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. <Gi Sas ccinn.naed..2 aos eee 386 Notice of a Resolution passed at a Special General Meeting to extend the Session beyond one evening of Meeting in June ..........+2....4. 388 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 Batrachians. By ROTO Welle fee Sees cites ole Risiete Baldo c ocls olathe ed iiisie Do a 389 On the Geological Structure of the Northern and Central Regions of Russia in Europe. By R. I. Murchison, Esq. and M. E. de Ver- 19S Les PAR pa aren pine PAREN St eh ececadauce: 398 A Notice on the Occurrence of Triassic Fishes in British Strata. By in PE. Eeerton, Bart. 2M Pog .2 av. oi. us oi ceria d «es ese heen ee faa 409 On Furrowed Rocks in Finland. By Prof. Nordenskidld........,...... 410 On the Gravel Deposits in the Neighbourhood of Basford. By Thomas [Beillieyy BEC sanncaehsasuonos0n sapdeadoce sapuooatesooNee | AS PROBSD ERE INeS O0800 411 An Account of a Boring for Water at the Union Workhouse, Long- fleet, near. Poole!’ By Mr. Thompson +... ntoroascasnesseneee Bpenbac6 413 On the Boulder Deposits near Glasgow. By J. Craig, Esq............. 415 A Note on a Section and a List of Fossils from the State of New York, by James Hall, Esq. By R. 1. Murchison, Esq................ 416 On the Geological Phenomena in the Vicinity of Cape Town, South- ern Africa. By the Rey. W. B. Clarke ......... Fase de alee cade MURR SOALS 1X On the Distribution of the Erratic Boulders, and on the contempora- neous unstratified Deposits of South ene TCe By C. Darwin, TS ee ag. © iia pigs sa ees tags seats dial eeeieMe. DalIde. ck page Notices #epeetibe Defaulters and their Removal from the Lists of the Society......... CUBRICROOSREEE EEG SC DP BERS SAngBoO Soe oBeacbbon ..425, 430, On the Agency of Land Snails, in corroding and eee deep Exca- » vations in compact Limestone Rocks. By the Rey. Prof. Buck- land, D.D. On Moss Agates and other Siliceous Bodies. By James 8. Bower- aM SEISU 5 tess sdaeslee selec ebeniatethe seSteaeea Eaves ab. inae Lists of Fossils presented to the Museum .........c..c0seeeeee 436, 444, On the Faluns of the Loire, &c. By C. Lyell, Esq.........-+. SdenbRODOS see e ee P OT OBeoeeToFFOaressoesorosssoOFSeereseTseuesesesoereoeHereste® Description of a Newer Pliocene Deposit at, Stevenston, and of Post Tertiary Deposits at Stevenston and Largs. By, the Rey. D. Lands- DOTORE YF. 200, OD, eee eee ee On the Annual Destruction of Land at Easton Bayent Cliff. By Capt. “Alexander ..........0. AT c cae cue ences Ogr ray testensseecsaaresteesees Description of Cuttings across the Ridge of the Buomisenore Lickey. By H. E. Strickland, Bg. 1. SOR oe oO. eC RO ocean Notes to accompany some Fossils collected by himself and Mr. Still, during their Employment on the Ordnance Survey i in Pembroke- shire. _By H. Maclauchlan, Esq....-............... Beets ce siecle aeey= Notice of a Description of a Model iE Arthur’ s Seat, and King’ S. Park. By J. R, . Wright, GSO. Wile» acne ee amie, bn Stk rae eels Set ae Description of some Remains of a Gigantic Crocodilian cy pro- bably marine, from the Lower Greensand at Hythe, and of Teeth from the same Formation, referable to the Genus Polyptichodon. By Prof. Owen A brief Note to accompany a Series of Specimens from nn eg near Niagara. By W. J. Henwood, Esq. ...........c.ceeee Vo eetNeeshiaie atcha eee ees OOBEFeaessseescesrrOVsssessFSSereFFBacednsosesseoesereesses Notes to accompany a Series of Specimens from, Chaleur Bay and,the River Ristigouche, in New Brunswick. By W. J. Henwood, Esq. On the Locality and Geological Position of Cucullea decussata. By oF oshua Trimmer, Esq. Bee alas aTel OTe as a eMCTSNe ica ealonelercloelcilaiente ite Scene Description of a portion of, the Skeleton of the Gees, a. gigantic - extinct Saurian Reptile, occurring in the Oolitic Formation of dif- ferent portions of England) By Prof. Owen ......00..0 1... eeeeeeeeee On the Age of the Tertiary Beds of the Tagus, with a Catalogue of | the Fossils. ~ By James Smith, EESqe..s... sesereseqeeseeeesersegyenseeee: Some Remarks on the Silurian Strata, between Aymesty Ae Wen- lock. By C. Lyell, Esq, ..-.rccsesssceeeuspeneres eee woe rmaeeasctocsoseesoe 425 437 430 446 448 448 449 453 “454 456 457 462 463 Notes on’ the Silurian>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 <ionjeinesmsioidos scesiva oceis Saelganesabh soi ewar eel tes 321 ALEXANDER, Capt. On Mastodon Teeth from the Crag, and the occurrence of a par- ticular bed containing Echini in the Coralline Crag at Sudbourne.. 10 AwnvuaL Report, 15th February, 1839 ....... eee che slates ohiee ic Besslowin 4] Pion Hesany, (LSA Onscgatertss-4-tsayca-sones © asain wen sheer’ ox tel 4oe crus 189 Awstep, D. T., Esq. On the Carboniferous and Transition Rocks of Bohemia.......... 167 ArkKINnson, —, Esq. On Tortuous Casts of Vermiform Bodies in Sandstone ......... 126 Austen, R. A. C., Esq. On the Structure of South Devon ..:......s0...seccssccsensesssecceee 123 On Orthoceras, Ammonites, and other cognate genera; and on their position in the Animal Kingdom ............... npc senehaarnaseen 179 On the Bone-caves of Devonshire .........-ssecccscecescccsnsessenece 286 Austin, Fort-Major. Notice of the Geology around the Shores of Waterford Haven 154 Bain, A. G., Esq. On the Head of an Ox found in a the Alluvial Banks of the Mod- GET SOU EM eAEEI CAI. sisit ae oiaccieisicie Lie alos sie sas sislaeisie sine biens ayelarciste cinarapets omteege ae 152 Beaumont, J. T. B., Esq. On the Origin of ie Vegetation of our Coal-fields and Wealdens 152 BoweERBANK;, J. S., On the London ond Plastic Clay Formations of the Isle of ens 125 On the Siliceous Bodies of the Chalk, Greensand, and Oolites... 278 Bowman, J. E., Esq. On the Characters of the Fossil Trees found on the Manchester and Bolton Railway ; and on the Formation of Coal by gradual SUDSICENCE...cseses eee ale asic. maids ofl shucicm sean bas edhe Gincvasituene Sones peury age) Bropiz, Rey. P. B. On the Remains of Insects and a New Genus of Isopodous Crus- _tacea from the Wealden Formation in the Vale of Wardour ...... 134 _ Buck ianp, Rev. Prof., D.D., Pres. G.S. Address on presenting to Dr. Fitton the Wollaston Medal epjemdedato: Mb. JOumont ss Avast ven stascn: a2 -cijaccagnonébens shabge oon duro 206 Address on presenting to Mr. James de Carle Sowerby one year’s Proceeds of the Wollaston Fund.......... SNOUT BREE IBBC Ser 208 Anniversary Address, Feb. 21, 1840 ......ssssscceseeererseecseneoecs 210 Bupptz, J., Esq. On depressions produced on the Surface by excavating Beds of (Geni) che dcodosobucneccatsendsnnocode onsocenasoapubdubbaddsoaccdodorgonadeoodc 147 On the Great Fault called the fonee in the Forest of Dean Coal- field seceoneccescecce @vecenecceces elsiuivlele'slojele in glelelelvielpiciesicisislelcisere: weceeetcsesavece wo0 287 # il CONTENTS. Bunsen, Chevalier. Reply to the President’s Address on receiving the Wollaston Medal awarded to Prof. Ehrenberg’ *::...1.....0-+-duscennvesteen asnb ie Caupcieven, A., Esq. Notice of the Declaration of the Master and Crew of a Chilian Schooner, respecting a supposed Submarine Volcanic Eruption ... Cartvert, R., M.D. On a Bed'of Lignite near Messina ........0ccrccsrccsscnseencscredeauwe CHARTERS, Capt. On a deposit of Greenstone overlying Sandstone, in Southern JLMIRVES) 55> 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