bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On Certain Cretaceous Brachiopoda
Authors: Lankester E. Ray
Published: March 2016

In the Plate accompanying this paper are figured three species of Terebratulæ, which the writer lately obtained from the Lower Greensand beds of the Isle of Wight. Two of them are interesting as being entirely new to these strata in Britain, whilst the third is a remarkable deformity of a rare species. In Fig. 1, 2, 4, a shell is drawn which appears to be identical with the Terebratula Moutoniana of D'Orbigny, a species not uncommon in France, associated with T. sella in the Upper Neocomian and Aptian beds of that author. It is somewhat oval in shape, depressed and elongated; surface entirely smooth. The perforate valve is rather more convex than the other, truncated by a foramen of moderate size; deltidium very short and small. Nine specimens of this species were obtained from the ferruginous Greensand beds, at Dunnose Point, near Shanklin. This shell, on external examination, is easily distinguished from T. sella, which it somewhat resembles, by the absence of any biplication on the frontal margin. Its internal structure proves it to belong to the section Waldheimia of King, which precludes all doubt as to its specific distinctions from T. sella. It is easily distinguished from Waldheimia Celtica, Morris, by its less elongated and gibbous outline.
Description of a Land Surface Underneath the Drift on the Coast of Suffolk; Observed in 1859
Authors: Pattison S. R.
Published: March 2016

The low cliffs stretching from Gorleston, south of Yarmouth, towards Lowestoft, are mainly composed of boulder drift, and are well described by the late Mr. Trimmer in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for 1857. As an independent confirmation of his observations on the intercalation of the whole boulder-clay double series, between the fluvio-marine and forest bed beneath, and the local marls and marsh and estuary beds occasionally above, I send the following note, made without having had the benefit of Mr. Trimmer’s paper.
On the Bituminous Coal of the Arigna District, Counties of Roscommon and Leitrim
Authors: Du Noyer George V.
Published: March 2016

“Why is it that there is no bituminous coal of any account in Ireland?” This is a question which I have often been asked by well-informed people, and the answer is comprised in the one descriptive word “Denudation.” In truth, there is no reason why, at one period of our geological history, the great mass of the bituminous coal-bearing strata occurring in England should not have extended over what is now Ireland; but, strange to say, while this store of inestimable wealth was being preserved in England, and covered by the New Red Sandstone and probably Tertiary rocks, the adjoining portion of the earth's crust was being gradually raised from beneath the sea, and wellnigh effectually denuded of its carbonaceous covering. Ireland, therefore, for the most part, presents an older geological surface than England, especially over the areas now occupied by the Devonian and Carboniferous rocks; and I believe that all we have now remaining to us in the upper portion of the latter, is some of the basal beds of the English coal-measures, represented by three thin layers of bituminous coal, capping the mountains at either side of Lough Allen, in the counties of Roscommon and Leitrim, and extending into the Co. Sligo.

The most important coal-beds of the Arigna district, or those which are being worked at present, occur to the west of Lough Allen, and near the summits of the mountains of Kilronan and Altagowlan; the former being 1081 feet, and the latter 1377 feet above the sea, having the valley of the Arigna river between them. From an examination of these coal-fields, which I made in the month of March, 1862, I am enabled to add some information to that which we already possess regarding them, which, I have no doubt, will be acceptable to those who are interested in the subject of the Irish bituminous coals.
On the Occurrence of Glyptolepis in the Sandstone of Dura Den
Authors: Mitchell Hugh
Published: March 2016

In his admirable essay on the Devonian Fishes, in the Tenth Decade of the Geological Survey, Professor Huxley has clearly indicated and described the differences and the resemblances of the genera Holoptychius and Glyptolepis. In the interesting work of the Rev. Dr. Anderson on ‘Dura Den,’ in which its exquisitely-preserved fossils are described, no mention is made of Glyptolepis. In the November part of the ‘Journal of the Geological Society of London,’ Mr. Powrie lias called attention to the occurrence of Glyptolepis in slabs recently disinterred, for the St. Andrew's Museum, from Dura Den. Through the kindness of Dr. Anderson, a slab was presented to the Montrose Museum in 1859; and it is now apparent from it that Glyptolepis is not of rare occurrence at Dura Den, and that either this genus has been passed over altogether, or confounded with Holoptychius. The fishes in the Montrose Museum are smaller, and do not in all points correspond with those described by Mr. Powrie, but we think they emphatically demonstrate that the Holoptychius Flemingii must now be denominated Glyptolepis.

On the slab in the Montrose Museum there is one fine specimen of Holoptychius and six specimens of Glyptolepis, not regarding fragmentary portions of fishes. At the first glance there is a resemblance in size, in general aspect, and outline, among the fishes. Their average length is about nine inches, and their breadth at the thickest part of the body nearly three inches.
Report of a Successful Search for Flint-Implements in a Cave Called “The Oyle,” Near Tenby, South Wales, in June and July, 1862
Authors: Smith Gilbert N.
Published: March 2016

This is a cave in the Mountain Limestone, with a wide entrance looking to the north-east at about 70 feet above the level of the valley beneath, up which the tide has recently flowed. The cave extends tortuously for 30 or 40 yards into the axis of a ridge which is a spur of the “Ridgeway,” extending from Pembroke to Tenby, composed of the Old Red, the strike of which is east and west.

Within, the cave is distinguished by chambers, alternating with narrow passages. The floor is generally not more than three feet deep, at which depth the limestone is met with as at the roof and sides. The entrance being conspicuous, it is often visited from curiosity, but has never before been carefully explored for the definite purpose of discovering works of ancient art. This search was prompted by the recent discoveries in France and at Hoxne, strongly seconded by the fact that above, on the Ridgeway, some six or seven barrows exist, which yielded to the reporter and others a few years since, not only cinerary urns, but also well-shaped flint arrow-heads.

So much by way of introduction.

The Section will be glad to learn that the search in this cave for flint weapons has been successful, and that the number found is seventy-three, including the identical lumps of flint which remained after the chips had been struck off, when from their reduced size they were no longer capable of yielding flakes sufficiently large to answer the destined purpose, whatever that might be.
A Visit to Reculver, in Kent
Authors: Gibb George D.
Published: March 2016

Those who are familiar with Sir Charles Lyell's ‘Principles of Geology’ will remember the illustrations given, in the twentieth chapter of his able and most philosophical book, of the action of the sea on various parts of the coasts of Britain. The changes that have taken place in some parts, even within the historical period, have been very considerable, and perhaps none more so than on the eastern and south-eastern coasts of England, where the encroachments of the sea seem to have been of the most destructive character. From the western coast of the Isle of Sheppey, extending eastwards to Herne Bay, Reculver, and Thanet, the destructive action of both the sea and the other elements has been witnessed by many in our own time; and every year tells its history of a change in some part of this line of coast.

I had long contemplated a visit to Reculver, and in the month of June last the opportunity of seeing this part of the coast was afforded me. No place is more accessible from London than Herne Bay; the visitor has the opportunity of running down either by steamer from London Bridge, or by the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway from either the London Bridge or Victoria stations. If time is an object, the latter is preferable, and it was the route I chose, which enabled me to see and learn all that I desired in a single day.
Note on König's Sea-Urchin. (Cyphosoma Kænigi, Mantell.)
Authors: Woodward S. P.
Published: March 2016

One of the commonest fossils of the chalk in the London district is the beautiful Sea-Urchin, of which we here give two figures, from examples in the national collection. It was named by Dr. Mantell, in honour of Mr. Charles König, the distinguished German savant, who in his youth was Librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, and became afterwards the Keeper of the Natural History Collections in the British Museum. By the country people in Wiltshire it is called the “Shepherd's Crown.”

The König's Sea-Urchin belongs to a subdivision of the old Linnean genus Cidaris, to which the name of Cyphosoma was given by Agassiz (from κυϕὸς, curvus; σῶμα, corpus). The five ambulacral bands are nearly as broad as the inter-ambulacral, and are ornamented with a double series of tubercles equal in size to the rest. These tubercles are placed on crenulated bosses, but are not perforated as in most of the Cidaridæ.

The upper and under sides of this fossil Urchin are so different that drawings of them might be taken to represent two distinct species. The under side exhibits ten pairs of rows of tubercles, largest at the margin, and diminishing gradually to the central orifice. On the upper surface the tubercles are much smaller, and there are two additional rows on the inter-ambulacral bands, external to those which are continued downwards over the base.
The Geological and Chronological Distribution of the Devonian Fossils of Devon and Cornwall
Authors: Pengelly W.
Published: March 2016

The limestones, slates, and associated sandstones of North and South Devon and Cornwall have, as is well known, caused much perplexity as to their real place in the chronological series of the geologist. Thanks, however, to the labours of Professor Sedgwick, Sir R. I. Murchison, Mr. Lonsdale, and others, the problem is now generally admitted to be solved; the rocks in question are the representatives or equivalents of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland and elsewhere; they belong to what is known as the Devonian age of the world. Some little difficulty, however, exists—or rather once existed—in the way of the full acceptance of this chronology. The rocks of Devonshire are crowded with the remains of invertebrate animals, especially shells, corals, and sponges; whilst the supposed contemporary deposits in Scotland and the adjacent islets are so rich in fossil fish that, in the language of the late Hugh Miller, “Orkney, were the trade once opened up, could supply with ichthyolites, by the ton and the shipload, the museums of the world.” But the fossils characteristic of either of these districts are not found in the other; there are no organic links connecting the two localities. Scotland does not yield the mollusks or zoophytes of Devonshire, nor is there recorded in the latter district more than the faintest trace of the ichthyolitic wealth of the North. Though this fact may still have difficulties connected with it, they have ceased to be chronological, for Sir R. I. Murchison tells us “that the same fossil fishes, of species well known in the middle and upper portions of the Old Red of Scotland, and which in large tracts of Russia lie alone in sandstone, are in many other places found intermixed, in the same bed, with those shells that characterize the group in its slaty and calcareous form in Devonshire, the Rhenish country, and the Boulonnais. This phenomenon, first brought to light in the work on Russia, by myself and colleagues, demonstrates more than any other the identity of deposits of this age, so different in lithological aspect, in Devonshire on the one hand, and central England and Scotland on the other. The fact of this intermixture completely puts an end to all dispute respecting the identification of the central and upper masses at least of the Old Red of Scotland with the calcareous deposits of Devonshire and the Eifel.”
On the Discovery of Human and Animal Bones in Heathery Burn Cave, Near Stanhope
Authors: Elliott John
Published: March 2016

In a tolerably deep ravine, surrounded by trees and brushwood growing in wild profusion, was, until lately, a cave, in that member of the carboniferous formation locally called the “Great Limestone,” and situated about one mile and a quarter north from the town of Stanhope, in the county of Durham. The limestone is now being worked for the purpose of supplying the Weardale Iron Company with a flux used in the operation of smelting their ironstone; and consequently the cave has been laid bare to the light of day.

The cave was much visited a few years ago, both by strangers and persons living in the locality, but probably few of the visitors ever studied the excavating forces by means of which the cave was hollowed out of the solid limestone, and fewer still, if any, would think that they were treading on a primeval burial-place.

Doubtless the excavation must be mainly due to aqueous agency, but a reference to Sir Charles Lyell's ‘Principles of Geology,’ Professor Phillips's ‘Treatise on Geology,’ and Richardson's ‘Geology,’ shows that our leading writers on this subject consider that the first cause of a cavern must have been a fracture in the limestone rock, consequent on the upheaval of the strata, and that water then finding access to the crack, would wear it out to its present dimensions.
Sketch of the Geology of Biarritz
Authors: Acworth A. D.
Published: March 2016

Monsieur Delbos, after much research, has determined that the cliffs at Bidart consist of the cretaceous rocks, and that these cease going northward towards Biarritz, and are succeeded by beds of the Lower Eocene. The very lowest of these, however, does not appear on the coast, namely, that which he designates as “Marnes à Terebratules.” The first, which is found to the north, beyond the chalk formation on the coast, is a calcareous rock, containing a species of serpula. Mons. Delbos writes as follows:—

“I now propose definitely the following divisions for the nummulitic deposits of the basin of the Adour.

M. Delbos then gives an explanation of his section of the coast, starting from the point a, and going northward.

“North of the mass of siliceous limestone, of which I have already spoken, and which belongs incontestably to the chalk formation, there is an extensive depression, occupied by sands blown in from the shore, and which interrupts the continuity of the escarpment for the distance of rather more than a quarter of a mile. Beyond this depression the cliff recommences, and from the point where it first appears abundant specimens of fossils characteristic of the nummulitic formation may be collected from a large fragment which lies detached at the foot of the cliff. (Nummulina, Serpula spirulæa, Vulsella falcata, &c.)
Fossils of North Bucks and the Adjacent Counties
Authors: Macalister J. H.
Published: March 2016

As the geographical distribution of fossils is always an interesting subject, it has occurred to me that a few words on the Oolitic fossils of this part of England, not much visited by geologists, may be acceptable to, at least, some of the readers of the “Geologist.” It will not be my intention in this paper to treat so much of the geological features of the country, as to give complete lists of the organic remains which have been found by myself and a few others in the various strata of this district. The Oolites of North Bucks and Northampton, though of course presenting, for the most part, the usual character of the system as represented in other Oolitic districts of England (being, as they doubtless are, merely a continuation of those of Oxfordshire, &c.), yet possess several points of interest peculiar to themselves. The identity of the “Northampton Sands” (formerly classed with the Lias) with the Stonesfield Slate of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, and constituting the Lower Zone of the Great Oolite, the importance of these “sands” as an iron ore; the occurrence of land-plants similar to the Stonesfield specimens in the Forest-marble of the neighbourhood of Wolverton; the extensive development of the Kimmeridge Clay at Hartwell; and of the Great Oolite further north;—all these facts combine to invest these beds with much interest, both to the geologist and the palæontologist.
On the Devonian age of the World
Authors: Pengelly W.
Published: March 2016

The rooks composing the earth's crust contain a history and represent time—a history of changes numerous, varied, and important: changes in the distribution of land and water; in the thermal conditions of the world; and in the character of the organic tribes which have successively peopled it. The time required for these mutations must have been vast beyond human comprehension, requiring, for its expression, units of a higher order than years or centuries. In the existing state of our knowledge it is impossible to convert geological into astronomical time: it is at present, and perhaps always will be, beyond our power to determine how many rotations on its axis, or how many revolutions round the sun the earth made between any two recognised and well-marked events in its geological history. Nevertheless it is possible, and eminently convenient, to break up geological time into great periods: it must not be supposed, however, that such periods are necessarily equal in chronological, organic, or lithological value; or separated from one another by broadly marked lines of demarcation; or that either their commencements or terminations in different and widely separated districts were strictly synchronous.

One of the terms in the chronological series of the geologist is known as the Devonian, that which preceeded it the Silurian, and the succeeding one the Carboniferous period; and these, with some others of less importance, belong to the Palæozoic or ancient-life epoch, or group of periods.
On New Brachiopoda, and on the Development of the Loop in Terebratella
Authors: Moore Charles
Published: March 2016

In addition to the Brachiopoda noticed in this paper, I am possessed of various minute specimens, which differ from any described species. Some of these may be the young of Brachiopoda that occur in the beds in which they are found; but until their passages into adult shells can be satisfactorily recognized, it will be undesirable to figure or describe them. Three examples of well marked and persistent forms are provisionally named and given below.

Spirifera minima. Moore. Pl. ii., figs. 19, 20.

Shell microscopic, often one sided or unsymmetrical, slightly rugose; valves moderately convex; deltidium triangular; area broad and flattened; hinge-line broad; front of shell rounded, In some specimens the shell presents a uniformly flattened surface, whilst in the majority the outer surface of the smaller valve possesses mesial folds, and in the larger valve a central sinus.

Obs.—This shell is not uncommon in the Inferior Oolite of Dundry. Although no internal characters have yet been noticed, there seems little doubt the shell must be referred to the genus Spirifera. It is perfectly distinct from a little shell found with it, described by me in the Somersetshire Proceedings for 1854. We have thus evidence of the presence of two species of this genus in oolitic strata, although in both instances they have become very degenerate in size. No larger specimens of the genus have yet been found in the same beds to which these diminutive shells can be referred.

Terebratula (?) minuta. Moore. Pl. ii., figs. 21, 22.
A Lecture on “Coal.”
Authors: Salter J. W.
Published: March 2016

We finished last month with the fact that plant-remains were found in plenty both above and below the coal. I shall draw your attention first to the roof-shale—or clay over the coal—“over-clay” as it is often called: for in this the great majority of remains are preserved.

In the roof-shale two kinds of plants are the most conspicuous—fern-leaves, and the diapered cylinders mentioned in our last. These are the prevailing fossils, though there are a great many besides.

Looking first at the fern-leaves, which from their beautiful forms cannot fail to strike the observer's eye, one is surprised to notice the extremely perfect state in which they occur. Delicate fronds, spread out as for the sheets of an herbarium, with hardly a leaflet disturbed from its true place, crowd the roof-shales of nearly all coal-mines. Dr. Buckland sang the praises of this beautiful tracery, which covers the roof of the mine, in glowing strains such as it will not do for a plain geologist to imitate. I have a lurking suspicion, however, that the great doctor conceived the passage not in the mine, but out of it.

At least one hundred and twenty species are known in our British coal-strata. So perfect are they occasionally, that the little fruit-patches (sori, as botanists term them), are found upon the backs of the fronds. This is not very common, except in one kind—the Pecopteris, which happens to be more abundant than most of the others, and in some species of this the fruit is found.
Cambridge Essays, 1857.—Geology:
Authors: Hopkins W.
Published: March 2016

In the preceding exposition the object has been to give, in a condensed form, the leading facts and conclusions of geology. These facts are so firmly established by observation, and the conclusions from them so clearly demonstrated, that every rational mind must assent and be prepared to admit the principle on which Geology, like all physical sciences, must rest—that geological phenomena must be referred to physical causes.

When the student has obtained sufficient familiarity with these established propositions, he will be prepared to follow in the discussion of the less elementary problems of the science, many of which are subjects of controversy. Before, however, going into these speculations, Mr. Hopkins devotes several pages to the evidences of the vast antiquity of the globe, dwelling both on the evidences afforded by the organic remains of successive creations embedded in the rocks, and on those drawn from the inanimate kingdom. Of the first we find that an immense number of different tribes of animals and plants which in former ages have given their passing phases to terrestrial life on our planet have disappeared with a transition so slow that, according to the present order of nature, there is not the slightest evidence of the introduction of a new species of animal since the creation of man; whilst of the latter, it appears certain that the deposition of sedimentary strata, and that process of denudation necessarily contemporaneous with it, must have proceeded at very much the same rate in former as in recent times; and, admitting this conclusion, we obtain something like a rough conception of the enormous lapse of time necessary for the deposition of the whole mass of sedimentary formations, by simply comparing such mass with the proportion which has been transported and deposited, within the last two or three thousand years.
The Comparative Geology of Hotham, Near South Cave, Yorkshire
Authors: Norwood T. W.
Published: March 2016

II. It is about a mile across the Lower Lias, on which the villages of North Cave and Hotham are situated, to another gently-rising ground which ascends out of Hotham Park to the eastward in a beautiful sloping bank, and being tastefully planted with stately trees, contributes very much to the charm of the scenery. Coming in with my hammer to the ancient village, in the bright and odorous evenings of midsummer, I have often been arrested by the sweetness of this place; and, enamoured of its serene and peaceful beauty, I have loitered to admire its dark plantations, and the greensward slope that I am now describing, and the illuminated wold rising high in the distance. It is the low escarpment of the Middle Lias which declines thus pleasantly into the park at Hotham. A.s we go out of North Cave towards Beverley, this bank may be observed to rest upon soft blue shales, which have hitherto supplied no fossils. When we begin to ascend it, we may turn into a copse on the right-hand side and study the section in a marl-pit, or we may notice the roadside cutting. In either case, we shall observe that the beds change as follows:—From blue shales at the bottom and lower part of the ascent, through brown earthy-looking shales and sand with irregular broken bands of nodular clay-ironstone, one of which enclosed a cast of Unicardium cardioides, to a hard rock-bed of the true Marlstone, two or three feet in thickness, which again is capped at the top of the ascent by a very rusty, rubbishy, and ferruginous rock.
On the Probable Influence Upon the Internal Structure of Rocks, of the Mutual Friction of their Component Parts, When Forced into Motion Under Extreme Pressures
Authors: Scrope G. Poulett
Published: March 2016

In a paper read before the Geological Society on the 23rd of April, 1856, I referred to the proofs of a “plasticity,” or imperfect liquidity, in the crystalline igneous rocks at the time of their protrusion, and called attention to the mechanical changes, in texture and structure, which could not fail to have resulted from the mutual friction of the component crystals or granular particles of these rocks, during changes of volume or of position, occasioned by variations in their temperature while subjected to intense and irregular pressures.

In illustration, I referred to the “ribboned” pitchstones and trachytic lavas of Ponza, Ischia, Hungary, Mexico, &c., in which this structure had unquestionably been produced in that manner, and I repeated the opinion (to which more than thirty years back I had given expression), that to such internal friction of the component crystals, was probably owing the foliation of gneiss and mica-schist; through the “squeeze and jam” to which the lateral portions of an eruptive granitic axis must have been subjected, between its own expansive force and the resistance and pressure of the overlying strata.

The subject has so important a bearing on Geological Dynamics and the doctrine of Metamorphism, that I trust to be excused for carrying the inquiry a little further. In doing so it will bo well to begin by some elementary considerations.

It is the well-known property of most substances to pass from a solid to a liquid state, and vico versâ, under varying circumstances of temperature and pressure.
Contributions to the Geology of Gloucestershire
Authors: Brodie P. B.
Published: March 2016

Having reviewed, in our first paper on this subject, the tipper portion of the Lower Oolite, down to the Stonesfield slate inclusive, we propose in this to give some account of the lowest member of this formation, the Inferior Oolite, and then to pass on, in descending order, to the Lias. The district under consideration has, of late years, been very generally and carefully examined by many able and experienced geologists; but nevertheless additions to our knowledge of its Geology are from time to time being made; and our own practical experience in the field confirms the belief often expressed by others, that, however much may have been done in any particular spot, there is always something left to reward intelligence and zea

The student, however, must not be discouraged at being at first able to add but few new facts to the list; he must bear in mind that one truth well authenticated is worth a hundred hasty generalizations and unfounded conclusions. The book of Nature is open to all who choose to read it; and he who, studying it in an honest and earnest spirit, adds something to the stock of general knowledge, even though it should be but a little, yet that little is worth recording, and is deserving of support and encouragement from the scientific public. Without actual reference to the wonderful revelations of Geology, our great poet, Shakespeare, has said, almost prophetically, that there are “sermons in stones, and good in everything;” and, certainly, the geological student may literally adopt this motto.
Gems of Private Collections. Unio and Palundinæ
Authors: T.R.J.
Published: March 2016

The Sussex Marble, or Bethersden Marble, as it is indifferently termed according to its occurrence in Kent or Sussex, is found also in Surrey, near the foot of Leith Hill. It occurs in thin courses of variable thickness and extent, but seldom presenting a bed one foot thick, in the weald clay.
Notes on the Stratigraphical Position of the Giant's Causeway, and the Structure of the Basaltic Cliffs Immediately Adjoining it
Authors: Noyer V. Du
Published: March 2016

During a visit to the Giant's Causeway in the month of September, 1857, I made a few notes and sketches on the spot, having reference more particularly to the determinating of the stratigraphical position of the Causeway itself, and to get if possible a clear idea of the structure of the exposed cliff-sections of the basalts in the immediate neighbourhood. On comparing my observations with an account of the causeway and the adjoining coast given by the Rev. John Dubourdien in his statistical survey of the county of Antrim in 1812, I was struck with the discrepancies which exist between them, the author's idea being that the bed of Basalt forming the Causeway extended eastward to Portmoon, a distance of two-miles (page 46), and that the whole of the strata are parallel to each other. These suppositions are, as far as I am aware of, adopted by all subsequent writers on the Causeway; and as they are errors, a transcript of my notes may not be unacceptable to the readers of the “Geologist;” they tend at least to illustrate more fully the structure of the Basaltic deposits to which I allude, and are a few additional facts added to our present information on this interesting subject.
Current Notes on Mineralogy, Lithology, and Metalliferous Deposits
Authors: Salmon H. C.
Published: March 2016

The October number of the “Philosophical Magazine” contains a notice, translated from Poggendorff's “Annalen,” by Professor Gustav Rose, on the isomorphism of stannic, silicic, and zirconic acids. Stannic acid (n) forms the mineral Cassiterite, silicic acid (i) is Quartz, zirconic acid, which Rose considers to be r, has hitherto been classed as an earth or oxide, as zirconia, with composition r, or r. The mineral zircon, hitherto held to be a silicate of zirconia, must now, according to this, be merely considered as an isomorphous compound of one atom of zirconic acid and one atom of silicic acid (
r + i). This mineral species has always been remarkable for the variation of hardness and gravity in specimens from different localities, which according to this hypothesis may be accounted for by the unequal proportions of the two acids; the heavier and harder specimens containing the more zirconic acid, whose equivalent would be 481·20 compared with 384·888 that of silica. In the case of a variety found in Russia by Hermann, composed of two atoms of
r, with three atoms of i (r2
i3), the specific gravity was only 4·06, while that of the mineral of the ordinary composition varies from 4·5 to 4·8.
Geological Localities.—No. I. Folkestone
Authors: Mackie S. J.
Published: March 2016

What a sliding, slipping, torn, and rugged ruinous heap is that far-famed Copt Point itself, with its ravines of shattered clay-splinters, and its shivering peaks and promontories. How the rotten clay breaks and crumbles away beneath your foot-tread, and goes scattering down in multitudes of leaping, racing, bounding chips on to the hard and sea-worn rocks below. Pyritous casts of Ammonites, amber-like Belemnites, and phosphatic casts of Nuculæ, with their two prominent muscle-marks, strew the cindery-looking ground; while here and there, like horny flakes, are the thin angular shell-pieces of Pollicipes.
On the Neocomian and the Wealden Rocks in the Jura and in England
Authors: Marcou M. Jules
Published: March 2016

In June, 1827, Dr. W. H. Fitton read before the Geological Society of London the following statement:—“It is obvious that, during a period of time sufficient for the accumulation of the Wealden, the deposition of matter in the adjacent seas could not have been inconsiderable; so that we might expect to find, interposed between the strata which then formed the bottom of the sea and the Lower Greensand, a series of beds coeval with the Wealden in point of date, but differing from it in possessing the characters of a marine deposit, and including marine shells and other productions of salt water; with which, near the shore, the productions of the land, or even the freshwater shells of the rivers, might be occasionally intermixed.…. 1st. That the Wealden and its marine equivalent could not both be found in the same place; and consequently (since we have the former in England) that the marine beds of that date are not to be expected generally in this country; 2dly.
The Geology of Beadnell, in the County of Northumberland, with a Description of Some Annelids of the Carboniferous Formation
Authors: Tate George
Published: March 2016

A section along the coast from Ebbs Nook to Annstead Bay, of nearly one and a half miles in length, exhibits a fine series of rocks belonging to the Mountain Limestone Formation. Thick sandstones and limestones, shales with ironstone, and coal-seams are intercalated with each other; and these strata are traversed by a lead-vein and a basaltic dyke. As we wander along the shore, we meet with evidences of sea-deposits in the limestones and calcareous shales, wherein are embedded many corals and mollusks; the sandstones, shales, and coal afford relics of the vegetation of the Carboniferous Era; some slaty sandstones give distinct indications of ancient shallow seas and coast-lines, whereon the waves broke gently and over which worms crawled; while the basaltic dyke tells of the play of internal forces, rending asunder the vast mass of stratified rocks, and pouring molten lava into the fissures.
The Geology of Hook Point
Authors: Harkness R.
Published: March 2016

The paleontology or the study of the fossils of Hook Head is, if it be possible, even more interesting than its physical geology. As soon as ever we cross over the sandstones, and ascend into the higher strata of the Carboniferous series proper, we reach a domain abounding with animal life. Almost immediately above the sandstones which afford the remains of the fossil plants, we reach a zone having a distinct mineral character. This zone consists of a black shale, a substance which was originally black mud deposited by the sea, and this black shale is an important member of the great Carboniferous series of the south of Ireland. At Hook, it is a very degraded form of that member of the Irish carboniferous series known under the name of “carboniferous slate.” In this locality it has a thickness of only a few yards, but westward from Hook the carboniferous slate increases in thickness, until we find it in the county of Cork, separating the sandstone strata below from the lower portion of the carboniferous limestone above, by an interval, in some instances, reaching to about 4,000 feet. At Hook, this ancient muddy sea-bottom seems to have existed for a shorter time than towards the westward, and was succeeded by a sea containing a considerable portion of lime in its waters.
Foreign Correspondence
Authors: Phipson T. L.
Published: March 2016

The learned Geologist of Montpelier, M. Marcel de Serres, has just communicated to the Paris Academy of Sciences the following facts concerning the dunes, or shifting sand-hills, of the French Mediterranean coasts. These sands are first thrown upon the shore by the sea; when dry, they are carried inward by the winds, to the distance of several kilométres, covering fields and vineyards to the depth of two or three feet, suffocating vegetation, and transforming the richest cultivation into a desert waste.
On Rocks; Their Chemical and Mineral Composition, and Physical Characteristics
Authors: Salmon H. C.
Published: March 2016

In the definition which I have given, a mineral is described as a body possessed of a definite chemical composition and a regular physical form,—meaning by the latter particularly crystalline structure. But, while the crystalline relations of each species only vary within the narrowest limits, the chemical composition has a much wider latitude. Many individuals of the same mineral species are found, by analysis, to differ most widely in their chemical components, while the crystalline form is quite unaltered. Now, although we are as yet unable to trace the relation between the form of a mineral and its composition, there can still be little doubt that some such relation does exist, regulated by laws yet to be discovered; consequently, when we find the same mineral species differing widely in chemical proportions, we recognise a departùre from regular although unknown laws, and seek for a cause. This we find in the doctrine of Isomorphism. This, simply stated, in the capability of two or more substances, of analogous chemical constitution, to crystallize in similar forms.
On Lavas of Mount Etna Formed on Steep Slopes and on Craters of Elevation
Authors: Lyell Charles
Published: March 2016

For some years past it has been a commonly received doctrine among continental geologists that lava-streams could not consolidate on slopes or declivities of more than five degrees. When, then, solid lavas were found in various volcanic mountains at high angles, other sources of origin than the mere outflow from their respective craters had to be sought; and thus arose the theoretical idea of the formation of the cone or crater at a late period of the volcano's existence—after for ages numerous lava-streams had issued from it and had become consolidated one over the other into stony beds on successive flat plains—by the uprise and bursting of a vast dome or bubble; and such was called a “crater of elevation”.
On the Tilestones of Forfarshire
Authors: Anderson John
Published: March 2016

The March number of The Geologist contains, I observe, a notice of the “Upper Ludlow Tilestones,” and the author invites descriptions of their equivalent beds in other districts. Now, so close are the resemblances, lithologically and palæontologically, between these deposits and those of Forfarshire, that they may be regarded as part of one and the same series. I have been induced, therefore, to throw together the following observations upon our northern Scottish system.

The rocks to which I refer occupy a narrow but extended trough-line along the central district of Forfarshire, commencing on the east near Montrose, and terminating at Babruddery and Rossie Den on the west. They trend in a south-westerly direction, across the river Tay, into Fifeshire at Parkhill, Newburgh, and along the northern slope of the Ochils towards Dunning and Tereagles in Perthshire. These tilestones, and the grey and red sandstones with which they are systematically associated, occupy the whole superficies of that well-known and beautiful tract of country which is bounded by the old crystalline rocks of the Grampians on the north, and by the later felspathio Ochil range on the south; and it includes the celebrated geological localities of Cavonylie, Glammis, Forfar, Kinnordie, Clashbennie, Babruddery, and Parkhill.
The Carboniferous System in Scotland Characterized by its Brachiopoda
Authors: Davidson Thomas
Published: March 2016

“This group in Northumberland is seen, westward of Alnwick at Garmitage-bank and Crawley Dean, and on the flanks of the porphyry of the Cheviot in Biddleston Burn, and in the Coquet below Linn Brig; it occupies a considerable area in the south part of Berwickshire, and is largely developed on the Tweed at Carham, Coldstream, Norham, etc.; it is seen underlying the mountain-limestone on the sea-coast from near Lammerton Shiel to Burnmouth; on the north side of Lammermuirs it is intercalated between the Old Red Sandstone, and the mountain-limestone from the Pees mouth to the Cove harbour.”

Mr. Tate observes also that the Campsie and Fifeshire beds resemble those of Northumberland.
On an Ammonite with its Operculum in Situ
Authors: Woodward S. P.
Published: March 2016

Opercula of Ammonites are common in many localities, especially in banks and sections of the Kimmeridge Clay; but they usually occur in broken fragments, and very rarely with their valves paired, unless sheltered within the last whirl of the shell to which they belonged. Even when thus protected the valves are generally displaced, as might be expected if we consider how slight is their union along the suture, and how great were the chances of being shifted by the contraction of the animal after death, by the pressure of external mud.

The British Museum contains several examples of Ammonites Jason, A. Brightii, A. fluctuosus, A. lingulatus, and other species with their opercula more or less shifted; and Mr. Charles Moore, of Bath, has several small shells of Ammonites planorbis from the Lower Lias, with the opercula remaining in their true position; the smallest individual is only one quarter of an inch in diameter.
On Canadian Caverns
Authors: Gibb George D.
Published: March 2016

In the foregoing account it has been my aim and endeavour to describe the geological formations in which the caverns existed; this will be seen at a glance in the following table:—

Taking the two classes together as representing thirty distinct series of cavernous localities, one is found in the New Red Sandstone formation, two in the Carboniferous, two in the Devonian or Old Red, seven in the limestones of the Upper, two in those of the Middle, and six in those of the Lower Silurian formation, three in the Huronian rocks of Sir William Logan, and seven in the Laurentian rocks of the same geologist. In the last of these they are present in the interstratified bands of crystalline limestone, characteristic of this formation in Canada.
On the Ossiferous Caverns at Oreston
Authors: Hodge Henry C.
Published: March 2016

In concluding this paper, allow me to remark that if the deductions to which I have arrived be correct, some data will have been afforded for explaining, through the agency of analogous chemical changes and their resulting products, the cause of some, at least, of the various distinctive characters presented by those rocks which constitute that portion of the earth's surface formed from the decomposition of previously existing rocky masses. I will not, however, take up your time with any lengthy arguments to strengthen my position in such a manner, but will merely attempt to give a very brief description of what I conceive we may not unreasonably infer has taken place during past ages of the world's history, remarking on the various geological formations in the general order of their occurrence; and, firstly, I would direct attention to the important bearing the chemical changes described may be presumed to have on the solution of the question as to the geological equivalence of the Old Red Sandstone rocks of Scotland to those of our Devonian era. I have before adverted to the occurrence of red sand in a decomposed slaty seam of the Plymouth limestone, and would add that such red sand is a frequent result of the decomposition of its dolomite, and that sandy beds of a similar kind are also not unfrequent in the limestone itself. If we call to mind the fragmentary condition of the fossils of the Old Red Sandstone strata, it may not be considered unreasonable to suppose that they have been formed from the decomposition of rocks similar to those of our Devonian limestones, in which iron pyrites was much more abundantly distributed.
Kaiso depletion attenuates transforming growth factor-β signaling and metastatic activity of triple-negative breast cancer cells
Authors: Bassey-Archibong B I , Kwiecien J M , Milosavljevic S B , Hallett R M , Rayner L G A , Erb M J , Crawford-Brown C J , Stephenson K B , Bédard P-A , Hassell J A , Daniel J M
Published: March 2016

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) represent a subset of breast tumors that are highly aggressive and metastatic, and are responsible for a disproportionate number of breast cancer-related deaths. Several studies have postulated a role for the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program in the increased aggressiveness and metastatic propensity of TNBCs. Although EMT is essential for early vertebrate development and wound healing, it is frequently co-opted by cancer cells during tumorigenesis. One prominent signaling pathway involved in EMT is the transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) pathway. In this study, we report that the novel POZ-ZF transcription factor Kaiso is highly expressed in TNBCs and correlates with a shorter metastasis-free survival. Notably, Kaiso expression is induced by the TGFβ pathway and silencing Kaiso expression in the highly invasive breast cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231 (hereafter MDA-231) and Hs578T, attenuated the expression of several EMT-associated proteins (Vimentin, Slug and ZEB1), abrogated TGFβ signaling and TGFβ-dependent EMT. Moreover, Kaiso depletion attenuated the metastasis of TNBC cells (MDA-231 and Hs578T) in a mouse model. Although high Kaiso and high TGFβR1 expression is associated with poor overall survival in breast cancer patients, overexpression of a kinase-active TGFβR1 in the Kaiso-depleted cells was insufficient to restore the metastatic potential of these cells, suggesting that Kaiso is a key downstream component of TGFβ-mediated pro-metastatic responses. Collectively, these findings suggest a critical role for Kaiso in TGFβ signaling and the metastasis of TNBCs.
Significant Broadband Photocurrent Enhancement by Au-CZTS Core-Shell Nanostructured Photocathodes
Authors: Zhang Xuemei , Wu Xu , Centeno Anthony , Ryan Mary P. , Alford Neil M. , Riley D. Jason , Xie Fang
Published: March 2016

Copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) is a promising material for harvesting solar energy due to its abundance and non-toxicity. However, its poor performance hinders their wide application. In this paper gold (Au) nanoparticles are successfully incorporated into CZTS to form Au@CZTS core-shell nanostructures. The photocathode of Au@CZTS nanostructures exhibits enhanced optical absorption characteristics and improved incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) performance. It is demonstrated that using this photocathode there is a significant increase of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a photoelectrochemical solar cell of 100% compared to using a CZTS without Au core. More importantly, the PCE of Au@CZTS photocathode improved by 15.8% compared to standard platinum (Pt) counter electrode. The increased efficiency is attributed to plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET) between the Au nanoparticle core and the CZTS shell at wavelengths shorter than the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of the Au and the semiconductor bandgap.
Palladium-catalyzed silylation reaction between benzylic halides and silylboronate
Authors: Huang Zhi-Dao , Ding Ran , Wang Peng , Xu Yun-He , Loh Teck-Peng
Published: March 2016

An efficient Pd-catalyzed silylation reaction of benzylic halides with silylboronate is reported. In this reaction, primary and secondary benzylic halides could react well with silylboronates to afford benzylic silanes. This reaction accommodates a broad substrate scope and proceeds smoothly under very mild reaction conditions. The corresponding products could be obtained in moderate to high yields and with stereospecificity.
An artificial photosynthetic model based on a molecular triad of boron dipyrromethene and phthalocyanine
Authors: Ermilov Eugeny A. , Liu Jian-Yong , Menting Roel , Huang Ying-Si , Röder Beate , Ng Dennis K. P.
Published: March 2016

A molecular triad of boron dipyrromethene and phthalocyanine has been prepared which absorbs widely in the UV-Vis region and undergoes efficient energy and charge transfer processes, allowing it to serve as an artificial photosynthetic model.