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~ \b ig v4 = THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, 


or Monthly Journal of Geology: 


WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED 


EEE GSO DOG DS Te 


NOS. VII. TO XII. 
EDITED BY 


T. RUPERT JONES, F.G.S. 


COR. ACAD. NAT. SC. PHILAD., IMP. GEOL. INST. VIENNA, ETC. ETC. 
PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY ETC. IN THE ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE, SANDHURST, 


Assisted by 
HENRY WOODWARD, F.G.S. F.Z.S8. 


NOS. XIII, TO XVIII, 


EDITED BY 


HENRY WOODWARD, F.G.S. F.Z.S. 


Assisted by 


PROFESSOR JOHN MORRIS, F.G.S. &c. &e. 


AND 


ROBERT ETHERIDGE, F.R:S.E. F.G.8. &c. 


WADIDS UE 
JANUARY—DECEMBER 1865, 


LONDON: 
LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD, 14 RUE DE BUCT 
LEIPSIC: LUDWIG DENICKE. NEW YORK: WILLMER & ROGERS. 
1865. 


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PRINTED BY 


-NEW-STREET SQUARE 


LIST OF PLATES. 


I. If, Anthrakerpeton, Coal, South Wales 
_ IIL. Paleocetus, Henldemelae : 
IV. Surface-marks on Carboniferous Gandenone 
V. Woodocrinus, Mountain-limestone 
VI. Alpine Structure 
VII. Sections near Llandudno, North Wales 
VIII... Echinodermata, lencitintnn ection 
IX. Wood in Chalk-flint, Winchester 
X. Mammalia, London Clay . 
XI. Crustacean Teeth, Scotland : : 
XI. Flemingites and (apt tlort obus, Coal anescmms 
XII Cauloptoris, Upper Greensand, Shaftesbury 


LIST OF WOODCUTS. 


Base of tooth of Anthrakerpeton . 

Cranial bone of Anthrakerpeton . 

Actinocrinus brevicalix : 

Section of strata near Ryde, Isle of Wight 
Sections of Mont Saléve 

Diagram of Upheaved Beds 

Diagram across the London Basin 

Langdale Pikes, seen from Blea Tarn . 

Section of a Natural Pit near Lexden, Essex 
Section of the Antwerp Crags : 

Section of the Carboniferous Rocks near Qanaciny 
Section of the Coal-measures at Kingswood 
Portion of the Jaws of Stereodus Melitensis 5 

The Idol and Pulpit Rocks.—Brimham rocks 
Section of the Carboniferous rocks of South Wales 
View of the Pennant Rocks 

View of Ebbw Vale 

Section of Kunjamullay 

The common Sand-hopper in its ane : 
Inversion of Cretaceous upon Tertiary Strata near lane 
Section of the Natural Pit at Lexden, in 1862 
Diagram to explain the formation of the Lexden Pit . 
Section of the Mountain-limestone at Corwen 


iv List of Woodcuts. 


View of Goat Crag, Cumberland 

Detached Blocks in Kirkstone Pass 

The Pillar Rock, Ennerdale ; : 
Sections of the ania of Carboniferous Hanastiane at Care 
Section of the rocks of North Wales . 

Section of the Vale of Clwyd 

Sketch of Bray Head, Wicklow . 

Section of the entree Rocks at Bray flead : 
Oldhamia antigua, Arenicohites didyma, and surface-tracks . 
Oldhamiu antiqua, Cambrian, Carrick Mountain . : 5 
Oldhamia radiata, showing successive layers ; 3 
Eistioderma Hibernicum . 

Fragment of Rock, grooved and wale De To. 

Toten Wright, Wenlock Shale, Dudley 


Section from Sandy Bay wd Hobart to New Norfolk, ene : 


Ideal Section of Hobart from Mount Wellington to Deane River 


Section in the Lightmoor Railway Cutting - - : 
Porana (?) Vectensis and P. Giningensis 5 

Section near Ely : 

Section in the Ely Pit 

Structure of Fruit of Calamite 


e 


" PAGE 


301 

301 

. 805 
826, 827 


. 493 
515 
516 
530 
532 
545 


THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. VIL_JANUARY 1865. 


ON SOME POINTS IN GEOLOGY AS SEEN TO-DAY. 
By the Eprror. 


ies our introductory observations on the past and present aspects 

of Geology, in No. I. of this Macazinr, we alluded to some 
special points much discussed now-a-days, such as ‘the origin of 
granite, the mode of formation of river-valleys, the excavation of 
lake-basins, the doctrine of homotaxis, and the origin of species.’ 
During our six-months’ existence, we have witnessed some advance 
in geological knowledge along these lines of research, though we 
cannot say that granite is much less mysterious, river-valleys and 
lake-basins far better understood, or the contemporaneity and suc- 
cession of species more easily explained, than heretofore. Yet 
geologists hold a taper in the darkness—a feeble light, showing the 
thick mist, and but little of the footway. Along this darksome path 
have gone the flitting letter of the ready writer, the weightier 
essay, the pamphlet, and the book,—all intended to be lights or 
signposts, and often fit and good. Indeed many have tried to illumine 
this track through the history of the past; and now where do we 
stand, and what can we discern around us? 

The four or five points of discussion above alluded to are neces- 
sarily of great importance to the Geologist ; and he can study them 
only with the help of Zoologist, Botanist, Physicist, and Chemist; 
and he must be paleontologist, mineralogist, and versed in the dy- 
namies of geology, if he expect to master them, for they refer to 
nearly all the divisions of his science. So close are the relations of 
fossils to strata, and of strata one to another and to other rock- 
masses, and of these to the earth as a whole, its atmosphere, its 
uneven surface of land and water, and all its living creatures, that, 
if we knew the history of species, their rise, succession, and distri- 
bution,—if we understood the modes in which all muds and sands 
and gravels have come down from high to lower levels, making 
heaps and shifting in beds, until, fixed by their own weight, and 
crushed perhaps in the foldings of a mountain-ridge, they are hard 
bound by chemical change, waiting for air and water to set them 

VOL. II.—NO. VII. B 


2 Some Points in Geology. 


free to act their part again,—if we knew all this, we should indeed 
be complete geologists, standing on our highest point! But what 
can we see now? Dowe see granite mountains, of recent date, 
‘piercing through the older mountains, and pushing them aside all 
around,’ fancying that ‘they have risen like giants even above the 
clouds, raised by the power of the hidden fires’? Notso. We have 
learnt of late, that, in accordance with the general structure of the 
globe, continental areas may be regarded as portions of the earth’s 
crust, crumpled at their edges by the lateral pressure effected by 
the sea-areas being dragged downward by contraction; and that 
this crumpling has produced elevated ridges or mountains, together 
with changes in the strata; limestones becoming marble; coal being 
purified into anthracite and graphite, and, may be, diamond ; sands 
changed to quartzites; clays and muds to slates and schists; nay, 
even gneiss and granite coming out from the further process of 
squeeze and heat and change of moist strata; the former structure 
lost, but the original elements still remaining; the silica and alumina, 
and their associated alkalis, metals, and so forth, being rearranged 
in crystalline and often gem-like forms. From another point of view 
we see horizontal and unaltered beds at first slightly undulated, 
then thrown into curves and sharp folds,their substance altered, even 
porphyries and trap-rocks here and there representing some of their 
layers, their fossils vanishing, their bedding scarcely traceable and 
crossed by planes of cleavage, as we go up the mountain-gorge. 
But if we do not lose sight or thought of the great curvatures and 
folds, we can still track out the comparatively thin and once bedded 
mass, a few hundred feet in thickness, now folded and crumpled, into 
elevated ridges of altered rock, and passing into a compressed heart 
of gneiss and granite,—the axis of the range, or nearly so. And this 
may altogether be not even of Paleozoic age; but Triassic beds, 
Jurassic, Cretaceous, or even Tertiary, may form the mass. Many 
a range of so-called primeval granite, gneiss, and slate, lapping one 
over the other successively for hundreds of thousands of feet, or of 
upright ‘primary schistus,’ miles across, will exhibit to the geolo- 
gist of to-day only many times repeated folds of an altered set of 
strate ; nor will their furthest change, or granitic form, be taken 
either for primeval or intrusive granite: and, whilst the latter may 
still be found, the former, or the hypothetical granite of a cooling 
globe, becomes a myth. 

Take America for example: we cannot follow Rogers across the 
Alleghanies, Hector across the Rocky Mountains and Vancouver, 
Whitney across the Californian ranges, Wall through Venezuela, 
Trinidad, and Jamaica, and D. Forbes across the Andes, without 
seeing the true relations of granitic and schistose rocks to strata. 
Sir William Logan’s accurate sections of Canada, when published, 
will show pre-eminently how gneissose rocks are bedded rocks ; quartz 
and silicates (felspar, mica, hornblende, &c.) replacing the sands and 
clays of early deposits: old shingle-beds are among them still, and 
their great marble-~beds are now known to be, partly, at least, of 
organic origin, like other limestones,—the foraminiferal Eozodén 


Some Points in Geology. 3 


having built them up by reef-like masses; and their graphite may 
have been coal, and their iron-ore and phosphates were probably 
formed, as now, in association with organic matter. This great 
‘Laurentian’ gneiss of Canada, Norway, and elsewhere, the oldest rock 
found by geologists stepping down from bed to bed, stage to stage, 
from one rock-system to another, from the present to the past, is 
sometimes almost a granite, sometimes almost a syenite, but still 
presents itself as a crumpled altered bedded rock, made of the old 
detritus of unknown shores, and associated with limestones of organic 
origin, just as sands, muds, shell-beds, and microzoal ooze are now 
formed in shallows and the deep. And if the Eozoan shell-crust, 
with its infilling of silicates, alone presents itself as witness of that 
unknown sea, are we to suppose that there were no other species 
then? Have we got back to the first of earth’s created beings? It 
is lowly and simple as an organism; the name of its natural order 
says as much—it is a Proto-zodn: ought it not to have been verily 
the first? That is not for us to say. ‘There are two things to be 
remembered—lst. It owes its preservation to the silicates of mag- 
nesia, alumina, &c. having filled its tubes and chambers in that old 
sea, just as a silicate of iron, alumina, &c. fills similar shells in the 
sea to-day; the water yielding different salts at different periods. 
2ndly. These similar shells (Foraminifera) of the present and the 
past live at great depths, covering the sea-bed there, and heaping 
lime and silicates that can be preserved alone when the ocean-floor 
has been upraised, with its gradually augmented coatings, and 
fashioned as dry land. Judging by analogy, then, the Eozoan rock of 
Canada was the foraminiferal formation in one part of an ocean 
which elsewhere may have borne manifold and higher species, and 
buried them in sands and muds, that have since lost all form and 
feature by the metamorphism of age and pressure, or which were 
altogether shorn away by wave and weather when the old ocean-bed 
was lifted up. 

Eozoén Canadense, with its free growth, cell by cell, over the 
large area of a square foot, and tier above tier for five or six inches, 
far exceeds even the wildest and most zoophytic or sponge-like 
of its existing representatives; and in this light we might think 
of it as amore repetitive and less specialized form; but it stands 
higher than the free-growing forms that we know, for it has a shell- 
structure of as delicate and high an organization as the highest 
Foraminifer—Nummulina. To that species it may be said to supply 
a free-growing form or condition, such as other species have; but, 
that this old Laurentian creature was essentially lower in the scale of 
being than its young Nummuline brother, is not the opinion of Dr. 
Carpenter, who has thought over it with the results of Dr. Dawson’s 
and his own examination of the fossil before him. 

A friend informs me that his microscope shows Eozoan structure 
in some of the green and white marble of Connemara. There then 
Laurentian rocks may be looked for. Sir Roderick Murchison 
demonstrated their existence in NW. Britain; Dr. Holl has boldly 
- argued that a Laurentian heart holds up the Malvern range; Mr. 
B 2 


4. Some Points in Geology. 


Salter discerns traces of these old rocks in Wales. In fact, all the 
metamorphic rocks are being referred to either one or other of the 
great rock-systems or groups of sand, mud, and limestone that have © 
succeeded one another with the changing outlines of land and sea; 
thus the Cretaceous limestones, clays, and sands (our Chalk, Gault; 
and Greensand), unaltered in England, are changed to marble, 
slate, and crystalline schist in Greece and elsewhere; and in Cali- 
fornia, as Mr. Whitney tells us, these and other Secondary strata are 
metamorphosed into the gold-bearing mountain-rocks. There is no 
evidence now of an ‘azoic’ period, nor is there a separate under- 
lying ‘metamorphic system,’ such as old school-books teach; and 
thus one hindrance in threading the maze of mountain-structure is 
removed. 

Aswe have now more correct views than heretofore as to the 
internal structure of mountains and continents, so we may regard 
as approximately true our notions of the methods by which the tops 
and flanks of ridges have been chiselled out of the upraised strata, 
hard and soft, crystalline and earthy, bent, folded, and overturned, 
as the case may be; and by which the slopes and plains were laid 
out, and channelled with converging drainage-lines, that begin at 
the crest of the neighbouring mountains and reach to the sea, with 
snow-fields, glaciers, torrents, streams, tarns, lakes, rivers, and 
deltas characterizing this and that portion of their course. But in 
both cases we want very much information as to details; as to 
the different stages of the various operations, and as to the parti- 
cular share taken by the several agents in the work. Of late the 
action of Glaciers has been a favourite study, and the actual 
work they now perform has been taken as a measure for the enor- 
mous effects of their transporting and grinding power when frost, 
snow, and ice reigned supreme in the northern hemisphere and on 
all high ranges. The frost breaks the surface of the rock, the 
glaciers carry the fragments along gorges and valleys, grinding 
those channels wider and deeper; and, removing the débris as far as 
they reach, drop it with icebergs into the sea, or, in milder climates, 
leave some of it as moraines, and give up a portion to the under- 
working river that runs from its foot. The glacier, like water, has 
followed a drainage-line ;—did this channel first begin in the wear 
and tear of waves on an uprising shoal, or is the furrowed ridge 
itself a sharp-edged remnant of a great plain, worn smooth by waves, 
and then left to be eaten into by air and water, chemically and 
mechanically, until by little and little, by the wedging and grinding 
of ice, by storm and torrent, nearly all has been removed? In both 
cases (and they would each depend, in all their modifications, on 
length of time and rate of uprise, whilst the land was subjected to 
wave-action ), it is possible that the drainage-lines would have their 
directions given them by slight inequalities of the surface, and dif- 
ferences in the texture of the rock ; but it is argued that not only must 
the many cracks and faults traversing the strata (more than ever 
will be shown on any map), and the many lines of weakness along 
the edges of tilted and folded beds, have given primary direction to 


Some Points in Geology. is, 


the great drainage-lines, but that for the most part the gorges of 
mountains, the rivers and fiords of rocky districts, and many smaller 
valleys and coombs, whether now occupied by water or not, indicate 
lines of fracture, and so assist in elucidating the structure of a 
country. And this is supported by the frequent coincidence of 
valleys with hitehes and curves of strata; the more so, as the broken 
arches of long undulations, or of elliptical or other domes, exhibit 
such branching and radiating drainage-systems as actually cor- 
respond more or less to geometrical rules. Some ignore faults in 
strata as productive of any line of weakness such as would tempt 
a trickling stream along their course; but the outcoming of springs 
along faults may certainly have marked out valley-lines; and in 
limestone, at least, and granite, fissures of dislocation or of contrac- 
.tion do carry the water-streams, and the smaller rills converge to 
feed them. 

In the history of the lower portions of river-valleys, we have 
been enlightened by the researches of Fergusson on the Bengal delta, 
Prestwich on some French and English rivers, Doyne on some 
rivers in New Zealand, Ellet on the Mississippi, and of other ob- 
servers. 

The origin of lakes is of great interest too. Many are merely 
dammed up valleys, like artificial reservoirs, always pressing against 
the gravel-heaps that hold them; some lie in expanded parts of 
valleys where soft rocks have been sapped-away; but some seem 
to have been neatly hollowed out of hard rock, with definite edges, 
like a saucer; such are many mountain-tarns, and such are the great 
Alpine lakes, according to Ramsay and others. The glacier, in its 
course, impinging on the ground where the slope is favourable and 
a check is received, can, it is said, scoop out a basin for a tarn ; and 
why, it is asked, should not the larger ice-masses of the Glacial 
Period have ground out the larger, but not disproportionate lake- 
basins of Switzerland, even where neither fissures nor folds have 
weakened the rocky surface? Wind and sand may hollow out 
small rock-basins in rotting granite: a pebble, the plaything of the 
torrent or the tide, may worry out a pot-hole in the river-bed or on 
the sea-shore; but wind and water could not, it is thought, excavate 
such basins as the great lakes; and certainly they lie in the path of 
old glaciers. Their origin as glacier-beds has been denied, by say- 
ing that glaciers do not grind at all, and by other more forcible 
arguments, to all which Professor Ramsay has already given fair and 
powerful replies. The complete proof of his hypothesis may yet be 
wrung from the glacial phenomena of the greater mountains of the 
world. 

For our part, the GzotocicaL Macazine has already served as a 
channel for much valuable information on the vexed geological 
questions of the day; and amongst home and foreign news relating 
to the many topics that we have to deal with, our readers will con- 
tinue to find facts and inferences as to how granite has been formed, 
how river-valleys and lake-basins have been excavated, and how 
species have come and gone. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
—-4-—_— 


I. DESCRIPTION OF SOME REMAINS OF AN AIR-BREATHING VERTE- 
BRATE (ANTHRAKERPETON CRASSOSTEUM, Ow.) FROM THE CoOAL- 
SHALE OF GLAMORGANSHIRE. 


By Prof. Owsn, F.RB.S., &e. 


QIN CE the discovery of remains of air-breathing Vertebrates 

in the Coal-shales of Carluke,* several other evidences of 
a like grade of organization have been obtained from Scotch 
Carboniferous deposits ; but I had not, until the present year, 
seen any such fossils from English or Welsh formations of the 
same antiquity. The specimens figured in Plate I., however, 
give evidence of the fact. They were , discovered by J ohn Edward 
Lee, Esq., F.G.S., in the much disturbed coal-beds at Llan- 
trissent, Glamorganshire, which are referable to the lower part 
of the ‘ Middle,’ if not to the upper part of the ‘ Lower,’ Coal- 
measures. 

The specimens include an impression of part of the integument, 
with a few of the scutules, Pl. I. fig. 1; portions of long, slender, 
curved bones like ribs, fig. 2; part of the roof of the cranium, 
associated with a long, nearly straight, slender bone, and part of a 
similar bone, slightly bent, figs. 8 & 4; portions of two straight 
slender bones, fig. 5; portion of a symmetrical bone, probably from 
the naso-palatine chamber of the skull, fig. 6; portions of ribs, fig. 7; 

. ; parts near the articular ends of 
bones, figs. 8 & 9. There is, also, 
(®) what seems to be the base of a 
tooth, anchylosed to a rough rising 

-> of bone, according to the ‘acrodont’ 
Fig. 1. a, Base of tooth, anchylosed to alveo- type, broken away from the alveo- 

lar process; 0, c, magnified. co 

lar border of a jaw, ewt, fig. 1, a, b. 

The base of the tooth, fig. 1, ec, has a full oval, almost circular, trans- 
verse section, exposing a pulp-cavity, the diameter of which is half 
that of the fractured part of the tooth, surrounded by dense dentine, 
with a glossy fracture, without any distinct outer enamel or layer of 
other substance: there is no trace of linear impressions on its exterior, 
although the part preserved corresponds to the beginning of the base 
of the tooth, where the inflections of the cement, which give rise to 
the converging lines or labyrinthic windings, are seen in the teeth of 
some Labyrinthodonts, in which the upper two-thirds or half of the 
crown of the tooth may be entire. 

The portion of cranial bone is impressed with small circular pits 
which, toward one side of the bone, elongate and run into wavy grooves, 


* Parabatrachus Colei, Owen; ‘Quart. Journ. Geological Society,’ 1858, vol. xi., 
p. 67, pl. 2, fig. 1. ; 


Owen—New Reptile from the Coal. ts 


anastomosing and causing the reticulo-striate and divergent impres- 
sions characteristic of Ganocephalous and Labyrinthodont cranial 
bones; cut, fig. 2. The expanded end of a long bone, PI. I. fig. 8, has 
not terminated in a smooth, well-ossified surface supporting articular 
cartilage for a synovial joint, but 
has terminated, like some limb- 
bones in existing Perennibran- 
chiate Batrachians, in unossified 
fibro-cartilage, showing in its pre- 
sent state the matrix in a finely 
granular state, surrounded by a 
thin film of bone: this rapidly 
thickens as the articular surface 
contracts into the shaft, where, 
at the point of fracture, a small 
subcentral unossified tract is ex- _‘ Fig. 2. Part of cranial bone (PI. I. fig. 3) ; 
magnified. 

posed. 

The portion of bone fig. 9 indicates a similar incompletely ossified 
condition of the articular expansion; where, however, the thin outer 
crust of bone is continued from the periphery across the short 
diameter, leaving or marking out two unossified spaces filled by 
matrix, and which I infer, from Batrachian analogies, to have 
originally contained unossified cartilage. The side of the bone is 
longitudinally impressed, indicating the coalescence or connation of 
a pair of bones, and the fracture of the shaft, as in that of the con- 
nate tibia and fibula of the Frog, shows the confluence of the two 
unossified tracts into one, simulating a medullary cavity. The frac- 
tured ends of the other long and slender bones are remarkable for 
the contracted area of the corresponding cavity, and for the density 
and thickness of the surrounding bony wall. 

Such a section is figured, magnified 50 diameters, in Pl. II. fig. 1; 
and microscopical evidence of the Batrachian character of the 
bone is given in fig. 2, longitudinal section, and fig. 3, transverse 
section, of the ‘ bone-cells,’ magnified 222 diameters. 

In both size and shape these bone-cells closely correspond with 
those of Baphetes planiceps, from the Pictou Coal, Nova Scotia. . 


The present portions of the skeleton of the air-breather from 
the Welsh Coal indicate a species intermediate in size between 
Baphetes planiceps and Dendrerpeton Acadianum. The ribs 
were longer than they are known to be in any Labyrinthodont; 
and they were better developed in that extinct group than they 
are in Ganocephalans or in modern Batrachians. 

The structure of these long and slender bones, as of the 
thicker limb-bones, shows that the cavity was not truly medul- 
lary, but had been occupied by unossified chondrine, as in 
perennibranchiate Batrachia, and in the bones of many Fishes 
that are hollow after maceration, and show in the fossil state 
cavities, like medullary spaces, occupied by matrix. 


8 Rose—Valley-Deposits of the Nar. 


I conclude from such evidence as has hitherto been submitted 
to me, and for which I heartily thank Mr. Lee, that the An- 
thrakerpeton from the Welsh Coal belonged to that low, pro- 
bably primitive, air-breathing type, which, with developmental 
conditions of the bones like those in some Fishes, and very 
common in Devonian Fishes, showed forms of the skeleton more 
resembling those in Saurian Reptiles than are attained by any of 
the more specialized Batrachian air-breathers of the present day. 

I propose, in reference to the characteristic density and 
thickness of the walls of almost all the long bones hitherto ob- 
tained of this air-breather, to name it_Anthrakerpeton crassosteum. 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 


Prate I, 


. Portion of Coal-shale with impression of the integument and a few 
scutules. 

. Portion of Coal-shale with portions of two ribs. 

. Portion of Coal-shale with part of the cranium and of a long and 
slender bone. 

. Smaller portion of a similar bone on the opposite side of the shale. 

. Portion of shale with parts of two slender, straight, and pointed 
benes. 

. Portion of a symmetrical, grooved, flat bone; gw. from naso-palatine 
cavity ? 

. Portion of shale with slender posterior ribs. 

. Articular end of humerus? or femur? 

. Articular end of connate leg-bones P 


coOon oe cobs 


Pruare II, 


. Transverse section of a long bone; magnified 50 diameters. 
. Section of part of the bone in the direction of the long axis of the 
bone-cells ; magnified 222 diameters. 
. Section of part of the bone near the central cavity, taken transversely 
to the long axis of the bone-cells. 
These sections were prepared, and the drawings of them made on stone, 
by Jonn Epwarp Luz, Hsq., F.G.S., the discoverer of this extinct Coal 
Reptile. 


Fig. 


wee 


isu) 


II. On tHe BrRicK-EARTH OF THE NAR. 
By C. B. Ross, F.G.S. 


aN POST-TERTIARY deposit, under the above denomina- 
tion, hes upon the ‘ Drift’ in the valley through which 

the River Nar takes its course towards its junction with the 
Ouse at Lynn; the united streams terminating in the Wash, 
an estuary bounded by the shores of Norfolk and Lincolnshire. 
This Post-tertiary deposit I have traced along the valley 
from Narford to Watlington, a distance of about nine miles, 


Geol. Mag 1865 PLA 


+ 
mp: 


c 


nar 


L 


J 


na 


A 
Bs) 
s 


h Wales. 


e 


+ 


Sou 


Pp 


oal of 


J 


a 


he 


U 


from 


(eat. Mag 1865. PlIL. 


STRUCTURE OF REPTILIAN B ONE. 
(magnified ) 


Rose— Valley-Deposits of the Nar. | 9 


and it contains several genera of existing Testacea. From its 
situation, physical composition, and animal contents, we may 
safely conclude that its site was, at a not very remote period 
(speaking geologically), the bed of an extensive sea-creek, re- 
ceiving the water of the Nar and Ouse; its embouchure 
towards the German Ocean being what is now called the Wash ; 
and that its present emerged state resulted from an elevation of 
the land, aided by a depression of the trough of the German 
Ocean. 

Having in the ‘ Philosophical Magazine’ for 1836, when I 
first introduced this deposit to the public, given a description of 
its character and position at certain localities, I shall now only 
contribute some additional localities, which I have examined 
since the above date; and give an extended list of the organic 
remains found therein. 

I may here express my conviction that the geological era of 
this Nar deposit coincides with that of the Post-tertiary de- 
posits of the basin of the Clyde. 


At East Winch Brick-field, now levelled and deserted, the blue 
clay (mud) varies in thickness from two to twelve feet, and towards 
the deeper part it becomes a sandy silt, containing shells (particu- 
larly Oysters) in great abundance. A tooth of Kquus caballus was 
found deep in the clay, in the presence of Sir C. Lyell, who in 1839 
accompanied me to this and other localities of the deposit. At an- 
other time, a Buccinum undatum was taken up from a depth of 
twelve feet. An epiphysial bone of a Ruminant was also taken out 
of the clay here. In this yard, between the old diggings and the 
road, the brick-earth lies within a foot of the surface; it is light- 
bluish-brown clay, gradually passing into a blackish-blue as it 
descends; and it is covered by a sandy loam. At the surface of the 
clay, or rather in the upper few inches of it, shells of Corbula 
nucleus are profusely distributed, affording unmistakable evidence 
of its being an original bed of that mollusc. 

In a drain at the back of Mr. Spinks’s farm-house, near to West 
Bilney Church, the section is as follows :—Immediately beneath the 
vegetable soil there is a deposit of silt, to the depth of four or five 
feet, probably the accumulation of repeated warpings ; then occurs one 
foot of moor (peat), containing roots, &c., and immediately beneath 
it the brick-earth, with its characteristic Shells. Bilney Brick-yard, 
described in 1836, lies near to this spot. 

Two hundred yards to the north of the Car-stone-pit at the back 
of Bilney Hall, in the valley, on Bilney Common, and opposite to 
Foster’s Farm at East Winch, is a pit among fir-trees, where I ob- 
served, Ist, an upper layer of sandy ochraceous loam, containing 
small angular, reddish flints, one foot; 2nd, a grey sandy loam, two 
feet; 3rd, blue argillaceous earth, as at the brick-yard, containing 
Oysters; this was sunk into four feet. In a portion of this pit a 


10 Rose — Valley- Deposits of the Nar. 


moor (peat) is visible lying upon the-brick-earth, in which I under- 
stand Mammalian remains have been discovered. 

On Pentney Warren, to the left of the East Walton Road, I 
found a moor (peat) containing all the fresh-water Shells of the 
neighbouring rivulets, lying immediately upon the marine brick- 
earth. In other parts of the Warren the brick-earth appears in a 
regularly horizontal bed, from three to four feet beneath a deposit 
of sand containing small angular flints, some of them having their 
angles slightly rounded off ; this latter deposit having been in all 
probability the result of repeated inundations during the emergence 
of this district from beneath the water. On East Walton Common, 
adjoining the last-mentioned locality, may be seen in the margin of 
a pit containing water, a layer of large Oyster-shells, eighteen inches 
below the surface of the ground; and four feet below this layer, the 
Oysters, with Aporrhais pes-pelecani, and other Shells their usual 
associates, are jumbled together in great abundance. 

In East Winch, at the late Mr. Foster’s brick-yard, I observed 
that immediately beneath the vegetable soil lies a coarse red gravel, 
coarser than I have met with at any other site of the Nar brick- 
earth; it is here associated with a loam that is used to make a red 
ware; the blue brick-earth lying beneath this burns into an excel- 
lent white brick. The gravel and loam vary in thickness from two 
to seven feet; then appears the blue earth, which has been sunk 
into eighteen feet. It becomes darker as you descend, and at the 
depth of six feet you meet with large Oysters, forming layers, and a 
few are interspersed through the clay, associated with Aporrhais pes- 
pelecani, Natica, Mactra, Buccinum, and Tellina; a Horse’s tooth 
was also found here. This locality is on the side of the valley 
opposite to Bilney Hall, and is a portion of the northern margin of 
the original creek. With regard to the occurrence of a coarse gravel’ 
upon the brick-earth at this locality, I am disposed to attribute it to 
the excavating power of the waves upon that gravel of which the 
high ground immediately bordering the creek at this spot consists ; 
and consequently it must have in part have belonged to a subaérial 
proceeding. I had not adopted this view when I described this 
locality in 1836. 

A section at the the Tottenhill Brick-field exposes the following 
beds. ‘This locality is on the south-western border of the valley, 
adjoining to Watlington, beyond which parish this deposit of Shells 
has not been traced; the River Nar, in its valley, here trending 
northwards towards Lynn. 


Section at Tottenhill Brick-field. 


Ist. Vegetable soil, and a loam composed of sand and clay, enclosing 
a great abundance of smooth and rounded flint-pebbles, some 
as large as oranges, and others of smaller sizes, chiefly of an 
oval form, precisely like those on a pebbly beach; there are 
also among them a few angular flints, with their corners 
partially rounded. Depth of this stratum 3 to 6 feet. 

2nd. Blue brick-earth, containing but few shells until near the 
bottom of the pit, the depth of which is 14 feet. Large 


fiose— Valley-Deposits of the Nar. 11 


Oyster-shells are met with in a layer at the depth of 12 feet 
within the clay; and beneath them Aporrhais pes-pelecani, 
and other molluscs, are plentifully interspersed. In this bed, 
also, some blackened fragments of wood occur. 

3rd. The above two beds lie upon a blackish sand of the Lower 
Greensand. 

No. 1 of this section exhibits a portion of the south-western shore 
of the former marine creek; and the pit in the Walton field near 
Narford, described in my original ‘ Sketch of the Geology of West 
Norfolk,’* leads me to consider that spot to be a part of the north- 
eastern margin of the same creek. The outline of this deposit may 
be readily traced on the Ordnance-map of the district. To my 
‘Sketch’ I added a copy of that portion of the map. 


I believe that I have now exhausted my memoranda relating 
to this deposit ;+ I have before stated that its traced length is 
about nine miles, its average breadth is less than a mile. It is 
dificult to determine its thickness; I was informed at West 
Bilney, that, when sinking a well, shells were brought up from 
the depth of 40 feet. 


Organic Remains from the Post-tertiary Deposits of the Valley of 
the Nar. 


Vermilia triquetra (on Ostrea); West Bilney. 

Ostrea edulis; the majority large old shells ; at all the localities. 
Cardium echinatum, rare; East Winch. 

C. edule; East Winch and West Bilney. 

Corbula nucleus; East Winch and West Bilney. 

Mactra subtruncata ; East Winch and West Bilney. 

M. solida; West Bilney. 

Mytilus edulis ; Pentney- Warren. 

Pecten varius; West Bilney and Walton Field. 

Tellina solidula; West Bilney and East Winch. 

T. proxima; Tottenhill. 

Cerithium reticulatum ; West Bilney. 

Turritella communis ; West Bilney and East Winch. 

Nassa incrassata ; West Bilney. 

Aporrhais pes-pelecani; very abundant at all the localities. 
Litorina litorea; very numerous, of all ages, and at, all localities. 
L., litoralis; rare ; West Bilney. 

Natica nitida; abundant, of all ages ; West Bilney and East Winch. 
Pleurotoma septangularis; rare; Pentney. 

Scrobicularia piperata (F. and H.); Pentney. 

Mya arenaria, jun. ; a fragment; Pentney. 

Montacuta bidentata; Pentney. 

Hydrobia ulve; Pentney. 


* London and Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. vil, Jan. 1836, pp. 197-199. 
{ See also Mr. Trimmer’s remarks on these Post-tertiary deposits of the Nar and 
neighbouring valley of Gaytonthorpe, Geol. Soc. Journ., vol. xvii., pp. 23 & 26. 


1? Rofe—New Actinocrinus. 


Pullastra decussata ; rare; Pentney and Bilney. 

Placunomia patelliformis ; rare; Pentney. 

Syndosmia alba; rare; Pentney. 

Buccinum undatum; rare; Pentney. 

Spines of Echinus miliaris (E. Forbes)? ; Pentney Warren. 
Balanus; imperfect, only one valve; Pentney. 

Elephas primigenius ; teeth and vertebra; East Winch and Narford. 
Rhinoceros tichorhinus ; fragments of teeth; East Winch. 

Equus caballus ; teeth ; E. Winch and Bilney. 

Cervus elaphus; fragments of antlers; West Bilney. 


Dr. S. P. Woodward, F.G.S., obligingly identified the 
Molluscs of this list with their recent congeners. Professor 
Otto Torell, of Lund, on a brief visit to me last year, recog- 
nized among these fossils several identical with those found in 
a similar deposit at Uddevalla in Sweden. 


Ill. Descrietion or A New SPECIES OF AcTINOCRINUS FROM THE 
MouNTAIN-LIMESTONE OF LANCASHIRE. 


By Joun Rorg, F.G.S. 
MONGST a number of Crinoidal remains collected from 


the Mountain-limestone near Clitheroe, in Lancashire, I 
found one which differs from any I have before seen, and which 
is believed to be new. This is as yet unique, and is now in the 
British Museum. 

The fossil is an Actinocrinus, of the subgenus Amphoracrinus, 
taking M. de Koninck’s view that Amphoracrinus is only a sub- 
genus or group. 


Fig. 2. View of the under- Fig. 1. Side-view. Fig. 3. Diagram of the ‘cup.’ 
side of the ‘ cup.’ : 


Actinocrinus (Amphoracrinus) brevicalix, Rofe. a, a, anal plate. 7, 7, 2, 7, inter-radial plates. 


The ‘cup’ of this species is remarkably shallow, the depth not 
being equal to quite one-fourth of the whole height. In this re- 
spect it resembles Actinocrinus Atlas, McCoy (Palzxozoie Fossils 
Camb. Mus., pl. 3, fig. 5); but it altogether differs from it in other 


Roberts—Pre-Cambrian Rocks. 13 


points, particularly in the arrangement of the ‘radial plates ;’ as, in 
that now under consideration the first two bifurcations of these plates 
form part of the ‘cup,’ which arrangement expands the arms so much, 
before they spring from the ‘cup,’ as to leave space for only a very 
narrow plate between them. 

The ‘pelvis’ or ‘base’ is hexagonal, tripartite, and very little larger 
than the attachment of the stem; aperture pentaphylloid ; the first 
‘primary radial’ is hexagonal, nearly half as wide again as long; the 
second ‘primary’ also hexagonal, about twice as wide as long; the 
third, or ‘scapula,’ as wide as the second, but cuneiform; and on 
each of its upper or bevel-faces there is another cuneiform or second 
‘radial plate,’ carrying on each of its bevel-faces the first arm-plate. 
There are four sets of three ‘interradial plates’ and four ‘anal plates,’ 
besides the narrow plates between the arms. The above plates are 
attached to each other, and form the ‘cup,’ from which spring twenty 
‘arms.’ ‘The ‘dome,’ or visceral portion above the arms, is very lofty 
in comparison with the ‘cup.’ The plates in the first row above the 
arms are much longer than wide, and give an appearance very dif- 
ferent from that of any other published species of this genus, found 
in the Mountain-limestone; above this row the plates are smaller, 
and of various shapes, except the summit-plates which are similar in 
their proportion and arrangement to those usual in Amphoracrinus,-— 
that is, one large plate at the summit surrounded by six other plates 
and the ‘proboscis.’ In the specimen here described the proboscis — 
is broken off, and the stem and arms are unknown. 

The height is 13 lines; depth of the ‘cup’ not quite 3 lines; dia- 
meter at the top of the ‘cup’ 12 lines long from the anal side to the 
anterior arms; transverse diameter or width 11 lines. 


‘From the peculiar form of this fossil I propose for it the 
name of Actinocrinus (Amphoracrinus) brevicalizx, 


IV. On tHe EXiIstence or Pre-CampBriAN LIFE-ERAS. 
By Gzorcz E. Rogrrts, F.G.S., Hon.Sec.A.S.L. 


es has been no lack, in the history of geological science, of 

suggestions as to how our knowledge may be advanced upon 
those obscure questions which yet ask for solution, both in the 
physical and palzontological departments of the study. Sometimes, 
by asurprising intellectual endeavour, we have been carried up to 
the moon, and asked to discover where its missing waters are, with- 
out which our useful satellite appears to be a sort of ‘house to let,’ 
—the idea having got into the mind which originated the enquiry, 
that the earth bad appropriated the said waters for the necessities of 
a supposed cataclysmal epoch. Also, we have been taken down, by 
speculative thinkers, at divers times, to depths beneath our terra- 
queous surface, and asked to pin some fundamental articles of 
faith upon schemes which show all existing there to be either fire, 
or water, or a zone of meteorite-mineral, or one of solid steel, or that, 
nothing existing there, the interior of our planet is a vacuum. It 


14 Roberts—Pre- Cambrian Rocks. 


certainly cannot be said that in either of these distinct departments 
of research,—studies whose materials appear to be as far removed 
from our use as are the ‘data’ derived from the hypotheses they have 
given birth to, from the geological laws which we at present accept, 
we have made any progress which can be termed ‘rapid,’ towards 
giving them a permanent place in the scheme of geological time. 
But there lies upon the nearest confines of the more immediately 
terrestrial study, a certain kingdom of research into which some few 
honest and earnest workers have been of late casting lines of scien- 
tific enquiry. And as this study, which yp to a very recent date 
might have been designated as one quite outside the domains of 
paleontology, does not require the aid either of a balloon, or a diving- 
bell, or a chain and windlass of unknown length and power, but may 
be entered upon with the ordinary appliances of a geological observer, 
to wit, certain tools of the smithery, good eyes, and a patient temper, 
I may, probably, be allowed to popularize somewhat the position of 
the rock-material necessary to it. 

Once upon a time, all granite-rocks were considered to be of the 
same pre-anything age. ‘That idea, of course, is exploded now; but 
I believe that I may really say that (saving the simple acknowledg- 
ment put forth in our latest manuals, that ‘granite may be of any 
age’) the alteration in high geological quarters respecting the age 
and condition of. other rocks, allied in the old text-books with 
granite, such as syenites, hornblendic schists, tourmaline-bearing 
felspars, and felspathic rocks generally, is as yet either unknown, or 
at least not so known that it may be turned to scientific and useful 
account by the majority of our field-working geologists—the source, 
in so many instances, of new and valuable lines of geological en- 
quiry. When, last year, and again in the July of the present one, I 
examined a large series of rock-specimens obtained from the cuttings 
on the line of the Mid-Scottish Railway (from Perth to Inverness), 
I was greatly struck with the petrological value of the series of 
specimens of gneissic and other metamorphosed rocks so exposed. 
The specimens which I obtained comprised some of rocks previously 
unknown in Britain. Probably the best term to designate them by 
would be tourmaline-bearing felspars, with a tendency to become 
eneissoid. But it is difficult to express by any term, however com- 
plex, the aspect of a rock which, in a single hand-specimen, exhi- 
bited thirteen different minerals. As far as I know, no rock has 
been found presenting any natural alliance with them nearer than 
Norway and Finland on the east and Canada on the west. But 
these natural equivalents, in position and mineralogical character, 
are very valuable to us as indicative of relationships. And when, 
as the question broadens, the so-called syenites of the Malverns 
claim, through the investigations of Dr. Holl, a place in the scheme 
which Iam about to draw for the pre-Cambrian age, and also the 
rocks, so irregularly presented, of Charnwood forest ask for re- 
cognition, I think I may reasonably draw the attention of those 
geologists, more happily situated than myself for purposes of investi- 
gation, to the question, How much of life-bearing time can be con- 


Roberts—Pre- Cumbrian Rocks. 15 


ceded to eras beyond the ‘ Cambrian’?* The question is not now 
whether any evidences of life have been found, because that has been 
already most satisfactorily settled by Sir W. BE. Logan; nor yet does 
it depend on any boundary arbitrarily fixed between the Lower 
Silurian, Cambrian, or Huronian; it is rather a question of the 
extension of those or cf other forms of ‘ Fundamental Gneiss’ or 
‘Laurentian’ life. For it cannot be supposed that the gigantic 
foraminifers of the Canadian Loganite-rock will long stand alone in 
the catalogue of what, as yet, may be termed primeval life. 

Let our primitive mountain-chains be examined minutely for 
their contained layers of altered limestone or serpentine, for I am 
convinced that rocks of such characters are to be met with in many 
hitherto unsearched parts of Britain, and who shall say that life- 
relics may not be obtained from them? Markings which to the 
unassisted eye appear but as blotches and stains, may be, by micro- 
scopical aid, resolved into evidences of life more ancient than any 
yet detected in Britain. Sir R. I. Murchison, whose sagacity led 
him to place the fundamental gneissic and other rocks of the Western 
Isles beneath all life-bearing rocks in Britain, kas opened out a new 
kingdom of research; and the note of pilotage which has been 
sounded from the probably still more ancient kingdom of Laurentia 
has an assuring sound, telling us that, though unseen rocks may lie 
in the way of our ventures into the unknown sea, they are those 
which will aid us in our search, and probably reward us with the 
objects for which we seek. I would suggest, therefore, to those spe- 
cially interested in Paleozoic geology, that it would add greatly to 
the success of the enterprise, if the subject were noticed monthly in 
the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE by contributions, however small, from 
those who are able by proximity to mountain-chains of undoubted 
or suspected ‘Cambrian’ or pre-Cambrian age, to search narrowly 
into the mineralogical character of the rocks composing them. Such 
notes should also contain the petrology of the hills thus studied, 
and, when possible, chemical analyses of the rocks, carried out on 
the plan adopted by the Rev. Mr. Timins, in his analyses of the Mal- 
vern syenites, in which range Dr. Holl has obtained clear evidence 
of stratal deposition. We greatly need in England the labours of 
men like my venerable friend Dr. Nils Nordenskidld, of Frugard, 
who, with the aid of his son, Prof. Adolph Nordenskiéld, of Stock- 
holm, has chemically and mineralogically analysed almost every 
Finnish and Scandinavian rock, a nearly complete series of which 
I had lately the pleasure of receiving from him. Such labours 
cannot be too highly appreciated by paleontologists, for chemically 
altered paleeozoic rocks are very suggestive of fossils. Perhaps it is 
not too much to say that Sir W. Logan’s discoveries have quite dis- 
posed of the term ‘ Azoic,’ as applied to any rocks, save those erupted 
beyond all question from volcanic sources. 

In conclusion, it may be well to offer for the refreshment of our 


* Tuse the term ‘ Cambrian’ in designation of certain pre-Silurian rocks de- 
scribed by our English Nestor, Professor Sedgwick, and to which may be referred 
the ‘ Primordial zone’ of the Paradoxides-bearing rocks of St. Dayid’s. 


16 Notices of Memoirs. 


insatiate minds, a brief statement how far back an ‘ancestral’ 
lineage has extended, zoologically and stratigraphically, in order of 
time. Though it is not an easy task for any geologist to arrange 
chronologically the sedimentary deposits between the lowest accepted 
Silurian and the zone at which all differences of opinion cease as to 
the existence of life, merely because we have, as yet, in Britain 
discovered no trace of its existence. But confessedly there is an 
enormous lapse of time between these two limits; and, as an un- 
doubted discovery of life-remains has been made, very nearly upon 
the lower confines of the older series of strata, we may reasonably 
ask for search—a constant and active search—into rocks of ages 
intermediate in time. ; 

In the Longmynd rock, suggested to be of Cambrian age, near 
Church Stretton in Shropshire, Mr. Salter discovered some traces of 
vermicular life (Worm-burrows, ‘ Arenicolites’) and a fossil organic 
relic, supposed at first to belong to a Trilobite, but since dis- 
covered to be a part of the shelly covering of the extinct phyllopodous 
crustacean, Ceratiocaris. Several other endeavours have been made 
since to discover more, or even a correspondent fragment, of this 
ancient shrimp-like Crustacean; but even a pilgrimage undertaken 
by Prof. Morris and myself to the classical spot, to which we were 
. guided by Mr. Marston, of Ludlow, failed; for, although we broke a 
few hundredweights of the shaly stone of the mountain, no remains 
of the ancient crustacean rewarded our labour. Still I am con- 
vinced that at some future time the swelling hills of the Longmynd 
will disclose, to geologists who can spare more time to their inves- 
tigation, a more satisfactory account of those relics of ancient life 
which they undoubtedly contain. 

Here, then, studies open out to us which will repay those who 
take them up ; for what can be a grander thought for an enthusiastic 
field-geologist, who looks upon a mountain which he has formerly 
considered as of ‘granitic’ or ‘azoic’ age, than that such a monu- 
ment of the world’s existence contains, close-treasured within its 
rocky bounds, evidences of a more ancient life-light than that which 
had previously illumined the confines of his knowledge ? 


ABSTRACTS OF FOREIGN MEMOTRS. 
ree 
On Brackish WatrErRs AND THEIR Deposits. By Dr. Lorenz. (Proceed. Imp. 
Acad. Vienna, Dee. 10, 1863.) 

CCORDING to Dr. Lorenz’s observations in the Adriatic, espe- 
cially at the mouth of the Fiumara, fresh water poured into a 
tideless sea, somewhat deep near the shore, forms a rather limited 
brackish stratum spreading over the salt water in form of a wedge, 
the lateral planes of which at first converge in a steep and subse- 
quently in a very acute angle. At the mouth of the Fiumara, the 
horizontal extent of this wedge is to its initial vertical altitude as 
700 to 1. ‘The conditions at the mouth of the Elbe are quite differ- 


Notices of Memoirs. 1 


ent; this river flowing into a sea shallow throughout, and regularly 
stirred to its bottom by very violent tidal currents. In the summer 
of 1863, Dr. Lorenz, having ascertained the specific gravity of water 
taken in different depths at fifty points along a line of nine geogra- 
phical miles from Neuhaus to Heligoland, states with confidence 
that there is no brackish stratum spreading over perfect sea-water 
at the mouth of the Elbe: the brackish water, gradually passing into 
completely salt water, extends to the sea-bottom. The water here, 
however, taken as a whole, is divisible into a system of obtuse 
wedges ; so that constantly a wedge of fresh water, with its edge 
turned seaward, is sliding over a wedge of somewhat more saline 
water. The components (length, thickness, and angles of conver- 
gence of the lateral planes) of these wedges, when construed by 
means of average values for any fresh-water current, may serve as 
a basis for an empirical formula, by the aid of which (the transversal 
section and velocity of this current, the depth and shape of the 
marine basins into which it flows, and the nature of the tides in it 
being known), the dimensions of the bulk of brackish waters and 
the distribution of salinity in them, may be approximately deter- 
mined. Besides the physical interest connected with them, such 
determinations are highly interesting, in respect to their influence 
on the distribution of both living and fossil organic beings. 
Count M. 


On THE Liassic CrinompAL LimesTonr oF FREIAND, ImBACH-GRABEN, AND GRos- 
sav, Lower Austria. By Professor Prrers. (Proceed. Imp. Geol. Institut. 
Vienna, March 15, 1864.) 

HE limestones of the first two of these localities, closely allied to 
the Hierlatz-strata of the Eastern Alps, contain Rhynchonella 
furcillata, Theod., Waldheimia Lycetti, Dav., Terebratula subovoides, 

Roem., Rhynchonella Moorei, Dav. (a species of the West-European 

Lias, also found lately in the Banat), Rh. tetrahedra, Sow., Fh. cal- 

cicosta, Quenst.., variously shaped and partly gigantic Spiriferine, 

of the type of Sp. rostrata, Schloth., mixed with species charac- 
teristic of the Hierlatz-strata. The limestone of Grossau, chiefly 
composed of Pentacrinus basaltiformis, lies between Carboniferous 

Gresten-strata and an extensive series of Liassic variegated marls. 

Among the seven species of Brachiopods occurring in it, three cor- 

respond to those of the Hierlatz-strata, and two or three are Extra- 

Alpine forms, far spread in the Middle Lias of Germany and 

North-western Europe. All the three localities are consequently 

intimately connected with the Middle Lias of the Extra-Alpine 

regions; and may point to the conclusion, that the Limestone of 

Hierlatz also is not an absolute equivalent of the Lower Lias. The 

diserepancies between the Alpine and the Extra-Alpine Liassic 

deposits may be explained by the geological perturbations which 
influenced the Southern and North-western German Lias and their 
faunz, as also by immigrations from the Eastern faune under the 
influence of marine currents, dependent on the extent and confor- 
mation of the coast.—Count M. 
WMO —— NOT Vaile C 


18 Notices of Memoirs. 


On THE DiscoveRY OF THE PrLyis oF Dinorurrivum; AND ON THE AFFINITIES 
AND Hapirs or THE GuNus. By the Rev. J.-M. Sanna Soraro.* 
M SANNA SOLARO has discovered, at Escanecrabe, Dép. 
‘ie Haute-Garonne, a pelvis of a Dinotherium, a portion of the 
animal hitherto unknown: its weight is 160 kilogrammes (3524 lbs.). 
M. Lartet, who also has examined the specimen, is of opinion that it 
belongs to a species of much larger dimensions than D. giganteum. 
The diameter of the pelvic arch is 18 metres (nearly 6 feet) ; the 
height 1:3 metres (4 ft. 3 in.). Certain peculiarities of form, and 
its colossal dimensions, must modify our ideas regarding the size 
and habits of this animal. 

M. Solaro compares the pelvis of his Dinotherium with that of 
the Elephant, Tapir, and Megathere, with which it has some 
affinities ; but it presents also many points of difference. Besides 
the strange conformation of the pubic bones, sufficient alone to dis- 
tinguish it at a glance from all other pelves, there is a remarkable 
peculiarity, not known in any other animal,—namely, a triangular 
depression at the side of the cotyloid cavity, and between it and the 
lower projection of the iliac bones. In this depression there was 
found a bone which certainly formed an articulation. The corre- 
sponding depression of the other part was wanting ; but there oc- 
curred at the side of the pelvis another and more complete bone, 
though perhaps not entire. The head of this bone is triangular, and 
its dimensions correspond with those of the aforesaid depression. 
M. Solaro regards this bone as indicating a marsupial affinity, though 
it is true, that among other Didelphic Mammals, the marsupial bones 
are not articulated to the ilium; but it is to be borne in mind that 
the head of the Dinotherium differs remarkably from that of Pro- 
boscidians and other animals, and there is no reason why the mar- 
supial bones should not be articulated to the ilium instead of to the 
anterior part of the pubis. 

If, then, the Dinotherium was an aplacental mammal, its habits 
could not be those assigned to it by Dr. Buckland, namely, habitually 
living and feeding in lakes, and occasionally frequenting their mar- 
gins. In the first place, it could not live in the waiter, at least 
during the second period of gestation, without exposing its young to 
injury ; and, as from the long time the young are carried in the 
pouch (in the Kangaroo, an animal of diminutive size in comparison, 
it is eight months), the animal would have to habituate itself to other 
than its ordinary kind of nutriment. Secondly, the author is of 
opinion that a lacustrine vegetation would be inadequate for the 
supply of food for such a gigantic animal; and he adds that we have 
a further evidence of this in the conformation of its teeth,—for, from 
the nature of the tissues of the roots of aquatic plants, a very slight 
effort would be sufficient to triturate them; but the deep grooves and 
trenchant ridges of the grinders of this animal indicate, on the con- 
trary, that the vegetables upon which the animal browsed offered a 


* Mémoire sur le Premier Bassin de Dinotheriwm découvert dans le Départe- 
ment de la Haute-Garonne par le R. P. J.-M. Sanna Sozaro, de la Compagnie de 
Jésus. Large Svo. Toulouse, 1864. pp.19. 3 plates. See also ‘L’Institut,’ Oct. 5, 
1864, p. 319. 


Notices of Memoirs. 19 


greater resistance than would be presented by the root, stems, and 
leaves of lacustrine plants. 

The author is inclined to believe that, like the Elephant, the 
Dinotherium used its tusks as offensive and defensive weapons, and 
especially to break down and to hold up branches, so as to enable it 
to reach with its trunk the tender growths of the trees, which were 
probably its food ; and that they further served to effect a passage 
through the underwood of dense forests. The neck of the animal 
was very short ; and the trunk must have been of great length, and 
was used, probably, for putting the young into the pouch, as well as 
for getting food.—R. T. 


PHOTOGRAPHY APPLIED TO PatmonTotucy. (Specimen Photographicum Anima- 
lium quorumdam Plantarumque Fossilium Agri Veronensis. Dr. A. B. Prof. 
- Massatoneo deseripsit. Mavrrrrus Lorzm photographice expressit.) 4to. p. 101. 
40 plates. Verona, 1859. 
N this work Professor Massalongo has described, and M. Lotze 
photographed, 2 species of Ophidia, 12 Fishes, and 8 Acoty- 
ledonous, 2 Monocotyledonous, and 23 Dicotyledonous Plants. The 
descriptions of the genera and species are given in Italian and Latin 
in parallel columns. ‘The specimens described are all from the rich 
Eocene deposit of Monte Bolea, abounding in Fish- and Plant- 
remains, and from which some fossil Snakes have also been obtained. 
The delicate cream-coloured matrix offers such a strong contrast to 
the bright rich iron-stained fossil-remains that a better series to 
submit to the art of the photographer could hardly have been 
chosen. Every minute bone in the skeleton, and every fin-ray of 
the Fishes can be clearly seen; but the Snakes do not print at all 
well, little more than a black outline of their forms being preserved. 
Among the Fishes: Platax Plinianus, Massal., Semiphorus velifer, 
Agass., 2 sp. of Acanthurus, Scatophagus frontalis, Agass., Ephip- 
pus longipennis, Agass., Pychnodus gibbus, Agass., and among the 
vegetable remains, Araucarites Venetus, Massal., Getonia Bolcensis, 
Ung., Sterculia prisca, Massal, and 2 sp. of Dombeyopsis, are ex- 
cellently reproduced. Some of the leaves and other plant-remains are 
not so satisfactory, and we must still admit our preference for good 
lithographic plates. 


REVIEW S- 
2 peg 

On THE GEOLOGICAL PosITION AND AGE OF THE FULINT-IMPLE- 
MENT-BEARING BEDS, AND ON THE LOESS OF THE SOUTH-EAST 
or ENGLAND AND NortTH-WEST OF France. By JosepH PREstT- 
wicn, F.R.S., F.G.S. (From the Philosophical Transactions, 

Pt. I. 1864.) 
| eS the earlier days of the study of Geology in this country, the 
attention of observers was, as might have been expected, prin- 
cipally directed to the vast successive formations of which the crust 
of the earth is composed, in order to establish the stratigraphical 
relation of the various beds, and to determine the nature of the 

c 2 


20 Reviews—Prestwich on Valléy-Deposits. 


organic remains by which they are characterized. The more recent, 
and especially the surface-deposits, were, comparatively speaking, 
neglected ; and, though by the more far-seeing the existing opera- 
tions of nature were studied as throwing light upon the method of 
formation of ancient deposits, yet there appears to have been a sort 
of latent feeling that a patch of gravel on a common, or a brick-field 
on a hill-side, were subjects altogether too superficial for the re- 
searches of a geologist. Or if, even, by the finding of mammalian 
bones or testaceous remains in them, these deposits were obtruded 
upon his notice, they stood a fair chance of being referred either to 
the Noachian deluge cr to a wash of the sea over the land, or to 
some mysterious cataclysmic action. © 

Of late years, however, the extreme interest of the beds connecting 
the Tertiary Period with the existing state of things, and more 
especially those containing the remains of a fauna so closely allied 
to that of the present day as the Postpliocene, has been keenly felt, 
and much time has been devoted to their study by many of our 
leading Geologists, and particularly by the author of the present 
paper. The discovery of flint implements, wrought by the hand of 
man, in the gravels of the Valley of the Somme and elsewhere, 
which formed the subject of a memoir by Mr. Prestwich commu- 
nicated to the Royal Society in the spring of 1859, added no little 
zest to these researches, and has greatly multiplied the number 
of those engaged in pursuing them. It is needless to do more than 
allude to the numerous books, pamphlets, and papers which have 
been written on the subject of the Antiquity of Man, to show the 
general interest that has been taken in these discoveries; and we 
therefore proceed at once to call attention to some of the salient 
points of this last most valuable contribution of Mr. Prestwich, the 
title of which stands at the head of this notice, and which originally 
consisted of two separate communications to the Royal Society, 
though they are now incorporated together. 

The various drift-gravels which occur along river-valleys, or 
capping the hills at their sides, have been regarded by different 
writers, first, as of marine origin; secondly, as due to cataclysmic 
action ; and, thirdly, as of fluviatile origin ; and Mr. Prestwich, after 
briefly citing some of the authors who have assigned them to 
these different causes, and stating the difficulties he felt in referring 
the excavation of existing valleys to the operation of rivers upon their 
present scale, or to cataclysmic action, thus states his own views :— 
‘I could not admit the possibility of river-action, as it now exists, 
having in any length of time excavated the presert valleys and 
spread out the old alluvia; neither was it possible to admit purely 
cataclysmic action in cases where the evidence of contemporaneous 
old land-surfaces and of fluviatile beds were so common. But with 
river-action of greater intensity, and periodical floods imparting a 
torrential character to the rivers, the consequences of the joint 
operation are obtained, and the phenomena admit of more ready 
explanation.’ 

‘These views are based on a careful examination of a large number 


Reviews — Prestwich on Valley-Deposits. a1 


of river-valleys, and especially of the numerous localities where flint 
implements have now been found in beds of undisturbed fluviatile 
gravel. The Valley of the Waveney at Hoxne, the Valley of the 
Lark at Icklingham, that of the Ouse at Bedford, the deposits near 
Reculver and Whitstable, the Valley of the Somme near Abbeville 
and Amiens, that of the Seine near Paris, and that of the Oise near 
Creil are all passed under examination ; and, had the deposits near 
Salisbury and on the shores of Southampton Water been known as 
productive ‘of flint implements at the time when this paper was 
written, the evidence afforded by them would no doubt have been 
adduced as corroborative of that of the other cases. The testimony 
afforded by the lithological examination of the valley-gravels 
amounts to this, that all the materials of which they are formed 
can be referred to rocks or to older drift-deposits traversed by the 
valleys or their tributaries ; and that in no instance can the direct 
introduction of any foreign element be proved. The necessary de- 
duction is that the transporting agent by which the mass of materials 
composing the gravel has been brought to its present position, must 
have been in each case limited in its operation to the same hydro- 
graphical basins as those drained by the present rivers. 

This point is well illustrated by a sketch-map, showing the source 
and distribution of some of the Quaternary Valley-deposits of 
parts of England and France, which exhibits at a glance how and 
why in the Valley of the Seine, for instance, pebbles of the granitic 
and porphyritic rocks do not occur in its gravels until after its 
junction with the Yonne, which brings them down from the Morvan ; 
and how and why in the Valley of the Oise pebbles of the paleozoic 
strata of the Ardennes occur ; while in the Valley of the Somme, 
the watershed of which is in part conterminous with that of the 
Oise, such pebbles are entirely absent. 

The valley-gravels are divided by Mr. Prestwich into two classes, 
the ‘high-level’ and the ‘low-level ;’ not that it is possible to draw 
any exact line of demarcation between them, as the one sometimes 
shades insensibly into the other. Still they are the two ‘ extremes 
of a series marking a long period of time, and probably formed 
under analogous but not identical conditions.’ ‘The broad dis- 
tinction consists in one being on hills of various heights flanking 
the valley, while the other occupies the immediate river-valley, 
always following its main channel, and constantly rising on its sides 
to the height of several feet, or where the valley is broad, forming 
low terrace-platforms on its sides.’ They represent, in fact, portions 
of the drifted matter accumulated in the beds of the rivers at atime 
when they ran at a higher level than at present, and which happen 
to have been left undisturbed by the stream during their farther 
and subsequent excavations of their valleys. ‘That the high-level 
eravels, sometimes 100 feet and upwards above the levels of the 
present rivers, and on the flanks of valleys a mile in width, were 
deposited by river-action, is abundantly proved by the presence in 
them of fluviatile shells ; while their elevation, so far above the 
reach of any floods of the present rivers that can possibly be 


22 Reviews— Prestwich on Valiey-Deposits. 


conceived, proves that the valleys must, in great part at all events, 
have been excavated since the high-level gravels were deposited. 
The evidence of the Loess, or brick-earth, is also of importance in 
the case; for this deposit occurs associated with the high-level 
gravels, and has all the character of the fine silt or sediment de- 
posited in places where the flood-waters, out of the direct channel 
of a turbid stream, remain for a time in a state of comparative re- 
pose. It contains, too, numerous land shells, occasionally intermixed 
with a few fresh-water species. Nor is this purely fluviatile 
character confined to the gravels and loess of the higher level, but 
extends to those of the lower level also. The whole phenomena, 
indeed, are in general such as might have been theoretically assigned 
to valleys formed by the erosion of rivers subject to periodical floods, 
though there are particular circumstances which tend to, show that 
the erosive power may have been greater during one part of the 
process of excavation than during another. 

One feature in the case is that in the high-level valley-gravels 
large boulders are of not unfrequent occurrence ; and there is an 
irregularity, confusion, and general want of stratification in the beds, 
which are also often contorted. Some of these boulders or blocks 
are as much as 8 feet by 3 feet in dimensions ; and in some instances, 
as in the Valley of the Waveney, where there are no hard rocks to 
furnish boulders, but the valleys traverse a Chalk district, large 
masses of flint, with sharp and intact angles, are common. The con- 
tortions, which are perhaps nowhere better seen than at St. Acheul, 
near Amiens, are such as sedimentary beds could never have 
assumed in a process of deposition by the mere action of water. In 
the low-level gravels, these contorted strata are generally absent; 
and, though large blocks are often common in them, yet they are 
generally more worn than in the upper gravels. The low-level 
gravels also usually present a more uniform bedding, and a greater 
abundance of beds of sand and fine gravel, with oblique lamination. 

Looking now at the Fauna and Flora of the high-level beds, Mr. 
Prestwich finds that, out of 109 land and fresh-water shells now in- 
habiting the South of England and the North of France, 36 species 
have been found in the flint-implement-bearing high-level gravels. 
Taking the group as a whole, it appears to have a wide range, but 
one more in a northern than in a southern direction; for whereas 
only 29 out of the 36 species are found in the plains or on the hills 
of Lombardy, no less than 34 range to Sweden, and 31 to Finland, 
a country in which only 77 species have been recorded. A great 
number of these molluses occur also in Siberia, for which country, 
however, there is no complete list of the land and fresh-water shells. 
The mammalian remains are at present confined to Elephas primi- 
genius, E. antiquus, Equus, Bos, and Cervus, among the latter pos- 
sibly C. Tarandus. Of these the Mammoth and woolly haired 
Rhinoceros appear to have inhabited countries possessing cold 
climates, while the Horse and Ox brave the winters of Siberia and 
North America, and the Reindeer appears to be essentially a north- 
ern animal. Of the flora of the high-level period, but little is known ; 


Reviews—Prestwich on Valley-Deposits. 23 


but at Hoxne, the Oak, Yew, Fir, and possibly Bilberry, have been 
found. 

Taken together, the organic remains, though not affording decisive 
evidence of the character of the climate at the time of the deposit of 
the high-level gravels, show a balance in favour of the probability 
of a climate severer than at present in the same latitude, though 
not of extreme rigour. It must have been a climate in which the 
Oak, Yew, and Fir could thrive ; where the Reindeer lived ; and where 
the Deer, Horse, and Ox abounded; but where the rivers were subject 
to periodical floods; where they froze, so as to be able to transport 
the large boulders already mentioned ; and where the ice ‘ packed’ 
in sufficient quantities to produce contortions in the beds, such as 
already described ; for in the same way as the contortions in the clay 
cliffs of Norfolk have by Mr. Trimmer and Sir C. Lyell been attri- 
buted to the grounding of icebergs, so is Mr. Prestwich disposed to 
attribute to a somewhat like action of the river-ice, on a small scale, 
the analogous structure exhibited by the St. Acheul and other high- 
level gravels. 

Turning now to the low-level gravels, we find in them an in- 
crease in the number of species of land and fresh-water molluscs, 
which are here 52. This group also maintains a slightly northern 
aspect; as, out of the 52, 42 are now living in Sweden, and 37 in 
Finland. It comprises, therefore, nearly one half of the Finnish 
species; whereas only one fifth of the Lombardic species, or 38 out 
of 198, occur in the beds. At Menchecourt, near Abbeville, some 
marine and estuarine shells occur; among them, Littorina squalida, 
which has now retreated to the coast of Norway, and Tellina 
Balthica, which is a northern variety. Of the fresh-water shells, 
Cyrena fluminalis deserves especial mention. It is now only found 
in the Nile and in mountain-streams of Central Asia—a range 
presenting great extremes of climate. Among the mammalia we 
now find Hippotamus major and Felis spelea, which at first sight 
seem to militate against the theory of the climate of the period 
having been severe; but, as Mr. Prestwich observes, ‘like its con- 
geners, the Elephant and Rhinoceros, this Hippotamus belongs to an 
extinct species, and it becomes a question whether, like them, it may 
not have been adapted to endure the rigours of a severer climate than 
the living species of these genera can now endure.’ As to the Tiger, 
there is at the present day a species common on the lower Amoor, 
where the river is frozen five months in the year. The flora of the 
‘low-level’ period is confined to a solitary specimen of Chara; so 
that the premises from which to draw conclusions as to climate are 
limited. Still, on the whole, Mr. Prestwich considers that the evi- 
dence is in favour of its having been rather less severe than that of 
the previous high-level-gravel period. 

In a former paper he has shown that these high-level gravels are 
in their turn newer than the Boulder-clay of England and the period 
of extreme cold marked by the great extension of the European 
glaciers ; and he here goes on to show how well the phenomena 
observable in the valley-gravels agree with a climate in which the 


24 Reviews—Prestwich on Valley-Deposits. 


winter-temperature was at first considerably lower than at present, 
but the severity of which was being gradually mitigated. The 
volume of water that there must have been in the old rivers (which, 
it will be remembered, had no greater gathering ground than their 
representatives of the present day) to spread out such masses of 
coarse shingle may be safely assigned to the greater winter-accumu- 
lation of ice and snow, which must of necessity have accompanied a 
greater degree of cold, and which by rapid thawing in the spring- 
or summer-months would periodically cause immense inundations ; 
while the transported blocks, scattered indiscriminately through the 
gravel, and often associated with delicate and fragile shells, and with 
mammalian bones but little if at all rolled, can hardly be referred to 
any other action than that of ice, to which also the contortions in 
the gravels already mentioned appear to be due. The excavating 
powers of rivers in such a climate would, owing to the torrential 
character imparted to them by the summer-thaws, be far greater than 
at present, even were the rain-fall the same; but it is by no means 
improbable that, in the neighbourhood of the sea, the greater cold 
would be accompanied by a greater precipitation of rain or snow. 

But besides the mere excavating power of the running water, Mr. 
Prestwich calls to his aid the operation of ground-ice (which he 
shows to be a powerful transporting agent), and the effects of alter- 
nate frosts and thaws in breaking up masses of rock, and of the 
solvent powers of rain and snow-water. And he further invokes 
the assistance of the gradual upheaval of parts of Kngland and 
France, of which we have some evidence in the raised beaches which 
in places fringe the shores. 

Into all these questions we have not space to enter; but we think 
we have said enough to show the interesting character of this Paper, 
and to give some idea of the array of facts on which Mr. Prestwich’s 
theory is based. It will be seen that, while he entirely abjures the 
cataclysmic theories still held with regard to these river-gravels by 
so many French geologists, he is reluctant to attribute the entire 
excavation of the valleys to causes operating with no greater inten- 
sity than they do at the present day. Yet we think that the ‘Quietist’ 
need hardly regard such views with distrust, nor the ‘ Catastrophist’ 
hail them with satisfaction as supporting his opinions. For after all, 
granting, as there seems no reason to doubt, that we had in this part 
of Europe at the commencement of the Post-pliocene period an Arctic 
temperature, it is evident that during the transition from such a 
temperature to that which prevails at the present day, there must 
have been a time when conditions such as those which Mr. Prestwich 
describes prevailed, and during which the ordinary excavating forces 
of rivers must, in the course of Nature, have operated with greater 
intensity than at present. It appears to us not impossible that the 
excavation of the valleys above the line of the high-level gravels 
containing organic remains, and which Mr. Prestwich seems inclined 
to attribute in some measure to the action of the sea during the 
emergence of the land from beneath it, may have taken place during 
such a subglacial period. At all events, if the land were above 


Reviews — Prestwich on Valley-Deposits. 25 


water at the time, erosion, and that on no slight scale, must probably 
have been going on; and in the Valley of the Somme there are 
gravels at a higher level and older than those of St. Acheul, which 
may possibly belong to such a period. Indeed, Mr. Prestwich him- 
self refers to some high-level gravels which must have been formed 
before the country became inhabited, and which would therefore 
also be unfossiliferous. 

As to the time required for the excavation of the valleys even 
under the most favourable conditions for it consistent with the ex- 
istence of the animal life, the relics of which are found in the gravels, 
Mr. Prestwich is judiciously cautious in expressing an opinion. We 
cannot do better than quote his own words upon this point :—‘ All 
these phenomena indicate long periods of time. I do not, however, 
feel that we are yet in a position to measure that time, or even to 
make an approximate estimate respecting it. That we must greatly 
extend our present chronology with respect to the first existence of 
man appears inevitable ; but that we should count by hundreds of 
thousands of years is, | am convinced, in the present state of the 
enquiry unsafe and premature. Nevertheless, just as though igno- 
rant of the precise height and size of a mountain-range seen in the 
distance, we need not wait for trigonometrical measurements to feel 
satisfied in our own minds of the magnitude of the distant peaks, so 
with this geological epoch, we see and know enough of it to feel 
how distant it is from our time, and yet we are not in a position at 
present to solve with accuracy the curious and interesting problem 
of its precise age.’ 

As containing some elements for the approximate estimate of the 
duration of time, Mr. Prestwich calls attention to one or two points 
besides the mere changes in the configuration of the surface and the 
alteration which has taken place in the mammalian fauna. Our 
space, however, precludes more than a mere mention of them. One 
of these is the character of the cylindrical or funnel-shaped gravel- 
and sand-pipes which occur in most calcareous rocks, and which are 
in all probability due to the infiltration of water charged with car- 
bonie acid. Several of these pipes occur along the Valley of the 
Somme under conditions which prove that they must have origi- 
nated since the first emergence of the high-level gravels above the 
old river-bed ; and, could a rate of progress be assigned to their 
(rosion, these would give a good gauge of time. One of them, near 
Drucat, must be nearly 100 feet in depth ; and M. Boucher de 
Perthes possesses flint implements reported to have come out of the 
gravel contained in the pipe. On the slope of the valley of the 
Hscardon, close by, is a bed of travertin or calcareous tufa, which 
commences 70 feet above the present level of the stream, and testi- 
fies to a period when the valley had not yet been excavated, and the 
water in the pervious beds of Chalk could find no lower vent. 
Another method suggested bears reference to the probable pertur- 
bations in the increment of heat at different depths in consequence of 
the refrigeration of this part of the surface of the earth at the 
Glacial Period, of which it seems possible some trace might be left 


26 Reviews—Desor on Lake-habitations. 


to the present day. But into this question, and that, whether the 
refrigeration was general or only partial, we need not enter. We 
hope that we have said enough to induce our readers to consult Mr. 
Prestwich’s excellent memoir for themselves. ‘They will find in it a 
careful and detailed exposition of facts: and the theories based upon 
them are evidently the result of long and careful reflection ; and, 
though on some minor points there is sure to be a difference of 
opinion, yet the main argument, as to the process of excavation and 
the length of time necessarily involved in it, will, we are confident, 
eventually meet with general acceptance, even if the rising school of 
geologists, who have no longer ‘the chill of poverty in their bones’ 
may be induced to draw more largely than Mr. Prestwich upon the 
enormous balance of past time which stands in their favour in the 
Book of Nature. 


Les CONSTRUCTIONS LACUSTRES DU LAC DE NEUFCHATEL. Par 
E. Drsor. Neufchatel, 1864. 


HE Lake of Neufchatel is remarkable, even among the Swiss 
Lakes, for the number and variety of the ancient remains 
which have been found in it; and Professor Desor is remarkable, 
even among the Swiss archeologists, for the care with which he has 
studied them. While the lakes of Eastern Switzerland contain 
villages of the Stone Age only, and those of Western Switzerland 
of the Stone and Bronze Ages, the Lake of Neufchatel, besides 
many villages belonging to the last-mentioned periods, contains also 
almost the only station which has yet been discovered, referable to 
the Age of Iron. Thus, the memoir by Professor Desor, confined 
though it is to the antiquities of this one lake, contains, in fact, an 
epitome of the whole subject. 

Commencing with the Age of Stone, he remarks that the piles 
are generally much larger than those used in later periods; and that, 
instead of projecting into the water, they are in most cases worn 
down by the action of the waves, to the level of the stones by which 
they are surrounded. ‘These stones form slight elevations at the 
bottom of the lake, and are known in Switzerland under the name of 
‘Steinbergs. It is evident that, unable to drive their piles into the 
bottom of the lake, the early people heaped stones up round the 
piles, and thus kept them in a perpendicular position. In other 
lakes, of which the bottom is soft, they have been able to drive the 
piles sufficiently deep to keep them upright. As yet, in the Swiss 
Lakes only two skulls have been found which can, with any rea- 
sonable probability, be referred to the Stone Age ; one by M. Messi- 
kommer, at Robenhausen, the other at Meilen, on the Lake of Ziirich. 
The former has not yet been described ; the latter exactly resembles 
those found at the Bronze Age station of Auvernier. As regards 
the axes of nephrite, which have been supposed to indicate a com- 
merce with Asia, Professor Desor suggests that the material may 
have been obtained from the conglomerate known as the ‘Nagel- 
flue.” He does not, however, actually state that any fragments of 
this interesting substance have yet been discovered in that deposit. 


Reviews—Desor on Lake-habitations. 27 


The white coral, found at Concise, and the bit of amber from 
Meilen, may have, in reality, belonged, he thinks, to the Age of 
Bronze. 

Turning now to this later period, Professor Desor remarks that 
the lake-villages are generally situated at a greater distance from 
the shore, and, consequently, in deeper water. ‘The piles are thinner, 
and are often of split wood; they project above the mud to a height 
of from one to two feet. The pottery of this age, though prepared 
in the same manner as that of the preceding period, is less coarse, 
and the forms are more elegant. The most characteristic objects of 
the lake-villages of the Bronze Age are, however, personal orna- 
ments; such as earrings, amulets, bracelets, hair-pins, &c. These 
are often in a beautiful state of preservation, and were appa- 
rently quite new when dropped into the water. Professor Desor 
is disposed, from this circumstance, to think that the pile-buildings 
were magazines, rather than dwellings. Whether this was the case 
or not, it is certain that some, at least, of the dwellings in the Bronze 
Age were situated on dry land. One of these has been found at 
Ebersberg, in the canton of Ziirich. In addition to the evidence of 
an extensive commerce, afforded by the bronze itself, Professor Desor 
refers, as a proof of the high civilization existing at that period, to 
the amber beads, which must have come from the Baltic, to a bead 
of blue glass, found at Auvernier, and to the general elegance of the 
above-mentioned personal ornaments. 

The only lake-village of the Iron Period yet known, is that of the 
Tene. The piles resemble those of the Bronze Age stations ; but 
the objects found among them are entirely different. Iron swords, 
differing in form, as well as in material, from those of the preced- 
ing period,—pottery resembling that which we call Roman, but re- 
ferred by Professor Desor rather to the Etruscans, and coins, for the 
first time make their appearance. The ornaments are less numerous, 
and of a different character. There are no rings, no earrings, and 
but a single hair-pin, which is of bronze, and may after all belong to 
that period. Moreover, the objects of bronze are hammered, and not 
cast, as is invariably the case with those which truly belong to the 
Bronze Age. The coins belong to the true Gaulish type: they have 
a man’s head on the one side, and a horned horse on the other. 
Neither the coins, however, nor the other objects found at the Tene, 
show the slightest trace of Roman workmanship. 

In conclusion, Professor Desor has a chapter on the antiquity of 
these lake-remains, which he refers, as we think, correctly, to a 
period anterior to the rise of Roman power. He mentions, with 
just praise, Professor Nilsson’s able work on the Bronze Age, 
agreeing with him in the opinion, that traces of the Pheenicians 
are to be found as far north as the shores of Norway. Professor 
Desor, however, rightly concludes that the facts do not, as yet, war- 
rant any more decided inference, and that they clearly indicate that 
the Pheenician commerce in the North belongs rather to the Age of 
Iron than to that of Bronze. 


28 Reviews — Jukes on Indented Bones. 


On some INDENTATIONS IN BONES OF A CeERYUS MEGACEROS FOUND IN 
JUNE 1863, UNDERNEATH A Bog NEAR LeGAN, County oF LoNG- 
FORD, Ireranp. By J. Beets Juxes, M.A., F.R.S. Dublin, 
1864. pp. 11; with 4 Plates. 


poe object of this memoir, read before the Geological Society of 
Dublin, December 9, 1863, is to describe certain distinct inden- 
tations, abrasions, and other markings, visible on some bones of 
Cervus megaceros (often called the Gigantic Irish Elk or Deer), 
found in shell-marl (2 or 3 feet thick), on gravelly clay, and under 
peat, once probably 40 feet thick. The skull, fragments of antlers, 
and upwards of 40 bones of the skeleton were secured. Of these, 
the left femur shows ‘a deep transverse gash across it,’ on the inner- 
side, above the knee-joint, and two small ‘circular holes, like nail- 
holes’ near by; the right tibia has a broad shallow transverse inden- 
tation, exactly fitted by an equally indented antler-tine; and there are 
three smal! shallow notches on the polished surface at one edge of the 
tibia. There are also some abrasions at both ends of the femur, and 
at the upper end of the tibia. All these markings (which appear to 
have been on the bones when found) are very clearly described, and 
illustrated by careful drawings. They were, of course, at once re- 
garded as artificial, and as evidence of man’s co-existence with the 
now extinct Cervus megaceros; but Mr. Jukes thinks that they may 
be accounted for otherwise. 

He observed that the indented antler-tine and tibia not only closely 
fit together, even to minute crevices being filled by little opposite 
ridges, but the surfaces of the two corresponding hollows are similarly 
stained with irony streaks; and he thinks that not only were these 
two bones not fitted together by human hands, but have been mutually 
indented by pressure one on the other under the heavy peat. He 
observes that, even if we suppose these bones were once roughly 
fitted and tied together (the notches on the edge of the tibia, in such 
case, corresponding to the marks of withes) the difficulty arises as to 
their having been imbedded with the rest of the skeleton, which 
seems to have found its resting place in the shell-marl just as the 
many drowned and drifted carcasses of Deer and other animals did 
in the old lakes. ; 

The notched and bored femur has especially the look of having 
been artificially cut, the sides of the notch seem to have been hacked 
‘by the sawing action of a knife;’ ‘the bottom of the cut termi- 
nates in an acute angle ;’ and the cells of the bone are not all crushed. 
A small piece of antler, however, was impacted in the gash; and Mr. 
Jukes thinks that this indentation might have been formed by pres- 
sure against a contiguous antler-point. The author offers, also, some 
observations on the analysis of the bones, on the usual conditions 
of such bones found in the bogs of Ireland, and on the frequent 
occurrence of indentations and abrasions on the bones of C, 
megaceros. 

If the bones in question were cut by man before they were im- 
bedded in the marl, it must have been when the valley was occupied 


Reviews—-Daglish and Forster on the Permian Rocks.- 29 


by a lake, before the formation of the peat, which, 30 or 40 feet thick 
and 50 square miles in extent, must have taken several thousand 
years for its accumulation. This consideration, and the possibility 
of the bones having been naturally abraded, together with the fact 
‘that the Cervus megaceros wasthe contemporary of the Mammoth or 
Woolly Elephant, the Woolly Rhinoceros, the Cave-Hyzna, the Cavee 
Bear, and the Cave-Lion, and a species of Hippopotamus, all now ex- 
tinct,’ as wellas of the Reindeer, the Brown Bear, the Polar Bear,* and 
other creatures now extinet in Ireland, make it difficult to Mr. Jukes to 
accept these apparently incised bones as evidence of their contem- 
poraneity with Man in Ireland, although proofs of such high antiquity 
for the human race have been brought to light in England and the 
Continent. At all events the memoir shows ood reasons for extreme 
caution being taken whenever scratched, drilled, notched, and other- 
wise abraded and indented fossil bones are brought forward as evi- 
dence of man’s handiwork, even without taking into consideration 
the many other natural methods, such as wear and tear by gravel 
with or without ice-action, partial decomposition, gnawing by rodents, 
&e., by which such markings may be made. 


On THE Macnestan Limestone or Duruam. By Messrs. Joun 
Dacuisn, F.G.S., and G. B. Forster, M.A. (Report of the 
British Association for 1863, pp. 726-730.) 


pats paper was read at the Newcastle Meeting of the British 
Association, and was there so well received as ‘to be among the 
few that were ordered to be printed in full in the volume of Tr ans- 
actions lately issued. The authors are well known mining-engineers 
of the northern coal-field, whose professional duties have given them 
repeated opportunities of investigating the structure of the Permian 
series of Durham ; and these investigations have suggested to them 
conclusions at variance with the opinions of those geologists who 
have already examined and described these rocks. 

The remarkable water-bearing properties t of these Permian rocks 
are first discussed ; and their structure next engages the attention of 
_the authors. 

The ‘Lower Red Sandstone.—They point out that, while the 
series is considered by most geulog isn to include both the Magnesian 
Limestone and the so-called ‘ Lower Red Sandstone’ beneath, and 
to be unconformable to the underlying Coal-measures ; it is held by 
others to comprise only the Magnesian Limestone,—the sandstone 
being in that case classed with the Coal-measures. This, in fact, 
is a sort of border-land question,—a dispute about boundaries where 
land-marks are scarce, or perhaps never existed, and thus one not 
easy to settle. 

The ‘Lower Red Sandstone’t is composed of two portions :— 


* Bones of Ursus maritimus, Mr. Jukes states, have been found in Lough Gur. 

{+ We shall return to this subject hereafter. 

{ This local term of ‘Lower Red Sandstone,’ or ‘Lower New Red Sandstone,’ 
formerly given in contradistinction to the ‘Upper New Red Sandstone, has sur- 


30 Reviews—Daglish and Forster on the Permian Rocks. 


an upper stratum which is yellow, incoherent, false-bedded, and of 
very irregular thickness; and, occasionally, a lower stratum, which 
is red, slightly micaceous, less false-bedded, containing the remains 
of Coal-plants, and, when present, appearing to pass upwards into 
the yellow sandstone. Either singly or combined, these sandstones 
are found to follow the range and dip of the limestone, and thus to 
rest on much lower beds of the Coal-measures in the south of Dur- 
ham than they do in the north. Hence it is—on the doctrine of 
conformability—that the majority of geologists class this sandstone 
as Permian. On the other hand, all the fossils that have been 
discovered in it are referable to Carboniferous species; and for 
this reason it has been placed by other geologists with the Coal- 
measures. 

Messrs. Daglish and Forster admit both the unconformability of 
this deposit, and its containing Coal-measure plants ; but, so far as 
concerns the red sandstone, they are of the opinion, for several 
reasons, that it does not exist as an independent bed at all; but 
is merely the reddened edges of the Coal-measure rocks themselves ; 
the discoloration, they explain, being due to the oxidation of the 
iron originally contained in the sandstone, by a lengthened exposure 
to atmospheric action. Considerable ingenuity is undoubtedly shown 
in this suggestion, though we cannot see how it meets the case in 
point. Colour is only one element in the character of rocks; and, 
before so novel a view could be accepted, the authors ought to show 
that the general structure of the Red Sandstone agrees with the 
notion of its being merely the red edges of successively out- 
cropping Coal-measure strata. Moreover, atmospheric action— 
powerful though it undoubtedly is—is superficial. It acts on the 
surface, rather than on the interior of rock-masses ; and we most 
certainly dispute that it would ever discolour a rock for a depth of 
fifty feet, let it have been exposed to its influence for what length 
of time it might; and fifty feet is not one-twentieth part of the 
thickness which equivalent red deposits attain in other regions. 

For our part, we feel disposed to admit both the geological uncon- 
formability and the paleontological agreement of this ‘ Lower Red 
Sandstone ’ with the Coal-measures: but instead of attempting to dis- 
pute the existence of any part of the deposit, we think the facts of 
the case simply prove that the Carboniferous flora continued to exist 
after great physical disturbances in the British area;—and, per- 
haps, after all the strata we now call Carboniferous were deposited. 
Hitherto it has seemed most convenient to class this deposit as 
Permian; but there is much to be said in favour of each classifi- 
cation. 

The Magnesian Limestone.—This deposit was first described by 
Professor Sedgwick, whose able memoir is still the text-book for its 
lithology. Professor W. King and Mr. R. Howse followed up the 
investigations of Sedgwick; and in 1850 the former, in the Introduc- 


yived the establishment of the latter as an independent and very distinct formation 
—the ‘ New Red Sandstone’ proper.—Ep. 


Reviews—Daglish and Forster on the Permian Rocks. 31 


tion of his Monograph of Permian Fossils, proposed to arrange it and 
the sandstone beneath in six subdivisions, namely :— 

. Crystalline and Concretionary Limestone. 

. Brecciated and Pseudo-brecciated Limestone. 

. Fossiliferous Limestone. 

. Compact Limestone. 

. Marl-slate. 

. Lower Red Sandstone. 


Professor King based this arrangement on both geological and 
paleontological evidence, and showed good reasons for its adoption. 
In 1857 Mr. Howse, adopting in principle the classification of King, 
suggested the following improved arrangement :— 


Permian . 


O Ore Coto 


1. Upper Limestone. 

2. Middle Limestone (including Nos. 2 and 3 of King). 
3. Lower Limestone. 

4, Marl-slate. 

Carboniferous. Lower Red Sandstone. 


Permian . 


Since then the formation has been carefully examined by other 
geologists, British and Foreign, and their investigations have only 
helped to substantiate the views of King and Howse. In fact, it has 
been clearly shown that there is a regular sequence of beds to be 
observed in the Magnesian Limestone, and that it is not, as had been 
formerly supposed, one great calcareous deposit, with the same set 
of features throughout its whole mass. It has been shown that its 
upper portion is marked by characters which distinguish it not 
only from the rest of the deposit, but from every other rock in Eng- 
land; and that fully one half of the fossils occurring in it are 
peculiar, while the distribution of them all differs essentially from 
what obtains in the underlying beds. Also, that the middle portion 
differs in lithological aspect and in structure both from what is above 
and below it ; while out of about 100 species of fossils which it con- 
tains, 85 do not occur elsewhere. Also, that the lowest beds possess, 
as a group, characters which are absent in the upper sections, and 
that as to fossils, though only five species are peculiar, the grouping 
shows considerable peculiarities. Lastly, that the Marl-slate at the 
base of the Magnesian Limestone differs in lithology, structure, and 
fossils from everything above it;—it being a laminated calcareo- 
argillaceous deposit, with a fauna of 15 species and a flora of 3; and 
out of these 11 forms are special. 

We thus feel some surprise when we find that the authors do not 
adopt any such arrangement, but designate it as ‘speculative’ and 
regard it as ‘extremely hazardous.’ They state that, though certain 
well-marked lines of separation exist between different portions of 
the Magnesian Limestone, as Messrs. King and Howse have pointed 
out, there are yet other differences which these authors have not 
made use of. They moreover state that ‘most probably all the 
variations of lithological structure, running through all the stages 
of friable, earthy, crystalline, botryoidal, &c., are simply due to the 
effects of local action at the time of deposition,—rocks of the same 
stratigraphical position taking alternately any or all of the above 


32 Reviews—Daglish and Forster on the Permian Rocks. 


lithological types.’ It is not unlikely that Messrs. Daglish and 
Forster, in arriving at these conclusions, have been too much 
influenced by their observations in pit-sections of the Magnesian 
Limestone. Indeed, they imply that from the information thus 
derived they have come to their present opinions ; and they state 
that in pit-sections they have ‘frequently had before them sections 
of the entire deposit.’ This, however, is simply a mistake; for there 
is not a single pit in the Northern Coal-field that has ever passed 
through an entire section of the Magnesian Limestone. The majority 
of the pits penetrating the limestone are on the outcrop of its lower 
beds (Lower Limestone) ; some—Monkwearmouth, Ryhope, Seaton, 
Castle Eden, &c.—are on the outcrop of the middle member ; but 
there are none which commence on any part of the Upper Lime- 
stone; and, as this member has been bored into, by the Sunder- 
land and South Shields Water-company, at Cleadon, for a depth 
of 280 feet without reaching its base, and as we know it to be, by 
actual measurement, between 400 and 500 feet in thickness in another 
locality, it is evident that the pit-sections in Durham can give 
only an imperfect idea of the entire deposit. Taking pit-sections 
as their only guide in studying the structure of the Magnesian Lime- 
stone, the authors can never possibly comprehend the stratigraphical 
arrangement determined by King and Howse. Before they can 
place themselves in a position for judging whether that arrange- 
ment agrees with the facts of the case or not, they must see the 
whole of the formation to which it refers; and that they have 
not placed themselves in that position we feel perfectly satisfied, 
having too high an opinion of the authors’ capacity of observation 
and correct judgment to suppose them capable of coming to the 
conclusions they have published had they ali the facts before 
them. We are certain that had they gone into the field as prac- 
tical geologists, and examined carefully the Magnesian Limestone 
as it is to be seen at the surface, as well as from the subterranean 
point of view which the duties of their profession have given them, 
they would have discovered that the generalization of Professor 
King was neither ‘speculative’ nor ‘extremely hazardous,’ but the 
legitimate conclusion of good observation. We say this because we 
know from personal examination that the lithological characters do 
net alternate in the way that the authors suggest. But even did 
they so vary, we question the propriety of deciding the subdivi- 
sional arrangement of any fossiliferous formation without considering 
its paleontological as well as its purely geological data. Of such 
importance, indeed, has paleontological evidence now become that it 
would be just as judicious for a modern mining engineer to lift his 
coal with a one-horse gin as for a geologist to attempt to classify 
sedimentary rocks without referring to their fossils. Nevertheless 
this is what the authors attempt todo; for they wholly ignore the 
palzontology of the Magnesian Limestone. For aught they say 
to the contrary, there might not be a single fossil in it; or fossils 
might be of no more consequence than so many lusus nature. 

We have no desire to extend our criticism on the opinions which 


Reviews— Transactions of Dudley Geological Society. 33 


Messrs. Daglish and Forster hold as to the stratigraphy of the 
Magnesian Limestone. Suffice it to repeat that we are fully per- 
suaded that their opinions on that subject are not those which they 
would have held had their investigations been more carefully con- 
ducted in a geological point of view and more thoroughly carried out. 


HE Transactions or THE DUDLEY AND MipLAND GEOLOGICAL 

AND SCIENTIFIC SocrETy AND Fretp-Cius. No. 3, September, 
1864, contains, among other communications, an agreeably written 
and sound paper by the Rev. H. Housman, on paleontology generally, 
on the increased value of fossils when studied not as merely 
isolated memorials of this or that long-past age, but as members 
of God’s great creature-family, links in the great chain of life, 
and as holding definite places in the scale of being, either as 
ancestors, or as analogues, of the living creatures now flourishing on 
the earth. The Lingule and other Brachiopods, the Trilobite, Péery- 
gotus, and other Crustaceans, are especially considered, as having 
existed from early times, and as illustrating the manner in which 
Life has spread over the world. Well-considered and concise 
remarks on the Literature of Geology are made in a short paper 
by the Rev. J. W. Bain, with truth and energy. In the Rev. W. 
Symonds’s paper on the progress of Geological Science during the 
past year, he alludes to most of the later geological discoveries, 
and those tenets and theories which have some foundation in Philo- 
sophy. The metamorphic origin of many granitic and other rocks, 
once thought to have cooled from a molten state,—the presence 
of fossils in the Laurentian and Cambrian rocks, once thought 
to be azoic, and in Lower Silurian rocks once thought to be poor 
in organic remains and indefinite in position,—a better knowledge 
of the uppermost Silurian beds, of the ‘Devonian’ flora of NP. 
America, of the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone, of the ‘Old 
Red’ itself (especially of its probably two-fold aspect, and of its 
rightful possession of Yelerpeton and Stagonolepis), of the Coal- 
measures and their fossil Reptiles, of the Permian plants and hematite, 
and of the Trias as occurring in New Zealand (New Caledonia 
and California may be added). Lastly, Mr. Symonds treats of the 
evidence of Man’s existence in Western Europe since the Glacier- 
epoch, according to Prestwich and Lyell. 

In his paper on the Recent Discovery of Cannel-coal in North 
Wales, Mr. Beckett, first briefly explaining the general bearings of 
the Flintshire and Denbighshire coal-fields, states that after having 
worked with Mr. E. Hull, of the Geological Survey, over this and the 
adjoining coal-area of Lancashire, he fully coincided with Mr. Hull 
in his opinion of the continuation of the coal-beds beneath the Mersey 
and the Dee, and also found some evidence of the existence in 
Flintshire of lower coal-beds than had been yet explored. Circum- 
stances aided in necessitating deep sinkings (at Leeswood Green) ; 
and there, at about 93 yards below the ‘ Main-coal,’ with seven or 
eight seams of coal intervening, a valuable Cannel-coal, nearly four 
feet thick, was reached. Other seams of good coal occur still 

VOL. il.—NO. VII. D 


34 Reviews—Dublin Quarterly Journal. 


lower down; and iron-ores and paraffine-shales accompany the series. 
At Leeswood Green, a fault fortunately brings the Cannel up to 
the level of the Main-coal. The Cannel is variable in quality, 
and to the South, in the Denbighshire Coal-field (separated by a 
great fault from the Flintshire area), the Cannel is represented by 
the ‘Lower Yard Coal,’ the good house-coal of Ruabon. Much 
interesting information is given in this paper, and it contains a well- 
merited compliment to the Geological Surveyors for their laborious 
and conscientious field-work, so little thought of or understood except 
by those who have to follow them, and adopt their useful results. 

Mr. Jones, Secretary of the Society, read a paper (at the Cannock 
Chase Field-meeting), on Organization in Field-club work, well 
worth attention, particularly recommending continuous scientific 
work, in special directions, for the Botanists, Chemists, Geologists, 
and Antiquaries of particular districts, bringing their results to 
the natural centres, where the Clubs exist, and the preparation of 
Scientific Guide-books, as in the Malvern Club, or the recording of 
information as in the Institute of Mining Engineers for the Northern 
Coal-fields, and in the Dudley Society for South Staffordshire. 

Mr. Rupert Kettle’s paper on the working of the Ten-yard Coal, 
printed separately, is appended to this No. of the Transactions, but 
the discussions after the reading of the paper are fully given in 
the No. itself. A commission was appointed to undertake the neces- 
sary experiments and collect evidence. The paper is briefly noticed 
in the GroLoaicaL Magazine, No. 5. 


THe Dvsiin QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, CONTAINING 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE Roya Dusiin Society, THE RoyaL 
Irish ACADEMY, THE GEOLOGICAL SociETY OF DUBLIN, AND THE 
Naturat History Socrery or Dupin. Edited by the Rev. S. 
Haveuton, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and 
Professor of Geology in the University of Dublin. No. XVI. 
October, 1864. 


[PP this we find an enquiry (in Mr. H. O’Hara’s paper), into the 

character and extent of the Irish coal-fields, peat-bogs, and 
supply of fuel, which ought, it seems, to be increased by plantations 
of timber-trees, by enlarged workings of the collieries, and by the 
adoption of improved methods in draining the peat-bogs, and in 
digging, drying, and compressing the peat. Detailed accounts of 
the Irish peat-bogs and coal-fields are to be found in this paper, 
together with a map of the former, and a map and sections of the 
latter. 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
Ea sap eee) 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
I. NoveMBER 28, 1864.—The following communications were read: 
—1.:-‘On the Occurrence of Organic Remains in the Laurentian 


Rocks of Canada.’ By Sir W. E. Logan, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., 
Director of the Geological Survey of Canada. 


Reports and Proceedings. 35 


Full notices of this and the next two papers have been given in 
_the GroLtoeicaL MaAGazine, vol. i. pp. 225-7 (No. 5, November 
1865). 

2. : On the Structure of certain Organic Remains found in the 
Laurentian Rocks of Canada.’ By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., 
I.G.S. With a Note by W. B. Carpenter, M D., F.R.S., F.G.S., 
who corroborated Dr. Dawson’s observations on the structure and 
affinities of HKozodn, but stated also that, as he considered the cha- 
racters furnished by the intimate structure of the shell to be of 
primary importance, and the plan of growth to have a subordinate 
value, he did not hesitate to express his belief in its affinities to 
Nummulina. 

3. ‘On the Mineralogy of certain Organic Remains found in the 
Laurentian Rocks of Canada.’ By T. Sterry Hunt, Esq., M.A., 
F.R.S., of the Geological Survey of Canada. Communicated by 
Sir W. E. Logan, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. (See above.) 


II. December 7, 1864.—The following communications were read : 
—1l. ‘On the Geology of Otago, New Zealand.’ By James Hector, 
M.D., F.G.S. In a letter to Sir R. I. Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S. 
F.G.S. The south-western part of the Province of Otago is composed 
of crystalline rocks forming lofty and rugged mountains, and inter- 
sected by deeply cut valleys which are occupied by arms of the sea 
on the west, and by the great lakes on the east. ‘These crystalline 
rocks comprise an ancient contorted gneiss, and a newer (probably 
not very old) series of hornblende-slate gneiss, quartzite, &c. East- 
wards they are succeeded by well-bedded sandstones, shales, and 
porphyritic conglomerates, with greenstone-slates, &c., in patches, 
all probably of Lower Mesozoic age. ‘Then follow the great auri- 
ferous schistose formations, which comprise an Upper, a Middle, and 
a Lower portion ; and upon these occur a series of Tertiary deposits, 
the lowest of which may, however, possibly be of Upper Mesozoic 
date, while the upper, consisting of a Fresh-water and a Marine 
series, are unconformable to it, and are decidedly much more recent. 
(See also GroLocicaL MaGazine, No. 5, p. 233.) 

In describing the auriferous formations, Dr. Hector stated that 
the quartz-veins occurring in the schists were not often true ‘ fissure- 
reefs’ (that is, reefs that cut the strata nearly vertically and have a 
true back, or wall, independent of the foliation-planes), but are 
merely concretionary laminz that conform to the planes of foliation: 
gold occurs segregated in the interspaces of this contorted schist, 
but is rarely found én siti. 

Dr. Hector concluded with some remarks on the Tertiary volcanic 
rocks, observing that the period of their eruption must have been 
one of upheaval, and that the great depth of the valleys which have 
been excavated by glacier-action since the close of that period proves 
that the elevation of the island, at least in the mountain-region, 
must once have been enormously greater than it now is. 

2. ‘Note on communicating the Notes and Map of Dr. Julius 
Haast, illustrating the Glaciers and Rock-basins of New Zealand.’ By 
Sir R. I. Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S.—In this note Sir 


D 2 


36 Reports and Proceedings. 


Roderick Murchison stated that Dr. Haast has informed him in a letter 
that he has for the last five years attentively followed the discussions 
on Glacier-theories; that in March 1862 he came, independently of 
other authors, to the same conclusions in New Zealand that Prof. 
Ramsay did in Europe, and that his views have been printed in his 
Colonial Reports as Geologist of the Province of Canterbury. Sir 
Roderick also stated that the constant occupations of Dr. Haast, 
in the field and elsewhere, have hitherto prevented his carrying out 
his intention of writing a paper for the Geclogical Society; but 
he has sent the following notes as a résumé of his views. Though 
opposed to the theory of the excavation of basins in hard rocks by 
the action of ice, Sir Roderick commended the researches of Dr. 
Haast as showing the mutations of the surface in successive geo- 
logical periods. 

3. Notes on the Causes which have led to the Excavation of 
deep Lake-basins in hard Rocks in the Southern Alps of New Zea- 
land.’ By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.G.S. Communicated by Sir R. 
Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S.—Referring first to the submer- 
gence of New Zealand during the Pliocene period, and to its subse- 
quent elevation, the author stated that the chief physical feature of 
the country after that elevation was a high mountain-range, from 
which glaciers of enormous volume, owing to peculiar meteorological 
conditions, descended into the plain below, removing in their course 
the loose Tertiary strata, and thus widening and enlarging the pre- 
existing depressions, the occurrence of which had at first determined 
the course of the glaciers. The author then observed that, the 
country having acquired a temporary stability, the glaciers became 
comparatively stationary, and therefore formed moraines, the mate- 
rials of which were cemented together by the mud deposited from 
the water issuing from the glacier; new moraine-matter would then 
raise the bed of the outlet and dam up the water below the glacier: 
and from this moment, he believes, the formation and scooping out 
of the rock-basin begins ; for, the ice being pressed downwards, and 
prevented by the moraine from descending, its force would be 
expended in excavating a basin in the rock below. 

4. ‘Note on aSketch-Map of the Province of Canterbury, New 
Zealand, showing the Glaciation during the Pleistocene and Recent 
Times, as far as explored.’ By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.G.S. Com- 
municated by Sir R. I. Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S.—This paper 
contained a generalexplanation of a Sketch-Map illustrating the past 
and present distribution of the glaciers on the eastern side of the 
Southern Alps of New Zealand, as well as the author’s views on the 
excavation of Lake-basins in hard rocks, as shown by the coin- 
cidence between the positions of the lakes and the terminations of 
the ancient glaciers. 


Royat GEroLogicaL Society or IreLAND.— The first meeting for 
the session 1864—5 took place on the 9th November, in the New 
Buildings, Trinity College, Dublin. The chair was taken by R. 
Caldwell, Esq. ‘The minutes of the last meeting having been read 


Reports and Proceedings. 37 


and confirmed, donations announced, and thanks voted, it was pro- 
posed and decided that, instead of in pounds, future subscriptions and 
compositions should be in guineas; and that Fellows should be 
elected in February (not more than 10), and, if need be, in June 
(not more than 5). 

Mr. Scott stated that the Journal of the Society for the last 
session was ready, and would immediately be distributed to all 
Members whose subscriptions were paid up for 1864. It finished 
the series of ten volumes of the Journal of the Society under its 
former name; and the publication would be continued with a slightly 
varied title. 

The Secretary read Mr. Foot’s paper ‘On a recent Erratic Block,’ 
in which the author gave an account of a large block of limestone, 
weighing about two tons, which had been raised from its bed and 
carried for a distance of about fifty yards by the action of ice in the 
severe winter of 1855 at Rathclive, at the northern extremity of 
Lough Ree. 

The Secretary also read a paper by Mr. John Kelly, containing 
his views on ‘The Doctrine of Characteristic Fossils,’ based on 
comparisons of those of the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous 
. Systems. 


EpinspureH Gro.ocicaL Society.—The annual meeting of the 
Edinburgh Geological Society was held on November 3rd, in their 
rooms at 5 St. Andrew’s Square, Mr. David Page, F.G.S., F.R.S.E., 
the retiring president, in the chair. After the reports had been 
read, collections of minerals and fossils from Mr. James Anderson 
and Mr. Monteith were presented to the Society ; and the following 
new office-bearers were elected for the ensuing session :—President, 
Mr. C. Maclaren, F.G.S.; vice-presidents, Mr. M. Lothian and Mr. 
D. Page, F.G.S., F.R.S.E. ; secretary, Mr. G. C. Haswell ; librarian, 
Mr. T. Smyth; treasurer, Mr. G. Lyon; curators, Messrs. T. R. 
Marshall and A. Somerville; council, Messrs. R. H. Bow, D. Mar- 
shall, J. R.S. Hunter, J. P. Falkner, $.S.C., James Haswell, M.A., 
and R. A. F. A. Coyne. Mr. Page, in his valedictory address, 
referred to the great discoveries which have been made in other 
countries during the past year, and to the questions which have been 
raised in consequence. The age of our rocks which we have been in 
the habit of ealling metamorphic rocks, fundamental rocks, or the 
primordial zone, appears not to have been so very low in the geo- 
logical formations as was supposed, or rather the geological scale 
must be extended downwards, so as to include, as fossiliferous rocks 
below those which in this country contain fossils, the Cambrian and 
Laurentian system. He then referred to the position of some ques- 
tions which had been raised during the last session regarding the 
effect of metamorphism, the propriety of the term Old Red Sand- 
stone as applied to the beds of Forfarshire, the age of the coal-beds 
of Borneo, New Zealand, aan Brazil, the age of the Greensand, the 
arrangement of the Post-tertiary system and the difficulties connected 


38 Reports and Proceedings. 


with the subject, and the Antiquity of Man. Mr. Maurice Lothian 
then took the chair, and a vote of thanks to Mr. Page for his con- 
duct as chairman last session was heartily awarded by the meeting. 

2. A fortnightly meeting of the Society was held November 24, 
Mr. C. Maclaren, president, in the chair. A communication on the 
Dinornis robustus, from Mr. T. Allis, vice-president of the York- 
shire Philosophical Society, sent in by Mr. J. Haswell, was the first 
paper read. Mr. David Page read a paper on the ‘ Wash-out’ at 
Hailes Quarry. Premising that the terms ‘ Wash-out,’ ‘ Nip-out,’ 
and the like were employed by miners and quarry-men to designate 
certain deep troughs and gorges in the stratified rocks from which 
the solid matter of the strata had been eroded by aqueous or other - 
action, Mr. Page drew attention toa very remarkable ‘wash-out’ at 
Hailes Quarry where the superincumbent shales and underlying sand- 
stones had been cut through to the depth of sixty feet, and to a width 
varying from twelve or fourteen feet at the surface, but gradually 
narrowing to only two or three feet at the bottom. It was a wedge- 
shaped gorge, smoothed and polished on the sides by ice and watery 
action, and now filled with clay and boulders, the residue of the 
Glacial Period during which the ‘wash-out’ had been excavated. 
This gorge, and several others which he instanced, appeared to him 
to be evidences of the land-surface of the Glacial or Boulder Epoch, 
which had been eroded partly by running water and partly by 
moving ice, and, as the Glacial Period closed, had become filled with 
clay, boulders, and other débris, from the surface. The Hailes 
‘wash-out’ was remarkable for its great depth and narrowness ; but 
some, like one described at the Newcastle Meeting of the British 
Association in 1868, which could be traced for miles, and was up- 
wards of 200 yards in width, were in fact the old river-courses of 
the country before, and perhaps during part of, the Glacial Hra. 

3. A meeting of this Society took place on December 1, Mr. M. 
Lothian, §.8.C., P.F., in the chair. Dr. Wrany, of the Pathological 
Library, Prague, was elected a foreign corresponding member. Mr. 
D. J. Brown read a paper on ‘The Causes which lead to the Phe— 
nomenon of Mountains and Mountain-Chains.’ 


GEOLOGICAL Socirty oF GLascow.—The Monthly Meeting* was 
held in the library of the Andersonian University, on December 8th, 
E. A. Wiinsch, Esq., in the chair. Mr. Armstrong exhibited six 
species of Cypricardia from the Carboniferous Shales of the West of 
Scotland, two of which were rare, and as yet undescribed. ‘Two of 
them, C. rhombea, Phil., and C. striato-lamellosa, De Kon., from 
Craigen Glen, Campsie, he said, appear to be more characteristic of 
the lower stage of the Clydesdale Series, while the two undescribed 
species from Gare, Carluke, have as yet been found only in the 
Upper Marine Shales. Mr. A. Armour exhibited a collection of 
Ichthyolites from the Glasgow Coalfield, including some very fine 
and rare Ichthyodorulites, or Fish-spines, of the genera Gyracan- 


* The Monthly Lecture (Noy. 24) will be noticed in our next Number. 


fteports and Proceedings. 39 


thus, Ctenacanthus, Pleuracanthus, and Orthacanthus—this last 
genus has not been hitherto recorded from this district. These 
large spines and some teeth and other Fish-remains were found in 
shale, forming the roof of the Splint-coal in the Cambuslang district, 
south-east of Glasgow. The chairman exhibited a series of speci- 
mens illustrating the fauna of the Old Red of Forfar, which he owed 
to the kindness of James Powrie, Esq., of Reswallie; also a photo- 
graph, by Mr. Powrie, of a group of these fossils. Mr. Crosskey 
also exhibited specimens of the Laurentian Gneiss of Sutherland, 
which is claimed by Sir R. Murchison as the oldest rock in the 
British Islands, and remarked upon their hornblendic character, and 
their dissimilarity to the gneiss of the Argyllshire district,—a view 
which was confirmed by Mr. Young. The secretary exhibited a 
variety of copper-ores, including the new and rare Cornish mineral 
Langite, from the collection of John Tennant, Esq., Garngad Hill, 
by whose kindness he had been enabled to exhibit it. 

2. Mr. Youne then drew attention to a number of-very interesting 
local varieties of sandstones, from the Old Red and Carbonifer- 
ous formations, and, with one or two exceptions, from the neighbour- 
hood of the city. After describing the general character of our 
sandstone rocks, Mr. Young referred to some curiously blotched and 
circular-spotted sandstones from the Old Red near Dumbarton, 
which had long puzzled geologists and others as to how the per- 
oxide of iron had been discharged fromthe stone ; but as yet no 
satisfactory explanation had been given as to the real cause of the 
discoloration. A white sandstone from the same locality was full of 
black spots of bituminous matter, which stain the stones very much 
as if they had been sprinkled over with drops of coal-tar ; and he 
said it was a very difficult question to decide whether these spots 
were due to the decay of organisms—no traces of which, however, 
can now be discovered in them, or have been produced by some other 
unknown natural cause. He next remarked on the specimens of 
black, brown, and striped sandstones from the Carboniferous for- 
mations, that owed their colour to bituminous matter, which had 
either been mixed with the sand by deposition along with it, or by sub- 
limation from neighbouring coal-strata, penetrating the porous sand- 
stone. Some of these contain a considerable quantity of volatile 
bituminous ingredients which can be readily distilled from the stone. 
In others, where the bituminous sandstone has been overlain by, or 
in contact with, igneous products, the bitumen had been converted 
into anthracite, and gives off no gas or flame; all of these sand- 
stones become white by burning. One curious and unique variety 
of striped sandstone from Newton, near Cambuslang, excited much 
interest from the great regularity of its markings. Mr. Young 
stated that the base of this variety was brown, but at nearly regular 
intervals of fully one quarter of an inch, it alternates with thin, 
sharply defined, regular layers or stripes of white, of about half a line 
only in thickness, giving an almost artificial appearance to the stone. 
He did not consider this striping to be caused by the deposition of dif- 
ferent coloured sands ; for it is obliterated by burning ; and the stone 


40 Reports and Proceedings. 


then appears of a uniform sediment and colour, and without any dis- 
tinct lamination. He wasinclined to the opinion that during deposition, 
the sand had been laid bare at regular periodic intervals and ex- 
posed to the chemical action of light and heat, and while thus 
exposed, a thin layer of the upper surface was bleached, and changed 
from its normal brown colour, producing the thin line of white, by 
the abstraction of the volatile bituminous ingredients, and that this 
surface was covered up afterwards by fresh deposits of brown sand. 

No current, he said, could spread over the area of deposit so thin 

and persistent a layer of white sand as this bed represented, repeated 

at so many distinct and periodic intervals, such as the specimens 
before them indicated. 

3. Mr. Joun DovGatt read a paper of some length, and of much 
interest, on ‘The Ancient Sea-margins and Raised Beaches around 
Glasgow.’ (To be noticed hereafter.) 

4. Mr. J. W. YounG, in presenting the Analysis of an undescribed 
Red Mineral from the Gleniffer Braes, said, that he believed Mr. 
John Young was the first to direct the attention of the members to 
this mineral, which is found in amygdaloidal porphyry. It is by no 
means peculiar to that locality, and occurs frequently in different 
varieties of trap-rocks. He had made a rough analysis about 
eighteen months ago, and was struck with the large pereentage 
(30 to 70) of iron-oxide which it contained. He had, however, now 
managed to make a full and careful analysis, and it gave him—water, 
4-66; silica, 21°33; magnesia, 5-26; and peroxide of iron, 6893. 
The specimen analysed was from porphyry of deep-red colour, and 
comparatively soft. If he might be allowed to propose a name for 
it, he would suggest ‘Ferrite,’ from the large percentage of iron it 
contains. Mr. John Young had obtained an analysis of a specimen 
from Langbank ; it has nearly three per cent. less of iron-oxide in it, 
but appears to be harder than the other. The chief difference in 
their composition appears to be that the Paisley specimens contain 
no lime, but magnesia; while the other contains lime but no 
magnesia. 

We have been favoured with the following note, and also with a specimen of the 
mineral, which may, we think, possibly prove to be pseudomorphous after felspar. 
—Ep. G. M. 

Remarks by Mr. John Young on the Mineral, from Gleniffer 
Braes, Paisley, analysed by Mr. J. W. Young, and proposed by 
him to be called ‘ Ferrite.’ 

This mineral occurs in several kinds of trap-rocks in the West of 
Scotland, in the deeper portions of which its crystals are of a 
blackish colour, often scarcely distinguishable from the dark base of 
the trap. Where the rock is porous, however, and the mineral has 
in consequence been affected by moisture or by the oxygen of the 
air, the crystals change to a bright deep red colour, which contrasts 
strongly with the dark colour of the stone. In this state they are 
softer, and the rock containing them becomes very friable. 
The crystals are regular in their form, and must have crys- 
tallized in the rock during the cooling of the mass. They do 


Reports and Proceedings. 41 


not occupy amygdaloidal cavities, as the zeolites. They cleave 
readily across, and show an oblong, six-sided section, which also 
breaks up into little cuboidal pieces. The size of the largest 
erystals is about six lines in length, by three in breadth. They are 
very abundant in some of the traps near Paisley and at Langbank on 
the Clyde, and have been found on the Campsie Fells and in Arran. 
The composition of the Ferrite from Langbank is as follows :—Water, 
834; soluble silica, 2°56; insoluble silica, 18°33; carbonate of 
lime, 4°41; iron-oxide, 66:21: total, 9985. It is harder than the 
Paisley variety, the analysis of which is given above. The silica 
is there marked as 21°33; it might have been divided, however, 
-thus :—Soluble silica, 11°80 ; insoluble silica, 9:53; total, 21°33. 


NorwicH GEOLOGICAL SocterTy, in connection with the Norfolk 
and Norwich Museum.—At a meeting, December 6th, Mr. J. O. 
Harper read a very instructive paper on the comparative anatomy 
of Rodents, illustrated with numerous specimens, among others 
several of the Trogontherium Cuvieri (a gigantic fossil Beaver 

found in the Forest-bed at Bacton, Norfolk), from the Museum and 
Mr. Gunn’s collection. The discussion was adjourned to the next 
Meeting, when specimens of the Beaver (Castor Europeus) will be 
produced, it is hoped, for comparison, and with the view to clear up 
the doubts, which have been expressed by eminent Palzontologists 
who have visited the Norwich Museum, as to whether a small jaw 
in that collection is that of a young Trogontherium, or of the common 
Beaver. Mr. J. S. Offord undertook to have casts made of a femur 
and caleaneum of the Trogontherium for the Norwich Museum, and 
also for private distribution. Very fine specimens of a tooth of 
Tapirus priscus, and of three teeth and part of the jaw of Hyraco- 
therium leporinum, from the Red Crag of Felixstow, were exhibited 
from the collection of Mr. Waters, of Manchester, and teeth of Sws 
paleocherus, obtained from the Red Crag of Sutton, by Mr. J. H. 
Roper. of West Tofts, near Brandon, who has made a good collection 
from that deposit. For the identification of these teeth with speci- 
mens described by Professor Owen (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. 
xii. p. 217 and Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd Series, vol. vi. p. 203, pl. 21) 
the members are indebted to Mr. Henry Woodward, of the British 
Museum. 


MANCHESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SoclETY.—Nov. 29, 
1864. Mr. R. D. Darbishire read a paper entitled ‘ Notes on Marine 
Shells found in Stratified Drift at Macclesfield, and exhibited a 
series of specimens. The shells were collected from beds of sand and 
gravel exposed in the formation of the new Cemetery, at an elevation 
of 500 to 600 feet above the level of the sea. These beds are gene- 
rally horizontal, but exhibit great irregularities of extension, level, 
and false-bedding. They rest on the ‘ Lower Boulder-clay.’ 

The whole of the 50 shells are ordinary British species, with the 
exception of four whose highest northern range is on our extreme 
south-west coast, namely Cytherea chione, Cardium rusticum, Car- 
dium aculeatum(?), and Areca lactea. 


42 Reports and Proceedings : 


Nine species, including Cytherea chione, have also been obtained - 
from the patch of gravel discovered by Mr. Prestwich, at about 1,200 
feet above the sea, on the east side of Macclesfield. 


Tuer Natura History Society or NORTHUMBERLAND, DURHAM, 
AND NEWCASTLE-ON-Tyngz, held its first evening-meeting on Nov. 24, 
when a large and fashionable audience thronged the Museum of the 
Society in Westgate Street, Newcastle. A large number of the best 
microscopes and prepared objects were shown by members and their 
friends; and an address ‘On Museums: their Uses and Management,’ 
was delivered by Prof. Archer, director of the Industrial Museum of 
Scotland. 

Under the new arrangement, the Natural History Society and 
the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field-Club (which, preserving their in- 
dependent existence, have entered into fraternal association), com- 
menced their winter-evening meetings in the Walrus Room, on 
December Ist. 


Bristot Naturatists’ Socrety.— Geological Section, Oct. 28th.— 
Mr. W. Sanders, president, in the chair. Mr. J. Keal continued the 
discussion of the last meeting respecting the Lias beds of the neigh- 
bourhood, and gave an interesting account of his endeavours to 
discover the point of junction of the New Red Sandstone and the 
Lias, describing minutely the beds and fossils on Bedminster Down, 
the most noticeable of which were Terebratula psilonoti, at Colliker’s 
Brook—an evidence of Lower Lias, and Ammonites planorbis at 
Yanley Lane. Mr. Keal went at great length into the question at 
issue between Mr.C. Moore, of Bath, and Dr. Wright, of Cheltenham; 
and concluded by proposing as a problem for solution, the range of 
the Saurians in the Bristol district, and their relation here to the 
Ammonites planorbis, which, he was satisfied, occurred above the 
White Lias. Mr. Sanders confirmed the last remark, and said that 
he did not consider the Saurians to be confined to any one zone ; he 
pointed out the desirability of making a great number of accurate 
sections, to scale, of all the Lias beds, and correlating them, taking 
the Cotham or Landscape Marble as a good landmark from which 
to reckon vertical distances of beds, which should all be numbered, 
and notice taken of the fossils occurring in them. The Saltford 
section might be used as a model. Mr. W. W. Stoddart exhibited a 
large collection of fossil Entomostraca, or Water-fleas, which he had 
obtained from all formations—Silurian to Postpliocene. In the living 
state they were all aquatic, with two valves, and a chitinous skeleton, 
moulted yearly, which was the cause of the great abundance of their 
remains. With the exception of the well-known Trilobites, which 
he believed to belong to this class, they were all microscopic, and 
were obtained from the beds they occurred in, by disintegrating the 
stone with or without the use of hot and cold water, passing the 
powdered mass through sieves of various fineness, and picking out the 
minute fossils under a microscope.—Bristol Daily Post, Nov. 21, 
1864. 


British Association. 43 


Norices oF GEOLOGICAL PAPERS READ BEFORE THE BRITISH 
ASSOCIATION—continued. 


Notice oF CarNAsstAL AND Cantne TEETH, FRoM THE Mernpre Cavers, wHICH 
PROBABLY BELONG To Hexis aw7iqua. By W. A. SANrorp, Esq., F.G.S. 


EARS a quantity of bones from Hutton Cavern, in the Men- 
dips, the author found a lower earnassial and an upper and a 
lower canine, of a large species of Felis, not Felis spelea. These pre- 
sented all the characteristics and measurements of Felis pardus, 
which is probably the same animal as that noticed and figured, 
though not described, by Cuvier under the name of Felis antiqua, 
though the figure differs in the size of the anterior lobe from that of 
the Mendip*fossils. The measurements, however, exactly agree. He 
has therefore enumerated Felis pardus (syn. F. antiqua, Cuvier) 
as a British cave-fossil. He also called attention to the value of the 
comparative measurements of the length of the tooth from front to 
back, with that of the height of the base of the tooth from the crown 
to the bottom of the furrow, in the lower carnassial, as a means of 
discrimination between the different groups of Felide; and of the 
fact that the transverse measurement is so variable in the same 
species and even in the same individual, that it is valueless for the 
same purpose. It is by the former comparison, as also by the 
considerably larger size, that this tooth is distinguished from the 
corresponding tooth of J. pardoides, of Owen, from the Red Crag. 


On THE Mamaia oF THE Newer Puiccenr AGE IN THE CAVERNS AND River- 
DEPOSITS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. By W. Boyp Dawxrns, B.A. (Oxon.), F.G.S., 
of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. 

(PIHE author, after giving a brief summary of the results of the 

exploration of upwards of eleven ossiferous caverns in the 
limestone of the Mendip Hills, by the Rev. J. Williams, Messrs. 

Beard and Stutchbury, Mr. Ayshford Sanford, F.G.S., and himself, 

described in outline the Mammalia that have been found in the 

county, and are preserved in the Museums of Taunton, Bath, and 

Bristol, and in Mr. Sanford’s and his own cabinets. 

The Carnivora are very largly represented. Of the Felide, the 
Cave-tiger (Felis spetea), found alike in the caverns and gravels of 
the Avon, the Cave-panther (Felis antigua of Cuvier), identified as 
a British fossil for the first time by his friend Mr. Sanford, and a 
small feline species allied to the Wild Cat, remind us of the associa- 
tion of animals obtaining ow in the Altai Mountains. The Hyena 
(Hyena spelea, or Cave-hyena), found abundantly in two of the 
caves, presents those variations from the typical form of the lower 
true molar, which Messrs. Croizet and Jobert have ascribed to their 
H, Perrieri, and MM. De Serres, Dubreuil, and Jeanjean to their 
HH. intermedia. ‘The Bears are represented by two species at least— 
the Brown Bear of Europe, Ursus arctos, on the one hand, and the 
gigantic Cave-bear, U. speleus, on the other. Between these two 
extremes of size are many varieties, which may perhaps turn out 
to be species, but they await an historian. The Canid@ are found in 
every cavern, and comprise the Fox and Wolf. ‘The remains of 


A4 Reports and Proceedings : 


Badgers have been found at the Wookey Hole Hyena-den. The 
Herbivora are much more numerous in the caverns than the Car- 
nivores. Elephas antiquus is associated with KH. primigenius in 
Banwell and Bleadon Caverns, with Rhinoceros hemitechus and Hip- 
popotamus major on Durdham Down, and has been found also on 
the banks of the Exe. The Mammoth is common alike in the caves 
and the river-deposits. Rhinoceros tichorhinus and R. hemitechus 
have been obtained from Wookey Hole. The remains of Horse are 
very generally met with: the caves of Bleadon and Durdham 
Down alone have yielded Hippopotamus major. The Wild Boar 
(Sus serofa) has been obtained from both caves and river-gravels. 
The Cervide comprise the Irish Elk, Red-deer, Roe-deer, and Rein- 
deer. The Bison (Aurochs, Bison priscus), a second smaller variety 
or species (B. minor), and a third and yet smaller one, and the great 
Urus (Bos primigenius), prove that the Bovide were abundant in 
the Newer Pliocene times in the district referred to. The Rodentia 
are represented by the Rabbit, Hare, and three species of Vole (Ar- 
vicola agrestis, A. pratensis, and A. amphibia). The discovery of 
the Marmot (Spermophilus erythrogenoides, Falc.), we owe to the 
energy of Dr. Falconer. 

But the last and most important addition to the fauna of the dis- 
trict in those early times is that of Man. The implements of flint, 
chert, and bone found in the Wookey Hole Hyena-den, prove him to 
have been a contemporary of the Cave-bear, Cave-tiger, Mammoth, 
and two extinct species of Rhinoceros, and to have belonged as truly 
to the Cave-fauna as any of the extant Mammalia. 


On somm New Points In THE Structure or Patmcutnus. By W. H. Batty, 
Ksq., F.L.S., F.G.S. 
HE author stated that, having had occasion, for the purpose of 
comparison, to examine the fine series of fossils belonging to 
the genus Palechinus in the well-known collection of Sir Richard 
Griffith, Bart., the eminent geologist, and Chief of the Valuation- 
department in Dublin, he was fortunate enough to find amongst 
these beautiful Hchint of the Carboniferous Limestone one of the 
species Palechinus elegans, from the lower beds of the limestone 
at Hook Point, Co. Wexford, which was sufficiently perfect to en- 
able him to make out the arrangement of the plates composing the 
apical disk—an important part of the test or shell not hitherto de- 
scribed. He found that the principal plates were the same in number 
and position as in the Secondary and more recent forms of Eehini, 
although differing in their proportions; there being five genital 
plates, one of which, rather larger than the rest, was probably the 
‘madreporiform plate, and five ocular plates; these being much 
larger than usual in more recent forms, and the genital shorter in 
proportion to their breadth. In addition to these, there were inner 
circles of ten sur-anal and a similar number of anal plates. 

The great peculiarity and most remarkable difference between 
this part of the Palechinus and that of the recent Echinide was 
described as consisting of a double perforation of the ocular plates, 
and triple perforation of the genital plates. 4 


British Association: 45 


Another addition to the structure of this interesting Paleozoic 
Echinus, made by Mr. Baily, was the discovery of spines which he 
had observed on a specimen of the same species, also from Hook 
Point, in the Collection of the Geological Survey of Ireland, a 
number of the minute spines still remaining attached to the plates, 
the principal tubercles on which are perforated, and surrounded by 
a circle of smaller ones. These spines were less than a tenth of an 
inch in length, and, on examination with a microscope, were found to 
be longitudinally striated. 


ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SrQueNce oF Rocks anp Fosstrs. By Harry 
Srevey, F.G.S. 
AVING assumed as axioms, that clays are the mud of rivers, 
that sandstones are the detritus of old crystalline rocks, while 
limestones were organically or chemically formed, the author con- 
trasted the Cretaceous and Jurassic Rocks, and the sequence of the 
beds forming them; and, from the alternations of the strata, he 
deduced the alternations of the upheaval of continents and the 
nature of the rocks presented for denudation. He then, by way of 
illustration, worked out the physical geography of the Cretaceous 
period, as evidenced by the rocks of the Eastern and Northern 
Counties ; and, having considered the effect of these physical revo- 
lutions upon the fauna of the ocean-floor, it was concluded that the 
operation of elevation and depression, in the ways pointed out, might 
produce all the phenomena of existing life-provinces on land and by 
sea, and similar life-provinces in the seas of past time. It was then 
shown that breaks between strata do not generally indicate denudation 
or breaks in time, but merely upheaval or depression of old lands, 
bringing into wear newrock-material, and causing the immigration of 
a new province of marine life. Mr. Seeley then showed that life was 
no measure of time; and concluded by controverting the teaching 
of Lyell, Forbes, Haughton, Hennessey, &c., that fossil species are 
any evidence of change of climate. He showed that one existing 
species could not tell anything about the climatal conditions of an- 
other, and therefore that the climate of extinct genera and families 
could not be inferred from existing analogues. The old faunz were 
not universal; nor could the existing analogues have reached their 
present homes without wandering through very different climates. 
Evidence was adduced of extensive migrations, and it was concluded 
that in old times the species migrated, not the climate. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
—— 


To the Editors of the GroLocicaAL MAGAZINE. 


I Turk that it might be of service to those who, like myself, live 
in the neighbourhood of deposits containing the remains of Elephants 
and other large Mammalia, if you would describe the method that 
was used to extract the tusks of the Lford specimen of Elephas primz- 
genius from the matrix. I have secn many tusks ruined by unskilful 


46 ~ Correspondence. 


attempts to remove them: and J feel sure that more than ordinary 

skill must have been employed to obtain the specimens in question 

in such excellent condition.—I am, &c. O. FISHER. 
ELMSTEAD, ConcHEstir : Dec. 12, 1864. 


To the Editors of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Brine engaged as Resident Engineer superintending the con- 
struction of the submarine foundations for the sea-forts near 
High-water Spithead, now in course of erection 

mark. under the immediate direction of Mr. 

Hawkshaw, I send you a fossil 
lower jaw-bone of some Ruminant, 
discovered, in August last, in a 
deposit of flinty gravel and shingle 
(stained with oxide of iron) at No 
eon eee Man’s Land Shoal, situate about 14 mile 
ou NE. of Nettlestone Point, eastward of 
Ryde, Isle of Wight. Large flat peb- 
bles from the limestone of the Isle of 
Wicht are distributed through the en- 
tire mass of flinty shingle gravel and 
sand forming the shoal. The iron cylin- 
der has been sunk into this shingle bed 
Surfaceof to a depth of 54 feet without penetrat- 
ae ing it. The jaw-bone was met with at 
a depth of 40 feet beneath the surface 
of the shoal, whilst sinking the cylin- 
der. The following sketch represents 
a section of the shoal, and shows the 
depth at which the specimen was found. 
Probably in times not far remote the 
Isle of Wight formed part of the main- 
land, and the Solent was an extensive 
estuary, of which Poole Harbour may 

have been the head.*—Yours truly, 

Tuomas Harris. 

108 Hieu Street, PorrsmMovurTH. 


We append a note from Mr. W. Davies.—Ep. 


The specimen Mr. Harris refers to in 
his letter has been presented by him to 
the British Museum. It is the left ramus 
_ of the lower jaw of the Red-deer (Cer- 

edhrsenn Glenn veo wna vus elaphus, Linn.), having 5 teeth in 

cylinder is sunk. situ, the crowns of which are well worn, 
proving it to have belonged to an adult and rather aged individual. 
On the inner side of the teeth and jaw are patches of a thin incrus- 
tation of iron-pyrites (which at first sight appear like a growth of 
lichens). _'The bone is remarkably fresh-looking, retaining most of 


* See ‘ Geologist,’ vol. v., p. 453, 


Miscellaneous. 47 


its animal matter, thus indicating the comparatively recent period 
at which it was drifted with the other materials which now form the 
shoal of ‘No Man’s Land.’—Yours truly, W. Davies. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 
aercuse 
OBITUARY NOTICE. 

Anprew GeEppEs Barn was a native of Scotland, and emigrated 
to the Cape in early life. After some time he settled at Graaf 
Reinett, where, having commenced business as a saddler, he resided 
for some years, with an occasional interlude of a trading trip into the 
Interior, during one of which he was attacked and plundered by the 
Natives, and barely escaped with life. On the breaking out of the 
Kafir War of 1833-4, he accepted the command of a provisional 
battalion, raised for the defence of the Frontier by Sir B. D’Urban, 
and did good service to his country in that capacity. Soon after his 
release from this duty, he was employed to construct a military road 
through the Ecca Pass ; and in this work he displayed engineering 
talents which earned for him the respect of the Government and 
the applause of the Colonists. His services were permanently re- 
tained by Mr. Montagu, then Secretary to the Government; and he 
had the direction of most of the roads since constructed in the Colony; 
some of them were gigantic undertakings, ably carried out. 

These works might have been fairly considered full employment 
for one head and pair of hands; but the loan of Lyell’s ‘ Elements,’ 
from a friend, turned Mr. Bain’s attention to Geology; he com- 
menced with zeal the search of the rocks; and this led to the 
discovery of the Dicynodon and numerous other fossil Reptiles in 
the Lacustrine or Karoo beds near Fort Beaufort. In a paper in the 
‘Eastern Province Magazine’ (Graham’s Town, 1857), he tells with 
great humour of the glee with which these first discoveries were 
enjoyed by himself and his friend and coadjutor, Mr. Borcherds, 
late Magistrate of Fort Beaufort. He sent many of these Reptilian 
skulls and bones home; and received the warm approbation of 
European Geologists for the sagacity with which he had assigned 
them to their proper place in the animal series, and to the rocks 
their approximate age and lacustrine origin. 

Called by his duties to the Western Province, he searched inde- 
fatigably the rich Devonian (or Upper Silurian?) deposits, and added 
many new species to their then little known fauna. 

In the Eastern Province again, in company with Dr. Atherstone, 
he examined the Sub-cretaceous beds of the Sundays and Zwartkops 
Rivers, discovered many new species, and ascertained the limits of 
the formation. But the work by which he has conferred the greatest 
benefit on Science, and on the Colony, is his Geological Map, pub- 
lished by the Geological Society of London. The industry and 
ability displayed in this work can only be appreciated by those who 
are acquainted with the scantiness of the few scattered notices which 
were all that was known of South-African Geology, and the limited 
time and opportunity he had for special geological research. 


48 Miscellaneous. 


Mr. Bain’s readiness to impart information on his favourite science, 
and the ardour he felt and inspired others with in its pursuit, will 
long be gratefully remembered by those who have been led by him 
to explore the fertile fields of South-African Geology. 

Mr. Bain was a man of powerful frame and great physical energy 
and endurance; nor did he fail in a well-known attribute of a good 
geologist,—he was pre-eminently ‘good company,’ being gifted with 
great humour, and having a large fund of anecdotes of the early 
times of the Cape Settlement, rich in incident, which will give em- 
ployment to the pen of some future Cooper. Moreover he had an 
excellent voice, and sang with great taste and feeling the songs of 
Burns and other bards of his native land. He was a warm friend ; 
and brought up a family of ten children to be a credit to his name. 
Mr. Thomas Bain is employed in the same department as his late 
father was; and has already done good service in Geology. 

The robust constitution of Mr. Bain showed, about two years ago, 
signs of having felt the strain to which his arduous labours had 
exposed it; and symptoms of heart-disease showed themselves. He 
came to this country last summer in the hope of recruiting his health; 
and had barely time to enjoy the warm reception of Sir R. I. Mur- 
chison, Professor Owen, and other leaders of science, to whom his 
labours had made him known, when the damp and cold of approach- 
ing winter rendered his return to the more genial climate of the 
Cape the only hope of prolonging his life. He died a few days after 


landing.—R. N. 


Tur Cotovrinc Marrer or tHe Biuz Forrst-Marsre.— 
The chief colouring ingredient of rocks and of many minerals is iron 
in its several degrees of oxidation. ‘Thus, we have red and brown 
jasper, &c., blue and red marls of the New Red Sandstone. Iron in 
another state of chemical combination has been recently determined 
by Prof. Church (Chem. Soc. Journ., Nov. 1864, p. 379) to give to the 
darker portion of the iamestone of the Forest-Marble its blue colour. 
The bedded limestones of this formation are characterized, as is well 
known to geologists, by dark mesial bands in the blocks into which 
the rock has naturally divided. The dark band frequently constitutes 
nine-tenths of the bulk of a thick compact slab ; very thin slabs are 
sometimes without a dark band. The dark stone is most abundant, 
and is of a deeper tint towards the base of the deposit. The lower- 
most stratum rests upon a blue clay of exactly the same tint as the 
dark stone, and owes its colour to the same substance. The colour- 
ing material of the dark bands is diffused iron-pyrites; the paler tint 
of the surrounding parts of the slab is due to the iron-oxide result- 
ing from the oxidation of the pyrites. Similar appearances are 
familiar to us in the limestones of the Lower Lias, the deeper seated 
limestones being of a dark-blue colour, and those parts exposed to 
atmospheric agencies being light-grey or white ; whilst intermediate 
portions exhibit the darker internal bend as in the limestones of the 
Forest-Marble.—R. T. 


THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. Il.—_FEBRUARY 1865. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 


—_+—_— 


I. Notes ON THE SHAPE AND STRUCTURE OF SOME PARTS OF THE 
ALPS, WITH REFERENCE TO DENUDATION. 


By Joun Rusxty, Hsq., F.G.8., &e. 


T is often said that controversies advance science. I believe, 
on the contrary, that they retard it—that they are wholly 
mischievous, and that all good scientific work is done in 
silence, till done completely. For party in politics, there are 
some conceivable, though no tenable, reasons; but scientific 
controversy in its origin must be always either an effort to 
obscure a discovery of which the fame is envied, or to claim 
eredit for a discovery not yet distinctly established: and 
it seems to me there are but two courses for a man of sense 
respecting disputed statements ;—if the matter of them be in- 
deed doubtful, to work at it, and put questions about it, but 
not argue about it; so the thing will come out in its own time, 
or, if it stays in, will be no stumbling-block ; but if the matter 
of them be not doubtful, to describe the facts which prove it, 
and leave them for what they are worth. 

The subject of the existing glacial controversy between older 
and younger geologists seems to unite both characters. In 
some part, the facts are certain and need no discussion; in 
other points, uncertain, and incapable of being discussed. 
There are not yet data of measurement enough to enable us_ to 
calculate accurately the rate of diluvial or disintegrating 
action on mountains; there are not data of experiment enough 
to enable us to reason respecting the chemical and mechanical 
development of mountains ; but all geologists know that every 
one of these forces must have been concerned in the formation 

VOL. II.— NO. VIII. E 


50 Ruskin—Notes on the Denudation of the Alps. 


of every rock in existence: so that a hostile separation into — 
two parties, severally maintaining a theory of Hrosion, and a 
theory of Fracture, seems like dividing on the question 
whether a cracked walnut owes its present state to nature 
or the nutcrackers. In some respects, the dispute is even 
more curious; the Erosion party taking, in Geology, nearly 
the position which they would occupy zoologically, if they 
asserted that bears owed the sharpness of their claws to their 
mothers’ licking, and chickens the shortness of their fea- 
thers to the friction of the falling bit of shell they had run 
away with on their heads. For indeed the Alps, and all other 
great mountains, have been tenderly softened into shape; and 
Nature still, though perhaps with somewhat molluscous tongue, 
flmty with incalculable teeth, watches over her craggy little 
Bruins, 
‘_ forms, with plastic care, 
Each growing lump, and brings it to a bear.’ 

Very assuredly, also, the Alps first saw the world with a great 
deal of shell on their heads, of which little now remains; and 
that little by no means so cunningly held together as the 
fragments of the Portland Vase. No one will dispute that this 
shell has been deeply scratched, and clumsily patched; but the 
quite momentous part of the business is, that the creatures have 
been carefully Hatched! It is not the denudation of them, but 
the incubation, which is the main matter of interest concerning 
them. So that Professor Ramsay may surely be permitted to 
enjoy his glacial theory without molestation—as long as it will 
last. Sir Roderick Murchison’s temperate and exhaustive 
statement * seems to me enough for its extinction; but where 
would be the harm of granting it, for peace’ sake, even in its 
complete expansion? ‘There were, we will suppose, rotatory 
elaciers—whirlpools of ecstatic ice—like whirling Dervishes, 
which excavated hollows in the Alps, as at the Baths of Leuk, 
or the plain of Sallenche, and passed afterwards out—‘ queue a 
queue ’—through such narrow gates and ravines as those of 
Cluse. Gigantic glaciers in oscillation, like handsaws, severed 
the main ridge of the Alps, and hacked it away, for the most 
part, leaving only such heaps of sawdust as the chain of 
the Turin Superga; and here and there a fragment like 
the Viso and Cervin, to testify to the ancient height of the ser- 
rated ridge. Two vast longitudinal glaciers also split the spine 
of the Alps, east and west, like butcher’s cleavers, each for 
sixty miles; then turned in accordance to the north (‘ Come si 
volge, con le piante strette, a terra, e intra se, donna che balli’), 


* Address at Anniversary Meeting of R. Geographical Society, 1864, 


Ruskin—Notes on the Denudation of the Alps. 51 


cut down through the lateral limestones, and plunged, with the 
whole weight of their precipitate ice, into what are now the 
pools of Geneva and Constance. The lakes of Maggiore, of 
Como, and Garda, are similar excavations by minor fury of ice- 
foam ;—the Adriatic was excavated by the great glacier of 
Lombardy ;—the Black Sea, by the ice of Caucasus before Pro- 
metheus stole fire ;—the Baltic, by that of the Dovrefeldt, in 
the youth of Thor;—and Fleet Ditch in the days of the Dunciad 
by the snows of Snow Hill. Be it all so: but when all és 
so, there still was a Snow-hill for the snows to come down. 
—there still was a fixed arrangement of native eminence, 
which determined the direction and concentrated the energies 
of the rotatory, precipitate, or oscillatory ice. If this original 
arrangement be once investigated and thoroughly described, 
we may have some chance of ascertaining what has since hap- 
pened to disturb it. But it is impossible to measure the 
disturbance before we understand the structure. 

It is indeed true that the more we examine the Alps from 
sufficiently dominant elevations, the more the impression gains 
upon us of their being rather one continuously raised tract, 
divided into ridges by torrent and decay, than a chain of inde- 
pendent peaks: but this raised tract differs wholly in aspect 
from groups of hills which owe their essential form to diluvial 
action. The outlying clusters of Apennine between Siena and 
Rome are as symmetrically trenched by their torrents as if 
they were mere heaps of sand; and monotonously veined to 
their summits with ramifications of ravine; so that a large 
rhubarb-leaf, or thistle-leaf, cast in plaster, would give nearly 
a reduced model of any mass of them. But the circuit of the 
Alps, however sculptured by its rivers, is mherently fixed in a 
kind of organic form; its broad bar or islanded field of gneissitic 
rock, and the three vast wrinkled ridges of limestone which 
recoil northwards from it, like surges round a risen Kraken’s 
back, are clearly defined in all their actions and resistances: 
the chasms worn in them by existing streams are in due 
proportion to the masses they divide; the denudations which 
in Enelish hill-country so often efface the external evidence 
of faults or fissures, among the Alps either follow their tracks, 
or expose them in sections; and the Tertiary beds, which 
bear testimony to the greater energy of ancient diluvial action, 
form now a part of the elevated masses, and are affected by 
their metamorphism: so that at the turn of every glen new 
structural problems present themselves, and new conditions of 
chemical change. And over these I have now been meditating — 
or wondering—for some twenty years, expecting always that 

E 2 


52 Ruskin—Notes on the Denudation of the Alps. 


the advance of geology would interpret them for me: but time 
passes, and, while the aspect and anatomy of hills within five 
miles of Geneva remain yet unexplained, I find my brother- 
geologists disputing at the bottom of the lake. Will they 
pardon me if I at last take courage to ask them a few plain 
questions (respecting near and visible hills), for want of some 
answer to which I am sorely hindered in my endeavours to 
define the laws of mountain-form for purposes of art? 

Fig. 1 is the front view, abstracted into the simplest terms, 
and laterally much shortened, of the northern portion of the 
ridge of the Mont Saléve, five miles from Geneva. 


as SS > 
Fig. 1.—Northern portion of the Ridge of Mont Saléve. 

Tt is distinguished from the rest of the ridge by the boldness 
of its precipices, which terminate violently at the angle o, just 
above the little village called, probably from this very angle, 
‘Coin.’ The rest of the ridge falls back behind this advanced 


x = SH 
Fig. 2._Section of Mont Saléve at a, fig. 1. (Ruskin.) 
corner, and is softer in contour, though ultimately, in its 
southern mass, greater in elevation. Fig. 2 is the section, under 
a, as | suppose it to be; and fig. 3, as it is given by Studer. 


To my immediate purpose, it is of no consequence which is the 
true section; but the determination of the question, ultimately, 


Rushin—WNotes on the Denudation of the Alps. 53 


is of importance in relation to many of the foliated precipices of 
the Alps, in which it is difficult to distinguish whether their 
vertical cleavage across the beds is owing merely to disinte- 
gration and expansion, or to faults. In all cases of strata 
arched by elevation, the flank of the arch (if not all of it) must 
be elongated, or divided by fissures. The condition, in abstract 
geometrical terms, is 

shown in fig. 4. If ap 

was once a continucus 

bed, and the portion c D 

is raised to E F, any con- 

necting portion, B C, will i 
become of the form B EB; 
and in doing this, either 
every particle of the 
rock must change its 
place, or fissures of 
some kind establish 
themselves. In the Al- 
pine limestones, I think 
the operation is usually 
as at GH; but in the 
Saléve the rock-struc- 
ture is materially alter- 
ed; so much so that I 
believe all appearance of fossils has been in portions obliter- 
ated. The Neocomian and the Coralline Jura of the body of the 
hill are highly fossiliferous; but I have scrambled among these 
vertical cleavages day after day in vain; and even Professor 
Favre renders no better account of them.* 

The whole ridge of the mountain continues the curve of 
the eastern shore of the Lake of Geneva, and turns its. 
rounded back to the chain of the Alps. The great Geneva 
glacier flowed by it, if ever, in the direction of the arrows 
-from X to Y in fig. 1; and, if it cut it mto its present 
shape, turned very sharply round the corner at c! The 
great Chamonix glacier flowed over it, if ever, in the direc- 
tion of the arrows from x to Y infig. 2. It probably never 
did, as there are no erratic blocks on the summits, though 
many are still left a little way down. But whatever these 
glaciers made of the mountain, or cut away from it, the 
existence of the ridge at all is originally owing to the elevation 
of its beds in a gentle arch longitudinally, and a steep semi- 


Fig. 4.—Diagram of Upheaved Beds. 


* ‘Considérations sur le Mont Saléve,’ Geneva, 1843, p. 12. 


54 Seeley—Fossil Whale. 


arch transversely ; and the valleys or hollows by which this 
ridge is now traversed, or trenched (M, the valley of Monnetier ; 
A, the hollow called Petite Gorge; B, that called Grande 
Gorge; and c, the descent towards the Valley of Croisette), 
owe their origin to denudation, guided by curvilinear fissures, 
which affect and partly shape the summits of all the inner lateral 
limestone-ranges, as far as the Aiguille de Varens. 

It is this guidance of the torrent-action by the fissures; the 
relation of the longitudinal fault to the great precipice; and 
the altered condition, not only of the beds on the cliff-side, but 
of the Molasse conglomerates on the eastern slope, to which 
J wish presently to direct attention: but I must give more 
drawings to explain the direction of these fissures than I 
have room for in this number of the Magazine; and also, 
before entering on the subject of the angular excavation of 
the valley at m, and curvilinear excavations at a and B, I 
want some answer to this question—cne which has long em- 
barrassed me :—The streams of the Alps are broadly divisible 
into three classes: ist, those which fall over precipices in which 
they have cut no ravine whatever (as the Staubbach); 2nd, 
those which fall over precipices in which they have cut ravines 
a certain distance back (as the torrent descending from the 
Tournette to the Lake of Annecy); and, 3rd, those which 
have completed for themselves a sloping course through the 
entire mass of the beds they traverse (as the Eau Noire, and the 
stream of the Aletsch Glacier). The latter class—those 
which have completed their work—have often conquered the 
hardest rocks; the Kau Noire at Trient traverses as tough a 
gneiss as any in the Alps; while the Staubbach has not so 
much as cut back through the overhanging brow of its own 
cliff, though only of limestone! Are these three stages of work 
in anywise indicative of relative periods of time ?—or do they 
mark different modes of the torrents’ action on the rocks? I 
shall be very grateful for some definiteness of answer on this 
matter. 


TI. On tHe Foss Neck-sones or A WHALE (Paztaocerus SrEpG- 
WICK1), FROM THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ELy.* 
By Harry Srsrey, F,G.S., Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge, 
[Plate II.] 
HOUGH the oldest English Whales yet named are found 
in the Crag, Prof. Sedgwick, a quarter of a century since, 
obtained from Ely some anchylosed cervical vertebra evidently 


* This paper was read before the Phil. Soc. Cambridge, May 2, 1864. 


Seeley—Fossil Whale. 55 


Cetacean. The fossil was found at Roswell Pit in the Boulder- 
clay, but the Professor writes, ‘I have not the shadow of a 
doubt that it was washed out of the Kimmeridge (or the Ox- 
ford) Clay, for both clays are near at hand. In condition it is 
exactly like the bones from those clays; and is utterly unlike 
the true Gravel bones, whether in the dry Gravel, or the Till.’ * 
This is unmistakeable, for the specimen is mineralised with 
phosphate of lime; and so could have been derived from no 
deposit newer than the Crag. It is partly coated with stalag- 
mite; but that condition was probably acquired while the 
fossil was embedded in the Drift; and when the thin crust is 
stripped off, the bone is quite like other bones from the Kim- 
meridge Clay. The Boulder-clay itself is largely made of 
nodules of Chalk and Kimmeridge Clay, with, if we may judge 
from fossils, a sprinkling from most of the older rocks; so, 
although an Upper Greensand fossil would have the same 
aspect, Prof. Sedgwick’s determination of its age is legitimate, 
and probably true. 

Professor Owen has examined the specimen, and in the 
‘Brit. Assoc. Reports’ classed it as a species of Delphinus. 
In the ‘British Fossil Mammals,’ p. 520, it is spoken of as one 
of the Delphinide; and in the ‘ Paleontology,’ p. 355, as an 
animal as large as a Grampus. 


The fossil consists of the axis, third and fourth cervical vertebra, 
and the neural arch of the fifth. The centra of the second and 
third are anchylosed. In outline they form a broad depressed 
triangle, 6? inches long by about 4 inches high; and from the 
odontoid process to the fourth vertebra they measure 3 inches: the 
odontoid process projects three-quarters of an inch ; half the re- 
maining thickness is made up of the axis, and the other half 
equally by the third and fourth vertebrae, with their interspace 
of an eighth of an inch. The third vertebra has a slight hypa- 
pophysis ; the fourth is broken underneath : posteriorly, it shows 
the characteristic Cetacean unossified epiphysial surface. 

In front the neural canal is a circular hole, 18 inches across ; 
but behind it is half an inch wider, the floor has become flat, and it 
is scarcely so high as in front, where it is made circular by sloping 
down to the odontoid process. 

The articular surface of the axis is a little concave ; it extends 
from the base as high as the middle of the neural canal, and is 
5 inches wide, being nearly double the width of the fourth vertebra, 
which measures 2? inches wide, by 24 inches high. The odontoid 
process is in the middle of the centrum, concave above, convex 
below, and in a line with circular foramina at the sides of the arti- 
cular surface. These are passages for the vertebral arteries ; they 


* Letter in ‘ British Fossil Mammals,’ p. 520. 


56 Seeley— Fossil Whale. 


measure but 2 of an inch across in front, yet each expands behind 
like a Srame | into an oval form, which is at the third vertebra 
2 inches high, by 14 inches wide. In the axis it is but a perforation 
and excavation in a posterior bony expansion of the sides, but the 
ares to the third and fourth vertebra are slender bony rings : that of 
the fourth is most slender, and more contracted than in the other. 
They rise at the base of the neural arches, and terminate in the same 
plane as the bases of the centra, being there a little compressed 
laterally. 

The neural arches are very simple; flattened above, they are 
concave at the sides, project slightly in front and behind, and are 
from } to 3 of an inch thick. There has been a slight neural spine 
to the | axis, but it is rubbed away. 


The sum of the features here described indicate, not a 
Cetacean of the Dolphin family, but a true Whale. The 
characters which more especially mark this are—the size and 
position of the passages for the vertebral arteries; the absence 
of neural spines, though in Phocena they are no more de- 
veloped; the relative depth of the vertebre, and the position 
of the ‘dentata.’ There are some points of resemblance to 
Dolphins; but with Balenoptera the affinity is singularly 
close ; and it is chiefly from the funnel-shaped artery-passages 
opening on the axis by a minute perforation that it is dis- 
tinguished. Other distinctive characters are that in Baleno- 
ptera the ‘ dentata’ is at the base of the spinal cord; that the 
vertebra do not so rapidly decrease in size; that the processes 
are relatively larger ; that only the neural arches of the second 
and third are anchylosed, and that the vertebral arcs do not form 
rings. None of these characters are very important, but the 
sum of them will justify a separation of the old Oolitic fossil 
from its living ally; and, as an old true Whale, I have named 
it Paleocetus.* 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE II. 


Fig. 1. Front view of the ‘ axis’ of Paleocetus Sedgwicki; half natural size. 
2. Under view of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cervical vertebrae of P. Sedgwicki ; 
half natural size. 
(The figures are from Photographs by W. Farren, Cambridge.) 


Nore.—In Mr. Woodward’s paper on Plicatula sigillina, Gro- 
LOGICAL MAGaAzine, vol. i. p. 114, there is an error relating to this 
Whale. ‘The fossil figured by Professor Owen in the ‘ British Fossil 


* While this was printing, I have been indebted to Dr. Gray for his memoir on 
British Cetacea; and am able to add thatit also resembles Physalus, being 
nearest to Ph. Sibbaldii (Gray): 1m which the lateral processes of the axis re- 
semble those of the fossil more closely than those in Balenoptera do; but after 
the second, they do not form rings, in that species, while Physalus has all the ver- 
tebre free. Paleocetus appears to connect these two genera. 


G.West lth 


CERVICAL VERTEBRA OF PALAO 


Prof. Phillips—WNote on Xiphoteuthis elongata. 57 


Mammals,’ p. 520, is not the Woodwardian fossil here represented, 
but a true Delphinoid—Phocena crassidens. Further, the evidence 
Gn connection with Plicatula sigillina) on which our fossil was re- 
ferred in Mr. Woodward’s paper to the Upper Greensand is this ;— 
the paint in the Woodwardian Museum is extremely bad ; and, as the 
convex surfaces of the bone rested on it unmoved for years, it came 
off on the fossil, making little crescentic white patches which I at 
first mistook for worn remnants of the little fossil above mentioned. 


I gladly annex the following letter :— 


My pear Sir,—I thought the following observations on the 
Genus Paleccetus might be interesting to you, and you are quite 
welcome to make any use of them you like. 

The Bones have great interest to me, as I think I have an Aus- 
tralian Whale that illustrates them. 

They agree with Balena in the cervical vertebre being anchy- 
losed. They differ from all the known Balena in the Atlas, being 
free and separate from the other cervicals ;—now in these characters 
they agree with a Genus of Whales which I have just described under 
the name Macleayius, from a specimen in the Australian Museum 
in Sydney. 

The Genus Paleocetus differs, however, from Balena and Mac- 
leayius in the form of the lateral processes of the cervical vertebre. 
In Balena and AMacleayius the upper lateral processes of the second 
and following cervical vertebrz are small and rudimentary, and the 
lower lateral processes of the second and third cervical vertebra are 
large, produced, enlarged and united at the end. They are all 
anchylosed together. But in Palgocetus the upper and lower lateral 
processes of the two vertebra appear, by the Photographs you have 
sent me, to be short, united together, forming a rounded lobe in 
the middle of the side of the vertebra, somewhat like (though 
much smaller and less developed) the ring-like lateral processes of 
the second cervical vertebre of the true Finner-Whale (Physalus), 
showing that Paleocetus has many affinities, and decided characters 
fora genus. Indeed, I feel assured that it will form a Family, which 
may be called Palgocetide, perhaps the forerunner of a number of 
fossil species. Yours, very truly, JoHn Epw. Gray. 


British Musrum: Dec, 20, 1864. 


TIT. Nove on AzeHOTEUTHIS ELONGATA. 
By Professor Joun Puitxies, F.R.S., &c. 


Apa very important addition to our knowledge of the Belem- 
nitide contained in Professor Huxley’s Memoir on Xiphoteuthis 
encourages the hope that, by following the steps of Mr. Day, we 
may clear up some other perplexities among the Cephalopoda of the 
Lias. One of the singular forms which presents itself for more 
complete inquiry is the fossil called by Mr. J. Sowerby Belemnites 
pistilliformis, found at Lyme-Regis. It is not the species so named 


58 Abstracts of Foreign Memoirs. 


by Blainville, which belongs to quite another part of the series of 
strata. The phragmocone is as yet undiscovered. If a considerable 
number of specimens be examined, including varieties of figure— 
club-shaped, fusiform, and subcylindrical,—there will appear enough 
of resemblance to the guard of Xiphoteuthis to suggest the pro- 
bability that the phragmocone might be slender and elongate as in 
that fossil. The same idea has, indeed, already been expressed by 
Quenstedt (‘Der Jura’) in reference to Bel. clavatus, Blainv., a 
fossil rather common in the Lias, and which is probably identical 
with Bel. pistilliformis of Sowerby. Quenstedt expressly proposes 
to join Orthoceratites elongatus of Dela Beche, which was unprovided 
with a guard, with Bel. clavatus, still deficient of a phragmocone. 
And, in addition to the English example of that phragmocone from 
Lyme, he figures (‘ Der Jura,’ pl. 17, fig. 9) another, having similar 
general characters, from the Lias of Heckingen. It occurs to me to 
suggest that, by renewed search among the many existing collections 
of Belemnites from Lyme, some sure indications of the phragmocone 
of Bel. clavatus may yet be discovered, which may support or dis- 
prove the conjecture here hazarded of the affinity of this species to 
Xiphoteuthis. I sought in vain for such indication among the 
specimens of Bel. clavatus which I lately obtained from the upper 
parts of the Lower Lias of the Yorkshire Coast. 


OxrorpD: Jan. 12, 1865. 


ABSTRACTS OF FOREIGIN MEMOIRS. 
——_4— 


Tun Rerations oF THE MrinerAt SprIncs or Ax AnD Lucnon, SouTHERN 
France, to Mrramorpuic Rocks AND Linzs or Fissure. By MM. L. Marin 
and F'. Garricou.* 

TT HIS very brief but important memoir is intended to point out, 

by reference to the facts in a single instance, the relation that 
exists in nature between thedirection of lines of Mineral Springs and 
the direction of systems of veins and recognized axes of elevation. 

‘The principle of parallel directions, applied with prudence in a 

region already geologically studied, may help to decide the age of 

the different disturbances which have determined the points of emer- 
gence, and therefore to class the Mineral Springs in natural geolo- 
gical groups, which, if this triple study be complete, would coincide 
with the grouping indicated by chemical analysis and medical 
observation.’ ‘These coincidences, therefore, are the tests of the 
theory. 
The groups selected are the Thermal Springs of Ax and Luchon 

in the Pyrenees. The authors show—/irsé, with regard to Ax, (A) 

that there are two classes of granitic rocks—1, fine- grained, with 


* Physique du Globe: Etude géologique sur les Eaux sulfureuses @’Ax (Ariége), 
et sur le groupe de sources auquel elles se rattachent : Note de MM. L. Martin 
et F. Garrigou, présentée par M. Daubrée. Comptes Rendus, Aug. 29, 1864. 


Abstracts of Foreign Memoirs. 59 


black mica, passing into gneiss, mica-schist, and aluminous schists ; 
2, coarse-grained, with large bluish crystals of orthose and silvery 
mica, with black tourmaline, garnets, pyrites, amphibole, &c., passing 
into pegmatite. It is with the latter granites, forming large veins 
bearing N. 27° W., that the Ax springs are in relation. The two 
granites pass one into the other. 

(B) These veins are accompanied by a system of parallel fissures, 
extending through the stratified rocks to the Lower Chalk, thus 
fixing the age of the system of disturbances, which belongs to the 
elevation of Mont Viso. 

(C) The metamorphic origin of these tourmaline-granites is well 
marked in various ways:—l, in the structure of the veins them- 
selves; 2, because the granite-veins only traverse rocks containing 
all the material required for their composition ; and, 3, because these 
veins, which are comparatively modern, are intersected by fissures 
and cracks much more ancient, which is easily understood if we 
admit that they have been modified and brought into their present 
state in sitd. 

Secondly, with regard to Luchon. The granites here are per- 
fectly identical with those of Ax. The Mont Viso disturbances are 
repeated ; and the springs are clearly seen to be in the direction of 
N. 27° W. - It is not sufficient to say of them, that they rise at the 
contact of granites and enclosing stratified rocks. They occur in a 
system of parallel veins. 

The Luchon and St. Béal district permit us to study the manner 
in which granites behave in cases where the rocks are alternately 
calcareous and siliceous. The granites avoid the limestone, arranging 
themselves in parallel planes between strata’ of limestone and 
gneiss. 

It is probable that the system of N. 27° W. fissures originally 
permitted the issue of thermal springs containing sulphur and soda 
like those now issuing at Ax and Luchon; and that the metamorphic 
phenomena were thus produced on the rocks through which the waters 
passed. ‘The action, necessarily elective, has chiefly affected the 
silicated rocks, the tourmaline-granites and pegmatites having been 
formed at the expense of the preceding rocks. The gneiss seems to 
have been the rock best adapted for transformation. Where lime- 
stone was absent, the large-grained granite takes the form of veins 
following the fissures. Where there was an alternation of limestone 
and siliceous rocks, the granite is arranged in bands alternating with 
the unchanged rocks. 

The elevation of the Western Alps has produced in the same dis- 
trict a system of N. 24° E. fractures. These are of secondary im- 
portance at Ax and Luchon. 

A relation of a purely geological kind exists between the system 
of springs at Ax and those of the Eastern Pyrenees. There is also 
a marked chemical distinction between the waters of Ax and Luchon 
in the alkaline reaction of sulphuret of sodium, which is remarkable 
at Ax, and absent at Luchon: and thus, in certain respects, Ax 
agrees with the Eastern Pyrenees. 


60 Abstracts of Foreign Memoirs. 


Lastly, Ax is placed at the intersection of three important sys- 
tems of disturbance, parallel to three axes of elevation, and generally 
it seems to be from intersections of systems that thermal springs 
rise to the surface. This principle may serve to assist in making 
out the true point from whence the system of thermo-mineral waters 
issues. 


LronHAaRD UND Guinitz’s Nevis JaurpucH Fir Minrranocin, GEOLOGIE, UND 
Patmontotocim. Jahrgang 1864. Heft 6. 
O much interesting matter is contained in this number of the 
‘Jahrbuch,’ that our space will not allow us to devote more than 
a few words to the consideration of the subjects treated of in the 
several papers, of which there are seven. 

In the first paper (Ueber die geologische Aufnahme Schwedens) 
Professor Erdmann gives a notice of the progress recently made, and 
of the results obtained, by the Geological Survey of Sweden. It is 
illustrated by lithographed sections, to which, however, no special 
reference is made in the text; a circumstance the more to be re- 
gretted as the sections appear sufficiently remarkable to merit careful 
description. 

The next paper, ‘On the Occurrence of Freshwater shells at the 
Irmelsberg, near Crock, in Thuringia’ by Dr. Giimbel, with a Note 
by Dr. Geinitz, is sufficiently important and interesting to British 
geologists to call for special notice, and will be treated of separately. 

Dr. Weiss, in his paper on Von Dechen’s Geological Map of the 
Saarbriick Coal-formation, makes known the occurrence in the 
‘Lower Dyas’* of a new Crustacean, which the author refers to the 
genus Estheria, but which Dr. Geinitz describes, in a note, as belong- 
ing to the genus Leaia,t under the name of Leaia Bantschiana, 
after the discoverer, Herr Bantsch. ‘The chief interest of this dis- 
covery lies in the fact that the three varieties of the only species of 
Leaia hitherto known—namely, L. Leidyi,t Lea sp., L. Leidyi, var. 
Williamsoniana, Jones, and L. Leidyt, var. Salteriana, Jones, are of 
Carboniferous age. ‘The new species is very similar to the varieties 
Williamsoniana and Salteriana. 

Passing by Herr Deicke’s paper ‘On the Formation of the Molasse- 
rocks of Switzerland,’ and that by Herr Bolsche ‘On a new Discovery 
of Fossils in the Rauchwacke § of the Southern Margin of the Hartz,’ 
we come to an important memoir by Herr Wolfgang Eras, ‘On the 
Felsite-tuffs of Chemnitz’ (Die Felsittuffe von Chemnitz), in which 
the author describes, and gives analyses of, the three principal 
varieties of the Felsite-tuff of the Zeisigwald near Chemnitz, as well 


* The ‘Lower Dyas’ (Geinitz), comprising the Rothliegendes (‘ Lower Red Sand- 
stone’ of the Durham geologists), may be regarded as the ‘Lower Permian’ of 
Murchison.—Ep. 

7 Dr. Dawson has lately met with a specimen of Lcaza (and two or more of 
Estheria) in the Carboniferous rocks near Horton, Nova Scotia.—Ep. 

{ Hither of Lower Carboniferous or Upper Devonian age. 

§ A member of the ‘Zechstein’ or Magnesian Limestone,— Ep. 


Reviews: Ramsay—Geology of Great Britain. 61 


as the compact Claystone of the ‘Kreuzbruch’ near Chemnitz. From 
his chemical investigations he deduces the probability of the origin 
of the Felsite-tuff being exclusively derived from the minerals fel- 
spar, quartz, and mica, as they contain all the chemical substances 
necessary to its formation; and he also shows that the composition 
_ of the compact Claystone is so similar to that of the Felsite-tuff, that 
the materials of both appear to be identical, although certain other 
facts, especially the columnar character of the former, show with 
equal clearness that plutonic forces contributed actively to its forma- 
tion, in contradistinction to the purely sedimentary origin of the 
Felsite-tuff. 

The last paper is ‘On the Occurrence of Hatchettine at Wettin,’ 
by Herr Wagner, and relates merely to the occurrence of that mineral, 
in masses which have hitherto been supposed to be Ozokerite, in the 
Royal Coal-mine at Wettin, in association with a notable quantity of 
rock-oil.—H. M. J. 


REVIEWS. 
—_+——__ 


Tue PuysicAL GroLtocy AND GEOGRAPHY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Six 
Lectures to Working Men, delivered in the Royal School of 
Mines in 1863. By A.C. Ramsay, F.R.S., Local Director of the 
Geological Survey of Great Britain. Second Edition. 12mo. 
STANFORD, 1864. 


ROFESSOR RAMSAY’S Lectures make a charming little book, 
written with all the freshness and simplicity of a novice taking 
up the pen for the first time, and contrasting as much with the stilted 
phraseology of the ‘text-book’ writers as the natural voice of a 
singer or preacher refreshes the ear wearied with falsetto. The 
Lecturer is under no such disciplined restraint as Professor Phillips 
imposes upon himself in the work lately noticed, but gives the reins 
to his fancy, and makes a succession of flights at all the great 
speculative questions of the day. 

If the ‘working men’ expected no more than a dissertation on 
Practical Geology, they must have been agreeably surprised to find 
themselves flattered, instead, with an exposition of the most ‘ad- 
vanced’ views of their lecturer. For, while exhibiting in a lively 
and intelligible manner the Geology of this country, of Wales, and 
of Scotland,—the topographical distribution of the strata and their 
various character, with their influence on the scenery, and on the 
occupations of the inhabitants,—he contrives to discuss the origin of 
rocks and rivers, the action of glaciers and atmospheric agencies in 
moulding the surface of the land, the excavation of lake-basins, the 
formation of mineral veins, and many other subjects of equal interest. 
‘Denudation’ very properly forms a prominent topic; denudation in 
all its aspects—by rivers, by rain, by glaciers, by the sea. Every for- 
mation is but so much old material worked up again, with a small 


62 Reviews: Ramsay— Geology of Great Britain. 


infusion of comparatively new matter—organic or voleanic—accord- 
ing to the spirit of the times. 

The most famous of geological denudations—the Wealden area— 
has been commonly attributed to the action of the sea; and Mr. 
Darwin once calculated the exact time its excavation must have 
occupied, if eaten out by the waves at the rate of an inch in a century. 
Mr. Ramsay proposes to accomplish the same feat by ‘atmospheric 
influences, which would probably require as many hundreds of 
millions of years as the other fantasy. The denudation of the Weald 
may have been connected with the scooping out of the last portion of 
La Manche before the opening of the Straits of Dover; for there is 
evidence that the Chalk region of East Kent was continuous with that 
of Calais until after the immigration of the present Flora of the 
Downs ; and it is pretty certain that the peculiar vegetation of the 
Hastings Sand-rock, with its Tonbridge and Azorean ferns, had been 
established at an earlier period. The localisation of plants and 
animals was accomplished by those very agencies of which we are 
accustomed to speak in terms as though they were cataclysmal ; but it 
is more than probable that during all those changes of level and 
contour the country would have exhibited to a spectator of human 
capacity the aspect of supreme repose. 

Mr. Ramsay tells us that the outlines and extent of all our coal- 
fields are determined by ‘denudations,’ and implies that they may all 
have once been continuous. ‘This, however, is scarcely consistent 
with Mr. Prestwich’s evidence of the thinning-out of the strata 
towards the margin of the Coalbrook ‘ Basin,’ nor with the prevalence 
of ripple-marked sandstones, especially in Lancashire, proclaiming 
‘old sea-margins.’ Whether the coal-measures were formed on low 
islands, or in swamps like the ‘Great Dismal,’ they must have been 
limited formations; and the existence of a coal-field in America as 
big as Great Britain does not raise a probability of many others 
having been as large. 

The origin of Lake-basins is a pet subject with the Lecturer. He 
admits that his views have met with little favour hitherto, but 
expects they will ultimately be received. And received they may 
be to some extent,—but when it is proposed to explain the origin of 
nearly all the lake-basins in the world by the excavating power of 
Ice, in former times, a large demand is made on our capacity of 
belief. Our own Lakes, those of Westmoreland for example, have 
usually been supposed to occupy depressions caused by faults. 
We do not assert that this is the true explanation; but we regret 
that Mr. Ramsay, when citing many other speculations, never men- 
tions this. The most important testimony in favour of the Ice- 
theory is that of Sir W. Logan, who states that the great American 
Lake-basins are depressions, not of geological structure, but of denu- 
dation. And he seems inclined to believe that glacial action has 
been one of the great causes which have produced those depres- 
sions. Mr. Ramsay’s notions about Rivers and River-valleys will 
probably cause some astonishment to the disciples of Mr. Hopkins. 
Starting with the undeniable postulate that river-valleys are nod 


Reviews: Ramsay—Geology of Great Britain. 63 


necessarily connected with fracture, he goes on tacitly assuming 
that rivers always make their own channels. The style of demon- 
stration is peculiar. Referring to the Vale of Reading, he asks: 
‘How did the Thames find its way through what was once that great 
unbroken scarped barrier of Chalk now called the Chiltern Hills ?’ 
The answer is grand: ‘Such phenomena are not confined to this 
river alone—zé is a trick that rivers have.’ 

The great River Niagara has, it is true, cut its way back unaided 
by any apparent fissure, like the miniature Chines of the Isle of 
Wight. But it has been demonstrated that the Wealden area could 
not have been raised to such an elevation as it has without producing 
fissures in the very situations now occupied by the river-channels; 
and, although these fissures may have borne no proportion to the 
wide, winding valleys that now intersect the downs, it is satisfactory 
to know that we have in them a directing cause. 

The marvels effected by atmospheric agencies are not less remark- 
able than those of rivers and glaciers. The geologist may now 
remove any amount of limestone by means of sour peat-water—as 
Hannibal dissolved the Alps with vinegar. But we need go no 
farther than our own Chalk Downs to see the action of rain on a 
stratum of easy solubility. The ‘ swallow-holes’ have been a fer- 
tile subject for contradictory speculation; and wherever the surface 
of the Chalk has been covered only by loam and gravel, itis furrowed 
‘and eroded. The fantastic outlines of the Chalk seen in some of 
the railway-banks near London could never have been exposed to 
the action of the sea, but have rather been formed, since the depo- 
sition of the brickearth over them, by the silent infiltration of rain- 
water dissolving the carbonate of lime and carrying it away laterally, 
and leaving the iron-stained siliceous residue. 

When speaking of the use of decomposed granite in the manu- 
facture of porcelain, Mr. Ramsay asserts that he has seen granite 
‘which had never been disturbed by the hand of man, that for a 
depth of twenty feet or more might be easily dug out with a shovel.’ 
A fact like this speaks as emphatically for the long exposure of our 
Cornish moors as any evidence derived from the succession of 
organic life can prove the lapse of time while the Secondary rocks 
were forming. The aspect of high antiquity presented by the 
Scottish Mountains is explained by the statement of the Lecturer, 
that the carving-out of those peaks and ridges, cliffs and valleys, com- 
menced before the time of ‘that extremely venerable formation, the 
Old Red Sandstone.’ 

We are obliged to pass over Mr. Ramsay’s views on the relations 
of the Stratified and the Igneous rocks, and the origin of Metamor- 
phism. But we will mention that in an early page he gives the 
weight of his authority for the observation that there are vesicular 
lavas of Carboniferous age; thus dispelling the silly and improbable 
speculation that sub-aérial volcanoes had no existence until the 
Tertiary age. 

In the lecture on mining, Mr. Ramsay gives a wholesome caution 
to those who are desirous of embarking in such speculations. The 


64 Reviews: Whitaker— Geology of London, &c. 


Yankee scoundrel, who imposed on our credulous folks with his 
machine for finding gold where no gold existed, made good his 
retreat, but we trust his ill-gotten British gold has ere now faded into 
greenbacks.’ 

We are tempted to quote some passages respecting Coal; but the 
following will probably be less familiar :—‘ Late in the last century, 
there were still iron-furnaces in the Weald of Kent and Sussex. 
The last furnace is said to have been at Ashburnham; and every here 
and there you may now see heaps of slags, overgrown with grass, 
and the old dams which supplied the water that drove the water- 
wheels that worked the forges of Kent and Sussex. It is said that 
the cannon that were used in the fight with the Spanish Armada 
came from this district; and the rails round St. Paul’s were also 
forged from the Wealden iron.’ 

We must give one parting word of commendation to the admirable 
little Geological Map which forms the frontispiece, and is a perfect 
bijou in its way. The woodcut sections of strata, small as they are, 
answer their purpose well. 


THe GEOLOGY or LONDON AND NEIGHBOURING COUNTRY. 


Memoirs of THE GEOLOGICAL SuRVEY oF GREAT BRITAIN AND OF THE Musnum 
or Practricat GroLtocy. THE GroLoGy or parts oF MipprEsex, Hurts, 
Bucks, Berks, AND Surrey. (SHEET 7 or THE Map or THE GroL. SURVEY 
oF Great Brirary.) By Wioxriam Wurraxer, B.A. (Lond.), F.G.S. Published 
by Order of the Lords Commissioners ef Her Majesty's Treasury. 8vo. London: 
Loneman & Co. 1864. 

HIS Memoir, explanatory of ‘Sheet 7’ of the National Geo- 
logical Map, is a good example of what a painstaking, con- 
scientious, and well-read Geologist of the Survey can do,—of the 
admirable working of the national Institution that comprises the 

Geological Survey, Museum of Practical Geology, and School of 

Mines under an efficient and congenial Directorship,—and of the 

poor printing and paper with which, as usual, the Government 

delights to honour these valuable Memoirs. Although marked ‘7’ 

on the cover, this monograph of local geology is the thirty-sixth 

of the useful, but badly printed, Memoirs* issued with the Sheets 
and Quarter-sheets of our great Geological Map, which, gradually 
spreading its illustrative colour-patches, complex but orderly, from 

Cornwall and Wales, over the Southern, Western, and Midland 

Counties, and among those of North Britain, has elucidated the 

underground structure, with its veins of metals, seams of coal, and 

sheets of well-waters, just as the workman’s polish brings out the 
irregularly regular grain, and the well-ordered though mazy vein- 
ings, of wood and marble. 

Within the limits of ‘Sheet 7,’ including the western part of 

London and the neighbourhoods of Uxbridge, Windsor, Wycombe, 


* If we include the Map-sheets and Memoirs of the Irish Survey, there have 
been upwards of fifty published. 


Reviews: Whitaker— Geology of London, &c. 


and Watford, the Memoir has to deal 
with—I. The Cretaceous Series, con- 
sisting of—l. Lower Greensand, ob- 
scurely recognized, however, by the 
boring of the Hampstead Well; 2. Gault 
(probably 200 feet thick) ; 8. Upper 
Greensand (about 70 feet thick under 
London); 4. Lower or flint-less Chalk 
(400 or 500 feet); 5. Chalk-rock (one 
or more peculiar, thin, hard, fossiliferous 
bands, that Mr. Whitaker has described 
in this Memoir and elsewhere); and, 6. 
Upper Chalk (about 300 feet): also local 
patches of ‘Reconstructed Chalk,’ and 
of ‘Clay-with-flints.’ The former must 
have been re-arranged before the laying 
down of the ‘Reading Beds;’ but the 
latter (noticed also under the same 
name* by M. E. Hébert as occurring 
in Picardy) Mr. Whitaker thinks may 
be of several different ages, having 
been, and perhaps now being, formed by 
dissolution of the Chalk by percolating 
waters.—II. Of the Eocene Series, we 
have—l. The Thanet Sand (found in 
London wells to vary from 13 to 44 
feet), which soon thins out westward, but 
is thicker to the east. 2. The Woolwich 
and Reading Beds (from 25 to 90 feet), 
occupying along the strike, and in very 
numerous outliers,t a considerable area 
in ‘Sheet 7. 8 The London Clay 
(ranging from 380 to 440 feet in thick- 
ness near London, thicker to the E. and 
thinning to the W.) is, of course, an 
important feature in the geology of the 
London district; and with its revised 
and augmented lists of fossils,f (even 


* L’Argile a Silex; see Grou. Mag. vol.i. p. 120. 

{~ This is, of course, a word in frequent use in 
the Memoir; and so is the word ‘ Inlier,’ as ap- 
plied to a limited area of lower strata exposed 
by a local denudation of upper strata. Mr. Jukes 
(in his ‘ Manual,’ 2nd edit.) uses this word dif- 
ferently, namely, for a particular bed intercalated 


among other beds. The former use of the word, ~ 


however, not only seems very appropriate, but 
is older, having been introduced in a Geological 
Survey Memoir before 1861. It is the ‘Outlier- 
by-protrusion’ of Mr. Martin. 

{ For the vicinity of London only. The vo- 
lume of the Palzeontographical Society’s Mono- 
graphs, lately published, adds to their number. 

VOM. eNO. VEL. EF 


n2 


{ 


= = (is 


eater across the London Basin from North to South, showing the probable ridge of Old Rocks under London. 


Diagram- 


a. Lower Bagshot Sand. 


b. London Clay. 


patches of Wealden, Purbeck, and Port- 


land Beds. 
wx Ridge of Older Rocks. 


** Approximate Sea-level. 


i. Lower Greensand. 
k. Wealden Beds (on the South). 


e. Chalk with flints. 


65 


1. Oolitic Clays (on the North), with 


f. Chalk without flints. 
Gault. 


g. Upper Greensand. 


h. 


c. Woolwich and Reading Beds. 


d. Thanet Sand. 


66 Reviews: Whitaker— Geology of London, &c. 


its microscopic rhizopods, &c. are now tabulated,) it has a large 
chapter in this Memoir. 4. Of the Bagshot Series—the equivalent 
of the great Nummulitic Series of Europe, Asia, and North Africa— 
only the lower member (near Windsor and as outliers at Hamp- 
stead and Highgate) is shown in this Sheet; the great typical mass 
occurring in the neighbouring ‘ Sheet 8’ (not yet deseribed).—III. 
As old portions of the Post-Pliocene Series, and as ‘ Drifts of the 
Higher Levels,’ Mr. Whitaker notices the Boulder-clay, his ‘Clay- 
with-flints,’ the High-level* Brickearth, and High-level Gravel, 
both the pebbly and the angular. Here also he notices the ‘ Grey- 
wethers’ and ‘ Pudding-stones,’ that lie about the surface. As later 
Post-Pliocene deposits, the Valley-gravel (with flint-implements) 
and its Brickearth, and the recent Alluvium, complete the list. 

Throughout these descriptions the Author has carefully referred 
to, and fully quoted, Mr. Prestwich’s researches on the Tertiary and 
Post-Tertiary deposits (indeed, the Geological Surveyors have 
accepted, with due acknowledgment, Mr. Prestwich’s maps and 
sections as a basis for their own work in detail); and he evidently 
feels a pleasure in finishing the lines and filling in the tints of the 
masterly sketches of the ‘London Tertiaries,’ the ‘ Drift,’ and the 
‘Flint-implement-bearing Gravels, that Mr. Prestwich has set 
before Geologists. 

The ‘Form of the Ground,’ some very suggestive remarks on the 
‘River-valleys,’ and notes on ‘ Disturbances,’ follow. There are 
also three Appendices ;—two on Well-sections,t carefully tabulated ; 
and one on the likelihood of there being an underground ridge of 
older rocks { along the Valley of the Thames, as hinted at by 
De la Beche, well described (though unseen) by Godwin-Austen, 
and proved by Prestwich; and with this Mr. Whitaker gives the 
very instructive diagram here copied, which is itself equal to a 
chapter on the geological structure of the South-east of England, 
showing in detail what Mr. E. Hull’s sketch-diagram (in his ‘ Coal- 
fields,’ 2nd edit., p. 258) boldly indicates in a general manner. 

Seventeen woodcuts, for the most part indifferently printed, illus- 
trate the terraces of gravel near Maidenhead,—characteristic pit- 
sections (some, as Brockwell Hall Brickyard, not previously noticed), 
—and sections across the country, showing form of ground, disloca- 
tions, and other features, as at Windsor, Bushey, Lane End, Benneti’s 
End, and elsewhere. A good Index of Places adds value to the work. 

The Author throughout has evidently had a sharp eye for the 
Economics of Geology, such as Brickmaking, Pottery, Soils, Water- 


* Mr. Whitaker applies the words ‘ High-level Gravel’ to that on the plateaux, 
and ‘Low-level Gravel’ to that of the valleys and so often left im terraces. This 
appears more correct than terming the highest of the Terrace-gravels ‘ High- 
level, and leaving the Plateau-gravel higher still. 

+ That of Colney Hatch appears to have been left out by mischance. Mr. 
Whitaker expresses a wish to be informed of any new sections and well-diggings. 

{ We have seen the specimen of Lower Carboniferous Posidonomya that was 
brought up by the borer from these old rocks at Harwich, mentioned at p. 252 of 
the Geol. Soc. Journal, vol. xiv. 


ke 


Reviews: Huxley—Belemnitide. 67 


supply, &c.; but without that his pages are quite full enough of 
good sound Geology, based on well-observed facts and judicious 
reasoning. 


THE STRUCTURE OF BELEMNITES, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF A NEw 
Genus (Xiphoteuthis.) By Professor Hux.ey, F.R.S., &e. 
Memorrs OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE Unitep Kinepom. FicurEs AND 


DuscrietIons ILLUSTRATIVE OF British OrcGanic Remains, Monograph II. 
8vo. Accompanied by three folio Plates. 1864. London: Loneman & Co. 


ps Memoir conveys the results of the Author’s careful obser- 

vations on the structure of the Belemnitidz as shown by more 
complete specimens of Belemnites* than previously described, and 
comprises an account of his new genus Xiphoteuthis, founded -on 
some nearly perfect specimens lately discovered by Mr. Day in the 
Lias of Charmouth. 

Of all the extinct forms of animal life, few perhaps have received 
more attention than the Belemnite and its allies,—a group charac- 
terising the Secondary strata. Without entering into the intricate 
book-history of these curious fossils, noticed even by P. Belon and 
G. Agricola (1552-58) under the name of ‘ Belemnites,’ Mr. Huxley 
has selected the more recent and important observations bearing 
upon the structure of the Belemnite, and its relationship to existing 
Cephalopods,—namely, those by Buckland (1829, 1836), Voltz (1830, 
1836, 1840), Miinster (1830), Agassiz (1835), Quenstedt (1839, 
1849, 1852), Duval Jouve (1841), D’Orbigny (1842), Pearce and 
Cunnington (1842), Owen (1844), Mantell (1848), Woodward (1851, 
1856), and Pictet (1854). 

The Belemnite, as usually found, consists simply of the well- 
known subcylindrical calcareous fossil so called (the ‘ Thunderbolt,’ 
‘St. Peter’s Fingers,’ &c. of peasants) This is the ‘guard’ or 
‘rostrum,’ with a conical cavity (‘alveolus’) at its broader end, con- 
taining a conical series of numerous chambers (‘loculi,’ Huxley), 
enclosed in a thin shell-wall (‘conotheca,’ Huxley), and traversed 
vertically ono ne side (middle of the ventral) by the ‘siphuncle.’ This 
chambered portion is the ‘ phragmacone’ (Owen). Continuous with 
the upper part of the ‘ conotheca,’ is sometimes found a thin shelly 
substance (‘ pro-ostracum,’ Huxley), which has been the subject of 
much discussion, as to its presumed identity with the ‘pen’ or 
‘osselet’ of the recent Cuttlefish. ‘According to Dr. Buckland, this 
part is a corneous, or shelly, and more or less completely nacre- 
ous extension forward of the lip of the “ phragmacone.” Accord- 
ing to Agassiz, it isa “pen” identical with that of the so-called Lo- 
lige Bollensis, &c. According to Voltz, it isa “ pen” analogous to that 
of Loligo Bollensis. According to Mantell and Quenstedt, it is a broad 
dorsal plate, more or less corneous in the middle, and with two 
strong calcified “asymptotic bands.”’ Prof. Huxley is now enabled 


* In the Collections of the Rev. J. Montefiore, Mr, Henry Norris, sen., and 
Mr. Day, and in the British Museum. 


F 2 


68 Reviews: Huxley—Belemnitide. 


to prove that this important part in the Belemnitide corresponds 
with a portion only of the ‘pen’ of the Cuttlefish; and for that 
reason he gives it the special name of ‘ pro-ostracum :’ he also points 
out that, in specimens he has examined, this part presents three dis- 
tinct types of form :—1st (as in Belemnites elongatus), ‘prolonged as 
a broad spatulate plate along the whole length of the dorsal region of 
the mantle, and produced laterally and inferiorly, for an unknown 
distance, along the lateral and ventral regions of the body :? 2nd (as 
in B, attenuatus, which is probably the same as B. Owenii and B. 
Puzosianus), it is ‘very thin, apparently horny, or imperfectly cal- 
cified, in the dorsal region, and supported laterally by two thin 
calcareous bands, or pillars, which, inferiorly, expand upon the 
“conotheca :”’ 3rd (as in Xtphoteuthis elongata), very long and 
narrow, partly flat, partly subcylindrical: and, 4thly (as in a Belem- 
noteuthis in the British Museum), a different, but not yet determin- 
able, form.* 

The ‘ conotheca’ on its outside bears certain curved lines, which 
are of iraportance in the study of Belemnites, in consequence of 
their being regarded as indicative of the probable form of the edge 
(often missing) of the ‘pro-ostracum.’ These ‘conothecal strix’ 
differ very considerably in specimens hitherto observed by Voltz, 
Quenstedt, D’Orbigny, and others. Prof. Huxley remarks on this 
point :— 

‘If the arrangement of the conothecal lines indicates the form of the 
“yro-ostracum,” and vice versd, the majority of Belemnites ought to have a 
two-banded “ pro-ostracum ” like that of B. Puzosianus ; and, on the other 
hand, the peculiar arrangement of the “conothecal”’ lines of the present 
“phragmacone ” [from the Ammonites-obtusus zone of the Lias, and in the 
Rev. J. Montefiore’s Collection] ought to indicate that it was associated 
with a different kind of pro-ostracum ; and, so far, there may be ground for 
suspecting that it belonged to some of the species which have “ pro-ostraca”’ 
like that of B. Bruguierianus. But I am by no means satisfied of the jus- 
tice of Voltz’s assumption, which D’Orbigny and others adopt,—that the 
“ conothecal lines” must indicate the form of the “pro-ostracum ;” since 
the latter may readily have been modified by the deposition of shelly matter 
upon its exterior, after its first formation.’ 


Prof. Huxley demonstrates that certain true Belemnites were pro- 
vided with hooks on the arms, horny beaks, and a large ink-bag. 
These features, as well as the ‘ pro-ostracum,’ ‘conothecal striz,’ and 


* Asit seems to have escaped notice, andis certainly of interest, we may remark 
that Buffon in 1774 recognized in some well-preserved Belemnites, which he very 
clearly describes, dug up from Oolitic clay at Montbard, a sort of appendix, con- 
tinuous with the coating of the little chambered cone of the Belemnite, of a yellow- 
ish colour, calcareous in substance like the shell, extremely tender, and having the 
form of a wide flattened funnel, nearly two inches long, and tapering from one inch 
at the widest to six lines at its gunction with the Belemnite. Although Buffon could 
not decide what Belemnites really were, yet he distinctly called the attention of 
Naturalists to the fact that they had not hitherto recognized all the parts of these 
curious shells; and he suggested that this additional evidence of their structure 
might assist in determining the class to which they really belong. (See ‘ Explica- 
tion de la Carte Géol. de France,’ vol. i. p. 347, &c.) 


Reviews: Huxley—Belemnitide. 69 


peculiar cuticle of the ‘guard’ (in B. elongatus), are extremely 
well shown in Liassic specimens (from the collections above men- 
tioned) beautifully figured in the plates of this Monograph. ‘The 
Author states, that, with an ink-bag 1:4 inch long and °55 inch 
broad, the shell of B. elongatus would be (from apex to mouth of 
‘ phragmacone’) 5:35 inches long, the ‘guard’ being 2} inches long 
from its apex to its expansion at the base of the ‘phragmacone,’ 
and -25 inch broad; and he suggests that ‘these measurements may 
enable one to form a rough estimate of the size of ‘guard’ which 
appertained to any detached ink-bag, and vice versa. We may also 
suggest, that, finding an ink-bag in the clay, the collector may 
hence be led to make careful examination throughout a calculated 
distance, in a line with it, for other parts of the animal. According 
to the figured specimen of the above measurements, the arms and 
hooks would be about two inches in advance of the ink-bag. 

Naturalists, having now a perfect Belemnite before them, can 
affirm, with Buckland and Woodward, the existence of the ink-bag 
as a matter of direct observation. The ink-bearing ‘ Belemnosepia’ 
of Agassiz and Buckland is therefore a Belemnites, and does not 
belong to the Teuwthide or Squids. Mr. Huxley dwells also on the 
relationship of Belemnites and Belemnoteuthis, the latter of which, 
he thinks, will prove to have a ‘ pro-ostracum’ of peculiar form. 
Acanthoteuthis, founded on incomplete remains in the Solenhofen 
Oolite, may belong either to the better known Belemnites, Belemno- 
teuthis, or Plesioteuthis, or even to Keleno. 

The new Cephalopodous Genus described in Professor Huxley’s 
Monograph has been hitherto imperfectly known by a fragmentary 
specimen in the Geological Society’s Museum, and figured and 
described by De la Beche in 1829 as Orthocera elongata (Geol. 
Transact., 2nd ser., vol. ii. p. 28, pl. 4, fig. 4); but its real nature 
was first revealed by some fine specimens found by Mr. Day in the 
lower part (Belemnite-beds) of the Middle Lias near Lyme-Regis. 
It consists of a narrow, cylindrical, structureless ‘guard,’ about 
3 inches long, about 1th inch thick, and containing a long tapering 
‘ phragmocone,’ the chambers of which much resemble those of an 
Orthoceras. The ‘conotheca’ passes upwards into a remarkable 
‘pro-ostracum,’ nearly 12 inches long ; at its base it is a flat band 
only -35 inch broad, narrowing to about’2 inch; in its upper half, 
widening and becoming convex, it is ‘5 inch broad, and then tapers 
to a point. Jt has a polished surface, wrinkled transversely just 
below its widest part. It is composed of concentric lamelle, with 
fibres perpendicular to their planes, as in the ‘ guard’ of an ordinary 
Belemnite. No ink-bag, hooks, nor beaks have yet been found 
associated with this internal shell, which is generically distinguished 
from other Belemnitide by the form and structure of its ‘ pro- 
ostracum,’ its long, narrow, deep-chambered ‘ phragmocone,’ and its 
cylindrical ‘ guard.’ 

‘The genera hitherto enumerated,’ says Mr. Huxley, ‘in the family of the 
Belemmte, characterized among the Dibranchiate Cephalopoda by possessing 


70 Reports and Proceedings. 


a straight, chambered, siphunculated, internal shell, or “ phragmacone,” 
are Belemnites, Belemnitella, Belemnoteuthis, Beloptera, and Conoteuthis. Yo 
these Xiphoteuthis must now be added; and I think it very probable that 
by-and-by it will be found necessary to subdivide Belemmites, the difference 
between the “ pro-ostraca” of B. Bruguiertanus and B. Puzosianus being, 
probably, of generic importance. The extent of our knowledge of the 
structure of these different genera is very unequal. Of Belemmnoteuthis, the 
body and arms, hooks, ink-bag, and internal shell are all known, few fos- 
silized animals having left more complete remains; of Belemnites, the speci- 
mens described in this paper haye made known, for the first time, the form 
and proportions of the body and the arms, the hooks, the ink-bag, one type 
of “ pro-ostracum,” and less perfectly the beak; of Xiphoteuthis, the almost 
complete internal shell is known; of Conoteuthis, the “phragmacone ” and 
part of the “pro-ostracum;” of Beloptera and Belemmitella, only the “ phrag- 
macone” and “ouard;” but with the hooks, ink-bag, or soft parts of these 
last four genera we have no acquaintance.’ 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
—_—_4——_ 


GEOLOGICAL Socinty or Lonpon.—I. Dec. 21, 1864. The fol- 
lowing communications were read :— 

1. ‘On the Coal-measures of New South Wales, with Spirifer, 
Glossopteris, and Lepidodendron.’ By W. Keene, Esq. Communi- 
cated by the Assistant-Secretary. 

This important paper, showing the occurrence of Vertebraria and 
Glossopteris throughout the Coal-measures, —of Spirifer, Ortho- 
ceras, Bellerophon, &c. in some of the beds,—and of Lepidodendron 
in the lowest grit of the series, has already been noticed, among the 
British Assoc. Reports, in the GroLtocgicaL Macazing, Vol. I. 

. 233. 

" 2. ‘On the Drift of the East of England and its Divisions. By 
S. V. Wood, jun., Esq., F.G.S. 

In this paper the author divides the Drift of the country extend- 
ing from Flamborough Head to the Thames, and from the Sea on 
the east to Bedford and Watford on the west, as follows :—a, the 
Upper Drift, having a thickness of at least 160 feet still remaining 
in places; 6 ande, the Lower Drift, consisting of an Upper series 
(6), having a thickness from 10 to 70 feet, and a Lower series (e), 
with a thickness, on the coast near Cromer, of from 200 to 250 feet, 
but rapidly attenuating inland. e¢ comprises the Boulder-till, and 
overlying Contorted Drift on the Cromer coast, which along that 
line crop out from below 6 a few miles inland. ce also, in an atte- 
nuated form, ranges inland as far south as Thetford, and probably to 
the centre of Suffolk, cropping out from below 6 by Dalling, Wal- 
singham, and Weasenham, and. appearing at the bottom of the val- 
leys of central Norfolk. 6 consists of sands, which on the east coast 
overlie the Fluvio-marine and Red Crag, but change west and south 
into gravels, which pass under @ and crop out again on the north, 
south, and centre of Norfolk, and west of Suffolk and Essex, ex- 


Reports and Proceedings. gal 


tending (but capped in many places by a) over most of Herts. The 
Upper Drift (a) consists of the wide-spread Boulder-clay, which 
overlaps 4, for a small space, on the south-east in Essex, and again at 
Horseheath, near Saffron-Walden, but overlaps it altogether on the 
north-west, resting on the Secondary rocks in Huntingdonshire and 
Lincolnshire. The distribution of 6 indicates it as the deposit of an 
irregular bay, afterwards submerged by the sea of a, which over- 
spread a very wide area. a now remains only in detached tracts, 
having been extensively denuded on its emergence at the beginning 
of the Post-glacial Age, so that wide intervals of denudation (sepa- 
rating the tracts) indicate the Post-glacial straits and seas which 
washed islands formed of a. The author considers the so-called 
Norwich Crag of the Cromer coast as vot of the age of the Fluvio- 
marine Crag of Norwich, but as an arctic bed forming the base of e, 
into which it passes up uninterruptedly. The author regards the 
beds 6 as identical with the fluvio-marine gravels of Kelsea, near 
Hull; and the Kelsea bed not to be above a, as hitherto supposed, 
but below it, having been forced up through a into its present posi- 
tion. He also regards the Upper Drift (a) as the equivalent of the 
Belgian Loess, and the beds 6 as the equivalent of the Belgian Sadles 
de Campine. 

II. Jan. 11, 1865. The following communications were read :— 

1. ‘On the Lias Outliers at Knowle and Wootton Wawen in 
South Warwickshire.’ By the Rev. P. B. Brodie, M.A., F.G.5.— 
[See Grotoeicat Magazine, Vol. I. p. 239. | 

2. ‘On the History of the last Geological Changes in Scotland.’ 
By T. F. Jamieson, Esq., F.G.S. 

The history of the last geological changes in Scotland, as given in 
this paper, was divided into three periods, namely, the Preglacial, 
the Glacial, and the Post-glacial. 

The absence of the later Tertiary strata from Scotland leaves the 
history of the Preglacial period very obscure ; but the author con- 
sidered it in some degree represented by some thick masses of sand 
and gravel (apparently equivalent to the Red Crag of England) on 
the coast of Aberdeenshire ; and he stated that there were indications 
of the Mammoth having inhabited Scotland during this period. 

The Glacial period was divided into three successive portions, 
namely, (1) the Period of Land-ice, during which the rocky surface 
was worn, scratched, and striated, and the boulder-earth, or glacier- 
mud, was formed; (2) the Period of Depression, in which the 
glacial marine beds were formed; and (3) the Period of the Emer- 
gence of the land to which belong the valley-gravels and moraines, 
and during which the final retreat of the glaciers took place. 

To the Post-glacial period Mr. Jamieson referred that of the 
formation of the submarine forest-heds, which he considered was 
succeeded by a Second Period of Depression, and this again by the 
elevation of the land to its present position. It is in the old estuary 
beds and beaches formed during the Second Period of Depression 
that the author finds the first traces of Man in Scotland, while the 
Shell-mounds with chipped flints he referred to the same epoch as 


72 fteports and Proceedings. 


the blown sand and beds of peat, namely, to the most recent period, 
during which the land was raised to its present level. 

Mr. Jamieson described: in great detail the deposits representing 
each of these periods, and concluded his paper with lists of shells 
from the different beds, showing the percentage of the species that 
are now found in the British, Southern, Arctic, North-east American, 
and North Pacific regions. 


Groxoeists’ Association, Tuesday evening, Dec. 6, 1864 ; E. Cresy, 
Esq., President, in the chair.—Mr. Tomuinson, of King’s College, read 
a paper entitled ‘Two Days on the Chesil Bank,’ in which he de- 
scribed a visit to that remarkable bank of shingle, the most extensive 
in Europe, extending, as it does, from Burton Cliff, near Bridport, 
to the Isle of Portland, a distance of nearly nineteen miles. Mr. 
Tomlinson did what few visitors to this part of our coast care to do: 
he walked the whole length of the Bank, which in the last ten miles 
has no other path than the loose shingle. He also collected (and ex- 
hibited) pebbles from different parts of the Bank, not only to illus- 
trate their species, but also the remarkable and gradual increase in 
size, from blown sand at Burton Cliff, to pebbles of the size of 
turnips at the village of Chesil. Among the pebbles, those of 
rolled flint or of translucent quartz are most abundant: there 
were also pebbles cf black Fuller’s earth, black Devonian Lime- 
stone, Old Red Sandstone, porphyry with green and red spots, 
Lias with lines of carbonate of lime, Forest-marble, and jasper. 
Parts of the Bank are broken into gulleys by the infiltration of 
water, and the subsequent hydrostatic pressure during heavy seas. 
A large map of the locality, and diagrams showing the dimensions 
of the Bank, as determined by Mr. Coode, the Engineer of the Port- 
land Breakwater, were exhibited. The questions then discussed by 
Mr. Tomlinson were—1. Where do the pebbles come from? 2. What 
force transferred the pebbles from a distance? 8. What force re- 
tains them in their present position? 4. Why do the largest pebbles 
travel to the greatest distance? Mr. Coode’s investigations were 
several times referred to, as well as those of Mr. Palmer and others, 
on moving shingle, and the importance to the engineer of ascertaining 
the laws which govern it. 

After the reading of the paper, a lively discussion followed, in 
which a large number of the Associates took part. The President 
summed up, and Mr. Tomlinson replied at some length. He recom- 
mended that one of the next Summer-trips of the Association should 
be to the Chesil Bank, and that in the mean time a Committee 
should be appointed to draw up instructions for. the visitors as to 
what points require to be carefully examined before all the ques- 
tions raised on the subject could be considered as settled.— J. C. 


RoyaL GEorocicaL Society or IreLAnD.—There was a general 
meeting of the Society on the 14th December, in the Museum 
Building, Trinity College. The chair was taken by the Rev. Dr. 
Luoyp, the President. The Rev. Dr. S$. Haueuron read his paper 


Reports and Proceedings. 73 


on the Geology of some of the Western Islands of Scotland. He said 
that the following brief notes, mineralogical and geological, made 
during a yachting-cruise in the West of Scotland, on board Mr. 
Graves’s yacht ‘lerne,’ in the summer of 1864, may be of the more 
interest to the R. Geol. Soc. of Ireland, in consequence of the close 
relation between that part of Scotland and the North of Ireland. 
Crystalline White Limestone of Iona.—On the 17th of July we 
visited the metamorphic white limestone of Iona, described by 
Jamieson and others. It bears N. 15° E. by compass, and dips 
80° E., and is from 40 to 50 feet in thickness. “Tt is pure white, and 
has a remarkably flaky appearance, fully explained by its mineralo- 
gical composition. On being analyzed, it was found to consist of 71 
per cent. of dolomite, and 29 per cent. of a silicate, which proved to 
be a var riety of tremolite. At the time of our visit it was nearly 
high water, and we were therefore unable to examine that portion 
of the limestone, exposed at low water, which is said to pass into 
“verde antique,’ of which, indeed, we found several rolled pebbles on 
the strand. Labradoritic Syenite of Loch Scavig, in Skye.—We 
visited the remarkable mountains that surround this wild loch on 
the 3rd of August, and brought away with us very good specimens 
of the syenite of which they are composed. ‘The mass of the rock 
is a medium-grained syenite composed of augite and labradorite, and 
was particularly interesting to me, because I had failed to find this 
rock in Donegal, although there are specimens, collected by the late 
Mr. Townsend, C.E., probably from Donegal, in the Geological 
Museum of Trinity College. Beds of metamorphic rocks, in which 
labradorite forms an essential constituent, are well known to form 
an important part of the Laurentian system in Canada, and I was 
therefore glad to have an opportunity of examining a similar rock 
in situ in Scotland. The syenite is bedded, and evidently meta- 
morphic, and is penetrated frequently by dykes of similar syenite, 
sometimes finer, sometimes coarser in the grain. In the coarsely 
crystallized masses, the labradorite and augite acquire large dimen- 
sions, and are associated with a considerable quantity of ilmenite, 
such as is found in the oligoclasic syenite of Horn Head, in Donegal. 
—— Granite of Ross of Mull.—On the 17th of July we visited the 
celebrated granite-quarry of the Ross of Mull, from which it was pro- 
posed to obtain the monolith in honour of the late Prince Consort. 
The granite is coarse, with quartz abundant, and only one felspar, 
namely, a pink orthoclase, with a little black mica. Its analysis 
shows that it differs much from the granite of Strontian,* two 
analyses of which were published by me in the ‘ Quarterly Journal 
of the Geological Society of London,’ in Part IV. of my ‘Experi- 
mental Researches on the Granites of Ireland.’ Gryphea-beds of 
Loch Aline.—On the 15th of July we visited these beds, and found 
them to consist of decomposing dark beds of shaly limestone, at the 


* One of these granites is published, on the authority of Sir R. Murchison, as 
from Tobermory ; but I believe it was originally a specimen from Strontian, and 
was brought to Tobermory as a building-stone. 


74 Reports and Proceedings. 


sea-level, abounding in Gryphea incurva, Pecten equivalvis, and 
Lima; above the limestone lie thick beds of white sandstone with- 
out fossils; and this again is covered by thick masses of tabular 
basalt. Tertiary Leaf-beds of Ardtun Head.—On the 18th of 
July we rowed across from Iona Bay to Ardtun Head, and were 
shown the Tertiary leaf-beds by Mr. Campbell, who kindly pro- 
vided us with blasting-powder and jumpers, by means of which 
we succeeded in obtaining some excellent specimens of Platanus 
Hebridicus from the bed of shale that underlies the bed of con- 
glomerate formed of Chalk-flints and Chalk-pebbles——Lias Se. 
of Pabba.—We visited the Island of Pabba on the 1st August, 
and brought away, by diligent quarrying, a good collection of fos- 
sils. These were kindly examined and named for me by Mr. 
Baily, Paleontologist of the Geological Survey of Ireland, who 
possesses special knowledge of these fossils, from the fact of his hav- 
ing assisted Professor E. Forbes in the determination of the Oolitic 
fossils found by him at Loch Staffin, in Skye.—— Oolite of Mull.— 
On the 5th August we landed at a new locality for fossils on the east 
side of Mull, pointed out to us by Mr. Campbell, of Aros, ‘Tobermory. 
We found shale-beds at the sea-level, converted into flinty hornstone 
of a greenish colour by enormous masses of amorphous trap that 
covered them; and it was with much difficulty we brought away 
the few fossils we quarried out, as there was a heavy sea running 
on the shelving rocks, and our ‘gig’ was in some danger of being 
stove in. Z 

Mr. Barty remarked that, as observed by Professor Haughton, 
he lithographed the Oolitic fossils from the Isle of Skye, deseribed 
by Prof. E. Forbes, and obtained from both freshwater or brackish 
and marine deposits ; those collected by Professor Haughton were 
entirely marine. He also drew the fossil plants from the leaf-beds 
of the Isle of Mull, believed to be of Miocene age, for the Duke of 
Argyll. The drawings and Prof. Forbes’s descriptions were pub- 
lished in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. London, vol. vii. He considered 
the value of such a set of fossils as those collected by Prof. Haughton 
to be greater than perhaps might be supposed, in supplying us with 
additional evidence of the existence of the Oxford Clay at several 
localities (including Pabba and Mull) in the Western Islands of 
Scotland :— Serpula vertebralis, Rhynchonella lacunosa, Lima levi- 
uscula, Pecten fibrosus (?), Gryphea dilatata, and Pinna mitis, from 
Pabba; Pecten and Belemnites Oweni (?), from Skye. 

The Cuarrman observed that a high value belonged to the ‘azoic’ 
portion of the paper, and especially the discovery of the rock which 
connected the old world with the new. In reference to the curious 
little arm of the sea (Loch Scavig) which Prof. Haughton had 
described, a friend of his, the President of the Royal Society, 
observed a very singular physical phenomenon on entering that loch 
at night. ‘There was an aurora borealis, and he distinctly saw the 
auroral streams issuing from the syenitic rock—an appearance which 
he was enabled to confirm by changing his place. If it should be 


Reports and Proceedings. 75 


established as a fact, it would throw a flood of light on a very obscure 
question. 

The Rev. Dr. Haucuton said he had omitted to state that the 
geology of the Islands in question derived an additional interest from 
the observations of General Sabine, to which the Chairman had just 
alluded, as to the magnetic properties of the rocks. The labradorite- 
and. augite- rock of Skye contained a large quantity of magnetic 
iron, of a high specific gravity, as he had mentioned, resembling the 
syenite of Donegal. Colonel Sir Henry James, who had been 
engaged in investigations for the purpose of comparing the mea- 
sured are of the meridian in England with ares measured in France, 
Prussia, Russia, and Italy, told him that, on approaching Aberdeen, 
a deviation of the plumb-line occurred, which he was quite unable 
to explain. He showed him a specimen similar to the rock now on 
the table, which contained a large quantity of magnetic iron, and 
stated that he believed it extended in a broad band through the 
North of Scotland. It had a specific gravity which was very high, 
and capable of influencing both the magnet and the pendulum. 
There were no questions of greater interest in connection with the 
theory of the earth than those which were opened up and explored 
by such investigations conducted for the purpose of measuring the 
ares of the meridian. Professors Maskelyne, Hutton, and Playfair 
had been completely baffled in their investigations in connection 
with the Mountain Schiehallion. He believed the cause to be 
that they had omitted to take into account rocks of exceptional 
density, and had in consequence estimated the density of the moun- 
tain too low, and accordingly derived too low a density for the earth. 
There was reason to think that rocks of the character just alluded 
to ran through Schiehallion. Corrections by modern physicists of 
their observations went to show, that if they had known what the 
real weight of Schiehallion was, they would have got at the real 
specific gravity of the earth. From observations which he himself 
made at Loch Scavig with a pocket-compass, and also with the 
compass of the yacht, he was perfectly satisfied that that mountain 
was what an ancient mariner would have called a loadstone, which 
was due to the large quantity of magnetic or titanic iron in it. 

The Cuarrman observed that General Sabine, Professor Phillips, 
and himself, while engaged in the magnetic survey of the kingdom, 
made observations and calculations which, when collated, went to 
show that the magnetic disturbance in England—in which country 
sedimentary rocks are the most prevalent—was least; that in Ireland 
was next; and that in Scotland it was the highest of all. 

Mr. Ormssy then made a communication respecting the Island of 
Ezgg, of which the following is an abstract :—He remarked that on 
a recent yachting-visit to the district just described by Prof. 
Haughton, he had been enabled to confirm his observations as to the 
Islands being composed of Secondary or Tertiary rocks, capped by 
basalt. This is to be seen in a very remarkable way in the small 
Island of Eigg, lying between Mull and Skye. The base of the 


76 Reports and Proceedings. 


island is formed of soft clayey amygdaloidal trap. This is overlain 
by Oolitic rocks, which contain the rare fossil Pinztes Eiggiensis ; 
and above all comes a mass of porphyry, rising to a height of 1,300 
feet above the sea. The soft amygdaloidal trap is worn into deep 
caves, in one of which the whole population of the island were 
suffocated by the Macleods of Skye, as told by Sir Walter Scott in 
the ‘Lord of the Isles.’ To the west of this district we find more 
aquecus rocks. A broad band of sandstone, apparently Triassic, 
rises up, overtopped in some places by Liassic shales. Along the 
shore the sandstone is most disintegrated, and forms a clear white 
sand. This is called by the inhabitants the ‘Singing Sands,’ from 
the fact that when they are struck by the foot they emit very sin- 
gular, almost musical, notes. The noise seems sometimes to be 
like the sound of an X®olian harp, but reminded us more of the 
squeaking of a flock of young turkeys. There are but two other 
known places in the world where similar ‘singing sands’ are to be 
met with: one is in Arabia Petrza, and the other on the borders of 
Thibet and Tartary.* Further west lie Liassic rocks. In some 
boulders lying over them, Hugh Miller found, some years ago, a 
number of Saurian teeth; but lately entire perfect specimens have 
been obtained from the shale, some of which are to be seen in the 
Museum of the Glasgow University.— Saunders’ News-Letter. 


EpInBuRGH GEOLOGICAL SocieTy.—I. December 22nd; Mr. 
Maurice Lothian, Vice-President, in the chair. 

In a paper On the Upheaval of the Shores of the Firth of Forth 
during the Human Period, with a notice of the recent discovery of 
funt weapons at Marionville (between Edinburgh and Portobello), 
Mr. Tuomas Smytu first described the remains of the several old 
coast-lines or terraces which occur on both sides of the Firth of 
Forth, at 9, 26, and 63 feet above the present sea-level. In the 
second part of his paper, he referred to the proofs of upheaval during 
the Human Period, and cited, in support of the supposition that an 
elevation had taken place in this period and is still going on, various 
facts already mentioned by Sir C. Lyell and others, as well as some 
new observations made by himself, and a series of very careful 
measurements regarding the rise which has taken place within 
the last 100 years. He exhibited a plan of Portobello, made in 
1770, which shows that the sea at high-water then reached a point, 
on an average, 60 feet further inland than at present. He also 
described a large boulder, from which people were in the habit of 
bathing 40 years since, but which is now far above high-water 
mark. He then mentioned the discovery at Marionville of flint 
weapons which he exhibited and described. 

The Chairman remembered living some sixty years since in Por- 
tobello in a house the back of which was close to the shore; but now 
there has been such a gain of land, that a large house and garden 
stand between it and the present sea-beach. 


* Hugh Miller’s ‘ Cruise of the Betsy.’ 


Reports and Proceedings. at 


Mr. George C. Haswell, while he approved of the careful style of 
Mr. Smyth, thought that he had attempted to account for the gain 
of land in a wrong way, and compared the effects on the coast-line 
to the east and west of Leith Pier to show that, if we took our 
arguments, on the principle of Mr. Smyth, from the effect of the sea 
to the west, we would say that the land was sinking there, because 
the sea is encroaching on the land; whereas, if taken from the east 
of the pier, as done by Mr. Smyth, we might conclude that the land 
was rising. He contended that the alterations at present going on 
in the coast-line were entirely due to the ordinary effects of cur- 
rents silting up some parts of the coast-line and wearing away others. 

Mr. David Page, F.G.S., mentioned that these terraces which occur 
on both sides of the Forth also occur at the same elevations in 
Banffshire, Morayshire, and Aberdeenshire, as well as in many 
places in the south and west, and gave it as his opinion that the 
last rise of the land occurred previous to the Human Period. 

Messrs. James Haswell, Brown, and R. Coyne took part in the 
discussion. 

I. Jan. 12. Mr. R. Coyne, A.F.A., in the chair. The Duke of 
Argyll was elected an Honorary Member; Prof. Winchell, of Canada, 
and M. Boucher de Perthes, of Abbeville, were elected Correspond- 
ing Members; and Mr. James Horne, Geol. Soc. Glasgow, and 
Messrs. M. Watson and P. Samuel, Edinburgh, were elected Ordinary 
Members. Mr. Niet Stewart read a paper on ‘ The last Effect of 
the Igneous Forces, followed by denudation, in the neighbourhood 
of Niddry. Mr. T. R. Marswaty read a paper on a Tibia of the 
Extinct Caledonian Ox, found five feet below the surface, in Peat 
overlying Sandstone in Hailes Quarry.—G. C. H. 


Griascow Grotoaicat Socrety.*—L. In his paper read December 
8th, after referring to various mutations on the surface of our globe, 
and the agents by which these are effected, Mr. DouGaty noticed the 
geographical features of the land in and around the city of Glasgow, 
especially of various alluvial haughs, abrupt terraces, rounded de- 
tached elevations, and lengthened indentations running parallel with 
the Clyde, and generally characterized by rolled pebbles and stratified 
sands, the uniform character and position of which point to a time 
when sea-waves swept over the site of the homes and thoroughfares 
of the city, bearing and occasionally submerging the canoes of our 
barbarous ancestors, to some of which we can now refer as proofs of 
the comparatively recent emergence of its site from the sea. He 
showed that the Gryffe Water at Renfrew has shifted a mile-and-a- 
half ; referred to changes in the channel of the Molendinar Burn in 
Glasgow ; and, after explaining that the Low and High Greens are 
two of the most recently emerged platforms, he described the eight 


* We have received a report of Dr. Machattie’s very clear, comprehensive, and 
useful Lecture on Metamorphic Rocks, given as the Monthly Lecture on Noyem- 
ber 24, and regret that we cannot find room for it. 


18 Reports and Proceedings. 


terraces, or sea-beaches, traceable in going up from the Jail to Sight- 
hiil, giving the height of each (from 20 to 189 feet above mean tide- 
level at Liverpool), and pointing out some of their equivalents on the 
north and south of the Clyde. Others, also, such as Camphill 
(211 feet), Queen’s Park, the Sandhills of Tollcross, &c., were noticed. 
In conclusion, Mr. Dougall compared some of the levels now ob- 
tained with those given by Mr. R. Chambers, in his ‘Old Sea 
Margins.’ While some coincide strikingly, in others the discrepancy 
is So great that it cannot be attributed to the operation of the causes 
in which terraces have their origin. He was therefore forced to 
conclude that the figures given by Chambers in these cases were 
merely approximations. It was proper, however, to state that we 
have facilities now for ascertaining altitudes which did not exist 
when he compiled his work. There is now scarcely a bench of land 
in Seotland where the Ordnance Survey arrow is not carved, thus 
rendering the task of procuring levels comparatively easy, and the 
result substantially correct. 

II. January 5; the Rev. H. Crosskey in the chair; a lecture was 
delivered in the Hall of the Andersonian University by Mr. Dayvip 
Pager, F.G.S., on ‘Geology as a Branch of General Education.’ In 
the course of an eloquent address, he advocated the introduction of 
the science in question into the curriculum of our schools and colleges, 
not only as a means of intellectual training, but as a special prepara- 
tion for engaging in some of the most essential departments of human 
industry.—J. F. 


Liverroot GroLtocicaL Society, Dec. 13, 1864; Henry Duck- 
worth, Esq., F.G.8., F.L.S., in the chair.—The following papers 
were read :—1. ‘On the ancient Configuration of the Coast of North 
Wales,’ by Charlton R. Hall, Esq. The author described the tradi- 
tional accounts of the advance of the sea, and the subsidence of an 
old castle (Llys Helig) in Conway Bay. He had visited the site of 
this castle, which can only be seen at the lowest tides, and traced 
the probable outline of the building, but the time the tide allowed 
was too short for the examination to be very satisfactory.—2. ‘On 
the Geology of the Country around Builth, by R. A. Eskrigge, Esq. 
—G. H.M. ; 


Mancnester GrorocicaL Sociery.—A meeting of this Society 
was held, Dec. 20th, Mr. A. Knowrers, the President, in the chair.. 
1. Mr. J. PLanr produced a number of bones and teeth of the Mam- 
moth or Elephant, Hippopotamus, and Rhinoceros, found in Staf- 
fordshire; as well as of Horse, Ox, and Deer. The Staffordshire 
historians, Plot and Garner, mention the finding of remains of the 
Mammoth and Hippopotamus in Staffordshire; and these authorities 
were quoted by Buckland, Parkinson, and Owen. He (Mr. Plant) 
had heard that at another Society in Manchester some Elephant 
bones had been exhibited which were also found in Staffordshire; 
and it might perhaps be found that the remains now shown were 
from the same place, if not part of the same animal.—Mr. Binney 


Reports and Proceedings. 79 


said that, at a recent meeting of the Literary and Philosophical 
Society, Mr. Brockbank exhibited some remains of the Mammoth, or 
extinct Elephant, found at Waterhouse, near Leek, on the border of 
Staffordshire, in a fissure of the limestone. When Mr. Brockbank 
laid those specimens before the Literary and Philosophical Society, 
he stated that he had never heard of such remains having been found 
in Derbyshire before. Mr. Watson, however, had stated that 100 
years before his day the remains of an Elephant were found in a lime- 
stone-crevice at Wirksworth. The people resident in the neighbour- 
hood believed the teeth to be those of a giant, whose ‘ brain-pan’ 
was so large that it would hold two bushels of corn. There was 
also evidence of the finding of an Elephant’s molar at Adlington; 
and Mr. James Meadows, of Ashton, recently exhibited an Elephant’s 
tusk which he found at Dove-Holes, near Chapel-en-le-Frith. It 
was true that the evidences of the remains of such animals as the 
Elephant, Hippopotamus, and Rhinoceros were much rarer on the 
western than on the eastern side of the island, but the authorities 
that had been quoted showed that they had once existed.—Mr. 
J. Plant remarked that tusks and teeth of Elephants were frequently 
found in Leicestershire. 

2. A paper, by Mr. J. Taytor, on ‘The Pliocene and Post-Plio- 
cene Deposits in the neighbourhood of Norwich,’ was read. The 
paper showed that there was a considerable difference between the 
Drift in- the neighbourhood of Norwich and the Drift near Man- 
chester, where the character of some of the fossils appeared to be 
more Arctic.—Mr. Binney said that he did not think the fossils 
alluded to in the neighbourhood of Manchester were of so Arctic a 
character as appeared to be generally supposed.—Mr. J. Dickinson 
said that in some respects the paper confirmed views he had pre- 
viously expressed to that Society, and which led him to think that 
great changes would shortly take place in the minds of some of the 
most eminent geologists on important matters connected with the 
science. 

3. Mi. PLant gave an account of the discovery of a large bed 
of hazel-nuts, in a fine state of preservation, in an alluvial deposit 
at Collyhurst, 13 ft. deep, and in a part of the bed of the Irk 
where the river had once been 500 yards wide. The deposit was 
composed of sand, gravel, and river-silt, and rested on the Per- 
mian sandstone. He believed it to have been quietly deposited ; 
and probably the river had at that point been in the shape of a large 
lake, surrounded by forests of hazel-trees. He thought that the 
deposit was of such a character that the nuts had been placed there 
two or three thousand years ago.—Mr. Binney said he had had evi- 
dence of a similar deposit having been made in the valley of the 
Roach in fifty years, and judging by the remarks of Mr. Ray about 
the wooded state of the country around Collyhurst, he should think 
that the nuts were deposited not more than 100 or 150 years ago. — 
Manchester Guardian, Dec. 21, 1864. 

Dupiry anp Mipianp GEoLocicaL Society.— The autumn field- 


80 Reports and Proceedings. 


meetings of this Society were held in September and October, at 
Hagley and Great Barr respectively. On the former occasion the 
principal points of interest were the Permian beds in Hagley Park, 
and a few antiquities on the route. The latter meeting was for the 
purpose of examining some beds of Carboniferous Drift on the eastern 
confines of the coal-field; and also a small patch of Upper Llandovery 
Sandstone (fossiliferous), which crops out beneath the Woolhope 
Limestone of Great Barr. A considerable number of fossils were 
obtained from this rock. 

Since the summer excursions, the members of the Society 
have continued to hold monthly meetings for the discussion of 
scientific subjects. At the October meeting, a paper was communi- 
cated by Mr. H. Beckett, F.G.S., on the ‘South Staffordshire Coal- 
field,’ and was continued at the November gathering. At the 
December meeting, a valuable paper was read from Mr, J. Ward 
Longton, on ‘The Distribution of Organic Remains in the North 
Staffordshire Coal-field.’ Papers have also been read by Mr. Thomas 
Coomber, Bristol, on ‘Mining Schools;’ by Mr. W. H. Hayward, on 
‘Mammalian Remains found near Oldbury;’ by the Secretary, on ‘The 
Somersetshire Coal-fields.’ 

In November the members visited a very interesting exposure of 
‘Thick Coal,’ which was then being got by ‘open work’ near Tipton, 
in consequence of the colliers’ strike having rendered coal extremely 
searce. This is about the only place where the ‘Thick Coal’ at its 
outcrop has not been all dug out. A splendid section, showing the 
coal occupying a total thickness of above 86 feet, and inclined at an 
angle of about 40°, was laid bare. ‘The outcrop was overlain by 8 to 
10 feet of drift-beds, containing numerous fossils washed from the 
adjoining Silurian deposits.—J. J. 


Bato Natura History anp ANTIQUARIAN FIELD-cLUB.—As 
the title of this Club indicates, its object is to investigate the Natural 
History, Geology, and Antiquities of the neighbourhood of Bath. 
To effect this, four excursions are planned for the year, two of which 
are arranged with a more immediate view to Geology and Natural 
History ; and two are more especially set apart for the Antiquities 
of the surrounding country. The following are notes of the last two 
Geological Excursions, which were of peculiar interest. 

The First Excursion took place on 7th April to Frome, Holwell, 
and the Vallis. As this was merely a rehearsal of the same expedi- 
tion made during the visit of the British Association to Bath, the 
incidents of which must be still fresh in the memory of many of our 
readers, it will be sufficient merely to touch slightly on some of the 
more salient points which render the geology of this neighbourhood 
so remarkable. 

Under the able guidance of Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S., the 
peculiarities of the strata were pointed out, consisting of Carboni- 
ferous Limestone, traversed by perpendicular dykes of Lias. In an 
adjoining quarry, several members were successfully engaged in 
searching for Fish-teeth and other Rhetic remains, in that small 


Reports and Proceedings. 81 


infilling of sand and clay which has yielded so fruitful a harvest 
to the patient researches of the above-named geologist ; here it was 
that he discovered the teeth of Microlestes, the little Mammal allied 
to the Kangaroo-rat of Australia. Leaving Holwell, the Members 
passed by Nunney Castle, and were conducted through the romantic 
valley called ‘Vallis,’ where are a succession of quarries, representing 
the same geological features as at Holwell; the Lias-dykes, how- 
ever, in this locality being in some of the sections only a few 
inches in thickness, and looking more like veins running through 
the limestone than anything else. Several of these sections repre- 
sent the Carboniferous Limestone capped unconformably by the 
Oolite. 

The excursion was terminated with a vote of thanks to Mr. Moore 
for his energetic guidance in this geological labyrinth. 

The next Geological Excursion was on August 11th to Burrington 
Coomb, and across the Mendips to Cheddar Cliffs, by Charter House. 
Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.G.S., kindly undertook the guidance of 
the Members this day; and, having first taken them to the cavern 
on the left of the ascent, explained his views as to the formation of 
_Burrington Coomb, and limestone ravines in general, of which the 
following is an abstract :— 

‘When the Mountain-limestone of the Mendip-range was first 
exposed to atmospheric influences, the rains that descended upon it 
sank into the joints, and, carrying away portions of the rocks in 
solution, formed little streamlets, which gradually united until they 
formed the main stream that flowed through the channel, which is 
now Burrington Coomb. For countless ages it flowed on through a 
large cavern, gradually enlarging its bed, while the entrance through 
which it passed into open day becoming decomposed, and the roof 
falling in atom by atom, the small ravine grew larger and larger, 
and crept upwards at the expense of the cavern, until the latter 
was altogether lost ; and thus, in the course of time, the coombs and 
ravines are formed with which we are all so familiar in Limestone 
districts.’ 

In illustration of his theory of the action of water inside caverns, 
Mr. Dawkins conducted the party, or some at least of those who 
were sufficiently bold to venture, into the intricate windings of the 
great Goat Church Cavern, and there pointed out the gradual pro- 
cess of wearing away which is now going on. In one of the many 
chambers lately excavated by Mr. Dawkins, he showed the spot 
where he discovered a flint flake associated with the tooth of an 
extinct animal. The party, having returned to daylight after an 
hour’s absence in the heart of the limestone rocks, were next taken 
across the Old Red Sandstone axis of the Mendips, to the head 
of the Cheddar Cliffs ; and here, in illustration of the gradual dis- 
integration atom by atom of the outside of the cavern, were shown 
a good specimen of a coomb in process of formation, the roof gra- 
dually falling in stone by stone, and the ravine creeping on and on 
by slow degrees into the cavern, as the latter yielded to the wearing 
process of atmospheric agencies. 

VOL. Ii.—NO. VIII. G 


82 Reports and Proceedings : 


Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S., who was also present, conducted the 
Members to the old worked-out Roman mines at Charter House, 
where he gave an account of a discovery, made by himself some 
time ago, of a series of Liassic fossils found in a lead-vein more than 
one hundred feet below the surface. The vein running through the 
Carboniferous Limestone, he infers, from the presence of these fossils, 
that the contents of the fissure were a comparatively recent deposit 
from a Liassic sea which once covered the Mendips. ‘This most 
pleasant excursion was brought to a close by an inspection of the 
Cheddar Cave, and by a vote of thanks being returned to Messrs. 
Dawkins and Moore, especially to the former, who had contributed 
so much to the scientific interest of the day’s excursion.—H. H. W. 


Oswestry AND WeELSHPOOL NATURALISTS’ Fie_p-cLus.—This 
Society, which has just completed the seventh year of its existence, 
held a highly successful Conversazione in the Public Hall, Oswestry, 
on Friday evening, December 30th, 1864. The Society, in addition 
to objects of Natural History and other Sciences, derived from the 
collections of its own Members, solicited contributions of a like kind 
from the general public; and so hearty was the response, that the 
choicest and most extensive collection of interesting objects ever 
exhibited in the West-Midland Counties was arranged in the Hall, 
tastefully decorated for the occasion. Beside the collections of 
paintings, photographs, antiquities, coins, seals, stereoscopes, micro-: 
scopes, &¢., there was an interesting assemblage of objects illustra- 
tive of the Natural History of the neighbourhood. Its Geology was 
represented by the choice specimens of five cabinets, containing 
some good Fossils from the ‘Bala’ Rocks of North Wales, and the 
‘Upper Silurian’ of South Shropshire ; together with a series of 
Fossils from the hitherto almost barren ‘ Wenlock Shale’ of North 
Wales, including two groups of the beautiful Encrinite Actinocrinus 
pulcher (Salter ), exhibited by Mr. D.C. Davies, of Oswestry, who also 
showed a series of Fossils, from the. Sandstone beds of the ‘ Mill- 
stone-grit :’ and it may be observed, in passing, that the discovery 
of fossils in this formation, hitherto considered to be devoid of 
remains of former life, is one of the good results achieved by local 
geologists, who are now mostly members of this Society. The Pond- 
life of the locality was well displayed in three large and several 
smaller Aquariums. The numerous living Ferns of the Welsh Border 
were seen in cases belonging to Mr. J. S. Davies, of Oswestry. Some 
dried plants were also exhibited. The Insect-life of the locality was 
shown by a well-arranged collection, belonging to Master G. C. Davies, 
and placed amidst several good general collections. Ornithology 
was well illustrated by Birds and Eggs. There was a very com- 
plete series of the Land and Freshwater Shells exhibited by Mr. 
Whitwell, of Oswestry. An exceedingly fine stone weapon, dug 
out of a Saxon battle-field near the town, was lent by Mrs. Aubrey; 
and it was interesting to trace the resemblance of this British or 
Saxon weapon with others upon the tables, recently brought from 
the Society Islands and from Australia. The attendance was good, 


British Association. 83 


comprising about three hundred ladies and gentlemen. During the 
evening the following papers were read :— 

‘Ornithology ; by the President, R. G. Jebb, Esq. ‘ How I learnt 
to See; by the Vice-President, Rev. W. W. How. ‘On some 
Bronze Instruments recently discovered near Pool Quay; by the 
Rev. D. P. Lewis. ‘A Quarter of an Hour in Old Oswestry Gravel- 
pit; by Mr. D. C. Davies. ‘On the new metal Magnesium, with 
illustrations of the Magnesium Light;’ by Mr. Dumville. 

Selections of vocal and instrumental music were given during the 
evening; and refreshments were not forgotten. Occurring, as this 
Conversazione did, at a season of the year when outdoor Meetings 
of Field-clubs are impracticable, we commend the example of the 
Oswestry and Welshpool Club to the attention of those kindred 
Institutions that have not yet ventured to mix science with pleasure 
at a large evening entertainment.—D. C. D. 


NOTICES OF GEOLOGICAL PAPERS READ BEFORE THE BRITISH 
ASSOCIATION—continued. 


On tHE Lowest BEeps oF THE CARBONIFEROUS SERIES AT CLIFTON NEAR 
Bristot. By W. W. Sroppart, Esq., F'.G.S. 


HE Clifton gorge exposes a section of all the Lower Carboni- 
ferous strata, from the Devonian Beds to the Millstone-grit, 

in an extent of two miles, from Brandon Hill to a few yards beyond 
Cook’s Folly Wood. The Upper Limestone Shales have a thickness 
of 600 feet. The massive Mountain-limestone next succeeds, having 
a thickness of 2,000 feet. It extends along the path for nearly 3,000 
yards. This distance is owing to the great fault which causes the 
upper part of the limestone to appear twice over. This fault has a 
depth of 800 feet, giving a considerable area of broken ground, 
which consists of Coal-shales, Millstone-grit, &c., contorted in the 
most extraordinary manner. Beneath the massive limestone lie the 
Lower Limestone Shales, with an average thickness of 500 feet, and 
extremely rich in Fishes, Molluses, Crustaceans, and Echinoderms. 
Mr. Stoddart had noticed 81 fossil species from these Shales. It 
was to the lowest 83 feet of these Shales that attention was called, 
as they appear to settle a question that has arisen for some time 
past, as to the position of the Pylton and Marwood group, in what 
were formerly called the Upper Devonian strata. Mr. Stoddart 
described first, as a convenient starting-point, in descending order, 
the well-known ‘palate-bed.’ It is a dark red ferruginous conglo- 
merate of an immense quantity of teeth, spines, and Coprolites of 
Fishes, with Brachiopoda, Pteropoda, Polyzoa, &c. It is from four 
to six inches thick, and lies upon 18 inches of soft friable marl. The 
principal fossils obtained from this bed are: Fenestella (two or three 
species), Ceriopora rhombifera, Spirifera bisulcata, Sp. glabra, Dis- 
cina nitida, Lingula mytiloides, Conularia quadrisuleata, Cladodus 
conicus, Chomatodus linearis, Ctenacanthus tenuistriatus, Helodus 

G 2 


84 . Reports and Proceedings : 


levissimus, Psammodus porosus, and Coprolites. Under the above- 
mentioned soft marl come three beds of red crystalline limestone, 
exactly similar to each other in lithological character; but the upper 
and lower are unfossiliferous, while the middle bed is one of the 
most extraordinary assemblages of fossils perhaps ever seen. It 
is 85 feet thick, dipping SSE. at an angle of 68°, and is probably 
that mentioned in Mr. Williams’s seetion as No. 420. This must 
have been one long-continued deposit, from its great thickness, and 
from the fact of not the least ‘bedding’ being visible, only the 
usual joints of the limestone. A very singular circumstance is, that 
a piece broken off from any portion of the bed exhibits the same 
number of fossils, all small, ranging in size from 1-100th to 1-20th 
inch in diameter. The only fossils of a larger size yet found are a 
single specimen of Spirifera, a small tooth (Psammodus porosus), 
and a small Spine. The absence of alumina is very remarkable; 
because so great a quantity is usually present in the Lower Lime- 
stone Shales above and below this bed. The fossils are casts, or 
rather pseudomorphs, composed of a peculiar combination of 
peroxide of iron and silica; they are very brittle, porous, and in- 
soluble in cold nitric and hydrochloric acids. The calcareous cement 
being perfectly soluble in these acids, the fossils are easily obtainable. 
About one-third consist of the most exquisite casts of Infundibulate 
Bryozoa, showing the cells and other details in a very beautiful 
manner; a great part of the remainder are casts of Encrinital 
Ossicula, with a few pelvic plates corresponding to those of the genus 
Potertocrinus. Numerous casts of two species of Entomostraca also 
occur, which show the hinge-structure very distinctly. The im- 
mense mass of fossils in this bed is almost incredible ; taken from 
any part, they form at the very lowest estimate 20 per cent. by 
weight of the entire rock. From an avoirdupois-pound were ob- 
tained 1,600,000 specimens, besides a large quantity of broken shells 
and other débris. It was probably not a bed deposited in the usual 
manner, but rather a bank in the Carboniferous sea, exposed to the 
gentle action of littoral waves. Analogous cases may be seen now 
going on ;—for example, on the coast of Sussex (near Selsea), and 
on the west side of Caldy Island, a deposit may be seen collecting, 
the similarity of which to that under notice is very striking. After 
comparing the Lower Carboniferous Shales of Clifton with the 
descriptions of corresponding beds in Ireland, by Portlock, Jukes, 
and Salter, and with some of the Devonshire strata, Mr. Stoddart has 
no doubt of the geological identity of the Moyola, Altagowan, 
Coomhola, and Marwood groups, and of their agreement with these 
Lower Shales of Clifton. It is true that none of the larger Brachio- 
poda occur in these beds of the Clifton Shales, but they are likewise 
wanting in the Irish beds, where the thickness diminishes as towards 
the North of Derry. Here the Clifton and Irish fossil fauna very 
nearly agree. On the other hand, where the Lower Shales in Ireland 
attain a very great thickness, fossils are found identical with those of 
the Marwood group. This will be rendered mere evident by an 
examination of the accompanying table :— 


British Association. : 85 


Marwood 
group 
Coomhola 
group 


g8 
Fossiis ES S 
5 w 


Filicites dichotoma . = 
Knorria dichotoma . = 
Platyerinus = 
Poteriocrinus . = 
Spirorbis omphalodes - = 
Leperditia Seana ; — 
L. subrecta aa 
Orthoceras eregarium : ; : 7] = = == 


It 


| 
| 


Naticopsis plicistria 
Cucullza trapezium 

C. Hardingii : 
Modiola Macadami . 
Avicula Damnoniensis 

A. var. elongata 

A. var, media 
Lingula mytiloides . 
Streptorhynchus crenistria 
Spirifera disjuncta . : 6 
Sp. bisuleuta . ; ; : a — — — 
Rhynchonella plemedan s 3 ie = — — 
Amblypterus . : : : | = — 


The question now arises, said Mr. Stoddart, ought these shales to 
be classed with the Carboniferous or with the Upper Devonian 
rocks? ‘The Clifton beds, he submitted, clearly declare the former: 
Ist. On account of the nature of the fossils. 2ndly. From the com- 
paratively large extent of true limestones and shales and marls 
(nearly 70 feet) before the true Old Red micaceous beds occur, and 
100 feet before the first bed of quartzose conglomerate, which, after 
all, is the most certain mark of the division of the systems; for both 
rocks and fossils above and below differ entirely in their character. 
Lastly, Mr. Stoddart suggested, as another view of the matter, that 
these Shales, which in Teg eland engin the thickness of 5,000 feet, may 
have as much right to be considered as a distinct and intermediate 
series as the Rhetie beds, between the Trias and the Lias, which in 
the Austrian Alps have very little more magnitude. 


On_Icz-caves. By the Rev. G. F. Browns, M.A., of St. Catherine’s College, 
Cambridge. 

R. BROWNE has recently visited, in various parts of the Swiss 

and French Jura, the Vosges, and Dauphiné, in places far 
removed from glaciers, a number of ice-caves exhibiting phenomena 
of a very remarkable kind, equally interesting to the Geologist, 
the Physicist, and the Physical Geographer. In large caverns in 
the PnEtOUS at depths of from 50 to 200 feet below the surface, 
and from 2,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea, Mr. Browne discovered 
enormous deposits of ice in the middle of summer ; ; the ice being 
dense, perfectly crystallized, and evidently permanent, in the form 
of columns, cascades, and floorings of ice, prismatic in structure, 


86 : Reports and Proceedings. 
with the axes of the prisms, in the vertical columns, lying horizontal, 
and in other cases perpendicular to the surface on which the ice was 
formed. ‘The extent of these caverns was so large, the quantity of 
ice so great in proportion to the magnitude of the caverns, and the ice 
had been frozen at so low a temperature—being quite distinct from 
snow in any of its forms,~—that Mr. Browne’s attention was forcibly 
directed to discover, if possible, the cause of the phenomenon. He 
could find no satisfactory account in any of the works in which ice- 
caves have been alluded to; although it is evident that similar 
deposits have been met with in many other districts. ‘They have 
nowhere as yet been described in any detail, with the exception of 
the Glaciére near Besancon, which has been the subject of several 
communications to the French Academy, and the number is evi- 
dently very much greater than had been supposed. ‘They are locally 
known as affording abundant ice in summer. 

It is evident that numerous deposits of this kind cannot fail to 
have some effect on the caverns, and ultimately on the facilities 
afforded for natural drainage. Ice, forming and melting, must split 
still more widely crevices already existing; and sometimes, no doubt, ~ 
must form fresh cracks. The melting of the ice must carry down to 
great depths a constant stream of cold water during the summer 
months, and tend to modify the temperature of the rock, and reduce 
it below the degree that would otherwise belong to it. 

It is by no means easy to explain the origin of these accumulations. 
They may possibly be portions of old or modern glaciers entering 
the earth. This suggestion has not yet been verified; nor is it easy 
always to say whether at one place or other there may not be a 
communication with the day. ‘That in many cases the ice is pushed 
forwards and downwards to fill narrow cavities, there can be no 
doubt ; and that glacial effects are thus occasionally produced in the 
interior of the earth suggests some curious reflections. : 

The explanations offered and hitherto generally accepted with 
regard to ice-caves are utterly inapplicable in many of the cases 
cited by Mr. Browne. Evaporation cannot possibly have produced 
the effects observed. The accumulation of winter-snows is equally 
impossible. It remains that the whole of the caves should be re- 
examined geologically with a view to make out the exact conditions 
of the case. 


On THE DrvELOpMENT or Ammonites. By Dr. T. Wricut, F.G.S. 


HE analysis of the synonyms of certain species of Ammonites is 
very difficult, for these fossils have received different names 
from different writers, quite irrespective of the age, state of growth, 
or varietal form of the specimen described as the specific type. Not 
only do these fossils often supply imperfect or fragmentary palzonto- 
logical material, but many Ammonites have changed their form 
during growth; therefore the author collected specimens represent- 
ing the young, middle-aged, and old conditions of as many species 
as he could get together. The results of his observations on the 


Correspondence. 87 
agreements and differences among these shells in their several stages 
of growth were given in this paper, prefaced with some remarks on 
morphological science as illustrated by the Meduse, the Echinoder- 
mata, and Crustacea. ‘The following are Dr, Wright’s conclusions :— 
Ammonites planicostatus, Sow., is the young of Am. Dudressieri, 
D’Orb. It has at first smooth ribs, flattened on the back ; each rib 
then developes a spine near the back, which has become broad and flat ; 
the spines afterwards diminish in size, becoming blunt tubercles, 
and even disappearing altogether in old shells. Am. semicostatus, 
Y. & B., is nearly smooth when young, without the keel or ribs, 
which are prominent in middle-aged shells. Am. bifer, Quenstedt, 
is smooth when young, acquires ribs when older ; and differs con- 
siderably when aged, the ribs becoming recurved processes. Am. 
Jamesoni, Sow., is an adult form, with ribs undulating over the back; 
Am. Reynardi, D’Orb., represents the middle age of the same species, 
with dorsal tubercles on the ribs and no keel; and Am. Bronnii, 
Roemer, is the young form, with ribs, tubercles, and dorsal keel. 
Lastly, Am. capricornus, Schlot., is very difficult to identify in its 
many forms; indeed, no less than six so-called species have been 
described out of the various phases of its growth: in early age it is 
Am. maculatus. Y. & B., and Am. planicosta, VOrb.; a little older 
it is Am. laticostatus, Sow. ; still older, and when the last whorl has 
become suddenly enlarged with two lateral rows of small tubercles, 
it is Am. heterogenus, Y. & B., and Am. Henleyi, Sow. By a careful 
study of the morphological characters which Ammonites exhibit, the 
number of the so-called species will be greatly reduced, and their 
diagnosis simplified. This will be a boon to the paleontologist, now 
that the value of Ammonites is more generally recognized; for 
among all the Invertebrata, they are the surest indicators of the 
stratigraphical position of the different zones of life in the Secondary 
rocks. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
ee 


EOZOON CANADENSE IN CONNEMARA MARBLE FROM THE 
BINABOLA MOUNTAINS. 


To the Editor of the GroLocicaL MaGazine. 


My pEAaR Sir,—I send you two or three slides with films 
(mounted and ground slices) of the Irish green marble containing 
the fossil which I suppose to be the same as Hozodn Canadense ; in 
fact, I can see no difference whatever. In the hand-specimen, however, 
the Irish differs much from the Canadian, as the best films are got, 
not from the banded dark-green, or from that with blue patches, but 
from the pale-green, translucent, apparently homogeneous portions ; 
that with blue patches showing but little trace of the Foraminiferal 
structure. The quarry producing the best specimens is that on the 
north-west flank of the most south-westerly of the Binabola Moun- 


88 Correspondence. 


tains.* The green marble is found at various points, in a NW. 
direction, or thereabouts, from this spot; and it apparently forms a 
bed with a ‘strike’ of about NW.—SE.; and it rises in many 
places like a wall above the mica-schist of the country, the latter 
rock having been more easily denuded. The northern end of the 
bed is far more calcareous than the southern, and there the Eozoan 
specimens are very unsatisfactory. As it is many years since I col- 
lected my specimens, these notes of the locality are from memory, and 
may be corrected by later observation. This marble gives way in 
parts to the action of acid (but not so easily as the Canadian marble 
that Sir W. Logan gave me), leaving tubuli like a white velvet coat- 
ing on the cell-masses, and with an occasional thread going right 
across. It seems as if the carbonate of lime has here been replaced 
partly by some other mineral, resisting the acid. Yours very truly, 
W. A. SANFORD. 


NyneHEAD Court, WeLiineton : Dec. 27, 1864. 


Note by the Eprror. 

Mr. W. A. Sanford, F.G.S., first wrote to me on November 25, 
1864, of his finding Eozoal structure in the Connemara marble; 
but he did not then feel certain enough of his conclusions to put 
them in print. When he felt sure, however, of his results, he 
kindly sent me the ‘slides’ above mentioned; and having got some 
pieces of ‘Ivish Green’ from marble-works in London, I verified his 
discovery by experiment. My specimens, however, of the light- 
ereen, translucent, serpentinous marble have yielded much more 
readily to dilute acid than Mr. Sanford’s specimens; and, excepting 
that the silicate replacing the ‘Sarcode’ of the Hozodén is lighter 
than in a specimen with which Sir W. Logan favoured me, there is no 
real difference between the two. The various-formed chambers, the 
shell of varying thickness,—either very thin and traversed with fine 
tubuli, the silicate filling which (when bared) resembles white velvet- 
pile, or thick and traversed with brush-like threads, representing 
the pseudopodian passages of the ‘supplemental shell’ (or ‘ vas- 
cular system ’),—are all present ; though I have not so carefully pre- 
pared them as they are shown in specimens of the Canadian Hozoan 
rock prepared and given me by Dr. Carpenter, whose researches (as 
read before the Geological Society—see Grou. Mac. Vol. II. p. 35) 
have even added to Dr. Dawson’s almost exhaustive description (see 
Grou. Mag. Vol. I. p. 226) of this fossil. The best way, perhaps, 
to examine the rock for Hozo6én is to strike off thin chips of the 
marble, parallel with a smooth face, cut across the wavy white and 
green lamin, as nearly at right angles as practicable (the direction 
in which ornamental slabs of this marble are often cut), and to 
submit the chips to the action of very weak dilute acid (not sul- 
phuric); and the peculiar structure, at first sight merely granular 
(where the mass is more green than white), but showing to the prac- 


* An account of the Geology of the Connemara Mountains, with their beautiful 
green marble, quartz-rock, and mica-schists, illustrated by a section, may be seen 
im _Murchison’s ‘Siluria,’ 2nd edit. p. 100, &c.—EHorr. 


Correspondence. 89 


tised eye green stony matter replacing tiers of the many-segmented 
‘Sarcode,’ together with delicate greenish-white threads for ‘ pseu- 
dopodial filaments,’ and for ‘stolons, of the different sizes and in 
the different positions peculiar to the structure of Foraminifera, can 
readily be detected. ‘The loose morsels also, fallen in the water, are 
(as Dr. Carpenter showed me) especially instructive, if carefully dried 
and mounted.—T. R.J. 


GEOLOGICAL ‘NOTES AND QUERIES.’ 
To the Editor. 

My pear Srr,—In the early part of the past year, I ventured to 
suggest to the Council of that very useful body, the ‘Geologists’ Asso- 
ciation,’ that an extension of the aid they were giving to geological 
observers would result from the periodical publication, monthly or 
quarterly, of a ‘Notes and Queries.’ To illustrate my meaning prac- 
tically, I took the further liberty of contributing the first number, 
having sundry enquiries myself to make, needing, like others, co-ope- 
rative help. This little olla podrida of mine the Association pub- 
lished, with an official foot-note of approval and explanation. But 
though still convinced of the value of such means of distributing 
and acquiring help within the limits of the ‘Association,’ I am so 
greatly of opinion that more extended and equally valuable aid 
may result from embodying the scheme with that of the GroLoGicaL 
MaGazineE, that I beg for some small space wherein to remark upon 
it. Although a desultory system of notes and enquiries did obtain 
during the existence of the respected predecessor of the GEOLOGICAL 
Macazine, the scheme upon which it was cast differed somewhat 
from the arrangement I would suggest. 

My remarks upon the plan need be but short. The arrangement 
in that valuable friend of Literary men, ‘ Notes and Queries,’ is the 
one which [I should like to see applied to the help of Geological 
students: everyone being familiar with this model, I need not describe 
it. My remarks will be rather directed towards indicating subjects 
which may both lead to the help of individuals, and at the same time 
advance the progress of the science. 

The very suggestive article by Professor Rupert Jones which 
inaugurated the New Year, and to which, unknowingly, I added a 
kind of postscriptal paper, will save me mentioning our wants as 
regards the paleontological, physical, and petrological studies which 
belong to the older half of the Paleozoic epoch; and save my bring- 
ing forward, as a witness of the usefulness of my plan, any more 
puzzled student of rocks older than the ‘ Mid-Silurian’ student. At 
this stage in the chronicle of past time begin my inquiries. 

1. Will some one kindly ask what are now the boundaries of the 
‘ Middle Silurian,’ and what are its frontier relationships with rocks 
above and rocks below? 2. Also whether the May Hill Sandstone, or 
any ‘ Llandovery’ rock, is being worked now anywhere in Britain ? 
While making these queries, I call the attention of the Malvern 
geologists, and other observers situated thereabouts, to the extra- 
ordinary abundance of Tentaculites in the Upper Llandovery Sand- 


90 Correspondence. 


stone of Ankerdine Hill (south flank), near Bromyard (Herefordshire). 
A rock literally composed of casts of the sheaths of Tentaculites cer- 
tainly exhibits a curious zoological condition of a Silurian shore. 

3. Is the rock of the ‘Church-hill quarry’ at Leintwardine of 
‘Aymestry Limestone’ age, or ‘Lower Ludlow’? I am aware that, 
until lately, its position as a ‘ Lower Ludlow’ rock was unimpugned ; 
but the discovery of Pteraspis Ludensis, the earliest (at present) 
known Fish, renders it desirable that the question of relative age 
should be cleared up. 4. Another enquiry, prompted by the fossil con- 
tents of a rock exposed near to Leintwardine, I wish also to make, 
both for my own information, and also as suggestive of research. 
When are the ‘branched Graptolites’ discovered some few years 
ago by Mr. Alfred Marston, in Lower (?) Ludlow rock near Bur- 
rington, to be figured, and collated with the species described by 
Professor James Hall (who certainly is the first geologist who has 
pieced the fragmentary relics of these curious animals together, and 
presented us with the entire form) in ‘Decade No. 2’ of the Geo- 
logical Survey of Canada? 5. The Ludlow district is so rich in 
Upper Silurian fossils, that I cannot pass it over, even in thought, 
without calling attention to some new, large-sized, and certainly 
undescribed Pteropeda from Upper and Lower Ludlow rocks, which 
are now in the cabinets of my friend Mr. Lightbody of that town. 
Mr. Henry Woodward has behaved like a father to the Pterygotus 
family, and I trust he may be inclined to place the Silurian Ptero- 
pods in an equal position of comfort and esteem. 

6. While remarking upon rocks which lie next above the ‘ Wenlock 
Series,’ I would suggest that it would be very desirable to tabulate 
the genera and species of Corals which range upwards from the 
limestones of that great Silurian zone into the more arenaceous rocks 
of the ‘Lower Ludlow.’ Certainly they are but few, and these pro- 
bably merely the species best calculated, by their life-characters, to 
live in a changed habitat ; but as such study may be taken as one 
of the many hundred which palzo-zoological science evolves from 
our ancient rock-material, it cannot be overlooked. 7. Before leaving 
Silurian paleontology, I should like to express a hope that some 
record may yet be taken of the most wonderful—for so it was—rich- 
ness of the comparatively thin band of Lower Wenlock Shales 
pierced during the making of the tunnel through the Malvern Hills. 
As yet I have seen no paper describing the fossils, several of which 
are quite new to Britain, discovered during the progress of the work; 
and, although the major part of the treasures thus secured are safe 
in the cabinets of my friend Dr. Grindrod, of Great Malvern, I think 
some record of their discovery should be drawn up so as to introduce 
them to their kindred, immortalised in the pages of ‘ Siluria.’ 

8. ‘ The Old Red Sandstone’ is a field of enquiry which would easily 
furnish, of itself, a volume of ‘ Notes and Queries.’ The singularly 
diverse conditions under which rocks, probably of contemporaneous 
age, were deposited, and the, as yet, remarkable discrepancies between 
the paleontological values of rocks lying within its limits, both 
relatively to each other and with reference to their mineral character, 


Correspondence, 91 


endow it at once with a special interest. I should like to hear 
enquiries as to how it happens that, as yet, no remains of any 
Scotch ‘Old Red’ Fish have been met with in English ‘ Old Red’ 
rocks, as exposed in Herefordshire and the Border-counties gene- 
rally. Also, if Mr. Pengelly’s discovery in the Devonshire rocks 
of Fish-remains allied to the forms met with in the rocks of the 
Scottish Highlands (Middle Old Red) still stands alone. 

9. As regards the uppermost zone of the ‘ Old Red, —that known as 
the ‘ Yellow Sandstone,’ a typical exposure of which was described 
by Prof. Morris and myself in the Quart. Jour. Geol. Soe., vol. xviii. 
p- 94, as occurring in Shropshire,—I wish to call the attention of 
Geologists living in South Wales to its occurrence in the district 
between Haverfordwest and Tenby; and to the probability of it, as 
there exposed, yielding good fossils. Specimens of Pterichthys 
macrocephalus, Kg., should be keenly looked for. 

10. Questions which arise out of thestudy of the Carboniferous 
rocks, and Notes, which I feel sure may be easily gathered, of new 
discoveries, and fittingly enshrined in the GEoLoGIcAL MAGAZINE, are 
so many, that I will only indicate two matters which, if looked into, 
and the results preserved, will be of use in the advancement of 
knowledge. One is, that in the brown shaly coals of North Stafford- 
shire, Shropshire, and West Worcestershire, Reptilian bones occur 
far more numerously than we have imagined. I have myself, 
years ago, seen many specimens; but, unluckily, I regarded them as 
belonging to some Holoptychian Fish, and took no special heed 
of them. 11. The other subject is connected with one of the 
mysteries of the Carboniferous epoch; the botanical position of 
the Sigillaria with Stigmaria as its creeping root. When possible, 
it appears to be exceedingly desirable that a careful drawing should 
be taken of any large individual tree found in sit, before the ar- 
rangement and relationship of the root with the trunk are disturbed; 
as there appears some probability that the huge plant was more 
nearly allied to the Mosses than we have hitherto considered. Prof. 
Goeppert has lately figured, in the ‘Paleontographica’ (vol. xii. 
pl. 36), the filaments of Funaria hygrometrica (a well-known English 
Moss) side by side with an outspread mass of Stigmarian rootlets. 

But as I merely mean these remarks to be indicative of some of 
the many ways in which a ‘ Geological Notes and Queries’ would 
be useful, Ineed not add to the few examples I venture to offer. 
Glad of such aid myself, I shall be equally pleased to find that its 


worth is appreciated by others. Caipnen 1 Remes IaGee 
: » F.G.S. 


Gzou. Soc., Somerser House: Jan. 6, 1865. 


To the Editor of the GroLocicaL MAGAZINE. 


UnrortunateE Ly for our Irish Drift, shells have only been found 
very rarely, so that we must do without that kind of evidence; but 
nevertheless the different Drifts are well marked, and seem to cor- 
respond with those mentioned by your correspondent, Mr. Maw. 


92 Correspondence. 


They occur in the following natural order :— 


3rd. Gravels and sands, including Eskers and 2 Post-drift Gravels 
Kaims d ; 4 ‘ i JS : 


2nd. Clay and blocks, usually made up chiefly 
of the débris of the underlying rocks, 
but sometimes consisting almost en- | Boulder-clay, or 
tirely of limestone fragments: in this Glacial Drift. 
latter case, the material is locally called 
‘Corn Gravel’ 


Ist. Gravel, sand, and clay; the last contain- 


ing fragments of plants, &c. : : ‘ Pre glacial te 


In Ireland I do not remember to have seen a section in which 
these three kinds of drift are represented, but in many places I have 
found Nos. 2 & 8, and in a few Nos.1 &2. No. 2 is undoubtedly 
Glacial Drift, as it was deposited from the large sheet of ice that 
once covered the country ; while No. 1 must have been previously 
deposited by water, or accumulated on the land; and No.3 was 
formed from the part of No. 2 that was washed by and deposited 
in water. In both Nos. 1 & 3 I would expect to find Arctic Shells 
and erratic blocks, as they were formed in a similar manner to what 
is now going on in the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. ‘There, in the 
large fields of ice, the materials for the Boulder-clay are accumu- 
lating ; while in the seas around gravels and sands, with Arctic 
Shells, are being deposited; and the droppings from the passing 
icebergs supply the erratic blocks. If the land is rising, the field of 
ice, and consequently the Boulder-clay, will extend out over these 
sand-deposits; but if the land gradually sinks, part of the Boulder- 
clay will be washed into gravels and sands; and, as they still con- 
tinue to be in an Arctic sea, there will be similar shells mixed with 
them, and passing bergs will supply the erratics. If the ice-field 
does not reach the coast-line, plants, &c. will grow on the inter- 
vening land, which will be destroyed and covered up by the Boulder- 
clay, if there be a continuation of severe seasons, and the ice-field 
extends beyond its usual limits. Recently I have found a section in 
the Baleyneenadouish River-valley, near Gort, Co. Galway, in which 
there is Preglacial Drift, under about twenty-five feet of Boulder- 
clay. The Preglacial Drift consists of clay and fine sand, and con- 
tains sticks, fir-cones, &c. This section I hope fully to describe in 
a forthcoming memoir of the Geological Survey. 

In the Preglacial Drift Ihave never found striated blocks ; but I 
do not say that they do not occur, as they might have been dropped 
into it from passing bergs. The surface of the rocks under it I 
never found polished or striated; but, when the true Bowlder-clay 
lies without any intervening rubble, the rock-surfaces are always 
polished and striated. The Post-drift-gravels may lie on a ‘ dressed’ 
rock, but the polishing and striz are always obliterated; rounded 
blocks may also occur in it; but the polishing and scratches are 
always more or less obscure, and never have the fresh look of the 


Miscellaneous. 93 


blocks out of the Boulder-clay. In this communication I have 
repeated part of what I formerly said, but I considesed it best to 
enter fully into the subject.—Yours, &c. G. Henry Krinanan, 


GALWAY: Dec. 5, 1864. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 
4 — - 


How THE SKULL OF THE MAMMOTH WAS GOT OUT OF THE BRICK- 
EARTH AT ILFORD. By H. Woopwarp, F.G.S., F.Z.S.—In reply 
to the Rev. O. Fisher’s enquiry (see p. 44), having been present 
during the exhumation of the cranium of the Mammoth (Elephas 
primigenius) at Ilford (described and figured in the GEoLoaIcaL 
Macazine for November, p. 241), I will state the method adopted by 
Mr. W. Davies, of the British Museum, assisted by Mr. Thorn and 
others. 

We sent down a one-horse spring-van, carrying a good supply of 
the best plaster of Paris (1 ewt.), six pieces of $-inch nail-bar-iron, 
6 to 8 ft. long, a bundle of splines, a box full of hay and tow, some 
strips of old canvas, whitey-brown paper, two large earthen pans in 
which to mix the plaster, spades, trowels, a saw, iron hammers, 
spatule, &c., good stout cord and rope, deal planks, and a hand- 
barrow upon which to remove the remains, and some large wooden 
trays in which all the loose portions were to be systematically 
placed, and marked with pencil on separate papers to show the parts 
to which they belonged. 

You must imagine the skull resting half exposed in compact 
brickearth, requiring a spade or trowel to remove it, but the fossil 
itself as friable as decayed wood or tinder, the ivory of the tusk 
being equally soft and shattered. 

The first operation was to remove as much of the soil as could be 
done with safety; the whole tusk was then covered with sheets of 
whitey-brown paper; a coating of well-mixed plaster of Paris was 
placed over the paper covering the tusk, and allowed to settle down 
upon each side in the grooves which had been scraped in the brick- 
earth, forming a coat, of this shape , over the entire length of the 
tusk. When the plaster had set, two bars of the iron (above men- 
tioned), which had been bent to the proper curve, were placed upon 
the hard plaster, and fixed to it with another coating of fresh-mixed 
plaster of Paris. 

When these coats had properly set, the base of the tusk (which 
had been carefully cleared and coated all round with plaster) was 
sawn through a few inches below the socket, the tusk was burrowed 
under at intervals with the trowel, and hand-holes thus made beneath 
it, through which were thrust strips of canvas and pads of tow or 
hay, until the whole was swathed with bandages of canvas, hay, and 
cord, like a mummy. When thus secured, six men turned it gently 
over from its matrix and placed it upon a long plank prepared for it 
(the curved part being supported and fixed with packing), and so 


94 Miscellaneous. 


transferred it to the van. The second tusk (removed a week later) 
was raised in a similar manner. 

The treatment of the skull was much after the same fashion, ex- 
cept that a coat of fine tenacious clay was used to fill up the nasal 
apertures and cracks. Over the first coat of plaster, laths and soft 
iron bars, bent to the curve, were fixed as in the case of the tusk to 
give rigidity to the whole. As the matrix was removed, pieces of 
wood were packed under with soft hay to support the head, which 
being filled with brickearth and sand, was very heavy. When quite 
cleared and secured, it was turned gently over upon a soft bed of 
hay placed on the hand-barrow ready to receive it.* 

The labour and care necessary are immense, but I feel sure that 
almost any similar fossil remains might thus be secured, provided 
always the same amount of skill and patience be brought to bear 
upon the brittle mass. 


Mintnec Notes.—It is not perhaps sufficiently known that the 
excavation of hematite iron-ore from hollows and fissures of the 
Mountain-limestone is now carried on to a very profitable extent in 
the district between Whitehaven and the mountains of Cumberland. 
It is the common opinion among the local geologists, who have con- 
stantly recurring opportunities of observation, that the ore has been 
deposited by water, and afterwards altered by hot water and steam, 
or hydro-thermal agency. It is likewise believed that a great part 
of the ore must have been carried by water from Ennerdale in the 
immediate neighbourhood. One of the precipices on the south side of 
Ennerdale Lake is called Tron Crag, and a single adventurer is now 


Langdale Pikes, seen from Blea Tarn, Harrison Stickle is the highest point (2,424 feet). 


carting ore from this crag to the nearest railway-station. The dif- 
ference between the iron-ore-deposits in the valleys and the veins 
in the mountains remains to be sufficiently investigated. Have the 


* The zygomatic arch invariably falls away from the cranium, dividing at its 
sutures; the pieces should always be sought for in the matrix beneath and taken 
especial care of. 


Miscellaneous. . 


latter had the same origin as the deposits, and afterwards been 
elevated? or were they injected from beneath by igneous action or 
sublimation ?—Very lately a hematite-mine has been opened near 
the top of a hill in the neighbourbood of the Crinkle Crags, and a 
little to the south of Great Langdale.—Within the last four months 
the proprietor of one of the Frizington mines (Whitehaven) has 
commenced mining operations in the side of the highest Langdale 
Pike, called Harrison Stickle. A slide from the Pike down into 
Langdale is in progress; and an experienced miner, belonging to 
the Frizington district, assures me that the Langdale Pike will very 
soon become disfigured, in a few years greatly mutilated, and in 
course of time perhaps demolished! Now this Pike is well known 
by tourists to be the chief attraction of the prospect to be obtained 
from the eastern shore of Windermere Lake.—In the wild and little- 
known valley called Greenburn, between Little Langdale and the 
mountains called the Carrs, a copper-mine belonging to John Cross- 
field, Esq., of Ambleside, was lately abandoned. A Scotch gentleman 
has purchased the ‘plant’ within the last year, and by this time 
has probably commenced reopening. I have been informed that he 
hopes to be able to meet with granite at an accessible depth, his 
belief being that the nearer to granite, the greater is the chance of 
finding copper. Is it so?—D. M. 


A sust of WitneLM Harpincer, Director of the Geological Sur- 
vey of the Austrian Empire, is to be placed in one of the Saloons of 
the Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna, on February 5th. Very 
many of his friends and admirers in all parts of Europe, in Eng- 
land, and abroad, have united in offering this compliment to the 
veteran Geologist and Mineralogist by voluntary subscription. 


A very fine specimen of Jade or Nephrite, from Battugol, Mont 
Saians, Irkutzk, Siberia, weighing about 5 cwts., has just been con- 
signed to Mr. Bryce M. Wright, of 36 Great Russell Street, Blocms- 
bury. It is of a fine dark-green colour, and is the second largest 
specimen of this mineral in this country.* It was from Nephrite 
that the most highly-prized hatchets of the aborigines of the Pacific 
and of the old Swiss Lake-dwellings were wrought. A notice of 
some Chinese and New Zealand Nephrites is given in the Grot. 
Mae., Vol. I. p. 143. The specimen is now upon view. 

OxsituaRY Norice.—Professor BenzamMin Sr~itimman, M.D., LL.D., 
died at New Haven on the 24th November last, aged 84. He graduated 
at Yale in 1798; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1802. 
He afterwards accepted the Chair of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and 
Geology in Yale College; and in 1820 visited Europe to prosecute 
his studies in sciences which were at that time almost unknown in 
America. He returned after an absence of fourteen months, and 
published in 1821 an interesting ‘Journal of Travels in England, 
Holland, and Scotland.’ He revisited this country again in 1851; 
and again printed his notes, entitled ‘ Narrative of a Visit to Europe 
in 1851’ (2 vols. 8vo.). In 1807, he made an analysis of a meteo- 


* The largest specimen is in the British Museum, and was brought by M. Alibert, 
from the same locality, for the International Exhibition of 1862. 


96 Miscellaneous. 


rite of great size and brilliancy which had burst in the town of — 
Western, Connecticut; and afterwards assisted Dr. Ware in his 
experiments with the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, to which he gave the 
name of ‘compound blowpipe,’ by which it is commonly known. It 
1818, Professor Silliman founded the ‘ American Journal of Science 
and Arts,’ now known all over the world as < Silliman’s Journal.’ 
The United States possessed, some forty-six years ago, but one single 
scientific periodical, the ‘Journal of Mineralogy,’ and that was but 
short-lived. On its extinction, Professor Silliman, for the honour 
of his country, threw himself into the breach, and published in 1818 
the first number of the Journal which now bears his name. His 
remark was—we quote from ‘ Tribner’s Bibliographical Guide to 
. American Literature ’—‘I feel that this work will absorb my whole 
life.’ And he was not mistaken. .. . ‘An ardent promoter of science, 
he continued to give lectures long after he had resigned his profes- 
sorship. He was aman of simple tastes, and reached a good old age 
with mind and body both in full activity. To the very last, we read, 
he took a deep interest in the progress of science, humanity, and free- 
dom all over the world. — The Reader, Dec. 17, 1864. Prof. Silliman, 
we may add, was a fine, frank, friendly man; about 5 ft. 10 in. in 
height, rather spare in body, with oval-longish face and well-formed 
features, shrewd, open, and intelligent in expression. His quiet 
engaging manners, his delight in obliging, and his multifarious 
knowledge, rendered him widely popular. He was a Foreign Mem- 
ber of the Geological Society of London. 


WE also notice with regret the death of Monsieur Nicoias RoBERT 
Bovcuarp, who expired at Boulogne-sur-Mer in France, on the 
22nd of November, 1864, aged 68. M. Bouchard was distinguished 
for his great acquirements in the sciences of Malacology and Palz- 
ontology. During the year 1833-34, he published several valu- 
able memoirs relating to the Mollusca and Crustacea living on 
or near the shores of the Boulonnais. In 1838 he commenced his 
geological and palzontological researches; and at the period of his 
death had assembled a most remarkable and valuable collection of 
fossils, and especially of those that occur in the various geological 
formations of the Department of the Pas-de-Calais. In his memoir on 
the Devonian rocks and fossils of the Boulonnais, published in the 
‘Bulletin dela Soe. Géol. de France’ for 1840, Sir R. Murchison does 
not fail to refer to M. Bouchard’s researches, and adds, that they 
have materially tended to assist him in arriving at a positive deter- 
mination of the true age of the Devonian rocks of that part of France. 
M. Bouchard had also devoted many years to the study of the Bra- 
chiopoda, upon which subject he published several papers. It is to 
him we are indebted for the establishment of the genus Davidsonia. 
His last memoir bears for title, ‘ Observations sur les Hélices Saxi- 
caves du Boulonnais;’ it will be found in the sixteenth volume of 
the ‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles’ of Paris. 

During many years M. Bouchard was one of the directors of the 
Museum of Boulogne-sur-Mer, and has always been ready to assist 
others, and to impart the knowledge he had himself acquired after 
forty years of the most persevering researches.—T. D. 


THE 


GHOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. IX.—MARCH 1865. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLIES. 
fe 


I. On toe Laurentian Rocks or Britain, BAVARIA, AND 
Bouemtia. 
By Sir Ropericx I. Murcutson, K.C.B., F.R.S., Director-General of the Geological 
Survey of Great Britain, &c. &e. 
LARGE portion of the last number of the Quarterly 
Journal of the Geological Society (February Ist) is justly 
devoted to the important subject of the Laurentian or oldest 
known stratified rocks, the elaboration and naming of which in 
North America were, it is well known, accomplished by Sir 
William Logan and his associates. On this occasion a memoir 
by that eminent geologist naturally leads the way, whilst, in 
the subsequent articles, the nature and structure of the Hozoon 
Canadense, which has been found in these rocks, are ably 
developed by Drs. Dawson, Carpenter, and Sterry Hunt. 

The British rocks which I have shown to be of Laurentian 
age occupy striking headlands in Sutherland and Ross, where 
they are, as I proved, unconformably surmounted by both 
Cambrian and Lower Silurian rocks. At first I termed these 
lower rocks ‘ Fundamental Gneiss.” They were then described 
as being completely dissevered from all the paleozoic rocks, not 
only by unconformability, but also by having an entirely di- 
vergent strike or direction, namely, from SE. to NW., being at 
right angles to that of all the superjacent deposits of Britain. 
The announcement of a direction from SE. to NW. in these 
underlying rocks was in itself as great a novelty in our insular 
geology as the introduction of a lower base of our whole 
geological series than had hitherto been recognized. 

After several years of preceding researches, I brought these 
VOL. II.—NO. IX. © H 


98 Murchison—Laurentian Rocks. 


data definitely before my associates in 1858, when I termed 
these lowest rocks ‘ Fundamental Gneiss ;’ a name intended to 
mark that which was unquestionably a new base for the whole 
stratigraphical series of our country. So truly was this the 
case, that, in the order of superposition fixed upon by my pre- 
decessor Sir Henry De la Beche, when Director-General of the 
Geological Survey, and since approved by myself, after consul- 
tation with Professor Ramsay and Mr. Jukes, the Cambrian 
rocks, altered and unaltered, were placed at the base of the 
whole sedimentary series, and the letter a, as the beginning of 
the alphabet, was affixed to them. 

The fact of the existence of this older or basement formation 
in the North-west of Scotland was again pointed out by me* in 
the following year in a new edition of ‘ Siluria.’ I also pre- 
pared a geological map of the Highlands,}. in which to the term 
‘Fundamental Gneiss’ was added, ‘or Laurentian of North 
America.’ For when I first ascertained this order I was un- 
aware of the results of the labours of Sir W. Logan; but, 
in the following year, having induced Professor Ramsay to 
accompany me, to make sure of the existence of this striking ~ 
new feature, he not only confirmed the accuracy of my sections 
and descriptions, but assured me that my ‘ Fundamental 
Gneiss’ was unequivocally the Laurentian, he (Prof. Ramsay) 
having recently explored the Canadas in company with Sir W. 
Logan. From that moment, wishing to do all honour to the 
distinguished Director of the Canadian Survey, I used the term 
‘ Laurentian,’ both in the memoirs by Mr. Geikie and myself, 
and in our Geological Map of Scotland. 

I call the attention of geologists to these facts because, 
although Sir W. Logan himself has done ample justice to this 
piece of work, and has spoken of it as the first correlation of the 
Laurentian rocks of Britain with those of America,{ I regret 
to perceive that, in the new edition of the ‘ Elements of Geology’ 
just issued, Sir Charles Lyell thus dismisses the subject of the 
Laurentian rocks of Britain:—‘ The oldest stratified rock in 
Scotland is that called by Sir R. Murchison “ the Fundamental 
Gneiss,” which forms the whole of the island of Lewis in the 
Hebrides. On this gneiss, in parts of the Western Highlands, 
the Lower Cambrian and various metamorphic rocks rest un- 
conformably. It is conjectured that this ancient gneiss of 


* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe, vol. xv. p. 353. 

tT Ibid., plate 12. 

{ See Sir W. Logan’s remarks on this point in the Jast number of the Quart. 
Journ, Geol. Soc., vol. xxi. p. 46. 


Murchison—Laurentian Rocks. 99 


Scotland may correspond in date with part of the great Lauren- 
tian group of North America.’* 

Now I think that the labours which, according to the subse- 
quent surveys of Ramsay, Harkness, He ames, and Geikie, as well 
as the opinion of Sir W. Logan, ‘established for the first time’ 
a Laurentian equivalent in the British Isles, or, in other words, 
a new base for all our series of deposits, were something more 
than a conjecture. A Laurentian base became an established 
fact, and, as such, has been laid down on our geological maps. 
Hence all young geologists, who take their belief from these 
‘ Elements,’ ought, i submit, to have been made acquainted 
with it. For, although previous geologists had treated of this 
gneiss, they had not shown that “it was entirely distinct from 
all the superjacent and younger gneiss, now shown to be of 
Cambrian and Silurian age, nor had they indicated the re- 
markable fact of the entirely divergent direction of its strata. 

I can only account for Sir Charles Lyell’s having regarded the 
establishment of the existence of Laurentian rocks in Britain as a 
‘conjecture,’ by supposing, that of late he has been so absorbed 
in the production of his last remarkable work ‘The Antiquity 
of Man,’ that he has failed in paying sufficient attention to the 
progress of discovery in our islands at the other end, or beginning, 
of the geological scale. In his Address to the British Associa- 
tion at Bath, he naturally revelled with delight on the discovery 
of the Lozoon Canadense in the Lower Laurentian rock. Let 
me say that I rejoiced with him; for there was nothing in the 
finding of one of the lowest orders of animals in the lowest known 
sedimentary rock which in any degree interfered with my views 
of a succession from lower to higher animals, in succeeding 
deposits, as founded on all our existing knowledge. On the 
contrary, this discovery seemed to me to confirm that view; and 
Sir Charles rightly declared, that thereby the word ‘ Azoic’ 
must be dismissed from our nomenclature. At the same time 
all old geologists knew that we who used the term ‘ Azoic’ did 
so solely because at the period of its use no signs of life had 
then been found in these lowest rocks. 

And here I also rejoice to find, by reference to the last 
number of the GEoLoGICcAL MAGAZINE, that one of these low 
organisms, identical indeed with the Eozoon of Canada, has 
been found, by Mr. W. A. Sanford, in the green serpentinous 
limestone of the crystalline rocks of the Bins of Connemara, 
in the North-west of Ireland. ‘This fact, affirmed as it is by 
separate experiments of Professor Rupert Jones, is of exceeding 


* Elements of Geology, 6th edit. p. 580. 
H 2 


100 Murchison— Laurentian Rocks. 


interest; and, combined with the geological sections of those 
mountains which I published in ‘ Siluria’ (p. 100), assures 
us that, in the North-west of Ireland, as in the North-west of 
Scotland, we have a true Lower Laurentian rock. Indeed 
the mineral characters of the Irish and Canadian rocks are also 
assimilated by containing much serpentine. 

It is also of high geological importance to observe, that the 
strike of this Irish limestone with Kozoon is like that which I 
described in Scotland, namely, from South-east to North-west.. 
In a communication to the French Academy of Sciences some 
years ago, I specially called attention to this striking fact—that 
the direction of the Laurentian gneiss of Scotland was at right 
angles to that of all the superjacent rocks of Britain, throughout 
which country the Cambrian and Silurian rocks everywhere 
trend from NE. to SW. 

Finally, as to the Laurentian rocks of Bavaria and Bohemia, 
which are not noticed im the ‘ Elements.’ In the year 1862 I 
satisfied myself by personal researches* that the ‘ Primordial’ 
Silurian zone of Barrande was, in Bavaria and the adjacent 
parts of Bohemia, underlain (as shown by Giimbel) by a very 
vast thickness of clay-slate, which, though not so much altered 
as the overlying strata containing fossils, had as yet afforded no 
traces of them. It was underneath these vast masses, united 
with subjacent metamorphosed crystalline schists, also of great 
thickness, and considered, as a whole, to represent the Cambrian 
rocks, that the grand mountains of an older gneiss rise up. I 
had no hesitation, therefore, in referring this ancient gneiss in 
the heart of Germany, and of which there is a younger and an 
older mass, to the Laurentian age, as well as the fundamental 
rocks of Britain above spoken of. If English writers have 
failed to allude to this great feature in the geological structure 
of Germany, as proved by order of infraposition (a natural 
result, indeed, of the previous labours of Barrande and Giimbel), 
there are authors in Germany who have not failed to record 
the importance of the conclusion at which I arrived, and which 
I thus expressed :— 

‘If all the true gneissic rocks of Bavaria (and Bohemia) be 
united, they may well, from their colossal dimensions, stand in 
the place of the Laurentian Gneiss of Canada and of the North- 
west of Scotland. The clear evidence which exists of the in- 
terpolation of a vast thickness of sedimentary formations, in 
which no fossils have been found, between the great gneissose 


* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xix. p. 854, &e. 


Fisher—Natural Pit at Lexden. 101 


series and the lowest Silurian rock is a good reason for believing 
that the gneiss of Bohemia and Bavaria is truly the represen- 
tative of the Laurentian or Fundamental Gneiss.* 


II.—On a Suppen SINKING oF THE SoiL IN A FIELD AT 
LEXxDEN IN ESSEX. 


By the Rey. O. Fisuzr, M.A., F.G.S. 


a the month of May, 1861, there occurred a curious subsidence of 
the soil in a field on the ‘Malting Farm’ at Lexden in Essex. 
The cavity thus produced was about twenty-five yards in circum- 
ference, of an elliptical form, and about twenty feet in depth, with 
the sides slightly overhanging. The subsidence took place quite 
suddenly; some workmen, who were in the field in the forenoon, 
finding the pit fresh formed on their return from dinner. The ground 
in which the pit is situated consists of a slightly rising bank of 
valley-gravel, and is about fifty yards to the south of the little River 
Colne, which runs past the spot, and gives its name to the ancient 
town of Colchester. The surface of the field cannot be more than 
five or six feet above the stream when full. 

The sides of the pit are clean-cut in the gravel, which is stratified 
and has evidently never been disturbed. Though at the time of the 
occurrence the event excited great local interest, yet I did not 
myself hear of it until a year ago. I then found it, after a rainy 
time, containing a little water at the bottom, in the funnel-shaped 
cavity which was formed of the impervious surface-soil that had 
subsided ; but it was evidently not spring-water. See the accom- 
panying section. 


River Colne, <—_______50 yards. _—_____> 


Diagram-section of a Natural Pit near Lexden, Essex. 
a. River-level. b. Low-level Gravel (6 feet thick above the river-leyvel). 


Such are the phenomena: and the question is, how are they to be 
explained ? The subsoil of the valley is London Clay, which is seen 
at the bottom of Lexden brick-pit (that cemetery for extinct 
Pachyderms; see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xix. p. 393), about half 


* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe., vol. xix. p. 359. Looking to the total divergence of 
their strike, I am of opinion, that the Laurentian rocks of the North-western High- 
lands, as well as those of the North-west of Ireland, will prove to be the ‘Lower 
Laurentian’ of Logan. 


9 


*H3 


102 Fisher—Natural Pit at Lexden. 


a mile distant to the east. It so happens that several Artesian wells 
have been sunk not far off, so that we know the sequence of beds 
in the neighbourhood. The late Mr. J. Brown, of Stanway, sup- 
plied me with the following section of the well at the Colchester 
Water-works, which is situated on the edge of the same valley a 
mile to the east. 


Section of the Artesian Well at the Colchester Water-works.* 
Vegetable soil and low-level gravel . . . 12 feet. 
London Clay, with much green sand in the 

lowerbeds tale a ue eyes. epoca nieie ro ghte il Oommen 
Woolwich and Reading beds. . . .. . 20 4, 
Chalk-borederr suas op. piel en ve 


Plenty of good' water at . - - 9. . . . 294 5, 


At another well, which was commenced, but abandoned, at the 
Cavalry-barracks, about two miles tc the south-east of the subsi- 
dence, the thickness of the London Clay and Lower Tertiaries was 
found to be 211 feet, and the Chalk was reached at 237 feet. 

Noticing that at the water-works the Chalk was reached at 142 feet, 
this gives the difference of depth for the top of the Chalk, at the 
two localities, as 95 feet, which must be very nearly the difference 

of surface-level of the two places. This shows that the surface of 
the Chalk is, in all probability, nearly horizontal, and consequently 
deeply covered by clays at Lexden. We are precluded, therefore, 
from attributing the subsidence to an ordinary pipe in the Chalk,f 
for such could not have been formed beneath so great a thickness of 
clays. Had Chalk been the immediate subsoil, such a subsidence 
might have occurred; for it is probable that the pipes formed by 
the percolation of rain-water through Chalk are not always filled up 
by the falling-in of the superficial beds keeping pace with the forma- 
tion of the cavity. The workmen at Horstead Chalk-pit in Norfolk 
(where the Chalk is wrought beneath a thick covering of Norwich 
Crag) assured me that they occasionally came upon hollow pipes, 
roofed over by the ‘uncallow,’ i.e. the Crag deposits. This is quite 
probable, on account of the firmly compacted bed of great flints 
which immediately cover the Chalk. But such an explanation will 
not apply to our present problem. 

That there must be a vacuity somewhere beneath the subsidence 
is clear. That it should be in the gravel is impossible, because the 
stratification, as exposed in the sides of the hole for about 10 feet, is 
perfectly regular; that it exists in the London Clay is also im- 
possible ; but that such a cavity should exist in the Chalk is pro- 
bable. I conceive it may be connected with the chasm from which 
the supply of water to the Colchester Water-works is obtained. 


* IT am indebted to Mr. Prestwich for a correction to Mr. Brown’s note, as also 
for the measurements of the well at the Cavalry-barracks. 

t See the Author’s paper ‘On some natural Pits on the Heaths of Dorsetshire,’ 
Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xv. p. 187. 


Lankester— Crag. 103 


When the well was bored, the tool, after passing through a layer of 
flints, sunk suddenly, and the water rushed up with a force that (as 
the late Superintendent expressed it to me) shook the hill. This 
shows that the spring is connected with an extensive and free reser- 
voir. There are two other wells, at distances of a mile and amile and 
a half, in a straight line east of this one, which are evidently connected 
with the same reservoir ; for on Mondays, when the pumps are not 
at work at the Water-works, the water stands higher than usual in 
those wells. I conceive, then, that the motion of the water in this 
subterranean reservoir, caused by the draught of water at these 
wells, disturbed the equilibrium of the roofing of the chasm at a 
point where it was barely stable, and caused the subsidence in 
question. 

This is rendered the more probable because it is evident that this 
natural pit is on a line of subterranean drainage, as is shown by the 
hole being dry at a level lower than that of the river. The water in 
the Colchester well stands at about 10 feet below the level of the 
river; which being more than a mile lower down the stream, would 
give at Lexden a greater difference between the subterranean and 
surface-drainage levels. 


Til.—On toe Cracs or Surrotk anp ANTWerpP. (Parr I.) 
By E. Ray Lanxsster, Esq. 


ee Suffolk Crags. — There are few deposits in this country 

which form so admirable a field for study as the Crags* of Suf- 
folk. Unique as to age, the sole representatives in England of the 
great Pliocene deposits of Europe, it becomes a matter of very high 
interest to identify them in any way with particular strata in other 
countries. The lowest of these Crags occurs in small patches over 
an area of about eighty square miles, and consists of either loose or 
compact light-coloured sand, alternating with bands of Polyzoa, which 
sometimes form a kind of limestone. From this Crag 299 species 
of Mollusca have been obtained: of these, 148 are extinct, 151 are 


* The most important notices and memoirs that have been written on the Crags 
of Suffolk and Essex are—by Mr. Charlesworth, Proceed. Geol. Soe. 1835, vol. 11. 
p- 195; Phil. Mag. 1835, 3rd Ser., vol. vii. pp. 81, 465; Report Brit. Assoc. 1836, 
Trans. Sect. p. 84; by Sir C. Lyell, in his ‘ Principles’ and ‘ Elements of Geology,’ 
and in the Mag. Nat. Hist. 1839, New Ser., vol. 11. p. 313; Mr. Prestwich, Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soe. 1849, vol. v. p. 350; Mr. S. V. Wood’s Monograph of the Shells 
of the Crag (2 vols. 1848-56 ; Palzontographical Society), and his paper on the 
Extraneous Fossils of the Red Crag, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1858, vol. xv. p. 32; 
and Mr. 8. V. Wood, jun., on the Red Crag, Annals Nat. Hist. 1864, 3rd Ser., vol. 
xiii. Besides the Mollusca, the Cirripedia, Echinodermata, Polyzoa, Corals, and 
Entomostraca of the Suffolk Crag have been figured and described in the Mono- 
graphs of the Paleontographical Society. The Crags of Antwerp were treated of 
by Sir C. Lyell in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1852, vol. viii. p. 281, &e.; and 
several papers on these deposits and their fossils are to be found in the publications 
of the Brussels Academy, &c. Reuss has described the Foraminifera of the 
Antwerp Crag in the Proceed. Vienna Acad., vol. xlii., 1860, p. 355, &e, 


104 Lanhester — Crag. 


still living. This so-called ‘Coralline Crag’* lies on London Clay, 
and is seldom more than 20 feet in thickness. The ‘ Red Crag,’ so 
called from its iron-stained appearance, is an irregularly stratified 
deposit, composed of rather coarse sand and fragments of shells, 
abounding also in more perfect remains, but very rarely affording 
the valves of Conchifera, opposed or én situ. It extends over a 
larger area than the Coralline Crag, abont 200 square miles, part 
of which is in Essex. The Red Crag, rarely exceeding 20 feet in 
thickness, in most localities rests on the London Clay, the Lower 
Crag having probably been denuded: itis occasionally, however, 
found resting on the latter. At the base of both Crags, when rest- 
ing on the London Clay, a deposit of rounded concretionary nodules, 
derived from and containing the fossils of the London Clay, is 
found, and is worked for the nodules, which in great part consist of 
phosphate of lime, and are manufactured into manure. Associated 
with these nodules, are teeth of Mastodon, Rhinoceros, and other 
Mammals,} which have been derived perhaps from earlier Pliocene, 
perhaps from Miocene strata, and are similar, in some respects, to 
those obtained at Eppelsheim in Germany. In addition to these, 
there are the remains of large Cetacea, much worn and rolled, 
as well as the teeth of the large Carcharodon and Oxyrhina. 
These are probably the remains of a former Pliocene deposit, 
broken up like the Miocene beds at the beginning of the Crag era. 
Similar vertebrate fossils and phosphatic nodules are also dispersed 
at intervals in the higher strata of the Red Crag. Their occurrence 
here has led to much confusion, since they have been, and still are 
by many, regarded as indigenous to the Crag. 

From the Red Crag 231 species of Mollusca have been obtained, 
of which 189 belong also to the Coralline Crag; and 92 are found 
only in the Red Crag. Of the latter group, 42 are extinct, and 50 
are still living. 

With the Mammaliferous or Norwich Crag, Ido not purpose to 
deal in this paper, as it is a much later deposit. 

The Coralline and Red Crags occupy the south-east sea-board of 
Suffolk and a part of Essex; extending along the coast about twenty 
miles, and inland twelve miles more or less. 

The Antwerp Crags.—If the German Ocean be crossed from 
Orford on the Suffolk coast in a direction almost due south-east, the 
mouth of the River Escaut will be reached, on which stands the 


* Of the three recognized divisions of the ‘ English Crag,’ the lowest has been 
known as the ‘Coralline Crag’ ever since Mr. Charlesworth so named it in 1835, on 
account of its abounding with little coral-like fossils, which, however, when duly 
studied, were found to be Bryozoa (Polyzoa); Corals being exceedingly rare in it. 
‘Bryozoan Crag’ ought, therefore, to take the place of this common misnomer; 
but ‘ White Crag,’ or ‘ Lowest Suffolk Crag,’ are better names for this division, and 
already in use.—Epir. Gzor. Mac. 

} It appears from the researches of Dr. Falconer, that these fossils are identical 
with Sub-Apennine forms: others, however, consider them of Miocene age. 
Whichever is the correct view, there is no doubt that the fossils are extraneous, and 
derived from earlier beds. 


Lankester— Crag. 


105 


ancient city of Antwerp, which, always an interesting spot to the 


tourist, has at the present time an addi- 
tional interest to such as are students 
of geological phenomena. Immense 
fortifications are being placed round 
the outskirts of the city, forming a 
semicircle some five or six miles in 
extent; and the deep trenches have 
displayed a series of sandy and argilla- 
ceous deposits, abounding in fossils, 
and presenting a strong resemblance 
to the Crags of Suffolk. How the for- 
tifications of Antwerp are to be garri- 
soned, or what their ultimate utility 
may be with the small handful of sol- 
diers which Belgium can supply, unless 
aided by this country, we need not 
stop to inquire. Let us plunge at once 
into the trenches, and examine the sec- 
tion,—a proceeding, by-the-by, strictly 
forbidden by the Government, and but 
to be accomplished by the payment of 
a frane to the sergeant on duty. The 
writer was enabled in this manner, last 
summer, to examine the strata in a 
satisfactory manner, and to form a good 
collection of their organic contents. 
As in Suffolk, the Crag-deposits rest on 
an Hocene clay, and are capped by 
Pleistocene strata, of an age equivalent 
probably to that of the Loess of the 
Rhine. ‘The accompanying diagram 
will show the arrangement of the vari- 
ous beds. The section is taken from 
the River Escaut to the Canal de la 
Campine, a distance of about 19,000 
yards; the trenches in front of the 
eight detached forts, surrounding the 
line of works, furnishing the data upon 
which itis constructed. An admirable 
little paper (presented to the Royal 
Academy of Brussels) by M. Ad. De- 
jardin, Captain of Engineers, gives a 
description of two sections; one pass- 
ing by the detached forts, and another 
along the semicircular line of entrench- 
ment. The annexed diagram is con- 
structed from my own observations, 
assisted by the excellent drawing of 
the Belgian Engineer. In many places 


Canal 


Fort 


(About 19,000 yards in length.) 


Section along the Trench from the River Escaut to the Canal de la Campine. 


=| Pleistocene. 


= Lower or Black Crag. 


FSS] Middle Crag. 


===] Eocene Clay (Systéme Rupélien). 


(See foot-note, p. 106.) 


Unfossiliferous Green Sand. 


The bottom of the Trench is uneven, as represented in the section. 


106 Lankester— Crag. 


there are gaps where strata are wanting; and very rarely do the 
various beds rest conformably one on another. 

Overlying the Rupelian or Eocene Clay, above mentioned, which 
is rarely exposed in the diggings, is a fine black sand, enclosing a 
very great number of fossils, which have a grey tint. All the Shells 
contained in this bed are perfect, many heing closed Bivalves; the 
stratification is very even; and altogether the sand bears indication of 
having been quietly deposited. The immense abundance of the valves 
ofavariety of Pectunculus glycimeris, a common fossil of the Coralline 
Crag, and represented by a noticeable variety (swbobliquus) in the 
Red, is truly surprising; in fact, I have never seen so many Oyster- 
shells in a fishing-town, as I saw Pectunculi here. Venus casina, 
Cardita senilis (?), Astarte, Nucula, and a Volute, somewhat simi- 
lar to Voluta Lamberti, are amongst the most conspicuous Mollusca ; 
while Natice, Pleurotome, Scalarie, Fusi, and others, are not un- 
common. With these is associated a beautiful Coral, of the genus 
Stephanophylla, as well as Polyzoa (Lunulites, Flustra, and others). 
The Black Crag occupies by far the greater extent of the fortifica- 
tions, in the formation of which many new species have been dis- 
covered. Above the Black or Lower Crag exists a bed of fine green 
sand, generally unfossiliferous, more particularly developed on the 
southern side of the works. In certain spots, however, a new species 
of Ostrea and a Terebratula, which may perhaps be considered as a 
variety of the well-known 7. grandis, variabilis, spondyloides, vel 
Sowerbii, are found, as well as a few fossils of the Black Crag. This 
bed must therefore be regarded as a member of the Lower Crag ; 
the change in its paleontological aspect resulting from some corre- 
sponding alteration of the level of the sea-bottom. Succeeding the 
green and black beds, is a grey bed, containing fossils of a much 
more recent aspect than most of those of the Black Crag, and there- 
fore considered as a distinct deposit. This Middle Crag contains 
Cyprina rustica, Astarte Omalii, and numerous unrolled and well- 
preserved Cetacean remains and teeth of Sharks. Above this 
comes a yellowish-brown argillaceous deposit, of considerable 
thickness,* containing fossils of yet more recent form. 

The yellow or Upper Crag contains Cyprina rustica and Pecten 
maximus abundantly, Astarte mutabilis, Cyprina Islandica, Nassa 
labiosa, Lingula Mortieri, and Voluta Lamberti of the typical 
form, also Cetacean and Fish-remains. The teeth of a species of 
Phoca have been described by M. Van Beneden from the Upper 
Crag also. Above the Upper Crag is a Pleistocene deposit, which 
forms an excellent parallel to the Pleistocene beds capping the Red 
Crag of Suffolk —( To be continued.) 


* It is impossible to estimate correctly the depth of any of the strata, as the 
trench varies much in depth itself. It is in most places 9 metres (293 feet) ; 
and a glance at the section will show the relative amount occupied by each bed. 


Prosser —Fossils in Millstone- grit. 107 


IV. Tse Fossinirerous CHARACTER OF THE MILLSTONE-GRIT AT 
SWEENEY, NEAR OSWESTRY, SHROPSHIRE. 


By W. Prosssr, F.G.S., M.R.C.P. 


HE Carboniferous rocks of Shropshire possess several peculiar 
features; and no member of the series shows these in a greater 
degree than the Millstone-grit, as seen on Sweeney Mountain, near 
Oswestry. Before discussing these features, it will not be amiss to 
detail briefly the character of this rock in other localities. It varies 
considerably in different places. For instance, in the Forest of Dean, 
it is a hard intractable rock. Such it is also in Glamorgan and Mon- 
mouthshire, where it is often seen in place under the Coal-measures, 
or in boulders on the hillsides. Varteg Hill, near Pontypool, is a 
most characteristic spot for it; that hillside being covered with masses 
of grit, of all sizes and shapes. ‘These masses are not unfrequently 
wholly made up of water-worn quartz-pebbles, occasionally as large 
as a hen’s egg, in a cement of sand and decomposed felspar. And 
although hundreds of houses, with their garden-walls, have been 
built of them, yet considerable areas of these boulders remain. Very 
large blocks of this rock may be seen on the southern flanks of the 
Black Mountains, Caermarthenshire, above the village of Cross-Inn. 
The Millstone-grit of the South-Welsh Coal-field, which goes by 
the name of ‘ Farewell Rock ’—from the fact that the miner on 
striking it bids farewell to coal, possesses the valuable property of 
being able to resist successfully for a length of time the action of 
most intense heat, and for this reason the ‘ hearths’ of iron-furnaces 
are constructed of it. 

In the Warwickshire Coal-field, the Millstone-grit ‘consists of a 
hard siliceous quartz-rock, with thin bands of interstratified shale’ 
(Howell; Mem. Geol. Survey, 1859). In Derbyshire and Lancashire 
the Millstone-grit series is more varied and extensive; often exhi- 
biting in one section beds of very different lithological characters,— 
bands of impure limestone, partings of shales, and beds of sand- 
stone, alternating with each other (see Hull and Green, Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soc., No. 79). All these kinds of Millstone-grit, how- 
ever, agree in one particular, namely, that where the calcareous 
element is absent, the beds are unfossiliferous. 

The Millstone-grit of the Flintshire Coal-field, as seen at Sweeney 
Mountain, near Oswestry, differs from the above-mentioned in being 
highly fossiliferous. ‘The rocks consist, for the most part, of sand- 
stone, formed of very minute quartz-pebbles in a matrix of decom- 
posed felspar. Many of the beds are soft enough to be broken by the 
hand, while others have a moderate degree of hardness, and they gra- 
duate from cream to chocolate-colour. Some of the harder beds are 
quarried for general building-purposes ; and they are said to possess 
the valuable property of the Oolite of Caen—that of hardening on 
exposure to the air. After long exposure, this stone, like the New 
Red Sandstone of Cheshire, exhibits white crystalline markings, 
which often stand out in bold relief, like some curious hieroglyphic 


108 Prosser—Fossils in Millstone-grit. 


characters. Whether the Millstone-grit accompanying the whole 
extent of the Flint Coal-field partakes of the fossiliferous character, 
_the writer is not prepared to state, but he has proved it to be so over 
a considerable extent of country. In one instance, at least, the grit 
is absent from the series, namely, at Selattyn, about five miles from 
Oswestry, where the Coal-shales lie directly and unconformably on 
the Silurian slate-rocks of Selattyn Hill.* 

The Millstone-grit is well developed in several places in the North- 
west of Salop, and the South-east of Denbighshire. It crowns the 
summit of that fine escarpment of Mountain-limestone called the 
Eglwysegle Rocks,’ in the Vale of Llangollen. Continuing thence over 
‘Trevor Rocks,’ it appears as a compact, close-grained sandstone at 
Pont-Cefn ; while in the neighbourhood of Oswestry it is seen at 
Selattyn and Porkington; also on the summits of Cern-y-bweh and 
Mynydd Myfyr; in both of which localities the beds have a consider- 
able inclination. The lowest members, however, of the formation are 
best studied on Sweeney Mountain, where they are much exposed, 
and whence they descend by low smooth undulating eminences to 
the plain below. 

Murchison divides the Millstone-grit of the North-Welsh Coal- 
field into—Ist. ‘Light-coloured siliceous sandstone, forming ‘a 
porous rock, made up of fragments of chert imbedded in a matrix 
of fine white clay.’ 2nd. ‘ Whitish or pinkish sandstone.’ 3rd. ‘Other 
and lower beds, forming the summit of Sweeney Mountain, are 
coarser, containing distinct pebbles of quartz’ (Sil. Syst. p. 144). 
But, inasmuch as the lithological characters of the same bed vary 
considerably in different localities, the above triple division is by no 
means constant over any great extent of country. The following 
section by Sir Roderick, through the Millstone-grit of Mynydd 
Myfyr, indicates the relative position of these strata—namely, be- 
neath the shales of the Coal-measures, and above the Carboniferous 
Limestone (Sil. Syst. pl. 30, fig. 14). 


Mynydd Myfyr, Coal-shafts through 100 feet 
1000 ft. 


W. of Permian sandstone. HE. 
I 


a b ¢c ad e 
Section of the Carboniferous Rocks near Oswestry. (After Murchison.) 
a. Carboniferous b. Red Sandstone. e. Coal-field of Os- 
Limestone. c. Caleareous Grit. : ee westry. Coal-mea- 
d. Red Sandstone, Chert, Millstone-grit. sures, obscured by 
and Grit. gravel, 


Murchison was one of the first to notice the fossiliferous character 
of the Millstone-grit of the North-west of Shropshire ; for, in 1839, in 
his description of these strata, he states that ‘Fragments of Encrinites 
and Corals are also found in these beds’ (Sil. Syst. p. 144). About 
the year 1856 Mr. Meredith, then of Oswestry, now in Australia, 


* Phillips and Conybeare’s Geol. of England and Wales, p. 419. 


Prosser—Fossils in Millstone-grit. 109 


found near Sweeney a specimen of Sanguinolites variabilis in a 
mass of sandstone. In June 1859, Mr. D. C. Davies, Oswestry, re- 
cognized drifted blocks of Millstone- -grit in a Railway- -cutting, and 
found them to contain Rh ynchonelie (see Proc. Oswestry Field- 
Club). In the autumn of the same year the writer of this paper, 
examining some heaps of sandstone lying along the roadside near 
Sweeney Chapel, found them to be teeming with obscure fossils, 
which Mr. J. W. Salter, F.G.S., afterwards determined to belong to 
Schizodus, thus enhancing the interest of the case, these fossils not 
being such as one would expect to meet in Carboniferous rocks. 
Large slabs were covered with this Schizodus, giving the beds a 
Permian rather than a Carboniferous aspect. Subsequently, how- 
ever, Productus cora, D’Orb., P. concinnus, Sow., and Sigillaria, 
declared its true character. These heaps, though not in sit#, were 
very near the parent beds; and were the first of the kind found in 
such a situation. In the following winter Mr. Davies found in his 
own garden a drifted block of Millstone-grit containing Rhyncho- 
nella pleurodon and Productus cora; and in March 1860, he and 
Mr. A. Norris found fossils zm sié% near Treflach Hall, Sweeney. 
In July of the same year, the writer, together with Messrs. R. Hay 
and H. Lewis, Oswestry, found Strephodes, Orthides, &c., in a heap 
of sandstones lying in a field at Llanforda Isaf, near Oswestry. The 
same heap yielded a day or two later a more numerous suite of 
fossils to Messrs. Hay, Lewis, and Davies. During the same year 
the writer found a Sigillaria on Sweeney Mountain ; and, in com- 
pany with Mr. H. Lewis, found also a Bellerophon in some fossi- 
liferous sandstone near Oswestry Racecourse. 

The fossiliferous strata may be examined on the roadside, and in 
the fields near Belan Farm and 'Treflach Hall, Sweeney ; as well as 
in the fine section exhibited in Mr. Savin’s sandstone-quarry near 
the ‘Tower.’ These beds are, in this locality, of considerable thick- 
ness ; they occupy the base of the Millstone-grit, and immediately 
overlie the uppermost layer of the Carboniferous Limestone, which 
is here of that impure and cherty variety called by the workmen 
‘Bastard limestone.’ These fossiliferous beds have been traced by 
the writer from Sweeney Mountain on the East, over Cyrn-y-bweh 
on the West of the Oswestry Coal-field, as well as above Trevor, and 
the Eglwysegle Rocks. Thus their fossiliferous character is proved 
to be constant over a distance of nearly twenty miles. Passing in a 
North-westerly direction, along the margin of the North- Welsh 
Coal-field, we find the lithological characters of the Sweeney beds 
shown by the Millstone-grit of Hope Mountain, South of Mold (Sil. 
Syst. p. 144), of Mynydd Moel, and of Halkin in Flintshire (Yates, 
Geol. Trans. 2nd Ser., vol. ii. p. 237, &c.); and in all probability 
these distant localities will prove to be in like manner fossiliferous. 

The fossil remains found in these sandstones are in general but 
indifferently preserved. In the red varieties, perhaps on account of 
the iron present, they are often little more than casts, the calcareous 
matter of the Shells having entirely disappeared; but in the cream- 
coloured sandstones the shells are occasionally seen well preserved. 


110 


Cossham— Coal-measures at Kingswood. 


The writer has found the following organic remains at the above 


localities :— 


Sigillaria; Sweeney Mountain; ra- 
ther rare. 

Strephodes; Sweeney Mountain ; ra- 
ther rare. 

Stems of Encrinites; Llangollen. 

Productus cora; Sweeney Mountain ; 
very plentiful. 

Spirifer; Sweeney Mountain. 

Lingula mytiloides ; Sweeney Moun- 
tain; rare, 

Rhynchonella pleurodon; Sweeney 
Mountain ; plentiful. 

Orthis resupinata; Llangollen. 


Pecten ; Sweeney Mountain; rare. 

Edmondia sulcata; Sweeney Moun- 
tain. 

Sanguinolaria (?); Sweeney Moun- 
tain; rare. 

Schizodus ; 
plentiful. 

Pleurotomaria decipiens; Sweeney ; 
rare. 

Bellerophon ; very rare. 

Orthoceras giganteum (?) ; Sweeney ; 
very rare. 

Phillipsia; Sweeney ; rare. 


Sweeney Mountain} 


Savin’s Quarry has yielded a splendid specimen of Orthoceras. 
In length it was four feet six inches; and its diameter at its 
ends were ten and five inches respectively. ‘There can be little 
doubt that further search will be rewarded with many additional 
fossils; but the above is enough to fill up the supposed fzatus in 
the fauna of the Millstone-grit. Se 


V. ON THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE DISTRICT AROUND 
Kincswoop Hitt, NEAR BRISTOL; WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE 
TO THE SUPPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF MILLSTONE-GRIT IN THAT 
NeiegHsournoop. By Hanprext Cossuam, Esq., F.G.S. 


(Read before the British Association, Sept. 1864.) 


HAVE for some years had serious doubts as to the correctness 

of the Map of the Geological Survey so far as it relates to the 
supposed presence of Millstone-grit in the northern portion of the 
Bristol Coal-field in the neighbourhood of Kingswood Hill; and in 
a foot-note to a most valuable lecture delivered by my friend Mr. 
Robert Etheridge, F.G.S. (of the Royal School of Mines) at the 
Bristol Mining School in 1857, and published in a volume of Lectures 
issued by that Institution, I had, so long ago as that year, expressed 
doubts as to the existence of Millstone-grit at the surface near 
Kingswood. Since then I have had much greater opportunities of 
investigating the matter, having taken, with my partners, a large 
tract of mineral property in that district; and the results of those 
investigations thoroughly confirm the doubts I had previously enter- 
tained, and in fact fully satisfy my mind that what is shown as 
Millstone-grit on the Government Geological Map, as also on the 
valuable map lately published by Mr. William Sanders, F.R.S., of 
Bristol, is really nothing more than one of the sandstones (the ‘Holmes 
Rock ’) so common in the Coal-measures proper, and developed on a 
grand scale in the Pennant-grit dividing the Upper and Lower Coal- 


aha tat 


Cossham— Coal-measures at Kingswood. 


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powvusiut “yoo soumjoy , 


112 Cossham— Coal-measures at Kingswood. 


series of all the South-western Coal-fields. I hope it will not be 
thought presumption in me thus to challenge the opinion of men so 
much superior to myself in science ; but believing, as I do, that it is 
by the constant development of facts only arrived at by the extension 
of mining operations in different districts, and by scientific knowledge 
being brought to bear upon these facts, that perfect accuracy in our 
geological plans and sections can be attained,—and thinking that it 
it a duty we owe to ourselves, our country, and to science, to give 
to the public the full benefit of any new observations we are enabled 
to make,—I venture to state the ground upon which I have been 
brought to the conclusion that the Millstone-grit is not present at 
Kingswood Hill. 

1. By a reference to the accompanying section, from the River 
Avon to Stapleton, which I have had prepared from accurate 
survey, extending from the Avon, on the south, to the valley that 
divides the Parishes of St. George and Stapleton, on the north, a 
distance of 1 mile and 836 yards, I find there is a continuous and 
almost regular southerly dip, at an angle of from 30° to 40°, although 
this section crosses the supposed anticlinal axis formed by a supposed 
upheaval of the Millstone-grit. As it is impossible for there to be 
an upheaval of the grit from under the Coal-measures without an 
entire displacement of the superincumbent strata, I contend that 
the fact of there being no such displacement, but, on the contrary, 
a continuous dip to the south, as shown by my section, is proof 
positive that no such upheaval has taken place. 

2. I further find that the various seams of coal in the district 
crop to the surface in regular order of succession as we go south 
from the northern boundary of St. George’s Parish. These seams 
are very numerous; there are no less than thirty-four* cropping 
out between the points named, in a distance of 14 miles. They 
are well-known seams throughout the district, and their position in 
relation to each other is pretty well ascertained and understood. I 
find that they always crop out in proper order, showing that, while 
there may be, and doubtless are, many faults in the district, there is 
no great displacement, but a regular arrangement of seams all in 
their proper order and relative position ; and this would, of course, 
be impossible, if the Grit had been forced up from below, as shown 
on the Geological Survey Map. This fact forms, therefore, another 
link in the chain of evidence as to the non-existence of the Mill- 
stone-grit in this locality. 

3. Several branches or tunnels which I have lately driven to the 
south from the Kingswood Collieries have entered the ground 
coloured as ‘ Millstone-grit’ on the maps alluded to; but, instead of 
finding the Grit, we find the coal-beds in regular order; and at 
present we are actually working coal, dipping to the south, in its 
proper position, in the place where the Grit is indicated on the map, 


* Exclusive of seams less than a foot thick. The thirty-four seams make an 
ageregate of 71 ft. 4 inches of coal (see section and list, p. 111). 


Reynés— Cretaceous Rocks. 1B: 


which, it is quite clear, must be corrected so far as relates to this 
point. 

4, It must not be understood from the remarks I have made that 
I dispute the existence of an anticlinal axis running nearly east and 
west across the Kingswood Coal-field. I am quite aware that on 
the north of my section, in the Parish of Stapleton, there is a clear 
and well-defined anticlinal axis extending from Bristol, on the West, 
to Wick Rocks, on the East, and which, in fact, gives the geographical 
as well as the geological character to Kingswood Hill: but even on 
the apex of this anticlinal there is no appearance of the Grit ; nor is 
it anywhere brought within at least 400 or 500 yards of the surface. 
One of the main seams of the district—namely, the ‘Great Vein,’ 
marked No. 32 in the annexed list, and shown in my section—has 
been worked over the whole of Kingswood Hill, at the top of the 
anticlinal axis, at a depth varying from 380 to 60 fathoms, and 
from thence northward (at Soundwell) to a depth of 200 fathoms, 
and southwards (at St. George’s) to a similar depth ; but between 
this seam (which is, no doubt, identical with the Bedminster ‘ Great 
Vein’) and the Millstone-grit, there is proved, at Ashton Vale, to be 
an interval of over 300 fathoms; so that it is quite evident that 
the Millstone-grit cannot exist at the surface at Kingswood Hill. 

Conclusion.—The band of sandstone called ‘Holmes Rock,’ 
belonging to the Lower Coal-measures, and shown on the accom- 
panying section, is what has been hitherto mistaken for the Mill- 
stone-grit. The section also shows twenty-one known seams of 
coal, varying from one to four and a half feet in thickness, lying in 
regular order below it. : 

Commercially, then, as well as scientifically, the question as to the 
presence or absence of the Millstone-grit at Kingswood Hill is 
highly important ; for, instead of the bottom of the Coal-measures, 
which the Grit itself would mark, we have a considerable extent of 
valuable Coal-field open to us, which was thought to be barren for 
the future energy, skill, and enterprise of those to whose talent and 
perseverance this country is so largely indebted for its past growth 
and its present prosperity. 


ABSTRACTS OF FOREIGN MEMOTRS. 
wees 
CretTAcEous Rocks OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 


J. Eruprs sur te SyNCHRONISME ET LA DétimrraTION DES TERRAINS CRETACES 
pu Sup-Est pp 1a France, par P. Reynus, M.D., &e. 8vo. pp. 116. Paris, 
1861.—Il. De L’Hrace pans ta Formation Creracer. Par le Docteur 
Ruynus. S8yo. pp. 16. Marseilles, 1864. 


gee Cretaceous strata of the South-east and other parts of 

France have for some time specially engaged the attention of 

Geologists; and their differences in petrographic and _palzeonto- 

logical characters have been a continual source of controversy. 

Among the more important workers on this point are D’Archiac, 
VOL. II.—NO. IX. I 


114 Reynés— Cretaceous Rocks. 


Triger, Semann, Renevier, Hébert, Leymerie, Mathéron, Raulin, 
D’Orbigny, Coquand, and others, all of whom have contributed to 
the elucidation of the subject, which has also received special 
attention from Dr. Reynés. His ‘ Etudes’ of 1861 is divided into 
three parts. The First comprises the history of the different horizons 
and subdivisions of the Cretaceous rocks, given by different authors; 
and a résumé of the horizons and their synonymy is offered. The 
Second Part comprises the succession of these strata in the different 
districts of France, as shown by local sections (figured also in a 
lithograph plate), and lists of fossils, for Provence and surround- 
ing Departments, the Maritime Alps, Vaucluse, Dauphiné, Drome, 
Isére, High-Alps, Savoy, the Departments of Ardéche, Gard, 
Hérault, and lastly those of Aude and the Eastern Pyrenees. 
In the last Part, the order and relationship of the beds are treated 
of, the synchronism of the separated members of the series is 
attempted with relation to faunal likeness and stratal position, and 
some general conclusions are arrived at. 

The second memoir (L’Etage, 1864) contains the ripened opinions 
of the author, modified by further researches in the Chalk of France 
and England, and also by the study of the labours of others in the 
Anglo-Parisian basin, Sarthe, Gironde, Charente, and the Medi- 
terranean countries. From these researches the author has prepared 
the following table, showing the great Cretaceous divisions :— 


1. Horizon of Belemnitella mucronata and B. quadrata, Micraster cor- 
angunum, Henupneustes radiatus, &c. ‘Chalk of Maestricht and Meudon;’ 
“Upper Chalk ;’ ‘ Dordonian ’ and ‘Campanian,’ Coquand ; ‘Senonian,’ 
D’Orbigny, in part; ‘ White Chalk’ and ‘ Marly Chalk,’ Brongniart, in 

art. 

2. Horizon of Radiolites fissicostatus, Spherulites sinuatus, Micraster brevis, 
&c.; beds with Ostrea auricularis ; beds with Hippurites Cornuvaccinum, 
Spherulites augeiodes, &e. ‘Upper Chalk;’ ‘Marly Chalk,’ Brongniart, 
in part; ‘Senonian,’ D’Orbigny, in part; ‘ Turonian,’ D’Orbigny, in part ; 
‘Santonian,’ ‘Coniacian,’ ‘ Provencian,’ Coquand; ‘ Horizon of Ostrea 
auricularis, Triger; ‘Chalk of Villedieu’ and ‘ Hippurite-limestones,’ 
Reynés. 

3. Horizon of Ammonites peramplus, Am. papalis, and Am. Deverie; beds 
with Radvolites cornupastoris. ‘Marly Chalk, Brongniart, in part; 
‘Micaceous Chalk of Touraine,’ D’Archiac ; ‘ Sands of Uchaux,’ Reynés ; 
‘Horizon of Am. peramplus, Triger; ‘Mornassian’ and ‘ Angoumian,’ 
Coquand ; ‘Turonian,’ D’Orbigny, in part; ‘ Lower Chalk.’ 

4, Horizon of Inoceramus labiatus ; Hemiaster Vernewlli, Ammonites Wiel- 
bans. ‘Marly Chalk,’ Brongniart, in part; ‘ Turonian,’ D’Orbigny, in 
os ‘Angoumian,’ Coquand, in part; ‘Zone of Rhynchonella Cunieri,’ 
Triger. 

5, Horizon of Ostrea Columba, O. biauriculata O. carinata, Caprina adversa, 
&e. ‘Beds with Ostracee, D’Archiac; ‘Lower Chalk;’ ‘Group 
with Ammonites navicularis, Triger; ‘Carentonian’ and. ‘Gardonian,’ 
Coquand ; ‘Cenomanian,’ D’Orbigny, in part. 

6. Horizon of Turrihtes costatus, T. tuberculatus, Ammonites Rothomagensis, 
Am. inflatus, &e. ‘Glauconitic Chalk,’ Brongniart, in part; ‘Chalk- 
marl’ and ‘Upper Greensand ;’ ‘Cenomanian,’ D’Orbigny, in part; 
‘Rothomagian, Coquand; ‘Chalk of Rouen,’ Reynés; ‘Group with 
Pecten asper, Triger, 


Lecog— Mineral Waters. 115 


7. Horizon of Ammonites lautus, Am. Delucii, Inoceramus concentricus, &c. 
‘Gault;’ ‘Albian,’ D’Orbigny; ‘Glauconitic Chalk,’ Brongniart, in 
part. 

8. Horizon of Ammonites Cornueli, Plicatula radiola, Ostrea aquila, &c. 
‘Plicatula-clay,’ Cornuel; ‘Speeton Clay,’ Phillips; ‘Lower Green- 
sand,’ and ‘ Aptian,’ D’Orbigny. 

9. Horizon of Chama Ammonia, Pterocera Pelagit. ‘ Limestone with Ch. 
Ammonia ; ‘Urgonian,’ D’Orbigny, in part. 

10. Zone with Ammonites Astieri, Ostrea Couloni, Crioceras Emerict. ‘Lower 
Greensand ;’ ‘ Neocomian,’ and ‘ Urgonian,’ D’Orbigny, in part. 


As far as the South-east of France is concerned, all but the 
highest beds (from the Vescomian upwards) are present in Dép. 
Gard, Ardéche, Bouches-du-Rhone, and Vaucluse. 

Believing that the above is a good approximative classification for 
the Cretaceous beds, Dr. Reynés leaves it for other and experienced 
Geologists to suggest fit names for the several groups.—J. M. 


MINERAL WATERS CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATIONS WITH 
CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY. 


Les EAUX MINERALES CONSIDEREES DANS LEURS RAPPoRTSs AVEC LA CHIMIE ET 
LA GHotociz, Par Henri Lecog, Professeur 4 la Faculté des Sciences de 
Clermont, ete. Paris: J. Roruscuip, 1864, pp. 463. 


EGARDING all springs as ‘mineral waters’ that deliver at 
the earth’s surface water that has passed through and become 
modified by any portion of the earth’s crust, Professor Lecoq, in the 
careful and elaborate work before us, has brought together a great 
amount of information equally useful to the chemist and the geolo- 
gist. We shall endeavour to put before the reader a fair abstract of 
the facts. Of the theories and opinions we shall say but little, only 
remarking, that they are not in accordance with the views of many 
English geologists, who will be unwilling to take for granted that 
the earth has cooled down from a state of igneous fluidity, and will 
feel surprised at being told (p.2), that modern lavas come from 
ereater depths than old granite and more recent basalts. They will 
also demur to the statement, that in former times all rain became 
mineral water, by immediately sinking into, instead of running for 
a while over, the earth, and that all existing mineral waters are but 
the feeble remains of much more powerful springs. 

Professor Lecoq traces mineral springs to lines of dislocation, 
believing that their sources are to be found below the rocks called 
by him primitive (granite, &c.). He mentions as illustrations, the 
Geysers and other hot springs of Iceland, the north-south direction 
of such line of springs in European Turkey, parallel to trachytes and 
basalts, and the mineral springs of Spain, to the number of four hun- 
dred. In France, likewise, out of nearly a thousand such springs, at 
least eight hundred are traced to asimilar origin. Many elsewhere 
are on the axes of longitudinal valleys, assumed to be due to fracture. 
Assuming, however, that water exists abundantly in the interior of 
the earth under pressure, it is not extraordinary that it should come 

I 2 ; 


116 = Reviews— Baker’s ‘ Maxims ;’ Kelly’s * Errors.’ 


to the surface at weak points, and through fractured portions of 
Strata. We believe also it would not be difficult to find examples 
where mineral, and even thermal springs, though conducted up to 
the surface through fissures, do not rise from any great depth, and 
certainly not from beneath Silurian rock. 

The volume of mineral waters poured forth is extremely large. 
A million of litres (200,000 gallons) a day is no unusual quantity 
for a single spring. A group of springs in Arkansas, North 
America, yield more than a thousand litres a minute (23 million 
gallons a day). Of 500 springs rising in the central plateau of 
France, 231, that have been gauged, yield 12,064 cubic métres 
(2,628,000 gallons) every 24 hours. The remaining 269, though 
smaller, are estimated to add nearly one-fourth (2,810 cubic métres) 
to the sum, making a total of nearly 3} millions of gallons a day. 
This is believed to be much below the real total—( To be continued.) 
—D. T. A. 


REVIEWS. 
—+—_ 


Harmonic Maxims or Science anp Reticion. By the Rev. W. 
Baker, M.A., Vicar of Crambe, near York. 8vo. 1864. Lone- 
MAN & Co. London. 

Nores upon tHe Errors or Grotocy. ILLustRATED BY Facts 
OBSERVED IN IRELAND. By Joun Kutiy, V.P. Roy. Geol. Soe. 
of Ireland. 8vo. 1864. Loneman & Co. London. 


vate Bible harmonized with Science is not a theme one likes the 
look of at first sight ; we seem to have had enough of it, and 
more than enough. Not that there is any real reason why the har- 
monies of the two divine works, ‘the Earth and the Word,’ should 
not be studied and admired, but because there are so few—so very 
few—who can bring the requisite learning to the work. It is not 
the easy task some think it. That it is an impossible one we 
strongly doubt; and nothing will so effectually retard it as the ill- 
considered efforts of good men who are dunces in science,—no, not 
even the rash denunciations of those who know something of the 
Earth and but little of the Book. ‘We do not know,’ says the 
Bishop of London in his late grand address at Edinburgh, ‘ how 
much of our knowledge is purely human and naturally acquired, how 
much has come down from a supernatural or divine source, even 
when transmitted by those who professed most vehemently to dis- 
eard any supernatural help.’ We may rest assured in the convic- 
tion that no two truths are, or can be opposite; and we may welcome 
any additions to our real knowledge, while we shut our eyes as 
much as possible to the clumsy workmanship that tries to fit them 
together. And haying said thus much on the general subject, let us 
look at the two books before us—so utterly unlike each other. Let 
Mr. Baker speak first. 
The learned author starts with the proposition, that ‘certain 


Reviews—Baker’s ‘ Maxims ;’ Kelly’s ¢ Errors.’ Ak) 


maxims (the essence of the Inductive Philosophy) must be adopted 
when we would derive pure or scientific truth from the materials of 
Nature ; and his aim throughout is to show that these maxims are 
as necessary to be observed in the study of revealed truth as in the 
investigation of Natural Science; and that the neglect of them in 
the study of Revelation prevents our progress in ascertaining the 
harmony which must exist, as above observed, between all kinds of 
truth. He lays down the following rules :— 

a. Apparent is not identical with scientific truth. 5b. Nature 
operates by immutable laws. ce. To ascertain these laws, facts in 
great variety must be collected, tested, and digested, 

All this is unanswerable; and his distinction between the un- 
scientific method which ordinary men pursue to obtain the facts on 
which they act in daily life, and the scientific order in which philo- 
sophers proceed, is justly stated, and applied to the higher purpose. 
He adopts ‘Butler’s Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion ;’ 
but asserts that, ‘if the method of proceeding with the study of 
nature be not applicable to the study of revealed truth, that argu- 
ment wholly breaks down.’ We cannot give the list of all his 
maxims, but must refer the reader to the book itself; while we 
heartily endorse the first, namely, ‘that no truth is injurious; 
and the closing one, that ‘hindrances to progress must not be 
allowed.’ There are not a few bright thoughts in this remarkable 
essay; such as, for instance, ‘Nature and Revelation are supple- 
mentary to each other in the education of Man. ‘The Divine, or 
that which should be such, ought not to be arrayed against the 
Divine’ ‘All are working for the millennium of peace, good 
order, and happiness, whether they know it or not.’ ‘ We trace con- 
duct to some governing belief.’ ‘The tree of knowledge bears not 
only good, but evil.’ ‘Laws are the grand treasure, without the 
knowledge of which science cannot be said even to exist,’ &c. And, 
lastly, that ‘right dominant persuasions cannot widely prevail 
among mankind, while science and religion are antagonistic.’ 

While we do not at all sympathize with our author in his estimate 
as to the extent to which this antagonism extends, we cannot but 
express the belief that his work will do good, and lead a large class 
of persons who have been in the habit of neglecting either one 
volume or the other, to see that they are preventing, as far as in 
them lies, the progress of our race in knowledge, human and 
divine. 

Some of his quotations from Voltaire, and other writers of his class, 
are extremely pithy; his illustration of some of the miracles equally so; 
but these would take us beyond our limits. His notes on Man’s pro- 
egress, however, p. 22, are so good, that we must refer to them; and 
his noble aphorism, that ‘it is a condition, in order that a country 
may make steady advances in scientific knowledge, that an unfettered 
Christianity be established in it, should win him favour with all 
classes. His illustrations of the apparent deceptiveness of truth on 
first impressions, pp. 37-389; of plenary inspiration, p. 44; his refer- 
ences to practical science, p.60; to the Baconian Philosophy, p. 121, 


118 Reviews—Baker’s ‘ Maxims ;’ Kelly's ¢ Errors, 


&e., are admirable, and evince a master-mind. But indeed there is 
no part of the book which does not deserve perusal. The author 
means, if another edition is called for, to enlarge the work ; and we 
can offer him no better compliment than to say, that we wait with 
interest for the second edition. 

We wish we could say as much for the next book on our table. 
We know the author as a geologist of some repute, and long expe- 
rience; and he has done good service among the rocks of his native 
country. A better hammer was never wielded; and, if he had per- 
severed in mapping strata and collecting fossils, as he began, and 
never written a controversial book, 14 would, we think, have been the 
better for his fame. We are bound to criticize as well as praise 
him. 

His object in ‘ Notes upon the Errors of Geology’ is stated in the 
preface. It is ‘to show that the approved geological theories of the 
last forty years, as well as all that went before them, require to 
be corrected. So far we agree with him. His arguments, he says, 
convince himself; and, as his ‘new theory is a startling one, and 
nothing (he says) is proposed in it which is impossible,’ we ought to 
gain something by its study. ‘It is an unpalatable task,’ he remarks 
truly, ‘and perhaps ungracious, to find fault with the speculations, 
or the visions, or the fancies of anyone. We should like therefore 
to avoid doing so, and will endeavour to be as lenient as possible ; 
though, as the author says he expects strong criticism, it might be 
as well to fulfil his expectation. The purely geological part of the 
work has some merit, although the preface starts with an error. Half 
the Devonian fossils are not common to the Carboniferous rocks; and 
Mr. John Kelly ought by this time to know better. The book is to 
produce a great change in the ‘fundamental parts’ of Geology; and, 
if Hutton asserted that ‘ our planet is built of the ruins of an older 
world, and that before i there were pre-existing continents’ (p. 4), 
we may well wish for some improvement. ‘Such imaginary conti- 
nents, our author says, ‘do not appear to have any facts to support 
them.’ And he has an immense objection to an older world, which 
must have been made out of an older still, and so on,—like the fleas 
in the parable. But to be serious, Mr. Kelly must not try to re- 
arrange the whole of the earth’s crust. We have systems enough 
already, and we do not want that on p. 7. 

After pitching over Hutton, our author attacks Murchison and 
Lyell, but is more gracious towards Sedgwick. His observations 
are so scattered, that it is difficult to follow them ; but we think his 
remarks on the possibility of forming Coal-measures out of the waste 
of continents, at the present rate of atmospheric action, are very 
reasonable. So also about the origin of the Old Red Sandstone, which 
was certainly, to a large extent, volcanic. So, indeed, are many 
rocks which have been supposed to be chiefly of aqueous origin. 
And Professor Sedgwick’s long-reiterated axiom, that the mass of 
our Paleozoic trap-rocks are lavas recomposed by marine action, 
’ finds an energetic expositor in the author of this book. His idea 
extends further, for he would break up these volcanic rocks, granite 


Reviews —Baker’s ‘ Maxims ;’ Kelly’s « Errors.’ 119 


for instance, by earthquakes, make the divided blocks grind each 
other into powder, and then puff out this powder by jets of steam from 
below into the water above. He calls this a ‘ grinding machine,’ and 
says that ‘the best of it all is, that there is nothing in the whole opera- 
tion either unnatural or improbable.’ 

In his endeavour to reconcile the apparent differences between 
Scripture and Geology, the author has our sympathy, but not our 
approval. Itis not needful that we put in print all we think we 
know ; and the dogmatic style upon such recondite questions as have 
stirred the clearest brains, and tried the strongest hearts, appears to 
us peculiarly unsuitable. The idea that each genetic day corre- 
sponds to one of the great geological periods is not new: it has been 
for a long while one of the hypotheses which, as Sir H. De la Beche 
used to say, have served for ‘pegs to hang our facts upon.’ But 
hear our author. He gives the first day to his ‘Primary System,’ 
now commonly known as the Laurentian epoch. The second day 
is the ‘Cambrian ;’ the third, the ‘ Transition,’—an old term, revived 
by Mr. Kelly, to include the hapless Silurian, with the much-abused 
Devonian rocks ; while the fourth day, when the great lights were 
made, is, in some unaccountable way, made to correspond to the 
Carboniferous System and the Coal-measures,—we suppose in anti- 
cipation of the use coal would be put to! The fifth is comfortably 
fitted with the whole Secondary Period, when, according to late 
discoveries, birds (and reptile-like birds?) flew about upon the 
earth. The sixth, of course, corresponds to the Tertiary System,— 
and the whole thing is done. 

His remark, that ‘there is an omission in the sacred text—no 
fossils of any kind having been referred to,’ is most original 
(p. 226): see also his summary at p. 222. 

The book altogether is excellent reading by the fireside; and as 
the new views (pp. 51 to 208) take up the mass of the work, the 
reader is requested to examine them at his leisure. ‘The sketches, 
maps, and geological illustrations are all remarkably good, for the 
author is no mean artist, and is, as before said, a practical field- 
geologist of the hard-working kind. One or two quotations (pp. 188, 
189), and we must go to the third part of his treatise. We shall 
give them without comment. 


‘The commencement of every system appears to have been characterized 
by the bursting of the crust of the earth, probably by the agency of steam, 
accompanied by earthquakes and eruptions of mineral matter. When the 
new turmoil began, there were new fissures, made in the previously existing 
rocks ; and the sides of a fissure, thirty miles long and thirty miles deep, 
presented two surfaces, which, when operated on by the expansive power of 
steam, to lift a block at one side,—by collapse and gravitation to let it 
cown,—and by the friction consequent on this operation, there were pro- 
duced quartz, jasper, and other hard pebbles enough, from the mineral 
veins previously existing, for the conglomerates of a new system. The loose 
materials in such a fissure, after having been ground and polished, were 
thrown up by puffs of steam, of extraordinary energy; the whole contents 
of the fissure—pebbles, sand, mud, and all—were thrown out and blown 
into the waters of the sea to a great height, along with, and in the space 


120 Reviews— Baker’s ‘ Maxims ;’ Kelly's ‘ Errors, 


occupied by, the steam, where there was no resistance. Immediately when 
the steam condensed, the contents of the fissure dropped down in the water; 
pebbles being heaviest, first; next, sand, which filled up the interstices 
between them ; and lastly, the muddy sediment, deposited as future shale. 
A second effort to produce sand and mud would probably be in the same 
fissure; and a third, or perhaps several. In the early efforts, the sides of 
the fissure, with its fresh fracture, would have produced a large quantity of 
quartz-pebbles derived from the quartz-veis. After repeated efforts, the 
sides of the fissure would become worn and smooth, and in the severity of 
the friction the veins themselves would have been ground to sand. In 
later efforts, pebbles would get more scarce, and sand and mud more 
plentiful. In the last discharges from the fissure, probably little or no 
pebbles, but sand and mud more plentiful for the remaining beds of hard 
and soft rocks,’ &c. &c. 

Mr. Kelly’s idea is, rightly or wrongly (we think the latter), that 
‘a mistaken trust in Paleontology has been the cause of many an 
error’ (Preface, p. x.) ; and that the true idea of geological systems 
should be, that they are ‘all clearly separated from each other by 
unconformable junctions, showing the groups of rocks to be as 
distinct as the groups of plants or animals’ (p. 6). Being best 
acquainted with the Old Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous rocks, 
he traces these formations throughout the border-counties of Wales 
and the whole of Ireland ; his result being, as has been anticipated 
by some geologists of repute, especially Professor Jukes, that the 
lower portions of the Old Red Sandstone should be grouped with the 
Silurian (to form one system, his ‘ Transition’); and that the upper 
part, unconformable on the rest, as has been proved long ago by 
Griffith, Murchison, and the Irish Survey, more lately by Geikie in 
Scotland, and now by Mr. Kelly himself in the border-counties of 
Wales, should be grouped with the Carboniferous. We think a 
little faith in Paleontology a bad thing ; and that fuller light would 
show him that the distinct character of the fauna, even in this 
upper member of the Old Red Sandstone, fully entitles us to adhere 
to the received classification. Fossils are not everything; but, 
seeing that we have an unconformity in the midst of the Coal-mea- 
sures without its much altering the flora and fauna, we may well 
pause at the threshold of this new theory. Has Mr. Kelly visited 
Scotland? We think not. When he does, and we hope he will, he 
will understand all that has been lately written proving the identity 
of the Devonian and Old Red Sandstone in all its parts. 

We must leave our author, recommending him to stick to the 
hammer, and yet not lay down the pen. His style is free and 
humorous, pithy, generally full of force, and of truth too, so far as 
he knows it. But then there are, we are sure; many lines of geo- 
logical research on which his clever pencil and ready pen might 
be employed with profit. We know something of him, and believe 
that poetry, rather than hard facts, is the legitimate domain in which 
he is a master. Yet we may be mistaken. He is evidently an 
earnest student of the Bible, and believes that he can see the way to 
harmonize what he knows of the Earth with what he believes of the 
Word. There is that in the latter volume which appeals to the 


Reviews— Quarterly Journal of Science. 121 


poetic instinct, as well as challenges devout study by the man of 
science ; and we cannot finish this short notice without expressing 
our real and earnest belief that such studies as our author has 
attempted will, in abler hands, bring forth much solid fruit. The 
task, as before said, is not an easy one. 


Tae QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ScIENCE. No. V. January, 1865. 


ESIDES the usual chronicles of Geology, Paleontology, Mine- 
ralogy, and Mining, this Number contains—I1st, A second article 
by Mr. E. Hull, F.G.S., on the History of the British Coal-measures ; 
2nd, A very interesting, comprehensive, and yet succinct review of 
the Relations of Geology and Geography to the History of Great 
Britain, and the causes of her greatness, by Mr. W. Pengelly, F.R.S. 
3rd, A chapter on Petroleum, by Dr. H. Draper of New York ; and 
an article on Metal-mining, by Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S. 

Mr. Hutt here gives an account of the distribution of the Coal- 
formation beneath the more recent strata of the Central and Southern 
Counties of England, and shows, by a shaded diagram-map, the 
probable extent of the Scotch, the Central, and the Southern Coal- 
measures of Britain. 

Under the head of ‘ Nature of the Floor and Original Margin of 
the Carboniferous Strata,’ Mr. Hull says that the Carboniferous beds 
in South Wales succeed the Devonian in nearly regular sequence, 
whereas in the North of England and Wales, owing to disturbance 
and denudation, the floor of the Coal-measures is for the most part, 
if not altogether, Cambro-Silurian beds. From the outcrop of Cam- 
brian rocks in Leicestershire, and by tracing the boundaries of the 
Coal-fields of the Midland Counties through Warwickshire, S. 
Staffordshire, Worcestershire, and Shropshire, into North Wales, 
frequent evidences of the proximity, or actual appearance, of a 
ridge or barrier of land, which formed the margin of the Carboni- 
ferous area, across the centre of England, may be found. Mr. Hull 
is of opinion that the Coal-measures originally formed two sepa- 
rate areas, one lying to the north, the other to the south of the 
‘ Barrier ; these two areas having subsequently been broken up into 
separate ‘ Coal-fields,’ which may be thus arranged :—orth of the 
Barrier—North Wales, Forest of Wyre, North and South Statford- 
shire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire, 
Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland; the Coal-fields of the 
central valley of Scotland having been probably connected with these 
round the East coast. South of the Barrier—South Wales, Somer- 
setshire, and supposed band along the Thames Valley. 

By tables of thicknesses of the Carboniferous series North of the 
Barrier it is shown that the greatest mass is attained in Lancashire 
(12,800 feet), decreasing in North Staffordshire (8,800 feet), and 
less than one-fourth in Leicestershire (3,100 feet). South of this 
elevated tract, in Glamorganshire, the thickness is 11,980 feet, 
whilst in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, it is only 3,210 feet. 


[22 Reviews— Quarterly Journal of Science. 


This latter diminution from West to East may afford grounds for 
belief that the Coal does not extend under the Cretaceous districts. 

The author presupposes the marine origin of Coal, in which 
Messrs. Binney and Salter will cordially agree; but Botanists 
remind us that, at the present day, with the exception of the ‘ Sea- 
wrack’ (Zostera marina) of our coasts, there are no truly marine 
plants having a vascular structure, or capable of a momentary com- 
parison with the highly developed vegetation of the Coal-period. 
That trees of such gigantic growth as Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, 
and the Conifere grew in the sea, surpasses belief. We much prefer 
to accept Sir C. Lyell’s comparison of the Coal-vegetation with 
those luxuriantly rank Mangrove- and Cypress-swamps, the long- 
accumulated growths of tropical vegetation, which are to be seen in 
such valleys as those of the Mississippi and the Amazon, and along 
the coasts of the West Indian Islands, where warmth and moisture 
accelerate both growth and decay, and which present, when cut 
through, forest-bed beneath forest-bed, each divided by its layer of 
clay containing the roots of the tall cypress, just as the Under-clays 
of the Coal are filled with the Stegmaria. 

Mr. Hull not only assumes all the Coal-fields north and south of 
his Barrier-land to have been originally but two continuous areas of 
deposit, since broken up and reduced to their present limits, but he 
infers that the whole of the Coal-measures of the North-west of 
England were formerly covered by a superincumbent mass of 
Jurassic, Triassic, and Permian strata, to a thickness of 7,000 feet, 
which has all been swept away to form newer strata, leaving the 
denuded surface of the Carboniferous series exposed for the industry 
of man to develope its vast mineral wealth. 

Four years ago, Professor Draper tells us, Petroleum may be said 
to have been generally unknown in America; now it is one of the 
most important articles of home consumption and foreign exporta- 
tion. Its value in America has been set down at £15,000,000 ster- 
ling per annum! John Steele, of Oil-creek Valley, is said to derive 
an income of £150,000 per annum from mines on his property. 
Two hundred and fifty companies have been formed for working the 
borings, and represent a capital of £30,000,000! All this activity 
in collecting a mineral product, found in almost every quarter of the 
globe, and known and used by both Greeks and Romans, and by the 
Persians and other oriental nations, has arisen from the introduction 
of Coal-oil-distillation by Mr. James Young, of Glasgow, and the 
methods he invented for refining the crude oil, so as to render it 
sufficiently pure to be used for all demestic purposes of artificial 
illumination. The discovery of such vast natural supplies of minerai 
oil in the pre-carboniferous strata of America has, of course, super- 
seded the process of distillation of Boghead coal. Nature can distil 
more cheaply than man. 

Dr. Ancus Smita describes the various ways of ingress and egress 
for metallic mines, and devotes considerable space (and a plate) to a 
description of the ‘Man-engine,’ which he shows to be superior to 
the use of ladders, the climbing being productive of pulmonary 


Reviews—Liverpool Geological Society. 123 


disease. With all the precautions of modern skill and ingenuity, we 
cannot but be struck with the innumerable risks which surround a 
Miner’s life. 


ABSTRACT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE LIVERPOOL GEOLOGICAL 
Society. SESSION THE Firtu, 1863-64. 


R. G. H. MORTON, F.G.S., points out the spots where the 
Lias may be seen in Shropshire, and what has been noticed in 
pits and borings made through it in useless search for coal, as 
noticed by Murchison. The Middle Lias is present, and the Lower 
Lias ; but whether this latter includes the Rhetic beds is not clearly 
understood. Mr. W. S. Hoxton, F.G.S., has a note on the Cleve- 
land Iron-ore, or the greenish-grey Oolitic Ironstone (carbonate of 
protoxide of iron), yielding sometimes 83 per cent. of iron, and first 
worked in 1848. The present yield of iron for Great Britain being 
between three and four millions of tons of pig-iron, this iron-ore 
produces nearly a fifth (700,000 tons) of the entire amount; it 
belongs to the Middle Lias, and is also found in Oxfordshire 
and Somersetshire. Mr. H. Hrcxs shows by section, plan, and 
description where fossils (Paradoxides and other Trilobites, with 
Theca, &c.) are to be found in the Lower Lingula-flags of St. David’s, 
Pembrokeshire. These fossils of the so-called ‘ Primordial Zone,’ 
and the first of their kind found in Britain, have been since described 
and figured by Mr. J. W. Salter, in the Geological Society’s Journal 
for August 1864. The order of the beds seen at and near Porth- 
y-rhaw, St. David’s, seems to be (going downwards)— 

1. Zremadoe Slates.—2. Upper and Middle Lingula-flags. Thin 
alternating beds of sandstone and shales; with interstratified trap- 
rock.—3 & 4. Lower Lingula-flags: (8) Black shales, in the upper 
part of which, and alternating with them, some thick sandstone 
beds are sometimes seen: fossiliferous; 214 feet. These black 
shales pass downwards into (4) fine-grained grey flagstones, lighter- 
coloured, and slightly banded or iron-stained below : passage-beds ; 
112 feet.— 5-8. Cambrian: (5) Greenish-grey sandstone. (6) 
Purple sandstone, with green bands. (7) Purple sandstone, in 
thick beds. (8) Coarse conglomerates, in thick beds. 

In an interesting paper On the Bala Limestone and its associated 
Beds in North Wales, Mr. D. C. Davies succinctly describes the 
range and characters of the Bala-Caradoc beds, notices their fossils 
generally, of which about 28 species of Corals, 10 of Echinoderms, 
30 of Crustaceans, and 92 of Molluscs have been described, and 
concludes with the following observations :— 

‘The portion of the Bala group we have been considering, amount- 
ing, as it does, to a thickness of from two to three thousand feet, 
must represent a vast cycle of time; while the very different litho- 
logical texture of some of its members, varying, as it does, from 
fine-grained lime- and sand-stone, through shaly and rather bitumi- 
nous layers, to the coarse breccia of the ash-beds, suggests to us an 
infinite variety of subaqueous conditions. Here, if anywhere, we 


124 Reviews—Nova- Scotian Institute. 


might expect to find illustrations of the theory of the “ Evolution of 
species by the gradual alteration of existing forms.” I do not think, 
however, that the evidence yielded by these deposits is, on the whole, 
favourable to that theory ; for if I read it aright it is something like 
this: In the lowest beds we find a certain number of species of 
various Orders, Radiata, Echinodermata, Crustacea, and Mollusca. 
Each species seems to have its central typical form, with varieties 
diverging on either side until they approach the like divergent 
varieties of other species. Thus, on an horizontal line representing 
SPACE, we have species with central forms, very distinct, but united 
by divergent varieties; and then, ascending upwards through strata 
representing TIME, we meet with the same central types and the like 
variations surviving through an immense period of time, and all the 
many changes of condition referred to. New species are added in 
the upper beds; but we do not meet with that gradual vertical 
divergence from the old types to the new which would certainly be 
the case if such new species were but the modified descendants of 
the older forms. And if we contrast the species which appear for 
the first time in the middle or upper bands of limestone with those 
characteristic of the old, suppose we take Orthis and Leptena among 
the Brachiopoda, or Corals among the Zoophytes, we shall perceive 
how great the divergence is; and we look in vain for those transi- 
tional forms which, supposing the theory to be true, we ought 
certainly to find in the intervening strata.’ 

Mr. H. DuckworrH gives a note On the San Ciro Cave, near 
Palermo. A section of the strata at Thatto Heath, near Rainhill, 
by Mr. G. H. Morton, is referred to, by which he showed ‘the cer- 
tainty of productive beds of coal being beneath the Trias, and that 
they were cut off by the great fault which throws up the Coal- 
measures.’ Lastly, Mr. T. J. Moore mentions the chief fossils in 
the Derby Museum of Liverpool. 


THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE NovA-ScoTIAN INSTITUTE OF NATURAL 
Science or Harirax, Nova Scoria, Vol. Il. Part 1, 1864. 


APTAIN C. HARDY gives an account of the Caplin or Cape- 
lan (Mallotus villosus), which represents perhaps the only species 

of fish found both fossil and recent, unless some of the ear-bones 
(Otolites) from the Post-tertiary and Tertiary Strata prove good 
witnesses of still-existing species, when Mr. H. Higgins’ researches 
shall have been completed. In the Grou. Mac., No. II., Dr. Sars 
described the Norwegian nodules containing Caplins. Prof. How 
describes the Mineral Springs of Wilmot, N. S., marked by the 
presence of sulphate of lime, like some springs of other parts of 
Nova Scotia that are known to traverse Gypsiferous rocks. Mr. 
Gossip presents some notes on the Slate and Granite District near 
Halifax; noticing, among other things, that though a hard gneissose 
quartzite, good for flagging, can be quarried close by, Halifax sends 
to Caithness for pavement-stones. The granite at Halifax seems to 


Reviews— Grethie’s Geological Map; Symonds’ ‘ Old Bones.’ 125 


present two varieties, coarse- and fine-grained, in close proximity, 
as in many other parts of the world (as noticed by Dr. Brassy, 
Gro. Maa. No. IV. p. 158). Probably the structure of this slate 
and granite country would be better understood if looked at with an 
eye to great crumplings, pressure, and metamorphism, rather than to 
the presumed eruptive condition of the granite. Prof. How’s Notes 
on the Economic Mineralogy of Nova Scotia, Part I., relate to some 
hematitic and titaniferous iron-ores. The results of the two visits 
of Exploration made by some of the Members of the Institute to the 
Kitchen-middens at St. Margaret’s Bay and Cole Harbour form an 
Appendix to the Institute’s ‘Transactions, Part I. 


OUTLINES OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE British IsLEs, TO ACCOMPANY 
THE GrEoLocicaAL Map. By ARcHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. 
8vo. 1864. Edinburgh: JOHNSTONE. 


apes handbook, explaining a Geological Map of the British 
Isles, briefly describes the various strata, and their arrangement 
under different forms of ground, and has three divisions; namely, 
Ist, under ‘ England’ (which ought to be ‘England and Wales’); 
2nd, ‘Scotland; and, 3rd, ‘Ireland;’—a very fit arrangement, 
because, though some of the rocks and strata are necessarily treated 
of over again, yet their local differences are thus specially noticed, 
and their relations shown. An introductory portion gives a general 
résumé and table of our sedimentary strata, with brief remarks on 
igneous and metamorphic rocks. The body of the work consists of 
a carefully condensed account of the different Geological Groups in 
the three Kingdoms, with short notices of the several contempo- 
raneous volcanic rocks. We miss, however, some notice of the 
Rhetic group—well represented as it is at Exmouth in England, 
Penarth in South Wales, Linksfield in Scotland, and Lisnagrib in 
Ireland. 

Ten well-chosen illustrative diagrams are given as woodcuts; and 
the five sections engraved on the map are well described in the later 
pages of the book, as showing the relations that the different stratal 
series bear to each other in bold stretches across different parts of 
the British Isles. Limited groups of Fossils, characteristic of the 
different Systems, and selected from published works, are also 
engraved on the Map; and notes of local peculiarities are frequent 
at the margin of the land. The Map is colour-printed with heavy 
tints. 


Oxp Bonss; or, Notes ror YOouNG NATURALISTS, ON VERTEBRATE 
ANIMALS, THEIR Fossit Preprecessors AND ALLies. By the 
Rev. W. S. Symonps, F.G.S., &c. 2nd Edit., 8vo. London: 
Harpwicke. 1864. 

WE are glad to see that the Second Edition of this work has 

been called for by the Public, and that the Author having 
made many additions and improvements, the Publisher still issues it 
at a low price, so that it can be widely spread among students both 


126 Reports and Proceedings. 


of Paleontology and Zoology. This little handbook has five chap- 
ters, four of which consist of well-selected and usefully arranged 
notices of the characters, habits, and structure of the chief kinds of 
Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, and the distribution of the 
fossil species representing them in Geological Time. The fifth 
chapter, new to this edition, and drawn up with the assistance of 
Dr. Lankester, treats of the structure and composition of tooth and 
bone, showing the distinctive features of bones in different animals. 
Based on the ‘ Vertebrate’ portion of Owen’s ‘ Palzontology,’ 
illustrated by notes from the works of many travellers and observers, 
and referring, for living, preserved, and fossil specimens, to the 
Zoological Gardens and British Museum, ‘Old Bones’ may be 
recommended as a good introduction to the study of Vertebrate 
Life, past and present. The student will find the Geological range 
of the fossil species fairly indicated. We may notice, in particular, 
that the first chapter has been enriched with facts respecting the 
Antiquity of Man, and his co-existence with extinct mammalia, evi- 
dence of which is supported by the researches and publications of 
Boucher de Perthes, Prestwich, Falconer, Lyell, and others. 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
ee ee 


GEOLOGICAL Society oF Lonpon.—I. January 25, 1865.—W. J. 
Hamilton, Esq., President, in the Chair. ‘The following communica- 
tions were read :-— 

1. ‘Notes on the Climate of the Pleistocene Epoch of New Zea- 
land.” By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.G.S.—The main feature in this 
communication was a notice of the occurrence of bones of the 
Dinornis in the moraines of the extinct glaciers of New Zealand. 
In support of the author’s opinion that the extinction of that bird 
was due to the agency of man at a somewhat recent date, it was 
observed that the present Alpine flora furnished a large quantity of 
nutritious food quite capable of sustaining the life even of so large 
a creature; and as the fruits of these plants were at present applied 
to no apparent purpose in the economy of nature, the author argued 
the former existence of an adequate amount of animal life to prevent 
an excessive development of vegetation. ‘This part, he considered, 
was played by the Dinornis. 

2. ‘On the Order of Succession in the Drift-beds in the Island 
of Arran.’ By James Bryce, M.A., LL.D., F.G.S.—In a paper. 
read last year before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Rey. R. 
B. Watson described all these beds as Boulder-clay, and did not 
assign the Shells which he had discovered in them to any par- 
ticular part of the deposit. Dr. Bryce dissented from this view, 
and in this paper pointed out the various causes of error likely to 
mislead an observer in examining such accumulations. He then 
described the various sections of the deposits, and showed that the 
lowest bed is a hard, tough, unstratified clay, full of striated, smoothed, 


Reports and Proceedings. — a7 


and polished stones of all sizes, but totally devoid of fossils, and that 
it is, in fact, the true old Boulder-clay of the geologists of the West 
of Scotland. ‘The Shells are entirely confined to a bed of clay of 
open texture, containing afew small stones ; it rests immediately on 
the Boulder-clay, as above defined, and is succeeded by various drift- 
beds, consisting of seams of clay and sand intermingled, containing 
stones that are rarely striated, and without Shells. Dr. Bryce then 
discussed the probable origin of these drifts, and the amount of 
depression which the land had sustained before the Shell-bed was 
deposited over the Boulder-clay, which he considered to have been 
formed by land-ice emanating from central snow-fields, and covering 
the whole surface of the country. 

3. ‘On the Occurrence of Beds in the West of Scotland in the 
position of the English Crag. By James Bryce, M.A., LL.D., 
F.G.S.—In consequence of the results arrived at from the investiga- 
tion of the Drift-beds of Arran, Dr. Bryce determined to examine 
all the recorded cases of fossils occurring in the Boulder-clay, the 
Chapel Hall case having, however, been already undertaken by the 
Rey. H. W. Crosskey. The most celebrated case is that of the 
occurrence of Elephant-remains at Kilmaurs, near Kilmarnock, in 
Ayrshire ; and the author showed, from a section of the quarry 
exposed for the purpose by Mr. Turner, of Dean Castle, which cor- 
responded exactly with one already furnished to him by an aged 
quarrryman, that the Elephant-remains, the Reindeer’s horn, and 
the Shells, all occurred in beds below the Boulder-clay, and not 
in that deposit, as has always been stated. ‘The same conclusion 
was arrived at respecting the occurrence of Elephant-remains at 
Airdrie and Bishopbriggs, and of Reindeer’s horn with Shells at 
Croftamie; and the author concluded by discussing the question 
whether the fossils belong to the Upper Crag period, or merely indi- 
cate a downward extension of the Arctic fauna which charac- 
terises the beds directly above the Boulder-clay, as described in 
the last paper. 

4 *On the Tellina proxima Bed at Chapel Hall, near Airdrie.’ 
By the Rev. H. W. Crosskey. Communicated by Dr. Bryce, F.G.S.— 
One of the most perplexing cases in Scotland, upon any theory of 
the formation of Boulder-clay, has been the alleged occurrence at 
Chapel Hall of a clay-bed containing Yellina proxima, intercalated 
between two masses of true Boulder-clay. ‘The Shelis were first 
found by Mr. James Russell in sinking a well; and the case was 
made known by Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill, in a paper laid before 
the Geological Society in 1850. At the author’s request, Mr. 
Russell had sunk another well seven yards from the former, from an 
examination of which Mr. Crosskey satisfied himself that the bed 
above that containing the Shells is not the true Boulder-clay, but 
an Upper Drift, and that the Shells occurred in a hollow of the 
lower clay, or true Till, filled up with a clay-deposit of an age inter- 
mediate between that of the other two. He therefore considers 
that this can no longer be regarded as one of fossils occurring 
in the true Boulder-clay. 


128 ‘Reports and Proceedings. 


II. February 8, 1865.—W. J. Hamilton, Esq., President, in the 
Chair. The following communications were read :— 

1. ‘On the Sources of the Mammalian Fossils of the Red Crag, 
and on the Discovery of a new Mammal in that Deposit, allied to 
the Walrus.’ By E. Ray Lankester, Esq. Communicated by Prof. 
T. H. Huxley, ¥.R.S., F.G.S.—The Mammalian fossils of the Red 
Crag were stated to belong to three groups :—(1) the teeth of 
Coryphodon, &c., derived from lower Eocene strata ; (2) the other 
terrestrial Mammalia; and (38) the Cetaceans. The Molluscan 
fauna of the Red Crag was cited in proof of its identity in age with 
the Upper or Yellow Crag of Antwerp, which contained none of 
the Red Crag Mammals. ‘The underlying Middle and Black Sands 
of Antwerp contain far larger percentages of extinct forms and 
very abundant Cetacean remains. ‘The deposits at Darmstadt and 
in the South of France, containing terrestrial Mammalia similar 
to those of the Red Crag, are also anterior to the Yellow Crag of 
Antwerp. The Red Crag was thus shown to include Mammalian 
fossils found nowhere else excepting in strata of an earlier age. The 
probabilities therefore were that these various Mammalia were not 
indigenous to the Red Crag, but were derived from the breaking up 
of earlier strata ; and this supposition was supported by lithological 
evidence which the author gave in detail; he also discussed the 
chemical and mineralogical questions involved. Further evidence 
of the extraneous nature of the Mammalian fossils was also adduced, 
in the faet that teeth of Rhinoceros and Mastodon occurred at the 
base of the Coralline Crag; and other less conclusive facts were 
cited. ‘The great abundance and perfect condition of teeth of Car- 
charodon and Ziphioid Cetaceans in the Middle Crag of Antwerp, 
their absence in the Yellow Crag of that locality, and their presence, 
in a much rolled, indurated, and fragmentary condition, in the Red 
Crag, often with portions of their previous sandy matrix adhering, 
was considered as conclusive evidence with regard to the Cetacean 
remains. Mr. Lankester then described the tusks of an animal 
allied to the Walrus, but probably much larger, which he proposed 
to call Trichecodon Huzxleyi. The minute details of form and 
structure were entered into, and the author stated that the teeth 
called Balenodon by Professor Owen belonged really to two genera, 
Ziphius and Squalodon, as shown by the remains from the Middle 
Antwerp beds. 

2. ‘Note on the Geology of Harrogate.’ By Professor John 
Phillips, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S.—The cuttings on the North-eastern 
Railway, combined with sections exposed in several quarries, have 
enabled the author to trace the range of the Millstone-grit, Cal- 
careous roadstone, and Yoredale Shales near Harrogate; and have 
also thrown some light on the relation of the Permian to the more 
ancient rocks. Prof. Phillips was also enabled to refer the mineral 
springs, with greater confidence than heretofore, to a deep source 
along an axis of movement; and to suggest that the Harrogate 
roadstore probably corresponds to the ‘main’ or ‘ 12-fathom-lime- 
stone’ at the top of the Yoredale series. These results, the argu- 


Reports and Proceedings. 129 


ments and facts in support of them, and the inferences obtainable 
from their consideration, were given by the author in this paper, 
which was illustrated by a horizontal section from Wharfe, on the 
S.E., through Harrogate, to Nid on the N.W. 


Royat GroLtocicaL Society or [RELAND.—I. January 11, the 
Rey. Dr. Lloyd in the chair. The Secretary read Dr. L. Linnsay’s 
paper on the Geology of the Gold-fields of New Zealand. That of 
Tuapeka in Otago has the gold in quartz-veins and in gravel, as 
usual: the latter alone yielded, up to Sept. 1864, gold valued at about 
£6,000,000. The Auckland or Coromandel Gold-field, described by 
Heaphy, Hochstetter, and Hector, consists also of auriferous quartz- 
veins and gravel, but has not been fully worked.—Mr. GiLpert 
SANDERS offered some remarks on the gold-valleys of Wicklow, espe- 
cially on their close geological similarity to those of New Zealand. 
The drift-gold, however, of which there is plenty, had not yet been 
clearly traced to any one of the quartz-veins in the Croghankinshela 
Mountain, neither by the Carysfoot Mining Company, nor when Go- 
vernment formerly worked the district. Magnetic iron occurs also 
in Wicklow, as at Auckland and elsewhere, with the gold-rocks.— 
Messrs. Scott, Baily, and Boswell also joined in the discussion; and 
Dr. Haughton (who took the chair when Dr. Lloyd left), in his 
closing observations, stated that Croghankinshela, on the flanks of 
which are the gold-streams, is a granite mountain of an extraordinary 
diversity of composition. 

II. The Annual Meeting was held on February 13, the Rev. Dr. 
Haughton in the chair. After the election of President, Officers, and 
new Fellows, the Secretary read the Annual Report, congratulating 
the Society on its improved position under its new name, and giving 
an obituary notice of the late and highly respected General Port- 
lock, whose name is intimately connected with the progress of Geo- 
logical Science, and with the Geology of Ireland in particular. Dr. 
J. K. Baillie and Mr. G. Blackwood were also noticed as lost to the 
Society by death. A valuable résumé of the papers read before the 
Society, and a favourable financial statement, completed the report. 
The Chairman also congratulated the Society on its well-being and 
good influence; on the communications it had received during the 
year; and on the high scientific standing and fitness of its new Pre- 
sident, the Earl of Enniskillen, F.R.S., &c. The Vice-Presidents are, 
Sir R. Griffith, Bart., W. J. Kelly, Esq., Dr. A. Carter, W. Andrews, 
Esq., and Rev. Dr. Lloyd: Treasurers, G. Sanders, Esq., and Dr. F. 
J. Sidney: Secretaries, R. H. Scott, Esq., and R. S. Reeves, Esq. 


EpinsurcaH GeoLocicaL Soctery.—January 26th, Mr. C. Mac- 
laren, F.G.S., President, in the chair. Mr. A. Marueson, Jedburgh, 
one of the Associates, gave an interesting description of ‘ The Fossil 
Plants in the Bed of the Tweed.’ He exhibited polished sections of 
these fossil plants from the Mountain-limestone, about from 200 to 
300 feet above its junction with the Old Red Sandstone at Tweed- 
mill and Norham Bridge. Mr. Matheson also described the ‘ Kames’ 

VOL. II.—NO. IX. K 


130 Reports and Proceedings. 


on the Greenlaw Moor and the Dogdon Moss, and the mechanical 
laws which formed them, giving it as his opinion that lakes formerly 
existed in these places, and that these lakes were afterwards drained. 
Mr. J. P. Favxner, §.8.C., read his ‘Notes of Two Journeys in 1864 
across the Cairngorm Hills..— Caledonian Mercury 'y, Friday, Jan. 27, 
1865. 


Guascow GEOLOGICAL SocreTy.—January 19th, Rev. H. W. 
Crosskey in the chair. Professor A. Winchell was elected a cor- 
responding member. Mr. J. Youne exhibited and described a fine 
series of teeth of Rhizodus Hibberti from the Black-band Ironstone 
of Possil, near Glasgow, which is in the upper portion of the Car- 
boniferous Limestone series, and 524 fathoms below the ‘ Upper 
Coal’ of Lanarkshire. Prepared sections illustrated the structure of 
these teeth. Some of them are 44 inches long by 14 in breadth, 
above the jaw-bone. They are also found separate, as if broken 
from the jaw. Nearly perfect remains of smaller fishes are found 
with them. 

Mr. J. Tuomson exhibited a slab of Carboniferous shale, from 
Stonehouse, containing several bones of the head, with upwards of 
100 teeth, of Diplodus gibbosus, regarded by Agassiz as one of the 
flat cartilaginous fishes, such as the Sting-ray. Plewracanthus 
levissimus is, according to Sir P. Egerton, the barbed fin-spine of 
this species. . 

An excellent model-section of the Black Prince Pit, at Shet- 
tleston, made by Mr. J. SroKEs, was exhibited and described by Mr. 
J. Young. ‘The section is made up of the finely pounded material 
of the various strata passed through in sinking the pit to the 
‘Virgin’ or ‘Sour-milk Coal,’ compressed in consecutive order into 
a-narrow box, about 7 feet in length, with a glass front, and dis- 
playing distinctly not only the order of superposition and respective 
thickness of each bed, but also the colours of the various beds. Mr. 
Young explained the several parts of the section, and pointed out, 
the position of the various coals which lie between the ‘ Upper Coal’ 
of the Lanarkshire basin and the ‘ Virgin Coal.’ In reference to the 
colours of the various sandstones, shales, and seams of coal which 
were represented in the section, producing an extremely variegated 
column, beautiful in its variously tinted stratification, Mr. Young 
remarked that few persons unacquainted with the subject would 
readily believe that such a variety of rocks and colouring were to 
be met with in sinking an ordinary coal-pit; while by those who 
had studied the subject, and were convinced that each of these many 
coal-seams represented an ancient land-surface, on which was accu- 
mulated, from the growth of vegetable matter, those deposits now 
forming our coal-beds, and that the sandstones represented long 
periods of submergence, while the material forming them was being 
slowly deposited in sea, estuary, or lake—no doubt could be felt as 
to the immense time required for, and the great antiquity of, their 
formation. 

Mr. Skipsey shortly explained the relation of the coal-beds repre- 


Reports and Proceedings. 13] 


sented in the section to the ‘ Ell’ and other well-known seams in the 
neighbourhood. 

Mr. J. Rerp read a paper On Continuous Internal, Vertical, and 
Horizontal Movements in the Earth’s Crust, referring to cracks, 
joints, ‘ slickensides,’ ‘lypes,’ and ‘lunkers’ in the Coal-measures as 
evidence ; and regarding the ‘underclays ’ as being material of conti- 
guous beds ground down by pressure. The ‘ waves without wind’ in 
Lochs Lomond and Tay, the apparently causeless tremulousness of 
water and leaves, cracking of walls, shrinking of lintels in houses, 
the giving way of embankments, &c., were also referred to as being 
often the results of internal movements of the earth’s crust. 

Mr. R. Sxipsey read a paper On some of the Trap-rocks and 
Minerals of the Cathkin Hills, of igneous origin, ranging east and 
west a little south from Rutherglen. ‘The quarries opened about 
the middle of the range exhibit many varieties of igneous rock, and 
the minerals usually accompanying such. These consist of columnar 
and amorphous basalt, several varieties of greenstone and por- 
phyries. Among the minerals are heliotrope or green jasper, 
amethyst, rock-crystal, calcareous spar, and deep-green talcose 
chlorite. Several varieties of the rocks are very fine, the columnar 
basalt especially, being a mass of beautiful columns at present laid 
open to a depth of 30 feet, but going downwards about 80 more. 
They are as perfect in form as those of Staffa and the Giant’s Cause- 
way, and are from two to three feet diameter, the prisms being four- 
and five-sided, and in several other parts of the hills the form is 
equally perfect. The tops of the columns exhibit a fine illustration 
of the effects of the Boulder-drift, the groovings of which are 
remarkably regular. 

It is a matter of deep regret to geologists and admirers of natural 
scenery to see these fine monuments of antiquity destroyed, even for 
the useful purpose of keeping the roads in repair, and it would be 
no great sacrifice to the proprietor to leave some portion of these 
majestic columns of basalt standing. 

Mr. Jonn Dennison exhibited a vertical section, 16 feet long, of 
all the various geological formations, with a centre column of coloured 
drawings of fossil organisms; showing at a glance the order, com- 
position, the minerals, metallic ores, and characteristic fossils of 
each formation. This section, drawn by Mr. A. Dennison, Edin- 
burgh, was much admired for the artistic excellence of its execution 
and design. 


Norwicu GronocicaLt Society; in connection with the Norfolk 
and Norwich Museum.—On January 3rd the usval monthly meeting 
was held, the Rev. John Gunn, F.G.S., President, in the chair. 
The discussion on the specific differences between V'rogontherium 
Cuvieri, the Beaver of the Cambridgeshire Fens, and the recent 
Beaver, was resumed by Mr. Harper. Some fine remains of the 
Beaver from the Fens, and a magnificent tusk of Trogontherium 
from the Norwich Crag, were produced by Mr. Robert Fitch, F.G.S. 
Mr. Harper observed that there was a decrease in the size of the 
tusks from the Trogontherium to the Fen specimens, and equally so 

K2. 


132 Reports and Proceedings. 


from the Fen specimens to the recent. A question was raised as to 
whether Castor Europeus had ever been obtained from the Forest- 
bed. ‘The smaller specimens might probably belong to younger and 
not full-grown Trogontheria. The greater proportionate size of the 
posterior molar tooth in the lower jaw of Trogontherium was pointed 
out by Mr. Gunn as a mark of difference from Castor Europeus. 
It is remarkable that in the Bacton specimen (a cast of which was 

_ presented to the Norwich Museum by the Rey. S. W. King., F.G.S., 
of Saxlingham Rectory), and in every other already described 
specimen, this tooth is missing. It is less firmly fixed in the jaw 
than the other molars; and in Mr. Gunn’s specimen it had been 
loose and had dropped out since it had come into his possession. ‘This 
may be regarded as a satisfactory proof of the correct view of 
Professor Owen with respect to the difference between T'vogon- 
therium and Castor Europeus; and M. Lartet is not correct in 
stating, ‘in a note to ‘Cavernes du Périgord’ (page 21), that Palzon- 
tologists have not made any distinction between the two. The atten- 
tion of the members of the Society was specially directed to 
the collecting of these interesting remains. 

A paper was then read by Mr. A. W. Morant, F.G.S., on the 
Formation of Flint in Chalk. We had, in the first instance, com- 
piled, for his own information, all that had been written by the best 
authorities on the subject, and it had occurred to him that the 
compilation miglit be useful and acceptable to the members of the 
Society (as it certainly was). The subject is one of great interest, 
and was well discussed. As an illustration of the theory of segrega- 
tion of the siliceous particles from the calcareous mud, Mr. Bayfield 
stated that in the manufacture of pottery; where the pounded 
calcined flints are mixed with pipe-clay into a plastic mass, if the 
latter be allowed to stand a few days, the silica will be aggregated 
into nodules. Mr. Braidman stated that under a temperature 
exhibiting a pressure of sixty pounds, in an alkaline solution, flint 
became perfectly soluble. Mr. ‘Taylor showed that the silica dissolved ° 
in sea-water, therefore, is the storehouse whence the Diatomacez 
obtain their supply, whilst their shields, accumulating on the ocean- 
bottom, would form nodules and bands as in the case of the Chalk- 
formation._—J. T. & T. G. B. 


BristoL NaTuRALISts’ Society.—I. December 7th, 1864.—At 
the Thirty-second Ordinary Monthly Meeting, Mr. W. Sanders, 
President, in the chair, the Secretary announced the election of eight 
new members, and brought forward a resolution of the Council 
relative to the formation of a Scientific Library by Voluntary 
Subscription. Mr. D. Davis read a paper On the Natural History 
of the Inhabitants of the British Isles. 


Il. Geological Section, Nov. 25th.—Mr. W. Sanders in the chair. 
It was resolved that the day of meeting be altered from the fourth 
Friday to the fourth Thursday in the month. An indiscriminate 
series of fossils from rocks below the Devonian were placed upon the 
table for examination, and the President proposed that each evening 


fieports and Proceedings. Tas 


should be devoted to the study of one special class of fossils, so that 
ultimately the members might become familiar with many, if not all, 
of the extinct remains, and therefore he, in conjunction with Mr. 
Stoddart, exhibited, as a commencement, examples of the oldest 
known forms of animal life, indicating their locality in this neigh- 
bourhood. Thus, at Tortworth all the characteristic Lower Silurian 
fossils, as found in Wales, might be obtained ; and there also, as 
well as at a point between Longhope and Grange Court Stations, 
on the South Wales Railway, a large number, if not all, of the 
Upper Silurian corals were to be found. A slab of stone from 
the Wren’s Nest, Dudley, was thus shown, containing a great 
number and variety of Wenlock limestone (Upper Silurian) fossils, 
among which we may name Cenites labrosus, Alveolites repens, 
Atrypa reticulata, Retzia cuneata, R. defiexa, Fenestella asimilis, 
and Rhynchonella borealis. After some discussion upon these, Mr. 
Stoddart exhibited a perfect specimen of Calymene Blumenbachit, 
found at Martley, Worcestershire; also Nummulina levigata, and 
Alveolina Boscii, which he had obtained in the Eocene beds of 
Sussex; and, lastly, Pusulina cylindrica, from the Russian Carboni- 
ferous Limestone. 

HiIl. At the Monthly Meeting, January 12th, Mr. W. Sanders in 
the chair, Mr. Hanpret CossHam read a paper On the Pennant 
Formation of the Bristol Coal-field. The term ‘ Pennant’ was applied 
to a well-defined band of sandstone occurring between the Upper 
and Lower Coal-measures, varying very much in colour—dark- 
brown, reddish, and grey—but easily worked for paving and other 
purposes, and remarkable for the quantity of water it contains, 
which rendered the working of coal in or under the Pennant more 
difficult than above it. The Coal-measures might be roughly 
divided into three series :—1, the coal itself, of which there were 50 
seams at Radstock, with an aggregate thickness of 90 feet; 2, the 
coal-shales, argillaceous strata, which contained the most delicate 
fossils ; and, 3, sandstones, of which the Pennant was one, specially 
defined, and below which they were not so numerous, thick, or 
coarse as above it. The author then stated his belief that the 
Bristol, South-Wales, and Forest of Dean Coal-fields had in former 
times been part of one and the same, and he showed that the coal 
itself might be divided into five series—Radstoeck and Faringdon 
Gurney, under which came the Pennant; and then the Kingswood, 
Bedminster, and Ashton series, lying upon the Millstone-grit, which 
embraced the whole. With the aid of a map, Mr. Cossham traced 
the course of the Pennant round the Coalpit-heath field, and pointed 
out how entirely its dip was everywhere conformable with the dip 
of the coal-strata, and that, with a slight exception, the circuit was 
complete at the surface of the ground; while in the Somersetshire 
coal-field the Coal-measures were covered by Oolite, Lias, and New 
Red Sandstone ; and the Pennant only appeared at the surface in 
two places, owing to upheavals. Near Kingswood a great upheaval 
had taken place, due east and west, and the Pennant had even been 
denuded: it appeared again, however, at Crew’s Hole, and dipped 


134 Reports and Proceedings. 


thence under Keynsham into Somerset. Having alluded to the fact 
that a very rich lode of iron-ore had recently been discovered in 
the Pennant at Frampton Cotterell, and that good coal had been found 
in it in some places, the author proceeded to inquire into the source 
of this remarkable bed. He was disposed to regard it as having 
been formed chiefly by the denudation of the Old Red Sandstone, 
and during the action of a more violent sea than that which assisted 
to form the Coal-measures above and below it. It was destitute of 
fauna, but abounded in remains of hardy and less succulent plants, a 
list of which Mr. Cossham promised to complete and forward to the 
Society. 

A discussion on this able paper then ensued, in the course of 
which Mr. Stoddart referred to the presence of mica in the 
Pennant, and of remains of Carboniferous Limestone. Mr. W. 
Sanders then spoke of the occurrence of beds of drift-coal, and even 
of pebbles of coal, in the Pennant, and in the Upper Coal-measures, 
which seemed to imply that the Lower Coal-measures had had time 
enough to consolidate, had then been partially elevated to form a 
sea-shore, battered about, before the deposition of the Upper Coal- 
measures. Mr. Cossham, in corroboration of this view, stated that 
the coals above the Pennant were bituminous, and below it anthra- 
citic ; and that the pebbles of coal and the coal-drift found in the 
Upper Measures were anthracitic, proving that they must have come 
from the Lower, He also stated his belief, in answer to a question 
by Mr. Stoddart, that the Severn was at one time wide enough to 
denude the strata on the side of Coalpit-heath nearest to it. 

Mr. W. W. Sroppart then read a paper On British Fossil Land 
and Freshwater Mollusca. 

IV. Geological Section, Dee. 22.--_Mr. W. Sanders, President, 
in the chair. Mr. Krat read a paper On the Cambrian and Cam- 
bro- Silurian Strata ; followed by an account of The Paleontology 
of the Earlier Epochs of the Earth’s History, by Mr. W. W. Stop- 
DART.—W. L. C. 


Berrast Firip-Natoracists’ Cius.—The Third Evening Meeting 
of this Society for this session was held in December, Professor 
Wyville Thomson in the chair. Mr. Wi~tiam Gray read a paper 
on the Megaceros Hibernicus, commonly known as the Irish Elk, 
with special reference to the specimen lately found at Island- 
magee, Co. Antrim. Mr. Gray introduced the subject with some 
remarks on the geological age of the animal in relation with the age 
of man ; and stated that similar remains were abundant in the centre 
of Ireland and in the Isle of Man, and occurred also in England. 
He treated of raised sea-beaches and their relation to Eskers, and 
showed that the ossiferous accumulations in caverns were successive 
deposits after the Drift-period. The finding of the Megaceros in 
Islandmagee was fully described. A great distinction, the author 
pointed out, existed between it and the Elk proper, the Reindeer, 
and the Fallow-deer, to which species it was most closely allied. 
The dimensions of the Megaceros found at Islandmagee were very 


Correspondence. 135 


considerable. The length of the left antler is 3 feet 9 inches; of 
the right antler, 4 feet. The first branch was 2 feet long, the next 
was 20 inches; there was another 17 inches long, and the last was 
9 inches, the rest being broken off. The distance from tip to tip 
was almost 9 feet, but the palm was broken off. The Museum 
of the town of Banbridge, Co. Down, has lately been enriched by 
a perfect specimen of this species, obtained in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood. 

At the meeting on Feb. 2, a paper was read by the President, 
G. C. Hyndman, Esq., On Field-Naturalists’ Clubs, and how they 
should be carried on.—R. T. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
—— 
1. FORMER EXTENSION OF THE COAL-MEASURES. 
To the Editor of the GEoLoGicaAL MaGaziIneE. 


Srr,—There are some ‘auld-warld’ notions in Geology, resting on 
the authority of great names, or on that of a former general accep- 
tation, which every now and then reappear, to the no small astonish- 
ment of those who had deemed them long ago tacitly abandoned. 
Two of these notions crop out in the genial and excellent review of 
Professor Ramsay’s Lectures in your last number. These are, Ist. 
That our present coal-basins were originally formed as basins, like 
that of the Miocene basin of Bovey Tracey. 2ndly. That ripple- 
mark (more properly ‘ripple’ or ‘current-mark’) proves the neigh- 
bourhood of a ‘sea-margin.’ 

A ripple on the surface of a bed proves the existence of a current 
in the water that flowed over it, just as a ripple on the surface of 
the water proves the existence of a current in the air that flows 
over it. It is only an evidence of the shallowness of that water to 
this extent, that currents of the requisite strength are more frequent 
in shallow water than in deep. Possibly, in very deep water, even 
if there were a current at the bottom, the pressure of the water 
might prevent the heaping up of the little ridges ; but this is a point 
of physics on which I offer no opinion. 

As to the Coal-measures, I would declare, as a practical geologist, 
my belief that wherever in the British Islands there is Carboniferous 
Limestone, it was formerly covered by Coal-measures in some form 
or other; and, moreover, that wherever there is true Old Red 
Sandstone, it was formerly covered by the rest of the Carboniferous 
formation in some form or other. 

The South-Welsh Coal-field must formerly have been continuous 
with that of the Forest of Dean, and with that of the Clee Hills and 
Shropshire; the Malvern and other hills rising, perhaps, through it 
like islands. The Coal-measures of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire 
must once have spread over what is now the great northern anticlinal 
to those of Cheshire and Lancashire ; and there can be no doubt 
that these now spread, in a more or less ruined condition, beneath 


136 Correspondence. 


the New Red Sandstone plain of Cheshire to those of North Wales. 
But more than that, I take it that the patch of Carboniferous Lime- 
stone near Corwen, together with the Flintshire escarpments, makes 
it almost certain that the whole Carboniferous formation spread 
formerly over the greater part of North Wales, with just a few 
island-peaks of older rocks, perhaps, rising up through it. In short, 
I believe that, with the possible exception of a few isolated points 
there and elsewhere, as in Cumberland and about the Southern 
Highlands of Scotland, the whole of the Southern half of Scotland 
and all England and Wales were, at the close of the Carboniferous 
period, covered by level and continuous sheets of Coal-measures. 

Local thinnings and thickening of the beds there were, doubtless, 
in all directions. 

As to Ireland, I have long taught in my lectures, and I believe 
demonstrated, that, with the exception of a few small isolated peaks 
of the Older Paleozoic rocks, it also was at the same period one 
great plain of Coal-measures, whether above or under water. 

How far the Carboniferous Limestone of the Isle of Man proves 
that the English and Irish Carboniferous formations were then 
connected across what is now the Irish Sea, I forbear to decide. 
My own private opinion is that they were more or less connected, 
just as at a later period the Red Marls and Lias of Antrim were 
continuous with those of Cheshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucester. 

I almost fear that I am writing what to many persons will appear 
mere common-place truisms; but the expressions of your Reviewer 
have induced me to run the risk of that imputation rather than that 
any persons should retain what I believe to be erroneous and narrow 
views in our science. 

The portions of the Paleozoic rocks still left in our islands are only 
the mere ruined fragments and foundations of those that once existed. 
The hole in the Chalk that occurs in the Wealden district excites 
attention because, from its comparatively slight extent, people can 
see that it is a hole, while the far more extensive destruction of the 
older rocks has been so great that the former continuity of their 
fragments is ignored or discredited.—Yours, &c., 

J. BEETE JUKES. 

Dupuy: Feb. 6, 1868. 


2. CARBONIFEROUS SANDSTONE WITH SURFACE-MARKS. 
[Plate IV.] 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,— Having lately obtained a slab of one of the Carboniferous 
sandstones (a few feet below the ‘ Yard-seam’ and above the ‘ Five- 
quarter-seam’ at Bowden-close, in the Bishop-Auckland Coal-field, 
Co. Durham), which bears about fifty impressed hoof-shaped marks, 
and not being aware that any such markings, usually supposed to be 
foot-prints of some-animal, have been found lower down than the 


Geol. Mag., 1865. Plate IV. 


Marxines on tue Surrace or SANDSTONE. 


Correspondence. 137 


New Red Sandstone, I have sent you a photograph (PI. IV.) of the 
surface of the slab, showing both large and small marks, just as if 
an old hoofed animal and several young ones had crossed the sand. 
The slab is 15 inches by 12; and as it has formed part of a pave- 
ment in the village of Crook for about seven years, it has been 
somewhat foot-worn. The sandstone from which the slab comes is 
thick-bedded and good for building above, and laminated lower 
down in layers from 14 to 4 inches thick, of a whitey-brown 
colour, and used for flagging. The marked surfaces of the sandstone 
are often covered by a seam of sandy clay from 1 to 3 inches thick. 
—Yours, &c. _ JosepH Durr. 
Hounter-Hix Corracr, Ernerty, near BrsHop-Aucktanp: Dec. 14, 1864. 


Notre.—Semicircular impressions, with a raised border, but of 
larger size than those noticed by Mr. Duff, have been described by 
Mr. Babbage, in the Proceed. Geol. Soc., vol. ii. p. 439, as occurring 
in the Farewell Rock (Millstone-grit) of South Wales ; and others 
have been noticed in the Old Red Sandstone of Forfarshire, where 
they have been known as ‘ Kelpies’ Feet.’ (Lyell.) 

The sand resting against stranded Meduse on a beach, and against 
the hoof-shaped egg-cases of Natice, has been suggested (by Lyell) 
as a possible cause for such markings.—Epir. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV. 


Surface-marks on a slab of Carboniferous Sandstone, from near Bishop- 
Auckland, rather less than half the natural size. Fac-simile (on zinc) of 
a Photograph. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Srr,— May I be allowed to suggest that part of the GEOLOGICAL 
Macazine be devoted to Notes and Queries? They would prove a 
source of much interest to country Geologists, and form a medium of 
communication between distant subscribers. No doubt many points 
of interest are lost from the fact that local observers have no 
medium through which they may explain their doubts and confess 
their ignorances. Would you, Mr. Editor, put yourself out of the 
way to answer questions touching facts of geological interest, not 
generally known, and will you allow me to close this letter with one 
or two queries? 

1. What is the present generally received opinion as to the origin 
and formation of Flints in Chalk; and where can I find the latesé 
accounts of them? [See the Report of the Norwich Geological 
Society, at p. 182; also Lyell’s new edition of the ‘ Elements of 
Geology’ just out. ] 

2. Which is the highest chalk in England, and what relation does 
it bear to the Maestricht Beds? [The Norwich Chalk ; but some- 
what older than that of Maestricht. | 

8. Required a classified stratigraphical account of the Chalk- 
formation. [See the Notice of M. Reyneés’ Memoir, at p. 113. ] 

Yours, &c., G.D 


138 Correspondence. 


P.S. I have consulted Conybeare and Phillips’s account of the 
Chalk of Dover and Thanet, Mantell’s account of the Geology of 
Sussex and S. E. of England, and Sir C. Lyell’s ‘ Manual of Geo- 
logy,’ 5th edition and Supplement, 1857, on this subject, and am 
asking for later information. 

[Instead of replying at large to the above queries, the Epiror 
refers to the indicated articles in the GroLocicaL Magazine, and 
will be glad to receive replies from Correspondents. | 


BELGIAN BONE-CAVES. 


To the Editor of the GnotogicaL MAGAZINE. 


Srr,—In a recent number of the ‘ Times’ there is an extract from 
‘Galignani’s Messenger,’ stating that, in a paper addressed to the 
Belgian Academy of Sciences, M. Van Beneden gives an account of 
some human and animal remains discovered by him in a grotto in 
the Valley of the Lesse. The human bones were found together 
with those of bears, oxen, horses, rezndeer, beavers, several beasts of 
prey, birds, fish, &c. 

You would greatly oblige many of your readers if you would give 
them some account of this grotto, and the fossil remains found in it, 
and state your theory with respect to them. Your obedient servant, 

Tuomas Dawson. 

Lonpon: January 18, 1865. 


Note.—Brief notices by M. Van Beneden of this and neighbouring 
bone-caves are given in the ‘Reader’ of Jan. 7th and Feb. 11th. 
The points of special interest appear to be :—1. ‘The discovery of 
another district, besides that of Central and Southern France, where 
the Reindeer (now confined to Arctic regions) existed with Man in 
prehistoric times; 2. The finding of well-preserved bones (especially 
skulls, indicating possibly two races) of the Men of that period; 3. 
The probability of water having flooded the cave since its contents 
were deposited therein; 4. The height of the cave above the Lesse 
(some 40 yards) in the cliffs of Mountain-limestone, without any 
other entrance than in front. 

If the river flooded the cave, a great change of level must have 
been brought about in the valley since Man first inhabited it; but 
without further details, or personal inspection, it is impossible to 
form a definite opinion as to the mode of occupation of these caves, 
and of the imbedding of the bones, &c. Probably, as in the South 
of France and elsewhere, the old people lived by the chase, keeping 
their food and cooking it in the caves, and leaving bones, shells, 
tools, and weapons, broken pottery, &c., mixed up with the rubbish 
and dirt: accident, neglect, and massacre may have left human bones 
in the same refuse-heaps. Such caves were entered by rough-cut 
steps, and natural ledges, with holes for wooden pegs, and perhaps 
ropes of hide or sinew were used: rain and frost, however, have 
removed such surface-marks. These Belgian caves yield pottery, 
which is unknown as yet in the Caves of Dordogne.—Epir. G. M. 


Correspondence.— Miscellaneous. 139 


To the Editor of the GroLocicaAL MAGAZINE. 


Srr,—In Greenough’s Geological Map of England and Wales, a 
‘Burning Well’ near Broseley is noted. Can you tell me if it still 
exists, or something of its history ?—SALop. 


DIsAPPEARANCE OF AN IstAND.—The Indian papers report that 
one of the Maldive Islands, about 100 miles from Cannanore, on 
the Malabar coast, has suddenly disappeared. Such a phenomenon 
is not of unusual occurrence, it is said, several islands having been 
seen by the crews of vessels to sink. The Rajah of Cannanore, it 
appears, is a loser to the extent of three lakhs of rupees by this 
casualty. Some fishermen living on the island went out in the 
morning; on their return in the evening they found that their homes 
were gone. Are these islands altogether formed of Coral? and do 
they fall away by being undermined by the sea?—Enquirer. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 
ee 


At the Annual Meeting of the GroLocicaL Socirty or Lonpon, 
on February 17, W. J. Hamilton, Esq., President, in the chair, the 
Secretary read the Reports of the Council, of the Museum and 
Library Committee, and of the Auditors. 

The remarkable increase in the numbers of the Society and the con- 
dition of the Society’s finances were stated to be very satisfactory. 
The President announced the award of the Wollaston Gold Medal to 
Thomas Davidson, F.R.S., &c., for the highly important services he 
has rendered through many years to the Science of Geology by his 
critical and philosophical works on Fossil Brachiopoda; and, in hand- 
ing the medal to that distinguished Paleontologist, he commented on 
the valuable contributions to science furnished by that gentleman to 
the volumes of the Paleontographical Society, remarking that their 
value was much enhanced in consequence of the illustrations having 
been drawn by the author himself. Mr. Davidson, on receiving the 
medal, requested the President to convey his sincere thanks to the 
Council for the great honour they had done him by this award, 
which was the more welcome as it came to him from the hands of 
one who is at the same time the President of both the Geological 
and the Palzontographical Societies. The President then stated 
that the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation-fund 
had been awarded to J. W. Salter, Esq., F.G.S., &c., in recognition of 
his valuable services in the elucidation of Paleozoic fossils, and to 
assist him in completing his Monograph on British Trilobites, and 
placed it, together with a diploma to that effect, in the hands of the 
eminent recipient. Mr. Salter briefly thanked the Society for this 
testimony of their approbation. 

THE SOUTHERN Counties Association for the Encouragement 
of Agriculture, Arts, Science, Manufactures, and Commerce, 
lately established, will have for the second of its five Departments 


140 Miscellaneous. 


—Natural History, Local Geology, Botany, and Horticulture. The 
Meetings will be held in the counties of Hants, Berks, Oxford, 
Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, in succession. ‘The counties of Wilts, 
Dorset, &c., are already included in the Bath and West of England 
Society. 


FossiL-HUNTING Geologists may like to be informed that the late 
gales have laid bare a vast tract of the line of cliffs extending 
between Milfcrd and Christchurch, known as the Barton and 
Beacon Cliffs, abounding in marine and freshwater deposits, of 
Middle and Upper Eocene Age. ‘The late gales have also wrought 
a great change in the shingle-bed connecting Hurst Castle with 
the main-land. This natural breakwater, 200 feet high, has been 
broken through by the sea, and Hurst Castle at high water now 
stands on an island. 

Burntisland also, in the Firth of Forth, has had its shores much 
affected by the storms of this winter. 


A New Coat-FIELD IN YORKSHIRE.—An important discovery, 
likely to change entirely the aspect of the district, is stated to have 
been made in the Vale of Mowbray, near Thirsk, North Riding. At 
a place known as ‘ Nevison Farm’ it has been found that coal exists ; 
and as the geological contour and formation are much like that of 
the great Durham Coal-basin, it is conjectured that the southern 
limit of that deposit may be at Thirsk. It is further reported that 
signs of the existence of copper-ore had also been discovered in the 
same neighbourhood. Of course the discovery of coal in so close 
a proximity to the great ironstone-deposits of the Yorkshire Moor- 
lands would be of the highest benefit to that district of the North 
Riding. 

ENTOMOSTRACA IN CopROLITES.—A very fine take of a rare and 
comparatively large Entomostracan—Cypridina Rankineana—has 
recently been made by Mr. John Young, of Glasgow. In breaking 
up a coprolite from a shale-bed in the Lower Carboniferous series 
at Carluke, he obtained no less than 300 specimens of this species ; 
nearly all of them perfect and well preserved. The coprolite was 
two inches in length and one inch in breadth. Previous to the dis- 
covery of these specimens, only a single example of this Cypridina 
was known to exist. 

Note.—This association of Bivalved Entomostraca and Fishes 
reminds us of Dr. Baird’s remarks ‘on the food of some freshwater 
Fishes,’ in the Berwicksh. Club Transact., where he describes at 
least two new species got out of the stomachs of Trout.—EpirTor. 


Triassic REPTILES IN THE NatTronaL CoLitection.—The British 
Museum has recently secured the unique and interesting remains of 
Teratosaurus Suevicus, found in the Upper Keuper Sandstone near 
Stuttgart, and described and figured by Hermann von Meyer in 
the ‘ Paleontographica,’ vol. vii. p. 258, pl. xlv. 

The only remains of this singular Triassic Reptile at present known 
are a portion of the head (consisting of the maxillary, nasal, and 


Miscellaneous. 141 


orbital bones), two detached teeth, and probably a coracoid. The 
maxillary has thirteen alveoli, at the base of each of which is a 
large external vascular foramen for the passage of the nerves and 
vessels from the dental canal to the outer integuments, and by which 
the base of the enclosed teeth are visible: of these there are several 
in situ, either fully developed or as germs. The teeth are the most 
interesting portions preserved, as they possess all the external cha- 
racters of those of the Megalosaurus, and detached specimens might 
easily be mistaken for teeth of the latter reptile. According to 
H. von Meyer, the remains are of true Lacertian type, having some 
affinities to the existing genera Stellion and Uromastiz. 

From the same collection and locality were also obtained the 
fragmentary remains of the equally rare Chelonian Reptile Chely- 
therium obscurum, yon Meyer.—W. D. 


SuppEN DeEstTRuUCTION OF Marine AnImMALS.—Having often been 
puzzled to comprehend the manner in which, in some instances, large 
numbers of marine animals, such as Cuttle-fishes, Crabs, Lobsters, 
and even Fish and Reptiles, have in past ages suddenly perished in 
their own element and been entombed, probably on or near the 
very spots where they had been hatched, and which they had fre- 
quented all their lives, it has occurred to me that any suggestions as 
to causes now in operation which might have produced then, as now, 
the same result, will not be unwelcome to the Geological student. 
In the ‘Principles of Geology’ (7th edit. 1847) Sir C. Lyell men- 
tions (p. 743), among other causes, the shifting of currents, which 
might result in the carrying away of banks of sand and mud, 
habitats of vast colonies of cockles and other mollusks; and the effect 
of a storm in tearing up and casting ashore from their more solid 
bed great heaps of the edible oyster in the estuary of the Firth of 
Forth in 1831, and numbers of living whelks. 

At Stornoway, in the Island of Lewis, the largest of the Hebrides, 
is a depot for Fishermen, from whence vast quantities of Lobsters 
are every week despatched by steam-packet to Glasgow (a distance 
of 250 miles). These crustaceous delicacies are not packed until 
the latest moment, being required to reach London ‘strong alive,’ 
During the week the daily ‘catches’ are placed in large wooden 
boxes (perforated on every side so as to allow a free current of water 
to pass through them), and sunk in the sea at the end of the pier 
within the bay. On one occasion, when more than 1,000 lobsters 
had been so boxed up, a heavy fall of rain during the night brought 
down so much fresh water that in the morning every lobster was 
found dead, and the whole were sold, at a heavy loss, within the 
island. 

My friend Mr. Day, of Charmouth, informs me that after the sud- 
den thaw at the end of January and the beginning of February this 
year, such large floods of snow-water flowed into the sea along the 
Dorsetshire coast, that immense numbers of the ‘ Poulpe’ (Octopus 
vulgaris) have been killed and washed ashore at Charmouth. Is it 
not probable that these sudden influxes of fresh water—especially 


142 Obituary—Dr. Falconer. 


when at a much lower temperature, and charged with sediment— 
may have produced similar results in past times, as now, and may 
to a great extent explain the occurrence of marine organisms in a 
very abundant and unusually perfect state ?—H. W. 

Note.—Sir W. Denison has remarked (Geol. Soc. Journ., vol. xviii. 
p- 453) that the great rains of the S.W. Monsoon periodically de- 
stroy millions of fish and other marine creatures off the coast of 
India. Severe frosts during low tides are highly destructive to the 
Littoral zone of sea-life, as noticed by Hugh Miller and others; and 
Volcanic emanations also destroy animals and plants far and wide 
in both deep and shallow seas.—Epir. Grou. Mag. 


SoutH Kernsineton Musrum.—A large part of the collections 
illustrative of building materials and construction, recently exhibited 
in the temporary iron building at South Kensington, has been re- 
moved to the South Arcades of the Royal Horticultural Society’s 
Gardens, where it will be again exhibited to the public, and the 
usual facilities for study and comparison afforded, as soon as the 
necessary arrangements can be made. 


OxsrituaRy Notice. 


Hues Farconer,* A.M., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., Vich-PRE- 
SIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND FOREIGN SECRETARY OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL Socrety.—We have this month to record the death and 
to give a dim outline of the outer life of one of the first palzeontolo- 
gists of the day. Would that it were in our power to penetrate a 
little more deeply beneath the surface he showed to society! But, 
though regretting that we cannot give a more definite picture of his 
mind, we rejoice at being enabled to sketch, even thus faintly, some 
of the principal results it produced. 

Hugh Falconer was born, on February 29, 1808, at Forres, near 
the banks of the Findhorn, in the North of Scotland. In the Gram- 
mar School of that town he commenced his education, and afterwards 
studied for four years at the University of Aberdeen, receiving in 
due course the degree of A.M. He then studied medicine and natu- 
ral history for a similar term at the University of Edinburgh; his 
early taste for the latter subject being greatly stimulated by attend- 
ance on the lectures of Professors Jameson and Graham. He then 
received, in 1829, the degree of M.D., and obtained the diploma of 
the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Being immediately 
appointed an Assistant-Surgeon on the Bengal Establishment, but 
not having reached the required age of twenty-two, he employed 
the interval in botanical and geological studies; and this led the 
way to his first contribution to paleontology. 

In the Museum of the Geological Society of London, Dr. Fal- 
coner was enabled to study some remains of fossil Mammalia from 


* Many of the incidents contained in this sketch are taken from a very complete 
notice which appeared simultaneously in the ‘Reader’ and ‘ Atheneum,’ for Febru- 
ary 11, 1866. 


Obituary—Dr. Falconer. 143 


Ava, the description of which, by Mr. Clift, was then exeiting con- 
siderable interest; and soon after his arrival in Calcutta, he himself 
undertook the description of another collection of fossil bones from 
the same country, and published a paper on them in 1831. 

Having thus broken ground, he was not slow in following up the 
line of inquiry he had commenced; and in the following year, in 
company with Captain, now Sir, Proby Cautley, he began the Ex- 
ploration of the Sewalik Hills. This investigation led to such 
important results, that in 1837 the Council of the Geological Society 
awarded Dr. Falconer and his coadjutor the ‘ Wollaston Medal,’ the 
highest honour, purely geological, that a geologist can receive, and 
a fit reward for the successful carrying out of a difficult investiga- 
tion in the midst of arduous official duties. At this time Dr. Fal- 
coner was Superintendent of the Suharunpoor Botanic Garden, and 
consequently prosecuted a variety of botanical researches, chiefly in 
connection with the subject of tea-cultivation in India. It was on 
one of the Exploring Expeditions to which he was attached at this 
time, that he examined the great Indian glaciers; and what he then 
observed he recently used with great effect in the discussions 
on the glacier-erosion hypothesis, of which he was a strenuous 
opponent. 

In 1843, Dr. Falconer arrived in England on sick-leave, and while 
here he found ample occupation in arranging his Sewalik collections, 
in the British Museum and the India House. He also commenced 
the celebrated ‘ Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis,’ of which nine parts of 
the Atlas were published ; but unfortunately only one instalment of 
the descriptive letter-press ever appeared. Besides this great work, 
he published a number of memoirs on different portions of the Se- 
walik fossil fauna, and some botanical papers. In 1847, his leave 
having expired, Dr. Falconer returned to India, and the year follow- 
ing, on the retirement of the late Dr. Wallich, he was appointed 
Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. Botanical ques- 
tions connected with his duties now occupied most of his time; but 
in 1854, in conjunction with Mr. Henry Walker, he undertook a 
‘Descriptive Catalogue of the Fossil Collections in the Museum of 
the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ which was published separately 
in 1859. Retiring from the Indian Service in 1855, he returned to 
England, visiting the Holy Land, Turkey, and the Crimea, en 
route. “ 

Now began the series of researches which has of late years ren- 
dered Dr. Falconer’s name so famous, and his opinion so autho- 
ritative. In 1857, the first part of a memoir ‘On the Species of 
Mastodon and Elephant occurring in the Fossil State in England’ 
was published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 
(vol. xiii. p. 808) ; it was quickly followed by the second part, which, 
however, was only published in abstract. This is also the case, 
most unfortunately for paleontology, with the majority of his suc- 
ceeding memoirs, the chief exceptions being the two papers on 
Plagiaulax, and a farther memoir on Elephants (Natural History 
Review, 1863). 


144 Obituary—Dr. Falconer. 


During the last few years Dr. Falconer devoted himself almost 
exclusively to the question of the Antiquity of Man; and every- 
thing he did in this subject was rightly looked upon as highly 
important. 

On his return from Sicily, in June 1859, the results of his labours 
in the Grotto di Maccagnone were laid before the Geological Society 
at an Extraordinary Meeting, so important were they deemed by the 
Council of the Society; while the great interest they excited 
amongst geologists generally was made manifest by the audience on 
that occasion being perhaps the most numerous in the recollection 
of the oldest Fellow; and on this occasion many understood for the 
first time, both how flint flakes fit for use could be prepared, and 
their Geological value as evidence of the Antiquity of Man. As we 
have already remarked, it is most unfortunate that he published 
only short abstracts of his researches on the Grotto di Maccagnone, 
the Gower Caves, and many other subjects. 

The very last subject of his investigation was the nature of the 
Canadian fossil elephant (the so-called Elephas Jacksoni). Sir W. 
E. Logan had caused a cast of the original specimen, comprising 
the whole of the right ramus of the lower jaw, and a portion of the left, 
to be taken, and sent to England for the purpose of obtaining Dr. 
Falconer’s opinion on its specific affinities. Scarcely more than a 
fortnight before his death, he spent nearly three hours at the Mu- 
seum of the Geological Society in a patient examination of this cast; 
but, with his habitual caution, he declined to give any opinion as to 
the species of Elephant to which the Canadian fossil belonged. He 
died on the morning of the 31st of January, and was buried at 
Kensal Green Cemetery on February 4th. 

That Dr. Falconer was a great paleontologist no onedoubts. He 
was also a most original thinker, eloquent and fluent as a speaker, 
logical in argument, and cautious and scrupulously exact, as a 
paleontologist should be. His opinion was always received with 
a remarkable degree of deference; for he spoke with authority, his 
statements being based on original research, with a wide and critical 
knowledge of the labours and opinions of others, used with judi- 
cious caution, and conscientiously acknowledged. His wonderful 
command of language, his scorching satire, and his readiness at 
repartee, made him a most formidable opponent both in debate and 
in written controversy, and several of his hard hits doubtless linger 
in the minds of those who have been so unfortunate as to hold opi- 
nions ‘ diametrically opposed’ to his own. 

Notwithstanding this, he was remarkably kind, even fatherly, to 
young men who sought his advice. In such cases he took as much 
trouble to master the whole question as he would have done had it 
been of the greatest scientific or private importance ; and we doubt 
not that most of the younger followers in his footsteps have some 
special cause for remembering with gratitude and affection the name 
of Hugh Falconer. 


_ THE 


GHOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. X.—APRIL 1865. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
——_}——_ 

I. Description oF PorTIONS OF JAWS OF A LARGE EXTINCT 
Fisa (Srerzopus Metirensis, Ow.), PROBABLY A ‘CyYCLOID’ 
witH ‘Savuroip DENTITION,’ FROM THE ‘MIDDLE BrpDs OF THE 
Mattese Miocene.’ With a Woodcut. 

By Prof. Owrn, F.R.S. 


SEN S indicative of large ‘cycloid’ Fishes, with 
teeth of ‘sauroid’ character, have been obtained from the 
‘Upper Chalk’ of England. Toa species of this kind, with 
large circular scales covered with minute asperities visible by 
the aid of a pocket-lens, Agassiz assigned the generic name 
Pachyrhizodus, in reference to the thickness of the base of the 
anchylosed teeth. 

A portion of upper and lower jaws of a Fish of this cha- 
racter has been submitted to me, for examination, by A. Leith 
Adams, M.D. The specimen forms part of a larger proportion 
of the skeleton of the same fish, from the middle beds of the 
Maltese Miocene, now in the Museum of the Malta Uni- 
versity. 

The teeth, with crowns from 7 to 8 lines in length, are conical, 
slightly curved toward the inner(?) side of the jaw: sharp-pointed, 
with a full elliptical, in some almost circular, transverse section. 
The surface of the crown is smooth ; the hard polished enamel is 
most conspicuous near the apex; a very thin, less bright glazing is 
continued to the base of the crown, which rather suddenly swells 
into the part confluent with the substance of the jaw. At this part 
the tooth is solid and compact: the diameter averages 3} lines by 
3 lines. In a specimen of Pachyrhizodus basalis, Dixon,* the base 


* The Geology and Fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous Formations of Sussex, 
4to. 1850, p. 347, pl. 34, figs. 2, 10, 10*. 
VOL. II.—NO. X. L 


146 : Owen— Fossil Fish from Malta. 


of the teeth is proportionally more expanded, and in most of the 
teeth the crown is here hollow: the teeth are also close-set. An 
extent of three inches of the alveolar part of the jaw includes eleven 
teeth: whereas in the Maltese fossil the same extent includes only 
four teeth, the bases of the teeth being of nearly the same size in 
both specimens, and in a portion of jaw of the same size and 
coarse fibrous structure. 


Portion of the Jaws of Stereodus Melitensis, Ow. (Reduced one-third.) 


Of the four teeth in the Maltese specimen, the interspace between 
the middle two teeth is nine lines, and between the two near the end 
of the part measured six lines. ‘This wide spacing of the teeth, with 
the shape of the crowns and the general size of the specimen, led to 
its being regarded, in the Maltese Museum, as ‘belonging to a Cro- 
codilian,’ under which impression the portion of the specimen was 
transmitted tome. But the mode of the fixation of the teeth shows 
the fossil not to be of the Crocodilian order, and the osseous tissue 
of the jaw militates against its reference to the extinct order of Rep- 
tiles with anchylosed teeth, to which the Mosasaurus, for example, 
belongs. 

In the portion of the jaw opposed to that which contains the four 
teeth, the impressions in the matrix show the shape and size of the 
crowns of five of the teeth which it contained; and the fractured 
base of one of these demonstrates its compact solid texture at that 
part. These five teeth occupied a space of about three inches. —Two 
of the teeth have been only a line apart: between other two a space 
of five lines intervenes, and that of eight lines between the two that 
are most remote from each other. 


Dr. Adams writes to me, that the portion of the skeleton of 
this (supposed) ‘ Crocodilian ’ ends abruptly at the tenth dorsal 
vertebra. 


It measures 22 inches in length. The vertebre are apparently 
cup-shaped, and average an antero-posterior diameter of from 


Murchison—Laurentian Rocks. 147 


linch to 13 inch. Each vertebra has a long flattened spine 
upwards of 35 inches in length. The snout apparently was 7 inches 
in length; the teeth not seemingly all of the same length, and at 
irregular distances between each other. 


The ‘cup-shaped vertebre,’ no doubt, indicate the deeper 
conical cavity of the terminal articular surface of the centrum, 
which distinguishes that part of the skeleton of the fish from 
the vertebre of amphiccelian Crocodilia, of which, by the way, 
we have hitherto had no evidence in formations more recent 
than those of secondary geological age. 

Like the Pachyrhizodus, the present Miocene Fish is most 
probably a Cycloid with sauroid dentition. The almost cir- 
cular section of the teeth differentiate it from the large extinct 
‘ Sphyrenoid Cycloids, Sphyrenodus, Hypsodon, Saurodon, 
Saurocephalus, &c. It differs, by so much of the dental cha- 
racter as opportunity has been given me of comparing, both 
specifically and generically, from Pachyrhizodus basalis; and 
I propose to indicate this fine addition to Miocene Tertiary 
Vishes by the name of Stereodus* Melitensis. It is much to be 
desired that the rest of the skeleton of this extinct Fish should 
be figured. 


IJ. A FEW morE WoRDs ON THE LAURENTIAN ROCKS, AND THE 
PROOFS OF THEIR EXISTENCE IN BRITAIN. 


By Sir Roprericx I. Murcutson, K.C.B., F.R.S., &e. 


i my observations on the Laurentian Rocks of Britain which 

appeared in the last number of the GroLocicaL Magazine, 
there is one statement which calls for modification, and another 
which I revoke. ‘The striking discordance of direction or strike 
between the true Laurentian rocks of the North-Western Highlands 
and Islands, and the superficial strata of Cambrian and Lower 
Silurian age as described by me, is undoubtedly correct; but in 
another paragraph it is inadvertently said that the Silurian rocks 
of Britain trend everywhere from NE. to SW. For ‘everywhere’ 
the word ‘usually’ should have been employed, as there are tracts 
wherein these rocks unquestionably range from W. to E. 

The essential point, however, to which I now call the attention 
of geologists is, that on reviewing my own notes upon and sections 
of the Connemara Mountains of Ireland (made in 1851), I am quite 
satisfied that the green serpentinous marble of that district, in which 
a Foraminifer supposed to be the Hozoon Canadense is found, is 
unquestionably of Lower Silurian age, and is not, as was surmised 
it might prove to be, a true Laurentian rock. 

My friend Professor Harkness, who has examined this tract more 
recently than myself, has written to me expressing his conviction 


* From otepeds, solidus ; d50vs, dens. 
L 2 


148 Murchison—Laurentian Rocks. 


that the Bins or Pins of Connemara are, as I had laid it down in 
‘ Siluria,’ simply prolongations of the quartzose and micaceous altered 
Lower Silurian rocks of the Highlands of Scotland.* 

The crystalline green limestone of Connemara is, in fact, encased 
in quartz-rocks ; and, according to my own observation, it has a 
strike from W. by N. to E. by S., or nearly E. and W. But, far 
from being discordant to the direction of the overlying Middle 
Silurian strata with their characteristic fossils, you perceive, as you 
pass from the quartz-rocks with limestone through mica-schists to the 
fossiliferous beds, which are slightly transgressive to those beneath 
them, the whole ascending series has a general strike from E. to W., 
and a decided dip to the north. ‘This is clearly seen as you travel 
from Clifden to the magnificent marine bay of the Killeries. 

As to the presence of an Kozoon in the Lower Silurian rock, I find 
by a letter from Mr. W. A. Sanford, that he entertains doubts as to 
the identity of the Canadian and Irish forms. ‘ Further experiments 
(he adds), which are not yet concluded, lead me to believe that while 
the Canadian form is an immense Nummuline, the Irish one is 
analogous to a Rotaline, very like a gigantic Polytrema. In both 
we have the confluent cells; and, to a certain extent, the structure of 
both is in one part in layers, and in another acervuline. In the 
Trish fossil there is but little if any trace of the beautiful canal- 
system so striking in the Kozoon Canadense, the shell-structure 
being entirely tubular.’ 

It will doubtless be satisfactory to paleontologists if, as Mr. 
Sanford suggests, the Foraminifer of the Lower Silurian of Ireland 
should be found to be dissimilar to that of the Laurentian rock of 
Canada. But I beg to say, that, if the two be found to be identical, 
the green marble of Galway will still remain a true Lower Silurian 
rock, as proved by stratification and the range of similar strata 
from the NW. of Ireland into the Highlands of Scotland. 

The persistence of so low an animal as a Foraminifer through 
vastly long periods is a fact well known to geologists. ‘Thus we 
know that a Globigerina which lived in the Cretaceous age is still 
alive! Nay, even in the Lower Silurian green sand of Russia we 
see silicated remains of Foraminifera indistinguishable from recent 
forms. 

Viewed, therefore, by itself only, the mere presence of Hozoon 
Canadense cannot be taken as a proof that the rock in which it 
occurs is of Laurentian age. Geologists require the further evidence 
of the infraposition of such rock to Cambrian and Silurian strata. 
On this principle, the Canadian rocks were called Laurentian by 
Logan long before an Eozoon was found in them. So also the 
basement-rocks or Fundamental Gneiss of the North-Western High- 
lands will remain of true Laurentian age, albeit no Eozoon may ever 
be found in them. 


* See ‘Siluria,’ last edition, p. 190 (not p. 100, as stated in the last number of 
the GrotogicaL Magazine). 


Lankester—-Craq. 149 


III. On tHE Cracs or SurroLk AND ANTWERP.* (Part II.) 
By E. Ray Lanxsstsr, Esq. 


Relations of the Crags of Antwerp and Suffolk.—Having thus 
passed through the various strata, we may inquire what relation 
the three Crags bear to the Suffolk deposits. The lists of Mollusca * 
which I have carefully compiled from the researches of Mr. Searles 
Wood, on the one hand, and of M. Nyst, on the other, have been 
revised by my friend Dr. S. P. Woodward, and will enable us satis- 
factorily to determine this point. A short list of the Mollusca of 
the Antwerp Crag was published by Sir Charles Lyell in 1852, in 
his comprehensive and admirable paper on the Belgian Tertiaries ; 
but although the comparison was made with the English beds, yet, 
in the absence of any section showing the superposition of the Ant- 
werp Crags, and also on account of the imperfections in the list of 
Shells, the results then obtained cannot have so much value as those 
which have since been arrived at, and which give the proportions 
of recent and fossil forms in the five beds under consideration, 
thus :— 

In the Red Crag, 45 per cent. of the Mollusca are extinct. 

»  Coralline Crag, 50 Bs 5 

»» Upper Antwerp Crag, 47 ,, 
» Middle Antwerp Crag, 59 ,, 
» Lower Antwerp Crag, 65 ,, 

This undoubtedly shows that the Red and Coralline Crags of Suf- 
folk and the Upper Crag of Antwerp are far more closely connected 
with each other than any one of them is with the Middle or Lower 
Crag, or than these latter are with each other: and on this account 
the Red, Coralline, and Upper Antwerp Crags may be considered as 
Upper Pliocene; the Middle Antwerp Crag, as Middle Pliocene; and 
the Lower or Black Crag, as Lower Pliocene. If the total number 
of species as yet discovered in each bed be examined, it is found 
that the Red and Coralline Crags of Suffolk have the largest num- 
bers ; most probably because they have been the best searched. The 
numbers are—Red Crag 231, Coralline Crag 299, Upper Antwerp 
Crag 115, Middle Antwerp Crag 117, Lower Antwerp Crag 168. 
Until the other day, the fauna of the Black Crag appeared as scanty 
as that of the two higher Crags of Antwerp; but M. Nyst, having 
directed his researches to a deposit at Edeghem, swelled its lists in 
the same way as it is quite possible that the number of known Mol- 
lusea in the Upper and Middle Crags may be increased. 

A Table showing the results to be derived from the lists of Mol- 
lusea is added to this paper. There being two sets of figures, one 
for the extinct species, and the other for living species, it will be 
seen that there are but 9 extinct and 17 living species which run 
through all the strata; whilst there are 60 extinct and 76 living 
species common to the Red and Coralline Crags; 24 extinct and 37 


* Continued from page 106. 
~ The lists are too long for publication in this Magazine 


150 Lankester— Crag. 


living species common to the Red, Coralline, and Upper Antwerp 
‘Crags. A great number of facts may be gathered in this way from 
the tabular statement, bearing in an important manner on the rela- 
tions of the various beds; but in all cases it must be strictly taken 
into consideration that the total of the known Molluscan Fauna of 
the Red and Coralline Crags is more than double that of the Upper 
or Middle Antwerp Crags, and. also that the Lower Antwerp Crag 
has a larger known fauna than the higher Crags of Belgium. 

Relations of the Lower Antwerp Crag.—By some authors the 
Black Crag of Antwerp has been considered as of Miocene age; by 
others, as the equivalent of our Coralline Crag. The truth is, no 
doubt, between the two opinions ; and, as above stated, the Lower 
Antwerp Crag is a representative of a Lower Pliocene period. 
Besides the species which are common to the other strata, there are 
some dozen species found in the Black Crag which occur again in the 
Coralline Crag only; but there can be little doubt that were the 
Upper and Middle Crags carefully searched, these forms would turn 
up. An undoubted relation exists between the Black Crag and the 
higher, so-called Miocene, beds of Bordeaux and Vienna. In fact, 
the resemblance is so close, that it appears necessary to consider 
them as belonging to the same epoch. If the higher Bordeaux strata 
are Miocene, then also are the Lower Antwerp Crags, and vice versa. 
The Black Crag appears to be inseparable from the Middle and 
Upper beds. The presence in this deposit of such shells as Cy- 
prina Islandica, C. rustica, and forty-two others, which are found 
in the two series above, connects them most intimately: rather than 
they should be separated, it is necessary to consider the higher | 
‘Miocene’ beds of Bordeaux and Vienna as being really Pliocene. _ 

Evidence of the Existence of Middle Pliocene Strata in England.—It 
may very well be asked—have we no representative, then, of the Ant- 
werp Middle and Lower Crags in this country? As far as regards 
the Lower Crag, I am afraid the answer must be in the negative; 
but with respect to the Middle Crag, there is a little more to be said. 
The catalogue of the Molluscan Fauna of the Middle Crag of Ant- 
werp undoubtedly shows its superior antiquity to the Red and Coral- 
line Crags. M. Van Beneden has described from that deposit nume- 
rous remains of Cetacea, belonging to the genera Squalodon, Ple- 
siocetus, Dioplodon, Choneziphius, &c., and has also shown me the 
tooth of a Seal and the fragment of the tusk of an enormous Morse 
which I have elsewhere called Z'richecodon.* These are associated 
with the teeth of Carcharodon megalodon and others. None of 
these fossils are sea-worn. Throughout the Red Crag we find 
much-rolled and worn vertebrate remains corresponding, in species, 
to those of Antwerp. Can it be doubted that these are the débris of 
a formation which existed in England formerly, but was broken up 
by the Red Crag Sea? 


* I have lately communicated a notice of the tusk of this animal to the Geo- 
logical Society, having obtained specimens of it from our Red Crag some time 
since ; and I have proposed to call it Zrichecodon Hualeyz. 


Lankester— Craq. 151 


Isocardia cor, Lin., is a very rare shell in our Suffolk Crag; in the 
Middle Crag of Antwerp it is abundant. Nodules of fine sandstone 
are abundant in our own Red Crag, containing generally Pectunculus 
glycimeris, an abundant shell also at Antwerp, or frequently Iso- 
cardia cor, and sometimes a Cetacean tooth. The conclusion is 
irresistible, that these nodules are portions of lost Middle Crag 
beds, the equivalents of the Middle Pliocene of Antwerp. 

The following may be taken as a synopsis of the formations above 
treated of :— 

Upper Pliocene. 
Red Crag; Coralline Crag ; Upper Antwerp Crag. 
Middle Pliocene. 
Middle Crag of Antwerp. 
Lower Pliocene. 
Lower or Black Crag of Antwerp; Miocéne supérieur of 
Bordeaux and Vienna. 

I subjoin a list of some of the derivative fossils in the Red and 

Coralline Crags:— 

1. Ammonites, Pecten, &c., from the Upper Greensand. 

2. Flint Sponges, Echinoderms, &c., from the Chalk. 

3. Lower Kocene Mollusca in nodules, from the Thanet Sand, &c. 

4. ‘Coprolitic’ nodules, and very numerous Crustacea, Teeth, and other 
Fish remains from the London Clay. 

5. Teeth of Carcharodon heteredon, and jaws of Edaphodon, from Middle 
Eocene Beds. 

6. Mastodon Arvernense, Rhinoceros, Tapirus, Sus, &c., from Miocene or 
Pliocene Beds. 

7. Carcharodon megalodon, Rhinchoceti, Squalodon, Trichecodon, &c., from 
Middle Pliocene Beds. 

8. Cn Red Crag) Pectunculus glycimeris and very many other Shells from 
the Coralline Crag. 

(See also Mr. S. Wood’s List of the Derived Fossils, Quart. Journ. Geol. 

Soc., vol. xv., p. 33, &c.) 


TABLE SHOWING THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE SEVERAL CRAGS OF SUFFOLK AND 
ANTWERP; AS DERIVED FROM LISTS OF THEIR MOLLUSCA. 


RC.—Red Crag. CC.—Coralline Crag. UAC.—Upper Antwerp Crag. MAC.—Middle Antwerp 
Crag. LAC.—Lower Antwerp Crag. 


| Ex- 


RO.| CC. UAC |aac Lac | 28 | Hy- 
> Extinct 
species. } DARN SRA AN MA 26 species common to all 
Living ) five. 
species. f OPED WEE ERO NAN eat 
cnr PACHEG) | Og Oe renin |e cc cumen a wd ee 
Living. 12 | 12] 12) 12) — | — | 12 | [ cont from LAC. 

; 17 common to RC., CC., 
Extinct. OE MOC BOR Saal iOS ecu eee UAC., but absent from 
Living. SlerS oS ksh aa (384 | aaa se LAC. 

; 56 common to RC. & 

pextimet. | 205) 20 | Se | | 29. Se UGC. hut absent tonal! 
Living. LOA ELON ee IN rare | ecaer irra CLS lal FTA Gl AMIN 


152 Lankester—- Crag. 
BC.| CC.| UAC] MAC LAC] ER, | Pv 
Extinct. | 26 | — | — — | 26) — 67 peculiar to RC., absent 
Living. 41 /—}|]— — | — | 41 | J from all the other four. 
Extinct. — | 83 }—}]—/—} 83 |} — } 140 peculiar to CC., ab- 
Living. 57 | — | — | — | — | 57 | J sent from all the others. 
{ Tob qobges a | 3) fe | | k 10 peculiar to the UAC., 
Living. | —|—j| 1]/—j|—|—| 1 |) absent from all the others. 
{ IMAG > | => | = |] es | Sf tp } 15 peculiar to the MAC., 
Living, | —|—|—| 2|—]|—| 2 |J absent from all the others, 
f Extinct. | — | — | — | — | 64 64 | — } 76 peculiar to the LAC., 
Living. | — | — | — | — | 12 | — | 12 | Jf absent from all the others. 
Extinct, De | Sol AOR Te aaa 11 common to RC. & 
| Tae 2 ar ae ae le ek aes buac, but absent from 
CC., MAC., & LAC. 

14 common to RC., UAC., 
Extinct. | 11 | — | 11 | 11]° 8 | 11 | — | | MAC. and (some to) LAC., 
Living 3) —— || 38 |) 8) 25 but absent from CC. and 

some in LAC. 
Extinct 17 ie az eto || 5 43 common more or less 
| Tan ais bee 6 18} he to RC., CC., MAC. & LAC., 
but absent from UAC. 
{ Reseed eelieenl (OA onlee Oa maOna 1 seneae to all the Ant- 
Livi Ges Sa i werp beds, but absent from 
1ving, Lilie eel 1 RC. & CC. 
Retin: lee as ro eC fee 8 common to MAC. & 
t Tian PEO ES i eee R 5 |e oo) LAC.; absent from RC., 
CC., & UAC 
eters anal ea oa 3 | aa eee 9 common to CC., UAC., 
{ carinn Bees 5 : ig eae MAC. and some to LAC.; 
absent from RC. 
eta es, a cas 4 common to UAC. & 
{ Eee | aha || | a | PEG p atsene geod Bes 

: CC., & LAC. 

Extinct. 2 8} 4}/—] 5] 6] — 7 common more or less to 
Living. 1} 1/ 2/—] 2]—Ff 2 | fall but MAC. 
937 |299 115 {117 |163 Total number chaucees in all the five 


TV. On tHe CONNECTION BETWEEN THE CRAG FORMATIONS AND 
THE Recent NortuH Paciric FAUNAS. 


By P. Carpenter, B.A., Ph.D. 
(Read before the British Association, September 1864.) 


Att facts from stray sources bearing on the connection between 
the Newer Tertiaries and existing faunas are worth placing on 
record, as they may hereafter unexpectedly throw light on important 
points of inquiry. The existing faunas radiating from the Boreal 
districts may, indeed, be expected to have much in common, together 
with species peculiar to each ocean, and to each side of each ocean ; 
and the correspondence extends to species living in the Temperate 
and even the Sub-tropical districts. Kellia suborbicularis, Lasea 
rubra, and Saxicava pholadis of the Coralline Crag are now living 


Carpenter—Crag Formations and N. Pacific Faunas. 153 


along the whole coast from Vancouver to the Acapulcan district : 
and Erato Maugerie, whose head-quarters are now in the West 
Indies, appeared in the Coralline, did not disappear in the Red Crag, 
is now living in the Bay of Panama, and is nearly, if not quite, 
identical with E. columbella of the Gulf and the Temperate shores of 
California. Along the Atlantic shores of the peninsula of Central 
America are found fossil Malea ringens, now living in the Pacific, 
and other species probably of Pacific origin. The recent shells on 
the Pacific side have a large intermixture of living West-Indian 
Species, many of which have migrated northwards ; Livona pica 
apparently dying out in the Californian seas. There is very little ap- 
pearance of Pacific creations in the Caribbean seas. Co-ordinately with 
the Glacial Period of Northern Europe, the ancient West-Indian 
species were probably poured into the Pacific through the archi- 
pelago which has now become a broad peninsula. Between the 
Tropical and the Sub-boreal seas of the North Pacific, we find many 
species generally regarded as characteristic of the Atlantic seas ; of 
which only two, Venericardia borealis and Chrysodomus liratus, are 
special to the West Atlantic ; and several, namely, Kellia subor- 
bicularis, Lasea rubra, Crenella decussata, Lucina borealis, Crypto- 
don flexuosus, Limea subauriculata, Haminea hydatis, Cerithiopsis 
tubercularis, and Triforis adversus, are generally considered special 
to the European side. It would appear, therefore, that in the early 
days of existing species, there was much closer connection between 
the North Pacific and European, than between the East and West 
American seas. Co-ordinately with this fact, must be noticed that 
in the Japan seas are found several Mediterranean species not 
known on the Southern shores of Asia ; and of these one is common 
in the Vancouver district. It will be remembered that the Drift, 
so plentiful over the bulk of Northern America, is not found on the 
Pacific slope; and that the bulk of the copious Tertiaries of Cali- 
fornia are of Miocene age. At this period, the Sierra Nevada is 
supposed by Conrad to have been an archipelago; yet there is 
scarcely any connection between the Temperate parallels of Hast 
and West America, while the connections with European seas are 
clearly marked. 

The Mediterranean as well as the Boreal species in the Crag are 
well known ; but there are certain generic and specific forms which 
were formerly considered peculiar, yet are now found to have, if not 
their descendants, at least their representatives, in the Vancouver 
and Californian district. ‘This is true of the arrow-sculptured Acila, 
Miodon (also found in the Great Oolite), Verticordia, and Solariella, 
which are eminently Crag and Californian groups.* The huge Hin- 
nites Corteysu finds its counterpart in the Californian H. giganteus ; 
Glycimeris Faujasii, in Gl. generosa ; and the little Sphenia of the 
Crag is more like Sph. ovalis of Vancouver than Sph. Binghami of 
British seas. Not taking into account similar forms, no fewer than 
24 Crag species have been already clearly identified on the West 


* Acila, Verticordia, and Solariella are also found in Japan. 


154 Mackhintosh—Brimham Rocks. 


Pacific coast. Several of these can scarcely have travelled through 
Behring Straits, not being Boreal forms. They have not been found 
in the British parallels, but appear in deep water off the Sta. Barbara 
group of islands; with other species not found on the continent, in 
the midst of the Lower Californian fauna, and in company with 
Tropical forms here finding their northern limit. 

These investigations are only just commenced. The results of the 
Californian Geological Survey are now under consideration ; and 
will doubtless bring to light many points of great interest on the 
connection between the ancient and the existing faunas. 


V. MARINE DENUDATION ILLUSTRATED BY THE BRiIMHAM ROCKS. 
By D. Macxintosu, F.G.S. 


HE claims of the sea as a denuding agent have been much dis-- 
puted of late years; the meteoric and fluviatile theories of 
denudation have been revived; and the glacial theory has been 
extended, so as to encroach on what was once generally admitted to 
be the legitimate province of the sea. But, as a forgetfulness of, as 
well as too much reliance on, the power of the sea to modify, may 
become a fertile source of hasty and false generalization, it is well 
that the importance of waves, tides, and currents, as denuding 
causes, should be re-asserted, and attention directed afresh to the 
more striking monuments they have left behind them in regions 
removed from their present theatre of action. ‘These monuments 
present an unmistakeable resemblance to the cliffs, buttresses, 
walled inlets, pillars, needles, &c., now in course of being formed by 
the sea ; and in explaining them, the old principle of sound theoriza- 
tion—similar effects are referable to similar causes—is not to he 
set aside by overstraining the capabilities of any theory which will 
merely account for the phenomena. Many of the appearances above 
mentioned have been attributed to atmospheric agency; and the 
denuding influence of air, rain, frost, &c. must to a certain extent 
be allowed. But the action of the atmosphere has not only been 
applied to the explanation of rocky scenery which is more obviously 
the result of oceanic denudation, but it has, I think, been extended 
to phenomena which the sea alone could have produced. Meteoric 
agents, generally speaking, operate from above, and their mechanical 
effects at least are confined to a decrease of level, or the formation 
of slight inequalities. If we except the chemical influence of air 
acting imperceptibly on rocks of a certain composition, meteoric 
agents are inadequate to the production of the following class of 
phenomena :—caves, with narrow entrances, and large amphitheatres 
within, indicating a laterally excavating agency, such as that of 
waves and tidal currents,—precipitous cliffs, with blocks of rock in 
positions, or presenting forms, which could only have been occasioned 
by the undermining action of the sea,—narrow inlets with vertical 
or overhanging walls,—pillars with slender pedestals,—rocks with 
nearly horizontal perforations,—and many other conditions which 
reveal not only a laterally extending, undermining, and even up- 


Machintosh—Brimham Rocks. ep 


wardly operating agency, but a cause determined in a particular 
direction, and which must frequently have assailed the lower part of 
rocks after the upper had risen beyond its reach. All these and 
other proofs of marine, in opposition to meteoric, denudation are 
strikingly presented by the Brimham Rocks in the West Riding of 
Yorkshire,—the forms of which most observers have hitherto attri- 
buted to weathering, or the hands of man. They are situated about 
9 miles from Harrogate and Ripon, 5 from Ripley, and 2 from the 
Dacre Banks Station. The most interesting way of reaching them 
is to go by railway to Ripley, and then walk along the Old Pateley 
Road. On gaining the summit of the first eminence, the rocks pre- 
sent a very imposing appearance, as they rise up with the sky for a 
background, and are very liable to be mistaken for an irregular 
clump of trees on the top of the hill. On approaching nearer, what 
appeared as one of the trees is seen to be a huge pillar of rock, with 
a projection on the left side. On viewing them from a small knoll 
on the right-hand side of the road, and about three-quarters of a mile 
distant, the geologist familiar to sea-coast scenery at once looks 
upon them as the north-western part of an island which has been 
partly wrecked by the sea at a former period. A smaller assemblage 
of ruins may be seen ramifying from the eastern coast of the island ; 
but these are little visited. 

The Brimham Rocks (Millstone-grit) are of the same nature, and 
many of them of the same form, as those described by Mr. Hull in 
the ‘ Quarterly Geological Journal’ (August 1864), as occurring in 
the Peak District of Derbyshire in ‘ groups or multitudinous assem- 
blages.’ The table-shape and anvil-shape are common in both 
localities. Mr. Hull justly calls them ‘sea-shore rocks, and they are 
due to the same cause, namely, ‘old marine denudation’ (p. 253). 

Absence of Traces of Human Agency.—Ordinary observers are 
very liable to err in attributing to man what is chiefly or solely 
due to nature. Many of the cromlechs, and most of the rock-basins, 
and rocking-stones, referred to human workmanship, exhibit the 
clearest traces of the undermining action of water. It is possible, if 
not probable, that Druids, or pre-historic Fins, or other races, may 
have used the Brimham Rocks as a temple, and may have increased 
the resemblance which some of these rocks bear to parts of the 
human form and other objects. But the evidence that they have 
been materially altered by human hands is to be sought for in vain. 
It has been asserted that the marks of tools have been seen on the 
pedestal of the Idol Rock. Ihave not detected them; but, allowing 
their existence, it would not follow that the general or sea-worn 
form of this rock was the result of art. 

Table-, Mushroom-, and Anvil-shaped Rocks.—Many of the 
Brimham Rocks approximate more or less to these forms. They are 
largest at the top, and rest on a comparatively slender basis. In 
these rocks the undermining action of the sea is most strikingly 
apparent. Some of them look as if the billows had only left 
them yesterday. The furrows and ridges run along the planes of 


156 Machintosh—Brimham Rocks. 


lamination, as might be expected, and the great furrows often point 
out the lines of bedding. The so-called Idol Rock, above mentioned, 
which is about 20 feet high, and upwards of 40 feet in circumference, 
rests on a pedestal about 3 feet in breadth below, and much nar- 
rower above. If the undermining action of the sea had proceeded 
a few inches farther, this ponderous mass must have fallen, as has 

- evidently been the fate of 
other masses in the neigh- 
bourhood. 

Perforated Rocks. — 
Among these rocks we find 
holes of various forms and 
sizes; and the way in 
which they have been 
bored may be seen on the 
sea-coast at the present 
day. There are two or 
three nearly circular per- 
forations in the Cannon 
Rocks, Brimham. One of 
them is about a foot in 
diameter, from 20 to 30 
feet in length, and almost 
quite straight. There is 
a groove along the side of 

a projecting rock which 

ere sie aa looks like a continuation 

The Idol Rock. (The Pulpit Rocks are to theright.)— Of one side of the perfo- 
Brimham Rocks. ration. 

Rocking Stones.—These truly wonderful phenomena could never 
have been fashioned and poised by human hands, or formed by a 
vertically operating or atmospheric agent. They number six or 
seven, four being in one group. Each would appear to be a remain- 
ing portion of a stratum which has been denuded all round and 
beneath, so as to leave them with one or two supports sufficiently 
small to allow them to be easily set in motion. ‘These stones, and 
the stones on which they rest, have evidently been one continuous 
mass of grit, with a line of bedding, into which the sea must have 
gained -an entrance, gradually widening the space between the 
rock above and beneath. The waves have penetrated where no 
ancient tools could have reached, leaving the rocking stones all but 
separated from the blocks below. Their weight would effectually 
prevent an entire separation. 

Ancient Sea-cliff—Along the north-western side of the risen 
island I have been describing, there is a winding line of cliff for 
upwards of half a mile, which forcibly reminds a traveller of what 
he has often seen on the present sea-coast. The rocky pillars above 
mentioned would appear to be the remaining portions of the walls of 
narrow inlets scooped out by the sea, and ramifying from this line of 


Machintosh—Brimham Rocks. Laz 


cliff* The joints in the rocks must have given a direction to, and 
facilitated the progress of decay. In many places immense blocks 
of grit have fallen down, or seem ready to fall, having been under- 
mined. That the ocean has been here, appears as certain as it is 
that the ocean is elsewhere now carrying on a similar work of 
destruction on sea-cliffs still washed by the waves ; but these moor- 
land precipices have lost that name, for they have long since been 
deserted by the sea. On a stormy night, the geologist, as he peers 
through the opening called the Lover’s Leap (near the top of one of 
the cliffs), on the scattered blocks nearly a hundred feet below, 
requires little to make him fancy that he can still hear the lashing 
of the billows, where now all is really silent except the moaning of 
the winds. 

Atmospheric Action.—The traces of atmospheric action are here 
comparatively trifling. At the bottom of several of the crevices and 
gaping fractures, a very thin coating of powdered grit may be seen ; 
but, as in some places it could have had no escape, it must be 
regarded as the measure of denudation effected by the rains during 
centuries, if not thousands of years. ‘The rock-basins on the upper 
surfaces of the rocks may have been deepened and widened, some of 
them perhaps formed, by rain-water, aided by the small loosened quartz 
pebbles of the grit; but there are instances of similar basins (such 
as the so-called Kissing Chair) beneath the rocks, in situations to 
which no gyratory action excepting that of the waves could have 
reached. But the most striking proofs of the resistance offered by 
the Brimham Rocks to the action of the atmosphere are found in 
crevices which apparently have been occasioned by the undermining, 
and consequent displacement, of the rock on one side of a joint, after 
the upper part of the cliff had risen above high-water mark. One 
of these, not far from the Lover’s Leap, is a fissure of considerable 
depth, but only afew feet in width. ‘The walls on both sides corre- 
spond in shape to such an extent that the minutest pit on one side 
appears opposite to a similar-sized prominence on the other. Though 
open to the atmosphere, not a particle of the grit on either side of 
this fissure would appear to have been disintegrated since its forma- 
tion; and, judging from the general character of the rocks, we have 
no reason to suppose that any great fractures have occurred among 
them since the time they were undermined by the sea, which was 
probably towards the close of the Second Glacial, or Ice-floe Period. 


* Capt. Spratt, R.N., has described and figured a remarkable group of pillars of 
Nummulitic Limestone at Varna, associated with cromlech-like masses, and with 
vertical rents gradually widening in a neighbouring cliff-like bank, showing the 
passage-conditions between the fissured rock and isolated columns. Similar peaks 
and pillars stand beneath the sea on the floor of Varna Bay. Though inclined to 
believe in these columnar rocks having been shaped by atmospheric action, Capt. 
Spratt leaves the question open. See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xii, p. 74, &e. 
The difference-of limestone and sandstone must be borne in mind, when contrast- 
ing these shaped rock-masses of Varna with those of Brimham. 

{ In several parts of the Lake District (Great Langdale, for instance), and I 
have no doubt elsewhere, rocks smoothed and rounded by ancient glaciers have not 
been visibly roughened by atmospheric agency, though different parts of these 


158 Bevan— Coal-basin of South Wales. 


As we gaze on this wonderful group of insular wrecks, varying 
in form from the solemn to the grotesque, and presenting now the 
same general outlines with which they rose above the Glacial Sea, 
we can scarcely resist contrasting the permanence of the ‘ everlasting 
hills’ with the evanescence of man. Generation after generation of 
the inhabitants of the valleys within sight of the eminence on which 
we stand have sunk beneath the sod; and their descendants can 
still behold in these rocky pillars emblems of eternity compared 
with their own fleeting career, but fragile and transient compared 
with the cycle of geological events. Though the Brimham Rocks 
may continue invulnerable to the elements for thousands of years, 
their time will come ; and that will be when, by another submergence 
of the land, the ocean shall regain ascendency over these monuments 
of its ancient sway, and complete the work of denudation it has left 
half finished. 


VI. On THE PuHysIcCAL FEATURES OF THE COAL-BASIN SOUTH 
oF WALES. 
By G. Pumures Bevan, Esq., F.G.S. 


HERE is not in Great Britain any coal-field so characteristic as 
that of South Wales; nor one which in outward appearance so 
little agrees with the general notion as to what a coal-field should be 
like. Instead of the barren and monotonous surface that we usually 
find in Durham, Staffordshire, Lancashire, or Scotland, we find 
scenery of a high order,—lofty hills, romantic dales, broken scaurs, 
and woods feathering down to the banks of the streams that run 
brawling to the Bristol Channel. It is a wonder indeed that tourists 
do not oftener explore these gems of South-west landscape, particu- 
larly as every valley is now accessible by railway. Nor is it merely 
in scenic interest that the basin is peculiar ; for the very physical 
arrangement which gives the hill and dale enables much of the coal 
to be won by level, instead of pit, thus forming a marked feature in 
the economy of the working. It is with regard to this physical 
geography that I would say a few words, as viewed in relation to 
the geology of the basin. 

If we look at a geological map of the district, we shall find this 
coal-basin to be of an irregularly elliptical or pear shape, with the 
broad axis of the pear forming the Monmouthshire and Glamorgan- 
shire districts towards the east and middle, from whence a rapid 
convergence westward, including the remaining part of Glamorgan- 
shire and Caermarthenshire, forms the stalk. The boundaries of the 
basin outside the limestone-escarpments are the ‘OLD Rep’ valleys 
of the Usk and the Towey on the north, east, and west; while 
the Bristol Channel forms the basis on the south. Within the 
basin the following arrangement prevails:—Sloping southward from 


rocks are of unequal softness, and though they rise up in exposed situations. In 
discrediting the wonderful extent to which certain rocks may resist the atmosphere , 
geologists do not take their mossy covering sufficiently into account. 


Bevan— Coal-basin of South Wales. 159 


the limestone-escarpment is a tolerably uniform moorland plateau 
(fig. 1), varying from one to three miles in breadth, and consisting 


s N 


A 


2 ( A <a 


\ 


Fig. 1.—Diagram showing the Hills of Pennant Sandstone, with Terraces on the Sides and the 
Lower Coal-measures cropping out at the foot: the plateau of Millstone-grit is on the right. 


A, Coal—measures. B. Pennant Sandstone. c. Coal-measures, D. Millstone-grit. 
E. Mountain-limestone. 

of Millstone-grit overlying the limestone. At the line where the 
Coal-measures impinge upon the grit, forming what is called ‘the 
North crop,’ a marked depression is observed, immediately to the 
south of which rise, pretty abruptly, lofty ranges of Pennant Sand- 
stone, forming the divisions between the deep parallel valleys 
through which the rivers that rise in the Millstone table-land run 
due south to the Bristol Channel. This depression, which therefore 
cuts at right angles the heads of all these valleys, has been taken 
advantage of by railway companies to accommodate the population 
and mineral traffic of the large ironwork towns on ‘ the North crop.’ 

The peculiarity of the Pennant Hills consists in their extraordi- 
nary similarity in outline and height, as also in the fact that they 
are all distinguished by a series of terraces, the remains of ancient 
beaches (fig. 1). 

Commencing at the east, we have, parallel with the limestone belt, 
1. The Valley of the Afon, commencing at Blaenafon and leaving 
the basin at Pontypool. 

2. The Ebbw Valleys, running from Beaufort and Brynmawr 
respectively, converging at Aberbeeg, and emerging at the Risca 
‘South crop.’ (See figs. 2 and 3). 


Fig. 2.—View of the Pennant Rocks, from the Millstone-grit Plateau ; showing the Terraces and 
Parallel Valleys. The shading of escarpments below the Terraces indicate where the ‘ Patch- 
workings ’ of the seams on the ‘ North Crop’ have been carried on. The buildings at the 
heads of the valleys are the Ironworks of Ebbw-Vale and Tredegar. 


3. The Sirhowy Valley, from ‘Tredegar, which also joins that of 
the Ebbw at Risca. 


160 Bevan— Coal-basin of South Wales. 


Sige 


<< Vi ih ~ 
S5 
NS 7 Yar Be 
hy aoa jf. WV; ve 
ew 
= SS SS yi X / VA DEF 
Sete we BERS i) YZ Se 
~ SSW Ff yp yy ay 
ape oss ANAL) if Via oe = 


= 
> 


Fig. 3.—View of Ebbw-Vale, looking due South, from above Beaufort ; showing the character of 
the river-valleys and the Pennant Hills. 


4, The Rhymney Valley, with its subsidiary, the Bargoed Valley, 
has its outlet near Cardiff. 

5. The Taff Vale, from Merthyr to Cardiff, with its feeders, the 
Bargoed Taff, the Cynon, on which river the important ironwork 
town of Aberdare is situated, and the Rhondda Valley, which joins 
the Taff at Pontypridd, and runs from thence in a north-westerly 
direction towards the Neath Valley. 

So far there is a striking parallelism and uniformity in all these 
valleys ; but after crossing the Taff we find the country more dis- 
turbed, and the physical features altered. ‘This is principally owing 
to the Vale of Neath, which, though rising in the same horizon, and 
indeed not far from the Taff, takes a west-south-west direction to 
the sea. The triangular district thus formed is watered by streams 
of shorter course and smaller volume, such as the Ogmore, the 
Llynvi, and the Afon, which flow through much more contracted 
valleys. But the Neath Valley once past, the parallelism is re-esta- 
blished; the Tawe, the Lloughor, and the Gwendraeth Rivers flowing 
tolerably due south, to enter the channel at Swansea, Lloughor, and 
Kidwelly respectively. So much for the river-valleys. If we take 
the long axis of the basin, we shall find two depressions intersecting 
the river-valleys at right angles: 1. The one described as the 
‘North crop ;’ and, 2. A more important one, commencing at Ponty- 
pool, and running past Crumlin, Newbridge, Blackwood, and 
Quaker’s Yard, where it is deflected to the south; as faras the latter 
place, the Great Western Railway has seized it as vantage-ground 
to tap the centre mineral district, and to reach Merthyr and Aber- 
dare. I have given these features somewhat in detail, as it is neces- 
sary to bear them in mind when speculating on the cause of the 
arrangement. Sir Henry De La Beche, in his masterly résumé of 
the Formation of Rocks in the South-West of England (‘ Memoirs, 
Geological Survey,’ vol. i.), points out that a tremendous force has 


Bevan— Coal-basin of South Wales. 161 


acted on the Coal-basin from a westerly direction—in other words, 
from what is now Ireland—and that, as might naturally be expected, 
its effects would be strongest and most obvious the nearer to its 
source, and would decrease as the radius became wider. Accord- 
ingly, we find that the Pembrokeshire beds are contorted and 
displaced more than any others, while the disturbances are evidently 
lessened as we go eastward. If we suppose a large area of tolerably 
uniform surface of clays and shales, more or less recently deposited, 
and then apply to it a pressure (either sudden or long-continued) 
in any given direction, we shall find that a general rumpling or 
ridging of the surface would take place ; such ridges assuming a 
certain amount of parallelism to each other, and depending on the 
direction from whence the pressure was exerted. 

The general arrangement of the physical features of the South- 
Welsh Coal-basin, then, are probably due to the action of this south- 
westerly force during the deposition of the Coal-measures. I say 
during the deposition, because I cannot help thinking that it took 
place prior to the deposition of the Upper Measures, and subsequent 
to the Lower and Pennant beds. It is probable indeed that the 
whole chemico-dynamical force to which the lower beds were subject 
caused those alterations in the coal by which the beds have become 
steam-coal,—an alteration which has given South Wales such a pre- 
eminence as a steam-coal basin. Whether or not the Steam-coal- 
measures are due to this, there is no question but that the Upper 
Measures, where found, are of a totally different character to the 
Lower Measures. In Pembrokeshire, where the force was exerted 
most, we find trap-rocks in the immediate vicinity of the coal: also, 
we find that in Ireland, where the force is assumed to have 
originated, the same identical Lower Measures are all anthracitic. 
Jt may be, however, that the force originated in Pembrokeshire, or 
at a point half-way between that and Ireland, so as to cause the 
anthracitic qualities to be formed on either side of it ; just as a dis- 
turbance in water causes a ripple on every side equally. In Pem- 
brokeshire and Caermarthenshire, the anthracitic quality gradually, 
but surely, decreases as we get eastward ; and finally, in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Rhymney Valley it is lost altogether; the coals 
thence to the ‘ Kast crop’ being entirely bituminous. At Aberdare 
and the Vale of Neath, which is about half-way between Caermar- 
thenshire and Rhymney, we find, as we might expect, the highest 
and most profitable development of steam-coal, being neither too 
anthracitic nor too bituminous; where we do jind the upper Coal- 
measures, as in the neighbourhood of Swansea and Llanelly, they 
are bituminous, showing the very reverse of the anthracitic quality, 
and that they could not have been subjected to the same treatment 
as the Lower Measures. I therefore conclude that the great chemico- 
dynamical force which operated on the steam-coal, and in all proba- 
bility gave the coal-field its physical features, took place prior to the 
deposition of the Upper Measures. Almost every one, if not every 
one, of the parallel valleys has a main fault, generally known in 
the neighbourhood as the ‘big fault, running through the Lower 


VOL. II. — NO. X. M 


162 Bevan— Coal-basin of South Wales. 


Measures, but which does not particularly affeet the Upper Measures, 
where they are found. For instance, in Monmouthshire, the Upper 
Measures are represented by only one seam of coal, all that is left 
from the effects of denudation. This is the ‘Mynyddwslwyn vein 
of red ash,’ or ‘ house-coal ;’ and although it is riddled with faults, 
they are merely local ones, and have no connection, I imagine, .with 
those of the Steam-measures, which lie several hundred yards lower, 
the Middle or Pennant Measures intervening. These main or big 
faults running down the valleys have formed, or at all events 
influenced, the drainage lines, and have thus given a decided groove 
for denudation to work upon afterwards. ‘The depression running 
at right angles across the field appears, with great probability, to be 
connected with the great saddle or anticlinal which commences in 
Monmouthshire at Newbridge (a little below Crumlin), and runs 
across the basin to the Rhondda Valley, thence to Maesteg in the 
Llynvi Valley, finally dying out at Lilanelly in Caermarthenshire ; 
having the effect, as Sir Henry De la Beche has shown, of bringing 
the Lower Measures, which should be at their deepest, to the 
surface, and thus enabling the coals to be easily won at Maesteg, 
where a large ironwork town has arisen in consequence. 

The presence of this anticlinal is manifested by the appearance of 
the Cockshot-rock (although it is not known in. Monmouthshire 
under that name); a white quartzose sandstone, which has evidently 
been altered and thrown up in connection with the anticlinal and the 
disturbed superficial cross valleys that I have named, and at the 
same time, I imagine, as when all the parallel north and south 
valleys were formed ; and this was the principal event in the 
geological history of the Coal-field, which we may therefore suppose 
to be summed up as follows :— 

1. The deposition of the coal-beds, with all their attendant clays, 
shales, and sandstones. 

2. The repeated subsidence of the strata thus formed, so as to 
allow a repetition of the process. 

3. The occurrence of the grand force which gave the change to 
the Measures already formed, and the outline of the topographical 
features. 

4, The deposition of the Upper Measures. 

5. The gradual elevation of the Coal-field by slow and successive 
stages,—the proof of this being seen in the uniformity of height and 
outline, and the occurrence of terrace-beaches in the Pennant Hills, 
each terrace marking a period of rest. ‘ 

6. The denudation which has carried off on the east nearly all the 
Upper Measures, and over the whole of the basin, has left them in 
a fragmentary condition. From the discovery by Sir W. Logan of 
coal-pebbles and detritus in Carboniferous beds of evidently more 
recent formation, it is not likely that denudation has been limited 
to one period ; but has taken place at different times. It is easy to 
conceive how the harder material of the Pennant rocks escaped, 
while the softer shales of the river-valleys were washed away; each 
denudation-period contributing to scoop out and deepen the valley, - 
the direction of which had already been given by the great pressure. 


i 
a ne 


Geol Mag GO Cae 


EB Walker del® M.& N.Hanhart imp 


WOODOCRINUS BXPANSUS. 


Roberts — Yorkshire. 163 


I have only attempted to give an outline of the thoughts which 
have so often struck me apie geologizing in the South Welsh Coal- 
field, and which, while adding “ho the interest of the more minute 
details, really form the fr amework on which the details depend. 


VII. GroLtocicat NoTES ON THE MOUNTAIN-LIMESTONE OF 
YORKSHIRE. 
By G. E. Rozrrts, Esq., F.G.S., &e, 
[Plate V.] 


provasry few geologists pass through Yorkshire en route for 

the North without paying a visit to the large and most 
interesting museum illustrative of local, as well as of general, British 
Geology, formed by Mr. Edward Wood, F.G.8., of Richmond. ‘The 
joint papers by Prof. L. de Koninck (of Liége) and Mr. Wood on the 
new and remarkable genus of Crinoids, named by De Koninck 
Woodecrinus, in honour of their enterprising discoverer, which 
appeared in the ‘Geologist’* and other scientific journals, have given 
the genus an important standing among Crinoidea ; but since that 
publication of the material acquired by Mr. Wood he has been so 
fortunate as to add extensively to his fine collection, chiefly 
through the kindness of his friend and neighbour Mr. Brown, J.P., 
who opened quarries on his estate at Holwith for the sole purpose 
of aiding the researches of Mr. Wood; and the wall-cases in the 
museum devoted to these fine Crinoids now present a wonderful 
richness of fossil-wealth. Amongst many other fine specimens 
I would chiefly notice the exceedingly beautiful specimen of 
Woodocrinus expansus, which is not only, beyond doubt, the finest 
ever found, but has a peculiar interest from the fact of its retaining, 
in a purple-coloured suffusion on the tips of some of the rays, which, 
with their attendant fringe of pinnules, terminate the arms, some 
indication of the animal substance which clothed them. This colour 
is probably due to a phosphate of manganese. As this specimen is 
thus doubly interesting, I am much indebted to Mr. Wood for permis- 
sion to have it figured in illustration of my remarks. 

It may be useful to remark that six species of Woodocrinus have 
been determined from Mr. Wood’s collection, together with the 
following genera and species from the same Mountain-limestone 
locality :—Hydreionocrinus Woodianus, De Koninck, described in 
‘Bulletin Acad. Roy. Bruxelles,’ and in the ‘Geologist,’ vol. i. 
p- 146; Cheirocrinus Koninckii; MS. Salter, and C. flagellum, 
MS. Salter ; together with new undescribed species of the genera 
Mispilocrinus, Platycrinus, and Poteriocrinus. 

It is necessary to observe that the figure given in the ‘ Geologist’ 
for January 1858 (vol. i. pl. 2) of Woodocrinus expansus Was a 
restoration from an Sremen eC specimen}which merely gave indica- 
tions of the column, and was very imperfect in its pelvic plates. 


* Vol. 1. p. 12 
M 2 


164 Abstracts of Foreign Memoirs. 


The figure now given of the species may be therefore considered as 
representative. 

While staying with Mr. Wood, I had an agreeable excursion to 
the lead-mines of Old Gang, in the higher and wilder parts of Swale- 
Dale, being guided over this really wonderful district by its pro- 
prietor, Sir George W. Denys, Bart. The excessively steep and rugged 
combs which characterize this dale afford some exceedingly fine 
geological sections in the Mountain-limestone series, but are so 
trying to the physique, that I must be pardoned if I brought away 
few notes beyond a general sense of the remarkable characters of the 
lead-bearing rocks. Galena is the ore worked, in lodes of very 
variable richness. The distance of the mines from any railway, and 
the necessary expenses of cartage, are against them; else I scarcely 
know a lead-bearing district in England which might compete with 
this, were the veins fully explored, and were there such facilities 
of carriage for the ore (or smelted metal) as a railway passing the 
district would give. 

Much has been said about the occurrence of copper in the Moun- 
tain-limestones of the North Riding. I fear that any copper-ores 
worked within the acknowledged geological limits of these rocks, will 
bring but little of the nobler metal to the pockets of their owners ; 
but as an amateur mineralogist, I was greatly interested in a splendid 
specimen of chrysocolla, of very pure quality, obtained shortly before 
my visit by Sir G. W. Denys from his mines at Roughten Gill, Calbeck. 
It more nearly resembled in colour and lustre the chrysocolla of 
Siberia than that of Cornwall. 


ABSTRACTS OF FOREIGN MEMOTRS.- 
en 


MINERAL WATERS CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATIONS WITH 
CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY. 


Lus Eaux Minérarss, etc. Par H. Lucoa.—( Continued from page 116.) 


The temperature of mineral waters varies extremely. Some are 
cold,—probably (according to M. Lecoq) cooled in rising; most of 
them are warm. Some are boiling, bursting out at the bottom of 
the sea, and bubbling up at the surface. Ata small depth below the 
earth’s surface the temperature of some thermal springs is far above 
the boiling-point of water. -The Auvergne springs do not rise 
above 82° C. (180° F.), but they are believed by M. Lecoq to have 
been higher when the volcanos were active. In the Pyrenees the 
hottest springs do not exceed 78° C. (1724° F.). M. Daubrée has 
estimated the quantity of heat emitted by 45 French springs, whose 
volume is approximately known, as sufficient to melt a film of ice, 
at the temperature of 0° C. (32° F.), having a thickness of 0™-00000324 
(0001275 inch.). This is certainly a very small quantity, but 
M. Lecoq speculates on the much greater influence of hot springs 
during earlier geological periods. 

The contents of mineral waters vary also both in nature and 


Abstracts of Foreign Memoirs. 165 


quantity. Some contain hardly any appreciable residue, others more 
than 100 grammes a litre (nearly 20 ounces a gallon). By chemical 
investigation, and above all by spectral analysis, they have already 
been found to contain all the metalloid elements except selenium 
and tellurium, and 21 of the metallic elements. The quantity of 
solid matter brought to the surface by the mineral springs of the 
central plateau of France in one year is upwards of 8,000 tons. 

Of the gases contained in mineral waters, two (oxygen and hydro- 
gen) are the constituents of water. Both are common; but neither 
of them occurs in a simple state. Nitrogen is also very common. 
M. Lecog is inclined to refer the origin of these to the distant epoch 
when, as he believes, the springs were much more abundant than they 
noware. Ammoniaand carbonic acid are both present, separately and 
combined. Sulphur and sulphurous acid, often combined with hydro- 
gen, are also common. ‘These sulphurous combinations are believed 
to have an organic origin, but they are referred, as usual, by our 
author to his great subterranean laboratories beneath the zone of 
primitive rocks, where, as he_believes, the water is mineralized. 

Tellurium, chlorine, iodine, chromium, fluorine, phosphorus and ar- 
senic, either native or incombination, are next specified, and examples 
of their presence given. Most of them are common. Boron (boracic 
acid) is also familiar; and silicon is universal. The phenomena 
accompanying the presence and deposit of silica are carefully 
described, and the same remark applies to carbon and carbonic acid. 
Most of the facts have been previously recorded; but they are here 
conveniently grouped, and the theoretical views of the author are 
again brought in. He believes that the first important (?) introduc- 
tion of carbonic acid dates from the deposit of the Carboniferous 
Limestone (p. 123). The term grauwacké, now almost extinct, serves 
to include the whole of the vast Devonian, Silurian, and Laurentian 
series ; and in these limestones are practically ignored by our author. 
In a subsequent chapter bitumens are considered. With these and 
other hydro-carbons, M. Lecoq seems chiefly familiar so far as his 
own district of Central France is concerned ; but he gives an outline- 
account of the discovery of oil-wells in America, and their develop- 
ment up to 1861.* Like other substances rising from the earth in 
springs, bitumens are here referred, not to an organic source, but to 
the great depths of the earth for their origin. 

Potassium, lithium, rubidium, cesium, thallium, glucina, have all 
been obtained either from mineral waters, or from positions that render 
their presence in such waters almost certain. Potassium is very 
common; the others, until lately, were rare or unknown. Lithium 
is now very generally recognized by the aid of spectrum-analysis 
Many of the salts of sodium, besides the chloride (common salt), are 
met with. They are among the substances most generally distri- 
buted in water, both on and beneath the surface. The carbon- 
ate, nitrate, and sulphate of soda are those chiefly noticed. The 


* The exports from American ports now amount to about twenty million gallons 
annually. 


166 Abstracts of Foreign Memoirs. 


circumstances under which rock-salt and various combinations of salt 
are found are carefully described (ch. xiii.). HEmanations from the 
interior of the earth (whatever and wherever that may be) are 
believed to be the sources of salt as well as of other contents of 
springs. In another chapter M. Lecoq expresses his belief that the 
sea was originally fresh, and has become salter as time advanced. 

The salts of lime and magnesia naturally occupy a considerable 
space in any account of mineral waters and their operations. They 
are universally distributed, and in various forms. We do not, how- 
ever, observe anything of novelty in reference to this subject. The 
salts of aluminium are also found in water; and as these are largely 
deposited in various forms, often very complex, wherever hot water 
has passed, they admit of very interesting exemplification, The 
work done by Deville, Daubrée, and other chemists, is quoted; and 
the subject, which is one of great interest, is treated in reference to 
inineral veins. 

Of the metals proper, a considerable number are found in mineral 
springs. M. Lecoq quotes several localities where salts of manga- 
nese occur; and iron is well known to be almost universal. Cobalt 
and nickel have been found at Boulou. Zinc and cadmium are 
probably present in mineral waters near deposits of calamine; and the 
same may be said of chromium. Molybdenum, tungsten, and vanadium 
are not rare; and antimony is occasional. ‘Tin, titanium, copper, lead, 
silver and gold, have all been detected in water; and some of them 
are common in thermal springs. 

Organic matter has been found in mineral waters: it has been 
recognized under various names—barreégine, glairine, &c.; its pro- 
perties being different from different springs. M. Lecoq finds in 
this substance additional evidence in favour of his view that mineral 
waters proceed from beneath all stratified and other rocks forming 
the crust of the earth; for he regards these organic bodies as remains 
of the earliest forms of life introduced upon the globe. According 
to M. Filhol, who has examined these substances, they are most 
abundant in the hottest springs. A spring at Arles is estimated to 
yield 754 kilo. (1,663 lbs.) a day of organic matter; another at 
Thuies 2,800 kilo., 6,176 lbs. (55 cwt.) a day. These results cannot 
be altogether depended on. The source of this organic matter is by 
no means clear; and the phenomenon is one of extreme interest, 

Mineral springs are not without changes. ‘Their temperature, 
although generally constant, is subject to modification; for some 
have increased, some have diminished, within the limits of observa- 
tion. Earthquakes have not unfrequently affected hot springs. The 
volume of water delivered also changes in some cases with altera- 
tions of the pressure of the atmosphere, and more frequently or 
markedly by earthquakes. Periods of long intermission in the 
running of such springs are not unknown; and alterations in the 
mineral contents have been observed in some very remarkable cases. 

That mineral waters produce very important results on the rocks 
they traverse, has long been known. ‘They often disintegrate, and 
sometimes decompose, even porphyries and granite; they change 


Reviews —Lyells Elements. 167 


jaspers into earthy minerals of very different appearance, and silicify 
wood and other organic bodies. In the same way, water has cer- 
tainly produced very considerable and special deposits in mineral 
veins, being indeed the chief agent in their metamorphism. ‘There 
can be no doubt that water has had much to do in all phenomena 
connected with the deposit of minerals in crevices and veins. 

Distinct relations may often be traced between mineral springs 
and volcanic disturbances; and M. Lecoq sees in this something to 
confirm him in his view, often expressed, that lavas proceed from 
below all metamorphic rocks, including granites. In finally treating 
of the origin of mineral springs, he recapitulates some of the prin- 
cipal points alluded to in the early chapters of his book, and quotes 
M. Pissis and his observations on the Andes as confirming the views 
he has expressed concerning the Auvergne district. He concludes 
with a brief résumé of his arguments. We must leave our readers 
to examine these for themselves, if they are inclined to do so. ‘The 
book is interesting, though much of the matter has already appeared; 
and the theory, if not original, is pertinaciously advocated. ‘There 
is no doubt, however, that a careful and exact study and record of 
the main facts concerning important groups of mineral springs 
would be very valuable, both immediately and as a standard of 
comparison hereafter. Such a record is commenced in France, and 
should be made in other countries also.—D. T. A. 


REVIEWS. 
—+~—_- 


ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY; OR, THE ANCIENT CHANGES OF THE EARTH 
AND 1Ts INHABITANTS, AS ILLUSTRATED BY GEOLOGICAL MOoNU- 
mMEeNts. By Sir Cuarves Lyett, Bart., F.R.S., &c. Sixth Edition, 
ereatly enlarged, and illustrated with 770 Woodcuts. 8vo. pp. 794 
London: Murray. 1865. — 

HE first edition of this work was an expanded form of one of 
the chapters of the author’s ‘ Principles,’ and was termed the 

‘Elements of Geology; it subsequently, in several editions, was 

enlarged more and more as the ‘ Manual ;’ and now, having absorbed 

the several Supplements published since its Fifth Edition in 1855, it 
again comes before us as the ‘ Elements,’ carefully elaborated by its 
distinguished, experienced, and enthusiastic author, especially in his 
own lines of research. We do not see much alteration in the first 
nine chapters; but the ‘Tabular View of the Fossiliferous Strata,’ 
pp-102—106, has been re-planned, with some improvements. Chapters 
x.—xili., which follow, treating of ‘Recent and Post-Pliocene Periods,’ 
and including Fossil Man and the Antiquity of the Human Race, Lake- 
dwellings, History of Caves, Glacial Conditions, and all the interest- 
ing facts and questions thereto belonging, are re-written, and full of 
valuable material, which the author has collected with care and judg- 
mént, and conscientiously verified by personal research. In his 
well-known ‘ Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man’ (in three 


168 Reviews—Lyells Eiements. 


editions, with Appendices) Sir C. Lyell, of course, treats far more fully 
of these very interesting and difficult subjects; and that work is 
freely referred to in the ‘Elements.’ As the origin of some lakes is 
now a question among Geologists and Glacialists, we particularly 
recommend the former to study Lyell’s suggestive explanation of the 
conversion of valleys, here and there, into lakes during and in con- 
sequence of the oscillations of level that mountain-sides and the 
lower country must have suffered (pp. 168, &c.). The Tertiary Beds, 
ever a favourite study with the author, have three chapters and ~ 
much consideration, especially as regards the Fossil Plants of the 
Miocene Beds of Switzerland, those of CGiningen in particular, as 
worked out so abundantly by O. Heer in his ‘ Flora Tert. Helvetiz,’ 
&e.; and Sir Charles argues that probably too great a distinction 
between Miocene and Recent Plants and Insects has been made, 
since there is a greater proportional resemblance between Miocene 
Molluses and those of recent times; Conchologists having determined 
one-third of the Upper Miocene Shells as still living, whilst all the 
Plants and Insects are regarded as being extinct. What Botanists 
have done and can do for Geology is shown in the account of the 
‘Miocene Atlantis’ (pp. 265, &c.). 

In the account of the Secondary Formation (Chapters xvii.—xxii.) 
we have, as additions and improvements, some new Fossils,—some 
statistics of the Jurassic Fossils (after Etheridge),—renewed and 
forcible arguments as to the marine denudation of the Wealden area, 
—some remarks on the Triassic Rocks as classified by the Geologists 
of Austria and Bavaria,—the Triassic relationship of the Coal-fields 
of Eastern Virginia and of the ‘Dolomitic Conglomerate’ of the 
West of England. We miss, however, the valuable inferences that have 
been drawn by Godwin-Austen from the presence of drifted coal and 
granite in the Chalk; and we protest against the less general though 
British term ‘Penarth Beds’ (see also the Table at p. 104) being 
substituted for the well-chosen ‘ Rheetic,’ and especially against the 
latter being referred to Mr. Charles Moore (who judiciously adopted 
it) instead of to Giimbel (p. 439). In several respects, we remark 
that this Chapter xxii. (on the Trias) is one of the least satisfactory 
of the improved portions of the ‘ Elements.’ 

Chapter xxiii., on the Permian Beds, we must passover. Like the 
Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, here it remains as formerly, waiting 
the loving touch that is to vivify it, in the next edition perhaps, and 
give it the warmth and fullness of which it is capable. The many 
cuts in its few pages look like jewels bestowed where there is no 
love; a revised and fuller text would be a better setting for them, 
and more worthy of Permia, whose dominion, wide as it was, has 
lately been enlarged. 

The important additions to our knowledge of the Fauna of the Car- 
boniferous Period, due to Dr. Dawson and Sir Charles himself, are 
necessarily prominent in Chapter xxv. ; as also the remarkable series 
of Professor Huxley’s new Coal Reptiles, Loxomma, Pholidogaster, 
and Anthracosaurus, together with Mr. Marsh’s Kosaurus, all-Laby- 
rinthodonts. The ‘ Devonian’ Chapter has been enriched with home. 


Reviews—Lyell's. Elements. 169 


and foreign matter, especially as regards Professor Huxley’s ‘Old 
Red Fishes,’ and Dr. Dawson’s remarkable and important new plant 
the Psilophyton, which characterizes ‘ Devonian’ underclays through- 
out great areas in Canadian North America. The Telerpeton and 
other Reptiles of the Elgin Sandstones are banished by Sir Charles 
(on good grounds, we think) from the Devonian list. Silurian and 
~Cambrian rocks and fossils have a careful exposition in Chap. xxvii., 
the Cambrian group being made to comprise the Tremadoc Slates, 
Lingula-flags, Harlech Grits, and Llanberis Slates: the Huronian 
and Laurentian rocks are also noticed, the last being newly of 
interest on account of its Eozoan marble, lately discovered by the 
State-geologists of Canada ; but the great extent of the Laurentian 
in Europe and the British Isles is hardly alluded to. 

The Chapters on Volcanoes and Volcanic Rocks have again pro- 
fited by the results of the author’s repeated visits to this, one of his 
most favourite fields of labour; and in the working out of the age 
(Upper Miocene) of the igneous outbursts of the Canaries, Madeira, 
and the Azores, we see how Geologists can help each other, the good 
results of co-operative science, and the happy application of the 
labours of at least eight naturalists and geologists to the geological 
history of this important volcanic area. In treating of ‘ Metamor- 
phism,’ to which indeed Sir Charles long ago gave distinctness as a 
special condition of rocks, he has not forgotten to give weight to the 
‘hydro-thermal’ notions advanced of late years, but warns us against 
accepting them too freely. Plutonic rocks, cleavage, and mineral 
veins are also treated of in connection with this part of the subject ; 
and we may remark that the structure of the Isle of Arran, remodelled 
after Dr. Bryce’s latest researches, is made to illustrate the relative 
ages of certain fossiliferous, volcanic, plutonic, and metamorphic 
rocks, still more clearly than heretofore. 

The ‘Elements’ is asystematized exposition of the strata and other 
rocks, worked out with special reference to Organic Remains: the 
probable inferences, however, as to the old lands and seas, that may 
be drawn from the organic remains, and from the several deposits 
imbedding them, are rather left to the student than offered by the 
writer; and the disentanglement of the complicated, overlapping, 
shifted, folded, and altered strata, in every formation, are left in great 
part to the practical explorer and to special works on the subject. 
Yet the student has in Lyell such a trustworthy, intelligent, and 
philosophic guide, full of old lore and rich with modern facts, that he 
must welcome him heartily, and eagerly follow him among the relics 
of the past, and in studying to good advantage the geological monu- 
ments of the ancient changes of the earth and its inhabitants. 


BiocrRAPHIcAL Notice oF THE Rey. Davin URE, WITH AN 
EXAMINATION, CRITICAL AND DETAILED, OF HIS HISTORY OF 
RUTHERGLEN AND East Kitspripe. By Jonn Gray, Memb. 
Phil. Soc. Glasgow. 8yvo. Glasgow: 1855. Pp. 59. 

NDER the above title we have a brief life-sketch of a Scottish 
geologist and naturalist of the seventeenth century. David 


170 Reviews — Ure’s Biography. 


Ure, like many of his countrymen of note, had his position to make 
in the world. He was an operative weaver, as was his father 
before him,—and just as Hugh Miller was a stonemason. But, like 
the latter, he had a strong thirst for other knowledge than that of 
his profession. He sought and obtained a good education. He was 
schoolmaster a while. ‘Then he procured licence to preach, and 
became assistant to the minister at Kilbride, with a salary of ten | 
pounds a year and his maintenance. While thus situated he had, 
or made, opportunities for gratifying his love for natural history. 
He worked hard at the geology of his parish and that of Rutherglen. 
He investigated after a fashion that was somewhat novel in those 
days ; for it was then customary to write about the earth and its 
origin without examining it. But David Ure went grubbing and 
poking about among the rocks exposed on the hills and in the glens 
of Western Scotland, collecting fossils and facts relating to physical 
geology—thereby seeing things as they were, and not as they might 
or ought to have been. ‘The result of these investigations he pub- 
lished in the work by which he is now so well known,—‘ The His- 
tory of Rutherglen and East Kilbride.’ 

There must have been something decidedly practical in the 
appearance of Ure during his field-workings. Short of stature and 
a hard walker, he could withstand almost any amount of fatigue. A 
great-coat, with one large pocket for specimens and another for 
bread and cheese, usually accompanied him. <A bit of sward beside 
a spring as usually formed his dining-place; though on rare occa- 
sions, when he felt inclined, or could afford to dissipate, he would 
eat his cheese and bread in the kitchen of some village ale-house. 
Along with him he carried a tin-box for stowing plants; a large 
cudgel, armed with steel, so as to serve both as spade and pickaxe; 
a few small chisels and other tools; a blowpipe, with its appurte- 
nances; a small chemical apparatus, optical instruments, &c. His 
friends called him a walking-laboratory; and certainly he must have 
looked rather like something of the sort when so accoutred. 

In 1796, Lord Buchan presented him with a living in Linlithgow- 
shire. Two years afterwards he died. 

Ure’s ‘History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride’ describes the 
antiquities as well as the natural history of these parishes. Eleven 
of the plates are devoted to illustrating the Carboniferous fossils 
which he had collected ; and these are so carefully delineated as to 
be easily identified by modern paleontologists. From the illus- 
trations it is evident that Ure knew and figured between eighty and 
ninety species of Carboniferous vegetable and animal fossils, which 
have been since rediscovered and named after the Linnean method 
by_other authors. Among the fossils figured are some species of 
bivalve Entomostraca, the minuteness of which shows that Ure 
observed small things as well as great. It is only within the last 
few years that attention has been again drawn to these interesting 
though minute fossils; more than thirty species of which have been 
lately discovered in the Carboniferous strata of the West of Scotland, 


Reviews—Indian Iron-ore. C77 


by those who are worthy successors of David Ure in the work of 
geological research. The work before us gives the accepted names 
of the fossils figured and described by Ure. 


On THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF PARTS OF THE DISTRICTS 
oF SaLeM, TrRICHINOPOLY, TANJORE, AND SouTH ARCOT, IN 
Mapras PresipENCY (BEING THE AREA INCLUDED IN SHEET 
79 or THE Indian AtLas). By W. Kine, Jun., and R. Bruce 
Foore, of the Geological Survey of India. 8vo. 1864. Wutiiams 
and NorGate, London. 


/ Bes is the second part of the fourth volume of the ‘ Memoirs of 
the Geological Survey of India,’ published under the superin- 
tendence of Dr. Oldham, who has presided over the Indian Survey 
since its commencement, and is ably assisted by several gentlemen 
sent out from this country, most of whom have received their scien- 
tific training in the School of Mining in London and Dublin. As in 
this country, the Geological Survey of India is preceded by the 
Trigonometrical, which forms the basis of it. The scale upon which 
the maps are published is 4 miles to 1 inch, and each sheet of the 
Indian Atlas represents an area of more than 14,500 square miles. 

The tract described is bounded on the east by the Bay of Bengal, 
and stretches into the high regions of the Eastern Ghauts (or 
‘Ghats,’ as it is written by the authors), which send off several 
spurs towards the south of considerable altitude, the highest being 
the Shevaroys (Shervaroyenmullay), north of the town of Salem. 
This is a very noble range of mountains, attaining an elevation of 
5,260 feet, or thereabouts, above the sea-level, and is bisected by a 
deep ravine into two great limbs, between which flows the Vaniar 
River, draining the greater portion of the range, and pouring its 
waters into the Punniar. On the north-east side of this range the 
scenery is described as being exceedingly grand, owing to the pre- 
cipices of naked rock rising from the ground to heights exceeding a 
thousand feet; on the opposite side of the Shevaroys, however, there 
are no very striking features. 

Bordering the mountainous region, and forming an intermediate 
belt between it and the low country along the coast,is the Baramahal 
Plateau, which rises up gradually from north to south, that is to say’ 
from the valley of the Punniar River to the foot of the Shevaroys 
and the Darmapoor Ranges. The southern part of this table-land is 
generally a barren, stony plain; the part next the hills is more 
fruitful, owing to the greater depth of soil. The table-land slopes 
to the east, and at the Chungama Pass joins the Payen Ghat, or low 
country proper. Strictly speaking, it would appear that the moun- 
tain-range of the eastern Ghauts is itself an ancient table-land, out 
of which the valleys have been scooped, either by marine denudation 
or atmospheric wasting, or both; for, when viewed at a distance 
from the low country, the ridges appear to rise to a certain elevation, 
corresponding to an imaginary plain sloping to the eastward, and no 
higher ; we are probably little aware to how large an extent this 


172 Reviews—Indian Iron-ore. 


phenomenon characterizes the mountain-ranges of the globe. Those 
of South Wales, Norway, Central France, and the Rhine, are illus- 
trations nearer home. 

The third region of the Payen Ghat is a general level, but little 
elevated above the sea, and only broken here and there hy a few low 
hills, or rocky projections, and scarps formed of the Cuddalore series 
of strata. Between the Payen Ghat and the sea, are the immense 
alluvial flats formed by the deltas of the Cauvery, the Punniar, and 
Guddelom, and other rivers, and which are fringed by dunes of 
blown sand, lining the monotonous coast of this part of India. 

The general geological structure of the district is simple, and has 
been laid down (though not very correctly) on Greenough’s Geolo- 
gical Map of India. The greater portion of the interior, including 
the mountain-ranges, is composed of metamorphic rocks, such as 
gneiss, hornblendic and talcose schists, thrown into several great, 
and many lesser, folds, and traversed by dykes of granite and trap. 
Resting upon this formation, which is of great, but unascertainable, 
thickness, are a series of Cretaceous beds, described in the former 
part of vol. iv., by Mr. H. F. Blanford. Next comes ‘the Cud- 
dalore group,’ composed of soft sandstone and laterite, described as 
‘a highly ferruginous conglomeratic deposit of indurated clay,—a 
very peculiar formation, as its description imports. This series, as 
it has yielded no fossils except the stems of trees, is of indeterminate 
age. It occupies four distinct areas, separated by the valleys of the 
Punniar, Vellaur, and Cauvery Rivers, and extends to the margin of 
the alluvium. The alluvium itself is partly of fluviatile, partly of 
marine origin, as proved by the occurrence of beds of sea-shells in 
several places inland, especially at the village of Kandyamaller, at 
the southern extremity of the great Permalyeri tank. The species 
here found are identical with those inhabiting the neighbouring 
coast, and prove that the elevation of this tract is of comparatively 
recent date. 

The tendency of the granitoid rocks to weather into tors and 
isolated bosses, which in a glacier-region might be considered as the 
work of ice, is worthy of attention, as showing how nature often 
employs different agents to bring about apparently similar results. 
These huge masses are common in many parts, towering amidst the 
surrounding jungle, or seated, like perched blocks, on bosses of rock 
rising above the ground. One of these, of which a sketch is given, 
occurs in the midst of the scrub-jungle near Malayanur. ‘Seen 
from the east or west sides, this splendid tor has a rudely pyramidal 
shape ; but, when looked at from the north or south, it rises up like 
a fine tall tower, and may be seen three or four miles off, standing 
up boldly from the surrounding jungle. In height it cannot be less 
than 50 to 55 feet.’ The present form of these tors and blocks is 
due to weathering ; butit is in the highest degree probable, if not 
absolutely certain, that the original blocks date as far back as the 
period of that great denudation which has acted so powerfully over 
this region, sweeping away large portions of the metamorphic, 
Cretaceous, and Post-Cretaceous formations. We can conceive that, 


Reviews—Indian Iron-ore. Lis 


during the retreat of the ocean, isolated blocks and small islands of 
rock would be left standing out at intervals above the surface, which 
the rains, the atmosphere, and the disintegration of the rock would 
work into forms of the grotesque and fanciful aspect we now find 
them. 

The great beds of magnetic iron-ore (or magnetite) form an in- 
teresting feature in the mineral structure of this region. They are 
found in the metamorphic series, apparently stratified with the other 
beds, and with them thrown into folds, or dipping at high angles, 
and occurring at intervals, not only in the district here described, 
but far to the northwards, in the same group of azoic rocks. The 
principal beds belong to four groups :— 

ist. The Godamullay group, east and north-east of Salem. 
2nd. The Tullamullay-Kolymullay group. 

3rd. The Singiputty group. 

4th. The Tirtamullay group. 

We must refer the reader to the memoir itself for an account of 
these wonderful masses of iron-ore, which in quantity are beyond all 
calculation, forming mountain-ridges, and rising into vertical pre- 
cipices of hundreds of feet in height. The iron to be obtained from 
these deposits is, no doubt, of the very best description, as it is 
identical with that of Arendal in Norway, and the mines of Sweden. 
The ores, however, of Madras labour under the serious disadvantage 
of being situated far from fuel, the charcoal used by the natives and 
one company of manufacturers being scarce, owing to the wasteful 
manner in which the jungles are destroyed by the natives. At the 
Porto Novo Company’s works, at Beypoor, 131 tons of charcoal are 
stated to be consumed for every ton of pig-iron, which to us seems an 
enormous proportion, and must render the production of iron very 
costly. 

The manner in which the beds of magnetic iron occur at Kunja- 
mullay, near Salem, close to the Madras and Beypoor Railway, will 
serve to illustrate the general features of these deposits. Kunja- 


a i b 2 c 2 6 1a 
Section of Kunjamullay. 
a. Gneiss with garnets, &c. 1. Iron-bed 
6. Gneiss, talcose-schist and quartzo-felspathic beds, &c. 2. Iron-bed 
¢. Quartzo-hornblendic beds. 3. Iron-bed. 


d. Quartzo-hornblendic beds full of large garnets, and of great thickness, forming 
the summit of the ridge. 


mullay is a fine isolated mountain, rising 1,000 feet above the sur- 
rounding plain, and 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. The 
structure of this mountain is that of a trough, in plan an ellipse, 
lying with its major axis nearly east and west. Around this ridge 


174 Reviews—Indian Iron-ore. 


the several beds of magnetite crop out, dipping with remarkable 
regularity towards the axis of the trough, and interstratified with 
various beds of gneiss, as shown in the annexed section, drawn across 
the summit and at right angles to the axis of the ellipse: this 
structure is a modification of one of the great folds of the gneissic 
region before alluded to.* 

There are three principal beds of ore, of whose continuity all 
through and around the trough there can be no doubt, but their 
outcrop is eften observed by accumulations of talus and blocks of 
ore. Two other beds appear in the summit of the ridge ; but, owing 
to the talus, and the thick and thorny scrub, they could not be well 
traced out. The two lower beds are described as exceedingly con- 
spicuous, even when seen from a great distance, especially in the 
morning-light, when they may be seen standing out along the flanks 
of the ridge in dark, sharply sculptured terraces. These beds are 
each 50 feet in thickness, and those higher up the hill about 20 feet 
or less. Vast quantities of the ore are strewn along the flanks of 
the mountain, and over the plain ‘for a distance of one or two miles 
from the base, and require merely to be collected for smelting. 
Limestone, for a flux, occurs in the neighbourhood ; but, considering 
the scarcity of fuel, it is probable that British iron will be able, for 
a long time to come, to compete with the native produce in the Indian 
markets. 


RESEARCHES INTO THE EARLY History or MANKIND AND THE 
DEVELOPMENT oF CrvitizaTion. By E. B. Tytor. London: 
J. Murray. S8vo. 1865. 


E are much indebted to Mr. Tylor for this contribution to an 

important branch of literature. Thanks to the moderation 

of the author’s views, and the propriety of his style, the work is free 

from those objections which exclude almost every book on ‘ An- 
thropology’ from the household library. 

Not many years ago, the Geological Record was supposed to 
terminate with the appearance of Man upon the globe. His advent 
marked the division between the former world and that which is the 
domain of the recent naturalist. That boundary-line has receded 
with the progress of record, and become so shadowy, that although 
we hear of a ‘ Quaternary System’ and ‘ Post-Tertiary’ deposits, it 
would be difficult to define or give a satisfactory reason for dis- 
tinctions of so little value. If the ‘Miocene’ is to inelude all 
deposits with 50 to 100 per cent. of extinct species, surely the 
‘ Pliocene’ will suffice for those with from 1 to 50 per cent., whether 
they be in St. Helena, where nearly all the land-snails have become 


= 


* A similar association of iron-ore with argillaceous, siliceous, micaceous, and 
talcose schists, has been described by Herr E. Stohr (N. Jahrb. 1864) as noticeable 
in Singhbhum, south-west of Bengal; and, in company with emery, by Dr. Jack- 
son, in Massachusetts (Silliman’s Journ., No. 115, Jan.).—Eprv. 


Ld 


Reviews— Tylor on Civilization. 175 


extinct; or in Denmark, where the bones of the great Auk alone 
remain to testify of its recent existence. 

The Pyrenean Caves have given up the bones of a people, their 
inhabitants, who subsisted on herds of Reindeer, and were probably 
not more civilized than the Samoyedes or Laplanders ; while the 
eravel of the Somme has yielded the rudest forms of flint weapons 
that can be relied on as ar tificial, and which may have belonged to a 
still more ancient race, coeval with the Mammoth and the Sibert jan 
Rhinoceros. 

Looking, then, upon man as a species occurring in a fossil state, 
we are legitimately bound to study the earliest historic records of 
his geographical distribution, and the condition of his primitive life. 
The result of these inquiries is nearly always the same. Every 
country shelters, in some remote mountain or secluded shore, the 
remains of an older race than that which now dominates it, as 
Latham has well shown. The Kymri who were driven by many 
successive invaders to the more hilly and barren regions of these 
-islands, were themselves emigrants from the far East, and have left 
indications of their route in circles of stones. They appear to have 
entirely extirpated the ‘short-headed’ people, their predecessors, 
who were such successful miners, and traded with the Phcenicians 
in their ‘ships of Tarshish.’ South of us, the Basques still remain, 
the reliques of this race; and in the North, the Laplanders still 
retain much of their primitive habits, and the taste for metallurgy. 
From this country they wholly passed away, after bringing to 
perfection the art of making stone implements, and inaugurating an 
age of bronze. 

The evidence collected by Mr. Tylor respecting the condition of 
early and uncivilized tribes is very full and comprehensive. It goes 
to show that progress has been the general law; although some 
races have deteriorated after emigrating into less favoured regions, 
and those nations have declined whose civilization was based on 
conditions incompatible with the general advancement of society. 

However worthless the once-accepted doctrine that India was the 
cradle of the human race—because, being the highest portion of the 
solid world, it was the first to emerge from the sea, and become 
habitable,—there is something more in the argument of our Indian 
ceologists, that a country which has never been submerged since the 
Middle Tertiary Age would be the most likely to afford evidence of 
man’s early history. The most ancient indications found in Europe 
will probably fall far short of his real epoch. The oldest inhabitants 
of Europe, the Lapps, are a dark people; but it is a curious and 
significant fact, that the most primitive races of the East are not 
merely dark, but black ; and while there is no difficulty in under- 
standing how the black races have become superseded by those with 
lighter skins, there are physiological reasons which render it most 
unlikely that the blacks were derived from a brown or blonde 
people. 

The author has amusingly suggested that some of our modern 
customs are only intelligible in the. light of early history; such as the 


176 Reports and Proceedings. 


piercing of the ears for jewellery, and the barbaric accoutrements of 
our cavalry. The brazen horseshoes that ornament our dray-horses 
were originally crescents, and represent the ‘little moons’ worn by the 
camels of the Midianites three thousand years ago. Those who 
have adopted similar views to Mr. Darwin will carry this argument 
farther, and doubtless find in it the explanation of many other things 
that have puzzled philosophers in all ages to account for. Man is 
an animal still; and the gradual subjugation of the old brute nature 
beneath the influence of the spirit of goodness may surely be traced, 
not only in the general history of mankind, but in the life of every 
individual who ‘battles for the true and just.’ 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
——_——— 


GEOLOGICAL SocrETy oF Lonpon.—I. Feb. 22, 1865.—W. J. 
Hamilton, Esq., President, in the chair. The following communica- 
tions were read :—1. ‘On the Lower Silurian Rocks of the South- 
East of Cumberland, and the North-East of Westmoreland.’ By 
Professor R. Harkness, F.R.S., F.G.S. (See also Grou. Mae., Vol. I. 
p. 287.) The district described in this paper consists of a narrow 
band of country on the western side of the Pennine Chain; it 
possesses external features which indicate a geological structure 
different from that of the Pennine escarpment, and from that of the 
adjacent country on the west, from which it is separated by the 
Pennine fault. Prof. Harkness described the Lower Silurian rocks 
occupying this narrow tract in some detail, and showed them to 
consist of Skiddaw Slates, with interstratified greenstone, porphyry, 
and ash, and a band of fossiliferous shale. He also gave, in illus- 
tration of the structure of the country, a section from Melmerley 
Scar to Romanfell, and one from Milburn to Dunfell, together with 
a geological sketch-map of the narrow Lower Silurian tract in 
question. In conclusion, the author described a fault which brings 
the Skiddaw Slates against the Coniston Limestone, and another, 
which cuts through the Lower Silurian rocks of the district, having 
a course at right angles to the former, and nearly parallel to that of 
the Great Pennine fault. 

2. ‘Note on the Volcanic Tufa of Latacunga, at the foot of Coto- 
paxi; and on the Cangdua, or Volcanic Mud, of the Quitenian 
Andes.’ By R. Spruce, Esq. Communicated by Sir R. I. Murchi- 
son, K.C.B., F.R.S. The Volcanic Tufa described in this paper is 
not only used for building-purposes, but also by the smiths instead 
of charcoal, as when heated to redness it emits considerable heat, 
but very little flame. The author then described the large deposits | 
of Volcanic Mud, called Cangaua, which are met with throughout 
the central valley of the Quitenian Andes. This mud is compact, 
slightly argillaceous, and more or less saline, and occurs in rock- 
like masses, yielding very slowly to atmospheric agency, or even to 
running water. 


Reports and Proceedings. large) 


3. ‘On the Discovery of Flint Implements in the Drift at Milford 
Hill, Salisbury.” By Dr. H. P. Blackmore. Communicated by 
John Evans, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S.—Since the discovery of Flint 
Implements in the higher-level gravel at Fisherton on the west of 
Salisbury, a large number of very excellent weapons have been 
obtained from the drift-gravel of Milford Hill. This deposit is 
of the same age as the Fisherton beds; but it is situated on the 
opposite side of the Avon, immediately to the east of Salisbury. 
Dr. Blackmore described the materials composing the gravel of 
Milford Hill, and discussed the nature and power of the forces 
which had brought them together. He then described the position, 
thickness, and physical relations of the deposit, stating that the 
gravel is from 10 to 12 feet thick on the top of the hill, becoming 
thinner and gradually dying away on the sides. The hill itself is 
quite isolated, being separated from the surrounding higher land by 
river-valleys ; its highest point is about 100 feet above the present 
level of the rivers. In making a cutting on the south-eastern side 
of the hill, a bed of sand containing four species of land-shells was 
discovered near the base of the gravel. No other fossils have been 
found in the deposit, with the exception of a single tooth of a species 
of Equus. Dr. Blackmore concluded by describing the implements 
themselves, which nearly all belong to the long-pointed type, thus 
confirming the opinion of Mr. Evans, that this form is mainly 
characteristic of the higher-level gravels. 

II. March 8, 1865.—W. J. Hamilton, Esq., President, in the 
chair.—1l. ‘On the Echinodermata from the South-east Coast of 
Arabia, and from Bagh on the Nerbudda, India.’ By P. Martin 
Duncan, M.B., Sec. G.S.—Dr. Duncan described eight species of 
fossil Echinoderms, only one of which was new, from Ras Fartak 
and Ras Sharwén on the south-east coast of Arabia, and four from 
Bagh on the Nerbudda. He also mentioned five determinable 
species of other classes from each locality. Of these fossils, Hemi- 
aster similis, D’Orb., and Pecten quadricostatus, Sow., were alone 
common to the two localities ; but, with the exception of the new 
Hehinoderm Cottaldia Carteri (Duncan), all the species occur in 
European Cretaceous rocks. He considered the fossils from the two 
localities to belong to the same period, and discussed the question of 
the correlation of the deposits containing them with those of Europe, 
coming to the conclusion that they were most probably of Ceno- 
manian rather than Neocomian age, and of later date than the 
Pondicherry series : but he also remarked that it is impossible to 
determine their exact contemporaneity, the vertical range of many 
of the species being so great, and the parallelism of the allied Euro- 
pean Cretaceous beds not exact. In conclusion, Dr. Duncan discussed 
‘several questions arising out of a comparison of fossils from distant 
localities, especially the specific identity of similar specimens occur- 
ring in different formations, or in distant regions ; also the variability 
of certain species, and the idea of ‘ homotaxis.’ 

_ 2. ‘On the Fossil Contents of the Genista Cave at Windmill Hill, 
Gibraltar” By George Busk, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., and the late 
VOL. II.—NO. X. N 


178 Reports and Proceedings. 


Hugh Falconer, M.D., F.B.S., F.G.S. Communicated by the Secre- 
tary of State for War.—This was a letter addressed by the authors 
to His Excellency the Governor of Gibraltar, General Sir W.d. 
Codrington, K.C.B., &c., and containing the results of their examina- 
tion of the Genista Cave. Referring first to Capt. Brome’s report 
for a description of the general features of that cave, the authors 
stated that the Rock of Gibraltar abounds in both seaboard and 
inland caverns, the Genista Cave of Windmill Hill being one of the 
latter class. It is a great perpendicular fissure, and has been traced 
downwards to a depth of 200 feet ; but the external aperture has not 
yet been discovered. It was full of the remains of quadrupeds and 
birds, some of the former being now wholly extinct, others extinct 
in Europe and repelled to distant regions of the African continent 
(as Hyena brunnea and the Felide), while others again live now either 
on the Rock or in the adjoining Spanish Peninsula. It was inferred 
that there had been a connection by land, either circuitous or direct, 
between Europe and Africa at no very remote period. The authors 
observed that the wild animals whose remains were discovered in the 
cave lived and died upon the Rock during a long series of ages, and 
they considered the bones were introduced into the cave by rain and 
streams washing them into gullies and fissures. ‘They also recom- 
mended the formation of a local collection of these and other speci- 
mens, and urged the appointment of a Geologist to make a geological 
survey of the Rock, and concluded by expressing their opinion of the 
value and importance of Capt. Brome’s exploration of the Genista 
Cavern. 

Human remains (peculiar in the ridging and flattening of some of 
the limb-bones, and in other respects), together with polished stone 
implements, broken querns, pottery, marine shells of edible species, 
and other objects, were found in the upper chambers, which were 
possibly used for funeral rites, rather than for habitation, at different 
times, but not before the Historic Period. 

The following species of animals were discovered in the Genista 
Cave :— 


Rhinoceros Etruscus (?) 
Rh. leptorhinus. 

Equus megarhinus. 
Equus sp. 

Sus prisca (?) 

S. scrofa. 

Cervus elaphus, var. Barbarus. 
C. dama. 

Bos sp. 

Bos taurus.* 

Capra hircus.* 

C. egoceros (2 var.) 
Lepus timidus. 

L. cuniculus.f 

Mus rattus. 


* Abundant in the upper chambers. 


Felis leopardus. 

F. pardina. 

F’. serval. 

Hyzena brunnea (and its copro- 
lites). 

Canis vulpes. 

Meles taxus. 

Ursus sp.f 

Phoceena communis. 

Birds ; numerous remains of unde- 
termined genera and species. 
Tortoise ; species undetermined ; 
rare. Fish; numerous remains, 
undetermined.* 


+ Abundant throughout. 


{ Neither Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Ursus speleus, nor Hyena spelea, so common 


in European caves, occurs at Gibraltar. 


Reports and Proceedings. 179 


Elephas antiquus is also found fossil on the Rock, though not in 
this cave. The Hare, Rabbit, Fox, Badger, and a few Magot Monkeys 
(probably introduced) are all the wild animals now found on the 
Rock ; and Goats are with difficulty fed there in the hot season. 


MANcHESTER GroLoGicAaL Socrety.—At the Meeting on Febru- 
ary 28th, Mr. A. Knowles presiding, Mr. J. PLaAnt said that he 
wished to call the attention of the meeting to a serious fraud that 
has been going on for some time among the excavators at the Maccles- 
Jjield New Cemetery. The excavations had been made in gravels 
that belonged to the Drift, and a number of fragments of Shells, and 
occasionally a few nearly perfect, had been found by the workmen; 
and these had fallen into the hands of gentlemen interested in the 
geology of the locality.* Encouraged by the pecuniary results of 
their discoveries, some of the workmen had supplied spurious shells, 
obtained from their friends at Liverpool, Southport, or in Ireland ; 
and they had even robbed rockeries and garden-plots that contained 
shellwork. The shells so obtained were subjected to the action of 
fire or acid, to deprive them of their epidermis, and to bring out a 
thin coating of white lime; they were afterwards shaken in a basket 
of gravel, and this had imparted to them the necessary red tinge. 
Some of the workmen had operated on West Indian and African 
shells, specimens of which Mr. Plant produced; and, in an audacious 
attempt to manufacture a fossil, they cleverly seta Mactra stultorum 
in apiece of Ketton Oolite. ‘The shell, which had the peculiar pink 
tinge of the species, was so neatly cemented in the Oolite, that an 
ordinary geologist might have been deceived. One of the workmen. 
had said to a gentleman, who has written to Mr. Plant, ‘that they 
had made a good thing of it; they had deceived the museums of 
London, Manchester, and Liverpool, and there had been a fine set of 
people asking them for the shells.’ Such a dispersion might lead to 
very erroneous deductions as to the origin of the Drift of Macclesfield, 
and he thought it right to mention the fraud to the Society, so that 
it might be exposed. ‘The thanks of the meeting were given to Mr. 
Plant for the course he had adopted. Mr. J. AITKEN read a paper 
On certain Appearances of Glacial Action on Rock-surface near 
Clitheroe. After a brief description of the chief geological features 
of the locality, the appearances of glacial action were described as 
having been found in a channel, like the bed of a stream, on the top 
of a hill of Carboniferous. Limestone between the Ribble and the 
Pendle Hills. He considered that the channel, and the striations in 
it, had been effected by the action of moving bodies of ice, charged 
on the under surface with fragments of rocks, coming from the north 
at a time when the relative levels of the land and ocean were differ- 
ent from the present, and when the land was slowly rising from the 
water in which it was submerged.—Mr. Chatwood asked whether 
the channel might not be an old watercourse. Mr. Parker said he 
thought not, as it was on the top of a hill, and did not appear on the 


* See Grotocicat Macazinz, No. VII. p. 41. 
N 2 


180 fieports and Proceedings. 


surface in one unbroken and continuous course.—Mr. J. Plant said 
that evidences of glaciation on the western side of the Pennine Chain 
were not numerous, as the Millstone-grit and the Coal-measures 
were too soft to allow a retention of markings made upon them. 
There was a better chance of striations retaining their permanency 
on limestone and igneous rocks, and it was mostly upon them that 
markings had been preserved.—Mr. J. Dickinson said that supposed 
glacial action had long been under his consideration, and he did 
not believe that these striations were formed in any such way as Mr. 
Aitken and others supposed. It was only a few months since, when 
in the Agecroft Colliery, near Manchester, that he took from the 
roof a piece of shale, which was common enough, showing scratch- 
ings on one side, which, had they been seen at the surface, would have 
been considered by ninety-nine of every hundred geological observers 
as glacial striations. He laid a specimen of the shale upon the table, 
and said that acres of shale more deeply striated could be got, 
and striations as fine as those at Clitheroe were often enough found 
on the face of faults. He believed that all these markings were due 
to an origin different to that which had been attributed to them. 
He thought that geologists took too contracted a view of the subject; 
they should go back to that lone time called ‘the beginning,’ when 
matter was created, probably billions of years ago, when matter was 
assimilating and forming, and before it was broken up into this earth 
and planets. ‘Till they could take a grand view of the subject such 
as that, they would only go on groping with little details which could 
never be satisfactorily explained—Mr. Aitken said that in intro- 
ducing his paper he did not contemplate a new theory, and he 
certainly could not grasp the comprehensive view suggested by Mr. 
Dickinson.— Mr. Chatwood said that he should like to learn Mr. 
Dickinson’s ideas as to the formation of striations on the surface. 
Mr. Dickinson said that he held a view which was entirely in ac- 
cordance with the Mosaic account of the creation, and it corresponded 
with every observation he had made in geology. In the remotest 
past, when the materials of which the earth and the planets were 
composed were a soft pulpy mass, gradually hardening into the strata 
as they now were, there were leakings from some strata across the 
faces of others below. We had the hemispheres formed by coal- 
basins, and the drawing off from the stratum formerly above the 
present surface had left marks as plainly behind it as the smoke 
from a chimney.—Mr. Plant said that the piece of shale shown by 
Mr. Dickinson ‘was simply a piece of ‘slicken-sides.—_Mr. Joseph 
Whittaker read a paper On the Outcrop of the Lower Coal-measure 
fiocks on Boulsworth and Gorple, together with observations on the 
origin of some rock-basins thereon. He explained that there was a 
very large number of detached large blocks of gritstone on the moors 
in the neighbourhood of Boulsworth, and that one of them was a very 
fine ‘logan.’ Many of these stones had large holes on their surface 
and sides, peculiar to the gritstone; and long examination of those 
holes had led him to believe that they were made by atmospheric 
causes, and not by the Druids, as many persons supposed.—Mr. 


Reports and Proceedings. 181 


Dickinson, Mr. Plant, and other gentlemen, expressed similar views. 
_—Manchester Guardian. 


EpinsurGH GroitocicaL Society.—I. Of Mr. Tuomas Smytn’s 
paper On the Upheaval of the Shores of the Firth of Forth during 
the Human Period, with a notice of the recent discovery of flint 
weapons at Marionville (between Edinburgh and Portobello), read 
December 22nd, and reported in abstract in the GEOLOGICAL MAGA- 
ZINE, No. VIII. p. 76, another short abstract (by the author) is here 
offered, as the former is considered by him very inaccurate. Mr. 
T. Smytu writes— 

‘I stated, in the first place, that, as I had traced Oyster-shells, for 
a distance of a quarter of a mile from the shore, to a height of 
about 43 feet above the level of the sea, and as those shells lie beneath 
a stratified deposit of sand and gravel,—and further, as I had traced © 
the same stratum, though devoid of shells, to a height of 100 feet,— 
I concluded (having taken many other facts into consideration) that 
there had been an upheaval of the land to the extent of at least 100 
feet since the latter portion of the Post-Pliocene era. I then, in the 
second plaee, mentioned the known upheaval of at least 25 feet since 
the time of the Roman occupation ; and I cited the evidence of old 
men who are still alive, to show that within the last forty years there 
had been not only a gain of land amounting to 66 feet, but that 
ordinary high tides forty years ago reached a point on the land 
which is now elevated 2 feet and 1 inch above the present cor- 
responding tides. I further showed that the foregoing evidence 
was fully corroborated by the old maps of the district. By a series 
of measurements, I proved that in the eighty-three years between 
1770 and 1853, when the Ordnance Survey was made, there had 
been a gain of land amounting to 96 feet, and an actual change of 
level amounting to 44 feet. I stated that, although there had been 
a considerable setting-up of mud and sand in many parts of the 
coast, yet here there could have been none, as there had been a 
marked change of level. I concluded, therefore, that the shores of 
the Firth of Forth were at present rising at the rate of 5 feet a 
century. I mentioned also, that as flint weapons had been discovered 
at Marionville sand-pit at a point about 90 feet above the level of 
the sea, and a mile distant from it, and as two of those weapons had 
been disembedded with my own hands from the marine stratum that 
I had traced to a height of 100 feet above the sea-level, I considered 
that there had been an upheaval of at least 90 feet since man first 
inhabited the shores of the Firth of Forth.’ Mr. Smyth adds—‘Ad- 
ditional evidence, which I intend soon to lay before our Society, fully 
corroborates the facts I have adduced regarding the present rate of 
upheaval, and shows, beyond a doubt, that the whole southern shore 
of the Firth of Forth between Queensferry and North Berwick, a 
distance of 28 miles, and that portion of the east coast which lies 
between North Berwick and St. Abb’s Head, about 24 miles additional, 
have been upheaved more than 2} feet within the last fifty years.’ 

Il. February 2nd.—Mr. James Haswett, M.A., read a paper 


182 fieports and Proceedings. 


On a Glacial Clay at Cornton, near Bridge of Allan,—the same clay 
in which during the spring of last year the skeleton of a Whale was 
found, at a depth of 9 feet from the surface. In July last, Mr. Has- 
well visited the spot, and in a sandy clay, exposed in a burn-section 
behind Mr. Christie’s brick-work, he found shells of what might be 
termed a Post-Glacial character, and which seemed to have flourished 
during the close of the Glacial Epoch. ‘These were mostly species 
characteristic of the Littoral Zone and still inhabiting the Forth ; 
for instance, Ostrea edulis (and a peculiar curved variety of it, which 
does not seem to be common now), Mytilus edulis, Cardium edule, a 
young specimen of C. echinatum, Buccinum undatum, Litorina litorea 
(large estuarine variety), and £. rudis: also others of a more Arctic 
kind, as Trophon scalariforme, and what seemed to be small speci- 
mens of Yellina proxima. Besides these, there was a Balanus; 
and, mixed up with the shells, there were pieces of bark, probably 
of Alder, Nuts of the Hazel, and rootlets and fibres of various 
marsh-plants. These were all found ata height of about 30 feet 
above the present level of the sea, and, together with other evidence, 
seem to indicate that the bed of the Estuary of the Forth has been 
raised to that extent since these Molluses lived in it.—Mr. Haswell 
also gave a résumé of the various Cetacean, Phocine, and other 
remains that had been found in the clay of the Carse of Stirling since 
the discovery of the first Whale (Airthrie) in 1819; and he described 
some bones, &c., which had been lying unnoticed in Stirling for 
some time; namely, a right antler of Platyceros Dama, a right antler 
of Cervus elaphus, a skull of a Bos (probably B. longifrons), a jaw of 
a Horse, and two jaws of a Shark (Porbeagle ?); all found, when 
preparing the foundation of the New Bridge at Stirling, in blue clay 
about 10 feet below the bed of the Forth ;—also the skull of a Wolf, 
found at a depth of 20 feet, and the pelvis of a Horse, found in 1862, 
when taking out sand 5 feet below the bed of the Forth. Mr. Has- 
well remarked, in conclusion, that-it would be interesting to deter- 
mine if the clays on the East Coast were of the same age as those on 
the West Coast of Scotland; but he thought that, as the former had 
been so little examined, and so much remained to be investigated, it 
was rather premature to discuss their relative ages at present. 

Dr. Selkirk, of Carluke, sent for exhibition some beautifully 
sculptured scales of Gyrolepis Rankini, which he had lately dis- 
covered in shale below the Main Limestone (in the lower series of 
the Carboniferous Limestone) at Braidwood, near Carluke, Lanark- 
shire. 

IJ. February 23rd.—Mr. Groree Lyon read a paper On Chalk, 
and the Mode of obtaining Foraminifera from that substance. 

Mr. Davip Pace made some interesting remarks On the Fossils 
found by Mr. Mathieson, of Jedburgh, in the Carboniferous and Old 
Red Sandstones of Roxburghshire. Among the latter are a speci- 
men of Pterichthys major and a jaw-plate of Bothriolepis, which 
are of peculiar value, as they link these beds to those of Dura Den 
in Fifeshire. 

IV. At the Meeting held March 2nd, Mr. David Page, F.G.S., 


fteports and Proceedings. 183 


F.R.S.E., in the chair, Mr. G. C. Haswell, Hon. Sec., read a paper 
On the Age and Fossils of the Silurian Beds of the Pentland Hills. 
He described, and exhibited drawings and specimens of, all the 
fossils yet found in these beds, among which were several new 
species and a number which had not previously been found in this 
locality. Among the new species are three Brachiopoda, given as 
new on the authority of Mr. T. Davidson, F.G.S. They have been 
named Merista? Maclareni, Rhynchonella Pentlandica, and Orthis 
minuta. Among the species new to the locality are some Middle 
Silurian forms, and one specimen of Pterygotus bilobus, showing part 
of the terminal segment and six of the preceding segments tolerably 
perfect. Mr. Haswell showed that in the beds above the village of 
Carlops we have probably the equivalent of the Upper Silurian rock, 
Lower Ludlow and Wenlock Shales, and some red sandstones and 
shales at the source of the Deerhope Burn which are probably older 
than the Wenlock beds, but in these last no fossils have yet been 
found. He also argued that if the order of these beds given by Mr. 
Salter in the Appendix to the Explanation of Sheet 32 of the Geo- 
logical Survey Map be reversed, not only would the section, and its 
relation to the Silurian rocks on the South, be more easily understood, 
but it would do away with the supposition that in this section we 
have no less than three unconformities in the Old Red Sandstone. 


Giascow GroLoeicaL Socirry.—I. The Monthly Lecture, Feb. 
2nd, On the Age of Ice in Scotland, was by the Rev. H. W. Cross- 
KEY, who has for some time past been engaged in the study of the 
subject, and also in working out, with David Robertson, Esq., the 
fauna of the Glacial beds of the West of Scotland, especially the 
more minute forms. The Lecturer described the position and 
characteristics of these beds, which he illustrated by numerous dia- 
grams. He said that there were four distinct deposits, representing 
consecutive periods, during a lengthened and slow upward move- 
ment of the land in Scotland, and referred specially to the beds at 
Fort William, Lochgilphead, Kames in Bute, Lochlomond, Lang- 
bank, Paisley, Jordanhill, and Chapelhall, near Airdrie, representing 
various levels where Glacial shell-beds were now found, varying 
from half-tide at Langbank to 525 feet above the present sea-level at 
Chapelhall. To the venerable President of this Society (James Smith, 
Esq., Jordanhill) is due the honour of establishing the Glacial beds 
as a distinct series, with a characteristic fauna ; and the credit of 
the scientific men of Glasgow is, therefore, peculiarly involved in 
developing this chapter in Geology. The term ‘ Boulder-clay’ is 
very objectionable as applied to the general collection of clays, 
sands, and gravels, indicative of a Glacial epoch. It more correctly 
relates to one term in the series ; and great confusion has arisen 
from the mistake naturally consequent upon a loose phraseology, 
viz., the predicating for a whole series the conditions of one term. 
The phrase ‘ Northern Drift’ is also objectionable; one of the 
peculiar characteristics of the only bed in which the fauna of the 
' period is preserved being, that it is in no sense a drift, but one of 


184 Reports and Proceedings. 


the most gradual and quiet of all deposits. The Lecturer then pro- 
ceeded to develope the following positions :—1. That the Glacial 
beds of the Clyde district constitute a well-marked series, and can- 
not be confused together under any one term. They denote epochs 
separated by long intervals, and characterized by different conditions 
both of climate and the relative position of sea and land. 2. That 
this physical sequence is not an accidental circumstance, of one 
small river-basin, but extends over large areas. 38. That the 
Boulder-clay proper, at the base of the series, is destitute of fossils. 
A number of cases in which fossils were said to occur in the Boulder- 
clay have been examined by the Lecturer, and it has been found that 
they were either beneath it, or that an Upper Drift has been con- 
founded with it. Mistake upon this point is exceedingly easy. The 
upper beds often slip down and cover the face of the lower; while 
the Upper Drift, although differing widely in the obliteration of the 
striz on the stones, and its less compact character, is readily mis- 
taken unless studied in connection with a large range of beds. 
4. That the finely laminated clay which immediately succeeds the 
Boulder-clay is also unfossiliferous, and was probably the deposit 
of rapid waters issuing from beneath ice, and carrying the exces- 
sively comminuted mud well known to Alpine travellers. 5. That 
the fossiliferous clays aud sands belong to several ages; and that the 
fauna usually catalogued together must be separated into distinct 
groups, each referable to its own bed, and having its own place in 
the gradual transition from a severely Arctic, to a more moderate 
temperature. Mr. Crosskey concluded by a description of the pro- 
bable scenery of Scotland from the time of the Boulder-clay, and 
through the successive changes, down to the close of the Glacial 
Period ; and expressed his conviction that more minute and ex- 
tended observations may enable a map of Scotland to be drawn as 
it was when in the condition of Scandinavia. Every clay-pit, 
every heap of boulders, undoubtedly has its place in the great order 
of creation ; and we may work in the midst of the mud, in the faith 
that there is an order and a succession among the loose stones and 
in the lamination of each bed as definite and exact as that whieh 
prevails among the stars, so that not one faileth in its appointed 
course. 

II. At the Monthly Meeting, Feb. 16th, Mr. Jonn Youne 
described a large collection of the Products of the Destructive Distil- 
lation of Coal-tar, exhibited by T. P. Miller, Esq., Springfield ; 
amongst which were tar-oils, parafline, photogen, ammonia, &c., and 
specimens illustrating the formation of the Aniline-colours,—benzol, 
nitro-benzol, aniline, mauve, magenta, blue, violet, yellow, green, &c. ; 
also numerous specimens illustrating the application of these colours 
in dyeing and printing. Mr. Young said that the art of distilling 
coal had been known for a considerable time; but it is only 
recently that the Coal-tar products have come into extensive use. 
In a Table in the International Exhibition Jurors’ Report, Mr. 
Hoffman enumerates about fifty-one different substances derived from 
the tar, and doubtless many more will yet be discovered. In the 
manufacture of gas, the coal is placed in red-hot retorts, by which a 


Reports and Proceedings. Sas 


maximum of gas is obtained : on the other hand, when the object is 
to obtain a large yield of oil, the coal is placed in cold retorts, and 
gradually brought up to a lowred heat. The crude tar-oils are then 
subjected to distillation, among the first products of which are ben- 
zol, toluol, &c.; as the heat is continued, ‘heavy’ or ‘dead’ oil 
passes over (which contains much creosote, and is used for the 
preservation of railway-sleepers), leaving pitch as a residue in the 
retorts. Some idea of the extent of the paraffine-oil manufacture 
may be obtained from the fact that no less than 2,300,000 gallons 
were produced in the United Kingdom in 1862. In 1856 a new and 
important manufacture was established by the discovery, by Mr. W. 
Perkins, of the beautiful mauve-dye, derived from aniline, a basic 
substance existing in tar. Since then this trade has assumed 
gigantic proportions ; and innumerable shades of blue, purple, red, 
yellow, orange, and black have been obtained. These colours, be- 
sides being extensively used at home, are now exported to a large 
extent ; and an eminent chemist has said that in time Great Britain 
will be the great colour-producing mart of the world. 

Mr. Joun Youne exhibited some slabs of Carboniferous shale 
from Arden Quarry, near Thornliebank, containing numerous speci- 
mens of thin bivalve shells, which had long puzzled geologists as to 
their affinities. Lately he had submitted them to Professor T. 
Rupert Jones, who informed him that one of them is an Estheria, a 
genus of Bivalve Crustaceans ; the one exhibited is a new species, 
which, from the beautiful punctate structure of its shell, as revealed 
by the microscope, Professor Jones proposes to name /. punctatella. 
One of the other shells common in this shale Mr. Salter and Pro- 
fessor Jones refer to an American genus of Molluscs (Dr. Dawson’s 
Naiadites) ; the species being possibly as yet undescribed. Mr. 
Young remarked that these shells occur in great profusion in the 
aluminous shales of several localities in the West of Scotland ; and, 
being extremely thin in their texture, they are often converted into 
a thin film of iron-pyrites, which gives them rather a pretty ap- 
pearance when the shale enclosing them is newly laid open. Both 
the shells and shales, however, soon decompose if exposed for any 
length of time to the influence of the weather. 

Mr. Joun Hunter exhibited an interesting series of Carboni- 
ferous Fossils from the ‘ Main Limestone’ beds of the Braidwood 
district, near Carluke, among which were examples of the interiors 
of several Brachiopod shells, not found before ; also, the very rare 
Productus Deshayesianus, of which his friend Dr. Selkirk was the 
first to find specimens in Scotland. Mr. Hunter also exhibited 
a large slab of shale lately obtained by Dr. Selkirk from the strata 
lying between the ‘ Main Limestone’ and under-lying Coal at Braid- 
wood, which contained a splendid example of a large and very rare 
fish, Gyrolepis Rankin. This specimen is in good preservation, 
and shows the beautifully sculptured ganoid seales of the Fish lying 
in their natural position; also, the large granulated plates which 
adorned its head. The ornamentation of these plates and scales are 
peculiar, distinguishing this fish from all others found in the Car- 
boniferous system. ‘This species was first discovered by Dr. Rankin, 


186 Reports and Proceedings. 


of Carluke, many years ago, and named after him. Mr. Hunter also 
exhibited numerous specimens of polished limestone with Corals, 
&c., and explained his process of grinding and polishing them, by 
which any member of the Society, with a little labour, and at a very 
trifling cost, could easily accomplish like results. 

The Discovery of Lower Carboniferous Fossils in the Upper 
Coal-measures.—Mr. R. Wuyte Sxipsey exhibited specimens of 
Productus scabriculus, Discina nitida, Conularia quadrisuleata, and 
Bellerophon Unit, recently discovered in the Upper Coal-measures, 
very greatly higher in the Carboniferous series than previously 
known. 

These fossils are true marine types, and have not hitherto been 
found higher in the series than about 290 fathoms under the ‘ Ell 
Coal,’ generally in the Mountain-limestone and its concomitant 
shales. ‘The specimens now produced were discovered in a coal- 
pit-shaft on the Drumpeller property, about six miles east of Glas- 
gow. ‘They were enclosed partially or altogether in clay-ironstone- 
nodules, which were enveloped in shale, a few of the dorsal valves 
of the Productus being in the shale itself. Their position is about 
30 fathoms from the surface, over- and under-laid by the usual alter- 
nations of sandstones, shales, and fireclays. In this pit the ‘Main 
Coal’ is calculated to be 100 to 110 fathoms from the surface ; and 
the ‘ Ell Coal,’ if in its usual relative position to the ‘Main Seam,’ 
would be 10 to 15 fathoms higher. The position of the fossil-bed, 
therefore, is about 60 fathoms above the ‘ Ell Coal ;’ the horizon of 
these varieties of ocean-life being upwards of 300 fathoms higher 
than hitherto known,—above the regular coal-seams of the Upper 
Carboniferous strata, while any previously known beds of the kind 
lie in the middle series; and Discina nitida, at least, establishes a 
connecting link with the Permian beds. The nodules enclosing 
these fossils are of a brown colour, like hamatite; and this is really 
their character, there being only 28 per cent. of iron in its normal 
state of a carbonate, and 23 as a peroxide: the shale alsois purplish 
red. The cause of this is evidently a large trap-dyke, which, though 
not in contact at this point, traverses the ground in close proximity, 
and by transmitted heat has effected this change in colour and 
character. The Productus is most abundant of all, only one or two 
specimens of the others being got; but great numbers cannot be 
expected, the extent of the fossiliferous bed turned out being only 
the area of the shaft, about ten feet square ; and it is not above one 
foot thick. It is, however, a persistent bed, and clearly in its 
natural position, there being no irregularity nor dislocation visible 
in it or the strata around, except a supposed downthrow in the whole 
mass of beds by the action of the trap-dyke, the pit being regarded 
as on the depressed side. 

The reading of Mr. Skipsey’s paper was followed by some discus- 
sion as to the position of the strata in which the shells were found. 
Mr. JAmEs THOMSON said he thought the Society should be cautious 
in affirming the discovery announced by Mr. Skipsey, until the 
position of some well-known bed of coal in the pit was ascertained, 


Reports and Proceedings. 187 


as he had often seen marine beds, containing similar shales, thrown 
up to the surface by faults in the strata.—Mr. Joun Younc, who 
had lately visited the pit (with Mr. Skipsey and Mr. Stokes, 
colliery-manager, who knows the district and its strata intimately), 
and had discovered some of the shells exhibited, stated that he could 
not agree with Mr. Thomson’s objections, as they had carefully 
investigated the position of the shell-bed, and found that it lay only 
afew fathoms under the red sandstone which overlies the Upper 
Coal-measures to the east of Glasgow. All the evidence that could 
be obtained went to prove that the pit is being sunk in these Upper 
Coal-measures; and, as there is only one ved sandstone in this part 
of the field, the horizon of this shell-bed is as clearly marked as if it 
were taken from any bed of coal whose position in those strata is 
well defined. He considered that the discovery of undoubted marine 
shells on the top of our coal-formation was one of great interest to 
the geologist.*—-Mr. Crossxry remarked that the recurrence of one 
of the shells found in this pit, Discina nitida, in the higher group of 
rocks termed Permian, proves it to have lived throughout the Car- 
boniferous period, and shows how unwise it is to dogmatize upon the 
limitation or life-range of certain species. 

Mr. Joun Camppeiy read a paper On some Differences in the 
Results of Ice-action in Scotland and Switzerland, in which he 
attributed the rounded state of the Highland hills to their having 
been enveloped almost to their summits in a sheet of ice, while the 
higher Alpine peaks, on the contrary, at least in modern times, have 
always been elevated considerably above the glaciers, and have been 
worn into their present majestic forms by frost and other causes, 
while the glaciers acted as ravine-cutters and rubbish-carriers. He 

explained ‘the nature of moraines, and the way in which they were 


* Mr. RAW. Skipsey says in a letter, ‘ At a subsequent visit, I foundin the same 
bed another fossil shell, like Axinws ; and then -examined an old pit 300 to 400 
yards distant, making inquiries of the people engaged in working it. Their 
statement was that at 95 fathoms the ‘‘ Main Coal” was got, and for years wrought 
without any obstacles or dislocations; and that the mine was carried within 200 
yards of the new shaft, the coal-seams being persistently in their proper place. 
From the excayated material at the old pit-head I also obtained Productus 
scabriculus and Anthracosia acuta, the latter in ironstone-nodules, different from 
those in which the Productus is found, being of a different colour and in their 
normal state of carbonate. From the position of the Anthracosia-nodules at the 
pit-head, they must evidently have been got in their usual place in our Coal- 
measures, ranging from the “ Kll Coal”’ down to the “‘ Main Seam,” and thus further 
proving the general persistent character of the ground. I inquired pointedly of 
those well acquainted with the ground as to the possibility of an extensive slip 
throwing up the lower beds, and the idea was scouted as groundless; the only dis- 
location being the dyke mentioned in my paper which throws the coal down 5 to 
10 fathoms on one side ; and that dyke was not met with till the shaft was driven 
50 fathoms, being 20 fathoms below the newly found shell- bed. ‘There is a total 
absence of ‘limestone, or anything else, beyond the usual strata of our Upper Coal- 
measures. Mr. J alba Young adds, ‘that it would require a hitch or fault of 170 
fathoms to bring our highest marine beds to the position of the shell-bed above 
mentioned ; and we have no evidence of such an enormous fault in that district, 
nor of the Upper Carboniferous Limestone series ever have been reached in any of 
the pits, which are very numerous there.’ 


188 Reports and Proceedings. 


formed on the surface of the glaciers; and gave his reasons for 
thinking that no mass of detritus intervened between the glacier-ice 
and its rocky bed, but that all the stones which found their way 
there were quickly ground into mud, grinding the bed at the same 
time, and that this mud was instantly carried off by the water which 
is found abundantly beneath the glaciers. Mr. Campbell admitted 
that there were very considerable difficulties in fully explaining the 
phenomena of the Boulder-clay; but suggested that, from the great 
coldness of the climate of Scotland in the Glacial Period, there 
would be but a small supply of water from the melting of the ice, and 
that in the flattish country, where the Boulder-clay is principally 
found, the ice-sheet would not be much crevassed, so that surface- 
water would not easily find its way beneath, and the detritus over 
considerable spaces might thus escape removal. The mass of mud, 
stones, &c., would then be powerfully compressed and very gradually 
moved forward by the friction of the ice above; while the stones, 
being rubbed together while embedded in a slightly yielding matrix, 
might acquire their characteristic half-worn and scratched appear- 
ance. ‘This view of the case would also account for the so-called 
‘striated pavements,’ which would naturally be formed at any level 
which was for a time the bed of the ice, but which might afterwards 
be covered up by a fresh mass of clay and stones. Mr. Campbell 
thought that one of the strongest objections to the Land-ice Theory 
was derived from the local nature of a large portion of the boulders ; 
though this was generally used as an argument on the other side. 
He said he could easily understand how stones in a mountainous 
country might fall on the surface of the ice, and after being carried 
to a great distance might become involved in the Boulder-clay ; but 
he did not see how ice, creeping over a flat country, which it com- 
pletely covered, could break up the rocks beneath in large masses, 
instead of wearing them away by gradual and constant attrition. In 
conclusion, Mr. Campbell stated that in his opinion the evidence in 
favour of the formation of the Boulder-clay by a sheet of land-ice 
predominated ; but he did not wish to express himself too confidently 
on this point, and hoped that observations might be made on the 
effects produced by close-packed heavy ice drifting in somewhat 
confined waters, which might possibly throw some light on this 
obscure and difficult question. : 

II. March 2nd.—E. A. Winch, Esq., in the chair. The Monthly 
Lecture was given by W. Kneppir, Esq.—On the Unity and Perma- 
nence of Species. ‘The Lecturer described the views both of those 
who consider species to be permanent, and limited by strong charac- 
ters, being types of vegetable and animal life which have survived 
the lapse of ages unaltered, presenting the same forms and organiza- 
tions as those of their progenitors; and, secondly, of those who do 
not believe in the fixity of species, but are of opinion that, in 
consequence of the modifying influence of external agents upon 
organized beings, and of the hybridizing or crossing of ancient species, 
they have been subjected to incessant variation, even in their most 
important characters, thus giving rise to new types, which are them- 


Correspondence. 189 


selves destined to be modified by similar causes. The known per- 
manence of certain animals and plants for several hundred years, and 
the sterility of hybrids, were adduced as evidence that aberrant 
animals and plants recur to the type from which they have diverged, 
and that true species are permanent. 

The Chairman, alluding to the admitted progressive character of 
fossil species, wished that the Lecturer had been able to take into 
consideration the cause of that progressive advance. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
Sua 

Note oN BELEMNITES CLAVATUS, BLainv.—I am happy to be 
able to reply to the inquiry of Professor Phillips, regarding the 
form of the phragmacone in Belemnites pistilliformis, Sow. (B. cla- 
vatus, Blainv.), by the statement that it has proportions similar to 
those of other Belemnites, and is not slender and elongated as in 
Xiphoteuthis. A specimen showing this (a guard and phragmacone, 
in stone, rubbed down and polished so as to exhibit a section) was 
lately in my collection, and is now, if I mistake not, in the Museum 
of Practical Geology. 

Note ON XIPHOTEUTHIS ELONGATA.— Since the publication of 
Professor Huxley’s Memoir, I have obtained a fine specimen (now in 
the Jermyn Street Collection) of this species. ‘The guard of this 
example was fractured in extraction from the matrix, and showed 
clearly that, in this instance at least, it was tubular throughout, 
though closed ai the extremity. From what I have seen in other 
specimens -that have come under my notice, I am strongly of opinion 
that this is a normal character, and that a solid guard is the result 
of fossilization.— Epwarp C. Harrsinck Day, Charmouth. 


SuURFACE-MARKINGS ON SANDSTONE. 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Srr,—For many years the peculiar markings found so frequently 
in sandstone and other rocks, from the Cambrian upwards, have 
been attributed by Geologists to the effect of heavy rain-drops falling 
on plastic mud, or moist impressible sand. ‘Together with my fel- 
lows, I believed the markings to be due to rain-drops, until a fortu- 
nate discovery proved the conjecture untenable. During the summer 
of 1859, while shooting sea-fowl, shortly after sun-rise, on the sands 
near Leith, I observed peculiar depressions, with cusps, precisely 
similar to those so well represented in Plate IV. in No. IX. of the 
GroLocicaL Macazine. ‘They were identical with the depressions 
caused by rain-drops during a thunder-storm; butas the streets in the 
town were dry, my curiosity was excited. On calling the attention 
of a neighbouring watchman to the markings, he informed me that 
no rain had fallen through the night, and so I looked for another cause 


190 Correspondence. 


to produce the effect. It was not long before I discovered that these 
depressions were confined to a certain well-defined zone in the sandy 
shore, none appearing above or below it; further, that they were 
the burrows of the Gammarus, or Sand-hopper. Each of these 
conical depressions contained water; and as the wind was blowing 
the sand from above, a cusp was produced round each towards the 
leeward side of the minute crater. (See Woodcut.) Now, all that. 
was necessary to preserve these Gammarus-burrows, was simply 
their being filled up by the dry sand, and thus kept from the de- 
grading action of the advancing tide. 


TALITRUS (Gammarus) SALTATOR, Edw. 
The common Sand-hopper in its burrow. 
(a, a, w), apertures of three burrows upon the surface of dry sandy beach (d, d);—(6) burrow 
seen in section around which the sand is always moist ;—(m, m) depth at which the beach is 
moist at low water. The arrows indicate the direction of the wind. 


Another consideration satisfied me that in no instance can we 
expect to find the fossil marks of rain-drops unless a special condi- 
tion, such as Gideon of old prayed for, were obtained; namely, that 
one portion should be dry, and allaround moist. For all the casts of 
foot-prints, gasteropod-tracks, and the so-called fossil rain-drops, one 
condition is essential,—that before the next tide these markings must 
be filled up with dry dust or sand. It is therefore clear that no such 
traces of rain-drops can be found, as all around must have been wet, 
and the next tide would certainly obliterate any trace of the depres- 
sions. Great caution is necessary to distinguish the track of a Gas- 
teropod from that of a Nereid on the soft sand. When the track of 
a whelk is being filled up by the dry sand blown into the depression 
in the line of progress, no difficulty is felt in recognizing it as the 
track of a Gasteropod ; but should the wind blow at right angles to 
the track of the Mollusc, a series of sete-like markings will be 
observed to leeward, caused by the dry sand adhering to the moist. 
In this instance a geologist would naturally assign the markings to 
the impression of Graptolites pristis or G. sagittarius. And if the 
wind suddenly shifted to the opposite direction, another series of sete 


Miscellaneous. 191 


would be formed on the other side of the: Molluse’s track ; and the 
observer would at once pronounce the marks to be due to a gigantic 
Crossopodia, or fringe-footed Annelide.—Yours truly, 
A. Bryson. 
Hawkhill, Edinburgh. 


MISCHELiIANEHOUS. 
—-— +—__— 

Tue Farconer Memortat.—At a meeting held in London on the 
25th of February, Sir Proby T. Cautley, K.C.B., in the chair, it was 
resolved to record the great loss sustained by Science in the early 
death of the late Dr. Hugh Falconer, and to perpetuate his name as 
a Naturalist and a Scholar by a suitable Memorial. It was unani- 
mously resolved that this Memorial should include a Marble Bust, to 
be placed in the rooms of one of the Scientific Societies, or else- 
where, in London, as might be determined. One of the objects in 
which the late Dr. Falconer took deep interest, up to the latest hour 
of his life, was the foundation of Fellowships or Scholarships in the 
University of Edinburgh, to enable deserving students to prolong 
their studies beyond the usual academical period. It was therefore 
further resolved to collect funds for the purpose of founding, in that 
University, a Fellowship or Scholarship in Natural Science, tenable 
for a limited term of years, and to be called ‘ The Falconer Fellow- 
ship’ or ‘Scholarship’ The Presidents of the Royal, Linnean, 
Geological, Geographical, and Ethnological Societies, and many 
other friends and admirers of Dr. Falconer, have formed a Committee 
for promoting the objects of the ‘ Falconer Memorial.’ 


THE LATE EARTHQUAKE IN THE NortH oF ENGLAND.—On 
Wednesday, the 15th of January, an earthquake of very unusual 
severity occurred in Morecambe Bay, and the neighbouring district 
of Furness. The following account of the more striking effects is 
abridged from a long article in the ‘ Barrow Herald’ of Feb. 18th: 
—About three minutes past 11 a.m., the people of Barrow were 
terror-stricken by an earthquake-wave which came in the direction 
of Salthouse Marsh, and passed along towards Hindpool, where it 
would appear to have terminated. So far as yet known, the vibra- 
tion would appear to have commenced at Mickle Island in More- 
cambe Bay, where it threw up large volumes ef sand and stones to 
the height of 5 or 6 feet. Two distinct shocks were felt there, fol- 
lowing each other at an interval of five minutes. Roa Island, close 
by, suffered severely. At the Pier Hotel the walls and ceilings 
were cracked, and bottles, plates, &c., were thrown down. ‘The 
cellar seems to have escaped injury. Great fissures were made in 
the earth 3800 yards from the hotel, towards the railway-embank- 
ment. At Westfield, Pease Holmes, and Rampside (on the coast), 
which seems to have suffered most, walls, ceilings, roofs, and chim- 
neys of houses and outbuildings were fissured or severely injured by 
the shocks: indeed, there are many instances of cracked, bulging, and 
fallen walls and chimneys. Furniture was thrown down; and in 


192 Miscellaneous. 


one case at least, the flagstones in the lower rooms were broken and 
thrown up. At Furness Abbey, the bells of the hotel rang with 
violence. At Hawcoat, a buzzing noise was heard. The shock, on 
reaching the shore of Morecambe Bay, would appear to have 
branched off in two directions,—the one towards Barrow, and the 
other towards Furness Abbey and Dalton. In Salthouse Marsh it 
was very severe. Some gentlemen who were standing on the para- 
pet in front of the Barrow Railway-station were nearly thrown 
down by the rocking of the flagstones beneath their feet. All along 
the Strand the bells rang in the houses, and the reporter of the 
newspaper was thrown from his desk against the wall. At Barrow 
there seemed to be two distinct waves, accompanied by a loud rum- 
bling sound, which lasted about half a minute. All the vessels in 
the harbour were made to roll and pitch through the severity of the 
shock. [The writer of the account in the ‘ Barrow Herald’ states 
that an earthquake occurred at Ambleside in 1780, by which two 
clefts were produced. One of them was very deep, and 200 feet in 
length; it nearly swallowed up six houses and several cattle. I 
have carefully examined, in company with local geologists, a number 
of large fissures on each side of the valley between Whitehaven and 
St. Bees, which would seem to admit of no other explanation than 
an earthquake of comparatively recent occurrence. ‘The tourist on 
the railway can easily distinguish them by the stripes of wood under 
which they lie concealed. |—D. M. 

RECENT Accounts from Mexico report the discovery of valuable 
treasures in that country. Baron de Morner, a Swede, has found a 
deposit of anthracite of excellent quality-in the Guerrero district. 
Concessions have been granted of a layer of bitumen and two coal- 
scams in the Arrondissement of Iturbide; of a petroleum-well near 
Tenancingo; and of a vein of cinnabar at Sultepec. Two Frenchmen, 
MM. Favre and Garibel, are about to establish iron-mines in the 
district of Chaleo, where the railway-works are being carried on 
with great activity.—‘ Reader.’ 

ConGrREss OF DELEGATES OF THE FRENCH LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
—M. A. de Caumont, the Director of ‘The Institute of the Pro- 
vinces,’ has issued circulars to the Presidents of the several Learned 
Societies of France, praying the appointment of six delegates from 
each to meet in convocation at Paris on the 20th of April. The 
questions which will be submitted for discussion this year, as usual, 
will bear on Agriculture, Geology, Statistics, Archeology, and 
Art.—R. T. 

Tue PaAL#onTOGRAPHICAL Society. — Dr. P. Martin Duncan, 
See. Geol. Soe. (8, Belmont, Lee, S.E.), being engaged in preparing 
an Appendix to MM. Edwards and Haimes’ British Fossil Cora's ; 
and Mr. Henry Woodward (144, Leighton Road, N.W.) having also 
undertaken to prepare a Monograph of Paleozoic Crustacea, of the 
order Eurypterida, for this Society; they beg to request the kind 
assistance of Geologists and Palzontologists, and private Collectors 
generally throughout the country, in forwarding their labours, either 
by the communication of information as to localities, or by the offer 
of the loan of specimens for examination, &c. , 


Geol. Mag. 1865. Pi. VI. 
Fig.1 


SESS ifAA 
SESS bRAN 


c RAW 
iPARS 


i Mee : 


J. Ruskin Ei A. C. Hailes § Co. imp. 


ALPINE STRUCTURE. 


THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. XI—MAY 1865. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
——_~——_ 


I. Notes ON THE SHAPE AND STRUCTURE OF SOME PARTS OF 
THE ALPS, WITH REFERENCE TO DENUDATION.—Part II. 
By Joun Rusxtin, Esq., F.G.S., &e. 
(Plate VI.) 


pA the extremity of my sketch, fig. 1, p. 52, which by the 

printer’s inadvertence is marked y instead of x, the beds 
appear to turn suddenly downwards. ‘They are actually more 
inclined at this spot; but the principal cause of their apparent 
increase in steepness is a change in their strike. Generally 
parallel tc the precipice, it here turns westwards (7.e. towards 
the spectator); and, holding myself bound in candour to note, 
as I proceed, every circumstance appearing to make for the 
modern glacial theories, I must admit that, as the beds at this 
extremity of the cliff turn outwards from the Alps, it might not 
inaptly be concluded that the great Chamouni Glacier, which 
by its friction filed the mountain two thousand feet down at 
the top, by its pressure turned the end of it several points of 
the compass round at the bottom ! 

This change in the strike of beds, though over a very limited 
space, yet perfects the Saléve as a typical example, entirely 
simple in its terms, of a wave of the undulatory district of the 
Savoy Alps. I call it the ‘ undulatory’ district, because, in 
common with a great belt of limestone ranges extending on 
the north side of the gneissose Alps as far as “the Valley of the 
Rhine, it is composed of masses of rock which have bent like 
leather under the forces affecting them, instead of breaking 
like ice; and thew planes of elevation are therefore all, more 
or less. curved. 

This is one of the points on which I want help. I have 
hitherto met with no clear statement of the supposed or 

VOL. II.—NO. XI. O 


194 Ruskin— Notes on the Denudation of the Alps. 


supposable differences between the mountains which rise bend- 
ing, and those which rise rigid. The conglomerates of Central 
Switzerland, for imstance, are raised always, I think, in recti- 
linear masses, league heaped on league of continuous slope, 
like tilted planks or tables. But the subjacent limestones of 
Altorf and Lauterbrunnen are thrown into fantastic curves. 
The gneissitic schists of Chamouni are all rectilinear; those of 
Val d’Aoste and the Black Forest are coiled like knots of pas- 
sionate snakes. Is this difference caused by difference in the cha- 
racters of the applied forces, or by differences in the state of the 
materials submitted to them? If by difference in the materials, 
it is not easy to understand how forces which could twist lime- 
stone-beds a thousand feet thick, as a laundress wrmgs linen, 
could have left conglomerates in any other state than that of 
unintelligible heaps of shingle and dust. But if the difference 
is In the manner of the agency, we have instantly a poimt of 
evidence of no small value respecting the date and sphere of 
any given elevatory force. But I have not yet seen any 
attempt to distinguish, among the several known periods of 
elevation in the Alps, those durmg which the action was ac- 
companied by coiling pressures from those, if any, during which 
we have only evidence of direct heave. And the question is 
rendered both more intricate and interesting by the existence 
of the same structural distinction on a small scale. The meta- 
morphic series, passing from gravel into gneiss, through the 
infinitely various ‘ poudingues,’ is far more interesting than 
the transition from mud to gneiss through the schists, ¢ except 
only in this one particular, that the conglomerates, as far as 
I know them, do not distimctly coil. Their pebbles are 
wrenched, shattered, softened, pressed into each other; then 
veined and laminated; and at last they become crystalline with 
their paste: but they neither coil, nor wholly lose trace, under 
whatever pressure, of the consistent couching on their broad 
sides, which first directed Saussure’s perodiod to the inclined 
position of their beds; whereas limestones in the same transi- 
tional relation to the gneiss (those under the Castle of Mar- 
tigny, for example) wrinkle themselves as if Falstaff’s wit had 
vexed, or pleased, them, and made their faces ‘like a wet 
cloak ill laid up.’ 

It is true that where the conglomerates begin to take the 
aspect of shattered breccias, like “those which accompany great 
faults, some aspect of coiling introduces itself also. I have not 
examined. the conglomerate-junctions as I have the calcareous 
ones, because the mountain-forms of the breccias are so inferior 
(for my own special purposes of art) to those of the schists, 


Ruskin—WNotes on the Denudation of the Alps. 195 


that I never stay long in the breccia districts. But a few 
hours of study by the shores of the Reuss or Limmat are enough 
to show the general differences in aspect of compression be- 
tween metamorphic schists and conglomerates ; and the distinc- 
tion on a large scale is everywhere notable; but complicated 
by this fact, which I have not until lately ascertained positively, 
that through even the most contorted beds of the limestones 
there run strange, long, rectilinear cleavages, extending in | 
consistent slopes for leagues,—giving the mountain-mass, seen 
at right angles to their direction, an aspect of quite even stra- 
tification and elevation, with a strike entirely independent of 
its true beds and minor cleavages, and traversing them all. 

Putting these gigantic cleavages (of the origin of which, 
even if I could guess any reason, I would still say nothing so 
long as I could do no more than guess) for the present out of 
the question, the mass of the Savoy limestones forms a series 
of surges, retreating from the Alps, undulatory in two direc- 
tions at least, as at fig. 1, A, Pl VI., and traversed by fissures 
usually at right angles to the strike of the longitudinal surge. 
When that strike varies consistently at the same time, we may 
get conditions of radiant curve and fracture, B; and the undu- 
lations themselves are seldom simple, as at a, but either com- 
plicated by successive emergence of beds, b, or more frequently 
by successive faults, c, farther modified by denudation of upper 
beds, d, and, locally, by reversals of their entire series, e. 

All these complex phenomena will be produced by one con- 
sistent agency of elevatory or compressive force. Any num- 
ber of such tides of force may of course succeed each other at 
different epochs, each traversing the series of beds in new 
directions,—intersecting the forms already produced, and giving 
maxima and minima of elevation and depression where its own 
maxima and minima coincide with those resultant from previous 
forces. 

Now, by every such passage of force, a new series of cleav- 
ages is produced in the rocks, which I shall for the present 
call ‘ passive cleavages,’ as opposed to ‘native cleavages.’ I 
do not care about the names; anybody is welcome to give them 
what names they choose; but it is necessary to understand and 
accept the distinction. I call a cleavage ‘native’ which is 
produced by changes in the relation of the constituent particles 
of a rock while the mass of it is in repose. I call a cleavage 
‘passive’ which is produced by the motion of the entire mass 
under given pressures or strains. Only I do not call the 
mere contraction and expansion of the rock motion; though, 
m large formations, such changes in bulk may involve motion 

0 2 


196 Ruskin—WNotes on the Denudation of the Alps. 


over leagues. But I call every cleavage ‘ native’ which has 
been produced by contraction, expansion, segregation, or crystal- 
lization, whatever the space over which the rock may be moved 
by its structural change; and I only call a cleavage ‘ passive’ 
which has been caused by a strain on the rock under external 
force. Practically, the two cleavages, or rather the two groups 
of cleavages, mingle with and modify each other; but the 
‘native’ cleavage is universal ;—the ‘ passive’ is local, and 
has more direct relations with the mountain-form. 

In the range, for instance, of which the Aiguille de Varens 
forms the salient point, of which the rough outline is given in 
the same plate, fig. 2, seen in front, and in fig. 4, seen in profile, 
the real beds dip in the direction a 4, fig. 4, bemg conspicuous 
in every aspect of the mountain in its profile: they are seen 
again on the opposite side of the valley (of Maglans) at ed. On 
the face of the mass, fig. 2, they are seen to be contorted and 
wrinkled, on the left reversed in complete zigzags;* but 
through all these a native cleavage developes itself in the 
direction ef, accompanied by an elaborate network of diagonal 
veining with calcareous spar. 

This cleavage directs the entire system of the descending 
streams, which, by help of it, cut the steps of precipice into 
oblique prisms, curved more and more steeply downwards, as 
the sweep of the torrent gains in power; so that, seen from a 
point a little farther to the right, the mountain seems composed 
of vast vertical beds, more or less curved in contour, fig. 3. 
But the face of the precipice itself is hewn into steps and walls, 
with intermediate slopes, by a grand vertical passive cleavage, 
gh, fig. 4, to which the direction and disposition of the entire 
Valley of Maglans are originally owing. 

And thus in any given mountain-mass, before we can touch 
the question of denudation, we have to determine the position 
it occupies in the wave-system of the country,—the connections 
of its cleavages with those of neighbouring masses,—and the 
probable points of maxima elevation which directed the original 
courses of glacier and stream. Then come the yet more intri- 
cate questions respecting the state of the materials at each 
successive elevation, and during the action of the successively 
destructive atmospheric influences. 

I have no pretension to state more than a few of the main 
facts bearing on such questions in the Savoy districts of the 
Lower Chalk, which I will endeavour to do briefly in one or 
two following papers. 


* This contortion is an important one, existing on both sides of the valley; but 
it is in reality farther to the left. I have crowded it in to complete the typical 
figure. 


Godwin-Austen— Cretaceous Rocks. 197 


II. On THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE CRETACEOUS BEDS. 
By Ropert A. C. Gopwin-Austen, F.R.S., F.G.S. 


| ae two Memoirs by Dr. Reynés, on the Cretaceous formation, 
which were noticed in the ninth number of the GroLocicaL 
MaGazinr, suggest two questions: how far the subdivisions there 
proposed are applicable to the Cretaceous series of this country; and, 
next, as to the sufficiency of the ground on which the synchronism 
of the subdivisions of geological formations has been based. The 
subject of the second Memoir, ‘ De l’Etage,’ involves considerations 
which might be well extended to the whole range of the geological 
series : indeed, it will hardly be profitable to make much progress 
with the past physical history of the earth until rules for deter- 
mining geological horizons shall be established. 

The first of these questions has probably been answered much in 
the same manner by many English Geologists. Things do not admit 
of subdivision and the comparison of relative parts, unless they have 
something in common. Dr. Reynés proposes ten subdivisions for the 
Cretaceous series, each characterized by from three to four forms of 
Shells or Urchins. Out of thirty-eight species which are cited, as 
many as eighteen have not hitherto been recognized within the 
British area; so that twenty species alone serve for comparison, 
or an average of two for each ‘stage.’ This is a small amount of 
evidence. In that school of Paleontology, however, in which it is 
a fundamental doctrine that a species has a definite duration in 
time, and that identical forms, wherever met with, are proofs of 
synchronism, a single species would have done as well. 

The twenty species which have to be removed from Dr. Reynés’ 
list belong to the Mediterranean province of tlre Cretaceous Period, 
with which he is best acquainted. 

Dr. Reynés’ highest horizon* is that with Belemnitella mucronata, 
B. quadrata, Micraster cor-anguinum, and Hemipneustes radiatus : 
this last, a well-known form from the Maestricht and Gulpen beds, 
has not been found in England. The three other species may be 
placed thus :—Belem. mucronata, Micraster cor-anguinum, and 
Belem. quadrata. 

These forms, which are abundant in the Chalk of the North of 
France, of Belgium, and of England, do not occur in the Cretaceous 
beds of the Mediterranean area; and on such grounds the uppermost 
division of the series might be supposed to be wanting there. Nor, 
if recourse be had to considerations which will be noticed in the 
sequel, can there be any comparison established between the Upper 
Chalk of England and that of Maestricht. 

In the horizon next below the second, the forms cited are Radio- 
lites, Spherulites, and Hippurites, with Micraster brevis and Ostrea 
auricularis. M. brevis may be only a Mediterranean-area variety of 
M. cor-anguinum ; but the form does not occur with us, nor in the 


= 


* Upper Chalk—Chalk of Maestricht and Meudon. 


198 Godwin- Austen— Cretaceous Rocks. 


Cretaceous series of the Netherlands; so that the O. auricularis is 
alone available. This is scarce as British; and if, as the observa- 
tions of Morris and D’Orbigny would lead us to suppose, this species 
should be the O. halitoidea and O. Rauliniana of the Gault of 
France, as of the Gault and Upper Greensand of England, present- 
ing modifications of form according to its duration in time and con- 
ditions of life-zone, it can hardly serve the purpose of a ‘ Leit-Mus- 
chel’ or ‘ Guide- Shell.’ 

The third horizon contains Ammonites peramplus, Am. papalis, 
Am. Deverie, and Radiolites cornu pastoris. The second of these 
is a Mediterranean-area species, Am. Deverie: only one English 
specimen has been reported ; and the characteristics which distin- 
guish it from Am. Rothomagensis are very unimportant. Am. per- 
amplus in this country ranges from the Lower Chalk into that 
without and with flints, through what must represent a vast space 
of time. Aadiolites cornu-pastoris occurs on the Atlantic side of 
France, but 5° of latitude south of our Chalk area. 

Division fourth has four typical fossils—IJnoceramus labiatus, 
Ammonites Weilhancit, Hemiaster Verneuilli, and Rhynchonella 
Cuviert. Mr. Sharpe puts this Ammonite doubtfully as the Am. 
Cenomanensis of D’ Archiac, a shell from the Grey Chalk of the South- 
east of England ; but it has been very reasonably suggested that 
Am. Cenomanensis may be only a variety of Am. Rothomagensis, and 
of the extreme stage of its growth. ‘The range of the Hemiaster is 
far south of our area. The Jnoceramus and Rhynchonella have a 
long range in the Lower Chalk and the Sands next below. 

In the next division—fifth—there are two British Ostree, and an 
Ammonite—Am. navicularis, which is perhaps the commonest form 
in the Lower Chalk of the North Downs. With it occurs Ostrea 
carinata-frons ; but this shell is much more abundant in our sandy 
beds below the Chalk. Dr. Reynés places Ostrea Columba at the 
head of the series. In Dorset the place of this shell is far below the 
Chalk. M. D’Orbigny remarks that in the North of France the 
position of this species is below the zone of Am. Rothomagensis, which, 
so far as our limited data go, holds good for this country also. 

The sixth horizon is that with Turrilites costatus and T. tubercu- 
latus, Ammonites Rothomagensis and Am. inflatus-rostratus. Here 
again species are put together which, so far as the English South- 
east area is concerned, might well stand apart. 7’. costatus is abun- 
dant in the Grey Chalk, and 7. tuberculatus has its maximum in 
the lower arenaceous strata, with phosphatic nodules: such is also 
the position of Am. inflatus. 

M. D’Orbigny states that in the North of France the position of 
Am. navicularis is always lower than that of Am. Rothomagensis. 
Dr. Reynés reverses this order, and puts them into distinet subdivi- 
sions. Should both observers be correct, it is a circumstance worth 
attending to, as showing a different distribution in different pro- 
vinces. 

These six ‘horizons’ include the whole of the Chalk of England; 
and, viewed in a general way, the thirteen forms cited may occur . 


Godwin- Austen— Cretaceous Rocks. 199 


here in much the same order of succession as there given; but not 
one has such a definite position in our Chalk as to justify the esta- 
blishment of stage-lines. It is unnecessary to extend this comparison 
to the remaining subdivisions of Dr. Reynes’ table—the lower Cre- 
taceous series, in the enormous development of the Lower Green- 
sand in the East and South-east of England, as compared with 
any part of continental Europe, shows that here were exceptional 
conditions. 

If in the South and West of France the Cretaceous series can be 
separated into definite ‘Etages,’ it can only be by means of the 
numerous forms of Rudistes which lived in those seas, and which 
were wanting in our more northern marine Province. These forms 
constitute the whole value of the minute systematic arrangements of 
the French Geologists. The remaining forms, taken by themselves, 
are insufficient for such a purpose. ‘The White Chalk of the South- 
east of England is a formation which represents conditions of con- 
tinuous accumulation, and of remarkable uniformity, through a 
vertical thickness of beds of more than a thousand feet. In this the 
remains of animal life are exceedingly scarce, relatively to the 
mass; and such as occur have a considerable range. So likewise 
with respect to the Chalk of the North of France. 

Dr. Reynés characterizes his uppermost horizon by Belemnitella 
mucronata and Bb. quadrata ; and to this he assigns our ‘Upper 
Chalk.’ The ‘Upper Chalk’ of England is a very vague term: it is 
merely that portion which happens to be uppermost; there is no 
part which has not been greatly denuded. The fossils of the flints 
of the gravel-beds show that they have been derived from the zone 
of Belem. mucronata and Micrast. cor-anguinum. The evidence as 
to the character of the Upper Cretaceous marine fauna is not to be 
met with either in the North of France or in England; but it may 
be found in Belgium and the Netherlands. The deposits are of 
great variety and thickness; they contain a copious fauna, amount- 
ing to nearly 1,000 species, of which only about 85 occur in our 
‘Upper,’ ‘ Middle,’ and ‘Lower Chalk,’ and in our ‘ Upper Green- 
sand.’ By the aid of the ampler evidence of this copious marine 
fauna, the Dutch and Belgian Geologists make an upper zone with 
Belem. mucronata, and a lower zone with Belem. quadrata; and 
each of them has a greater number of characteristic species, or 
species peculiar to it, than occur in the whole of the White Chalk 
series of this country taken throughout. The Cretaceous deposits, 
where such a subdivision is both obvious and necessary, as for 
Belgium, are geographically continuous with the Chalk of England 
and the North of France; and this suggests the second question 
raised by Dr. Reynes’ Memoirs: What in Geology is ‘an Horizon’— 
‘une Etage’? What is the evidence of synchronism? Of this I 
will attempt an answer in another communication. 


200 Maw— Pockets in Mountain-limestone. 


III. On some Deposits or CHERT, WHITE SAND, and WuHiTE CLAY 
IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LLANDUDNO, NortH WALES. 


By Grorcr Maw, F.LS., F.G.S., F.S.A., & V.P. of The Severn-Valley Field-club. 
[Plate VII.] 


\eeue a mile and a half to the east of Llandudno, forming the 
eastern boundary of Orme’s Bay, a range of Mountain-limestone 
runs from the Little Orme’s Head on the coast nearly to Conway, 
enclosing between it and the Great Orme’s Head, to the west, a flat 
tract of ground, which appears to consist for the most part of 
Boulder- -clay overlain by a more recent alluvium. 

A coast-section towards Colwin, to the east of the Little Orme’ s Head, 
exposes the ordinary tough blue Boulder-clay, an overlying reddish 
loamy clay and sand, and a still more recent alluvial deposit, consisting 
of tough grey clay, interstratified with seams of peat. Immediately 
adjacent to the Little Orme’s Head the Mountain-limestone is seen 
coming up under the Boulder-clay, the very base of which consists 
of a hardish breccia of chert, intermixed with fragments of Moun- 
tain-limestone and Mountain-limestone fossils: but the chert would 
appear to be of a different age from the Mountain-limestone, as I could 
detéct none of the chert-bands which occur, in some districts, in the 
formation of the neighbourhood; nor did any of the fragments of 
chert give indication that they had been broken from a limestone 
matrix. In Orme’s Bay, on the west side of the Little Orme’s Head, 
the base of the Boulder-clay is still more largely charged with 
chert-fragments; and its body, instead of being of the ordinary dark- 
blue colour, is of a rich ochreous brown. A few feet above high- 
water-mark, however, the normal colour commences ; and here and 
there, up to the top of the cliff, thin layers of white chert-fragments 
are irregularly distributed, as though at the setting-in of the Boulder- 
clay formation large quantities of chert had been denuded, and 
occasional accessions of the material had continued to take place 
during the whole of its deposition. I refer to the development of the 
Quaternary deposits of the neighbourhood, to show that the forma- 
tions about to be described preceded their deposition, and were 
being denuded at the commencement of the deposition of the 
Boulder-clay. 

The bulk of the hilly ridge at the back of the Little Orme’s 
Head is principally exposed as naked limestone crags, from 300 
to 400 feet in height; but in some places the rock is hidden up to a 
height of from 200 to 250 feet by débris and Drift, which may pro- 
bably be, in part, the remains of a once higher extension of the 
Boulder-clay, as many of the boulders composing it are striated, and 
appear to have come from a distance. 

At aspot called Nant-y-Gamer, on the western slope of the range, 
about half a mile from the sea, a mile from the Little Orme’s Head, 
and a mile and a half to the east of Llandudno, some curious cavities 
or ‘Pockets’ occur in the Mountain-limestone, the existence of 
which has been obscured by the uniform covering of débris. The 
Drift is here from 10 to 20 feet in thickness, occasionally thicker, 
and spreads with tolerable uniformity over the solid limestone and 


NNE, 


ih 
: f Highwater-mark. 


4 


SSS 


Geol. Mag. 1865, Plate VII. 


S35 3 Zug - 
ess ess 
98'S m4 Ss 
aout oes SSW. 
oA Bas nls s 
D & 
x 29 & 
oR 19 Fs Rang @ 
q eA a Sst © 
qj oOs | Oru & 
S-ao a NE | fs) 
Soka [bj Ss oa 8 
yas 1 a oe 
Og =| a sia = 
o oD [=] fi ‘nme bY 
6S HOP O ~ THO 
d — ae f=} sqm 
gis asi ae & B 
= mary sien] A Ba 
ray I { ‘ q = 
| al i ee ee 
| 1 | : ee ek 
ie Pepi 
| || Hi I | 
aE, 
Pe a eae aneuatee | : I 
| — J itt j H | I 
Ke Z tt i | 
jo Pere | HS mie 
| va Hereit Plas pal 
| mae rae y | 
a (mee 
eee id 
{i 
tl 


eee eset 


BAY ==) 


— P 
oe ae 


a 7 ibis i 


ANN ie igi 
Mountain-limestone, 


oe 


He 7 


pi Within 


= 


i i 
ae int 
oo 


. ai nv 


=. ieee 


Wis 


Za 


a 


we y 
y S - 


S About 500 feet above 


lie ——————~—Road. (Boulder-clay.) 
—-—- ——___. ____ ____,, Llandudno Pier, 


Sea-level, 


Geol. Gis 1865, Plate VII. 


Fig. 1 
a) 2 
a” = sBu 
Bae sg 22 Bes 
Ps Y, SS is Sees ayy 
aiiaies eS Ss Sas SSW 
sac 2 Aas g 
NNE. she a 3 ts 
St ee! 2 a 3 Raa 5 
Ree fS] g PEEP KS 
Ses I Ae 5 Spee 
2 ° & o gs7 oOo 8 
gee o > ne 3 = 
Ss = 5 . ad . 
Bias) 8 a8 P= 8 ges s 
a] 2 P| | SUNY SS 
a H a a 3 & 
ee ; G5 g gcok 
tee | Wat a 
| rll pee ge lee 
(U0 ace t eee 
ca { 
| | eae 1 voy oy 
ane | 1 \ 
| a Zale poh 
| ,—— paleal | Tal t 
| 1 | pail | ae 
| 7 ae yp | Vea 
| t te 
! Fie toil 
5 | el eal . 
os j . 
gS oa | 
FI 
i | 
a 
oO 
is 
g | 
ez 
cl 
on 
2 
z | 
| 
D 


‘i 
Wy | 


Boulder-clay and Drift. 
Lirrtr Ormn’s Heap. Section From Tun Spa to Nantr-y-Gammr. 


. 


| 


/ 
| 
} 
ly 


Fig. 2. 

2 » or, a = 
Ww.  &§ - BES 3 3 S 
# eae 8) 5 z 
s stg aod aq 3 rs 
3 Age asa ae 3 S 
zd ESE 488 2g & ; 

Wn ry 
ee | 
eee ii Ai a HH ee oe ay “oh | | | 
I ce Se | 
HH oo it Ze — ww Gi its a ! a 
NS i ae | — | 
. ae ve { | eae | 
i - 


ee LL 


iis 
A Hh 


oes eee 
~ eee in ce i ze u a 
Co 7 Z : 

Soe 


ao Snestonel 


a 


canny 


me 
— 


- Sea-level, 


Grnar Ormr’s Huap., Srction rrom Gwypryp To LianpupNo Per. 


eds Ezy a a cranes : 


ag ae 
“2p ie 


- aa ms S eat 
9 ag cs Th, 
ee: é = cd 3 + a. i 
: ‘ Pals 


* 
foes 


sapietiamatece dee 
va 


* 


\ 
3H 
2 


Maw—Pochets in M ountain-limestone. 201 


the ‘pockets,’ the contents of which appear to be of a totally dif- 
ferent age and character. 

A reference to Section fig. 1, Pl. VII., will best explain the form, 
size, and relative position of these ‘ pockets,’ and the arrangement of 
their contents. Three of them are at present known to exist, 
namely, the two larger ones at Nant-y-Gamer, shown in Section 
fig. 1, and another smaller cavity, about 32 feet in diameter, at Fferm, 
half a mile to the south. The surface gives no indication of their 
existence, and I have not ascertained how they were discovered; 
but for the last fifteen years workings have been successively carried 
on by Mr. Thomas Smedley, of Holywell, Mr. Jabez Jones, and 
Mr. R. F. Steble, of Liverpool, for the white siliceous sand and white 
clay used in the glass-works ; and these have well exposed their 
structure and contents. 

When I first visited Llandudno, in 1853, but one of the ‘ pockets’ 
was known to exist. It is now worked out and abandoned; and the 
second, about 180 feet lower down the hill, is being emptied by 
means of an adit, driven in from the hill-side to about its centre. 

The ‘pockets’ or cavities range from 180 to 280 feet above the 
sea-level ; they are from 100 to 170 or 180 feet in diameter, about 
110 or 120 feet deep ; and, judging from the upper one, which is 
tolerably well exposed, their form very much resembles that of an 
egg-cup, and is altogether independent of the structure of the 
Mountain-limestone strata, which the sides intersect at right angles. 

In aspect they are very much like an old quarry-face, but rather 
smoother, presenting no hard angularities of fracture, but a mammil- 
lated surface, indicating that their excavation must have been by 
the gradual dissolution of the limestone. 

On removing the Drift and Mountain-limestone débria, which was 
nearly 40 feet thick over the upper ‘pocket,’ beautifully white 
siliceous sand is reached, forming the bulk of the contents of the 
cavities. It is partially discoloured by ochreous stains, which almost 
disappear in drying; and the sand is occasionally intersected by 
carbonaceous markings. ‘These are the only indications of organic 
remains I could detect ; but they are so obscure that no definite 
structure can be made out. 

Here and there the sand graduates into patches of very white 
clay, which is for the most part rather sandy, but occasionally very 
smooth and soft, resembling the finest kaolin in texture and appear- 
ance. Patches of smooth red clay also occur in the white sand. 

The exact form of the bottom of the ‘ pockets’ has never been 
ascertained ; the upper cavity was deserted before the contents were 
completely removed ; and the lower ‘pocket’ is not yet worked 
out ; so it is uncertain whether the cavities terminate with a rounded 
blunt bottom, or are prolonged into narrow outlets for the discharge 
of the water which would appear to have been essential in their 
excavation. 

Relative to the method by which these curious cavities have been 
formed, I would observe that they may have some analogy to the 
swallow-holes of Tertiary age in the Chalk mentioned by Mr. Prest- 
wich in vol. x. of the Journal of the Geological Society, pp. 222 and 


202 Maw— Pockets in Mountain-limestone. 


241, several of which are described as being 40 feet in diameter, 
and 20 or 80 feet deep; and Mr. Prestwich has expressed to me his 
opinion that the Llandudno ‘pockets’ may also be eroded swallow- 
holes. 

The absence of horizontal stratification, and the general tendency 
to a vertical disposition of the materials forming the contents of the 
pockets, would appear analogous to the vertical and concentric ar- 
rangement of the strata filling up the sand-pipes of the Chalk noticed 
by Mr. Prestwich (Philosophical Transactions, p. 300, part 2, 1864). 
The gradual dissolution of the limestone and the slowly lowering 
into the cavity of previously existing superincumbent beds would 
easily account for their vertical arrangement, which could not have 
been produced had the contents been directly deposited in the cavities 
from watery suspension. 

Iam indebted to my friend Mr. Blake, of Newton Abbot, for a 
careful account of a group of from ten to twenty similar ‘ pockets’ 
in the Mountain-limestone at Ballymacadam, near Caher, Co. Tip- 
perary, which he says are accompanied by fissures or swallow- 
holes, that carry away the surface-water, and are supposed to have 
outlets near the River Suir, about two miles below. The Bally- 
macadam ‘pockets’ contain white and grey Potter’s Clay, inter- 
stratified with Lignite similar to the Bovey-Tracy deposit; and Pro- 
fessor Jukes informs me that they are supposed to be of similar 
(Miocene) age. 

As to the age of the Llandudno cavities, in the absence of organic 
reraains any estimate must be speculative; but, judging from their 
relative positions on the hill-side, J am under the impression that 
they were formed subsequently to the range of Mountain-limestone 
assuming its existing outlines. Their excavation was, however, 
clearly antecedent to the Boulder-clay Drift, which spreads over the 
surface, but otherwise forms no part of the contents. 

Such steep cavities, however formed, could not have remained 
long empty; and, when once filled, would not be easily denuded; so 
that the age of the contents of the ‘pockets’ must approximately 
represent the period of their excavation. Indeed, had they remained 
long exposed as open cavities on the steep hill-side, subaérial débris 
from the limestone hills must have been largely associated with the 
material that now occupies them. 

A great, and probably the principal erosion of the Mountain-lime- 
stone, which may have given the hills much of their present contour, 
took place soon after the close of the Carboniferous period, as frag- 
ments of it enter largely into the Permian Breccia; and Professor 
Ramsay states that in the Vale of Clywd the New Red Sandstone 
lies very unconformably on the eroded Carboniferous Limestone. 

As far, therefore, as the evidence of superposition goes; the Llan- 
dudno deposits might be of any age younger than the Permian and 
older than the Boulder-clay. All the materials comprising the beds 
are, however, very unlike in mineral character any part of the Trias, 
Lias, and Oolite ; and on these grounds their probable age would be 
restricted to the Cretaceous or ‘Tertiary periods. 


Maw—Pochets in Mountain-limestone. 203 


When I first examined the deposit, I was under the impression, 
from their close resemblance to some of the clays and sands of Dor- 
setshire, that they might be outliers of Eocene age; and Mr. Prest- 
wich, who kindly examined some specimens I sent him, suggested, 
without expressing any decided opinion as to their age, that they 
could also be matched by some of the Lower Greensand strata of 
Surrey. Within the last few days I have more carefully examined 
the district, and ascertained the existence, on the Great Orme’s 
Head, of what appears to be another member of the deposit, which, 
in connection with the Nant-y-Gamer beds, may possibly afford, by 
comparison with other formations, a clue to their age, although at 
present the evidence of organic remains, or of superposition, is 
unfortunately wanting 

On the north-east side of the Great Orme’s Head a valley inter- 
sects the hill at a little beyond Llandudno Pier, and widening as it 
ascends, terminates with a broad end at Gwydfyd Farm (see Section 
fig. 2), against an abrupt precipice of Mountain-limestone. At the 
foot of this, a triangular space of several acres in extent, less steep 
than the lower part of the ravine, has afforded a lodgement for 
a deposit, resembling in colour the Nant-y-Gamer clays, but com- - 
posed of chert, intermixed with a little light-buff marl. On washing 
a portion of it, I find three-fourths of it to be made up of chert- 
fragments of various sizes, and the remainder of the sandy marl. 
Although no banded structure or stratification is evident, it has 
the appearance of being zm sifu, and not a drift. It is quite free 
from fragments of limestone or any other foreign matter; and is 
evidently the remnant of a once more extensive deposit, from which 
the chert fragments in the bottom of the Boulder-clay at Orme’s 
Bay was derived. 

It appears to entirely occupy the head of the valley at Gwydfyd, 
as chert is ploughed up all over the arable ground below the Farm- 
buildings; and the terrace-like form of the space it occupies, which 
is easily distinguishable at the head of the valley from a distance, 
clearly defines its range. 

Its full depth has never been ascertained; but as the face of the 
quarry above the Farm-yard, where it has been dug as gravel, is 
more than 20 feet, and as it was further sunk through near the 
buildings ten yards without the bottom being reached, a thickness 
of at least 50 feet seems probable. Its height above the sea ranges 
from about 250 to 350 feet. At about 100 yards to the north of 
the Farm-buildings a bed of buff loamy sand occurs by the road- 
side, which apparently overlies the chert-deposit and is probably 
connected with it. 

A careful examination of the district would probably display a 
further distribution of the deposit. At Bodafon, N.E. of Nant-y- 
Gamer, white sand and clay were found in cutting a drain; and I 
noticed in several places on the Great and Little Orme’s Head frag- 
ments of: buff chert lying on the surface. One of the men engaged 
at the Nant-y-Gamer sand-pits told me also that similar ‘ white 
stuff’ was dug a few miles inland near Holywell and Bagillt, and 


204 Abstract of Foreign Memoirs. 


exported to Liverpool. It is not improbable that the Mountain-. 
limestone range along the North-Welsh coast would display more of 
the ‘pockets’ similar to those at Nant-y-Gamer; and geological 
tourists, who may be passing through the district, would do well to 
examine it with the hope of detecting some organic remains, as 
until this evidence is afforded the true geological age of the deposit 
must be somewhat uncertain. 

The curious hollows and cavernous openings resulting from the 
singular irregularity with which it disintegrates has preeminently 
rendered the Mountain-limestone a preserver of little remnants of 
later formations: most of the bone-caverns, with Pleistocene 
remains,—the little Tertiary outliers of Tipperary,—the rich Rheetic 
remains discovered by Mr. C. Moore near Frome, as well as the 
Nant-y-Gamer deposits, all owe their preservation to the existence 
of cavities of various forms and character in the Mountain-limestone, 
without which they must have succumbed to the process of denuda- 
tion. 


ABSTRACT OF FOREIGN MUEMOTRS.- 
—— $— { 


ON THE OCCURRENCE OF FRESHWATER SHELLS IN THE PERMIAN 
Rocks oF THURINGIA. 
By C. W. Gimpet, with Remarks by H. B. Grinirz. [Neues Jahrbuch, 1864, 
p. 646, &e.] 

N the south-western margin of the Tbiiringer-Wald and the 

Fichtelgebirge occurs a zone of Rothliegende, here and 

there interrupted, with certain small coal-fields, as those of Erben- 

dorf and Stockheim, in which Plants of Upper Carboniferous age 

have been found; and at Irmelsberg, near Crock, is a similar 

deposit, where a workable bed of coal also occurs. Last summer 

the author visited the last-named place, where a new shaft was 

being sunk, and was astonished to find a coal-bed which, by its posi- 

tion and the character of its fossil Plants, evidently belonged to the 

Rothliegende, the lowest member of the ‘Permian’ of Murchison, 
and of the ‘ Dyas’ of Geinitz. 

The Plants, some of which occurred in the roof and others in the 
floor of the coal-seam, were determined by Dr. Geinitz to be charac- 
teristic fossils of the Rothliegende; but a greater importance was 
attached to the deposit on the discovery, by Dr. Giimbel, of Fresh- 
water Shells in the same overlying shale in which some of the 
Plants were found. 

The lower plant-bearing stratum,—a fine-grained sandstone, over- 
lying beds known to belong to the Rothliegende,—contains Walehia 
piniformis, Schl.; Cyatheites confertus, Sternb., sp.; C. Candolleanus, 
Brongn., and Calamites gigas, Brongn.: then follows the coal-bed 
itself, which has a thickness, at the outcrop, of from 14ft. to 4ft., 
and is overlain by a black shale, 1 foot thick; next comes the 
upper plant-bearing stratum, which is a fossiliferous coal-shale, and 
contains, in an intercalated layer, Freshwater Shells and an Estheria, 


Giumbel—Freshwater Shells in Permian Rocks. 205 


together with Walchia piniformis, Schl.; Calamites gigas, Brongn. ; 
Cyatheites confertus, Sternb., sp.; C. Candolleanus, Brongn.; C.arbo- 
rescens ; Odontopteris obtusiloba, Naum.; Odontopteris, sp.; Cyclocar- 
pon Ottonis, Gutb., and an Annularia. 

The animal remains are stated by Dr. Giimbel to correspond, for 
the most part, with those described by Dr. Ludwig from the coal- 
bearing beds of Manebach, near IJmenau; and, as the one deposit 
belongs to the Rothliegende, it follows, of course, that the other is 
Permian also. The species that have been determined with the 

reatest certainty are Unio tellinarius, Goldf.; U. carbonarius, 
Goldf.; U. Thuringensis, Ludw.; U. Goldfussianus, De Kon., and 
Anodonta ovalis, Mart. ‘There is also a large form of Unio very 
much like U. crassidens, Ludw., and a new and very small species 
of Anodonta, to which the author gives the name of A. phaseolina: 
the latter is about the size of A. obstipa, which the author thinks 
may possibly be an Estheria; and it is very much like young indi- 
viduals of Unio Goldfussianus. 

The Estheria, named E. rugosa by Dr. Giimbel, approaches most 
nearly in form EL. tenella, Jordan, and E. exigua, Kichw.; the ridges 
being most like those of EL. Middendorfi, Jones, but not so regular. 
One remarkable fact in connection with this Estheria is that, 
whereas the shells of the associated species of Unio and Anodonta 
are for the most part replaced by iron-pyrites (or sometimes by zinc- 
blende, galena, or calcite), the shell of the Estheria itself has net 
been mineralized. 

In the Appendix, Dr. Geinitz states that this interesting discovery 
of Dr. Giimbel’s has induced him to examine independently the 
whole of the Freshwater Shells that have been found in the Coal- 
measures and in the Lower Dyas. With respect to those from near 
Crock, Dr. Geinitz has come to almost the same results as Dr. 
Giimbel; the chief points of ditference being that the former con- 
siders that Anodonta phaseolina, Giimb., may perhaps be the young 
of Unio Goldfussianus, and that the shell referred by Dr. Gtimbel 
to Anodonta ovalis, Martin, more probably belongs to A. subparallela, 
Portl., sp. Dr. Geinitz differs from Dr. Ludwig, however, in many 
important’ points; and he also thinks that the shell described by 
Mr. Salter as Anthracomya carbonica* is really a Dreissena. 

H. M. J. 


GxroLocicaL Notes oN MENTONE, NEAR NICE. 

By C. H. Gavpin and Marruew Mocermes,F.G.S. 8vo. pp. 16; 1 Plate. Lau- 
sanne, 1865. (From the Bulletin Soc. Vaud. Sc. Nat., vol. viii. No. 52.) 
|i PSEeeet’ is sheltered by an amphitheatre of calcareous hills, 
a composed chiefly of Middle and Upper Cretaceous rocks: a 
portion of a Belemnite, and fragments of Inoceramus Cuvieri, and 
some Foraminifera, are all that have been discovered inthem. The 
latter are Teaxtularia globulosa, Ehr., Nonionina globulosa, Ehr., 


* The shell referred to by Dr. Geinitz was described and figured as Anthra- 
coptera carbonaria, Quart Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xix. p. 79, fig. 3. 


206 Abstract of Foreign Memoirs. 


and Lagena ovalis, Kaufmann, which are common species in the 
White Chalk of England, and the ‘Danian’ of Seeven ; but the 
latter two make their first appearance in the Gault. The limestones 
of the Nummulitic formation constitute the major part of the Eocene 
System that is seen in the neighbourhood of Mentone: they are 
charged with Nummulites perforata, D’Orb. ; N. Lucasana, Defr. ; 
NN. Brongniarti, D’Arch. (?); WW. Ramondi, Defr.; MN. Guettardi, 
D’Arch.; WV. exponens, Sow.; N. granulosa, D’Arch.; NV. mamillata, 
D’Arch., and JV. spira, De B.(?) ; and Opercularia ammonea, Leym., 
and Turritella imbricataria, Lamk. Grey clays of great thickness, 
surmounted by compact conglomerates, contain twenty-five species 
of fossils characteristic of the Upper Pliocene (‘ Plaisancien’). 


Inversion of Cretaceous upon Tertiary Strata near Mentone. 


1, Nummulitic Beds (Tertiary). 2. Upper and Middle Cretaceous Beds. 
3. Lower Cretaceous Beds. * Fault. 


One of the chief points of interest in this pamphlet is that fur- 
nished by a part of the section in the plate accompanying the work, 
representing an inversion of the strata, namely, Cretaceous beds 
thrown over upon the Eocene.—R. T. 


REVIEWS. 
—_+—_——_- 


poe AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND Arts, conducted by 

Professors B. Silliman, B. Silliman, jun., and J. D. Dana, 2nd 
Ser. No. 113, Sept. 1864, is rich with geological information, as is usual 
with this well-known and valued periodical. Prof. KE. W. Evans de- 
scribes the action of Oil-wells in the coal-regions of South Ohio and 
Western Virginia, based on Prof. Andrews’ hypothesis of many of 
the borings tapping either the bottom, middle, or the top of cavities 
occupied by gas, oil, or water, highly compressed. Mr. Sterry 
Hunt continues his ‘ Contributions to Lithology,’ describing certain 
Dolerites (anorthic felspars with augite) and Diorites (anorthic fel- 


Reviews—Silliman’s American Journal. - 207 


spars with hornblende) of Canada;* noticing also instances of 
‘local metamorphism,’ and giving the results of the examination of 
specimens of a fossiliferous limestone altered by a doleritic dyke. 

Dr. H. Gispons describes the probable conditions of the springs 
near San Francisco, where, clay or other impervious rock underlying 
the superficial strata, the springs and streams reappear at the end 
of the dry season, as evaporation lessens with the decreasing heat of 
summer, before rain actually sets in. The New Almaden Quicksilver 
Mines are described by Prof. B. Silliman, jun. 

In the study of a particular seam of coal in Ohio, known as the 
‘Bear-Creek Coal,’ Prof. ANpREws finds much of interest in its 
laminated structure, which tells of alternating conditions of deposit, 
—in its contained pyritous and water-worn fragments of wood—and 
in its vertical planes of division, contemporary with the hardening 
the coal, and possibly determined, he thinks, by terrestrial elec- 
tricity. 

Prof. A. WINCHELL notes tne finding of the bones of a youngish 
Mastodon two feet under the surface of a small peat-bog in Michi- 
gan, and the probability of its having lived with the American 
Indian. The remains of Elephas Jacksoni, Deer, and Elk, accom- 
pany those of Mastodon in the bogs of Michigan. Dr. Scorr draws 
attention to the supposed change of level in a part of the Green 
Mountains. 

Californian Geology and Gold.—Prof. J. D. WuiItNeEy, giving an 
account of the progress of the Geological Survey of California, 
especially notices the great extent of fossiliferous Triassic rocks 
(St.-Cassian beds, &c.) in the Sierra Nevada, and probably in the 
Humboldt Ranges, and remarks that ‘a large portion of the auri- 
ferous rocks of California consist of metamorphic Triassic and 
Jurassic strata,’ that some are metamorphosed Cretaceous strata, 
and that no Paleozoic rocks have been there recognized. Creta- 
ceous rocks are wide-spread in California and Oregon, usually 
metamorphosed, but sometimes fossiliferous. The Tertiary beds 
of the coast-ranges are extensive and various; Mr. Gabb is at 
work on their fossils. The vast Tertiary formations on the flanks 
of the Sierra Nevada, which are dug and washed for gold, in the 
tunnel-mines and hydraulic works of California, are not of marine 
origin, nor spread out uniformly; but are formed of materials 
brought down from the mountain-heights in the later Pliocene 
period, under the action of causes similar to those now existing, 
but probably of greater intensity, and deposited in valleys, where 
they filled river-channels and lakes, and often imbedded whole forests, 
together with remains of land and fresh-water animals. 

These great detrital valley-deposits were covered over with vol- 
canic ashes, pumice, and lava-streams, issuing from the higher parts 
of the Sierra during a tremendous outbreak of igneous energy ; and 
since then, by the wear and tear of weather, the flanks of the Sierra 


* Both of these kinds of instructive anorthisites are alluded to in Dr. Bigsby’s 
paper on the Laurentian rocks in the Grotocican Macazine, No. III. 


208 Reviews— Silliman’s American Journal. 


have been further degraded, and hollowed into new valleys; but, 
protected by their covering of hard flat lavas, these gold-bearing 
gravels, once lying lower than the surface of the channelled moun- 
tain-sides, have been left, to form ‘high plateaux between the present 
river-canons, and flat-topped ridges known as ‘“ Table-mountains,” 
hundreds, or even thousands, of feet above the present river-beds. 
Thus the topography of the country is exactly the reverse of what 
it was at- the commencement of the present geological epoch: what 
were once valleys are now ridges, and the ridges of former times 
were where the immense cafions of the rivers flowing down the 
western slope of the Sierra now are.’ 

Tunnel- and placer-diggings for gold are carried on both in the 
Pliocene deposits just mentioned, and in the later or Post-tertiary 
gravel-beds formed since that period of greatest voleanic activity 
alluded to above. The latter belong to the epoch of Man; for it 
appears ‘that the Mastodon and Elephant, whose remains are so 
widely and abundantly scattered through California, have been 
contemporaneous with Man in that region.’ 

Notices of new facts and views in Chemistry, Physics, Mineralogy, 
and Geology, and other miscellaneous matter, complete the Number. 

No. 114, for November, contains an elaborate paper On the Origin 
of the Prairies of the Valley of the Mississippt, by Prof. A. Winchell, 
who considers—1. That the soil of the Prairies is of lacustrine forma- 
tion. 2. That lacustrine sediments inclose but few living germs. 
3. That the ‘diluvial’ deposits, on the contrary, are found every- 
where replete with living germs. ‘That the ‘diluvial’ deposits were 
buried during the glacial epoch. 5. That in proportion as the 
‘diluvial’ surface become exposed, the flora of the pre-glacial epoch 
was reproduced. 6. That the vegetation which finally appeared on 
the drained lacustrine area was extra-limital, and was more likely 
to be herbaceous than arboreal. Many facts are well grouped to- 
gether in this paper; and though we do not agree with the author 
as to the dearth of seeds in lake-mud, nor as to the long-continued 
vitality of buried seed, yet, in connection with this interesting subject, 
may be cited the opinion, which some cryptogamic botanists now hold, 
that the Arctic and Sub-Arctic forms of lichens and mosses, which 
have been noticed growing upon the ice-carried boulders in Suther- 
land- and Ross-shire, occupy the life-bearing surfaces of eryptoga- 
mous vegetative patches which existed upon the rock before it was 
drifted southward, into a warmer and more genial clime. Having 
noticed, during a late visit to the North Highlands, several such 
boulders, bearing lichens, of species having for a natural habitat a zone 
very far north of the spot they now rest in, Mr. G. E. Ropgrts, F.G.S., 
has called attention to the subject in a letter, entitled ‘ Boulder Flora,’ 
to the Editor of ‘John o’Groat’s Journal.’ He has suggested therein 
that some curious results may reward the labours of those botanists 


* The gold-bearing shingles of California, and the hydraulic works, are described 
also ay Dr. Hector in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe., vol. vii. p. 404; and those of 
Peru by D. Forbes, at p. 20 of the same volume. 


Reviews— Page's Address. 209 


who care to scrutinize narrowly the surfaces of such lichen-clad 
boulders ; results which also will bear fruits in the aid they will give 
to our geological reading of the phenomena of the Post-Tertiary 
Glacial Age. 

Mr. D, Trowsrince’s Memoir On the Nebular Hypothesis, com- 
menced in No. 114, p. 344, &c., will be read with pleasure by many 
speculative geologists, and is continued in No. 115, for January 
1865, which contains an obituary notice of the lamented founder of 
this Journal. Dr. C. T. Jackson’s account of the Discovery of 
Emery in Chester, Massachusetts, is one of the other articles interest- 
ing to geologists. Mica-schist, soap-stone, talc, talcose slate, granu- 
lar quartz, chlorite-slate, emery (4 feet), chloritoid and margarite, 
magnetic-iron-ore, and hornblende-rock, are the associated rocks 
(metamorphic) in North and South Mountains, Hampden Co., 
Chester, as in Asia Minor. The emery was at first mistaken for iron- 
stone. 


EOLOGY as a Brancu or GENERAL Epucation. An Address 
by Davip Pace, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., &e.—Originally delivered 
to the Glasgow Geological Society, this address now appears as a 
small 8vo. 40 pp. pamphlet. We have only room to quote a para- 
graph :—‘ But while Geology has thus, like other departments of 
natural science, many intellectual inducements to excite, it has also, 
like many others, and much more than most, important economical 
advantages to attract. The rocky crust upon which we dwell is not 
only the great record upon whose tablets are impressed all the former 
phases of our planet—thus binding, as it were, by material attri- 
butes, the living intellect that interprets, with the divinity of Crea- 
tive Thought in the remotest past—but it is, at the same time, the 
foundation of all geographical diversity, the varied habitat of plants 
and animals, the scene of man’s life-labours, the field he cultivates, 
and the sole storehouse of those minerals and metals upon which 
the progress of civilization is so intimately dependent. Geology, 
then, becomes a study of importance to the miner, the engineer, 
architect, farmer, landscape-gardener, painter, geographical explorer, 
and all those whose calling leads them more immediately to deal with 
the internal structure and superficial aspects of our planet. It is 
by no means expected that these men are to make themselves con- 
versant with all the niceties of geological theory, but merely that 
they should learn enough to appreciate the leading deductions of 
the science, and be able to apply them each to his own special re- 
quirements. As science can and must often indeed be studied with- 
out reference to its ultimate applications, so may the practical man 
lay hold of the truths of science, and apply them in an empirical 
way, without being able to work out the problems upon which these 
truths have been founded.’ 


HE Canapian NaturaList AND GeEoLocist, Nos. 4, 5, and 6, 
August to December 1864, contain—I. ‘Elementary Views of 

the Classification of Animals,’ by Dr. J. W. Dawson, F.R.S., &c., in 
VOL. II.—NO. XI. P . 


210 Reviews— Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. 


which he proposes to divide the four great groups of Animals (Ver- 
tebrata, Articulata, Mollusca, and Radiata), according to their 
analogies, into four branches, to be called, 1. Nervous, 2. Motive, 
3. Nutritive, and, 4. Embryonic or Reproductive Class. Arranged 
in a tabular form, they serve to express the leading feature of the 
several divisions of each group of animals. Thus Birds, Insects, 
Snails, and Acalephs represent the four groups of the Motive 
class (2).—II. ‘On the Fossils of the Genus Rusophycus, by Dr. Daw- 
son. This genus was established by Prof. Hall for certain trans- 
versely wrinkled impressions found in rocks of the ‘ Clinton Group’ 
(Middle Silurian) of New York, and supposed to be fossil Sea-weeds. 
Similar objects are described by Mr. Billings from the Chazy Sand- 
stone of Grenville, Canada, &c. ‘These curious and irregular bodies, 
Dr. Dawson believes, may be casts of the impressions of the lami- 
nated gill-feet of Trilobites, and that they may have been connected 
with the place of incubation at the end of burrows.—III. ‘ Note on 
the Geology of Eastern New York,’ by Prof. Hall and Sir W. E. Logan, 
being the commencement of a comparison of Eastern New York with 
Eastern Canada.—lV. ‘ On the Geology of the Ottawa Valley,’ by 
J. A. Grant, M.D., F.G.S., &c. (being the extract of a Lecture 
delivered to the Ottawa Natural History Society). This consists 
of a description of the geological features of this valley, but it re- 
quires a map to render it intelligible to a stranger.—V. ‘ On Peat 
and its Uses,’ by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S. A description of the 
several Canadian peat-deposits, and the various processes which 
have been tried for producing from peat-oil, parafline, wood-naphtha, 
and sulphate of ammonia. ‘There are also numerous interesting and 
original Botanical papers. 


Memoirs oF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 

1. Mr. Green’s Memorr on parts of Oxfordshire, Bucks, and 
Northamptonshire, is a careful statement of the facts observed by 
him in the district surveyed, showing the grounds on which he has 
mapped its surface, mostly composed of Oolitic strata. Clear wood- 
cuts illustrate some of his points. Whether or not the geological 
results arrived at are in accordance with those held by others ex- 
perienced in the mysteries of the Oolitic rocks—their variableness, 
their homotaxeous difficulties, and such like,—at all events we have 
a clear and well-written Memoir of careful work. 

2. Mr. Drew’s Memoir on the Country between Folkestone and 
Rye, including Romney Marsh, is a succinct, clear, and instructive 
account of South-eastern England, of which little has been pub- 
lished since the days of Fitton and Mantell. Itis only by such 
close and long-continued examination as the Surveyors make, that 
the much-broken Wealden district, with its many-bedded shales 
and sands, can be disentangled and clearly mapped. One of the 
most interesting facts worked out by Mr. Drew is the up-coming 
of the ‘ Ashburnham Beds’ (lowest part of the ‘ Hastings Sands’) 
at Rye, where a deep Artesian boring traverses 330 feet of them, 


Reviews—_Memoirs of the Geological Survey. 211 


without getting water. Either this boring, or the similar well at 
Hastings, should be persevered with (if possible), for the sake of 
solving the problem as to what underlies the Upper Secondary 
Strata in S.E. England. Mr. Drew’s account of Romney Marsh, 
and of its mode and time of formation, is well worthy of praise both 
for geologist and antiquary. 

3. The Explanation of Sheets 187, 195, and 196 of the Geolo- 
gical Survey Map of Ireland, and of Sheets 192 and 199 (part), by 
Mr. J. B. Juxes, with Paleontological Notes by Mr. W. H. Batty, 
go far towards elucidating the Geology of South Iveland, both by 
description of strata and fossils, and by the philosophicai explana- 
tion of observed facts. The first of these two Memoirs treats of the 
district including the mouth of the River Lee, Cork Harbour, and 
neighbouring country; the second comprises ‘the country round 
the head of Bantry Bay, and a large part of the mountain-ground 
between that Bay and Kenmore Bay on the north, and the rocky 
promontory between Bantry Bay and Dunmanus Bay on the south.’ 
These Memoirs treat of—l. The Old Red Sandstone (Lower and 
Upper).—2. The Carboniferous Slate (including the ‘Coomhola 
Grits’) and the Lower Limestone Shale.—3. The Carboniferous 
Limestone (in the first Memoir only).—4. Drift, Gravel, Clay, 
Boulders, &c.—5. Alluvium, Peat-bog, &c. The districts described 
in these Memoirs were surveyed ten years ago and more; but the 
want of liberality on the part of Government for some years, keep- 
ing the Irish branch of the Survey without a resident Palzeontolo- 
gical Officer, delayed the determination of the numerous charac- 
teristic fossils collected ; and hence the delay in publication is not 
the fault of the Officers of the Survey, but the result of the in- 
adequate means afforded them to carry out their work to completion. 
The many figures of fossils, and the several sections, all boldly sketched 
on wood, and the long lists and careful descriptions of organic remains, 
are good features in these valuable Memoirs. 


THe OSWESTRY AND WELSH-PooL NATURALIST’S FIELD-CLUB AND 
ARCHZOLOGICAL SociETy. RrErort oF MEETINGS DURING THE 
Years 1857-64; TOGETHER WITH ALL THE PAPERS READ BY 
MEMBERS OF THE CiuB. Edited by W. W. How, M.A.; D. C. 
Davies ; and H. M. GwytTuHer. 


nN RICH geological district, with careful and enthusiastic harvest- 

men, has here produced a good crop of observations, some having 
reference to discoveries, some enhancing the value of known facts, 
and all ripened, in the warmth of friendly co-operation, on the sunny 
sides of the Welsh hills,—ofter indeed, it seems, interrupted by ‘a 
pouring wet day,’ which, however, did not prevent the Members 
from being ‘jolly under the circumstances.’ Nor have the Botanists 
been less active than the Geologists in gathering new facts and re- 
setting the old ones in attractive discourses. Zoologists and Anti- 
quaries, too, play their part well. And we cannot be astonished at 
finding this little volume fulfilling the functions of a Naturalist’s 

P2 


e 


212 a Reviews— Glacial Lake-basins. 


Guide-book, when we see the following localities mentioned as having 
been walked over, and talked over, and written on, by good ob- 
servers, with open eyes and mutual good-will, giving and taking 
information on nearly all points of interest. Ellesmere, Llanhraiadr, 
the Breidden, Treflach, Meifod, Llangollen, Wroxeter, Glyn Ceiriog, 
Corndon Hill, Coed-y-gaer, Llansaintffraid, Wenlock, Chirk, and the 
Onney River, are amongst the places visited; and very pleasantly the 
trips are described, and often with humour. The Conversazione at 
Oswestry, last December, appears to have been very successful, and 
four or five good papers were then read, Mr. D. C. Davies’s popular 
account of the Drift-gravel of Oswestry (p. 102, &c.) being a good 
Geological contribution on that occasion. 


GLACIAL LAKE-BASINS. 

N the Philosophical Magazine for April, Prof. Ramsay, criticising 
Sir Charles Lyell’s remarks (in his ‘ Elements of Geology’) on 

the improbability of glaciers having scooped out large lake-basins, 
and on the probability of such hollows having been due to unequal 
movements of upheaval and subsidence, observes as follows :— 
1. Glacier-ice, widening out on the flats near the mouths of moun- 
tain-valleys, must be still pushed forward from behind, and its per- 
pendicular pressure on the ground must-be even greater than when 
it was on a slope: further, that, thinning at its outer margin, the 
waste of underlying matter by erosion would decrease towards what 
are now the mouths of the lake-basins.—2. Cup-shaped cavities are 
not worn by existing glaciers, because these are too petty, neither 
are they working over plains.—38. Local obstacles, in the course of a 
glacier or a river, may exist without being regarded as indestructible. 
—4. In the ‘Elements’ it is stated that lakes have been present in ail 
ages on the earth, and have been probably connected with upheavals 
and subsidences. Mr. Ramsay, asking for the evidences of Silurian, 
Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous 
‘lakes,’ reminds us that several of the great conglomerates have 
been, or may be, likened to accumulations of ice-carried boulders,— 
such as the Lower Silurian Conglomerate of Wigtonshire, the Old 
Red Conglomerate, the Permian Breccia, the Rothliegende, &c. ;— 
and hence the agency of ice has not been lost sight of in connection 
with several geological epochs, as also special phenomena in the New 
Red Sandstone, Oolite, Chalk, and Miocene beds show; and it may 
therefore be referred to as having been an actual agent, as well as 
oscillatory crust-movements.—5. As to changes of level in valleys, 
converting parts of them into lakes, Prof. Ramsay argues, and shows 
by diagram, that to make the Lago Maggiore basin out of the old 
valley, the Central Alps must, before the hypothetical depression, 
have had a height of at least 30,000 feet! Also, that the glaciated 
undulations of North America cannot come under the hypothesis 
proposed; nor the Scandinavian and Swedish lakes; nor those of 
Cumberland, radiating from a centre; as well as others which do 
not conform to the proposed hypothesis of subterranean movements, 


Reports and Proceedings. 213 


such as a central depression of a mountain-range, converting the 
valleys into basins, with, however, many modifications of extent, 
amount, and direction. Prof. Ramsay regards this hypothesis as 
asking for too great a complication of phenomena, to be favourably 
contrasted with his simple hypothesis, that, as glacier-ice does not 
erode the rocky floor over which it passes, and as it can, under cer- 
tain circumstances, move up slopes, the nature of that erosion will 
be, and was dependent—1. On the angles of the slopes over which 
it passed when these slopes were seriously appreciable-—2. On the 
fact that the glaciers sometimes passed from these slopes into low 
grounds, into which the great old glacier-valieys opened.—3. That 
at the mouths of these great old valleys, and sometimes near their 
mouths, where two or more great glaciers met, the downward pres- 
sure of all the accumulated ice of all the tributary valleys would be 
‘greatest.—4. Because of its inertness in such flat ground, the grind- 
ing power of the ice, urged on from behind, would be greatest, in 
accordance with all known physical laws.—And, 5. That as it pro- 
gressed and melted, the ice must have been thinner, and must have 
exercised less erosive power than where it was thick; whence the 
gradual slope of the bottom of these lakes toward their outflows. 


REPORTS AND PROCHEDIN GS. 
——_4+—__ 


GroLocicaL Sooty or Lonpon.—I. March 22, 1865; W. J. 
Hamilton, Esq., President, in the chair.—l. ‘ Notes on the Caves of 
Gibraltar.’ By Lieut. C. Warren, R.E. Communicated by the Se- 
cretary of State for War through Sir R. I. Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S., 
¥.G.S.—The principal caves at Gibraltar are St. Michael’s, Martin’s, 
Glen Rocky, Genista, Asylum Tank, Poco Roco, and three under 
the Signal Station, on the eastern face of the Rock. The author 
described the chief features of St. Michael’s Cave, stating that it is 
a portion of a transverse cleft through the Rock, and was probably 
open to view at no very remote historical period; and he briefly noticed 
the cave at Poco Roco, which he considers to be a portion of the 
fissure which extends from Bell Lane, in the town, to the village of 
Catalan Bay, the noise of blasting having been heard on more than 
one occasion through the apparently solid rock. In conelusion, 
Lieut. Warren offered his services in the event of a geological survey 
of Gibraltar being undertaken. 

2. ‘On the asserted Occurrence of Human Bones in the aneient 
Fluviatile Deposits of the Nile and the Ganges, with comparative 
remarks on the Alluvial Formation of the two Valleys.’ By the 
late Hugh Falconer, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.—In this eommunication 
the author brought together the few instances on record of the oc- 
currence of fossil mammalian remains in the Valley of the Nile; and 
instituted a comparison between the Alluvial deposits of the Nile 
and those of the upper part of the Valley of the Ganges which had 
come under his own observation. According to certain statements, 
fossil human bones have been met with in both of these subtropical 


x 


214 Reports and Proceedings. 


valleys; and Dr. Falconer remarked that at the present time the con- 
sideration of the general inferences to which these cases lead may 
probably be of some use. After discussing at some length the cases 
in which Human and other Mammalian bones had been stated to 
occur in the Valley of the Nile, Dr. Falconer described the general 
features of the Alluvial deposits of the Ganges and Jumna, stating 
what organic remains had been found in them. In a comparison of 
the two regions, Dr. Falconer observed that there is a striking ana- 
logy between the Alluvial deposits occurring along the banks of the 
Nile on the one hand, and the Ganges and Jumna on the other, the 
most obvious being the great abundance, in both cases, of argillaceo- 
calcareous concretions, forming an impure kind of travertine, and in 
the lowermost beds horizontal deposits of the same material; but 
that in its poverty of vertebrate remains the former, so far as it has 
been explored, is a remarkable contrast to the latter. Dr. Falconer 
then reverted to an opinion expressed by Sir Proby Cautley and 
himself many years ago, namely, that the Colossochelys Atlas may 
have lived down to an early epoch of the Human Period, and become 
extinct since; and he concluded with some general observations on 
the question of the antiquity of the human race, suggested by more 
recent discoveries. 

If. April 5, 1865; Sir R. I. Murchison, Vice-President, in the 
chair.—The following communications were read :—1. ‘ On the Ter- 
tiary Deposits in the Colony of Victoria, Australia.’ By the Rey. 
J. E. T. Woods, F.L.S., F.G.S.—The author first referred to his 
former paper on the Australian Tertiary strata, and then described 
the beds of Muddy Creek, near Hamilton, mentioning the principal 
fossils occurring therein, especially a species of T’rigonia: he also 
stated that the same formation occurs at Harrow, on the River 
Glenelg, about sixty miles to the north-east, as well as in Tasmania. 
In discussing the age of these beds he adopted Professor M‘Coy’s 
views, that they are of Lower Miocene date; but he considered the 
Mount Gambier Limestone to be more recent, probably older Plio- 
cene, and the Murray River deposits as possibly holding an interme- 
diate position: the latter he therefore considered to represent the 
Upper and Middle Miocene of Europe. Older than all these are 
certain strata occurring at Port Phillip and elsewhere, which the 
author referred to the Upper Eocene period. In conclusion, Mr. 
Woods gave a sketch of the salient features of the Bryozoal faunze 
of the deposits occurring at Hamilton and Mount Gambier, chiefly 
for the purpose of showing that the latter is much the more modern 
of the two, 

In a note, Dr. Duncan enumerated the species of Corals which had 
been sent him by Mr. Woods ; but he stated that, although they had 
avery recent aspect, no exact geological date could safely be assigned 
to them. 

2. ‘On the Chalk of the Isle of Thanet.’ By W. Whitaker, Esq., 
B.A., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.—In this 
district a bed of comparatively flintless Chalk overlies one with 
many flints. The higher division, or Margate Chalk, contains but few 


Reports and Proceedings. 215 


scattered flint-nodules, and shows well-marked N.W. and S.E. joints. 
The Jower division, or Broadstairs Chalk, on the other hand, is less 
jointed, and has many continuous layers of flint. The beds form a 
very flat arch, as may be seen along the coast from Kingsgate to 
Pegwell, between which places the flinty Chalk rises up from below 
that with few flints, 

It is remarkable that in this neighbourhood the Thanet Beds are ~ 
conformable to the Chalk, the green-coated nodular flints at the 
bottom of the former resting on a peculiar bed of tabular flint at the 
top of the latter. 

3. ‘On the Chalk of Buckinghamshire, and on the Totternhoe 
Stone. By W. Whitaker, Esq., B.A., F.G.S., &c.—In carrying on 
the Geological Survey of Buckinghamshire, the Totternhoe Stone 
(with its underlying chalky marl), which had been sometimes thought 
to be the representative of the Upper Greensand, was traced south- 
westwards into a part where that formation was fairly developed, 
and was then found to overlie it. 

The divisions of the Chalk in Buckinghamshire are, in ascending 
order,— 

(1) Chalk-marl, with stony layers here and there, and at top. 

(2) The Totternhoe Stone, generally two layers of rather brownish 
sandy chalk, hard, with dark grains of small brown nodules. 

(8) Marly white chalk, without flints. 

(4) Hard-bedded white chalk without flints, forming generally a low 
ridge at the foot of the great escarpment. 

(5) The thick mass of white chalk without flints, or with a very few 
flints in the uppermost part, and at top. 

(6) The ‘Chalk-rock,’ already described in the Society’s Journal, a thin 
hard bed or beds, with green-coated nodules. 

(7) The Chalk with flint, the lowermost part only coming on near the 
top of the escarpment, the rest bed by bed over the table-land 
southwards, the angle of dip being rather more than the slope of 
the ground. 


4, ‘On the Chalk of the Isle of Wight.’ By W. Whitaker, Esq., 
B.A., F.G.S., &c.—The chief object of this paper was to show that 
here, as in Oxfordshire, &c., the division between the Chalk with 
flints and Chalk without flints is marked by a peculiar bed (‘ Chalk- 
rock’), hard, of a cream-colour, and with irregular-shaped green- 
coated nodules, which may be seen in many of the pits on the 
southern flank of the chalk-ridge, where, however, it is very thin. 

The author disagreed with the inference that the Chalk was eroded 
before the deposition of the Tertiary beds, which has been drawn 
from the irregular junction of the two in the cliff-sections, and 
thought that the irregularity had been caused rather by the forma- 
tion of ‘pipes’ after the deposition of the latter, although he did 
not deny that there was other evidence of denudation of the Chalk 
before the deposition of the Tertiaries upon it. 


RoyaL GEoLocicaAL Society oF IRELAND.—I. On March 8, 
there was a meeting of this Society in the New Museum, Trinity 
College; Dr. A. Carte, Vice-President, inthe chair, Mr. Scott read 


216 Reports and Proceedings. 


a paper by Mr. W. Harte, C.E., On some Crumpled Granite Beds in 
Donegal. The author stated that attention had frequently been 
drawn to the gneissose character of the granite of that county, 
especially by the Committee. who had presented a report on the sub- 
ject. to the British Association. In parts of the district, patches of 
schists, highly contorted, are found caught up in the granite, which 
latter rock appears at times to pass into schist. The point to which 
he wished to direct the notice of the meeting was the occurrence of 
thin slabs of gneissose granite alongside highly crystalline masses of 
the same rock. In one place, on the road between Dungloe and 
Maghery, he discovered a series of these thin beds as highly con- 
torted as are the schist enclosures before referred to. These beds 
vary from one inch upwards in thickness, and may be traced for 
some distance along the shore. This was the only place where he 
had observed this phenomenon ; and he sent up some specimens of 
the contorted granite, and also a specimen of the granite from the 
immediate vicinity, which did not exhibit the same contortions, but 
“was traversed by joints to such an extent as to render it useless for 
building-purposes.—Mr. Scorr observed that Mr. Harte was a very 
careful observer, who, as they well knew, had added much to 
their knowledge of the Geology of the County. His own recol- 
lection of the immediate locality referred to was that there was a 
considerable amount of schist included in the granite; and at one 
locality at no great distance, called Toberkeen, there was a bed of 
limestone, which contained an abundance of garnet and idocrase, 
indicating considerable metamorphic action. The granite about 
Dungloe, and in the Rosses generally, was very coarse-grained, and 
it was highly interesting that Mr. Harte should have found it to 
be contorted. 

Mr. Jukes then took the chair, and Dr. Carte read a paper On 
some Indented Bones of Cervus Megaceros, found near Lough Gur, 
County Limerick. Dr. Carte referred to Mr. Jukes’ former account 
of indented bones from a bog in Longford (see GEOLOGICAL MaGa- 
zInE, No. VII. p. 28), and stated that he had been supplied by Mr. _ 
Hinckley, of Limerick, with the indented bones exhibited to the 
meeting—namely, a right humerus, right and left radii and ulne, right 
and left cannon or metatarsal bones, left os calcis, and the helm of a 
left horn. An account of the place where they were got was given 
in a letter by Dr. S. Bennett, of Bruff. ‘The marks on the bones, 
and the relative positions when found, were described in detail. A 
polished depression on the left cannon-bone fits into one on the 
left tibia, and similarly the left radius fits against the right cannon- 
bone ; and another concavity in the same cannon-bone fits into the — 
left os calcis. A rough deep cut-like indentation across the right 
radius and ulna fits a deep cut in the posterior edge of the palm of 
the left antler, imbedded in which the bones were found. So also 
the right humerus was found in contact with the posterior and most 
distant tire of the left antler, by which it had been deeply scored, 
and about six inches of which it had severed from the palm. : 


Reports and Proceedings. 217 


Dr. Carte said that in a former discussion upon a paper by Profes- 
sor Jukes, relating to bones of Cervus megaceros found under cir- 
cumstances similar to the present, the differences of opinion resolved 
themselves into three hypotheses. Mr. Jukes held that the abra- 
sions were produced by pressure. Another hypothesis was, that the 
marks were produced by the hand of man. The third was, that 
they were the result of the friction of the bones lying upon one 
another, that friction having been produced by motion for which 
it was not easy to assign a cause. The last was the doctrine that 
he himself broached, and he thought that his view was borne out 
by the specimens now before them. 

II. On the 12th inst., Dr. Carte in the chair, Captain R. F. Burton, 
Her Majesty’s Consul at Santoz, was elected an Honorary Fellow. 

Mr. W. H.S. Westropp read a paper On a Trap-rock at Bray 
Head, County Wicklow. This greenstone was discovered by Pro- 
fessor Harkness, who told Mr. Jukes of his having found it. Mr. 
Jukes showed it to the writer, by whom it was examined in detail. 
After describing the position, mode of occurrence, and nature of the 
rock, Mr. Westropp brought forward arguments to prove that it was 
an intrusive trap, for it might be seen sending veins into, and cut- 
ting across beds of, the adjacent sedimentary rocks. He concluded 
by observing, that, while there was such a profusion of igneous 
rocks associated with the Cambro-silurian deposits of Wicklow, it 
was rather remarkable that one small greenstone-dyke, at Grey- 
stones, and the greenstone he had just described, were the only trap- 
rocks which had yet been found in the Cambrian rocks of that 
county. 

Mr. Juxes corroborated Mr. Westropp’s observations; and stated 
that he knew of beds of intrusive greenstone running evenly between 
other beds for miles in length and breadth, preserving almost the. 
same thickness throughout, and not appreciably altering the beds 
above or below. He also remarked that probably the igneous rocks, 
so abundant in the lower Silurian beds, had passed through the 
Cambrian beds below by few and narrow channels, such as the dyke 
described by Mr. Westropp. 

Mr. W. H. Batty then read a paper entitled Some Additions to 
the Structure of Palechinus. He stated that since his last commu- 
nication to the Society on this subject, he had been enabled to exa- 
mine an additional specimen of Palechinus ellipticus, which had 
been presented to the Geological Survey by Mr. M. G. Ryan, who 
had been fortunate enough to knock out two of these rare fossils 
from a block of limestone used in the construction of a drain at 
Bettyville, near Croome, County Limerick. Mr. Baily remarked that 
this fossil was in the state of a cast; the matrix in which it had been 
embedded, having retained the test or shell, had been left behind ; 
and he urged the necessity upon collectors of preserving both 
sides of a specimen, one of which often served to elucidate parti- 
cular parts, which may have been obscure on the other. He believed 
this fossil exhibited some additional particulars with regard to the 


pellicle Reports and Proceedings. 


structure of its shell with which we were not before acquainted. In 
the first instance, he thought there was good evidence of a mouth © 
opposite to the apical disk, corresponding with a similar arrange- 
ment of parts in the recent Echini, the parts appearing to have 
terminated in a slightly reflected edge. The arrangement of the 
apical disk alone in Palechinus, corresponding as it does so gene- 
rally with more recent forms of Echini, would entirely set aside the 
notion as to their having been provided with stalks like the Crinoids, 
and, in his opinion, proved them to have been more nearly related to 
the free Echinoderms, of which the recent Hehinus is a typical 
example; and he stated that this fine fossil assisted very much in 
confirming him in this opinion, as it appeared to have a distinct oval 
termination at the opposite pole to that of the apical disk—an 
arrangement entirely in accordance with its other structural pecu- 
liarities. 

Captain Hurron and Dr. Frazer exhibited specimens of the 
Green Serpentine Marble of Connemara containing ELozoon, as indi- 
cated by Mr. W. A. Sanford (see GeoLocicaL Maeazine, No. VIII. 
p- 87).—Saunders’s Newsletter. 


Tue EpinsurGH GEoLoGicaL Socrety.—March 23; Maurice 
Lothian, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair.—Mr. THomas SmyTH 
read a paper On the Glacial Drift of the North of Germany, being 
observations made by him during a tour on the Continent in 1860. 
He first described the Tertiary deposits which lie beneath the Drift, 
the Eocene beds covering a large portion of the North of Germany. 
Most of those beds, he said, are of the same age as the ‘ Calcaire 
Grossier’ of the Paris Basin, and the Bagshot and Bracklesham 
beds of England. They extend from Germany to Novo-Moscov in 
Russia, within about 150 miles of the Sea of Azov, and are upwards 
‘of 1,106 miles in length, having an average breadth of nearly 200 
miles. During the Eocene Period a shallow sea had covered the 
whole of that expanse, and formed a sort of shallow Mediterranean 
in Central Europe, the climate of that region being sub-tropical. 
Mr. Smyth then proceeded to give in detail the characteristics of 
the Scandinavian Drift in Schleswig and Holstein, Mecklenburg- 
Schwerin, Hanover, Prussia, &c. In the low grounds of those 
countries the Drift consists of isolated, but often extensive, clusters 
of boulders, embedded in the stratified sands and sandy clays, and of 
large erratics which rise above the surface. ‘These isolated masses 
form the only equivalent in age of the tenacious Boulder-clay of the 
British Isles. The sands and sandy clays in question (with the boul- 
ders) occupy the whole space between the Tertiaries and the vegetable 
soil. The embedded boulders and erratics are composed chiefly of 
gneiss, greenstone, porphyry, granite, and basalt; and are of the same 
mineralogical character as the rocks which compose the mountains of 
Norway and Sweden. From minute observations which he made at 
many places, Mr. Smyth arrived at the following conclusions :— 
(1) That a glacial sea covered the plain of the North of Germany 
during. the greater part, if not the whole, of the Post-pliocene 


Reports and Proceedings. . 219 


Period; and this, he said, was proved by the arrangement of the 
stratified sands and sandy clays, by marine shells of an Arctic type 
that have been found in them, and by the embedded boulders and 
surface-erratics from Norway and Sweden, which could not have 
been transported by land-ice from a distance of 400 or 500 miles to 
heights, in some places, of 1,100 feet above the level of the Baltic. 
(2) That the heights at which those erratics have been found lead 
us to believe that this glacial sea must have been at least 1,100 feet 
in depth; but several other circumstances would lead us to infer that 
it may have had a depth of 2,000 feet; and the only reasonable way 
of accounting for the position of those erratics, as well as of the 
isolated clusters of boulders in the sands, is, that they had been 
transported to those places by icebergs and ice-floes. (3) That, if 
the Plain of the North of Germany during any part of the Post- 
pliocene epoch had enjoyed a sub-aérial condition, it must have been 
as sandy and as barren as the desert of Zahara: for we have no 
proof either of land-glaciation or of sub-aérial vegetation; and the 
few remains of the land fauna and flora that have been found, fre- 
quently in juxtaposition with sea-shells and the skeletons of Whales, 
must have been borne to the low grounds by rivers and marine cur- 
rents.—Mr. D. J. Brown read a notice of the Occurrence, near 
Granton, of recently formed Sandstone, containing Shells of living 
Species.— G. C. H. : 


Giascow GEoLocicaL Society.—At the Monthly Meeting, April 
10th, thé Rev. H. W.Crosskey in the chair, Dr. Witt1am Grossart, 
of Salsburg, parish of Shotts, sent for exhibition a specimen of a 
little fossil fish, belonging to the genus Palgoniscus, got by him in 
the coal-shale of that district. It measures only an inch and a half 
in length, and is probably an undescribed species, being marked by 
much stronger striated scales than any of the species hitherto found 
in our coal-field. 

Mr. James Armstrone exhibited specimens of the masticating 
organs of Dithyrocaris, a crustacean of the Carboniferous Limestone 
series, from Orchard Quarry, where they are not uncommon. They 
present the appearance of a group of small blunt crushing teeth, and 
generally are found in ironstone-nodules, and in greatest perfection 
when, by the wearing away of the surrounding matrix, they have 
not been too long exposed to the action of the weather. ‘The only 
notice of their occurrence is in the ‘ Report of the Geology of Lon- 
donderry,’ where two are figured and described by Portlock as pro- 
bably connected with the masticatory apparatus of Dithyrocaris, with 
the remains of which they are stated to have been found. At Or- 
chard no portion of the carapace or tail has yet been discovered ; 
but Mr. James Bennie, one of the Members, had recently found in 
a quarry near East Kilbride a half-opened carapace (which was 
exhibited to the meeting) showing in the interior two groups of 
these teeth (?), with the tubercles in contact, and evidently not far 
from their normal position. Mr. Armstrong also exhibited speci- 
mens of Nautilus tuberculosus from Arden Quarry and Carluke, and 


220 : Reports and Proceedings. 


Pleurotomaria Youngiana from Craigenglen, Campsie, species both 
new to the Carboniferous rocks. 

The Cuarrman exhibited a suite of the Carboniferous fossils from 
Belgium (which he owed to the kindness of Professor De Koninck), 
and pointed out their relation to those of the Scotch Coal-measures. 
With great generic identity, there are slight specific differences, 
such as exist over similar areas at the present day. The philoso- 
phical problem involved, he said, is the connection between contem- 
poraneousness of formation and identity of species. It would appear 
that the probability of the contemporaneousness of identical species 
in any formation is in inverse proportion to the extent of area. 
Over limited areas nearly identical species were probably contempo- 
raneous ; but with extension of area identity of species becomes a 
valid argument against contemporaneousness. 

Mr. Joun SUTHERLAND read a paper On Silica, and its Mode of 
Formation in the Earth's Crust. After some introductory remarks, 
he said, that of all the components of the earth’s crust there was 
perhaps no other substance so universally present as silica, a com- 
pound of silicon and oxygen (Si O;). It may be called the bone or 
skeleton of the earth, giving hardness and compactness to all its 
covering. It is a principal constituent of granites, porphyries, clays, 
slates, &c. ; in its purest form it is found as sand, flint, quartz, and 
in more attractive forms as rock-crystals, opal, chalcedony, cairn- 
gorms, and many other minerals valued for their beauty. There are 
three varieties of silica: the crystallized, represented by quartz- 
crystals, with a specific gravity of 2°6; the so-called crystalline, re- 
presented by common flint, with the same specific gravity, and which 
is supposed by Rose to be an aggregation of crystals so small as to 
be undiscernible by the highest power of the microscope; and the 
amorphous, which is entirely devoid of crystalline structure, and has 
a specific gravity of only 2:3. Rose’s chief reason for supposing the 
crystalline variety to be built up of minute crystals is simply that 
it, like the first-named variety, polarizes light, and is unacted upon 
by alkaline solutions. Now, it is found that when silica of the 
specific gravity of 2°6 is subjected to fusion, its specific gravity is 
reduced to 2°3; and this fact has of late been made to occupy an im- 
portant place in discussions regarding the aqueous versus the plu- 
tonic origin of certain rocks. ‘The Plutonists assert, for instance, 
that granites are the result of fusion by heat; but on fusing it, its 
quartz or silica is reduced to the density of the amorphous variety 
obtained by precipitation from a solution, and besides will not crys- 
tallize. On the other hand, the latter process fails in producing 
silica of the specific gravity of 2°6. By subjecting the silica, how- 
ever, to a high temperature under great pressure of aqueous vapour, 
crystals having that specific gravity are obtained. Mr. Sutherland 
having stated some grounds for believing that crystallized silica may 
be produced in nature, without the aid of water, then referred to the 
subject of flints in the chalk-beds, and fossil shells filled with hard 
compact silica of the crystalline variety—a subject which had long 
puzzled geologists, and which has had hitherto no satisfactory solu- 


Reports and Proceedings. 221 


tion. By bringing, however, to our aid a form of solution of silica 
of comparatively recent discovery, we might arrive at a possible 
theory on this subject. The solution of silica he referred to was 
one of the many products of Dr. Graham’s process of dialysis, by 
which all substances soluble in water are capable of being divided 
into two classes—Crystalloids and Colloids. Silica belongs to the 
latter class ; and the difficulty of obtaining a strong solution of it, 
prior to Dr. Graham’s discovery, was the impossibility of getting 
rid of the crystalloid substances always accompanying its solution. 
By the process of dialysis, however, a solution of pure silica can 
readily be obtained, and which, after being condensed by evapora- 
tion, gelatinizes, and, when dried under the receiver cf an air-pump, 
is, in fact, artificial hyalite, or opal, having the constitution and all 
the properties of that mineral. ‘This is a pure amorphous variety of 
silica, with the specific gravity of 2°3; and the argument in favour 
of flint, chalcedony, and the like, having a crystalline structure, is 
the fact of their specific gravity being the same as that of the crystals 
of quartz, 2°6; but then we must take into consideration the fact 
that our amorphous variety is prepared under the ordinary pressure 
of the atmosphere, whereas flints, the quartz of granites, and other 
varieties of silica, having the high specific gravity, are, in all 
probability, formed under great pressure, which may sufficiently 
account for their higher density. Silicates of soda or potash are 
infinitely more soluble under great pressure than in the atmosphere ; 
- hence beneath the strata of the earth’s crust a more concentrated 
solution of silica would doubtless be produced. We have silicates 
of soda and potash, and we have also hydrochloric and carbonic 
acids often freely evolved, and proving their capability of liberat- 
ing the silica; and that this may be the mode of production of 
many of the pure silica minerals, and especially of quartz, might 
be safely assumed; at all events, from a chemical point of view, 
it seems the most likely theory. But then, how are we to get 
rid of the chloride of sodium produced along with our quartz, and 
incorporated in its structure? Dr. Percy has suggested that pos- 
sibly beds of sandstone may have a dialytic action, separating col- 
loid from crystalloid substances, by which quartz would be formed 
from a silicate of soda or potash, as already explained. From an 
experiment made by Mr. Sutherland, he thought this dialytic me- 
dium was not required. The gelatinous silica artificially produced 
is itself permanently dialytic, and appears to possess a contractile 
power, by which, combined with the dialytic, it throws out all ex- 
traneous salts. He had laid aside a piece of it in a dry place, when 
the salt it contained at once began to effloresce from its surface, 
while it continued to shrink up into a substance having the hardness 
of common resin, and not unlike the cairngorm in appearance: 
it continued to shrink even after it had become comparatively hard; 
and although reduced to one-fourth of its original mass, it retained 
its shape entire. Metallic oxides brought into contact with this 
gelatinous silica, produced in it the colouring and variegated ap- 
pearance that characterize many of our pebbles; there was also a 


222 Reports and Proceedings. 


great similarity in fracture between the natural and artificial 
silica: and these circumstances taken together tended very much to 
strengthen the arguments he had adduced in favour of quartz and 
its analogues being produced in the way described, viz., by decom- 
position of silicate of soda with an acid, the latter being in all pro- 
bability either hydrochloric or carbonic acid. The facts he had 
adduced certainly seem to point to a solution of some of the difficult 
problems of the earth’s crust, and must at least be worth remem- 
bering by geologists when speculating on the various phenomena 
which attracted their attention.’ 

Mr. GrorGeE SoMERVILLE, Lennoxtown, read a paper On the Geo- 
logical Features of the Country around Jerusalem, from observations 
made by him on a visit to Palestine and Syria in 1860. 


Bristot Natura.ists’ SocieTy.—I. Geological Section, January 
16; Mr. A. Leipner in the chair. Mr. W. Sanders was re-elected 
President, and Mr. F. Ashmead Secretary of the Section, for the 
ensuing year. The accounts for the preceding year were read and 
passed.—Mr. W. W. Sroppart continued his paper On the Cambro- 
Silurian Strata and Fossils, taking as his subject the Llandeilo For- 
mation, which, he said, could not be distinguished lithologically from 
the Lingula-beds spoken of at the previous meeting, but which con- 
tained an entirely distinct set of fossils, more numerous in species 
and genera, and of much higher organization. This series is about 
5,000 feet in thickness, consisting chiefly of dark slates and sandy 
flags, and is best observed at the Stiper Stones of Shropshire, Builth, 
Llangollen, and Llandeilo: the author also examined it at Llandewi- 
Felfrey, eighteen miles north of Tenby, where many characteristic 
fossils were foundin great abundance, amongst which were Trinucleus, 
Didymograpsus, Asaphus tyrannus, and a Discina, probably D. Port- 
locki, not before found in this formation. Going on towards Lam- 
peter, near Tenby, the beds are found to be first arenaceous, then 
caleareous ; and are extensively quarried, being the only Lower 
Silurian beds in Wales used for lime-burning. In Scotland the 
series occurs from Dumfries to the Lammermuir Hills; and in 
Sutherlandshire it contains several species of shells unknown in the 
Welsh series, but common in the North American. The altered 
quartzose and gneissose rocks of Sutherlandshire are known to con- 
tain the same Annelid-tube (Scolithus linearis) as the Shropshire 
series. In Ireland the Llandeilo beds had not yet been properly 
made out, but foreign equivalents were described in Bohemia and 
Scandinavia. Mr. Stoddart gave a long list of the characteristic 
fossils of this series, remarking that Encrinites first make their 
appearance in it, and exhibited specimens of many of them. 

II. Geological Section, Feb. 23; Mr. W. Sanders, President, in 
the chair.—Mr. W. L. CarPENTER read a paper on the Kozoon Cana- 
dense, the earliest known Fossil, recently discovered in Canada,—the 
generic name signifying ‘dawn-animal.’ After a few preliminary 
remarks upon the circumstances under which the paper was pre- 
pared, the author stated that this fossil had been found in a group of 


Reports and Proceedings. 223 


beds which had hitherto been considered as destitute of organic 
remains, and the position of which he described somewhat minutely, 
in Scotland, in Central Europe, where they attained a thickness of 
90,000 feet, and in Canada, where they were considered as forming 
three divisions, Lower and Upper Laurentian, and Huronian, the 
united thickness of which probably far surpasses that of all succeeding 
rocks. The presence of organic remains in this series of rocks, both 
in Europe and America, had long been suspected on mineralogical 
grounds; but it was not until the winter of 1863-64 that remains 
were found in the Lower Laurentian limestone, which proved to be 
undoubtedly organic, from careful microscopical examination. These 
fossils resembled some of the oldest known Corals in external 
appearance, occurring in large irregularly shaped masses; but Dr. 
Dawson, of Montreal, discovered that their structure was most nearly 
allied to that of the Foraminifera, a group of animals of the lowest form 
of organization, of which, however, the living recent examples were 
very minute, while these fossils were comparatively gigantic. Spe- 
cimens had also been very carefully examined by Dr. W. B. Car- 
peuter, whose knowledge of this group is profound, and who, while 
corroborating Dr. Dawson on the general reference, had been enabled 
to work out the affinities of Hozoon more accurately, and was dis- 
posed to regard it as of a rather higher type of Foraminiferal orga- 
nization, considering that it had points in its structure found in 
three existing orders of the Foraminifera. The identification of the 
fossil turned upon minute structural differences, which could not 
be explained in a short report, but which were made evident by a 
series of drawings and preparations lent to Mr. Carpenter by his 
father. A vertical section of the fossil showed the calcareous shell, 
the parts occupied by the animal when alive being filled with a kind 
of serpentine. Since its discovery in Canada it had been found in 
Treland, the recognition depending upon structure only to be seen 
with the aid of the microscope. 

II. March 2; Mr. W. Sanders, F.R.S., in the chair.—It was 
announced that a Zoological Section had been formed, open to all 
Members of the Society, on payment of the usual Sectional Sub- 
scription, to meet at half-past seven in the evening on the first 
Wednesday of every month, except the four summer-months. Mr. 
B. N. Logs spoke on Aquariums. Mr. T. G. Ponton read a paper 
On the Functions of the Foot of the Conchifera, or Bivalve Molluscs, 
— Bristol Daily Post. 


NeEwcastLe Natura History Sociery.—At the Fourth Winter 
Evening Meeting of the season, Feb. 17th, Mr. H. B. Brapy, F.L.S., 
delivered an address ‘ On the Lowest Forms of Animal Life. The 
chair was taken by Professor J. H. M‘Chesney. Mr. Brady com- 
menced by giving, with much interesting detail, an account of the 
numerous objects revealed by the microscope amongst the lower 
forms of animal life. His descriptive remarks were much assisted 
by a number of large drawings of the objects referred to. He 
then passed on to a notice of Sponges, showing the extent of our 


224 Reports and Proceedings. 


knowledge of the functions of these singular forms of animal life, 
and giving a number of interesting facts in connection with them, 
which the investigations of scientific men had brought to light. The 
Sponges on our own shores and their habitats were described. Com- 
paratively recent investigations in this department of natural history 
have led to the discovery that perforations in shells and the ‘ holey 
stone’ found on our shores—regarded by the superstitious as ob- 
noxious to witches—are the work of a singular form of Sponge. 
Some recent and interesting discoveries in Foraminifera were then 
touched upon, and Mr. Brady exhibited some novel fossil specimens 
which had been discovered by the late Mr. W. K. Loftus, of this 
town, while in Persia. In illustration of the minute size of some 
forms of Foraminifera, the Lecturer stated, it was calculated that 
a square inch of chalk contained a million of them. In conclu- 
sion, the Lecturer mentioned that Foraminifera had been discovered 
in the Laurentian rocks of Canada in a horizon several thousand 
feet below the Silurian strata, which were previously supposed to 
be the lowest in which remains of animal life existed. 


Tur WIGAN FIELD-NATURALIST AND SCIENTIFIC Society held a 
Soirée on February 2nd, in the Public Hall, decorated for the occa- . 
sion, and opened at seven o’clock. A large collection of objects of 
scientific and general interest was exhibited, comprising Aquariums, 
Microscopes, Photographs and Stereoscopes, Herbariums, Preserved 
Animals, Fern-cases, Hothouse Plants, Models, Scientific Instru- 
ments, Chemical Products, Miscellaneous Curiosities, and some 
Coal-fossils. The last were lent by the Mining School ; the other 
numerous and various specimens were contributed by Members and 
friends. Music and refreshments were supplied at half-past eight 
o'clock. The President, Mr. E. H. Birkenhead, called on the Hon. 
Sec., Mr. Bernish, to read the Report of the Proceedings of the 
Society since its formation nearly three years ago. During the 
season 1863-4 five Excursions were undertaken, and in the past 
season there were four. Some of these excursions were largely, and 
others poorly attended; but all were successful in a naturalist’s 
view, as on every cccasion something new was observed, some new 
specimen collected. Eight evening-meetings have been held, at 
which papers were read. On each occasion the subject of the 
paper was freely discussed, and by this means afforded consider- 
able information as well as interest. The Society has, during the 
past year, added ‘ Scientific ’ to its title, and increased the field 
of its researches, affording to its Members an opportunity of con- 
sidering those scientific operations with which this neighbourhood 
abounds. Another series of Excursions will be commenced in the 
ensuing spring, when it is hoped that, as the Society becomes 
better known, its ranks may become stronger, and its Excursions 
and Meetings better attended. ‘The President then delivered a 
lengthy and interesting address, in which he spoke of the objects 
of the Society, and pressed its claims upon the notice of the Meeting. 
He referred to the progress of Science, and touched upon the 


Reports and Proceedings. 225 


chief of the recent discoveries. In the geological portion of his 
address, he referred to the formerly accepted theory that the world 
is but 6,000 years old, and said that investigations had prove l that 
it must in all probability be tens of thousands. He quoted several 
works on this point in substantiation of the argument, and urged 
that the study of Geology should enter more largely into the course 
of training at our Colleges for the Ministry, in order that students 
might be able to apply the light of its great truths to their teach- 
ings. The President next dwelt upon the question of the origin of 
species ; and, having adduced several existing theories thereon, in- 
cluding that of Darwin, remarked that the degree of similarity 
which was found to exist between man and the lower animals was 
to him additional evidence to that already given of the unity of 
creation. He spoke next in support of the principle of free discus- 
sion as the only way to elucidate truth; and, having adverted to the 
vast assistance that the inquirer might obtain from the study of the 
physical world—a study to promote which was the chief object of 
the Society,—he concluded an admirable speech by observing, that if 
the meeting induced any one to take up the study of a single branch 
of Science, he was quite certain the promoters would be “amply re- 
warded.—Addresses were delivered by the Rev. G. Hoade, J. Ley- 
land, Esq., the Rev. J. Cronshaw, and M. W. Peace, Esq., who, after 
his remarks, exhibited the newly discovered magnesium-light suc- 
cessfully. The visitors then dispersed for a further examination of 
the collections, and the proceedings closed at about half-past ten.— 
Wigon Newspaper. 


Huty Literary AND PHiLoOsopHIcAL SocieTy.—At the Fort- 
nightly Meeting, on Feb. 14th, the President, Dr. KeLtpurne Kine, 
sitid that the Council had been for some time considering in what 
way they could best fulfil two important objects: first, how they 
could promote the prosecution of Science, both among their own 
Members and the inhabitants of the town, in a more practical way 
than hitherto ; and in the second place, how they could render their 
admirable Museum useful to the community at large. In October, a 
Sub committee was appointed to take these matters into considera- 
tion, and, after due reflection, that Sub-committee brought forward a 
series of resolutions, which had been adopted by the Council.—(1) 
That it is desirable that Sections be formed in connection with the 
Literary and Philosophical Society, for the practical study of dif- 
ferent departments of Science. (2) That any twelve Members de- 
siring to study a particular branch of Science may form themselves 
into a Section for that purpose. (38) That each Section shall elect 
its own Office-bearers and be governed by its own Bye-laws, the 
latter subject to the approval of the Council. (4) That each 
Section shall be entitled to elect as Associates persons who are 
not Members of the Literary and Philosophical Society, such Asso- 
ciates having none of the privileges which belong to Members of the 
Society except in so far as the operations of the Section to which 
they belong are concerned. (5) The Sub-committee recommends 

VOL. II.—NO. XI. Q 


226 Reports and Proceedings. 


to the Council to permit the use of its rooms, museum, and books 
to such Sections as may hereafter be formed, for the purpose of 
illustrating their Meetings; but that no book be removed from 
the building, and no specimen from its case, without special per- 
mission from the Council—The President called their attention 
more particularly to the extreme liberality with which the Council 
had acted in this matter. He could conceive nothing more likely 
to extend the practical study of Science in this town. He hoped 
sincerely that this movement which the Council had started would 
be followed out by the Members, and that they would see many 
Sections rising up in connection with the Society. He was fortu- 
nately in a position to say that the wish which had been expressed 
by the Council had been acted upon by a certain number of Members, 
and that they had already one Section in full operation. A short time 
azo afew gentlemen met, and formed themselves into a Geological 
Section, which now consisted of 24 members (including seven who 
are not Members of the Society). To that Geological Section he 
wished particularly to call their attention, because it exemplified the 
principles for which their Council had contended. A mere nominal 
sum of half-a-crown and five shillings would be charged to Members 
and Non-members respectively. The Society would open its rooms 
to all who were anxious to embrace the study of any Science. The 
President then called upon C. C. Biaxe, Esq., F.G.S., Secretary to 
the Anthropological Society of London, to read his paper On the 
Lowest Races of Mankind.—Hull Times. 


DUMFRIESSHIRE AND GALLOWAY NaturaL History AND ANTI- 
QUARIAN Society.—This Society, which is now in its third year, 
has made rapid progress. ‘The number of Members is now nearly 
two hundred, including a great part of those residing in the South 
of Scotland who have a Scientific or Literary taste. Meetings are 
held during the winter on the first Tuesday of each month, in 
Dumfries ; and during the summer there are Monthly Excursions. 

I. At the Fourth Meeting of this Session, Sir W. Jardine, Bart., in 
the chair, the Chairman first made a very interesting communication 
on the finding of that rare British Bird, the Roller (Cracius gar- 
rula) near Dumfries. Sir William also exhibited a number of 
specimens of Birds allied to the Roller from various parts of the 
world.—Dr. Gitcurist then read a detailed account of the geo- 
logical observations made during the Excursions of the Society 
last summer.—Dr. Grierson then gave an account of the genus 
Arvicola, or Vole, exhibiting a series of specimens of strange 
varieties ; and he described the ravages that had been committed 
on the plantations in the Drumlanrig Estate by two species, A. 
agrestis and A. pratensis. Dy. Grierson also exhibited a strange 
abnormal formation of a pig’sfoot, which led to a lengthened dis- 
cussion.—A number of Donations to the Library of the Society were 
laid upon the table. 

II. March 7th; Sir W. Jardine, Bart., in the chair. At this 
(Fifth) Meeting of the Society, after Donations had been presented, 


Reports and Proceedings. 227 


Mr. W. M‘Diarmr read an interesting extract from the old Burgh 
Records of Dumfries, 1740. Dr. Grierson then read a paper on 
Relics of Pre-historical Man in Nithsdale, as elucidated by a col- 
lection of stone celts, spear-heads, and other implements, some of 
which he regarded as of local, and others of foreign and superior 
workmanship; the latter possibly belonging to an invading race.— 
From the Dumfries Herald. 


The Winter Meeting of the Warwicksuire NATURALISTS’ FreLp- 
CLUB was held in the Museum, Warwick, by the kind permission of 
the Council of the Natural History Society, at twelve o'clock, on Tues- 
day, 14th of February, 1865. The President, Wykeham Martin, Esq., 
M.P., having taken the chair, called upon Mr. Parker to deliver 
his promised Lecture On the Bone-Caves of Liége, which he had 
recently visited. laving described them in detail, he declared him- 
self unable to discover the force of Sir C. Lyell’s arguments respect- 
ing the great antiquity of their contents, from the physical aspect of 
the neighbourhood, and from the presence of remains of extinct ani- 
mals. It was clear, he thought, that their contents had been intro- 
duced at different periods. He contended that the Bear was coeval 
with Man as well as with the Rhinoceros; but the argument for the 
coexistence of the latter alone with Man he thought to be very im- 
perfect. Considering the way in which these caves have been filled, 
he thought that the fact of the remains of Man being found under the 
conditions detailed by Sir C. Lyell would not appear extraordinary, 
nor afford evidence of very great antiquity. 

The President then read the Proceedings of the Club during the 
past year, in lieu of the usual Address customary on this occasion, 
with a few prefatory remarks on the prosperous condition of the 
Club, but urging a better attendance at the ordinary Field-meetings. 
He then called upon the Rev. P. B. Bropiz to read his paper On 
three Liassic Outliers in Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Cumberland. 
It was pointed out that some outliers had been deposited indepen- 
dently, though contemporaneously, while others, once connected with 
the main mass, had been afterwards denuded. In the Shropshire 
outlier, the fossils, though belonging to different zones, are in most 
respects identical with well-known Liassic species, but a few are 
peculiar to Germany and Scotland—a fact worthy of notice. This 
outlier is ten miles long by six broad ; but the Drift, for the most 
part, conceals the underlying stratum, and few sections are now ex- 
posed. This is the case also in Cumberland. In Staffordshire the 
lowest beds of the Lias (Rhztic) are exposed near Needwood Forest, 
and present a section and fossils similar to those of the outlier at 
Copt Heath, near Knowle, already described. The Cumberland out- 
lier, long supposed to be Mountain-limestone, belongs evidently to 
the Lima and Saurian beds of the Lias. The chief point of interest 
is to decide whether these were originally detached outliers, or con- 
nected with the chief range of the Lias. The first two are not so 
very far apart in a straight line, while the latter is nearer to the 
same formation in Ireland, near Belfast, which was next described, 

Q2 


228 Reports and Proceedings. 


as well as some patches in Scotland, near Elgin and at Skye. At 
all events, these remnants of Lias, now separated from the main 
mass in Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Cumberland, are well worthy 
of notice, presenting many features of interest, and deserving a care- 
ful and detailed examination. 

The Meeting then adjourned. Owing to the sever ity of the 
weather, there was not so good an aitroadlnace as usual, though about 
forty persons were present, including some of the Dudley Field-club 
and several ladies, who were especially invited on this occasion. The 
interval between this time and dinner was filled up by (Ist) an in- 
spection of the Museum, which has been lately renovated and enlarged, 
many important additions having been made to the excellent Geolo- 
gical and Zoological collections; and (2ndly) by a walk to the Lower 
Keuper quarries at Coten-end. All matters of business were trans- 
acted after dinner, when the President and Vice-president were . 
unanimously re-elected, and the Meetings fixed for the ensuing 
summer. 


Tue Cotreswo.pD NATURALISTS’ FIrELD-cLUB held its Nineteenth 
Annual Meeting at the Bell Hotel, Gloucester, on the 29th March. 
Major Guise was re-elected President, and Dr. Parne Secretary. 
The Meetings for the Season are—Stroud, 24th May; Chepstow, 
21st June ; Br adford Abbas, 19th July; TYortworth, 16th August ; 
Beckford, 27th September. 

The President read the Annual Address, which gave an excellent 
epitome of the work done by the Club during the past year. He 
then read a translation, by Mr. John Jones, of Dr. Epouarp 
Dueont’s Report to the Minister of the Interior at Brussels, on the 
Scientific Excavations made in the Province of Namur during 
the year 1864. This able document contained some interesting 


‘statements relative to the Bone-caves of the Province of Namur, 


which had formed the subject of Dr. Dupont’s special study. ‘The 
species of Mammals had been determined by M. Van Beneden. He 
found different parts of the skeleton of the Reindeer, and 150 
antlers of this species; most of them had been broken by the vio- 
lence of the water, which had brought boulders into the cavern; but 
many were well preserved. Bones of the Glutton, Bear, Chamois, 
Elk, Stag, Fox, Wolf, Horse, Ox (Bos primigenius), Ibex, Field- 
mouse, and ‘le Coq de bruyéres,’ with fifteen other species, were 
found in these caverns. A number of the remains of human industry 
have been exhumed from amongst this ancient fauna, so foreign 
to the actual condition of the province; these consisting of worked 
flint implements of different kinds, and bones rudely carved, and 
formed into tools of various kinds. Other caverns contained the 
bones of ancient human races. All these relies will form the sub- 
ject of a special memoir. 

After a capital dinner, at five o'clock, M. Erurripes, F.G.S., 
Palzontologist to the Geological Survey, read an interesting paper 
On the Avicula-contorta-beds at Garden Cliff, near Westbury-on- 
Severn, which he illustrated by some beautiful sections made by 


Reports and Proceedings. 229 


Mr. Bristow and himself during their exploration of these beds in 
different parts of the Midland Counties. He gave a careful corre- 
lation of the Avicula-contorta-series in this most typical section 
with others in different localities, and entered into some generaliza- 
tions as to their correlation with other deposits in Europe. 

Dr. Wrieut observed that Garden Cliff was classical ground to 
the Cotteswold Naturalists; ample details regarding its beds and 
their contents were recorded in some excellent papers in their 
Transactions ; but the wider views explained by his friend in his 
able paper added interest to this instructive section. The fauna 
contained in several of the beds had not yet been satisfactorily made 
out; for the fossils, though numerous, were all in the form of 
moulds in a fragmentary marl; and unless the moulds were gummed 
and dried on the spot, before removal, they could not be preserved. 
Although Mr. Etheridge had given a fair exposition of the views 
entertained by many of the authors who had written on these beds 
in this country, still it was right to state ‘that there was a great 
division of opinion as to whether the Avicula-contorta-series should 
be grouped with the Trias or with the Lias ; in his able Monograph 
on the ‘Contorta-zone’ Dr. Dittmar had shown that among all the 
geologists who had made this zone a special study (and the list 
included some of the most eminent of living naturalists), 
referred these beds to the Keuper, 21 referred them to the Lias, 
and 12 were undecided as to which formation they should be 
grouped with. 

The President then read a short paper by Mr. JAMES BuckMAN 
On some Flints found near Bradford Abbas, which elicited some 
remarks by Dr. Henry Bird on the similarity between the figures 
which accompanied the paper and like remains found by himself and 
other Cotteswoldians in their researches in Gloucestershire.—T.W. 


RicumMonD AnD Norru-Ripingc Naturatists’ FIeELD.cLtus.—A 
General Meeting of the Members of the Richmond and North-Riding 
Naturalists’ Field-club was held in the Magistrates’ Room, in the 
Town-hall, Richmond, the 14th of March, for the purpose of electing 
officers for the ensuing year. The following were appointed :—Pre- 
sident, E. Wood, Esq., F.G.S.; Vice- -presidents, the Rev. R. E. 
Roberts, Rev. James Tate, Lonsdale Bradley, Esq., F.G.S., James 
Ward, Esq., F.B.S. Edin., J. Bowe, Esq., R. Bowes, Esq., T. 'Thomp- 
son, Esq., F. Sanderson, Esq.; Treasurer, C. Other, jun., Esq. ; 
Secretary, Mr. James Aspdin. After some preliminary discussion, 
a question arose as to the ownership of the Museum, whether it was 
in the power of the trustees or the committee in management. This 
matter, however, was left over for further consideration.— E. Woon, 
Esq., F.G.S., then rose and said: ‘ Gentlemen—On taking the chair 
on this our opening meeting, a few words as to the future of our 
infant Club may not be inappropriate. As stated at a preliminary 
gathering, I accepted the honour of the presidential chair with 
great reluctance, but I already feel at home in my position, and 
most hopeful for the success and well-doing of our Club. I know 


230 Reports and Proceedings. 


that on my asking for a hundred pounds to start with, many of my 
neighbours thought the sum so large that our success was quite 
hopeless. I must admit having had some fears myself on the sub- 
ject; but they are now happily dissipated, and I feel and know that 
we are on the eve of forming a truly beneficial Society. Almost 
without an effort or solicitation, we have about half the number of 
the twenty £5 patrons; and at the head of that list stand the names 
of that distinguished noble family, whose liberality and patronage 
for everything good in this district is never asked in vain. We 
fully hope for the co-operation of the other leading families, to 
stimulate us to success in the future. Upwards of eighty Annual 
Subscribers are already booked; and it is fair to expect we can 
double that number. We ought indeed to be proud and thankful 
for such real and gratifying liberality. Our only remaining diffi- 
culty now appears to be the want of rooms; and I think this 
Meeting will agree with me, that it will be desirable to enquire 
about and advertise for such. We ought to have one large room 
(if with sky-lights, so much the better), and a smaller one for 
packing and unpacking. ‘These rooms ought not to be detached, 
but ought to form part of an establishment, where a resident House- 
keeper would be ready to keep at proper and stated times. We will 
expect the occupation to be temporary, as I am hopeful to see agp 
appropriate building for the purpose in some of the beautiful 
situations around us. As soon as our room gets its contents, our 
path appears to be easy. Few districts are so rich in objects of 
scientific interest as our own, and it will be our duty, and, I trust, it 
will likewise be our work, to induce many of our good sons and fair 
daughters to study God’s handiwork in that patient, humble, loving, 
and reverent spirit which alone can read its teaching truly and 
wisely. Our primary object must be to instruct, not to amuse. Our 
Summer Field-meetings will doubtless prove objects of real in- 
struction and enjoyment: with such guides as Mr.Ward for Botany; 
as Mr. L. Bradley for Mineralogy ; and I may venture to add, as 
your President for Geology and Ornithology, these gatherings must 
be of a most enjoyable nature. I have already made some pro- 
visional arrangements for a grand day’s trip to one of the Durham 
Coal-mines, where it will be my duty to point out the nature and 
formation of Coal, and to exhibit, perhaps down the pit, the wonders 
of its workings, and of the large and busy hive of its industry. Mr. 
Bradley will give a similar trip to one of his Lead-mines in Swale- 
dale; and Mr. Ward will arrange for a botanical field-day in the 
classic district around the Round Howe. We likewise hope for 
many short evening-excursions around our town during the long 
days, starting at seven, returning at ten. As long as I am president, 
I pledge myself to do everything in my power to keep the whole 
arrangements of our Club to the six working days of the week. It 
is possible some one may say, on looking over our cabinets of objects 
of Natural History, “ What a destruction of life!” Now really this 
will not be the case. I do not believe that a really good naturalist 
can be a bad man,—the true lover of nature admires all created 
things; he knows how wonderfully they are made, and he shrinks 


Correspondence. 231 


with loathing and with dread from their useless destruction, and 
from the very wantonness with which the humblest of God’s created. 
things is constantly destroyed.’ After a vote of thanks to the 
worthy President, the Meeting adjourned.—hichmond Herald. 


Tur Members of the Matvern Fierp-crius held their Annual 
Meeting for the election of Officers, the audit of accounts, &c., at 
the Museum of the Society, at Malvern, on April 5th. The Rev. 
W. S. Symonds, of Pendock, was re-elected President; Edwin Lees, 
Esq., Vice-president; and the Rev. R. Pindar Hill, Hon. Secretary. 
The places of Meeting for the ensuing season are as follows :—May 
—The Lickey Hills, near Bromsgrove. Jwne—Cleobury-Mortimer. 
July—Lower Lode, Tewkesbury. September—Birmingham, for the 
Meeting of the British Association, with a Field-meeting at Malvern 
after the British Association Meeting. The Club voted the sum of 
£10 to the President and a Committee, for the investigation of 
certain Drift Deposits in the district; and £5 to Mr. Lees for the 
opening of a tumulus in the neighbourhood of Malvern._—W. 5. 8, 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
penta 
To the Editor of the GxoLocicaL MAGAZINE. 

Sir,—With reference to the Article in No. IX.‘ On a sudden Sink- 
ing of the Soil in a Field at Lexden in Essex,’ by the Rev. O. Fisher, 
I wish to offer a few suggestions. The sinking occurred in 1861; 
and in 1862 I visited the spot and examined it carefully. It cor- 
responds exactly with Mr. Fisher’s description with one exception, 
which may or may not be of importance in the explanation of the 
formation of this curious pit. He has omitted to state that on one 
side of the pit, the earth has not quite subsided on a level with the 
floor, but rises in a rather abrupt bank. At least it was so when I 
visited it, which was nearly a year prior to Mr. Fisher’s visit; and 
perhaps during that time alterations might have taken place, or 
some of the soil been removed. 


I here give a rough section I made immediately on my return 
home. 


Fig. 1.—Section of the Natural Pit at Lexden, in 1862. 


232 Correspondence. 


Mr. Fisher says, ‘ That there must be a vacuity somewhere beneath, 
the subsidence is clear. That it should be in the gravel is im- 
possible, because the stratification, as exposed in the sides of the 
hole for about 10 feet, is perfectly regular; that it exists in the 
London Clay is also impossible ; but that such a cavity should exist 
in the Chalk is probable.” Now I would wish to question Mr. 
Fisher’s explanation with all humility, as I am but a very young 
hand at Geology. 

The author of the article then proceeds to state, that wells 
have been bored in the neighbourhood, at distances of a mile or 
more from the pit; and he continues, ‘I conceive, then, that the 
motion of the water in this subterranean reservoir’ (in the chalk at 
a depth of nearly 300 feet), ‘caused by the draught of water at these 
wells, disturbed the equilibrium of the roofing of the chasm at a 
point where it was barely stable, and caused the subsidence in 
question.’ I would suggest, if the cavity at this depth were large, 
why did not a larger area subside ?—and, if small, surely it would 
not cause a roof of from 200 to 300 feet thick to sink. ‘The expla- 
nation that I would suggest, would rather be, that erosion has taken 
place in the Low-level-gravel at a small depth below the pit, say 
20 feet or a little more (allowing an inequality in the thickness 
of the bed of gravel, which at the well a mile distant was found to 
be abcut 12 feet), and that, when this erosive action had sufficiently 
undermined, the roof fell in. 

I might better explain my ideas by the following section (hypo- 
thetical). 


River Colne. 


} 
j 
i 
\ 
| 
1 
1 


Fig. 2.—Diagram to explain the Formation of the Pit. 


A. Low-level-gravel. Gs Dotted lines to show successive stages of erosion. 
B. London Clay. d. Point at which the débris would (and did) stand highest. 


The erosion would have been either from water from the River 
Colne, or from rain having percolated the gravel and run down 
an inclined surface of the clay at its junction with the gravel.— 
Yours, &c., FRANK RUTLEY. 


13, DenpicH Pxacz, S.W. 


THE BURNING WELL AT BROSELEY. 
To_the Editor of the GnoLoGicaL MAGAZINE. 


Sir —As I did not perceive any reply in the last Number of the 
GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE to the enquiry in the previous Number rela- 
tive to the Burning Well at Broseley, mentioned in some old topo- 


Correspondence. 233 


graphics, I have ventured to give very briefly the information 
required. 

The so-called burning well has ceased to exist for nearly a cen- 
tury. It was fed byaspring; and petroleum and naphtha also found 
their way from rents in the rock into the well with the water, and 
were occasionally ignited. Springs of petroleum, on a much larger 
scale than the Broseley one, are met with in the neighbourhood, and 
the yield of each of these was formerly much greater than at pre- 
sent. Many hogsheads from one of these were exported some years 
ago, under the name of ‘Betton’s British Oil. The rocks were 
tapped by driving a level through one of the sandstone rocks of the 
Coal-measures; but these are now drained, and very little is found 
to flow from them. This is also the case with*a spring in Tar-Batch 
Dingle, about a mile and a half lower down the Severn: the tar- 
spring is still to be seen, but the quantity given out is smaller, we 
apprehend, than when it first gave its name to the Dingle. 

With regard to its origin, it is well known that many of the trees 
of the Carboniferous period were resinous, like our pines; and it is 
easy to suppose that the oil pressed out from the accumulated masses 
of vegetable matter which formed the coal-seams would become 
absorbed by the sand-beds above them, and that this oil would 
naturally find its way out when tapped by shafts, or levels, or water- 
courses. Joun Ranvatt, F.G.S. 

Mavetry, Satop: April 24, 1865. 


ARE THE SEA-ROCKS OF CHARNWOOD FOREST LAURENTIAN ? 
To the Editor of the GroLocicaL MAGAZINE. 


Srr,—In the last number of the GrotogicaL MaGazine, Sir R. 
Murchison, in his paper ‘On the Laurentian Rocks of Great Britain, 
Bavaria, and Bohemia,’ brings prominently into notice the strike of 
the beds of the old rocks of the North-west Highlands (fundamental 
gneiss) as being a feature distinguishing them from the Cambrian 
and other aqueous rocks of our Island. Jt may be useful to notice 
that the old slate-rocks of Charnwood Forest have precisely this 
same strike, viz. S.E. by N.W. ‘These rocks, covering an irregular 
square of about ten miles, have been (doubtfully, I think) classed as 
‘Cambrian.’ They have many features that distinguish them from 
the ‘typical Cambrians’ of the ‘ Longmynd ;’ among these may be 
noticed the great variety of rocks,—four species of so-called igneous 
rock (Granite, Syenite, Greenstone, and Basalt * )—almost every 
variety of slate, from coarse-grained grauwacké to fine roofing- 
slate,—the remarkable metamorphic character of the whole group: 
slate passing by insensible gradations into greenstone, and the 
occurrence of gneiss, in almost close contact with granite; there 


* T have part of a fine hexagon from the anticlinal line: it is a coarse-grained 
basalt. 


234 Correspondence. 


are also some beds which may turn out to be altered limestones; and 
then, this group is really an old mountain-chain, having an anticlinal 
jine, which (if the beds had not been broken through and broken up 
at the same time) would have given a ridge of many thousand feet 
high. These features, I think, distinguish this group of rocks from 
the Cambrians of Wales. 

JAMES PLANT. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—In your last Number, under the head of ‘ Proceedings of 
the Glasgow Geological Society, a paper is reported to have been 
read ‘On the Discovery of Lower Carboniferous Fossils in the 
Upper Coal-measures ;’ and it is stated that they were discovered 
‘higher in the Carboniferous series than previously known.’ 

I beg to state that this is not the first discovery of marine forms 
in the Upper Coal-measures. They were discovered, several years 
ago, by Messrs. Hull and Green, of the Geological Survey, at 
Ashton-under-Lyne, in Upper Measures. Shortly afterwards, I had 
the good fortune to discover them in the upper part of ‘the North 


Staffordshire Coal-field.—I am, &c. JoHN WARD. 
25, STAFFORD STREET, LoNGTON, 
STAFFORDSHIRE. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—I enclose some samples of a mineral I discovered about a 
year ago in some clay-land I have near the Humber-side at this 
place. I had a quantity of the clay dug, with a view of finding out 
what fossils it contained at a lower depth than it is common to dig 
it out for the purpose of making bricks. The clay at the surface is 
brownish in colour, but gradually becomes blue as you go lower, and 
at about ten feet deep is nearly black, very ‘sludgy,’ and apparently 
contains a great deal of vegetable matter. At about seven or eight 
feet I took a lump of the clay, and, kneading it in my hand, felt 
something prick me: I found what looked like small twigs, of from 
half an inch to an inch long, and varying from about the thickness of 
an average pin, to three or four times that thickness—but evidently 
iron or metal of some kind. I tried it with the magnet, and found 
it flew to it at once. JI have since found that it is itself magnetic, 
and that when slightly filed it will attract small steel filings. I 
showed a sample of it to Dr. Percy several months ago; and I under- 
stood him to say that the ‘structure’ was new to him, but that he 
would make some enquiry about it ; but as I have heard nothing 
from him on‘the subject, | presume he has forgotten all about the 
matter. I have therefore thought it my best plan to write this letter 
to you, thinking that either yourself or some of yourmany readers and 
contributors may perhaps kindly favour me by saying whether it is 
usual to find in such a place such a mineral.—I remain, &c., 

ALFRED Henry PECHELL, Barrister-at-law. 

Bsrron-on-Humper: Feb, 18, 1865. . 


Correspondence. 235 


THE COAL-BASIN OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—By the Australian mail, just arrived, I have ‘received a 
letter from my friend, Mr. Joan Macxenziz, Examiner of Coal- 
fields to the Government of New South Wales, from which I ex- 
tract the following (Mr. Mackenzie is stationed at Wollongong) :— 
‘J have had a journey of upwards of 300 miles for the purpose of 
seeing whether the Hartley Coal-seams, in the County of Cork, belong 
to the same Coal-basin as that of Newcastle and Wollongong; and 
to see if I could find out with which known seams of coal on this 
side they were identical. I was able to recognise them. Another 
reason for my going was, that I had an idea that I could find eoal 
identical with the Fitzroy Coal at a distance of thirty miles from 
Sydney, the metropolis of New South Wales. I have satisfied myself 
that coal will be found there; but I must make another examination 
before I can tell whether there is a good seam of coal. I have found 
the lower coal, which is inferior ; and I cammot yet tell whether it will 
be near enough from the edge of the Coal-basin for the next excellent 
seam of coal to come in above it. The Coal-measures I find gra- 
dually increase in their thickness from the edge of the Coal-basin 
towards the centre; and the Sydney, or Clarke’s “‘ Hawkesbury,” Sand- 
stone rests on the Coal-measures near the edge of the basin ; whilst, 
near the centre of it, it is 900 feet from the top coal; sandstones and 
shales, different in nature from the Hawkesbury Sandstone, interven- 
ing in the 900 feet. It has been supposed by other geologists that it 
would always be from 900 to 1,000 feet from the Hawkesbury Sand- 
stone to the first coal; whilst | am certain that I can find it, only 
thirty miles from Sydney, at a depth of from 150 to 200 feet. But if 
I go to twenty-eight miles, and find the top coal coming in, it might 
be 400 feet.’ After giving an account of the great difficulties 
attending the exploration, Mr. Mackenzie continues: —‘I will 
first give you an outline of what I know from my own ex- 
ploration of this vast coal-field. I have explored the Counties 
of Canada, Cumberland, Cork, Hunter, Northumberland, and Dur- 
ham, and find that the New South Wales Coal-basin extends under 
the whole of them, and a portion or the whole of Gloucester (I have 
not explored the whole of it), as well as a portion of the counties of 
Brisbane (mot Brisbane in Queensland), Phillip, Roxburgh, West- 
moreland, and St. Vincent ; and that the south-easterly and easterly 
side of the coal-basin lies partly buried under the Pacific Ocean, and 
principally washed away. This makes the New South Wales coal- 
basin at least 200 miles in length, and probably the same in breadth: 
but the breadth can never be ascertained, owing tothe easterly side 
of the basin being in the Pacific Ocean.’ 

I have given the above in Mr. Mackenzie’s words: it is at your 
service. Mr. Mackenzie was the discoverer of a magnificent seam 
of coal (12 yds. or more) in New South Wales, not long since.*—I 
am, yours truly, EK. H. Brrxenueap, B.Se., F.G.S. 

Worstry Mzsnes, Wigan: Fed. 24, 1865. 


* See Gronogicat Magazine, No. V, p. 234. 


236 Miscellaneous. 


‘On A BED OF Lower BouLDER-cLAY AT HEATON MERSEY, NEAR 
MANCHESTER. 


A CorRRESPONDENT, who has lately given a good deal of attention 
to a bed of Lower Boulder-clay in Mr. Thorniley’s brick-fields at 
Heaton Mersey, and which is called by the workmen ‘red shaly 
marl,’ writes thus :— 

‘The only published notice I have seen of it is in a memoir “ On 
the Geology of the Country around Oldham, including Manchester 
and its Suburbs,” by Mr. Edward Hull, in which he gives the 
following section :— 


1. Fine white sand, laminated ; two feet. 

2. Layer of peaty matter, composed of the stems and branches of a tree 
with a shining bark, either Birch or Hazel; three inches. 

3. Dark-brown, fine, laminated clay, without pebbles (warp ?); five or 
six feet. : 

4, Boulder-clay, with striated pebbles; five feet. 


Both the sections to be seen there now are rather different. The 
first is from the principal pit:— 


1. White or silver sand ; one foot. 

2. Bluish clay, perhaps the Upper Boulder- clay, stratified and unfossili- 
ferous; six feet. 

3. Red sand and gravel; nine inches. 

4. Lower Boulder-clay, or ‘ red shaly marl;’ seven feet. 

5. Trias; forty-five feet seen. 


The next section is from one of the smaller pits :-— 


. Boggy soil, with branches of trees, most probably Birches ; three feet. 
. Bluish clay, like No. 2 in the above section; four feet. 
. Trias; forty-five feet seen.’ 


Cob 


Our Correspondent adds, that some fossils, derived from the Car- 
boniferous rocks, such as fossil Fish, a fossil Fern (Alethopteris ?), 
and Producta Martini (in limestone), have been found in this par- 
ticular clay-bed. Other fossils shells are said to have been formerly 
found, and a Birch-leaf (possibly, however, from an upper bed). 
Nothing has been found lately. 


MISCHEHLULANE OUS- 
> 
NOTES ON NEW MINERALS, sy Pror. A. C. CHURCH, F.C.S. 


Tue Hyprovs Minerat PxHospHates.—Some of the hydrous 
mineral phosphates have been lately studied by Professor Church, 
and his results have appeared in the ‘Chemical News,’* under the 
heading ‘Revision of the Mineral Phosphates.’ The following are 
the chief conclusions at which Professor Church has arrived :— 


* <Chem. News,’ vol. x. 1864, pp. 145, 157, 217, 290. 


Miscellaneous. Dok 


_ Delvauxite.* —This mineral, when free from hygroscopic moisture, 
has the formula Fe,PO,, aq. + Fe.H303, which demands 16°31 p. c. 
H,O: experiment gave 16:9 p.c. -Delvauxite dried at 100° has the 
formula Fe,PO, + Fe,H,03, which demands 10:46 p. ec. HO: ex- 
periment gave 10:97 p.c. ‘The delvauxite analysed was from Liége, 
Belgium, and contained no calcium compounds. 

Dufresnite—This mineral when perfectly pure has the formula 
Fe,PO, + Fe,H303, which requires 10°46 p. c. H,O: experiment 
gave 10°55. In fact air-dried dufresnite has the same composition as 
delvauxite dried at 100°. : 

Prasine.—Pseudomalachite or prasine generally contains some 
malachite, together with other impurities ; when due allowance is 
made for these intruding compounds its formula, like that of phos- 
phochalcite, is Cuz;PO, + 83CuHO  Dihydrite (and perhaps ehlite 
also) has the formula Cu;PO, + 2CuHO, while the composition of 
libethenite (and possibly of pseudolibethenite and tagilite also) would 
seem to be represented by the expression Cu,PO, + CuHO. 

Calaite—The formula assigned to turquoise has scarcely been 
sufficiently supported by analysis. Mr. Church analysed a blue 
specimen from Nichabour, Persia, and after deduction of 10-47 per 
cent. of hydrated phosphate of copper (CuzPO,, aq.) and 4°89 per 
cent. of hydrated ferroso-manganous phosphate (3(FeMn),PO,, aq.), 
the analytical results closely correspond to those required by the 
formula Al,PO,+ Al,H,03. 


A New Minera or OrGanic Oricin.t—Tasmanite.—In the 
Tasmanian Court of the International Exhibition of 1862, a ‘resini- 
ferous shale’ was exhibited by the Dysodile Company. On exa- 
mination and analysis, the combustible matter of this shale proved to 
be different from the true dysodile both in physical and chemical 
characters. It occurs in discs (:03 inch in diam.) disposed in planes 
parallel to the laminations of the shale; these discs are translucent, 
reddish-brown : lustre resinous, and fracture conchoidal. The density 
of the mineral is about 1:18; its hardness 2. The mineral, to which 
Mr. Church gives the name Tasmanite, is unaffected by alkalies 
and most solvents of organic resinoids: its chief chemical charac- 
teristic is the large amount of sulphur in organic combination which 
it contains. Numerous analyses of tasmanite gave these results as 
a mean— 

Carbon . p : - (2°88 

Hydrogen . : ; ~ + 9°56 

Sulphur. : ; . 4:90 
Ash(a). : : se SpA 12-24 

Making due deductions for the ash of the specimens, these numbers 
correspond to the following corrected percentages :— 


* In this and the four following notices Gerhardt’s notation is adopted: — 
C1016) S39. 
f+ Phil. Mag., Dec. 1864. 


238 Miscellaneous. 


Experiment. Theory, C4)H,¢.02,8. 
Carbon . ; . 79°34 a(S 
Hydrogen 5 - 10-41 10:23 
Sulphur . < - od2 « 9°28 
Oxygen . : 3 2593) 5°28 
100-00 100-00 


The formula above given corresponds very closely with that 
usually accepted for some pure varieties of retinite, but the oxygen 
of retinite is here partly replaced by sulphur. In fact, tasmanite 
would seem to be the sulphide of the same radical of which retinite 
is the hydrate— 


Con S tasmanite. 


20H ie O retinite. 


These minerals may be derivatives of a turpentine, C,)H., ; or the 
radical assumed to be present in them may be homologous with 
benzoyle, for C,)H3,0 = 18CH, + C,H,0. 


Benzoyle. 


Note oN ANTIMONY-MINERALS FROM Borneo.—WNative Anti- 
mony is found in masses of various sizes, always coated with a 
thickish crust of cervantite (antimony-ochre). ‘This native anti- 
mony is nearly pure; occasionally it is found associated with the 
sulphide of antimony, and, from this locality, is always of a very 
fine granular texture, sometimes very friable, and often tarnished. 

Antimonite, or sulphide of antimony, is found massive in great 
abundance, large quantities being shipped, for smelting, to England 
and Hamburg. 

Cervantite, or antimony-ochre, is found in very large quantities, 
hundreds of tons being shipped for smelting. This is derived - 
entirely from the decomposition of the sulphide, in cavities of which 
sometimes terminated and acicular crystals of the original sulphide 
are found. On some of these altered crystals are found, but 
rarely crystals of.Valentinite, in flat tables, usually coated with 
antimony- ochre. 

Kermesite, or red antimony, is found only sparingly with the cer- 
vantite and sulphide, as a reddish powder. Native arsenic is also 
found associated with the antimony-ores from this locality.—J.R.G. 


Nore ON THE ANTIMONY-MINERALS FROM ALGIERS.— Senarmon- 
tite is found in three forms; namely, in transparent and opaque 
octahedral crystals,—as botryoidal incrustations, of a snow-white 
colour, and massive and compact, of a greyish colour. This min- 
eral is worked largely at Ain-bebbouch, in Constantine, Algeria, 
as an antimony-ore, and is exported for smelting to this country 
in considerable quantities. 

Cumengite, a variety of volgerite, is found in radiating fibrous 
masses, yellowish white to perfectly white in colour, in the province 
of Constantine, Algeria.—J. R. G. 


Miscellaneous. 239: 


EquisetuM 1n Gwetss.—In a paper recently read before the 
Academy of Sciences of Turin, Professor A. StsmonpA described a 
plant-like marking on a specimen of gneiss found in the drift cover- 
ing the Liassic limestone occurring north of Rezzago in the Brianza. 
After remarking that he does not believe it possible that it should 
be of dendritic origin, he records the opinion of several distinguished 
botanists and paleontologists on the subject. Professors E. Sis- 
monda, Bellardi, Gras, and Parlatore considered it to be a species of 
Asterophyllite (Annularia), while Brongniart referred it to a new 
species of Equisetum. The author then discusses the age of the 
metamorphic rocks of the Alps, and supports the opinion of M. Elie 
de Beaumont, that they are for the most part of Jurassic age. The 
specimen which is the subject of the paper he infers was derived 
from the Valtellina, and the gneiss of that mountain he considers of 
Infraliassic age. The paper is illustrated by a photograph of the 
specimen, showing very clearly the radiating leaves of the supposed 
Equisetum, and the gap left by the decay of the central axis.— 
H. M. J. 


On THE PRESERVATION OF Fossir MAMMALIAN REMAINS FOUND 
In Tertiary Deposits. 
By Mr. W. Davis, of the Geological Department of the British Museum. 


Ow1neG to the loose mineral character of the Tertiary deposits, in 
which most of the Mammalian and other vertebrate remains are 
found, consisting as these deposits chiefly do of sands, gravels, 
clay, or peat, their fossils are necessarily in a more or less friable 
condition, difficult to preserve entire, or to handle for scientific 
examination with safety. Hence, probably, a few remarks as to the 
method usually adopted for hardening and preserving them may 
interest, and be of service to, some of your readers who collect such 
fossil remains. 

The substances generally used are glue or gelatine. For the bones 
of the larger Mammalia there is nothing better than the best glue ; 
whilst for the more delicate bones of the smaller Mammals, Birds and 
Fishes, gelatine is the best, being purer, dissolving more easily, and 
imparting but little, if any, colour to the fossil. The consistency of 
these substances when used will have to be varied according to the 
structure of the bone; and as they also differ greatly in quality, it is 
impossible to lay down any definite rule as to the exact proportions 
to be used with a given quantity of water ; this must be left to the 
judgment of the operator. As a general rule, however, all bones 
which have a coarse cellular structure, as the ends of large limb-bones, 
deer-antlers,&c., and also specimens from some deposits—for example, 
the peat-bed near Colchester, the fossils from which have their 
internal cellular structure either totally or partially destroyed—re- 
quire the glue-solution to be of a consistency which will form a stiff 
jelly when cold; whilst for bones of a compact structure a much 
thinner solution, about the consistency of ordinary size, will suffice; 
If the solution is too thick, it clogs the absorbing power at the 
surface, and prevents its penetrating to all parts of the bone. 


240 Miscellaneous. 


The fossils should be thoroughly dried and cleaned from as much 
of the matrix as can be removed with safety; and, if it can be 
managed, warmed before being placed in the solution. When the 
glue is all dissolved, and the liquid nearly at boiling heat (ebullition 
should be avoided, if possible), it is ready for the immersion of the 
fossils, and they should remain in it as long as air-bubbles.rise to the 
surface; when these cease they will be sufficiently soaked. When 
taken out, they should not be drained, but laid in a position to retain 
as much as possible of the imbibed solution, until they are cold, 
when the glue will have set. Their position must then be shifted, 
to prevent their adhering to the board on which they may be laid. 
Any glue that may have drained from them may be then removed 
with a wet sponge. 

The vessels required are of the simplest kind. The common 
domestic utensils will answer for most purposes. ‘The ordinary 
house-copper, saucepan, or, better still, a large-sized fish-kettle with 
its strainer. But whatever the vessel used, a strainer of some kind, 
on which to place the bones for immersion and withdrawal, is indis- 
pensable; for the copper nothing is better than a wire-sieve. For 
bones too large for the vessel used, the treatment will have to be 
varied. For long limb-bones, strong enough to bear their own 
weight when saturated, it is only necessary to place one end in the 
vessel, and ladle the solution over the other end for a short time, and 
then reverse their position. But for bones which will not bear such 
treatment, the only plan is to securely fix them to a board, and place 
them in a slanting position in the solution, and well saturate them 
with it by ladling. For these, and for long portions of tusks of the 
Mammoth, and horn-cores of the large species of Bos, a special ves- 
sel, about three feet long, one foot wide at the top, nine or ten inches 
wide at the bottom, and nine inches deep, made of stout tin or gal- 
vanized iron, with a handle at each end, will be found most useful. 

Occasionally fossils are found which are either too large or too fri- 
able (as skulls and tusks from their natural construction frequently 
are) to be placed in the solution : for these a different method must be 
adopted to preserve them entire. Cover the fossil with thin paper, 
over which—on the sides and underneath if possible—put a coating 
of plaster of Paris, just thick and strong enough to keep together ; 
when firmly set, gently pour the solution boiling-hot over the fossil 
as long as it continues to absorb, to assist which it may be necessary 
to remove in a few places some of the surface-bone, which can be 
carefully replaced ; in two or three days the plaster may be partly 
removed by sawing and in small pieces, taking care not to injure the 
fo: sil by jarring it; the paper will prevent the plaster adhering to 
it. But this process is never so effective as submersion in the solu- 
tion, and may require to be repeated. Some bones are better for 
being dipped a second time, but not allowed to remain long enough 
in the solution to melt the glue they had previously imbibed. 

Delicate shells from the same kind of deposits may be treated, with 
care, in a similar manner with advantage. 


THE 


GHOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. XII._JUNE 1865. 


ORIGINAL ARTICIES. 


a 


I. On tHe Historica EvipencE or Voucanic Eruptions IN 
CENTRAL FRANCE IN THE FirtH CEnTUuRY, 


By the Rey. T. G. Bonney, M.A., F.G.S. 


een Bishop Colenso and the volcanoes of Central France, 

and between these and ‘ Rogation Days,’ there would at first 
sight seem to be but little connection. Nevertheless, a statement made 
by the Bishop was the cause of some curious information, which had 
previously been known to but few, being generally circulated; and as 
it then appeared only in one or two newspapers, and at different times, 
it may be useful to give a résumé of the controversy in a more per- 
manent form. The Bishop, referring to Lyell (‘ Elementary Geo- 
logy,’ pp. 197, 198), adduced the existence of cones of loose scorizx 
and pumice in Auvergne and Languedoc as an argument against 
the Noachian Deluge; because these, which ‘must have been formed 
ages before’ that happened, did not show the slightest sign of having 
ever been disturbed. In the course of the endless controversy which 
has arisen from the Bishop’s works, a Mr. E. L. Garbett addressed a 
rather angry letter to the ‘ Guardian’ newspaper (Aug. 24, 1864), 
taxing the Bishop with wilfully shutting his eyes to the fact that 
there had been eruptions in these districts in the fifth century, which 
had given rise to the ecclesiastical fasts commonly called ‘ Rogation 
Days.’ The Bishop replied in a letter, which was refused by the 
‘Guardian’ on account of its length, and was afterwards published 
in the ‘Daily News.’ However, in the ‘Guardian’ of Sept. 14, a 
summary of it is given, in which the following statements are made: 
(1) that voleanic cones do exist as above described ; (2) that, accord- 
ing to Hoffman’s ‘ Lexicon,’ Rogations were instituted owing to 
earthquakes and to the irruption of wild beasts into Vienne; (8) that 
there are no volcanoes near Vienne; (4) that the authors who are 
supposed to describe volcanic eruptions, only speak of earthquakes 
and ordinary fires, or perhaps of lightning. In the ‘ Guardian’ of 

VOL. II.—NO. XII. R 


242 Bonney— Modern Volcanoes in Central France. 


Sept. 21, Archdeacon Phillpotts cites the two passages which he 
believes to describe volcanic eruptions; and the following week the 
Bishop replies, quoting, in defence of his views, a letter of Professor 
Ansted, and translating the passages given by the Archdeacon in his 
own way. 

As it happened, I had at this very time just returned from a 
brief visit to Auvergne, and was engaged in investigating the same 
subject, quite unconscious of the debate then being carried on in the 
‘Guardian’ and in the ‘Daily News.’ I venture, therefore, before 
quoting and commenting on the passages which appear to bear 
upon the question, to offer a few remarks upon the above-named 
correspondence, which I have only lately read. 

Firstly, Mr. Garbett’s objection does not invalidate the Bishop’s 
argument, unless he can prove that all the cones of loose materials in 
Central France are ‘ post-Noachian.’ This, I imagine, he would 
find it hard to do. 

Secondly, Professor Ansted asserts that the ‘ whole of the volcanic 
phenomena (in Auvergne) are prehistoric,’ that this is the opinion 
of the best geologists, and can only be set aside by fresh geological 
evidence. This statement appears to me to be also rather question- 
able. No one, of course, for a moment doubts that the majority of 
the phenomena are prehistoric; but it is impossible to prove that all 
are. Some of the cones of scoriz, perhaps even some of the streams 
of lava, may have been ejected in comparatively recent times; and 
the question is really, except in one respect (to which allusion will 
presently be made), rather one for the historian than for the geolo- 
gist. Besides this, the proof must extend to other parts of Central 
France. 

The two passages which bear most directly upon the question are 
—one from a letter of Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of Clermont in 
Auvergne, about the year 460 a.p., to Claudianus Mamertus, who 
was Bishop of Vienne at the time of the supposed eruptions; the 
other from a homily on the ‘ Rogations,’ written by Alcimus Avitus, 
Archbishop of Vienne. 

The former, after describing the terror which an expected attack 
from the Goths was causing among his flock, goes on to say *— 


‘Our fears are soothed by the aid alone of the Rogations introduced by 
you, in the commencement and institution of which the people of Auvergne 


* 


‘Solo tamen inyectarum te auctore Rogationum palpamur auxilio, quibus in- 
choandis instituendisque populus Arvernus, etsi non effectu pari, affectu certe non 
impari ceepit initiari, et ob hoc circumfusis necdum dat terga terroribus. Non enim 
latet nostram sciscitationem, primis temporibus harumsce supplicationum instituta- 
rum, civitas ceelitus tibi credita, per hujuscemodi prodigiorum terriculamenta, 
vacuabatnr. Nam modo scenze menium publicorum crebris terres motibus concu- 
tiebantur: nunc ignes spe flammati caducas culminum cristas superjecto fayillarum 
monte tumulabant: nune stupenda foro cubilia collocabat audacium pavenda 
mansuetudo cervorum: cum tu inter ista decessu primorum populariumque statu 
urbis exinanito, ad nova celer veterum Ninivitarum exempla decurristi, ne divine 
admonitioni tua quoque desperatio conyitiaretur.—Sidon. Apoll., Epist. lib. yi. 
epaal 


Bonney— Modern Volcanoes in Central France. 243 


began to be initiated, though not with equal success, with certainly not un- 
equal zeal; and for this.reason does not even yet take flight from the terrors 
that encompass it. For it has not escaped our careful enquiry what kind of 

' prodigies those were, owing to which, at the first institution of these suppli- 
cations, the district placed by heaven in your charge was being deserted. 
For at one time the structures of the public buildings were shaken by fre- 
quent shocks of earthquakes; at another, fires often blazing were heaping 
over the tottering crests of the mountain-summits a piled-up mound of 
ashes ; at another, the awful tameness of the deer led them to place their 
portentous resting-places in the forum: when thou, at this juncture, the 
cities being thinned by the departure of the nobles and of the people, swiftly 
didst betake thyself anew (to follow) the example of the ancient Ninevites, 
lest thy despair also should blame the Divine vengeance.’ 

The next passage is found in a Homily on the Rogations, by Al- 
cimus Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne in the early part of the sixth 
century. After mentioning it as a cause for joy that these fasts, 
which had first been instituted in that city, had become so generally 
observed, he goes on to speak of the circumstances which gave rise 
to them * :— 

‘ And, indeed, I know that many among us recollect the causes of terror 
at those times. Forsooth, frequent conflagrations, continual earthquakes, 
noises by night, used to threaten something awful for, as it were, the en- 
tombment of the whole city.’ 


He next mentions the unnatural tameness of the wild animals, 
that wandered about the town: then he proceeds to comment upon 
these things :— 

“For who among frequent fires would not dread the fires of Sodom? Who - 
among the elemental war would not fear that the mountains would straight- 
way fall, or the earth open her mouth? Who, seeing (at any rate believing 
that he saw) deer, timid by nature, penetrating through the narrow gates 
to the open market-place, would not fear that the sentence of aftliction was 
impending ?’ 

Before making any remarks on these passages, it may be well to 
quote some expressions which occur in other old writers with re- 
ference to those times. 

In the ‘ Chronicon’ of Bishop Idatius we find (a.p. 451)— 

‘In Gaul were continual earthquakes, very many signs were shown in 
heaven.’ C, 28 (Hist. Francorum Script., tom. i. p. 190. Paris, 1636). 


In the year (apparently) after the Battle of Chalons (a.p. 452), we 
read that 
‘ Certain things were seen in the heavens in the regions of Gaul at Easter- 


tide. The letter of Huphronius, Bishop of Augustodunum, to Count Agrip- 
pinus, clearly mentions these.’ 


* 


‘Et quidem terrorum temporis illius causas, multos nostrum adhuc recolere 
scio: siquidem incendia crebra, terree motus assidui, nocturni sonitus, cuidam totius 
urbis funeri prodigiosum quiddam minitabantur. . . . Quis enimin erebris ignibus, 
ignes Sodomiticos non timeret? Quis trementibus elementis aut decidua culminum, 
aut disrupta terrarum imminere non crederet? Quis videns (certe videre se putans) 
pavidos naturaliter cervos per angusta portarum, usque ad fori lata penetrantes, 
non imminentem solicitudinis sententiam formidaret?’—Alcim. Avit. De Festo 
Rogat. Homel. (Monumenia S. Patrum Orthodox., tom. i. p. 1777. Bale, 1569.) 


R 2 


244 Bonney— Modern Volcanoes in Central France. 


Again, there were earthquakes and parhelia in 470. 

Gregorius of Tours, speaking of the institution of Rogation Days 
by Mamertus, states that earthquakes were frequent at Vienne, 
that stags and wolves wandered about the city, and that the palace 
caught fire at Easter. G. T. Hist. Franc. ii. 34 (H. F.S.i. p. 289). 
He also (Id. p. 282) mentions another earthquake about the time of the 
death of Eoricus (King of the Goths); and in the fifth year of Chil- 
debert, A.D. 516, he describes a great flood in Auvergne, caused by 
twelve days’ incessant rain, and an earthquake which was felt over 
the east and south of France. Tom. v. c. 34 (Id. p. 343). 

In the ‘Gesta Regum Francorum,’ and the parallel ‘ Historia 
Francorum,’ an earthquake and an incursion of beasts are men- 
tioned in connection with the institution of Rogation Days (Id. pp. 708, 
704); and in the ‘ Gesta Francorum Roriconis Monachi’ /p. 811), we 
find an account closely corresponding with that in Gregorius of 
Tours. 

From the above passages there seems a general consensus as to the 
occurrence of two phenomena,—earthquakes, and the entry of deer 
and other wild animals into the town. The former of these, as is 
well known, is common during volcanic eruptions ; and the latter is 
recorded to have happened during the eruption of Coseguina in 
1835 (Lyell’s ‘ Principles,’ p. 349, 9th edit.). The reference to the 
emission of flames and the ejection of ashes is certainly less distinct ; 
but it is difficult to attach any other meaning to the words. It is 
indeed true that some take eulmen to mean ‘ roof,’ and translate the 
passage in Sidonius thus—‘ fires . . . heaped up the fallen ridges of 
the roofs with a piled-up mountain of ashes.’ But though Sidonius 
is inclined to bombast, he scarcely seems equal to a flight like this, 
nor would he be likely to introduce a lesser between two greater 
prodigies. In the parallel passage in Avitus, the reference to Isaiah 
ii. 10, 19, 21, and Luke xxiii. 30, appears too clear to allow any other 
meaning than ‘mountain-top’ to be assigned to culmen. It then 
seems highly probable, so far as the historical evidence goes, that 
there were volcanic outbursts in Central France about the middle of 
the fifth century. 

One difficulty, however, must be noticed in conclusion; namely, 
that of assigning the site of these voleanic eruptions. ‘The moun- 
tains of Auvergne are too distant; as are most of those of Ardéche. 
It is, however, possible that one or two of the outliers of the latter, 
or some of the isolated vents about the upper part of the Loire, 
might be visible from the neighbourhood of Vienne; and it would 
be a useful episode in a visit to the Katakekaumene of Europe, to 
explore carefully the region between the Loire and the Rhone, in 
order to ascertain whether the meaning which, in the absence of 
direct negative evidence, certainly appears to be the most natural, is 


really the one which these old writers intended to be attached to their 
words. 


Rofe—Actinocrinus, &c. 245 


II. Notrs on some EcHINODERMATA FROM THE MOouNTAIN- 
LIMESTONE, ETC. 


By Joun Rors, Esq., F.G.S. 
[Plate VIII. ] 


1. Actinocrinus. 


EVER years since, when collecting Mountain-limestone fossils 

on the borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire, I found some spe- 
cimens of Actinocrinus which appeared to have internal channels 
from the base of the arms towards the summit of the dome. Not 
having seen such channels noticed by any author, I showed some of 
the specimens to Mr. Salter, then of the Geological Survey, who 
suggested that they probably might be analogues of the aquiferous 
channels found in recent Echinoderms; and he advised me to follow 
up the subject, and ascertain if such passages were to be found in 
other Crinoidea occurring in these rocks. His advice has been fol- 
lowed, and a large collection of specimens, some in good preserva- 
tion and others weathered, has been made, which I have had the 
advantage of collating with a series from the same district collected 
by Mr. James Parker of the Manchester Museum; and upon exami- 
nation they give the following results, some of which, though pro- 
bably of no great importance in themselves, may serve to illustrate 
some doubtful points in the organization of this confessedly obscure 
Order of the Animal Kingdom. 

It is unnecessary here to give in detail the construction of the 
arms of the Crinozdea, as that has been done so satisfactorily by 
Messrs. Austin, M. de Koninck, and others; but, as I shall have 
hereafter to point out an exception, it may be shortly stated that 
they describe these arms as not being truly cylindrical, but as formed 
like a cylinder, or branching cylinders, having a deep longitudinal 
groove along the upper side, with a row of tentacles on each of its 
margins, forming an open channel throughout the whole length, 
until the arms join the body; but at this point, it will be seen from 
what follows, this channel is divided into two passages, an upper and 
a lower; the former passing up within the dome to the apex, where 
the passages from the five arms meet, the latter going direct into 
the visceral cavity. 

The species in which these passages were first observed by me is 
Amphoracrinus* rugosus. In this, and in all the species of this 
genus hitherto examined, the plates forming the dome are extremely 
thick ; and the upper passages above named are, for at least two- 
thirds of their length, in the snbstance of these plates; but in 
Actinocrinus the plates are thinner, and are arched over the pas- | 
sages. In the angle between two of these passages, on the anal 
side, the proboscis is placed. In Aetinocrinus this is close to the 
junction; but in Amphoracrinus it is more or less removed from the 
angle. Plate VIII. fig. 1, is a horizontal section of a specimen of 


* To avoid repetition and confusion, the genus Actinocrinus is, in this paper, 
divided into its sub-genera Actinocrinus and Amphoracrinus. 


246 Rofe—Actinocrinus, &c. 


Amphoracrinus, showing the passages within the thickness of the 
plates; and fig. 2 is an elevation or side-view of another specimen, 
exhibiting both the openings into the visceral cavity at a, and the 
passages towards the apex at 6. Fig. 3 is a view of the cast of a 
dome of Actinocrinus tessellatus, showing the five passages meeting 
at the apex, with the base of the proboscis in the anal angle. The 
position of the proboscis may be verified by tracing from the anal 
plate at the base. 


2. Cyathocrinus. 


Casts of some species of Platycrinus have been femme showing 
passages similar to those in Aetinocrinus; but in the genus. Cyatho- 
crinus the passages into the viscera and to the apex are better seen 
than in any other; and from this genus a clue to their nature may 
probably be gained. The arm-bearing plates, or ‘ primary radials,’ 
of Cyathocrinus are deeply notched, or cut down, at the insertion of 
the arms; and the upper part of the plate on each side of the arm 
is in-arched more or less in different species, so as partially to cover 
the dome.* The ‘radial plates’ are attached to each other at their 
sides; and at the junction of their upper ends each pair form a very 
obtuse angle, into which a tetragonal plate is fitted; but the sides 
of these last plates are produced across the notch in the ‘radial,’ 
so as to meet each other, the projecting part being grooved out so as 
to form a channel from the base of the arm to the centre of the 
dome, where the five channels meet in a round aperture, which is 
described by M. de Koninck as the mouth ; the proboscis at the side 
being considered the anus. This arrangement of the plates in 
C. planus is shown by fig.4. Ihave not found any radial plates 
formed as described by Messrs. Austin; but in such a case the above 
tetragonal plates would form a continuation of the groove to the 
mouth. Specimens of Cyathocrinus showing the passages from the 
arms meeting at the central opening are not uncommon; but in the 
British Museum, and in Professor Tennant’s collection, there are 
specimens which show that these were covered with thin plates like 
those in Amphoracrinus, thus being within the thickness of the 
dome, as in that genus; and that the mouth, if such was the circular 
aperture, was internal, as in the Ascidians. With the exception of 
the mouth, the only apparent difference in the organization of the 
above Crinoids is that in some the passages are in, and in some 
under, the plates of the dome; and with respect to the mouth, 
although we have as yet no specimen showing its existence in some 
of the genera, it would be too much absolutely to deny it, when in 
so many other respects they appear to be similarly constituted. 

It is probably presumption at present to speculate on the nature 


* Messrs. Austin, when describing Cyathocrinus, say—‘The ray-bearing plates 
are perforated low down from their upper edges, for the passage of the muscles of 
the rays. A deep groove runs from each perforation to the summit of each plate, 
which is prolonged considerably beyond the point of attachment for the rays, and is 
in-arched, so as to partially cover in the vertex. ‘This is particularly conspicuous 
in C. geometricus, and appears to be very common in Crinoids of this genus.’ 


. 


Rofe—Actinocrinus, §c. 247 


or uses of these passages; but they appear to give strength to the 
idea suggested by Mr. Sowerby (Zoological Journal, vol. ii. p. 313), 
when speaking of the Blastoidea, ‘that the animal fed on the minute 
beings that abounded in the sea-water, and that it obtained them in 
the manner of Ascidia, by taking them in with the water; and to 
the statement of M. Dujardin, when deseribing Comatula, ‘that the 
ventral surface of the arms and pinne is provided with a double 
range of fleshy tentacula, protected by a double range of fleshy 
lamelle, presenting between them a furrow filled with papille, fur- 
nished with vibratile cilia, by the motion of which animalcula and 
microscopic vegetables are conducted along the arms to the mouth, 
in order to serve as food for the animal.’ It certainly does appear 
more probable that an animal, fixed to one spot, and probably in deep 
water (for, if within the reach of storm-waves, its long branching 
arms would be caught by them with force sufficient to break the 
body from the slender column of attachment), would have to depend 
upon minute organisms abounding in sea-water, rather than upon 
such Crustaceans or Mollucs as might perchance come near it. If 
we assume M. Dujardin’s statement to be correct, the upper pas- 
sages, above described, would be for the supply of food, and of 
water for respiration; whilst the lower served probably for the 
passage of the muscles which gave motion to the arms and their 
appendages, as well as for the connection between the visceral cavity 
and the ovaries, if they were situated in the arms of the Crinoidea as 
in Comatula. 
3. Rhodocrinus. 

The genus Rhodocrinus (Miller), or Gilbertsocrinus (Phillips), is 
not uncommon in this district. Miller appears to have confounded 
a Silurian specimen with the Mountain-limestone genus, and figures 
one from Dudley, which, so far as can be determined from the 
imperfect specimen, was of a different genus. Those, however, 
which he describes from near Bristol are undoubtedly Rhodocrini of 
the Mountain-limestone. This genus differs from most other Cri- 
notdea in the form of the arms and the position of the ovarian aper- 
tures; and in these respects it appears to hold the same relative 
position to them as the Ophiuride do to the Asteriade. The arms 
have no groove on the upper side, but are cylindrical, with a tubular 
canal through the axis; and the ovarian openings are placed imme- 
diately under the base of the arms (figs. 5 and 6). 

The arms vary in size in different species; in some being almost 
equal in diameter to the column or stem; whilst in others they are 
very small. The rarity of specimens with any portion of the arms 
attached, and the peculiar shape and position of the ovarian open- 
ings, have led to these latter being mistaken for the excavation for 
a cuneiforni plate at the base of the arms, as they are at first sight 
very similar to those in Platycrinus and in some species of Cyatho- 
crinus ;* but in a well-preserved specimen from Thorneley there 


* Phillips, in his ‘Geology of Yorkshire’ (Part II., Pl. IV. fig. 25), gives a 
diagram of one set of radial plates in which the ovarian openings, under the base 


of the arms, are clearly indicated. 


248 Rofe—Pentremites, &c. 


appears to be a fillet round the aperture, very like that round the 
ovarian openings in Gorgonocephalus, excepting that in Rhodo- 
erinus the fillet is formed by a small plate, as shown in fig. 6, and 
not by a thickening of the integument. 

Mr. Billings, in the ‘Third Decade of the Geological Survey of 
Canada,’ in treating of the ambulacral openings of Rhodocrinus, 
says—‘ In no other species is there more unequivocal evidence of the 
existence of these openings; but they are accompanied by a struc- 
ture which seems to indicate two sets of arms placed one above the 
other. Beneath the orifices there are two articular surfaces, which 
mark the bases of two arms; and above each pair of the orifices 
there is a projection, which also much resembles the base of one or 
two more arms. . . . Insome of the specimens this feature is exhi- 
bited so prominently that it strongly impresses the observer with the 
idea of two tiers of brachial appendages. It may be, however, that 
there were projecting from this part of the vault a set of large spines 
corresponding in numbers with the arms.’ Since, however, Mr. Bil- 
lings’s paper was published, more perfect specimens have been 
found with portions of the arms attached; and their articulated 
structure, and the passage through the axis, forbid the idea of their 
being spines; and an examination of the specimens in the Museum 
will leave little doubt of the true nature of either the arms or the 
lower openings. No specimen has yet been found showing distinctly 
the course of the upper passages, as in the other Crinoidea; but 
they evidently turn upwards under the dome. The anal opening is 
excentric; and, supposing the passages to exist, as there is reason 
to suppose they did, as in other genera, this opening would be 
between them. 

4. Pentremites. 

Having so far examined the Crinoidea, it became a matter of in- 
terest to see how far the Blastoidea corresponded with them. As 
in the former case, a number of weathered specimens were procured, 
and sections of more perfect ones were made; and from their exa- 
mination it appears that the external characteristics of Pentremites 
are correctly described by M.de Koninck. The base, like that of 
Platycrinus,* is composed of three pieces; two, of equal size, being 
pentagonal, and the other quadrilateral and smaller. Upon this 
base rest five ‘radial plates,’ similar in form and size. They are 
attached to the base-plates as in Platycrinus; that is, two of these 
plates join to the upper sides of two of the pentagonal pieces ; whilst 
the other three alternate or break joint, and are in contact with two 
adjacent plates of the base. The radial plates are very similar to 


* In well-preserved specimens of plates of the Crinoidea, and probably of all the 
Echinodermata, the face of the joints of the plates is minutely wrinkled or corru- 
gated, which will at once distinguish true joints from fractures. By this means the 
doubt as to the construction of the base of the Platycrinus has been removed, a 
divided base having been found showing the wrinkled structure on the face of the 
joints. As these bases are generally found whole, and very rarely in detached: 

"plates, most probably M. de Koninck’s view, that in full-grown specimens they are 
anchylosed into one, is correct. 


Rofe—Pentremites, &c. 249 


those of Pla/ycrinus; but, instead of the semilunar depression for 
the attachment of the arms in that genus, there is in Pentremites a 
deep excavation, or sinus, down the middle of each plate, giving it 
somewhat the appearance of a fork with two broad prongs. The 
upper sides of the adjoining radial plates are connected by a quadri- 
lateral plate, fitted into the more or less obtuse angle formed at their 
junction (in this strongly resembling the plates on the dome of Cya- 
thocrinus above noticed); whilst the two other sides of this plate 
form continuations of the sinus nearly to the summit. So far, 
undoubtedly, Pentremites may be considered to be allied to the 
Crinoidea ; but beyond this they appear to differ; for, instead of 
the long branching arms attached to the radial plates of Crinoidea, 
there is only a row of short fimbriated tentacles, ranging along each 
side of the above sinus, nearly meeting in its centre, and forming 
the so-called ‘ pseudambulacral area.’ The removal of the tentacles 
(which, however, are not often found im setw) leaves a groove down 
each side of the sinus; and at the bottom of this a row of minute 
pores is seen. On making a cross section of a Pentremite, it is 
found that these pores are openings into one or more flat tubes, vary- 
ing in number in different species, which pass from the base of the 
sinus to the apex, and are attached nearly at right angles to the 
plates on each side of the sinus by one edge; whilst the inner edge, 
which projects into the visceral cavity of the animal, expands so 
as to form a nearly circular tube as seen at fig. 7, which is a section 
of Pentremites ellipticus. Varieties of this species and of P. orbi- 
cularis are the most commonly found in this district; and they all 
have only one tube to each side of the sinus, and appear to have in 
all respects similar organization. As these flat tubes approach the 
summit, they become yvradually narrower; and at the apex of the 
quadrilateral plate the expanded parts of the tubes from the adjoin- 
ing sinus (and not from the same sinus) meet, and form one of the 
summit-openings characteristic of thisgenus. These flat tubes may 
be called the ‘ pore-tubes ;’ and the interval between those in each 
sinus is filled by what M. F. Roemer calls the ‘lancet-plate,’ which 
forms a bed for the tentacles, and is slightly indented to receive 
them; but in many species of Pentremite, if not in all, this lancet- 
plate is in reality a compound plate. formed of two contiguous plates, 
extending from the bottom of the sinus to the top, and, there turning 
right and left round the summit-openings, they pass down the adjoin- 
ing sinus, to form half its lancet-plate, leaving at the apex of the 
body a pentagonal aperture, supposed to be the mouth. In seme 
weathered specimens, the two parts of the lancet-plate are separate; 
and in many they appear to meet only at the top and bottom of the 
cross section, leaving a lozenge- shaped opening between SDS as 
shown at a, fig. 7. 

Possibly we should not be very far wrong if we were to suggest 
that the tentacles of Pentremites represent the arms and tentacles of 
Crinoidea, and the internal tubes of the former those under the 
dome of the latter; and in that case Pentremites would be nearly 
allied to Crinoidea. 


250 Rofe—Pentremites, &c. 

Specimens of some American Pentremites (P. florealis), which 
have been cut for the sake of comparison, show a very similar struc- 
ture to P. ellipticus, with the exception that there are from four to 
six tubes connected with each row of tentacles, instead of one, as in 
that species; and those tubes are formed of a thin test folded longi- 
tudinally, so as to form a number of flat lobes or tubes, which com- 
municate with one another at the outer edge, whilst at the inner 
edge they expand into tubes, as seen in fig. 8, which is a section of 
a pair of these tubes, with the intervening lancet-plate, showing the 
connection with the pores, and removing the difficulty stated by 
M. Ferd. Roemer in his ‘Monograph on the Blastoidea,’ as it will 
be seen that the compressed longitudinal tubes shown in his Plate IV.. 
fig. 6, are really the lobes of the above-described tube. An exami- 
nation of the specimens (both vertical and horizontal sections) now 
in the British Museum will leave no doubt on this point. 

Pentremites inflatus (Phillips) and P. Waterhousei (de Koninck) 
differ from all the above, as they do not show the summit-openings, 
from which this genus derives its name; but they have one large 
circular opening at the summit of one of the quadrilateral plates, 
in the place usually occupied by the largest of those openings, and 
which is shown by Prof. Forbes to be anal. In the comparatively 
few good specimens I have been able to procure, no trace has been 
found of the pores at the base of the tentacles; but the tentacles 
appear to be inserted in a groove which forms the outer edge of the 
lobed tubes (similar to those in P. florealis above described), and 
which in these species appear to pass to the summit under the shell, 
and to open within the body, as above seen in Cyathocrinus. Neither 
the grooves nor the tentacles in these species extend quite to the 
top of the sinus. Fig.9 is a section of a pair of the tubes of P. 
inflatus, from Bolland, which resembles P. fiorealis, but has more 
lobes to the tubes. 


5. Codonaster. 


The similarity in the arrangement of the plates forming the ‘cup’ 
of this beautiful little fossil to that of some of the Crinoidea, and 
the resemblance of the rows of tentacles to those of Pentremites, 
suggested a similar organization, and led to the anticipation of find- 
ing similar pores and tubes attached to them; but on cutting many 
specimens no trace of such appendages has been found. Sections 
thus made show, however, a great similarity in the construction of 
the striations between the arms of Codonaster and those of the 
‘pectinated rhombs’ of the Cystidea. Professor M‘Coy, in the 
‘Cambridge Pal. Fossils,’ notices their external resemblance. Pro- 
fessor E. Forbes, in his ‘ Memoir on the Cystidea,’ when describing 
the ‘ pectinated rhombs,’ refers to a figure of a specimen of Echino- 
encrinus prunum, from Mr. Capewell’s collection, in which the striz 
penetrated into the substance of the body; but he was inclined to 
regard the appearance as dependent rather on some peculiarity in 
the mineralization of the specimen than on true organic arrange- 
ment. Mr. Billings, in his paper on the structure of the Cystidea, 


a 


Geot Mag 1865 PL VIN 


DeWilde hth,admnat, MXN Hamhart imp, 


SOU CG ONO, (Oe JE (GTEC IN Oc WORE. 


Rofe-— Codonaster, &c. 251 


in the ‘ Third Decade of the Canadian Geological Survey,’ describes 
their ‘rhombs’ as ‘pores which penetrated through the plates of 
the body, and probably served as media of communication between 
the interior and exterior of the body, although the precise nature of 
their functions has not yet been ascertained.’ Figs. 10 and 11 are 
vertical and horizontal sections of the ‘ pectinated rhombs’ of Echino- 
encrinus armatus; and figs. 12 and 13 are like sections of the sum- 
mit of Codonaster: and it will be seen that in each case the ridges 
on the striated surface are the tops of a series of folds of a thin test 
or membrane; the alternate folds being so united at their ends as to 
form a series of long, but very narrow, sacs. In some specimens of 
Codonaster there is an appearance of a membrane, or peritoneum, 
lining the cup, and following round the outline of, and forming bags 
under, the above folds, as shown in fig. 14. 

From the construction of these striations on the face of Codo- 
naster and on the ‘pectinated rhombs’ of the Cystidea, may we, 
without assumption, suggest the possibility of their being respira- 
tory sacs, lined with cilia,* and constructed of a porous test, through 
which air from the water could pass by diffusion ? 

Beyond the form and construction of part of the cup, there ap- 
pears to be little in common between Codonaster and Pentremites ; 
and it must then be doubtful whether they should be left in the same 
family (Blastoidea), as the latter is apparently more nearly allied to 
the Crinoidea, whilst the construction of the ‘rhombs’ shows an 
affinity between the former and the Cystidea. Codonaster may 
possibly hereafter be found to be the representative of Cystidea in 
the Carboniferous series, or perhaps a connecting link between 
Crinoidea and Gystidea, having the cup of the one with the respi- 
ratory apparatus of the other. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIII. 


Fig. 1. Horizontal section of Amphoracrinus, cut below the proboscis, which 

would be on the lower side of the figure. 

2. Side-view of Amphoracrinus: a, the opening, at the base of the 
arms, into the visceral cavity; 6, the passages in the shell from 
the base of the arms to the apex. 

. Cast of Actinocrinus tessellatus, Phillips. 

. Top-view of Cyathocrinus planus, Miller, The proboscis, on the 
lower side of the figure, is broken off. 

. Side-view of Rhodocrinus, with portions of the arms attached. 

. A pair of the arms of Rhodocrinus; enlarged about 4; showing the 
openings under them: a, opening with striz round it for the 
articulation of the fillet 6, shown under the other arm. 

. Section of Pentremites ellipticus, Sowerby; enlarged: a, the open- 
ing in the ‘lancet-plate.’ 

. Section of a pair of tubes and the ‘lancet-plate’ of Pentremites 
Jiorealis, Say ; much enlarged. 

. Section of a pair of tubes and the ‘lancet-plate’ of Pentremites 
imflatus, Sowerby ; much enlarged. 


Go ho 


(9) 


ive) 


* Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. ii. p, 40, and vol. iv. p. 332. 


ae Roberts— Scotland. 


10 & 11. Vertical and horizontal sections of the ‘ pectinated rhombs’ of 
Echinoencrinus armatus, Forbes; enlarged 2. 
12 & 13. Vertical and horizontal sections of Codonaster ; enlarged 4: a, the 
position of the anal; 0, of the central opening. 
14, Vertical section of Codonaster; enlarged about 2; showing the 
lining membrane. 


III. Groxtocicat Notes on ScotLtanp.—No. I. 
By Guorce E. Roperts, Esq., F.G.S., &c. 


NY Geologist travelling to Nairn, va Perth, will be interested 
(in a degree compatible with his sense of the nuisance created) 
in the wonderful outspread of wind-blown sand between Dalwhinnie 
and Kingussie. Ido not know any more wonderful drift of sand 
than is here displayed; a sand-surface so constantly in motion, that 
I believe it must really be in connection with the ever-shifting sand- 
drift of Culbin, near Elgin, which may be rightly termed the British 
Sahara. The nuisance caused by the constant settlement, even in 
the calmest weather, of this fine-grained siliceous sand upon every- 
body and everything passing through the district, was annoying 
enough, even in the old coaching days, but is increased tenfold to 
the traveller now that the Central Scottish Railway has superseded 
the more tedious method of travel; for the more rapid rate of 
motion raises such legions of blinding sand-atoms, that when Forres 
Junction was reached, a traveller is scarcely recognizable for the 
dust, and the vacant cushions are coated two inches deep. Indeed, 
I would call special attention to the Sands of Culbin, mentioned as 
probably being in geographical connection with the shifting sands 
cut through by the railway, as they have afforded the best instance 
of a real sand-storm known in Britain; hills of blown sand, from 
60 to 100 feet in height, and from 200 to 300 feet in circumference, 
having been formed by wind-action during a single night. 

The remarkable isolated mound of gravel and sand which stands 
in the throat of the Great Glen, about half a mile from Inverness, 
has always claimed the interest of geologists specially interested in 
the subject of drift-accumulations. To those who have not seen it, 
I may explain that it is a mound, about 130 feet high, 600 long, and 
250 wide, shaped like a galley turned upside down, from whence 
its name, Tomnahuirich. It is undoubtedly the remains of an accu- 
mulation of water-borne drift derived from the hills which tower 
over the chain of lakes now utilized as the ‘Caledonian Canal.’ I 
allude to it, however, on account of its geological composition having 
now been placed beyond a doubt; for however much I regretted to 
find that the well-wooded sides of the mound had been despoiled of 
some of their trees by the axe, I was rejoiced to see what fine 
sections were laid bare of well-stratified layers of sand and gravel, 
showing that the mound was but the remaining portion of a huge 
sand-bank which must, at a time prior to its denudation, have nearly 
closed the entrance of the ‘Straits of Ness.’ The spoliation of 
Tomnahuirich was a consequence of the hill having been chosen by 


Roberts— Scotland. 25a 


the Town-Council of Inverness as the site for their new cemetery; 
and a more beautiful spot for the repose of the dead could not be 
chosen. A fay-tale is out of its place in a scientific paper, how- 
ever ‘chatty’ the character of that paper may be ; but as most geo- 
logists care for fay-folk that can walk and talk and love and be 
good, I may, perhaps, be allowed to say, before passing on to my next 
note, that some time before Tomnahuirich was made a cemetery, an 
author of fairy-tales, hearing that the hill was a spot sacred to the 
Fays as their great Meeting-place, wrote a story of an imaginary 
Meeting-day, at which a child, the noblest gift the fays could offer 
at the throne of their King, was sought for and offered, as a proof that 
goodness had not departed from the world. My note-book gives 
me a corollary to this fayland-fancy, in one sense a sad one—two 
children were the first burials in Tomnahuirich. 

Tnow come toa study which has, more than any other in Scotland, 
challenged the best wits which have been brought to bear upon it ; 
that of the so-called Elgin beds. ‘Upper Old Red,’ say one school 
of geologists; ‘ Trias,’ or ‘ Lias,’ say the other disputants. I plead 
myself entire incapacity to decide as the matter now stands; for the 
paleontological contents of the series of beds (apparently conform- 
able) which are exhibited in the Lossiemouth, Tarbotness, and other 
sections, received last year a considerable and very important addition 
through the labours of Mr. Smith, a most intelligent officer on the 
staff of the Highland Railway, who carefully watched the progress 
of the cuttings through the disputed land, and collected from the 
‘Yellow Beds’ some very remarkable cephalic plates of Fishes, 
probably belonging to a genus having alliances with Coccosteus and 
Asterolepis. Now, these fossils were met with in the rock which 
has long been known as bearing remains, more or less perfect (the 
finest yet discovered being those exhibited last year in illustration 
of my paper on the genus), of the largest yet-known Paleozoic Fish, 
Bothriolepis. These are certainly in the Holoptychius-zone of the 
Upper Old Red, typified by the rocks quarried so extensively at the 
Bishops’ Mill quarry, near Elgin, at Alves, and at other places to 
which I accompanied Prof. Harkness in 1863; and the desideratum 
has always been to obtain Holoptychius associated with a reptile-bone. 
I have very carefully examined the large collection made by Mr. 
Smith, with the hope that the question may be settled; but although 
I could find no good evidence of the association of the two orders of 
vertebrate life in the same rock, some very puzzling fragments of 
bones strengthened my hopes that, at some early day, the Yellow 
Sandstones generally of NE. Scotland, with their reptilian remains, 
Stagonolepis, Telerpeton, &c., will be regarded as the representa- 
tives (though probably during a somewhat more advanced period) 
of the well-known ‘ Yellow Sandstones’ which cap our English and 
Trish ‘Old Reds.’ The specimens obtained through the watchfulness 
of Mr. Smith are now in the National Collection. As yet they are 
unique. 

_ I scarcely understand why either paleontologists or stratigra- 
phical geologists should not concede these ‘Elgin beds’ to the Old 


254 Tristram— Valley of the Jordan. 


Red Sandstone series. Such concession would not mean that their 
‘ date of deposition, with reference to the burial of the Stagonolepis 
in the siliceous and aluminous muds of the estuary, was exactly 
coeval with the time when some few representatives of the Pterich- 
thys family found their way down south, and lived in the shallow 
waters which washed the shores of certain islands, now known to 
us, geographically, as parts of England and Wales; to wit, Shropshire, 
Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire ; for it is very doubtful whether 
any scheme exhibiting the contemporaneity of one deposit with 
another in time can be drawn. Indeed, it must be borne in mind that 
any one period in geological time studied for any scientific purpose 
must necessarily be regarded as a geographical study, and that the 
landscape which the mind of the student draws out of the materials 
at his disposal is one very liable to error ; for, when stretched before 
his mental vision, it has to be tested by geographical conditions now 
existing on the surface, and not by any presumed state of affairs 
common to the whole physical and paleontological economy of the 
world. Dame Nature shifts the scenes in a very complex and 
elaborate manner, and ‘rings in the next piece’ with a complete 
knowledge of the varied and numberless interests involved in its 
construction. 


LV. On THE GroLocy AND PHysicAL FEATURES OF THE VALLEY OF 
THE JORDAN, THE DbAD SEA, AND THE ADJACENT DISTRICTS. 


By the Rey. H. B. Tristram, M.A., F.L.S. 
[Abstract of Paper read before the British Association, September 1865.] 


ANY travellers have spoken of the numerous traces of vol- 

canic action to be found in the neighbourhood of the Dead 

Sea; but the author states that he invariably found the ‘lava- 

currents’ of M. de Sauley to be nothing more than deposits of 

silica and nodules of oxide of iron, while his ‘ extinct craters’ proved 
to be the flat summits of limestone-hills. 

The two parallel ranges of hills which run nearly north and 
south, and form the eastern and western margins of the valley which 
includes the Ghor and the Dead Sea, and extends nearly to Akabah, 
consists chiefly of rocks apparently of the ege of the Lower Chalk, 
and having a synclinal dip. Round the shores of the Dead Sea, 
there are abundant traces of a much more recent deposit, probably 
Post-tertiary; it is a saliferous marl, containing unfossilized Shells 
of the species that now exist in the Jordan. 

Descending from Jericho to the Dead Sea (a fall of 600 feet), a 
good notion of the physical features of the country may be obtained. 
First, there is an old terrace-line, about 400 feet above the present 
level of the Jordan, formed of a very coarse and soft limestone; 
then the lower terrace-line, 55 feet above the present level of the 
plain, composed of friable earths strongly impregnated with various 
salts, and having a slight but hard saline crust at the top, besides 
many interstratified layers. This second ‘terrace is scarped and 
furrowed in all directions by aqueous action, and where the plateau 
projects into the plain it forms the tops of a series of mamelons, 


Tristram— Valley of the Jordan. 255 


which could not be well illustrated except by photographs. This 
plain itself is a soapy marl, and at a slight depth below the surface 
presents the appearance of a rich loam; but the only plants existing 
were two species of Salsola. 

This deposit of marl, extending all round the shores of the Dead 
Sea, and up the Wadys which open into it, forms the chief feature 
in the geology of the district. Above it, three water-worn terraces, 
corresponding on both sides of the Ghor, can be distinctly traced in 
the Cretaceous cliffs. 

South of the Wady Dabur, at the north-west end of the Dead Sea, 
a mass of igneous rocks crops out of the hills like a dyke, in three 
ridges, cutting through the gravel at an angle of 70 or 80 degrees. 
The cliffs above the slopes generally consist of a sandy limestone, 
very variable in its texture, and frequently mixed with conglome- 
rate, containing pebbles of all sizes. Near Feschkah a basaltic dyke 
runs NE. and SW. Four hot sulphurous springs occur between 
Ras Feschkah and the south-west end of the Dead Sea, at a short 
distance from the shore; the temperature of the water in some of 
them rises to 120° Fahr., and sensibly affects that of the sea at a 
distance of many yards. 

Mr. Tristram then described the hill of Jebel Usdum, which is a 
huge ridge of salt, about a mile wide, and running NE. and SW. 
for a distance of three miles and a half, then due N. and S. for four 
miles further; it is situated near the southern extremity of the 
Dead Sea, and renders that end of it much more salt than the 
northern portion. Further, the author thinks that it is the proxi- 
mate cause of the saltness of the Dead Sea, the drainage to which 
has been dissolving away portions of the salt, and carrying it to the 
Dead Sea, ever since the elevation of the ridge of Akabah separated 
the latter from the Red Sea, or since the dessiceation of the ocean, 
which existed to the Eocene Period, presuming (which seems most 
probable) that the fissures of the Ghor were of submarine origin, and 
that the valley itself was during the Tertiary Period the northern- 
most of a series of African lakes, of which the Red Sea was the next. 
The volume of the Dead Sea from that time continually decreased, 
by the evaporation of its water, probably to the time of the Glacial 
Epoch, of which we find traces in the Lebanon and elsewhere, so 
that two causes have combined to increase the intensity of its salt- 
ness, which is still becoming greater, though the volume of water 
has probably been in equilibrium since the termination of the Vol- 
eanic and Glacial Epoch. Sulphur and gypsum are associated with 
salt at the foot of Jebel Usdum; and there is an extensive deposit of 
sulphur and bitumen in the Mahawat Wady, two miles SW. of the 
Dead Sea. 

The author then gave a general sketch of the geology of Palestine. 
The Lower Cretaceous period is the only one represented by sedi- 
mentary rocks; but in the north-east, in the Lejah district, voleanic 
rocks occur abundantly; and Mr. Tristram concluded his paper by 
describing the extinct volcanos, and the ancient lava-streams of the 
valley of the Hieromax, the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and other 
portions of the North of Palestine. 


256 Guppy— Tertiaries of Trinidad. 


V. On some Deposits or Late Tertiary AcE at Marura, on 
THE Hast Coast oF TRINIDAD. 


By R. J. Lecumere Guppy, Esq., Civil Service, Trinidad. 


@ dle [YX TRODUCTION.—In the Map appended to the ‘ Report 

on the Geology of Trinidad,’ * we find the principal Tertiary 
coal-bearing strata of the Island indicated by a more or less irre- 
gular band of dark colour, stretching from Chaguanas, Couva, and 
Savonetta, on the western or Parian coast, to Manzanilla on the 
eastern or Atlantic side. To the north of this band lies a sterile 
region of detrital matter, chiefly siliceous, marked in the map by 
yellow with red spots. I wish to draw attention more particularly 
to that part of this latter formation which lies on the eastern coast 
between the River Matura and Saline Bay. 

On approaching Matura from Valencia, after having crossed the 
Oropouche River, an evident change for the better is observable in 
the nature of the soil; for, instead of the intensely sterile quartzose 
sand and white clays which form the principal part of the ‘ stratified 
detritus,’ we find that a portion of calcareous matter has mingled 
with the earth, and rendered it a little more suitable for agriculture. 
This calcareous matter seems to have been derived from underlying 
beds,. which might probably be classified as belonging to the ‘upper 
part of the Newer Parian’ of the Government Geologists. These 
beds are in part composed of a dark-coloured and fine-grained cal- 
careous sandstone, containing an abundance of small shells. No great 
extent of these beds is exposed; but near the Rincon, a natural 
savanna bordering on Matura Bay, the erosion caused by a small 
stream, and the wasting action of the sea, have brought into view a 
fossiliferous bed, the organic remains from which may probably give 
us an insight into the question of its age, and may even lead to a 
knowledge of some of the physical phenomena which succeeded the 
deposition of the earlier Tertiaries of the Island. 

2. Organic Remains.—The fossils found by me in the beds 
alluded to amount to more than ninety species, and have relation- 
ships with the recent fauna, with the fauna of the ‘ Post-pliocene’ 
deposits of the Antilles (Barbados, &c.), and with that of other 
Tertiaries in this Island. As respects the two former cases, I have 
been able, for the most part, to compare specimens ; but in regard to 
the Newer Parian fossils, I have not been able to obtain such full 
information as is desirable. The indications furnished in the 
Appendix to the Geological Report} are very meagre; and, after a 
lengthened, but nevertheless somewhat unsatisfactory, examination 
of the Matura fossils, I have drawn up the following list. 


* Memoirs of the Geological Survey: Report on the Geology of Trinidad; or 
Part I. of the West Indian Survey; by G. P. Wall, from the Government School 
of Mines, Jermyn Street, and J. G. Sawkins, F.G.S. Svo. 1860. London: Longman 
and Co. 

{+ Report on the Geology of Trinidad pp. 161-166, 


Guppy— Tertiaries of Trinidad. 


List of Fossils from the Rincon, Matura, Trinidad. 


(vN., Very numerous ; N., humerous; R., rare.) 


+ Fusus, rR." 
* Murex, R. 
Pyrula canaliculata, Zam. 
ees SP: 
Nassa incrassata (?), Dill. 
Buccinum clausiliforme (?), Kien. 
* Terebra succincta, Gmel., RB. 
* Columbella, sp. 
+ ©. sp.,/R- 
Fossarus costatus (?), Brocchi, R. 
Oliva oryza, Lam., VN. 
* Conus venulosus, Brug. 
Pleurotoma sinuosa, JZont. 
* P. fusca (?), Gray. 
P. virgo (?), Lam. 
P. nodifera (?), Lam. 


* 


—. 
ae) 


Hy Sp: 
Dalinelln sicula, Reeve. 
Volvaria catenata(?), Mont., sp., N. 
Persicula, sp. 

Marginella cerulescens, Lam. 
M., sp. 

Erato, sp. 
Natica straminea, Zecluz. 
Odostomia, sp., RB. 

Chemnitzia, sp. 

Kulima polita, Zin. 
Cerithiopsis, sp. 

C. subulata, Mont. 

Triforis ventricosus, G'mel. 
Leiostraca acuta, Sow. 

* Scalaria pyramidalis, Sow. 

* Turritella imbricata, Lin. 
ites Spe 

* Ceecum pulchellum. 

Vermetus royanus, d’ Orb. 

* V. lumbricalis, Zin., N. 

* Siphonium decussatum, Gimel. 
Trochus granulatus (?), Born. 
tae Sp, Be 

* Sigaretus Delessertii, Chenu, R. 
+ Adeorbis, sp., R. 

sp Aws SPs, Hs 

Tae! (2) Sp, B. 

* Fissurella pileola, Dil. 

* Crepidula aculeata, Lam. 
Calyptreea (? Crucibulum) albida (?), 
Crucibulum striatum, Say, N. 

C. tubiferum, Sow., N. 

* Dentalium apicinum, Lam., N. 


x Re KH KR KH OK OK OK 


* D. entale, Lin. 
Chiton, sp., R. 
* Tornatina olivula, Nn. 
* Bulla striata, Brug. 
* Physa ancillaria, Say, R. 
* Planorbis, sp., BR. 
Ostrea cucullata, Born. 
O. cucullata (?), var. 
formis, R. 
Pecten nucleus (?), Born. 
* Modiola sulcata, Zam. 
* Arca Nox, Lin., N. 
* A. solida, Sow., N. 
* A. donaciformis, Reeve. 
AC Sp: 
ij. A, sp. 
* Pectunculus decussatus, Chemn. 
Nucula similis (?), Sow. 
pe NGesps pk: 
* Leda eburnea (?), Sow. 
* Chama macrophylla, Chemn. 
* Cardium isocardium, Lin. 
tT C. (Papyridea), sp., v.N. 
C. obovale, Sow., N. 
* Lucina squamosa, Lam. 
t Diplodonta (?), sp. 
* Strigilla carnaria, Lin. sp., N. 
* Astarte (Gouldia) Martinicensis, 
@ Orb., V.N. 
Venus pectorina, Lam., N. 
* Venus cingenda, Dil. 
* V. macrodon, Desh. 
+ Cytherea, sp., R. 
* Trigona mactroides, Chemn. 
+ Tapes, sp., R. 
* Mactra turgida, Gmel. 
+ M. (?), sp., RB. 
Donax fabagella, Zam. 
* D. striata, Lin. 
Tellina acuta, Wood, R. 
Corbula pygmea, Hanley, v.N. 
C. bicarinata, Sow., v.N. 
C. pisum (?), Sow. 
* Gastrocheena ovata, Sow. 
* Pholadidea calva, Gray. 


terebratuli- 


cd 


* * * 


+ Lunulites, sp., v.N. 
Cellaria salicornia, Pallas, R. 
+ P Discopora, sp. 

? Kschara, sp. 


In addition to the fossil Mollusea and Bryozoa enumerated in the 
foregoing list, there are a few small bones, probably of Fishes, and a 


VOL. II.—NO. XII. 


SS) 


258 Guppy— Tertiaries of Trinidad. 


single tooth has come to light. There are also remains of Cirripedes 
(Balani), and fragments of Crustacea (brachyurous decapods) ; also 
a few spines and fragments of Echinoderms. 

The Shells marked* in the preceding list are known to me, by 
recent examples, to be still existing in neighbouring seas. Those 
marked} are species otherwise unknown to me, either by books or 
specimens. Ostrea cucullata is, I believe, a shell of the eastern 
seas. Cardium (Papyridea), sp., is allied to the recent C. (Papy- 
ridea) ringiculum, but is much smaller and thicker. 

It will be observed that there are 27 species known as existing 
in contiguous waters, out of a total number of 56 Gasteropods, 
including two freshwater shells and two opisthobranchs. Then 16 
of the remainder, if not found in the surrounding seas, are probably 
existing elsewhere. To two of these I have assigned the names 
WNassa incrassata and Trochus granulatus, on account of their 
resemblance to the European species of those names, but at the same 
time with much hesitation. 

The proportion of recent species thus arrived at is nearly 80 per 
cent.; or 20 per cent. of unknown and extinct species. Making 
due allowance, however, for imperfect knowledge, there would pro- 
bably remain at least 10 per cent. of extinct species of Gasteropoda. 

With regard to the Conchifera, the proportions are nearly the 
same. ‘There are 22 species, out of the total of 36, which are cer- 
tainly known to me to exist in contiguous seas. To this number 
may be added four species, some of which probably exist elsewhere. 
Nucula similis and Corbula pisum are species of the European 
HKocene. I can detect no difference between the examples from 
Matura and the English species; but some doubt, of course, rests on 
the determination, owing to the distance both of locality and of time. 
I think, from what has been stated, that we may consider it mode- 
rately safe to infer, that of the fossil Mollusca of the Matura deposit 
there is a percentage of at least 10 extinct species. This would 
bring the deposit within the Pliocene Period according to the classi- 
fication of Lyell;* and, in searching for European equivalents, we 
should probably find that the Glacial deposits of Europe present the 
closest analogies with the Matura beds. 

I may remark, by the way, that the fact has not practically been 
overlooked by Geologists, that even where all the species are recent, 
yet, if some of them are only found in distant seas, and exist under 
different climatal conditions to what those occurring in the localities 
where such species are found fossil lived under, the differences between 
the recent and fossil faune mark a real progress in geological time, 
and entitle the strata from which the fossils are obtained to a dis- 
tinctive name. ‘The Matura deposits are, however, less remarkable 
in this respect than in regard to the small size of the Shells found 
in them; a point which will be dwelt upon in the following sections 
of this paper. 

_§ 3. Conditions of Deposit.—It is probable, from the sandy nature 


* Lyell, Manual of Elementary Geology, 5th ed., p. 105, and Supplement, p. 13. 


Guppy— Tertiaries of Trinidad. 259 


of the beds, that they were not thrown down at any very great dis- 
tance from land; while it could hardly have been as a beach that 
the deposit was accumulated. The Shells are many of them too 
fragile to have withstood the attrition which accompanies exposure 
on abeach. We must look, therefore, for a condition intermediate 
between the two as probably the nearest to the truth ; and we find 
that the fauna is one which would, in most respects, suit a depth of 
from 20 to 50 fathoms. : 

On those tropical beaches where Univalves predominate, we have 
Litorina, Patella, and Nerita. None of these are represented in 
the Matura beds. On the other hand, on those long stretches of 
sandy beach in the tropics where the molluscan fauna is chiefly 
bivalve, we find Mactra turgida, M. carinata, Trigona mactroides, 
Donax denticulata, D. striata, and, more rarely, Venus granulata, 
Cytherea dione, and a few Tellens. In the deposits at Matura we 
have, however, Shells characteristic of a certain depth of water, 
such as Yerebra, Oliva, Marginella, Conus, Erato, Chemnitzia, 
Eulima, Odostomia, Cecum, Dentalium, &c., and several of the 
Conchifera. The only strictly littoral Gasteropod in this collection 
—namely, Chiton—is represented by a solitary plate. As to the two 
freshwater species, each of which is represented by a single example, 
they may have been borne out, on floating wood or otherwise, from 
some stream of the neighbouring land. 

The comparative numbers of the individuals of each species found 
in the fossil and recent conditions is another matter which deserves 
some consideration, though I cannot make many complete and accu- 
rate observations on that head. The little Rice-shell, Oliva oryza, 
seems to have been almost as common during the deposition of the 
Matura beds as at present; while the Astarte (Gouldia) Martini- 
censis is much more rare now than it appears to have been formerly. 
This small shell occurs in immense numbers in the Matura deposit. 
Corbula pygmea is not quite so numerously represented ; it is by no 
means rare in some localities at the present day, but it is second 
only to the Astarte before mentioned, in point of numbers, in the 
Matura deposit. 

§ 4. Climate of the Period of Deposition.—Bearing in mind what 
has been said respecting the proportion of recent and extinct species, 
it will appear that these deposits probably belong to an epoch not 
far removed from that of the Glacial and Preglacial beds of Europe. 
But the extremely small size of the fossils found at Matura is one 
of the most remarkable features of the deposit. Even where the 
Shells belong to recent types of average size, the fossil represen- 
tatives are almost invariably dwarfed. ‘There are only one or two 
exceptions to this rule; e.g., Cardium isocardium, Turritella imbri- 
cata, and Bulla striata, which attain an ordinary, but not a large, 

rowth. 

Where the fossil Shells belong to recent types of small size and 
Arctic genera, they are not smaller than their living representatives. 
As examples of this, I may cite Astarte (Gouldia) Martinicensis, the 
Corbule, the Leda, and the Nucule. 


$2 


260 Guppy — Tertiaries of Trinidad. 


I have been led, by a consideration of the above facts, to enquire 
whether the refrigeration caused by the extension of glacial action 
southwards during the Newer Pliocene Period may not have affected 
lands situated so far south and so near the equator as Trinidad. 
And it must be confessed, considering the general aspect of the 
organic remains from the Matura beds, their small size, and the 
probable contemporaneity of the period of their deposition with the 
Glacial Epoch in Europe and North America, that there is some 
likelihood that glacial influences had a share in the modification 
of this fauna. ‘The influence of climate seems to show itself in the 
numerical preponderance of individuals belonging to species of Arctic 
or Northern types, and in the diminutive size generally of the 
Shells, rather than in the presence of Arctic species. 

§ 5. Relations with other Trinidad Deposits.—Several of the 
species found in the Matura beds are identical with those occurring 
in the Tamanaseries; and there are also specific affinities with the 
other Tertiaries of the Island, as mentioned in § 2. But it does not 
seem, from the lists* given by the Geological Survey, that there is 
anywhere, as far as has been discovered, the same assemblage of 
species. ‘The number of recent forms in the beds under considera- 
tion forbids us, however, to assign an older date than the ‘upper 
part of the Newer Parian’ to them: and, further, the shells from 
the deposits described in the Geological Report do not possess that 
general feature of diminutiveness which is so remarkable in the 
Matura fossils. The Ark found so abundantly in most of the Ter- 
tiary deposits of this Island (Arca incongrua of the Geological 
Survey) seems to be absent from the Matura beds. Further re- 
searches will be required to show how far some of the species of 
Arctic types now existing in the West Indian seas may have com- 
menced their existence in the tropics, from the date of the supposed 
glacial influences. 

There is a ferruginous conglomerate at Saline Bay, some little 
distance north of the exposed part of the Matura deposits, which 
may possibly belong to the same period as the latter; but it seems 
to be unfossiliferous. 

§ 6. Concluding Remarks.—The facts relative to the Matura de- 
posits may be of great interest and importance, when our knowledge 
shall have been far enough advanced to enable us to pronounce with 
some degree of certainty on the physical changes of this part of 
South America in late geological epochs. There is a great deal to 
be done in this respect. Before any set of conclusions can be esta- 
blished firmly, the observations on which they have been founded 
must be confirmed by prolonged investigation. There is, however, 
an interest of its own attaching to the explorations of our Later 
Tertiaries; and with regard to the Matura deposit, I may quote the 
very apposite remark of Mr. James Smith, of Jordanhill,—‘ As it be- 
longs to one of the first steps in the descending series, every circum- 


* Report on the Geology of Trinidad, pp. 163-6. 


Guppy—Tertiaries of Trinidad. 261 


stance connected with it should be carefully observed and recorded, 
that researches into the more ancient formations may be conducted 
with greater success:’* and, in addition, it is probable that im- 
portant inferences with respect to the climate of the earth in former 
epochs may flow from comparisons such as those attempted in the 
present paper. 

I shall conclude with a few remarks in connection with the possi- 
bility of a colder climate having prevailed in the West Indies during 
the Newer Pliocene period. It is known that species of Crypto- 
gamic Plants found in the Arctic regions have been discovered on 
mountains in the torrid zone. Plants indigenous to Lapland have 
been observed on the Peak of Teneriffe, and on the Blue Mountains 
inJamaica. Similar facts have been noticed relative to the Andes.t 
It remains to be seen how far these phenomena are attributable to 
the former prevalence of colder climates over large portions of the 
earth’s surface. Itis possible that the plants referred to may have 
first appeared within the tropics during a period when the climate 
was colder than at present; and that when the conditions of tempe- 
rature became altered, these plants receded from the lowlands, ulti- 
mately occupying only the higher summits of the mountains. There 
is, however, nothing to show that the climate of the torrid zone was 
ever such that ice could have been present in quantity. 

The idea of those alterations in the climate of the earth which are 
admitted on all hands to have taken place having been widely spread, 
is not now brought forward for the first time, and hypotheses in ex- 
planation have been suggested by various observers. ‘There may even 
have been more than one period of comparative coldness, and the phe- 
nomena may have recurred according to definite and fixed laws.{ 
Again, the climates of the globe might have been such, that while 
the southern hemisphere was enjoying more than an average share | 
of warmth, the climate of the northern portions of the globe was in 
a corresponding degree colder; and vice versa. But to do more 
than merely to allude to what has been brought forward on these 
subjects, is beyond the scope of a paper like the present. 

In the above paper I have confined myself to a very few remarks 
on those species of the Mollusca from the Matura beds which are 
probably new. Ihave done so, because I do not yet feel justified in 
publishing new specific names. ‘There are no means of reference, 
either to Museums or to published works, in this island. Our 
Public Library scarcely possesses any but the most elementary works 
on Natural Science.§ It is, however, but fair to state that the 
Governors of the Colony have not always been indifferent to the 
claims of science; and it may be hoped that the time is not far dis- 
tant when some efforts will be made for the institution of a local 
Museum and Scientific Library. 

Port or Spain, TRInmAD: August 1864. 


* Smith, Post-Tertiary Geology, p. 5. 

+ Humboldt, Travels (Bohn’s ed. 1852), vol. i. p. 115. 
{ Page, Past and Present Life of the Globe, p. 190. 

§ See Criiger in Geological Report on Trinidad, p. 176. 


- 


262 Seeley— Sequence of Rocks and Fossils. 


VI. On THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SEQUENCE OF Rocks AND Fos- 
SILS : THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE UPPER SECONDARY 
Rocks, AS SEEN IN THE SECTION AT ELy.* 


By Harry SEExey, Esq., F.G.S., Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. 


(ees are generally the mud of rivers ; sandstones, the detritus of 
old crystalline rocks; while limestones are organically or chemi- 
cally formed. If, therefore, there is a great clay, it bespeaks a great 
river draining lands that were; though small and local clay-bands 
may be but the ruins of denuded sea-cliffs. The sandstone is the 
evidence of coast and reef, where weather and wave disintegrated 
plutonic rocks, or constructed over again the paleozoic or older sand- 
rocks. And limestones have been formed either where the land 
had sunk, or where the material was derived from the denudation 
of calcareous cliffs in shallow seas. 

The physical significance of many beds may be gleaned from ap- 
plication of these principles ; and in a rude way an approximation 
may be made not only to the relations of land and water in former 
times, but to the order and places in which changes of level were 
made. 

It is worth notice, that while the Cretaceous clay alternates with 
sandstones, the Oolitic clays for the most part alternate with lime- 
stones. These Lower Secondary limestones appear to have been 
partly derived from pre-existing calcareous beds; partly to be owing 
to rivers flowing through limestones; and are partly organic. So, 
as will be seen, they indicate features of physical geography unlike 
what afterwards obtained in the Upper Secondary strata; and it 
seems that important changes of level, bringing a new series of rocks 
into wear, marked the incoming of the Cretaceous rocks and fossils. 

To understand the lithology and paleontology of any bed, it is 
necessary to remember why the deposit exists; since it may include 
several different rocks; or different deposits may be included under 
the same rock. This may be illustrated by some old physical changes 
in the Cambridgeshire district. 

Under that northern extension of the Upper Greensand, the 
Hunstanton Red Rock, there is a deposit, which at Speeton and 
Huns’ton rests on the Kimmeridge Clay. At Speeton this is the 
Speeton Clay, which, Professor Phillips assures me, represents con- 
tinuously in one stratum the Shanklin Sands and the Gault. And 
the Huns’ton Rock, which is there aluminous, being above, the whole 
succession is perfect to the Chalk. Now at Huns’ton, instead of a 
clay between the Red Rock and the Kimmeridge Clay, there are 
sands; and the Red Rock, instead of being aluminous, is sandy. The 
fossils of this Carstone, as it is called, are few. ‘Those from its base 
might well belong to the Shanklin Sands; but species from the 
upper part, like Ammonites splendens, are such as would rather be 
associated with the Gault. It is therefore far from unlikely that at 


* This paper was read March 7, 1864, before the Philosophical Society of Cam- 
bridge. é 


Seeley—— Sequence of Rocks and Fossils. 263 


Huns’ton the upper part of the Carstone may replace the Gault, 
just as at Speeton the lower part of the Speeton Clay replaces the 
Shanklin Sands. The passage from the Huns’ton Brown Sands of 
the Carstone to the Huns’ton Red Rock is as gradual as could be; 
and the intimate physical connection of the two beds has been re- 
marked in another paper. And, seeing how rarely a member of the 
Cretaceous system is wanting in any other district of England, it is 
a priort far more likely to be present than wanting. 

All that its presence would imply is that the paleeozoic rocks, the 
detritus of which furnished the Shanklin Sands, were still in one 
district being denuded long after they were depressed everywhere 
else; exactly as the Speeton Clay indicates that the great continent 
(to the existence of which the Kimmeridge Clay testifies, like the 
other clays) by upheaval became drained by a smaller river, which 
at length, by other changes of level, became supplemented by another 
and larger river, the mud brought down by which formed the 
Gault. The Lias, Oxford Clay, Kimmeridge Clay, Gault, London 
Clay, and the Thames, to me all testify to the same great river- 
valley in a vast Atlantic continent gradually being drained by a 
smaller and smaller stream, and reappearing changed and smaller 
in successive rhythmic intervals. The Speeton and Weald Clays 
were from exceptional smaller rivers in the same continent. And 
since the Carstone cannot be all Shanklin Sands, it must imply that, 
when the eastern part of the paleozoic continent sank down, a small 
island of Carboniferous and such-like rocks still remained, and by 
the falling of its cliffs continued through the time of the Gault the 
same detritus as accumulated the Shanklin Rocks. Moreover, as 
the Gault and the Speeton Clay do not become continuous, their 
separation bespeaks the same intervening land. 

The Gault in the section at Ely is so thin, because Ely was near 
the extreme limit of the fine mud which the river carried to sea; 
and, as the river would silt up in time, the mud eventually would 
not be carried so far; and this would account for the newer part of 
the Gault being wanting, and for the unconformability of the 
Greensand. 

Then, during the Upper Greensand period, there comes a partial 
return to the causation which produced the Shanklin Sands. The 
sea-bottom is upheaved until granites and hornstones, quartzites and 
sandstones, come within the power of the breakers. Cambridge- 
shire has become a shallow shore, seemingly within the tides, where 
scarcely any sediment is brought, and remaining nearly stationary. 
Then, when the level changes again, the old continent passes alto- 
gether away. 

Scarcely anything in the whole of Geology is more remarkable 
than the succession of the Secondary rocks. They run, roughly, 
omitting the New Red Sandstone, clay and limestone three times 
-repeated; and then sandstones, clay, and sandstones. And these 
oscillations are so worthy of notice, because indicating changes in 
the sea-bottom, which must have affected its ocean-inhabitants. 
The depression of the Shanklin Sands necessitated the migration 


264. Seeley— Sequence of Rocks and Fossils. 


away of the fauna. And with the upheaval of the Greensand, some 
of the animals came back again. The migration away of any given 
fauna, expelled from its home by physical causes, can only be at the 
expense of another, on whose feeding-ground it encroaches. In the 
struggle for life the weaker die off; and some in their new conditions 
put on new characters, so that out of two provinces fusing there 
comes to be a new fauna in the region. 

The operation of elevation and depression, in this way might pro- 
duce all the phenomena of existing life-provinces on land and by 
sea; and similar life-provinces in past time. And the cause of 
difference of fossils in different beds seems to be merely the immi- 
gration of a new province, consequent on changes of land and water ; 
and, except in proving this change, fossils are no evidence whatever 
of duration of time. No science can tell how long any species may 
endure unchanged. If elevations are made in successive undulations, 
as they appear to be, there might, with scarcely a break in time, be 
as entire a break in life as between the Palaeozoic and the Secondary 
strata. Palzozoic, Mesozoic, and Tertiary are convenient fictions ; 
but all they mean is—that by repeated change of level certain groups 
of nearly related provinces of life in the sea came to be successively 
fossilized; they mean too that, besides the minor oscillations, like 
those of the strata, there have been preserved the records of three 
grand revolutions. 

In the Greensand, though the conditions are greatly changed, 
many of the Gault fossils are again met. But the phosphate-bed of 
Cambridge reproduces over again the phosphate-bed of Folkstone, 
which, if of plant-origin, may easily have continued through the 
whole Gault period somewhere. For in the Cambridge Greensand 
the Crustacea and many a Shell, absent during the Upper Gaull, 
which I believed only travelled along shore, have migrated back 
again, in company with strange and unknown associates: two pro- 
vinees of the old Gault-sea blended, and made the Greensand fauna; 
or the blending may have already taken place in an adjoining pro- 
vince. And all the existing life-provinces appear to me to be the 
result of such blending and cross-blending and change, brought about 
by upheaval and depression of lands and sea-bottoms during old 
geological periods. By examination of the fossil species, and of their 
recent representatives, I have been able in many cases to discover 
whence fossil species did and did not come from, and to get an insight 
into unexpected physical changes: these will be embodied in maps 
of the old-world and its former distribution of life in provinces. 

The change of lithology is a greater evidence of an interval of 
time between the Gault and the Upper Greensand, than the partial 
community of fossils is evidence of the absence of any interval. 
Then, on the other hand, though there is clearly not the slightest 
break in time between the Upper Greensand and Chalk, there is 
almost an entire change in fossils. This change in life indicates 
no gap in time. But the lithology of the Chalk indicates changed 
physical conditions; thus the flat wide shore of the Greensand has 
changed its place; and the animals have followed their ‘unhasting- 


Foreign Memoirs— Geology of the Himalayas. 265 


unresting’ home. And in this change the sea has deepened ; and, 
while the shore-animals were left above, a new feeding-ground was 
thus opened to immigration from a new province and a deeper zone. 

It is worth notice that the species of Gasteropods and Cephalo- 
pods which are generically similar to those of the Greensand occur 
here only in the lowest beds of the Chalk; which indicates rather a 
deeper zone than a changed province. In Mr. Whitaker’s ‘ Chalk- 
rock’ many of them reappear; and I therefore regard the fauna of 
that singular stratum as the result, among other causes, of a tem- 
porary and partial uplifting. 

The change from Shanklin Sands to Gault was one of depression; 
but from Gault to Greensand was upheaval; and from Greensand to 
Chalk it was depression again. 


ABSTRACTS OF FOREIGN MBEMOTRS. 
———_+—-— 


GEOLOGY OF THE HIMALAYAS. 


1 F. STOLICZKA has recently communicated to the Academy 

of Sciences, Vienna, a brief account of his expedition to the 
Valley of Spiti and the upper regions of the Himalayan Chain. 
He intended to traverse a part of the province of Tchou-Tchou, but 
this project had to be abandoned, because the natives opposed the 
passage of Dr. Stoliczka and his companion traveller, Mr. J. Mallet, 
of the Geological Survey of India, with the thirty-six coolies and 
ten soldiers in their service. The Himalayas were crossed by the 
Parang-La Pass,* 19,000 feet above the level of the sea, between the 
Sutlej and the Indus. The geological end in view was successfully 
attained. The existence of nine different formations has been 
determined in «he Spiti Valley, where only two were previously 
known. The SrurtAn formation extends to the defile of Bhaleh, 
where it disappears beneath the CARBONIFEROUS Strata, easily recog- 
nized by their fossils. Above the latter, the formations succeed in 
the following order :— 

1. Well-developed Triassic limestones with Halobia Lommeli, Or- 
thoceras, Auloceras, Ammonites of the group Globesi, and numerous 
Brachiopoda. 

2. Bituminous limestones, containing a large thick-shelled bivalve, 
Megalodus triqueter. These limestones represent probably the 
Rheetic series. 

3. ‘Limestones of the Pass of Parang-La,’ very analogous to the 
Hierlatz beds} of the Alps, rich in Brachiopoda, and containing 
Belemnites and some rare Ammonites. 

+. Black Shales, with concretions, already known by their remains 
of Cephalopoda. 


* Lat. 33° N., long. 78° E. 
y+ The Hierlatz beds are of the age of the Middle Lias, and contain fossils 
chiefly characteristic of the zone of Am. margaritatus.—R. T. 


266 Loew—New Tertiary Fossils.—Reviews. 


5. Yellow sandy limestones with Avicula echinata and Opis, pro- 
bably equivalent with Jurassic beds of Nattheim,* Wurtemberg. 
6. Limestone with Nodosaria, Dentalina, Cristellaria, and fragments 

of udistes, on which are superimposed caleareous marls with- 
out fossils. These deposits indicate the presence of the Creta- 
ceous system, hitherto unrecognized in the Chain of the Hima- 
layas, but known in Persia. 

The expedition suffered very much by the want of water and 
provisions, as also from the cold. The flora and fauna were found 
to be excessively poor ; the terrestrial Mollusca in the Spiti Valley are 
represented by only three species of Helix, one Pupa, and a Limnea. 
—From ‘ L’ Institut, April. R. T. 


Some New Tertiary Fossits. By Dr. Lorw. 
(Proceedings of the Imperial Geological Institute, Vienna, June 21, 1864.) 


HESE have been found in the Cerithian Sands of Nussdorf 
(NW. of Vienna), intercalated between brackish plastic clay. 
Among them are two species of Paludina (P. ventrosa, Mont., and 
P. Baltica, Nils.), both now inhabiting brackish waters, the first on 
the coasts of the Channel, the other in the Baltic, and an undeter- 
mined species of Pupa, the first representative of this genus hitherto 
found in Tertiary deposits. With these shells were found a number 
of seeds of a species of Celtis, of the rusty colour common to all 
organic remains preserved in the Cerithian Sands. They are hollow 
in their interior, fragile, and evidently inferior in size to those of 
Celtis australis and Celtis occidentalis. The characteristic reticula- 
tion of their surfaces being more or less rubbed off, it is hardly 
possible to state to which of the two living species, C. australis (a 
native of the European and African coasts of the Mediterranean, 
also said to occur on the mountains of Tyrol, Carniola, Styria, and 
Hungary), or Celtis occidentalis (a native of the south of Northern 
America), they must be referred. Count M. 


REVIEWS. 
a 


Tur APPLICATIONS OF GEOLOGY TO THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. 
Being Six Lectures on Practical Geology, delivered before the 
Society of Arts, as a part of the Cantor Series of Lectures for 
1865. By Professor D. T. Anstrep, M.A., F.R.S. London: 
Harpwicke. 1865. 


[elle attempt commenced some years ago by the Society of Arts 

to ascertain and organize the Lecture-giving power of the 
scientific community seems to have been successful in some respects, 
and to have obtained recognition of success in a most satisfactory 
form. The celebrated Dr. Cantor, of the E. I. Medical Service, 


* Of the age of the Coral-rag.—T. R. 


Reviews— Ansted’s Applications of Geology. 267 


bequeathed half his residuary estate to the Society, for the promo- 
tion of its objects; and the Society has employed the proceeds in 
establishing Courses of Lectures on the Application of Science to 
the Arts. The talent for lecturing, however, is by no means com- 
mon in this country, and the power of exhibiting a subject in a 
popular form is for the most part inversely proportioned to the 
learning and experience of the lecturer. 

As a Professional Geologist, Prof. Ansted stands nearly alone, both 
as regards his disconnection from all Government offices, and his 
experience in delivering courses of lectures in which geological 
topics are treated as matters of business, and not as media for jokes. 
His ‘Geological Gossip,’ published in 1860, contained eighteen 
shorter essays on subjects similar to those which occupy the present 
volume. These relate for the most part to subjects of the day, such 
as water-supply, the manufacture of cements and artificial stones, 
fossil fuel, and the connection between Agriculture and Geology. 
The reguiar Text-books cannot be expected to give much infor- 
mation on these economical questions; for whatever is said re- 
quires frequent change: but they are good subjects for courses of 
periodic lectures. 

Agricultural Geology is just now under a cloud. At the Royal 
College they find it as much as they can do to get lecturers to come 
and discourse periodically on pure science. But they have an excel- 
lent resident Chemist, who, if he enjoyed any sort of relation to 
the Government, might save us from the great cost of the proposed 
works for the manufacture of sulphuretted hydrogen in the Maplin 
Sands. 

It would seem time also for Government to regulate by some 
general principle the rights of proprietorship in Springs. When 
the attempt was lately made to take the head-waters of the Thames 
and divert them into Sabrina’s Valley (for the benefit of the Old 
Indians who inhabit those parts), the Conservators of the Thames 
cried out lustily, and greatly exaggerated the loss of volume it would 
sustain; but it is only reasonable to respect Nature’s division of the 
country into hydrographical areas, and to allow the inhabitants of 
each to make the best use they can of their own rain-fall. 

The manufacture of artificial stone has not yet attained perfec- 
tion. The failure of Prof. Kuhlman’s water-glass led to the expe- 
riments of Messrs. Ransome, who have produced a porous material well 
adapted for filtering other materials sharp enough for whetstones and 
grindstones, and artificial sandstone in blocks of sufficient size and 
strength for supporting heavy engines or any other purposes. But they 
have never entirely succeeded in freeing this stone from soluble and 
deliquescent salts which continue to effloresce from the surface, or 
render it damp. ven the process described by Prof. Ansted as the 
last and perfectly successful has been considerably improved upon; 

‘and we trust now that the ‘Stone Company (limited)’ will only 
need unlimited orders to attain equal success. As those who read 
Prof. Ansted’s remarks on cements are most likely to deal with them 
on a small scale, we will mention, as the result of our personal 


268 Reviews—Huzley’s Fossils in the Museum of Geology. 


experience, that ‘Roman Cement’ and ‘Portland Cement’ are 
equally good in situations which remain permanently damp, but are 
unsuitable for dry places; and ‘Portland Cement,’ being caustic, 
is pleasant neither to the fingers, nor to the curly inhabitants of an 
aquarium. 


A CATALOGUE OF THE COLLECTION OF FossILs IN THE MusEuM OF 
GEOLOGY, WITH AN ExpLtanatory IntropuctTion. By THomas 
H. Huxtey, F.R.S., Lecturer on Natural History in the Royal 
School of Mines; and Ropert EtHeripesr, F.G.S8., Paleeontolo- 
gist. 1865. 


OR upwards of twenty years the Geological Surveyors have been 

carefully collecting, sorting, and arranging British Fossils in 
such wise that, with perseverance, judgment, and science, they have 
now obtained for the Nation so fair and complete a Collection that 
every successional group, and every local development, of strata is 
clearly illustrated by its organic remains in the Museum of Practical 
Geology, commenced by De la Beche at Craig’s Court, since placed 
in Jermyn Street, and enriched with a noble series of the fossils and 
minerals, mineral products, and mining appliances, not only of Great 
Britain and the Colonies, but of all other parts of the world, as far as 
necessary for the purposes of a National School of Mines, and one of 
the most careful and elaborate of Geological Surveys. 

Descriptive Catalogues of the Musuem generally, and of the 
Rock-specimens, by Robert Hunt, A. C. Ramsay, and their assistants, 
have long since appeared, and been reproduced with additions; and 
now we have a full Catalogue of the multitude of Fossils—the ‘ Medals 
of Creation,’ far more numerous than any numismatic series, far 
more intricate in their relationships, often more difficult to decipher, 
and as valuable to miners, farmers, and all who have to do with the 
stony structure of the earth, as coins are to the historian. 

The care, knowledge, and judicious discrimination indicated by 
the 380 pages of well-determined names of so many selected fossils, 
either collected by the Survey, or presented by private geologists, 
are associated with the clear-sighted and well-applied philosophy of 
the ‘Preliminary Considerations’ on the meaning and value of 
Fossils, and on the study of Paleontology, or Science of Ancient 
Beings; together with a ‘Brief Exposition of certain principles of 
Natural History,’ and the ‘ Applications of Natural History to the 
elucidation of Fossils or Paleontology,’ including a brief but 
interesting summary of the geological history of Animals and 
Plants, especially with reference to the long persistence of several 
orders, and the absence of any definite proof of a progressive deve- 
lopment of animal and vegetable life having existed, as far as 
fossils show. A Table of the Classes and Orders of the Animal 
Kingdom (excepting soft animals), and a Table of the Fossiliferous 
Rocks, accompany this Preface. 


Reviews—Doyne’s Rivers in New Zealand. 269 


On THE Rivers AND PLains OF CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND. 
By W. T. Doyne, Esq. 


{2 Reporting to the Secretary for Public Works, Christchurch, 
Canterbury, New Zealand, in June 1864, on the selection of a 
site for a bridge over the Rakaia, on the prevention of further en- 
croachment of the Waimakariri on Kaiapoi Island, and on turning a 
creek of the Rangitata, Mr. W. T. Doyne* states that these three 
rivers, taking their rise high up in the mountains, and chiefly fed by 
snow and glaciers, are necessarily very fluctuating, higher in summer 
than in winter, and apparently more affected by hot north-westerly 
winds than by rain. Though generally fordable, they form, in their 
‘freshes,’ torrents of great power, spreading over shingle-beds from 
one to two miles wide, and at places cutting new channels to the 
depth of 20 feet. In the mountains, for 40 or 50 miles, each river 
cuts out and washes down great quantities of boulders, gravel, and 
sand, carrying it out through the gorges, along the river-courses, to 
the sea; a portion being deposited on the way, according to the 
diminishing force of the stream, either from less fall or increased 
width. The material in the river-beds is all siliceous, greatly water- 
worn, and in every variety of size and form, from impalpable dust 
to boulders measuring two cubic feet. As this shingle accumulates 
in the bed of the stream, the water is thrown off against the low 
banks of similar material; and these being quickly undermined, the 
river widens out until it has no power to carry forward any but the 
lightest sand and mud. Thus barriers rise several miles in length, 
raising the bed of the river above the banks, and making it overflow ; 
until before long it cuts out a new course, deepening and widening 
it, until the old course is completely left and restored to the plains; 
the new channel becoming the true river. In time this course goes 
through the same changes, and it again is filled up. As the plains 
diminish in fall towards the sea, this tendency on the part of the 
rivers to fill up their beds increases; and in this way all these rivers 
are now so gorged, that they cannot move the shingle forward beyond 
a point about fifteen miles from the sea. At this point each river 
must now overflow its banks, and find a vent in new channels, unless 
prevented from so doing by considerable engineering works. The 
rivers differ, of course, in their volume of water and in the fall of 
their beds; but Mr. Doyne arrives at this conclusion, that, when the 
inclination of the river-bed, composed of shingle and sand (as in the 
Rakaia and Rangitata), is less than 24 feet in a mile, the space over 
which these rivers can change their courses must be confined to 
within half a mile in order to keep the course open. Where the 
river runs through silt and clay, a much less fall is required, as with 
the Waimakariri near its mouth. He believes that the Canterbury 
Plains, extending from NE. to SW. for 100 miles, with a width of 
from 30 to 40 miles from the sea-coast to the foot of the mountains, — 
may be looked upon as the delta of these great rivers, having their 


* In the ‘ Press,’ Christchurch, N. Z., for July 1864. 


270 Reviews— Geology of New Zealand. 


mouths at the gorges where they discharge their waters at the moun- 
tain-base; and that they have through a long period accummulated 
at least 80 feet of detritus in these plains. Old river-beds are 
traceable on the surface, each river having often changed its course. 
The Waimakariri has been most changeable, and for a long time 
seems to have been moving north, having within a comparatively 
recent period traversed the distance of about 28 miles,—between the 
Selwyn and its present course. These rivers are therefore only 
doing now what they have often done before, and will continue to do 
until the mountains wear into hills and downs. 

Mr. Doyne recommends a site for the bridge above where shingle 
and sand, raising the river-bed of the Rakaia, make it overflow; he 
recommends the overflow channel of the Rangitata to be left alone ; 
and he points out also that the Government had better leave Nature 
to work out her ends with the other river, and rather indemnify the ~ 
farmers of Kaiapoi year by year as the land goes, than waste money 
in making a railway bridge in a wrong place, and constructing useless 
works of great magnitude and certain failure. 

There are other points of interest shown by Mr. Doyne. The 
engineering plans referred to by him seem to show that the rivers 
first followed the lowest or level course through the plains, and that, 
as they have been choked with shingle, they have deviated at right 
angles to these lines of level courses, which are 25°-27° E. of mag- 
netic N. for the Rangitata and Rakaia, and 16° 30’ W. of magnetic 
N. for the Waimakariri. Hence the direction of future overflows 
can be indicated. Should the latter river break its south bank, it 
might seriously affect Christchurch ; but accurate levels have to be 
taken as a basis for calculations in this matter, and would add much 
to a knowledge of the river’s history. ‘The constant tendency of 
these rivers in their changes to go northerly would lead (Mr. Doyne 
thinks) to the conclusion that there has been a steady upheaval of 
the land in the neighbourhood of Banks’s Peninsula and south of it. 


Tue Grotocy or New ZEALAND. 


INCE 18438, when Dieffenbach’s ‘Travels in New Zealand’ 
were published, nearly every year has contributed some in- 
formation about the minerals and fossils of that country, and about 
its volcanoes, hot-springs, glaciers, gold-fields, and general geology. 
In 1859, the Austrian cireumnavigators, in the ‘ Novara,’ having 
visited New Zealand, one of them, Dr. F. von Hochstetter, was in- 
duced to spend some time in a special geological examination of 
the Provinces of Auckland and Nelson; and one portion of the 
results is given in his handsome quarto, ‘Geologie von Neu-Seeland: 
Beitrige zur Geologie der Provinzen Auckland und Nelson 
(Novara-Expedition, Geologischer Theil, I. Band, I. Abtheilung),’ 
1864, illustrated with six coloured geological maps, eight plates of 
views, and sixty-six woodcuts; whilst a Geological Atlas and 
Palzontological Memoirs (noticed in GrotocicaL Macazine, Vol. I. 
p. 78) are other portions of this noble work, divided among 


Reviews— Tourist’s Guide to Llangollen, &c. 271 


several eminent naturalists. Before then Auckland had its Pro- 
vincial Surveyor, Mr. C. Heaphy, at work, whose papers appeared 
in the London Geological Society’s Journal; and Dr. Julius Haast 
soon after entered the field as Provincial Geologist at Nelson and 
Canterbury ; and his observations, particularly on the glaciers, 
moraines, mountain-gorges, and formation of the great river-flats, 
have been printed in New Zealand,-Victoria, and England. His 
‘Report on the Geological Survey of the Province of Canterbury,’ 
1864; his ‘ Report on the formation of the Canterbury Plains,’ 1864; 
and his remarks on the glacial conditions of New Zealand (in the 
Geological Society’s Journal, May 1, 1865), are now before us. 
The Province of Otago also, one of the first districts in New Zea- 
land to supply geological information, through G. M. and Walter 
Mantell (in the Geological Society’s Journal), is now being thoroughly 
examined by a first-rate geologist, Dr. James Hector, who has already 
supplied (Geological Society’s Journal, May 1, and the Gronogi- 
cAL Macazrne, November 1864, p. 233) a succinct and masterly 
sketch of the structure of the region explored by him. His results 
agree with Dr. Von Hochstetter’s, and show that the Three Islands 
forming New Zealand are parts of one main ridge, formed of crumpled 
and highly altered strata, probably for the most part Paleozoic, but 
possibly in part Lower Mesozoic; whilst some Triassic, Jurassic, 
Tertiary, and Post-tertiary strata form parts of the flanks, and here 
and there lie at greater elevations. Like North America and other 
countries, New Zealand is beautifully illustrative of the theory of 
the formation of mountain-ranges and continents by the elevatory 
and metamorphic action of lateral crush, arising from contractions 
on a large scale, repeated through untold ages. 


Tourist’s GuipE To LLANGOLLEN AND ITs Vicinity, ETC. By D.C. 
Davies, Third Edit. 12mo. 1864, 


NOY that many holiday-makers are thinking of their intended 
routes and excursions, and there is an increasing number of 
Tourists who take an interest in Geology, we may remark that in the 
little Guide-book to the neighbourhood of Llangollen, published by 
Roberts of that town, there is a satisfactory attempt to explain 
geologically some of the natural features of the district by one of the 
Members of the Oswestry Naturalists’ Field-club. Some of the 
names of the fossils are incorrectly spelt; but the geology is well 
described ; and the tourist will learn much from his Guide, if he opens 
his eyes when on the summit of Dinas Bran, not only to lights and 
shadows, air-distances, and such like, but to the structural features of 
‘the conical peaks of the Silurian hills,—the battlemented terraces 
of the Mountain-limestone,—the heath-clad moor-like surface of the 
Millstone-grit,—and the North Wales band of the Coal-measures, 
with its unmistakeable surface-signs, sloping down to and fringing 
the New Red Sandstone plains of Cheshire and Salop.’ 


272 Reports and Proceedings. 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
—_+>—_ 


GeroLocicaL Society or Lonpon.—I. April 26; W.J. Hamilton, 
Esq., President, in the chair. The following communications were 
read:—l. ‘On the Character of the Cephalopodous Fauna of the 
South Indian Cretaceous Rocks.’ By Dr. F. Stoliezka. Communi- 
cated by the Assistant-Secretary.—In this paper the author gave a 
summary of the more important facts brought to light by the exa- 
mination of the Cretaceous Cephalopoda of Southern India, which 
was begun by Mr. H. F. Blanford, and continued by himself, giving, 
first of all, a brief notice of what had been done previously by other 
observers, and a sketch of Mr. Blanford’s subdivision of the strata 
into the Ootatoor (or Lower), the Trichinopoly (or Middle), and 
the Arrialoor (or Upper) groups. All the genera characteristic 
of European Cretaceous faunze were stated to be well represented, 
the whole assemblage having a Middle Cretaceous aspect. The 
number of species of the different genera occurring in each of the 
three subdivisions was then given, as also the distribution of the 
groups of the genus Ammonites, the most striking and abnormal 
feature being the intimate association of three species of that genus, 
belonging to the Triassic group ‘ Globosi,’ with true Cretaceous 
fossils. Dr. Stoliczka then discussed the relation of this Indian 
fauna to those of the European Cretaceous rocks, and illustrated his 
remarks by a table showing the geological range in India and in 
Europe of the species that are common to both areas, He came 
to the conclusion that for the present the lowest of Mr. Blanford’s 
subdivisions (the Ootatoor group) may be considered to be of the 
age of the European Gault; while the uppermost (the Arrialoor 
group) does not seem to correspond to a higher division than 
D’Orbigny’s Sénonien. 

2. ‘On the Growth of Flos Ferri, or Coralloidal Aragonite.? By 
W. Wallace, Esq. Communicated by W. W. Smyth, Esq., F.R.S., 
Sec. G.S.—The author first described the physical features of the 
Mountains in Westmoreland, and endeavoured to show that they 
bore certain relations to the geological structure of the country, and 
that the number and size of the joints varied with the elevation of 
the rocks, and their position in relation to the valleys. After the 
formation of the joints, the minerals occurring in the veins in their 
neighbourhood were stated to be acted upon by decomposing agents, 
and it was therefore inferred that the amount of decomposition in 
veins and in rocks is proportional to the amount of their elevation 
above the sea. 

Mr. Wallace then stated that Aragonite is produced only after the 
strata are traversed by joints, and that the branched Aragonite very 
rarely occurs, being found only in caverns and old workings. ‘Two 
of these caverns have come under his notice, and were described 
in detail; one of them is in the north vein of the Silver Band Mine, 
and the other near one of the principal veins of the Dufton Fell 
Mine. Finally, he discussed the causes and conditions necessary to 


Reports and Proceedings. 273 


the formation of this Coralloidal Aragonite, and came to the con- 
clusion that the theory of a circulation, through the pores of the 
spar, of fluids holding its component parts in solution is the only 
one that harmonizes with the varied phenomena observed in the two 
caverns he had described. 

3. ‘ Notes on presenting some Rhomboidal Specimens of Ironstone, 
&e. By Sir J. F. W. Herschel, Bart., K.C.H., F.R.S., F.G.S., &e. 
With a Note by Captain T. Longworth Dames. Communicated by 
Sir C. Lyell, Bart., F.R.S., F.G.S.—Most of these specimens came 
from a quarry at Clanmullen, near Edenderry, King’s County, and 
the remainder from the Collingwood Quarry, in the Weald of Kent. 
The Irish specimens are siliceous, containing some oxide of iron 
and a little manganese, and are homogeneous throughout. They all 
agree in the sharpness of definition and the exact parallelism and 
evenness of the flat surfaces; but, like those from the Weald, they 
are not constant in form or size, and sometimes are very irregular 
in angle and in the parallelism of opposite sides. The Wealden 
specimens, however, are all closed boxes, each containing a rhom- 
boid of hardened sandstone, the outer case being highly ferruginous 
—in fact, the ‘Ironstone of the Weald.’ Sir John Herschel endea- 
voured to account for the formation of the boxes, and Captain 
Dames added a Note stating the circumstances under which the 
Trish specimens occur. 

Il. May 10, 1865 ; W. J. Hamilton, Esq., President, in the chair. 
The following communications were read:—1. ‘On the Azoic and 
Paleozoic Rocks of Southern New Brunswick.’ By G. F. Matthew, 
Esq. Communicated by Dr. J. W. Dawson, F.R.S., F.G.S.—After 
briefly narrating the History of the Geology of the region, the author 
described each of the formations successively in detail; namely, the 
Laurentian (Portland series), Huronian (Coldbrook group), Lower 
Silurian (St. John group), Upper Silurian, Middle and Upper De- 
vonian (including the Bloomsbury group, Little River group, and 
Mispeck group), Lower and Upper Carboniferous. The only im~ 
portant hiatus is, therefore, that wherein the Trenton Limestones 
and Hudson River Shales should fall, and those formations probably 
form part of the Lower Silurian rocks already known. Mr. Matthew 
then stated that it is now a well-established fact, that throughout 
Paleozoic time the centre of the North American continent was 
comparatively stable, the whole series of formations being found in 
continuous and conformable succession, from the base of the Silurian 
to the summit of the Permian. The stratigraphical peculiarities of 
the several formations in regard to their mutual relations were next 
described; and the author inferred the existence of at least three 
breaks, and possibly a fourth (between the two sections of the Car- 
boniferous system) in the Paleozoic series of Acadia; namely, be- 
tween the Huronian and the Silurian; between the Lower and Upper 
Silurian, and between the ‘Lower Devonian and Upper Silurian,’ 
and the ‘ Middle and Upper Devonian.’ 

2. ‘Results of Geological Observations in Baden and Franco- 
nia.’ By Dr. F. Sandberger, For. Corr. G.S. Communicated by the 

VOL. II.—NO. XII. ae 


274 Reports and Proceedings. 


President.—In this paper Dr. Sandberger communicated the results 
he has arrived at by the study of the Paleozoic, Triassic, and Jurassic 
Beds of Baden and Franconia. The so-called ‘ transition formation ’ 
of the Black Forest he had previously ascertained to be Lower 
Carboniferous; it is immediately succeeded by the strata of Berg- 
haupten near Offenberg, which also occur in Alsace. Near Oppenau 
occurs a species of Péerophyllum, three feet long, which affords a 
new proof of the close connection between the Paleozoic and Triassic 
floras; and to this fact may be added the discovery of a true Schz- 
zopterts in the Letten-coal of the Trias near Wiirzburg. This con- 
nection Dr. Sandberger also considers more perceptible in the fauna 
than has hitherto been supposed. The Wellenkalk, Muschelkalk, 
and Letten-coal appear better developed in Franconia than else- 
where in Germany, and the clearness of the stratification leaves no 
doubt about the order of succession. Amongst the results of a com- 
parison of the Thiiringian and Swabian types with those near Wurz- 
burg is the discovery of the fauna of Recoaro and Mickelschiitaz in 
the Middle Wellenkalk; and the author remarks that, as the rocks 
of the Alpine so-called Muschelkalk entirely agree with the Wel- 
lenkalk of his district, that rock ought henceforth to be called Wel- 
lenkalk ; for no representative of the true (Upper) Muschelkalk has 
hitherto been observed in the Alps. The Jurassic rocks occurring 
in Baden he refers to the Cornbrash and the Inferior Oolite. 

3. ‘On the Changes rendered necessary in the Geological Map of 
South Africa, by recent discoveries of Fossils. By Dr. R. N. Ru- 
bidge, F.G.S. (See also Geou. Mac., No. V. p. 232.) Dr. Rubidge 
first called attention to a former paper, in which he pointed out the 
occurrence of horizontal beds of sandstone resting on the upturned 
edges of gneiss, and continuous with inclined sandstone of like 
kind interstratified with gneiss. He therefore conjectured that the 
Clay-slate and Bokkeveldt Schist, which Bain considered distinct, 
belonged to one formation, that they are of the same age as the 
gneiss, and that the ‘ Carboniferous rocks’ of the Hastern province 
were not separable from the Clay-slate, which Mr. Bain had called 
‘Primitive Clay-slate.’ It follows from this that, if the clay-slate 
proved Devonian, as Dr. Rubidge believed it would, the horizontal 
quartzite must be much newer, and probably an outlying mass of the 
Dicynodon-rocks. He explained these phenomena by supposing that 
rocks of widely different ages had been metamorphosed into masses 
having the same mineralogical characters. The discovery of certain 
fossils has lately verified the conjecture respecting the Devonian age 
of the Clay-slates and Bokkeveldt rocks ; and Dr. Rubidge therefore 
infers that the rest of the old rocks are of the same age. Finally, 
the discovery of a Calamite in the sandstone, not unlike some speci- 
mens belonging to the same genus found in the Dicynodon-rocks, 
renders the probability of the truth of the second conjecture very 
great. 


RoyaL GrotocicaL Society or IRELAND. — May 10th; G. 
Sanders, Esq., in the chair.—Mr. Juxzs read a paper entitled Notes 


Reports and Proceedings. 275 


for a Comparison between the Rocks of the South-west of Ireland and 
those of North Devon and of Rhenish Prussia in the neighbourhood 
of Coblentz. Mr. Jukes gave a sketch of the structure of the South 
of Ireland, with especial reference to the determination of the age 
of the ‘Carboniferous Slate, and pointed out that in the south- 
eastern counties the great Carboniferous Limestone and its under- 
lying black shale, or ‘ Lower Limestone Shale’ (transitional from the 
Old Red Sandstone to the Limestone, and from 20 to 300 feet 
thick), were together the equivalent of the ‘Carboniferous Slate’ 
(from 1,000 to 6,000 feet) and the included ‘Coomhola Grits’ of the 
South-western counties. The ‘Carboniferous Slates’ are composed of 
black shales (often slaty by cleavage) and grey grits ; the ‘Coomhola 
Grits’ are sometimes local sandstones, but occasionally 2,000 to 3,000 
feet thick in the lower part of the Carboniferous Slates. Mr. Jukes 
referred to the published ‘Explanations’ of the Geological Survey 
Map (sheet 187, &c., and sheet 192), in which he had described the 
Geology, and Mr. Baily the Fossils, for proofs of the ‘Carboniferous 
Slate’ and ‘ Coomhola Grits’ being contemporaneous with the ‘ Car- 
boniferous Limestone,’ resting, like it, on the Old Red Sandstone, 
and covered by the Coal-measures. He believed that they were 
formed in one and the same sea ; mud and sand being deposited in 
one part, while limestone was being produced in another by the 
growth of marine animals, especially by forests of Encrinites. In 
North Devon Mr. Jukes recognizes the ‘Carboniferous Slates’ and 
‘Coomhola Grits,’ with characters identical with those of Ireland, 
and passing under Coal-measures identical with those of Cork, 
Kerry, Limerick, and Clare, which rest on thick Carboniferous 
Limestone. So also near Coblentz Mr. Jukes was struck with the 
remarkable identity of the so-called ‘Devonian’ rocks with the ‘Car- 
boniferous Slate’ of Cork, and with the presence of red and yellow 
sandstones like the Upper Old Red of Ireland, whilst the Posidono- 
mya-beds with their coaly seams reminded him of the base of the 
Irish Coal-measures. 

The Rev. Prof. S. Havueuton welcomed Mr. Jukes’s paper as 
substantiating the opinions of Irish Geologists, especially as to the 
non-existence of a ‘Devonian System.’— Mr. W. H. Batty re- 
marked that the limestones of Plymouth, Newton-Bushell, &c., had 
no equivalent in Ireland, though they had in Nassau; and they 
might still be regarded as ‘ Devonian,’ being passage-beds between 
the Silurian and Carboniferous systems. 

Mr. Scort, on behalf of Dr. Carts, exhibited a specimen of an 
antler of Megaceros, with the impression of a cannon-bone on its 
palm; and two jaws of the same animal, which had also rubbed 
each other by fortuitous juxtaposition in the marl. These were 
from Limerick, where Mr. Hinckley had also found the specimens 
formerly described (Grou. Mac., No. XI. p. 216.) 


EpinsurcH GeEoLocicaL Society. — April 6; David Page, 
F.R.S.E., F.G.S., Vice-president, in the chair—Mr. Joun R. S. 
Hunter read a paper On the Carboniferous Limestones of Carluke, 

T2 


276 Reports and Proceedings. 


and their Fossils, which was illustrated by vertical sections and a 
large suite of specimens from the district. After describing the 
principal physical features of Carluke Parish, which is about 8 miles 
long by 44 broad, Mr. Hunter mentioned the occurrence of a very 
extensive fault in Braidwood Gill, of 80 fathoms, which brought 
down the Cannel- or Lesmahagow Gas-coal to the horizon of the ‘Pro- 
ductus giganteus Limestone.’ He then subdivided the group of Car- 
boniferous Limestones in his parish into three series; namely, (1) the 
Lower Carboniferous Limestone, or Mountain-limestone, embracing 
strata from the ‘P. giganteus Limestone’ to the ‘Lingula-limestone ;’ 
(2) the Middle Coal-measures, from the Gas- or Cannel-coal to the 
strata immediately above ‘ Carluke First Coal; and (38) Upper Car- 
boniferous Limestone, from the ‘Climpey Limestone’ to the strata 
above the ‘ Gair Limestone; the whole being upwards of 130 
fathoms in thickness, and having as superincumbent strata the ‘ Upper 
Coal-measures,’ comprising the Ell, Main, Splint, and other Coals; 
while the Lower Coal-measures, again, come below the ‘ P. gugan- 
teus beds,’ and extend to below the ‘P. punctatus beds.’ The 
limestones themselves above the ‘P. giganteus Limestone’ were 
generally persistent, and could be recognized in different and wide 
localities in the West of Scotland, showing their great horizontal 
extent. In his own parish there was abundance of limestone to last 
for ages, for all practical purposes. He then proceeded to notice 
the various fossil contents of the different beds of limestone, and 
accompanying shales and ironstone-bands, in an ascending order. 
The first remains we come to above the Old Red Sandstone are 
specimens of Lingula mytilordes, a cast of a Bellerophon, and some 
indistinct Plant-remains, found by Dr. Selkirk, of Carluke, in 
ironstone-nodules 33 feet above the Old Red. Then in the ‘P. pune- 
tatus beds’ of the Lower Coal-measures have been lately found new 
forms of Entomostraca—Leperditia, Bairdia, Cythere, Beyrichia, 
and others, now being examined by Prof. Jones and Mr. Kirkby. 
The ‘ Main Post Limestone’ alone, which is not more than from four 
to six feet thick, has yielded upwards of 160 genera and species, 
including many new and rare forms. Owing to the occurrence of 
fissures in this limestone, the sides of which seem to be water-worn, 
the ‘ Main Post’ is in some places decomposed, and reduced to a very 
soft and friable state. When in this state, fossils are more easily 
found in it, and many new species have thus been added to science. 
Among these are some new Entomostraca provisionally named by Prof. 
Jones and Mr. Kirkby—Leperditia Armstrongiana, Kirkbya Per- 
miana, Bairdia grandis, B. brevis, B. gracilis, and 15 others: also 
a few Foraminifera, the first discovered in Scottish Carboniferous 
strata. Among the rarer species of Mollusca are Retzia radials, 
Spirifera pinguis, Camarophoria globulina, Chonetes polita, C. 
- Buchiana, Productus Deshayesianus, Conocardium armatum, Arca 
Lacordariana, Pleurotomaria altivittata, Trochus lepidus, posterior 
plate of a Chiton (rarely found in British Carboniferous strata), Por- 
cillia armata, Nautilus tuberculatus, and interiors of Athyris am- 
bigua, Spirifera duplicicosta, Productus aculeatus, and P. mesolobus. 


Reports and Proceedings. 277 


Of the last two these are the first interiors found, and have been 
identified by Mr. Thomas Davidson, F.R.S., F.G.S. Mr. Hunter 
also exhibited fine remains of Gyrolepis Rankint from shale below 
the ‘Main Post Limestone,’ and from the ‘ Rae’s Gill beds.’ Besides 
the above, there were exhibited several polished sections of Litho- 
strotion, Alveolites, &c.; also several specimens of Serpulites car- 
bonarius, Spirorbis globosus, Entomoconchus Scouleri, and the Trilo- 
bite Griffithides mesotuberculatus of slightly varied forms, all from 
the prolific ‘ Main Post Limestone.’ The only Fish-remains found in 
this limestone are fragments of Petalodus Hastingsie, Rhizodus 
EMibberti, Cochliodus magnus, another species of Cochliodus, and a 
Pecilodus. Only one specimen of Productus giganteus was found in 
the ‘Main Post Limestone,’ showing that the species was dying out, 
while only 23 fathoms lower down it is found in great abundance. 
Above Rae’s Gill ironstone, coprolites are found which have yielded 
many minute bivalved Crustacea, one coprolite alone having yielded 
300 specimens of a new species named by Prof. Jones and Mr. Kirkby 
Cypridina Rankineana, after Dr. Rankine of Carluke, who has 
already added many new forms to the list of species from this 
locality. 


GEOLOGICAL Society or GLiascow.—I. March 30; E. H. 
Wiinsch, Esq., Vice-president, in the chair.—1l, ALEXANDER Bryson, 
Esq., F.R.S.E., read a paper On the Insufficiency of the Evidence 
adduced by Sir Charles Lyell* to prove the Upheaval of the Shores 
of the Forth since the Roman Period. Ue said, that all the geolo- 
gists who had written on the subject appeared to have gone into its 
investigation to support the views of Maclaren, who, though un- 
equalled in Scotland as a topographical observer, had made a series 
of mistakes, only from his non-acquaintance with general natural 
history—the habits of marine life in particular. Chambers and 
Geikie had also formed erroneous conclusions from a like want of 
preparatory study; and Sir C. Lyell had become the advocate of a 
theory, suggested by partial and in some cases hurried examination 
of phenomena, which a careful verification might have convinced 
him were not only utterly inadequate to sustain it, but were in many 
instances quite adverse to it. Mr. Bryson referred at considerable 
length to the various phenomena adduced by Sir C. Lyell and the 
gentlemen he had quoted, in support of their views, and stated the 
results of repeated investigations of them by himself and Dr. Bain, 
which proved that these were not caused by any upheaval of the 
shores of the Forth, but solely by the deposition of detritus from the 
various rivers flowing into the Firth, aided by the action of tides and 
storms. The large deposit of Oyster-shells near Inveravon, 60 feet 
above the present high-tide level, he attributed to a very high tide 
and storm-waves in the year 1766, referred to by Boece in his ‘ Ms- 
toria Scotorum, which had caused a great inundation, destroyed 
many villages, laid waste the district, and occasioned a great loss of 


* In the third chapter of his ‘ Antiquity of Man.’ 


278 Reports and Proceedings. 


life. In conclusion, Mr. Bryson remarked, as a curious circumstance, 
that the advocates of the upheaval theory have never sought for con- 
firmation of it on the rocky shores of the many islands of the Firth. 

2. Mr. James W. YouneG read a paper On the Presence of Magnesia 
in Rocks.—After some remarks on the occurrence and distribution of 
magnesia and carbonate of magnesia in the crust of the earth, he said 
that he had been for some time past engaged in examining some of the 
local limestones, and found that there are very few which do not con- 
tain at least considerable traces of it. In Campsie, Ballagan, and 
Auchenreoch Glens, and at Loch Thom, Renfrewshire, a formation 
occurs, known as the ‘ Ballagan Beds.’ They consist principally of 
thin layers of limestone, alternating with beds of a bluish-grey shale. 
A few remains of Plants and scales of Fishes have been found in a 
sandstone of the group. They are considered to be the lowest beds 
of the Carboniferous formation. The following table gives the 
result of the analysis of the limestones from the various localities. 
The general composition of the whole of them is similar to that of 
No.1. They are of various shades of grey, are compact and amorphous, 
streak white. ‘The colour is owing partly to protoxide of iron, and 
partly to organic matter. Where exposed to the air, a reddish tinge 
is produced, owing to the peroxidation of the iron. 


1 2 3 4 5 6 
Sp. Gr. at 15°°5 C. — — 277 2-75 — — 
Insoluble ppcipally Clay and 
Sand lie?) 25:1 12°48 | 17°88 | 11:48 6°44 
Alumina 3 . 1°84 ochnted 
Proteendelo® iron tae EP TOE I Repeat nll Mae a ies 
Lime . : ‘A 3 . | 30°24 | 23:06 | 26°96 | 25°31 | 42°30 | 30°00 
Magnesia . : : - | 11°49 | 13°36 | 16°64 | 14°76 516 | 18°36 
Carbonie Acid. : 5 . | 34:50 = — = — — 
99-57 | — a ro aoe wid 
No. 1, from Campsie Glen, Stirlingshire. 


1 
» 2, ,, Gartshake Glen, Dumbartonshire. 
8, ,, Loch Thom, Renfrewshire. 
» 4, ,, Ballagan Glen, eee 
5 


Fs Pe 4 A red variety ; effervesced freely with 

dilute hydrochloric acid ; "in the grey limestones the effervescence was 
somewhat feeble. 

», 6. Limestone under trap, Shields’ Burn, Campsie. 


Another limestone, of Old Red Sandstone age, which occurs at 


Balgair Moor, Fintry, contains a large proportion of carbonate of 
magnesia. 


~ 


1 2 
Carbonate of Lime . a , 3 3 53:20 54:18 
Carbonate of Magnesia . 3 : : 44-00 45°82 
Insoluble . , s F ; 2°36 — 
Alumina, with trace of iron , i : 0-60 — 


100716 100-00 


Reports and Proceedings. 279 


No. 1. Limestone from Fintry. 
No, 2. Theoretical composition of dolomite, according to Rammelsberg. 


The white layers that are often seen filling up cracks and fissures 
in coal are generally considered to be carbonate of lime, but consider- 
able quantities of carbonate of iron and carbonate of magnesia are 
likewise present. ‘The following is the composition of a speci- 
men :— 


Carbonate of Iron . : : j 5 ; 5 19-72 
i of Lime . : é : Be : 6 53°00 

e of Magnesia . s oi Bre: j : 18-04 
Carbonaceous matter and insoluble . : 3 5 9-24 
100:00 


Remarks on the theories respecting the dolomitization of lime- 
stones, and on rocks and minerals containing silicate of magnesia, 
concluded this interesting paper. 

Il. April 10th (see Grotocicat MaAcazine for May, p. 219), Mr. 
G. SomeRvILLe read a paper On the Geological Features of the 
Country around Jerusalem, remarking that a high central tract of 
limestone runs north and south near the centre of Palestine, forming 
the water-shed of the country about two miles westward of Jerusa- 
lem. According to Lyuch, it is 2,700 feet above the Mediterranean 
on the west; and on the east it rises 4,000 feet above the Jordan 
Valley and Dead Sea. The hills of Jerusalem, about 600 feet high, 
consist of Lower Cretaceous limestone, white, flat-bedded, in layers 
of various thicknesses, containing flint-nodules, and excavated for 
tombs, and subterranean quarries and water-tanks. These hills and 
their intervening valleys have evidently been shaped out of the old 
limestone table-land by the denuding power of water, acting during 
long periods, and long before the times of history or tradition. 

III. The last Monthly Meeting of this Society’s Winter-session 
was held in their Hall, Andersonian University, April 13th; Rev. H. 
W. Crosskey in the chair.—Mr. James TuHomson exhibited and de- 
scribed a fine collection of Corals from the Lower Carboniferous strata 
of Linlithgowshire, Lanarkshire, and Ayrshire. Mr. Thomson stated 
that there were upwards of forty species, chiefly of the genera 
Lithodendron, Lithostrotion, Cyathophyllum, Cyathopsis, and Clisio- 
phyllum, their structure being shown by numerous polished lon- 
gitudinal, diagonal, and cross sections.— Mr. ANDREW ARMOUR 
exhibited a collection of Fish-remains from the Carboniferous strata 
of the West of Scotland, including fine remains of Megalichthys 
Hibberti, and an undescribed species of the same genus; of Rhizodus 
sauroides, and of Cochliodus, Petalodus, and Ctenodus, all of which 
were briefly described.—The Secretary exhibited a specimen of Pel- 
tocaris aptychoides (Salter), a small Phyllopod Crustacean, from the 
Graptolite-shale of Moffat—A section of the Carboniferous beds 
overlying the Old Red Sandstone at Carluke was exhibited by Mr. 
Hunter, Braidwood.—Dr. BrycrE read a paper entitled Motes on 
the Earthquake-District of the County of Perth.—The CuHairman, 


280 Reports and Proceedings. 


in closing the present series of Monthly Meetings, congratulated the 
Society on the value of the papers read, and on the genuine scien- 
tific worth of the proceedings, of which he offered a succinct and 
interesting résumé. 


Duptey and Mipitanp GeEoLocicaL Society.—On April 4th, 
Mr. Silas Bowkley, F.G.S., in the chair, Mr. Henry JoHNson read a 
paper entitled Suggestions as to the Means of extending the South 
Staffordshire Coal-field. 'This was a continuation of a paper com- 
municated to the Society in 1863, mainly referring to the extended 
working of the coal-field in the direction of Birmingham and Hales- 
owen. Since the reading of the last paper five new sinkings have 
been commenced in that district; namely, by Messrs. King and Co., 
Cradley Park; Swindell and Co., Homer Hill; George Pell and Co., 
Wassell Grove; New British Iron Company, Hawne; and J. S. 
Dawes, Manor Farm, Halesowen. It is calculated that, if these 
sinkings are successful, at least 4,000 acres will be added to the pro- 
ductive area of the coal-field. The district between South Stafford- 
shire and the Shropshire Coal-field, covered with Permian and New 
Red Sandstone, occupies an area of 357 square miles, or 222,000 
acres. This vast tract is bounded on the east by the South Stafford- 
shire western Boundary-fault, which is a down-throw east, and 
brings in the Permian, with the Coal-measures dipping underneath. 
On the Shropshire side this tract is bounded by a line of fault, which 
is a down-throw east. On the whole, the geological conditions of 
the Shropshire side are quite analogous to the South Staffordshire 
district,—the Permian resting unconformably on the edges of the 
Coal-measures. Perhaps the most convenient place for proving this 
district would be near the Great Western Railway at Albrighton. A 
shaft of 12 or 14 feet in diameter might be put down 600 to 700 
yards for asum not exceeding £40,000. This might be raised, if the 
landowners of the district would subscribe 7s. 6d. per acre upon 
110,000 acres. The smaller owners might thus be left out, and still 
sufficient money be raised ; and the proof might be made in three 
years. The author could speak with confidence, from the fact, that 
at his suggestion some such project has been adopted in the 
south end of the Coal-field, and is answering every expectation. 
The subscribed capital would of course be returned if the trial 
proved successful. The whole business might be managed by a 
committee consisting of landowners and coal- and iron-masters, with 
an efficient staff of practical and energetic officers. If the Coal- 
measures of South Staffordshire should be proved to extend under 
this area, the yield is estimated at two thousand millions sterling, 
and the landowners’ royalties would amount to one hundred millions 
sterling. This district is four times the area of South Staffordshire. 
These suggestions will probably be ridiculed as purely visionary; 
but the practical value of the Cannock-Chase Coal, the Riverstone 
Hematite, the Northampton Iron-ore, the North-Welsh Cannel, 
the Cleveland Iron-ore, were all pooh-poohed in their turn. The 
next paper was read by Mr. S. ALuport, Birmingham, On the Dis- 


Reports and Proceedings. 281 


tribution of Organic Remains in some of the Upper Silurian Rocks. 
The paper related to two beds of the Upper Silurian series,—the 
Wenlock or Lower Shale, and the Lower Ludlow or Upper Shale. 
These are strata of the same lithological character, both being deep- 
sea formations; and, as far as we can judge, they were deposited 
under similar circumstances. As they are everywhere found to be 
conformable with the intervening Wenlock Limestone, and conse- 
quently with each other, they appear to form one continuous series. 
Though these beds have been repeatedly described, we are yet 
without any complete lists of the fossils of each bed. ‘The lists in 
the ‘Silurian System’ are thirty years old, and are consequently out of 
date. In these tables only two species of Trilobites are given 
for the Wenlock Shale, and for the Lower Ludlow only three, of 
which one is wrongly placed, and one common to both measures. 
There are thus only three species of Trilobites given in these two 
beds. Thirty species are now known as belonging to these formations. 
But there is a considerable difference between the fossil contents of 
the Upper and the Lower Shale. Eighteen species of Trilobites 
have been found in the Wenlock Shale. From the Lower Shale we 
have sixteen species; but of these only four species are common to both 
deposits. Collectors seem generally to have overlooked the fact 
that when we meet with a well-defined variety or sub-species, in most 
cases it is not found in the same locality as the parent species, or is 
not of the same age. 


Cork CuvieriAn Socirty.—At the last meeting of this Society 
for the Session 1864—5, held in the Library of the Royal Cork In- 
stitution, Mr. Richard Caulfield, F.S.A., President, in the chair, 
the President read the following communication on behalf of Prof. 
Hargness, F.R.S.:—A few days ago I received from an engineer- 
ing student of the College, Mr. Cotterall, fragments of bones and 
teeth recently obtained from a limestone-quarry at Middleton. 
Amongst the former I recognized a portion of the frontal bone, 
including the horn-core, of an extinct form of Bos, B. frontosus of 
Prof. Nilsson. This form seems to have been extremely rare in Great 
Britain, but there are instances of its having been obtained from 
the marls which underlie the peat-bogs of Ireland. ‘The interest 
which these bones afford induced me to visit the locality where they 
were found, to examine the circumstances under which they occur ; 
and, accompanied by Mr. Joseph Wright, on Saturday last, I had an 
opportunity of inspecting the quarry, and the nature of the deposits 
which yield the mammal remains. The quarry, which has long 
been worked, is situated immediately east of the Poor-house Farm, 
Middleton. The rock consists of the ordinary limestone of the dis- 
trict, in one part much fissured; and under this fissured portion 
there is a mass of reddish brown clay, the thickness of which cannot 
be determined, as its base is not seen. This reddish brown clay 
under the limestone is the deposit which affords the fossil bones, and 
they are scattered through it, usually in a fragmentary condition, 
in an irregular manner. Besides fragments of bones and teeth, 


282 Reports and Proceedings. 


portions of the horns of Deer occur. These latter are much broken, 
and do not afford sufficient character to make out the species abso- 
lutely. They seem, however, to belong to two forms, one of which 
had the beam and branches smooth and subcompressed—features 
which indicate the antlers of the Reindeer; and the other with the 
horns rounded and rough, a form of surface which marks the antlers 
of the common Stag. Of these antlers two portions, which appear 
to have appertained to the Reindeer, have been cut while in a fresh 
state; and, the faces of the cuts being almost smooth, this cutting 
seems to have been effected by a fine regular-edged instrument, ~ 
rather than by a serrated tool. The leg-bones which occur in this 
clay have all been broken, for the most part longitudinally, except the 
carpal, metacarpal, tarsal, metatarsal, and small bones of the foot. 
This longitudinal fracturing of the long bones of the leg is not 
known to occur in any mammalian remains which belong to a period 
previous to that when we have evidence of the existence of the 
human race; and these broken bones afford evidence of the occur- 
rence of man, who, for the purpose of obtaining the marrow, divided 
these bones in the direction most available for this object. Besides 
evidence of the existence of Man as afforded by the cut antlers and 
longitudinally split bones, there are other circumstances indicating 
his occurrence in connection with these remains—one of these, the 
presence of charred wood, which is equally disseminated through 
the clay with the bones and teeth. This charred wood is the 
remains of the ancient fires by means of which former human 
beings cooked their food; and there also occur equally scattered 
through the clay detached valves of the common Oyster, upon which 
Man also had fed. 

The circumstances and conditions under which the several animal 
remains and charred wood are found here fully justify the inference 
that the cavity in the limestone, in which the clay is now seen, was 
formerly an open cave, frequented by an ancient race of Men, whose 
food consisted of a wild, and now extinct, form of Ox; and also of 
two species of Deer, one of which is now confined to a colder cli- 
mate than now prevails in the British Isles. This food seems also 
to have been varied by Oysters. The clay which now fills up this 
cave appears to have been introduced from above by means of water 
percolating through the fissures which are so abundant in the lime- 
stone here. 

We met with no remains of the implements belonging to this 
ancient Cave-race. This is, however, easily accounted for, as merely 
the contents of the upper portion of the mud have been brought to 
light. Future excavations towards the floor of the cave would most 
probably afford the stone instruments and weapons of this ancient 
people. 

Several objects of antiquity were exhibited and described, by the 
President and others. 

Mr. Robert Day, jun., was elected President for the ensuing year; 
Mr. Joseph Wright, F.G.S., and Professor Harkness, F.R.S., Vice- 
presidents.— Cork Constitution, May 5, 1865. 


Correspondence. 283 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
———+~_-— 


THE OUTLIER OF CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE NEAR CORWEN, 
NortH WALES. 


To the Editor of the GRoLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—A day or two may be spent with considerable pleasure and 
profit, geologically, in the vicinity of Corwen, North Wales, now 
easily accessible by rail from Llangollen. The hills of Wenlock 
Shale thereabout may yield fossils if well searched. The ‘Tarannon 
Shale’ of the Geological Survey contributes greatly to the boldness 
of the scenery. Five miles north-west of Corwen, on the Holyhead 
Road, there is a romantic waterfall in a patch of the ‘ Bala Lime- 
‘stone,’ and diligent hammering in its immediate vicinity will be 
rewarded by many characteristic fossils. Nearer the village there is 
an outlier of the Carboniferous Limestone which is well worth the 
attention of geologists, both for its own peculiar features and fossils, 
as well as for the relation it bears to the main belt of that formation 
as it is developed on the North-Wales border. 


SW. Quarries. NE. 
: About 35 yards. River Alwain. 


Wenlock Shale. (Unworked.) if e dad. ¢.0.a 
SECTION OF THE MOUNTAIN-LIMESTONE AT CORWEN. 


a. Limestone. b. Black shale with nodules, Rhynchonella, Chonetes, &c. c. Band of 
ferruginous nodules. d. Limestone (Productus giganteus, &c.), rather arenaceous, and 
With a shale band in the middle: 45 feet. e. Dark bituminous shaley beds, with stone 
bands, and layers of drifted Producit. f. Limestone beds, with Phillipastrea radialis, 
Lithostrotion junceum, L. fasciatum, Diphyphyllum latiseptatum (?), and small Producti and 
Terebratulee. 

This outlier (see fig.) rises up out of a plain (in the midst of 
mountains) watered by the Rivers Alwain and Dee, and near to the 
confluence of the two streams. The locality is called Hafod; and 
supposing the wooden bridge over the Alwain is not swept away by 
a flood, as it was when I once visited the spot, you may reach it in 
about a mile and a half from the village ; but, to prevent disappoint- 
ment, it is better to keep to the Holyhead Road until you have 
crossed the bridge by which that road is carried over the Alwain, 
and then, turning immediately to the left, the quarries are reached 
directly. In order to understand the relation in which the outlier 
stands to the main band, it will be well to observe that the latter 
consists, in ascending order—first, of a series of pale-coloured beds, 
much quarried for fluxing material; second, a number of layers of 
hard grey limestone; and, thirdly, an alternation of beds of lime- 
stone and shale, and black dirt, abounding with fossils. The beds 
quarried at Corwen correspond to those in the upper portion of the 
main band; the dirt and shale-beds, together with the fossils found, 


284 Correspondence. 


all serving to confirm the identity. ‘There is a slight lithological 
difference, however; one portion, marked d, differing from beds in the 
like position in the main band, in the paleness of their colour and 
the admixture of a considerable quantity of sand; for which reason, 
by the way, this limestone is not so highly esteemed for agriculturai 
purposes as the former. The beds are perched up at very great 
angles; the lower beds are not worked; but, by measuring the 
out-crop of the strata, it is evident that we have the whole series of 
beds as developed in the main band, corresponding in general order 
and character, though differing in one or two minor lithological 
features. 

The question arises, does this outlier owe its isolated position to 
the denudation of beds by which it was once connected with the 
main band, or to the operation of the same causes which led to the 
deposition of the latter, working in a limited area ?—in other words, 
was it once connected with the main band, or was it originally depo- 
sited apart from the rest? ‘Uhe theory of denudation is now in 
considerable favour; and I find that, in a former number of this 
Magazine, Mr. Jukes expresses his belief that this very outlier 
formed part of the ‘ whole Carboniferous series, which at one time 
covered a great part of Wales; the remaining portions, and those 
once connecting it with the main band, having been washed away. 
It may savour of presumption to differ from so great an authority ; 
and yet, knowing the country as I do, I am compelled to dissent 
from such a notion. Let us look a little more closely into the 
matter. The Carboniferous Limestone of the North Wales border is 
between 300 and 400 feet in thickness, the bulk of it consisting of 
limestone proper. The outlier near Corwen is distant about eight 
miles from the nearest point of the main band. Without assuming, as 
Mr. Jukes would, that the whole Carboniferous series once covered 
nearly the whole of North Wales, let us suppose that the main lime- 
stone once extended along its whole course of forty miles, eight 
miles only beyond its present outcrop, we have then a deposit of 
limestone (to say nothing of the other members of the Carboniferous 
group), 850 feet or thereabouts in thickness, covering an area of 
320 square miles. Now it is quite evident that, if this mass of cal- 
careous matter has been swept away, it has been redeposited some- 
where else, in the newer formations. If it has been denuded, have 
we any indications of the course it took—of the locality where most 
of it at least would be deposited? Is there in any of the newer 
formations any deposit analogous to it? Let us see. The pebbles 
in the Millstone-grit, those in the sandstones of the Coal-measures, 
those in the Permian and Trias, and notably the matcrials of the 
‘Drift’ on the Welsh border, and in the plains of Salop and Chester, 
all indicate currents running eastward. With reference, then, to 
the particular district under notice, in this direction we should look 
for this denuded and redeposited matter. And in the extensive 
plains of Shropshire and Cheshire, which lie between the eastern 
development of the Carboniferous strata in Derbyshire, Stafford, and 
South Shropshire, we ought, if anywhere, to find these denuded mate- 


Correspondence. 285 


rials. Now, supposing the denudation to have been slow, we should 
expect to find similar deposits of limestone and shale formed from 
the denuded matter; or, supposing the denuding agency to have been 
strong and the action violent, in that case we should expect frag- 
ments and boulders of limestone, and their embedded fossils, together 
with the solid organisms from the shales, in the redeposited strata. 
Jam bold to say, however, that throughout the whole region referred 
to, the search would be vain for any such deposits, or beds contain- 
ing redeposited Carboniferous fossils, while the surface-drift does 
not contain such a proportion of calcareous elements as would lead 
us to favour such a theory: indeed, the whole mass of Drift is not 
more than might be expected to result from the scooping out of the 
Welsh valleys, mixed up, as it is, with the materials derived from 
the north. Or, if it should be urged that the redeposited matter has 
been so acted upon by chemical or other agencies as to destroy its 
identity, or that it has been carried away nobody knows where— 
both of which are extreme propositions,—is it at all likely that the 
solitary remnant of the Carboniferous rocks which once covered the 
district referred to would be the outlier at Corwen? Is it at all 
likely that, while all the surrounding strata were swept clean away, 
this little patch would be left intact, to the very top of the series ?— 
would there not in sheltered spots linger relics of the old time to 
tell of that which once had been? May we not have reason to 
expect that, mixed up with the local Drift of the Welsh valleys, 
there would be no lack of Carboniferous débris? Is it at all likely 
that over so extensive a district ‘the house would be swept so 
clean’ as not to leave even a faint trace of its former inhabitants ? 
Yet such is literally the case, if this theory be true. Once passing 
the outcrop of the main ridges, which, like a line of reefs, sweep 
round the eastern and northern sides of North Wales, you fail to 
discern fragments of the Carboniferous rocks in the local Drift, and 
not a trace of this supposed Carboniferous envelopment occurs in 
situ, save the outlier at Corwen. It may scarcely be admissible as 
evidence, but I cannot help saying that the general contour of the 
country, and the appearance of the present limestone escarpments, 
bold and well defined to the very top, capped as they are with their 
shale and fossiliferous beds, and overlying hills of Millstone-grit, 
are incompatible (to my mind at least) with the idea that a whole 
Carboniferous system has been swept away over their heads. 

From these, as well as other considerations, though I too may be 
exposed to the charge of being narrow, and of cherishing ‘auld 
warld’ notions of Geology, I must for the present look upon the 
plain about Corwen as having been once a little inland sea, in which 
the deposition of the limestone of the outlier went on simultaneously 
with that of the main band, but apart from the latter. 

The search for fossils will be most successful in the shale-beds, 
both ém sié, and in the ‘heaps’ into which these have been thrown 
out of the way of the quarrymen. 

Yours, &c. D. C. Davigs. 


OswESTRY, 


286 Correspondence. 


LOWER CARBONIFEROUS FOSSILS IN THE COAL-MEASURES.* 


Mr. R. W. Sxipsey has asked by letter if Mr. J. Ward (a note 
from whom appeared in the last No. of the GEoLocicaL MaGazineE, 
p- 234) will be good enough to state if the English discoveries 
made by himself and the Geological Surveyors have been published ; 
and, if so, where and when. He asks also for the description of the 
fossils found, the character of their holding-ground, and that of the 
immediately adjacent strata, as well as the relative position and dis- 
tance which such ground holds to the Millstone-grit, well enough 
known to hold some Carboniferous Limestone forms. 

Mr. JoHN Warb, writing May 9th, states—‘* You will find a 
notice of the discovery of the marine fosils, by Messrs. Hull and 
Green, in the “Trans. Manchester Geological Society,” vol. iii. 
No. 15, Session 1861-62, p. 348. The fossils are also figured and 
deseribed by Mr. Salter in Mr. Hull’s “Memoir of the Country 
around Oldham” (Geological Survey Memoirs). 

‘The fossils I found (Mr. Ward adds) in the Upper Middle Mea- 
sures at Longton were determined by Mr. Salter as Lingula (two 
species), Discites falcatus, Discina nitida, Macrocheilus, Aviculo- 
pecten, Ctenodonta, and others. The bed I found them in will be 
passed through again in a few months, when I hope to add many 
more species to the list.’ 


To the Editor of the GroLrocicaAL MAGAzInE. 


Sir,—In the newspapers it is stated that a cottage has been seen 
to sink wholly into the earth near Tredegar, South Wales, by the 
collapse of some old coal-mine, certainly, it is stated, 100 feet below. 
As this seems to offer some support to Mr. Fisher’s hypothesis 
(GroLocicaL Macazinz, Vol. IL, No. IIL, p. 102) for the formation 
of the Lexden Pit, by the giving way of the Chalk at about 142 
feet below the surface, I think it worth notice.—ENQUIRER. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 
Se 


OBITUARY NOTICE OF HENRY CHRISTY, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. &e. 


Henry Curisty, born July 26, 1810, was the son of William 
Miller Christy, the inventor of the Penny Receipt-stamp; was a 
partner in the eminent house of Christy and Co. in Gracechurch 
Street, and succeeded his father as a Director of the London Joint- 
Stock Bank. He displayed in commercial matters the same indomi- 
table energy which he afterwards devoted to scientific pursuits. In 
1850 he travelled to the East. His turn of mind was then strongly 
Kthnological, as exhibited by his collection of primitive Eastern 
fabrics. He also brought from Cyprus an extensive collection of 


* Perhaps some of our readers may have to be reminded that in England the 
real Coal-measures (those above the Millstone-grit) are divided into Upper, Mid- 
dle, and Lower; whilst in Scotland the coal-beds associated with the Yoredale 
Series and Mountain-limestone are termed the Lower Coal-measures; and the 
Coal-measures proper are referred to as the Upper Coal-measures.—EpITor. 


Obituary—Henry Christy. 287 


votive figures, now in the British Museum. The great bringing 
together of the world’s products in 1851 powerfully influenced him ; 
and he more and more collected the arms and implements of rude 
and primitive tribes. In 1852, and also in the following year, he 
carefully visited Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; and the Collec- 
tions of Scandinavian antiquities at Stockholm and Copenhagen 
matured and gave a positive form and character to his investigations 
in the close resemblance between the lost races of primitive man and 
the savage life of our time, and in establishing that humanity has 
in its incipient stage exhibited a singular harmony of expression, 
not only in its habits and wants, but in the fashioning and orna- 
mentation of its weapons and utensils, quite irrespective of zone and 
clime. His cabinet—especially formed to elucidate this truth, and 
in which the relics of the Drift and of the Rock-dwellings of the 
Dordogne, the lacustrine discoveries from the Swiss Lakes, the anti- 
quities of Scandinavia and of Mexico—in a word, the most varied 
products of the Flint of Europe and the Obsidian of America—are 
collated with the handiworks of modern barbaric life, is without a 
rival. 

In 1853 he visited Germany, and made a lengthened stay at Venice 
with Mr. Cooke, R.A. In 1856 he made an extensive tour through 
the British North American Possessions and the States, closely exa- 
mined Cuba, and, there meeting Mr. E. B. Tylor, proceeded to 
Mexico,—the result greatly adding to his store of knowledge and to 
the riches of his cabinet. Mr. Tylor’s ‘ Anahuac’ (London, 1861) 
describes their Mexican travels, with life and humour, and is full of 
interesting details of the natural features of the region, of the 
remnants of ancient Aztec buildings and works of art, and of the 
peculiarities of the Indian and Spanish populations. In 1863 
Mr. Christy visited Algeria, reaching the Atlas, and visiting Car- 
thage. He was received with marked distinctions, and greatly aided 
in his object, by the Governor, the Maréchal Duc de Malakoff. 

On the 16th April last, he left for Belgium, on a scientific explo- 
ration, with some English geologists, and during the hot weather 
caught a severe pulmonary cold in a cave. On reaching Paris, 
though far from well, he set off for La Palisse, in the Maconnais 
district, with his friends M. and Mme. Lartet, though entirely 
unfit for travelling. ‘There he was attacked with inflammation of 
the lungs, and, in spite of the care of an eminent Paris physican, 
Dr. Foville, who did not leave his bedside for a week, he fell a vic- 
tim to an energy which pooh-poohed all obstacles, and which wore 
out his bodily frame on the 4th ult. 

In association with his friend M. E. Lartet, of Paris, Mr. Christy 
had devoted much time and labour to the exploration of the caves 
in the Vezére Valley in Dordogne, and to a scrupulously careful col- 
lection of the relics of the prehistoric people that had sheltered 
therein; and he spared no expense in forwarding this undertaking, 
which already had resulted in the accumulation of thousands of 
specimens, all sorted and distinctly labelled. Many selected examples 
of these cave-deposits have been distributed liberally to various 
Scientific Societies and Institutions at home and abroad, and many 


288 Miscellaneous. 


specimens had been lithographed in readiness for publication: indeed, 
MM. Lartet and Christy had commenced a large work illustrative 
of these Aquitanian Antiquities; and this, we hope, will be com- 
pleted by M. Lartet. These fellow-labourers have already supplied 
the public with preliminary notices of the results of their explora- 
tions, in the Comptes Rendus, Feb. 29, 1864 ; the Revue Archéologique, 
April 1864, and the Transactions of the Ethnological Society of 
“London, June 21, 1864; and the Reindeer Period, lying somewhere 
between the Glacial Epoch and Traditionary Times, has thereby 
received considerable elucidation at the hands of the paleontologist 
and ethnologist. 

Mr. Christy was well known as a philanthropist. He was espe- 
cially active during the Irish famine, and his subscriptions were 
munificent. He delighted to serve others; and no one will know, 
not even many of the recipients of his kindness, how much was 
done with the right hand, of which the left was hardly cognizant. 

Mr. Christy was a Fellow of many Scientific Societies, and had 
been selected by the Council of the Royal Society as one of this 
year’s fifteen candidates.—W. T. and T. R. J. 


Tue celebrated Swiss geologist, M. A. Gressty, died in April 
last, of tetanus. The ‘ Premier Mars’ says of him, ‘he was a child 
of the people, loved and known by all. Possessing vast knowledge 
and most profoundly acquainted with the structure of our mountains, 
yet was he simple and unostentatious. Gressly had no enemies; 
envy and jealousy had no place in his heart; he was, at it were, an 
echo of another age. No one was more popular than he in the 
Jura; from the Perte-du-Rhone to the Rhine there was not a village 
in which he did not count friends, and where his arrival was not 
saluted with acclamations.’ Gressly was the author of several papers 
on the geological structure of the Jura Mountains, especially those 
of his own Canton-Soleure. He furnished Agassiz with a large 
proportion of the materials for his Molluscan Monographs; and one 
genus (Gresslya, a characteristic Lower Jurassic form) was dedicated 
to him.*—R. T. 


Cycaps and Patms seem to have been very rare plants in the 
Carboniferous Period. The only well-authenticated fossil remains of 
Palm in the Coal-measures are fragments of fronds figured and de- 
scribed lately by Sandberger, as Palmacites crassinervius (Flora der 
oberen Steinkohlenformation im Badischen Schwarzwald, Karlsruhe, 
1864, pl. 8); and well-preserved fossil fruits of a Palm, Gulelmites 
Permianus, have been figured and described by Geinitz, from the 
next succeeding geological formation (the Permian). Of the Cycade- 
ous Plants, Pterophyllum gonorrhachis, Goeppert, and Pt. blechnoides, 
Sandberger (Ibid. pl. 2), are the only good specimens known. Dr. 
Hooker, however, has indicated the existence of the wood of a Cycad 
in the Coal. Péerophyllum Cotte@anum, Gutbier, is found in the 
Permian Marlstone of Saxony, and this genus becomes frequent 
enough in the Trias and Lias. 


* Translation in part from a Swiss newspaper, April 28th. 


THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. XIII.—JULY 1865. 


GEOLOGICAL PROGRESS. 
No. I. 


PPPoE completion of the first year’s existence of the GEOLOGI- 

cAL MaGazine affords another opportunity of commenting 
on some of the leading subjects of discussion amongst geologists. 
In the first of these articles,* an attempt was made to give, in 
a few paragraphs, the essential features of the grand results 
at which geologists had arrived, and the changes which had 
consequently occurred in regard to the objects as well as the 
methods of geological enquiry. The second article ¢ was 
necessarily more special in its object, and was entitled ‘On 
some Points in Geology as seen to-day.’ That title is equally 
applicable to these pages; but, as we hope to publish many 
similar notices, at more frequent intervals than heretofore, we 
have preferred to give it a distinctive heading, which will be 
continued throughout the series. These records of progress 
are designed to furnish our readers with a concise summary, 
explanatory and critical, of the topics occupying the attention 
of the geological world; they will not always be written by 
the same author, but we shall at all times endeavour to avoid 
the Advocate, and obtain the Judge. 

Our fundamental difficulty lies in the meaning of the term 
‘progress’ as applied to Geology. Our knowledge increases 
by degrees with reference to the geological structure of differ- 
ent countries, near and distant, and thus it is true we have one 
kind of progress easily defined ; but, in the more alluring paths 
of Theoretical Geology, unless we reverse the usual practice 
by considering every new hypothesis to be true until it is 
disproved, it is impossible to say what is progress and what is 
not: for geologists are remarkably stubborn and pugnacious ; 


* Gzot. Mac., Vol. I. p.1. t Geox. Mae., Vol. II. p. 1. 
VOL. II.—NO. XIII. U 


290 Geological Progress. 


they will believe nothing, if they cannot see it, until they are 
obliged, and fight in defence of their scepticism like soldiers 
for their country. 

We have recently seen this characteristic most excellently 
displayed in several discussions on theoretical subjects, espe- 
cially in the controversies on the modes of formation of lake- 
basins and river-valleys. Field-geologists have, indeed, lately 
aroused from the lethargy in which their theory-forming facul- 
ties had so long lingered, and some of them have put forward 
hypotheses that have excited the remainder to digress for a — 
while from their more general and more profitable occupation 
of fact-finding. Thus, Professor Ramsay’s memoir on the 
Formation of Lake-basins produced a desultory discussion 
which commenced three years ago, and still continues. In the 
April number of the ‘ Philosophical Magazine,’ the enunciator of 
this theory replied tc Sir Charles Lyell’s remarks in the new 
edition of his ‘ Elements ;’ but this pamphlet has already been 
noticed in the GEoLoGICAL MaGazine.* More recently, 
Mr. John Carrick Moore has shown that Professor Ramsay has 
been a little forgetful of the laws of dynamics, while many 
other geologists, including the Presidents of the Geographical 
and Geological Societies (in their anniversary addresses), Dr. 
Haast (in the last number of the Geological Society’s Journal), 
and Mr. Ruskin in this Magazine, have taken part in the con- 
troversy on behalf of one view or the other, without contributing 
very much towards its solution. But, in fact, we cannot expect 
a question of this kind to be definitively solved and settled. It 
must always remain, for instance, a matter of opinion whether 
a large rock-basin like that of the Lake of Geneva was or 
was not scooped out by glaciers, unless some mathematician of 
acknowledged authority steps forward and proves that ice could 
not perform such a feat. For if it were absolutely proved that 
ice could scoop out a hollow in a hard rock, it would still be 
uncertain, without strong corroboratory evidence, whether this 
were the mode of formation of any particular rock-basin. In- 
deed, it is much easier to assail an hypothesis of this kind than 
to defend it; and accordingly the several lines of argument 
adopted by its opponents appear much stronger than the argu- 
ments hitherto put forward in its favour, as in many cases Pro- 
fessor Ramsay and his adherents cannot, from the nature of the 
objections advanced by those opposed to his theory, bring for- 
ward facts in direct contravention of them. Such is the case, 
for instance, in regard to the alleged incapacity of a glacier to 
excavate a deep rock-basin after it has emerged from a deep and 


* Vol. II. p. 212. t Phil. Mag., June 1865, Supplement number, p. 526. 


Gelogical Progress. 291 


narrow valley into a broad plain, the more especially as Professor 
Ramsay must admit the diminution in the velocity, and con- 
sequently (under such circumstances) in the excavating power 
of the glacier after this emersion. But this remark will not 
apply to another objection, lately brought forward by M. Desor 
in his work ‘Die Gebirgsbau der Alpen,’ namely, that the 
great lake-basins existed before the Glacial period ; for it seems 
quite as easy for Professor Ramsay to get evidence against this 
conclusion as for M. Desor to do so in its favour. Whatever 
may be the issue of this controversy, we have the satisfaction 
of knowing that, like others of its kind, it will have been the 
means of bringing to light a host of important facts that other- 
wise might have remained unpublished ; and we hope it may 
continue as long as it produces such fruit. 

Another subject has lately occupied the attention of Swiss 
Geologists, in addition to that just noticed, though somewhat 
connected with it, namely, the mode of formation of the Alps. 
The opinion seems to be gaining ground, that this mass of moun- 
tains is the result of a number of independent upheavals of strata 
at isolated points; that there is no such thing as the Alpine 
‘Chain,’ but that the Alps consist of several mountains, or 
central masses’ as they are termed, grouped together more or 
less irregularly. These ‘central masses’ are formed of hard 
erystalline rocks, such as gneiss, mica-schist, hornblende-schist, 
&c. ; and the intermediate valleys consist of newer and softer 
material, chiefly clay-slate of different ages. This theory as- 
~ sumes, of course, that the Alpine valleys are essentially valleys 
of elevation, and not of denudation. But for further details 
we must refer our readers to Professor Theobald’s work on the 
Geology of the Grisons (Graubiinden), and to M. Desor’s book 
just mentioned. 

We thus seem to be making a little progress in theoretical 
knowledge, while in the department of actual acquaintance 
with the structure of the earth’s crust much is being done. 
We find Geological Surveys at work almost everywhere in 
Christendom, even in most of our colonies; and through their 
labours we are obtaining a more extended knowledge of geo- 
logical phenomena, though it must not be forgetten that much 
is due to exploring expeditions like that of the ‘Novara.’ It 
is our function to give in the GHoLoGicaAL Magazine the 
essential features of the results of these surveys; but we shall 
also endeavour to discuss with some freedom the more general 
questions suggested by them, for the future advance of Geology 
must chiefly depend upon successful investigations in distant 
and unexplored countries. 

u2 


292 | Phillips— Oxford Fossils. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
—__4+—_—_. 


I. Oxrorp Fossits.—No. 1. 
By Professor Purures, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., &e. 
[Prate IX. | 


HE specimen of Fossil Wood in flint, figured in Pl. IX. of the 
GroLocicaAL Magazine, from a drawing by Mr. Crozier, was 
presented to the Oxford Museum by Sir Woodbine Parish, K.C.H., 
to whose intelligent liberality the public collections of England are 
greatly indebted. It was obtained from the Chalk of Winchester. 

The nodule of flint which, when broken across, disclosed the 
included piece of wood, is of an elongated oval form, and with the 
uneven and knobbed surface which frequently indicates aggregation 
on a sponge. ‘The fractured surface shows partial change of colour 
by watery actions from without, and many variations of tint within, 
arising from some original differences in the composition of the mass. 
The colour is on the whole lighter than is common in flints of the 
Upper Chalk. Examined with a lens, traces. of spicula and other 
organic bodies appear, but it is not practicable to trace through the 
mass a distinct spongiose texture. 

The wood lies in the middle, and the figure of the flint is in a 
general sense entirely conformed to it, and embraces it equally on 
all sides. ‘There is a certain distinctness of tint in the flint where it 
is in contact with the wood. The wood is a fragment, worn and 
rounded in some of the prominent parts, and looks like a small por- 
tion of a pine-branch which had been exposed to rough treatment, 
so as to present a wasted surface deprived of the bark. It is en- ~ 
tirely siliceous, and reveals in the utmost perfection the whole of 
the tissues. 

Traversing the woody fibres are several short tubular masses, 
swollen at the end, and marked more or less plainly with transverse 
rings. These are flint moulds in cavities left by boring-shells, pro- 
bably Teredines. It appears that these animals must have begun 
their operations in a young state on the wood when it had been re- 
duced to its present figure and magnitude; for the moulds which 
remain in their holes appear to be quite small at the surface, and 
quickly to grow larger within. 

Among the pleasures almost peculiar to geological study is the 
special gratification which many of the phenomena afford, even if 
we leave out of consideration the theoretical truths which the facts 
concur to establish. Every rock has its history; every pebble its 
vicissitudes; every fossil its accidents of life, and its casualties 
of death. In looking at this bit of wood in its flinty tomb, one 
easily imagines the train of probable events which led ‘to this con- 
clusion.’ Far away from the Cretaceous Sea of Albion, among the 
mountains previously uplifted in the west, from which had flowed 
the great river of the Wealden, we see a forest of Coniferous trees. 


MMASYT PAOJXQ OQ UA aLeunoed qvUrb2o 2Y,, 


CET OJNITH NI GOOM TISSOd 


duct jaeymey YW UAL PUIPPETE T 


ID 12 89.80 SOW 1089 


ay 


maka 
i 


Darbishire—Macclesfield Drift-beds. 293 


Whirled along and troken to fragments by the rushing stream which 
received their decaying stems, the ruins of the forest reach the sea, 
and some few pieces float far from shore, beyond the area of depo- 
sited mud and drifted sand. Attacked by xylophagous mollusks, 
and sinking to the ocean-bed, one at least serves as the nucleus for 
organic growth and accretion. Not merely accretion, as in the case 
of an ironstone nodule, which grows more and more regularly ellip- 
soidal in the outer layers round a fern-frond; and not entirely of 
sponge-growth, though some traces of this tissue appear; for it 
would be difficult on this view to account for the reniform envelop- 
ment of the wood. Nor can we admit the idea of the flint being in 
this case secreted into a cavity of the chalk, with this bit of wood 
suspended in the axis of the hollow. But we may perhaps conceive 
that, after being surrounded wholly or partially by organic matter, 
and even buried in the Cretaceous deposit, the wood may have served 
as the local centre of attraction for siliceous solutions, such as have 
more than filled to solidity the tissues of sponges and the cavities 
of Echinoidea, and thus to have undergone the complete ‘ petrifac- 
tion’ through every cell and fibre which is frequently witnessed in 
other wood differently circumstanced. This kind of local attraction 
to particular tissues can be often exemplified in fossil wood which has 
become wholly calcareous, pyritous, or siliceous, just as the whole 
framework of sponge has become siliceous by attraction, continued 
after death, of the same substance which, while alive, it extracted 
from sea-water to build up its spicular skeleton. 


Oxrorp: June 17, 1865. 


II. On THE GENUINENESS OF CERTAIN FOSSILS FROM THE 
MACCLESFIELD DRIFT-BEDS. 


By R. D. Darpisutre, B.A., F.G.S. 
[Read before the Manchester Geological Sede March 29, 1865. | 


At the last meeting of the Society, Mr. Plant made statements 
respecting the supply of so-called fossil shells from the Drift 
at Macclesfield, of a striking and curious character: he warned 
geologists against certain specimens, on the grounds that some were 
only recent “shells sold as fossils, and others, though bearing the 
appearance of Drift-fossils, were not only spurious as such “from 
Macclesfield, but were not even fossils at all, being nothing but the 
results of an elaborate system of importation and manufacture : 
forgeries, in fact, to meet a new demand. Mr. Plant allowed that 
some of these frauds were well calculated to deceive even geolo- 
gists, and quoted a statement that they had been successful at the 
Museums of London, Liverpool, and Manchester. Besides the simple 
introduction of recent shells, he specially reported a process of fetch- 
ing such shells from recent beaches at Liverpool, Southport, 
or Ireland (even the use of West Indian or African shells), the 
breaking-up of the same, and the subjection of the fragments to 
fire or acid, and a subsequent treatment by friction in a basket with 


294 Darbishire— Macclesfield Drift-beds. 


gravel, ‘to give them the true Drift-character and the necessary red 
tinge.’ 

So authoritative an exposure of tricks that had been imposed on 
the would-be scientific, and on the guardians of public collections, 
ever anxious to fill their cases with novelties, could not but attract 
attention. The proceedings of the Society were reported in the 
Manchester papers on the Ist of March, and the particulars of the 
Macclesfield frauds were speedily copied into several papers of 
general or scientific character in London, Liverpool, and elsewhere.* 

Mr. Plant stated that a few shells and a number of fragments had 
occurred in the beds in question, but did not indicate what species 
he supposed to be thus genuine. 

It happens that these Macclesfield fossils have occupied a good 
deal of my attention during the past winter, as being interesting in 
themselves, and as taking an important place amongst many similar 
series which I have studied for some years past. As lam myself con- 
vinced not only of the genuineness, but also of the peculiar interest, 
of the fossil shells discovered in the Macclesfield Drift-gravels dur- 
ing last year, and as I believe that Mr. Plant’s statement is caleu- 
lated to throw discredit, even to a far more serious extent than the 
forgeries themselves, upon those specimens which are veritable fos- 
sils of these deposits, I have sought this opportunity of laying before 
the Society that received, and under whose name Mr. Plant published 
his revelations, a full list of the remains which I believe to be of 
scientific value, that is to say genuine, together with such details 
and evidence in support of that view as I have at command. As 
my present object is solely the vindication of the character of the 
fossils in question, I will not now enter into details on the specially 
geological features and peculiarities of the Macclesfield Beds, or of 
their series of fossils. 

For the purpose of my argument it is necessary, however briefly, 
to refer to the shell-bearing marine Drift of this and other localities. 
Within the limits of the ‘Boulder-clay Formation,’ as it is commonly 
seen in England, there are often found beds of sand and fine and 
coarse gravel, of rounded and water-worn pebbles, comparatively 
free from clayey admixture. These beds exhibit more or less dis- 
tinct stratification, and frequently also those abundant and compli- 
cated layers of subordinate deposit, and those peculiar classifications 
of materials within short distances, which tell unmistakeably of the 
action of tidal or other currents of considerable, variable or inter- 
mittent power. These beds frequently yield to the painstaking 
observer a few much-worn bits of broken shells, often undistinguish- 
able as to species; but here and there, under favourable circumstances, 
more completely preserved specimens may be met with, and a variety 
of forms discriminated. 

These beds occur in several places in Lancashire, Derbyshire, and 
Cheshire, and in North Wales. They are exactly represented in 


* Also in the Gronocican Magazine, vol. i. p. 179. 


Darbishire—Macclesfield Drift-beds. 295 


Scandinavia and Canada, and in many a beach and channel of the 
present seas. 

The origin of these beds, which are sands and shingle rather 
than gravels, is unquestionably marine. Such beds are ranked 
by some observers as anterior to the Boulder-clay, by others as 
intermediate between a lower and an upper Boulder-clay, by others 
as a local or temporary modification of that deposit, or as the 
remains of a subsequent age. 

It will be sufficient to mention particularly two noted instances of 
these deposits, each of which has been well examined and described. 
A bed containing remains of marine shells was discovered by the 
late Mr. Trimmer at the height of about 1,350 feet above the level of 
the sea, on Moel Tryfaen, near Carnarvon, one of the western spurs 
of the Snowdon range. To this deposit, which has lately been 
largely laid open as a mass of stratified drift some 40 feet thick, in 
the cuttings of the Alexandra Slate Quarry, I had the pleasure of 
directing the attention of Sir C. Lyell and the Rev. W. S. Symonds 
in the summer of 1863, © 

Protected from the dissolving rainfall of ages by a superficial bed 
of clay, this ancient shingle has yielded an abundant series of shells 
and fragments, to the number of nearly 60 species. ‘There is no 
doubt of their genuine character. The greater part of them I have 
myself taken from successive faces as exposed in the progress of the 
quarries. Full notes on the subject will be found in the proceedings 
of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society for November 
1868, and in the Appendix to the third edition of the ‘ Antiquity of 
Man.’ The beds consist of fine and coarse sand, and a variety of 
shingle with pebbles varying in size from sand to paving-stones. 

The second deposit of the kind I shall mention is exposed in the 
shore-cliffs north of the Gynn, between Blackpool and Fleetwood 
on the Lancashire coast, where it may be well seen for a mile or 
more in length, and many yards in thickness. Here also the forma- 
tions consists of fine and coarse marine sand, and fine and coarse 
shingle. It exhibits in great variety the false-bedding and local 
assortment of materials above referred to. These beds have yielded 
a few shells and fragments of shells, the greater number of which 
are enumerated in Mr. Binney’s paper On the Drift Deposits near 
Blackpool, in the 10th volume of the Memoirs of the Manchester 
Literary and Philosophical Society (1851-2). ‘The remainder of the 
specimens named in the subjoined table from this locality have been 
found there by myself. 

I will only add, before proceeding to the examination of the Mac- 
clesfield fossils, that the strata to which those specimens are attri- 
buted precisely correspond in character with the Moel Tryfaen and 
the Blackpool Beds, excepting only that at the Macclesfield Cemetery 
the beds present a section of 60 to 70 feet in depth, or nearly twice 
as great as that of either of the more western sites. 

Similar beds are found in several places in the district about 
Macclesfield. One locality of peculiar interest was discovered by 
Mr. Prestwich, F.R.S., in an escarpment about half a mile east .of 


296 Darbishire—Macclesfield Drift-beds. 


the Setter Dog Inn, on the Buxton Road, at an elevation of between 
1,100 and 1,200 feet above the level of the sea. 

During the summer and autumn of last year, while the New Ce- . 
metery west of the Free Park at Macclesfield was being constructed, 
it became necessary to make a series of cuttings in the top and 
easterly declivities of the hill selected for its site, the ballast being 
tipped on to the lower edges of the hill, and along a new embanked 
road towards the town. In the course of these works an unusually 
complete exposure of the beds was effected, and a very large mass 
of material turned over. 

From these cuttings, Mr. J. D. Sainter, a medical man of standing 
in Macclesfield, and a practised collector of geological specimens, 
and Mr. James Lowe, sen., also experienced in collecting, though not 
as a geologist, gathered together a large quantity of shells and frag- 
ments of shells. They frequently purchased from the workmen 
specimens which the latter stated they had dug up. The remains 
so collected were submitted for examination to gentlemen of the 
Geological Survey then engaged in the district; and after they had 
signified their interest in the series, and had pointed out the pre- 
sence of certain spurious specimens, it happened that the opportu- 
nity was afforded to me of making a very thorough examination of . 
nearly the whole of the specimens thus got together. 

Partly by a considerable purchase from Mr. Lowe, and partly by 
my own collections during repeated visits, I have acquired the series 
I now exhibit. The fragments which I collected were picked by 
myself from fresh faces of undisturbed beds, or from the slopes of 
natural or artificial falls. 

Of the species marked in the following Table, as found in Mr. 
Prestwich’s patch, all were found by myself except those noted with 
an asterisk, which Mr. Lowe gathered from that place. 

The bulk of this collection was exhibited by me at a meeting of 
the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in November last, 
and formed the subject of a short paper on the deposit and its fos- 
sils. In that paper due notice was taken of the introduction of 
recent Foreign and British shells. . 

There is no doubt that, as Messrs. Sainter and Lowe were very 
much interested in the discovery, and paid the workmen for speci- 
mens, many more were handed in to them than had been honestly 
dug up. Showy tropical species of Murex, Cyprea, Rotella, and 
many other shells of less remote but obviously of recent origin, 
were thus at first passed off upon these gentlemen, neither of whom 
is practised in fossil or recent conchology. Some of these spurious 
remains are evidently shells from some recent British sea-beach. 
The intrusion of these latter, particularly of shells which look as if 
they had long been chimneypiece ornaments or children’s playthings, 
is the more to be regretted, as their presence tends to throw doubt 
upon several specimens which may after all be genuine. 

But, in truth, it is only as to a very few of this class of specimens 
that anyone really skilled in recent and fossil conchology can for a 
moment hesitate. Shells or fragments with bright fresh gloss, or ' 


Darbishire—Macclesfield Drift-beds. 297 


shells with more or less epidermis, or shells with the byssus of Myt:- 
lus still adhering, could deceive no competent collector, however 
carefully filled with sand. 

Mr. Plant, however, detailed a fraud of more elaborate character— 
namely, the imitation of Drift-fossils by means of a process of im- 
portation and manufacture. I will not say that such a forgery could 
not be executed, but I doubt whether any Macclesfield workman has 
done it. 

The fragments of shells which I present to-day with confidence 
as Drift-fossils from Macclesfield, not only represent with perfect 
fairness many pounds’ weight which have passed through my hands 
at Mr. Lowe’s, but with almost equal similarity like masses of the 
Moel Tryfaen remains. 

Further, as appears from the Table, they reproduce with remark- 
able correspondence the groups or lots of species which occur in 
Carnarvonshire and at Blackpool. 

Moreover, with even a yet more striking coincidence, these frag- 
ments from Macclesfield not only appear in almost identical propor- 
tions of frequency, but actually (as will be seen on comparing the 
specimens) continually repeat the conditions of fracture, wear, and 
preservation which characterise the Welsh and Lancashire speci- 
mens. 

Supposing that the Macclesfield navigators could conduct a delicate 
mechanical and chemical process to the minute point of exact imi- 
tation, it is out of the question that any one of them should know 
exactly what species to use, or how to break and wear them to the 
genuine Drift pattern, or to mix them in true Drift proportions. It 
is impossible that they could introduce certain Arctic shells now 
extinct, or certain Southern shells of extreme rarity in British seas. 

Now, though I picked out of Mr. Lowe’s heap four or five un- 
touched fragments of a foreign Venus, I have not in a single 
instance found a ‘driftized’ piece of any of several most common 
British beach-shells. There is, even amongst the spurious whole 
shells, a remarkable absence of such shells as Mya truncata, Solen, 
Tellina tenuis or fabula, Scrobicularia, Lutraria or Pecten varius. 
Those intruders which did occur are precisely such as might have 
been brought home from some cheap excursion, to be treasured 
or neglected as the case might be, until the novel demand gave them 
a new value. Thus a perforated pebble, with fresh Saxicave, Mac- 
tra stultorum (the commonest of Lancashire beach-shells), Tellina 
solidula, Venus striatula, Patella vulgata, Turritella communis, 
Natica monilifera, Buccinum undatum, and Fusus gracilis were all 
brought forward—for immediate detection. 

Lastly, the fragments of fossils are not sufficiently rare to make 
it easier to forge than find them. I have gathered a cubic inch in 
less than an hour several times ; and one cannot suppose a deception 
so thorough-going that fossils, the fruit of so great an ingenuity, 
should be actually scattered and buried for visitors to find. 

Upon the whole, I believe the accusation of the manufacture of 
Drift-fossils is altogether an invention. That it is so, one little 


298 Darbishire—Macclesfield Drift-beds. 


remark of Mr. Plant’s informer seems to me to prove. The author 
of the statement says the fragments, specially prepared with a coat- 
ing of white-lime, were shaken in a basket of gravel, to give them 
the necessary red tinge. How this rubbing could be continued to 
the requisite length without removing the white-lime is doubtful. 
But after all, instead of having a red tinge, it so happens that these 
fossils have a peculiar and constant creamy-white colour. The red- 
ness is the fruit of the story-maker’s own confusion between the 
‘gravel’ according to the ordinary notions of gravel, and the gravel 
of the Macclesfield Drift-beds, which is a bright clean shingle. 

That certain frauds have been more or less clumsily perpetrated, 
there is no doubt; but Irepeat that they have not been such as to 
impose on a skilled and wary observer. They ought not, therefore, 
to be published without the definition of the true fossils, which, 
when shown to be reliable, constitute a material addition to the 
long and far-from-complete array of facts on which, sooner or later, 
a true theory of the Drift is to be founded. 

Such frauds are, after all, not more than the ordinary fossil-buyer 
has been exposed to ever since and wherever there has been a 
market for specimens. The warning which Mr. Plant has repeated 
will save some unskilful collectors from loss and disgrace. It was 
never more needful than now-a-days, when so much is stated and 
published with an assumption of scientific acumen and authority 
which most seriously deranges the deliberate progress of true science. 

Before I refer you to the specimens themselves, it is only fair to 
the officers of the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street, to 
point out that they were the first to indicate the fact of the supply 
of spurious specimens ; and. to the gentlemen who preside over the 
Museum of the Philosophical Society and the Free Museum in 
Liverpool, to state that neither of them have ever seen the Maccles- 
field fossils. We at Manchester have certainly not been deceived 
on the subject. as, 

If I seem to have taken up too much of the time of the Society, it 
is because the rehabilitation of a damaged reputation is necessarily 
a matter which requires a certain elaborateness of detail. The 
effort is in the present case the more needful, as the most remark- 
able fact in-connection with these Macclesfield fossils, is the occur- 
rence amongst them of certain species of southern type; a circum- 
stance so new to the phenomena of the Drift as to challenge the 
closest inquiry, even had there been no suggestion of fraudulent 
endeayour. 

A very short inspection* of the specimens will probably satisfy 
those who see them side by side, that the Macclesfield series pre- 
cisely correspond, as to their geological and zoological facies, with the 
Moel Tryfaen and Blackpool fossils, and may fairly rank with them. 

For the sake of a more elaborate proof, and of a wider audience, 
TI submit the following digested Table of all the specimens in question 


* Series of specimens are deposited in the Museums at Jermyn Street and 
Oxford. : 


comp | ‘swomiuyf [+ + qpoqs Samos 1 ‘syaouseap 


— |—|u ' "Muy “unyepun wMUTDONg | CF 
Oa} . . ’ : S]TOYS woyxorq — — | wea 2 ayn “eyesseroul —_— tP 
‘s]UeTISeIy pue (: synouany 0) N) fe Ourog “RTTOUS peyoryonu | | | = ao 
S][9qs wexorq oe ‘O}JIP “uv 3 s]UOWISeAE — mel i (1 : * UUVT “eyeTNoiyor BSST NT oT 
| (: ayo Uraery ON) ‘G OWOg ‘sT[eYs peqjor-yontm | — | f | —| ° : : = cae 
ne “oytp f : S]PYS usyorq pue syuousderz | — | — | ff : ‘uuyy ‘snide, emding | ZF 
‘s]UOTISLIE pur *s]UOTLOBIT 
STEYs wexorq “-/| pur sypeys usyxoaq ‘| * 2 : S][OYS uexorq puv sjuourseayy | — |“ | ‘ff | * ‘WUT ‘ShaovUlte xen, | TP 
“0 — — = ae a — |—|—]| °* ‘poug ‘stpvetoq stdorjoyoray, 
. — lee ¢ Q : 2 toeutoeds sunok tT | — | —|“a| ° " "un “exezytttuout — | OF | 
“y a a — — = —- }-—-|j— : ; “po1g ‘osnnja — | 
a] — |°a}|—|° " upnouog “epiytu vor | 6g 


‘a ‘omds poTfor T 
‘dy zayno “11a ‘diy .1eano ‘2: _‘ diy zaqno pa i 


ard dee alae : meee ai 
— | wa 


V pus ‘snoutwdads uIOM D0} LO OMY PPYsoeporyy y¥ ‘TES YsuMg paimquysip ATeseues pue UMOMY-T[es Y— OTT ‘nadoing voidhy *1e 


pur Seq yorsag sv ay se spreayiou Sutduez sou ‘satoads wiayynos & si qeys smypy, “seaTeA pesdesead Ajarey ow —“uury ‘09j90) vaLF “eg 


JNOGe eYViSIUL OU SI aISYT, “OMOT “IPT 0} 200 pur ‘our 07 syuoMIseT OUsUs EIEN O44 ‘Yored sqoLMserg “IT pue 


“spaq-1Jlaq. UsMy ur punoy st saroeds ayy, “punoy waaq ervy “osy Jo ywouseay 


“sBvag oUTTTRAON PUR Pary aq} UI ISSO} SLIT “WoHesresard pooS ur sesTea SUIS OM} eB susuMoads pjaysepoRy oy, “Ueqg 


: TE, Wepsof jo IplUg samep IL JO AjoyMe aqy2 wo 
‘sXorgo pe Uday “pap Aq oatysi1a3s9010 AA UL Spaq auad0I[g-4s0g UlOIF papiooag st ays ey, “Spee Azayauiag 243 38 FJasXur 07 patmooo syweutsray 
OMT, ‘SSousuMMeS atayy 10 sotads a194} JO qnop ou 9ARy PUR ‘WAy2 Jo Z{ 19A0 paummexs Avy T TPs JO sedaid [RWIS UIOM-YONUI oNstIaIoRIeyD 
ATySsiy ore suautmads Arayulag ppayseporyy aug, *Astpedoy a1JUeqjne AjrayyI0u ysouL ay} SB keg Aqueg Woy pepioved st 37 ~“woRNqmasIp 
(ystuedg) uzeynos ATTReoysueyrrey Jo [Ys v os[r st smp— (shoager) -aurry ‘wnpnpns12gnt Q=(H pue “q) WU] “wnousns wnplvy “GT 

“[NyZIqnop ATA st MORAY YUApL 219 Inq { wnyHaynoM “7D Jo WOpeItp ay1 UE WTO AieuTpIo ey} WOsy Surkiea ‘wngwurys9 “2p Jo Mawes IayeM 
-daap Ulva) B dT ULasar suouiiads ayy, ‘“wopuoy ur Uy JO} peuieu os ‘syuamseay OM} sey dequreg I_— cary ‘UNIDINID WNIPLDD “ST 
“BvIQ sulp[e10y 941 WI [Issof sIeI B JOU SI T[PyS ey, ‘satsads stqi JO WONLOyNUApr eq 10 Supuy ay} qye 


‘syueusery fersjey Aueur pue 


‘suaMBEIy [RMOquIN pue >BuTy poyILUI-[]a4 FI ULTY sseq om pepyark asry spag LrezeureD ppPusspoeN euL Avg woAreurED Jo quoU punoy 
MOU 100 S14, + ‘vuNTy suLIUM Ystuedg oy) Jo daquEeM oNsApEIEyD & Gieymos ATjeruessa, setoads B st sty —“UUry “suowD vI12y2iQ “TT 


‘synomseay “Y 
op ft | 


‘s]UoULseay pue 
syeys uoexoaq +f 


“Lh 
‘s]HOMID tA pur 
sTeys uoexorq “f 


"hl 
‘diy 10yno “a 


"dh 


“ 


*BOATRA Wayorq 


“SL 


‘qUaULSRay ]]RUIS - 


| pue sjuemSey 9! pur syuouseg ‘p 


: s2[0Y JUsnyuCD seuIT{auIOS 


*orTysvoueyT 
“joodyoutg 


866 0 anf o7 “TT JOA “OVI “10TD] 


qHot Wout STISSOH HO ATAVY, 


Ee ee ee a  , SSC~—CS 
‘Sdud-Ldluq WAHLO ANV QATAIMSATOOV]L 


gmspet yews Zuryeu seeds seyjouy | — —— ee 
vn Z 2 + govjins yore uo paye[ost ApeT | 
-nZardt sajoy pumor eaary WIT ‘S24TPAIA JO ] 
| syusuisrsy UL suaaAvo eDxE] SUDYPOL seweds vy | — |=) |} Z : " euoTQ «Ze | 
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Machintosh—On the Lake-district. 299 


(except only manifestly spurious ones), in comparison with similar 
specimens, as recorded from the Welsh and Lancashire localities. 
Every single specimen, or fragment of a specimen, in the Maccles- 
field series now exhibited, has been minutely compared, not only 
with specimens of known Drift-fossils, but with recent shells, and 
also with the results of an elaborate examination, which I have 
carried on, of the character and forms in which fragments of shells 
present themselves on the beaches and in the bed of the present 
British seas. 

A few specimens whose authenticity is suspicious are marked in 
the ‘Remarks’ column with p. It is not impossible that they may 
yet prove to be genuine. 

Almost all these remains are broken into small fragments, and are 
much rolled and worn. A certain number may be put on one side, 
as presenting an appearance of greater comparative freshness, having 
lost less animal matter. These uniformly show signs of great 
attrition. They are noted on the 4th column; the rest, noted in the 
drd column, look more completely mineralized, are often even friable, 
and all, except certain minute convolute shells, particularly broken 
up into small fragments. The latter series especially are almost 
always slightly adherent to the tongue. 

While Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys’ valuable Manual is still incomplete, I 
have thought it most convenient to use the nomenclature and ar- 
rangement of Messrs. Forbes and Hanley’s ‘ British Mollusca.’ 

Scale of frequency :—v. r. very rare (1 to 3); r rare (3 to 6); f. 
frequent (about 12) ; c. common (twice or thrice as numerous); @ 
abundant. 


Til. A Tovurtst’s Notes on THE SURFACE-GEOLOGY OF THE 
LAKE-DISTRICT. 


By D. Macxiytosx, F.G.S. 


yh Magee Ecolomicts admit that the Lake-district of the North-west of 
England has been several times under the sea since the first 
upheaval of the alternating sedimentary and volcanic rocks of which 
it is composed ; and few would be disposed to question that during 
the repeated processes of elevation and subsidence, whether con- 
tinuous or intermittent, the sides of the mountains and valleys of 
this district have been long exposed, at different levels, to the action 
of waves, tides, and currents. We have reason to suppose that the 
duration of the last or intra-glacial submergence was at least as long 
as the time which has since elapsed; and if during the latter the sea 
has done so much to indent and modify our coasts, may we not expect 
to find the most obvious traces of its former denuding influence in 
regions which have risen above its level? Yet some of the pluvial, 
fluvial, and glacial geologists of the present day would soon reduce | 
the sea to a subordinate rank in the list of causes, were it not 
for the masterly advocacy of marine denudation which, with fresh 
arguments, may be found in the successive editions of the works of 
Sir Charles Lyell and Sir R. I. Murchison. 


300 Mackintosh— On the Lake-district. 


Pluvial Action.— Origin of Rakes.—Before proceeding to the 
main subject of this article, it may be weil to notice how far rains 
and rivers have modified the external configuration of the Lake- 
district. With regard to the first, I think it may be safely asserted 
that, unless under very peculiar circumstances, the effect of rain is 
limited 10 the removal of sand or mud, and the roughening of the 
surface of rocks, without any new or determinate shape being com- 
municated, or the general outline altered. But this observation 
ceases to be applicable when mere pluvial action has passed into 
that of temporary brooks during heavy and continued falls of rain. 
These have evidently been instrumental to a considerable extent in 
clearing, deepening, and widening rents in the faces of cliffs, or sides 
of rocky declivities. What are locally called rakes, or narrow 
gulleys indenting precipices, and frequently ramifying or uniting, 
may be referred to original joints and vertical fractures in the rocks, 
afterwards enlarged by periodical torrents. But in many places the 
action of these torrents would appear to have been supplemental to 
ancient marine denudation; and the size of the delta of stones 
and gravel at the lower end of the rake will often approximately 
determine how much of the excavation is due to running water 
since the emergence of the land. In the case of some large rakes, 
moreover, blocks of rock have apparently been disentangled and 
carried down in a way which cannot be well explained without 
having recourse to oceanic agency; and when we consider that 
rakes are now forming on many sea-coasts, as well as enlarging in 
mountainous countries, the most philosophical explanation would 
perhaps refer the larger rakes of the Lake-district to the funda- 
mental or wndermining action of the sea, followed by the degrading 
action of pluvial torrents. Rakes largest at the top we might sup- 
pose to be mainly pluvial—those largest at the bottom marine. The 
gable-ends of several hills in Cumberland are deeply indented with 
rakes. Those on the Great End may be seen from a distance of 
many miles. But as the Great End presents the appearance of 
a denuded promontory, the rakes may have been mainly formed 
while the base of the cliff was still undermined by tides and currents. 
On the face of Goat Crag, behind Castle Crag (see accompanying 
cut), there are several picturesque rakes.* 

Origin of Screes.—Scerees are the loose materials which lie seat- 
tered between the crest of a declivity and the bottom of a valley. 
They are often the outwashings of rakes, but generally the irregular 
down-crumblings of precipices or slopes. They may be divided into 
two kinds, which graduate into each other—screes consisting chiefly 
of boulders, and screes composed of small fragments, sand, or mud. 
We can scarcely err in mainly attributing the latter accumulations 
to atmospheric action; but the detached blocks and large stones 
which are often seen scattered along the base of precipices, would 


* Amongst the two largest rakes in Cumberland are Lady’s Rake, in Wallow 
Crag, near Keswick, and Lord’s Rake, on one side of Mickledoor Chasm, Scafell. 
The ascent of the latter is considered a great pedestrian feat. 


Mackhintosh—On the Lake-district. 301 


seem to have been disentangled from their parent rock by a laterally 
rather than a vertically operating agency. In some instances, it is 
true, the place whence a block has recently fallen may be detected ; 


View of Goat Crag, Cumberland. 


but many of the blocks under consideration are either in positions 
(see accompanying woodcut), or exist in such numbers, as to call for 
an agency at once undermining and dispersing—in other words, the 
action of the sea; and this explanation would appear to be more 
especially necessary in the case of blocks considerably removed from 
their parent-cliff, imbedded in gravel, or forming part of an accumu- 
lation of stones which extend to a great depth (as often revealed by 


the passing stream) beneath the present surface of the lowest part 
of the valley.* 


Detached Blocks in Kirkstone Pass. (Trap-breccia and volcanic ash.) 


* For a notice of the occurrence of fossils in ‘screes,’ see Professor Harkness’s 
paper On the Skiddaw Slate Series, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xix. pp. 113 
et seq. 


302 Machintosh—-On the Lake-district. 


But the finest assemblage of huge blocks Ihave seen in the Lake- 
district occurs in an upland valley named Greenburn, very little 
visited by tourists, though perhaps surpassing every other in a cer- 
tain kind of grandeur. This valley runs between Little Langdale 
and the hills called the Carrs. Its solitude has been only invaded 
by the not inappropriate copper-mine lately belonging to John Cross- 
field, Esq., of Ambleside. Between the copper-mine and the col 
under the Carrs, the back of the Wetherlamb Mountain is strewn 
with thousands of blocks, varying in size upwards to at least 30 or 
AO feet in diameter. They present no indications of having been left 
by a descending glacier; but have evidently been disentangled from 
the rocky declivity above, and irregularly distributed. It would 
be going too far to assert that some of them may not have fallen 
since the last emergence of the land; but the sloping (not precipi- 
tous) rocky declivity above—the number and size of the fragments 
—the distances to which many of them have been carried into the 
valley—and many other considerations, forbid the idea of their being 
mainly due to any agency now operating on the spot; while the 
striking resemblance they present to sea-coast rocks justifies the 
conclusion that they were undermined, disentangled, scattered, and 
left in their present positions at the time when Greenburn Valley, 
along with the valley of Lever’s Water, constituted a sea-strait, or 
after the strait was converted into two approximating creeks by the 
formation of the col which now separates the valleys. ‘The preci- 
pitous and undermined appearance of the lofty towering cliffs on the 
right-hand side, and at the head of Greenburn, furnishes evidence 
of its being to a very great extent a valley of denudation.* 

Ancient Straits and Creeks ——The only difference between many 
mountain-passes and a sea-strait consists in this, that the strait is 
still washed by the sea—the pass has long since been forsaken by 
the billows. One of the most striking instances of a forlorn strait, 
or rather group of straits, may be found in Borrowdale, more espe- 
cially in the part still appropriately though unwittingly called the . 
Straits of Borrowdale. Near the entrance, on the left, we have a 
cwm (see sequel) in which the sea has overdone its work; for the 
inner extremity of this cwm communicates by a very narrow strait 
with the larger Borrowdale strait. The latter is divided into two by 
the wood-crested rock called the Castle Crag. The Bowder Stone 
in Borrowdale has been regarded by guide-book writers as a block 
which has fallen from a neighbouring declivity; but I think that 
the associated phenomena rather indicate that it has been left by 
the sea—the softer parts or looser fragments having been washed 
away from the neighbourhood. Man has lately supplemented nature 
in clearing away fragments so as to render this celebrated stone a 
more conspicuous object. ; 


* The most extensive screes in the Lake-district are on the south-east side of 
Wastwater, where nature is still very actively at work. 

7 A very obvious instance of an old sea-strait may be seen in the Mickledoor 
Chasm, which separates Scafell from Scafell Pike. This chasm, originally a gaping 
fracture, has evidently been enlarged by an oceanic current. 


Mackintosh— On the Lake-district. 303 


The termis ancient creeks, fiords, or voes (a name given to narrow 
inlets in Shetland) may be applied to most of the valleys of the 
Lake-district which are shut up at one end. When two valleys 
communicate by a col, they may have originated in a line of frac- 
ture; and Professor Harkness (see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xix, 
p- 128) regards Grisedale Valley, between Ullswater and Grasmere, 
as running along an anticlinal axis. But many of the valleys in 
Westmoreland and Cumberland present indications of being almost 
exclusively due to the undermining and excavating agency of the 
sea. As may now be seen in Shetland, the sea would appear to have 
made a breach in a cliff or declivity in a particular direction, nothing 
further being necessary to enable it to pursue its work of voe- 
making. In some of the Lake-valleys, as in that which runs up 
from Kirkstone Foot in a direction parallel to Deepdale, the sea has 
left a number of blocks—some of them just detached from the parent 
rock, others carried to a short distance; as if, by a sudden rise of 
the land, it had been stopped short in its career, that it might leave 
monuments not only of its work of denudation, but of the various 
steps by which that work was accomplished. 

Action of Rivers.—The streams which traverse most of the valleys 
of the Lake-district are too insignificant to justify the supposition 
that these valleys have been scooped out by running water since the 
last emergence of the land. In many valleys the level at which the 
action of the sea left off, and that of the stream commenced, can be 
traced in the abrupt commencement of the precipitous sides of the 
channel of the latter. A similar sudden break in the general slope 
of the sides of a valley, indicating the commencement of fluviatile 
as distinct from previous marine denudation, may be seen in Aber 
Valley, North Wales, and Ash’s Valley, Longmynd, Shropshire. 
The latter furnishes a striking instance of a winding and bifureating 
creek or voe. But in those river-gulleys which graduate upwards 
into larger valleys, we may often discover a sufficient distinction 
between their respective contours to justify our referring the one to 
fluviatile, and the other to marine denudation. Professor Sedgwick 
has noticed another kind of proof of the limited excavating power 
of rivers in the Lake-district, as being furnished by the small quan- 
tity of detritus they have yet been able to deposit in the lakes which 
receive their waters.* 

Origin of Cwms.—The Welsh word Cwm is applied to a distinct 
class of hollows, which seem to point more strikingly than either 
passes or ordinary valleys to the sea as the great excavator. Few of 
these hollows correspond in shape with the lithological structure of 
the district in which they are situated: they are hollows of denu- 
dation par excellence. It is true that some of them, when viewed 


* In connection with this subject, it is worthy of notice that there are many 
valleys and hollows of denudation in the Weald of Sussex with no streams flow- 
ing through them; while some of the valleys of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire present 
a series of raised beaches which embrace nearly the whole of the declivities on both 
sides, in such a way as to show that these valleys remain as they were left by the 
sea. 


304 Mackintosh— On the Lake-district. 


from a distance, appear as if an explosive force had suddenly blown 
up a part of the earth’s crust. But this supposition would not be 
resorted to by an inductive geologist, more especially when he con- 
siders that cwms are not whole cups, but hollows with an entrance 
on one side. The innermost part of the semicircular cliff is gene- 
rally the most precipitous, as one might expect, supposing the exca- 
vating cause to have operated in an inward direction. A good 
specimen of a cwm, containing a tarn, may be seen near the top of 
Saddleback: another occurs to the north of Whiteside, and north- 
west of Grisedale Pike; and its walls, which are very lofty, present an 
imposing appearance from the road leading along Whinlatter Pass.* 
Ancient Sea-cliffs——Wherever we meet with lines of precipices 
commencing suddenly, and (to a traveller approaching them from 
behind) unexpectedly, on the side of a mountain or in situations 
where no particular disruption has occurred, we are justified in re- 
garding them as old sea-cliffs, more especially when they exhibit 
traces of having been undermined; for it is not so much by a dis- 
integrating process that the sea encroaches on rocky coasts, as by 
undermining, displacing, and scattering fragments and blocks which 
have already been so far separated by joints and rents. Even in the 
case of cliffs originally formed by a great fracture, we can generally 
see indications of the subsequent action of the sea. In travelling 
in the Lake-district we continually meet with lines of precipitous 
escarpment running along one side of a mountain-range, the other 
side of which is a gradual slope. From an inspection of Howe’s 
Model of the Lake-district at Bowness, and from subsequent obser- 
vation, I was led to notice that the steep escarpments generally face 
the east, south-east, or north-east—apparently showing that the 
indenting and undermining current must have assailed the ancient 
Cumbrian Archipelago from the east. Among the numerous 
escarpments with an easterly aspect are the following :—A part of 
the western shore of Windermere Lake; the eastern side of the Old 
Man, and Wetherlamb Mountains; the eastern declivity of the 
Crinkle Crags; the precipice called Pavey Ark: the hills running 
along the western side of Grasmere Valley, the Gap of Dunmail, 
Thirlmere, and the road to Keswick; the eastern side of Helvellyn, 
which is not only the most precipitous, but indented with voes 
separated by edges, one of the voes terminating in Red Tarn Cwm ; 
the western sides of Rydal and Scandale Valleys, near Ambleside: 
the eastern side of Kirkstone Fell, overhanging the pass; the western 
side of Kentmere Valley, &c. &c. In many of the narrow valleys, 
where the direction of the current would be deflected, we find pre- 
cipitous escarpments on both sides, or Sometimes on the exceptional 
side, as might be expected. In the western part of the Lake- 
district the steep escarpments exhibit no prevailing aspect; but this 


* Sir C. Lyell has marked an era in the history of geological discovery by his 
explanation of the denudation of the Weald of Sussex; but I am not aware that 
any geologist has yet taken notice of a cwm now in course of being excavated by the 
sea at Beachy Head. 


Machintosh—On the Lake- district. 305 


may be explained by supposing that the assumed current must have 
become very irregular, or in some places reversed, in the direction 
of its action, by. the time it reached Borrowdale, Gatesgarth, or 
Wastdale. 


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The Pillar Rock, Ennerdale. (From a Sketch by Mr. Whitehead.) 


The Pillar Rock.—As this apparently old sea-coast rock is scarcely 
noticed in guide-books, and its situation misstated in a costly work 
on the Lake-country lately published, perhaps some account of it 
may not be unacceptable to the readers of this Magazine. It is 
situated in Ennerdale, about two-thirds of the way up the side of 
the Pillar-mountain. Professor Sedgwick, many years ago, de- 
scribed the geological structure of Ennerdale, along with other 
parts of the Lake-district, with an accuracy which has bidden de- 
fiance to all attempts at revision or modification. Syenite may 
be seen at the base of the Pillar-mountain, and the rocks above have 
been so much altered by metamorphism, if not indeed originally 
volcanic, as to render it very puzzling to give a definite name to any 
particular specimen.* The crags on the side of this mountain have 


* In a kind note lately received from Professor Sedgwick, that venerable geo- 
logist, so far as he can now recollect, would call the Pillar Rock a mass of fine 


VOL. II.—NO. XIII. xX 


- 306 Machintosh — On the Lake-district. 


been ranked by Mr. Otley, the guide-book writer, as the first in the 
Lake-district. The great pile of rock called The Pillar presents a 
shape which can only be explained by denudation, and that chiefly 
a denudation by fragmentary displacement, which is the peculiar 
province of the sea. That this valley has been a creek, is evident 
from the number of undermined and denuded cliffs it contains, and 
especially from the terrace and accompanying line of cliff on the side 
of Revelin Pike. The geological tourist who, during the present 
summer, may wish to climb to the top of the Pillar Rock, will per- 
haps pardon me for digressing from the main subject, in conclusion, 
by giving a history of the very difficult and dangerous ascents which 
have already been achieved. This, after several months’ inquiry, I 
was fortunate to procure from Mr. Whitehead, Infirmary Surgeon, 
Whitehaven. ; 

On September 24, 1850, Mr. Whitehead ascended, and found two 
slips of paper, in a ginger-beer bottle, with the following inscrip- 
tions :—‘ Lieut. Wilson, R.N., Troutbeck, ascended the Pillar, May 6, 
1848, and left this bottle as a memento of the same.—Charles A. 
C. Baumgartner. August 24, 1850. Cambridge.’ 

Mr. Whitehead afterwards ascended on May 24, 1853. The ginger- 
beer bottle left by Lieut. Wilson was still there, but the papers were 
gone, and in their place a nest of black beetles. These were dis- 
lodged, and in their place a piece of paper was put in the bottle with 
‘God save the Queen’ written on it. 

Charles William Hartley, a young man from Bradford, Yorkshire, — 
ascended, Friday, May 24, and Monday, May 27, 1861. 

Mr. Whitehead, a third time, ascended, Aug. 27, 1861, and found 
the paper left by Mr. Hartley. 

So far on the undoubted authority of Mr. Whitehead. I have 
been informed that the Rev. Mr. Webster, late Curate of Keswick, 
has since ascended. 


IV. Microzoa or tHe VALLEY-DEPpPosITs OF THE Nar, 
Norroik. 
In the GroLocicat Macazine, No. VIL, Mr. C. B. Rost described 
the Brick-earth of the Nar Valley. To the list of Fossils which he 
gave at pp. 11 and 12, we can now add some minute but interesting 
forms, namely, four Bivalve Entomostraca and three Foraminifera. 
The former (all new species), determined by Mr. G. S. Brady, of Sun- 
derland, are— 
Cythere arborescens, Brady. Normania carinata, Brady. 
Cytheridea punctillata, Brady. Cythere aspera, Brady. 
In their general relationships, they are such as are found along 
the coast at the present day. 
The Foraminifera have been determined by Mr. H. B. Brady, 
F.L.S., F.G.S., of Newcastle, whose note is as follows :—‘ Brick- 


porphyry, but would caution geologists against being deceived by the look of a frac- 
tured surface—the real structure of rocks of this class beg best observed where 
the process of decomposition is going on. 


Triassic Rocks of California. 307 


earth of the Valley of the Nar, Norfolk. Specimen, No. 1.—Very 
muddy, grey clay, containing many mollusean shells (Cerithium reti- 
culatum, &c.) and a few Otolites, in the small residue of the wash- 
ing. This contains abundance of Rotalia Beccarii of all sizes, and 
also of Nonionina striato-punctata: the latter are small and delicate. 
No. 2.—Whitish, very shelly clay, leaving but little solid residue 
after washing. This is composed chiefly of broken fragments of 
Bivalves, and contains 

Rotalia Beecarii ; common. 

Nonionina striato-punctata ; common and small. 

N. depressula ; rare and small. 

The whole of these Foraminifera are evidently from very shallow 

waters, possibly estuarine, or a few fathoms in depth, and resemble 
very closely some Oyster-ooze from the Firth of Forth.—T. R. J. 


ABSTRACT OF FOREIGN MEMOTR. 
———_>+——_ 


Toe Triassic Rocks oF CALIFORNIA. 


ROM an interesting communication to the ‘American Journal 
of Science,’* by Professor Whitney, on the progress of the 
Geological Survey of California, it appears that one of the most 
striking results of the Survey is the proof of an immense develop- 
ment, on the Pacific side of North America, of rocks equivalent 
in age to the Upper Trias of the Alps, and paleontologically closely 
allied to the Limestones of Hallstadt and Aussee, and the St. Cassian 
beds of the Alpine Trias. This Triassic belt of the Pacific Coast 
has been explored in the latitude of 40°, and east and west from 
117 to 121 degrees of longitude; and from this region the largest 
portion of the fossils have been obtained, both from the three parallel 
ranges called the Humboldt Ranges, and from Plumas County, 
California. This formation extends from Mexico to British Columbia, 
occupying a vast area, although much broken up, interrupted, and 
covered by voleanic and eruptive rocks, and usually highly meta- 
morphosed. Among the specimens collected, four species have been 
recognised by Mr. Gabb as identical with European forms; whilst 
the whole facies resembles that of the Hallstadt beds—the same 
intermixture of Orthocerata, Ceratites, Goniatites, Nautili, and Am- 
monites ; together with Halobia, Monotis, Avicula, Pecten, &c.; a 
Monotis being the most widely diffused and abundant of all. 
- Accompanying this Triassic formation in the Sierra Nevada, is an 
extensive development of Jurassic rocks, usually highly meta- 
morphosed and extremely barren of fossils. The sedimentary por- 
tion of the great metalliferous belt of the Pacific Coast of North 
America is chiefly made up of rocks of Jurassic and Triassic age, 
with comparatively little of the Carboniferous Limestone. While, 
therefore, a large portion of the auriferous rocks of California consist 
of Metamorphic, Triassic, and Jurassie strata, there is no evidence 


* See Gnotocican Magazine, No. 11, Vol. I1., for May 1868. 
x 2 


308 Reviews—Fée’s Darwinisme. 


(says Prof. Whitney) to uphold the theory that has been so often 
maintained, that all, or even a portion, of the Auriferous Slates are 
older than the Carboniferous; not a trace of a Devonian or Silurian 
fossil ever having been discovered in California. Indeed, gold, in- 
stead of being chiefly limited to Silurian rocks, occurs in no incon- 
siderable quantity in Metamorphic rocks belonging as high up in the 
series as the Cretaceous group (see also p. 330). With regard to 
the detrital auriferous deposits, they consist of materials brought 
down from mountain-heights above, and deposited in pre-existing 
valleys; beds of ancient rivers, and in lake-like expansions of former 
watercourses, during the later Pliocene epoch, and not at the Drift 
or Diluvial period, as is proved by the remains of the plants and 
animals imbedded in them. ‘These auriferous deposits were suc- 
ceeded throughout the whole extent of the Sierra Nevada by heavy 
accumulations of volcanic sediments, ashes, pumice, and finally by a 
general outpouring of lava, covering and concealing under hundreds 
of feet in thickness the auriferous gravels. 

[The Hallstadt beds alluded to above, forming a subdivision of 
the South European Triassic group, are well developed in the 
Eastern Alps, and contain extensive beds of Rock-salt at Aussee, 
Hallstadt, Hallein, and elsewhere, which, wrought either by min- 
ing or by artificial brine-works,* yield an important item (about 
£7,000,000) to the Austrian Government. The fossiliferous lime- 
stone, lying above the salt-works at Hallstadt, is worked for 
marble, and has yielded a large series of characteristic fossils to the 
care and labour of M. Ramsauer, who has been also successful in 
his archeological researches in this district, and has discovered in 
the old cellarium of the salt-mines, the bronze pickaxes of the ancient 


people who worked the salt, it appears, about four centuries B.c. | — 
J. M. 


REVIEWS. 
—_++—_—_ 
‘Le DaArwWInIsME: OU, EXAMEN DE LA THEORIE RELATIVE A L’ORI- 
GINE DES Esprcres. Par A. L. A. Féin. Paris, 1864. 


ARWINISM, as the Theory of the Origin of Species by 
Natural Selection is sometimes, especially by theological 
adversaries, absurdly called, has in this author no very formidable 
opponent. M. Fée admits certain modifications of animal and 
vegetable forms, but recognizes no other influence in their produc- 
tion than that of a Final Cause. The extinction of certain anoma- 
lous forms is ascribed to the fact that Nature’s ill-directed efforts 
having failed to adapt their organization to the circumstances under 
which they were placed, they have gradually succumbed to the 
destructive agencies by which they were surrounded, and have been 
removed from the earth by a natural process, not of selection, but 
‘depuration.’ The author’s right to pronounce upon the physiologi- 


* Water, poured in from above, and left awhile to dissolve the salt, is recovered 
by pumping, and evaporated, after being led to a distance of many miles. 


» 


Reviews— Fée’s Darwinisme. 309 


cal questions involved in the views he criticises may be inferred from 
his seriously urging as an objection to the Divergence of Character, 
that the universal germ, to which he traces back Darwin’s progeni- 
tors of the animal and vegetable series, must have contained all 
subsequent forms, since they would all, despite their differences of 
form and capabilities, have been derived from it; just as the germ 
of the individual contains only one embryo. Such a statement of 
abandoned Evolution Notions was scarcely to be anticipated in a 
member of the Medical Faculty of Strasburg. In any criticism of 
Darwin’s work, the evidence derived from geology ought to hold a . 
prominent place; but our author hesitatingly admits, if he does ad- 
mit, the non-universality of the Deluge,—sees in the sharply separated 
faunas of the older rocks proof of the plurality of criginal forms,— 
and rests the immutability of species on their permanence since 
‘diluvial’ times, whatever they are. 

It is not, however, to the physiological and geological inaccuracies 
of M. Fée that we would now direct attention, but to the serious 
error of representing Mr. Darwin’s views as pointing to a progression 
of which ‘ perfection’ is the goal. He imagines that the perfection 
to which, according to the views he opposes (not Darwin’s), organic 
forms are tending, is an ideal standard of beauty; and naturally asks, 
where is this standard to be found? ‘These notions are expanded 
in several rhetorical passages, neat in structure, but obscured by the 
loose way in which scientific terms are employed. Now, in the first 
place, Mr. Darwin is, for the reasons acutely pointed out by Sir C. 
Lyell in his ‘ Antiquity of Man,’ very cautious in his support of any 
theory of progression. ‘The most eloquent passages in his work are 
those in which he urges the fragmentary character of the geological 
record, on the assumed completeness of which alone could any scheme 
of progression be founded. And in the second place, by Perfection 
no more is meant than an ever-increasing accuracy of relation between 
the Organism and the Conditions under which it is placed. With 
Human Progression in a moral sense, no morphological theories have 
anything to do: it is only with Man as an animal, and his relations 
as such to other animals and to the inorganic world, that Zoology is 
concerned. To speak, therefore, of a period when esthetics shall so 
far prevail in the world that even the rose will lose its spines, and to 
suggest such millennial fancies as in any way flowing from the Dar- 
winian Theory, is grossly to misrepresent that theory, and to wander 
far from the true scope of scientific enquiry. 

Another error of nearly equal magnitude is to represent time as 
the only element of change. It is only one factor; the other is vary- 
ing conditions, meaning by that phrase not merely elimatal vicissi- 
tudes, and those less appreciable causes, loosely included under 
climate, which affect the spread of organisms even over districts 
contiguous to those whence they started,—but also competition, 
whether caused by quest of food, or by that desire of superiority, 
common, as John Hunter long ago pointed out, to all animals, alike 
to those which devour flesh and those which do not. Of the animals 
exposed to these hostile influences, only a certain proportion survive ; 


310 Reviews—Medlicott’s Southern Himalayan Ranges. 


~ and those which do so are by the theory supposed to possess some 
slight modification of structure or endowment giving them a supe- 
riority over their less favoured brethren who have failed in the 
struggle. The transmission, by the survivors, of the slight modifica- 
tion to which they owe their continued existence, ‘together with the 
other characters of the species, is all that is claimed by the Theory. 
The modification is ‘accidental,’ not by hazard, but as the result of 
some slight, unknown cause operating on the variability of the 
species. It is this unconsciousness of the change which distinguishes 
Darwin’s Theory from that of Lamarck, who ascribed to the animal 
an active share, through volition, in inducing the modification. 

In showing that Darwinism is not original, M. Fée has not clearly 
stated the difference between this and preceding theories; he has 
further adopted an unsound criticism against which we would pro- 
test as one frequently ungenerous in its results. He finds in Restif 
de la Bretonne, 1781, an anticipation of the doctrines of 1859. On 
his own showing, this anticipation amounts only to a belief in a single 
progenitor in the animal and vegetable kingdoms respectively, whose 
descendants have differed under the influences of soil and tempera- 
ture. But this belief was, by his own confession, ‘ hatched in a head 
purely literary,’ by one ‘who only wanted a little more reason to 
become a man of great eminence.’ ‘To dignify such random state- 
ments by the name of a system, and to regard them as anticipations 
of views which were only acquired by long careful and extended 
observation, and were beyond the reach of intuition (the very science, 
Geology, which alone gave them substance, being of subsequent 
birth), is an easy weapon of depreciation, but is alike unjust to the 
merits of the earlier and later thinker. 


Memorrs OF THE GEOLOGICAL SuRVEY OF INpIA, Vot. III. Part 2. 
‘On THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE AND RELATIONS OF THE SOUTH- 
ERN PORTION OF THE HIMALAYAN RANGES, BETWEEN THE RIVERS 
GANGES AND Raver.’ By H. B. Meptiicort, B.A., F.G.S., of the 
Geological Survey of India. 8vo. 1864. 


HIS Memoir is of interest, not only to Indian geologists, from its 
adding to their knowledge of the geological structure of an import- 

ant part of their adopted country, but also to those who have no per- 
sonal knowledge of India, from the author’s remarks on the general 
structure of bills (not only in the chapter on that subject, but broadly 
scattered throughout), and his Appendix on the various theories of 
the formation of mountains. It treats of an area of about 7,000 square 
miles, containing some of the oldest of the ‘ hill-stations,’ and belong- 
ing to the ‘ Hastern Himalaya ;’ a tract which consists of ‘ three well- 
marked regions :—the range of peaks; then a broad band of hills, 
commonly spoken of as the Lower or Outer Himalaya; and outside 
(south) . . . a narrow fringing band of much lower hills (Sub- 
Himalaya), . . . of which the Sivalik hills are the type’ The second 
of these well shows the denudation-type of hill, having irregular 
ridges and river-courses ‘ transverse to the general direction of the 


— 


Reviews—Medlicott’s Southern Himalayan Ranges. 311 


mountain-region;’ so much so, indeed, that the author could not ‘trace 
even the guiding influence of simple fissures, in any definite system, 
in predetermining the lines. of drainage.’ Though the hills are some- 
times 10,000 or 12,000 feet high, yet there is mostly great sameness 
in their scenery,—‘a monotony of steep slopes, and ridges of uniform 
height, and with little variety of outline.’ Their outer limit is for 
the most part well marked by a quick change to much lower hills of 
different aspect. ‘The ridges of this third region ‘are approximately 
coincident with lines of disturbance, being usually formed by anti- 
clinals, or on the upthrow side of faults ; though, of course, Mr. Med- 
licott does not by any means imply that these Sub-Himalayan hills 
have been formed by disturbance only, as further on he says, ‘ No 
doubt, the actual contours in both cases are the immediate results 
of denudation.’ Such being the case, we do not see why the Sub- 
Himalayan hills should be called ‘ true hill-ranges,—members proper 

. of the great Himalayan, system,’ whilst, by implication, those of 
the Lower Himalaya are not. The latter are the higher and the 
nearer to the region of peaks; the mere fact that they have been 
carved out without any particular regard to lines of disturbance does 
not surely go against their being ‘true hill-ranges’!—if so, half the 
mountains in the world can hardly lay claim to the title. We suspect’ 
that Mr. Medlicott draws some subtle distinction between a ‘hill- 
range’ and a ‘range of hills,’ and somewhat confuses the former with 
a ‘line of elevation.’ Those hills that have been worn out across, and 
in defiance of, disturbances are rather more marvellous than those in 
which the denudation-surface more or less follows the geological out- 
line. These regions, however, are not marked by differences of feature 
only, but consist of ‘ two series of rocks strongly contrasting in com- 
position.’ As these are in vertical contact along their well-marked 
boundary, it would have been a difficult matter to tell which was the 
older, were there not a very large outlier of the Sub- Himalayan beds 
resting ‘on a denuded surface of the older rocks.’ 

With the remark, that ‘there is perhaps now an over-tendency to 
allow fossil evidence too exclusively to regulate our classification of 
rock-series,’ we heartily agree; but it is no reason that Mr. Medlicott 
should not have vouchsafed us a little more information about the fos- 
sils of these vast sets of beds than is given by one list, and here and 
there a few chance words, such as—although the ‘central region of 
our district . . . is the classic ground of the Fauna Sivalensis;’— 
‘These giant fossils’ (what they are we are not told) ‘are found 
through some thousands of feet in thickness of the Sivalik rocks,’ the 
uppermost member of the Sub-Himalayan Series: but Mr. Medlicott 
was unable ‘to trace one single fossil to the Nahun beds’ below, 
though he states that some letters of Col. Cautley and Dr. Falconer 
seem to point to fossils having been found in the latter. 

From the list of formations given at p. 17, we learn that the beds 
of the district consist, in descending order, of the ‘Sub-Himalayan 
Series,’ divided into the ‘ Sivalik,’ ‘Nahun,’ and ‘Subathu’ groups ; 
and the ‘Himalayan Series,’ of ‘Unmetamorphic’ (four divisions) and 
‘Metamorphic’ rocks. This, however, is not a perfect list; for at 


Bt Reviews—Medlicott’s Southern Himalayan Ranges. 


p- 152 we find an account of some ‘ Post-Sivalik’ beds, and at p. 56 a 
suggestion of there being some ‘ Supra-Krol’ rocks (top of the Hima- 
layan). What the age of these formations may be is not stated in the 
list, though elsewhere we gather that the Sub-Himalayan Series, the 
connection of the groups of which is based ‘on purely lithological and 
structural considerations,’ is of Tertiary age; but as to the Hima- 
layan Series, one’s imagination is left to roam from Tertiary down to 
Laurentian for nearly fifty pages, when we find that it may still roam 
within the same limits, as nothing is known of the age of that series. 
By the way, itis like an Irish bull to give the name ‘Sub-Himalayan’ 
to a set of beds which lie above those called ‘Himalayan ;’ although 
the hills of the former are lower (or under) those of the latter, and 
therefore the name is geographically right. 

At p. 19, there are some very interesting remarks on the connection 
between the disturbed and tilted Sivalik rocks, and the undisturbed 
‘deposits of the plains. The upper beds of the former are of the 
same composition as the latter, which ‘overlap the deunded base of 
the Sivalik hills, just as the Sivalik rocks overlap the denuded base 
of the Nahun hills:’ the relation of the Gangetic to the Sivalik beds, 
Mr. Medlicott thinks, therefore, to be the same as that of the latter 
to the Nahun beds. This connection between past and present con- 
ditions is further marked by the ‘coincidence between the varia- 
tions of the Sivalik deposits and the actual positions of the great 
river-courses, .. . thus proving the great antiquity of even the 
details of the actual configuration; a view which the author was the 
more ready to take from sceing ‘the prodigious results of atmospheric 
denudation in excavating the deep winding valleys through the 
mountains.’ The coarse boulder-beds of Sivalik age have been 
greatly disturbed, ‘often deeply faulted, sharply folded, vertical, and 
even inverted : yet all this has been effected without sensibly affecting 
the details of contour in the adjoining mountain-region.’ 

Having given a general description of the district and its rocks, 
the author goes on to describe the latter in greater detail, beginning 
with the oldest series, but with the newest group of that series, that 
is, in asort of half-descending, half-ascending order. Here, however, 
we need not follow him so closely, as the subject is almost wholly 
Indian, but will pick out those parts that have a wider interest ; 
noting first that there is an ‘almost total absence of fossils in all the 
rocks of the Lower Himalaya,’ and that but one undoubtedly intrusive 
rock, a trap, has been found in the large tract of country described. 

In the way he treats some of the commonest geological terms, Mr. 
Medlicott is again true to his nationality; and after saying that he 
‘must anticipate any ambiguity that might arise from the uncertain 
meaning of some common rock-names,’ he at once throws us into a 
state of utter bewilderment as to the meaning of ‘slate’ and ‘grit.’ 
He objects to ‘slate’ being used only for rocks showing cleavage in 
some perfection, and says that ‘such is not its general use among 
English writers’ (!)—from which remark we must totally disagree. 
Again, he uses ‘grit’ for rocks ‘too fine-grained and earthy to be 
called sandstone, and too rough for a slate,’ and thinks that in so 


Reviews—Medlicott’s Southern Himalayan Ranges. 313 


doing he is ‘accepting the practice of English field-geologists’! He 
believes that ‘the usual glossary-meaning of the word is a sharp 
sandstone, coarse or fine:’ we have always thought that a grit was 
simply a very coarse sandstone, or in other words something between 
a sandstone and a conglomerate. To know what a ‘slate-grit’ may 
be, in this Memoir, needs a special revelation from the author, who, 
we hope, in his next will either use such common words in their 
well-known and accepted sense, or will favour his readers with a 
glossary of his own peculiar dialect. In applying ‘schist’ to foliated 
rocks only, he does, however, agree with English geologists. 

In the outer zones of the Lower Himalayas, the ridges are along 
synclinals, and in some hills there is even a ‘quaquaversal con- 
vergence of dips,’ the result of which is to form, with the help of 
denudation, a deep crater-like hollow at the top. We would remark 
that this inwards dip is the one most likely to save the beds from 
denudation, as there is no tendency for masses to slip off in any 
direction ; but, on the other hand, they tend to slide inwards along 
the lines of bedding. Mr. Ruskin has drawn attention to this and 
other like matters in vol. iv. of ‘Modern Painters.’ At p. 34, Mr. 
Medlicott notices that at Simla the upper rocks have been more 
altered than the lower, and also ‘show much more local crushing and 
contortion.’ This phenomenon in metamorphism is not, of course, 
noted here for the first time, as it has been proved that in the Scotch 
Highlands a Lower Silurian quartzite overlies unaltered red con- 
elomerates of Cambrian age. At p. 72 we have a slight disagree- 
ment with the brothers Schlagintweit: what they took for cleavage, 
Mr. Medlicott says is a very good example of bedding ; and he states 
that he could see no general system of cleavage in the district. 

The lower set of rocks being dismissed, the Sub-Himalayan Series, 
the special object of the Memoir, is described. Of these, the lowest 
group, the Subathu beds, we are told (pp. 74-6) are of Nummulitic 
age, and of varied mineral character; they ‘rest upon a deeply 
denuded surface of the Lower Himalayan rocks;’ their ‘ present 
boundary’ seems to have been nearly their ‘original limit of deposi- 
tion ;’ and the lower rocks ‘had undergone comparatively little 
disturbance’ before their deposition. ‘This last, however, seems to 
us hardly to agree with the deep denudation of the older rocks before 
the deposition of the newer on them: and the author, indeed, qualifies 
the statement at p. 86, where he states that the denudation implies 
disturbance, but he thinks that it was not of that sort which causes 
contortion or bending, and that this pre-nummulitic elevation took 
place on the same lines as those that now mark the Himalayan 
system, which therefore would not result from one upheaval, after 
the deposition of the Sub-Himalayan beds. Mr. Medlicott is of 
opinion that ‘the Nummulitic Limestone of the Salt-range is the 
open-sea contemporary of the Subathu group,’ though none of the 
fossils yet known are common to both groups. ‘The junction of the 
Subathu beds with the overlying Nahun beds looks like an immense 
fault: there are no outliers of the latter on the former, and no inliers 
of the former within the area of the latter. The author thinks that 


314 Reviews—Medlicott’s Southern flimalayan Ranges. 


the boundary is really a coast-line (which may perhaps have after- 
wards suffered from shifting), its irregular course being against the 
idea of an origin by a fault. The account of these beds is closed 
with a note of the fossils found in them, amongst which are many 
Plants, ‘probably of Middle Tertiary age.’ It is a strange thing, 
that whenever plants are found in Tertiary beds, they are nearly 
always said to be ‘Miocene’ or ‘ Middle Tertiary.’ 

The Nahun beds, our author says, consist in great part of a 
sharp soft: sandstone, here and there with clays and iron-ore, and at 
one place conglomerate. It is often hard to divide these from the. 
overlying beds. 

The Sivalik group, where most developed, may be subdivided into 
four; the lowest having more or less clay with the sandstone of 
which this group, as that below, mainly consists; the next is almost 
wholly sandstone, passing upwards into the third, which is conglo- 
meratic; whilst the fourth is made up of clays and conglomerates : 
at one spot the middle two are together 15,000 feet thick. As ‘no 
two sections . ... of these rocks are exactly alike,’ the geology of 
the Sivaliks can be no easy task to work out. We have before 
noticed that these beds are said by Mr. Medlicott to be in some 
measure related to the present system of valleys; and in proof of 
this he remarks, ‘the greater accumulation of boulder-deposits (in 
this group) in the immediate regions of the great rivers is very 
noticeable.’ At p. 122, we are told that at the great river-gorges 
there are transverse fractures; but our author does not accept the 
usual explanation of the waters having naturally selected these as 
weaker parts wherein to cut a channel, thinking that to do so may 
be ° jou eulins the cart before the horse,’ and suggesting, on the other 
hand, ‘whether the rivers, for the existence of which in this posi« 
tion during the Sivalik period we have such good evidence, 1 may not 
have been the predetermining cause of these ‘transverse fissures.’ 

In a short account of the Post-Sivalik beds, the author states his 
belief that the deep valleys and gorges have been formed ‘by river- 
action and atmospheric denudation generally,’ rather than by marine 
denudation, as has been supposed. 

In India, as elsewhere, rivers often go out of their way to cut a 
channel through hard rocks when a nearer course seems to have been 
open to them through softer beds, which ‘ may safely lead us to infer 
very remote conditions of the surface, very different from what is 
now apparent.’ With regard to the general structure of the hills, 
the author thinks that the disturbances in the Sub-Himalayan rocks. 
‘have no direct connection with the formation of the mountains;’ 
but that they have been caused by ‘ the thrust from the mountain- 
mass consequent on the sinking of that mass: the disturbance of 
the older rocks, however, he thinks to have been caused by eleva- 
tion. 

The last Ee is on Economic Geology, of which there is not 
much to be said, as it would be ‘difficult to find elsewhere an equal 
area of mountain-country so barren of mineral wealth.’ Building- 
stones and slate are to be got in places; gypsum, salt, iron, copper, 


Reviews—Medlicott’s Southern Himalayan Ranges. 315 


and lead are worked; and gold is found in the beds of rivers, ‘even 
in streams which only drain the Sub-Himalayan rocks,’ so that it 
must have ‘a doubly derivative origin,’ because, so far as known, 
it never occurs in veins in any but very old rocks. 

The Memoir ends with an Appendix on Theories of Mountain- 
formation, in which an account is given of the views that have 
been put forward by men of note. First, however, the author 
draws a distinction between physical geography and physical geo- 
logy different from that which is usually held. He would use the 
former with regard to the present ‘ aspects of nature’ and ‘the form 
and position of mountains,’ whilst he looks upon the latter as relating 
to ‘ past activities,’ its object being ‘to investigate the mode of origin 
of mountains.’ This seems to be using the term physical geology 
for a very theoretical matter. 

The chief theories of mountain-formation are:—(1) E. de Beau- 
mont’s, according to which the contraction, by cooling, of the sup- 
posed fluid internal mass of the earth has been the cause of the 
distortion and fracture of the comparatively thin crust. The best- 
known part of this theory is the doctrine that parallel mountain- 
chains are of the same age as regards elevation, and that successive 
convulsions would have their directions in pentagonal symmetry. 
We cannot agree with Mr. Medlicott in being captivated by its 
grandeur, and giving way to a hope that it may turn out right in 
the main; for, as he says, it is ‘ far beyond our actual knowledge of 
geology,’ and therefore has really little to stand on: indeed, we think 
that Mr. Hopkins* has clearly shown its great weakness and incon- 
sistency with known facts.—(2) Mr. Hopkins supposes elevations to 
be caused by the expansion of fluids or gases in vast hollows in the 
earth’s crust, and he seems to think that elevations are far more local 
than is supposed by de Beaumont. The result of elevation would be 
to produce longitudinal and transverse fissures, the former with ‘a 
parallelism to the geometrical axis of the area’ acted on, and the 
latter at right angles to these. ‘This theory is applied by its author 
to the Weald; but we fear that, when the detailed geological exa- 
mination of that district has been finished, many of the lines of 
disturbance laid down by Mr. Hopkins will be found somewhat ima- 
ginary; though, should this be the case, we agree with Mr. Medlicott 
that ‘his paper will retain its value as a discussion of one set of 
conditions. —(3) Prof. H. D. Rogers thinks that the undulations of 
the crust of the earth could have been caused neither by simple 
upward nor lateral pressure; but that they are owing to a wave-like 
motion on the surface of the molten fluid beneath.—(4) The theory 
of Babbage and Herschel rests on the fact that the contour of un- 
derground isothermal lines depends on that of the surface. If the 
surface is changed, therefore, by deposition or denudation, these 
isothermal lines will change also, and an expansion or contraction 
of the rocks will take place, giving rise to disturbance. We would 
ask, however, how the deposition and denudation, to the great extent 


* Presidential Address to Geol. Soc, 1853. 


316 Reviews-—Holl’s Formation of the Malvern Hills. 


needed, are to take place without elevation and subsidence of the 
ground beforehand ? 

A theory has been lately put forward by Prof. Bischoff, too late 
for notice in this Memoir, that elevation and depression ‘ have re- 
sulted from an increase or decrease of volume in deeply seated rocks, 
in consequence of the more or less complete displacement of the — 
silica of their silicates by carbonic acid.’ * 

We cannot forbear quoting a passage from the close of this Ap- 

pendix :—‘ A study of the existing state of any portion of the earth’s 
surface will show that denudation is, in fact, more a hill-maker than 
a hill-destroyer. . . . In what I say here, I, of course, allude to sub- 
aérial, pluvial denudation, by rain and rivers. Oceanic denudation 
may perform a greater amount of work in abrading and transporting 
matter; . .. but, as a rule, and as compared with pluvial denuda- 
tion, it is purely a levelling agent; it carries away wholesale where 
the other agency would work out mountain-systems on its own prin- 
ciples.’ The relation of the two kinds of denudation has been ably 
worked out by Prof. Ramsay for the district of the Weald. 
It is not a little strange that the advocates of theories of atmo- 
spheric denudation should be chiefly found, of late days, in the ranks 
of our Geological Surveys,—Ramsay, Jukes, and Logan being fol- 
lowed by Medlicott, Geikie, and others; and we think it not a small 
thing in favour of these views, that they are upheld by those who, of 
all men, should know something of that ‘form of the ground’ by the 
careful and detailed examination of which they get their living. To 
Hutton, Playfair, and Scrope belongs the honour of being the earlier 
advocates. 

With the Memoir is a map, on a scale of eight miles to an inch; 
and there are also three lithographic plates, as indistinct as is usual 
with that style of illustration, and many woodcut sections. The 
‘vet up’ contrasts very favourably with the thin paper and crowded 
type of our own Geological Survey Memoirs, which, we feel assured, 
would be thought more of were they printed as they should be, and 
not sacrificed to a miserable and mistaken notion of Governmental 
economy. 

To conclude, the work, which is a credit both to its author and 
to the Geological Survey of India, should be read by every philo- 
sophical geologist. ; 


On THE ForMATION AND History or THE MALveRN Hints. By 
Dr. H. B. Hot, F.G.S. [Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., No. 81, 
February, 1865. | 

pee principal object of this valuable paper is to show that the 

rocks which constitute the axis of the Malvern Range, and which 
have hitherto been treated of as syenite, &c., are in reality of Meta- 
morphic origin, and consist of a variety of gneissic and schistose rocks, 


* Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. i. p. 475 (June 1864). 
t The Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain, 2nd edit., 1864. 


Reviews —Holl’s Formation of the Malvern Hills. = 317 


partly micaceous, but chiefly hornblendic, with occasional sub-crys- 
talline bands, and beds of coarse-grained diorite interstratified ; tra- 
versed also abundantly by quartzo-felspathic veins, and invaded by 
dykes and masses of erupted trap (diabase): and Dr. Holl has en- 
deavoured to prove that they form a part of the old Pre-Cambrian 
continents, of which the metamorphic rocks of British North America, 
of Scandinavia, Bohemia, Brittany, and the Channel Islands—of the 
Lewis, the Malverns, Charnwood Forest, Donegal, &c., are uncovered 
areas, forming what Professor Dana has called a ‘ Universal Forma- 
tion,’ on which all the other stratified deposits repose. 

The presumed great antiquity of the Malvern metamorphic rocks 
rests upon a variety of evidence. The fact that rocks of Upper Cam- 
brian age rest directly on the flanks of the range shows that the 
erystalline rocks are by position at least as old as the Lower Cambrian 
system. But the author has also shown that the Malvern Range was, 
if not dry land, at least a submarine ridge at the period of the depo- 
sition of these Upper Cambrian beds, by the shallow-water conditions 
they present, and by the fragments of the crystalline rocks of the hills 
they contain ; and that they were laid down on the upturned edges of ~ 
the metamorphic rocks: and further, that from the oblique direction 
of the strike of the metamorphic rocks (NW. and SE.) and from 
other evidence, it is clear that the portion uncovered along the Range 
of the Malverns is only part of a much larger area. The metamor- 

phism of extensive areas, however, can be due only to some general 
' cause. The production of these changes, therefore, in the Malvern 
rocks, their subsequent invasion by granitic veins and trap-dykes, 
and their upheaval and tilting into highly inclined positions, must 
have occupied an enormous period of time, which could not have been 
more recent than the Lower Cambrian epoch; and the period of their 
accumulation (there is a vast thickness of these metamorphic rocks) 
must have preceded this. ‘The conclusion, therefore, appears a fair 
one that these rocks must be of Pre-Cambrian age, and their chemi- 
eal constitution supports this view, inasmuch as, like the rocks of 
Canada, the Hebrides, Scandinavia, Donegal, &c., which are admitted 
to be of Laurentian age, they contain an abundance of basic minerals, 
such as hornblende, epidote, ferro-aluminous mica, &c., and felspars 

oor in silica. 

Dr. Holl then goes on to show the dynamical changes that the range 
has undergone :—first, that it was probably dry land (or at least high 
ground) in the Primordial sea, and that it was subsiding during the 
deposition of the Upper Cambrian series ;—that it was again dry 
land, and had been subjected to denudation, at the period of the de- 
position of the May Hill Sandstone, as shown by the shallow-water 
conditions, and successive overlap of the beds ; and that the subsidence 
which accompanied their deposition was continued through the whole 
of the Upper Silurian period until the close of the Lower Old Red, 
but that elevation then again took place, as seen by the absence of the 
Middle Devonian beds, and by the attenuation, in the direction of the 
Malverns, of the Upper Old Red, the Carboniferous Limestone, and 
Millstone-grit ; the thin deposits of Coal to the North and South of 


318 Reports and Proceedings. 


the Range having been laid down unconformably on the denuded 
surface of the Lower Old Red and Upper Silurian rocks: also that 
oscillations of level took place during the Permian and Triassic 
periods, as shown by the unconformities between the several members 
of these groups ; and that the last great catastrophe, which brought 
down the Trias on the Hastern side of the Range, was posterior in 
date to the Lias. 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
——+ 


GEOLOGICAL Society or Lonpon.—June 7, 1865; W. J. Hamil- 
ton, Esq., President, in the chair. The following communications 
were read :— 

1. ‘Note on Ovibos moschatus, Blainville.” By M. E. Lartét, For. 
Mem.G.8. Translated by the late H. Christy, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S.— 
A hoof-phalange found by Mr. Christy and the author in the Gorge 
d’Enfer was stated to be identical in form and dimensions with the 
corresponding bone of the existing Ovibos moschatus, to which species 
M. Lartét therefore referred it. With it were found remains of 
Ursus speleus, Felis spelea, Wolf, Reindeer, and Aurochs, as well as 
worked flints differing from those found in any other of the Dor- 
dogne caves. ‘The author remarked that the Gorge d’Enfer is the 
most southern locality at which remains of Ovibos moschatus have 
yet been found, and is 15° south of its most southern limit at the 
present day; but the Reindeer has been found by Mr. Christy and 
himself farther south still—on the northern slope of the Pyrenees. 

2. ‘On some Additional Fossils from the Lingula-flags.’ By J. W. 
Salter, Esq., F.G.S. With a Note on the Genus Anopolenus; by 
Henry Hicks, Esq., M.R.C.S.—In a recent paper Mr. Salter described 
the new genus Anopolenus as a blind Trilobite allied to Paradoxides, 
without facial sutures or head-spines, and with truncate body-seg- 
ments not produced into spinous appendages, as in most of its con- 
geners. ‘The remains of a new species, provided with extraordinary 
free cheeks, have proved that this conclusion was founded upon a 
part only of the head and of the body of the animal, which now 
appears to be more truly intermediate between Paradoxides and 
Clenus than was before supposed, while at the same time it presents 
characters opposed to those of either genus. Mr. Hicks gave a full 
description of the genus as now known, and of the new species, 
which he called Anopolenus Salteri. From his description, it ap- 
pears that Anopolenus possessed minute eyes, a facial suture, and 
expanded pleura, but that their arrangement was abnormal. In con- 
clusion, Mr. Salter compared the two species of Anopolenus now 
known, stating that the one first described, without the more anterior 
of the two segments which compose the head, was to all appearance 
a perfect Trilobite. He also gave a figure of a new species of Olenus 
— O. pecten. 

3. ‘On the Discovery of a New Genus of Cirripedia in the 
“Wenlock Shale of Dudley.”’ By Henry Woodward, Esq., F.G.S. 
—The attention of the author having been called to two species of 


Reports and Proceedings. 319 


‘Chiton described by M. de Koninck from the Wenlock Shale, he found 
one of them (Chiton Wrightianus) to be a Cirripede. He stated 
that the distinctive characters of Chiton are—(1) The valves never 
exceed eight in number; (2) the series is always unilinear; (38) the 
valves are always symmetrical, and divided into three areas. The 
species mentioned does not, however, conform to any of these cha- 
racters, as it had probably as many as four rows of unsymmetrical . 
plates, having no apophyses, a uniformly sculptured surface, and not 
divided into three areas: each series exceeded eight in number. 
Mr. Woodward then showed that Chiton Wrightianus was really a 
Cirripede, and formed the type of a new genus, to which he gave the 
name Turrilepas Wrightii. 

4. ‘On some New Species of Hurypterida.” By Henry Woodward, 
Esq., F.G.S.—In his ‘ Advanced Text-book of Geology,’ Mr. Page 
figured and named the only known species (S. Powrie?) of his new 
genus Stylonurus, but gave no description of it. Mr. Woodward now 
described the species in detail, from specimens found near Pitscandly, 
in the Turin Hill Range, Forfarshire; he also gave a description of a 
new species (8. Scotiews) found in an Old Red Sandstone quarry in 
Montroman Muir, near the Forfar and Montrose Pike. Mr. Salter 
has expressed an opinion that S. Powriei is a full-grown male, and 
S. Scoticus a young female of the same species; but Mr. Woodward 
observed that if the sexes are not to be determined by the thoracic 
plates, but by more general characters, then the two forms of plates 
in Slimonia indicate two species of females, and the two forms in 
Pterygotus minor ought to indicate two species of males. 

5. ‘Ona New Genus of Eurypterida from the Lower Ludlow Rocks 
of Leintwardine, Shropshire. By Henry Woodward, Esq., F.G.S. 
—In this paper Mr. Woodward described a Crustacean alluded to by 
Mr. Salter in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for 
1857, under the MS. name of Limuloides. It appears to form a 
connecting link between the Xiphosura and the Eurypterida, but it 
differs from the former in not having a cephalcthorax—the cephalic, 
thoracic, and abdominal divisions being distinct, and apparently 
capable of separate flexure—and from the latter in having only three 
thoracic segments. The name Limulordes not being allowable as a 
generic appellation, the author applied it to the most perfect example 
of the genus, using the generic term Hemiaspis. 

The following specimens were exhibited:—Toe-bone of Ovibos 
moschatus, from the Gorge d’Enfer ; presented by the late H. Christy, 
Esq., F.G.S. 

Turrilepas (Chiton) Wright, from the Wenlock Shale, Dudley 
(lent by Charles, Ketley, Esq., E. J. Hollier, Esq., and John Gray, 
Hsq.); and casts of Stylonurus and Pterygotus from Forfarshire 
(from James Powrie, Esq., F.G.S.); exhibited by H. Woodward, 
Ksq., F.G.S. 

Siliceous skeletons of Carboniferous Limestone Corals; exhibited 
by H. B. Brady, Esq., F.G.S8. 

Teeth of a new species of Elephant; exhibited by the Rev. J. 
Gunn, F.G.S. 


320 Reports and Proceedings. 


Tue Evinpurcu GeoLtocicaL Socrety.—May 4th, 1865; David 
Page, Esq., F.G.S., F.R.S., &c., Vice-President, in the chair.—Mr. 
D. J. Brown read a paper ‘On the Geology of the Vicinity of Moffat.’ 
He first described the surface-accumulations which had evidently 
been deposited in the bed of an old lake—a fact observed by Professor 
Jamieson. These accumulations consisted of mounds of gravel in 
which no animal remains had been found. He next described the 
Glacial Drift of the locality, and stated that it assumed a similar 
appearance to the Red Sandstone below it—the greater portion of 
this drift being derived from the débris of the sandstone ; and, from 
a section which he had constructed across the valley, he showed that 
the drift lay conformable to the formation beneath. From the close 
resemblance of the one to the other, he inferred that should the Drift 
at some future period be consolidated into stone, no geologist could 
distinguish that formation from the one below it. From this he 
cautioned geologists against rashly concluding that two deposits 
were of the same age, even were their rocks of the same mineralogical 
texture, and even should the one lie conformably on the other. Mr. 
Brown then described the Red Sandstone, in which no fossils had 
been found. This sandstone, from its construction (an angular con- 
glomerate), he inferred was produced by the action of Ice, and was 
deposited when the climate was much colder than at the present day. 
He then argued that the formation was of Permian age, and the 
equivalent of the sandstones of Corn-Cockle Muir. The whole of 
the other rocks in the neighbourhood, he said, belonged to the Lower 
Silurian period, but to what division has not yet been determined, 
for no other organisms than Graptolites have been found in them. 
There were good grounds for believing that with a more minute 
examination other organisms will yet be found. He had found what 
he believed to be the head of a small Trilgbite at a place called 
Dobb’s Linn, and the mark of a small bivalve shell at Garple Linn; 
but both of these were so imperfect, that they could not be specifically 
determined. They held out hopes, however, that others in a better 
state of preservation may yet be found. The Graptolites that Mr. 
Brown had collected belonged to four distinct genera; namely, 
Rastrites (1 species), Graptolites (8 species), Diplograpsus (8 species), 
and Didymograpsus sextans. He had also found three species that 
are yet undetermined. 

Mr. ALEXANDER SOMERVILLE read a paper on the Ganoid Fishes of 
the Mid-Lothian Coal-field, in which he stated that the Ganoid Fishes 
are characterised by their cartilaginous skeleton, their bodies being 
covered and protected by bony plates or enamelled scales, either of a 
round or rhomboidal form. He remarked that the genera belonging 
to the Paleozoic formations had the tail or caudal fin heterocereal or 
unequally lobed—a structure produced by the vertebrz being pro- 
longed into the upper lobe of the tail, which is much larger than 
the lower. He stated that this order of Fishes is still represented 
in our present waters by the Sturgeon, the Lepidosteus, and the 
Polypterus. Ue then gave a description of the following genera 
occurring in the Coal-field of Mid-Lothian:—the Khizodus, Urone- 


Reports and Proceedings. 321 


mus, Megalichthys, Pygopterus, Ctenodus, Acanthodes, Paleoniscus, 
Amblypterus, Eurynotus, and Platysomus. ‘The two principal lo- 
ealities in which these Ichthyolites occur are in the limestones of 
Burdiehouse, and the shales of Wardie, near Newhaven. He then 
exhibited specimens of the Rhizodus, portions of its huge jaws with 
both the serial and the laniary teeth, the head-plates, scales, &c.; 
also specimens of the Megalichthys, and of the different species of 
Paleoniscus, Amblypterus, and Eurynotus; and scales of an un- 
described species occurring at Edmonstone. He noticed also the 
occurrence of coprolites of Fishes in these beds, many of which still 
retain the spiral markings of the intestines; others contain the 
indigestible remains of scales, and teeth of the smaller species which 
had been devoured. Specimens of coprolites were exhibited from 
Burdiehouse and the Wardie shales. 


Bristot Naturatists’ Society.— Geological Section, March 80; 
Mr. S. H. Swayne in the chair.—Mr. Stopparr called the atten- 
tion of the members to a fine section of the Lias that was then 
exposed in the White Ladies’ Road, at the back of West Park Road. 
Numerous fossils had been collected, characteristic of the division 
known as the Bucklandi-series; but the point of most interest in 
connection with it was an observation made by Mr. SANDERS, who 
had found in that small tongue of the Lias an anticlinal, or curve 
of the strata, produced by some disturbing cause. 

Mr. Sroppart then read a paper On the Upper Beds of the Lower 
Silurian Series, illustrating it with a complete series of fossils. The 
Bala beds in Merionethshire were fully described and explained by 
sections, and the different localities suited for study were pointed 
out. The beautiful Cystideans and other Echinoderms that abounded 
in these beds were explained, and their analogies shown. After a 
description of the Caradoc and Lower Llandovery beds, with their 
fossil contents; the author concluded his paper by giving a brief 
summary of the early life upon the earth, showing how gradual had 
been its development, and that as yet not the slightest trace of any 
vertebrate animal having lived in those immensely distant ages had 
been found.—Bristol Daily Post, April 20, 1865. 


Duprey AND Miptanp GroLoeicaL Society.—I. On April 25th, 
a Field-meeting was held at Hednesfurd and Cannock Chase, which 
was attended by about sixty Members. The party spent the whole 
day in examining the various new workings which are being opened 
in the northern portion of the Coal-field, and which are destined ere 
long to make this a most important district, and a busy centre of 
industry. The works of the Hednesford Colliery Company (where 
the plant, engines, &c. are of the most modern and improved charac- 
ter), and the -sinkings of the Cannock and Rugeley Company, were 
more especially examined. At the former place, a most interesting 
open working in the Upper Coal-measures yielded many specimens 
of Fish-remains. 

II. On Tuesday, May 2nd, at the Ordinary Monthly Meeting of 
VOL. II.—NO. XIII. Y 


322 Reports and Proceedings. 


Members, it was stated that the Society now numbers nearly 400 
Members. A paper was read On the Application of Improved Fire- 
bars to Puddling and Heating Furnaces. A new species of Trilobite, . 
a Carpolite, and a Cystidean were exhibited. 

IiI. The Second Field-meeting was held May 16th, about sixty 
Members being present. The party was conveyed from Stourbridge 
by special train to the junction of the Hayes Mineral Branch Rail- 
way with the Stourbridge and Birmingham line. The first point 
of interest was an adjacent cutting on the Hayes Branch, in 
which all, or nearly all, the seams of ‘coal found in that part of the 
district are exposed, lying at a high angle of inclination. The Thick- 
coal is well exhibited. A line of fault runs immediately eastward 
of the cutting, and throws down the measures on the Cradley side 
in some places about a hundred yards, as is proved by a number of 
workings contiguous to the fault. Three pits on the Hayes Estate, 
and very close to each other, were visited, in which the rapid deep- 
ening of the beds from the Hayes Limestone eastward is proved. 
In the first the fire-clay is only about 12 yards deep, in the second 
it is 60 yards from the surface, and in the third the same bed is 160 
yards from the top. The small patch of Silurian Limestone be- 
longing to the Ludlow series next occupied the attention of. the 
geologists. The Aymestry Limestone is the most conspicuous in this 
district. ‘The other exposures of the same formation are at Turner’s 
Hill, and along the western flank of- Sedgley Beacon. The beds - 
here dip to the east, and occupy but a very small area. These low- 
lying rocks have doubtless been brought in by the upheaving force 
which produced what is known as the Netherton Anticlinal or 
Saddleback, the effect of which was to tilt up the measures on each 
side of a line extending from Netherton through Quarry Bank to 
the Lye. A considerable number of fossils were obtained, consisting 
of fragments of Trilobites, Cup-corals, Shells, &c.: in all, twenty- 
four species of fossil forms had been made out in the short search. 
The party then proceeded up a pleasant hill which until recently 
seemed a barrier to the miner; but now a colliery has been opened, 
pear the summit. The new sinkings on the hill belong to the Crad- 
ley Colliery Company, and the plant is of modern construction, 
embracing all the improvements which have recently been intro- 
duced in the winning of coal. The winding gear is worked by two 
coupled horizontal engines, working to 60-horse power. ‘The mines 
have been sunk 188 yards to the fire-clay. The Brooch-coal lies at 
a depth of 132 yards, and the Thick-coal at 153 yards. ‘The mea- 
sures have yielded a good deal of water, but appear to be in a per- 
fectly horizontal position, which is strong presumptive evidence 
that they extend evenly under the Red rocks farther to the south. 
The Thick-coal is here about 14 yards in thickness, including part- 
ings; so that there seems little danger that this fine seam will be 
found greatly split up in its southern extension. Mr. King explained 
briefly 1 the principal points in the section of the shafts, and also in 
connection with the plant; and the party then passed down to the 
mines and extensive fire-clay works of Messrs. Harper and Moore, 


Reports and Proceedings. 323 


Lower Delph. The new sinkings on Horner Hill, Cradley, were 
next visited. This is altogether a new mining centre, though 
it really belongs to what may be termed the Coal-field proper. 
Messrs. J. Evers and Sons have commenced operations, and have 
already reached the Brooch-coal, at a depth of 116 yards. Mr. J. E. 
Swindell, the senior member of the firm, met the party, and ex- 
plained the most noteworthy features in connection with the colliery, 
The engine-house is a very lofty and spacious building. The engine 
is of vertical construction, 40-horse power, with 4-feet stroke, and 
cylinders 22 inches in diameter. ‘There is a self-acting steam-break, 
by which the possibility of oyer-winding is very ingeniously pre- 
vented. Great interest was shown in the inspection of these plants, 
which afford such a marked contrast to the rudely constructed ap- 
pliances which South Staffordshire has long been content to use; and 
it is to hoped that not a few will be impressed with the advisability 
of adopting the modern improvements, whenever new sinkings are 
commenced. Mr. Swindell justly observed, that it was high time 
South Staffordshire should cease to be contented with the clumsy 
methods of getting coal which have been so long in use. On the 
top of the adjoining hill, commanding a fine prospect of the south- 
western part of the Coal-field, the Rev. J. H. Thompson gave an 
address on the botanical and geological features of the district. 

The principal geological facts connected with the district were 
lucidly explained, and illustrated by numerous diagrams and sections. 
At the close, a vote of thanks was given to Mr. Thompson for his 
interesting address; and the party then proceeded to the new British 
Iron Company’s works at Congreaves. Here they spent a short 
time in examining the engine; after which the two largest fur- 
naces were ‘tapped,’ and the process of casting was witnessed by the 
Members from the top of the furnace gangway. The Hawn new 
sinkings (belonging to the Company) were next visited, the parties 
passing along the newly constructed railway. The works are here 
only just commenced, and at present are stopped until the pumping- 
engine is erected to carry off the water, which is rather abundant. 
It was found absolutely necessary to leave out the latter part of the 
programme, which referred to the sinkings at Manor Farm, near 
Hales Owen. 

Dinner was provided at the Shenstone Hotel. The Venerable Arch- 
deacon Hone occupied the chair, and, after dinner, proposed a vote 
of thanks to the gentlemen who had so kindly given assistance to 
the Society during the day. These were—Mr. James Fisher, The 
Hayes; Messrs. King Brothers, and Messrs. Harper and Moore, Crad- 
ley Park; Mr. J. G. Swindell, Homer Hill; Rev. J. H. Thompson; 
Mr. J. P. Hunt, Corngreaves. 

The next meeting is to be held at Oxford and its immediate neigh- 
bourhood.—Birmingham Daily Post, May 18. 

IV. The Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday, June 6th, at the 
Museum, Dudley. The report for the past year states that Field- 
meetings have been held at Cannock Chase, Cheltenham, Llangollen, 
Hagley, Great Barr, Warwick, and Hednesford. Meetings of Ordi- 


veo 


a 


324 Reports and Proceedings. 


nary Members have been held on the first Tuesday in each month, 
and the papers read at these meetings have been issued quarterly in 
the Transactions of the Society. The present Member-list shows 
35 Honorary, 125 Ordinary, paying one guinea per annum, and 22+ 
Field-club Members, paying five shillings a year. The income for 
the past year has been £177 9s. 6d., and the expenditure £161 3s. Od., 
leaving a balance in hand of £16 6s. 6d. 

Earl Dudley was re-elected President, and Mr. John Jones Secre- 
tary. The Committee for the ensuing year was also elected; and 
after votes of thanks to the late Committee and the Chairman, the 
proceedings terminated. 


Norwicu GeroLocicaL Socrety.—At the last Monthly Meeting 
of the above Society, the Rev. John(Gunn, President, in the chair, 
the various objects which lay on the table for examination were 
commented upon. The first was a portion of a bovine or cervine cra- 
nium, with horns attached, from the collection of Miss Gurney. A 
discussion took place respecting a fossil tooth, found in the river- 
mud, near the Cow Tower, and presented many years ago to the 
Norwich Museum. It was thought to be the tusk of a large species 
of Boar.—Mr. Williams exhibited two vertebre of Platax, and a 
piece of Lignite, from Bramerton. Mr. Gunn stated that he had 
lately discovered a fine tooth of the Mastodon at Horstead. A 
paper, by Mr. Taytor, was then read, On a Displacement of the Chalk 
at Whitlingham. After offering some general observations on the 
physical characters of the Chalk, Mr. Taylor said—The ‘ White 
House’ at Whitlingham is so well known to all Norwich people, that 
nothing further need be said concerning it. If a person, starting 
thence, should walk along the river-side, he will see on his right | 
hand several quarries, all of which are now deserted except one. 
Here the Chalk-beds come up, and are, in many places, capped with 
about four inches of Norwich Crag, containing the usual marine 
shells. ‘The Chalk-beds appear to lie in nearly a horizontal position 
generally. A new cutting, however, which has recently been made 
during the alterations in the grounds of Mr. Harvey, reveals a very 
interesting phenomenon. At this section the layers of Chalk, in- 
stead of lying horizontally, form an anticlinal or saddle-shaped ridge. 
Both the layers of Chalk, as marked by the tbin film of oxide of 
iron which usually coats them, and the bands of flint, pass right 
over, and form the ridge above alluded to. In fact, this single chalk- 
quarry affords indications of a disturbance which has taken place in 
the strata. From a further examination, it may be seen that the 
bands and layers of flint are not shattered, neither are the strata at 
all broken. It will be further seen that the sand- and gravel-beds 
which overlie the Chalk do not seem to have partaken of any of the 
disturbances of the beds upon which they rest, but le in the position 
in which they were originally deposited. Hence it is evident that 
the above disturbance took place before either the formation of the 
Norwich Crag, or the deposition of the Drift-beds.—Worwich Mer- 
cury. 


Reports and Proceedings. 325 


Tue MAtvern Naturauists’ Crop held its First Field-meeting 
on May 23, the country for examination being that well known as 
Bromsgrove Lickey. Mr. E. Lees, the Vice-President, in the tem- 
porary absence of the President, Rev. W. S. Symonds, led the party 
to the summit of the Beacon Hill, whence a fine view of the trans- 
verse ridge of the Lower Lickey Hills is obtained. Thence the 
party returned to Kendal End, where Mr. Lees read some observa- 
tions on the Lickey quartz-rocks. At a quarry on the road to 
Kendal End, a singularly grand section of the Llandovery rocks 
was examined, at one part of which the strata are strangely con- 
torted, but the general dip appeared to. be to the south. ‘Thence the 
party proceeded round the northern base of the Lower Lickey to- 
wards Rubery Hill, where they were joined by the President. After 
passing the base of Rendall Hill, the Club reached the Old Rose 
and Crown, where they halted for dinner. 

After the ordinary business of the Club had been completed, the 
President delivered his annual address, in which he gave a résumé 
of the scientific progress and discoveries ef the past year, special 
allusion being made to Dr. H. B. Holl’s elaborate paper on the Mal- 
vern District (noticed separately), and the discoveries of flint imple- 
ments in Drift in various localities in the West of England. 

After a discussion in which Dr. Holl took part, the Rev. T. 
Smythe moved a vote of thanks to the Rev. W. S. Symonds for his 
able address, which, put by the Vice-President, was carried by ac- 
clamation. Mr. E. Lees then described the district over which the 
Club had passed that day. Dr. H. B. Holl made some remarks on 
the result of his researches in the Malvern Hiils. 

Arrangements were then made to invite the British Association to 
visit Worcester and Malvern in September, when Dr. Holl will lead 
the visitors to points of interest on the hills, and Dr. Grindrod will 
place his rooms and collections at the service of the Association.— 
Berrow’s Worcester Journal, May 27. 


Ricumonp AND Nortu Ripinc Naturatists’ FieLp-cLus.—On 
May 15th, the President, Edward Wood, Esq., F.G.S., invited the 
whole of the Members to his residence in Frenchgate, Richmond. 
By eight o’clock, between 200 and 800 Members had assembled. 

Mr. Wood first delivered a short lecture in the Museum, with spe- 
cial reference to the Ferns and other vegetable remains found in the 
Coal-measures. The lecture was intended as preliminary to a trip 
to one of the Durham Coal-mines which it is proposed to visit 
during the summer. ‘The Members afterwards adjourned to the 
gardens, and inspected the extensive collection of living Ferns, 
which appeared in all their vernal beauty. 

Mr. Wood gave a description of the Magnesium light, with 
illustrations, which terminated the evening.— Yorkshire Gazette, 
May 20. 


326 Correspondence. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
—+— 
THE OUTLIER OF CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE NEAR 
CORWEN. 


To the Editor of the GroLoGicAL MAGaziInr. 


Srr,—Pending the appearance of Professor Ramsay’s Memoir on 
North Wales, in which the conclusions arrived at by the Geological 
Survey will doubtless be fully stated, will you allow me briefly to 
give some of the reasons for believing that the outlier of Carboni- 
ferous Limestone near Corwen formed originally part of that which 
now sweeps round North Wales from Llany Mynech to the Great 
Orme’s Head? 

The country around Corwen was examined by Mr. Talbot Aveline 
and myself; who spent many pleasant but laborious months in it, so 
that not only was no rock-exposure unknown to us, but there was 
hardly a boulder with which one or other of us could not claim a 
personal acquaintance. If, therefore our conclusions are wrong (and 
I, for one, utterly abjure all pretension to infallibility), it is not that 
we spared our labour in examining the ground, and collecting data 
for arriving at them. 

The patch of Carboniferous Limestone at Hafod y Calch is on the 
downthrow side of the great ‘Yale and Bala’ fault which cuts 
across Merionethshire and Denbighshire from SW. to NE. On ~ 
examining the Survey section, sheet 39, it will be seen that the 
limestone dips to the NE., as mentioned by Mr. Davies,* and also 
that it rests unconformably on the Wenlock Shale, from beneath 
which the Tarannon Shale rises out, about 2 miles to the SW. On 
the SE. side of the fault the Tarannon Shale is at the surface close 
to Corwen, with the Wenlock Sbale (or Denbighshire Grits, which 
in all this region form the base of that shale) just over it. 

The rough diagrammatic section, fig. 1, will serve to give a general 
notion of the facts. 


Fig. 1. 


Carbonif. 

Limestone. 

Yale and 
Bala fault. 


oa 
os 
Caeran ac 
Crywni. Wenlock Shales. Hs Corwen. 


According to the section, there is a thickness of about 3,000 feet 
between the base of the limestone and the Tarannon Shale, which, 


* See Grorocican Magazine, Vol. II., p. 283. 


Correspondence. 327 


with 500 or more feet of Carboniferous rocks, will give a downthrow 
to the NW. of 3,000 or 4,000 feet to the fault there. Now, suppose 
we imagine this dislocation to be reduced (to borrow a term from the 
surgery) by the simple process of lifting up the Tarannon Shale on 
the downthrow side of the fault, and putting it on the same level 
as the corresponding beds on the Corwea side of the fault, as sug- 
gested in fig. 2. 


Fig. 2. 
Caeran Limestone of 
Crwyni. Wenlock Shales. Hafod y Calch. Corwen. 


Dislocation of 
3,500 feet (reduced). 


Tarannon Shale. 


We should then have a hill 3,000 or 4,000 feet in height capped by 
the Carboniferous Limestone; and anyone standing an that hill and 
looking to the east would see the limestone cliffs of the Eglwysegle 
rocks near Llangollen, with the ends of the beds facing right at 
him. Produce the beds about Llangollen with their mean rise of 
about 5° towards Corwen, and they would just be about 4,000 feet 
above the level of the country there. 

It is therefore a by no means improbable supposition that the 
preservation of that little patch near Corwen is due to the joint 
action of the downthrow of the fault, and a local busin-shaped de- 
pression of the beds there. An undulation.in the beds at that par- 
ticular spot perhaps enabled the fault to bring down higher beds 
than it did just north of it. 

The effect was, that the patch of limestone was there let down to 
such a low level into the earth, that the denuding forces which have 
ever since been at work have not yet destroyed it. It has been 
spared as if to prove to us that at the time when the great fault was 
produced, the limestone spread over the whole area. > 

Now when was that great fault produced? and when did the chief 
part of the destruction and removal of rock take place ? The answer 
to these questions will entirely absolve us from the necessity of look- 
ing for the materials, and especially from searching for them in the 
Drift of the Glacial period. 

Whenever the fault commenced, its production was finished before 
the time of the deposition of the New Red Sandstone. In like man- 
ner, although denudation has been taking place ever since the first 
elevation of the rocks above the sea, yet by far its greatest amount 
occurred before the deposition of the New Red Sandstone. 

Let anyone walk from Corwen up the Nant Morwymon, through 


328 Correspondence. 


the Hundred of Yale, along the course of the great fault, past the 
broken limestones north of Cyrn y Brain and the division between 
the Denbighshire and Flintshire coal-fields to the plains of Cheshire : 
he will find the level beds of New Red Sandstone sweeping undis- 
turbedly across the course of the fault, and resting in one place upon 
Permian beds, in another on Coal-measures, and in another on the 
Millstone Grit. 

Let Lim walk into the pleasant Vale of Clwyd, and he will find the 
remains of the Carboniferous Limestone, which sweeps round the 
head of that valley in a beautifully symmetrical synclinal curve, 
covered in the centre of the valley by horizontal beds of New Red 
Sandstone. The Millstone Grit and the Coal-measures which once 
spread over that Carboniferous Limestone had been all swept away 
before the time when the New Red was deposited upon it. 

What became of the materials would be a wild speculation even to 
guess at. Limestones would of course be redissolved and restored 
to the Ocean from which they were originally derived. ‘They may 
have been resolidified and redissolved half a dozen times since then. 
The sandstones of the Millstone Grit may have entered into the 
composition of the New Red Sandstones. The Coal-measure clays 
may have been used up to form beds which have been destroyed and 
left no trace of their existence. Some of the materials may perhaps 
have ultimately entered into the compostiion of the Lias or other 
clays of the Oolites. Quien sabe ? J. Bente JUKES. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Sirn,—In No. X. of your Magazine (p. 181) there appeared an 
abstract of apaper by Mr. Thomas Smyth, ‘ On the Upheaval of the 
Shores of the Firth of Forth during the Human Period ; with a 
notice of the recent discovery of flint weapons at Marionville 
(between Edinburgh and Portobello).’ 

Mr. Smyth states that he found ‘ Oyster-shells for a distance of 
a quarter of a mile from the shore, to a height of about 43 feet 
above the level of the sea...... beneath a stratified deposit 
of sand and gravel;’ and that he ‘had traced the same stratum, 
though devoid of shells | the italics are mine |, to a height of a hundred 
feet.’ Had Mr. Smyth looked into the writings of those who hold that, 
on the shores of the Forth, no evidence is apparent indicative of a 
recent rise, he perhaps would be convinced that the oyster-beds are 
storm-raised, and the sands above them not marine, but blown sand. 
Mr. Smyth goes on to say, ‘I then, in the second place, mention the 
known upheaval of at least 25 feet since the time of the Roman occu- 
pation.” If Mr. Smyth, or any of your readers, will peruse a paper 
which I read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the 21st April, 
1862, and published in the 16th volume of the ‘Edinburgh New 
Philosophical Journal,’ entitled ‘On the Danger of Hasty Generaliza-~ 
tions in Geology,’ he will find that I have proved Mr. Geikie’s views 
fallacious on this point, as that gentleman has not yet disproved 
my arguments. Further, if Mr. Smyth will honour me with a 


Correspondence. 329 


perusal of this paper, he will find that his arguments from the 
Ordnance Survey are there anticipated, but have led me to a different 
conclusion. With regard to his finding flint weapons at Marionville, 
this has no bearing on the question; as all it proves is that the abo- 
rigines formed their rude weapons after the sand was deposited by 
winds or river-action, but most certainly never by a marine agent, 
because utterly ‘devoid of shells.’ 

Mr. Smyth adds, ‘ Additional evidence, which I intend soon to lay 
before our Society, fully corroborates the facts I have adduced 
regarding the present rate of upheaval, and shows beyond a doubt 
that the whole southern shore of the Firth of Forth between Queens- 
ferry and North Berwick, a distance of twenty-eight miles, and 
that portion of the east coast which lies between North Berwick 
and St. Abb’s Head, about twenty-four miles additional, have bee 
upheaved more than two and a half feet within the last fifty years. 

From the Temple of Jupiter Serapis, at Puzzuoli, I extracted 
upwards of twenty shells of dead Lithodomi, whose burrows per- 
forate the marble columns from the height of about 12 feet above 
their pedestals to at least 23 feet above high-water mark.* 

Now, Mr. Editor, if Mr. Smyth, or Mr. Charles Maclaren, or Mr. 
Robert Chambers, or Mr. Geikie, or Sir Charles Lyell, or any other 
advocate of the theory that the shores of the Forth have risen 
since the human epoch, can show me the bore of a Pholas, with a 
dead shell in it, one foot above the present limit of Pholas-life so 
abundant on our shores, I will yield the whole argument to them. 
I have looked in vain for such evidence all along the shores of the 
Forth and Clyde, but have failed to find one; and I leave those 
gentlemen to prove that the Pholadide were imported by the Romans. 
Until this proof is produced, all the other arguments are futile. 


Lam, &c., ALEXANDER BRYSON. 
Hawkui1, Epinsures. 


i 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


S1r,—May I ask the favour of the insertion of the following cor- 
rection; or, rather, I should say, the following illustration of the 
familiar quotation, ‘ Ne sutor ultra crepidam’? 

In the ‘Geologist,’ July 1860, the Editor obliged me by publish- 
ing this note:— ; 

‘CHEMICAL EvipENCE oF THE SponcEeous Nature or Fuint 
Fossits.—If a flint coated with chalk be immersed in hydrochloric 
acid, the chalk will be dissolved and the flint will remain unaffected. 
In many instances, however, there is a point beyond which the acid, 
even if renewed, will not act, and a white coating is left which 
neither nitric, sulphuric, nor hydrochloric acid will touch. This 
incrustation I have found to consist of sulphate of lime. It is met 
with on those flints which contain fossils, such as sponges, &e. I 
have several specimens of laminated flint presenting this peculiarity. 


_ * See ‘Lyell’s Principles of Geology’ (7th edition), chap. xxx. p. 486 et infra. 


330 Correspondence. 


I have also a fossil Echinus from which the chalk has been entirely 
removed by acid, and on which the sulphate remains. beautifully 
arranged only around the lines of orifices between the plates. 

‘May I presume to draw the inference that the above facts lend 
confirmation to Dr. Bowerbank’s views on the spongeous basis of 
many flints? May they not also be adduced in support of the opinion 
that holds the animal nature of sponges? We know that animal 
substances are partly albuminous, and that sulphur is one of the 
elements of albumen. The animal substance, in undergoing decom- 
position, during or previous to fossilization, would part with its 
sulphur, which would be seized by the lime of the chalk in imme- 
diate contact with it, and hence the coating of sulphate of lime, for 
which I was totally unable to account, until Dr. Bowerbank was 
kind enough to impart to me some of the vast information he has 
amassed on the nature and habits of sponges, recent and fossil.’ 

I feel it to be due to your readers te state, that Ihave since found 
that there was a great mistake in my experiments, and that the inso- 
luble substance left on the flint after the solution of the chalk by 
hydrochloric acid was not a sulphate of lime, but simply a modi- 
fication of silica (the base of flints).. With the supposed fact fall, of 
course, the inferences which seemed to lend support to views that 
doubtless stand in small need to be propped up by error. Had I 
been more thorough in experimental chemistry, I should not have 
made this blunder; had I been wiser, I should not have ventured 
‘beyond my Jast.’—I remain, &c, W. B. Kestevan, F.R.C.S. 


Urrrr Hotroway, Lonpon. 


MISCELUIUANEOUS. 
— > 


ALLEGED GOLD-FIELD AT THE HEAD oF THE NEPEAN River, 
New Sourn Wates. By the Rev. W. B. Crarxe, F.G.S., &c. 
(Extracted from a Letter to the Editor of the Sydney Herald.)— - 
The eastern boundary of the plateau in which the Macquarie 
and the Nepean rise is the escarpment which backs the Illawarra, 
where it is about 2,000 feet above the sea, and the Nepean 
waters falling westerly from the edge collect in a channel which 
runs to the northward, other branches falling from the northern 
slope of the Mittagong more to the westward, towards the road to 
Bong Bong, and not far from where it leaves the Berrima road at 
Little Forest. 

The Cordeaux River collects in numerous heads along the edge of 
the escarpment farther to the north, and the back of Mount Kembla, 
and finally it joins the Nepean at the Pheasant’s Nest. At one spot 
Nepean waters collect behind a ridge, not more than fifteen chains 
distant from the swamps of the Cordeaux. Intermediately, a Nepean 
water rises near Geringulli Mountain, where the elevation is about 
1,800 feet above the sea, and runs at first northerly, and then turns 
to the west to join the main stream. The whole extent of the coast- 


Miscellaneous. Ba 


range thus supplying the watershed of the Nepean itself is from 
four to five miles. The coast-range is there precipitous and broken, 
and about the heads of the Cordeaux is depressed, so that behind 
Kembla it only attains an elevation of about 1,320 feet. 

The upper portion of the rocks forming this broken and lofty 
plateau is composed of ‘Hawkesbury rocks’ (such as occur about 
Sydney), and below these sandstones come in the Coal-measures of 
the Illawarra in regular sequence; the lowest members of the series 
being the fossiliferous beds, equivalents of the Lower Carboniferous 
rocks of Europe. 

Masses and dykes of basalt and other similar igneous rocks have 
broken through this series, and have formed insulated hills on the 
plateau—such as Wanyanbilli, and others between the heads of the 
Cordeaux and the Mittagong, to the westward. That range is com- 
posed of igneous rocks, such as trachyte, basalt, and porphyry, and 
of metamorphic rocks which have been altered by the action of the 
former. Besides these, the whole surface of that wild, broken 
country, which is in parts densely wooded, consists of the Hawkes- 
bury rocks, and patches of alluvia or drift. There are no slates 
nor any quartziferous rocks besides the pebbly conglomerates of the 
Hawkesbury beds, except the altered hardened sandstone and shale 
from the base of Mittagong, and of which the drift is composed. 

The sandstones and Coal-measures occur in the same way on the 
south side of the Mittagong, and are similarly interspersed with 
trap-hills, such as Kinnoul; or porphyry, as at Mount Broughton. 

Farther from the coast, numerous hills of igneous rock break 
through, or are covered at their bases by the formations previously 
mentioned, from the fossiliferous beds to the coal and the Hawkes- 
bury beds, with here and there indications of the Wianamatta beds, 
which, though filling in the centre of Cumberland, and forming 
Razor Back, only reach in patches the elevations of the Mittagong. 

Such, then, is the country in which the alleged gold-field occurs. 
The interior features, as described by me, do not appear on Sir T. L. 
Mitchell’s map. ButI give them from my own explorations, having 
made myself familiar with all that part of the country by frequent 
traverses, and barometrical measurements of the heights. 

I may add, that the nearest point at which I know true slate-rocks 
to occur is in the lower part. of Bundanoon Creek, which rises ten 
or eleven miles south of Berrima, and falls into the Shoalhaven. 

Over all this region, on both sides of the Mittagong ranges, there 
are drift-patches and occasional alluvial deposits in hollows and 
creeks. And it is, therefore, not extraordinary, that such being the 
ease, and bearing in mind the auriferous region farther south, here 
and there particles of gold should have been deposited, when the 
local drift and that from a loftier horizon were distributed. 

Prima facie, then, there is no argument against the possibility or 
probability of some gold occurring in any of the head-waters of the 
Nepean. 

But that there should be any other than drift-gold, whether local 
or otherwise, is very unlikely, for the reasons I have stated. 


Bae Miscellaneous. 


The fact that minute portions of gold do exist in various points in 
the Mittagong region has long been known to me ; and in the ‘ Re- 
searches in the Southern Gold-fields,’ I have, at pages 44, 245, and 
249, pointed out not only its probable occurrence there, but also at 
the base of the Carboniferous formation at Wingelo, where it was 
found by Sir T.S. Mitchell (and near which it has been worked since 
that time), as well as on the Hawkesbury rocks themselves, as at 
St. Leonard’s, not far from my residence (though in quantity too 
minute for profit), and at Govett’s Leap, on the Grose River, in a 
small conglomerate of quartz pebbles cemented by iron, such as 
covers much of the surface near the reported new gold-field. In 
these instances the gold is only procurable by analysis. ‘This con- 
dition of things should be sufficient to prevent the expectation of an 
alluvial gold-field derivable from our sandstone beds; though there 
is nothing to prevent the possibility of gold over them, if there be 
in the vicinity true gold-bearing rocks of sufficient richness to allow 
a local drift worth working. 

I come now to my examination of a portion of gold from the 
Nepean diggings, procured during Mr. Commissioner Johnson’s visit, 
and which, together with the clays in which it is said to occur, I 
have minutely” scrutinized. 

The yellowish-white clay, or washing stuff, turned out to be a eol- 
lection of very minute clear atoms of quartz, some of them coloured 
by iron, and all bound together by a yellow clay, which when dry 
gives a character to the mass. I could detect no gold in it, nor other 
metal. 

The darker clay has nothing in common with slate of any kind, 
and I do not believe any will be found below it. 

The dust is so fine that the greater part is microscopic. By care- 
ful examination under the instrument, I detected not only gold, but 
platinum (white, hard, and magnetic); ode of tin, corundum, ruby, 
topaz; specular, titaniferous, and magnetic iron. ‘The gold particles 

_were the largest, next were corundum and platinum. ‘The first was 
in rough but bright rounded flakes, scarcely at all abraded, and be- 
traying only a few scratches ; so that it had probably only drifted 
avery short distance from its matrix, which certainly was not a 
quartz reef. 

Iuse this occasion to lay before the public some facts recently 
ascertained, which may be of use. 

Independently of the alluvial or drift gold of the Australian dig- 
gings, of the gold extracted from the quartz reefs of the Silurian 
formation, which are the great sources of wealth, and from the 
‘cement’ of quartz pebbles and ironstone which is so common in 
certain parts of the Carboniferous formation, and of the other minor 
habitats referred to above, I have discovered gold in the quartz 
pebbles of the shelly caleareous Secondary rocks of Queensland. So 
that even in Australia gold is known to eaist in the Tertzary, Secondary, 
and Paleozoic formations. My discovery of gold in the Secondary 
fossiliferous rock of the Fitzroy Downs, and the fact that gold has 
been also found in alluvia over Secondary rocks at the head of the 


Miscellaneous. oon 


Barcoo River, enable me to remove all prima facie objection to a 
statement made by the late Mr. Commissioner Mitchell, and quoted 
by Sir Thomas Mitchell, that he had found a particle of gold in the 
neighbourhood of Mount Abundance. What I procured came from 
that neighbourhood. These facts prove, however, that a view I have 
always entertained is a right one, namely, that gold was not intro- 
duced into the quartz reefs so lately as the Tertiary epoch; for we have 
quartz pebbles with gold in rocks of Secondary age. And though 
the distinct period in which those Secondary formations of Queens- 
land were deposited is not yet satisfactorily made out, yet from the 
the occurrence of Belemnites and Ammonites in the same beds with 
the gold-bearing quartz pebbles, we know that if not Cretaceous, they 
are probably Jurassic, or possibly Triassic. 

That in the Carboniferous formation gold should occur is, there- 
fore, less and less surprising. Indeed, the question admits now of no 
doubt whatever. For in New Zealand one of the Nelson gold-fields 
is along the Waimangaroha River; and that river not only rises in 
the Carboniferous formation (which is based on granite), but runs 
altogether through a coal-field; and this was reported to the Nelson 
Government by Mr. Clouston in September 1862. Sections across 
the gold-field show no interpolation of intermediate formations. 
Further, Mr. Gould has reported to the Tasmanian Government, that 
he had actually found a particle of gold in @ coal-seam; and this he 
exhibited to the Royal Society of Tasmania. Perhaps this was set 
free by the decomposition of bi-sulphuret of iron so common in coal, 
and a source of gold in older rocks. 'To say, then, where gold may 
not be found is very difficult. 

Further, I would now mention what, to many of your readers, may 
appear extraordinary. It has been impressed upon the public mind 
that, some fourteen years ago, gold was found in New South Wales, 
on the strength of convictions that the rocks in California producing 
gold in abundance were the same as those in which it was looked 
for in this colony. 

The American Government, wishing to set at rest doubts that 
have occurred as to the age of the Californian gold-rocks, sent out 
lately Professor Whitney to report on the geology of California. 

As his report has not yet been published, I cannot refer your 
readers to the book itself; but I mention, as derived from a not less 
direct channel, these facts. He discovered that very little if any of 
the gold of California belongs to the Silurian formation; that it is 
found in very considerable abundance in the Trias; but that the 
greatest amount belongs to the altered rocks of the Cretaceous epoch. 
So that, in fact, the wonderful riches of California are derived chiefly 
from formations above the Upper Silurian, whilst here the Lower 
Silurian rocks are the chief sources of supply. 

The Tertiary and Pleistocene drifts are common to both regions. 

These very recent discoveries are no doubt suggestive, and will, 
perhaps, be turned to account. 


GoOLD-FIELDS IN New Zeatanp,—No mining news of any espc= 


334 Miscellaneous. 


cial importance has reached us from New Zealand for some time 
past. Work is now very steadily prosecuted on the different gold- 
fields in Otago; still the total yield is falling off. The Wakamarina 
also has been partially deserted, no new discoveries of any importance 
having been made near it lately. The diggings on the west coast 
are, however, improving as the season advances, two steamers having 
arrived at Nelson in one day with 1,415 oz., which had been pur- 
chased within a few days at the Okitiki. This is near the Grey, and 
between 700 and 1,000 miners are now at work. They declare them- 
_selves to be satisfied with their returns, but no very rich ground 
would appear to have been opened by them as yet.—Colonial News- 
paper, April 1865. : 


DISCOVERY OF AN ALMOST ENTIRE SKULL OF RHINOCEROS LEPTO- 
RHINUS, AT ILForD, Ess—Ex.—A very fine skull of the Rhinoceros 
leptorhinus of Cuvier and Owen has recently been found in the 
Uphall Brickfield, ford, and in close proximity to the spot where 
the skull and tusks of the Mammoth were discovered, which were 
secured last autumn for the National Collection. The head is nearly 
perfect, and is that of a rather aged adult, judging by the worn 
condition of the teeth, of which the whole series on both sides are 
preserved in siti. The fossil is not only interesting as being the 
finest specimen of the species yet recorded as found in England, 
but also as affording conclusive evidence of its having been con- 
temporaneous with Llephas primigenius. This specimen will pro- 
bably enable the paleontologist to determine with certainty the 
species of Rhinoceros to which the limb and trunk bones belong, 
that are found scattered and intermixed with thosé of the Mammoth, 
Ox, Horse, &c. in the Ilford beds, and which are of much more 
slender proportions than those of Rhinoceros tichorhinus. 

The specimen forms part of the fine collection of Mammalian re- 
mains from the above locality belonging to Antonio Brady, Esq., 
F.G.S., of Maryland Point, Stratford, who has also a lower jaw of 
probably the same species, but found in another Brickfield just 
through Ilford, on the Romford Road.—W. D. 


More Discovertes oF Fossit REMAINS OF THE ELEPHANT OF 
Marta.*—The explorations by Dr. Adams among the cave-deposits 
and alluvial soils of this island have been lately crowned with signal 
success. It will be remembered that Captain Spratt, the indefati- 
gable and learned hydrographer of the Mediterranean, was the 
first to bring to light the remains of the unique and remarkable 
Fossil Elephant of Malta (Elephas Melitensis), by his explorations 
in the Zebbug Cave, in 1859. Since that time, Dr. Adams has been 
unremitting in his exertions to discover more remains of this extinct 
species, and has been fortunate enough to find them in many new 
Jocalities in Malta. He has just met with its teeth in great quan- 
tities, in a cavern near Crendi. In another gap, evidently at one 


%* See Gnorocican Magazine, No. III. p. 140. 


Miscellaneous. 335 


time the bed of a torrent, he has found the teeth and bones of thirty 
more individuals. These skeletons of old and young Elephants are 
met with jammed between large blocks of stone, in a way that clearly 
shows that the carcases must have been hurled into their present 
situation by violent floods or freshes. He has now brought together 
almost the complete skeleton of this wonderful little representative 
of an order of quadrupeds, to which we had, until the Fossil Maltese 
Elephant appeared, applied the word gigantic. There can be no 
doubt, however, that it scarcely exceeded a small pony in height.— 
Malta Times Supplement, March 16, 1865. 


Professor AGassiz intends to undertake a Scientific Exploring 
Expedition to the Tropics, with eight scientific companions, for the 
purpose of testing the Glacial theory suggested by him, which, if cor- 
rect, will enable the observer to mark as upon a thermometer the 
change in temperature the earth has undergone. As one of the re- 
sults of the expedition, he expects to bring home the largest collection 
of tropical specimens that has yet been collected. The Emperor of 
Brazil will, it is expeeted, furnish unwonted facilities to the Expe- 
dition. The expenses of the party (from 2,500 to 3,000 dols. each) 
will be defrayed by the liberality of Mr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Boston. 
—From the ‘ Boston Traveller.’ 


OBITUARY. 


Sir JouN Ricuarpson, C.B., M.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., &e. &c.—To 
the list of those distinguished men who have been lost to science 
during the past year, must now be added the name of the Arctic 
Explorer, Sir John Richardson, C.B. 

Born at Dumfries in 1787, of which town his father Gabriel 
Richardson was Provost, he was educated in its Grammar-school, 
and thence, in 1801, he entered the University of Edinburgh, where 
he graduated as an M.D. in 1816. He entered the Navy as an 
Assistant-Surgeon in 1807, and served at the bombardment of Co- 
penhagen, and during the war with the United States in Canada 
and Georgia, as Surgeon to the Ist Battalion of Marines. 

In 1819, he accompanied Captain (afterwards Sir John) Franklin 
in his overland Arctic expedition as Surgeon and Naturalist; and 
again in his second expedition in 1825, when he commanded two 
boats, with which he discovered a passage between the mouths of the 
Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers. After nearly two years of severe 
toil, he returned in 1827, and published an account of the part he 
took in the enterprise: his narrative is attached to the great work 
produced by Captain Franklin. 

He became, in 1888, a Physician to the Fleet, and, in 1840, In- 
spector of Naval Hospitals. He was knighted in 1846. 

In 1847, in consequence of no tidings coming of the ‘ Erebus’ 
and ‘Terror,’ then in the Arctic regions under command of Sir 
John Franklin, K.C.H., who had sailed from England on May 19, 


336 Obituary— Sir John Richardson. 


1845, three expeditions were sent out by the British Government, 
the command of one of which was given to Sir John Richardson. 

This, like his former expeditions, was overland. Accompanied by 
Mr. John Rae of the Hudson’s Bay Company, he, in July 1848, 
descended the Mackenzie River, and explored the coast between its 
mouth and that of the Coppermine River. In 1849, he proceeded 
to the Great Bear Lake, and afterwards to Great Slave Lake, whence 
his party returned by their former route to Canada. 

In 1851, he published his ‘Arctic Searching Expedition: a Jour- 
nal of Boat-Voyage through Rupert’s Land and the Arctic Sea, 
in search of the Discovery Ships under command of Sir John 
Franklin,’ &c.: 2 vols. 8vo. 

Besides this, especial mention must be made of his great zoolo- 
gical work, the ‘Fauna Boreali-Americana,’ 4 vols. 4to., 1829-37 
in the labour of which Swainson and Kirby shared. He also de- 
scribed the ‘ Fossil Mammals’ for the Zoology of H.M.S. ‘ Herald,’ 
Captain Kellett, R.N., C.B., Commander. 

His last important literary work was the article ‘Polar Regions,’ 
in Black’s Cyclopedia, since published sepasately in a large 8vo. 
volume. 

Most of his valuable collection of zoological specimens, first 
lodged in Haslar Hospital, Gosport, are now in the British Museum ; 
and upon the occasion of his last visit, he presented to the Geolo- 
gical Department a fine series of Fossil Leaves obtained from a bed 
of pipe-clay associated with coal-beds of Tertiary age on the Mac- 
kenzie River, between Fort Norman and the mouth of the Bear 
Lake River. This coal is constantly on fire, from spontaneous com- 
bustion, at some part of its exposed surface, and the pipe-clay has 
become porcellanous from the intense heat of the subjacent coal. 
Sir Alexander Mackenzie observed these beds on fire, emitting much 
smoke and flame, in 1785;* and they were still burning in 1849. Sir 
Joln Richardson gives two plates, in his ‘ Arctic Searching Expe- 
dition, | of these leaf-impressions on the surfaces of indurated 
pipe-clay from this interesting deposit. The specimens have been 
examined by Dr. O. Heer of Zurich, who was able to identify several 
species of trees now quite unknown in these extreme northern lati- 
tudes. Among them were—Corylus grossidentatus, Heer; Hedera 
Richardsoni, Heer; Acer otopieryx, Goppert; Taxites acicularis, a 
species of Salix, and seeds of Sequoia Langsdorfi. Mr. J. Walter 
Tayler has noticed a similar formation at Omenak Fiord, North 
Greenland, specimens from which may be seen, with those from the 
Mackenzie River, in the British Museum. 

Sir John Richardson died on the 5th June, at Lancrigg, Grasmere, 
in his 78th year. 


* See Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s description, in his Voyage of Discoyery down 
the ‘Mackenzie; also Appendix to Sir John Franklin’s Second Overland Expe- 
dition. 

y Vol. i. p. 186 et enfra; and iu. p. 403, 


THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. XIV.—AUGUST 1865. 


GEOLOGICAL PROGRESS. No. 2. 
FIELD-CLUBS AND LOCAL GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 


AVERY good general looks from time to time to his ‘ muster- 

roll,’ to see that his force maintains its efficiency; and it 
behoves the Geologist no less, who sees his front ranks thinned 
by the loss of such men as Horner, Portlock, Falconer, Bronn, 
Hitchcock, and Woodward, to look to his reserves for fresh 
investigators to fill their places and keep up the efficiency of 
our oreat Geological army. 

One of the best sources of supply must of necessity be looked 
for among the members of the Geological Survey, a corps com- 
posed of picked men from all parts, and whose position in the 
country affords them opportunities superior to those of any 
other class of students. But, although special training is most 
important, we must remember that some of our very best living 
Geologists are men who first became noted in connection with 
their own district; and having worked that well, they were 
better fitted to comprehend, a wider field. Professor Ramsay, 
for example, was chosen Local Director of the Geological Sur- 
vey of Great Britain in 1845, through having made himself a 
name as a Scotch Geologist by preparing model maps and sec- 
tions of the Island of Arran, which attracted general attention 
at the Glasgow Meeting of the British Association in 1840, 
and directly influenced his translation from Glasgow to the head 
of the British Survey. Bristol can also take credit to herself 
that one of her best-known local men is now Paleontologist to 
the Survey. 

Thus it seems to us that, in looking over the work done by 
the Field-clubs, we are watching the progress of rising men in 
various districts; and although some, like Dr. Wright of 
Cheltenham, are among the Tinga veterans, yet many more are 
young men who may eyentually attain to the highest position 

VOL, II.—NO. XIV. Z 


338 Geological Progress. 


in Geological Science, and become in the future some of the 
most celebrated of our metropolitan magnates. 

As a young society, we cannot but speak in the highest 
terms of the Geologist’s Association. Hach report of their pro- 
ceedings shows a step in the right direction—onwards. In the 
last number, Mr. W. Hislop contributes three papers on Micro- 
scopic Geology (illustrated by a plate), in which he gives a very 
good account of the wonderful range in time and space of those 
minute organisms, the Diatomacee and Foraminifera, which 
contribute so largely to make up the entire thickness of some 
of the most extensive formations throughout the world. 

The Dudley and Midland and the Manchester Geological 
Societies number amongst their members such able Geologists, 
and so many who are practical miners also, that their meetings 
generally produce material of considerable value. We, how- 
ever, deprecate very strongly the use of ‘ slang’ expressions by 
gentlemen when lecturing on Geology, and especially so when 
there is an equally liberal number of quotations from Scripture, 
neither of which are needed to introduce Mr. Henry Beckett's 
very excellent paper ‘ On the South Staffordshire Coal-field.’* 

The Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field-club contains, among 
other contributions, an article by Mr. R. Etheridge, Pale- 
ontologist to the Geological Survey, ‘ On the Rhetic or 
Avicula contorta Beds at Garden Cliff, Westbury,’ illustrated. 
by a carefully prepared coloured section. 

There is also a paper by Dr. Wright ‘On the Ammonites of 
the Lias Formation,’ accompanied by two well-executed quarto 
plates by Mr. J. W. Salter, F.G.S. The undertaking of such 
a work as a series of quarto plates of the Oolitic Ammonites, 
four of which have already appeared, displays an amount of 
spirit on the part of the Cotteswold Club which is highly com- 
mendable: we, however, fear much inconvenience will arise - 
from the text and plates being of two sizes (8vo. and 4to.). 

A very interesting feature of progress is the establishment 
of a Geological Society at Norwich under the presidency of the 
Rev. John Gunn, F.G.S., who for upwards of thirty years has 
devoted himself to the geology of. his native county, especially 
with reference to the mammalian remains from the Forest-bed 
at Hasbro’, the complete examination of which was one of the 
unfulfilled labours of the late Dr. Falconer. We are informed 
that it is Professor Owen’s intention to take up the investiga- 


* See Trans. Dudley and Midland Geological Society, No. 5, vol. 1i., February 
1865. 

t See Gzuox. Mac., Vol. I. p. 237; Report of Mr. Bristow’s paper on the Rheetie 
Beds, read before the Brit. Assoc, 1865 (with section). 


Geological Progress. 339 


tion of these very interesting remains, of which Mr. Gunn’s 
collection and that of the Norwich Museum contain so fine a 
series. We are glad also to note that Mr. John Taylor, of 
Norwich, is very earnestly working in this field of research, 
where little has been done in the way of geological investiga- 
tion since Mr. C. B. Rose, F.G.S., and the late Mr. Samuel 
Woodward laboured together. 

We shall not speak now of the work going on in Glasgow, 
Edinburgh, Liverpool, or Dublin, where first-rate local geolo- 
gists are “constantly turning up fresh ground and recording new 
facts for future ceneralizers to make use of, for the pages of 
the GroLocicaL MAGazinE during the past year fully testify 
to the activity and zeal of these societies. Anyone who can 
read the signs of the times can see for himself that the progress 
of Geological Science is no fiction. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLIES. 
——_+—— 
I. On A NEw Genus (MrotopHus) or MAMMAL FROM THE 
Lonpon Cray. 
By Pror. Owen, F.RS., &e. 
[Plate X.] 

I HAVE been favoured by Mr. G. E. Roberts with the inspection 

of a fossil from the London Clay of Sheppey, which indicates a 
genus of mammals distinct from Plolophus and Hyracotherium, to 
both of which it is nearly allied. It consists of so much of the 
upper jaw (Plate X., fig. 1) as includes the six sockets of the molar 
series of each side, with the intervening bony palate and the anterior 
piers of the zygomatic arches : the upper part of this portion of skull 
has been crushed and filled up with compact septarian stone. The 
last, m 3, and penultimate, m 2, molars of both sides, and the last 
right premolar, p 4, remain in their sockets. In point of size they 
differ from those teeth in Hyracotherium leporinum in about the same 
degree as do those of Hyracotherium cuniculus,* but exhibit a 
modification of generic value. Instead of having a pair of inner 
cusps corresponding with the outer pair, a single cusp, fig. 3, ¢, d, is 
largely developed, forming almost the inner half of the erinding 
surface of the crown: the inner side of the base of this cusp is 
bordered by a ‘ cingulum’ relatively broader than in Hyracotherium, 
and complicated by many small ridges, which run up to and are lost 
upon the base of the large cusp. The largest of these ridges of the 
‘cingulum’ developes a small talon, m, at the hind part of the base 
of c d, which might be regarded as a reduced homologue of the 
postero-internal cusp, d, of Hyracotherium and Pliolophus ; but 
there is no trace of ridge connecting it with the postero-external cusp 
6b. The two outer cusps, a and 6, and the outer part of the coronal 


* «Brit, Foss, Mamm..,’ p. 424, fig. 170. 
z 2 


340 Prof. Owen—On a New Genus of Mammal. 


‘cingulum,’ resemble those parts in Hyracotherium and Pliolophus, 
but are more irregular and wrinkled. Besides the original speci- 
men of the upper jaw of Hyracotherium leporinum, ficured i in my 
‘ British Fossil Mammals,’ p. 422, figs. 166, 167, I have mec enabled 
to strengthen the results of the above comparison, by extending them 
to a second specimen of that rare genus and species, from the 
London Clay at Herne Bay, now inthe British Museum. This speci- 
men consists chiefly of the maxillary part of the skull, and includes, 
m1, 2, 3, p 4, and p 3, of the right side; m2, m 1, p 4, p3, and part of 
the crown of p 2, of the left side: it is from an older animal than the 
one first described, the crowns of the molars being worn down to the 
cingulum; and, as a tract of dentine is exposed continuously along the 
connecting ridges to the inner cusps, the resemblance to the pattern 
of grinding surface in the genus Lophiodon, fig. 5, is made greater. 

In this specimen of Hyracotherium, fig. 2, I caused the matrix to 
be removed with great care from the bony palate, and believe that 
the posterior margin describes the notch extending as far forward 
as the interval between m 1 and m 2. <A pair of canals open 
obliquely forward upon the bony palate opposite the same in- 
terval. 

In Miolophus it appears that the bony palate extended backward 
beyond the molar series. But amore certain osteological difference 
from Hyracotherium is shown in the relative position of the anterior 
piers of the zygomatic arches, the posterior border being on the 
transverse parallel of the fore part of m 2 in Miolophus, fig. 1, where- 
as in Hyracotherium it is on that of the hind part of m 3, fig. 2. 

The above-defined differences in the pattern of the grinding surface 
of the molar teeth are associated with a more triangular, or less 
quadrate, shape of that surface in Mivlophus, and a minor degree of 
difference between the molars and premolars. 

In Lophiodon, the grinding surface of the upper molars, m 1 and 
m 2(Pl. X., fig. 5), has two outer lobes or cusps, a, 6, connected with 
two inner lobes, c, d, by ridges proceeding from the fore part of the 
base of each outer lobe to the apex of each inner lobe, and inclining 
obliquely backward: the cingulum, m, girts the fore, inner, and hind 
part of the crown, subsides at the base of the antero-external lobe, a, 
and developes a small cone or cusp, 7, at the antero-external angle. 

In Pliolophus this pattern of grinding surface is manifest as 
follows :—the two outer lobes, fig. 4, a, 6, are rather rounded than 
three-sided cones: the connecting ridges proceeding from the fore 
part of their base are low, save at their inner part, which rises into 
asmall cone ; they are chiefly represented by the three cones e, f; 
the two inner lobes, c,d, are rounded cones, more independent than 
in Lophiodon, by reason of the partial subsidence of the connecting 
ridges. The cingulum in Pliolophus closely corresponds with that 
of Lophiodon in the place of its interruption and of its chief develop- 
ment. 

By the increase of the connecting ridges at the cost of the ter- 
minal lobes, the bilophodont type of tooth is acquired, as in Tapirus 
and Dinotherium. By the increase of the outer and inner pairs of 


Geol: Mag. L665. PES 


M&N.Hanhart, lm pe 


POSSIL MAMMALIA FROM THE LONDON CLAY, 


Prof. Owen—On a New Genus of Mammal. 341 


lobes at the expense of their connecting ridges, the symmetrical 
quadricuspid crown of the Hippopotamus and Anthracothere results. 

By the development of the basal connection between the two outer 
lobes, @ and 6, in Lophiodon, with retention of well-developed 
subtransverse ridges, e, f, the type of the Rhinoceros’s tooth is 
reached. 

The minor or partial modifications which give the characters 
respectively to Paleotherium, Paloplotherium, Hipparion, Equus, 
Hyracotherium, and Pliolophus, in the Perissodactyle series, and to 
Anoplotherium, Hyopotamus, Cheropotamus, Sus, and the Ruminan- 
tia, in the Artiodactyle series, are easily explicable after recognition 
of the modifications by which the leading types of Perissodactyle and 
Ardiodactyle dentitions have diverged from a more generalized un- 
gulate type of grinding surface, such as is shown in the old Eocene 
Hyracotherioids. 

DrEscRIPTION OF PLATE X. 
1. Palatal surface of upper jaw, Miolophus planiceps, nat, size. 
2. — — — Hyracotherium leporinum, nat. size. 
3. Grinding surface of m 2, left side, upper jaw, of Miolophus planiceps, 
macn. 
4, — — — Pliolophus vulpiceps, magn. 
5. — — — Lophiodon medius, nat. size. 


II. On Traces oF GuactaL Drirr In THE SHETLAND IsLAnps. 
By Cuartes W. Pracu, of Wick, N.B. 
aS last summer accepted the kind invitation of Mr. J. 
Gwyn Jeffreys to be his guest on a dredging expedition to 
these Northern Isles, I was induced, by a request from Sir R. I. 
Murchison, to look out for any trace of glacial action that I might 
meet with there. The result of my observations I have thought 
right to lay before the British Association, apologizing for the 
meagre story I have to tell. This poverty arises partly from my 
resolve to devote all time possible to the zoological work, and partly 
from having seen so small a portion of these islands. 
Lerwick.—Our first landing was at Lerwick, where little time 
was spent either then, or when returning. In a short walk that I 
took in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, at the Bay of 
Sclate, I found the sandstone-rocks on the top of the cliff deeply 
rutted, striated, and polished ; and a little inland, on the side of the 
famed Loch of Clickanim, others similarly marked. These mark- 
ings are again to be seen on the opposite side of this bay. The 
ruts, &c., are all in a N. and S. direction, with slight deviations to the 
EK. and W. The direction from which the drift came is evidently 
northerly, and may be traced up the valley, as shown by the wide- 
spread ruin, and the large blocks scattered over it, and resting on 
striated and polished rocks. The hills on each side of this valley, 
and those at the head beyond the docks, bear unmistakeable evi- 
dence also of polishing and grinding. x 
Out Skerries.—After leaving Lerwick, the Out Skerries of Whal- 
sey became our home. The three small islands which form this 


342 Peach—On Traces of Glacial Drift 


group lie far out in the sea. They are called Gruna, Bruray, and 
Housay ; there is an excellent harbour here, having two good 
entrances for vessels and boats, and a third into which boats can 
run when the tide answers. ‘These entrances are triradiate, with 
the harbour in the centre, sheltered by the three islands from 
every wind. 

The islands have been the scene of great grinding action, their 
surfaces being all more or less rounded, and bearing the roches 
moutonnées form of knolls, whether composed of granite, gneiss, 
quartz, or limestone,—these rocks being intermingled throughout 
the group. Although corroded by atmospheric action, and the 
limestone-portions much more affected by sea-water, the rounding 
can be everywhere seen. By these agents, ruts, strive, &c., are thus 
generally obliterated; and although they are often further obscured 
by an overgrowth of lichens, I was fortunate enough to find newly 
bared rock near the Mill Cove, on the islands of Housay, from 
which I removed more of the drift and washed the stone; and here 
ruts, striz, and polishing could be seen as plainly as if just done. I 
also found on a gneiss-rock in the highest part of this island some 
deep ruts and scratches, which, with those at the Mill Cove, ran 
E. and W., this being the direction of the channel of the two prin- 
cipal entrances to the harbour which separates Gruna from Bruray. 
The cliff on the north side of the Mill Cove of Housay is about 200 
feet high; the sea breaks on the top of it in heavy gales and tears 
up the rock, and also throws up material from the deep. So great 
is the force, that large blocks are driven far back from the cliff into 
a large semicircular wall, Between this wall and the cliff a deep 
river-like gully is scooped, down which the water rushes again to 
the sea. ‘The water left in the depressions in this gully is brackish, 
and in it Enteromorpha grows. Mr. Jeffreys and myself gathered 
portions of limpets, mussels, periwinkles, rock-whelks, and other sea- 
shells amongst the sand and gravel, both in and on the edge of the 
gully. The whole of the top of this cliff (much of it is now beyond 
the influence of the seas of the present day) is also strewn with 
proofs of similar action, some of the ridges of stones hanging on the 
rounded sides of the hill. All these loose blocks and stones rest on 
rounded knolls and polished rock, all so polished before the burthen 
they now bear was thrown on them. AlthoughI know of many 
grand instances of such comparatively recent ruin, both in Caithness 
and Orkney, this far exceeds them all. Every season, the terrific 
seas which break on the whole of these islands leave tracks of their 
power of the most astonishing kind. Besides the markings on the 
rocks, I met with several deposits of drifted matter in which rounded 
and striated stones were not uncommon. Some of these deposits 
were from 12 to 14 feet in depth. Perched blocks—but not in 
abundance,—some of large size, were scattered over the whole 
group. 

Unst.—Our next move was to North Unst, Balta Sound being our 
head-quarters. Here, too, glacial action was plainly to be seen. The 
serpentine rock has suffered seriously, and although much acted on 
by the weather, the rounded outline of the hills and knolls tells 


in the Shetland Islands. 343 


clearly of the grinding to which they had been subjected. Ruts and 
 striz, &., are also rare here: they, however, occurred to me on the 
cliff at Haldale, in Haroldswick Bay, in a recently bared rock, 
underlying a thick deposit of drift, in which rounded and striated 
stones and blocks were plentiful. The whole of the- serpentine 
enclosed in the drift shows the small pieces of chromate of iron it 
contains, standing up beyond the matrix, thus proving the rubbing, 
and that this mineral is very generally diffused throughout the 
whole of Unst. The direction of the ruts, &c., is nearly WNW. 
and ESE. The hills of the Muckle and Little Heogs lie to the 
north of this spot (Haldale), and a slope from about 20 feet above 
the level of the sea rises gradually hence to the top of the Muckle 
Heog, to the height of at least 500 feet. In this slope lies the famed 
chromate of iron quarry or mine. On reaching the top of this hill, 
I found the WNW. end vertical, and polished to the depth at least 
of 150 feet. The hill beyond slopes towards it. This storm side 
had evidently resisted a portion of the destroying force, and turned 
it on its western flank, and thus it swept down the valley towards 
Haroldswick Bay, as is evidenced by the greater destruction there than 
on the Eastern side towards Balta Sound. The scene from the top 
of the Muckle Heog, when looking towards Haroldswick, and then in 
the direction of Burrafiord, is one that tells of mighty agents, long 
continued, powerful to crush and grind;—so powerful, that the really 
hard and massive hills of serpentine have been ploughed down and 
removed to below the sea-level in places near Haroldswick. The 
sea has since piled up a beach on these spots, through which the 
water percolates from the low peaty soil at the back, at each reces- 
sion of the tide. All over Unst the rocks show traces of abrasion; 
and in many places deposits of drift occur, enclesing stones of all 
sizes, some of which are rounded and striated. I mention a few of 
the places where I got drift, so that anyone desirous of seeing it 
may visit them. First, Haldale; at Hammer on Balta Sound; the 
Haunted Burn of Waltea, between Balta Sound and Ueay Sound, 
and at the latter place on the sea-shore. On the south side of the 
small island of Ueay, a similar deposit underlies a sandy raised beach, 
which encloses pebbles, whelks, oysters, and other sea-shells; with 
fish-bones in abundance. Large perched blocks—some many tons 
in weight—lie scattered about everywhere. In none of the glacial 
deposits did I find a single organism. 

Thus, then, at both ends and the middle of this interesting group 
of islands, traces of glacial action were found. I must, however, 
leave the filling-up of the intervals to others. From the contour of 
the islands, seen as we eoasted along them, the whole appear to 
have been subjected to similar agencies. 


HI. A Wak over THE ‘ AsH-BED’ AND ‘BALA LIMESTONES’ 
NEAR OSWESTRY. 
By D. C. Davies. 
i was a dull December morning (but my companion and myself 
are no mere ‘ parlour-geologists’) when we were bound for the 
Limestones and ‘'Trap-rocks’ which lie about the valley of the 


344 


Davies—A Walk over the 


Ceiriog, distant some eight or nine miles from Oswestry. ‘After an 
early breakfast, we strapped on the munitions of war and looked 


: SS 
LS 


ped). 


| Coal-measures. 


Millstone-grit. 


Carboniferous 
Limestone. 


Wenlock Shale. 


Foss. Sandstones 
and Shales (May- 
hill Sandstone ?) 


9. Top band of Limestone (Hirnant 


8. Pale Shales, fossiliferous. 
10. Pale Shales. 


Bala Lime- 
stones, Shales, 
Trappean Ash, 

and Green 

Sandstone. 


7. Middle and main band of Bala Lime- 


5. Lowest band of Bala Limestone. 


ZY ow |. 
ZY oh 
Zz AP 
REA 
SM <H 
t isp) 
iN 
rt 
Li foes Zone of dark _, 3 
i Gi earthy Slates, O06” 
Coun eylye. Kiyanieas| | through numer- 23 
en SHV y i ousfoldsand @&a< 
iar eeae ae KNIT dislocations ~< caer: 
Ran er Ay AWWA | forming the sur- 2 Za 
Llanarmon NN face of apreat’ [Sue 
x KWAN | portion of S. W. S455 * 
INS Denbighshire. sles 
ASS 44 
SWOw Bs 
I SH 
EX tnd 
Bala Limestones, < 2 
Shales, Trappean Rona) 
Soe N { Ash, and Green- aco 
# 3 Ss stone. 3 8 
HOM S -@ 2m 
now 2 eace 
oun- 8 3 | gaa 
tains. 699 q Zoe 
eee ie Petes 
ArH Z| \ Bala Limestones, Ose 5 
Shales, Trappean 4 ("5 5 
Ash, and Green- 14 $2, 
Lake and ---~~ stone. Be S34 
Town of Zone of dark MAH 
Bala. earthy Slates and a c3 
Shales. 
4A —Ffestiniog Slates ) & . 
and Porphyries. { = %& 
ds 
} Tremadoc beds. sa 
4 


Z 


Section illustrative of the general order through North Wales of the beds described in this paper 
based upon the sections of the Geological Survey, some details supplied by the Author. 


Cambrian. 


well tothe ‘ commissariat,’ 
and, determined to make 
the most of the short day- 
light, we turned our backs 
upon the good old town of 
Oswestry. 

Our route lay westward, 
up the slopes of the Coal- 
measures (here not work- 
ed) and of the Millstone- 
grit, to the racecourse of 
the town. From this point 
an extensive prospect is 


% gained, embracing the plain 


of Shropshire, bounded on 
the east by the igneous hill 
of the Wrekin—on the 
south by the Brudden, of 
like plutonic origin, and the 
mining district of Shelve, 
backed by the Stiper Stones 
and the Corndon. Now 
we bent sharply round to 
the north, and passing the 
old earthwork of Offa’s 
Dyke, here a considerable 
rampart, we crossed the 
Welsh border-band of Car- 
boniferous Limestone, 
which is at this point ex- 
tremely narrow, and then 
came at once upon a band 
of Feldspathic Ash, which 
runs up against the Lime- 
stone like a buttress. We 
followed the course of this 
Ash-bed for a mile or two, 
and then, near the lonely 
mountain-farm of Llech- 
ryddau, we made a halt to 
examine its structure and 
position. 

Fortunately for us, 
though contrariwise for 
the miners who expected 
to find copper here, a level 
has been driven through 
the Ash-bed, along the 


©‘ Ash-bed’ and ‘ Bala Limestones.’ 345 


whole course of which I once had an opportunity of examining 
the various layers composing it; and we were able to do the same 
thing again by means of the débris on the outside. 

Here are fissured blocks of rapidly decomposing Feldspar, the 
parent beds of which may have furnished materials for some of the 
fine clays of the overlying. formations. ‘There are others made up 
of angular fragments of red and white Feldspar, set in a greenish 
paste, extremely hard: so large are some of the red fragments, that 
a miner once brought me a piece he had found in an ancient drift- 
bed overlying one of the Coal-seams as a proof of the existence in 
those days of men who knew how to burn bricks and pottery! In 
many of the fragments lying about, we saw how the coarser layers 
pass gradually into a finer texture of hard grey and green beds, in 
some of which are large crystals of sulphate of iron, embracing 
every variety of compactness, together with shaly and imperfect 
slaty cleavage; and if we were to follow the course of this Ash-bed 
two miles to the north, where it is thrown up into the ruggedly 
grand escarpment above Pontymeibon, we should see these various 
layers with their alternations and gradations zm situ, and we should 
also observe how the whole series is traversed diagonally and per- 
pendicularly by great veins of quartz. In accounting for the origin of 
Ash-beds such as this, some have supposed them to be made up of 
volcanic matter thrown up and deposited under water; but while we 
can conceive of a layer of limited extent geographically deposited 
in this way, the vast extent of country traversed by this and its 
neighbouring Ash-beds, their great thickness, and the preservation 
of their structural characteristics along their entire course, lead me 
to look with more favour to the theory which regards them as the 
‘recomposed’ detritus of older igneous rocks, regularly deposited, 
and afterwards subjected to the consolidating influences of heat and 
pressure. ‘The one we have been examining is the lowest of three 
Ash-beds which in North Wales underlie the Limestones, Sand- 
stones, and Shales forming the variously designated Bala, Llandeilo, 
or Caradoc group of rocks; below it we find a dark-blue rock 
plentifully dotted with iron pyrites—then a thin band of Greenstone, 
a true igneous rock, and then a thick zone of dark earthy slates. 
Below this, in this part of North Wales, we cannot go, because the 
beds described in this paper, though rolling over in numerous 
bends and dislocations, keep to the surface and hide the inferior 
strata from view ; but if we were to follow them northwards towards 
the lake and town of Bala, we should observe the dark Shales and 
Slates finally resting upon the Ffestiniog rocks, which in their turn 
conduct us down to the Tremadoc Slates and Lingula-flags. All 
this, by the way, as turning NE. from the farm-house, we made 
for Nant Iorweth—a dingle which opens into Glyn Ceiriog. Before 
long the loose blocks of Quartz and pale-green fragments of Ash 
which strew our path tell us we are crossing the second of the Ash- 
beds, which differs somewhat from the first in the preponderance of 
hard pale-green and greenish-white beds, together with dark grits. 
This band may be studied to advantage where the romantic glen of 


346 Davies—A Walk over the 


the Deiru joins the valley of the Ceiriog. Now in this glen of the 
Deiru, above the second Ash-bed, there occurs a thin bed of impure 
Limestone, which, though little known, is interesting as being, above 
the Lingula-flags, the first horizon of organic life. We were now 
four miles south of the spot where, in the débris of some old mines, 
it is to be seen; so we looked eagerly, as perchance we might meet 
with indications of its continuance southwards. Nor did we search 
in vain, for here were fragments which, from their position and tex- 
ture, we identified as belonging to it, and in these, as we broke them 
up, we found its characteristic fossils. We were now at the top of 
the hill, and, had the day been clear, we should have seen before us 
one of the most charming valleys of Wales ; but the December fog, 
like a thick curtain, hid it from our view. Blocks of quartz and 
boulders of trap told us we were now crossing the third and highest 
of the Ash-beds, and there, right before us, in the hill Fron Frys, 
rises up the middle and principal band of Bala Limestone, whose 
lowest beds form the slope of the hill we are descending ; we were 
soon vigorously at work, cracking the stones which lie about the 
fields, and with but little regard, I fear, for the rights of property, 
played havoc with the dry stone fences, for here lurk the fossils, 
many nice examples of which soon found their way to our bags: but 
about these we must not gossip now, save to say that we looked 
hard for the Ogygia Buchii ; for I believe, both from the fossils 
associated with it in South Wales, as well as from stratigraphical 
considerations with respect to the Shelve district in Shropshire, 
where it is also found, that this is the horizon where it should be 
sought if it is to be found in North Wales. Our search was in 
vain, though we knocked out plenty of its kindred genus, Asaphus 
(Powisti) ; but concerning Ogygia, so plentiful elsewhere, it must 
still be written ‘not yet found in North Wales,’ as well as ‘ does not 
occur in Ireland.” This is one of the curious examples of the 
apparently arbitrary distribution of species geographically which 
sometimes occur, and which serve to show that the age of any deposit 
is not to be determined solely by the presence or absence of any 
particular fossil. After a half-hour’s rest, with refreshment by the 
fireside of a friendly cottage, we examined the lower beds of the 
Limestone im siév, and then journeyed slowly up the hill. I have 
described the peculiar features of the Bala Limestone elsewhere, 
so here I will only say that the lower beds are massive, they contain 
the usual ferruginous sandy layers, abounding with fossils, and then, 
on ascending to Cefn Coed quarry, their average thickness is 
reduced to five or six inches, and there they are interleaved with 
pale Shales. In these beds occur for the first time the beautiful 
Corals belonging to the genus Heliolites; and some nice examples of 
the Brachiopoda and other families occur, both in the solid Lime- 
stone and also in the Shales. It is interesting to notice how in the 
Shales the fossils are all more or less distorted, while in the Lime- 
stones they retain their original shape; just as if Shales and fossils 
were pressed out—elongated—in one direction, as the layers of 
consolidated Limestone slid down them, when this hill was tilted up 


‘Ash-bed’ and ‘ Bala Limestones.’ 347 


into its present position. We were now at the summit of the hill ; 
and, as the too short day faded into twilight, we looked up the ‘ reach’ 
of the valley of the Ceiriog, which stretches from the New Inn to 
Pontymeibon, and could distinctly trace on the surface the rugged 
escarpments of the three ‘ Ash-beds’ and the three Limestones, with 
the depressions between each, which serve to mark the place of the 
softer intervening Shales. This order of the strata may be taken 
as a type of this portion of the Bala or Llandeilo Group as it is 
developed in North Wales. In South Wales, where the Bala Lime- 
stone loses its distinctive features, the Trap-rocks also lose their 
massiveness ; and the same is the case at Shelve, where the Ash-beds 
occur in numerous layers interstratified with flags and shales. We 
noticed the correspondence which each side of the valley bears to 
the other, Ash-bed, Limestone, and Shale answering each to each on 
either side, like Coleridge’s ‘Roland and Sir Leoline.’ 


* 


Like cliffs which have been rent asunder; 
But neither time nor frost nor thunder 
Will wholly do away, I ween, 

The marks of that which once hath been. 


They stand aloof, the scars remaining. 
* * * 


This is not a mere valley of erosion; for in the dipping of the 
strata on the one side to the NE., and on the other to the SE., we 
at once perceive that it owes its origin to a crack in continuous 
strata, made in the process of upheaval, the said crack having been 
since widened by time and action of water, which weareth away 
the stones. 

The day was closing, so we descended rapidly, past the kilns 
where the stone is burnt for lime, past the Shales overlying the 
Limestone, past the third or Hirnant Limestone, and, recruiting 
our strength at the New Inn, heavily ballasted with fossils, we 
wended our way up the steep hills of ‘ Wenlock Shale’ which divide 
the valleys of the Ceiriog and the Dee. The lights of the town of 
Llangollen peered through the gloom as we gained the summit, and 
before long we were there. And now, kind reader, having brought 
you safely to a habitable and hospitable place, we thank you for 
your company, and bid you good-night. 


ABSTRACTS OF BRITISH AND FOREIGN 
MEMOIRS. 
a 
[The Report of this and the following Paper, read before the British Association 
at Bath, Sept. 1864, has been unayoidably postponed until this month.] 
1. On THE BovutpErR-ciay or East Yorxsuire, By J. Lecxensy, F.G.S. 


ee author pointed out the existence of the evidence of glacial 

conditions in the clays, sands, and gravels which overlie the 
Secondary strata of Yorkshire in its northern and eastern portions, 
especially around Whitby and Scarborough, in the Moorland Valleys, 


348 Abstracts of Memoirs. 


in the neighbourhood of Thirsk, and in the New Red Sandstone 
district near Ripon. 

At Scarborough two well-marked divisions of these deposits were 
shown to obtain; the lower consisting of rolled and often firmly 
compacted gravels, in which were found fragments of the various 
granites of Scotland and Westmoreland, and of the hard blue Car- 
boniferous Limestones of West Yorkshire. Blocks of granite of 
large size were not uncommonly found presenting scratched and 
. grooved surfaces ; but, probably owing to the softer nature of the 
Secondary strata of Yorkshire, no grooving or polishing of these 
rock-surfaces could be found. 

Intercalated with these gravels are irregular beds of sand ; and 
the whole are so arranged as to preclude the possibility of referring 
them to merely aqueous agency; the lines of demarcation being 
sharply defined, and the beds exhibiting distinct angles over which 
other materials are assorted. 

The author described the upper division as composed of uniformly 
compact clay, with occasional seams of pure sand, well exhibited 
towards the northern point of Filey Bay near Scarborough, where 
numerous granite boulders with glacial markings existed in siti. 

The entire thickness of the beds at Scarborough was stated to be 
not less than 200 feet, which was probably their maximum de- 
velopment. 

The author collected the following shells in these glacial beds 
at Scarborough :— 


Mytilus edulis. Tellina Balthica. 
Cyprina Islandica. T. calcarea. 
Venus lincta. Mya truncata, var. Uddevallensis. 


Astarte borealis. 


Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys collected in the Boulder-clay at Whitby, 
besides those above numerated, the following :— 


Astarte sulcata, var. elliptica. Balanus porcatus. 
Cardium edule. B. crenatus. 
Pholas crispata. Lepralia. 


Alluding to the absence of univalves, the smaller number of 
bivalves, and their more fragmentary characters, Mr. Leckenby 
pointed out the difference, in these respects, from the Caithness beds 
described by Mr. Peach before the Association in 1862, but which, 
from Mr. Peach’s description, resembled in general features those of 
Yorkshire. 


2. On CHANGES OF THE RELATIVE LEVEL OF LAND AND SEA IN SOUTH-EASTERN 
DEVONSHIRE, IN CONNECTION WITH THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 


By W. Prncetty, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
from a careful examination of the geological evidences that 
can be studied relative to changes of level in Devonshire, Mr. 
Pengelly was led to recognize the following periods of change and 
their several results :—Ist. A remote period prior to the lodgement 
of the gravels now occupying the valley-slopes and summits of the 


Abstracts of Memoirs. 349 


lesser hills of South-eastern Devonshire. In all other respects the 
physical characters of the district were as at present.—2nd. This was 
followed by a subsidence, the entire area ultimately becoming at 
least 300 feet lower than now. During this depression, marine 
gravels—not entirely of immediate, but never of very remote deri- 
vation—accumulated in the valleys until they were entirely obliter- 
ated; the summits of the hills were also covered, and similar 
materials were lodged in such fissures and crevices as traversed the 
rocks. Dartmoor existed as an archipelago, and was probably in- 
habited by the Dwarf-birch and Willows suitable to the Arctic or 
Sub-arctice climate which then prevailed.—3rd. A slow and uniform 
upheaval then brought up the entire district untilit was no more than 
about 200 feet lower than at present. During this movement very 
much of the gravels previously deposited were stripped off.—4th. 
At this point the upward movement was intermitted, and no further 
change of relative level occurred for a very prolonged period. 
During this interval the breakers, by grinding down the outcrops 
of hard,inclined beds of limestone, produced the extensive horizontal 
platforms of the Torbay district.—5th. To this succeeded a resump- 
tion of the slow and uniform elevatory movement. The limestone- 
terraces first emerged into dry land; the gravels were wholly or 
partially swept out of the valleys, but possibly, and at least in some 
cases probably, still more slowly than the district rose; small patches 
of it were left, or perhaps re-deposited, here and there, on the hill- 
slopes as they rose above the sea-level, as, for example, on Windmill 
and Parkham Hills at Brixham, about 50 feet below the terraces 
just mentioned. Bovey Plain and the Brixham Cavern, each 50 feet 
lower still, at length became sub-aérial, and gradually the total ele- 
vation of the land produced by this second upheaval amounted to 
about 125 feet. Betula nana and the Salices probably took posses- 
sion of the occasionally flooded Bovey Plain as soon as it was ready 
for their reception, which could not have been earlier than towards 
the close of this period; but the land was not yet high enough for 
the fluviatile introduction of the bone-bed of the cavern.—6th. Again 
the upward movement was suspended for a long time, and, during 
the pause, the breakers planed down the terrace represented by the 
Roundham-head Level.—7th. This achieved, the district once more 
began to rise, and when the Brixham Cavern had reached an eleva- 
tion of not less than 40 feet above the sea, its bone-bed, with the 
multifarious articles found in it in 1858, might have been carried 
in; but, though it is apparently impossible to assign this event to an 
earlier period, there seems nothing to prevent its having belonged 
to a considerably later one. Whenever it took place, however, the 
bottoms of the adjacent valleys—whether of undisturbed gravel or 
of limestone rock—were not below the cavern-level; and at this 
height they must have remained during the very prolonged period 
represented by the deposit in question. This upheaval increased 
the elevation of the land by about 45 feet, or, in other words 
brought it up to within 30 feet of its present height.—8th. Once 
more the emergence was suspended, and in the pause were produced 


350 Abstracts of Memoirs. 

the well-known Raised Beaches. This period, however, distinctly 
divides itself into three: first, or earliest, that in which the waves 
cut, in the semi-crystalline limestone and almost vertical beds of the 
harder kinds of slate, a series of approximately horizontal shelves, 
some of which, notwithstanding their subsequent waste, are still 
upwards of 60 feet broad ; secondly, that of the accumulation of the 
Beaches, which are made up of beds of gravel, succeeded at the 
higher levels by layers of fine sand, and in some cases terminated by 
what appears to be blown sand; and, thirdly, that in which the 
Beaches themselves were cut back into cliffs and shorn of much of 
their dimensions.—9th. Again the upward movement was resumed, 
and the entire district raised to an elevation of at least 40 feet 
ereater than at present. Whether or not this was followed by an 
intermittence, there is no evidence to show; nor is it possible to say 
how long was the time before the newly emerged district was occu- 
pied with large trees. It is certain that during a vast period, either 
of rest or of continued elevation, it was covered with a forest, in 
which the Ox, Red-deer, Boar, Horse, and Mammoth found food and 
shelter, and the débris of which furnished them with graves.—10th. 
From the analogy furnished by the preceding phenomena, it seems 
highly improbable that an upward movement would be exchanged 
for a downward one without an intermediate pause. On this point, 
however, there appears to be no direct evidence. All that can be 
affirmed positively is, that after the Forest-era the entire district 
was carried down from whatever had been its previous height until 
the base of the forest-ground was not less than 40 feet below the sea- 
level.—11th. Assuming that the subsidence just mentioned was the 
last movement the district has experienced, we are in possession of 
facts pointing to the conclusion that the commencement of the period 
of quiescence which followed dates far back from the present day, 
down to which it has continued. No sooner have the sea and land 
acquired a new relative level than the former attacks the latter and 
produces a new line of cliffs with their concomitant platforms. What- 
ever was the maximum elevation obtained by the forest-area, an 
addition to that amount must be made to the existing heights of 
all the higher level-deposits: thus, for example, if the whole of. 
Torbay to or beyond the five-fathom line was then dry land, the 
Raised Beaches, instead of 30, must have been 70 feet above the 
sea-level, and so on in all the other cases. As the works of Man 
remain in the Brixham Cave, which received its present contents at 
the time of the second upheaval, alluded to above, the human in- 
habitants of the area in question witnessed an Arctic flora in Devon- 
shire, saw engulfed rivers carry into caverns osseous deposits, and, 
in times much less ancient, they may have collected Shell-fish on the 
old sea-beaches, now 30 feet above the reach of the highest tide, 
and hunted the Mammoth in a forest over which our largest ships of 
war now ride at anchor. 


Abstracts of Memoirs. 351 
3. Les Eaux MINERALES DU Massir CENTRAL DE LA FRANCE, CONSIDEREES DANS LEUR 

RAPPORTS AVEC LA CuImMig ET LA GkoLocre. Par Henri Lecoe, Professeur A la 

Faculté des Sciences de Clermont, &c. Paris, 1864. Pp. 302.—(The Mineral 

Springs of the Central Plateau of France.) 

“gas volume is a sequel to Professor Lecoq’s general work on 
mineral springs, very recently published and already noticed in 
these pages.* Itis an application of the principles there enunciated 
to the case of Central France, and is the first instalment of a work 
in preparation by its author on the geological epochs of Auvergne. 

In the classification of the mineral waters of France, M. Lecogq, 
following M. Deville, adopts a mixed geographical and chemical 
division into five groups, each characterized by the presence of a 
class of salts. These groups are as follows :—Ist. The waters of 
the Central Plateau of France, where the bicarbonates are present in 
the proportion of 75 per cent. These waters contain upwards of 
300 grains of solid matter to the gallon.—2nd. The mineral springs 
of the Alps and Corsica, characterized by sulphaées in the proportion 
of about 43 per cent., but not containing more than 170 grains to 
the gallon.—8rd. The springs of the Vosges, the Jura, and the hills 
of the Upper Sadne. These contain 67 per cent. of chlorides, and 
240 grains to the gallon.—4th. Those of the Ardennes and Hainault, 
characterized both by bicarbonates and chlorides. The first are in 
the ratio of 49 per cent., and the others 48. The solids are about 
105 grains per gallon.—5th. The springs of the North-west Plateau, 
or Brittany, containing about 30 per cent. of sulphates, 88 per cent. 
of bicarbonates, and 23 per cent. of chlorides ; but the whole solid 
contents are not more than 40 grains per gallon. 

Locally M. Lecog establishes fifteen groups of springs—seven in 
the department of Puy-de-Déme, the rest in adjacent departments. 
‘The former are the more generally known, and the more interesting 
in a geological sense. Of its seven groups, that of Mont Dore is 
the first considered. Mont Dore consists of a mass of volcanic 
rock, nearly 3,000 feet thick in places, and situated on a granitic 
plateau.* Fissures have been formed in this erupted mass after 
cooling dislocations have taken place, and mineral springs rise in 
the long valleys of Mont Dore and Chaudefour, radiating from the 
centre of the mountain-group. In the Mont-Dore Valley (Dordogne) 
are several groups issuing from trachyte. In the Chaudefour they 
are from crevices in the granite. 

In the upper part of the valley of the Dordogne is the spring 
called la Cheminée du Diable (the Devil’s Chimney). It is situated 
at the foot of the Pic de Sancy, and is not very accessible. It is 
singular to see a deposit of iron and limestone amidst trachyte. 
The minerals have been left behind by the spring, which is now 
small and cold. M. Lecoq believes that the carbonate of lime comes 
in this case from beneath the granite underlying the trachyte. 
Several adjacent springs are ferruginous. 

The Mont-Dore springs may be regarded as seven in number, but 
each includes a small group. ‘Their temperature varies from 108° 


* See Grou. Mace., Vol. II. pp. 115 and 164. 
t The highest point of the Pic de Sancy is 6,130 feet above the sea. 


252 Abstracts of Memoirs. 

F. to 118° F. Some yield very small quantities of water, and their 
total yield is about 48 gallons per minute. ‘The water issues clear, 
and slightly acidulous, and becomes cloudy on exposure to the air. 
Carbonic acid gas is emitted with the water, the quantity varying 
with the weather and in the different springs. One spring much 
colder than the rest yields a much larger quantity of gas than the 
others. Nitrogen and a little oxygen are also given off. The com- 
position of the waters is very complex, including bicarbonate of 
soda, potash, lime, lithia, magnesia, manganese, protoxide of iron, 
rubidium, and cxsium ;* chloride, iodide, and fluoride of sodium; 
sulphate, arseniate, and borate of soda; silica, alumina, and a trace 
of bituminous organic matter. 

M. Lecoq, with good reason, attaches much importance to the 
mineral deposits in the neighbourhood of springs. In those of Mont 
Dore he finds traces of iodine ; and Berthier has alluded to phos- 
phorus and fluorine. A considerable mass of resinous quartz was 
destroyed in building the thermal establishment. It contained sili- 
citied wood. It is thought that the quantity of silica in the water 
diminishes. 

A tufaceous deposit on the banks of the Dordogne, about 14 mile 
below Mont Dore, marks the springs of the Compitssade. 'They are 
three in number, issuing from trachyte, and flowing over travertin. 
Two are cold, and one is warm, the latter depositing silica. About 
23 miles beyond, out of fissures in granite and trachytic tufa, rise 
the springs of Za Bourboule. ‘They are seven in number, yielding 
about six gallons per minute, the temperature high but variable, 
sometimes nearly 180° F. They yield chiefly common salt and 
bicarbonate of soda. They also show traces of the chlorides of 
lithium and the new metals, phosphate and arseniate of soda, iodide 
and bromide of sodium. A slight odour of sulphuretted hydrogen is 
noticed at the springs, and they have a distinctly acid and salt taste. 

In the valley of Chaudefour are a number of small mineral springs, 
some warm and some cold. They are for the most part chalybeate. 
They yield, on the whole, about 60 gallons per minute. The new 
metals have not been detected in them; but they contain iodine, 
bromine, arsenic, phosphorus, and a calculable percentage of sulphate 
of strontia. All yield carbonic acid gas. A large deposit of car- 
bonate of lime is obtained from the waters of St. Nectaire, and 
advantage is taken of this in the manufacture of natural cameos 
resembling those of Tuscany. 

In traversing the granite, these mineral waters change and de- 
compose the felspar, and cause the rock to disintegrate, while occa- 
sionally crystals of arragonite are deposited in the crevices and 
fissures of the rock. 

The second division of the mineral springs of the district in- 
cludes a number of outlying groups. Of those on the banks of 
the Allier, one (Saut du Loup) is intermittent; others (Woneéte, 
Coudes) rise through large masses of travertin ; another (Tam- 
bour, the Drum) issues with a rumbling noise ; others (Sé Mar- 


* It is from the mother-water derived from evaporating 200 litres (17 gallons) 
of water, that these metals and lithia have been determined, 


Abstracts of Memoirs. 353 


guertée) are warm (90° F.), and contain much carbonate of 
lime, with bicarbonate of soda, common salt, and various other salts, 
to the extent of 600 grains to the gallon. One of the number 
(St. Martial) yields as much as 470 grains of salt to the gallon, and 
rises through a mass of travertin 2,000 feet in diameter, and nearly 
7 feet thick. More than one human skeleton has been found 
in this mass. This is the more remarkable, as these waters now 
deposit but little carbonate of lime. The celebrated springs of 
Vichy belong to this group. They are situated in an alluvial basin 
in Tertiary deposits of small thickness, resting on Primary rocks. 
‘The whole is permeated by the mineral waters which probably issue 
from the granite. Springs have been obtained from artificial borings, 
in addition to those that rise from natural crevices. There are now 
thirteen natural springs and three borings. The temperature is 
exceedingly variable (from 54° to 111° F.). The volume of water 
issuing is also variable, but the total is not estimated at more than 
65 gallons per minute. Some of the springs are intermittent. 
Carbonic acid gas issues from the water of some of the springs with 
great violence, but this is somewhat marked by a peculiar and 
rather bituminous odour derived from organic matter. Nearly 
500 grains of carbonic acid by weight are contained in a gallon of 
Vichy water from some of the springs, and about 300 grains of solid 
bases. Of free carbonic acid gas there are from 70 to 200 grains 
per gallon. There are bicarbonates of soda (in large quantity), 
potash, magnesia, strontian, lime, protoxide of iron, and protoxide 
of manganese ; sulphate, phosphate, arseniate and borate of soda ; 
chloride of sodium, and silica. Traces of lithia, iodine, and bromine 
have also been recognized. The quantity of carbonic acid issuing 
from these waters of Vichy is so large, as tosuggest to M. Lecog the 
presence of large deposits of carbon or of solid carbonic acid in the 
interior of the earth. ‘The albuminous matter present is also very 
remarkable, as it presents analogies with the vegetable kingdom in 
its green colour, and with the animal kingdom in its nature. On 
exposure it becomes fetid, but does not yield animalcules. The 
quantity of soluble bicarbonate of soda that issues from the Vichy 
springs and runs away into the Allier, and so to the ocean, amounts 
to nearly 1,400 tons per annum. ‘The quantity of insoluble matter is 
much smaller (amounting to about 100 tons per annum). This has 
formed a deposit in the Vichy basin estimated to amount to not less 
than 3,000,000 tons. At the present rate of deposit, it would take 
upwards of 30,000 years to form such a mass. This is a long period 
for contemporary deposits. All the Vichy waters, however, tend to 
choke up their outlets, and the issue of the water may formerly 
have been much larger than it is now. 

Near Clermont are some remarkable springs. Those of Royat, 
three in number, pass through Tertiary sandstones and travertins. 
Their temperature varies from 86° to 95° F. They yield much 
nitrogen. ‘They contain chiefly the bicarbonates of soda, lime, 
magnesia, and potash, and common salt, but also sulphate, phosphate, 
and arseniate of soda, and chloride, iodide, and bromide of sodi;m. 

VOL. II.--NO. XIV. AA 


354 Abstracts of Memoirs. 


The deposits choking up the issue of the water are very extensive, 
and of great thickness. 

Most of the Clermont springs rise to the west and north-west of 
the town. .They are sixteen in number, and compose four groups. 
Some are artificial borings. One group—that of St. Alyr—is re- 
markable for the beautiful incrustations produced by its waters. All 
have deposited enormous quantities of travertin. A natural bridge 
and aqueduct of travertin, nearly 300 feet in total length and 16 
feet wide,.is an interesting example of the nature of this deposit. 
Tt has been about four centuries in forming. The St. Alyr deposits 
are interesting in a mineralogical sense, owing partly to their con- 
dition, and partly to the banded structure of the carbonate of lime, 
more or less coloured by iron oxide. ‘There is also a curious rock, 
consisting of a very hard conglomerate with a calcareous cement, 
combining an infinity of minute water-worn grains and pebbles of 
quartz, pozzuolana, fragments of basalt, and scoriz. The composition 
of the older travertin seems different from that of the modern de- 
posits. The former yields the following analysis :— 


Water . ; é ; ‘ : ; ‘ . 0:800 
Carbonate of lime . : : F ; 5 . A0:224 
Carbonate of magnesia. ; : : : . 26860 
Carbonate of strontian : : j ; ‘ . 0:043 
Peroxide of iron : ; ; ‘ : : . 6-200 
Sulphate of lime d ‘i ; : : pe nates) 
Sub-phosphate of alumina 5 . ; : 4 A5096 
Phosphate of manganese . 0 : 3 : . 0-400 
Crenate and apocrenate of iron . : : . 9000 
Organic matter not nitrogenized : 3 : «| e200) 
Silica ? a : 3 : ; ; j .  9°780 
Loss ‘ : : Z : ; : + 0:05 

100-000 


The more modern rock gives only a trace of carbonate of strontia, 
32 per cent. of carbonate of lime, and 9 per cent. of sulphate of lime. 

Besides these there are many other springs in the valley of the 
Limagne, generally issuing from minute transverse fissures in the 
granite. The total quantity of water is large, but most of the 
separate springs are very small. Arsenic has been detected in them. 
Bromine and iodine, phosphorus and strontian, have also been 
found. There are considerable masses of travertin in their imme- 
diate vicinity. 

On the banks of the Sioule there are numerous groups of springs, 
of which those of Chateauneuf are the most important. Some are 
cold, and several are warm. Neutral bicarbonates are the chief 
contents. The waters being immediately mixed with those of the 
river, there is no opportunity of forming deposits. 

A number of other springs are described by M. Lecoq in various 
parts of the Puy-de-Déme. Some few are sulphurous, but most of 
them yield large quantities of carbonic acid gas and sub-carbonates. - 
The Puy de la Poix yields a considerable quantity of bitumen, espe- 
cially in winter. It is estimated that at least 150 kilométres of 
this substance is thrown out with the water every year, and being 


Abstracts of Memoirs. 355 


indestructible, it accumulates in little hillocks. It has been re- 
marked that bitumen is common in the schists of Auvergne. 

In the department of Cantal there are no less than 103 mineral 
springs, 83 issuing from granite and other crystalline metamorphic 
rocks, and 16 from volcanic rocks. They chiefly emerge in valleys. 
Of some of these the temperature is very high, but not constant. 
The Chaudesaigues springs, for example, not only vary from time to 
time, but seem permanently hotter now than formerly. The spring 
of Par in 1771 was described as having a temperature of 167° F.; 
and in 1828, 1774 F. Others are lower, but all are very hot. The 
quantity of water issuing is large, and the whole neighbourhood 
around feels the effect. The hot water is used for various econo- 
mical purposes, amongst others for warming the houses. It is eal- 
culated that the quantity of heat liberated each day by these waters 
is equivalent to the consumption of about six tons of coal. Although 
so hot, the waters of Chaudesaigues are not rich in salts and other 
minerals. 

While the springs of Par have increased in temperature since 
1788, those of Véris on the Allier have greatly cooled. The spring 
Grand-Puits bas lowered from 172° F. to 1264 F., and the Puzts de 
la Croix from 167° F. to 125° F.; the lowering not having been 
gradual, but by jumps. The great earthquake of Lisbon (1775) pro- 
duced very marked effects on this spring. In solid contents the 
Neris water is not remarkable, but it is unusually rich in organic 
matter, and a peculiar growth of Conferve takes place very rapidly 
after the water reaches the surface. 

We have given this very brief abstract of the contents of M. 
Lecoq’s very elaborate volume, in order that our readers may 
‘form some notion of the extent of material accumulated. Nearly 
300 springs are described, and some account given of each, in- 
cluding in most cases the volume of water, the temperature, and the 
contents as determined by analysis. It would be unfair not to 
recognize the great labour and care that have been taken, though one 
would have been glad of some general résumé rendering the facts 
more generally manageable. M. Lecoq bears constantly in mind his 
theory of the origin of mineral springs; but this does not prevent 
him from putting forward honestly the whole of the evidence that 
exists in the case of the springs he professes to describe. His work 
~nust always be valuable as a book of reference.—D. T. A. 


REVIEWS. 
—— 

1. Tae WATER-SUPPLY OF THE PERMIAN Rocks or DurHAM.* 
On THE Macyestan Limestonz or Duruam. By Messrs. Dacrisu and Forstsr. 
British Assoc. Report, 1863, p. 726. 

Water-supply.—The hydrology of the Magnesian Limestone and 
the Red Sandstone beneath it is first discussed; and there are 


* See GrorocicAL Macazinz, Vol. II. p. 29. 
AA 


356 Reviews—Daglish and Forster, 


few formations in British geology the water-bearing properties of 
which are so remarkable. Previous to 1818, when the Durham 
Coal-measures were wrought only to the west of the Magnesian 
Limestone, the quantity of water in that rock and the underlying 
‘Lower Red Sandstone’ does not seem to have been suspected; but 
in the first attempt to win coal below the limestone, near Hetton-le- 
Hole, such immense bodies of water were encountered on reaching 
the ‘Lower Red Sandstone,’ that the shaft had to be abandoned. 
The skill of the northern engineers, of course, ultimately prevailed, 
both here, and where other pits were subsequently put down, but 
only after severe struggles,—a first and second shaft having some- 
times to be given up as failures before the Coal-measures could be 
reached ; and 1,000, 2,000, and even 10,000 gallons of water a 
minute had sometimes to be pumped from the shafts in order that 
the sinkers might work. 

But what is so great an evil and such a source of expense to the 
coal-owner has been turned to a great good, and a source of wealth, 
to the inhabitants and capitalists of the district; for, availing them- 
selves of the knowledge so dearly bought by the former, the latter 
have sunk deep wells to these subterranean reservoirs, and so 
obtained a plentiful supply of pure water. The towns of Sunder- 
land, South Shields, Jarrow, and Seaham, besides numerous villages, 
are all furnished with water in this manner. The aggregate supply 
at these places, combined with the quantity taken from the same 
sources by private wells, is probably at the present time very little 
under 5,000,000 gallons daily. : 

The water is usually met with in the form of powerful feeders ;— 
a feeder being a joint or fissure filled with water. Messrs. Daglish 
and Forster suppose that a very slight supply is derived from the ~ 
percolation of water through the mass of the rock itself ; and this 
undoubtedly holds good, as the question is practically viewed by 
them. But there is just as little doubt that water percolates more 
or less the whole mass of the Magnesian Limestone and the under- 
lying Sandstone, and that below the water-level these deposits are 
kept thoroughly saturated according to their capacities of saturation. 
The capacity of these rocks for retaining water varies. Some of 
the crystalline varieties of the limestone absorb very little. Others, 
less crystalline in character, hold 3°45, 6-0, 13:18, 14°87, and even 
17:0 lbs. of water to the cubic foot. The sandstone varies less in 
this respect ; 10 lbs. of water (or a gallon) to the cubic foot being 
about its usual point of saturation. With the lower strata of the 
limestone and the sandstone thus saturated, all cavities and empty 
spaces in their mass naturally become filled with water. Open 
joints and fissures, of which there are many, more especially serve 
as receptacles for it ; and from their wide ramifications they form 
great subterranean reservoirs ready for the use of man—or for his 
annoyance, as the case may be. They, moreover, not only serve as 
natural reservoirs, but also, from the extensive areas offered by their 
walls as surfaces of collection, as a means for the rapid accumulation 


of supplies from the main stores of water held in the mass of the 
rock. 


Water-supply of the Permian Rocks of Durham. 357 


Near the sea, the level of the water in the Magnesian Limestone 
agrees, as usual, with the level of the sea. Farther inland the 
saturation-line rises, until, at a distance of four miles from the coast, 
it reaches a point of 180 feet above sea-level. A slight variation in 
the level is also to be observed near the outcrop of the limestone and 
underlying sandstone in different seasons of the year or states of the 
weather. 

As the area of distribution of the water-bearing strata of the dis- 
trict in question is comparatively limited, being little more than fifty 
square miles, it becomes a question of some importance whether it 
can long sustain a demand so large without showing indications of 
its powers being overtaxed. There does not appear, however, any 
reason for supposing that the demand as yet exceeds the power of 
supply ; for the water-level has not fallen in the least, it being the 
same now in wells made fifteen years ago as when they were first 
sunk ; but whether the demand could be much increased without 
exceeding the supply, is a point as yet unproved. If the chief source 
of the supply is the rainfall on the Magnesian Limestone plateau, as 
we believe it to be—assisted perhaps, as suggested by the authors, by 
the leakage of brooks and rivers,—it is doubtful whether any great 
addition to the present demand would not attain or exceed the 
maximum of the supply. Such an event would, of course, very soon 
indicate itself on the land-side of the plateau by a falling of the 
water-level ; while along the sea-board, where the water-level is co- 
incident with the mean level of the sea, it would most likely first be 
made evident by the wells becoming brackish from the infiltration of 
salt water. 

After the Permian rocks are pierced and the Coal-measures fairly 
entered, very little fresh water is met with. The authors point out 
that in the deep pits near the sea-coast, the water, below a certain 
depth, is invariably saline, though not in an equal degree,—the 
salinity increasing with the depth, until the water attains the specific 
gravity of the sea. In other parts of the Coal-field, as at Lambton, 
Birtley, Walker, Framwellgate, &c., saline springs occur, occasionally 
coming to the surface; and some have been used for the manufacture 
of salt. These the authors are disposed to look upon as entirely 
different in character from those first mentioned. 


2. Voct on THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 


Lrorurrs on Man; unis Prace 1x CREATION, AND IN THE HISTORY OF THE 
Eartn. By Dr. Cart Voer, Prof. Nat. Hist. Univ. Geneva. Edited by 
Jamus Hunt, Ph. D., F.S.A., F.R.S.L.—London: Longmans (for the Anthropo- 
logical Society). 8yvo. Pp. 475, with 130 Illustrations. 


AN English version of one of the most important works bearing 

on the History and Antiquity of Early Man which has yet 
been issued on the Continent is now before us, and we hasten to lay 
before the readers of the GrorogicaL Macazine some of the sub- 
jects in which the author touches on the various points connected 
with ‘Tertiary’ Geology. We may remark, that the greatest portion 


358 Reviews— Vogt on the Antiquity of Man. 


of the work is devoted to the discussion of topics relating to the 
questions of modern anthropology, in which the author, with great 
boldness, advocates the theory of man’s descent from several species 
of fossil ape. Most of the points which bear on the early history of 
man, and on his relations with the lower animals, are discussed in 
detail. Many passages of this otherwise learned work reflect a 
spirit which is very painful to witness in the writings of a student 
of inductive science. Our author delights throughout the work, on 
every occasion in which a triumphant argument can be clinched by 
him, and at the more frequent times when the concealment of his 
own scientific error becomes imperatively necessary, to adopt a style 
of argument which chiefly consists in the employment of an ironical 
jeer, or a harsh expression, against those scientific men whose opinions 
may differ from his own. We regret to see this tone pervading the 
whole of Prof. Vogt’s work, whilst we admit that his writings 
justify the assertion, that there is no one in the world so illiberal as 
the advocate of self-called ‘liberal’ scientific opinions. 

The tenth and eleventh chapters are those which are especially 
devoted to the evidences of early man from the drift- and cave- 
deposits. It is to the eleventh chapter that we shall particularly 
direct our readers’ attention. The author commences by avowing 
that, like most geologists of the past generation, he was an advocate 
of the theory of successive creations of various animals, which were 
destroyed one after the other, by periodical cataclysms. The fur- 
ther investigations into which he was led, however, induced him to 
- abandon the opinions of his youth, and to admit that infinitely long 
periods of time, coupled with the influence of apparently small 
forces, have gradually produced the changes of the world’s life- 
scene. Having, like many others, thus developed from a catastro- 
phist into a uniformitarian, Prof. Vogt applies the latter mode of 
reasoning to the investigation of the Diluvial epoch of Europe. 

He considers that the climate at the end.of the Tertiary period was 
probably warmer than at the present day. The discovery of human 
remains in the Tertiary strata, in accordance with the views of M. 
Desnoyers, is considered by Vogt as highly probable, as there are no 
sufficient reasons against the assumption that man ‘ may’ (sic) ‘ have 
lived in the Tertiary period in countries inhabited by elephants, rhino- 
ceroses, oxen, horses, and apes. Generally speaking, however, man 
has only appeared in Europe and North America during the so-called 
Diluvial, Post-pliocene, or Quaternary period. ‘The word ‘ Post-ter- 
tiary’ isnever employed by Vogt. ‘This period, however, being demon- 
strably proved to be one of extreme cold, is contrasted with the one 
immediately preceding it, and the question propounded for solution— 
Did Man exist in France, Belgium, and England before or after this 
Glacial period? The chief interest in the supposition rests on the 
assumption, that if Man had existed prior to this great event, the 
Glacial period may have put a stop to his existence in these countries. 
He then reviews the stratigraphical evidence. Taking the glacial 
loam, or Boulder-clay, as it exists in Scandinavia, North America, 
England, and the Alps, as a starting-point, we find few deposits 


Reviews— Vogt on the Antiquity of Man. 359 


which lie below it, and which are subsequent to the deposition of the 
Tertiary beds. The crag-deposits of England and the forest-bed of 
Cromer are given as examples, and great str essis laid by Vogt on the 
presence of recent species of Mammalia, and of plants identical with 
those found in post-glacial deposits in the forest-bed. 

In Switzerland we have lowest of all the glacial loam, there con- 
sisting of a more or less grey or bluish unstratified clay, containing 
boulders. The large angular erratics of the Jura, at a height of 
1,600 métres above the sea, have been deposited by ‘the same action 
as the loam, and both form the limit of the greatest expansion of 
the Swiss glaciers. Above this glacial clay there exist considerable 
beds of pebbles, gravel, and sand, firmly cemented together by the 
infiltration of lime. Some of these pebbles are as large as a man’s 
head, and none exhibit grooves or strie: they are merely rounded 
by the action of water. These could only have been deposited after 
the retreat of the glaciers tgwards the Alps. Prof. Vogt considers 
that the retreat of these glaciers must have been a very complicated 
phenomenon, as the general features of the country existed then as 
at present. _ He denies the theory that the glaciers, at the period of 
their greatest extent, scooped out valleys and lake-basins in the soft 
Molasse, and considers that the glaciers remained for a long period 
in the valleys and basins, from which they sent forth branches be- 
tween the molasse-hills already free from ice. Traces of this action 
are seen in numerous terminal moraines, which testify to the pre- 
servation of the glaciers in the lake-basins and deeper valleys. A 
further retreat took place after the stoppage, which is indicated by- 
the numerous moraines which correspond with the alluvial terraces 
on the plains. Each of these stoppages may have continued for a 
long time; but throughout the whole period during which the 
glaciers retired, the formation of glacial clay, alluvium, rolled 
pebbles, and the transportation of boulders, continued without in- 
terruption. He quotes the authority of Desor in favour of this 
theory, and against that adopted by Morlot, Collomb, and many 
English authors. Admitting the fact that the old alluvium every- 
where overlies the boulder-clay, he considers it to be equally without 
doubt, that above this old alluvium le angular blocks intermingled 
with glacial clay and recent alluvium. He points out that the stra- 
tification of the terminal moraines above and below the old alluvium 
is nowhere demonstrated, and assumes that those blocks which rest 
upon the old alluvium have not been transported by glaciers, but 
by ice-blocks. A glacier of several thousand feet in thickness would 
have scooped the soil rather deep, whilst the extremity of a glacier 
searcely 100 feet thick might pass over a gravelly soil without 
digging deeply therein: ‘The lignite-beds and peat-bogs of Switzer- 
land are referred to as examples of deposits which have been over- 
whelmed and compressed by enormous masses of drift. It is probable 
that at least before the commencement of the Glacial period, if not 
immediately after it, England, the North of Europe, Denmark, and 
Norway were connected, whilst large districts to the east were 
under water. When the northern cold increased, the northern 


360 Reviews— Vogt on the Antiquity of Man. 


population retreated southward, as is shown by the shells found in the 
German Ocean and the Baltic. When the cold became less intense, 
it returned towards the north. Such physical changes, producing 
immigrations and emigrations, require much time : only a long series 
of centuries, the number of which can scarcely be estimated, could 
have been snfficient. He gives a minute description of the coal-beds 
of Eastern Switzerland, some of which Prof. Heer estimates to have 
required a period of 9,600 years for their deposition. ‘They contain 
freshwater snails of living species, the elytra of small marsh- 
beetles, and remains of Elephas antiquus and Rhinoceros leptorhinus. 
These coal-beds were formed upon the glacial clay immediately after 
the retreat of the glaciers; they were then covered by the alluvium : 
whence he draws. the consequence that the beds in which Elephas 
primigenius and Rhinoceros tichorhinus occur are somewhat later 
than the slate-coal beds. 

Greenland, a continent not less in extent than the whole Scan- 
dinavian peninsula, is covered with an ice-crust 1,000 feet thick, 
moving from the interior towards the west coast. It there breaks 
up to ‘form the icebergs which cover the Northern Atlantic, ulti- 
mately melt, and leave their freight on the bottom of the sea. He 
considers that the same occurred in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, 
where the sea gradually rose, the land became warmer, the ice- 
shroud melted, and the ice was left in the valleys, between the 
pinnacles of land that then showed themselves. The sea rose about — 
500 feet, as we find up to this height deposits of extinct Arctic 
mollusea. The melting ice produced large streams, which formed 
Jakes, and deposited the finer materials transported by them, as loam, 
marl, and sand-clay. Erratic blocks were brought down by the 
glaciers, and these were deposited on the banks. This theory is 
supported by the researches of Kjerulf, Sars, and Lovén; and ana- 
logous phenomena are exhibited in England, Switzerland, North 
America, and elsewhere. Prof. Vogt is led to the inference that 
the Diluvial period lasted an incalculably long time, during which 
there was much elevation and subsidence in land and sea, and many 
mutations of species of plants and animals. 

We copy the table on opposite page from Professor Vogt’s work. 

That Man appeared in our hemisphere only in the course of the 
Diluvial period, Prof. Vogt considers to be an admitted fact. 
Whether, however, he appeared before or after the last glacial 
extension on our continent, is still an open question. After careful 
examination, Prof. Vogt arrives at the opinion that the apparition 
of Man in Europe is posterior in date to that of the formation of the 
Boulder-clay. He is willing to accept a higher antiquity of Man, 
should his remains be hereafter found either under the glacial clay, 
or under undisturbed Tertiary beds. He approves strongly the cal- 
culations of Dr. Bennet Dowler, according to which the age of the 
delta of the Mississippi Valley is estimated at 57,500 years, and 
quotes the discovery of burnt brick and pottery at the foot of the 
statue of Rameses as a proof of the high antiquity of certain Nile 
deposits. English geologists, who have already had frequent oppor- 


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362 Reviews— Vogt on the Antiquity of Man. 


tunities of criticizing these alleged discoveries in detail, will probably 
not coincide with Prof. Vogt in the high value he appears to place 
on them. ‘The discoveries in peat-bogs are also commented on by 
him in a whole chapter. We are not, however, aware that any new 
fact is therein presented with which English Geologists are not well 
acquainted ; and the same observation applies to ‘the chapters on . 
the Stone-period of the North, and the Swiss /7fahlbauten. 

We have endeavoured to place the opinions and facts of Prof. 
Vogt before our readers in a lucid form, and without any remarks of 
our own. It is more than probable that they will produce the same 
amount of controversial criticism in England that they have in 
Germany. The eleventh chapter, however, is unquestionably the 
best in the book, as it is free from the frequent slips of expression 
and carelessness to recorded facts which stud the ninth, tenth, and 
twelfth chapters. 

We cannot close this notice without a tribute of praise to the 
editor, Dr. Hunt, who has laid this readable and elegant volume 
before the British public. It might have been wished that he had 
added a few more notes to elucidate the meaning of his author, and 
had rectified a few more of the errors of the German edition ; but, 
taking the book as it is, we have no doubt that it will give great 
pleasure to all those who inveevgate the geological proofs of the 
Antiquity of Man. 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
poe eee 


GEoLocicaL Soctety or Lonpon.—I. May 24, 1865.*—Dr. E. 
Meryon, Vice-President, in the Chair. ‘The following communi- 
cations were read :— 

1. ‘ Additional Observations on the Raised Beach of Sangatte, 
with reference to the date of the English Channel, and the presence 
of Loess in the Cliff-section.’ By Joseph Prestwich, Esy., F.R.5., 
Treas. G.S.—In this paper on the Loess and Quaternary beds of the 
North of France and South-east of England, Mr. Prestwich expressed 
an opinion that the break in the land between France and England 
was not the result of the last geological change, but that the channel 
existed at the period of the for mation of the Low-level gravels of the 
Somme and Thames Valleys, and probably at that of the High-level 
gravels. During a recent visit to the Sangatte Raised Beach, the 
author recognized fragments of chert in the shingle and associated 
sands, which he “aiienmed were derived from the iuower Cretaceous 
strata ; associated with them were fragments from the Oolitic series 
of the Boulonnais and two pebbles of red granite, probably from the 
Cotentin. These facts seemed to the author to add much probability 
to the existence of a channel open to the westward, and extending 
between France and England, anterior to the Low- and possibly to the 
High-level Valley-gr avel period. Above the raised beach occurs a 


* The report of this meeting was inadvertently omitted from our last number. 


x Reports and Proceedings. 363 


mass of chalk- and flint-rubble, with beds of loam, from 20 to 80 feet 
thick, and containing Land-shells. Mr. Prestwich considered this 
accumulation analogous to the Loess, which it resembles in general 
character, while the shells found in it belong to species common 
in that deposit. 

2. ‘On the Superficial Deposits of the Valley of the Medway, 
with Remarks on the Denudation of the Weald’ By C. Le Neve 
Foster, Esq., B.A., B.Se., F.G.S., and William Topley, Esq., 
F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.—In the first 
part of the paper the authors gave a description of the super- 
ficial deposits of the valley of the Medway. ‘They showed that 
deposits of river-gravel.and brick-earth (loess) ogcur at various 
heights up to 300 feet above the level of the river. <A detailed 
account was given of the ‘pipes’ at Maidstone, where brick-earth 
(loess), containing land and freshwater shells and mammalian re- 
mains, has been let down into deep cavities in the Kentish Rag, 
probably by the gradual dissolving away of the limestone by the 
action of rain-water containing carbonic acid. Several interesting 
cases of disturbed gravel were mentioned. ‘The second part of the 
paper was intended mainly to show what light is thrown upon the 
theory of the denudation of the Weald by a study of the superficial 
deposits. After a brief account of previous theories, with objections 
to the theory of fracture and the marine theory, the authors endea- 
voured to prove that the gravel and brick-earth (loess) occurring at 
a very great height above the level of the Medway are old alluvia of 
that river. If this point be granted, it follows that so large a denu- 
dation has been effected by atmospheric agencies—. e., rain and 
rivers,—that, in the opinion of the authors, there will be little 
difficulty in supposing the present inequalities of surface in the 
Weald to have been produced by these agents acting on a com- 
paratively plane surface of marine denudation. A discussion as to 
the origin of Escarpments then follows. The authors considered 
that the Escarpments of the Chalk and Lower Greensand which 
surround the Weald are not sea-cliffs, but are due to the differ- 
ence of waste of the hard and soft formations under atmospheric 
denudation. 

If. June 21, 1865.—W. J. Hamilton, Esq., President, in the chair. 
The following communications were read :-— 

1. ‘On the Carboniferous Rocks of the Valley of Kashmere.’ By 
Capt. H. Godwin-Austen. With Notes on the Carboniferous Bra- 
chiopoda, by T. Davidson, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. ; and an Introduction 
and Résumé, by R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.8. Com- 
municated by R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S.—This 
paper was a continuation of one read before the Society last year, in 
which the Carboniferous, Jurassic, and Post-tertiary deposits and 
fossils were described by Capt. Godwin-Austen, Mr. Davidson, and 
Mr. Etheridge. In this communication Capt. Godwin-Austen con- 
fined himself to the Carboniferous formation, which was shown by 
him to have, in the Valley of Kashmere, a thickness of more than 
1,500 feet. The upper portion of this mass contained but few fossils, 


364 Reports and Proceedings. 


except in one particular bed near the entrance of the ravine above 
the village of Khoonmoo; but the lowest portion, or Zéwan bed, is 
made up chiefly of the remains of Brachiopoda and Bryozoa; and a 
higher stage, though still near the base of the formation, contains 
abundant remains of Producta. The position of a limestone con- 
taining Goniatites is not very clearly determined, but it is probably 
a member of the Zewan series. ‘ 

The sections in which the relative positions of the different beds 
were exhibited were described in detail, and plans and a map were 
given showing their geographical relation. 

Mr. Davidson described the Brachiopoda forwarded with the 
paper, stating that they abound particularly at Barus and Khoon- 
moo, but are rarely in a very good state of preservation. Among 
them are several common and wide-spread European and American 
species, with a few that have not hitherto been noticed. They 
appear to be of Lower Carboniferous age. 

In the introduction, Mr. Godwin-Austen gave a synopsis of the 
more remarkable facts brought forward in the paper, and in a ré- 
sumé he gave lists of the fossils which had as yet been determined. 
These were forty-seven in number, forty-two of which had specific 
names, and twenty-two of which are well-known forms; eight are 
common to the Punjaub and Kashmere, seven of them being also 
European species. Of the Kashmere list, full half the species are 
found in British Carboniferous beds ; and Mr. Godwin-Austen re- 
marked on the support given to the notion of the approximate 
contemporaneity of distant formations containing the same fossils by 
the occurrence of these European Lower Carboniferous species near 
the base of the Carboniferous formation of Kashmere. 

2. ‘On the Mammalian Remains found by E. Wood, Esq., near 
Richmond, Yorkshire. By W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq., B.A, F.G.S. 
With an Introductory Note on the Deposit in which they were 
found, by E. Wood, Esq., F.G.S., and G. E. Roberts, Esq., F.G.S.— 
These mammalian remains were discovered last autumn on a terrace 
of blue clay, mixed with limestone débris, about 130 feet above the 
north bank of the River Swale, during excavations for a new sewer. 
The deposit was stated by Mr. Dawkins to be a heap of kitchen 
refuse, and the great majority of the bones, except the solid and 
marrowless, are consequently broken, while not one of the numerous 
skulls is perfect. The collection contained bones of the following 
species :— Ursus Arctos, Canis familiaris, Sus Scrofa, Equus, Cervus 
Elaphus, Cervus Dama, Bos longifrons, Bos brachyceros, Ovis Aries, 
Capra Aigagrus, and the horn-cores of a third form of Goat, which 
appeared to be the Aigoceras caucasica, which had also been found 
by Mr. Dawkins and Mr. Sanford in a bone-cavern explored by 
them in 1863. In a note to Mr. Dawkins, M. Lartét expressed his 
opinion that these horn-cores belonged to some of the diversified 
forms that are the result of hybridity, and stated that they resembled 
some found in a bone-cave in the Pyrenees, which appeared to,belong 
to a hybrid between the Goat and the Bouquetin, 


Reports and Proceedings. 365 


Mancuester GEOLOGICAL Soctety.—At a late Monthly Meeting, 
held in the Museum, Peter Street, Andrew Knowles, Esq., President, 
in the chair, Mr. Sarnrer, of Macclesfield, read a paper upon the 
Macclesfield Drift-beds, and a description of a Fulgurite recently 
found in a sand-pit at Macclesfield. 

For the last two years extensive operations have been carried on 
in the neighbourhood of Macclesfield, in the formation of a new 
Cemetery. It comprises about 25 acres, and consists chiefly of the 
Marine Drift-deposits. At its southern extremity there is a valley 
about 100 feet in depth, with a sloping ascent extending northwards 
to about 600 feet ; and during the process of draining and levelling 
the ground, the nature and character of the strata, &c., were 
thoroughly exposed. Commencing from the brook upwards, we 
have first the Boulder-clay which forms its bed; it is a of a dull 
reddish-brown colour, very firm and tough, and is extensively used 
about Macclesfield, in the manufacture of tubing, bricks, &c. The 
valley-gravel overlies this clay ; also soft loam and peat-bog, the 
latter being of variable thickness, from a few inches to 6 or 8 
feet. Trunks of trees, chiefly fir, oak, birch, and hazel, were dug 
out of it; likewise some acorns and nuts. Connected with the 
brook, deep drains were cut diagonally at different levels on the hill- 
side to the height of 30 feet. These cuttings showed thick un- 
stratified beds of wet and dry sands and gravels, with loam, of varied 
consistence and colour, the latter chiefly ochreous ; likewise a few 
detached masses of Boulder-clay ; and the whole series was pretty 
well packed with pebbles and boulders, and rough pieces of rock of 
all sizes and character. With the exception of those embedded in 
the Till or Boulder-clay, nearly all the rest have been derived from 
the higher levels, as the valley became gradually formed ; and here 
some very large blocks of granite and porphyritic greenstones were 
dug out. 

At the above height, tram-roads were laid one above the other, at 
intervals, across the acclivity, and the deposits were laid bare, and 
cut into in all directions. ‘The exposed surface extended east and 
west to about 500 yards in breadth, and 60 feet in height, with a 
southern incline of about 500 feet. The surface-soil was about 18 
inches thick, and below it, for 3 or 4 yards, was a deposit of 
soft ferruginous clay or marl, mixed with coarse sand or gravel ; 
the whole crowded with water-worn pebbles and boulders, and 
irregular masses of rock, apparently of almost all ages, sorts, and 
sizes, and from all quarters of the compass. Below these accumu- 
lations stratified beds appear, consisting generally of both fine and 
coarse sand and gravel, with shingly pebbles, and some thin clayey 
beds, with a few thin layers of broken coal or shale; and, although 
for the most part the stratification is even and regular, yet in some 
places there exist oblique laminations with occasional curvings, and 
also intercalations of false- and current-beddings. There occurred 
likewise some remarkable vertical and diagonal interruptions, or 
intrusions, of very fine, clean, and bright running sand or gravel, of 
a light-brown colour. 


366 | Reports and Proceedings. 


Perhaps the most remarkable result attending those excavations — 


has been the discovery of a large quantity of marine shells. In 
other parts of the country these have been frequently met with, but 
probably there are few places where they abound so much as in this 
vicinity. They are to be traced round the town and on the hills to 
an elevation of 1,200 feet. In the Cemetery-ground they make 
their first appearance about 10 or 12 feet below the surface, 
and for about 50 feet there is scarcely a bed of sand or gravel free 
from these exuvie. Those that are found in clean sand or gravel 
are almost perfectly white, while others in clay partake of its colour. 
In the collection of shells brought here for your examination, about 
half the species were found in a fragmentary condition, and of these 
fragments some pounds were collected, but the great majority 
were too much defaced to be identified. Turritella and Cardium 
were the most plentiful ; but very few indeed of these, in comparison 
with the number of their fracments, are perfect. The above, and 
Patella, Purpura, Mangelia, Pecten, Fusus Bamfius, Ostrea, and 
Tellina, were the first met with, at abcut 3 yards below the 
surface, embedded in fine stratified sand or gravel. At about 10 
feet lower down, nearly thirty varieties were found in an almost per- 
pendicular bed of fine and even running gravel. This bed proved 
to be 10 or 12 yards in depth, about 14 in breadth, and 4 
or 5 in thickness. More perfect specimens were taken out here 
than at any other part of the ground; especially Murex, Nassa, 
Purpura, Litorina, Dentalium, Venus, Mactra, Natica, Trochus, 
Lurritella, Aporrhais, and Cardium. The floor of this bed was a 
thick stratum of rather wet sand. At this point the shell-deposit 
appeared to terminate ; and it was the lowest level reached by the 
labourers above the drainage-operations before mentioned. On the 
same horizon as above, at a short distance eastward, in a small bed 
of fine-running gravel, four or five Cypree europee were found 
in a perfect condition ; likewise Cytherea Chione and Cyprina 
islandica, both fragmentary, and a large Buccinum undatum in very 
good condition. But some of the larger shells are indebted for their 
preservation to their being embedded in a more clayey medium. 
Each separate cutting presented more or less a change in sorts; but 
the most fragmentary and universally distributed proved to be 
Turritella, Cardium, Tellina, Mactra, Buecinum, Mya, and Cyprina. 
In a thin bed of fine sand, upon an upper level, there were found 
some very minute shells in a wonderful state of preservation, viz., 
young of Turritella, Nassa, Mangelia, &e. ‘These beds of fine sand 
and gravel were the most prolific. 

Not much less striking than the discovery of those shells is the 
circumstance of the extraordinary quantity and variety of rock- 
specimens, &c., which have been associated with them. The Boul- 
der-clay of this neighbourhood contains, I believe, upon the whole, 
about the usual number of igneous rocks which are found in it 
elsewhere; although at the southern extremity of this town, 
there are some very fine beds of it entirely free from pebbles 
and everything else, except pieces of drift-wood and fragments of 


Reports and Proceedings. 367 — 


eoal. In the Cemetery-ground, the greenstones predominate in 
the Boulder-clay; next come the granites, felstones, porphyries, 
&c., the whole more or less polished, scratched, or grooved. 
Blocks of quartz-rocks are sparingly seen; but pebbles of it 
abound everywhere, and of endless design and colour. But it is 
the bed about 2 or 3 yards in thickness, immediately below the 
surface-soil, that contains the greatest variety of rock-specimens, 
foreign, native, and local; and although it contains igneous rocks 
similar to those in the Till, with others of like nature, still the Car- 
boniferous and Silurian grits and sandstones exceed in abundance 
all the rest. 

I will now refer to some of those specimens lying before you of 
the Local Drift, which extends for a few miles about Macclesfield, 
since they are very conspicuously represented in the above bed, 
viz. :—rough pieces of Millstone-grit (chiefly specimens of the first, 
third, fourth, and fifth beds) ; and also those of the Yoredale rocks, 
all from the adjacent hills lying eastward. Likewise, from the same 
district, specimens of the Lower Coal-measure Sandstones, contain- 
ing Sigdlaria, Stigmaria, Calamites, Conifere, &c.; also detached 
pieces of Coal, and blocks of Gannister-sandstone, with impressions 
of Stigmarza and reed-like plants; and lumps of Fire-clay studded 
with fossils. 

From the neighbourhood of Buxton, twelve miles off, come frag- 
ments of Carboniferous Limestone, generally ina nodular form, of all 
sizes, well water-worn, and very plentiful, containing fossil shells : 
likewise rough pieces of the same, composed entirely of Encrinital 
stems; also lumps of and single Corals. 

Specimens of the Second Bunter and Permian sandstones. The 
nearest point to Macclesfield, where the former crops out, is at 
Bollington, four miles north-east ; and both appear at Rushton, 
seven miles south. The Second Bunter passes under the town, with 
a north-westerly dip, at about 25 yards in depth, overlain by the 
Drift and débris from the adjoining hills. 

From Alderley Edge, five miles north-west, specimens of the 
Lower Keuper conglomerate-sandstone, and the green and blue car- 
bonates of copper-ore : very large masses of the latter were found 
just below the alluvium. From the same hill likewise, the brown 
and yellow sandstone, or building-stone, some of this being well 
rolled and waterworn; likewise gypsum, barytes, iron-ore, and 
pyrites. Scattered about with the above, either in clayey beds, or 
rough sand or gravel, there were some rounded and elliptically 
rolled lumps of indurated clayey conglomerate, containing small 
pebbles and shells, the latter chiefly in fragments. 

From Newbcld Astbury, near Mow Cop, ten miles south-west, 
Carboniferous Limestone, with some of its peculiar local fossils, 
besides Limestone-shale. From Congleton Edge, nine miles south, 
specimens of the First and Third Grits, which are iron-stained in a 
particular manner not noticeable elsewhere. Coming from a greater 
distance, probably from the Welsh Borders or Cumberland, specimens 
of the Silurian grits and sandstones, a few of them bearing fossil 


368 Reports and Proceedings. 


shells; and, with these, I include two or three rounded lumps of what 
appears to be an impure graphite. 

There is no Upper Boulder-clay in the Cemetery-ground ; but 
small and shallow breadths of it appear at intervals along a course 
of two or three miles to the west; and, at this point, the Drift- 
deposits reach their maximum thickness, about 300 feet; and this is 
at an elevation of about 600 feet above the level of the sea. 

T also exhibit a cast of a Net-sinker. The original, which I have 
presented to the British Museum, is made of burnt clay, and is 
probably of very early English date. It was discovered a few feet 
below the surface, in the lower part of the valley. 

The Fulgurite which I have brought for your inspection was got 
out of a bed of fine dry sand on the south side of Macclesfield, about 
three years ago ; it was traced in a straight direction to a depth of 
22 feet. This was a work of some difficulty, owing to its brittle- 
ness, and only short lengths of it were at intervals secured. Towards 
the surface its diameter had been about three-quarters of an inch, 
and it tapered gradually throughout its course to about 3 or 4 
feet from its termination, when it took a slanting direction, and then 
assumed the form of several filaments, which eventually became 
dispersed and obliterated in a soft spongy clay.— Macclesfield Courter 
and Herald. 


GroLocicaL Soctety oF GLAscow.—On Saturday, May 1sth, 
the Society had their first Excursion of the summer session to the 
Rye Water and surrounding district, undee the guidance of Mr. 
James ‘Thomson. 

The Rye Water, to which Mr. Thomson first led the party, 
is a small stream—a short distance from the town of Dalry 
—which receives the drainage of the range of hills forming the 
northern boundary of the Ayrshire Coal-field. Its banks exhibit 
many interesting and instructive sections of Carboniferous strata ; 
in some parts they have been cut to a considerable depth by the 
stream, exposing the strata from the lower nodular Ironstone of the 
Ayrshire basin, down to the base of the Mountain-limestone,—all 
of which beds have been much disrupted by numerous dykes of 
greenstone and coarse gritty tufa. : 

On the way, a visit was made to some ironstone pits, where the 
lowest black-band is found, 2 feet in thickness ; and after a walk of 


a mile over gently rising ground, the party struck the Rye Water 


at a section where the lower nodular ironstone is exposed, and a 
bold escarpment of rocks is seen, tilted up by a trap-dyke, which 
dips to the south with a strike EK. to W. After an examination of 
this section, the stream was ascended for a short distance to a section 
on the east bank, where the lowest black-band ironstone is exposed, 
and had led to the search for an extensive working of this seam in 
the surrounding district. 

A little farther up the stream, the party reached the high cliff at 
Cuningham Badlane, on the west bank, exhibiting one of the finest 
sections in the West of Scotland. This section is composed of Car- 


ew 
—— ee le ee 


Reports and Proceedings. 369 


boniferous limestones and sandstones, with interlaminary shales, 
underlain by tufa, containing angular fragments of sandstone. At 
the foot of the cliff, numerous blocks of the limestone strew the bed 
and banks of the stream. The Members spent some time here, and 
found numerous fossils in these and in the thin bands of limestone 
from the base of the Coal-measures on the opposite bank. The 
fossils found here comprise Corals, Polypes, Brachiopods, Lamelli- 
branchiates, Gasteropods, Fish, &c., many of which are rare. Mr. 
Thomson next led the party to the dyke formerly referred to, and 
which crosses the Rye Water diagonally : it is a compact greenstone, 
and he drew attention to its effect upon the limestone on its western 
side, which it had altered from a dark greyish blue into a dull light- 
brown. ‘This, where exposed, has yielded to atmospheric influences, 
leaving in many parts the fossils, consisting of several species of 
Corals, and ever the slender form of Lithostrontium junceum, Milne- 
Edwards, projecting an inch above the surface of the weathered 
rock. On the east side of the dyke—here 40 feet broad—the 
section in the bed of the stream shows tufa, overlain by shale, in 
the upper portion of which was found Orthis Michelini in great 
abundance : overlying the shale there is a thick band of limestone, 
above which occur the thin layers of limestone already men- 
tioned, interlaminated with calcareous shales, in which numerous 
fine fossils were found. ‘These shales again are overlain by thick 
beds of bituminous shales and impure coal, and the whole are capped 
by a thin bed of sandstone, the section altogether showing here 
somewhere about 150 feet in thickness. Mr. Thomson mentioned 
that he had seen sections of the same strata in Arran, Ayrshire, 
Lanarkshire, Linlithgowshire, and along the coast of Northumber- 
land ; and that similar thin beds of limestone and shale were common 
to them all, and their characteristic fauna are the same. 

The Members next visited a limestone-quarry on the farm of Bed- 
lay, where some good fossils were got, and where an hour or two 
could have been well spent, had time permitted. From this Mr. 
Thomson led them southwards across the district, pointing out 
by the way the effect of the numerous dykes upon its physical 
features, the undulating aspect of which is characteristic of the 
Ayrshire Coal-field, from its north-western extremity to Muirkirk on 
its south-eastern boundary. Following the course of the trap-dyke 
above described to a beautiful amphitheatre on the Calf Water, it 
was again seen there ejected through the shales and upper limestone 
of the district. From this point the stream was followed down to 
the Lixu-spout, where it has cut its way through the lime and sand- 
stones to a depth of not less than 150 feet; below the water- 
fall there has been a downthrow of the strata, leaving a vertical 
wall of bare lime and sandstone-rocks, over which the water 
falls. The stream has here also scooped out another amphitheatre, 
in the shady depths of which the party rested. 


Norwicu GroioeicaL Society.—At the last Monthly Meeting of 
this Society, the first paper read was On a Section in the Drifts at 
VOL. II.—NO. XIV. BB 


370 Reports and Proceedings. 


Whitlingham, by the Secretary, Mr. Tartor. The Lower Drift, in 
the neighbourhood of Norwich, is often accompanied by a stratum 
of pebbles cemented together by oxide of iron and manganese, and 
known by the local name of ‘Tron Pan.’ It is to be seen im several 
places near Thorpe, at Trowse, and at Whitlingham. Its presence 
on the higher grounds on each side of the river shows that it once 
covered the area of the valley, prior to the scooping out of the latter. 
The bed of shells at Whitlingham rests tmmediately beneath this 
‘Tron Pan’ stratum, and is about + feet in thickness. The posi- 
tion of the Whitlingham shell-bed is about in the middle of the 
Lower Drift. The shells are in every degree of individual age, 
proving that they lived, bred, and died on the spot; many of them 
are very fragile, and could not have stood the rough usage of re- 
deposition. The most plentiful shell is the common Cockle (Car- 
dium edule), the next the common Tellina, also in various stages of 
growth. The common Mussel (Mytilus edulis) also occurs in 
great quantities. Among the rest were the following :— Turritella 
communis, fragments of Cyprina Islandica, Mya, Mactra, Littorina, 
Venus, and Astarte. 

Singularly enough, these shells betoken a cold climate; but the 
abundance of individuals of species now living in British seas 
would argue for the Celtic character of the mollusca, were there no 
other facts. The author also obtained two specimens of Cardium 
Grenlandium—a decidedly Arctic type. Astarte borealis, another 
northern shell, is also common. In addition to these may be men- 
tioned a species of Venus, Cyprina Islandica, and Mya arenaria, 
all of them more or less of an Arctic type, and now living in the 
cold seas of the far north. 

The Rev. Joun Gunn, F.G.S., then read a paper On the Dip of 
the Chalk in Norfolk. Mr. Rose has estimated the dip of the chalk 
in this county at about 5 yards per mile; but in this paper the 
author cited a number of facts in support of his conclusion. that the 
average dip is, from Norwich to Yarmouth, nearly 30 feet per mile. 
Mr. Rose had remarked to the author that the apparent amount of 
dip was due to the crossing of the valley and estuary at Yarmouth. 
This opens a most important and highly interesting subject for con- 
sideration and discussion, and called the author’s attention to Mr. 
Prestwich’s paper on the well-boring at Yarmouth. On looking 
over the specimens of the boring, which are carefully preserved at the 
brewery, Mr. Prestwich noticed that there were 50 feet of blown sand 
and 150 feet of recent estuarine deposit, when the London clay 
at once commenced, and reached 310 feet; then followed 46 feet of 
the Woolwich and Reading series, and the chalk with flints was 
gained. Now, it is evident that, as the chalk was covered by these 
early Eocene deposits, it could not have been denuded by any 
river-action connected with the present estuary or valley. Mr. 
Prestwich shows that the London clay occupied here a part of the 
basin of the chalk, ‘and that probably a bed of variable thickness of 
it may extend beneath the Crag between Orford and Yarmouth, 
and may possibly range as far north as Mundesley and Bacton.’ 


Reports and Proceedings. 371 


‘This mass,’ he observes, ‘cannot extend far inland, as the chalk 
comes, at places, to or near the surface, along a line about ten to 
fifteen mile distant from the coast. From this line, as the chalk 
dips eastward, the Eocene strata may probably set in, and, dipping 
also eastward, pass out under the bed of the adjacent German 
Ocean.’ From this it is evident that the dip of the chalk at Yar- 
mouth is unconnected with the formation of the present estuary or 
valley. The recent estuarine deposit, however, does belong to it, as 
appears from the escarpments of the Crag and glacial Drift on 
either side at a higher level. These, it seems most probable, ex- 
tended over from side to side; and the post-glacial valley-formations 
have cut through them and scooped out the bed of the river and the 
estuary at a comparatively recent geological period. It appears that 
the formation of the present valley and estuary did not commence 
until after the partial emergence of the land from a glacial sea, and 
has no relation at all to the dip of the chalk. Many places may be 
pointed out where the dip of the chalk does not exceed five yards 
per mile—as, for instance, at Weybourne and Runton—and the ob- 
servation of these may have led to the conclusion that such is its 
average dip in this county; but it must be estimated by the general 
result on an extended scale, and without reference to partial vari- 
ations arising from the causes which have operated locally. The 
very interesting contortions in the chalk, pointed out by Mr. Taylor, 
at Whitlingham, prove that the dip may be varied in a very limited 
area by subterranean forces; but the line of the chalk from the 
extremities of the county, Hunstanton and Yarmouth, maintains a 
uniform dip notwithstanding. It has always been a difficult pro- 
blem to solve as to the period when the chalk assumed its present 
inclination from the west eastward. ‘This discovery of Mr. Taylor 
bears importantly upon it, because the chalk must have been ina 
very soft and plastic condition when these contortions were thus 
caused, and therefore they, probably, took place soon after the 
deposition of the chalk; and it seems that the basin in which the 
. London Clay and Lower Tertiaries were deposited, was formed by 
the upheaval of the chalk to the west. These Eocene deposits fol- 
lowed so closely upon the Upper Cretaceous beds as not to allow a 
very long geological-period to intervene between their deposition 
and that of the chalk.—Norwich Mercury. 


CortEswoLp Naturauists’ Firip-cLus.—The First Field-meeting 
of the Club for the present season was held at Stroud, on 24th May. 
The Members assembled at the Midland Railway Station, at Stone- 
house, shortly before 11 A.m., and first proceeded to inspect some 
objects of interest at Stonehouse Court, where Mr. Henry Marling 
met them, and afforded every information. The party then sepa- 
rated, some of the geologists, headed by Mr. Witchell, taking their 
course to the quarries on Doverow Hill, where the sections disclose 
the Cynocephala stage of Dr. Lycett. 

The other detachment made their way across the fields to Stanley 
St, Leonards, and spent two hours very pleasantly in inspecting the 
BB2 


372 Reports and Proceedings. 


ancient and interesting church in that village, with the remains of 
the old priory ip the manor house adjoining. 

The Members of the Club, who had been joined by the Geological 
Section from Doverow Hill, now proceeded to Stanley House, where. 
they were most handsomely entertained at lunch by Mr. and Mrs. W. 
H. Marling. 

From Stanley House the Members followed the course of the 
Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway to the Lightpill cutting; and 
then leaving the line, made their way to the gasworks, to examine a 
fine section in the upper beds of the Lower Lias, now exposed to a 
depth of 20 feet in the excavation for the new gasometer. 

The Club assembled for dinner at the George Hotel, Stroud, about 
5 p.m. After dinner, Mr. Lucy (who occupied the chair) read a 
communication from Mr. John Jones in reference to the occurrence 
of Helix lamellata in a sub-fossil state in a deposit at Stroud, and 
enclosing a note from Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, in which its occurrence 
at Coptford in Essex, in a Post-Pliocene deposit, and in a living 
state at Anglesey and in nearly every part of Ireland, was noticed. 

The Rev. F. Smithe, at the request of the Chairman, gave a short 
account of the proceedings of the Geological Section during the day. 
He said that the cutting on the Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway 
had proved to be interesting, not only on account of its fossil con- 
tents, but also from the fact that the excavation affords an oppor- 
tunity of examining a zone of the Middle Lias, or a series of beds, 
that are never worked for their intrinsic value—for the workings 
into the Marlstone for the sake of ‘road-metal’ always stop short 
of the peculiar underlying beds that had been visited to-day. Wal- 
lets might here soon be filled with the characteristic fossils of the 
section. ‘The zones included extend from the Ammonites spinosus 
to the A. Jamesoni, and well deserve close working; they constitute 
the ‘ Micaceous Sandstone’ of Murchison. A few of the leading shells 
met with were as follows:—Ammonites maculatus, common; Belem- 
nites brevis; Myacites, sp., abundant; a large Pinna, not unfrequent ; 
Monotis inequivalvis; Arca, not unlike A. Buckmani ; Rhynchonella 
concinna; large Pecten; Modiola scalprum; Pholadomya ambigua ; 
and remains of Crinoidea. He thought it would be very desirable 
to search for the Leptzna-bed, which he had found on Chosen Hill 
in a similar geological position. 

Mr. Witchell stated that he had found the Leptena-bed in some 
cellar-excavations near the Railway Station at Stroud, where it was 
about the same thickness as on Chosen Hi!l—from one to two inches ; 
and he had no doubt it would be found in the Lightpill cutting. He 
then called attention to the gravel-beds at Stonehouse, and at the 
Gasworks section, and inferred from their condition that consider- 
able changes occurred during the period in which the bottoms of the 
Stroud valleys had been excavated, and the deposition of the gravel, 
and afterwards of the peat, had taken place. All these gravels rest 
upon excavated hollows in the Middle and Lower Lias. 

: This subject will ,be further investigated by the Club at a future 
ate. 


Reports and Proceedings. 373 


Tur Oswestry AND WELSHPOOL NATURALISTS’ FreLp-cLus held 
their first Excursion for the season on June Ist. The Members 
assembled at Shrewsbury at 10 a.m., and proceeded first to inspect 
the Museum of that town. Besides a nice series of fossils from the 
Upper Secondary strata, the Members were interested in some 
specimens of flint implements and weapons, and also some beautiful 
examples of bronze weapons, found near Guilsfield, Montgomeryshire. 
They then walked along the banks of the Severn, and afterwards 
by the side of the canal to Pimley, and thence to the fine old ruins 
of Haughmond Abbey. The canal was being cleared from that pest 
to navigation, the American weed (Anacharis alsinastrum); and 
from among the heaps raked out upon the towing-path, some rather 
rare freshwater Shells were obtained. The Botanists were gratified 
by finding some rare plants, which grow among the ruins of the 
Abbey. There is but little to record geologically. The walk lay for 
the most part over the Permian Rocks, which here are covered by a 
thick deposit of reddish ferruginous Clay, interspersed with boulders, 
but no rock-sections are exposed. Haughmond Hill, on which the 
Abbey stands, consists in its central portion of a mass of hard, very 
compact, and fine-grained unstratified Greenstone, which is well 
exposed in a quarry where the road from Shrewsbury to Newport 
gains the crest of the hill, for ‘road-metal,’ for which it is well 
adapted. The Greenstone may be traced along the summit of the hill 
to the abrupt termination of the latter, on which the ‘Sham Castle’ 
stands, while on either side of it may be seen the dark purple Cam- 
brian Grit and Conglomerate, through which it has protruded along 
the whole length of the hill. These Cambrian Rocks are well seen 
near the Abbey, and consist of coarse-grained, rather crystalline 
Sandstone, a material not the most favourable for the preservation 
of organic remains in formations where these were plentiful. Hence 
the search for some of the few forms of the lower orders of life 
which are so rarely found in these old rocks was unsuccessful, for, 
save some doubtful traces of Annelides, no fossils were found. 

The party then returned to Shrewsbury by way of the pretty 
village of Uffington, and sat down to an excellent dinner at the 
Crown Hotel, the President, R. G. Jebb, Esq., of the Lyth, near 
Ellesmere, being in the chair. After dinner, the Rev. T. E. Jones, 
of Selattyn, was elected a Member, and six gentlemen were proposed 
as candidates for admission at the next meeting. The next meeting 
was fixed to be held at Llyncliss and Sweeney on the 18th of July. 
On the proposition of Mr. D. C. Davies, it was resolved to subscribe 
two guineas annually to the Palzontographical Society. The Pre- 
sident then gave an interesting account of the discovery of a very 
ancient shield on Bagley Moor; and Mr. T. Parrot exhibited some 
fine specimens of Calymene from the Bala Schists of Cyrn-y-brain, 
near Llangollen; and a Peeten from Monte Mario, near Rome, was 
shown by the Secretary, Mr. H. M. Gwyther.—D. C. D. 


DumMrrigEs AND GALLOWAY NATURAL History AND ANTIQUARIAN 
Socirety.—The last In-door Meeting of this Society was held in the 


374 Reports and Proceedings. 


Assembly-street Club Rooms,—Dr. Gilchrist, Vice-President, in the 
chair. ‘There wasa‘very numerous attendance of Members. Several 
new Members having been admitted, and other preliminary business 
transacted, Mr. W. M‘Diarmid read an account of the Lady Devor- 
gilla, the mother of John Balliol, King of Scotland, founder of 
Sweetheart Abbey, and builder of the Old Bridge over the Nith at 
Dumfries. 

The Secretary then read a paper, contributed by Dr. Crisp, ‘On 
the Anatomy and Habits of the Spoonbill (Platalea Leucorodia.y 

Dr. Gilchrist then read a short paper in continuation of his re- 
searches on the ancient sea-beaches of the Nith valley. His atten- 
tion had been confined to the terrace which was seen commencing on 
the left bank of the Nith, immediately below the caul at Dumfries. 
The corresponding terrace on the other side was that which formed 
St. Michael’s Street. He was of opinion that these terraces were of 
marine origin, as he had certain information that marine shells had 
been discovered in the soil near the brickworks at the shooting range. 
He was still in the midst of his researches, and would communicate 
the results from time to time to the Society. Dr. Grierson also ex- 
hibited some interesting fossils from the Silurian rocks at Dunscore. 
In one there was a circular marking that reminded him of the mark- 
ings noticed in a paper which had recently been sent them from the 
Isle of Man. He had also been supplied by Mr. Corner, of Fraser- 
ford, with a specimen of Graptolite from the Silurian strata near 
Dunscore, which was the first time, he believed, that they had been 
found there, although they abounded in the valley of Moffat Water. 

A lengthened paper on the Fire-clay of Edinburgh, contributed by 
Mr. Marshall, was presented, but was only partially read, owing to 
the lateness of the hour. 

Dr. Grierson, Thornhill, exhibited a number of skeletons, &c.—also 
two specimens of muslin of very fine texture, made from the leaves 
of the Pine-apple, from the Island of Penang. 

The first Field-meeting was fixed for the Ist of June, when the 


Society is to visit the ancient camp at STDS Tan in Annandale.— 
Dumfries Herald. 


NortH STAFFORDSHIRE Fietp Nartoura.ists’ Sociery.— On 
Saturday, the 13th of May, the North Staffordshire Field Natural- 
ists’ Society commenced their summer rambles by an excursion to 
Biddulph and its vicinity. The Society has been recently established, 
and this was its first field-day. There was a muster of about forty 
Members from Stoke, by train to Gillow Heath, where it arrived 
about 1.30 p.m. A walk to the top of Cloud, a distance of about 
three miles, in order to examine its botany and geology, was a part 
of the day’s programme; but this project was abandoned in conse- 
quence of the lateness of the hour of arrival, and the company con- 
fined themselves to viewing the gardens at Biddulph Grange, which 
are of world-wide reputation, and likewise of examining the fine 
collection of fossils in the geological gallery. They afterwards 
proceeded to inspect the picturesque ruins of the castle, which is 


Reports and Proceedings. 375 


renowned for its siege during the Civil War. Mr. C. Brocklehurst 
and Mr. Sainter, from Macclesfield, joined the excursionists by 
invitation; and at the close of the very agreeable day’s proceedings, 
the latter gentleman read the following interesting paper On 
the Geology of Cloud Hill and the adjacent country :—‘ Cloud Hill is 
about 1,200 feet above the level of the sea; it is capped by the 
Millstone-grit, and is composed of three beds, namely, first, third, 
and fourth grits, with shales between each, and the thickness 
amounts to about 500 feet. The second bed is not represented. 
The first, or uppermost bed, technically called “Rough Rock,” 
is @ coarse massive sandstone or grit, and it forms almost in- 
variably the floor of the Coal-measures. It averages in aremarkable 
manner throughout its whole course about 100 feet in thickness. 
On the borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire, near Mottram, the 
Millstone-grit series consists of five beds, which exhibit a total 
thickness, with their shales, of about 3,000 feet. On tracing these 
grits southwards, the beds become gradually thinner; and at about ten 
miles south-west of this locality, three of the beds have died out ; leav- 
ing the first and third, with their shales, at a thickness only of about 
300 feet ; as may be observed on the margins of the Wetley and 
Cheadle Coal-fields. The second bed of grit, which consists mostly 
of a brown, flaggy, fine-grained sandstone, can be traced no farther 
than a little to the south of Shutlingslow. This hill (Cloud) forms 
a very striking feature in the surrounding landscape, and presents a 
development of the first and third grits, particularly the latter, which 
is generally celebrated for its massiveness of structure and its long 
lines of steeply scarped hills, that contrast so strongly with the 
undulating plains of Cheshire. But while I am dwelling upon the 
physical features of this part of the country in relation to scenic 
effect, I must say a few words of a more useful and practical cha- 
racter ; and that refers to the position of this hill with reference to 
the Coal-measures below it on its western aspect, as these form the 
most northerly point of the North Staffordshire Coal-fields. The 
whole of these beds of coal, with their sandstones and shales, are 
contained in a basin or trough, called the Biddulph Trough; and this 
hollow is formed by the two beds of grit before named, which pass 
under these Coal-measures, and crop cut again on the opposite side of 
the valley, forming the bold ridge of Congleton Edge, and the 
fantastic denudations of Mow Cop. The fourth bed of grit is 
quarried below the eastern side of Cloud Hill, but it extends not 
much farther westward, since-it does not make its appearance on its 
proper horizon at Mow Cop or Congleton Edge. Eastward, this bed 
(the fourth) forms the romantic scenery around the banks of Rudyard 
Lake, and it gradually dies out near Cheddleton, after having ex- 
hibited on the confines of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire, an 
enormous mass of gritstone and conglomerate, about 1,000 feet in 
thickness. The fifth bed terminates in the Rudyard Basin near the 
Weiley Coal-field ; and although it has been as regular and persistent 
in its course as the fourth bed, still it has held in general a subordi- 
nate relation to it with respect to industrial purposes; since .the 


376 Reports and Proceedings. 


fourth bed is more easily attainable, and is superior in quality as a 
building stone. Stretching northward from the extreme point of 
Cloud, at a much lower level, we have the Yoredale series of rocks, 
so named from a locality in Yorkshire. This section of the Car- 
boniferous system lies immediately below the grits, and it exhibits in 
this neighbourhood thin-bedded and coarse-grained sandstones, with 
dark shales, and occasionally thin earthy limestones. ‘This series 
enters into the composition and structure of the long ranges of 
Bosley Minn and the Gun ; also the sharp anticlinals of Biddulph 
Moor, besides, according to Messrs. Hull and Green, embracing at 
intervals, when not overlain by the Millstone-grit and Coal-measures, 
an extent of country from Cloud to Cheadle, near Alton, to Harting- 
ton in Derbyshire, and to Hayfield in the same county, and also to 
Marple, near Stockport. ‘These rocks reappear near Stalybridge ; 
and northward, in the Saddleworth valley, their thickness is not less 
than 2,000 feet. In the neighbourhood of Macclesfield, where I am 
pretty well acquainted with the deposits, the Yoredale series have 
thinned down about 800 feet. There also the first bed of grit is 
about 100 feet in thickness ; the second bed, 150; third, 200; fourth, 
100; fifth, 60: and add to these 400 feet for their intervening 
shales, we have a total thickness of 1,000 feet. I have now given 
you a short abstract of the different beds of grit, &c. as they relate 
more especially to the locality we have visited to-day. If we had been 
favoured with more time, and had extended our ramble to Rushton, 
there is a much wider field of interest and exploration at that place. 
For along with those beds of grit (excepting the first and third) and 
the Yoredale rocks, there are to be seen and studied some outliers of 
tlie Permian marls and sandstones, and the pebble-beds-of the Bunter 
series.’ —J. D. S. 


Tue WARRINGTON Fietp Naruratists’ Society held their Third 
Annual Meeting atthe Mechanics Institution, on the evening of May 
10th, under the presidency of T. G. Rylands, Esq., F.L.S., &c. 
Mr. Greening, Mr. Milner, Mr. Green, and many other gentlemen, 
exhibited microscopes and objects of Natural History; and papers 
were read by Mr. Peers, the Honorary Secretary, and by Mr. Green. 

Mr. PATERSON read an exceedingly interesting paper on the Geo- 
logy of the District. After describing the position of the New Red 
Sandstone formation (to which the rocks immediately surrounding 
us belong), he stated that the Permian may be seen in a cutting on 
the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, where it is crossed by the 
St. Helen’s and Runcorn Gap line. Itappears to form a belt, about 
half a mile in width, from the Grange, north of St. Helen’s station, 
in the direction of Parr and Sutton Mill, and on to Rainhill, where 
it is thrown out by a fault. Pebble-beds occur in the same neigh- 
bourhood: a deposit may be seen in an old quarry by the roadside 
at Winwick, in a dell between Newton Heath and Harlestown vil- 
lage; also at Newton and the railway cuttings to the east. In an 
industrial point of view, these beds may be regarded as the most 
valuable in the Triassic series, the stone being comparatively hard, 


Reparts and Proceedings. 377 


and less liable to disintegration from atmospheric influences. It 
appears highly probable, from the aspect presented in our immediate 
neighbourhood, and eastward, that the Bunter formation had been 
considerably upheaved and subjected to great denudation previous 
to the deposition of the Keuper; for it did not appear that the Bunter 
—which was 650 feet thick—was found on any of the promontories 
north of the Mersey; it was seen only on the low-lying plains from 
Widnes to Warrington, and along the river-valley eastward; and 
at Hill Cliff, where the lower beds of the Keuper are quarried for 
building purposes, they appear to lie unconformably upon the pebble- 
beds of the Bunter series. After making some remarks on the 
Lower Keuper, he concluded by referring to the forms of life which 
presented themselves during the New Red Sandstone epoch. 

Mr. Paterson exhibited a geological section of the country from 
Weston Point to Halton. 

The President expressed, on behalf of the Society, his warmest 
thanks to Mr. Paterson for the paper he had read. 

‘The Revs. W. Hamilton, J. D. Massingham, and R. R. Moore 
addressed the meeting; and after a vote of thanks to the Chairman, 
the Members separated.— Warrington Guardian, May 13. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
—— 


ORIGIN OF ROCK-BASINS IN NEW ZEALAND. 
To the Editor of the GroLocicaL MAGazine. 


Sir,—As I had erroneously been led to believe that my eminent 
friend Dr. Hector, who conducts the Geological Survey in the 
southern portion of New Zealand, had adopted the same view as 
Dr. Haast respecting the power of Glaciers to excavate basins in 
hard rocks, I now transmit a letter I have recently received from 
him, which shows that his opinion is very different indeed to that 
which has been attributed to him. In fact, the views of Dr. Hector 
seem to coincide with those of the geologists who, like myself, refer 
in great measure the formation of valleys and lake-cavities to ancient 
plications and ruptures of the strata—doubtless deepened in moun- 
tainous countries, whether by ice or water.— Your obedient servant, 

July 14, 1865. Roperick I. Murcuison. 


Dear Sir Ropericx,—I feel greatly obliged to you for the 
trouble you took in laying the notes on our Geology before the 
Society, and for your kind expressions respecting my labours. It 
is only lately that I have been able to settle down to work up the 
materials I have amassed, so that there are many points only now 
becoming clear to my mind. 

I am afraid that, with respect to the Glacier-erosion of valleys, 
you are confusing my views with those of Haast. I cannot at 
all agree with him, as to the power he attributes to Glaciers, of 
excayating the floors of their valleys, so as to form rock-basins, 


378 Correspondence. 


unless it can be shown that they are advancing with the dip of 
soft-bedded strata which flank the harder rocks that form the 
mountains. 

' I believe that instances of this kind have occurred in New 
Zealand, especially on the west side of the mountains. 

The great valleys, however, which exist in the Crystalline rocks, 
and which are ‘rock-basins,’ have become so by unequal axial motion, « 
which, in the case of Otago, has generally been a subsidence of the 
mountain-centres, more rapid on the west than the east, and accom- 
panied by arise of the flanking formation. However, I can have 
no doubt that in the schistose formations, and other stratified rocks 
having alternations of hard and soft beds, the valleys have been 
excavated in the strike of the soft strata by simple erosion. 

In the case of the massive Crystalline rocks, I have reason to 
suppose that the valleys, such as are occupied by the true coast- 
sounds, have originally followed lines of injected basic rocks, that 
invaded the crystalline mass subsequent to its original metamorphism, 
and which basic rocks, decomposing more freely than the gneissic 
group on the subsequent elevation of the land, gave way before the 
descending ice. It seems to me that the essential condition to the 
existence of glaciers is a lofty plateau, or slightly inclined mountain- 
top, on which the snow rests in sufficient quantity to descend into 
the lower levels as its only means of escape. The greatest erosion 
takes place where it descends over the edge of this plateau, or 
‘ breeding-ground ;’ and if there is a soft ‘run’ in the rocks, it must 
cut a notch there which will extend into the higher country as a 
deep valley. I believe I can prove that it has been thus that all 
our principal valleys have been formed. Ice is only, after all, one 
of the ordinary destructive forces, the effect of which has, perhaps, 
been rather underrated ; but there has been no new erosive agency 
added to that formerly known to geologists. The ice-fall acts just 
like a great cascade in a river, at which point the greatest erosion 
goes on—that which is effected by the gently running part of the 
stream being small. The only supposed new point in these dis- 
coveries is the excavation, or ploughing action, by the ice of the 
glacier after it has descended to the valley-level, and with that I 
certainly do not agree. 

Trusting that I can shortly support my views with full details, 
Tremain, my dear Sir Roderick, yours sincerely, 

JAMES HECTOR. 

Dounevin: April 18, 1865. 


GEOLOGY OF MATLOCK AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
To the Editar of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—Allow me, through the medium of your Magazine, to direct 
the attention of Geological tourists during the ensuing autumn to 
some interesting spots in a part of Derbyshire not yet sufficiently 
known. The Mountain-limestone around Matlock presents very 
instructive sections, which have lately been extended by quarrying. 


Correspondence. 379 


A Geologist may now be able to ascertain whether there is a real 
fault between the High Tor and Masson Hill, or whether the fault 
be only apparent through the falling down of the strata on the 
western side of the great rent to which the Tor originally owed its 
existence. A part of the second or under bed of toadstone may now 
be seen near Mr. Stevenson’s Paint-works, under the High Tor. 
Shreds or fragments of raised beaches may be recognized behind 
Matlock Bath and other parts of the valley; but the finest speci- 
mens of raised beaches, of dimensions admitting of being explained 
by ordinary earthquakes, may be traced to the south of Cromford, on 
the right hand of the Cromford and Wirksworth Road. The Black 
Rocks to the left of the road, at a much greater elevation, reveal in 
a very impressive manner the action of oceanic waves, tides, and 
currents. The angles of the jointed blocks of hard Miilstone- 
grit, and in many instances the fractured surfaces, appear as if they 
had resisted atmospheric action or weathering for thousands of 
years. Furrows, a few inches in depth, have in some places evidently 
been worn away by rain; but very few signs of the effects (in the 
shape of powdered grit) of pluvial disintegration can be discovered, 
while several of the crevices are partly filled, not by decayed grit, but 
by a sandy calcareous clay of the same nature as that which may be 
seen covering considerable areas in Matlock Valley. This clay con- 
tains fragments more or less rounded, and was probably deposited by 
the sea during the last submergence of the land. The Black Rocks 
have acquired their present shape, not by disintegration, but by the 
dispiacement of blocks, leaving walls and pillars, with intervening 
passages, the sides of which are nearly as fresh-looking as when the 
rocks were jeinted, Here the Geologist can likewise see rock-basins 
on the sides of the cliffs, and in positions to which an undermining 
agency only could have had access. But such hollows on the sides 
of rocks are more common on Stanton Moor, afew miles to the north- 
west of Matlock. There also may be seen pillars of rocks like chim- 
neys, consisting of square blocks, apparently piled up, but really the 
remaining fragments of jointed strata. Farther north, on the other 
side of the Derwent, the Millstone-grit rises in pillars, like the 
Cheese-wring of Cornwall. Here they are called ‘Batches of Old 
Cakes.’ That they are very old is evident, for their shape cannot 
be explained by any weathering process now operating on the spot, 
but would seem to point to the lateral action of the sea. Some kinds 
of Millstone-grit are peculiarly adapted to resist weathering. The 
longer they are exposed to the atmosphere, the harder their surfaces 
become; and, with their usual mossy covering, I am convinced they 
may retain certain shapes for a very long period. The Post-office 
and other houses in Cromford were built seventy years ago, and the 
marks of mason’s tools are now as perfect and fresh-looking as when 
the stones were hewn. 

Behind Matlock High Tor there is a deep rent, the bottom and 
ramifications of which have been partly filled with a kind of sand, 
quantities of which have been brought to the surface during lead- 
mining operations. An examination of the sediment in this rent, or 


.Y 


380 Correspondence. 


roofless cave (excepting where it is covered by a sea-worn arch), 
might lead to a better understanding of the origin of deposits in 
caves. Here no fresh water could ever have percolated to any 
extent, as the High Tor is surrounded by low ground. 

On the footpath between Cromford and Bonsall, I have seen 
smoothed surfaces and markings on the limestone rock, which, if 
they are not glacial, are probably as much so as many phenomena 
which are attributed to icebergs, if not to sub-aérial glaciers. IL 
believe the rock is called the Bloody Stone. D. MackintTosH. 


PERMIAN STRATA IN THE VALE OF CLWYD. 


To the Editor of the GnoLoGIcaAL MAGazINE. 


Srr,—I have recently observed on the eastern side of the head of 
the Vale of Clwyd, a small exposure of Permian strata, intervening 
between the Bunter Sandstone and the Mountain-limestone. The 
Permian is not marked on the map of the Geological Survey as ex- 
isting anywhere in the Vale of Clwyd; and as its occurrence gives 
evidence of even still greater antiquity to an important erosion of 
the Mountain-limestone of North Wales than that mentioned by 
Professor Jukes in your last number, I send the accompanying sketch- 
section for publication in the Magazine. 


W. . Road between EB Upper road 
Lianfair “2 Pentre Glyn S to Llan- E. 
Chapel. Af, & Caer Owen. & degia, 


Vale of Clwyd. 


1. Bunter Sandstone, dip 20° to | 3. Purple Shales, Sandstones, | 5. Slates and Grits. 
30° N.W. &e. Dip. 42°S.W. 6. Denbighshire Flags. 
2, Permian Marls. 4. Carboniferous Limestone. 7, Upper Silurian. 
Dip about 40° S.W. 


SKETCH-SECTIONS NOT DRAWN TO SCALE. 


On the Geological Survey Map, sheet 74, the Mountain-limestone 
near Lianfair Chapel, forming the eastern boundary of the vale, is 
represented about a third of a mile in width. Itis, however, between 
Pentre Celyn and Caer Owen, much narrower; the whole of the 
space to the west of the road, and part of that to the east, consisting 
of an alternation of red marls, variegated shaly beds and purplish 
sandstones, and pebble beds, with some impure concretionary lime- 


Correspondence. 381 


stone, dipping about 42° to the S.W., and resting with an apparent 
conformity on the denuded surface of the Mountain-limestone, which 
in this part of the vale has a similar dip. These beds were pro- 

bably not visible at the time of the Survey, but are now exposed in 
quarries to the east and west of the road, and have recently been 
pierced by some pits sunk in search of hematite on its western or 
lower side. ‘They are very distinct in mineral character from both 
the neighbouring Millstone-grit and the Bunter Sandstone of the 
vale, and are an exact counterpart of the Permian series of Shrop- 
shire. 

- The Bunter Sandstone is well exposed a mile to the north-west 
at Garth Gynan, where it dips north-west about 25°, and would 
appear to be unconformable to the beds at Pentre Celyn, but the 
junction is not visible. 

Although the supposed Permian strata appear to rest conformably 
to the Mountain-limestone, the extreme thinness of the Limestone at 
this point, and the absence of the Millstone-grit, which is so largely 
developed close at hand, would indicate a great erosion of the 
Lower Carboniferous series before the deposition of the Permian. 
The Permian strata were here certainly deposited on nearly level 
Carboniferous Limestone; and if this were its original plane of de- 
position, the elevation, and probably the great dislocation, must have 
taken place between the Permian and the New Red period ; also a 
second great erosion before the deposition of the New Red Sand- 
stone. The Mountain-limestone, with its overlying Permian, must 
have been pitched up some 15° or 17° before the Bunter Sandstone 
was deposited against them, and then the whole further elevated to 
the extent of the present dip of the Bunter. 

That a great denudation of the Lower Carboniferous series took 
place before the close of the Permian, is also evident from the large 
number of fragments of Mountain-limestone that occur in parts of 
the Permian breccia round the Abbersley Hills, and on the banks of 
the Avon, near Bristol. 

From some facts I have recently observed i in Flintshire and Den- 
bighshire, I think the contour of the Mountain-limestone range of 
North Wales was not materially changed during the Glacial period : 
but that some further erosion did take place, is manifest from the 
abundant fragments of Mountain-limestone that occur in the Boulder- 
clay of the North Welsh coast. Ice-transported blocks of Mountain- 
limestone, weighing many hundredweights, and Mountain-limestone 
fossils also, fre equently occur in the Drifts and Boulder-clay of the 
Severn Valley. —I am, &c. GrEoRGE Maw. 


To the Editor of the GroLocicaAL MAGAZINE. 

Srr,— Your Correspondent whose observations appear on page 
236 of your Magazine for May falls into a serious error in sup- 
posing that the stratified and unfossiliferous clay, which appears 
upon the surface of the Lower Boulder-clay, at Heaton Mersey, near 
Manchester, belongs to the Upper Boulder-clay division. Yesterday 
I paid a visit to the locality, and, after comparing his notes with 
the sections that are now to be seen, it is evident that they are not 


382 Correspondence. 


the same sections as those mentioned by Mr. E. Hull, of the Geo- 
logical Survey, but, on the contrary, are taken from a Brick-croft at 
a distance of about 300 yards, where nothing but Lower Boulder- 
clay is to be seen, with a covering of fine sand. The absence of the 
‘Laminated clays and bed of decomposed vegetation,’ in Section 
No. 1, that your correspondent gives, is owing to its being at a much 
lower elevation than Section No.2 that he speaks about, where he 
says that upon the surface (of what he calls Upper Boulder-clay) 
‘occurs a boggy soil, with branches of trees, some 3 feet thick.’ 
The difference that exists between the Upper Boulder-clay and the 
deposit at Heaton Mersey, to which he gives the same name, is so 
great that a novice would be able to see the distinction. The first is 
a hard, compact, and unstratified deposit, containing pebbles and 
striated boulders in abundance; whilst the second is a soft stratified 
or laminated deposit in which no pebbles nor boulders occur. An- 
other proof as to the difference of the deposit is well shown in the 
materials that are produced from them. The Boulder-clay is 
extensively used for brick-making, whilst the laminated clay is used 
for making earthenware. ‘The following is the section about mid- 
way from the top of Grundy Hill; it was taken yesterday :— 
Fine laminated sand . . 2 . 10 feet. 
Layer of peaty matter, about 3 feet thick, 
composed of decomposed vegetation, con- 
taining branches of hazel-trees, trunks, and 
roots, but not in an upright position . I foot. 
Dark-brown laminated clay, now known as 
‘warp’ . é : : : : . 3 feet: 
Lower Boulder-clay, varying in colour from 
red to bluish, containing striated boulders 
and remains of Bos primigenius : . 20 feet, and the 
base not seen. 


I may state, that I never before observed the trunks and roots of 
the hazel-trees in the bed that occurs on the surface of the ‘ warp,’ 
nor was I ever rewarded with finding the remains of Bos primi- 
genius in the Lower Boulder-clay of Heaton Mersey until my ex- 
cursion yesterday.— Yours, &c. J. WEBSTER KIRKHAM. 


Lowrr Broventon: May 5, 1865. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


DISCOVERY OF FOSSIL SHELLS IN THE SILURIAN SHALES OF 
DUMFRIESSHIRE. 

Srr,—The precise age of the Silurian beds of Dumfriesshire has 
always been a difficulty with Geologists, because the most diligent 
search has hitherto brought to light no higher organisms than 
Graptolites, with the exception of some very doubtful and obscure 
specimens—so obscure that the species could not be determined. 

It has been my good fortune to discover several specimens of 
shells in the Black Shales of Garpel Burn, which runs through a 
glen about 24 miles from the town of Moffat. I only found them 
after searching the shales on four consecutive days, spending a good 


Correspondence. 383 


part of each day at this point. After finding the first specimens, I 
went on the following day ; but, although I laboured for several 
hours, I did not succeed in obtaining a single specimen. On a sub- 
sequent occasion I was more fortunate, but yet the fossils are very 
rare. ‘The state of preservation of these shells is pretty good, and 
they may be referred to two species: one is a Brachiopod, like Discina 
rugata, but rather larger than the one figured by Sir R. I. Mur- 
chison, in his ‘ Siluria.’ This shell, in the typical district, ranges 
from the Wenlock to the Ludlow beds; and, according to this 
evidence, these beds must rank higher than has been hitherto sup- 
posed. The others may be referred to Moditolopsis, and the species 
much resembles J. orbicularis, which ranges from the Caradoe or 
Bala to the Llandovery Rocks. The occurrence of this shell seems 
to confirm the opinion held by Professor Harkness, that these beds 
are of the same age as the Caradoc Sandstone. 

This discovery is of some importance, as it points towards data on 
which the age of the beds may be decided. I have therefore thought 
it my duty to lay it before the Geological world as soon as possible. 

I am, Sir, &c., D. J. Brown. 


Norte Brings Street, Eprnsurcu. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 
—_—_ +} 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF TRILOBITES.—We have received from Mr. E. J. 
Hollier, of Dudley, a lithographic plate of Trilobites of the natural 
size, characteristic of the Wenlock Shale and Limestone of Dudley, 
drawn from specimens in Mr. Hollier’s collection. There are 28 
figures of various species, from the great Homalonotus delphino- 
cephalus to the minute Cyphaspis megalops. But although inter- 
esting to local collectors, and also because they represent actual 
specimens, their execution is not equal to that of the figures given by 
Mr. J. W. Salter, in his monographs for the Paleontographical 
Society, and hardly does justice to the excellent specimens in Mr. 
Hollier’s cabinet, which they are intended to represent. 


OBITUARY. 


SAMUEL P. Woopwarp, Ph.D., A.L.S., F.G.S., Assistant-Palxonto- 
logist in the British Museum, and Examiner in Natural Sciences 
to the Council of Military Education, was born September, 17, 1821. 
He was the second son of the late Samuel Woodward, of Norwich, 
well known to geologists and antiquaries as the author of a ‘Geology 
of Norfolk’ (1833), ‘Synoptical Table of British Organic Remains’ 
(1830), a ‘History of Norwich Castle’ (posthumous, 1847), and 
various papers in the ‘Archzologia’ of the Society of Antiquaries. 
Shortly after his father’s death, he was temporarily employed (in 
1838) in the library of the British Museum, and in 1839 succeeded 
Mr. Searles Wood as Sub-curator of the Geological Society of Lon- 
don, and was elected a Member of the Botanical Society and an 
Associate of the Linnean. In 1845, he was appointed Professor 
of Botany and Geology in the Royal Agricultural College, Ciren- 
cester, and was one of the founders of the Cotteswold Naturalists’ 


384 Obituary— Samuel P. Woodward. 


Field-club. In 1848 he was made first-class Assistant in the depart- 
ment of Geology and Mineralogy in the British Museum. He 
published but one independent work, a ‘Manual of Recent and 
Fossil Shells,’ of which the first part appeared in 1851, and the two 
following in 1853 and 1856. It has been used or recommended as a 
text-book by nearly every Professor of Natural History and of 
Geology in Great Britain ; while in America it has obtained a very 
extensive circulation. The small Geological Map of England, pub- 
lished by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, was 
prepared in 1843 by Mr. Woodward, under the superintendence of 
Sir R. I. Murchison ; and Professor Owen acknowledged his assist- 
ance in the Invertebrate portion of his ‘Paleontology.’ Dr. Wocd- 
ward contributed several important papers to the ‘ Quarterly 
Journal of the Geological Society,’ ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological 
Society,’ ‘Recreative Science,’ ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural 
History,’ &c. The article ‘Volcanoes’ in the ‘ Encyclopedia Bri- 
tannica,’ the scientific reviews in the ‘Critic’ of 1860, and the 
‘Atheneum’ reports of proceedings in the Geological Section of the 
British Association from 1841 to 1856, are amongst his minor con- 
tributions to Geological literature. 

These Memoirs exhibit the vast acquaintance with the recent 
forms of Mollusca possessed by their author, and afford strong 
evidence of the philosophical cast of his mind, and his talent in 
determining the zoological relations of obscure organisms. One of 
his most remarkable achievements in this line of research was his 
determination of the true affinities of the extinct family of Rudistes, 
published in the 11th volume of the ‘ Quarterly Journal of the 
Geological Society ;’ and the Society showed its appreciation of the 
merits and value of his memoir on that subject by awarding lim 
the proceeds of the Wollaston donation-fund in the year 1864; and 
again in 1857, on this account, and to assist him in his researches 
in the class Radiata, 

He was a Member of the Council of the Geological Society from 
1859, and had recently been appointed one of the Examiners in 
Geology and Paleontology to the University of London. 

Although his published works may, for a man of his acknowledged 
merit and position in the scientific world, appear to be small, they 
represent only a portion of the original work that he performed: 
many of the results he arrived at must unhappily have died with 
him, but others remain in the form of carefully prepared manuscripts, 
which his brothers entertain the hope of publishing. It may be a 
matter of surprise that he did so little in making known the results 
of his investigations; but for the last twenty years of his life he 
suffered from chronic asthma, which eventually became so distress- 
ing as to awaken the sympathies of all, and caused many to marvel 
at the energy he displayed in research and conversation during 
intervals of release from pain. 

An attack of acute bronchitis, which occasioned the rupture of an 
artery in the lungs, was the immediate cause of his death, at Herne 
Bay (whither he had gone in the hope of benefit to his health), on 
the 11th of July. 


THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. XV.—SEPTEMBER 1865. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
——+——_ 


JI. Toe Camprian Rocks OF THE Britisa ISLANDS, WITH ESPECIAL 
REFERENCE TO THE OCCURRENCE OF THIS FORMATION AND ITS 
Fossi_s In IRELAND. 

By Wm. Heruisr Barry, F.LS., F.G.S., &e., 
Acting Palzontologist to the Geological Survey of Ireland. 


| ae term Cambrian (from Cambria, the ancient name of Wales) 

was originally employed by the Rev. Professor Sedgwick to 
include a great series of fossiliferous and other rocks occurring below 
the Bala Limestone in North Wales. Sir Charles Lyell* adopts to 
a certain extent this classification, dividing it into Upper and Lower 
Cambrian. 

Sir R. I. Murchison alludes to this formation as the ‘Cambrian or 
Basement Rocks of the Silurian Region,’ f including under that 
designation those of the Longmynd Hills in Shropshire and their 
equivalents in North Wales. He explains his use of the term Cam- 
brian to be ‘as restricted by the late Sir H. de la Beche, and his 
associates of the Geological Survey, in applying it only to the lowest 
of these sedimentary rocks, which, like those of the Longmynd, 
underlie all the strata with Silurian fossils.’ In accordance with 
this application of the term as being that generally adopted by geo- 
logists, [ propose now to consider it. 

The occurrence of Cambrian, and even perhaps Pre-Cambrian, or 
Laurentian, Rocks in Scotland appears to be well authenticated both 
by Sir R. I. Murchison and other observers; but the exact relations 
of the rocks believed to belong to these older formations in the 
north-west of Scotland and the Hebrides is at present undecided, 
and no fossils have yet been discovered in them. 

The rocks of North Wales referred to the Cambrian formation, on 


* Manual of Elementary Geology (6th edit.), pp. 106, 569, &e. 
fT Siluria (2nd edit.), p. 21, &. 


VOL. II.—NO. XV. cc 


386 Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 


the authority of the Geological Survey, exhibit between Harlech and 
Dolgelly, according to Mr. Alfred Selwyn, 8,000 feet of thick beds 
of quartz-rock, sandstone, and clay-slates, the lower part of the series 
not being observable; and in the section by Professor Ramsay, across 
the Menai Strait, and over Glyder Fawr, to the north of Snowdon, 
the upper 5,000 feet of the Cambrian series in that part of the country 
is described as consisting of green and purple slates, grits, sandstones, 
and conglomerates ; the Penrhyn and Llanberis slate-quarries being 
worked in a band of slate at the upper part of the series. * 

With respect to the occurrence of organic remains, the author of 
‘Siluria’ observes, ‘No fossils except marine plants or fucoids have 
yet been detected in these rocks of North Wales.’ + 

The Cambrian rocks of the Longmynds are described by the same 
eminent geologist as a range of round-backed hills flanking the 
western side of the road from Ludlow to Shrewsbury, and rising to 
heights varying from 1,400 to 1,600 feet, ranging from NNE. to 
SSW.; they stand boldly out from beneath the surrounding Silurian 
deposits, of which they form the mineral axis, the lowest beds being 
schists or clay-slates, with minute layers of silicious limestone, 
interrupted by bosses of eruptive trap-rocks, and overlain by a vast 
and regular series of hard purple or greenish and grey schistose 
flagstones and silicious grits, often finely laminated, on which the 
rippled surfaces are distinctly visible. t 

The thickness of this great series of strata is estimated by Mr. 
W. T. Aveline, of the Geological Survey, at more than 20,000 feet. § 

Traces of organic life, although obscure, have been discovered in 
some of the fine-grained sandstones and shales of these ancient 
deposits by Mr. J. W. Salter, who describes them|| as consisting of 
the impressions or surface-holes and burrows of Annelides of, he 
thinks, two species, which he names Arenicolites didyma and A. spar- 
sus: these he believes to have burrowed in sand like the Lob-worm 
(Arenicola) of the present day, mentioning their occurrence as being 
in the greatest profusion and distinctly in pairs, indicating the exit 
and entrance holes to the burrows. That paleontologist also describes 
broad undulations, which he considers to be wave-marks, such as 
may now be seen on the sea-shore, and smaller and finer ridges or 
rippled surfaces, which, according to his views, may either represent 
the quiet action of the surf on a level strand, or the agitation of the 
water by wind. Certain rounded markings scattered numerously 
over the surfaces of some of the rippled and other slabs he believes 
to be impressions from rain-drops; and other markings also of fre- 
quent occurrence on the fine sandstones he describes as ‘sun-cracks’ 
or ‘sun-dried surfaces,’ the effect of the sun’s heat upon the ancient 


* J. B. Jukes, Student’s Manual of Geology (1862), pp. 435, 486. 

} Siluria (2nd edit.), p. 27. t Lbid., pp. 22, 23. 

§ See sheets 34 and 36, Horizontal Sections of the Geological Survey of Great 
Britain. 1g 

| Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. of Lond., vol. xii. p, 248 (1856), and vol. xiii. 
p. 206 (1857). 


Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 387 


mud. What he supposed to be the fragment of a Trilobite, or allied 
Crustacean, and described under the name of Paleopyge, appears to 
want that definition of character which would entitle it to be con- 
sidered as of organic origin: we still have, however, in these the’ 
most ancient of the fossiliferous rocks, good evidence of the existence 
of organic life, and that not of the lowest type. 

In Ireland, rocks referred to the same series as those of North 
Wales occur immediately opposite Anglesea and Caernarvon, at the 
Hill of Howth near Dublin, Bray Head and other places in the 
northern part of the county of Wicklow, as well as a large district 
which includes the Forth Mountain in South Wexford. These rocks 
consist of a great series of sandstones or gritstones and slates, often 
interstratified with large masses and veins of quartz-rock.* 

At the promontory of Howth, in the county of Dublin, the Cam- 
brian rocks extend over a small area of only about two miles, consist- 
ing of large masses of quartz-rock, interstratified with green grits 
and green and purple slates; the beds being often highly inclined, 
contorted, and so confused that it is impossible to make out any con- 
tinuous section.t Only very faint traces of organic life have been 
met with at this place; and for these we are indebted to the perse- 
verance and untiring zeal of the late Dr. J. R. Kinahan, a young 
naturalist of great promise, whose loss has been severely felt amongst 
scientific men in Ireland. ‘The specimens he discovered and pre- 
sented to the Geological Survey are included amongst their collection 
of fossils in the Museum of Irish Industry, Dublin, and afford (al- 
though few in number) tolerably good evidence of the occurrence of 
that remarkably characteristic fossil of the Irish Cambrians, the 
Oldhamia, so abundant at Bray Head, in the county of Wicklow, 
and hereafter alluded to. ‘These specimens, and another since col- 
lected by Mr. C. Galvan, of the Geological Survey, appear to be 
correctly referred to O. antiqua: the impressions are, however, 
somewhat indistinct and sparingly distributed. The beds from which 
they were obtained are situated on the north shore, at what is called 
Puck’s Rocks, and are composed of a yellowish slate, readily split- 
ting into fine laminz, very similar to the brown laminated schists 
of Carrick Mountain, in the county of Wicklow (hereafter alluded 
to), which are often covered by impressions of the same species of 
Oldhamia in much better preservation. 

From beds immediately overlying those containing the Oldhamia, 
Dr. Kinahan also procured slabs with tortuous markings like tracks. 

On consulting the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland,t it 
will be seen that the Cambrian district of North Wicklow commences 
about two miles north of the town of Bray, extending southwards to 


* For a description of the geology of this district, see a memoir by Messrs. Jukes 
and Haughton, ‘On the Lower Paleozoic Rocks of the South-east of Ireland,’ 
Trans. Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiii. p. 563, &c. (1859). 

{~ Vide sheets 112 of the one-inch scale, Maps of the Geological Survey of Ire- 
land, and Explanations to sheets 102 and 112 (1861). 

¢ Sheets 121 and 130. 


cic 2 


388 Baily —Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 


Wicklow, a distance of about seventeen miles, with a breadth of 
about seven miles at its widest part. It includes masses of quartz- 
rock, which contribute much to the beauty of the scenery, and form 
the most elevated peaks, such as those of the Great and Little Sugar- 
loaf Mountains, the former being 1,659 and the latter 1,120 feet in 
height. 

‘There are two small slightly detached districts in North Wicklow, 
that nearest Dublin, at Shankill, being about one mile and a half 
long, following the direction of the granite axis N. and SW., and 
about the third of a mile broad at its widest part. A hill of quartz- 
rock called Carrickgolligan rises from it to an elevation of 912 feet. 
No fossils have yet been detected within this area. 

The other, a larger and more important district, on account of its 
fossils, is situated to the south-east, near Rathdrum, and about five 
miles south-west of Wicklow ; it is six miles long and nearly one 
broad at its widest part, including masses of quartz-rock; and rising 
to a height of 1,260 feet, it forms Carrick Mountain, some of the 
shales upon which, easily separating into lamin, are seen to be 
covered with very distinct impressions of Oldhamia antigua: there 
are also tracks and burrows of Annelids in the sandy beds, amongst 
them some with double openings like Arenicolites didyma, Salter. 

Occupying a considerably larger area than either of these is the 
Wexford Cambrian District, which extends from the east point of 
Bannow Bay, about four miles east of Waterford Harbour, to Roney 
Point, six miles north of Wexford, having a total length of thirty-six 
miles and a breadth of about seven miles at its widest part, near 
Wexford. No fossils have yet been discovered in this district. 

It is, however, to the rocks at Bray Head and the neighbourhood, 
we would direct the attention of those who are desirous of studying 
this series of deposits in connection with the interesting fossils they 
contain, as they are here found in the greatest abundance, and ma 
be regarded as examples of the most ancient forms of life with 
which we are acquainted.* 

The rapidly improving sea-side town of Bray, twelve miles south 


* This conclusion does not appear to me to be affected by the reputed discovery 
by the Geological Survey of Canada, as announced by Sir William Logan, the 
Director, at the last meeting of the British Association, of a fossil named Hozoon 
Canadense, referred by Dr. Dawson to the group of Foraminifera, and said to be 
from rocks below the Cambrians, in strata of the Laurentian series (alluded to in 
former numbers of this Magazine, viz., No. 1, p. 47; No. 5, p. 205 &c.; and No. 7 
of vol. ii. p. 3 &c.). The specimens exhibited on that occasion I had the opportunity 
of examining before the meeting ; and from that inspection and subsequent observa- 
tion I feel considerable doubt as to its being an organic structure, and still more 
as to Hozoon belonging to so high a group as that of the Foraminifera ; for, sup- 
posing it could be satisfactorily proved to be a fossil, its alliance would rather seem 
to have been with the Protozoa, or Sponges. It struck me, however, as being 
nothing more than a peculiar mechanical condition of the rock; which was a 
variety of serpentine, a mineral known to be of aqueous origin, and to be for the 
most part composed of the débris of other rocks; and, from the mode of its deposit, 
often exhibiting, when polished, wavy or contorted lamine, and having occasionally 
a vesicular or irregularly cellular appearance, such as these specimens of Canadian 
Serpentine appeared to me to show. 


. 


Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 389 


of Dublin, may be reached by either of two lines of railway, which 
converge before entering the town. That through Kingstown, start- 
ing from the Dublin terminus in Westland Row, skirts the south 
coast of the beautiful Bay of Dublin; the other and most direct 
route being by the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford Railway from 
the terminus in Harcourt Street. In either case these railways com- 
mence in the Upper Carboniferous Limestone, upon which Dublin 
is built, continuing to run for about four miles over that formation. 
They then enter the boundary of the great granite-area, which is 
the largest display of that rock on the surface in the British Islands, 
crossing it at its northern extremity,—in one case, between two and 
three miles from the coast, fur a distance of nearly six miles —in the 


2 Fic. 1.—Bray HEAD, WicKLOW. (Looking North.) 


other, following to some extent the curvature of the coast to Kings- 
town, celebrated for its fine harbour, then proceeding about half a 
mile inland, until it again reaches the sea opposite the southern 
extremity of Dalkey Island, a distance of nearly five miles, where it 
enters upon the comparatively narrow belt of metamorphic rocks 
which flank the granite-axis, and forms the commencement of the 
Lower or Cambro-Silurian formation. These rocks continue for 
about another mile to the south side of Killiney Bay, where is 
believed to be the commencement of the Cambrian district of North 
Wicklow, about a mile north of the town of Bray; the shore and in- 
terior of the country, up to a certain height on the flanks of the hills, 


390 Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 


being covered with drift of sand and gravel, so as to conceal the 
underlying rocks.* 

From the Bray Railway station, a walk along the shore of about a 
mile brings us to the commencement of the series of rocks forming 
the bold and picturesque promontory of Bray Head, which rises in 
sombre majesty from the sea to a height of nearly 800 feet. The 
railway is continued through this apparently impenetrable mass 
of rocks by several short tunnels and cuttings, passing over the 
chasms by bridges or viaducts, and aiding the geologist, as it gene- 
rally does, by exposing fine sections of the strata, exhibiting occa- 
sional breaks or fawlts in its continuity, and the variety of inclination 
or dip, curvature or contortion, to which the beds have been sub- 
jected, as well as adding considerably to the picturesque effect of this 
prominent part of the coast when observed from the sea. 

The sketch on the preceding page (fig. 1) may serve to give some 
idea of the appearance these rocks present, with the general con- 
figuration of the hill towards the sea. 


2 miles. 1 mile. 


Fic. 2. DIAGRAMMATIC SECTION OF THE CAMBRIAN ROCKS AT BRAY HEAD. 


* Quartz Rock. 6. Cambrian grits and slates. 
(General dip, about 45° to 80° NE. Horizontal scale, about 14 inches to the mile; vertical scale, 
twice that of the horizontal.) 


A diagrammatic section of this part of the coast is given above 
(fig. 2), showing in a rough way the general dip of the strata with 
their convolutions, and the interpolation of irregular masses of quartz, 
on a scale (horizontally) of about one and a half inches to the mile, 
the vertical scale being twice that of the horizontal. The beds, con- 
sisting of green and purple grits and slates, mostly dip towards the 
NE., at a high angle, varying from 45° to 80°, are often much 
contorted, and occasionally interstratified with veins and masses of 
white and yellowish quartz. ‘This rock forms the most prominent 
parts of the hill, and some of the beds may be traced down to the 
section exposed on the shore (they are represented in fig. 2, at *, by 
crossed lines). It is in these grits and slates, at several places along 
this part of the coast, that the remarkable little branching or plant- 
like fossils called Oldhamia, before alluded to, have been met with, 
sometimes occurring in great profusion, although they have never 
yet been found in England or Wales. 

In walking along the shore from Bray towards the Head, the first 


— 


* Vide sheet 121, one-inch scale, Maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland, 


Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 391 


rocks containing these fossils accessible at low water are what are 
called the Periwinkle Rocks, consisting of a greenish fine-grained 
grit with irregular joints crossing the numerous layers of deposit. On 
striking off a piece of this rock, it will be seen to exhibit a wrinkled 
appearance; and, on closer inspection, this will be found to have 
been caused by numerous irregular star-like markings radiating from 
a centre, which preserve a certain amount of uniformity, and appear 
to permeate the whole mass of rock, every one of the numerous 


= 


Fie. 3. 
Oldhamia antiqua (a) with burrows of Annelids, Arenicolites didyma (6), and surface-tracks (c). 
CAMBRIAN GREEN SHALES, BRAY HEAD, COUNTY OF WICKLOW. 


lamine, where exposed, exhibiting a surface covered by these pecu- 
liar little fossils. The above wood-engraving (fig. 3) gives a repre- 
sentation of the appearance presented by a fragment of rock full of 
these characteristic fossils. This, the most abundant species, which 
is found at several other stations in these cliffs, has been named 
Oldhamia radiata. 

A second species, called Oldhamia antiqua, occurring, like the 
former, in both green and purple shales and grits, has been also met 
with at various places along the shore, as well as in the rocks ex- 
posed on the side of the hill; but the two kinds seldom if ever 
occur together in the same bed. The latter species, consisting of 


392 Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 


an assemblage of fan-shaped rays, arranged in alternating series, is 
shown at fig. 4, p. 394. 

The first published account of these fossils was given by 
Dr. Thomas Oldham, then Curator of the Geological Society of 
Dublin, and Professor of Geology in Trinity College (now Super- 
intendent of the Geological Survey of India), who, with the keen 
discernment of a naturalist, saw in them something more than mere 
markings ; and, in a paper read before the Geological Society of 
Dublin, ‘On the Rocks at Bray Head,’ * observed, ‘that he had not 
as yet been successful in finding organic remains in the slate-rocks. 
of Bray Head, with the exception of some small zoophytic markings, 
which did not appear referable to known genera.’ Some years after- 
wards, that eminently gifted naturalist, the late Professor Edward 
Forbes, when Palzontologist to the Geological Survey, threw still fur- 
ther light upon them by a communication made to the same Society, 
entitled ‘On Oldhamia, a new genus of Silurian Fossils. + After 
alluding to the rarity of organic remains in the Cambrian or oldest 
portion of the Silurian strata, he says, ‘The earliest fossils which 
have yet been discovered seem to be certain plant-like impressions 
or casts discovered by Professor Oldham at Bray Head, in Wicklow, 
and referred to by him in his communication to this Society in 1844. 
These bodies present the appearance, in most specimens, of a central 
filiform axis, with fasciculi of short radiating branches proceeding 
from its sides at regular intervals, or of bundles of such filiform rays 
without an axis. A close examination of them shows that each 
branch is formed of a series of articulations marking the positions of 
minute cells. The entire body presents a striking resemblance to 
the arrangement of parts in certain Zoophytes, as in Sertularia 
cupressina, but are also consistent with those exhibited in many 
Bryozoa, as in Gemellaria and Cellaria, an alliance more in accord- 
ance with the minute structure.’ He also observes, ‘I propose the 
name Oldhamia for these remarkable fossils, in honour of their 
discoverer, who has in them made us acquainted with what in all 
probability is a group of Ascidian Zoophytes, or rather, compound 
Tunicated Molluscs, in stratified rocks of very early date, and has 
thus furnished an additional and important fact in contradiction 
of the crude notion that the earliest forms of animals are the most 
rudimentary.’ 

No further details respecting these fossils were published, or 
figures of any consequence given, until the late Dr. J. R. Kinahan, 
a young naturalist of great ability, directed his attention to the 
investigation of rocks ascribed to the Cambrian formation in Ireland; 
his perseverance and zeal being rewarded by the discovery of the 
Oldhamia in the cliffs of Howth, county of Dublin, and the record- 
ing of several additional stations for it in those of Bray Head and 
Greystones, county of Wicklow, where he collected more distinct 
and perfect specimens, and obtained some other forms of animal 


* Journ. Geol. Soc. of Dublin, vol. iii. p. 60 (1844). 
t Zbid., vol. iv. p. 20 (1848), 


Batly— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 393 


remains. These additions to the Cambrian fauna he described in 
papers read before the Geological Society of Dublin, and published 
in their Proceedings.* 

That much-lamented gentleman, in his frequent search amongst 
these hard and apparently unyielding grits, obtained better specimens 
of the Oldhamia than those examined by the late Professor Forbes ; 
so that he was enabled to write an elaborate treatise, with descriptions 
of the different forms assumed by the genus, illustrated by excellent 
woodcuts, which was published in the Transactions of the Royal 
Irish Academy.f In that treatise, presuming that Professor Forbes’s 
leaning was towards their alliance with the Polyzoan Molluscoids, 
he professes to dissent from that view of their relations, expressing 
his opinion ‘ that they were more probably the polypidoms of extinct 
Hydrozoa, than cenicia of Polyzoa’ (p. 561). It will be seen, how- 
ever, that he only reiterates the opinion of Professor Forbes, as the 
descriptive card, in Professor Forbes’s own handwriting, which was 
attached to the specimens in the Geological Survey Collection 
(Museum of Irish Industry), of which the following is an exact copy, 
will testify :—‘ Oldhamia (Forbes). The most ancient fossils yet 
discovered : believed to be the remains of marine animals belonging 
either to Hydrozoa (Corals) or Polyzoa (Compound Mollusca).’ 

In his paper, Dr. Kinahan supplies scientific descriptions of the 
Species named Oldhamia antiqua and O. radiata by Professor Forbes, 
and, in addition, describes what he considers to be a third species, 
under the name of O. disereta, from Carrick Mountain, a locality 
from which some of the most distinct specimens of O. antigua were 
obtained, of which species I believe this to be merely a variety. 

There remain, then, only the two well-marked species, originally 
named by Professor Forbes Oldhamia antiqua and O. radiata. The 
first of these, O. antiqua, is most frequent in the shales, and occurs 
as clearly defined impressions in beds of either a red or green colour 
at Bray, and in the brown and purple shales of Carrick Mountain, 
county of Wicklow, and less distinctly and more rarely in the brown 
laminated shales of the northern coast of the peninsula of Howth, 
in the county of Dublin. ‘This species is less abundant than 
O radiata, and does not occur in dense masses like the latter, but 
usually as isolated and distinct branches scattered over the surface 
of the beds. It is more uniform in character than O. radiata, as, 
instead of radiating from a centre like that species, the branchlets 
are fan-shaped, and arranged in an alternating manner at regular 
distances upon a zigzag axis. Fig. 4, a, is a representation of this 
species, showing several branches of different sizes, as impressed 
upon a slab of green fine-grained laminated shale from Bray Head : 


* *Qn Anneloid Tracks in the Rocks of Bray Head,’ Journ. Geol. Soc. Dublin, 
vol. vii. p. 184, pl. 5, figs. 1-5; and ‘On the Zoological Relations of Bray Head 
and Howth, with an Account of the Fossils of Irish Cambria,’ Journ. Geol. Soe. 
Dublin, vol. viii. p. 68, pl. 7, figs. 1, 2. 

+ ‘The Genus Oldhamia, its Characters, &c.,’ Trans. Roy. Irish Academy, 
vol, xxili. (1858). 


394 . Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 


on the same surface of this thin bed are horizontal tracks of various 
sizes and burrows of Arenicolites, with double openings resembling 
A. didyma, represented on the same figure at 6.* 

Varieties of this species occasionally accompany the ordinary 
form, particularly in the shales of Carrick Mountain. In some of 
these, the fans of branchlets are more closely arranged upon the 
axis, and are more wavy and intermittent, the fasciculi being 
denser: this is the variety (before alluded to) which was believed 
by Dr. Kinahan to constitute a third species, aud to which he applied 


Fic. 4.—OLDHAMIA ANTIQUA, FORBES, CAMBRIAN, CARRICK MOUNTAIN, COUNTY OF WICKLOW. 


a, Ordinary form at this locality. 6. Var. (0. discreta, Kinahan), 
c. Hlongated variety. All natural size. 


the name of O.discreta (fig. 5, a). Another and more attenuated 
form is generally present on the opposite side of the same slabs : in 
this, the fans of branchlets are less dense, and appear to be drawn 
out of shape, probably by the effects of cleavage (fig. 5, 6). The 
specimens of Oldhamia antiqua from this locality occur in brown 
and buff-coloured shales, easily separating and more argillaceous 
than those of Bray. 

The localities for this species are various stations in the rocks of 
Bray Head and Carrick Mountain, county of Wicklow, and Howth, 
county of Dublin, in beds generally distinct from those containing 
O. radiata ; although Dr. Kinahan remarks that scattered forms of 
O. antigua sometimes occur, though rarely, in the beds of O. radiata. 

The second species, Oldhamia radiata, is the most abundant one 


* T have noticed similar double markings occurring on some of the fine-grained 
laminated grits at Carrick Mountain. From the same locality was also procured a 
large worm-cast resembling those of the Histioderma.—W. H. B. 


Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 395 


in the rocks of Bray Head ; and at Greystones, on the coast, four 
miles farther south, it occurs in a precisely similar rock to that 
called the Periwinkle Rock of Bray Head, and was the only species 
observed by me at that locality. Dr. Kinahan has evidently mis- 
taken it for O. antiqua, the figures he gives under that name in the 
paper before quoted (figs. 9 and 10, p. 559) being unquestionably 
those of O. radiata. It has not been observed at Howth, Carrick 
Mountain, or any other locality than the two I have mentioned. 
The most ordinary form is that shown in the woodcut, fig. 3, a, p. 391. 


Fic. 5.—OLDHAMIA RADIATA, FORBES, SHOWING SUCCESSIVE LAYERS. 


a. Ordinary form. 6, Plumose variety. 
Cambrian (green grit) Periwinkle Rocks, Bray Head, County of Wicklow. 


The general appearance presented by this species is that of a 
stellariform mass of filaments or branchlets, of variable length, which 
often divide into two, becoming wavy and intermittent, or jointed, 
all the separate tufts radiating from a central point or axis. 

The star-like form is more or less complete in consequence of the 
variable length of the branchlets: sometimes one or more of these 
are very much elongated, giving the fossil a more plumose appear- 
ance, as shown on fig. 3, at 3d. 

The principal, and, I believe, only localities for this species, are 
those of Bray Head and Greystones, county of Wicklow, at both of 
which places it is met with in the greatest profusion, occurring 


396 Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 


sometimes as a dense and matted mass, which appears to permeate 
the rock in every direction where fractured, and to spread over the 
surface of the numerous beds in successive layers. The beds which 
contain it are sometimes several feet thick, and generally harder 
and more compact than those in which O. antiqua are found; they 
occur in either purple or green grits, most frequently perhaps in 
the latter, and on separating the laminz the fossils are seen to 
be slightly in relief on one surface, whilst the opposite bears a cor- 
responding indentation. 

Some difference of opinion has been expressed, more particularly 
by men of science in other countries, as to whether these fossils 
should properly be referred to the animal or vegetable kingdom ; 
some Continental writers having figured and described then as 
fossil plants—others again have even doubted their being organic at 
all, considering them merely to be markings caused by a peculiar 
mechanical condition of the rock. By the majority of Palzontolo- 
gists in this country, their zoological affinity appears to be accepted, 
in accordance with the eminent men who have published their views 
as to the animal origin of these fossils; and, considering them in the 
same light, their alliance with the Sertularian Zoophytes—which they 
resemble so closely—as first suggested by the late Professor Edward 
Forbes, appears to be the most reasonable conclusion as to their re- 
lationship we can arrive at. On the other hand, their resemblance to 
certain jointed marine plants, such as the lime-secreting Nullipores, 
would incline us to hesitate befure pronouncing with certainty as to 
their animal origin. As to their being organic, and not a mere mineral 
condition of the rock, there can, I think, be no question, because we 
find the representatives of each species, although often varying in 
shape and size, presenting the same general definite characters, not- 
withstanding their being isolated from each other; and although 
sometimes appearing to form an homogeneous mass permeating the 
rock, yet the surfaces of the beds show them to be deposited in hori- 
zontal layers between those surfaces, consisting occasionally of a 
few scattered examples, at other times of a more or less matted 
assemblage. 

The articulated character of the branchlets, which was considered 
by Professor Forbes to indicate the position of minute cells, and the 
presumed discovery by Dr. Kinahan of ‘reproductive cells,’ do not 
appear to me to be satisfactorily established, as, after an examination 
of the original and a number of other specimens, the only conclusion 
I can arrive at being that the jointed appearance they often exhibit 
is analogous to the structure presented by the NVullipores, or lime- 
secreting plants, before alluded to. 

That there is a general similarity of Oldhamia antiqua to certain 
recent Hydroid Polypes (popularly known as Corallines), such as the 
arborescent forms of Sertularia cupressina and argentea,* is very evi- 


* For excellent figures and descriptions of both these varieties, see Johnston’s 
‘British Zoophytes,’ pl. 15 and 16, vol. ii. pp. 79, 80; vol. i. pl. 14, fig. 3, and 
15 and 16, vol. ii. ! 


Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 397. 


dent, both of these species or varieties being abundant at the present 
day on the same (east) coast of Ireland. To the former—S. cupressina 
—it is said by Professor Forbes to present a striking resemblance, 
whilst Dr. Kinahan considers its nearest comparison to be with S. 
argentea: either of which conclusions may be correct, when we con- 
sider the probability of their being merely varieties of one species ; 
a question upon which Dr. Johnston makes the following remark : 
‘ Pallas thinks they constitute but one species, his cupressina.’ * 

No comparison having hitherto been made known between Oldhamia 
radiata and any living forms, I have endeavoured to trace out its 
nearest alliance, in accordance with the views of Professor Forbes, 
as to the probability of its being related to the Sertulariade, and 
find this species bears a considerable resemblance to some of the 
frondose or bushy examples of that family, particularly to Cellularia 
plumosa, which is said’ by Dr. Johnston ‘in habit to be something 
like S. argentea’ (a species previously alluded to as comparable with 
O. antiqua): the fossil is, however, more tufted and bushy, although 
not very unlike in form what we may suppose such a recent species 
would assume if spread out and subjected to pressure, as these 
fossils must have been. 

With reference to the remark made by Dr. Kinahan, ‘that it is 
questionable whether it would not be more convenient to place these 
two kinds of Oldhamia under separate genera,’ + I would observe 
that, in the absence of any satisfactory evidence as to the presence 
of reproductive organs, we can,I think, only consider them as being 
specifically and not generically distinct ; for although differing in the 
mode of arrangement of their parts, they appear to be sufficiently alike 
in general character to justify our retaining them under the same 
generic appellation. The specific distinction is also supported by the 
difference in the condition of the deposit in which the two kinds occur; 
O. antiqua being most frequently met with in the softer or shaly 
beds, whilst O. radiata is abundant in the more compact and gritty 
beds, the two species, as before observed, being seldom if ever found 
together. 

Accompanying the Oldhamia, at all the localities mentioned, are 
unmistakeable evidences of other marine animal life, in the nume- 
rous tracks and burrows often found intermixed with them in 
the same beds, and sometimes occurring in distinct ones in their 
immediate neighbourhood. 

These tracks are of various forms and sizes; some of them nearly 
straight, some slightly curved, and others more or less tortuous, 
resembling very much those produced by sea-worms belonging to 
the Annelida on sandy shores at the present day. Some of them 
occur in pairs of double openings, the tubes from which pass verti- 
cally through the beds; they appear to be identical with those from 
the Longmynds described by Mr. Salter, and named by him Areni- 
colites didyma. These double orifices, fig. 4, 6, are seen to be inter- 


* British Zoophytes, vol. i. p. 341, and pl. 16, fig. 1. 
{ Treatise on Oldhamia, p. 551. 


398 Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 


mixed with Oldhamia antiqua, and tracks of large and smaller 
diameter (c) proceeding in a horizontal direction on the same 
surface. 

Tubular markings of a larger size and tortuous form, usually found 
in distinct beds of a coarser and more sandy character, have been 
referred to Mollusca by Dr. Kinahan.* In the absence, however, 
of any more certain evidence of the existence of this important class 
during the Cambrian period, such as their fossil shells would present, 
we cannot, I think, do otherwise than refer them with the other tracks 
to the class Annelida. 

To the late Dr. Kinahan’s perseverance we are indebted for the 
discovery of a fossil he has described under the name of Histioderma 
Hibernicum.t Several examples of the large tubular casts of this 
fossil, which he considers to have been an Annelidan worm, were 
obtained by him from the compact greenish grits overlying the Old- 


Fic. 6.— HISTIODERMA HIBERNICUM, KINAHAN, NAT. SIZE. 


a. Opening of burrow and commencement of tube. 
6. Lower portion, or curved extremity. 
Cambrian (green grits), Bray Head, County of Wicklow. 


hamia-beds of Bray Head and Greystones. Their appearance on the 
surface of the beds is that of a slightly raised mound of about one 
inch and a half in diameter, having a depression in the centre form- 
ing the orifice. These tubular burrows pass vertically through the 
bed for a distance of about one and a half to three inches, gradually 
decreasing in size, and slightly curving ; they terminate by a rounded 
extremity which turns upwards, assuming a kind of trumpet-shape, 
the cast of its upper portion being marked by several ridges cross- 
ing each other at irregular distances, as represented in fig. 6, which 
is reduced. Dr. Kinahan describes this fossil as ‘a tentacled sea- 


* Journ. Geol. Soe. Dublin, vol. vii. p. 184, pl. 5, figs. 1-5; and Trans. Royal 
Irish Academy, vol. xxiii. p. 56. 
Y~ Journ. Geol. Soe, Dublin, vol. viii. p. 71. 


Baily — Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 399 


worm, evidently cephalo-branchiate, and not very dissimilar from 
the common Lug-worm (Arenicola) of our present seas. 

The same author also collected and described * what he believed 
to be another addition to the Cambrian fauna, under the name of 
Haughtonia pecila, but in which, as he states, ‘the organic character 
is not so evident or satisfactory:’ he supposes it to be the ‘ traces of 
an ageregation of tubes constructed by gregarious tubicolous worms 
belonging to the Annelida, and allied to Sabella.’ It was found by 
him on the upper surface of a coarse reddish grit near the ‘ Peri- 
winkle Rocks’ of Bray Head, and shows a peculiar and regularly 
mottled appearance ; what he supposes to be the tubes are white, and 
the interspaces red, and a vertical section exhibits a series of these 
tubes filled up with sand. The author, in acknowledging the diffi- 
culty of establishing the claims of such mere traces to be considered 
as fossils, expresses himself as follows,—upon ‘the importance of re- 
cording every organic trace which tends to throw a light on the 
habits of the animals which lived at so early a period of the world’s 
history as the Cambrian ;’ an observation with which I fully concur : 
at the same time, I must confess, I do not consider the specimen 
sufficiently definite, as to its organic nature, to warrant its receiving 
a name or being included amongst the fossils of the Cambrian 
formation. 

In concluding these remarks, which are merely intended as a 
sketch of all that is at present known respecting the value of the fossil- 
evidence derived from the large masses of stratified rocks known in 
the British Islands as the Cambrian formation, it will have been 
seen that the only reliable proof of the remains of organic life is fur- 
nished by strata, referred to this series, in Shropshire and the South- 
east of Ireland; the former yielding merely tracks and burrows of 
marine animals, probably Annelids; the latter, a more varied and 
important assemblage, consisting of those well-marked and charac- 
teristic forms of Oldhamia believed to be the remains of zoophytic 
animals, and similar Tracks and Burrows to those found in the rocks 
of the Longmynds, with the addition of a large tubeform cast called 
EMistioderma, resembling that of an Anneloid worm. 

Some of the finer grits and more argillaceous beds, like those of 
the Longmynds, often display ridged and wrinkled surfaces, such as 
may be seen on the sea-shore at the present day, and which were pro- 
bably due to the same causes, namely, the quiet action of the advan- 
cing or receding wave, or the agitation of the water by wind over a 
shallow shore. 

From these results of the labours of investigators as to the Fossils 
of the Cambrian Rocks, we get tangible evidence of the existence of 
marine forms of life bearing a considerable resemblance to those of 
the present day, although the variety we are at present acquainted 
with is small. There may, possibly, as suggested by other writers, 
have been a more varied assemblage, including marine plants, and 
some of the softer kinds of Zoophytes, Mollusca, or other Invertebrate 


* Journ. Geol. Soc. Dublin, vol. yi. p. 116. 


400 Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 


Animals, of which no record remains, either from the perishable 
nature of their structures, or from their obliteration during the process 
of change or consolidation of the deposit in which they were em- 
bedded, whether chemically or otherwise. This, however, is merely 
conjectural, and must not be allowed, in the absence of facts, to exer- 
cise any influence upon our opinion with regard to the value of the 
fossil evidence which has been obtained from the series of strata now 
under consideration. 

And here I may be excused pausing to reflect with admiration 
upon the remarkably perfect manner in which the fossils of these and 
other ancient rocks are preserved for our inspection and study by the 
covering up or superposition of one layer upon another; and although 
this assemblage occurs only as casts or impressions, the original or- 
ganic substance having disappeared, we have disclosed to our view, " 
with the greatest distinctness, tracks and markings of the delicate 
and fragile animals which then existed, accompanied by traces of 
phenomena of a similar character to those of our own times. 

The importance of such imperishable monuments of the past can- 
not be too highly estimated, as by their study we get an insight into 
the conditions which prevailed during these remote periods of the 
world’s history ; and although we do not presume to assert that fos- 
sils may not eventually be discovered in strata of Pre-Cambrian age 
—until that is satisfactorily established (which does not appear to be 
the case at present), we maintain that this assemblage of fossils 
from the Cambrians is still entitled to be looked upon as the most 
ancient evidence of organic life with which we are acquainted. 


Notr.— For detailed descriptions of Eozoén Canadense, and the 
evidence upon which it is asserted to be an organic structure, see the 
two very excellent papers by Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., and Prof. 
T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S.; the former of which appeared in the 
‘Intellectual Observer,’ vol. vii. p. 278, and the latter in the ‘ Popu- 
lar Science Review’ for April 1865. Both these papers are beau- 
fully illustrated.—Eprr. 


An Extinct Gigantic ArMApILLO.—There has just been added 
to the National Collection in the British Museum, plaster casts of an 
entire carapace with the tail attached, and portions of the skeleton, 
of one of the extinct gigantic Armadillos from South America. The 
original is preserved in the Museum at Dijon, France, and was de- 
scribed by L. Nodor (Compt. Rend., 1855, xli. 335-338), and named 
Schistopleurum (Glyptodon, Owen) typus. ‘The carapace and tail 
united are 8 feet in length, the carapace 3 feet high. It was found 
in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres.—W. D. 


W oodward— Crustacean Teeth. 808 


IJ. ON some CrustacEAN TEETH FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS AND 
Uprrer Luptow Rocks or SCOTLAND. 


By Henry Woopwarp, F.G.S., F.Z.S. 
[Plate XI. ] 


T HAVE lately received, from Mr. James Armstrong of Glasgow, 

some very beautiful examples of the detached teeth of Dithyro- 
caris from Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, and also specimens of 
Ceratiocaris from Lesmahagow (the latter collected by Mr. J. Sli- 
mon); and they seem to possess so much interest, that a description 
of them will doubtless be welcome. 

So long ago as 1843, the late General Portlock (at that time a 
Captain of Royal Engineers conducting the Geological Branch of 
the Ordnance Survey of Ireland), in his Report on the Geology of 
the County of Londonderry, figured the teeth of Dithyrocaris in 
pl. xii. fig. 6, of that work; and at p. 315 he observes, ‘ Fig. 6 repre- 
sents bodies which are frequently found on the specimens of this 
crustacean, and in this instance together, as represented in the 
figured specimen; they each exhibit a single row of tubercles, and 
were in all probability connected with the masticatory apparatus, 
which it is probable, therefore, was highly developed in this large 
species.’ We reproduce the figure in our plate (Pl. XI. fig. 8). 

Mr. Salter first noticed the teeth of Ceratiocaris in 1860,* but 
they have never been properly figured, nor does the figure of the 
- teeth of Dithyrocaris from Ireland, given by Portlock (see Pl. XI. 
fig. 8), correctly represent these organs. 

Plate XI. fig. 1, represents a perfect carapace of Ceratiocaris, at the 
anterior end of which (at a) the two opposing mandibles may be 
seen in their proper place, compressed on the surface of the left 
valve. A detached mandible (fig. 2) from the same locality as 
fig. 1 (Upper Ludlow Rock, Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire) is repre- 
sented in the plate of the natural size.t Figs. 8-6 represent the 
teeth of Dithyrocaris collected by Mr. James Armstrong and Mr. J. 
Bennie from Campsie and East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, and Orchard 
Quarry, near Thornliebank, Renfrewshire. 

Mr. Armstrong (being a practical geologist) was not satisfied with 
General Portlock’s opinion that these detached teeth belonged to 
Dithyrocaris, especially as neither Professor M‘Coy, who had figured 
Dithyrocaris (see Plate XI. fig. 9), nor Dr. Scouler (the original de- 
seriber of the genus), had attempted to connect them: he wished to 
find a specimen with the teeth attached. 

At length, after diligent search, Mr. Bennie was so fortunate as to 
obtain, at Lickprivick Quarry, East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, a por- 
tion of a carapace (Pl. XL. fig. 6), upon the under side of which he 
discovered the long-looked-for teeth in sit&@ (fig. 6, a, 6). This 


* See Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3rd series, vol. y. p. 153. 

{ These specimens are in the British Museum. ss 

t Copied from Prof. M‘Coy’s Carb. Foss. Ireland, pl. xxiii. fig. 2. 
VOL. II.— NO. XV. DD 


402 Woodward— Crustacean Teeth. 


discovery is the more acceptable, because the teeth have never yet 
been met with at Carluke, where the carapaces are found, although 
the Carboniferous beds have been diligently searched for fossils by 
Dr. Rankin for at least thirty years, whilst the localities already 
named as yielding the detached teeth do not furnish remains of the 
carapace. 

The teeth, with one or two exceptions, always occur in ironstone 
nodules, and the best specimens are those which have been ‘ wea- 
thered’ out, as the fossil, being softer than the matrix, cannot readily 
be developed artificially. If exposed too long, being calcareous, they 
become soft, and soon crumble away. 

It is probable that the soft parts of the animal (which contained 
the teeth), having been, after death, detached from the carapace 
whilst undergoing decomposition, became the nucleus for a concre- 
tion of phosphatic matter, which was added to, layer by layer, 
in the same manner as the concretions around organic remains 
in the London Clay, and the ironstone nodules containing leaves and 
Limuli, in the Coal-measures, appear to have been formed. 

Mr. Armstrong informs us that the Dithyrocaris tooth from Campsie 
(Pl. XI. figs. 4 and 4 @) occurs in a bed of black shale, overlying the 
‘Hosie’ Limestone of the Lanarkshire Carboniferous series, which 
is about 670 fathoms below the ‘Ell Coal.’ This is the horizon 
usually taken by the Glasgow geologists in giving the position of 
Carboniferous fossils. No other specimen is recorded from this 
locality. 

Its associated fossils are Nucula gibbosa, N. lineata; Leda longi- 
rostris, L.. attenuata; Nautilus subsulcatus; Goniatites Gilbertsoni, 
G. vesica; a profusion of Spirifera Uru, Orthoceras pygmeum, and 
a large Cythere? 

Those from Orchard Quarry, near Thornliebank, Renfrewshire 
(Pl. XI. figs. 8, 3 a, 36, and 5, 5a), are from a bed of shale about 
300 fathoms below the ‘ Ell Coal.’ The common fossils in this bed 
are several species of Cypricardia, Leda, Orthoceras, Productus cos- 
tatus, Bellerophon Uri, B. Leveilleanus, Macrocheilus, Pleuroto- 
maria monilifera. No trace of carapace has been discovered at 
either of these localities. 

The specimen with the teeth attached to the portion of carapace, 
from East Kilbride (Pl. XI. fig. 6), was found in shale associated with 
Brachiopoda, Corals, &c. The teeth are common at Orchard Quarry, 
but only a single specimen has been met with either at Lickprivick 
or Campsie. 

That these detached fossil remains are the teeth of Crustacea there 
cannot now be the least doubt; for, in addition to the evidence 
afforded by the remains of the allied genus Ceratiocaris (Pl. XI. fig. 1), 
and by the fragment of Dithyrocaris (Pl. XI. fig.6), one needs only to 
compare the gastric teeth of the common Lobster (Homarus vul- 
garis), figured in our plate (fig. 12), with the most perfect tooth of 
Dithyrocaris (figs. 3, 3 6), to see the striking similarity between them, 
both in general form and in minuter details. 

They so strongly resemble the molar teeth of the Vertebrata also, 


FLOU. ilag. L665. PL, Ae 


EM Williams,F.LS.del ot Sc. M&N.Hanhart, Imp? 
TEE el OH Cin Di SiN Gyles 


Woodward— Crustacean Teeth. 403 


that Dr. Giinther at first sight supposed them to be Fish-teeth 
allied to the Spheride or Labride; whilst Prof. Owen and Mr. 
Waterhouse, to whom they were submitted for inspection, noticed 
their great superficial resemblance to the teeth of some small Mar- 
supials, such as the Kangaroo Rat (Hypsiprymnus) of Australia. 

The important bearing of these ‘ superficial’ resemblances cannot 
be too strongly impressed upon Paleontologists, and especially on 
those who work in that Border-land between the Palzozoic and 
Secondary rocks—the Rhetic and Triassic groups. For it was in the 
Rheetic Bone-breccia of Wiirtemberg that Prof. Plieninger discovered 
the teeth of the then oldest known Mammal, the Wicrolestes anti- 
quus ; and in a fissure of the Carboniferous Limestone near Frome, 
Mr. Charles Moore, of Bath, found that wonderful accumulation of 
minute teeth and other organic remains from a Bone-bed of the same 
age; and Mr. Boyd Dawkins detected the tooth of the oldest British 
Mammal (the Hypsiprymnopsis Rheticus) in the Lower Rhetic of 
Watchet. These teeth, all very minute, often very obscure, require 
the closest scrutiny, and wherever it is practicable their structure 
should be microscopically examined. 

In the Mammalia the molar teeth are all provided with double 
roots or fangs; there is also a well-marked division or ridge which 
surrounds the base of that part of the tooth which is exposed above 
the gum—a character which distinguishes them from those of Fish 
and Reptiles. But if the crown only of the tooth of a small fossil 
Marsupial be compared with a part of one of these gastric teeth of 
Dithyrocaris, these characters will scarcely suffice to distinguish 
between them, and we must examine their more minute structure. 

In the plate I have given figures (13 and 13 a, 6, c) of the teeth 
of a young Kangaroo (Macropus) for comparison with the enlarged 
figure (fig. 3b) of the tooth of Dithyrocaris, which will serve to show 
many superficial points of form which they possess in common. 

Fig. 10 is the recent Apus (from near Prague in Bohemia), of the 
natural size, for comparison with Dithyrocaris and Ceratiocaris 
. (figs. 1 and 9). Fig. 11 is an enlarged view of the same, showing 
the jaws (a, a) in sité ; whilst figs. 7, 7 a, and 7 6, represent these dis- 
sected out, and magnified about seven times. There is a consider- 
able difference between the serrated mandible of Ceratiocaris and 
the more solid and massive teeth of Dithyrocaris; and among these, 
also, there are at least two distinct forms: but we need more mate- 
rials before we can determine to which species these several forms 
of teeth belong. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XI. 


Fig. 1. Ceratiocaris papiho, Salter. U. Ludlow Rock, Lanark. 

2. C. papilio, Salter. Detached jaw from same locality 

3. Nearly perfect tooth of Dithyrocaris, Upper Marine series, Orchard 
Quarry, Thornliebank, Renfrewshire. 

3 a. Side view of same. 

3 6, Enlarged view of grinding surface of same, showing the fine strice 
in the recesses of the C-shaped cusps. 

DD 2 


404 Binney— On Polyporites. 


4, Another tooth of Dithyrocaris, from the Lower Marine series, 

Campsie. 

4 a. Upper view of same. , 

5 & 5a. Side- and upper view of another specimen, from Orchard 

Quarry. 

6, Fragment of the fore-part of a carapace of Dithyrocaris, showing the 
under-surface, with portions of the two ‘molar’ teeth (a, 6) seen 
in sit. From Lickprivick Quarry, Kast Kilbride. 

7,7a,&7b. Magnified views of the outer and inner sides and the 
erinding surface of jaws of Apus. Recent from Bohemia. 

8. Fac-simile of General Portlock’s figure of teeth of Dithyrocaris, in 

_ the Geol. of Londonderry, pl. xii. fig. 6. 

9. Dithyrocaris Scouleri, M‘Coy, Carb. Foss. Ireland, pl. xxiii. fig. 2. 

10. Apus cancriformis, sp. Recent from Bohemia (nat. size). 

11. Ditto. Enlarged view of under-side to show jaws in place (@ a). 

12. Gastric teeth of common Lobster, Homarus astacus. 

13. Upper molar teeth (right side) of a young Kangaroo, from Australia. 

13 a. Lower ditto Cis) ditto. 

13 6 & c. Detached teeth of (6) upper and (c) lower jaw of same. 


III. Remarks ON THE GENUS POLYPORITES. 
By E. W. Binney, F.RB.S. 


LANES and Hutton, in their ‘ Fossil Flora’ (vol. i. p. 181), 

give a plate and description of some specimens, termed by 
them Polyporites Bowmanni, which were found by the late Mr. J. E. 
Bowman, F.L.S., in the Carboniferous strata, near the entrance of 
the Vale of Llangollen, in the county of Denbigh. 

In the notes on the first specimen no doubts are expressed as to the 
nature of the fossil; but with respect to the second specimen, the 
authors say, ‘It is a matter of great doubt whether this really be- 
longs to the vegetable kingdom. Mr. Bowman remarks that his 
second specimen might be taken for the scale of a Fish, or of some 
great Saurian Reptile; and we admit it now without daring to offer 
any decided opinion about it, chiefly on account of its resemblance, 
in some respects, to some cellular plants of the present era.’ 

Some twenty-five years ago, Mr. Bowman showed me both the spe- 
cimens, and I immediately recognized them to be scales of the genus 
Holoptychius, since changed to Rhizodus; and that gentleman was 
of the same opinion, and stated to me that he always had doubts as 
to the vegetable nature of the fossils. Probably I should not have 
taken any notice of these mistaken fossils; but in looking over 
M. Adolphe Brongniart’s excellent work, ‘Tableau des Genres de 
Végétaux fossiles considérés sous le point de vue de leur classification 
botanique et de leur distribution géologique,’ I noticed that, at 
page 6, in speaking of the ‘Famille des Champignons, he says, 
‘MM. Lindley et Hutton, dans leur Fossil Flora, ont désigné sous 
le nom de Polyporites Bowmanni un fossile quwils comparent, quoi- 
qu’avec doute, 4 un Polyporus, et qui provient des mines des houilles 
du pays de Galles. J’ai observé une empreinte analogue dans les 
échantillons du terrain houiller de Sardaigne, et qui ne parait pas 


Owen— Observations on the Zeuglodonts. 405 


différer du Carpolithes umbonatus de Sternberg; quelques points de 
cette empreinte offraient des pores peu profonds semblables & ceux 
de certains des pays chauds.’ 

Professor Unger, in his ‘Chloris protogea—Beitriige zur Flora 
der Vorwelt,’ at p.cviii. in his ‘Index of Fossil Plants,’ mentions 
the Polyporites Bowmanni, Lind. and Hutt.; and at page xxix., 
under Ord. VI., Fungi, refers to Polyporites Bowmanni, under which 
genus he places, with a query, Carpolithes umbonatus of Sternberg, 
and gives the locality of Messrs. Lindley and Hutton’s specimen, ‘In 
Schists lithant, ad Wrexham, Angliz.’ 

The mistake having been copied into such works of high repute 
as those of M. Brongniart and Professor Unger, has induced me to 
make these few remarks. The plate in Messrs. Lindley and Hutton’s 
work bears such clear evidence of the specimens being undoubted 
scales of Rhizodus, that there will be no need to figure them again, 
a reference to their plate being quite sufficient. 

It is rather singular that so evident a mistake as this is, namely, 
of describing as belonging to the vegetable kingdom a fish-scale very 
commonly found in the Coal-measures, should have passed uncon- 
tradicted for so many years. The first discoverer of the specimens 
had great doubts as to the nature of the fossils; but these doubts 
appeared gradually to have grown less, and finally disappeared alto- 
gether, as other parties who knew less of the subject treated it. 


INOTICES OF BRITISH AND FOREIGIN 
IM EMOTRS. < 


—— 4+——_ 


IT. OBSERVATIONS ON ‘RECHERCHES SUR LES SQUALODONS,’ par P. J. 
VAN BENEDEN. 4to., 1865, pp. 85, Pl. L-IV. Bruxelles. 


By Prof. Owrn, F.R.S. 


N the 85th volume of the ‘Memoirs of the Royal Academy of 
Belgium,’ Prof. Van Beneden, under the above title, gives an 
account of most of the specimens of Zeuglodonts which have been 
discovered in Europe, commencing with the portion of jaw with 
teeth from the Miocene of Malta, figured by Scilla, in ‘La Vana 
Speculazione disingannata del Senso,’ 1670, tab. xii., fig. 1; on 
which Agassiz founded his genus ‘ Phocodon, in the ‘ Répertoire 
d’Anatomie et de Physiologie de Valentin, 1835.—2. The next 
European Zeuglodont in point of date is the fragment of jaw and 
teeth from the ‘grés marin’ at Léognan, near Bordeaux, described, 
as part of a gigantic reptile, allied to the Iguanodon, and also to the 
Sharks, by Dr. Grateloup, under the name of Squalodon (‘Actes de 
Académie des Sciences, Belles-lettres, et Arts de Bordeaux,’ 2™¢ 
année, 1840).—38. An atlas-vertebra, from the Miocene ‘ Faluns’ at 
Salles, noticed by J. Miiller in his account of the American Zeuglo- 
donts acquired by the Royal Museum at Berlin, in the ‘Transac- 
tions of the Royal Academy’ of that city, 1847, and ‘Ueber die 


406 Notices of British and Foreign Memoirs. 


Zeuglonden,’ fol., 1849.—4. Teeth and vertebrz from Miocene beds 
at Eibergen and Swilbrock, in Guelderland, referred by me to the 
genus Zeuglodon, and subsequently described by Staring in his 
©“Bodem vom Nederland,’ vol. ii., p. 216, pl. ili—5. An almost 
entire skull from the Upper Miocene at Barie, Département de la 
Dréme, described by Professor Jourdan, in ‘Comptes Rendus de 
PAcadémie des Sciences,’ November 1861, and referred to Rhi- 
zoprion Bariensis, Jdn. The fore-end of the upper jaw of this 
specimen is described and figured by Professor Gervais, in the 
‘Bulletin de Académie Royale de Belgique,’ tom. xiii., No. 5, 1862. 
—6. Portion of cranium, a petrotympanic bone, a laniariform tooth, an 
atlas, and other vertebre of a large Zeuglodont, discovered by Ehrlich 
(1842) in the Molasse in the vicinity of Lintz, referred by H. von 
Meyer, in 1849, to Balenodon linteanus. Van Beneden figures, in 
pl. iv. of his memoir, the portion of the cranium as belonging to 
a Zeuglodont genus, which he calls Stenodon.*—7. Almost complete 
skulls of adult and young Zeuglodonts, with laniariform and serrated 
molar teeth, also discovered by Ehrlich at Lintz, in Upper Austria, 
and noticed by Klipstein, in Karsten and Decken’s ‘Archiv,’ 1842. 
Van Beneden gives a restored figure of the skull and dentition of 
this specimen in his pl. iii, and refers the species to Squalodon 
Ehrlichti, V. B. Two of the teeth, from Lintz, are figured by 
J. Miiller, op. cit., fol. xxiii., fig. 7. 

The chief part of M. Van Beneden’s work is devoted to the 
Zeuglodont fossils from the vicinity of Antwerp. The portions of 
skull enable him to describe the intermaxillaries which exclusively 
form the end of the rostrum, and are firmly and extensively united 
to each other: each intermaxillary bears three teeth, of which the 
foremost projects on the axis of the bone. Of the maxillary the 
author describes three portions ; the hindmost showing the convexity 
of the palatal portion, and the junction of the vomer. The man- 
dible is represented by various fragments, which indicate a long 
symphysis, extending as far back as to the two-rooted molars. The 
above-named portions of bone, and divers teeth, are all the parts on 
which the Squalodon Aniverpiensis, V. B., is fcunded. In the figure, 
pl. i., of this species, the skull is restored in outline from the 
specimens previously discovered at Lintz and Barie. 

The dentition is computed to consist of— 

Incisors, 3; canines, +; premolars, ~; molars, 7 = 13. 

This formula gives only the teeth of one side of the upper and 
lower jaws. 

The skull of the Zeuglodont from Lintz shows the massive 
character of the zygomatic arch, and the small size of the cranial 
cavity, which is widest behind. ‘The vomer is canaliculate supe- 
riorly. The posterior walls of the nasal passages are wanting ; 


* This name has been bespoken, in 1832, by Aredinet-Serville, in the ‘ Annales 
de la Societé Entomologique de France,’ for a genus of Cerambycini; also by 
Richards, in 1836, for a genus of Salmonide.—Appendix to Back’s ‘Narrative of 
Arctic Land Expeditions.’ 


Owen— Observations on the Zeuglodonts. 407 


the anterior walls indicate an oblique direction ; whilst in the skull 
from Barie the nasal passage is vertical: no trace of nasal bones 
remains. 

M. Van Beneden states, ‘Les os palatins sont disposés comme dans 
les véritables Cétacés soufileurs: ils forment Ventrée des fosses 
nasales’ (p. 49). I have found the palatine bones, in true Cetacea, 
separated from the posterior or palatal nostrils by the pterygoids, 
which exclusively form that entry to the nasal passages. 

In the fossil skull of the Zeuglodont discovered at Barie, the 
nasals are compact bones, ‘en os compactes,’ situated above the blow- 
holes, ‘refoulés au-dessus des évents’ (p. 53). The intermaxillaries, 
which exclusively form the end of the snout, extend thence backward 
to the nasal bones. ‘The maxillaries posteriorly cover the frontals 
and reach the vertex : the frontals are very thick above the orbits : 
the malar is extremely slender. The occiput is flattened behind, 
rises also to the vertex, and forms there a crest which trends the 
occipital region : it is narrow behind. 

The petrotympanics resemble those of Zeuglodon. The atlas- 
vertebra in the European Zeuglodonts, as in the American, is sepa- 
rate from the other cervicals. Prof. Van Beneden remarks that the 
Balznoptere, certain Delphins, e. g., the Belugas and Narwhals, and 
the Sirenia (Manatees and Dugongs), are among the small number 
of Cetacea in which the atlas is not anchylosed to the other 
vertebra (p. 46). But to this list may be added the large Cachalots. 
The atlas from the ‘Faluns de Salle,’ figured by Van Beneden in 
pl. iii., fig. 2, ‘offre une grande analogie avec l’atlas de Zeuglodon 
que Joh. Miiller a décrit et figuré dans son grand travail sur les 
Zeuglodontes d’ Amérique’ (p. 47). 

M. Van Beneden assumes that the nasal bones in all the Euro- 
pean Zeuglodonts correspond with the condition of these bones in 
the mutilated portions of skull described by Jourdan, and regards 
the longer, perhaps more perfectly preserved, ‘nasal’ bones of the 
American Zeuglodont as justifying a generic distinction. He even 
goes so far as to conjecture that the American Zeuglodonts, not- 
withstanding their bulk, which rivals that of the Whales, were 
carnivorous Cetacea haunting the shores, like the herbivorous 
Dugongs and Manatees, whilst the smaller European species were 
pelagic carnivora like the Grampuses and Porpoises. ‘Les Zeu- 
elodons, malgré leur taille, seraient done des carnassiers littoraux, 
comme les Siréniens des herbivores littoraux, et les Squalodons 
seraient des carnassiers pélagiques’ (p. 63). But the deposits in 
Alabama and Louisiana containing Zeuglodont remains are strictly 
marine. ‘The external nostrils of these large Zeuglodonts open in 
the upper part of the skull, far behind the end of the snout : some 
difference in the direction of the nasal passages is admitted by 
Van Beneden to exist in the European Zeuglodonts, as, e. g., between 
the Squalodon Ehrlichit, Van Beneden, and the Stenodon lentianus, 
V. B. 

We doubt whether, from present materials, so trenchant a dis- 
tinction can be relied on as generically differentiating the Zeu- 


, 


408 Notices of British and Foreign Memoirs. 


glodonts, and as driving the colossal American species to seek their 
prey along or upon the sea-shore. For a second generic dis- 
tinction Prof. Van Beneden relies upon a difference in the number 
of the teeth. He admits, however, both American and European 
Zeuglodonts to be essentially carnivorous Cetaceans; and every 
experienced student of such, from John Hunter downwards, had 
observed the variability of the number of teeth in individuals of the 
same species. Supposing that the present known portions of jaws 
and an entire unbroken maxillary or mandible of a Zeuglodont had 
never yet been found to support our author’s conelusion—that the 
Huropean Zeuglodonts have five double-rooted, serrate-crowned 
molars on each side of both jaws, in addition to the number of those 
in the American Zeuglodont (p. 62),—the question then arises, 
whether this dental character should be regarded as of higher im- 
portance than it is held to be in equally natural genera, or groups of 
existing carnivorous Cetacea, in which the numerical differences in 
similarly shaped teeth are noted amongst the specific characters. 

The teeth of both the European and American Zeuglodonts con- 
sist of anterior laniariform, single-rooted, and posterior lamelli- 
form, serrated, and two-rooted: in both, the first six are incisors, 
by reason of their implantation in the intermaxillary bones. But 
M. Van Beneden affirms that the foremost incisor extends on the 
axis of the body in the European Zeuglodont, and curves down- 
ward in the American—a difference which we do not believe can be 
absolutely predicated from the portions of the skull of the great 
American species hitherto examined. But, if admitted, and shown to 
be not related to the age of the individual, it may be questionable 
whether different directions of growth of homologous teeth should 
support generic distinction; for, if so, how many genera might not 
so be characterized out of the Elephants of India alone! 

Admitting, however, for the sake of convenience, that the 
differences, so far as they appear to be shown by the mutilated 
remains of the Zeuglodont Cetacea, may be expressed by generic as 
well as specific differential terms, we have then to submit that the 
name Phocodon ought, on the ground of priority, to be given to the 
smaller European kind. 

Prof. Van Beneden admits that the name Basilosaurus, proposed 
in 1832 for the American kind, was ‘malheureusement trop sig- 
nificatif, and agrees with Harlan and myself in the change of name 
to Zeuglodon, which, since 1839, has been adopted; but, while 
characterizing the name Squalodon as being ‘également trop 
significatif, he adds, ‘Nous ne voyons aucun motif plausible pour 
changer le premier nom qui lui a été imposé par Grateloup’ (p. 4). 
The motive, more than plausible, for not adopting Squalodon, is, 
that it has neither priority as regards the Zeuglodonts generally, 
nor as relating to European Miocene Zeuglodonts in particular. 
With much greater reason we may use the words of M. Van Beneden 
—‘ We see no plausible motive for changing the first name which 
had been imposed’ upon the European Zeuglodont by Agassiz. 

True, indeed, that name also was too significative of the conclusion 


Owen— Observations on the Zeuglodonts. 409 


at which the celebrated Paleontologist of Neufchatel had arrived, 
in 1835, respecting the Pliocene character of the portion of jaw and 
teeth from the Miocene ‘grés marin’ of Malta. But the name 
Squalodon was quite as significative of the conclusion at which the 
Palzontologist of Bordeaux had arrived, in 1840, as to the transitional 
character between Iguanodons and Sharks-of the animal owning the 
portions of jaws with teeth from the ‘grés marin’ of Léognan. 

If the error-suggesting character of the name, which is barbarous 
to boot, does not weigh with M. Van Beneden against the fact of its 
having first designated the fossils from Léognan described in 1840, 
with what claim to consistency can he reject the classical name 
Phocodon, which first generically designated the fossils from the 
Miocene of Malta, described in 1835, and figured as far back’ as 
1670 ? 

Prof. Von Beneden appears to us to mete out one measure to one 
individual, and another to another, and not to be governed by prin- 
ciples which have no respect to persons. 

We may sympathize with goodnatured and indulgent sentiments 
that sway, for the conservation, on the sole ground of priority, of 
a generic name, although it may express obtrusively an erroneous or 
absurd conclusion, and be of barbarous construction besides. But 
then we require that the same sole principle of priority should be, 
at least, equally operative in regard to a legitimately constructed 
generic name, and one which does not shock the judgment by sug- 
gesting affinities very remote from truth. In this predicament we 
hold to be the Phocodon of Agassiz and the Balenodon of Owen. 

The latter generic name was proposed for the physeteroid Cetacean 
to which, in the year 1840, I referred the larger petrified lania- 
riform teeth from the ‘ Suffolk Crag.’ In my account of form, struc- 
ture, and microscopical characters of these teeth, in the ‘ History of 
British Fossil Mammalia, I compared them with the teeth of the 
Cachalots, and also, from the proportion of the number of teeth 
with the number of Cetacea represented by fossil bones, and espe- 
cially ear-bones, with the Ziphius of Cuvier. ‘These proportions, 
I wrote, ‘would indicate that the teeth were less numerous in the 
extinct Cetaceans, from which they have been derived, than they 
are in the Cachalot. . The recent Ziphius has but a single tooth on 
each side of the lower jaw when full grown, like the great Del- 
phinus tridens of our own seas’ (Op. cit., p. 541). 

The petrotympanic bones or ‘ Cetotolites’ described and figured 
in the same work are referred to another genus. alenodon phy- 
saloides is described in a section distinct from the family Balenide 
(p. 542). 

Balenodon, or Phalainodon, signifies a genus of Cachalot-like or 
Ziphioid Cetacea, represented by the fossil teeth resembling those 
figured at p. 525, fig. 219, in contrasted contiguity with the “Cacha- 
lot’s tooth, fig. 218 ; ; at p. 586, fig. 226, and at p. 587, fig. 227. 

Subsequent discoveries have proved that these Cetacean teeth, or 
the majority of them, belong to a genus or genera more nearly 
related to Ziphius than to Physeter, and to be ‘ Ziphioid,’—if, indeed, 


410 Notices of British and Foreign Memoirs. 


they can be truly and satisfactorily shown to be generically distinct 
from Ziphius, Cuvier. 

But by those Paleontologists who, under the belief of such generic 
distinction, deem it requisite to come to the conclusion by a generic 
name, I hold that Balenodon has the priority of any other generic 
name* which, since the publication of the ‘History of British Fossil 
Mammals,’ 8vo., 1846, has been proposed for any of the Ziphioid 
fossils from the Miocene or older Pliocene of Antwerp or Suffolk. 
The mistaken reference, by Von Meyer, of a Zeuglodont to the genus 
to which I had referred the larger Physeteroid or Ziphioid teeth of 
the Crag gives no adequate ground for rejecting the generic name 
from the extinct Cetacea to which it truly applies. But in all the 
remarks which M. Van Beneden hazards upon Balenodon he betrays 
a want of acquaintance with the works and memoirs in which the 
Cetacean fossils of the Suffolk Crag have been described by me. 
Professor Van Beneden, e.g., writes, ‘ Cet animal’ (Stenodon len- 
tianum, V. Ben.) ‘était pour Hermann Von Meyer différent des 
“Wallartigen Thiere ;” et comme on avait trouvé en méme temps une 
dent qui woffrait pas de caractéres trés-précis, il crut avoir affaire 
& un animal semblable 4 celui de Helixtown, auquel R. Owen avait 
donné le nom de “ Balenodon.”’ But, in the Memoir on the Cetacean 
Fossils brought by Professor Henslow from the Crag at Helixtown, 
in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,’ Dec. 13, 
18438, the specimens are referred, as in the ‘ History of British Fossil 
Mammalia,’ not to Balenodon, but to Balena. After a comparison 
of the petrotympanic bones, I expressly stated— We are thus 
enabled to determine that the majority differ from the tympanic 
bones of the Delphinide, including Grampus and Hyperoédon, in 
having the hinder extremity of the bone simple, and not bilobed,’ &c. 
Several species of such Balene are defined from the characters of 
the more or less mutilated ‘ear-bones.’ More perfect examples of 
the smallest of these, e.g., B. gibbosa, subsequently acquired, have 
indicated ziphioid or physeteroid characters, and may be referred to 
Balenodon: but whatever may be the advance of our knowledge 
of the nature of that physeteroid or ziphioid Cetacean, there can be 
‘no plausible motive for changing the first generic name imposed 
upon it.’ As much of Balenodon physaloides, Ow., as is known, is 
sufficiently material and massive: its description occupies seven 
pages (pp. 5386-542), and is illustrated by five woodcuts (figs. 219, 
226, 227, 228, and 229) of the work in which the genus and species 
are defined. It is purely gratuitous to stigmatize it as an offspring 
of the imagination.t 

Prof. Van Beneden sums up his useful Teor on the Zeuglo- 
donts as follows (p. 80) :— 


E. g., Dioplodon, Choneziphius, Hoplocetus. 
; ‘Ce genre est imaginaire, et le savant illustre qui a proposé ce nom de Baleno- 
don, dont les racines jurent de se trouver ensemble, ne saurait guere dire lui-méme 
quel genre d’animal il a entendu désigner sous ce singulier nom.’—P, 08. 


Prof. Cocchi—On Labroid Fishes. 411 


Fam. ZEUGLODONTES. 

Genus SquaLapon, Grateloup. 

Species 1. Squalodon Grateloupu, V. M. 

2. Squalodon Antverpiensis, V. B. 
» 9 Sgqualodon Gervasii, V. B. 
» 4. Squalodon Ehrlichi, V. B. 

Genus STENODON, Van Beneden. 

Species Stenodon lentianus, V. B. 

Genus ZEuUGLODON, Owen. 

Species Zeuglodon macrospondylus, Ow. 
»  Zeuglodon brachyspondylus, Ow. 


99 


II. On a New Famity or Lasroiw Fisurs. 
MonoGrarta DEI PHAryncoporitips, Nuova Famicria pi Prscr LAsrorr, del 
Cay. Prof. Ienvo Coccut. Firenze (Florence), 1864, 4to., pp. 88. 
SINCk the completion of Prof. Louis Agassiz’ great work on 

Fessil Fishes, now nearly a quarter of a century ago, no work 
on general Fossil Ichthyology has been produced. The authors who 
have written upon the subject are both numerous and able, but its 
literature is only to be found scattered in various scientific periodical 
publications, journals, and transactions of learned societies, or in 
works specially devoted to the description of the fossil remains of 
some particular formation, locality or country, or of some genus or 
family. To the latter class may be referred the elaborate Monograph 
recently published by Prof. Cocchi upon an interesting though 
small group of Fossil Fishes only known as yet by their dental 
remains. Upon these few but very characteristic portions, and after 
careful examination of many specimens preserved in public and pri- 
vate collections in England, France, Germany, and Italy, the author 
founds his new family of Pharyngodopilide (so called on account of 
the peculiar laminated structure of the dental plates). This group 
he divides into three genera: Phyllodus, Ag.; Egertonia, Cocchi; 
Pharyngodopilus, Cocchi; based upon the “number of the upper 
dentigerous plates, and the form and arrangement of the single teeth. 

The genus Phyllodus was first named by Agassiz in 1843, and 
described in the ‘ Rech. Poiss. Foss.,’ vol. i. pt. 2, p. 238, and also in 
the same year by Prof. Owen, in his ‘Odontography,’ p. 138. It is 
distinguished by having but one upper and one lower dental plate, 
formed of a series of thin laminz, each of which is composed of 
enamel, dentine, and bone. These lamine do not simply form a series 
of broad flat plates, but they are also divided by vertical depressions 
into several series of denticles, which are convex on one surface and 
concave on the other, and the median row of which is always the 
largest. According to the number, size, and form of these, and of 
their accessory or lateral denticles, the author describes six new 
species, in addition to the six previously described by Agassiz. 

The new genus Egertonia, Cocchi, of which there is but one spe- 
cies, is founded upon two specimens which the author found in the 
collections of Sir Philip Egerton and Dr. Bowerbank (and an imper- 


412 . Notices of British and Foreign Memoirs. 


fect fragment in the National Collection). It has only one upper and 
one lower dentigerous plate, the denticles of which are much smaller 
and more equal in size and form than those of Phyllodus. ‘They are 
of a round-pointed form, so that a slightly inclined vertical section 
would give the form of a truncated cone. The whole tooth, judging ~ 
from the specimens known, is much smaller than that of Phyllodus. 

With the exception of a Cretaceous species from Bilin, described 
by Prof. Reuss, all the species of the preceding two genera are 
exclusively British fossils of the Eocene period, and chiefly from the 
London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey. They are also found in the Red 
Crag, into which they have been drifted from the older Eocene de- 
posit. The Continental specimens described as Phyllodus our author 
refers to Pharyngodopilus and other genera. 

Pharyngodopilus, Cocchi, is characterized by having two upper 
and one lower dentigerous -plate, the form and arrangement of the 
denticles of which are very different from those of Phyllodus and Eger- 
tonia ; though varying in form and size, they have not that extreme 
irrecularity characteristic of Phyllodus, and are globular or elongated. 
The species are of Miocene and Pliocene age, and are unknown in 
British deposits, although two (Ph. Africanus and Ph, Canariensis) 
are founded upon specimens in the British Museum. 

The genus was determined by the author in 1858, and then named | 
by him Labradus. 

To these three genera the author, in an appendix, adds a fourth 
( Taurinichthys, Cocchi), founded on part of a lower jaw bone with 
the dentigerous plate attached, and-which had been previously de- 
scribed by Michelotti as Scarus Miocenicus. 

In this notice we can do little more than direct attention to the 
work itself, which is a most valuable addition to the subject of which 
it treats. An attempt even to epitomize the author’s descriptions 
of the mode of growth of the teeth, and the various species, with 
his reasons for forming them into a new family (detaching Phyl- 
lodus from the Ganoid group of Pycnodonts, where Prof. Agassiz 
had placed it, and arranging it with the Cycloids, to which order 
Prof. Owen, in his ‘Odontography,’ thought it belonged, though 
believing its affinities to bé with Scarus among the Labride)— 
would occupy more space than we can afford. 

The work is illustrated by six carefully executed plates containing 
several figures of all the species. We annex a list of those now 
added to our already rich catalogue of Fossil Fishes :— 

Phyllodus Colet, Cocchi. Phyllodus secundarius, Cocchi. 
hexagonalis, ,, submedius, » 

— — speciosus, 7 Egertonia tsodonta, 
— Bowerbanku, ,, 


” 
Wi: 


TI. Tue ‘Naturay History Review. No. XIX., July 18€5. 
HIS Number contains two important Paleontological papers. One, 
‘On the Dentition of Rhinoceros megarhinus, by Mr. Boyd 
Dawkins, is a very valuable communication: the author gives the . 


Reviews—Hall’s Canadian Graptolites. 413 


geographical and geological range of the Tichorhine, Leptorhine, 
and Megarhine species of Rhinoceros, with a sketch of their lite- 
rature, clearing up several doubtful points relating to the nomen- 
clature of FR. leptorhinus ; he then describes the enamel structure 
of their teeth, the milk- and permanent dentition of A. megarhinus, 
giving a table of measurements of the teeth, and concludes with 
a comparison between the Megarhine and the several recent species 
of Rhinoceros. This memoir is illustrated by fifteen woodcuts. 

The other paper is ‘On Portions of a Cranium and a Jaw in the 
slab containing the fossil remains of the Archexopteryx,’ by Mr. 
John Evans. Prof. Owen, in his paper on the Archzxopteryx 
read before the Royal Society in 1862, stated that besides other 
less important portions of the skeleton, the head of the bird was 
wanting on the stone. Soon afterwards, Mr. Evans, having 
minutely examined the slab, discovered what he attributed to be 
parts of the cranium and jaw of the bird, and communicated this 
suggestion to Prof. Owen, who concurred with it, and, when his 
paper was published, had the portions referred to engraved on the 
plate containing the Archeopteryx, and called attention to Mr. 
Evans’s discovery in the description of it. Mr. Evans discusses the 
question as to whether the jaw belongs to the Archzopteryx or te 
a fish, but is most inclined (and M. von Meyer is of the same 
opinion) to believe that it is part of the former, as he argues that 
_ there is no reason why the bird which presents so many anomalies 
should not also have been endowed with teeth, especially as there 
are no other bones in the slab to which the jaw might belong, and 
when fossils are discovered in the Solenhofen Limestone they gene- 
rally occur singly, so that the remains of a vertebrate animal found 
upon a slab may usually, with some degree of confidence, be assigned 
to the same individual. 


REVIEWS. 
—_——_- 


I. GRAPTOLITES OF THE QuEBEC Group. By James Harri. De- 
cade 2, Geological Survey of Canada. Montreal: Dawson. 
1865. 

THE remarkable series of Graptolites discovered by the Geological 

Surveyors of Canada have been known to naturalists only from 
the descriptions published in one of the Annual Reports of the Ca- 
nadian Survey by Prof. James Hall. These were sufficient to excite 
the curiosity of all interested in this long extinct family. It was 
evident that important materials would be supplied by the perfect 
specimens towards forming a true estimate of the systematic position 
of the family. But the descriptions referred to structures so different 
from anything known in Europe, that without specimens or good 
drawings it was difficult to estimate what would be their real value. 

In the volume before us, which forms the second decade of the 

‘Canadian Organic Remains,’ (it, however, contains twenty-three 

plates, ) we have the first means of satisfactorily understanding the 


414 Reviews—Halls Canadian Graptolites. 


discoveries. Prof. Hall here describes fifty-three species, and pro- 
poses six genera, which are either new, or known only from the de- 
scriptions in the Report to which we have alluded. 

Graptolithus Logant may be taken as the type of the great 
novelty in the volume—the discovery of a corneous disk sup- 
porting the slender hydrosoma of the Graptolite at its origin. The 
hydrosoma of G. Logani consists of from eighteen to twenty-three 
simple branches, originating in a symmetrical series on either side 
of the simple primary base. ‘The central disk, which in this species 
is about the size of a florin, envelopes the bases of the branches, 
and these do not bear hydrothecz until they pass the margin of the 
disk. Prof. Hall considers that the disk is composed of two laminz, 
which at least in the central portions are not conjoined, and the 
space was probably occupied by some portion of the animal body. 
He further considers that this structure is obviously adapted to give 
strength and support to the bases of the branches of the hydrosoma, 
and that it perhaps served other purposes in the animal economy. 
He does not refer to any analogous structure among recent animals, 
nor do we know anything among the Hydrozoa at all corresponding 
to it; but it agrees better with Ccelenterate structure than with 
Polyzoan, and so confirms the opinion now generally entertained that 
the Hydrozoa are the modern allies of the Graptolites. — 

The structure exhibited in G. Logani is considered by Prof. Hall 
as the perfect condition of the fragments of the monoprionidian species 
which have been hitherto discovered in Europe as well as in America. 
We cannot concur in this view. All the American species may be 
fragments of such compound individuals, but there are species found 
in Europe which could not be united into such a compound body. 
G. colonus of Barrande, as figured in his ‘Graptolites de Bohéme’ 
(pl. ii. fig. 5), represents a zoophyte in which the older portion is 
free, and the growing end has the ccenosare prolonged, and without 
hydrothecz developed upon it. We are satisfied that this is a faith- 
ful representation of the species, as we have observed a similar struc- 
ture in G. sagittarius, G. Sedgwickii, and an undescribed species—all 
of them from the Silurians of the South of Scotland. The older or 
proximal extremity of these species is always slightly recurved, and 
_ the hydrothece on this part are smaller than on the newer portion. 
If they are fragments of a compound organism, it must have been 
very different from that of G. Logant. A similar difficulty would 
prevent such forms as Didymograpsus Forchhammeri, figured by 
Baily in his paper on Irish Graptolites, being united into compound 
organisms. And there is yet another form of the monoprionidian 
type which it would be as impossible to combine: we refer to 
Cladograpsus linearis of Carruthers, figured in his paper on the 
Graptolites of Dumfriesshire. While, therefore, the Canadian Sur- 
veyors have added a singular and novel type to those hitherto known, 
there is no satisfactory ground for considering that the fragments 
of the Old-World monoprionidian species belong to such a compound 
form. We prefer, with Mr. Salter, to consider the group represented 
by G. Logani as forming a new genus, to which he has given the 
name of Dichograpsus. 


Reviews—Frost and Fire. 415 


Prof. Hall, it seems to us, has made a retrograde step in uniting 
under one generic name so many varied forms as make up his genus 
Graptolithus. "The grounds upon which naturalists have separated 
Piumularia from Sertularia are held by him of no value in this 
fossil family. And not only is Diplograpsus united to Graptolithus, 
but the two distinct forms of Didymograpsus and Cladograpsus 
share the same fate. We are surprised that with this tendency to 
‘lumping’ he retains Rastrites, a genus whose only character is that 
the hydrothece are distant from each other—a character that is 
rightly considered unimportant in Sertularia. 

The new genus Climacograptus he has established for species 
like Diplograpsus rectangularis, which have the polype-cells hollowed 
out of the ccenosare without being furnished with hydrothece. 
This character seems to indicate affinities to the Corynide. 

Tt is probable that the genera Thamnograptus and Bathrograptus, 
on which no cell-openings have been observed, may be portions of 
compound Graptolites corresponding to either the ccenosare or the 
hydrorhize of Sertularia. 

Much yet requires to be done before we come to anything ee 
certain knowledge of this interesting Paleozoic family. This 
volume is an important step to so desirable an end. With’ the light 
thrown by it on the structure of the family, it would be desirable to 
have a re-examination of our British species. They are not at 
present in a satisfactory condition. Everyone who has come 
across them has added somewhat to our knowledge of the species; 
and so one must consult the papers of Murchison, M‘Coy, Salter, 
Harkness, Nicol, Carruthers, Baily, &¢., to get acquainted with 
what has been done ; for nothing like a monograph has yet been 
executed. Prof. Wyville Thompson is engaged, we believe, with 
one for the Palzontographical Society. If he succeeds in obtain- 
ing tolerably complete specimens of the species he describes, and 
does not satisfy himself with founding his characters on and figuring 
fragments of the hydrosoma, as has been too much hitherto done, 
we shall be better able to form a satisfactory estimate of the rela- 
tions of the family. 


If. Frost anp Fire, NaturaL Encines, Toor-MARKS, AND CHIPs, 
WITH SKETCHES TAKEN AT Home AND ABROAD BY A TRAVELLER 
(J. F. Campserty). Edinburgh: Epmonston anp Dovugtas. 
1865. 2 vols. 8vo., pp. 1015. 117 Lllustrations. 


Ill. A Ssorrt American TRAMP IN THE Fatt or 1864. By 
the Editor of ‘ Life in Normandy.’ Edinburgh : EpMonstTon AND 
Dovewas. 1865. 8vo., pp. 427. 


HESE two works are by the same writer, and they both treat 

of what we may call the mechanical phenomena of Geological 
Science. The first was published latest; but as it contains a 
statement of the author’s theories, and relates the story of his earlier 
travels in pursuit of his favourite study, we have given it pre- 
cedence. ‘They are written in a lively (at times, indeed, in a rather 


416 Reviews—Frost and Fire. 


too lively) and readable style; and ‘Frost and Fire’ is illustrated 
with woodcuts of every description, scientific, topographical, and 
humorous, with maps; one of which, and one of the woodcuts, are 
also to be found in the second work. ‘This ‘American Tramp’ may 
also be recommended as an amusing account of a hasty tour in the 
Southern States of the Union, and exhibits some otherwhere unre- 
corded scenes of that country during the fourth year of their great 
Civil War. There are too many extracts from journals of travel, 
in Iceland, Norway, the Alps, &c. &c., in ‘Frost and Fire.’ The 
facts which Mr. Campbeli has accumulated and illustrated cannot 
fail to be of the greatest value to geologists, as they so widely 
extend the substantial basis on which all geological theory must be 
founded, and afford the means of confirming or correcting hypo- 
theses regarding the most universally interesting phenomena, which 
relate, to those who understand them rightly, the history of the way 
in which the surface of our earth was brought into its existing con- 
figuration. They who have leisure and means at command may 
also be induced by these works to engage, as the author has done, 
as a ‘volunteer’ in the cause of what Sir John Herschel has called 
the grandest of all sciences except Astronomy, and make their 
periodical tours more exciting and more fruitful than the mere 
going where others have been, and seeing what others have seen, 
and ‘doing’ what others have ‘done,’ can ever prove. Perhaps, 
with this view, we might regret that instead of the two large 
volumes of ‘Frost and Fire,’ we had not before us a single volume 
with less of hypothesis, a clearer arrangement, and amore condensed 
statement of the facts treated of, which might have become a 
Manual of this branch of scientific enquiry, and a work of perma- 
nent interest. But it requires experience in authorship, or a certain 
natural talent, to produce a book of this kind ; and as it cannot be 
doubted that Mr. Campbell has done what he has accomplished 
well, and has gained the ear of the scientific world, we venture to 
hope that his next literary enterprise will be of the sort we have 
described. Our space does not allow us to discuss the hypothetical 
portion of ‘ Frost and Fire,’ nor is it, where it is novel, of so much 
value, as the earnest inculcation of the habit of accurate observation 
of facts, and of reasoning from the known to the unknown, in the 
investigation of causes, by which the book is characterized. But we 
must allow Mr. Campbell to tell us what his object has been; and 
if he has (as we think) succeeded in attaiming a far more generally 
serviceable one, and instead of establishing a hypothesis, has pro- 
duced a book such as we have described above, he has no great 
cause to lament his failure. The Preface to ‘Frost and Fire’ thus 
opens :— 

‘The title-page of the first volume is a key to the contents. The 
book treats of forms, and it is illustrated from sketches made abroad 
and at home by the traveller who wrote the book. It treats of 
forms and of engines, and of forces which drive engines; of sculpture 
and of chips which are tool-marks of natural engines. On the title- 
page, the word “Frost” is written over snow, and above the top of 


Reviews—“ Scripture” Geology. 417 


Hecla; the word “Fire,” under steam in “ Strokr,” and under the sea. 
The book attempts to prove that both of these natural forms, which 
were copied from nature in Iceland—the cold conical snow-clad 
pile built about a hot crater, raised high in cold air; and the conical 
pit, from which steam casts boiling water along rays—are tool- 
marks of natural engines, which shape the earth’s crust, and are 
moved by frost and fire: by cold above, and by heat underground. 
The atmosphere and the ocean above-ground, solids, fluids, and 
gases under it, are the engines meant ; sedimentary and igneous 
rocks are the chips and cinder-heaps; mountain-forms the tool- 
marks of these engines, and the ultimate cause of their movements 
must be the will of Him who made them all. 

‘Every engine of man’s contrivance is moved by some power 3 
each engine-fire is but a link in a chain which leads back to the 
first inventor of steam-engines. It is argued that every ‘natural 
engine must also have some motive power, beyond which is the 
Will of Him who said “ Let there be light.” 

‘The aim of this book is to show that where light shines, there 
also force radiates; and there forms result from movements caused 
by ray-force, or by light.’ 

We cannot close this notice without speaking of the excellent 
printing and ‘ getting-up’ of these interesting volumes. 


“SCRIPTURE” GEOLOGY. 


IV. Tur Sacrep Steps oF CREATION; OR, THE REVEALED GENETIC 
THEOLOGY ILLUSTRATED BY GEOLOGY AND Astronomy. In 
Twelve Lectures. By the Rev. THomas Marspen, B.A., &c. &e. 
8vo., pp. 408. London: Lonemans. 1865. 

ee work before us is one of those productions which have ap- 

peared periodically since the great advancement of Geological 

Science during the present century, and which have as their most usual 
object, the reconciliation of the facts of scientific research with the 
author’s own notions and interpretations of the sacred records. Some 
law, akin to that which sends the earth at stated intervals through 
zones of shooting stars which surround its path for a few weeks, and 
then quietly explode, ofttimes with a sulphureous odour, seems always 
to destine Geology to be impeded with this class of equivocal lite- 
rature, of which the essential point appears to be embodied in the 
doctrine, that those scientific men who do not accept the author’s 
conclusions are too demoralized to require deliberate refutation. 

The Rev. Mr. Marsden, however, is by no means intolerant. As 
he can justly be cited as the first author who has triumphantly suc- 
ceeded in the supererogatory task of spelling the word Eozoon with 
four o’s, we would not willingly attach to him the stigma of illibe- 
rality. And whilst the use of such expressions as * Brogniart,’ 
‘ anychylosed,’ ‘Caucassian,’ ‘ Deluvium,’ ‘ Quatrefayes,’ ‘Brainu- 
lar,’ ‘psy-chi-cally,’ ‘Jrenian,’ ‘ Hametic,’ and many other similar 
blunders, might be supposed to detract from the value of a scientific 
work, we should not in this sense criticise unfavourably any author 

VOL. II. —NO. XV. EE 


418 Reviews —“ Scripture” Geology. 


who showed signs of deeper acquaintance with the problems of 
science than his printer. 

Plunging, on his ninth page, into the assertion of a law ‘that we 
can conceive no essential difference . . . between a brick and an 
archangel,’ he proceeds to correlate the Geological and Mosaic ac- 
counts of Creation ab initio. Wisely eliminating the Miltonian 
accounts of the Fall of Angels and Man from scientific consideration, 
he thus translates Genesis i. 2 :— 

‘And the earth was without stratification (Tho-ht) and without 
cleavage—i.e. crystallized (Vo-ht),’ &c. &c. 

After the above, our readers can well imagine that Hebrew may 
mean anything, especially if interpreted on the philological maxim, 
that ‘ AOSStOTTE are interchangeable, and that vowels don’t count.’ 
According to Mr. Marsden, the solar system existed first; the world 
was then introduced from without into it (p. 27). We learn this 
(he states) from the Word of God, and we are bound to accept .it 
reverently. After this, we must not be surprised when our author, 
in the next line, states that he is a ‘convulsionist.’ We think so. 
It is furthermore, according to this interpreter, ‘ certainly revealed’ 
that the earth was granitic when the six days’ creation began. We 
are glad to hear this: the announcement of the fact will probably 
save some of our mineralogists much labour, which they may spare, 
if they submissively sit at ‘the feet of our scientific Gamaliel. 

We are pleased to see a paleontological proof adduced by him 
that the earth did not at first revolve (page 100). ‘It is also re- 
markable that vertebrate fishes commenced with rotation, and the 
heterocercal tail ceased when the earth began to revolve in an orbit.’ 
The author’s prevision here must have induced him to pen these 
remarks a few millions of years in advance; for, as we must tell him 
that the heterocercal tail in fishes has not yet ceased (the sturgeon 
and shark being familiar examples), we must accept as a logical 
corollary from the above sentence, that the earth does not even yet 
revolve ! 

If Paleozoology in the hands of Mr. Marsden becomes unsafe, 
Paleophytology under his auspices comes to irremediable grief. 
Thus he says, as a corroborative of the exactitude of the statement 
contained in Genesis i. 11, ‘I know of no terms which could more 
briefly or accurately describe to us the stemmy Equisetaceze—the 
ferns with seed on their leaves—the Stigmaria—or, again, the firmly- 
rooted Stgillaria, some of them with kidney-formed seed, arranged 
upon the outer bark ;’ and on the next page, ‘In these knobs and 
kidneys we have, doubtless the seed,’ &c. Apparently our author is 
not aware of the fact, that the markings in which he takes such 
complacent delight are leaf-scars. Similar scars can be seen on the 
sides of every bamboo-cane, which nevertheless may bear a very 
indirect relation to the Fourth Day of Creation. 

As a strong teleologist of course he says, ‘ Nature plainly speaks 
of adaptation. The atmosphere is made for the wing of the bird, 
and wings are adaptations for the aérial voyager... The ostrich 
is for the sand, and the sand for the ostrich. The duck’s bill for 


Reviews—“ Scripture” Geology. 419 


the mud, and the mud for the duck’s bill’ As geologists, we must 
put in a plea for the manner in which the inorganic substances 
are treated in this quotation. We almost fancy it is possible that 
the atmosphere, the sand, and the mud may have other objects than 
the convenience of the bird, the ostrich, and the duck. However, 
the use of mud in a geological sense is not a point wherein we 
are qualified to argue with Mr. Marsden. 

He is fond of quoting inaccurate authorities, one of whom (p. 193) 
says, speaking of tree-ferns, ‘In tropical countries . .. there are 
many more species than in temperate climes, and some of these are 
arborescent, or of a tree-like size and luxuriance.? New Zealand, 
which is certainly not within the tropics, is, however, essentially 
the land of tree-ferns ; which fact is slightly irreconcileable with 
our author’s assumption. 

In spite of the orthodoxy of Mr. Marsden, he has a most unfor- 
tunate habit of quoting the ‘ Vestiges of Creation.’ It is certainly 
heretical enough to admit the points on which the writer of that 
remarkable work founded a somewhat -eorrect argument; but to 
quote the ‘Vestiges’ when wrong is the very extravagance of 
charity. Our author says on the authority of that work, “that the 
Pterodactyle was ‘a lizard about the size of a snipe.’ The large 
species of Pterodactyles described by Prof. Owen and Mr. Harry 
Seeley would seem, therefore, not to exist. Although Mr. Marsden 
is good enough to say, ‘It has pleased God, however, - to overrule and 
to utilize the mind and labours of Prof. Owen to confirm the truth 
of this portion of His revealed word,’ he has been sufficiently 
cautious to reserve the right of appeal to himself in controverted 
points. 

The fact that the planet Mercury was received into our solar 
system at the time of the creation of man is one on which our author 
appears to entertain no doubt. However, says Mr. Marsden, animal- 
men, having some resemblance to the lower animals, existed for ages 
before the ‘present creation of spiritual man. As the accomplished 
author of Ac@weorvn wa remarks— 


‘My infant intellect began 

T’ act when the archetypes of man, 

Dawn of a still-advancing day, 

Apes, sported o’er the marl and clay.’ 
He quotes Prof. Schaaffhausen to the effect ‘that the propor- 
tions of the Neanderthal skeleton do not differ from the ordinary 
standard ; which, considering how much longer one arm of the 
skeleton was than the other, is charging Prof. Schaaffhausen with 
a good deal. 

We -have only space for the notice of one further point in 
this work. The difficulty regarding Jonah and the whale is most 
satisfactorily disposed of. The fish was not living. It was ‘the 
ruins or floating carcase of a fish sufficiently denuded on its upper 
surface to swallow up the prophet into its cavity or belly, on his 
being thrown overboard.’ After Jonah had been in this unplea- 
santly odoriferous locality for three days, the fish ‘ vomited or ejected 

EE 2 


420 Reports and Proceedings. 


Jonah upon the dry land. The apparently living acts ascribed 
to the fish are spoken of inanimate objects.’ How it can be 
said that a dead fish with its dorsal surface denuded could vomit, 
we cannot understand; and our readers must enjoy a greater power 
of deglutition than the whale itself if they can unravel this incom- 
prehensibility. 

In the above remarks, it has been our object to select such 
average passages as should give a notion of the scientific qualifications 
of the present writer to reconcile the two records of Scripture 
and Science. It is not for us here to offer any opinion whether 
or not such a reconciliation may be ultimately probable. But 
the present occasion is so unsuitable to discuss this grave question, 
that we must close this notice with the expression of our opinion 
that no one ought to attempt so hazardous an undertaking who 
is not thoroughly conversant with the facts and deductions of 
modern geology ; and the author’s quotation of the prayer of the 
penitent thief upon the cross, as his farewell word, appears to inti- 
mate his conviction that he had attempted and failed in a task 
beyond his power. 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. : 
—— 


EpinpurcH GroLocicaL Sociery.—On June 19th, the concluding 
Meeting for the session was held; Mr. David Page, F.G.S., F.R.S.E., 
Vice-president, in the chair. Mr. A. Beattie was elected a Member. 

Mr. New Srewart read a paper On Fossil Trees in Sandstone 
Beds; and the Manner of their Deposition and Preservation as Evi- 
dences of Quicksands in Geological Periods. He first described the 
main character of what are termed ‘ snags’ in the Mississippi as illus- 
trative of his subject; and then he gave a description of the fossil 
trees that have been found in Craigleith Quarry, near Edinburgh, 
and elsewhere. He showed that a general distribution of drifted 
plants had taken place over the whole area of the Carboniferous 
rocks, on different planes, and that some of those plants had come 
within the influence of petrifying fluids, which had preserved their 
structures, and that those fluids had permeated their structures by 
endosmose and exosmose. He stated that fossil trees had been depo- 
sited in a manner similar to that in which trees are in the course of 
being daily embedded in the sands of rivers, bays, &c., at the present 
time. He also stated that the microscope clearly shows that plants 
when found in an erect position, or nearly so, have not had their 
tissues flattened by compression. Mr. Stewart then described fossi- 
lization by means of petrifaction, and gave it as his opinion that the 
calciferous sandstones of the Carboniferous period formed the quick- 
sands of the ancient seas. 

Mr. Pace then delivered the concluding address to the Society as 
follows :—In closing the session on behalf of our venerable Presi- 
dent, who pleads the infirmities of age for the non-fulfilment of this 


Reports and Proceedings. 421 


duty, allow me to congratulate you on the amount of substantial 
work that has been accomplished since our meeting in November. 
During no former session have so many papers been read, or so large 
an amount of instructive discussion elicited. Nor have these papers, 
as sometimes complained of, been mere résumés or re-echoes of other 
people’s opinions, but in reality the results of much local research 
and minute personal observation. We have had subjects ranging from 
the most ancient to the most recent geological periods—papers on 
the Silurians of Dumfriesshire and the Pentlands, the Carboniferous 
formations of Lanark and the Lothians, the Chalk-beds of England 
and the calcareous ooze of existing seas, the local drifts and denu- 
dations of the Glacial Period, the erratics of Northern Germany, 
and the upraised beaches of the Firth of Forth. Upon subjects so 
vast and varied, there was necessarily some diversity of opinion; 
but in no instance has difference of opinion been expressed in any 
other spirit than to elicit the truth and establish a satisfactory con- 
clusion. One great merit, indeed, of most of the papers we have 
heard this winter has been what I may term their thorough indivi- 
duality,—each author expressing his own opinion without stint, and 
submitting it to the equally candid criticism of his fellows. And 
this, Tam sure you will agree with me, is no mean merit. As in 
nature there is no progress without action and reaction, and no 
action without a difference, so in moral and intellectual matters there 
can be no progress without those activities which arise from the 
differences of fully and freely expressed individualism. Each of us 
has his own modes of observation and his own modes of thought, 
just as he has his own style of face or peculiarity of body; and 
where this individualism is allowed to manifest itself, depend upon 
it there will be differences of opinion, and the result will be activity 
and progress. On the other hand, where individualism subordinates 
itself to authority and conventionality, action ceases and progress 
comes to an end. Let us continue, then, to cultivate this original 
gift of individualism, expressing the truth as it appears to us, yet 
ever remembering that for want of perfect knowledge we are liable 
to error, and that charity is ever due to those who see not as we see, 
or believe not as we may believe. And now that the winter-session 
is over, and the summer-excursions are at hand, I trust that the 
same spirit will be manifested in all our field-procedure. It may be 
objected by some that the excursions set down on the card are too 
numerous, and most of them over ground already well explored and 
familiar. In a Society such as ours, where many of the members 
are daily engaged in business, the number of excursions increases 
the chance of being present at some; and there is really in Geology 
no field so familiar but new facts may be gleaned, or old errors of 
observation or of inference may be corrected. Besides, the man who 
knows his own immediate district thoroughly has the best prelimi- 
nary training for the comprehension of the geology of other lands. 
The denudations and superficial outlines in the neighbourhood of 
Edinburgh are the types of similar phenomena in other districts ; the 
upheavals, outbursts, and interstratifications of Arthur’s Seat, the 


422 Reports and Proceedings. 


Calton Hill, and Castle-rock, are the exact counterparts of volcanic — 
activity wherever it may be manifested; and the alternations of 
strata, the dykes and faults of the Mid-Lothian Coal-field, are but an 
epitome of similar appearances in every other Carboniferous area. Let 
no opportunity, then, be lost in noting what turns up in the digging 
of foundations and city-drains, in the sinking of wells and boring for 
water, in railway-cuttings and tunnels, in the numerous quarries in 
the vicinity, along the rocky shores of the Forth, and in the channel 
of every brook that brattles from the Lammermoors and Pentlands. 
Every well-observed appearance is a record for ever; every new 
fact adds another paragraph to that World-history which it is the 
great object of our Society to decipher. And let it never be for- 
gotten that, great as has been the recent progress of Geology, the 
outline of this world-history is little more than sketched, and the 
headings of its chapters merely indicated. Every observation, then, 
however local—every fact, however limited—is a contribution of 
value, the want of which would leave a gap, and might lead to un- 
certainty or confusion. Let nothing, however trivial it may seem, 
be undervalued. The ribs and planking of the hull would be no- 
thing without the bolts and trenails,—it was for want of the shoe-nail 
that the rider was overtaken and slain by the enemy. By closer 
observation in the Pentlands, for instance, we have still to show the 
nature of the ‘ passage’ between the Silurian and Old Red. Further 
information is also needed regarding the conformability of the three 
great members of the Old Red; how far these indicate separate life- 
periods; and how far the lower section has organisms in common 
with the Upper Silurian, and the upper section organisms in common 
with the Carboniferous formation. Now that the Burdie House, or 
Lower Carboniferous, series is being so extensively worked for its 
oil-shales, minuter observation may finally settle the question of its 
estuarine or fresh-water origin ; while, by the same means, we may be 
enabled to establish the recurrence of estuarine and marine condi- 
tions throughout the whole of the Carboniferous system. There is 
nothing in Geology more interesting than the igneous phenomena 
of the Coal-formation on both sides of the Firth of Forth; and 
yet how much of minute bed-by-bed working is required to complete 
a vivid and reliable picture of the period! Every working geologist 
feels that there are many points connected with the Glacial Epoch 
that require elucidation ; and where is there a finer field for supply- 
ing these desiderata than the Counties of Fife and the Lothians ? 
We are all aware how much the superficial aspects of the British 
Islands, and, indeed, of the whole world, depend upon denudation 
in former periods moulding and configuring the hills and valleys ; 
and there is no district, perhaps, in Great Britain that elucidates 
this view more strikingly than the vicinity of our own metro- 
polis. Again, the effects of upheaval, or rather the oscillations of 
the earth’s crust, are most instructively exhibited in the raised 
beaches and submarine forests of the Forth; and as observers dis- 
agree as to the relative age of these oscillations, renewed observation 
is still required to put the questions at rest— Whether these upheavals 


Reports and Proceedings. 423 


are all pre-human? whether some are not merely pre-historic ? others 
so recent even as the occupation of our country by the Romans? 
and, indeed, whether the uprise is not still going on? I mention 
these things out of hundreds that might be indicated, to show how 
many problems Geology has yet to solve, and how much of the solu- 
tion lies within our own immediate reach, if we would only not 
underrate the local because it is near and familiar. But while we 
duly appreciate the local, let us take care that we aim at something 
higher than the mere pleasure of a holiday-excursion and the col- 
lection of specimens. Collections and cabinets are no doubt indis- 
pensable. They are the data upon which we have to found our 
conclusions, and the facts from which we have to elicit our World- 
history ; but the foolish Greek, who carried about with him a brick 
as a sample of the building he was anxious to sell, did a wise thing 
in comparison with the man who fancies that Geology consists in 
the collecting and labelling of specimens, Without the bricks we 
cannot have the building, but the bricks have no meaning or sym- 
metry of themselves until arranged according to the design of the 
architect; neither can specimens of minerals and fossils have signi- 
ficance, save when treated in connection with the general structure 
of the globe and the phases of its history. Let us strive, then, to~ 
combine our labours, whether in the field or in the museum, with the 
general principles of the science ; contented to wait, where we cannot 
discover the bearings of our isolated facts, but, at the same time, 
ever endeavouring to arrive at the higher conceptions of a consecu- 
tive and intelligible world-plan. It is this that confers. on Geology 
its principal attraction; it is this ultimate attainment of theoretical 
truth that gives to all the natural sciences their chief importance— 
leading the Finite and Created to more exalted conceptions of the 
Infinite and Creative. At present there is no great and all- 
absorbing topic in Geology; and cultivators are free to follow the 
bent of their own inclinations, or work -out the details of their 
respective localities. If there is any observable concentration of 
interest, it is perhaps to the very latest and to the very earliest 
periods in geological history—to the period when the geological 
verges into the historical, on the one hand, and to the earliest of all 
life-periods, on the other,—I mean to deposits containing the earliest 
indications of our own race, and to metamorphic beds, like the Lau- 
rentian—which hold the earliest of yet discovered organisms. To 
both, the members of our Society may make important additions 
during their summer-rambles. We. have our submarine forests, our 
raised beaches, our lake-silts, and peat-mosses—all likely to throw 
light on the early history of our species; and in the metamorphic 
schists of the Highlands—the serpentines and limestones of Portsoy, 
Glenesk, Glen Prosen, Glen Tilt, and other localities—additional 
evidence may be discovered of the existence of lowly life, like that 
which has recently thrown so much interest around the crystalline 
strata of the St. Lawrence. And whether successful or not in our 
researches, the effort will afford most excellent training—training to 
the eye and reason, and healthful recreation to the lungs and limbs. 


424 Reports and Proceedings. 


Beyond these random allusions, I am not aware of anything in con- 
nection with the Society that demands special remark. A fair 
amount of work has been done during the winter, but that work has 
been confined to the merest fraction of the Members; and it were 
exceedingly desirable that many more would follow the example and 
become what they ought to be—namely, ‘working geologists. A 
day in the field, under a good instructor, or with a few fellow-mem- 
bers, is worth weeks in the closet; and correct conceptions of natural 
objects can only be formed by examination of the objects themselves 
as they occur in nature. Once initiated to the subject, there is no 
fear of the investigator falling aside. There is sufficient attraction 
in geological pursuits to keep the hand of the worker at the plough, 
once his hand is fairly there, and his feet firmly in the furrow;— 
the subject is so vast and so many-sided—capable of being taken 
up as a mere recreation or as a laborious study: so replete with 
practical value, and, at the same time, abounding in problems of 
unequalled intellectual interest and scientific importance. What the 
Society desires, therefore, is an increase of its working Members,— 
an increase in-work somewhat commensurate with its increase in 
numbers. Such are the few scattered thoughts I have to offer in 
the name of our venerable President, who would have better per- 
formed the duty could he have only been induced to make the effort. 
I-know his best wishes are with the Society ; and wherever he can 
aid you, his services are freely at your command. Had he occupied 
this chair, I know he would have told you, from his matured expe- 
rience, the many advantages, economic and intellectual, which the 
study of Geology can confer—economic advantages of which our 
country, in every department of its industry, is every day reaping 
the benefit ; and intellectual promptings which have led to a newer 
and deeper insight into the laws and ordainings of nature. I say 
newer and deeper insight, for with increased knowledge of the past 
must extend our knowledge of the present; and the tendency of all 
true knowledge of God’s workings in nature must ever be to make 
men better, wiser, and happier in all their relations to that nature of 
which they form so prominent a part. On the whole, man’s rela- 
tions may be summed up in three great categories—his relations to 
external nature, his relations to his fellow-men, and his relations to 
his Creator. ‘The wider his knowledge of nature, the better will he 
understand his relations to it; the deeper his understanding of this, 
the more clearly will he comprehend his relations to his fellow- 
men; and the more he knows of both of these, the higher and more 
enlightened will be his conceptions of the duties he owes to his 
Creator. Let no one, then, attempt to gainsay the obvious ten- 
dencies of the natural sciences, and least of all of Geology, which is 
the sum of all the natural sciences, and the only revelation, when 
read aright, of God’s workings from the beginning in the beautiful and 
orderly world He has given us to inhabit. Everything is bound up 
one with another in the divine scheme of the universe; and he who 
perceives this truth most fully in the physical world, is surely the most 
likely to regard it in the intellectual and moral. On this ground alone, 


Reports and Proceedings. 425 


and altogether independent of its intellectual pleasures and economic 
advantages, the science of Geology is worthy of our closest cultivation 
—leading the mind from the harmonies that prevail in the natural 
world up to the higher harmonies that ought to pervade the human 
and social. And now, as the evening is advancing, in the name of 
Mr. Maclaren I must close the business of this session, expressing 
the hope that we may all meet again in November next, refreshed 
by our summer-rambles, and instructed by the further knowledge 
they may have given us of the structure and history of our planet. 


Tur GeroLtocicaL Socinty oF GLAsGow made an Excursion, on 
May 25th, to Dunglass Hill, Spout of Ballagan on the Campsie Fells, 
and Finich Glen in the Strathblane district. The party proceeded 
by Milngavie, and made their first halt at Lochardinnan, near 
the village of Strathblane, to visit the Sandstone Quarries at that 
place. The rock there is an erdinary fine-grained Sandstone, much 
stained in some parts by Oxide of Iron; it is overlain by a thick bed 
of Conglomerate, the bulk of which is composed of rolled quartz 
pebbles of various colours, varying in size from 2 to 3 inches in 
diameter downwards, and the whole loosely cemented in a matrix 
of fine white sand. This Conglomerate is the only one known to 
occur in the Carboniferous beds of the West of Scotland. The 
sandstones with which it is found lie under the limestones and coals 
of the Campsie district to the east. Some specimens of coal-plants 
of the genera Lepidedendron, Calamites, Sigillaria, &c., were ob- 
tained here from the sandstone below the conglomerate. Mr. John 
Young, who had kindly consented to act as guide, briefly pointed 
out the relation of the Sandstone group to the Trap-rock against 
which it abuts ; and although some geologists consider it to be of 
younger age, he did not think such was the case, from the total ab- 
sence of pebbles or fragments of trap in the conglomerate. The Sand- 
stone forms a large tract of the eastern part of the South hill, and 
shows many fine examples of glacial action. 

The party next visited Dunglass Hill, a large boss of trap about 
150 feet in height, standing isolated in the middle of the valley, 
between Campsie and Strathblane. The northern front of the rock 
is bold and precipitous, and passes into a dark fine-grained basalt, 
which presents a splendid columnary structure in various parts of 
the hill, At some points the columns are very regular in form, and 
lie at various angles to the horizon, affording the best example in 
the neighbourhood of Glasgow of this class of igneous rocks. 

On leaving this, the party entered Ballagan Glen, on the north 
side of the valley, opposite Dunglass Hill, and proceeded to the fine 
natural section just below the Spout of Ballagan, where the moun- 
tain-stream which is the source of the river Blane (which flows 
westward into Loch Lomond) leaps from ledge to ledge in its descent 
into the glen. The section here of the so-called Ballagan beds is 
about 150 feet in height, and consists of no fewer than 280 alter- 
nations of thin-bedded nodular limestones (from 1 to 8 inches in 
thickness), marly shales, and flaggy sandstones of a grey or red 


426 Reports and Proceedings. 


colour—the whole forming one of the finest sections in the West of 
Scotland. Above the thin-bedded limestones are one or two thick 
beds of a yellowish sandstone ; this is overlain by the trap, which 
forms the whole of the upper part of the hill, and has been very 
much altered by it. The true age of these Ballagan beds is not 
yet very clearly established—some geologists referring them to the 
upper members of the Old Red Sandstone, and others to the Lower 
Carboniferous—the only fossils as yet found in them being some 
plant-remains (one a Lepidodendron) and obscure Annelide impres- 
sions on the flaggy sandstones. In the same beds in the Dumbarton 
district a few fragmentary fish-scales have been found, but too im- 
perfect for identification. In the Fintry district, one or two very 
thin seams of coal are said to occur in this group, but none appear 
in the section of Ballagan. Thin beds of fibrous and compact 
gypsum are found in them both there and in other localities. ‘The 
Ballagan beds are evidently intermediate between the Old Red Sand- 
stone—on which they appear to lie conformable—and the Carboni- 
ferous strata found farther to the east in the Campsie Valley; and 
from the thickness of the beds exposed in the various glens along the 
range of the Campsie Fells, they cannot be less than several hundred 
feet. Wherever exposed, their characteristics are much the same. 
The party then proceeded westward about three miles to Finich 
Glen—a deep gorge of the most picturesque character, cut by a 
mountain-stream through great thick beds of the Old Red Sand- 
stone. ‘The scenery of the Blane Valley is, perhaps, unequalled in 
the West of Scotland. On each side it is bounded by Trap-hills of 
varied height and form, showing numerous terraced escarpments, 
many of them finely wooded to the top. In the foreground are the 
conical hills of Dunfoyne, Dungoyne, and Dungoich, boldly rising 
from the valley ; while in the distance, to the westward, the view is 
closed in by the heights of Ben Lomond and the other hills of the 
Grampian range. The gorge of Finich Glen is narrow and deep, 
and the sides rise vertically from the bed of the stream to the height 
of nearly 100 feet, and are in some parts only 10 or 12 feet 
apart, and overhanging. In one part of the glen, a large tabulated 
mass of sandstone, called the ‘ Devil’s Pulpit,’ has been left standing 
in the bed of the stream. Here Mr. Young made some interesting 
remarks on the geological features of the district embraced in the 
day’s excursion ; and after a hearty vote of thanks had been passed 
to him for his services on the occasion, the party returned to Glasgow 
in the evening, highly delighted with the day’s proceedings.—J. F. 


Tue Matvern FieLp-cLus have this season devoted the funds 
at their disposal (arising from the entrance-fees of 1/. paid by each 
Member on joining the Club, and the annual subscription of Is. 
each) to the opening up of Sections, Tumuli, Drifts, &c., under the 
superintendence of their President, Honorary Secretary, and a Com- 
mittee. Two sections of Drift have already been opened at a 
small expense this season. The first was prepared in time for the 
June Meeting of the Club. The Drifts appertain to Mr. Prest- 


Reports and Proceedings. 427 


wich’s ‘high-level series,” and occupy and cover a hill in the Valley 
of the Severn, between Tewkesbury and Upton-on-Severn, 180 feet 
above the river, in the grounds of William Dowdeswell, Esq., of 
Pull Court. These drifts have yielded portions of the tusk of an 
elephant, a bone of some large pachyderm, and several species of 
marine shells. The latter have been forwarded to Mr. J. Gwyn 
Jeffreys for determination.—The second section in the Drift opened 
by the Club is at Glynch’s Mill, near Eastnor. Here the sands and 
eravels occupy a lower level and rest against the Upper Silurian 
Rocks (Wenlock Shale), in a narrow valley west of the Southern 
Malverns. This section was opened at the request of the Presi- 
dent (the Rev. W. S. Symonds), who hoped to discover some shells 
which might determine the question as to the Marine or Fresh- 
water origin of these beds. The result was not so satisfactory 
as that of the high-level-drift section at Pull Court ; for, although 
marine shells were detected, they were very fragmentary, and might 
perhaps have been washed out of older deposits. The evidence of 
ice-action was, however, very interesting. Many large boulders of 
transported rocks were taken out, which, although they belonged to 
the Silurian district, gave evidence by their sharp edges that they 
could hardly have found their way to the nook where they rested 
among well-rounded and rolled pebbles by any other agency than 
ice. Mammoth remains were also detected in this deposit. 
WeGS. 95 


OsweEstRY AND WeLsHPooL NaTtuRALists’ Fieip-cius. — This 
Society met for its Second Excursion this year at Llynclis, near 
Oswestry, on July 13th. After a brief examination of the margin 
of the Pool, which is good botanizing ground, the Botanical Section 
proceeded towards Crickheath and Llanyblodwel Rocks, where they 
were successful in finding many of the rare ferns and other plants 
which make these rocks their habitat. The Geological Section 
visited, first, the lower beds of the Carboniferous Limestone at 
Porthywaen, where they obtained specimens of Cyrtinia carbonaria, 
Productus Llangollensis, and Murchisonia Verneuiliana. They 
then proceeded to examine the fossiliferous Lower Silurian Shales 
which at this point underlie the Mountain-limestone,: and are 
exposed on the road leading from Porthywaen to Treflack. A 
cutting in a branch railway which is in the course of construction 
up the Nant Mawr afforded another section of these Shales, and 
showed their unconformability to the Mountain-limestone. From 
this point the Members returned along the line of a great fault to 
the old quarries in the Mountain-limestone at Wern, where ex- 
amples of several species of Lithostrotion and Diphyphyllum were 
found, both in such a state of preservation as to exhibit their 
internal structure, and to show that the latter is not, as some authors 
suppose, only a species of the former genus. The return route now 
lay along the junction of the Mountain-limestone with the Millstone 
Grit; and a very limited search served to justify the reputation for 
fossils which the latter formation has now gained in this district. 


428 Correspondence. 


The Club met for dinner in the ‘Tower’ on the top of Sweeney 
Hill. After dinner, several new Members were elected, and it 
was decided, in addition to the Meeting intended to be held at 
Llangollen in August, to have an excursion to Westbury in Sep- 
tember. A visit was then paid to the quarries in the Millstone 
Grit on the west side of Sweeney Hill; and in the one nearest to 
the Tower, the line of fault to which the hill owes its elevation 
was well seen. In the next, the uppermost beds of Grit were seen 
dipping unconformably under the Coal-measures; and from some 
of the highest beds were obtained numerous specimens of Productus 
semireticulatus, var. Martini, associated with Calamite-stems and 
a unique example of a large Annelid, together with many Fucoids. 
Some attention was next paid to the ‘ Pockets’ which occur in the 
thick Sandstone-beds. The character of the beds downwards to the 
subjacent Mountain-limestone was noticed as fully as time would 
allow, and the horizon of the various fossils hitherto discovered was 
pointed out by one of the Members. ‘The branch railway before 
referred to cuts through the formation in a line nearly coincident 
with its dip; and the Members present were able to traverse the 
whole series, and to verify the fossiliferous nature of the lower 
beds. Thus terminated a very pleasant and instructive excursion. 


—D. €. D: 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
—>—_——_ 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Dear Sir,—A few days ago, I observed at the Talargoch Mine, 
near Prestatyn, Flintshire, a very curious, and, as I believe, unusual 
form of quartz, which, I think, is worth noticing in the Magazine, 

The mine is situated at the foot of a bold escarpment of Mountain- 
limestone forming the western termination of one of the great lime- 
stone ranges that run through Denbighshire and Flintshire. Most 
of the lodes occurring in the black shales and limestones at the base 
of the Carboniferous series run ENE. by WSW., and contain 
sulphurets of lead and zinc in a matrix of quartz and cale-spar. One 
of the lodes running east and west, nearly vertical, and from three 
to six feet in width, is almost entirely occupied with silicious sand 
of the most perfect purity and lustrous whiteness. Just at the side 
of the lode, at its junction with the limestone, a little calcareous and 
quartz-spar occurs, which, in a few places, runs into the body of the 
lode ; and an isolated nodule of spar, with a little galena, is occasion- 
ally found: but otherwise the whole lode is a mass of homogeneous 
and fine-grained sand, soft enough to be friable under the miner’s 
‘pick,’ and when dry quite incoherent, breaking up into fine dusty 
particles. A gradation between this white sand and the regularly 
crystallized quartz is occasionally met with in the form of white 
saccharoid spar ; and it would be difficult to determine whether this 
sand-lode is merely decomposed quartz, or a segregation of silica 
that had never attained complete crystallization. The lode near the 


Correspondence. 429 


shaft at the foot of the escarpment is worked by a level about 125 
feet deep; it appears to thicken, and the sand increases in purity 
- and freedom from crystalline spar to the east, where, under the 
limestone range, it is much farther from the surface. Iam informed 
that the late Mr. Hewson, Analytical Chemist, of Liverpool, could 
detect no trace of metallic oxide or other foreign matter, and ascer- 
tained the sand to be absolutely pure silica with a little water. I 
enclose some of the sand for your inspection: it is, without excep- 
tion, the whitest mineral I have_ever seen, and should think such a 
perfectly pure form of native silica would be of great value in the 
manufacture of the better kinds of glass and pottery. 
I remain yours very truly, Grorce Maw. 
BrenTHALL, BrosEerey: June 19, 1865. 


P.S.—As I recently described, in the pages of the Magazine, some 
deposits of sand in cavities in the Mountain-limestone of the same 
district, I would state that they are of a totally different age and 
character to the sand in the Talargoch Mine lode. I have recently 
observed, over a large district of Flintshire and Denbighshire, a 
great extension of the white sand and clay deposits, older than the 
boulder-clay-drift, similar to those at Llandudno. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—The President of the Geological Society, in his able addresg 
which appears in the ‘Journal’ of the Society for May 1865, in 
noticing my Memoir on ‘the Geology of the Country around Old- 
ham, including Manchester and its Suburbs,’ makes a strange—I 
might say hap-hazard—supposition, which it is only due to him, 
the Geological Survey, and myself, should not be allowed to pass 
without notice. ‘ 

In recounting the succession of the formations. in the neighbour- 
hood of Manchester, as described in this Memoir, the President says, 
‘ Above them’ (the Coal-measures) ‘come the Permian Rocks, con- 
sisting of Lower Permian Sandstone and Upper Permian Marls; 
and these again are overlain by the Pebble-beds, or Conglomerate 
of the New Red Sandstone or ‘Trias. fe 

‘No fossils are mentioned as occurring in this Conglomerate; but 
as it is described as conformable to the underlying Permian, with 
an inclination of about 10° to the south-west, they (sic) may 
possibly turn out to belong to the Permian series, like the Sand- 
stones described by Sir R. I. Murchison at St. Abb’s Head in Cum- 
berland, and then the Trias would be here wanting altogether!’ 

Now, in the first place, St. Abb’s Head is not in Cumberland, nor 
even in England; and doubtless the President means St. Bee’s Head. 
But, under this supposition, I may state, in the first place, that there 
is no similarity whatever between the St. Bee’s Head Sandstone 
and the Pebble-beds or Conglomerate in the neighbourhood of 
Manchester above referred to; and even supposing that it had been 
conclusively established that the former is of Permian age, it would 


430 Correspondence. 


not in the least affect the question of the Triassic age of the Lan- 
cashire Pebble-beds. ‘ 

As regards these latter, which consist of brownish-red sandstones, 
with pebbles of coloured quartz scattered throughout their mass, 
there has never been any question even amongst the most ardent 
Philo-Permianists; and they have been correctly described as 
Triassic by Ormerod, Binney, and all other good geologists who 
have examined the country. An experience of some twelve years in 
working out the Triassic and Permian formations of the midland 
and north-western counties enables me to confirm their views. 
These Pebble-beds are the equivalents of the quartz-ore Conglo- 
merates of the central counties, which frequently constitute the only 
representatives of the Bunter Sandstone; and if they are not of 
Triassic age, then there is no Lower Trias in England, or in Europe, 
or indeed anywhere; and the Permian Empire must spread its 
broad egis far beyond its present bounds! This, however, is out of 
the question. The Pebble-beds, and the Lower Red and Mottled 
Sandstone, which form the lowest division of the Bunter, lie dis- 
cordantly with reference to the Permian Beds throughout ; and, in 
the neighbourhood of Manchester, any conformity which may exist 
is only local and accidental. Discordance is the rule, the reverse 
the exception, all along the margin of the South Lancashire Coal- 
field; and if Mr. Hamilton will come down here, I shall be very 
happy to show him that the Pebble-beds cannot ‘turn out to belong 
to the Permian series.’ —I am, Sir, faithfully yours, Hpwarp HULL. 
GxrotocicaL Survey or Great Brirain, 

Mancuester: August_3, 1866. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Srr,—With reference to a short paper on a supposed ‘ Pre-Cam- 
brian Island,’ read by me at the British Association last year, and 
inserted in your Magazine for December last, I have to beg you to 
apply acaveat. I did not, I hope, speak at all dogmatically on the 
point to which I could give but a very moderate degree of attention; 
but knowing of how great interest the fragments of old Pre-Cambrian 
land are to geologists, I did try to draw some of my friends who 
have the leisure to that neglected locality, St. David’s. The result 
has justified my endeavour, if it has not turned out exactly as I 
could have wished. The Rev. W. 8S. Symonds and the Rey. H. H. 
Winwood, of Bath, visited the spot this year, attracted by this notice, 
and they saw some reason to doubt the correctness of the suggestion 
I made—‘that the Syenite-ridge of St. David’s was a portion of 
the old land of which the Hebrides, parts of the north-west coast of 
Ireland, and the Malverns, are fragments.’ 

My supposition has now been tested by the close observation of 
my friends just mentioned, and my colleague, Mr. H. Hicks. Like 
myself, Mr. Hicks at first paid far more attention to the fossiliferous 
beds above the Cambrian, than to the metamorphic or igneous rocks 
at their base. But his keen eye and good hammer, once turned to 


. Correspondence. 431 


the point, he has I think, proved that I was in error, by finding por- 
tions of the schist entangled in the syenite-trap. 

I know that the last edition of the Geological Survey Map re- 
presents the rocks as altered on the north side, and unaltered on the 
south. There can hardly be this difference. My friend Mr. Hicks 
believes there is alteration on the south side too; so both authorities 
are against me at present. There are plenty of sections, but so 
many cross-faults which require to be allowed for, before even the 
true succession can be established, that I cannot admit that I am 
beaten until the syenite has been thoroughly examined on both 
flanks; and I can only hope good observers will go again and again to 
this interesting point. The last edition of the Survey Map confines 
the syenite to St. David’s and its neighbourhood ; while it makes the 
trap of Ramsey Island a greenstone, similar, I suppose, to that of St. 
David’s Head, and altering similar rocks. We may assume that it is 
a continuation of the St. David’s trap, as I ventured to do in my 
paper. But if the trap and schists of Ramsey Island be really quite 
ditferent from those of St. David’s, opposite, an unmarked fault, N. 
and §., of no little magnitude, must occupy the Sound. The whole 
thing, therefore, wants investigation. Who will doit? Iam quite 
certain, whoever does will have the cordial co-operation of my friend 
Mr. Hicks; and I really have no time to find out my own mistake, if it 
be one. Altered rocks are crotchetty things to deal with; and a sharp 
anticlinal like that of St, David’s does not take place without many 
a parallel fault which may bring the unaltered rock against the 
trap, and deceive others, as it appears to have deceived 

Yours truly, J. W. SALTER. 


On THE FossILs FROM THE SILURIAN SHALES OF Morrat, 
DUMFRIESSHIRE. 


My colleague Mr. Carruthers, and Mr. Young of the Hunterian 
Museum, Glasgow, having called my attention to the communi- 
eation of Mr. Brown (ante, p. 382) regarding his discovery of 
fossils in the Moffat Graptolite Shales, I have, through the kind- 
ness of Mr. Brown, been permitted to examine his specimens. I 
submitted them to Mr. Carruthers, who is acquainted with the beds 
from which they were obtained, and he has supplied me with the 
following notes regarding the fossils and the strata. 

Besides the Graptolites which abound in these shales, there have 
been found two species of a phyllopodous crustacean, Peltocaris, 
described by Mr. Salter in the ‘ Quarterly Journal of the Geological 
Society,’ vol. xix. p. 87, viz., P. aptychoides, Salt., and P. Harknessi, 
Salt. Prof. Harkness has found specimens of the small brachiopod, 
Siphonotreia micula, M‘Coy (Cat. of Fossils in Mus. of Pract. Geol., 
p- 17). Mr. J. Stevens, for some time an enthusiastic explorer of 
the Moffat Shales, discovered asingle specimen of Tentaculites. The 
lighter coloured arenaceous deposits of Hunterbreck Hill contain the 
impressions of Crossopodia Scotica, M‘Coy ; Nereites Cambrensis, 
M‘Coy, and other Annelids (Murchison’s ‘ Siluria,’ p. 199). These 


432 Miscellaneous. 


organisms, together with the Graptolites, have caused the Moffat 
Shales to be referred without doubt to the Llandeilo Flags. 

Mr. Brown’s fossils are, however, a very interesting discovery. 
They are not Molluscan, but Crustacean, being the remains of a 
phyllopodous animal that cannot be referred to any described genus. 
It is more nearly allied to Dithyrocaris than to Peltocaris, which is 
found in the same deposits. ‘One specimen is preserved, so as to 
exhibit the dorsal aspect of the whole carapace, which is in one piece, 
with the exception of the separate rostrum, as in Dithyrocaris. 
The round carapace, marked by concentric rings of growth, might 
be easily mistaken for a Discina. Several specimens are compressed 
laterally, and exhibit only the half of the carapace, having the ap- 
pearance of an Estheria, or even of a Modiolopsis.—H. W. 


MISCELUANEHOUS: 


ae 


Tur vast Wealden formation at the back of the Isle of Wight, 
between Black Gang and Brooke, has long been celebrated for the 
great variety and wealth of its fossil remains. Numerous bones of 
Reptiles have been found in this formation near Brooke, principally 
belonging to that enormous lizard, the Iguanodon, which, with the 
Megalosaurus, Hyleosaurus, and other extinct monsters, passed their 
lives on the banks of this great Wealden river. Within the last few 
days, the Rev. W. Fox, of Brixton, near Brooke, well known among 
palzontologists for his labours in this branch of geology, has dis- 
covered in these beds a new reptile of the Dinosaurian family. The 
only parts of the skeleton wanting are the head and neck. The 
animal was above six feet long from the shoulder to the rump, and 
was furnished with a massive tail five feet long. The legs were 
about four feet in length, terminating in a broad, short foot. One 
of the most remarkable features of this strange reptile is the manner 
in which it is clothed in bony armour. Plates of bone from half an 
inch to four inches in diameter, and about half an inch thick, - 
covered its body, with the exception of its back, which was protected 
by a great bony shield. Another remarkable characteristic of this 
animal was a very curious process of spine-like bones, which ran 
along the body and the tail, some of which are fifteen inches long, 
and weigh seven pounds. ‘The remains of this extinct monster were 
examined last week by Prof. Owen, as well as the Wealden formation 
from which they were extracted; and we understand that, with 
reference to the extraordinary nature of the spine-like bones to 
which we have alluded, Prof. Owen is of opinion that the most 
appropriate name for this new Saurian would be Polacanthus.— 
Atheneum, August 95. 


THE 


GHOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. XVI.—OCTOBER 1865. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
——-+— 
I.—On AN UNDESCRIBED CONE FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS BEDS 
oF AIRDRIE, LANARKSHIRE. 


By Wiu1am CarrvutTuers, F.1.8., of the British Museum. 
(Plate XII.) 


ese disc-shaped bodies have frequently been noticed in coal 

and the accompanying shales. Specimens were figured by Mr. 
Prestwich in 1840, in his paper on the Geology of Coalbrook Dale 
(Geol. Trans., Second Series, vol. v., tab. xxxviii., ff 8, 8a); and 
Professor Morris, who described Mr. Prestwich’s fossils, echaracter- 
ises them as ‘capsules’ of his Lepidodendron longibracteatum.* 
But it does not appear from either the illustrations of the two 
spikes of his species, or from the letter-press, that he had found the 
capsules associated with the reniform thec of the spikes. Prof. 
Balfour has also figured and described similar bodies in a paper read 
before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1854. He found them 
in the ‘ splint-coal’ of Fordel, near Inverkeithing, in Fife. He Says, 
‘ Besides Sigillarias and Stigmarias, we also detect in the Fordel Coal 
peculiar rounded organisms which have the appearance of seeds. 
Dr. Fleming informs me that similar bodies have been observed by 
him in coal, and that he exhibited them to Mr. Witham about twenty 
years ago. ‘They have also been seen by Dr. Fleming in Lochgelly 
and Arniston “ parrot,” and in the coal at Boghead ; and from having 
observed them in “ cherry,” “splint,” and “cannel” coals, he is dis- 
posed to consider them as a somewhat common feature. I have seen 
them in coal from Miller Hill, near Dalkeith, as well as in the coal 
from Fife. They appear to be certainly allied to the fructification 
of the Lycopodiacee of the present day, more particularly to that 
form of it which consists of two valves placed in apposition and 


* Prof. Morris referred this plant to Lycopodites with a query: he now considers 
it a true Lepidodendron. 
VOL. II.—NO. XVI. 121g) 


434 Carruthers—On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 


containing what is called Lycopode-powder. These and like bodies 
I, therefore, consider to be the sporangia or spore-cases of some plant 
allied to Lycopodium, perhaps Sigillaria. The valves present under 
the microscope a reticulated surface, and minute granular matter 
seems to be attached to the inner surface.—(Edin. Trans., vol. xxi. 
ol OI'). 
: Not only do these bodies exist in quantity in many coals, but 
some beds even of considerable thickness are almost entirely made 
up of them.* Their relation, however, to any organism that could 
have produced them was unknown until the discovery of a cone by 
Mr. James Russell, of Airdrie, a diligent and intelligent collector of 
Carboniferous fossils. Mr. Russell, aware of the importance of his 
discovery, gave me the specimen for description. It consists of the 
lower portion of the cone, very much compressed, as so many of 
these fossils are, in a layer of highly bituminous shale or impure 
coal. The fragment is 2} inches long, and the cone is fully three- 
quarters of an inch broad. The axis and scales are converted into 
coal, and the scales are covered with a double series of round flat- 
tened bodies of a dark-brown colour. ‘The axis occupies about a 
fifth of the diameter of the cone. In the fragment thirty scales rise 
from either side of the axis, and an examination of the scars on the 
surface of the axis satisfies me that there were ten scales in each 
whorl. The lower half or pedicel of the scale is at right angles to 
the axis, except at the base of the cone, where a few of the scales 
are inclined downwards, this inclination increasing as they near the 
base. The pedicel forms a broad and somewhat firm support for the 
sporangia. The apex of the scale is long, slender, and foliaceous, 
overlapping several scales, and reaching at least beyond the base of 
the fourth above it. The horizontal portion of the scale supports 
a number of sporangia, varying from ten to eighteen, placed in a 
double series throughout its length. The sporangia are generally 
flattened, and appear like small discs ; but sometimes the two walls 
are separated, as shown in fig. a 8. Professor Balfour figures a 
specimen which more nearly approaches to a sphere. They were 
most probably more or less flattened spheres; smooth above, but 
with a triradiate ridge -below, by which they were attached to the 
supporting scale (figs. A 5 and a 7). This ridge is formed by a 
simple bending down of the wall of the sporangium, and it produced 
a corresponding triradiate depression in the interior. A slight 
difference of texture is apparent on the spore-case, producing a faint 
line which unites the extremities of the ridge in a curvilinear tri- 
angle. ‘The sporangium is unicellular, and is composed probably of 
a layer of large elongated cells, their long axis forming the thickness 
of the spore-case, as in recent Lycopodiacee: the large cells have 
given the sporangium a finely granulated texture. The surface of 
many specimens is covered with prominences produced by grains in 
the interior, for a careful examination shows that the texture of the 


* Mr. Binney informs me that he is acquainted with a stratum of coal, some six 
feet thick, almost entirely made up of these bodies. 


Carruthers— On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 435 


sporangium is continuous over the protuberance. These prominences 
are seen in the sporangium fig. A 5, and more marked specimens 
occur in a broken case which I have figured at a6. They are 
strikingly shown in Mr. Prestwich’s illustration. Supposing that 
these might be spores, I had several thin sections of a shale in which 
the sporangia abound prepared ; but I have not been able to discover, 
in the numerous sporangia I have examined, any structure like a spore. 
This, however, undoubtedly arises from the manner in which the 
bodies are preserved. Prof. Morris accurately describes them as 
being ‘neither bituminized nor mineralized, but in a state of brown 
vegetable matter.’ The external form, and even the cell-markings on 
its surface, are beautifully preserved in the mould of shale which was 
deposited around them; but no internal structure exists. A change 
similar to that produced in animal bodies when they are converted 
into adipocere has taken place in them; and they are converted 
into a hydrocarbon of an orange-brown colour when seen by 
a reflected light, and of a texture like solid paraffine. It is remark- 
able that while the axis and scales of the cone are converted into 
coal, the sporangia should be changed into so different a substance : 
and this is the condition in which they appear always to occur. The 
specimens obtained from coal and shale which I have examined, the 
examples from the splint-coal of Fordel described by Prof. Balfour, 
and those from coarse sandstones of Coalbrook Dale, described by 
Prof. Morris, are all in the same condition. Prof. Balfour suggests 
that the organic mineral called by the late Prof. Johnstone, of Dur- 
ham, ‘ Middletonite,’ may be derived from these sporangia. This 
mineral was originally obtained in very thin layers, or in small round 
particles, in the main-coal at Middleton, near Leeds. It occurs so 
abundantly both in layers and in granular pieces in the Fordel coal, 
as to give a peculiar rusty-brown aspect to the coal. This substance 
was observed more than forty years ago by the late Dr. Fleming in the 
‘splint-coal’ of Balbirnie, in Fife, and afterwards in coal from 
Clackmannan; and he believed that certain veins of arich wine-yellow 
which occur in Boghead coal were the same mineral. All the spo- 
rangia which I have had sliced show a perfectly uniform structure 
throughout, and this substance exactly agrees in its physical proper- 
ties with ‘Middletonite’ as described by Johnstone. 

The cavity of the sporangium is filled with a dark amorphous 
substance similar to the body of the rock in which the discs are 
found. Prof. Balfour considers this black carbonaceous matter to be 
the altered sporules, and corresponding to the Lycopode-powder of 
recent Lycopodia. 

Having described this singular fossil, there are two questions that 
we shall examine: first, the relation this cone bears to the different 
specimens of Lepidostrobi that have already been described; and, 
secondly, the affinities it has to the living vegetable kingdom. 

The great majority of specimens of Lepidostrobus are found flat- 
tened and carbonized, and so exhibiting the forms of the cone without 
any structure. Some examples found in nodules in shale are pre- 
served in the round, showing the external form and the arrange- 

FF9 


436 Carruthers—On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 


ment of the larger organs. Such cones are figured by Lindley and 
Hutton in their ‘ Fossil Flora ;’ but as the sulphide or carbonate of 
iron into which they are converted is only a cast of the organism, 
and does not exhibit structure, it is impossible to determine with 
certainty their affinities with recent vegetables. The conclusion of 
the authors referred to seems to have been, on the whole, that they 
were Coniferous; although sometimes they lean to the opinion that 
they are Lycopodiaceous, or somewhere intermediate between the two 
families. The materials which Brongniart had to work with, though 
more extensive, were not in a better condition. In the second 
volume of his ‘ Histoire des Végétaux Fossiles’ (unfortunately im- 
perfect), he enters into an elaborate examination of their affinities, 
and shows that they are nearly related to Lycopodiacee, even though 
he was ignorant of the contents of the organs borne on the scales. 
In the text he describes the sporangia as attached to the under sur- 
face of the scales, showing an affinity, as he supposes, to Ferns ; but 
in the magnified illustration of two scales and the related sporangia, 
he places them rightly, as is evident from the imbrication of the 
apices. The misconception probably arose, as Dr. Hooker suggests, 
from his mistaking the base for the apex in the cone to which the 
two magnified scales belong. (Op. cit., pl. xxiii., figs. 2 & 26.) 

Robert Brown had the singular good fortune to obtain in 1843 
the upper half of a silicified cone, which, when prepared, for the 
first time exhibited not only the arrangement of the different parts, 
but their microscopic structure,—and, what was of much more im- 
portance, showed that the seed-like bodies, supported by the scales, 
were sporangia filled with spores composed of three, rarely of four, 
sporules. The value of this fossil was shown by Mr. Brown in his 
communication read to the Linnean Society in 1847, and published 
with drawings in the 20th volume of their ‘ Transactions’ 
(1851). He named it Triplosporite ; thereby expressing its fossil 
state, the class or primary division to which it belonged, and its 
supposed peculiarity in structure. In regard to its affinities, he 
considered that it agreed in its scalariform vessels with all the fossil 
genera supposed to be acotyledonous, in the structure of its spo- 
rangia and spores with Lycopodiacee and Ophioglossee, and amongst 
fossils with Lepidostrobus, from which, however, it differed, accord- 
ing to Brongniart’s elaborate Memoir, which Mr. Brown accepted as 
accurate, in the manner of the attachment of the sporangium to its 
supporting scale. 

In 1848, Dr. Hooker published a valuable Essay on Lepido- 
strobus, in part ii. of the 2nd volume of the ‘ Memoirs of the 
Geological Survey of Great Britain’ (p. 440). From the examina- 
tion of a large series of sections from different cones, he made out 
their structure, and the nature and contents of the sporangia, and 
thus independently confirmed what Brown had determined from a 
single cone. He further showed that Brongniart’s notion that the 
sporangium was borne on the under part of the scale was incorrect, 
and so set aside the most remarkable difference between Brown’s 
Lriplosporite and Lepidostrobus. In anote appended by Brown to 


Carruthers— On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 437 


his paper published in the Linnean Society’s Transactions, after the 
publication of Dr. Hooker’s Memoir, he withdrew his name Triplo- 
sporite (which, however, had already been taken up by Unger in 
his ‘Genera et Species Plantarum Fossilium’ from the published 
abstract of the paper), and reduced his genus to Lepidostrobus. 

That Zepidostrobus is the fruit of some species of Lepidodendron 
there can be no longer any doubt, and it would seem better to re- 
duce the first genus, which is based upon only a fragment of a 
plant. But there are reasons which appear to me sufficiently im- 
portant to retain this as at least a temporary genus. The Lepido- 
dendra seem to have been very brittle plants: the stem, branches, 
and fruit were easily snapped asunder, so that they almost always 
occur in a very fragmentary condition. A cone is very rarely found 
connected with its supporting branch. The evidence, therefore, of 
the connection between a Lepidodendron and its own Lepidostrobus 
is consequently of a very unsatisfactory nature. The two kinds of 
cones described by Dr. Hooker were found enclosed in hollow 
trunks, the one of Lepidodendron elegans, and the other of L. Har- 
court ; and on this ground he refers them to these two species. 
Until materials turn up to satisfactorily determine the relation of 
fruits to their own species, it will create less confusion, and supply 
more definite data, if we consider Lepidostrobus in the meantime 
as a genus. We may hope, in course of time, to be supplied with 
such specimens: a few have been already published by Lindley, 
Patterson and Prestwich. 

Lepidostrobus is a cylindrical, obtuse cone, somewhat tapering at 
both ends, and variable in length. It consists of a solid central axis, 
supporting numerous scales, each bearing a single oblong sporan- 
gium. The axis is cylindrical, and is composed of a small core of 
cellular tissue, surrounded by a sheath made up of numerous bundles 
of scalariform vessels, scattered at regular distances through a 
tissue of elongated cells. ‘These gradually leave the axis, and each 
forms the vascular bundle of a scale passing along its centre to its 
apex. The lower half or pedicel of the scale is at right angles to 
the axis, and the imbricated apex has a direction more or less parallel 
to the axis. A single sporangium is supported on the upper surface 
of the pedicel, and is either adnate, or attached by a small surface 
towards the apex. The sporangium is an oblong tapering body, 
largest at the outer extremity. ‘The spores are composed of three, 
rarely of four sporules, which at last separate from each other. 

This description is illustrated by figures B and c, Plate XII. 
Fig. B shows transverse and longitudinal sections of part of a cone, 
and the spores of Lepidostrobus Brownit, drawn from Mr. Brown’s 
specimens in the collections of the Botanical Department of the 
British Museum. Fig.c is a restored section of two scales, and 
the spores of L. ornatus from Dr. Hooker’s plate in the Geological 
Memoirs (loc. cit., pl. v. and viii.). 

The cone I have described differs remarkably from Lepidostrobus 
in the large number of small sporangia borne on each scale. At 
first I was inclined to consider this as only of specific value, but it 


438 Carruthers—On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 


now seems to me that it would be under-estimating the importance 
of this singular structure were I to place the cone in Lepidostrobus. 
I therefore propose to establish a new genus, and to associate it 
with the name of the late Prof. Fleming, who was the first to draw 
attention to the detached spore-cases ; and Ido this the more heartily, 
as I ever recall with gratitude and delight the lessons in the class- 
room, the study, and the field, which I received from one who was 
unsurpassed as a careful observer and exact interpreter of nature. 
The two genera are thus contrasted :— 

Lepidostrobus.—Each scale of the cone supporting a single oblong 
sporangium. 

Flemingites.—Each scale of the cone supporting a double series 
of roundish sporangia. 

F. gracilis.—Cone slender, cylindrical, very slightly tapering at 
the base, composed of a solid axis and numerous imbricated 
scales, ten in a whorl. The apex of the scale long and slender. 
Sporangia attached by a triradiate ridge. 

The affinities between the fossil Lepzdostrobus and recent plants have 
been illustrated by Brongniart, Brown, and Hooker. In the minute 
structure of the axis and scales, in the arrangement of the parts, and 
the relation the sporangium bears to the supporting scale, there is 
nothing to separate it from Lycopodiacee. I have placed on the 
plate a magnified section of a small cone of the well-known and 
widely-distributed Lycopodium cernuum, a species which sometimes 
attains a height of 6 feet, and has the aspect of a diminutive Le- 
pidodendron. A glance at the drawing (fig. p) will show that the 
general resemblance is very striking. The cone of Memingites, how- 
ever, introduces a structure more removed from the recent Lycopo- 
diacee; but a little examination may convince us that this is not 
so abnormal as at first sight appears. The sporangia of Lycopo- 
dium are generally described as axillary, and for all practical pur- 
poses this is quite satisfactory ; but they are really supported on the 
scale as shown in the section of the spike of Lycopodium cernuum. 
Even in species where the sporangium seems to be really axillary, it 
always separates with the scale when that is torn from the fresh 
plant. In 7'mesipteris, an Australian Lycopodiaceous genus, the 
relation of the two-celled sporangium to the leaf is very obvious. The 
attachment, then, of the sporangium in Lepidostrobus may be con- 
sidered the normal arrangement in Lycopodiacee, and the difference 
between that genus and Flemingites is only the increased number of 
sporangia on each scale. 

A monstrosity in Equisetum described by Milde, and an interest- 
ing specimen of which is in the possession of Mr. Clarke, who called 
my attention to it, deserves to be noticed here, as it seems to me to 
throw light on these fossil cones. Mr. Clarke’s specimen is Hquise- 
tum limosum. It has the annulus at the base of the spike converted 
into a large-toothed foliaceous membrane, and some of the teeth 
bear one or two sporangia on the surface near the apex. The spo- 
rangia are exactly like those on the scales of the spike. Milde 
describes specimens where the annulus is converted into a true 


Carruthers— On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 439 


sheath, similar to those on the stem below. It would appear, from 
these two monstrosities, that the annulus and peltate scales of the 
spike are altered sheaths—or, that is to say, leaves. The scales sup- 
port numerous sporangia round their margin. If in a spike the 
scales were to assume the leaf form, and to bear the numerous spo- 
rangia on their surface, the spike or cone would exhibit an arrange- 
ment similar to that in Flemingites. 

I have excluded the contents of the sporangia from the points of 
similarity existing between Lepidostrobus and Lycopodiacee, because 
these exhibit other affinities. The sporangia of Lycopodiacee con- 
tain a fine powder composed of minute free bodies which ultimately 
produce spermatozoids, with the exception of Selaginella, which 
has two kinds of sporangia—one having contents similar to the 
other genera of the family, and the other containing three or four 
true spores, called oophoridia. The sporangium of Lepidostrobus 
Brownii, on the other hand, is filled with immense numbers of true 
spores; and if I am right in supposing the prominences on the spo- 
rangia of Flemingites as produced by spores, it agrees with Lepido- 
strobus in this respect, and both would be, as regards the sporangia, 
allied to Jsoetes. But there exists in the beautifully silicified spe- 
cimen of L. Brownii a quantity of minute granular matter, which I 
am inclined to consider as the minute spermatozoid-producing bodies 
which fill the sporangia of Lycopodium, and those on the inner 
leaves of Zsoe¢es, but which are found in the same sporangium with 
the true spores in Rhizocarpee. While, then, the more obvious 
characters in the structure of the cones ally these two genera to 
Lycopodiacee, the contents of the sporangia (a characteristic in 
regard to living plants considered of the first importance) place 
them nearer to Rhizocarpee. 

Posrscript.—Prof. Balfour, in a note to his paper, alludes to the 
discs which occur in the ‘ Resiniferous shale’ from the River Mer- 
sey, on the north side of Tasmania, and considers that they are pro- 
bably the same as the sporangia of Flemingites. By the kindness of 
Prof. Church, I have obtained some specimens of these dises. They 
exist in the same abundance in this shale,—forming 30 to 40 per 
cent. of the rock,—as the sporangia of Flemingites do in some coals 
and shales which I have examined. They are converted into a hydro- 
carbon, into the composition of which, however, a little over 5 per 
cent. of sulphur enters. ‘To this singular organic mineral Prof. 
Church has given the name of Tasmanite. (Phil. Mac. 1864, 
p- 465.) The discs differ from the sporangia of Flemingites both in 
structure and size. Although composed of two walls which are 
still separable, they contain nothing in their interior, so that they 
appear quite homogeneous. The sporangia of Flemingites have a 
diameter of from 5 to 7 hundredths of an inch, while the dises of 
Tasmanite which I have measured vary from 14 to 2 hundredths of 
an inch. 

I know of nothing in the vegetable kingdom to which the enormous 
abundance of these organic bodies in some deposits can be com- 
pared, except the so-called ‘sulphur-showers’ produced by the 


440 Carruthers—On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 


shedding of the pollen in extensive pine-forests in Scotland and 
Norway. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE XII. 

Figs. A. Flemingites gracilis.—Specimen natural size. 1. Ideal longitudinal 

: section of a portion of a cone. 2. Ideal transverse section of the quarter 
of acone. 3. A single scale, showing the number and arrangement of the 
sporangia—magnified five times. 4. The upper surface of a sporan- 
gium. 6. The under surface, showing the triradiate ridge. 6. Fragment 
of a sporangium, exhibiting the prominences on its surface. 7. Section 
of a sporangium through the ridge. 8. Another section. Figs. 4-8 
greatly magnified. 9. A fragment of coal almost made up of sporangia. 
10. Portion of a Sigillaria, with a considerable quantity of sporangia 
covering one side of it. 

Figs. B. Lepidostrobus Brownit.—1. Longitudinal section of the upper portion 
of the cone. 2. Transverse section of a quarter of the cone. 3. Spo- 
rangia. From the specimens in the collection of the British Museum. 

Figs. C. Lepidostrobus ornatus.—1. Restored section of two scales and a spo- 
rangium (from Hooker’s Memoir, pl. viii. f. 11). 2. Sporangia (doc. 
cit., pl. v. f. 9). 

Fig. D. Lycopodium cernuum.—Transverse section of the cone. 


II. On soME suPPOSED ICE-SCRATCHES IN DERBYSHIRE. 
By A. H. Green, M.A., F.G.S. 


N the number of the Grotocicat Magazine for last August, in 

a letter from Mr. Mackintosh, there is a notice of some markings, 
supposed to be glacial, on a rock known as ‘The Bloody Stone,’ 
between Cromford and Bonsall, in Derbyshire. Mr. Mackintosh’s 
language is not very clear, but I rather gather that he has doubts 
whether these markings were really made by ice: nor does he seem 
to be aware of the great interest that would attach fo the discovery, 
if it could be proved beyond question that we have here a jtrue ice- 
marked surface of rock. It is, I believe, very generally the case 
that the deposits and, so to speak, footmarks of the Glacial epoch are 
found on the western side of the central axis of the north of England 
in much greater force than on the eastern side. ‘Thus much I can 
say from personal observation : in North Staffordshire and Lancashire, 
boulder-clays and gravels are found stretching from the plains far 
up the hill-sides, and erratic blocks lie here and there upon the moors 
to a height of 1,400 * feet above the sea. On the other side of the so- 
called Pennine Chain, however, the case is widely different: through- 
out the whole of North Derbyshire and the adjoining uplands of 
Yorkshire there is nothing that can be safely set down as Drift, and 
certainly no blocks or pebbles of foreign rocks over the country to 
the north of the Wye. The valley of that river cuts right across 
the Great Saddle; and along it, and to the south of it, we do find 
stray patches of clay with ice-scratched boulders, mostly of limestone, 
but here and there of granite, greenstone, and other strangers, which 
seem to have found their way from the west along this sole opening 
in the barrier which elsewhere blocked up their path. ‘'The Bloody 


* Sir H. De la Beche gives 1,800 feet as the limit of erratics: I here speak only 
of what I have seen myself. 


c Geol. ds fag wie} 635, PY TE. 


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qf! = a 
MEASURES . 


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yaa 


Green—On Ice-scratches in Derbyshire. 441 


Stone’ is just a case in point, lying as it does in the valley of the 
Derwent, about seven miles below the junction of the Wye with that 
river. I was, therefore, extremely glad to see Mr. Mackintosh’s 
letter just in time to pay a visit to the spot, and I shall tell as care- 
fully as I can what I there saw, in hopes that more experienced 
ice-men, if they cannot go to see for themselves, may be enabled to 
decide whether we can fairly refer the markings in question to the 
action of ice. 

The spot is easily found. A bridle-road leads over the hills from 
Cromford to Bonsall, and following this we reach on the crest of the 
ascent, just below where the word ‘ Rugs’ is written on the Ordnance 
Map—a boss of limestone studded with dark-red patches, whence its 
name of ‘ The Bloody Stone.’ * These patches are of chert, polished 
down to a smooth surface, and scored over with grooves and scratches. 
At first sight it looks as if the limestone was covered with a very 
thin layer of chert, which has here and there been worn or weathered 
off; but closer examination shows us that each patch is the section 
of a chert-nodule imbedded in the rock, the upper part of which has 
been ground away (see fig. 3). Fig. 1 is a ground-plan, and fig. 2 


Pathway. 


Fic. 1. GROUND-PLAN OF ‘THE BLOODY STONE.’ 


Fig. 2. SECTION across Fie. 1, rRom H. To K. 


a section of the rock, both on a true scale. Starting at the highest 
point, we find a small ledge of rock (A) jutting up from the turf: 
the northern face of this, which dips N. 19° E. at 35°, is scored by 
deep grooves running KE. 19° §.: this is the only case where markings 
are found on the é2mestone. Next we come to a boss of limestone (8), 
on the north-western face of which are chert-patches, such as have 
been just described, polished and marked by grooves running S. 30° E. 


* These patches probably gave the name originally, and the fact, or legend, of a 
man having been thrown from his;horse and killed Lere, was applied or invented to 
account for their presence. 


442 Green— On Ice-scratches in Derbyshire. 


At c are a few grooves on chert running E. 19° §. The chert- 
patches at D and E are the best marked of all, the grooves and 
scratches being very regular and distinct, in a direction N. 30° E. 
Fig. 3 is a sketch, half the natural size, of a bit of the rock broken 
off from E. : the side turned to the light is beautifully polished and 
grooved ; the side in shadow gives a section at right angles to the 
polished face, and shows how the chert-nodule, which is marked by 
the darker shading, has been worn down and polished. Lastly, we 


Fic. 3. FRAGMENT OF ROCK, GROOVED AND POLISHED BY ICE. 


have the largest polished face, rr, dipping E. 40° N. at 15°: the 
grooves and scratches run E. 40° S., and are crossed at & by a set of 
finer markings, running over a highly polished face of chert in a 
direction E. 40° N. In the section the dotted part is limestone, and 
some chert-nodules are introduced, which in the interior of the rock 
have their usual irregular shape, but on the surfaces B and F have 
had their upper faces planed down and scratched. 

Now, it seems to me that these markings must be one of two 
things—either ice-scratches or ‘ slickenside.’ If the latter, one would 
expect the markings to show some regularity in their direction, 
which they do not, for there are at least three distinct sets of 
scratches: nor can I conceive a fault or fracture running through 
chert-nodules, so as to slice them in two and then polish the faces 
against one another. 

But the irregularity of direction, on the other hypothesis, 
may be easily explained by supposing different masses of ice at 
different times moving in different directions; and the planing down 
of the chert-nodules is just what we know ice will do. I may add, 
that among the heaps of stones gathered from the fields, and in the 
walls, a little higher up the hill, I found two ice-scratched bits of 
Mountain Limestone; two blocks of quartz rock, one angular, the 
other partly rounded, which were certainly foreigners; and many 
rounded lumps of two varieties of greenstone, one of which was 
most likely toadstone, but the other was unlike any toadstone I know 
of, and was, I strongly suspect, a stranger. 


TIT. On Preevacrat (?) Drirt In QueEn’s County, IRELAND, 
By G. Henry Kinanan, F.R.G.S.1. 
¢ Pee Coal-measure hills that form the outer margin of the 
Castlecomer table-land are generally covered with local drift ; 
but the drift on nearly all the other Coal-measure hills is largely 


Kinahan— On Preglacial (2) Drift in Queen’s County. 443 


composed of limestone, even on the top of hills 700 feet high. What 
is most remarkable, however, is that in some places there are valleys 
and plains not more than 400 feet above the sea without a particle 
of limestone-drift on them, while hills in their vicinity are covered 
with it.’ * 

In sinking the various pits in the Queen’s County Collieries, a 
Stratified Drift was found under some of this Boulder-clay. When 
the place was visited, none of these sections could be examined ; but 
fortunately a record of each was kept in the ‘bore-books’ that are 
in the possession of the different agents and proprietors. 

This paper will refer principally to the drift at the Newtown 
Colliery, as B. B. Edge, Esq., of Clonbrock House, has kindly given 
me valuable information and details of some of the sections there 
situated. 

Near the west of this colliery, a pit was opened through 55:92 feet 
of drift, the details of which are copied from Mr. Ahern’s ‘bore- 
book,’ now in the possession of Mr. Edge. 


Section No. 1. 


Feet. 

5. Clay with boulders of limestone . , . Boulder Drift . 265 
4, Sand and gravel . : ¢ ; . 6:25 
3. Book- or leaf-clay. calcareous : ‘ ‘ 6 Me 317 
2. Strong clay with detached pieces of coal REVERED AI 29\ 50.0 
1. Fine sand’ . 5 : 5 : . : 4:00 
55:92 


In a pit due east of Newtown Cross-roads, three feet of peat 
(‘ which, although saturated with water, would blaze like a candle 
when placed in the fire’) was found under the Boulder-drifé. Mr. 
Edge gives the following as the approximate thickness of the beds 
passed through :— 


Section No. 2. 


Feet 

8. Soil . : ! x itt 
7. Yellow clay hp pert Dae eres 
6. Blue clay with limestone-boulders . Boulder Drift . . 60 
5. Fine sand . 3 ; : ; - ° 10 
4, Gravel 5 . : : : : : 9 
3. Blue clay . : : : . : . ¢Preglacial Drift 4 
2. PEAT . . : : - : ° 3 
1. Whitish clay ; - . : 6 
96 


Five hundred yards north of Newtown Cross-roads, peat was also 
found: here it was under about 54 feet of drift. Of this place Mr. 
Edge says, ‘Peat was found embedded in the shale which formed 
the roof of the coal. It was about 2°5 feet thick ; but very little 


* See Explanation of Sheet 137 of the Map of the Geological Suryey of Ireland, p. 50. 


pao Notices of British and Foreign Memoirs. 


attention was given to it at the time. The coal in this place was 
18 yards from the surface, and was a ‘standing vein,’ having been 
bent upwards by the great Newtown fault.’ 

Of a pit at the edge of the Newtown coal, ‘ about three hundred 
yards from Lally’s Bridge as you go up the stream,’ Mr. Edge gives 
the following particulars :— 


‘Srction No. 3. 


Feet, 

5. Soil . A , 1 
4, Yellow clay } : ‘ : j } Reassorted Drift 4 
3. Blue clay with] imestone-boulders : .. Boulder Drift. Bi 
9. Sand and gravel : : ; : f : : rom 
1. ie slay e 3 : ; i : f ; | Preglacial Drift 1 3 
96 


‘In No. 1, large pieces of round timber, about 5 inches in dia- 
meter, seemingly birch or hazel, were embedded; also what seemed 
to me to be hazel-nuts.’ 

The Boulder-drift hereabouts is unmistakeable, containing nu- 
merous polished and well-scratched blocks of Limestone. The 
‘“Book-’ or ‘Leaf-clay’ mentioned in the first section, is clay that 
was deposited in fine laminz. 

From the foregoing sections, it will be seen that at the Newtown 
Colliery there was a drift Preglacial in relation to the overlying 
Boulder-drift; but whether it existed previous to all the Boulder- 
drift in its neighbourhood, it is impossible to say. Unfortunately, 
the men that opened these sections were only interested in the under- 
lying coal, and therefore paid little attention to the drift; and as 
now all the coal at this place is worked out, there is no chance of 
new pits being opened; but that interesting results may yet be 
gleaned in that neighbourhood, seems likely from the following facts 
stated by Mr. Hdge :—‘ About twelve or thirteen years since, a 
branching coral and shells of mollusca, something like the common 
cockle, were found 24 yards deep in the drift close upon the coal 
at the Newtown Colliery; and similar shells were got at the 
edge of the coal in the Geneva Colliery under 6 feet of drift.’ The 
Geneva Colliery lies a little SW. of the Newtown Colliery. 


NOTICES OF BRITISH AND FOREIGN 
MEMOTRS. 
—_+—— 


I. Pror. Surss ON CEPHALOPODA OF THE GENUS 
ACANTHOTEUTHIS. 


peo: SUESS has prepared for publication a Memoir on the 
fossil Cephalopods belonging to the genus Acanthoteuthis (R. 
Wagner). A fine series of well-preserved specimens of the Acanth. 
bisinuata (Brown), obtained from the schists of Raibl in Carinthia, 
has enabled him to determine the true characters of the genus. 


Unger on Fossil Plants —T’schermak on Feldspars. 445 


M. Suess has recognized on these specimens, the head with the man- 
dible, the arms furnished throughout their length with a double row of 
hooks, the ink-bag, the dorsal shield and phragmacone, with the cham- 
bers, the ligatures, traces of the siphuncle, and here and there some 
remains of the mantle. The dorsal shield, hitherto unknown as to 
its form, presents two concave lobes behind the hyperbolar region. 
The alveolus, distinguished by the abnormal strie of growth lately 
noticed by Prof. Huxley as probably belonging to a new type of 
Belemnites, is considered by Prof. Suess to, belong to the genus 
Acanthoteuthis.*—L’ Institut, 5th July, 1865.—J. M. 


II. Pror. UNGER on THE Fossit PLANnts oF HuNGARY. 


‘PROF. UNGER has presented to the Academy of Sciences of 

Vienna a Memoir on the Fossil Plants of Hungary and Transyl- 
vania, in which he treats specially of those found by M. Stur in the 
Upper Cretaceous Deposits of Déva, Transylvania. All the specimens 
are well preserved, so that they can be recognized with certainty 
as belonging to genera allied to those of the present day; a fact of 
much importance in the determination of the Dicotyledonous plants 
of the Cretaceous period.—L’ Institut, 12th July, 1865.—J. M. 


III. On tHe Group or Feipspars. By M. Tscuermax. 


| eS minerals, abundantly distributed in certain rocks of the 

globe, are interesting to the chemist, mineralogist, and geo- 
logist, and have been the subject of numerous memoirs. The 
continued chemical researches on these mirerals have increased 
their complication—substances identical by their physical characters 
being often found chemically very different ; some not assuming a 
‘definite character, others inconsistent with a systematic classifica- 
tion—more especially the feldspars, containing both soda and lime. 
According to the opinion more than once advanced, the feldspars 
could only be mixtures of isomorphous combinations. M. Tscher- 
mak considers that in reality all the feldspars are only mixtures of 
three substances, which exist in nearly a pure state in adularia, 
albite, and anorthite. 

The potash-feldspars, comprised generally under the name of 
orthoclase, are regular mechanical combinations of orthoclase and 
albite, which, however, are not isomorphous, orthoclase crystallizing 
in the monoclinic and albite in the triclinic system. The constant 
combination of particles of albite gives rise to forms of dimensions - 
similar to those of adularia; and thus the accession of the albite, 
although not isomorphous in itself, only modifies very slightly the 
form of orthoclase. 

All the other feldspars are isomorphous mixtures of albite and 
anorthite, to which, in certain cases, orthoclase is added in small 
quantities. 


* See Guor, Mac., Feb. 1865, p. 67. 


446 Notices of British and Foreign Memoirs. 


The minerals distinguished specifically under the names of labra- 
dorite, andesine, and oligoclase, are in reality only terms of a con- 
tinuous series. ‘Those to which we cannot assign a place in the 
system are only intermediate terms of this series, which, up to the 
present time, have not been studied in detail. Two rather rare 
minerals—namely, Hyalophane, which contains barytes, and Dan- 
burite, in which boracie acid has replaced the alumina—range them- 
selves equally in the group of feldspars. 

The isomorphous mixtures of orthoclase and albite, and that more 
complete of albite, anorthite, and danburite, as well as that between 
orthoclase and barytiferous feldspar, have the atomic constitution 
shown in the following table :— 


Gost WATTONE. CHSUEGAL VOELIT A sifvin CORBTONE 
Anorthite Ca? Al? Al? Sit O16] Oligoclase, Andesine, Labrado- 
Albite Nat Al? Siz SiO rite, &c. 

Adularia K? Al? Si? Sit O'...Orthoclase, Sanidine, &c. 
Feldspar (barytic) Ba? Al? Si? Sit 0% 
Danburite Cae B? Be Sit ou | Hyalophane. 


Perhaps it would be convenient to admit for the feldspars of 
ordinary composition only three genera, that could be subdivided 
according to the proportions in which the normal species are found 
mixed in them.—L’ Institut, June 1865.—J. M. 


IV. On ConsIDERABLE Deposits oF PHosPpHATE OF LIME AT 
CacerzEs, EstremapurA. By M. R. pe Luna. 


(eee deposits are very extensive, and occur on the line of rail- 
way from Estremadura to Portugal. The means of transport 
are very costly in comparison to that of similar deposits. The 
phosphate of lime attains a maximum of 85 per cent. in the for- 
mation of Montanches, six leagues from Caceres and eight leagues 
from Logrosan, and the minimum is about 50 per cent. M. Luna 


has also noticed a deposit containing 72 per cent. of Ca’P, extending 
over four square kilométres, about half an hour’s journey from 
Caceres. 

The last mines discovered at Montanches are as rich as those of 
Logrosan. The phosphate is found in the cretaceous strata, and in 
great abundance in the silicious bed; it presents a fibrous texture, 
and as the formations do not contain carbonate of lime, it is more 
readily attacked by sulphuric acid. 


Phosphate of Caceres. Maximum. Minimum. 
Residue insoluble in nitric acid . : . 47-02 91:05 
Water ; i F ‘ ; : . 3800 1:33 
Tribasic phosphate of lime. : 5 APO 50:10 
Oxide of iron, &c. &c., and loss . ; Sarco 1:55 
Montanches. 
Tribasic phosphate . : ; 5 . 85:03 
Carbonate of lime : : ‘ : 5 JKORSYS) 
Oxide of iron—silica . ‘ : ; 240 
Water 4 ; j : : : ee, 


Comptes Rendus.—J. M. 


Sorby on the Physical History of Meteorites. 447 


V. On tHE PuysicAL History or METEORITES. 
By H. C. Sorsy, F.R.S. 


HOUGH Iam most willing to admit that much remains to be 
learned before we can look upon the following theory as any- 
thing more than provisional, yet at all events it serves to unite a 
great number of facts, and is not opposed to any with which I am 
now acquainted. I shall describe the facts and discuss the objections 
to this and other theories in a communication to the Royal Society. 
As shown in my paper in the ‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ 
(xiii. 833), there is good proof of the material of meteorites having 
been to some extent fused, and in the state of minute detached par- 
ticles. I had also met with facts which seemed to show that some 
portions had condensed from a state of vapour; and I expected that 
it would be requisite to adopt a modified nebular hypothesis, but 
hesitated until I had obtained more satisfactory evidence. The 
character of the constituent particles of meteorites and their general 
microscopical structure differ so much from what is seen in terres- 
trial volcanic rocks, that it appears to me extremely improbable that 
they were ever portions of the moon, or of a planet, which differed 
from a large meteorite in having been the seat of a more or less 
modified volcanic action. A most careful study of their microsco- 
pical structure leads me to conclude that their constituents were 
originally at such a high temperature that they were in a state of 
vapour, like thatin which many now occur in the atmosphere of the 
sun, as proved by the black lines in the solar spectrum. On cool- 
ing, this vapour condensed into a sort of cometary cloud, formed of 
small crystals and minute drops of melted stony matter, which 
afterwards became more or less devitrified and crystalline. This 
cloud was in a state of great commotion, and the particles moving 
with great velocity were often broken by collision. After col- 
lecting together to form larger masses, heat, generated by mutual. 
impact, or that existing in other parts of space through which they 
moved, gave rise to a variable amount of metamorphism. In some 
few cases, when the whole mass was fused, all evidence of a previous 
history has been obliterated; and on solidification a structure has 
been produced quite similar to that of terrestrial volcanic rocks. 
Such metamorphosed or fused masses were sometimes more or less 
completely broken up by violent collision, and the fragments again 
collected together and solidified. Whilst these changes were taking 
place, various metallic compounds of iron were so introduced as to 
indicate that they still existed in free space in the shape of vapour, 
and condensed amongst the previously formed particles of the meteo- 
rites. At all events, the relative amount of the metallic consti- 
tuents appears to have increased with the lapse of time, and they 
often crystallized under conditions differing entirely from those 
which occurred when mixed metallic and stony materials were 
metamorphosed, or solidified from a state of igneous fusion in such 
small masses that the force of gravitation was too weak to separate 
the constituents, although they differ so much in specific gravity. 


448 Notices of British and Foreign Memoirs. 


(Report of Brit. Assoc. 1864.) Possibly, however, some meteoric 
irons have been produced in this manner by the occurrence of such 
a separation. ‘The hydro-carbons with which some few meteorites 
are impregnated, may have condensed from a state of vapour at a 
relatively late period. 

I therefore conclude provisionally that meteorites are records of 
the existence in planetary space of physical conditions more or less 
similar to those now confined to the immediate neighbourhood of 
the sun, at a period indefinitely more remote than that of the occur- 
rence of any of the facts revealed to us by the study of Geology 
—at a period which might, in fact, be called pre-terrestrial. 


BROOMFIELD, SHEFFIELD: July 1865. 


VI. On THE MIcROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE OF Mount SoRREL SYENITE, 
ARTIFICIALLY FUSED, AND COOLED sLOWLY. By H. C. Sorsy, 
F.R.S., F.G.S., &c., of Sheffield. (Proceedings of the Geo- 
logical and Polytechnic Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
1863-64, pp. 301-304.) 


Me. SORBY thus describes the Syenite of Mount Sorrel :— 
i ‘The rock operated on is a mixture of reddish felspar, clear — 
green hornblende, and quartz, along with some opaque minerals, 
evidently in a greatly altered state, perhaps originally pyrites or 
magnetic oxide of iron. The felspar is in very distinct crystals, 
but has often caught up much hornblende; and the quartz fills up 
the spaces between the other minerals, or is curiously crystallized 
along with the felspar, so as to form a microscopic “ graphic granite,” 
or “hebraic felspar;” and it is especially important to bear in mind, 
that the quartz contains very many fluid-cavities, nearly filled with 
water, as described in my paper in the Quart. Journ. of the Geolo- 
gical Society (vol. xiv. p. 453); and, in accordance with the prin- 
ciples therein explained, they indicate that the rock was consolidated 
under a very great pressure.’ These fluid-cavities, he adds, ‘ show 
the spontaneous movements of the bubbles which they contain 
better than those I have seen in any other rock.’ 

Of this Mount Sorrel Syenite, Mr. J. G. Marshall, F.G.S., melted 
large quantities, allowing it to cool very slowly; and of this material 
Mr. Sorby examined microscopically thin slices, comparing its 
structure with that of various kinds of igneous rocks in their natural 
state, and after having been fused and slowly cooled. After 
detailing the characters observed in the artificial rock, Mr. Sorby 
remarks that, as the hornblende melted more easily than the quartz 
and felspar, and as a portion of the mineral rose upwards, the whole 
was not thoroughly incorporated. Nevertheless this circumstance 
is not, he says, enough to account for the difference between the 
original and the fused rock, as seen also in the experiments of M. De- 
lesse; but ‘an explanation must be sought for in the very different 
circumstances under which they were formed.’ 

The fused and cooled mass is quite unlike syenite or granite, but 
has a resemblance to some of the stony masses obtained by fusing 


Reviews—Haughton’s Manual of Geology. 449 


basalt and basaltic lavas. ‘The presence of water, an intense pres- 
sure, and a far more gradual cooling, all of which we are unable to 
imitate successfully, probably suffice to explain the total difference 
in the structure of the natural and the artificial products. At the 
same time,’ adds Mr. Sorby, ‘ the making of such experiments, and 
the microscopical examination of the resulting masses, are likely to 
lead to a far better knowledge of igneous rocks than we at present 
possess. —T. R. J. 


REVIEWS. 
: ———— 
T. Manuat or Grotocy. By the Rev. S. Haueuron, M.D., F.R.S., 
&c. London: Lonemans, GREEN, and Co. 1865. 8vo., pp. 360. 


FN 1862, Prof. Haughton had a reporter to take down a literal 

and verbatim report of a course of lectures on Geology, and 
these he now, without alteration or emendation, publishes as a Manual 
of Geology. Has the science been standing still during that period ? 
Was there nothing to add or to alter in 1865, to the prelections of 
1862? But, granting that by some mysterious second-sight the Pro- 
fessor did foresee the recent discoveries—that he conjured up the 
strange spectre of the Archzopteryx, and clearly saw the Laurentian 
Eozo6n, we scarcely think that the very words of a lecture to a 
class are likely to be the best for a manual for the student’s private: 
study. The hasty composition, the vague statements, and the rough- 
and-ready illustrations which necessarily belong to the extempore 
discourse, are too apparent in every page of this volume. And we 
cannot divine what the dissertation on the structure of honeycomb, 
with the history of the various opinions relative thereto from 
Pappus downwards to Haughton, has to do with an exposition of 
Geology. It would be unfair, however, to the learned author, were 
we not to add, that the student of Geology will find many things 
worth his careful attention in this volume. For instance, many will 
prize the volume because it contains a reprint of Prof. Haughton’s 
translation of Durocher’s important essay on Comparative Petro- 
logy. Our great regret, however, is, that Prof. Haughton, instead 
of producing a really valuable manual, in which he could have 
incorporated many of his original and useful observations and gene- 
ralizations—a work that would be deserving a place alongside of the 
admirable volumes of Prof. Green on the Protozoa and Celenterata 
in the same series—has satisfied himself with sending to the press 
the reporter’s version of his extempore lectures. 


IJ. Icz-caves or FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND. A NARRATIVE OF 
SUBTERRANEAN EXPLORATION. By the Rev. G. F. Brownz, M.A. 
London: Lonemans, GREEN, and Co. 1865. Pp. 315. 

HE desire for novel adventure which urges the members of the 
Alpine Club up the sides of virgin mountains, has led Mr. 

Browne to acquaint himself with eternal ice in the dark recesses 

of natural Glaciéres, where more gains to science may be expected, 

and less danger to limb demanded. Very little was known about 
VOL. IIl.—NO. XVI. GG 


450 Reviews—Browne’s Ice-caves of France and Switzerland. 


natural ice-caves, except that they did exist. The little that was 
known Mr. Browne made himself acquainted with, and then set out 
on his tour of examination of twelve glaciéres, the localities of which 
he had succeeded in discovering. ‘The general reader will find his 
narrative full of interesting adventure, and lively description of the 
scenes through which he passed, as well as of the wonders he found 
‘in the caves. For the man of science they contain many interesting 
facts and puzzling phenomena which must yet rest some time before 
they can be thoroughly understood and expounded. 

Ice-caves occur at depths varying from 50 to 200 feet below the 
surface of the earth, unconnected with glaciers or snow-mountains, 
and in latitudes and at altitudes where ice would not under ordinary 
circumstances be supposed to exist. ‘They are employed, when the 
artificial stores of ice are exhausted, to supply this now almost 
necessary luxury. ‘The ice is sometimes opayue, but frequently 
perfectly clear and transparent, and often formed into masses of 
the most beautiful or the most grotesque forms. We do not wonder 
that Mr. Browne, even with benumbed fingers and wet feet, crawl- 
ing on all-fours on slippery ice, gets occasionally into raptures with 
the wondrous scene suddenly revealed to his view by the light of 
his torch. 

The great difficulty with regard to these ice-caves or glaciéres, is 
to account for their existence. Our autkor, after recounting the 
numerous—many of them most absurd—theories which have been 
‘offered in explanation, gives one which to our mind is as unsatisfac- 
tory as any of the rest. It is, as he tells us, that of Deluce’s, but 
arrived at by himself independently. He thus states it:—‘ The 
heavy cold air of winter sinks down into the glacierés, and the 
lighter warm air of summer cannot on ordinary principles of gravi- 
tation dislodge it, so that heat is very slowly spread in the caves ; 
and even when some amount of heat does reach the ice, the latter 
melts but slowly, for ice absorbs 60° C. of heat in melting; and thus, 
when ice is once formed, it becomes a material guarantee for the 
permanence of ice in the cave.’ We doubt if the air is so stable a 
body as this theory demands. Its power of conducting heat is also 
considerable. It is true that the airis always cold in the caves; but 
this is easily explained by the generally wet surface of the ice, which 
in melting absorbs so much heat. May not the earth rather than 
the air be the cause of the ice in the caves? ‘There are different 
temperature-layers in the earth’s crust, as they are affected by ex- 
ternal heat. First, there is the thin surface-layer, affected by the 
varying temperature of day and night. Then there is the season- 
temperature plane, varying with the uniformity of the seasons and 
the conducting power of the materials of the crust, being at the 
Equator only a foot below the surface, in the Arctic regions from 
3 to 12, while in the Temperate Zone it is 50 or 60 feet. Then 
there is the layer of climate temperature, where the summer's heat 
and the winter’s cold are alike unfelt: in the Temperate Zone this 
varies from 200 to 400 feet, and in the Arctic regions from 8 or 10 
to 90. Bélow this we have a plane of terrestrial temperature beyond 


Reviews—Browne’s Ice-caves of France and Switzerland. 451 


the reach of external influences. It would be interesting to know 
the relation of the ice-caves to their different planes of temperature. 
If they occur in regions where the winter is long or very severe, 
and the summer. short or very mild, and at such a distance from 
the surface that seasonal changes do not affect them, then it is quite 
easy to understand how ice would be found in them. It would be 
well if explorers would direct their attention a little to this matter. 

The prismatic structure of the ice, so common in the glaciéres, is 
another interesting subject of enquiry. The Frenchman’s sugges- 
tion at Bath, that it might be something akin to the rhomboidal 
form assumed by dried mud, we believe not to be far from the mark. 
But whether the desiccation results from heat or great cold, we 
cannot determine. We would associate with these other phenomena 
having, as we believe, a similar origin—as, for instance, the columnar 
structure in basalt, which has nothing whatever of a crystalline 
structure in it. It is curious to observe that basaltic prisms occur 
in exactly the same relation to the altered substance as do the prisms 
of ice—that is to say, in beds extending from the one surface to 
the other, and in cylindrical columns radiating from the centre to 
the circumference. ‘The same cause produces the columns in wheaten 
starch. The walls of the vitrified forts in Scotland often exhibit 
beautiful specimens of the same structure in places where they have 
been subjected to great heat, though not sufficient to produce vitri- — 
fication. We have also seen very beautiful and remarkably regular 
pentagonal and hexagonal columns produced in the brick floor of a 
baker’s oven which had been Jong in use, and consequently sub- 
jected to frequent and considerable changes of temperature, though 
never sufficient to produce fusion. And we have often gathered 
good examples of hexagonal columns from the exposed bituminos 
shale-beds at Wardie, near Edinburgh. 


III. ANALES DEL Musto Pusiico pE Buenos AIRES, PARA DAR 
A CONOCER LOS OBJETOS DE LA Histor1a NATURAL NUEVOS 6 
POCO CONOCIDOS CONSERVADOS EN ESTE ESTABLECIMENTO. Por 
GERMAN BurMeisTER, M.D., Ph.D. Buenos Aires, 1865. (4to., 
pp. 85, with six Plates.) 


HE illustration, by Burmeister, of the cranial and of these 
dental characters of the Macrauchenia patachonicha not pre- 
viously known, renders both interesting and instructive a retrospect 
of the steps by which a knowledge of this remarkable and anomalous 
extinct form of hoofed quadrupeds has been acquired. 

In 1836, the fossils brought home by Darwin from South America, 
in H.M.S. Beagle, were submitted to Owen for determination and 
description. ‘They were numerous, mostly fragmentary, and from 
among them were selected certain limb-bones and vertebra, which 
were associated together as belonging to the same animal, and re- 
ferred to a new genus and species, for which the name Macrauchenia 
patachonicha was proposed. Of the zoological position and affinities 
of this animal, Owen states—‘ In the Unculate series there are but 
two known genera—the Rhinoceros and Paleotherium—which, like - 

GG 2 ; 


452 Reviews Annals of Museum of Buenos Ayres. 


the quadruped in question, have only three toes on the hind-foot. 
Again, in referring the Macrauchenia to the tridactyle family of — 
Pachyderms, we find towards the close of our analysis, and by a 
detailed comparison of individual bones, that the Macrauchenia has 
the closest affinity to the Paleothertum.* But the degree of con- 
fluence of the radius with the ulna, and of the tibia with the fibula, 
indicated a closer resemblance than in Palgotherium to the ruminant 
state of those bones ; and, guided by such indications, it seems that 
although certain fossil neck-vertebre closely repeated, on a large 
scale, characters which Owen had discovered to be peculiar to the 
small South American Camelide, he did not hesitate to associate 
those fossil vertebrae with his new three-toed pachyderm. It is to 
be remembered that at this period (1837) the reform of the Cuvierian: 
distribution of hoofed mammals had not been established; they were 
still either.‘ Pachyderms’ or ‘ Ruminants.’ In pointing out how 
the new three-toed Pachyderm showed alliance to the Ruminant, 
Owen recalls ‘in how many particulars the Camelide, without 
losing the essential characters of Ruminantia, manifested a tendency 
to the Pachydermatous type, and the evidence which the lost 
genera Macrauchenia and Anoplotherium bear to a reciprocal transi- 
tion from the Pachyderms to the Ruminants.t 

The position and essential affinity of Macrauchenia are, however, 
definitely stated, and its remoter alliances as a three-toed Pachyderm 
are indicated. In 1840, Owen abandoned the Cuvierian classification 
of Ungulata, and in his ‘ Odontography’ divides them (p. 523) into 
‘isodactyle,’ ‘anisodactyle, and ‘proboscidian’ groups. He had 
found in the British Museum a fossil lower jaw with the molar 
series, from South America; and, firm in his convictions of the 
essential affinity of Macrauchenia to Paleotherium, he does not hesi- 
tate to refer the specimen to his new genus. In Plate 135, fig. 7, 
the teeth are figured as ‘ molars of the lower jaw of the Macrauche- 
nia patachonicha. (‘ Odontography,’ 4to., Description of the Plates, 
p- 33.) Inthe description of this Spe oie § 219, Macrauchenia, 
comes between ‘ Palgotherium’ and ‘ Tapirus’ in the chapter 
‘ Anisodactyle Pachyderms’ (p. 572). 

In 1846, Owen made known a new pattern of grinding surface of 
upper molar teeth, combining the main characters of that in Rhz- 
noceros and Paleotherium with an unusual number of detached 
rings or islands of enamel. This pattern was exhibited by certain 
fossil teeth from South America, and on them was based the genus | 
Nesodon. (‘Reports of British Association,’ ‘ Sections,’ 1846, p. 66.) 
In 1847, in the ‘Classification of Ungulata’ (Quart. Journ. Geol. 
Soc., vol. iv.), Owen, substituting the more classical terms Artio- 
dactyla and Perissodactyla for ahose used in the ‘ Odontography,’ 
places Macrauchenia in the series Perissodactyla, with the following 
association: ‘ Tapirus, Macrauchenia, Nesodon’ (p. 139). In the 
Memoir on the latter genus (‘ Phil. Transactions,’ 1853), its affinity 
to Macrauchenia is more fully elucidated, and it is remarked that 


* Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle—Fossil Mammalia. 4to., p. 54. 
Ibid., p. 55. 


Reviews—Annals of Museum of Buenos Ayres. 453 


‘the interval between Toxrodon and Macrauchenia is partly filled by 
the newly-discovered Vesodon (p. 299). Seldom has the opinion 
of a Palzontologist on the zoological position of his subject been 
more definitely or more repeatedly enunciated than Prof. Owen’s 
in reference to his Macrauchenia. The perversity with which some 
would exclude every statement save the ‘indication of alliance to 
Camelide given by the cervical vertebre,’ is discreditable. Let 
anyone, for example, with the ‘ Quarterly Journal of the Geolo- 
gical Society,’ vol. iv., 1848, open before him, at p. 139, read the fol- 
lowing passage from the ‘ Zoologie’ of Castelnau’s ‘ Travels in South 
America :’— 

‘ Genre Macrauchenia.—C’étaient des Pachydermes herbivores, 
des Ongulés perissodactyles ; et malgré la ressemblance que la lon- 
gueur de leur cou peut leur faire supposer avec les Chameaux et les 
Llamas, ils appartiennent bien au méme ordre naturel que les Equi- 
dés, les Rhinocéridés, les Tapiridés, les Paléothéridés, et les 
Hyracidés.’ 

M. Paul Gervais, in penning the above, desired it to be supposed 
that Macrauchenia had previously been unnaturally introduced, like 
a ‘supposititious ’ child, into the Artiodactyle group, along with the 
Camel-tribe, and that its position was rectified by the additional 
evidence which he was enabled to adduce from the fossils confided 
to him by Count Castelnau. Reference to the ‘ Zoologie’ of Castel- 
nau’s Expedition, ‘Anatomie,’ 4to., p. 36, shows that these addi- 
tions consist of the ‘carpus,’ with the ‘lower articular surfaces of 
the radius and ulna.’ The figures of the ‘femur,’ ‘tibia,’ and 
‘astragalus, are copied from the ‘ Fossil Mammalia’ of the Beagle. 
The evidence which had been given of the mandibular dentition he 
seems to be unacquainted with. 

M. Gervais further writes—‘ Les vertébres cervicales des Ma- 
crauchénes sont allongées, et rappellent celles des Llamas et des 
Chameaux ; mais on doit remarquer qu’eiles ont, comme celles des 
Rhinoceros et des Tapirs, les deux faces de leurs corps presque - 
planes, et non fortement convexo-concaves, comme celles des Camé- 
lidés, ou mémes des Chevaux.’ (Tom. cit.) This excursion into 
comparative Osteology is not happy. The anterior convexity and 
posterior concavity of the articular surfaces of the bodies of the 3-7 
cervical vertebre and anterior dorsals of all Rhinoceroses and Tapirs 
is an elementary fact: the exceptional character of the almost 
flatness of those surfaces in Auchenia among Ruminants might par- 
donably be unknown to M. Gervais, nor does one look for any 
discussion of the minuter characters of arterial foramina, &c. 

This, however, is quite clear—that Paleontology did not require 
to be told, after 1847, that Macrauchenia ought to be placed with 
Tapirus, Paleotherium, Equus, Rhinoceros, and Hyrax, among the 
Perissodactyle Ungulates. 

What Palzontology did require may be stated to be: confirmation 
of the concurrence of Auchenian cervical vertebre with Perissodac- 
. tyle limb-characters ; confirmation of the concurrence of mandibular 
dentition akin to that of Paleotherium and Rhinoceros, with those 


454 Reviews—Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science. 


vertebrze and limb-bones ; tests of the soundness of the indications 
of resemblance to Nesodon and to Anoplotherium which the known 
and acquired parts ascribed to Macrauchenia had suggested. 

These requirements have been, at length, afforded by Burmeister’s 
description and figures of an almost entire skeleton, including verte- 
bre and limb-bones, with the skuil and dentition of a Macrauchenia 
patachonicha, which the late M. Bravard had obtained from the 
Pleistocene deposits of the Pampas of La Plata. 

The auchenian cervicals are associated with a tritrochanterian 
femur, a paleotherian astragalus and tridactyle foot. 

The lower molars, figured in pl. 135, fig. 7, of the ‘ Odontography,’ 
are correctly ascribed to Macrauchenia, and, with figs. 5 and 6, pl. 7, 
of Burmeister’s Memoir, show that the last molar differs from that 
of Paleotherium, and resembles that of Rhinoceros, in wanting the 
additional third lobe. But, perhaps, the most remarkable and unex- 
pected confirmation of Owen's early surmise of secondary alliance, is 
the occurrence in the Perissodactyle series of the exceptional state 
of dentition which is shown by the Anoplotherium in the Artiodac- 
tyle series, viz., a continuous dental series concomitant with equality 
of length of the crowns of the teeth, the canines not being developed, 
as such, but resembling in proportions those of the Anoplothere. 
H. Burmeister remarks, there is also a general resemblance-in the 
skull to that of the Anoplotherium (pp. 32, 33); but the orbit is quite 
circumscribed by bone, as in Hquus, while the nostrils are placed 
high up on the head, encroaching between the orbits, as in Toxodon. 
In reference to the alleged affinity of Macrauchenia to Nesodon, we 
now have the evidence of the grinding surface of the upper molars ; 
in which, although the crowns are shorter and transversely broader 
in Macrauchenia, they show, when worn down, three or four islands 
of enamel upon the inner half of the grinding surface. 


IV. THe Dusiin QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SciENcE, No. 18. 
April 1865. 


HIS contains, besides some interesting Botanical, Antiquarian, 

and Agricultural papers,—(1.) The Rev. M. H. Close’s account 
of the general glaciation (by glacier-ice) of the rocks in the neigh- 
bourhood of Dublin (as shown by the map), the great glacial 
stream having invaded the area of the local ice-system of the Dublin 
and Wicklow Mountains, which, moreover, have modified its direc- 
tion, though at one time they seem to have been wholly subjected 
to the transverse passage of the great glacier, and have had gaps or 
passes, such as the Scalp, cut out across their ridges by its agency. 
(2.) Mr. J. B. Doyle’s note on the occurrence of a Knorria in 
the Lower Carboniferous Limestone Series of Kildare. (3.) Mr. 
H. B. S. Montgomery’s short but clear acoount of a new locality of 
granite blocks in the Carboniferous Limestone near Rathfarnham. 
(4.) Mr. A. Macalister’s notice of a remarkable specimen of Ulo- 
dendron, found at Hurlet, Renfrewshire, which has suggested to 
him, firstly, that most probably Ulodendron ranks nearer to the 
Cycadacee than to any other order; and that, ‘had we a Cycada- 


Reviews— Whitley’s * Flint Implements’ from Drift. 455 


ceous plant whose leaf-scars were large and circular, and whose 
scales were as numerous and small as those of a Lycopod, we could 
realise all the conditions of Ulodendron ; and, secondly, that U. majus 
and U. minus are probably identical. (5.) Mr. F. J. Foot’s interest- 
ing account of a boulder of Limestone in the Shannon, shifted some 
fifty yards by the ice in the cold and stormy winter of 1855, in near. 
proximity to another ice-carried boulder belonging to the Glacial 
Period, and consisting of jasper, the parent rock of which is recog- 
nized six miles off. 


V. Tue ‘ Furint ImeLteMents’ From Drirt, Not AUTHENTIC. BEING 
A Repty To THE GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCES OF THE ANTIQUITY 
or Man. By Nicwotas Wuittey, &c. 8vo., pp. 59. Lone- 
MANS & Co., London; and NetHerTOoN, Truro. 1865. 


S it of use to draw attention to obstinately one-sided views of 
facts, and to dogmatic negations of what experts have seen 
reason to believe? If it be, the good can only consist in informing 
the persistent jibber that other people are going forward, and leaving 
his point of view behind,—in telling those not yet acquainted with 
the matter, that wider experience, better knowledge of natural 
objects, and more matured conclusions than those offered by the 
partial dogmatist, have been submitted to the public,—and in re- 
minding ourselves that patience is required in teaching those who 
come to be taught, and extreme patience in arguing with those who 
teach themselves,—and that the lingering stragglers in the march of 
science, who will bandy old arguments and waste their time with 
false notions, must not do more mischief, if it can be helped, than 
lose their own place in the ranks. 

We are not, at present, sufficiently interested in the matter to go 
over all the subject of Flint Implements,—how nature breaks flints, 
how man breaks them, and has broken them, and has used both the 
natural and the artificial fragments for tools and weapons of many 
kinds ;—much less will we here offer a dissertation on the flints 
variously chipped into chisels, hammers, adzes, wedges, &c.,— 
whether archaic or historic: the English reader has Prestwich, 
Evans, Lyell, Lubbock, and others, to teach him, if he does not know 
already. Mr. Whitley offers nothing but doubts, which have already 
had full consideration from those who really know how flint behaves 
under frost and under blows, and who know what early men, such 
as the cave-dwellers of Dordogne, really did with flint, in what 
forms they chipped it, what they used, and what they wasted. Mr. 
Whitley says that, as a land-surveyor, he has seen much to teach 
him geology, and to enable him to venture on a controversy about 
Flint Implements: he observes, too, that William Smith, the father 
of English Geology, and Bernard Palissy, a pioneer of Geology in 
France, were also land-surveyors. So we hope to have better results 
of his experience by-and-by,—maybe to equal theirs ;—but in the 
meantime, re-quoting from his essay ‘the notable saying of Locke,’ 
we have, in this would-be ‘ Reply,’ another instance that ‘men see a 
little, presume a great deal, and so jump to the conclusion.’ 


456 Reports and Proceedings. 


REPORTS AND PROCHEDINGS. 
eee eee 


British ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 
BrrmincHam, September 6th, 1865. 


N his Inaugural Address, the President of the British Association 
(Professor J. Phillips) thus speaks of Geology, and of its rela- 
tions to the History of Man : — 

The greater our progress in the study of the economy of Nature, 
the more she unveils herself as one vast whole,—one comprehensive 
-plan,—one universal rule, in a yet unexhausted series of individual 
peculiarities. Such is the aspect of this moving, working, living 
system of force and law: such it has ever been, if we rightly 
interpret the history of our own portion of this rich inheritance of 
mind, the history of that Earth from which we spring, with which 
so many of our thoughts are co-ordinated, and to which all but our 
thoughts and hopes will again return. 

How should we prize this history! and exult in the thought that 
in our own days, within our own memories, the very foundations of 
the Series of Strata, deposited in the beginning of time, have been 
explored by our living friends, our Murchison and Sedgwick, while 
the higher and more complicated parts of the structure have been 
minutely examined by our Lyell, Forbes, and Prestwich!* How 
instructive the history of that long series of inhabitants which re- 
ceived in primeval times the gift of life, and filled the land, sea, and 
air with rejoicing myriads, through innumerable revolutions of the 
planet, before in the fulness of time it pleased the Giver of all good 
to place man upon the Earth, and bid him look up to Heaven ! 

Wave succeeding wave, the forms of ancient lite sweep across the 
ever-changing surface of the earth ; revealing to us the height of the 
land, the depth of the sea, the quality of the air, the course of the 
rivers, the extent of the forest, the system of life and death,—yes, 
the growth, decay, and death of individuals, the beginning and end- 
ing of races, of many successive races of plants and animals, in seas 
now dried, on sandbanks now raised into mountains, on continents 
now sunk beneath the waters. 

Had that series a beginning? Was the earth ever uninhabited, 
after it became a globe turning on its axis and revolving round the 
sun? Was there ever a period since land and sea were separated— 
a period which we can trace—when the land was not shaded by 
plants, the ocean not alive with animals? The answer, as it comes 
to us from the latest observation, declares that in the lowest deposits 
of the most ancient seas in the stratified crust of the globe, the 
monuments of life remain. They extend to the earliest sediments of 
water, now in part so changed as to appear like the products of fire. 
What life? Only the simpler and less specially organized fabrics 


* The investigations of Murchison and Sedgwick in the Cambrian and Silurian 
Strata began in 1831; the views of Sir C. Lyell on Tertiary periods were made 
known in 1829. : 


Prof. J. Phillips’s Inaugural Address. 457 


have as yet rewarded research among these old Laurentian rocks,— 
only the aggregated structures of Foraminifera have been found in 
what, for the present at least, must be accepted as the first deposits 
of the oldest sea. The most ancient of all known fossils, the 
Eozoén Canadense of Sir W. Logan, is of this low, we may even say 
lowest, type of animal organization. 

Then step by step we are guided through the old Cambrian and 
Silurian systems, rich in Trilobites and Brachiopoda, the delights of 
Salter and Davidson: with Agassiz and Miller and Egerton we read 
the history of the strange old Fishes of the Devonian rocks; Bron- 
gniart, and Goéppert, and Dawson, and Binney, and Hooker unveil 
the mystery of the mighty forests now converted to coal; Mantell 
and Owen and Huxley restore for us the giant Reptiles of the Lias, 
the Oolite, and the Wealden; Edwards and Wright almost revive 
the beauteous Corals and Echinodermata ; which with all the pre- 
ceding tribes have come and gone before the dawn of the later 
periods, when fragments of Mammoths and Hippopotami were buried 
in caves and river-sediments to reward the researches of Cuvier and 
Buckland, Prestwich and Christy, Lartet and Falconer. 

And what is the latest term in this long series of successive 
existence? Surely the monuments of ever-advancing art—the 
temples whose origin is in caverns of the rocks; the cities which 
have taken the place of holes in the ground, or heaps of stones and 
timber in a lake; the ships which have outgrown the canoe, as that 
was modelled from the floating trunk of a tree, are sufficient proof of 
the late arrival of man upon the Earth, after it had undergone many 
changes, and had become adapted to his physical, intellectual, and 
moral nature. 

Compared with the periods which elapsed in the accomplishment 
of these changes, how short is the date of those yet standing mono- 
liths, cromlechs, and circles of unhewn stone, which are the oldest of 
human structures raised in Western Europe, or of those more regular 
fabrics which attest the early importance of the monarchs and people 
of Egypt, Assyria, and some parts of America! Yet tried by monu- 
ments of natural events which happened within the age of man, the 
human family is old enough in Western Europe to have been 
sheltered by caverns in the rocks, while herds of reindeer roamed in 
Southern France,* and bears and hyzenas were denizens of the South 
of England.t More than this, remains of the rudest human art ever 
seen are certainly found buried with and are thought to belong to 
races who lived contemporaneously with the mammoth and rhi- 
noceros, and experienced the cold of a Gallic or British winter, 
from which the woolly covering of the wild animals was a fitting 
protection. 

Our own annals begin with the Kelts, if indeed we are entitled to 
call by that historic name the really separate nations, Belgian, 


* See the Memoirs of M. Lartet on the Caves of the Dordogne, 1863-4. 
+ In the caves of Gower, Devon, and Somerset, flint flakes occur with several 
extinct animals. 


458 Reports and Proceedings. 


Iberian, and Teutonic, whom the Roman writers recognize as settlers 
in Britain;* settlers among a really earlier family, our rudest and 
oldest forefathers, who may have been, as they thought themselves 
to be, the primitive people of the land.¢ But beyond the Kedrai 
who occupied the sources of the Danube and the slopes of the Py- 
renees, and were known to Rome in later days, there was present to 
the mind of the father of Grecian history a still more western race, 
the Cynetz, who may perhaps be supposed the very earliest people 
of the extreme west of the continent of Europe. Were those the 
people, the first poor pilgrims from the East, whose footsteps we are 
slowly tracing in the valleys of Picardy and the south of England, 
if not on the borders of the lakes of Switzerland? Are their kin- 
dred still to be found among the Rhetic Alps and the Asturian 
cliffs, if not amid the wilds of Connemara, pressed into those moun- 
tainous recesses by the legions of Rome, the spear of the Visigoth, 
and the sword of the Saxon? Or must we regard them as races of 
an earlier type, who had ceased to chip flints before the arrival of © 
Saxon, or Goth, or Kelt, or Cynetian? These questions of romantic 
interest in the study of the distribution and languages of the families 
of man are part of a large circle of inquiry which finds sympathy in 
several of our sections, especially those devoted to Zoology, Phy- 
siology, and Ethnology. Let us not expect or desire for them a very 
quick, or, at present, a very definite settlement. Deep shadows 
have gathered over all the earlier ages of mankind, which perhaps 
still longer periods of time may not avail to remove. Yet let us not 
undervalue the progress of ethnological inquiry, nor fail to mark 
how, within the period to which our recollections cling, the revela- 
tions of early Egypt have been followed by a Chronology of the 
ancient kingdoms on the Tigris and Euphrates, through the same 
rigorous study of language. ‘Thus has our Rawlinson added another 
page to the brilliant discoveries of Young and Champollion, Lepsius 
and Rosellini. 

Nor, though obtained in a different way, must we forget the new 
knowledge of a people nearer home, which the philosophic mind of 
Keller has opened to us among his native mountains. There, on the 
borders of the Alpine lakes, before the great Roman general crossed 
the Rhone, lived a people older than the Helvetians; whose rude 
lives, passed in hunting and fishing, were nevertheless marked by 
some of the many inventions which everywhere, even in the most 
unfavourable situations, accompany the least civilized of mankind. 
Implements of stone and pottery of the rudest sort belong to the 
earliest of these people; while ornamented iron weapons of war, and 
innumerable other fabrics in that metal, appear about the later 
habitations, and correspond probably to the period of the true Hel- 
vetii, who quitted their home and contended with Cesar for richer 


* Gallic or Belgian on the south-east coast; Iberian in South Wales; German 
at the foot of the Grampians.—(Tacitus, Vita Agricolz. ) 

+ ‘ Britannic pars interior ab iis incolitur, quos natos in insula ipsa memoria 
proditum dicunt.’—(Ceesar, v. 12.) 


Prof. J. Phillips’s Inaugural Address. 459 


settlements in Gaul. The people of whom these are the traces on 
almost every lake in Switzerland are recognized as well in the 
ancient lake-basins of Lombardy and among the Tyrolean Alps, and 
farther on the north side of the mountains; and probably fresh dis- 
coveries may connect them with the country of the Sarmatians and 
the Scythians. 

Thus at length is fairly opened, for archeology and paleontology 
to read, a new chapter of the world’s history, which begins in the 
pleistocene periods of geology, and reaches to the prehistoric ages of 
man. Did our ancestors really contend, as the poets fancied,* with 
stones and clubs against the lion and the rhinoceros, and thus expel 
them from their native haunts, or have they been removed by change 
of climate or local physical conditions? Was the existence of the 
hyzna and the elephant only possible in Western Europe while a 
climate prevailed there such as now belongs to Africa or India? and 
was this period of high temperature reduced in a later time for the 
elk, reindeer, and musk-ox, which undoubtedly roamed over the hills 
of England and France? If we think so, what a vista of long dura- 
tion stretches before us! for no such changes of climate can be sup- 
posed to have occurred except as the effect of great physical changes, 
requiring a lapse of many thousands of years. And though we may 
think such changes of climate not proved, and probably careful 
weighing of evidence may justify our disbelief, still, if the valleys in 
Picardy have been excavated since the deposit of the gravel of St. 
Acheul,}—and the whole face of the country has been altered about 
the caverns of ‘Torquay since they received remains of animals and 
traces of man, {—how can we admit these facts and yet refuse the 
time required for their accomplishment? First, let us be sure of 
the facts, and especially of that main fact upon which all the argu- 
ment involving immensity of time really turns, viz. the contem- 
poraneous existence of man with the mammoth of the plains and the 
bear of the caverns. The remains of men are certainly 6uréed with 
those of extinct quadrupeds; but did they ve in the same days, or 
do we see relics of different periods gathered into one locality by 
natural processes of a later date, or confused by the operations 
of men ? 

Before replying finally to these questions, further researches of an 
exact kind are desirable, and the Association has given its aid to- 
wards them, both in respect to the old cavern of Kent’s Hole, and 
the newly opened fissure of Gibraltar, from which we expect great 
results, though the best of our labourers has ceased from his honour- 
able toil.¢ When these and many other researches are completed, 
some future Lyell, if not our own great geologist, may add some 
fresh chapters to the ‘ Antiquity of Man.’ 


* Lucretius, v. 964-1283. 

t Prestwich, Transactions of the Royal Society, 1860, and Proc. of Roy. Inst., 
Feb, 1864. a 

+ Pengelly, Reports of the British Association, 1864. 

§ The late Dr.-Hugh Falconer, whose knowledge of the fossil-animals of caves 
was remarkably exact, took a great share in thcse examinations. 


460 Reports and Proceedings. . 


In judging of this antiquity, in counting the centuries which may 
have elapsed, since smoothed flints fitted with handles of wood were 
used as chisels and axes by the earliest people of Scandinavia or 
Helvetia, and flakes of flint were employed to cleanse the skins of 
the reindeer in the caves of the Dordogne, or stronger tools broke 
up the ice in the valley of the Somme, we must be careful not to 
take what is the mark of low civilization for the indication of very 
remote time. In every country, among every race of men, such rude 
weapons and tools are used now, or were used formerly. On the 
banks of the Ohio, no less than on the English hills, mounds of 
earth, rude pottery, and stone weapons occur in abundance; and 
indicate similar wants, contrivances, customs, ideas, in different 
races of men living in different periods. Even when in the same 
country, as in Switzerland, or England, or Denmark, successive 
deposits of instruments of stone, bronze, or iron,—successive burials 
of pines, beeches, and oaks,—successively extinguished races of 
elephants, elks, and reindeer, give us a real scale of elapsed time, it 
is one of which the divisions are not yet valued in years or centuries 
of years. 

Toward a right judgment of the length of this scale of human 
occupation, two other lines of evidence may be thought worthy of 
notice; one founded on the anatomical study of the remains of early 
men, the other on the laws of language. If the varieties of physical 
structure in man, and the deviations of language from an original 
type, be natural effects of time and circumstance, the length of time 
may be in some degree estimated by the amount of the diversities 
which are observed to have happened, compared with the variation 
which is now known to be happening. This process becomes imagi- 
nary, unless we assume all mankind to have had one local centre, and 
one original language. Its results must be erroneous, unless we take 
fully into account the superior fixity of languages which are repre- 
sented in writing, and the greater tendency to diversity of every 
kind which must have prevailed in early times, when geographical 
impediments were aggravated by dissocial habits of life. It appears, 
however, certain, that some differences of language, organization, 
and habits have separated men of apparently unlike races during 
periods longer than those which rest on historical facts.* 

Ever since the days of Aristotle, the analogy existing among all 
parts of the animal kingdom, and in a general sense we may say 
among all the forms of life, has become more and more the subject of 
special study. Related as all living beings are to the element in 
which they move and breathe, to the mechanical energies of nature 
which they employ or resist, and to the molecular forces which 
penetrate and transform them, some general conformity of structure, 
some frequently recurring resemblance of function, must be present, 
and cannot be overlooked. In the several classes this analogy grows 
stronger, and in the subdivisions of these classes real family affinity 
is recognised. In the smallest divisions which have this family- 


* Max Miller on the Science of Language. 


Prof. J. Phillips's Inaugural Address. 461 


relation in the highest degree, there seems to be a line which cir- 
cumscribes each group, within which variations occur, from food, 
exercise, climate, and transmitted peculiarities. Often one specific 
group approaches another, or several others, and a question arises 
whether, though now distinct, or rather distinguishable, they always 
have been so from their beginning, or will be always so until their 
disappearance. 

Whether what we call species are so many original creations or 
derivations from a few types or one type, is discussed at length in 
the elegant treatise of Darwin,* himself a naturalist of eminent 
rank. It had been often discussed before. Nor will anyone think 
lightly of such inquiries, who remembers the essay of Linnzus, 
‘De Telluris orbis incremento,’ or the investigations of Brown, 
Prichard, Forbes, Agassiz, and Hooker, regarding the local origin of 
» different species, genera, and families of plants and animals, both on 
the land and in the sea. Still less will he be disposed to undervalue 
its importance, when he reflects on the many successive races of 
living forms more or less resembling our existing quadrupeds, 
reptiles, fishes, and mollusca, which appear to have occupied definite 
and different parts of the depths of ancient time ; as now the tiger 
and the jaguar, the cayman, and the gavial, live on different parts of 
the terrestrial surface. Is the living elephant of Ceylon the lineal 
descendant of that mammoth which roamed over Siberia and 
Europe, and North America; or of one of those sub- Himalayan 
tribes which Dr. Falconer has made known; or was it a species 
dwelling only in cireumpolar regions ? Can our domestic cattle, 
horses and dogs, our beasts of chase and our beasts of prey, be 
traced back to their source in older types, contemporaries of the 
urus, megaceros, and hyzna on the plains of Europe? If so, what 
range of variation in structure does it indicate? If not so, by what 
characters are the living races separated from those of earlier date ? 

Specific questions of this kind must be answered, before the 
general proposition, that the forms of life are indefinitely variable 
with time and circumstance, can be even examined by the light of 
adequate evidence. ‘That such evidence will be gathered and rightly 
interpreted, I for one neither doubt nor fear ; nor will any be too 
hasty in adopting extreme opinions, or too fearful of the final result, 
who remember how often that which is true has been found very 
different from that which was plausible, and how often out of the 
nettles of danger we have plucked the flowers of safety. At the 
present moment the three propositions which were ever present to 
the mind of Edward Forbes may be successfully maintained, as 
agreeing with many observed phznomena ; and around them as a 
basis of classification may be gathered most of the facts and most of 
the speculations which relate to the history of life.t First, it may 


* On the Origin of Species, 1859. 

t+ See the remarkable Essay of E. Forbes on the distribution of the existing 
Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, in Memoirs of Geol. Survey of Britain, vol. i. 
p. 336. 


462. Reports and Proceedings. 


be admitted that plants and animals form many natural groups, the 
members of which have several common characters, and are parted 
from other groups by a real boundary-line, or rather unoccupied 
space. Next, that each of these groups has a limited distribution 
in space, often restrained by high mountains or deep seas, or 
parallels of temperature, within which it has been brought into 
being. Thirdly, that each group has been submitted to, or is now 
undergoing, the pressure of a general law, by which its duration is 
limited in geologlcal time; the same group never reappearing after 
being removed from the series. 


Section C.—GEOLOGY. 


Sir Roperick Murcuison, in his Address to the Geological Sec- 
tion of the British Association at Birmingham, after some con- 
gratulatory remarks, alluded to the addition made by Sir W. Logan, 
in the discovery of Hozodn Canadense, to our knowledge of the 
oldest stratified rocks, which both in Canada and Scotland are 
seen to be the lowest by position ; and, remarking by the way that, 
whether Hozoén be present or not in the serpentinous marble of 
Connemara, that rock is of Lower Silurian age, and not older, he dwelt 
on the fact of a low Foraminifer (Hozoén) being the oldest known 
organism, succeeded in overlying formations by higher and higher 
animals; Fishes appearing in the Upper Silurian beds, higher 
vertebrates still later, and Man last of all in the youngest of Tertiary 
deposits. After some well-deserved compliments to the Foreign 
Geologists present on the occasion, the speaker said—‘ Among the 
recent important additions to our knowledge of the geographical 
distribution and characters of the Silurian rocks, I cannot but advert 
to the successful labours of Professor Harkness. He had already 
shown in the clearest manner, by the evidence of fossils and order of 
succession, that the lowest of the strata in the Cumbrian district of 
the Lakes, the slates of Skiddaw, are truly of Lower Silurian age, 
and not older than the Llandeilo group. Recently, in pursuing his 
labours, he has detected fossils in the “green slates” or volcanic 
ashes and porphyries which lie intermediate between the Skiddaw 
strata and the higher Silurian; and he has further found others in 
the Coniston Flags, which he views as equivalents of the upper part 
of the Caradoc formation. Further, Professor Harkness has shown, 
for the first time, that the slaty rocks of Westmoreland, which sepa- 
rate the Carboniferous limestone from the Permian of the Vale of 
the Eden, contain Lower Silurian fossils similar to those of Cumber- 
land. I hope also to learn from him at this meeting what has been 
the effect of certain great faults ranging from north to south, which 
have impressed a grand and picturesque outline on that region, and 
upon the lines of “which are situated the most striking of the lakes 
of the north-west of England.’ 

Sir Roverick Murcuison then alluded to the good results ex- 
pected from the researches of the Dudley and Midland Geological 
Society on the rocks and fossils of the Lickey, Dudley, &e., and on 


Sir R. I, Murchison’s Address. 463 


the eruptive rocks of the Rowley Hills ; and he reminded his hearers 
that Professor Jukes would, in an Evening Lecture, indicate the 
extent to which profitable sinkings for coal can be made through the 
red sandstones of the central counties. One such successful sinking 
was made by the late Earl of Dartmouth, only four miles to the west 
of Birmingham, twenty-seven years ago, and was then referred to by 
Sir Roderick as a good sign of the progressive influence of geo- 
logical knowledge. Alluding to the probable increase of coal-area 
to be realized by following the South Staffordshire coal-field under- 
ground to the east, the speaker noticed the enormous annual increase 
in our use of coal (now amounting ‘to the astounding figure of 93 
millions of tons’) as a caution against too sanguine expectations as 
to the duration of our coal supply. He then directed attention to 
the interesting accumulation of granitic and other drift of the Gla- 
cial Period to be studied near Wolverhampton, and said—‘ Coming 
hither in ignorance of what the several associations of local geo- 
logists (which rival each other in their researches) have accom- 
plished, I shall be happy to learn that some of them have detected, 
in this portion of the kingdom, any of those proofs of the existence 
of man at an early period, when large animals, now extinct, pre- 
vailed in our islands, in ages so remote that, since then, the physical 
configuration of the country has undergone great changes. This 
inference is, as I have said, founded upon irrefragable evidence 
collected in different parts of Europe, as well as in our own country. 
When, however, we come to consider the modus operandi by which 
these great physical changes have been brought about, geologists 
have different opinions. As one who holds to the belief that in 
former periods the crust of the earth was from time to time affected 
by an agency much more powerful than anything which has been ex- 
perienced in the historic era, I do not believe that the wear and tear 
due to atmospheric subaérial erosive agency could, even after ope- 
rating for countless ages, have originated and deepened any of the 
valleys and gorges which occur in countries as flat as the tract in 
which we are now assembled. 

‘ But, whilst I adhere to my long-cherished opinion as to the 
great intensity of power employed in the production of dislocations 
of the crust of the earth, and though I cannot subscribe to the doc- 
trine that the ordinary action of deep seas remote from coasts can 
adequately explain the denudation of the old surface, even by in- 
voking any amount of time, I recognize with pleasure the ability 
displayed by my able associates, Ramsay, Jukes, and Geikie,* in 
sustaining views which are to a great extent opposed to my own in 
this department of Theoretical Geology. 

‘ Admiring the Huttonian theory, as derived from reasoning upon 


* The work of Geikie, recently published, and entitled ‘The Scenery of Scotland 
viewed in connexion with its Physical Geology,’ is an admirable illustration of that 
author’s descriptive powers. Though I am opposed to his view of the original for- 
mation of valleys and deep depressions by rivers and the atmosphere, I quite agree 
with him as to the great effect produced by glaciers when that mountainous region 
was covered by snow and ice. 


464 Reports and Proceedings, 


my native mountainous country Scotland, and fully admitting that 
on adequate inclines ice and water must, during long periods, have 
produced great denudation of the rocks, I maintain that such reason- 
ing is quite inadequate to explain the manifest proofs of convulsive 
agency which abound all over the crust of the earth, and even are to 
be seen in many of the mines in the very tract in which we are 
assembled. ‘Thus, to bring such things to the mind’s eye of persons 
who are acquainted with this neighbourhood, I do not apprehend 
that those who have examined the tract of Coalbrook Dale will 
contend that the deep gorge in which the Severn there flows has 
been eaten out by the agency of that river, the more so when the 
deep fissure is at once accounted for when we see the abrupt sever- 
ance that has taken place between the rocks which occupy its oppo- 
site sides. In that part of Shropshire, the Severn has not worn 
away the rocks during the historic era, nor has it produced a deeper 
channel ; whilst in its lower parts it has only deposited silt and mud, 
and increased the extent of land on its banks. 

‘Then, if we turn to the district in which we were last assembled, 
the valley at Bath is known to be the seat of one of those dis- 
turbances to which my eminent friend Sir Charles Lyell candidly 
applied the term “ convulsion”; the hot. waters of that city having 
ever since flowed out of a deep-seated fissure, clearly marked by the 
strata on the one side of the valley having been upheaved to a height 
very different from that which they once occupied in connection with 
those of the other side. When, indeed, we look to the lazy-flowing, 
mud-collecting Avon, which at Bath passes along that line of valley, 
how clearly do we see that it never scooped out its channel! Still 
more, when we follow it to Bristol, and observe it passing through 
the deep gorge of Mountain-limestone at Clifton, every one must 
then be convinced that it never could have produced such an exca- 
vation. In fact, we know that, from the earliest periods of history, 
it has only accumulated mud, and has never worn away any portion 
of hard rock. 

‘Fyrom such data I conclude that we cannot apply to flat regions, 
in which water has no abrading power, the same influence which it 
exerts in mountainous countries; whilst we are also compelled to 
admit that the convulsive dislocations of former periods produced 
many of those gorges in which our present streams flow. To pass, 
indeed, from the environs of Bath and Bristol, and even from the 
less distant Coalbrook Dale, you have only to contemplate the tract 
which lies between Birmingham and Dudley, and endeavour to 
satisfy the mind as to the processes by which it has been planed 
down before the surface was covered by the Northern Drift; for 
the great dislocations which this tract has undergone, as proved by 
many subterraneous workings, must have left a highly irregular 
surface, which was so levelled by some very active causes as to obli- 
terate the superficial irregularities corresponding with the interior 
disturbances. In short, what was this great power of denudation 
which took place in a tract where there are no mountains whence 
powerful streams descended, and in which there are no traces 


Sir R. I. Murchison’s Address. 465 


of fluviatile action? Must we not, in candour, admit that such 
denudation is as difficult to account for, as it is to explain by what 
possible gradual agency the vast interior of the valley of elevation of 
the Weald of Sussex and Kent, and that of the smaller valley of 
Woolhope in Herefordshire, have been so absolutely and entirely 
denuded of every fragment of the enormous masses of débris which 
must have encumbered these cavities, as derived from the rocks 
which once covered them? Placing no stint whatever on the time 
which geologists must invoke to satisfy their minds as to the count- 
less ages which elapsed during the accumulations of sediment, I 
reject as an assumption which is at variance with the numberless 
proofs of intense disturbance, that the mechanical disruptions of 
former periods, and the overthrow of entire formations, as seen in 
the Alps and many mountain-chains, can be accounted for by any 
length of action of existing causes. 

‘ But I must not wander farther on, illustrating this principle, to 
which, as an old practical geologist, I still adhere, namely, that in 
former periods there existed forces which, though similar in kind, 
were of much greater intensity than those which now prevail, and 
without which we in vain seek to account for the upheavals, de- 
pressions, dislocations, and even many of the denudations of which 
the old crusts of the earth exhibit such undeniable proofs.’ 

In conclusion, Sir RopERICK spoke warmly of the labours of the 
Natural History Clubs; namely, the Malvern Club,. with special 
mention of Dr. Holl’s elucidation of the structure of the Malvern 
Range ; the Caradoc, the Oswestry, the Woolhope, the Cotteswold, 
and other Clubs ; all doing good Geological work, within easy reach 
of Birmingham, where certainly the British Association, with 
Phillips as President, and Lyell as ex-President, has delighted to 
honour Sir Roderick’s favourite Science. 


The following Papers were read before the GEOLOGICAL SECTION 
of the British ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 
at Birmingham, from Sept. 7 to 138, 1865 :— 


The President’s (Sir Roderick I. Murchison) Opening Address. See 
above, p. 462, &e. 

Rev. W. S. Symonds.—On some Ancient Drifts and Old River-beds 
of Siluria. 

W. Pengelly.—The Insulation of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. 

Rev. W. Purton.—The Geology of Coalbrook Dale. 

G. Maw.—On the Extensive Deposits of White Clays and Sands in 
North Wales, antecedent to the Boulder-clay Drift. (See 
GroLocicaL MaGazine, May 1865, p. 200.) 

C. J. Woodward.—On a Deposit near Lilleshall, Salop, containing 
Recent Marine Shells. 

IT, Chance.—On the Smelting of Rowley Rag. 

Professor Harkness and H. Nicholson.—Additional Observations on 
the Geology of the Lake Country. 

Henry Woodward.—Description of a New Chart of Fossil Crustacea. 

VOL. II.—NO. XVI. Fy EE 


466 — Reports and Proceedings. 


W. M. Wiiliams.—Some Vegetable Deposits in the Achensee, North 
Tyrol. 

Ooi vant Von- Dechen and Professor F. Rémer.—On the large 
Prussian Geological Map of the Rhenish Provinces and West- 
phalia. 

W. Pengelly.—First Report of the Committee for the Exploration 
of Kent’s Cavern. 

Professor Harkness.—On the Metamorphic Rocks and Serpentine 
Marbles of Connemara and Joyce’s County. 

Professor Tennant.—On the Agates found in England, with speci- 
mens from different countries. 

S. Bailey.—The Economic Value of the various Measures of Coal 
and Ironstone in the South Staffordshire Coal-field. 

H. Johnson.—The Extent and Duration of the South Staffordshire 
Coal-field. 

W. M. Williams.—The Ancient Glaciers of the North and Hast of 
Llangollen, and more particularly in the neighbourhood of the 
Hope Mountain. 

Principal Dawson.—The Successive Paleozoic Floras in Eastern 
North America. 

C. Moore.—On the Presence of a Greenstone Dyke in the Mendip 
Hills. 

Rev. H,. Housman.—Fossil Foor t in the New Red Sandstone at 
Brewood, near Wolverhampton. 

R. A. Peacock.—On extensive and deep Sinkings of Lands in the 
Channel Islands’ Seas, and on some Changes of the French 
Coast off the Bay of Biscay within the Historical period. 

R. A. Peacock.—On Steam as the active Agent in Earthquakes. 

D. Mackintosh.—The relative Extent of Atmospheric and Oceanic 
Denudation, with a particular reference to certain rocks and 
valleys in Yorkshire and Derbyshire. . 

Rev. A. M. M‘Kay.—The Red Sandstone of Nova Scotia. 

J. E. Taylor.—On Contortions in the Chalk at Whitlingham, near 
Norwich. (See GroLocicaL MaGazine, July 1865, p. 324.) 

J. W. Salter.—Explanation of a Map of the Faults in the Gold 
District of Dolgelly. 

T. A. Readwin.—On the recent Discovery of Gold at Gwynfynydd, 
North Wales. 

H, Hicks and J. W. Salter Denon on Further Researches in the 
Lingula Flags of South Wales. 

D. Forbes.—First Report on the Igneous Rocks of Staffordshire. 

W. Molyneux.—Further Report on the Distribution of the Organic 
Remains of the North Staffordshire Coal-field. 

C. Twomley.—On the Faults in the South Staffordshire Coal-field, 
and their relation to the Igneous Rocks of the District. 

W. Ness——On the Coal-measures in Mold Valley, and their Products. 

Rev. P. B. Brodie.-—On the Fossiliferous Beds of the New Red 
Sandstone (Upper and Lower Keuper) in Warwickshire. 

Professor Harkness and H. Nicholson.—On the Silurian Rocks of 
the Isle of Man, 


Geological Papers read before the British Association. 467 


H.. Woodward.—Descripiion of a new Phyllopodous Crustacean from 
the Moffat Shales, Dumfriesshire. 

H. Woodward.—On the oldest known Brachyurous Crustacean 
(Protocarcinus longipes) from the Forest Marble, Malmesbury, 
Wilts. 

H. Woodward.—Sixteen new Species added to the list of Crus- 
tacea from the Lias of England. 

H. Woodward.—On some New Crustacea from the Eocene and 
Cretaceous Formations. 

E. Ray Lankester.—On British Species of Cephalaspis and the 
Scotch Pteraspis. 

Rev. J. D. La Touche.—On the Nodules in the Limestone of Wen- 
lock Edge. 

Professor Phillips (President of the Association).—On Glacial Stri- 
ation. 

Dr. L. Adams and Professor Busk.—First Report on the Explora- 
tion of the Maltese Caverns. 

E. Whymper.—A few Notes on the Structure of the Matterhorn. 

Prof. F. Rémer.—On a Fossil Spider from the Coal-measures of 
Upper Silesia. 

Principal Dawson.—On the Fossil Plants of the Post-pliocene De- 
posits of Canada in connection with the Climate of the period, 
and the Formation of Boulder-clay. 

Rev. P. B. Brodie.—Remarks on the Drift in part of Warwickshire, 
and on the Evidence of Glacial Action which it affords. 

A, Startin.—On the Drift in the Parish of Exhall, north of Coventry. 

J. S. Whitten. Observations on Supposed Glacial Drift in the 
neighbourhood of Coventry. 

J. G. Jeffreys.—Notice of the Occurrence of certain Fossil Shells in 
the Sea-bed adjoining the Channel Islands. 

C. Ketley.— On the Silurian Rocks and Fossils of Dudley. 

Dr. H. B.Holl.—On the Pre-Cambrian Rocks of Central England. 

Rev. P. B. Brodie.-—On a Section of Lower Lias at Harbury, and on 
two new Species of Corals in the Lias of Warwickshire. 

E. C. H. Day.—On the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis. 

E. C. H. Day.—On a Head of Hybodus De-la-Bechei. 

E. C. H. Day.—On the History of the Jurassic Seas, as evidenced 
by the History of the first Liassic Sea. 

Rev. W. Holland. — Remarks on the Geology of Parts of the Sinaitic 
Peninsula. 

D. Forbes.—On the Existence of Gold-bearing Eruptive Rocks in 
South America, which have made their appearance at two very 
distinct geological epochs. 

G. Maw.—On some Fossiliferous Slates occurring between the 
Bunter Sandstone and Mountain Limestone of the Vale of 
Clwydd, North Wales. (See Grou. Mac., Aug. 1865, p. 380.) 

W. S. Mitchell_—On hitherto unrecorded Leaf-forms, &c., from 
Alum Bay, Isle of Wight. 

LL. Percival.—On a recent Example of the Formation of Pyrites in a 
South Staffordshire Coal-pit. 


Tet det 2 


468 Reports and Proceedings. 


G. E. Roberts.—Notes on the Theory of Repulsion as illustrative of 
Physical Geology. 

Rev. W. Fox.—On a New Wealden Saurian named Polacanthus. 
(See Gror. Maa., Sept. 1865, p. 432.) 

W. Von Haidinger.—On the Progress of the Imperial Geological 
Institute of the Austrian Empire. 

L. P. Capewell.—Organic Remains of the 8. Staffordshire Coal-field. 


Notices or GEOLOGICAL PAPERS READ BEFORE THE BRITISH 
ASSOCIATION. 

GrotogicaL Mar or THE RuenisH Provinces AND WESTPHALIA, 
(5 EHEIMRATH Von-DecHEN and Prof. F. Rémer explained the 

large Prussian geological map of the Rhenish Provinces and 
Westphalia. Only one part was exhibited, which illustrated some 
prominent points in relation to the Devonian rocks.—Prof. Romer 
said the general interest of the map for geologists in this country 
was, that it represented that part of Germany in which the Devonian 
rocks were more fully developed than in any other country, not 
excepting England or America. In Germany there were the three 
great divisions in regular superposition, with a better record of ani- 
mal life than was to be found in the Devonian rocks in any other 
part of the world; and as the superposition of the strata was regu- 
lar, there was the certainty that nothing was wanting between the 
Upper Devonian and the lowermost of the Carboniferous series. 


On a Fossty SPIDER FROM THE CoAL-MEASURES, UPPER SILESIA, BY 
Pror. F. Romer. 

ee specimen to which the communication referred was found 

in a piece of shale from the Coal-measures. It is beautifully 
preserved, and shows not only the four pairs of feet with all their 
seements and the two palpi, but even the coriaceous integument 
of the body, and the hairs attached to the feet. The interest of 
the discovery of this spider lies in the fact that hitherto spiders 
have not been known from any rocks older than the Jurassic, and 
that now the existence of them in the Paleozoic period is proved. 
From the resemblance to the recent genus Lycosa, and its occurrence 
in the Coal-measures, the name of Protolycosa anthracophila was 
given to the species. 


Mr. Henry Woopwarp exhibited a New Cuart of Foss Crustacea (accom- 
panied by a descriptive Catalogue), designed and drawn by J. W. Sarrmr, 
F.G.S., and Henry Woopwarp, F.G.S. Engraved by J. W. Lowry, and 
published by J. W. Lowry and J. Tennant. London: 1868. 

HE Crustacea—represented at the present day by the Crab 
and Lobster, and an infinite variety of other forms—play such 

an important part in organic nature, that they well deserve our 
attention; whilst their fossil remains show them to have been pre- 
eminently the oldest of all living forms, Foraminifera only excepted. 
Their appearance is as varied as their structure is typical ; whilst 
their distribution and habitat, both recent and fossi/, are equally 


H.. Woodward on a New Chart of Fossil Crustacea. 469 


extensive. Take, for instance, the Brachyura (the Crabs). At 
the present day they occur as terrestrial, freshwater, and marine 
dwellers ; whilst their remains go down into the Oolitic rocks, and 
occur in every higher formation, with marine and freshwater 
shells and leaves of land-plants; and their distribution may be 
exemplified by the curious fact, that for ages the Chinese have 
used the fossil Crabs from the island of Hainan in their Pharma- 
copeia as a highly esteemed medicine to remove ‘ heartburn’ and 
indigestion. 

On looking at the Chart, we shall perceive that it is divided both 
by transverse and vertical lines. ‘The transverse lines separate the 
several geological formations, whilst the curving vertical ones in- 
dicate the different zoological orders. 

We thus perceive, that of all the varied forms as we descend, 
when arrived at the oldest Silurian and Cambrian Rocks, only one, 
or at most two forms—Trilobites, and the bivalved and dish-shaped 
Crustacea (Phyllopods and Ostracods)—remain. 

But although, in certain rocks, Trilobites alone are found, yet 
their diversified forms and their extreme beauty of sculpture and 
ornamentation to a large extent compensate for the absence of 
higher orders, whilst their numbers would seem to have been in- 
credibly large; so large, indeed, that they have afforded subject of 
study to Barrande, Burmeister, Emmerich, Angelin Salter, and 
many other paleontologists. As this group ascends in time, we 
find those extravagantly ornamented and spinose forms such as 
Paradoxides and Acidaspis disappear, and only one genus, Phillipsia 
(named after the distinguished President of the British Association) 
survives to the Coal-measures, when the whole group disappears, and 
its place seems filled by Stomapods, Amphipods, and Isopods—forms 
to which Mr. C. Spence Bate has paid so much attention, and which 
in our Arctic seas attain as grand a development as did the Trilo- 
bites in the Silurian seas. 

It would be an interesting question to investigate, whether the 
climate of the Silurian period was one of extreme cold, like that 
of our Arctic regions, and what higher animals fed upon those 
myriads of Trilobites which swarmed in every sea; for there were 
no ‘ htight Whales’ in Siluria, as in the Arctic seas at the present 
day, to devour them, and we cannot rest satisfied with the notion 
that they were only the consumers and not the consumed, or with 
that suggested by an eminent Continental paleontologist, that ‘ they 
ate one another.’ 

The next oldest and most remarkable group is that of the Phyllo- 
poda and Ostracoda, the bivalved and dise- -shaped Crustacea which 
abound in the Shales of Lanarkshire and almost every higher forma- 
tion to the present day, often forming entire strata with their horny 
or shelly envelopes. This is the only group which seems to have 
been represented from the Cambrian Rocks to the present day. 

Perhaps the most extraordinary and extinct order is that of the 
Eurypterida, the largest individuals of which attained a length of 
6-7 feet, and are known to the Forfarshire quarrymen as the ‘ ‘Sera- 


470 fteports and Proceedings. 


phim. Although so unlike them in the form of their shelly cover- 
ing and long body, Prof. Hall and others have shown the close 
relationship which exists between Pterygotus and Limulus (the 
King-crab) of the present day. 

The Xiphosura have succeeded the Eurypterida, and held their 
own from the Coal-measures to modern times, occurring in the 
Oolites of Germany so like the recent forms as not to be dis- 
tinguished from them generically. 

Some may, perhaps, be surprised to find the group known as 
the Cirripedia (which is represented by the ‘ Barnacle’ and ‘ Acorn- 
shell’) placed with the Crustacea; but Profs. Hancock, AJlman, 
Thompson, and Dr. Darwin have shown them to be true Crustacea, 
which, when young, rove freely through the sea, but, when they 
arrive at their final condition, become attached to foreign bodies, as 
wood, ships, rocks, &e: &c,, and there pass the remainder of their 
days in a sessile or pedunculated shell. 


TURRILEPAS WRIGHTUO, H. Woodw. (Chiton Wrightii, De Kon.) 
Fig. 1. Specimen from Mr. E. J. Hollier’s collection. 
Fig. 2. 6 Mr. Charles Ketley’s  ,, 
Fig. 3. eae Mr.:H. Johnson’s iy 
Figs a, b,c, represent the three forms of plates of which the several rows are composed in 
figs. 1-8, which bear the corresponding letters. ‘The opercular valves are not known. 


Until June 1865, the oldest Cirripede known was the Pollicipes 
Rheticus, from the Rhetice beds of Somersetshire ; but the author 
has just described* a new pedunculated Cirripede, with intersect- 
ing rows of plates (similar to Loricula), from the Wenlock Lime- 
-stone and Shale (Upper Silurian) of Dudley, figures of which are 
given above.t 

The Decapods (Crabs and Lobsters) date’ back their ancestry, 
the former to the Ooltte, and the latter to the Coal formation. 
This group contains among its members those most highly organ- 
ized genera, the land and semi-aquatic Crabs, whose gills (enclosed 
within the shell) are so beautifully defended from evaporation, that 


* See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxi. part iy. 

+ Two detached valves of this fossil were discovered by Mr. John Gray of 
Hagley, and described as a Chiton by M. De Koninck, Bulletins de Acad. de 
Bruxelles, 1857, 2nd series, vol, iii. p. 199, pl. 1, f. 2. 


Harkness on Metamorphic Rocks, §c. of Connemara. 471 


they can wander at pleasure far away from water, and even defy 
the powerful heat of a tropical sun. Perhaps no stratum affords 
greater abundance of long-tailed forms (Lobsters) than the Litho- 
graphic Limestone of Solenhofen, so well worked out by Dr. Oppel 
of Munich, the species of which are closely represented in the 
Lias and Oolite of England.* 

The top of the Chart is devoted to a small series of Recent 
Typical Forms, placed for comparison with the less perfect fossil 
remains. Short descriptions of each group have been prepared and 
added to the Catalogue, which, it is hoped, will increase its useful- 
ness, and enhance the value of Mr. J. W. Lowry’s beautiful en- 
gravings. 


On THE Mntamorrnic Rocks AND THE GREEN Marpius or CoNNEMARA.[ 
By Prof. Harxnuss, F.R.8. , 
HE author showed, by sections and maps, that the green marbles 
of Connemara were a local and peculiar development of light- 
grey subcrystalline limestone which lies on the north side of the 
gneiss rocks of the south of the Bens of Connemara. This lime- 
stone dips conformably under these gneissic rocks. It is superposed 
conformably on quartz-rocks; and these quartz-rocks, with their 
superposed deposits, are thrown into numerous contortions in the 
Connemara country. Where they are most curtailed, the limestones 
have opened out in their lines of lamination, and into these openings 
the serpentinous matter, to which the green marble owes its colour, 
has been introduced. The metamorphic strata in the Connemara 
country appertain to the Lower Silurians. They are the equivalents 
of the Quartz-rocks, Upper Limestone, and Upper Gneiss of the 
Highlands of Scotland, described by Sir R. I. Murchison. It has 
been stated that Hozoén Canadense occurs among the green marbles 
of Connemara. ‘The structure which has given rise to this opinion 
is purely mineral, and has resulted from the deposition of Serpen- 
tine upon Tremolite and asbestiform minerals. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
4+ —— 


EXPLORATION OF THE ‘HOYLE’S MOUTH’ CAVE, 
NEAR TENBY. 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MaGazINE. 

Sir,—In an ‘outlier’ of the Carboniferous Limestone, running 
at right angles to the ‘ saddle-back’ of Old Red Sandstone ealled the 
‘Ridgeway, is a picturesquely situated cavern, well known to visitors 
at Tenby by the name of ‘ Hoyle’s Mouth.’ Some interesting dis- 
coveries of the remains of extinct and other animals have lately been 
made here by W. A. Sanford, Esq., and myself. As your readers 


* The author stated, at the British Association at Birmingham, that he had 
determined six genera and sixteen species from the Lias alone, which nearly 
resemble oolitic forms from Bavaria. 

+ The ‘Reader,’ Sept. 16th. 


472 Correspondence. 


may think a record of these discoveries not unsuited to your pages, 
we forward you a short account for insertion. 

‘Hoyle’s Mouth’ consists of a lofty arched entrance, extending 
about 24 feet into the limestone hill. A tortuous passage, about 
79 feet long, connects this with a small chamber 8 feet in diameter ; 
another narrow passage, about 32 feet in length, leads into a second 
chamber, which is dome-shaped, about 11 feet in diameter, and has a 
funnel-shaped roof. 

In this last-named chamber, which is at present the farthest part 
of the cave accessible, we found, beneath a mass of undisturbed brec- 
cia, the right and left femur, the os innominatum, some vertebree, and 
other portions of the great Cave-bear: these were extracted in a 
very perfect state. Near them were the radius of Hyena spelea, 
and several loose bones and teeth of Fox, Deer, and Ox. In the 
passage about 32 feet from tuis, just where it leaves the small 
chamber above mentioned, were fragments of bones and an incisor 
of Hyena; also, in the breccia, the bones of some large bird, and, 
what is of special interest, a worked flint, apparently of the ‘ barb” 
type. All these latter remains were below the level of the old sta- 
lagmitic floor, which had been partly broken through at this point. 
It is but a fair inference to draw, therefore, that they were contem- 
porary with the animals of the Pleistocene—in fact, of the Mam- 
moth Period. 

It is worthy of remark, that there is evidence of the entrance 
of the sea at two distinct periods into the interior, as the bones 
in the last chamber were accompanied by rolled pebbles of various 
rocks; and on the sides of the first passage leading from the en- 
trance were deposits of sea-shells—Mytilus, &c.—imbedded in a 
thin coating of stalagmite, exactly in the position in which such 
animals would have lived. 

At the entrance, excavations were made in concert with the Rey. 
G. N. Smith, of Gumpeston, which confirmed in a remarkable man- 
ner the latter gentleman’s previous discoveries relative to the anti- 
quity of Man. Here we turned up a large quantity of worked flints 
of two different types; and in a iayer of soil, which there is every 
reason to believe was perfectly free from previous disturbances, we 
found, in juxtaposition with these flints, an upper molar of Megaceros, 
together with teeth of Ox and Horse. Near this spot Mr. Smith 
had previously found a canine tooth of the great Cave-bear, an 
animal strictly contemporary with the Megaceros. Some of these 
worked stones were not flint, but of a stone not at present traceable 
to this neighbourhood. It appears to be a semi-vitrified trap, or semi- 
obsidian, of a dull green colour, with whitish specks and translucent 
edges, having precisely the same concoidal fracture as flint. 

Though many flint-pebbles can be found on the sea-beaches in the 
neighbourhood, we have failed to discover any pebbles or blocks of 
this description of greenstone, though we have diligently searched 
for them from here to St. David’s Head. 

Finally, remains of Man were not absent; for, avout 40 feet from 
the mouth of the cave, below the level of the stalagmitic floor, and 


Correspondence. 473 


under a broken shelf of the same, we found a portion of a human 
lower jaw, together with a human caleaneum. ‘These latter remains 
from their position may be of the date of the worked flints, or they 
may be of any date greater or less than a few hundred years since. 
The determination of the bones is due to Mr. Sanford. 
Trenspy: August 22, 1865. H. H. Winwoop. 


GLACIATION IN DEVON AND ITS BORDERS. 
To the Editor of the GkEoLocicaAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—I do not know whether anything has been published about 
ice-marks ou the rocks of Exmoor, Dartmoor, or the other hills of 
the West of England. Perhaps, therefore, you will allow me to 
put on record a case of glaciation which I met with yesterday, as 
striking as any in the Killarney or Glengariff country in the south- 
west of Ireland. It is on the banks of the river Exe, about a mile 
and a half north-east of this little town, and about a quarter of a 
mile north of the ruins of Barlynch Abbey. The Exe runs rapidly 
down a beautifully wooded glen some 400 feet deep, and makes a 
sharp turn at the point indicated, where a mass of hard grits in the 
upper part of the true Old Red Sandstone juts out to the west, 
dipping south, and showing a steep little escarpment looking 
north up the valley. At the extreme point of this crag, where the 
valley is contracted to a quarter of its usual width, part of the face 
of the rock, 20 yards long and 20 feet high, looking up the river, is 
grooved, polished and scratched in parallel lines, nearly horizontal, 
but slightly inclined towards the bed of the river. It looks like a 
gigantic cornice-moulding, some of the more prominent ribs about 
2 or 3 feet apart, others only 6 or 8 inches, but all undercut with a 
sharp symmetrically-rounded fluting to a depth of from 3 to 4 
inches. The surfaces between the most prominent cornices are 
more slightly fluted, with lesser ribs, and the whole smoothed over 
with parallel rubbing-marks, exactly as may be seen at the sides of 
a modern glacier wherever a projecting crag intrudes itself into its 
course. 

The absence of anything like boulder-clay, and the rarity of far- 
transported boulders, are circumstances in which this district also 
resembles the Killarney and Glengariff country, as well as in the 
identity of the rocks and character of the scenery. 


Dutverton: Sept. 19. J. BEETE JUKES. 


PRIMARY AND SECONDARY GLACIAL STRIA. 
To the Editor of the GkoLtocicaL MaGazine. 


Srr,—It is rather remarkable that none of the writers on Glacial 
Phenomena have mentioned Primary and Secondary sets of Stric as 
having been observed in the localities of which they have given 
descriptions ; and that they do not occur would appear to me rather 
remarkable, as in all the places in Ireland that I have carefully 
examined I found them. 

The Primary Strie and Grooves in this country have a general 


474 Correspondence. 


bearing of about NNE. and SSW., having a similar bearing to 
the ‘Crag and Tail’ and the ‘ Dressed Hummocks.’ They are only 
slightly deflected while passing over hills some nearly 2,000 feet 
high, and seem to have been made by the movement of the Field, or 
Noppes, of ice that covered this country before the Boulder-drift 
Period. 

The Secondary Strie always coincide with the fall of the ground, 
nearly every valley having a different system: they as often run 
across the ‘Crag and Tail’ and ‘ Dressed Hummocks,’ as not. They 
cut the Primary Striz and often obliterate them, and are sometimes 
accompanied by grooves; but this is not often the case. They seem 
to have been formed when the Ice-sheet, or Mappes, was finally 
breaking up and sliding down the various hills and valleys. 

I have observed Primary and Secondary Striz in the following 
localities :—In the Valley of Galway, from Atheney to Golam Head ; 
in the valley between the Burren Mountain, to Clare, and Slieve 
Aughta, from Gort to near Ennis; in the Ballynahinch Valley, from 
Oughterard to near Clifton ; in the valley in which Lough Corrib is 
now situated, from Maum to Kylebeg; in the valley now occupied by 
the Killeries ; and in the various small valleys that occur among the 
hills in Jar-Connaught (christened by the English, Connemara)— 
nearly every one of which has its own system of Secondary Strie. 
They can also be well observed on the eastern slopes of Slieve 
Bawn (which rises as a ‘ Crag and Tail’ in the plain about ten miles 
west of Longford), where the Primary Striz bear with the lie of the 
hill, while the Secondary Striz run down its slopes. That in none 
of the places that I have mentioned are the Strie due to local gla- 
ciation, is proved by their occurring under the Boulder-drifé. 

J. Henry KInanan. 

OUGHTERARD, IRELAND: Aug. 19, 1865. 


DISCOVERY OF ERECT STEMS OF FOSSIL TREES IN TRAPPEAN 
ASH IN ARRAN. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 

Sir,—The occurrence of beds of stratified trappean ash resting 
upon fossiliferous strata is not uncommon in the Coal-measures of 
the West of Scotland; but very rarely such beds are found to enclose 
organic remains, and hitherto, so far as Iam aware, no beds have 
been found in situations where they can be studied and explored 
systematically. 

The north-eastern shores of Arran, exhibiting beautiful sections 
of the Carboniferous series, have been surveyed and described by 
various eminent geologists, and on their authority the beds of vol- 
canic origin interstratified with the coal, shale, and sandstone of the 
series have been invariably accepted as either intercalated, or intru- 
sive, trap-beds, ‘trap-dikes,’ or ‘outbursts of trap;’ nor is it easy, 
on a mere cursory survey, to ascribe any other character to them. 

A prolonged stay during the summer on these interesting shores 
has, however, enabled me to study these beds more minutely, and, on 
closer examination, the great majority of them are found to consist 


Correspondence. 475 


of purely volcanic ash—mostly of a clearly sedimentary origin— 
reposing upon thin seams of coal and shale, and enclosing a con- 
siderable number of fossil plants in a beautiful state of preservation. 

Up to the present time, I have accurately surveyed a distance of 
only about 400 feet along the shore; and within this comparatively 
narrow area are found no less than ten distinct beds of trappean ash. 

Trunks of trees, 18 to 24 inches in diameter, and 2 to 3 feet in 
height, standing erect upon the original beds of thin coal and shale 
upon which they grew, and covered by layers of ash 2 to 3 feet in 
thickness, are found regularly dispersed over the area; while the 
ash overlying them, in which they are embedded, contains numerous 
branches, from 4 inches in diameter down to the minutest dimensions, 
some of the impressions displaying an almost feathery foliage, as 
though suddenly covered up before the vegetation had had time to 
decay or become water-worn. The larger branches remain perfectly 
round, and show the pith in an admirable state of preservation; and 
the cellular tissue, filled up with mineral matter, is plainly visible to 
the naked eye. 

The specimens of the smaller branches thus far obtained indicate 
the genera Lepidodendron and Halonia; but I have had no oppor- 
tunity as yet of having them examined microscopically. As far as 
can be determined by a simple botanical glass, the structure is very 
similar to the sections of Lepidodendron, &c. figured and described 
by Mr. Binney in the ‘ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society’ 
for January 1862. 

The whole of the beds belong to the Lower Carboniferous series 
underlying the Producta-limestones, and there are indications of 
beds of a similar character both above and below those described. 
The mineralogical character of the beds is highly interesting, and 
has been examined jointly with me by my friend and colleague, 
_ Mr. John Young, of the Hunterian Museum. A joint paper on the 
subject will be laid by us before the Geological Society of Glasgow 
at an early date: meanwhile, if you think the announcement of the 
discovery of fossil plants under the circumstances stated may be 
interesting to your geological readers generally, the above details 
are quite at your service, and I remain, dear Sir, 

Yours very truly, E. A. Wiinscu, 


ANDERSONIAN UNIvERSITY Buinp1nes, V.P. Geol. Soc., Glasgow. 
Guascow: Sept. 9, 1866. 


NOTE ON THE ANALYSIS OF A DEPOSIT CONTAINING 
SULPHATE OF BARYTA. 


To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 

Srr,—At a late meeting of the Glasgow Geological Society, Mr. 
Thomson exhibited a compact mass which had been deposited in a 
pipe, apparently a square wooden one, used for conveying water 
from Harton Pit, near South Shields, which is about 200 fathoms 
deep. 

The deposit is a hard, compact, light-brown mass, with dark- 
brown streaks running through it. The portion shown was about 


476 Correspondence. 


1 foot long, 5 inches square, and 2 inches thick, and appears to have 
almost entirely filled up the pipe, retaining its square form through- 
out: the whole was deposited in the short space of from six to nine 
months. 
The chemical composition, which is rather remarkable, is as 
follows :— 
(Sp. gr. at 15:5 C., 3646.) 


2 
Sulphate of Baryta : 5 ; ; Oa a 
Ferric Oxide : : : i : : Ol 5:5 
Carbonate of Lime ; ; s : ; 9:46 82 
Alumina A , ; F : : . traces 1-0 
Water A é é . f ; : 2:02 2:0 
99:16 100:3 


No. 1 was from the centre of the deposit, No. 2 from the out- 
side. This analysis was made by a friend. 

The only reference which I have been able to find with regard to 
the occurrence of sulphate of baryta in coal-pits is in a paper by 
Messrs. R. C. Clapham and T. Daglish, read before the British 
Association at Newcastle in 1863. It is there stated that Mr. Foster 
had found quite a large mass: Dr. Richardson also had observed 
it in the waters of Walker Colliery.— Yours truly, 

J. WALLACE YOUNG. 

GLASGOW. 


DENUDATION, UNCONFORMABILITY, AND THE VALE OF CLWYD. 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MaAGaAziIne. 


Srr,—Geological notions, like all others, occasionally swing pen- 
dulum-like from one extreme to the other. The old controversy 
between the respective importance of Fire and Water has not ceased ; 
though, judging from the number of important results which are now 
attributed to its denuding power, Water is evidently in the ascendant. 
Believing myself that these results are rather over-estimated, I am 
induced to offer to your readers the following remarks. 

A gap in the order of strata—as, for example, Carboniferous Lime- 
stone resting upon Lower Silurian rocks, or the Trias, as in the Vale 
of Clwyd, supposed to rest upon the Carboniferous Limestone—does 
not necessarily imply the denudation of the strata missing from 
between them; for it is possible to conceive that towards the close 
of the deposition (or indeed at any period during its deposition) of 
any group of strata, the deposit might, in any portion, or the whole 
of it, be raised above the sea-level, and so remain, while newer 
deposits were being formed around it; and so a Azatus in the order 
of the strata would be caused, which would be greater or less in 
proportion to the time the relative positions of sea and land remained 
unchanged. 

Thus, suppose in any particular district the sea-bottom to have 
been elevated towards the close of the Lower Silurian period, and 
to have remained above the sea-level until the Old Red Sandstone 
was deposited, and then be again submerged, we should in that 


Correspondence. AU7 


district miss the whole of the Upper Silurian rocks; and the Old 
Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous Limestone would rest directly 
upon the Lower Silurian strata, just as it is seen to do on the west 
of Oswestry. Of course, the land so raised would become subject to 
the influence of the atmosphere and rain, and its outlines would 
become modified in proportion to the power of these agents and the 
extent of surface so exposed. ; 

The thinness, too, of a ‘Formation’ at a given point does not 
necessarily imply a previous ‘ erosion’ or denudation of the strata at 
that point. ‘For it is but reasonable, and in accordance with what 
we know, to suppose that while the deposition of matter may be the 
same in character over an extended area, it may yet differ greatly 
at various points in the raée at which it is deposited, liable as the 
deposition is to be affected by currents, by the nature of the solids 
supplying the materials, by the presence and intensity, or otherwise, 
of sub-marine springs, &e. Thus, whilst over the large area sup- 
posed we should find beds similar in their general character, and 
occupying the same stratigraphical position, we should also find local 
variation as to colour, texture, and thickness. 

It apears to me also, that Unconformability of strata does not 
necessarily imply a lengthened lapse of time, or a change in the 
mineral or organic constituents of the deposit. It is easy and 
reasonable, as it appears to me, to conceive that, during the forma- 
tion of any deposit, the sea-bottom in any portion of it may be tilted 
up from a nearly horizontal to a highly inclined position, and the 
work of deposition go on again with scarcely any interruption; and 
thus we should have strata of the same age (geologically speaking ) 
resting unconformably on each other, while, on the other hand, a 
much older ‘formation’ which had been elevated, as I have before 
supposed, and remained so, whilst newer deposits were forming 
about it, may again be depressed, and in such a position as that the 
new matter shall be deposited conformably to it. 

It appears to me that no theory of Denudation or Unconforma- 
bility is universally applicable, but both are liable to be affected by 
local and particular causes: hence the need of great and constant 
discrimination in all geological theorizing. To some of your readers 
these remarks may appear mere truisms; nevertheless I do think that 
they are too often forgotten. ‘Thus, in the August Number of this 
Magazine, Mr. Maw argues from the supposed aggregate thinness of 
the Carboniferous Limestone near the head of the Vale of Clwyd, 
in favour of a great erosion of that formation prior to the deposition 
of the Trias; whereas, if the foregoing remarks are true, the sup- 
posed erosion is not necessarily consequent upon the thinness of the 
Limestone. And then we find no less an authority than Mr. Jukes, 
in his lecture at Birmingham before the British Association, as- 
suming it as an axiom that where the Carboniferous Limestone is 
present, it was once covered by the Coal-measures. Here, again, 
your readers will see that while this might have been the case, and 
probably in some instances was so, it does not follow logically that 
any group of strata now exposed on the surface was once overlain 
by the group next in geological order. Though, singularly enough, 


478 Correspondence. 


in the Vale of Clwyd, which has been singled out as an illustration 
of former denuding power, the edges of the Coal-measures (supposed 
to have been washed away) were observed cropping up on the 
western side of the vale, between the Limestone and Sandstone, 
when the Rhyl and Denbigh Railway was in course of construction ; 
and then the uppermost beds of the Carboniferous Limestone, as 
developed in North Wales, are seen in the immediate vicinity of 
Mr. Maw’s section; so that the supposed erosion could not have 
taken place. From the great similarity of the beds described by 
Mr. Maw as Permian, and those of the Millstone-grit near this town, 
I should not be surprised if the ‘Purple Shales and Sandstones’ of 
his section should be found to belong to that member of the Car- 
boniferous series; though, from one or more causes, but not neces- 
- sarily by Denudation or Erosion, they do not assume the massive 
proportions to which in other places they have attained. 
Apologising for the length of this communication, I am, yours 
truly, D. C. DAVIEs. 
Oswestry: Sept. 13, 1865. 


MISCELIANEOUS.- 
eee 


Sitver PEAK is believed to be as pre-eminent over all silver- 
mountains, as the Iron Mountain of Missouri is superior to all other 
iron-deposits. It is situated east of San Francisco, on the eastern 
side of the Sierra Nevada, and nearly one degree south of the city of 
Austin. It is some two miles from Castle Mount, an old extinct 
crater, about 5,000 ft. above sea-level. Near Silver Peak is an 
extensive deposit of salt, and not far distant a hill of pure sulphur. 
The whole country has a naked appearance, being quite destitute of 
vegetation, and bristles with mountains scattered over a plain of 
great extent. ‘The dreaded ‘Valley of Death, upon the plains of 
which, along the ‘old Spanish trail,’ travellers have suffered so much, 
lies but a short distance to the south-east of the crater of Silver 
Peak. Little Salt Lake, in Southern Utah, lies directly east of 
Silver Peak. At first the searchers after deposits of the precious | 
metals confined themselves to the Pacific side of the Sierra Nevada; 
but discoveries in New Mexico, Arizona, and Virginia city induced 
a thorough examination of the east side of that range. This proved 
a great success, the most brilliant result of which is found in the 
neighbourhood of Austin, on the line of the great overland mail, 
where a city has sprung up within three years which, Senator Nye 
says, contains a population of 10,000. From along this line of ex- 
ploration the miners are rapidly extending their operations, both 
north and south. Recently (within six months) they came upon 
this immense deposit near Castle Mount. Twelve exceedingly rich 
lodes, or ‘ledges’ as the miners call them, were discovered on that 
single mountain. This is believed to be the most valuable discovery 
yet developed. The specimens—a great number of which have 
been brought to New York by Colonel Catherwood—are certainly 
very remarkable, and are well worthy of attention. If there is no 


Miscellaneous. 479 


mistake—and with the specimens actually before us we do not see 
how there can be—a new deposit, superior even to the Cornstock 
lode, which has furnished so many millions of silver, is about to 
pour into our market its limitless supply of this precious metal. — 
New York Journal of Commerce. 


Tue New ZEALAND GOLD-FIELDS.—The Argus of April 27, 1865, 
states that further intelligence from the Okitiki district only confirms 
the opinion before expressed, that too many men had proceeded thither, 
and that a large proportion of them would have to leave it before 
the winter sets in. There is no doubt of extensive fields being ulti- 
mately opened within a few miles of the coast; but the difficulty of 
getting through the country is so great, and provisions are so dear 
at all the outlying places, that men without a good supply of money 
need not go prospecting. The climate, too, is very wet; and this 
much increases the hardship to those not well provided with tents 
and other requisites. The men at work appear to be getting good 
returns; but the question with one-half the late arrivals is, how they 
are to get away again. And without money to pay their passage by 
sea, the answer is not easy, for the track over the mountains has 
become almost impossible in places, and those who attempt it suffer 
much, if they succeed in getting through at all. In the Otago district, 
there appears no lack of work for those inclined to stick to it, and seve- 
ral cases of more than ordinary success are mentioned. A well-defined 
and regular lead of gold is said to have been opened in the Cardrona 
Valley, and some of the claims on it are rich. The mountains being 
almost clear of snow, the rivers are expected to be unusually low 
this winter, and it is hoped that much gold will be got from the 
Molyneaux, not only out of the bed of the river, but also out of the 
banks, for some of the richest deposits lately found were at some 
distance above the present limits of the stream. 


MANUFACTURE OF PARAFFINE-OIL.— Public attention has already 
been directed to the discovery, in different parts of the colony, 
of the mineral from which paraffine-oil—more commonly known 
as kerosene-oil—can be obtained. Near Hartley, and also near 
Wollongong, extensive seams of this mineral have been found, 
differing considerably from each other in appearance, in fracture, 
and in yield, but both available for the manufacture of this now 
universally used luminating fluid. The seam near Hartley (dis- 
covered in consequence of some pieces of the mineral outcrop- 
ping in the alluvium) is five and a half feet in thickness, and is 
worked through a tunnel; its situation is in the Vale of Clwyd, about 
four miles from Little Hartley. The railway to Bathurst, now in 
course of formation, will cross the Darling Causeway a little more 
than a mile from the spot. The mineral is of a dark-brownish 
colour ; it is extremely tough, so that if struck with a hammer the 
instrument will bound off as it would from a block of wood; it has 
a conchoidal fracture, and does not powder when broken. It is 
stated that this mineral resembles that worked in Scotland, and 
known as Bog-head Coal, which for gas-making was estimated to be 
six and a half times the value of ordinary coal, and which had been 


A80 Miscellaneous. - 


largely used under Young’s patent for the extraction of paraffine-oil. 
Beautiful dyes and other valuable products had been made from the 
residuum, after the extraction of the oil and the paraffine. It is 
also stated that the Hartley mineral is superior to that of the Bog- 
head, in consequence of its yielding a larger quantity of gas, and 
therefore of oil, and also of its freeness from sulphur. ‘Two feet 
of the gas made from this mineral gave, it is said, a greater illumi- 
nating power than five feet of gas obtained from ordinary coal. It 
is estimated that'a ton of the mineral would yield about 140 gallons 
of crude oil. The annual import of kerosene-oil into this colony is 
set down at 200,000 gallons, and that into the whole of the Australian 
colonies at about 1,000,000 gallons; and it is confidently believed 
that the oil could be produced here at a lower price than it could 
be imported from America, and that therefore an extensive and valu- 
able source of productive wealth would be opened up.—Sydney 
- Mail, May 5, 1865. 


Discovery or A Piece or Fossit Ivory in 4 CAVERN IN PE- 
RIGORD BEARING A REPRESENTATION OF A Mammotu.—On 21st 
August last, M. Mitns-Epwarps communicated a letter from 
M. Lartet to the Academy of Sciences of France, on the discovery 
(May 1864), in the ossiferous deposit of La Madelaine, of fragments 
of a plate of ivory, upon the surface of which rude lines of the 
figure of some animal had been cut. The late Dr. Falconer (who 
was present with MM. Lartet and Christy when the drawing was 
found) at once recognized the head to be that of an Elephant, and, 
from a number of lines on the neck, that it was intended to represent 
an Elephant with a long mane—in fact, the ‘Mammoth.’ As a 
figure of this interesting relic has not yet been published, it would 
be unwise to pronounce finally upon its authenticity ; but we have 
the favourable opinion of MM. Lartet, Milne-Edwards, Quatrefages, 
Desnoyers, and of our own distinguished countrymen, the late Dr. 
Hugh Falconer, and Mr. A .W. Franks, President of the Society of 
Antiquaries (who have seen and examined it).* 

The importance of this positive evidence of the contemporaneity 
of Man with the Mammoth in the South of France, cannot, we think, 
be too highly estimated. 

Numerous carvings on bone and horn, accurately representing the 
Reindeer, Musk-ox, Horse, and other animals, found in these same 
caverns of Dordogne, afford ample proof of the artistic skill of these 
ancient people, and of their ability to represent the wild animals 
with which they were familiar in the chase. 

It is extremely improbable that they would have drawn an Ele- 
phant from imagination; how much more improbable that they 
should, without knowing the Mammoth, have depicted not only his 
general form, but represented him as a hairy beast with a thick 
mane !—as described by M. Adams in 1799, from the specimen found 
imbedded in ice at the mouth of the Lena in Siberia, some of the 
long hair of which may be seen in the British Museum. 


* See Comptes Rendus, No. 8, August 1865. 


THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. XVII.—NOVEMBER 1865. 


ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 


Se 


J. Nore on THE PAL@onTOLOGY OF THE RuzTIC (PENARTH*) 
Beps in WESTERN AND CENTRAL SOMERSET. 
By W. Boyp Dawxtns, M.A., Oxon., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Great 
Britain. 

ee BRIEF notice of some of the more important Rhetic Fossils in 
the district described in this Magazine (vol. i. p. 257) may 

perhaps be some guide to the identification of the beds in other Bri- 

tish localities. 

Of the more common and characteristic forms, Pecten Valoniensis 
and Sargodon tomicus were derived from the same layer as that 
which yielded a tooth of Hypsiprymnopsis Rheticus below the bone- 
bed. The former comprises two bands of limestone in the upper por- 
tion of the Avicula Contorta series, or middle member, at Watchet 
and Uphill. My colleagues, Messrs. Etheridge and Bristow. have 
also found it to occupy the same horizon at Penarth. The chisel- 
shaped teeth of the latter in the unworn state, having their cutting 
edge traversed by a notch, were probably the anterior incisiform 
teeth of a fish allied to Sargus. Teeth of Acrodus minimus are 
enormously abundant in the Middle Rhetic series. Pleuro- 
phorus angulatus is also very abundant in the same horizon 
and forms a layer of ‘Pleurophorus’ limestone. (See Quart. Journ. 
Geol. Soe. vol. xx. p. 396.) Avicula contorta is restricted to the 
Middle Rhetie division, while Ostrea interstriata is common both to 
the middle and upper divisions ; and Cardium Rheticum is found 
throughout. ‘These last three species are figured in the plates accom- 


* Since the paper published in the Guorocican Macazinn (Vol. L, p. 257) was 
written, Sir Roderick Murchison, F.R.S., Mr. Bristow, F.R.S., and Mr. Etheridge, 
F.G.S., on an examination of the beds therein described, and also of the corre- 
sponding strata in South Wales, have determined upon naming them the Penarth 
series, from their great development at that place, and from the desirability of 
having a British name for a series of rocks well represented in the British Isles, 
and shown by a distinct colour on the Map of the Geological Survey.—[See British 
Association Reports in Gzotocican Magazine, Vol. I, p. 236.] 


VOL. II.—NO. XVII. Atal 


482 ) Dawkins— On the Rhone Beds. 


planorbis-zone 


Lower Lias, or 
Ammonites- 


8 
HO ok Fo 
GENERA AND SPECIES ae =e 4 28 : 
He | ae | £m 
Ee 
Hypsiprymnopsis Rheeticus, Dawkins .| — 
Acrodus minimus, 4g. . . 5 {| — 
A. acutus, Aq. : : 0 : : — 
’ Hybodus plicatilis, 4g. . ‘ : : — 
H. pyramidalis, 4g... c : : = 
H. reticulatus, Ag. . : : 3 : — 
Gyrolepis Alberti, 4g. .-- . : .f — 
G. tenuistriatus, 4g. : - oi = — 
Sargodon Tomicus, Plien. : 5 .| — — 
Saurichthys acuminatus, 4g. . : : — 
8. apicalis, Ag. : : : : .f — — 
Squaloraia . : : : 5 : = 
Desmacanthus cloacinus, Quenst. . : — 
Beloteuthis, vel Geoteuthis, sp. ; a 
Axinus cloacinus, Op. ¢ Suess : : = 
A. elongatus, Moore ¢ 0 : alae — 
Anatina Suessi, Oppel. . : 0 6 — 
A. preecursor, Qwenst. . : : ‘ — 
Anatina? : aes ; i : — 
Cardinia? =. c . : : : — 
Pleurophorus elongatus, Moore ‘ ; — 
P. angulatus, Moore 2 : : c — 
Pleurophorus, sp. . ¢ ° : : 
Myophoria postera, Quenst.  . 5 : — 
Pteromya Crowcombeia, Moore ‘ : — 
Ayicula contorta, Portt. 0 2 0 — 
A. solitaria (?), Moore . : ¢ : -- 
Ayicula? 0 : 0 : 
Lima precursor, Quenst. 3 4 A = 
L. pectinoides, Sow. 5 c 
L. punctata, Sow. . D : 
Modiola minima, Sow. . ’ : .f| — 
M. Hillana (juy.), Sow. . : : 
Gervillia precursor, Quwenst. . : | = 
Placunopsis Alpina, Winkl. . : : — 
Ostrea interstriata, Hmm. ij i 
O. Liassica, Strick. p : : 
Pecten Valoniensis, Defr. : : eel ieee = 
P: Rheeticus, Quenst. . F ; —= 
Pecten ? 3 ° c : : 
Trigonia curvirostris, Quenst. . c : — 
Cypricardia Sueviea, Moore . é : — 
Myacites striatogranulata, Moore . alee 
Pullastra arenicola, Strickl. . : .| = == 
Cardium Rheeticum, Merian . é | == 
Leda? . c : : E 6 é = 
Cerithium Henrici, Martin . : : = 
Chemnitzia nitida, Moore 6 ; 5 = 
Chemnitzia? . . : : ; -| — 
Cylindrites elongatus, Moore . : : — 
Coprolites . , : p sel — 
Annelida > : ; 5 5 | — 
Serpulee . : 
Cladophyllia ? 5 ‘ : 
Montlivaltia ? > : : : 
Eucoides : : : , ; -_{ — 


Dainese On the Rhetice Beds. 483 


panying Mr. C. Moore’s paper in the Geological Society’s Journal, 
vol. xvii. pl. 15 and 16. The two latter are found in large numbers 
in the White Lias or upper member, along with Modiola minima. 

The foregoing table gives the range of the Rhetic Fauna in the 
district which I have examined. Its lacune, so far as relates to 
other localities in Britain and Ireland, may be filled up by areference 
to the papers of Dr. Wright, F.G.S., and Mr. R. Tate, F.G.S. 
(Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. and vol. xx.). 

To this list of the Fauna of the district a large addition must be 
made from the collection and the paper of Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S. 
already mentioned. 

Among the mammalia that this gentleman discovered with so much 
diligence in a fissure of the Mountain Limestone near Frome are teeth 
of Microlestes antiquus (Plieninger), or the small mammal first 
found in the bone-breccia of Diegerloch, together with several forms 
which, as yet wanting names, probably belong to diverse Marsupial 
families. On comparing them with the recent Marsupial remains 
in the Hunterian and British Museums, I find that two stout re- 
curved canines, oval in section, bear a striking resemblance in form 
to those of the opossum (Didelphys) or the Myrmecobius ; while a 
third is remarkably akin to the lower canine of Peragalea or Dasy- 
urus. There can be little doubt that these three canines indicate 
the presence of animals of carnivorous or insectivorous habit on the 
land of the Rhetic period. One trenchant recurved tooth, on the 
other hand, compressed parallel to the median line, bears the form of 
the small upper canine of the Kangaroo-rat of Australia. Three 
small procumbent incisiform teeth, also bearing a strong resemblance 
to the upper incisors of Hypsiprymnus, point towards the phytopha- 
gous group of the Marsupials; the Kangaroo-rats (Hypsiprymnide), 
and their allies. Of the tubercular molars one cannot be differen- 
tiated from the second true molar of Plagiaulax minor (Falc.) figured 
by Dr. Falconer, F.R.S., in the Geological Society’s Journal, vol. xviii. 
p- 367, fig. 15), to which genus I have little hesitation in ascribing it. 
The genus Plagiaulax therefore existed on the Secondary continent 
from the period of the deposit of the Purbeck strata down to that of 
the Penarth or Rhetic beds. 

The rest of the mammalian teeth differ from those of any known 
existing or extinct mammal, and possibly may have belonged to the 
Mierolestes of Diegerloch, of which but one tooth is at present known. 
The interest of science demands that this remarkable collection of 
mammalian teeth should be figured and described as soon as possible. 
The above scanty notes from my note-book are merely published 
that they may not lie fallow for years, like a similar collection made 
long ago, for a determination of which we are still anxiously 
waiting. Teeth of Lepidotus are also to be added to the list found 
by Mr. Moore at Beer, Vallis, and Holwell ; together with Anatina 
Suessii, Oppel; Arca Lycettii, Moore; Axinus concentricus, and 
A. depressus, Moore; Discina Townshendii, Davidson; Gervillia 
ornata, Moore; Ostrea fimbriata, Moore; Trochus nudus, and T. 
Waltoni, Moore; Leda Titei, Moore ; Straparolus Suessii, Moore; 

112 


484 Carruthers— On Caulopteris punctata, 


Cerithium constrictum, C. decoratum, C. cylindricum, and C. Rhe- 
éicum, Moore; Chiton Rheticus, Moore; Cylindrites fusiformis, 
C. ovalis, and C. oviformis, Moore; Naidita acuminata, Buckman; 
Cypris liassica, Brodie; Estheria minuta, Alberti; and Pollicipes 
theticus, Moore; figures and descriptions of most of these are to be 
found in Mr. Charles Moore’s valuable paper in the Quarterly Journal 
of the Geological Society, vol. xvii. p. 498-516, pl. 15, 16. 


II. On Cavtopreris puncTaTa, Goepp., A TREE-FERN FROM THE 
Upper GREENSAND OF SHAFTESBURY IN DORSETSHIRE. 


By Wrtiam Carrvuruers, F.L.S., of the British Museum. 
(Plate XIII.) 


(vee Upper Greensand is a marine formation. Dr. Fitton, in his 

elaborate Memoir on ‘The Strata below the Chalk’ (Geol. 
Trans., Second Series, Vol. IV.), has enumerated 60 species of 
Mollusca, 2 Annelids, 8 Echinoderms, and 2 Protozoons from the 
beds in the South of England belonging to this period. These 
numbers have been more than doubled since the publication of that 
paper. They still retain the same proportions ; but the fossils which 
Dr. Fitton characterised as ‘fish remains’ have been referred to 
9 genera, and there have been added 4 genera of Saurians. As 
might be expected, very few vegetable remains have been observed. 
Dr. Fitton records the occurrence of some impressions of leaves. 
The remains of what appear to be sea-weeds are occasionally met 
with. Specimens of fossil wood have also been found. William 
Cunnington, Esq. F.G.S., of Devizes, who has kindly, through the 
Editor, furnished me with some particulars regarding the Upper 
Greensand deposits near Shaftesbury, informs me that for forty years 
he has been collecting the fossils of these beds, and that during that 
time he has obtained about thirty specimens of woods, many of them 
certainly drift woods, as they had been attacked by lithophagous 
molluses. I have examined all the specimens of these woods con- 
tained in the collections of the British Museum, and I find that they 
are all Coniferous. Little more than this can be said. The woody 
fibres contain a single row of discs, and I have not detected any 
spiral fibres associated with them. 

With so few vegetable remains, it is thus of no small interest to 
find the stem of a Tree-fern in these beds. The specimen, of which 
a portion is figured, is in the Paleontological collection of the British 
Museum. It is a cast in sandstone, and is only a fragment, 14 
inches long by 6 inches broad ; other portions of the same trunk 
are in the collections of the Revs. T. Stanton and J. Penny. The 
stem had been floated out to sea, and been tossed about or rubbed 
till the bases of the stipes were worn off, and nothing remained 
but the woody portion marked with the scars of the stipes. The 
bed in which it was buried formed an admirable matrix around the 
specimen, which in process of time entirely disappeared, and its 
place was ultimately filled with sand, which has preserved on its 
surface the most delicate markings left in the cavity. No structure 


A Tree-fern from the Greensand. A485 


exists in the interior. That the specimen was floated out to sea 
before being buried, there can be little doubt from its abraded con- 
dition ; but this is the more certain from a specimen of the same 
species (perhaps the same individual even) in the possession of the 
Rev. T. Stanton, which has, as Mr. Cunnington informs me, shells 
of Exogyra adhering to it. 

The specimen figured in Plate XIII. is somewhat compressed. 
The characteristic markings are absent along a narrow longitudinal 
portion of one of the flattened surfaces; this probably represents 
the opening in the mould through which the sand entered. The 
sears are small in comparison with most recent ferns. ‘They are 
arranged in a spiral cycle, which completes a single revolution in 
20 inches of the stem, and contains 34 scars in each cycle. The 
sears are of an oval form, and contain two series of markings pro- 
duced by the vascular bundles (Plate XIII, fig. s.). The inner 
one is composed of a continuous plate of vascular tissue, and the 
outer consists of 8 or 9 separate small round bundles distributed 
equally round the lower half of the scar. The inner plate passed 
up through the centre of the stipe, while the separate bundles 
strengthened its under surface. ‘The inner plate presents a some- 
what complex figure; it consists of a constricted centre with a 
roundish lobe below, and two erect lobes separated by a sinus 
which forms a break in the vascular plate. 

This fossil was originally described by Sternberg, and named by 
him Lepidodendron punctatum. Martius, observing its affinity to 
the recent Filices, gave it the name of Filicites punctatus. Brong- 
niart, though noticing the resemblance between its leaf scar and 
those of some recent. ferns, referred it to the genus Sigillaria. 
Goeppert went as far as the materials enabled him, when he de- 
scribed it as Caulopteris punctata. Presl altered the generic name 
into Protopteris, and Corda sets aside the specific denomination by 
which it was known to all preceding authors, and, for no apparent 
reason, names it after its discoverer Protopteris Sternbergi. ‘The 
locality given by Sternberg, ‘in saxo arenaceo formationis Lithan- 
thracum,’ was referred by him to the Coal-measures ; and accepting 
this determination like all who have after him treated of this fossil, 
I had almost added another to this list of synonymes, having given 
the Shaftesbury fern-stem the manuscript name of Caulopteris 
Dicksonioides, which unfortunately, before I had investigated its 
history, I permitted to be inserted on the plate. Dr. Fritsch of 
Prague has since informed me, that the bed from which Caulopteris 
punctata was obtained is Upper Greensand, and that, in 1849, Dor- 
mitzen found in the same stratum two additional species, which 
M. Krejéi figured and described in the Bohemian Journal ‘Ziva’ 
for 1858, viz. Alsophilina Kauniciana, and Oncopteris Nettwalit. 
These were preserved as red sandstone casts, like the specimens 
from Shaftesbury, but they are much more compressed. They 
have a diameter of 6 inches, and he considers they may have 
attained a height of 80 or 40 feet. He thinks that the Cyathee 
of South America and the West Indies are their nearest living re- 


486 Carruthers — On Caulopteris punctata, — 


presentatives. The specimens occur in a thin coal-seam, which is 
covered by a red sandstone rock, and rests on a bed of grayish blue 
clay, in which are found the remains of plants peculiar to the Chalk. 
The beds at Kaunitz are then of the same age as those at Shaftes- 
bury, and there can be no doubt that the fossil is the same species. 

The only means of determining the affinities of this fern are to 
be obtained from the leaf-scars. Both Brongniart and Goeppert 
have shown that these are of considerable systematic value. The 
figures in the scars are produced by the vascular bundles ; and as 
these are related to the form of the frond, and even to the spore- 
bearing nerve, it is evident that allied plants will agree more or less 
in the arrangement of the vascular bundles. This subject has not 
yet received the attention in tree-ferns that it deserves. The 
arrangement of the bundles in the stemless species found in Europe 
has been described by Douval-Jouve, Ogilvie, Church, .&c. ; and 
their importance has been shown in their giving additional dis- 
tinguishing. characters to allied species, and in uniting others 
that had been separated on insufficient data. The peculiarities I 
have described in the leaf-scars of Caulopteris punctata, are remark- 
ably like what we find in the recent genus Dicksonia. There is 
placed on the plate a drawing of a portion of the stem of Dicksonia 
antarctica for comparison (Fig. c.). Were the scars sufficient to 
determine the species I would not hesitate to place it in this genus, 
but all the parts employed by botanists in the classification of ferns 
are wanting. In the manuscript name which I had given to it, I 
expressed as much regarding its affinities as the materials enable 
me—it is a Dicksonia-like fern-stem. Not only in the structure of 
the scar, but also in its small size, and in the consequent small frond, 
it is nearer to Dicksonia than to Cyathea. 

The specimen exhibits five very slight constrictions produced by 
seasonal interruptions to the growth, three of which are shown in 
the plate. In the fern-stems from tropical and sub-tropical regions 
which I have examined, I can find no evidence of such interruptions 
in the growth. I have, however, observed similar constrictions in 
stems of native ferns grown under favourable circumstances in 
Britain. Some-years ago I obtained, in a gully on the side of Ben 
Lomond, specimens of Lastrea Filix-mas with true stems a foot in 
length, which showed that they were then in their fourth year by 
the three constrictions on the stems ; and specimens of Polystichum 
Lonchitis which I have seen in the herbarium of N. B. Ward, Esq. 
collected on the west coast of Ireland, exhibit numerous similar 
annual constrictions in a very beautiful manner. This appearance, 
then, on the stem from Shaftesbury seems to indicate an alternation 
of climate similar to what we now experience in Britain, and this is 
further attested by the exogenous rings in the specimens of fossil 
wood to which I have alluded. These rings are of different thick- 
nesses, one season having been then more favourable to the growth 
of the plant than another, as at the present day. It is well to 
remember here, however, that cold is not the only physical cause of 
interruption, but that a periodic dry wind as on the coast of China, 


fe 
eH 
th 


¥. 


ATT 


AW 


Hanhart,lmp 
Pipa 


) Ja + 


A Tree-fern from the Greensand. 487 


an extreme heat without moisture as in several tropical regions, and 
other causes, may produce a season of rest in plants like that result- 
ing from winter in our temperate region. The small size of the 
frond, indicated by the smallness of the scar, would favour the 
opinion that Caulopteris punctata inhabited a temperate region. 
Corda describes four species of the genus Caulopteris ( Protopteris, 
Corda), viz.: C. punctata, C. Singeri, C. Cottei, and C. microrrhiza. 
It is possible that these are all the same species, the differences 
considered as of specific value by the author depending on the por- 
tion of the stem to which the specimens described belong. The fern- 
stem is the type of the acrogenous method of growth. This is too 
often held as meaning that the older part of the stem undergoes no 
change, the life and change being confined to the growing point. 
But this is not the case, for as long as the fern lives the older por- 
tion of the stem continues to elongate, and the leaf scars to separate 
more and more from each other, so that the base and the apex of 
the same stem present very different appearances. The closely 
packed scars of C. punctata indicate that the specimens on which this 
species is founded belong to the upper portion of the stem. C. Sin- 
geri and C. Cotée@i have the same stigma on the scar as C. punctata, 
but differ from that species and from each other in the distribution 
of the scars on the stem: they may be founded on specimens from 
near the base. ‘The scars of C. microrrhiza are unknown, being 
hidden by the mass of small roots which envelope the stem at its base. 
I have adopted Goeppert’s name, Caulopteris, because it was esta- 
blished prior to Protopteris of Presl. Independently of this, it is the 
best designation—the one that would be adopted if fitness were the 
criterion, as it indicates all that it is safe to affirm regarding the 
fossil, while Protopteris, as applied to this Greensand fern, is evi- 
dently erroneous. J add the synonymy with references to the works 
where they were established. 
Lepidodendron punctatum, Sternberg, Flora der Vorwelt, Fase. I., pp. 19 and 23. 
Tab. VI. and VIII., fig. A.; Fase. IV., p. xii. 
Filicites punctatus, Martius, De Plantis Antediluvianis, in Denkschr. Regensb. 
Gesellsch. Vol. Il., p. 130. 
Sigillaria punctata, Broneniart, Hist. Veg. Foss., Vol. I., p. 421. t. 141, fig. 1 (a 
copy of Sternberg’s fioure), 
Caulopteris punctata, “Goeppert, Foss. Farrnkrauter, p. 449. 
Protopteris punctata, Presl in Sternberg’s Flora der Vorwelt, Vol. II., p. 170. 
t. 65. fig. 1, 2, 3. 
Protopteris Sternbergi, Corda, Beitrage Flora der Vorwelt, p. 77, t. 48, fig. 1. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIII. 


A.—Portion of the stem of Caulopteris punctata, Goepp., reduced one-half. 
From the Greensand of Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire. B.—A single scar of 
same, natural size. C.—A portion of the stem of Dicksonia antarctica, 
Labill., from New Zealand. 

Notr.—The name of Caulopteris Dicksonioides must be considered as with- 
drawn, having been printed on the plate before the age of the Kaunitz 
deposit had been ascertained. The description in the ‘ Ziva’ being written 
in Bohemian, I am indebted to Thomas Watts, Esq., and Russell Martineau, 
Esq. of the British Museum Library, for a translation of M. J. Krejéi’s 
descriptions. 


488 Adams—Fossil Elephant of Malta. 


Ill. History or tHe Discovery or THE Fossi, ELEPHANT OF 
Matta, wWitH A DESCRIPTION OF THE FISSURE IN WHICH IT 
WAS ORIGINALLY FOUND. 

By A. Lerra Apams, M.B., F.G.S., &e. 


abou Midsummer of the year 1857, when a quarry was being 
made in the soft calcareous sandstone in the district of Gandia, 

near the village of Micabba, Malta, one of the numerous fissures so 
common in all the formations of the two islands was observed to 
run in a straight line about E. and W. It was a simple vent, with 
several funnel-shaped expansions, and, as usual, was filled with red 
earth and stones. Among the débris of one of these expansions, 
several bones of large size attracted the attention of the workmen, 
and Dr. Speteri Agius, LL.D., a gentleman residing in the neigh- 
bourhood, having heard of the discovery, repaired to the spot, and 
picked up from among the exuvie a portion of a tooth and several 
fragments of bones, which he deposited in the Museum of the Maltese 
University. Shortly afterwards, a dispute between the proprietor 
and the lessee of the quarry put an end to the excavation, and the 
entire cavity was filled with rubbish, and levelled out into a field. 
In that condition it remained until reopened in June 1865. 

Reverting to the above-mentioned remains found by Dr. Speteri 
Agius: these included a portion of an upper penultimate true 
molar of Hlephas Melitensis, showing five disks of wear, the sixth 
plait fractured, and the remainder wanting; two heads of humeri ; 
portions of shafts of a femur, humerus, and fragments of other bones. 

In my memoir ‘On the Maghlak Cave and other Ossiferous De- 
posits found in Malta,’ read at a meeting of the Royal Dublin 
Society, November 18th, 1861, I adverted to this discovery, and 
stated my reasons for considering the molar distinct from that of the 
mammoth, to which it was then erroneously considered to belong ; 
surmising also, at the same time, that its characters more closely 
approximated to those of the African Elephant, in which sub-genus 
(Loxodon) it has since been placed by the late-Dr. Falconer. 

Such is the history of the discovery of this remarkable probos- 
cidian. Three years afterwards (1859), a rich collection of the 
teeth and other remains of this elephant were collected by Captain 
Spratt, R.N., from the débris of a cave near the village of Zebbug, 
and forwarded to the late Dr. Falconer. Descriptive details of the 
cave and its exuvixz were read by both gentlemen at the Cambridge 
Meeting of the British Association in 1862, when Dr. Falconer 
proclaimed the elephant to be a new species, and named it Elephas 
Melitensis. Further researches in caves, fissures, and alluvial de- 
posits in Malta have resulted in disclosing many more remains of 
this elephant, which undoubtedly roamed (and at no very distant 
period) in vast herds over the area, with two species of Hippo- 
potamus, a gigantic rat, birds of colossal dimensions, a lizard, and 
a land-turtie of an extraordinarily large size: at a time when the 
land-shells were identical with those now living on the island. 

Having long desired to examine the spot where the first traces of 
the Maltese Elephant had been discovered, and after many unsuc- 
cessful attempts to overcome foolish prejudices,—by no means credit- 


Adams—Fossil Elephant of Malta. 489 


able to the native intelligence or learning,—permission was at last 
obtained through the kind intervention of His Excellency Sir 
Henry Storks, and the clearing out of the Gandia fissure was begun 
on the 14th June, 1865, at the expense of the Malta University, 
where the fossils obtained have been deposited. I was requested to 
superintend the excavations, and with the able assistance of my 
friends, Mr. Welch, 22nd Regiment, and Dr. Carruana, LL.D., se- 
cretary and curator to the College Museum, the entire débris was 
carefully examined, and the work completed in a few days. 

The Gandia fissure was found to be a funnel-shaped hollow, 15 
feet deep, and about 94 feet in length at the entrance. The average 
thickness might have been originally from 4 to 5 feet; but as a 
portion of it had been removed with one of the sides of the fissure 
during the quarrying in 1857, the last measurement could not be 
ascertained with accuracy. ‘Tracing the rent along the surface of 
the rock for upwards of 200 feet, it was found to be a vertical 
fissure, with the opposite sides almost in close apposition, excepting 
at the fossiliferous gap, and others of smaller dimensions, which were 
seen here and there along its course. The sides of the fissure were 
perfectly smooth, and coated with a thin layer of stalagmite, forming 
polished surfaces, doubtless resulting in part from friction of the 
opposing sides during oscillations of level, as can be clearly seen on 
many of the ‘slips’ and ‘fissures’ in numerous other quarries. 

After the removal of the rubbish occupying the side of the fissure, 
which had been taken away in quarrying, a mass of red earth and 
stones, 8 feet in height by 94 feet long, and from 24 to 34 feet in 
thickness, was seen adhering to the remaining side of the fissure. 
The stones were all composed of the parent rock, and varied in size 
from a few inches to two or three feet in circumference, and were, 
for the most part, rounded and much decayed, from having been long 
in the red earth : others, however, had become hardened into a pale 
green limestone, by the absorption of water charged with carbonate 
of lime—an occurrence common to fragments of this rock that have 
been exposed to the slow percolation of lime-water in caves and 
elsewhere. Both stones and earth were firmly packed, as if by 
considerable pressure. From top to bottom, but perhaps more so 
near the former, were interspersed teeth and bones of the Maltese 
Elepbant, indiscriminately with the bones of very large and smaller 
birds, and jaws, teeth, and bones of the Myoxis Melitensis. No 
shells were found. ‘The long bones of the quadrupeds and birds 
were all broken and in fragments, excepting those of the feet, which 
were usually entire. ‘The elephants’ teeth, although fractured in 
many cases, showed no traces of having been rolled; and from the 
perfect condition of their macherides and fangs, it was evident they 
had not been brought from a long distance. The same was observed 
with reference to the articulating surfaces of the birds’ bones, which 
as a rule were also very entire. The perfect state of disorder in 
which the remains were found preeluded the idea that the elephants, 
at least, had fallen into the fissure, but proved, on the contrary, that 
their remains, and those of the other animals, had been swept in by 
the agency of water. As further exemplifying this, it is worthy of 


490 Adams— Fossil Elephant of Malta. 


note, that, two miles distant, in a south-westerly direction, were situ- 
ated two remarkable caves, and a breccia, in which I found abundant 
remains of Hippopotamus, and of Elephas Melitensis, in situations 
clearly indicating that they had been deposited by the tumultuous 
agency of water, which in one situation had borne down the bones 
of elephants along with the soil in which they were embedded. 
There also were birds’ bones in great abundance, of the same di- 
mensions as above; and, from the length of the shafts in many cases, 
I opine that water-birds predominated. 

I have also reports, from intelligent native gentlemen, of many 
fossiliferous fissures having been discovered, chiefly in quarrying 
and digging foundations of houses, and that the contents were as 
described above, sometimes a blue clay taking the place of the red 
earth. The description of the remains in one or two instances 
clearly point to the Elephant. 

From a close study of the geological features of the districts in 
which the Post-tertiary fossil fauna of these islands has been found— 
also of the deposits and organic remains,—I am strongly of opinion 
that large bodies of water at-one time flowed over a great portion of 
the south-eastern half of the island of Malta, either before or during 
the submergence of the surrounding area. This will be more apparent 
when my explorations in other parts of the island come to be noticed. 

I cannot, however, close this brief communication without a pass- 
ing notice of the following points :— 

Ist. ‘The absence of Carnivora among the Post-tertiary fossil fauna 
hitherto discovered in Malta, although traces of gnawing on the 
bones, in one cave, very clearly shows that such quadrupeds did exist. 

2nd. The wonderful sameness of the fauna, and the excessive 
numbers of the individuals in certain situations; besides the still 
stranger anomaly of vast quantities of remains of Hippopotamus 
and Llephas occupying distinct caves, within 200 feet of each other, 
and almost on the same terrace-cliff. I believe, however, as further 
explorations proceed, the majority of these points will be cleared 
up; for there are not wanting indications among my late explora- 
tions, which, if followed up, may lead towards important discoveries. 

I will now enumerate the fossil remains of the Gandia Fissure. 

J. Exveruas Mevitensis. 


a. Teeth, Upper Jaw. Lower Jaw. 

(1.) Milk Molars. R. L. R. L. 

1. Antepenultimate . : é = — — — 

2. Penultimate . ; é : — 1 3 — 

3. Last : 5 x 5 : — 2 1 — 
(2.) True Molars. 

1. Antepenultimate 2 = 1 ies 

2. Penultimate 9 3 st Fell 

3. Last a ne i 

Total . : : i : : 4 16 


* The last true molar was of unusual size for this elephant. I fortunately was 


Adams—Fossil Elephant of Malta. 491 


(3.) Broken fragments and plaits equal to about six teeth, chiefly 
belonging to adolescent and aged individuals. 


b. Tusks. 
1. Fragment of a tip, 3} in. in length, perfectly straight ; greatest 
circumference, 2,5, inches. 
2. Portion of a curved central part of the tusk, length 6 in. by 
6,3, inches in circumference. 


e. Skull. 

1. Fragments showing diploé. 

2. Portion of right lower ramus, with tooth in siti, of a very 
young individual. The tooth is well worn, and indicates the second 
of the milk-series. The symphysial canal is wider in proportion than 
in E. Africanus, making the chin less pointed. 

3. Mastoid processes of temporal bones of at least two adult indi- 
viduals. This portion of the skull is common among the elephant 
remains I have found in other situations. 


d. Vertebral Column. 


1. One cervical vertebra. 3. One caudal vertebra. 
2. Five dorsal ditto. 4, Numerous fragments of ribs. 


e. Upper Extremity. 


1. Two portions of scapula. 4, Two upper extremities of radius. 
2. Four heads of humerus. 5. Seven carpal bones. 
3. One inferior extremity of radius. | 6. Hight metacarpal bones. 
Sf. Lower Extremity. 
1. Two portions of os innominatum. |g. Thirteen phalangeal bones. 
2. Two inferior extremities of tibia. |. Three sesamoid bones. 
3. Five tarsal bones. z. Numerous fragments of long and 
4, Six metatarsal bones. flat bones. 
IJ. Myoxis MELITEnsis. 
a. Two lower jaws and teeth. 6. One tibia. 


III. Birps’ Bones. 

Not determined; several of ee dimensions with long shafts, 
possibly belonging to Grallz and Anseres of enormous size. The 
breadth across the lower condyles of the femur and humerus in 
many average respectively 1,%, inches. 

N.B. This last includes also the remains found by Dr. S. Agius. 


ITV. On tHE GEoLocy or Hopart Town. 
By Tuomas Harrtson,. Esq. 


HE island of Tasmania is connected, as it were, with the conti- 
nent of Australia by two chains of islands, the lines of which 

are afterwards continued in the mountain-systems both of Tasmania 
and Australia. ‘The Tasmanian systems pass from north to south in 
a strangely zigzag course, throughout which the mineralogical cha- 


enabled to take its measurements before it was partially destroyed in removing the 
matrix. The extreme length of the crown was 84 inches; the length of surface 
in wear, 6.4, inches; number of plaits, 10, and a talon ridge ; number of disks of 
wear, 8. 


A492 Harrison— On the Geology of Hobart Town. 


racter of the rocks varies considerably. The land, therefore, may 
be presumed to have once presented a very different line of contour 
to what it does at the present day. 

In bygone geologic ages, Tasmania must have been represented 
by at least five rocky islets. Then the intervening sea-bottom 
became raised, and the area appeared as one continuous mass of 
land, deeply indented, however, by two gulfs, which being in time 
filled with aqueous deposits, now constitute the respective coal- 
basins of Campbell and Hobart Towns. It is to the geology of the 
latter basin that the following notes bear reference. 

Following the road from Hobart Town to New Norfolk (a town- 
ship situate on the Derwent, and about twenty miles from the metro- 
polis), there are met with a succession of Carboniferous shales and 
sandstones, cut by numerous dykes and masses of eruptive green- 
stone and black basalt, or covered over by gravel and other aqueous 
deposits, until near Bridgewater (ten miles from Hobart Town), 
where there is exposed a dense claystone, which is in turn succeeded 
by thick beds of highly fossiliferous limestone. ‘The latter, after 
extending for several miles, and presenting a gradually rising series, 
dip in quite a contrary direction, so that at New Norfolk the clay- 
stone of Bridgewater is again met with, and then, still further on, 
towards Hamilton, are beds of sandstone, shale, and coal, appearing 
in the reverse order of the succession passed over in journeying 
from Hobart Town to Bridgewater. It would seem, therefore, that 
an anticlinal axis exists near the latter place (see fig. 1). 


N. Norfolk. 


SE. NW. 


-.. Knocklofty. 
----- Hamilton. 


-----~- Mt. Nelson 
Mt. 
-- Wellington 


i 
| 


we 


<E ee ZZ = 


| 


a Bridgewater. 


‘ 
4s 
an) 
ON 
vy 
pales 
Sas 
Ry 
ya 
Px 
Py, 
fh 
Liye 
Part 
rit 
ery, 
Ray 
in 
1 
yah 
Cony 
ar 


Bat! rma neha Ne nav @06E a Ome are 


Fig. 1.—SANDY BAY vid HOBART TO NEw NORFOLK.* 
(The whole of this section is much cut up and disturbed by dykes of basalt, &c., which 


are not shown.) 

Along nearly all the other routes pretty much the same series of 
rocks is met with, only that the limestone seldom appears at the 
surface : in the lines leading up Mount Wellington, however, the 
last-named rock is met with at barely a mile from the boundary 
of Hobart Town. This is simply the result of great disturbance and 
denudation having taken place thereabout. 

The area of Hobart Town is traversed by a series of broad stripes 
alternately of sandstone and basalt. In one locality—near Trinity 


* For an explanation of the letters, see fig. 2. 


Harrison— On the Geology of Hobart Town. 493 


Churech—the claystone appears as a surface rock; the oval patch 
crowning Knocklofty is a compact greenstone, resembling that of 
Mount Wellington. 

It is worthy of remark, that nearly all the sand and claystones 
have a dip in the direction of Mount Wellington. This peculiarity 
of dip is not confined to Hobart Town alone, but seems to be general 
over the whole adjacent district, the only exception being upon the 
immediate sides of the mountain, and here the dip is directly oppo- 
site to that prevailing elsewhere. 

By the accompanying section (fig.2) it will be seen that, ex- 


: oO 
' ; 2 fet as 2 5 
. wm 3) q G o= 
ea 2 is 228 aiest yee at Ba 
Eo S Mok H2 S a SO 
- bo 9 S a5 5 q ob Eas 
Hq ge q a |S ad S) 60 ae 
SW.3 5 iS) 4 2 SS oa” At NE. 
feAtia Sant 
' ' ' 
| | | f 
i } ! | | \ \ | 
LEE 1 | ! i } | ‘ 
1 } | 1 } 1 1 
H H | ! } J. ! 
I — 5 } 
z Pia at 


a 6 6 b 6 
ae —— 
FAULTS. 
Fic. 2.—IDEAL SECTION OF HOBART FROM MOUNT WELLINGTON TO DERWENT RIVER. 
a. Basalt and Greenstone. 6. Limestone. c. Claystone. 
d. Sandstone. e. Coal-beds. 


> Indicates the spot where the femur of Labyrinthodon was discovered. 


eluding Mount Wellington and the basalts, the arrangement of the 
sandstones somewhat resembles a series of ratchet teeth, rising one 
above the other from the Derwent towards the south-west. As a 
very homely illustration, we may suppose a set of wooden cubes to 
be Jaid out upon a yielding foundation, say a sofa cushion, so that 
the surface of the whole represents a perfectly level superficies. 
Some disturbing force having changed the horizontal plane of 
each cube into a gently sloping incline, at every joint a diminutive 
escarpment was formed. If we now imagine that some molten sub- 
stance, such as wax, has been forced from below through the various 
interstices, so that the overflow partially fills up the miniature val- 
leys, we shall have a model representation of Hobart Town, with its 
sandstones, dislocations, and eruptive rocks. 

It will probably be asked why the dip of the various beds remains 
so constantly the same, and towards instead cf from an evidently 
upheaved rock? Perhaps the local dip in the opposite direction, 
mentioned as occurring on the sides of Mount Wellington, may, in 
some measure, explain the difficulty. 

If avast level plateau, such as once existed hereabouts, should 
ever become broken up by the protrusion of a ‘massif’ like the 
Mount Wellington range, it is not unreasonable to suppose that 
many fractures would take place at a distance from, and perhaps 
parallel éo, the intrusive mass. In addition to this simple fracture of 


494 flarrison—On the Geology of Hobart Town. 


the beds, a lateral pressure may also have led to a phenomenon 
somewhat analogous to what talees place when the pieces of ice in 
a large floe begin to pack one upon the other. Hence the apparent 
anomaly just alluded to. 

From whatever cause these secondary fissures arose, they do not 
seem to have been filled up with the basalt which they now contain 
contemporaneously with their formation. Still, the time elapsing 
between the fracturing and eruptive forces may have been extremely 
short; what is meant being, simply, that the fissures referred to do 
not owe their origin to the protrusion of the basaltic dykes by which 
they are now completely occupied. 

Of the rocks met with in the district, the lowest is of an extremely 
fossiliferous character, and is called by the colonists Mountain or 
Carboniferous Limestone (?). It appears to be divided into two 
distinct beds. ‘The lower contains much lime and a profusion of 
bivalves (Spirifera, Pectinide, and Producta), and the upper being 
more arenaceous, and inclosing a large quantity of corals (Lenestella 
and Stenopora). 

On the sides of Mount Wellington are a number.of erratic blocks, 
containing a larger number of spiral univalves. Such blocks are of 
great hardness, and seem in some instances to be nearly made up of 
arenaceous particles; but it must not be supposed that this variety 
in organisms and texture indicates a formation upon a horizon dif- 
ferent from that of the adjacent limestone. 

Above these beds is a dense compact stratum, locally known as 
‘mud’ or ‘clay stone.’ According to Mr. Selwyn, it is upwards of 
400 feet in thickness. In a few places impressions of shells are dis- 
coverable ; but generally fossils are of rare occurrence. Scattered 
here and there throughout the mass are numerous pieces of quartz 
and other rocks. 

It was probably the prevalence of vast quantities of turbid water, 
originating this deposit, which so completely destroyed the immense 
growth of corals characteristic of the upper beds of limestone. 

Immediately over the ‘clay-rock’ is superimposed a great thick- 
ness of sandstone. This stratum, also, is especially barren of any 
remains of animal life; but sandstone generally forms a bad matrix 
for the preservation of fossils. 

Interstratified with the upper portion of the sandstone beds are 
layers of shale bearing impressions of ‘ fern-leaves’ and ‘calamites,’ 
together with one or two layers of coal, changed, for the most part, 
into anthracite. The absence of Sigillaria, Stigmaria,* Lepidoden- 
dron, and other genera characteristic of the English Coal-measures, 
would seem to suggest that the coal of Tasmania, like that of 
Victoria, is not of the true Carboniferous period. 

What may, in some measure, go to confirm the opinion so hazarded, 
is the discovery in the sandstone of a bone, said by Professor Owen 
to be the ‘femur of a Labyrinthodon,’—a reptile, if I mistake not, 
generally associated with rocks of the Triassic age. 

A Hobart Town geologist, Mr. Morton Alport, speaking to me 


* See Note at the end. 


Harrison—On the Geology of Hobart Town. 495 


upon the subject, stated his belief that the bone in question was found 
in beds situated above the coal. It is with extreme diffidence that 
I venture on a conclusion contrary to that of a gentleman whom I 
believe to be both an enthusiastic and a careful observer; but, from 
a rather rapid examination of the beds in question, I had certainly 
thought differently. The section (fig. 2, p. 493) will show both the 
position of the fossil, and also the nature of the rocks adjacent. 

It will be seen that, from the western boundary of the stripe of 
basalt occupying the ‘Domain,’ to the sandstone of ‘Knocklofty 
Terrace,’ the strata present a gradually ascending series of outcrops ; 
although it is more than probable that, in consequence of faults, the 
sum of the outcrops is not exactly an expression. of the real thickness 
of the series exposed. 

At the point B (Trinity Church) beds very low in the succession 
appear on the surface, the upper ones having evidently been de- 
nuded. As the coal-seams appear to lie near the top of the series, 
it is plain that a comparatively small amount of denudation would 
remove both such seams, and also a portion of the immediately 
underlying sandstone. ‘The position of the beds wherein the fossil 
was discovered, close to the Government House, near the centre of 
the valley of the Derwent, would seem to give no promise of being 
spared the influence of denuding agencies; so that although through 
faults, the points B (Trinity Church) and C (Knocklofty Terrace) 
are evidently more upheaved and denuded than the ground near 
Government House, it is hardly probable but that some strata were 
cut off from the latter locality also; and as I believe no coal-beds 
have been discovered thereabouts, it seems but reasonable to suppose 
that the carbonaceous strata have been swept away, and that the 
beds now remaining, although of newer age than the claystone of 
Trinity Church, are decidedly of older age than the coal.* This 
would make the fossil referred to of great use in determining the 
geological position of the Tasmanian beds, and show that they were 
deposited, at the very least, during the existence of the Batrachian 
forms of the Secondary period. 

It may be asked, as the limestone is of Paleozoic, and the coal of 
Mesozoic age, whether the surface was. unsubmerged during the 
intervening time, or whether there has been a subsequent removal 
of rocks once deposited ? 

Perhaps it will appear that neither of these alternatives is abso- 
lutely required. The Permian group may, after all, be represented 
by a portion of the strata intervening between the two formations, 
although, through the absence of fossils, evidence of such fact is 
nowhere discernible. ‘The Magnesian Limestone may have been so 
far local as to be excluded altogether from Tasmanian waters. Pro- 
bably the beds, during the course of their deposition, resembled not 
a little the accumulations of sand now gathering upon the coasts 
both of Tasmania and Australia ; deposits which, it is likely, will 
be entirely barren of fossils. Such beds would necessarily present 


* T have dwelt particularly upon the above facts, since they appear to bear so 
especially upon the question of the age of the Australian coal-deposits. 


496 _Harrison—On the Geology of Hobart Town. 


but few evidences of changes going on elsewhere, or even in their 
immediate neighbourhood. f 

In speaking of the section passed over between Hobart Town and 
New Norfolk, mention has been made of certain recent aqueous 
deposits. Among these the most remarkable feature is the enormous 
amount of pebbles accumulated in many places. Such pebbles are 
of every size, from that of coarse grains of sand to boulders mea- 
suring many feet in circumference. They are composed of a variety 
of materials—quartz, granite, sandstones and limestones, basalt, 
diorite, and, in a few instances, what I judged to be fragments of 
Silurian slates. The whole of these are waterworn to a great extent. 
In some places an accumulation of pebbles only occupies the whole 
of an exposed section; but in many cases the pebbly deposit rests 
upon or is interstratified with loam, clay, or sand. 

One or two local ‘geologists suggested whether the pebble-bed 
might not be due to the former existence of glaciers. ‘The more 
likely cause, however, would seem to be one involving tidal action. 
The Derwent, as may. be seen on the map, is of very different width 
at different parts of its course; in some places it contracts into a 
narrow channel, and in others expands into a wide lake-like basin. 
As may be supposed, this conformation, by the expansions acting as 
reservoirs receiving and giving out the tidal wave, is productive of 
currents, running with great rapidity, quite sufficient to hurl onwards 
masses of stone as large as those spoken of. It is probable, too, 
that as the land gradually emerged from the sea, these irregularities 
in width may have been still more disproportionate than they are 
at present; or, on the other hand, such disproportion might, for a 
time, have disappeared altogether, as various heights above the sea 
were attained or exceeded. Hence we seem to have an ample ex- 
planation of the clay and sandy beds interstratified with what may 
be called the boulder-deposit. 

Scattered at intervals over much of the district near Hobart Town, 
are numerous beds of shells differing but little, if anything, from 
those still found in the adjacent seas. Some of these beds are met 
with at the height of many feet above the highest tides. Similar 
beds are seen in many places round the shores of Port Phillip Bay, 
and are supposed to indicate that a progressive elevation of the land 
has taken place at no very distant period, even if such elevation is 
not still going on. 

Igneous rocks, as may be supposed from what has been already 
said, have played no unimportant part in developing the beauties of 
Tasmanian scenery. These consist principally of basalt and green- 
stone, forming mountain-ranges, capping the tops of hills, or pro- 
truding, as dykes, from the clefts of sand or limestone. Owing to 
the unequal wearing of the two rocks, the igneous and the sand- 
stone, as much as to the tremendous disruptions, in some measure 
connected with outbursts of the former, Tasmania appears as a 
thickly-wooded Caledonia; and Hobart Town reminds the Scotch- 
man not a little of his much but not too greatly lauded Edinburgh. 
True, there is no Castle Rock ; but Knocklofty, 1,700 feet in height, 


Harrison— On the Geology of Hobart Town. 497 


forms no bad substitute for the Calton Hill, and Mount Wellington 
far exceeds Arthur’s Seat in altitude and grandeur. The green- 
stones, too, on the top of the latter are strikingly columnar, rising 
above the densely timbered base in a colonnade of Titanie pilasters 
—a gigantic Staffa superimposed on an exaggerated Mount Edge- 
combe. 

Along the shores- of Storm Bay, igneous rocks are developed in 
cliffs of the most romantic form. Where a columnar structure 
prevails, many separate masses may be traced from the top down- 
wards for many hundred feet; and so regular is the line that bounds 
these tremendous crystals, that a stranger could easily mistake a 
group of them for baulks of timber set on end. Those who are 
acquainted with the features of New Zealand military architecture 
will understand me when I say that Cape Rauol—one of these ba- 
saltic headlands—may be aptly compared to a tremendous ‘ pah’ 
erected by a race of giants, and subsequently battered by some 
colossal artillery. ‘Cape Pillar,’ farther down the bay, is alike, or 
even more, romantically shaped. ‘The base is worn into chasms, or 
fretted with caves, that might—so regular is the outline—be Gothic 
doorways leading to what would almost seem some towering castle 
keep above. 

These basaltic outflows have also tended to modify denuding in- 
fluences brought to bear upon the somewhat friable sandstone which 
such outflows often surmount as a thin capping. This is especially 
seen along portions of the eastern coast, much of the cliff-line of 
which is composed of what may be termed two stories—sandstone 
below, and black amorphous basalt above. 

At Schouter’s Island, near Oyster Bay, the conservative power of 
igneous rocks is strikingly displayed. Northernly, this island is of 
granite. Against the granite, sandstone and layers of coal have been 
deposited. Then has come a period of convulsion, breaking up the 
sandstone-plateau and dislocating the beds. Currents sweeping over 
what was still a sea-bottom have washed away much, both of coal 
and sandstone; but, in one spot, an outlier of the latter containing 
seams of the former was left undenuded until an eruption of green- 
stone covered the district, and preserved this isolated mass from the 
effect of any subsequent ocean-currents. It is simply the story of 
flies in amber, or the preservation of the bones of Bruce in melted 
bitumen, illustrated on a large scale. And so here coal is dug froma 
seam which but for such agencies must have been swept away 
by ceaseless ocean-surges rolling uninterruptedly from the far-off 
Southern Pole. 


Norre.—In ‘A Sketch of the Principal Geological Features of 
Hobart, Tasmania, by 8. H. Wintle, Esq.,’ in the ‘ Quarterly 
Journal of the Geological Society’ for November last, ‘ Stigmarie 
are mentioned as having been met with in the New Town Sandstone. 
With all due deference to the opinion of Mr. Wintle, a resident on 
the spot, I can but think the above statement is an error. Whilst in 
Hobart last winter, I especially made enquiries respecting any true 

VOL. II.—NO. XVII. K K 


498 Harrison—On the Geology of Hobart Town. 


_ Coal-measure fossils which might have been met with ; but the only 
fossils shown me or spoken of were ferns, and what are called cala- 
mites. ‘There seems among Hobarton geologists a strong desire to 
have their coal-deposits ranked with the English coal-measures ; © 
and any person venturing a statement to the contrary is looked upon 
with disfavour. Yet, notwithstanding this feeling, I could hear no 
hint whatever that either Stigmaria or Sigillaria had ever for cer- 
tainty been found in any of either the shale or the sandstone beds. 
Mr. Wintle’s Séigmaria was probably the stem of some tree-fern, 
which is a very common fossil in the Tasmanian coal-deposits. If I 
am not greatly mistaken, Mr. W. admitted as much to myself in a 
conversation which took place after the paper referred to was posted 
for England. Of this, however, lam by no means certain.—T. H. 


V. Nores oN CHARNWOOD FOREST. 
By D. Macxtntoss, F.G.S. 


1 the midst of a comparatively tame and highly cultivated plain 

of New Red Sandstone near the centreof England, there rises up 
a part of the under crust of the earth which presents so much the 
appearance of an island as to lead the imagination at once to those 
remote ages when its Porphyritic Peaks and Syenitic Knolls were 
surrounded by the sea. The geological history of this celebrated 
spot has been skilfully unravelled by Professors Sedgwick and Jukes 
(Article in Potter’s Charnwood Forest); the Rev. W. H. Coleman 
(Article in White’s Directory); Mr. Edward Hull (Memoirs of Geol. 
Survey); and others. It has lately been invested with additional 
interest by the announcement of the opinion that it is one of the 
“uncovered areas’ or wrecks of the Laurentian or pre-Cambrian con- 
tinents, which Dr. H.B. Holl* and others suppose may have extended 
or may still extend underground, from Scandinavia to Charnwood, 
from Charnwood to the Malvern Hills, and from the latter to’ North 
America. The late Mr. Coleman founded his opinion of their pre- 
Cambrian age on the absence or extreme paucity of organic remains. 
But Dr. Bigsby has well shown that this characteristic would rather 
favour the idea of a formation being posterior to the Laurentian 
(Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xix. No. 73); and whatever may be 
the age of the Syenitic Knolls or Bosses of Charnwood Forest, the 
stratigraphical dissimilarity of its slates and porphyries from the Lau- 
rentian formation of America, and their resemblance to the Cambrian 
rocks of North Wales, ought to make us cautious in assigning to 
them a very remote antiquity. In many respects there is not perhaps 
in England a district more puzzling to the geologist than Charnwood 
Forest ; but all agree with Professor Sedgwick in believing its 


* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxi. No. 81, p. 72. 
+ Apparent traces or impressions of vegetable or animal life have been discovered 
in the Southland slate-quarries on the eastern side of the Forest. 


Mackhintosh-—Notes on Charnwood Forest. 499 


general conformation to have arisen from an anticlinal elevation by 
which its stratified masses were divided so as to cause those on one 
_ side to dip to the NE. and those on the other to the SW. Some 

have supposed that the upcast to the south-west was very much 
greater than in the opposite direction. 

Syenitic Knolls.—A line of knolls or patches—in some places sye- 
nite, in others greenstone—stretches at intervals from New Cliff and 
. Long Cliff, by Benscliff, towards Bradgate, which Mr. Coleman believed 
to run roughly parallel to the anticlinal line of the forest.* But the 
principal Syenitic bosses are Mount Sorrel to the east, and Mark- 
field Knoll, Cliff Hill, and Stanton Fields to the south-west. Syenite 
may likewise be seen at Hammercliff and Birchwood Plantations, at 
Bardon Castle, Groby, &c. Soni have supposed that these syenitic 
bosses are remaining portions of a great mass or masses erupted pre- 
viously to the deposition of the slates, which, so far as yet observed, 
lie apparently undisturbed in their immediate neighbourhood ; fF 
others believe that the syenites were erupted contemporaneously 
with the slates aud porphyries of which the Forest district is prin- 
cipally composed. Do these syenites mark the craters or centres of 
eruption from which beds of lava overflowed ?—these beds at first 
assuming a syenitic structure, and at a greater distance becoming 
porphyry ? and can the origin of the porphyritic beds of*Charnwood 
Forest be in this way explained ? { Or does the great difference in 
lithological structure between the syenites and porphyries preclude 
this supposition ? At Hammercliff, Mr. Jukes observed an apparent 
transition from syenite to porphyry—the summit and probable 
nucleus of the hill being syenite, with a surrounding porphyritic 
mantle. But might not these phenomena be regarded as equally in- 
dicative of the syenite having been thrown up since the formation of 
the porphyry so as to elevate the latter ail around it, and at the same 
time obliterate the line of junction by metamorphism? Bardon Hill, 
to the west of Hammercliff, appears to be greenstone at the top, 
with a porphyritic structure lower down, which Mr. Hull regards as 
a passage between the greenstone and the porpliyritic ridges to the 
north—the two having been separated by a fault. But might not this 
fact be likewise regarded as a proof that Bardon Hill was elevated 
after the formation of the porphyry? In the neighbourhood of 
Bardon Hill, and resting unconformably on the Coal-measures, is a 
sheet of greenstone quite distinct from porphyry in its composition, 
and in many places differing but little from compact basalt ; speci- 
mens of it may be seen near the office of the Whitwick Collieries.§ 


* Had these igneous rocks anything to do with the anticlinal upthrow, which 
Mr. Hull and others believe to haye occurred at the close of the Carboniferous 
period, or are they of much older date ? 

+ Too much importance cannot be attached to the examination of fresh excayva- 
tions in the quarries of Markfield Knoll, Groby, &c., in order to discover, if possi- 
ble, the actual contact of the igneous and sedimentary rocks. 

+ See Prof. Ramsay on North Wales, in the first volume of ‘The Geologist.’ 

§ In one of the neighbouring Snibston pits it was found to be 21 feet in thick- 
ness. In two of the Whitwick shafts its thickness is 63 feet. 


K K 2 


_ 600 Mackintosh—Notes on Charnwood Forest. 


Can this flow of trap be traced to Bardon Hill ? or (according to a 
local geologist) to a greenstone-rock near Whitwick ? oz to neither ? 

Porphyritic Rocks.—These rocks may be seen exposed at intervals 
along the irregular ridge extending from Grace-Dieu to Green Hill. 
The rocky projections called High Cademan, High Sharpley, Rachet 
Hill, Pedlar or Peldar Tor, High Towers [Tors?], Timberwood 
Rocks, Flatfield Rocks, the Hanging Stones, &c. are more or less 
composed of porphyry; these tors, taken as a whole, present a 
wonderfully uniform porphyritic structure, as may be seen in the 
stones of which the roadside walls near Whitwick have been built. 
But as the geologist proceeds with his hammer to examine the rocks 
of the different tors he now and then finds unexpected variations in 
their composition, graduating frorf felspar, and compact felspathic 
porphyry, through the ordinary varieties, to porphyritic and compact 
greenstone. He.may in some places see the porphyry covered or 
underlain by what Mr. Hull calls ‘slaty ash.’ That gentleman has 
observed a bed of altered slate in the interior of the Forest, ap- 
parently dipping under the porphyry. This would seem to indicate 
that the overlying bed or beds of porphyry must have flowed over 
the slate from a submarine volcanic vent. On ascending from the 
Hanging Stones to the High Towers, I have noticed some striking 
variations ifithe composition of the rocks. At the Hanging Stones, 
a brecciated structure is combined with a porphyritic. Ata high 
level, between Mr. Green’s house and the lodge, the rock is a very 
coarse breceia, which, if not directly volcanic, must have been highly 
metamorphosed ; higher up the structure becomes more decidedly 
porphyritic. On this acclivity groups of rocks, reminding one of 
what may often be seen on sea-coasts, may be traced at different 
levels, with intervening flat areas which may have been sea-beaches 
during the last emergence of the Forest district. 

On the side of the foot-path leading from the Reformatory road 
towards Green Hill, I noticed a block of porphyry enclosing a frag- 
ment of tine slate, with the boundary line between the two very dis- 
tinctly marked. Many similar instances have been discovered ; and 
how far these included fragments furnish evidence of the porphyry 
of the district having once been in a molten state, is a very important 
inquiry in the present state of geological speculation. Mr. Coleman, 
an advocate for the metamorphic origin of the Charnwood por- 
phyries, admitted that there must have been fusion at those places 
where the slaty fragments were caught up; but why, it may be 
asked, have recourse to this explanation in the case of particular 
phenomena, and deny the volcanic origin of the rocks in general? 
The advocate of metamorphism might reply that the doctrine of 
‘easier fusibility’ is implied in the very fact of unaltered or little 
altered fragments of slate occurring in the porphyry ; and that the 
latter therefore, generally speaking, may be of metamorphic origin, 
though in parts it may have been ‘heated to the melting point.’ In 
this district the respective claims of the rival theories—metamorphism 
and igneous fusion—may be studied within a very limited area. The 
observer ought previously to be well acquainted with the results of 


Seebach— On the Hanoverian Sine. 501 


the experiments of Delesse and Daubrée* and the discoveries and 
opnions of Sedgwick, Ramsay, and Murchison, concerning the origin 
of the porphyritic rocks of North Wales and the Lake District. 


NOTICES OF BRITISH AND FOREIGIN 
MEMOTRS. 


Hp 


I. Der Hannoverscuz Jura. By Kart von Srepacu. Berlin, 1864. 4to. 158 pp. 


4 cana work is a very useful and very valuable addition to the 
previous memoirs illustrative of the geology and fossils of North 
Germany, by Roemer, Strombeck, Credner, Wagner, Schlonbach, 
&c., as also to those of Oppel and Quenstedt. It is divided into two 
parts, Geological and Paleontological, comprising 158 pages of 
letterpress, a geological map, and 10 plates of fossils. The first 
part contains a sketch of the geographical distribution of the Jura 
formation in North-west Germany, a description of the various 
strata, and some general remarks on the whole group. ‘The lowest 
bed, which is but briefly noticed, is the zone with Avicula contorta. 
The Jurassic beds are described under three sections—the Lias, 
Dogger, and Upper Jura; each of these again subdivided into certain 
zones or strata, somewhat similar to those usually adopted by geolo- 
gists for the Oolitic group. The Lias comprises nine of these zones, 
of which four belong to the lower, three to the middle, and two to 
the Upper divisions. The Dogger contains six, and the Upper Jura 
nine. 

Dr. Seebach’s subdivisions, and his lists of characteristic fossils, 
will donbtless be found useful for comparison with those of the Bri- 
tish area. Dr. Seebach himself is inclined to consider that the 
Lower Jura formation of Hanover, up to the Cornbrash, resembles 
that of South Germany, whilst the Baltic Jurassic strata present a 
greater similiarity to the French and English types. 

‘The second or Paleontological part contains a table of 3738 species, 
zoologically classified, and showing at the same time their geological 
distribution. ‘This is followed by a description of the new species 
named by the author, and critical remarks upon species previously 
described ; the whole forming a useful contribution to the paleonto- 
logy of the Jurassic formations.—J. M. 


II. SxercH oF THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE CoAL- 
FIELD. By J. Buenre Juxus, M.A., F.R.S., &e. (Prepared at the request of the 
South Staffordshire Local Committee, for the use of Members of the British 
Association, at the Birmingham Meeting, 1865.) Birmingham, 8vo., pp. 20. 

E reprint the following extract from Professor J. Beete Juke’s 
pamphlet on the Position and Lie of the Rocks in the South 

Staffordshire Coalfield. 


* Also, Observations on the Structure of Mount Sorrel Syenite, by H. C. Sorby, 
F.R.S., noticed at p. 448 of Gzoroaican Magazine for October. 


502 Jukes-— South Staffordshire Coal-field. 


‘The Coalfield is an island of Paleozoic rocks surrounded by the 
Triassic beds. 

‘The line of the Paleozoic rocks may be sketched as follows :— 
An anticlinal ridge, complicated by three local irregular dome- 
shaped elevations, runs from Dudley for four miles to the NNW. 
The three dome-shaped elevations, the most northern of which has 
an elevated synclinal trough attached to it on the west, bring up to 
the present surface the Silurian floor on which the Coal-measures 
rest, and this floor rises again to the surface on the east about Wal- 
sall, but at a much more gentle angle than on the anticlinal ridge. 
Between these two Silurian exposures the Coal-measures lie in a 
shallow basin tilted up a little to the north, so that the beds below 
the Thick Coal crop to the surface between Wolverhampton and 
Walsall. They are, however, soon thrown in again by the great 
Bentley fault, which is a down-throw to the north of 120 yards, and 
north of which dislocation they have no longer a basin-shaped form, 
but dip gently but steadily to the west, so that the higher beds 
(representing the Thick coal) come in about Wyrley, and the lower 
beds crop out about the Brown Hills. North of that the Coal- 
measures seem to retain pretty much the same lie up to Brereton. 

‘South of Bilston the beds dip gently to the south, and are also 
thrown down to the south by a succession of faults which range east 
and west across the basin till we come as far south as Tipton. On 
the east they crop gently towards the Walsall Silurian district, but 
are sharply bent up into a nearly vertical position on the flanks of 
the dome-shaped Silurian elevations as they crop to the anticlinal on 
the west. 

‘Round the southern and south-western margin of this anticlinal 
the Coal-measures lie at a more gentle angle, dipping everywhere 
towards the south and south-west, in which direction they are also 
thrown down by a long fault, called ‘the Russell’s Hall fault,’ which 
runs from north-west to south-east, parallel to the direction of the 
anticlinal ridge, but extending much farther to the south-east. 

‘At right angles to this direction, from the southern termination 
of the anticlinal ridge, in the town of Dudley, a pair of faults form- 
ing the Dudley Port trough run to the north-east for about three 
miles ; and it is remarkable that the faults on the south-east side of 
that trough run mostly north-east and south-west, and are down- 
throws to the north-west, while to the northward of the Dudley 
Port trough the faults run chiefly east and west, and are down- 
throws to the south. 

‘The high ground to the south-east of Dudley, capped by the Row- 
ley basalt, continues in the same line as the high ground of the anti- 
clinal on the north-west of Dudley. ‘The tilting and disturbance of 
the beds, however, is not apparent south-east of Dudley, except by 
the continuation of the Russell’s Hall fault, since the Coal-measures 
seem to be nearly horizontal under the Basalt, and in all the district 
to the south of Oldbury, as far as the Birmingham and Hales Owen ~ 
road at all events, and as far as is known to the south of that up to 
the Permian boundary. f 


Reviews—Foote’s Stone Implements in Madras, &c. 503 


‘ The portion of the Coalfield which lies between Dudley and Stour- 
bridge is divided into two irregular basins by the Netherton anti- 
clinal, which runs north-east and south-west for about three miles 
from Netherton to the Lye Waste. The Thick and other coals crop 
round this local elevation in continuous lines. The outcrops of the 
Thick coal are about a quarter of a mile apart in the central portion 
of the ridge. 

‘A mass of Basalt shows itself on the axis of this anticlinal a 
little south of Netherton, but has obviously had no more effect in 
disturbing the beds there than in other places. ‘The greatest dis- 
turbance has been produced at the Lye Waste,* where some of the 
Ludlow rock, with its included limestone, shows itself at the present 
surface, and the Thick coal just east of it was tilted into a vertical 
or even an inverted position. 

‘From Netherton and Brierley Hill and the Old Park the Coal- 
measures dip gently towards the west till they are cut off by the 
Kingswinford boundary fault. From Dudley Wood and Cradley 
they appear to dip regularly but gently towards the south till they 
are covered by the Permian beds which form the high ground of the 
Clent Hills and Frankley Beeches. 

‘Thus the southern end of the coalfield seems to be covered by 
the Permian beds, resting in apparent (but only apparent) confor- 
mity t on the Coal-measures ; while the northern end seems to be 
covered unconformably by the Triassic beds. On the east and west 
the coalfield is bounded by long down-throw faults, which bring in 
the Permian and Triassic beds variously against the Coal-measures. 
Other faults have been traced in these beds themselves, in the coun- 
try both east and west of the coalfield. 

‘It is probable that many of these faults may have originated at 
different periods, and almost certain that in none of them has the 
whole amount of throw been produced at once. They are the result 
of slow creeping movements in the rocks at the different periods 
when the district has been affected by those disturbing influences, 
of which we see the external symptoms at the present day in the 
occurrence of earthquakes.’ . 


REVIEWS. 
is 


I. On THE OCCURRENCE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS IN LATERITIC 
ForMATIONS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF Mapras AnD Nortu Arcor 
Districts. By R. Bruce Foore, Geological Survey of India. 
8vo. Madras, 1865; pp. 42, 29 plates. 

LARGE series of stone implements, collected by Mr. Foote, 
Dr. Oldham, Mr. King, Dr. Cornish, Mr. Fraser, and Mr. 
W.R. Robinson, at forty-seven places in the districts above indi- 


* A good section across this part of the anticlinal, showing the outcrop of the 
lower coals, was exhibited in the cutting of the Birmingham and Stourbridge rail- 
road just north of this place, 

{ The proper definition of unconformability is ‘ The upper group of beds resting 
on an eroded surface of the lower group.’ 


504 Reviews—Foote’s Stone Implements in Madras, &c. 


cated, and illustrated by 29 plates in Mr. Foote’s Memoir, bear a 
most striking resemblance to the well-known archaic flint imple- 
ments of the valleys of the Somme, Seine, Thames, Ouze, Lark, &c., 
in France and England. ‘The long ‘cat-tongue,’ the subovate and 
leaf-like, the oval, and other shapes, being present among the large 
forms, as well as the broad-edged hatchet-like specimens, besides 
flakes, and an ‘arrow-lead.’ But these Indian implements have 
been formed out of the native quartzite, which breaks up with the 
same kind of fracture as flint, but with a somewhat different grain. 
Imbedded in the old undisturbed lateritic ferruginous alluvium 
(‘alluvial lateritic drift,’ not to be confounded with the much 
younger fluviatile alluvium), these stone implements tell of a past 
race of men frequenting what was then a shallow sea, in which the 
present hills were islands, and fashioning the siliceous rocks of the 
ecuntry into tools and arms by a precisely similar process, and in 
precisely similar shapes, to those adopted by the old flint-folk of 
Western Europe. As the valleys of France and England have been 
cut down some ninety feet since our archaic implements were mingled 
with the loam and gravel, so the lateritic gravels of Madras and 
Arcot have, in Mr. Foote’s opinion, risen up bodily, and been 
grooved and channeled by the existing water-courses since the 
quartz-workers left and lost their tools on the shores and shoals of 
the ‘ laterite-sea.’ 

As in Europe, so in India, some of the implements are as perfect 
as when freshly made, and some much worn by drifting. Many in- 
teresting points of detail and of hypothesis are treated of in Mr. 
Foote’s memoir, which is evidently the result of careful and con- 
scientious work worthy of, and likely to command, serious attention 
among those interested in geologic traces of mankind. 


Il. Tue Georocy or THE BerKs anp Hants EXTENSION AND 
MarrzoroucH Raitways. By J. Coprineton, F.G.S. (From the 
Magazine of the Wiltshire Archzol. and Nat. Hist. Soe., 1865, 

aie * 5 
PY RAILWAY-CUTTING, with the sides carefully sloped and 
well turfed over, is one of the most unpleasant of sights to the 
eye of the field-geologist, and the more so when he is unable to find 
any account of the section which that cutting once showed. Why 
do not our Field-clubs and Provincial Natural History Societies 
look after these things ? Would not the recording of such local 
facts be as fit work for their members as the propounding of theories, 
often crude and baseless’? It is too much to expect engineers to 
keep geological notes of their work ; and our thanks are due, there- 
fore, all the more to the engineer who has written the paper before 
us,—not the first of the sort from his pen. 

The cuttings of the Berks and Hants Extension Railway, which 
runs through the well-known Vale of Pewsey, are in valley-gravels, 
other surface-deposits, Chalk, and Upper Greensand. A good 
junction-section of the latter two was shown near Stert, of part of 


Reviews— Codrington’s Berks‘and Hants, §c., Railways. 505 


which Mr. Codrington gives a figure. His descuiptiowe however, 
might well have been fuller, as he does not give the composition of 
the ‘Chloritic Marl,’ or the ‘Upper Greensand’; nor does he tell 
us whether he classes the former with the latter, or with the Chalk. 
Another cutting, at Tinkfield, showed a mass of drifted Greensand, 
just like the same in place, but overlying peat, which in its turn was 
underlain by chalky mud, the whole filling a hollow in the Upper 
Greensand. A list of Upper Greensand fossils, showing the species 
found in six different places, ends the account of this railway. 

The Marlborough Railway is a branch or offshoot of the above, 
and its cuttings are in Chalk, capped sometimes by some of the 
surface-beds peculiar to that rock. The first, at Lye Lane, is 
‘through part of the Lower Chalk, here consisting of hard, thick- 
bedded stone,’ with fossils. May not this be the representative of 
the Totternhoe stone and marl (Chalk-marl) of Buckinghamshire 
and Bedfordshire,* and of the Grey Chalk between Dover and Foike- 
stone ? 

The Lye Hill cutting is in higher beds, and shows the junction 
of the Lower and Upper Chalk, here marked by the presence of 
the ‘ Chalk-rock,’ a hard bed, 10 feet thick, very constant in its 
occurrence, and, from its greenish-yellow colour, easily recognised, 
and which has been traced by the Geological Survey from this 
district for many miles north-eastward. Mr. Codrington says that 
‘about four feet below the Chalk-rock there is here a succession of 
irregularly-shaped cavities, filled with a brown sand, probably of 
Tertiary age, which has found its way through the Chalk-rock from 
its outcrop on the surface, and not through it in sand-pipes’; and 
he thence infers that ‘the Chalk here appeared to have suffered 
considerable tilting-up and denudation before the deposition of the 
Tertiary beds ; otherwise sand of the latter age could hardly have 
penetrated into the Lower Chalk.’ With this we cannot agree. In 
the first place, what is the proof that the sand belongs to the Reading 
Beds, which in this district overlie the Chalk ? and if so, what is 
the proof that it has not found its way down through pipes, the 
higher parts of which no longer exist, but have been destroyed by 
denudation ? and we know that such remains of pipes do occur. The 
notion of such an erosion of the Chalk, before the deposition of the 
old Tertiary beds, is at variance with all that we know of the junction 
of those formations in England, and is quite opposed to the fact that 
in this very neighbourhood, as elsewhere, the Tertiary beds and the 
Chalk are alike affected by the same disturbances. 

In the cutting, in the Chalk-with-flints, there is mostly at the top 
‘a drift of re-arranged Tertiary beds,’ as Mr. Prestwich has noted in 
one of his well-known papers. ‘ This drift is principally the deposit 
called “Clay-with-flints” by the Geological Surveyors, and is covered 
in places by clayey sand or Brickearth.’ Mr. Codrington’s descrip- 
tions and figures of these beds agree with what has been published 
about them by the Geological Survey. ‘The surface of the Chalk is 


* See Grotocican Macazinu for May, 1865, p. 215. 


506 Reviews— Codrington’s Berks and Hants, &c., Railways. 


most irregtlar ; next toit there is a thin layer of black clay, and 
the lowermost flints in the clay are often black-coated ; the Clay- 
with-flints underlies the Brickearth, and the latter often contains 
‘ Sarsen stones,’ or, as they are more generally called, ‘Greywethers.’ 
Mr. Codrington observes that the appearances of these pipes are 
just such as would be caused by the gradual dissolving away of the 
Chalk. In one case, where a tabular bed of flint was cut through 
by a pipe, ‘the fragments extended quite across the pothole, lying 
in a festoon in the clay within a few inches of the bottom’; and he 
says that ‘everything seems to indicate a quiet subsidence of the 
overlying bed into irregularities in the dissolving chalk. Hvery- 
thing here also favours the supposition that the origin of the Clay- 
with-flints is to be ascribed to the gradual dissolving away of the 
Chalk-with-flints, under a capping of drift Brickearth. Mr. Cod- 
rington has therefore come, independently, to the same conclusion 
on the formation of Clay-with-flints as the Geological Survey has 
done. The remark that ‘a covering of drift, made up of Tertiary 
materials (Brickearth ?), seems greatly to promote the formation 
of potholes and the irregular erosion of the Chalk; Tertiary beds, 
unless where they thin out, appear to protect it,’ is to the point, as 
‘also that a ‘vast time must be allowed for the formation of Clay- 
with-flints.’ 

Our author speaks of some drift older than the Boulder-clay ; 
but we do not remember having heard of any of the latter in this 
neighbourhood, except in some geological remarks published in a 
‘Flora of Marlborough’ a few years ago, in which (besides other 
mistakes) the mottled Brickearth (or the Clay-with-flints), so com- 
mon on the Chalk hills near that town, was so called. 

Mr. Codrington ends his paper with a theory of the denudation of 
the Vale of Pewsey, in which we must disagree with him. How 
the escarpments there could have been formed by the action of the 
sea passes our understanding. ‘To treat of this question here would 
take up far too much space; but we would ask—where is the beach 
that should be found at the foot of the sea-cliffs ? or where is the 
talus that should be formed by the mouldering away of the nearly 
vertical cliff to the curved escarpment? Moreover, to speak more 
eenerally, can any one give an instance of a sea-cliff that runs along 
the strike of a formation for scores of miles, as the chalk-escarp- 
ment does round the London Basin ? Surely some such long slow 
agency as that which Mr. Codrington allows to be able to dissolve 
away vast masses of Chalk-with-flints, forming therefrom the Clay- 
with-flints, over a wide-spreading tract of country, would also be 
able to dissolve away the lower beds of the Chalk into the form of 
an escarpment. It is but fair to say that Mr. Codrington allows 
that atmospheric agencies may have had something to do with the 
wearing out of valleys in the Chalk, and that, knowing well that the 
gravels of the Vale of Pewsey are river-gravels, he also allows that 
it has been deepened by river-action; though he supposes an oscilla- 
tion of the land to account for the different heights of some of the 


Reviews— Geological Society of Glasgow. 507 


eravels above the river level, rather than look on them as simply 
the effect of the irregular wearing action of the river. 

We wish that such records of facts soon hidden from geological 
eyes were more common, and we hope that Mr. Codrington will go 
on as he has done, and will not let any railway on which he may be 
engaged be without an account of its geology. 


III. Transactions OF THE GEOLOGICAL Society oF GLaAscow. 
Vol. ii. Part I., pp. 98. 8vo. 1865. (2 Plates.) 
W E have in this volume the papers read before the Society, and 
the proceedings from October 1864 to October 1865; and 
that they form a very useful series of observations and remarks, the 
readers of the GroLoGicaL MAGAZINE well know, from the reports 
regularly given therein of the work of the Glasgow geologists. This 
part of the transactions (which would have been all the better for a 
Table of Contents) contains Mr. Geikie’s Lecture on the Origin of 
the present Scenery of Scotland, in full; also Dr. A. T. Machattie’s 
Lecture on Metamorphism, with special reference to chemical 
changes in rocks—both of great value to students, to whom also 
Mr. J. Sutherland’s paper on Quartz, and especially Mr. J. W. 
Young’s memoir on the presence of Magnesia in rocks, will be highly 
useful. Local geology is elucidated by Dr. Bryce’s paper on certain 
Trap-rocks near Glasgow, and on the Earthquake-district of Perth ; 
Mr. J. Dougall’s, on ancient Sea-margins near Glasgow; Mr. John 
Young’s, on certain Old Red and Carboniferous Sandstones; Mr. 
kh. W. Skipsey’s, on some Igneous Rocks of the Cathkin Hills, and on 
Lower Carboniferous Fossils in the Coal-measures; the Rev. H. W. 
Crosskey’s, on Glacial Deposits of the Clyde district; and Mr. J. 
Thomson’s, on the Geology of the Campbeltown district. 
Paleontology is advanced by the determination of some new 
fossils from the Carboniferous rocks of Scotland, namely, Chiton 
humilis, Kirkby (pl. 1, fig. 1); Chitonellus Youngianus, Kirkby 
(pl. 1, fig. 2); Cypricardia acuticarinata, Armstrong (pl. 1, fig. 3); 
C. erebricostata, Armstrong (pl. 1, fig. 4); Estheria punctatella, Jones 
(pl. 1, fig. 5); Nautilus nodiferus, Armstrong (pl. 1, figs. 6, 7); 
Pleurstomaria Youngiana, Armstrong (pl. 1, fig. 8); and Lingula 
Thomsonii, Davidson (pl. 2, fig. 3). Notices of the finding- places 
of these and other fossils, by Messrs. Young, Thomson, Armstrong, 
Armour, Skipsey, Hunter, and others, as well as some short miscel- 
laneous papers, complete the highly satisfactory account of the last 
year’s researches in geology, mineralogy, and paleontology by the 
active members of the Geological Society of Glasgow. Well may 
their President (the Rev. H. Crosskey) tell them, in his address, that 
their work gives great promise for the future of their society ; and 
we fully agree with his closing remarks, ‘'There are great problems 
awaiting study, in localities accessible to us all. The treasures of 
our science can be increased by all who labour honestly, in a simple 
and unaffected spirit, with clear eye observing what is, and a lowly 
mind never asserting itself against the observed fact. Be it our 
privilege to cultivate the true scientific spirit, the spirit of simple- 


~ 


508 Reports and Proceedings. 


mindedness and of simple-heartedness. A scientific society should 
form a kind of brotherhood, each aiding the other; no member de- 
siring his own honour at the expense of others, but willing to share 
such knowledge as he can gain, and to aid as to be aided. The 
reward is sure. The reward of all faithful, scientific study will be 
found, in enlargement of thought and in refinement of mind, amid 
the many cares of daily business; and in uplifting the character 
above narrow ends, and ignoble passions, and selfish aims. It gives 

dignity to life, as well as knowledge to the mind.’ 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
———_—_——— 


Duprey anp Miptanp GroLocicaL Socrery.—On Tuesday, the 
first ordinary meeting of members for the present season was held 
in the Museum, Dudley. Mr. E. Fisher Smith presided. 

The first paper was a communication from Mr. Caartes TWAMLEY, 
F.G.S., on ‘The Faults of the South Staffordshire Coal-field, and 
their Relation to the Igneous Rocks of the District.’ This paper 
was prepared for the British Association, but owing to its elaborate 
character it was necessary to give merely an abstract to the Geo- 
logical Section. It was illustrated by an extensive series of diagrams, . 
and dealt in detail with the history of the igneous rocks of the Coal- 
field, and the dislecations which they have caused in the Carbon- 
iferous Measures. The former Dudley Geological Society, in the 
year 1846, appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. Beckett, 
Blackwell, Sparrow, and Twamley, to draw upa report on the faults _ 
of the Coal-field, and this led these gentlemen to institute a rigid 
examination of the district, but the results of their investigations 
were never published, so that this paper may be regarded as the 
embodiment of the work of this committee, supplemented by the 
researches of Prof. Jukes and others who have given attention to 
this subject. The author is of opinion that the igneous rocks of 
South Staffordshire were originally covered by the Permian, Red 
Sandstone, and probably by the Liassic Rocks, but that these have 
since been removed by denudation. He supposes that the Ludlow 
formation was not developed farther to the East than a line extend- 
ing from Sedgley to the Trindle, near Dudley. The igneous force 
which produced the intrusions of rock now found in connection 
with the Coal-measures, acted in a direction almost due South from 
Hurst Hill, and first produced that eminence, and afterwards Wren’s 
Nest, Dudley Castle and Nether Trindle Hills. He assumes that 
an immense thickness of igneous rock, probably little less than 4,000 
feet, was by this means introduced beneath the area which now 
forms the South Staffordshire coal-field. After partially cooling, a 
portion was forced out underneath the Silurian Rocks of the Walsall 
district, bringing them up to their present inclined position, and 
the Rowley Hills’ basalt was also forced out above the thick coal. 
This would produce a great depression between the above places, 


Reports and Proceedings. 509 


and thus the series of faults east of Dudley (of which the Dudley 
Port trough faults are important features) were mainly produced. 
The igneous bosses at Pouk Hill, Barrow Hill, Dudley, and other 
places were fully considered, and their relationship traced to the 
faults in the several localities. The whole paper has an in- 
timate bearing upon the mining interests of the district, and satis- 
factorily explains many of the peculiar dislocations by which it is 
traversed. 

Mr. Aiport called attention to the chemical analysis of Mr. D. 
Forbes, which appeared to prove that the South Staffordshire 
igneous rocks belong to the Secondary period. He considered that 
the author’s theory of the complete denudation of the Red rocks 
was very probable, &s such instances are not wanting in other 
formations. 

Mr. L. P. CAPEWELL read a paper ‘on the Metal Tungsten, its 
chemical combinations, and its alloys with iron and steel.’ Speci- 
mens of wolfram, tungsten, deutoxide and sesquioxide of tungsten, 
chlorides and sulphides of tungsten, and tungstate of soda were ex- 
hibited. Referring to the alloy of tungsten and steel, the author 
showed specimens which were exceedingly hard, and much more 
compact than ordinary steel. It was stated that this alloy will be 
invaluable for making drilling instruments, &c., where great hard- 
ness is indispensable. 

The next paper was by Mr. Caartes Kettey, on ‘ The Dudley 
Silurian Rocks and their Fossils; remarks on the confusion existing 
in published lists and descriptions, with tables showing the dis- 
tribution of the principal fossils.’ This paper had special reference 
to the proper classification of a bed of shale lying immediately above 
the Wenlock Limestone of Dudley, and which has yielded some of 
the most interesting and beautiful of the organic remains from that 
district. The principal places where it has been exposed are the 
Dudley railway-tunnel, at the reservoir north of the Wren’s Nest, 
at Spring House, and at Old Park, on the eastern side of the Wren’s 
Nest. Unfortunately there are no good natural sections of it, for 
while two bands of limestone are well exffosed in the caverns and 
at other points on the Wren’s Nest and the Castle Hills, the only 
section of this overlying shale is that at the railway station, Dudley. 
References to published descriptions show some confusion as to the 
name and physical relationship of this shale. In some it is classed 
as Lower Ludlow, and in others as Wenlock shale. Similar con- 
tradictions exist as to the localities of the fossils. Sir Roderick 
Murchison, Prof. Jukes, Mr. J. W. Salter, and the Dudley Geo- 
logical Society, have in published works placed this shale in the 
Ludlow formation. The Geological Survey Map, the Jermyn Street 
Catalogue, and Professor Morris, are named as authorities for the 
opposite classification. "That great confusion must arise from the 
present uncertainty as to which formation this bed really ought to 
be placed in, is evident, and hence the author has made a critical 
examination of the fossil contents of the deposit, and has carefully 
compared the lists with the organic remains found in the under- 


510 Reports and Proceedings. 


lying shale and limestone. According to the highest authorities , 
the two shales are lithologically undistinguishable from each other. 
The fossil evidence is, however, much more complete than it was a 
few years ago. Specific differences distinguish the fossils of the 
shale above the Limestone from those of the shale beneath, but the 
fossil evidence seems to show that the Upper shale has more in- 
timate relationship to the Wenlock Limestone below than to the 
overlying Aymestry Limestone. Hence the author concludes that 
this deposit should be placed among the members of the Wenlock 
group. Extensive tables of the distribution of organic remains 
through the Silurian rocks of Dadley accompanied the paper. 

A summary of these lists shows that of corals the Upper Shale 
has twenty-seven species, of which twenty-three are found in the 
Limestone below; but none of them are found in the typical Lower 
Ludlow Rocks of the Ludlow district. Of Trilobites the Upper 
Shale has twenty species and subspecies, fourteen of which are also 
in the Limestone below. The Lower Ludlow of the Ludlow district 
has eight species, four of which are also in the Upper Shale, and 
the Wenlock Limestone; and of the remaining species, three are in 
the Upper Shale, but not in the Limestone. Of Brachiopoda the 
Upper Shale has twenty-nine species, twenty-four of which are 
also found in the Limestone below. Of crustacea, again, the Upper 
Shale and the Limestone below have yielded specimens of Ceratiocaris 
and Pterygotus, which, until lately, had not been found below the 
Ludlow Rocks. Mr. Allport stated that out of thirty-four species of 
Trilobites found in the shales above and below the limestone, only 
three or four are common to both. He agreed with Sir R. Mur chison 
and others, that the Upper Shale is the ‘representative of the Lower 
Ludlow formation. Mr. Hollier said collectors had generally re- 

garded the tunnel shale as belonging to the Wenlock formation. 
Some very interesting fossils from this formation were exhibited, 
including several undetermined forms from Mr, Capewell’s cabinet ; 
also a new star fish, from the same beds, belonging to Mr. Allport, 
and a fine specimen of Lituttes, from Mr. Johnson’s collection. The 
new Silurian genus of @rustacea excited a good deal of attention. 
Until the character of these Dudley fossils was determined the 
Cirripedia were not known lower than the Rhetic beds, but now the 
finding of Turrilepas Wrightit shows the genus existed in the Silu- 
rian seas. ‘This fossil has been known by ‘the name of Chiton. 

A chart of Fossil Crustacea,* prepared by Messrs. Salter and 
Woodward, was exhibited and described; also, specimens of Cri- 
noidea, from the Mountain Limestone of Yorkshire, which have been 
recently presented to the museum by Mr. E. Wood, F.G.S., of Rich- 
mond. 

THE GEOLOGICAL SocieTY oF NorwicH made an excursion to 
Hunstanton on the 22nd August under the guidance of the Rev. 
John Gunn, F.G.S., the president of the Society. About twenty 
members were present. The principal objects of geological interest 


* See Guotocicat Macazinu for October, p. 468. 


Reports and Proceedings. 511 


were:—1, The Cliff-section at Hunstanton which exhibits the Lower 
Greensand, the ‘Red Chalk,’ and the Lower White Chalk (known 
as the ‘Hard Chalk’ of West Norfolk). The fossils met with in the 
‘Red Chalk’ were stems of Encrinites, a fossil sponge, Spongza 
paradoxica, Inoceramus Cuvieri, and I. Crispi, Belemnites minimus, 
Terebratula semiglobosa, &ec. The Red Chalk appears to be the 
equivalent of the Gault which at Norwich was reached at a depth 
of 1200 feet beneath the surface in Messrs. Colman’s well at, Carrow. 
Further inland Mr. C. B. Rose detected the red band graduating 
into the characteristic blue layer which forms the Gault. It also 
occurs in patches along the opposite Lincolnshire coast. 2, The 
Forest-bed, a continuation of that which may be seen at Hasboro’, 
Bacton, Mundesley, and Cromer, and from which remains of Ele- 
phants, Deer, Sos, and many other animals have rewarded the 
researches of Mr. Gunn. At low-water the bases of old forest trees 
may be seen amid the ooze, their roots still stretching into the blue 
under-clay, and surrounded by a bed of lignite composed of fallen 
trunks, branches, and leaves, with cones of fir, and nuts of hazel, 
and rhizomes of the Osmunda regalis. 

IJ. At the usual Monthly Meeting held in the Museum Mr. J. 
Taytor (the Secretary) read an interesting paper on the Drift-beds 
in the neighbourhood of Saxlingham, Norfolk. The section exposed 
at Skates Hill gives 15 to 20 feet thickness composed of various 
beds of alternate clays, gravels, and sands. About midway in the 
section Mr. Taylor detected numerous fragments of shells, principally 
of* Cardium edule and Mactra. A mile further, on the road to 
Saxlingham, another section was described composed of Brickearth 
and ‘ till,’ also yielding shells. 

The third section, 14 mile distant, also Brickearth, some 10 or 
15 feet in thickness contained immense quantities of fragments of 
shells and even some entire examples. Mya arenaria, Cyprina 
Islandica, Tellina solidula, Mactra subtruncata, Cardium edule, 
Turritella commune, were amdhg the shells identified, besides nume- 
rous doubtful species. It was suggested that notes of local geolo- 
gical phenomena should be recorded upon a copy of the ordnance 
survey map of Norfolk to be kept for the use of the members. 


OsweEstRY AND WextsuHrooL Naruratists’ Fretp-Cius.—This 
club held its third meeting for the season on Thursday, August 17th. 
The Geological section, after leaving the train at Trevor Station, 
proceeded first to inspect the quarry of the Messrs. Roberts, close 
by. This quarry is worked in the Millstone grit, and affords a good 
section of the uppermost beds of that formation and of their junc- 
tion with the lowest beds of the Coal-measures. The lowest seam of 
the latter is exposed at the entrance to the quarry, and rests upon 
the thick beds of sandstone in which the quarry is worked. The 
coarser layers of sandstone here are composed of fragments of Quartz 
in many of its varieties, firmly cemented together by Feldspar, and 
are quarried for millstones, while the fine beds admit of being worked 
for most architectural purposes. Some of the usual fossils were 


512 Reports and Proceedings. 


obtained at this spot. Another quarry in the same beds higher up 
the hill was next visited; and then the slope and the outcrop of the 
beds were traversed by the Members, who noted by the way points of 
resemblance to, or difference from, the same formation as examined 
by them in their last excursion at Sweeney. A fragment of a large 
Calamite was noticed upon a block of the Sandstone at Garth. 

The junction of the Sandstone with the Mountain-limestone as 
exposed _in the grand escarpment above Trevor was at length 
reached; and from this point the uppermost beds of Limestone were 
followed, and some examples of the interior of both the ventral and 
--dorsal valves of Productus giganteus were obtained, as well as spe- 

cimens of the large Coral—Astrea carbonaria, M‘Coy,—which is 
found here in great plenty. A descent was then made down the 
‘precipitous escarpment to the horizon of the Productus Llangol- 
lensis, which is found in considerable numbers a little above the Red 
Marl—marked on the maps of the Survey as ‘Old Red Sandstone ;’ 
and the excursion was concluded by a rapid walk over the Wenlock 
Shales to the town of Llangollen.—D. C. D : 
Ricumonp Fietp Naturatists’ CLus.—On Thursday week the 
members of the Richmond and North Riding Naturalists’ Field-club, 
by the kind permission of Messrs. Stobart and Co., paid a visit to the 
Newton Cap Colliery, near Bishop Auckland. About 60 were pre- 
sent, including several ladies. By the exertions of the President, 
Mr. E. Wood, F.G.S., every arrangement was made for the comfort 
of the excursionists, and the party tock their departure from Ri¢h- 
mond by the 9 o’clock train, reaching Bishop Auckland at 11 o’clock, 
and proceeded to the colliery, situate about a mile from the town. 
After some little delay in arranging the attire, the descent took place, 
under the able guidance of Mr. Lishman, the surveyor and agent. 
The ‘ Main’ coal, the seam worked at the Newton Cap Colliery, is 
some 360 feet from the surface; and the mechanism for the descent is 
most perfect, the shaft being large, affd the cages capable of accom- 
modating 8 or 10 persons. In a short time the descent of the whole 
party was accomplished, and, being ushered into the ‘Drawing Room,’ 
a chamber at the foot of the shaft, which had been whitewashed and 
furnished with seats, the visitors were each provided with a candle 
and aclay holder. They then divided into three parties, each having 
a conductor, and visiting a different part of the pit. After walking 
for nearly a mile, they arrived at the portion of the pit where the men 
were hewing the coal, and full opportunity was afforded for gaining 
information respecting the method of working. The return was made 
in the wagons, and in due time the whole of ‘the visitors were safely 
landed at the foot of the shaft. One subject of remark during the 
journey was the pure state of the atmosphere, the Davy lamp not 
being necessary in this pit; this is entirely attributable to the effi- 
cient state of the ventilation, which in the Newton Cap Colliery is 
effected by the closing up of all side outlets for the current of air, 
and by this means the heat of the furnace causes a rapid draught 
through all the open passages, the supply of fresh air coming down 


British Association Reports. 513 


the main shaft. The furnace was the point next visited. Probably 
two tons of fuel were burning in a mass, and the front of the place 
was almost unapproachable within a few yards. The next visit was 
to the stables, where the ponies and horses used in the different 
workings are accommodated. Then the party ascended to terra 
Jirma, upwards of two hours having been spent in the pit. A sump- 
tuous cold collation was provided by the President of the Club, at the 
Fleece Hotel, to which 66 sat down. At Darlington, the interval 
from 6 to 8 was profitably spent at the Albert Hill Ironworks, which 
through the kindness of the managers were thrown open to the 
members of the Club. 


BRITISEL ASSOCTATION REPORTS. 
—>+——_ 


Britiso AssociATIon Reports—SeEcTION C. 


J. On Guractat Srriation. By Prof. J. Pamures, F.R.S, President of the 
Association. 
Q* few subjects amid some apparent differences are geologists 
better agreed than on the general theory of the movement of gla- 
ciers on their inclined beds in the Alps, while on their former and 
permanent effects, as evidenced in the valleys and among the lakes of 
England, the differences of opinion are great. 

The author believed that these differences ought to be brought to 
the test of accurate mechanical principles, as, for instance, the limits 
of effectual pressure to move ice forward on level surfaces and up 
ascending slopes ; and confronted also with accurate notions and 
exact maps of special tracts selected for study. The author then 
described the special phenomena which had been observed by himself 
and Mr. J. E. Lee, of Caerleon, on a swelling ground at the foot of 
the Goérner Glacier. In this case he showed that distinct grooves, 
beautiful striation, and polish, were traceable on broad flat surfaces 
of rock, protected by a shed, 150 feet above the actual bed of the 
Glacier, and about 100 yards from its base. Over this elevated 
tract in former years the Glacier must have passed, and this was 
quite consistent with the known physical constitution of ice and the 
slopes of the ground up which it is capable of ascending. 

It is quite clear that on such ascending slopes the upward move- 
ment of the ice by the continuous pressure of the mass above is a 
real and necessary result. 

The author next described the phenomena of glacial movement in 
Wastdale, and the features of Wastwater, a deep straight lake in 
Cumberland, three miles long. In Wastdale can be shown the reality 
of partial movements of ice in the valley ; but from the great length 
of its lower part and the shortness of the slopes in ancient days, he 
concluded that continuous pressure could not be conveyed through 
the length of Wastdale. He also showed how a study of the relative 
degrees of grinding effected by solid bodies under different degrees of 
pressure, velocity, and inclination of the bed, led to the conclusion 

VOL. II.—NO. XVII. LL 


514 British Association Reports. 


that if such pressure could be communicated it would not be effective 
in excavating the lake-basin at Wastdale. On the whole, he con- 
cluded that for a satisfactory explanation of the full effect of ice in 
valleys and lakes it would be necessary always to treat each case as 
a special problem by no means purely geological, but including and 
requiring important and quite practicable mechanical determinations. 


‘Il. On tur Gzorocy or Coarsrooxparz, By the Rey. W. Purton. 


oj UST where the valley of the Severn contracts towards the narrow 

gorge by which it passes through the great Limestone ridge of 
Wenlock Edge, it is met by the lateral valley of Coalbrookdale run- 
ning down from the high table-land which forms the chief part of the 
Shropshire or Coalbrookdale Coal-field. The Dale, which is for the 
most part scooped out of the Wenlock shale, is joined about midway 
down by the Lightmoor hollow through which the railway passes, and 
which is excavated in the Lower Coal-measures, here faulted down, 
and is flanked at its entrance into the Severn valley by the rounded 
hill called Strethill on the north, and by Linceln Hill on the south. 
At Strethill we find that mass of Glacial Drift, 200 feet in height 
above the Severn, which forms the subject of Mr. G. Maw’s paper in 
the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, for May 1864, and 
which has served to prove that at one time during the Glacial epoch 
Wenlock Edge was the coast-line of the Irish sea, and the Severn 
Valley a marine strait. At Lincoln Hill, resting on the Wenlock 
Shale, the Wenlock Limestone is seen dipping at a high angle to the 
south. It is now worked in an extensive series of caverns, but in 
the old surface-workings we have an interesting section showing the 
Lower Coal-measures resting on the Limestone in the following 
order :— 


. Impure sandy limestone. 

. Limestone (chalkstone) 12 feet. 

Conglomerate and sandstone, 18 feet, 6 inches. 

. Clunch, with balls of sandstone, 18 feet. 

Coal, ‘ Lancashire Ladies,’ 6 inches. 

More clunch and sandstone, 12 feet. 

A red and yellow ‘ pimply’ rock, about 4 feet. 

Whitish sandstone, 1 foot 8 inches. ‘ Crawstone Measure Crust.’ 
“Crawstone ’ ironstone, 3 feet. 

Sandstone, ‘ Flint Coal Flint.’ 


A walk of about a mile through the woods on the same side of the 
Dale will bring us to the quarry in Lightmoor Wood. Here we see, 
first, a white and brown Sandstone with plant-markings, 5 to 6 feet 
thick ; the Crawstone-measure crust; then the Crawstone ironstone; 
above this a whitish Sandstone with fossil stems and roots of trees 
(Sigillaria and Stigmaria). It was from this quarry that the large 
fossil tree now in the possession of H. Whitmore, Esq., M.P., which 
was figured in the ‘ Illustrated London News’ some two years ago, 
was procured. This last stratum is much stained by petroleum with 
which the rocks are saturated. Above it lies the ‘Little Flint’ coal, 


SO WADI OOOH 


HI 


British Association Reports. 515 


one foot thick, then a thin band of strong blue and yellow clunch ; 

and then the ‘Clod ’ coal, capped by a bed of clay. 
In the Railway ee just below, no less than six seams of Coal 
Ww. - E, 


LET op 
te 
Gell 1S 


ee’ crittlehl ie 


> => Ss a = 
SECTION IN THE LIGHTMOOR RAILWAY CULLING. 


are exposed, and though the section is abnormal, the measures being 
much compressed and brought exceedingly close together, it is a 
highly interesting one. Above the Flint and Clod-coal we see the 
‘Best’ Coal, ‘Game,’ ‘'Two-foot,’ and ‘Lower Sulphur’ Coals; and 
above the last, the ‘Penny-stone’ Iron-measure, capped by a bed 
of sandstone, which has been employed in building the bridges, &c. 
on the railway. In a brickfield about 100 yards to the north still 
higher strata are exposed, viz., Red Brick-clay, 8 feet; White 
Clay, 12 feet ; Mottled Clay, solid below, sandy above, with, nodules 
encrusted with iron (‘snake heads’), and then the true * Sulphur’ 
Coal, or ‘ Stinkers,’ usually found, as here, 9 or 10 yards above the 
« Penny-measure? Thus in a walk of little more than a mile we 
may see in open sections the whole of the Lower Coal-measures and 
a portion of the Upper. 

For a detailed account of the Shropshire Coal-field, the estuarine 
character of its strata, and its peculiar fossils, including several 
species of Insects and of the Limulus or King-crab, the reader is 
referred to Prestwich (Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd ser. vol. v.), Hull, and 
the Publications of the Geological Survey. 


Ill. On soME HITHERTO UNRECORDED LEAF-FORMS, FROM THE PIPE-cLAY OF 
Aztum Bay, Istz or Wicut. By W. Srerurn Mircuerr, LL.B, F.G.S., &e. 
HOSE who have visited the western coast of the Tele of Wight 
will recollect that in Alum Bay the beds are tilted into a 
vertical position. About 200 feet from the base of the Lower 
Bagshot beds is a band of Pipe-clay, some 6 feet thick, crowded in 


ih i 2 


516 British Association Reports 


one part with well-preserved plant-remains. The end of this band 
exposed in the cliff has been worked on several occasions, and 
Mr. Prestwich, Dr. Bowerbank, and two or three museums have 
obtained collections of the leaves. A list of the plants found has 
been given in No. 42 of the Geological Survey Memoirs. This list 
must not, however, be looked upon as complete, for further working 
brings to light many new forms. The author has had a collection 
made by Mr. Henry Keeping, the well-known geological collector, 
and he obtained some 350 leaf- and 50 fruit-remains. Some of these 
have not been recorded before. 

In the collection is a Ficus, somewhat like F. Bowerbankit (De la 
Harpe), but with the angles of venation much greater, and it can 
hardly be referred to that species. The author also described a 
Juglans with serrated edge, which was certainly not Juglans Sharpet 
(De la Harpe). 

There are two or three specimens of a large trilobed Acer, and a 
Cinnamomum, very like C. Scheuchzeri, from Bovey Tracey [Pen- 
gelly, Bovey Tracey, Pl. XVI. fig. 12], and a leguminous leaf, pro- 
ably a Podogonium. Many other fragments were found, which could 
not be referred to recorded species, but were too imperfect to be 
described as new forms. A cone had also been obtained, about which, 
however, the writer would not venture an opinion. But the most 
interesting discovery was that of two flower-remains, which appear 
to resemble Porana Giningensis [| Heer, Flora Tert. Helv. Pl. XVI. 
fig. 12.]. Adrawing of the two is given for comparison. 


Figs. 1. and Fig. 3. 


2. 
Porana(?) Vectensis, W.S. M. Pipe-clay of | Porana Gningensis (Heer, Flora Tert. Helv., 
pl 


um Bay. . Xvi. f. 12). Miocene, @ningen. , 


‘The part preserved in the P. Giningensis must be the calyx, as 
the corolla is monopetalous. Sut for the finding of these solitary 
flower-remains in the Swiss Tertiaries, one would have been dis- 
posed to consider the Alum Bay specimens to belong to a polype- 
talous [pentapetalous] order; and the small elevations around the 
central dise might be viewed as the remains of stamens. ‘The writer 
accepts provisionally the view of their belonging tothe genus Porana, 
giving them the specific name Vectensis, in consideration of the points 
in which they differ from P. Giningensis. 

The list, however, of the remains preserved in this bed is not to 
be completed without further working, in aid of which the British 
Asoociation have already made the author a grant, 


British Association Reports. 517 


IV. Notice oF THE OccURRENCE OF CERTAIN Fosstzr SHELIS IN THE SEA-BED 
ADJOINING THE CHANNEL Istanps. By J. Gwyn Jerrreys, F.R.S. 
TE the course of his dredging explorations this year among the 
Channel Isles, Mr. Jeffreys found shells of species, some of 
which are extinct, and one is not known to inhabit at present 
the North Atlantic. They were taken, with living mollusca, at 
depths varying from 12 to 20 fathoms, and in different parts of the 
sea-bed. ‘The specimens in question had the same appearance as 
dead shells of recent species; one of them was in a most perfect 
state of preservation, and evidently had not been rolled or trans- 
ported to any distance from its original place of habitation. 

They consisted of Potamides tricarinatus, Lam. and P. einctus, 
Lam. (both Eocene fossils), a species of Lerebratula (or Terebra- 
tulina), which Mr. Davidson referred with doubt to J’. syuamulosa. 
of Baudon (from the Calcaire Grossier), and Aotalia (Discorbina) 
Trochidiformis of Lamarck, also an Eocene fossil, but larger than 
specimens from the Bracklesham beds. No Tertiary deposit has 
been noticed in any part of the Channel Isles; but the discovery of 
the above-mentioned fossils in the adjoining sea-bed, occupying an 
intermediate position, would seem to connect this district with 
Hampshire and Normandy, and to show the great extent of the 
Eocene basin or area which formerly existed. Another species 
obtained by the same dredgings, near Jersey, was Cerithium vul- 
gatum, Bruguiére. Several specimens were found, one in a tolerably 
fresh condition. ‘This species inhabits the Mediterranean and Adri- 
atic, throughout many parts of which it is most abundant. It does 
not appear that living specimens have ever been found elsewhere, 
although Lamarck gave the North Atlantic as a locality. M. Cail- 
liaud of Nantes included C. vulgatum in his list of mollusea from 
the Département of the Loire-Inférieure, having frequently met 
with shells thrown up on the beach; and Professor Sars recorded 
the discovery of a specimen inside a cod-fish caught off Bergen. 
Mr. Jeffreys believed that C. vulgatum, which usually inhabits large 
estuaries and salt marshes, once lived in such situations between 
Jersey and the mouth of the Loire, and that this tract has since 
been submerged, and consequently become unsuitable for the con- 
tinued habitation of the Cerithium. ‘The presence of submarine 
peat near the Channel Isles and in the bay of Mont St. Michel, tends 
to confirm the supposition, although it is by no means certain that 
the submergence has occurred within the historical period, as sug- 
gested by the Abbé Manet, Mr. Peacock, and others. Fossil shells 
procured by Mr. Jeffreys in his Shetland dredgings were of Arctic 
and high northern species; those now obtained were tropical and 
southern. 


V. On tHE BritisH Spectres oF THE GENUS CEPHALASPIS, AND ON THE ScoTcH 
Preraspis. By E. Ray Lanxssrsr, Scholar of Downing College, Cambridge. 
vee author of this paper stated that he had acquired a very large 

amount of evidence with regard to these remarkable fishes, by 
the kindness of various geological friends, in particular, Mr. Powrie, 


518 British Association Reports. 


of Reswallie, Forfar, Mr. Lightbody, and Mr. Humphrey Salwey ; 
and had also had access to the material collected by Professor 
Huxley. His investigations had led him to conclude that there 
were five British species of Cephalaspis, namely, 1st. The Cepha- 
laspis Lyellii, of Agassiz, which appeared to be confined to Scotland, 
and perhaps the passage beds of Herefordshire, only represented in 
England by very well-marked varieties, 2nd. The common species 
of the Cornstones of England, which mighé be considered as identical 
with C. Lyell, but appeared to differ much in the form of the head. 
3rd. The Cephalaspis Murchisoni of Egerton, found in the passage 
beds near Ledbury. 4th. The Cephalaspis Salweyi, of Egerton, a 
species well characterised by its markings and the form of the 
head; and 5th. The Cephalaspis asterolepis, named by Dr. Harley, 
and distinguished by characters derived from the same parts as 
those of C. Salweyi. The C. ornatus of Egerton, Mr. Lankester 
stated, did not differ in its markings from the specimens of C. Lyelli 
lately obtained by Mr. Powrie, of Reswallie, and he therefore con- 
sidered it not impossible that these were specifically the same forms. 
There was not, the author remarked, sufficient evidence to justify 
the specific separation of C. ornatus. In C. Lyellii there existed so 
great a tendency to variation in the length of the cusps, breadth, &c., 
that it was extremely difficult to indicate specific characters with 
precision. Some very remarkable specimens of C. Lyellii, exhibit- 
ing the body and its ornamentation, were exhibited, being from the 
cabinet of Mr. Powrie. 

A Scotch species of Péeraspis, having the snout of Pé. rostratus 
and the dise of Pt. Crowehii, was then described. ‘The name re- 
tained for this species is that given by Mr. Powrie, Pt. Mitchelli, in 
honour of the Rev. Hugh Mitchell, of Montrose, who had been the 
first to recognise the existence of Pteraspis in the Scotch area of 
the Lower Old Red Sandstone. A monograph on the Old Red 
Fishes is in preparation for the Paleeontographical Society by Messrs. 
Powrie and Lankester, in which the various species of Cephalas- 
pidian fishes will be first dealt with. Assistance in the form of 
loans of specimens will be very acceptable to the authors. 


VI. On tHe Lower Lias or Lyme Rees. By E. C. H. Day, F.G.S. 


ee Lias was defined by the author as commencing imme- 

diately below the ‘Ostrea liassica’ series (with the Insect- 
beds, of Brodie); the érue ‘White Lias’ below, in his opinion be- 
longing, both upon physical and paleontological considerations, to the 
Rhetic group of rocks. 

The Lower Lias has been defined above by the upper limit of the 
zone of Ammonites varicostatus; and the author having accepted this 
definition in a former paper,* on the middle and upper divisions of 
this formation, he takes it as his boundary in the present description ; 
but he does so, with the belief that such a division is purely arbi- 


* Read before the Geological Society of London, 18th February, 1863. 


British Association Reports. 519 


trary, and that there is not any physical or organic break which 
justifies the separation of the ‘ Middle’ from the ‘Lower’ Lias, as 
two distinct formations. 

The Lower Lias is divisible into a series of Limestones alternating 
with Marls, in the locality under consideration, about 80 feet in 
thickness, and a mass of Marls, in which the calcareous element is 
but slight, about 220 feet in thickness, making the total thickness 
of the Lower Lias, near Lyme Regis, about 300 feet. The litholo- 
gical passage from the lower division to the upper is however gra- 
dual, and there is not any definite paleontological break between 
them. 

The ‘Limestones’ (the ‘Blue Lias Stone’ of commerce) are the 
best known portion of the Lias. Their origin, as well as that of the 
nodules of limestone that occur in the marls above, are alike attri- 
butable to segregation from an originally calcareous ooze, and not to 
an alternate deposition of calcareous and argillaceous sediments. 

The author next considers the distribution of the fossils of the Lower 
Lias in this neighbourhood, and his observations may be summed 
up as follows: that though the Ammonites of the Lower Lias have 
very restricted vertical ranges, and do occur in the order indicated 
by the supporters of ‘Ammonitic Zones of Life,’ yet that these 
ranges do not (except in special instances, where they are limited 
by a ‘break’ in time) define the range of any associated fauna. 
That Gasteropods are generally absent in these strata, their remains 
being mostly found confined to the lowest portions of the Limestones. 
That species of Mollusca, &c., occurring in the lower portion of the 
Limestones, recur here and there again, even as high as in the 
‘Marlstone’ at the top of the Middle Lias. That the remains of 
the animal of the Belemnite are found in strata below any contain- 
ing the ‘guards’ of the same genus; the Belemnites, commonly 
so-called, gradually increasing in frequency of occurrence from the 
appearance of the Limestones to the Belemnite-beds of the Middle 
Lias. That the Reptiles and Fish of the Lower Lias appear to 
have ranged vertically throughout it, as there is no species found 
commonly which the author could assert to be confined to any parti- 
cular bed or zone; some species even passing into the basement beds 
of the Middle Lias. 

From a consideration of these paleontological facts, and of the 
lithological conditions of the Lower and the Middle Lias, the author 
expresses his opinion that these so-called formations are but sub- 
divisions of one formation representing the complementary deposits — 
of one sea. 


VII. Own THe Retative Extent or ATMOSPHERIC AND Ocranic DEnuDATION 
WITH A PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CERTAIN Rocks AND VALLEYS IN YORK- 
SHIRE AND DeRBysHIRE. By D. Macxrytosu, F.G.S. 

(HE paper contained a modified re-statement of what had already 

appeared in the April and July numbers of this Magazine. 

[See article on the Brimham Rocks, and Surface-Geology of the 

Lake District.|| The author brought forward a number of very 


520 British Association Reports. 


striking facts and considerations to show, that most of the inland 
pillars and projections of rock hitherto attributed to weathering are 
due to the former action of waves, tides, and currents; that many 
rocks are capable of withstanding atmospheric action for thousands, 
if not hundreds of thousands of years; and that the amount of 
atmospheric denudation is small, when compared with that resulting 
from the littoral action of ‘ the great excavator,’ the ocean. 


VIII. Dr. A. Lerrn Apams AnD Prorsessor Busk communicated their Frrst 
Report oN THE EXPLORATION OF THE Mantuse CAVERNS. 

HERE were two caverns in the island of Malta, one in 

the South-East, and the other in the centre of the island, in 
which remains had been found; in the latter the remains being 
those of the Elephant, and in the former chiefly Hippopotamus. 
Recently another cave on the south coast, and not 100 yards from 
the Pheenician ruins in that part of the island, had been discovered, 
and Capt. Spratt had found in it some remains, after which Dr. 
Adams proceeded with the further exploration of the cavern, re- 
sulting in the discovery of relics which proved that that part of the 
surface of the earth which now constituted the island of Malta was 
once the home of two species of Pigmy Elephant and one species of 
Elephant of the size now existing. The island would not now yield 
a month’s food to many individuals, of even one species of Elephant ; 
therefore, the island must at one time have joined to the opposite 
coast of Africa; and in this opinion the authors of the paper were 
supported by other considerations. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
—— 


ON MACRAUCHENIA PATACHONICA. 
To the Editor of the GroLocicaAL MAGAZINE. 

Sir.—The most important and unexpected statement in Prof. 
Burmeister’s account of the Macrauchenia patachonica relates to 
the dental formula which he ascribes to that genus and species ; 
ViZ..— 

.8—38 1-1 4-4 4-4 

6, 8 SD 

3—3 1-1 é 
the exceptional fact being the presence of 16 teeth in the molar 
series of the upper jaw, instead of 14 as in ali other Perissodactyles. 
in which the full type-number of the series is maintained. Of the 
16 molar teeth thus assigned to the upper jaw,* Burmeister refers 


* ‘La Macrauchenia tiene como el caballo, seis dientes incisiors en cada man- 
dibula, cuatro colmillos chicos, ocho muelas en la mandibula superior, y solo siete 
en la inferior, de cada lado, es decir, en todo cuarenta y seis dientes.’—P. 42. 

‘ Delante de la letra C de esta figura (pl. i. fig. 2) se ven dos aberturas negras, 
indicando los alviolos para dos dientes, que faltan; la primera pertenece al diente 
canino, la segunda a la primera muela.’—P. 87, 


Correspondence. 521 


the 4 anterior ones on each side to the premolares (muelas falsas), 
and the 4 posterior ones on each side to the true molars (muelas 
verdaderas); the true molars being distinguished by their larger 
size, quadrangular crowns, and by having three roots instead of one. 

The number of true molar teeth 4—4 here ascribed to the upper 
jaw of Macrauchenia is not only an exception to the dental formula 
of Perissodactyles, but of all other Ungulates, and indeed of all 
diphyodont-placental mammalia: it would be an anomalous resump- 
tion in the Ungulate order of a character of the Marsupial one. 
Again, the reference of the fourth grinder, counting from behind 
forwards to the series of true molars, gives a distinctive simplicity 
to the alleged four premolars in advance, which has hitherto been 
seen only in the Artiodactyle Ungulates, and which would be a more 
striking example of the tendency of the Perissodactyle Macrauchenia 
to the Artiodactyle order, than its cameloid cervical vertebre, or its 
coalesced antibrachial bones. 

After a careful study of the figures of the jaws and teeth in PI. 1 
of this interesting monograph, I am led to offer a different explana- 
tion of the phenomena. In the upper jaw of the incisive series the 
outermost only are in place, viz., 2 3—7z 3; these, with the alveoli of 
22,7 1,271,722, form, as in the horse, a convex curve at the anterior 
boundary of the upper jaw. 

After a short interval or ‘diastema’ behind 7 3, there is either a 
single alveolus for the bifid base of a canine tooth, or two small 
confluent alveoli for two distinct small, simple-rooted teeth. Prof. 
Burmeister adopts the latter view, ascribes the anterior depression 
to a small single-rooted canine, and the posterior one to a similar 
premolar, which is accordingly the first of that series. Immediately 
behind the empty socket is the first of the premolars in place, with 
a crown equalling in antero-posterior extent the antecedent double- 
pitted alveolus. To judge from the socket of the mandibular tooth 
answering to the first maxillary premolar in place, and from the 
appearances in the side view of the same tooth, in pl. 1, fig. 3, I infer 
that the maxillary premolar, with the mandibular one, was implanted 
by a partially or wholly divided fang, in a two-holed socket; the 
same is more plainly the case in the second premolar in place; 
whilst the third, having acquired a greater transverse thickness of 
crown, may have also a third fang or rudiment of one, on the inner 
side of the two principal fangs. The fourth molar, in place, with a 
further increase of transverse diameter of crown, resembles the three 
succeeding true molars in the general pattern of the grinding surface, 
having an antero-posteriorly extended enamel-lined depression on 
the outer half of the crown, and two round enamel islands, one 
behind the other, on the inner half of the crown. 

Now, my interpretation of the foregoing appearances is, that the 
upper canine was implanted by a compressed, antero-posteriorly 
extended fang, pinched in the middle so as to approach to a division 
of it into an anterior and posterior root, and with a correspondingly 
partially divided socket: it may be that the base of such fang of 


522 Correspondence. 


the upper tusk or canine was actually divided, or bifid. 'The mam- 
malia are not wanting in examples of canines so implanted. Ac- 
cording to this view, the hinder division of the empty socket, 
behind the outermost incisor, did not contain a distinct tooth from 
the canine, but only the hinder division of the base is a canine. 
In this case the first premolar in place is p 1; the fourth, which 
has assumed the complex character, shape, and almost size of the 
true molars, is p 4. The number of true molars then enters into 
the rule, viz., three on each side, as in the lower jaw. I feel very 
confident that when the permanent upper canine of Macrauchenia 
be found, it will confirm the interpretation above given of the dental 
formula of the upper jaw. In the lower jaw of the Macrauchenia 
(pl. 1, figs. 8, 4, 5, 6), all the incisors are wanting, the fang of a 
simple-fanged small canine is near the outer incisor; a very short 
diastema divides the canine from the first two-rooted premolar, 
which, with the second, is wanting: p 8, p 4, and m 1, 2, and 3 
are in place. The lower jaw differed from the upper jaw, in its 
dentition, not in the number of teeth, but by the smaller size and 
simpler implantation of the canine, as well as by the difference of 
size and modified character of the grinding surface of the molar 
teeth, exemplified in my ‘Odontography,’ and in Burmeister’s edition 
of poor Bravard’s excellent drawings of the skull of Macrauchenia. 

Reasoning on the basis of the foregoing interpretation of the 
dental system, I conclude that Macrauchenia manifested the es- 
sential Perissodactyle position to which it was originally referred, 
by the extension of the character of the true molars into the pre- 
molar series; but, as in the Tapiroid genus, in which Cuvier first 
pointed out this deviation from the dental character of the type- 
Perissodactyles, ‘the premolars offer some differences from the true 
molars.’* 

In Lophiodon, however, as in Pliolophus, the last premolar p 4, 
differs from the first true molar m1 in the reduction of the two 
inner lobes of the crown to one large conical lobe: the penultimate 
premolar p 3 resembles the foregoing, but is of smaller size; the 
antecedent premolar p 2 is suddenly reduced in size, and the inner 
lobe is almost obsolete. Lophiodon has no pl. The three molar 
teeth of Lophiodon JIsselensis (Cuv.) figured in tom. cit. pl. vi., fig. 2, 
are m 3 (‘n’), p 4 (‘0’) and p 3 (‘p’): they well exhibit that cha- 
racter. - In like manner Paloplotherium differs from Paleotherium, 
in the almost suppression of the hinder of the inner pair of lobes 
in p 4. In Macrauchenia the difference between m 1 and p 4 is 
rather one of size than of structure, but the simplification of the 
crown is well marked in p 3, and is carried out in p. 2 and p. 1. 
Paleotherium resembles Equus and Rhinoceros in the conservation 
of the type of structure of the true molars in all the premolars save 
the first, which in Lguus is represented only in the deciduous series; 


* <D’un genre d’animaux voisins des tapirs,—mais dont les molaires antérieures 
et postérieures effroient quelques differences: genre auquel je donne le nom de 
Lophiodon. Op. Foss., 4to., 1822, tom. 11., p. 176. 


Correspondence. 523 


but in Paleotherium there is a gradual diminution of size from p 4 
to p 2, and a sudden one inp 1. In Tapirus, p 3, p2, and p 1 of 
the upper jaw progressively depart from the true molar type, as well 
as diminish in size. RicuHarD OWEN. 


PERMIAN STRATA IN THE VALE OF CLWYD. 
To the Editor of the GroLtocicaL MAGAZINE. 


Dear Sir,—The letter from Mr. Davies in your last number 
compels me to again trespass on your space, with a little further 
explanation of the evidence upon which I premised the existence 
of Permian strata in the Vale of Clwyd, and the erosion of the 
Carboniferous rocks before their deposition. 

I fully agree with most of the generalisations expressed in the 
early part of Mr. Davies’s letters, and I can assure him that the 
points he mentions had not escaped me in weighing the evidence 
bearing on the age of the strata at Pentre Celyn. 

When strata become either entirely ‘thinned out,’ or reduced in 
thickness by causes connected with their deposition, the reduction 
in their bulk rarely takes place abruptly, but generally by a some- 
what regular rate of diminution. For instance, if a particular for- ~ 
mation diminishes to half its thickness in a given distance, say 20 
miles, it will only have lost one fourth of its thickness in half the 
distance. 

The Lower Carboniferous rocks in North Wales and the west of 
England are remarkably consistent in this respect over a very large 
area; and there is perhaps no class of evidence which more conclu- 
sively proves that the various separate masses and outliers of Car- 
boniferous Limestone and Millstone Grit once formed an unbroken 
and connected deposit, than the regularity with which their thick- 
ness diminishes both from the NW. and SW. towards the middle of 
England. In the north-west of Wales the Carboniferous Limestone 
attains a thickness of at least 800 feet. At Llanymynech, on the 
borders of Shropshire, its thickness is reduced to about half; and 
following the same rate of diminution in a south-easterly direction, 
the Limestone is only 30 or 40 feet thick round the flanks of the 
Wrekin, and becomes entirely lost under the Shropshire Coal-field. 

The same regularity of diminution is observable from the SW., 
where by regular steps it becomes reduced in bulk from the great 
mass underlying the Bristol and South Wales Coal-fields, through 
Farlow in the SW. of Shropshire (where it is considerably dimin- 
ished) until it thins out to nothing in Shropshire and Staffordshire. 

The Mountain Limestone, overlain by a great mass of Millstone 
Grit, occurs but a few miles to the east of Pentre Celyn. Exposed 
as bold escarpments, and about two miles to the north, a small out- 
lier of the Millstone Grit crops up in the vale. 

At Pentre Celyn no Millstone Grit occurs, and the Limestone is 
unusually thin. Now, as the absence of the Millstone Grit at this 
point, on the theory of ‘thinning out, is entirely inconsistent with 
its general uniformity in North Wales, or any rate of diminution at 


524 Correspondence. 


which its thickness varies, is it not more probable that the same 
denudation which has produced in North Wales the numerous es- 
carpments of Lower Carboniferous rocks, has also cleared away the 
Millstone Grit and part of the Limestone at Pentre Celyn ? 

It did occur tome that the Pentre Celyn marls and shales might 
be some part of the Coal Measures; but, on the other hand, it 
appeared less likely that a break should occur (implied by the 
erosion of the Millstone Grit) between the Coal Measures and the 
Lower Carboniferous rocks, than between the Permian and the Car- 
boniferous series; and the close mineralogical resemblance of the 
strata at Pentre Celyn to the Permians in other localities seemed to 
warrant the conclusion expressed in my letter to the Magazine. 

Since it was published, I have again visited Pentre Celyn, and 
was fortunate in meeting with a number of plant impressions in the 
marly shales found in Mr. Edward’s pits. Mr. Etheridge has kindly 
examined them for me, and states ‘they are Permian or Lower 
New Red species, differing in all respects from Carboniferous.’ The 
fact is interesting, not only as affording evidence of a great erosion 
of the Carboniferous rocks before the deposition of the Permians, 
but as illustrating the possibility of the conformity of strata sepa- 
rated by an interval of denudation. 

Similar strata to those at Pentre Celyn intervene between the 
Bunter Sandstone and Carboniferous Limestone in several localities 
along the east side of the vale of Clwyd, as in the wood above 
Llandibr Farm (between Llandibr and Llangynhapal) and at Rhiw 
Bibbil, opposite Denbigh, &c. Is it possible that the beds Mr. 
Davies noticed crossing upon the western side of the vale, between 
the Limestone and the Sandstone in the cuttings of the Rhyl and 
Denbigh Railway, and supposed by him to be Coal measures, were 
Permian, similar to the strata on the east side of the vale of Clwyd ? 
—I remain, dear Sir, very truly yours, GrorcE Maw. 

BrenTHALL Hatt, Broserey, Oct. 7, 1865. 


GLACIAL STRILA# IN THE COUNTY OF LONGFORD. 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 

Sir,—In the last number of the GroLocicaL MaGaziIne there 
was an illustrated paper by Mr. A. H. Green, describing some sup- 
posed ice-scratches on a Limestone rock in Derbyshire. Mr. Green 
states that the Limestone is ‘studded with dark red patches of chert, 
which have been polished down to a smooth surface, and scored over 
with grooves and scratches.’ 

A similar instance occurs in Co. Longford, Ireland. On the 
northern slope of Slievegalry (a hill some five miles SSE. of Long- 
ford town, and 650 feet above the sea), there:is a considerable 
exposure of Conglomerate (Old Red), dipping N 30 W at about 8°. 
Tt consists of numerous pebbles and small boulders of quartz, and 
occasionally jasper, firmly cemented together in a base of coarse 
yellowish or reddish white sand. 

The pebbles have been worn and polished down to a flat surface, 


Correspondence. 525 


and are sharply scratched and scored by striz which bear N 30 W 
and S 30 E. It is a most singular-looking rock-surface, and well 
worth a visit. Its exact situation is in the townland of Lisduff, at 
the south side of the road leading from Moydow to Ardagh, a little 
to the couth of the letters I and S in ‘LISDUFF,’ 6-inch ordnance 
sheet, Longford 19. There can be little doubt as to the glacial 
origin of the striz, as they coincide in direction with other striz 
seen in several parts of the Longford district. 

It is probable, too, that the ice-current came from the NW., or 
up the slope of the hill. We have no actual proof of this at 
Slievegalry; but about ten miles to the westward a very remark- 
able erratic is traceable to its parent rock. It is a hard, homo- 
geneous, amorphous, blood-red jasper rock, and occurs am situ near 
the summit of Slievebawn Hill, 857 feet above the sea. A large 
block of this rock may be seen perched on a drift-covered hill at 
Ratheline, on the east shore of Lough Ree, somewhat less than six 
miles in a direction of S 30 E from the summit. 

The ridges also, whether of rock or drift, and the stream-courses 
in this part of the country, exhibit a general parallelism in this 
direction, as also do most of the observed striew, so that there is 
strong evidence that the district was at one period covered by an ice 
sheet moving from N 30 Wto S 80 E. F. J. Foor. 


GroLocicaAL Survey oF IRELAND. 
Boyz, Iretanp: Oct, 11, 1865. 


PRIMARY AND SECONDARY STRILA. 
To the Editor of the GroLoGicaAL MAGAZINE. 


Srr,—I am glad to find by Mr. Green’s paper in your tast number, 
that he also has remarked the Primary and Secondary striz. In 
this neighbourhood I have observed three sets; the general bearing 
of the oldest being about N 30 E., of the second N 30 W., and of the 
newest nearly EK and W. The first have a similar bearing to the 
axis of the ‘dressed hummocks’ of rock, and also the primary 
striation in the rest of Galway and Clare; the second agree with 
the general bearing of the valley now occupied by Lough Corrib ; 
while the newest are perpendicular to the mouth of the valley that 
lies between Oughterard and Cliften, and also to the east slopes of 
the hills. 

I would therefore suggesé, that the first were made by the move- 
ment from NE. to SW. of the ice-field which is supposed once to 
have covered Ireland—that as the land sank, local systems of glaciers 
were formed, one of which occupied the valley of Lough Corrib, 
while its branches came down the different mountain-valleys. This 
glacier of Lough Corrib formed the second set of striz; and as the 
land was still sinking it gradually melted away, while the glacier in 
the Oughterard valley remained longer and formed the third set of 
striz. Would Mr. Green look at the features of the country in 
which he has remarked the strie, and see if he could account for 
them in a similar way ? J. Henry KInAwAN. 

OUGHTERARD: Oct, 3, 1865, 


526 Correspondence. 


THE BLOODY STONE. 
To the Editor of the GEoLocicaAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—The paper by Mr. Green in the last number of the Groio- 
GICAL MaGazinE on the supposed ice-marks on the Bloody Stone, 
between Cromford and Bonsall, led me, as Mr. Mackintosh’s letter 
had led him, to pay a visit to the spot, in hopes of discovering some- 
thing more. My hopes in that respect were however not realised ; 
but I saw what Mr. Green saw, and tried to take some rubbings 
from the smoothest parts of the grooved rock I could find. I send 
them to you with this, in case they should prove an additional help, 
in the absence of better, towards solving the question whether the 
markings are glacial or not. The three large rubbings are from 
different parts of the surface marked F in Mr. Green’s ground-plan, 
two of them (the two smaller) were taken close to where the line HK 
cuts the rock. The small rubbing is from a fragment of the rock 
near D, it is well polished, and the grooves were nearly at right 
angles to the footpath. I have sketched in the rest of the specimen 
in order to show the distinct division between the chert and the 
Limestone. The grooved rock could be traced some way beneath 
the path by clearing away the earth and stones, and more could be 
seen in other places by removing the turf. I could discover no 
further traces of ice-work in the neighbourhood. <A rough obser- 
vation taken with a pocket aneroid gave about 246 feet as the height 
of the Bloody Stone above the toll-gate at the foot of the bridle- 
path to Bonsall, and I should think the Stone would be about 
300 feet above the Derwent. May the rounded form of the hill be 
due to ice-work? ‘The opposite side of the dale consists of steep 
and well-wooded Limestone cliffs. A small stream widened into 
ponds runs along the bottom of the dale. The bearings laid down 
on the rubbings are magnetic.—I am, &c. 

J. Macrus Metto, M.A., F.G.S. 

Sr. Toomas’ Parsonacs, BRAMPTON, 

CHESTERFIELD: Oct. 7, 1865. 

Norr.—We have received the rubbings of ice-markings referred 
to above, and also a general sketch of the locality, and regret that 
want of space does not admit our reproducing them here: The 
rubbings of the striz present all the appearance of having resulted 
from ice-action.—Ep1r. 


GLACIATION IN DEVONSHIRE. 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Dear Srr,—In connection with the interesting record made by 
Professor Jukes in the October number of the GroLogicaL MaGa- 
ZINE, I would briefly notice the existence, in North Devon, of what 
appears to be an extensive deposit of Boulder-clay. At the hamlet 
of Roundswell, a mill to the SW. of Barnstaple, a well was sunk in 
1862 by Mr. J. Bowden through a thickness of 40 feet of clay, the 


Correspondence. 527 


great bulk of which was devoid of anything like stratification, ex- 
ceedingly tough and smooth, and in all respects resembling Boulder- 
clay, excepting that it is browner in colour than that occurring on 
the North Welsh coast. 

Ata height of from 30 to 40 feet above the sea, it rests on a 
continuation inland of the raised shingle-bed on the banks of the 
river Taw described by De La Béche. The clay near Upper Rounds- 
well appears to be nearly 90 feet, and from this point, which is given 
115 to 120 feet above the sea, it gradually falls away, and thins out 
to nothing towards the east and west. The clay has for many years 
been worked near Fremington towards the western extremity of the 
mass for the manufacturing of earthenware. Mr. E. B. Fishley, 
the proprietor of the pottery, showed me several large blocks that 
had been found in the middle of the deposit ; they were unaccom- 
panied by smaller stones. One of them, a mass of Basaltic trap 
34 x24 x2 feet, weighing many hundredweights, was, at the time of 
my visit in March 1862, to be seen in the hamlet of Combrew, and a 
smaller mass of Amygdaloid trap in the yard of Mr. Fishley’s 
pottery. Neither of them bore any marks of glacial striation ; but 
they must have come either from the confines of Dartmoor, a distance 
of at least twenty miles, or from South Wales; and it appears impos- 
sible to account for their position, except on the theory of ice- 
transport. A fuller description of the Fremington deposit will be 
found at page 445 of the 20th vol. of the Journal of the Geological 
Society.—I am, &c. GrorGE Maw. 


Benruatt Harz, NEAR Brosetey: Oct. 10, 1865. 


THE PHOSPHATE-BED AT FOLKESTONE, 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Srr,—Mr. Seeley, in his paper on the ‘Sequence of Rocks and 
Fossils,’ speaks of the ‘ phosphate-bed at Folkestone, as being in all 
probability of plant origin.’ As from observation I believe it to be 
of animal origin, I send you the following facts. 

Below the phosphate-bed is a seam of Ammonites mammillaris, two 
or three inches thick, resting on the Lower Greensand. Above the 
said bed is a seam of Ammonites dentatus and mammillaris ; the two 
seams and the phosphate-bed forming the junction-bed of the Green- 
sand and Gault. 

This junction-bed contains rolled water-washed Ammonites, with 
nodules of phosphate adhering to them; drifted wood, containing 
Pholas, Teredo, Fistularia, vertebra of Ichthyosauri, and the phos- 
phatic nodules, which, in nine cases out of ten, are plainly Mol- 
luskite, generally Rostellarie and Pterocere. On the little phosphate 
seams between the beds of the Folkestone Gault I can give further 
detail, if of interest. 

; Sir, yours, &c. C. E. R. 


BEAMINSTER. 


528 Miscellaneous. 


MISCELUANEOUS. 
ed 


Mammatian Fossits rrom Uruguay.—The richness in fossil 
Mammalian remains of some of the newer Tertiary deposits of South 
America is shown by a small collection of bones recently presented 
to the British Museum by David A. Stoddart, Esq., which were 
found in a bank of shingle in the Rio Negro, Banda Oriental. In 
the collection are the remains of several genera, amongst which is a 
skull of a small but adult Mastodon, together with several detached 
teeth of the same genus, and also of Megatherium, Mylodon, Sce- 
lidotherium, Toxodon, and part of the cranium of an animal allied to 
Toxodon, portions of antlers of Deer, a femur of a large Carnivore, 
and several pieces of carapaces of more than one species of Glyptodon, 
one of which is new. ‘The fossils are in different states of preserva- 
tion; for whilst the structure of the bone of some is scarcely altered 
and but little injured by rolling, others are much water-worn, and 
have undergone a complete lithological change. 

The attention of travellers about to proceed to South America is 
directed to the important fact, that notwithstanding the labours of 
Cuvier, Owen, Lund, &c., in describing, and of Sir Woodbine 
Parish, Bravard, Claussen, and others in collecting, there is much 
to be added to the wonderful and peculiar fossil fauna of the South 
American Continent ; and there is abundant proof that these re- 
mains abound, not only in its mountain-caves, but also in the banks 
of its numerous and large rivers, and in its extensive plains.—W. D. 


GEOLOGICAL ANECDOTE OF MR. GEORGE STEPHENSON.*—Mr. Ste- 
phenson had some interest in a coal-mine near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
Leicestershire. After much expense had been incurred, and before a 
sufficient depth had been attained to render the mine a paying specula- 
tion, all efforts were one day suddenly interrupted by amass of granite- 
rock. It was the general impression that the miners had reached 
the supposed granite nucleus of the earth. But Mr. Stephenson, 
from his own observation and reflections, had previously arrived at 
the conclusion (afterwards corroborated) that granite-veins may 
belong to any period, and may be found intruded among strata of 
Secondary as well as Primary origin. Accordingly he went down to 
survey the plutonic intruder, and the following are his characteristic 
words :—‘I looked the fellow round about: I saw he was a 
stranger who had no business there; and I thought I would have 
a good rattle at him.’ After rattling at the granite for only a 
very short time, the miners got through it; more productive Coal- 
measures were found underneath; and I have lately been informed 
that the mine is still worked with profit to the proprietors.—D. M. 


* This anecdote was communicated to the writer about eighteen years ago by one 
of Mr. Stephenson’s mining-agents. 


THE 


GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


No. XVITI—DECEMBER 1865. 


ORIGINATI ARTICLES. 
——_+——__ 


I. On A SECTION DISCOVERING THE CretTACEOUS Bens aT ELy. 
By Harry Sererey, F.G.S., Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. 


ert in containing small nodules of phosphate of lime, the 
Chalk shows no structural change where it terminates in the 
Ely section, but passes down almost imperceptibly into a dark 
greenish layer, and rests on it at an angle of about 35°. This 
greenish band, scarcely a foot thick, is full of nodules of phosphate 
of lime, and consists largely of glauconite. It is the Upper Green- 
sand, with Ammonites auritus, Terebratula biplicata, Dentalium 
ellipticum, and the usual local features. Nowhere can the passage 
of one rock into another be more marked than that of the Upper 
Greensand of this district into the Chalk. Conditions have changed 
a little with physical geography, but nothing suggests any break in 
time. About Cambridge the section is exactly the same; the Chalk 
just above is often flaggy, contains a few green grains, a little phos- 
phate of lime, and the commoner Greensand fossils mixed with those 
of the Chalk. Sometimes, however, there are some 10 or 12 feet 
of dark greyish-green marls above the Upper Greensand. They are 
separated by sharp lines of bedding from the Chalk, are very local, 
and perhaps only indicate a trifling denudation of the Gault. 

The fossiliferous bed, consisting of a soft dark-greyish marl, which 
is largely charged with dark-green glauconite and black nodules of 
phosphate of lime, is rarely more than a foot thick. Nowhere are 
there any hard beds in it, and nowhere any iron pyrites. In quarry- 
ing, the deposit is removed bodily, showing the old Gault bottom 
with hollows and unevennesses, often containing groups of associated 
bones belonging to one animal ; and sometimes discovering slight 
faults, which show the usual glistening sides. 

The Upper Greensand (d) has been found everywhere at the base 
of the Chalk, and extends obliquely over Cambridgeshire by way of 
Mildenhall, Isleham, Burwell, Swaffham, Quy, Waterbeach, Fen 
Ditton, Barnwell, and the zigzag of low Chalk hills extending round 
Madingly, Coton, Comberton, Barton, and Granchester, and so makes 

VOL. II. — NO. XVIII. MM 


530 Seeley—On the Cretaceous Beds at Ely. 


its way south-west. Very many sections have been exposed all 
along the line of its outcrop, away to Bedfordshire. But from its 
thinness, it forms no feature in the country. Outliers, and espe- 
cially one between Ely and St. Ives, at Haddenham, show that it 
was formerly wider spread. 


Fig. 1.—SxEcrion NEAR Hry. 


a. Gravel. 6. Boulder-elay.. c. Chalk. d. Upper Greensand (between ¢ and ¢). 

e. Gault. f. Shanklin Sand g. Kimmeridge Clay. 

It is out of this insignificant stratum, constant in thickness as it 
is in position, and extending over the county from Ashwell to 
Mildenhall, that the Woodwardian Museum has been enriched with 
300 species of Invertebrata, and a multitude of Fishes, Reptiles, 
and Birds; among the latter being Paleocolymbus Barretti, Pela- 
gornis Sedgwicki, and nine species of Pterodactyle, which are not 
Reptiles, but form a class of Aves called Saurornia. 

A little north, in the Ely pit, the Upper Greensand rests on an 
ash-grey clay, which is the Gault (e), not more than 20 feet thick. 
It extends in a curve from the base ofthe section on the south to 
its top on the north ; but the upper part is denuded, and the lower 
part is concealed with drift. In it are scattered spherical nodules 
of phosphate of lime, two or three inches in diameter, but unlike 
those of the Greensand in not being rolled. There nowhere is seen 
that passage from Gault to Greensand which there is from Green 
sand to Chalk ; but the sections show no unconformability. 

Accustomed to associate phosphatic nodules with numerous ver- 
tebrate remains, their presence here, asin the Hunstanton Red Rock, 
seems unnatural. But neither here nor in the Greensand are the 
nodules coprolitic. They are in all cases rolled shore accumulations 
or concretions. The Apatites of Europe and America show no 
evidence of animal origin; on the contrary, one in Bavaria con- 
tains Jodine, 1 substance eminently vegetable. And as Zostera 
and many sea-plants contain a notable per-centage of phosphate of 
lime, it is not impossible that shore plants, and plants growing over 
submerged lands, as the Gulf-weed Sargassum, may by decomposition ~ 


Seeley— On the Cretaceous Beds at Ely.’ 531 


have supplied the phosphoric acid now stored up in the Cretaceous 
strata. 

So full of pounded and rolled shell-fragments is the Gault in this 
Ely Section that it looks as though it might represent the entire 
Gault period. There are multitudes of compressed Perne in every 
block ; the species is Perna concentrica and its varieties. Here 
also are found Belemnites minimus and B. attenuatus, Ammonites 
proboscideus and A. auritus, Perna sulcata, Nucula pectinata, &c. &c. 

The Gault is also fossiliferous at Haddenham, where it was first 
found by my late friend Lucas Barrett, who collected from it Hda- 
phodus Sedqwichi. 

Approaching Cambridge it thickens to 150 feet, and the upper part 
becomes unfossiliferous, only yielding to years of search a small 
Ichthyosaur, a Siluroid fish-spine, Ammonites splendens, Plicatula 
pectinata, and a few spines of Diadema. 

Jt generally may be recognised by the flatness of its surface and 
the course of streamlets along it. 

The Gault (e) is seen to rest on a brown ferruginous sand rock, 
which is the Shanklin Sands (f). This deposit, too, has by disloca- 
tion been bent into a curve, and in several places the rock has 
snapped, and there are breaks of several feet, into which the Gault 
has been squeezed so as to look as though deposited on the Kimme- 
ridge Clay. All the beds have been roughly handled, and in places 
the older clay has been squeezed into slight folds under the Shanklin 
Sands. : 

The lower part of the Shanklin Sands is a conglomerate of small 
rounded pebbles, which in the best place in the section is hardly 
more than four feet thick, and above this are some brown sands 
alternating irregularly with thin courses of clay with phosphatic 
nodules ; and in places these deposits almost stand on end through 
false bedding. ‘They are seven feet thick, and unfossiliferous, a good 
deal resembling the beds below ; but I cannot say they should not be 
classed with the Gault. <A rolled fragment or two of Ammonites 
biplex is the only fossil I have found in the rock ; so that it might 
be Portland Sands but that it is traced to Hunstanton, where fossils 
are more numerous. It caps the Ely Hill, and to judge by the city 
walls was at one time largely quarried. Other outliers of it are seen 
at Haddenham, where it is twenty feet thick, and at Cottenham; 
though I failed to find it at Denny Abbey. About five miles NW. 
of Cambridge it crosses the Roman road and forms a bright brown 
strip in the fields: here, at Oakington, it has yielded a large Pano- 
_ pea. It is well seen again at Great Gransden, showing an unusual 
amount of false bedding. And near by at Caxton a well was sunk 
through twelve feet of Boulder-clay to Shankin Sands, which gave 
the section— 

Ironstone Clinkers, 14 feet ; 
Ferruginous Sand, 104 feet ; 
Bright-green Sand, 3 feet. 
Plenty of water coming in, the latter bed was not pierced. At 
Bourn, the sand, which is full of bands of clinkers, contains much 
M M 2 


532 Seeley— On the Cretaceous Beds at Ely. 


carbonized wood. At Gamlingay the wood was compressed, infiltra- 
ted with iron, and drilled by Teredo. Near Potten a section shows 
a seam about nine inches thick, of perfectly rounded and rather large 
pebbles, between fine sand. At Sandy, resting on the Oxford Clay, 
the pale ferruginous sands form a cliff nearly 100 feet high over- 
looking the western plain. 

At Ely the Sand-rock appears to rest quite conformably on a dark 
slate-blue clay containing Lingula ovalis, which is Kimmeridge Clay 
g). So that though in a diagram section in a former paper (vol. L., 
p- 151), Chalk and Kimmeridge Clay stand side by side, yet in another 
part of the section the missing beds, very thin, are found in their 
proper places ; so that the fault at the north end of the pit, where 
least, has only let down the Kimmeridge Clay for some thirty feet, 
bringing its upper beds low in the section. 

The clay has the usual shaly laminated character, with large 
septarian concretions in layers, and numerous fossils, but they are 
compressed, and the frailest occur as casts. Ammonites biplex, A. 
perarmatus, Patella latissima, Exogyra virgula, Ostrea leviuseula, 
Lingula ovalis, and Serpula tetragona are the commonest fossils. 
Trigonellites are very numerous relatively to Ammonites, and in the 
upper part of the bed there is a good deal of wood. 

The Reptiles are species of Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Plio- 
saurus, Steneosaurus, Teleosaurus, Chelonia, and perhaps Jguano- 
don. 'The Fishes are species of Asteracanthus, Pycnodus, Gyrodus, 
Hybodus, Celacanthus, and Edaphodon, with Sphenonchus. 


x 


Fig. 2.— Section 1n THE Ery Prr. 


a. Surface-gravel. 6. Gravel. c. Boulder-clay. d. Gault. 
e. Alternations of Clay and Sand. Jf. Shanklin Sands. g. Kimmeridge Clay. 


At the point in the general section where the Cretaceous beds are 
broken off by Boulder-clay is the section, Fig. 2, taken at right 
angles to the other, which shows that, instead of being wanting, the 


Seeley— On the Cretaceous Beds at Ely. 533 


Cretaceous beds are merely obscured by Boulder-clay let down in 
front of them, so that the fault may be much less than it appears to 
be. It is the same downthrow fault which lets down the Boulder- 
clay in front of the Shanklin Sands (Fig. 1). Another fault lets 
down Boulder-clay under the Chalk. 

The Boulder-clay (Fig. 1, 6) forming the greater part of the sec- 
tion is a drab-coloured clay, full of all sorts of rocks: it reaches from 
the bottom to the top of the pit, some forty feet. There are boulders 
of Mountain Limestone two or three feet in diameter, smaller pieces 
of Lias, and nearly all the Oolites ; Greensand Fossils, and masses of 
Chalk in plenty. At one place in the section the upper part is de- 
void of pebbles and boulders, and at the north end there are rough 
courses of nodules making a kind of curved stratification. The only 
contemporary fossils that Ihave found in it are some very old and 
thick specimens of Tellina. The junction with the Kimmeridge 
Clay at the north end is not clear, but it is almost certain that the 
Kimmeridge Clay extends in front of it. 

This faulted condition of the Drift, which stands quite perpendi- 
cular, side by side, with the older beds, is of peculiar interest as in- 
dicating its age to be probably anterior to the present form of the 
country, for all trace of the Boulder-clay is removed from the sur- 
face round about. 

This clay is capped with about fifteen feet of gravel, which is in- 
teresting as being in part interstratified with the Boulder-clay. 

This section (Fig. 1), so singular in the thinning off of all the 
Cretaceous strata, offers a few points for consideration. 

The Shanklin Sands, which in Bedfordshire are very thick, gra- 
dually thin off in a wedge to a few feet. There they rest on Oxford 
Clay, here on Kimmeridge Clay. The Gault thins off similarly in 
the same direction. The Greensand is constant, and the Chalk 
shows no sign of change. 

The wedge-like form of Shanklin Sands may result from the ma- 
terial of which it was built up having become less abundant to the 
north-east, and so the representation of as much time is compressed 
into four or five feet as is elsewhere represented by several hundred 
feet. The small pebble character of the bed does not indicate that 
it was accumulated far out at sea, where currents had no longer 
power to bear its material. And had it been formed near the source 
whence derived, where a shallow sea prevented a thick formation, 
the component particles, which are rarely more than half an inch in 
diameter, would have been larger ; and the absence of fossils is note- 
worthy. Hence, as it is so thin, and so like ordinary and far thicker 
sections, it seems almost certain that the deposit only represents a 
part of the formation. That part does not appear to be the newest, 
tor if it did, as there are no breaks in nature, it would pass up in- 
sensibly into the Gault, whereas there is an intermediate thickness 
in which the beds irregularly alternate ; which indicates not a gra- 
dual but a sudden change, such as depression of what had been land. 
Therefore the Gault appears to be unconformable to the Shanklin 
Sands. 


534. Seeley— On the Cretaceous Beds at Ely. 


As the Gault presents the same wedge-shape, that too probably 
thins off from a similar unequal depression of bottom ; for within 
certain limits where the bottom is deepest, there will the thickest 
beds be formed. The fossils of the Ely Gault are like those found 
at its base elsewhere, and as Upper Gault is almost everywhere 
unfossiliferous, I suspect only the lower part is here, and that the 
Greensand rests unconformably upon it ; and as already remarked, 
the beds do not pass into each other. Clearly it would not have been 
remarkable had these strata been wanting ; and to me their presence 
indicates a shoal sea dividing the northern from the southern area. 

The Shanklin Sands are the result of upheaval changing the rivers, 
and bringing old Paleozoic and granitic rocks into denudation. ‘The 
Gault is a partial return to the old river condition of the Kimmeridge 
Clay. The Upper Greensand in this district is certainly a shore de- 
posit, so there is now greater upheaval thanever. But the Chalk is 
the result not only of a depression of the Greensand sea but of the 
continent of which it was the shore. 


IIl.—Tue Rocks AnD MINERALS OF FINLAND. 
By Gzorcs E. Rozgrrts, F.G.8., F.A.S.L. 


I OBTAINED last summer, through the kindness of my venerable 

friend, Dr. Nils Nordenskidld, of Helsingfors, a fine collection 
of Finnish rocks and minerals, collected by his son, Professor Adolph 
Nordenskiéld, of the Academy of Science, Stockholm. Very little 
attention has been given in this country either to the rocks or 
mineral productions of this part of Northern Europe, although both 
are exceedingly remarkable. I propose, therefore, to introduce some 
of the more interesting in this article, giving at the same time a brief 
sketch of the general mineralogy of the land. 

A privately-printed catalogue of the various minerals found in 
Finland by Dr. Nordenskidld lies before me. I find it to contain, 
including some recent MS. additions, 175 varieties. These are ar- 
ranged under the following heads:—Haploiten, i.e. elementary 
minerals in a native state ; Diploiten, those having two elements ; 
Bidiploiten, those which are compounds of any two minerals of the 
last-named group; Tridiploiten, Tetradiploiten, and Pentadiploiten, 
groups composed respectively of minerals which consist of combi- 
nations of three, four, and five of the Diploiten integers. Lastly, a 
group of minerals the composition of which has not been satisfac- 
torily ascertained. 

Among minerals of the first group, graphites are prone My 
specimens of this carbonaceous mineral show it as brilliant scales, or 
in minute folded leaves upon the surface of calcareous spar, in pleas- 
ing association with pale-green apatite, black crystals of pyroxene, 
and the orange-yellow mineral known as chondrodite. Ersby in the 
Pargas district is its best locality—a locality which has yielded some 
of the rarest of Finnish minerals. Crystals of a graphite have also 
been met with at Ersby by Dr. E. Nordenskidld, and pronounced by 
him monoclinic, the form obliquely tabular, not unlike common mica. 


Roberts— On the Rocks and Minerals of Finland. 535 


Gold, in grains and dendritic filaments, is met with at Kemi and 
Kuusamo. Native copper is produced in three localities—Orijarwi, 
Mantuwaura, and Pitkiranta. 

The minerals classed under the second heading are not represented 
by fine or important specimens. Zinc-blendes and molybdenas are 
in this classification necessarily associated with quartz in its simplest 
forms of rock-crystal, amethyst, rose-quartz, milk-quartz, &c., but 
the crystals of these do not attain the dimensions or the brillianey 
which distinguishes them elsewhere in Europe, as at St. Gothard, 
Oberstein, and Dauphiny. 

Minerals which are combinations of any two of the last sections 
are better illustrated in Finland. Among these are the two rare 
columbates of iron, tantalites, and ixiolite (which also contains 12°79 
of oxide of tin): these are all met with in albite-granite, at Kimito, 
Tamela—where there are great iron mines—and other places. Gah- 
nite, a spinel containing oxide of zinc, well known to us as occurring 
in the lavas of Vesuvius, occurs in well-defined and brilliant crystals 
at Kisko, Lojo, and Helsingfors ; true spinel at Sibbo and Lojo; te- 
traphyllin and pyrallolite, an altered magnesian form of pyroxene, at 
Pargas ; scheelite, a tungstate of lime, at Pitkiranta; staurolite, a 
silicate of alumina which has been artificially produced by the chemist, 
in fine crystals at Imbelax ; kyanite, with a delicate blue blush, at 
Pielisjiirwi (this mineral is sometimes passed by jewellers as the 
sapphire) ; zircon, which when found in small brilliant grains or 
crystals is popularly known as hyacinth, at Ojamo Eisengrube in 
Lojo ; cymophane, an opalescent yellowish-green chrysoberyl, one 
of the latest of Dr. Nordenskidld’s discoveries, at Ulrikasborg, near 
Helsingfors, where it occurs in a coarse granitoid garnet-bearing 
schist; marmolite, a pale-green waxy-looking variety of serpentine, 
from Tornoa ; frugardite, an idocrase, from Frugard; and tetraphyl- 
line, a rare anhydrous phosphate of iron, associated with the semi- 
transparent variety of tourmaline, known as indicolite, from 
Tammela. 

The tridiploiten section naturally includes fewer minerals. Among 
them are apatites, gypsum, meerschaum—not, however, the pure light 
material from which our pipe bowls are made, but a soft earthy ser- 
pentine—wittingite from Storkyro, for which rare substance Dr. 


Nordenskidld propounds the formula :—2 (Fe + 9 Mn) Si + 3 H; 


and degerite, Fe? Si? + 6 H, Fe? P, from Helsingfors. 

Minerals which are quaternary combinations are a more numerous 
and varied class ; comprising many of great variety, and several 
which are nearly unknown in England. Of such I may mention 
pitkarandite, in fine leek-green crystals, from Pitkaranta, an augitic 
mineral called by Scheerer ‘a paramorphic amphibole,’ a fine speci- 
men, showing the form of the crystals ; Steinheilite, a pale violet- 
coloured iolite, which may differ but little from dichroite,in amorphous 
masses veined with sulphuret of copper, from Orijairwi, Abo, and 
elsewhere ; the curious coal-black hornblendic mineral sordawalite 
(also met with, green), from Sordawala, where it occurs as thin layers 


536 Roberts—On the Rocks and Minerals of Finland. 


in trap; ‘smaragds,’ rough beryls, in crystals five to seven inches 
in length, from Tammela, Kimito, &c., also met with, more rarely, 
in pale-green and blue transparent crystals (precious beryl), at 
Tammela ; tourmaline of excessive brilliancy in albite, at Imbelax— 
an excellent group of crystals; a large group of hornblendic minerals, 
conspicuous among which is pargasite, occurring in semi-transparent 
leek-green nodules, set like plums in a pudding of calcareous spar, 
associated with jet-black ‘plums’ of hornblende, crystals of sphene 
of vivid brightness, containing titanium, shining scales of yellow 
glimmer, dioptase, graphite, and garnets of almost every kind. One 
specimen exhibits pargasite in association with four of these minerals. 
The plums of pargasite have a worn rolled-up appearance, and are 
in many instances full of air-cavities. This interesting mineral with 
its associates occurs most abundantly at Pargas. In this district of 
Finland, minerals belonging to the pyroxene group, such as sahlite, 
coccolite, diopside, bronzite, malackolite, and funkite are met with. 
The garnet family is well represented. Almandines, the aristocracy 
of the tribe, occur at Abo, Imbelax, and three other places ; the 
richly- -coloured Romanzowites occur at Pargas and Kimito ; chon- 
drodites, red, black, and tr anspar ent-yellow, are contributed by Lojo 


and Pargas ; iwaarite (Caz Si + Fe, Si) + Ca Ti + 2 Ca Si) by 
Kuusams ; and jewreinowite, scarcely less rare, having the formula 
3 (Ca, Na, K) Si + Al, Fe) Si, from Manzilé. Rocks of the fel- 
spathic group are plentifully distributed throughout Finland ; white 
and flesh-coloured albites too are common, with their ordinarily im- 
bedded minerals. White albite, it may be remembered, is the min- 
eral associated with felspar in Pompey’s pillar. 

In section five we meet with some rare altered forms of iolite, 
chief of which is gigantolite, in large crystals of a dark shining steel- 
grey in gneissoid granite, at Tammela, and pyrargyllite, a dull-brown 
mineral, infusible before the blow-pipe. 

In the last group, comprising the minerals the exact composition 
of which is undetermined, we may mention thermophyllite, a silicate 
of magnesia, occurring in small silvery-white crystals in a steatite- 
like base, which is probably the same mineral in an amorphous state ; 
sundvikite, probably an altered anorthite; and a curious black copper 
from Pielisjiarwi. 


JII.—DEscRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW EOCENE SPECIES OF CYPRZA AND 
MARGINELLA. 
By Frep. E. Epwarps, F.G:S. 
(PLATE XIV.) 


QIN CE the publication by the Paleontographical Society of 
the third part of my monograph of the ‘ Hocene Mollusca,’ 
containing descriptions of the several Eocene species of Cy- 
prea ane known, I have obtained from the beds in the New 
Forest, forming parts of the Bracklesham Bay series, several 
additional species; and Mr. Wetherell has also been so fortu- 


Edwards— Descriptions of Cypreaand Marginella, 537 


nate as to obtain another remarkably fine species from the 
cutting lately made near Highgate for the Highgate and Edge- 
ware Railway. I now forward descriptions of these new 
Cypree for publication in ‘THE GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE; 
and I avail myself of the same opportunity to correct an érror 
committed by me in the same part of my monograph, in re- 
ferring to Marginella pusilla, a species described by me from 
High Cliff, a small Marginella from Headon Hill, which I now 


propose to separate under the specific name estuarina. 


1. Cypra@a cavaTA (F. E. Edwards); Plate XIV. fig. 1 a—d. 
C. testa globosa, antice attenuata, levi: spirad prominuld, sulco 
obscuro circumdata ; apertura angusta, obliqua, elongata, levi- 
ter arcuata, ad utramque extremitatem emarginata ; labro com- 
presso, incrassato, regulariter dentato, extus marginato, antice 
depresso, cavato ; labio plicato-dentato, antice in callum fast- 
giosum ad basin tendentem lateraliter exapanso, postice in callum 
producto ; plica anticd magna, proemineniz. 


Shell globose, attenuated in front, smooth: spire apparent but 
of almost concealed by the enamel, and circumscribed by an obscured 
furrow, due to the suture. The mouth is narrow, oblique in the 
middle, curved, and produced at each end into a short, moderately 
wide canal slightly notched : the outer lip, which is somewhat flat- 
tened on the front surface and thickened externally, presents on the 
inner edge a series of teeth of which the anterior four or five are 
longer than the others; towards the anterior extremity it is flattened 
and a little hollowed out. The inner lip bears a row of pliciform 
teeth, regular and transverse—except the front one, which slants 
upwards, extending across the whole width of the inner lip—and is 
prominent, rounded, and bifureate at the point where the anterior 
canal commences, the left-hand margin of which is formed by the 
prolongation of the right furcation. The front part of the inner lip, 
like that of the outer lip, is flattened and hollowed, and is enlarged 
laterally, so as to form a ridge-like callus extending to the base. 
The posterior extremity is produced into a bluntly-rounded promi- 
nence, which forms the left wall of the posterior canal. The round- 
edly hollow depressions towards the front of the lips, and from which 
the specific name is taken, form a spoon-like trough resembling that 
found in C. oviformis (Sow.) and C. Bartonensis (Edw.). 

In the young state (fig. 1 a, b) this Cyprea much resembles an 
Ovula. The surface is covered with numerous wavy shallow fur- 
rows, finely decussated by the lines of growth ; the aperture is very 
effuse in front, and the posterior canal scarcely curved. 

The C. cavata approaches so closely to C. angystoma (Desh.) that, 
at first sight, it might be taken to be a local variety of that species ; 
but on closer examination differences appear sufficiently marked to 
render a separation necessary. In the present species the shell is 
more globose and less attenuated in front than in the French shell ; 
the aperture is less curved, the anterior and posterior canals are 


538 Edwards— Descriptions of Cyprea and Marginella. 


wider, and the callus at each extremity is thicker and more promi- 
nent than in C. angystoma. A Cyprea is found in the lower Oli- 
gocene formation at Latdorf (C.spherica, Phil.), to which our English 
shell also presents a close resemblance; but in the German species 
the shell is more attenuated in front, and does not present the spoon- 
shaped depression which characterises C. cavata; it is besides much 
smaller. 

Size: In the figured specimen, in the direction of the axis, 1 in. 
11-12ths; diameter, 1 in. and 5-12ths; but a specimen from Hunting 
Bridge has attained a length of 2 in. and 1-12th. 

Localities: Hunting Bridge and Bramshaw in the New Forest 
(Mus. Edw.). 


2. CypR#A ALATA (F. E. Edwards); Plate XIV. fig. 4 a, b. 
C. testa ovato globosa, antice attenuata, levi: spird omnino 
obtecta; apertura latiuscula, arcuata, antice paulo effusa, ad 
basin emarginata; labro regulariter arcuato, in medio com- 
presso, postice producto, edentulo? labio dentato-plicato. 


Shell oviform, ventricose, smooth, presenting on the posterior 
portion of the lower surface a few sharp, irregular, transverse eleva- 
ted lines, a character generally indicative of an immature state : the 
spire is entirely concealed. The aperture is moderately wide, curved, 
a little effuse in front, and broadly but not deeply notched at the 
base. The outer lip is regularly curved, somewhat flattened on the 
inner surface, and prolonged and much bent at the posterior ex- 
tremity, where it forms, as it were, a wing-like enlargement, from 
which the specific name is taken. ‘The specimen under description 
does not present any trace of teeth on the outer lip; but it may be 
an immature specimen, and I hesitate therefore to rely on its eden- 
tulous condition as a specific character. ‘The inner lip presents a 
series of irregular pliciform teeth, which become almost obsolete to- 
wards the posterior extremity. 

In general character and appearance this Cypr@a presents a re- 
semblance to C. Levesquet (Desh.); but, judging from the figure 
given by Deshayes, it is more globose than that shell, and not so 
much attenuated in front: the aperture, also, is more curved and 
wider, and the outer lip is altogether edentulous. 

This remarkably fine Cowry forms part of Mr. Wetherell’s valua- 
ble collection. 

Size: In the direction of the axis to the end of the outer lip, 2 in.; 
diameter, 1 in. and 4-12ths. | 

Locality : Highgate, where it was obtained from the cutting for 
the Highgate and Edgeware Railway (Mus. Weth.). 


3. CyPRHA ORTHOCHEILA (F. E. Edwards) ; Plate XIV. fig. 2 a, b. 
C. testa ovata, ventricosa, antice attenuata, levi: spira obtecta ; 
apertura elongata, latiuscula, recta, ad basin paulo effusa, 
postice subcanaliculata ; marginibus regulariter dentatis, denti- 


Edwards —Descriptions of Cyprea and Margineila. 539 


bus numerosis, sub pliciformibus ; labro extis sub-marginato, 
postice producto, fortiter arcuato. 


Shell egg-shaped, ventricose, attenuated in front, smooth: spire 
concealed. ‘The aperture is elongate, straight, moderately wide, 
slightly effuse at the base, and obscurely channelled behind. Each 
margin presents a row of numerous regular, narrowish, rather fold- 
like teeth, nearly equal; the anterior teeth being somewhat more 
lengthened than the others. The outer lip is thickened, flattened on 
the inner surface, and the posterior extremity produced, and rather 
suddenly and strongly curved. 

The only specimen of this Cyprea I possess is in an imperfect 
state; but the remarkably straight and suddenly curved outer lip is 
a character which entitles it to specific distinction, and justifies the 
present description. 

It presents some resemblance to C. inflata (Lam.) ; but the pecu- 
liar condition of the aperture and the outer lip, and the absence of 
the small elevated callus found at the posterior extremity of the 
inner lip of the shell in that species, sufficiently distinguish the 
present species. 

Size: In the direction of the axis, 14in.; diameter, 1 in. and 
1-12th. 

Locality : Brook in the New Forest (Mus. Edw.). 


4+. Cypr@zA AaTTENUATA (F. E. Edwards); Plate XIV. fic. 3 a, b. 
C. testa globosa, antice valde attenuata, levi: spira omnino 
obtecta ; apertura angusta, elongata, flexuosa, ad utramque ex- 
tremitatem emarginata ; ; labro incrassato, marginato, antice 
compresso, intis regulariter dentato ; labio plicato dentato, an- 
tice in callum fastigiosum ad basin tendentem elevato, postice in 
callum transversum producto. 


Shell globose, somewhat produced and much attenuated in front, 
smooth; spire altogether hidden by the enamel. The aperture is 
flexuose, narrow, equally wide along the whole length except to- 
wards the base, where it is somewhat contracted by the ridge form- 
ing the termination of the inner lip. At each extremity it presents 
a short canal rather broadly but not deeply emarginate. The outer 
lip is much thickened and spread out, forming a raised margin, 
broad in the middle and at the posterior extr emity, but narr owing 
towards the front. It is much flattened on the anterior inner sur- 
face, and the inner edge presents a series of regular pliciform teeth, 
which gradually decrease in size as they approach the posterior ex- 
tremity. The inner lip is furnished with a row of teeth, prominent 
in front, small and obscure on the middle and posterior extremity. 
In front the lip expands into a narrow, ridge-like prominence, ex- 
tending to the base, and at the posterior extremity it rises into a 
sharpish, transverse ridge, which forms the left wall of the posterior 
canal. 

Size: In the direction of the axis, 8-12ths of an inch ; diameter, 
5-12ths. 


540 Edwards—Descriptions of Cyprea and Marginella. 


Locality : Bramshaw (Mus. Edw.). 


5. Cypr=a tumeEscens (F. E. Edwards); Plate XIV. fig. 5 a—c. 
C. testa ovato-globosa, antice rostrata, levi: spira obtecta ; aper- 
turd elongata, angusta, antice late non profunde emarginatd, 
postice sub-canaliculata ; labro leviter arcuato, compresso, pos- 
tice producto, regulariter dentato; dentibus numerosis, plicifor- 
mibus ; labio 2 


Shell smooth, ovate, tumid, much and rather suddenly attenuated, 
so as to form, as it were, in front a perspicuous beak, broadly but 
not deeply notched at the base ; spire concealed. The aperture is 
narrow, produced posteriorly into an obscure moderately-wide canal. 
The outer lip is slightly but regularly curved, flattened on the face, 
produced at the posterior extremity, where it is suddenly bent so as 
to form the posterior canal, and presenting on the edge a row of 
rather numerous, nearly regular, pliciform teeth, which extend over 
about a half of the flattened surface of the lip, and of which those 
towards the front are the smallest. ‘The inflected posterior extremity 
is thicker than is usually the case, and the lip itself terminates in 
front in a strong oblique fold, which forms the right wall of the an- 
terior canal. The interior of the specimen figured is, unfortunately, 
so much crushed that the condition of the inner lip cannot be satis- 
factorily made out ; but the lip presents at the anterior extremity 
three oblique folds, of which the front one forms the left wall of the 
anterior canal; and this character is also found in another specimen 
(fig. 5 c), a fragment showing the condition of the outer lip and the 
anterior canal. 

The present Cyprea presents a close analogy with C. globularis 
(Edw.); but in that species the shell is more globose, and less pro- 
duced anteriorly. The aperture is more effuse, the outer lip not so 
rouch produced at the posterior extremity, and the inner lip is with- 
out the anterior folds found in this species. The nearly regular 
ovate form, and the condition of the teeth on the outer lip, of the 
shell in C. Bowerbanktw (Sow.), distinguish C. tumescens from that 
species. 

Size: In the direction of the axis, a little more than lin. and 
7 -12ths ; diameter, J in. and 1-12th. 

Locality : Brook, Bramshaw (Mus. Edw.). 


6. CyPpRHA CANCELLATA (FI. E. Edwards); Plate XIV. fig. 6 a—e. 
C. testa oblongo-ovata, sub-cylindracea, lineis elevatis trans- 
versis striisque longitudinalibus sese decussantibus ornaté : aper- 
tura elongata, angusta, leviter arcuata, antice vix emarginata ; 
labro extis submarginato, intus regulariter dentato ; labio antice 
plicato. 


Shell oblong-ovate, attenuated towards the base, but so slightly 
as to present a somewhat cylindrical character. The surface is or- 
namented with numerous elevated transverse and longitudinal raised 
lines, decussating each other, and giving to the shell the appearance 
of being covered with net-work. The transverse lines are prominent, 


Edwards—Descriptions of Cyprea and Marginella. 541 


regular, moderately distant over the middle and posterior parts, but 
more closely set towards the base; and they extend from the colu- 
mella over the whole surface to the edge of the outer lip. The lon- 
gitudinal lines are more numerous and more slender than the trans- 
verse lines. The aperture is elongate, narrow, slightly curved, 
widely but not deeply notched at the base, and prolonged posteriorly 
into a wide, short canal. The outer lip presents a series of teeth 
formed by the ends of the transverse lines ; and the inner lip is fur- 
nished towards the front with four or five pliciform teeth, distinct 
from and more prominent than the teeth formed by the ends of the 
transverse lines. 

The specimen figured is, I believe, unique, and is unfortunately 
somewhat crushed: the foregoing description, therefore, must be re- 
ceived provisionally. In the ornamentation the shell closely resem- 
bles C. elegans (Defr.), except that it does not present the fine lines 
which most frequently intervene between the prominent transverse 
lines on the French shells ; and it is apparently more cylindrical and 
not so much attenuated in front: the aperture also is more regularly 
curved, and the pliciform teeth on the inner lip are distinct in charac- 
ter and less numerous than those on the inner lip of the shell C. ele- 
gans. In form the present shell more closely resembles C. sulcosa 
(Lam.), but it appears to be wider at the base, and the ornamentation 
is quite distinct. A more perfect specimen may lead to the conclu- 
sion that the English shell is merely a variety of C. elegans. 

Size: In the direction of the axis, rather more than 6-12ths of an 
inch; diameter, 4-12ths. 

Locality: Bramshaw (Mus. Edw.). 


7. MARGINELLA ZSTUARINA (F. E. Edwards) ; Plate XIV. fig. '7 a—c. 
Marginella pusilla (Edw.), Eocene Mollusca (Gasteropoda), p. 
143, t. 18, f. 6, in parte. 

M. testa minima, ovali: spird brevissima, sulco obscuro circum- 
data; apice obtuso : apertura elongata postice angustd, antice effusa ; 
ad basin latiusculo non profunde emarginata ; labro submarginato, 
intus crenulato; labio quinguies vel sexes plicato; plicis duabus 
anticis proeminentibus, obliquis ; ceteris transversis, fere obsoletis. 


Shell minute, oval ; spire very slightly elevated, and circumscribed 
by a shallow sulcus almost obliterated by the enamel; apex obtuse. 
The aperture elongated, narrow behind, effuse and rather widely but 
not deeply notched in front: outer lip thickened alone the outer 
margin, and very finely crenulated within, The inner lip presents 
two thick, prominent, oblique folds in front, and three or four trans- 
verse folds, almost obsolete, behind. 

Since the publication by the Palwontographical Society of the 
third part of my monograph of the Eocene Mollusca, in which I re- 
ferred the present species to Marginella pusilla, a High Cliff species, 
I have obtained several additional specimens as well from Headon 
Hill as from other synchronous deposits, and a more rigid comparison 
has induced me to separate the Headon Hill shells from the High 
Cliff species. The MZ. estuarina is, in fact, distinguishable from 


542 Edwards—Descriptions of Cyprea and Margineila. 


M. pusilla by the shorter spire, the more depressed apex, and the 
condition of the folds on the columella. It is besides a broader and 
smaller shell. 

Size: Axis, 3-24ths of an inch ; diameter, 2-24ths. 

Loealities: Headon Hill, Lyndhurst, and Roydon in the New 
Forest (Mus. Edw.). 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIV. 


Fig. 1. Cyprea cavata (F. HK. Kdw.). 
a. Back view of immature shell from Hunting Bridge. 


6. Front view of do. do. 
c. Back view of adult shell from Bramshaw. 
d. Front view of do. do. 


2. Cyprea orthocheila (F. K. Edw.). 
a. Back view of adult shell from Brook. 
6. Front view of do. do. 
Cyprea attenuata (F'. EH. Edw.). 
a. Back view of adult shell from Bramshaw. 
6. Front view of do. do. 
4, Cyprea alata (F'. Ki. Edw.). 
a. Back view of adult (?) shell from Highgate. 
b. Front view of do. do, 
Cyprea tumescens (F. E. Edw.). 
a. Back view of adult shell from Brook. 
6. Front view of do. do. 
c. Fragment showing the condition of the outer lip and the 
anterior canal. 
6. Cyprea cancellata (F. E. Edw.). 
a. Enlarged view of portion of the whorl, showing the cancellation. 
b. Back view of adult shell from Bramshaw. 
c. Front view of do. do. 
7, Marginella estuarina (F. Ki. Edw.). 
a. Shell natural size, from Roydon. 
b. Enlarged back view. 
ec. Enlarged front view. 


i) 


ox 


IV.—On Certain TRACKS IN THE MANX SLATES.* 
By Tuomas Grinpiey, Esq. 


N 1862 Mr. John E. Taylor (of Norwich), while surveying a 

newly-opened slate quarry at Dalby, on the western side of the Isle 
of Man, discovered three impressions of an oval form about nine 
inches long, and described them t as resembling the tracks of 
Protichnites, figured in Owen’s Paleontology {; the quarrymen told 
him that they were of frequent occurrence. 

In 1863 Mr. Grindley noticed similar markings in great abun- 
dance upon a series of beautifully rippled slates of Cambrian age at 
Laxey, on the eastern side of the island. 

The outline of the markings is an irregular oval. Their dimen- 
sions vary considerably in different examples, the average size being 


* This communication was received some time since, but from want of space we 
have been unwillingly compelled to postpone it, and even now cannot give 1t im 
full.—-Eprr. 

f Geologist, vol. y. 1862, p. 322. + Qnd edition, 1861, p. 183. 


Sid lite 
ae 


Pasay 


MARGII 


Fives BC 


DR 
IDEN 


Wale 


Grindley— On Certain Tracks in the Manx Slates. 543 


eight or nine inches long, five or six inches wide, and two inches 
deep : in one instance the length was two feet, but only eight or 
nine inches broad ; and from a crack running obliquely across the 
cast near its centre, Mr. Grindley concluded that it was not one 
cast but two, one partly overlying the other. The shape of the 
casts is always the same, independently of their being of different 
sizes; their mineralogical composition, though identical, or very nearly 
so, with the matrix, is generally much softer, and they are often 
washed out of the rocks that lie between high and low water. The 
casts are strongly coloured with iron, and frequently studded with 
small crystals of Blende (the neighbouring rocks contain this mineral 
in great abundance), which, when these crystals happen to fall out, 
present a very curious pitted appearance. The impressions, as a 
rule, occur in pairs, but a single one is often found by itself: when 
however they are in odd numbers, the missing one may be presumed 
to have been covered up by the neighbouring overlying rock, or 
else lost through a break in the continuity of the marked surface. 
They are generally of very unequal size; and the distance be- 
tween the impressions is not always the same, but this is not 
to be expected when the great difference in the size of the pairs 
is considered. In some cases they touch each other ; in others they 
are separated by an interval of several inches. The smallest im- 
pressions are usually closest together ; occasionally the groups are 
clustered in great numbers, at other times scattered over the rocks 
very sparingly. 

The larger axes of the impressions all point in the same direction, 
which is generally speaking, parallel to the line of strike, also to the 
ripple-marks on the rock-surfaces, and consequently more or less to 
the ancient sea-margin. 

Supposing these impressions to be footmarks of some huge Cam- 
brian or Lower Silurian reptile, Mr. Grindley discusses the habits 
which the various situations and positions of the traces indicate, 
and which tend to prove that the creature resorted to the shore in 
search of food. 

This paper, the author states, is rather to draw the attention of 
scientific men to the subject afresh, than to record his own notions 
and observations. He reviews the different opinions expressed by 
geologists as to their real nature ; some have strongly asserted their 
organic origin, while others have as positively denied it. With 
respect to the latter, some have regarded the casts as mere con- 
cretions, others as simply pebbles enclosed in the rock: but the 
casts show no signs of concretion or crystallization, which would 
be inconsistent with the first supposition, and their regularity of 
order would dispose of the second. Others have regarded them as 
double worm-burrows, but there is not the slightest connexion 
between the casts, and they are not deep enough for such to be the 
ease. Among those who admit their organic origin, some suggest 
gigantic mollusks, but this appears to be inadequate to explain the 
fact when their arrangement in pairs, their marked position, and 
their occurrence in rippled slates, an indication of a littoral deposit, 


544 Ludwig— On Calamite-fruits. 


is considered, and an examination of the casts themselves affords no 
support whatever to this conclusion. Again, they have been regarded 
as the trail of a crustacean, but the absence of a central track, and 
the varying relations of the different groups, seem to preclude this 
explanation, though the fact that a great proportion of the casts are 
sunk in the matrix obliquely to the plane of the rock, appearsin favour 
of it. But the hypothesis, that they are footprints of some unknown 
reptile, although it has found but little favour amongst geologists, 
harmonises in Mr. Grindley’s opinion with the facts of the case 
better than any other yet proposed, and he thinks no sound ob- 
jection has as yet been advanced against it. The idea of a creature 
of vast size prowling along the margin of the shore in search of 
food agrees in every respect with the trails, the difference in the 
size of the two pairs of casts composing the group of four, may be 
the result of a difference in the size of the hind and fore feet. The 
variation in the impressions would indicate a troop of animals of 
different ages and sizes. 

In conclusion, the author stated that, though he was certainly of 
opinion that the markings were of reptilian origin, yet he was by no 
means unwilling to adopt any more reasonable explanation. 


ABSTRACTS OF FOREIGN MEMOIRS. 
——-++—__ 

J. On CALAMITE-FRUITS FROM THE SPATHIC JRON-ORE NEAR 
HaAtTtriGEN ON THE RunrR. By Rupotrs Lupwic, 
(CALAMITEN-FRUCHTE AUS DEM SPATHEISENSTEIN BEI HaTTicEN AN DEM Ruar. 

Von Rupoxrex Lupwic. Paleontographica, vol. x. pp. 11-16. Pl. 2.) 

apes fossil which formed the subject of this memoir was obtained 

from a bed of spathic iron-ore occurring near Hattigen on 
the Ruhr, and had already been referred by Dr. Lottner* (who sent 
it to the author for examination) to the genus Cyathocrinus. Dr. 
Ludwig, however, determined that it was referable to the vegetable 
kingdom, and consisted of the fructifying spikes of a species of 
Calamite; he gives the following description of it:—the fossil 
consists of shortly stalked fruit-spikes lying in a whorl round the 
stem, having a cylindrical form, contracted above and below. The 
spikes are about seven centimétres in length and one in thickness ; 
they consist of a number of closely packed, broad, short, and sharply 
pointed bracts arranged in a coronal manner upon circular, radially 
ribbed discs, attached to the hollow jointed stalk, so that as many as 
fifteen bracts form together a crown-like body, whose teeth exactly 
touch the middle rib of the bracts above. In this manner as many 
as from 20 to 25 cylindrical chambers, superimposed on one an- 
other are formed along the central column; they are imperfectly 
closed at the exterior margin, and each one contains five bunches of 
spore-capsules attached to the central stalk. The arrangement and 


* Geognost. Skizze des Westphalischen Steinkohlengebirges. 1859, p. 154. 


Ludwig—On Calamite-fruits. — 545 


mode of attachment of these capsules are in the highest degree 
peculiar. 

The spore-capsules themselves are in the form of a nut, ora flask, 
or an elongated egg, they have a strong shining shell, are nearly 
circular in transverse section, and have a scar on the inner end, 
which is somewhat bent, and thinner than the other. There are 
always four of these capsules arranged symmetrically round a short 
thorn-like stem, in a bladder-like integument. In each chamber 


u 
as 
Tare ts 


\ 
| ‘ 
\ if 5 


STRUCTURE OF FRUTr oF CALAMITE. 


Fig. 1. Vertical Section of part of Fruit-spike :—a. Axis of Spike; 6. b., Bracts; 
S. S., Spore-capsules. 
Fig. 2. Transverse Section of the same :—c. Floor of cell, partly removed to show 
Spore-capsules (s. s.) and integument (d). 
Fig. 3. Entire Fruit-spike of Calamite. 


five of such bunches are disposed round the central stalk, so that it 
contains 20 capsules. ‘The thorn-like axes of the bunches are 
placed perpendicularly above those in the chamber below; they are 
hollow at the lower end, and are attached to short pegs projecting 
from the fibrous wood-substance of the central stalk.—H. M. J. 


IJ.—INTRODUCTION TO ‘ VESTIGES OF THE IcE-PERIOD,’ BY L. P. 
HoLMstrom.* : 


By Dr. Orro Tor=tt. 


N the year 1836 Sefstrém published his memoir on the direction 
of the Ice-grooves in Sweden. He made very exact observations 
on the fact, scarcely noticed before, that the Swedish mountains are 


* Translated and communicated by Magister Lindstrém of Wisby, Island of 
Gotland. 
VOL. II.—NO. XVIII. NN 


546 Holmstrim—‘ Vestiges of the Ice-Period,’ 


polished on the surface, and scratched or furrowed by some violent 
external agency. In order to explain this phenomenon and those 
connected with it, he supposed that a flood or deluge (“rullstens flod,” 
literally ‘‘flood of the rolled stones”) had overwhelmed all Scandina- 
via, passing from North to South, carrying along with it great 
quantities of stones and gravel, and that the subjacent mountains had 
been ground and furrowed in the direction of the current, ‘just as a 
polished slab of marble is furrowed by sand grains that are pressed 
in a continuous straight direction on its surface.’ 

After having examined the vestiges of the glacial epoch, Dr. Torell 
embodied the results he had arrived at in an academical treatise, 
published in 1858 (‘ The Mollusk-fauna of Spitzsbergen’), and there 
described the facts which, in his opinion, prove that all Scandinavia 
was once covered by snow and ice. During the progress of these 
researches he was led to results which had not been expected when 
the above paper was written; and he could not find anything support- 
ing them in previous papers. He did not then suppose that the ice 
which had covered the mainland of Scandinavia had stretched farther 
than the coasts and the nearest adjacent islands. He tried to explain 
this by the fact that, during the Glacial epoch, the land was higher 
than it now is, and the islands close to the shores must then have ~ 
been united with the mainland. 

It has been known, since the beginning of this century, that a 
large part of Northern Europe is, as it were, overstrewn with ‘er- 
ratic blocks,’ the origin of which all naturalists agreed to seek in 
Scandinavia. The general opinion then was, that these stones had 
been carried from Scandinavia on ice-floes, and then deposited on 
the bottom of the extensive sea supposed to have stretched from the 
White Sea to the German Ocean. 

In a paper which Dr. Torell communicated last year to the Royal 
Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, he endeavoured to show that the 
hypothesis of such an ocean was contradictory to facts, and that the 
transport of the blocks resulted from the large continental ice-cover- 
ing of Scandinavia having spread over all the region where the er- 
ratic blocks are found. He showed how the known fact, that the 
blocks from various parts of Scandinavia have a different distribu- 
tion beyond that region, could only be explained by the theory of 
their transport on a coherent and uninterruptedly progressing ice- 
field. A necessary supposition in support of this explanation was, 
that Denmark during this period must have been united with Scan- 
dinavia, and the author tried to prove that supposition. Continued 
researches made it apparent that several minor epochs or divisions 
could be discerned in the great Glacial period :— 

1. There are no facts which enable us to trace the extent of 
Scandinavian land-ice before it reached its greatest distribution. 
This extension may even now be determined by the boundary-line 
of the erratic blocks, and the period of its existence may be consi- 
dered the first part of the Glacial period. 

2. In the second epoch the mass of the ice was considerably di- 
minished. The Russian Waldai heights were no longer transgressed, 


Holmsrim—‘ Vestiges of the Ice-Period.’ 547 


but, through their opposition, gave the moving ice on the Russian 
side of the Baltic a direction from North to South. This is evident 
from the route taken by the Silurian and Devonian blocks from His- 
land and Liffiand, and by the direction of the grooves in the Russian 
provinces near the Baltic. 

3. The third division begins with the continued decrease of the 
ice which now moved in the basin of the Baltic. Finland was pro- 
bably still completely or partly covered with ice. The ice also filled 
the basin of the Baltic, but was in the East checked by the resistance 
of the Russian and German Baltic shores. Ice, in consequence of 
its plasticity, always moves in the direction of least resistance, so 
that it must during this period have followed the median axis of the 
Baltic ; thence a considerable south-west deviation was caused, and 
numbers of blocks from the island of Gothland were carried to 
Groeningen in Holland and Jever in Oldenburg. The islands of 
Aland, Dags, Gothland, and Bornholm, as well as Fax6 on Seeland, 
were grooved and furrowed in directions somewhat corresponding 
with that indicated. But it was not only the islands that were 
covered and polished ; the thickness of the ice was evidently so con- 
siderable that certain parts of the mainland of Sweden were over- 
whelmed by that moving from the Baltic. Dr. Torell showed by | 
the direction of the furrows in Upland and Sodermanland that they 
had their origin from the Baltic, not from the mountain-ridge be- 
tween Sweden and Norway. He also supposed that the eastern part 
Scania had been covered by Baltic ice. 

As Sefstrém’s observations on Scania were insufficient, Mr. Holm- 
strom, exhorted by Dr. Torell, undertook the researches on the di- 
rection of the grooves in Scania, and the results seem to confirm the 
views of Dr. Torell. The prevailing direction of the furrows in 
Scania is from North-east to South-west. 

4. The land-ice did not pass the confines of Scandinavia, but re- 
treated more and towards the central mountain-ridge. 

5. Then came the last epoch, when only the large mountain-valleys 
were filled with glaciers, the diminution of which may still be seen 
in the traces of their existence that they have left in their moraines. 
During this last epoch the present Scandinavia was depressed, or 
subsided, north of Scania; the Yoldia-clays and shell-banks were 
deposited, filled with the remains of a Glacial fauna now vanished. 
Our large lakes were changed into bays, where the animals of the 
Glacial sea lived. The land was again elevated, and the bays again 
became lakes, Professor Lovén having discovered in them the rem- 
nants of a Glacial fauna. 

6. As the elevation continued, the climate was changed to that now 
prevailing, and the present geological epoch began. 


III.—GLyPTopON CLAVIPES. 


A tae Comptes Renpus, September 18th, records an interesting 
paper by Marcel de Serres on Glyptodon clavipes, an almost 
NN 2 


548 Reviews—Parker and Jones—On Foraminifera. 


entire skeleton of which has been set up by him in the Museum of 
Comparative Anatomy in Paris. This is the most complete example 
yet seen in Europe. The head is entire, and is remarkable for its 
great vertical depth, nearly equalling the lateral measurement (as 37 
to 40). This elevation of the head is principally due to the large size 
of the maxillary bones. 

The cervical vertebrz indicate an abnormal and probably unique 
condition, some of the elements being absent. M. Serres remarks 
that such a condition is without analogy at the present day. 

The persistence of the dental bulbs, the great size of the lower 
jaw, and the zygomatic arch, furnished with a strong spur which 
greatly increased the surface for the attachment of the masseter 
muscle, show that the Glyptodon clavipes was even better adapted 
than the elephant for a vegetable feeder.—E. F. 


REVIEWS. 
ee 
I.—On soME FORAMINIFERA FROM THE NortH ATLANTIC AND 

Arctic OCEANS, INCLUDING Davis’s STRAITS AND BArFin’s Bay. 

By W. Kircnen Parker, F.Z.S., and Professor T. Rupert Jones, 

F.G.S. 4to. 1865. (From the Phil. Trans. 1865, pp. 8325-341. 

8 Plates.) 
aes Memoir, communicated to the Royal Society by Professor 

Huxley, F.R.S., in 1864, has for its chief object the description 
of a certain group of Foraminifera, constituting the Foraminiferal 
portion of the fauna of a distinct Natural-history Province. An- 
other object that the authors set before them was the careful dis- 
crimination of such forms, and groups of forms, among the Forami- 
nifera as show strict zoological relationship, however much masked 
by dissimilarity of shape, but really recognisable by similarity of 
structure, among numerous puzzling gradations of equivalency, 
modified by varying conditions of growth, according to depth, salt- 
ness, and warmth of water. : 

The materials for the work were derived from (1st) Soundings 
in Baffin’s Bay, made during one of Parry’s Voyages; (2nd) Dredg- 
ings in Davis’s Straits, among the Hunde Islands, by Dr. P. C. 
Sutherland; (8rdly) Dredgings on the Coast of Norway, by Messrs. 
MacAndrew and Lucas Barrett ; and (4thly) Soundings in the North 
Atlantic, taken by Commander Dayman when exploring the Atlantic 
floor for the Telegraph-line. 

Some of these materials belong to what Naturalists term the 
«Arctic Province; but the North Atlantic belongs chiefly to the 
‘Celtic Province, and Captain Dayman’s soundings supply illus- 
trations of its abyssal fauna, Its littoral fauna on the east is to be 
found around the British Isles, and Messrs. Parker and Jones (with 
Mr. H. B. Brady’s help) drew up a corrected list of the British 
Foraminifera for this part of their subject. The western, or Ame- 
rican ‘littoral’ of the ‘Celtic Province,’ is called the ‘ Virginian ;’ 
and from this Dr. Bailey has figured and described some Forami- 


Reviews—Parker and Jones—On Foraminifera. 549 


nifera, which also are critically classified and made to serve as 
illustrations of the eastern bed of the great marine Province under 
discussion. Thus the whole Foraminiferal fauna is tolerably well 
represented, and careful Tables give the result; and it is curious to 
see how some forms love the deep and some the shallow—how some 
get large in going down from shore, and others become dwarf, thin, 
cut down, and otherwise aberrant when obliged to live high up in 
shallow water. Thus Polystomella and Miliola love the shore, Glo- 
bigerina, Pullenia, and Orbulina thrive best at great depths (2,000 
fathoms and more). A Table also shows how far the genera 
found in the ‘Celtic Province’ are distributed in certain parts 
of other seas and oceans; and Foraminifera from those places 
which are not found in the North Atlantic are also tabnlated, with 
indications of their relative size and abundance. Thus the Rhizo- 
podist finds the Foraminiferal fauna (with the relative size and fre- 
quency of individuals) for altogether thirty-two spots in the Arctic, 
Atlantic (North and South), Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, 
and Pacific, by consulting the Tables in this Memoir. 

The occurrence of many Foraminifera in the fossil state is re- 
corded in the description of genera and species, forming the bulk of 
this Memoir; and we particularly direct the geological reader to 
the explanations of Plates XVIII. and XIV. (miscellaneous Fora- 
minifera, illustrating either the very wide range of specific form, 
or some of the links between diverse forms), wherein several curious 
Tertiary (Grignon) species are described. The fossil Foraminifera 
of the Vienna Tertiary, known by the works of D’Orbigny, Reuss, 
and Czjzek, as well as Cretaceous and other species, are frequently 
alluded to, sometimes illustrated afresh by recent specimens, and put 
into their places in the new classification, which was begun by 
Williamson, and carried out by Carpenter, Parker, and Jones. It 
is a pity there is no index to the Memoir; but a paleontologist 
working at Foraminifera would find it worth while to make one for 
his own use. 

Of course, the full description here given of the materials of the 
Atlantic floor is of great interest to the general reader; and after 
all the nonsense one sees in the ‘literary’ magazines of the day 
about the enigmatical ‘shell-fish’ which the popular writers seem 
to think they ought to believe in, it is pleasant to see really of what 
the long-talked-of ‘ooze’ really consists. Not but what Dr. Wal- 
lich in the ‘Natural History Review,’ end Professor Huxley in an 
Admiralty Report, gave proper accounts of it, as far as their exa- 
mination of it had gone; but here we have a table of its consti- 
tuents according to their per-centage; and we have faithful figures, 
by George West, of all the Foraminifera taking part in the forma- 
tion of this wonderful marine accumulation of the minute shells 
or calcareous cases of Rhizopods living and dying at the bottom of 
the sea. Globigerine and Orbuline are the chief; Planorbulina 
Ungeriana, Pulvinulina Menardii, Pulv. Micheliniana, Puly. Ca- 
nariensis, Nonionina umbilicatula and Lagena marginata, appear 
to be their principal associates, but in very few numbers as com- 


550 Reviews— Jevons—On The Coal Question. 


pared with the first two, wuich sometimes make up 95 and 97 per 
cent. of the ooze ! 

We are much indebted to the authors of this interesting memoir 
for giving us, as it were, a new test, which the paleontologist may 
in many instances apply, to solve the question of the conditions of 
marine life in bygone ages of geologic time. 


JI.—TueE Coal QUESTION ; AN INQUIRY CONCERNING THE PROGRESS | 
OF THE NATION, AND THE PROBABLE EXHAUSTION OF OUR COAL 
Mines. By W. Srantey Jevons, M.A. Cambridge : Mac- 
millan, 1865. ; 

HIS book is not a rival but rather a fitting partner to Mr. Hull’s 

‘ Coal-fields of Great Britain.? Whilst Mr. Hull looks on Coal 

as a purely geological matter, Mr. Jevons views it as within the 
domains of statistical and political economy, taking Mr. Hull as his 

guide in geology (p. xii.). 

The truth of Mr. Jevons’s statement (p. x.) that ‘the writers who 
have hitherto discussed this question, being chiefly geologists, have 
. . treated it . . in a one-sided manner,’ may be doubted. Surely 
there cannot be a question any side of which is without a geologist 
to argue for it. Mr. Jevons, however, clearly does not mean by the 
above passage to cast a slight on geological enquiry; for he says (p. 
30) that ‘if the science of geology had no claims upon our attention 
it would repay all the labour spent upon it many times over, by 
showing where coal may reasonably be looked for.’ Perhaps, though 
the labour thus spent may be much greater than Mr. Jevons thinks, our 
author disagrees with former writers in thinking that ‘there is not 
the least danger of our reaching any fixed limit of deep mining, where 
physical impossibility begins’ (p. 40), and he points out a mistake 
of Mr. Hull’s in over-estimating the increase of temperature in des- 
cending further into the earth (p. 42), but he looks forward rather 
to ‘commercial impossibilities’ in the cost of sinking and working 
deep pits, and shows that the price of best Newcastle coal has more 
than doubled in less than 100 years. But, in an able pamphlet on 
the ‘ Fall of the Value of Gold’ (Stanford), Mr. Jevons has himself 
proved that there has been a rise in the prices of most things, and 
therefore the force of the above fact is somewhat lessened, although 
not enough to shake the conclusion that ‘when with the growth of 
our trade and the course of time our mines inevitably reach a depth 
of 3,000 or 4,000 feet, the increasing cost of fuel will be an incaleu- 
lable obstacle to our further progress’ (p. 67) ; for even now ‘deep 
mines are so deliberately opened . . . that the highest prices ob- 
tained are, taking all mining risks and charges into account, only an 
average equivalent for the capital invested ;’ moreover ‘these deep 
pits can only be undertaken at present in search of coal of the finest 
household quality’ (p. 66), Mr. Jevons combats the notion that by 
a more economical use of coal, through improvements in machinery, 
&c., the increase of consumption will be stopped or checked, and 
holds that ‘new modes of economy will lead to an increase of con- 
sumption, acccrding to a principle recognised in many parallel in- 


Reviews—Jevons—On The Coal Question. 551 


stances’ (p. 103), such-as the substitution of machinery for hand 
labour, the reduction of taxes, and low rates of profit, which have 
respectively tended to the increase of employment for workmen, to 
the increase of consumption of the articles taxed and the consequent 
addition to the revenue, and to the increase of business. ‘The same 
principles apply, with even greater force and distinctness, to the use 
of such a general agent as coal. It is the very economy of its use 
which leads to its extensive consumption. It has been so in the past 
and it will be so in the future’ (p. 10+). Thus the steam-engine 
was hardly used at all for many years after its invention, on account 
of the large quantity of coal consumed ; and it did not come into 
general use until Watt brought forward his inventions for saving 
heat, that is coal. 

Our author also shows that we cannot look forward to finding any 
substitutes for coal, and remarks that ‘if any wholly new source of 
power be some day discovered, we have no reason to suppose that 
a a will be as pre-eminently endowed with it as with coal’ 

p: 144). 

‘Another reason for our looking forward to a great increase in the 
consumption of coal is that ‘we do each of us in general increase 
our consumption. . . . The population has about doubled since the 
beginning of the century, but the consumption of coal has increased 
eightfold and more. The consumption per head of the population 
has therefore increased fourfold’ (p. 150). 

Having found that the average yearly growth of our consumption 
is 34 per cent., and assuming this rate of growth to hold in the fu- 
ture, it follows that the increase will be from 83°6 millions of tons 
in 1861 to 2,607°5 millions of tons in 1961, and ‘ the total aggregate 
consumption of the period of 110 years, 1861—1970, would be 
102,704,000,000 tons . . or inround numbers . . if our consumption 
of coal continue to multiply for 110 years at the same rate as hither- 
to, the total amount of coal consumed in the interval will be one hun- 
dred thousand million tons. Mr. Hull’s estimate of the available coal 
in the kingdom, within a depth of 4,000 feet, is only 83,000,000,000 
tons; and therefore ‘ rather more than a century of our present pro- 
gress would exhaust our mines to the depth of 4,000 feet, or 1,500 
feet deeper than our present mines’ (pp. 213-5)—a pleasing prospect 
truly! Of course, it matters little to Mr. Jevons’s calculation 
whether Mr. Hull’s estimate is a few thousand millions of tons too 
low or not. 

Our author next shows most conclusively that it is absurd to think, 
or rather to dream, that when our coal is getting exhausted we shall 
be able to import coal from other lands to work our factories: ‘ about 
1,200 colliers of the size of the Great Eastern would be required to 
maintain our present supplies only’ (p. 225), and the cost of freight 
would be very heavy. Of course, the raw materials would then, as 
now, go to the coal-yielding country to be worked up; it is com- 
mercially impossible that we should import both coal and raw ma- 
terials. This side of the question is strangely illustrated by ‘the 
curious fact that about the end of the seventeenth century the iron 


552 Reviews —Austin—On the Millstone Grit. 


manufacture to some extent migrated to Ireland. The woodsof hat 
country were full of timber when those of England were nearly ex- 
hausted. The trade at once followed the fuel in spite of a want of 
ore in Ireland. . . Ireland became an iron exporting country’ (p. 
282). 

To look to the things of our own times is more pleasant than to 
look forward with Mr. Jevons to those of the future. ‘Of a total 
(yearly) produce of 1363 millions of tons (about the years 1858-60), 
103 millions are produced by nations of British origin and language, 
and 80 millions are produced in Great Britain itself.’ If too we can 
take a wide view of the now proud adjective, ‘ British,’ and apply it 
to all men of our widespread race, we may look into the years to 
come with less sorrow than if we use it only for those who live in 
these islands ; for though our coal-fields are far greater than all 
others in Europe, those of North America, which are all in the pos- 
session of men of Anglo-Saxon race, ‘almost indefinitely surpass 
ours in extent, and it may be added, in contents’ (p. 254). 

Lord Stanley in a late speech at the meeting of the British Asso- 
ciation at Birmingham, said, according to the ‘ Times,’ that Mr. Hull 
had taken a sanguine view of ‘the Coal Question,’ and Mr. Jevons a 
desponding one. Let us hope that there may be a mean between 
them, and that Mr Jevons may be amongst the first to acknowledge 
it in a future edition. Meanwhile we commend: this book to the 
notice, not only of geologists, but of statists and politicians, as a 
specimen of sound reasoning, though we think that value enough has 
not been given to those accidental circumstances which often turn 
up unexpectedly and produce unlooked-for results. 


WJ.—Tue Mitistone Grit, its Fossits AND THE RELATION IT 
BEARS TO OTHER GROUPS OF ROCKS, MORE PARTICULARLY AS IT 
OCCURS IN THE BristoL District, AND SOUTH-WEST OF ENG- 
LAND GENERALLY. By Fort-Major Tuomas Austin, F.G.S., &e. 
1865, London; H. Batturere. 8vo. Pp. 58; 5 Plates. 

Bee Memoir before us is intended to convey to Geologists the 

result of the author’s observations on the Millstone Grit, as 
observed near Bristol and in the South-west of England. 

Major Austin not only enters into the question of the relation 
which this formation bears to other strata above and below it, 
but also gives a list and descriptions, accompanied by figures, of the 
organic remains he has been so fortunate as to obtain. 

This catalogue includes 47 species found in the Bristol area, 
about one-half of which (23) are Brachiopods, the remainder com- 
prising 1 Gasteropod, 20 Conchifera, 2 Crustacea, and 1 Fish- 
remain. 

Any information to be cbtained concerning the ‘ Farewell Rock,’ 
or Millstone Grit, will be acceptable to the Geologist, whilst the 
Palzontologist will desire to compare its fossil-remains with those 
from the same rock in other and distant localities. 

The Carboniferous series of the South-west of England is generally 


Reviews—Austin— On the Millstone Grit. 5a 


considered as more typical than that of any other district, as in Glou- 
cestershire and Somersetshire this formation, composed of sandstone 
grit, and conglomerate, attains a thickness of 2,500 feet with but very 
slight traces of coal. In the Midland Counties, on the contrary, as 
Derbyshire and Lancashire, and even still further north, it contains 
intercalated beds of shale, impure limestone, and coal, accom- 
panied by a corresponding change in the fossil contents. 

The character of this formation, as seen in the Flintshire Coal- 
field, Shropshire, has already formed the subject of an article in the 
GroLoeicaL MaGazine for March 1865, p. 107. Mr. Prosser de- 
scribes the Millstone Grit of this district as highly fossiliferous, but 
the specimens are not well preserved. 

As to the thickness of the Millstone Grit at Kingswood Hill 
near Bristol, Mr. Handel Cossham has clearly demonstrated that 
this deposit belongs in reality to the Lower Coal-measures, and 
is there known as the ‘Holmes Rock,—an important evidence of 
the further extent in depth of the Bristol Coal-field. (See Gerot. 
Maae., No. IX., p. 110.) 

After treating of the Millstone Grit, its climate, and origin, the 
author proceeds to describe its fauna :—‘ A very great proportion of 
the organic remains,’ says Mr. Austin. ‘obtained and figured in this 
contribution to its history, I believe are new in species, though but 
few of them are so in genera.’ The number of new species és very 
remarkable (39 out of 47), and on this point we feel extremely 
doubtful, especially as the descriptions are exceedingly meagre, and 
the figures do not help us much more. We should almost incline 
to the opinion that some at least were established on fragments of 
well-known species which our veteran friend has failed to recog- 
nize. 

The nomenclature is seriously at fault, and we strongly advise 
the author, in justice to himself, to undertake the revision of the 
specific names, and the figures of many of his new species also. 

An account of the economic uses of the Millstone Grit, and some 
interesting remarks on the dip of the beds, are deserving of atten- 
tion and perusal. 


IV.—TueE SiILuRIAN FORMATION IN THE PENTLAND His. By 
G. C. Haswe.1t, Hon. Sec. G.S.E. Edinburgh: W. P. Nimmo. 
1865. Pp. 47. 4 Plates. 

LL visitors to Edinburgh know the Pentland Hills, which, 
closing in the horizon to the south, contribute not a little to 

the beauty of the magnificent panorama which surrounds the capital 
of the North. ‘They are composed chiefly of felstone and ash with 
coarse conglomerates, grits, and sandstones of the Upper Old Red 

Sandstone age. In these localities the underlying Silurian rocks 

come to the surface, and to one of these, the famous Habbie’s How, 

beyond Carlops—the scene of Ramsay’s ‘Gentle Shepherd ’"—Mr. 

Haswell has devoted some attention. The results of his observa- 

tions he read to the Edinburgh Geological Society, and has now 

published. We almost regret that he has hurried himself into print, 


554 Reviews— Haswell— On the Pentland Hills. 


fur while the essay is a good one for a first in geology, it scarcely 
deserves to form a separate publication. We say not this in a fault- 
finding spirit, for the perusal of the paper has given us pleasure, 
and we are certain that experience and continued observation will 
give the author a position in science.. But the determination of 
species is no easy work, and it is specially difficult with fossils ; and 
those which form the subject of this paper are more than ordinarily 
so. Before one ventures to add new names, the whole matter 
should be thoroughly wrought up, else endless synonymy—the 
curse of systematic Natural History—creates endless confusion. 
We hope that this paper will incite (and it will certainly assist) 
local students to an examination of these beds, and that before long 
we may see—not a new edition—but a new work, in which Mr. 
Haswell will go more thoroughly and systematically into these very 
interesting fossil-remains. He has already obtained several new 
species; and from the materials collected, he considers the strata to 
be the representatives of the Ludlow and Wenlock deposits. 


V.—StTRATA IDENTIFIED BY ORGANIC REMAINS. 


THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SciENCE (No. VIII.) for October 
contains, in addition to the usual Chronicles of Geology and Palzon- 
tology, an interesting article by Mr. Henry M. Jenkins, Assistant 
Secretary to the Geological Society of London, on ‘Strata Iden- 
tified by Organic Remains.’ 

<« Strata Identified by Organized Fossils,” was the title of a well- 
known work by William Smith (in 1817), in which he illustrated 
his discovery that the numerous formations constituting the crust 
of the earth could be distinguished and identified by means of their 
embedded fossils.’ 

This grand generalization of the ‘Father of English Geology’ 
inaugurated the dawn of a new era in our science, and has neces- 
sitated the establishment of the sister science, Paleontology. 

Mr. Jenkins relates the progress, step by step, of geological inves- 
tigation, and tells how Edward Forbes, in 1846 (29 years after the 
publication of William Smith’s celebrated work), announced that 
identity of fossils in strata geographically far apart, must lead to 
the inference that the beds were of different, not, as hitherto main- 
tained, of the same age. But it appears this new doctrine did not 
produce any permanent effect, and another period (16 years) is 
passed, when Professor Huxley, in his Anniversary Address to the 
Geological Society, again brings this heterodox notion before its 
members, since which time, several of our younger Palzontolo- 
gists, including the author of the paper, have given the idea its due 
weight in endeavouring to correlate distant deposits. 

‘The views of Geologists on this question must depend more or 
less on their belief in the origin of species by descent with modi- 
fication, and from single specific centres.’ 

Mr. Jenkins proceeds with his case, stating, we think, fairly, the 
arguments pro and con, the doctrine of the migration and mu- 


Reviews— Quarterly Journal of Sciences 555 


tation of species in time and space, and illustrates his article with 
a plate of various species of Trigonie, Olive, Volute, Eburna, 
Argonauta, &c., which he cites as evidence of the migration of 
species in an Easterly and South-easterly direction that may pro- 
bably have been going on, with intervals of recurrent variations, 
since the commencement of the Secondary epoch. 

‘Lhe author believes, ‘that as the distance between the forma- 
tions becomes greater, so does, ceteris paribus, the difference in age 
increase. In other words, Geographical Space and Geological 
Time have the same sort of correlation as Electricity and Mag- 
netism; with apparently contemporaneous strata, a certain distance 
means a certain lapse of time, and as one varies so does the other.’ 
Dr. P. Martin Duncan and Mr. Harry Seeley are cited as Geologists 
holding these advanced views; and we may add Mr. E. C. H. Day, of 
Charmouth, had prepared an able paper upon this subject, which 
was cut short in its reading and too briefly noticed, before the 
British Association this year at Birmingham. 

We have seldom read a paper with the greater part of which we 
more cordially agree, and the subject of which we think is more 
deserving the attention alike of Geologists and Paleontologists. 


VI.—Muskte Tryter. CATALOGUE SYSTEMATIQUE DE LA COLLEC- 
TION PALEONTOLOGIQUE PAR T. C. WINKLER, HAARLEM, 1863—65. 


aes Teyler Museum at Haarlem is a well-known institution, and, 
besides other interesting objects of study, contains a remark- 
able and valuable collection of fossils. Among the latter may be 
found numerous examples of the genus Ichthyosaurus described by 
M. Bronn ; many species of Pterodactyle noticed and studied by 
M. Herman von Meyer; a fine head and other bones of the Mosa- 
saurus, and also of a turtle, both from the Cretaceous strata of Maes- 
tricht, as well as the great fossil salamander long ago described 
as the Homo diluvii testis by Scheuchzer ; besides there are some 
species of fossil fish described by Dr. Winkler in the “ Memoirs 
of the Scientific Society of Haarlem. ” 

The general collection of fossils, which consists of about 12,000 
specimens, was for some time unarranged, the geological position and 
locality of many of them being unknown. During the last few 
years, however, owing to the zeal and industry of Dr. T. C. Winkler, 
this valuable accumulation of fossil forms belonging to the dif- 
ferent geological periods, has been more systematically arranged, 
and the present catalogue is the result. It is published in three 
parts, forming an octavo work of 380 pages, well and carefully 
printed, and including the determination of the fossil species in the 
collection of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods. ‘The author has 
availed himself of the recent works on Paleontology, and in a great 
number of instances has added synonyms to the species indicated. 
The catalogues of the two periods are systematically arranged. 

After noticing the plant-remains, the fossil animals are catalogued 
zoologically, commencing with the lower forms of Invertebrata and 


536 Reports and Proceedings. 


terminating with the Vertebrata. Although conversant with modern 
works, the author in some instances retains a certain nomenclature 
not quite in accordance with the present opinions ; it may, however, 
express his view of the subject. ‘Thus he retains Unio for the Palxo- 
zoic genus now called Anthracosia, and places Bellerophon under the 
Pectinibranchiate family Fissurellide ; retains Ammonites for species 
of Goniatite, and classes Hippurites, Radiolites and allied genera, 
under the Rudistes, or irregular Brachiopods, notwithstanding the 
valuable memoir by the late Dr. S. P. Woodward * on these forms, 
in which he clearly indicated their affinity to Chama, and classed 
some with that genus, as Diceras and Requienia, whilst on other 
forms he constituted the family of Hippuritide as Radiolites, Hip- 
purites, Caprinella, Caprina, and Caprotina. 

In the Trilobites Dr. Winkler has retained genera of Hawle and 
Corda as Crithias, Staurogonus, Acanthogramma, Tetracnemis, &c., 
which M. Barrande has since shown to be only different stages of 
growth of the curious genus Sao—a form which has been favoured 
with about ten generic and more than twenty specific names. How- 
ever, the catalogue is a useful synopsis of the contents of the fossil 
collection of the Haarlem Museum, 


REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
sss SS 


GEoLoGiIcAL Society oF lLonpon.—Nov. 8, 1865.—W. J. 
Hamilton, Esq., President, in the Chair. The following communica- 
tions were read :—1. ‘On the Submarine Forest-beds in Porlock 
Bay. By R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.R.S., For. Sec. G. S. 

The submerged forest of Porlock Bay has been briefly noticed by 
Sir. H. De la Beche, but has not been sufficiently described, inasmuch 
as it illustrates more clearly than the larger forests of Bridgwater 
Level or Swansea Bay the nature and order of the oscillations of 
small amount which have taken place at times shortly antecedent to 
the present, and which were classified by the author in this paper as 
follows :—(1) The formation of an angular detritus and its accumu- 
lation at lower levels; at this period the land was at its highest 
relative elevation. (2) Forest-growths established on the detrital 
beds just mentioned ; the stumps of those forest-trees, some of which 
are of large size and great age, at present constitute the Submerged 
Forest. (8) Accumulation of freshwater mud (resulting probably 
from a depression of the land), by which the trees were killed. 
(4) Surface of water-plant growths on the mud-deposit, or nearly 
dry surface, on which the trees fell. (5) Area depressed below the 
sea-level, and sea-mud with Scrobicularie deposited. (6) Conver- 
sions of the surface into meadow-land at the level of the highest 
springs of the present day caused by re-elevation. (7) Shingle, 
heaped up on the meadow-land, and showing that the anos recent 
change has been one of slight depression. 

This succession of changes corresponds with that of numerous 


* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., London: yol. xi. pp. 40—61.° 


Reports and Proceedings. 557 


other localities in the West of England, and, as Mr. Godwin-Austen 
considered the angular detritus (1) to be the result of subaérial 
weathering, which took place over this area approximately contem- 
poraneously with the deposition of the Boulder-formation in more 
northern districts, this Porlock submerged forest seems to fix a rela- 
tive date for the rest, namely, as being subsequent to the Glacial 
Period. By this means, also, a relative date is arrived at for many 
of the raised beaches in the West of England, as of that near Baggy 
Point, where the old sea-bed, at an elevation of 60 feet, is covered 
by an enormous accumulation of angular debris ; these raised beaches 
may therefore correspond in time to certain marine deposits, which, 
in Norfolk and Suffolk, next underlie the great ‘Boulder forma- 
tion.’ 

2. ‘On the Marine Origin of the “ Parallel Roads” of Glen Roy.’ 
By the Rev. R. Boog Watson, B.A., F.G.S. 

After a brief description of these well-known ‘ Roads,’ the author 
gave an analysis of the two principal theories that have been started 
to account for their formation, namely, the Ice-dam theory and the 
Marine theory. With regard to the first theory, Mr. Boog Watson 
stated his opinion that although it has some strong points, especially 
in respect of the coincidence between the levels of the ‘ Cols’ at 
the glen-heads and those of the ‘ Roads,’ yet on the other hand 
it is weak, inasmuch as the cause assigned is extremely local in its 
action, while the phenomena to be explained are very general and 
have a wide range,—terraces similar to those of Glen Roy occurring 
in Scandinavia and elsewhere. In the author’s opinion, also, the 
ice-dam is impossible, and would be inefficient if possible: it would 
not be water-tight, and there is no place for it in the history of the 
Post-pliocene changes in Scotland. But he remarked that objec- 
tions like these cannot be urged against the Marine theory, as the 
sea has been on the spot, and is able to perform the work required 
of it. At the same time the author admitted that the Marine 
theory is not free from difficulties, the chief being the perfection and 
horizontality of the ‘ Roads,’ and their barrenness in marine organ- 
isms ; and he concluded by suggesting some explanations of these 
apparent anomalies. 

The following specimens were exhibited :—Specimens from Por- 
lock Bay; exhibited by R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.R.S., 
For. Sec. G.S. A miscellaneous collection of recent shells and fossil 
remains; presented by Sir R. I. Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
New Cornish Minerals ; exhibited by Bernard H. Woodward, Esq. 
Specimens of various Minerals ; exhibited by G. E. Roberts, Esq., 
F.G.S. New Corals from Malta; exhibited by Dr. P. Martin 
Duncan, Sec. G.S. The new edition of the Greenough Geological 
Map was exhibited in the Meeting-room. 


ANNIVERSARY OF THE NORWICH GEOLOGICAL SociETY.—On Tues- 
day evening, the second anniversary of the Norwich Geological So- 
ciety was held at the Maid’s Head Hotel. It had been intended to 
have formed an excursion to Bramerton, for the purpose of studying 


558 Reports and Proceedings. 


the Upper Crag, but the unfavourable state of the day prevented it. 
After tea, the Rev. John Gunn, President of the Society, occupied 
the chair, and, in his address, reviewed the work of the past session. 
Tt was not until he had prepared his notes of what had been done at 
the meetings in the shape of written papers, &c., that he was aware 
of the amount of real work which had been accomplished. He then 
proceeded to notice the fossil remains which had been discovered, or 
examined. Among these were the fresh-water shells at Thorpe, the 
discovery of shells in the middle drift at Saxlingham, various bones 
of deer from the Forest-bed, the tooth of a Mastodon at Horstead, 
&c. He then proceeded to notice the strata in which these organic 
remains were found. The interesting discovery by the Secretary 
of the singular contortions in the Whitlingham chalk (an account 
of which appeared in the GErotocicaL Magazine for July last, 
page 824), was also mentioned. Mr. Gunn alluded, in feeling 
terms, to the loss of the late Dr. Woodward,* one of the members of 
the Society, and whose services were ever at the disposal of the 
members. Several papers were then read, the principal being one 
by Mr. Harmer, on the inland development of the drift beds near 
Cromer. The author followed the views of Mr. Searles Wood very 
closely, and ably defended them in the discussion which ensued. 
These views relate to the classification of the drift beds in the Kast- 
tern Counties. A very lively discussion ensued, during which Mr. 
Gunn gave a clear and succinct account of the manner in which the 
strata followed each other, and showed how they had been deposited. 
It was then proposed by Mr. Fitch, and seconded by Mr. King, that 
the Rev. John Gunn be re-elected President of the Society. This 
proposition was carried unanimously. The remaining officers of the 
Society were also re-elected, and the company then separated— 
Norwich Mercury, Oct. 28th, 1865. 


BRITISE ASSOCIATION REPORTS- 
——— 


SECTION C. 


¥.— EXPLANATION oF A Map or THE FAULTS IN THE GOLD-DISTRICT OF 
Dorcrrry. By J. W. Sauter, F.G.S. 


HE district examined includes roughly the course of the Mawd- 
dach River, as it flows from the twin waterfalls of Pistyll Cain, 

and the Mawddach Fall, and so down to the Barmouth estuary. 
This river runs chiefly through the softer lower division of the Lin- 
gula Flags, leaving a broad belt of the rocks north-west of Dolgelly; 
but almost obliterating and carrying them away along the lower 
reaches of the river. It is in this belt of rocks that the gold is won ; 
and to all appearance the veins of that metal are only prolific along 


* See Obituary, Guotocicat Macazinu, August Number, p. 383. 


British Association Reports. 559 


the line of junction of the Lower Cambrian, or Harlech Grits, and 
the black slates which form the mass of the ‘ Lower Lingula Flags.’ 

Some major lines had been laid down in the mountain country to 
the east and south, and very accurately ; but the faults along which 
the precious metals were won, and those which under the term of 
slides and cross-courses interrupted their work, were still for the 
most part to be put in. 

Having laid down all the faults he could trace, the author found 
that they became systematic upon the map ;.and he was at length 
enabled to predict their occurrence by the contour of the ground, and 
to verify them by natural sections, with which the country abounds. 

The author traversed a good deal of the ground from the Clogan 
mines on the west to Cefn Coch and Cwmheisian on the north-east ; 
but finding that the faults were very numerous and complicated, he 
soon determined to contract the area of close observation to that in 
which his employer was most interested ; and while he has maps of 
the fault lines observed all along the boundary, those only of Tyd- 
dyngwladis, Cwmheisian, and Gwynfynydd are laid down in detail. 

He had no map to begin with except the Ordnance one-inch, and 
had to enlarge the Survey map four times its size during the course 
of his work. It is not even yet on a large enough scale. 

The first thing was to correct the boundary line between the 
Cambrian and the Lingula Flags; and this could only be done by 
ascertaining the succession of the beds of the latter. 

By this means it was found that the tendency of the main lines 
of fault—those which follow more or less accurately the trend or 
strike of the beds—was to repeat the series of beds; therefore there 
must have been ipheaval and collapse of the Lower Cambrian nu- 
cleus. These great faults are joined by oblique and cross faults of 
no great regularity, but no doubt reducible to system. 

Another set of faults of less dimensions, along the original 
strike of the country, and probably due to strain produced during that 
upheaval. 

Along some of these faults and a third set at oblique angles 
(NE. and SW.) to them, the principal gold veins occur; while in 
one, which from its greater throw of the beds has probably been a — 
second time faulted, a considerable vein of lead is found. They cer- 
tainly cut off and shift the east and west veins. 

These are crossed by a series of NW. and SE. faults, which in 
the Tyddyngwladis and Cwmheisian district and Dolfrwynog mines 
run parallel, and contain both gold and silver-lead. 

And lastly, the whole are traversed by an important set of 
faults which shift all the others; and are undoubtedly the last, 
namely, true N. and S. faults, which run through the whole country 
—far away into the hills of Diphwys, and in fact as far as I was able 
to examine. 

They give the features to the ground—steep cliffs, river courses, 
ledges, ravines, bluffs ; all are defined by these master faults, which 
though seldom of any very great amount in the actual mining region 
eastward, become greater to the westward, and are, I suspect, 


560 British Association Reports. 


of general import throughout the whole of Wales, if not much 
further. 

In fact, this N. and S. set of faults, which no one seems yet to have 
noticed, is of chief importance in the whole of this mining district, 
cutting off the veins by repeated notches and slips, and in some cases 
dislocating them widely—e.g. Gwynfynydd. As soon as the ex- 
istence and symmetry of these four lines of fault had been made out, 
the author’s task became easy ; the outlines of the country, at first 
so puzzling, leading one to them (on the rocky and uncovered hill 
sides) with great precision. 

The North and South faults certainly bear copper, and have 
been worked at Dolfrwynog for that purpose, and also on the Brynian 
Glo, further west on the Trawsfynydd Road. 

The NW. and SE. faults were only traced in the narrow dis- 
trict above described. ‘They are known to bear silver-lead, and gold 
in small quantities ; and are next in point of age. 

Then come the great strike-faults with their numerous paral- 
lel smaller faults, and cross-notches where they intersect the previous 
faults. These are not yet worked for metals. 

The NE. and E. faults preceded these, and to all appearance 
the true E. and W. ones were earliest of all. ‘These two are indeed 
the prolific veins for gold, and they have direct reference to the 
original elevation and ridging of the country. As they received 
their infilling of metalliferous deposits before the three subsequent, 
or at all events two of the subsequent systems of faults occurred, and 
are certainly the oldest set of fissures in the district, it is fair to infer 
that gold is one of the oldest minerals in Wales. 

It is, of course, for the mining proprietors of the district to ascer- 
tain accurately what metals occur in each of these systems of veins, 
and by much further and closer search to carry out, complete, and 
correct the outline. The subject is of economic importance. It is 
well known that in Cornwall the mines of tin and copper run east 
and west in accordance with the strike of the rocks, while the lead 
veins cross these aud run more in a N. and S: direction ; and, again, 
that the tin veins are repeatedly crossed and shifted by copper lodes 
ot a subsequent date; while both series have been again and again 
shifted by subsequent faults—as many as eight distinct systems of 
faults having been found in Cornwall and also in Germany, accord- 
ing to Sir Charles Lyell’s latest account in his manual. 

I have as yet only been able to make out four or five in the district 
in question, of which undoubteely the north and south lines are the 
newest. 

That the relative ages of the various infillings of the metals may 
be ascertained by such research there is little doubt. But it must 
always be remembered that if lodes be faults, as they are, the second 
movement will often open the joints of the. first, as along lines of 
greatest weakness ; and hence there will be a mixture of metals in 
the older lodes which we need not expect in the newer. According- 
ly, in the Dolgelly gold-lodes we find a mixture of Gold, Blende, 
Silver-lead, Iron, Arsenic, Copper, Sulphur, &c. And where cross- 
courses intersect the lodes, we may expect the more recent metal to 


British Association Reports. 561 


be abundant, from the greater room, and also an interchange from 
subsequent redistribution. 

I do not enter upon the great question of synchronism in parallel 
lines of disturbance suggested by Elie de Beaumont. The proba- 
bility of its truth is too evident; but I call particular attention to 
the great N. and S. lines of fissure, which I am convinced have re- 
ference to a much larger area than Wales. 


IJ.—Norzs on THE Post-pxiocens Depostrs or Canapa. By J. W. Dawson, 
LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
ART J.—On tHe Revative Acks anp Move or Formation 
OE THE SEVERAL MEMBERS OF THE POST-PLIOCENE SERIES.— 
The marine Post-pliocene deposits of Lower Canada are, in descend- 
ing order :— 

1. The superficial sands and gravels, called by the author the 
‘ Saxicava-sand.’ 

2. The underlying clay, named the ‘ Leda-clay,’ otherwise known 
as the Champlain-clay. 

3. The Boulder-clay. 

These beds extend over a very large area, and rise to the height 
of 500 feet in the valley of the St. Lawrence. The author gives 
short descriptions of each of them. The Saxicava-sand is a shallow- 
water deposit, presenting the appearance of a succession of beaches 
and terraces; it has been much modified by marine and sub-aérial 
denudation. ‘The Leda-clay is principally composed of material de- 
rived from the waste of the gray and red shales of the ‘Quebec 
Group ; its characteristic fossil is Leda truncata, an Arctic shell not 
now inhabiting the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Boulder-clay is 
associated with these deposits throughout their whole extent, and 
Dr. Dawson believes that it is not a continuous stratum occupying a 
special place in the Post-pliocene formation, but that it is entirely 
a marine deposit, indicating the local action of floating ice, and that 
its accumulation has been proceeding throughout the whole of the 
period of the Leda-clay and Saxicava-sand down to the present 
time. 

Dr. Dawson gives examples of what he considers to be boulder 
deposits of different ages in Canada, which he classifies as fol- 
lows :— 

1. Boulder-drift anterior to the Deposit of the Leda-clay.—This 
contains fragments of Silurian and Laurentian rocks, and boulders 
often scratched and polished, and passes upwards into the Leda-clay 
at Montreal. 

2. Boulder-drift coéval with. the Leda-clay.—The Leda-clay, 
usually very fine and regularly stratified, occasionally contains large 
boulders presenting the appearance of having been dropped in, 
while it was accumulating, by melting ice, and subsequently buried. 

3. Boulder-drift of the Period of the Saxicava-sand.—Though 
the Saxicava-sand is a littoral bed, and was formed in much shal- 
lower water than the preceding, yet it contains many boulders pro- 

VOL. II.—NO. XVIII. ORO 


562 British Association Reports. 


bably derived from fields of ice grounded in the shallows, and 
there depositing their rocky burden. 

4. Recent Boulder-drift.—The driftage of the boulders in the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence was next noticed, and the author states that 
it would only require a subsidence which would bring these boulders 
under the influence of muddy deposits to form a sort of Boulder- 
clay. 

3. Supposed Drift by Glaciers.—With regard to the striations on 
the shore of Lake Huron, &c., and in Labrador, referred to the 
action of land-ice by Sir W. Logan and Professor Hind, Dr. Dawson 
admits that the mean temperature of Canada may have been so 
reduced by the diminution of land surface and the influx of cold 
currents loaded with ice, to permit the existence of glaciers in some 
of the hilly regions; but he rejects the theory that Canada was at 
any time covered with a general or universal glacier as physically 
impossible, and assigns his reasons in a quotation from a previous 
paper, to the effect that most of the striations are due to icebergs, 
and that many of the so-called moraines are probably shingle beaches, 
and old coast lines loaded with boulders. 

Part II. On Movern Icrsercs.—This is an account of obser- 
vations recently made on the icebergs in the Strait of Belle Isle. 
Between Newfoundland and Labrador, a branch of the Arctic 
current enters the strait at the north, bringing about one-fifth of 
the bergs that are drifted down the Labrador coast; as many as 496 
bergs have been counted in the strait at one time, many 60 feet 
in height, some more than 200 feet. The bottom of the strait con- 
sists of rocks and stones in most parts; and as the majority of the 
bergs had grounded, it is evident that the abrading power exercised 
by them was enormous, far greater than that of any glacier in a 
single year. Other icebergs, 400 feet high and half a mile long, 
have grounded off the strait, which, urged on by the current, and 
swaying to and fro, would constitute abrading agents unequalled in 
power. One berg noticed by Dr. Dawson had been overturned, and 
displayed what had been its working surface flattened and scored. 
The author infers that no other agency than icebergs, reinforced by 
glaciers descending from the higher lands of Labrador, need be 
invoked to produce ali the glacial effects observed in the Valley of 
the St. Lawrence, and that these observed phenomena correspond 
much better than that of a mantle of glacier, the possibility of 
which, on physical grounds, is more than doubtful. 

Part III. On tHe Post-pLioceneE PLants.—In this paper, Dr. 
Dawson describes the species of plants found in the Post-pliocene 
deposits, and shows what light they throw on the climate and geo- 
graphical conditions of the period. ‘They were principally obtained 
from nodules in the Leda-clay, associated with Leda truncata, and 
seem to have been washed down from the land into deep water. 
They indicate a summer colder than the present, to an extent equal 
to about 5° of latitude, which concurs with the other evidence the 
author has obtained, that the refrigeration of Canada in the Post- 
pliocene period consisted in a diminution of the summer heat, and 


British Association Reports. 563 


was of no greater amount than that attributable to the depression 
of the land, and the different distribution of the ice-bearing 
current, 


IIi.—Tue Pre-Camprian Rocks or Centran Encranp, By Harvey B. Hour, 
M.D., F.G.S. 


yy this communication the author discussed the age of the meta- 

morphic rocks which form the narrow ridge of the Malverns, as 
also those smaller protrusions which pierce the Cambrian rocks and 
Keuper marl of Charnwood Forest. In their profoundly altered 
aspect, in the similarity of their felspar, in the prevalence of horn- 
blende as one of their ingredients, and in their general deficiency in 
free silica, the metamorphic rocks in both these localities, though 
separated by a distance of 60 miles, have nevertheless a character in 
common. In both, the dominant trend of the beds is from SE. and 
NW. to E. and W., and the foliation of the rock, where not obscured 
or obliterated, corresponds with the plane of the bedding. In the 
Charnwood Forest district, more especially, the rock is massive and 
even the bedding often effaced. In the great quarries of Mount 
Sorrel the rock is entirely granite, traversed by trap dykes, and re- 
markable inasmuch as it contains masses, varying in size from a 
walnut upwards, of finer grained and otherwise dissimilar rock. In 
evidence of the great antiquity of these rocks, it was shown that their 
metamorphism and uplifting into highly-inclined positions, and their 
subsequent invasion by augitic trap dykes, were all events which had 
happened previous to the deposition of the oldest overlying deposits. 
In the Charnwood Forest area these latter were stated tobe of Lower 
Cambrian age, about which the author had no doubt, and they are 
laid down as such in all our geological maps; and admitting this, 
there can be no question respecting the prior age of the meta- 
morphic rocks, vertical beds of which appear beneath the Cambrian 
strata, which rest upon them unconformably. In the Malvern dis- 
trict the oldest overlying rocks were referred to the age of the Middle 
Lingula flags, which rest unconformably on the gneissic rocks of the 
hills; and in the shallow-water conditions under which their lowest 
beds were accumulated, and in the successive overlap of the succeed- 
ing ones, we learn that the metamorphic rocks formed high land in 
the Cambrian sea, and that an interval of unrepresented time pre- 
ceded the deposition of the Malvern Lingula flags. It thus appears 
that the metamorphic rocks of the Malvern district formed part of a 
slowly-subsiding area of emerged land during the period when the 
Lower Cambrian rocks of Charnwood Forest and the Longmynds were 
being deposited ; and that as the subsidence went on, higher beds were 
brought consecutively into direct contact with the metamorphic 
rocks, until finally, at the close of the Lingula flag period, this area 
may have been nearly or entirely submerged and covered up. As 
these blanks in the sequence of sedimentary deposits were the results 
of the reverse of that change of level which gave rise to meta- 
morphism and attended the accumulation of sediments, viz. local 

002 


564 British Association Reports. 


elevation of the crust of the earth, and emergenee of the area from 
which the next overlying formation is absent, and as gaps or 
blanks belong to all ages, it follows that there must always have been 
areas of dry land ; and as the mean sea level, and therefore the rela- 
tive proportions of dry land and water, probably never varied very 
greatly, there must have been emerged land in Lower Cambrian 
times over a united area of at least a fifth of the earth’s surface, on 
which no deposition was taking place, causing breaks in the sequence 
of formations to which pre-Cambrian rocks formed the floors, and 
from which were derived the sediments that accumulated in the Cam- 
brian sea, 

But at some time after the close of the Lingula flag period, and 
between it and the epoch of the May-hill sandstone, the Malvern 
area was again elevated, as may be inferred from the total absence of 
the Llandeilo, Caradoc, and Lower Llandovery rocks, and from the 
tilted position of the Lingula beds, on the denuded surfaces of which 
the May-hill sandstone rests, dipping to the westward at a lower 
angle than the beds which underlieit. Again, at the close of the - 
Lower Old Red Sandstone period, the ridge was upraised, as seen in 
the absence of the Middle Old Ked Sandstone (Glyptolepis beds-of 
Scotland) from the adjacent district, and in the attenuation of the 
Upper Old Red (Devonian beds), the Carboniferous Limestone, and 
Millstone Grit in the direction of the Malverns. And lastly, in the 
unconformable position of the Coal-measures, both on the north and 
south of the range, and of the Permian breccia to both the Coal- 
measures and overlying Trias, we have further evidence of repeated 
oscillations of level. 

Similar changes of level affected the Cambrian area of Charnwood 
Forest. The Upper Cambrian and the whole of the Silurian and Old 
Red Sandstone systems are entirely absent. It was dry land in early 
Carboniferous times, as pointed out by Professor Jukes. It was sub- 
siding, however, throughout the latter part of that epoch, and con- 
tinued to do so until the close of the era of the Lower Coal-measures. 
The Upper Coal-measures are not known to occur in the neighbour- 
hood with certainty, at least the evidence of their presence is not 
conclusive, and the Permian system not nearer than Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch, where some ‘ meagre traces’ are supposed to exist by Mr. 
Hull,* forming marginal outliers of the formation. Be this as it 
may, the area was certainly upraised, and was probably dry land in 
the early Triassic sea, as shown by the shallow-water conditions 
which: prevailed at the commencement of that period, and by the 
gradual subsidence of the area which followed, during which the 
Keuper marls closed over it. 

The author denied that profound metamorphism of rocks over 
large extents of surface was ever solely due to erupted masses, the 
effect of which upon contiguous rocks was extremely limited, but con- 
sidered it always the result of broad depression of the area to within 
the influence of the earth’s internal heat. The intrusion of associated 


* Geology of Leicestershire Coal-field, p. 57. 


British Associution Reports. 565 


igneous rocks he regarded as sometimes contemporaneous with the 
metamorphic action, having taken place into fissures and chasms in 
the crust while depressed and still in a heated state, as shown by the 
coarsely crystalline structure of many of these rocks at their line-of 
contact with those among which they have been injected, and in 
small granitic and other veins. In other cases, however, their pos- 
teriority in age was clearly shown by the opposite of these conditions. 


TV.—On a Heap or Hyzopus Dezazecurr. By E. C. H. Day, F.G.S. 


A HEAD of Hybodus Delabechei, Charlesworth, in the posses- 
sion of the author, has upon it in sité four of the cephalic 
spines first described, from a single specimen (and with the type of 
this species of Hybodus), by Charlesworth in 1839. Similar spines 
were subsequently described by Agassiz as teeth, and upon these 
supposed teeth that author founded a new genus of Hybodonts, which 
he named ‘ Sphenonchus.’ From the present specimen it is however 
clear, that these so-called teeth, or spines, are simply dermal scutes, 
such as are common in the Ray family, but not, as far as the author 
is aware, found upon any recent Shark. These scutes are placed, 
two on each side of the head, the anterior upon the post-orbital pro- 
cesses, the posterior upon the post-auditory processes, or hinder 
angles of the skull. The suggestion hazarded by Charlesworth, and 
provisionally supported by the author in a former paper, that these 
developments were analogous to the curious apparatus upon the 
head of the males of Chimeeroid fishes, therefore falls entirely to the 
ground, and we have indicated to us instead a slight but interesting 
character of resemblance to a distinct family of Plagiostomous fishes, 
the Ratide. But the composite character of this extinct family is 
shown in other points, as the author infers from the char structure 
and position of the dorsal spines, &c., that the Hybodonts were 
allied to the Chimeroids as well as to the Cestracionts and the Squa- 
Joids, and that therefore the fossil group, of which Hybodus and 
Acrodus may be taken as types, was intermediate in its zoological 
position, between the two existing orders of Plagiostomi and Holo- 
cephah. In conclusion, the author drew attention to the coincidence 
between the past occurrence of Hybodus in the Jurassic age, and the 
occurrence at present of its nearest allies, the genera Cestracion 
and Callorhynchus, in, and almost restricted to, those Australasian 
seas in which are preserved to us so many traces of Mesozoic life. 


V.—REMARKS ON THE DRIFT IN A PART OF WARWICKSHIRE, AND ON THE EVIDENCE 
OF GLACIAL ACTION WHICH IT AFFoRDS. By the Rey. P. B. Bropm, M.A., F.G.S. 

HE extent and character of the low level drift round Warwick 
and Leamington and along the valley of the Avon was first 
described, containing in places the usual Mammalian remains, but 
no flint implements had yet been detected. Of older date, belonging 
to the Glacial period, was an extensive deposit of drift occupying 
the high table land over an area of from six to twelve miles, NNW. 
and W. of Warwick. Rounded pebbles and boulders of various sizes 


566 British Association Reports. 


and diverse mineral composition are scattered in greater or less 
abundance over the whole of this tract, including granite (rarely) and 
old rocks. Here and there some large erratic blocks are met with, but 
generally the pebbles are of small size, consisting mostly of sandstone 
and quartz. Large and small flints but little abraded are nowhere 
absent from this drift, though more abundant at some spots than 
others, Fossiliferous rocks are very rare, but at one place pieces 
of hard Chalk (rounded and scratched with flints,) Greensand, Oolites, 
Lias, Magnesian and Mountain Limestones, and rounded boulders of 
older formations, were indiscriminately mingled together. Hence 
it was inferred that an iceberg had deposited a portion of its load 
there. The other erratics consist of the usual detritus supposed to 
have been derived by the same means, generally from the North, 
though much of it may have been transported from other directions. . 
The most novel and interesting fact was the discovery of Orthis 
rudex, Lingula Lesueuri, and a species of Modiolopsis, in the 
quartzose pebbles and sandstones figured and deseribed by Mr. 
Salter in the 20th vol. of the Geological Journal, and first found in 
the New Red Sandstone at Budleigh, Salterton, in Devonshire by 
Mr. Vicary. It was inferred that these numerous pebbles of a 
similar lithological character had the same origin as the Devonian 
ones, and that in all probability the Upper Red sands and marls 
capped the Keuper in Warwickshire ; and, the softer beds having been 
denuded, the heavier materials were scattered about as they are now 
found. ‘The few fossils hitherto detected in them by the author are, 
at all events, Lower Silurian species belonging to the ‘armorican’ 
sandstone and the quartzites of May Hill, Normandy. A list of 
some of the chief constituents of the drift was appended. Its pre- 
vailing contents are of a very mixed character, though the sand- 
stone and quartzose pebbles largely predominate, 


VI—On Two New Species oF Corats In THE Liss or WARWICKSHIRE. By the 
Rey. P. B. Bropim, M.A., F.G.S. 


Ae unusually large species of Montlivaltia, as yet undescribed, 

was referred to, from the Middle Lias at Shipston-on-Stour, 
where it is abundant, the largest specimens measuring five to six 
inches in length, and three in diameter across the calicular surface, 
varying in form and size, some being more elongated and others 
more cyathiform. Most of the specimens are unfortunately much 
weathered, the epitheca being rarely preserved, but better ones could 
be obtained by quarrying ; one example of the so-called Montlivaltia 
Haimeit was described, from the Lower Lias near Rugby. Though 
abundant in Nottinghamshire it is rare in Warwickshire, and is 
known also in Ireland, where it was first observed by Mr. Tate. 
It may perhaps be questioned whether this coral is correctly as- 
signed to the Belgian species. Of late years the number of British 
Liassic Corals has greatly increased, and when all are published and 
described, the list will certainly equal, if it does not exceed, that 
already known in the foreign Lias. 


British Association Reports. 567 


VII—On a Section or Lower Liss at Harsury, near Leamineron. By the 
; Rey. P. B. Bropiz, M.A., F.G.S. 

N° published account of this fine section having appeared, the 
. author gave a detailed description of it, and a list of the fossils, 
pointing out its relation to the same part of the Lias series in Glou- 
cestershire, Somersetshire, and Dorsetshire. This section was in- 
teresting as showing the Lima beds resting upon the White Lias, 
the intermediate Insect and Saurian beds being either entirely 
wanting, or else so reduced in bulk that they are most feebly re- 
presented, the whole passing downwards with the Rheetic series, also 
of limited thickness, including a sandy band with Estheria minuta. 


VIIL.—On Tue Fossmirerous Brps 1m tae New Rep Sanpstonr (Upper and 
Lower Keuper) In Warwicksuire. By the Rev. P. B, Bropin, M.A., F.G.S. 
HE prevailing fossils in these two divisions of the Trias were 
described, especially the remains of Cestraciont fishes more 
perfect than usual in the Upper Keuper ; a species of Paleoniscus 
(the last of its race) P. szperstes, and a new mailed fish undescribed, 
with plants profusely distributed in certain places, indicating a some- 
what varied flora, and especially well-defined footsteps of Rhyncho- 
saurus (noticed for the first time in the Upper Keuper), and Ladbyrin- 
thodon, chiefly confined in Warwickshire to the upper division. 
The Lower Keuper is remarkable for its more or less perfect remains 
of Labyrinthodonts, of which a fine collection, the best in England, 
is contained in the Warwick Museum. Hence it was shown that 
predaceous fishes and salamander-like reptiles were comparatively 
abundant during this period, and if this formation was as largely 
quarried as many others, a more extensive fauna and flora would 
probably be detected. A larger extension of the Keuper was pointed 
out in a portion of the area occupied by it, while it reached its 
minimum thickness in Warwickshire as shown by Mr. Hull. The 
best sections of the Upper and Lower Keupers were described in 
detail, and the denudations which the district under review had 
undergone were accurately determined. 


IX.—On a Drivr Derosir NEAR LirLESHALL, SHROPSHIRE, CONTAINING RECENT 
Marine Suexis. By C. J. Woopwarp, of the Midland Institute, Birmingham. 


(pais deposit was pointed out to the author by Mr. Masefield, of 
the Woodhouse Farm. It consists of a mound some thirty or 
forty feet high, the mound forming a field known as Fox Hill Field. 
It is situated about three miles from Oakengate Station on the Bir- 
mingham and Shrewsbury Railway, and is on the grounds of Mr. 
Duddlestone, New Lodge Farm. 

The shells occur only on the north side of the mound, and are as- 
sociated with fine gravel intermixed with thin bands of red clay. 

Associated with the shells are pebbles of various kinds. They are 
srincipally of quartz, but many are of sandstone, curiously pitted on 
their surface. There are also small granite pebbles, rounded frag- 


568 British Association Reports. 


ments of trap rock, Lias fossils much water-worn, and Chaik flints. 
The inclination of the strata of gravel in which the shells occur 
bears no relation to the slope of the hill; the gravels inclining at 
an angle of 70° or 80° to the north, while the mound on that side 
does not incline more than 30° or 40° in the same direction. 

The south side of the mound does not appear to contain any shells; 
and, so far as it has been examined, the pebbles are of a different 
character from those on the north side. 

From the mean of two barometrical observations the height of the 
mound is 463 feet above mean sea-level. 

The shells found were determined by Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, and 
are as follows :— 


UNIVALVES. BIVALVES. 
Anporrhais pes-pelicant. Astarte borealis. 
Buceinum undatum. Cardium echinatum. 
Dentalium abyssarum. Cardium edule. 
Fusus antiquus. Cyprina Islandica. 
Nassa reticulata, Lutraria elliptica. 
Natica clausa. Mactra solida. 
Purpura lapillus. Pecten opereularis. 
Scalaria communis. Pholas crispatus. 
Trophon Banffensis. Tellina (solidula) Balthica. 
Turritella communis. 


CrreirepEes—Balanus sulcatus.—Balanus Scoticus. 


X.—GENERAL View oF THE Patmozoic FLrorAs or NoRTH-EASTERN AMERICA. 
By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.B.S., F.G:S. 

rH\HE Carboniferous is the newest Paleozoic Flora known in 
North-eastern America. The CarBonirerous system com- 

rises— 

: 1. The ‘Upper Coal Formation, which consists of sandstones and 

shales without productive beds of coal ; its flora may be characterized 

as being a selection of some of the most widely diffused and probably 

most persistent species in the preceding ‘ Middle Coal Formation.’ 

2. ‘The ‘ Middle’ or ‘ Productive Coal Formation’ includes all the 
productive coal, and is the head-quarters of the Coal Flora. Dr. 
Dawson has catalogued in it 150 true species, 92 of which are 
common to Nova Scotia and Europe, and 59 to Nova Scotia and 
the United States ; the greater part of the remainder are closely 
related to the European Coal species, so that the vegetation and the 
physical conditions attending the deposition of the European and 
American Coal-strata may be regarded as identical. 

3. Sandstones and Shales, equivalent to the Millstone-grit of Eng- 
land, containing no productive coals and few plants. 

4. The Lower Carboniferous Marine Formation, equivalent to 
the English Mountain Limestone ; it has afforded no well-charac- 
terized land plants, and 

5. The ‘* Lower Coal-measures, or, ‘ Sub-Carboniferous,’ with 
no productive coal; its plants are very abundant but restricted to a 
few species, and these markedly distinct from those of the true Coal- 
formation. 


Correspondence. 569 


The next system, in descending order, is the DEVONIAN, which in - 
North-eastern America is unconformable to the Carboniferous, and 
contains a totally different series of plants. Dr. Dawson has observed 
and catalogued about 82 species from these rocks in New Brunswick, 
and only ten of them can be identified, but doubtfully, with Car- 
boniferous forms; perhaps the Lower Coal Formation may be 
regarded as in some degree a transition group distinguishable from 
the Devonian Flora below and the Carboniferous above. The 
whole Devonian Flora appears to be one; for though only two of 
the Upper Devonian species can with certainty be referred to the 
Lower Devonian, yet these are two of its characteristic species. 

The Lower Helderberg Formation is the only part of the UPPER 
SinuRiAN Groupe that has hitherto afforded land-plants, and at only 
one locality, Gaspé, and here there appears to be a gradual passage 
from the Upper Silurian Limestones into the Lower Devonian Sand- 
stones; these plant-remains are the markings of the rhizomes of 
Psilophyton, and leaf-like impressions doubtfully referred to the 
Lower Devonian Cordaites angustifolia. 

Dr. Dawson notices the fact that the earliest known traces of 
land-plants occur in rocks of a similar horizon, both in Britain and 
America; he regards many of the so-called fucoids of the Lower 
Silurian Rocks of Canada as merely worm-burrows, trails of crusta- 
ceans or molluscs, shrinkage cracks, or concretions, some few, how- 
ever, are undoubtedly alge ; he has been unable to discover in any 
of the Lower Silurian forms the structure of land-plants, not even 
in the Potsdam Sandstone, which containing littoral deposits would 
thus seem to indicate a paucity in the land-vegetation of the period. 
He also states that though he has not at present succeeded in recog- 
nising any determinate forms in the graphitic matter of the Lau- 
rentian rocks, which presents the appearance of comminuted remains 
of alge, yet he entertains the hope of doing so. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 
—— 
ON THE NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE COAL-FIELD. 
To the Editors of the GEoLocicaL MaGaZzIne. 


Srr,—In the paper which Mr. Molyneux read before the Geo- 
logical Section of the last meeting of the British Association in 
Birmingham, he referred to a bed of greyish shales, lying a few feet 
above the Gin Mine Coal and belonging to the upper part of the 
low or thick measures of the North Staffordshire Coal-field. These 
shales, he justly remarks, surpass the Bog Mine in the number and 
variety of their organic contents. As you were informed by him- 
self, Mr. Ward, of Longton, had previously found beds of true 
marine shells in these measures. But the shales referred by Mr. 
Molyneux, as being sunk through, last June and July, were first 
noticed by a young man in this town of the name of Amison, who 
obtained from them, not only the fossils named in the above paper, 
but several others. Among the rest was a very large Nautilus ; 


570 Correspondence. 


the broadest part of the outer whorl would be some three inches 
across. In the upper part of the fossil bed he found two species of 
Lingula. Lower down, two species, at least, of Chonetes ; some four 
species of Goniatites; one species of Inoceramus? one Pecten; 
Posidonia, one species; Productus, one species; Spirifer Urit; 
Nucula or Ctenodonta, two if not three species ; Aviculopecten, at 
least two species; Acinus carbonarius; Strophomena? Pleurotomaria, 
Orthoceras, and Anthracosia. In the same shales I found a solitary 
fish-tooth. Mr. Ward thinks it is a Cladodus tooth—but if so, the 
base of it is flatter and much broader than any teeth of this fish 
that I have seen. 

But what increases the interest and importance of these beds of 
marine shells, is the fact that a considerable number of the species 
obtained from them are identical with those I obtained a few years 
ago, from a bed of shale in the Farewell Rock series of the South 
Wales Coal-basin. ‘The bed in question crops out in the Llanelly 
valley, a mile or so beneath the town of Brynmawr, and appears to 
occupy a position midway between the lowest seam of coal, and the 
Carboniferous Limestone. Thus the fossils which in Wales are 
found considerably below the lowest bed of coal, are, in North 
Staffordshire, found high up in the lower thick measures. I am 
informed by gentlemen practically acquainted with the district, that 
the lowest seam of coal in this field is at least eight hundred yards 
below the bed containing the above fossils. Tho natural inference 
is—that either the species of shells which I have obtained from the 
two localities of Staffordshire and Wales, had an immense range in 
time—or else that the Coal-measures of North Staffordshire extend 
much lower in the series of Carboniferous rocks than do those of 
Wales. In either case the facts are both instructive and interesting. 

In closing this brief notice, I may just remark, that about forty 
yards beneath the beds referred to by Mr. Molyneux, Mr. Amison 
was fortunate enough to detect another bed containing marine shells, 
but in less numbers than the upper bed, both with regard to species 
and individuals. What is most important, is that all the species which 
we obtained from the lower bed are different from those obtained 
from the upper one, and appear to have been a great deal worn 
before deposited. Among those we found was a very small Nautilus, 
two species of Nucula? one Naticosa, and one that looks like a 
very broad and short Anthracosia, and a small Goniatites. 

Yours truly, S. Lucas. 

Loneron: Oct. 4, 1865. 


ANECDOTE OF STEPHENSON. 
To the Editor of the GrouogicAL MAGAZINE. 


Sir,—As I communicated the anecdote of the late Mr. George 
Stephenson sometime before I observed or paid any attention to the 
rocks of Charnwood Forest, would you allow me to make a correction 
by stating that, though it was formerly customary among miners to 
apply the term granite to all the igneous rocks of Leicestershire, the 


Correspondence. 571 


rock through which Mr. Stephenson penetrated was really greenstone, 
as noticed at page 499 of your last number. Mr. Hull, in the ‘ Me- 
moirs of the Geological Survey,’ gives a correct account of this 
achievement. My anecdote is original only as regards the words 
used by Mr. Stephenson on the occasion. Yours truly, 


Srr,—The anecdote in the concluding paragraph of your Novem- 
ber number is interesting, in spite of its geological inaccuracies, as 
it tends to throw light on a question that has often puzzled me. The 
facts are these :—A very slight examination would show that the 
Coal-measures of the Coleaton and Snibston Field pass to the east 
beneath a thick mass of New Red marl and sandstone, and that still 
further to the east the two must abut and end off against the western 
flank of the mass of slaty and igneous rocks of Charnwood Forest. 
Thus much we may safely assume that Stephenson knew when he 
began to sink through the New Red at Snibston in search of the 
Coal-measures. The sinking was carried down through the marls 
and the underlying sandstone till a bed of greenstone (not ‘ granite’) 
was struck. It would have been only natural to take this for the 
underground prolongation of the Charnwood Forest rocks, and con- 
sequently to conclude that the shaft was too far to the east, and that 
there was no hope of finding Coal-measures there. But, nothing 
daunted, Stephenson carried on his work, and after passing through 
sixty feet of greenstone reached, not ‘more productive Coal-mea- 
sures,’ but the first Coal-measures that had been met with in the shaft. 
Now I have often wondered whether Stephenson had any reason for 
hoping in the end to be successful, or whether it was only a plucky 
determination to go on, even in the dark, and see what would come 
of it. I think your anecdote shows that the latter was the case; but 
perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to tell us more on 
the subject. Yours obediently, 

: A. H. GREEN. 


28, Jermyn Streer: Nov. 7, 1865. 


ANCIENT BRONZE IMPLEMENTS. 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 


Dear Sir,—I hear that bronze implements have been discovered 
in the Kirkhead Cavern. Surely the exact analysis of the metal of 
which they consist would prove of interest. If samples of ancient 
bronze, brass, or other alloys are placed at my disposal, I shall be 
most glad of the opportunity of analysing such of them as are likely 
to yield good results. Fragments of from five to ten grains generally 
afford sufficient material for one quantitative analysis, but a larger 
quantity is preferable——I am, dear Sir, yours truly, 

A. H. Cuaurcu. 
R. A. Cortesn, CrrENcESTER : Oct. 29, 1865. 


512 Miscellaneous. 


ON THE DISCOVERY OF OPHIURA WETHERELLI AT HERNE BAY. 
To the Editor of the GroLtocicaL MAGAZINE. 


Dear Sir,—During a recent visit to Herne Bay I was fortunate 
enough to obtain some specimens of a pretty little Star-fish— Ophiura 
Wetherelli, of Forbes, from what I suppose to be the basement-bed 
of the London clay ; and as this species appears to have been only 
hitherto obtained from the upper beds of the London clay at Hamp- 
stead and Highgate, or in still higher beds at Barton, as mentioned 
by Professor Forbes (Pal. Soc. Mon., page 33), a notice of its oc- 
currence at a lower level in the Tertiary series may possibly be in- 
teresting to some of your readers. 

My specimens of Ophiura were imbedded in a block of hard fer- 
ruginous sandstone in association with numerous specimens of Car- 
dium Laytoni, which formed a layer several inches in thickness, and 
with which indeed they were so closely intermingled as to render 
their extraction, in anything but a fragmentary condition, a matter 
of extreme difficulty. 

The block of sandstone appeared to have fallen from a bed of sand, 
which would answer to group 2 in Mr. Prestwich’s ‘ Section near 
Herne Bay’ (Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. vi. p. 265), and the place 
on the shore must be about a mile and half east of Herne Bay, and 
about midway between the rise of the sand-beds from beneath the 
London clay and a break or ravine in the cliffs a little further to the 
eastward.— Yours truly, 

C. J. A. MrYEr. 


CrarHam Common: Oct. 17, 1865. 


MISCELEZANEOUS. 
—}¢-——_ 
Notes on THE Fossit MAmMats or AUSTRALIA. 


By Gerarp Krert, Esq., Curator of the Australian Museum, Sydney. 


(Extracted from the ‘Australasian,’ August 4, 1865.) 

I believe that the late Sir Thomas Mitchell was the first discoverer 
of fossil remains of mammals in Australia, and they were obtained 
in the caves of Wellington Valley, New South Wales. Some of 
these fossils were deposited in the Australian Museum, at Sydney, 
and others handed over by Sir Thomas to the Geological Society of 
London. 

Professor Owen, who examined them at the explorer’s request, 
states that they belong to the following genera :— 

1. Macropus atlas. O. Larger than the largest known existing 
species. 2. Macropus titan. O. As large as the preceding, but 
differing chiefly in the smaller size of the permanent spurious molar. 
8. Macropus, spec. Not determined by the learned professor, from 
want of skeletons of existing species of kangaroo. 4. Macropus, 
spec. Another undetermined kangaroo. 5. Hypsiprymnus, spec. 
Not determined. 6. Hypsiprymnus, spec. Not determined. 7 and 
8. Phalangista. ‘Two as yet undetermined species. Professor Owen 


Miscellaneous. 5%3 


remarks :—‘ A comparison of the fossils with the bones of existing 
species (which are much wanted in our osteological collections) is 
obviously necessary to establish the important fact of the specific 
difference, or otherwise, of the extinct Phalanger.’ 9. Phascolomys 
Mitchellii. O, This ‘wombat,’ according to Owen, comes nearer to the 
existing species than any of the preceding genera. 10. Diprotodon. 
Subsequently described as Diprotodon Australis. O. The largest of 
the extinct marsupials—an animal which in bulk must have exceeded 
a large elephant. I give the measurements of some of the bones in 
the Australian Museum :—Skull, 38ft.; Scapula, 2ft. 4 in. ; Humerus, 
Zit. Zin. ; Femur, 2ft. din.’ Toe-nail, 8in. 11. Dasyurus laniarius. 
-O. Larger than any of the existing species. 

These are all the animals enumerated by Professor Owen in 1838. 
Since then many new discoveries have been made, in other parts of 
the country, but more particularly by Mr. Isaacs on the Darling 
Downs, and Mr. Stutchbury at Wellington, and other localities. 

I believe that some of the breccia from the Wellington caves, 
lately examined by me, and in which I discovered the fossil remains 
of rodents and dogs, was collected by the late Mr. Stutchbury ; and 
though this eminent Geologist does not in any of his papers refer to 
these fossil remains, I have no doubt, judging from a few specimens 
displayed in the Museum collection, that he was cognizant of the 
existence of both dogs and rats in a fossil state in Australia. 

Many of the lumps of this breccia had never been examined be- 
fore; and besides teeth of dogs and rodents, they contained the 
remains of animals, in a fossil state, which at the present day exist 
only in Tasmania. 

I will now give a list of the specimens so discovered :— 

1. The second molar tooth of the right ramus, upper jaw, of a 
species of Thylacine. 

2. The third molar tooth of the left ramus, upper jaw, of a Thy- 
lacine. 

3. Four fragments of canine teeth, probably belonging to the same 

enus. 
f 4. Twelve molar and premolar teeth of a species of Sarcophilus 
(now confined to Tasmania), and a canine tooth of the same. 

5. Portion of the left ramus, upper jaw, of a species of Sarco- 
philus, showing the second premolar, and suture of the first molar. 

6. Portion of the left ramus, upper jaw, of a species of Sarcophilus 
much larger than the preceding one, with the first and second pre- 
molar and first molar tooth 27 sztu. 

7. A skull, nearly complete, of the same species, showing the 
perfect dentition (somewhat crushed). 

8. Portion of left ramus, lower jaw, with canine first, second and 
third premolar, and first of the molar series. 

9. Right ramus, lower jaw, of a Dasyure allied to Dasyurus 
maculatus, with three premolar and two first molar teeth. 

10. Portions of the right ramus, lower jaw, of a species of a 
Perameles, containing the first two premolar and first two molar 
teeth. 


574 Miscellaneous. 


11. The same bone of 2 species of Perameles, without teeth, but 
showing nearly all the sutures. 

A conglomerate mass of bones and red gravel, after being broken 
with a hammer, was found to contain the first two molars of the 
lower jaw of a dog ; it is possible that this dog was similar to the 
Dingo of the present day. The left canine of the lower jaw of a 
dog was also obtained, besides six or seven fractured lower jaws of 
rodents, and portions of molar teeth of Diprotodon ; but the most 
curious and interesting tooth I ever beheld came out of the same 
mass. In shape it resembles the first of the premolar series of the 
lower jaw in man; the root, however, is much longer, the crown 
smaller, protruding, and considerably worn. The root is not smooth, 
as in man, but somewhat ridged, with a few tubercles on the upper 
part. I have no conjecture to offer as to which genus this 
tooth is referable; but as I have given Professor Owen a full 
description of it, with drawings and photographs, I hope to be able 
to lay the reply of the great anatomist before your readers at some 
future period. These are all the mammals (besides Hypsiprymni and 
Halmaturi) obtained from the Wellington caves ; there are bones 
of birds as well, but the pieces are too fragmentary to permit me to 
offer an opinion upon them at present. I should also wish to give 
a short account of the fossil remains from the Darling Downs, 
which are deposited in this museum, but will do so at another time ; 
and only state now that in the famous genus Thylacoleo, as pre- 
dicted by Professor Owen, the lower canine terminated the dental 
series, showing a great resemblance between the great Australian 
carnivore (?) and the diminutive marsupial discovered by Mr. 
Beccles, in the Purbeck formation of England. 

I mention this fact because it appears to me that many of your 
readers may not be aware that at some remote period marsupial 
forms inhabited Europe, placentals were in existence, and that there 
is no occasion to account for the presence of placentals in Australia 
in any other way than that they already existed in the times of — 
the gigantic Diprotodons and Nototheriwms. 


CoaL IN BRAZIL AND THE FALKLAND IsLAnps.—Professor 
Agassiz, with his staff, has been engaged in a careful survey of the 
district watered by the Amazon, and his opinion has also been ob- 
tained concerning the Coal-fields of Candiota. For some time past 
attention has been directed to the famous Coal-beds of Candiota, 
in the province of Rio Grande do Sol. The expectations of many 
are turned in that direction, as the most valued instance of the 
hidden wealth of Brazil. Mr. Plant has so far awakened or revived 
an interest in these things, that from time to time the topic has 
become a public one, and has been looked at as a field for commer- 
cial activity, and has been debated each time with growing interest 
in the Legislature. Mr. Plant, submitted to the examination of the 
Professor such fossils and geological illustrations of the province of 
Rio Grande do Sul as he supposed would be of interest, and would 
help to complete the collections which are being made for the United 


Miscellaneous. 575 


States Government. These fossils appear to have startled and de- 
lighted him, and in acknowledging the presentation of the specimens 
he remarks, after alluding to his slight delay in returning his thanks— 
‘ However, this gives me an opportunity of expressing a more 
mature opinion concerning their geological age, which I am glad 
to have an opportunity of recording, especially since the examina- 
tion I have made of them has satisfied me of the correctness of 
some views concerning the fossils of the oldest geological formation, 
in which I had little confidence. That these organic remains all 
belong to the Carboniferous period is unquestionable, and it is the 
close affinity with the characteristic fossils of Europe which par- 
ticularly interests and, in a measure, surprises me. Had the whole 
collection been made in Pennsylvania, I would not more decidedly 
have recognized its Carboniferous characteristics, down to the rocks 
underlying and overlying the fossiliferous beds ; and the photographs 
you have shown me of the localities leave no doubt of the great 
extent and value of the Coal-beds proper of the River Candiota, 
whilst the coal itself may fairly be compared to the best in the 
market, judging from the specimens you have shown me, and those 
I owe to your kindness. As to the coal of the Falkland Islands, 
I can only compare it to the anthracite of Mansfield, in Massa- 
chusetts, and the adjoining deposits in Rhode Island; though it does 
not appear quite so pure as the best anthracite of the United 
States: but this is an impression derived from surface specimens 
gathered at random. —Anglo-Brazilian Times, Rio. 


‘WULFENITE’ (MoLyspaTE oF LEAD) IN Brirain.—We have 
just received and examined a mineral belonging to Mr. James Farie, 
Honorary Secretary of the Glasgow Geological Society ; which, 
judging from its general characters, appears to be ‘ Wulfenite,’ 
(Molybdate of Lead). 

The mineral is well crystallized (in drusy cavities of quartz— 
associated with green Calamine) in rectangular tables with the edges 
bevelled, of a honey-yellow, or rather citron-yellow colour, and 
adamantine lustre. Its hardness is between 2 and 3. It decrepi- 
tates strongly on the application of heat, and gives a yellowish-green 
bead with microcosmic salt in the reducing flame, much resembling 
the Molybdic acid bead. But the quantity that could be removed 
for testing, without injury to the specimen, was so exceedingly 
minute that the reaction was hardly so satisfactory as might be 
desired. 

If it be ‘ Wulfenite’—as to which there seems but little doubt— 
it will be of considerable interest to the Mineralogist, being, we 
believe, hitherto wholly unknown in Britain.—E.F. 

[A specimen of Wulfenite is described in Greg and Lettsom’s 
Mineralogy (1858, p. 411), on the authority of Mr. Thompson’s 
work, as having been seen by the last-named writer in the Museum 
of the Stockholm Academy, labelled ‘From the Mendips, near 
Churcbhill, in Somersetshire ; the crystals of Wulfenite on this 
specimen were associated with oxychloride of lead. We shall be 


576 Miscellaneous. 


glad to learn from Mr. Farie the exact locality of his specimen. 
Epir. | 


Criona, REcENT AnD Fosstu.—The Clionais a burrowing sponge, 
found in sea-shells in all parts of the world, and in fossil shells of 
the Chalk and Tertiary formations. The species of Cliona may be 
distinguished by the form of the spicula, and in the earlier stages of 
growth, by the patterns of their burrows. The pattern is well seen 
in thin translucent shells, like the window-oyster (Placuna). Casts 
of the burrows of Cliona are common in cavities of flints (formed 
by the dissolution of the shells of Belemnites and Inoceramus from 
the chalk. The Cliona is very destructive to oyster banks, mining 
the shells until they fall in pieces.—S.P.W. 


Toe Eee or Dinornis.—Mr. J. C. Stevens (the well-known 
Natural History Agent) has lately received from New Zealand an 
almost perfect egg of the great extinct wingless bird, the ‘ Moa’ or 
Dinornis. 'The egg is about ten inches in length, and seven inches 
in breadth, the shell being of a dirty brownish colour, and about 
1-12th of an inch in thickness. According to the Wellington papers, 
the egg was discovered in digging the foundation of a house at Kai- 
Koras, enclosed in a small mound, supposed to be a native burying- 
place, as a human skeleton, buried in a sitting posture, was found 
within the grave holding the egg in its hands. It would have been 
more satisfactory, we think, if the skeleton—especially the skull— 
had been brought to this country with the egg. This interesting 
oological relic was offered for public sale on November 24th, by Mr. 
J. C. Stevens. <A bond fide bid of £115 was actually made, but it 
was bought in at £125. We fear our countrymen in New Zealand 
have somewhat over-estimated its market value. 


PRESENTATION OF THE Royat Society’s Gotp Mepat.—At the 
Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society on the 30th November, 
the President presented the gold medal of the Society to Joseph 
Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. (Treasurer of the Geological Society 
of London), for his valuable researches in the Quaternary Deposits 
of France and England, the results of which have already appeared 
in the Philosophical Transactions, Part I. 1859, Part II. 1864.* It 
is in these ancient river-drifts and gravels that the earliest remains 
of Prehistoric Man have been found preserved. Mr. Prestwich’s 
labours in the exploration of these deposits have thrown much addi- 
tional light upon that most interesting question of our time—the 
Antiquity of the Human Race. 

OBITUARY. 


We regret to record the death of Mr. Lovell Reeve, on the 18th 
November, after thirteen months’ severe illness. Mr. Reeve was a 
Fellow of the Linnzan Society, and was well known, not only as a 
publisher, but also as an author of numerous and valuable contribu- 
tions to the Natural History of the Mollusca. 


* See Grorocican Macazine, January 1865, p. 19, 


INDEX. 


ACA 


CANTHOTEUTHIS, 444 
Actinocrinus, 245; A. brevicaliz, 

12 

Adams, A. L,, fossil elephant of Malta, 
334; history of the discovery of the 
fossil elephant of Malta, 488 

Adams, A. L., and G. Busk, on the 
Maltese Caverns, 520 

Address of D. Page to Edinburgh Geo- 
logical Society, 37, 420 

— of Prof. Phillips to British Asso- 
ciation, 456 

— of Sir R. I. Murchison to Section 
C. of British Association, 462 

Africa, changes in the geological map 
of South, 274 

Agassiz, L., Scientific Exploring Expe- 
dition, 335 

Airdrie, Tellina proxima bed at, 127 

Aitken, J., on glacial action at Cli- 
therde, 179 

Allis, T., on the Dinornis robustus, 38 

Allport, 8., on the distribution of the 
Upper Silurian fossils, 281 

Alps, Structure and denudation of the, 
49, 193 

Alum Bay leaf-bed, 515 

American Journal of Science, 206 

Ammonites, development of, 86 

Analysis of ferrite, 40 

Ancient Straits and Creeks, 302; Sea- 
cliffs, 304; Sea-beaches, 374 

Anecdote of G. Stephenson, 528, 570 

Anopolenus, 318 

Ansted’s D. T., Applications of Geology 
to the Arts and Manufactures, 266 

Anthracite in Mexico, 192 

Anthrakerpeton crassostewm, 6 

Anticlinal in the chalk near Norwich, 
324 

Antimonite, 238 


VOL. II.—NO. XVIII. 


) 


BIN 


Antimony-minerals from Borneo and 
Algiers, 238 

‘ Antiquity of Man,’ 348, 357, 459 

Antwerp Crag, 103, 149 

Arabia, Cretaceous Echinoderms, 177 

Aragonite, growth of coralloidal, 272 

Archeopteryx, cranium of the, 413 

Arctic fossils, 336 

Ardtun Head, Tertiary leaf-beds of, :74 

Arenicolites didyma, 391 

Armadillo, 400 

Armstrong, J., on Dithyrocaris, 219 

Arran, Drift-beds of, 126 

Austin’s, T., Millstone Grit, and its 
fossils, 552 

Austria, Liassic erinoidal limestone of 
Lower, 17 

Avicula-contorta beds, 228 


ADEN, geological notes on, 373 
Bagh, Cretaceous Echinoderms 

from, 177 

Bavaria, Laurentian rocks of, 97 

Baily, W. H., on Palechinus, 44, 217; 
on the Cambrian rocks, 385 

Bain, A. G., obituary notice of, 47 

Bath Natural History and Antiquarian 
Field-club, 84 

Beckett, H., On Cannel coal in North 
Wales, 33 

Belemnites clavatus, 189 

Belemnites, structure of, 67 

Belfast Field-Naturalists’ Club, 134 

Belgian bone-caves, 138, 227 

Beneden, P. J., on the Squalodons, 405 

Berkshire, geology of, 64 

Beyan, G. P., on the coal-basin of 
South Wales, 158 

et E. W., on the genus Polyporites, 


EP 


578 
BIR 


Birkenhead, E. H., on the coal-basin of 
New South Wales, 235 

Blackmore, H. P., on flint implements 
from Salisbury, 177 

Bloody stone, 380, 441, 526 

Bohemia, Laurentian rocks of, 97 

Bone-caves of Belgium, 138; of Liége, 
227 

Bonney, T. G., on modern volcanoes in 
Central France, 241 

Bouchard, N. R., obituary notice of, 
96 

Boulder-clay of Heaton Mersey, 2386, 
381; of East Yorkshire, 347 

— Drift of Queen’s County, 444 

Brackish waters and their deposits, 16 

ade: H. B., on the lowest forms of 
animal life, 223 

Bray Head, trap at, 217; sketch of, 
389 

Brick-earth of the Nar, 8; list of Post- 
tertiary fossils from, 11 

Brimham rocks, 154 

Bristol Coal-field, 133 

— Naturalists’ Society, 42, 132, 222, 
321 

British Association, 83, 456, 513, 558 

Brixham Cave, 349 

Brocklehurst, C., on the geology of 
Cloud Hill, 375 

Brodie, P. B., on Lias outliers, 71, 227 

Brosely ‘ burning well,’ 232 

Brown, D. J., on fossils in the Silurian 
shales of Dumfriesshire, 382 

— on the geology of Moffat, 320 

Browne, G. F., on Ice-caves, 85 

— Ice-caves of France and Switzer- 
land, 449 

Bryce, J., on crag in West Scotland, 
127; on the drift-beds of Arran, 126 

—on the Tellina proxima bed at 
Airdrie, 127 

Bryson, A., on surface-markings, 189 

— on the upheaval of the shores of 
the Forth, 277, 328 

Buckinghamshire, chalk of, 
geology of, 64, 210 

Burmeister, G., Annals of the Museum 
of Buenos Ayres, 451 

Burrington Coomb Cavern, 81 

Busk, G., and A. L. Adams, on the 
Maltese Caverns, 520 

— and the late H. Falconer, on the 
Genista Cave, 177 

Bust of W. Haidinger, 95 


215; 


ALIFORNIA, Trias of, 307 
Cambrian rocks and fossils, 385 
Cambro-Silurian strata, and fossils, 222 


Index. 


CLW 


Campbell, J., on different results of 
ice-action in Scotland and Switzer- 
land, 187 

— J. F., Frost and Fire, 415; Short 
American Tramp, 415 

Calaite, 237 

Calamite-fruits, 544 

Californian Geology and Gold, 207 

Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, 209 

Cannel Coal in North Wales, 33 

Canterbury, New Zealand, physical geo- 
graphy of, 269 

Capewell, L. P., on the Metal Tungsten, 
509 

Carboniferous Limestone outlier near 
Corwen, 283 

— Limestones of Carluke, 275 

— Rocks of Clifton, 83 

— Sandstone with surface marks, 136 

Carruthers, W., on a fossil cone, 433; 
on a tree-fern from the Upper 
Greensand, 484 

— and Young, on the Silurian Shales 
of Moffat, 431 

Carpenter, P. P., on the connection be- 
tween the crag and recent faunas, 
152 

— W. L. onthe Hozodn Canadense, 222 

Catkin Hills, Trap rocks of the, 131 

Caulopteris punctata, 484 

Caverns of Malta, 520 

Caves of Gibraltar, 213 

Cephalaspis, 517 

Cephalopoda, Cretaceous, of India, 271 

Cervantite, 238 

Corvus elaphus, jaw bone of, from Spit- 
head, 46 

— megaceros, indentations in bones of 
of, 28, 216 

Chalk, dip of the, in Norfolk, 370 

— formation of flints in, 182 

— of Thanet, 214; of Buckingham- 
shire 215; of the Isle of Wight, 215 

Characteristic fossils, 37 

Charnwood Forest, geology of, 498; 
Laurentian rocks of, 233 

Chesil Bank, 72 

Christy, H., obituary notice of, 286 

Church, A. H., on New Minerals, 236; 
on the colourmg matter of Blue 
Forest Marble, 48 

Cirripedia, new genus of, 319 

Clarke, W. B., on a new gold-field in 
New South Wales, 330 

Classification of the Cretaceous rocks, 
197 

Clifton, Carboniferous rocks of, 83 

Climate of the Trinidad Tertiaries, 259 

Cloud Hill, geology of, 375 

Clwyd Vale, geology of, 380, 476, 523 


Index. 


COA 


Coal basin of New South Wales, 235; of 
South Wales, 158 

Coalbrookdale, geology of 514 

Coal-field at Thirsk, 140 

Coal-fields of Bristol, 138; of Ireland, 
34; of South Staffordshire, 280, 501, 
508 

Coal-measures, former extension of the, 
135 

-— of Boulsworth, 180; of New South 
Wales, 70 

— Question, 550 

Coal-shale of Glamorganshire, 
Reptile from the, 6 

— Tar, products of its distillation, 184 

Cocchi, I., on the Pharyngodopilide, 411 

Codonaster, 250 

Codrington’s, T., Geology of the Berks 
and Hants Railways, 506 

Collyhurst, Hazel nuts in an alluvial 
deposit at, 79 

Congress of French Delegates, 192 

Connemara Marble, Kozodn Canadense 
in, 87 

— Rocks, 471 

Coprolites, Entomostraca in, 140 

Cork Cuvierian Society, 281 

Correspondence, 45, 87, 135, 189, 231, 
288, 826, 377, 428, 471, 520, 569 

Cossham, H., on the Bristol Coal-field, 
133; on the Geology of Kingswood 
Hill, 110 

Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club, 
228, 371 

Crag in West Scotland, 127 

— relation of the, to recent faunas, 152 

Crags of Suffolk and Antwerp, 103, 
149 

Cretaceous beds at Ely, 530 

— Cephalopoda of S. India, 272 

— rocks, classification of the, 197 

— rocks of France and England, 113 

Crinoidal limestone of Lower Austria, 


New 


17 

Crosskey, H. W., on the Ice-age in 
Scotland, 183 

Crustacea, chart of, 468; teeth of, 401 

Cumberland, Lower Silurian rocks of, 
176 

Cumengite, 238 

Cuyierian Society of Cork, 281 

Cyathocrinus, 246 

Cyeads and palms of the Carboniferous 
period, 288 

Cyprea, new species of, 536 


AGLISH, J., and G. B. Forster on 
the Magnesian limestone of Dur- 
ham, 29, 355 


579 
DUB 


Darbishire, R. D., on the Macclesfield 
drift fossils, 41, 293 

Darwinism, 308 

Davidson, T., 
medal to, 139 

Dayies, D. C., on an outlier of Car- 
boniferous limestone near Corwen, 
283; on the ‘Ash-bed’ and ‘Bala’ 
Limestones near Oswestry, 343; on 
the Vale of Clwyd, 476; guide to 
Llangollen, 271 

— W., jaw-bone of Cervus elaphus 
from Spithead, 46; on the preserva- 
tion of fossil mammals, 239 

Dawkins, W.B., on Mammalian remains 
from Yorkshire, 364: on the denti- 
tion of Rhinoceros megarhinus, 412 ; 
on the formation of the Burrington 
Coomb Cavern, 81; on the Newer 
Pliocene Mammalia of Somersetshire, 
43; on the Rheetic fossils, 482 

Dawson, J. W., On the Structure of 
Hozoon Canadense, 35 

— T. on the Belgian bone-cayes, 138 

Day, E. C. H., on Belemnites clavatus, 
189; on Atphoteuthis elongata, 189 ; 
on the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis, 518 

Dead sea, geology of, 254 

Denudation, 476; atmospheric and 
oceanic, 519; of the Alps, 193; of 
the Weald, 363 

Dentition of Macrauchenia patachonica, 
520; of Rhinoceros megarhinus, 412 

Delvauxite, 237 

Desor, E., Lake-habitations of the Lake 
of Neufchatel, 26 

Destruction of marine animals, 141 

Devonian rocks of Ireland, N. Devon, 
and Rhenish Prussia, 275 

Devonshire, changes in the relative 
level of the land and sea in, 348 

— Glaciation in, 473, 526 

Diluyial formations, table of, 360 

Dinornis robustus, 38 

Dinotherium, Pelvis of, 18 

Disappearance of an Island, 139 

Dithyrocaris, 219 ~ 

Donegal, crumpled granite in, 216 

Dougall, physical geography of Glasgow, 
17 


award of Wollaston 


Doyne, W. T., on the rivers and plains 
of Canterbury, 269 

Drew, F., on Romney Marsh, 210 

Drift-beds of Arran, 126; of Ireland, 
92; of Macclesfield, 365 ; of Saxling- 
ham, Norfolk, 511 

Drift of Whitlingham, 370 

— Divisions of the, 70 

Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science, 
34, 404 


PP 2 


580 


DUD 


Dudley and Midland Geological and 
Scientific Society, 33, 79, 280, 321, 
508 

Dudley Silurian rocks and fossils, 509 

Duff, J., on Carboniferous sandstone 
with surface-marks, 136 

Dufresnite, 237 

Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural 
History, &¢c., Society, 226, 373 

— Fossils in the Silurian shales of, 882 

Dunean, P. M., on Arabian and Indian 
Echinodermata, 177 

Durham, Magnesian limestone of, 29, 
300 


ae at Morecambe Bay, 
191 

Farth’s Crust, movements in the, 131 

Ebbw Valley, view of, 160 

Echinodermata from Arabia, and the 
Nerbudda, 177; from the Mountain- 
limestone, 245 

Edinburgh, Geological Society of, 37, 
76, 129, 181, 218, 275, 320, 420. 

Edwards, F, E., oh new Eocene species 
of Cyprea and Marginella, 536 

Figg Isle, geology of, 75 

Elephant of Malta, fossil, 334 

Elephas Melitensis, 490 

English Channel, date of, 362 

Entomostraca in Coprolites, 140 

Hozoon Canadense, 3, 34, 35, 223, 462, 


Equisetum in Gneiss, 239 

Erratic block, recent, 37 

Errors of Geology, 116 

Etheridge, R., on the Avicula-contorta 
beds at Garden Cliff, 228 

— and T. H. Huxley’s Catalogue of 
Fossils in the Museum of Practical 
Geology, 268 

Eurypterida, new genus, species of, 318 

vans, J., on the Archeopteryx, 413 

Excavation of River-valleys, 463 


ALCONER, H., memorial of, 191, 
obituary notice of, 142 

— on the fiuviatile deposits of the Nile 
and Ganges, 213 

Faults of the South Staffordshire Coal- 
field, 508 

Fee’s, A. L. A., Le Darwinisme, 308 

Feldspars, 445 

Felis antiqua, Teeth of, 43 

Ferrite, analysis of, 40 

Field- clubs and local geological societies, 
337 

Finland, rocks and minerals of, 534 

Firth of Forth, upheaval of the shores 
of the, 76, 181, 277 


Index. 


GAN 

Fisher, O., extraction of elephant 
tusks from the matrix, 45; on a 
sinking of the soil at Lexden in 
Essex, 101 

Flemingites, 438 

Flint-implement-bearing Beds, 
logical position of, 19 

Flint Implements in the Drift, 177 ; not 
authentic, 455 

Flints, formation of, 132 

Flint weapons, discovery of, at Marion- 
ville, 76 

Flos Ferri, growth of, 272 

Flower remains from Alum Bay, 516 

Folkestone, phosphate-bed at, 527 

Foot, F. J., on a recent erratie block, 
37; on glacial strie in Longford, 
524 

Foote’s, R. B., 
Madras, 503 

Foraminifera, 223 

Forest Marble, colouring matter of, 48 

Forster, G. B., and G. D. Daglish on 
the Magnesian limestone of Durham, 
29 

Fossil Cone; 483; elephant of Malta, 
488; fish from Malta, 145; mammals 
from Uruguay, 528; plants of Hun- 
gary, 445; shells in the sea-bed near 
the Channel Isles, 517; spider, 468 ; 
trees in sandstone beds, 420; wood 
in flint, 292 

Fossils, Catalogue of, 268 ; characteris- 
tic, 37; from the Arctic regions, 336 ; 
from the Genista Cave, 178; from 
the glacial beds of E. Yorkshire, 
3848; from the Macclesfield drift, 
298, 365; from the Pentland Hills, 
183; from the Trinidad Tertiaries, 
257; of the Cambrian rocks, 385; 
of the Cambro-Silurian strata, 222; 
of the Dudley Silurian rocks, 510; 
of the Rheetic beds, 482; of the Silu- 
rian shales of Dumfriesshire, 382 

Foster, C. Le N., and W. Topley on the 
Medway gravels, 363 

Fox, W., discovery of new fossil reptile, 
432 

Franconia, geological notes on, 273 

Freshwater shells in Permian rocks, 
204 

‘Frost and Fire,’ 415 

Fulgurite from sand-pit at Macclesfield, 
368 


Geo- 


stone implements of 


Ga. Fluviatile deposits of the, 

213 

Ganoid fishes of the Midlothian Coal- 
field, 320 


Index. 


GAU 


Gaudin, C. H., and M. Mogeridge, on 
the geology of Mentone, 205 

Geikie’s, A., Geology of the British Isles, 
125 

Genista cave, fossils from, 178 

Geological anecdote, 528, 570 

— changes in Scotland, History of the 
last, 71 

— excursions to Biddulph, 374; to 
Hunstanton, 511; to Llynelis, 427 ; 
to Rye Water, 368; to Shrewsbury, 
373; to Stroud, 371; to the Strath- 
blane district, 425. 

— map of the Rhenish provinces and 
Westphalia, 469 

-— notes and queries, 89. 

— Notes on Scotland, 253 

— Progress, 290, 337 

—Society of Dudley, 33, 79, 280, 321, 
608 ; of Edinburgh, 37, 76, 129, 181, 
218, 275, 320, 420; of Glasgow, 38, 
77, 130, 219, 277, 368, 425; of Ire- 
land, 36, 72, 129, 215, 274; of Liver- 
pool, 78, 123; of London, 34, 70, 126, 
176, 213, 272, 318, 362, 556; of Man- 
chester, 78, 179, 365; of Norwich, 
41, 131, 324, 369, 510, 557 

Geologists’ Association, 72 

Geology applied to the arts and manu- 
factures, 266 

— as a branch of general education, 78, 
209 

— as seen to-day, 1 

— errors of, 116 

— of Baden, 2738; of Berks, 64; of 
Bucks, 64, 210 ; of Charnwood Forest, 
498; of Cloud Hill, 375; of Coal- 
brookdale, 514; of Kige Island, 75; 
of Franconia, 273 ; of Herts, 64; of 
Hobart Town, 491; of Jerusalem, 
279; of Kingswood Hill, 111; of 
Madras, 171; of Matlock, 378; of 
Mentone, 205; of Middlesex, 64; of 
Moffat, 320; of New Brunswick, 273 ; 
of New Zealand, 270; of Northamp- 
tonshire, 210; of Oxfordshire, 210; 
of Surrey , 64 

— of the Berks and Hants Railways, 
505; of the British Isles, 125; ofthe 
Himalayas, 265, 310; of the Jordan 
and Dead Sea, 254; of the South 
Staffordshire coal-field, 501 

Germany, glacial drift of N., 218 

Gibraltar caves, 213 

— Genista cave at, 177 

Gilchrist, on ancient sea-beaches, 374 

Glacial action at Clitheroe, 199 

— clay at Cornton, 182 

— drift in N. Germany, 218 

— drift of the Shetlands, 341 


581 


HAR 


Glacial lake-basins, 312 

— strive, 473; in Longford, 524. 

— striation, 513 

Glaciation in Devon, 473, 526 

Glaciers, action of, 4 

— and rock-basins of New Zealand, 35 

Glamorganshire, new reptile from the 
coal shale of, 6 

Glasgow Geological Society, 38, 77, 130, 
183, 219, 277, 368, 425 

— physical geography of, 77 

Glyptodon clavipes, 547 

Gneiss containing Equisetum, 239 

Godwin-Austen, H., on the geology of 
Kashmere, 3638 

—R. A. C., on the classification of the 
Cretaceous rocks, 197 

Gold-fields, age of, 382 

-— of New Zealand, 129, 334, 479 

Granite of Ross of Mull, 73 

— rocks, crumpled, 216 

Graptolites of the Quebec group, 413 

Gravels of the Medway valley, 363 

Gray, J. E., onPalgocetusSedgwickhi, 57 

— J. biographical notice of the Rey. D. 
Ure, 169 

Great Britain, physical geology and 
geography of, 61 

Green, A. H., on Ice-scratches in Derby- 
shire, 440; on the geology of Oxford- 
shire, Bucks, and Northampton, 210 

Gressly, A., obituary notice of, 288 

Grindley, T., on tracks in the Manx 
slates, 542 

Grypheea beds of Loch Aline, 73 

Guide to Llangollen, 271 

Gimbel, C. W., on freshwater shells in 
Permian rocks, 204 

Gunn, J., on the dip of the chalk in 
Norfolk, 370 

Guppy, R. J. L., on the Tertiaries of 
Trinidad, 256 

Gyrolepis Rankinii, 185 


fee J., on a Sketch-map of Can- 

terbury, New Zealand, 36; on the 
excavation of Lake-basins in New 
Zealand, 36 ; on the Pleistocene epoch 
of New Zealand, 126 

Haidinger, W., bust of, 95 

Hailes Quarry, glacial action at, 38 

Hall, C. R., on the ancient configuration 

- of the N. coast of Wales, 78 

— J., Graptolites of the Quebee group, 
413 

Hanoverian Jura, 501 

Harkness, R., on the Connemara rocks, 
471; onthe Silurian rocks of Cum- 
berland and Westmorland, 176 


582 
HAR 
Harper, J. O., on the Trogontherium, 
Al 


Harris, T., fossil jaw-bone of Ruminant 
from Spithead, 46 

Harrison, T., on the geology of Hobart 
Town, 491 

Harrogate, geology of, 128 

Harte, W., on crumpled granite rocks 
in Donegal, 216 — 

Haswell, G. C., on the Silurian rocks of 
the Pentland Hills, 183, 553 

— J., on a glacial clay at Cornton, 182 

Haughton, §., on the geology of the 
western isles of Scotland, 73 

— Manual of Geology, 449 

Hazel-nuts in an alluvial deposit at 
Collyhurst, 79 

Hector, J., on the Geology of Otago, 
New Zealand, 35; onthe rock-basins 
of New Zealand, 377 

Herschel, J. F. W., on rhomboidal iron- 
stone, 273 

Hertfordshire, geology of, 64 

Himalayas, geology of, 265, 310 

Histioderma Hibernicum, 398 

Hobart Town, geology of, 491 

Holl, H. B., on the geology of the 
Malvern Hills, 317 

Holmstrém, L. P., Vestiges of the Ice- 
period, 645 

Housman, H., on Paleontology, 33 

Hoyle’s Mouth Cave, 471 

Hull, E., on the Lancashire Pebble-bed, 
429 

Hull, Literary and Philosophical Society, 
226 

Hunter, J. R. §., on the Carboniferous 
limestones of Carluke, 275 

Huxley, T. H., on the structure of 
Belemnites, 67 

— and R. Etheridge’s Catalogue of 
fossils, 268. 


CE-ACTION of Scotland and Swit- 
zerland, 187 

Ice-age in Scotland, 183; of Sweden, 
545 

Ice-caves, 85; of France and Switzer- 
land, 449 

Ice-seratches in Derbyshire, 440 

Ilford, exhumation of the cranium of 
the mammoth at, 93 

Indentations in bones of Cervus mega- 
ceros, 28, 216 

Inversion of strata, 206 

Jona, crystalline white limestone of, 
73 

Ireland, Drifts of, 92 

— explanations of geological survey 
maps of, 211 


Index. 


KNO 


Ireland, Royal Geological Society of, 36, 
129, 215, 274 
Tron pyrites, magnetic, in clay, 234 


ADE from Siberia, 95 
Jamieson, T. F., on the last geological 
changes in Scotland, 71 

Jeffreys, J. G., on fossil shells in the 
sea-bed near the Channel Isles, 517 

Jenkins, H. M., Strata Identified by 
Organie Remains, 554 

J erusalem, geology of, 279 

Jevons’s, W. S., The Coal Question, 550 

Johnson, H., on the South Staffordshire 
Coal- field, 280 

Jones, J., on Organization in Field-elup 
Work, 34 

— T. R., on Hozodn Canadense in the 
Connemara Marble, 88 ; on the Micro- 
zoa from the Nar Valley, 306 

Jordan, geology of, 254 

Jukes, ai B., on a comparison of the 
rocks of S. W. Ireland, N. Devon, and 
Rhenish Prussia, 275 ; on elaciation 
in Devon, 473; on Indentations in 
bones of Cervus megaceros, 28, 216; 
on the carboniferous limestone outlier 
near Corwen, 326; on the former 
extension of the Coal-measures, 135; 
on the South Staffordshire Coal-field, 
d01 


ASHMERE, Carboniferous rocks 
and fossils of, 563 

Keddie, W., on the unity and perma- 
nence of species, 188 

Keene, W., on the Coal-measures of 
New South Wales, 70 

Kelly, J., on the doctrine of Character- 
istic Fossils, 37 

— Errors of Geology, 116 

Kermesite, 238 

Kesteven, W. B., on the spongeous 
nature of flint fossils, 329 

Ketley, C., on the Silurian rocks and 
fossils of Dudley, 509 

Kettle R., on the working of the Ten- 
yard coal, 34 

Kinahan, G. H., on Glacial Stria, 
473; on preglacial (?) drift in Queen’s 
County, 442; on primary and se- 
condary strize, 525; on the Irish 
drifts, 92 

King, W., jun., and R. B. Foote’s 
Geology of Madras, 171 

Kingswood Hill, geology of, 111 

Kirkham, J. W., on the Boulder-clay of 
Heaton Mersey, 381 

Knowle, Lias outlier at, 71 


Index. 


LAB 


ABROID Fishes, new family of, 411 
Lake-basins, excavation of, in 

hard rocks, 36; formation of, 291 

Lake-district, surface-geology of the, 
299 

Lake-habitations of Neufchatel, 26 

Lakes, origin of, 5 

Laneashire Pebble-beds, 429 

Lankester, E. R., on the Cephalaspis and 
Pteraspis, 517; on the crags of 
Suffolk and Antwerp, 103, 149; on 
the sources of the Red Crag Mam- 
malia, 128 

Lartét, E., on Ovibos moschatus, 318 

Latacunga, Volcanic tufa of, 176 

Laurentian Rocks, 34, 147: organic 
remains in, 35 

— of Charnwood forest, 233; of 
Europe, 97; of the Malverns, 317 

Leaf-bed of Alum Bay, 615; of Ardtun 
Head, 74 

Leckenby, J., on the Boulder-clay of 
East Yorkshire, 347 

Lecoq, H., on mineral waters, 115, 164, 
301 

Lepidostrobus, 437 

Leonhard and Geinitz’s Neues Jahrbuch 
fir Mineralogie, Geologie, und Pala- 
ontologie, 60 

Lexden, sinking of ground at, 101, 231 

Lias of Lyme Regis, 519 ; of Pabba, 74 

— outliers in Shropshire, &c., 227; 
in South Warwickshire, 71 

Liassie crinoidal limestone of Lower 
Austria, 17 

Liége bone caves, 227 

Lindsay, L., on the gold-fields of New 
Zealand, 129 

Literary and Philosophical Society of 
Hull, 225; of Manchester, 41 

Liverpool Geological Society, 78, 123 

Luna, R. de, on deposits of phosphate 
of lime, 446 

Llandudno, pockets in Mountain-lime- 
stone at, 203 

Llangollen, guide to, 271 

Loess of England and France, 19; at 
Sangatte, 362 

Loew, on new Tertiary fossils, 266 

Logan, W. E., on the Laurentian rocks 
of Canada, 34 

London basin, section of the, 65 

—clay, new mammals from the, 339 

London Geological Society, 34, 70, 126, 
176, 213, 272, 318, 362, 556 

Lorenz, brackish waters and their de- 
posits, 16 

Ludwig,-R., on Calamite-fruits, 544 

Lyell’s, C., Elements of Geology, 167 

Lyme Regis, Lower Lias of, 518 


583 
“MED 


ACCLESFIELD, Glacial shells of, 
41; drift-beds of, 365; drift 
fossils of, 298 
Mackintosh, D., on atmospheric and 
oceanic denudation, 519; on Charn- 
wood Forest, 498; on the Brimham 
rocks, 154; on the geology of Mat- 
lock, 378; on the Surface—geology of 
the Lake-district, 299 
Macrauchenia patachonicha, 451, 520 
Madras, geology of, 171 
Magnesia in rocks, 278 
Magnesian limestone of Durham, 29, 
300 
Magnetic Iron Pyrites in clay, 234 
Maldive Islands, disappearance of one 
of the, 139 
Malta, Cycloid fish from, 145 
Maltese Caverns, 520; fossil elephant 
of the, 334, 488 
Malvern Hills, geology of, 317 
— Naituralists’ Field Club, 231, 325, 
426 
Mammalian Fossils from Uruguay, 
628; from Yorkshire, 364 
Mammalia of the Red Crag, sources of 
the, 128; of the Somersetshire 
Caverns, 48 
— Preservation of fossil, 239 
Mammoth drawn on ivory, from cavern 
at Périgord, 480 
— at Ilford, exhumation of the, cranium 
of the, 93 
Manchester Geological Society, 78, 179, 
365; Literary and Philosophical So- 
ciety, 41 
Mankind, Early History of, 174 
Manx slates, tracks in, 542 
Marginella, new species of, 536 
Marianville, discovery of flint weapons 
at, 76 
Marsden’s, T., Sacred Steps of Creation, 
417 
Martin, L., and F. Garrigou, on the 
relations of the mineral springs of 
S. France, to metamorphic rocks 
and lines of fissure, 58 
Massalongo, A. B., Photography applied 
to Paleontology, 19 
Matlock, geology of, 378 
Matthew, G. F., on the geology of South 
New Brunswick, 273 
Maw, G., glaciation in Devonshire, 526 ; 
on a white sand deposit at Tarlargoch 
Mine, 428; on deposits of chert, 
white sand and clay, near Llandudno, 
200 ; on the Permian strata of Clwyd 
Vale, 380, 523 
Medlecott, H. B., on Himalayan geo- 
logy, 310 


584 
MED 


Medway gravels, 363 

Mello, J. M., on the Bloody Stone, 526 

Mendip Caves, Teeth of Felis antiqua 
from the, 43 

Mentone, inversion of strata at, 206 

Meteorites, physical history of, 447 

Mexico, Anthracite in, 192 

Middlesex, geology of, 64 

Milford Hill, Flint Implements at, 177 

Millstone-grit fossils, 107 ; 552 

— of Kingswood Hill, 110 

Mineral springs, relations of, to meta- 
morphic rocks and lines of fissure, 58 

Mineral Waters, 115, 164, 351 

Mining notes, 94 

Miocene fish from Malta, 145 

Miolophus, 339 

Miscellaneous, 47, 98, 139, 191, 236, 
286, 330, 383, 432, 478, 528, 572, 576 

Mitchell, W. S., on leaf-forms from 
Alum Bay, 515 

Moffat, geology of, 320; 
shales of, 431 

Morant, A. W., formation of flints in 
chalk, 132 

Morecambe Bay, earthquake at, 191 

Mountain-limestone Echinodermata, 245 

— of Lancashire, new species of Actino- 
crinus from the, 12 

— of Yorkshire, 163 ; ‘pockets’ in, 203 

Mountains, origin of, 315 

Mount Sorrel syenite, 448 

Mull, Granite of Ross of, 73; Oolite of, 
74 

Murchison, R. I., Address to British 
Association, 462; on the Notes and 
Map of Dr. Haast, 35; on the Lau- 
rentian rocks, 97, 147; on the rock- 
basins of New Zealand, 377 

Museum of Buenos Ayres, 451 


Silurian 


AR, Brick-earth of the, 8; list of 

organic remains of the, 11; Mi- 
erozoa of the, 306 

Natural History and Antiquarian Field 
Club of Bath, 80 

Natural History Review, 412 

Natural History Society of Dumfries- 
shire and Galloway, 226, 373; of New- 
castle, 223; of Northumberland, 
Durham, and Neweastle-on-Tyne, 42 

Naturalist and Scientific Society of 
Wigan, 224 

Naturalists’ Club of Belfast, 135 

— Field Club of the Cotteswolds, 228, 
371; of Malvern, 231, 325; of N. 
Staffordshire, 374; of Oswestry and 
Welshpool, 82, 211, 378, 427, 511; 
of Richmond, 229, 325, 512; of 
Warwickshire, 227 


Index. 


OWE 


Naturalists’ Society of Bristol, 42, 132, 
222, 321; of Warrington, 376 

Nephrite from Siberia, 95 

Neufchatel, Lake-habitations of, 26 

New Brunswick, geology of, 273 

Newcastle Natural History Society, 223 

Newer Pliocene Mammalia of Somer- 
setshire, 43 

New South Wales coal-basin, 235 

— coal-measures of, 70: new gold-fields 
in, 333 

New Zealand, excavation of lake-basins 
in, 36 

— Geology of, 270; geology of Otago, 
35; glaciers and rock-basins of, 35 

— Glaciation during Pleistocene and 
recent times in, 36 

— Gold-fields of, 129, 333, 479; origin 
of rock-basins of, 377; Pleistocene 
epoch of, 126; rivers and plains of 
Canterbury, 269 

Nile, fiuviatile deposits of the, 213 

Northamptonshire, geology of, 210 

Northumberland, Durham, and New- 
castle on Tyne, Natural History 
Society of, 42 

Norfolk, dip of chalk in, 370 

Norwich Geological Society, 41, 131, 
324, 369, 510, 557 

— Pliocene and Post-pliocene deposits 
of, 79 

Nova Scotian Institute, 124 


BITUARY notices of A. G. Bain, 
47; N. R. Bouchard, 96; H. 

Christy, 286; Dr. H. Falconer, 
142; A. Gressly, 288; Sim J. 
Richardson, 335; Professor B. Silli- 
man, 95; and Dr. S. P. Wood- 
ward, 383 

O’ Hara, H., on the Irish coal-fields and 
peat-bogs, 34 

Oldhamia antiqua, 391, 394; O. radiata, 
3995 : 


Oolite of Mull, 74 

Origin of screes, 300; of cwms, 303; 
of mountains, 316 

— of species, 308 


Ormsby, geology of, Hige Island, 75 


Oswestry and Welshpool Naturalists’ 
Field Club, 82, 211, 343, 373, 427, 
oll 

Otago, Geology of, 35 

Outliers of Carboniferous Limestone 
near Corwen, 326; of Lias in South 
Warwickshire, 71 

Ovibos moschatus, 318 

Owen, R., on a fossil fish from Malta, 
145; on an air-breathing yertebrate 


Index. 


OXF 


from the coal-shale,6; on a new 
mammal from the London clay, 339 ; 
on Macrauchenia patachonica, 520 ; 
on Van Beneden’s ‘ Recherches sur 
les Squalodons,’ 405 

Oxford fossils, No. 1, 292 

Oxfordshire, geology of, 210 


ABBA, Lias of, 74 
Page, D., Address to Edinburgh Geo- 
logical Society, 37, 420; on geology 
as a branch of general education, 78, 
209; on the ‘ Wash out’ at Hailes 
Quarry, 38 

Palechinus, structure of, 44; P. ellipte- 
cus, 217 

Paleocetus Sedgwicki, 54, 57 

Paleontographical Society, 192 

Palzontology, 33 

Palestine, geology of, 254 

Paraffine-oil, manufacture of, 479 

Parker, on the bone-caves of Liége, 227 

Parker, W. K., and T. R. Jones’s Fora- 
minifera from the North Atlantic and 
Arctic Oceans, 548 

Peach, C. W., on glacial drift in the 
Shetland Isles, 341 

Peat-bogs of Ireland, 34 

Pechell, A. H., on magnetic iron-pyrites 
in clay, 234 

Penarth beds, 482 

Pengelly, W., on the Antiquity of Man, 
348 

Pentland Hills, Silurian rocks of the, 
503 

Pentremites, 248 

Permian strata of Clwyd Vale, 380, 5238; 
of Thuringia, 204 

Perforated rocks, 156 

Peters, Liassic crinoidal limestone of 
Lower Austria, 17 

Pharyngodopilide, 411 

Phillips, J., Address to British Associa- 
tion, 456; on glacial striation, 513 ; 
on Oxford fossils, No. 1, 292; on 
the geology of Harrogate, 128; on 
Aiphoteuthis elongata, 57 

Phosphate-bed at Folkestone, 527 

Phosphate of lime, deposits of, 446 

Photography applied to Paleontology, 
19 


Phyllodus, new species of, 412 

Pillar Rock, 305 

Plant, J., on a bed of hazel-nuts in an 
alluvial deposit at Collyhurst, 79; on 
spurious fossils, 179: on the Lauren- 
tian (?) rocks of Charnwood Forest, 
233 

Pleistocene epoch, climate of, 126 


585 


RIV 


Pliocene and post-pliocene deposits of 
Norwich, 79 
Pluyial action, 300 
Polacanthus, 432 
Polyporites, 404 
Porana, 516 
Porphyritie rocks of Charnwood Forest, 
500 
Post-tertiary fossils, from the valley of 
the Nar, 11 
Prairies, origin of, 208 
Prasine, 237 
Pre-Cambrian Island of St. David’s, 
430 
— Life-eras, 13 
Preglacial (?) drift in Queen’s County, 
443 


Prestwich, J., geological position and 
age of the flint-implement-bearing 
beds, 19; on the raised beach of 
Sangatte, 362 

Primary and secondary glacial striz, 
473, 525 

Progress of Geology, 337 

Prosser, W., on fossils in the Mull- 
stone-grit, 107 

Protolycosa anthracophila, 468 

Pteraspis, 617 

Purton, W., on the geology of Coalbrook- 
dale, 514 


UARTERLY Journal of Science, 121, 
554 


Re beach of Sangatte, 362 

Ramsay, A. C., on glacial lake- 
basins, 212 

— Physical Geology and Geography of- 
Great Britain, 61 

Randall, J., on the burning well at 
Borseley, 232 

Recent Erratic block, 37 

Red Crag Mammalia, sources of the, 
128 

Reid, J., on movements in the earth’s 
crust, 131 

Reynés, P., on the Cretaceous rocks of 
France and England, 113 

Rheetic beds, paleontology of the, 482 

Rhenish Provinces, geological map of, 
469 

Rhinoceros leptorhinus from Ilford, 334 

— megarhinus, 413 

Rhodocrinus, 247 

Rhomboidal ironstone, 273 

Richardson, J., Obituary notice of, 335 

Richmond and North Riding Natu- 
ralists’ Field Club, 229, 325, 512 

Rivers, action of, 303 

| River-valleys, excayation of, 463 


586 
ROB 


Roberts, G. E., geological notes, 163 ; 
geological notes and queries, 89; 
geological notes on Scotland, 252; 
on the rocks and minerals of Finland, 
534; Pre-Cambrian Life-eras, 13 

Rock-basins of New Zealand, 35, 377 

Rocks and fossils, sequence of, 45, 262 

Rocking Stones, 156 

Rofe, J., new species of Actinocrinus, 
12; on Echinodermata, 245 

Romer, F., on a fossil spider, 468 

Romney Marsh, 210 

Rose, C. B., on the brick-earth of the 
Nar, 8 

Rubidge, R. N., on the geological map 
of S. Africa, 274 

Ruminant, fossil jaw-bone of, from Spit- 
head, 46 

Ruskin, J., on the structure and denu- 
dation of the Alps, 49, 193 

Rutley, F., on the Lexden pit, 231 


T. DAVID’S, Pre-Cambrian Island 
of, 480 

Sainter, on the Macclesfield drift-beds, 
365 

Salter, J. W., on new fossils from the 
Lingula-flags, 318 ; on the Pre-Cam- 
brian Island of St. David’s, 430 

Sandberger, F., on the geology of Baden 
and Franconia, 273 

Sandstone with surface-markings, 189 

Sanford, W. A., on Kozoén Canadense 
in Connemara Marble, 87; on teeth 
of Felis antiqua from the Mendip 
Caves, 43 

Sangatte raised beach, 362 

Schistopleurum typus, 400 

Scientific Exploring Expedition, 335 

Scotland, crag in, 127; geological notes 
on, 203; geology of the western isles 
of, 73; last geological changes in, 71 

Sections at Bray Head, 390; at Coal- 
brookdale, 515; at Corwen, 288, 326, 
327; at Ely, 530, 532; at Great 
Orme’s Head, 200; at Hobart Town, 
492, 493; at Lexden, 101, 231; at 
Mentone, 206; at Newton, Queen’s 
County, 443, 444; at Oswestry, 108; 
at Stapleton, 111; and at Tottenhill 
Brickfield, 10 


— of Clwyd Vale, 380; of Grundy — 


Hill, near Manchester, 382; of Kun- 
jamullay, 173; of Mont Saléve, 52; 
of the Antwerp-Crag, 105; of the 
London Basin, 65; of the rocks of 
North Wales, 344 

Seebach, K. von, ‘Der Hannoversche 
Jura,’ 501 

Seeley, H., on the sequence of rocks and 


Index. 


SUE 

fossils, 45, 262; on bones of a fossil 
whale from near Ely, 54; on the Cre- 
taceous Beds at Ely, 530 

Senarmontite, 238 

Sequence of rocks and fossils, 45, 262 

Shetland Isles, glacial drift in the, 341 

Silica, its mode of formation in the 
earth’s crust, 220 

Silcious sand at Talargoch Mine, 428 

Silliman, B., obituary notice of, 95 

Silurian fossils, distribution of the 
Upper, 281 

— fossils of the Pentland Hills, 183 

— rocks and fossils of Dudley, 509 

—rocks of Cumberland and West- 
moreland, 176; of the Pentland Hills, 
0538 

— Shales of Moffat, 431 

Silver Peak, 478 

Sinking of ground at Lexden, 101, 286 

Sismonda, A.,on an Equisetum in gneiss, 
239 

Skipsey, R. W., on Lower Carboniferous 
fossils from the Upper Coal-measures, 
186 ; on the trap-rocks of the Catkin 
Hills, 131 

Skye, Syenite of, 73 

Smyth, T., on glacial drift in N. Ger- 
many, 218; on the upheaval of the 
shores of the Firth of Forth, 76; 
recent upheaval of Firth of Forth, 181 

Solaro, J. M. S., Discovery of the pelvis 
of Dinothertwm, 18 

Somerville, A., on ganoid Carboniferous 
fishes, 320 

— G., on the geology of Jerusalem, 279 

Sorby, H. C., on meteorites, 447; on 
the Mount Sorrel syenite, 448 

Southern Counties Association, 139 

Spider from the Coal-measures, 468 

Spongeous nature of flints, 329 

Spruce, R,, the Quitenian Andes, 176 

Squalodons, 405 

Staffordshire Coal-field, South, 280 ; 
North, 569 

— Naturalists’ Field Club, 374 

Stephenson, G., anecdote of, 528, 570 

Stercodus Melitensts, 145 

Stewart, N., on fossil trees in sandstones, 
420 

Stoddart, W. W., on the Cambro-Silu- 
rian strata, 222; on the Carbonifer- 
ous rocks at Clifton, 83 

Stoliezka, F., on Himalayan geology, 
265; on the Cretaceous Cephalopoda 
of S. India, 272 

Stone Implements in Madras, 503 _ 

Strata identified by Organic Remains, 
554 

Suess, E., on Acanthoteuthis, 444 


Index. 


SUF” 


Suffolk Crags, 103, 149 

Sulphate of baryta, 475 

Surface-marks on Carboniferous sand- 
stone, 136; on sandstone, 189 

Surrey, geology of, 64 

Sutherland, J., on silica, 220 

Sweeney, Millstone-grit at, 107 

Syenite of Mount Sorrel, structure of 
the, 448 

— of Skye, 73 

Syenitic knolls, 499 

Symonds’s, W. 8., Old Bones, 125 


ABLE of the diluvial formations, 
360; of the divisions of the Cre- 

taceous rocks, 114; of the relations of 
the crags of Suffolk and Antwerp, 151 

Talitrus saltator, 190 

Tasmanite, 237 

Taylor, J. E., on an anticlinal in the 
chalk at Whitlingham, 324; on the 
drift beds near Saxlingham, 511; on 
the drift of Whitlingham, 370; onthe 
Pliocene and post-Pliocene deposits 
of Norwich, 79 

Teeth of crustacea, 401 

Tellina proxima bed, 127 

Tertiary deposits of Victoria, 214 

— Fossils from Trinidad, 257; from 
Vienna, 266 

— leaf-beds of Ardtun Head, 74 

Thirsk, coal-field at, 140 

Thanet, chalk of, 214 

Tomlinson, C., on the Chesil Bank, 72 

Topley, W., and C. Le N. Foster on the 
Medway gravels, 363 

Torrell, O., on the Ice-period, 545 

Tottenhill Brick-field, section at, 10 

Totternhoe stone, 215 

Tracks in the Manx slates, 542 

Transactions of the Glasgow Geological 
Society, 507 

Trap rocks of Bray Head, 217; of the 
Catkin Hills, 131 

Trayertin, analysis of, 354 

Tree-fern from the Upper Greensand, 484 

Trees, erect stems of, in trappean ash, 
A474 

Triassic age of the Lancashire Pebble- 
bed, 429 

— Reptiles, 140; rocks of California, 
307 

Trichecodon Husleyt, 128 

Trinidad Tertiary deposits, 256 

Tristram, H. B., on the valley of the 
Jordan, &¢., 254 

Trogontherium, 41 


Tschermak, on the group of feldspars, — 


445 
Tungsten, 509 


587 


WOL 


Turrilepas Wrightii, 319, 470 

Twamley, C., on the faults of the South 
Staffordshire Coal-field, 508 

Tylor’s, E. B., Early History of Man- 
kind, 174 


CONFORMABILITY, 476 
Unger, on the Fossil plants of 
Hungary, 445 
Upheaval of the shores of the Firth of 
Forth, 76, 181, 277, 328 


ICTORIA, Tertiary deposits of, 214 
Vogt’s, C., Lectures on Man, 357 
Voleanie eruptions in Central France, 
241 
— tufa of Latacunga, 176 


ALES, ancient configuration of 
the N. coast of, 78 

Wales, South, coal basin of, 158 

Wallace, W., on the growth of flos 
ferri, 272 

Ward, J., on Lower Carboniferous fossils, 
234 

Warren, C., on the Gibraltar caves, 
213 

Warrington Field-Naturalists’ Society, 
376 

Warwickshire, Lias outliers in, 71 

-— Naturalists’ Field Club, 227 

Water-supply of the Permian rocks, 
300 


Weald, denudation of the, 363 

Westmoreland, Lower Silurian rocks of, 
176 

Westropp, W. H.S., on a trap-rock at 
Bray Head, 217 

Whale, fossil neck-bones of, 54 

Whitaker's, W., Geology of parts of 
Middlesex, Herts, Bucks, Berks, and 
Surrey, 64 

— on the Chalk of Thanet, 214; of the 
I. of Wight, 215; of Buckingham- 
shire, 215 

Whitley, N., the ‘flint implements’ 
from drift, not authentic, 455 

Whitney, on the Trias of California, 307 

Whittaker, J., on an outcrop of the 
Lower Coal-measures at Boulsworth, 
180 

Wigan Field Naturalist and Scientific 
Society, 224 

Winchell, A., on the prairies of the 
Mississippi, 208 

Winkler, T. C., Catalogue of the Collee- 
tion of the Teyler Museum, 555 

Winwood, H. H., on ‘ Hoyle’s Mouth’ 
Cave near Tenby, 471 

Wollaston Medal, award of, 139 


588 


woo 


Wood, fossil, from the chalk, 292 

Wood, E., address to Richmond Na- 
turalists’ Field Club, 229 

— 8. V. jun., on the drift of the E. of 
England, 70 

Woodocrinus expansus, 163 

Woods, J. E. T., on the Tertiary de- 
posits of Victoria, 214 

Woodward, H., on a chart of Crustacea, 
468; on a new genus of Cirripedia, 
318; on a new genus and new species 
of Hurypterida, 319; on crustacean 
teeth, 401; on the extraction of 
the Mammoth from the Brick-earth 
at Ilford, 93 

— 8. P., Post-tertiary fossils from 
the Nar Valley, 11 

— obituary notice of, 383 

Wootton Wawen, Lias outlier at, 71 

Wight, Chalk of the Isle of, 215 

Wright, T., on the development of 
Ammonites, 86 


Index. 


ZHU 


Wiinsch, E. A., on erect stems of trees 


in trappean ash, 474 


IPHOTEUTHIS, 67; X. elongata, 
57, 189 


ORKSHIRE, glacial beds of East, 
348 ; new coal-field in, 140 
Young, J., on Devonian and Carbonifer- 
ous sandstones, 89; on a new mineral - 
‘Ferrite, 40; on the products of the 
distillation of coal-tar, 184 
— J. W., analysis of ‘ Ferrite,’ 40; on 
. adeposit containing sulphate of baryta, 
475; on the presence of magnesia in- 
rocks, 278 
— and W. Carruthers, on the Silurian 
Shales of Moffat, 431 


7 BUGLODONTS, 405 


END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. 


ERRATA ET CoRRIGENDA. 


215. line 22 for of read and. 


Soot prs 


. 184, line 14 from bottom, for John Young read James W. Young. 
188. line 12 from bottom, for Winch read Wunsch. 


219. bottom line, for ¢wberculosus read nodiferus. 
372. line 17 for Coptford read Copford. 

380. woodeut, for Pentre Glyn read Pentre Celyn. 
381. line 32 for Abbersley read Abberley. 

394. line 16 from bottom, for 5 a read 4 6. 

397. line 3 from bottom, for 4 6 read 3 6. 

474. line 16, for to Clare read Co. Clare. 


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INDEX. 


Assorr on Sigtt and Touch ........ 
Acron’s Modern Cookery 
AIKIN’s Select British Poets .... 

Memoirs and Remains......... arate 
ALcocR’s Residence in Japan...........2. 
ALLIEs on Formation of aseee S00000 


Alpine Guide (The) .. pdasHOn bc oO CHOOCE 
Journal (The) .. meleleiiafelatetetetetetstcletciclels se 
ApJoHN’s Manual of the Metalloids.. 50 
ARaGo’s Biographies of Scientific Men . 5500 
Popular Astronomy ......... miclalets 
‘Meteorological Essays’........ Goac 
ARNOLD’s Manual of English Literature.... 
ARNOTT’S Rlements of Physics .......0.e 
Arundines Cami .........00.. cocosond: aiete 
Atherstone Priory .......... dodoan6 casacoo 
ATKINSON’S Papinian ...........6. noedaca 


Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson .... 
AYRE’s Treasury of Bible Knowledge...... 


BABBAGE'S Life of a Philosopher .......00 

Bacon’s Essays, by WHATELY ...0..eceece 
——-— Lifeand Letters, by SPEDDING.... 
—~—— Works, by ELLIs, SpEDDING, and 


ET ey AC Eee lecietay-ieic eleiovereieizis\sieisicie’sieisisieiere c 
Bain on the Emotions and Will........... c 
on the Senses and Intellect ......... 

on the Study of Character ........ aes 


BaineEs’s Explorations in S.W. Africa .... 
Ba.u’s Guide to the Central Alps.......... 
Guide to the Western Alps ........ 
Baywpown’s Rents and Tiliages....... ocooe 
BuAck’s Treatise on Brewing...... 
BLACKLEY and FRIEDLANDER’s German 
and English Dictionary .........cccecoess 


eeocccece 


BuLAINeE’s Rural Sports..............06 pone 
Brieut’s Week at the Land’s End ........ 
Bonney’s Alps of Dauphiné ........... 500 


Bourne's Catechism of the Steam Engine.. 
Handbook of Steam Engine .... 
—— Treatise on the Steam en sae 
BowDLeEr’s Family SHAKSPEARE.........- 
Boyp’s Manual for Naval Cadets ......... 

BRAMLEY-MooRe’s Six Sisters of the Valleys 

Branvk’s Dictionary of Science, Literature, 


zen! BVP Saeco godud Be CODE OUOOOO ODODE 020 
Bray’s (C.) Education of the Feelings: Srevetatere 
—— Philosophy of Necessity......«. 
— — (Mrs.) British impire ........... 
SREWER’S Atlas of History and Geography 
Brixton on Focd and Digestion .......... 
Bristow’s Glossary of Mineralogy ........ 
Bropie’s (Sir C. B.) Psychological Inquiries 

—_ Works..... Doudgoeu Soc 
a Autebiography..... coe 


BROWNE’S Ice Caves of France and Switzer- 
land ..+..... 


@eeerssesecsnsesvesesesoreree 


— 
Dm O83 OO at 


= 
oo 


Oo mm 09 


BROwWNE?’s Exposition 39 Articles.......... 
—— Pentateuch ...... welelataleiereiateleteteta 
Buckuz’s History of Civilization .......... 
BuLu’s Hints to Mothers...... soos sacaocdc 
- Maternal Manageiment of Children. . 
BuNSEN’s Analecta Ante-Nicena.......... 
— Ancient Egypt............. 
—-——— Hippolytus and his Age ........ 
———— Philosophy of Universal History 
BUNSEN On Apocrypha............ peaccone 
BuNYAN’s Pilgrim’s Progress, illustrated by 

BBE NINE DD sc sorajansayaie cis opie eters sieearsiores andade 
BurRKE’s Vicissitudes of Families . 
Burton’s Christian Church 


wecereserscese 


BuTLER’s Atlas of Ancient Geography .... 
——-——— Modern Geography.........0..0- 
C@abinetplawienierccisitiere <iercieaiciles ceitersieiias 
CALVERT’S Wife’s Manual ...........e.00 
Campaigner at Home............00...0eeee 
Cats and FARL1Ig’s Moral Emblems ..... 300 
Chorale Book for England . 2000 
CoLrnso (Bishop) on Pentateuch and Book 
of Joshua......... coo doouTODaSG CORO OODNNS 
CoLUMBuUs’s Voyages...... adondco0de Kdoddc 
Commonplace Philosopher in Town and 
(GUN NIA? Gesooccabuduas coodso oS deddoOboeD 


ConInGtTon’s Handbook of. Chemical Ana: 

lysis ..... 2 ah same trateisei ne cieialeretere ols ererstoreintee 
CoNnTANSEAU’S Pocket French and English 

Dictionary cea Sacdseece 
Practical ditto ............ 
CoNYBEARE and Howson’s Life and Epistles 

of St. Paul ........ nocouaadone bocdacoo0ns 
COORTS VOVACES So oe were a ieisiererae) siefelnieielayaisisie 
CopxaAnp’s Dictionary of Practical Medicine 
Abridgment of ditto ..............06 
Cox’s Tales of the Great Persian War..... 
Tales from Greek Mythology........ 
Tales of the Gods and Heroes..... 06 
—— Tales of Thebes and Argos .......... 
Cresy’s Encyclopxdia of Civil Engineering 
Critical Essays of a Country Parson........ 
CROWE’s History of France............... 


— 


D’AUBIGNE’s History of the Reformation in 


the time of CALVIN ....... tte teeeceeeeees 29 é 
Dead Shot (The), by MARKSMAN ...... ooo 
DE LA Rive’s Treatise on Electricity .-,. 


DELMARD’s Village Life in ee 
DE La PryMp’s Life of Christ . 
De TocaQureVILLE’s Democrs«, . 
Diaries of a Lady of Quality.. 
Donson on the Ox ......... A ae 
Doye’s Law of Storms . 

DoyLe’s Chronicle of En 


in aieeies 


Awe 


12 
12 

2 
19 
19 
13 

2 
13 
13 
13 


10 
10 


16 
iL 


— 
Om So bo es Or 


bed 


hos 


a 


22 


Edinburgh Review (The) ............:0+0 : 


oe yess PUBLISHED BY ORI Geass) 2 AND sus 


20 
Ellice, a Tale..... erotinaiteve eiotalove eialetavats Lene eLO 
1p LLICOTT” s Broad and Narrow Way........ 13 
== Commentary on Ephesians .. 13 
—_—_— Destiny of the Creature...... no) UB} 
— Lectures on Life of Christ ..... 13 
———_—— Commentary on Galatians .... 13 
SS —— Pastoral Epist. 13 
——__—_—__._—___—__— Philippians,&c. 13 
—_—__—_______-—__—_—— Thessalonians 13 
Essays and Reviews ....... ooonaccce -413 
on Religion and Literature, edited by 
AVAVAGNINGLNIG Histsnelainiolefelatesciatersiel-teletetsiars spodsoa. Ue 
—-— written in the Intervals of Business 6 
FAIRBAIRN’s Application of Cast and 
Wrought Iron to Building.....-.....000++» 1 
— —— Information for Engineers... 11 
— Mills & Millwork 11 
FFoOULKES’s Christendom’s Divisions...... 13 
First Friendship .........ssc+ee0c Rpmsiiiie LkO 
Firz Roy’s Weather Book .......... wetataesaiie wind! 
FowLrEr’s Collieries and Colliers .......... 12 
Fraser’s Magazine .........e+eseeeees aposa, “Ay 
FRESHFIELD’s Alpine Byways ...-...+..-. 15 
—- —— Tour in the Grisons ........ 15 
Friends in Council ....... RaSeeeoeer crathonpaisepeb: 
FrovupgE’s History of England,......... Soret 
GARRATT’S Marvels and aister iesofInstinct 8 
Gere’s Sunday to Sunday...... syesayaks vesfoterajensie. ole 
Geological Magazine...... cenbeosssosgesan Bh AY 
GILBERTand CuurRcH ILL’s Dolomite Monn- 
GANS oSb50000a0b00008¢- snob bascaauso{oe Ue 
GIuLy’s Shipwrecks of the Newsy Pi Kuisisecatensrs 16 
GoEeTHt’s Second Faust, by Anster........ 17 
GoopEve’s Elements of ‘Mechanism. HSessca ONS 
GorLez’s Questions on BROWNE’S Exposition 
of the 39 Articles .......2se.seceeceeee ae 
Graver Thoughts ef a Country Parsen...... 6 
Gray’s Anatomy............00..00> pasoces) HY) 
Greene’s Corals and Sea Jellies .......... 8 
————— Spongesand Animalculae...... 8 
Grove on Correlation of Physical Forces... 8 
Gwitt’s Encyclopedia of Architecture .... 11 
Handbook of Angling, by EPHEM@®RA...... 18 
HARE on Election of Representatives ...... 5 
Hartwio’s Sea and its Living Wonders.. 8 
— Tropical World ........-.2.. 8 
HAWKER’S Instructions to Young Sports- 
HITNG Teese iar-leielaieysborsnsle’ clove lcicpommerebetoke Se Nouns) 7h 
FIEATON’s Notes on Rifle Shooting ........ 17 
HELPS’S sisal Conquest in America .... 2 
HERSCHEL’s Essays from the Edinburgh and 
Quarterly ReviewS .........cseeeccececce 9 
——_— Outlines of Astronomy... saoca iz 
Hewitt on the Diseases of Women........ 9 
“miHineuirr’s South American @ketches.. 15 
a>d A‘ on Etiquette So BONO Sennouoads dodbono ua) 
s Time and Space.............. 7 
see Chapters on Mental Physiolozy 6 
a ; S S 
2 tesays on Scientific Subjects... 9 
_=1, O4ical Nofes and Reflections 10 
floLMES’s Systan Of Surgery.......0ces0s 10 
Hooker and W ALEER-ARNOTT’S British 
Flovas.cccccesecstteteeteece aintetafelotereteleyere 9 
Hornn’s Introduction to the Scriptures.. 13 


Horrors Compendium of the Scriptures .. 
Hosxkywns’s Talpa eueiselae tee Sodas 
How we Spent the Summer..............+5 
Howrrt’s Australian Discovery ........-. 
——- History of the Supernatural .... 
——— Rural Life of England ..... Bod 
Visits to Remarkable Places .... 
Howson’s Hulsean Lectures on St. Paul..., 
HuGuHESs’s (E.) Atlas of Physical, Political, 
and Commercial Geography. ..........:- 
————— (W.) Geography of British His- 
Lt) LORE ORenIO GAO bOUS coho cass 5 ee 

’ Manual of Geography...... 
HvuLian’s History of Modern Music ... 
Transition Musical Lectures ...... 
Humpnreys’ Sentiments ef Shakspeare.... 
Hunting Grounds of the Old World ........ 
Hymns from Lyra Germanicd.....0....+ Ae 


INGELOW’s Poems .. 
Instructor (The) 


JAMESON’s Legends of the Saints and Mar- 
TYTS's o.5. oa /ore rw oseicrelomatetetai-eee ree poet oss os 25 
—- Legends of the Madonna Batol 
-—— Legends of the Monastic Orders 
JAMESON and EaSTLAKE’s History of Our 
ISO S55 58 55 506 soso 245 
Jouns’s Home Walks and Holiday Rambles 
JOHNSON’s Patentee’s Manual .........0.. 
Practical Draughtsman .... ... 
JouNSTON’s Gazetteer, or Geographical Dic- 
TIOMATY’<1<,.:cieoraetan icy ciensloraistotouie lela 


JoneEs’s Christianity aaa Gouna Sense . 


eee ceresccvesre 


Kaxtsen’s Commentary on the Old Testa- 

WNGVMGGHOOdDOoSS oor Cano lSOC + Sarodtn as 
-—— Hebrew Grammar 
Kennepy’s Hymnologia Christiana 
KESTEVEN’S Domestic Medicine .......... 
Kirey and SPence’s Entomology ....... 
KnieGuten’s Story of Elihu Jan 
KtBier’s Notes to Lyra Germanica....... 
KUENEN On Pentateuch and Joshua........ 


Lady’s Tour round Monte Rosa..........-. 
LANDON’s (L. E. L.) Poetical Works.... 
Late Laurels ......- sa dls bof elie iefolelod=t-ye teat 
LATHAM’s English Dictionary Keeigeie ie 
LecxKy’s History of Rationalism ..... 
Leisure Hours in Town .........s0scceeeees 
LrwEs’s Biographical History of Philosophy 
Lewis on the Astronomy of the Ancients .. 
——— on the Credibility of Karly Koman 
History ratetelslepstes 
———— Dialogue on Government.......... 


eneee 


———— on Egyptological Method..........» 
—_——— Essays on Administrations........ 
——-—— Fables of BABRIUS.......000.00002 
——-—— on Foreign Jurisdiction .......... 
———— on Irish Disturbances ..........+.- 


——— on Observation and Reasoning in ~ 


Politics... : peceseeseicoot es 
——-on Political Perms «. sieiteeihe 
— onthe Romance Languages ...... 
LIDDELLandScorvr’s Greek-English Lexicon 
— Abridged ditto ...... 
LimpiLeEy and Moore’s Treasury of Botany. 


aeevee 


PP POP Pe 


Sane pe 


Lowneman’s Lectures on the History of Eng- 
UIE eS ole orate -  Siatcleras Nepeic\cacsiscocts anaed § 


Lovupon’s Encyclopedia of ‘Agriculture ajar DA 
—-— Cottage, Faim, 

and Villa Architecture .......csessse00e ek 

= —— Gardening .... 12 

——- Plants: oe. ccs 4) 


——-—— TreesandShrubs 9 


Lownpes’s Engineer’s Handbook ........ Il 
Lyra Domestica ........ pts eeeeeee sie ee wine . 4 
eo BUCHAMISICH... wcjssjaas Biclahetaletegate: sloveyerster=re 14 
GERM AMI CD si wei. 55 sjeieis/are Se ius ll, 14 
Gea PNMESRIRTILED i c/cin  vsaisvaieloss eh «lenereys tomine shige is pL 
Ree EMSC saya. <ot0 bib elaforet a a iniime\ehp sore sierewiee 1A 
pee MACHA ifaxs ofcia pic }s'cva.c,siay ciel ass ota(ois 14 
MACAULAY’s (Lord) Essays....... sferaiviskenne 4 h2 
——History of England . aoeca el 
——- La\sof Ancient Rome.. poce dooC 17 
—— Miscellaneous Writings . c 6 
Sr ———— EE CIICS 0 o.nj0-araiersyaiauare 6.0101040.0 06 5 
Speeches on Parliamentary 
AS) 705d) eee nurecorno ee N specesos 5 
MACDOUGALL’s Theory of War.........002 12 
MARSHMAN’S Life of Havelock............ 3 
McLeop’s Middle-Class Atlas of General 
(COTTER TS 2 iy re a a meeenen ois) 
= Physical ‘Atlas of Great Britain 
eA CRM ON AR Yh Saks apse falco ak 0,515'> nvioca-s-econece 19 
NcCuLtocn’s Dictionary of Commerce... 18 
—— Geographical Dictionary .. 7 
Macrir’s Vancouver Island ...........0.- 15 
Macuire’s Life of Father Mathew ........ 3 
: Rome and its Rulers .......... 3 
Matine’s Indoor Gardener........... perma att) 
Massey’s History of England............. 1 
MassiNGBERD’S History of the Refor mation 3 
MaunoeEr’s Biographical Treasury........ 4 
- Geographical Treasury ........ 7 
——— Historical Treasury .......... 2 
—— Scientific and Literary Treasury! 9 
—— Treasury of Knowledge...... Fj D 
oe Treasury of Natural History . 9 
Maury’s Physical Geography...........0-. 7 
May’s Constitutional History of England .. 1 
MELVILLE’s Digby Grand ..........secees 16 
General Bounce ......-..2..-- 16 
— Gladiators ..... Bocc age beacsa UG 
= Gaod for Nothing ....... nim iersenweley 
-—- Holmby House ............ - 16 
—— Enterpreter 21). .c0ns ccivececace 16 
—— Kate Coventry................ 16 
7 Queen’s Maries ..........s0. 16 
MENDELSSOHN’S Letters .........2 cece cece 3 
MENzreEs’ Windsor Great Park ......... ae, HS 
OM SOWALE..«. circ wicjeinejaisieis weiain.c sjsx pe 
MERIVALE’s (H.) Colonisation and Colonies 7 
———_ Historical Studies ..... sail 
——_—— (C.)FalloftheRoman Republic 2 
————— RomansundertheEmpire 2 
—— — onConversion of Roman 
PBMAUEIIRC MM etfelsie fern itis.=.< siavscisjais sae cia sigsee en 2 
OUWMGLSEIS PE ODE «cine ain aaicioineeh metas LB 
on Horse Shoeing.......... 18 
OXIBEVONSES? LEH s a.0ias chasse 0 ale acchoie 18 
on Stables ........¥ booed. sieforetea= asp 18 
BIEL OW EADCLtY, «2.0 00 oes aeje aids eae Relocteini<is 4 
on Representative Government . . 4 
GNPUOUCATIANISIN 01/0 cise s seceiee cence. i 


‘NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY TOMES NS AND CQ. 


MILUL’s Dissertations and Discussions...... 

Political Economy ...... 
= System Of Loriesc si. cc s:s\s.0n00 weoeee 
Hamilton’s Philosophy ............ 


MILLER’s Elements of Chemistry...... sees 
MONSELL’s Spiritual Songs.........eeee-ee 
BOAUIEU GES (5 oicls.o:ciejere oirraue hata 
Mownrtacu’s Experiments in Caurch and 
State) oc sepsis rane ree eRe Ree. Sedeta. 
MonrTcGoMeERy on the Signs and. Symptoms 
Of Preenan cya ity aac ween cece sive 
Moore’s Irish Melodies sdelviete}atotereloter! e\eleysiate 
——Lalla Rookh ......... aiqeleel sees 


—Memoirs, Journal, and Correspon- 
dence 
— Poetical Works... eb asenine 45 
MoreELL’s Elements of Psychology . 
—— Mental Philosophy.......... eee 
Morning Clouds 
Morron’s Prince Consort’s Farms 
MosHEIM’s Ecclesiastical Histor Wan char oe 
MULLER’s (Max) Lectures on the Science of 
Language ....... olepsieiefalesetatees 
— (K. Q. ) Liter: ature of peicinnk 
Greece ee hescpecechite res Si ooenoo os 
MURCHISON on Continued Fevers.......... 
Mure’s Language and Literature of Greece 


Ce 


New Testament illustrated with Wood En- 
gravings from the Old Masters ......... 
New MAN'S EAStOny of his Religious Opinions 
NIGHTINGALE’s Notes on Hospitals ...... 


OpLine’s Course of Practical Chemistry.... 
Manual of Chemistry 
Ormszy’s Rambles in Alecria and Tunis .. 
Owen’s Comparative fee and Physio- 

logy of Vertebrate Animals .............« 
OXENHAM on Atenement...,... Soadocdoads 


Packe’s Guide to the Pyrenees............ 
PageEt’s Lectures on Surgical Pathology oe 

Camp and Cantonment...:........ 
PEREIRA’s Elements of Materia Medica.... 
— Manual of Materia Medica...... 
PERKINS’s Tuscan Sculpture ........... 


PHILLIPS’s Guide to Geology .. a sacersaeieltiere tera 
—— Introduction to Mineralogy... 5 
Presse’s Art of Perfumery ............. eiare 
Chemical, Natural, and Physical 
Magpies: )..sscdetene Meee eee nous 
— Laboratory of Chemical Wonders 
Playtime with the Poets........... Hboatocec 
Practical Mechanic’s Journal ...,... Ldosce06 
Prescorr’s Scripture Difficulties .......... 
Procroa’s: Satara, 2000 4) 02 eet eine 6 
PycrorFr’s Course of English Reading _ Soon 
— Cricket Field ..., naogoec dacecas 
—— ~~ Onieket Luton. seen eee 
— Gricketana...... Sachosoooraun 


READE’S Poetical Works ........... 
Recreations of a Country Parson, Seconn 

SERDES) si dacacn ices eae. s 0 siefadefalels 
REILLY’s Map of Mont Blanc... .0.... seeece 
RIDDLE’s Diamond Latin-English Dictionary 
First Sundays at Church......., 
RIVERS’s Rose AMateur’s Guide .......... 


owteene 


% 


NEW WORKS ruzuisuep By LONGMANS anp CO. 


tuo 
brio Soon Omens 


24 

Rocers’s Correspondence of Greyson...... 6 | STEPHEN’s Heb es on the History of 

— Eclipse of Faith..............-2-- 6 Fane eycreleefetese ereic/aialofetolerieleretetiotere 

————Defence of ditto ............--6- 6 Stepping Stone to Knowledge, &e... - dees) 

— Essays from the Edinburgh Revigw 6 STIRLING’s Secret of Hegel............... 

——Fulleriana ..........-2e-seeereee 6 STONEHENGE On the Dog......... 

Rocet’s Thesaurus of English Wwerds and on the Greyhound ...,...... 18 
IPNYASES ocies icc os ws «civ sclce ce cesses Ringo eH) : 

Rona.ps’s Fly-Fisher’s Entomology sluice . 18 Tasso’s Jerusalem, by JAMES.....-.....0- 

RowTon’s Debater..........eeseeeeereees G5 TAYLOR’s (Jeremy) Works, edited by tent 14 


RussELL on Government and Constitution. 1 


SaxBy’s Study of Steam . 
——- Weather System...........0---2- 7 
Scorr’s Handbook of Volumetrical Analy sis £9 
Scrope on Volcanos ......... 


esc cecccnccce 8 


Senror’s Biographical Sketches .....- nitetoig ae 
—Historical and Philosophical 
HESS AVS cjevetensiavetal atolereVeYevievaroveleverele pueccanone 2 
— Essays on Fiction.........e+0--- SRG 
SEWELL’s Amy Herbert.......0.0+e+2++- wee GS 
—AncientHistory..........-secsere 2 
— Cleve Hall ......... Sa99D00ROC0cS 16 
——— Earl’s Daughter..... sogsocodaoose LD 
—-—Experience of Life ...... Biehl eine POLO 
a Gertrude ......c..eeeeeeeereeceee 16 
—— Glimpse of the World..........-. 16 
= History of the Early Church..... cous 
SS ONS con paoenoocopogosoas9aR9 16 
———— Katharine Ashton.. Sono aceeon 16 
——— Laneton Parsonage - sanac ssonm al® 
== Margaret Percival ........... boon le 


——-——Night Lessons from Scripture.... 14 
———\— Passing Thoughts on Religion.... 14 
Preparation for Communion...... 14 
—-——Readings for Confirmation ...... I4 


— Readings for Lent..........-2..+5 14 
—Self-Examination before Confir- 

ANA GION sadoyerseterereioiciess,= o iciake ejesieislecveinseieieisys 14 
— Stories and Tales ......+.-:seseee 16 
———Thoughts for the Holy Week.. 14 
—— ——— Ursula .......ccccececscee Secooes 16 
Suaw’s Work on Wine...... seca midoesiestees wo 
SHEDpDEN’s Elements of Logic ........-.+¢ 5 
SHOT TAVIS tirreisietieteterersrelaievelnie deseo coosoooo see) 
SHorvT’s Church History .......- podcoseD | 


SIEVEKING’s (AMELIA) Life, by WINK- 
WORTH ccncvececcvescrsscvce soocodcous 5 3 
SIMPSON’ 3 Handbook of Dining........-.-. 18 
SMITH’s (SOUTHWOOD) Philosophy of Health 19 
———— (J.) Voyage and Shipwreck of St. 
LAI 3 Bop be ao bo Hood eGnOO Goo ObG0RN osaa He 
———— (G.) Wesleyan Methodism pOoeGOD Bee ac! 
———— (SyDNEY) Memoir and Letters.... 4 
— Miscellaneous Works .. 6 
—__—__ ——_—— Sketches of Moral Philo- 


sophy ..... alefatereheveynieteratets oie elelsrevele ooanosee | 
—. —— Wit and Wisdom ...... 6 
Smitn on Cavalry Drill and Manceuvres.... 18 
SouTHEY’s (Doctor) . 406 sa uueoaton. © 


Poetical W orks. go9008 
Sponr’s Autobiography 


BPR Sse nll 


Spring and Autumn ..........+eecseesoece 14 
STANL«y’s History of British Birds......- a. 28) 
STEBBING’s Analysis of MixL1’s Logic...... 5 
STEPHENSON’s (R.) Life by JEAFFRESON 
GHOC ROT. 54.50 Fo sees canbe eo dopnOD00 bO00 3 


SYTEPHEN’s Essays in Ecclesiastical Bio- 
graphy.... conpsona 


SPCTSISWOODE AND Co,, PRINTERS, 


2 
a ~ 


TENNENT’S Ceylon..........-ssce:-ees gotounbentss 
_-— Natural History of Ceylon aoag  t8 
THIRLWALL’s History of Greece ......... 2 
THoMson’s (Archbishop) Laws of Thought 4 
(J.) Tables of Interest ....... . Ig 
Conspectus, by BIRKET1T..... cei la 
Topp’s Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physio- 
HOARY Sood GaboS Hose coasosnonaooNOsE toe 10 
and BowMAN’s "Anatomy and Phy- 
siology of Man............... mesic aeioter 5) LO 
TROLLOPE’S Barchester Towers sudeondese oot KD 
Warden ofrecer sclecieiiscieclnremmnO 
Twiss’s Law of Nations ..... Sdonabsecaccon 1s 


TYNDALL’s Lectures on Heat............-- 8 


UReE’s Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and i 
BEIMES: oc ce ce cic cere « we ele slolelcslelelola elclelealsleta mammne 


Van DER HoEVEN’s Handbook of Zoology 
VAUGHAN’s (R.) Revolutions in English 


(R. A.) Hours with the ee 
VILLARI’s Savonarola . 


eece re sere esee secs 


Watson’s Principles and Practice of Physic 


Warts’s Dictionary of Chemistry....... Aciy ait i 
Wess’s Celestial Objects for Common Tele- - | 
SCOPES ...c ccc cecccesersnscererscssecece fy 
WEBSTER & WILKINSON’s Greek Testament lL 
WELp’s Last Winter in Rome......... ig 


WELLINGTON’S Life, by BRIALMONT ant 

GLEIG ........- o aielsostsaterstelroreio steteretenens an 
—_————_ by GLEIG ppoasosNeS 
West on the Diseases of Infancy and Child- 
hood.. 


See ee ee ope 


WHATELY’sS English Synonymes .......... 

- WOGiCierretraleleletetaterare psuoonowsod 
— Remains....... gAnibedabooosscd 
——_——_—— Rhetoric ....... sere’ evel ctareeetota aie 
——- Sermon. ccsrevaleesieetesleleieenerte . a 
— Paley’s Moral Phylosophy Sica 


WHEWELL’s History of the Inductive Sci- 


Whist, what to lends by Cam Rca erejoie etoane a 
WHITE and RIDDLE’s Latin- English Dic * 

WIONATY esac = ceieleleetereeleteleret tela tote tetelaleletstetereta a 
WILBERFORCE (W.) Recollections of, by 

HIARFORD .....0 02 ccc ce cacensernnce cess i 
WILLIAMS’s Superstitions of Witchcraft .. _ 
Wixuicn’s Popular Tables ......0. .-s+e+8 
WILson’s Bryologia Britannica.. 
Woop’s Homes without Hands............ — | 
Woopwarp’s Historical and Chronological | | 

Encyclopedia ....... Hood 


Yonar’s English-Greek Lexicon .. 
——_—— Abridged ditto .......... 
Youna’s Nautical Dictionary...... 
Youart on the Dog 
—-—— on the Horse... 


eoceroese eoveseeoee 


ecoececcaesnevesee 


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