both present, moreover, those characters by which the Mastodon giganteum is distinguished from the genus Elephas, namely, by the higher coronoid, the less rounded angle, the straight inferior margin, the parallel inner alveolar border, and the more pro- duced symphysial extremity. ‘They present, besides, equally the minor characteristic of the sharp process on the inner side of the neck of the condyle, and the ridge continued from the outer side of the neck. Both have an oblong depression on the outside of the coronoid process, but varying in depth in different T'etracaulodons. - In both the posterior aperture of the dental canal commences in the same place; and the inner side of the angle of the jaw is concave, and bounded by an irregular margin, indicating the attachment of the fascia covering the internal pterygoid muscle, the irregularity being stronger in the lower jaws of older individuals. The relative position of the principal anterior outlet of the dental canal is the same in Tetracaulodon as in Mastodon, varying in both in its relative position to the teeth as these alter their position in age. When the striking modifications by which the lower jaw of the Elephant differs from that of the Mastodon are considered, it cannot be supposed, observes Mr. Owen, that no corresponding differences should be present in the lower jaws of the Mastodon and of an- other genus of Proboscideans characterized by a difference in the number of the teeth, and he says, he knows of no analogy in the whole mammalian series that would justify such a belief. Tetra- caulodons are as numerous in Mr. Koch’s collection as Mastodons, 693 yet there are not found in it two forms of humeri, ulne, radii, femora or tibiz, only the merest difference of variety being de- tectable; whilst the femora of the Hlephas primigenius associated with them are at once recognizable by modifications which might be expected to accompany true generic differences in the rest of the organization. With the exception of a few bones of the Hlephas primigenius, all the other remains of proboscidian Pachy- derms in Mr. Koch’s collection, Mr. Owen is of opinion, belong to the Mastodon giganteum; and the great skeleton he considers to be that of a male individual, on account of the size of the tusks and the strongly marked external characters of the principal bones of the ex- tremities ; but he points out that the lower jaw belonged to a female, and he states that the proprietor acknowledged that it was not discovered with the other portions of the skeleton. The true height of the animal, taken at the dorsal spines, Mr. Owen estimates at ten feet, and the length, from the intermaxillary bones to the end of the sacrum, at sixteen feet, or four more than that of the Asiatic Elephant in the Hunterian Museum. The supposed spinal column of a man fourteen feet high, Mr. Owen refers to the Lophiodon: Mr. Koch’s collection also includes some interesting remains of the Mylodon Harlani, also portions of large species of Bos, Cervus, &c. With respect to the use of the lower incisor, Mr. Owen says, if in- deed this diminutive inferior tusk were a generic character constantly associated in both sexes with the enormous upper tusks, no explana- tion could be given of so apparently useless an appendage; but if re- garded as a sexual character, there are in the animal kingdom abun- dant examples of the functional importance of external ‘distinctions in the male ; and such he considers to be the explanation of the per- sistent single or prominent tusk in the male Mastodon. Further, with respect to the question why two tusks should be originally de- veloped, especially in the female, in which neither is to be retained, Mr. Owen replies that there is an equal difficulty with respect to the two rudimental tusks in the female Narwhal, and of the single one in the male; to the abortive incisors in the symphysial part of the lower jaw of the Dugong; to the rudimental teeth in the lower jaw of the Foetal Whale-bone Whale; and in the upper jaw of the Sperm Whale. In these, and many analogous instances, the author observes, a structure which is merely sketched out, and is function- less in one species, is perfected and performs important uses in an- other closely allied. Thus the teeth which are shadowed forth in the lower jaw of the Foetal Whale are fully developed in the Cachalot. The upper rudimentary maxillary teeth which remain hidden in the gum of the Sperm Whale are functionally developed in the Grampus; and in like manner in the gigantic Dinotherium, discovered by Dr. . Kaup, is exhibited the full and functional development of the infe- rior rudimental tusks of the Mastodon. The molar teeth of the Mastodons offer, Mr. Owen says, a beauti- ful transitional modification connecting the lamellated structure of 694 the triturating molar with those having simply a transversely-ridged grinding surface. The interval between the molar teeth of the Elephant and those of the Tapir is too great to have allowed their fundamental resemblance to have been detected in the existing creation; but a study of the extinct Pachyderms brings to light, he says, a beautiful series of gradations leading through the ele- phantoid Mastodon of Ava and the gigantic Mastodon of the Missouri to the Dinotherium, which it may be remembered was the gigantic Tapir of Cuvier. Moreover, he adds; the indication of the singular armature of the lower jaw of the Dinothere might be most closely discernible in that species of Mastodon which makes the nearest approach to the Dinothere in the form of the grinding teeth. The report from which the above extracts have been taken had been completed when Mr. Owen received a copy of the notice* of Dr. Hays’s description of Mr. Koch’s collection. After an attentive perusal of this document, in which the generic distinctness of the Tetracaulo- don is maintained, Mr. Owen has been only more convinced of the truth of his own theory ;-he, however, in justice to Dr. Hays, gives the arguments of that esteemed naturalist. Dr. Hays considers the existence of a single tusk in the lower jaw to be only an accidental occurrence, referring, as examples of two tusks, to the specimen described by Dr. Godman, and to that belonging to the Museum of the University of Virginia. Respecting this statement, Mr. Owen observes, that the jaw described by Dr. Godman is that of an im- mature individual, retaining on the left side the first small molar, and therefore affords no proof of the persistence of the two in- ferior tusks in the adult animal, or evidence of the accidental na- ture of the absence of the left tusk in the mature jaw. With regard to the specimen in the cabinet of the University of Virginia, he says, that if this belong to a mature animal it would be an unique specimen, and might be paralleled with cases on record of two projecting tusks in the male Narwhal, and considered by all na- turalists to be accidental. Mr. Owen further calls attention to the figure of the specimen in pl. 27. fig. 2. of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (vol. iv.), where only the right tusk is represented, the left being merely indicated by a dark spot of cor- responding size, of the nature of which the text is silent. Respecting the symphysial portion of the jaw exhibiting the alve- oli of two tusks, both much smaller than the alveolus of the right tusk in the presumed male Mastodon’s jaws of corresponding size, and considered by Dr. Hays to constitute a distinct variety, if not a new species of Tetracaulodon, Mr. Owen considers it to be the jaw of a young female Mastodon in which the obliteration of the tusks had not been completed. A lower jaw without tusks, considered by Dr. Hays to have been a young Mastodon, but with ‘the chin slightly broken, so that it is impossible to determine whether it had the foliated termination so * Proceedings, American Phil. Soc. October 1841. 695 conspicuous in the adult ;’ Mr. Owen remarks, that notwithstanding the prominent end of the symphysial part containing the chief por- tion of the tusk-socket is wanting, yet ‘‘ two foramina are recognized at the anterior part of the chin,” and these, he observes, must be either portions of the alveoli of the tusks, or the canals of the nerves and vessels for the tusks in these alveoli. Thus, Mr. Owen says in conclusion, all the examples which:seemed to show that the genus Mastodon at no period of life possessed tusks in the lower jaw, and that the genus Tetracaulodon was characterized at all periods of life by two projecting tusks in the lower jaw, become invalidated on a close inspection, and enter into the series of facts which support the proposition that the Mastodon giganteum has two lower tusks originally in both sexes, and retains the right lower tusk only in the adult male. March 9.—The followmg communications were read : 1. A paper on the Salt Steppe south of Orenburg, and on a re- markable freezing Cavern. By Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq., Pres. G.S. ' (1.) This salt steppe is distinguished from many of those which are interposed between the Ouralsk and the Volga or are situated on the Siberian side of the Ural Mountains, by consisting not of an uniform flat resembling the bed of a dried-up sea, but of wide undulations and distantly separated low ridges; nevertheless it is, Mr. Murchison states, a true steppe, being devoid of trees and little irrigated by streams. The surface consists of gypseous marls and sands, considered by the author to be of the age of the zechstein*, and it is pierced in the neighbourhood of the imperial establishment of Illetzkaya Zatchita by small pyramids of rock-salt. These pro- truding masses attracted the attention of the Kirghiss long before the country was colonized by the Russians, but it is only during a short period that the great subjacent bed has been extensively worked. The principal quarries, exposed to open day, are situated immediately south of the establishment, and have a length of 300 paces, with a breadth of 200 and a depth of 40 feet. The mass of salt thus exposed, is of great purity, the only extraneous ingredient being gypsum, distantly distributed in minute filaments. At first — ‘sight the salt seems to be horizontally stratified, but this apparent structure, Mr. Murchison states, is owing to the mineral being ex- tracted in large parallelopipedal blocks twelve feet long, three feet deep and three wide. On the side where the quarry was first worked, the cuttings presented, in consequence of the action of the weather, a vertical face as smooth as glass, but at its base there was a black cavern formed by the water which accumulates at cer- tain periods of the year, and from its roof were saline stalactites. -* His extensive surveys of Russia have convinced Mr. Murchison that rock-salt and salt springs occur in all the lower sedimentary rocks of that empire, from great depths below the Devonian or old red sandstone system to the zechstein and the overlying marls and sandstones. 696 The entire range of this bed of salt is not known, but the mass has been ascertained to extend two versts in one direction, and Mr. Murchison is of opinion that it constitutes the subsoil of a very large area; its entire thickness also does not appear to have been deter- mined, but it is stated to exceed 100 feet. The upper surface of the deposit is very irregular, penetrating, in some places, as already mentioned, the overlying sands and marls. In consequence of the salt occurring at so small a depth every pool supplied with springs from below is affected by it*; and one of them used by the inhabitants as a bath is so highly charged with saline contents that there is a difficulty in keeping’ the body sub- merged, and the skin on leaving the pool is encrusted with salt. This brine swarms with ‘animalcules. (2.) Mr. Murchison then describes the freezing cavern and the phenomena exhibited by it. ‘The cave is situated at the southern base of a hillock of gypsum at the eastern end of the village con- nected with the imperial establishment ; and it is one of a series of apparently, for the greater part, natural hollows, used by the pea- santry for cellars or stores. The cave in question is, however, the only one which possesses the singular property of being partially filled with ice in summer and of being destitute of it in winter. ‘Standing on the heated ground and under a broiling sun, I shall never forget,” says the author, ‘“‘my astonishment when the woman to whom the cavern belonged unlocked a trail door and a volume of air so piercingly keen struck the legs and feet that we were glad to rush into a cold bath in front of us to equalize the effect.” Three or four feet within the door and on a level with the village street, beer and quash were half frozen. A little further the narrow chasm opened into a vault fifteen feet high, ten paces long, and from seven to eight wide, which seemed to send off irregular fissures into the bedy of the hillock. The whole of the roof and sides were hung with solid undripping icicles, and the floor was covered with hard snow, ice, or frozen earth. During the winter all these phenomena disappear, and when the external air is very cold and all the country is frozen up, the temperature of the cave is such that the Russians state they could sleep in it without their sheep-skins. In order to lay before the Society an explanation of these curious opposite conditions of the cave, the author communicated with Sir Jobn Herschel and received the documents which follow this abstract. With respect to the observations in Sir J. Herschel’s letter, Mr. Mur- chison says, he does not conceive that the ice caverns at Teneriffe, in Auvergne and elsewhere are analogous cases with that at Illetzkaya Zatchita, the frozen materials in the last not arising from the pre- * The abundance of these brine-springs in various parts of Russia must lead, the author says, to the abandonment of Pallas’s hypothesis, that the saline pools and lakes are the residue of former Caspians ; though he admits that some of the vast low steppes of the South formed the bottom of a for- mer condition of the existing Caspian. 697 servation of the snow or ice of the preceding winter, but from the peculiar condition of the cavern during the hottest summer months. He states also that he particularly urged the authorities at Oren- burg as well as the directors of the Salines to keep accurate regis- ters of the temperature throughout the year, and to ascertain pre- cisely the changes which the cave undergoes between the extremes of summer and winter. ‘There is, he observes, a very marked dif- ference between the climate of the steppes south of Orenburg and that of Ekaterinburg, not merely due to the difference of six de- srees of latitude, but arising also from the altitude of the position of Ekaterinburg and the shortness of its varying summers as well as from the long droughty summers of the steppes, which are re- moved from all mountain chains, and possess comparatively no great altitude above the sea. In the southern region, he conceives, a sub- stratum of frozen matter cannot exist, there being a most extraor- dinary difference between the climate of Yakatsk (lat. 623° N. long. 131° E.) and that of Orenburg (lat. 51° 46’ N.), the winter of the former lasting eight or nine months, with the thermometer during long _ periods constantly 30° and sometimes 40° of Reaumur below zero*. Respecting the explanation that the difference of temperature in the cave is due to the propagation through the gypsum hillock of the heat or cold of the preceding summer or winter season, Mr. Murchison conceives that the fissures which ramify from the .cave into the hill, present difficulties to such a solution. When he was on the spot, the existence of these fissures led him to speculate upon the possibility of the phenomena being due to currents of air passing over subterranean floors of moistened rock-salt, and on the effects which would be produced when such currents came in contact with a stream of dry heated air. 2, Extracts from a letter addressed by Sir J. Herschel, Bart., F.G.S., to Mr. Murchison, explanatory of the phenomena of the freezing cave of Nletzkaya Zatchita. ‘“‘ That the cold in ice-caves (several of which are alluded to ina part of this letter not published) does nor arise from evaporation, is, | think, too obvious to need insisting on. It is equally impos- sible that it can arise from condensation of vapour, which produces heat not cold. When the cold (by contrast with the external air, i.e. the difference of temperature) is greatest, the reverse process * Mr. Murchison ascertained during his journey in the North of Russia in 1840, that much remains to be done relative to the circumstances of the recorded frozen substratum at Yakatsk; and he states the following as points requiring attention. Ist. With the exception of about sixty feet of alluvial soil, the whole shaft to a depth of 350 feet was sunk through solid strata of limestone two to six feet thick, and shale with a little coal; 2ndly, That none of the sinkings took place in summer although renewed for several years, on account of the foul air generated in the shaft; Srdly, That when Admiral Wrangel descended the shaft during the summer, and the surface was burnt up, he found the thermometer to stand at 6° Reaum. below zero. 698 is going on. Caves in moderately free communication with the air _are dry and (to the feelings) warm in winter, wet or damp and cold in summer. And from the general course of this law I do not con- sider even your Orenburg caves exempt, since however apparently arid the external air at 120° Fahr.! may be, the moisture in it may yet be in excess and tending to deposition, when the same air is cooled down to many degrees beneath the freezing point. “The data wanting in the case of your Orenburg cave are the mean temperature of every month in the year of the air, and of ther- mometers buried say a foot deep, on two or three points of the sur- . face of the hill, which if I understand you right is of gypsum and of small elevation. I do not remember the winter temperature of Orenburg, but for Catherinenbourg (only 5° north of Orenburg), the temperatures are given in Kuppfen’s reports of the returns from the Russian magnetic observatories. If anything similar obtains at Orenburg I see no difficulty in explaining your phenomenon. Re- jecting diurnal fluctuations and confining ourselves to a single sum- mer wave of heat propagated downwards alternately with a single winter wave of cold, every point at the interior of an insulated hill rising above the level plain will be invaded by these waves in suc- cession (converging towards the centre in the form of shells similar to the external surface), at times which will deviate further from mid-winter and mid-summer the deeper the point is in the interior, so that at certain depths in the interior, the cold-wave will arrive at mid-summer and the heat-wave in mid-winter. A cave (if not very ~ wide-mouthed and very airy) penetrating to such a point will have its temperature determined by that of the solid rock which forms its walls, and will of course be so alternately heated and cooled. As the south side of the hill is swnned and the north not, the sum- mer wave will be more intense on that side and the wimter less so; and thus though the form of the wave will still generally correspond with that of the hill, their antensity will vary at different points of each wave-surface. The analogy of waves is not strictly that of the pro- gress of heat in solids, but nearly enough so for my present purpose. “The mean temperature for the three winter months, December, January, February, and the three summer months, June, July, Au- gust, for the years 1836, 7, 8, and the mean of the year, are for Catherinenbourg as follows :— Winter. Summer. Annual Mean. 18386. — 10°93 R. + 11°90 R. PIS e202) a 1837. — 12°90 + 12°93 + 0°30 1838. — 12°37 + 12°:37 + 0°°60 Mean.| — 12°07 R. + 12°40 R. + 0-70 R. + 4°83 Fahr. | + 59°9 Fahr. | + 33°57 Fabr. 3 699 “The means of the intermediate months are almost exactly that of the whole year, and the temperature during the three winter as well as the three summer months most remarkably uniform. “This is precisely that distribution of temperature over time which ought under such circumstances to give rise to well-defined and intense waves of heat and cold; and I have little doubt there- fore that this is the true explanation of your phenomenon. ** T should observe, that in the recorded observations of the Ca- therinenbourg observatory, the temperatures are observed two-hourly, from eight a.m. to ten p.m., and not at night. The mean monthly temperatures are thence concluded by a formula which I am not very well satisfied with; but the error, if any, so introduced must be far too trifling to affect this argument. The works whence the above data are obtained are, ‘ Observations Météorologiques et Magnétiques faites dans Vintérieur de ?Empire de Russie,’ and ‘ Annuaire Magnétique et Meétéorologique du Corps des Ingénieurs des Mines de Russie,’ works which we owe to the munificence of the Russian government, and which it is satisfactory to find thus early affording proofs of utility to science in explaining what cer- tainly might be regarded as a somewhat puzzling phenomenon, as it is one highly worthy of being further studied and: being made the subject of exact thermometric researches on the spot, and wherever else anything similar occurs.” Sir John Herschel then states, that since he began this letter he had examined some old documents and found the paper which ac- companied his letter. ‘‘The date of this manuscript,” he adds, ‘‘ as nearly as I can collect it from collateral circumstances, must have been somewhere about the year 1829, or rather before than after. “ T remain, &c., “J. F. W. Herscuer. “* P.S. Thermometric observations in the Steppes, of the mean monthly temperature of the soil at different depths from one to 100 feet (at Forbes’s intervals), would be most interesting. At Cathe- rinenbourg the mean temperature of the air being 33°°6 Fahr., no permanently frozen soil would probably be reached, but a very little more to the northward that pheenomenon must occur. “ The ‘ thinning out’ of the frozen stratum would be most inter- esting to trace, but in thinning out by decrease of latitude it might possibly at the same time ‘ dip’ beyond reach, all above it being oc- cupied by soil subject to the law of periodic frost and thaw, and giving room under favourable circumstances to ice-caverns, pits, or galleries. What determines the distinct definition of the hot and cold alternating layers is the exceedingly peculiar form of the curve of the monthly temperatures as given in the tables above referred to.” 3. “On some Phenomena observed on Glaciers, and on the in- ternal temperature of large Masses of Ice or Snow, with some Re- marks on the natural Ice-caves which occur below the limit of per- petual Snow.” By Sir John Herschel, Bart., F.G.S., &c. 700 In a visit to the glacier of Chamouni in the summer of 1821, I was struck with the very remarkable positions of several large blocks ‘of granite resting on the glacier in various parts. ‘They were perched on stools of ice ok less diameter than the blocks themselves, which overhang their supports on all sides, as a mushroom does its stalk. The position of these large masses was rendered the more striking when contrasted with that of small fragments of stone, equally (to appearance) exposed to all the local heating and cocling influences, but which were uniformly found te have sunk mto the ice, and that the deeper, (within certain limits) the less their size. On con- sideration, the cause became apparent, and, as it affords a very pretty illustration of the laws of the propagation of heat through bad conductors, and the steps by which an average temperature is attained in large masses from a varying source, [ will here state it as it occurred to me at the time. With regard to the sinking of small masses into the ice when heated by the sun, it is the natural effect of the greater power of absorbing heat which stone possesses beyond ice. Whenever the sun shines, the stone will detain more of its heat than an equal sur- face of ice would do ; and as it gives this out to the ice below nearly as fast as it receives it, a greater depth of ice is melted in a given time beneath the stone than in the parts around. On the other hand, at night, ice radiates terrestrial heat nearly or quite as copiously as stone, and thus they are on a par in frigorific power. The elevation of great masses above the general level, which at first sight would appear to contradict this explanation, is however equally a consequence of the laws of the propagation of heat. To conceive this, let us imagine a very large block of stone, at the com- mencenmient of the summer, to lie on a level surface of ice, in a si- tuation exposed to the direct rays of the sun, where the mean tem- perature of day and night is (even in summer) but little above the freezing-point, but where, however, no fresh snow falls during the whole summer. In the day time then, while receiving the sun’s rays, the upper surface of the stone will be strongly heated, and a wave of heat will be propagated slowly downwards through the stone towards the ice, diminishing in intensity rapidly, however, as it travels, since each superior stratum only divides its excess of _temperature with that below. Long before this can reach fhe ice, however, night comes on. The surface cools below the mean or even below the actual temperature of the air by tadiation, and a mave of cold is propagated (or, which comes to the same thing, heat is abstracted from stratum to stratum) by the same laws. This fol- lows close on the wave of heat below and travels with equal velo- city. In consequence, the heated stratum parts with its heat, now, both upwards and downwards, and thus the intensity of the wave of heat diminishes with much greater rapidity as it proceeds down- wards. It is manifest, that were the thickness of the stone infinite, the wave of heat being always followed close up by the wave of cold, and a perpetual tendency to an equilibrium of temperature 701 going on between them, they would ultimately reduce each other to their mean quantity and (not to take the extreme case of infinity) at some very moderate depth, the fluctuations above and below the mean temperature of the air, as the successive nocturnal and diur- nal waves pass through a particle of the stone there situated, will be rendered very tr ifing, and may for our present purpose be regarded as evanescent. Beyond this depth, whatever mass of stone may exist, may be regarded as a slow conducting mass, interposed be- tween a surface of ice constantly maintained at 32°, and a surface of stone constantly maintained at the mean temperature of the air, which by hypothesis is very little above it. Through this then the heat will percolate uniformly but feebly, and the ice below will be very slowly melted, and the more so in proportion to the thickness of the interposed stratum. Let us now consider what happens to the ice on the parts undefended by the stone. In the day time these experience the direct radiation of the sun, and therefore melt and run off in water. At night, it is true, the remaining surface cools by radiation; but this cold is propagated downwards, and on the return of day the superficial lamina is necessarily put in equilibrium with the air and melted by the sun, and however cold the interior of the mass may be, the surface will still be kept all day in a state of fusion. Thus the degradation of the general surface of the ice will be in proportion to the direct intensity of the sun’s rays and the time they shine, while that of the surface beneath the stone will only be in pr pportion to the excess of the mean temperature of day and night above 32°, diminished by the effect of the thickness of the stone. This of course will produce a difference of level, and a relative ele- vation of the stone sunk as really observed. One curious and, at at first sight, paradoxical consequence seems to follow from this reasoning, viz. that the ice of a glacier, or other great accumulation of the kind, may, at some depth beneath the surface, have a per- manent temperature very much below freezing, though in a situa- tion whose mean annual temperature is sensibly above that point. In fact (continuing to use the metaphorical expression already em- ployed), there is no reason why waves of cold, vf any intensity be- low 52°, may not be propagated downwards into the interior,of the ice ; but waves of heat above that pomt, of course, never can. Thus, the cold of winter and the frost produced by radiation in the clear nights of summer, will enter the mass and lower its internal tempe- rature, while the heat of the summer air and that imparted by solar radiation will mainly be employed in melting the surface, and will run off with the water produced. I am not aware of any observations on the internal temperature of glaciers—they are of course difficult from their usual rifty state ; but the point may not be unworthy the attention of the scientific traveller. May not this be the cause of those natural formations of ice which have been observed in caverns, in Teneriffe, and on some elevated points of the Jura chain, below the level of perpetual snow ? It is obviously no matter whether the interior mass in the above 702 reasoning be ice or rock. It is enough, that its surface, during the whole or great part of the year, should be covered with ice to bring down the mean annual temperature of its interior materially below the temperature due to its elevation, and which it would have were it not so covered, Conceive now a mountain whose summit is in this predicament, viz. constantly maintained at a mean temperature below that due to its elevation. This intense cold will not break off at the level of the line of perpetual snow, which is determined by the mean temperature of the atmosphere due to elevation, but will be propagated downwards in the interior of its mass. Hence, if at a short distance below the line of perpetual snow, where the mean diurnal temperature of the exposed part, taken at a few feet or a few yards deep in the soil or rock, is a little above freezing, we drive an adit, or take advantage of a natural fissure to obtain the internal temperature at a much greater depth from the surface ; we ought to find it below 32°, and ice ought constantly to form in such cavities. But even when the summit of a hill is not covered with ice, and when therefore this particular principle does not apply, it is easy to see, on the same general grounds, that something of the same kind may obtain. It is obvious, that whenever a change of temperature on the surface of a solid takes place, a wave of heat or cold, as the case may be, will be propagated through its substance ; and if the changes be regularly periodic, the waves will be also. Moreover it is clear that the longer the periods of the external fluctuations are supposed, the greater will be the interval of the waves, so as to make the time taken for the propagated heat to run over them precisely equal to the period of fluctuation. Now the rapidity with which succes- sive waves of heat and cold destroy each other, is inversely as the intervals, and thus the fluctuations of temperature depending on long periods of external change will be propagated to greater depths than those arising from shorter periods, nearly in the ratio of the lengths of the periods. Thus the depths at which the annual fluc- tuations of temperature cease to be sensible, will be between 300 and 400 times greater than those at which the diurnal ones are neutral- ized. Now it may happen, from the slowness of propagation through so considerable a depth, that the winter wave of cold (consisting of many diurnal waves of alternate, greater and less intensity) may not travel down to the adit or cavern till the hottest period of the next summer, or of many summers; in short, that if at any given time the interior of the mountain were sounded by thermometers down its whole axis, these instruments would exhibit alternate deviations -+ and — from the mean temperature of the air. A paper “On Rock-Basins in the Bed of the Toombuddra, South- ern India (lat. 15° to 16° N.),” by Lieut. Newbold of the Madras Army, was then read. Rock-basins abound in the beds of many rivers in southern India, particularly where rapids and falls are of frequent occurrence ; but in none are they more numerous and better exhibited in their va- 703 rious stages of formation than in the Toombuddra. In the bed of this river, near the island of Desanur and below the falls caused by the anicut or ancient stone embankment thrown across the channel for purposes of irrigation, is a great number of these cavities ge- nerally of a circular and oval form, and of various dimensions, equal, in one imstance, to 12 feet in circumference and 4 feet in depth. Upwards of 130 basins were observed here and near the ruins of Bijanugger (lat. 15° 14’, long. 76° 37’). On many large bare slabs of rock are chains of these cavities connected by shallow channels worn in the granite in the direction of the current of water ; and the author mentions in particular one, consisting of forty basin-shaped cavities near the ruins of the pavilion of the sixty columns at Annagundi (also lat. 15° 14’, long. 76° 37’). Below the anicut of Sanapore, near Bijanugger, where the river bursts through a natural barrier of granite, the rocks both on the bed and at the sides are honey-combed ; and still higher up the river, below the anicut of Wullanapore (lat. 15° 6’ N. long. 76° 22’ E.), the gneiss forming the bed of the river is very greatly eroded, as well as the basalt of adyke. The different effects of water on rocks dependent on their relative position, the author says, is forcibly illustrated in this part of the river. Above the anicut the bed of the Toombud- dra is slightly inclined, the stream flowing in one smooth and ma- jestic sheet nearly 300 yards in breadth over rocks, the surface of which is almost unimpaired, and a Hindu inscription, oh which the waters have glided upwards of three centuries, retains its cha- racters almost as fresh as if cut only a year, while, in the rapids below the anicut, the strata are perfectly honey-combed. The interior diameter of these basins is generally larger than that of the orifice, resembling a compressed globular vessel, and at the bottom there is a conical projection 2 or 3 inches in height, somewhat resembling that of a common black wine-bottle. The part where the water enters is usually the deepest, and in old cavities the margin, as well as that on the opposite side, is often worn back; the sides, bottom and lips of the orifice are however smooth. The funnel-shaped cavities, which are more rare than the basin-shaped, almost invariably occur where a loose block of rock has been worn quite through, or where water falls on or near the point at which two actual fissures intersect the rock at considerable angles. Many of the superficial erosions resemble the hoof of a horse, having a frog-like projection in the centre. The largest rock-basin which Mr. Newbold had seen was 300 feet deep and 750 in circumference. It was in gneiss, and immediately below the great falls of Gairsippa, in the western Ghauts, where a river 100 yards broad and 10 feet deep falls, during the monsoons, over a scarp upwards of 1000 feet high. It is during the period when the waters of the river begin to di- minish and an endless succession of small cascades or rapids is formed, that most of the cavities are worn in the higher portions of the rocks, and when these are left dry and the bulk of the river is still further reduced, that the cavities at a lower level are acted upon 704 fox a time. Some rock masses, after having had holes worn on one face, and been subsequently detached from their position and in- verted, and again eroded on another face, present the singular ap- pearance of having cavities on upper and under surfaces. In the formation and enlargement of the basins, Mr. Newbold is of opi- nion, that the erosion is the work of water, assisted only by the effects of the atmosphere upon the rock during the dry season ; and he thinks that these two agents are fully adequate to make the ca- vities with the aid of a natural decomposition of the strata or the attrition of blocks and pebbles rolled along by the current, though he admits their cooperation to a certain extent. The manner in which he considers the basins are formed is as follows. The water having worn a hole, however small, in the rock, flows into it in a circling eddy, and thereby enlarges the sides and bottom in a greater ratio than the orifice. ‘This mode of operation, he says, may be demonstrated by throwing a fragment of cork into the current before it enters the cavity, and by then watching the gyrations of the cork till it escapes over the lip of the basin. During this experiment it will be seen, that the centre of the bottom is but little acted upon, and that the projections before noticed are consequently left. That these cones do not rise to the level of the orifice, Mr. Newbold says, is accounted for by the action of the water in the shallow cavities being more equally distributed over the whole superficies of the in- terior, and from the formation of the projections not commencing till the basins have been deepened. The cavities are mostly free from sediment, but some contain pebbles and sand disposed in a horizontal bed at the bottom, un- disturbed by the rotatory motion of the water. In all cases in which Mr. Newbold noticed earthy matter carried into the basins by the current, the weightier pebbles sunk immediately, and either re- mained stationary or were but slightly moved ; and the heavier par- ticles of sand also sunk after making one or two whirls round the interior of the basin, while the mud and other light materials passed with the upper current over the lip at the opposite side. During the dry seasons, when the contents of the basins are gra- dually evaporated, the carbonic acid contained in the water, acts, Mr. Newbold says, upon the rock which frequently possesses a temperature of 120°, and softening the interior of the cavity, pre- pares it for additional erosive effects by the river during the next monsoon. Besides the river-basins, the author alludes ¢o similar but smaller cavities on the surface of rocks at considerable elevations above the drainage level of the country, and which result from the action of springs or rain-water overflowing from receptacles where it had collected ; also to other hollows not referable to similar agency, on the summits of table-lands and isolated mountain-peaks, where no springs or collections of rain-water have been known to exist. Ca- vities of this description the author has observed on the summit of limestone mountains in Greece, Sicily, the south of Spain, the op- 705 posite coast of Barbary; on the table summit of the Gebel Ataka range, on the west coast of the Red Sea, and in the granite rocks of Mount Sinai; and he refers them to diluvial action. Lastly, he refers to a remarkable funnel-shaped cavity at Malta, described by the Hon. Mr. Frere*, and ascribed by that author to a rush of water pouring down the cavity, though there are now no signs whence such body of water was derived. Three Notices by.Mr. J. Phillips, and communicated by J. Taylor, Esq., Treas. G.S., were then read. 1. The first of these communications gives an account of the Cave of Cuernavaca or Cacaguamilpas, thirty-two leagues S.S. W. from the city of Mexico, or sixteen from the town of Cuernavaca. It is si- tuated in a range of limestone hills, and is of vast extent. A de- scent of fifty feet conducts from the entrance to the floor of the ca- vern, which for some distance is tolerably level, though covered with the debris of the limestone to a considerable depth; but the pro- gress of the visitor is afterwards greatly impeded by huge piles of rocks apparently fallen from above. Enormous and fantastic sta- lactites and stalagmites abound on every side. At a spot where the cavern separates into two great branches, the height was esti- mated by means of rockets to exceed 200 feet; and ‘the depth of the left branch is stated to be at least half a ville but the right branch had not been explored. With reference to the statement of a writer on Mexico + that he did not expect to see many caverns, if any, and that he had met with very little limestone, Mr. Phillips observes, that besides the great cavern of Cacaguamilpas, there are several in the district of El Doctor ; and that limestone abounds in various parts of Mexico, occurring, besides the range of hills noticed above, at Atotomilco el Grande, north of the city of Mexico; at La Calera, on the road to Guanaxuato ; also near Xeres in the state of Zacaticas, and at Bo- lanos in the state of Xalisco. Fossils are said by the author to be very rare in Mexico, but he obtained a species of Astrza in the limestone of El] Doctor. 2. The second notice was on the remains of elephants, and on an ancient causeway near Mexico. The waters of the lake having permanently subsided to some distance from the Hacienda of Cha- pingo, the proprietor commenced a canal to restore the communi- cation. ‘Twelve feet below the surface an ancient causeway was discovered, and two or tbree feet lower the fossil elephant; and other similar remains are said to have been afterwards obtained. Hum- boldt, in his ‘ Essai Politique,’ mentions the discovery of fossil bones of elephants in cutting the great drainage canal of Mexico ; the only new fact therefore, the author states, ieee his communication con- tains, is the finding of the causeway, an indication of difference of level in former times. * Edin. Phil. Journ., January 1837, p, 23. + Silliman’s Journal, vol. xvi. p. 159. VOL, U1, PART II. FNM! pe 706 3. The third notice Gontamed an account of six specimens. of pumice obtained in sinking a well near Perote in Mexico. The road from Vera Cruz’ to the city of Mexico traverses an extensive tract of table-land, 7700 feet above the level of the sea, along the foot of the mountains which stretch out from the volcano of Orizaba and the Coffre of Perote: The water being exceedingly bad and brackish, a well was sunk to obtain better, at a' new inn between Perote and Santa Gertrudes. ‘The depth of well was sixty varas, the first ten being sunk 'in’sand and the debris of pumice; and the remainder in pumice and scoriz intermixed with obsidian.. At the depth at which water was obtained the pumice assumed'a more compact structure. | | oy ee PROCEEDINGS THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDO N: —— Vou. IIT. Parr il. 1849. No: '88: — i March 23.—William Wroughton Salmon, Esq., Park Squat ‘e, Regent’s Park, and Devizes, Wilts ; Henry Stevens, Esq., Duffiel: d, near Derby ; Francis Downing, Esq., of the Priory, Dudley ; Lord Ward of Heinley Hall, near Dudley; and Thomas W. Fletche:r, Esq., F.R.S.,; Dudley, were elected Fellows of this Society: ‘A paper was first read, “On the Coal-fields of Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia,” by William Edmond Logan, Esq., F.G:S. The objects of this paper are to give, Ist, a few particulars con- nected with the extent and character of the carboniferous deposits of Pennsylvania, and to point out the extension to the coal-fields of America of some facts bearing on the origin of coal, advaticed by the author in a previous memoir on South Wales* ; and, 2ndly, to detail the results of his observations in Nova Scotia. 1. Pennsyloania.—The whole of the Pennsylvanian coal-fields have been carefully examined, the author says, by the corps of State Geological Surveyors, under the able direction of Prof. Rogers, to whose admirable reports he bears testimony; but he laments their not being accompanied by a general map. In the construc- tion of a small plan to accompany his memoir, and compiled from different sourcés, the author says, he is solely indebted for the con tour of the bituminous district to Mr. Leslie and Mr. McKinnaly, attached to the State Survey; and that in the delineation of the complicated anthracitic regions he has taken advantage of a manu- seript map which he obtained from Mr. Fisher, a coal-surveyor of Pottsville. The Pennsylvanian carboniferous district is only a portion of that great coal region which extends into Maryland, Virginia and Ohio. The greatest breadth of the main coal-field of Pennsylvania is from the Alleghany mountains to within a dozen leagues of the southern shore of Lake Erie; and its lengtlr from Coudersport on the north to the southern angle of the State is about 200 miles. There are, however, also four or five important detached carboniferous regions on the Atlantic side of the Alleghanies, besides numerous small ones. ‘The coal-measures consist of micaceous sandstones, arena- ceous, argillaceous and carbonaceous shales, and valuable bands of limestone. In the bituminous district, under 800 feet of unproduc-+ tive strata, are about 10seams of coal, having an aggregate thickness * See ante, p. 275. 3L2 708 of 50 fé: et, the whole resting upon a hard, coarse conglomerate, which is from 800 to 1200 feet thick at its south-eastern development, but is con siderably thinner to the north-west. Beneath the conglome- rate i's a deposit of red shale which varies in thickness from 3000 to less than 100 feet, and disappears, it is believed, to the south- west. The next formation in descending order, with the exception of ari interposed bed of fossiliferous limestone, consists of massive sand stones, conglomerates and shales, and it possesses a more uni=- forn a thickness than the two next superior deposits. All these for- ma/cions are considered by Prof. Rogers to constitute a carboniferous system, though no profitable coal exists below the uppermost de- po sit; the remains of plants however occur throughout, and one or more seams of coal about a foot thick exist in the red shales. This sy stem rests upon a great development of sandstones and limestones, called by Prof. Rogers the Appalachian system, and divided by him rato the following nine formations :— . Red and buff-coloured shales and argillaceous sandstones, .. Olivaceous shales. . Fossiliferous sandstones. . Argillaceous limestone. . Variegated calcareous shales. . White and yellowish fucoidal sandstones. . Red argillaceous shales, with soft and hard sandstones. . Blue, drab and yellow shales. . Blue limestone. The aggregate thickness of these deposits is stated to be upwards of 20,000 feet, and the whole of the formations from the top: of the coal-measures downwards, to constitute one conformable series. The bottom limestone ( No. 9.) has a wide range, extending through New York to the banks of the St. Lawrence, and it is believed, on account of its fossil contents, to belong to the lower Silurian series. The entire 13 formations constitute a gigantic trough, the axis of which strikes from N.E. to S.W.; and along the N.E. outcrop of the carboniferous measures it has several deep indentations, occasioned, according to the observations of the State Surveyors, by a series of remarkable curvilinear, anticlinal axes, distant 10 or 12 miles from each other, and which preserve not only a parallelism among them- selves, but, with the Alleghany and Appalachian mountains, increa- sing also in sharpness and importance as they approach these chains. The north-western anticlinal is the least conspicuous, but its'effect on the margin of the coal-field is very perceptible; the 2nd has been traced 125 miles from the northern boundary of the State; the 3rd 160, the 4th 200, each penetrating to a greater extent within the coal area, and then flattening down; the 5th and 6th have been as- certained to have a range of 250 miles from the county of Susque- hanna, and to traverse the whole of the coal district to the southern boundary of the State; but the 7th has been traced only 60 miles, or from the confines of Pennsylvania with Virginia to the Alleghany mountains, one of the ridges of which is considered to be a con- tinuation of it. The different effect of these corrugations is stated 4 OMmnWIAa Powe 709 to be remarkable. In the southern portion of the State, they have produced anticlinal hills and synclinal valleys ; but in the northern, anticlinal valleys and synclinal hills ; while mid-way there is a de- bateable land, which sometimes presents one set of phznomena, sometimes the other. These different conditions, the author says, are assignable to the nature of the formations acted upon; thus, where the anticlinal lines constitute hills they consist of the hard quartzose conglomerate underlying the coal strata; but where they occur in valleys, they are always connected with the soft portions of the coal- measures or the softer red shales. ~ The whole of the carboniferous regions above referred to, con- tain bituminous coal; but the detached districts on the Atlantic side of the Alleghanies and eastward of the Susquehanna river pro- duce anthracite, and it was to them that Mr. Logan more particu- larly directed his attention. These detached fields consist of a num- ber of long, narrow, irregular troughs, separated by anticlinal axes of the quartzose conglomerate or subjacent red shale, and they are distinguished by the names of the southern, middle and northern anthracitic coal regions. The southern region extends from Mauch Chunk on the Lehigh river nearly to Petersburgh on the Susquehanna, a distance of 70 miles, but its greatest breadth does not exceed six. It is traversed by five anticlinal axes parallel to one another and to that which bounds the trough, the steeper escarpment being on the north side ; and the angle increases with each successive ridge, so that at the southern the strata have been elevated beyond the perpendicular and turned over, exposing beds many thousand feet below the coal- measures. Pottsvilie and Mount Carbon are mentioned as points where these phenomena are well exhibited. On inspecting the coal-seams in this neighbourhood, Mr. Logan observed, associated with every one he examined, similar stigmaria beds to those which he had previously described in his paper on South Wales* ; and he was enabled by them to detect the inverted position of the strata. The undulations in this coal-field render an estimate of the number of seams difficult, and Mr. Logan thinks that the 70 or 80 reported by the miners to exist, ought to be reduced to one-fifth. Some of the seams are of great dimensions, particularly that at the Room- Run and Summit mines near Mauch Chunk. The thickness. of this deposit, with its associated partings of carbonaceous shale and an interposed stigmaria bed, is 50 feet, and it is estimated that the seam must yield from 40,000 to 50,000 tons per acre. At the Summit mines the coal is quarried to open day. Beneath the entire mass is a thick bed of underclay filled with Stigmariz, and the oc- currence of a similar bed 7 or § feet above the bottom of the coal, supports, Mr. Logan says, the opinion of Prof, Rogers and the mi- ners, that the deposit in its progress westward splits into more than one workable seam. The middle anthracitic coal region consists of an aggregate of narrow troughs, also separated by ten parallel anticlinal ridges or * Ante, p. 275. 710 seological wrmkles ;” and the troughs are divisible,into the west- ern and eastern groups. The former, having an area of forty-five miles by five, comprises the Shamokin and Mahony coal-fields, as well as the basin of Sheenandoah valley, with several small districts; and the eastern group, with an area of twenty miles by five, con- sists of the coal-basins of Beaver Meadow, Duck Creek, Hazle Valley; Black Creek, Bucks, Mountain, and MeCauley’s Mountain. From the frequency with which the conglomerate is brought to the surface, Mr. Logan says, it may be inferred that the middle region is shallower than the southern. The northern anthracitie region, bounded like the others by the quartzose conglomerate, is crescent-shaped, and includes the beau-~ tiful valley of Wyoming. Its length, from Carbondale to Knob Mountain, is fifty-five miles, but its greatest breadth is about four. Mr. Logan states that he took some pains to make a section across the northern region at Wilkesbarre, where the strata are less dis- turbed than in the two more southern regions. The total thickness of the measures, from the highest visible coal-seam to the quartzose, is stated to be about 2000 feet. ‘The upper part, comprising about 650 feet, consists of argillaceous and arenaceous shales and sand- stones, with only thin seams of workable coal, and it is well exposed near Wilkesbarre: the middle portion, also containing about 650 feet, is considered to be composed of softer materials, on account of its flatness; but its constituent strata are not exposed, and only one coal-seam four feet thick is reputed to occur in it. The lower measures consist of 700 feet of sandstones, with beds of shale, and they contain by far the most valuable coal-seams in the whole de- posit, amounting to fourteen or fifteen in number, with an aggregate thickness of seventy to eighty feet. ‘The most important bed, in- cluding interstratified shales and stigmaria beds, is thirty feet in vertical dimensions, but only eighteen are in general worked. In concluding this portion of his paper, the author states, that he had seen nearly the whole of the anthracite seams mentioned in it, and that with only one exception had he failed to discover under the coal, wherever he could get to the bottom of the seam, a bed of argillo-arenaceous materials, generally fit for the purposes of fire- clay, and filled with Stzgmaria ficoodes. The character of the bed, he says, is known to the more intelligent miners of Pennsylvania, as it is to those of South Wales, and is called by them ‘bottom- slate.” Professor Rogers, Mr. Logan adds, refers in one of his re- ports to a decided difference between “top-slate” and ‘ bottom- slate,” and, without alluding to the Stigmaria, remarks, that the “‘bottom-slate” is always composed of a strong tough material, having a peculiar splintery fracture, due, Mr. Logan says, to the vegetable remains; and he considers this observation of Professor Rogers an important collateral evidence in respect to the wide range of coal-deposits over which that geologist’s examinations “have extended. From information derived during personal com- munications with some of Prof. Rogers’s geological assistants, Mr. Logan has no doubt that the stigmaria underclays prevail in the great bituminous districts of Pennsylvania; and he has been given 711 to undetstand by Dr. Rogers, who conducts the Virginia survey, that similar beds of stigmaria clay constantly occur below the coal- seams in that State. In an appendix, sectional lists are given of various localities. : 2, Nova Scotia.—Mr. Logan’s examination of the coal-fields of this province was also made in the autumn of 1841, but subsequently to his visit to Pennsylvania. It was principally confined to, the neighbourhood of Pictou (lat. 45° 48’, long. 62° 48'), which stands upon a carboniferous trough, and beneath which one seam, with a southwardly dip, is known to occur. At the Albion mines, ten miles to the south of the town, there is a great collection of coal-beds, which dip to the north. The number is stated by Judge Halibur- ton* to be ten, and the aggregate thickness to be sixty feet. The only one at present worked contains twenty-four feet of clean coal, and about two hundred and forty tons of fuel are raised daily. _ Pro- ceeding eastward the dip of the. strata becomes more precipitous, and at New Glasgow, a distance of two miles, is a thick, highly inclined, very coarse quartzose conglomerate, considered by the miners to be a dyke, but by Mr. Logan to be a portion of the coal- measures. On Frazer’s Mountain, to the east of New Glasgow, are two workable seams, measuring together about eight feet, and rest- ing, with the interposition of a stigmaria bed, on a deposit con- sisting of non-fossiliferous limestone and sandstone. J udge Hali- burton has given a detailed section of upwards of 600 feet of the strata at the Albion mines; and Mr. Logan, in. an appendix, gives an elaborate list of beds, commencing 238 feet below Judge Halibur- ton’s section, and extending in a descending series through upwards of 2500 feet. He is of opinion, that the whole series is susceptible of being divided into the following groups :-— 1. Red and drab-coloured sandstones alternating with red and grey shales; a few coal-seams occurring chiefly towards the bottom, associated with lime- stone, and resting on a thick coarse conglomerate. 2. Soft dark-coloured shales, with a few beds of sandstone, and richly stored with workable seams of coal and PROURFODG clr cc gs ote ca a ue ® eacacs pide Dace cece 5000 feet. Be Meine AMMesLOUG. 6 smi. picys cs cere raj = ee ce et es 10 — 4. Coal-measures, probably unproductive, consisting in the upper part of red sandstones and shales, and of carbonaceous shales resting on stigmaria fire-clays ; and in the lower, of red and grey sandstones, with a fewms DAMES Or SUI is hee oes cnet ce tiers eo oom 1900 — LUE RE Vay ot ee LS) BE PRENSA te 10 — All the above deposits contain carbonized vegetable remains, but in the beds next to be noticed they are rare. 6. Soft variegated shales, alternating in the lower part With TeG Siaies coe ee ee BS etter 650 feet. Pe SAMOS tONE tie: fir. eve. sts owes eo oale SOG he. Bis 20. — * Statistical Account of Nova Scotia. 712 ' Under every bed of coal which he examined, amounting to more. than twelve, Mr. Logan detected the stigmaria fire-clay ; and he was informed by Mr. Poole, the superintendent of the Albion mines, that similar strata occupy the same position in the coal-field of Cape Breton Island. The limits of the Nova Scotia coal deposits have not been de- fined, and Mr. Logan states that considerable difficulties would attend an attempt to trace them, in consequence of the overlying gypsiferous strata. He believes that the Pictou field extends west- ward across Colchester county to the north side of the Basin of Mines, and that the seams which dip to the north at Kemptown and Onslow may belong to its southern side; he also believes that a parallel trough ranges to the southward, from Hawkesbury in Cape Breton Island to Windsor, on the south side of the Basin of Mines (lat. 44° 49, long. 64° 19! west); and three miles further south he also discovered coal-measures, rising with a northwardly dip of 45° from below the gypsiferous rocks, and resting on granite. Coal is likewise reported to occur at Beaver Lake, south-east of the Albion mines, and to be brought down the East River during the spring floods, attached to floating ice. On the north side of the valley of the Stewiack, south-west of the Albion mines, coal- measures rest on a deep bed of limestone which dips to the south. The gypsiferous strata, and the associated shales, sandstones, and fossiliferous limestones, Mr. Logan is of opinion, are not only newer than the coal-measures, but overlie them unconformably, founding his conclusions respecting the geological age of the formation on its organic contents. ‘The fossils, he states, have been determined to be distinct from those of the carboniferous or any lower epoch, as well as from those of the lias or any superior deposit, but to have a de- cided generic agreement with the fossils of the triassic period. At Horton Bluff, ten miles north of Windsor, and not far from gypsum beds, but between which and the point in question is a fault, some dark-coloured argillaceous strata alternating with cal- careous bands are well exposed. Carbonized vegetable remains are not uncommon in these beds, which might easily be mistaken for coal-measures; but as one of the calcareous bands is nearly identical in character with the Windsor limestone, and as he also obtained a slab which appears to him to exhibit foot-marks, the author is in- clined to consider the deposit as affording collateral evidence of the age of the gypsiferous strata. A paper was afterwards read “‘ On the Tchornoi Zem, or Black Earth of Central Russia,” by R. I. Murchison, Esq., Pres. G.S. In this communication the author describes, first. the range and extent of the Black Earth; secondly, its chemical composition ; and thirdly, he offers some remarks respecting its origin. 1. The northern boundary of the Tchornoi Zem may be defined by a line drawn in a curved direction from a little south of Lichwin (lat. 54° N. long. 33° 44’ E.) eastward to the Volga, in the 57th degree north latitude, occupying the left bank of that river west of Tcheboksar, between Nijni Novogorod and Kasan. It occurs 713 also plentifully on the Kama and around Ufa; and on the Asiatic side of the Ural mountain it occupies an extensive district near Kamensk, in lat. 56°, and another between Miask and Sviask. Its northern and southern limits in Siberia were not ascertained, but it was found in the Baschir country on both flanks of the southern Ural, and in the steppes of the Kirghis, Between Orenburg and the mouth of the Volga it is wanting, the surface of the district consisting of marine detritus, containing shells of species which now exist in the Caspian: it appears to be equally wanting south of Tzaritzin on the Volga (lat. 48° 40’), as well as in the steppes of the Kalmucks, occurring in only very limited patches along the Sea of Azof, or south of the granitic steppes. It abounds, however, to the north of that steppe, over a vast area, in broad valleys, on slopes and plateaux, and at all levels to the height of 400 feet ; also on rocks of all ages, even overlapping the southern skirts of the great north- ern drift. It invariably constitutes the surface-soil, and is composed of black particles mixed with grains of sand, the former being so fine as to rise into the air even under the pressure of a horse’s feet on the turf which covers it. One of the marked features of all the alluvia of Russia charac- terises also the Tchornoi Zem. Wherever it occurs on plateaux or slopes, it is cut into by the ravines, called ‘ avrachs” or “ baltas,” produced in the first instance by fissures formed during droughts, and widened as well as deepened subsequently by debacles arising from the melting of the thick falls of snow. This black earth constitutes the finest soil in Russia, both for grass and wheat, and after yielding many crops in succession, it re- quires only a year or two of fallow to regain its fertility ; the pea- sants, moreover, have prejudices against the use of manures, and Mr. Murchison believes that these feelings are strengthened by the na- tural productiveness of the soil. 2. Chemical Composition.—Ananalysis of aportion of the Tchornoi Zem, made by Mr. R. Phillips, Chemist to the Museum of Economic Geology, yielded in 100 parts, 69:8 silica, 13°5 alumina, 1:6 lime, 7- oxide of iron, 6:4 vegetable matter, and traces of humic acid, sulphuric and chlorine*. The black earth does not therefore differ, . * Since the paper was read the author has been favoured with an ana- lysis by M. Payen, the celebrated French agricultural chemist. The follow- ing statement is a translation of part of M. Payen’s communication :— Tatants 6°95 combustible organic matter. Alumina... 9°04 £ ah jo incombustible f Soluble in Oxide of iron 5°62 Pst oit matter. boiling hy- L y3.75 Lime ..... 0°82 drochloric Magnesia . 0°98 acid. Alkaline } 1:21 Chlorides Insoluble Silica... 71°56 Feed ra staat) pack tic acid. Magnesia. 0°24 The combustible organic matter indicated the presence, in 100 parts of the original earth, of water 4°81, azote 2°45, or together 7°26. The volume of the azote, M. Payen states, is remarkable. 714 Mr. Murchison observes, in the composition of its solid: contents from many of the red or brown soils of England. iat 3. Origin of the Tchornot Zem.—In speculations on the origin of this deposit, the author dissents entirely from the opinion that it is due to decayed forests, as it never contains, even when exposed to the depth of 20 feet, any traces of trees, roots, or vegetable fibres, not connected with the existing vegetation. On the contrary, he believes it to be a subaqueous accumulation, but he objects to the views entertained by those geologists who place it, as respects its mode of production, on a parallel with the loess of the Rhine, or with the upper diluvial mud of Belgium, France and Germany ; not having anything in common with the latter, and differing from the loess by the absence of well-preserved fresh water and terrestrial shells indicating fluviatile or lacustrine origin. The loess, moreover, is never found on high plateaux ; but Mr. Murchison does not dis- sent from the belief that the two deposits may have been pro- duced at nearly the same epoch. He is therefore induced to con- sider the Tchornoi Zem as a submarine formation accumulated gently at the bottom of a sea undisturbed by any violent current, and be- ond the range of those operations which spread out the northern drift. The absence of marine shells, he says, is only a negative objection, and not to be opposed to the evidence afforded by the widely different nature of the deposits at considerable levels, far above the drainage of the country or the action of any body of wa- ter which could occupy the valleys. Lastly, he ascribes the black colour of the earth to the state of decomposition of the vegetable matter- originally diffused through the mud which now forms the fertile Tchornoi Zem of Russia. April 6.—Col. AlexanderFisher Macintosh, K.H.,of Antermoney, near Glasgow; Josiah Rees, Esq., of the Ordnance Geological Sur- vey of Great Britain; John Birkett, Esq., Demonstrator of Anatomy at Guy’s Hospital ; and Joseph Dickinson, Esq., Mining Engineer, of Dowlais, Glamorganshire, were elected Fellows of this Society. A paper was first read on the genus Tetracaulodon by Mr. Koch, communicated by the President. ) Mr. Koch commences by stating, that a difference of opinion ha- ving existed in the scientific world respecting the genus Tetracaulo- don of Dr. Godman, and as only a few weeks previously, in a memoir read before the Society, the Tetracaulodon was pronounced to be simply the male of the Mastodon, he conceives it to be his duty to make public the results of his researches, and which fully prove, in his opinion, that the Tetracaulodon is a distinct genus, consisting of several varieties. The author declares that he has examined with the greatest ac- curacy all the inferior jaws of the Mastodon preserved in the collec- tions of the United States, but has never seen any specimens with the least traces of a tusk; and he adds, that Dr. Hays of Philadelphia, after a careful inspection of at least forty jaws, had arrived at the same conclusion. According, therefore, to the common laws of na- ture, it is highly improbable, observes the author, that the Mastodon 715 was such an exception that not one male existed among forty females. The Mastodon of Philadelphia, Mr. Koch says, is ‘a male, ac- ‘cording to the construction and size of the pelvis and ‘the magni- tude of the tusks in the upper jaw, yet there are no traces of tusks in thelower jaw; and the specimen at Baltimore, which is considered ito be indisputably amale, is also destitute of inferior tusks. The au- thor likewise states that he has uniformly found the jaws of young Mastodons to be very rare ; that those which he has seen have no indications of tusks ; and that‘he has in his possession the lewer jaw of a':voung Mastodon, mentioned by Dr. Hay, which ‘has ‘no tusks. Hence he infers that there are young Mastodons, as well as Tetra- cauledons. Mr. Koch then proceeds to draw attention to ‘some important points’ which he believes have not been noticed. Admitting, for the sake of argument, that the male Mastodon was the possessor of the small tusks only eight or twelve inches long in the lower jaw, he says it would have been utterly impossi- ble for that animal, with his enormous upper tusks and short neck, to have reached the ground with them ; yet these small lower tusks, he states, show that they were much used in rooting and grubbing, and therefore must have belonged to an animal which had equally ‘short upper tusks. To substantiate this inference he calls attention to three species of Tetracaulodon, the first discovered by Dr. God- man, the two others by himself. 1. Tetracaulodon Godmanii.—This species having been described in detail by Dr. Godman, Mr. Koch only points out the great dif- ference of the maxillary and nasal bones, as well as the additional foramina near the malar bone, which are wanting in the Elephant and Mastodon. He says that in his collection there is a fragment of a lower jaw of this species with a tusk which shows very distinctly the difference of the lower tusks in the T. Godmanzi from those of the T. Kochi, the character consisting in the root of the tusk being pointed ; and he states that he has not been able to discover the place occupied by the dental nerve. 2. Tetracaulodon Kochiu,—Of this “‘ species” the author pos- sesses three lower jaws of adults, and one of an extremely young animal ; also two upper tusks belonging to two different individuals, and two which belonged to one Tetracaulodon. Mr. Koch states that he found the roof of a mouth of this species perfect, with its six molar teeth and the tusks in their “ maxillary bones” resting on the lower jaw which retained a tusk in the alveolus, but that the veins of iron intersecting the deposit prevented him from extracting this valuable specimen entire, but that he secured the upper tusks and grinders, and the lower jaw with the tusk in its alveolus. It does not require a close examination, the author says, to perceive that the animal to which these remains belonged was neither male, fe- male, nor young Mastodon, or Missourium, the whole inner and outer conformation of the upper tusks showing that they were cal- culated to be used in harmony with the lower tusk in grubbing 716 and rooting. Hence the author infers that the Tetracaulodon lived principally on roots, whereas the Mastodon, he says, consumed the large upper herbage. The superior tusks of this specimen measure only 19 inches in length, one-third having been “concealed in the skull,” and their greatest circumference is 9Linches. They possess the peculiarity of being larger at the apex than the base, the former also exhibiting indisputable marks of having been much used during the life of the animal. They were slightly curved up- wards. The enamel on the root is very thin, but it increases rapidly towards the extremity, where it is extremely thick. “ The bulb for the dental nerve” is stated to be small and to terminate suddenly in a point. With reference to the tusks of the lower jaw, Mr. Koch agrees to the view that the young animal possessed two, and the adult only one, situated on the right side. It was, he says, slightly curved downwards and then upwards, and in both old and young animals possessed the peculiarity of being equal in circumference at both extremities. The bulb for the nerve which nourished the tusk resembles minutely that of the upper tusks, both in adult and immature animals; and Mr. Koch is of opinion that this peculiarity of the lower tusks gives rise to “a suspicion of not merely a dif- ferent variety of the Tetracaulodon, but even of a new genus.” 3. Tetracaulodon Tapiroides.—This specific distinction Mr. Koch has founded on the first grinder resembling that of the Tapir. He possesses the greater part of a skull and its two tusks, which were in their proper position when he found the specimen. The tusks are described as perfectly straight, but bent downwards like those of the Morse, to which, the author says, they bear a strong resem- blance ; and, from their worn condition, he believes that the animal lived on the roots of water-plants, &c. They are covered with a thick coat of enamel, and were concealed for one third of their length in the sockets; they are also stated to be large in proportion to the size of the skull; and the bulb is said to resemble that of the foregoing variety. Mr, Koch then calls attention to some vertebre in his collection belonging to a gigantic animal, but to neither the Mastodon nor the Elephant. ‘They consist, he says, of an extremely well- pre- served lumbar, and a second cervical vertebra. ‘The most striking character of these bones is stated to be the great size of the foramen in reference to the smallness of the body, the former being double the dimensions of that of the Mastodon. The author also says that the cervical vertebra presents two peculiar “ cavities, situated on the right and left of the root of the toothlike process,” and which he ‘‘ considers to have been for the reception of two unusual muscles, to enable the animal to perform a peculiar motion with the head.” As he found these vertebra in the same deposit from which he ob- tained the skull and jaw, and as he conceives that the Tetracaulo- don must have possessed the power of moving head and neck in a peculiar manner whilst grubbing for its food, Mr. Koch believes that these vertebree belonged to that animal. 717 A Memoir, entitled “ A Second Geological Survey of Russia in Europe,” by Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq., Pres. G.S., F.R.S., M. E. de Verneuil, Member of the Geological Society of France, and Count Keyserling, was then commenced. April 20.—Alexander John Sutherland, M.D., Fludyer Street, Westminster, was elected a Fellow of this Society. The reading of the Memoir on Russia commenced on the 6th of April was resumed and concluded. With the exception of a sketch of the Ural Mountains, to be given in a subsequent memoir, and of two short notices previously read, on the Freezing Cave of Iltetzkaya Zatchita, and on the « Tchornoi Zem,” or Black Earth*, the following abstract contains the chief results of a second examination of Russia in Europe. Following the same method as in the account of their first ex- amination, the authors describe the depositary strata in ascending order, successively adding to or correcting their previous know- ledge of each mass of deposits. Silurian Rocks.—The boundaries of these the most ancient fossil- iferous strata are more correctly defined than last year, and new localities are cited. The lowest subdivisions of blue shale and un- gulite grit, which were previously spoken of in certain inland spots: only, are now described in the sea-cliffs of the Baltic between Reval and Narva, as well as on the banks of the rivers Narva and Luga, in which situations, as in the tracts S. and S.E. of St. Peters- burgh, they constitute the inferior masses or representatives of the Lower Silurian Rocks. The Upper Silurian Rocks, chiefly composed of thin-bedded lime- stone, occupy the summits of the coast-cliffs in question, and the platform on which the river Narva flows from the lake Peicpus to a chasm worn by its own action, where it constitutes the picturesque falls above the Castle of Narva. It is believed by the authors that. this water-fall has receded (like those of Niagara, in America, and. other places,) in consequence of a solid tabular rock overlying less. coherent strata, which have been undermined and have cccasioned the subsidence of the superior layers. In addition, however, to these conditions, the wearing away of the vertical cliffs of the Baltic. and the retrocession of the falls of the Narva, are supposed, by the authors, to have been accelerated by another cause, viz. the direc- tion of the symmetrical joints in the overlying limestone. These joints present a number of salient and re-entering angles which are exposed on the surface of the impending cliffs, and when the softer supporting strata have been partially excavated, the dividing lines of these natural joints facilitate the fall of the calcareous beds into the abyss below. Besides the chief masses of limestone which extend over a con- siderable tract in the province of Esthonia, (including the Isles of Oesel and Dago,) the authors advert to a separate tract near the * See Proceedings, anté, pp. 712-714. 718 small town of Schavli, in the government of Wilna, occupied by upper Silurian rocks, which they discovered in their journey to: St. Petersburgh, and which they place as the highest member of the’ system, or above the principal masses: of the: Orthoeeratite and Tris lobite limestone and beneath the overlying old red or Devonian formation. In this limestone fifteen species. of fossils were observed, including Pentameri, Terebratule , and: Orthide; and:it is; considered: to be'the representative of a\ calcareous rock which ranges: to: the north of Dorpat and Weissenstein, and:is known: at Oberpahlen, é&ct Notwithstanding their almost perfectly horizontal position, the strata in the Baltic provincesof Russia indicate most clearly a passage from: a lower horizon’ om the north to a higher on the:south, where they» are surmounted: by the: Devonian. system. oi 10F In announcing a large accession of Silurian fossils: to: their former: lists, the authors advert. to: the: labours: of Professor Kichwald)) who after a personal examination ef the coast-cliffs: and: of: the Isle: of Dago, has been sedulously occupied in describing: many, new species. They also dwell upon the important additiom to) their! knowledge of new forms contributed: by Dr. Worth,. the secretary of the Imperial Academy of Mineralogy,—forms which they purpose! to figure and describe ini the: course of the ensuing winter; and they! acknowledge them: obligations to Colonel: Helmersen and the: officers: of the School of Mines, for aiding them: in their acquisition: of fresip knowledge concerning the contents of these the most ancient de+ posits of the Russiam empire. Im their tabular: list of fossils: the authors give the following as: characteristic’ of, and in part peculiar’ to, the Silurian rocks of Russia :-—., : Asaphus: expansus (Dalm.*), As cornutus, IlMenus: crassicauda (Dalm.*), Amphyx nasutus (Dalm.*), Orthoceratites vaginatus: (Schloth.+), Litutes convolvens: (Schioth.+), Clhymenia Odini, (Kichw.}), Ferebratula Wilsont (Sow. in Sil. Syst.), DB. sphente (Von Buch®), T. camelzna (Von Buch); Orthis anomala (Terebrat.i Schloth.+), 0. Uralenszs", n.s., O. Panderi, n.s., O..cincta (Kichw.t);} Leptena imbrex (Pand.,), Leptena rugosa (Dalm.||), Spirifer bifo= ratus) (Terebrat. id. Schloth.), S. lynx (Kichw-{), .S. e@quirostris (Terebr. Schloth.), 8. porambonites (Von Buch$), Pentamenus Vogu-! licus*, n.s., very nearto P. Knightit (Sil. Syst.), Cranaa antaquassima, nob. (Orbieula antiquissima, Eichw.t), Lingula quadrata (Bichw.f);. (ZL. Lewisit, Sil. Syst.), Ungulites: (Pand.{),. Obolws ( Eichw.); Spheronites aurantium (S. citrus, His.**), Elemecosmites pyriformas * On Palzeaderna: eller de sa’ Kallade: Trilobiterna:. Stockholm, 1828, + Die Petrefactenkunde der Vorwelt: 8vo. Gotha, 11820. { Sur le Systéme Silurien de |’Esthonie: Svo. St. Petersbourg,. 1840.., § Beitrage zur Bestimmung der Gebirgsformationen in Russland. 8yo.. Berlin, 1840. || K. Vet. Acad. Handl. 1827. ' ¥ Beitrage zur Geognosie des Russischen Reiches. 4to. St. Petersburg, 1830. ** Lethea Suecica. 4to. Holmiz, 1837. 1 The fossils marked (1) occur in the Ural mountains only. 719 (Von Buch), Catenzpora labyrinthica (Gold.*), Favosites. Gothlan- dica*;+ Favosites Petropolitana, Graptolites, &c. - Devonian Rocks ( Northern Zone).—By visiting Livonia and Cour- land some essential points of interest were added to the knowledge, which the authors had previously obtained of the relation and con- tents of the old red or Devonian series.. The central districts. of Courland have been, for the first tine, proved to contain rocks of this age charged with typical fossils, both fishes and shells. | A see; tion of the Diina river above Riga which exhibits some undulations of the strata, exposes siliceous limestones, subordinate to red and greenish shale; whilst the country between Riga and Dorpat is oc- cupied by sands and marls.. M. Pander, who now resides in, this district, has collected a large and instructive series of its organic remains, chiefly from the banks of the river Aa; and among the Ichthyolites which they obtained from him, the authors recognised remains of Coccosteus and Holoptychius similar to those previously collected by them in the Waldai Hills; and which Professor Agassiz has identified specifically with forms described by him from the old red ‘sandstone of Scotland. | Professor Owen has also. identified among teeth from the collection of M. Pander, two or more varie- ties of the genus Dendredus (Owen), equally characteristic of the old red sandstone of Scotland, one of them being indeed. undistin- guishable from the Dendrodus of that author, described from spe- cimens found at Scat’s Craig near Elgin. et In the marls and sands of Dérpat, Professor Asmus of the Uni- versity at. that place has collected and is describing certain gigantic bones, which were formerly supposed to belong to Saurians, but which, by their analogy to existing skeletons, he has shown to belong to fishes{. A single bone of one of these remains is nearly three feet long, and according to the estimate of Professor Asmus, the Ich- thyolite of which it is a part must have had, when entire, a length of not less than thirty-six feet. The union of these fishes, some of the species ‘of which, as above stated, are typical of the old red sand- stone of the British isles, with numerous. fossil shells which have been found to characterize the beds of the Devonian age in England, Belgium, and the Boulonsnais (an union was. pointed out last year as resulting from an examination of the provinces of St. Petersburgh, Novogorod, Olonetz, &c.), isnow moreamply con- firmed by reference to the structure of the north-western, govern- ments of Russia, through which the same system is spread. Southern Zone of Devonian Rocks or Geological Axis of Russia in Europe.—Previous to their visit to the central and southern regions of Russia, the authors believed, in common with their precursors, * Petrefacta Germanic. Iter Thiel. fol. Dusseldorf, 1826—1833. + Lamarck, Animaux sans Vertébres, tome 2. 8vo. Paris. + At the request of Mr. Murchison, Professor Asmus has prepared and sent to England duplicate casts of these the most remarkable and most gi- gantic fossil fishes ever yet discovered. One set of these has been given by Mr, Murchison to the British Museum, another to the Geological Society of London, and a third to Professor Agassiz. 720 that the ascending order of the strata was continuous from the Bal- tic provinces on the north to the Black Sea and Sea of Azof on the south, with the exception only of the granitic rocks and carboni- ferous tracts of the southern steppes. They were undeceived, however, by discovering in the heart of Russia (Orel, Voroneje, &c.) a great domelike elevation, which is composed of rocks loaded with Ichthyolites and Mollusks, all eminently characteristic of the Devonian system*. This mass sinks to the north under a great band of carboniferous rocks, (Tula, Kaluga, &c.) thenorthern part of which was last year described as occupying the territory around Moscow and extending thence north-eastwards to the neigh- bourhood of Archangel : to the south it is lost under younger accu- mulations of secondary age. The dome of palozoic rocks rising to an altitude of about 800 feet above the sea, was thus found to divide Russia into two distinct geological basins, viz. that of the carboniferous limestone of Moscow on the north, and that of the Jurassic, cretaceous and tertiary deposits on the south. One of the most remarkable features of this central mass consists in the litho- logical character of its rocks, as contrasted with that of formations of the same age, and containing the same fossils, in the northern governments ; for whilst the latter in their range from the western borders of Lithuania to Olonetz and Archangel, including part of the Waldai Hills (see last year's memoir, anté, p.401 ), are invariably made of sands, sandstones, marls, and impure limestones, of pre- vailing red and green colours ; their equivalents in Orel and Voro- neje are yellow and white marlstones and limestones, the latter often in the state of magnesian limestone, and resembling in external aspect the Zechstein of Germany or the rocks of Sunderland in the British Isles. In addition to the characteristic fossils, enumerated last year from the great northern Devonian region, the central masses, particularly at Voroneje, have afforded many shells which have been published as typical of strata of the same age in West- ern Europe, such as Spirifer Archiaci, S. Verneuillii, Leptena Du- tertrii, Producius productoides, of the Boulonnais+, together with Orthis crenistria, Productus spinulosus, and Aulopora, Favosites, and other polypifers. It is indeed very remarkable, that in countries so distant from each other as the central region of Russia and the Boulonnais, twelve species at least of the fossils found at Voroneje should prove to be common to the rocks of the same age in both localities, and that in both instances the order of superposition * A part of the tract between Orel and Lichwin was examined by Colonel Helmersen during the same summer, and before the visit of the authors, and he also recognised the existence of Devonian rocks. The authors, however, were quite unaware of this circumstance when they first published their views on this point at the end of September 1841, in a letter addressed to Dr. Fischer de Waldheim, and it was on their arrival at St. Petersburgh only, that they found that Colonel Helmersen had come to the same con- clusions as themselves, in respect to a portion of the country in question, — See Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou, Oct. 1841, t+ See Mr. Murchison on the Boulonnais.—Bulletin de la Société Géol. de France, tome xi. 721 should be so clear. The superior value, however, of the Russian sections of this division of the Paleozoic rocks over those in every other part of Europe, consists in the conjunction before adverted to and so generally observed in Russia, of Heloptychius and other fishes of the old red sandstone of Scotland and England, with the fossil shells characteristic of South Devon, the Boulonnais, and the Kifel *. Carboniferous Limestone and Coal.—The lowest beds of the car- boniferous system in Russia are, as previously stated (ante, p. 401), sands and shale with thin seams of coal, Stigmaria ficoides, &c. The authors examined a considerable tract occupied by these beds to the south of Tula and Kaluga, where many additional natural outcrops have been discovered by Colonel Olivieri, the mineral having the lignite or impure character of the beds of coal described last year in a similar position in the Waldai Hills, These strata are, the authors conceive, of the same geological age as those of the great pro- ductive coal-field of Berwickshire, which equally underlies the mountain limestone. By their recent labours the authors have divided the carbonife- rous limestone of Russia into three members. The lowest of these, generally a dark-coloured rock, is characterized by the presence of Productus giganteus and P. Waldaicus (near to P. anomala, Sowerby, &c.). The central mass is the well-known white limestone of Mos-_ cow, containing Spzrifer Mosquensis, S. resupinatus, S. glaber, the Chetetes radians, Euomphalus pentangulatus, and many other fossils, some of which (such as Productus antiquatus, P. comotdes) are found also in the lower division. Beds of compact, yellow, magnesian limestone occur in this central part of the carboniferous system, as well as bands of red and greenish shale or marl, and thin beds of _pure siliceous flint graduating into ordinary limestone chert. The third caicareous division is one which is not seen in the Wal- dai or Moscow district, but which seems to surmount the before- mentioned divisions on their eastern flank at Velikovo and Kosrof, on the river Kliasma. Again, the lofty cliffs which occupy the banks of the Volga between Stavropol and Samara are almost ex- clusively composed of this member of the carboniferous limestone, which is there made up of myriads of Fusuline (the fossil bodies mentioned by Pallas as resembling grains of wheat), associated with Ewomphalus pentangulatus, Cyathophylli, &c. In a part of the coal region between the Dnieper and the Don, the authors detected a band of this fusulzna limestone, in the same relative position which had been assigned to it in other parts of Russia, namely, in the upper part of the calcareous strata. Carboniferous Region between the Dnieper and the Don, or Coal- field of the Donetz.—Whilst the central member of the carbonife- rous limestone of the northern parts of Russia (Moscow basin) con- tains no coal, and the upper beds on the Volga are equally void of * The large scales of Holoptychius Nobilissimus were found by the authors at a locality called Kipet between Lichwia and Bielef. VOL. III, PART II. 3M : 722 it, rocks of the same age in the South of Russia, or on the banks and in the neighbourhood of the river Donetz, are in parts emi- nently productive of good bituminous as well as anthracitic coal. Among the sections described, one from Karakuba, on the river Kalmiuss, to the neighbourhood of Bachmuth, shows a regular suc- cession, in ascending order, from beds of conglomerate and red sandstone, forming the base of the carboniferous system, through various bands of limestone, alternating with many courses of sand- stone and shale with numerous seams of coal, In this wide carbonaceous tract, coal is extracted by the impe- rial government at two spots only. These pits were first opened in the last century, by Mr. Gascoigne and a small company of English miners, formerly employed by the Russian government. The shaft section at Lissitchi Balka, the chief of these places, and situated to the north of the iron foundries of Lugan and to the east-north-east of Backmuth, clearly shows that all the best seams of coal of this tract are subordinate to the central part of what English geologists call the mountain limestone. Including small and profitless seams, twelve beds of coal occur at this locality, seven of which are ex- tracted for use. The greater part of the coal is of fair quality, and some is exceediagly good and chiefly bituminous ; and all these beds, with a great amount of shale and sandstone occupying a thick- ness of 800 English feet, are interlaced with thin courses of lime- stone, which are charged with Spirifer Mosquensis, Producius anti- quatus, Orthis lata, O. planissima, Bellerophon, Turritella, Pecten, Nautilus, and a small Trilobite, thus leaving no doubt that the coal is subordinate to the same series of beds which in the North of Russia, beyond the great Devonian axis before described, is void of the mineral, and yet contains the same fossils. In examining these tracts of coal, the authors perceived a close analogy between them and those of the North of England. In the South of England, as in the North of Russia, no coal occurs in the lower or calcareous divi- sion of the system; but in Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland sandstone and-shales are interpolated and the mountain limestone is expanded, as on the Donetz, into a great complex series ( Yore- dale Rocks of Phillips), including seams of coal. In the mineral composition of this carboniferous tract there is a striking analogy to the condition of the great British coal-field of South Wales; for one'end of the tract contains anthracitic, and the other bituminous coal, though the strata are, it is believed, of the same age. In the Russian case, the anthracitic masses oc- cupy the eastern end of a tract, the major axis of which trends from west-north-west to east-scuth-east, and the bituminous coal is on the west. In the tract where the anthracite prevails, the lime- stone seems’to thin out, and there are consequently fewer fossils, » Unlike the flat and untroubled regions of northern and central Russia, this carboniferous tract is often highly dislocated, and is everywhere thrown into broad and rapid undulations. In the chief mines at Lissitchi Balka the strata dip about 20°, and are there-— fore easily worked and drained; but at Uspenskoi, near Lugan, 723 the beds, which are neither so numerous nor so good as at the former place, are inclined at 50°, and eveh at 70°, and are full of extensive faults. The carbonaceous strata (often worked by the small proprietors ‘and Cossack and Russian peasants) are described in several places, and the same geological relations are shown to prevail, the coal beds being stated in all cases to be subordinate to the mountain limestone series, whilst certain overlying shales, sandstones, &c., which were observed in one corner of the district, contain few or no traces of coal. | At the western extremity of this region, the coal-bearing strata thin out into sandy masses, which repose unconformably on certain highly inclined quartzose, gneiss and granitic rocks, that appear oa the banks of the river Voitchia, and extend to the Dnieper and the cataracts of that river near Ekaterinoslaf, To the south-west, near Karakuba and towards Mariopol, in a tract occupied by Greek colo- nies, similar primary rocks appear, penetrated both by granite and porphyry, whilst to the south-east and north the whole carbonaceous region is overlapped partially by red sandstone with gypsum, as near Bachmuth, but more generally by cretaceous and tertiary rocks. The former, in the state of white chalk, occurs in a large zone in the north, and in asmaller band at the southern limits of the coal tract. The dislocations and upheaval of the subjacent rocks extend to some distance to the north of the chief carbonaceous masses; for at Petrofskaya, considerably to the north of the nearest outcrop of the chief coal-field, coal with carboniferous limestone is upcast to the surface in highly inclined positions, surrounded by nearly horizontal strata of the Jurassic and cretacecus epochs, and generally so ob- scured by drift and clay, that it is well seen in one ravine only. Coal, however, has been detected at adjacent places in sinking for water. The uppermost members of the carboniferous system are not observable in the North of Russia, or ia the Moscow basin, where Jurassic strata repose at once upon true carboniferous limestone; but in the southern coal-tract, just alluded to, there are, as before said, beds of shale and sand which overlie this limestone series, and yet are unproductive of coal (north of Gorodofka). On the western flanks of the Ural mountains, however, as will be shown in the next memoir, to the east of Perm, and at Artinsk, are sandstones and conglomerates with plants passing occasionally into calcareous grits with Goniatites, which, as seen on the banks of the Tchussovaya and near Artinsk, are superior to the great carboniferous limestone. Very thin courses of coal only are observed at intervals in this upper member of the system, and the Goniatites which it contains belong, as a whole, to that division of the family which characterizes the uppermost member of the carboniferous limestone and certain coal- fields (Coalbrook Dale) of Western Europe. There is a consider- able development of this subdivision on the flanks of the Guber- linski hills, and partially on the south-western edges of the Ural east of Orenburg. 3M 2 724 Permian Syslem, (Zechstein of Germany—Magnesian limestone of England.)—Some introductory remarks explain why the authors have ventured to use a new name in reference to a group of rocks which, as a whole, they consider to be on the parallel of the Zechstein of Germany and magnesian limestone of England*. They do so, not merely because a portion of the deposits in question has long been known by the name “ grits of Perm,” but because, being enormously developed in the governments of Perm and Orenburg, they there assume a great variety of lithological features, and con- tain the bones of thecodont Saurians and certain fishes, also a more copious fauna and flora than have ever been observed in their equi- valents in Western Europe. The Permian rocks of Russia which occupy so vast a region to the east of the river Volga, 7.e., in the governments of Kasan, Viatka, Perm and Orenburg, are composed of white limestone with gypsum, red and green grits with shales and copper ores, magnesian lime- stones, marl-stones, small conglomerates, red and green sandstones, &c. By examining numerous natural sections between the neigh- bourhood of Sviask, Kasan, and Samara, upen the west, and the carboniferous limestone on the edge of the Ural mountains on the east, the authors have come to the conclusion, that however the lithological sequence may vary in different tracts, the whole of the vast region alluded to, is occupied by deposits which belong to one class or zoological system of deposits. ‘Thus, though the limestones are sometimes white, sometimes yellow and pure magnesian, and oftentimes pass into marl and marlstone, all of which can be observed to inosculate with strata of red sandstone, conglomerate, &c., the same fauna pervades the whole group. The Mollusca and Polypi- fers are clearly of a type intermediate between those of the carboni- ferous limestone and those of the Trias or new red sandstone group of Continental geologists. Among the most characteristic of these Le may be enumerated Productus horrescens, n.s., P. Cancrini, , Spiryfer lamellosus (L’Ev.), Terebratula elongata (Schloth.), 7. Rae (L’Ev.) (7. Roysi, L’ Ev. = Atrypa pectinifera, Sow. Min. Conch. No. 107), Natica variata (Phil.), Modzola Pallasi, n.s., Gervillia lunulata (Phil.), Ostre@a matercula, n.s., Corbula Rbiianey n.s., Avicula Kasaniensis, n.s., 4. antiqua (Schloth.), 4. cheratophaga (Schloth.), Lzngula parallela (Phil.), Limulus oculatus (Kutorga), Cytherina ; with Retepura flustracea, Gorgonia, Millepora, &c. &c. * « T have recently been informed by M. A. Erman, that an erroneous view has been communicated in my anniversary discourse, respecting the first use of the word ‘ Zechstein ’ in reference to the deposits of Perm, that term having been used, as he assures me, by German miners, who visited Russia long ago, though no proofs have been since offered to sustain its ap- plication in @ geological sense. I also take this opportunity to state, that through a misapprehension of his views, derived from a perusal of the Bul- letin de la Société Géologique de France, I have been led into a mistake in supposing that M. Erman believed a large portion of the Russian rocks, now shown to be carboniferous, to belong to the Jurassic epoch. I willingly adopt this correction of my views in reference to the distinguished eager explorer of Siberia and Kamschatka.”—R. I. M., Sept. 1842. 725 In the conglomerates and sandstones, fishes have been found, some of which belong to the genus Palzoniscus, so characteristic of the Zechstein and magnesian limestones; and the Saurian bones, portions of which have been figured by M. Kutorga, and more per- fect remains of which have been described by Professor Fischer von Waldheim (Rhopalodon Mantellii, Fisch.), have been pronounced by ‘Professor Owen to belong to the class of thecodont Saurians of that'author (See Report on Saurians to the British Association, 1841, p. 153). Certain plants of this great deposit have been figured by M. Ku- torga, and referred by him to-the carbonifereus epoch ; others col- tected by Major Wangenheim Von Qualen have been named by M. Fischer de Waldheim, who, as well as their discoverer, felt great dif- ficulty in forming any decisive opinion respecting the age of the strata in which these fossils occur. Having examined the localities and sections, the authors convinced themselves on the spot, that all these plants are of intermediate character between those of the carboniferous and triassic zras*. These vegetables of the Permian system, and many undescribed species of shells with which they are associated, will be figured in a forthcoming work on the geology of Russia, and for this purpose M. Fischer has kindly contributed some beautiful drawings of new genera and species which he had “prepared at Moscow. The publication of these new species will show that the epoch o the Zechstein was characterized by a flora peculiar to it. These fossil plants, although generally appearing to constitute an inde- pendent flora, offer some analogies in form to a few species belong- ing to the carbeniferous series : one species cannot easily be distin- guished from the coal-measure plant, Cal. Suckowi, which Bron- gniart considers to be very variable in form and to have a great geographical range. Among the characteristic forms may be men- tioned the Calamites gigas, Neuropteris Wangenheimi, N. salicifolia, Odontopteris Strogonovit, Sphenopteris erosa, Noeggerathia undulata, and some other species to be described. These plants are sometimes accompanied by thin courses of coal and lignite, which near Perm have some of the external characters of poor coal-fields. But while the carbonaceous appearances are evanescent and local, the fossil stems and leaves are very general indicators of the presence of copper ore, which, in the form of grey oxide and green carbonate, is often copiously disseminated through the vegetable matter, or arranged around the thicker branches in masses, from which it extends in fine filaments into the adjacent sands or marls. In all cases, the copper ores of this region occur in lamine, inosculating with the other regular strata, in which respect they differ essentially from the chief copper ores of other countries. They are, in fact, regenerated eres, formed, it is conceived, by cupriferous ** Myr. Morris, who has undertaken the description of the new species of these plants, completely confirms the views of the authors, (See letter of Mr. Murchison, dated Moscow, October, 1841. Phil. Mag. vol. xix. p. 418.) 726 streams and currents that flowed from the adjacent Ural moun- tains, which, it will be shown, were, during very early periods, the site of great copper veins *. vi As a solution of copper which was let loose by accident in modern times upon an adjacent peat bog in North Wales specially affected and impregnated the vegetable fibre in preference to the accom- panying soil, so is it conceived that the forests washed into the sea in which the Permian deposits were accumulated, attracted around them the cupriferous matter contained in the transporting currents. - This point will be reverted to in the subsequent sketch of the Ural mountains. The general succession of these Permian deposits is then described on several parallels of latitude between the Ural and the Volga, and also their outliers in the steppe between Orenburg and Sarepta ; and it is shown, that this vastly extended and diversified system, containing not only copper deposits but also large masses of gyp- sum, rock-salt and copious salt-springs, lies in an enormous trough bounded on the north and east, and south-west, by the carbonife- rous limestone on which it reposes. By their examination during the past year, the authors have cleared away some difficulties which obscured their former views. By reference to the abstract of their first memoir (anté, p. 402), it will be seen, that they considered (though with much hesitation) certain limestones and beds of gypsum which occupy cliffs upon the Dwina to the south of Archangel, and extend to Pinega and to- wards Ust Vaga, to be upper members of the carboniferous lime- stone. By a comparison of the Productz and other fossils, and the great masses’ of gypsum which they contain, these northern beds are’now brought into direct identification with the true Per- mian or Zechstein deposits. In the south-western termination of this vast basin near Samara, the Permian rocks, particularly at Usolie, rest in patches of a dolomitic conglomerate upon the steep escarpments of the carboniferous limestone, out of the mate- rials of which they have been formed, and do not present that regular succession which they exhibit when followed westwards from the slopes of the Ural chain. It is also observed, that though gently undulating or horizontal over all the lower regions, these rocks, on approaching the Ural mountains, are occasionally thrown into anticlinal axes of some length, parallel to the direction of the palzeozoic rocks of the adjacent chain. In a sketch of the outliers in the Steppe of the Kirghiss, the base * Among the mineral analogies between the Permian rocks and those of the magnesian limestone it appears, from Professor Sedgwick’s description of the latter, that traces of lead ore and also of copper, are found in it in small quantities, which that author considers to have been derived from the large mineral masses of the same in the surrounding and more ancient car- boniferous limestones, Lead is also worked in the dolomitie conglomerate of the Mendip Hills, where it is associated with calamine. See memoir of Mr. Conybeare and Dr. Buckland, Geol, Trans., 2nd Series, vol. i. part 2. p- 293; also Mr. Weaver’s memoir, zbid. p. 367. 727 of the insulated hill of Monte Bogdo, is shown to consist of a mem- ber of the Permian group, surmounted by fossiliferous limestone, which probably belongs to the Jurassic system ; and it has before been shown that the rock-salt of Iltetzkaya Zatchita (anté, p. 695), south of Orenburg, is subordinate to this system, in which indeed the greatest saline springs of Russia occur. Red Sandstone, Marl, 5c.—It is with hesitation that the authors make any separation between the Permian deposits and certain red and green sandstones, marls, marlstones and tufaceous lime- stones, which occupy the central parts of the great trough above described; still less can they strictly identify them with the bunter sandstein, new red or trias of West Europe. It is however a fact, that the Permian rocks with their peculiar fossils are seen near Sviask, on the west of Cazan, to pass under: red and green marls and impure limestones, which extend over a wide region by Nijny Novogorod, Juriavetz and Viasniki on the west, and to Totma and Ustiug on the north. In no part of the region so defined (and most of which the authors examined ona previous occasion), have any fossils typical of the Permian age been discovered, though the deposits in question abound in limestones generally of a tufaceous character. The gypsum which occurs in this member, differs from the massive white alabaster of the inferior rocks, and is usually in the form of small concretions of fibrous structure, often of brownish and pinkish colours. At only Vias- niki on the Kliasma could the authors detect any traces of fos- sils, and these are minute Cypride, associated with apparently flat- tened Cyclades? which are imbedded in blood-red marl. The thick cover of detritus which is spread over a very large area, ob- scures the junction of these red deposits with the eastern edges of the carboniferous limestone of the Moscow and northern regions. Whatever may be the precise age of the uppermost beds of these red deposits in reference to other strata in Europe, it is clear that a considerable portion of the full geological succession is wanting in Russia, for in various points upon the Volga, Jurassic shales are seen to repose on the denuded surface of these red deposits. Jurassic System.—In the sketch resulting from their survey in 1840 (ante, p. 403), Mr. Murchison and M. de Verneuil were disposed to view certain deposits of shale and sand with concretions, which in some places overlie the last-mentioned red deposits, and in others rest at once on the carboniferous limestone, as the equivalents of the lias and lower oolites. This opinion is now modified,a more extensive survey having led to the belief that true lias does not exist in Rus- sia; but that the shale beds in question, whether studied in sections on the Moskwa near Moscow, on the Volga between Kostroma and Jurievetz, or at numerous localities in the governments of Simbirsk, Saratof and Tambof, are truly the equivalents of the strata from the inferior oolite to the Kimmeridge clay, inclusive, of English . geologists. It is this jurassic group which is traceable at intervals so far to the north-east (anté, p. 403), and which has been found by Capt. 728 Strajesski as far as even 65° N. lat. on the eastern flanks of the Ural chain. The upper members of the Jurassic system, as exhibited in the South of Russia, near Izium, where they were first recognised by Major Bloéde, differ both lithologically and zoologically from the dark shales and sands of the northern and central regions. They are chiefly light-coloured limestones and marls, and are charged with large Ammonites, resembling those of the Portland rock with Trigonia clavellata, Nerinee, and other types closely allied to those which occur in the upper oolites of Great Britain and the Continent. Cretaceous System.—This system is very considerably developed in the central and southern tracts of Russia, In the government of Simbirsk, where it has been closely studied and its fossils carefully collected by M. Jasikof, it surmounts the Jurassic series, and the same order may be seen in the governments of Saratof and on the banks of the Donetz near Izium. . Though the lithological sequence of the strata differs from that of the British Isles, the system, as a whole, bears striking analogies to that of the same age in Western Europe. The white chalk, for example, and many of the fossils which it contains, including Jno- ceramus Cuvieri, Belemnites mucronatus and Gryphea vesiculosa, is absolutely undistinguishable from that of France and England ; but in the localities seen by the authors, it did not offer the same sub- jacent succession of gault and lower greensand, as in Western Europe, though at Kursk the white chalk reposes on hard concre- tionary sandy ironstone, somewhat resembling the clinkers of the lower greensand of England. Nor are there any evidences of the © existence beneath the cretaceous rocks of the ‘“‘Systéme Néoco- mien” of the French geologists. Associated however with the white chalk, the authors observed, particularly between Saratof and Tzaritzin, many beds of marl and siliceous clay-stone, in which bodies like Alcyonice were prevalent, and at Kursk they found that the white and yellowish subcalcareous marls which closely overlaid the white chalk contained a Belemnite, as well as certain polypifers common to the true white chalk of other parts of Russia ( Volsk), and hence they concluded, that some of these overlying marls are possibly the representatives of the Maestricht beds of Europe, The white chalk alone has been pierced to a depth of upwards of 600 feet by an artesian shaft at the iron forges of Lugan, in South- ern Russia, in which tract the deposit lies unconformably on the uplifted edges of the carboniferous rocks. Tertiary Deposits.—The tertiary strata, as separated from diluvia] and alluvial accumulations, are little known in the North of Rus- sia, with the exception of the shelly strata of post-pliocene age which have been described in the government of Archangel (anté, p. 404). . - The lowest tertiary beds which the authors personally examined, are the marls with concretions forming cliffs at Antipofka, on the right bank of the Volga below Saratof, where they were-first noticed by Pallas. Among these shells are several species undistinguishable 729 » from those published by Sowerby from the London clay of Bognor and Hants, such as Cuculle@a decussata, Venericardia planicosta, Calyptrea trochiformis, Crassatella sulcata, Turritella edita, &c. The middle tertiary or miocene strata are spread, it is well known, over large tracts in Volhynia and Podolia, in which countries they have been described or alluded to by Prof. Eichwald, M. Dubois de Montpereux, Major Blode, and others. Distinctions are, however, drawn between the more ancient tertiary strata, such as those of Antipofka and: other places, and the recent Caspian shelly sands which cover the Steppes, the former having constituted a portion of the ancient shores of a more widely spread Caspian sea. The au- _ thors also entirely discard from residuary phenomena due to the presence and retirement of these Caspian waters, the existence of certain great subterranean masses of rock-salt and salt-springs which issue from the bowels of the earth, both of which have their seat in purely marine deposits of much higher antiquity, chiefly Permian, and which can never be referred to the desiccation of comparative- ly modern, brackish, inland seas. The pliocene and post-pliocene strata occupy a very large region in Southern Russia. The inferior division of this group is well ex- posed in the lowest part of the cliffs at Taganrog, on the sea of Azof, where beds of white and yellow limestone contain several species of Cardium, a Buccinum and large Mactre, all of marine origin. The superior members, often reposing on sands and siliceous grits, con- stitute the widely spread ‘‘ Steppe limestone,” in which are many remains of Mollusca that must have lived in brackish seas. These beds, as seen at Novo Tcherkask, the capital of the Don Cossacks, and adjacent places, are considered to be the extension of similar shelly deposits in the Crimza and the neighbourhood of Odessa, described by M. deVerneuil (See Trans. Geol. Soc. of France, vol, ii. p. 1). The vast flat steppes of Astrachan traversed by Count Keyserling, who rejoined his companions at Sarepta, are proved, as suggested by Pallas, to have been the abode of the adjacent Caspian Sea at a comparatively modern period ; and in confirmation of this view, it is stated, that not only the low country is covered with shells, but that the cliffs of Monte Bogdo, which rise out above this steppe, are also corroded to a certain height in the same way as sandstones of simi- lar nature are affected by the surge of the present seas. Superficial Detritus, Bones of extinct Mammalia, Northern Boul- ders, &c.—It is shown that the mammoth alluvia are anaiogous to those of other countries in indicating, over large areas, a period when elephants, rhinoceroses and other gigantic animals of species now extinct, inhabited the surface of the earth not far from the spots where they are now interred, their bones, as demonstrated by their condition as well as by the matrix in which they lie, not having un- dergone distant transport. This subject will be again considered in a sketch of the Ural mountains, but in the mean time, lists of the animals, some of them peculiar to Russia, which are preserved -in the museums of Moscow and St. Petersburgh, were given. VOL. Ill, PART II. 3N 730. Lastly, new data are offered: in respect to the southernmost limit of the northern blocks described on a previous occasion (ante, p. 405), and their further advance to the south in some situations than in others, is attributed. to the form of the present continent of Russia in Europe, nearly all of which, it is presumed, was under the sea during the distribution of these boulders. The authors adhere to the opinion previously expressed by them, that such blocks were transported.to their present positions by huge © floating icebergs, arrested, in some instances, by rising grounds and hills at the bottom of the then sea, and in others permitted to ad- vance further south by longitudinal depressions, which are traceable in the present configuration of the land. Proofs are given that in many instances blocks of trap and quartz rock advance to. quite as southerly latitudes as those of granite, and that all these blocks can be traced back to their, parent rocks in Russian Lapland and the northern parts of Russia in a north-nortl-westerly direction, the currents by which they were transported having therefore been di- rected to the south-south-east. The black earth or Tchornoi Zem, which forms the highest deposit of the central and southern regions of the empire, has been described in a previous memoir (See anée, p. 12). A large geological map of Russia in Europe, coloured by the authors, and numerous sections and collections of fossils, illustrated this communication, and it was announced that other conclusions respecting the structure of Russia would follow the description of the Ural Mountains. ~PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Vou. III. Parr II. 1842. No. 89. May 4. Arthur Marshall, Esq., of Headingley, near Leeds ; William Stutfield, Esq., Montagu Place; and H. L. Pattinson, Esq., of Bensham Grove, Gateshead, were elected Fellows of this Society. A letter addressed to the President by Mr. Ick, F.G.S., on some superficial deposits near Birmingham, was first read. While excavating that part of the New Junction Canal which passes through the valley of the Rea, at Saltley, a mile and a half north-east of Birmingham, the workmen at the depth of five feet came to a deposit of carbonaceous matter, consisting of compact peat, in which were imbedded rounded pebbles of white quartz, and branches as well as prostrated trunks of oaks, hazels and wil- lows, the former being occasionally upwards of six feet in length. The wood exhibited various stages of carbonization, some speci- mens being reduced to a soft state, while others, “ consisting of vak, were scarcely so much changed as the timbers of the Royal George.” . The author did not observe an instance of coniferous structure. About 150 yards from the river the deposit is two feet and a half thick, and contains abundance of hazel-nuts. ‘The horn of a stag, probably of the Cervus elephas, which was found there, measured from the base to the broken tip of the extreme antler one foot seven inches, and eight and a half inches around the base, and the brow antler was nine inches in length. At the distance of twenty yards, where the peat was mingled with gravel, the core of the horn of an ox was found, one foot in circumference at the base, and one foot eight inches long. At the bottom of the peat is generally a thin layer composed prin- cipally of angular particles of white quartz, beneath which occurs the usual marine drift of the district, the greater part of the boul- ders contained in it, consisting of Lickey quartz-rock, and the whole rests on the new red sandstone. Above the carbonaceous bed is a stratum, from six to eighteen inches thick, of fine clay, frequently almost white, but in some instances of various shades of yellow and red. Upon the clay is occasionally a bed of coarse gravel com- posed of the usual Lickey pebbles, and over it occurs a pale red sand, which gradually passes upwards into a sandy vegetable. The average thickness of these overlying deposits is five feet. At a spot about 250 yards from the river, the place of the peat is occupied by a bed of gravel composed principally of boulders from eight to ten inches in circumference; and above it lies the prevalent light-coloured clay eighteen inches thick. The next stra- VOL. III. PART Il. 30 732 tum, in ascending order, consists of very fine comminuted peat, with: small fragments ‘of hazel and oak twigs, the whole bearing the ap- pearance of a drifted mass. The highest bed, immediately under the vegetable soil, is composed of sandy clay, and is about seven inches thick. In some spots the lower vegetable deposit rests on a deeply orange-eoloured, ferruginous clay, and where this has been re- moved, the action of water on the drift, Mr. Ick says, is very ap- parent, the larger pebbles standing in high relief exactly in the same manner as in the bottom of the present river, where a rapid current flows over the gravel. Mr. Ick has traced this peaty deposit in places along the banks of the river towards Birmingham, through Deritend, particularly at Vaughton’s Hole, where it is eighteen inches thick. It has also been penetrated i in making wells and culverts in the lower part of Dig- beth, and nuts and bones have been found there. The next communication read is entitled “ A Postscript to the Memoir on the occurrence of the Bristol Bone- Bed in the neigh- bourhood of Tewkesbury,” by Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. Since the reading of the former communication (ante, p. 583), Mr, Strickland has ascertained that the bone-bed occurs at least ten miles further north, or at Defford Common, in Worcestershire, making a total range of 104 miles. At this locality are some old salt- works belonging to the Earl of Coventry, and the shaft, which was sunk about seventy years ago to the depth of 175 feet, was emptied a few months since of the brine with which it is wont to overflow. At the bottom of the shaft, which descends through the lias into the grey marl of the triassic series, but without reaching the red marl, is a tunnel that follows the dip of the strata for about 160. yards. The shaft, Mr. Strickland says, consequently intersects the horizon of ‘the bone-bed,” and amoung the rubbish thrown out, he found considerable quantities of the peculiar white sandstone with bivalves ( Posidonomya), shown in his former paper to repre- sent in Worcestershire the bone-bed of Aust and Axmouth; but he also found specimens of the sandstone charged with the same description of teeth, scales and coprolites so abundant at Coomb Hill and the localities just mentioned. The occurrence of an abundance of pure salt water * within the area of lias, Mr. Strickland says, is an interesting phenomenon, and for a solution of it, he refers to Mr. Murchison’s Account of the cree of Cheltenham, p. 30. A paper on the high Temperature of Wells in the neighbourhood of Delhi, by the Rev. Robert Everest, F.G.S., was then read. * An imperial gallon of the brine is stated to yield the following saline contents :—Chloride of sodium .......... 5807°6 grains. NUlppabe or NMer tea. aes 195°S grains. Mab TEST. Wie i) ecole «sic es ee A trace. Dr ITastings’s Paper in the Analyst, vol. i. p. 384. 733 _ The country around Delhi is remarkable for its great dryness; an if a line were to be drawn due west from the Jumna to the Indus, a distance of 400 miles, it would intersect no river, brook or spring, water being obtained only from wells. At Delhi these wells are generally about 35 feet deep; 40 or 50 miles to the westward the depth is from eighty to ninety feet; and beyond that distance to Hauri, 95 miles, it increases to 150 feet. Mr. Everest did not visit the country further to the west, but he believes that the wells havea depth of 150 feet or more. The soil consists of a granitic alluvium, but the surface is covered in many places with saline efflorescences similar to those which the floods of the Jumna now leave behind them. The results of the author’s observations are given inth e following Baer — . Well at Delhi, 42 feet to the bottom. This table shows the — of annual variation. Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp. of water. of ext. air. of water. of ext. air. fo} fo} ° 1833. Nov. 12....... rie ease 76 ‘| 1834. May 12....... 789 ssc. 78 Dee. 17....... 10. © voices 62 June 17....... SUD gebobe 86°5 1834. Jan. 25....... TAT ceceee 68 July 25....... 80:90 250: 82-2 Mar. 2....... (O8U22 2 84 Sept. 2....... 81:3 ...... 92 Mar. 29.2.1... i ieRa ae 67 Sept, 29....... Sl: Sianieas 80 Average temperature: water, 78°61; external air, 77°57. 2. Wells to the W.S.W. of Delhi, ten to fifteen miles apart, the first being the furthest, or 90 miles. Depth Depth Total Temp. Temp. of 1834. Locality. to water. ofwater. depth. of water. ext. air. Feet. Feet. Feet. fe) Jan. 16, Toolshaum.....+s+s+4: 90 esses Fass te! OF vi sssidas Blade 67 peice ban hOpra) spiny cmesee D2) ge aate 28 e clae 80 brea. 82) cies 72 Wo Dadnee, 4.0. .ssc-> can. mol. Gis Gh 28. : = §) Deinotherium, Inc. 2 » Can. 0 5 mol. Foils in == DY). For the determination of the dental formule of Mastodon and Te- tracaulodon, Dr. Grant relied entirely on the splendid collection of jaws, crania, and teeth in Mr. Koch’s possession, which afford ample means for the solution of that problem. For the dental formula of Deinotherium he has been indebted solely to the casts and fragments of that genus in the British Museum. After explaining the uncer- tainties and fallacies to which naturalists have been exposed in the identification of species, from not having ascertained the entire dental series in any Mastodon, the sixth section of the memoir describes the distinctive characters and the distribution of the Mastodon angusti- dens, M. latidens, M. Elephantoides, M.minutum, M. Tapiroides, M. Andium, M. Borsoni, M. Humboldtii, M. Turicense, M. Avernense, M. giganteum, M. Cuvieri, and M. Jeffersoni. The seventh section of the memoir is devoted to the examination and description of the generic characters of Tetracaulodon, as established by Dr. Godman, and as founded onthe number and form of the teeth, the peculiarities of their microscopic structure, the form of the jaws, the tusks, the alveoli of the tusks, the intermaxillary fossa, the infra-orbitary fora- mina, and other influential characters. The eighth and last section of this paper is occupied with an account of the distinctive characters and the distribution of the known species of this genus ; viz. Tetra- caulodon Godmani, T. Collinsii, T. Tapiroides, T. Kochii, T. Haysu, and 7, Bucklandi. VOL, 11%, PART 11, 3k Ly ould, Horr yier Pt“ 22 a can Yo Bagauilo has ovuiauaty ee olay adit io ep pa a eae Pi fotdoho? tems, 2 byecmos bashodixo, . oo ie xa” 98.10 ney “02, gil 10998, re bp toe Stitaagodt gaibrlont te ghezonge ald to; goismiog 19 Peg ri qv Useng le alagnol teaob ot, mi dhags sieve pied) datlig dose, gnihessaue bng yaiontgeth «Yamtengo pola. eominest: waangs alt asonupaas roding eds. sull V ig ee aed 9d.0b lomo . ironies i mig iyreee® ae aire at as oe ay epee asters pgs Bo sb saa St 7 » ; sia he pitiwnlin a. rae aut sae ay s ae BUREN IE iQ) ieee (ares dese ats br | ’ iif Fa ae oT ~ Me ee a anos ig a Pony on eee euai ant Met Jo. wOLIOgio> hitmalye, och so yYoriag, heilos sags. ‘aeons Pigalle, doittyy elighzaazaog auaozt zn ai, ger ; ng, ) _ dotlrn Intiob ails coil... saldarg edi loeg olan ber PRG LI. fog alano ads ol ylalog fee nod = Ath et i Apang “ad Boiialane, red oo rmraaclvh debe adi malas iran ag, 1904 994), VEU, alles iinet sloiclye Od, aoigall Lafaobasiiiy al byiistisaan ached Joc. cpt eanaga | Piano ltraesh, domann adj wo dalioss (izle ont nobese _ ae SAN, swhokihh ait. 10 gotandingarb. oad. h¢ owe WR oblong, LE see sanseisie WY gabrolsnual A aa GMB oN., A sasooias EW siblodemsbk Wy a) olloga Minovan odS) oinactstaly Mk bie, ay an 9413, 40 agitqtipayh bog. 2ohsaimexa odt.of boty al: at Gamboa) «Cl vd hodaildaize 2 .nobelusomie'e to e194 aplieinilisooy anh shiogs, di10. mol: has sodas 0 sid a By paiva) 36!) avenp oft, Io carat addy) student aicoic pawl windidio- ntai oly webaol crollixsonrgiai. Ath), .23 a oe Oitoge, jel baa dioica, Biaiogteny haitgey hat Pe al ovidoditai 3di lo laxooga vm, Agi baiquagg, DPA My, yaumdy eiclt Tovasionge amon, oF Ae, 01 en as ae oie. bY Shi be eee ae bi ae f ter pn ind dew ey ‘ina i PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Tt pr mer RE 1842. | No. 91. June 29.—Seven communications were read. 1. * Notices connected with the Geology of the Island of Rhodes.” By Mr..T. A.B. Spratt, Assistant-Surveyor of H,M.S.Beacon, Com- municated by C. Stokes, Esq., F.G.S. The observations detailed in this paper were made during the sum- mer of 1840. The geological structure of the Island of Rhodes, Mr. Spratt states, is simple, and the distribution of the deposits. easily defined. The formations consist of mica schist, shales, limestones, trachyte with basaltic rocks, Jarge beds of shingle, both anterior and posterior in origin to the volcanic era; and yery extensive tertiary deposits. ; The mica schists occur in the central districts near Alleyermah and Sclipio, but do not form ridges of very great altitude. The limestones are scattered in detached masses and rest appa- rently on argillaceous shales of a black, light cream or reddish colour, but the positive order of superposition the author had no opportunity of determining. He failed alse in detecting in them any organic re- mains, but he is of opinion that they are of contemporaneous origin with the strata near Smyrna, assigned by Mr. Strickland to the Hip- purite limestone. The shales are well developed in several places around the base of Mount Ottayaro, but more particularly in the valley west of the village of Embono. Both the schists and the limestones exhibit, Mr. Spratt states, proofs of great dislocations, and he is inclined to ascribe these effects to the outburst of the voleanic rocks which constitute so large a por- tion of the central and southern districts of the island. He mentions as instances of these disturbed beds a thin stratum of limestone which projects, near Lardose, from the enclosing schists like a wall, and tra- verses several valleys as well as ridges; also some curiously con- torted strata on the nor(th face of Mount Agramitty. The loftiest summits in the island are composed of limestone. Mount Attayaro (anc, /Atabyrius), the highest, exceeds 4000 feet in altitude, and at least thiree-fourths of it are composed of horizontal beds of limestone. The other principal calcareous mountains are Hlias, Agramitty, Archangilo and Lindo, all remarkable detached points, and believed by the author to have been islands during the deposition of the tertiary formations. Mr. Spratt likewise mentions in proof of the limestone mountains forming islands during the tertiary epoch, that at Mount Gallatah, near the north-east extremity of the island, fragments. of the rock are 3R2 774 honeycombed and perforated exactly in the same manner as the limestone on the shore of many parts of Asia Minor, being the ope- ration of a very minute boring animal. The igneous rocks constitute the ridges next in altitude as the lesser Elias and the southern mount of Skathee, besides a great por- tion of the ridge connecting it with Attayaro and a few others. The tertiary deposits are assigned by Mr. Spratt to a period poste- rior to the outburst of the igneous rocks, and when only the higher ranges of hills were above the sea level. They consist of sands and marls tranquilly accumulated in horizontal beds, and are distributed in basins which occupy nearly a third of the island; but having been extensively denudated, they are intersected by deep and wide valleys. The western basins are distinguished from the eastern by containing only freshwater remains. In the hill to the west of Kalavorda the author obtained similar testacea, marine shells being also apparently wanting, but his examination of it was limited. In some of the neighbouring ridges similar strata are also considered to be destitute of organic remains. No river now flows through the district containing the freshwater deposits, except a small stream about the size of the Bournarbashi of the Troad, nevertheless broad shingle beds traverse the longer valleys and form a remarkable feature in the western division of the island. Mr, Spratt is of opinion that these valleys were the channels of very considerable streams which once flowed from the mountains, and that the accumulations are too great to be accounted for by the torrents of the present winters. - The eastern tertiary deposits contain only marine remains, but in vast abundance in some localities, as in the basins of Lardose, Archan- gilo, and Koskinou, which the author says, appear to have»been inlets or channels protected hy the high peaks around the base of which the deposits now lie in horizontal terraces or zones. At Lardose the fossils are most numerous in an insulated hillock of loose sand behind the village, and Mr. Spratt procured there specimens of almost every species which he obtained elsewhere. A quarter of a mile to the northward he noticed a bed of gigantic oysters and “ scollops ”’; the diameter of one of the largest being thirteen inches, and the thickness of one of its valves five inches. Near Melona and Archangilo fossils may be procured in abun- dance, but the species are grouped; and about a mile north of the latter place the author found on the end of a low ridge which pro- jected into the plain, a thin stratum of calcareous sand containing numerous fossil leaves, also marine shells and an ichthyolite. The ‘leaves resembled those of the olive, oleander, and plane tree, now growing on the island. In the neighbourhood of Koskinou and Rhodes fossils are also very abundant, especially in the upper deposits. Mr. Spratt gives the following list of the strata exhibited in a hill near the town of Rhodes, and he says that it affords a type of the whole of the adjacent depo- sits, with the exception of the distribution of the fossils, which are sometimes wanting, sometimes plentiful, in the same bed. 775 Top.—Calcareous conglomerate, containing Turbo rugosa in great abundance. Laminated marls in which fossils are sometimes numerous, but at this locality they are wanting. Coarse sand, inclosing species of Pecten, Turbo, Echini, and corals in great confusion and seldom perfect. Fine sand from which the author procured only a species of Venus. Marls without fossils, at this point sometimes indurated. Greenish sand. Fine brownish sand with numerous fossils. Total thickness about 300 feet. In the deposits along the north shore Mr. Spratt procured no fos- sils, though he very closely examined Mount Paradiso and Philielmo. The strata in these hills and in that overhanging Tholo and Soronee dip at a considerable angle to the north; and exhibit the greatest visible thickness of the tertiary deposits, Paradiso, the highest, having an altitude of 920 feet ; but in the basin of Archangilo they attain nearly the same vertical dimensions. The tertiary strata are apparently continuous along the north coast, so that no defined margin between the supposed western lacustrine deposits and those of decidedly marine origin is indicated by an inter- vening ridge or formation of a different character. The long ridge of Skathee is considered however by the author a natural boundary between the basin of Palatshah and the eastern deposits, but he was unable to determine if the strata around Katavyah with which it is believed to be connected, contain marine or freshwater shells. There are also in several parts of the island elevated shingle beds of considerable thickness ; some of them, composed entirely of rounded limestone pebbles, occurring on the sides of the calcareous moun- tains ; while others consist of limestone and volcanic materials, and others again wholly of volcanic fragments. These accumulations, Mr. Spratt says, are evidently of two epochs, one anterior to the great volcanic era, and the other intermediate between it and the tertiary series, the sands and marls of that group being in several places around them. 2. “ On the minute Structure of the Tusks of extinct Mastodon- toid Animals.” By Alexander Nasmyth, Esq., F.G.S. The author, at the commencement of his memoir, acknowledges his obligations to Dr. Grant for having first called his attention to the minute anatomical structure of the tusks of Mastodontoid animals ; and for having placed at his disposal a copy of the Swedish edition of Retzius’s demonstration of the typical structure of the dental or- gans of animals. Availing himself of the able tuition afforded by the Swedish Pro- fessor, Mr. Nasmyth says, he has prosecuted the subject, and that these inquiries, besides explaining to him the structure of that portion not completely investigated by Retzius, have unfolded to him some observations which are now generally acknowledged to be truths in 776 thé valuable but intricate department of animal development. He further says, that he has been led to results differing somewhat from those of Retzius, so far as the physiology of the cellular tissues is concerned ; yet the general appearances exhibited and the manner of displaying them will remain, he adds, lasting memorials of the ta- lents and ingenuity of the Swedish Professor. The specimens to which Mr. Nasmyth’s attention has been directed form part of the collection of Mr. Koch, and they were delivered to him as belonging to Mastodon giganteum, Tetracaulodon Godmani, T. Kochii, T. Tapiroides, and the Missourium. In the analysis of each specimen he considers— Ist. The constituent structures of the tusk. 2nd. The comparative extent of each of the constituent structures, as far as it can be ascertained. 3rd. Hach constituent structure regarded separately in its minute and individual elements. 4th. The conclusions derived from the premises as to the place which the animal should occupy in zoological: classifications: The principle upon which this mode of analysis is based, is that of the infinite variety which nature affects from limited materials, while the constancy of each variety throughout the same species is perfect. This constancy extends, Mr. Nasmyth observes, not only to the:con- stituent structures of each tooth, but to the extent of each constituent, as well as to the peculiar arrangement of the minute elements of which each of these structures is composed. The examination of each tusk evinces so marked and péculiar a structure, that a cursory inspection will, the author thinks, sufficiently demonstrate specific distinctions, which he supposes must have been accompanied by concomitant peculiarities of organization subser- In the following descriptions the word corpuscuie is used to desig- nate those appearances constituting the characteristic of bone, but denominated by Retzius cells, because the author is persuaded that those appearances are truly of a corpuscular character ; and the word cell is used to designate the structure of the interfibrous material which was left almost entirely out of account by Retzius, and de- scribed by others as structureless, but demonstrated by the author to be most characteristically organized in the different groups of ani- mals. The term fibres is used, moreover, to define those appeatances which Retzius considers due to a tabular structure, because the au- thor has been unable to find anything which confirms this theoretical appellation founded on the existence of 4 series of continuous rami- fying tubes. This question therefore he leaves in abeyance. Mastodon giganteum—The constituent structures of the upper tusks are only two, crusta petrosa and ivory. - The crusta pettosa, in the speciiens examined, is comparatively thin, or about halfa line ; but the extent of the investigation being necessarily limited, the au- thor considers that the observations on this head are incomplete. The corpuscules of the crusta petrosa are scattered irregularly ; but they are Humerous and give off radiating branched fibres, tending 777 generally either from the surface or to the surface of the tusk. There are hardly any independent fibres. The cellular structure of the in- terspaces is clearly marked. The junction of the ivory with the crusta petrosa is well defined by a clear line, sueceeded by a plumose appearance arising from a con- geries of very minute ramifying fibres... This appearance looks, Mr. Nasmyth says, as if it arose out of, and formed the termination of, the main fibres which join the layer undivided. The compartments of which the main fibres are made up are par- allelograms resembling those of the Elephant, and are most easily - observed in vertical sections,’ while the cellular structure of the interfibral spaces is clearest in transverse sections. Minute corpus- cular appearances are scattered over the substance, and soageregated as to form at intervals concentric layers. ‘The characteristic differ- ences between the structure of'the tusks of the Elephant and Masto- don, Mr. Nasmyth observes, consist principally in the presence of transverse fibres in the crusta petrosa of the Elephant, and the greater number and regularity of its corpuscules in the Mastodon, as well as in the peculiar disposition to a transverse direction of its radiating fibres. In the ivory the most striking peculiarity consists in the nu- merous bands of corpuscular-looking bodies in its substance. These appearances, so frequently observed in ivory; Mr. Nasmyth is of opi- nion, depend, as pointed out by him, on the thickness of the animal matter of the interfibral cells. Tetracaulodon Godmani.—The author says there is a great dissi- milarity in the constituent structures of tusks of this Pachyderm and those of the Mastodon, while on a cursory examination of the mi- nute organization of these structures there is an apparent similarity. The crown of both the: upper and under tusk is coated with enamel extending below the level of the alveolar process, with crusta pe- trosa external to it, the body of the tusk being composed of ivory. The alveolar process of the upper tusks is large and deep, greatly exceeding that of every other tusk which the author has examined, and showing, he says, that the actions in which these organs assisted, must have been very powerful. The habits essentially necessary to the exigencies of an animal being, Mr. Nasmyth observes, the same in youth as in adult age, the organization of the individual tissues is the same at both periods, though certain modifications of instruments are exacted at successive stages of existence. Thus, in early youth, when the frame is not powerful, every efficiency is given to the cutting edges of the dental apparatus ; and the author states a fact he believes never before re marked, though long noticed by himself, that the tusks of the young Elephant and Walrus are tipped with a very thin layer of enamel. © The head of the Tetracaulodon Godmani examined by Mr. Nas- myth is shown to have been that of an animal in which two of the adolescent teeth are well developed. The crusta petrosa of the tusk was about half a line thick, and extended over the whole of the visible surface. The corpuscules were irregularly disposed, but closely ag- ervegated, and exhibited in the transverse section an irregularly circu- 778 lar shape with occasionally angular points. The radiating fibres were numerous, ranging in all directions ; and the independent transverse fibres were also numerous, traversing witha curved course the whole substance. ‘The cells of the interspaces were visible. The enamel on the upper tusk was a line thick. The parallel rows of constituent cells throughout the external half ranged in straight lines, but throughout the internal half they were curved diagonally. There was no clear space between the enamel and ivory, but the line of junction was well defined. A plumose layer of fibres, apparently the peripheral termination of the main undivided fibres of the ivory, suc- ceeded to the enamel. The component bulbs of the fibre were round, but not often visible, and were best seen in the longitudinal section. The fibres were placed at about the distance of two interfibral spaces, and curved in the transverse section as well as in the vertical, but in the latter direction slightly. A minute corpuscular appearance was scattered over the substance, and the cells of the interfibral material were visible. The crusta petrosa, enamel and ivory of the under tusk were similar to those of the upper, except that the constituents were so transpa- rent as hardly to betray any characteristic. The parietes of the cells of the enamel are more defined in the under tusk. Besides the important characteristic of the thick coating of enamel, the tusk of the T.Godmani presents manifest differences from that of the other species, in the elements of each of the constituents. ‘The radiating fibres of the corpuscules differ from those of Mastodon gi- ganteum in being given off equally in all directions; in the M. gigan- teum the numerous independent fibres of the T. Godmani are also absent, and the zones or belts of minute corpuscules in the ivory of the M. giganteum are wanting in that of the 7. Godmani. Tetracaulodon Kochii.—The tusks of this Pachyderm have only two constituents, crusta peirosa and ivory. The crusta petrosa varies in thickness, equalling in some parts an inch. In the vertical section the corpuscules are irregularly oval and irregularly disposed at the di- stance of three or four corpuscular diameters, and they give off occa- sionally many fine radiating fibres. Numerous independent trans- verse fibres pass in a curved direction also throughout the substance, their beaded or minute corpuscular appearance being very visible, and they are of an irregularly twisted oval form. The cells of the interspaces are likewise visible. The ivory of the upper tusks consists of very slightly undulating, undivided fibres, with the cells of the interfibrous substance well marked, but semi-transparent. The fibres of the under tusk slightly undulate, and present occasionally an appearance of thorny projec- tions. The compartments of the fibres are easily seen, and are irre- gular in size, but rounded. Tetracaulodon Tapiroides.—The tusks consist also of only crusta petrosa and ivory, and the resemblance in the microscopic structure of this species with that of T. Kochii is great. The thickness of the crusta petrosa is considerable. The very irregularly-shaped corpus- cules, placed at intervals of two or three corpuscular diameters, are 779 semi-transparent, and without radiating fibres in the external half; but those situated in the internal half are of the usual opacity, and give off numerous radiating fibres. Transverse, irregularly beaded, independent fibres traverse the substance, making one distinct curve in their passage across it. The cells of the interspaces are slightly visible. The ivory is so translucent and homogeneous as to exhibit generally very little character. The fibres undulate but do not divide, forming an abrupt line of junction with the crusta petrosa. The form of the beaded compartments of the fibre is oblong, not rounded, as in 7. Kochu, and they do not exhibit thorny projections. These are the only marked differences in the two species. The cells of the semi-transparent interfibral space are generally visible. Missourium.—The constituents of the tusks are likewise crusta pe- trosa and ivory; but their intimate structure, Mr. Nasmyth says, is more peculiar, so far as his examination has extended, than that of the tusks of the preceding animals. The crusta petrosa, in the section which the author was permitted to make, was more than three-eighths of an inch thick. The corpus- cules were very numerous, and generally within the distance of one diameter. The granulated compartments of which the corpuscules were composed, were very visible, and often without radiating fibres, but where these occurred they were of a coarse structure. The transverse independent fibres were beaded in coarse, somewhat tor- tuous, ovoid compartments, and ranged very close to one another, with interfibral spaces of about only two fibral diameters, and followed a straight, perpendicular and parallel course to the surface. The cells of the semi-transparent interfibral space were generally visible. The appearances presented by the ivory at its junction with the crusta petrosa, Mr. Nasmyth was unable to ascertain; but in the substance of the ivory the fibres undulated, and their beaded com- partments had a rounded shape: these fibres were frequently in- vested with an irregular congeries of granules distinct from the inter- fibral cells. Towards the central portion of the ivory the compart- ments forming the fibre were frequently so disposed as to give the fibre a peculiar tortuous appearance. The peculiarities of the tusk of the Missourium are given by Mr. Nasmyth as follows ; and, he says, they would certainly indicate a di- stinct species of Mastodontoid animal :— 1. The great extent of the crusta petrosa. 2. The close aggre- gation of its corpuscules. 3. The granulated structure of these cor- puscules. 4. The coarse granulated structure of the compartments of the radiating fibres. 5. The close parallel perpendicular arrange- ment of the fibres of the crusta petrosa. 6. The irregular congeries of granules surrounding the fibres of the ivory. 7. The peculiar tor- tuous appearance occasionally exhibited by these fibres. On the whole, Mr. Nasmyth observes, the several species of ani- mals noticed in his paper seem to be nearly allied, and fitted to exist under nearly similar conditions; and though the early eras to 780 which these Pachyderms must be referred, present, he says, consider- able uniformity of circumstance, yet they must have sosthoce some variety of detail in the animal organization. Finally, the characteristics in the minute ‘structure of the tasted of all the five animals betray, the author observes, greater varieties than are found to exist even betwixt some genera possessed of tusks ; and if it be established that specific differences positively do exist among all these animals, then the value of this kind of observation is great ; but if the five animals are all to be grouped in one category, then this mode of observation is of no value in paleontological researches. 3. “ Notice on the Discovery of Insects in the Wealden of the Vale of Aylesbury, Bucks, with some additional observations on the wider distribution of these and other Fossils in the Vale of bine Wiltshire.” By the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S. In a former notice (anié, p. 134) Mr. Brodie announced ‘the dis- covery of insects as well as a new genus of Isopods in the Wealden beds of the Vale of Wardour, and in this communication he gives an account of additional localities in the same Vale, where he has found both the insects and crustaceans, and of the strata belonging to the Wealden series, in which he has obtained fossil insects, in the Vale of Aylesbury. Vale of Wardour.—The precise spot noticed in the former paper is aquarry at Dallards, and the first point to which the author now calls attention, is situated about two miles to the south-east of it. The fol- lowing section is given of the beds at the new locality, the dip being slightly to the south :— tt) 7 ie 1. Top. Debris of rounded fragments of greensand and ps Portland stone, with their usual fossils, a few inches | thick. - 2. Chert, full of Cyclas; it also contains occasionally . PSO CaS a Oa ee OR a eee eee Hopi 3. Hard, brownish white limestone, with Ostree and casts of other shells, some resembling those of Cy- clas major. The upper layers much disturbed .... 2 0 4. Black earthy clay, a few inches. 5. Purbeck stone, varying in character but containing REC HAVES rere etree tre te Oe ae Seen went tier ae Spe 6. Fissile, soft stone full of Modiole, palates and other remains of fishes, also bones of a species of tortoise 1 0 7. White limestone, containing Tsopods and elytra of pL ELES OLS 1 pathetic h ie alanis hn cela tien tSeey: op ie: 3.0 Hardstone. | In an escarpment in the banks of the adjoining river are two beds of limestone, from the upper of which Mr. Brodie obtained small ely- tra, and from the lower Cypris, and from both carbonized wood, also a species of Cyclas. Under these strata is a very oolitic limestone, in which the author found a small Melanopsis and a seed-vessel. 781 A mile distant Mr. Brodie procured from a bed of limestone, about five inches thick, Cyclades, Isopods, and a small fish of the Species which occurs at Dallards; and in a bed of clay, bones of a tortoise. The hard crystalline limestone of the Lady-down beds are noticed as yielding, butrarely, Cyclades and Cyprides. In the neighbourhood of Tisbury, in a soft, gritty, slightly oolitic stone, the author found Tsopods of a larger size than elsewhere, likewise an elytron of u cole- opterous insect. Though the number of beds of limestone vary in different parts of the Vale of Wardour, yet Isopods and insects ‘cha- racterise the whole of them; and as respects lithological characters, notwithstanding the great varieties which occur at different localities, there is throughout the district that general peculiarity of aspect which is so remarkable in freshwater formations of very different ages, and which serves to identify detached quarries with each other. Vale of Aylesbury.—In Buckinghamshire the Wealden beds possess a certain similarity with those in Wiltshire, but with clearly marked local differences. At Quainton Hill Mr. Brodie could not discover any traces of fishes, insects, or Isopods. In a quarry near the village of Stone he obtained the following section :— 1. Rubble, several feet. 2. Hard white stone, no fossils ........ Lsvbiboaalth: 2 to 3 feet, 3. Greenish stone, with Cypris......e0es..0008 2 feet. 4. Black clay, containing bones of a Tortoise ...... 1 foot. 5. White and blue limestone (Pendle), yielding Modiol in abun- dance ; also a few Cypris and Cyclas; likewise bones and _ palates of fishes, coprolites, and, but rarely, remains of insects; fragments of carbonized wood are common; and Mr. Brodie obtained a speci- men of Sphenopteris Mantelli, and another minute but beautiful species of Fern. This limestone bears a close resemblance to one of the beds at Dallards. | In his general observations on the fossils from these different_loca- lities, the author states, that though he has greatly added to the num- ber and variety of insect-remains since his former communication, yet he has not found any of the larger kinds, almost every specimen re- quiring a high magnifying power to be seen distinctly. Next to the Coleoptera, the most prevalent orders are the Homoptera and Tri- coptera; and Mr. Brodie observes, that this fact accords with the habits ef the two latter orders, the first living on plants, remains of which are found abundantly in the Wealden, and the second hovering over the surface of streams. From the fragmentary state of these remains, and from the wings never being expanded in the more nearly perfect specimens, he considers it probable, that they were carried for some distance down the streams which flowed. into the Wealden estuaries. A few of the insects which have been exa- mined hy an eminent entomologist, have been pronounced to possess, with ene exception, a decidedly European character, to differ from those at Aix, and to be less tropical than those found at Stonesfield. Since the reading of his prior communication, Mr. Brodie has ob- tained Isopods.an inch and a half in length and an inch broad. These 782 crustaceans, so interesting from the analogy to Trilobites, presented by allied genera, are rarely found in single specimens, but in groups, and therefore present this additional agreement with the habits of re- cent species. The fossils appear to have been deposited tranquilly at the bottom of the water which they inhabited, being always found imbedded with their legs downwards, and they are generally well pre- served. Thewhole of the freshwater remains of these Wealden beds, including the testacea, afford the natural characters of such deposits by yielding abundance of specimens, but few genera. Associated with the above-mentioned organic remains of the Vale of Wardour, Mr. Brodie has obtained three species of small fishes quite distinct, he says, from those found at Lady Down and Chicks- grove. With a single exception they were all procured at one spot. None of the localities mentioned in the paper afforded the least trace of the “ dirt-bed,’’ or of Cycadeoidea. 4. “On the Geology of Egypt.’’ By Lieut. Newbold of the Ma- dras Army, F.R.S. Communicated by the President. Mr. Newbold first describes the physical features of Egypt, and 2ndly, the formations of which the country is composed. I. Physical Features.—Atter alluding to the natural boundaries of Kgypt, namely, the Mediterranean on the north, the Libyan desert on the west, the mountains of Nubia on the south, and the Red Sea, with the Isthmus of Suez, on the east, and stating that the area thus circumscribed comprises about 100,000 square miles, the author shows that Egypt has three great physical divisions: 1. the mountainous region extending between the Red Sea and the Nile; 2. the deserts east and west of the Nile; and 3. the fertile valley of that river, with its delta. The mountainous region is naked and dreary in aspect, on account of the deficiency of springs, rain, and dew; and it presents bare or sand-covered rocks, intersected by deep ravines. The peculiarly ta- bular features of Central and part of Upper Ngypt are due to the ho- rizontal stratification of the prevailing limestone, which supports the desert districts, and terminates near the banks of the Nile, from Esneh to Cairo, in mural escarpments. Between Kossier and Ghennah the aspect is rendered more varied and irregular by pinnacles and dome- shaped masses of plutonic or hypogene rocks. The deserts present a series of undulating plains sometimes studded with clusters of low hills, and are covered chiefly with unproductive saline, often calca- reous and gypseous sand, marl, and gravel. The Oases of the deserts and the mountainous region, Mr. Newbold regards simply as valleys, supplied with moisture either by springs or by the drainage-water of the deserts, held up by the impervious clay constituting the subsoil. In a few cases the moisture, he thinks, may be due to percolation from the Nile. The greatest altitude of the desert between Suez and Cairo is about 700 feet above the ‘‘ ocean;”’ and its general charac- ter between the Red Sea and the Nile is that of a flattish irregular plateau rising towards the centre and terminating in each direction in abrupt escarpments. ‘The flat marshy districts between Suez and 783 Pelusium are stated, on the authority of Laborde, to be twenty-four feet below the sea-level. The aspect of the valley and delta of the Nile varies with the sea- sons, presenting while the country is inundated a vast freshwater lake, studded with palm-shaded hamlets ; and after the subsidence of the waters, exhibiting along the course of the river a line of brilliant ver- dure winding through higher sterile tracts. When the grain has been gathered, the prospect consists of one monotonous brown, dusty plain, traversed by the sluggish Nile. The dip of the country from the first cataract to the Mediterranean is, according to Mr. Wallace, only two inches in a mile; but the descent a little north of Assuan is seven inches, lessening however on approaching the delta, and the canal between the Nile and Alexandria, a distance of sixty miles, has not a single lock. From the horizontal stratification of the rocks composing the greater part of Egypt, it is difficult, Mr. Newbold says, to trace any particu- lar lines of elevation. The mural cliffs which flank the valley of the Nile to the vicinity of Cairo, there deviate towards the east and west, and similar but less abrupt cliffs flank both shores of the Red Sea. This horizontal formation is traversed by valleys and ravines or wa- dis, having a north and south, and east and west direction, or which intersect each other at right angles, the most considerable being that of the Nile. In the eastern desert of Upper Egypt, Mr. Newbold traced these valleys to a north and south anticlinal line, caused by plutonic rocks which attain an altitude of 1000 feet above the sea-level; and their upheaval, he says, accounts for the intersecting systems of valleys, and illustrates forcibly the truth of Mr. Hopkins’s observations on the laws of fracture. In the vicinity of the erupted rocks the sedimentary strata exhibit considerable proofs of disturbance, but as the distance increases the inclination diminishes, proving, Mr. Newbold states, that the strata were elevated to their present position with no more force than was necessary to produce the fissures or valleys; and he adds, that in proportion as the horizontality is recovered, the fre- quency, depth, and extent of the fissures decrease. Some of the valleys, as that of Kossier, are considered to have been widened by aqueous causes no longer in operation, and that of the Nile by the still continued erosion of the river ; while others, as the Bahr-bila Maieh, or waterless river*, and that which separates the petrified wood formation from the Red Mountain, to have been formed entirely by them. The surface of these valleys is covered, for the greater part, with the detritus of the neighbouring rocks and of distantly transported rolled pebbles, which often rest on ledges and hills much above the general drainage-level. In the valley of Kossier, near the Red Sea, the gravel consists principally of pebbles of plutonic and hypogene rocks derived from the interior ; but near * Mr. Newbold objects to the opinion entertained by some travellers that _this valley was anciently the channel of the Nile, as it contains no rich, dark-coloured alluyium. 784 the hills or to the westward of the parent rocks few of these pebbles are found, proving, the author says, the eastwardly direction of the transporting currents. _ Yhe natural drainage of the country is remarkably simple. The greater portion of the small quantity of rain which falls in Central and Upper Egypt is absorbed by the deserts and collected in natural basins like the Oases ; the remainder is partly carried off by the great, evaporation, and partly conducted to the Red Sea by transverse eracks on the eastern side of the anticlinal axis, or to the valley of the Nile by similar cracks on the western flank of that axis. The drainage of the Libyan desert is also effected through the valley of the Nile. The amount of water which escapes by these means is however so small, that the Nile throughout the last 1350 miles, or about one-half of its course, does not receive what may be termed a single tributary. Il. Formations.—The deposits of which Egypt consists, are ar- ranged by Mr. Newbold under the heads of, 1. hypogene rocks with argillaceous schist, 2. breccia di verde, 3. lower sandstone, 4. marine _ limestone, 5. upper sandstone, 6. post-pliocene deposits, 7. drift, 8. volcanic rocks, 9. alluvial accumulations, 10. sand-drifts. I. Hypogene Rocks.—These constitute a small portion of Egypt. Between the Red Sea and the Nile, Mr. Newbold observed them only in the latitude of Kossier (26° 8’) resting against granite in highly inclined or curved strata, and forming an east and west zone 30 miles in breadth. He is of opinion that the same beds may probably range south by east, hypogene rocks appearing at Gebel Zerbara (lat. 24° 30'). Ina northerly direction they have been traced to fhe cata- racts, resting on granite.” Gneiss, with thin “veins” of marbie, usually constitutes the low- est strata, which are overlaid conformably by micaceous, talcose, hornblende, and argillaceous schists and quartzite. Dykes or masses of basalt, greenstone, porphyry, and serpentine are associated with the whole series. All the hypogene rocks assume a crystalline cha- racter near the granite or trap, the gneiss and hornblende schist be- coming garnetiferous and abounding in actynolite, both crystallized and compact; the taleose schist also passes into potstone and ne- phrite with iron pyrites, as at Mount Baram; the micaceous schists at Gebel Zerbara yield emeralds, avanturine, hzmatitic, and specular iron ore; and the clay-slate changes into basanite or flinty slate. 2. Breccia di Verde—The argillaceous slate is overlaid confor- mably, in lat. 26° 8’, by the celebrated breccia di verde. . This rock presents thick-bedded strata, which become more horizontal on re- ceding from the granite, and is composed principally of angular and rounded fragments of greenstone, gneiss, porphyry, argillaceous and flinty slates, serpentine and marble, also sometimes of light green com- pact felspar and hypogene rocks, cemented by aslightly calcareous paste of various shades of green and purplish red. No fossils have yet been noticed in the rock. The cliffs composed of this breccia _ rarely exceed 200 feet in height above the level of the desert. 3. Lower Sandstone—Above the breccia di verde occurs a sand- 785 stone of apparently limited extent, and confined to the southern part of Egypt, passing thence into Nubia, It is displayed on both flanks of the anticlinal axis between Kossier and Ghennah, reposing near Bir Anglaise conformably on greenstone; it is exposed also on the banks of the Nile, and, according to, Lefevre, it ranges from a little south-west of Esneh (lat. about 26° 10’) nearly to Syene or As- suan, 70 miles, where it, is dislocated by the syenite, and near its junction with that rock passes into aconglomerate and becomes aga- tiferous ; it also, from the smallness of the fragments composing the breccia strata, and the altered crystalline structure of the mass near the plutonic rocks, often resembles certain porphyries, but the true nature of the rock is easily recognizable in the beds at a greater di- stance. ; This sandstone varies from a loose siliceous aggregate with a fels- pathic, calcareous or ferruginous cement, to a compact quartz rock ; and the pebbles in the interstratified breccia consist usually of chert, flinty slate, agate or jasper. Associated with the sandstone are occa- sionally thin beds of green and purple clay, containing gypsum and chloride of soda. Veins of white, brown, and amethystine quartz | also traverse it, and copper as well as specular iron ore are stated to have been found in it near Hummamet. This sandstone was exten- sively used by the ancients. The vocal Memnon and many of the sphynges which line the dromos of the temple of Carnac consist of it. Mr. Newbold hesitates to decide the geological position of the formation, though Ehrenberg considers it to be the representative of the Quader sandstein, and Lefevre of the Keuper or Marnes Irisées*. 4, Marine Limestone.—The sandstone is overlaid conformably by a marine limestone, which covers the greater part of Egypt, from near Esneh to below Cairo, or from lat. 25° 10! to lat. 30° 2’, and from the Red Sea to the Libyan desert, with the exception of the tracts occupied by plutonic and hypogene rocks near Syene, and in the centre of the Egyptian desert, constituting for the greater part the basis of both deserts. Mr. Newbold considers the limestone on the eastern shore of the upper part of the Red Sea, extending to the base of Sinai and far into the Arabian desert, to be also of the same age. The dip is considerable as well as variable in the vicinity of the plutonic rocks; but there is scarcely any perceptible inclina- tion in the beds composing the banks of the Nile; the general bearing of the dip is, however, decidedly towards the north. The upper beds abound with Nummulites, and are generally hard and compact, but sometimes singularly honey-combed, apparently from the removal of the organic bodies. They are often siliceous, and considered, from effervescing slightly, to contain sometimes mag- nesia. The colour is buff or brown. The lower beds. have a cretaceous aspect, and contain, near Thebes and Bir Anglaise, nodular as well as tabular layers of chert, which are occasionally replaced by Egyptian jasper and agate, likewise in- numerable small siliceous or cherty spheroids surrounded with a band, * Bull, Soc, Géol, de France, tome x. 786 and called by the Arabs Nuktah, or drops. These concretions are sometimes united in pairs, and often present various modifications of a spheroid. Ehrenberg has not been able to detect any traces of organic structure in them, but he has noticed fragments of granite and other rocks. The lower beds yield also layers of earthy and cry- stallized gypsum, chloride of soda, arragonite, large deposits of stalag- mite or Egyptian alabaster, near Tel el Amara (lat. 27° 43’) and in the Mokattem range, 8 hours from Benisuof; also in caverns fine stalactites, used in the arts. Among other mineral products, Mr. Newbold mentions sulphate of barytes, lead, crystallized sulphur, and nodules of carbonized vegetable matter. Interstratified with these lower beds are greenish and pale brown marls, the softer portions of which are used in washing, and the harder as whetstones. This lime- stone was employed in constructing the earliest Egyptian monuments. According to Ehrenberg, the lower beds of this formation contain Infusoria and Foraminifere found in the Chalk of Europe ; and to Lefevre *, Echinites at Esneh similar to those of Malta, also speci- mens of Hippurites, Placuna, and Vulsella, and a fish near Cairo; large Nautili, and numerous other testacea, with remains of crabs, fishes’ teeth and corallines, were collected by Mr. Newbold. The author refers also to Mr. Bowerbank’s observations that the Egyptian jaspers present no spongeous structure, but contain numerous Fora- miniferze resembling those found in chalk flints, yet difficult to distin- guish from species obtained in the calcaire grossiert. 5. Upper Sandstone.—This formation occurs in horizontally strati- fied hummocks and patches resting on the marine limestone ; and it has been traced from the Mediterranean far into the Nubian, Li- byan and Baytida deserts, and even into Abyssiniat. The hummocks - are considered to be the remains of once continuous strata. The sandstone varies from a red, white or yellow compact rock to a loose quartzoze grit, with a calcareous, felspathic or ferruginous cement, and associated with it is a conglomerate composed of quartz, chert and jasper, derived chiefly from the subjacent limestone; also beds of variously coloured marls containing gypsum and salt, and in which the natron beds of Egypt are situated. Casts of marine shells were noticed by Mr. Newbold in the vici- nity of Wadi Ansari, and trunks with smaller fragments of silicified trees occur in many parts of the Egyptian and Libyan deserts, par- ticularly in the Suez desert, seven miles east by south from Cairo. This district, called the ‘‘ petrified forest,” is described in great de- tail. It consists of a sterile irregular plateau, which is considerably above the level of the Nile, lying on the slope of the Mokattem range, andit extends three and ahalf miles southwardly, and four miles east- wardly. Many of the trunks are scattered over the surface among rolled and angular fragments of dark grit, and pebbles of jasper, chert, quartz and sharp-edged fragments of silicified wood. ‘The * Bulletin Soc. Géol. de France, tome x. pp. 144, 234. T See ante, p. 435. ¢ Lefevre, Bull. Soc, Géol. de France, tome x. 787 largest trunks occur in the greatest abundance on or near dark- coloured knolls, particularly towards the south-east portion of the area, where they lay like broken stems of a fallen forest, crossing each other at various angles ; but the majority of the larger trees are di- rected towards the north-west. Two of the greatest, measured by the author, were 48 and 61 feet in length, and 24 and 3 feet in diameter ; but the lesser fragments are generally from 1 to 3 feet long, and 4 to 12 inches in diameter. Among the fractured trunks which lay broken transversely on the sand-hills, Mr. Newbold noticed many with the edges sharp, and in nice adaptation, though the fragments were several feet apart. A few specimens are imbedded horizontally in the sand and asso- ciated conglomerate, and a still fewer occur in a vertical position rising from 12 to 20 inches above the surface. Mr. Newbold cleared the sand from one of these stumps, and ascertained that its lower part was imbedded in the subjacent conglomerate; but it exhibited no traces of roots. The trunks, which are rarely flattened and never invested with coaly matter, are branchless, and in general knotless ; though in some specimens Mr. Newbold traced places for the insertion of branches ; roots also are wanting, but among the masses enclosed in the sand some were found, which bore strong resemblance to the bulbous base of palms, and others which assimilated to the tortuous roots of exo- genous trees. Internally the trunks exhibit a concentric structure, though externally they resemble the present palms of Egypt. Some specimens examined by Mr. R. Brown were decided to be dicotyle- donous, and not coniferous; but one brought from the Nubian. desert by the Rey. Vere Monro is stated to exhibit that structure. Indications of a jointed appearance are mentioned, but Mr. Newbold is of opinion that this calamite or reed-like structure may be due to contraction during the process of silicification. Instances of decay at the time the trunks were imbedded the author also noticed, the interior being partly filled with grit and conglomerate ; ‘and he men- tions cases in which all ligneous structure had disappeared. The silicified wood varies in character from a white opake crust, which crumbles when handled, to agate and flint, and in colour from white to grey, brown and red. No decided seed-vessels or traces of leaves have been found. The author then describes the structure of Gebel Ahmar, situated on the northern limit of the “ Fossil Forest,” and of the intervening valley. Gebel Ahmar is an irregular ridge, a mile in length and half a mile in breadth, rising to the height of about 150 feet above the general level of the desert, and it is composed of conglomerate, grit and sandstone, the prevailing colour of the strata being red (Gebel Ahmar, Red Mountain). The stone has been so extensively quarried, and the mounds of rubbish are so numerous, that the original outline of the ridge has been obliterated; and its present rugged, conical aspect is due to those causes, and not to a supposed volcanic origin. The sandstone reposes, as elsewhere, on the marine limestone, passing near the Oly III. PART Ile 36 788 line of junction into an ochreous, reddish and yellow clay, which contains veins of fibrous gypsum, selenite, salt, and, it is said, ba- rytes. : Both the sandstone and limestone abound in caverns, ‘* the resort of the hyenas that nightly prowl among the burial-grounds without the walls of Cairo. One of these dens, into which” Mr. Newbold descended, ‘ contained the recent dung of the animal intermingled with human and other bones.” The valley which intervenes between Gebel Ahmar and the “Fossil Forest ” is excavated in the sandstone, the subjacent limestone being in some places exposed. The following inferences are drawn by Mr. Newbold from the phzenomena presented by the deposit of petrified trees :— (1.) He is of opinion that this part of Egypt has twice formed the bed of the ocean, and been twice elevated above the surface of the water. (2.) That the fossil trees lived between these epochs, when they were submerged or drifted into the ocean, and were covered up by a bed of rolled pebbles or sand; and that they were afterwards raised to their present position. (3.) That the elevation of the strata was effected gently and gra- dually, as the horizontal position is maintained. (4.) The retiring water is supposed to have removed the looser portions of the once continuous strata, and to have dispersed them with fragments of the fossil trees over the surface of the Egyptian and Libyan deserts, constituting the present accumulations of gravel and saline sands. (5.) From the little-worn aspect of the trunks, as well as the ans gularity and “nice adaptation ”’ of many of the fractured portions near Cairo, it is inferred, that, in that locality at least, the specimens rest at no great distance from the spot on which they were silicified ; and from the vertical position of a few of the trunks, that they pro- bably occur where they grew ; but until the vertical stems are traced down to roots fixed in a given stratum or at certain levels, marking, as in the Portland “ dirt-bed,’’ the ancient surface of dry land, Mr. Newbold hesitates to admit the hypothesis that the Cairo fossil de- © posit is the site of a submerged forest. Reposing horizontally, and at the height of 300 feet, on the in- clined limestone of the Gebel Ataka range which skirts the shore of the Red Sea below Suez, is a calcareous conglomerate, which Mr, Newbold thinks may represent the sandstone formation, as it rests on the marine limestone, and contains similar pebbles ; but it contains no silicified wood, nor any other fossils, except such as have been derived from the subjacent limestone. 6. Post-Pliocene Deposits.—Around the head of the Gulf of Suez, as well as between the Red Seaand the cliffs which skirt its western shore, is an interrupted fringe rising in some parts to a height of 60 feet, with an extreme breadth of four or five miles, composed of cal- careous deposits containing the remains of testacea, radiaria and corals, which now inhabit the Red Sea. Kossier and several other 789 towns stand upon this formation. It is suspected by some observers, on account of the obliteration or shallowing of anciently deep har- bours, that the process by which the fringe was raised above the level of the sea is still in operation, and Mr, Newbold is of opinion that the forces which effected the upheaval acted gently and gradually. He objects, however, to the inference that the isthmus of Suez has been recently raised, on account of the difference in the faune of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Among the post-pliocene formations, the author includes the ac- cumulations now forming around the Red Sea and in the Mediterra- nean on the shores of Sicily, Greece, Asia Minor, &c. On the west shores of the Red Sea he has noticed them five or six feet above high-water mark, overlying a raised coral beach. They sometimes enclose bones of the camel; and in the island of Rhodes Mr. New- bold observed in a similar formation fragments of ancient pottery. In the valley of the Nile, on the plain of Benihassan, myriads of Nummulites, washed from the overhanging limestone, are partially re-cemented by calcareous matter deposited from springs and form layers which alternate horizontally with others composed of clay, sand and gravel, the whole in some places attaining a thickness of morethan 30 feet. In the valley of Kossier, beds of gravel and other detritus are gradually becoming consolidated by a calcareous or fer- ruginous cement derived from percolating water; and in the cliffs skirting the Mediterranean, between Alexandria and Aboukir, Mr. Newbold observed a bed of bleached bones, derived from Roman and Greek cemeteries, with an intermixture of more modern human re- mains, overlaid by a layer of occasionally agglutinated sand or gravel, sometimes from three to four feet thick. 7. Drift-—Under this head the author includes, Ist, the saline sands and gravel of the deserts, derived in great part, he believes, from the fossil-wood sandstone formation, but generally much influenced in each portion of the deserts by the character of the rocks in the im- mediate vicinity; and 2ndly, the gravel beds which cover the raised coral beach of Kossier and the limestone cliffs of the Red Sea near the Jaffatine group, also the detritus resting on the elevated platform of the Libyan desert near Dendera, the materials composing the whole of which consist. of far-transported plutonic and metamorphic pebbles, intermingled with others derived from adjacent formations. 8. Volcanic Rocks,—After alluding to the supposed volcanic. cones or extinct craters in the desert between Cairo and Suez, and to others said to exist in the vicinity of Dakkeh, situated m the Nubian. desert 69 miles from Syene, Mr. Newbold proceeds to de- scribe the trap and porphyry dykes which in Upper Egypt penetrate all the rocks from the lower sandstone to the granite, and have been already noticed in the account of the formations through which they pass; the author, however, observes in addition, that the relative age of the trap is defined by the upper or fossil-wood sandstone being undisturbed, and by its sometimes containing pebbles of the trap. Granitic or syenitic rocks are of rare occurrence in Egypt, aps " peating only at the cataracts of Syene, and in the desert between the 382 790 Nile and the Red Sea, forming the anticlinal axis (lat. about 26° N.); and according to M. Trivin, still further north in the same desert, in about the latitude of Benisuof (29° 10’N.). This locality, Mr. New- bold thinks, may be that mentioned by Savary. Sir G. Wilkinson has likewise traced them to lat. 28° 26’, where they form the peak of Gebel Tenaset; and the same author states that the extreme height attained by these rocks in Gebel Gharib (lat. 28° 10’) is 5000 feet above the sea. Respecting the relative period of their elevation, Mr. Newbold is of opinion that it was subsequent to the deposition of the inferior sandstone and limestone which occur on their flanks in inclined strata, and prior to that of the superior horizontal sandstone. He is like- wise of opinion that the plutonic rocks were upheaved through once continuous solid strata of sandstone and limestone, on account of the absence of granitic veins in those deposits and the occurrence of breccias along the junction line of the igneous and sedimentary for- mations. He carefully examined the limestone and sandstone for imbedded pebbles derived from the granite or syenite, but without success. Granitic veins penetrate the gneiss. 9. Alluvial Accumulations.—These deposits Mr. Newbold describes under, Ist, the mud of the Nile, and 2ndly the Delta; but he alludes also to the vegetable soil of the Oases, to the detrital soil washed down from the rocks, and to the greyish soil accumulated generally around the ruins of ancient cities, due partly to the decay of animal and vegetable matter, partly to the mouldering ruins ; likewise to the ammoniacal and nitrous salts formed in the deserts where caravans have halted, and which have been collected from the earliest times. (i.) Mud of the Nile-—This accumulation varies with the nature of the formations over which the Nile flows, and is therefore, Mr. Newbold. observes, not merely the result of the spoils of Abyssinia. To this cause he also ascribes the discrepancies in the analyses of the mud. Above Thebes, below the granitic and sandstone formations of Nubia, and on the southern limit of Egypt, it contains more silex and less calcareous or argillaceous matter than at Cairo, which stands on the great limestone deposit, and in the Delta, which rests on that formation. It varies also in texture and composition, according to its position relative to the main channel of the river and the force of the current. The finest mud, as that of Ghennah, is generally dark brown passing to lighter shades; it is also highly tenacious, reten- tive of moisture, effervesces, and fuses per se, with extrication into a greenish glass. The annual deposit or layer varies in thickness in the same situation from an inch to a few lines, the upper part being generally lighter than the lower; and each layer is separable from that above or beneath it; but the deposition of one year is frequently removed by the flood of the next. Mr. Newbold does not knowif the thickness of the mud in the centre of the river’s bed has been ascertained; the greatest accumulation in a transverse section being near the stream’s channel ; but in Upper Egypt he has measured clifis composed of it forty feet in height; and the average thickness in Middle Egypt is thirty feet, while at vou the apex of the Delta it is eighteen feet. According to Sir G. Wil- kinson, the deposit has increased during the last 1700 years at Ele- phantine in Upper Egypt nine feet, at Thebes seven feet, and at He- liopolis five feet ten inches; but the amount of accumulation dimi- nishes in general more rapidly towards the Delta and Mediterranean. All calculations, however, on the progressive rate of increase through« out Egypt, deduced from the actual addition around the bases of nilometers, statues or buildings, in particular localities, are liable, Mr. Newbold says, to uncertainty, on account of the shifting of the river’s bed, and the intermingling of the drift sand of the desert. Moreover, the alluvium at the foot of these monuments has been disturbed by the plough and spade of cultivators; and in most cases it has not been proved at what period the Nile reached these bases ; but judging from the thickness of the annual layers, of which the author has counted upwards of 900 in the clifis of the Nile, he concludes that the yearly deposition has not varied in the aggregate for the last thousand years. It is equally difficult, he adds, to calcu- late the progressive superficial extension of the mud. Few pebbles or detritus of any size are found in Lower Egypt and in the Delta, and only the finest ingredients escape into the Mediter- ranean, but Mr. Newbold has observed the sea coloured by this drifted matter to the distance of forty’miles from the shore. The northern or Etesian winds, which commence about May, or the period of the inundation, retard, he says, the downward freshes, and contri- bute materially to the accumulation of the mud upon the land, as well as to the silting up of the embouchures of the river, by raising the level of the Mediterranean along the coast, and checking the currents in the estuaries. Near the mouths of the Nile the mud is inter- mingled with marine sand, and contains Mediterranean species of Mollusca, associated with terrestrial and fluviatile remains. Ac- cording to Ehrenberg, the river-mud contains an immense number of infusoria. The action of the Nile on its eastern bank, arising from a difference in the level at the base of the Arabian cliffs and the prevalence of westwardly winds, is shown to be considerable. Many monuments of Koum Ombos have been carried away, and the remainder are threatened ; further down, the ancient quay, and the temple at Luxor, are in great danger; and the ruins of Gou-el-Kebir have been in part destroyed by the encroachments of the river, the traditional channel of the Nile being nearly a mile to the westward. Other changes are also mentioned. (2.) Delta of the Nile.—On account of the absence of all marine remains from the mud covering the middle and upper portions of the Delta, Mr. Newbold infers that the present alluvium must have been deposited, for the most part, on a surface previously above the level of the Mediterranean ; and he is also of opinion that other causes than the deposition’ of mud have tended to the formation of the Delta. The coast-line, he shows, consists chiefly of banks of marine sand, and a recent marine limestone: ancient Alexandria also stood on the calcareous rock of the Libyan desert; but the modern city is built on 792 the recent marine sands and calcareous strata, occupying the position of the great harbour. Foah, which at the commencement of the fifteenth century was situated at the Canobic mouth of the Nile, though now amile from it, and the present inland position of Rosetta, Micopolis and Taposiris, Mr. Newbold says, must likewise be ascribed, in great measure, to the intervention of marine sand-banks, The increase of soil from the waters of the Nile is much slower in the Delta than in the valley of the river, being spread over a much greater extent ; and though a considerable quantity of the suspended matter is carried into the Mediterranean, yet the author does not think that the submarine accumulation of the Delta can be very rapid. 10. Sand-drifts.—At a short distance from both the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the shores are occasionally studded with dunes or hills derived chiefly from the drifting of sand-banks thrown up by the waves. In considering the nature of the sands of the deserts, and their encroachments, the author dwells upon the effects of the strong north-westerly and westerly winds, which blow during nine months of the year; and on the agency of the little whirlwinds which prevail chiefly in the hot season, and transport not merely the finer particles of sand, but seeds of plants, and marine, fluviatile and land shells. With respect to the effects of the sand-flood, the author alludes to the more considerable encroachments and to their increasing influence, likewise to the natural impediments to their progress presented by the rugged ravines and clifis of the western desert, and by the Nile: and lastly, he states that the accounts of whole caravans having been overwhelmed by clouds of drifting desert-sands are greatly exagge- rated; the effects having been confined to infirm or over-fatigued tra- vellers and animals who were unable to keep pace with the caravan. 5. A letter, addressed to the Secretaries by C. Kaye, Esq., “ On a Collection of Fossils discovered by the writer in Rocks in Southern India.” The localities from which Mr. Kaye procured his suites of speci- mens are Pondicherry, Trichinopoly, and-Verdachellum. Pondicherry.—From a limestone in the neighbourhood of this city, Mr. Kaye obtained Nautili in great abundance, belonging to at least - three species; Ammonites in even greater numbers and well-pre- served, and although assignable to thirteen distinct species, the au thor has not been able to identify a single specimen with any Euro- pean Ammonites of which he has seen a description. Baculites like- wise occur in such quantities as often to constitute the entire mass of large blocks ; and Hamites in a great variety of forms, besides numerous genera of conchifera and mollusca; likewise Echinide, Polyparia, fishes’ teeth, and considerable masses of caleareous wood bored by Teredines. All these fossils were discovered by Mr. Kaye and a friend within the last two years, and are entirely new to European paleontologists. In the neighbourhood of Pondicherry and bordering on the lime- stone is a bed of red sand containing an immense quantity of the sili« cified wood long known to collectors. 793 Trichinopoly.—The spot in this district from which Mr. Kaye pro-= cured his specimens he was not able to visit. The fossils occur also in a limestone, preserve their shelly matter with occasionally the colour, and belong principally to marine genera, but some are con- sidered to be of freshwater origin. Cephalopods appear to be of very rare occurrence, Mr. Kaye having obtained from the locality only one fragment of a large Ammonite. Wood bored by Teredines is also found in the limestone. Verdachellum.—From a calcareous rock near Verdachellum, forty miles from Pondicherry, Mr. Kaye procured a variety of marine shells, including a considerable number of Ammonites, considered by him to be distinct from those found near Pondicherry ; also a few imperfect Nautili and a few Echinide, corals, &c. Among the testacea are several considered to belong to species found in the Trichinopoly deposit, and a few believed by Mr. Kaye to be identifiable with Pondicherry shells. This limestone is likewise bordered by a red sand which contains specimens of silicified wood. The formation was discovered only a short time before the writer quitted India, and he consequently considers his collection as defec- tive; but he regards the deposit whence it was obtained as of interest, affording, by its position and organic contents, a link between the other two localities. ; 6: A paper ‘ On the Fossil Foot-prints of Birds and Impressions of Rain-drops in the Valley of the Connecticut.” By Charles Lyell, Esq., V-P.G.S. The deposit in which these impressions, long known on account of the researches of Prof. Hitchcock, occur, is situated in a trough of hypogene rocks, about five miles broad, the strata, which consist of sandstone, shale and conglomerate, dipping uniformly to the east at atigles that vary from 5° to 30°. Mr. Lyell first examined the red sandstone at Rocky Hill, three miles south of Hartford, n Connec- . ticut, where it is associated with red shale and capped by twenty feet of greenstone. Many of the beds are rippled, and cracks in the shale are filled by the materials of the superincumbent sandy layer, . Showing, the author observes, a drying and shrinking of the mud while the accumulation of the strata was in progress. The next quarries he examined were at Newark in New Jersey, about ten tiles west from New York city. The excavations are extensive, atid the strata dip, as is usual in New Jersey, to the north-west, or in an opposite direction to the inclination in the valley of Con- necticut, a ridge of hypogene rocks intervening. The angle is about 35° near Newark. The beds exhibited ripple-marks and casts of cracks, also impressions of rain-drops on the upper surface of the fine red shales. Mr. Lyell states, that he felt some hesitation respecting _ the impressions first assigned to the action of rain by Mr. Cunning- liam of Liverpool *, but he is now convinced of the justness of the inference, having observed similar markings produced on very soft * See anéé, p. 99. 794 mud by rain at Brooklyn in Long Island (New York). On the same mud were the foot-prints of fowls, some of which had been made before the rain and some after it. Mr. Lyell next visited the red and green shales of Cabotville, north of Springfield in Massachusetts, where some of the best Ornithich- nites have been procured, chiefly in the green shale. The dip of the beds is 20° to the east, a higher inclination, the author says, than could have belonged to a sea-beach. He observed in the same quar- ries ripple-marks as well as casts of cracks, and he was informed that the impressions of rain-drops have likewise been found. In company with Prof. Hitchcock, Mr. Lyell afterwards examined a natural section near Smith’s Ferry, on the right bank of the Con- necticut, about eleven miles north of Springfield. The rock con- sists of thin-bedded sandstone with red-coloured shale. Some of the flags are distinctly ripple-marked, and the dip of the layers on which the Ornithichnites are imprinted, in great abundance, varies from eleven to fifteen degrees. Many superimposed beds must have been successively trodden upon, as different sets of tracks are traced through a thickness of sandstone exceeding ten feet; and Prof. Hitchcock pointed out to the author that some of the beds exposed several yards farther down the river, and containing Ornithichnites, would, if prolonged, pass under those of the principal locality, and make the entire thickness throughout which the impressions prevail, at intervals, perhaps twenty or thirty feet. Mr. Lyell, therefore, con- ceives that a continued subsidence of the ground took place during the deposition of the layers on which the birds walked. It has been suggested, but the opinion has not been adopted by Prof. Hitchcock, that the eastward slope of the beds represents that of the original beach. With a view to this question, Mr. Lyell exa- mined the direction of the ripple-marks, and found that it agreed with the dip, or was at right angles to the supposed line of beach; but he adds, though this agreement presents a formidable objection to the suggestion above alluded to, if the ripples were preduced by waves, yet it does not disprove the opinion, as the ripples do not exceed in’ dimensions those which are produced by sand blown over a muddy beach, and often distributed at right angles to the coast-line. In- stances of this effect of the wind Mr. Lyell has remarked along the shores of Massachusetts. Nevertheless he is of opinion that the rippled layer of sandstone in question contains too much clay to have resulted from blown sand, and he is disposed to think that in most of these localities the strata have been tilted, instances of such dis- turbance having been pointed out to him by Prof. Hitchcock in the state of Massachusetts, and by Mr. Percival near Newhaven in Con- necticut. In reference to this subject, he says, that a few miles from Smith’s Ferry a conglomerate, several hundred feet thick, containing angular and rounded fragments of trap and red sandstone, the base being sometimes a vesicular trap and trap tuff, passes upwards into the very flags on which Ornithichnites occur; and from this he infers, that there were eruptions of trap, accompanied by upheaval and pare tial denudation, during the deposition of the red sandstone. 795 _ With respect to the impressions having been made by birds, Mr. Lyell states, that until he examined the whole of the evidence he entertained some scepticism, notwithstanding the luminous account given by Prof. Hitchcock. In proof of their being the foot-prints of some creature walking on mud or sand, he mentions, Ist, the fact of Prof. Hitchcock’s having seen 2000 impressions, all, like those he had himself examined, indented in the upper surface of the layer, the casts in relief being always on the lower surface ; and 2ndly, that where there is a single line of impressions the marks are uniform in size, and nearly uniform in distance from each other, the toes in the successive steps turning alternately right and left. Such single lines, Mr. Lyell says, indicate that the animal was a biped, and the trifid marks resemble those which a bird leaves, there being generally a deviation from a straight line in any three successive prints ; and his attention having been called to indications of joints in the different toes, he afterwards clearly recognised similar markings in the recent steps of coots and other birds on the sands of the shores of Massa- chusetts. Prof. Hitchcock has shown, that the same impression ex- tends through several lamine, decreasing in distinctness in propor- tion as the layer recedes from that in which it is most strongly marked, or in proportion as the sediment filled up the hollows and restored the surface to a level; and Mr. Lyell states, that he has observed a great number of instances of this fact. He also says, that he can scarcely doubt that some of the impres- sions on the red sandstone of Connecticut are not referable to birds, but he believes that the gigantic ones described by Prof. Hitchcock are Ornithichnites. At Smith’s Ferry they are so numerous that a bed of shale many yards square is trodden into a most irregular and jagged surface, so that there is not a trace of a distinct footstep ; but on withdrawing from this area to spots where the same tracts are fewer, the observer, Mr. Lyell says, is forcedto admit that the effect in each case has been produced by this cause. On examining the shores on some small islands about fifteen miles south-east from Savannah, the author was struck with the number as well as the clearness of the tracks of raccoons and opossums imprinted in the mud during the four preceding hours, or after the tide had be- gun toebb. At one spot, where the raccoons had been attracted by the oysters, the impressions were as confused as when a flock of sheep has passed over a muddy road ; and in consequence of a gentle breeze blowing parallel to the line of cliffs composed of quartzose sand, the tracks had in many places already become half filled with blown sand, and in others were entirely obliterated ; so that if the coast should subside, the consolidation of this sand would afford casts analogous to those of Storeton Hill in Cheshire, yet the im- pressions had been made and filled in a few hours. When considering the broad question whether the fossil foot-prints were made by creatures walking on mud or sand after the ebbing of the tide, Mr. Lyell reminds his readers of the fact that in the United States, as in Saxony and Cheshire, the tracks in sandstone and shale 796 aré accompanied by littoral appearatices, as ripple-marks, the casts of cracks in the clay, and often by the marks of rain. In regard to the age of the red sandstone of the valley of the Connecticut and New Jersey, the author states he has nothing to add to what had been previously advanced, by which its position had been shown to be between the carboniferous and cretaceous series: In the neighbourhood of Durham, Connecticut, he had col- lected in the sandstone, fishes of the genera Paleoniscus and Cato- pterus, but no other organic remains, except fossil wood. In conclusion, Mr. Lyell remarks, Ist, that the Ornithichnites of Connecticut should teach extreme caution in inferring the non- existence of land animals from the absence of their remains in con- temporaneous marine strata; 2ndly, that when this red sandstone of Connecticut was deposited, there was land in the immediate vici- ' tity of the places where the Ornithichnites occur; and that but for them it might naturally be inferred that the nearest land was several miles distant, namely, that of the hypogene rocks which bound the basin of the Connecticut. Now, the land that caused the sea-beach, Mr. Lyell says, must have been formed of the same sandstone which was then in the act of accumulating, in the same manner as where deltas are advancing upon the sea. In a postscript, Mr. Lyell states, that subsequently to writing the paper he had read the luminous report of Mr. Vanuxem on the Or- nithichnites described by Prof. Hitchcock, and though it agrees in substance with his own account in some particulars, yet that he has left his notice as it stood. 7. The following notice by Captain Pringle respectiti¢ the Ochil Hills A gentleman resident in the district had often remarked the oc- eurrence of sounds, which appeared to him to be subterranean, but which the country people attributed to noises from the river Divan, or to the machinery of iron-works some miles distant. At the time of the earthquake, however, which was felt at Comrie in October 1840, he was on the hill and heard a loud noise like the rushing of steam through a cavern, and the same noise was heard also by others two to three miles distant. On inquiry he ascertained that the noise was contemporaneous with the earthquake, and that the machinery at the iron-works was at that moment not in action, ad The Gaelic word ochain or ochail signifies moaning, howling, wailing (Armstrong’s Dictionary) ; and hence it is inferred that the name of the “ Moaning Hills” may have been given to the range from the sounds so frequently heard in the district ; and further, that the sounds are connected with the earthquakes felt in the neighbourhood, near Crief and Comrie. This being the last evening of meeting for the Session, the Society adjourned to Wednesday, November the 2nd. INDEX TO THE COMMUNICATIONS READ DURING THE SESSION 1841—1842. ANNUAL REPORT, Feb. 18th, 1842 eRe oss Foe vs TOO dad diedordsecosssodcriod Bronze, Rev. P. B. On the Occurrence of Plants in the Plastic Clay of the Roti: shire, Coast:) Jaszccss ba dbo bob se Cob eb be See be HEE OL ONE SEK ede ss acee es On the Discovery ‘of Insects in the Wealden of the Vale of Aylesbury, with additional observations on these and other Fossils gar the, Vale Of Wardour sew. «isscddsasdeds hon cocbesatnendcbods neleeseavaens Buck1anp, Rev. Prof. D.D. On the Glacia-Diluvial Phenomena in Paowdenla and the aa cent parts of North Wales TILATEC OI Or Ce C606 O80 dc ce ro rUS Cournurst, J. Esq. Account of the Contortions and Faults produced in the Strata underneath and adjacent to the great Embankment across the Val- ley of the Brent, on the Great Western Railway ..sccccicccsseecrice Everest, Rev. Rosert. Some Geological Remarks made in a Journey from Delhi to the Beomelcn OM UAttleVeMIDeL. 22.013 ieccensesensedecuncestansectdscarecdsnnateds On the High Temperature of Wells in the sei boeece of Delhi @eececsevacce CoCo eH HAD ESOT HME OTEK TTS ELOTHTOS LETHE Dede TECTET Ree Tie TS OF OLe Fox, R. W. Esq. Notice of some Experiments on the Electric Currents in Pennance Mine POSHHHSC OC TERESA GEOG OO TIO CEEEGTOTHO OOS OOK TECOHTTOVEC OHHH ESDEEHEE KOCH ES Grant, E. M. D. On the Structure and History of the Marodontod Anttaal os es North America ......0000+ ane seuaecddestedadivagicarsaredddedisdecdensarvobs HerscueEt, Sir J. Bart. : Extracts from a Letter explanatory of the Phenomena of the Freezing Cave of Iletzkaya Zatchita ....cccscssceesers deve lidicredccetes On some Phenomena observed on Glaciers, aad on this Internal Temperature of large masses of Ice or Snow, with some Remarks on natural Ice Caves below the limit of perpetual snow céesisseece Hopkins, W. Esq. On the Elevation and Denudation of the Lake District....