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NT Smear ae a oS %. — —, *~ eo Mate She ate ee nat be eh ae Oa PA Oe PSO OOO Se eS St een Si 1-H" Deen aC a eee ae te int Pt et AOD ee ee ee SE Ts a *- ww Sn tn a a et ele (Gx P< O28- GA La GS-4 - «. a Pe ee ae ae ee es Ol ts aoe Rete er bre Kim er thntn V. Tovter Fo Be®- a ¥ . - © ita tho th SO 4 iE e- Tie Me aie pe eee A Bede Sa8 0-05 RY 2D Btw ohn. De — th ae Gn eth Poote® RA Rak ie tse Ohi Bede bende OG O~ O-an® es be Bed ato jo Bet Oe « Ave Rte i eee 25 a0 -8 4s “wer Sr ST a ee ee oe. Boe at 2 Sn oe eel Oe ees wee £m tbe Sere 6 -ve a8 & Oe + SE eral Oe en & CoE PEs el DB Loewe Bafta Ce ~ 4B a te eh 1 ADB_B. Row Aah Go oe eet ee Pac eee eee tae oe Se Bae ol eh ep K & H) Aah ee e-* Pe areratien Re he ee, Pre ~ ont Ont ee oe ery * " ee, Lav ae | a Ab a oO Pat Ceol. THE N. Ho. QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. EDITED BY THE ASSISTANT-SECRETARY OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. VOLUME THE ELEVENTH. 1855. PART THE FIRST. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL LONDON: NSE none WY use YY LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. PARIS :—FRIED. KLINCKSIECK, 11 RUE DE LILLE; BAUDRY, 9 RUE DU COQ, PRES LE LOUVRE; LEIPZIG, T. O. WEIGEL. SOLD ALSO AT THE APARTMENTS OF THE SOCIETY. MDCCCLYV. List OFFICERS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, ELECTED FEBRUARY 2], 1855. eee PrestVent. William John Hamilton, Esq., F.R.S. Gice-PrestVents. Sir P. De M. G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S. and L.S. Sir R. I. Murchison, G.C.St.S., F.R.S. and L.S. Prof. John Phillips, F.R.S. Secretaries. John Carrick Moore, Esq., M.A. Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.R.S. Foreign Secretarp. Samuel Peace Pratt, Esq., F.R.S. and L.S. Treasurer. D. Sharpe, Esq., F.R.S. and L.S. COUNEIL. John J. Bigsby, M.D. Sir R. I. Murchison, G.C.St.S., F.R.S. & Col. P. T. Cautley, F.R.S. and L.S. L.S. Sir P. De M. G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.| R. W. Mylne, Esq. Earl of Enniskillen, D.C.L., F.R.S. S. R. Pattison, Esq. Thomas F. Gibson, Esq. John Percy, M.D., F.R.S. R. A. Godwin-Austen, Esq., B.A., F.R.S. Prof. John Phillips, F.R.S. William John Hamilton, Esq., F.R.S. Col. Portlock, R.E., F.R.S. J. D. Hooker, M.D., F.R.S. & L.S. Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.R.S. Leonard Horner, Esq., F.R.S.L. & E. Samuel Peace Pratt, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S. Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S. & L.S. Prof. A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. John C. Moore, Esq., M.A. J. W. Salter, Esq. John Morris, Esq. D. Sharpe, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S. Assistant-Secretarp, Curator, and Librarian. T. Rupert Jones, Esq, TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I.—ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. Page AusTEN, R. Gopwin, Esq. On Land-surfaces beneath the Drift- SM Saree fate n/a cai vie ail (/abeaa a bialxi crete wie Wale sjela a 4.0» Zwei ais «© 112 ——. On the possible Extension of the Coal-measures beneath the South-eastern part of England. ([Abstract.] ............-0.- 533 Baity, W. H., Esq. Description of some Cretaceous Fossils from South Africa; collected by Captain Garden, of the 45th Regiment. (1g TPES ON OEY SBE fs pk oe OR ee ee a 454 Beprorp, Commander E. J. Notice of some Raised Beaches in PERPOEMNITG.- ARDSEPACH | oc 55 5s wie vw bos Dele awe cee carbaleu es 549 Beyricu, Prof. Remarks on the Brown Coal of the North of Ger- _ many; with Observations by W. J. HamitTon, Esq. ........ 550 Bray, W., Esq. On the Geology of Georgia, United States. err peta a ae te lols hn a Gin cicve «\ sje! ¥ sain Sov ere) ot gal flat ds 521 —. On the Occurrence of Copper in Tennessee, U.S. [Abstract.] 8 BRICKENDEN, Capt. L. Ona Pterichthys from the Old Red Sand- See ce Waray. (Abstrnetio)! alts. sl eteeis «oe eve ere valt'e'e’s 31 —. OntheOccurrenceof Glacial Traces on the Rock of Dumbarton. 27 CHARTERS, Major. On the Geology of the vicinity of Nice. [Abs- iss eect Pci cc Cts « « SEAMEN Ste ste She « Oia aera cee 35 CLARKE, Rev. W. B. Notes on the Geology of New South Wales. [RCO eS a a 408 —. On the Occurrence of Fossil Bones in the Auriferous Alluvia Re PNRCMMT Ela s Treks ans 0's 0 MMR I eo ode oe sc eee dee 405 —. On the Occurrence of Obsidian Bombs in the Auriferous Alluvia of New South Wales. [Abridgement.] .............. 403 1Vv TABLE OF CONTENTS. CRAWFORD, JAMES C., Esq. On the Geology of the Port Nicholson District, New Zealand.) || Abndgement..). .//- Gamer tet- «a = 530 Dawson, J. W., Esq. Notice of the Discovery of a Reptilian Skull in -the Coales Pictou ajcsic eee ees oy 0S. ow io cee ee ee eee 8 On a modern Submerged Forest at Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia. 119 Forses, CHARLES, Esq. On the Geology of New Zealand; with Notes on its Carboniferous Deposits. [Abridgement.]........ 521 Forses, Davin, Esq. On the Causes producing Foliation in Rocks; and on some observed cases of Foliated Structure in Norway and Scotland e525. steht oats 2: Befiatoceiedis 0+ oes StUee eet een 166 Fox, R. W., Esq. On Sand-worn Granite near the Land’s End.... 549 GARDEN, Capt. R. J. Notice of some Cretaceous Rocks near Natal, South: Africas.’ [ Alastracts |} tscca <:sieyets Sees oon Pee ee 453 Gitcurist, Dr. W. On the Origin and Formation of the Red Soil of Souther: India7e. s eee en Se i ee ee 552 Graves, P. W., Esq. Notice of the Occurrence of a Tidal Phzno- menon at Port Lloyd, Bonin Islands. [Abstract.]............ 53 Hamiuton, W. J., Esq. Ona specimen of Nummulitic Rock from the neionbournood jof Varna so. s6 ois: se ve ewe oleae eee 10 ——. On the Tertiary Formations of the North of Germany ; with special reference to those of Hesse Cassel and its neighbourhood. 126 HarknNegss, Prof. R. On the Anthracitic Schists and the Fucoidal Remains occurrmg in the Lower Silurian Rocks of the South of Scotland ; with Notes on the Fossil Fucoids, Zoophytes, and Annelids of the Flags and Sandstones at Barlae.............. 468 Heapny, CuHartes, Esq. On the Gold-bearing District of Coro- mandel Harbour, New Zealand :.... . <<... ds: ic oe oe 31 Histop, S., and R. Hunter, Rev. Messrs. On the Geology . and Fossils of the Neighbourhood of Nagpur, Central India; Part I. (Witha Geologicaliiap:)\. .. 2.00... ae 345 Histop, The Rev. S. On the Connexion of the Umret Coal-Beds with the Plant-beds of Nagpur; and of both with those of Burdwaik) 5. ce) 8 chance ori aee be een tl eons ciao: ee 555 Hooxer, Dr. J. D. On some minute Seed-vessels (Carpolithes ovu- lum, Brongniart), from the Eocene beds of Lewisham. (With a Plate.) aie sd aie cc 5 oie «nepal rosa cae ee en 562 ——. On some small Seed-vessels (Folliculites minutulus, Bronn) from the Bovey ‘Tracey Coal. ‘(With a Plate.) ...........:.. 566 Hopkins, Evan, Esq. On the Vertical and Meridional Lamination of the ‘Prmiary» Rocks. [ Alasteaet. cot. 2st rae 143 Huu, Epwarp, Esq. On the Physical Geography and Pleistocene Phenomena of the Cotteswold Hills .................. 000 477 IspisTER, A. K., Esq. On the Geology of the Hudson’s Bay Terri- tories, and of portions of the Arctic and North-western Regions of North America. (With a Geological Map.).................. 497 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vv : Page Lorrus, WILLIAM KENNETT, Esq. On the Geology of portions of the Turko-Persian frontier, and of the Districts adjommg. (With errerrarcical Map.) Sememe tens os dine wicks vesicle eee a sare: on! ale 247 MeriAn, Prof. On the St. Cassian Beds between the Keuper and pans the-V oranlieee Auge . oi 0:2. wisigs ele seip es eee a cle ewes 45] Murcuison, Sir Roperick I. Additional Observations on the Silu- rian and Devonian Rocks near Christiania in Norway,—on pre- senting M. Theodor Kjerulf’s new Geological Map of the District. 16] —. On the Occurrence of numerous Fragments of Fir-wood in the Islands of the Arctic Archipelago; with Remarks on the Rock- specimens brought from that Region .............00.seeee. 536 , and Prof. J. Morris. On the Paleozoic and their associated Rocks of the Thiirmgerwald and the Hartz.................. 409 Nicou, Prof. James. On the Section of the Metamorphic and Devo- nian Strata at the Eastern extremity of the Grampians ........ 544 ODERNHEIMER, FREDERICK, Esq. On the Geology of part of the Beeeteriever District i) Australia. «0.0% a6. «sive vais ing te aia ee ele 399 Owen, Prof. Additional Remarks on the Skull of Baphetes planiceps. 9 —. Description of the Cranium of a Labyrinthodont Reptile (Bra- chyops laticeps) from Mangali, Central India. (With a Plate.).. 37 —. Notice of a new Species of an extinct Genus of Dibranchiate Cephalopod (Coccoteuthis latipinnis) from the Upper Oolitic Piigies ab) Kimmeridce, (With a Plates) Sage ? . [ 2 ° + Se OM ath La ok of ‘ Et ease One A ae ' ey, Ce ee gee ~*~ | eS? eae . Si Meee Paps fk Lat nee ater Omer e Jae a A (Soe _ eee iw om Pag (uel asf ‘haat ee y . 2.0 ‘ Fa : - ; pnts de $ fie Ae, i sl ‘te a ; ae shane tock aman « * - C = F hoes (Merle TAR. os ‘ . 5 iy p ¥/ i ae aie’ me y ‘ ee = eens 2 Kia ‘% ‘ aa Ries ' a ; a P ‘a ‘1° 7 h be iw iv be 7 ‘ ~ X oy mh ry « efPne) * fee ‘ ee, ware 5 . a hp cing % a ih aN —) Co eH a Ve ee | ; na gga P hatel | ~~ ‘Plats bears! ra) ‘ . 3 ib Sails aH Hiv, a9 ¢ : ft pt ett? Fin) i dyer ei ¢ 5; Med’ th ec giites piety 5 * ats 5 ‘pas | ufs'enl Danes al betaine = ts ae sie a ae: ® chu nee .% ak ee Pe F « b, 4 » ¢¥. of “ere? 4, Oise my Pa EGR MY waaial Oo a + St tee eo: an noid } ts hee! * E > 7" TT peek te? =: ‘itt Si i 2? <= “ oJ F | | ; Og ia ec wehei A f | ve Se Se a ‘ -~ re ao. ty x= arage.& 4 as . 7 ; ~ ©. pra = ; Pans = oe > sy? ‘a as F res! he » ay A bi , 7 : Daye ‘ ‘1s * ; : q eres eek en ey, sary are. ot a } ee / ae . ne , a a % | Pr | he + r r, if viele y ‘hey otis ity ane ay Ny me me F ; GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, FEB. 21, 1855. REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. Tue Council have much pleasure in making a Report which indi- cates that progressive prosperity of the Geological Society which must be satisfactory to its Members. It will be seen that during the past year 32 new Fellows have been elected, and that two elected in former years have completed their Fellowship, making an addition of 34 Ordinary Fellows. One Foreign Member has also been elected. On the other hand, the diminution which the Society has sustained from deaths and resignations amounts to 22, leaving for 1854 a total increese of 13 Ordinary Members, a result which contrasts favour- ably with many former years. At the close of 1853, the Geological Society numbered 871 Members; at the close of the past year it consisted of 884. The Council have to report that the current expenditure of the Society during the past year has exceeded the income by the sum of £9 11s. 11d., not including in this calculation the sum of £189 received for compositions, nor the sum of £199 15s. 3d. invested in Exchequer Bonds. The Council think it right to explain that this circumstance, apparently so contradictory to the Reports of the two preceding years, can be most satisfactorily accounted for. VOL. XI. 7 a ll ANNIVERSARY MEETING. In the first place, the sum invested in Exchequer Bonds exceeds the sum received for compositions by a larger amount than the excess of expenditure over income. But the principal circumstance to which the Council have to call the attention of the Fellows is, that, in con- sequence of the very large excess of income over expenditure last year, it was determined to apply £50 to the purchase of Books for the Library, and a further sum of £30 for the purpose of procuring assistance in the Museum. The sum actually expended under these two heads amounts to £40 13s. 3d. The Council adopted this temporary mode of investing the surplus balance at their Banker’s in the purchase of Exchequer Bonds, while they were considering the propriety of continuing to invest the amount received for Composition Fees, or of expending that amount in furthering the objects of the Society; it having been suggested by the Treasurer that the sum already invested far exceeded the present life-interest of the surviving Compounders in their com- positions. The number of Compounders at the close of 1853 was 134, and at the close of 1854 it was 137, three having died during the inter- val, and six newly elected Fellows having compounded, the amount of whose compositions, with one remaining unfunded at the close of 1853, is £220 10s. Of this, the sum of £199 15s. 3d. has been laid out in the purchase of two Exchequer Bonds of £100. The amount of the funded property of the Society therefore (exclusive of the Exchequer Bonds) remains the same, viz. £4014 15s. 8d. The amount received from the 137 existing Compounders is £4315 10s. The Council have further to report that the 10th volume of the Journal of the Society has been completed. The first part of Vol. XI. is ready for publication ; and anew Part of the Transactions, forming the 4th part of the 9th volume, is in an advanced state. The Supplement to the Library Catalogue, to which reference was made in the Report of last year, is bemg executed by Mr. Rupert Jones in a manner which must render it exceedingly valuable to all the working members of the Society :—it will be found also to contain a list of such original Maps, Sections, and Illustrations as have accom- panied communications, and have been left in the possession of the Society. | The Council desire to call the attention of the Society to the im- proved List of the Donations to the Library of the Society, published in the Journal, as prepared by Mr. Jones, acting on the suggestion of some Members of the Council; it now contains a complete list of the titles of all the various notices and original memoirs comprised in the numerous Transactions and Journals, British as well as Foreign, which the Society has received. They have further to report, that in March last it was deemed ad- visable, as a temporary measure, to authorize Mr. Rupert Jones to obtain an Assistant in the Museum. The services of Mr. Gawan were engaged ; and in December last the engagement was, by consent of the Council, continued down to the present Anniversary. The charge in respect of this crease amounts to £34 10s. ANNUAL REPORT. ii The Award of the Wollaston Palladium Medal for the year has been made to Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche, C.B., Director-Gene- ral of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, F.R.S., F.G.S. &c., for his many valuable contributions to Geological Science during a long series of years; and more especially for the establishment of the Museum of Practical Geology; for the very accurate Geological Survey of the United Kingdom now in progress, illustrated by Maps, Sections, and Specimens ; and for the skill and impartiality displayed by him in the selection of his many able coadjutors in that great national work. The balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund has been awarded to Drs. Guido and Fridolin Sandberger, of Wiesbaden, for their valuable work on the Fossils of the Rhenish Paleozoic rocks in Nassau, and to assist them in its completion, and in the publication of their intended work on the Fossils of the Mayence basin. Report of the Library and Museum Committee. ‘Inbrary. Since the last Annual Report, 12 volumes, exclusive of periodicals, have been added by purchase, and about 90, also exclusive of period- icals, have been received as donations, making a total increase of above 100 volumes. Amongst the purchased books may be mentioned as more particularly valuable, Bischoff’s Geologie, Grewingk’s Geology of North Persia, Goldfuss’ Coal Flora, Meyer’s Paleontology of Wurtemberg, Dr. Hooker’s Himalayan Journals: and it may be added that the set of Annals of Natural History has been completed by purchase, and the serials continued regularly to the present time. Of the books received as donations, Jardine’s Ichnology of Annan- dale, presented by Sir R. I. Murchison, F.G.S.,—Siluria, presented by Sir R. I. Murchison, F.G.S.,—Seale’s Geognosy of St. Helena, presented by A. Morant, Esq., F.G.S.,—Conchologia Iconica, several parts, presented by L. Reeve, Esq., F.G.S.,—Darwin’s Cirripedia, and other works, presented by the Ray Society,—deserve to be specially named, in addition to the 63 volumes presented by Mr. Lonsdale, out of which the Society’s set of the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal has been completed, with the exception of a few parts. All these books have been catalogued, arranged in their proper places, and bound so far as necessary: in referring, however, to this section of our Report, it is right to observe that the great want of additional shelves, pomted out by the Committee of last year, is now still more strongly felt, as no addition has as yet been made, notwithstanding the continued increase of books. The arrangement of serials is much embarrassed by this deficiency of space, as sets are frequently obliged to be arranged in more than one place, and the difficulty of reference is thereby much increased. . a2 1V ANNIVERSARY MEETING. The preparation of the new Catalogue steadily progresses, and one and a half sheet of the supplementary portion, including the serials, are now in the printer’s hands, this being the part most difficult of arrangement. The Catalogue of the Maps is also in hand, but this has not been prepared without much difficulty, as many of the charts already catalogued have had to be disturbed and separated when cataloguing the new. The arrangement of manuscript Sections and Drawings is also in progress; and as many Maps are now ready, the new Case is also required. In respect to the Ordnance Maps, the revised Maps have not been applied for, as it would be useless to obtain them until cases for their reception had been purchased ; but the Maps already in possession are put into cases as quickly as they can be prepared for them. Generally it may be stated that the accommodation for the reception of Maps and Drawings is limited and inconvenient, and more especially for those which are kept in portfolios. Notices of Donations and of Papers received, as well as of pur- chases, are regularly published in the Quarterly Journal. Museum. Two new tables have been purchased for supporting the drawers of cabinets when under examination. Mr. Gawan has been principally employed in cleaning fossils, securing the loose specimens and. labels, and labelling in paint the larger specimens of rocks and boulders, exhibiting glacial action or the footprints of animals. He has also commenced the re-arrange- ment of the Tertiaries, under the direction of Mr. Jones. Everything thus labelled has been catalogued by Mr. Jones, who has also acted upon the suggestion of the last Committee by preparing the iter- leaved copy of Mr. Morris’s “ Catalogue,”’ presented by the author for the use of the gentlemen willing to assist in the respective palzeon- tographical departments, and whose aid would therefore be now of the greatest advantage. Of British specimens the donations have principally been con- nected with the carboniferous and cretaceous formations ; and have been placed in the respective drawers. _ Of Foreign specimens, those of Mr. Loftus, received in 1853, have been examined, separated, and put into drawers; duplicates having been prepared for presentation to the British Museum. The St. Domingo specimens of Col. Henneker have been examined, arranged, and put into drawers; the duplicates having been sent to the British Museum and the Museum of Economic Geology in Jermyn Street. Mr. Townsend’s specimens from Ascension, received in 1853, have been sorted and put into drawers, and the duplicates sent to Jermyn Street. In the Upper Museum, the arrangement of the Brazilian, Ceylon, and Chinese specimens has been continued : the specimens of aurife- rous rocks from Victoria, New South Wales, and New Zealand, pre- ANNUAL REPORT. Vv sented by Sir T. Mitchell, Mr. Milner Stephens, and Sir George Grey, have been partly arranged; and a second series of fossils from Central India, presented by the Rev. Messrs. Hislop and Hunter, is in course of arrangement for illustration in the Journal. In addition to the above, fossils from Prome have been presented by Lieut.-Col. Turton through Lieut.-Col. Cautley. As the specimens here referred to necessarily occupy much space whilst under examination, it is very desirable that duplicates of the Nagpoor specimens, now much in the way, should be presented at once to public Institutions. In referring generally to the Museum, it should be observed that much labour has been expended upon it by Mr. Jones, which does not at first arrest attention; such, for ex- ample, as that required to reduce to order, or, as it were, sift out, local specimens from Foreign Countries which had been put promis- cuously into drawers without reference to the papers they were intended to illustrate. Mr. Jones has done much to correct this evil, and, by properly arranging these specimens, to enable a reader to compare an author’s statements with the specimens on which he founds his reasonings. Mr. Jones speaks most favourably of the assistance he has received from Mr. Gawan, and the Committee is satisfied from its own obser- vation that his services have been most valuable, and that it is desirable that they should be continued: indeed, from the arduous duties performed by Mr. Jones, he is fully entitled to every assist- ance it is in the power of the Society to afford him. The Committee in closing their Report think it right to point” more especially to the valuable donation by Mr. Greenough of his Map of India, and to the equally valuable donation by Mr. Griffiths of his new Map of Ireland; donations which must be the more cor- dially received as coming from two of the oldest Members of the Society. J. E. Portiocx. Sk: PRATT: January 23, 1855. Comparative Statement of the Number of the Society at the close of the years 1853 and 1854. Dec. 31, 1853. Dee. 31, 1854. Mempounders. 2.262... s TOA Shs 258 2 137 SD eae eee 204 "224s Ae. 203 mron-resigents ...........:5 U5 aie ree * fe 475 801 815 Honorary Members...... 1 6 at. a's « 15 Foreign Members ...... 50 es a's 2 50 Personages of Royal Blood 4— (Ete oe e- 4—69 aaa —. 871. 884 vi ANNIVERSARY MEETING. General Statement explanatory of the Alteration in the Number of Fellows, Honorary Members, &c. at the close of the years 1853 and 1854. Number of Compounders, Residents, and Non-residents, December 3t 1853". ys. 0-4. os oa. «ee 801 Add, Fellows elected during former years, and paid in 1854 ... Fellows elected, and paid, ames Resident,... 16 Non-resident .... 2 Mole: WAP yn a Sea eS Tl sone ee ee Non-resident 16 —32 — 34 835 Deduct, Compounders deceased ............-. 3 Residents se coe eed Vs Sree 4 Non-residents" gS cto oe oe 9 Resigned. oo viene Nae ea he ke 4 — 20 Total number of Fellows, 31st Dec. 1854, as above. . 815 Number of Honorary Members, Foreign puaee and 70 Personages of Royal Blood, December 31, 1853 . Add, Foreign Member elected during 1854 . l it Deduct, Foreign Member deceased ..........:... 1 Honorary Qlember: Wo. es hoe aerate» 1 — 2 As above 69 Number of Fellows liable to Annual Contribution at the close of 1854, with the Alterations during the year. Number at the close of 1653.43.02 bee eee eee 204 Add, Elected and paid im 1854, <05.0)-eeee eee 16 220 Deduct, Deceased -.:..-... ..i. cous ee 4 Resigtied *.:...... sca see eee ee 4 Compounded .. . ..cameeeee eee ees 6 Became Non-resident .. . a 17 As above 203 ANNUAL REPORT. vil DrecEeASED FELLOWS. Compounders (3). Rev. H. M. De la Condamine. | James Hall, Esq. J. E. Winterbottom, Esq. Residents (4). Arthur Aikin, Esq. John Evans, Esq. G. W. Aylmer, Esq. Prof. EK. Forbes. Non-Residents (9). E. S. Barber, Esq. Joseph Martin, Esq. Isaiah Deck, Esq. G. A. M‘Dermott, Esq. Rey. Thomas Egerton. J. M. Scobie, Esq. Capt. Sir J. Franklin. Dr. William Stanger. Charles Walker, Esq. Honorary Member (1). Professor Robert Jameson. Foreign Member (1). Professor F. S. Beudant. The following Persons were elected Fellows during the year 1854. January 4th.—Charles Moore, Esq., Bath; Robert Hunt, Esq., Australia; Robert W. Hall, Esq., Cirencester ; Joseph Hobbins, M.D., Wednesbury ; and Edward 8. Jackson, Ksq., M.A., Tot- teridge. 18th.—Alfred Wm. Morant, Esq., Camden Town; and John B. Denton, Esq., Gravely, Stevenage. February 1st.—Charles Robert des Ruffiéres, Camden New Town; Edward H. Sheppard, Esq., Clifton; Alexander G. Gray, Jun., Esq., Newcastle-on-Tyne; and George M. Stephen, Esq., Maida Hill. : 22nd.—Charles Lindsay, Esq., Doctors’ Commons; C. H. B. Hambley, Esq., Brixton ; and James A. Caley, Esq., Clifton. March 8th.—N. 8. Maskelyne, Esg., M.A., Oxford; B. Water- house Hawkins, Esq., Norwood ; 8. P. Woodward, Esq., Islington ; and Charles W. Dilke, Esq., Sloane Street. 22nd.—Edward O'Riley, Esq., Toungoo, Burmah ; Frederick J. Bigg, Esq., Strand; Samuel Minton, Esq., Freyberg; and Samuel H. Beckles, Esq., St. Leonards. April 5th.—Robert Etheridge, Esq., Bristol. May 3rd.—John Petherick, Esq., Waterford ; and John Coode, Esq., Portland. —— 24th.—Edward Bretherton, Esq., Liverpool; and William Ferguson, Esq., Gower Street. Vill ANNIVERSARY MEETING. June 7th.—Thomas Wynne, Esq., Longton, Staffordshire. November 1st.—John H. Murchison, Esq., Porchester Street ; Wm. Henry Mortimer, Esq., Harley Street; John W. Dawson, Esq., Pictou, Nova Scotia; and William Cunnington, Esq., Devizes. 15th.—Francis Galton, Esq., Victoria Street, Westminster. December 13th.—James Colquhoun, Esq., Harley Street; George Burnand, Esq., Sussex Square, Hyde Park ; and R. B. Grindrod, M.D., Great Malvern. The following Person was elected a Foreign Member. May 3rd.—M. Joachim Barrande, Prague. The following Donations to the Museum have been received since the last Anniversary. British Specimens. Specimens of Flints with Fish-remains from Norfolk ; presented by Capt. Alexander. Slab of Stone with Footprints, from the Old Red Sandstone of Elgin ; presented by Capt. L. Brickenden, F.G.S. Specimens of Impressed Sandstones from the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Yorkshire ; presented by H. C. Sorby, Esq., F.G.S. Shells from the Mammaliferous Gravel-beds of Orton; presented by J. Trimmer, Esq., F.G.S. Echinodermata from the Chalk of West Norfolk, and Fossils from the Nar Clay; presented by C. B. Rose, Esq., F.G.S. Fossils from the Green-grained Chalk of Chardstock ; presented by Rey. T. Walrond and J. Wiest, Esq. Fossils from the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Scotland ; presented by W. Ferguson, Esq., F.G.S. Specimen of Slate from Westmoreland, and a Specimen of Coked Straw ; presented by Mr. J. Jameson. Foreign Specimens. Specimens of Recks from Victoria; presented by G. M. Stephen, Esq., F.G.S. A second Series of Fossils from Central India; presented by the Rev. Messrs. Hislop and Hunter. Suite of Auriferous Rocks, with Specimens of Gold, from New Zea- land, collected by Mr. Heaphy ; presented by Sir George Grey. Specimen of Nummulitic Rock from near Varna; presented by W. J. Hamilton, Esq., Pres. G.S. Collection of Fossils from Prome ; presented by Lieut.-Col. Turton. ANNUAL REPORT. ix CHARTS AND Maps. The Charts, &c., published by the Admiralty during the past year ; presented by Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, Hon. M.G.S., by direction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Geological Survey of Great Britain :—Maps, Nos.17 and 18. Hori- zontal Sections, Nos. 31, 32, 33, 34, and 37; presented by Sir H. T. De la Beche, F.G.S., on the part of Her Majesty’s Govern- ment. Geognostische Karte von Kurhessen und den angrenzenden Landern, zwischen Taunus-, Harz- und Weser-Gebirge, von Adolph Schwarz- enberg und Heinrich Reusse ; presented by the Authors. Carte Géologique de la Belgique, in 9 sheets, par André Dumont ; and Carte Géologique de Ja Belgique et des Contrées voisines, par André Dumont ; presented by the Author. Geological Map of the United States, by Jules Marcou, and Text ; presented by the Author. General Sketch of the Physical and Geological Features of British India, in 9 sheets, by G. B. Greenough, Esq., F.G.S. ; presented by the Author. Geognostische Karte der Umgebungen von Kraus und vom Mau- hardsberge ; presented by the Imperial Academy of Vienna. Geological Map of Norway, by M. Keilhau; presented by D. Forbes, Esq., F.G.S. MISCELLANEOUS. Model of Volkmannia Morrisii, a fossil plant, from Carluke ; pre- sented by W. J. Gourlie, Esq. Model of Mont Rosa, and Model of the Zugspitze; presented by MM. Schlagintweit. Lithograph of the Remains of a young Iguanodon ; presented by J.S. Bowerbank, Esq., F.G.S. Coloured Drawing of a Specimen of Quartz Crystal; presented by Miss C. Sowerby. Lithographic Portrait of the late Prof. E. Forbes; presented by Prof. Tennant, F.G.S. Specimen Lithograph of Fossils ; presented by G. B. Sowerby, Esq. The following List contains the Names of the Persons and Public Bodies from whom Donations to the Library and Museum were received during the past year. Alexander, Capt. Babbage, C., Esq. American Academy of Arts and | Basel Natural History Society. Sciences. Belgium, Royal Academy of Sci- Art-Union of London. ences of. Asiatic Society of Great Britain. | Bellardi, M. L. Athenzeum Journal, Editor of. Bengal, Asiatic Society of. x ANNIVERSARY MEETING. Berlin, German Geological Society | Ferrari, Signor Silvio. at. Berlin, Royal Academy of Sciences at. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. Bianconi, Signor J. J. Binney, EK. W., Esq., F.G.S. Bland, T., Esq. F:G.S. Bologna Academy of Sciences. Bombay Geographical Society. Boston Natural History Society. Bowerbank, J. 8., Esq., F.G.S. Breslau, Silesian Society at. Brickenden, Capt. L., F.G.S. British Association for the Ad- vancement of Science. Buckman, Prof., F.G.S. Caen, Linnean Society of Nor- mandy at. Cambridge Philosophical Society. Canadian Journal, Editor of the. Carter, H. J., Esq. Cautley, Lieut.-Col., F.G.S. Chemical Society of London. Cherbourg Society of Sciences. Civil Engineers’ Journal, Editor of the. Colonial Office. Copenhagen, Royal Academy of Sciences at. Cox, A., Esq. Daubeny, Prof., M.D., F.G.S. Davidson, Thomas, Esq., F.G.S. Deslongchamps, M. E. Dijon, Academy of Sciences of. Dublin Geological Society. Dumont, Professor André, For. M.G.S. Kast India Company, The Hon. Edinburgh, Royal Society of. Ehrenberg, Prof., For.M.G.S. Erfurt, Royal Academy of Sciences at. Escher, M. A. Fairbairn, Wm., Esq., F.G.S. Ferguson, W., Esq., F.G.S. Fitton, Dr., F.G.S. Forbes, D., Esq., F.G.S. France, Geological Society of. Frankfort, Senckerberg Natural History Society at. Franklin Institute. Geneva Natural History Society. Giebel, Prof. C. Greenough, G.B., Esq., V.P.G.S. Haarlem, Society of Sciences at. Hamilton, W. J., Esq., Pres. G.S. Hanau, Wetterau Society of Na- tural Science at. Hargraves, KE. H., Esq. Harkness, Prof., F.G.S. Hauer, M. J. Ritter von. Hausmann, Prof. J. F. L., For. M.G.S. Hébert, M. E. Hislop, Rev. S. Hopkins, Evan, Esq., F.G.S. Horticultural Society of London. Howard, Luke, Esq. Hunter, Rev. R. Indian Archipelago Journal, Edi- tor of the. Institute of Actuaries. Istituto Lombardo de Scienza. Jameson, J., Esq. Jones, T. R., Esq., F.G.S. Jukes, J. Beete, Esq.; F-GS: Kelaart, E. F., M.D., F.G.S. Koninck, Prof. L.de, For.M.G.S8. Kopp, M. H. Layton, T. W., Esq. Leeds Philosophical Society. Leidy, J., M.D. Leymerie, M. A. Liebig, Prof. J. Liége Royal Society of Sciences. Lille Society of Sciences. Linnean Society of London. Liverpool Literary and Philoso- phical Society. ANNUAL REPORT. x1 Lonsdale, Wm., Esq., F.G.S. Lyell, Sir Charles, F.G.S. Madrid Royal Sciences. Mallet, R., Esq. Manchester Philosophical Society. Marcou, M. Jules. Martin, P. J., Esq., F.G.S. Medical Circular, Editor of the. Monthly Journal of Medicine, Editor of the. Morris, J., Esq., F.G.S. Moscow, Imperial Society of Na- turalists of. Munich, Bavarian Academy of Sciences at. Murchison, Sir R. I., F.G.S. Museum of Practical Geology. Academy of Neufchatel Society of Sciences. Nicol, Prof. J., F.G.S. Oldham, T., Esq., F.G.S. Pardo, Signor Lorenzo. Paris, Academy of Sciences at. Paris, Muséum d’ Histoire Natu- relle de. Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Philadelphia, American Philoso- phical Society at. Photographic Society. Pictet, Prof. F. J. Puggaard, M. C. Quekett, J., Esq. Ray Society. Redfield, W. C., Esq. Redman, J. B., Esq. Reeve, L., Esq., F.G.S. Renevier, M. E. Reusse, M. H. Roemer, Dr. Ferd. Rose, C. B., Esq., F.G.S. Royal Astronomical Society. Royal College of Surgeons. Royal Cornwall Polytechnic So- ciety. Royal Geographical Society. Royal Institution of Great Bri- tain. Royal Society of London. Schlagintweit, Dr. A. Schlagintweit, Dr. H. Schrenk, M. A. G. Schwarzenberg, M. A. Sedgwick, Rev. Prof., F.G.S. Silliman, Prof., M.D., For.M.G.S. Smithsonian Institution. Society of Arts. Sorby, H. C., Esq., F.G.S. Sowerby, Miss C. Sowerby, G. B., Esq. State of New York. Statist, Editor of the. Statistical Society. Stockholm Royal Academy of Sciences. Strasbourg Society of Natural History. Studer, Prof. B., For. M.G.S. Suess, M. Eduard. Taylor, R., Esq., F.G.S. Tennant, Prof. J., F.G.S. Thiolliére, M. Victor. Treasury, Her Majesty’s. Trimmer, J., Esq., F.G.S. Van Diemen’s Land, Royal So- ciety of. Vaud Society of Natural Sciences. Verneuil, M. de, For. M.G.S. Vienna Geological Institute. Vienna, Imperial Academy of Sciences at. Villa, Signor Giov. Battista. Walrond, Rev. T. Wiest, J., Esq. Yates, J., Esq., M.A., F.G.S, Yorkshire (West Riding), Geolo- gical Society of. Zepharovich, M. Ritter von. Xll ANNIVERSARY MEETING. List of Pavers read since the last Anniversary Meeting, February 17th, 1854. 1654. Feb. 22nd.—On the Tertiary Formations of the Mayence Basin, by William John Hamilton, Esq., Sec. G.S. March 8th.—On the Geology of the Gold District of Victoria, Au- stralia, by A. Selwyn, Esq. ; communicated by Prof. A. C. Ramsay, GS. ———_———— On the Gems and Gold Crystals of Victoria, by G. M. Stephen, Esq., F.G.S. Seemed On the Gold and Cinnabar regions of California, by J. S. Wilson, Esq.; communicated by Sir R. I. Murchison, VE sG:s: On the Gold of Coromandel, New Zealand, in a letter from Charles tigen Esq., to His Excellency Sir G. Grey ; com- municated by Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S. On the Geology of Victoria, Australia, by Evan Hopkins, Esq., F.G.S. March 22nd.—On the Geology of a part of Madeira, by Sir Charles Lyell, F.G.S. ; extracted from letters to Leonard Horner, Esq., F.G.5. ~— On Fish-remains in Chalk-flints, by Capt. Alexander ; in a letter to the Secretary. On some Valleys in Yorkshire, by H. C. Sorby, Esq., E.G:S; April 5th.—On the Geological Structure and Erratic Phenomena of part of the Bavarian Alps, by M. Adolph Schlagintweit ; commu- nicated by the President. ——————- On the Mammaliferous Deposits of the Valley of the Nene, near Peterborough, by Joshua Trimmer, Esq., F.G.S. May 3rd.—On some intrusive Igneous Rocks in Cawsand Bay, near Plymouth, by Leonard Horner, Ksq., F.G.S. —_—___—_ On the May Hill Sandstone, and on the Classification of the Palzeozoic Rocks of England and Wales, by the Rev. Prof. Sedgwick, F.G.S. May 10th.—Postscript to Palichthyologic Note, No. 4, On some Pycnodont Fishes hitherto referred to Tetragonolepis ; Palichthy- ologic Notes, No. 6, On a new Fossil Fish from the New Red Sandstone; No. 7, On some new Fossil Fishes from India ; No. 8, On some Fossil Fishes from Egypt; by Sir P. G. Egerton, Bart., ‘M_P., F.G.S. —— On some Fossil Insects from the Purbecks and the Oolite, by J. O. Westwood, Esq. ; communicated by the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S. —_—————— On Pegmatite in Ireland, by M. A. Delesse ; commu- nicated by Sir H. T. De la Beche, F.G:S. ANNUAL REPORT. xlll 1854. May 24th.—-On the Structure and Affinities of the Rudista, by S. P. Woodward, Esq., F.G.S. wa Geological Notice of the Isle of Sheppey, and its outlier of Bagshot Sand, by C. H. Weston, Esq., F.G.S. On the Dimensions of the London Clay, and its most Fossiliferous Strata; and on an outlier of the Bagshot Sands in the Isle of Sheppey, by Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.G.S. June 7th.—On some Fossil Mammalia and Reptilia from the Purbeck beds of Durdlestone Bay, Swanage, by Prof. Owen, F.G.S. On a Section exposed in Excavations at the West India Docks, by W. Blanford, Esq. ; communicated by Prof. E. Forbes, F.G.S. —___ On the Distinctive Characters, founded on Palzeon- tological and Physical Evidences, of the London Clay and the Bracklesham beds, by Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.G.S. June 21st.—On the Relations of the London Tertiaries with th Lower Tertiaries of France and Belgium, by Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.G.S. On Fossil Foot-tracks in the Wealden at Hastings, by S. H. Beckles, Esq., F.G.S. On the Geology of the Turco-Persian Frontier, by _ W. K. Loftus, Esq., F.G.S. ——_———~- On the Geology of the Nagpoor District, Central India, by the Rev. Messrs. Hislop and Hunter ; communicated by J.C. Moore, Esq., F.G.S. ——- On a Labyrinthodont Reptile from Mangali, near Nagpoor, India, by Prof. Owen, F.G.S. Additional Notes on Sand-pipes, by Joshua Trimmer, Esq., F.G.S. November Ist.—On the Occurrence of Gold in South Africa, by Dr. Rubidge ; communicated by Sir R. I. Murchison, F.G:S. On the Occurrence of Copper in Tennessee, by W. Bray, Esq. ; communicated by the President. On the Occurrence of a Reptilian Skull in the Coal at Pictou, by J. W. Dawson, Esq. ; communicated by Sir C. Lyell, PAGS —-——_——— On some Nummulitic Limestone from Varna, by W. J. Hamilton, Esq., Pres. G.S. November 15th.—On the Geological Structure of Mont Blanc, and the Cleavage of the rocks in its vicinity, by Daniel Sharpe, Esq., Treas. G.S. On Glacial Traces on the Surface of the Rock of Dumbarton, by Capt. L. Brickenden, F.G.S. November 29th.—On a new Pterichthys from the Old Red Sand- stone of Morayshire, by Capt. L. Brickenden, F.G.S. wn On the Gold-field of Coromandel in New Zealand, by C. Heaphy, Esq. ; forwarded by Sir George Grey. ——_ On the "Geology of the Vicinity of Nice, by Major Charters, F.G.S. X1V ANNIVERSARY MEETING. 1854. December 13th.—On a Fossiliferous Deposit in the Drift near Salis- bury, by Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.G.S. and John Brown, Esq., F.G.S. On a Fossiliferous Drift at Wear Farm, between Grove Ferry and the Reculvers, by Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.G.S. —_——_———. On a Fossiliferous Gravel near Stoke Newington, by Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.G.S. nes On the Terrestrial Surfaces beneath the Drift, by R. A. Godwin-Austen, Esq., Sec. G.S. 1855. January 3rd.—On a Submerged Forest at Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia, by J. W. Dawson, Esq., F.G.S. ————-——. On some additional small Reptilian remains from Purbeck, by Professor Owen, F.G.S. On a large Fossil Cuttle-fish, from the Kimmeridge Clay, by Professor Owen, F.G.S. enema On the Tertiary Beds of Hesse Cassel and its vicinity, by W. J. Hamilton, Esq., Pres. G.S. January 17th.—On Vertical and Meridional Lamination of Primary Rocks, by Evan Hopkins, Esq., F.G.S. January 31st.—Notes on a Geological Map of Christiania by M. Th. Kierulf, by Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S. ——_-— On the Foliation of the Rocks of Norway, by David Forbes, Esq., F.G:S. eee After the Reports had been read, it was resolved,— That they be received and entered on the Minutes of the Meeting ; and that such parts of them as the Council shall think fit, be printed and distributed among the Fellows. It was afterwards resolved,— 1. That the thanks of the Society be given to John Carrick Moore, Esq., and Colonel Portlock, retiring from the office of Vice-President. 2. That the thanks of the Society be given to R. A. Godwin- Austen, Esq., retirmg from the office of Secretary. 3. That the thanks of the Society be given to G. B. Greenough, Esq., J. S. Bowerbank, Esq., Capt. Strachey, and P. N. Johnson, Esq., retirmg from the Council. After the Balloting Glasses had been duly closed, and the lists examined by the Scrutineers, the following gentlemen were declared to have been duly elected as Officers and Council for the ensuing year :— ANNUAL REPORT. XV OFFICERS. ——_>—_ PRESIDENT. William John Hamilton, Esq. VICE-PRESIDENTS. Sir P. De M. G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S. and L.S. Sir R. I. Murchison, G.C.St.S., F.R.S. and L.S. Prof. John Phillips, F.R.S. SECRETARIES. John Carrick Moore, Esq., M.A. Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.R.S. FOREIGN SECRETARY. Samuel Peace Pratt, Esq., F.R.S. and L.S. TREASURER. D. Sharpe, Esq., F.R.S. and L.S. COUNCIL. John J. Bigsby, M.D. Col. P. T. Cautley, F.R.S. and L.S. Sir P. De M. G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. Earl of Enniskillen, F.R.S. Thomas F. Gibson, Esq. R. A. Godwin-Austen, Esq., B.A., F.R.S. BCL: William John Hamilton, Esq. J. D. Hooker, M.D., F.R.S. and | LS. Leonard Horner, Esq., F.R.S.L. | and E. Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S.and L.S. | | John C. Moore, Esq., M.A. John Morris, Esq. Sir R. I. Murchison, G.C.St.S., F.R.S. and L.S. R. W. Mylne, Esq. S. R. Pattison, Esq. John Percy, M.D., F.R.S. Prof. John Phillips, F.R.S. Col. Portlock, R.E., F.R.S. Joseph Prestwich, Jun., Esq., F.R.S. Samuel Peace Pratt, Esq., F.R.S. and L.S. Prof. A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. J. W. Salter, Esq. D. Sharpe, Esq., F.R.S. and L.S. th 5. SOROS 1) One iF ee) : 4 AS ae Bin * a } Ya as = a a ‘ar? toe cca nede: ua Pie” att ret th vial Lin we vine — a J oct diwali ‘ital a 7) ; jae a later ie iheaw Cee ero ia aCe Soo buss be a siete inet THY, Lah > ‘Sees. , ‘ = e, 4 oGiek PEAS et chai Athi KAY «ft need wae ve ae Me hi “eet Gb lisivk) Sia Ehilb keanai ai re da 417 Aas > Na | S| ae "i ui a ‘ll ‘ ae ee oat eon fe Lonn sin ak e Pa at an + renin. 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S550. 530 Ute sec wen se des SG SA EL eR : payeuysa SggT 10 awooUy Axeutpig Cl Cele elsieielsicisle eivlv.sleleineieiniciviers sareday amnyruIn gy : OL certetrereeessseerseseeeeereees sre rrpdany asnop O = l= SET ot Sneakers see tenserere ss. Gesus-enenie aa) SiGoriyy ¢ Be ite a SRE RSS #59 oS? So OOM SIT Rut | O SI EOL rs Bp ere etaesateewsetasnss+dhsenerneveuar ts Roya ys Q GT QE “r'rrrrrrseeeeceeese’ SMOTJOVLIOZD ,S1OyINY JOJ ong Ss ¢ : sInjIpusdxy jesousy 9 ¢ Lg ‘yeuInor A]IAZI1eN% uo suoyduosqng 10J ang D's F 3s fF p 8 ¥ ‘CaLVWILSA TUALIGNAdXG “da LoagdxXad FNOONI "CCRT vax ay) L0f STLVWILSY eooococceco 0 Nis 0 08 COOP OF OOo eer eH eEEHHHF OSEHE ene HFeOeeeeees 19410q 0 0 ees ep) ie.e) 9) La | a cooocococoocoococoe Ne) Sr) mg POSsseseseseceSe XX1 PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 16rH FEBRUARY, 1855. AWARD OF THE WoLLASTON MEDAL AND Donation Funp. AFTER the Reports of the Council had been read, the President, W. J. Hamilton, Esq., on delivering to Sir Roderick I. Murchison the Wollaston Medal, awarded to Sir Henry T. De la Beche, addressed. him as follows :— Sir Ropericx Murcuison,—In the absence of Sir Henry De la Beche I address myself to you for the purpose of saying that it is with much pleasure that I now proceed to give effect to the resolu- tion of the Council already announced, awarding the Wollaston Palladium Medal for this year to our old associate and fellow-labourer, Sir Henry De la Beche. In requesting you to undertake the task of conveying to him this mark of the high opinion entertained by the Council of his labours, I trust you will inform him how sincerely we regret that he should be prevented by indisposition from being personally present amongst us to-day, and that you will also com- municate to him the considerations by which the Council of the Geo- logical Society have been influenced in making this award. The necessary brevity of a resolution did not admit of our entering fully into the details of these considerations ; I will therefore now state that, in the first place, the Council desire to record their opinion of the merit of those communications which, as a private independent geologist, Sir Henry De la Beche has for a period of more than thirty- five years made to this Society, and which, printed in our Transac- tions, will ever remain a monument of his zeal, his energy, and his perseverance. The very earliest volumes of our Transactions show that since the year 1819 we have been chiefly indebted to him for the careful examination of the secondary formations of our southern coasts, particularly that of Dorsetshire, and for a description of the geology of the vicinity of Bridport, Lyme Regis, and Weymouth. It is difficult at the present day to estimate the effect of those commu- nications, which at the tirae gave such a stimulus to the study of our science. ‘The nature and the abundance of the fossils contained in these beds gave them in those days an importance and an interest Which has now been, in a great measure, transferred to the more ancient deposits of the Palzeozoic formations. In addition to these papers, which left but little remaining for future explorers, and in some of which he was assisted by Dr. Buck- land, we are indebted to Sir Henry De la Beche for a valuable paper VOL. XI. b Xxil PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. on the Geology of Southern Pembrokeshire, in which I think we may trace the commencement of that system of geological illustra- tion which he has subsequently perfected in the maps of the Ord- nance Geological Survey, and of those views which have been lately confirmed by Mr. Salter. In Foreign Geology, Sir Henry De la Beche has contributed some interesting papers on the Northern and Southern coasts of France, particularly that of Nice. I must also mention his paper on the Geology of Jamaica, published in the 2nd volume of the 2nd series of our Transactions, as containing the first detailed information we have received respecting the geological structure and formations of that island ; and when we consider the difficulties attendant on such explorations, under a tropical climate and in the midst of a tropical vegetation, we cannot estimate too highly the merits of Sir Henry De la Beche. At a subsequent period, he added to his claims on our considera- tion by the publication of two admirable works; ‘The Manual of Geology,’ and ‘ Researches in Theoretical Geology.’ It is impossible - to peruse the lucid development of geological pheenomena contained in these works, and particularly in the Researches in Theoretical Geology, without admiring the bold grasp and comprehensive view of the subject taken by the author ; and, although during the more than twenty years which have elapsed since those works were first pub- lished vast progress has been made in the knowledge of geological detail and the subdivision of formations, by none more than by yourself, Sir Roderick, in your investigation of the older paleeozoic rocks, the general principles contained in that volume have remained unaltered and unshaken. Some indeed appear to be absolutely pro- phetic. Every day’s experience confirms and extends the remark that “the supracretaceous group apparently passes so insensibly into the present order of things, still viewing the subject on the large scale, that probably no line of demarcation will ever be drawn between them, particularly when we regard the whole superficies of the world, and not a particular portion of it*.” But in awarding this Medal to Sir Henry De la Beche, the Council are also desirous of expressing their admiration of what he has done in his public capacity as Director of the Museum of Practical Geo- logy, and Director General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. They trust that it will never be forgotten that it is to the zeal and exertions of Sir Henry De la Beche that this country is indebted for the recognition by the Government and by Parliament of the import- ance of establishing in the metropolis both a Museum of Practical Geology and a School of Mines upon an enlarged and liberal scale. Urged by his recommendations chiefly, backed by the support of many other men of science, the Government at length consented, about fifteen years ago, to establish, at first on a moderate scale, a Museum for the purpose of demonstrating the importance of geological studies and of their application to agricultural and other purposes. The admirable paper on the formation of the Rocks of South Wales * Researches, &c. p. 365. ANNIVERSARY MEETING.—WOLLASTON MEDAL. Xxili and South-Western England, published in the first volume of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, is the best evidence of the fit- ness of Sir Henry to conduct the establishment over which he was appointed, and to carry out the geological survey entrusted to his superintendence. The success of this first experiment emboldened the Government to listen to his suggestions, that the Institution should be made worthy of the country. By pointing out the importance, not to say the absolute necessity, of establishing, in a country where mineral wealth was so abundant as in our island, an office where mining records might be preserved, there being previously nothing of the kind in existence, he succeeded in inducing the Government to erect a special building for this purpose, and in having a School of Mines attached to the Museum of Practical Geology, where all the details and phzenomena of these important operations might be preserved*. To the duty of superintending these Establishments was added the geological survey of Great Britain, based on the Ordnance maps ; and not the least of Sir Henry’s merits is the skill and impartiality he has displayed in the selection of the able staff of naturalists, geologists, paleontologists, chemists, and mineralogists, who have assisted him in this great national work. With such a staff, the introduction of lectures for the purpose of teaching the application of these branches of science was not a work of difficulty. It became almost a necessary consequence, and the success which has attended them, the frequency with which they are followed by artisans and other working classes, is the best possible evidence of the propriety of their institution. But I cannot dwell any longer on this subject,—and yet there is one point in the career of Sir H. De la Beche to which, on such an occa- sion as the present, [ must for one moment allude. One of his greatest merits, and which I have little doubt has mainly contributed to his success in this achievement, has been, that in pursuing the fascinating charms of geological inquiries, he has at the same time cultivated. the more exact and mathematical study of mineralogical investigations. I cannot but regret that, as a body, English geologists have neglected them. It is Sir H. De la Beche’s greatest praise that he has never abandoned his first love for mineralogy. In requesting you, Sir Roderick, to convey this Medal, which I now place in your hands, to Sir H. De la Beche, I have only to ask you to assure him of the hearty good wishes of the Geological Society of London for his future prosperity and health. Sir Roprerick Murcuison replied,— Mr. PrestpENntT,—You have so truthfully and ably enunciated the services rendered to Geological Science by my valued friend Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche, that any one, however little acquainted with our pursuits, must at once perceive that this Society has truly done honour to itself in bestowing its highest reward upon so eminent aman. Permit me, in returning you his grateful thanks, to seize this * See Hopkins’ Address, 1852, Quart. Journ, Geol. Soe, vol. viii. p. lxxix. XxiV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. opportunity of recording some sentiments of my own, which are enter- tained, I feel certain, by all geologists who have witnessed the rise and progress of our associate, and which, if acted upon, will assuredly be most grateful to his feelings. The earlier years of Sir H. De la Beche haying ae spent in those labours in the field, and in the composition of many of those works to which you have adverted, the remaining portion of his life has, as you have stated, been devoted to the foundation, arrange- ment, and successful completion of a great National Establishment. Let me add, that this design, entirely his own conception, was begun, carried out, and-matured by the combination of scientific skill with those practical evidences of the value of his project, in the absence of which he never could have commanded success in an undertaking which, though applauded by ourselves, was alien to the pursuits of the great body of Englishmen. And how did he succeed?—At his own expense he traced the boundaries and relations of certain rock-formations, and, laying them down on the Ordnance Survey Maps, accompanied by illustrative Sections, he thus took the first step in leading public men (otherwise little versed in our science) to see the good which must result from the extensive application of such a scheme, in making all proprietors alive to the importance of obtaining a better acquaintance with the subsoil of their estates. Having gradually attracted the notice of the Government, and having obtained the use of rooms in Craig’s Court, and the employ- ment of a limited sum of the public money, Sir H. De la Beche then attached to his new-born establishment able men of science, who could decipher formations in the field, describe the fossils they contained, or chemically analyze the structure of the rocks and their associated minerals. Soon filling to repletion the small space allotted to him with models of mines, illustrative drawings, and specimens of fossils, ores, and building-stones, he convinced our rulers, and particularly that illustrious statesman Sir Robert Peel, that the dignity and interests of the country required that an adequate and appropriate building should be erected, and exclusively devoted to the fulfilment of a project so lucidly devised, and thus far so well realized. Then arose, and very much after the design of the accomplished Director himself, that well-adapted edifice in Jermyn Street, which, to the imperishable credit of its author, stands forth as the first Palace ever raised from the ground in Britain, which is entirely devoted to the Advancement of Science ! Once possessed of halls worthy of so noble an object, Sir Henry De la Beche next rendered them practically useful to the public, and on a vastly extended scale, by embracing, as necessary adjuncts, me- tallurgy and mechanical science in addition to the branches of know- ledge previously cultivated. When we reflect on the eminence of the men of science with whom he surrounded himself, including our last and deeply lamented President Edward Forbes, and have seen how admirably they presided over their schools, what solid instruction they imparted, and all directly supporting geology,—when we visit ANNIVERSARY MEETING.—WOLLASTON MEDAL. XXV the galleries in which the shells, fossils, and minerals are so arranged as to illustrate the value of the maps, sections, and publications of the Survey, we geologists must feel more strongiy than any other class of men the deep obligations of our country to Sir Henry De la Beche. In speaking of this Museum.as a School of Mines, and in recollect- ing that the value of raw mineral produce extracted annually from the subsoil of Britain is not less than 25 millions sterling, you must be reminded of the practical and efficient manner in which Sir H. De la Beche was enabled, from long residence in mining tracts, to convey to many individual proprietors much useful knowledge in their own local language, and to send them away well pleased with his cheerful and friendly explanations.. Here, however, we must extend our vision beyond our Islands, and, whether we look to Canada, Australia, the Cape, or Hindostan, we see that well-trained geologists have been sent or are going thither from our National School of Mines ;—thus making our vast Colonial Possessions keep pace with the advancement of the mother-country. Now, as Sir Henry himself and many of his best officers have sprung from our own ranks, let me, Sir, as a former President of this body, and as a warm well-wisher to the progress of our Science, express my conviction, that it is our bounden duty to cleave closely to our offspring, Her Majesty’s Geological Museum,—nay, more,—- to use our most strenuous endeavours to have it maintained by the British Government in that lofty position to which it has been raised. We must, in short, not only hold firmly to, but act upon the faith which is in us, and see that an Establishment like this, though it naturally branches off into highly useful and collateral subjects of Art, be never rendered subsidiary to them, but be permanently and independently sustained on its own solid basis of pure Sctence. This, our view, will also be taken, I feel confident, by every enlightened Statesman who may be placed in a station to enable him to provide for the future well-being of the admirable Museum, founded and completed by our Wollaston Medallist. The state of his health having alone prevented Sir Henry De la Beche from being present to-day, I am charged on his part to declare that, but for the. knowledge he acquired, the friendships he formed, and the aid he received from his associates in this Society, he never could have realized his scheme. In returning to you, Sir, and the Council, his grateful thanks, I have only further to assure you, that this affectionate tribute from his old friends has cheered him up in his present feeble state of health, and that your appreciation of his services has made the deepest impression on his heart ; whilst on my part, allow me to say that I consider it a high and gratifying distinction to have been requested by my emiment friend to receive for him this Wollaston Medal. _ On delivering to the Secretary the Balance of the Proceeds of the Wollaston Fund, the President addressed him as follows :— XXV1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Mr. Gopwin-AustEN,—In the absence of the Drs. Sandberger, to whom the Council of the Geological Society have this year awarded the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund, I must request you to inform them that the Council have come to this resolution in consideration of their valuable work on the Fossils of the Paleeozoic Rocks of the Rhine, in Nassau, and to assist them in its completion, as also in the publication of their intended work on the Fossils of the Mayence Basin. You, who with myself, have had an opportunity of appreciating the labours of these gentlemen, can testify to the zeal and industry, and the real scientific enthusiasm with which they pursue their geological investigations. You will, I trust, inform them that we are desirous of expressing our admiration at the manner in which the fossils illustrating their work have been represented, and at the accuracy with which they have been drawn. No one is better able than your- self to judge of and to appreciate this accuracy. At the same time, the Council also wish to testify their opinion of the talent and judgment shown in the description of the fossils, and in referring them to their respective formations. By this work they have greatly added to our knowledge of the Devonian System in Germany, and of the various forms of organic life by which the different members of that system are characterized in the Rhenish districts. The Council trust that by this award they will be better enabled to complete without much delay a work on which they have alreaily expended so much labour, time, and thought ; and of which one part only is, I believe, still wanting. They also trust that they may look for- ward to the commencement, at no distant period, of the work, already announced, on the Fossils of the Mayence Basin. The labours of Dr. Fridolin Sandberger on this subject are already so well known to the cultivators of tertiary geology, that the Council entertain the fullest confidence that it will prove no less important and creditable to its authors than that which is now so near completion. I have now only to request, that in forwarding to these gentlemen this dona- tion, you will express to them our hope that they will see in it, however small, an earnest of our good wishes for their future pros- perity, and an evidence of our appreciation of what they have already done. Mr. Gopwin-AvstTEN replied as follows :— S1r,—I have much pleasure in accepting the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund on behalf of the Messrs. Sandberger, inasmuch as I am one of the few Members of the Society who have the pleasure of being personally acquainted with these gentlemen. It is this which enables me to assure you, with peculiar confidence, of the high estimation in which they will hold the recognition by this Society of their services to geological science; whilst, at the same time, I feel satisfied that the award was never made in stricter conformity with the views of the founder, than in the’ present instance. The work of the Messrs..Sandberger which has been more particularly noticed, — the ‘Systematische Beschreibung und Abbildung der Versteine- ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXVil rungen des Rheinischen Schichten-Systems in Nassau,’ is not ex- ceeded, for the beauty of its illustrations, by any work of the kind which has appeared ; and, in common with one or two other Members of this Society, I can add my testimony to the fidelity with which the objects represented have been described and reproduced. Such works as these necessarily involve a considerable expense to their authors,—an expense which is often greatly disproportionate to the slender endowments of foreign academical professorships. With reference to what may be hoped from the future labours of the Messrs. Sandberger, I may state that they belong to a band of young and zealous brothers in science, whose object it is to investigate and make known the Geological and Natural History of the Middle Rhenish Provinces, and towards which they next purpose to con- tribute a critical work on the fossil forms of the tertiary basin of Mayence. THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. GENTLEMEN,—It now becomes my duty, in accordance with the practice uniformly adopted by my predecessors in this chair, to ad- dress to you some observations on the losses we have sustained during the past year, and it is with unfeigned sorrow that I have first to allude to one whose name can never be mentioned in these rooms without emotion. I need not say that I allude to Edward Forbes, who was endeared to us by every tie of social friendship and scientific merit, and who has been snatched away from us at the moment when he had reached the highest position his ambition could have coveted, or his admiring countrymen could have bestowed on him. Scarcely had a few short months intervened since he had been called by the universal voice of the science of Great Britain to fill the chair of Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, and while we were still regretting his departure from the metropolis, before we were astounded and overwhelmed by the unexpected announcement of his death. We felt not only individually that we had lost a valued friend, but that those anticipations of a brilliant scientific career, justi- fied by the position he had attained and by the opportunities placed within his reach, were doomed to bitter disappointment. These reflections are most painful, and, were I to follow my own inclina- tions, I would willingly forego all further allusion to the subject ; but such a course would be a betrayal of duty towards our departed friend, and would disappoint the justly-founded expectations which you entertain of hearing a more detailed account of the distinguished and amiable man whose loss we so deeply deplore. Epwarp Forsess was born in the Isle of Man, in the month of February 1815. He evinced, at a very early age, an unusual taste for the study of natural history, and began to form a small museum when scarcely seven years old. A few years later he commenced his geological studies with the perusal of Buckland’s ‘ Reliquie Dilu- viane, Parkinson’s ‘Organic Remains,’ and Conybeare’s ‘ Geology XXViil PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of England,’ exhibiting at the same time a more than usual taste for drawing. He visited London at the age of sixteen, and was then engaged in studying drawing under Sass, but this was not enough to occupy his eager and ardent mind. He procceded in 1831 to Edinburgh, where he devoted his whole time and energies to the pursuit of his favourite subject of natural history, while professing to overcome his repug- nance for the study of medicine, the ostensible object of his matri- culation. But medicine as a profession had no charms for one whose whole soul was filled with a love of the beautiful, and with an intense admiration of the works of Nature in every varied form. He culti- vated his taste for natural history under the able teaching of such men as Professors Jameson and Graham. He delighted particularly in the botanical excursions of the latter, who was accustomed period- ically to lead forth his pupils to the Highlands ; thus making Nature herself, in her truest and loveliest garb, afford the practical illustra- tions of the teaching of the class-room. At this period of his life, scarcely a year passed without some botanizmg or dredging excursion, and long before he arrived at manhood, he had made himself well acquainted with the Fauna of the Ivish Sea, on the shores of his native island. At the age of eighteen, in company with a fellow student, he made an excur- sion to Norway, where he spent some weeks exploring the wild and romantic districts of the country, adding to his zoological and botanical observations. Already, at this time, Edward Forbes began to direct his attention to botanical geography, the forerunner of those deep and philosophical views respecting the geographical distribution of the Flora and Fauna of the world which he subsequently deve- loped, and which constitute one of the most interesting and leading features of all his writings. In 1835, Edward Forbes visited the Alps; in 1837 hie was pro- secuting his studies at Paris under Prévost, Beudant, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and De Blainville, and in May of the same year we hear of him at Algiers ; the result of this expedition was an account of the land and freshwater mollusca of Algiers and Bougia, published in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ for May 1839. With the same view of prosecuting his researches in natural history, he visited Styria and Carniola in 1838, his remarks on which were published in the ‘ Proceedings of the Botanical Society.’ In the summers of 1839 and 1840 he delivered at Edinburgh, whilst still a student, a course of scientific lectures on zoology, as well as one of a more popular nature, in which he pointed out the bearings of zoology on geology. I mention this as a subject of peculiar in- terest to us, as indicating the commencement of those views which, by their subsequent development and their growing importance in the hands of Edward Forbes, have exercised such a beneficial and prac- tical influence on the study of geology. The time was now fast approaching when Edward Forbes was to find a wider sphere for the exercise of his brilliant genius. In 184] he published his ‘ History of British Star Fishes and other Echimo- PT ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XX1X derms,’ a delightful volume, charmingly illustrated by his own pencil and from his own designs. There are many in this room who will recognize in these illustrations the same ingenious and playful fancy, and the same ready pencil which never allowed a sheet of paper to lie unused before him, while he had a chance of transferring to it the humorous and graceful forms which he realized without an effort, and almost without a thought. In this same year he obtained the appointment of naturalist to H.M. surveying ship Beacon, Captain Graves, then employed in completing the survey of the coast of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands: an appointment more suited to his tastes and to his talents could not have been devised. He had here full play for the prosecution of his favourite pursuits of botany, zoology, and geology. Already well acquainted with the flora and fauna of the European Continent and their geographical distribution, he had now an opportunity of tracing their further extension to the Kast, and of examining the first appearance of that Oriental facies which they put on in the eastern portions of the Mediterranean. Nor was Edward. Forbes the man to neglect such an opportunity. During this and the followimg year he pursued his botanical and zoological researches with unwearied energy, assisted by Captain Graves, who omitted no opportunity of enabling his scientific friend and companion to avail himself of every occasion for observation which the service afforded. It was durmg his various excursions in the Beacon and her boats that Edward Forbes followed out those researches with the dredge, amongst the islands of the Augean Sea and on the adjacent coast of Asia Minor, which alone would have immortalized his name. At the same time he neglected no occasion of studying the geology and botany of the regions which he visited, but the dredge and its results will ever remain the chief glory of this expedition. The results of these researches were made known to the public in the ‘Report on the Mollusca and Radiata of the /Bgean Sea and on their distribution, considered as bearing on Geology,’ made to the British Association at their meeting at Cork in 1843. From this report it appears that the data on which it was founded were entirely derived from personal researches during a voyage of eighteen months in the Aigean, when but a few days passed by without being devoted to natural history observations. The calculations were based on more than 100 fully-recorded dredging operations in various depths from 1 to 130 fathoms, and in many localities from the shores of the Morea to those of Asia Minor. And with that modesty which ever characterized Edward Forbes in all his works, he adds, that the merit of the results is mainly due to Captain Graves. ‘The chief objects of the report, as stated by the author, were, “‘to give an account of the distribution of the several tribes of mollusca: and radiata in the Eastern Mediterranean, ex- hibiting their range in depth and the circumstances under which they are found ; to mquire into the laws which appear to regulate their distribution, and to show the bearings of the investigation on the science of geology.” | I shall not attempt to give an analysis of this valuable report ; I XxX. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. shall content myself with reminding you of some of the more import- ant conclusions, as bearing on geological investigations, which are embodied in it. ‘The most important fact which has resulted from them respecting the development and distribution of animal and vegetable life in the depths of the ocean is, that of the almost uni- form occurrence of particular species in particular zones of depth below the surface. This distribution of marine animal life is deter- mined by three primary, modified by several secondary influences. The primary are climate, sea composition, and depth ; of the many secondary influences, the most important is the character of the sea bottom. According as rock, mud, sand, weedy or gravelly ground prevails, so will the number of the several genera and species vary. The outline and geological nature of the coast is also an im- portant feature in modifying the marine fauna. Other secondary influences are tides and currents, the influx of fresh water, &c. We have thea a full description of eight well-marked regions of depth in the Eastern Mediterranean, each characterized by its pecu- liar fauna, and when there are plants by its flora. These regions are distinguished from each other by the association of the species they severally include. Certain species in each are found in no other, several are found in one region which do not range into the next above, whilst they extend to that below, or vice versd ; certain species have their maximum of development in each zone, bemg most prolific in individuals in that zone im which is their maximum, and of which they may be regarded as especially characteristic. Kvery zone has also a more or less general mineral character, the sea bottom not being equally variable in each, and becoming more and more uniform as we descend. Again, the deeper zones are greater in extent, so that whilst the first or most superficial is but 12, the eighth, or lowest, is above 700 feet in perpendicular range ; its hori- zontal extent increases in a somewhat similar proportion. Another significant feature is, that as we reach the eighth zone the number of species and of individuals diminishes as we descend, pointing to a zero in the distribution of animal life as yet unvisited. Species disappear in depth which do not seem to be replaced by others. From other observations the following general inference is deduced ; that the extent of the range of a species in depth is correspondent with its geographical distribution. But these eight regions are themselves the scene of incessant change ; not only are the depths modified by the addition of fresh matter, but the very animals themselves, by their own increase, so modify the nature of the sea bottom as to render it unfit for their own existence, until a new layer of sedimentary matter, uncharged with livmg organic contents, has formed a fresh soil for similar or other animals to thrive on. It is impossible to overlook the im- portance of these observations in explaining many of the daily recurring phenomena which are brought under the notice of the geologist ; in the last observation we may see an explanation of the phzenomenon of interstratification of fossiliferous and non-fossiliferous heds. ) ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, XXXxi I must refer you to the report itself for an account of the pheeno- mena which would be presented to us were the bottom of the Aigean Sea to be elevated and converted into dry land, or to be filled up by a long series of sedimentary depositions. He concludes by observing, that, “supposing such an elevation to have taken place, a knowledge of the association of species in the regions of depth wouid enable us to form a pretty accurate notion of the depth of water in which each bed was deposited. A beautiful illustration of this argument is given from observations made on the island of Santorin, and under different circumstances the contrary observations might be made; the geologist is thus enabled, by a careful examination of the successive overlying groups of species, to ascertain whether, in any given locality brought under his notice, the sea bottom was being elevated or depressed.” But I have already dwelt too long on this report ; I must hasten to other scenes in the life of Edward Forbes. During his stay in the Mediterranean he made several excursions into Lycia, where he had an opportunity of combining his love of art with the pursuit of natural history. On one occasion, in company with Mr. Hoskyn, they discovered and fixed the sites of two of the Cibyratic cities. A second excursion undertaken with the Rev. Mr. Daniell and Captain, then Lieutenant, Spratt, was still more important; the sites of eighteen ancient cities hitherto unknown to geographers were ex- plored and determined, and the names of fifteen were identified by inscriptions found amongst the ruins. During this expedition Mr. Daniell fell a victim to the malignant malaria of the country, and the life of Edward Forbes himself was at one time in danger. Indeed there can be little doubt that at this time were sown the seeds of that disease which has eventually deprived us of his services. He, how- ever, gradually recovered, and was on the point of proceeding to Egypt and the Red Sea on a dredging excursion, when he was in- formed that he had been elected to fill the Chair of Botany in King’s College, vacant by the death of Professor Don. He returned imme- diately to England, and, on the 8th May 1843, delivered his in- augural lecture in that institution. But previously to this event, Professor Forbes had become intimately connected with this Society. At the close of 1842 Mr. Lonsdale, who for so many years had been the curator of our museum, resigned his office in consequence of the state of his health. In the report of the Council read at the Annual General Meeting on February 17, 1843, I find the following passage, after alluding to the loss sustained by the resignation of Mr. Lonsdale :—“ In recording the election of his successor, the Council cannot omit to congratulate the Society on having secured the services of such a distinguished naturalist as Mr. K. Forbes.” J may appeal to the recollection of every member of the Society for a confirmation of my statement, that the expecta- tions then entertained, great as they unquestionably were, were more than fulfilled by the manner in which Edward Forbes conducted the business entrusted to him during the period that he held this im- portant office. The report of the Museum Committee for 1844 will show how his labours were appreciated by the Council. But before XXXIl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the close of the same year his talents as a naturalist and a paleeonto- logist called him to a more extended sphere of action. On the establishment of the Museum of Practical Geology in connection with the Ordnance Geological Survey under the direction of Sir H. De la Beche, Professor Forbes was appointed paleeontologist to that insti- tution, and resigned the curatorship of the museum of this Society. On the removal of the Museum to Jermyn Street he was appointed its Professor of Natural History. go} Here then his talents had full space for their development, and Edward Forbes was not slow in bringing to bear on his numerous avocations the knowledge he had so industriously collected. Com- bining as he did a lively and vivid imagination with a mature and well-disciplined judgment, he was enabled to employ with effect that power of generalization and abstraction which he so eminently pos- sessed. iis enlightened and comprehensive views on the numerous branches of natural history which he cultivated, and which were founded mainly on his own experience, caused him from henceforth to be looked up to as one of the first of British naturalists, and the works which he now published bear ample testimony to his well- founded reputation. . Nor was it in England alone that his merits were recognized. In France, in Germany, in Italy, wherever men of science were to be found, the name of Edward Forbes was equally acknowledged as deserving a place in the first rank of scientific merit. eT) Towards the end of 1846, he published with Lieut., now Captain, Spratt an account of his travels in Lycia, awork in which we are at a loss to know whether most to admire the admirable details of archeology and art, or the equally graphic description of the botany, geology, and zoology which it contains. About this time appeared in the Proceed- ings and Transactions of our Society his Monograph on the South Indian Fossils sent to this country by MM. Kaye and Cunliffe and the Rev. W.H. Egerton. The report itself, ndependently of the description of the fossils, is short, but it isnot the less important, and is eminently characteristic of the author. He points out the general resemblance of the facies of the fossils to that of the Cretaceous period of Europe, and more particularly the lower portions of that series. His arguments are drawn rather from similarity, than from identity of species; a subject to which he had particularly directed his attention during his re- searches in the Aigean Sea. The report is pre-eminently suggestive, and I would particularly mention that portion of it which refers to the occurrence in these Cretaceous beds of certain forms which are usually considered as characteristic of Tertiary formations, and which very forms are now found in their greatest assemblages living in those eastern seas,—a fact, which, he observes, goes far to support the theory, that genera, like species, have geographical birthplaces as well as geographical capitals. About this time, also, he wrote one of the most remarkable contri- butions to the science of Geology which. has appeared in this country. It is published in the first volume of. the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and is entitled ‘‘On the Connexion between ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXiil the Distribution of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, and the Geological changes which have affected their area.” ‘In this work,” to use words already printed, ‘the happy combination of great botanical and zoological knowledge is made to bear on some of the most intricate inquiries with regard to the age and relationship of the rocks of Great Britain.” Mr. Horner, when President of this Society, has borne his ready testimony to the merits of this work, when he says in his Anniversary Address in 1847, that this Essay “is an admirable example of the light to be derived from other branches of natural history in the prosecution of geological inquiries; of the application of animal and. vegetable physiology, and a knowledge of the habits and distribution of animals and plants to the elucidation of very difficult problems in geology.” Mr. Horner, in the Address from which I have quoted these words, has given an admirable account of this interesting and attractive memoir, so suggestive as it is of great and enlightened views. I will therefore here only observe, that the principal theory which it is the object of this Essay to establish, is based on the assumption of the existence of specific centres, that is, of certain geographical points from which the individuals of each species have been diffused, involving their consequent descent from a single progenitor, or from two, according as the sexes might be united or distinct. Prof. Forbes further declares, as his opinion, that the ‘‘ abandonment of this doc- trine would place in a very dubious position all evidence the paleeon- tologist could offer to the geologist, towards the comparison and identification of strata, and the determination of the epoch of their formation.” Having assumed the truth of the doctrine of specific centres, the problem which he proposes to solve is the origin of the assemblages of the animals and plants now inhabiting the British Islands. Within this limited area he considers that the united labours of British naturalists have shown that there are a great number of animals and plants which are not universally dispersed, but are con- gregated in such a way as to form distinct regions or provinces. The vegetation, for instance, presents five well-marked Floras, four of which are restricted to definite provinces, whilst the fifth, besides exclusively claiming a part of the area, overspreads and commingles with all the others. Prof. Forbes considers that, of the three given modes by which an isolated area may become peopled by animals and plants, “immigra- tion before isolation”’ of the area was the mode by which the British Isles have chiefly acquired their existing flora and fauna, terrestrial as well as marine, and that it took place subsequently to the Miocene epoch. It follows from this argument, that previous to the isolation of this area, it must have been in direct unien with those portions of the European continent the floras of which are shown to be identical with one or other of the five floras of the British isles. I will briefly mention the five distinct floras which he has noticed, and the districts with which he considers they prove our former connexion. 1. The West Irish Flora. —The high lands in the north of Spain present the nearest point where a vegetation occurs identical with XXXIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. that which is characteristic of the mountainous district of the west and south-west of Ireland. Consequently, at some period or other, continuous dry land must have existed from the coast of Spain to that of Ireland. 2. The Devon Flora, connected with that of the Channel Islands and the neighbouring parts of France. 3. The Kentish Flora.—The vegetation of the south-east of Eng- land is distinguished by the presence of a number of species common to this district and the opposite coast of France. 4. The Alpine Flora.—On the tops of some of our most lofty mountains, particularly in Scotland, are plants not found elsewhere in the British islands, but which are identical with those cf the Scan- dinavian Alps, thus pointing to a former connection in that direction. 5. The General Flora.—This universal flora is almost identical as to species with the flora of central and western Europe, and may be properly styled Germanic. The arguments by which these views are maintained are clearly and satisfactorily developed, but must be read and studied to be appre- ciated. That portion of the paper, however, which relates to the distribution of the marine plants and animals now inhabiting the British seas is still more deserving of careful study. The account of the distribution of the British Mollusca is particularly so: it con- tains a mass of information on the subject, not to be found, at the time of its publication, in any one work, and of the greatest value to the student of Tertiary geology. I will only mention one or two of the more interesting points with which the memoir concludes. “That the flora and fauna, terrestrial and marine, of the British Islands and seas have originated, so far as that area is concerned, since the Miocene epoch. «The greater part of the terrestrial animals and flowering plants now inhabiting the British Islands are members of specific centres beyond their area, and have migrated to it over continuous land, before, during, or after the glacial epoch. “All the changes before, during, or after the glacial epoch appear to have been gradual and not sudden, so that no marked line of de- marcation can be drawn between the creatures inhabiting the same element and the same locality during two proximate periods.” Of the many scientific papers of great merit which Prof. Forbes subsequently published, in our own and other Journals, I will only allude to one, which in this room cannot be passed over in silence. In his paper ‘On the Fluvio-marine Tertiaries of the Isle of Wight,’ published in the 9th Vol. of our Quarterly Journal, the result of the laborious investigations of several months, he has established, on data which cannot be questioned, the true order of superposition of the upper tertiary beds of that typical locality, correcting the errors of previous inquirers, and confirming a suggestion made by Mr. Prest- wich, that the strata composing a part of Hempstead Hill were pro- bably higher than any beds hitherto noticed. The result of Prof. Forbes’s inquiries has been to show that, taking the Whitecliff Bay section for an example, the Headon Hill beds, instead of constituting ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXxXV" the highest portion of the series, are overlaid by several other distinct formations, consisting of the St. Helen’s dr Osborne beds and the Bembridge series, the latter consisting of several distinct divisions, all characterized by peculiar fossils, chiefly, however, freshwater or brack- ish. He has, moreover, distinctly ascertained that the Hempstead Hill series constitutes another subdivision overlying the uppermost bed of the Bembridge Series, and characterized by a fresh set of fossils. «* Thus,” to use the author’s words, “‘ we find that the fluvio-marine Eocenes of the Isle of Wight are more than twice as thick as they have hitherto been regarded, and that the additional beds are even of greater geological importance than those hitherto recognized.” The remarkable feature in this section is, that from the Barton series upwards there is no break in the series of deposits; and as Prof. Forbes identifies the Hempstead series with the middle, and possibly the upper Limburg beds of Belgium, he is logically led to the conclusion, that the Limburg beds, and consequently the Wein- heim beds of the Mayence basin, which are unquestionably of the same age as the Middle Limburg, must be also Eocene. Other con- tinental beds are also referred to as necessarily belonging to this Eocene period. This is not the place to offer any criticism on Edward Forbes’s conclusions, but I may perhaps hereafter allude to the question, for the purpose of testing whether there may not exist some flaw in the argument, by which so many of the younger conti- nental beds are drawn into this Eocene vortex. During this period Prof. Forbes was not only most industrious with his pen, but he was unwearied in his arrangement and classification of the vast accumulation of fossils collected by the Ordnance Geolo- gical Survey, and now exhibited in the Jermyn Street Museum. He was no less active in the field with his hammer and his note-book. He not only explored various parts of England, Wales, and Ireland, but he visited, with the same observant eye and comprehensive glance, many portions of Belgium and of France, carefully comparing their various aspects and phenomena, and procuring materials for his philosophical generalizations. It is unnecessary for me to remind you of the satisfaction with which we hailed his appointment to the Presidentship of this Society, looking forward to the influence of his profound knowledge of pale- ontology on the future progress of our science. But scarcely had he occupied this chair for half the allotted term, when the death of his old master, Prof. Jameson, was announced in this metropolis. The universal voice of science was not slow in recognizing Edward Forbes as the man who, above all others, both as a naturalist and a geologist, was most fitted to succeed him. At the same time, I am bound to say, that while we were all ready to congratulate him on the prospect of thus reaching the highest goal which a true naturalist could desire, we looked forward with regret to the prospect of his removal from our circle. Nor was this grief altogether free from a feeling of shame, that this vast city, with its wealth, its display, its riches, its public and private associations, its great collections, its lavish expen- diture, and in many respects its unbounded liberality, could propose XXXV1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. no prize, no reward to the scientific man worthy to be placed in com- petition with that offered by the northern capital. Little did we then imagine that the regret we felt at his departure from amongst us was destined to be so soon merged in another, as overwhelming as it was altogether unexpected. Little did we imagine that the fond anticipations of a long and glorious career for our friend, in which we then indulged, were doomed to be so speedily destroyed. Prof. Forbes was appointed to the vacant Chair of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh. He had thus obtained the great object of his life. An intimate friend, writing in one of the Edin- burgh journals, says that he considered all his plans, excursions, observations, &c., as preparatory to this one object. During his active and laborious life, all his hopes and future plans pointed to Edinburgh as the only appropriate place for developing that vast amount of natural history acquirement he had obtained. There he looked forward, amongst other things which his eager fancy had prepared for him, to the formation of a magnificent museum, arranged according to that system which for years he had been zealously ma- turing. Nor can there be any doubt, but that with the liberal sup- port of Government, assisted by that of private individuals, he would have been enabled in a few years to carry out his plans. Sut alas! scarcely had he reached that goal which he had spent his whole life in endeavouring to attain, and which he was anxiously preparing to adorn with all the ornaments of science collected from every quarter of the globe, when he was suddenly carried off by the inscrutable decrees of Providence; and the glorious fabric he had erected,— that mental storehouse filled with the treasures of many years’ col- lecting, fell to pieces before our eyes, and nothing remained but the broken fragments and the shattered scaffolding, to be again dispersed and scattered, without system and without order, until they should be again hereafter collected together with infinite labour and fatigue by some future master-mind. | The fate of Str Joun FrRanxutn has long been a mystery to his countrymen: he has probably long ceased to be a member of this Society. It is, however, only durmg the course of the past session that any authentic information has reached this country that the gallant explorer of the Arctic regions: with his adventurous followers, had ceased to exist. Far from their ships, which, in the extremity of danger and a hard struggle for life, they must have abandoned, and after vainly eee to reach a more southern and hospitable region through a trackless desert, their remains were discovered by travelling Esquimaux, from some of whom portions of their property were Ub igined: These were rescued by the intrepid Dr. Rae, who had gone in search of them overland, and who brought back the melan- choly certitude of their fate. Their bones now Tie whitening on the Arctic shore, or beneath fields of eternal snow. By what means they reached that spot, or how they perished, will probably never be known ; but their memories will ever be cherished as of men who risked and sacrificed their lives in the performance of duty and of ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXVll scientific inquiry, and I trust I may also add, as the last instalment of valuable lives sacrificed to a vain and chimerical attempt to dis- cover that which, could it ever be discovered, would be alike unpro- fitable and unavailable. Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin was born at Spilsby in the year 1786, and performed his earliest service in the navy in the first year of this century, as a midshipman on board of the Polyphemus at the battle of Copenhagen. Sailing afterwards with Capt. Flinders to Australia, he acquired that skill im surveying and that power of ob- servation which characterized his subsequent career. After serving in the engagement against Admiral Linois in the Straits of Malacca, he next acted as signal-midshipman of the Bellerophon in the glorious victory of Trafalgar; and, lastly, towards the conclusion of the great war, his gallantry was again displayed conspicuously in the naval attack upon New Orleans, for which conduct he obtained his lieutenancy. A peace being established which promised a long duration, Franklin sought to be employed in the most adventurous service in which a seaman could then be engaged. He obtained, through the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, the command of the surveying vessel, the Trent, being one of two ships under the orders of Capt. Buchan, destined to penetrate into the Polar seas; on that occasion Franklin not only reached the high latitude of 84° 34” N. lat. in the meridian of Spitz- bergen, but evinced a strong desire to be allowed to proceed onwards alone, in the endeavour to effect a thorough passage. The undaunted and inflexible perseverance which he exhibited in his explorations off the coast of North America, between the years 1819 and 1822, both inclusive, is well known to the public through the clear and emphatic productions of his own pen. As geologists, however, we must specially remember, that the rock-specimens then brought home by Franklin and his associate, the eminent naturalist, Richardson, first revealed to us the structure of those distant and inaccessible regions. On his return to England, however, Franklin felt so strongly the want of better geological knowledge on his own part and on that of his officers, that when appointed to the command of the next Arctie expedition, on which he sailed in 1825, he took his first lessons in our science at the museum of our Society, accompanied by his dis- tinguished companions, Back and Richardson. At these morning meetings our much-respeeted former President, Dr. Fitton, was the instructor, assisted by Mr. T. Webster, then our secretary; Sir Roderick Murchison, who has informed me of these circumstances, being then also one of the learners. The intimacy thus commenced continued till Franklin’s last depar- ture from the shores of Britain in 1845; for whether he was tread- ing unknown tracts of North America, or commanding the Rainbow frigate in the Mediterranean, or performing the duties of Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, our deceased member, having been knighted by his sovereign and duly honoured by various public bodies, never ceased to correspond with his scientific friends, mcluding Mr. VOL. ‘Xr. ¢ XXXVIil PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Robert Brown, the enlightened botanist, and the old officers of this Society, Fitton and Murchison; sending to them also any specimens or descriptions which might, he thought, advance human know- ledge. ¥ Sir John Franklin united the warmest heart and kindest man- ners to a solid understanding, it naturally followed that his friends took an intense interest in promoting all those endeavours to rescue him and his followers from their last perilous voyage, and in encou- raging every effort directed to that end, whether made by the Govern- ment or by the magnanimous Lady of the missing chief. The suc- cessive Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society, and particularly Sir R. Murchison, stimulated our rulers to make every possible re- search which might lead to the timely discovery of the absent voy- agers. How some one of the earliest of these efforts might have succeeded, had it taken a southerly direction from Barrow’s Straits, is indeed now established by the melancholy announcement made by Dr. Rae; for, although the party was supplied with provisions for three years only, we now know that a iarge remnant of the force had certainly sustained life for five years. The late Proressor JAMESON was the third son of Thomas Jame- son, Esq., and was born at Leith on the 11th July, 1774. Inhis early years he showed a strong desire to become acquainted with natural objects, the study of which he evidently preferred to that of books and letters. His first attempts were made in stuffing birds, and in collecting animals and plants on the beach of Leith and its vicinity. A strong desire to travel was the result of his favourite pursuits, and his father ultimately yielded to his often-repeated wish to enter on the profession of a mariner; but his friends interposed, and suggested that by adopting the study of medicine, he might equally be enabled to study the works of nature. He yielded in his turn, and was appointed assistant to the late John Cheque Esq., surgeon in Leith. He commenced his study of natural history in 1792, under Dr. Walker, then Professor of Natural History im the College of Edinburgh, and soon became a favourite pupil. In 1793 he visited London, and became acquainted with the principal scientific men of the metropolis, and ever after spoke of the pleasure and benefit he had derived from his intercourse with Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Dryander, Dr. Shaw, and other leading members of the Linnean Society. With the exception of comparative anatomy, he now abandoned all idea of pursuing his medical studies. His attention was directed to that of ornithology and entomology, then of chemistry, and subsequently of mineralogy and geology, including a thorough knowledge of analytical chemistry. In 1797 Prof. Jameson paid his first visit to the island of Arran, and in the following year he published his work on the ‘ Mineralogy of the Island of Arran and the Shetland Islands, with Dissertations on Peat and Kelp.’ It was the first good geological account of these places and formations, and soon acquired a well-merited celebrity. He subsequently visited other portions of Scotland, and in 1800 published his ‘ Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles,’ in two vols. 4to, ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXIX illustrated with maps and plates. This work contained the first sketch of the geology of the Hebrides and the Orkneys. But the real period of Jameson’s celebrity as a mineralogist and a geologist dates from the year 1800, when he left his native country for Freyburg, where he remained nearly two years studying mine- ralogy and geology under the famous Werner. Jameson fully ac- knowledged that it was from him he first derived clear and distinct views of the structure and classification of rocks. This opinion is confirmed by Conybeare, who says, ‘‘ We are chiefly indebted to the reports of Werner's pupils, especially to those of Jameson, for our knowledge of Werner’s general views, so fully developed in his lec- tures, and there only.’’ Jameson also observed, in a passage which is too important not to be quoted on this occasion, pointing as it does to the very fundamental principle of all our modern geological inves- tigations, that ‘Werner taught that mineralogical and geological characters, and characters derived from organic remains, were to be employed in determining formations, and that probably the same general geological arrangements would be found to prevail through- out the earth. But,” he added, “ the truth or falsity of this view in regard to the similarity of formations, can only be determined by the united labours of geologists continued for a long series of years.” This, it may be observed, is the very position our science now occu- pies, tracing out geological formations from one hemisphere to the other, referring the fossils of India to the age of the Chalk of Eng- land, and comparing the Palzeozoic fossils of Australia with those of Great Britain and America. Thus, as Prof. Jameson admitted, it is to Werner that we are principally indebted for our present highly interesting views of the natural history of fossil organic remains; and in confirmation of this opinion, Prof. Jameson at a Y subsequent period vindicated the geognosy of Werner from the attacks made upon it by the Edinburgh Review. In 1804 Jameson returned to England in consequence of the state of his father’s health. Shortly afterwards, on the death of Dr. Walker in the same year, Jameson was appointed Professor of Natural His- tory; and from that period, by his admirable lectures, founded in a great measure on the sound mineralogical and geological views of his friend and master the Professor of Freyburg, he raised the Edinburgh school of Natural History to the proud pre-eminence it has occupied for the last half-century. In the same year, he published the first art of the first volume of his ‘ Mineralogical Description of Scot- land ;’ his other labours, however, prevented the completion of the work. In 1808 he founded at Edinburgh the Wernerian Natural History Society, of which he was elected perpetual President. In 1809 he published the ‘ Elements of Geognosy,’ a work which contributed more to introduce the doctrines of the Wernerian school into England than any other publication ; and from this time may be dated the antagonism between the Wernerian and the Huttonian doctrines, as advocated by the northern geologists. Nor was the spirit of partisanship thus engendered altogether useless, inasmuch as its final effect was to call attention to the study of, and to diffuse a ez xl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. more general taste for geology. Independently of this, the modifi- cation of the Neptunian theory as adopted by Werner, and in which form Prof. Jameson introduced it to the notice of his countrymen, has been proved by the test of modern science to be more consistent with the phenomena of Nature than the Plutonian views of its ad- versaries. It has served to introduce a more methodical study of the different formations of the earth’s crust, in harmony with the nume- rous organic remains which they contain, and which never could have been reconciled with the doctrines of the Huttonian theory. In 1813, at the suggestion of Professor Jameson, a translation of Leopold von Buch’s ‘Travels through Norway and Lapland m 1806, 1807, and 1808,’ was published by Mr. Black,—Jameson himself adding to the interest of the work by an account of the author, and by various notes illustrative of the natural history of Norway. In 1816, another edition of the ‘System of Mineralogy’ made its appearance in three volumes; and at the same time a new edition of his ‘ Cha- racters of Minerals’ was called for. Other editions of both works followed. In 1819, he commenced the ‘Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.’ For the first six years he conducted it with Sir David Brewster, but since that period he was the sole editor. It extends to seventy volumes, and is one of the most valuable repositories of scientific information in Britain. It will ever form one of the most durable monuments of his talents and industry. But while Jameson was thus exerting himself in Edinburgh to propagate sound and correct views respecting the geological phee- nomena of the earth’s crust, another distinguished naturalist was labouring in another capital to brmg about the same results by the help of comparative anatomy. In 1821, the immortal Cuvier published his ‘ Discourse on the Theory of the Earth,’ as an introduction to his ‘ Researches on Fossil Bones.’ ‘To Professor Jameson we are indebted for the publication of a translation of this work made by Mr. Kerr. On this work Jameson observes :—‘‘ The notes I have added will, I trust, be found interesting, and the account of Cuvier’s ‘ Geological Discoveries’ which accompanies them will be useful to those who have not an opportunity of consulting the great work.’ This popular work pro- duced an excellent effect in this country, for Cuvier was but partially known in England until this essay appeared. It rapidly ran through five editions: in the fifth, Professor Jameson entirely remodelled it, extending it from 190 to 550 pages. During this period he also contributed many articles to the ‘ En- clopzedia Britannica’ and to the ‘ Edinburgh Encyclopedia ;’ and on the return of Captain Parry from his Polar Expedition he drew up, from the specimens brought home, a sketch of the geology of the different coasts discovered and touched at by that enterprising navi- gator. But it would be occupying too much of your time, to enume- rate the various works which flowed from his ever-ready pen. I cannot, however, conclude this notice without briefly alludmg to one point respecting which Professor Jameson deserves the greatest praise, both for what he effected and for what he endeavoured to ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xli effect. The present Museum of Natural History in Edinburgh is the result of Jameson’s unceasing industry and efforts. The col- lections which existed before his time were almost entirely removed by the Trustees of his predecessor Dr. Walker ; and the nucleus of the present magnificent collection was Professor Jameson’s private property, when he was called to fill the chair of Natural History. He laboured incessantly to render it worthy of the place; but the means placed at his disposal, both by the Town Council and the Government, were inadequate to the task, and it was not without great private outlay that Professor Jameson raised it to its present state. In fact it may be said that the present Museum was founded, created, arranged, and exposed for public exhibition by the head and the industrious hands of Jameson alone. Professor Jameson died in Edinburgh, at the age of eighty, on the 19th of Apmil, 1854. The name of ARTHUR AIKIN is associated with the earliest days of the existence of our Society. In that Charter which forms the basis of our constitution, his name occurs as one of the founders of this Society. He was born at Warrington, in Lancashire, on the 19th May, 1773. The grandson of John Aikin, D.D., eminent for his learning and abilities, he evinced at an early age a decided love for. literature and science, and from his father derived a taste for Zoology, for Chemistry, and for English Botany, An early ac- guaintance with Dr. Priestley, of whom he subsequently became a favourite pupil, and whom he assisted in the arrangement of a new laboratory, confirmed him in his predilection for Chemistry. In 1797 he published an account of a tour in North Wales, made in the previous year in company with his brother Charles and another friend, under the title of ‘ Journal of a Tour in North Wales and part of Shropshire, with observations in Mineralogy and other branches of Natural History.’ At a subsequent period, in con- junction with his brother, he delivered lectures on Chemistry and Chemical Manufactures, of which a syllabus appeared in 1799. In 1807 he published ‘A Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy,’ 2 vols. 4to; and in 1814, ‘An account of the most recent dis- coveries in Chemistry and Mineralogy.’ But before this time Arthur Aikin had become conspicuous as one of that distinguished band of scientific men who contributed to the formation of the Geological Society of London, and founded it in 1807 ; soon afterwards his knowledge of mineralogy and chemistry must have contributed to his being appointed one of the Secretaries of the Society. In the first volume of the first series of our Trans- actions, published in 1811, his name appears as one of the Members of Council. In the second volume, published in 1814, he appears as one of the Secretaries, as well as in the third volume, pub- lished in 1816; but there is reason to believe that he became one of the Secretaries at a still earlier period. In the first volume of the first series there is an interesting paper by him, entitled “Observations on the Wrekin and on the Great Coal Field of Shropshire ;’’ and in the third volume is another with the title of xl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. “Some Observations on a Bed of Trap occurring in the Colliery of Birch Hill, near Walsall, in Staffordshire.” These papers, like all those published by the Society at that period, were of a much more mineralogical character than those now constituting the bulk of our publications. Paleontology had then made but little pro- gress. Its value and importance in assisting our knowledge of the relative ages of rocks was hardly recognized, nor amongst the illus- trations which accompany the early volumes are there any figures of organic remains. At a subsequent period he was appointed to the Secretaryship of the Society of Arts ; this circumstance is supposed to have led to his retirement from the office of Secretary to this Society ; but he continued for many years longer to serve on the Council, of which he was a member for the last time in 1830. One of the earliest members of the Society who knew him well thus writes to me of him:—“ He had a very logical head, and a calm and imper- turbable temper, and drew up abstracts of the papers read at the meetings with a precision that might stand in comparison with those of Dr. Wollaston at the Royal Society.” Asan instance of character it is mentioned that in early life he had been a minister of the Unitarian persuasion, but resigned his cure on conscientious grounds. He was a corresponding member of the Academy of Dijon, &c. He died in London, on the 15th April, at the advanced age of eighty. Dr. Strancer, the able and energetic naturalist of the ill-fated Niger Expedition, was born at Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire, in 1812. He took his degree of Doctor of Medicine at Edinburgh, and subse- quently visited Australia. He afterwards superintended, under the direction of the Government, the construction of roads near Cape Town, then returned to England, and settling in London, commenced the practice of his profession. But the pursuit of natural history had greater charms for his enterprising character. In 1841 he joined the Niger Expedition under Captain H. Trotter, R.N., and was one of the few of that gallant but unfortunate band who were not struck down by the devastating fever of the country. It was mainly owing to his energy, assisted by Dr. M‘Williams, that one of the steamers was brought down the river. In 1845 he was appointed Surveyor-General to the new colony of Natal, where, with the exception of a short interval of two years passed at home, he continued until his death. In this young colony his time was spent between the conscientious discharge of the duties of his office and a zealous investigation of the natural history of the district. But the pressing calls of his official duties did not permit of his reducing to erder his many observations on natural history. One of his last contributions to botanical science, to which he was particularly devoted, was the discovery of a plant belonging to the family of the Cycadeze, combining many peculiar characters, and named after him Stangeria. There is now a plant of it in the Royal Gardens at Kew, producing fruit. Exhausted by fatigue and cold, after travellmg from Maritzburg to Natal on horseback, he died on the 21st March, 1854, and was honoured ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xl with a public funeral as a mark of the respect in which he was held by the authorities and inhabitants of the district. His loss is the more to be regretted, inasmuch as it disappoints those hopes held forth by my predecessor last year, in allusion to the geological dis- coveries to be expected from Dr. Stanger, who was to have under- taken an official geological exploration of the province of Natal. The Rev. H. M. De ta Conpamine was a member of the Council at the period of his decease. In him we have to deplore the loss of one who was taking an active interest in the progress of the Society, and who had communicated to us only ashort time previously some interesting papers on the superficial deposits and drift beds in the neighbourhood of London. Mr. De la Condamine’s first paper read before this Society was, ‘‘ On the Tertiary Strata and their Dis- locations in the neighbourhood of Blackheath.’ In this paper, read January 5th, 1850*, it was stated that the cuttings of the North Kent Railway had yielded some good sections of the plastic clay series, and had disclosed an important line of dislocation at Deptford. After describing the effects produced by this dislocation, he states that we have thus a distinct line of demarcation between the lower and middle Eocene periods ; and then observes that the date of the dislocation of the strata must have been posterior to that of the partial denudation of the London clay. A second paper was read by Mr. De la Condamine on the 10th March, 1852, “ On a reversed fault at. Lewisham.”’ It is accompanied by diagrams illustrating the action of the forces which may have pro- duced the dislocation. The profound mathematical knowledge of the Author, for which he was remarkable, is well exemplified in this paper. On the 4th May, 1853, Mr. De la Condamine read another paper, ‘On a Freshwater deposit in the Drift of Huntingdonshire.” He was actively engaged in preparing other papers for our Society, when we were suddenly deprived of his assistance. One great merit of Mr. De la Condamine was, his taking up some of those minute points which, while they involve very abstruse subjects, offer less ap- parent attraction, but are not less necessary in solving important geological problems, than the grand phzenomena of igneous action, or the still more interesting labour of working on older beds abounding in the well-preserved remains of organic life. Mr. James Hatt was the third son of the late Sir James Hall of Dunglas Castle, the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, whose name can never be referred to without calling forth the grati- tude of geologists for his valuable experiments respecting the fusion of rocks under pressure. Our departed associate was the brother of the present Sir John Hall, and of the late Capt. Basil Hall, R.N. Instead of following his father’s footsteps in the pursuit of natural science, he devoted himself to the study of the arts, and was more practised in the use of the brush and easel than of the geological hammer. He was, however, a constant attendant at our meetings. His pictures were exhibited at the British Institution and at-the : * Journal, vol. vi. p. 440. xliv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Royal Academy, of which he was a student. He was the author of some speculative letters on Binocular Perspective, published in the Art Journal; but I am not aware that he contributed any papers to the Journal, or to the Transactions of our Society. He died on the 26th October last, at the age of fifty-seven. I can only briefly mention the names of other Members of our Society whom we have lost during the past year, and many of whom have done good service in the pursuit of geology. We deeply regret the loss of such men as the Rev. Thomas Egerton; Mr. G. W. Aylmer; Mr. W. Winterbottom; Mr. Scobie; Sir T. Frank- land Lewis, &c. The only loss we have sustained amongst our Foreign Associates is that of Dr. GorrHetr FriepRiIcH FiscHER DE WALDHEIM, Pro- fessor of Natural History in the University of Moscow. He was born at Waldheim, in Saxony, on the 15th October, 1771, and studied mine- ralogy at Freyberg, with Leopold von Buch and Baron von Humboldt, completing his medical studies at the University of Leipzic. At Paris he subsequently attended the lectures of Cuvier, and care- fully studied the natural-history collections of the French Museum. He had already given evidence of his extensive learning by numerous publications, when, in 1800, he was appointed Professor of Natural History at the Central School of Mayence. On his arrival there, however, he found that the chair had been given to another; and with that power of adaptation which belongs to true genius, he at once accepted the office of Librarian, which for a time led him away to other studies, particularly typographical antiquities. On this sub- ject he published several valuable works until 1804. But he did not, in the mean time, neglect his favourite pursuit ; he founded at Mayence a Natural History Society, of which he became the Secre- tary, and in 1804 published his ‘Anatomie der Maki und der ihm verwandten Thiere.’ In the same year he was appointed Professor and Director of the Museum of Natural History at Moscow, where a new field was opened to his talents, m which he laboured with zeal and energy during the remainder of his life. In the year 1805 he founded the Society of Naturalists of Moscow, and published the first volume of his ‘ Description du Muséum d’ Histoire Naturelle,’ the copper-plates of which he engraved with his own hands. This Museum, for the establishment and improvement of which he had so strenuously exerted himself, was destroyed during the conflagra- tion of the city in 1812. Such a calamity would have gone nigh to overwhelm an ordinary man. Dr. Fischer rose above the circum- stances, and with redoubled ardour immediately set to work to replace, as far as possible, the treasures which had been lost. Such ‘were his efforts, and such was the success with which they were at- tended, that in a very few years the new Museum had again acquired a valuable collection of objects of natural history. He had now begun to direct his attention more exclusively to the study of fossil zoology, or as it is now called, Paleeontology. In the ‘ Bibliographia Zoologize et Geologiz ’ of Agassiz, published by the Ray Society, there are no less than 150 notices of separate works and memoirs in journals and ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xlv Transactions published by him during the course of his long and laborious life. Among these are many bearing directly on our science, and which must have had considerable influence in directing the attention of the Russian Government to the mineral riches of the country, and of making its geological features better known beyond the limits of his own district. I will only mention a few of his more important works :—‘‘ Oryctographie du Gouvernement de Moscou,” 1837; “Bibliographia Paleeontologica Animalium Systematica,”’ 1810; a second edition in 1834; ‘‘ Notice des Fossiles du Gouverne- ment de Moscou,”’ 1809-1811; ‘‘ Notice sur quelques Animaux fossiles de la Russie,” 1829 ; “‘ Ueber verschiedene fossile Elephanten- species, die man unter dem Namen Mammouth begreift,” 1831 ; “Recherches sur les Ossemens fossiles de la Russie,’? 1824; ‘‘ Let- tre 4 M. Murchison sur le Riopalodon, genre de Saurien fossile du Versant occidental de l’Oural,’’ 1841; ‘ Revue des Fossiles du Gou- vernement de Moscou,”’ 1846; and many others. He was elected a Foreign Member of this Society, and of the Linnean Society, in 1820. He died at Moscow, on the 6th of October, 1853, having nearly completed his eighty-second year. GENTLEMEN,—In proceeding to lay before you, in accordance with the established usage of our Society, a sketch of the progress of Geology during the past session, I shall not attempt, as some of my distinguished predecessors have done, to single out any particular subject for discussion, and to lay it before you in all its bearings; I shall endeavour rather to bring together the principal events in the history of geology which have lately occurred, and to remind you of its general progress. Time, however, would be wanting to allude to every publication of interest on the subject which has appeared in our own or in foreign journals and publications. A mere list of names would be altogether unprofifable. I cannot even pretend to refer to all the papers read at our evening meetings; I must refer you to the Journal itself for most of them, while I can only briefly allude to some which appear to me of more than ordinary interest. If I have devoted a more than usual proportion of space to the works of foreign, and particularly German geologists, I trust I shall be excused for doing so, on the ground that I thought such information would prove more acceptable to the majority of my hearers, and because my own attention had been more particularly turned in that direction. British GEOLOGY AND OUR OWN PROCEEDINGS. Adopting then the ascending order, and commencing with the progress of Palzeozoic Geology in our own country, I must first con- gratulate you on the appearance of that truly standard work on this subject which has been lately published ; I allude to the ‘ Siluria’ of my old friend Sir Roderick Murchison. Every one who was acquainted with the previous labours of the author in this difficult and extensive field, was looking forward to its appearance with eager interest ; nor have our expectations been disappointed. I am satisfied that I but xlvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. give utterance to the sentiments of all present, when I say that we owe a debt of gratitude to the author for having laid before us im such a comprehensive manner the vast amount of information con- tained in his two former works, ‘The Silurian System,’ and ‘ Russia and the Ural Mountains,’ enhanced by the addition of the results of subsequent investigations up to the time of publication. Our thanks are due to him, moreover, for having published his book in a form and at a price which make it accessible to every geological student. By a judicious method of condensation, which, while diminishing the bulk, has preserved the essence and character of the subject-matter, the author of ‘Siluria’ has brought before us in one comprehensive glance the whole phzenomena of the Palzeozoic rocks throughout the world. In alluding to this publication, however, I am happy to find that I have no occasion to tax my own powers, or to be suspected of par- tiality in analysing a work which has been so generally approved of. If the Geological Society had not been deprived of the services of my eminent predecessor by his removal to the University of Edm- burgh in the middle of his presidency, and if his valuable life had not been so prematurely cut short, it would have been his duty to perform a task for which he was so much better qualified than my- self. Fortunately, however, as respects ‘ Siluria,’ we have the record of the deliberately formed judgment of our late President, as pub- lished last autumn, and which is the more valuable, imasmuch as some of his theoretical views were not in unison with those of the author. After giving a summary of the Silurian formations, the words of our lamented President, which, had he been alive, he would assuredly have addressed to ourselves, are these :— ** Now, when it is recollected that the ‘Silurian System,’ that great work in which its author fully stated and co-ordinated the results of his researches on the Welsh border, was given to the world only fifteen years ago, and that the very epithet ‘Silurian’ was itself assigned to these formations no longer ago than in the year 1835, the influence of Sir Roderick Murchison’s labours and generalizations in stimulating discovery, and leading to a clear understanding of the earlier sedimentary rocks, must be regarded as great indeed. And, be it observed, in this short sketch of foreign primeval geology, we have used the word Silurian constantly, not of our own choice, or to do honour to its inventor, but because it is the term applied to the rocks in question by their explorers in all countries. The geologists of the continent, of Australia, and of America, have identified the older palzeozoic formations, whose structure and fossil contents they have so admirably described, with the ‘Silurian’ system of our own country, and with the types of its greater sections as defined by its first investigator. In fact, they have adopted as a standard that system which, being definite in its details, enabled them to obtain a distinct scale for the purposes of comparison. They have not chosen their nomenclature on account of its author, but because the model he had set before them is perspicuous and intelligible. “We question whether any practical geologist now living would ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xlvil doubt for a moment that one of the greatest advances ever made in the descriptive section of his science was the establishment of the Silurian system. It matters not whether we hold, with its author, that the earliest manifestations of life and the commencement and inauguration of animated nature are included within it ; or, with Sir Charles Lyell, more cautiously interpret the relics of primzeval beings, and regard the Silurian fauna as the earliest yet demonstrated, though not necessarily the first. Whichever view we take, the im- portance of the discovery and definition of the Silurian system cannot be called in question. It was a grand reward of sagacity, perseve- rance, and well-directed skill—no lucky chance, but a discovery deliberately sought, which threw a flood of daylight around a realm of geological darkness, and made the obscurest of rock assemblages one of the clearest and most instructive. A single man did this great and worthy task. The definition of the Silurian system, and the several members or sections of which it is composed, the invention of a nomenclature for the subdivisions, which, though essentially local, has become of universal application, the determination of a scheme of organic types upon which comparisons and identifications could be conveniently based—all these good works were done by one inves- tigator, the illustrious author of the volume now before us*.”’ I have also to notice a paper by Professor Sedgwick, ‘‘On the May Hill Sandstone and the Paleeozoic System of the British Isles.” I am not about to attempt any discussion of the vewata questio be- tween Professor Sedgwick and Sir R. Murchison respecting the nomenclature of the earliest paleeozoic formations, or to explain what amount of error or of truth there may be in the respective views of these two distinguished men; I will only observe that, in support of his views, Professor Sedgwick endeavours to show in this paper that there is no continuous unbroken section ascending from the Cambrian to the overlying Silurian groups, but that there is a physical break between them exactly on the horizon of the May Hill Sandstone, and that, in co-ordination with that break, there is a great change in the fossil species. The value of this evidence depends on its being shown to be general, and not a merely local phenomenon. The Ordnance Geological Survey has been satisfactorily progressing during the past year, and it is gratifying to know that Sir H. De la Beche and his able staff have at length been enabled to direct their attention to the survey of some parts of Scotland. This has been rendered possible by the Trigonometrical Survey having now completed a sufficient portion of the map to admit of the geological features being laid down. In England the survey is being extended to the central counties, and here also we may expect some results of more than ordinary interest, inasmuch as its extension involves the question of the distribution of the Coal under the New Red Sandstone. One of the most interesting results of the labours of the Survey during the past year has been Mr. Salter’s investigation of the lower Carboniferous rocks in Pembrokeshire and North Devon, confirming views formerly held by Sir H. De la Beche, viz. that the upper part * Quarterly Review, No. cxc. Sept. 1854, p. 385. xlvyii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of the Devonian formation, as shown in North Devonshire, is identi- cal with the lower beds of the Carboniferous formation in Western England. The probability of this being the case was pointed out by Sir H. Dela Beche in the ‘ Report on Devonshire and Cornwall,’ but the subsequent working-out of: the fossils by Professor Phillips and Mr. Sowerby showed so many peculiar species identical with those from strata below the Carboniferous limestone on the Continent, that the beds in question (the Pilton group of Professor Phillips,—the fifth group of Professor Sedgwick and Sir R. Murchison) have been regarded as the upper portion of the Devonian rocks, with which, however, they have very few fossils in common. A careful examina- tion of the Lower Limestone Shale by Mr. Salter during the past summer, in East and West Pembrokeshire, has led him to the con- clusion that these beds, interposed as a shaly series between the carboniferous limestone and the true old red sandstone, should be considered as a part of the Carboniferous system, all the more abun- dant fossils being characteristic of that formation. In East Pem- brokeshire these beds repose on the Old Red Sandstone, which con- tains but few fossils, and which in West Pembrokeshire loses its red colour, and consists of yellow sandstones and limestones, with Avicula Damnoniensis and Cucullea trapezium overlaid by a peculiar series of shales and sandstones, with frequent fish- and coprolite-beds. When Mr. Salter crossed the Bristol Channel and examined the upper beds of the Devonian rocks, where the red colour has been absent from a still larger portion of the upper Old Red, he found that the yellow sandstones and associated limestone were identical with those which he had seen in West Pembrokeshire. Here also the beds containing Avicula Damnoniensis, Cucullea, and a peculiar trilobed Bellerophon were overlaid by a great shaly and slaty series full of the same Carboniferous fossils (Spirifer, Terebratula, &c.), with fish beds containing the same species, and made up of arenaceous limestone and shales, which, but for their more complete slaty cleavage, could not be distinguished from those of Pembrokeshire. Mingled, however, with the mass of carboniferous fossils, Mr. Salter found in abundance those peculiar species Strophalosia caperata and Phacops latifrons, which characterize this district, and are not known in Pembrokeshire. The latter species, indeed, is a decidedly Devonian type, rising up in this instance for a considerable thickness (many hundred feet at least) into the lower carboniferous deposits. Mr. Salter therefore considers that, as already suggested by Mr. D. Sharpe, on fossil evidence alone, this group should be cut off from the Devonian and included in the Carboniferous system. It is the Carboniferous slate of Dr. Griffith, and occurs in great thickness in Ireland, with a highly cleaved structure. It wili be a subject of congratulation to those who take an interest in the geology of Ireland, to learn that the Government has at length determined on introducing the one-inch scale of maps for the use of the Ordnance Geological Survey of that country. The six-inch scale, however useful for a survey of landed property, or for registering minute geological features, is far too unwieldy and ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xlix expensive for the practical purposes of the geologist. I am able to state, that the maps are now being engraved on the smaller scale, and that a commencement has already been made in the use of them. Mr. Jukes announced to the Geological Section at Liverpool that the northern part of the county of Wicklow was already completed and coloured geologically. The last Number of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey (De- cade III.) is devoted to the figures and descriptions of Trilobites, which, as our late President observes in the Introduction, are remark- ably characteristic of well-defined geological horizons. The study of these forms is consequently of great importance to the geologist whose labours are directed to the investigation of the more ancient rocks, to which they exclusively belong. ‘The figures and descriptions in this Decade are by Mr. Salter. The question of the cleavage and foliation of the older crystalline rocks is one which has on several occasions occupied our attention at the evening meetings, and has given rise to many interesting discus- sions. ‘To judge from the various opinions entertained on this sub- ject, the question still requires much careful examination, not only in a theoretical point of view as to the causes which may have produced these effects, but even as to the facts themselves on which these theories are to be founded. It would therefore be premature to enter fully into this question, but I will endeavour briefly to lay before you the evidence which has been brought forward, and the different views entertained upon the subject. Three papers have been lately read before the Society, describing the various phzeno- mena observed by the different authors; the first was a paper by Mr. Sharpe, ‘On the Structure of the Crystalline Rocks in the neighbourhood of Mont Blanc ;’’ the second was by Mr. Evan Hop- kins, ‘On the Laminated Structure of the Primary Rocks ;’’ and the third was read at our last meeting by Mr. David Forbes, ‘‘On the Foliated Rocks of Norway.” The universality of the views entertained by Mr. Evan Hopkins, and the fact of his having already, in 1850, stated them partially to the Society, induce me to notice them first. On the former occa- sion, in his paper on the “Structure of the Crystalline Rocks of the Andes, and their Cleavage Planes,’ Mr. Hopkins endeavoured to show that in a section of many hundred miles, the crystalline rocks of South America were universally characterized by vertical or almost vertical lines of cleavage, and that these cleavage planes had a uni- form meridional direction or strike, thereby separating innumerable varieties of granites, gneiss, schists, hornblende, chloritic slates, porphyries, &c., into great meridional bands. In his paper of this session, Mr. Evan Hopkins has endeavoured to show, that in all countries, in all regions, in all quarters of the globe, the old crystal- line rocks have a vertical cleavage, with a north and south direction. This view he lays down with absolute universality, illustrating it by sections of many thousand miles made by himself in various parts of the world. Mr. Hopkins subsequently admitted exceptional cases, but maintained the generality of his law, stating that when these ] PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. crystalline rocks were overlaid by horizontally or nearly horizontally- stratified sedimentary deposits, the latter exhibited at their point of contact with the older rocks evidence of undergoing the process of vertical cleavage or lamination, and that the lines of stratification were gradually obliterated. Mr. E. Hopkins does not, as far as I can understand, draw any distinction between cleavage and lamina- tion. Mr. Sharpe, avoiding the universality of Mr. E. Hopkins, confined his remarks to those portions of the chain of Mont Blane which he had visited during the past summer. Having disposed of the erro- neous views of former authors, who, not sufficiently attending to the differences of stratification and cleavage, had asserted that the gneiss or stratified granite of Mont Blanc overlaid the secondary rocks seen in the Valley of Chamounix and in Val Ferret, Mr. Sharpe pointed out that the chain of Mont Blanc consists of two lines of vertical foliation, about one mile and a half apart, having a strike parallel to the major axis of the chain, extending along its whole length, and separated by a narrow anticlinal axis. This anticlinal axis, how- ever, appears to me to be the result of the fan-shaped arrangement of the two systems of radiation. The planes of foliation, which are vertical along the highest ridges of the mountain, radiate as it were outwards as they recede from the central vertical line. Thus, where there are, as here, two lines of foliation running parallel to each other, the southern radiations of the northern line diverge to- wards the northern radiations of the more southern line, and thus produce the appearance of an anticlinal axis. Mr. Sharpe also pointed out that where the crystalline rocks are overlaid on their line of strike by slates of sedimentary origin, the cleavage of the slates is on the continuation of the planes of foliation of the gneiss and mica schist, and that where the slates lie against the sides of the crystalline mass, their cleavage planes combine with the planes of foliation of the crystalline rocks to form anticlinal axes of considerable regularity ; thus confirming the opinion originally pronounced by Mr. Darwin, and subsequently confirmed by Mr. Sharpe himself, by observations in the Highlands of Scotland, that the cleavage of the slates and the foliation of the crystalline rocks were owing to the same cause. The observations contained in Mr. D. Forbes’s paper derive addi- tional importance from the many opportunities the author has had of studyinz the structure of the crystalline rocks in Norway and else- where, and from the corroborative evidence he has acquired in pro- ducing artificial gneiss out of clay-slate by long exposure to great heat, but not at such a degree as would produce fusion. Mr. Forbes insists strongly on the difference between cleavage and foliation, con- sidering cleavage to be the result of mechanical action, whilst folia- tion can only be accounted for as the result of chemical forces, but not necessarily requiring such a temperature as to produce fusion, or even semi-fusion. The following views are considered by Mr. D. Forbes as the result of his inquiries :—1. That foliation and cleavage are two distinct processes not necessarily connected ; 2. That foliation ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. h is the result of chemical action combined with a simultaneously acting arranging molecular force, generally developed at temperatures below the fusion or semi-fusion of rocks; also that when we find rocks which we know have been previously in a state of fusion, possessing a foli- ated structure, this structure has been induced subsequently to their solidification ; 3. That the arrangement of foliation may often be due to the intrusion or approach of igneous rocks; and 4. That there is reason to suppose that the foliated rocks may be altered fossiliferous strata, from their chemical composition, from the presence of certain minerals, and on account of the changes known to take place in other fossiliferous rocks. Notwithstanding certain points of agreement between the respective authors of these papers, there is still such an amount of difference of opinion amongst them as to make it desirable that more information, based on careful and accurate observation in different districts, should be obtained on the subject, before we can venture to say that any satisfactory explanation of the many varied phenomena connected with the cleavage and foliation of rocks has been obtained. The paper by Mr. O. Westwood, entitled ‘‘ Contributions to Fossil Entcmology,” is one of great interest, and which, taken into consi- deration with another paper to which I shall briefly allude, is of importance in enabling us better to understand the progressive changes of organic life, and to unravel some at least of the causes which have led to the modifications of animal life during the different periods of geological time. Not being an entomologist, I have no pretension to speak about the details of the paper ; but I must at least call your attention to the admirable execution of the plates by which it is illustrated, and to the care which Mr. Westwood has bestowed on the description of the different remains submitted to him for examination. By far the largest portion of these numerous suites of fossil insects were obtained by Messrs. Brodie and Willcox from the lower Purbeck beds of Durdlestone Bay. They leave no doubt, whatever may have been the nature of the climate which they are supposed to indicate, that a vast assemblage of imsect life must have existed in the imme- diate vicinity of the spot where they were entombed and preserved. This fact is peculiarly interesting when taken in connexion with the discovery by Mr. Brodie of mammalian remains in some of the members of the Purbeck formation, also at Durdlestone Bay. These remains were at first supposed to be reptilian, differing only in species from those of lizards of a somewhat similar size with which they were associated. We are indebted to Prof. Owen, to whom they were submitted, for the important discovery, after a careful removal of the matrix which concealed their most characteristic features, that they belonged to the Mammalian class. Guided by that accurate knowledge of osteology and comparative anatomy which he ever brings to bear on subjects of this kind, Prof. Owen was not slow to discover, on proceeding to examine the charac- ters and forms of the teeth, that these interesting remains not only belonged to the Mammalian class, but that they exhibited the general condition of the molar teeth of small insectivorous mammalia. Let hi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. me call your attention to the important conclusions which he draws from the occurrence of this insectivorous mammal, to which he has given the name of Spalacotherium tricuspidens, in the very same formation in which such abundant remains of insect life had been already found by Mr. Brodie and Mr. Willcox. ‘The chief interest,” says Prof. Owen, ‘“‘in the discovery of the Spalacotherium is derived from its demonstration of the existence of Mammalia about midway between the older oolitic and the older tertiary periods,’ thus help- ing to fill up that enormous hiatus between these two periods in which mammalian remains had hitherto been found. He then alludes to the interesting fact of these insectivorous animals being found in such close neighbourhood to the insects themselves on which they fed. He adds, “‘ Amongst the numerous enemies of the imsect class ordained to maintain its due numerical relations, and organized to pursue and secure its countless and diversified members in the air, in the waters, on the earth and beneath its surface, bats, lizards, shrews, and moles now carry on their petty warfare simultaneously, and in warmer latitudes work together, or in the same localities, in their allotted task. No surprise need therefore be felt at the discovery that mammals and lizards cooperated simultaneously, and in the same locality, at the same task of restraining the undue increase of insect life during the period of the deposition of the lower Purbeck beds.”’ We may here trace another beautiful instance of the adapta- tion of organic life to the conditions and circumstances in which it is to be placed. These adaptations are of two kinds: the one which shows us how those forms of life which have existed during long periods of time, cease when the conditions necessary for their exist- ence undergo such a change as to render them no longer suited to the life they have hitherto maintained,—a phenomenon which is constantly brought under the notice of the attentive geological ob- server. The second form of adaptation is that which points to the commencement or creation of new forms, when new conditions have been brought about agreeing with the requirements of their respective existences. No doubt these latter are also of frequent occurrence, but they more easily escape observation. It is seldom that the paleontologist or the zoologist has such an opportunity of seeing cause and effect brought into such immediate juxtaposition as in this case, where we find the insectivorous mammal there making his ap- pearance where insect life was swarming, and when we may conclude that the laws which regulated the existence of animal life required the introduction of a fresh force to keep down the too rapid increase or development of another, and to counteract its tendency to exceed the functions for which it was intended. Our indefatigable colleague, Sir Philip Egerton, has contributed even more than his usual quota of palichthyological information ; he has in several papers described new species from various parts of the world. Amongst these, his account of the fish remains from the nummulitic limestone of the Mokattam Hills, near Cairo, is particu- larly deserving of attention, as pointing out the union of the typical characters of several families in one species, so as to render it doubt- ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. li ful to which it should be referred. The fish in question had, as Sir Philip Egerton observes, a close resemblance to the Scizenoids and particularly to the genus Pristipoma, in the characters of the organs of locomotion, and in the general form of the trunk; but in the opercular apparatus and osteology of the cranium, it more nearly approaches the Percoids. The dentition differs from both, and re- sembles that of some of the Sparoids. To the continued exertions of Mr. Prestwich we are indebted for several papers containing much valuable detail respecting the Ter- tiaries of the London and Hampshire basins. The first paper, on the thickness of the London Clay, is full of information obtained from the most authentic sources; and the manner in which Mr. Prestwich has tested and checked the information he received, is deserving of the highest praise. The position and distribution of the organic remains throughout the whole series are carefully given, and the different zones in which they occur are well worked out. The value of this portion of the paper has been materially enhanced by the publication for the first time of the separate lists of fossils contained in these different zones. The principal zones referred to by Mr. Prestwich are,—1. Isle of Sheppey. 2. Highgate. 3. Prim- rose Hill, Copenhagen Fields, Whetstone, Islington, Haverstock Hill, Hornsey, Holloway, and Hampstead. 4. Bognor. It must be borne in mind, however, that Mr. Prestwich restricts the term *‘London Clay”’ to one of the lower deposits of London and of Hamp- shire, excluding therefrom the Bracklesham and Barton beds. The next paper by Mr. Prestwich is on the distinctive physical and paleontological features of the London Clay and Bracklesham Sands, and on the independence of these two groups of strata. The object of this paper is to confirm, chiefly on the evidence of the organic remains, the opinion already pronounced by the author in a former communication, that these two formations are not synchronous; and to endeavour to disprove the opinions of other geologists, espe- cially those on the continent, who have considered that the differences in the characters of the fauna of these several beds were dependent on geographical distribution, depth of water, or variations of sediment. The author points out the confusion which has arisen in the com- parison of the London and Paris basins, in consequence of this di- stinction not having been sufficiently attended to, and the characteristic fossils of the London Clay proper and the Bracklesham Sands having been grouped together as belonging to one formation. “After de- scribing the different lithological characters of the two groups, Mr. Prestwich enumerates the number of species of the different classes of organic remains occurring in the two formations, and points out how few species are common to both. Thus— London Clay. Bracklesham. Common. Mammalia........ Be yas 3.0: ; oe paconilageat 0 DITGS..2 6 725 4305: BB ye he tat Pea aes: 34 0 Reptiles -....... BE S00 ae eS oD 2 SOEs 1, d liv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. London Clay. Bracklesham. Common. Wag foe oh ck oda BOs. 44:44 oe 10 Mollusea.....2. «. DOA... ws chu eee! oe 56 Articulata........ Oe Tiscyeneee ae Pars. 4 Kehmodermata,., 12) “esxesess 1 0 Loophy ta... : 424% 10. :.. oZt RR si 0 araminieray..-.. Zawinckaes OO CE ie Phintes 3.8 St LOG -="22eRe Fs a ak a tal 2 os. & 515 450 72 In a second portion of this paper the author draws attention to a very remarkable and significant circumstance; viz. the amount of agreement between the lower London Tertiaries and the upper beds of the underlying Chalk. He particularly instances the Thanet Sands and the lower Landenian system of Dumont in Belgium, the faunze of which have a general facies so closely resembling that of analogous groups in some of the cretaceous strata, that they, and particularly the Belgian beds, have by some been considered as cre- taceous rather than tertiary. Other cretaceous fossils are shown to range upwards into still younger formations of the London basin. I shall not pretend to go through the arguments brought forward by Mr. Prestwich; the paper is one which deserves the particular attention of every paleontologist. I will only make one observation on the concluding statement, ‘‘ that the London clay presents in many of its generic forms a closer approach to those now existing in our climate than the Bracklesham sands.”’ This remark appears to me to offer additional difficulties to our endeavours to define with any- thing like accuracy, on paleontological grounds alone, the respective limits of the different tertiary epochs. If we find, in consequence of the physical and geographical features of the seas in which these tertiary organisms were deposited, that the fossils of the older forma- tions resemble living forms more closely than those deposited during the intervening period, how can we attempt, on fossil evidence alone, where superposition does not come to our assistance, to determine the relative ages of formations situated at a distance from and indepen- dently of each other? Physical changes influencing the conditions of life must have occasioned numerous oscillations of the earth’s surface ; and if this observation is confirmed, we must conclude that they have so modified the character of the ancient seas as to have brought back forms of an older date, hitherto supposed to have died out. We have thus imposed upon us a task of more than ordinary difficulty, and one requiring no ordinary caution before we can hope satisfactorily to unravel the order of creation, or to define the relative periods in which many of the European tertiary formations were deposited. In a subsequent paper, of which as yet a short abstract only has been published, Mr. Prestwich has communicated to us his views on the correlation of the lower tertiaries of England with those of France and Belgium. ‘The author is known to have had so many oppor- tunities of examining these different formations, that his opmions are entitled to the greatest consideration ; they are put forward with a ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lv clearness which ensures attention, and with a simplicity which dis- arms all criticism. For my part, at least, I must diselaim all idea of such a proceeding. I will merely state the principal conclusions at which he has arrived. Beginning with the lowest tertiaries, he corre- lates the Thanet Sands of the south-east of England with the Lower Landenian, and the Woolwich and Reading series with the Upper Landenian of M. Dumont in Belgium. The former of these is wanting in the Paris basin, and of the latter the middle division only, the Argile plastique, is represented at Paris lying immediately on the Chalk. The London Clay corresponds with the Lower Ypresian of M. Dumont, and occurs near Dieppe, but dies out southward towards Lille. This is succeeded by the Bagshot series, the lower portion of which is represented by the sands below the Bracklesham beds in Hants, by the lower Bagshots of the London district, by the upper Ypresian and Panisilian combined in Belgium, and by the Lits coquilliers in the Soissonnais district. The middle portion is represented by the Bracklesham beds in Hants, the middle Bagshots in the London district, the Systéme Bruwellien of M. Dumont, and the Calcaire grossier of the Soissonnais and Paris, which itself rests on the Argile plastique. Mr. Prestwich does not appear as yet to have carried his compari- sons any further. I trust he will not omit to complete a work which he has so well begun, although in some respects, I fear, he will find a difficult task before him in proportion as he approaches those beds which are supposed to mark the limits between the Eocene and Miocene periods. I am bound, however, to state, that, although Mr. Prestwich does not recognise the existence of the lower division of the Woolwich beds in the Paris basin, I am informed by M. Deshayes that in the course of last summer he found at Rilly, near Epernay, a bed of brackish water and other shells, underlying the great marine deposits, exactly corresponding with our author’s Woolwich beds. M. Des- hayes has not yet published the results of his last year’s excursions, but I hope we shall soon have from him the evidence on which this identification has been founded. I regret that in consequence of some delay in the preparation of the plates, the volume of the Paleeontographical Society for 1854 should not have yet made its appearance. It would be premature to allude to the works which it will contain; but there can be no doubt that when it shall be in the hands of the members it will be found fully to maintain the high reputation acquired by its predecessors, and will be a valuable assistance to the students of British geology. I will only mention that it is to contain the first part of the Mollusca of the London Clay, the publication of which has been undertaken by Mr. I’. Edwards. This has been long expected by the subscribers, as it must be in the recollection of many who first came forward as pro- moters of this publication, and as I know it was the prevailing idea in the minds of some who first suggested it, that this was one of the great desiderata which led to the formation of the Society. It is a subject of hearty congratulation to all students of Palseon- d 2 lvt PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tology that the second edition of Mr. Morris’s Catalogue of British Fossils, on which he has been so long and laboriously employed, and respecting which my predecessor in this chair so fully expatiated last year, has been at length published. Its contents fully justify those remarks. Independently of the vastly increased number of species recorded in this volume as compared with the first edition, the addition of synonyms which the author has given in a great majority of in- stances has infinitely increased its value; and yet even in this respect much still remains to be done, which I trust the author will not forget when he shall be called on for another edition. FoREIGN GEOLOGY. Since the publication of his great work ‘ Siluria,’ Sir R. Murchison has again visited some of the Paleozoic formations in the north of Germany, of which he proposes to give a full account to the Society, in continuation, as it were, of his fourteenth chapter, in which he has discussed the Primeval Succession of Roeks in Germany. A short account of his recent observations, made in company with Mr. Morris, was laid before the Geological Section of the British Asso- ciation during the last meeting at Liverpool, from which I make the following extracts. After alluding to M. Barrande’s great work on the Silurian System of Bohemia, so ably described by my predecessor in this chair last year, the author stated that in the Southern Thi- ringer Wald, and in parts of Saxony further east, the great unfossili- ferous base (chloritic and quartzose grauwacke slate) is succeeded in ascending order by Lower Silurian beds, described as such by Naumann, Geinitz, Richter, Engelhardt, and other local geologists, because it is charged with Nereites, Graptolites, Ogygia, and other Silurian fossils, which occur in black slates, with some limestone and shale. Mr. Salter, having examined the fossils, stated that one of the remarkable Annelides was identical with a species which Professor Harkness had discovered in the Lammermuir Hills, and that even the Protovirgularia of the same tract of Scotland occurs also in Thi- ringia. As several of the species of Graptolites of the two countries are identical, there can be little doubt that the Lower Silurian of Saxony is the equivalent of the graptolitic series of Dumfries and Kirkcudbright. Here the ascending series in the Thiiringer Wald ceases, there being no traces of. Upper Silurian or even of Lower Devonian. The Lower Silurian rocks are there at once covered by the Upper Devonian, viz. the Cypridina-schist and the Clymenia- limestone ; and these are surmounted by a considerable expansion of the Lower Carboniferous strata, viz. micaceous brown and yellowish sandstones, with plants well known in the deposits of that age. The sedimentary rocks of the Hartz, the chief object of their visit this year, and which Professor Sedgwick and one of the authors had examined together on two previous occasions in 1828 and 1839, are so dislocated and are so often inverted in position, that their physical order can but seldom be detected amid the confusion which has been pro- duced by the eruption of granites, porphyries, diorites, hypersthenic ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lvil and other igneous rocks, as well as by the metamorphism which large masses have undergone. - Sir R. Murchison, however, expressed his belief that all the members of the Devonian group of the Rhenish Grauwacké of the Germans, from the Spirifer Sandstone and Slate upwards, through the Stringocephalus and Eifel Limestone, to the Upper or Clymenia Limestone, are there present ; and that they are succeeded by schists often in the siliceous state of Kiesel Schiefer, and by others containing the well-known Posidonomya Becheri of Herborn ; whilst rocks of this Lower Carboniferous age occasionally contain a dark limestone, with characteristic fossils of the Mountain Limestone. M. Adolphe Roemer, who has partly worked out this comparison, is still engaged on that work, and in completing a geological map of the district. The chief object of Sir R. Murchison’s last visit to the Hartz was to determine whether certain rocks in its eastern extremity, which have been laid down and mapped as Silurian by M. A. Roemer, were really of that age or not; an interesting question, inasmuch as it was precisely in this portion of the district that Professor Sedgwick and the author anticipated fifteen years ago that the oldest rocks of the chain would be found. It appears that in one small boss of lime- stone, not exceeding ten feet in thickness, and subordinate to the slates on the north-east flank of the mountain, M. Jasche of Elsin- ' berg has discovered many fossils of the genera Orthis, Terebratula, Leptena, Spirifer, Pentamerus, Trilobites, &c., some of which are undoubtedly British Upper Silurian species, while others are identi- fied with Bohemian fossils described by Barrande as belonging to his uppermost stages. Looking to the mimeral aspect of these schists and limestones, which differ from all others in the Hartz, and judging from the fossils, the greater number of which are of types apparently more ancient than those of any known Devonian rock, Sir R. Mur- chison suggests that the grauwacké round Harz-gerode may be re- ferred to the uppermost Silurian rock of the Continent, and be placed on the same parallel as one of the highest stages of M. Barrande. In the Rhenish country Sir R. Murchison and Prof. Morris found that the Wissenbach and Caub Slates had been perfectly identified by Dr. Sandberger and his brother by means of a community of fossils, and that Clymenia had been detected in the Cypridina Slates of Nassau, thus identifymg these rocks with the Krammenzel-stein of Westphalia. But the most striking new discovery in this region was one which Sir R. Murchison regretted he was unacquainted with when he published his ‘Siluria,’ viz. that the quartz rocks of the Taunus, about whose true place in the series there has been so much discussion, prove to be the youngest of all the older rocks on the right bank of the Rhime. In their trend to the E.N.E. they part with this highly metamorphosed character, and, being regularly bedded and interstratified with shale, have been there shown by M. Ludwig of Nauheim to overlie the series of Devonian rocks, con- sisting in ascending order of slates, Spirifer sandstones, Wissenbach slates, Eifel limestones, &c. In these overlying quartzites large plants like Calamites have been discovered, and as they lie trans- lvili PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. gressively on the Devonian rocks, they are probably of the Lower Carboniferous age. The author then proceeded to give an account of the Permian rock round the Hartz and the Thiringer Wald, specially poimting out the enormous thickness of their base or bottom rock, the rothe todte Liegende or Lower red sandstone of England. No coal of any consequence is found in this deposit, although thin seams have been found in Saxony, which have afforded the remarkable Permian flora described as such by Gutbier and Geinitz. On the other hand, these rocks have been pierced at Rotheburg, near Eisleben, to a depth of 1200 feet, and at Eisenach to a still greater depth, without reaching the carboniferous rocks or finding any trace of coal. The uppermost beds of this rothe todte Liegende are well exposed in natural sections on the N.E. flank of the Thiiringer Wald, where they are overlaid by bituminous schists, and by the Kupfer Schiefer with its fossil fishes. Alluding then to the Zechstein or Magnesian Limestone, the author explaimed why, in proposing the word Permian, from the spread of these rocks over the Russian province of Perm, he had also included in this group a certain portion of schistose and partly calcareous red rocks which everywhere overlie the Zechstein, and often constitute ridges separated from the Bunter Sandstein, properly so called, or the base of the Trias. Thus he considered the Permian (which in Russia has copper-bearing sandstones, with plants and conglomerates far above the Zechstein) to be an under-Trias, having the Zechstein lime- stone intercalated in a great red formation. After commenting on the spread of the Triassic formation through Europe, the author specially called attention to the recent discovery, by M. de Verneuil, of true Muschelkalk in several parts of Spain, containing numerous fossils. This communication concluded with a general résumé, in which the author directed attention to a map showing, that, whilst the rocks of the Silurian basin of Bohemia, the Silurian and Devonian troughs of Saxony, and the great Paleozoic region of the Rhenish provinces (composed of Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks) have a main strike from N.E. to 8.W., coincident with the major axes of their geographical range, the sedimentary deposits of the same age in the Hartz, the North Thiiringer Wald, and the Riesen Gebirge have been thrown by great subterranean forces into transverse geographi- cal chains, accompanied by the eruption of granites, porphyries, green- stones, &c., which have not only wrenched the original strata into abnormal directions, but have also metamorphosed them in aremark- | able manner. Nor can I omit, whilst alluding to these remarks by our own countryman on the structure of the paleeozoic rocks of Northern Germany, to notice an interesting memoir on the geology of the Thurmger Wald by Prof. Credner of Gotha, whose geological map of the Thiiringer Wald was so highly spoken of by Sir R. Murchison at the meeting at Liverpool. The memoir to which I allude will be found in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Erfurt, published on the centenary anniversary of its foundation, 19th July, ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lix 1854. It is entitled ‘‘An attempt at an historical account of the geognostic conditions of the Thiiringer Wald.” It describes in a clear and easy manner the different formations which occur in that district, and the many disturbances which have been effected in the stratified beds by the protrusion of igneous rocks. The author divides this history into three periods, the first two of which are the most important. The first period commences with the oldest de- posits, extending to the commencement of the deposition of the Carboniferous rocks; the second extends from the commencement of the Carboniferous period to the commencement of the Trias formation; the third period embraces all the changes which the Thurmger Wald has undergone since the commencement of the Trias formation. With regard to this latter period, however, the author observes, that the great catastrophes on which depended the chief outline and extent of the Thuringer Wald ceased at the close of the Zech- stem formation. At this time the Thiirmger Wald stood as an island in the midst of the Secondary Ocean, round the shores of which were gradually deposited the various Triassic beds, and from which the ancient sea was gradually retreating. Other minor changes subsequently took place, which influenced the form of the surrounding hills and the formation of its valleys. I may here also mention, that in the forthcoming geological map of Germany, one of the chief ob- jects to which the attention of the German Geological Society is now directed, and the preparation of particular districts of which has been allotted to those members best acquainted with the respective locali- ties, and who are all working on a given scale and with a fixed system of colouring, M. Credner has undertaken the difficult task of pre- paring the Geological Map of the Thurimger Wald. I am happy to state that the valuable work of Drs. Guido and Fri- dolin Sandberger, to whom, as you have already heard, the Council have this year awarded the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund, has made considerable progress during the past year. Two additional fasciculi (Nos. 6 & 7) of this work, entitled ‘“‘ Systematic Description and Illustration of the Fossils of the Rhenish (Paleozoic) Formation in Nassau,”’ have appeared since our last meeting, and I understand that one more will complete it. To all students of the Devonian formation on the Continent this publication will be invaluable. No- thing can exceed the beauty and correctness of the illustrations, or the judgment and talent shown by the authors in identifying the several strata by their respective fossils. The literature of the dif- ferent genera and species is carefully worked out, and great care and acumen have been shown in comparing fossil families with their living analogues. I might particularly instance the remarks on the genus Scholiostoma, several species of which show in their last whorl the peculiar turned-up character of Strophostoma amongst the ter- tiary Cyclostomacea and of Anostoma amongst living Helices. In the form of the mouth, too, some of these species have a remarkable resemblance with several species of Cyclostoma from the West Indies, Ix PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. and particularly from Jamaica. May not this genus, after all, be that of a terrestrial mollusk, thus indicating the propimquity of dry land, and the existence, during the deposition of the Stringoce- phalus limestone in which they are found, of a terrestrial flora, on which they must have lived? The authors of the work before us, while still referring the genus to the marine fauna, and placing it near Scalaria or Rissoa, allude to the remarkable resemblance between Schol. crassilabrum and Tomigerus, particularly 7. turbinatus (Pfr.). At the last meeting of German Naturalists and Physicians at Got- tingen, Prof. Ferd. Roemer of Bonn made an interesting communi- cation respecting the comparison between the Devonian formations in Belgium and in the Eifel. After describing the Belgian series as the most perfect and the best worked out, he gave the following ascending series of its principal formations:—1. Unfossiliferous lower quartz rocks. 2. Lower grauwacke beds of the Rhine near Coblenz. 3. Limestone. 4. Clay-slates with Bryozoa and Calceolina (called also Calceola-schists). 5. Dolomitic limestone resembling that of Paffrath. 6. Marl beds, also called Tentaculite-marl. 7. Clay slates easily decomposing, full of Goniatites and Cardita retrostri- ata. 8. Dark marly slates, remarkable for containing Spirifer dis- junctus = §.Verneuillii. In Belgium and at Aachen these beds are everywhere immediately overlaid by the Coal-measures containing Productus i great abundance. In Prof. Beyrich’s work on the Fifel, he has noticed the existence of only two members of this series, the same as are observed by Murchison and Sedgwick. At a sub- sequent period, however, a third corresponding bed or horizon had been discovered near Gerolstein, viz. Goniatite-beds near Riidesheim, where a bed of marl-slate oceurs with Cardiola retrostriata and Goniatites. Other localities have been since found containing the fauna of the Paffrath Limestone. Since then, Prof. Roemer has found Spi- rifer Verneuillii in the Hifel, and marls associated with dolomitic limestone. The result at which Prof. Roemer has arrived is, that, with the exception of the Tentaculite-marls, all the Belgian subdivi- sions mentioned above have now been clearly made out in the Eifel. We are indebted to the same author for an excellent work on the first period of the Paleeozoic rocks, published in the third edition of Bronn’s ‘ Lethea Geognostica.? Whether the title Kohlen-Ge- birge (Coal formation) is the most appropriate that could have been chosen, I will not now stop to inquire. ‘The work professes to give a general account of the distribution of the Paleeozoic rocks through- out the world, with their various subdivisions, and the general cha- racter of the organic remains of their faune and flore. The author adopts the general divisions of Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian, and has inserted some valuable tables showing the parallelism of various formations in different countries. Tn communicating to this Society a new geological map of the country about Christiania in Norway, by M. Kjerulf, Sir R. Mur- chison has given us some additional information respecting the Silu- rian and Devonian rocks in that district, confirming the views he had ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lxi already stated in a former communication (see Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. viii. p. 182), and pointing out how completely the whole sequence of the Upper and Lower Silurians of Great Britain is represented in this thinner development of the Norwegian district. Even the great Russian empire, he observes, does not exhibit so per- fect and clear a succession of the Paleeozoic formations as this Nor- wegian trough in the parallel of Christiania. Since this communication was read, I find that M. Kjerulf’s views have been fully published at Christiania by Adolph Strecker in a work entitled ‘ Das Christiania-Silur-Becken’ (the Silurian Basin of Christiania) chemically and geologically examined, by Theodor Kje- rulf. The map communicated by Sir R. Murchison belongs to this work, the greater portion of which is occupied with chemical analyses of the different rocks in the district. The results of these inquiries, instead of clashing with the geognostic observations, as some persons might perhaps have feared, have not only confirmed them, but have established the universality of the law respecting the formation of volcanic rocks already laid down by Prof. Bunsen *, who has divided all igneous rocks into two classes, the trachytic and the augitic or pyroxenic. Amongst the many valuable additions to paleeontographical geo- logy, I must mention the memoir of MM. de Koninck and Le Hon, “On the Crinoidea of the Carboniferous Formation of Belgium,” originally published in the Collection of Memoirs of the Royal Aca- demy of Belgium. So rapid has been the progress of discovery in this branch of our science, that whereas in 1842 one of the authors of this paper could only procure from these beds fifteen species of Crinoidea, they have now been able, partly by their own exertions and partly by the aid of numerous friends, to bring together fifty- three species. These belong to eleven genera, four of which are entirely new. ‘They are derived partly from the Carboniferous lime- stone, which forms the basis of the formation in Belgium, and partly from the overlying beds of limestone and its associated clays. The perfect state of preservation in which most of them were found, has enabled the authors to correct and modify the opinions which have hitherte prevailed respecting the organization and habits of these singular animals. The authors commence their work with a most imposing list in chronological order, commencing with 1558, of authors who have written on the Crinoidea. No less than 346 works are quoted, con- taining more or less reference to the subject. A mass of literature so overwhelming was probably never before quoted in reference to one single subject. This is then followed by a special historical ac- count of the progress of knowledge on the subject of the Crinoidea in general, in which the authors confess that, notwithstanding all that has been written, the question is still volved in obscurity on many poiuts, the removal of which they leave to those who may have more materials at their disposal. * “Ueber die Processe der vulkanischen Gesteins-bildungen Islands.” Pogg. Ann, vol. 83. p. 1. Ixii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. This history of the progress of the discovery of the true character of these singular forms,—how, from being first looked at in an in- verted position, and being considered as marine plants, they came to be regarded as corals,—and how the illustrious Blumenbach first assigned to them their true position in the scale of organic life,—is one of the most remarkable and most interesting in the range of paleeontographical literature. But I must refer you to the memoir itself for the details. Before describing the different species, the authors enter into ge- neral considerations respecting the structure, habits, and movements of these animals, derived partly from a careful examination of the numerous fossil remains, partly by analogy from the investigation of their two living congeners, pointing out the different families and genera, and the special arrangement, forms, and number of the differ- ent plates of the cup, by which they are respectively characterized. One of the authors promises in a future work to apply the termimology here adopted to all the Crinoidean genera, and to distribute them into natural families. The eleven genera described in this memoir are,—Cyathocrinus, Poteriocrinus, Rhodocrinus, Mespilocrinus, Gra- phiocrinus, Forbesiocrinus, Actinocrinus, Dichocrinus, Platycrinus, Lageniocrinus, and Pentremites. This is followed by a short descriptive notice by M. De Koninck of a new genus of Crinoidea from the carboniferous beds of England, to which he has given the name of Woodocrinus macrodactylus. Prof. Hans Bruno Geinitz has added to the stock of information on fossil botany for which we are already indebted to him, by the recent publication of his work, entitled ‘‘ Darstellung der Flora des Haini- chen-Ebersdorfer und des Flohaer Kohlenbassins,”’ 4to, with a folio atlas of fourteen plates, as also by a larger work on the fossils of the Carboniferous formation in Saxony, illustrated by thirty-six large engravings of the well-preserved fossil plants of that region. His examination of this paleeozoic flora has confirmed the observations already made by Prof. C. F. Naumann on geological evidence alone, that the Coal formation of Hainich-Kbersdorf is older than the Coal basin of Floha-Glickelsberg. ‘The former belongs to what the Germans still persist in calling upper Grauwacké, the equivalent of the Carboniferous or Mountain Limestone. The investigations of Prof. Geinitz have shown that the carboniferous deposits of Zwickau, to which the work in question principally refers, are of the same age as the younger Coal-beds of Floha-Gluckelsberg. The author has endeavoured to exhibit the result of his investiga- tions by the establishment of four distinct zones of vegetable life (Vegetation’s Giirteln*), each of which is characterized by a different flora. Ist Zone.—Hainich-Ebersdorf; characterized by a preponderance of Sagenaria, particularly 8. Veltheimiana: he calls it the Sagenaria-coal.. 2nd Zone.—Planitz and Zwickau; chiefly characterized by Sigil- laria,—therefore called the Sigillaria-coal. * There is something quaint in this use of the word ‘ giirtel,’ from which our synonymous word ‘ girdle’ is derived, to express a ‘ zone,’ ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixiii 3rd Zone.—Russ-coal beds, peculiarly characterized by an abun- dance of Calamites,—therefore called Calamite-coal. 4th Zone.—Oberholmdorf and Imenau, the peculiar feature of which is the great abundance of Ferns,—therefore called Fern-coal. M. Rossler of Hanau, Director of the Wetterau Society of Natural History, who has for many years directed his attention to the sub- ject, has given a short notice on the organic remains of the Zechstein, or Magnesian Limestone, in the Wetterau, in the last Annual Report of that Society ; and Prof. Reuss of Prague has, in the same volume, described the Entomostraca and Foraminifera which occur in the same formation. : On the Position of the Fossiliferous beds of San Casciano.—Much has been done, during the past year, to remove the great uncertainty which has long prevailed as to the precise position to be assigned to the fossils found in the San Casciano beds. This difficulty has arisen partly from the fossils themselves, many of which are peculiar to these beds, and partly from the singular intermixture of forms which has been found amongst them. In consequence of these anomalies, the geologists who visited the district (and amongst them are many of the most distinguished, both of our own countrymen and of foreigners) have come to various conclusions as to their true position in the somewhat complicated series of Alpine stratification. While some wished to place them in one or other of the formations of the Triassic system, others referred them as unhesitatingly to the overlying Lias, and not even to the lowest beds of this system, some even going so far as to refer beds now ascertained to belong to this San Casciano series to the Brown Jura*. The exertions of Sir R. Murchison went far to disperse the mists which hung over this subject. In his paper “On the Geological Structure of the Alps, Apennines, and Carpathians,” read before this Society in 1848, he states that this obscurity has been principally cleared away by the memoir of M. Emmerich, who, working out the details of a district rendered classical twenty-five years before by the researches of Leopold v. Buch, has clearly exposed the order of the strata; thus leaving little or no doubt that the chief and peculiar group of fossils of those Alps (Southern Tyrol) belongs to the Trias. The researches of other geologists, and particularly of some of the Austrians attached to the imperial Geological Institute of Vienna, amongst whom I may mention MM. v. Hauer and Sis, have esta- blished the existence, in the Salzburg Alps, of fossils identical with those which occur in South Tyrol; thus establishing, as Sir R. Murchison observes in the paper already quoted, the existence of true Muschelkalk types in the northern zone, where they had not before been recognized. In a memoir on the Triassic, Liassic, and Jurassic formations * The “ Brown Jura” of the Germans is represented in England by the Middle and Lower Oolites,—from the Oxford Clay to the Inferior Oolite, inclusive.—See Fraas on the Jurassic Series, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. 2nd Part, Miscell. pp. 42 ef seq. - lxiv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. in the N.E. Alps, read by M. v. Hauer before the Imperial Geo- logical Institute of Vienna, at the close of 1853, he has gone into great detail on these formations, some portions of which, as refer- ring to this question, I will here briefly allude to. The author com- mences by dividing the Triassic group of the N.E. Alps into two formations: 1. The Werfen, and 2. the Hallstadt. The first or lowest of them he again divides into—a. the Werfen slates or variegated sand- stones, and 6. the Guttenstein limestone, which he considers as pro- bably equivalent to the Muschelkalk. He considers the Hallstadt strata as upper Muschelkalk. I may here remark that the author has excluded from this Triassic group the Dachstein limestone, which he had formerly considered as lower Muschelkalk, and has placed it as the lowest member of the overlymg Liassic group. As far as the order of superposition is concerned, this correction appears, from the subsequent investigations of others, to be perfectly correct. But it is not equally certain that he is correct in placing the Dachstein limestone im the Lias. With regard to the Werfen slates, the author states that all recent inquiries have confirmed the correctness of the position origin- ally assigned to them, viz. that they immediately overlie the Grau- wacke beds, and underlie the whole of the Alpine limestone. The principal fossils found in them are, Ammonites Cassianus (Quenst.), Turbo recticostatus (Hauer), Naticella costata (Minst.), Myacites Tasserensis (Wissm.), very common, Myophoria, sp. unc., Posidono- mya Clare (v. Buch), Posidonomya aurita (Hauer), Avicula striato- punctata (Hauer), Av. Venetiana (Hauer). The Ammonites Cas- sianus is of rare occurrence, and it may be a question whether it has not been derived from the overlying Dachstein ; for it is a remarkable fact, that one of the causes of the apparent intermixture of fossils in some of these Alpine collections, particularly those of 8. Casciano, has arisen from the fact of their having been obtained from rivulets which descend through Jurassic as well as Triassic deposits. These Werfen slates are constantly overlaid by dark grey limestones, called by the author Guttenstein limestone or Muschelkalk, and frequently assume the form and character of Rauchwacke limestone. Fossils are almost unknown in them, with the exception of Ammonites (or Ceratites) Cassianus (Quenst.) and Monotis Salinaria. The upper portion of this limestone is occasionally dolomitic, and passes into the second or upper subdivision of the Triassic group. The Hallstadt Limestone or upper Muschelkalk is remarkable for its beautiful and curious Cephalopods. The author here explains that his recent investigations have led to the conviction that his former statements respecting the position of the Dachstein limestone, which he had placed below the Hallstadt limestone, required correc- tion: the sections found by M. Siiss and himself in various parts of the Alps showed that the Dachstem Limestone should be placed above that of Hallstadt. With regard to the Cephalopods, which constitute the greater portion of the fossils found in this formation, the author refers to a distinct memoir in which they are described ; the new forms discovered since the publication of that work will be published in the 2nd vol. of the Transactions of the Imperial Geolo- ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixv gical Institute. He observes, however, that five of the most charac- teristic forms, viz. Ammonites Aon (Miinst.), 4. Riippelli (Klipst.), A. Gaytani (Klipst.), A. Johannis-Austrie (Klipst.), and A. Iarbas (Miinst.), all occur in the S. Casciano strata, which consequently, notwithstanding great lithological differences, may be safely paralleled with the Hallstadt beds. The author then proceeds to state that the true position of the Hallstadt limestone is now clearly made out to be between the lowest Liassic group (to which he supposes the Dachstein limestone to be- long) and the Trias,—and that the fossils contained in it do not afford sufficient evidence to place it with either of these groups, as no spe- cies peculiar to it has yet been found beyond the region of the Alps; nevertheless its intimate connexion with the Guttenstein limestone is a fair indication that it should be grouped with the Trias. He con- siders it, however, to be a still more difficult question to decide whether the dolomites which occur extensively beneath the Dachstein lime- stone are Triassic or Liassic. Before leaving the Triassic group, the author states that his present object has been to establish the correct parallelism between the formations of the Northern and those of the Southern Alps belonging to the Trias. Without going into detail on the subject, he briefly proceeds to disprove the arguments of M, Klipstein on the one hand, who wishes to place the San Casciano beds in the Middle Jura, and, on the other hand, those of M. Eich- wald, who claims for them a much more ancient position, referring the Neptunian formation of Southern Tyrol to the Mountain Lime- stone. He observes, in reference to this question, that the San Casciano and Hallstadt beds are not to be considered as exact equi- valents of the true Muschelkalk, but as a more recent portion of the Triassic group deposited above it. The author next proceeds to describe the Liassic group, the lowest member of which he considers to be the Dachstem Limestone, so called from its constituting the principal portion of the Dachstein Mountains. With these are associated the Stahrenberg strata. Above these are the Késsen beds, the Gresten beds, and then, constituting the Upper Lias formation, the Adneth and Hierlatz beds. The only one of these formations to which I shall here allude is the Dachstein Limestone. This is described as frequently immediately overlying the Werfen or Guttenstem beds; sometimes it is deposited on dolo- mite, or united with it above the Hallstadt beds; and sometimes it rests on the Hallstadt beds themselves. Amongst the fossils found in the Dachstein Limestone, Megalodon triqueter of Wulfen, also called M. scutatus, is by far the most abundant. It is found throughout the whole bed, and has been called the Dachstein bivalve, and is so peculiar to this bed as to throw some doubt on M. von Hauer’s generalization that the Késsen beds which immediately overlie the Dachstein, and contain a large proportion of genuine Liassic fossils, are to be considered as forming with it only one formation, notwithstanding their obvious petrogra- phical differences. This Megalodon triqueter, which occurs univer- sally throughout the Dachstein Limestone, has only been found Ixvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. sparingly in one locality out-of thirty-seven in which the Kossen fossils are found. M. Siiss has also communicated a paper on the Brachiopods of the Késsen beds, read before the Imperial Geological Institute so far back as the 23rd June, 1853. One of his objects is to show that these beds belong to the inferior Lias, both by paleeontological com- parison and by geographical extension. He considers them to be the same as the Gervillia beds of Emmerich and Schaffhautl, and the Upper 8. Casciano of Escher and Merian. This author then proceeds to state that the fauna of the Stahrenberg and Dachstem Limestone is identical with that of the Késsen beds, and adds that the whole mass of these beds hes on the Hallstadt beds, containing: © the fossils of San Casciano, and belonging to the Upper Muschel- kalk. After describing other beds connected with these formations, M. Suss concludes by discussing “‘the reasons given by some geo- logists for identifying some members of them with the formations of San Casciano. The whole series of Késsen fossils gives us but three species identical with those of San Casciano, viz. Cardita crenata, the so-called Spondylus obliquus (the identity of which seems doubt- ful even to M. Emmerich), and Acteonina alpina, quoted by Prof. Merian, but without giving its locality. The Avicula grypheata is found in the Lias of England, as well as in the San Casciano beds ; and according to Mr. Peters, one of our species may probably prove identical with A. contorta (Portl.). “The stratigraphical relations, at least as far as they exist in the Vorarlberg, do not appear to warrant a separation of the Kossen strata from the Lias. What has been already stated is enough to show that M. Escher’s No. 13. Limestone with Megalodon trique- ter (the equivalent of the Dachstein Limestone), and his No. 14. San Casciano formation (identical with our Kossen strata), cannot conveniently be considered as members of different formations. Since the investigations respecting the Cephalopods of the Salzkammergut have been made, there can no longer be any doubt that the Hallstadt beds are the equivalent of the S. Casciano formation, nor is there any reason for considering the former as only representing a portion of the S. Casciano group.” A further step towards clearing up the difficulties which prevented the satisfactory explanation of the position of the 8. Casciano beds has been made by Prof. Merian of Bale, who has lately visited some of the localities of the Vorarlberg Alps, and has communicated the results of his inquiries, first, in a letter addressed to Sir R. Murchi- son, and, secondly, in a paper read before the Geological Section of the Meeting of German Naturalists held last year at Gottingen. In the former communication Prof. Merian states that, having visited the Vorarlberg with his friend M. Escher, they found immediately under the Lias beds which are well developed, the Dachstein Lime- stone, characterized by numerous corals and the Megalodon scutatus of Schaffhautl. Below this Dachstem Limestone they found the Gervillia beds, lately called Kossen beds by M. v. Hauer. These they at once referred to the S. Casciano formation, in consequence of their ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixvii containing Cardita crenata (Goldf.), Avicule of the family of the Grypheatz, and small turreted shells. Below these are thick masses of dolomite, which are again underlaid by sandstones with impressions of Keuper plants. The Gervillia-beds also occur in the vicinity of the Lake of Como, forming a good geological horizon below the Lias. The author states that they have given the name of San Casciano formation to the whole series of beds situated between the Keuper and the Lias. It is a marine formation which appears to be wanting in the North of Europe, and is only developed in the Alpine chain and in Eastern Europe. In a paleontological point of view it is distinguished from the overlying Lias by the absence of Belemnites, and from the Trias on which it reposes by the occurrence of Ammonites @ cloisons persillées. After alluding to the previous erroneous opinions entertained by various geologists respecting the position of the Dachstein Limestone and the Gervillia beds, Prof. Merian observes that the Austrian geo- logists are now of the same opinion as himself and his friend respecting the order of superposition of these beds. ‘The only difference is that the former wish to refer these two groups to the lower Lias, whilst he and M. Escher refer the beds with 4mmonites globosus and the beds of S. Casciano to a separate formation, which they call Upper Muschelkalk. In the communication read at Gottingen the Pro- fessor repeated these arguments, adding that the 8. Casciano beds below the Dolomite alternate in some spots with some of the Keuper beds, and particularly with the Letten coal beds; and that he considers that the whole formation, which is essentially marine, should be looked on as a marine Keuper in the Hast and South of Europe, correspond- ing with or equivalent to the land or terrestrial Keuper of the West,— that they are im fact the marine representatives of the Keuper*. It is perhaps one of the most interesting features in the considera- tion of this question, and one which has added greatly to the difficulty of unravelling the true relations of this part of Alpine geology, that we here find a regular unbroken sequence of beds lying conformably one over the other, from the lowest member of the Triassic group into the Liassic and the Jurassic formations. Not only do the dif- ferent beds of sandstone, shales, limestones, and dolomites pass into and sometimes even alternate with each other, thereby producing what may be almost called an inosculation of the strata, but we also find a gradual passage of organic forms from one formation to another. If each new successive stratum as we ascend presents us with new groups and new associations of organic life, we still find them accompanied by some of tue forms which characterized the beds below. Thus, while on geognostical and mineralogical grounds we are prevented from drawing very exact lines of demarcation be- tween one formation and another, we are equally debarred, on pale- ontological grounds also, from defining with absolute accuracy or correctness the respective limits of the different groups. The Keu- * For further details see also a Memoir by M. A. Escher von der Linth on the Geology of the Vorarlberg, published in the thirteenth volume of the Mémoires de la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles, 1853. xviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. per sandstones alternate with the lower San Casciano beds, according to Prof. Merian. Ammonites occur in the Hallstadt limestone, sometimes called Upper Muschelkalk, and considered the equivalent of the San Casciano beds, thereby connecting these truly Triassic beds with those Liassic beds above the Dachstein, im which numerous species of Ammonites abound. In the intermediate dolomites no fossils have yet been found. Nor have Ammonites yet been discovered in the Dachstein limestone, yet they abound in the overlying Késsen strata, which are considered to be the equivalents of the lower Lias by M. Siiss, and to be upper San Casciano by Prof. Merian and his friend M. Escher. Thus, wherever we find the strata conformable, we have a confirmation of the well-known saying, ‘“‘ Natura non facit saltum.’’ In fact, all natural changes are gradual under these cir- cumstances. The conditions of life gradually change, and the organic forms are modified to meet these changes ; certain species disappear, while others, adapted to the altered circumstances, are called into existence, and continue to flourish side by side with some of the pre- existing forms; thus confirming the view already stated, that where the strata are conformable, no line can be drawn between successive formations,—the gradual change is not marked by sudden breaks in the series of animal life. In fact, we must not forget that our no- menclatures are for the most part only relative. Nature ever acts on one long unbroken plan, and knows as little of sharp limits between Trias, Lias and Jurassic, as between the families and genera of existing organic life. ‘These terms are at best but temporary shifts to assist our memories, and to enable us to register our facts and our knowledge ; and we must be careful not to give too much importance to nomen- clatures which deserve at the best but a secondary consideration. I may have occasion to allude to this question again when referring to the progress of tertiary geology. I will only here observe, that I think M. Merian has exercised a wise judgment in making the San Casciano beds for the present a separate group, intermediate between the Trias and the Lias. I cannot conclude these remarks without alluding to what I am sure every British geologist will consider an oversight on the part of the two Austrian geologists I have mentioned, in having omitted all allusion to the exertions on two separate occasions of Sir R. Murchi- son, and to the credit he deserves for having been the first to point out the true relations of these great Alpine formations. In the Geo- logical Map of the Eastern Alps, the first ever constructed, and pub- lished in the third volume of our Transactions (2 Ser.), Sir R. Mur- chison and Prof. Sedgwick clearly laid down on the northern fiank of the Alps a distinct series of rocks between the older slaty rocks (Verrucano) and the Liassic and Oolitic groups. To these they gave the name of Keuper, Muschelkalk, Bunter Sandstein, and Rauchwacké. This zone is also laid down on their map on the south flank of the Alps, passing through San Casciano, thereby showing that at that early period they had recognized the identity of the beds on the north flank with those of San Casciano and its vicinity, although San Casciano itself was not then alluded to. Again, in ANNIVERSARY. ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixix his paper “on the Geological Structure of the Alps, Apennines, and Carpathians,” Sir R. Murchison fully explained the triassic character of the San Casciano beds,—an explanation which is now confirmed by the more recent discoveries of Merian and others on the northern flanks. To M. E. Rénévier of Lausanne we are indebted for a geological memoir on the Perte du Rhone and its vicinity. The author was induced to undertake this work by the reflection, that, however often this curious phenomenon had been visited and quoted by geologists, no special description of it had yet been given, nor any geological map of it published on a scale sufficiently large to understand the details. After referrmg to De Saussure for an account of the scene, the author describes the different formations which are visible at this locality resting regularly and conformably on each other in an almost horizontal position. These formations are, Diluvium, Molasse, Upper Chalk, Gault, and the Aptian and Trigonian formations below the Gault, the two latter belonging to the Neocomian system. The lowest bed, in which is cut the narrow passage where the Rhone is almost lost to sight in dry weather, is the Caprotina limestone. The vertical and horizontal distances are given in the sections in their natural proportions. Two memoirs by M. Bosquet of Maestricht, published in the second volume of the ‘“‘ Memoirs of the Committee for the Geological Map and Description of the Netherlands,” are deserving of notice in connexion with secondary geology. The first is an account of some new Brachiopods from the Maestricht beds. ‘The fossils described are, two new Cranie, C. comosa and C. Bredai; the former is ex- tremely rare, and only the lower valve has been as yet discovered ; Argiope Davidsoni, Rhyncora plicataand R. Koninckt. The second memoir is of far greater extent, and is entitled ‘The Fossil Crustacea of the Cretaceous Formation of Limburg.” With the exception of a few species of Cirripedes and some few Decapods, the work is devoted to a description of the numerous Entomostraca abounding in this formation. Some of these, like Bairdia subdeltoidea, are so universally distributed throughout formations of different ages, that their geological value as a means of distinguishing strata is subservient to their importance in a natural-history point of view; several of the other cretaceous forms also are still found living in the Mediterranean and other seas. With regard to the genus Cythere, the most abundant of all, M. Bosquet in this work describes thirty-four new species from the cretaceous formation of Limburg, in addition to thirteen already described by him in 1847 from the Maestricht beds. He adds that he is also acquainted with about 114 species in the different beds of the tertiary formation. The species described are all beautifully figured, and some of the forms represented are of a curious and un- usual character. Many are identical with those already figured and described by Mr. R. Jones in his “ Monograph on the Entomostraca of the Cretaceous Formation of England,” published in 1849 by the Paleeontographical Society. Prof. Bornemann, in his “ Account of the Lias Formation in the VOL, XI. e lxx PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. neighbourhood of Géttingen and its organic contents,” has also published some plates of the Foraminifera found in that formation. I am indebted to Mr. R. Jones for the observation, that, although the general facies of these German Lias forms as compared with the Foraminifera of the English Lias is very similar, the specific identities are but few. Out of fifty species from the Ilminster series, he can only find seven which can with certainty be considered as identical with any of the thirty-three species from the Gottingen Lias. An interesting memoir by Prof. Reuss appears in the seventh volume of the ‘ Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissen- schaften’ of Vienna, ‘‘ On the characteristic features of the Cretaceous Formations in the Eastern Alps, particularly in the Valley of Gosau and on the Wolfgang Lake.” In the first place the author shows that the whole of the Gosau beds belong to the Upper Cretaceous period ;—they belong neither to the Lower Greensand, where they have been placed by some writers, nor to the Flysch or Eocene, to which others have been disposed to refer them. He points out a remarkable connexion between the beds of conglomerate and the Hippurite limestone : wherever these latter occur in abundance, and as it were in their natural position, the conglomerates form the bottom bed, and the Hippurite banks appear to have settled themselves on the solid conglomerate and gravel beds. These Hippurite and Coral limestones form such an important member of the Gosau formation, that the author goes into great detail respecting them, pointing out the errors respecting their relative positions committed by former geologists. The Hippurite limestone alternates with the more marly beds at various levels throughout the whole formation ; but the beds with Acteonella and Nerinea also occur throughout the same portion of the deposit, sometimes lying below, sometimes alternating with the Hippurite limestone. Another remarkable feature of the Gosau beds is the almost entire want of coal, whereas it occurs abundantly in other parts of the Cretaceous deposit. In concluding these general remarks, the author observes that the Gosau beds, which belong without exception to the Cretaceous forma- tion, represent one connected inseparable whole, and form a system of marly-conglomerate, limestone, and sandstone beds, irregularly alternating with each other, and which it is impossible to subdivide into separate independent formations. The study of the fossil remains contained in it shows that such a separation cannot be justified on paleeontological any more than on geognostic grounds. ‘This, how- ever, only refers to the lower fossiliferous beds ; the upper portion contains no organic remains, but the petrographical characters oppose the possibility of their being referred to a different system. The next question raised by the author is with which of the various cretaceous beds of other countries the Gosau beds should be com- pared, An accurate knowledge of the fossils is necessary to answer this question. The author is of opinion that it is more correct to refer them to the Chalk above the Gault—the upper chalk, but in comparing the Gosau fossils with those of other districts, the author only takes such as are common to other Chalk formations. The whole ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lxxi nuniber of Gosau fossils is 443, amongst which are 34 Foraminifera, 140 Anthozoa, 14 Bryozoa, and 15 Entomostraca. The Gasteropods have 135, and the Conchifera 80 species. The remaining number is made up of Radiaria, Brachiopods, Cephalopods, Annelides, and Rudista. After showing that the Gosau beds have the greatest affinity with D’Orbigny’s Systéme Turonien, the author describes the geological features of the beds near the Wolfgang Lake, which, although their organic contents are not so abundant as in the Gosau Valley, evi- dently belong to the samesystem. In the second part of his memorr, viz. paleontological observations on the Gosau beds, the author prin- cipally directs his attention to the Foraminifera, Anthozoa, Bryozoa, and Entomostraca, with the study of some of which he had been occupied for many years. These are fully described, and the figures by which they are illustrated, particularly the Corals, are admirably executed. But time would not permit me to give, nor would you have patience to listen to, the long list of recent papers and publications on different branches of geological investigation to be found in the various scientific periodicals of Germany. The Journal of the Imperial Geo- logical Institute of Vienna, the Journal of the German Geological Society, as well as the Jahrbuch of Leonhard and Bronn, and the Paleeontographica of Diinker and Herman v. Meyer, are full of new and valuable information. I must, however, specially allude to the last two numbers of the last-mentioned work, which have appeared during the last year. The memoir by Dr. Jordan and Herman v. Meyer on the Crustacea of the Coal Formation of Saarbriick, and particularly the account of the fossil insects of the same formation by Dr. Goldenberg, are most interesting ; the latter especially, as it is only very recently that organic remains of this class have been found in these beds, the oldest in which they have hitherto been met with. TERTIARY GEOLOGY. M. Hébert, so well known for his numerous and valuable com- munications on the tertiary formations of the continent, has, in con- junction with M. KE. Rénévier of Lausanne, published in the Bul- letin of the Statistical Society of the Department of the Isére, an interesting ‘“‘ Memoir on the Fossils of the Upper Nummulitic Forma- tion in the neighbourhood of Gap, the Diablerets, and other locali- ties in Savoy.”’ The fossils with which the Nummulites are associated in these localities, which M. Rénévier has himself explored, are such as are generally considered to belong to a more recent period than that to which the Nummulites have been hitherto referred. The beds in general show a remarkable identity and analogy as to their fauna with that of Ronca, already described by M. Brongniart in his “Memoir on the Vicentin;”’ on the other hand, it shows great discrepances with the nummulitic beds of Nice, Corbiéres, and Biaritz. . The authors do not consider the subject as-yet sufficiently exhausted e2 lxxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. to explain the many difficulties with which it is associated, but they observe that these nummulitic beds contain a certain number of species more recent than those of other localities which are generally considered as the type of the Nummulitic formation, and that these more recent species are the most abundant. This has led them to consider these beds as the upper portion of the Nummulitic forma- tion, and to call them the Upper Nummulitic formation ; and they think that it will turn out eventually that the nummulitic beds here described are more recent than any hitherto known. “Perhaps,” they say in conclusion, ‘‘it may be supposed that some data are given in this memoir to determine the age of these upper nummulitic beds, and that they should be placed between the sands of Beauchamp and those of Fontainebleau. We consider such a conclusion would be too hasty, and that. our work, however con- scientiously carried out, is not of sufficient importance to lead to such a conclusion.’ The object of the authors was to call attention to new facts, desirous only to be of use in solving the difficulties which they had pointed out. In the second volume of the ‘‘ Memoirs of the Commission for the Geological Map and Description of the Netherlands,”’ is published a list of the fossils found in the tertiary deposits of Guelderland. They have been principally found in variegated marls along the frontiers of Guelderland and Oberyssel, between Muinsterland and Bentheim. The bottom of these marls has not been reached, but they are sup- posed to rest on the chalk which crops out near Bentheim and Miunsterland. They have been penetrated by borings to a depth of seventy yards, and are overlaid by a thick deposit of diluvium, con- sisting of sand and gravel containing fragments of granite and other plutonic rocks, together with others belonging to the primary and secondary periods. After giving the list of fcssils from these clays, in some of which septaria, gypsum, and iron pyrites are found, the Commissioners con- clude with the following remarks:—‘‘ From the geographical po- sition, the mineral composition, and particularly from the fossils, we must conclude that the tertiary formations of Guelderland belong to the Miocene division of North Germany, according to the nomen- clature of Beyrich. When the work of Prof. Beyrich shall be more advanced, we shall see with which of the North German localities the Netherland beds have the greatest connexion; but it will probably be with those of the marls of Bersenbritick, north of Osnabriick. ha Mag Bee o iow lel, FOS eee oleae it es ae - r ‘eek (tae eee arise) ah Poin. pete 2 Maks . vag sBiaiterns a = duibette ee Ye | Aira ee 44 pees: Settee wi'.3 34 i Sake aa ge 27 ees ay 6 Lae a iN Wena! 1 Ly Ati el tele ai a hoe eo A es ve tee sah i a See ps3. 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PROCEEDINGS OF - THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. NOVEMBER 1, 1854. John William Dawson, Esq., William Cunnington, Esq., William Henry Mortimer, Esq., and John Henry Murchison, Esq., were elected Fellows. The following communications were read :— 1. On the Occurrence of Goin in the Trap DykEs intersecting the Dicynopon strata of SoutH Arrica. By R. N. RusipGe, Esq., M.B. [In a letter to Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S.} In the early part of this year some rumours arose of the discovery of gold near Smithfield, a newly established town in the Orange River Sovereignty. It was stated, that some persons, riding over a flat, had seen some fine specimens of quartz, turned up by a jackal in scratching a hole in the earth. The quartz brought in as a curiosity was recognized by a person who had been in Australia as similar to that found in the gold regions of that country. This induced search, which was at length rewarded by the finding of gold in several spots; and, a portion of the quartz first found being broken, a piece of gold VOL. XI.—PART I. B 2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL socieTy. [Nov. 1, was obtained from it. A pit was sunk in the centre of a large shal- low valley, and some gold was found at a depth of 15 feet in the gravel. These accounts excited great interest in the colony. Mr. Bain happened to be on the frontier at the time, and a deputation waited on the Governor in Graham’s Town and suggested the propriety of sending him to the spot, to report on the alleged discovery. His Excellency, however, appears to have doubted the truth of the re- port, and declined detaming Mr. Bain from his duties; he accord- ingly returned to his post in the western districts. Gold in small quantities continued to be found; and some nuggets reaching this place, with greatly exaggerated accounts of the success of the diggers, caused great excitement, particularly among the younger and more unstable part of the community. Several clerks gave up their situations to repair to the “diggings,” and many rash specula- tions were entered into. Merchants and tradesmen raised the price of their goods. An affidavit from a person in Smithfield who has some local reputation as a chemist, to the effect that he had examined some mineral containing 20 per cent. of copper and 10 per cent. of gold, occasioned still more interest, for it was stated that the mineral m question was to be obtained in waggon-loads quite near the surface. Under these circumstances the desire for more accurate informa- tion gained ground, and a subscription was set on foot, by the mer- chants and others in this place, for raising the means of sending some person or persons, possessed of some geological and mineralogical knowledge, to the spot, to report on the truth of the accounts re- ceived, and to discover, if possible, what probability there might be of gold or other metals being found in such quantities as to make mining profitable. The choice fell on myself, a medical practitioner known to have made geological collections, &c., and Mr. Paterson, the editor of one of the local papers, not a geologist, but a man of general intelligence. We left this on the 27th of March last and arrived in Smithfield eight days after. I presume that the writings and map of my friend Mr. Bain* have made you familiar with the geology of this country, more especially with that interesting formation the “ Dicynodon strata,” which will ever be associated in the minds of geologists with his name. This singular series of strata of enormous extent, probably exceeding three times the area of Great Britain and Ireland, and perhaps thousands of feet in depth, yet apparently presenting evidence of lacustrine origin, is penetrated everywhere by dykes of igneous rock, varying from less than a foot to some hundreds of yards in breadth; sometimes of a com- pact basalt-like character, at other times (in the larger dykes) like coarse granite, or composed of hornblende and quartz with felspar (syenite) or zeolite. Yet, excepting near the western border of the Zeurbergen Range, the strata are rarely disturbed more than ten degrees from the horizontal plane, and even such disturbances * Forming a part of the 7th vol. of the Geological Transactions now in the press.— Ep. 1854. | RUBIDGE—GOLD IN SOUTH AFRICA. 3 are rare and of extremely limited extent. The only alteration I have observed in the structure and chemical composition of the strata adjacent to a dyke is a little increase of hardness, and numerous vertical fissures, giving the rock an appearance of being cut up into cubical masses. The dykes cut each other in all directions, so that we have been unable to refer them to any system or systems as to age or direction. They form the central masses of the mountain- ranges, which are crowned with precipitous escarpments of the igneous rocks ; the sloping sides of the mountains being due to the unequal wearing of the horizontal strata (see fig. 1). With the exception of Fig. 1.—Diagram of the Structure of the Mountains of Stratified Rock capped with Basalt, $c. in Southern Africa. iron, which is abundant in both the igneous and aqueous rocks, and manganese, we have not yet found in the Colony any metal in this formation. On my arrival at Smithfield, I found the formation to be the *‘Dicynodon strata” just spoken of, still horizontally disposed, and with no traces of metamorphic action ; fossils, both animal and vege- table, being found quite uninjured at 3 or 4 feet distance from even the larger dykes. The stratified rocks were a hard, greenish-white, com- pact sandstone (becoming brown on exposure), forming good build- ing-stone, and in layers 10 or 15 feet thick, alternating with other layers of nearly the same thickness, of a bluish-brown and much more perishable sandstone, which is common in the whole extent of the formation. Where concretions of hard blue limestone are found in this rock, it is generally fossiliferous ; these concretions or nodules seeming to be connected in some way with the fossil bones of the Dicynodon, which are often imbedded in them. I did not see any fossils in the harder sandstone on this spot, though some very like it contained vegetable impressions in other places. The plain, or rather the broad shallow valley, in which the gold was found was bounded on either side by a low range of hills; the small brook escaping to the south by a gorge in hills of 1000 or 1200 feet in height. (See fig. 2, p. 4.) The first spot I examined was the hole where the gold was first found in the quartz turned up by a jackal, (A) in the sketch-plan. There were a number of the usual rounded masses of igneous rock lying about in apparent confusion, which, on close examination, I found to result from the disintegration of two dykes which formed a junction just at the spot selected by the jackal for his domicile, at A B 2 4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 1, in the sketch. One of these dykes (P Q) ran nearly due magnetic north and south, the other (R 8) crossed it at an angle of about 50°. Fig. 2.—Sketch-plan of the Valley in which Gold was found in Southern Africa. RS We 1 — MADMAN) gilt \\) \ a . st © — wm Up wy, si ih. ia Wi Vp ae eS Fi RNS ne Stream. P, Q. A. Place of the jackal’s hole where auriferous quartz was R, S. > Dykes of trap-rock. first found. > B, C. Pits sunk in one of the dykes. D. Hole sunk in the gravel of the valley. Several parties had been engaged in digging on this spot; and, on turning up the masses of igneous rock, some fine specimens of cry- stalline quartz were found, several of which, when broken, were found to contain small nuggets of gold in their cavities. These masses of quartz were peculiar in appearance *, consisting of a plate of opake white quartz with masses of crystals growing from one side over that which lies undermost in the earth. The gold was in the cavities of the plates. It appeared to me that the plates were veinstones, which had been detached in the decomposition of the dyke with its contained vein, for, although I could not detect a regular vein, such as I shall have to describe presently, yet I believe there was one, but the partial de- composition of the surface prevented me tracing it. Just at the junction (A), a mass of blue rock was found, some of which had been * T have never seen anything like them in the Colony, though quartz abounds everywhere. at 1854. | RUBIDGE—GOLD IN SOUTH AFRICA. 5 hammered to pieces by a party from Burgher’s Dorp, and a small piece of gold had been found imbedded in the mass. On examina- tion I found it to be a mass of hard calcareous sandstone imbedded in the igneous rock. The stratified rocks adjacent to the dyke were the brownish-blue perishable sandstone described above, without any lime. Was this lump a mass of the nodules altered by heat? Small veins of calcareous spar intersected it, as usual in the nodules. I rode across the valley, about a mile and a half broad, to examine the other dyke (TU). I found its direction to be 4° west of mag- netic north. Like the former, it was cut through by a more recent E. and W. dyke, not quite so broad, the N. and 8. dyke being about 12 feet broad, the other 8 feet. About 60 feet from the junction two Englishmen had sunk a pit (B) which gave one a good view of the structure of the dyke. It was composed of the usual compact blue syenite of the narrow dykes of this formation. The first 5 or 6 feet of the rock was somewhat decomposed, but lower down it was but little altered. A vein of quartz, varying from 2 inches to 2 feet, traversed the dyke longitudinally nearly in the middle. This quartz was opaque, and had numerous small cavities in which little masses of gold were occasionally found; but so poor was the vein, that a large sackful, part of which was knocked out with a hammer by myself, yielded only two little bits of gold, not weighing together 10 grains. At about 300 yards to the south was another pit (C), sunk by a party from Burgher’s Dorp, on the same vein. They too had found several nuggets, but the quantity gained was so small that the pit was abandoned after reaching the depth of 15 feet. The stratified rocks were the same as those at the other dyke, unaltered in position, and with little or no traces of the action of heat. They were visible only by digging away the soil, as the dyke pro- jected merely a few feet above the level of the plain, so that only a narrow ridge of igneous rock formed the margin of the valley. It appears to me quite certain that the gold must be zu sztu in the quartz vein; for, beside the fact that no other than ‘ Dicynodon rocks” are found within 200 miles, at least, of the spot, I cannot conceive that the metal could get into the vei by mechanical means, especially as the dyke is in some parts the most elevated land in the neighbourhood ; and the valley is separated from the Caledon River, the only source of convection from a distance (at present existing), by a high range of hills, at least 1500 feet high. Besides, in all the spots pointed out to me as sources of gold zn situ, I found the dykes meridian-directed. The sketch shows this to be the case at Smith- field ; it was so at the Kraai river near Aliwal, and at the Kroomberg. It was only in northern-directed dykes that I found quartz in regular veins. At the Kraai river the gold was found in quartz surrounding a mass of the calcareous sandstone, like that at the junction of the two dykes at the jackal’s hole (A). There was no vein. Near the centre of the valley (D), a hole had been sunk through the alluvial soil to the depth of 15 feet, when a layer of coarse gravel was found, resting on clay. This layer yielded several nuggets. Another hole was in progress of digging near the former, the water 6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 1, having proved troublesome, and I have heard since I left that five nuggets, weighing 96 grains, have been obtained. I cannot anticipate any great success for the diggers, as the only primary sources of gold in the valley appeared to be the two dykes above described. The result of my inquiries is the conviction that the gold may be found in small veins over a large extent of country, that no large or rich veins have yet been seen, nor do I think that such exist. I cannot agree with my friend Mr. Bain in thinking that the gold has been conveyed from a distance, for the reasons above given. I believe too that gold in masses of 50 grains’ weight is never transported by water so far as 100 miles from its source. ; It has been mentioned, that, though the ranges of mountains in the Dicynodon-strata of the Colony take a north-easterly direction, yet no distinct lines of igneous action can be referred to different dates. In the Sovereignty, on the contrary, it appeared that the meridian-dykes were decidedly the more ancient, as, wherever I had an opportunity of examining them, they were distinctly cut through by the north-easterly ones; and, though there were some dykes which seemed to take directions which were difficult to refer to either of these systems, I thought that most of the igneous rocks in the country might be referred to two sets. 1st. A northerly or meridian- directed set, which form the centres of many ranges of hills and moun- tains extending from the Stormberg westward for some hundreds of miles, running in their northerly course to Horrismith at least, and, according to some accounts, to Megalies-Berg. The Wittebergen and Koesbergen belong to this system. 2nd. A north-easterly set, crossing the others, and in the Sove- relgnty giving ranges subordinate in size to the last, but to the eastward greatly larger, so as to give their direction to the Quath- lambo or Draakenberg. I find great confusion in the different maps of this region, some making the main range of the Quathlambo to take a north-easterly course, though others make it take a bend northward about the lower third of its course; some of the names too (such as the Wittebergen) are applied to two or three ranges in different places, and taking different directions. Mr. Bain tells me that the geology of the Draakenberg is the same as that of the Sovereignty, viz. horizontal Dicynodon-strata, pierced by syenitic dykes. This I know to be the case in the Wittebergen and Stormbergen, which are in reality its southern terminus. But the Orange, Caledon, and Kraai rivers have in their beds pebbles which can belong to no such rocks as they pass in the lower part of their course. A trader told me that he had seen them in the river 200 miles above Aliwal, but had never seen the rocks they came from. The are masses of amygdaloid, with a red or brown-red coloured felspar basis, with crystals of a circular zeolite (stilbite, I presume). There are no such rocks in the Cape Colony. Whether with this change of igneous rock might exist greater metallic deposits in these regions, can, I imagine, only be determined by inspection. The Umyinvost or St. John’s River would, I think, be a good point of departure for an expedition to explore the Quathlambo. I 1854. | RUBIDGE—GOLD IN SOUTH AFRICA. 7 found the difficulties of reaching the eastern part of the range from the westward so great, owing to the uncivilized state of the country, that I was obliged to abandon all thought of the undertaking in the limited time I had at my disposal. Indeed, I fear it will be a long time before anything effectual will be done without assistance from home. South Africa is a poor country; there are few or none who have the means of spending their time in such researches. As I could not find any other probable source of native gold than the veins of the meridian-directed dykes, in which, for reasons before given, I believe that the gold is found én situ, and as they appeared to be poor in quality and remote from each other, though extending through a wide range of country, I gave it as my opinion, that though small quantities of gold might be found occasionally in all that region, yet it seemed improbable that it could ever be a source of profit for mining operations. If I could have traced a tendency to convergence of the northerly ranges in any point, I should have thought that a more extensive igneous action there might have occasioned larger gold deposits, but all my inquiries led to the belief that the ranges continue to run parallel for several hundreds of miles. From the eastern ranges of the Stormbergen to some distance beyond Aliwal, there occurs through that country a layer of anthra- cite, which is incombustible, although it deflagrates with nitre. There are some fine vegetable impressions in the sandstone covering it. I regret to say I could not get any specimens sufficiently portable to enable me to bring them away. Where the dykes pass through this coal-like substance, it is converted into an inferior plumbago. Throughout that country also there are numbers of agates and cornelians, some of them of good quality. They do not appear to be the produce of the spot where they are found, and are generally met with in the lower grounds near the course of the large rivers, and asso- ciated with the amygdaloid pebbles above referred to. Some agates are found on the eastern coast also, near the mouth of the Sunday river. These too appear to be associated with the amygdaloid of the Zeurbergen. I thought of sending specimens of the rocks and minerals alluded to in this letter, but have deferred doing so uutil I hear that they will be acceptable. Mr. Bain has gone to the western copper-field, near Walvisch Bay, to examine the new metallic discoveries there. I have seen specimens from thence which appear to me to promise great benefit to the country. Port Elizabeth, South Africa, May 11, 1854. 8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Nov. 1, 2. On the OccuRRENCE of CoprPER in TENNESSEE, U.S. By W. Bray, Esq. [Communicated by the President. ] [ Abstract. ] THE gneiss and mica-schist of Eastern Tennessee strike south-west and north-east (about 47° E. of N.), and dip to the south-east (at angles of about 25°), running parallel to and forming an outer range of the Alleghany Mountains. Veins of copper and iron ores, with occasional quartz veins, lie in the schists, dipping parallel with them, and consisting of porous oxide of iron at top, with iron pyrites and carbonate and sulphuret of copper lower down. The veins are described as being sometimes 45 feet wide, and traceable for upwards of 70 miles ; but they are worked chiefly in the extreme south-east corner of Tennessee, in the township of Duckton, in the county of Polk, a district ceded by the Indians to the States about four years ago. 3. Notice of the Discovery of a RepriLian SKULL in the CoaL of Pictou. By J. W. Dawson, Esq., F.G.S. THE reptilian specimen described by Prof. Owen (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 38. p. 207. pl. 9) is the upper part of a head found by me in 1851, at the Albion Mines, in a heap of rubbish extracted from a band of carbonaceous clay iron-stone and coarse coal, occurring in the main coal-seam, about 5 feet below its roof, and known to the miners as the ‘“‘holeing-stone.’ This band is marked No. 5 in the detailed section of the Albion main coal given by Mr. Poole and myself in the Geological Society’s Journal, vol. x. p. 47. It varies in thickness in different parts of the mine, from 2 inches to about 18 inches ; and it contains much coprolitic matter, and a few scales, teeth, and spines of fishes, as well as minute Spirorbis-like shells, similar to those found in the Joggins coal-measures attached to plants*. None of these fossils, however, are by any means abundant; and the vegetable remains contained in the “ holemg-stone”’ have in general been reduced to the state of homogeneous coal, or of mineral charcoal. There can be little doubt that this remarkable band indicates a somewhat protracted submergence of the area of coal then accumulating under the waters of a lake or lagoon. As stated in a note which accompanied the specimen, when for- warded to the Geological Society in 1852, the matrix split in such a manner as to leave the upper part of the skull adhering to the larger portion of the block, while the palate bones and teeth came away in fragments. Believing at the time that the fossil had be- longed to a fish allied to Holoptychius, and that it was interesting chiefly as an illustration of the exceptional fact of the occurrence of * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 39. 1854.| OWEN—SKULL OF THE BAPHETES PLANICEPS. 9 remains of large fishes in a coal-seam, I forwarded to the Geological Society only the upper and more entire part of the specimen, retaining the remainder in my own cabinet. Since, however, the specimen has proved to be of so much greater interest than I had anticipated, I now beg leave to present to the Society the remaining portions, in the hope that they may enable Prof. Owen more fully to make out the character and affinities of the animal to which they belonged. I shall also take the earliest opportunity to examine such portions of the “holeing-stone’’ as may now be exposed at the mines, in the hope that I may be rewarded by further discoveries. I may remark, however, that I have at various times examined considerable quantities of this material, without finding any fossils except the remains of small fishes already mentioned; nor am I aware that other remains of large animals have been discovered in it, with the exception of a smooth and nearly cylindrical hollow bone, apparently a part of a large spine*, now, I believe, in the collection of Henry Poole, Esq. Additional Remarks on the Sku. of the BAPHETES PLANICEPS, Ow. By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.G.S. Since the communication of the notice of the portion of cranium of the Labyrinthodont Reptile above-named (Quarterly Journal of the Geol. Soc. May 1854), I have been favoured with the view of some other fragments of the same cranium, including parts of the interior or under-surface, with several teeth buried in the coal-matrix, and exposed at the fractured surfaces. In the ordinary Labyrinthodont Reptiles of the European Trias, one or two teeth at the fore-part of the jaws have the form and pro- portions of large canines, the rest are smaller and more slender pointed teeth. One of the present fragments includes the fore-part of the right maxillary and premaxillary bones, and shows a single large laniariform tooth descending from the fore-part of the maxillary into the substance of the subjacent matrix : in front of the tooth is one of the smaller, pointed, serial teeth: of which teeth other fragments show other examples, the base of the teeth being anchylosed to shallow sockets in the bone. So much, therefore, of the dental system of the Baphetes, as is here exhibited, accords in the general characters of shape and relative size, of disposition and mode of fixation to the jaw, with the dentition of the Labyrinthodonts. * This bone was exhibited at the Meeting of the British Association at Liver- pool, when it was regarded as probably belonging to a very large fish. Since the reading of this paper Mr. Dawson has sent word that on further search he has met with a fragment of a spine like that found by Mr. Poole, and numerous scales of apparently large ganoid fishes in the rubbish-heap of the coal-seam referred to. —Ep. Q. J. G.S. + Late of the Albion Mines ; now of Alvaston, Derbyshire. 10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 1, A transverse section was taken from about the middle of the large tooth, and exhibited the usual labyrinthic structure: rather less complex than in the Labyrinthodon Salamandroides. The character of the exterior surface of the cranium was indicated in the specimen originally submitted to me by the impression it had left on the coal, when that substance was plastic: some of the present fragments show the surface itself, and demonstrate the pitted reticulate character which is so common in the Labyrinthodonts. All the additional evidence thus derived corroborates the infererice from the first portion of the present fossil skull, that it belonged to a Labyrinthodont Reptile. 4. On a Specimen of Nummuuitic Rocx from the neighbourhood of Varna. By W. J. Hamixton, Esq., Pres. G.S. In offering to the Society the accompanying specimen of Nummu- litic Limestone from Buyuk Aladyn in the neighbourhood of Varna, I am desirous of making one or two observations respecting its oc- currence. The specimen was forwarded to me by my brother, Col. F. W. Hamilton, Grenadier Guards, who, in a first communication (since published in the Literary Gazette, July 29, 1854, p. 690), ex- pressed an opinion that the hollow depressions which occur abun- dantly on the surface of these limestone hills were the result of arti- ficial excavations, and that the columnar-looking rocks which remain standing in the middle, were the pillars by which the roof was originally supported. In a subsequent letter he observes that the hollow de- pressions occur in so many parts of the country on the limestone plateau, that he believes he must give up his former opinion that they are artificial, and look upon them as natural depressions. On referrmg to Boué’s ‘Esquisse Géologique de la Turquie d’Europe’ (Paris 1840), I find that, after mentioning the fact of the vast development of the cretaceous formations in Turkey (p. 17), he alludes to the occurrence in Bulgaria of enormous masses of Or- bitolites, constituting a portion of the nummulitic group. Further on (p. 21), he observes that the upper beds of these cretaceous rocks are full of Orbitolites, to which he has given the name of O. Bul- garica. He also alludes to the great prevalence of caverns and grottos in some portions of the cretaceous beds of Turkey in Europe, many of which have assumed the form and appearance of a funnel (enton- noir). He believes them to be all natural, and to be owing to the dif- ferent degrees of hardness of the different beds of rock. Some are described as occurring on the surface of the plateau, probably re- sembling, though on a smaller scale, those seen in the Carst near Trieste. | I have placed on the table for the purpose of comparison, a speci- men of Nummulitic Rock from the centre of Asia Minor. I obtained i” . oer FROM ST MAURICE BY MARTIGNY TO Shrrn.Geor. Soc. VoL.XLPI1.I. # NPL r <2 Sb 24 Sf) “3° Aads of Foliation & we Cleavage. Lor, a ies Pes Z a . oye li ond Avis of Foliation & “22% (Cleavage “leu Pigg eS at 8 34 aw 1L8t Aais of foliation : (>) . SS Be AN ¥ \ : os \ | 4 E eae see ies Sie Ye a uw . : E ies E ul 2eeo fe sy Te A €: H F \ py ° + E 4 Po, : Wh eZ oS = & < ‘ery, | §*Aais of Foliation Ww AS CC wees “il oe ° oO ul oa = = Metamorphic Slate te Pe gy, x - Ses 8 — gy 72 ams OR acta P 224 o my, 2 4 Aris of Cleavage q8 ea, rs eee | A |. 374 Aarts of Cleavage ey et ee eee, W. N24. ACROSS THE ial v3 Cy 4 3 $ > . King Ss Covent Garden “OD R50 Asis of Biation ~ 100" 90° 80 aa 60 Taleose Gneiss pas 4 Ayis of Folration & é ls py Heavage. Porphyritic Trap. ; Porphyritic Trap . i it 1854. - +‘SHARPE—STRUCTURE OF MONT BLANC. hg | it from a spot near the sources of the Mzeander, where that river bursts forth in the market-place or agora of Celzenze, as described by Strabo, evidently after a subterranean course under the mountains, the river having previously disappeared at the foot of the hills in a more elevated plain on the N.E. side of the mountains. The two specimens show both in lithological appearances and or- ganic character a very remarkable resemblance. Even the species of Nummulite appears to be the same, thus affording another link in that vast chain of nummulitic formations which extend almost from the west of Europe to the northern provinces of India. In the Varna specimen Mr. T. R. Jones has made out an Orbitordes ( Orbi- tolites of some authors), which is probably identical in species with the Orbitoides dispansus of Persia and Scinde. NovEMBER 15, 1854. Francis Galton, Esq. was elected a Fellow. The following communications were read :— 1. On the StructuRE of Mont Buanc and its ENVIRONS. By Danie. Suarre, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. (Pl. I.] Mont Blanc has been represented by Professor James Forbes, in his admirable work on the Alps, as consisting of a mass of stratified granite, in which the strata are arranged in the form of a fan with one vertical axis running through the whole cham: on both sides the granite is stated to overlie a great formation of limestone, its beds dipping under the granite in perfect conformity with the strata of the granite itself, and a similar conformable superposition of gra- nite upon limestone is stated to occur in the Montagne de la Saxe on the east of Mont Blanc*. The section given by Professor Studer adopts the above views with the following modifications: instead of granite, the chain is stated to consist of protogine flanked by gneiss and metamorphic slates, the beds dipping under these are described as black limestone and slate, and the Montagne de la Saxe as felspar-slatet+. There are two apparent anomalies in these statements which stand im contradiction to the general experience of geologists elsewhere : Ist, the alleged conformity of stratification between the crystalline and the secondary rocks; 2nd, the superposition of the granite or protogine upon the latter. Itis of such vital importance to the pro- gress of geology that we should have correct views upon these points, that no apology is needed for a re-examination of the evidence on * J. Forbes, Travels through the Alps of Savoy, chap. xi., and Topographical sketch, No. 3. + Studer, Geologie der Schweiz, vol. i. p. 168 to 176, and Section, p. 175. NW 5 ka = ican a. |= Gras of Cleavage ° SE. Jurassi 2 S St S oh : ES Mica Schist- S te Annis of Foliation Cleavage. . FROM ST MAURICE BY MARTIGNY TO SEMBRANCHIER. : Lees 2 oe : 4 = Sy 4 2nd Aaus of Foliation & [XN | 18 Asus of Foliation N21, Forassic Jurassic Timestane. Slate. NW. N23. FROM THE COL DE BALME O5.PASS OF THEBONHOMME. E, Unstrantied, (tiated rocks, (Gruss be, & Schdsts) f Black aves remap, Strike Stratified Slectes. = ‘| 4h Axis of Clea vage ul a ” 3 E fi 2 a Pe Quartz Rock m ; 6H Ants of Cleavage : Avene : & oes, a ul * 2 Ir i . E 2 e is RS a Poy 2 N.W. S Axis of Foliation 5 3° Amis of Cleavage. S mrch disturbed , ray ui Cte s Ce, is ee 24 2 STs > a = ey 2 Leuk 9 A z | g Fa ‘Acts of pc z - 4 a a Porphyritic Tr: 3 mw = Se * ee Re ee ms ae ae 25 De ii Sei e Posphynitic Trap oOo < os 1 | ‘ : ny j Ey TP Prop, =| ip S i a 8 ; ; aE x Lag, a 5 ies yj . ‘Aas of Cleavage P 2, ede Fottation, 2 of Cleavage F iS — z ie $ Sorex & is Reis | ° Peon, y % eeu a g s Lox, mK a =) C Pay 5 & 2 8 2 £ - L “ep = Kae az Bae, 7S b F ‘kx 4 g ag a : E g A < : i = E = < a Wea 2 f ct. y 7 i Caml ol Phere, . gy wv Mona, 5 ‘ of Porphyritic Trap, Porphyritic Trap . A a oe i “ f y J wal [ ee oe ee hat he, ; Gat. 3 A ine k'S ‘ : get ee 4 ee a * * ¢;. & rie, | rt Mle noe ( p45 > ; “Post rh lie hee eRe t pal cars ve 7 r =» i" Kiet ios. cota et * i aan f 7, f ° - é ‘on few) Sar | anes a | a % ee 4 . 4 ae, . et nis) ae : 7 , Ay ks y | . ; a Mises : i 4 4 | ‘ ' 12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [ Nov. 15, which they rest; since the higher the authority on which an error is promulgated, the more pernicious is it to the progress of science. On a recent visit to the Alps I devoted ten days to the environs of Mont Blanc, to examine the accuracy of the views above stated, and to observe the relations of the foliation of the crystalline rocks to the cleavage of the surrounding stratified slates. The time at my disposal only allowed me to take a hasty view of the principal phee- nomena ; but here, as throughout Switzerland, the higher mountains have long been especial objects of study, and require little re-exami- nation, and it is in the valleys and on the lower flanks of the hills that observations are wanted to classify and work out the position of the secondary rocks. The following pages contain the results of my observations, which, though very incomplete, will help to bring the geology of this interesting district into harmony with our general experience. The structure of the great chain of Mont Blanc is well seen from the Mer de Glace; by ascending as far as the Jardin we obtain a section of more than three-fourths of the chain, which may be com- pleted by visiting its eastern flank in the Val Ferret; the direction and dip of the rocks which form the intervening ridge being distinctly visible from both sides. Saussure has given minute descriptions of many parts of the chain; Forbes, Studer, and others describe other portions, so that very little remains unknown. The mineral character of the rocks has been well described* ; they consist for the most part of a talcose gneiss, usually containing both mica and talc, which towards the centre of the chain is so slightly foliated as to resemble granite, while on its flanks the more marked foliation brings it to the condition of tale-schist or mica-schist. The less foliated portions have been called Granit veiné, Alpine granite, and Protogine; but there is no natural line to be drawn between these and the more schistose varieties, and a passage may be traced by in- sensible gradations from the schist to the more massive and granitic rock of the centrert. Instead of the simple fan-shaped arrangement of the foliation, with one vertical axis, which has previously been attributed to the gneiss of Mont Blanc, I found two nearly parallel lines of vertical foliation running through the whole chain, separated by a narrow, steep anti- clinal axis; on the Mer de Glace these lines are about a mile and a half apart, but they diverge a little in their course both to the north and south. Ascending the Montanvert from the valley of Cha- mounix, the foliation when first seen dips E. 50°, becomes gradually steeper as we ascend till it reaches E. 80° above the little inn; on the Mer de Glace, between the Montanvert and Trélaportef, the direc- * Saussure, § 677; Studer, vol. i. p. 168; Bakewell, Tarentaise, vol. ii. p. 22. + There is an exception at the angle on the Mer de Glace, where a projecting mass of granite is distinctly separated from the surrounding gneiss. ~ These points will be found in Professor J. Forbes’s Map of the Mer de Glace accompanying his “ Travels through the Alps of Savoy.” It is necessary to warn the reader that the engraver of that map has laid the line of True North to the west instead of the east of the magnetic north. 1854. | SHARPE—STRUCTURE OF MONT BLANC. 13 tion of the foliation changes to N. 15° E., N. 25° E. and N. 30° E., its inclination rising from a dip of E. 25° 8. 75° to the perpendicular at Trélaporte, where it strikes N. 30° E.; to the eastward of this spot it dips W. 30° N. 85°, then 80°, again changes to E. 30° S. 80°, thus forming an anticlinal: it again reaches the perpendicular at the Couvercle, with the strike of N. 30° E.: from this point to the east- ward the dip is W. 30° N., the inclination gradually diminishing till it reaches 60° on the west side of the Val Ferret. In the intervening ridge which separates the Mer de Glace from the Val Ferret, inclu- ding the Géant, the Col de Géant, the two Jorasses and the Aiguille de Léchaud, the foliation dips between 75° and 80° (see Pl. I. Sections, Nos. 3 and4). There is therefore a narrow anticlinal axis in the centre of the chain, with half an arch on each side of it ; and the other parts of these arches must be looked for on the other sides of the Val Ferret and Allée Blanche, and of the valley of Chamounix. Let us now follow the direction of the two lines of vertical foliation just mentioned. The western line, which is seen at Trélaporte on the Mer de Glace, runs S. 30° W. through the Aiguille des Charmoz ; if continued in the same direction it would pass through the highest point of Mont Blanc; on the side towards Chamounix the summit is entirely covered with snow, but on the eastern side the rock is less concealed, and it appears, when seen from the Val Ferret, to be composed of vertical masses: we carry the same line through the Aiguilles de Blaitiére, du Plan, and du Midi, in all of which Saussure informs us (chap. xvill.) that the foliation is vertical with a strike of S. 35° W. Fora short distance further south my information fails me, but on nearly the same line we find the Jurassic rocks of the Col du Bonhomme intersected by a vertical cleavage striking S. 25° W. . The same line of vertical foliation may be traced in the same manner northward from the Mer de Glace; it runs N. 30° E. through the Aiguille du Dru, and N. 35° E. on the western side of the Aiguille du Tour; from that point I can only carry it on conjecturally to meet a line of vertical cleavage striking N. 30° E. through the slate a little west of Sembranchier in the valley of the Drance. I have not followed the eastern line of vertical foliation to the northward, but I can point out its course for some distance south- ward ; from the Mer de Glace we can see that it runs S. 30° W. from the Aiguille du Moine to the Couvercle ; from the southern point of the Tacul it passes 8. 25° W. through La Tour Ronde and the second Flambeau to the Vierge: Saussure describes Mont Broglia behind the Glacier de Miage, as composed of vertical mica-schist, striking N.E. and N.N.E. (§ 891), and farther on I found a slaty limestone in the Allée Blanche, above the Lac de Combal, intersected by a vertical cleavage striking 8. 35° W., with plates of mica on the planes of cleavage (see Pl. I. Sect. 7), and the Jurassic rocks of the Col de la Seigne are vertically cleaved in the same direction on the continuation of the same line. The information relating to the parallel chain of Mont Brevent and the Aiguilles Rouges is less complete ; but I have reason to be- 14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Nov. 15, lieve that, like Mont Blanc, it has a narrow anticlinal axis bounded by two lines, along which the planes of foliation and cleavage are vertical, and outside of which these planes dip towards the central axis: the chain consists of gneiss or protogine, overlaid and flanked by a metamorphic semi-crystalline slate, so that it contains foliated and laminated rocks in contact. But the regularity of its structure has been disturbed by intrusive rocks of more modern date. The following are the details which I collected regarding it. On the west of Martigny the high ridge of mica-schist which mtervenes between the Drance and the Trient has an axis of vertical foliation striking N. 30° E.; this axis may be traced on the west side of the ravine leading from Martigny le Bourg to the Forclaz on the road to Cha- mounix, and it is seen well exposed close to the village of Trient : the river Trient here runs nearly west, and separates the mica-schist just mentioned from the slate of the Col de Balme; on the south side of the valley we find the cleavage of these slates vertical, with a strike of N. 15° E., which changes on the Piedmontese side of the Col de Balme to N. 45° E., and continues with this latter direction till it meets the vertical foliation of the crystalline rocks of the Aiguilles Rouges. Saussure (§ 642 and 646) informs us that the foliation of Mont Brevent is vertical, with a strike to the magnetic north, or N. 19° W., and a little south-west of Chamounix vertical gneiss form- ing part of the flank of Mont Brevent is seen to strike due N. on the side of the valley; some miles to the S.W., near Bionnay, a meta- morphic slate has a vertical cleavage striking N. 30° E., but the rocks in the interval between this point and the foot of Mont Brevent are in great confusion. M. Studer, p. 162 and 163, states that the structure of the middle of the group of the Aiguilles Rouges is anticlinal; and Saussure, § 552, mentions the vertical foliation of Mont Loguia, and at § 598 and 689, vertical cleavage near Valorsine striking W.N.W.; com- bining these observations, there is little doubt that the general struc- ture of the chain is that stated above, and that its foliation corre- sponds to the foliation and cleavages of the hills west of Martigny, which is shown in Section 1, Pl. I. The Arve, after running S.S.W. through the valley of Chamounix, turns round the foot of Mont Brevent to the N.W., and lays open in a deep ravine a large mass of hard dark felspathic rock *, massive in the centre of the mass, but irregularly slaty towards its exterior, which has thrown the neighbouring rocks into great disorder, giving both to the beds and cleavage a strike of about N.W. The foliation of the intrusive rock itself is obscure, but appears to be in concentric curves corresponding to the external form of the mass, a common arrangement in rocks of this class: this rock is seen on both sides of the Arve, and is crossed by the road at the highest point of Les Montées, a little west of the village of Ouches. A smaller mass of a similar rock is seen a little east of Servoz, equally disturbing the * Saussure, § 503, describes it as consisting of pierre de corne, quartz, and felspar, with very little mica. 1854. | SHARPE—STRUCTURE OF MONT BLANC. 15 regularity both of the bedding and cleavage in that neighbourhood”. . These rocks, and others of similar character occurring in the same chain near Valorsine, are treated by M. Studer, p. 161 and 162, as parts of the crystalline axis of the chain; but their disturbing the regularity of the cleavage planes proves their eruption to be after the lamination had been completed. Now the foliation of the Aiguilles Rouges corresponds so exactly to that of Mont Blane, as to leave no doubt of these two chains having been formed contemporaneously ; and we thus learn that Mont Brevent and the Aiguilles Rouges have been subjected to disturbing influences at a later period than Mont Blanc; an observation of which the full importance will be seen in reference to the beds in the intervening valley of Chamounix, to which we will next proceed. The section No. 3, Pl. I. shows roughly the position of the beds at the head of the valley of Chamounix on the southern side of the Col de Balme: the rock which rests on the gneiss of the chain of Mont Blane, at the foot of the Aiguille de Tour, is a metamorphic slate, con- taining nodules of quartz set in a semi-crystalline mass. These nodules appear not to be true pebbles, but to owe their form, in some degree at least, to metamorphic action; but this is a poimt of great difficulty. The rock reminded me of the slaty crystalline grits of Cumberland. The bedding is distinct, dipping N.W. 40° to 50°, and the cleavage, equally distinct, dips E. 35°, 8. 70° to 80°, in conformity with the foliation of the gneiss on which it rests. Upon the metamorphic slate rests a great series of black and dark brown slates dipping 30° to the westward ; but on the east side of the Col de Balme the same slates dip 50° to the E.N.E., and on the west side of the Col they dip 30° to the W.S.W., and further on they are thrown into some confusion. The cleavage of the slates forms a regular anticlinal axis at the Col de Balme, and a synclinal axis a little east of the Col; further east it forms another anticlinal, which must be the continuation of the anticlinal axis of the Aiguilles Rouges, mentioned above. At this line the cleavage is thrown into great confusion, which may be seen in some of the little ravines on the de- scent from the Col de Balme towards La Tour: here again we see proofs of the disturbance caused by a more recent elevation of the Aiguilles Rouges, by which the rocks on the western side of the valley are more affected than those on the eastern side. One of the beds seen near the village of La Tour deserves especial notice; it is a purple slate slightly micaceous, brecciated, with pebbles or masses * The rocks at the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard and of the Val d’Entremont, near St. Pierre, and also the intrusive rocks in the Val d’Aosta, east and west of Livrogne, appeared to me to be of a similar character to the above: they also strike a little W. of N., and disturb both the bedding and cleavage of their respec- tive neighbourhoods : see Studer, vol. i. p. 205. + Saussure, § 552, describes a rock near Valorsine as “ une espéce de granit veiné, parsemé de nceuds de quartz lenticulaires, posés de plat entre les feuillets de la pierre et parallelement aeux.’’ This is probably similar to the metamorphic slate on the flank of the Aiguille de Tour. Similar rocks-occur in many parts of this district in contact with the gneiss, and their resemblance to gneiss has often proved a source of confusion. 16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Noy. 15, of slate of different colours and consistency, all of which are flattened between the planes of cleavage, showing the pressure to which the rock has been subjected in a direction perpendicular to the cleavage lanes*. Owing to the great accumulation of fragments which have fallen from the mountains and form a steep talus on both sides of the valley, the secondary rocks of the valley of Chamounix are difficult of exa- mination ; indeed in many parts there are no secondary beds visible, the detritus of the valley extending up to the base of the crystalline rocks. I had not time to ascend the various ravines which offer a chance of detecting the secondary formations exposed; but in the localities which I examined, I saw nothing to justify the idea that the gneiss really overlies the secondary beds; nor do the descriptions published by preceding observers justify any such conclusion. Iam persuaded that the notion has arisen from an approach to conformity in the dip of the foliation of the gneiss of Mont Blanc, along the side of the valley, with that of the beds of stratified rocks, which for the most part dip at various angles towards the chain of Mont Blanc. But this apparent conformity is accidental: the folia of the gneiss owe their position to a deep-seated agency of the nature of which we are ignorant, which produced an arrangement of wonderful symmetry, extending on a uniform plan over a vast area, before the more mo- dern of the beds at Chamounix were formed: the easterly and south- easterly dip of the beds in the valley is due to the circumstance already alluded to, that the chain of Mont Brevent and the Aiguilles Rouges has received a movement of elevation at a later period than Mont Blanc; and in consequence the beds lying between the two chains are higher on the western side of the valley and dip towards Mont Blanc. The interest attaching to the question, whether the crystalline rocks overlie the secondary formations of Chamounix, makes it necessary to examine the statements on the subject in some detail. Saussure devotes Chap. 22 to the secondary rocks of Chamounix : he mentions beds of slate, limestone, and gypsum dipping to the S. W. at angles of 28°, 30°, and 45°, and sums up at the end that they are all more modern than the crystalline rocks, adding, “celle du Biolay, § 708, dont les couches sont engagées sous celles de la montagne primitive, semblerait pourtant faire une exception a celle régle.”’ Yet the previous description of the quarry at Biolay here referred to by no means justifies this exception; it is ‘‘les couches sont situées précisément comme celles de la montagne primitive 4 laquelle elles sont adossées.”’ Mr. James Forbes calls attention to two masses of dark grey lime- * Saussure in several parts of his Travels, § 841, 848, 850, &c., describes with great minuteness, brecciated slates with amygdaloidal pebbles arranged with their flat sides parallel to the plans des feuiilets, and in every instance concludes that the feuillets indicate the original stratification, and that the rock has been raised from a horizontal to its present vertical position. In the bed at the Col de Balme the bedding cannot be mistaken, as this bed is interposed between others of a totally different character. -_ 1854. | SHARPE—STRUCTURE OF MONT BLANC. 17 stone mentioned by Saussure, § 709 and 710, one of which rests on the flank of the Aiguilles Rouges below the Croix de la Flegére, dipping S.E. 70°; the other, of similar character, is opposite to it on the east side of the valley, forming a little hillock, called the Cote du Piget, between the present and the ancient moraines of the Glacier du Bois: the beds dip S.E. 30°, from which he infers that this lime- stone dips under the gneiss of Mont Blane (Travels, p. 63). But as the contact of the limestone and gneiss is not seen, the mass being, as stated by Saussure, “‘entitrement isolée dans le bas de la vallée,” the conclusion is evidently not drawn from observation. The asse1- tion that limestone dips under the granite in the valley of Cha- mounix, is several times repeated by Professor Forbes, but the only points especially mentioned, at pp. 63 and 66, do not justify this con- clusion. M. Necker had previously asserted in general terms that the talc- schists cover the secondary rocks along the whole valley of Cha- mounix*, but without indicating any precise spots where such super- position was to be seen. Considerable information relative to the secondary rocks will be found in a very interesting memoir by M. Favre on the Environs of Chamounix, in the Bibliothéque Universelle de Genéve for April 1848, in which the author announced his discovery of Jurassic and Anthraxi- ferous beds resting on the summit of the Aiguilles Rouges. He states that on the west side of the valley of Chamounix a band of anthraxiferous beds rests on the base of the Aiguilles Rouges, over- laid by jurassic beds which are seen on the other side of the valley dipping S.E. 30°, adding, “les schistes cristallins paraissent plonger sous les roches de cristallisation et reposer sur les calcaires dont les couches présentent la méme inclinaison.”” He concludes with great justice, “Il me semble donc que c’est la chaine des Aiguilles Rouges ui a déterminé le redressement des roches sédimentaires placées dans la vallée de Chamounix. Cette opinion me paraissait d’abord assez extraordinaire, car c’était annuller jusqu’é un certain point l’im- portance géognostique de l’énorme chaine protogineuse du Mont Blane.”’ It is evident from these passages that M. Favre has nowhere seen the crystalline schists of Mont Blane lying upon the sedimentary beds in the manner represented in the section which accompanies his memoir. From seeing the jurassic beds at the base of the hill dip towards the schists which form its side, at angles oecasionally coinciding with those of the dip of the foliation of the schists, the inference has been drawn that the jurassic beds dip under the schists. In my Section 'No. 4, Pl. I., I have shown the position of a mass of gypsum alternating with steatitic clay, which I visited in the Ravine between the Montagne de Taconnay and the Montagne des Forts, near the spot mentioned by Saussure, § 706: the beds dip 8S. 15°, and are entirely free from cleavage. Another quarry of gypsum, a little south of the foot of the Glacier de Taconnay, offered some * Etudes Géologiques dans les Alpes, vol. i. p- 138. VOL. X1.—PART I. Cc 18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SociETy. [Nov. 15, peculiarities of interest ; it exhibits the junction of two beds of gypsum of very different characters, separated by an irregular waving line, which is on the whole vertical, striking EK. The southern portion is traversed by well-marked planes of cleavage, dipping S. 70°, along which are small folia of tale, giving the mass a grey colour. The northern bed is a pure white gypsum, quite free from cleavage ; the annexed woodcut, fig. 1, will give a rough idea of this arrangement. | a Talcose Gypsum. Pure white Gypsum. It appears from these sections that there are two deposits of gypsum of very different ages in the valley of Chamounix; the earlier one laminated, the later deposited after the lamination of the rocks was completed. In both these cases the detritus concealed the base of the gypsum. The lower part of the valley of Chamounix is so much filled up by detritus that I despaired of finding anywhere the central axis of the valley exposed; but since my return I observe that Saussure mentions at § 656, that at Blaiticre, to the east of the village of Chamounix, the foliation of the crystalline schists is nearly hori- zontal, striking N.E., from which spot the inclination gradually in- creased as he ascended towards Mont Blanc. This observation bears out what I had inferred, that the foliation of Mont Blane and the Aiguilles Rouges forms together a complete arch, the crown of which runs down the valley of Chamounix. In Section No. 5, Pl. I., I have given a rough sketch of the posi- tion of the bedding and cleavage of the rocks seen in crossing the Col du Bonhomme from Nant Bourant to Chapieux. The Bonhomme is exactly on the southern prolongation of the western line of vertical foliation of Mont Blanc. The section is a most interesting one, and worthy of more time than I devoted to it ; but as M. Favre is engaged 1854. | SHARPE—STRUCTURE OF MONT BLANC. 19 on the examination of the wild region to the south of Mont Blanc, we may soon hope to see it properly described. The ascent from the West is principally over dark slates of the anthraxiferous series, which form a very irregular and disturbed anticlinal; they are tra- versed by cleavage dipping usually E. 25° to 30° S., at angles in- creasing as we ascend the hill from Nant Bourant. These are sur- mounted by a great series of jurassic beds, in which I noted the following descending series, which, however, was taken down too hastily to be given as more than a rough approximation. Hard slate, seen at Chapieux ; cleavage well-marked. Slaty limestone ; cleavage distinct. Hard quartzose grit, without cleavage. Black slate of great thickness, with quartz veins along the planes of cleavage, which are wavy, and somewhat irregular. Quartzose grit, without cleavage. Grey siliceous limestone, without cleavage. Rotten black slate, with marked cleavage ; on which the Second Cross stands. Hard grit, free from cleavage. Soft black shale. Sandstone and calcareous conglomerate alternating with beds of hard blue limestone, the whole free from cleavage. Sandstone, with distinct cleavage. Hard grit, without cleavage. Hard metamorphic grit, with marked cleavage running up to the Bonhomme. Hard siliceous limestone, without cleavage, probably the base of the jurassic series. Indurated sandstone passing into quartz rock, with imnumerable joints; cleavage obscure ; probably the commencement of the anthraxi- ferous series. Hard siliceous limestone, free from cleavage, on which stands the First Cross. Hard quartzose grit, without cleavage. Black slates. The jurassic beds all dip either 8.E. or E.S.E. from 20° to 30°; their cleavage is vertical on the top of the Pass, and dips N. 30° W. at regularly decreasing angles from the top to the Second Cross, where it forms an anticlinal. The strike of the cleavage varies from N. 25° E. to N. 60° E. I should nct have offered a section so hastily drawn up, but for the interest attaching to the arrangement of the cleavage planes. In the first place it is to be observed, that many of the hardest beds, best able to resist pressure, are quite free from cleavage ; while other beds, both above and below them, are so thoroughly cleaved as to be quite slaty. And the intercalation of the compact beds has very little altered the direction of the planes of cleavage in the other beds, which are nearly conformable; though perhaps rather less regularly so than appears in my section. I observed a similar alternation of slaty and compact beds, in many other parts of the Alps, in the uppermost G2 20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Nov. 15, series of beds which exhibit a slaty structure ; but nowhere can it be better studied than in the Col du Bonhomme ; the force which pro- duced the cleavage acting from below has laminated all the older rocks, but towards the upper limit of its action has only affected those beds whose materials yielded most readily to its influence. The rocks of the Col du Bonhomme are coloured in M. Studer’s Map of Switzerland as jurassic deposits of unascertained age ; perhaps attention to the above-described peculiarities of cleavage may enable us to fix their age more nearly. In the passes of the Saanitsch and the Gemmi, and in the neighbourhoods of Meyringen, Grindelwald, and Lauterbrunnen, I observed that all the Lower Jurassic Rocks, and the lower portions of M. Studer’s Middle Jurassic Series, were thoroughly intersected by slaty cleavage; that in the middle portion of the Middle Jurassic Division only the softer beds were slaty, the harder beds alternating with them being free from cleavage, and that in all beds above these there was no trace of cleavage. Now it is more than probable that im each district the cleavage took place at one period, and ceased at the same time throughout the district; and that the formation in which only certain beds are slaty is in each case the uppermost subject to the cleavage action. Therefore we may infer that the beds of the Col du Bonhomme are of the same age as those of the Saanitsch, &c., which exhibit similar phenomena of partial cleavage, and which M. Studer has ascertained to belong to the middle part of the jurassic series. Thus geologists will find that the study of slaty cleavage may sometimes give them new and unexpected assistance in determining the relative age of deposits ; and this assistance will be found where it is much wanted, in rocks of which the study is rendered difficult from the destruction of other evidence by metamorphic action. The next point to which I wish to call attention is the conformity between the arrangement of the cleavage planes at the Col du Bon- homme, and that of the folia of the gneiss of Mont Blanc; the section of the cleavage planes gives the same fan-shaped figure as that of the gneiss, and this on exactly the same line of strike; for the plane of vertical foliation which cuts the summit of Mont Blane, produced along its strike, coincides with that of the vertical cleavage of the Bonhomme ; and in the Col de la Seigne, a little east of my section, another plane of vertical cleavage corresponds to the eastern plane of vertical foliation of the Mont Blane chain. Or, if instead of fixing our attention on the fan-shaped structure, which has too exclusively occupied all Swiss geologists from Saussure downwards, we look to the arches or anticlinal axes, we find that the anticlinal of cleavage planes of Nant Bourant on the west of the Bonhomme cor- responds to that of the valley of Chamounix; and the anticlinal on the east between the Bonhomme and Chapieux to the central anti- clinal axis of Mont Blane. This not mere conformity of direction and position of the planes of cleavage and foliation, but actual con- tinuation of the same divisional planes along arches or anticlinals having the same axis, appears to me conclusive proof that the clea- vage of the slate and foliation of the gneiss and schists are portions 1854. | SHARPE—STRUCTURE OF MONT BLANC. 21 of one great operation, of which we must carefully study the effects, before we can hope to learn its causes or nature. Let us now turn to the line of valleys, which, under the names of the Allée Blanche and the Val Ferret, bounds the eastern side of the Mont Blane range. The western side of the Allée Blanche is in a great measure masked by the enormous moraines of the great glaciers which descend from Mont Blane, and the various interesting phzeno- mena connected with these somewhat distracted my attention from the geology of the valley; but I sketched the section shown in fig. 2, on the west or Mont Blanc side of the valley, a little above Le Slate. Calcareous conglomerate. Slaty limestone. / ! Slate. the Lac de Combal. Slates of various characters rest conformably on a bed of calcareous conglomerate, in which the cleavage is very obscure; this rests on a thick formation of slaty limestone, with mica lying on the planes of cleavage. The beds all dip conformably to the S.E. at about the angle of 20°, and are consequently resting upon the gneiss of Mont Blanc. The cleavage strikes N. 25° E., dipping near the mountain towards the E. 25° S. at high angles, but is vertical in the limestone at the side of the valley; this is on the line of the western axis of vertical foliation of the gneiss of Mont Blanc, and connects that line with the vertical cleavage of the Col de la Seigne*. These beds doubtless belong to the jurassic series of the Col du Bonhomme, and may owe their more metamorphic character to their proximity to the gneiss; they cross the valley near the chapel; they are probably separated from the gneiss by a metamor- phic siliceous slate, which is seen on the west side of the valley below the Glacier de !’Allée Blanche. I examined the Piedmontese Val Ferret rather more in detail; the position of the rocks on the north side of the Col Ferret is shown in Sect. 3, Pl. I. A thick bed of quartz rock rests upon the gneiss at * Saussure, § 845, mentions two pyramidal hills of a similar micaceous lime- stone near the head of the Allée Blanche with highly inelined beds ; he doubtless mistook the cleavage planes for the stratification. 22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Nov. 15, an angle of 60° or 70°; it is irregularly jointed, but neither bedding nor cleavage can be distinguished in it. On this rests a series of slightly twisted beds of dark slates, some of them calcareous, others of amore siliceous nature and with some subordinate beds of slaty sandstone, dipping E.N.K. 60°; at the Petit Ferret the beds form a synclinal axis, up which the footpath runs. From this point to the road up the Grand Ferret, the slates dip N.W. 40°, but on the south side of that pass they dip N.E. 50°*. The anticlinal seen at the Grand Ferret is the continuation of the anticlinal axis mentioned by Professor Forbes, op. cit. p. 211, which runs down the whole of this valley, and is continued for a short distance in the lower part of the Allée Blanche. The cleavage planes are wavy, but on the whole vertical between the two passes; on the western side of the Petit Ferret they dip E. 75°, meeting the folia of the gneiss of Mont Dolent in a steep anticlinal, which is the continuation of the axis of cleavage which runs down the valley, a turn of the valley having here separated the axis of cleavage from that of the strata, which coincide lower down the valley. As the arrangement of the cleavage planes is here very nearly in harmony with that of the district, we may infer that the beds have been very little disturbed since their lamination. For several miles down the valley there are no stratified rocks on the western side, which is bounded by a steep wall of gneiss, whose foliation dips towards the great chain about 60°; the strike at the head of the valley is N. or N. 10° E.; but lower down it follows the prevailing direction of this district, N. 30° E. On the east side of the valley the slates dip steadily about N.N.E. 50°. In the lower part of the valley a considerable mass of slate rocks lies on the west side of the valley, forming a low shoulder to the great chain ; the beds all dip towards the gneiss, forming an anticlinal axis with the slates on the opposite side of the valley. Their position is Shown in Section 4. I climbed the ravine which bounds Mont Frety on the north side of the village of Entréves far enough to satisfy myself that the slates rest against a steep wall of gneiss. Saussure tells us that he spent a day in the examination of the junction of the schists with the gneiss ; he says, § 872, “‘ Les couches s’'appuyent contre la montagne;” § 874, “On voit toujours des schists appliqués contre la base des montagnes primitives.” I was glad to find on my return that my view of the relative posi- tions of the gneiss and slates of Val Ferret was thus confirmed by the testimony of Saussure, since it is in direct contradiction to the account given by Prof. J. Forbes, who throughout his 11th chapter repeatedly asserts that the granite overlies the limestone on the west side of the Val Ferret, especially mentioning the limestone beds of Mont Frety as exhibiting this superposition, pp. 210, 212, 222, and 246+. I can only conclude that this dip of the beds of slate * Prof. J. Forbes, op. cit. p. 246, calls all these beds, as weli as all the secondary beds of the Val Ferret, limestone. They are principally clay-slates with some subordinate calcareous beds. Saussure describes them minutely, § 862 and 872. + Professor A. Sismonda also asserts that the protogine covers the calcareous 1854. ] SHARPE—STRUCTURE OF MONT BLANC. 23 towards the gneiss, coinciding in direction with the dip of the planes of foliation of the gneiss itself, has led our distinguished countryman to a belief in the actual superposition of the gneiss over the slates. The same Section, No. 4, Pl. I., shows the position of the beds of the southern extremity of the Montagne de la Saxe, as they are seen on the road from Entréves to Courmayeur. The upper beds consist of metamorphic semi-crystalline slate, dipping E.S.E. 50°, and resting conformably on a series of black slates with the same dip. The mineral waters of La Saxe rise at the junction of these two slate for- mations. Prof. J. Forbes describes these beds as granite resting upon limestone, p. 211, and his section, p. 210, shows a thick mass of granite overlying limestone at an angle of 50°. I did not observe any calcareous beds in the lower slates, nor are they mentioned by Saussure, who describes the beds in detail, § 881. But M. Studer has observed them to consist of black slate and limestone, vol. 1 pp. 173 and 383, and Section, p.175. The upper series, however, is undoubtedly a slate, with distinct bedding and cleavage, both con- formable to those of the beds below. M. Studer terms it Feldspath- Schiefer ; Saussure calls it une roche feuilletée, quartz et micat. The last-mentioned beds abut against a mass of rock of a more crystalline character, which must, I think, be considered gneiss ; it forms a low hill, reaching from the village of La Saxe to Courmayeur. The foliation of this mass is vertical, but ill-defined ; the cleavage of the slates between La Saxe and Val Ferret dips E. 40° S., at angles diminishing from 85° to 75°, as we recede from the gneiss. Thus the planes of cleavage and the beds both form an anticlinal with a common axis on the line of the Val Ferret, but with different degrees of inclination, and the foliation of the gneiss of the eastern side of the chain of Mont Blanc forms part of the same anticlinal arrange- ment, showing us that the elevation of the beds of Val Ferret to their present position was contemporary with the elevation of Mont Blanc ; for any subsequent elevation of the beds would have disturbed the symmetry of the cleavage planes, as has been the case in the valley of Chamounix. Instead of crossing the Col Ferret and thus keeping close round the chain of Mont Blanc, I turned down the valley of Aosta and returned to Martigny by the Great St. Bernard. Sect. 4, Pl. I., shows the position of the rocks as far as Aosta, but being drawn from the road, the western portion was taken on the north side of the valley, the eastern end beyond the bridge of Escutira on the south side. beds at Pra Sec in the Val Ferret. Memoria sui Terreni stratificati delle Alpi, 12. > * Saussure adds below, § 881, ‘ Voila donc des roches regardées comme primi- tives, qui reposent sur un genre de pierre unanimement regardée comme secon- daire. Ces dénominations de primitives et de secondaires sont-elles fautives, ou bien cette superposition monstrueuse des roches primitives sur les secondaires serait-elle ]’effet d’un bouleversement? C’est; ce que je n’oserais point encore décider.” We escape from the horns of this dilemma by answering that the upper rock is not primitive but secondary. 24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL sociETy. [ Nov. 15, The cleavage planes form a succession of arches or anticlinals, one of which is disturbed by eruptive felspathic rocks near Livrogne*, which also distort the slates and alter their mineral character in the neighbour- hood. For almost twelve miles from Val Ferret, nearly to Livrogne, the beds all dip eastward, presenting an enormous succession of slates, which probably include the Anthraxiferous series, the Lias, and the lowest portion of the Jurassic beds. From the general resemblance of these slates, the rarity of organic remains in them, and their deceptive mineral characters, dependent on their degree of metamorphism, I fear that it will be long before our Swiss colleagues succeed in reducing them to intelligible arrangement. Section 1, from St. Maurice to Sembranchier, following first the valley of the Rhone, then that of the Drance, in both of which the rocks are for the most part well exposed, shows us their relations a little north of the chain of Mont Blanc, and is most instructive with reference to the connexion between the cleavage of the slates and the foliation of the crystalline rocks. Commencing on the north-west, there is an anticlinal axis between St. Maurice and Miville, formed partly of the cleavage of the lower jurassic slates, partly of the folia of the mica-schist, bounded eastward by a line of vertical foliation near Miville, which is probably a continuation of the line of vertical cleavage of Mont Buat. A second anticlinal axis, very narrow and steep, occurs at the Pissevache, and a third at the valley of the Trient, both of which combine the planes of cleavage and foliation. A fourth anticlinal is seen in the foliation of the mica-schist at Martigny, which is the continuation of that of the valley of Chamounix. A fifth anticlinal occurs between Bovernier and Sembranchier, com- bining the foliation of the mica-schist with the cleavages of the slates; this is the continuation of the central anticlinal axis of Mont Blanc. This section ends here, but the Val d’ Aosta section, No. 4, Pl. I., shows a continuation to the eastward of the same arrangement of the cleavage-planes in anticlinals or arches. The various sections referred to as Nos. 1-5, Pl. I., are drawn on parallel lines across the chain of Mont Blanc, with the view to show the connexion between them ; eachanticlinal has the same number in every section; and each line of vertical cleavage, or, in the language of the Swiss geologists, each fan-shaped arrangement of the planes is marked by the same letter, commencing im each case on the western side. In chapter 48, devoted to the valley of the Rhone from St. Mau- rice to Martigny, Saussure describes all the slate-rocks as vertical, or inclined only a few degrees from the perpendicular+ ; having taken the planes of cleavage for those of bedding, and regarded the bedding as a series of parallel joints ; and this not from imadvertence, for after a careful description and comparison of the two sets of divisional planes, he decides that the more vertical ones, are the couches or planes of bedding, the more horizontal ones fentes or jomts; and that the whole mountains have been raised from a horizontal to their * See Studer, vol. i. p. 205, and note, p. 15, ante. t These slates are shown in my Section, No. 1, PI. I. 1854. | SHARPE—STRUCTURE OF MONT BLANC. 25 present vertical position, § 1049, 1050, 1065. The same systematic error runs throughout the whole of Saussure’s volumes ; wherever slates occur, their cleavage is almost invariably represented as strati- fication. Had this error died with its author, it would not now be necessary to expose it, but unfortunately it has taken deep root in Switzerland, and is to be found in the most modern geological works, leading to accounts of perpendicular beds in many slightly-disturbed districts. Saussure arrived at his conclusion by the following process, which shows the accuracy of his observations, which, even when his con- clusions are erroneous, are always trustworthy and instructive. He starts with this axiom, frequently stated in different terms: ‘ Les pierres feuilletées, de quelque nature qu elles soient, ont constamment leurs couches paralléles a leurs feuillets.”’ § 1287, also 2326. This, when applied to crystalline rocks, such as gneiss, mica-schist, &c., is perfectly true ; their principal divisional planes are invariably parallel to the plates or feuillets of mica or tale ; so that the direction of the foliation may be seen either in the arrangement of the mica in a hand specimen, or in the apparently parallel divisional planes which intersect whole ranges of mountains. But by the term couches, Saussure implies, as he expressly tells us, stratified beds formed of materials successively deposited from a fluid, § 1882, 2314, including in stra- tified rocks Granits veinés, gneiss, and schists primitive and secondary, and therein he confounded the stratification of sedimentary deposits with the foliation produced by crystalline agency. The next step follows necessarily from these premises: finding in many slates that the cleavage-planes are lined with plates of mica or talc, Saussure concludes that these planes represent the true bedding of the rock ; and thus he is led, by a remorseless adherence to his principles, to represent most of the slate-rocks visited as standing perpendicularly on end, until, as he himself tells us in § 1050, he was accused of seeing vertical beds in every mountain. It is remarkable that Saussure was led into this error from observing the analogy between the foliation of the schists and the cleavage of the slates; this analogy was afterwards forgotten until Darwin convinced himself that gneiss and mica-schists were not stratified, by a process of reasoning similar to that of Saussure, but built on a correct foundation. Coupling the now well-ascertained fact that the planes of cleavage of slate are not due to stratification with his observation that those planes are analogous to the planes of foliation of gneiss and mica-schist, he drew the true conclusion that the foliation has no reference to stratification*. Saussure was at least consistent in his error, which he arrived at from building correct reasoning upon an unsound basis: but no such compliment can be paid to the English geologists, who, after correctly distinguish- ing cleavage planes from stratification, still continued to class the foliation of crystalline rocks with the latter instead of the former ; thus proposing to unite two phenomena of totally different origin, * Darwin, Geological Observations on South America, chap. vi. 26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL sociETy. [Nov. 15, while they separated those which are really analogous, and probably due to one and the same cause. I have already alluded, p. 12, to one most remarkable feature in the structure of this district, that the crystalline rocks are most massive where their foliation is vertical, and become more and more schistose as its dip recedes from the perpendicular. This was well described by Saussure, § 677, &c., and has struck every observer who has followed him. This structure is the reverse of what occurs in the Highlands of Scotland, where I pointed out that the foliation is usually least marked where the angles of inclination are slight, and most complete where the gneiss is perpendicular or highly inclined*. Nor is this structure universal in Switzerland: it holds good im the chains of the Aiguilles Rouges, Mont Blanc, the Finsteraarhorn, the St. Gothard, Mont Combin, and the Dent Blanche ; in which there is also a strong mineral resemblance, all partially consisting of proto- gine. But the contrary structure is found in the great range of crystalline rocks which extend from Monte Rosa through the canton of Ticino: there, as in Scotland, the centres of the arches of foliation consist of rock as compact as, and frequently more so than their flanks. This difference of structure produces a corresponding difference in the physical features of the two great chains of the Alps: around Mont Blanc and the Bernese Alps the axes of foliation and cleavage run along deep and narrow valleys, and the harder rock, having its divisional planes vertical, or nearly so, stands out in sharp peaks or Aiguilles, often bounded by mural precipices ; in the southern range from Monte Rosa to the Lago Maggiore, the central arches of folia- tion are broad and elevated, constituting a large part of the chain, which has no longitudinal valleys of importance on the line of the strike of the foliation, and the mountains are usually more striking from their massive grandeur than from the elegance of their outline. But I will not now pursue this subject further, as I hope to have opportunities of following it more effectually in future. Should any geologists be disposed to test in the country here described the accuracy of the observations relating to cleavage and foliation contained in this memoir, or to follow out the same subject in other districts, let them recollect that there are everywhere minor local irregularities arising from various disturbing agencies, which must be overlooked, lest in overwhelming themselves with details, they lose the power of obtaining general views of pheenomena which extend over many hundred miles: Saussure, who was a minute observer where minuteness was required, but who knew when to dispense with it, has left us the following warning, “ce n’est pas avec des microscopes qu’il faut observer les montagnes,” § 1882. * Philosophical Transactions, 1852, p. 447. 1854.] BRICKENDEN—GLACIAL TRACES, DUMBARTON. 27 : EXPLANATION OF PLATE I. Map and Sections to illustrate Mr. D. SHarpr’s Paper on the neighbourhood of Mont Blane. The object of the Map and Sections being to show the direction of the planes of foliation and cleavage, only the principal geological features are represented, and four colours employed. The Yellow represents all the unstratified foliated rocks ; including Gneiss, Protogine, Mica Schist, and Tale Schist. The Purple represents the stratified Slates; including all the stra- tified deposits intersected by slaty cleavage. The Blue represents the beds of Jurassic Limestone, which are free from cleavage. The Crimson shows the intrusive igneous rocks of more modern date than the cleavage. ‘ The Black lines on the Map indicate the strike or direction of the planes of foliation and cleavage; where they cross the rocks coloured yellow, they represent the foliation; where they cross the purple colour, they show the cleavage. These lines are double where the foliation or cleavage is vertical, single along the central axis of an arch or anticlinal of foliation or cleavage. The angles of inclination of the planes along the axes and between the axes and the vertical planes can be learned from the sections, as the scale of the Map is too small to admit of the intervening planes being laid down. The lines are dotted where they have not been actually observed, but their direction has been inferred either by continuing them from the localities observed, or by drawing them parallel to the strike of the intervening variously inclined planes which have been observed, but which have not been laid down on the Map from want of space. The ground-plan of the Map is copied from the one-sheet map of the kingdom of Sardinia, reduced by Audriveau-Goujon of Paris from the larger official map. The Sections Nos. 1 to 5 are drawn on parallel lines across the chain of Mont Blanc, No. 1 lying most to the North, No. 5 most to the South, and their directions are indicated by lines on the Map, marked § 1 to § 5. They are all nearly on the same scale, with the height somewhat exaggerated: the dotted lines represent the planes of foliation and cleavage. Each line of vertical planes of foliation and cleavage is marked by the same letter, and each anticlinal of those planes by the same number; thus all the points marked alike are on the same line of strike, and the lines on the Map are similarly marked, 2. On the Occurrence of Guactau Traces on the Rock of Dum- BARTON. By Capt. L. BrickeNpEN, F.G.S., of Dumbarton Castle. As the very peculiar and remarkable positions in which glacial striz and abrasions are sometimes observed on the surface of rocks in 28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Nov. 15, Scotland may tend, if carefully examined, to explain the particular mode in which such phzenomena have been produced, it is probable Figs. 1, 2, & 3.—Sections and Plan of Dumbarton Rock, showing the position and direction of the Glacial Strie. Fig. 1.— Transverse Section of the Rock of Dumbarton, made in the direction of the Fissure which runs through its centre from North to South. a. Western side of fissure on which the Striz are chiefly seen. 6. Line supposed to indicate the former depth of the fissure, now filled up to form the base of the buildings and barrack-yard. Fig. 2.—Longitudinal Section of the Rock, showing the inclination of the lines of Fracture, and the corresponding inclination of the sides of the Fissure. _ a.. Western or overhanging side, on the surface of which very distinct glacial traces are seen. 6. Eastern side, on the upper part of which Striz are seen. c. Lower part supposed to have been artificially removed. d. Steps. 1854.]| BRICKENDEN—GLACIAL TRACES, DUMBARTON. 29 that the occurrence of glacial traces beneath an overhanging rock bordering a fissure at Dumbarton Castle is, amongst others, worthy of being recorded. The hard whinstone, which here rises up abruptly from the allu- vial shores of the River Clyde, exhibits in a very interesting and beautiful manner the crystalline and prismatic structure peculiar to such trappean effusions, but the lines of fracture or divisional planes of the Rock of Dumbarton are observed to incline generally at an angle of about 70°, giving to the Rock on one of its sides a rather precipitous and overhanging appearance. The effect of denudation or abrasion has therefore been to wear or score it in certain parts into fissures, the sides of which have a parallel inclination ; and across Fig. 3.—Plan of the Rock of Dumbarton Castle. N = LLEY OF THE LEVEN m LI “INE oe CENERAL DIRECTION oF SS S >" —— — = >= gt —— (HHS } l alse >~TIRECTION OF THE cLyDE a. Fissure. the centre of the Dumbarton Rock there is one of considerable depth, dividing the hill into two parts or summits, as shown in fig. 2. It is on the sides of this fissure, which now forms a passage, and the only mode of approach to the buildings on the Rock, that striae and abrasions are observed, which constitute the subject of this notice. The fissure intersects the Rock from south to north, pointing directly up the valley of the Leven, through which in the distance appears the lofty summit of Ben Lomond. The wall of rock on the left hand or western side of the fissure about midway up the ascent, 30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Noy. 15, inclines over the passage at an angle of about 70°, which is the pre- vailing inclination of the columnar divisions of the whinstone, and chiefly here on its very hard and durable surface are seen engraved, very distinctly, furrows and strie; mdicating the full force of the pro- pelling agent and its instrumentality, whatever that may have been, in the most contracted and cavernous part of the fissure. On the opposite or eastern side it appears that the rock has been artificially removed at some time for the purpose of widening the passage, which even now does not exceed 10 feet in width; but on the upper part very well-defined scratches are seen to maintain a direction corre- sponding to those on the western side. The striz are not horizontal, but run in lines nearly conformable to the declivity of the passage. As, however, these striee are seen on an impending surface of rock, nothing can be learnt from them as to the precise point by compass, from which the abrading agent may have proceeded ; and all that we can now perceive of its action is that which was confined within the narrow fissure, into the northern entrance of which it had intruded itself. That part of the Rock on which these abrasions are seen stands above the Clyde at an elevation of about 150 feet, and above this the Rock rises precipitously about an equal number of feet to its highest point. In the accompanying sketches (figs. 1, 2,3) are shown, by transverse and longitudinal sections, the form and dimensions of the fissure, both as it now is, and as it probably appeared previous to the period of human history. The Rock of Dumbarton rears its bold front immediately in the central line of the valley of the Leven, through which the small river of the same name flows in its meandering and alluvial channel from Loch Lomond to the Clyde; and it must at all times have pre- sented a direct barrier or obstruction to whatever has descended in that channel from its highland source. At the foot of the Rock on its northern side a strong tenacious clay, evidently belonging to the boulder-formation, descends beneath the level of the tide; this is in a great measure obscured by a talus ; and at a short distance from the Rock it is covered by the alluvial deposits of subsequent periods. But in this boulder clay we recog- nize the remains of that extensive glacial detritus which at the con- clusion of the epoch of its accumulation very probably existed to a great depth in this part of the Leven Valley, and more particularly where its transport would be arrested by the abrupt escarpment of the Rock. 1854. | HEAPHY—GOLD IN NEW ZEALAND. 31 NovEMBER 29, 1854. The following communications were read :— 1. On a Prericutuys from the Otp Rep SanpstoneE of Moray. By Captain L. BrickenpEN, F.G.S. (Abstract. ) THis communication had reference to a species of Pterichthys, re- markable for its great size (estimated by the author at 25 inches [ave- rage| in length, and 6 inches in breadth), and its peculiarly orna- mented and wrinkled surface. The paper was illustrated by drawings, in which the author had made a conjectural restoration of the external bony armour and the lateral appendages of the fish, from the nu- merous characteristic fragments that he had obtained in the upper division of the Devonian strata, chiefly from the Vale of Rothes. The central dorsal plate of this species has some resemblance to, but is much larger than Agassiz’s figure (Poiss. V. G. R. pl. 30*. figs. 17, 18) of the specimen referred by him to Coccosteus, but more lately by Sir P. Egerton and Hugh Miller to Pterichthys (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 310,311); and the jointed side-spines or “cephalic oars’’ resemble those referred by Agassiz to the P. major, but belong to a very much larger fish. 2. On the GoLD-BEARING District of COROMANDEL HaArsour, New Zeatann. By Cuarzes Heapuy, Esq., Commissioner of Gold Fields*. [Forwarded by His Excellency Sir George Grey, and communicated by the President. | Physical Geography of the District.—The Peninsula of Coromandel stretches for about fifty miles in a general direction of N. 30° W. and S. 30° E., and is the northern extremity of a high range which extends from a mountainous centre near the Taupe Lake and Boiling Springs in the interior of the Northern Island of New Zealand. The peninsula forms the eastern shore of the Frith of the Thames, on the western coast of which, about forty miles distant, the Settlement of Auckland is situated. The peninsula varies in breadth from four to twenty-two miles, and is mountainous in its whole extent ; a main range, but very little deflected from a northerly and southerly direction, and of an average height of 1500 feet (the highest summits being about 3000 feet above the sea), runs along its centre, throwing off spurs of inferior heights * See also a short notice of the gold diggings in this locality, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 39, p. 322. + This communication was accompanied by a large map and landscape sketches of the district; the former with frequent geological indications. A box of speci- mens was also sent, which are referred to in the memoir. 32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 29, to the eastward and westward. Detached hills occasionally take the place of the spurs, and the direction of these is in one instance pro- longed by a chain of islands extending in a line parallel with the main range. a several places the continuity of the main range ceases, and detached hills of an equal height flank the gap. A second range, however, rises after the interval of a mile or more, and is prolonged in the general direction of the first. On the western side of the peninsula the Harbours of Mauaia, Tekouma, and Coromandel are formed by the jutting out of spurs from the central range. Geology of the District.—In a country covered with so dense a forest as that of the wooded districts of New Zealand, and where there are no artificial cuttings, sections showing the geological struc- ture are but few; and anything farther than a slight sketch of the geology must be the result of more extensive observation than time and circumstances have yet enabled the writer to give to the subject. Judging from what has actually been observed, and without assuming the existence of any rock in a place in which it has not been seen, the following may be stated. The predominating rock in the whole of the principal range and most of the subordinate hills appears to be a decomposing breccia (Specimens marked A.)*. This breccia, of which variously-coloured granites and red porphyry (Specimens A.*) are the chief components, mainly forms the sides of the range of the spurs, together with the detached hills and outlying islands. The highest points of the main range, generally precipitous crags, are of granite (Specimens B.). Where the water-courses have cut deep into the sides of the ridge, slate (Specimens C.) is exposed, of a blue or dark grey colour, and with a varying dip and strike. Trap and quartzose veins are very prevalent ; and indications of copper (Specimens D.), iron (Speci- mens E.), and silver are common. Quartz veins, of a breadth from half an inch (Specimens J.) to that of 15 feet, traverse the slate and breccia, and generally run in a direction similar to the trend of the main rangé, of which in some cases they form the crest. Where the spurs from the range follow an easterly or westerly direction, the quartz veins intersect them, still in parallelism with the range. On the western coast, at distances of 4 and 6 miles from the main range, a granite appears, of a character somewhat approaching to that of gneiss, together with clay-slate. The relation of these formations with the main ridge has not yet been traced. On the eastern side of the peninsula is an extensive district com- posed of indurated pumice-sand, which from the rounded form of its grains, and the horizontal position of its layers, appears to have been deposited below the sea, and to have been subsequently elevated. The indentation of Mercury Bay, with its rivers, is the division be- tween this formation and the crystalline rocks of the main range. To the westward, at a distance of about 30 miles (across the Thames Frith), is the volcanic formation of Auckland; the clay-slates of * The specimens referred to in the paper are in the Society’s Collection. 1854. | HEAPHY—GOLD IN NEW ZEALAND. 33 the Islands of Waiheke and Ponui, however, intervening. In the Auckland district, in a space of about 20 miles square, may be counted thirty or more extinct or quiescent craters, the fires of which appear to have burst up through horizontal clays and sands, m which a scoriaceous ash, in thick beds, was already a component part. The localities in which gold has been found.—Gold, either in con- siderable quantities, or in specks, only discernible on carefully wash- ing the sand, exists in the beds of many of the streams of the penin- sula. Rich deposits are also found in the clay on the slopes and spurs of the chief mountain range. The Valley of the Kapanga, and the mode of working.—The gold was first found at the Kapanga stream, which, following a southerly course for about 4 miles, at the foot of the main range, flows into Coromandel Harbour on the western side of the peninsula. The bed of the Kapanga is rocky; large boulders of quartz and fragments of trap occasionally forming “ bars,’’ and causing falls in the stream of 2 or more feet in height. Immediately below these “bars,” and on the side where during freshets there is an eddy, is the spot where the deposit of gold is the richest. The diggers, in parties of four or six, with the aid of tackles and levers, haul out the larger fragments, and carefully sift and wash the gravel which lies below them. At a depth of from 5 to 7 feet from the surface the “‘bed-rock”’ is generally laid bare, and immediately on this the largest specimens of gold are found. The party excavate, in the manner de- scribed, for about twenty yards up the course of the stream, to the fall; then, having turned the water into the hollow so dug, they con- tinue their work on the opposite side of the stream-bed. In this unscientific manner a party working steadily may obtain about a quarter of an ounce per day per man. The banks of the stream are steep, and covered, as in the whole mountain range, with a thick growth of timber. When wooden troughs are made to conduct the water along at a higher level, and the stream-bed be so left dry, it is very probable that the yield of gold will be much increased. The gold, however, is not confined to the bed of the stream ; the soil on all the flats and banks of the stream, where the ravine is nar- row, yields grains of gold on careful washing. In one place, on a slope of the hill about 150 yards from the stream, a deposit was found of such richness as to yield 400/. worth of auriferous quartz from the space of eighty square yards. There the gold was disco- vered in a small runnel of water, amongst the roots of the trees on the surface. Immediately below was a layer, about 10 inches deep, of quartz-grit (Specimens F.), lying on a mass of yellow and blue clay, which in its turn rested on porphyritic breccia (Specimens A.) at a depth of about 30 feet. Upon washing the quartz-grit (Speci- mens F’.), it was found to contain much gold, although the clay around and below yielded scarcely any trace of the metal. The quartz layer dipped at a slight inclination in the direction of the stream below, and pursued its course for about thirty yards on a wavy plane, at a mean depth of 4 feet below the surface. VOL. XI.— PART I. D 34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. |[Nov. 29, From the admixture of the quartz-grit (Specimens F.) with partly decayed vegetation, which did not extend into the adjacent clay, it might be inferred that the layer had been the detritus of the bed of a a small rill, the hollow of which had been filled by a subsequent slip of clay from the hill above. Although the fragments of auriferous quartz (Specimens G.) in the layer were perfectly sharp in their angles and presented no appearance of having been rolled, yet, on examining the rock above, scarcely a trace of gold was found. Highty feet lower down on the hill-side traces of gold had also disappeared. The deposit was entirely local. Around the spot where the gold lay, and imbedded in the clay, are large boulders of quartz (Specimens H.), the rounded shapes of which bear evidence to their having been much rolled. Specks only of gold are found about them. The crystallization of the quartz (Spe- cimens H.) in these boulders is more perfect than in that containing gold. In the latter (Specimens G.) the quartz has a crumbling ap- pearance, asif decomposing. It is possible that one of these boulders was originally a fragment from an auriferous quartz-vein on the moun- tainabove. Its breaking up might have resulted from frosts, and from the action of the water of the hollow into which it had rolled on a stone rendered less adhesive by the crossing and recrossing of scales of gold through its substance. The gold is most abundant in the upper part of the valley of the Kapanga, where the stream-bed is narrowed in to a breadth of about 25 feet by the steep sides of the ravine. Lower down, where the valley expands, the gold is so diffused over the soil of the flats as not to pay for working. In the mud-flat where the Kapanga flows into the harbour, specks, or what is termed the “colour,” may be ob- tained by careful washing. The Mataawai Stream.—The Waiau stream flows from immediately under the main range in a north-westerly direction to Coromandel Harbour. One of its tributaries, the Mataawai, intersects the range in its course at a low level, and reveals a dark grey slate-rock. Gold, ramified through rounded pebbles of quartz (Specimens I.), was found in considerable quantities during the last summer, in the cre- vices of the slate-rock, below the gravel of the stream-bed. Several specimens weighing about 4 oz. and 53 0z. were washed, and one was obtained of the weight of 720z. All the gold and auriferous quartz (Specimens I.) in this stream present a rounded surface, such as would be caused by long-continued attrition. The Karaka.—The Karaka stream, midway between the Kapanga and the Mataawai, also partly intersects the main range, and, like the last-named stream, exposes the grey slate. In this stream only grains of gold have yet been found. Other localities—The places already mentioned, together with the granite coast at Otaki and the Manai Creek, where gold has also been “ prospected,”’ are on the western side of the main range. On the eastern it exists in the Arataonga and Makirau valleys, and at Kuatunu, under Mount Kenny, 20 miles from the central range. “ Prospects” of gold have also been washed on the mountains of the 1854. | CHARTERS—GEOLOGY OF NICE. 35 Thames, a continuation of the same range, at a distance of 45 miles from Coromandel. Relations of the gold to its matrix, and to the deposits in which it is found.—Where large quartz boulders appear denuded on the surface, gold is generally found in the black sand (Specimen K.) of the ad- jacent stream. When the gold is found in clay, it is generally in con- tact with a fragment of the matrix—a brittle quartz, of a grey or amethystine colour. When found in the stream, it is either in pure scales (Specimens O.), or associated with a quartz (Specimens I.) coloured red, apparently by the oxide of iron. It is probable that this combination imparts to it that degree of hardness which causes the stone to withstand the crushing action of the rolling stones of the stream-bed. The purer gold found may have been freed from its more brittle matrix by the attrition. The gold is but rarely found in contact with the prismatic crystals of the quartz. It is generally ramified with but little regularity through the mass. In some cases where it lay between lamellar plates of quartz it was the richest. In larger fragments (Specimens L.) of the stone the gold existed only in spangles at a distance of an inch or more apart. From this and from other indications presented by the matrix, I infer that the gold in a quartz-vein is diffused where the vein is broad, and concentrated where it is narrow ; the quantity of the metal existing in a similar length of the vein under either circum- stance being perhaps the same. The extent. of the surface of ground that has been dug over is about 1500 square yards. The depth from which the gold has gene- rally been taken is from 4 to 6 feet. The total quantity of gold which has been obtained may be esti- mated at 340 ounces, the chief part of which has been extracted from an auriferous quartz yielding a mean of one-third of its weight of metal. From the very general diffusion of small particles of gcld over the surface of the district, experienced ‘“ Prospectors”’ are of opinion that a large quantity of matrix-gold exists in the mountains adjacent to the diggings. The dense forest and its tangled undergrowth are great hindrances, however, to the exploration of the country; and the large amount of water which, from the moist climate of New Zealand, is everywhere present, together with the looseness of the rock where the gold is found, have prevented the examination being carried to those depths where in the Australian and Californian Gold Fields the gold most abundantly exists. 3. On the Groxoey of the Vicinity of Nice. By Major Cuarters, F.G.S. « [This Paper was withdrawn by permission of the Council. ] (Abstract.) Tue author, having first alluded to the geological researches of Sir H. De la Beche * in this district, noticed the more recent additions * Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd ser. vol. iii. p. 171 e¢ seg. D2 36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [ Nov. 29. to our knowledge of the geology of Nice accruing from the observa- tions of the Marquis L. Pareto, Prof. A. Sismonda, and Prof. A. Perez. The views of the last-named gentleman especially, by whom the proofs of the identity of the divisions of the cretaceous series in that region with those of England have principally been obtained, were brought forward by the author in this communication. Prof. Perez has studied the structure and succession of the rocks of this district in great detail, and accumulated a large series of fossils ; but his only publication on the subject hitherto has been a summary of his observations, read before the Italian Association at Genoa in 1846. Major Charters, having seen many of the principal sites along with Prof. Perez, and conversed much with him, concurs fully in his views. Major Charters described the topography of the district, with its three river-basins and its numerous mountains, and then noticed the geological formations in the following order: —1. Postpliocene (quaternaria of the Italians); 2. Pliocene; 3. Eocene; 4. Creta- ceous; 5. Jurassic, including the Dolomite. This memoir had special reference to the following points of in- terest :—The separation and definition of the nummulitic and the cretaceous rocks ; the subdivision of the latter; the association of the gypsum of the Hill of Cimies with the cretaceous series ; and the intimate relation of the dolomite with the Jurassic series. Major Charters also mentioned his visit to a volcanic district about ten miles west of Nice. ee he | Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Vi XT. PUT. OQ la. , Central Ind (Owen): from Mangal tae = BRACHYOPS LATICE d & West Imp. ‘ori ay neg 2 tay pon! A/T KE! 1 Uh, 51 Jos - PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. POSTPONED PAPERS. Description of the Cranium of a LaByRintHODONT REPTILE, Bracuyors waticers, from MANGAuI, CENTRAL INDIA. By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.G.S. [Puate IT.] [This Paper was read June 21, 1854*.] Tue fossil obtained by the Rev. Messrs. Hislop and Hunter+ from the sandstone series of Mangali, about sixty miles to the south of Nagpur, and transmitted for my exammation, is a considerable por- tion of a skull, wanting chiefly the tympanic pedicles and the lower jaw; it is imbedded in a block of bright brick-red compact stone, with its upper surface exposed. The skull (Pl. II.) is broad, depressed, of an almost equilateral triangular form ; the occipital border or plane rather exceeding in extent each lateral border, which borders con- verge with a slight convex curve to the rounded obtuse muzzle. The breadth of the occiput is 4 inches 9 lines, and the extent of each lateral border of the skull in a right line is 4 inches 6 lines. Most of the cranial bones are impressed by rather coarse grooves, radiating in each from a prominence which indicates the primitive centre of ossification ; the intervening ridges being in some parts broken up by communicating grooves into tubercles. The orbits (0, 0) are entire, of a moderate size, of a full oval form, and situated in the anterior half of the skull. The middle line of the upper surface of the skull is slightly depressed; at the upper and fore part of the skull on each side, there is a smooth continuous groove of a sigmoid form, with a strong curve, convex outwards anterior to the orbit, and with a less strong curve, convex inwards on the imner side of the orbit: between the orbit and the occiput there is on each side a shorter groove, * For the other communications read at this Evening Meeting, see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 454, &c. t+ See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 40, p. 472. 38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. extending from the exoccipital forwards and a little outwards to the postfrontal, where it bends more directly outwards and downwards behind the orbits: these grooves probably lodged large mucous,canals. Portions of small, conical, pointed, subequal teeth extend in a single series along the alveolar border of the upper jaw (fig. 2, 21), from the muzzle, along the lateral borders of the fossil, to two-thirds of an ich behind the orbits. At the bases of some of these teeth may be discerned indentations converging from the periphery towards the centre of the dentine. The entire orbits, closed below by a backward extension of the superior maxillary (21), and the connexion of this bone by a malar (26) and squamosal (27) with the mastoid (s) and tympanic (2s), forming a complete zygoma, prove that the fossil did not belong to the class of fishes: whilst the strong points of resemblance which the skull presented to the Labyrinthodonts—in its broad and very depressed figure (especially the great breadth of the occiput), in its external sculpturing (especially the number and position of the mu- cous grooves), in the form and position of the orbits, and in the cha- racters of the teeth—led me to investigate the structure of the deeper part of the occiput which was concealed in the matrix, for the more decisive character which that part of the cranium affords of the ba- trachian affinities of the singular reptiles to which the Mangali skull seemed by its more obvious characters to be most closely allied. I was gratified by finding that the occipital bone (which like the rest of the skull was distinguished from the red matrix by its yellow colour) terminated posteriorly in two well-defined subdepressed con- vex condyles, 2,2, not so close together as in the great Labyrinthodon salamandroides (Mastodonsaurus of Jaeger), but separated as in the Trematosaurus of Burmeistert+. A part of the broad atlas (a) was found in connexion with these condyles. The superoccipital region is formed by a pair of bones, 3, 3, each with a slightly prominent centre at the angle between the horizontal and backwardly-sloping part of the occiput: they may represent a divided superoccipital bone, but I cannot trace a suture separating them from the exoccipitals supporting the condyles, where it is repre- sented by Burmeister in the Trematosaurus. External to these is a large bone with a well-marked prominent centre, from which the grooves of the outer surface radiate: on the left side, a part of the tympanic remains in connexion with this bone, which I regard as the mastoid, s, which bone occupies a similar posi- tion in the Labyrinthodonts. The parietal bones, 7,7, continue the cranial walls in advance of the superoccipitals, and show a small oval vacuity in their median suture—the “foramen parietale,” as in the Trematosaurus: the foramen is situated near the hinder part of the suture: an accessory parietal, 7*, extends outwards from the hinder half of the main body of the bone on each side, to the angle between the superoccipital and mastoid. Traces of a suture seem to show this to be a dismemberment of the parietal: it occupies the place of the bone marked x, and called ‘os temporale squamosum,”’ in the tT ‘Die Labyrinthodonten,’ 4to, 1849, part i. pl. 1. OWEN—BRACHYOPS LATICEPS. 39 above-cited figure of the Trematosaurus ; but the true squamosal is always anterior and external to the mastoid in the reptiles in which it is unequivocally present ; and it is restricted to its zygomatic place and functions, not becoming a proper cranial bone until the mammalian type is reached. The precise boundaries of the frontal, 7, and the sutures dividing it from the nasals and prefrontals cannot be traced, the skull being abraded at this part. The postfrontals, 12, have their centre as well marked and prominent as in the mastoids, and extend to those bones from the outer and back parts of the orbits. Traces of the malar, 26, and true squamosal, 27, may be discerned on the left side, extending from the slender maxillary beneath the post- frontal, to the tympanic, 28, beneath the mastoid,s. The bone here called ‘ postfrontal,”’ is the ‘os orbitale posterius,”’ 7, of Burmeister, and the name “os frontale posterius”’ is restricted in the above- cited figure of the Trematosaurus to a supplementary bone which is interposed in that Labyrinthodont, as in the present, between the bone marked 12, the parietal 7, and frontal 9, where it forms the inner half of the back part of the orbit. This bone appears to me to be a dismemberment of an unusually developed postfrontal, and both it and the supernumerary bone, 7*, are remarkable departures from the normal cranial structure, characteristic of some, if not of all of the Labyrinthodont batrachians. The marked departure in the form and proportions of the present cranium from those of the equally well-preserved specimens of European Labyrinthodonts, leads me to the conclusion that the Mangali species indicates a distinct subgenus in that group of Reptiles, and I propose to designate the species so represented by the term ‘ Brachyops+ laticeps,’ indicative of its peculiar proportions. Although the abraded and otherwise mutilated state of the skull of the Brachyops is such as to prevent my giving a more extended ana- tomical description of it, and determining more precisely and satis- factorily the boundaries and homologies of the constituent bones, it nevertheless permits so many characters of the skull of the Labyrin- thodont Batrachia to be determined, as can leave no reasonable doubt of its true nature and affinities ; and thus the results chiefly required by the geologist, in reference to the probable age of the stratum in which this fossil is imbedded, may have been attained. DESCRIPTION OF PLATE II. Fig. 1. Upper view of the skull of the Brachyops, nat. size. 2. Side view of the same, nat. size. + From Bpayids, short, op face; in reference to the shortness of the facial part of the skull anterior to the orbits. 40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. On the Structure and AFFINITIES of the HippuRITiD&. By S. P. Woopwarp, Ksq., F.G.S. [Puatss III. IV. V.} [Read May 24, 1854 *.] CONTENTS. Introduction. Description of the Shell of the Hippurite. Genera related to Hippurites : Radiolites. Caprotina. Caprina. Caprinella. ? Requienia. The Hippuritide and their Geological Distribution. Affinities of the Hippuritide. Critical examination of the opinions of earlier observers. Hippuritide referred to Corals, Annelids, and Cirripeds. - to Palliobranchiates. to a separate Molluscan Order (Rudista). to Lamellibranchiates. Description of some New Species of Hippurites and Radiolites. —— Introduction.—It is now forty years since Mr. Parkinson, the most distinguished palzeontologist of his day, read a paper before this Society, descriptive of some Hippurites from Sicily. The paper was printed in the second volume of the ‘Transactions’ (p. 277); the spe- cimens are yet in the Society’s Museum. Mr. Parkinson adopted the notion of Baron Picot de Lapeirouse, that Hippurites were chambered shells related to Orthoceras, and pointed out the means by which he thought they might have been capable of “ raising themselves occa- sionally to the surface of the sea” (/oc. cit. p. 282). Since that time many eminent paleontologists have devoted atten- tion to the subject ; but, owing doubtless to the imcompleteness of their materials, scarcely two authors have formed a similar opinion, and some of the latest-published views are more improbable than those promulgated by Mr. Parkinson. The collection of Hippurites and allied fossils in the British Mu- seum has been rendered so complete by the liberality of Mr. S. Peace Pratt and Sir Roderick I. Murchison, and by the assistance of Dr. Krantz of Bonn and M. Saemann of Paris, as to leave very little to be desired in the way of additional data. It is due to M. Saemann to say, that some of the most instructive specimens were procured by him with his own hands, and that he was fully aware of their scientific value. My own observations, so far as they are new, would be scarcely * For the other communications read at this Evening Meeting, see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 397. WOODWARD—HIPPURITID. 41 intelligible if stated alone, and not of sufficient importance to form the subject of a communication to the Society ; and it is only upon the express invitation of the President that I have ventured to offer a general summary of a matter so often discussed. Description of the Shell of the Hippurites.—Hippurites are bivalve shells, which were attached to the sea-bed, and usually gregarious, like Oysters ; often adhering together by their sides, or growing one upon the other. They are conical when young; but soon become cylindrical, as they lengthen upwards without increasing in diameter. Some are straight, others curved ; one of the most common, H. cornu- vaccinum, is shaped like a cow’s horn, and attains the length of a foot or more. On one side there are three longitudinal furrows, extending from the base to the summit ; the upper valve is nearly flat, and is per- forated by numerous pores ; sometimes there are two eye-like depres- sions, as in HH. b7-oculatus. When broken with a hammer, the shell is found to consist of two layers ; the outermost is readily detached, leaving a core, which is furrowed lengthwise. The outer layer is compact and dark-coloured ; its solidity is caused by the infiltration of carbonate of lime. Spe- cimens, however, from the Chalk of Angouléme are quite porous and brittle. Here the outer shell consists of a succession of corrugated layers ; the wrinkles radiate from the inner margin and subdivide and anastomose repeatedly, leaving interstitial pores. By the appo- sition of these pores in the successive layers, long unequal tubes are formed parallel with the long axis of the shell, and opening on its rim. The inner layer is white and laminated, like the interior of an oyster-shell, with spaces between the lamine, like those of the Water-Spondylus, and which are of frequent occurrence in the Oyster Fig.* 1.—Section of a fragment of Ostrea cornucopie, showing the spaces formed by the lamine in the interior of the shell. BX ——_— also. The lamine are as thin as writing-paper, sometimes vesicular, * I am indebted to Dr. J. E. Gray, of the British Museum, for the use of the woodcuts, which have been prepared for the ‘ Museum Catalogue.’ 42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. as in Aitheria, sometimes wide apart and regular as the septa of an Orthoceras ; the interspaces are occasionally empty, but are more usually filled with calcareous spar. The whole inner stratum of shell is frequently replaced by crystalline carbonate of lime. . Figs. 2 & 3.—Sections of Hippurites cornu-vaccinum, Bronn. Fig. 3. AY \ An\ aan IL NAAN 3 Md ‘4 / if / i}; Y VV hin 7 MLM, Fig. 2. Upper half of a longitudinal section (3 nat. size), taken in the direction d, 6 of Fig. 3, cutting only the base of the posterior tooth (¢). Fig. 3. Transverse section of a larger specimen (2 nat. size) at about the level d, d of Fig. 2, cutting the point of the posterior apophysis (a’), and showing the peculiar shell-texture deposited by the anterior adductor (a): I, m, n, duplicatures ; wu, umbonal cavity of left valve; 7, of right valve ; e, ec’, cartilage-pits; 7, ¢, teeth; a, a’, muscular apophyses; d, outer shell-layer ; e, inner shell-layer. A longitudinal section shows the laminz of shell filling up the interior nearly to the summit, leaving but a small space for the body of the animal, now occupied by hard limestone. The upper valve serves as an operculum to close the aperture of the lower valve, and does not thicken with age; its outer stratum is permeated by canals which radiate from the centre to the margin, and give off small branches which appear as pores on the outer sur- face. The inner layer is always metamorphic and crystalline ; it gives off processes which penetrate to some depth the substance of the lower valve. The interior of the lower valve has been figured and described by Goldfuss and D’Orbigny. Goldfuss’s figure (Petr. Germ. t. 164. f. 1c, p. 300) has been generally overlooked, perhaps because he described it merely as an example of Radiolites agariciformis, ** wanting the upper layers.” The British Museum has lately acquired a specimen precisely similar (fig. 4). The inner layer exhibits an irregularly cellular structure, which I have not met with in any other Hippurite, and to which its excellent preservation is probably due. The cells are large, irregular, WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. 43 and empty, like the cellular structure between the laminz of certain Oysters. Figs. 4 & 5.—Upper and lower valves of Hippurites radiosus, Desm. ae . (on > oa f ‘Wy : ‘ ) hy Fig. 4. Interior of lower valve (4). Fig. 5. Model of upper valve: a, a’, adductor impressions and processes ; ¢, ¢, car- tilage-pits ; ¢, ¢’, teeth and dental sockets ; u, umbonal cavity; p, orifices of canals; /, ligamental inflection ; m, muscular, 7, siphonal inflections. The umbonal cavity of the lower valve is contracted by three ridges, produced by inflections of the outer wall; they correspond to the three furrows on the outside. The first, or igamental, inflec- tion is very slight, and opposite to the centre of the hinge, which consists of two deep dental sockets, divided by a tooth-like process, and separated from the shell-wall by two narrow and deep pits for the internal ligament (cartilage). In front of the hinge is a large muscular impression consisting of two portions, and answering to the anterior adductor, which usually consists of two elements in ordinary bivalves. Behind the hinge, and between it and the second inflec- tion, is adeep pit, marked inside with the impression of the posterior adductor muscle. This inflection, therefore, appears to represent the lamina which supports the posterior adductor in the fossil genus Diceras, and in the recent Cardilia. The third inflection may possibly correspond to the ridge which indicates the division of the siphonal orifices in some bivalves, such as the Lede and Trigonia aliformis. In H. cornu-vaccinum the form of the interior is rather different (fig. 3) *. See also Pl. IV. figs. 2 and 3. The ligamental inflection is very deep, and the dental sockets are placed across the interior of the shell, mstead of parallel with the side, ‘leaving a shallow cavity in front, which may perhaps have lodged the internal ligament, for there are no distinct ligamental pits in the lower valve of this species. Hippurites which have lost their inner layer exhibit either two or three longitudinal ridges, accordingly as they belong to the same division with H. cornu-vaccinum, or with H. radiosus and bi-oculatus. The interior of the upper valve of the Hippurite appears not * Compare D’Orbigny’s figure, Paléont. Francaise, Ter. Crét, pl. 527. f. 2. 44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. to have been figured or described; but Goldfuss and D’Orbigny have figured a mould of its interior, and I obtained a similar prepa- ration (fig. 7) by removing the upper valve from one of Mr. Pratt’s specimens with a hammer and chisel. Figs. 6 & 7.—Upper valve of H. Toucasianus. Fig. 6. Exterior of the upper valve; 3. Fig. 7. Mould of the interior of upper valve; 2. /,m,n,duplicatures; 2, fracture, showing canals; c, cartilage; wu, left umbo ;—the arrows indicate the supposed direction of the branchial currents. This mould shows the wméo turned forwards, and baving a deep furrow on each side, caused by processes from the upper valve. On the dorsal side of the umbo, close to the ligamental inflection, is a small conical elevation (omitted in the figures of Goldfuss and D’Orbigny ) representing the cartilage or one of its divisions. A plaster-cast taken from this mould gives the form of the interior, to a certain extent ; that is to say, it shows the umbonal cavity, the cartilage-pit, a deep furrow winding round the adductor and siphonal inflections, and the dases of the hinge-teeth. With the help of this mould I filled up the umbonal cavity of the other specimen (the lower valve of H. radiosus), and then took from it a plaster-cast (fig. 5), which gives what I believe to have been the form of the upper valve with its processes complete. To test the correctness of this model, I made a number of sections, both transverse and longitudinal, of Hippurites in which both valves were preserved. These show that the two prominent hinge-teeth were extensively under-cut by the umbonal cavity (fig. 8, «), so as to appear suspended by thin plates. Each tooth supports a process corresponding in shape to the muscular impressions in the lower valve ; the anterior projecting horizontally ; the posterior vertical and tooth-like, longer indeed than the tooth to which it is attached ; but thinner than in the model, not nearly filling the cavity for its re- ception (fig. 3, a'). Both these muscular apophyses are under-cut, so as not to interfere with the channel which winds round the inflections. This explanation of the hinge-teeth and muscular processes has i WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. 45 been approved of by M. Deshayes, to whom I submitted the speci- mens during his last visit to England. Figs. 8 & 9.—Longitudinal sections of Hippurites and Radiolites : reduced 4. Fig. 8. Hippurites cornu-vaccinum. Fig. 9. Radiolites cylindraceus. The sections are taken through the teeth (¢, ¢’) and muscular apophyses (a, a’): d, outer shell-layer; 7, inner shell-layer ; 7, dental plate of lower valve; wu, um- bonal cavity of upper valve ; 7, intestinal channel. Hitherto it had been supposed, either that the two divisions of the anterior muscular impression represented both the adductors, or that the posterior adductor occupied the channel between the second and third inflections,—where there is not the slightest indication of it. Almost the last specimen I have obtained is a genuine upper valve, brought by Mr. W. K. Loftus from the Turco-Persian Frontier * (Pl. III. fig. 4). This fossil had been broken by an accidental fall, but enough remained, when the specimen was mended, to show many interesting particulars. Two small portions of the lower valve (s, s) —yviz. the summits of the second and third inflections—remain ad- hering to the lid, surrounded by the channel before noticed, which seems intended to lodge some winding canal, or to allow the passage of a current. This example also shows the base of the posterior tooth (¢), the deep conical cartilage-pit, and the curved umbonal cavity. The stony mould of this cavity was detached by the fall, and showed that originally it was covered up halfway by the base of the anterior tooth. The margin is perforated by a single line of circular foramina, the orifices of those radiating canals which are seen in the weathered outer surface. * See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 40. p. 468. For descriptions of the speci- mens of Hippurites brought home by Mr. Loftus, see the Appendix to this Me- moir. 46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. GENERA RELATED TO HIPPURITES. In searching out the affinities of a problematic fossil shell, it is desirable to inquire, first, whether any similar, but less abnormal, forms occur in the same stratum with it, or in formations imme- diately older or newer. For it may be doubted whether any quite isolated types exist in nature; and, although no well-disciplined naturalist dreams of the transmutation of organic forms, yet by those who regard genera as “ideas of the creating mind,”’ there is held to be a relation of interdependence between those “ideas,” as regards their development both in time and space, giving rise to a succession of forms, which may easily mislead a superficial observer to suppose they are related in the way of ancestry or descent. Therefore, although we disbelieve the doctrine of transmutation, our first inquiry is—Are there any fossil shells which look like the progenitors or descendants of the Hippurite? We think it may be shown, that, by a complete series of cognate forms, the Cretaceous Hippurites are connected with the Oolitic Dicerata and the Tertiary Chame. These forms belong to at least five genera; and some of the species are more problematic and extraordinary than the Hippurite itself. Radiolites.—The genus most nearly related is the Radiolites of Lamarck (Spherulites of De la Métherie). Figs. 10 & 11.—Radiolites mammillaris, Matheron. Reduced 3. From the Lower Chalk, S. Mamest, Dordogne. Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Fig. 10. Interior of lower valve. Fig. 11. Interior of upper valve. (See also figs. 13 & 14.)—/J, ligamental inflection ; m, pallial line ; ¢, e, cartilage- pits; a, a’, adductor impressions and processes; ¢, ¢, teeth and dental sockets ; wu, umbonal cavity. In general form the Radiolites resemble the Hippurites, but are more squamose or foliaceous externally ; and the upper valve is not porous, differing but little in structure from the lower valve*. The * Mr. D. Sharpe has called my attention to the existence of a third, superficial, shell-layer in all the genera of Rudista, similar to the “ sub-epidermal”’ layer, described by Dr. Carpenter, in Chama and other bivalves. In the Radiolite (Pl. IV. WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. 47 ligamental inflection is seldom indicated externally ; but in those species which M. D’Orbigny has distinguished as Br-radiolites (fig. 19) there is a peculiarly sculptured tract, or ‘‘ cardinal area,” on each side the ligamental line; and in R. Fleuriaut the upper valve is rendered subspiral by a ligamental groove *. The interior of each valve is nearly symmetrical, but we may infer from the structure of R. Fleuriaui, that the Radiolite, like the Hippurite, was attached by the dextral valve ; an inference which is confirmed by comparing R. polyconilites with Caprotina. The outer wall or shell-layer of the Radiolite is unlike that of the Hip- purite. It consists of prismatic-cellular structure like the shell of the recent Pinna + ; and in all specimens from chalk strata the cells are empty. As the shells of Pinna, Inoceramus, and Belemnites in the same formations are solid, we may conclude that this difference was original and essential. Fig. 12.—Part of the rim of Radiolites Mortoni, Mantell, from the Lower Chalk of Sussex. Traced from the original specimen in the Museum of the School of Mines. = YAS ppnnnvani Tee (s oan O feel cy Ty & 6 re 2 yy i) ARS: nt 9 ag Wnyseee (i Huy) nT « oe, LID LS a, the outer edge ; 4, the inner edge; v, v, the dichotomous impressions. fig. 1) it forms nearly all that usually remains of the upper valve, and all the squamose ornaments of the lower valve. In the Hippurite it is seldom distin- guishable ; but is quite distinct in Caprina and Caprinella. No such layer exists in any of the Palliobranchiata. Mr. Sharpe has also pointed out that the long prisms of the middle shell-layer are always parallel with the surface (and not always perpendicular to the laminz of growth), like the tubes of Caprina and Caprinelia. In the Palliobranchiata the slender shell-prisms cross obliquely from the inner to the outer surface, as shown by Dr. Carpenter. (See Davidson’s Mo- nograph of the Brachiopoda; Pal. Soc.)—Dec. 30, 1854, S. P. W. * Specimens of Radiolites Heeninghausii which have lost their inner shell-layer present internally strong transverse furrows, or lines of growth, and a prominent ligamental ridge. The interior of the upper valve, when in this condition, shows that the umbo of the young shell was marginal, as represented in Pl. V. fig. 3. I cannot distinguish R. acutus, D’Orb., from the young of R. Heninghausii.— Dec. 30, 1854, S. P. W. t+ The cells of Radiolites from the English Chalk are twenty-five times as large as those of the recent Pinna; and those of Pinna are 250 times as large as the cells of Pandora (Carpenter). 48 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The rim of this species and some others (but not of all the Radio- lites) is marked with bifurcating impressions, which radiate from the inner to the outer margin (fig. 12). They owe their definition to a change in the form of the cells. The inner layer of shell is often wanting, being only indicated by a space between the outer wall and the calcareous mould of the original interior. These moulds (figs. 15, 16), called Birostrites by Defrance, have greatly puzzled naturalists, especially when imperfect *. In the British Museum there are several specimens of R. calceo- loides and R. mammillaris in which the inner layer of shell is re- placed by spar, whilst the interior was filled with soft chalk, and allowing the separation and development of the valves. The interior of the lower valve of R. mammillaris (fig. 10) exhibits no inflections of the outer wall, or only a slight ligamental ridge ; the cartilage-pit is deep and furrowed, and divided by an inflection of the inner wall. The dental pits are deep, subequal, and strongly grooved. The muscular impressions are shallow, striated, and nearly equal. The interior of the upper valve (figs. 11, 13, & 14) has an um- bonal cavity turned towards the hinge, and slightly under-cutting it. In young specimens it is deep and conical, but becomes shallow, or completely filled up, with age. The teeth are straight and pro- minent, fitting accurately the grooves in the sockets. Figs. 13 & 14.—Two side-views of the upper valve of Radiolites mammillaris, from the same specimen as Fig. 11. Fig. 14. i, ligamental inflection; ¢, ¢, teeth; a, a’, muscular processes. Each tooth supports a curved apophysis corresponding in form to the muscular impressions in the lower valve. In aged specimens the apophyses nearly rest upon the impressions ; they are, however, seldom so prominent as in this speciest. There is no longer any * G. Sowerby figured a Birostrites inequilobus in his ‘ Genera of Shells,’ and rightly regarded it as the mould of a shell related to Diceras. t+ The specimen of R. calceoloides in the British Museum, like that described by M. Deshayes, Bull. Soc. Géol. France, 2 sér. viii. 127, has lost almost all character from its hinge, as bivalves frequently do when aged. WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. 49 difficulty in comparing the Birostrites (figs. 15, 16) and its “ acces- sory apparatus’ (c, c) with the complete Radiolite ; the accessory apparatus representing the great furrowed cartilage and the dental processes. Figs. 15 & 16.—Internal mould of R. Heeninghausii, Desm. Reduced 3. From the Chalk. Fig. 16. Fig. 15. Upper view. Fig. 16. Side view. u, u, umbo of left valve; r, right umbo; J, ligamental groove; ec, ¢, cartilage ; a, anterior adductor cavity ; a’, a’, posterior adductor. From the close affinity between the Radiolite and the Hippurite, we must conclude that the tubular structure in the opercular valve of the latter possesses less importance, physiologically, than at first seemed probable. The presence of canals in the Hippurite and their absence in the Radiolite is paralleled by the difference in the shell-structure of Tere- bratula and Rhynchonella, and in the test of Cynthia and Ascidium. Caprotina.—Three other genera, Caprina, Caprotina, and Capri- nella, are found in the Hippurite-limestone, and are more like Chama and Diceras in general form. They had an internal ligament, and were attached by the dextral valve, which is straight, whilst the upper valve is oblique or spiral. In Diceras, however deep and spiral the umbonal cavity, there is no indication of septa; but they exist in all the Hippuritide, and in both valves, whenever the umbones are much produced. In Caprotina the shell-structure is the same as in Diceras and Chama; the outer layer is solid, and consists of corrugated or ob- scurely prismatic-cellular layers; whilst the imner layer is sub- nacreous, and more easily destructible. The lower valve is always striated or ribbed, the upper plain, as in the fossil Oysters of Barton and Woolwich (O. flabellulum and O. pulchra)*. The hinge resem- * Several of M. D’Orbigny’s Caprotine present no character by which they can be distinguished from Chama; viz. C. rugosa, C. navis, C. carinata, C. Dela- rueana, and C. Cenomanensis. The Diceras inequirostratus, Woodw. 1836, Geol. VOR. <).——PART I. E 50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. bles that of the Radiolite in having two prominent teeth in the upper valve ; but they are curved, so as to admit of oblique movement. Figs. 17 & 18.—Lateral views of the internal mould of Caprotina quadripartita, D’Orb. Reduced 3. From a specimen collected by Mr. Pratt. Fig. 17. u, u, left umbo; r, r, right umbo; /, ligamental inflection; ec, c, cartilage; t,t, t’, ¢’, dental sockets ; a, a’, position of adductor muscles ; e, portion of the third lobe is here broken away. (The first and fourth lobes, those on each side of the ligamental inflection, appear to be the two divisions of a great internal cartilage like that of the Radiolite, figs. 15, 16, ¢, c.) Each tooth is supported by a plate, to which the shell-muscles were attached. The umbonal cavity of the upper valve is divided by a vertical plate (as in Radiolites polyconilites), so that moulds of the interior are four-lobed, two of the lobes representing the cartilage, and two the divided umbo. A similar plate divides the interior of the upper (or spiral) valve in Caprina and Caprinella. In each case it supports the anterior hinge-tooth, but so obliquely that the posterior cavity (or lobe) is much the smaller. The interior of the lower valve is divided into two very unequal cavities by an oblique plate, answering apparently to the muscular inflection of Hippurites and Diceras. The liga- mental cavity in the lower valve of Caprotina is subdivided into numerous unequal pits. Some species of Caprotina are long and straight, with small flat opercular valves, like miniature Radiolites; they occur in groups, frequently attached to Oyster-shells. Caprina. —In Caprina (figs. 21, 22) the fixed valve has the same structure as in Caprotina, whilst the upper is perforated b canals ; another proof of the subordinate importance of shell-struc- ture. These canals are simple tubes, extending from the umbo to Norf. pl. 5. fig. 22 (=Caprotina, Morris, ‘ Catalogue,” Ist edit., Caprina Rus- siensis, D’Orb. 1845, Caprotina Russiensis, D’Orb. 1850, and Chama cornucopie, D’Orb. 1847), is undoubtedly a Chama. WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. 51 the margin ; not branching or communicating with the outer surface, as in Hippurites, but opening round the inner edge of the valve. Figs. 19, 20.—Ezternal views of Bi-radiolites and Monopleura. Fig. 19. Fig. 20. Fig. 19. Upper valve of Biradiolites canaliculatus, D’Orb. (2 nat. size): 1, posi- tion of ligamental line; a, a, areas bordering ligamental groove. Fig. 20. Upper and lower valves of Monopleura imbricata, Math. (4 nat. size) : 1, ligamental groove ; p, point of attachment. The genus Monopleura, Matheron, merged in Caprotina by M. D’Orbigny, ap- pears to want the essential features of the latter genus, and at present we have no means of determining whether it belongs even to the same family. The following species may be referred to this provisional genus: M. trilobata and lamellosa (D’Orb.), M. gryphoides, varians, suleata, imbricata, and. Marticensis (Matheron), M. Texana and triguetra (Reemer). Figs. 21, 22.—Interior and Exterior of Caprina. Fig. 21. Fig. 22. Fig. 21. Caprina Aguilloni, D’Orb. Interior of left valve: a, a’, position of ad- ductors ; J, ligamental groove; wu, umbonal cavity; ¢, tooth of fixed valve, broken off and remaining in its socket. Fig. 22. C. adversa (after D’Orb.): ec, point of attachment. The single tooth of the lower valve is sometimes enormously de- veloped (fig. 21, ¢). The upper valve is convex or spiral. The cartilage is lodged in a shallow groove or in numerous deep pits. E2 52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Caprinella.—In Caprinella both valves are tubular ; indeed the shell is made up of tubes, the inner layer being evanescent, whilst the sur- face is formed by an extremely thin compact lamina. That the tubes Figs. 23, 24.—Sections of Caprinula Boissu, D’Orb. From Lower Chalk near Lisbon (Mr. D. Sharpe). * fs FY Fig. 23. (A) Transverse section of straight valve. Fig. 24. (B) Transverse section of spiral valve of a weathered specimen which has lost the outer layer: /, J, position of ligamental inflection ; ¢, ¢, teeth; c, ¢, cartilage-pits ; w, wu, umbonal cavity. were open is proved by the limestone and small shells contained in them; and it is very improbable that even in the lifetime of the animal they were permanently occupied by processes of the mantle. They are rather to be compared to the tubular ribs of Cardium costatum, which remain open, simply because the animal does not secrete suffi- cient lime to render them solid. Figs. 25, 26, 27.—Caprinella triangularis, Desm. 2 nat. size. From the Upper Greensand of Rochelle. Fig. 26. Fig. 25. Fig. 27. Fig. 25. (A) Portion of the left valve, after D’Orbigny ; the shell-wall has been removed by weathering, and the camerated interior exposed. Fig. 26. (B) Mould of five of the water-chambers. Fig. 27. (C) Mould of the body-chamber : wu, right umbo; s, left umbo; ¢, dental groove ; a, surface from which the pesterior lobe has been detached. WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. io The Caprinelle have been described, and some new species figured, by Mr. D. Sharpe *, in his memoir “On the Secondary Rocks of Portugal +.’ I am disposed to agree with Mr. Sharpe in combining D’Orbigny’s genera Caprinella and Caprinula; but there does not appear to have been so many and such regular ‘ water-chambers”’ in the spiral valve of Caprinula as in that of Caprinella. . Figs. 28, 29.—Internal casts of Diceras and Requienia. Fig. 28. Fig. 29. Fig. 28. Diceras arietinum. 4. Fig. 29. Reguienia Lonsdalei. 3. a, point of attachment; c, c,c’, casts of dental pits; ¢, 7, ¢, ¢’, ¢’, fur- rows produced by muscular ridges. Requienia.—A still further connecting link between the Hippu- rite and ordinary bivalves is supplied by the genus Reguienta (Ma- theron), of which one species, well known as the Diceras Lonsdalei, is found in the Neocomian of Wilts and Spain. M. D’Orbigny has merged Requienia in Caprotina in his latest publication (Cours élé- mentaire Paléont.), placing it amongst the Palliobranchiata ; whilst Mr. Sharpe regards it as at best only a subdivision of Diceras. Eight species of Requienia are known, ranging from the Neoco- mian to the Chalk, and found in France, Spain, England, and lately in Texas by Dr. F. Roemer. They are attached by the left valve, the right being usually much smaller, and sometimes round and con- cave, as in R. ammonia, Goldf. (fig. 31). The interior, however deep and spiral, is not camerated; the hinge, as indicated by casts, must have resembled that of Diceras. The Hippuritide and their Geological Distribution.—Excluding Requienia, there are four genera,—Caprotina, Caprina, Caprinella, * The Caprinelle are described by Mr. Sharpe as “ probably attaehed when young by the spiral valve,” which is contrary to analogy, and opposed to the ob- servations of M. D’Orbigny. Mr. Sharpe also regards the ligamental furrow as indicative of an external ligament; whilst it is unquestionably a mere inflection of the shell-wall, leading to the cavity of the internal cartilage. In the same description, the oblique plate which divides the umbonal cavity of the straight valve is confounded with the transverse septa which form the water-chambers ; whereas it corresponds to the posterior ‘‘ adductor-inflection”’ of Hippurites, Ca- protina, and Diceras. + Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1849, vol. vi. p. 178. pl. 16-18. o4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. and Radiolites,—which appear to constitute together with Hippu- rites a natural and well-defined group, possessmg the rank of a Family, in the sense in which that term is employed by the most Figs. 30 & 31.—Ezternal views of Diceras and Requienia. Fig. 30. hn Awa ; Fig. 30. Diceras arietinum, Lamarck. 3. Fig. 31. Requienia ammonia, Goldfuss. 3. a, a, point of attachment ; /, /, ligamental grooves ; ¢’, posterior-adductor inflection. orthodox conchologists. It includes above 80 species, which are found in all four quarters of the world, and never beyond the limits of the Cretaceous strata. Like many other groups of animals, it gradually attained a maxi- mum development and then declined. Thus, only 3 species are found in the Neocomian, 13 in the Upper Greensand, 50 in the Hippurite-limestone, and 15 in the Chalk. Several families of Lamellibranchiate Bivalves were more abundant in the ancient seas than at the present day. The species of fossil Anatinide are four times as numerous as the recent ; and more than half the genera of Cyprinide and Trigoniade are lost. But the Hippuritide form the only instance in which a whole family of bi- valve shells has become extinct. AFFINITIES OF THE HIPPURITID&. I. In the work of M. Picot de Lapeirouse (1781), the Hippurites are described as Orthoceratites ; the Radiolites as Ostracites. This view was adopted by Mr. Parkinson. II. Von Buch, so late as 1840 (Leonh. u. Bronn’s N. Jahrb. 1840, p- 573), regarded the Hippurites as corals. III. Prof. Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, announced to the British Association (through Prof. Forbes) in 1850 that they were Anellides, allied to the Serpule cymospire of Savigny. These, however, differ—tst, in beg symmetrical and bi-lateral ; 2ndly, they have no muscular attachment to their shell; 3rdly, the operculum is not articulated ; it is one of two organs attached to the head, of which sometimes one, sometimes the other is developed WOODWARD—HIPPURITID2. 55 into an operculum, the second remaining filiform ; 4thly, the shell- structure is different *. IV. M. Charles Desmoulins (Bull. Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, 1827) regarded the Hippurites and Radiolites as a peculiar order of Mol- lusea, combining the attributes of the Tunicates and Sessile Cirri- edes. ? These views appeared less unreasonable at a time when the Cirri- pedes were supposed to be Molluscous animals. Nevertheless, this was strongly contested by M. Deshayes, and by M. Sander Rang, who gives an excellent summary of the arguments on both sides, in his Manuel des Mollusques (1829). He terms the connection of the Hippurites with the Cirripedes and Tunicates “ an unnatural asso- ciation,’ and says that the arguments for it are contrary to reason and experience. The cellularity of the Hippurite is, like that of a shell, independent of the animal, and not like the tubes of a Balanus, which are occupied (as Cuvier showed) by processes of the mantle. The shell of the Balanus is conical, and consists of several elements which enlarge independently. Its operculum also consists of several pieces ; and both are symmetrical +. V. Dr. Carpenter, in his ‘‘ Report on the Structure of Shells” (Trans. Brit. Assoc. 1845, p. 15), expressed his opinion that the Hippurites were intermediate ‘‘between the Ostracee and sessile Balan.” Dr. Carpenter informs me that he was led to think they could not, be bivalves, on account of their openly cellular walls ; but the numerous instances of strata of empty cells in both recent and fossil Oyster-shells proves that this character cannot be relied on f. Sir C. Lyell formerly entertained the conviction that the Radiolites Mortoni of Mantell belonged to the genus Conia (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1836, vol. ix. p. 104). VI. Dr. Goldfuss, at the conclusion of his great work, Petref. Germ. (1840), describes the Hippurites as Brachiopoda, placing them next to Crania. Some of the difficulties in the way of this view were, however, unknown at the time. The essential characters of the Hippurites, which separate it from the Brachiopoda, are— 1. The shell is composed of three layers, which is not the case in any Brachiopod. 2. The prismatic-cellular structure is like that of Pinna and Aitheria, and not like that of the Brachiopoda. 3. No Brachiopod has a sub-nacreous shell with water-chambers. * The shell-structure of the Anellides has been usually described from prepara- tions of Dentalium or Vermetus, both of which are Gasteropods. t+ Verruca is unsymmetrical, only because a portion of the operculum is ce- mented to the shell, indifferently right or left (Darwin). | Tubicinella, the only cylindrical Balanus, is so from its peculiar habitat, in the skin of the Whale ; it is conical when young, but, as the skin of the Whale wears away, the 7ubicinella Ch om the summits of its valves, and grows downwards deeper and deeper ray). , ¢ Especially the recent Ostrea purpurea, Gray, and the fossil O. vesiculosa and O. bellovacina. 56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. . The upper valve has a different structure from the lower. . Each valve is unsymmetrical. . The valves are right and left,—not dorsal and ventral. . They are articulated by teeth and sockets,—which is not the case with Crania ; and the teeth are developed from the free valve ;—in all hinged Brachiopods the teeth are in the fixed valve. . 8. The Hippuritide had a large internal ligament (like Spon- dylus) for opening the valves. ; 9, The muscular impressions are two only. 10. The so-called ‘“‘ vascular impressions ” are on the rim of the shell, not in the disk, as in Crania, &c. 11. The Hippurites have a distinct pallial line. VII. M. D’Orbigny also regards the Hippuritide (including Re- quienia) as Brachiopoda; but he does not place them with the normal Families, or even with Crania. In his latest work, the Cours élémentaire (1849), p. 90, he proposes to associate them with the still-existing genera Argiope and Thecidium, under the term “ Bra- chiopodes cirrhides: Cirrhidee,”’ with the rank of a Sub-order; and describes them as having no oral arms, but a mantle fringed with long cirri, performing the function of the brachia. When Prof. E. Forbes returned from the Augean, he furnished me with specimens of Argiope decollata, and with a sketch, from me- mory, of the oral arms of 4. cuneata. In some of these specimens I detected a well-developed Joop, and in others the animal itself. Mr. Davidson, who examined them with me, has published our drawings and notes in the “ Introduction”? to his Monograph. There is no doubt that Argiope is very nearly allied to Terebratula, the differences having reference chiefly to the minute size of all the species. Argiope has cirrated oral arms, supported by a distinct loop ; the mantle- margin is quite simple. We could not ever detect the presence of sete, such as exist in Terebratula and Rhynchonella. We have also seen examples of the recent Thecidium mediter- raneum, which differs from Terebratula chiefly in being fixed by the ventral valve, and not by a pedicle. It has a developed loop, supporting cirrated oral arms, and can only be regarded as an aberrant member of the family Terebratulide. The mantle-margin is quite simple. VIII. Those authors who have regarded the Hippurites as Bi- valves, forming a distinct Order (Rudista), intermediate between the Pallio- and Lamelli-branchiata, viz. Lamarck, Blainville, and Rang. M. Sander Rang adopted this opinion on account of the difficulty of reconciling the supposed characters of the Rudista with the known characters of the ordinary Conchifera. He could not account for the two holes in the lid of the Hippurite, and the ridges (arétes) inside its lower valve. The “holes”? in the upper valve are only found in a few species (1. bi-oculatus and H. dilatatus, Defr.) ; they are mere depressions, —points at which the lid rests on the two posterior inflections of the lower valve. SEO OS WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. 2 Ff The ‘‘ridges’’ are the smallest difficulty in the structure of the | Hippurite,—indeed they form a strong point of analogy with Diceras and Requienia. IX. Those authors who have regarded the Hippurites as true Lamellibranchiate Bivalves have not agreed as to their Family-rela- tionship. Cuvier placed them with the Oysters, to which they present the strongest analogies ; but from which they differ in having two ad- ductor muscles. Prof. Owen adopted Cuvier’s view generally as to the position of the Rudistes amongst the Lamellibranchiata, and pointed out the difficulty of ascertaining their true characters, on account of the general absence of the inner layer “ which alone receives the im- pressions of the soft parts*.” M. Deshayes in his latest work (Traité élémentaire de Conchy- liologie, Nov. 1848) proposes to include the two families Atherie and Rudistes in the same group,—thus characterized: “ Animaux wréguliers ; manteau ouvert, sans siphons, sans perforations.” I am indebted to Dr. Gray for the opportunity of examining the remains of an authentic example of Ztheria, brought from the Nile many years since by Sir Gardner Wilkinson. The animal is entirely apodal. The body (consisting chiefly of the mass of the liver) has been mistaken for a foot ; it projects backwards, as in Lima and the Scallop. The gills are subequal, and are united behind the body ; they are also united by all their dorsal border to the body and mantle, so as to leave no passage into the dorsal channel and cloaca. The palpi are of a form peculiar to the Iridina of the Nile and some other Unionide, viz. semi-oval, attached by the straight side, and re- ceiving the gills between their ample and striated inner surfaces. Considering the freshwater habitat of Atheria, the pearly interior of its shell, the absence of hinge-teeth, and its analogies with the Unionide, 1 cannot but regard it as a very bad type for comparison with the deep-sea Hippuritide. Prof. Quenstedt (of Tiibingen) in his excellent Handbuch der Petrefaktenkunde (1852), has placed the Hippurites in a more natural position, — between the Chamacee and the Cardiade +. They resemble Chama in being fixed, in the character of the large adductor impressions, and in the well-developed hinge. Three of the five genera further resemble it in the spirality of the upper valve. They also resemble Diceras (a member of the Chamide) in the adductor muscles being supported by prominent plates. There does not appear to me to be any evidence that the mantle- lobes of the Hippuritide were free. Important as that character is in Malacology, it is of no avail to the Palzeontologist. In the family Mytilide it is impossible to tell by the shell alone, which of the re- * ‘Lectures on the Invertebrate Animals,’ 1843, p. 287. t+ The late Prof. E. Forbes also adopted this view, in his lectures at the School of Mines in 1853, after examining the British Museum Collection, as he acknow- ledged with his wonted generosity.—Dec. 30, 1854, S. P. W. 58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. cent genera have a closed (viz. Drevssena and Modiolarca) and which have an open mantle (Modiola, Mytilus). DESCRIPTION OF NEw SPECIES. In conclusion, I am desirous of noticing a few species of Hippurite and Radiolite which appear to be new, or hitherto insufficiently de- scribed ; the species are in the British Museum. 1. Hierurites Lorrvsti, n. sp. Pi. III. Shell inversely conical, or elongated: upper valve convex, with about twenty rounded ribs, of unequal length, radiating from the centre ; pores very conspicuous, about one-third the diameter of the ribs ; canals large, opening in a single series upon the inner margin : lower valve furrowed and striated lengthwise ; ribs about twenty, ob- scure, rounded ; cardinal side with a few prominent lines of growth ; cardinal furrows three, distinct ; ligamental inflection deep ; dental processes and pits placed across the interior. Length 4 inches and upwards ; diameter 24 inches and more. This species belongs to the typical division of Hippurites, like H. cornu-vaecinum, i which the teeth are placed at right angles to the hinge-line. The pores in the upper valve are larger than in any species I am acquainted with ; but, as names derived from comparative characters are inadmissible, I propose to call this fossil after its dis- coverer, Mr.W. K. Loftus, who obtained it with the three following species from a limestone in the Bakhtiydri Mountains on the Turco- Persian Frontier. 2. HippuRITEs CoLuiciaTus, n. sp. PI. IV. fig. 5. Upper valve unknown: lower valve conical, furrowed lengthwise by about twelve unequal rounded channels, divided by prominent acute ribs ; cardinal side flattened, with a small rib in the furrows opposite the inflections ; shell-wall thick (3-6 lines), with two short and thick inflections ; no ligamental inflection ; inner shell-layer thickened in the cardinal region, and perforated by two dental pits close to the side. Length 3 inches, diameter 3 inches. This species agrees with H. oculatus and radiosus in having the interior divided by only two duplicatures, and in the dental pits being close to the shell-wall in front of the adductor inflection. Locality : Bakhtiyari Mountains. 3. HippuriITEs CORRUGATUS, n. sp. PI. IV. fig. 4. Upper valve unknown : lower valve nearly cylindrical, with about ten deep longitudinal furrows, divided by rounded corrugations, each with several small ridges and striz, slightly tuberculated, and squa- mose with lines of growth ; interior furrowed lengthwise ; ligamental inflection angular. WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. 59 The corrugations of this fossil are not superficial furrows, but are foldings of the shell-wall, and project internally almost as much as the hinge-inflections. Locality : Bakhtiyari Mountains. 4. Hippurites vesicutosvs, n. sp. Pl. IV. fig. 6. Upper valve unknown: lower valve conical, furrowed lengthwise with regular shallow grooves (at most 2 lines wide) ; cardial inflec- tions scarcely marked externally ; outer shell-wall 4 lines thick at most ; ligamental inflection deep and very narrow; muscular inflec- tion short, round, and constricted ; siphonal inflection deepest ; inner shell-layer composed of vesicular plates. Length (of a fragment) 8 inches, diameter 14-4 inches. Locality: Bakhtiyari Mountains. 5. Rapioutites Morrtont, Mantell sp. Pl. V. figs. 1, 2. Upper valve unknown: lower valve found usually in groups; in- versely conical or elongated, the free surfaces ribbed lengthwise ; ribs narrow (about | line in breadth), subequal, angular, in pairs or groups ; shell-wall very thick, entirely composed of large and regular cells; rim slightly inclined, impressed with a few radiating dicho- tomous lines in which the cells are transversely oblong ; inner layer usually wanting, leaving a smooth cavity, originally partitioned off below into large irregular water-chambers, and furnished with two striated dental pits, close to the side, and separated by a wide in- terval. Length of fragment 1 foot, diameter 6 inches; shell-wall 2 inches thick. Found in the Upper and Lower Chalk of Kent and Sussex *, and in the Upper Greensand of Cambridge and Warminster. A fragment of the rim apparently of this species, from Gosau, measures 4 inches from the inner to the outer edge (British Museum). The Radiolites Austinensis of Dr. F. Romer, from Texas, is probably identical (Romer’s Texas, t. 6. f. 1). Radiolites Mortoni is the only British fossil of the family Hippu- ritide at present known; it was noticed in 1833 by Dr. Mantell, in his ‘ Geology of the South-East of England.’ In 1836 it was again figured and described by Mr. Hudson (as a Conia) in the ‘ Magazine of Natural History’ (vol. ix. p. 104). Several figures are given in the 26th Plate of Mr. Dixon’s posthumous ‘ Geology of Sussex,’ but these figures only represent the general form and mode of aggregation, and there is no accompanying description. Dr. J. E. Gray, who gave an account of these fossils in the ‘ Ma- gazine of Zoology,’ observed the Ostree and Spondyli growing far down their cavities, and remarked that, if there had ever been an internal shell-layer, it must have been removed whilst they were still in the position where they grew on the bed of the seat. In the * Remains of this species have been found in the Chalk at Lewes, in Sussex, at Purfleet, Essex, and at Gravesend, Burham, and Lenham, in Kent. t+ Magazine of Zoology and Botany, 1838, vol. ii. p. 228. 60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. specimen of R. Mantelli in the British Museum, small Oysters were attached to the interior at least 10 inches down the cavity. I find, however, that in Dr. Mantell’s specimens a portion of the thin na- creous layer of the Radiolite is preserved beneath these parasitic bivalves. A very instructive specimen of R. Mortoni has lately been ob- tained by Mr. Matthew Wright from the Upper Chalk of Kent* (Pl. V. fig. 1). It consists of the upper portion of a large cylindrical example, measuring 6 inches across; the cellular tissue is empty, except in two places where nodules of flint seem to grow from it ; and the rim is broken, and incrusted with Oysters. The cavity is oval, and occupied at the lower end by a mould of indurated chalk, rather smaller than the cavity ; the space between, from + line to 3 lines, was filled with very soft ferrugmous chalk, representing the inner layer of shell. On one side of the mould are two pairs of longitudinal furrows, indicating projections from the shell-wall, which originally received the dental processes of the upper valve. Part of this mould has been detached, and a reduced side-view of it is given in Pl. V. fig. 2. It is divided into joints by partings of soft chalk, replacing the septa of the water-chambers. These septa, as well as the outer wall, had been perforated by Clione. The upper end of Mr. Wright’s fossil was filled with soft white chalk, on removing which with great care several Oysters and Spon- dyli were found to have grown inside, in places where the nacreous layer was less than half a line in thickness. One of the Spondyli bends outwards just at the point where the anterior dental socket is still indicated. The dental sockets are grooved, as in R. mammil- laris (fig. 10), but are situated close to the shell-wall, and at some distance apart, as in R. calceoloides. This species, R. Mortoni, is most nearly allied to R. cornu-pastoris, Desm., the type of D’Or- bigny’s genus Bi-radiolites, a section the value of which is not yet known. 6. Raprovtires MAanTeE.ui, n. sp. PI. V. fig. 4. Shell elongated, grouped, furrowed and striated lengthwise; furrows large, rounded, divided by acute ribs ; rim steeply inclined, radiatel striated, cellular near the inner margin; shell-wall thick, finely laminated, the laminze divided vertically by very close radiating plates, passing into minute cells near the interior ; interior smooth, marked by lines of growth and a narrow ligamental furrow: imner layer wanting. Upper valve unknown. Length of fragment 10 inches. This species occurs in the Upper Greensand of Cap la Héve, near Havre ; it is very distinct from any species described by M. D’Or- bigny, and being likely to occur in England, I have noticed it here, and named it after the distinguished geologist who first discovered Radiolites in this country. * Mr. M. Wright has obligingly informed me that this specimen was found in the Upper Chalk in the quarry to the west of and contiguous to the Rosherville Gardens, in a horizontal layer of flints, at about 30 feet from the surface. = is, 1 OC EO Journ Quart ze nat si Hippurites Loftusi. Ford & West Imp S.P Woodward del. G-West ith P].1V oc. Vol.Al S J | Quart. Journ. Geo nn =| wy oa ex ; ee 5 5 Oo -4 2) w iva) ® 72) 100) g > : tee »” © Res : — ae é — ia —— ou ~ a E 9 : 9 ed ) O ~ 7! i > 3 is rd : ae 5= eel a Bo"G 4 es ‘ a [e : pS WiNsicaasiee a -vaccinum. H. cornu -H cornu-vaccinum Transverse sections. H colhciatus US. . He corrugat Fard & West imp SP Woodward del G.West lith. CIS -nat size ACU c R.Mantelli-nat. size of nat. size of nat.size Oh y imal =H ss | 8 5 % 5 8 a = = (aia RADIOLITES : 4 a Be 7 * - cs OVER NPSD a - * > a as qh: J Lf | & = 7 7 . i eA ab a * « 5 = ” WOODWARD—HIPPURITID&. 61 EXPLANATION OF PLATES III. IV. V. Prate III. Fig. 1. Hippurites Loftusi, n. sp., 4 natural size. Fig. 2. A small portion of the upper valve, natural size. Fig. 3. Transverse section of the lower valve, reduced. Fig. 4. Interior of the upper valve, natural size. 1, m, n. Inflections of the outer shell-wall. d. Outer shell-wall, with tubular structure. e. Inner layer of shell, with laminated structure. t, t’. Teeth, or dental processes, of upper valve. u. Umbonal cavity. c. Ligamental pit. , s, s. Portions of the longitudinal ridges (inflections) of the lower valve, broken off and remaining adherent to the upper valve. The arrows indicate the supposed direction of the alimentary canal and branchial currents. Pratt IV. Fig. 1. Radiolites cylindraceus, Desmoulins ; upper half of a longitudinal section, in the cabinet of Mr. Sharpe. a, a’. Adductor processes of upper valve. 6, 6. Superficial layer of shell, rarely preserved. d, d. Principal, or cellular, layer of shell. e, e. Internal, or subnacreous, layer, replaced by spar. Fig. 2. Hippurites cornu-vaccinum, Bronn; reduced. Transverse section of the lower valve: from a specimen wanting the outer shell-wall; and Fig. 3. Section of the same specimen, lower down. 1, m, n. Inflections of the outer shell-wall (d@). e. Inner layer, with finely laminated structure. a. Position of anterior adductor. a’. Posterior adductor-process. t, ¢’. Dental processes of upper valve. Fig. 4. Hippurites corrugatus, n. sy. Transverse section of lower valve; the in- terior obscured by crystallization. Fig. 5. Hippurites colliciatus, 2. sy. Transverse section of lower valve ; ¢, ¢’, den- tal pits. Fig. 6. Hippurites vesiculosus, n. sy. Transverse section of lower valve; the in- terior partly metamorphosed. N.B. The letters in figs. 4, 5, & 6 have the same meaning as in figs. 2 & 3. PLaTE V. Fig. 1. Radiolites Mortoni, Mantell; reduced. A considerable portion of a lower valve, seen from below. {In the collection of Matthew Wright, Esq., of Stoke Newington. x, x, x. Surfaces from which other individuals have been detached. v, v. ‘ Vascular ” markings on the rim of the shell. Fig. 2. Internal mould (of the same specimen) composed of hard chalk, represent- ing some of the water-chambers of the original shell, perforated by Cliona. (See fig. 1.) vr, r. Joints produced by the decomposition of the septa. a, a’. Furrows produced by the adductor-ridges. t, /. Furrows produced by the dental ridges. (These letters refer to both figures.) Fig. 3. Radiolites acutus, D’Ord. Interior of an upper valve, presented to the British Museum by S. P. Pratt, Esq. The inner shell-layer with its pro- cesses is entirely wanting; /, the ligamental inflection, showing that the umbo was marginal in the young shell. Fig. 4. Radiolites Mantelli, n. sy. From the Upper Greensand of Cap la Héve. Fragments consisting of portions of two lower valves, adherent. zt. Inner surface, wanting the inner layer. ?. Ligamental line. e. External surface. 62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Additional Observations on the Occurrence of Pires and Furrows in CALCAREOUS and NON-CALCAREOUS STRATA*. By J. Trimmer, Ksq., F.G.S. [Read June 21, 1854f.] Tue following observations, which are necessary for the full under- standing of the views I have taken on the origin of sand-pipes and furrows in and on the surface of strata, are offered in support of some positions I have taken in my former papers on the subject, and which, from their not having been fully elucidated, require some explanatory remarks in their defence. 1. It was not my intention to assert ina former papert ‘‘On Pipes and Sand-galls in the Chalk of Kent”’ that the Thanet Sands are cal- careous, as Mr. Prestwich has been very naturally led to infer in his memoir read before the Society, Jan. 18, 1854, from the expression, “The sand with which the pipes are filled contains much calcareous matter.” This calcareous matter was chalk, redeposited near the lining of the pipe from water charged with bicarbonate of lime. Having sent a specimen of it with the paper, I did not think it ne- cessary to enter into fuller explanations. 2. I have stated§ that I saw miniature pipes actually forming by the mechanical action of water on blocks of siliceous sandstone, on the sea-shore near Reculver. Mr. Prestwich replies, that this sand- stone contains some carbonate of lime. It appears by Mr. Prest- wich’s papers || on the Eocene Tertiaries, that the cliffs at Reculver yield two sandstones, the one belonging to the Thanet Sands, the other to the London Clay series,—the former calcareous, the latter but slightly so. On blocks of one of these, I saw the flux and reflux of the waves drilling small cavities, analogous to the pipes in the chalk. Mechanical action may take place on calcareous as well as non- calcareous rocks; and it is no proof that the mechanical action which I saw in actual operation was chemical action, even if the stone on which it was taking place effervesces in an acid. 3. With respect to the blocks scattered about the neighbourhood of Faversham, on which there are furrows and pipes similar to those of the chalk, though of smaller dimensions, and which I regard as the completion of the process which I saw in operation on the sea- shore, Mr. Prestwich admits the blocks to be siliceous, but considers the furrows and cavities to be the result of concretionary structure. This is a point which I am content to leave to the verdict of geologists. Even, however, if in this case the appearances on these blocks are of concretionary origin, it is an undoubted fact that pipes are seen oc- casionally on siliceous rocks, those of the Greensand for instance, and even in sand and gravel. * See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 39. p. 231. + For the other Communications read at this Evening Meeting, see vol. x. . 454, Z ¢ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 300, &c. § Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 7. || Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 243, &c. and vol. x. p. 125. TRIMMER—SAND-PIPES. 63 Mr. Prestwich exhibited sections of furrows in clay, which he ascribes to the mechanical action of water. But similar furrows in chalk are so intimately associated with pipes, that they must have had a common origin ; and, if the mechanical action of water be ca- pable of producing both pipes and furrows, why should we suppose two different causes to have been acting in close contiguity for the production of effects to which one of them is adequate? 4. It has been objected that the vorticose action of water would not drill a hole so deep in proportion to its diameter, as the pipes im the chalk. In order to test the validity of this objection, I filled a precipitating jar, 14 inches deep by 24 in diameter, with water, putting a little sand at the bottom. These proportions are, in this case, nearly the same as those of a pipe 4 feet in diameter, and 24 feet deep. On stirring the water to the depth of less than half an inch, the whirlpool thus formed speedily extended to the bottom of the jar, and set the sand in motion. This action of water would of itself be capable of removing so soft a substance as chalk, even with- out the aid of sand and pebbles, leaving the flints undetached and unabraded. The objection is thus obviated which has been raised against my views, from the general condition and position of the flints in the pipes of the chalk which are unabraded and on the sides of the cavity, instead of water-worn and at the bottom of it. 5. It has also been objected, that if water in vorticose motion were capable of boring the pipe, it could not remove the excavated matter. When I saw similar cavities forming on a chalky shore by the flux and reflux of the waves, the chalk removed in the process of ex- cavation was flowing out of the cavity in a milky stream. Whoever will take the trouble of repeating the experiment which I have de- scribed above, will find that the vorticose motion, produced in the water of the precipitating jar, raises the finely comminuted particles of sand from the bottom to the upper part of the vessel; and if the bottom of the whirlpool acted upon chalk instead of on glass, and if the mouth of the pipe were immersed beneath a stream of water, not only would a deep and narrow hole be bored in the chalk, but the hole would be cleared of the waste as the drilling of it pro- ceeded. My papers on the subject of pipes in chalk have been directed against the doctrine promulgated by Sir Charles Lyell, that these cavities are now in the course of formation by the chemical action of rain- water charged with carbonic acid and percolating the strata above them, which are supposed to have subsided, and to be subsiding into the cavities. I have endeavoured to prove that their formation was completed before the matter filling and covering them was deposited. The views of Mr. Prestwich so far coincide with those of Sir Charles Lyell, that he attributes the formation of the pipes to the solution of the chalk by acidulated water, after the deposition of the strata above them. He considers, however, that they were formed under different conditions of level from the present ; and that the operation is not now in progress, except in the case of swallow-holes. 64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. In the preceding remarks I have confined myself to a defence of my own conclusions. The only objection which I shall advance at present against the theory of Mr. Prestwich is, that while it supposes the cavities to have been filled by the subsidence of strata horizontally deposited before the formation of the pipes, some of his sections show a band of clay containing green flints at the base of those strata, which is continuous between the pipes and on the sides of the cavities. If, therefore, its position within the cavity is the result of subsidence, and not an original condition of deposit, that portion which originally extended over the mouth of the cavity now covers an area within it much more extensive than any over which it could have been spread without such a degree of stretching as would have been inconsistent with the continuity of the band, and of which it exhibits no evidence. On the On1GIN of the SaANvD- and Gravet-Pires in the CHALK of the Lonpon Tertiary District. By JoserpH PRestwicu, Jun., Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. [This paper was read January 18, 1854*.] [Puate VI.] § 1. Introduction. Tue peculiar funnel- and shaft-shaped cavities, so common in many places on the surface of calcareous rocks, sometimes only a few feet but not unfrequently many yards deep, and filled with sand, gravel, and loam belonging to deposits of various subsequent dates, form a very remarkable geological feature, especially in Chalk districts. They have long been the object of occasional attention, and various suggestions have been made to account for their origin. The ex- planations, however, have mostly had reference only to the mode in which these cavities could have been excavated, and have not often embraced any general view of the conditions which led to the wide- spread operation of the required causes. The Chalk district around London is peculiarly favourable for the study of this phenomenon ; and my object in the followmg pages is to endeavour to determine the general law which has led to a result so common here, and so universal in almost all calcareous districts. Cuvier and Brongniart + make frequent mention of sand-pipes (puits naturels) in the Chalk and the Calcaire grossier, ascribe their origin to the percolation of water, and show that they belonged to different geological periods. Of the exact mode of operation, or the causes which produced the phenomena, they offered no explanation. These general views, as guiding the line of argument, have, with few exceptions, been usually received by geologists. Amongst others M. Passyt, in describing the Chalk district of Normandy, alluded to * For the other communications read at this Evening Meeting, see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 231 e¢ seg. {+ Description géognostique des Environs de Paris, edit. 1822, p. 76, 134, 141. t Desc. géogn. du Dépt. de la Seine inférieure, p. 139. PRESTWICH—SAND- AND GRAVEL-PIPES. 65 the gravel-pipes, and briefly ascribed their origin to the eroding action of water percolating through the gravel or sand. In August 1839 Dr. Buckland* read a paper before the British Association, in which he described several of these pipes in the neighbourhood of London, and expressed an opinion that they were due to the action of water, holding carbonic acid in solution, constantly percolating through the same cavity, dissolving the chalk, and letting down the superincumbent sand or gravel. Sir Charles Lyell+, in a paper on the “ Sand-pipes”’ in the Chalk near Norwich, expressed a similar opinion, gave some very illustrative examples in support of that view, and concluded that these cavities were ‘due to rain-water impregnated with carbonic acid from the atmo- sphere and vegetable soil, and descending into pits or furrows which may have existed on the surface of the Chalk,’’ and “that the exca- vation and filling-up of the pipes were gradual and contemporaneous processes.”’ Sir Charles further considered “that land consisting of Chalk covered by Crag was first laid dry before the origin of the sand-pipes,”’ and ‘that the denudation which gave the district its actual valleys ’’ must have taken place subsequently. In opposition to this, if it may be so termed, chemical theory, Mr. Trimmert has come to the conclusion that both in Kent and Norfolk the sand- and gravel-pipes in the Chalk are to be attributed to the mechanical action of the breaking of the sea on a low shore antecedent to the formation of the deposit with the materials of which the pipes are filled. In corroboration of this opinion, Mr. Trimmer states that the pipes are vertical terminations to horizontal furrows on the surface of the chalk ; that many of the flints in the pipes are water-worn; that the apices of the pipes are 3 or 4 inches broad, and not pointed; that certain blocks of Tertiary sand- stones on the shores near the Reculvers are marked by like pipes and furrows, though of smaller dimensions (only a few inches deep and wide); whence, as those sandstones are siliceous, the excavations on them could not have been formed by the action of acidulated water ; and further, that near Canterbury the sands with which the pipes are filled contain much calcareous matter, and consequently that any carbonic acid in the water must have been saturated by it before it could have reached the Chalk. He therefore suggested that it must have been mainly by the action of the waves, charged with sand and small pebbles, wearing furrows and hollows on the surface, and then, by the rotatory motion communicated to the water, sand, and peb- bles in these hollows by the influx and reflux of the waves, that these pipes were drilled. Further, Mr. Trimmer mentions that the sand- and gravel-pipes are confined to the edges of the seas preceding the spread of the materials, whether eocene sands, crag, or drift- gravel and sand, which ultimately filled up these excavations. Other theories have been subsequently expounded by M. Leblanc * Trans. Brit. Assoc. for 1839, Sect. p. 76. tT L. and E. Phil. Mag. 3rd Ser. vol. xv. p. 257, Oct. 1839. t Proc. Geol. Soc. 1840, vol. iii. p. 185; 1842, vol. iv. p. 6. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1844, vol. i. p. 300 ; 1852, vol. viii. p. 273. VOL. XI.— PART I. E 66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. and M. Melleville. These geologists argue, chiefly from the lenti- cular shape and chemical composition of several of the large rock- masses composing the French Tertiary series, and from the con- nexion of the pipes with the several rock-masses in which they end upwards, that such cavities are old channels connected with subter- ranean sources by which water charged with calcareous matter, with sulphate of lime, with sand, or with mud, has been ejected from be- neath at one time into the sea of the Paris Tertiary basin, and at others into its lakes. M. Leblanc* connects this process with some former operation like that of existing hot-springs, whilst M. Mellevillet gives a section showing that when the French Tertiary area was covered by the sea, the older and deeper-seated deposits beneath it, cropping out on high ground inland, might conduct waters through any per- meable strata down beneath that sea, and into which the waters then rose through these vertical channels ( puits naturels), charged with the materials, soluble and insoluble, collected during their subterra- nean course. Other geologists, again, have referred the sand- and gravel-pipes to the former action of brooks and streams, analogous to that by which swallow-holes are now excavated in chalk{ and limestone districts ; in such a case the filling up of the cavities would be caused by subsequent changes brought about upon the surface of the land. That such swallow-holes must have existed at all periods cannot be doubted ; but the phenomena which they present will hardly agree with that presented by the sand- and gravel-pipes: the one evidently depends solely upon the action of running surface-water, and always exposes open cavities, whereas the other is always in connexion with, and dependent upon, some overlying stratum deposited before and not after the excavation of the pipes,—are cavities formed, as it were, under cover. With regard to the theory of ejectment, it is attended with great difficulties, and, the hypothesis which I have to suggest being based upon the very reverse action of injectment, I will not stop to discuss it separately, as the argument brought forward in the following pages will, if true, render this other theory inapplicable in this particular ease§. As Mr. Trimmer’s views, however, will not be subject to this antagonistic argument, I must notice them in greater detail, the more especially as his observations are numerous and his facts are carefully recorded, though I cannot agree in the conclusion which he has drawn from them. Ist. As to the connexion of furrows on the surface of the Chalk with the pipes. This is an argument which suits the hypothesis of the chemical theory as well as his own; for a constant slow current passing from the superincumbent strata into the pipe must, as it is presumed to wear the-pipe, wear furrows in the chalk before reaching * Bull. Soc. Géol. de France, vol. xiii. p. 360, 1842. T Ibid. vol. xiv. p. 184, 1843. See also Forchhammer on the tubular pipes in the Faxoe Chalk, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vi. part 2. Miscel. p. 52. t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 222. § Not but that there may be cases in which such an agency may be applicable. PRESTWICH—SAND- AND GRAVEL-PIPES. 67 the pipe, as well, or I should conceive, better than the action of the sea on a shore; for in the former case the water would keep to any given channel more constantly than in the latter. 2nd. Mr. Trimmer states that many of the flints are water-worn. This is not sufficient : the majority, or rather all those at the bottom of. the pipe, should be water-worn, and all should show more or less wear ; whereas the majority in general, and those especially on the sides and at the bottom, are decidedly not at all water-worn ; on the contrary, they are always at least as sharp and angular as those in the superincumbent strata, and often as those in the Chalk itself. That flint pebbles and worn subangular flints do occur in these pipes, cannot be doubted; but the former are derived from the Tertiary strata (a fact to which Mr. Trimmer himself makes allusion), and the latter are from some of the beds of drift-gravel. 3rd. When we consider that these pipes are often 20, 40, or even 60 feet or more deep, with an average diameter varying from about + to ;1, of their depth, an apex of 3 to 4 inches (it is sometimes more and sometimes less than that) can hardly be objected to as not being such a point as we might expect to be caused by the infiltration of water. If the water escaped through a single point only, as in the tube of a funnel, the argument would be good; but as the whole body of chalk is porous and soluble, we can readily conceive the apex of the tube to be more or less sharp or blunted according to various conditions of the chalk. The chalk, in fact, is the filtering material and not merely the filter-holder, and the water passes in a body downwards by the ordinary laws of hydraulics, and is not other- wise directed by any mechanical arrangement to one particular point. 4th. Mr. Trimmer states that the Tertiary sandstones on the shore at the Reculvers are not calcareous, and that they, as well as other blocks scattered over North Kent, show traces of hollows worn out by the sea. On this point there is apparently some mistake with respect to the Reculver sandstones, for I have found them readily acted upon by dilute acids and containing a considerable proportion of carbonate of lime; those, however, scattered over the surface near Faversham are certainly purely siliceous, but then also they are concretionary, and as usual in such cases they present very irregular and often mammillated surfaces, with numerous small natural hollows and cavities on either side. But even if these latter were holes worn by subsequent sea-action, I do not see the force of the argument which compares indentations and furrows to be mea- sured by inches with the comparatively gigantic ones we are dealing with in the Chalk. 5th. The Thanet Sands near Canterbury can scarcely be called in any degree calcareous. I have examined several specimens, not only from that locality but also from other parts of Kent, and have found that the great majority of them, especially those forming the lower beds of this deposit, show scarcely a trace of carbonate of lime, and that they are composed essentially of siliceous sands more or less argillaceous. The shells which occasionally occur in some of the upper beds of these sands near Canterbury have almost all been dissolved F2 bl 68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. out by the percolation of water, leaving merely casts in the semi- indurated sand. In support of the foregoing arguments, I would further observe that the sand-pipes do not, any more than the gravel-pipes, appear to be confined to any particular zone or belt marking ancient coast- lines. Taking first the Thanet Sands. The outcrop of these beds extends from Ramsgate to Deptford, with a width generally (taking the detached outliers) of five or six miles, and often of ten to twelve. Sand-pipes are common across the breadth as well as along the length of this tract, which can hardly be reduced to the compass of a beach-line. Besides, there is no appearance anywhere of beach-action. The structure of the sands is throughout uniform, and the same in, over, and around the sand-pipes. The same argument applies with greater force to the gravel, which has a still longer and broader extension. Lastly, I can readily conceive small indentations and furrows to be worn by river or sea-shore action *, but I cannot imagine the possibility of hollows, sometimes almost as narrow and as straight as an inverted chimney-shaft, to have been formed by any such operations: the sea-action might form broad saucer or cup- shaped hollows above low-water level, but it could never drill cylin- drical holes 40, 60, or 80 feet deep, for at such a depth they would in all probability be in greater part far below low-water mark, and therefore below a permanent water-level, where tidal water action would necessarily cease, and their excavation by the operation of wave-action would become therefore a physical impossibility. Also such sea-shore hollows would contain within themselves the instruments which had worked them out, and the deeper they were the more rounded and worn would be the pebbles. These again would differ from the material subsequently washed into these cavities, and which material in that case would consist of the first sediment subsequently spread over that spot ; whereas, as a rule, no distinct accumulation of worn pebbles is found at the bottom of the pipes, the contents of which are always similar in lithological structure to the material forming the general superimcumbent mass, and are composed, not of successive additions horizontally superimposed and derived only from the same sediment as the layer next upon the chalk, but of all the layers successively superimposed ; and an in- verted cone is thus formed, with a core derived from the higher and later-formed portions of the superincumbent beds. It even sometimes happens, when the pipes are filled with clay, sand, and gravel-drift, that the sides and lower part of the pipe contain per- Sectly angular and unworn flints, while the rounded and worn flints form the centre of the pipe—an arrangement the very reverse of what we should expect if the cavities had been drilled by mechanical agency, the agents being the worn pebbles, which should therefore occupy the place here held by angular and unworn flints only. I have been thus particular m examining Mr. Trimmer’s views, * I have seen them on the coast about a foot deep. The gully-holes in many rivers form also a well-known phenomenon ; these however arise from the infil- tration of water, but belong to the same class of phenomena as the swallow-holes. PRESTWICH—SAND- AND GRAVEL-PIPES. 69 as from his long-continued study of the superficial deposits of the south of England his opinions are necessarily entitled to consider- able weight. In this examination also, as the main features of these sand-pipes have been brought forward, much further description will be obviated. With the general view advanced by Cuvier and Brongniart and by Dr. Buckland, and more critically laid down by Sir Charles Lyell, I fully agree ; and my object now will merely be to adduce some fresh proofs in its favour, and to suggest a general cause for the formation of these peculiar excavations. § 2. Special Phenomena. As the name implies, the pipes are common both under sand and gravel beds. They occur in fact wherever a loose and non-calcareous permeable stratum of any extent overlies the Chalk or some calca- reous rock. ‘They present an infinite variety, but I will confine my- self to the few essential points. Some years since [ met with an instance of one of these pipes in a chalk-pit near Lower Elmsden, a few miles south-west of Canter- bury, which seemed to me conclusive of their formation by the slow and gradual action of water after the deposition of the superimcumbent strata. The following is a section of this sand-pipe. a Fig. 1.—Section of a Sand-pipe in a Chalk-pit near Lower Elmsden. a Thin stony band in the Thanet Sands. ec Chalk. 6 Seam of clay and sand with green-coated flints. It will be observed that this pipe, which is about 12 feet deep, is filled with the Thanet Sands, underlaid by the seam of clay and sand () with the angular green-coated flints which always occurs at the base of this deposit. It is not often that these sands are solidified, but in this case a thin band (a) is semi-indurated—just hard enough to hold together in blocks when broken, but not hard enough to allow of any wear or exposure. This layer of soft stone runs horizontally about 2 feet above the surface of the chalk. When, however, it reaches the sand-pipe, its continuity is interrupted, and it is broken into a - 70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. great number of small fragments. These are perfectly sharp, angular, without any trace of having been worn, and follow in a continuous line (but as it were stretched out) the curve of the pipe. Now it is evident that this layer of friable sandstone must have been at one time con- tinuous; that it has been fractured and its fragments disjoimted and spread out by some operation subsequent to its consolidation; and that this must have been effected very gradually, and whilst in a supporting medium, to admit of the perfect preservation of the sharp angles of the fragments of so soft a stone, and to retain them in their original relative position. Further, the large flints with which stratum “6” always abounds are here, as usual elsewhere, scattered down (or rather held up) on the nearly perpendicular sides of the pipe, and are not accumulated at the bottom, as they necessarily would be if the sands above had not existed to keep them in place by their pressure. With few exceptions also these flints are the green-coated flints from the Tertiary bed, and not the flints fresh out of the Chalk. When how- ever the pipe traverses layers of flints, these large white unworn flints are left after the chalk is dissolved, and remain in the outer clay- seam usually forming the sides of the pipe: these flints are generally in a vertical position at right angles to that which they held in the chalk,—a downward pitch caused, I consider, by the slow downward movement of the mass of matter in the pipe, whilst the flint was gradually detached from its matrix, the one end being free and giving way before the other. In a pipe on the Downs above Westerham, I met with an instance where this pressure has been such that that portion (about 10 inches) of the flint which projected into the angular flint-rubble forming the sides of the pipe is snapped off from the portion remaining attached to the chalk, and is slightly bent down- wards, though it had not had time to become removed from the other portion before the pipe-making action ceased. There are certain features common in all the sand-pipes under the Thanet Sands; a central core of sand always exists with an outer layer of sandy clay with flints, which latter lie in all positions, per- fectly independent of the relative weight of the materials, and more often than otherwise with their longer axes directed downwards. The sides of the pipes also are rubbed and striated vertically, presenting a sort of slickenside, indicative of a slipping-downwards motion. The lamination or bedding of the sands follows the sides of the pipe in curved lines, gradually lessening in curvature as we ascend, until at some feet above the chalk, the strata resume their horizontal pcsition. The sand above these pipes is also always looser and less compact than usual. These characters are well exhibited in some large sand- pipes at Grays Thurrock. In the following section (fig. 2) the overlying indent of gravel further shows, that not only was the action subsequent to the deposition of the sands, but that, in this instance, it was subsequent to the spread of the gravel, c being a small portion of a bed of gravel belonging to a higher level, and of which this fragment, let down into the depression caused by the sand-pipe, has escaped denudation. No later subsidence can have taken place, as no further depression occurs on the surface of the gravel, and the » PRESTWICH—SAND- AND GRAVEL-PIPES. 71 line “‘m, n” is perfectly straight. This section also corroborates the inference drawn from fig. 1. Fig. 2.—Section of the upper part of a Sand-pipe in the Chalk at Grays. Drawn on the same scale as Fig, 1. a Thanet Sands. 6 Seam of clay and sand with green-coated flints. e Gravel. d Chalk The general arrangement is the same in the gravel-pipes, only it is rougher and less apparent* ; for as the gravel is usually spread over the chalk in a large unstratified sheet of one rough homogeneous structure throughout, it necessarily follows that, however slow its subsidence at any point into a pipe penetrating the chalk may have been, the absence of straight lines of bedding would prevent the clear exhibition of ‘any lines of flexure in the gravel of the pipes, and would cause it to retain the same apparent want of structure which characterises the mass of the gravel itself. But it sometimes happens that the gravel is roughly stratified, or rather spread out in layers of variable texture ; or at times a bed of sandy gravel full of Tertiary flint-pebbles overlies another bed containing almost solely subangular and unrolled flints. In cases where pipes have been formed under such gravels, the curved or inverted conical ar- rangement of the mass, and the descent of the central core from the higher beds, generally become apparent, as in the sand-pipes. Some good examples of these pipes are common on the Chalk downs, especially in some pits above Westerham and Wrotham. The sides of most of these pipes are there formed of an extension of the layer of perfectly angular flint-rubble 1 to 4 feet wide, occurring at the base of the drift, whilst the core consists of worn gravel, or often of round flint-pebbles and sand derived from the Tertiary beds which formerly overspread that area. The size of the sand- and gravel-pipes is very variable, some being only a few feet deep, and others reaching to a depth even of 100 feet or more, with a diameter*of 20 to 40 feet. They are very common all over the Kent and Surrey Chalk district ; also in Berkshire, Wilts, * There are some very good instances of gravel-pipesin the Chalk-pits at Green- hithe. The neighbourhood of Watford, Henley, and the Downs a few miles N.E. of Maidstone also offer convenient localities for studying this phenomenon ; there are, in fact, few places in the Chalk district where it may not be observed to a greater or lesser extent. 12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Oxfordshire, Bucks, and Hertfordshire. The general features de- scribed above, and those given more in detail by Sir Charles Lyell, may apply to them all. Care, however, must be taken to discriminate between pipes produced by the slow percolation of water, and those formed in part or wholly by the wear and battering to which the chalk, as well as other strata not always calcareous, has been sub- jected by certain drift-action. Such excavations are, however, on the whole, shallower, more irregular, and do not show the same internal structure as the true pipes. In this case many of the apparent pipes are mere sections of deep furrows, ploughing up the surface of the substratum, and filled with drift of various ages. In one of my papers recently published*, a case of this description inci- dentally occurs where a mass of subangular ochreous sandy gravel reposes on a deeply furrowed surface of impermeable clay and siliceous sands +. | § 3. General Phenomena. Such being the ordinary features exhibited by the sand- and gravel- pipes, it now remains to consider when and under what general conditions they were formed. As before mentioned, the percolation of rain-water, holding in solution carbonic acid derived from the atmosphere and the vegetable soil, from certain permeable strata imto the chalk has been the cause most frequently suggested. The question, however, involves some further considerations which this hypothesis does not embrace. These tubular excavations are evi- dently to be attributed to some very general cause, and one operating at different periods; and it is with respect to the greater number a cause no longer in action, for not the slightest subsidence or in- dentation of the ground at the surface is perceptible above them, although it is evident that whilst they were being formed the superjacent strata were gradually depressed and indented (see figs. 1 and 2, pp. 69, 71). The Thanet Sands and the sands associated with the Reading and Woolwich Series afford numerous examples of pipes passmg down into the underlymg Chalk. These pipes are not only common in the localities where the sands are in connexion with the main mass of the Tertiaries and in all their detached outliers, but portions or tail-pieces of such sand-pipes are also found on bare chalk-hills, above which once extended those lower tertiary sands from whose mass these pipes must necessarily have originally projected. This is suffi- ciently evident in all the Chalk district of Kent. In illustration of this pomt I have selected for a section the line of country between Chatham and Crayford, along which instances of these unattached pipes are in places numerous. The dotted lines mark the probable extension of the Tertiaries before the denudation of the present val- leys (see Section No. 2, Pl. VI.). * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 88. + Considerable complication is often produced by drift-action on the surface over the pipes, as the drift, being often local, can hardly in some cases be distin- guished from the materials in the pipes. The inclination at which the section is taken also gives rise at times to deceptive appearances. PRESTWICH—SAND- AND GRAVEL-PIPES. 73 This phenomenon is not confined to these eocene sands, but is equally common in connexion with one of the most recent of our drift-gravels, and in beds of various other ages. In the instance of the drift-period, this is shown in the line of section (No. ], Pl. VI.) extending from the neighbourhood of Rickmansworth to the hills above Wycombe, where the gravel caps a succession of Chalk hills and exhibits a considerable number of very illus- trative gravel-pipes, including the fine case mentioned by Dr. Buckland between Beaconsfield and Wycombe. Both this section and the other (No. 2), referring to the sand-pipes, are actual sections, in which all the pipes found on the lines of section are in- troduced and distinguished from those supposed to exist where the chalk is not exposed. The relative position of the pipes and their distance from the main masses are maintained, the height of the ground at the various points where they occur having been approxi- mately determined by the aneroid barometer. Some of the most remarkable instances of these detached gravel- pipes, and instances affording a test to a much-debated period of denudation, occur in the slopes of the North Downs. A thick drift of ferruginous clay, sand, and gravel extends generally to the very edge of this escarpment, and is there abruptly truncated, whilst the slopes of the hills present a bare and clean chalk surface; but dotted a considerable way down these slopes may often be found portions of detached and isolated gravel-pipes,—the termination of pipes descend- ing from the main mass of the gravel when prolonged above them. Such tail-pieces may readily be observed above Charing, Wrotham, and Westerham. The annexed sketch gives a section of the hill above the latter town (see fig. 3). This fact is important, as it affords a Fig. 3.—Section of the hill-side above Westerham, showing the pipes on the top of the hill filled with drift, and the terminations only of similar pipes some way down the slope of the hill. 3 * * Ors b sess’ "ay te - - Sy — Soy Pd) a = y : A aes ~ | aaa Y $—“t> aa i moe tS) a aes aoe TE ry oe Drawn on scale. The height from the dotted line to the base line is about 300 feet. * Pipes of which the ends still exist on the slope of the hill. Descent by the London road. a Chalk. 6 Ferruginous clay, sand, and gravel filling pipes on the surface of the chalk, ec Outlined continuation of former surface of the chalk with similar pipes. strong proof that the final excavation of the valley of Holmesdale, including, I believe, that of the Weald, was not effected until after this comparatively recent drift period. This, however, is a point I had not intended to have entered upon at present, and the further con- sideration of which I must reserve until I have occasion to treat of the drift as a separate question. 74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. § 4. Theoretical Considerations, and Conclusion. On reference to the Sections 1 and 2 (Pl. VI.), which give the pre- sent configuration of the surface and the actual distribution along certain lines, in the one case of the sand-pipes connected with the Tertiary strata, and in the other of the gravel-pipes connected with the drift, it will be seen by the dotted lines that all these pipes are related to the sands and gravel before the continuity of the latter was interrupted and when they extended in unbroken beds over the face of the land; that, in fact, the present valleys have all evidently been excavated since the formation of these pipes, which consequently belong to an older and anterior state of things. If, therefore, we restore that state, it will appear that over the areas under examina- tion, the Tertiary sands at one period and the gravel at another formed extensive and nearly level beds stretching, without apparent break, over large tracts of country. Now, as these deposits are extremely permeable, they would under these conditions naturally constitute water-bearing strata, reposing in either case on the thick mass of the Chalk. The water m both these masses of water-bearing strata would also naturally descend to the lowest level and there remain until it found vent. The Chalk, although it absorbs water in large quantities and with great facility, is not properly a freely permeable deposit. When satu- rated it will in fact hold up water, which then only passes through it with excessive slowness if not assisted by cracks and fissures. Now itis a well-known fact that the rain-water, which filtrates through the mass of any permeable deposit or percolates through the fissures of any impermeable one, tends to descend in both cases to a certain level, dependent on the one side upon the nearest sea-level (if one be near), and on the other on the level of the adjacent valleys; and that a slightly curved line drawn between these points will always give the height at which the water in the intermediate hills stands with certain limited variations throughout the year*. This surface is called the line of water-level. Of course when these water-bearing strata are over- laid by an impermeable deposit supporting another permeable bed at a height rising above this main and lower level, this second de- posit will form an exception to the general law and present a higher and independent water-level of its own. As, therefore, during this former period, the mass of the Lower Tertiary sands would hold and transmit water with great facility, that water would everywhere press on the chalk, and tend to penetrate into it through cracks and fis- sures, or to permeate into its general mass with extreme slowness at the points of least resistance, a slowness in some measure assisted by the thin seam of sandy clay with flints at the base of the sands. If, under these circumstances, the mass of the chalk stood much above the sea-level on one side, and the mean level of any large inland plains on the other, then the water which escaped from the sands would pass downwards through the chalk, and form a second water- * [ have treated these questions at some length in “ The Inquiry on the Water- bearing Strata of London ;’”’ Chapter on the Chalk, p. 57. ~ PRESTWICH—SAND- AND GRAVEL-PIPES. 79 level at a depth, below the water-level in the sands, dependent upon the general elevation of the country above the sea*. Thus, supposing the mass of Chalk and the overlying Tertiaries to have been placed at the period we are now considering at about the same altitude that they at present occupy, but that the valleys which now traverse the country were not then formed,—supposing, in fact, that the country were restored to that state in which it would seem to have been before some later denudation swept away the beds which must have been continuous in the way represented by the dotted lines in Section 2. Pl. VI., we should then have a state of things represented by Diagram B, where the Lower Tertiary sands would form an upper water-bearing stratum rising some few hundred feet above the sea ; whilst, supposing the Chalk had some lower outcrop further inland, the water-level in it would stand, at a certain distance from the sea, at one or two or more hundred feet below that level; but as the beds dipped and the country lowered towards the sea, then these two water-lines would gradually converge towards and ultimately merge in the same common plane (see Diagram B, Pl. VI., where x, y shows the line of water-level in the chalk C, and m, 2 the water-line in the overlying sands 8). Or if we restore, asin Diagram A, the conditions prevailing during the gravel period, we might then have the case of an inland plain or valley at some height above the sea, covered by a bed of permeable gravel reposing upon the thick bed of the Chalk, and flanked on either side by higher ground. Under these conditions the calcareous strata would again have a line of water-level lower than that which would exist in the overlying mass of gravel (see Pl. VI., Diagr. A, x, y being the line of water-level in strata C, and m, n the level in the overlying beds G)r+. Referring now to the supposititious cases representedinthe Diagrams A and B, the consequence would be that the water in the sands S or in the gravel G throughout the higher districts, having little or no natural lateral vent, would tend to escape downwards to the lower water-level in the Chalk C, and a constant flow would be established through any small fissures that might originally exist or else by ge- neral permeation through the body of the Chalk. Ido not, however, consider the sand-pipes as necessarily or essentially dependent upon cracks or fissures in the chalk. These, probably, would rather * When the table-land of permeable strata reposing upon chalk is much inter- sected by valleys, as for example in the case of the sands of Blackheath, Plumstead Heath, and Bexley Heath, which are bounded by the valleys of the Ravensbourne and of the Cray, the ready lateral flow afforded to the water by these valleys and their branches prevents any large accumulation or much vertical pressure of water in these sands. Still it is more than probable that in such a case some water will pass from the sands into the chalk, and that therefore some amount of wear is continued. tT We have an extreme case of such conditions in the “ Yailahs” of Lycia, no- ticed by Prof. E. Forbes and Lieut. Spratt. These are more or less basin-shaped valleys of various extent at an elevation of from 2000 to 6000 feet, and with no outlet for the streams which water them. During the wet season the water collects and often forms a lake at one end of the valley: this apparently passes away by infiltration. The rivers pour into caverns and are lost among the preci- pitous cliffs which form the sides of the valleys.—See their “ Travels in Lycia.” 76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tend to form narrow and tortuous water-channels, such as are occa- sionally met with in that deposit, and through which the water, from the rapidity of its escape, would not act so fully as when filter- ing slowly through the solid beds. It is easier also to drill a straight hole in a mass which is uniformly compact and solid, than in one in which weak poimts and cavities mterfere with the regularity of the drilling action, and I believe that it will be found that these sand- or gravel-pipes are not usually connected with fissures, but that they have generally worked their way into the solid chalk*. To understand this mode of operation, we have to suppose the superincumbent strata constantly filled with water to a given level, as happens with all water-bearing strata under certain conditions. If these strata reposed upon an impermeable deposit, and the water had no underground means of escape, the additions incessantly made to it by the fall of rain would cause it to overflow the edges of this natural reservoir and so carry off the surplus supply in the form of springs ; but if the water had the means of escaping by any under- ground vent, the ordinary hydrostatic pressure would cause it to take that course in preference to the other. As, therefore, in the case before us, sands or gravel saturated with water repose upon a deposit, which, notwithstanding its not being freely permeable or allowing of the escape of the water in bulk, but rather holding it up, still imbibes water readily, and transmits it, although with extreme slowness, to the lower level which it seeks ; it would follow that the surface of the chalk being exposed to the action of the water, with which these overlying beds are constantly saturated, would imbibe and transmit it downwards, at first through its mass generally, but ultimately passmg, probably, into some of the nu- merous fissures which traverse this deposit, and which would afford it a more rapid passage. But as rain-water contains carbonic acid, which carbonic acid would not be lost by the filtration of the water through these quartzose sands or gravel, a certain proportion of that part of the chalk through which the acidulated water first passed must necessarily be dissolved and carried away in solution. Under these circumstances, any slight original depression on the surface of the chalk tending to give a direction to the water; any point where the texture was looser than usual, and presenting there- fore less resistance; or any greater permeability at some given point of the superincumbent bed allowing a freer access at that spot, would tend to facilitate and direct the passage of the water at and to those places, and the inevitable consequence would be to establish neces- sarily a greater wear there than elsewhere. By these means, the chalk at these points would become more porous and less resisting, and cer- tain water-channels there would soon be fixed, which, as they offered the readiest passage for the water, would draw it off from the adjacent portions of the superincumbent strata. This action once established * Still it is quite possible that slight crevices and cracks may frequently have been predisposing causes: what I wish to point out, is, that the pipes are not usually connected with faults and large fissures in the chalk, that they are not dependent upon any lines of disturbance. PRESTWICH—SAND- AND GRAVEL-PIPES. 77 would be maintained, and, in consequence, the original small water- channels would be gradually worn larger by the continued solvent action necessarily kept up by the continuous supply of water, re- ceiving into their cavities, as they formed, the loose and yielding materials of the superincumbent mass, and which, from the extreme slowness of their fall and from all their parts being kept, by the uni- formity and steadiness of the superincumbent pressure, in their original relative positions, would, as it were, be merely stretched out, and would conforin almost exactly to the irregular surface of the pro- duced cavities* (see fig. 1, p. 69). Further, the peculiar funnel-shaped and cylindrical forms of these pipes admit of ready explanation on this hypothesis, for when any point on the surface of the Chalk, owing to the causes above men- tioned, gives a freer passage to the water than it can obtain through the adjacent portions of the strata, then, the superincumbent mass of sand or gravel being of uniform or nearly uniform texture, the water would flow towards this channel from all points of the circumference, and cause therefore a nearly equal wear on all sides, tending, as the cavities deepened, to give them a circular form more or less perfect. At the same time, as the hollow became deeper, the body of water passing down the centre of the pipe would be greater in proportion to the surface of the chalk to be acted upon than that which would fall upon its sides, and a more rapid wear would take place on the lower or central part of the tube than on the upper; also the water passing down the centre of the pipes would retain its erosive action undimi- nished by previous contact with the chalk. The consequence of these conditions would necessarily be to trans- form the original hollow first into a funnel-shaped cavity, and then, as it got deeper, into one gradually assuming a more tubular and cylindrical form. For if we divide a line, drawn through the centre of the horizontal section of the top of a pipe, into three equal Figs. 4, 5, & 6.— Diagrams illus- parts (4a, ab, OB, fig. 4), and trative of the Structure of Sand- carry down two perpendicular bt Sat lines from @ and 4, until they Fig. 4. Fig. 6. meet the sides of the pipe at ¢ and d in the vertical sections, Ges) figs. 5 & 6, it is evident that in fig. 5 the relative dimensions of Ac, cd, and dB are very nearly the same, the line ed being very little less than cd or dB;; still the difference is sufficient, sup- posing equal quantities of water to pass in equal time through the equal widths da, ab, dB, to P * The comparative fluidity of the sands produced by their saturation with water would necessarily facilitate this operation. The vibrations caused by earthquake movements might also co-operate from time to time, especially where any tempo- rary obstruction had caused a stoppage of the descending materials, in maintaining a continuous fall into the increasing cavities. 78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. make the relative quantity supplied to ed greater than that supplied to de and Bd in the proportion as the distance between cd is less than the distances between de and Bd; consequently, in fig. 5, the water-wear between cd would be slightly greater (aided also by the tendency of the water to converge at P) than between dc, Bd, and the cavity, or incipient pipe, would increase in magnitude more rapidly in the direction of ed, than of dc, Bd, or in other words would deepen more rapidly than it widened. Further, as the dimensions of the pipe increased, so would the disproportion be- tween da and dc, and between 6B and Bd constantly increase ; and as only the same relative quantity of water would pass over the surfaces 4c, Bd, whatever their dimensions might become, its effect would be one gradually diminishing, and consequently the lateral growth of the tube would tend to become less from day to day ; whilst, as the proportion of ed with regard to ab would continue with little variation whatever the size of the pipe, the relative quantity of water passing on the surface cd would remain constant or nearly so, and the downward growth of the pipe would continue unimpaired. Thus the dimensions of 4a, ab, 0B to Ac, ed, and dB in fig. 5 are nearly equal; but in fig. 6, de and Bd are five times greater than a and 6B, whereas ed retains nearly the same propor- tion to ad that it didin fig. 5, or the erosive effect of the water passing Aa, bB being spread over an area five times larger would have be- come five times less; on the contrary that passing ad, acting upon an area of the same dimensions as at first, would possess its original erosive power, one now five times greater than that acting upon the sides. Consequently the action on the sides of the pipe would tend to become, in process of time, comparatively insignificant, whilst that on the base of the pipe retained its original force ; therefore the water-channel would pass from a slight hollow to a funnel- shaped cavity, and then into an indefinitely prolonged cylinder with a pointed end. The points aé are of course arbitrary*, but wherever we place them with regard to 4B, cd will always exhibit the same constant character with regard to ab; and de, Bd the reverse with regard to da, 6B. Practically, also, a portion of the water falling on the sides de, Bd would tend, from the ob- struction presented by the partially impermeable lining of the pipe, to be thrown off from those surfaces and pass through the central area ed. With respect to the adjacent chalk surface, it may be observed that, whilst the pipes were forming, the water would at the same time be scoring and corroding that surface with conducting furrows and channels converging in these absorbent cavities, and producing much of the furrowed and worn surface apparent on the chalk when freed from its superincumbent sands or gravel. * Nor is this intended to give more than a rough, but, I believe, at the same time a correct general sketch of the process. For a more exact calculation, which could easily be made, it would be necessary to take the relation of the superficial area at the top of the pipe to that of the sides, and not the merely linear measure- ment adopted above. PRESTWICH—SAND- AND GRAVEL-PIPES. 79 The difference of the two water-levels assumed above (Diag. A & B, Pl. VI.) is not, I should mention, a merely hypothetical case. On the Chalk hills of Kent and Surrey the water-line in the Chalk often lies at a depth of from 300 to 400 feet, whilst in the small outliers of Tertiary sands and in the gravel on these hills a small body of water, where the mass of strata is large enough and other con- ditions favourable, is held up by these beds at a depth of 10, 20, or 30 feet only. As the gravel is generally without any such partially impermeable seam at its base as occurs in the Tertiary sands, the underlying chalk surface seems to have been liable to be attacked by the acidu- lated waters in a greater number of places, and to present a larger proportion of pipes and indentations than when overlaid by the sands. In the case both of the sands and the gravel, I presume the strata to be fully charged with water accumulating and lodging in them, and not merely giving a temporary passage to an occasional rain-fall. This is an essential condition. A seam of clay is occasionally met with at the base of the gravel, and a thin layer of tough clay is of common occurrence on the sides and at the base of the pipes. It has the appearance of having been washed out of the superincum- bent gravel and stopped bythe chalk, as in the case of an ordinary filter. It is less apparent in the pits under the sands which are cleaner. With regard to an objection which has sometimes been raised to this view of the formation of sand- and gravel-pipes, viz. that the water does not hold a sufficient quantity of carbonic acid to operate on so large a scale, it must not be overlooked that it is not only the quantity obtained by the rain directly from the atmosphere and from the ground, but also the additional and constantly forming supply that is evolved by the action of the air, likewise held in so- lution by rain-water *, upon the remains of organic matter, whether vegetable or animal, dispersed in however small quantities throughout the strata, and tending to the renewal of the carbonic acid removed, or rather, if the expression may be used, rendered latent, by coming into contact and combining with any carbonate of lime occurring perchance in these otherwise generally non-calcareous water-bearing strata. The length of time during which the operation continued I also suppose to have been exceedingly great. Although these old channels (the pipes) have ceased to act, similar pheenomena to that which produced them may still be occasionally observed, or rather it is possible that some existing phenomena may be referred to the same agency. Mr. Strickland pointed out this fact to Sir Charles Lyell in the neighbourhood of Henley ; and I have had my attention directed to a spot of ground in Rickmans- worth Park, where a bed of gravel caps a chalk hill overlooking the valley of the Colne. Circular indentations are there formed on the surface of the ground, which I was informed kept constantly * Rain-water absorbs air in the proportion of about ;';th of its volume, but the oxygen is always in excess to the proportion in the atmosphere. The water from the Artesian well of Grenelle, after having passed 100 miles underground, still contains small proportions of air, carbonic acid, and organic matter. 80 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. deepening, so much so that it was necessary every few years to fill them up. I have however some doubts on this subject*. In the case, again, of the swallow-holes described in a previous paper +, we witnessed a somewhat similar action of the escape of water from a higher level to a lower one inthe Chalk. In such cases, how- ever, the more free and rapid flow of water has probably worn a continuous passage in the mass of the Chalk. These funnel-shaped holes also are caused by the dissolving power of water holding car- bonic acid in solution, and not by mechanical agencies, for the feeding stream is usually unimportant, transports but little sediment, and filters quietly through the small quantity of sand and gravel that remains undisturbed at the bottom of these excavations. In conclusion, therefore, I view these sand- and gravel-pipes in the chalk and other soft calcareous stratat as extinct natural water-con- duits, which the waters, at different periods, through incessant filtra- tion from a higher water-bearing stratum in their tendency to reach a lower level, gradually and quietly wore for themselves by their solvent action alone; the size of the pipes mainly depending both upon the length of time the operation continued, and also upon the extent of difference of level between the two water-surfaces. EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI. The two Sections (1 and 2) are from actual survey across parts of the neighbourhood of London, where the sequence of the phenomena over a length of country, easily accessible (and at the same time offering some very attractive scenery), presents the required conditions of showing the relation of the pipes to the main masses of sand and gravel, and also the independence of the whole to the existing con- figuration of the surface. The heights are taken approximately with the aneroid barometer and may not be perfectly exact, but I believe them to be sufficiently so for the purpose in view. The scale of heights to distances is inevitably greatly exaggerated, in consequence of the diminutiveness of the subordinate features to be noticed. The scale of distances is the same as that of the Ordnance * It has since been suggested to me that these depressions may be caused by old chalk-holes filled up with rubbish over which the grass has grown, but the decay of which leads to a constant falling in of the surface. This is likely enough to occur, and it would be difficult without opening some of these hollows to determine the point. The record of such places having been chalk-holes is of course likely soon to be lost, although at the same time one would have expected the frequent excavations of such holes would have caused the resulting appearances to be better known. Might not, however, the circumstance of decaying vegetable or animal matter being accumulated in the excavations tend to the evolution of a larger proportion of carbonic acid, which, taken up by the water draining from the adjacent surface, would tend to set in operation the action we have been alluding to ? It is, I think, quite possible that both the natural and artificial causes may pro- duce the same result. + Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 222. { The pipes in the harder limestones, which, where these same conditions pre- vailed, would necessarily operate a similar water-wear, are more likely to have re- sulted from this wear having been directed into given channels by pre-existing cracks and fissures. Some gravel-pipes in the Ragstone at Maidstone afford excel- lent illustrations of such results. = OMBE T\ ER. AVE RISE RING STRA Fas ‘ 7 C4 ane ; b »? 4 1 ‘ Ge) ay 7 yon c™ ‘ " ‘ ' 4 ' «@ " 7 f o - oF Js 7 AT 1 °3y ‘uelg Surduedwoo “oe 9} UO SyIvUdYy s . «Pity WEE 27 La «te “Ajaatqoadsa. ‘g 2 Gb B® € ‘SW 1 useay -9q Suld,T satqTRooy oy ye padlasqo usaeq sAeY qq oy} YoUIG sodvJ “ING [eLysaay, IT *puesudaly IaMOT ‘p “HICYD °? *SOMIVIQAAT, IOMOT *9 “AOTICA AaM\ 9Y} JO 9s0y} YIM snonurzu0d ‘speq-[aAvi4n ‘v7 LAND-SURFACES BENEATH DRIFT. AUSTEN c “fil 2Y2 Yzoauag saonfung puy'T 2 fmsodxa suoyoag ayz fo uorisod ayz pun ‘sjaaniy ayz fo uoyngruysig ayz burmoys ‘hayjy 4 piofpyngy ay fo dvyy—' | *o1q 116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [ Dec. 13, noticed, as in every other, there was a total absence of any detritus below this old terrestrial surface. I am well aware that, in the majority of cases where drift-gravel beds are seen in superposition on inferior strata, there are no indica- tions of terrestrial conditions ; but it must be borne in mind that at every time, as now, the accumulation of peaty matter is a local and exceptional case ; and all that can be expected is, that it should occur when the old configuration of the surface rendered its formation possible. This old land-surface supplies us with a definite and valuable, though isolated, date in the geological history of a large area north of the Wealden denudation. I would here refer to one or two instances, in order to show that old terrestrial surfaces of like age with those in the north of the Wealden area exist elsewhere. Isle of Wight.—I had previously visited the locality indicated by Sir H. Englefield, whose description * will still be found most accu- rate, that “near the top of the cliff lie numerous trunks of trees, not lodged in the undisturbed strata, but buried 8 or 10 feet under sand and gravel. Many are | foot or 2 feet in diameter, and 10 to 12 feet in length; their substance is soft, but their forms are distinct ; and with them occur considerable quantities of small nuts, like those of the hazel.’ He adds that no hazel now grows upon the island ; nor has the subversion of the trees been an event of recent occur- rence. I had further an opportunity of seeing, in company with the late Prof. E. Forbes, his own discovery of an instance of terrestrial surface infraposed to the Drift-gravels, at the east end of the Isle of Wight, near St. Helens; which he noticed in a communication on the newer Eocenes of that locality, but which has been omitted in the published abstract. The beds themselves present the usual characters of all accumulations of vegetable matter in low damp situations, in- cluding the remains of trees of large size. The beds contained the remains of Insects. The overlying gravel-beds are developed on a grand scale, forming part of a band in the orth of the central chalk-ridge of Brading and Bembridge Downs ; and corresponding with that which occupies the central valley, along the line of the anticlinal of the island,—or to the south of the same ridge. The Brading gravels, where thickest, as near Foreland, have a marked bedded arrangement, which is not quite horizontal, but inclines towards the chalk-range. The materials have been derived from the chalk, but, though from Foreland the gravel extends southward over the edges of the upturned Eocene beds, they stop short, and do not reach the chalk-strata. The like happens with respect to the gravel-masses of the south side of the central range, along the Yar. They will be seen to be separated from, and to range below the level of the chalk,—in other words, they have not been produced by the abrasion of the chalk-strata now nearest to them ; thus showing, im conformity with what has been noticed respecting the longitudinal valleys of the Wealden, that they were destitute of detritus before the Drift-gravel Period. The superposition of the * Englefield’s Isle of Wight, p. 132. pl. 22. 1854. | AUSTEN—LAND-SURFACES BENEATH DRIFT. 117 stratified gravel-beds of Brook, which belong to the central valley area, over a terrestrial surface of the same age as that of St: Helens, tends to refer all the gravels spread over the surface of the tertiary series to one and the same group. Coast of France.—On the evidence that masses of peat were brought up in trawls from parts of the sea-bed off the French coast (Pas de Calais, Department of the Somme),—and that over the same spots the remains of Hlephas primigenius were very frequent as well as perfect, I ventured on the opinion that these parts of the Channel had formed part of the dry-land-surface of the period of that fauna. Some observations by French geologists (Rozét) respecting a tourbe du Diluvium indicated that they had seen instances of terrestrial surfaces beneath the gravel-drift ; none of them, however, have been particularly indicated. It was therefore with much interest that, in conjunction with several members of this Society, I met with such a case in the course of a geological excursion in the spring of last year. The place at which the section, fig. 2, was taken, is about half-wa between Dieppe and the Lighthouse of St. Marguerite. The beds are cut off by the cliff as represented in the sketch. The portion remaining has a slight basin-shaped arrangement, as if the vegetable and sedimentary matter had been collected in some local depression. The underlying beds belong to the lower Eocenes ; and above are thick water-strewn beds of flint-gravel. Mr. D. Sharpe collected in the deposit in question the remains of insects. Fig. 2.—Chiff Section exposed near Dieppe. 1. Gravel. 2. Peaty layers. 3. Tertiary beds. VOL, X ay, eae —— oe i | ama fe a se : Pa A “—? ) maf ; ae bs ~~ <. 5 — ee * be . * « e ink SD . i et | “ 5 St | ’ i oT ’ » ‘ ; Pr - zx . P o<¢,¥ ee a. Oe 2 > 7 5 ey ‘ a . S > “2 Ii 4 ¢ & § _ e q's ae r , _s 2. ‘as * 4% re. = Ak ; N= pe Sivan J : ea eo ay rue’. * eae” \« = Gee x ‘,! es jer 7 o *¢ . real _ P - 4 . <“¥ 4 ie 255.) OWEN—FOSSIL CEPHALOPOD. 125 the shell that it was slightly convex there along the ventral aspect ; but, though it has been subject to compression, the solid resisting calcified part was evidently much thinner than in the cuttle-bones, or sepia-shells, of the present seas ; and the distinct horny layers con- tinued through the substance of the shell form a modification of structure not known in any existing Cephalopod with a calcified internal shell. From the Keleno of Munster (Acanthoteuthis of Wagner), the genus indicated by this shell differs in having the lateral expansions ; from the T'eudopsis of Deslongchamps and Acanthoteuthis of D’Or- bigny it differs in the well-defined and restricted extent of those expansions ; from the Ommastrephes and Conoteuthis of D’Orbigny it differs in the absence of the strong median crest or keel. The nearest resemblance which I have found in previously described or figured fossil remains of the Dibranchiate Cephalopods is in that specimen which forms the subject of Taf. ix. Heft vii. of Miinster’s ** Beitraige zur Petrefacten-kiinde ;”’ of which plate no description or notice occurs in the text or on the plate itself, in the copy of the work in the Geological Society’s Library. I am indebted to the Referees of the present notice for the following information respecting fig. 1. t. ix. Miinst. Beitr. vu. Heft. “It is the Loligo antiqua of Minster, according to Hoeninghausen and D’Orbigny, and the Sepia prisca of Keenig’s ‘Icones.’ Bronn refers it to the Sepia hastifor- mis, Riippell, Solenh. 9.t.3.f, 2; but that species may be different. D’ Orbigny figures two species of ‘ Coccoteuthis.’ But from all these Mr. Brodie’s fossil is probably distinct.” [Feb. 22, 1855.] The present example from the Kimmeridge shales appears to be a distinct species ; it is broader in proportion to its length. To facilitate future references and comparisons of the rare indica- tions of the higher organised naked Cephalopods in our oolitic series, I propose to name the specimen here described Coccoteuthis* lati- pinnis, in reference to the well-marked granulated surface of the calcified part of the sepium, and to the breadth of the pallial fins. Its essential generic character is the extent of the calcified part of the shell combined with the horny part. It indicates a genus or sub- genus with very interesting intermediate or osculant characters between the Cuttles (Sepiade) and Squids (T'euthide or Loliginide) of the present time; and it illustrates in the highest class of Mol- lusca that adherence to a more general type, which I have had occasion to point out in the fossils of many other classes of animals from the Secondary formations. A second specimen, somewhat larger and nearly as well preserved, has been obtained from the same locality by Mr. Groves of Ware- ham.—R. O. April, 1855. * From Kokkos, a berry, and revGis, a squid or calamary. 126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan., 3, 4. On the Tertiary Formations of the Norta of GeRMANYy ; with special reference to those of Hesse CassEu and its neigh- bourhood. By W. J. Hamixton, Esq., Pres. G.S. CONTENTS. I. Tertiary beds of Hesse Cassel. 1. Sections at Habichts Wald and Wilhelmshohe. 2. Sections near Ober Kaufungen. 3. Sections at the Hirschberg. II. Tertiary beds of Westeregeln near Magdeburg. I1lI. The relative age of the Tertiary Beds of Northern Germany. INTRODUCTION. Tue observations contained in the following pages are intended as supplementary to those which I laid before the Society on the 22nd February last*. The subject is one of growing interest, and is, Iam happy to say, attracting the attention of the geologists of the north of Germany and of Vienna. We have therefore every reason to hope that, from their combined exertions, many years will not elapse before we shall possess a complete table of the chronological history of the marine tertiary beds of Germany. Under these circumstances, and considering the comparatively limited extent of my additional obser- vations, made last autumn, I should have deemed it premature to bring them on this occasion under the notice of the Society, had I not been desirous of availmg myself of this opportunity to correct an error into which I was unconsciously led in my former commu- nication, in which I have attributed an opinion to a distinguished German geologist which he never entertaimed, and which is at vari- ance with what he has already published on the subject. I trust that my friend Dr. Sandberger will accept this explanation as sufii- cient reparation for the error which I have committed. At page 292 of the 10th volume of our Journal, in alluding to the tertiary deposits of Westeregeln near Magdeburg, I have stated, apparently on the authority of Dr. Sandberger, that its exact relations to the beds of the Mayence basin have been made out, and that it overlies the Brown-coal formation of the Westerwald, which is itself the uppermost of the two Brown-coal formations of the Mayence basin. It is needless now to inquire how I was led to make this statement, or to explain what now appears to me to have been the cause of having been misled. It is enough to state that Dr. Sand- berger’s opinion, which he has published in his last work+ on the Mayence basin, is that the Westeregeln or Magdeburg sands, which are stated by Dr. Beyrich and others{ to be older than the Septaria- clay of Berlin, &c., are of the same age as the Weinheim sands, and consequently much older than either of the Brown-coal formations of the Mayence basin. I believe it is the opinion of other German * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 254 et seq. + Untersuchungen iiber das Mainzer Tertiar Becken, von D. F. Sandberger. Wiesbaden, 1853, p. 79. t See Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologisch. Gesellschaft, 1851, vol. iii. p. 216. 1855.] HAMILTON—TERTIARIES OF HESSE CASSEL. 127 geologists that these Westeregeln sands are still older; but we shall return to this point hereafter. I will here merely observe that the only correct part of the statement above quoted is that the Marine- sands of Westeregeln overlie a Brown-coal formation, consequently a Brown-coal of a much older date than those of the Wetterau or the Westerwald. I propose in the followmg remarks to call the attention of the Society principally to the following pomts :— 1. Tertiary geology of the neighbourhood of Hesse Cassel. 2. Remarks on the tertiary beds of Westeregeln. 3. Concluding remarks on the chronological connection of some of the tertiary formations of the north of Germany. I. Tertiary Beps or Hesse CAsseEt. The tertiary marine formations of Hesse Cassel have been long ago described by German writers, and a tolerably correct list of the fossils contained in them was published by Philippi in his work* on the Tertiary Fossils of the North of Germany. Much, however, remained to be done in working out their true position, and in ascertaining their relative position to the Brown-coal formations of the district, and to the other tertiary marine beds of the north of Germany. The numerous volcanic outbursts and basaltic knolls which have penetrated the entire district, extending from the Vogelsberg and the Rhon Gebirge to the northwards far beyond Cassel, constitute one of the most peculiar features of the country, not only modifying the physical character of the region, but indicating the former existence of elastic forces which have affected the whole of the underlying sedimentary deposits. These basaltic rocks are some- times found spreading themselves out in vast tabular masses over the underlymg Brown-coal beds, to which they form a kind of capping, as is seen in the Habichts Wald near Cassel, the Hirschberg, and the Meissner. In most cases, however, the basalt occurs in dykes or in isolated knolls, spread over the face of the country from Frankfort on the Maine to Cassel, and even beyond to the neigh- bourhood of Gottingen and Carlshafen on the Weser. The following Sections observed in the vicinity of Cassel will best explain the manner of the occurrence of these tertiary beds :— 1. Sections at Habichts Wald and Withelmshihe. Although, generally speaking, the Bunter Sandstein and the Mus- chelkalk form the basis on which the tertiary beds have been here deposited, it is the Muschelkalk alone which forms the basis of the tertiaries of the Habichts Wald. A ridge of Muschelkalk extends in the direct line of strike from E. to W., from Cassel to the north of Wilhelmshéhe, constituting a low range of hills. The beds dip due S. about 6° or 8°; while the Bunter Sandstein which occurs further N. loses itself conformably under the Muschelkalk. This ridge is * Beitrage zur Kenntniss der tertiir Versteinerungen des nordwestlichen Deutschlands. Cassel, 1844. 128 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 3, traversed at right angles to the strike and almost vertical cleavage- planes by a powerful dyke of basalt, which is exposed near the town. Another dyke is seen in the Ahne Thal on the Habichts Wald, from which lateral injections of tabular horizontal beds of basalt have been forced ito the Muschelkalk. Over the Muschelkalk occur in ascending order :—1. Alternating beds of sand and clay, sometimes the one and sometimes the other, resting immediately on the secondary rocks. In one of these lower beds of sand are thin bands of sandstone, containing numerous vege- table impressions, amongst which those of Taxus and Cypressus have been made out. 2. A bed of clay, four or five feet thick, forming an underclay to the Brown-coal: this clay (blauer Letten) is generally of a dark bluish colour. 3. Brown Coal: these beds are here from 30, to 40 feet thick, and are extensively worked to supply the neighbourhood with fuel. In some places the Coal-beds crop out on the surface, and the coal is worked in open cuttings. In general character it is compact and earthy, of a uniform texture, and without any trace of vegetable organisms. Occasionally it acquires a brighter lustre, and is more easily broken, and is then called Glance-coal. This generally occurs in the neighbourhood of the basalt. 4. A bed of clay, about 4 feet in thickness; generally similar to that below the Brown-coal. 5. Marly yellowish sand, containing marine shells. The only section of this bed which I saw was in the Ahne Thal, where it occurs in a deep ravine; here the beds have been much disturbed by the protrusion of the igneous rocks. It is not well exhibited. The shells are chiefly small, and much broken. A list of them has been published by Dr. Philippi of Cassel in 1844*, from which it appears that at least 24 species are identical with those of the Mayence basin. There is no list of synonyms supplied by Philippi; such a list would probably give a greater number of identical species in the two for- mations. 6. Loose incoherent sand, locally called Trieb- or drift-sand, from its tendency to drift ito the shafts, and other works of the coal-pits. It constitutes the greatest difficulty of the workmen in driving their adits and galleries, and has occasioned the abandonment of more than one working. Large blocks of quartzose sandstone occasionally occur in this sand, some of which are said to contain marine shells, others are full of casts of the stems of plants. These beds have all a slight inclination, varying more or less in different places, towards the centre of the basaltic hill which con- stitutes the summit of the Habichts Wald. (See fig. 1.) The Brown- coal dips under the basaltic mass which forms the plateau of the top of the hill. This phenomenon of the Brown-coals dipping under the basalt, which I have observed in other places, will be alluded to again hereafter. * Philippi, Beitrage, &c. 1855. | HAMILTON—TERTIARIES OF HESSE CASSEL. 129 It appears from the above detailed section that the marine deposit is comparatively small in this Cassel region. One thin bed only occurs containing marine remains, with the exception of a few isolated shells said to be found in the sandstone-blocks lower down the hill in the sand below the Wilhelmshéhe. The greatest number of the shells, and the best preserved specimens, described by Philippi, were obtained many years ago, while laying out the grounds near the palace at the foot of Wilhelmshohe towards Cassel, d, in fig. 1. The beds were here nearly 300 feet below their position in the Habichts Wald, the latter having been probably elevated in consequence of the pro- trusion of the basaltic conglomerate which intervenes, and on which the fantastic ruins of Wilhelmshohe are built. Fig. 1. Wilhelmshéhe Habichts Wald. Castle. Qa Wilhelmshéhe Palace “ree eee a = L Cassel, e a. Basalt. d. Tertiary beds. 6. Brown-coal beds. e. Muschelkalk. c. Trachytic and basaltic conglomerate. 2. Section of tertiary beds near Ober Kaufungen. In the small oblong plain irregularly extending between Nieder Kaufungen and Ober Kaufungen, about five or six miles E.S.E. from Cassel, is another extensive tertiary formation, in which are consider- able deposits of brown-coal and blue-clay, overlaid, as in the Ha- bichts Wald section, by a marine sand, of no great thickness, but full of remains (more or less broken) of marine mollusca. The following section, in ascending order, was seen near the village of Ober Kaufungen. The tertiary beds here rest on the Bunter Sandstem, which constitutes the basis of the surrounding country. The Bunter Sandstein beds fall in suddenly under the tertiary beds, and these also, near the point of junction, fall in towards the Bunter Sandstei. 1. Stiff blue clay, containing numerous nodules of iron-pyrites. 2. Loose incoherent sand. 3. Brown-coal, 8 or 10 feet thick, occasionally separated into seve- ral seams by intervening beds of sand or clay. 4. Bituminous shale, from which alum was formerly obtained. 5. Various beds of marls and clay. 6. Fine white sand, with occasional bands or layers of hard sand- stone, grit, or quartzite. 7. Mottled clays. The whole thickness of these beds is upwards of 100 feet, but I 130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 3, could not obtain very exact measurements. A short distance to the S.W., a yellow clay with calcareous nodules occurs near the summit of the hill, which, although containing no organic remains, is sup- posed by the miners and “local geologists to be identical with the beds near Cassel in which the marine mollusca have been found. Its true relation to the Brown-coal, however, has not yet been satisfac- torily made out. Other extensive coal-beds are worked on the other side of the valley, E.N.E. from Ober Kaufungen. Here the various seams of brown-coal are seen alternating with beds of sand and clay. In the sandstone-bed which underlies the principal seam of brown-coal are foand the same vegetable impressions as those already described as occurring in the sandstone under the brown-coal of the Habichts Wald. They are chiefly Taxus, Cypressus, and other plants likely to grow in vast subtropical lagoons, not unlike those now found in the vast swamps of Louisiana. The uppermost beds consist of hard quartzi- ferous sands, which are sometimes broken up and cover the surface with huge irregular blocks. Approaching the district where the principal coal-works are carried on, we were enabled to make out the following section, in as- cending order. 1. Brown-coal, occasionally containing erect stems of trees, broken off where the overlyimg beds commence, thus proving them to have grown in situ. 2. Blue clay, with numerous Septaria. 3. Thin band of limestone. 4. Blue clay, with marine shells; those we found consisted prin- cipally of— Nucula margaritacea. Solen. —— Lyellii? (Deshayesiana ?). Tornatella (resembling T. simulata). Astarte. Rostellaria (with a broad-winged Cytherea. lip). Cyprina. Turritella. Pectunculus. We found specimens of all these in a very short time. 5. Thin bed of highly fossiliferous sand, containing numerous fragments of bivalves—Pecten (resembling P. pictus), Tur- ritella, &e.; closely resembling that on the Habichts Wald, near Cassel. In one locality this sand contains numerous ferruginous concretions with the same fossil remains. 6. A thick bed of loose unfossiliferous sand, 30 feet. 7. Forming the top or capping of the hill, on the north side of the valley, is a thick bed of hard compact sandstone, now broken up into large irregular fragments. On this north side of the valley, the rock underlying the tertiary deposits is Muschelkalk, almost horizontal. A small basaltic hill rises near the centre of this valley-plam. It has not yet been ascer- tained whether the brown-coal extends over the whole of this basin, but as it has been bored for and found in several directions, the pro- 1855.] HAMILTON—TERTIARIES OF HESSE CASSEL. 131 bability is that it will be found throughout the whole district here laid down as tertiary in Prof. Schwarzenberg’s map*. A short distance further westward, near the village of Nieder Kau- fungen, a very interesting section has been lately exposed, giving an almost complete epitome of the whole tertiary series, resting imme- diately upon Muschelkalk, as follows, in ascending order :— 1. Muschelkalk. 2. Thin beds of clay, resting on the Muschelkalk. 3. A thin seam of coal; not very good. 4. Sands, which at a distance of 50 or 100 yards are found to contain abundantly the same fossils as those found in bed No. 5 of the former section. We have therefore here apparently the edge or coast-line of the basin containing the shallow lagoon in which the coal was formed, and which, on the irruption of the sea, was covered up by a marine deposit containing the organic remains of a marine fauna. 3. Sections at the Hirschberg. In the same direction from Cassel, viz. E.S.E., but seven or eight miles beyond Kaufungen, are the extensive Brown-coal works of the Hirschberg, and still further on, the more extensive and better known works of the Meissner. I had no opportunity of visiting the latter, but the circumstances under which the Brown-coal occurs there are nearly, if not exactly, similar to those observed at the Hirschberg. In both cases a basaltic plateau forms the summit of the isolated hills, that of the Meissner being the more extensive and more elevated of the two. The Brown-coal beds, which with their associated beds of marls and clays rest upon the ridge of Muschelkalk to the north (which is as it were a prolongation of that near Kaufungen), dip in both cases at an angle varying from 10° to 25° towards the centre of the hill, and partly even under the basalt. At Ringkihlen, near the N.E. foot of the Hirschberg, Prof. Schwarzenberg of Cassel is principal proprietor of extensive chemi- cal works. These were originally established for the purpose of obtaining alum from the bituminous shales, which are interstratified with the Brown-coal, and were obtained in open workings. The works are now reorganized on account of the facility of procuring fuel. The sulphur which is the basis of most of the operations, is imported from Sicily. Saltpetre is also imported. Amongst the numerous chemical productions of the works, the following appeared to be the most important, sulphuric acid, muriatic acid, chloride of lime, soda, and Glauber-salt. The general section of the formation here contains four or five good working seams of coal, some of which are 30 or 40 feet thick. These beds are overlaid by basalt, which rismg up apparently through the * Geognostische Karte von Kurhessen und den angrenzenden Lindern zwischen Taunus-, Harz- und Weser-Gebirge, u. s. w., von Adolph Schwarzenberg und Heinrich Reusse, 1853. 132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOcIETy. [Jan. 3, centre of the hill, has spread itself out as a covering on the summit (see fig. 2). In the upper beds of coal specimens of Stengelkohl, or columnar coal, are sometimes found, evidently the result of igneous action ; further from the point of contact with the basalt, retinite- asphalt also occurs, and in the same beds is found the Glance-coal, more resembling the Newcastle coal, with a bright shining conchoidal fracture, and below that again is the ordinary brown-coal, with its earthy structure. The following section, in descending order, was given me by Prof. Schwarzenberg :— 1. Basaltic boulders, from the summit of the Hirschberg. Soil. . Yellow clay; 120 feet. . Brown-coal beds; 2 feet. . Bituminous clay; 6 feet. . Brown-coal ; 36 feet. . Quartzose sands, or bottom sandstone ; 78 feet. Sand and sandy clay; 33 feet. Brown-coal ; 3 feet. Inferior coal, called Schnapp-Erz, bituminous and containing iron-pyrites ; 15 feet. 11. Bituminous shale (Leber-erz); 18 feet. It was from these beds that the alum was formerly obtained. 12. Brown-coal; 15 feet. This last is separated from the Muschelkalk by intervening beds of clay, the thickness of which was not given. To the eastward of Ringkihlen, and still on the northern slopes of the Hirschberg towards Gross Almerode, thick beds of fire-clay, of extraordinary quality and tenacity, are developed in the section. This clay is ex- tensively worked, the best being sent in its natural state to America, while that of inferior quality is absorbed in the neighbouring potters’ village of Gross Almerode, in the manufacture of Dutch-pipes and chemical crucibles, which are sent to all parts of the world. The following section, also given me by Prof. Schwarzenberg, occurs nearly halfway between Ringkiihlen and Gross Almerode, in descend- ing order :— 1. Yellow whitish sand. 2. Grey clay. . Brown-coal beds. SS ONIM OV Oo bO — Zz, a 4, Freshwater beds of a sandy clay,—Polirschiefer. 5. Clay shales and marl. 6. Variegated mottled clays. 7. Calcareous nodules ; 2 feet. 8. Calcareous clay shales, with petrifactions. 9. Grey clay. 10. Mottled clays. 11. Compact argillaceous sand; 2 feet. 12. Quick sand. 13. Fire or glass-furnace clay,—pipe-clay ; 40 feet. 14. Brown-coal beds. 1855.] HAMILTON—TERTIARIES OF HESSE CASSEL. 133 15. Grey saponaceous clay. 16. Brown-coal beds (thin). 17. Grey clay. 18. Muschelkalk. The peculiar feature of this section is the occurrence of two thin beds containing freshwater shells above the second coal-bed. They are chiefly found in a fine, unctuous, nearly white clay, above the fire-clay, and consist principally of one, if not more species of Palu- dina or Bithynia, a small Planorbis, and one or two species of small bivalves belonging to the genus Cyclas or Cyrena. At least these were all which the rainy and muddy state of the weather allowed us to obtain. The whole Brown-coal formation of the Hirschberg, with its asso- ciated clays, and probably that of the Meissner, thus appears to have been a freshwater basin or lagoon, surrounded by Bunter Sandstein, with a ridge or reef of Muschelkalk passing through the centre. Here also I was struck, as on the Habichts Wald, with the ap- parently anomalous fact of the coal-measures dipping towards and under the basaltic nucleus of the hill, although in both cases the basalt must be of a subsequent date, and in its elevation or protrusion might have been expected to give the coal-beds a contrary or qua- quaversal inclination. From the numerous cases in which the same phenomenon occurs, I was anxious to ascertain a probable cause of this appearance: several explanations suggested themselves to me, but they would not stand the test of inquiry, until a hint from our former President, Mr. William Hopkins, our best authority in dyna- mical geology, suggested an explanation, which, if not the sole cause, must be admitted as one of the most likely partial causes of this appearance. The Brown-coal beds of the north of Germany have evidently been subjected to a very considerable amount of alternate elevation and depression accompanied by lateral pressure. The consequence of this has been, where they have not been completely broken off, to cause a great amount of undulation in the beds themselves. Where this took place, the natural result would be to cause fissures or openings through the bed either from above or from below, accordingly as the bed has been raised upwards into a saddle, or depressed downwards into a trough. See fig. 2, p. 134. In the accompanying diagram, fig. 2, if the undulation of the beds be caused by lateral pressure, a fissure would naturally take place at 6, in the lower part of the strata, and at a in the upper part. When at a subsequent period the basaltic outburst took place, the fissure 6 at once afforded an easy outlet for the liquid matter which then filled up the hollow ¢ d. This may have taken place when the whole region was under water. When the action of tidal waves or other atmospheric causes afterwards denuded the surrounding country, the basaltic capping protected the underlying beds, and, as the other portions have gradually wasted away as far as the line c e, there would remain only the hill with its basaltic capping, ¢ d, and the Brown-coal beds cropping out at fon the slope ¢ e, and dipping VOL. XI.—PART I. t 134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 3, Fig. 2.—Ideal Section of the Hirschberg. Hirschberg. a a. Ideal fault and fracture. e. Muschelkalk. e’. Bunter sandstone. 6, c, d. Basalt. Ff. Tertiary beds and Brown-coal. away under the basalt. And that is precisely the appearance which the Hirschberg now presents to us. It is a remarkable fact, in con- firmation of this theory, that a small Brown-coal deposit was pointed out high up on the hills on the N. or N.E. side of the valley. I did not visit it, and its important bearing on this question did not then occur to me. Another feature in both of these sections is also worthy of notice, as differmg from other localities where the Brown-coal occurs, viz. the total absence of a marine fauna in the beds above the clay. In most of the other localities the marine bed is regularly superposed. From its"absence here, we must conclude that this, as well as some of the other freshwater lagoons and swamps where the plants grew, from the decay of which the Brown-coal was formed, were situated at a so much higher level than the others, that they escaped being submerged when the irruption of the oceanic waters took place. I cannot quit this neighbourhood of Gross Almerode without alluding to a remarkable hill of burnt clay, which occurs about half a mile to the south of the village. Here on the summit of a ridge is an isolated basaltic outburst between the Hirschberg and the Meissner, but nearer the latter. At no great distance from it isa vast mound or hillock of a burnt stone, which is neither more nor less than the beds of tertiary clays metamorphosed into Jasper or Thon- jaspis. This jasper varies greatly, not only in colour, but in struc- ture ; in places having an earthy conchoidal structure, and in others, one almost vitreous. There is a great diversity of opinion among local geologists as to its origin, some referring it to a true geolo- gical cause, others considering it as recent, and occasioned by the burning of the bituminous shale or Leber-Erz. Looking at the spot afterwards from a distance, its form was distinctly seen as rising. above the surrounding ground, and re- sembling the crater of a volcano. I have little doubt myself that the metamorphism has been produced by geological causes, probably the escape of heated gases from below; this is rendered the more likely by the vicinity of the basaltic outburst. But whatever the 1855. ] HAMILTON—TERTIARIES OF HESSE CASSEL. 135 causes of the burning may have been, there can be no doubt that the swelling out of the whole mass has been caused by the expansion of the clay on being converted into jasper. Moreover it contains nu- merous cavities, fissures, and cracks, and is split up in every direction, so as to occupy more space than before the change took place. Another locality which we visited in the vicinity of Hesse Cassel, and where marine tertiary shells also occur, is a small hollow between Cassel and Miinden, near the village of Landwehrhagen. Numerous clay-pits were formerly opened here, and fossils were abundant ; but we only found a few broken fragments in the thrown out heaps. These were chiefly bivalves ; we recognized three or four species, viz. a Cardium, Cyprina, Cytherea, and perhaps Pectunculus, enough to show the marine nature of the water in which the clay was deposited. This was overlaid by yellow marls, gradually passing upwards into fine yellow sand, but as far as we could see, quite unfossiliferous. This is exactly the same as occurs in the vicinity of Cassel, where the shelly marls and clays are overlaid by sandy beds. The same formation also occurs in the section near Kaufungen, where the clays with marine shells are overlaid by yellow sands; in the latter case, however, the sands are fossiliferous. II. Tertiary Beps or WESTEREGELN NEAR MAGDEBURG. I have already alluded to and explained the error I was led into in a former communication respecting these deposits. I had in- tended visiting the locality during the past autumn, but was de- terred from doing so, in consequence of having received information that the beds in question were no longer open or visible. I shall therefore only briefly state what I have learnt respecting their posi- tion. The fossils in question, a partial list of which is given in a former paper*, are found in a bed of fine greenish sand (Glauconite- Sand), of no very great thickness, irregularly covering up an exten- sive and valuable seam of Brown-coal, which is worked in the neigh- bourhood of Magdeburg and Westeregeln. In working the coal- beds, these sands are cleared away, and thus the fossils have been obtained. These sands, however, do not occur over that portion of the Brown-coal bed which is now being worked, and hence the im- possibility of obtaining fossils; but it is probable that they will be again met with. The Brown-coal itself rests generally on a bed of blue clay, which lies immediately on Bunter-sandstein or Muschel- kalk. These Westeregeln sands appear, from all accounts, to be the oldest fossiliferous beds in Northern Germany. How far they extend has not yet been fully ascertained. The next overlying fossiliferous formation of Northern Germany is the Septaria-clay of Berlin, which now appears, from Prof. Beyrich’s report, to have been found over a considerable tract of country, comprising the whole of Brandenburg and a large extent of territory to the west, inasmuch as the concre- tionary nodules of Sternberg contain the same fossils as the Septaria- * See Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 292. L 2 136 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 3, clay, and must consequently be referred to the same age. It is also found in the neighbourhood of Stettin, Oldenburg, Liineburg, and other places. Other tertiary beds also occur further north towards Hamburg, Schleswig Holstein, &c., which are, however, referred to amore recent period. They are alluded to by Prof. Beyrich in his work on the tertiary shells of the North of Germany. The only two beds to which I wish to call the attention of the Society at present are the Westeregeln or Magdeburg sands, and the Septaria-clay of Berlin. These two beds belong to one system, and are particularly interesting as being the beds which have been shown by the German geologists to have the greatest resemblance to those of Hesse Cassel and of Weinheim, as well as to those beds of Belgium with which the sands of Weinheim have been paralleled. One feature in the Section of the Westeregeln or Magdeburg sands deserves particular attention, and it is the more remarkable imasmuch as it is In some respects at variance with what we know respecting the sands of Weinheim; while on the other hand it confirms some of the views which I have stated respecting that formation. The Marine sands of Westeregeln overlie the Brown-coal beds, thus showing the auterior existence of a freshwater or terrestrial tertiary period; whereas at Weinheim and in the Mayence basin the Marie tertiary sands repose at once, as far as our present information goes, on the under- lying Carboniferous or Rothe-todte-liegende formation. It is true that these lowest beds of tertiary sand, when we approach the margin of the basin (where alone they are seen reposing on the red sandstones), are non-fossiliferous ; and, being evidently derived from the disinte- gration of the older rocks, cannot be assumed as proving with abso- lute certainty the non-existence of older tertiary beds nearer the centre of the basin. All that we can say at present is, that none such have been discovered. Ill. THe Rewative AGE oF THE TERTIARY BEDS OF NORTHERN GERMANY. There are three distinct localities to which I intend referrmg in the following observations, viz.: 1. The Mayence basin, and parti- cularly the Marine sands of Weinheim. 2. The Marine beds of Hesse Cassel, Biinde, &c. 3. The sands of Westeregeln and of Magdeburg. Philippi, in his notice of the tertiary fossils of the north-west of Germany*, gives the lists of fossils from three different localities belonging to the same epoch. 1. Cassel; 2. Freden and Diekholz ; and 3. Luithorst. The results at which he has arrived are the same with respect to all these localities, viz. that the fossils in question have the greatest number of species identical with the Subapennine formation ; and the next greatest number identical with living species. He has made no comparison between the German and the Belgian formations, nor had he any opportunity of comparing the Cassel * Beitrage zur Kenntniss. Cassel, 1844. Q- 1855. ] HAMILTON—TERTIARIES OF HESSE CASSEL. 137 beds either with those of Mayence to the south, or with those of Magdeburg and Westeregeln to the north, or rather N.E. Dr. F. Sandberger, in his work already quoted on the geological position of the Mayence tertiary basin, has identified the Weinheim tertiaries with the Limburg beds of Belgium ; and more particularly has he identified the Weinheim sands with the Middle Limburg beds, and the overlying Cyrena-marls with the Upper Limburg. Then, adopting Philippi’s view respecting the age of the Cassel beds,— viz. that they belong to the Subapennine formation, Dr. Sandberger places them considerably above the Wembheim beds. And with regard to the formations of Northern Germany, he considers the sands of Magdeburg and Westeregeln as of the same age as the Wein- heim sands; and the overlying Septaria-clay of Celle, Berlin, and Mecklenburg, as of the same age as the Cyrena-marls of the Mayence basin (/oc. cit. p. 79). Prof. Beyrich, in his last work on the fossils of the tertiary forma- tions of the North of Germany, published in the Journal of the German Geological Society*, states that in his opinion the oldest North German tertiary formation, viz. that of the sands of Weste- regeln and Magdeburg, belongs to the Lethen formation of Belgium, which is placed by Sir C. Lyell as the lowest member of the Middle Limburg seriest, although Prof. Beyrich considers it as the lower Tongrian system, which properly belongs to the Lower Limburg series. The next youngest formation in North Germany, according to Prof. Beyrich, is the Septaria-clay of Brandenburg, Berlin, &c., which he identifies with the Belgian formations of Boom, Baesele, and other places south of Antwerp. These form, according to Dumont’s classification, a part of the System of Riipelmonde (Systeme Rupélien), constituting the Upper Limburg beds of Sir C. Lyell. Prof. Beyrich also observes that it is as yet uncertain whether there exist in Northern Germany any beds exactly corresponding with those which Dumont has placed between the Riipelmonde and the Lethen beds,—in other words, with the Middle Limburg beds : this he considers an important point, inasmuch as this is the Belgian deposit which has the greatest analogy with the Mayence basin. Having thus given the views of the German geologists who have principally occupied themselves with this question, I proceed to make a few observations on this question of relative age. It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance, that the marine depo- sits in the three localities above alluded to have such a small hori- zontal and even vertical development, apparently belonging in each case to such ashort geological period ; and it has struck me as in the highest degree improbable that these three formations, situated at no considerable distance from each other, showing no evidence of super- position, and containing a certain number of organic remains in common, should be referred to three different periods. Beginning with the most southern formation, we have the Weinheim beds re- ferred to the Middle Limburg ; the next nearest beds, of Cassel, are * Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geol. Gesellschaft, vol. vy. p. 277. t+ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. viii. p. 307. 138 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ([Jan. 3, referred to the Subapennine formation (although here I am bound to say that Prof. Beyrich is distinctly of opinion that these beds have been placed too high by Philippi) ; and then we come to the sands of Magdeburg, which are referred to the Lower Limburg, or even to the Barton clay ; while the overlying Septaria-clays are referred to the Riipelmonde system. ‘There can be no doubt that Philippi, in his endeavours to point out the errors of his predecessors in referring the marls and sands of Cassel to the Plastic clay and the Calcaire grossier respectively, greatly overshot his mark and placed these beds too high. gy; The following is the list of fossils which appear to be common to the Hesse Cassel and Weinheim beds. A more complete list of synonyms would undoubtedly have enabled me to extend it; but, even as it stands, it marks a great resemblance between the two formations. List of Fossils common to the Hesse Cassel and Weinheim Tertiary Deposits. Panopza intermedia, Sow. Corbula striata, Lam. Cyprina rotundata, Braun. Cardita scalaris, Goldf. Cardium turgidum, Brander. Arca diluvii, Lam. Pectunculus crassus, Phil. Nucula margaritacea, Lam. Pecten striatus, Miinst. & Goldf. Eulima subulata, Risso. Scalaria rudis, Phil. pusilla, Phil. Cerithium lima, Brug. Tritonium argutum, Brand. Pleurotoma belgicum, Goldf. Cassidaria depressa, v. Buch. Cyprea inflata, Lam. Bulla concinna, Wood. Lamna denticulata, 4g. Notidanus primigenius, 49. —— placentina, Lam. —— minuta, Defr. Modiola micans, Braun. Pecten decussatus, Miinst. & Goldf. At page 293 of my former communication* I have given a very imperfect list of the fossils found in the Glauconite-Sands of Westere- geln ; imperfect, because it only contains the names of eighty-seven species, whereas I am informed that the total number of species found in that locality amounts to three or four times that number ; and yet that imperfect list contains twenty-five species common to the Wein- heim and Westeregeln formations. The resemblance between the Hesse Cassel and the Westeregeln beds, however, is by no means so great. In the lists which I have had an opportunity of consulting I do not find more than five or six species common to the two formations. I have already mentioned that, according to the views of Pro- fessor Beyrich, there are two distinct formations belonging to this period in the north of Germany, viz. the Sands of Westeregeln, and the Septaria-clay of Brandenburg, Berlin, &c. Iam not aware that any evidence has yet been discovered of an intermediate bed of sepa- ration, or even of the distinct superposition of the Septaria-clay over the Sands of Westeregeln. The evidence of such distinction depends mainly on their fossil contents; but, even admitting the super- position, the change of sedimentary deposit in which the fossils occur, from a Glauconite-sand to a blue clay or marl containing Septaria, * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 39. 1855.] HAMILTON—TERTIARIES OF HESSE CASSEL. 139 would by altering the conditions of life be sufficient to cause a con- siderable modification in the organic remains, without referring the beds to distinct epochs. I have also stated that Prof. Sandberger identifies the Westeregeln Sands with the Weinheim Sands, and the Septaria-clay of Brandenburg with the Lower Cyrena-marl of the Mayence basin. Now this Cyrena-marl contains a great admixture of brackish-water forms, while nothing of the kind is found in the Septaria-clay of the north of Germany. The change in the Mayence basin is a purely local one; and there is, therefore, no evidence of its being contemporaneous with the Septaria-clay. It is true the Cyrena- marl overlies the Weinheim Sands, as the Septaria-clay overlies the Westeregeln Sands; but that is no proof of identity of time, the changes in the two localities not being owing to the same causes ; and Prof. Sandberger has himself shown, in the lists which he has published (op. cit. p. 67), that the Marine Fauna of the Cyrena- marl has the greatest affinity with that of the Middle Limburg formation, the very same Belgian bed with which he had already identified the Weinheim Sands. I am therefore disposed to look upon the whole marine fauna of the Mayence basin as referable to one period, viz. the Middle Limburg, locally modified in its upper portion by the introduction of vast bodies of fresh water, or by its gradual separation from oceanic influence, by which the waters be- came brackish, and its organic contents more and more modified, until at length all traces of marine or brackish-water fauna disap- peared. With regard to the Cassel marine beds, I consider them as forming a portion of the same marine deposit, and constituting a link in that connection which must have existed between the Mayence basin and the Northern Ocean. Here again we find two petrographically distinct beds, viz. blue clay or marl and shelly sands; but in this case the marls underlie the sands. In one locality, near Ober Kau- fungen, Septaria are abundant in the blue clays; im others they are wanting. In this locality the overlying sands are full of marine shells, while near Landwehrhagen the sands which overlie the blue marl containing marine shells, are entirely devoid of organic remains. These are evidently mere local differences, such as may be observed on any coast at the present day. | It is also worthy of notice that the marine beds in the neighbour- hood of Cassel are of no great thickness. This was no doubt owing to the earlier upheaval of the underlying secondary formations (pre- ceding the volcanic outbursts), which were ultimately raised to an elevation of more than 1000 feet above the sea, north of Cassel. This upheaval cut off all communication with the northern Ocean, and confined the waters to the Mayence basin, thereby exposing them to the influence of the freshwater rivers, and producing that brackish-water condition which we have already noticed. In the great district which forms the low undulating lands of the north of Germany, to the north of the Hartz and of the other moun- tain ranges which extend towards the Weser Bergland, and thence to the Haarstrang on the Ruhr, east of Cologne, the marine condition 140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 3, of things having probably begun earlier, as shown in the Westeregeln Sands, lasted somewhat longer, until this region (also undergoing the influence of the elevatory action, though iu a smaller degree) was likewise raised above the level of the sea, and became covered with a low swampy vegetation, the decay of which produced the overlying brown-coal deposits of Brandenburg and Prussia. I stated in my former paper (loc. cz¢. p. 288), that I could not admit the hypothesis of the Mayence basin having beenan insulated inland salt lake without communication with the northern ocean. I endeavoured very imperfectly, not being acquainted with the geological features of the neighbourhood of Cassel and other places, to show that some com- munication with the Northern ocean, round the eastern flanks of the Taunus, must have existed, and that the subsequent closing up of this northern channel might have been brought about by the elevation of the Vogelsgebirge (erroneously stated Fichtelgebirge in my former paper, J. ¢. p. 294), or by other basaltic outbursts. A more accu- rate knowledge of the geology of Hesse Cassel convinces me of the great probability of this opinion. A line of volcanic outbursts, per- forating the surface in a thousand spots, extends from the neigh- bourhood of Frankfort and of Hanau, considerably to the north of Cassel, elevating the stratified beds to a considerable height, and thus causing a complete barrier to the connection between the Northern Ocean and the waters of the Mayence basin. These ter- tiary deposits are now consequently found in some places at an elevation of 1000 feet above the sea, as near Dransfeld ; and, judging from the configuration of the country and the elevation of the Bunter Sandstein, they were probably raised to a still greater height, although almost entirely removed by subsequent denudation ; while in other places they are found at a much lower level. Indeed the same argument will apply on a large scale to these volcanic outbursts and to the elevation of the Bunter-Sandstein, north of Cassel, which I have already used respecting the outbursts of the basaltic plateau of the Hirschberg and the surrounding district (see fig. 2, p. 134). We have here an instance on a large scale, and accompanied by the same results, of the phenomenon already alluded to respecting the position of the basaltic plateaux of the Hirschberg, Meissner, and other places. 1 showed how the occurrence of these basaltic rocks in their present positions was owing to the molten matter having been forced up through the crevices in the troughs of the undulations into which the secondary formations had been thrown. Now the Bunter-Sandstein, north of Cassel, rises to a considerable elevation, in some places as much as 1000 feet above the sea, whilst between Cassel and Frankfort its elevation is comparatively slight. We may therefore consider the portion to the north of Cassel as representing on a large scale the anticlinal, while that to the south represents the synclinal portion of a vast undulation. This is confirmed by the dip of the Bunter-Sandstein, north of Cassel, which is to the south, dipping under the Muschelkalk between Cassel and Wilhelmshiohe. When the basalts subsequently burst forth, they found a readier passage through the lower or synclinal portion, than through the 1855. ] HAMILTON—TERTIARIES OF HESSE CASSEL. 141 anticlinal, and we consequently find the whole country between Frank- fort-on-Main and Cassel studded with basaltic outbursts, whilst to the north they are comparatively scarce, and ultimately north of Gottingen and Miinden cease altogether. To repeat then briefly the epochs and pheenomena above described, we find the first evidence of tertiary deposits in North Germany in the brown-coal and its associated underclays of Magdeburg. During the earlier tertiary periods, the whole of Germany appears to have been dry land. At the same time, or at the termination of this pe- riod, a vast swampy region, covered with a semitropical vegetation, stretched along the base of the mountains of Germany, from Silesia and the confines of Poland to near the Eocene Ocean, which occupied those portions of Holland and of Belgium where its fauna has been preserved. A gradual subsidence took place, possibly contempora- neous with the period when the accumulations of Flysch or Molasse were being deposited, also in a gradually sinking sea-bottom on the northern flanks of the Alps. This swampy vegetation was then sub- merged beneath the ocean, and was being converted into Brown-coal, while a marine fauna was introduced, and lived and perished in the waters above. This great change, I am inclined to think, marks the limits of the Eocene and Miocene periods, as far at least as this part of the earth’s surface is concerned ; for I have already admitted that we must not attempt to mtroduce such a strict procrustean rule as to assert that the limits of these periods (if we choose to adopt them) must be absolutely applied to the same epoch in all districts. The oceanic waters, thus admitted over a portion of Northern Germany, penetrated between the mountains of the Hartz and the Weser Gebirge, round the eastern flanks of the Westerwald and the Taunus, and along that deflexion through which the Upper Rhine now flows, until they reached those portions of the southern or Alpine ocean in which the Flysch and Nagelflue, and perhaps the Older Molasse, were deposited. During the period of this connection, the Marine-sands of Wein- heim were deposited, until the subsequent oscillation of the land first cut off the communication with the Southern Ocean, and subse- quently, by the elevation of the Muschelkalk and Bunter-Sandstein, in the north of Germany, raised a permanent barrier between the Mayence basin and the North German Ocean. This separation was subsequently confirmed by the numerous volcanic outbursts which have penetrated the whole surface of the country, from the banks of the Main near Frankfort, Hanau, and the Vogelsgebirg, northwards, to the region of G6ttingen and Minden. After this a period intervened, when in the northern plains of Germany, a swampy district, with a luxuriant vegetation, stretched along the mountain coast, covering up the marine formation of the Septaria clay, and giving rise to that upper Brown-coal formation which is now so extensively worked in Mark Brandenburg and the country about Frankfort on the Oder, extending to the frontiers of Silesia and of Posen. Thus those formations which we have endea- voured to identify with the Middle Limburg of Belgium are confined 142 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOciETy. [Jan.3, between the extensive Brown-coal deposits which (notwithstanding the ingenious hypothesis of a German author*, who attempts to show how these vast accumulations of vegetable matter were depo- sited in the sea) I am disposed to consider as formed on the spot where the plants originally grew, and consequently as a freshwater formation, raised perhaps only slightly above the level of the ocean, like the now existing cypress-swamps of Louisiana or the turf-mosses of more northern regions. Brown-Coal Deposits.—I am thus led, before concluding these remarks, to add a few words respecting the various deposits of Brown- coal in the north of Germany, which are connected with the tertiary formations here alluded to. I am aware that there are many other deposits deserving notice, but this subject is too extensive to be fully considered at present. It is true that independently these Brown- coal deposits are not in themselves so conclusive as to geological epochs, in consequence of their not being necessarily so intimately connected with each other as is the case with trae marme deposits. Still, when we can ascertain their age relatively to marine beds, we are enabled to come to some conclusion respecting their successive ages. Brown-coal deposits occur in all the three distinct localities to which we have alluded in this paper, viz.—1. In the Mayence basin are two distinct deposits; first, between the true Marine-Sands of Weinheim and the overlying Cerithium and Littorimella limestones, and secondly, between the Littormella limestone and the leaf-bearmg sandstone. 2. In the Hesse Cassel deposit the great Brown-coal beds underlie the Marine Fauna. And 3. In the plains of the north of Germany there are again two distinct Brown-coal deposits ; first, under the Westeregeln Sands near Magdeburg; and secondly, above the Septaria-clay of the Mark Brandenbnrg. Of these, the bed which underlies the Westeregeln Sands is unquestionably the oldest. That of Brandenburg may be contemporaneous with one of the Mayence basin deposits ; but there is no direct evidence of the fact. We have thus Brown-coal deposits of at least three, if not four, di- stinct periods. That of Cassel is probably contemporaneous with that of Magdeburg. The upper Brown-coal deposits of the Wetterau have been con- sidered as of the same age as those of the upper Cyrena-marl. I am, however, disposed to think, from the observations of D. Lud- wig of Nauheim, which I have only lately had an opportunity of perusing, that they must belong to a still younger period. They are described as occurring in hollows of decomposed basalt at Laubach, Salzhausen, and Berstadt, near the western limits of the great basaltic formations of the Vogelsberg. They rest upon or are imbedded in vast deposits of clay, derived from the decay, in situ, of the basalt itself, and are consequently posterior, not only to the basalt, but even to its decomposition, therein differmg from the Brown-coal of the Westerwald, which has been elevated and broken up by the protrusion of the basaltic masses. * Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geol. Gesellsch. vol. iii. p. 217. i 1855. | E. HOPKINS—PRIMARY ROCKS. 143 I am aware how imperfectly these remarks have been thrown together, and how much still remains before the subject can be fully exhausted. I would willingly have deferred the communication until the German Geologists had completed their mvestigations, or I myself had had further opportunities of examining the country. I have already stated my reasons for the course I have pursued. At the same time I trust that I shall not have been altogether wrong in bringing this subject before the Society, if I have directed the attention of the Members to a country, the geology of which has not been often discussed in these rooms, and respecting which we have still much to learn. JANUARY 17, 1855. The following communication was read :-— On the VerticaL and Mreripionay LAminatTION of the PRIMARY Rocks. By Evan Hopkins, Hsq., F.G.S. [ Abstract. ] Tue author described wide regions in several parts of the world as exhibiting in their geological structure the phenomena of successive vertical bands of schistose and crystalline rocks, parallel with each other, and having a meridional strike. This structural condition was illustrated by several extensive and highly finished sections, some of them traversing several hundred miles, made from the author’s own observation in Panama, South America, Australia, and Ceylon. The section across the Andes*, for instance, exhibited parallel bands of quartzites, porphyry, mica-schists, greenstone, granite, gneiss, hornblende schists, trachyte, crystalline limestone, talcose schists, and clay-slates, occurring in variable succession, with a N. and 8. strike, and with an almost uniform vertical dip. In plains and other places where the laminated structure has not been disturbed by local causes, the cleavage planes were shown to be more or less vertical; but sometimes in high ridges with precipitous flanks the bands and laminz of rocks drop on both sides, from want of lateral support, thus giving the appearance of a radial or fan- shaped structure. Here and there on the edges of these laminated rocks rest hori- zontal sedimentary deposits; and it was pomted out that many of these exhibited at the point of contact with the older rocks evidence of their undergoing the process of vertical cleavage or lamination ; the lines of stratification becoming gradually obliterated. Even com- pact mud and soil lying on the edges of the schistose rocks have been observed by the author to be subject (under certain conditions) to cleavage and interlamination with calcareous and siliceous matter. Mr. E. Hopkins maintained that in all parts of the world the old crystalline or “ primary” rocks exhibit (with local exceptions, insig- * See also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vi. p. 364, and Pl. 31. 144 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 17. nificant when compared with the whole) a uniform vertical cleavage or foliation, with a north and south direction; and that the rocks in those countries, like Australia, part of India, Siberia, South America, Central America, and California, which preserve this meridional uniformity, are productive of gold, platina, silver, and precious stones on the decomposed edges of the schists ; whilst those regions which have been disturbed or bent from their normal position are more or less productive in masses of the ordinary minerals, and are compara- tively barren of the precious products. In speaking of the meridional structure, Mr. Hopkins alludes to the N.E. variation of the cleavage- planes in the northern hemisphere, more especially in the United States and Europe; but, nevertheless, he believes that the general uniformity approximates more nearly to the true meridian than the magnetic meridian does. The author observed also that, from his acquaintance during numerous mining operations with the deep-seated rock-masses of the Andes and elsewhere, he was convinced that the great base below was more or less granitic strongly saturated with mineral waters, and that it passed upwards by insensible gradations from a crystalline heterogeneous compound to a laminated rock (as gneiss), and still higher up to schists in vertical planes ; the peculiar varieties of the higher rocks being dependent on the mineral character of the “parent rock”? below; the schistose rocks forming, in short, the external terminations of the great universal crystalline base. Mr. E. Hopkins referred to some important remarks on parallel lamination of nearly vertical rocks and on cleavage, made inde- pendently by Humboldt*, M‘Culloch+, Sedgwickt, and De la Beche§ ; and, leaving for further consideration the question as to how the lamination and cleavage of rocks were brought about, he concluded by recommending the study of the primary rocks, with their various transitions and foliations, to the special notice of geologists, as being of extreme interest, and likely to throw great light on several important points in geological science. . * “ Sur le Gisement des Roches.” + “ Geological Classification of Rocks.” t “ Remarks on the Structure of large Mineral Masses,” &c., Trans. Geol. Soc. 2 ser. vol. iii. § Geological Report on Cornwall and Devon. DONATIONS TO THE LIBRARY OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, From November 1st, 1854, to December 31st, 1854. I. TRANSACTIONS AND JOURNALS. Presented by the respective Societies and Editors. AMERICAN Journal of Science and Arts. 2nd Series, vol. xviii. No. 54, Nov. 1854. C. U. Shepard.—Three masses of meteoric iron at Tuczon, 369. J. L. Smith.—Re-examination of American minerals, part iv., 372. A. Connell.— Nomenclature of the metals contained in Columbite and Tantalite, 392. Notice of Murchison’s Siluria, 394. G. J. Brush.—Clintonite, 407. F. A. Genth.—Contributions to Mineralogy, 410. Mineralogical and Geological notes, 417-427. Miscellanea, 431. Assurance Magazine and Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, No. 17, Oct. 1854. Basel. Versuch einer Beschreibung historischer und natiirlicher Merk- wurdigkeiten der Landschaft Basel. (23 parts in 7 vols.) 1748- 1763. - From W. Lonsdale, Esq., F.G.S. Von den Versteinerungen der Gegend von Muttenz, 83 (plate). —__—— ———— Miinchenstem, 175 (plate). Prattelen, 281 (plate). ———- Bottminger, &c., 387 (plate). —— St. Jacob, 581 (plate). Klem Hiinningen, 720 (plate). ——— Rhiehen, 807 (plate). Beticken, 876 (plate). Liesthal, 1029 (plate). VOL. XI.—PART I ° ———— Lausen, &c., 1151 (plate). Schauenburg, &c., 1265 (plate). dem Amte Homburg, 1400 (plate). —-—— Waldenburg, 1540 (plate). ——- Oberdorf, &c., 1611 (plate). Bubendorf, &c., 1809 (plate). Ramstein, &c., 1889 (plate). der Landgraftsch. Sissgéu, 2098 (plate). ——-— der Herrsch. Farnsburg, 2215 (plate). Eptingen, &c., 2300 (plate). Arisdorf, &c., 2410 (plate). Rohtenflue, &c., 2155 (plate). ——-—-— Kilchberg, &c,, 2591 (2 plates). M ae oe 146 DONATIONS. Bengal Asiatic Society, Journal. New Series, No. 67, No. 4. 1854. H. Piddington.—Examination of coal from Darjeeling, 381]. Canadian Journal. October 1854. From the Canadian Institute. A. Murray.—Geology of Western Canada, 49. Biography of Sir R. J. Murchison, 52. A. Tylor.—Changes of the sea-level, 57. Products of coal—Parrafine, 66. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 6 Vols. and 4 odd Nos. (1827-34). From W. Lonsdale, Esq., F.G.S. Several Geological Memoirs and Notices. Franklin Institute, Journal. Vol. 58. No.4. Oct. 1854. Haarlem. Hollandsche Maatschappiy der Wetenschappente, Natur- kundige Verhandelingen. 2nd Series, vol. 4. 1848. H. R. Goeppert.—Place of growth and deposition of the coal plants (plates). Halle. Der Naturforscher. 24 vols. 1774-1789. From W. Lons- dale, Esq., F.G.S. Vol. i. 1774. J. F. Gmelin.—Beytrage zu der Wiirtembergischen Natur-ge- schichte der achten thierischen Verstemerungen, 87. J. S. Schroeter.—Abhandlung von den Nautiliten der Weimar- ischen Gegend, 132. J. E. I. Walech.—Abhandlung von den Lituiten, 159 (plate). — Lithologische Beobachtungen [ Ammonites, Be- lemnites, Terebratulites, Strombites, &e.], 196 (2 plates). me a den weissen crystallisirten Bleyspat [Translation], J. G, F. Memeke.—Abhandlung von dem Mangel der Wiirklichen Originale zu den mersten Versteinerungen, 221. C. G. v. M——.—Beschreibung und Abbildung der Tropfhohle bey Slains, im Nordlichen Schottland [Translated from Pen- nant, &c.|, 255 (plate). Vol. u. 1774. G. A. Griindler.—Beschreibung und Abbildung zweier natiirlichen Terebratuln in welchen ihre Einwohner oder Thiere befind- lich sind, 80 (plate). J. E. I. Walch.—Abhandlung von den concentrischen Zirkeln auf versteinten Conchylien, 126. —— Lithologische Beobachtungen [Fossil tortoise- shell, Fish-scales?, Crab, and Coral], 149 (plates). J. 8. Schroeter.—Abhandlung von den Ammoniten der Weimar- ischen Gegend, 169. Mazéas.—Beobachtungen iiber das Alaunerz zu Tolfa, in der Nachbarschaft von Rom, und iiber das zu Polinier in Bre- tagne [Translation], 216. Sage.—Beobachtungen iiber den Lasur und dessen Zurbreitung zur Malerey [Translation], 237. Vol. in. 1774. D, F. Ch. Ginther.—Beschreibung der gestreifen Bohrmuschel [Terebratula] in dem Hochf. Cabmet-zu Rudolstadt, 83 (plate). DONATIONS. 147 J. E. I. Walch.—Beytrige zur naturgeschichte der Bohrmuscheln (Terebratulee], 87 (figure). J. Ch. Meineke,—Lithographische und Mineralogische Beschrie- bung der Gegend um Oberwiederstedt in der Grafschaft Mannsfeld, 127. J. E. I. Walch.—Abhandlung von Ursprung des Landes, 156. Baron von Hiipsch.—Beschreibung einiger neu entdeckten ver- steinten Theile grosser Seethiere [From Antwerp ], 156. J. E. I. Walch.—Geschichte der Pholaden im Steinreiche, 184. Lithologische Beobachtungen [Long encrinites ; rare shells], 215 (figure). Dr. Hunter.—Anmerkungen iiber die so genannten Elephant- knochen, welche am Ohiostrome in America gefunden worden [Translation |, 237. Lavoisier.—Auflésung des Gypsum [Translation], 240. (Naturforscher,) Vol. iv. 1774. J. Fr. Gmelin.—Beytrage zu der Wiirtembergischen Naturge- schichte der achten thierischen Verstemerungen, 145. J. S. Schroeter.—Abhandlung von den iibrigen Schnecken der Weimarischen Gegend, 179. J. E. I. Walch.—Lithologische Beobachtungen [Fossil shells in jasper; Fossil shells and wood in one matrix; Roe-stone fossils], 210. Vol. y. 1775. J. S. Schroeter,—Geschichte der Patellen [&c.| in Steimreiche, : 102 (plate). Capt. von Arenswald.—Geschichte der Pommerischen und Meck- lenburgischen Versteinerungen, 145. J. Ch. Meineke.—Mineralogische Bemerkungen, 169. PV Givi! 1775. J. E. I. Walch.—Lithologische Beobachtungen [Nerites from Courtagnon ; Orthoceratites from Maestricht; Pholadites from Petersburg: Long Encrinites; Fossil tortoise-shell ; Great Belemnites|, 165. Aisper.—Abhandlung von dem Original der kugelformigen Korper in den vitriolhaltigen Schiefern, 190. J. Ch. Meineke.—Mineralogische Bemerkungen, 205. F. Musard.—Von den Versteinerungen, 243, 252. ——. Vol. wu. 1775. Kleiner Beytrag zur Mineralgeschichte von Bayern und der Pflaz, 195. J. E. I. Walch.—Lithologische Beobachtungen [Tubulites, Nau- tilites, and Patellites from Mecklenburg], 211 (plate). J. 8S. Schroeter.—Abhandlung von emigen seltenen Metall-miit- tern und Minern, 217. ————. Vol. viii. 1776. J. S. Schroeter—Geschichte der Patellen [&c.] in Steinreiche. Capt. von Arenswald.—Geschichte der Pommerischen und Meck- lenburgischen Verstemerungen [Star-fish; Encrinites and Trochites; Echinites and Spmes; Tubulites; Orthoceratites; Belemnites], 224, J. Ch, Meineke.—Mineralogische Bemerkungen [Encrinites (figure); Cylindrite; Entomolithe], 245. M 2 c 148 DONATIONS. J. E. I. Walch.—Lithologische Beobachtungen [Spheronite (figures); Spongite; Encrinites and Pentacrinites; Tere- bratulite ; Ammonites], 259. J. G. Wisger.—Beschreibung der Bredewinder Hohle, 280 (plate). De Luc.—Abhandlung von einem sonderbaren Echiniten, 286 (plate). (Naturforscher.) Vol. ix. 1776. Chemnitz.—Nachricht von eimigen sonderbaren Orthoceratiten, 241. J. Ch. Meineke.—Mimeralogische Bemerkungen [ Roe-stone-like porpites (? Melonites) (figures) ; Siphuncle of Ammonites ; Sutures of Echinites ; Fossil bird-nest], 248. J. E. I. Walch.—Lithologische Beobachtungen [Fossil shells; Echinites; Trilobites;. Crocodile skull; Orthoceratites ; Globular Porpites (? Melonites) |, 267 (plate). J. S. Schroeter.—Abhandlung von den [Fossil] Muscheln der Weimarischen Gegend, 295. ———. Vol. x. 1777. J. J. Ferber.—Verzeichnis der vorziiglichsten Bergwerke in dem Churfiirsthenthum Bayern und der dazu gehorigen Ober- pflaz, 112. Vol. xh 777 Dr. von Scheftler.—Sendschreiben an H. Walch von dem Ur- sprung des Sandes, 122. J. Ch. Memeke.—Abhandlung von den Corallien im Reiche der Versteinerung, 128. J. E. I. Walch.—Abhandlung von den Sternbergischen Verstein- erungen, 142. J. Ch. Meimeke.—Sendschreiben an H. Walch von den Braun- schweigischen Encriniten, 161. J. S. Schroeter,—Abhandlung von den Muscheln der Weimar- ischen Gegend, 170. Vol. 4 tay: a Eovag : gi ; ) 3 . Pr he 7 ; aint } De VRRCHEL: , ce PERE A f 5. ‘ * ‘ , s i ctaualel e : «ef i i e ve a4 J, ’ fis sd . a7? io & % “sh “bs. Q20f Vyyadests tassel ash eth aie 4. 3 gets a) : ‘hy y ‘2. kK bal aie Gad puuai? to onifinO | AFGE ‘eres We a % | b iyedk ‘eisbawa’ A i2 } ; i : er Be ae ae AS sardou, ig ber A hs Y t ? . ; : i 1%. pli ; Mis} & bojoshi a Le Wt nel 7* Ja: Deo oFh¥e aio noir ainwatiott 4 oral nsisagl no—= 9 07RD A a Lie tretien. "3 Lon Xs Ae lf ’ roth ae tee Be, Od 00%: VARY woes: on rhe,. ap CEY, ‘e t9is0 we Dan Vario of ms ETP OnT ray. am St 5. oan. Stash oe aa inargest. Etresiertic iy aay yc aalive! WiGhtey Beil tars tod Snir oi as ; afta ‘ ie TISTIOG art a Laictnisy faired tb he fyadle Ga 33K 1SOOR Sg 7 jae Bh Teh a. “ * aotsaesO Me Yast i: f 7-1) ees . " : fas bovergs oat ati a “ft ahd: ly " oh aA | Rios aT Sate a ¥ 7 77 ree. 4 vite com UhhiW ce “ me ie Sor oe oF eal ie’ Vis Any bt? ele dah ASEM yes THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. JANUARY 31, 1855. The Rev. T. J. Prout, A.M., was elected a Fellow. The following communications were read :— 1. Additional Observations on the SttuR1AN and Devonian Rocks near CHRISTIANIA in Norway,—on presenting M. THropor Ksrerutrs new GroxtoeicaL Map of the District. By Sir Roperick I. Murcuison, V.P.G.S. &c. &e. DuRING an excursion to Norway and Sweden in the year 1844, I drew those conclusions respecting the order of the older sedimentary formations in the environs of Christiania, which, having first been enounced in the Quarterly Journal of this Society, were afterwards published in greater detail and with a more accurately finished section in the work entitled ‘ Russia and the Ural Mountains*.’ * See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 471. The correct section is given in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ii. Miscell. p. 71; 2bid. vol. viii. p. 182; and ‘ Russia in Europe,’ &c., vol. i. p. 13. Since the present notice was read, M. Kjerulf has sent to me the Memoir in German, which accompanies his map, entitled ‘ Das Christiania-Silurbecken, chemisch-geognostisch untersucht,’ 4to. Christiania, 1855. In acknowledging this favour, I beg to state that this author does not seem to have been acquainted with my original communication on the subject ; for the paper by Forchhammer, to which alone he refers, is in the Norsk language, and forms a part of the account of that Scandinavian Meeting of 1844 at which I gave VOL. XI.—PART I. N 162 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 31, These views developed the existence of a vast trough or elongated basin of Silurian strata, the direction of which lengthwise is from S. and by W. to N. and by E., and which in the parallel of Christiania has a width of about thirty English miles. This trough was shown to consist of two low tracts, on either side of a high intervening plateau ; each lower lateral tract being composed of a full series of all the Silurian strata (Lower and Upper) ; and the central higher ground, of Old Red Sandstone or Devonian strata. This exposition of a symmetrical order, from the base of the stratum containing the oldest known remains through Lower and Upper Silurian rocks, and thence through about a thousand feet of overlying red sandstone, was naturally dwelt upon by me with great satisfaction: for, in exploring the remaining parts of Scandinavia where such palzeozoic formations were present, no other district could be discovered in which so complete and continuous a succession was to be seen. The great Russian Empire exhibits no such clear Silurian base as this Norwegian trough presents ; whilst even the symmetrical Silurian basin of Bohemia, so justly celebrated through the labours of M. Barrande, is inferior in one respect,—viz. in not exposing, like the Norwegian example, a great overlying mass un- equivocally of Devonian age. Although my explanation of this order, as first given at the Meeting of the Scandinavian Men of Science in June 1844, was warmly approved by my associates who were present (including Leopold von Buch, Berzelius, and Forchhammer), it met with an opponent in M. Keilhau, who, though he had published his ‘Gea Norvegica’ and a map of Norway which is very praiseworthy for its mineral features, maintained ideas essentially distinct from my own respecting the consecutive order ; and who still, as I understand, does not admit the metamorphism of some of the Silurian strata into crystalline slate (harte-schiefer)—a point I endeavoured to explain satisfactorily to this Society many years ago. Under these circumstances, I have long wished to see some free Norwegian arise, who, looking fairly at nature, would say whether the order I had indicated was exact, or if not, who would correct it; and who would further test it by a close examination of the strata, and by laying down their outlmes on a map. Fortunately, I met with Mr. David Forbes, the brother of our universally beloved and respected former President, and, finding that he was frequently at Christiania, I urged him to produce before the Geological Society some fruits of his own observations on the rocks of Norway. I also particularly requested him to obtain some data of detail the first explanation of the true order of the region. In fact, whilst the memoir of M. Kjerulf contains much valuable new matter, particularly his descriptions and analyses of the igneous and metamorphic rocks, and also lucid diagrams explana- tory of the physical relations of the strata, his chief sections (ex. gr. those of p- 51) are, as he himself states, analogous to that general transverse section which I offered to the Christiania Meeting of 1844, and which was repeated in the above-mentioned works, and lastly in my ‘Siluria’ of 1854, pp. 319, 320.— [R. I. M. May 23, 1855.] 1855. | MURCHISON—CHRISTIANIA. 163 respecting the Silurian formations of Christiania, and to procure a competent survey and admeasurement of them. Whilst Mr. D. Forbes will give you his own views on the crystalline rocks, I have to thank him for having obtained from his friend M. Theodor Kjerulf the map which is herewith exhibited. On it are delineated the bound- aries of the Lower and Upper members of what M. Kjerulf terms the “Silurian Basin of Christiania,’”’ and of the overlying Devonian ; the dips of the strata being generally noted. M. Kjerulf has also furnished some data to Mr. D. Forbes, among which the following are important :— Feet. The Lower Silurian schists and limestones have a thickness of.. 860 The Upper Silurian limestones and flagstones.............. 150 —_—_—— Total thickness. ... 1010 In various publications, and specially in my last work ‘Siluria,’ I have adverted to the phzenomenon, that, notwithstanding the thin- ness of the Scandinavian strata of this age, they exhibit as complete a ** natural system ’’ as in countries where they are expanded to many thousand feet of vertical dimensions. Thus, above the bottom beds (often only a few feet thick) of fucoid-sandstone resting upon gneiss or older granite, we meet with the so-called Alum-slates, recently illustrated by the publication of their fossils by Angelin, some of the forms of which were known long ago to Hisinger and the older Swedish naturalists. Whether at Andrarum or other places in Scania where I have examined it, or on the flanks of the Norwegian trough under consideration, this zone of schist has nowhere a greater thickness than from 60 to 80 feet, whilst its equivalent in Wales (the Lingula-flags) has a thickness of many thousand feet, as assigned to it by the British Government Surveyors, who place it as the bottom rock of the Silurian System. Still, notwithstanding this vast disproportion in dimensions, the thin shred of Scandinavia has afforded many more Trilobites of the genera Paradowides, Battus, and Olenus, than the grand British mass. In consequence of its fauna, M. Barrande has recognized the Alum-slate of Scandinavia as being the exact representative of his primordial Silurian zone of Bohemia. Then, in the succeeding few hundred feet of black schists, with occasional courses of limestone, which constitute the chief body of the Lower Silurian rocks, we have just the same profusion of typical fossils, whether they be Asaphi, Illeni, Trinuclei, or simple-plaited Orthide, as in the capacious mountain escarpments of Wales and Siluria ! In parts of Scandinavia, and particularly near Christiania, a lime- stone charged with the Pentamerus oblongus is, as in other parts of Europe (as well as in America), the band which separates the Lower from the Upper Silurian, and which, according to the predominance of fossils of the one or the other, may locally be classed with either group. N 2 164 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 31, In Britain, however, the Pentamerus oblongus is unquestionably a Lower Silurian type, being found in the Llandeilo rocks as well as in the Upper Caradoc, and never in the Wenlock formation*. But at whatever horizon the division be drawn (—a horizon which every far-travelled geologist knows must vary in different countries—), it is undeniable, that in Scandinavia, Russia, and Bohemia there is not the slightest trace of that local dislocation which has partially affected the British strata between the Lower and Upper Caradoc. In Norway and other parts of Scandinavia, the overlying strata of shale, limestone, and sandstone which are laden with Upper Silurian forms are everywhere perfectly conformable to the Lower Silurian ; and, even in the Bay of Christiania, the Wenlock limestone and shale charged with a profusion of Corals and Shells are seen to undulate upon and with underlying masses of the black Lower Silurian slates, in the horizontal space of a few hundred yards. Feeble in vertical dimensions as the Upper Silurian is said to be by M. Kyjerulf, his statement is quite in accordance with my own observations, which would not assign more than 80 or 90 feet to the limestone subdivision, and 70 or 80 to the flag-like sandy strata which, containing Chonetes (Leptena) lata and other fossils, repre- sent the Ludlow rocks, and pass up into the bottom-beds of the Old Red Sandstone, as seen on either side of the great plateau of Ringe- rigge exposed in my original section. Even in Gothland, that large island which is exclusively composed of Upper Silurian rocks, M. de Verneuil and myself could never recognize a greater united thickness than 200 or 300 feet, including a sandy representative of the Ludlow rocks, with some subordinate courses of an oolitic limestone. Yet, there also the fossils are very decisive of the age of the rocks, parti- cularly those of the Wenlock limestone ; whilst the meagre represen- tative of the Ludlow rocks, whether seen at Mount Hoburg in Goth- land or near Ofved-Kloster and the Lake Ring in Scania, where it is a purplish tilestone, is well marked by its Orthonote, Cypricardie, Leptena lata, Avicula retrofleca, and Cytherina (Leperditia) Balthicat. Having previously dwelt upon the great geological value of such data and comparisons in showing that the age of ancient deposits is never to be indicated by their thickness merely, I have naturally great satisfaction in seeing my views confirmed, as respects Norway, by an accurate local observer. In addition to the indications on his map, M. Kjerulf has commu- nicated to Mr. D. Forbes a few notes, both on the sedimentary rocks and on the eruptive and metamorphic rocks. Thus, in speaking of the Devonian or Old Red Sandstone, which, * M. Kjerulf classes the Pentamerus-limestone with the Upper Silurian, and is, I have no doubt, correct ; for in Norway, as in Courland, the Pentamerus oblongus is almost always associated with a profusion of Wenlock species.—[R. I. M., May 23, 1855.] + Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. pp. 25, 34, &c. 1855. | MURCHISON—CHRISTIANIA. 165 he says, everywhere overlies the Upper Silurian, and to which he assigns a thickness of 900 feet, M. Kjerulf attributes the absence of fossils (none having been found in it) to a contemporaneous volcanic or igneous action, which caused a deposit of the tufaceous matter whereof the Lower Devonian iscomposed. The higher parts become more sandy; grains of quartz appearing, and finally a coarse red conglomerate. Some peculiarities of the trap and porphyry districts are mentioned, and the cavities of the amygdaloid (mandelstein) are said to be often occupied with natrolite, green-earth, calc-spar, fluor-spar, striped chalcedony, quartz, prehnite, apophyllite, and sometimes with curious nodules of anthracite in cale-spar. Breccias appear in great force ; one of these occurring between the Old Red Sandstone and the augite-porphyry, and another between the augitic and the felspathic porphyry. It is further stated, that there is no silicification of the slates or limestone in contact with granite or porphyry; the first being simply indurated, and the second converted into marble. Some other structural phenomena are briefly touched upon, among which it is said that the veins proceeding from granite appear to be of augite-porphyry, and that the veins emitted from the syenite are of felspar-porphyry. For my own part I have merely to state that, as far as I am acquainted with them, the observations of Mr. D. Forbes and M. Kjerulf are in unison with the opinions expressed by M. Forch- hammer and myself, particularly in respect to the metamorphosed schists, sandstones, and limestones of Silurian age, and also m demon- strating that the chief outbursts of the igneous rocks of this region, and specially of the porphyries, were posterior to the deposit of the Old Red Sandstone. In conclusion, let me say that, although I failed in leading Prof. Keilhau to agree with me respecting the order of succession from flanks to centre, or in the identity in age of his “ harte schiefer”’ and my Lower Silurian, it was the simple inspection of his own geo- logical map of the Christiania Territory which first led me to entertain views which I realized by personal surveys. By inspecting the map of Keilhau, the geologist will see, that the whole of that which is now called the “ Silurian basin,” as circumscribed by gneiss, has a major axis of 120 miles long from Langesund, on the 8.S.W., to the Lake Miosen, on the N.N.E. He will further observe, that the northern and southern portions of this region, particularly the latter, have been occupied by vast masses of those eruptive rocks (whether grouped as granites or porphyries) which have been emitted subsequently to the formation of the Old Red Sandstone. Hence it is, that in the parallel of Christiania only is there to be seen a full and symmetrical development of all the Silurian strata; the eruptive rocks merely showing themselves in that district as dykes and bosses of protrusion, or partial superjacent sheets. 166 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. {[Jan. 31, 2. On the Causes producing Fouiation in Rocks; and on some observed cases of FouiaTeED STRUCTURE in Norway and Scort- LAND. By Davip Forsss, Esq., F.G.S., A.1.C.E. Tue study of the metamorphic and crystalline rocks has of late years attracted much attention, and the researches of Darwin, Sharpe, and others have brought forward many facts particularly interesting and important. It will probably, however, be admitted, that, notwithstanding the labours of these geologists, great difference of opinion exists as to the formation and structure of these rocks, and that at present we are not in possession of sufficient data to enable us to place the question upon a firm basis. It is therefore of importance that as many observations as possible be laid before geologists working at this subject ; and it is consequently hoped that the present communication may not prove unserviceable in advancing the inquiry. | The observations here brought forward have with a few exceptions been made during a residence of some years in Norway, where the foliated rocks play so important a part. The others are the result of some short excursions in Scotland made for the express purpose of comparison. For a long period, and it may be said until late years, it was the generally received opinion that the lines of foliation in rocks were lines corresponding in direction or identical with the lines of stratifi- cation, and were produced by the alteration of these lines by meta- morphic action. This view of the case can no longer be considered tenable, and the observations of many geologists have shown that foliation frequently takes place at a different angle to that of strati- fication. Darwin seems to consider this as almost invariably the case, and remarks that, even should they correspond in the strike, they would not correspond in the dip; and Ramsay, in his paper “ on the Lower Paleeozoics of North Wales,” considers that there is no doubt that in many cases the foliation of the Anglesea rocks runs much across the dip. Many other observers might be quoted on this point ; but, on the other hand, several geologists of high reputation seem to con- sider these cases as exceptional, and that in general the foliation is developed according to the lines of stratification. (Case 1.)—As bearing on this point, I observed in the Highlands of Scotland, near Crianlorich, on the road to Tindrum, in Perthshire, regular beds of a blue limestone, resting upon a dark greenish-grey mica-schist, and dipping 32° N.E., with an inclination in the course of the strata of 24° S.E. This limestone was most completely foliated by the introduction of small plates of white mica, so that it often could hardly be distinguished by the eye from gneiss. Here the foliation in the limestone appeared perfectly identical with the planes of bedding, as shown by the coloured bands and large beds of the limestone. This was apparently also the case in the gneiss; but in the crust or stratum above the limestone on the surface of the ground the foliation was very twisted and irregular. 1855. | FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 167 (Case 2.)—At Jeegersborg, near Christiansand,; in Norway, the foliation of a highly crystalline white limestone in schist was found to be parallel with the apparent lines of bedding (see fig. 1). It Fig. 1.—Section of foliated limestone and gneiss at Jegersborg, near Christiansand. (See also page 173.) 1 ah \X Gneiss. Foliated limestone. Limestone with gneiss. A. Granite. d, d. Crystalline white limestone. a, a. Ordinary gneiss. e, e. Augitic limestone. 6. Quartzose gneiss. J, f. Micaceous limestone. c, c. Gneiss. will frequently, however, be found very difficult to prove satisfactorily when the line of foliation coincides with that of bedding ; as in many cases, and particularly in Norway, there are rarely any normal stra- tified beds in so close contact as to render the matter perfectly indisputable. Keilhau seems, however, to consider the cases where the foliation does not agree with the stratification as exceptional, and mentions*, evidently with this impression, a case where he has observed in Thelemarken a thick bed of very characteristic gneiss situated amongst other crystalline strata in which the mica and gneiss struc- ture, as a whole, was developed at right angles to the real planes of stratification. It is possible also that the coincidence of foliation and stratifica- tion would be found much more frequently the case, were it not for the very general occurrence of the disturbing influence of a pre- viously existing cleavage-structure,—or of a more or less inclined position of the beds during the time foliation occurred,—or, lastly, of the intrusion or approach of igneous rocks. * Norske Mag. for Naturvidenskab, New Series, vol. i. p. 70. 168 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ([Jan. 31, Where cleavage is previously existing in rocks, it appears very reasonable to suppose that the folia would arrange themselves along the lines of cleavage, which may be regarded as so many cracks or vacuities extremely convenient for the development of crystalline matter. These spaces probably may be much more diffused than would appear at first sight. For we may suppose matter compressed so as to give it a cleavage-structure, and this pressure then removed or only relaxed: the elasticity of the mass itself (however small) would naturally cause a certain degree of relaxation throughout its entire body, giving it, in consequence, a general porous structure ; the pores being of course elongated and flattened in the direction of the planes of cleavage, or at right angles to the compressing force. Afterwards, when the foliating forces, which cannot be other than chemical, come into action in a mass in this state, we may fairly expect that the lines of foliation will be identical with these lines ;— which seems to be the reason that we so often find the lines of cleavage and foliation parallel. In case the chemical action here alluded to was so intense as to obliterate the cleavage-planes, then we have no guarantee that the lines of foliation will follow these planes. In some cases possibly the cleavage may have taken place after foliation, and in some measure accommodated itself to these lines as offering the least resistance. The superimcumbent pressure, likewise, must be taken into account in considering the arrangement of foliation ; as it appears likely that this would act against any vertical position of the crystals; and the elongated and flattened appearance generally seen in the cry- stalline minerals inducing foliation appears doubtless the result of this action. Foliation and cleavage have both, I believe, been referred by some to electric or magnetic action ; but I am afraid that it is too general to refer to these causes effects that we do not at first sight compre- hend. If it be found, as I believe to be the case, that electricity traverses more easily in the direction of the cleavage-planes than across them, I think this argument has no further weight than as confirming the porous structure here supposed as consequent on the relaxation of a previously applied pressure ; as it seems very probable that the resistance offered to the current in this direction would, in consequence, be less than across the grain,—and we know that most non-metallic mineral substances are very imperfect conductors, whereas space, or air rarefied by heat or exhaustion, are conductors, though not equal to the metals themselves. Darwin and Sharpe (the latter in his paper on the Highlands) put forward the view that cleavage and foliation are identical,—that is, are parts of one and the same process, the former being but the first stage of the latter. To this I must object, and I believe that they are not only distinct pheenomena, but that the causes producing them are also distinct ; as in foliation we must have chemical action brought into operation, whilst in cleavage no such action is requisite, and the phenomena admit of a mechanical explanation. 1855. | FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 169° We can only regard the truly cleaved rocks as mechanical aggre- gates; and the more foliated or crystalline such rocks become, the less perfectly do we find the cleavage-planes developed. . The microscopic researches of Sorby* and others have proved that in slates possessing the most perfect cleavage we have a mass composed of minute rounded grains of mica, decomposed felspar, quartz-sand, phosphate of iron, and other substances, all easily recognizable, and having all the characters of a waterworn deposit, apparently not in any way mineralogically different from the state they were in when originally deposited as a sediment. In fact they are nothing further than a consolidated mud, in which a lamellar structure has been induced by mechanical action ; and the synthetical experiments of Sorby on this subject give the most conclusive evidence as to the mechanical nature of cleavage! Admitting that cleavage and foliation were identical, how incon- sistent with the parallel structure of cleaved rocks should we find the numerous cases of complicated and contorted foliated structure, which are so common, and where it is almost impossible to believe that these contortions have arisen from any twisting of the lines, either of stratification or cleavage, as the mechanical forces then brought into play would be so compound as hardly to be conceivable. It must, nevertheless, be admitted, that the lines of foliation and the planes of cleavage do often agree and are parallel to one another ; and several opportunities of confirming this have come under my observation. (Case 3.)—In Espedalen, Norway, the foliation of the mica- schists and hornblende-gneiss is parallel to the cleavage of the clay- slates of the district, both running nearly E. and W., and dipping N. at various angles from 10° to 50°. The line of bedding cannot be determined, but seems probably to be in the line of cleavage. (Case 4.)—On the side of Loch Lomond, at Luss, I observed that the clay-slate there quarried has a cleavage-strike of N.E.- S.W., and dip of 70° S.; the stratification bemg uncertain. A little further north the mica-schist appeared (the points of contact were hidden by the soil), and the strike was found to be 65° N.E.— S.W., with a dip of 60° to S.; which may be regarded as nearly coinciding. (Case 5.)—In the slate-quarries at Luss we have also instances of the cleavage-lines being bent by coming in contact with quartz-veins, just as described by Mr. Sharpet; but I found that, where these veins occurred, not only were the ends of the cleavage-planes bent, but around the quartz-vein there was developed a distinct curved foliation, induced by a deep-green chlorite, with here and there a little mica. This foliation sometimes extends for a short distance into both the slate and the quartz, but appears quite independent of the cleavage, though with an evident relation to the curves of the veins themselves, which are very irregular. The quartz itself is * Edin. Phil. Journal, July 1853. + Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. v. p. 117. 170 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 31, sometimes foliated by the chlorite, so as to resemble a green mineral. The annexed diagram, fig. 2, will give an idea of these conditions. Fig. 2.—Quartz-vein in clay-slate at Luss, Loch Lomond, Scotland. In general in foliated rocks there is a totally altered structure, and we have many instances ||| where they hardly possess any character in ||| common with cleaved rocks. WN Thus, even the parallelism of the lines cannot _ be considered invariable; we certainly have “MMU! |)))//|/ ~~ some cases where the foliation coincides with HW), the bedding and not with the cleavage, and W\|| | ~~ the property of splitting into lamine in certain ||| directions is often not possessed by foliated "M|||| rocks at all, particularly if the foliating mineral M\lll|'| be not itself of laminar structure. \ en We find certainly that in considerable di- Mays stricts of country the cleaved rocks are totally | i different from those in another district, just as one formation might be expected to differ from | another; but it is doubtful if we ever find such abrupt and total changes as come in such rapid succession in the beds of foliated rocks. (Case 6.)—In a quarry on the roadside about two miles from Crianlorich, in Perthshire, I found the strike N.W.-S.E., with dip 30° N.E.; the rock consisted of very thin beds which alternately pre- sented the character of perfect and highly micaceous mica-schist and of extremely quartzy schist, so that it was not possible to call one single linear foot by the same name. Other cases more unusual will be noticed in the course of the communication. The production of foliated structure is not confined to the intro- duction of laminz of one or two mineral substances, as mica, horn- blende, chlorite, &c.; it may be produced by minerals widely dif- ferent in chemical composition and mineralogical character, and the presence of which is only to be accounted for by the supposition that the constituent elements must have been at hand in the unmetamor- phosed rocks, although in a different state of combination. It is apparently also a necessary requisite in the production of foliated arrangement, that the minerals thus formed be of a different chemical constitution to those composing the mass of the rock itself. I may here bring forward some instances of very distinct and de- terminate foliation produced by minerals not usually found under these circumstances. (Case 7.)—On the heights immediately above Christiansand, in Norway, probably at a distance of two miles from the town, the section represented by fig. 3 was taken. The prevailing rock is here gneiss (a a), composed of black mica, white quartz, and white and red felspar, with sometimes specks of black oxide of iron. The strike of the foliation runs nearly N. and S8., aud the dip varies from 6 feet. — a 1855. ] FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 171 Fig. 3.—Section of gneiss, limestone, and granite, at Stampekjern, on the Heights above Christiansand, Norway. a, a. Gneiss. ce, c. Bands of augitic gneiss in the limestone. 6, 6. Foliated, crystalline, pink A, A. Granite (each band is about 10 ft. thick). limestone. 30° to 45° East. The strike inclines in course of the foliation about 10° towards S. The section here represented is E. and W. nearly, or at right angles to the strike; and, coming from the east, we have first the gneiss, which sometimes is slightly granitic, but always preserves its regular foliated structure ;—next we find a bed, about 14 feet thick, of coarsely crystalline pink limestone, in which a beautiful foliated arrangement is visible (as shown in the specimens now exhibited), by the presence of numerous small crystals of a green augitic mineral and white scapolite. Sometimes these minerals are so abundant as to present a very striking appearance, at other times we have only single lines of these crystals, with the intermediate limestone free from them ; in all cases, however, both in this bed and throughout, they arrange themselves in distinct lines, which are invariably parallel to the lines of foliation of the gneiss itself. No tendency to split along these lines is present. Next we have some small beds (ce) of what may be termed gneiss, but in which the same augitic mineral appears to replace the mica, giving the mass a green appearance. The beds between this and the granite are of limestone, similar to the above, but of white colour and foliated in the same way. The granite (A), which now shows itself and is about 10 feet thick, is composed of white felspar, quartz, and black mica, is coarse-grained, and follows the general line of the beds. On its sides, where it touches the limestone, it is in some places impregnated to a small depth, but very strongly, with the same green augite ; and in cavities at the junction we find aggregations of garnets, scapolite, and augite, sometimes finely crystallized. Beyond the granite we have beds of white limestone like the former and similarly interstratified, if we may use the term, with beds of augitic gneiss, until we again come to another and larger vein or bed of granite, of similar character to the former band, and under which we again find the regular gneiss, still preserving the unaltered 172 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ([Jan. 31, line of foliation. In the different beds of limestone I did not observe any mica whatever. (Case 8.)—On the other side of Christiansand, about five miles from the town, west of Torresdale River, we have very extensive beds of a white crystalline limestone, very similar to, and foliated like, the last-mentioned. A section is seen in fig. 4, and represents a quarry near the top of a mountain called Pusaasen. Fig. 4.—Section of gneiss and limestone at Pusaasen Mountain, near Christiansand, Norway. a. Granitic gneiss ; not distinctly foliated. b. Quartzose, brownish, foliated gneiss. c,c. White, crystalline, foliated limestone (about 15 feet exposed). x, x. Indeterminable broken and weathered mass, filling joint. The section is taken about parallel to the strike, or 40° N.W.-S.E. The strata incline towards the south, and dip at 15° S.W. At the top of the section on the north side we have a considerable mass of gneiss (a), without a grain (or nearly granite-gneiss), with no foliated arrangement apparent, very quartzy, and containing but very little mica. This abuts against a bed of very quartzy gneiss (0), where the lines of the foliation give the appearance of its having been doubled up. This gneiss contains numerous crystals of iron-pyrites in the lines of foliation, and by their oxidation it has acquired a rust-brown colour. Between these two gneiss rocks we have a joint filled up with a broken, decomposed, and weathered mass (), of undistin- guishable character; but below the whole is a large bed of white crystalline limestone, foliated by lines of augite-crystals, precisely as in the last case; the foliation is here parallel to the upper and lower surfaces, or the foliation, of the gneiss above it. About 15 feet of the limestone bed is uncovered ; the lower 3 feet is coarser-grained than the upper 12 feet. At a few spots mica is seen present, foliating the limestone im a similar direction. (Case 9.)—On the same side of the Torresdale River, and about two miles west of the last locality, can be seen an extremely interesting 1855. ] FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 173 case, in which the lines of foliation are carried out quite independently of the nature of the minerals by which they are formed. It will be understood by referring to fig. 1, p. 167, where we have an overlying granite (A), below this a bed of ordinary black micaceous gneiss (a a), sending forth a small arm (4), very quartzy and losing itself in the surrounding white, coarse-grained, crystalline limestone (d), of which a thickness of about 8 feet is uncovered and is here represented ; in this we find several blackish detached patches of gneiss (c). The line (ff) crossing the lower part of the section represents an apparent line of bedding, very regular, and showing itself the more strongly, from the foliation of a few inches on the upper side princi- pally being much closer than throughout the rest of the mass. This line, as shown in the section, runs nearly E. and W., or at right angles to the strike, and inclines 20° from N. to S. The strike itself is within a few degrees of N. and S., and inclines 15° to E. The portions of the limestone marked e in the section, fig. 1, are foliated by crystals of blackish-green to light-green augite and white scapolite ; in the part marked ff the foliation is produced by the presence of laminze of mica. Now when the lines of foliation are examined, which are well developed and distinct, it will be seen that these invariably run in one direction throughout the mass, no matter what minerals produce the foliation itself; also that this direction coincides with the line of apparent bedding. Not many yards above, and at right angles to this, the section represented in fig. 5 was made, showing as much as was uncovered Fig. 5.—Section of granite, gneiss, and limestone at Jegersborg, near Christiansand, Norway. ee coe WAT ee ae — sz 17g LOSE / (25 ms ete AN aN Ss oe, / 4 ~ AS VE neu hiya 618) Ti SS : EE > AM NW BO/ [1 454 itd / c {th y on / /, Hite Ju My /// ‘J Ui, bey; [| tft /} i, [is i, Ao, A. Granite. 6. Ordinary gneiss. a. Granitic gneiss. ec. Foliated crystalline limestone. by soil or debris. This presents a much-disturbed appearance ; the central part appears to have been broken through by a fault, and we have on the east side, on the surface, granite (A) ; below this, gneiss (a), without grain, passing into regular gneiss (4), and then the limestone (ec) cut up by granite. On the other side, the granite is absent ; and we have gneiss, similar to the former and without grain, at top, and then the limestone, in which rounded masses of granite 174 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL Society. {[Jan. 31, are seen, as if protruding from large supplies behimd. We also see a small vein of granite, not more than a few inches thick, losing itself in the grainless gneiss at top. We have lastly some gneiss showing itself in a very peculiar shape, and becoming grainless when near the granite. The general foliation of the limestone and gneiss seems to agree. The section, fig. 1, p. 167, would cut across this at the extreme right of the diagram where the distortion is least. (Case 10.)—Besides the more regular beds of limestone here de- scribed, several apparently quite detached pieces (varying considerably in size) may be seen completely surrounded by the gneiss. Fig. 6 represents the shape of one of these detached masses*. The limestone Fig. 6.—Outline of one of the detached limestone-masses in gneiss at Jegersborg, near Christiansand. is precisely similar to the other, and is foliated by the same minerals as in the last case; and even here the lines of foliation in the gneiss appear to be carried out without disturbance through these lime- stone-masses. (Case 11.)—A very interesting arrangement of the foliated struc- ture, very similar to that of the garnets in mica-schist, was found by me at Lindflid, on the borders of Ongsteens lake, between Brats- berg and Nedeness Amt, in Norway, and apparently extending over a considerable area, probably of some square miles. ‘The rock here is a species of talcy mica-schist, and contains innumerable nodules of dichroit, of a white or bluish-white colour, sometimes exhibiting the Fig. 7.—Mica-schist with nodules of Dichroit, Ongsteens Vand, Norway. ——— SSeS peculiar and characteristic play of colours. These nodules are nearly of a size, about that of a walnut, and the foliation of the mica bends itself around them, producing a very peculiar appearance from the immense number of the nodules present and the extreme regularity of their disposition, which can be seen at a glance. The whole would appear as the effect of some arranging force, in conjunction with the ordinary action of foliation. The cases of foliation which I have hitherto brought forward have been all caused by the introduction of silicates, but in many cases I * Scheerer also has some remarks on the occurrence of these masses of lime- stone at Christiansand, N. Mag. f. Naturv. vol. iv. part 2, p. 158. 1855. | FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 175 have observed that the same phenomena have been caused by the appearance of totally different chemical compounds. (Case 12.)—At Pusaasen, a little north of east of the locality de- scribed above, and illustrated by fig. 4, p. 172, we have a bed of lime- stone, apparently either the same, or one parallel to it, which lies on gneiss, and appears to run in the same direction as the former. Here I found that several feet of the lower part of this bed were foliated by the introduction of the mineral termed chondrodite (a fluosilicate of magnesia), which was arranged perfectly parallel to the micaceous foliation of the gneiss, as well as of that of the limestone. It may be also mentioned that the chondrodite here is associated with the black spinel, precisely as at Sparta in the United States. I have also observed in Norway many cases of foliation where this structure has been induced by the presence of small lamineze or folia of oxide of iron, sometimes to the almost total exclusion of other foliating minerals. I have found this to be the case, on the small scale, in Nissedal, at Langoe, and at Dybsund Holm, near Krageroe. On a larger scale, it appeared at Ronningen, in Drangedal, where the gneiss was often very strongly foliated by scales of oxide of iron, and having a very characteristic red appearance. This foliation appeared not to disturb in any way that of the adjoining gneiss. The foliation of rocks by means of oxide of iron is not peculiar, however, to Norway. From observations recently communicated to me by Lieut. Aytoun, Bengal Artillery, this is often the case in Hindostan. He states that at one of the small outliers of the Kup- put-good range of mountains a very fine example of this may be seen. The rock is a siliceous talcy schist, and strikes N.N.W., dipping 50° E.; the beds thus foliated are from 60 to 80 feet thick, and extend for several miles. In some hand-specimens received from Mr. Aytoun there are portions of the talcy schist having the tale entirely replaced by scales of black magnetic oxide of iron, which also shows itself particularly well developed along the joints. In the valley of the Mulpurba, about eight miles south of Belgaum, in the Deccan, Mr. Aytoun has observed many instances of mica- schist and clay-slate running 5° N.W., and dipping 80° E., in which small bands, from + to } inch thick, were foliated by oxide of iron, and many hand-specimens of which possessed a distinct polarity. It is often the case in Norway that some strata or parts of strata, extending often for miles, present a peculiar foliated arrangement, due to the introduction or appearance of certain metallic compounds and the greater or less exclusion of the usual foliating silicates. Thus at Kongsberg, near Tvedestrand, in Drangedal, in Espedalen, and several other places I have found various sulphurets showing them- selves ; and at Modum and Snarum, also at Vena, near Askersund in Sweden, arseniurets show themselves under similar circumstances. The details connected with these occurrences are particularly interesting, and important also in an economical point of view; but they cannot be brought within the limits of this communication: I trust, however, at a future period to bring some observations on the subject before the Society. 176 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 31, The cases already described show in some measure the wide range and extraordinary difference in mineralogical or chemical composition of the substances producing foliated structure ; and I think it must be admitted that we have no such analogous phenomena characteristic of the cleaved rocks, and that these facts would be opposed to the view that cleavage and foliation were the effects of one action. Mr. D. Sharpe, in his excellent paper ‘On the Foliation and Cleavage of the North of Scotland*,”’ has brought forward another argument in support of the identity of these two phenomena, namely the arrangement of grand semicylindrical arches in which the lines of foliation and cleavage together form the defining boundaries. My excursions in Scotland were too short to form even a faint idea of these arches. It seemed to be not improbable, however, that these lines, which appear so regular upon Mr. Sharpe’s map, might be found continued into Norway, where I was better acquainted with the rock-structure. I could, however, make nothing of them, and must candidly confess that I relapsed into that state of despair described by Mr. Sharpe as ‘‘the first impression of an observer entering a district of gneiss or schist in search of order in the arrange- ment of their folia.” The geological map of Norway now produced, and which is by Keilhau, has indicated on it a résumé of most ob- servations of strike and dip made in that country prior to 1849, and probably more experienced observers than myself may be able to reduce these lines to a system. I am sorry that time has not per- mitted me to mark down on the map a great number of observations made by myself or collected from friends, since its publication. In an attempt to generalize the lines of foliation in the district around Arendal and Krageroe in an examination of that tract made by Mr. Dahl and myself, and published last year in Norwayt, we were unable to come to any more definite conclusion than that these lines generally varied from N.W. to E. and W.., and were in the main parallel to the line of coast. The dip was found extremely variable at all angles, from 13° to 90°, S.E., S., up to S.W. Contorted arches are of constant occurrence in the gneiss districts in Norway, but they seem to be connected with local phenomena. Some are very interesting, and the arrangement shown in fig. 8 is one difficult of explanation. (Case 13.)—We have in fig. 8 a section of a ravine near Krageroe (the section being broken in the centre to admit of both sides being shown, otherwise impossible from the scale). The ravine at the bottom is probably not 50 feet across, and the precipice of the side is about 60 feet high. The angles dip in opposite directions on the respective sides of the ravine; on the one side, N.W. at various angles up to vertical; on the other, pretty constant at about 60° S.E. The dotted lines show what may be supposed to have been the continua- tion of the jagged edges of the strata, and are confirmed by the blocks of similar configuration lying loose in the ravine below. The central boss a represents a mass something between granite * Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London, 1852. tT See also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., No. 42, Part II. Miscell. p. 9, &c. 1855.] FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 177 Fig. 8.—Section at Lykkens Grube, near Krageroe, Norway. B YT] -- Pee | ’ Dc 3 oo cpio - at “ “—n Poa , A = / Z ) ¢ S ’ / 7 i ey 7 AEA ey ra 1 rue Z / ZA ey / c rr i \ 2 ; Wij / =S F ; Wy ty) Z 7 Y j f x a. Alluvium. a. Granitic gneiss. A. Granite ; B, Cc, D, £, granite veins. 0. Ordinary gneiss. and gneiss, of undefined character ; and above is seen a small vein of coarsely grained granite (B) containing numerous crystals of brown titanite. The contorted structure of the foliation here observed. is, I think, due to the entrance of the granite-vein and the occurrence of the granitic gneiss, which seems in this case to be nothing more than gneiss into which granite has infiltrated from large masses of this rock, not seen in the section, but which are in the immediate neighbourhood. Now as to the influence of the intrusion of the igneous rocks on foliation, it seems to me that the two are very intimately connected, and that, in many cases at least, foliated structure seems to arrange itself in planes connected with the configuration of the intruded or underlying igneous rocks. Mr. Sharpe admits that the occurrence of such rocks has a very disturbing influence on the regularity of his arches; but it may be fairly questioned whether such arches may not themselves be due to the appearance or approach of such igneous rocks. Looking at Norway, we find no considerable tract of country exempt from the constant occurrence of such igneous rocks ; and, as far as my experience goes, these rocks seem generally to have an apparent influence on the lines of foliation. Fig. 3 (p. 171) gives a good illustration of this; as also fig. | (p. 167) and fig. 5 (p. 173). (Case 14.)—Fig. 9 also represents a similar case at Pusaasen near Christiansand, where we have a granite-vein (A) about 3 feet thick, breaking through gneiss (a) into crystalline limestone (c) similar to that previously described, and foliated by augite, scapolite, and mica ; below the small vein of granite (B), the gneiss (4) is more calcareous and augitic ; but above, it is of the ordinary character, and does not contain carbonate of lime. The strike is KE. and W., and the dip 25° to the South. VOL. XI.—PART I. O 178 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 31, Fig. 9.—Section at Pusaasen, Christiansand. “— rt ? ea es, OS | ae | ———— — —$< a. Gneiss. A. Granite vein (3 feet thick). b. Calciferous and augitic gneiss. B. Smaller granite vein. c. Foliated crystalline limestone. The foliation here, in the gneiss, in the augitic calcareous gneiss, and in the limestone, is parallel in each rock, and to the general run of the imbedded vein of granite. On the coast near Krageroe we have also numberless instances of the foliation of the gneiss having the same direction as the veins of granite may have on animmense scale. Near Smedsbugten we have, for instance, no less than seven enormous veins, or rather beds, of granite visible on the side of the mountain arising abruptly from the sea, and all of which run N.N.E., dipping to the W. at an angle of about 40°. Between each of these are great beds of gneiss, the general foliation of which is parallel to the beds of granite, and the whole appears to be several hundred feet in height. In the paper by Mr. Dahl and myself, previously quoted, other instances will be found. It is frequently also the case, where veins of trap make their ap- pearance, that the foliation is found parallel or greatly influenced. On the side of the road about two miles from Inverarnon, in Perthshire, I observed a vein of grey porphyritic trap, containing specks of iron and copper pyrites, and running N.-S., with a dip of 20° W. : On both sides of the trap, the mica-schist, which was quartzy and contained black mica, had the same angle of foliation as the imbedded trap-vein. This I found also to be the case about two miles further north from this, where a large vein of syenitic trap, running nearly hori- zontal, showed itself. Here, however, as small veins ramified from the main body of trap, the coincidence was not always so carried out as in the previous case. | Similar cases to these were found in Drangedal, at Vedfald, where two veins‘of mottled serpentine-trap made theiz appearance. That the intrusion or approach of igneous rocks is always the cause of foliated structure cannot be insisted upon; and I am aware that many cases occur exhibiting appearances quite different from the above- mentioned : still at the same time it is a circumstance worthy of con- 1855. | FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 179 sideration, as being in some cases the agent in causing as well as modifying foliated structure. Whatever may be the cause of the arrangement of foliation in cer- tain directions, I believe that most geologists agree in supposing that foliation itself is due to the action of heat, which has reduced the rock iv situ to a fluid, or at least semifluid state, to which some add the action of gases and pressure. On this pomt I would wish to make some remarks; and I may premise by stating, that to me foliation appears to be the result of chemical action in recombining the elements existing in amorphous sedimentary rocks, together with a simultaneous molecular move- ment of the products thus formed ; also, that this action is effected by heat, but has taken place at temperatures lower than even neces- sary to change the external form of the masses, or to produce any semifusion or even softening. As corroborative of this, I may refer to fig. 10, which Keilhau Fig. 10.—WSection of the gneiss in the Island of Jomfruland, Norway. has also observed and made mention of *. It represents an appear- ance in the gneiss on the island of Jomfruland. Here we have a vein of hornblendic character running across the gneiss, and disturbed by the fault AB, which throws it downwards. On examining the lines of foliation, it will now be found that those lines which are most distinct are not at all affected by the fault, and continue throughout with the greatest regularity ; so that it can hardly be doubted, that the foliation of the gneiss took place later than the formation and subsequent dislocation of the hornblende vein ; and consequently we cannot suppose that the mass could have been in a fused or softened state at the time of foliation without the obliteration of these appearances. Again referring back to fig. 8, p- 177, it will be seen that the fault B, the origin of which apparently was previous to or simultaneous with the granite-vein, has altered the position of the foliation on the one side and bent it upwards. The faults c, p, and £ do not effect this at all. If, however, the rock had been in a semifused state when foliation took place, or when the granite-vein was injected, we should have * Norske Magazin for Naturvidenskab, vol. iii. p. 175. 0 2 180 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 31, expected that the faults would have been obliterated, or that both sides would have been equally affected. At the limestone quarry on the road to Crianlorich, previously de- scribed, p. 166, where the limestone is foliated, we have the foliation affected by faults and curved, and in one place a portion enclosed between two faults had the foliation curved on both sides in a nearly circular direction ; so that there is here also reasen to believe that the foliation took place subsequently to the faults, which otherwise would not have retained the sharp and defined angles here seen. In submitting this opinion as to the temperature at which foliation took place, it can be objected, however, with reason, that in the present state of chemical science we have no right to assume that such che- mical action and arrangement can take place im solid bodies without external change of form. Chemists will no doubt admit that in homogeneous bodies of one composition we may have a complete change of molecular arrangement without any change of form ;—thus, that a mass of bar-iron from being fibrous may become crystal- line— that sugar-candy may from an amorphous state become crystal- lime— that large crystals of sulphur may change their structure, be- coming an aggregate of small crystals belonging to a different crystalline system— that the sandstone bed of a blast furnace or the bricks of kiln-walls may by the action of heat acquire a columnar or basaltic structure. But in all these cases we have no chemical action, no production of other and totally distinct compounds as in foliated rocks,—we have only the results of a molecular arranging force*. It is necessary, therefore, before the view I have brought forward, with reference to the production of foliated rocks at comparatively low temperatures, can be securely established, that we have some data to prove that such action and changes can really take place. I endeavoured, therefore, to procure experimental proof of this with direct reference to the rocks, but met with many difficulties. Thus, I often could not succeed in regulating the heat to sustain such temperatures as seemed necessary, and found that, the instant a pasty or semifluid state was induced, I could not obtain satisfactory results. The action of the air in oxidizing the iron present as prot- oxide to the state of peroxide also introduced a new element which would have been gladly dispensed with. On taking, however, a rock like steatite, which we have in Norway in such quantities as to use it as a building-material,—and which is at once one of the most infusible of rocks, and nearly altogether free from iron,—I was not annoyed by the above difficulties, but found another obstacle in the way. The results, however, on prolonged treatment of this rock, were so satisfactory as to be very encouraging as a beginning, and I found that a slightly foliated structure was evidently being induced. The * See also Hausmann on Arsenikglas, &c., Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. part 2, page 2. 1855. | FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 18] pieces subjected to heat were, however, always more or less broken up and friable, evidently from the unequal expansion and contraction of the mass. To obviate this, it seemed necessary to have the auxi- liary aid of pressure ; and, in order at the same time to make expe- riments on a somewhat larger scale, I proceeded as follows. Having some small blast-furnaces at disposition, I placed slabs or blocks of the rocks in question under the bottoms of them, which were composed of a stamped mixture of clay and charcoal-dust,—and which consequently protected them from the action of the air, whilst at the same time they were exposed to a certain amount of pressure from the slag and metal above them. This pressure varied as the sump was filled with slag or metal, or a mixture of both, and as the former was of average density 3, and the latter 5, and as the depth was about 3 feet, we might have a pressure of from 7 to 12 lbs. per inch. These experiments were made in Norway in a district where no great variety of rocks were obtainable, and as they occupied a very long time I can only here give the results of one or two, which, however, are so far satisfactory. I exposed large slabs of an impure, rather micaceous clay-slate, about 4 inches thick, 6 feet long, and 4 feet broad, under these cir- cumstances, to the action of heat continued for some months, but which never was so intense as to cause fusion or even softening, as the slabs, even if they had been broken up, retained their original outward form and sharp edges. From the pressure and the unequal distribution of the superincumbent weight, they were very frequently, if not always, broken up, and consequently had to be removed, so that generally some metal or slag is adherent to the pieces ;—also it some- times happened, when little cracks had arisen in the protecting lining of clay and charcoal, that the pieces would be found permeated to great distances with small veins of metallic matter, so fine as to render it astonishing how it could have occurred. In all cases, however, where a softening had taken place, the result was spoiled, and the foliated arrangement, which is otherwise so distinct, would be more or less obliterated or totally destroyed. From the specimens now shown to the Society it will be seen that the original slate is unrecognizable, and that we have a rock of a white (probably feldspathic) ground, with specks of a black mineral arranged with a distinct foliated structure. The appearances here presented are strikingly like some of the rocks of the district, where syenite comes in contact with mica-slate. The specimens, though not large, are, I think, quite characteristic. Again, on repeating these experiments with soapstone, using blocks of this material (which is very abundant and is cut up with axes and saws), I formed the bottom of a furnace of cubes of this stone, 1 foot square, cemented by Stourbridge clay. After several months, under precisely similar circumstances, the blocks retained their external form and their sharp edges precisely as at first ; even the axe-marks can be distinguished upon them. On fracture, however, it is seen that in parts they have all the outward appearance of the chlorite found at Brevigstrand mm Norway ; 182 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. {[Jan. 31, and here and there we observe small aggregations, evidently arising from foreign matters present in the original soapstone, which have separated themselves. In repeating this experiment with a view to the economical use of soapstone for the bottom of furnaces, I found that the metal had broken through the protecting lining (which in this case was not so thick), and had gone right through the substance of the soapstone blocks, which had acted as a filter. The blocks themselves retained their form completely, and were perfect at the joints; but below them was found a large mass of metal which had percolated through them ; and the blocks themselves were converted into heavy semi- metallic masses, much resembling in appearance the magnesian rocks impregnated with metallic ores found in the veins of this district. It was also easy to see that an arranging force had likewise come into play, as the sulphurets of the various metals previously existing in the matte as a homogeneous compound, were here separated and showed themselves distinctly crystalline. Many other experiments of a similar character were made ; but, as they were principally connected with the formation of minerals, they are not so immediately related to this subject. The above facts are, however, I think, sufficiently conclusive to show that we may have an altered chemical, as well as molecular, arrangement at temperatures below that at which softening is pro- duced. That we may, however, sometimes have an arrangement analogous to foliated structure in rocks generally considered as of igneous origin, and which have been fluid, must be admitted. The structure of graphic granite illustrates this well ; and Sedgwick mentions that the granite of St. Austell in Cornwall has a grain. Keilhau men- tions*, that in a granitic rock at a place called Salmelic, in Norway, he found a parallel structure, sufficiently distinct to determine a strike and dip, induced by the presence of crystals of flesh-coloured ortho- klase. This arrangement cannot, however, I think, have anything in common with that found sometimes in volcanic rocks, and which is often seen in slags and glass, produced artificially, and which seem probably due to similar causes as those producing the ribboned structure of glacial ice. In the specimen of glass here produced we have an arrangement evidently due to this cause and to a subsequent crystallization superadded, in which the crystalline arrangement has followed the striz of the glass, previously invisible. Some rocks certainly igneous may have been formed in a similar manner; but here, in the case of the glass, we do not have the chemical action as in the production of foliated rocks ; since the glass is only to be regarded as a homogeneous body, modified by crystalline forces, according to pre-existing lines. It will be found that many minerals apparently possess in them- selves a certain independent arranging power. Minerals do not only * Norske Mag. f. Naturv. vol. ii. p. 372. 1855. | FORBES—FOLIATION OF ROCKS. 183 show themselves in the same crystallie form, but have likewise a tendency to arrange themselves preferably in certain figures. Thus crystals of grossular from Brevig, in Norway, almost always occur as hexagonal rings of single crystals, the interior and surrounding mass being only the matrix. Crystals of augite from the Canary Islands were found to arrange themselves parallel to the long axis of the prism. Many other instances might be cited that are doubtless quite familiar. I have now only to notice some points regarding the chemical composition of the foliated rocks, as compared with the other truly sedimentary beds. This has by some been considered so different as to preclude the idea that foliated rocks have been formed from rocks similar to the present formations, without supposing that some ingredients must have been added to, or taken away from such. Thus the amount of alkali has been supposed much greater. On examining the later analyses by Taylor of the carboniferous rocks, Hunt’s analyses of the lower and upper Silurian rocks, and others, it will be seen that when we subtract the organic matter and other volatile substances, as carbonic acid, &c., we have then no greater difference than that usually found in different series of the foliated rocks. In fact, many of these contain but very little alkali. Bischoff makes hornblende-schist to contain only 1°45 per cent. of potash and soda together, and the averages of two analyses of mica- slate give 6°67 per cent. of alkali; but, considering that the quartzy schist contains so much less, the average will probably not be more than we find in the fossiliferous strata. Thus Hunt found in the upper and lower Silurian beds of East Canada 5:05 and 5:59 per cent. of alkali respectively. In the clayslates (azoic) of Norway, Kjerulf has found* between 5 and 6 per cent., and some of the slates analysed by Bischoff gave up to 83 per cent. ; but whether fossiliferous or not, is not mentioned. I think, therefore, there is no necessity for supposing with Forch- hammer that the alkali in the foliated rocks is derived from the vapours of potash and soda exhaled from the melted granite. This view is so extremely Plutonic, that I think it ought only to be ac- cepted when we can find no more moderate doctrine. It seems to me more probable, that, if there really was a deficiency of alkali (which I doubt) in the strata before being metamorphosed, or rather foli- ated, in Norway (as Forchhammer especially alludes to the Norwegian rocks), we should rather seek to account for its subsequent presence by the supposition that these strata have been changed whilst sub- merged, and by the infiltration of sea-water and consequent decom- position of the salt by silica. This is consistent also with the known upheaval of the land in Norway. Keilhau has advanced the idea of a silicification of the limestones as they approach the crystalline rocks. I have analysed several ; * Norske Mag. f. Naturvid. vol. viii. 184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 31, namely, from Stampekjeern, Jeegersborg, and Pusaasen, near Christian- sand, from Boedalen, in Gulbrandsdalen, and dolomite from several localities near Krageroe, as well as crystalline cale-spar veins near Arendal; but in none of these specimens have I found this the case; and no silica was present except that contained in the mechanically inter- mixed minerals. In fact, the limestone, on the contrary, seems gene- rally purer than that found im fossiliferous strata; and this is ac- counted for by the tendency which the chemical action producing foliation has to separate and recombine all extraneous matters. In one of these limestones and in several of the azoic rocks, I have found considerable per-centages of carbon present. This has also been found to be the case by Kjerulf, who has found as much as 4> per cent. of carbon in some of the clay-slates of Norway. I have also observed the frequent occurrence of graphite (which may be looked upon as foliated carbon) in these rocks, often developed on the sides of the joints, as in Svadsum, Gusdal, Opdal, and other laces. : Again, anthracite occurs in the gneiss, at Kongsberg, and near Arendal ; at the point of junction with the gneiss at Narestoe I have found it in nodules in the granite. Phosphate of lime is also fre- quently present in the gneiss. From these facts it would appear not unreasonable to question whether many of the metamorphic rocks of Norway may not ori- ginally have resulted from the alteration of fossiliferous strata, without at the same time at all deviating from Sir Roderick Murchison’s views in his admirable exposition of the Norwegian Silurian system ; as we may suppose that this very system may have covered considerable areas of the country, and by its destruction given rise to at least some part of the present metamorphic or crystalline rocks. In fact, Sir Roderick Murchison has described in his paper* a case where a por- tion of the Silurian system near Christiania has actually undergone a change into gneiss by contact with granite. Without going further into detail as to the chemical relations of this part of the subject, I think that the observations and remarks which I have just laid before the Society would tend to strengthen the evidence in favour of the following views :— 1. That foliation and cleavage are two distinct processes not neces- sarily connected; and that those cases where they are parallel or identical generally result from previously induced cleavage-structure. 2. That foliated structure is the result of chemical action com- bmed with a simultaneous arranging molecular force, developed at heats below the fusion or semi-fusion of the rock-masses ; and that, when we find a similar structure induced in rocks which are known to have been previously in a fused state, this has been developed subsequently to the solidification of such rocks. 3. That the arrangement of foliation is often due to the presence or proximity of igneous rocks, and has a tendency to follow the direction * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. i. 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 185 of any lines present in the rocks, whether of cleavage, of stratifica- tion, or of strize of fusion,—following preferably those lines offering least resistance ; and lastly, that there are considerable reasons for supposing that the foliated rocks, even of Norway, may be chemically altered fossiliferous strata. In conclusion, I have but to add, that, in laying these remarks and observations before the Society, I have hoped that they might not be altogether unworthy of notice, notwithstanding that they may in some points differ from the views already set forth by very eminent geologists. Frespruary 16, 1855. Annual General Meeting. [For Reports and Address, see the beginning of this Volume. | Fesruary 21, 1855. Edward Hull, Esq., A.B., was elected a Fellow. The following communication was read :— On the Occurrence of ANGULAR, SUBANGULAR, POLISHED, and StRiATED FRAGMENTS and BouULDERS in the PERMIAN Breccia of SHROPSHIRE, WORCESTERSHIRE, Sc. ; and on the PropaBLe ExXistTeENCE of GuacierRs and IcreBERGS in the Permian Erocu. By Anprew C. Ramsay, F.R.S., F.G.S. Introduction.—The sedimentary strata which contain the frag- ments of striated and polished rocks to which I am about to call attention belong to the inferior portion of that which has been defined as the “‘ Permian Group” by Sir Roderick Murchison, the true geological horizon of which in England was first explained by Professor Sedgwick, in his celebrated memoir, “On the geological relations and internal structure of the Magnesian Limestone and the lower portions of the New Red Sandstone series,” &c. It is of the last-named division of this series that they probably form a part. The speciality of the subject of this memoir scarcely requires me to enter upon points connected with descriptive geology further than may be needful to explain the true position of the Breccias alluded to; and the detailed sections subsequently given, having that object in view, should therefore be considered chiefly as explanatory of the general relations of the subdivisions of the Permian and Bunter strata to each other. It is, however, proper to state that the general position of the Permian rocks skirting the coal-fields of North Wales, Coalbrook Dale, and Staffordshire was first indicated in Sir Roderick Murchison’s Map, published in 1839*. They are there coloured as Lower Red Sandstone with subordinate calcareous conglomerates ; and their lower boundary he defined by the outcrop of the Coal, while the upper he shaded off into the New Red or Trias * ‘Silurian System.’ 186 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 21, properly so called. The line of demarcation between the Permian and Bunter rocks has, however, lately been accurately defined by the Geological Survey, and while some supposed Permian areas have been expunged from the map, others, that up to this time have been considered of Triassic age, have been added to the Permian. In the great work on the Silurian region, &c., the structure of the Permian rocks is also truly described near Alberbury, Enville, and in South Staffordshire, and the beds of calcareous conglomerate near Enville and the Lickey are mapped and clearly described*. Respecting the Breccias (which are quite distinct from these con- glomerates), up to this date different views have been taken by geo- logists from that advocated in this memoir, for most of the patches have been considered either as immediately connected with volcanic outbursts}, or else described as stratified trappoid conglomerates, containing a few fragments of stratified rocks, the whole being sup- posed to be derived from neighbouring igneous masses, or from me- tamorphosed strata now concealedt. After a prolonged examination of every part of these breccias in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, and of every opening exposed, whether by nature or in quarries, and after many hundred specimens were broken and examined by myself and others on the Geological Survey, I have come to the conclusion that in every locality they are truly sedimentary and rudely stratified, and also that the fragments were rarely derived from neighbouring rocks, but generally had travelled from a distance. It is satisfactory to find, that as regards the stratified and lithological character of these fragments, I am borne out by so distinguished an authority as Dr. Buckland, who in 1819 most accurately described this breccia as it occurs in the Bromsgrove Lickey and Clent Hill range, stating its true sedimentary nature, and that it contains ‘pebbles that agree in substance with the quartz-rock of the Lower Lickey, mixed with pebbles of common white quartz, black and variegated jasper, flinty and chloritic slate, many varieties of porphyry, and of grey and variegated compact and granular sandstone§.’’ Allowing for differ- ences of nomenclature, it is easy to see that the character of many of the fragments is the same with some of those subsequently described in this memoir. In the summer of 1852 I traced the boundaries of the Permian breccias that run between the Bromsgrove Lickey and the Clent Hills, having previously visited similar rocks on the flanks of the Abberley and Malvern range. Though much struck with the size and angularity of the fragments, and with the marly paste in which they are imbedded, I did not then venture to propose to myself the solution of these and other peculiarities, at which I have since arrived, viz. that they are chiefly formed of the moraine matter of glaciers, drifted and scattered in the Permian sea by the agency of icebergs. * ‘Silurian System,’ p. 59. tT Ibid. pp. 138, 139, 496, &e. t Professor Phillips’s ‘* Geology of the Malvern Hills,” &c., p. 162. See also Mr. Jukes’s ‘“‘ Memoir on the South Staffordshire Coal-field.”’ § Transactions of the Geological Society, Ist Series, vol. v. pt. 2. p. 507. 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 187 But when, in connexion with my duties on the Geological Survey, I began in 1854 to inspect these rocks near Enville, and afterwards revisited the equivalent strata in South Staffordshire, and on the Abberley and Malvern Hills, their true nature gradually dawned on me, and on the 18th of July I wrote to our late deeply lamented President, announcing what (if true) I considered a discovery of con- siderable value. Though I was unaware of the circumstance at the time, it appears that two authors had previously hinted at the possible agency of ice in two epochs,—palzozoic and secondary. In the ‘History of the Isle of Man’ (1848), p. 89, in describing the con- glomerate of the Old Red Sandstone, Mr. Cumming compares it to “a consolidated ancient boulder-clay formation,” and continues, ‘‘ Was it so, that those strange trilobitic-looking fishes of that era (the Coccosteus, Pterichthys, and Cephalaspis) had to endure the buffeting of icy waves and to struggle amidst the wreck of ice-floes and the crush of bergs? These are questions which we may perhaps venture to ask, but which we dare not hope to have solved till we know something more than at present we know of the history of the . boulder-clay formation itself.’”’ It may be remarked as a curious coincidence, that, when in Worcestershire I arrived at the conclusion that the Permian breccias are also boulder-clays, my thoughts at once reverted to the more ancient Old Red conglomerates of Scotland, and I stated at the time to my colleague Mr. Howell that they might afterwards turn out to have had a similar origin. In a paper published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, February 1850, pp. 96 and 97, Mr. R. Godwin-Austen observes that “the great blocks of porphyry of the middle beds of the New Red series in the West of England, included in sands and marls in- dicating no great moving power, seem to require some such agent as that of floating ice to account for their position.” In the following observations I hope to carry this subject considerably further, and to show, not only that there were icebergs of Permian date, but also partly to indicate the district whence the glaciers descended that gave these icebergs birth. Geological Description of the principal localities of the Breccia ; and its composition and character.—The Coal-fields of North and South Staffordshire, Tamworth, Coalbrook Dale, and the Forest of Wyre are partly bordered by Permian rocks which lie unconformably on the Coal-measures, and in most places once covered these fields, but have been partially removed by denudation. Patches of Permian strata also rest very unconformably on the Silurian rocks of the Ab- berley and Malvern Hills. The Bunter or New Red Sandstone which forms the base of the Trias, has been divided by the Geological Survey into four subforma- tions*, some of which are occasionally absent. The best and most complete typical sections of these rocks occur on the east side of Coalbrook Dale, or in the country between Bridgenorth and Patting- ham. ‘The section there is shown in fig. 1. p. 188. * First made out and described by Mr. Hull. 188 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL sociETy. [Feb. 2], Fig. 1.—General Section of the four subdivisions of the Bunter Sandstone. Bridgenorth. Ww. Severn. E. it . Permian sandstone and marl. . Lower, soft, brick-red, and variegated sandstone. . Coarse conglomerate or pebble beds; pebbles well-rounded. . Upper, brick-red, and variegated sandstone. . White and brown sandstone and red marl, resting on a calcareous conglo- meratic base, succeeded by 6. New Red marl. om Ne Some one of these four members lies generally quite unconformably on the Permian beds, unless where they chance to be faulted against each other. In the Midland Counties and on the borders of Wales, the Permian section is different from that of Nottinghamshire and the north of England. The magnesian limestones are absent, and the rocks principally consist of alternations of deep red marl and brown and red sandstones, calcareous conglomerates and breccias, which are almost entirely unfossiliferous. The most complete section occurs south of Bridgenorth in the country between Enville and the Forest of Wyre. This ground, as coloured on the maps of the Geological Survey, was mapped by Mr. Aveline and Mr. Hull, the latter of whom supplied me with the following section. Fig. 2.—Section of the Permian rocks between Enville and the Forest of Wyre. S.W. N.E. Fault. 1. Coal-measures. 2. Sandstone and red marls, containing two beds of calcareous con- glomerate, marked X and x’. Permian. 3. Coarse breccia. 4. Sandstone and red marls. Grater 5. Lower brick-red or variegated sandstone. 6. Pebble-beds or conglomerate. The general dip is easterly, and varies from 2° to 6°; and the breccia (No. 3) dips distinctly beneath the overlying marls and sandstones, No. 4. On the N.W., various members of the Bunter Sandstone abut on the Permian strata by means of a fault. The same takes place on the East, between Enville and Bewdley ; but in the neighbourhood of Bobbington the inferior brick-red sandstone* rests directly on the higher Permian strata. Nearly the whole of this series is repeated by a North and South fault which intersects the country about two miles to the east of the Severn. It is a down- throw on the West, probably of from 300 to 400 feet. Though dili- * No. 5 of the Bunter beds of the above diagram, fig. 2. 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 189 gently searched, no fossils have been discovered in these beds except the impression and part of the bark of the stem of a tree, about two yards long and a foot in diameter, which relics were found last summer by Mr. Hull and myself in the higher calcareous conglome- rate (marked x! in fig. 2) near Four Ashes. The pebbles of these conglomerates are mostly well-waterworn, but some of them are sub- angular ; they chiefly consist of numerous fragments of carboniferous limestone, mixed with pieces of chert, sandstone, quartz, quartz-rock, Silurian limestone of doubtful date, greenstone, felspathic trap, banded felspathic ash, red granite, red sandy marl, red sandstone, black slate, red jasper, and hornstone. These were collected at Gatacre Hall and the Four Ashes. The carboniferous limestone pebbles by far predominate ; and few of the fragments of any kind exceed 3 or 4 inches in diameter. The nearest carboniferous limestone is that of the Titterstone Clee Hills, about twelve miles distant on the south- west. The Coalbrook Dale limestone contains chert, and is about fifteen miles off on the north-east ; and in the same district occur igneous and quartz rocks not dissimilar to those found in the con- glomerates. Some of the other pebbles may have come from the Welsh Border, near the Longmynd ; but all of them may have been drifted by ordinary marine action. The true Breccia is separated from the calcareous conglomerate by about 100 feet of brown calcareous sandstone and marl. The brec- ciated stones are imbedded in a deep-red hardened marly paste. They are mostly angular or subangular, with flattened sides and but slightly rounded edges. The pieces collected consist chiefly of frag- ments of micaceous schist, micaceous sandstone, quartz-rock, grey sandstone, chert, purple grit, green sandy slate (one of them polished and scratched), black slate, altered slate, greenstone, felstone, fel- spathic ash, and reddish syenite. The last is doubtful. A nodule of ironstone was also observed, and a few quartz-pebbles. None of them are larger than 6 or 8 inches in diameter. There are no rocks answering to the majority of these in the immediate neighbourhood ; and with the exception of the chert, syenite, and ironstone-ncdule, the rest lithologically resemble the Cambrian sandstones and slates of the Longmynd, and the Lower Silurian slates, quartz-rocks, and igneous rocks at and east of the Stiper Stones. The distance from the Enville Breccia to these parts of Shropshire and Montgomery- shire is from twenty to thirty miles in a straight line; and, if the inference be correct that any of the stones are derived from that district, they must have travelled at least that distance. The South Staffordshire coal-field would be surrounded by Per- mian rocks, were it not that north of Cannock the pebble-beds (No. 3 of the Bunter Section, fig. 1, p. 188) overlap and rest directly on the coal-measures. On the east, between Beaudesert and Watling Street, the pebble-beds (3), white beds (5), and marl (6) are faulted against the coal-measures. In other places the Permian rocks abut against or rest on the carboniferous strata, except at Kingswinford and Old- swinford, where for a short space they are cut out by an increase of the boundary fault. The most complete section of the Permian beds 190 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 21, Fig. 3.—Section of the Permian rocks of Clent Hill. Ss. Clent Hill. ~ N. 1. Coal-measures. 2. Alternations of red marl and sandstone, with two calcareous Permian. bands. 3. Breccia, about 450 feet thick. 4, Pebble-beds or conglomerate. 5. Upper brick-red and variegated sandstone. in this area occurs at the south end of the coal-field, between the coal-measures and the summits of the Clent Hills and the Bromsgrove Lickey. The diagram (fig. 3) shows their arrangement. The breccia here consists of pieces of various rocks imbedded in a hardened, red, marly paste. Like those near Enville, they are gene- rally angular, or have their edges but slightly rounded. Their sides are often flattened, sometimes polished, and occasionally scratched. They rarely exceed a foot in diameter. On Clent Hill the fragments consist of felstone-porphyry, greenstone-porphyry, greenstone-amyg- daloid, ribboned slate, black and green slate, red sandstone, quartz- conglomerate, and felspathic ash. In a section near Romsley, stones of the same nature were found, including altered sandstone, conglo- meratic ash, banded felspathic ash, quartz-rock, variegated marl, quartz-pebbles, altered slate, ribboned slate, and blocks of a coarse conglomerate. The igneous rocks of Staffordshire are very different from those in the breccia ; and none of the other kinds quoted occur in that di- strict, with the exception, perhaps, of the quartz-rock, which might be compared to that of the Lickey. There is, however, good reason why the quartz-rock of the breccia should not have been derived from the altered Caradoc of the Lickey. This ancient ridge is bounded by two faults, one being a downthrow on the east, and the other a downthrow on the west. On the east the white sandstone, and on the west the Permian rocks abut against it: see fig. 4. The con- tinuous ridge of the Bromsgrove Lickey and the Clent Hills, crowned by the breccia, is higher than the Caradoc Hill; the Permian rocks Bunter. Fig. 4.—Section of the Bunter, Permian, and Caradoc rocks of the Lickey. Ww. Bromsgrove Lickey. 1. Altered Caradoc. 2. Permian marlsand sandstone. 3. Breccia. 4. White beds (Bunter). 5. Red marl (Keuper). forming a fine escarpment, the beds of which have a westerly dip. Were they prolonged from a quarter of a mile to a mile, the higher 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 191 beds would cover the Caradoc sandstone; and, were it not for the fault, some of the marls and sandstones beneath the breccia would, if prolonged, also cover these altered Silurian strata. It may therefore be assumed that this old ridge was buried under lower Permian sedi- ments before the breccia was accumulated, and therefore none of the brecciated fragments would be likely to be derived from these altered Caradoc sandstones. In this case, the nearest places to which we can refer the component fragments of the breccia are the Longmynd and the Silurian country east of the Stiper Stones. There we have numerous beds of green, grey, and purple grits, together with rib- boned slates near Shelve and in other places, identical in structure and colour with those in the breccias, quartz-rock at the Stiper Stones, and all the varieties of greenstone and felspathic ash men- tioned in the list. The next nearest places where such ashes occur, are Pembrokeshire and the remoter parts of North Wales ; but, for other reasons besides proximity, it is safer to suppose they were derived from the Cambrian and Silurian regions between Church Stretton and Chirbury (Shropshire and Montgomeryshire), than from the more distant counties of Pembroke, Merioneth, and Caernarvon. The summit of the hill called Frankley Beeches is crowned by an outlier of breccia; and it also forms a piece of ground about a mile and a half long a little to the west of Northfield, a good section of which occurs in the lane leading from Northfield to Bangham pit. The larger stones lie mostly towards the top. Many of them consist of Caradoc limestone (Upper Caradoc of some geologists), and cal- careous sandstone and conglomerate, some of them attaining a dia- meter of about two feet. I submitted a collection of the fossiliferous pieces to Mr. Salter, who determined the following species :— Strophomena compressa. Mytilus mytilimeris. Orthis calligramma. Encrinurus punctatus. Atrypa reticularis (very common). Favosites alveolaris. Spirifer trapezoidalis. Petraia bina. Leptzena depressa. subduplicata. transversalis. Heliolites interstinctus. Rhynchonella semisulcata. Scalites (Trochus) lenticularis. Pentamerus oblongus (rare and small). Euomphalus funatus, var. sculptus. undatus. Goniophora cymbzformis. lens. Serpulites. Besides the blocks containing these fossils, the breccia includes fragments of other calcareous sandstones, ribboned slate like that near Shelve, quartz-rock, porphyritic felspathic ash, felstone and greenstone, like that of the Lower Silurian rocks, purple conglo- merates, similar to those of the Longmynd, and yellow sandstone and black chert, the latter like that of the carboniferous limestone. The Upper Caradoc limestone and fragments of calcareous sand- _stone and conglomerate are peculiar. They do not resemble the Caradoc beds of Walsall, Builth, Malvern, May Hill, or the Lickey ; but, both lithologically and zoologically, they are like the equivalent strata that rest unconformably on and once formed the beaches sur- rounding the Longmynd and adjacent Lower Silurian rocks, where, in situ, they contain green and purple slaty fragments and pieces of 192 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 21, felspathic trap derived from the waste of that ancient Cambrian and Lower Silurian island. They may be identified by this circumstance, for in no other place with which we are acquainted does the Upper Caradoc assume this character ; and Mr. Salter also gives the con- firmatory opinion, that the assemblage of fossils nearly resembles some of the groupings in the parent rocks near Hope. It is there- fore difficult to escape from the conclusion that the rocks generally must have travelled from that country across a space from forty-five to fifty miles. . Between the Forest of Wyre and the south end of the Malvern Hills several patches of the breccia occur at intervals, resting on the coal-measures and on the Silurian rocks of the Malvern and Abberley range*. The most northerly is that at Wars Hill, about two miles west of Kidderminster. It lies directly on the coal-measures ; and on the east the Bunter pebble-beds and Lower brick-red Sandstone are faulted against it. Fig. 5.—Section of the Bunter and the Permian beds, with Breccia, at Wars Hill. W. Wars Hill. E. Fault. 1, Old Red Sandstone. 2. Coal-measures. 3. Permian sandstone and marl, with breccia on top. 4. Lower brick-red sandstone, and 5. Pebble-beds (Bunter). This breccia contains fragments of grey sandstone, very common, grey slate, ashy sandstone, highly felspathic sandstone, felspathic trap, and carboniferous limestone chert. The paste that binds them together is a bright-red marl. No very good sections are exposed ; and the component stones of the breccia are apparently never larger than 8 or 10 inches in diameter. A calcareous conglomerate, iden- tical in structure with that near Enville, underlies the Breccia, being separated from it by sandy and marly beds. The relative positions of the breccia and this conglomerate are therefore the same at Wars Hill and Enville, and there is no reason to doubt that, in general terms, they are equivalents. About three miles further south, a similar breccia occurs on Stagbury Hill, one mile and a half west of Stourport. This also rests on the coal-measures, and helps to form a connecting link between the Enville and the Abberley breccias, which lie indifferently on several of the older Palzeozoic formations. On Stagbury Hill the mass dips east, at angles of about 50°, and the pebble-beds are faulted against it, their junction being, however, con- cealed by the alluvium of the Severn+. * In consequence of the quantities of felspathic angular fragments which came out from beneath the sward, these patches were coloured as igneous rocks by Sir Roderick Murchison, who also informs me that no quarries were at that time opened on the hills. + Notwithstanding the alluvium, there is no real obscurity about this fault, which has been traced. 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 193 Fig. 6.—Section of Coal-measures, Permian, and Bunter at Stagbury Mill. Ww. Stagbury Hill. E. 1. Coal-measures. 2. Permian breccia. 3. Pebble-beds (Bunter). The brecciated fragments consist of felstone, felspathic ash, green- stone-porphyry with large crystals of felspar, greenstone, ribboned slate, grey and purple grit, like that of the Longmynd, coarse con- glomerate, and red micaceous stones like pieces of the Old Red Sand- stone. Excepting this last, the assemblage of rocks, and even their distinctive peculiarities (of ribboned slate, felspathic ash, &c.), are again characteristic of the Longmynd, and of the Lower Silurian series west of the Stiper Stones. The breccia is from twenty-seven to thirty-five miles distant from that country ; and the largest mass observed in it may be about a foot in diameter. A remarkable outlier of breccia forms Church Hill, about six miles west of Stagbury, nearly halfway between Stourport and the Titter- stone Clee Hill. It is about three-quarters of a mile in diameter, and rests unconformably on the Coal-measures, serving as a mark to show that the breccia once extended many miles across the country to the west, and that it has been since removed by denudation. The included angular stones are fine altered sandstones, grey and purple grits, red conglomerate (sometimes in masses of 2 and 3 feet in diameter), greenstone and felspathic porphyries, felspathic ash, grey and green slate, variegated and red marls, red felspathic por- phyry, arenaceous limestone, and altered black sandstone. The stones are unusually angular and broken, and the bright-red marly base is larger in quantity than in most of the other localities. Most of the stones possess the accustomed resemblance to the Cambrian rocks and Llandeilo flags with their included igneous masses in Shropshire and Montgomeryshire; and the limestones, by their fossils, belong undoubtedly to Caradoc of the Montgomeryshire type. A few miles further south, this breccia again appears in two places on the Abberley and Woodbury Hills. Both of these patches rest unconformably on Upper Silurian shales and limestones; and Fig. 7.—Section at Woodbury Hill. Ww. Woodbury Hill. E. Fault. 1. Upper Silurian shale and limestone. 2. Permian breccia. 3. Brown and white sandstone and marls (Upper part of Bunter). 4. Red marl (Keuper). , VOL. XI.—PART I. Pp 194 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Feb. 21, both, forming the highest crests of their respective ridges, dip towards the New Red Sandstone plain at Hundred House and Great Witley. The Permian rock contains subangular fragments and larger boulder-like blocks of greenstone (very numerous), felstone, brec- ciated ashy conglomerate, greenstone-amygdaloid, felspathic ash and porphyry, purple grit, red conglomerate (with rounded pebbles), micaceous marl (Old Red?), green-banded slate, ribboned slate, and altered black and green slate. As in the other localities, the rock may be described as a rudely stratified breccia. At Abberley Hill, some of the masses are from 2 to 3 feet in diameter, and in one of the quarries near the base of Woodbury Hill I saw one half-rounded boulder-shaped fragment which measured 2 ft. 4im. X 1 ft. 6 in. x 1 foot in diameter. Following the Abberley and Malvern chain to the south, the Breccias again appear for about one mile and a half between Berrow Hill and the Teme, and also at Woodbury Rock, on the south side of that river, near Knightsford-bridge. On Berrow Hill they rest on a thin strip of Coal-measures ; but a little further south they overlap this, and lie directly on the Old Red Sandstone. On the east, the upper part of the white sandstone is faulted against them. Fig. 8.—Section of Berrow Hill. W. Berrow Hill. E. Fault. 1. Old Red Sandstone. 2. Coal-measures. 3. Permian breccia. 4. White sandstone (Bunter). 5. Red marl (Keuper). In this breccia we find greenstone, purplish-grey brecciated trap, felstone, felspathic porphyry, purple grit, and slate, grey and ribboned slate, brown sandstone, quartz-rock, red conglomerate, calcareous sandstone, limestone, and a few pieces of granite. On Berrow Hill, the largest fragments observed were about a foot in diameter. At Woodbury Rock, purple grits form the great majority of the fragments, and many of the boulders are unusually large, one of them, of reddish conglomerate, attaining the size of 4 feet by 3, by 1} deep. With the exception of some small pieces of granite, which may be derived from the Malvern Hills further south, the whole of the specimens again resemble the rocks of the Long- mynd and the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Silurian rocks west of the Stiper Stones. A rock of similar structure to the rest of the breccias appears at Alfrick ; but, as it seems more likely to be of Bunter than of Per- mian date, I shall pass it over for the present. It is bounded on the west by the same fault that ranges along the east side of the 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 195 Abberley and Malvern range, and from thence, with slight breaks, passes further south to the shores of the Severn*. At the south end of the Malvern Hills, between Bromsberrow and Howlers Heath, a strip of Permian breccia occurs, about a mile and a half in length, lying unconformably across the strike of the Upper and Lower Silurian rocks. A part of the same band, thrown further south by a fault, stretches for about three-quarters of a mile between Little London and Vineyard. It rests unconformably on the Upper Silu-s rian rocks and the Old Red Sandstone, and both the strips are cut off at each end by faults, which throw the upper brick-red beds (No. 4 in fig. 1) of the Bunter Sandstone against them. They are each about an eighth of a mile in width, dipping southerly under the upper brick-red or variegated sandstone, at angles of about 25°. Fig. 9.—Section of the Bunter and Permian beds south of Howlers Heath. S. Howlers Heath. N. 4, White and brown sandstone, with bands of marl (Bunter). 3. Upper brick- red sandstone (Bunter). 2. Permian breccia. 1. Silurian rocks. Above No. 4 comes the New Red marls. Among numerous sub- angular fragments of the breccia were found pieces of quartz, quartz- rock, quartzose sandstone, purple grit, reddish conglomerate, green- ish-grey grit, black and blue slate, ribboned slate, Silurian limestone, greenstone, felstone, felstone-porphyry, and granite like that of the Malvern Hills. Some of the other fragments, such as the black slate and limestone, alike resemble Malvern and Shelve rocks; but the majority have the character common to the Longmynd rocks, from which they are distant about forty-seven miles. They are generally of no great size, the largest observed rarely exceeding 6 or 8 inches in diameter. The Breccias on one horizon ; and extent of the area which they occupy.—I have now described these Breccias as occurring in ten localities, exclusive of small outliers, or mere minor separations of the same mass by local faults. Though occurring at intervals, there can be little doubt that they all belong to one Permian horizon. In the Enville country (fig. 2, p. 188) they are both overlaid and under- laid by marls and sandstones of true Permian type, the lower beds including two bands of calcareous conglomerate. These, as a whole, dip beneath the Upper New Red Sandstone to the east, and again rise from under it in the southern part of South Staffordshire, where, in consequence of unconformity, the higher Permian beds are over- lapped by the Upper New Red Sandstone ; and, the lower brick-red sandstone being absent, the pebble beds rest directly on the Breccias (fig. 3, p. 190). Between the Bromsgrove and Clent Hills and the * Lately traced by Mr. Howell. P2 196 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 21, South Staffordshire Coal-field, the Permian section is, in general terms, the same as that of the Enville country ; like it, including two highly calcareous bands. Around the South Staffordshire Coal-field, north of Northfield on the east, and Kingswinford on the west, the Permian strata exposed seem all to form portions of the series that lie below the Breccia. Between Enville and Bewdley, the identity of the breccias is ‘sufficiently apparent, two large strips being merely separated at the surface by means of a north and south fault. Between Bewdley and the south end of the Malvern Hills, they occur at six distinct inter- vals, resting on Coal-measures, Silurian rocks, and Old Red Sand- stone ; and in none of these places do we find the marls and sand- stones that elsewhere rest upon and underlie them. The same may be said of the Church Hill outlier. This would seem to indicate that the breccias in places overlap the Lower Permian strata; and this may be easily accounted for, if we suppose that a tract of country of irregular outline was gradually depressed during the accumulation of the series, so that the original margins of the lower strata were by degrees overlapped, and the breccias deposited on still smking land. There is, in truth, no good reason why these detached masses should be supposed of different dates ; for structure and mode of occurrence alike point to their identity. If then the Staffordshire, Enville, Abberley, and Malvern breccias be all of one origin and date, either cropping out directly from underneath the Bunter Sandstone (except where faulted), or being associated with beds that do so, there is reason to believe that, along with the rest of the Permian strata, they may to a great extent underlie the greater part of the Bunter series between Malvern, Enville, and South Staffordshire ; just as, by parity of reasoning, we conclude that the coal-fields of. Staffordshire, Coalbrook Dale, the Forest of Wyre, and the thin strips on the flanks of the Abberley Range, near Martly, are also probably connected deep below the surface. The chances are in favour of this general continuity of Coal-measures ; and, if they are not invariably united, it is probably because parts were removed by denudation before or during the deposition of the overlying formations. The same may be said of the Permian strata of which the Breccia forms a member ; and, if they either are or were continuous at any time between out- crop and outcrop, they cover or covered an included area estimated at about 500 square miles. But at the south end of the Malverns they dip southerly, near Northfield at the south-east end of the South Staffordshire coal-field they dip easterly, and north of Enville they are cut off by a fault; so that to some extent they must—and for aught we know they may—extend beneath the New Red Sandstone over a much greater area. Character of the stones in the Breccia; and whence derived.— The lithological nature of the imbedded fragments has already been described. Everywhere, in spite of exceptional fragments in the Mal- vern district, they seem to be derived from one set of rocks ; they are all enclosed in the same red marly paste, and they are mostly angular 1855. | RAMSAY— PERMIAN BRECCIA. 197 or subangular. A well-rounded waterworn pebble is, in places, of rare occurrence. The surfaces of a great majority of the pebbles are much flattened, numbers are highly polished, and, when searched for, many of them are observed to be distinctly grooved and finely striated. The strie in some are clear and sharp, and run parallel to or cross each other at various angles; while in others, though you see their remains, age and surface-decomposition have impaired their sharpness and roughened the original polish of the stone. I have stated that (if lithological character be any guide) the fragments (with rare exceptional pieces) seem to have been derived from the conglomerates and green, grey, and purple Cambrian grits of the Longmynd, and from the Silurian quartz-rocks, slates, fel- stones, felspathic ashes, greenstones, and Upper Caradoc rocks of the country between the Longmynd and Chirbury*. The south end of the Malvern Hills is from forty to fifty miles, the Abberleys from twenty-five to thirty-five miles, Enville from twenty to thirty miles, and South Staffordshire from thirty-five to forty-five miles distant from that country. The question then arises, by what process were so many angular and subangular fragments transported so far; many of them being a foot, and some two, three, or even four feet in dia- meter; the whole in places forming a deposit of several hundred feet in thickness? Why also are they angular, and not well-rounded, like the pebbles of the great conglomerate-beds of the Bunter Sand- stone; and why have they flattened sides, and often polished and striated surfaces ? Fossils of the Permian : and Stratification of the Breccia.—There seems no special reason to doubt that the Permian beds of the mid- land counties are of marine origin, like the magnesian limestone series of Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and the North of England ; although, except the remains of the tree near Enville, no native fossils have yet been discovered in them, either on the borders of Wales or on the east side of Coalbrook Dale, in Staffordshire, or on the flanks of the Malvern Hills. There are, however, identical deposits lying between Leamington and the. neighbourhood of Tamworth, in which a few fossils were found. In this district these beds have heretofore been described as belonging to the Bunter Sandstone+, appearing as they donot far below the true New Red or Keuper marl. The error arose from the absence of the pebble-beds and the lower and upper brick- red sandstones of the Bunter Series (fig. 1, p. 188); and thus it happens that between Leamington and the country a little to the south of Tamworth, the white and brown sandstones, 5, fig. 1, p.. 188 (that immediately underlie the New Red marl), rest directly on the Permian sandstones and marls, which were thus naturally mistaken for the lower parts of the Bunter strata. Having satisfied myself, on purely stratigraphical and lithological grounds, that these were true Permian strata, the truth of this surmise was further confirmed * Tn part, the Shelve country. + Memoir by Sir R. I. Murchison and Mr. Strickland, Transact. Geol. Soc. 2nd Ser., vol. v. p. 331. 198 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 21, in 1852, when I found fragments of Lepidodendron and Calamites* in a quarry near Exhall. Encouraged by this discovery, these rocks were diligently searched for fossils during the completion of the geolo- gical lines by Mr. Howell, and in the same quarry a few casts of a shell were discovered by our collector Mr. Richard Gibbs, which Mr. Salter considers to be of Permian type and more allied to Strophalosia than to any other genus. The silicified trees found near Allesley and Me- riden, and apparently several species of Caulerpites and Breea now in the Warwick Museumf, belong also to the same rocks (formerly supposed Bunter species) ; and, in addition to this, it is interesting to know that the beds near Kenilworth in which the Labyrinthodon Bucklandi was found by Dr. Lloydt belong to the same series. This reptile, previously considered of Bunter date, must therefore be transferred to the Permian period. Beds of calcareous conglomerate are associated with the strata in which all of these fossils were found, and are similar to those which underlie the breccia near Enville ; and it is not improbable they may be general equivalents ; in which case, trees, reptile, and marine shells are of earlier date than the great deposits of breccia. The Permian marls and sandstone near Enville, that overlie the breccias, are in no respect dissimilar from those that lie beneath ; and the breccias themselves, whenever well exposed, are seen to possess a distinctly stratified structure. Not only do the stones generally lie on their flat sides, but sometimes there are long marly and sandy layers and beds in the midst of the mass. Fig. 10.—Stratified Permian Breccia. oa W Ww ) SENNA, Mtr pW) ol eile i FE, / i BEG E a xr = Glacial origin of the Breccia.—They were therefore deposited in water with considerable regularity, and, as we have seen, over a large area. It is altogether unlikely that the stones were poured into the sea by rivers in the manner in which some conglomerates are formed on steep coasts, where mountain-ridges nearly approach the shore, Ist, because the fragments, being derived almost exclusively from the Longmynd country, if the sea then washed its old shores, no * Prof. E. Forbes considered it to be Calamites Mougeotii? My. Salter thinks it Calamites Suckovii, a Carboniferous species. t+ Caulerpites oblonga, C. triangularis, C. biangularis, Breea entassoides. No precise locality is given for these specimens. } Transactions of the British Association, 1849, Sections, p. 56. 1855. RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 199 river-currents passing out to sea could carry such large fragments from thirty to fifty miles beyond their mouths and scatter them promiscu- ously along an ordinary sea-bottom ; and, 2ndly, if the rivers merely passed from the Longmynd across a lower land to the sea, transporting stones and blocks of various size, these would have been waterworn on their passage seaward after the manner of all far-transported river-gravels, whereas many of the stones are somewhat flat, like slabs, and most of them have their edges but little rounded. Neither could ordinary marine currents move and widely distribute fragments so large that some of them truly deserve the name oi boulders ; and, except in the case of earthquake-waves, which here and there produce an occasional debacle on a shore, I have no faith in violent currents of sea-water (such as have been sometimes assumed to result from imagined sudden great upheavals of land), washing across hundreds or thousands of square miles, and bearing along and scattering vast accumulations of debris far from the parent rocks. This is an assumption without proof. It is also unlikely, and I think impossible, that large debris of this kind could be distributed over so wide an area by the sifting process which Mr. Darwin has shown probably to take place on the east coast of South America, in consequence of movements communicated into deep water during long-continued heavy gales. Neither have they been moved along sea-shores, or subjected to breaker action, like the stones of the Chesil Bank, or of the conglomerate of the Upper New Red Sandstone, all the pebbles of which are true pebbles, spherical or oval, and smoothed by long attrition. If, then, they were not distributed by any of these agents, there remains but one other means of transport and distribution—the agency of ice. Ist. There is in proof, the great size of many of the fragments,— the largest observed weighing (by a rough estimate) from a half to three-quarters of a ton. 2nd. Their forms. Rounded pebbles are exceedingly rare. They are angular or subangular, and have those flattened sides so peculiarly characteristic of many glacier-fragments in existing moraines, and also of many of the stones of the Pleistocene drifts, and the moraine matter of the Welsh, Highland, Irish, and Vosges glaciers. 3rd. Many of them are highly polished, and others are grooved and finely striated, like the stones of existing Alpine glaciers, and like those of the ancient glaciers of the Vosges, Wales, Ireland, and the Highlands of Scotland; or like many stones in the Pleistocene drift. It has been said that in any breccia or conglomerate the stones may be scratched. In other ancient breccias I have never observed it; and I think that in the Permian fragments the experienced eye will have no difficulty im recognizing the peculiar characteristics of glacial scratching. By way of contrast, I exhibit some of the pebbles of the upper new red conglomerate. This subformation has been traced over many hundreds of square miles, from Derby to the shores of the Mersey, 200 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. ([Feb. 21, and from thence to the neighbourhood of the Abberley Hills. Its component stones are often from 3. to 9 inches in diameter ; but, un- like those in the breccias, they are all beautifully rounded; and, where they touch in the rock, they are not scratched, but indent each other at the points of contact ; the indentations being, I believe, due to the fact, that, while these gravels were still incoherent (they may be dug out now with pickaxe and shovel) over great areas, the upper parts of the New Red series, the Lias, and perhaps other newer strata, were piled upon them, and the vertical pressure, consequent on this vast superincumbent pile, induced a lateral pressure in the loose-lying pebbles of the conglomerate; so that, being squeezed, _ not only downwards, but outwards, they ground on each other, and, partly by the aid of intervening grains of sand, circular indentations were formed, sometimes an inch in diameter. Occasional earthquake- waves would assist this process. These marks rarely occur in the Permian breccia; for, whereas in the case of the conglomerates we have sand mingled with the pebbles in the breccias, we find 4th. A hardened cementing mass of red marl, in which the stones are very thickly scattered, and which in some respects may be com- pared to a red boulder-clay, in so far that both contain angular flat-sided and striated stones and boulders brought from a distance. I conceive, therefore, that the peculiar forms, polish, and markings of many of the stones indicate that these characteristics have been produced hy the agency of ice of the nature of glaciers, for mere coast-ice would have picked up and drifted away numerous rounded pebbles from the beach, and not a great majority of angular flattened stones, such as form the breccias wherever they occur. If this conclusion be correct, and if the parent rocks whence the stones were derived be properly identified, then it follows that the ancient territory of the Longmynd and the adjacent Lower Silurian rocks, having undergone many mutations, at length gave birth to the glaciers, which, flowing down some old system of valleys, reached the level of the sea, and, breaking off into bergs, floated away to the east and south-east, and deposited their freights of mud, stones, and boulders in the neighbouring Permian seas. The few fragments of granite and syenite mingled with numerous Longmynd fragments in the Malvern area would not invalidate this conclusion, for what more likely than that the floating bergs should sometimes have stranded on or grazed along some of the higher Malvern hill-tops that, as islands, dotted the Permian Sea, and that they thus picked up a few fragments to be mingled and deposited with the foreign material wherever they chanced to melt ? | It is in vain now to look for the terrestrial indications of these old glaciers on the hills and sides of the existing valleys. The country has passed through too many revolutions and denudations in later periods to permit their traces to remain. It may, however, be asked, what relation do the present levels of the Longmynd and of the breccias bear to each other ? The higher points of the Longmynd, Stiper Stones, and Corndon Hill attain a height of from 1500 to 1700 feet above the level of the 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 201 sea. On the Clent Hills and Bromsgrove Lickey the breccias are from 800 to 900 feet above the sea-level ; and on the Abberley and Malvern Ridge they are from 800 to 1000 feet high in their highest positions. In none of the other places where they occur do the breccias reach so great an elevation. There is, therefore, at present no disparity so great between the relative elevations of the Longmynd Range and the breccia as to induce a belief in the probability of ice- bergs breaking away from glaciers on that old shore and floating in the Permian seas; but it must be recollected that in Britain great disturbances of the strata have taken place since Permian times, and in various places alluded to in this memoir the Permian strata dip at all angles between 6° and 50°, so that their present relative elevations give but little clue to their ancient physical relations. A general tilting upwards of the country to the amount of 1° to the west would raise the Stiper Stones from 1000 to 2000 feet higher above Abberley Hill and Bromsgrove than they are at present; and 2° or 3° would double and treble this difference, and yet make no very sensible change in the relative slopes of the ground. Apart, however, from such speculations of mere tilting, there is one point which may possibly bear upon the subject more directly, although I am not inclined to attach too much value to the circumstance. A great fault lies between the Longmynd and the Breccias on the east. Beginning in the Upper Silurian rocks, near Gladestry in Radnorshire, it passes to the north-east by Presteign, Bucknall, Hopesay, and Church Stretton to Acton Burnell, and from thence to the Severn, where it splits and passes in two branches, one towards Uppington, the other to the west side of the Wrekin, throwing down the Bunter Sand- stone on the west for the last ten miles of its course. It is also a downthrow of about 2000 feet on the west near Hopesay, and between Hopesay and Church Stretton it varies from 1500 to 2000 feet. Affecting all the rocks from the Cambrian to the New Red Sand- stone, this dislocation may possibly have had its throw increased at different epochs ; but, assuming for the sake of argument that the main throw happened after the close of the Permian period, by annulling the fault, or in other words shifting up the Longmynd on the west to the amount of the throw, we obtain a configuration of the ground by which the relative levels of sea and land might have been greatly modified durmg the Permian epoch. This naturally leads to another question. It will be remembered that the Caradoc limestone (immediately underlying the Wenlock or Pentamerus shale) rests directly and unconformably on the Longmynd rocks ; and in a former memoir* I showed that, while the Caradoc and Upper Silurian beds were being deposited, the land consisting of the Longmynd and overlying Lower Silurian gradually sank and was en- cased in a thick coating of all the Upper Silurian rocks ; and, seein that it is partly surrounded by high-lying outliers of Old Red Sand- stone, it is more than probable that this formation may have been added to the pile. The Wenlock and Ludlow rocks alone of this neighbour- hood attain a thickness of 3000 feet. Now the Permian brecciated * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 296. 202 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Feb. 21, fragments being principally formed of Longmynd grits and of the Lower Silurian slates and igneous rocks east of the Stiper Stones, we get an approximation to the date of the denudation of those great masses of strata that once entombed the more ancient palzeozoic rocks. In other words, they must, in part at least, have been stripped from the hills that they enveloped before or durmg the Permian period, otherwise the underlying rocks would not have been reached and degraded by the help of the glaciers. Objections answered.—There is a common objection not yet ex- ploded that may be raised to the view taken in this paper. I allude to the argument, that, the earth having gradually cooled, by radia- tion from its circumference, down to a late Secondary, or even Ter- tiary period, this radiation affected the entire climate of the world, and gave tropical characters to its fauna and flora far down in geo- logic time. To treat this subject m detail would lead to a discussion too lengthened and elaborate to be introduced as a subordinate part of a memoir the main object of which is simply to explain the origin of what seems to be an ancient boulder-clay ; but, as the question of an ancient tropical uniformity of climate is still frequently asserted, it cannot in this place be altogether omitted. Regarding the paleozoic faunas, many paleontologists are of opinion that there is no ground whatever for attributing to them a tropical character. This was certainly the opinion of our late la- mented President, with whom I have often conversed on the subject. Further, the different assemblages of species in equivalent formations in various localities, even in Silurian times, would seem to indicate that the laws of distribution were the same then as now. Neither has it ever appeared to me that the style of reasoning is at all con- clusive which asserts that the Secondary faunas were necessarily tropical because of the peculiarities of form. Of late tertiary date there was an age when elephants ranged every latitude from India to the confines of the Arctic Circle. Is there any reason why at an earlier period Ammonites, Belemnites, and great Saurians should not have done the same? What applies to animals may apply to many plants; and, if this be insufficient, we have in the arguments enforced by Sir Charles Lyell respecting different distributions of sea and land good cause for many variations of climate*. * The greatest difficulty in the case seems to lie in the occurrence of Coal- measure plants in places beyond the Arctic Circle, in Bear Island and the Green- land shores, the loose cellular structure of which plants would seem to indicate that they could neither have been long withdrawn from the stimulus of light, nor yet have endured the long-continued action of frost. (Dr. Hooker, Memoirs of — the Geol. Survey, vol. ii. part 2. p. 396.) The whole problem is in many ways obscure, and it is probably a mixed question, some of the elements of which we have not yet got hold of; but it may surely be assumed that the dogma of uni- versal tropical climates dependent on central heat, so far from being proved, is daily losing ground. One argument may be adduced against it, which I think is deserving of attention. The average melting-point of ordinary lavas is said to be something intermediate between those of silver and copper, or about 1934°. Assuming the increment of internal heat as we descend to average 1° for every 60 feet below the first 60 feet, 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 203 In connection with this supposed universality of tropical climate, it has been objected that the nature of the Permian fauna and flora affords an argument against the possibility of glaciers existing in Permian times in this area, more especially as the Permian flora suc- ceeds and nearly resembles the flora of the Coal-measures, supposed by many to have atropical character. To this it may be replied—1st, That there is nothing in the Permian marine fauna essentially tropical, and of the habits of the one solitary Labyrinthodon we are altogether ignorant. 2nd, It was the opinion of Dr. Mantell, and has been confirmed by Dr. J. D. Hooker, that the Carboniferous flora indi- cates, not a tropical, but a moist, equable, and temperate climate*, possibly such as that of New Zealand; in which country, it will be remembered, there are glaciers at the present day in the southern island+. If indeed, after the early stage of growth, the beds of carbonaceous matter that formed coal accumulated in a manner at the temperature of rocks would rise to the melting-point of lava at 113,100 feet beneath the surface, assuming for these latitudes a constant temperature of 50° at the depth of 60feet. It does not, however, therefore follow, that they should melt at that depth, for this might be interfered with by pressure; but it may be assumed that under such circumstances the rocks might be considerably altered, if subjected to this high temperature for a great length of time. I attribute, for instance, in some cases, the metamorphism of shales or slates into gneiss to their approaching the sphere of such influences. Now (on the authority of Mr. W. Hopkins, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 59), “‘ the present effect of the internal heat is about one-twentieth of a degree” on the mean superficial temperature ; but to affect the external climates of the globe 1° Fahr. (namely twenty times the present amount) “the descending rate of increase must have been twenty times as great as at pre- sent, about 20° Fahr. for every 60 feet; and, if the superficial temperature were thus raised about 10° Fahr., the temperature at the depth of 60 feet would, ac- cording to the same law, exceed 200° Fahr., and all but surface-springs would be springs of boiling-water. This physical state of our planet would scarcely, per- haps, be deemed consistent with the conditions of animal life at the more recent geological epochs.” To this conclusion many geologists are steadily arriving ; and for many years I have held that internal heat, at least since the formation of the oldest fossiliferons rocks, has not materially modified the climates of the world. On the foregoing data an argument in favour of this view may be drawn from the rocks themselves. Let us suppose that the external climate was affected by internal heat only 1° Fahr., involving an increment of 20° Fahr. for every 60 feet of descent, then, instead of reaching the equivalent temperature of the surface- melting-point of lava at 113,100 feet beneath the surface, we should reach it at a depth of about 5700 feet; and, were the average surface-temperature incyeased 10°, we should reach it at a depth of about 580 feet. The thicknesses of many British formations have been determined by the Geological Survey. Thus in North Wales the Barmouth and Harlech grits are about 7000 feet thick without our reaching their base, and 25,000 feet of Lower Silurian strata are conformably superimposed on these, giving a total of 32,000 feet. But, as a rule, the rocks are not highly altered. The slates are cleaved and hardened; but it is only ina few places, where granite or other allied rocks have been intruded into them, that they become so changed as to deserve the title of metamorphic. I have elsewhere shown (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ix. p. 170), that the Welsh igneous bosses that effect this alteration were simply the nuclei or centres of the Lower Silurian volcanos; and in areas removed from these the rocks remain unmetamorphosed ; which ought not to have been the case, had the rocks in general attained and long maintained the temperature of melting lava at a depth of only 5700 feet. * Memoirs of the Geological Survey, vol. ix. part 2. p. 399. t+ I derived this information from the late Dr. Mantell, who informed me that he had received descriptions of them from his son. 204 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [Feb. 21, all analogous to the mode of formation of peat-mosses*, this of itself would form an argument against the tropical character of the car- boniferous flora, for peat-moss only grows and largely increases in temperate and cold climates. If these arguments hold good for coal- measure plants, they are equally applicable to those of the Permian period, which are much fewer in number and consist principally of Ferns, Calamites, Conifere, and a few Sea-weeds. Even if the Car- boniferous period could be proved to be altogether tropical, a glacial episode in Permian times would not be so remarkable, seeing that the unconformity of the Permian on the Carboniferous rocks is everywhere so great that there is evidently no passage or direct sequence in the strata, and probably between the close of the Car- boniferous and the beginning of the Permian epoch a long period elapsed during which our Carboniferous rocks were upheaved above the waters. In connexion with the nature of the ancient life of the fossiliferous Permian rocks of the North and East of England, a third argument remains, which has even more weight than the former two. The precise relation of the midland Permian beds to the true magnesian limestone series has not yet been completely demonstrated. The Alberbury rocks do not belong, as has been generally supposed, to the true magnesian limestone of Professor Sedgwick, but are formed of a breccia on the same horizon with and strongly resembling that of the Abberleys and South Staffordshire, except that, instead of trap and sandstone, the Abberley fragments are derived from the carboniferous limestone to the north-west. For various reasons I believe that the true magnesian limestone series is higher in the Permian scale than the rocks of the midland counties}, but the question is yet uncertain, the absolute proof bemg wanting. How- ever this may be, why, considering the evidence adduced, might there not be a glacial episode, marked by a consolidated Boulder- clay, during Permian ages, just as we have had one in late Tertiary times, that may be said nearly to approach our own? If the newer Crag, and all the Pleistocene beds.of the South and North of England, of Ireland, and Scotland, and the deposits now forming, were thrown far back in time, solidified, and highly disturbed, we should cer- tainly, because of their fauna, include them all in one geological epoch. Uncertain subdivisions might be based on the presence of peculiar mammals, but the shells would be so nearly the same that all geologists would agree in referrmg them to one period, and possibly even Miocene beds might be included, but as a lower stage. Yet in the midst of this period, and indeed since our existing shells appeared, we have had in these latitudes a rigid arctic climate, with its glaciers, its great moraines, and floating bergs, scattering detritus from the Welsh, Irish, and Highland hills. The thickness of rocks affords no safe test of the time occupied in their accumulation, but sometimes it aids in the rude estimate, and, compared even to the * See also Lyell’s ‘ Elements,’ 1851, p. 335. + See ‘Silurian System.’ 1855. | RAMSAY—PERMIAN BRECCIA. 205 midland part of the Permian strata, the Crag and Pleistocene beds are, as masses, sufficiently meagre. There is one point of resemblance between these Permian breccias with their associated strata and the Pleistocene drift deposits worthy of note. In the latter fossils are much scattered, and in most of the beds of rare occurrence. They are still more scarce in that part of the Permian series with which the breccias are associated. I have thought, that, in like manner, this paucity of life may be connected in these latitudes with the glacial phenomena of the Permian and the Bunter periods, and I no sooner mentioned this to Professor EK. Forbes than he suggested that it might also be connected with the great break in life that has taken place between Paleeozoic and Secondary times. In connexion with this, in so far as it affects the Bunter rocks, I may state that near Wribbenhall in part of the pebble-beds (of Bunter date) there are breccias strikingly resembling those of Permian strata ; and also near Astley, a little S.W. of Stourport, and probably at Alfrick, at the base of the white sandstones there is a recurrence of the same phenomenon. It is possible that these may have been reconstructed from the waste of the older Permian brec- cias; but when I examined them, I felt more disposed to attribute them to direct glacial action, and now incline to connect them with the passage quoted from Mr. Austen’s Memoir, in which he attri- butes the transport of large blocks in the New Red Sandstone to glacial agency. 206 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. POSTPONED PAPERS. On the CoRRELATION of the EoceNE TERTIARIES 0f ENGLAND, France, and Betcium. By Josery Prestwicu, Jun., Ksq., F.R.S., F.G.S. [Read June 21, 1854*. | [Puate VIII.] CONTENTS. Part I.—LoweEr Breps,—the London Group. 1. Known foreign Equivalents. § 2. Grouping of the Lower Tertiary Strata in France, Belgium, and England. 3. Correlation of the several Divisions of the Lower Tertiaries.—The Thanet Sands and Systeme Landenien inférieur. 4, The Woolwich Sands (lower part of) and Sables de Bracheux. 5. Middle beds of the Woolwich and Reading Series,—the Fluviatile Clays and Lignites; Lignites du Soissonnais. 6. The Upper Woolwich beds; the Pebble beds; Grés, Poudingues, and Sables (D’Archiac). § 7. The Relation of the Lower Members of the French Series to the Sables Divers and Lits Coquilliers, or the Glauconie Moyenne. § 8. The London Clay and Systéme Ypresien inférieur, or Glaise Ypresien ; not represented in the Paris Tertiary District. § 9. The Lower Bagshot Sands; Systéme Ypresien supérieur or Sables Ypresiens ; Lits Coquilliers and Sables divers, or Glauconie moyenne. § 10. Conclusion. Table of Equivalents. Explanation of Plate. eg) rw Orie Part I.—Lower Beps,—tHe Lonpon Grovptf. § 1. Known foreign Equivalents. In a former papert I pointed out the distinctive paleontological and physical features of the London Clay and the Bracklesham Sands. Having on a previous occasion shown that there exists a close analogy * For the other Communications read at this Evening Meeting, see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. pp. 454 e¢ seq. + The correlative description of the upper groups is unavoidably deferred to a later period.—J. P. ~ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 435. PRESTWICH— BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 207 between the latter deposit and the Calcaire grossier*—a conclusion confirmed and rendered more definite by subsequent observations— and having established the relation which the Tertiaries of London bear to those of Hampshire, the comparison between the main divisions of the London, Hampshire, and Paris groups becomes comparatively easy. At the same time, owing to the absence or obscurity of several intermediate links in the Hampshire group, the exact correlation of each varied member of the more distant groups of Paris and London would not be perfectly clear without the addi- tional assistance of the Belgian Tertiaries, which, as they afford a type in many respects more closely allied than the Hampshire series to the Paris Tertiaries, serve to complete the chain of evidence. This comparison of the Belgian Tertiaries was, as far as the Lower divisions are concerned, not practicable until the clear and exact order of superposition established by M. Dumont+, chiefly upon very accurate physical evidence, and confirmed by the important paleontological evidence recently brought forward by Sir Charles Lyellt, settled the true grouping of these strata$. The lists of fossils from the Lower tertiary beds of Belgium, previous to those drawn up by Sir Charles, and those more recently published by M. Omalius d’ Halloy||, were either too erroneous or too incomplete to allow geologists to correlate satisfactorily, upon such grounds, this series with that of France and of England]. In this part of the paper I shall confine my observations to those Tertiary beds, which, commencing immediately above the Chalk, are in England limited above by the Bracklesham Sands, in France py the Calcaire grossier, and in Belgium by the Systeme Bruwellien of Du- mont. My object will be to show the more exact correlation of the strata beneath that zone, and to claim for the London Tertiaries, as a group, a distinct and independent position under that of that Paris * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. p. 378. + Trans. of the Acad. Roy. de Bruxelles, vols. vi. xvi. xviii. 1839-1851. + Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 277, 1852. § The Tertiary paleontology of Belgium had nevertheless received some very valuable contributions in several papers by M. De Koninck, and the larger mono- graph of M. Nyst; whilst the general geology had been partially illustrated by M. Galeotti and M. Omalius D’Halloy. Sketches of local sections and a few good general sections are much wanted, however, to facilitate the study of the Belgian tertiaries. || Abrégé de Géologie, 1853. { One instance occurring at the onset—in the lowest Tertiary beds of Belgium —affected the bearing of the whole sequence; for, by some mistake, in previous works on Belgian Geology, amongst the fossils of the “‘ Tufeau de Lincent,” or “‘ Landenien inférieur,” a number of Calcaire grossier species, including the Num- mulites levigatus, had been introduced; this is now proved to be an error. M. D’Archiac, who has given two most excellent sketches of the relation of the Belgian strata with those of France, had very properly overruled this anomaly, and fixed, with his usual discrimination, the correlation of all the more important and leading middle divisions (Bull. Soc. Géol. de France, vol. x. p. 168, and Hist. des Prog. de la Géol. vol. ii. p. 500). Another step has also recently been made in correlating the higher beds by the evidence brought forward by M. Hébert proving the close relation of the fauna of the Limbourg beds with that of the Grés de Fontainbleau (Bull. Soc. Géol. de France, 2nd ser. vol. vi. p. 459). 208 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. group, of which latter the Calcaire grossier may be taken as the centre and the type*. (See Table.) In France the Calcaire grossier forms so well-marked and definite an horizon, that no difference of opinion exists with reference to its range and characters. The Bracklesham Sands in this country, and the Systéme Bruxellien in Belgium, are the equivalents of this portion of the French series, and afford a base-line equally well-defined. Between this geological level and the Chalk the strata are very variable. Their relative position in the mass is, however, perfectly apparent ; but yet there is in this portion of the French and English tertiary series one division only of which the exact synchronism stands recognized on sufficient combined physical and paleontological evidence, viz. that division formed by the lignites of the Soissonnais and the fluviatile beds of Woolwich and Lewisham+. In France and Belgium, the zone of the Nummulites planulatus in the upper part of the Soissonnais Sands and of the Ypresian series forms the only other well-established zoological horizon in these lower beds. On stratigraphical grounds the Ypresian Clay of Belgium had also been referred by M. Dumont to the London Clay. § 2. Grouping of the Lower Tertiary strata in France, Belgium, and England. (See Table.) In the Paris district the strata beneath the Calcaire grossier have been variously grouped. By M. D’Archiacf, in his very able classi- fication of the French series, they have been all (with the exception of the Glauconie grossiére) included in one group—that of his “Sables Inférieurs,’’ or Lower Tertiary Sands—consisting of six members, which in his latest work, the ‘‘ Histoire des Progrés de la Géologie,” (vol. 1. p. 598) stand as under, commencing with the uppermost division :— Group of the * Sables Inférieurs”? (D’ Archiac). ler Etage. Glaises et sables glauconieux (Clays and glauconiferous sands). 2 * Lits coquilliers (Shell beds). 3 i Sables divers ou Glauconie moyenne (Varied Sands or middle Glau- conite). 4 a Grés, poudingues, et sables coquilliers (Sandstones, puddingstones, and shelly sands). 5 4 Glaises sableuses, Bancs d’Huitres, etc., marnes lacustres, lignite, argile plastique (Sandy clays, oyster beds, lacustrine marls, lignite, plastic clay). 6 iy Glauconie inférieure, Calcaire lacustre inférieur, poudingues et argiles du sud-est du bassin (Lower Glauconite, lower lacustrine limestone, conglomerates and clays of the south-east of the basin). This series is only fully exhibited in the more northern part of the Paris tertiary district. This, however, is the area with which, as it is the nearest to England, we must first establish our relations. * See also. Sir Charles Lyell’s and M. Dumont’s tables in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. pp. 279 and 370, 1852. + With which, as suggested by M. Dumont, the Upper Landenian is syn- chronous. +1839, Bull. Soc. Géol. vol. x. p. 172; 1840, Mém. Soc. Géol. de France, 2nd ser. vol. v. p. 263; 1848, Hist. des Prog. de la Géol. vol. ii. p. 598. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 209 M. Graves* not only includes the ‘Sables glauconieux and Lits coquilliers” in this lowest group of Sables Inférieurs, but also the overlying ‘‘Glauconie grossiére” (which M. D’Archiac places with the “Calcaire grossier”’), making of this latter division, together with the Ist, 2nd, and 3rd of D’Archiac, one group; and forming a second of the divisions 4, 5, and 6 of D’Archiac. These he designates as the two ‘‘ Groupes des Sables glauconieux.”’ M. Raulint, on the contrary, takes the ‘‘ Glauconie grossiére” and the “ Lits coquilliers” out of this group, and classes both as sub- ordinate members of the Calcaire grossier. M. Charles D’Orbigny, in his ‘Tableau Général,” also makes two groups of these lower French Tertiaries,—1st. ‘‘ Sables quartzeux glauconiféres” (divisions 1, 2, and 3 of M. D’Archiac) ; 2nd. “Argile Plastique ;” but in a workt more recently edited by him, these are further subdivided into—Ist. An upper group, consisting of, —Glauconiferous sands; sands, sandstones, and pebble beds; lig- nites, plastic clay, and fossiliferous conglomerates. 2nd. A lower one of the lower lacustrine limestone and quartzose sands. M. Alcide D’Orbigny, who considers that the variation of the fauna of all this period results only from variations in the depth and saltness of the waters, forms of these six divisions his ‘‘ Etage Sues- sonien ou Nummulitique §”’, —his oldest Tertiary group. In Belgium, M. Dumont divides the lower Tertiaries into his “Upper and Lower Ypresian,”’ and *‘ Upper and Lower Landenian”’ Systems; whilst Sir Charles Lyell, combining and modifying the classification of Dumont, Omalius D’Halloy, and D’Archiac, groups them into Lower Nummulitic beds, London clay, Plastic clay and sands, Glauconite and Tufeau of Lincent, and Marls and Glauconite of Heers. In England I have placed the Lower Bagshot Sands at the base of the Brackiesham series; then, in descending order, the ‘ London clay,’ the ‘“‘Basement-bed of the London clay,” the ‘ Woolwich and Reading series,” and the ‘Thanet Sands.” It is curious and instructive to observe how, in each country, the grouping of these lesser divisions of the Tertiary series has been based upon local conditions. This is probably right and necessary in establishing a local order of superposition, but it shows also how much local phenomena will modify, even at short distances, the apparent relations which exist in nearly allied and synchronous strata; for it is on some actual predominating feature in the several districts that the various groupings are based. Thus I have, from the recurrence of like lithological characters and in the absence of paleontological evidence, referred the Lower Bagshot Sands to a subordinate position with the Bracklesham series ; whilst, both from organic remains and structure, the London clay is referred to a * Essai sur la Topographie Géognostique du Département de l’Oise, 1847, p. 174; an excellent local work to which we shall have constantly to refer. tT ‘ Patria,” 1847, vol. i. p. 370. t Manuel de Géologie, 1852, p. 86 and 171. § “Cours Elémentaire de Paléontologie et de Géologie,” vol. ii. p. 704. and 713. VOL. XI.— PART I. Q 210 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. division apart, but nearly allied to the three underlying subdivi- sions of “the Lower London Tertiaries.’ In Belgium, on the contrary, M. Dumont, on physical evidence, unites into one group the sands and clays of Ypres; and forms a second group of the beds beneath, dividing it into the Upper and Lower Landenian ; whilst Sir Charles Lyell, mainly on the evidence of the organic remains, places the Ypresian Sands at the base of his middle Eocene group; the Ypresian clays and the upper Landenian in his lower Eocene group; and the lower Landenian in a separate intermediate group between the Tertiaries and the Chalk. In France the con- stant recurrence of very sim*lar mineral characters in all the strata beneath the Calcaire grossier has rendered the division of this part of the Tertiary series rather unsettled and difficult of exact determi- nation. So much is this the case, that M. D’Archiac observes *, that “‘ where the ‘ Lits coquilliers’ are wanting, there is no mode of separating the third member of the ‘ Sables Inférieurs’ from the first, and that at those places where the sandstones, or even the lignites, with their beds of clay and oysters do not exist, there is no distinction to be seen between these sands of the third division and the Glauconie inférieure.”” M. Graves also states}, that ‘‘ as the division into series of the ‘Sables glauconieux’ is entirely artificial, when the fossils are wanting at the same time as the lignites and sandstones, all distine- tion ceases, and the beds of sand continue uninterruptedly from the Chalk to the Calcaire grossier, without the possibility of distinguish- ing any divisions.”’ It was this unbroken sequence which before caused me to hesitate in assigning to the London clay its exact parallel in the French series. From the close agreement of the Calcaire grossier with the Bracklesham sands, I felt no doubt of the infraposition of the London clay to the former deposit, whilst, from the agreement of the Woolwich fluviatile beds with the lignites of the Soissonnais, I was satisfied of its superposition to the latter deposit. But then in France the beds beneath the Calcaire grossier were in perfect sequence, and showed no break. Therefore, if we looked only to the limits afforded by these two undoubtedly good geological horizons, the London clay in England held exactly the place occupied in France by the “ Lits coquilliers’’ and associated sands (Et. 1, 2, 3, D’Arch.). But the fossils of the latter presented a far closer agreement with those of the Calcaire grossier than with those of the London clay, although the number of known species common to these beds and the London clay appeared at that time larger than that of any other member of the English series. Consequently, though I considered the London clay to be more closely connected with the Lits coquilliers than with the Calcaire grossier, with which it had previously been associated, I stated{, that ‘‘ possibly the London Clay may have been formed during a period not represented, or only very partially so, in the French series ;”’ and further remarked, that I was inclined ‘‘ to con- sider that the London clay period immediately preceded that of the * Hist. des Prog. de la Géol. vol. ii. p. 604. T Op. cit. p. 257. t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. iii. pp. 376-7, nore. PRESTWICH—-BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 244 ‘ Lits coquilliers ;;>—that it synchronises with some of the older por- tions of the Sables inférieurs” (of M. D’ Archiac) :—a view in which I am now confirmed so far as regards the higher antiquity of the London Clay, but which deposit I however now consider not to be exactly re- presented by any synchronous strata in the Paris district. This instance of the intercalation of a large and important deposit in England, where in France the sequence of the Lower Tertiaries is so well maintained that there is no appearance of any link missing, is a very remarkable one. Both M. D’Archiac and M. Graves have, as mentioned above, particularly noticed the perfect sequence of the beds from the chalk to the Calcaire grossier, and I can bear testimony to the same fact. Lithological structure and superposition seem to indicate a complete and perfect series, whilst it would appear that the organic remains have not been considered to present any suffi- cient differences to militate against this view. It would nevertheless . seem that there is a very important interval between the “ Lignites of the Soissonnais”’ and the “ Lits coquilliers,”’ and that, at so short a distance as from Kent to the Department of the Oise, there is introduced, wedge-shaped, between these two deposits, the large mass of the London clay with its multitude of original organic re- mains. Yet there is not only no evidence either of the great lapse of time, or of the important physical changes which such a formation indicates, but there is even no cause for suspicion of such a fact in the apparently complete and continuous series of the ‘‘ Sables infé- rieurs” of the north of France. § 3. Correlation of the several Divisions of the Lower Tertiaries.— The Thanet Sands, and Landenien inférieur. To prove the foregoing position I will now state my reasons for the correlation I propose to assign to each member of the Lower Tertiaries of England, France, and Belgium, commencing with the lowest, viz. the “‘Thanet Sands.” This deposit ranges through that part of the North of France which geologically forms a portion of the Belgian Tertiary district. At the Artesian well of Calais it is, as far as I could judge from the few specimens preserved in the museum of that town, about 80 feet thick, or about the same as on the opposite coast of Kent. Between Watten and St. Omer the Lower Tertiary Sands crop out from beneath the London clay, and the Thanet Sands reappear with characters closely analogous to those which they present near Canterbury. During a hasty visit to that district, I found in some semi-indurated beds numerous im- pressions of shells, amongst which I recognised the Thracia oblata, the small Cordula common at Pegwell Bay, and traces of the same Pholadomya, Panopea, and Cyprina. In the neighbourhood of Lille, M. A. Meugy * describes a series of beds overlying the Chalk, and consisting of variable strata, from 15 to 105 feet thick, of dark grey or blackish sandy clay more or less glauconiferous, fine sands, and semi-indurated calcareous marls, with marine shells. These are precisely the characters the Thanet Sands * Essai de Géologie pratique sur la Flandre Francaise, Lille 1852, pp. 117-126. a2 = 212 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. have assumed in East Kent ; at Pegwell Bay, for example, many of the lower beds are unusually argillaceous, and of a dark grey colour— some are fossiliferous, others without a trace of a fossil. M. Meugy states that the strata in many places contain marine shells, but, with one exception (Cyprina planata [| Morrisii?]), he gives the genera only, and not the species. Sir Charles Lyell, however, who has also examined part of this district, states that at Carvin near Lille the Cyprina Morrisii abounds and that imperfect casts of a Turritella, Arca, and Corbula occur*. Further, these beds are considered by M. Meugy as the continuation of the Lower Landenian series of Belgium. In Belgium this character of these beds is but little modified ; but the fossils have been better determined, and form a fauna closely agreeing with that of the Thanet Sands. I have found at Tournay and Mons, fossils which I have identified with those of East Kent, though they are not quite so numerous or varied. The occurrence, however, amongst these few of such species as the Astarte tenera, Mor. (A. ineqguilatera, Nyst.) Pholadomya cuneata, Sow. Cucullza crassatina, Lam. Koninckii, Nyst. Panopea granulata, Mor. Cyprina Morrisii, Sow. combined with the general resemblance in mineral characters, development, and superposition, confirms me in the belief that the same deposit occupies the same position at the base of the Tertiary series in both countriest. M. Dumont, from an examination of the lithological structure of the beds overlying the Chalk at Chiselhurst and Woolwich, had before come to the conclusion that these Lower Tertiary Sands are of the same age as those in Belgium—that they are the equivalents of the lower division of his Landenian system. I have not been able satisfactorily to recognise the Thanet Sands in the Paris Tertiary district ; but, from the frequent difficulty, even in this country, of distinguishing this division from the one next above it, —for the lithological characters of the two are often almost identical, —it would be impossible to say, in the absence of sufficient organic remains, whether some portion of the Glauconie inférieure of M. D’ Ar- chiac should not be referred to the Thanet Sands period. This Glauconite forms the base of the Tertiary series in the more northern portion of the Paris basin, and detached outliers of it are common on the chalk hills which separate the Paris and Belgian Tertiary areas. It rarely exceeds 20 to 30 feet in thickness. M. D’Archiac notices the constancy of its characters and the rarity of organic remains, the only fossils he has been able to detect being casts of some marine bivalves, referred to the Cyprina scutellaria, Desh., Serpula, casts of a species of Sponge (Spongia nidus-avis, D’Arch.), bones of Emydes | * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 360. + M. Omalius d’Halloy in his last work, with which I have but just become acquainted, gives a corrected list of these fossils amounting to 14 species. Of these, besides those quoted in the text, the Nucula fragilis also occurs in the Thanet Sands, the Scalaria Dumontiana of Nyst is probably the S. Bowerbankii of Morris, and the Panopea intermedia, Sow., the P. granulata, Mor. The Leda, Cytherea, Arca, Pinna, and Modiola will also, I think, prove to be species common to both countries. The list of fossils from these beds is, however, yet far from complete.—J. P., Jun., April 1855. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 213 and of the Paleocion primevus. M. D’Archiac himself* refers these beds to the Lower Landenian of Mons and Ciply, but their litho- logical structure will answer equally well for the lower part of the upper or next division, whilst their general structure and the character of the few fossils here named incline me to place them generally in a rather higher position. Still it is quite possible that some beds of the Thanet Sands may stretch as far south as some parts of the Department of the Aisne—further than the London Clay, but not so far as the next division of the Lower Tertiary Sands, with which, owing to the want of distinctive characters, they might naturally enough be associated. (See Pl. VIII., Diagram, str. g and h.) § 4. The Woolwich Sands+ (lower part of), and Sables de Bracheuz. In parallellising another portion of the French series, well developed in parts of the departments of the Oise, Aisne, and Marne, a difference of opinion as to its exact position renders it necessary to go into this part of the inquiry separately and in greater detail. I allude to those occasionally fossiliferous sands, of which the well-known sections and fossils at Bracheux, Abbecourt, and Noailles, near Beauvais, have been taken as the type. The superposition of these beds is not at first sight very apparentt. By M. D’Archiac they were originally considered sychronouswith the Glauconie inférieure and to underlie the Lignites and Argile plastique, and that view is taken by M. Graves and M. Hébert. From the general absence of fossils, however, with the few exceptions named above, and some later observations showing that in some places a bed of sand with Pectunculus, Nucula, Car- dium, &c., overlies the lignites, M. D’ Archiac separates the Glauconie inférieure from the marine sands of Beauvais, leaving the former beneath the lignites, but placing the latter above them. The lower marine sands of the neighbourhood of Rheims and Laon have in consequence likewise been referred by M. D’Archiac to a position over the lignites; by M. Melleville the lignites are considered sub- ordinate to the sands; and by M. Hébert the lignites are placed above these sands. There is further at a few places in Champagne another deposit, local in its nature, but of much interest from the peculiar group of land and freshwater shells which it contains, viz. the calcareous marls, or concretionary travertin, of Rilly. At this spot these marls repose upon a mass of remarkably pure and white quartzose sands. The infraposition of these various beds to the lignites was proved by M. Charles d’Orbigny, but their exact geological relations were not shown. M. D’Archiac considers these sands to be the equivalents of his Glauconie inférieure, and therefore older than the marine sands of Beauvais. M. Hébert refers both the marls and the sands to a * Considering the fossiliferous sands of Beauvais to belong to a higher part of the series. + Or the Woolwich and Reading series. t As, in the massif of the Tertiaries, these strata crop out usually at the base of steep slopes, they are generally covered by earth and debris, and therefore are rarely exposed in good or continuous sections. 214 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. period anterior to any other of the French Tertiaries, and conse- quently preceding the Glauconie inférieure. He regards them both as formed in a large freshwater lake, the deposits of which were, with the exception of a few isolated masses, swept away by an irrup- tion of that sea in which the marine sands of Laon, Rheims, and Beauvais were accumulated, and by which sands they are now, as it were, incased. In a paper communicated last year to the Geological * Society of France, I have endeavoured to show that, on the con- trary, these sands of Rilly are independent of the marls which overlie them, that they contain marine shells, and that they are, in fact, but part of the marine sands of Rheims and Laon which stretch around them on the same level; the difference of mineral character, , and the absence of shells, except as casts, being attributable to the infiltration of limpid fresh water, charged with carbonic acid, which deposited the overlying tufaceous marls or travertin*. Although on the whole we have not in England so full and varied a development of organic remains in the Lower Tertiaries as prevails in France, there are nevertheless some phenomena, which I have had occasion to observe in the Lower London Tertiaries, which may tend to throw light upon these differences of opinion; and, taken together with the facts presented by the French series, may prove sufficient to establish the order of superposition and the correlation of the different beds. In England next above the Thanet Sands we have the complicated series of Woolwich and Reading. In the Isle of Wight it consists almost entirely of pure tenacious mottled clays, which range to the neighbourhood of London; but, as they approach this centre, they become more and more interstratified with beds of sand and pebbles, until at last these latter entirely replace the clays. With very few exceptions the only fossil shell found westward of the vicinity of London is the Ostrea Bellovacina, which occurs at places at the base of the clays. In the neighbourhood of London, the Fluviatile beds of Woolwich distinctly set in in the midst of this deposit with the mottled clays both above and below them, and the whole mass be- comes pervaded with a fluviatile and estuarine fauna. Proceeding further eastward these mineral characters undergo a further change ; the clays die out, and, with the exception of occasional pebbly bands, the strata pass into a mass of white and greenish quartzose sands ; while at the same time the estuarine and fluviatile fauna gradually disappears and is replaced by a marine one. It is, however, not until we reach the N.E. of Kent that this change is effected; and even then the fossils are very rare, preserved as it were by accident, for the calcareous matter of the shells has almost always been dissolved out, and it is only in some few places, where siliceous casts have occu- ied the produced cavities, that evidence of this marine fauna exists}. (See Pl. VIII., Diagram, str. a, e, and /.) * Bull. Soc. Géol. de France, 2nd Ser., vol. x. p. 300. M. Hébert has since replied to these observations, and maintains his original views. He has also noted some new localities, Bull. vol. x. p. 436. + For particulars of the changes in the structure and organic remains of this series, see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. x. p. 75-170. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES, 215 It is more particularly in the lower part of this division, or that portion of it characterized by the Ostrea Bellovacina (Reading and London), that this development of marine forms occurs. Fortu- nately the fossils, though few, are characteristic, and sufficient to establish a very marked analogy with the fauna of the sands of Bra- cheux. Itistothis part of the Lower London Tertiaries that I would also refer the lower marine sands of Laon, Rheims, and the sands underlying the travertin of Rilly. In the first place the general relation of these beds of sand to the lignites and fluviatile beds is everywhere the same both in England and France. In East Kent they form, as before said, the lower part of the group which passes at Woolwich under the clays with Cyrena, Melanopsis, Paludina, &c. ; and it is precisely in the same position that they occur in the Beauvais and Champagne districts, for there also they clearly underlie beds of fluviatile clays and lignites. Neither is there any discordance in the mineral characters. In East Kent the sands are quartzose, sometimes nearly white, and at others much mixed with green sand with a few flint pebbles. In the Beauvais district they also consist of a base of whitish quartzose sand, more or less mixed with grains of green sand, occasionally coloured in parts by the oxide of iron, and likewise containing some flint pebbles; they there merely exhibit in addition slight traces of carbonate of lime. As the sands range into Cham- pagne, they become rather finer, the green particles fewer, and therefore the mass is often formed of a nearly pure white quartzose sand, especially where it has been subjected to the washing process which accompanied the deposition of the Rilly travertin, wherever that bed overlies the sands. Jn addition to these common mineral and palzeon- tological features, there is a common physical feature maintained throughout their range, one of no importance separately, but of some value conjointly, viz. the presence of rounded and much-worn flint pebbles sometimes scantily scattered through these sands, at other times arranged in bands, chiefly at their base. (Diagram, str. e, f, n.) The fossils are dispersed, as in the English series, in patches, and rarely form continuous or widely-extended bands. The lists of or- ganic remains given by M. Graves* and M. Melleville+ enable us now to compare the fauna of the Beauvais and Champagne sands t with that of the Woolwich Sands of East Kent. I should observe, however, that in this country these organic remains are far from being worked out so fully as in France, for, with the exception of the col- lection made by Mr. Layton and myself at Richborough, and by my- self at Herne Bay and Oakwell, no fossil-examination of these beds has taken place; at the same time their limited development under marine conditions in England, and their peculiar mineral characters, * Op. cit. p. 196. + ‘“‘ Mémoire sur les Sables Tertiaires inférieurs du Bassin de Paris.” (Annales des Sciences géologiques, vol. xi. 1845, p. 9-13.) t M. Rondot also gives a list of some of the characteristic species (“« Etude Géologique du Pays de Rheims,” Ann. de l’Acad. de Reims, année 1842-43). M. Hébert makes a further addition to the Rheims fauna, and states that the number given in M. Melleville’s list is far from being complete (Bull. Soc. Géol. 2nd Ser. vol. vi. p. 729-730). 216 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. almost preclude us from hoping to find in them a fauna equally abundant with that of the presumed synchronous series in France. In the neighbourhood of London, where however estuarine condi- tions prevail, the organic remains have been the object of earlier and more continuous research, and the lists of these fossils are therefore fuller and more satisfactory. In East Kent the number of marine species hitherto determined from the Woolwich and Reading series amounts to fifteen. Limited as is this fauna, it is very characteristic. Seven of the species are likewise found in the lower sands of the neighbourhood of Beauvais and of Rheims. These are the,— Cardium Plumsteadiense, Sow. (C. Cytherea Bellovacina, Desh. semigranulosum, Sow. of Graves.) Pectunculus terebratularis, Lam. (P. Corbula Regulbiensis, Mor. (C. lon- brevirostris, & P. Plumsteadiensis, girostris, Desh. of Graves.) Sow.) Cucullea crassatina, Lam. Teredina personata, Desh. Cyprina scutellaria, Desh. Of the other eight species, four (the Cardium Laytoni, Glycimeris Rutupiensis, Sanguinolaria Edwardsii, and Ampullaria subdepressa) being new, and but recently described, have not yet been compared with foreign specimens; the Corbula ot Pa eB Sead LOSER LA Mee Aad UMS Shes 844804 60 A BP ace se Ce Lie vat ces atva cna viccieastadece 15...... London Clay. Sables de Bracheux.................. 5 6.2.50 Woolwich and Reading Series. If, instead of taking this upper horizon, we take the lower one of the Woolwich and Reading Series in this country, and the Sables de Bracheux in France, excluding in both the freshwater and fluviatile fauna, the following are the results :— 0 Ce 30 Shs. Bracklesham Sands. Mare Caquilliers: < 52.2 de5.6.is08.0. ora OR Ak 0 See, fae RoE RE ME re coe me a Boe ar sdinid'sinian,inieeis'n Uciwrors ole @aiciie'sine foie 58...... London Clay. Sables de Bracheux.................. LOO. LOG... Woolwich and Reading Series. Therefore, howsoever distant the relation between the Lits Coquilliers, the Bracheux Sands, and the London Clay may seem, when viewed with regard to space only, yet it becomes evident that, when viewed in relation to time within their own centres, these strata occupy certain definitely related and parallel planes ; that on such deductions the London Clay holds a position intermediate between the Lits Co- quilliers and the Bracheux Sands. This evidence by itself affords presumptive proof of each area having one fossiliferous zone peculiar to itself, and wanting in the other; of each having a link in the sequence which the other has not*. These calculations also afford a singular corroboration of the interval of time assigned upon other grounds to the top and bottom French and English zones in the above tables. § 8. The London Clay ; Systeme Ypresien Inférieur, or Glaise Ypresien ; not represented in the Paris Tertiary district. In following the Lits Coquilliers and the London Clay as they respectively range, the one towards the London, and the other towards the Paris Tertiary district, there is no appearance of any suf- ficient change in mineral character that would tend to assimilate them to each other. The London Clay retains, with the slight exception mentioned further on, the same well-marked characters in the Isle of Wight and Hampshire as it does around London. It has not hitherto * The unfossiliferous Lower Bagshot sands may probably occupy the 2nd English parallel. , 230 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. been found anywhere in the Paris district, although it would appear to have extended across the Channel to the coast of Normandy. For last April, in company with several members of this Society, we examined the well-known cliff-section at the Lighthouse of Ailly near Dieppe, and the majority of our party came to the conclusion that the upper beds there belonged to the London Clay proper*. I had, on a former visit, suspected the presence of the true London Clay, but had found no organic remains to corroborate this opmion. On this occasion, however, we were fortunate enough to discover a few well-marked fossils, which, taken together with superposition and mineral character, leaves little doubt in my mind of the existence of the London Clay at that place. The chalk here rises about 80 feet in the cliff and is overlaid by about 110 feet of Tertiary stata, the lower 60 of which belong to the Woolwich and Reading series perfectly well characterized and composed of sands, laminated clays, and pebble beds, with numerous fluviatile and freshwater shells, on the ordinary Woolwich type, forming a group very similar to that of the section at Castle Hill cliff, Newhaven (see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 83). Above these beds there is about 50 feet of laminated brown clay interstratified in its lower part with several thin layers of sand,—a lithological character of which we have occasionally some indications in the London Clay on the opposite coast, for at White Cliff Bay the London Clay also con- tains several subordinate beds of sand. This clay contains also some iron pyrites and small light brown calcareo-argillaceous concretions. At the base (which, by the by, is not very well defined) of this deposit I found a few fragments of the Ditrupa plana and teeth of Lamne, so characteristic of the base of the London Clay in the Isle of Wight and London districtt. Mr. A. Tylor, further, was fortunate enough to find two small fossil crabs exactly in the condition in which they occur in the London Clay, and which appear identical with a species of Zanthopsis (probably a young specimen, the Z. nodosa) of Potter’s Bar and other places near London. There is no appearance of any of the fossils of the “ Lits Coquilliers.” The London Clay cannot be traced further in the direction of Paris, as the chalk is * The distinctiveness of these beds had not, however, escaped the practised eye of M. d’Archiac, who has, I find, stated, so far back as 1839, that “the London Clay formed the upper part of the cliff at the phare d’Ailly.” He goes on to say, however, that these clays are ‘‘similar to those of the Barton Cliffs, but we have found neither fossils nor septaria.”’ Bull. Soc. Géol. vol. x. p. 195, and Hist. des Prog. vol. ii. p. 499. At the time this was written, the Barton Clays were con- sidered to be the type of the London Clay. Although these two deposits are now separated, this indication of M. d’Archiac is important, but has been generally overlooked, for other French geologists, both before and since, have referred all these beds to the sands and clays of the “ Argile Plastique.” t+ M. Hébert is, however, of opinion that some similar fossils equally well mark a thin conglomerate bed at the base of the Calcaire grossier. The ‘‘ Dentalium strangulatum”’ may certainly prove to be synonymous with the Ditrupa plana; but, if so, it ranges up to the “ Sables moyens” and is no longer characteristic of a particular zone. The specific characters of the teeth of Lamne are also ex- tremely problematical. To these two fossils alone I should attach no great weight. The prevalence of closely allied species might result from like conditions tending to the recurrence of analogous forms of life at distant periods of time. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 231 denuded for many miles to the south-eastward of the hills of St. Marguerite ; and at the next mass of the Lower Tertiaries, in the neighbourhood of Gisors and Chaumont, we could find no traces of that deposit. If, however, instead of following in this direction towards Paris, we take a northerly direction through Cassel, Lille, and Tournay, we shall find every reason to believe that London Clay extends through- out the greater part of French Flanders and Belgium. I have before noticed the occurrence of this clay beneath Calais*. I have since seen it at the hills adjoining Watten, near St. Omer, where it rises 220 feet above the plain, with its ordinary aspect and mineral characters just as well marked as at the Norwood hills, or at Primrose Hill. Its thickness also at Watten cannot be less than 300 to 350 feet. M. Dumont and Sir Charles Lyell have shown that the Ypresien Clay (London Clay) has a considerable range in Belgium. The observations of Sir Charles Lyell are particularly pertinent to this point, for he shows by a well-section at the Railway Station at the foot of Cassel Hill, where many of the beds of the Paris Tertiaries are well exhibited, that the London Clay, perfectly well characterized by its mineral character (which he resembles to that of Highgate) and with Septaria, is there more than 291 feet thick. If to this we add 118 feet for the elevation of the London Clay above the spot where the well was sunk, it will give a thickness of more than 400 feet to the London Clay in that district, proving it to have a development probably equal to that which it possesses in the neighbourhood of London. Further, Sir Charles mentions that it is only about 150 feet thick near Lille, showing, therefore, a gradual thinning-out as it ranges southward into France (see Pl. VIII. Sect. 2). No fossils * M. Meugy mentions (op. cit. p. 154) many other well-sections proving the same fact. One at Dunkirk was carried by boring through 118 feet of sands (called sea- sand), and then 266 feet into the London Clay; another at Hazebrouck reached the base of the London Clay (here covered only by a few feet of drift), at a depth of 328 feet. His work contains many other sections proving the importance of the Glaise Ypresien (London Clay) in French Flanders. t+ This has been urged as a serious objection by some French geologists, who, however, have not hesitated to refer these clays to a large development of the clays of the ‘‘ Argile Plastique,’’—a correlation which would be attended not only by the same difficulty to which they here object, but would further want all the analogies which in the other case we possess. It must also not be forgotten that in England the London Clay is frequently non -fossiliferous; that even in cliff-sections, as for example at Sheppey or Herne Bay, it requires a careful search to discover any fossils in the clay itself. As the fossils also are more abundant in particular zones, it is necessary to attend daily during the sinking of a well, as large portions of the clay contain no fossils, whilst in other portions they may be plentiful. I doubt whether there have been opportunities to examine the London Clay in the north of France and Belgium with sufficient care. Since writing this paper, I find that M. Meugy notices a single instance in which fossils were found in beds 55 feet thick, which he refers to the “ Glaise Ypresien.” He states that they were tolerably abundant, and consisted of species of Turritella, Venericardia, Cardium, Lucina, Ostrea, Pleurotoma, and the Num- mulites planulatus, and in some underlying sands Ostrea, Pecten, and Dentalium. I should almost fear some mistake here. This is certainly not a group of fossils found in the London Clay in thiscountry. The section, however, is not sufficiently definite to feel sure as to the position of the beds. Op. cif. p. 143. 232 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. have been described, although a few have been found in Belgium; but the mass, position, and mineral character of this bed of clay leave little doubt of its identity with the London Clay. To M. Dumont is due the merit of first having pointed out the analogy of his Systéme Ypresien with the London Clay proper. § 9. Lower Bagshot Sands ; Systéme Ypresien supérieur or Sables Ypresiens ; Ints Coquilliers and Sables divers, or Glauconie moyenne. Having shown in a former part of this paper that the Lits Coquil- liers are somewhat more nearly related to the “ Calcaire grossier ”’ than to the marine beds associated with and underlying the “ Argile Plastique,” whereas the London Clay proper shows, on the contrary, closer affinities with these latter beds, it remains to be ascertained whether we can in any way prove the superposition of the Lits Co- quilliers and associated sands on the London Clay. I believe that this now admits of proof, and that in this country the Lower Bagshot Sands form the equivalent beds of the Glauconie moyenne. The hill of Cassel, about thirty-five miles E.S.E. from Calais, rises to a height of 515 English feet above the sea, and affords some in- teresting sections of a large portion of the Belgian series. At about the middle of the hill are some calcareo-arenaceous beds, in which M. Elie de Beaumont many years since found the Cerithium giganteum and other shells which induced him to refer those beds to the zone of the “Calcaire grossier.”” The correctness of this parallelism has been generally admitted, and has been confirmed by the observations of M. d’Archiac*, who further proved that these beds were underlaid by fossiliferous sands which he referred to his “ Lits Coquilliers,’’ and tracing the same zone to Brussels, he showed that it was there characterized by that most abundant fossil of the French beds—the Nummulites planulatus. These correlations have been since adopted and extended by M. Dumont and Sir Charles Lyell ; the latter of whom further gives a measured section of the hill of Cassel+, which, with the list of organic remains he likewise furnishes, afford the exact data we require for comparing these beds with others in this country. We need not at present notice the upper part of the hill, which to the thickness of about 120 feet is composed of the sands of Diest, and of the Laeken beds with the Nummulites variolarius. Beneath these strata is the zone before-mentioned and referred to the “ Calcaire grossier.” But the change, both in mmeral characters, importance, and the fauna, between the beds of this age at Cassel and in the Paris district is very great. Instead of the thick mass of soft earthy limestones with subordinate green sands (‘‘ Glauconie grossiére”’) at their base, 100 to 150 feet thick, and containing a rich fauna of 600 to 800 named species, we have at Cassel a series of beds consisting essentially of mixed yellow and green sands more or less pure, and of very thin subordinate beds of sandstone usually with a calcareous cement. * Bull. vol. x. pp. 183, 193, 1839; Hist. des Prog. vol. ii. pp. 497 & 500. + Op. cit. p. 324. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. Joa According to the description of Sir Charles Lyell, I should estimate these beds not to be together less than 32, and not more than 50 feet thick*. He enumerates only thirty-seven named species of fossils ; of these, thirty-one are found also in the “ Calcaire grossier.”’ I should be inclined to consider these Cassel beds to represent both the “ Calcaire grossier”’ and ‘‘Glauconie grossiére,” or rather, more especially as resulting from a development of the latter and a thinning of the former. At Brussels, the fauna of these beds is rather richer, Sir Charles mentioning forty-five named speciest. He also makes the series about 100 feet thick. I should, however, be inclined, on the physical characters he describes, to place the lower 40 or even 70 feet with the next underlying series. Sir Charles does not give an exact measurement of the lower beds at Cassel, but if we take the total thickness of the beds above described, it will give in round numbers from 140 to 160 feet. Now M. Meugy states that the “‘Glaise Ypresien’”’ (London Clay) rises to a height at the base of the hill of 247 feet, which would leave 100 to 120 feet as the thickness of the siliceous sands which Sir Charles describes as underlying the zone of the Nummulites levigatus and associated bedstf. In these lower sands, which are referred by M. Dumont and Sir Charles to the “Sables Ypresiens,” the Nummulites planulatus has not been found; but it is met with im beds holding the same position between this spot and Courtray, whilst still further eastward this Foraminifer is abundant. The sands beneath this nummulitic zone M. d’Archiac refers to his “ Sables divers §.”’ We have thus had established at the hill of Cassel, by M. Elie de Beaumont and M. d’Archiac, a succession of strata corresponding in all these central beds with those of the Soissonnais in the Paris district ; whilst the later researches of M. Dumont and Sir Charles Lyell show that that series is underlaid by the London Clay. That the zone of the Cerithium giganteum and Nummulites levigatus at Cassel repre- sents the Calcaire grossier on one side, and on the other is correlated with the ‘‘ Systéme Bruxellien”’ of Belgium, I take for granted upon the authority of these several eminent geologists. The identification, however, of the zones of the ‘‘Lits Coquilliers” and ‘Sables divers ”’ is attended with more uncertainty ; for, although a few fossils, position, and mineral structure all coincide in exhibiting a close analogy, yet it must be admitted that the evidence of organic remains is of itself not very strong. Of the Cassel fossils belonging to these beds, we have no positive list. It is possible, however, that the one given by Sir * Op. cit. p. 324. + M. Omalius d’Halloy quotes, on the authority of M. Nyst, 95 species of Mol- luses from the “Sables Calcariféres de Bruxelles ”’ (Systeme Bruxellien, Dumont), but I do not feel quite sure whether his division is exactly the same as that of Sir Charles Lyell,—whether it does not include the N. planulatus zone (Abr. de Géol. p. 579). ¢ Including the beds corresponding, according to M. Meugy, with the “Sy- stéme Paniselien” of M. Dumont, this portion of the series would be 124 feet thick (op. cit. p. 168), § Bull. Soc. Géol. de Fr. vol. x. p. 182, 1839 (there termed “Sables inférieurs”’). 234 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Charles Lyell at p. 331 may prove to belong to a bed of thatage. In it eighteen named species are enumerated, fourteen of which certainly occur in the Calcaire grossier, but they are met with also in the Lits Coquilliers. Oneis peculiar to Belgium. Of the three remaining, the Terebellum convolutum occurs, it is true, in the Calcaire grossier, and not in the “ Lits Coquilliers,” but against that we have the Panopea intermedia, which occurs only in the latter, and the Vermicularia Bognoriensis?, a London Clay species. The Nummulites planulatus does not, as before mentioned, occur here, but near Lille it abounds in these beds. In Belgium, this fossil is found in strata, of which the position beneath the zone of Nummulites levigatus and at the top of the Sables Ypresiens is well determined. Sir Charles enume- rates (p. 357 and 358) sixteen other named fossils, associated with the N. planulatus in the vicinity of Brussels. Of these, twelve occur - in both series in the Paris basin, one is peculiar to Belgium, the Tur- binolia sulcata is a Calcaire grossier species, and a Cytherea (C. ob- liqua’?) and a Natica (N. Hantoniensis?) are found, which appertain as much or more to beds lower than the “ Lits Coquilliers*.”’ I pre- sume also, from the observations of M. d’Archiac, that the general facies of the fauna must be essentially like that of the Lits Coquilliers ; still it is clear that the leading evidence is the Nummulites planulatus, a Foraminifer which in the ‘ Lits Coquilliers”’ generally, and in the Ypresian Sands occasionally, occurs in wonderful profusion, and yet appears in this part of Europe to have but this limited vertical range. These lower Cassel sands may possibly admit, to a certain extent, of a subdivision into three parts; the upper one (Systeme Paniselien of Dumont) may correspond with the glauconiferous clays overlying the Lits Coquilliers in the Aisne; to this succeeds the fossiliferous band more exactly synchronous with the Lits Coquilliers, as distinguished by M. d’Archiac ; and then the thick mass of unfossiliferous siliceous sands corresponding with the Sables divers. Or they might be all included in one division—that of the Glauconie moyenne of M. Graves. There are two facts apparent in the Cassel and Belgian series, which are the poverty of the fauna compared with that of the synchronous deposits in the Paris basin, and the more purely siliceous condition of the strata. If now we pass to the London Tertiary district, and take the first range of hills where the beds above the London Clay are well deve- loped, viz. the Bagshot Hills, we shall find that they present some remarkable stratigraphical resemblances with the hill of Cassel. The Lower Bagshot sands are about 130 feet thick, and consist of light- coloured siliceous sands, with a few thin subordinate argillaceous beds, and a very few concretionary blocks of hard siliceous sandstone. In position and general basic structure they agree very closely both with the Cassel beds and the ‘ Glauconie moyenne” of M. Graves (Et. 1, 2, and 3 of M. d’Archiac). The main difference consists in the absence of intermixed green sands, of calcareous matter, and of solidi- fied beds ; all these, however, are subordinate features subject to great variation, even in the Paris district. The only superadded feature in * The ‘ Cancer Leachii”’ (?) is also quoted. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 235 the London district is the greater importance of subordinate, very fine, laminated clays. The fossils also, which in the Paris district number 347, and which at Cassel have diminished to 18, are, with the exception of a few vegetable remains, entirely wanting in the London area. As, however, these are progressive changes, which harmonize perfectly well in all their parts, they rather strengthen than invalidate our position, for the dependence of all the collateral pheenomena indicates a common origin, subject only to minor local superadditions. It is only in proportion as the amount of carbonate of lime in the sands diminishes and quartzose sands predominate, that the number of Mollusks decreases. In French Flanders we have intermediate palzeontological and mineral conditions corresponding with the intermediate geographical position. In this country I have traced the Lower Bagshot Sands as far east- ward as the hills near Southend, in Essex ; they also apparently exist in the Isle of Sheppey ; this carries them about 60 miles from Bag- shot and to within 100 miles of Cassel (see Sect. 1. PI. VIII). These sands exhibit the same non-fossiliferous character in those districts as around Bagshot, but they are of no great thickness, and the upper portion, or that which is more fossiliferous in the Continent, is wanting. Foliowing the ‘‘ Lower Bagshots” further westward, and again south-westward into Hampshire, they maintain nearly the same thickness and mineral characters. They are, I think, represented in White Cliff Bay by the Stratum No. 5 (“ Section,” Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. il. pl. ix. p. 223), which overlies the London Clay, and consists of siliceous, and in parts clayey, sands, striped various shades of yellow, 98 feet thick. This mass may probably correspond with the ‘Sables divers,” and possibly include the “ Lits Coquilliers,’ although I do not think it unlikely that these latter may rather be represented by some portion of the overlying beds. In the Alum Bay section, it would be difficult to say how much of the series should be included in this division. I should commence with the bed 7, over- lying the London Clay (3 to 6), and carry it probably up to No. 18 or 20 (loc. cit.). In that case, it would include the foliated clays of Stratum 17 with their beautiful group of plant-impressions. In some of these beds green sands again occur as a subordinate character. At the base of the ‘‘ Glauconie grossiére’’ according to M. Graves, or at the top of the Sables Inférieurs according to M. d’Archiac, is a very variable bed of foliated clay with occasional lignite. This possibly may correspond with the lignite and foliated clay immediately beneath the green sands of Bagshot, and with some of the carbo- naceous clays and lignites above the sands last described in the Isle of Wight. The Systéme Paniselien of M. Dumont may possibly alse be placed on this level. Not only, however, have we in the Bagshot district a series of beds, which in mineral character, superposition, and importance corre- spond in the main with the three upper divisions of the ‘‘ Sables infé- rieurs’’ of M. d’Archiac, but we further find them overlaid by other beds corresponding with the ‘‘ Glauconie grossiére ”’ or lower part of the “‘ Caleaire grossier.”” Here again we must take into consideration, 236 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. or rather admit in evidence of identity, the progressive changes appa- rent in this series as it ranges from south to north and north-west. In the neighbourhood of Paris, the ‘‘Glauconie grossiére” is but very slightly developed ; in the Oise and Aisne it becomes an import- ant subdivision of the “‘Calcaire grossier,”’ consisting of thick beds of partially consolidated calcareo-quartzose sands, more or less mixed with green sands, and with a slight conglomerate basement. The fossils are often numerous, and the same as those of the Calcaire grossier. At Cassel this zone consists, as before mentioned, of light- coloured siliceous sands, green sands, and calcareous bands irregularly mixed, and containing only a small number of fossils. Then passing to the Bagshot district, we find a single thick bed of nearly unmixed green sand with a few subordinate beds of fine foliated clay and quartzose sand, together about 30 feet thick. The calcareous bands are here entirely wanting. Fossils are very rare; they consist of the following named and characteristic species, which are sufficient to show, with the collateral evidence of mineral structure and super- position, the true relation of the group. Calcaire Lae! Middle Grossier Jeshared pe he cine Giawric Sands; Grossidre. Hants. Cardium semistriatum, Desh. ... Chobham. Cassel. Oise. * Corbula gallica, Lam. .........++ Chobbam. Cassel. Oise. * — plicata, Edw. .........c0000 Shapléye 08 ti lsckecoceeccs Wee coeeeen * —— striata, Desh. .........0.000 Shapley. Brussels? _— Oise. * Nucula similis, Sow.............. Shapley. Cassel. Oise. * Nummulites levigatus, Brug.... Chobham. Cassel. Oise. * Ostrea flabellula, Zam............ Chohbam. Cassel. Oise. * Pecten corneus, Sow. ?............ Shapley. Brussels.) Ch? eysi es * Turritella sulcifera, Zam. ...... Goldsworth. .........e0. Aisne. 2 Venericardia acuticostata, Lam. Goldsworth. ............ Oise. * — elegans, Desh..........00.... SHADE. of eee senna eget Oise. * —— planicosta,Desh.(abundant) Chobham. Cassel. Oise. * Lamna elegans, 4gds. .......0+..: Goldsworth. Cassel. Oise. * compressa, Agas.?......... Goldsworth. ............ Oise. a Carcharodon angustidens, 4gas. Goldsworth. Brussels? Oise. * Pristis contortus, Dias: .acs-fewss: Goldsworth. Brussels? ...... * Otodus obliquus, 4gas. ......... Goldsworth. Brussels. Oise. * Myliobatesstriatus, 4gas.?...... Goldsworth. Brussels. ...... * Aktobates irregularis, dgas....... Goldsworth. Brussels? ...... * Edaphodon Bucklandi, 4gas.... Goldsworth. Brussels. ...... * —— leptognathus, 4gas......... Goldsworth: ;| t22.5:c2 aS © * —— eurygnathus, dgas.......... Goldsworths 9.2::.c aigaseaess * The Brussels species marked with ? are in Om. d’Halloy’s lists of the fossils of the Sables calcariféres ; see note T, p. 233. With the exception of three species, peculiar to the English area, there are nineteen which occur likewise either in the Calcaire gros- sier zone of Cassel or in that of Brusssels; and 14 of these (inclu- ding all these shells except one) species range into the Paris Tertiary district. The Nummulites levigatus, Venericardia planicosta, V. acuticosta, and Ostrea flabellula abound in the Glauconie grossiére and the lower beds of the Calcaire grossier, and it is on this level PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 237 that I would place the central green sands and marls of Cassel (h and 7 of Lyell’s section) and the green sands of Bagshot. In consequence of this parallelism of these green sands of Bagshot with the Bracklesham series of Hampshire, I had on a former occa- sion (op. cit. p. 399) suggested that the lower unfossiliferous sands of the Bracklesham series and the Lower Bagshot sands might possibly be of the same age as part of the “Sables and Grés inférieurs,”’ but that, m the absence of fossils, the evidence was not sufficiently posi- tive*. The other course we have now followed through Flanders has, by the extension of many of the fossils of the “ Lits Coquilliers,”’ by the lithological structure and dimensions of the mass, and by the recognition of the London Clay, afforded the further evidence required. These considerations induce me to place the Lower Bagshot Sands on the level, on the one hand, of the three upper divisions of the “« Sables inférieurs”’ (but chiefly of the Sables divers) of M. d’ Archiac, or the ‘** Glauconie moyenne” of M. Graves ; and, on the other hand, on that of the ‘Sables Ypresiens”’ and the Systéme Paniselien, and including possibly the lower part of the Brussels Sandst. § 10. Conclusion. If the synchronism of the Bracklesham series with that of the “ Caleaire grossier”’ be admitted, then the independence of the London Tertiaries with respect to the former deposit will apply with equal force to the latter. For I have lately shown{ that the London series contains 485 species of organic remains (plants excluded), and that only eighty-eight or 18 percent. of these pass upwards into (or through) the Bracklesham series ; or taking the fossils of the two series together, there are only 9:4 per cent. common to both. There are altogether 397 species peculiar to the London group, and they form—the Fishes, Reptiles, Crustaceans, and Echinodermata especially—a very charac- teristic fauna. The distinctiveness of age and origin shown by the fauna is fully corroborated by the physical evidence. The large proportion of species peculiar to the three lower divisions of M. d’Archiac also shows a well-maintained distinction between these beds and the Calcaire grossier ; although in this case the fauna of the Lits Coquilliers serves as an intermediate link, and tends to lessen the apparent force of that difference. Nevertheless, these lowest French divisions are evidently in closer relation with our more distant London Tertiaries than with the overlying series in the Paris area. I conceive, therefore, that we may take the “‘ London Tertiaries ”’ as a good natural group, constituting an important and independent division of the Eocene period perfectly well marked by its organic * M. Dumont has since visited the Bagshot district, and without hesitation referred the Lower Bagshots to the Ypresien Sands. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 370. + I am inclined to place in this series (the equivalent of the ‘‘ Glauconic moyenne ’’) the 40 feet of siliceous sands without fossils, and possibly even the “‘ Grés lustré”’ (strata d & c, op. cit. p. 334), included in the base of the Brussels roup. : t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. x. p. 435. 238 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. remains. In this country it is equally well distinguished by structure and physical characters ; whereas the absence of distinctive physical phzenomena in the equivalent series in France has tended to mask the paleontological distinctiveness which there also equally charac- terizes this group of strata. The series next above the London Tertiary group I would term “the Paris Tertiary group,” of which, in France, the centre in time is the Calcaire grossier, and in this country the Bracklesham Sands. Of the relations of the deposits of this period and the one next suc- ceeding I purpose to treat in the next part of this paper. My reason for taking as the base of this Paris group the Lits Coquilliers and the Sables divers*, or rather the Glauconie moyenne of M. Graves, is founded chiefly on the paleeontological evidence ; notwithstanding that, in mineral characters and in the absence of any well-defined base-line, they seem as much, or even more in regular sequence with the underlying than with the overlying seriest. In this country, on the contrary, there is no fossil fauna to distinguish the beds of this age (the Lower Bagshots), but in lithological characters and structure they form one consecutive series with the overlying beds of the Bracklesham sands and clays. No passage exists between the Bagshot Sands and the London Clay. It is true that there is no strongly marked line of separation—only occasionally is a band of pebbles spread over the surface of the London Clay. In Flanders and Belgium the division is again less marked. But although an eroded surface, a conglomerate bed, or a sudden alteration of mineral cha- racter form palpable and useful adjuncts indicative of distinct periods and of altered times, yet such corroborative evidence is by no means indispensable. When these pheenomena occur, some geological changes are generally indicated, but it by no means follows that these pheenomena must necessarily be attendant upon all such changes. If the movements of the earth’s surface at that time took place at a distance,—or if the encroachment of the sea, after its retirement from the land during a long period, were gradual, and the materials drifted to form the newer beds were derived from the same source again as formerly,—then the peculiarity alone of the new fauna would form the test of its independence, as the physical distinctions would necessarily be in a great measure faint and obscure. One cause possibly of the difference of the faunas of the Calcaire Grossier and Lits Coquilliers and of the London Tertiaries is the connexion apparently of the former with forms generally considered to belong to more southern and hotter climates, and of the latter with the forms usually inhabiting more northern seas. Commencing with the Thanet Sands, a sea open to the north extended probably over the south-east of England, Belgium, and the north of France ; whilst, to the south of that area, dry land, including the greater part, if not the whole, of the Paris Tertiary district, prevailed and continued to prevail * With possibly some portion of conglomerate beds. + M. Raulin, however, seems to imply that the base-line between the Glauconie moyenne and the “‘ Sables des Lignites ” is generally well defined. Bull. Soc. Géol. 2nd ser. vol. vill. p. 461. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 239 for some time. A subsequent extension of the sea to a short distance further south then led to the formation of the lower marine sands of Champagne, the Aisne, and the Oise, and the marine beds of the Woolwich series in East Kent ; whilst the continuance of some small or slow changes in progress during this period caused, after a time, the littoral zone of this sea to be fringed with river or with lagune deposits, in which fresh- or brackish-water areas the lignites and their associated shell-beds were accumulated. A slight further subsidence again, however, led to the partial return, over these freshwater or fluviatile deposits, of the same sea with part of that fauna that the changes of level or silting up of bays had temporarily displaced. This last period appears to have been rather suddenly succeeded by an extensive rise of the Lower Tertiaries to the south, and a further depression to the north, or, I apprehend, more exactly to the 8.S.E. and N.N.W.*, whereby in the former direction a large area was pro- bably again converted into dry land, whilst, in the latter direction, the sea only became deeper and somewhat more extensive, covering the area now occupied by the London Clay. During this latter important period, the sea stretched over the south-east of England, some part of the north of Normandy, Flanders, and part of Belgium, as far east probably as Brussels, and thence apparently north-eastward im a course which yet requires tracmg. That that sea was extensive is evident from the width and depth of the delta of the London Clay, which, with a maximum thickness of 480 feet, exhibits a transverse section in a straight line of not less than 200 miles,—conditions which also could hardly have obtained without a large river}, and therefore a large tract of adjacent dry land, unless possibly by the wear of a long line of coast. The wider spread of the seas over the two countries is resumed at the period of the Lower Bagshot Sands. The change seems to have been a gentle one. The waters recommenced their deposition over the shingle and sands capping the Lignite and Plastic Clay series m the Paris district, and over the London Clay in England, and this change was apparently the result of some extensive subsidence to the south. For not only have the strata of this period a greater range southward, but a new fauna abounding in more southern forms is now introduced, and with it appears in extreme profusion the Num- mulites planulatus, followed soon after by the several other species of this Foraminifer which so distinguish the middle portion of the Eocene or Paris group of strata of this part of Europe. Many species of the shells which had passed from the Lower marine sands into the London Clay, or had migrated to some adjacent district, reappear in the “ Lits Coquilliers”’ ; but few of them had their existence prolonged to the period of the Calcaire grossier. * And not, therefore, in any way connected with the rise of the Wealden and Pays de Bray, the final elevations of both of which tracts I believe to be subse- quent to this period. t+ The large quantity of organic remains derived from land, and at the same time the absence of freshwater shells, must surely indicate the proximity of a considerable tidal river. For this and many other reasons the debris seems to me to have been derived from such a source rather than from the wear of a coast. 240 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. A stronger break, physically, takes place between the ‘“ Lits Co- quilliers ’’ and the ‘‘ Glauconie grossiére ’’ than is shown at the base of the “ Lits Coquilliers ; but nevertheless, that break seems of less importance with reference to the animal life of the period, as so con- siderable a proportion of the species of the ‘ Lits Coquilliers” are continued up into the Glauconie grossiére and Calcaire grossier*. We cannot expect to find in each country an exact identity in the fossils of these various geological zones. The difference is often important. In each centre there are a considerable number of species peculiar to it; and at the same time that there are usually a sufficient number to establish the correlation of the strata, there yet remain sufficient differences to show the variations p.ioduced by habitat, depth of water, temperature, &c., such as would exist over areas of like extent in the present day. These variations, while they afford matter for speculation as to what was the ancient distribution of land and water in these districts, yet leave resemblances sufhi- ciently strong to enable us to engage in such speculations upon a sure and certain basis. They also show us that whilst it may not be safe to expect, upon any @ priori reasoning, a repetition of a like order of paleontological succession in the two countries, we may nevertheless often suceessfully seek for that order by taking into consideration the limits within which the differences may, under any circumstances, be admitted to extend; and, having determined and eliminated the phzenomena which may be considered aberrant, we may look for like terms of comparison where the conditions again become more general and common. Fragmentary as our Tertiary deposits appear to be, I believe this to be in a great measure the effect of denudation and local peculiari- ties of structure, and that we shall eventually be able to connect many of them over large areas, and to show that they are tor the most part merely the littoral and shallow water deposits of seas which probably had a wide and oceanic range. * At the same time, although I group the Lower Bagshot Sands and their equivalents in the French series, with the Paris rather than with the London Tertiaries, in consequence of their apparently closer relationship, both pale- ontologically and lithologically, with the former than with the latter group, still that relationship is not so close but that those deposits may prove to be entitled to a separate grouping. For the zoological gap between the London Clay and the Bracklesham Sands and Calcaire grossier is such, there not being 10 per cent. of species in common, as to indicate a length of time of considerable importance. This period may be probably only in part represented by the Lower Bagshot Sands and Glauconie moyenne. The fauna of the “ Lits Coquil- liers”’ is, after all, very distinct, not only from that of the beds beneath them, but also, although to a less extent, from that of the Calcaire grossier above. In England, where mineral evidence alone assists us, it is difficult to separate the two groups; in Belgium, both in mineral character and in the few organic remains, there is still less apparent distinction, whilst in the Paris area, where organic remains become numerous, their individuality as forming a distinct fauna becomes far more marked. From the facts given by M. Alcide d’Orbigny, it seems probable that this deposit attains still greater importance and distinctiveness as it ranges southward. It is in this series that the great develop- meut of Nummulites takes place within the London and Paris areas. The under lying London Tertiaries are as much marked by the absence of these Foraminifera as the “‘ Lits Coquilliers ” are by their extraordinary abundance. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xi. to face p. 240. | CORRELA'CALCAIRE GROSSIER, | France. HAMPSRTMENT OF THE AISNE. PARIS. (D’ Archiac.) (Brongniart.) fo¥ 5 Zone the Calcaire Gross te f. § -- | 0} Se ae | Ses © @ PY FP Glaises et Sables. ob: D Gy See So | Lower Brackle Lits Coquilliers. Wanting. fa i : m Pi L Sables divers. Pa ee ere ir er eee | | | Bd London Clay. ( Wanting. Wanting. aope : =) os & | aS aarti nearer neat een Lee lee AN ve ee ee olatig 0. ee. a i bd a Rudimei Wanting? i Wanting. ee en ee tee Se ee ELT Ae ee ee os} - ee) § Grés et Poudingues. Wanting? ® eS es oe AE ee aH W i de : : : Shik a} nites et Argile Plastique. Argile Plastique. 5 Series. a S ' Wanting? Wanting. SOeeRa SOR OR Se SOR EDDASE ERA RETESOEEE EEE ESSER STEREO ESE EsE Een eeeeeLeE EEE Eaaseseeaee ens asasesesESES Oe seEsSeSeS ORE SesES SOs esenseesssesecsess: . . The [ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xi. to face p. 240.] TABLE SHOWING THE CORRELATION OF THE TERTIARY STRATA LYING BENEATH THE ZONE OF THE CALCAIRE GROSSIER, IN ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND BELGIUM. England. French Flanders and Belgium. France. Ss — | a = aN (Dumont.) oe HAMPSHIRE. LONDON. DEPARTMENT OF THB AISNE. PARIS. (D' Archiac.) (Brongniart.) a ; 8 Middle Bracklesham Sands and the Calcaire Grossier. g o o A a P Systéme Paniselien. Glaises et Sables. aeFP £ = a) 6) | Lower Bracklesham Sands. Lower Bagshot Sands. Lits Coquilliers. Wanting. 3 a | Systéme Ypresien supérieur. = € i Sables divers. af 5 | London Clay. (Bognor beds.) London Clay. Systéme Ypresien inférieur. Wanting. Wanting. a -|P = a a8 pees Sao | : be b Rudimentary. Basement Bed of the London Clay. Wanting? c-} A £ | G Grés et Pondingues. Wanting? i) > = Esai = Rioolerch sand, Reading and Reading Syst?me Landenien supérieur. Lignites et Argile Plastique. Argile Plastique. 5 Series. (Mottled clays.) Ls Glauconie inférieure. Rudimentary ? | Wanting. Thanet Sands. Systéme Landenien inférieur. - Wanting? Wanting. Cc R E 4 A Cc B O U S$ eae | "\ owas: Fon Grits: - 29'S"! “orl ett § : wd ‘ t ‘ , on ¥ — i. 2 Ive “ay SY teheo? 7 ie ee eae | ‘ 7 . {' \ . i oe ee yee tet 3 inact nd eee , . SRC RAM Te : an « “AV, PRESTWICH —BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 241 EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIII. Section 1 is drawn from the nearest pomts in England and in French Flanders, where all the series beneath the Calcaire grossier zone inclusive occur. The depth and position of the strata along this line are proved at the followmg points by local sections of railways, wells, and cliffs, which have already been described. Goldsworth Hill, Chobham Place, ] See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. pp. 382, Woking Com., Chobham Ridges 384. Maryland Point, Stratford............ Ibid. vol. vi. p. 262. Claremont, Mortlake, Kingston, Kensington, Paddington, Horn- } Ibid. vol. x. pp. 96, 144-7. BREEELOIXUON, cor ececasesencosnn neuen Hampstead, Langdon Hill, Ray- ; leigh, Southend, Herne Bay...... Ibid. vol. x. pp. 402-7. BPPTIBUSUOD ou, ossevisecescescesessbevews Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. p. 132. Herne Bay, Richborough ...........+. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. pp. 239, 251. Chislet, between Herne Bay and bac t ward PMCMDOTOUGD, — coscossipninnacdeasnss Retort topern rs oder eh. doc schvepanh sngnasses ‘ The Water-bearing Strataof London,’p. 208. Cassel Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 324, and eielee ce Wen wie tats Si ves wean BaN hate Hssai sur la Fland, Franc., pp. 156—169. The heights of the principal hills in this country I have determined roughly by the aneroid barometer; those in Flanders are taken from the French Ordnance-maps. Section 2 is a continuation of Section | prolonged southward to that nearest portion of the Paris basin where a complete development of all the beds forming the “ Sables inférieurs ” of M. d’Archiae occurs in connec- tion with the “ Calcaire grossier” group. In this second section and part of the first, as I have not had leisure to visit all the French localities, several of the main geological features are derived from the local descriptions of Sir Charles Lyell and M. Meugy in Flanders, of M. Buteux in the Somme, and M. Graves in the Oise; whilst the general configuration of the country is taken approximately from the admirable French Ordnance- maps, which furnish us with levels both of hills and river-courses, that our otherwise excellent maps are entirely deficient in. The following are the references to sections on this line :— Bailleul, p. 153; Armentiéres, p. 152; Seclin, p. 107; Douai, p. 106; see also map and sections ;—Meugy, “‘ Essai de Géologie pratique sur la Flandre Francaise,” 1852. Mons-en-Pévéle ;—Lyell, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. viii. p. 359. Davenescourt and Hangest, north of Montdidier, p. 45 ;—Buteux, “ Es- quisse Géologique du Département de la Somme,” 1849. Coivrel, pp. 184, 244; Agnetz, pp. 248, 370, 493; St. Felix, pp. 299, 372;—“ Essai sur la Topographie Géognostique du Département de I’ Oise.” The neighbourhood of Noailles is sketched chiefly from my own obser- vations. The paper of M. Ele de Beaumont in the ‘Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France,’ vol.i. p. 107, has aided me in the general features. The valuable geological maps of M. Ehe de Beaumont and M. Dumont have also been of material assistance. VOL. XI.— PART I. Ss : | GENERAL SECTION FROM THE MULLS NEAR RAGSHOT TO CASSEL IN FRENTI FLANDERS. DISTANCE 156 MILES. ee ee se: ee . - - —— = ete --- SS ey ae aye oe eae EE ee Goldaworth ay india, ange ieee %. - =. es South of Ue Tha He Rich borough Te Enatis oe cae aon Stes a ve Langdon Southend oath of nes lene el boro is aa oe 55 See hs Kin Hampstead. & Talley of inster 3 Z eee % ae Rae Ue Lea Hill Bay : alaus Nixtlen aus Hictares "en es Loner: Tay © 2, GENERAL SECTION FROM CASSEL TO NOAULDIES NEAT BEAUYAIS. DISTANCE 125 MILES. SECTIONS & DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATIVE OF SCENE CORRELATION OF WECE LOWER TERULARIES oF ENGLAND, FRANCE,& BELGIUM. Midile Bagshoe Sanda (pine | {fe . Sewer Bagshet Sands. Yprenan Sands Sables Infiraurs upper part ay Wpresan Cay __] Lower Londen Tertiartes. Landauan Sands. Sates Intarears, lower part Esjoxr see ae DIAGRAM OF THE LOWER LONDON TERTIARIES, (HE SYSTEME LANDENIEN, AND THE THREE LOWER DIVISIONS OF THE [GROUP Ni oF THE ABOVE SECTIONS ENLARGED. = ee =e = ane Rie = oes ee = = caer ~~ es -£E WV. -= = = = ee — — => fa, Herne Bay Richiheroigh Calavs tementicres SUE of Moas:enwpecin MMM rae nn 1 Fasslt fereasy Sane ane, Sane SCE wae Lugnotes mpi. ta Ger Lantern Sand 5. ee ¢lngrnte Lo eat fe Clays P (fiutivron: Marans Sante Marts Y noo =e 7S Woolwich & Reading Series. Thanct Sands - Lower Dandenrm - Upper Landeniamn, Sables Inferieurs ; div. 4,5, &6,D/Arch. — = a Reading © Niatwich d Meolwich € Noclwieh g Nielwich Enith- h Piquer & Empapere. A Mort ScuMard m Chaulnes : m Broudement n Brachens ~ London « Sundredtoctark ~ Opner F Herne Bas = Herne Boy « Tourney t Sary-Tbterias © S* Sauwear » Matranceurt . Mattenceurt » Noaiees Vecont Breska bth King $* Covent Carden. b Blackheath dt New Cross ¢ Lender Soviahom « Michhorcugh ~ Pegwdl Bay . Caryn tha Rast 7 Flines ~ Take « Vocssone nm Abbecourt @ Menclen é > o nai . ™~ >. ee. “4 ye , . ¥ . , d Li * ~ ¢ ¢~ 4 " , a> = ? , « . 242 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Not having sufficient data to give the dip of the Chalk throughout these sections, I have preferred leaving out the stratification altogether, and merely inserting the Chalk as a rock-mass under the Tertiaries (see below). These lines of sections do not follow a straight line,—the variations of directions are indicated approximately. The horizontal scale is about 7 miles to the inch, and the vertical scale 2000 feet to the inch. The numbers under the names of places denote the height of the spot im feet above the sea-level. The black shading marks the depth of water in the Channel and the Thames. The zones 6 and 7 are left blank, as their correlation is not treated of in this paper. For the divisions of the Sables inférieurs of M.d’Archiae see p. 208 ; also Table. All the Faults and minor disturbances are omitted in both sections. Diagram. As the scale of the preceding sections does not admit of any detail in the structure of the lowest group of the Tertiaries—that between the Chalk and the London Clay—I have here given a theoretical restora- tion of these beds as presumed to have extended from London to Paris. It is, in fact, a magnified representation of zone No. 1 of both the Sections above, irrespective e of the present configuration of the surface. The vertical dotted lmes denote the position of the proved and complete local sections on which the whole series is established, whilst the chief places at which each member of the series can best be studied is indicated by the names attached to the corresponding letters. The distances are only approximately preserved in this diagram. The scale of depth is one inch to 200 feet. The stratification of the Chalk is not given, for the same reason as men- tioned with respect to the sections. I may state, however, that beneath the Tertiaries at Paris, the Chalk has been found to be 1400 feet thick ; whilst at Lille the Tertiaries repose upon Chalk-strata only 217 feet mee and overlying the Carboniferous Limestone ; at Calais, the Chalk beneath the T ertiaries again atiains a thickness of 765 feet, reposing upon the Coal-measures ; “and at London of 645 feet, resting on the Upper Green- sand and Gault. For the evidence on which that portion of the Diagram which extends from Chobham to Richborough is founded, see my paper ‘*On the Woolwich and Reading Series,” in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol.x p. 75-170, and Plate. At Calais, the well-section showed, under 85 feet of recent deposits and 20 feet of London clay, beds which I should group thus :— feet. Greenish sands with traces of shells ............ 10 | Basement bed of the London Large Mint-pabbles .. sinevic-atedesdisscrcweknbbesees 34 Clay ? Light-coloured green sands ; traces of shells... 32 Woolwich and Reading series. Very fine light-grey sands ........ccscsessscscsees 17 Clayey sands with traces of shells............... 8 Compact SOUT IRS, 5. Us hsiceumeseratens cuaioeand ll Har ‘d brown clay with traces of RHEMS Accs. ccces 23 Thanst Sanes. Beds of clayey grey and greenish sands ...... 19 Bed Of Bimts Un GING. cc, cnc da teen senseaseangcanncks 1 Chalk. As the specimens were much crushed by the auger, I could not determine any of the shells. Between Calais and Cassel ‘T have no sections, except shallow surface-sections at Watten, where I recognised the London Clay. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 243 At Armentiéres, under 37 feet of London Clay, M. Meugy describes * (op. eit. p. 152) :— feet. “ Blackish sand, rather compact ............... 10) (Basement bed ?) NS OS eee 34 } Upper Landenian. sete: gg IR aga er 2 | (Weookvich & Reading series.) ee 52 : ren. ws neaccwsncnunes ae 10 rs Scams ; Hard and dry clay ............0...cccecsecsensceees OS Goce sel ae Chalk.” A little beyond our line of section, and further to the east, a well-section at Tourcoing (p. 150) gave,— feet. Re a Soo Saat occas as toni ncuoces aQccee cannes 73 RE er ee ee 36 a a cc ans icntnnmeulhe te sales 147} Ypresian clay. London Clay. Green ase Sensis sooth ae eres aR, Upper Landenian. = gm e See eee eee eee eee eee eee eee z= ( Woolwich Y Reading series.) Ns Sn dm eahinkdivns Gennes <4 44 en Re eee ee 22) ay with seam of iron pyrites ...............208 3 : Clay mixed with sand—at base a hard stone | Lower acai (carbonate of iron ?), 4 to 5 in. thick ... 35 | Leung arene = sandy clay—dry and with pebbles ...... 57 At La Magdeleine near Lille (p. 148), under drift and 28 feet of London clay, there occurs,— feet. IER SIME ann. 50k. catanennanwcacetaane ee he : Ditto ith CS eee 2 b upper ia a Argillaceous green sand, effervescing with acids 46 Blackish grey clay, very compact ............. .. 28 } Lower Landenian. hag argillaceous sand (effervesces)......... 11 alk.” At Orchies (p. 146), to the southward of Lille, under 18 feet of drift and 20 of London clay, there are,— feet. SS ge eererae 14 ee oo a nn nienwawncncdcccaces 70 } Upper Landenian. Seam of clay and thin quick-sand............... 2 OE ee ee 28 Har sand oo 7G beer Landenin I NNO FINN ccs i. Gian wenicnawaencnwedccnden 5 Near Faumont, between Lille and Douai, the section is as follows— feet. ~ Vegetable foal and clay... ...... 5... escc kc cc csee 25 Ypresian clay. Ree GURCRPRD ooo oo oo 5. 6c scan eknn cea case 7 : . Green quick-sand with a seam of blue clay ... 67 } Upper Landenian. Green sand and hard clay .....................0e8 24 Scag SOMERS Ts ae Sareea 28 \ Lower Landenian. M. Meugy further speaks of the upper glauconiferous sands (Upper Landenian?) which forms the small outlers south of Douai and of the River Scarpe. It is not clear from the text if he means that the Lower Sands are wanting; but im his sections he makes the outher at Brune- mont, near Douai, to consist of both Lower and Upper Landenian— * In’ these descriptions, I merely give a literal translation of the original—my own additions are in ifalies. s2 244 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the former, however, beg reduced to one-third of the thickness he gives to it on the north of Douai. (Pl. VIII. Sect. 2.) South of this district extends part of the great Chalk-plateau of Picardy, rising to an average height of 300 to 500 feet, and showing only at a few distant intervals small cappings of Tertiaries. Of this district we only possess a very general description. A little to the east, however, of this line of section, between St. Quentin and Peronne, M. Elie de Beaumont has given (op. cit. p. 112 and pl. 7. fig. 1) a section which is of considerable interest, inasmuch as it shows that, whereas at Mons-en-Péveéle the Lignite series is separated from the “ Lits Coquilliers”’ and “Glauconie moyenne” by 150 feet of London clay, at the hill above Marteville, near St. Quentin, the London clay is apparently wanting, and the total thickness of the strata beneath the Glauconie moyenne is thus much reduced (see Pl. VIII. Sect. 2). The following is an abstract from the text (p. 113) :— pike Sand with calcareous concretions, full of Nummulites and Turritella... 10 to 13 Greenish laminated clay, containing vegetable impressions and capped by @ Seam of imperfect lipnite.70<0.05250 2.2). -ccanas vk sone eon nee 26 to 32 Thin seams of red, yellow, and black clays, with indications of lignite : —a few decimetres. Quartzose sand with green grains, the lower part greener than the upper. The thickness of the last bed is not given, but from the general descrip- tion, the section, and the height of the hill, and as at a short distance lower down the hill the Chalk crops out, I should suppose it not to exceed 20 to 30 feet. Now I presume these upper sands belong to the Glauconie moyenne (Graves), with the Nummulites planulatus, and that the clays, lignites, and greenish sands belong to the Upper Landenian or the Woolwich and Reading series. | The department of the Somme has been more fully described by M. Buteux, according to whom the Tertiary outhers set in again more conti- nuously in the neighbourhood of Montdidier. He gives the followmg section on the chalk-hills between Davenescourt and Hangest :— feet ‘“¢ Grey sand and thin seams of sandstonsc. 05:00 0id..taeesos0cnehenvseashaeeae ee 2 Reddish sand 2 icc... s.decevswhosivescks tay ci eueneaeemnasanpedseddagiualees ane aee aaa 63 Greenish, sand «.. vscissat snkiaccccucecesmacasysatnssnwschim ead doe apen pss sence eens ane 92 Whitish sand ease siccsia.st ss ccavahinabminagescdetase Rees sbasecechae ket: Steere ane on It is on the confines of the Somme and the Oise that the remarkable thick pebble-beds, extending from east to west, and which M. Graves (p. 182) considers as indicating the boundaries of an old shore, occur. On Mont Soufflard, between Montdidier and Breteuil, these beds are largely developed. M. Buteux gives the following section of them :— feet. “Round flint-pebbles enveloped in a matrix of grey plastic clay*............. o- 20 Grey and yellowish plastic clay, with rare remains of shells ..............0.0000+ 4 Sandy bluish grey clay «...00,.00ss.csscceeescsseneesasxascscateanincs svalncsdaericcnneaee 4 Lignites” Aci eio.apeieeedasececestheaeecavee sons sacs neicamescdecient cng meee =a eee 63 Bluish: plastic’ lay 02425. cnsteeseneiectace ssn ssaccpmavane siege a: sesniieadedns aan 4 Whitish sand passing into greenish ..............scescccsesceveceecees be-os's ose Ps) Plastic Cayo ..c2es s..cacnersvamanchismedacccooss veaveupion be va cnwusminegsoast +k atom M. Graves gives the following section of the hill-top at Coivrel, south of Montdidier :— feet “ Yellowish and ferruginous sands with sandstone ...............00+ saenenhaiesitels 23 Compact green clay © ...ceet..s.ssscecnedscgnensp sin enhogenehdenans sas aasamasdeenipabens nas 2 * According to M. Graves (p. 243), it is—sands and pebbles 26 feet. The shells beneath he states are the Ostrea Bellovacina and Paludina lenta. PRESTWICH—BRITISH AND FOREIGN TERTIARIES. 245 feet. Greenish marl with Ostrea Bellovacina, Melania inquinata, Cerithium acutum, Cyrena cuneiformis, KC. aseccseeeseee ee teed aan Rui sois'sa SaaS s¥e<(edbisiases'e ce EE ICNAG ose cae taes vo cna. co nnee do nenanwennnamdguy dieSenehtunesn een deacesivsledt st deeieedes 4 Earthy lignite mixed with some red clay and flat pieces of j iron pyrites ...... 34 foreen clay .........< Siols’sin o's ao.s'e0.siaisisinis cuidulelausMnaeeubisnnaeaaiacaeSuscebenndersasees sess 2 White sand.” At Pronleroy, a short distance south of Coivrel, is this section (p. 244). The lower sands here commence to exhibit the marine fossils of Bracheux. feet “ Mottled grey and buff stiff clay containing petrified Wood ...............e0808 2 Hard greyish fissile limestone full of Chara seeds ......... aver oreehencievaetceiase 3F Greenish marl with Ostrea Bellovacina in abundance.........000..+.eseeeeees Freie a! eee ett With! ChE SAME OYSLETS. . ....c0veevcivesaeracweuse-wosiearcdscesccneecrseebevess 24 Whitish-grey sand, with Cucullee, Crassatella suleata, Venericardia multi- Coatala, Turritella edita, 80. c.cccceedseecssunsiiacaseeaedacs Bae ecabiercanteleumpetela 5 Yellow sands with the same shells more NUMETOUS.......0.......seeeeeeseeeseeenes 8 Chloritic sands without fossils,—the Chalk at a slight but variable depth.” This series is extremely variable. The following is the section (p. 234) at St. Sauveur, near Pont St. Maxence, one of the places where the beds over the lignite (but belonging to that series) contain marine shells. feet. BR METACIAL SOU 505.00 deensostsicnsanandes SPta ei aso oko lets plastids oeiaciril= vias octereinisiseidclaa es 4 Yellow sand, containing an immense quantity of Ostrea Bellovacina, Ceri- thium AEE, Cyrena ait bs Pectunculus terebratularis, &c. ... 84 RUE MCOMMET OHS SANG 55 .e'icncesncisicauscigeddencdeecxecesseces Aa tte REEL 34 Bluish marl with lacustrine shells... wiipceh Se auitsibie es etacsy sweeesoias Vananeeeetsineiaaniea-taim 34 MERE TIG cogiec eae cnr noacesass.ssininiisas neers ocausens Sentiesdaasdenay < agains deans sya Greenish and bluish Fuller’s-earth ..............sseeeeeees ihe ds anateale tee vels SianshSejy ti ERO ee inca Sin jes} a) tee ; DA See » : wt ia 7 . —s 4 H ‘ . 7+ F and pitaad C 4 sat ; Es " bo 5%) AY . bd arene : Aang? , lis ni (ie Ss ~ . 7 Res . wae F ned a ed : weer Pp eee eee aoe, pe a Btn 2. Al Dh he va gutta a ' » = : ee ; z . ‘ ” | : ¥ | | ‘ hogy f Pi » ae 4 y y - an ae. hm We COMA ELO 2 UUOTUD —— Blue Limestone and. Slate Rocks. Devonian Rocks. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 247 On the Grotoey of portions of the TurKo-PERSIAN FRONTIER, and of the DISTRICTS ADJOINING. By WititiAm KENNETT Lortus, Esq., F.G.S. (Communicated from the Foreign Office, by order of the Earl of Clarendon.) [Read June 21*, 1854.] [Prats IX. ] Note.—The publication of this Memoir having been unavoidably postponed, the Council thought proper that a full Abstract should appear in its place in No. 40 of the Society’s Journal. This Abstract (Journ. vol. x. p. 464, &c.) will prove of the more service, as illness before the completion of the Survey, and afterwards multiplicity of business previous to his second departure from England, rendered it impossible for the Author himself to draw up a summary of his views, or even to conclude his Memoir, as he had intended, with general remarks on the whole subject.—Ep. [ ConTENTS. | Introduction. Part I. (Southern Portion of the Frontier). I. Recent Deposits. 1. Alluvium. A. Fluviatile alluvium. B. Marine alluvium. 2. Lacustrine deposit. 3. Limestone gravel. II. Tertiary Rocks. 1. Gypsiferous Series. Bituminous products. 2. Nummulitic Series. Altered nummulitic limestone. Tangs or trausverse clefts in the limestone saddles. Longitudinal fractures. II]. Secondary Rocks. 1. Upper Secondary or Cretaceous Series. 2. Lower Secondary Series. IV. Paleozoic Rocks. V. Metamorphic schists. VI. Plutonic Rocks. Granites. VII. Trappean Rocks. Part II. (Northern Portion of the Frontier). Intropuction.—The notes from which the following paper+ has been compiled were made in the years 1849-52, during the progress of a joint Commission appointed by the English, Russian, Turkish, and Persian Governments for the demarkation of the Turko-Persian Frontier. For the greater part of the first three years various political ques- tions detained the Commissioners on the alluvial banks of the Lower Tigris, where but little scope exists for the labours of the geologist. * For the other Communications read at this Evening Meeting, see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. voi. x. p. 454, &c. t The collections of rock-specimens and fossils made by Mr. Loftus are deposited in the British Museum, the Museum of Practical Geology, and the Museum of the Geological Society.-—Ep. rant Jours Gror Soc Vor XT PLIX. Meshed)Alt TABLE OF COLOURS. a Granite Voleante Rocks, (Basalt: ke.) Gypriferows Rocks Nimamutitic Rocks Cretaceous Rocks Ble Limestone and. Slate Recks Davraan Rocke. “Le, LD oe Gas 4 Tegi8n se Grewinglee Geology of Norte Persia, 186% gob0 Gre, Shetch Aap of the TURKO- PERSIAN FRONTIER by W.K.LOFTUS,EGS. Booetier Line Lines of Section | | | | . — TE I 248 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. When at length the running survey of the mountainous portion of the frontier was proceeded with, it advanced with such rapidity that the party was seldom two days encamped upon the same spot ; thus there occurred no opportunities for minute geological investigation. Other difficulties of no ordinary nature presented themselves. Our route lay through the midst of those wild mountain tribes who from time immemorial have never acknowledgéd law or subjection, and who regarded our movements with infinite distrust. Owing to the insecurity of the country, habitations were so few that we were fre- quently obliged to carry provisions for many days together. Add to these facts the ruggedness and inaccessibility of the passes and mountains, as well as the intense heat of the climate (sometimes reaching 124° Fahr. in the shade), and it may be conceived that our labours were attended with considerable danger as well as difficulty. Under these circumstances, I trust that every allowance will be made for the imperfect nature of this communication. In this place I cannot omit returning my sincere thanks to Her Britannic Majesty’s Commissioner, Lieut.-Col. Williams, C.B., for the facilities he invariably afforded me, and without which it would have been utterly impossible to have reached such localities as I con- sidered desirable for the prosecution of my researches. Mr. Ainsworth is the only geological author who has, from actual observation, written on the structure of any portion of the country under consideration; and, although I had no opportunity of going over the same ground, his ‘ Researches in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldzea,’ in connexion with the labours of the Euphrates Expedi- tion, have been of considerable aid to me in tracing the geographical extent of the various formations in their western range. The line of country investigated during the survey bears in a N.N.W. direction from Mohammerah, at the head of the Persian Gulf (lat. 30° 26' N.), to Mount Ararat (lat. 39° 42' N.); a direct distance of rather more than 600 geographical miles. See Map, Pl. IX. The first 250 miles, from Mohammerah to near Mendali, is an arid and deserted waste, infested by plundering parties of Arabs and Kurds, but capable for the most part of extensive cultivation. From Mendali to Zohab (50 miles) the exterior Tertiary chain of low gypsiferous ridges, which everywhere skirt the west flank of the Zagros, is crossed ; and at the latter place the Nummulitic limestone and Cretaceous rocks are first reached. See General Section’, fig. 1. From this point to near the Lake of Zerribar (60 miles) is a suc- cession of regular saddle-shaped limestone anticlinals, with alternate synclinals containing disconnected portions of the gypsum-series, and underlaid by older blue schists. The remainder of the Frontier exhibits a lofty range, composed of igneous rocks, which, bursting through the stratified deposits, con- stitute the axis of the vast barrier-ridge nearly as far as Bayazid at the southern foot of Mount Ararat, a distance of 270 miles. * The woodcut diagrams, reduced from the original sections, are to be found at pp. 326-344, LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 249 The journeys of the English Commission, and my own when on detached service, extended, however, as far south as Shiraz (lat. 29° 36'N.). Many of my most valuable sections were obtained during these journeys; and, as they throw light on the order of suc- cession of the different formations upon the immediate line of the Frontier, I have ventured frequently to refer to them. If a traveller approach the dominions of the Shah from the Per- sian Gulf, or from Lower Mesopotamia,—that is, between the parallels of latitude of Shiraz and Stileimdnia (29° 36! and 35° 16!’ N.),-—he must cross the vast range of the ancient Zagros, and invariably meet with the greater portion of the section as exhibited in fig. 1. Further northwards, however, the igneous eruptions alter and contort the sedimentary rocks in such a manner as to render their recognition no very easy task. I therefore deem it advisable to describe, in the first place, the least complicated and best developed sections in the south, extending as far northward as the A’'b-i-Shirwan (lat. 35° 8! N.); and, in the second place, to describe certain sections in the _north, which throw light on the age of the disturbing forces, and present some interesting phenomena connected with the deposits of travertin. PART 1. Although contrary to the usual course, I propose describing the various formations in descending order, because they so present themselves to the traveller going eastward, and because this plan is more likely to be serviceable to such European travellers as may feel desirous of adding to our scanty knowledge of the geology of those little-visited regions. I. Recent Deposits. 1. Alluvium.—This term has usually, with regard to the Mesopo- ‘tamian plains, been applied to the soil composing the basins of all the great rivers falling into the Persian Gulf, and extending from the Hamrine Hills, on the east of the Tigris, to the Bahr-i-Nedjef, on the west of the Euphrates. The alluvial formations are, however, much more circumscribed, and do not extend beyond a few miles eastward of the Tigris, where they pass imperceptibly into the underlying light reddish sands or fine gravels of the beds 2 of figs. 1 & 2, of which the Hamrine Hills are composed. These older beds frequently dip at an angle of 70°, and gradually become horizontal in their extension westward. ‘The similarity of their general aspect with the alluvial beds, which have chiefly been derived from their denuda- tion, renders it very difficult to define the exact limit of either formation. The alluvium may be clearly divided into—(A.) fluviatile and (B.) marine. (A.) The fluviatile alluvium, now in process of deposition, is limited to the banks of the rivers, with the adjoining marshes and canals. It consists of a stiff blue, or fine arenaceous grey clay, and fine sand or gravel. These deposits are dried and cracked in every direction 250 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. by the intense heat of the sun, and are on this account exceedingly difficult for a horseman to traverse. They afford a rich soil for the cultivation of maize, rice, water-melons, cucumbers, and the ordinary vegetables of the Arabs; and they frequently contam imbedded shells of extinct species of the genera Cyrena, Unio, Melanopsis, Helix, &c. At the junction of the Diyala River with the Tigris below Baghdad the deposit is a tenacious deep-red clay, derived from the Hamrine red range, through which this river passes in its course from the higher mountains. At Baghdad the foundations of all good buildings are laid on this clay, at a depth of 15 or 18 feet below the surface, upon which rests an arenaceous grey clay used for common fictile purposes. During an extraordinary rise of the Tigris in the spring of 1849, the deposit on its banks at Baghdad attamed the height of six feet. (B.) The marine beds of the alluvium are much more extensive than the fluviatile, and consist of dark-grey or reddish-yellow loose sands and sandy marls. These are usually seen in the desert, at some distance from the rivers; and, where not otherwise distin- guishable from the beds of the underlying rocks, are to be recognized by the growth of saline plants, and by dark wet patches, produced by the presence of chloride of sodium. They are sometimes accom- panied by fossils. In the neighbourhood of Mohammerah, Sablah on the Karun, and Busrah, are the following shells, identical with species now living at the mouth of the Persian Gulf,—so far at least as they have been compared with a small collection, made by the late Captain New- bold, E.1.C.S., from the beach of Bushir. (Identified specimens are marked with an asterisk.) Fossil Shells from Mohammerah, Sdblah, and Busrah. Venus. Neritina erepidularia, *Purpura (Rapana). Arca. Lamk. *Cerithium. Melanopsis. Purpura. Cyprea. Strewed over the desert in the neighbourhood of the extensive ruins of Worka and Sinkara, in Lower Chaldza, and on the verge of the marshes of the Euphrates, are innumerable fossils, of which I collected 30 species, many of the specimens exhibiting distinct traces of colour. The Arab women of the Madan tribes collect and wear them in their hair as ornaments. Fossils from Worka and Sinkara. Astrea. Neritina sp. Strombus. Meandrina. Nerita. Nassa. Balanus ? Trochus. Columbella. Venus. Cerithium. Mitra. *Cardium. ; Planaxis sulcata. Cyprea ; 2 sp. Spondylus. Purpura. Ancillaria. Dentalium octangulum. = (Rapana). Oliva. sp. Murex. Conus ; 2 sp. Melanopsis. Triton ? Otolite of a Fish. Neritina crepidularia, Lamk. é Mr. Ainsworth met with abundance of similar fossils near the first- LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER, 251 mentioned locality, at Gerah on the Euphrates ; and Messrs. Fraser and Ross, during a journey through the Jezireh of Chaldzea, observed a large surface of the desert on the banks of the Shat-el-Hie, a few miles to the N.E. of Worka, literally composed of shells. It is to be regretted that none were preserved. Still further to the north, in the centre of the Jezireh, in about lat. 32° 10! N., between the Lemlim marshes and the ruins of Niffr, I picked up numerous pieces of silicified shell-conglomerate with a white and siliceo-caleareous matrix. From the abundance of these fragments, and from their angular aspect, it is evident that they must have been derived from the immediate locality, although the outcrop and position of the beds, with relation to the older and newer deposits, are entirely concealed beneath the drifted sands of the desert. Mr. Ainsworth, who had good opportunities for examining the order of stratification of these beds, exposed in the sections upon the banks of the Euphrates, divides this marine formation into two parts : —‘‘the upper and more sandy beds were characterized by the tro- choidal and buccinoidal forms of turrited univalves ;”’ and the most ~ abundant shells in the lower argillaceous beds were a Venus, a Cyrena, a Mytilaceous shell, and some turrited univalves. (Op. cit. p.123.) An examination of the fossils of this marine deposit proves, that at a comparatively recent period the littoral margin of the Persian Gulf extended certainly 250 miles further to the N.W. than the present embouchure of the Shat-el-Arab—the combined stream of the Tigris and Euphrates, and 150 miles beyond the junction of these two great rivers at Korna. The actual extent of this marine deposit to the N.W. it is im- possible to define, as, from the nature of its formation in the shallow estuary, it probably passes upwards gradually into the more recent fluviatile beds. Mr. Ainsworth, in his ‘ Researches,’ and Col. Rawlinson, in a paper read before the Geographical Society in 1850, have both shown the rapid accumulation of this alluvial deposit, which is represented to increase a mile in thirty years at the head of the Persian Gulf. It is therefore needless here to repeat the investigation ;—especially as I have no new matter to add upon the subject. 2. Lacustrine Deposit.—The only deposit of this nature which I was so fortunate as to meet with was in the mountains of Liristan, upon the elevated plateau of Hassan-i-Gowdar, between Khorremabad and Bisittin. This plateau is surrounded on all sides by lofty peaks, and presents the appearance of having been at some time or other the basin of a lake. A small stream on the north side of the plain exposed a section 12 feet deep, and exhibited a friable, loose, yellowish limestone, filled with freshwater shells, viz.— Planorbis ; allied to P. corneus. Planorhis ; a striated species. Planorbis ; allied to P. marginatus. Lymneeus ; an elongated species. Boe PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The entire absence, with the above exception, of Lacustrine Depo- sits in the region I am describing is somewhat remarkable, when it is considered that such are the most extensive and largely developed of all stratified rocks throughout the adjoining districts of Asia Minor. In this place it would be proper to discuss the recent deposits of calcareous tufa (see Part II. of this Memoir) ; but, as these do not appear in the Southern part of the Frontier, and as they constitute a very important feature in the investigation of the rocks at the northern end, I omit the consideration of them at present, and proceed to the subject of the gravels underlying the above-described fluviatile and marine alluvia. 3. Limestone Gravel.—In many localities (especially in the neigh- bourhood of Dizfil; see fig. 4, p. 329) on the outskirts of the great chain, an enormous accumulation of gravel reposes nearly horizontally on the upturned edges of the tertiary strata, or dips at a slight angle towards the plains on the 8.W., in which direction it gradually thins out. Seen from the plains at sunset, these gravel-masses present a very peculiar appearance, their surfaces being cut up and deeply furrowed by innumerable channels, caused by the heavy periodical rains. Towards the N.E. and E., at their greatest elevation, they frequently terminate abruptly im a perpendicular escarpment. A very remarkable instance of this occurs about twelve miles N.E. of Dizfil, where, after attaining the summit of the range, the road is carried to the valley of Gilalahu by a zigzag path down the face of a cliff, which, judging by the eye, must be 200 feet in height, and is entirely composed of this limestone gravel (see also fig. 3, p. 328). The escarpment bears 12° S. of E. for a distance of about twenty miles, being only interrupted by the passage of the River Diz and the Kinak Stream. Magnificent sections are obtained along the course of these streams, as well as at the debouchure of the River Kerkhah into the plains of Arabistan. Masses of this deposit fre- quently stand isolated from the main range, and, being precipitous on all sides, were formerly the strongholds of the mountain-chiefs. Tangavan, at the N.W. extremity of the escarpment above alluded to, is a conspicuous and fine example of an isolated gravel-fortress. The town of Dizfil is situated on the left bank of the River Diz, which here cuts through cliffs of this gravel 60 feet high. The actual thickness of the deposit is certainly not less than 100 feet in this locality (see fig. 4). The serdaubs, or cellars, in which the natives pass the day during the scorching heat of summer, are excavated in it, and are reached by long flights of steps. Subterraneous canals called Konats, for irrigation derived from the river, have been cut by Persian perseverance for miles through the gravel at a great depth below the surface. Their course is trace- able by the heaps of pebbles thrown out at regular intervals through wells. To one of these Konats, 14 mile-E. of Dizfil in the direc- tion of the mountains, I descended by 60 steps of 13 inches each ; 2.e. 65 feet. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 253 The same deposit is cut through by the Ab-i-Zal, in its course from the higher ranges to its junction with the Kerkhah. The section of the cliffs at the ruins of the Sassanian Bridge over the Zal shows a perpendicular height of 80 feet. Not having examined the west skirts of the Pushti Kuh, I am not able to state whether the gravel extends N.W. of the Kerkhah; but from the contour of the outer range seen from a distance, it most probably does so. Eastward of the Pushti Kuh, however, it occurs in the trough of the Mah Sabadan, resting, as usual, unconformably on the gravels, sands, and marls of the gypsum-series. The road along this valley is exceedingly painful and difficult, as the boulders are of enormous size and obstruct the pathway. They cease, how- ever, at the junction of the Kashghan and Hililan streams, which constitute the Kerkhah. Similar masses of gravel are met with in the plain of Hershel, at the point where the River Shirwan emerges from the gorge of Semi- ram. They repose horizontally on the edges of the gypsiferous rocks, and abut against the side of the Bamit limestone-range. The components of this gravel, wherever met with, are essentially the same ; and prove beyond a doubt that the deposit is everywhere due to the same cause, whatever that may have been. At Dizfil we have the following per-centage of the component materials :— Pebbles of 1. Compact, blue, limestone. crystalline 2. White or cream-coloured num- mulitic limestone. 3. Breccia of small angular frag- ments of coloured cherts in a matrix of hard sand. 4. Fine-grained, friable, red sand- stone. 5. Red, dull-green, and other coloured cherts. 6. Quartzose yellow sandstone. 7. White quartz. Character. Generally oval, or with the angles worn off, frequently 2 feet in diameter ; 43 per cent. Ditto ditto, but not quite so large; 38 per cent. Oval, 9 inches in length ; 5 per cent. The largest 1 foot in diameter, cubical angles worn off; 5 per cent. % inch in diameter ; 5 per cent. Rounded, 3 inches in diameter ; 4 per cent. Less than 1in. square ; 4 per cent. North of Shuster I observed likewise a few angular and rounded lumps of bitumen; but im no instance was there a fragment of igneous rock. Kidney-shaped calcareous nodules frequently occur, having a large central cavity, lined with small crystals of calcareous spar. The matrix is of two kinds :— 1. Fine cherty sand. 2. Calcareous yellow paste. 254 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The two varieties, which are equally common, occur together. The first is, however, more frequent than the other in the plains on the eastern skirts; and the latter in the mountains. The pebbles are firmly cemented together, and are frequently covered with a thick calcareous enduit. The blue limestone-boulders are sometimes much weather-worn ; numerous regularly-formed channels radiate from a slightly project- ing centre, and give the boulders somewhat the appearance of the radiating concretionary nodules found in the Magnesian Limestone of Sunderland. This, however, only occurs on the surface of the blue limestone-pebbles, and is not observed on that of any other of the components of this gravel. Throughout the whole of this vast accumulation the various pebbles are thrown together without the slightest appearance of order or stratification. They are nearly, if not all, derived from the rocks composing the mountains immediately adjacent; namely, the blue limestone from the ambiguous Lower Secondary series ;—the white and cream-coloured limestone and the pebble-breccia, from the Num- mulitic formation ;—the red sandstones and variegated cherts, with probably the quartzose sandstone and white quartz, from the sands and gravels of the Gypsum-series, which this gravel-conglomerate immediately overlies. It is remarkable that the boulders derived from the greatest distance are the most common, while a very small per-centage is found of the nearer rocks. This, however, may be accounted for by the soft and friable nature of all the latter, which have been ground down and form the sandy matrix. No trace of fossils has been met with in the limestone-gravel, excepting such few as occur in the pebbles themselves. Il. Tertiary Rocks. 1. Gypsiferous Series. In this series I include all the stratified deposits above the Num- mulitic limestone, to be hereafter described. The series consists of the following beds in descending order of stratification :— 1. Fine gravel, passing into 2. Friable, red, calcareous sandstone. 3. Variegated marls, frequently saliferous; with vast deposits of gypsum and thin beds of impure limestone. I have traced this formation in a N.W. direction, from Kazertin to Jezireh-ibn-Omar (lat. 29° 47' to 36° 00’ N.), nearly 700 geogra- phical miles. How much further it extends in either direction I am unable to say with certainty, though there is every reason to believe that towards the south-east it passes through Belichistan, and is a prolongation of a similar formation described by Captain Vicary as occurring in Scinde. Beyond Jezireh-ibn-Omar, it follows the line of the Taurus, bearing LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 255 to the S.W., and is partially, represeuted on the Euphrates by the gypsiferous marls, &c. described by Mr. Ainsworth as extending from Balis, on the N., to Meshid Sandabiya, on the 8S. (Op. cit. p. 64-92.) The actual breadth of this zone varies considerably, and, in conse- quence of the beds passing imperceptibly under the alluvium to the westward, it is very difficult, as I have previously remarked, to define its limits in that direction (p. 249). Along the northern portion of the frontier detached patches of this formation are frequently met with,—in some localities (as west of Urumia) forming distinct ranges of considerable elevation. It may probably be traced into the Caucasus. Considerable outliers of this formation extend in long lines of sand- stone and gravel hills parallel to, and at a distance of twenty or thirty miles from, the main chain. Striking off from it near Behbehan, in lat. 30° 14' N., the Zeitan Hills rise into bold, rounded, and sometimes precipitous cliffs, through which the Jerrahi River forces a passage into the plains of Dordak. After continuing about fifty miles, the range sinks into the desert, and is just distinguishable from the general level by a low, continuous, undulating line on the horizon, of thirty miles in extent. It again rises into the Ahwaz range, and, crossing the River Karun, constitutes the celebrated ledge of rocks known as the Bund (Dam) of Ahwaz, of which advantage has been taken for the construction of an artificial dam, by which the water of the river was diverted in ancient times from the original channel, for the purpose of irrigating the country to the east. About midway between Ahwaz and Nahr Hashem, on the River Kerkhah, the sandstone-hill called Jebel Manstr (Prospect Hill) is a very conspicuous point. On the west bank of the Kerkhah, the sandstone-range again appears, running in the same general direction, a few miles north of Hawiza, when it again sinks into low undulations which cross the Diiwarij and Tib Rivers and joins the main chain west of Deh Ltran. About 100 miles still further northward, the outlier again strikes off at Kih-i-Manisht, passes to the east of Mendalli, and rises into the high range known as the Hamrine, or Red Hills (from the colour of the sandstone). See figs. 1 & 2. These cross the Diydla River (called Shirwan during its course through the mountains) between the villages of Khanikin and Shehrebin,—form the Bund across the Athem River,—cross the Tigris in lat. 35° 06’, just below the junc- tion of the Little Zab,—and are lost to my knowledge in the deserts S.W. of the ruims of Al Hadhr. I have been somewhat diffuse in tracing the geographical extent of these outlying ranges, because some doubts have been expressed. as to whether they are composed of rocks belonging to the same geological age. From actual observation of all, except the Zeittin Hills (of which however there can be no question), I can certify that they are com- - posed of the two upper divisions of the gypsum-series, namely, fine gravel, and friable, red, calcareous sandstone ; and that the persistent 256 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. character of the beds continues throughout the whole of this extended line of 500 miles. But these outliers do not indicate the extreme western limit of the gypsum-formation ; for I am convinced that, after forming a trough under the alluvial basin of the Tigris and Euphrates, through which it occasionally appears as islands in a shallow, the same series is con- tinued into the deserts of the Aneiza Bedouins ; and it is probably again represented in Syria. At Meshed Ali, the sacred shrine of the Sheah Mahomedans, the banks of the Bahr-i-Nedjef and the cutting of a new canal expose a section of about 50 feet through horizontal beds of— 1. Very fine white quartz-gravel, imbedded in friable, reddish, caleareous marl; 12 feet. 2. Similar quartz-gravel, in friable calcareous earth; 40 feet. Midway between Musseib on the Euphrates and Kerbella is a slight rise in the surface of the ground, and which, from its whiteness, attracts attention. It is a bed of loosely cemented fine gravel, resting on amorphous gypsum, and contains crystals of selenite. The road passes for half a mile over the south-eastern extremity of the bed, which extends in a low undulation towards the N.W., and is lost on the horizon. The components of this gravel are precisely similar to that at Iskenderia Khan (alluded to below), between Baghdad and Baby- lon, where gypsum again appears, and causes a remarkable ridge on the otherwise level desert. It is first met with half a mile to the north of the Khan, and runs in a general direction N.N.W. by S.S.E. To the south of the Khan it is one mile broad. It sinks into the alluvial plain on both sides, but reappears near Mizerakji Khan, on the west about two miles, whence another ridge trends away to the N.N.W. The gypsum protrudes in small masses, exhibiting no regular stratification, but appears contorted and irregular; in some places it is hard, compact, and disposed almost in the form of septaria, or with a resemblance to a tessellated pavement. In both varieties small pebbles are observed, which do not, however, exceed a quarter of an inch in diameter, if even so much. Mr. Ainsworth casually mentions the pebble-beds of Iskenderia ; but he appears to have overlooked the gypseous deposit, which is here quarried to the depth of 3 or 4 feet, burned, and conveyed to Baghdad, where it is used in the internal decoration of houses. The pebbles associated with this gypsum deposit are :— 1. White, reddish, yellowish, and milk-white quartz. 2. Siliceous stone, of pinkish quartz with white grains of imbedded quartz (one specimen). . Flint, with white and reddish-white coating. Hornstone, approaching agate. . Semi-transparent agates (a few). . Cherts of various colours, from grey to almost black. . Light-green chert, approaching jade. NTS Or & OO LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. Pi. 8.- Brown indurated clays, passing into jasper. 9. Jasper, chiefly red, and brown-veined. 10. Waxy indurated limestone, whitish, green, grey, blue-black, and black ; some varieties approaching marble. 11. Brownish and pinkish quartzite-sandstone. 12. Flinty slate, from grey to black. 13. Shining black flinty slate, with semi-conchoidal fracture. 14. Highly indurated serpentine, almost flinty (rare). 15. Granite, of fine-grained variety ; greenish-grey colour; con- sisting of quartz, dark mica, and a very little greenish feld- spar (very rare). 16. Fragments of angular gypsum ; evidently not transported from a great distance. 17. Pebbles of bitumen, slightly rolled. With the exception of the last two, all the other ingredients of this gravel are much rolled and rounded; and generally they do not exceed an inch in diameter. At Akker-Koof, twelve miles N.W. of Baghdad, the ruins stand upon a slight elevation of gravel, consisting of the same pebbles as at Iskenderia, excepting those mentioned in the list as rare. In addition I collected there the followmg— Flat pebble, with its exterior weather-worn ; interior showing hornblende and feldspar of bottle-green colour (rare). Pinkish granite, composed of quartz, feldspar, and oxide of iron (rare). Porphyry? (one). Light-brown compact limestone, with veins of serpentine. Limestone, of a brown matrix with small Nummulites imbedded (rare). Coralline limestone (rare). Rolled bitumen ; aud doubtful fragment of bone. Many quartz, jasper, chert, and limestone pebbles, flattened,—so as to be easily mistaken at first sight for coins. The following is a rough per-centage of the pebbles found at Isken- deria and Akker-Koof :— per cent. AM 617 Lege ee at a ie SRL | Le Chert, flint, and jasper .. 40 Limestone, sandstone, flinty slate, serpentine, porphyry ?, \ 30 granite, and nummulitic and coralline limestones.... .. At Zobeir, near Busrah, the calcareous sands and superimposed gravels are largely developed, and may be traced northwards at inter- vals across the desert to near Suk-el-Sheioukh, on the Euphrates. In some localities the gravel is wholly composed of white quartz, and at others of coloured cherts. Wherever wells exist in these deserts, the water is invariably bitter VOL. XI.—PART I. 1 258 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. and brackish, and in this respect resembles all streams flowing among gypsum-deposits. From the above facts it may be presumed, although positive sections are wanting, that the gypsum formation passes beneath the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates,—that it rises to the surface, in low rounded patches or elongated ridges, at certain localities between those rivers,—and that it reappears in the deserts to the west of the Euphrates. The difficulty of obtaining sections in the deserts is unfortunate, because I am unable to state with certainty the exact position of the gravels, sands, and gypsum-beds of the above localities with respect to the well-defined sections on the verge of the mountains. It is worthy of remark, that I have nowhere but in the plains of the great rivers observed gypsum immediately overlaid by quartz- and chert-gravel. It is therefore possible that these deposits are subsequent to the sands and gravels of the Hamrine Hills and the gypsum-beds further to the east. Section (fig. 2) from Bighddd to Zohéb.—In passing from Baghdad along the great caravan-road into Persia, by way of Khanikin and Kasri Shirin (see fig. 2), we have a constant appearance of cherty and quartzose gravel-beds of the same character as those at Iskenderia. From Baghdad to Shehreban (48 miles) is a perfectly level desert ; but between the latter place and Kisil Robat the road crosses the low range of the Hamrine Hills. These consist of reddish, yellow, coarse, calcareous sandstones and loose gravels, alternating with red sandy marls ; the whole series has a gentle dip to the N.E., and is covered by the gravel detached from its original bed. Between Kisil Robat and Khanikin there intervenes a still higher range of precisely similar composition, the beds of which have the same dip towards the N.E. The elevation of these ranges appears to be due to lateral pres- sure; and faults no doubt exist beneath the alluvial sandy plains of Kisil Robat and Khanikin, whereby the continuity of the beds is broken. These reappear to the N.E. of Khanikin, and run without inter- mission to Kasr-i-Shirin (fig. 2). The peculiar character of the sandstone-portion of the gypsum-series now begins to show itself. It consists of low tabular hills, when the stratification is nearly hori- zontal ; the red chert-gravel towards the 8.W. forming cappings, but alternating with a succession of friable red sandstones and mazrls. Proceeding eastward, the marls predominate over the sandstones ; and the beds, which previously appear dipping one way and then another, take a S.W. direction on approaching Kasr-i-Shirin, and present a succession of little escarpments towards the village. At this place the sandstones and underlying marls rest conformably, at an angle of about 15°, on the high ridges of pure gypsum which ter- minate the N.W. extremity of the limestone-range of hills called Sumbiilah. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 259 This range is the first appearance of the great limestone which constitutes the main feature of the Zagros, and here protrudes through the newer gypsum-deposits. Between the village and ruins of Kasr-i-Shirin the gypsum curves over in a low ridge, and is again overlaid by the marls and sand- stones which fill up the valley of Goura-tti, dippmg to the N.E., and terminates in the range called Kardyez. Nothing can exceed the barrenness of this valley, except where a small tributary of the Diyala flows through a thick growth of reeds. Seen from any high pomt in the neighbourhood, this part of the disputed province of Zohab presents an extraordinary scene. On all sides, up to the base of the great limestone-chain of Bami on the north, and extending to the N.W. and S.E. until lost in the distance, is a vast sea of un- profitable sandstone-ridges, which can of themselves be of no value to either the Turkish or Persian Government. Excepting the small stream above-mentioned, there is no water to be procured, while the succession of zigzags formed by the outcrop of the beds renders tra- velling by no means agreeable. Such is the character of the upper and middle portions of the gypsum-series here; and, I may say, their aspect is alike wherever they are met with on the western flanks of the mountains. I have crossed them in various directions, far apart from each other, and have found the same invariable succession of strata,—scarcity of water, and that bitter and brackish,—sterility,—-succession of zigzag ridges and short escarpments,— and the like disposition to produce fever and ague. And yet, with all these disadvantages, these sandstone-ridges were, in the days of the Sassanian monarchs, the favourite abodes of the Persians, whose ruined dwellings are continually to be met with. Within the greater ranges, however, these remarks do not always apply. In the direction of Zohab, the series of gypsiferous deposits dis- appear near the naphtha-springs of Hamam Ali and at the range ealled Karayez, in whose cliffs, facing the S.W., the sandstones and marls are capped by a thick bed of cherty and quartzose gravel. A great fault to the east of this range throws up the cretaceous rocks to the eastward of Zohadb, and at the same time elevates the nummulitic limestone trough of the Ban-i-Zardah, behind the town, to the height of 2000 feet (fig. 2). In this trough, isolated at so great a height above the corresponding beds of the same age, rest sandstones, variegated marls, and gypsum; the successive layers of which crop out within the basin, and, curving upwards, rest con- formably upon the almost vertical limestone which forms a series of high serrated peaks, facing the Kuth-i-Dalahti on the north-east. The same order of superposition is here observed as elsewhere on the western skirts of the Zagros: the sandstones overlie the marls ; the Jatter in their lower part being associated with gypsum. These beds are not again met with east of Dalahu. Section from Dizfil to the Valley of Giléldht.—Sections near Dizfil (figs. 3 & 4) exhibit the gypsum-series in less broken succes- sion than it occurs further to the north-west. T2 260 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The valley of Gilalahui presents a highly instructive section (fig. 3). It is a denuded valley of elevation in the sandstone-series, having a central axis parallel to the main range,--namely N.W. and S.E. On descending from the gravel cliffs which I have previously described as intervening between Dizfil and this valley, the axis of sandstone.is seen in the form of an elongated saddle, extending in a straight line down the valley for many miles to the south-east. This axis is flanked on either side by regular parallel ridges of similar sandstone, which slope outwards, having abrupt and broken escarp- ments facing towards the axis. The extreme regularity of these ridges gives the valley the appearance of a well-ploughed field on a gigantic scale. The dip near the axis is at an angle of about 25°, but this angle increases towards the sides of the valley, and on the S.W. the strata at length become almost vertical ; and their denuded edges are covered unconformably by horizontal hmestone-gravel (see fig. 3). Several patches of gravel rest on the summit of the central axis in tabular masses; but I had no opportunity of ascertaining whether they belong to the limestone-conglomerate described at p- 253, or whether they are merely denuded portions of a bed inter- calated between the layers of sandstone. ‘Beds of fine gravel frequently alternate with the sandstones here as well as in the Hamrines and at Kasr-i-Shirin. In descending, the gravels give place to variegated marls with crystals of selenite. The sandstone is of the usual type; very friable, calcareous, and reddish from the abundance of fragments of red chert. The surface of the beds is generally smooth; but it frequently resembles a pavement of uniform diamond-shaped blocks, separated from each other by deep cracks. This appearance is probably due to rupture during ele- vation; the fissures being subsequently filled up with a calcareous deposit. A small stream flows across the valley, cutting its way through the ridges. When it comes in contact with the smooth surfaces of the beds, a thick incrustation of chloride of sodium above the level of the water-line is the result. As the water is not yet become salt, the mineral must exist in the rock itself. The Oleander and the Tamarisk are the usual shrubs which grow along the banks of this and other streams flowing through the sand- stone rocks. I did not cross the valley sufficiently far to the N.E. to be able to state whether any deposits of gypsum are there to be met with. Section at Shister.—At Shuster are exhibited some very fine sec- tions of the gravel and sandstone beds. The A‘b-i-Gargar division of the Karin River, after passing the Bind-i-Kaisar, enters a channel between cliffs of these rocks, 70 feet in height. The stratification is horizontal, and in the lower part consists entirely of fine yellowish- red sandstone. In ascending, however, the laminze become coarser, much disturbed, and mixed with gravel; while still higher up the pebbles are larger and more common, until at the surface they cover the cliffs. Frequent and very violent currents must have been in action during the deposition of the whole upper part of the gypsum- LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 261 series. Upon the right bank of the Shtait the pebbles are large, and are cemented in a calcareous paste, with large boulders of the lime- stone-conglomerate of Dizftil. Serdaubs or cellars, probably of great antiquity, are here excavated in the sands and conglomerate-rock ; and in the bed of the stream are huge masses of the latter, which, from bemg undermined, have fallen from their position. The serdaubs in the town are excavated deep in the sandstone ; and some little attention is paid to architectural embellishments, such as columns and pilasters. The finer sandstone is here generally used for building-purposes ; but when exposed to the atmosphere it peels off in flakes or rapidly disintegrates. This character pervades the whole of the gypsum- sandstones. Section (fig. 4) from Dizful to Khorremébdd.—The road between Dizftil and Khorremabad passes only a few miles to the N.W. of the section last described at Gildlahu; and here we have presented a similar order of stratification. The saddle-axis has, however, sunk down ; the beds dip somewhat more irregularly, and are contorted; which appears to be owing to several undulations or folds, still bearing in the same N.W. direction, but having the general dip towards the S.W. From Dizfil to the Baladrid River, a distance of fourteen miles, the road rises over a sand- and gravel-plain, without any particular order of stratification being visible. At the point where the river is crossed, near a ruined bridge, the banks are 150 feet high and afford the following section :— 1. Coarse gravel-conglomerate, with large boulders of nummulitic limestone. Fine gravel, and reddish calcareous sandstone, passing into Fine gravel (chert, quartz, &c.). . Thin layers of red calcareous marl. . Red sandstone (the same as No. 2). A large block, of the sandstone No. 5, had, from being undermined by the river, fallen a few feet from its position. The upper surface was thus exposed, and exhibited distinct ripple-marks. Upon the under-surface of the overlying marl, which remained in situ, were the corresponding impressions, strongly marked. From the same cliff, and from the bed of sandstone No. 2, I ob- tained relief-casts of impressions made by rain-drops, which had fallen on the red clay: pieces of clay adhered to the casts. Between the Baladrtid River and the Bedderhti Stream are gravels, sands, and variegated marls, arranged in the usual order. On the S.W. the gravels predominate in extensive beds ;—proceeding N.E., these alternate with calcareous red sandstones, but at length give place to considerable deposits of red and vandyke-coloured marls, though they still occur in connection with the sandstones intercalated between the marls, but without any trace of gypsum. At Hous- seinéah, where the sandstones are of great thickness, I procured natural casts of footprints, which belong to some animal of the feline order*. * See Note A, at the end of this paper, p. 325. ork wo bo 262 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. One of these footprints is remarkably distinct (and is now in the British Museum). The pads of the foot and of the four toes, as well as of the claws, are well developed. On comparing it with the right fore-foot of a full-grown Chetah (Felis jubata, Schr.), in the pos- session of Col. Tcherikoff, the Russian Commissioner, I found a per- fect resemblance in size, namely 4} inches long, by 34 inches wide. In form, however, there is a slight difference ; the pads of the toes in the cast are somewhat more elongated. Adhering to the hollows are pieces of red clay. About an inch behind the first cast, is another, probably of the hind-foot, but not very distinct. On the same slab are traces of Fucoids. Other indistinct and irregular marks are sometimes seen on sand- stones of this formation, but this is the only instance in which I have observed any indications of the existence of animal life so high up in the gypsum-series. The lithological structure of the rocks, and the foot-prints which occur in them, appear to indicate some connection with the conglo- merate-sandstones and bone-beds of Scinde and the Himalaya. They all occupy a similar position with regard to the underlymg Nummu- litic rocks, and show that they have been deposited under similar conditions,—namely, on the shore of a shallow estuary, frequented by land and fluviatile animals. If it be possible to found an argument from the presence of but one fossil, we might remark that a similar generic distribution of animals seems to have prevailed formerly as now in the respective regions in which they occur. Thus, while on the flanks of the Himalaya the large elephantine groups abounded and still abound, and in Scinde the crocodile continues to appear as the characteristic animal,—so in Luristan, where those genera are entirely absent at the present day, the feline tribes occupy their place, and (as far as our evidence goes) are alone represented in the fossil state. The Bedderhti Stream affording more moisture than is usually to be found in this inhospitable sandstone-region, the Lurs have sedu- lously availed themselves of every level plot of ground for cultivation, and many are the little oases seen among these otherwise desert sandstone-ridges. On quitting the Bedderhi Sion for Kaléh i Riza, the road follows along the strike of the beds at that portion of the series where the variegated marls are evidently preponderating over the sandstones, and dipping as usual to the S.E. About ten miles to the east of the road, a few thin and unimportant beds of gypsum crop out from under the marls, and rest against the slope of the limestone-chain of Tikomani, being now and then covered by nearly horizontal deposits of limestone-gravel and -breccia in a reddish- yellow, pasty matrix. All the beds are conformable to each other; but, while the sand- stones west of the Bedderhu dip to the S.W. at an angle of 15° or 20°, the gypsum slopes off fromthe great range at an angle of 50° or 60°. Kihi Tikomént is the first Epes of the Nummulitic limestone N.E. of Dizfil. | LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 263 From the Bedderhii to Kalah i Riza (about five miles) the same Series of sandstones and marls is continued; but from the latter place an alluvial plain of five miles is passed over to the A’b i Zal. This plain is covered over with enormous limestone-boulders and gravel-conglomerate, generally concealing the underlying strata; but the outcrop of the gypsum may still be observed, resting against the slope of the range. I examined the junction of these rocks with great care, and there can be no doubt of the perfect conformability of the gypsum to the limestone. The beds of the former here retain the same earthy and cavernous structure throughout their total thickness, without any alteration in appearance. Proceeding N.W. from the A’b { Zal, we enter the trough formed by the limestone-saddle of the Kebir Kuh, on the S.W., and of the Kealin Range, on the N.E. At first, the rocks of the gypsum- series, overlaid by limestone-conglomerate and -boulders, occupy the whole breadth of the trough (about eight miles across) ; and exhibit powerful beds of compact, massive, calcareous gypsum, of dirty- white or grey colour, traversed by blue veins or markings. A variety, quite white, earthy, containing crystals of selenite, very cavernous and friable, is observable where the beds are much con- torted; which is often the case in this lowest portion of the series, when crushed together in a trough. These beds of gypsum may be followed with the eye for an immense distance, as they strike out in long lines, or form conspicuous patches parallel to, and extending along, the base of the limestone-ranges. At Pul i Tang, ten miles above the A'b i Zal, the underlying lime- stone protrudes through the gypsum-rocks, dividing the deposits in the trough into two parts, and throwing them up with much contor- tion against the skirts of the ranges which bound the valley. The two kinds of gypsum associated with variegated marls are thus largely developed at Bagh i Khan, on the western base of the pass over Kuh i Kedliin, the colours of the latter, red, blue, and green, almost rivaling the brightness of our own beautiful section at Alum Bay. After descending from the Kealiin Mountain, the road for fifteen miles crosses an extensive tract, known par excellence as the Chil, or Desert,—a succession of very much contorted sands, variegated marls, and gypsum; the coloured marls occupying the north side of the undulating plain. The scene is barren in the ex- treme at the end of September, and possesses neither habitations, trees, nor streams of water. In spring, however, this Chul must be very beautiful. It is then frequented by numerous tribes of the Lirs on account of the rich herbage which everywhere abounds ; but the scorching heat of the summer soon converts its bright green sward into a glaring yellow grass-stubble, covering the hills and concealing the stratification. A few well-built tombs are the only signs that man ever dwells here; and these, coated with pure white plaster derived from the gypsum, are excellent land-marks for the lost traveller. To the Chul succeeds a wide valley of elevation, bounded on the 264 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. south by the range of Tang i Khashow, and on the north by that of Deh i Liz. These ranges are composed of the Nummulitic forma- tion; but the centre of the valley shows a thick series of bituminous blue shales (fig. 4, 4d), dippmg conformably under the limestones, and probably of the age of the Chalk. The descent from Deh i Liz is covered by a thick oak-forest, growing upon limestone-debris, which entirely conceals the stratifica- tion to the north of the Pass; but, soon after leaving the plain of Jeudiki, the marls and gypsum with soft sands appear, dipping at an angle of 30° towards the chain of Deh i Liz. Some of these beds afterwards attain a great development, and rising into considerable mountains studded with oak, are traversed by several large streams, which form magnificent gorges, and are bounded by high perpendi- cular cliffs of blue and red marl, and red sand-rocks, in which gypsum does not appear. This order prevails until the limestone is again thrust up at Tang i Chemish, with a dip of about 45° to the S.W. North of this chain, the strata are concealed by debris, as in the same position at Deh i Liz. As soon, however, as this debris ceases, contorted beds of sands, marls, and gypsum, the last being less abundant, occupy the trough between Tang { Chemish and Kth i Dadawa, a distance of about three miles. The limestone then rises in high undulations, which, forming the Ktuth i Bebbé, finally slope down at Tang i Sibbiir into the alluvial plain of Khorremabad. The last appearance of the gypsiferous series to the N.E. in this part of the Zagros is on the southern base of the cretaceous limestone-range of Yaftah Kuh, which thrusts up the red sands and marls at an angle of 35° towards the south. It would be useless to enumerate the various sections in which the rocks composing the gypsum-series present the same order of suc- cession. It is sufficient to have shown that such order is universally preserved. To trace the numerous beds throughout their whole extent, would be a work extremely minute im detail, which would require much time and labour without affording (that I can see) adequate remuneration. The absence of nearly all trace of organic life would render such an investigation in all respects unsatisfactory ; and, moreover, the numerous layers of the sandstones, marls, or gypsums so exactly resemble each other, as to render the discrimina- tion of any one of them a matter of great difficulty, if not of utter impossibility. It is true that in some localities among the marls are a few bands of impure limestone containing an assemblage of crushed shells, which are probably large Cyclades or Cyrene; but, as the characteristic features are in all cases destroyed, they would afford little or no assistance. The total thickness of these deposits must be very great, certainly not less than 2000 feet; but, never having seen a perpendicular section through them, I can only give this as a somewhat rough approximation. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 265 The greatest heights at which these deposits have been observed are near Hindi Mayni, in the trough of the Kerkhah about lat. 33° 10’ N., and at Kirrind. Section (fig. 5) in the Valley of the Kerkhah.—In this locality, at an altitude of about 6000 feet above the sea, a section across the trough exhibits a somewhat uncommon elevation of the gypsum- rocks. The limestone-range on the north-eastern side of the valley is formed of two folds, Kih { Vayzdniyah and Kuh i Binar, which in their elevation have detached a considerable patch of the deposits from their solid mass in the valley below. This patch is much con- torted, spreads over the summit of the Ktih i Bunar (the smaller range), and hangs dipping over the slope towards the valley, exposing to view only a small surface of the curved limestone of the mountain. The corresponding beds in the valley take the’same dip, pass under the alluvial plain of the Kerkhah, and again appear resting on the slope of the Kebir Kuh on the south-western side of the trough. Sections (figs. 6 & 7) at Kirrind.—The plain of Kirrind is but a widely extended trough, and therefore exhibits less contortion than usual in the gypsum-deposits which occupy it. The town of Kirrind is situated on the N.E. side of the plain, at the mouth of a highly ‘picturesque gorge in the limestone-range behind, which dips at an angle of 60° towards the plain. Resting against this slope on either side, but high above the town, is a set of deposits affording interesting sections of the gypsum-marls, the highest point of which has an eleva- tion of 5500 feet above the sea. On the S.E. section (fig. 7) the beds appear to have retained their original position to a certain extent, as they only dip at an angle of 25° towards the N.E. They seem to have slipped very quietly down the sloping surface of the limestone during its elevation, and so to have taken up their present position. On the N.W. section (fig. 6) a much more violent action has taken place; the beds furthest removed from the rock have a general dip at an angle of 75° from it and towards the S.W., while those which are first visible from under the limestone-debris, by which the edges of many of the beds are covered near the rock, curve at their outcrop, as though they formed a dome over the adjoining layers to the S.W. Whether this whole set of beds has been turned bodily over, and the newest overlapped by the lowest members of the series, —or whether the upper layers were pressed downwards by the lime- stone,—there is no evidence to show, since the same order of succes- sion does not occur on both sections. For comparison, the various beds are enumerated as they occur :— North-west Section (fig. 6), commencing at their first appearance from under the debris, some distance from the rock :— 1. Pinkish plastic clay. 2. Thin bed of mottled marl ; with several species of fossils*. 3. Blue marl. * Enumerated at p. 267. 266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. - Red marl. . Fime-grained grey sandstone. . Coarse red sandstone, with pebbles of pink marl ; passing ito . Fine grey sandstone. - Red marl. . Grey sandstone. - Red marl: - Blue marl : . Red marl, with a thin band of grey siliceous limestone. . Blue marl, with layers of slaty and marly limestone, containing several thin beds alternating. indistinct impressions of plants or insects. . Red marl. . Grey marly limestone, with Balani, Cyrene, &c. . Several beds, covered up by limestone-debris. South-east Section (fig. 7), commencing at top :— . Thick bed of red marl. . Grey sandstone (fossiliferous). . Red marl. . Grey sandstone (fossiliferous). Red marl. . Thin bed of compact, hard, fine-grained, red sandstone. . Loose red sandstone : . a ee thin beds. . Thin bed of slaty blue limestone. . Thin bed of blue marl. . Grey limestone. . Variegated marl. . Slaty red sandstone. . Red and blue marls. . Grey sandstones. . Red marls. . Thin bed of blue, siliceous, slaty limestone. . Red marl. . Grey sandstone. . Red mar! and sand. . Grey sandstone, passing into . Thin bed of blue marl. . Grey sandstone. . Marls. . Thick bed of blue and grey sandstone. . Coarse red marl. . Fine red sandstone. The total thickness of either Section may be estimated roughly at 500 feet. From the general aspect of the various beds, I suppose them to belong to the lowest part of the gypsum-series, probably the very lowest in this locality. In one respect the Kirrind Sections are much more interesting than LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 267 any other observed in this peculiar formation, inasmuch as they con- tain fossils (which are however nearly all in the form of casts). In the bed No. 2 of the N.W. Section we have The jaw and teeth of Natica. Lucina. Spherodus ? Mytilus ? Nucula ? Remains of Crustaceans. Astarte, 2 sp. Chama. Balanus. Modiola. Several Bivalves ; genera Murex. Pholas ? undetermined. In beds Nos.-2 and 4 of the S.E. Section are * Remains of Crustaceans. * Astarte. * Mytilus ? * Balanus. * Lucina. * Anomia. Flustra. Cardium. Several Bivalves ; genera * Natica. Cardita. undetermined. Cerithium. Pinna. Serpula. Oliva. Arca, 2 sp. Astrea. Calyptrea. Note.—The species marked (*) are identical with those from the former section. The outcrop of the beds immediately in juxtaposition with the limestone is, as I have said, entirely concealed by limestone-debris, so that I am unable to state if any fossils are common to the two formations. In the first visible stratum of the limestone the fossils are perfectly distinct from those of the newer marls, and consist of Nummulites Biaritzensis and microscopic forms peculiar to the Num- mulitic formation. Section at the Tauk t Girrah Pass.—The only locality at which there is anything like a gradual passage from the nummulitic beds to the superimposed gypsum-marls is at the summit of the Tauk i Girrah Pass, on the descent from the mountainous region of Persia to the plains of Zohab. The following descending section is there presented :— 1. A succession of calcareous and variegated marls, with thin beds of fine yellow sandstone at intervals; the last most abundant in the upper part of the series. These beds are of great thickness and are unfossiliferous. 2. Yellow calcareous marl, filled with a crenulated Ostr@a, and Po tN AONE seetspzat bra dthes vieioradiiinitin aids Oh oi tae 8 | 2 tt. 3. Hard calcareous marl, with supposed Cyrene ?, crushed to- eter, st, TgSs):, MOMS MINCE, Lo i icin leans sass televise Ail bbe 4. Soft blue marl, containing fossils identical with thuse from the fossiliferous beds above described at Kirrmnd ........ 1 ft, 5. Hard compact limestone, filled with exceedingly small pebbles of red chert; of considerable thickness, and containing small Nummulites Biaritzensis. This sequence appears to be complete; but the organic remains are characteristic of the separate beds in which they occur, and do not pass into any others. 268 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. An examination of the fossil contents of the gypsum-series with those of the underlying nummulitic rocks does not show one form ex- tending through both formations. As the lithological character also of these two formations is so totally dissimilar, I have thought it best to describe them separately. Still, however, when the universal and perfect conformability of the gypsiferous marls to the nummulitic limestone is considered (whether the beds of the latter lie horizontally, or rise in lofty domes), we cannot by any means pronounce them to belong to a different geological epoch, but rather consider them as a transition from the older to the newer tertiary period. I am disposed to think that a sudden elevation of the whole bottom of the ocean took place at the close of the period when the num- mulitic limestone was deposited, by which the species then living were totally extinguished. This elevation must have been accom- panied and succeeded by the frequent discharge of sulphuric vapours from below, which, acting upon the calcareous matter held in solu- tion by the water, deposited it in the form of sulphate of lime. I am the more inclined to adopt this mode of accounting for the origin of this mineral deposit, because it occupies no fixed position in the marls, but is stratified and intercalated irregularly among them, gene- rally however in their lowest part. Where gypsum occurs, it usually spreads over a large surface, showing it to be the result of a widely extended cause. The entire absence of animal life during its deposi- tion has frequently been remarked. The order of superposition of the beds of this formation, as above described, differs materially from that observed by Mr. W. J. Hamilton of the beds of the same formation in Asia Minor generally. That gentleman noticed the variegated marls and gypsum resting uncon- formably * upon underlying ‘sandstones, which latter were in juxta- position to the nummulitic limestone. On the flanks of the Zagros, however, as I have endeavoured to show, the marls and gypsums are the lower beds, and rest conform- ably on the limestone, while the sandstones are superimposed upon them. I do not think that this inversion of order need be of serious im- portance, when the great distance between the deposits (750 geogra- phical miles) is taken into consideration. Itis evident, from the very numerous layers in the various beds, that continual changes occurred ; and therefore there need be no difficulty in supposing that, while sandstones were undergoing deposition in Asia Minor, marls and gypsums might be forming along the Zagros, and vice versd. The marls and gypsum of Mr. Hamilton’s sections (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. v. p. 373) are represented as lying horizontally upon the elevated and even vertical sandstones. This, however, may be the result of the Taurus having been thrown up at a different period from the Zagros. It is by no means improbable that in some other * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. v. p. 373. In another district, however, of Asia Minor, Mr. Hamilton observed gypsiferous beds conformable with the red and yellow marl and sandstone; see Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2 ser. vol. v. pp. 590 & 592.—Ep. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 269 locality in Asia Minor marls may be found conformuble to the sand- stones *. The arrangement of the gypsum-series of the Zagros agrees, how- ever, with that of the newer tertiary beds of the Hallé Range, and the formations of Scinde, as described by Captain Vicary +. Bituminous Products. —Before quitting the subject of the gypsum- formation, it is necessary to say a few words on the bitumen- and naphtha-springs which abound in its lowest deposits in connection with the associated marls and gypsum. Instances occur in which bitumen-springs rise from the nummulitic limestone, but these are exceedingly rare. The spring in the Citadel on the summit of the Rock of Van in Armenia may be adduced as an example. As a general rule, however, where bituminous products appear in Mesopotamia or in the Persian Zagros, we may be assured that they rise from the gypsum-deposits. The most remarkable and well-known instances of this fact are those of Hit, on the Lower Kuphrates,—of Kerkik, on the Hamrine,—of Hamam A'li, on the Tigris, near Nimrtid,—of Hamam A/li, near Zohab,—those near Mendali,—and further south, near Ram Hormiuizd. The only bitumen-springs which I had an opportunity of closely examining were in the Bakhtiyari Mountains, between the curious and ancient temple called Mesjid Suleiman and the Mountain of Asmari; these probably are the most copious of any. They are situated in a wild and barren region of much-contorted and highly elevated ridges of sandstones, marls, and gypsum. Their immediate source is in a narrow ravine between lofty walls of the earthy and cavernous variety of the last-named rock, having the strata dipping im every possible direction, and furnishing abundance of sulphur, which is sold in the bazaars of Dizfil. A small stream of cold water rises high up the ravine, and is increased as it descends by streamlets from a multitude of sources, most of which furnish a supply of liquid black bitumen and white naphtha, mixed together,—some of them very abundantly. One spring yields yellow naphtha alone. These oily substances float upon the surface of the stream, and are conveyed to an artificial dam. When the dam is nearly full, the water is drawn off at the bottom, and the bituminous mixture is left exposed to the heat of the sun, until reduced to the consistency of soft mud. It is then placed in a large caldron, covered over, and submitted to aslight heat by heaping fire on the lid. After a gentle simmering for a short time, the fire is removed; and the substance, when cold, is bitumen prepared for use. The SeVids (or descendants of Mahomed) at Shuster enjoy the sole right and privilege of making bitumen here. The black slime floating on the surface, or settling on the white gypsum banks and detached blocks, produces a curious and striking contrast. The water contains a great quantity of sulphur in solution, which is deposited along the bed of the stream, and is collected. The stench of sulphur in the ravine is almost unbearable. From these springs are collected annually about 2000 mauns (or 12,000 lbs. * See previous note.—Ep. tT See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. p. 331, &e. 270 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. English) of liquid naphtha and prepared bitumen; which, inclu- ding the expense of collecting, of manufacturing, and of carriage, are sold in Shuster at the followmg rate :—Liquid naphtha, 13 Keran per maun, or 23d. per lb.,—Bitumen, at 2 Kerans per maun, or 37d. per lb. There might be collected 7000 or 8000 mauns annually, if there were sufficient demand. There are various other bitumen- springs in the immediate neighbourhood, the refuse-waters of which fall into the A'b i Sur (“Salt River’’), which is the receptacle for every species of villanous water, whether bituminous, naphthous, salty, or sulphureous, rising among the gypseous deposits of that region. 2. Nummulitice Series. The rocks of the Nummulitic Series constitute the most remarkable feature of the Zagros, and extend, to my knowledge, from Shiraz to Mount Ararat, a distance of 800 geographical miles. They rise from beneath the beds of the gypsum-formation in elongated saddles of compact crystalline limestone, running parallel to each other, and having a quaquaversal dip. Frequently, when much elevating force has been exerted, huge masses of the limestone stand isolated, with lofty precipices on all sides, bearing on their summits acres of pasturage and springs of delicious water, to which the native chiefs and their adherents can retire in safety, and, with a handful of men, defy the whole power of the Persian . Government. Of the saddle-formed ridges the most remarkable is the range of Keahin (fig. 4). It forms the eastern edge of the trough through which the Kerkhah River flows before passing into the plains; and it extends 35 miles ia a perfectly straight line. Seen im perspective, its outline resembles a gigantic model of the Crystal Palace, the uniform curve of the dome being very remarkable and imposing. The Kebir Kth, which bounds the western side of the same trough (fig. 4), is another example of a similar kind; but the con- tinuity of the layers 1 is frequently broken on the cranes and thus considerable precipices are the result, the Jagged edges of which were invaluable points for the survey of the frontier. Innumerable examples of the saddle-shaped ranges might be ad- duced ; for, in fact, this is the usual form in which the nummulitic rocks show themselves on the west of the central axis, where the elevating force has been less generally experienced than in the in- terior of the chain. In the latter position, as is naturally to be expected, the strata have been forced asunder, and present mural cliffs of great height on either side of long valleys of elevation. Of isolated masses of the nummulitic limestone, I may refer to the impregnable fort of Jaffer Kuli Khan, the notorious chief of the Bakhtiyéri Mountains,—Chdouni in Liristaén (fig. 8),—the Kuh-i- Seffid, between Shirdz and Behbehén,—and particularly to the Ban-i- Zérdah near Zohdb (fig. 2). During the elevation of this portion of the ancient Zagros, the subterranean force acted with such intensity as to sever the lime- stone-strata of Kiuth-i-Ddlahti ; and a huge mass on the 8.W. side, LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. yA | called Ban-i-Zardah, was broken off from the main chain. [This will be understood by referring to fig. 2, p. 327.] It stands in the form of an elongated trough, eight miles in length from S.E. to N.W., and about four miles wide, separated by a deep valley from the broken south-western escarpment of Dalahi. ‘Towards the N.W. the Ban- i-Zardah projects in a semi-oval snout, considerably beyond the rest of the mountain, and presents a perpendicular escarpment of 2000 feet on the N.W. and S.W., the stratification dipping from the edge to the centre of the trough. . The Ban-i-Zardah is one of the finest specimens of the numerous natural fortresses which exist in Persia; and, from its strong posi- tion, it was chosen by the weak and unfortunate Yezdijird, the last of the Sassanian kings, whereon to make his final stand against the conquering arms of the Moslem invaders. The distant outline of these ranges is straight and uniform, some- times presenting a few protuberances, but never rising into lofty and picturesque peaks*. The summit of a “ Diz,” or natural fortress, is usually flat or but slightly undulating, owing to the vertical elevation of the mass, and consequent horizontality of the bedst. The great ranges composed of the limestone of this formation everywhere present a formidable barrier to access from the west. All the passes from Turkey into Persia are carried over them; and, as those in the interior are reached by gradually mounting higher and higher, step by step, they were described by the Greek historians by the appropriate name of «Xiuaxes or ladders. In some instances the passes follow a zigzag path up the precipitous face of an escarpment, and are paved with rude blocks, but generally they are little better than goats’ tracks and almost impassable. The surfaces of these dome-shaped mountains, which in the distance look smooth and easy of ascent, are upon nearer acquaintance found to be covered with huge blocks and sharp broken pieces of hard limestone, or a breccia with a yellow calcareous matrix. This breccia frequently conceals the superposition of the gypsum-deposits upon the skirts of the lime- stone-dome. From the base to about 6000 feet above the sea dwarf Oaks abound ; but beyond that height they gradually disappear; at 8000 feet the Astragalus only grows. The nummulitic rocks attain an elevation of from 9000 to 10,000 feet. Exposed to the weather, the limestone assumes a warm ochreous tint ; but on fracture it is yellowish or grey. In close proximity to the igneous axis of the whole chain of the Frontier are highly crystalline blue limestones, some of which are undoubtedly an altered condition of the nummulitic limestone, the fossils being destroyed. In consequence of the rarity of fossil remains throughout the whole * The outline of the ranges as seen from Dizfal is represented in Section VIII. of the original Memoir.—Ep. tT A diagram-sketch of a portion of the Mungerrah Mountain geologically co- loured, and showing this configuration, accompanies Mr. Loftus’s MS.—Ep. 272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of this formation, and of their being when present for the most part in the state of casts, I have been unable to ascertain the newest beds. The compact and crystalline nature of the rock presents a univer- sality of character along the whole line of its range which does not lessen the difficulty. In very few instances have good sections been met with, because of the peculiar saddles, which seldom expose more than the upper layers. Even when a section is obtained, through the heart of any of these saddles, we gain no information further than that it is com- posed of 2000 feet and upwards of layers of unfossiliferous compact or crystalline limestone. Section (fig. 8) at Mungerrah.—The most detailed section that came under my observation is at Mungerrah, two long days’ journey N.N.W. of Dizfil, in the interior of the Lirish Mountains, where the English and Russian Commissicners passed the summer of 1850. The valley of Mungerrah is an extensive and irregular basin, enclosed on all sides by perpendicular cliffs, except on the south, where it is entered by a narrow valley called Ser-i-Deriah. The strata of which the bowl of this valley is composed are red gravel and sandstone. Upon these rest conformably solid beds of lime- stone, which rise to the summits of the mountains around forming the sides of the basin. The dip of the whole series is 8° 30! towards the south. The following is a section from the top of the great cliff at the foot of which our camp was situated (see fig. 8, p. 331) :— 1, Limestone-breccia, derived from the underlying beds, and cemented in a yellow calcareous matrix. 2. (fig. 8, 2a) Grey compact limestone, sometimes of a light slate colour; fracture saccharoidal ; emitting a bell-sound, when struck with the hammer ; surface rough, weathering in deep and large holes, as if bored by gigantic lithodomous mollusca. It contains a few Ostree, Pectines, Echini, casts of Cerithia, and Univalves, which, however, it is impossible to extract, owing to the flinty hardness of the rock. In the upper layers are huge tabular masses of opake, white, and dark- brown flint. . (3a) Thick bed of very hard, compact, somewhat argillaceous, light-grey limestone, with fossils similar to the above. . (3a) Compact greyish-yellow limestone; the lower portion in very thin layers. Fossils very rare. . (36) Very hard gravel-conglomerate, in a deep-red argillo-cal- careous matrix; the pebbles consist of highly mdurated, dark-red and dull-green clays and cherts, mixed with a few of dark-blue limestone and yellow sandstone ; the fragments of chert and clay bemg small and much worn by transport. . (sc) Yellowish and reddish sandstone, with thin and regular layers of the above pebbles, which are most frequent in the upper part of the bed. SN) aN or oO LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 273 7. (3d) Blue, grey, or fawn-coloured limestone, exceedingly hard, compact, and heavy ; containing Nummulites perforata (small variety), NV. (Assilina) exponens, Orbitoides dispansus, Alveo- lina subpyrenaica; with a few spines and broken shells of Echinoderms. This bed passes into the following— 8. (se) Bluish-grey rock, consisting of Nummulites, &c., ce- mented in carbonate of lime, and containing the same fossils as occur in bed No. 7: interspersed are a few layers of fra- gile grey marl. By barometrical measurement, our camp on the gravel-conglomerate (bed No. 5) was 1951 feet below the summit-edge of the overhanging cliff. ‘The above section, therefore, cannot be less than 3000 feet in height. I regret that I am unable to give the thickness of the several beds; but the nature of the cliff renders measurement quite out of the question. From the presence of an Ostrea (sp. undet.) in the limestone No. 2, and also at the head of the Tauk-i-Girrah Pass, as before men- tioned (p. 267), in connexion with the gypseous deposits, there is reason to believe that the bed No. 2 lies near, if not quite at the top of the nummulitic rocks. It is just possible that it may represent the fossiliferous marls of the gypsum-series discovered at Kirrind (see p. 265), since the forms of the contained fossils appear to be nearly allied; although casts, such as these, are always difficult to identify. The beds Nos. 7 and 8 were well exposed in the sides of a deep ravine, formed by a mountain torrent im the basin of Mungerrah, which afterwards forces its way through a difficult gorge to join the Balad-rid River. Large blocks of this shell-conglomerate, literally composed of Nummulites perforata and N. exponens, with Alveolina subpyrenaica, lie in the channel of the stream a few miles below the gorge, showing that this bed is very largely developed somewhere in the neighbourhood, though I was not so fortunate as to discover the particular locality. The last-named fossil is called by the natives *“‘Sangi Berinj,’”” or Rice-stone, from its fancied resemblance to grains of rice. See p. 278. The Section fig. 8, taken from the summit of Chéouni, gives a general idea of the arrangement of the beds of this formation, and of the strange dislocation which has taken place near Mungerrah by the elevation of the Bi A’b Mountain. The upper beds of the lime- stone, which is here white and saccharoidal, are inverted, and form a high peak, with quantities of angular debris upon the slope. This peak in the outline of the mountains as seen from Dizftl* is repre- sented by a conical protuberance. Not having had an opportunity of examining the Bi A’b, I am unable to say positively to what forma- tion the rocks composing it belong, but I have seen fragments of Ammonites which were said to have been picked up in crossing it. This, together with the conformable dip of the overlying beds, leads me to the conclusion that it is cretaceous. * The author has given in the original MS. a coloured sketch of the outline here alluded to.—Ep. VOL. XI.—PART I. U 274 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. From the great elevation of Chaouni, the order of the Mungerrah section is seen prevailing throughout the adjoming mountains, for the deep-red of the chert-conglomerate (bed No. 6) may be di- stinctly traced, from its contrast with the other beds, forming a wide band wherever a cliff-section is presented*. The origin of the red-chert-gravel, which is very widely extended, is to me a complete mystery. It is true that a bed of solid red chert is seen in the Lir mountains at Harsin,—and a thin bed (of the cretaceous age) crops out in the plains of Kermanshah and Mahi- desht, and at Kasley Gul near Mount Ararat; but these are too insignificant to have been the nucleus from whence such an enormous quantity of gravel was derived. In these two localities there is no waxy-green-coloured chert, which is abundantly found mixed with the red-chert-gravel wherever that occurs. These rocks may, how- ever, exist in mass in some unexplored region of the Lur or Kurd Mountains. From the summit of Chaéouni, the red-chert-gravel is traceable in a N.W. direction for a distance of twenty or thirty miles, until it is shut out of view by the intervening mountains. Section (fig.4) at Tang-i-Khdashow.—The lower portion of the Mun- gerrah Section is crossed at the Tang-i-Khashow, between Dizfil and Khorremabad, about forty miles N.W. of Chaéouni (see fig. 4, p. 329). Here the road passes through an easy gorge, having on either side a cliff of about 800 feet high, with the strata dipping to the S.W. at an angle of 40°, or thereabouts. To the N.E. is a broken face of rock exposing the following section :— No. 4; a thin bed. No. 5. Mungerrah beds...; No. 6. |. §: No. 8; containing Alveolina subpyrenaica in very great abundance, with Nummulites perforata and N. exponens. 9. Thick deposits of reddish sandstone, fine-grained and hard, without fossils; but containing a few thin bands of darker-coloured _ hard iron-sandstone, tolerably heavy (=4 6 & 4c of fig. 4). 10. At about 13 mile from the entrance of the pass these sand- stones are succeeded by enormous beds of slate-coloured bituminous shales and marls (4d, fig. 4), which fill up the entire centre of the valley between Tang-i-Khashow and the Pass of Deh-i-Liz, and afford a rich soil for the forest of dwarf oaks which here abound. The water flowing among these marls is scanty, and highly impregnated with iron. No traces of fossils were here observed. It is highly. * In the MS. Memoir the author has given a diagram-sketch, geologically co- loured, sketched by Lieut. Glascott, R.N. with the theodolite from this position, and looking to the N.E. It shows the wild character of this region. Mr. Loftus adds that “the irregular upper outline of the red gravel is owing to its being overlaid by limestone debris fallen from above. In other sections the underlying beds are discernible, especially in the bluff south-eastern extremity of the Kealan range, and in the lofty mountain called Kis, across the Bi A’b, north of Chdouni.” —KEp. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 275 probable that these marls are a prolongation of the beds which crop out on the north side of Chaouni, from under the Mungerrah section, and rest upon the curve of the Bi A’b (see fig. 8). It has been previously mentioned, that in the centre of the trough of the Kerkhah (fig. 4) a slight curve of limestone occurs at Putl-i Tang, “the Bridge of the Cleft,’’ through which the river flows at a depth of 100 feet. At the point where the river issues from the gorge, and where the limestone again dips under the gypsum and marls, upon the right bank, several large blocks have been from some cause or other torn from their places and overturned,—perhaps by the force of the stream when very high. The under-sides of these blocks are composed of layers of Scufella (sp. undesc.) with abundant casts of Turritella, Pecten, and other shells. The same limestone probably curves upwards, and surmounts the great range of the Kebir Kuh (fig. 4). Nuah (Noah?) Kuh, the S.W. edge of the trough of. Kirrind, is a saddle of highly crystalline grey limestone, of the usual character (see fig. 9). Upon its summit is a conspicuous rock called Pul-i- Now, containing a large cavern with stalactitic columns. At the mouth of the cave the crystalline limestone is covered by a thin bed of compact, yellow, calcareous marl, contaming Num. perforata in great abundance. This marl has undergone considerable disturbance during or immediately subsequent to its deposition ; for its upper layers are broken, and pass into a calcareous paste, containing small angular fragments of the marl, and also abounding with NV. perforata. This is the only locality where such fine specimens of this species have been met with in the immediate vicinity of the Frontier. A single specimen shows a passage from N. perforata, D’Arch., mto N. Bellardii, D’ Arch. (a Nice species), as pointed out by Mr. T. Rupert Jones, to whose kindness I am indebted for the determination of the Foraminifera mentioned in this paper. From the neighbourhood of Kirrind, the natives brought me spe- cimens of NV. Biaritzensis, D’ Arch. ; but they would not indicate the spot from whence they were procured. Section (fig. 9) between Kirrind and Mahidesht.—A magnificent section of the Nummulitic rocks and of the underlying beds is pre- sented between Kirrind and Mahidesht, on the road to Kermanshah. At the first-mentioned place the rock behind the village dips at an angle of 75° towards the S.W., and the edges of the several beds of which it is composed may be well examined within the gorge at the gardens and spring. ‘The rock rises to the height of 1500 feet above the plain ; but the total thickness of a vertical section of the beds, as far as visible, cannot exceed 800 feet. We here have 1. (fig. 9, 3 a.) Compact beds of white marble, very hard and sac- charoidal. 2. (3 6.) Compact white marls, and limestone. 3. (3¢.) Thin bed of limestone and:red sandstone breccia. 4. (3d.) Thin bed of small rounded gravel of coloured chert. U2 276 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 5. (3e.) Thin bed of yellow sandstone, with slight traces of Vege- table remains. 6. (3 f.) Yellowish calcareous marl, abounding with. fossils ; the lower part with Alveolina subpyrenaica, in particular (see pecs): From the spring a short but difficult pass conducts to the Biwanij plain over a succession of thick layers of 7. (3g.) Compact, grey and white, hard limestone, sometimes are- naceous. This rock extends as far as the A’‘b-i-Zimakan, and must there- fore be of enormous thickness. In the descent to this stream, how- ever, it becomes of a sudden exceedingly friable; in some places it resembles the upper chalk of England, and at others its open and fibrous structure is so similar to travertin, as to lead to the belief of its having been deposited by springs highly charged with calcareous particles. On crossing the A'b-i-Zimakan we come upon 8. (3h.) Red marls, containmg rounded chert-pebbles of various colours. I was at first inclined to consider this marl as corresponding in age with the chert-conglomerate No. 5 of the Mungerrah Section (p. 272). If, however, a geological horizon be indicated by the presence of Alveolina subpyrenaica, which occurs in bed No. 6 (3/) of the present section, these red marls are about equivalent in age to the reddish sandstones No. 9 of Tang-i-Khashow (p. 274). The absence of fossils is here a great loss. The little village of Gourajih*, on the left bank of the stream, is built on the red marls, and behind it rises the lofty crag called Kuh-i-Buzzahu, the base of which is of red marls, and the summit of grey, compact, arenaceous limestone, probably the same as No. 7 (3g) on the west bank of the Zimakan. Winding round to the south of this crag, the road is clothed with the dwarf oak, and it is worthy of notice that wherever the red marls and chert-gravel abound the oak flourishes. Is this attributable to the iron contained in the soil ? The base of the crag is loaded with talus (1) from its limestone- capping, and the stratification is concealed ; but, on reaching Ga- warah, the red marls reappear, and are succeeded by 9. (aa.) Bituminous, grey and dark blue, indurated, calcareous * The following section through the red marils at this locality would indicate that the same causes which produced the travertinous layers of the limestone, No. 7, had begun to operate during the deposition of the marls. 4 (89) e600: Limestone. { Red marls. | Red sandstone, or fine gravel of variously coloured and rounded 8. (8h) ...4 cherts. oes Red marls. Friable white travertin. Red marls. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. Vis marls and fissile clays, similar to those east of Tang-i-Kha- show (p. 274). From this point the country assumes a totally different aspect. The rich foliage of the oak ceases, and scarcely a blade of vegetation exists further to the east of this section. The blue marls are under- laid by 10. (46.) Cream-coloured limestone, splittmg up in very thin layers ; sometimes crystalline and sonorous, arenaceous, and traversed by veins of white and coloured quartz. Although fossils are entirely absent in this limestone, as well as in the overlying blue marls, there is every reason to believe that these deposits are, from circumstances hereafter to be noticed, referable to the Cretaceous age, and are conformably overlaid by the Nummulitic rocks. Thus far across the section the whole of the beds have a constant dip to the S.W., at an angle of about 15° or 20°, but in advancing over the cream-coloured limestone the beds gradually become hori- zontal, and at the village of Gawarah (situated on the summit of a low anticlinal ridge) the beds take an opposite dip, and to the N.E. are overlaid by blue marls, which rise in contortions up the slope of the Kalah Kazi range. This range separates the irregular valley or plain of Gawdrah from that of Mahidesht, and its summit is capped by horizontal beds of the same grey, compact, crystalline, arenaceous limestone (3 g), which occur in the same position at Kuh-i-Buzzahu ; the underlying red marls of the latter locality being, however, entirely absent. This limestone is fossiliferous, but so hard as to defy all attempts to extract its contents, and I was consequently unable to procure any for comparison. Small Corals were abundant, with casts of shells apparently of the same species as from the bed No. 6 at Kirrind (see below). No Nummulites nor Alveoline, however, were noticed. The blue marls, after a good deal of contortion up the slopes, pass horizontally at the summit under the limestone (No. 7, 3g) which rests apparently conformably on them. The rocks of this formation do not appear again to the east of Kalah Kazi. The number of fossils procured from the bed No. 6 of the Kirrind limestone (fig. 9, 3°) is between 70 and 80 species. This bed does not exceed 30 feet in thickness. The lower portion being more argillaceous than the upper, the fossils, chiefly Num. Biaritzensis and Alveolina subpyrenaica, are easily detached. The fossils are Clione, 2 sp. Spines of Cidaris. Several undetermined Zoophyta. Temnopleurus. Orbitoides dispansus, Sow. sp. Conoclypleus Flemingii, D’ Arch. Nummulites Biaritzensis, D’ Arch. Spatangus obliquatus ?, Sow. Operculina granulosa ?, Leym. Hemiaster and Schizaster. Alveolina subpyrenaica, Leym. Teredo, in wood ?, 2 sp. 78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Corbula. Nerita; sp. tuberculated. Tellina. Natica (Globulus). Corbis ? 2 sp. Lucina, 2 sp? Turbo ? Venus. Trochus ? Cardium, 2 sp. Cerithium ? Cardita. Purpura. Tsocardia ? Pleurotoma, 3 sp. Arca. Fusus. Pectunculus. Pyrula. Nucula. Rostellaria, 1 or 2 sp. Chama. Strombus, 3 sp. Modiola. Voluta, 2 sp. Mytilus, 2 sp. Seraphs. Perna. Cypreea, 3 sp. Spondylus; allied to S. Dutempleanus, Oliva. D’Orb,—a chalk species. Pileopsis (Hipponyx). Pecten. Nautilus. Ostrea; 4 smooth sp. A few undetermined Mollusca. 1 plicated sp. Crustacea. 1 vulselliform sp. Teeth of Shark (imperfect). Anomia. of Gyrodus. Nerita (Velates); allied to N. Schmi- of an undetermined species of deliana, Chemn. Fish. The Alveolina subpyrenaica frequently occurs in the limestone along the Frontier. The rock is sometimes almost entirely composed of these fossil bodies, without any other form appearing ; at other times they are associated with Nummulites. The Alveolina is a very characteristic fossil. I have met with it as far south as the Koi Kantn, the celebrated but unfinished cutting made by Shah A’bbas in the Bakhtiydri mountains for the purpose of conveying the water of the Kiran into the channel of the Zen- dertid, for the better supply of the city of Ispéhan. The excavation is made through compact yellow limestone, the surface of which is broken up into small angular fragments, and again cemented by a calcareous paste, containing numerous specimens of Nummulites. This bed is about 20 feet thick, and is underlaid to the further depth of 80 feet by the same yellow limestone with Alveolina, which con- stitutes the centre of the mass. The most northerly pomt at which I found this fossil is at Werk- antz, about midway between Bitlis and Sert, S.W. of the Lake of Van. It there occurs in a hard, compact, brownish-blue limestone. It is found abundantly also in the province of Zohab, where some fine sections of the Nummulitic rocks are exposed. From Kirrmd the Nummulitic range is prolonged to the N.W., and, rising into the lofty mountain of Dalahu, is terminated by abrupt escarpments (especially that of Ban Zardah before alluded to, p- 259, fig. 2), where we have, bending over a central dome, a thick- ness of 2000 feet and upwards of a crystalline mass of grey limestone, in thick beds, compact and exceedingly hard, with abundance of Nummulites and Alveoline, the upper beds with flinty concretions frequently taking the form of Corals and Sponges, and containing large Pectines, Echini, and Foraminifera. East of Zohab, blue calcareous rotten shales, with thin layers of LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 279 white limestone without fossils, crop out from under the above nummulitic limestone. These are underlaid by very considerable beds of white and cream-coloured compact limestone, splitting in thin layers, in which I found portions of a small Ammonite,—traces of Fuci,—and Worm-like casts. Blue shales similar to those above lie next in order. I refer the beds below the great limestone to the Chalk, but cannot say positively that the limestone lies conformably upon them, though I am inclined to believe that it does. At Kuh i Baémi, a lofty range bounding the plain of Zohab on the N.W., the upper layers of the limestone are positively filled with large N. complanata, Lamk., and microscopic bodies. At the Derbend Khani, where the Shirwan River passes through the north-western prolongation of the Bamu chain, a good section is presented in the cliffs on the right bank from a precipitous east face. The beds bend from the summit of the mountain, and dip on the S.W. into the plain nearly vertically, throwing off the gypsum- deposits in great contortions. The following descending section of 1000 feet (roughly estimated) is observed on entering the gorge :— 1. Saccharoidal, compact, hard, white marble. 2. Thick bed of bluish-grey, calcareous, indurated marl. 3. Yellowish calcareous grit and fine gravel. The whole of these beds are conformable to each other, and con- tain Nummulites and Operculine. The marl is completely charged with Alveoline, and is probably an extension of the Kirrind bed No. 6 (fig. 9, 3,f). Lower beds are not here exposed. An east and west fault occurs at the Derbend Khani, whereby the range on the northern side of the Shirwan is thrust nearly a quarter of a mile westward of the southern portion of the chain, the river flowing through the line of fault. Kuh i Bizenan is a lofty range, connecting Kuh i Bamt with Kardyez. The mountain is cleft in the centre, along the line of its axis, from S.E. to N.W., and on either side of the gorge or valley thus formed the order of conformable superposition is as follows (descending) :— 1. Thick bed of crystalline and of compact, hard, cherty, white limestone (weathering reddish-yellow), 500 feet; contains Corals, spines of Echinoderms, and minute microscopic bodies, associated with Orbitoides dispansus. 2. Thin bed of fawn-coloured lithographic limestone, easily separable into very fine layers, and resembling the “ paper-limestone ”’ from the dolomitic rocks of Marsden, in the county of Durham. It is unfossiliferous ; and thin lines of solid flint are intercalated in the limestone. 3. White indurated limestone and fissile clunch, greyish or fawn- coloured, in regularly deposited thin beds, but of great thickness in the aggregate, contains flint-nodules distributed at intervals, and a few indistinct traces of Fucoids. The two lower beds of this section, from the resemblance to the limestone containing Ammonites, which is intercalated between the 280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. rotten blue shales at the foot of Dalaht, and from numerous similar sections, are certainly referable to the Lower Chalk deposits of Europe. Other sections will be alluded to showing the position of the Nummulitic Limestones with regard to the Cretaceous equivalents ; and it is especially remarkable, that while the former are compact and crystalline, and contain Nummulites and allied forms of Forami- nifera in abundance, the latter are composed of fawn-coloured fissile layers, which are softer, though sometimes indurated, or of rotten, blue, bituminous shales. Although the beds of the two formations are conformable to each other, the characteristic fossils of each never appear together in any intermediate bed. Ammonites only exist in the fawn-coloured layers of limestone and im the blue shales; but, as soon as these rocks cease and the crystalline limestones succeed in ascending order, the fossil forms are perfectly distinct. How these changes have occurred it is exceedingly difficult to explain; but certain it is, that such is. the fact, and that the crystalline is perfectly conformable to the fissile limestone. Altered Nummulitic Limestone.—To the eastward of the deposits thus far described, and extending from Persepolis to near Mount Ararat, are great mountains of highly crystalline, dark-blue, and fcetid limestone, in close proximity to the grand central axis of igneous origin, which causes the parallelism of all the exterior ranges. The crystalline and contorted structure of these deposits is neces- sarily to be ascribed to the protrusion or coneealed presence of the igneous mass. When stratification is apparent, it is so contorted and crushed that there is no possibility of tracing the beds. Gene- rally all traces of stratification are absent, and the mass is of homo- geneous texture throughout. The colour of the stone is usually dark-blue, but it sometimes varies to light-grey, and even in some cases to white. It is compact, rough to the touch, excessively hard, and heavy, with a saccharoidal fracture, and a bituminous or feetid odour when struck with the hammer. It is a good building-stone, assumes a fine polish, and is equally suitable for internal or external decoration, as is weil shown at the deserted and ruined palaces of Persepolis and Stsa. When in immediate proximity to the igneous rocks, it becomes almost black, and is traversed by innumerable threads and thin veins of white carbonate of lime. Mountains of this character rise very abruptly from elevated plateaux of rich alluvial soil, and are, as it ~ were, pinched up at their summits into jagged and well-defined angular peaks. Many of the beautiful plains between Ispahan and Hamadan are bounded by picturesque ranges and solitary peaks of this limestone. The Rock of Bistittin, so frequently described by antiquarians, is a very fine example. Mr. Hamilton, in his ‘Observations on the Geology of Asia Minor” (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 367), describes deposits of similarly altered character as occurring to the W. and N.W. of the LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 281 region under consideration, and he classifies them provisionally as ** Lower Secondary.’ At first meeting with these rocks, I was in- duced to regard them in the same light, but after having examined them in various localities and under various conditions, I am satisfied that the most considerable portion is referable to the Nummulitic age, and that other portions belong to the Secondary and even Palzeozoic Series. The lithological character and homogeneous structure of these rocks are everywhere, however, so precisely similar, as utterly to pre- clude the possibility of my pointing out any decided line of geological demarkation (although their western boundary is tolerably well de- fined) ; and it is to the fossil contents, therefore, that we must look for information. It may be imagined that in deposits so altered and metamorphosed as these are, the presence of organic remains is exceedingly rare. I have been so fortunate, however, as to meet with a few fossils; and, although these are very indistinct and contorted, I satisfied myself at the spots in which they occur (except in one instance *), that they rather belong to the Tertiary, than to any earlier geological period. The really characteristic forms of Nuwmmulites and their allies it is true are absent, but so are also Ammonites and the peculiar fossils of the secondary and older rocks. At Bistittin I observed a large buccinoid shell,—at Persepolis, near the tombs of the kings, are Ostrea, Cardium, Turritella, Fusus’, Echinites, and Zoophyta more abundant than in any other observed locality of this rock. It may be objected to my supposition of these rocks chiefly belong- ing to the Tertiary period, that they for the most part rise too boldly from the plain, and constitute a too well-defined N.W. and S.E. line invariably to the east of the undoubtedly Cretaceous deposits ;—that, while the mountains composed of Nummulitic rocks have their sides and frequently their summits clothed with rich forest-trees, the blue crystalline limestone is totally devoid of trees, and generally of vege- tation ;—and that the jagged and serrated crests of the latter form a remarkable contrast with the smooth and regular outline of the former. These differences might appear to point to a difference in the geolo- gical age of the two rocks, but they may surely be accounted for by the abrupt fracture and separation of their masses during elevation and crystallization, and by the altered state of those portions in proxi- mity to the igneous axis. I do not, however, insist upon the correctness of my assumption ; it must rather be considered as a provisional arrangement, until further information is obtained to enable us to decide satisfactorily on the sub- ject. At present we have very insufficient data to enable us to de- termine the question. The section (fig. 10) between Kermanshah and Asdvld shows the eruption of granite and syenite (accompanied by green porphyry and serpentine, and trap-rocks) through the limestone which I believe to be of the tertiary age. In rising the Mewari Pass we find the limestone is so altered by the intrusion of trap-veins as to be converted into * See page 290. 282 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. a dark-green heavy chert and cherty breccia, weathering brown. A small patch of the same limestone is observed on the north side of the Pass in the descent of the valley between Asavla and the Gardana { Du Broder. It rests at a steep angle high up on the slope of the range. It is not requisite to multiply examples of this kind, which are exceedingly numerous. “« Tangs,” or transverse Clefts in the limestone-saddles.—Before quitting the subject of the Nummulitic rocks, I must not omit to mention the numerous and enormous clefts which pass through the elongated limestone-saddles. These clefts, or “Tangs” (as they are called in Persian), are the most peculiar feature of the Nummulitie rocks. All the great rivers which fall into the Tigris from the east rise in the interior of the Zagros; and, as their course is generally from north to south, they cross the ridges of the great chain diagonally. The manner in which this is effected is very remarkable. Instead of flowing in a S.E. direction along the trough which separates two parallel limestone-saddles, and by this means working out their channel in the soft rocks of the gypsiferous series, or of the alluvium, and afterwards rounding the end of the saddle at the point where the extremity of its visible axis dips under the overlying deposits, each of these rivers takes a direction at right angles to its former course, and passes directly through the limestone-range by means of a ‘‘ Tang,” —which appears almost to be formed expressly for the purpose. On reaching the next gypsum-trough, it follows its original S.E. course, and again passes through the next chain in the same manner, until it reaches the plains of Assyria and Suisiana. The Tangs are not situated at the lowest or narrowest portion of the range, but most frequently divide it at its highest point, and expose a perpendicular section of 1000 feet and upwards. The width of Tangs varies con- siderably, sometimes being exceedingly narrow, and at other times a mile or more across. It is quite out of the question to suppose that the rivers them- selves have been in the least degree instrumental in cutting these clefts ; for, if so, we should expect to find a lacustrine deposit in each trough between the limestone-saddles. There are no such deposits. Moreover, if the rivers had been pent up in the troughs, they would certainly have forced their passage through the soft gypsiferous rocks, rather than through the massive crystalline barriers. That Tangs are due to the tension of the cooling mass at right angles to the axis of the chains in which they occur, “and have been formed during the cooling of the crystalline mass is, I think, self- evident, the entering and re-entering angles on either side of a Tang exactly corresponding with each other. The best example of this is shown in the Derbend, or Pass, between the plain of Denever and that of Chambatan, behind and east of the celebrated rock-sculptures of Bistittin, near Kermanshah. This tang is no less than ten miles in length, and one and a half in breadth, and has three salient, and two re-entering angles on the N.W. side, with corresponding bays and projections on “the other. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 283 Tangs are so numerous that it would be useless to enumerate them. The following may, however, be mentioned as fine ex- amples :—the Gorge of the Ab i Zal at Kirki,—of the Kashghan River, at Pil { Jaiddr,—of the Kerkah at Pil i Tang, through Kuh i Vayzanéah into the plain of Seimarrah,—of Tang i Zimsa *, through Kuh i Charmin,—and of the Shirwan, through the Derbend Khani. Longitudinal Fractures.—But these chains have also been rup- tured along the line of their central axis, as at Kuth-i-Bizenan. This kind of fracture is not, however, of nearly such frequent occurrence as the former; but, when it does occur, valuable sections are afforded us. Tangs have probably been produced instantaneously by the.cooling of the mass, but fracture along the line of axis appears ta be due to another cause, viz. to the resistance offered by the overlapping of the numerous beds during their elevation from an horizontal position. This kind of fracture is frequently observed on the summit of a lime- stone-saddle; where the upper layers are broken, while the central mass remains entire. A very striking example of this occurs in the rock of Kirrind+, where the uppermost beds, acted upon by the intensity of the subterranean force, are bent down almost vertically, and broken off near the summit of the rock, presenting a strange pimnacled and drawn-out appearance of the broken edge, as if torn asunder while in a plastic state. Time and weather have of course had their effect in channeling and fashioning these pinnacles in some measure to their present forms, but their origin must be attributed to the cause assigned. Besides these clefts traversing along the axis of the saddles, there are numerous other parallel crevices upon the surface of all chains, which must be due to similar causes. They are of various lengths and depths, but usually not exceeding a few feet across. | Vertical crevices are well marked on the north-western extremity of the Chenari range, upon the right bank of the Ab-i-Zal. III. Seconpary Rocks. As we proceed downwards in geological sequence, it becomes a a of impossibility to define the precise limits of the Secondary ocks. Organic remains are much more rare than in the Tertiary forma- tions, and they are in such a crushed state as almost to defy the practised eye of the paleontologist. Sections are also more difficult to be met with, and the beds are frequently so altered by their con- * Mr. Loftus’s Memoir is accompanied by several water-colour sketches of localities interesting in a geological point of view, by himself and Mr. H. A. Churchill, the Secretary of the English Commission. Amongst these the outline sketch No. III. represents the Tang i Zimsa, through Kh i Charmin, as seen from near the range above Kaylan; it presents the peculiar features of tangs in eneral. ; Mr. Churchill’s sketch, No. IV., exhibits the gorge of the Kashghan at Puli Jaidar, in which the strata are seen curving to the S.W.—Eb. + Mr. Churchill’s drawings No. V. and VI. accompanying the MS. Memoir illustrate this locality.—Ep. 284 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tact with igneous rocks near the central axis as to render their deter- mination during rapid travelling quite out of the question. In the upper part of the Secondary Rocks of the Zagros some portion of the Cretaceous Series is certainly represented, but where to draw the line of its basement is not easily determined. In one locality the blue schists of this formation appear, however, to pass downwards imperceptibly into the crystalline blue limestone which constitutes the eastern portion of the mountain ranges on the Frontier. 1. Upper Secondary or Cretaceous Series. In describing the Nummulitic Series, I have already referred to a few sections in which the beds of the Cretaceous age are apparently overlaid conformably by those older Tertiary Rocks. Along the Frontier no sections fell under my observation which were sufficiently well developed to place this fact beyond a doubt ; and it was only in the interior of the Bakhtiyari Mountains that I was fortunate enough to satisfy myself completely on the subject. Section (fig. 11) from Mal A'mi to Ser Khin, Bakhtiydri Moun- fains.—This section is on the direct road between Kalah Til and Isfahan. The crystalline (cretaceous) limestone forming the range of Kil- gird having been crossed from the plain of Mal-A’mir by the Rah-i- Sultan, the Kiran River is reached in a narrow valley, flowing through a gravel-deposit which rests in a trough of the gypsum-series. On quitting the river the road is carried by a steep ascent up the prettily wooded ravine of Rikat over reddish-yellow sandstones, blue and red marls, and gypsum, in the same order of succession as elsewhere ob- served; the dip being slightly towards the Kuran, but a good deal disturbed. From the head of the ravine an undulating plain of con- torted sandstones and marls, well-wooded, is crossed to the village of Deh-i-Diz, at the foot of the Mish Kih. The western side of the range is composed of indurated cream-coloured clunch, without fos- sils, which, after the first steep ascent from Deh-i-Diz, forms an excellent road to the summit. This rock dips at a great angle to the west, adapting itself to the saddle-shaped curve of the central mass. Near the summit, however, the clunch ceases, and the under- lying rock appears from beneath it,—at first having the same westerly inclination, but gradually at the summit curving over, until it dips at an angle of 45° in the opposite direction. This rock (fig. 11, 4c) is a hard, light-grey, and indurated limestone, belonging, I conceive, to the Upper Chalk, since I found in it a fragment of a Spheerulite*. After a descent of several hundred feet, this limestone is overlaid by fissile blue shales and indurated marl (4 4) having the same dip. The MewaAri Pass is next crossed, in the ascent of which the lime- stone beds (4 a) occur in ascending order. * For remarks on Radiolites (Spherulites) in general, and for a notice of the specimens of Hippurites which Mr. Loftus brought from the East, see Mr. Wood- ward’s Memoir, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 41, Feb. 1855. The locality for the Asiatic Hippurites there described should have been Hakim Khan in Turkey in ae ae A Asia, instead of the Bakhtiyari Mountains.—Ep. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 285 The cream-coloured limestone, containing marks of F'uc?, appears to pass imperceptibly into the overlying Nummulitic Rocks (3), which are, as usual, highly crystallme, and contain Nummulites and Pectens*. The summit of the Pass consists of this crystalline limestone, and the descent eastward to the Ab-i-Bazift is over the same beds, dip- ping at an angle of 70°. Onthe right bank of this river, which flows through a wild, confined, and deep gorge, the limestone becomes less crystalline and more marly, and an inconsiderable bed contains Sharks’ teeth, Nummulites, Pectens, &c., similar to those at Pul-i-Tang (p. 275). This marly bed is soon concealed by a powerful series of the gypsi- ferous rocks, which rise from the Ab-i-Bazift into high cliffs of gypsum and of red and fawn-coloured earths, mingled with gravel- conglomerate and breccia, in a confused mass, as if the bed had been shot off the side of Merw4ri during its sudden elevation. Masses of gravel-conglomerate lie in the bed of the stream, and high up on the slopes of the mountain through which the Ab-i-Bazuft flows. + In this section, then, we have between the Spheerulitic limestone and the Nummulitic rocks a series of blue marls and cream-coloured limestones, the latter passing imperceptibly into the Nummulitic rocks. Unfortunately these marls and limestones are without characteristic fossils, but, as I have elsewhere remarked, as soon as the Nummulitic rock assumes its usual crystalline appearance, the peculiar and very characteristic remains of that series show themselves in remarkable abundance. If we had only this section, we should be at a loss whether to consider the marls and cream-coloured limestone as be- longing to the cretaceous or to the Nummulitic rocks. Fortunately we have elsewhere sufficient evidence of organic remains to prove that they must be undoubtedly classed as cretaceous. It is very remark- able, however, that in no instance have I met with any admixture of chalk and nummulitic fossils, although a gradual transition certainly takes place in lithological character. Having shown the above regular order of superposition, I now refer to sections of the blue marls and cream-coloured limestones, containing chalk-fossils, as observed in other localities. The first locality at which undoubted chalk-fossils were discovered in the cream-coloured lithographic limestone was in the plain of Bishiwah. The south-eastern extremity of this plain, which bounds the Ban- i-Zardah on the south, is a cul de sac, formed by the Nummulitic limestone ranges of Zangalean and Tauk-i-Girrah on the N.E., Niiah Kah on the S.E., and Dikani Daoud on the 8.W. These moun- tains present precipitous faces to the plain, and have their bases so much encumbered by loose rocks and debris as entirely to conceal the position of the lower beds of the Nummulitic series in relation * Unfortunately my specimens from these localities are lost. + A few miles N.E. of this stream (but before reaching the left bank of the Karan at Du Pulim) I procured from a hard rock of the blue marly limestone a gigantic species of Alveolina, 3 inches in length. 286 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. to the underlying series. Near the valley of Khosraudabad, at the foot of the Tauk-i-Girrah Pass, however, a long low hill rises from the level of the plain and extends towards the N.W. It forms a saddle of cream-coloured lithographic limestone, which is compact, hard, and sometimes crystalime, and consists of innumerable thin layers which easily separate by a blow with a hammer. It contains thin tabular beds of milky-white or blackish flint. As the beds of the surrounding ranges all dip from the plain at a slight angle, and as the lithographic limestone apparently is the axis of elevation, there is every reason to conclude that the Nummulitic limestone rests con- formably upon it, especially as in the neighbouring locality of Kih- i-Bizenan this is undoubtedly the case. The limestone contains crushed specimens of Turrilites ; resembling 7’. tuberculatus. Belemnites. Ammonites; one of them 22 feet in diameter. A. planulatus, Sow. (4. Mayorianus, D’ Orb.) Pecten. Turrited Univalve. Fuci. I have already alluded (p. 279) to the section exposed by the cleft along the axis of Kuh-i-Bizenan, a few miles to the N.W. of the last section. The cream-coloured limestones are there of considerable thickness, devoid of fossils, but undoubtedly overlaid conformably by nummulitic rocks. At other localities a somewhat different order prevails, and thick deposits of blue bituminous marls occur between the nummulitic and cream-coloured limestones, as at the base of Kuh-i-Délahi, east of Zohab. This is especially observable in the Kirrind and Mahidesht section (p. 275, and fig. 9, p.332), in which the following apparently conform- able order of superposition at Kalah Kazi has been noticed. 7. (3 g.) Compact, hard, arenaceous, grey, and white limestone, in thick layers; of the Nummulitic series. 9. (aa and 4a*.) Schistose, bituminous, grey or dark-blue, indu- rated, calcareous marls, and fissile clays. 10. (4 6.) Cream-coloured limestone, splitting into very thin layers, sometimes with crystalline, arenaceous, and sonorous bands ; traversed by veins of quartz. ae The beds 3 g and 4 6 agree in so remarkable a manner with the beds 4 d, 46, 4a of the Bakhtiyari section (p. 284, and fig. 11, p. 334) as to lithological character, that they may be recognized at a glance. They are very largely developed, and from Gawarah their course is well marked by the valley of the Ab-i-Zamikan, which flows along their line of junction. Towards the N.W. the beds gradually sink down into the plain of Bivanij, where they are covered by a thin layer of alluvial soil; and, after passing under the mass of the Dalahui range, they again appear, as before stated (p. 278), in the wild hills east of Zohab; LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 287 extending thence in the same direction, east of Kuh-i-Bama, to the Shirwan River, beyond which I have not examined the region. On the west side of the Kalah Kazi Range (fig. 9), above a small village called Chiabur, the strata dip at angle of 45° to the N.E. The arenaceous limestone (3g) lies at the top, and is underlaid by a thick series of schists (4a and 4.a*), with a few layers of a lighter- grey colour. Lying diagonally in one of the indurated beds, which is itself bituminous, I found a large unshapely mass of a compact, bright, lustrous bitumen; which at first sight might be mistaken for cannel-coal. Its fracture is foliated ; and its specific gravity much less than coal, but heavier than jet; it is not electrical by friction ; leaves a slightly brown mark on paper when rubbed hard; burns when exposed to the flame (but not well); and, of course, emits a strong bituminous odour. In the centre of the mass was a brown, striated, roundish Carpo- lite,—while the marl close by contained the spinous stem or root of a plant, two inches in diameter,—a small bivalve (apparently a Nw- cula),—and specimens of a smooth Terebratula (resembling 7. car- nea) which were found in a batch in this particular spot, as if these animals had a particular penchant for the plant or mineral. It struck me at the time of the discovery that the mineral was derived from a bitumen-spring in the cretaceous sea, around which the Terebratule had congregated. It is certainly a very curious association of animal, vegetable, and mineral. To the east of Kal&h Kazi the bituminous blue marls, with asso- ciated reddish and white bands, appear in the plain of Mahidesht, at the south-east extremity of which the Zangaledn range intervenes between it and the plain of Kermanshah. The range is composed of yellow fissile limestone (4 0 of Section fig. 9), dipping to the N.E. at an angle of 25°, and overlying the marls. The dip of the latter could not be detected, as their outcrop was concealed by debris. The limestone, however, contains numerous Ammonites, of the same spe- cies as those at Khosrauabad, in the plain of Bishiwah (p. 286), and appears to be overlaid by beds of hard red chert, which rock again appears on the hill W. of the town of Kermanshah, at the burial- ground. From Kermanshah towards the 8.E. opportunities did not occur of tracing the exact course of the cretaceous rocks. During rapid journeys of the English Commission, beds apparently of this age were observed in several localities. The south-western side of the plain of Kermanshah is bounded by. a range of low white limestone hills (fig. 10), through which the united waters of the Kara Si and the Gamasab force their passage. These limestones dip to the 8.W., and are, I imagine, an extension of the Gawarah and Zangdlean cretaceous beds, containing Ammo- nites, &e. I did not, however, visit this portion of the chain. At Khorremabad the lofty and imposing range of the Yaftah Kuh rises abruptly from the plain (fig. 4, p. 329), and is, in my opinion, of the cretaceous age. It consists of light-grey or bluish cherty limestone, with alternating and continuous layers of variously co- 288 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. loured flint, chiefly black. The limestone is exceedingly hard and compact, breaks with a conchoidal fracture, and emits a highly bitu- minous odour when struck. It is unfossiliferous. A saddle is formed by the curvature of the beds, the continuity of which is, however, broken at the summit. At the centre a good deal of zigzag contortion is perceptible in the lower beds; but this gradually becomes less, and eventually dies out in the upper beds. The dip on the south is at an angle of 37°, and on the north 25°. On quitting Khorremabad in a N.W. direction the stratification in the valley of the river which waters the town is concealed under loose gravel; but, about half-way to Robat a considerable range of gravel-conglomerate is crossed, dipping to the N.N.E., at an angle of 68°. It is almost entirely composed of red and coloured chert-peb- bles, moderately rounded, and not exceeding six inches in diameter. The red cherts are by far the more abundant. Limestone-pebbles are rare. The matrix is a reddish calcareous sand, very hard. This conglomerate is overlaid by a thin bed of light-grey crystalline lime- stone, in which was observed a specimen of the Puli Tang species of Scutella. The chert-conglomerate and grey limestone, I conceive, may re- present the lowest part of 3a and 36 of the Mungerrah Section, p- 272, and fig. 8, p. 331. The stratification between Robat and Bistittin is much disturbed, and the rapidity of our march across it was not favourable to geo- logical investigation. There were noticed, however, several bands of iron-stone. In describing the section fig. 4 (pp. 264 & 274), I have hinted the probability that the blue bituminous shales and marls (4 d) between Tang i Khashow and Deh i Liz belong to the cretaceous series. Their position with regard to the overlying reddish sandstones (4 ¢), containing bands of iron-stone, beneath the nummulitic limestone, as well as their striking resemblance to similar beds at Kalah Kazi (p. 276, 2a in fig. 9, p. 332) Zohab, and the Bakhtiyari section (p. 284, 4 4, fig. 11, p. 334), certainly favour this conclusion. The next point in a S.E. direction at which I met with cretaceous rocks is the Kilgird Range, on the Kiran, between Mal A'mir and Stisan, in the Bakhtiyari Mountains. This range is of a light-grey, compact, and sometimes crystalline limestone, containing Ammonites, —a small plicated Ostrea,—a Venus,—and turbinated and turrited ’ Univalves. The beds are much crushed and contorted, but dip generally to the S.W., as is evident in the ascent of the Pass from Mal A’mir, where their surface is so smooth and slippery as to render it a most difficult task for either man or beast to stand upon his legs. Still further south-eastward, between Kalah Tul and Isfahan, we have the well-developed Section (fig. 11, p. 334), which so admirably exposes the various beds between the Spheerulitic limestone and the Nummulitic Rocks. The most south-easterly point reached by our Commission was Madre i Stileiman (the Pasargadze of the Greeks), at which place the ruined Kaaba is built of a yellowish-white fine-grained marble, con- LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 289 taining plicated Terebratule (Rhynchonelle), and apparently Corals, Exogyra, &c., referable to the Chalk. The stone was not observed in the immediate locality, but Baron de Bode, in his “ Travels in Louris- tan”? (vol. i. p. 79), says that “he heard of quarries of this stone near Deh-bid, about 9 farsangs (or 27 miles) to the north of Mir- gdb, and that there are none nearer.” Between this place and Persepolis the range which bounds the plain of Kemin on the south, dipping at an angle of 65° towards the N.E., is composed of beds of yellow clunch, overlaid by crystalline, white, unfossiliferous limestone. In the clunch-beds I found a single crushed specimen of Ammonite. (Note.—The localities that have yielded Cretaceous fossils appear to have been— East of Zohab (p. 279). Zingdleén Range (p. 287). Small Ammonite. Ammonites. Fuci. Kilgird Range (p. 288). Worm-casts. Ammonites. _ BiAb? (p. 273). Small plicate Ostrea. Ammonites. Venus. _., Mush Kuh (p. 284). Turbinate and turrited Univalves. Radiolites. Kéléh Kézt (p. 287). Dehbid ? (p. 289). Terebratula (like 7. carnea, Sow.). Rhynchonelle. Nucula ? Exogyra. Plant-remains. Corals. Bishiwah Plain (p. 286). Imém Meer Achmet (p. 289, infra). Turrilites ; resembling 7. tuberculatus. | Ammonites. Ammonites, one of them 23 ft.in diam. Voluta. Am. planulatus. Tellina. Belemnites. Gryphea. Pecten. Serpula. Turrited Univalve. Waa. —Ep1ror. | 2. Lower Secondary Series. In describing the Nummulitic rocks, I have remarked that some portions of the great masses of altered and fcetid blue limestone may belong to the Lower Secondary Series (p.281). That such is the case cannot be doubted in many instances, seeing that the altered limestone is certainly overlaid by the Cretaceous rocks, as shown in sections figs. 12 & 13, p. 335 & 336. At Imém Meer A'chmet, between Basht and Faylaun, the neigh- bouring range is composed as follows :— 1. Hard, yellow, compact, crystalline limestone, probably belonging to the Nummuulitic Limestone. In the lowest beds it becomes cream-coloured, and passes into— 2. Hard, reddish, grey or cream-coloured, lithographic limestone, very compact, but splitting into thin layers, with abundant spe- cimens of Ammonites (crushed), Gryphea, Serpula, Tellina, and Voluta. Interstratified with this limestone are numerous tabular layers VOL. XI.—PART I. x ; 290 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of a black siliceous substance, giving out a remarkably strong odour of bitumen, when struck. 3. Highly crystalline, blue, foetid limestone. At the Pass between the plains of Ser A’b i Sir and Favlatin (Sec- tion, fig. 12), the blue limestone, 5, is much contorted, and sur- rounded by the yellow, 4, which appears to be conformably deposited upon it. Tih this neighbourhood the yellow limestone constitutes the sum- mits of many isolated tabular forts, and rests on a base of blue lime- stone. The notorious Kalah Seffeed is a fine example of this. IV. Patzozoic Rocks. The only instance in which undoubted deposits of this age were observed by me was on the east side of the Kuh i Kellar range, be- tween Naughtin and the plain of Cherdghtr, in the heart of the Bakhtiyari Mountains. This range is composed of the ambiguous, altered, blue limestone; but I had only an opportunity of examining an insignificant portion of it, overlooking the plain of Cheraghur, where I gained no information whatever. Just before entering the plain from the west, however, I stumbled upon two or three blocks of highly crystalline grey limestone, weathering rusty-yellow, filled with a species of Orthis, which Mr. J. Morris considers as a form intermediate between the Devonian and Silurian species. Want of time during a hasty journey prevented my giving the locality the attention it deserved ; but I was informed by the natives that at the summit of the range are great quantities of similar fossils. With the Orthis are associated a small Nucula and a few other indistinct fossil forms. V. MreTAMORPHIC SCHISTS. In the more disturbed portions of the blue limestone we have nothing whatever to guide us in determining the age of the under- lying rocks. At Senna in A’rdelan, the Kuh i A'b i Der, which overlooks the town on the S.W., is composed of an alternating series of blue lime- stones,—dark-yellow, arenaceous, and calcareous slates, exceedingly hard, compact, and sonorous,—and dark-blue schists. These rocks pass into each other insensibly,—are so utterly devoid of fossil con- tents,—and are so completely isolated, by the intervention of the granitic chain of Merwari, from the less complicated blue limestone masses on the West,—as to leave us in utter ignorance of their true age. Between Bistittm and Essddabad (see fig. 1, 6, p. 326), as well as in several localities between Hdmddan and Isfahan, the blue lime- stone rests unconformably on yellow calcareous slates. In immediate juxtaposition with the igneous rocks are vast de- posits of dark-blue, indurated, calcareous, and fissile clay-slates, which extend on the west of Kuh Elwend from the district of Feridtin, in the Bakhtfydrf, through the plains of Burdjird and LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 29] Nehavend, to Essdd-abad. On the east of the same chain they con- tinue along the skirts of the same range to Hamdadan. They probably extend to the plains of Senna, from whence they bear in a N.W. direction, by Banna and Ser Desht, to Lahijan, at the southern extremity of the Lake of Urumia,—and afterwards appear at intervals along the whole extension of the frontier, to within a short distance of Mount Ararat. These slates are largely developed in the Pass over Ktuith Elwend, between Essad-d4bad and Hamdddn. Upon the south ascent of the range the beds have a general dip to the S.W., at an angle of 50° or 60°; but on the opposite side they take a contrary direction, and are there seen tilted high up the range, resting against the highly elevated granitic peaks. The slates are traversed by veins of com- pact and granulated quartz, having various tinges of blue and yellow. Some of these veins are of great thickness. Between the foot of the Pass and Hamadan mica-schists occur, m conjunction with the clay-slates, dipping at a high angle, but their position with regard to each other is not apparent. The following rocks appear in ascending the ravine from Hamadan tothe Rock Sculptures; the strata dip at an angle of 70° to the N.E. 1. Black and crystalline altered limestone. 2. Yellow quartzose rock ; and 3. Coloured micaceous schists ; containing garnets. No fossils whatever occur in these rocks in any locality where they have been examined ; and consequently, until more detailed sections are discovered, showing their connection with the newer deposits, it would be useless guessing at their place in the geological sequence. VI. Piutonic Rocks. Granites.—Along the Southern portion of the Frontier no igneous rocks are exposed in its immediate vicinity ; but.the central axis of the chain at some distance to the eastward consists of granitic com- pounds, which there appear to the almost entire exclusion of other igneous rocks. The first point in the south at which the granite shows itself is, I believe, in the low range called Farajabad, or Khakhwah, between Gilpaigén and Japilak, in lat. about 32° 15’ N. and long. about 49° 20' E. From thence it forms the Eastern boundary of the plains of Japulak, Burdjird, and Nehdvend; gradually rising in elevation, until it attains the height of 13, 780 feet above the sea- level, according to the measurement of Col. Rawlinson at the summit of Kuh Elwend (the ancient Orontes). See fig. 1, 7, p. 326. Ex- tending in a N.W. direction, the granitic rocks spread over. the country in the neighbourhood of Senna; but the main chain passes through the centre of the triangle formed by the three large towns of Hamadan, Senna, and Kermanshah. It continues along the Avroman range, and crosses the Frontier between Stileimania and x 2 292 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Banna, from whence it may be traced in a continuous line, associated with other igneous rocks and forming the lofty boundary-chain to within a short distance of Baydzid at the foot of Mount Ararat. From their first appearance near Gulpaigan the granitic rocks extend about 120 geographical milesin a single unbroken axis, without offsets, to beyond Hamadan. This portion of the chain I have crossed at two points,—once between Essddabaéd and Hamadan,—and again between the plains of Japulak and Buruyjird. At Hamadan the granite of Kuh Elwend varies considerably in character. Sometimes it is white and very coarsely grained, with a few straggling lamine of mica, having a somewhat dendritic arrange- ment. In another variety the crystals of quartz and felspar are smaller (though still coarse), and the mica is more abundantly dif- fused in grains. This passes into a fine-grained grey granite; and finally becomes a yellowish quartzose rock, enclosing large splashes of hornblende, precious garnets, and a little mica. All these varieties occur close to the Trilingual Tablets. Gold is occasionally found in the courses of the streams flowing from Kuh Elwend. Throughout the whole line of its occurrence the granite of these regions, owing to the abundance of felspar in its composition, is of a very perishable nature, and therefore the ranges which it composes have a rounded and undulating outline, not presenting any pic- turesque or remarkable peaks. In ascending the Merwari Pass between Kermanshah and Senna we have a coarse grey syenite, with large crystals of hornblende in a base of white quartz and felspar, and containmg magnetic oxide of iron richly diffused through it. The same metal also occurs dis- seminated through the dark-grey granite which constitutes the great mass of the Pass. The summit is of red decomposed granite without the metal. Between the plains of Japtlak and Burtjird we have an interesting section (fig. 13). The plain of Japulak is a denuded valley of ele- vation, in which the outcrop of blue clay-slates from beneath the alluvial covering is frequently detected ;—the slates dipping from the central axis, and traversed by veins of seinen quartz. On the low hills east of A'lidbdd village, at the northern end of the plain, the quartz suddenly assumes a great development, and is succeeded by a fine-grained and friable syenite, which is injected through in low rounded bosses, elevating the slate-rocks into almost a vertical position. On entering the Derbend, or Pass, the syenite overlies a thick bed of white altered limestone, having been forced through with such violence as to break up and carry with it large masses and layers of the limestone, and also to spread itself over the surface of the beds zm situ, which are thrown down at an angle of 45° towards the East. Crushed .and: contorted, fissile blue clays crop out conformably from below the white limestone. At the entrance of the Jépulak stream through a gorge on the Western side LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 293 of the Derbend these rocks appear to have been thrown down by a fault, and present a bluff escarpment to the west ; while on the left bank of the stream the white limestone rests upon the flank of the limestone-beds of the U'shterén Kiih, from which they seem to have slid down to their present position. Fossils are entirely wanting in all these altered rocks, but I believe that the slates of Japulak plain belong to an early series, and are of the same age as the Elwend slates. The white limestone and blue clays of the Derbend I am inclined to assign to the age of the cretaceous deposits; while the beds of the U’shterdn Kuh are probably lower secondary. The last, however, I had no opportunity of reaching. As to the date of the eruption of the granitic chain, there can be no doubt of its having taken place subsequently to the deposition of all the rocks in the vicinity; and, although no positive evidence exists of the fact in this portion of the region under examination, there is every reason to pronounce, from examination of other localities, that it occurred after the formation of the Nummulitic and Gypsiferous series, and after the accumulation of the compara- tively modern gravel-conglomerate on the western outskirts of the whole chain. VII. Traprean Rocks. Porphyry occurs sparingly on the skirts of the granitic chain, but does not assume any great development. It shows itself in this position in a range of low hills on the S.E. of Nehavend, erupted through, and elevating, altered blue limestone. It is there red and argillaceous, and is associated with serpentine. Trap-porphyry occurs in considerable veins on the Western side of the Merwari Pass already alluded to (p. 281 & 292), where it is injected not only through the altered limestone and chert, but also through the syenite and older trap-veins. Serpentine is generally met with in the same localities as the trap- porphyry, but is much more abundantly diffused, and frequently forms very considerable sombre-looking peaks, as in the neighbour- hood of Senna. At the Merwari Pass a light-green serpentine in felspar appears to have been injected into the limestones previously to the elevation of the granitic axis (see fig. 1,8); and is in turn traversed by veins of newer porphyry. The usual kind of serpentine is an exceedingly hard, massive, dark-green variety, accompanied by steatite. 294 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. PART II. ConTENTS. Introduction. Section between Senna and Lahijan. .Kel i Shin Pass. Section from U’shni to Mergaver. (Fig. 14.) between Urumia and Gawar. (Fig. 15.) from Beraédtst, across the Plain of Selmas, to Derik. (Fig. 16.)— Travertin Springs of Derik. ——— from Selmas to Guverjin Kalah, on the Lake of Urumia. (Fig. 17.) Lake of Urumia. Section from Selmas to the Plain of Khoi. (Fig. 18.) from the Plain of Khoi to Van. (Fig. 19.) ——— from Van to Mount Ararat. (Fig. 20.) from Bayazid to Ardish. (Fig. 21.) Lake of Van. Sections from Ardish to Jezireh-ibn-Omar. (Figs. 22, 23.) Conclusion. [Figs. 14-23 are to be found at pp. 335-344.] Introduction.-—In the former part of this paper I have endea- voured to describe the order of succession of the various forma- tions, which prevails in the southern portion of the Frontier, where less contortion in the deposits is exhibited than is observable further to the north. In continuing the subject, it is impossible to enter into such detail as hitherto, owing to the rapidity with which the latter portion of the frontier was traversed. I shall therefore briefly allude to such road-sections as may be considered of interest. Between the Derbend Khani on the ShirwAn, and Ushnt near the Lake of U'rimia, I had no opportunity of making investigations, having been detached from the Commission during the progress of the Survey between those localities. While en route to rejoin the party I was attacked by a severe fever, which incapacitated me from giving proper attention to the geology of the country between Senna and Lahian. The following rough notes, however, concerning this tract may not be uninteresting :— Between Senna and Léhtjan. On quittmg Senna the road gradually ascends along the north slope of the Kuh A’b-i-der, crossing numerous slate-spurs which shoot out from the mountain. After an ascent of two hours and a half, the summit of the range is at length attained by the A/rriz Pass. An uninviting sea of barren and ferruginous undulations is seen extending over a vast elevated plateau, from whence the numerous sources of the Shirwan have their rise. The stratification consists of highly fissile blue schists, passing upwards into thin altered beds of blue limestone, weathering rusty-brown ; the prevailing dip bemg to the N.E. Far in the west, the lofty A'vroman range of igneous rocks rises boldly from beneath the schists. After two long days’ LOFTUS—TU RKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 295 journey over these slates, the foot of the Garrin Pass is reached, where an agreeable change takes place in the scenery. Thick forests of oaks and other trees occur, but no visible alteration is perceptible in the geognostic features. The Garrin Pass is wholly composed of the same friable schists. These continue to the Turkish Frontier, a day and a half further, on approaching which blocks of porphyry and altered limestone become abundant in all the mountain-streams, and the blue limestone and associated schists are thrown up into dis- orderly mountain masses on all sides, indicating the proximity of the igneous rocks. The igneous rocks themselves at length make their appearance, running in an east direction, aud forming the high range called Bird { Koteh Resh. After sweeping in a wide circuit, they bear away to the N.W., thus giving to the Turks a considerable projection into the Persian territory. The direct road from Senna to Banna, there- fore, twice crosses the frontier. At the first Pass (Kel i Melek), where the Bird i Koteh Resh is reached, the axial rock of dark-green porphyry is protruded through fissile slates, which are thrown up vertically on either side of the Pass. A succession of slate-spurs occurs on the road to Weyna, at the foot of the second Pass called Keli Hangerjal. The ascent from Weyna is extremely abrupt. It passes through a forest of gall-oaks, and over vertical slates strewed with blocks of com- pact, green, felspathic rocks, fine-grained grey rock (of quartz, carben- ate of lime, and mica), taleose rock, blue limestone, porphyry, and quartz, which have fallen from the lofty peaks of the range. Detached masses of altered blue limestone are frequently seen elevated upon the slopes, and even the summits, of the igneous peaks. The remainder of the day’s journey from Weyna to Banna is over the slates capped by blue limestone and traversed by quartz-veins, containing iron-ore, and sometimes auriferous, which also extend from the latter place, along the valley or undulating plain of the River Kelli, or Lesser Zab, to Ser Desht. This valley or plain is bounded on the west by the Frontier Range, and on the east by the Kuh i Ktrtek,—both igneous chains. The latter is chiefly composed of green porphyry, traversed by veins of syenite, but has two or three of its peaks crowned with limestone crags. Thrown off from the Kuh i Kiurtek, at the village of Nistan, and dipping towards it at an angle of 45°, is a dark-coloured rock of quartz with mica, in fine layers, and decom- posed talcose slates. From Nistan, these slates form a sloping plain towards the A'b i Kellu, on the south; but they are in a great measure covered by reddish alluvium, through which the tributary streams from the north cut their way in ravines of from 500 to 800 feet in depth. Near the river, where the alluvium is of the greatest thickness, the plain is destitute of oaks. Where, however, the slates become mixed with the alluvium, a genial soil for the gall-oak is the result, and the forest extends in a broad zone over the slates to their junction with the igneous rocks, where it entirely ceases. An exten- sive and very elevated range intervenes between the Plain of Ser Desht and that of Lahijan, consisting of infinite varieties of serpen- 296 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. tine, porphyry, and granitic compounds, in mass and in veins,—a splendid field for the mineralogist with time at his disposal. On the descent to Lahijan, the igneous rocks are again concealed by the appearance of the slates and altered limestone. Undulating hills of the latter traverse the plain of Lahijan in every direction, and rise in little rounded hillocks in its centre. The strata exhibit much con- tortion, and are traversed by threads of carbonate of lime. Kuh i Komarend, which separates the sources of the Zab and the Gader, is an offshoot from the great chain of the Frontier. The blue limestone is here converted mto cream-coloured and purely white marble, resting unconformably on a mass of stratified, mica- ceous, grey schist. Quartz and felspar are irregularly interspersed in layers in the midst of a matrix of finely-grained mica. This rock cleaves into beautiful regular, elongated, rectangular parallelopipeds, sometimes contains crystals of pinkish felspar, and passes downwards into a finely-grained granite. To the N.W. of this range are a series of low limestone-hills skirt- ing the plain of U/shnu. Kel ¢ Shin Pass. The height of this Pass above the sea is stated by Mr. Ainsworth (Journal of Roy. Geogr. Soe. vol. xi. p. 62) to be 6000 feet, but at p- 64, and in the section annexed to the memoir he gives it an eleva- tion of upwards of 10,568 feet. Unfortunately all the barometers of the Commission were broken soon after reaching the mountain-districts, so that we had no means of ascertaining which measurement is the correct one. At a guess, it is, I should imagine, 10,000 or 11,000 feet above the sea-level, the higher peaks of the range being 2000 feet more. Various rocks show themselves on the descent from the N.E., and of these the following were noted whilst we were ascending :— Altered blue limestone, with veins of carbonate of lime. Red iron-clay, with serpentine. Dark blue serpentine, with veins of steatite. White quartzose rock. Decomposing, fine-grained, white granite. White quartzose rock, with grey serpentine. At the summit, a few paces from the celebrated pillar (with the cuneiform inscription) which gives its name to the Pass, is a rock dipping at an angle of 45° to the east, presenting an ascending section as below :— Light green serpentine. Red indurated clays, approaching to jasper, and containing iron- stone. Dark-grey quartzose rock, weathering rusty-brown. A vein of very dark-green and hard serpentine traverses the line of bearing between the two first-named rocks. The pillar itself is cut out of a hard hornblendic rock, with long LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 297 acicular crystals and containing numerous large, empty, vesicular cavities. This rock is not observed in the immediate vicinity, though the lofty black peak to the south, called Seah Kuh, is probably com- posed of it. The stone is black, but in particular lights looks bluish ; hence its name, ‘‘ Kel i Shin,” ‘‘ the blue tombstone.’ The upright stone at the head of a grave is called in Kourdish “ Kel ;”’ and cer- tainly the form of this ancient landmark is precisely that of a grave- stone. The hard and vesicular nature of the stone must have ren- dered it a matter of difficulty to cut the inscription, which, I imagine, was originally but rudely executed and always somewhat illegible on this account. Its long exposure has not of course bettered its condition. The view from the Kel { Shin into Turkish Kourdistan is of the most rugged description ;—lofty jagged peaks, having their summits capped with eternal snow, raise their heads out of deep and pre- cipitous valleys, the heat of which seems, as it were, to be indicated by the deep red colour of the rocks. Wild grandeur is the peculiar feature of the scene, and it is among its vast mountains and difficult ravines that the Nestorian ~ Christians have their fastnesses. Section from U'shnt to Mergdver, over the Bird i Zerd and Kuh t U'likh Passes. Fig. 14. The following descending section is observed at these Passes :— 1. Cream-coloured limestone, sometimes compact, and containing carbonate of copper in quartz. 2. Alternating layers of thin, purple, argillaceous limestone and carbonate of lime. Each layer compact and heavy, and easily separated. 3. Thick beds of altered blue limestone ; sometimes hard, com- pact, and crystalline; and at other times composed of thin layers, alternating with others, coloured light-yellow and purple. The latter variety exhibits much contortion. On the S.W. side of the pass, between Bird i Zerd and Kuh i U'likh, the limestone of the former mountain is white, weathering cream-coloured, and is impregnated with copper. The beds dip to the S.S.W., at an angle of 40°. 4. Bluish-green altered schists, with serpentine. 5. Grey granite, exceedingly friable. At Kul i Rundulah, it passes into rudely columnar blocks of various sizes. At a point where the Frontier range dips into the plain of Mer- gaver, which it bounds on the west, there is a remarkable black conical peak, having in the distance a very igneous aspect, its sloping sides being covered with cinereous-looking rocks. On visiting it, however, the black mass proves to be limestone, completely metamor- phosed by the action of heat. The lowest visible beds are black, broken up into small fragments, and covered with black powder, as if they had been half-burned. They give out a strongly bituminous 298 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. odour. Some patches of compact, white limestone repose upon the slope of the cone. No igneous rocks occur in the immediate vicinity, but the great range is composed of granite. The eastern boundary of the Mergaver Plain is a moderately ele- vated range, which is, [ believe, composed of altered limestone. A low and broad elevated tract alone separates the plain of Mergaver from that of Desht. In a ravine in the Frontier Range, at the junction of these plains, is a bed of iron-ore, which is disseminated in large irregular masses of clay-iron-stone, imbedded in a micaceous rock, coloured with the oxide, but not sufficiently rich to be worked. All along this portion of the Frontier there are indications of the presence of ores, especially copper and iron; but the jealousy of the natives is such as to render it extremely difficult for a passing traveller to obtain any accurate information. I am quite convinced that a careful investigation of this region would bring to light great mineral riches. It is well known that valuable mines are worked in the districts to the west ; for instance, at Julamerk, where the mines of sulphate of arsenic are among the most important belonging to the Turkish Government. These, if properly conducted, would prove to be a source of large revenue. But generally, however rich a mine may be, the great want of fuel and water throughout this region would be a bar to its being worked with advantage. To this difficulty must be added the inclemency of a long winter-season, and the utter ignorance of the natives in the art of practical mining. Section between U'rimia and Giwar. Fig. 15. The alluvial plain of U'rimia is bounded on the west by a con- siderable range of sandstone, which separates it from the plain of Desht. This range rises at Seyr Dagh to the height of 7260 feet above the sea (according to barometric measurement made by the members of the American Mission), and has a constant dip of 5° or thereabouts to the N.E. Following up the course of the Shaher stream through the range, the geologist recognizes in the beds composing it characters which at once class them with the Gypsum-series described in Part I. of this paper (p. 254), as occurring along the western skirts of the Zagros, between Behbehan and Mosul. These characters are not to be mistaken. The sandstones of the Seyr Dagh belong to the uppermost part of the gypsum-series,—in the lower beds alternating with marls and impure limestones, and in the upper with conglomerate-gravels. The colour of the sand- stones is yellow or brownish ; in this respect differing from the same rocks in the west, which are generally reddish. The upper beds are in places covered unconformably by a mass of loose gravel, or gravel-conglomerate with calcareous paste. It is remarkable that the gravels associated with the sandstones are composed of pebbles of blue and white altered limestone, quartz, micaceous sandstone, and quartzose sandstone, without any inter- mixture of igneous rocks; on the other hand, the superficial gravel LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 299 chiefly consists of pebbles derived from the adjoinmg igneous chain. This fact is of considerable importance, as tending to establish the fact of the very recent elevation of the Frontier chain,—subsequently indeed to the deposition of the sandstones and associated gravels. It is moreover evident that crystalline action preceded the deposition of the lowest beds of sandstone and gravels, since all the contained limestone-pebbles show that they were altered and rolled before they were imbedded in the matrix of the gravel. At the N.W. end of the Desht plain, and at the head of the ravine through which the Shaher stream flows to Urumia, a spur projects from the great range, and shows the metamorphosed blue limestone resting on pinkish quartz-rock. Quitting the Desht plain, the road follows up a narrow ravine formed by the junction of the gypsum-sandstones on the east with underlying blue limestone on the west. A low ridge of the same limestone is afterwards crossed, and the plain of Mergaver entered. This plain is bounded on the east by the sandstone and conglomerate hills; and a patch of the same rocks is crossed just before entering the ravine of the Jura stream, which separates the plains of Mergaver and Beradist. The mountain-masses which occur between Mergaver and Gawar do not present any conspicuous peaks, but consist of a series of vast undulations, across which but few roads are found, and these only along the watercourses. In the transverse section there are shown two eruptions of igneous matter ; a rock of massive hornblende at Bird i Resh, and a rounded peak of granite to the west of Dayra. On entering the gorge of Arzin by the Jura ravine, on the east of the chain, the first rock met with is a cream-coloured limestone, having its layers much broken and presenting some rugged peaks. The colour of this limestone changes from cream-colour in its upper part to grey and dark-blue beneath. In its lower layers it is of similar character to the crystalline blue limestone of Bisutun, near Kermanshah, &c. All the beds are traversed by threads of car- bonate of lime. I have in the section (fig. 15) numbered these beds separately, but I am quite convinced that the blue is only an altered condition of the yellow or nummulitic limestone of the south, caused by the neighbouring eruption of the igneous rocks. I have elsewhere expressed my opinion (p. 280) as to the geological age of the greater portion of the blue limestone ;—there can be no doubt as regards the rock here (as also between Ushnu and Mergaver, and at the black conical peak Seah Kuh, on the west of Mergaver) because it con- formably underlies the yellow limestone, into which it passes by a gradual transition. Further up the ravine, the blue limestone is underlaid by blue calcareous schists, into which it makes a very marked passage. The limestone first becomes schistose; and then in this condition alter- nates with the slates. These are in turn underlaid by dark-brown ironstone-clays. These schists and clays probably represent the marls of the Kirrind and Mahidesht section, p. 275 (Part I.), fig. 9. 300 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. In advancing to the westward, the ironstone-clay is crushed in a fold, and encloses a trough of contorted slates between eruptions of hornblende-rock and granite. The hornblende is exceedingly hard, compact, and heavy, and contains numerous elongated acicular crystals, resembling the stone at Kel i Shin. The granite is of the usual character, fine- and large-grained, and easily decomposes. Immediately beyond the granite there occur undulating and con- torted beds, of enormous thickness and extent, composed of gravel- conglomerate, sandstones, and marls, with intercalated layers of impure limestone and sandstone. I have no hesitation in assigning these deposits to the age of the gypsum-series. The sandstones present the same indistinct casts and curious marks which were ob- served in the south near Dizful (p. 261) ;—none were, however, suffi- ciently characteristic to be brought away as specimens. These beds are much disturbed, and dip in every direction of the compass ; thus showing the intensity of the elevating force. They continue without intermission to the Plain of Gawar, where they are covered up by alluvial soil. Before reaching it, they constitute the Ziniydsiv Pass (the greatest elevation attained by the road along this section), one of the highest passes across the chain; the summit being about 12,000 feet above the sea. Between Gawar and Berdadtst, by way of Basseh and Bazirgah, the only rocks visible are those of the gypsum-series, and they ex- hibit the same bends and contortions as in the previous section. From the mountains to the east of the above section there was brought to me some heavy and rich ore of magnetic oxide of iron in quartz, but the exact locality was not indicated. Section from Berddust, across the Plain of Selmas, to Derik. Fig. 16. On quitting the rich alluvial plain of Beradist, a low gravel-range is crossed to reach the District of Somai, which is an extensive irregular undulating plain, owmg its contour to the presence of masses of superficial gravel. Gradually ascending in a northerly direction towards the high range called Shetkha or Anjulukh Dagh, low cliffs of compact and vesicular basalt, with crystals of leucite, for the first time along the Frontier make their appearance. These are succeeded by an elevated plain, in which decomposing mica-schists now and then protrude through the soil; but I could not make out their position with regard to the trap-rocks. The Pass over the Anjulukh Range exhibits an infinite variety of porphyritic and granitic compounds on the summit, before attaining which on either side are complicated mixtures and imterchanges of hornblende, felspar, and mica, similar to those described by Mr. Ainsworth (Geogr. Journal, vol. xi. p. 60) as met with by him to the west of the same neighbourhood, on Zendesht Dagh, between Selmas and Jemalawa. These rocks on the south of the Plain of LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 301 Selmas would repay careful examination. The changes are rung on the various minerals entering into their composition in the most ex- traordinary and perplexing manner. At one locality near the summit is a mass of grey syenite, containing magnetic oxide of iron. On the descent to the Chehrik stream the sandstones and gravels of the gypsum-series again make their appearance, dipping at a slight angle to the river and towards the north. Just before gaining the river, a very interesting and remarkable phzenomenon presents itself. The upturned edges of the sands and gravels are overlaid by basalt ;—an overflow probably from the mountains on the west, form- ing an extensive cou/ée over the whole upper part of the Plain of Selmas*. The river itself flows between natural cliffs of about 300 feet in height, exposing a fine section. The basalt, which constitutes one half of the cliff, is in its lower portion highly compact and regularly columnar; but in passing upwards the columnar structure ceases, and the rock becomes less compact, until at the surface it is a highly vesicular basalt. Di- spersed throughout are crystals of leucite and other volcanic minerals. The castle of Chehrik is built upon a very picturesque rock of the columnar basalt, which is separated from the main mass and stands isolated in the centre of the ravine. The sandstones and gravels exhibit much less change near the overflow of igneous matter than might be expected ; the sandstones, however, are somewhat hardened, and the pebbles appear as though they had been submitted to the action of fire. Mixed here and there with the vesicular basalt are amorphous masses of pink, cellular, basaltic scoriz. Many of the cells are filled with yellowish carbonate of lime, and contain volcanic crystals, especially olivine and hornblende, with a little mica. Their exterior is more compact than the interior, ex- hibits a greater proportion of calcareous matter, and is frequently coated with a thick enduwit of the same. It has been suggested, that these masses are volcanic bombs, but the large size of many of them is opposed to this idea. In my opinion, they are portions of calca- reous tufa, torn from their parent rock during the flow of the basalt over it, and they have assumed their present character by being rolled up and fused in the heated mass, and by the injection of 1gneous gases. In favour of this hypothesis we have on the north side of Anju- lukh Dagh, a very conspicuous peak of stratified travertin, which bears on its summit a famous Castle called Kalah Karni. This peak has been forced up by the granitic rocks of the Dagh, having its strata dipping to the north at an angle of 45°. Its base is concealed under the basalt. The extreme whiteness of this peak forms a striking contrast with the black igneous rock of the adjoining plain. * I had no opportunity of visiting the country west of Chehrik, to ascertain the point from which the basalt has its origin. At some distance, however, beyond Chehrik, there exists a high peak, with a small extinct volcanic crater, around the base of which Lieut. Glascott, R.N., and Mr. Jackson, I.N., observed a vast circuit of basaltic matter. It is not improbable that the basaltic flow over the Plain of Selmas has proceeded from this crater. 302 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The eastern limit of the basalt is pretty correctly marked across the Plain of Selmas by numerous little rounded knolls of this rock, which extend along a line drawn from the east of Kalah Karni, on the south, to the Derik stream on the north. Soon after quitting the village of Selmas, on the road to Derik, the red sandstones which were previously observed on the descent from the Anjulukh Pass, again appear from beneath the rich alluvial soil of the plain. The beds dip on their first appearance at an angle of 20° to the south, but this dip increases im ascending the ravine of the Derik stream, until the beds become perfectly vertical. Layers of gravel-conglomerate are associated with the upper part of the sandstone-series. In one locality a thin bed of loose gravel rests on the broken edges of the sandstones, and is overlaid by an hori- zontal deposit of cream-coloured travertin. The vertical sandstones and the travertin are again covered by the basalt, which dips at an angle of 2° to the south. Towards the north the basalt gradually decreases in thickness, becoming less columnar and more vesicular, until it finally dies out somewhat abruptly on the west bank of the ravine, where it overlies a considerable bed of travertin. On the east of the stream, the basalt only occurs in one insignificant patch, upon the summit of a small peak of sandstone. Wherever the tra- vertin is in contact with the basalt it is rendered hard and compact. In the bed of the stream are blocks of pink basaltic scoriz, similar to those which were observed in connexion with the basalt in the Chehrik Cliffs, near Kalah Karni; but they contain a much larger quantity of calcareous matter. Further up the ravime the tufa exhibits much contortion, and is penetrated by a peak of dark- coloured heavy rock of decomposing felspar mixed with dark car- bonate of lime. Upon the sides of this peak are several detached pieces of tufa, torn away from the parent mass, and so metamorphosed, that it would be almost impossible to recognize it in the pure white marble into which it has been converted, were it not that we can trace it through all its phases. In some instances it bears a remark- able similarity to some of the beds of Nummulitic limestone in the south. Passing onwards to the north of the felspathic peak, we again have the tufa contorted, and resting against and upon it. It afterwards bends down towards the little village of Derik, where powerful springs are now in action, producing travertin in abundance, and showing the agency which deposited the older and altered tufa. The narrow valley of Derik is bounded on the north by high moun- tains of igneous rocks, among which the felspathic and hornblende compounds, so common in this region, are found. Travertin Springs. —As calcareous-tufa-springs, from this point northwards, are of continual occurrence, and as the deposits formed by them have vast geological importance, a description of those at Derik, which is a good example of all, is worth recording. The springs are close to the village. They are numerous, though two only have any great flow of water. These are about six yards from each other, and rise from the bottom of irregular-shaped basins, between 4 and 5 feet in depth. The water rises with great LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 303 force in the more northerly basin, at regular intervals, but in the other irregularly, at intervals of five or seven seconds, gurgling from below, and throwing up a strong jet to the height of a foot above the surface. The temperature of the two springs is the same, viz. 96° Fahr., indicating a common origin. The water is strongly nitrous and chalybeate. As the surface of the water cools, numerous thin lamellee of cream-coloured carbonate of lime are formed, and float about like scum. ‘These lamellee are sometimes two inches long, and about the thickness of a wafer; the upper surface is smooth and shining, as if strongly glazed, and the under surface frequently shows its crystallized structure. They are carried along by the water as it flows from the basins, and form a thin coating upon the surface of the rapidly forming travertin. Under the feet these lamellee crackle and break like thin ‘“‘ cat-ice.” As the water flows onwards, cooling. in its passage, it deposits its heavier calcareous matter in small granules of cream-coloured car- bonate of lime, which become cemented together by the continual in- filtration of the water through them, and at length are sufiiciently compact to be called travertin. In passing over and among these forming granules, the water is soaked up as if by a sponge, and hence it has frequently been described by travellers as becoming petrified on the spot ! The process of deposition of the calcareous particles is without doubt exceedingly rapid; but not sufficiently so to be observed instantaneously. Sometimes the calcareous matter is deposited in thin concentric circles (the exterior one frequently a quarter of an inch in diameter), granulated on the surface. The great body of the water, however, passes over the curved mass of the travertin into the ravine below, in- creasing the bulk with additional layers. The travertin assumes the stalactitic form when the water flows over some pendent plant or other body; in such cases a rippled and honeycombed aspect is produced. From the hot springs to the bottom of the ravine is a depth of about 60 feet,—a solid mass of travertin ; while at three times that height above the springs the older and altered deposit rests on the slope of the felspathic rock. Other springs flow in small streams from holes in the travertin ; they are less saline, and more strongly chalybeate, while the tempera- ture does not exceed 90° or 92° Fahr. Above the village is the basin of an extinct spring. The hot springs of Derik are much resorted to for every species of complaint to which the Kourd is subject. It may be worth while to recur to the various changes which have taken place since the deposition of the red sandstones and gravel beds, which I assume to be of the same age as the similar beds occurring near Dizful, and containing evidences of the existence of feline animals, and therefore of comparatively modern formation. We have :— 1. The elevation of these beds from an horizontal into a vertical 304 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. position, and the production of the Plain of Selmas, probably by the eruption of the hornblendic rocks on the north and south. 2. The denudation of the edges of the upraised rocks, and the depo- sition of the horizontal thin bed of coarse gravel. 3. The formation of a vast bed of travertin from thermal springs. 4. The eruption of the felspathic mass, carrying with it portions of travertin, torn from the deposit zn situ, and contorted during instantaneous elevation. 5. The overflow of the basaltic coulée from the west or north-west, covering up and altering the edges of the vertical sandstones and contorted travertin ; and the cooling of the heated mass, whereby probably was formed the fault or crevice through which the Chehrik stream flows. . The deposition of the alluvial soil of the Plain of Selmas. . The present action of the thermal springs, depositing powerful beds of travertin; which action must have been constant since the end of the second period above alluded to. NO Section from Selmas to Giverjin Kalah, on the Lake of Urimia, via Isst Su. Fig. 17. On quitting the Plam of Selmas, the road traverses an open pass at the village of Ali-abad, between Zendesht Dagh (an extension of Anjtlukh Dagh), on the west, and the peak of Stret Burni (so called from the sculptured equestrian figures of the Sassanian dynasty), on the east. The rocks here consist of blue, altered, and crystalline limestone, much contorted. A little further on, to the left of the road, there rises from the plain a solitary peak, the sum- mit of which is of the same blue limestone, passing downwards into a heavier compact variety, filled with small transparent crystals of carbonate of lime, which give it the aspect of a calcareous grit. This is underlaid by hard, fine-grained, red, compact fluor, asso- ciated with red jasper. The jasper reposes on a mass of pink, quartzy, granitic rock. The above-mentioned deposits here dip towards the north, as they likewise do on the south side of Zendesht Dagh, at the base of which is the hot sulphur-spring of Issi Su. This spring rises from beneath a mass of altered blue limestone, sur- mounting grey limestone-breccia, which emits a strong odour of sulphur; both of these rocks have been thrown off from the side of the range. The temperature of the spring is 99° 5! Fahr. It deposits a considerable efflorescence of carbonate of soda, generally pure white, but frequently tinged with yellow and red, from the presence of oxide of iron. In the same neighbourhood, at a place called Temtemah, there is a cold spring depositing travertin, which I omitted visiting. From Issi Si, the road crosses a considerable spur running in an easterly direction from the main chain. It is composed of pink quartzy rock,—pink felspathic granite,—a highly micaceous dark gra- nite,—compact hornblende-rock,-—and various hornblendic mixtures. A gradual descent conducts to the small plain of Kurt Kerdn, containing numerous villages. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 305 Further eastward, where this spur projects into the Lake of Uriimia, it is composed chiefly of compact hornblende, and com- pounds of the same mineral with others. On the south side of the extremity of the spur these igneous rocks are capped by blue cry- stalline limestones of the same character as at Zendesht Dagh, and dipping to the S.E. On the summit and northern side are patches of hard, heavy, white chert, frequently tinged with red, and contain- ing common opals. ‘Between the Plain of Kirt Kerdn and Guverjin Kalah, there intervenes another spur called Wurgowiz, parallel to the former, and which, projecting into the Lake of Urimia, forms the promon- tory of Guverjin. It is also composed of the same granitic, horn- blendic, and pink-quartzy rocks. The mountain slopes gradually towards the Lake, and leaves a plain about a mile in width at its southern base, between it and the Lake. Connected with the main- land by a narrow slip of sand and shingle of well-rolled pebbles of limestone and igneous rocks, a white limestone rock, about 400 feet in height and perpendicular on all sides, rises out of the Lake. Upon this are the ruins of an ancient castle, called Gtiverjin Kalah, which takes its name from the abundance of pigeons which frequent it. A similar perpendicular rock, but completely surrounded by the Lake, is another prominent object to the N.N.E., at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, and there are several smaller islands at a still greater distance in the same direction. The following is a careful descending section of the Castle Rock. The beds are all conformable to each other, and dip at an angle of 7° towards the E.S.E., which dip is of course due to the igneous rocks of the Wurgowiz spur on the north. 1. Compact, hard, crystalline, white limestone, becoming concre- tionary in passing downwards, afterwards marly. 2. Light-blue marl, with hard flesh-coloured flints and nodules and irregular fragments of limestone. It contains abundant Corals im situ and in layers, below which are numerous specimens of Clypeaster, Echinolampus, Pecten, Serpula, and casts of various Univalve and Bivalve shells. 3. Compact mass of highly crystalline coralline nodules in hard marl. The thickness of the above three beds is about .... 250 feet. 4. Fine reddish gravel, or coarse sand-conglomerate, much hardened, and filled with fragments of fossils ...... ifs Pape 5. Friable yellow sandstone, very finely grained, with frag- MENTS MEM de Sse ae Oh eye erie ia eo wee 1d eee This bed passes into 6. Hard and compact, grey, marly limestone, filled with Corals and casts of shells ..... A SEAR Agia Yo 7. Hard reddish marl, abounding in shells ..... 20 8. Brownish-yellow, friable sandstones, with several thin layers of gravel and conglomerate, of variously-sized Pa rage ao ihn dh 4 pam BN ee eb a 100 ,, Total thickness of Section.. 410 feet. VOL. XI.—PART I. Y 306 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I was informed by Mr. Perkins (the head of the American Mis- sionary Establishment at Urtimia, whose geological remarks on that neighbourhood have been published by Prof. Hitchcock) that he had heard of the existence of fossil vegetables on some of the islands at (suverjin. There are certainly none at the Kalah, and as there were no boats on the Lake, I had no means of access to these islands. Possibly, however, the vermiform casts, which are not uncommon in the sand- stones, may have been mistaken for remains of plants. Many of the fossils derived from the Kalah Rock have a remark- able resemblance to those of Kirrind and Puli Tang; but they have not yet undergone careful examination. There is, however, an entire absence of the characteristic Nummulites of those localities. In this short section we have limestone assuming three different forms ; viz. the white limestone of Gtiverjin Kalah,—the blue lime- stone of Wurgowiz and Zendesht,—and the chert with opals of Wur- gowiz. Are we to conclude that these were deposited at different epochs, or is it more reasonable to suppose that they are only varieties of the same deposit, formed under different circumstances? That white limestone is converted into blue by its proximity to the igneous rocks has been pretty clearly shown in previous sections; and that fossils should by the same cause be altogether cbliterated, is an established fact. Iam therefore inclined to regard the three varieties of lime- stone in this district as the same deposit, and probably of nearly identical age with the upper beds of the Nummulitic rocks of the south. Lake of Urimia. as considerable beds of rock-salt exist in the neighbourhood of the Lake of Urtimia, and as a former condition of the Lake itself appears in some measure to have assisted in the formation of this valuable mineral, and therefore to be within the scope of the geologist’s researches,—I trust it will not be considered a digression, if I briefly make a few remarks upon this lake. The Lake of Urtimia measures about 82 miles in length, from north to south, and about 24 miles at its greatest breadth, from east to west. Its level is 4100 feet* above the sea. The water is of a deep- azure colour, but there is something exceedingly unnatural in its heavy stillness and want of life. Small fragments of Fuci, saturated with salt, and thrown ashore, form a low ridge at the margin of the Lake, and emit such a noxious effluvium under a hot sun, as to produce nausea at the stomach. The sulphuretted hydrogen generated from the Lake itself without doubt adds to this sensation. The water is intensely salt, and evaporates so rapidly, that a man, who swam in to bring me a bottle of the water for analysis, on coming out was covered with particles of salt, and looked as white and ludicrous as though he had been thrown into a flour tub. * According to the measurement of the Rey. Mr. Stoddard of Urimia. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 307 According to Prof. Hitchcock, the specific gravity of the water of Urimia Lake is 1155, and his analysis of 500 grains gave 102°1 of salts, or more than one-fifth of the whole. The water of the ocean only yields one-thirtieth of its weight in salts. At Guverjin Kalah the temperature of the water on the 14th August 1852, at 11"45™ a.m., was 78° Fahr., which is high ; possibly on account of the proximity of the limestone rocks. I carefully examined the surface of the rocks at the water’s edge, but could detect no indications of the Lake having ever been higher than at present. The natives say, that they remember no change of level, beyond a slight annual rise and fall attendant on the melting of the snows. This does not agree with the account of Mr. Perkins, who, from many years’ careful observation, says, that the Lake of Urimia is rapidly diminishing in extent ;—that the small dykes which existed eighteen years ago for the purpose of restraining the water in shallow troughs, where salt was collected, and were then close upon the: edge of the Lake, are now fully half a mile distant from the present margin. Salt is collected along the shores in large quantities, and conveyed into Turkey. On crossing the Frontier a tax of ten paras (rather more than a halfpenny) per load is exacted ; the value of a load in Turkey being about 1s. 3d. It would be interesting to ascertain whether the saltness of the water is increasing or diminishing. Some authors have endeavoured to account for the excessive salt- ness of the Lake by supposing that it is attributable to the streams which flow into it from salt rocks on the north and east. This theory, however, cannot be maintained; because such streams are comparatively few and insignificant, and their effect would be neu- tralized by the large number of pure streams, some of considerable size, which flow from other quarters, especially those rising in the lofty Frontier-chain on the west. My own idea on the subject is based upon the examination of the neighbouring igneous chain, which, it is evident, has been elevated at a very recent period. During this elevation, it is by no means difficult to conceive that large isolated bodies of salt water were detached from the then existing main ocean, and settled in basins, such as the Caspian and Aral Seas, and the Lakes of Urimia and Van. Supposing that, after detachment, a rapid evaporation took place from great heat caused by igneous action at the bottom of these basins, the water would of course become more salt, and under certain circumstances rock-salt would be deposited. (See also p. 309.) Continual evaporation would tend to increase the saltness ; and, if the freshwater streams flowing in did not equal the quantity of water so dissipated, a continually increasing saltness would take place, while the sea or lake would be gradually decreasing its limits. Such I believe to have been the origin and cause of the excessive saltness of the Lake of Urimia. In corroboration of this theory, we have not only porphyritic and granitic eruptions on its shores, but consider- able deposits of rock-salt in the neighbouring Plain of Khoi, which are described in the following Section. ¥ 2 308 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Section from Selmis to the Plain of Khoi. Fig. 18. At about 31 miles due north from the town of Dilman is a small artificial “ tepeh,” or mound, constructed upon the extremity of a gravel spur from the east, at the village of Moranjuk. This gravel is chiefly composed of angular and loose fragments of blue lime- stone. On quitting Moranjik, the road turns to the N.E., and at the pass called Khonli Dereh, ascends over extensive and undu- lating calcareous marl hills, the horizontal stratification of which is partially concealed under a gravel-capping. On descending into the Plain of Khoi, the marls, c, fig. 18, make their appearance in power- ful beds of light-blue and white layers, alternating with each other. The next lower rock is a deep-red, indurated, calcareous marl, d, which rises into a beautifully rounded dome, called Kara Tepeh, on the north side of which these red marls are again overlaid by the white and blue beds, and these again by a thin layer of brownish- yellow limestone, 6. From the foot of the Pass to the Duzlak, or “Salt Hill,” is a distance of 33 miles across a plain covered with salt efflorescence on the surface. The glare arising from it renders the short ride exceedingly painful to the eyes. The Duzlak is a small and conspicuous hill in the centre of the plain, nearly circular in form, three-quarters of a mile in circumference at its base, and 150 feet high. It has a remarkable appearance in the distance, and is composed of a deep-red marl dome, e, rismg from among super- imposed beds of light-blue or grey marls. On examination, the red marl proves to be exceedingly friable, and to be associated with a fine-grained, exceedingly hard, red sandstone, impregnated with small crystals of salt; sometimes this sandstone is grey and of a fibrous structure, and the mineral forms clear stalactites between the layers. The blue or grey marls are capped by fine loose-grained sandstones, which pass into a coarse gravel, abounding with Corals in a beautiful state of preservation ; some of these undoubtedly lived during the deposition of the gravel; but others have been decidedly derived from an old bed of crystalline yellow limestone, f, and are much rolled and worn. Large water-worn blocks of the limestone lie at the base of the hill. I am unable to state whether they have been transported from another locality, or whether they are projecting fragments of the rock in situ. I am inclined to regard them as an situ, because they do not elsewhere appear on the plain. Immense excavations have been made into the blue marls for the purpose of obtaining salt, which valuable mineral here occurs—1st, in a state of powder; 2nd, in a solid mass of irregular blocks, firmly imbedded and locked with each other, hard and crystalline; 3rd, in transparent and very pure cubes. The second variety is the most abundant. The transparent cubes are only met with at the lowest parts of the excavations, which are now quite abandoned, owing to the slovenly manner in which they have been conducted, and con- sequently to the danger attending the working. The great wonder is, that the labourers are not frequently buried by the falling of the walls of the excavations. Some of the holes are 60 or 70 feet deep ; LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 309 and, as any one is at liberty to dig how and where he pleases, it may be well imagined what a “ warren” the Salt Hill is become. At the base of the hill the hard crystalline limestone is completely filled with fossils, especially beautiful and perfectly preserved Corals, together with casts of shells, among which are an Arca, Lithodomus, and Trochus. The Corals agree in species generally with those from Guverjin Kalah, and many of them present a remarkable resemblance to species from the European deposits of Gosau. Quantities of massive gypsum and crystals of selenite are im- bedded in the sandstones and loose gravel. The surface of the Salt Hill is of rotten blue marl and sand, apparently derived from the melting of the mineral and the decomposition of the matrix, by atmospheric causes. Gypsum and selenite also lie strewed in great abundance on this decayed soil. The Plain of Khoi would appear to be an horizontal deposit of the above-mentioned sandstone and gravel. In accounting for the origin and saltness of the Lake of Urimia, I have concluded that these are due to the recent eruption of the igneous rocks, p. 307. I believe that the red and blue marls con- taining the rock-salt (together with the associated sand and gravel deposits at the Duzlak, in the Plain of Khoi) were in process of formation at the period when the igneous rocks were intruded from beneath the bed of the then existing ocean, carrying with them portions of the stratified deposits, —and that the intensity of volcanic action was such as to produce solidified rock-salt from the depths of the sea in the pure state here met with. By the same action, the sands saturated with sea water would be converted into such a rock as the saliferous sandstone of the Dizlak. The portion of the liquid mass which remained after the disturbance unevaporated, from depth or other cause, constituted the modern Lake of Urimia, and I imagine that similar salt-lakes were formed in a like manner, vary- ing however in their saltness according to circumstances,—viz. depth, intensity of volcanic action, &c. In favour of this view, it is worthy of remark, that the most pure and perfect crystals are at the greatest depth, where of course the pressure from above and the internal heat must have been greatest ; while the least compact salt is at the surface. The above theory appears to me to be the most simple in account- ing for the origin of rock-salt in this region, and for the intense salt- ness of the Lake of Urimia. That the streams flowing from the neighbourhood of salt-deposits have no influence on the quality of the water of the Lake itself is evident, since they are drinkable, and at Shabani, half a mile from the Diuzlak, the water, though brackish, is by no means disagreeable. That a vast amount of rock-salt exists beneath the Lake and surrounding plains is almost certain. The isolation and elevation of the Duzlak are not difficult to explain, seeing the proximity of the igneous chain, and the probability of its being a dome, forced up in the centre of the basin. 310 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Section between the Plain of Khoi and Van. Fig. 19. From the Plain of Khoi the road to Kotur traverses a long narrow ravine up the course of the small stream, flowing from Kotur to Khoi. _ The precipitous mountains on either side are variegated with every hue and shade of contorted calcareous marls or limestones ; but the beds are utterly devoid of fossils,—undergo every degree of con- tortion,—and graduate insensibly ito each other in colour, so that it is quite impossible to make out any regular order of stratification. For the first two miles from the entrance of the ravine, the varie- gated marls occur on both sides ; but at the Beacon, erected by H. E. Dervish Pasha, the Turkish Commissioner, the following descending section was observed :— 1. Dark-brown heavy ironstone-clay. 2. Light-blue or grey calcareous slates, varying through inter- mediate shades to dark-purple ; of great extent, frequently in a decomposing state. 3. Highly indurated, deep-red, calcareous marls and clayslate, sometimes passing into serpentine; and compact limestone enclosing amygdaloid. 4, Compact limestone, varying from light-grey to dark-olive- green, containing small crystals of carbonate of lime. About four miles from the Beacon is a solitary flat-roofed Caravan- serai, close to which is a chalybeate spring, 67° Fahr., depositing calcareous tufa as at Derik. Above the spring is an horizontal bed of gravel-conglomerate, resting against the curved strata of red indurated marls. The extent to which tufa-deposits have taken place during the formation of the marls is very remarkable. The tufaceous layers are intercalated between, and partake of the con- tortions of, the various beds of marls; while they have all under- gone similar changes from the action of heat. The tufa varies from the loose and friable state of its first deposition to a compact lime- stone, aud even to yellow or white saccharoidal marble. At seven miles from the Beacon is an eruption of igneous rocks, where the following interesting section occurs :— 3. Variegated and highly calcareous marls, with much travertin, in layers and in mass. Some of these marls or limestones effervesce yellowish-green with muriatic acid. 5. A thick bed of gravel-conglomerate ; the pebbles are cemented in brown oxide of iron, and are converted into hard dark- green or black chert by the action of the underlying igneous rocks,—which consist of :— 6. (a) pinkish trap, containing much leucite and hexagonal prisms of mica ; (4) finely grained greenish granite. The travertin has been abundantly deposited during the formation of the gravel-conglomerate, as well as during the igneous eruption ; since it occurs in a much altered state in the midst of the gravel, as well as between the gravel and granite, which it likewise traverses in broad highly crystallized veins. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 311 - The travertin is so largely developed, and is so intimately con- nected with the marls, that there can be little doubt of their being chiefly composed of it. The presence of iron has of course produced their variegated colours; and it is a coincidence, that the travertin deposits, which are at the present day forming at innumerabie places in the ravine, derive their colours from the quantity of iron held in solution by the springs. From the vast extent of the travertin deposits in this region,— and, in many instances (when acted upon by igneous eruptions, as in the ravine of the Kottr stream, and at Derik), from their remarkable similitude to the nummulitic limestone of the south,—I am inclined to think that they have had considerable share in the formation of the earliest tertiary rocks of the Frontier. It is remarkable that some of the friable limestone of Giverjin Kalah,—and of the No. 7 bed of the Kirrind and Mahidesht section (fig. 9,39), p. 276, Part I. of this paper,—cannot be distinguished from the altered travertin of Derik, &c. Supposing that the seas of the Nummulitic period abounded in travertin springs, would not the superabundance of calcareous matter sufficiently account for the extreme rarity of animal life, and hence of fossil remains ? At twelve miles from the Beacon, the small valley of Zerri branches off on the right bank of the stream. Here the variegated marls entirely cease, and are succeeded by a second eruption of igneous rocks ;—viz. the same fine-grained green granite as before, traversed by veins of carbonate of lime,—a dark-coloured serpentine, —and a grey conglomerate of felspar and talc rock. The ravine now widens, and gradually expands into the pretty Plain of Kottir, which is bounded on the east and south by igneous rocks. On quitting the Plain of Kotur, the road turns to the N.W., and passes through a series of red altered sandstones, containing thick beds of gravel-conglomerate, and resting upon a hard chert-rock, of pinkish-grey colour, which is frequently traversed by veins of a beautiful red felspar with talc. It is not improbable, that the upper layers of gravel are identical in age with those so much altered and resting on the granite in the ravine between Khoi and Kottr; and they possibly belong to the gypsiferous formation. Turning towards the north, the chert-rock overlies compact blue limestone, in thin layers. All the above beds are elevated and thrown downwards to the south, at an angle of 45°, by the mountain of Hallep Dagh, which is chiefly composed of very dark-green serpentine and fine-grained grey granite. Thin veins of light-green steatite traverse the ser- pentine. In one locality the serpentine mass overlies the blue lime- stone, which is at the point of junction much contorted. At the top of the Pass between Kottr and Sherab Khaneh is a little freshwater lake, surrounded on all sides by small peaks and undulations of limestone. From Sherab Khaneh the road crosses a low limestone-ridge, covered with fine loose gravel, and descends into the somewhat lower or? PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. plain of Serai, which is bounded on the north by a low range called Kur Momedelan. On the south side the plain is bounded by a range of blue and grey limestone, with slates dipping in the same direction. From the plain of Serai a short descent over limestone conducts to the little plain of Astaji. The west extremity of this plain is shut in by a low range of hornblende and tale rock, which protrudes through variegated marls. This range is crossed ; after which, it curves in a westerly direc- tion, bounding the road on the north; and finally joms the Kur Momedelan, which is composed of highly coloured and altered marls. The red marls are frequently converted into serpentine and jasper. These beds dip at an angle of 40° to the north, and repose on a grey rock of decomposing felspar and hornblende, as observed just before entering the plain of Ardchek. In the plain of Ardchek is a small lake, the water of which is brackish and disagreeable. It has no outlet; but a few insignificant streams flow into it. On the south this plain is bounded by an eastern prolongation of the great igneous range called Warrekh Dagh ; on the north side of which is an outer ridge of white limestone. The north shore of the lake washes the base of the high range called Kizzuljah Dagh, the jagged summits of which appear to be composed of some igneous rock, beautifully variegated by the numerous beds of coloured marls lying without visible order on its slopes. The road continues to the west along the south side of the plain of Anzoub, passing the extremities of several low limestone spurs from the lofty and craggy range of Warrekh Dagh. The western continuation of Kizzuljah Dagh, composed of white limestone, bends towards the south, and at length joins an important spur called Ak Kirpi Dagh, projecting from Warrekh Dagh. A precipitous descent down the escarpment of this limestone barrier conducts to the plain of Van (which is about four miles broad at this point) to the shore of the lake. At the distance of a mile from the lake a bold rock of compact grey limestone, 400 feet in height, rises abruptly from the plain, presenting a perpendicular face towards the west, and extending about half a mile in length from north to south. On the summit of this rock stand the Citadel and eastern wall of the City of Van. The foundation blocks of the Citadel are of the same lime- stone as that on which they stand; but the stone chiefly used in the construction of the more recent portion of the buildings is of soft reddish volcanic breccia; and I also observed many blocks of com- minuted white shell-sand, in which is a minute species of Mytilus. The last is probably derived from the shore of the Lake, or from one of the Islands, and is of very recent formation. At the present day, however, no mollusea inhabit the Lake of Van. Section from Van to Mount Ararat. Fig. 20. At the third mile from Van, the road touches on the shore of the Lake at the “perek,” or soda-basins (p.320), and then, turning slightly LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. ols more towards the N.E., it quits the Lake and crosses a low rising ground. At the highest point of this rise, six miles from Van, a few slate-rocks project through the red and blue marls of the Kuz- zuljah Dagh, which here dips into the plain on the S.W. At the village of Derlashen the yellow compact limestone rises in a thin bed from beneath the marls. After crossing the Mermiut Chai, and an ‘irregular plain surrounded by peaks of limestone and variegated marls, the summit of an easy limestone pass is attained, which over- looks the N.E. spur of the lake. At the foot of this pass, on the north side, a thin overflow of black basaltic lava covers up the lime- stone ; its lower portion is compact, but on nearing the surface it becomes highly vesicular, and is strewed with blocks and pieces of black scorie. The basalt borders the shore of the Lake in a low range, and it constitutes the N.W. side of the Kharpanak promon- tory, extending to near Mirik, but not crossing to the east of the road between Van and the latter place. At the entrance to Merek village, however, the basalt disappears, and its place is supplied by some conspicuous peaks of white limestone. The village is situated at the height of 1000 feet above the Lake; and in the cliffs the following descending section is observed :— 1. A confused and broken mass of compact white lime- stone; its position not satisfactorily made out with regard to the rocks of the section; the thickness very considerable. This is the limestone which appears in peaks above the village. 2. Altered red clays ; thickness unknown, but considerable. 3. Grey volcanic tuff, containing regular layers of ap- parently water-worn pumice, and various volcanic products. In aspect it sometimes resembles a coarse PER PISCE YE HOST G ta cao ot ake ohn a a sictiv as, = 150 ft. 4. Cream-coloured tuff, with larger lumps of yellow pumice, which easily crumble to powder; very light Pe OU ahs Sse ee im a oe a Sia Win at go an HORA 5. Highly vesicular, heavy, brownish-blue lava; vesicles very large and quite empty. In passing downwards, the vesicles become gradually smaller, until they finally disappear, and the lava at last passes into a @APK-Dilie COMMPACL. WABAME cis ace, Frain, o45'x,0, ones, yeimie «LOU tbe 6. Alternating gravel-beds and fine sand layers, of a delicate light-pink colour; unaltered by contact with PHENOM ER LYRE RING cc a aw we ccs oft v, ithe. c nf iol oi 250 ft. The dip of the beds Nos. 2-6 is at 60° to the 8.W., ¢. e. from the Lake. From this single Section at Mirek it would be impossible to pro- nounce upon the age of any of the deposits. They may belong to the Nummulitic, to the Gypsiferous, or to even a later series. From Mirek to the mouth of the Bend i Mahi Su, at the extreme N.E. end of the Lake, the road continues along the shore, having a high basaltic range on the S.E., which sends down several spurs 314 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. into the Lake. The whole of the mountains closing in the N.E. extremity of the Lake of Van are basaltic, and they present some bold and imposing scenery to the traveller. On the north rises the lofty peak of Astirik Dagh, with its crateri- form centre, having much the aspect of a volcanic cone cleft on its south side towards the Lake. Possibly from it issued forth the streams of basalt on the N.W. side of the Kharpanak promontory. I had no time to visit it. From the extremity of the Lake to Begiri Kalah is a distance of 64 miles along an alluvial plain, through which flows the Bend i Mahi Su. Following up the course of the stream from the Kalah, the road traverses an open valley, ten mites in length, between high and imposing cliffs of black basalt and grey basaltic lava; the path is much obstructed by lumps of loose scoriz. At one locality was observed a mass of altered white travertin, overlaid by vesicular basalt. Just previous to entering the spacious plain of Abagha (in which are the abundant springs of the Bend i Mahi Si) the stream flows through low cliffs of columnar and compact basalt. Immediately on entering the Plain of Abdgh4, upon the left of the road are some isolated rounded hills of white lava, enclosing glassy felspar, and capped by basalt. The contrast of opposite colours is very remarkable. Several patches of compact blue lime- stone likewise occur in the same vicinity. The N.W. extremity of the plain is bounded by a high mountain- mass of black basaltic lava, called “'Tendurli,”’ an expressive name, meaning ‘‘ ovens,’ because there is at the summit a small crater, which emits such heat, according to the universally current account, as to roast meat suspended over it. From this crater vast streams of black lava have flowed down the sides of the mountain, appearing in the distance as if petrified in their descent. Around the base of Tendurli, and extending from it five miles into the plain, is one vast sea-like mass of amorphous basalt, thrown up, rolled over, and doubled upon itself; the surface being traversed by enormous fissures which render it impassable. The road winds round the S.E. extremity of this uninviting and sombre mass, and passes through a gap in a low blue limestone range. This shoots across the plain from the N.N.W., and is covered up on the N.E. by the lava-flow which has actually been forced up the slope of the limestone dome. From this point, after a rough passage over scorize, the base of the lofty range of Kara Kalah Dagh is reached. This range consists of altered red marls, and has clearly checked the further flow of the lava towards the east. Near the summit of the pass over Kara Kalah Dagh the surface is thickly strewed with rounded pieces of yellowish-white pumice, varying to the size of half aninch. These must have been thrown out when either the crater of Tendurli or those of Mount Ararat were in an active state of eruption. The little plain of Kasley Gul (which takes its name from a small lake in its centre) is surrounded by mountains of hard red chert and altered clays. A long pass over variegated marls conducts to the LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 315 town of Bayazid, which is situated near the summit and commands a fine view of the plains at the foot of Mount Ararat. On the descent, the blue marls, which rest on limestone, exhibit unequivocal evidence of there having been considerable volcanic agency at work during their deposition. Numerous layers of large rounded lumps of basaltic lava lie closely packed together in the marl matrix. The descending order of stratification here is—1. Red marls. 2. Blue marls. 3. Blue compact limestone. The last constitutes the lofty range at the back of the town, and shuts out the view of Mount Ararat. It is thrown down nearly vertically towards the S.W., z.e. towards Bayazid, and the marls have been shot off from it in the same direction. Upon these Bayazid is built. A broad plain intervenes between Baydzid and Mount Ararat. The two peaks of this great monarch of the Persian Mountains are apparently a solid mass of basaltic lava, similar to that of Tendurli, but, of course, on amuch more gigantic scale. Immense streams have flowed into the plains at their foot, passing in their course over the extremity of a lofty range of limestone, and again overflowing it at its base. A hollow cone, broken down at its S.W. side, is situated in the centre of the lava flood a great distance up the slope of the Greater Ararat, but far below the top of the saddle which connects the two peaks. The layers of the crater are distinctly seen in the interior, dipping from the centre, and an enormous stream of lava appears to have flowed from the fractured side of the cone. At the point where the connecting saddle meets the slope of the cone, there are ap- parently relics of several ancient and decayed craters. There is another on the lower part of the Lesser Ararat. The limestone to the east of Bazirgan contains numerous casts of fossils, apparently of the same species as those from the nummulitic rocks of Kirrind. A severe illness prevented my making further investigations in this highly interesting district, which had, however, been previously examined by Russian geologists. A violent shock of earthquake was experienced at Bayazid, on the 19th Sept. 1852,—a sufficient proof that the internal fires, which in ancient times produced such elevatory movements throughout this region, are not yet extinguished. Section from Baydzid to Ardish. Fig. 21. From Bayazid the red and blue marls bear away to the west in a lofty range called Dizzenen Dagh. The road follows along the north base of this range for 34 miles, and then strikes across a rough plain of basaltic scoriz. Here the vast lava-torrents of Ararat and Tendutrli meet ; and of such extent have been these flows of molten matter, that, if a line be drawn in a S.W. direction from the N.E. base of Ararat, over Tendurli to the extremity of the Kharpanak promontory, on the east shore of the Lake of Van, it will pass uninterruptedly over basaltic lava for 110 English miles,—a distance exceeding the greatest length of the two longest streams from the 316 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. crater of the celebrated Skaptar Yokul im Iceland! If to these streams be added those of Suphan Dagh, on the north shore of the Lake of Van, separated from Kharpanak by only thirteen miles, we have an infinitely greater volume of melted matter flowing from the three craters of this region than has, I believe, proceeded from any known volcanic source. In the direction of Dyadin to the N.W., numerous little peaks or “tepehs”’ of red and blue marls project their heads from the plain, having their bases surrounded by the lava-flood; they are in fact islands in a basaltic sea. At the miserable Kurd village of Kundu, seven miles from Baydazid, a low range of blue marls commences, and bears towards the N.W., having its S.W. base overflowed by the lava from Tendtrli. The road continues for 41 miles along the skirt of this range, over a quantity of rough scorie. At one locality, just before quitting this marl range, I observed a patch of brownish-blue trap-rock, contain- ing olivine and amygdaloidal cavities filled with carbonate of lime, overflowing the marls. The piled and confused mass of scorize which forms the eastern termination of the basaltic streams from Tendtrli, has much the aspect of the terminal morain of some immense glacier. From beneath the N.W. side of Tendurli a red marl range, which passes to the east of Dyadin, first shows itself, overflowed by the basalt. A short pass over this range conducts to the basin of the Murad Chai (Euphrates). Near the summit, but below the basalt, is much brown fine-grained lava. From the village of Daoud (near which is a warm sulphur-spring) the Castle of Dyadin is seen, six miles distant, standing on a high basaltic cliff on the right bank of the Murad Chai. Immediately on quitting Daoud, a patch of loose. white chalk-soil is passed; this further on changes to a bright-yellow volcanic tuff, containing much pumice and leucite. A low pass of lava intervenes before descending to the main stream of the river. A somewhat compact black lava, with analcime and leucite, forms the top of the pass; this rests on a light-pink variety, with the same minerals. A thick bed of the above-described yellow tuff succeeds; and the base. of the section consists of the same pink lava which occurs immediately above. On the left bank of the river, at a short distance upon the left of the road, is a hot sulphur-spring, 134° Fahr. The water bubbles up with great violence from a small hole, and, in flowing out of a small natural basin, leaves a yellowish calcareous deposit, similar to that observed in other travertin-springs, but much less in quantity. It has a slight odour of sulphur, and is nauseous to the stomach, though tasteless. There are likewise several smaller springs in the same lo- cality, having various different temperatures. The rocks around are of yellow travertin, having much resemblance to the deposit from the spring, but frequently compact and altered to a grey slaty limestone. From this point the road follows up the west branch of the river, through high cliffs of cream-coloured and grey travertinous lime- LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. A stone, into the heart of the great chain of Ala Dagh, which forms the watershed between the waters of the Murad Chai and the streams which flow into the Lake of Van. The bed of the ravine is strewed with small volcanic pebbles, among which obsidian is not uncommon. At rather more than midway up the ravine the travertin rocks cease, being forced through by a series of finely-grained granitic and trappean rocks, frequently capped by basalt. On the ascent of the lofty pass of Ala Dagh are numerous lavas, and at the summit is a very beautiful pink variety, unobserved elsewhere. i In the commencement of the descent of the ravine of the Ardish Chai, conducting to the Lake of Van, we have again many volcanic rocks, among which may be noticed a peculiar heavy grey rock, enclosing small crystals of quartz, mica, &c., and several varieties of basalt, sometimes columnar, &c. Further down the ravine beds of travertinous limestone make their appearance. At about eleven miles from the foot of the pass is another hot spring, having a tem- perature of 165° Fahr., in fact near that of boiling water. The water is strongly chalybeate and slightly saline; the calcareous deposit from it is reddened by the presence of iron. The same peculiarity exists here as at other springs depositing travertin, z.e. there are older deposits of similar nature in the immediate neighbourhood, though at this peculiar locality they are not of great extent. From this point, however, in the descent are frequent patches of a yellow tufaceous limestone, overflowed by columnar basalt. Near Khdch Kupri, where the ravine begins to open out into the plain of Ardish, at the junction of a large stream from the N.W. with the Ardish Chai, a flow of amorphous basalt occurs, apparently derived from the east; it is slightly amygdaloidal, the vesicles containing car- bonate of lime. Disseminated through the mass are numerous flat crystals of a transparent white mineral. Beyond this commences the soil of the plain, which consists of a light volcanic yellow sand, producing rich crops of wheat. About two miles further, a short descent over the same amorphous basalt conducts to the alluvial plain of the river at Irishat. The basalt abuts against the western extremity of a low range of white limestone, containing volcanic crystals. From beneath the basalt there issues the large stream which flows into the Lake of Van on the east of Ardish. The Lake of Van. It is not generally known that a remarkable rise has of late years taken place in the water of the Lake of Van ; and, as this phenome- non comes under the consideration of the geologist, I give here the results of my observations and inquiries on the subject. Mr. Layard, in his second work, ‘‘ Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon,” p. 408, has briefly alluded to this phe- nomenon. The Lake of Van was carefully surveyed by Lieut. Glascott, R.N., in August 1838, when travelling in company with Mr. Brant, H.B.M.’s Consul at Erzertim, and the result was given to the public 318 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. by the latter gentleman in the Journal of the Royal Geogr. Soe. vol. x. p. 402. The form of the Lake is an irregular parallelogram, giving off a spur to the N.E. Its greatest length from Tadvan, on the 8.W., to Arnis, on the N.E., is seventy miles; and its greatest width is twenty-eight miles, measuring from Vastan on the S. to Arin on the N. The water is salt and bitter, but without the intense saltness of the ocean. The only important streams which enter the Lake are two near Ardish on the N., the Bend { Mahi Su on the N.E., and the Angel Suon the 8. These are all fordable, except the Bend i Mahi Su in some parts. according to the statement of the natives on its shores, the water of the Lake, owing to some unaccountable cause, began gradually to increase in the year 1838 or 1839. For some time it fluctuated a good deal, but at the end of twelve months it had gained considerably upon the land wherever there was a shelving shore, the depth being increased nearly two yards. During the second and third years the rise continued, until the increased depth had reached ten or twelve feet. Many towns and villages upon the Lake were surrounded, destroyed, or deserted, and the effects are still apparent on the north shore, where it is less rocky than elsewhere. Having in three years attained its standard height at twelve feet, it so remained, slightly rising and falling until 1850, from which time the natives say there has been a considerable and gradual subsidence of the water. . The effects of this phenomenon are best seen at Ardish, a town formerly containmg 5000 inhabitants, with a castle, two mosques, a Christian church, and several caravanserais. [See the original drawings Nos. VII. and VIII. accompanying the Memoir. | In August 1838, Messrs. Brant and Glascott pitched their tents upon a flat piece of ground extending from the south side of the town some distance into the Lake; the town being then connected with the mainland by a broad piece of flat cultivated ground. In 1841 the whole town was completely surrounded, partially under water, and entirely deserted by its inhabitants. In September 1852, ‘ when the water had considerably subsided, Ardish was connected to the north shore by a narrow strip of mud*, about a tenth of a mile in length, across the most elevated part of which my horse plunged with the mud up to his knees. On both sides, the isthmus had every appearance of having been recently overflowed. Every one assured me that it had not only been covered, but that it had been a yard under water periodically every year since 1841. The most intelligent persons with whom I conversed attributed the periodical overflow to the rise of the two streams which here empty themselves into the Lake, one on the east, and the other on the west of Ardish, and which swell considerably on the melting of the snows in spring. For about four months the isthmus is impassable ; but, as the streams subside and assume their summer level, the water gradually retires from it. All accounts, however, agreed as to the rapid encroachment * As represented at (a), Drawing VII. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 319 of the lake upon the town in 1838 and 1839; and that the inhabit- ants were driven out during the two years following ; the foundations of the houses gave way, and fresh water failed them. At the time of my visit the water reached up to the very base of the town and castle walls on the west and east sides, and within ten paces of the large mosque on the south side, beyond which Messrs. Brant and Glascott had encamped. There was, however, undoubted evidence of its having been much higher, for within the walls in various places were large pools of stagnant water; the ground in several parts was saturated with salt and overgrown with saline plants. The quantity of land gained by the lake is enormous. Before the rise a person could walk from Ardish to Madghawank, the next spur to the west; but the lake has since extended upwards of a mile to the north up the embouchure of the Ardish Chai; thus cutting off from the latter pretty village its supply of fresh water, and, as at Ardish, causing the desertion of its inhabitants. A like fate befell many other villages along the shores. Iskella, a small fishing village, a mile and a half from Van, is now half de- serted. The islands in the Lake, on the authority of the Armenian Bishop at Chijis Monastery, were in a similar manner gained upon by the rise of water. If this be the case, the phzenomenon cannot be accounted for by an elevation of the bottom of the Lake; because the islands would be elevated, and not depressed. An old man of eighty-five (Ismail Bey) told me he had heard his father say that a similar rise had occurred about 140 years previously, when the inhabitants were in like manner compelled to evacuate Ardish, which continued an island for forty years, after which the water gradually retired. Ismail Bey himself can just remember the people returning and rebuilding their dilapidated houses. There is a tradition that the Lake of Van now covers what was formerly a spacious plain, studded with villages and gardens,—that the Bend i Mahi Sd and the two streams of Ardish met and formed one large river about midway between Ardish and Bitlis,—that a short way below their junction there was a large bridge (which is now sometimes seen at the bottom of the Lake by the boatmen),— that at some distance below the bridge the river suddenly disappeared through a large hole, near which was a powerful salt-spring,—that by some sudden convulsion the hole became closed, and the accu- mulated streams, having no outlet, gradually formed the Lake of Van. Ismail Bey failed to show how, as the streams are all fresh, the water of the Lake is salt. The tradition, however, is a curious one, and I give it as such. Similar oscillations in the levels of lakes have been observed in America and other portions of the world; but I am not aware of any on so great a scale, and where the effects have been so felt by the natives on the shore. The rise of the Lake of Van is probably due to some change of climate for a succession of years, such as the fall of a greater quantity of snow in the mountains, or a deficiency in the usual evaporation. ‘This is undoubtedly the most reasonable explanation ; 320 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. but it must not at the same time be forgotten, that climatic alterna- tions in those regions are exceedingly regular and uniform; and moreover there appears no reason why the Lake of Urimia should not be similarly affected as the Lake of Van, since they are only separated by a range of mountains. Such however is not the case, for the former has been subsiding while the latter has been rising. [See Note B. p. 325. ] Again, it is difficult to conceive how four small streams alone, supplied by melting snow, should have sufficient influence to elevate twelve feet such a large body of water as the Lake of Van; though they may have a local effect at their mouths. Another solution which presents itself, is the existence of inter- mittent sprmgs in the bottom of the Lake, bursting forth at long intervals. We are not, however, aware of results on so great a scale produced by such a cause. We cannot hope to explain satisfactorily the phenomenon above- described until a series of observations shall have been taken of the rise and fall of the barometer, and the effect of climatic influence on the water of the Lake. At many localities along the shores, and particularly about three miles N. of Van, are alkali-pits, called “‘perek.”’ The salt water of the Lake is admitted into shallow basins at the commencement of summer, when by the rapid evaporation crystallization takes place, and a crust or deposit is formed. This in ten or fifteen days hardens, and is an eighth of an inch in thickness. The water is again allowed to flow into the basin, and the process is repeated several times. In about five months’ time the deposit has assumed an aggregate thick- ness of from two to four inches, when it is broken up into blocks about two feet square, and transported to Van on arabahs, to be used in the manufacture of soap. The “ perek”’ is sulphate and chloride of soda, with a considerable mixture of carbonate of lime; it is of a cream-colour, and easily broken by a sharp blow of the hammer. An insignificant tax or percentage on the produce is levied by the government for leave to collect the perek ; but I could not ascertain what quantity is annually obtained, nor the value of the deposit in a raw state. Two Sections Srom Ardish, round the N.W. extremity of the Lake of Vin, to Jeztreh-ibn-Omar. Figs. 22 and 23. Proceeding west from Ardish, a marshy piece of ground is crossed to the extreme north point of the recently formed spur of the Lake, between that town and Madghawank. The low range projecting into the Lake to the west of Madghawank is of compact white lime- stone, in which are to be detected a few casts of Corals. Succeeding to this isa small strip of land, where the inroad made by the Lake is evident, since a path which terminates abruptly on the shore is seen commencing again on the opposite side of a little bay. Another low limestone range intervenes before reaching the pretty LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 321 Christian village of Axdrdv; upon this are strewed numerous flint- pebbles, derived from the limestone, and containing the Operculina of the Kirrind beds; from which we may conclude that this lime- stone is of the nummulitic age. From the ravine in which Axdrav is situated a third limestone ridge is crossed to the plain of Kanzag, the surface of which is thickly covered by large and small lumps of pumice, with here and there a piece of obsidian, probably resulting from the last eruption of Suphan Dagh. A descending section in the ravine leading to Kanzag shows—1. White limestone ; 2. White clays, with Pecten; 3. Loose grey sand- stone. The small village of Dildn is situated on the north of the road, and is reached by a very steep ascent from Kanzag up the side of the mountain, over fine loose volcanic sand, mixed with pumice and obsidian. At Dilan basaltic lava from Suphan Dagh overflows this sand, as well as a patch of the white clay No. 2. Another small plain and a low limestone spur intervene between Kanzag and the volcanic sand plain of Arin, at the S.E. foot of Suphan Dagh. A high solitary rock of travertin rises conspicuously from the centre of this plain, like some ancient ruin. A little further westward, the base of the basaltic lava-stream from Suphan Dagh is skirted for about a mile. It has identically the same appearance as the lavas of Mount Ararat and Tenditrli, and there can be little doubt of all the three mountains having been erupted at the same period. A distinct crater exists at the summit, as observed by Messrs. Brant and Glascott. The former gentleman remarks%, that, although only 10,000 feet above the sea, the party who ascended the mountain were affected with extreme dizziness and nausea, and he ascribes these sensations to the fumes of sulphur emitted from the crater. The little village of Arin is situated at the eastern extremity of a small salt lake, midway between the base of Suphan Dagh and the Lake of Van. Mr. Brant remarks + that in 1838 “ Arin is situated about one mile from its Lake ;” but in 1852 the village was not more than a few paces from its edge, and the villagers have been in constant alarm of being driven out. They say that the water rose simultaneously with the Lake of Van to the height of seven feet ; but that since 1850 it has been subsiding. At Hordntz, on the west side, the shore was covered 120 paces from its present margin. It may therefore be fairly concluded that the water of the Lake of Van oozes through the narrow intervening sandy isthmus, and that in so doing the saltness is partially extracted. This will account for the very slight degree of saltness in the Arin Lake. About four miles from Hordntz, on the neck of the isthmus, there is a small village called Pargat, which before the rise was situated a good mile from the Lake of Van. When the rise had attained its maximum height, the water stood four feet up the walls of the * Journ. R. Geog. Soc., vol. x. p. 410. + Ibid. p. 405. VOL. XI.—PART I. Fr, ous PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. church, a part of which was carried away. The back of the building is still nearly two feet in the water. Upon the shore of the Lake of Arin lie numerous rounded lumps of volcanic tuff and black scoriz, measuring 6 inches in dia- meter. The tuff is white, with lamine of mica plentifully distributed through it. From Horantz the road follows along the basaltic base of Suphan Dagh over pumice-sand. At one or two localities is a conglomerate of volcanic products and white limestone pebbles in a white calca- reous paste. About a mile before reaching A‘d-el-Jiwaz is a ravine exposing a deep section of gravel, consisting entirely of small rounded pebbles of obsidian and larger ones of white limestone. They loosely adhere together by means of a thin coating of yellow calcareous matter, originating from some extinct travertin spring. This gravel to the west passes into a true volcanic tuff, mixed with carbonate of lime, frequently stalactitic and of open structure, as exhibited at travertin springs. The range to the north of A’d-el-Jiwaz is a convincing proof of the influence which has been at work in depositing the limestone- rocks of this region. This range and the rock on which the Castle stands are nothing more than a travertin deposit on a magnificent scale; the stone sometimes assuming the character of a true compact yellow limestone*, and at others that of a common precipitate from a spring highly charged with carbonate of lime, and frequently con- taining pieces of reeds. On the west of A’d-el-Jiwaz, the road is carried 200 or 300 feet above the level of the Lake, which washes the base of the travertin mountain. The rock is frequently cut in steps for the passage of beasts of burden, and is extremely slippery and dangerous. A narrow irregular alluvial plain, formed by the retiring of the mountains from the Lake towards the north, is then crossed. The mountains bear round again to the S.W., and consist of red and blue marls, whose position with regard to the tufa-limestone was not clearly made out, though they appear to overlie it. Further westward, these marls are succeeded by a fine grey volcanic tuff and breccia, with long angular lumps of basaltic lava. Beyond the gardens of Stihtr the beds alter their character, pass- ing down into a dusky-red fine-grained tuff, alternating with coarse volcanic breccia, which latter rock obtains as far as Akhlat. At several places a more recent conglomerate in a white calcareous matrix rests unconformably in patches on the grey tuff. Here and there are a quantity of loose gravel and numerous lumps of pumice. At Akhlat old town the inhabitants have taken up their abode in holes and chambers excavated in these soft voleanic rocks. Akhlat is celebrated for some fine tombs of the early Mahomedan Princes of the district. The stone used is the red tuff, which is heavier and more durable than the finely-grained grey variety reposing upon it. It is admirably adapted for the delicate and elaborate work which * Containing indications of Corals and marine shells. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. o20 ornaments these tombs and the grave-yards of this locality. The fresh appearance of the designs is very remarkable. From Akhlaét to Tadvan, the wide plain, rising towards Nimrid Dagh on the west, is wholly composed of friable grey tuff, which pro- duces a very light, rich soil for grain. Pieces of pumice are abundantly contained in it. When the Lake rose, the foundations of several houses at the village of Y4m fairly melted away and disappeared. Near Zerdkh the sand is thickly strewed with large lumps of pumice, black scorize, and obsidian, containing glassy felspar. The immense quantity of volcanic products here observable is astonishing ; and I was not long in discovering that other vents had been pouring forth their contents in addition to Suphén Dagh. In the maps hitherto published, a curved bay is laid down on the south shore of the Lake of Van, between Avatak and Narnigas. This is in fact a very picturesque crater [see original Drawings Nos. IX. and X.], much truncated, and having its wall towards the Lake broken down so as to admit the water in a deep bay into the interior of the crater. The ragged edge I estimated, at a distance, to be three or four miles in circumference. The concentric layers, apparently of sand, are distinctly seen in the basin, dipping outwards. It is not remarkable that this crater has hitherto escaped observation, as it is ‘ only visible to a person proceeding from Akhlat to Tadvan,—a road seldom traversed. The highest point I judge to be about 600 or 800 feet above the Lake. I am also under the impression that Nimrtd Dagh itself (which is laid down as a range running N.E. and S.W.) is the base of an enormous cone, rivalling Suphan Dagh; with this difference, how- ever, that, while the latter is of solid basaltic lava, the former is of voleanic sand. The broken and precipitous edges of a cup-shaped interior, having the layers dipping outwards, are seen in some posi- tions. I was informed that, on clambering to the top, a person looks down on the opposite side into a circular depression with a lake at the bottom. If I should be correct in my supposition that Nimrid Dagh is an extinct crater, there can be little difficulty in understand- ing from whence the great quantity of sand at the western extremity of the Lake of Van has been derived. Continuing west from Tadvan to the Bitlis Chai, the same friable, light, volcanic, red sandstone appears at the surface as occurs at Akhlat. The Kerkir Dagh rises abruptly from the plain on the north of the road; its smooth sloping sides and remarkable crests for some time arrest the attention before reaching it. Viewed, however, from the S.8.E., it has the aspect of a volcanic cone less truncated than that on the south side of the Lake [see original Drawing XI.]._ It is wholly composed of a white rock, which I take to be pumice and tuff. On advancing to the S.W., it is perceived that the westerly con- tmuation of Kerkir Dagh is a similar cone, joined on to the other, but having its summit much more eroded and the crater filled up. On entering the narrow valley of the Bitlis Chai, the lofty moun- tains on either side consist of grey quartzose rock, underlaid by soft Z2 324 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. mica-schist. The beds dip away at a slight angle from the ravine, the trough of which is filled up with volcanic tuff and ash. The stream flows onwards to Bitlis through this soft and yielding rock, which in the descent becomes dark-coloured and columnar, presenting exactly the appearance of basalt. At one place, where it 1s quarried for building-stone, it overlaps the edges of the mica-schist. On the west of the ravine before approaching Bitlis, it alternates with, and is overlaid by, an open-structured calcareous travertm. The houses of the town, as well as the rock on which the old Castle of the Begs of Bitlis is built, are of the grey volcanic tuff. Below the town the tuff gradually thins out, and afterwards only occurs in patches down the valley. Two miles from Bitlis there is a cold acidulated saline spring, very agreeable to the taste, and much resembling Sedlitz Water. In rising from the bottom, the water effervesces. There is no calcareous deposition from the spring at present ; but a few feet below there is a bed of travertin which it has formerly produced; and a considerable thickness of an older — travertin rock here spreads along the bottom of the valley for the distance of a mile. The channel soon becomes narrower, and is confined between lofty ranges of micaceous slate, much contorted, and overlaid (1 think, conformably ) by blue compact limestone ; both rocks dipping from the ' ravine. This order generally prevails to Shahtek, ten miles below Bitlis. In some localities eruptions of basalt have broken through and overspread the slates; this is particularly observable near an old caravanserai at the sixth mile. Large deposits of travertin also occur; and at one place there is a very awkward descent passing through a cutting made in this rock and extending to the stream in the channel below. Further down the valley the igneous rocks are left behind, and the blue limestone appears to the almost entire exclusion of other deposits, and rises into lofty ranges. On leaving the Bitlis Chai, this rock is crossed at Chelifteh Pass. At Werkhantz, on the S.W. of this Pass, we meet with Alveolina, which proves this limestone to belong to the Nummulitic Series. The descending valley or irregular basin of the Kesser Sti is a mass of contorted, soft, unfossiliferous gypsiferous marls and sands, resting on the skirts of blue limestone mountains. Near Sert, in these marls, is an extensive deposit of massive pure white alabaster. From Sert the road follows the course of the Sert Su to the Tigris, skirting the N.W. base of the inaccessible Bohtan limestone mountains ; it then continues southwards along the banks of the Tigris to near Jezireh-ibn-Omar, and afterwards trends away to the S.W. The limestone is unfossiliferous, but undoubtedly of the nummulitic age ; and, being removed from the immediate influence of the igneous rocks, it assumes its wonted aspect,—being of a rich cream-colour, compact, and crystalline, as at Kirrmd and elsewhere on the west of the igneous chain. LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. gia Conclusion.—On commencing this report, it was my intention to have made some general concluding remarks. As, however, I have entered fully into the details of the subject, so far at least as a passing examination of many of the localities would permit, I prefer leaving it for the present; in the hope that, during my proposed second visit to the regions under consideration, various obscure points may be further investigated, and doubts cleared up,—more especially such as relate to the transition between the cretaceous and nummulitic rocks,—between the latter and the gypsum series,—-and the connec- tion which the blue limestones bear to all three. In concluding, I trust that every allowance will be made for the numerous imperfections contained in this communication,—owing to the difficulty of the subject, in consequence of the extreme rarity of the ‘‘ Medals of Creation,’’—and to the haste with which the marches were made. This report may be regarded only as a very rude sketch of a truly interesting region. Note A. (See page 261.) Since writing the memoir, the author has had an opportunity of conversing on the subject with Mr. Waterhouse, of the British Museum, who has kindly exa. mined the natural casts of footprints referred to at pages 261, 262. Mr. Water- house has expressed a doubt of these footprints belonging to an animal of the Feline Order, on account of the great prominence of the claws; but he believes that they are certainly referable to some of the Carnivora. The Chetah men- tioned at page 262, does, however, appear to be an exception to the rest of the Felidz in this respect, and does possess a relatively long claw. The author by no means intends to imply that the foot-prints are those of the Felis jubata ; there is no evidence of that animal having lived during the early tertiary period. —July, 1855. Nore B. (See page 320.) Ismail Bey’s tradition agrees to a certain extent with the accounts of ancient historians as regards the sudden disappearance of the rivers in the present bed of Van Lake, by means of a subterranean outlet. May there not be a communica- tion by this means between the Lakes of Van and Urdmia, which would account for the fluctuations in their respective levels? An obstruction in such a channel would produce all the effects alluded to above. The Lake of Van is at an elevation of 5467 feet above the sea-level, as ascer- tained by Lieut. Glascott, R.N. (Journal R. Geogr. Soc. vol. x. p. 432); while that of Urdmia is 1367 feet lower. It should be observed that these Lakes are separated 80 miles from each other by the intervention of a lofty mountain range. —July, 1855. Note C. (Accentuation.) With regard to the pronunciation of the names of places mentioned in this Memoir, the 4 and { have the sound of a and i in French; the 4, that of the English oo. *4OLIe 3Y} UO UALS a1 S7AYINAG U2 70U BSOY4 ‘auryuadiag "aqluBig (‘BULMOT[OJ BY} JO OUIOS pU yNOpOOM STY} Ut SJUT} JO SataIIVA yy Aq pozyVoIPUT oe SUOISIATPQNs osSoq,],) ‘Jorg pure ‘preppojg “IJ “AS ‘}00sePH “nary ‘uosuTTMeEY ‘TOD ‘YWOMSUTY ‘APT JO AZIIOYINE £s7yStoy ons} oy} 03 ATUO suotyeurrxoidde oe szayodug U2 UAAIS O1v 4EYY S}YSIOY IY} SUOTJDIgG SULMOT[OJ aq} PUL Sty} UT 4*,y 8 “4STYOS-BoIM puR ozes-AeIQ “9 “f : ‘QUOJSOUUT] patayye oN _ °G ‘unsdAyy *S[IVUL poyeSoLIeA pue sUO}spuRS poy *9}VIIUIO|SUO0I-[OARID) *SN[B}-9UOJSOUI'] *y] a TATA < eR Tea Sia A Switic . i = e a | | [ae | { { i \ 1 i I i ! I ! ! ! t 1 1 ! \ j 1 ! ! H | t 1 1 1 { H t 1 { i 1 i 1 1 ! 1 1 } : ! ‘ ! H 5 2 5 4 e * 5 25 = n- ay ry ) i} 5 oe za eS a $ & % Q ep “oe 8 2 3 S = oo oe Ee on m4 ° = m2) ° no — ‘SaTTUL OTZ ‘UOTJoIg Jo YISuaTy ‘uppounyy 67 swhyy, ayp fo sump ay, motf uorsag——' | “31 "QUOJSOUIT] SNODDRIDID *F "QUOISOMUT OII[NUIUINNY *¢ 7) "9 > Soltas snosepisdky *z "D “UUNIANTTY *T ib yc: oe ae Cog) PO TES ee *STTM ET MLO Eye one ee ee ee ee ee BU Lt lt perenne ae ee Se 327 TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. LOFTUS *(00€S) *(0009) ‘uinsddyy 9 “s[1UL poyeSalrea pue sUOJspues poy “g p ‘SaLias snoropisdky °Z OJVIIMIO[SUOD-[OARIN “0 “9UOJSOUI[ SHOVDEJOIN) °F “QUOJSOWIT] OLPI[NUUUNYY "¢ EE --o* vs . Se ee ee «wt (002) *------7--7-7777- g (0081) ~------------- “Uryuva yy ULIUe Hy ‘uss pasey, ---------------S SS 20GRT TIMIN nade 0c Jott Secon a(GOR) SE “upqrayays Yepryz, fuvaiq ouyTyatypM =| ued “M'S 043 WoO yead sy) jo souvivaddy CO ‘so]lW GFT ‘{tuvalg 0} pepyseg woz uoToVg oy} Suoye souezsiqy ‘yoplgy Ug ay? 02 pypybog wouf u012999 — *Z ‘SLT ‘sN]e}-OUO SOU] “xT ‘UNIANTLY ‘[ "SZI SODA wacalcgcseiekan sa adae ae “AL'S PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 328 “‘QUOSIWIT] OITNUIUINN “E (‘spung ajiym ayy) ‘wusdky *a ‘S[IVU poyVsoLIVA puL aOyspuRS poy *g > SOLIS SNOJIJISdAN *Z *OVLIWIO[BUOI-[DABI) *” "soTIU Qg ‘UOIeg Jo YySueT “nyppppiy fo hon 4 ayZ ssoaov uooagy—"¢e “BIT *[OARIS [VIANT[TV ‘T 329 LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. (‘spung agrym ayy) “uinsdiy ‘a ‘s[reul payeSarea pue ouoyspurs poy “g p‘sattas snosepisdAy *Z *OYLIIUO[SUOD-[OARINH *D "sisIyos snOUTUINII ONT * “9U0ISpULS-UOI] ‘QUOJSpURS poUIeIZ-Uly * ‘QUO\SOWT'T ° "ayVIIWO[SU0-319YO-poy “9 |. 5 ‘guoysout] youdwMog * } aco cde ae 5°83 Sx oO "SyOOI SNOVDLIOIQ “F ‘JOavIZ [VIANTLY “TL *pyquulal1oy yy Vf hi ; £ f a, an > es S /;, / / A § ; i \ PF oer : | | L? | Cay \\ = I i \ LZ? | i 1 | | Hb | ! | aia) | | | | | [} ea 1 | \ { \ hep | {} 1 | | | | i H H | : | | ; ' | i H \ | I re 4 4 is} | . Py ro i 7 ee bs ~ ee a a5 Se Seige: lg ae Es cS tp ~ >: re by ei ee ae =a By =) 2 ee. & Is ® #6 a oree g F Es pie) Topics g E ek 9 GLE ee | Es ES ; Ed n = a 5 2. Zz : 4 Ca oe 2 ‘ ‘ia N z ‘PvgnMadsoy ys] O} ner Wolf 012009 —" P ‘BLT 330 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Fig. 5.—Section across the Valley of the Kerkhah in the Pish Kth, Liristdn. He Length 15 miles. ar Kuh i Vayzaniyeh. Kebir Kah, Kah i Banar R. Kerkhah. 1. Alluvium and limestone gravel. 2. Red sandstone, variegated marls, and gypsum. 3. Nummulitic limestone. Figs. 6 & 7.—Sections of the Gypsiferous beds at Kirrind. Fig. 6.—N.W. Section. 1. Limestone debris, and Alluvium. 2. Red sandstone and variegated marls. 3. Nummulitic limestone. Fig. 7.—S.E. Section. 1. Limestone debris, and Alluvium. 2. Red sandstone and variegated marls- 3. Nummulitic limestone. 331 LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. ‘QUOJSOUITT °9 *saTeys onigq “2 *(0006) SOM "N ‘ y Ds t ye. (\\ Kar ; by Ve ee oe Le a ebay eee he _F o © oF e z 5 s & j oo *yoor OTTNUIWINU ONT *a *s[ISSOJ YIM ‘auoysouNT] AoIy *p *SoLI9S SNOIaJIsdAD °z "SOOT SNOVDRIIIQ “fF ‘QUOJSpULS Pot PUL MOT[AK °F P*sYOOI OYTTHWUINN “¢ "B1I0091Q-IUOSOUITT *yT "9YBIDWIO[BUOI-}.19YO-poy °*g “WINIANTTY “1 ‘squojsourly Avid yordmog *p “yeuiag | 10g 'Ghsg ‘YeLoSuny Io runoryg wn "sot QE ‘MOTOIg Jo YASUNT ‘UDISUN'T “QF IG aYZ Ssouon pun yousabunyy fo hang ayz ybnouyz worpoag—'g “S1q PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 332 "sa[qqod-qioyo YyIM [reU poy “Y | : ‘auojsauty, Avis snosovuare yordmog °6 *s1dAR] UIY} UL 9UOJSIUITT PItNo[oOo-mMeaIg *¢ ‘ABW SnoOsIvoTVO MOTTAA “f "soyBys snourunziq on[q yAep pure Ao1yg *v “QUOJSPUBS MOT[AX ‘a *[PARIS-JAIY “p "810001 BUOJSpULS Pat pue sUOJSeTMIT ‘9 *9UO}SOULI] PUB S[IVUT 931M yoeduIOD °¢ | ‘arqieud ayy yorduio0y ‘v | | .satzas ouTNUUNN *¢ VF , OSs 7 LA e Ss S z ZZ-> = H { “i L c tj{gZ 1 ! i ' A as ‘a A A (0002) 7 & = 3 4 E e g a < ee & > eee o> ae 3 FS S i = 3 mn Se a Sz BL Sw = = Ss & So me = So § - be | Vrs > SS} iz Cy | y at ay asf = on po. ° oe —) Es ~ S ‘SaTIUT QG ‘UOTJOag JO YySUIT ‘UUAS 0} pNOL ay, UO ‘pjapsP pun YpYysupUaY uaanzag UoIEgI—'()] “SII PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 334 “unyy tag Jo uleld ge WO ‘aUO\soWT] ‘p “QUOISOUTI] OT}PHWUINN "Ee “auOysaMUT] OITNAWYydg “9 | , : ‘unsdAyy *9 Leena ante "q paling ds. ct Sas Sg ‘sauoyspurs pure ibe gp *SaLtas snosasIsdAy °z ‘QUOJSOUIT'T *D ‘SoyVIIWO|SUOD *D “WUNIANT[V PUR [OAR *] "(S[Issoy qnOYyIA) YouNTD *< ¢ ev ee : wy, AW Z | SANTA SZ \ } SE, . eesse. ‘ | Nees . cm’ 1 ! “ S: ‘ So a \\ \ ‘\\ H \ | POA 4 | : ae VAS SS \ Nie ee th i\ | ia: | ' 1 i \ 1 ; I H 1 | ; | H H i 1 | 1 H ! } : > be v >~ o o” py = ® se o a“ a a = 3 Lc z, i=" 3 ss w > og be = . os a By Bs F ae 2 iS p> a ao 9g ae = a oo a E; SI ~ o i= i 5 2 5 a ES S o 3°) =a ot re | a a => = aa — . = * ps : a 5 : ma = to = =} ice) —] = = S a S 3 ae 0 oO 7 ww n i=) i - - rc) 3 ; “M ‘sa[It Og ‘UOTJag Jo YySuaT ‘sumqunoyy wphagyypg UnYY Wag 02 up py wodf worz9eg— [[ “SIy , apmry WE JO ume ET ee LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. 335 Fig. 12.—Section at the South-eastern entrance into the Plain of Ser A'b ¢ Ser, near Fayldtn. Length of Section, 10 miles. N.E S.W. es By P Ps S s s $ a 3 oF © @ ™~ 2) ee) ~~ ~~ == ~ Plain (5870) eee La 1. Alluvium. 4, Yellow cretaceous limestone. 5. Blue, altered, and much contorted limestone (probably Lower Secondary). Fig. 14.—Section from Ushnii to Mergaver. Length about 20 miles. Ss N, e E m 3 < A re) Bee es ep © ie eS a os = 5 F 3 N= As Ge s 3 N Ss ae o5 5 i Pie 3% 3 aS ; = SI BS Sag "a bo oa) =) na ro) =) Ou . ' . a ’ ‘ ' ‘ ’ ' ' 1 ' ; : : 1b ’ , ' ' P 1 : ' ' ’ in ' \ : ' : : ' ; : ' " AX> H ' fo 33°O? . ; ‘ N48 72> ‘a H A 4 ee wees a> ¥ 1 = ee AVON "We > ‘~ ee se De as ya S34 Te @ LeSS 7 a. Alluvium and gravel. d. Blue limestone. 6. Cream-coloured limestone with copper ore. e. Bluish-green altered shales. c. Blue argillaceous limestone. J. Grey granite. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 336 ‘z31enb JO SUIDA TIT ‘sayzeIs eNTG °9 *(¢ snov0e4a.19) guojsoutt] OUT ‘F *OJTUBIL) by Z ¢ Alepuodag JaM0']) duo SIU] anid °¢S “UUNTANTLY Tt ‘myyeMg Jo urepq “puaqiod oyL corey Vv Vv ee Net eeneP av vw c a 5 = a p. Qu “M . a "saTIUl QE ‘UOTJDEg Jo YyZuar] ‘suppunopy wohyyyve “YRM upngysy 07 pygntang 2 Yny wolf uosag——"g] ‘Siq umia,. Fig. 15.—Section between Gdwdr and U'r Distance about 50 miles. LOFTUS —-TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. “OOTP SeTUr “nL, 1) JO ayeT “O0SF SENUIGS, (i735 sae SOAw A ye 2 Coles tek a “19 JA JO ULE \ "3ysaq jo lei 5 ric ysow f pat = : ca =} 5 fi = = = a oS 5 . So es: e =a." oes A Og S i=) = © sh + inn N ? oa : & , =| : o re > e ; & 2 . — 2 ae 2 g e s a : o io) fa ‘M'N o ‘sap GJ ynoqe yySue7T ‘UD 4 pup woyy fo Un) ayZ vaanzag U01Z20g—'" GI “BIA 340 "9VIIUIO[BUOD-[BABIS PUB JUOYSpURS poy “9 ULPIOARIT, °9 "UINTAN|TV °2 z a 4 ay m — “ws A (‘0Z¥S) ‘uodvog 8 ,euseg YStAIa(..--_--_----.---- "(00SF) LOY JO Ute[q------------------ QBN b41 LOFTUS—TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. ‘yelelry JUNO] io “q3eq uqsy "sazeys ontq °4 ‘qeseq of "B1009.1Q PUB SBAR] DIUBITOA ‘a ‘s19AB[ SNODDEINY PUL S[IVU poyedoeA ‘yp ['uvA JO aYVT JY} JO [OAI] 9Y} SYTeUL oUIT [e}UOZTIOY oY) lL Loui 1 b { { 1 i] H \ 1 ! | | ! ! ! { ! ! ! 1 ! \ ; 1 | H | ! H H | i | | | ! . 1 H ! Bie: a 5 ba) = =) wR a = = a Se _—s A = re & 4 =) — Qo. = = ee a S ~ > 5 2 > oN : on = o & S S 5 —) x S ie a) ~~ oO : =) S *sa[lW Gg ynoqe dURYSICT “Pplpsp pUNOPT 02 uny wWouLf U0LZIAI—')Z “BI ‘Wd ------------------------- , Los orth Soa 4 “QUOISIUIT] OUTPNUITINAY *9 “‘spuvs PUR SLIVUI poIesouie,a *¢ ‘UINIANTTY *2 U OLN LEN _ ¥ *y ‘7 = S// Ya LY, Af) Y NN R/U UCM MGTIO (T Bios e lust 5 see Vr Dot

- a) ae om e. Volcanic lavas and breccia. c. Red sandstones and variegated marls. 279 TURKO-PERSIAN FRONTIER. LOFTUS S "GETS "OIDIG +---=---2-- Syee H "BART SHOsoIuNd pue pues oIUROIO ae ‘s1aAv] SHOVdRINY pue s[IVUL payeFare A ‘a “BART OLNVseg *y “BIDD9IG OIUBITOA pay ‘a ‘UIPIBARIT, “9 aU SIU] OI4tNUUINN “4 ‘Yny oruvajoa Avay *p *[OAVIS JUOASAIT] pus ueIpIsqg ‘v , "UPAPRL, ['UvA JO ee] OY} Jo Jona] Oy} syxvur our eyUOZWOY oy] ‘ULLy Wi; 12 ian H Sy \ \ . ~ YY ' : aS : xf 2 & re ' t ' QS See Ny ' { i SY i Sieg as nee H ' 1 ! H t " ! ' i | H ; 1 1 | ' ' ' H f i 1 ‘ | H H 1 ' i : : aa | } | ! ! i i! 5 ee ae e oes a2 E ea S on i) 5S fF fF > rs = S wo Oo woe N Uf a a8 > = = Ze 3B Ss 5 a © ou Seay SF aQ = oO i 7 ms g nd ey a = Ss & oy = . = "Sart GL ynoqge voueysIq Su 0p upg fo ayn] ay2 uo ysipap mosf uoYsIg9—ZZz “BLT “aN ‘Lor “YSIply 344 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. suo *(0001) 1eWO -Yaaizor JO sulelg-——_ > +s py ne 4 * cee eed be puny "OZST “F ‘autjuadiag *y ‘QUOJSOWT] OTPIPAWIWNN “py *sysiqos ontgq °4 ‘uunsddyy 9 “yny o1ueopoa “0 “IUOISAULI] PojL0JUO0D pasayye antq ‘[OARIS PUL SoOySpuURS Poy *¢ “yeseq ‘2 "UIQIOARL, *A "JaaRaS [en|Ty 2 i j t ms > o —j i) ~ "WUD SII ——--—--— oe x le ee Bb O: o ia nn ae ey n & © —J Da Ss x & an zy = S bo " i-W ey re ep? “I iN oO See $s ee —) S se Pe ~] oe f~ os aQ LU a ‘So]IUI CY ynoqe sdueISICZ ‘MU -UQi-Yalizar 07 s”YpE_ mMoLf U0LQIAI—' EZ, “SIA . Fe RE RS a . i : ° . ~ > | _ 7 i a - : = 4 ere | aad © dd ee Oe Oe Wo 3 * > ~ g ¢ \ : 7 a ‘ . " 7 « 4 -o- we a@ ~ v2 2 a ' ) . ‘ : ~ ¥ % “! ‘ «Se 4 » z i he > © - ~ © >» > ,. a8 = F 4 . bina th =o i Draws by S Hislop © roe « . - a ‘ : a - eo 5 Dae 2 rs a os " 5 : : * " reve r “ a! «oe . ‘ HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. and On the Grotocy and Fossits of the Ne1GHBOoURHOOD of NAgeur, Centrat Inpia. By the Rev. Messrs. 8S. Histor and R. Hunter. [Communicated by J. C. Moore, Esq., F.G.S.1 [Read June 21, 1854*.] (PLATE X.) [Note.—A full Abstract of this Communication appeared in the Society’s Journal, No. 40, p. 470 ef seg., in consequence of unavoidable delay in the pub- lication of the Memoir itself. ] PART IL.+ (GEOLOGY OF THE DisTRICT.) ConTENTS. Physical Geography of the District. History of Geological Observations in freshwater deposit. the District. Extent of the freshwater de- General Geology of the District. posit. Extent of the trap-rocks. Minerals of the Trap. granitic and schistose rocks. Age of the Trap, and the mode sandstone and shales. of its eruption. Fossils, and age of the enclosed laterite, &c. Description of the strata. I. Superficial formations. 1. Black soil or Regur. 2. Red soil. II. Brown clay. III. Laterite. IV. V. VI. Upper and Lower Trap, VII. Sandstone formation, and its four divisions, with their fossils. Thickness of the strata. Character of the formation, and its age. VIII. Plutonic and metamorphic rocks. Metals of these rocks. and the enclosed sedimentary Age of the crystalline rocks. formation. Conclusion. Physical Geography of the District.—The country to which the following paper refers is the western part of the recently acquired kingdom of Nagpurt{, lying, with the southern corner of the Sagar * For the other Papers read at this Evening Meeting, see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 454 &c. + Part II., containing the Paleontological Portions of this Communication, with Illustrations, will appear in a subsequent No. of the Journal. ¢ With regard to the spelling and pronunciation of Hindu names of places, the authors have furnished the following remarks in one of their late letters to the Assistant-Secretary :— “Orthography in India is a very unsettled branch of learning. Those who first stereotyped in English characters the Hindu names of places were most unsuited for the work, and hence most unscientific is the system of spelling practised by the generality of our countrymen. We follow the Jonesian system, as it is adopted by such societies as the Royal Asiatic. By that every Hindu letter has an English representative, though that representative has more a continental than an English sound attached to it. The vowels are a, 4,—i, 7,—u, ti,—e, ei,—0, ou. They are in pairs, short and long; @ unaccented having the sound of u in but, a accented the sound of a in have, u the sound of itself in full, its long being just the same sound more dwelt on, z the sound of English é@ made long or short as it has accent or no accent. There is only one consonant that may occasion diffi- culty, that is a d written in italics. When so written or printed it is intended to have a sound somewhat like vr. Thus we write Weiragad, whereas it is com- monly written Wyraghur. The gh for g is just a gross mistake, which destroys the etymology of the language to a person who does not know the original Hindu name. Silewada, as written by us, is usually represented Sillewarra.” Draxz Joewx, Gror, Soc Vin XUF1X. SG \ ‘Weiraigad at é a ke |) Bot GEOLOGICAL MAP. of the =, 2 i 5 WESTERN PART OF THE * NAGPUR TERRITORY, Soute 20 British Miles te oxi Freeh re Fasolt, Anyydaleid, & (Locally sesccrated with Freshawater Depestt.iviny a2] berwees the upper anid lowe traps) Ressilfireus Kserctimies accompanied by Goal Seams) Granitio & ether Gystalline Recks Sanistone & Shales (Locally TABLE or SIGNS. 346 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. and Narbadda Territories, between 78° 15! and 80° 35! east longi- tude, and 19° 35! and 22° 40! north latitude. It is of a triangular shape, each side extending about 180 miles. Its northern side is formed by the table-land stretching from the Mahadewa Hills on the north-west to the northern extremity of the Lanji Hills on the north-east : the south-eastern side is constituted partly by the chain last mentioned, and partly by a line drawn from its southern base . to the junction of the Wem Ganga and Wardha, which latter river marks out nearly the whole of the south-western side. (See Map, Pl. X.) The limits as thus defined enclose an area corresponding with that surveyed by Lieuts. Norris and Weston in 1826, and amounting by their calculation to 24,000 square miles. The city of Nagpur is situated very near the centre of this area. In the northern division, where the hills are both most numerous and most elevated, the direction of the ranges is east and west. In the southern, which contains a greater extent of level country, the course they take is generally north and south. Chouragad, the highest summit of the Mahadewa hills, and the loftiest point in our district, rises to an altitude of 4200 feet above the sea: the usual height of the range, which entering the Nagpur territory from Gawilgad passes by Dewagad towards Siwani, is not above 2000 feet, though in the east of the same chain, where it goes under the name of the Lanji Hills, some of the peaks attain an ele- vation of 2300 and 2400 feet. At Nagpur the country has fallen to a level of 1000 feet. On the west, however, it immediately rises by 200 or 300 feet in a succession of eminences, which run parallel to the Dewagad range, until they reach the basin of the Wardha, when they suddenly sink in precipitous descents as at Talegaum Ghat. Towards the east of the capital, the plain extends almost without interruption to the banks of the Wein Ganga, where the general level is about 900 feet above the sea. Still further east, on crossing the river, we find the country preserving its former flatness, except that occasionally it is diversified by ranges of hills running north and south, of which that encircling the Lake of Nawagaum is the most considerable. Im the southern division of the territory there are few hills, if any, that rise above 2000 feet; while the champaign tracts, which abound on both sides of the Wein Ganga and Wardha, fall, ere these rivers have effected the junction of their united streams with the Godavari, to 800 feet above the sea-level. It will thus be seen that our district presents a watershed from north to south. The most important rivers which flow through it are the Kanhan from the Mahadewa Hills, which at Kampti receives the Pech from the same upland tract, and the Kolaér,—the Wardha, which is joined by the Wanna from the hills west of Nagpur, and by the Pain Ganga from the Nizam’s country,—and the Wein Ganga, the largest of all, which on its left bank is increased by the united streams of the Wag, the Son, and the Dewa, and by the Chulband, and on the right by the Kanhan and Wardha, after its confluence with the latter of which it takes the name of the Pranhita, and ere long discharges its waters into the Godavari. HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. ~ 347 History of the Geological Observations of the District.—The geological structure of the territory, whose extent and natural fea- tures have been thus briefly described, has for some time engaged the attention of scientific men in India. Dr. Voysey and Captain, now Colonel, Jenkins were the first who examined it. From the result of their investigations, as published in the Bengal Asiatic Society’s Transactions, Part I. for 1829, it would seem that they were unsuccessful in their search for fossils. The lamented Voysey, indeed, who was the first in India to find shells ina stratum enclosed in trap, thought he had discovered, on the journey hence to Calcutta, which terminated his distinguished career, bivalves in a bed of lime- stone near Rayepur within the Nagpur State, though on the east of our district* ; but I have since ascertained} that the appearances, which he regarded as organic, are the consequence of the rock having been brecciated. The next observer within our field of investigation was Dr. Malcolmson, who in 1833 worthily following up Voysey’s discoveries within the Nizam’s dominions in 1819 and 1823, pointed out new localities for the formation in the same part of the country, and traced it into this kingdom to Chikni and Hin- ghanghat. At the former of these places, which is sixty miles south of the city of Nagpur, he met with Unio Deccanensis, Physa Prin- sepii, Paludina Deccanensis, and Melania quadrilineata: at the latter, which is sixteen miles nearer the capital, he found an abun- dance of silicified wood. But though he lived in this neighbourhood for some years, he does not appear to have been aware of the exist- ence of similar organic remains here; and, while with Voysey and Jenkins he enlarged on the mineralogy of Sitabaldi Hill, like them he failed to advert to the two rocks which are its most interesting features,—his own trap-imbedded stratum with Physas and Melanias towards the top, and an unfossiliferous member of the sandstone formation resting on gneiss at the bottom. In 1842 Lieut. Munro, of H.M.’s 39th Regt., brought to light in the sandstone quarries near Kampti, nine miles N.E. of Nagpur, the impressions of ferns, which were forwarded to Malcolmson as having previously discovered the first vegetable remains in the sandstone of the Hyderabad country, by whom they were figured and described as resembling Glossopteris Daneoides of Roylet. As this species of fern is now understood to be a Teniopteris, it seems likely, that the comparison of the Kémpti specimens with it was incorrect, and that they belonged to a Glosso- pteris, whose species, owing to the fragmentary state of the fronds, cannot be determined. In 1845 I procured a few fossils of the same kind from the Kampti sandstone, and two years subsequently my esteemed col- league the Rev. R. Hunter and myself fell in with them in the * Beng. As. Soc. Journ. vol. xiii. p, 856. + The first person singular here refers to Mr. Hislop, by whom the memoir is for the most part written, with the exception of the description of the Plants and Insects of the Tertiary deposits, which is from the pen of his fellow-labourer Mr. Hunter. For a previous notice of the “Geology of the Nagpur State,”’ by the Rev. S. Hislop, see Journ. Bombay Asiat. Soc. No. 18, July 1853, p. 58, &c.—En. ¢ Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc. Journ. vol. i. p. 249. 348 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. contemporaneous strata of Chanda, eighty miles south of Nagpur. None of these specimens, however, were preserved, nor was anything further done by us or by others to understand the palzeontology of this part of India, until June 1851, when, walking with my fellow- labourer in the neighbourhood of our residence, two or three Physas in a deposit enclosed in a trap hill about a mile west of Sitabaldi, and two miles in the same direction from Nagpur, forced themselves on my notice. They were at once referred to the fossils which Voysey and Malcolmson had discovered in a similar situation, and the deposit in which they occur was identified with the freshwater formation that they had traced in several parts of the Nizam’s terri- tory, and at Chikni and Hinghanghat in this state. In a few days after, at the same spot, I found the first bone, and Mr. Hunter the first tooth ; and, after a week or two, on Takli Plain, about 23 miles N.W. of Nagpur, I met with the first Fruit and Entomostracan. About the same time, from observing the traces of ancient vege- tation on the soft clayey sandstone, used in the absence of chalk for whitening the writing-boards in our Mission schools, I was led to make inquiries about the locality from which it was brought, which ended in the discovery of Glossopteris and Phyllotheca and some seeds or seed-vessels at Bokhara, six miles north of Nagpur. Ere long we were joined by our friend Capt. Wapshare, Judge Advocate of the Nagpur Subsidiary Force, who added many valuable vegetable remains to our collection; and it is to his able and generous efforts that we owe, among other rare acquisitions, the first palm and the first mulberry-like fruits. From the red shale of Korhadi, seven miles north of Nagpur, I procured tracks of Annelids, and more recently, in combination with them, the foot-marks of some Reptile : and towards the end of the year, in company with Lieut. Sankey of the Madras Engineers, I visited Silewada, twelve miles north of Nagpur, where the sandstone yielded a profusion of rich and most beautiful specimens of Glossopteris, and whence have since been obtained a variety of Exogenous stems, several species of Phyllotheca, and an interesting specimen, contributed by Mr. Hunter, of an allied genus, which by Lindley and Hutton is reckoned an Equisetum, and by Bunbury probably an Asterophyllites*. A Mission tour, undertaken about the same time, conducted my colleague and myself past the freshwater formation at Pahadsingha, forty miles W.N.W. of Nagpur, in which was detected an abundance of fish- scales, dispersed through the stone. On our return, Mr. Hunter, among the seeds and fruits of Takli, discovered the first specimen and the greater part of our fossil Coleoptera; while we received an accession to our collection of shells from Dr. J. Miller, then of the 10th Regt. M.N.1., who, while on an excursion with Dr. Fitz- gerald, had found the freshwater formation at Butdara near Mach- haghoda, eighty miles north of Nagpur, and also from Mr. Sankey, who had fallen in with it at Pilkapahad, twenty-five miles to the north-west. The latter-named officer, after discovering in the Kampti quarries the first Vertebraria, a fine species of Phyllotheca, a long * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 189. HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 349 endogenous leaf, and an abundant kind of seed, all of which he libe- rally handed over to us, proceeded along with Dr. Jerdon, the Indian ornithologist, in the direction of Butaraé and the Mahadewa Hills*, whence they returned with several new fossils belonging to our Eastern Coal-formation, and excellent specimens of the shells pre- viously collected by Dr. Miller, agreeing in general with those of this neighbourhood. In a portion of the Butara rock which they kindly gave me, I was struck with the appearance of a diminutive ereature, which proved to be a second genus of the Entomostraca. Ere the first anniversary of the discovery of our earliest Physa had come round, several other localities had been ascertained for both the freshwater and sandstone fossils, and observations had been made on the remains of quadrupeds and shells imbedded in comparatively recent deposits. Since that, on our annual Mission tours we have become acquainted with a productive site for sandstone organisms at Mangali, sixty miles south of Nagpur, which has afforded a few unusual vegetable remains, a species of Hstheria, scales and jaws of Fish, and the entire head of a Saurian; we have passed through districts abounding in laterite and iron-ore, and have increased our knowledge of the geological structure of the country generally. General Geology of the District.—From the rapid survey which we have taken in the preceding historical introduction of the fossils that have heen brought to light within our area, it is obvious that its palee- ontology, contrary to the common idea of Indian formations, is both varied and important ; but, even in a lithological point of view, there are few tracts of equal extent that are worthy of more attention, and of all the portions of that interesting area, there is none for interest that can be compared with the vicinity of Nagpur, —its centre at once poli- tical, historical, and geological. We have only to take a few steps from our house and we reach the summit of Sitabaldi Hill,—the scene of as heroic a conflict as ever our countrymen gained in the East. The spot on which we stand consists of nodular trap (fig. 1). At the distance of a few yards from our feet, just under the brow of the hill, is a narrow stripe of green or yellow calcareous indurated clay, which, on close inspection, is found to contain a number of decaying casts of freshwater shells. Under this we perceive a bluish-green friable rock, which hardens first into a tough amygdaloid, and then, a little above the level of the plain, down to which it is scarped by the quarrymen, into a compact greenstone. Cropping out from under the foot of the hill may be seen a bed of soft variegated sand- stone, and then, according as we look east or west, the prevailing rock covering the plain beyond is either gneiss or trap. But let us extend the prospect to the horizon. As we stand with our faces to the north, the first glance that we cast on the distant hills shows that there is a marked difference among them. Behind us, on our left, and in front we follow a long sweep of flattened summits, with here and there a valley to break the uniformity ; but no sooner do we look towards the right than we descry a series of round-topped hills rismmg up at intervals in massive strength. These * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 55. 350 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. flattened summits are the tops of trap-hills, which stretch, in the orm we see, from our present position to the coast of the Arabian : Sea; and these massive eminences are i granitic hills which rise up in the manner a that meets our eye, at various distances \s from each other, from the place where we Loe stand to the Bay of Bengal. The inter- S mediate hills and plains, which in front Ke fill up the foreground, are formed of the dolomite and shale of Korhadi, and the sandstone of the basins of the Kanhan and Kolar. From our elevated station we are thus enabled to command a prospect of twenty miles in every direction, and the forma- tions that we can trace within that range make up an exact miniature of the geo- logy of our whole area. Nay, were we to go down the hill and walk around its base, in the descent and circuit, which might all be accomplished in twenty minutes, we should meet with almost every rock that is to be found between Bombay and Kattak. The geology of our area must at one time have been extremely simple. Its principal feature was then sandstone, associated with shale and limestone. But now other two formations are discovered on the arena, and these seem on the sur- face as if they had been two huge ice- bergs, which approached each other in frightful collision, crushing the sandstone between them, and allowing the frag- ments to slide out at either end, and scattermg them here and there over their own bulk. Or, to speak in language more precise, the sandstone formation, which once occupied the whole space that we have chosen for description, is now covered up by trap on the west, and broken up by granite on the east, leaving only a small diagonal stripe running through the centre, which, after bemg interrupted at the north-west and south- east, increases in these directions to a broad expanse, while a few detached por- tions, formerly continuous with it, appear in the body of the trap and granite. It is the juxtaposition of trap, sandstone, North d @ wy WYER SSS} ZING S= 5, Freshwater tertiary. posit, then compact, but nodular at the sides. es the amygdaloid throughout. f. Pegmatite. ey: sg Se + oon o? === —— SS ed SS a c HF tm eZ Zz probably underli e. Gneiss, into which much of the Sandstone has been transformed. \ | il Fig. 1.—Section through Sitabaldi Hill. ce. Underlying trap ; vesicular for some feet under the freshwater de d. Highest member of the Sandstone series, which most a. Overlying nodular trap. = r= ° PD HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 451 and granite in this neighbourhood which invests the geology of Nagpur with special importance, and which, when investigated by competent observers, may shed a flood of light some future day upon Indian geology in general. Trap Rocks of the District. —The greater part of the trap within our area lies in the west in the shape of a parallelogram, one of whose corners has been encroached on by a projecting portion of Berar and the Betul district of the Sdgar and Narbadda territories. Its greatest length is 120 miles, and its breadth is from fifty to sixty. Its south- western side, on which the irregularity of figure is found, and by which it joins on to the great sheet of basalt in the Dakhan, is formed by the Wardha. Its south-eastern side, commencing from Suit on that river, crosses the road from Nagpur to Chanda on the south of Chikni, and, passing by the north of the Mangali fossiliferous quarry, extends to Sakra and Bhiwakund, after which it coincides very nearly with the political division between the Svibas (provinces) of Nagpur and Chanda, which stretches by Linga, Jamgaum, and A‘lasur Hills to the north-west of Bhisi. Here begins its north-east side, which skirts the small patches of sandstone on the west of Umret and Kuhi, and, running close by the city of Nagpur, meets with an eruption of granite, and then touches the sandstone basin of the Kanhan and Kolar, after which it again encounters plutonic rocks on its passage up the right bank of the Kanhan to Dewagad. At this ancient Gond fortress, the upland tract of Multai, which constitutes the north-west side, joins that last described, and completes the parallelogram. Tn addition to this, the main body of trap within our area, and connected with it, there is a smaller development of the same forma- tion in the north. Stretching south and east from Dewagad, it fills up the space between the Kanhan and the Pech, and, sweeping westward round the granite at Chindwad4, and eastward by way of the summit of Kurai Ghat to Siwani and Chapara, it merges, along with the Mathur range of hills, in the basaltic district that extends to the Narbadda at Jabbalpur. The above is, I believe, all the overlying trap within our area, with the exception of one or two isolated portions south-east from Suit, near Waroda and the confluence of the Pain Ganga with the Wardha. Gramtie and schistose rocks.——The plutonic and metamorphic formation, the extent of which I shall now briefly indicate, lies chiefly in the eastern portion of our area. It is intersected by the Wein Ganga for the greater part of its course. The tract on the left bank of the river I have had little opportunity of exploring ; but, from the cursory examination I have given it, I have reason to believe that granite and its allied rocks are there very largely developed, being only occasionally diversified by patches of sandstone and variegated shales, among which red shales predominate. On the right bank of the Wein Ganga, in the district near its junction with the Wardha, the extent of the formation is not so great. It is observed princi- pally in the channel of the Wein Ganga, though it may also be traced around the bases of the sandstone chains of hills, which it has been 352 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the means of upheaving. In both the districts under consideration the general strike of the strata is N. & S., corresponding with the direction of the streams and mountain-ranges, and in that last men- tioned the dip is for the most part to the west. But it is on the north that the greatest development of granite and crystalline schists occurs. ‘There we may perceive these rocks rising to the surface (though it would be hazardous to conclude that there are not others of a different character in the hollows covered up by the deep soil) from Nagpur north-eastward to the Lanji Hills,—a distance equal to the length of our trappean parallelogram, and with a breadth in pro- portion. This second parallelogram is applied perpendicularly, but unequally, to that previously described. Near the line of contact, z. e. in the district near Nagpur, the gneiss and other metamorphic rocks, like the hills and tributaries of the Wein Ganga, which run through it, had uniformly an east and west direction, with veins of the massive rock penetrating them at right angles to the strike. This is the case with the crystalline formation north of the Kampti quarries, which has communicated to the sandstone strata there and at Silewada a southerly dip. As the granitic eruption, however, is traced up the basin of the Kanhan, it is seen to bend round a little, and to give a westerly inclination tc the sandstone at Babulkheda, Tondakheiri, and Adassa. From the last-mentioned place it pro- ceeds northwards past Saner and Kelod, in a narrow stripe on both sides of the Kanhan up to Dewagad. Beyond this we find it rising up around Chindwada, and running west into the shaly beds of Jam- wahi and Hardagad. But returning to the neighbourhood of Nag- pur, we discover parallel to the great body of the granitic formation on the north of Kampti a range of quartz hills running in the line of the strata westward from Waregaum to Gumtara. The plutonic force, which has tilted up these, has greatly disturbed the limestone rocks at Korhadi, and given to the sandstone at Bokhara, on the south of the Kolar, the same dip as we observe at Silewada and Kampti on the north of that river. Sandstone.—But let us now refer to the sandstone formation, which I have said exists in the central parts of our area, though only the wreck of what it once was. Its upper member, reduced in thick- ness by metamorphic agency, may be observed horizontally entering the trap-hill of Sitabaldi on the east side, and again emerging on the west. It is then wholly displaced by gneiss and granite towards the Nag River, after which it again becomes the surface rock for a short distance to the west, until it is a second time overlaid by trap. It remains thus concealed for sixteen miles, when it is seen on the north- west of Yahar at Nimji, whence it extends to Satnawari on the south- west and Kotwalbadi on the north-west. At these villages it is a third time covered up by trap, nor does it in that direction rise again to tne surface within our area, or indeed, I believe, anywhere beyond it. The division of this formation which proceeds to the north of Nagpur occupies a part of the basins of the Kanhan and Kolar from Kampti on the south-west to Kelod on the north-west, being about thirty miles long and twelve broad. Its north-eastern border touches - HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. goa the great granitic tract, which stretches from Nagpur to the Lanji Hills, while its south-western boundary is constituted by the trap, surrounded by which two of its detached portions are found at Kut- kheiri and Chorkheiri, near the source of the Kolér. Were we to follow the direction of these outliers, they would lead us to the sand- stone hills beyond our area, that skirt the southern side of the trap chain of Gawilgad, north of Elichpur. But if we suppose the sand- stone continued north-west in the line of the Kanhan’s course, we arrive, after crossing some miles of trap and granite, at the beds of carbonaceous and clayey shales, which, running under the trap-range of Mathur, appear on the north side, and form the base of the lofty development of sandstone at the Mahddewas. The largest body of this formation, however, lies to the S. in the basin of the Wardha and Pranhita, extending, with only a few slight intrusions of plutonic rocks at Segaum and the north-west of Chanda, and some outliers of trap indicated on the map, from the termination of the basaltic effusion at Jamgaum Hill and Suit, south-west into the Nizam’s country by Kota, until within a short distance of Badrachellam. A very marked feature in the geology of the country between the Tri and the Wein Ganga is the occurrence of ranges of sandstone- hills, running for the most part north and south, corresponding im general direction with ranges of the same formation in the district of Kota, described by Dr. Bell*. These hills, where they have fallen under my observation, rise from plains of plutonic rocks, by which the strata have been indurated and elevated, though still retaining their horizontal position. Such are the flat-topped chain which stretches on the east of Segaum, and that which terminates in the castle-like bluff of Perzagad. On either side of the Wein Ganga we meet with some isolated remnants of the sandstone formation. One of these, but very limited in its dimensions, lies on the banks of the Selari, a small stream which joins the Wein Ganga near the town of Pawani. Another farther down the river extends for some distance, first on the right bank and then on the left. In the district on the east of the Wein Ganga, a little sandstone proper is met with at Koka to the north-east of Bandara, and on the banks of the Wag River near Ambgaum, and on the east side of the Nawagaum Lake, from which it extends south as far as Mahagaum; while on the west of the lake there is an abundance of shale, which is also seen to cross the road from Nagpur to Rayepur at Mundipar Ghat and Jamnapur near Sakorali. These argillaceous strata, which are red, green, and as partly at Mundipar even white, seem to be the same as the fossi- liferous laminated clays at Korhadi. In addition to the dolomitic strata at Korhadi mentioned above, there are eminences of the same crystalline limestone running eastward among plutonic rocks from the Pech, on the west bank of which river higher up there is a small patch found along with a little outcrop of sandstone at Dudhgaum, surrounded by trap. ‘ Laterite, &c.—In various parts of our area we meet with beds of laterite, covering the rocks already described. I have not found it * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 230. VOL. XI.— PART I. 7 2B 354 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. on the west of Nagpur; but it is seen abundantly within the trap- district at Sdgar N. of Dudhgaum, and at Pandaratalaw S.W. of Umred. At Karanla, KE. of the same town, it overlies plutonic rocks, and from Pawani on the Wein Ganga it stretches in a broad belt sometimes over sandstone and at other times over gneiss and granite towards Weiragad. South and west of this throughout all the province of Chanda it occurs more or less. I have already men- tioned the fact of its resting on dolomite at A/mbagiri. At Mahonda on the Kanhan, straight east from Nagpur,—at Dharmapuri and Karbi in the basin of the Sur River, which flows from Ramtek into the Wein Ganga,—and again in the neighbourhood of Chandpur further up the Wein Ganga, the same formation is presented to view. But it is on the east bank of the river that its most extensive development is witnessed. Crossing the Rayepur road at several places it unites on the north of it to form extensive tracts in the district of Lanji, and all around Hatta and Kamta. The superficial deposits that are superior to laterite are either red or black. The former is found in general where plutonic rocks, sandstone, or laterite prevail, though instances are not rare of the latter being met with in such situations. The ‘‘regur,” or black soil, occurs almost universally where trap abounds. Description of the Strata.—Having thus given some account of the extent of the formations within our area, as they appear on the surface, I shall now endeavour to point out in a descending order their thickness, nature, contents fossil or mineral, as the case may be, and age. I. Superficial Formations. 1. Black Soil or Regur.—The regur is of no great depth in this district, seldom if ever exceeding 20 feet. In some places, as at Takli village, it is seen to overlie a stratum of brown tenacious clay, which, like itself, is much mixed with “ kunker.”? I have not suc- ceeded in finding any organic remains in the regur except bones of oxen and sheep, of very doubtful antiquity. 2. Red Soil.—The red soil in our area is of greater depth than the black, frequently displaying a section of 50 feet. Like it, it “seems to rest on a brown calcareous clay, at the bottom of which there is in general a layer of conglomerate. In river-basins it alter- nates with layers of loose sand and gravel, often imbedding existing fluviatile shells of the genera Melania, Cyrena, and Unio. In the district west of Nagpur, the rivers often expose a bed of sand and gravel cemented by a small quantity of lime, and in its consolidated state furnishing blocks of sandstone or conglomerate two or three feet thick. This stratum for the most part is unfossiliferous, but near the Kolar, about ten miles north of Nagpur, there occurs in it an abundance of Paludina, Melania, and Cyrena, which, though be- longing to existing species, from the nature of the matrix have been much altered since the period of their deposition. Of some the cavities are simply filled with siliceous and calcareous matter, but in HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. BHD the greater number of instances the shell has been completely absorbed, and employed as a cement in aggregating the particles of the rock. A similar deposit is seen at Nagalwada near Elichpur, to the west of our area; but there, in addition to the fossils just men- tioned, it includes Limneus, Planorbis, and Unio. On the banks of the Sarpan River, near Tondakheiri, 14 miles N.W. of Nagpur, there is an accumulation of the freshwater shells previously enume- rated, with a considerable intermixture of a species of Bithinia and a few specimens of land shells—Helixz and Bulimus. Mingled with these remains of Mollusca, there was a quantity of jaws, vertebree, and other portions of Mammalia, which were not much petrified ; but, I regret to say, they were accidentally destroyed before they could be examined*. In the bank of the Kanhan at Kampti about 45 feet under the general surface I found the shoulder-bone of some mammifer, much increased in weight from the process of petrifaction. Bones in the same state have been discovered lying above ground, between Nagpur and Kampti, which must have been washed out of the kankaraceous red soil. Judging from the relation of the regur and red soil to the brown clay, I am inclined to regard these two formations as contempora- neous; and, from the evidence of the fossils contained in the latter, I would class both as Post Pliocene. II. The Brown Clay, on which I have said both the red and black superficial deposits rest, averages, together with its underlying Con- glomerate, a depth of 20 feet. The clay is not known to be fossili- ferous, but in Takli Plain there were found in the conglomerate apparently the tusks of a large mammal, which had been completely converted into stone, but they were so much affected by the weather as to fall to pieces on being removed. The formation containing them, I suppose, should be assigned to the Newer Pliocene, and will rank with similar deposits at Jabbalpur and elsewhere. III. Laterite——This formation seldom exceeds 10 feet in depth anywhere in our area. No fossils have yet been discovered in it here, but diamond-mines have been opened in it east of Nagpur. Malcolmson +, and after him Newbold, inferred the identity of the sandstone of Central with that of Southern India, from the existence of diamonds at Weiragad, a town about 80 miles S.E. of the capital. The inference, however, is drawn from erroneous premises, which would have been corrected, had these authors personally visited the spot. At Weiragad there is no sandstone near the diamond-mines ; the only rock in the vicinity is quartzose and metamorphic. It has been too much taken for granted, im my opinion, that the diamond-conglomerate of Southern India is connected with the sandstone, within tracts of which it is sometimes found; and hence the arenaceous strata of the Peninsula have actually come to be * Some fragmentary bones, from the banks of the Sarpan, imbedded in a sandy earth and associated with numbers of Melania, Paludina, and Unio, form part of the series of organic remains forwarded by Messrs. Hislop and Hunter. The bones, having been kindly examined by Prof. Owen, prove to have belonged to Ruminants of two sizes,—such as a Buffale and a small Antelope.— Ep. + Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc. Jour. vol. i. p. 250. 356 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. designated by the name of diamond-sandstone. Now, although the diamond-conglomerate has been found reposing on sandstone beds, yet there is no instance, that I am aware of, of the diamond having been extracted from any one of them; nor are there any data to prove that the conglomerate derived most of its materials from that source. On the contrary, Heyne* has shown that the pebbles at Kondapetta and Ovalampalli, near Kaddapa, are chiefly of chert and jasper-basalt, quartz, hornblende, and felspar. The first two have evidently been derived from the limestone of the neighbourhood, and the rest from igneous rocks. And these pebbles are not contained in a paste of sand, but, according to Heyne, of clay+. It is true the diamond-conglomerate may in one place overlie sandstone ; but in another place, as at Kondapetta, it may rest upon limestone, while in a third, as at Beywada, near Masulipatam, according to the statement of Captain Newbold, it may be found immediately above gneiss t. In short, I am inclined to concur in the verdict long ago pronounced by that experienced Indian observer, Dr. Heyne, when he remarked, ‘‘ All the diamond-mines which I have seen can be considered as nothing else than alluvial soil’? (superficial deposit). But if the matrix of the diamond be a surface-deposit overlying several rocks, I can perceive no propriety in attaching its name to one of these more than another. The matrix at Weiragad isa lateritic grit, and it is worthy of notice, that wherever the precious gem is sought for, whether in India or Brazil, there for the most part oxide of iron is diffused. Having myself met with no fossil in this formation, I have nothing to offer by way of determining. its precise age, but would content myself with remarking, that it must be posterior to the overlying trap, on which it is found occasionally, though in our district very rarely, to rest. ' IV. V. and VI. Trap and its enclosed sedimentary Formation.— The next rock to Laterite in order of downward succession is the overlying trap, with which, however, for the sake of perspicuity it will be necessary to combine the freshwater formation previously alluded to and the underlying trap. Trap, it was before stated, is the prevailing formation in the west of our area; but when that assertion was made, it was understood that this volcanic rock is of two kinds,—one overlymg, and the other underlymg,—and that between these two, and therefore seldom exposed to view, there is for the most part found.an aqueous de- posit. All three generally occur together. The exceptions are met with in the plains, on the outskirts of the trap-formation, where we not unfrequently observe the usually enclosed stratum resting im- mediately on sandstone without the presence of either the upper or lower basalt. In some of these instances it is probable that the overlying rock has been removed, and cases occur of its re- maining where no underlying trap has ever existed. On the other hand, there are examples in similar border-localities of a single sheet * Tracts on India, p. 97. t+ Ibid. pp. 96 and 105. ~ R. As. Soc. Jour. vol. viii. p. 245. HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. aay of trap extending over sandstone without being associated with a second sedimentary formation or volcanic effusion. Though the three formations are generally connected with each other, yet it is chiefly the upper one, viz. the overlying trap, that meets the eye over the face of the country. Leaving out of con- sideration the very few examples of denudation which have uncovered the freshwater deposit in the plains, and the equally rare instances of eruption which have there upheaved it on its edge, it is cn the escarpments of the table-lands that we may be said to gain our whole knowledge of this department of Nagpur geology. In commencing our ascent of these steep hills, our attention is attracted by a number of blocks near the foot, which are easily distinguished from the masses of basalt among which they have fallen from above. As we make our way up over the hard, dark, vesicular rock, the blocks in- crease in number until we come to a friable greyish or bluish-green zone. We must now move slowly and look narrowly, for a few yards of upward progress may conduct us from the soft amygdaloid, where fragments are thickly strewed, to a nodular basalt, where not a trace of them is to be seen. Occasionally the freshwater forma- tion is so thin that a very little earth or herbage may suffice to hide it from our sight. But generally the water from the brow of the hill in the monsoon collects into little rills just at the place where it leaves the nodular trap, and having now gathered enough of strength to make an impression on intervening barriers, it proceeds to plough up the soft deposit, and the still softer subjacent amygdaloid, leaving an interval between each streamlet, like a talus resting on the harder vesicular rock below (see fig. 2). The thickness of the overlying trap on Sitabaldi Hill and the tabulated summits in its immediate vicinity is from 15 to 20 feet, which agrees very exactly with the Fig. 2.—Sectional View of one of the Trap Hills near Nagpur. « a ey - = aS _Pese b Vea S202 2 aStatke af ef Sa0 Zt Ss SS \\| \ Sa ~ = i an ee 2 a. Surface soil. c. Freshwater deposit. 6. Nodular trap (15 to 20ft. thick). d. Soft amygdaloid. e. Hard amygdaloid. thickness assigned to it by Dr. Voysey at Jillan. On the Western Ghats, however, according to Colonel Sykes, a stratum of earthy jasper, which is just our freshwater deposit, was found near Junar under a thickness of from 300 to 600 feet of basalt *. But it not unfrequently happens, that in leaving the plain and climbing up a * Trans. Geol. Soc. 2 ser. vol. iv. p. 419. 358 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. trappean hill we may come upon the freshwater deposit at three di- stinct elevations. There is first the stratum which underlies the nodular trap generally throughout the plain, and which may be seen some- times laid bare at the commencement of the ascent ;—then, after passing over hard and soft amygdaloid, we come to another bed, overlaid by nodular trap; on gaining the top of this we reach a terrace, which conducts us to another ascent, where we find ere mounting to the summit a repetition of amygdaloid, sedimentary rock, and globular basalt. An example of this occurs at the hill of Gidad, 40 miles S. from Nagpur, the top of which has been Fig. 3.—Section of Gidad Hill. East. West. b pemeg l neg a. Freshwater deposit, as seen in the plain, of a white colour. b, Freshwater deposit, of red colour, under the terrace. c. Freshwater deposit higher up, brownish green in colour. appropriated by the disciples of a Musalman saint, named Shek Farid, to a mendicant establishment, which is supported by the donations of Hindus and Muhammadans alike, from all parts of the Nagpur territory. See the accompanying section of the hill from east to west (fig. 3), where @ is the deposit in the plain, white; 6 the same stratum of a red colour under the terrace; and ¢ a repetition of it higher up, brownish green. Whether there was a fourth stratum above c, the quantity of brushwood and want of time prevented me from observing. That all these strata are one and the same, though they differ in hue, I have no doubt. When we become acquainted with the changeableness of this deposit within a space of a few yards, its different phases on the eastern declivity of Gidad Hill occasion no difficulty. Near Katol, 40 miles N.W. from Nagpur, a similar appearance is presented. There a thick stratum of red clay lies at the foot of the hill, and we see its tendency to slope upwards and lean against the ascent ; but we leave it behind, and come upon the amygdaloid, which emerges from under it. The amygdaloid is over- laid by a bed of red clay, which is surmounted by nodular trap con- stituting a terrace. Above this, before we reach the summit, we _meet with a succession of amygdaloid, red clay, and nodular trap again. In ascending the ghat to Gawilgad Fort, which however is beyond the limits of our map, the same thing may be observed. The slope is so steep, that the road is carried in a winding direction up its face, and, although there are no terraces, yet, if I remember HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 359 right, the traveller comes upon one deposit, which is there of a deep red clay as at Katol, three or four times successively. From the remarks now made it will be inferred, that the stratum in question is extremely varied. Not only is it of all colours and all mixtures of tints, but it is of all kinds of substance, and all forms of structure. At one place it is calcareous, at another siliceous, at a third clayey, and at a fourth a compound of all three. Here it is soft, and there indurated ; frequently the upper layer, which is next the overlying trap, is hardened, while the lower part remains un- changed. Here it is crystalline, there cherty, and elsewhere scoria- ceous. In one spot it is full of fossils, in another and neighbouring locality it is utterly devoid of all traces of ancient life. In one part of a hill we see it six feet thick, but as we follow its line along the face of the escarpment we may witness its reduction to little more than an inch. I know not one constant feature that is characteristic of it. In judging of its identity a very useful guide to follow is its position between the nodular trap above and the vesicular trap below; but even this, as we have seen, fails us on the outskirts of the formation. Extensive experience, that enables us to combine several criterions that would singly be insufficient, is here, as in so many other cases, the only sure help towards arriving at a correct decision. The greatest depth of the underlying trap, from its lower part being generally concealed, it is impossible to ascertain. It is obvious that according to its greater or less development the plain rises into a gentle swell or increases to the dimensions of a hill. Near TaAkli, at the spot where almost all the fruits have been discovered, it is only a few inches thick, and a few yards from that locality it thins out altogether; whereas at Sitabaldi Hill, where it is observed to rest on sandstone, it attains a thickness of 100 feet; and in hills where its superposition on the sedimentary rock cannot be seen it must be a great deal thicker. I have been thus minute on the appearances exhibited by the overlying and underlying trap and the deposit enclosed by them, in order that we may have a clear idea of their relation to each other. The conclusions to be derived from my description I need scarcely indicate. It is quite evident, that before either of the volcanic rocks was poured out in our area there had been deposited on the sand- stone a stratum which must have been at least six feet thick. Over this there was spread a molten mass of lava, which hardened the sur- face of the stratum, and itself cooled into a flat sheet of globular basalt about 20 feet thick. After a period of repose the internal fires again become active, and discharge another effusion, which in- sinuates itself between the sandstone and the superior deposit ; and accumulating in some parts more than in others, through force of tension ruptures the superincumbent mass, tilting up the stratum and scattering the overlying trap, or raismg both stratum and trap above the level of the plain, either leaves it a flat-topped hill, or with boiling surge pushes up its summit gradually or by fitful effort. In these convulsions, the more recent trap, where it has not tilted up 359 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the deposit altogether, has generally encroached upon it, entangling some of its fragments, converting the greater portion of it into a crumbling vesicular rock, or producing miniature outliers of amyg- daloid from materials susceptible of the change. [Fossi/s.—As the detailed description of the fossils of this Tertiary formation and of the older Sandstone series will form the subject of Part II. of this Memoir, and be published hereafter, the fossils of the fresh-water deposit are here merely referred to in short. From the collections made by Messrs. Hislop and Hunter and their friends from this deposit*, the authors mention the following organic remains :— Small bones, probably reptilian. Remains of a freshwater tortoise. Fish-scales, both Cycloid and Ganoid, in great numbers. Insects, found at Takli: Mr. Hunter enumerates about ten species of Coleoptera. Entomostracans ; five or six species of Cypris. Mollusca, land and freshwater, in great numbers. The following genera are enumerated :— Bulimus. Melania. Limneus. Succinea. Paludina. Unio. Physa. Valvata. Plant-remains: Mr. Hunter enumerates— Fruits and seeds, about fifty species. Leaves, exogenous, six forms. , endogenous, three or four. Stems, exogenous, few species ; some specimens 6 feet in girth. , endogenous. Roots, six or seven kinds. Chara, seed-vessels. In concluding his notice of the Tertiary insects and plants, Mr. Hunter observes :-— Before quitting this part of the subject, it may be observed, that it would not be difficult to conceive with some degree of accuracy the nature of the locality in which the fruits grew. Going back to the tertiary epoch, we find Takli part of a lake, extensive enough to be bounded at least on the west and south, and prcbably on all sides, by the horizon. We assume rather than can demonstrate the existence of islands, which break the uniformity of the sea-like expanse of waters. On the higher land of these are ferests, mainly of exogenous trees, some approaching 6 feet in girth. More scattered, but yet sufficiently numerous to attract notice, are palms, exhibiting * An extensive series of organic remains and of rock-specimens from the super- ficial deposits, the tertiary beds, the fossiliferous sandstone and shales, and from the crystalline rocks, has been presented to the Society by the Authors of this memoir. The fossils, however, have not yet been ully worked out.—Ep. HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 361 on their stems, when closely examined, protuberances of aérial roots, similar to those so frequently observed on the Wild Date of India. In the more shady valleys are leguminous and other plants, in great variety and profusion ; and there may be seen occasionally climbing by numerous tendrils over the bushes, a cucurbitaceous plant allied to the Lujfa, its tender stalk weighed down by a ponderous and probably 10-angled fruit. The Mipadites here and there fringes the marshy shores ; and wherever the water is shallow there rise abeve it the reedy peduncles of Aroid plants, terminated at one season of the year by spikes of flowers, and at another either by long succulent purple fruit, resembling mulberries, or by large pericarps, that without minute examination might be mistaken for cones. | Age of the Freshwater Deposit.—It has already been shown by my esteemed colleague, in his concluding observations on the tertiary plants (see above), that the body of water in which the strata containing the above-enumerated fossils were deposited must have been a lake. I shall now inquire at what period that lake existed. The determina- tion of this question is attended with peculiar difficulties. In a temperate climate like Britam, the discovery of a large number of organisms fitted for a tropical abode at once demonstrates that the rock in which they occur cannot have been deposited subsequently to a remote tertiary period. Here, however, where we have a tropical heat at the present day, the evidence derived from such a source is much more equivocal. Still I think there are sufficient dissimilarities between our recent and fossil floras to prove the great antiquity of the latter. While there is a general resemblance between the two, inasmuch as Hedy- sareea, Cassia, Luffa, and Nipa are comprehended in both, there may be remarked on the other hand the total extinction of two genera, if not an order of endogenous plants, that once flourished luxuriantly here,—I refer to the mulberry-like and strobiliform fruits, which, though formerly so abundant, have at present no representa- tive either in India, or so far as I know, throughout the world. We must therefore direct our thoughts to some period comparatively remote, when there was a greater uniformity of temperature over all parts of the earth. Of the more ancient tertiary floras, none corre- sponds with ours so well as that of the London Clay of Sheppey and Belgium. In both of these localities we find Mipadites, and in the former also the Xylinosprionites and Tricarpellites of Bowerbank, fruits apparently allied to those found at Nagpur. Of all the animal remains we have collected, scarcely one seems to be identical with forms now existing on the surface of the globe. The nearest approximation to specific identity is in one of the Cyprides, and in the minute discoid Valvata ; but whether the identity is com- plete, I am not competent to say. Supposing, however, that it were proved to be so, this fact would merely show that of all the living tribes inhabiting the waters, or the margin of our old-world lake, not one has survived in India, except a single species of Cypris, for the Valvata minuta is not now found here, nor indeed does any species of that genus appear to occur throughout Asia. But with these most 362 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. diminutive exceptions, if exceptions they are to be called, the state- ment holds good that between our ancient and our modern fauna the agreement is not closer than generic. In the class of fishes, the resemblance even to that extent is true only of one order,—the Cycloidans ; while the other order, the Ganoidans, which have left their horny and bony scales so abundantly in our rocks, have entirely disappeared from our rivers and tanks. Of the class Mollusca, while the genera Planorbis and Ampullaria, now so common in our pools, are altogether absent from this deposit, Valvata and Physa, so extensively represented in it, both in species and individuals, have disappeared from the plains of Central and Southern India. Of the six genera Melania, Paludina, Iimneus, Bulimus, Succinea, and Unio, which are common to both ancient and modern India, the differences between the recent and fossil species, especially in the Paludina and Limneus, are very great. Of the former, we have nothing at all so large as the P. Benga/ensis of the East, or even the P. vivipara of Britain. In the latter genus, none of our species appear to have belonged to the inflated type, but they are generally more on the model of the LZ. glader, than that of the L. stagnalis of our native country. Combining then these facts, on the one hand we have the total dissimilarity between every species of our ancient and modern plants, —the disappearance from our flora of several genera, if not of some- thing higher—the difference in prevailing type between some of our fossil and existing genera of molluscs, and the removal of others entirely from our continents to regions most remote,—and lastly, a still more decided transference among the orders of our fishes,—data, which all point to the negative conclusion, that it is no newer tertiary that can be compared with our freshwater deposit. On the other hand we find generically, specifically, and individually an equality, to say the least, between our Ganoid and Cycloid fishes, and a resem- blance between our flora and that of the London Clay,—proofs which, in my opinion, lead us on to the positive inference that among older tertiaries the eocene formation is that with which our freshwater deposit must be classed. Bronn, I perceive, assigned it to the era of the continental molasse. Whether or not the statements above made will be sufficient to show that this view is incorrect, it is not for me to say; at all events, the fossils, which we have contributed, will enable others to decide. Extent of the Freshwater Formation.—The extent of this tertiary freshwater formation throughout India is very great. In Capt. Sher- will’s recently published Geological Map we find it laid down on the west of Rajmahal on the Ganges. Following the same parallel of latitude, we come to Rae near Narwar, about forty miles south of Gwaliur, whence specimens of Physa were obtained by Mr. Fraser, formerly Agent to the Governor General in the Sagar and Narbadda territories. At Sagar itself organic remains were first discovered by Col. Sleeman, afterwards described by Dr. Spry, and more recently investigated by Capt. W. T. Nicholls of 24th Regt. M.N.I. East of Jabbalpur, in the same territories, occur the sites Suleya, where Dr. Spilsbury HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 363 procured Physa in 1833, Dhunra in the same vicinity, Narayanpur near Sohajpur, Mandla, and Phulsagar, on the north bank of the Nar- badda, and as far up the river as Mohtura and Domadadar, in the Ramgad Raja’s country,—at all of which localities the same in- defatigable and successful geologist found shells, including an abun- dance of Physa, several specimens of Unio, and, if I may judge from .the figures, of Zimneus and Valvata. None of them, however, are named *. North of the Narbadda, near Mandla, univalve and bivalve shells abound in the marls and earthy limestone, as we learn from Capt. Dangerfield, who styles them ‘‘ Buccinum and a species of Mussel” (Physa and Unio?)t. Leaving the Narbadda, and coming to the Tapti, near its source, we find that Voysey, as has been men- tioned by Malcolmson, in his memoir on this deposit, discovered shells, which he named ‘Conus and Voluta”’ (two forms of Physa?), at Jirpa and Jillan, which lie apparently on the north of the Gawilgad ranget. On the S. of the same chain of hills near Elichpur, are Muktagiri and Bairam, whence Dr. Bradley procured the excellent specimens of Physa and Unio, which I had the pleasure of sending to the Geological Society. Returning to Jirpa, we enter the district of Betul, about 100 miles N.W. of Nagpur, which was explored by Capt. Ousley, who found shells at Chichundra and Murkha on the E. of the town, at Bharkaw4dé, Bheiawada and Jawara on the S., and at Badori, Kolgau, Gaikham and Bakur, on the S.W. Passing over the localities within the State of Nagpur, to which sufficient reference has been made in the previous part of this paper, we arrive at the district north of Hyderabad, where, I am informed by a friend, Physe have been extracted from one of the banks of the Godaveri at Nandur, and where also fossils were discovered near Hatnir and Mantr by Malcolmson, and at Medkonda, Shiwalingapa, and Deglur by Voysey, who as early as 1819, when organic remains were almost unknown in India, met at these localities with shells, including, as he thought, “ Turbo, Cyclostoma, Buccinum, Helix, and Turritella,”’ some of which may be identified as Physa and Valvata. Not far from Deglur, on the S. side of the Manjara, Capt. Newbold obtained specimens of Physa at Munapilli§, and again from between Kulkonda and Digai, on the banks of the Bhima, he was presented with speci- mens of Paludina deccanensis by Capt. Windham. These are all the fossiliferous localities for our tertiary formation with which I have become acquainted, with the exception of Bombay, and Pad- pangali near Rajamundry, afterwards to be more particularly noticed. But besides these, there are many places where the same deposit occurs destitute of organic remains. For example, my friend Mr. Hunter and myself, on a mission tour, traced it almost without in- terruption from the vicinity of Nagpur, where the fossils cease, west- ward to Elichpur, a distance of 100 miles and upwards; and, while the material of the rock was sometimes a whitish lime, and at others * Bengal As. Soc. Journ. vol. viii. p. 708. + Malecolmson’s Central India, vol. ii. p. 329. + Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd ser. vol. v. pp. 570-1. § Bengal As. Soc. Journ. vol. xiii. p. 987. 364 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. a green or a red clay, we were uniformly unsuccessful in finding i it any kind of fossils. Similar differences are exhibited in the un- fossiliferous stratum around Shiwani. At Garhakota near SAgar, thence to Tendukheda on the Narbadda, wherever Major Franklin met with trap, he “always found it in association with earthy lime- stone*.”? The experience of Capt. Dangerfield regarding its position was somewhat different, he having met with it in certain parts of Malwa, as “a thin bed of loose marl, or coarse earthy limestone,” “near the bottom of the small hills and banks of the rivulets+.”’ The country between the Wardha and the trap region described by Col. Sykes has not been examined by any geologist, so that no site can be named in it for lacustrine formation except Jalna; but I remember noticing it on my first arrival in India, nme years ago, at many localities, though I have now forgotten their names. But when we come to the scene of Col. Sykes’s efficient labourst, we can trace it almost everywhere under the name either of “ ferruginous clay,” or ‘‘pulverulent limestone.’ The stratam of “ red ochreous rock,” varying in thickness from an inch to many feet, and in texture from friable to compact earthy jasper, occurs at Nandur and Jibur near Ahmednagar; at Kothul; in the scarps of the hill part of Harichandargad, and a mountain near Junir; and at Sirur, Wangi, and Barloni, between which two last-mentioned places the bed is believed to be continuous. Finally it occurs abundantly on the Ghats, frequently discolouring the rivulets, and giving a ferruginous character to the soil, over a considerable area§. Pulverulent lime- stone is generally found in layers, varying from an inch to three feet in thickness, and covered by a few feet of black earth. Examples of it are met with at Jib and Islampur near Ahmednagar ; at Kar- kamb and at Salseh, ten miles S. of the fortress of Karmalil. Crystalline limestone, which occurs as an imbedded mineral in amyg- daloid§, and ‘“ great masses of mesotype**,” which are found in a similar position, seem to me, if I may judge from the analogy of the district of Nagpur, to be instances of our formation somewhat transformed. The ochreous rock or ferruginous clay above mentioned was discovered by Newbold at Sindaghi, in the Southern Maratha country, which lies south of Col. Sykes’s district, and it was described by him as “ finely laminated bright red bole,” from 3 to 6 feet thick ++. And this is most probably the origin of the ‘‘red clay,’ which Newbold on analysis found to be the basis of the amygdaloid in which zeolitic crystals abound ff. The strata of Bombay have been described in an able and luminous manner by H. J. Carter, Esq., of the Bombay Medical Service $§. In thickness they greatly surpass anything we meet with in Central India, reaching to between 40 and 50 feet, and they are peculiar in * As. Researches, vol. xviii. pl. 1. p. 33. tT Malcolmson, vol. ii. p. 328. $+ Geol. Trans. 2nd ser. vol. iv. § Ibid. p. 419. || Ibid. p. 420. q Ibid. p. 421. ** Ibid. p.'425. tt Royal As. Soc. Journ. vol. ix. p. 33. tt Ibid. p. 35. §§ Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc. Journ. vol. iv. HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 365 having a little carbonaceous matter covering some of the vegetable remains. The fossils themselves, however, whether animal or vegetable, bear a remarkable resemblance to those which have been brought to light at Nagpur. Thus we find among them a fresh- water tortoise,—the elytra of insects,—an abundance of Cyprides, one species of which appears to correspond with the C. cylindrica (Sow.), first found by Malcolmson,—a few indistinct impressions of shells like Melania,—fruits and seeds, though not of the same genera as ours,—ensiform endogenous leaves, like the Nagpur specimens,— cormiform roots, which differ from ours only in being larger,—and an abundance of dicotyledonous wood. At Padpangali or Pangddi near Rajamundry, not far from the mouth of the Godavari, there are found some outlying trap hills, which Gen. Cullen pointed out to Dr. Benza as fossiliferous. That gentleman visited the place, and described one of the eminences as consisting at its base of sandstone, which is overlaid by amygdaloid veined with jasper, then a limestone deposit with fossils, and finally a sheet of basalt. The fossils were stated by Dr. Benza to be partly marine, and partly freshwater ; but, as his statement was made at a time when not much attention was paid to the distinction between these two classes of shells, it was supposed that it might be incorrect. I confess that I myself was guilty of this wrong to the memory of an able geologist. However, I took steps to discover the truth, and through my friend Lieut. Stoddart, employed in connection with the Godavari public works, I have ascertained, I am happy to say, that Dr. Benza is substantially right. His Oysters were real oysters, though his ‘“‘ Ampullariz ” most probably belonged to some species of Physa. ‘On only one of these hills,’ says my intelligent in- formant, ‘could I find any Oysters; but there, I must say, they were as plentiful as stones.” At the foot of a hill opposite to this, | Mr. Stoddart found several kinds of shells, and among them a Physa identical with a species common around Nagpur, which was in the same block with a Chemnitzia. 'There seems to be a great variety of molluscous remains at this locality, and it would well deserve a longer investigation than my kind friend was able to give it *. Here then we have the best proof which similarity of position and specific identity of contained fossils can afford, that the deposit enclosed in trap at Padpangali is properly contemporaneous with our freshwater deposit in Central India, although a majority of its organisms are truly marine. It is evident that it was here our great collection of fresh water, stretching either in one continuous sheet. or interruptedly a distance of 1050 miles, in a direct line from Rajmahal to Bombay, and of 660 miles from N. to the neighbourhood of Pad- pangali, discharged itself by an estuary into the sea. Whether this great expanse of freshwater was one or many lakes, cannot now be determined, in consequence of the disappearance of trap from many situations where once it must have existed, but I am persuaded that the more careful the exploration made in the great basaltic region * A small series of fossils from Padapangali sent by the authors comprises Ostrea, Cardium, Venus, Chemniizia, and Nerinea ?—Ep. 366 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. of Western India, the more evident it will become that the mtervals between the lakes, if any there were, must have been exceedingly small. This was the conviction left on my mind by travelling from Nagpur to Elichpur, and this I think will be the feeling produced in the mind of any one, by taking a glance on a map at any district, like Col. Sykes’s, that has been surveyed, even without a reference to a lacustrine deposit. Minerals in the Trap.—I ought now to describe the minerals contained in our overlying and underlying trap; but this has been so well done by Voysey, in his remarks on the structure of Sitabaldi Hill*, that it is unnecessary. One of the most common in the locality just named, though elsewhere rare, is a pitchy black sub- stance, with a sloe-like bloom upon it, linmg the amygdaloidal cavities. This Voysey appears to have called ‘‘ Conchoidal augite : ”’ my friend Dr. Carter supposes it obsidian. It occurs in bands lying one above another, which may be followed to a great distance in a horizontal direction. The intermediate spaces seem as if they had been successive effluxes of volcanic matter, running along beneath the freshwater deposit, and then under one another, each efflux bemg united or welded to the preceding one by a vesicular belt. Many of the minerals that are met with in the amygdaloid are derived from the tertiary strata. This is particularly the case with jasper, the veins of which, as may be learned from Benza’s description of Pad- pangali Hill, and as we perceive in numerous places in this vicinity, are situated just at the zone of the vesicular trap’s intrusion on the superior deposit. Sometimes instead of being jaspidified, the en- tangled parts of the strata are converted into chert, at other times they are crystallized into ponderous masses of mesotype. In one locality the calcareous matter is diffused as strings all through the amygdaloid, forming seams of kankar, like those represented by ~ Newbold*+ ; in another they are scarcely enclosed within its substance, but remain in blocks at the lower part of the deposit, which are compact externally, but in the interior, where the heat has continued longest, are found to be an aggregation of crystals. On the plain south of Gidad Hill there is lying about a great abundance of spherical nodules, which on being broken up exhibit a structure radiating from a central point, so that they have been mistaken for Alcyonitest. The fakirs, who have located themselves on the top of the eminence, have adroitly taken advantage of this natural phenomenon to exalt the name of the saint whose disciples they profess to be. These nodules, according to them, are so many fruits and spices of different sorts, which Shek Farid converted into stone, the largest having ence been cocoa-nuts, the middle-sized betel-nuts (Areca), and the smallest nutmegs. There is a resemblance of the nodules to the last two natural productions ; but, as all alike display an acicular crystallization, it is difficult to trace the similarity of the largest to the fruit of the cocoa. Much light must be imtro- * As. Res. vol. xviii. p. 123. + R. As. Soc. Journ. vol. ix. p. 33. ¢ Journ. Beng. Asiat. Soc. vol. ix. p. 625. - HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 367 duced into this land befcre the inhabitants shall be convinced of the falsehood of the alleged miracle, and shall be able to understand that the seeming organisms are simple zeolitic concretions that have issued from the soft subjacent rock. Nodules of the same shape are found in the same formation at Sonegaum, near Kalmeshwar, fifteen miles N.W. of Nagpur, but, being purely calcareous, their interior consists of a confused mass of rhombic crystals. The Age of the Trap.—Beginning with the more recent, as we have done in regard to the stratified rocks, we find that the amyg- daloid or underlying trap has not only invaded the tertiary forma- tion, but broken it up, and along with it the nodular basalt, by which it is capped. The amygdaloid eruption, then, is incontestably sub- sequent to the basaltic. But what age is to be assigned to the latter ? It is evidently posterior to the freshwater beds on which it rests. We have thus an overlying effusion of nodular basalt, which has taken place after the tertiary strata, and an underlying intrusion of amygdaloidal trap, which has occurred after the basaltic effusion. Besides these two formations of trap, I know of no others in Central India, either more modern or more ancient. Capt. now Col. Grant, in his paper on the Geology of Cutch*, and Dr. Carter, in his memoir on the Geology of Bombay before quoted, have adduced ample proofs to show that in the districts which they have examined, there have been eruptions of volcanic matter subsequent to the amygdaloid ; but in all the district through which my colleague and myself have been called to travel, no trap formation so modern has fallen under our observation. Nor has any more ancient than the overlying trap been discovered. It might be thought from the occurrence of isolated pieces of trap in the lower part of our fresh- water strata, that while these were being deposited, there were sheets of volcanic rock already on the surface of Central India. But it appears to me that there are no such fragments whose existence may not be accounted for on the principle explained by Lyell in his ‘Manual,’ 4th edition, p. 446, and stated im a preceding page of this paper. Besides at Bokara, and some parts of 'Takli plain, where the amygdaloid has not been intercalated under our tertiary formation at all, but where the latter, with its characteristic fossils, rests imme- diately and conformably on the sandstone, there is not a trace of voleanic matter to be seen. I am inclined therefore to doubt the occurrence of any trap in Central India older than our lacustrine deposit. In the southern portion of the Rajymahal Hills, M‘Clelland+ informs us that amygdaloid is found underlying the coal-strata of that district. The coal there is manifestly the usual so-called oolitic coal of India, and therefore we have amygdaloid disturbing the juras- sic formation. But, if a stranger to the locality may be allowed to express an opinion, I would respectfully submit that the position of the amygdaloid is not conclusive against its comparatively modern origin. It is obvious that the most recent age attributable to an intruded rock, such as it is, cannot be exactly determined by ob- * Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd Ser. vol. v. + Report Geol. Survey of India, Season 1848-9. Calcutta 1850. 368 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. serving what strata it has disturbed in one district ; for it may have invaded an older formation in one locality, and yet, rising higher, it may have broken in upon a newer formation in another place; or, applying the principle to the case in hand, the very same amygdaloid which M‘Clelland calls secondary trap, because it has been erupted among the oolitic strata of Rajmahal, may be tertiary trap here, if it is, as I believe, the identical effusion which has been intercalated between the oolitic and tertiary formations of Nagpur. But for the conclusive determination of this question, the district of Rajmahal with a tertiary formation found in connection with trap in its northern part, and jurassic strata associated with trap in its southern part, presents the most befitting arena. Mode of its Eruption.—Before leaving the volcanic rocks, it is desirable to indicate the lessons which Central India teaches as to the manner in which they were formed. Now the first thing which strikes any observer of the great basaltic field of this country is the comparative absence of all cones or craters throughout. I cannot name a spot in all the tract with which I am acquainted, where I could say either the nodular basalt or the amygdaloid came up from below. The nodular basalt seems to have flowed along for immense distances, fillmg up the tertiary lake, and leaving an arid plain in its rear. Then the amygdaloid inserting itself between the sandstone and the freshwater bed seems to have flowed generally underground on the same scale of grandeur. Sitabaldi Hill, which is almost an outlier of the great basaltic region of Western India, being connected with it by a very narrow neck, would be a favourable place for ascertaining whether the underlying trap, which has there accumu- lated under the tertiary deposit to a considerable thickness, has been forced up vertically through the gneiss and sandstone, which appear around the base of the hill to be inferior to it, or whether it has been horizontally intercalated, as in the generality of places, between the sandstone and the tertiary. I am disposed to take the latter view; but, if the government quarry were only excavated a few feet lower, as Voysey long ago suggested, it would put an end to all doubt. From the statements previously advanced regarding the trappean rocks of Nagpur, taken in connection with the same formation in other parts of the country, it is obvious there is no foundation what- ever for the supposition that the great outpouring of basalt in India took place in the ocean. And, although I believe that the fresh- water in which it really was effused must have stretched over great areas without much interruption, yet the discovery im the tertiary strata of abundance of pulmoniferous molluses, such as Limneus and Physa,—of plants, such as marsh- or shallow-loving Endogens, buried with their roots and fruits almost entire and therefore not far from the spot where they originally grew,—not to mention the occurrence of an amphibious univalve like Sueccinea, and of land-sheils like Bulimus, together with great quantities of seeds and fruit and timber, the spoils of the neighbouring dry land,—-plaimly shows that the water in that part of the lake was of no great depth. Indeed it seems HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 369 obvious that in places not a few the water of the lake must have been so shallow as to allow the igneous rock which was poured out over its bottom to rise above its surface into the atmosphere. We must resort then to some other hypothesis than aqueous pressure to explain the horizontalness of our trappean-hill tops, and a cause adequate to the effect is the well-known law by which the surface of liquid bodies is reduced to the same uniform level. To this law volcanic matter is subject in spreading over an area either of land or water. If to this it be objected, that then we should expect the surface of the effusion to appear scoriaceous like modern lavas, it may be replied that naturally all such light materials in the lapse of ages would be worn away. VII. The Sandstone Formation. Under the amygdaloid, or, where it has not been intercalated, im- mediately under the tertiary freshwater strata, is found an extensive series of rocks consisting chiefly of arenaceous beds. A. The upper member of this series is seen at the foot of Sitabaldi Hill, passing into gneiss, into which much of it, as well as most probably all the lower members, have been converted. Without enumerating all its localities, I may mention that a good section of it is presented by a rivulet skirting the Lal Bag, where the layer under the nodular trap has itself been rendered distinctly nodular. It may be observed in the western division of the city of Nagpur ; and it stretches in some places under the amygdaloid, in others under the tertiary bed, but for the most part as the surface-rock, through Takli plain to Bokhara. At Nagpur and in Takli plain the strata are of friable sand intermixed with kankar, and variegated with a deep irony-red and occasionally a purple colour. But it is at. Bokhara where we can understand it best. In one of the quarries there we find it as at Nagpur, only with less of the colouring matter. Going northward to another quarry, we see it on the way overlaid by the lacustrine formation before described, which is capped by a small rise of nodular trap. Arrived at the quarry, which is only about 100 yards from the first, we find the same upper member of the sandstone, now however no longer soft and crumbling, but so hard that the hand-millstones of the country, which resemble Scottish querns, are derived from it; and the ferruginous matter, instead of being diffused as blotches, is gathered into waving iron-bands more indurated still. At this place these upper beds, which are about 25 feet thick and very coarse, contain angular fragments of a finer sandstone which lies below. Near Bazargau the strata where exposed are pierced with irregular holes, which seem to have been caused by the action of rain and the atmosphere. At Kampti, situated towards their top, and rising even to the surface through the soil, are im- bedded huge blocks, some of them angular, but most of them rounded and waterworn, which contain almost all the fossils that have been procured from that interesting locality. At Silewad4, towards their lower part there occur a considerable number of com- VOL, XI.—PART I. 2c 370 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. pressed stems of trees im situ, one of which, presenting its thin edge in the side of a quarry, may be traced for about 20 feet. A few inches farther down we come to the largest of the iron-bands, which consists of a conglomerate, about 6 inches thick, enclosing fragments of dicotyledonous wood converted into a kind of jet and impregnated with iron. Ferruginous bands are common not only at Silewada, but also at Babulkheda and Tondakheiri. It is only, how- ever, in the neighbourhood of Chanda that any one of them has been found to contain wood in a silicified state. B. Underlying the iron-band we come to layers of a much finer kind, consisting of argillaceous sandstone, varymg from white to yellow and pink, and generally containing specks of mica. These strata, which are used for pavement and carved work, extend down- wards for about 15 feet, when they gradually become coarser until they are suitable for millstones. The entire depth of these layers after their change from fine to coarse has not been ascertained. Dispersed through them, as we saw was the case with the upper member, are occasional angular fragments, so that it is difficult to distinguish lithologically between the two, except that the inferior beds always contain less oxide of iron than the superior. It is in the argillo-arenaceous strata that we have met with nearly all the fossils which the sandstone of Silew4d4, Bokhara, Babulkheda, Bharatwada, Tondakheiri, Bazargau, Chorkheiri, and Chanda has yielded; and there is every reason to believe that the imbedded blocks of Kampti also, which have furnished so many vegetable remains, were originally derived from them. Chorkheiri and Chanda are the furthest limits north and south from which I have procured fossils of the inferior member of the sandstone ; and the fact, that the fossils are exactly the same, in addition to a resemblance in lithological characters, demonstrates that the strata are so also. Between these two extreme points, however, under an outcrop of coarse sandstone of much the same character as the generality of our upper beds, except that it is not coloured by iron or pervaded by iron-bands, there are found at Mangali and its neighbourhood fossili- ferous strata applied to the same architectual purposes as our ordinary lower strata, though they differ from them in being of a deep-red colour, finer and more sectile, and with a larger admixture of clay and mica. As the Mangali red slaty sandstone contains scarcely any organic remains common to the inferior layers about Nagpur, it is not without hesitation that I include it under the present head, and arrange its fossils along with those of the more typical strata. [Fossils of 8.—For the same reasons as stated above, p. 360, in the case of the paleontology of the tertiary deposits, the numerous fossils of this division of the sandstone series are here merely men- tioned in short, their detailed description being deferred until the publication of Part II. of this Memoir. These fine and coarse argillaceous sandstones, rich with plant- remains, have afforded,— HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 34l Labyrinthodont Reptile* (from Mangali). Fishes ; Small jaws and ganoid scales. Crustaceans ; Hstheria. Plant-remains. Fruit and seeds; numerous and undescribed. Leaves ; Conifer, Zamites, Poacites, and Ferns (Pecopteris, Glos- sopteris, Teniopteris, Cyclopteris, Sphenopteris). Stems ; exogenous and endogenous. Acrogens; Aphyllum, Equisetites, Phyllotheca, Vertebraria. | c. Between the sandstone quarries at Bokharé and Korhadi, granitic rocks have lifted to the surface, with a dip of 30° to S.W., a series of red shaly beds; and between these and Bokhara another species of green argillaceous strata, lying somewhat more horizontal. The relation of these two to the sandstone beds, from the absence of any good exposure, I have not been able to ascertain; but they would appear to underlie it. Besides the locality now named, these rocks are developed in the district north of Chanda ; and, as I have been told by Mr. Sankey, the green shale covers an extensive tract of country near Hardagad, south of the Mahadewa Hills. It is probably the same strata that are found to lie on the west and north of the Nawagaum Lake, and to cross the Rayepur road at Mundipar Ghat and at Jamnapur, near Sakorali. The red shale at Korhadi has yielded the following organic remains :— - Fossils of c.—A reptilian footmark of one-third of an inch long, and as much broad. ‘Three or four specimens have been obtained, each exhibiting only one print, owing to the brittleness of the matrix. I am not sure that all the impressions are of the same kind. On the same specimens that bear these footmarks are seen the tracks of wormlike animals. That the animals forming these tracks have been Annelids resembling Earth-worms will be evident to any one who considers the appearance of the furrows ; the way in which the head has occasionally been pushed forward, and then withdrawn ; the tubular holes by which the ground has been pierced, and the intestine-shaped evacuations which have been left on the surface. Fossil worm-borings have been found in the green shale of Tadadi, N.W. of Chanda, seventy miles 8. of Nagpur. The only vegetable organism which has been discovered in the shale is a sulcated plant, which most probably belongs to the genus Phyllotheca ; but as a sufficient length of the stem has not been obtained to display the articulation, its precise character cannot be fixed. p. Immediately below the red shale there are found beds of white marble at Korhadi, which have been greatly disturbed and dolomitized by the plutonic rocks above referred to. Similar strata, but pink and blue, occur in the channel of the Pech at Gokala, a little above Parshiwani ; and still higher up at Nawagaum it rises imto a chain of eminences, which runs thence westward to Kumari. Following up the river still further, on its right bank we come to a patch of * The Brachyops laticeps, Owen ; see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol, x. p. 474; and xi. p. 37, pl. 2. 2c 2 372 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. the same crystalline limestone at Dudhgaum, where it is in the vicinity of trap. To the east of this, at A'mbajiri in Chandpur, it occurs again: but there, as in most of its other localities, the granite rises to the surface in the neighbourhood. Limestone is found also on the Lanji Hills at Kunde and near Bhanpur to the east of Hatta; but whether it is the limestone associated with sandstone, or just a calcareous phase of our freshwater tertiary formation, from not having visited the spot, lam unable to decide. It seems to be comparatively free from magnesia, in which it differs from the generality of the strata of which we are now treating. From the heat to which these have everywhere in our area been “subjected in the process of dolo- mitization, we need not expect to discover in them any organic re- mains. Newbold thought that he had found in certain cherty veins of limestone near Karnul myriads of spherical Foraminifera. We have also veins of chert in the Korhadi limestone, which exhibit appearances that might be mistaken for the same objects, but they do not seem to be really organic. The minerals most abundant in the dolomite are tremolite and red and yellow steatite, which last, when the surface of the rock is weathered, stands out in little prominences, as if it were a species of lichen. The whole series of strata which we have designated by a, B, c, D we conceive to be only subdivisions of the same formation. They have been disturbed by the same granitic eruptions, and, where fos- siliferous, bear a general resemblance to each other in their organic remains. But this mutual connection is more apparent when we compare the series within our area with strata beyond it. From Mr. Sankey we learn that the sandstone represented in the north- west corner of our map is succeeded in a descending order at Chota Barkoi by bituminous shale with fossils and sandstone, and at Bhuwan, at the foot of the ascent to one of the Mahadewa or Pachmadi Hills, by indurated green clay-stone and green shale, and bituminous shale with fossils. “Again below the sandstone in the south-east corner of the map, as we are informed by Dr. Bell, there occur argillaceous limestone, bituminous shale with fossils, and a few alternating layers of impure limestone and bituminous shale, until we come to a bed, eight feet thick, of laminated ‘sandstone, &c. Situated, as our sandstone is, between these two extreme points, and appearing to be a bond of connection between them, we might @ priori expect that the intermediate beds would be of the same age as those at the localities on either side; and this opinion is confirmed by the ap- pearance of the sandstone near NA agpur, which shares with the sand- stones of the Mahadewa and Kota hills, the distinguishing feature, first noticed in this neighbourhood, of bemg pervaded by ferruginous septa. These dark-brown stripes, which in all their hardness pro- trude from the weathered surface of the enclosing rock, will be found, wherever they occur, a very good criterion for judging of the age of the sandstone. But besides identity in the arenaceous beds of our whole district, we can trace the same identity between the subjacent strata at Nagpur, Pachmadi, and in the Hyderabad country. On HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 373 the south of the Mahddewa Hills there is the same green shale as here and at Tadadi; and at Kotd, according to a private letter with which I was favoured by (the late) Dr. Bell, red clay, of greater thickness than any stratum that was passed through, underlies the other shales which he has enumerated in his sections*: and in localities farther south, Malcolmson states} that the shales on which the sandstone rests are blue, red, green, or pure white; by which last-mentioned rather rare colour we are brought in mind of some of the strata at Mundipar. And as we are told by Newbold{, the sand- stone of the Hastern Ghats frequently ‘‘ passes mto red and green argillaceous and siliceous slates and laminated marls.”’ I think then, that, though inferring the identity of Nagpur sandstone with that of Southern India from the occurrence of diamonds at Weiragad, Mal- colmson’s statement was wrong as to its grounds, yet it was perfectly correct as to its matter. The position of the shale in reference to the limestone seems to vary. At Korhdadi it is the superior rock. Such also is its position at Bangnapilli according to Malcolmson§, and generally according to Newbold. Ina section, however, of the Pass at Mudalaity, given by the latter writer, we have the following order : “compact light-ccloured sandstone, 120 feet ; limestone, 310 feet ; shales, 50 feet; laminar and massive sandstone ;—whereas by the section obtained by Dr. Bell|| we find sandstone, from 50 to 500 feet, —argillaceous limestone, 9 feet,—and, after various unimportant argillaceous, bituminous, and calcareous strata, in all 4 feet, limestone, 1 ft. 9 in., lammated sandstone and shale, 8 feet, and argillaceous &c. strata as before, 11 feet 8 inches, we come to limestone, 23 feet, then argillaceous and calcareous beds, 25 feet, red clay, 27 feet, and lime- stone.” Here it would appear that shale, sandstone, and limestone are interstratified. Though there is no great development of carbonaceous beds in the district which is the more immediate subject of this paper, yet I should regard the communication as incomplete without some notice of the position of the Indian coal in reference to our sandstone strata. Bhuwan, in the north-west of our area, at the foot of the Mahadewa Hills, furnishes us with a common term of comparison. [In the foregoing observations on the so-called Jurassic (or plant- bearing) formation of the Nagpur territory the authors recognize four members in the following descending order :—a. Thick-bedded, coarse, ferruginous sandstone, with a few stems of trees. B. Lami- nated sandstone, exceedingly rich in vegetable remains. c. Clay shales of various colours, and bearing worm-tracks and foot-marks. p. Limestone, generally altered and crystalline. At the time when this memoir was written, the authors thought it probable that the Bengal coal-deposits might be referable to the shales (c) of this series; but, having since had further opportunities of personal in- ** Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 232. + Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd ser. vol. v. p. 543. t Journ. As. Society, vol. viii. p. 167. § Malcolmson uf supra, p. 541. || See also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 374, and note. 374 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. vestigation, they find that the carboniferous beds of Umret and the Mahadewa Hills are true representatives of the Burdwan coal of Bengal, and are referable, not to the Nagpur shales (c), but to the Nagpur sandstone with plants (B). About six months since the authors were enabled to visit* the coal-bearing deposits at Umret and the plant-beds of Bhuwan at the foot of the Pachmadi or Maha- dewa Hills, 120 miles north of Nagpur, some notice of which was given to the Society by Lieut. Sankey+. A few miles north. of Umret there occurs a descending series of sandstone, coal, argilla- ceous, bituminous, and sandy shales, and sandstone. The shales here represent the plant-bearing sandstone of Nagpur. At the Mahadewa Hills the overlying sandstone (which, like that of Umret and of Nagpur, is characterized by iron-bands) is of much greater thickness than to the south. Under this sandstone of the Mahadewas come green shales and bituminous shales, equivalent to those of Umret. From the examination also of the fossil plants (Vertebraria, Trizygia, Phyllotheca, Cyclopteris, Glossopteris, Pecopteris, and Spheno- pteris) plentifully occurring in all these localities, the same conclu- sion is arrived at, namely, that the shales of Umret and the Maha- dewas are truly equivalent to the plant-bearing sandstone of Nagpur, which last, indeed, in some places has argillaceous modifications. The bituminous shales of Kota, on the Pranhita, appear to belong to the same series, and underlie the iron-banded sandstone, as in other localities. The Kota shales have afforded fish-remains of a Jurassic type (Lepidotus and Aichmodus) ; and at one place, Man- gali, between Kota and Nagpur, the equivalent of the Nagpur plant- bearing sandstone has yielded the Labyrinthodont Reptilian skull, lately described in the Society’s Journal by Prof. Owen. The ex- tension of the bituminous and anthracitiec shales in other localities, namely, Duntimnapilly, Singra, on the Bagin River, Umla Ghat, &c., is alluded to by the authors in their recent communication ; and they remark, that, on the south, north, and east of the Nagpur territory, the carboniferous shales are thus seen to hold the same relation with the overlying iron-banded sandstone ; and that, though it is difficult to comprehend the Burdwan coal-field in the comparison, as it lies in a basin and has no overlying formation, yet the fossils are very similar to those of the Mahadewas, Umret, and Nagpur, and bear evident proof of the contemporaneity of the whole.-—July 1855.—Ep. | Thickness of the Strata.—a. 'The highest beds as exposed in the quarries of Silewdd4 and Bokhara average about 25 feet of coarse sandstone with iron-bands; below which there are 15 feet of argil- laceous sandstone, B, with an abundance of fossils, and an undeter- mined depth of coarse sandstone beneath. These constitute what Dr. Carter, in an able ‘Summary of Indian Geology,’ which I have just received, calls the Panna sandstone. From outcrops of this subdivision of the sandstone series in other localities near Nagpur, [* A notice of the results of this visit was read at the Meeting of the Society, June 13, 1855.] [ft Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 55.] HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 375 the whole thickness of the highest beds may be reckoned at about 200 or 300 feet. At Kota, as we have seen, it ranges from 50 to 500 feet, at Mudalaity 120 feet, and at the Mahadewa hills, accord- ing to Mr. Sankey, 2700 feet, which must be its greatest develop- ment. c. The depth of the shales at Korhadi and Tadadi seems to be—green about 30 feet, red 50 feet. At Kota, omitting inter- stratified argillaceous limestone and sandstone, all the argillaceous thin strata united amount to 29 feet, red clay 27 ; while at Newbold’s section of Mudalaity, where the shales, usually reddish, underlie the limestone, they attain a thickness of 50 feet. vp. The limestone which underlies the shale has been much disturbed by granite at Korhadi, so that we cannot fix its thickness precisely ; but I should think it cannot be less than 100 feet—at Mudalaity it is 360 feet. Under this limestone, which is included in Dr. Carter’s excellent paper, along with shales and coal under the name of Kattra shales, there occurs, as Newbold has shown in Southern India, and Franklin in Bundelkhand, another series of sandstone rocks, for which Dr, Carter proposes the name of Tard sandstone ; but, as most probably, owing to the intrusion of the granite, this member of the formation . does not occur in our neighbourhood, I have nothing to say re- garding it. Character of the Formation.—There can be little doubt that the upper strata are lacustrine. The occurrence in them of such an im- mense collection of terrestrial vegetation, intermingled with Poacites, taken in connection with the total absence of Fucoids and other marine plants, shows very plainly that they must have been deposited in fresh water. And, as no river could have covered the extent of surface which these beds occupy, we are bound to conclude that, like the tertiary rock previously described, they must have been formed in a lake, a conclusion which the discovery of Lstheria (or Iamnadia), with their two valves entire, and congregated together as they are found in their usual haunts, fully justifies. Again the abundance of worm-tracks and borings in the red shale of Korhadi and the green shale of Tadadi renders it more than probable that the strata at these localities constituted the margin of an ancient lake and not of a sea or even of ariver. Of the origin of the dolo- mitic beds it is impossible to give any certain account, owing to the transformation which they have undergone, though we may suppose they follow the analogy of the other members of the formation. The character of the upper strata at Elichpur, as would appear from the fossils discovered by Dr. Bradley, is exactly the same as at Nagpur. The Lepidotus which has been found at Kota, from its association with terrestrial vegetable remains, has been pronounced to have been probably an estuary or inshore fish; but, as the genus also occurs abundantly in the freshwater strata of the Wealden, it may be per- ceived that the strata at Kota are not of a different origin from those im our neighbourhood. This supposition is rendered more likely by the fact, that, while no marine vegetation is said to have been de- tected there, a piece of the shale which Dr. Bell kindly sent me bears the impression of a bivalve exceedingly like a Cyrena or Cyclas. Dr. 376 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. M ‘Clelland seems to suppose that the Burdwan coal-measures were deposited in a sea, for in the last plate of his Survey already referred to he has figured a fossil which he has called Fucotdes venosus ; but any person who compares the plant there represented with the Glos- sopteris figured in his plate XV. under the name of G. reticulata will, I believe, agree with me in considering both plants generically, if not specifically, the same. I infer, therefore, that there is no evidence whatever to prove that our sandstone, or the shale at Kota, or the Bengal coal-measures, were deposited in the sea ; but on the contrary every reason to believe that they were all formed in a large body of fresh water. Age of these Strata.—The coarse iron-banded sandstone above, and the more fissile strata lying conformably below, which are undoubt- edly of one and the same era, require first to be considered. For the sake of clearness, however, I shall refer to the latter member alone, as it has afforded most of the fossils, and furnishes the best data for comparison with the rocks of other localities. Some of the seed- vessels which it has yielded bear no very distant resemblance to those of the Stonesfield slate; Asterophyllites? lateralis, to use the pro- visional name proposed by Bunbury, and the forms of Pecopteris, show its near connection with the carbonaceous shales and sandstones of Scarborough ; Phyllotheca, Glossopteris, and the narrow fronds of Cyclopteris, if M‘Coy’s figure* be truly of that genus, mark out the relation to the coal-beds of New South Wales, while Teniopteris magnifolia, and sulcated stems in all respects corresponding with Phyllotheca, testify to the agreement with the Virgmian carboni- ferous strata. These coincidences, some of which, as in the so-called Asterophyllites? and Teniopteris magnifolia, seem to amount even to specific identity, along with the remarkable relations which the distant localities exhibit among themselves, forma network of proof, which in my opinion binds down all the various series of rocks to about the same epoch,—an epoch which the known position of the Stonesfield and Scarborough strata show to be Lower Oolitic. Whether the Mangali sandstone is to be reckoned contemporaneous with these,—whether the two different kinds of strata there—the coarse thick-bedded upper and the fine fissile lower—are to be reckoned the equivalents of our A and B, is a question which observa- tion in the field and a comparison of the respective fossils do not enable me to answer. ‘The massive sandstone at Mangali, as has been said, is destitute of iron-bands, and the inferior argillo-arenaceous strata are much redder than ours; and especially the organisms of — the lower strata at the two places are very dissimilar. Here they are all vegetable, while there they are almost exclusively animal. Only one of the fossil plants at Mangali appears to us to bear a re- semblance to anything found in this vicinity. At the same time, if any inference is to be derived from the succession of the rocks there, it is in favour of the idea that they are the counterparts of our A and B. And that they cannot in age be far removed from them, is proved by a comparison, not of the Mangali fossils with others in this * An. Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. pl. ix. fig. 3. HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. . STF territory, but of both these with those across the Atlantic. Our in- vestigations in the resemblances of the sandstone fossils show that the Nagpur fossiliferous strata are connected with the Richmond carboni- ferous formation by Teniopteris magnifolia, while the Mangali fos- siliferous strata are still more closely linked to it by the discovery of what appear to be Aspidiaria, Knorria, and the interesting groups of large and small Limnadiade. Here, then, we perceive that the lower beds at both of these Indian localities bear a relation to the Virginian coal-measures, characterized by an apparent specific identity of fossils ; and, though the genera of which the species seem to be identical are not the same in both cases, yet it is obvious from the sort of ex equali argument which we may be permitted to use, that these lower beds must stand pretty closely connected with each other. But I do not wish to push to an extreme reasoning on a pomt which the progress of investigation here may soon elucidate by finding the strata under consideration in juxtaposition. Meanwhile I consider myself warranted in asserting, that our Mangali rocks cannot at all events be older than the Jurassic, if under that term the Lias is also included. Indeed the head of the Labyrinthodont tends to com- municate to them a Triassic aspect ; but, if the Jurassic character of their abundant flora be taken as the real indication of the age of these rocks, we arrive at a conclusion which brings out the interesting fact, that the family of Labyrinthodonts, instead of being confined to the Coal and Trias, survived (in the East) until the period of the Lower Oolite. Regarding the age of our shale c, which there is every reason to believe underlies the coarse and fine sandstones a and Bs, I have little to say more than that it cannot be much older than these. The occurrence of worm-tracks, as well as of faint traces of Phyllotheca, will not allow me to consider it anything but part of the same Jurassic formation. But as I have endeavoured to show that the coal-measures of Burdwan are equivalents of our plant-bearing beds, and therefore belong to the Lower Oolitic group, it will be necessary to make a few remarks to establish the correctness of this view. On the age of the coal-measures of Bengal two opinions have been submitted to the public within the last four years :—one in 1850 by Dr. M‘Clelland in his “ Geological Survey,” and the other in the course of the present year by Dr. J. Hooker m his interesting “* Himalayan Journals*.”’ Dr. M‘Clelland’s sentiments, which in 1846 were very decided as to the true Paleozoic character of our Eastern coal+, seem to have remained the same at the period of his more recent publication on the subject ; for we find him in his “ Survey,” while admitting the [* This portion of the paragraph on the “ Age of the Sandstone” has been remodelled since the reading of the Paper, so as to introduce the necessary references to the opinions published by Dr. J. D. Hooker in his most interesting work on the Himalayas.—June 14 and Sept. 6, 1854. | tT ‘There cannot, however, be a doubt as to its belonging to the true coal- formation, from the nature of the coal itself, as well as of the beds with which it is associated.”—-Secretary of the Calcutta Coal Committee on the Coal of the Great Tenasserim River, in Committee’s Report, p. 138. Calcutta, 1846. 378 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Oolitic age of some bluish-white indurated clays at Dubrajpore in the Rajmahal Hills, nevertheless placing the shales, sandstones, and seams of coal of Burdwan, and of Mussinia and Kottycoon in the Rajmahal Hills, as an intermediate formation, which he styles the “* Coal-measure,’’ between the Inferior Oolite mentioned above and what he supposes to be the ‘‘Old Red Sandstone.’ After deducting specimens of Fucoides, which I cannot, with the aid of his figures, distinguish from those of Glossopteris, there are seven genera, to which he refers as ‘‘ Indian coal-measure fossils.” Of these, four, viz. Sphenophyllum, Poacites, Calamites, and Pecopteris, he says, are “common to the coal-measures of Europe.” In the conclusion which would naturally be drawn from this statement I cannot concur ; and hence it is necessary to review the grounds on which it is made. The three genera not mentioned are Zamites, Teniopteris, and Glossopteris. Of these, the first two are held to be well nigh cha- racteristic of the Jurassic period, while the remaining genus, though unknown in Europe, must, from the circumstances in which it is shown to occur, now be acknowledged to be equally a Mesozoic plant. And with regard to the four genera specified, I do not suppose that Dr. Royle will assent to the identification of his Trizygia with Sphe- nophyllum; and, if any specimens of the genus Calamites had been preserved for description, I have little doubt they would have proved to belong to our “‘non-tuberculated class of opposite sulcated jointed stems,’ which abound in formations above the true coal-measures. The genera Poacites and Pecopteris I have found in our “ Jurassic”’ strata, and a specimen of the latter here is so like one figured by M‘Clelland that it is difficult to resist the conviction that they do belong to the same species. If to the evidence now adduced there be added that afforded by the occurrence of the peculiar plants Vertebraria indica, Trizygia speciosa, &c. at Burdwan and Bhuwan, I think little probability will remain of the Bengal coal-formation being Paleeozoic. Dr. Hooker, in commenting on the opimion of Dr. M‘Clelland, which he supposed to be in favour of the Oolitic age of the Burdwan coal-field, at the commencement of his first volume endeavours to prove that no inference can be deduced from the plants discovered in those strata. In his second volume, however, he puts forth an opinion of his own, which, though not formally enunciated in regard to the Burdwan series of rocks, may be gathered from his re- marks on the carbonaceous shales near Punkabarree. On these shales there were ‘‘ obscure impressions of Fern-leaves, of Trizygia and Vertebraria, both fossils characteristic of the Burdwan coal- field, but too imperfect to justify any conclusion as to the relation between these formations*. And then, in a foot-note, it is added, “these traces of fossils”’ (including a fragment of bone as well as vegetables) ‘are not sufficient to identify the formation with that of the Siwalik Hills of North-West India; but its contents, together with its strike, dip, and position relatively to the mountains, and its mineralogical character, incline me to suppose it may be similar.” * Himalayan Journals, vol. ii. p. 403. HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 379 It may appear presumptuous in me to impugn the view of one who, from personal as no less thau hereditary claims, is entitled to the utmost respect on the subject of vegetable remains. I feel, how- ever, that the learned author has been led away by his distrust of the evidence afforded by fragments of plants to rely on the more uncertain indications of mere lithological phenomena. Do strike, dip, &c. furnish us with such strong testimony on the question of age, that for their sake the Punkabarree shales are to be denied a place with the Burdwan beds which have Ferns, Trizygia, and Ver- tebraria, and to be ranked with the Siwalik rocks, which, I believe, have none of the three? Or, if the carbonaceous strata at both places are allowed to be contemporaneous, are both to be classed as Miocene or Pliocene, when the Bhuwan shales, which like them exhibit “impressions of Fern-leaves, of Trizygia, and Vertebraria,” immediately underlie sandstones whose numerous fossils, not to mention those of Burdwan itself, are decidedly not more recent than Jurassic ? It only remains to add, that the age of the dolomitized limestone cannot be expected to be determined by the evidence of fossils ; but, as in other localities, it is not unfrequently found to alternate with the shale c, it may be set down as nearly coeval with it ;—thus making the whole series of rocks from a to p to correspond with the lower members of the great Jurassic formation,—reaching perhaps from about the position of the Scarborough strata downwards into the Lias. VIII. Plutonic and Metamorphic Rocks.—At the end of a paper which has already extended to such a length, it would be unbecom- ing to say much on this part of our subject. We have in the city of Nagpur, and many localities to the east of it, the usual combinations of gneiss and quartz-rock, mica and hornblende schist, with massive granite. The peculiarity of the last-mentioned rock in the streets of the capital is, that it is generally a pegmatite, consisting of flesh- coloured crystals of felspar with quartz, disposed so as often to take the appearance of graphic granite. But very frequently it occurs with the felspar compact, in large white masses, which then have much the appearance of a pure dull porcelain. In Nagpur the most common rock is gneiss, passing into mica-schists. The former rock, when fresh, is quarried, though not extensively, for building; and when disintegrated, for the repairing of the roads. But for both of these purposes respectively trap, in the two conditions mentioned, is preferred. Masses of white quartz appear here and there in the city, some with crystals of black schorl, and others with scales of gold-coloured mica. The range of plutonic hills on the west of Kampti, which is indeed only a narrow prolongation of the great granitic district in the Wein Ganga basin to the east, has been thrown up by an eruption of granite corresponding nearly with the course of the Kolar. The massive rock which lies in the channel of the river, unlike that of Nagpur, is generally grey and very micaceous. Above it, forming the N. base of the range, lies mica-schist, passing into granular schistose quartz, which is overlaid by a stratum of dark- 380 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. grey, glistening, resinous quartz, and then by a considerable thick- ness of white quartz with scales of mica. This constitutes the ridge of the range for about its entire length from Waregaum to Gumtara, and with its snowy-whiteness attracts attention from a great distance. At the northern base of the range, between the quartz and the dolo- mite of Korhadi, there are interposed some beds of granular quartz- ose rock, which has very much the appearance of beimg an altered sandstone; in which case it might be the representative in this part of the country of the ‘Tara sandstone.’ But throughout the field of crystalline limestone at Korhadi there are many eruptions of granite, which just rise to the surface without any intermediate meta- morphic rocks at all. In some of those instances the granite is garnetiferous, and at its junction with the dolomite the latter, besides its usual ingredients of steatite and tremolite, is intermingled with mica. At Halyadoba, N.E. of Umred, chlorite-schist with garnets is quarried for pavements ; it abounds along the course of the Amb River. At Shegaum various plutonic rocks rise from under the sand- stone, and extend northwards to Karsingi. The first which appears in the north street of Segaum is syenite, in which the felspar and hornblende greatly preponderate over the quartz. About 300 yards to the north this is succeeded by another kind of syenite, in which red felspar is combined with a small proportion of quartz, and a large quantity of a green mineral (epidote or diallage?). This rock (euphotite ?) seems to be massive, and, if we may judge from the fragments of it lying on the surface, is the prevailing rock for some miles. In an adjoining plutonic area, a little to the north, there is an extensive development of pot-stone at Jambul Ghat. The rich dark kind that possesses a small metallic lustre has hitherto been reserved by Maratha authority for the manufacture of idols; but the lighter-coloured varieties, which are more common, occurring also at Dini near Rampaili, and at Biroli on the Wein Ganga, near Tharora, have been long used for fashioning into vessels. Steatitic schists of a pure white tint, with a few imbedded garnet crystals, occur at Kaneri, on the Chulband river, and at various other localities east of the Wein Ganga. In many parts of this river’s course, and in the Lanji Hills, hornblende rocks, both schistose and massive, abound. A coarse kind of corundum occurs at Dali Ghat, on the road from Nagpur to Ragepur. Metals.—Small quantities of gold are found near Lanji in the sands of the Son river, a tributary of the Wein Ganga. In some fragments of quartz-rock on Nima Hill, west of the Pech river, Col. Jenkins found galena. Where this rock is associated with dolomite, as at Kumari, it contains manganese. But the principal ore which it yields is iron; this may be obtained in immense quantities in the province of Chanda, both on the east and west of the Wein Ganga. Near Dewalgaum, only three miles from the east bank of this navi- gable stream, which communicates by the Godavari with the Bay of Bengal, at Masulipatam, in the midst of a level country covered with jungle, there is a hill named Khandeshwar, consisting of strata tilted up at an angle of 60° or 70°, the dip being to the north. The HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 381 summit of the hill is about 250 feet above the level of the plain, 100. feet being gradual ascent through jungle, and the remainder an abrupt wall of naked rock. The iron-ore is for the most part specular, though many specimens possess polarity, and seem to be magnetic. It is on the surface of the slope that it is most valuable ; but the whole mass, from an unknown depth under ground to the highest peak above it, is richly laden with metal. This single hill might furnish iron for the construction of all the railroads that shall ‘ever be made in India, and with its abundance of fuel and cheapness of labour, and convenience of situation, it is admirably adapted tor an export trade to every part of the country. But besides this locality, there are others in the neighbourhood which could each contribute an unlimited supply of the same indispensable metal. Among these may be mentioned Lohara, Ogalpet, and Metapar, Bhandpur, Menda, and Gunjawahi, which are all on the W. of the Wein Ganga; and at all of which places the ore seems to occur in quartz, and is some- times granular, but for the most part compact. Unimportant crystals of it are scattered through the pegmatite of the capital. Notwith- standing that the specular ore is so abundant, there are many districts on the north of those already named where the hydrous oxide, in the shape of the heavier lumps of laterite, are selected for smelt- ing by the poor natives, whose tools are anything but adapted for contending with the hard masses of the metamorphic matrix or gangue. Age of the Plutonic and Metamorphic Rocks.—These evidently do not all belong to one and the same epoch. Col. Jenkins observes that at Nayakund on the Pech, to the north of Nagpur, he met with “a grey granite, composed chiefly of whitish felspar in very large crystals,” a mass of which ‘was distinctly traversed three or four times by granite-veins,’ accompanied by as many heaves.” The granite of the veins was smaller-grained and redder the more recent it was, and, to the best of that officer’s recollection, was desti- tute of mica. Without, however, more extensive artificial sections of the rocks im this neighbourhood than have ever been executed, I fear it will be difficult to fix the respective ages of the different erup- tions. A cursory view of the question would lead to the supposition that the micaceous granite is more ancient than the pegmatite ; but, in areas where both are presented in the vicinity of each other, the soundness of this view may be questioned, or at all events it appears to be impossible in the present state of the country to have it con- firmed. The pegmatite of Nagpur city, which we have said is associated with gneiss, mica-schist, and quartz with mica and with schorl, is evidently a very recent eruption, for it has not only con- verted much of the very hignest member of the jurassic sandstone into gneiss, but it has completely upheaved it. That the eruption, therefore, was posterior to that formation, there cannot be the slightest doubt. But it has sometimes occurred to me, though the observa- tions of the most eminent Indian geologists are opposed to the thought, that this pegmatitic outburst may be subsequent even to our trap. The section (fig. 1) at page 350 may throw some light on this 382 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. doubtful point. In this section we have the overlying trap (a) occupying the two summits of Sitabaldi Hill, under it the tertiary freshwater formation (6) and the intruded amygdaloidal trap (c) which has encroached on it. At the foot of the hill is the upper sandstone (d), which has been metamorphosed to a great extent by the gneiss (e), or rather by the pegmatite (f) beneath. On the north part of the hill the gneiss comes to the surface; but a little further north it is, together with the sandstone, overlaid by trap. This trap, which agrees with that overlying the tertiary beds in being nodular and poor in minerals, resembles in the very same respects the amygdaloid where it constitutes the superficial rock on the ascent. Proceeding in the same line, we find the trap cease and the sandstone upheaved. After this mterruption the trap is again seen to be on the surface. Now the question arises: what is the reason that the trap is not found where the granite has thrown up the sandstone? The most obvious reply is, that once it was there, as it is seen on either side, but that by this eruption it was removed ; in which case the plutonic rock would be of more recent origin than the voleanic. But, as there is the alternative of the latter never having been spread over the position of the former, and as this alternative is favoured by the examination of other localities, I content myself with merely submitting the case for determination, merely stating that my latest observations lead me to believe that the: trap is of later age than the granite. At all events the section un- doubtedly shows that the pegmatite and some of its accompanying gneiss are of an age subsequent to the upper sandstone. And yet in a layer of conglomerate contained in the red shale of Korhadi we meet with pebbles of undulated mica-schist very like that which occurs in the present day between Suradi and Korhadi. Rocks of this character, then, whether we are right or wrong in suggesting their connection with any still existing, did exist before the deposition of the red shales. Conclusion.—In tracing the geological history of this district from the facts that have been brought forward, we are made to feel that . the early epochs are involved in the utmost obscurity. While in many other countries the records of what took place in Paleeozoic times have been preserved in successive strata of the earth’s crust, in the Dakhan they have been wholly obliterated. It is not until we come down to the Jurassic era that we meet with archives whose characters can be read. Then we find that Central India was covered by a large body of fresh water, which stretched southward into the Peninsula, and eastward into Bengal, while on the north and west it eommunicated by some narrow channel with the sea. On the shores of this lake earth-worms crawled, and small reptiles (frogs) crept over the soft mud. In its pools sported flocks of little Entomostracans resembling the modern Estheria, mingled with which were Ganoid fishes and Labyrinthodonts. The streams which fed it brought down into its bed the debris of the plutonic and metamorphic rocks which then constituted the greater part of the dry land, and which were covered with an abundant vegetation of Ferns, most of them distin- HISLOP AND HUNTER—NAGPUR. 383 guished by the entireness of their fronds. Low-growing plants with grooved and joimted stems inhabited the marshes ; and Conifers and other Dicotyledonous trees, with Palms, raised their heads aloft. Meanwhile plutonic action was going on, and strata, as they were formed, were shattered and reconstructed into a breccia; and finally an extensive outburst of granite elevated the bed of the lake and left it dry land. The sea now flowed at Pondicherry and Trichinopoly, depositing the cretaceous strata which are found there. At the end of this epoch Central India suffered a depression and was again covered by a vast lake, communicating with the sea, not towards Cutch as before, but in the neighbourhood of Rajamandri, to which the salt water had now advanced. When the lake had during its appointed time furnished an abode to its peculiar living creatures and plants, it was invaded by an immense outpouring of trap, which filled up its bed, and left Western and a great part of Central India a dreary waste of lava. But these basaltic steppes were ere long broken up. A second eruption of trap, not now coming to the surface, but forcing a. passage for itself under the newer lacustrine strata, lifted up the superincumbent mass in ranges of flat-topped hills. Since then, to the east, water has swept over the plutonic and sandstone rocks, and laid down quantities of transported materials impregnated with iron, and some time after there were deposited in the west a conglomerate, imbedding bones of huge mammals, and above it a stratum of brown clay, which immediately preceded the superficial deposits of the black and red soils. I have to acknowledge my great obligations to Lieut.-Col. Alcock, of the Madras Artillery, and Drs. Leith and Carter, of Bombay, tor assisting me in obtaining access to books (or extracts from them), of which I should otherwise have been deprived. The map (Pl. X.) of the district described is coloured geologically from an excellent political map given in Rushton’s Bengal and Agra Gazetteer for 1842. The formations between Chindwada and the Mahadewa Hills are laid down from a sketch obligingly furnished to me by Mr. Sankey. DONATIONS TO THE LIBRARY OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, From January \st, 1855, to March 31st, 1855. I. TRANSACTIONS AND JOURNALS. Presented by the respective Societies and Editors. AMERICAN Journal of Science and Art. 2nd Ser. vol. xix. No. 55. Jan.1855. From Prof. Siliman, For. M.G.S. J. L. Le Conte.—Volcanie springs in South California, 1. F. A. Genth.—Contributions to Mineralogy, 15. E. de Beaumont, and others.—Report on M. A. Perrey’s Re- searches on Earthquakes, 55. Lachlan.—Rise and fall of the lakes, 60. Aluminium and the alkaline metals, 106. C. T. Jackson.—Analysis of allophane, 119. E. Bechi.—Boracic acid compounds of the Tuscan Lagoons, 119. A. C. Ramsay.—Ancient glaciers of Wales, 121. W. B. Rogers.—Connecticut “New Red” and Virginia coal- rocks, 123. E. Forbes.—Foliation of metamorphic rocks, 122. Colour remaining in fossil Testacea, 126. Arsenate and Vanadate of Lead, 127. N. v. Kokscharov.—Ripidolite and Clinochlore, 127. Sir J. Richardson and W. P. Blake.—Mastodon and Mammoth, 131. Miscellaneous ; Notices of Books, &e. Art-Union of London. 18th Annual Report of the Council for 1854, and List of Members. Two Almanacks. — Athenzeum Journal, for November and December, 1854; January, February, and March, 1855. From C. W. Dilke, Esq., F.GS. Notices of Meetings. Bengal Asiatic Society, Journal. New Series, No. 68. 1854, No. 5. H. Paddington.—Examination and analyses of Dr. Campbell’s specimens of copper ores obtained in the neighbourhood of Dargeeling, 477. No. 69. 1854, No. 6. Breslau. Ein-und-dreissigster Jahres-Bericht der Schlesischen Ge- sellschaft fiir vaterlandische Kultur: Arbeiten und Verande- rungen der Gesellschaft im Jahre 1853. Prof. Dr. Gdppert.—Ueber zellenahnliche Einschliisse m einem Diamanten, 48. DONATIONS. 385 A. Oswald.— Ueber das Vorkommen von Cyanit in einem Gneiss- Geschiebe, 50. A. Jackel.—Ueber die in der Umgegend von Liegnitz vorkom- menden Mineralien und ihre technische Anwendung, 51. Dr. Hensel.—Ueber angeblich fossile Menschenreste, 61. Ueber fossile in Schlesien entdeckte Reste des Riesenhirsches, 63. Prof. Goppert.—Ueber die Bernstein-Flora, 64. Ueber unser gegenwartiges Wissen von der Ter- tiar-Flora, 80. —— Ueber die Stigmaria ficoides, Brongn., 81. Breslau. Nova Acta Ac. Ces. Leop. Car. Nat. Cur. vol. xxiv. pars 2. 1854. L. C. H. Vortisch.-— Ueber geologische Configuration (with plate), 691. E. F. Glocker.—Ueber die Laukasteine (with plates), 723. C. G. Stenzel.—Ueber die Staarsteine (with plates), 751. M. J. Ackner.—Beitrag zur Geognosie und Petrefaktenkunde des suddstlichen Siebenbiirgens, vorziiglich der Schichten aus dem Bereich des Hermannstadter Bassins, 897. Canadian Journal and Proceedings of the Canadian Institute. Nov. 1854. A. Murray.—Geology of Western Canada, 73. A. Tylor.—Changes in the sea-level, 76. Mining Statistics, 82, 94. British Association Reports, 85. ———. Dec. 1854. E. Logan and others.—Geology of Canada, 97. Anthracite-coal in the U.S., 102. J. Barlow.—Silica and its applications to the arts, 106. British Association Reports, 110. A. C. Ramsay.—Paleozoie glaciers, 114. Glaciers of North Wales, 114. R. Harkness.—Silurian Anthracite of Scotland, 115. D. Page.— Paleozoic rocks of Scotland, 115. E. Forbes.—Foliation of rocks, 115. January 1855. Biographical Notice of Prof. E. Forbes, 141. British Association Meeting. J. G. Cumming.—Changes in the area of the Irish Sea, 143. R. Chambers.—Glacial phenomena in Scotland, 143. Chemical Society, Quarterly Journal, vol. vii. No. 4. Jan. 1855. C. Daubeny.—On the produce obtained from barley sown in rocks of various ages, 289. F. de Rouen of a surface-soil from the desert of Atacama, Bibliography : Titles of Chemical and Mineralogical papers pub- lished in British and Foreign Journals in 1854, 316. Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal. No. 249, vol. xvii. Dee. 1854. Water-supply of Birmingham, 445. Coal-mines in France, 460. VOL. XI.—PART I. 2D 386 DONATIONS. Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal. No. 250, vol. xviii. Feb. 1855. Water-bearing strata of the London basin, 64. to No. 252, vol. xviii Marehil S55: Pendulum experiments, 72. S. C. Homersham.—Capacity of chalk for water, 75. J. Dickinson.—Reports on accidents in coal-mines, 77. J. B. Redman.—Changes of the south coast of England (with figures), 83. Edinburgh, Royal Society of, Transactions, vol. xxi. pt. 1. 1853-4. T. S. Tyraill.—Torbane Hill mineral, 7. J. S. Bennett.—Torbane Hill mineral and coal, 173. J. H. Balfour.—Vegetables bodies in the Fordel coal, 187. ————. Proceedings. Vol.in. No. 44. 1853-4. Dr. Traill.—Torbane Hill mineral, 199. W. Gregory.—Diatomaceous earth of Mull, and value of generic and specific characters of Diatomacez, 204. Dr. Fleming.—Coal, 216. Prof. Bennett.—Torbane Hill mineral, 217. Prof. Balfour.—Vegetable bodies in coal from Fordel, 218. Erfurt. Denkschrift der Koniglichen Akademie gemeinnitziger Wissenschaften in Erfurt. Herausgegeben am Seculartage ihrer Grundung den 19 Juli 1854. Credner.—Versuch einer Bildungs-Geschichte der geognostichen Verhaltnisse Thiirmgens, 1-47. 1. Bis zur Ablagerung des Stemkohlengebirges, 3-23. 2. Bis zur Zechstem-Formation, 23-42. 3. Vom Beginn der Triasformation bis jetzt, 43-47. Frankfort. Abhandlungen, herausgegeben von der Senckerberg- ischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft. Vol. i. pt. 1. 1854. Hessenberg, F.— Ueber die Krystallgestalt des Quecksilber- hornerzes (plate), 24. Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania, Journal. 3rd Series. vol. xxvill. No. 5. Nov. 1854. a | OOS Or yee. tec tt | Molivxeme: etlan.