bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Rocks of the Cataracts of the River Madeira and the Adjoining Portions of the Beni and Mamoré
Authors: Evans John William
Published: October 2009

I. General Configuration of the Region.

More than eleven years have passed since the publication of a paper by this Society on ‘The Geology of Matto Grosso,’ in which I described the rocks that I met with in the area drained by the Upper Paraguay and its tributaries. They include granitoid gneiss highly-cleaved slates, limestones, sandstones, and shales, and have a prevailing north-easterly and south-westerly strike parallel to the coast-ranges of Southern Brazil. To the northward they are covered unconformably by a younger series of sandstones and shales containing imperfectly-preserved Devonian fossils. These dip gently northward, and form a broad undulating tableland extending from east to west. Still farther north, between latitudes 10° and 4° S. on the Xingú (pronounced Shingu), Dr. Karl von den Steinen found granite, gneiss, and other crystalline rocks. Nothing is said about the strike, but it seems that the trend of the hills was approximately south-west and north-east, as in the basin of the Upper Paraguay.

East of the River Paraguay the high ground changes its trend, and stretches in a north-westerly direction to the cataracts of the Mamoré and Madeira, under the names of the Serra dos Parecis and Cordilheira Geral. At first it constitutes the watershed between the tributaries of the Paraguay and those of the Tapajós, while farther to the north-west it forms the north-eastern boundary of the basin of the River Guaporé or Itenes, which pursues its way in a parallel direction for nearly 400 miles on the north-eastern margin of
On Footprints from the Permian of Mansfield (Nottinghamshire)
Authors: Hickling George
Published: October 2009

It is the object of this brief communication to call attention to a series of footprints discovered so long ago as October 1897 by Mr. Francis Holmes, of Leicester, the description of which has been delayed by the lamented death of the geologist to whom we owe their preservation, the late Mr. James Shipman, F.G.S., of Nottingham.

I. Notes on the Strata

These impressions were obtained from the Rock-Valley Quarry, Mansfield, in the Permian rocks north-east of the town, some 500 yards from the Permo-Triassic boundary, where they are overlapped by the Lower Mottled Sandstone. The rock which is here quarried is a lenticular mass of sandstone intercalated in the Magnesian Limestone, described by Aveline in the Geological Survey-Memoir on Sheet 82 S.E. 2nd ed. (1879) pp. 10–12, as a locally-sandy type of the limestone, passing laterally into the normal type. The stone is here yellowish-red in colour, becoming almost white on the opposite side of the town. It is by no means pure sandstone throughout, but contains irregular bands of ‘bastard,’ a term used by the quarrymen to indicate a calcareous sandstone. Every gradation may be found between a pure sandstone and the almost pure limestone.

The general succession in this quarry appears to be as follows, in descending order, though all the beds vary greatly
in thickness:
The Clay-with-Flints; its Origin and Distribution
Authors: Jukes-Browne Alfred John
Published: October 2009

I. Definition and Theories of Origin

The peculiar deposit which has been termed ‘Clay-with-Flints’ is well known to most English geologists, as occurring in sheets or patches of various sizes over a large area in the South of England, from Hertfordshire on the north to Sussex on the south, and from Kent on the east to Devon on the west. It almost always lies on the surface of the Upper Chalk, but in Dorset it passes onto the Middle and Lower Chalk, and in Devon it is found on the Chert-Beds of the Selbornian Group.

The existence of a red clay full of flints, lying as a soil or deposit on the surface of the Chalk, was well known to geologists in the middle of last century, such as Trimmer, Lyell, and Prestwich; and some appear to have regarded it as a residue derived from the solution and disintegration of the Chalk, but Joshua Trimmer in 1851 maintained that it and the other ‘soils which cover the Chalk of Kent’ were the result of aqueous transport.

It was not until 1861 that it was described as a special accumulation or aggregation by Mr. Whitaker, under the name of Clay-with-Flints; and not until 1864 that he ventured to suggest an explanation of its formation. His belief was and still is that ‘the Clay-with-Flints is of many ages, and may be forming even at the present day, and that it is owing in great part to the slow decomposition of the Chalk
The Buttermere and Ennerdale Granophyre
Authors: Rastall Robert Heron
Published: October 2009

I. Introduction

In the western part of the English Lake-District there occurs a large development of igneous rocks, which are conveniently described, collectively, as the Buttermere and Ennerdale Granophyre. This group extends for nearly 10 miles from north to south, and for nearly 5 miles from east to west. In this large area are to be found several different rock-types, which present many features of interest; and, at the suggestion of Dr. J. E. Marr, F.R.S., I have undertaken the investigation of the phenomena shown in this district.

The first and only detailed description of this rock-mass was given by Clifton Ward nearly 30 years ago; and the subject has apparently never been touched as a whole by modern methods, although Mr. Alfred Harker has published a short description of some specimens from the Wastwater district.

The map (fig. 1, p. 254) shows that the exposure of this group of rocks is very irregular in form: to the west of Buttermere is a somewhat lenticular mass about 2 1/2 miles long by nearly a mile wide, forming the lower part of High Stile, and the main mass of Red Pike and Gale Fell. The southern boundary of this intrusion cuts across the summit of Red Pike; and there is a strong contrast between the rugged crags of High Stile, formed of volcanic rocks of the Borrowdale Series, and the smooth outlines given by the intrusive rocks of Red Pike. This intrusion is connected with a much larger
Trilobites from Bolivia, collected by Dr. J. W. Evans in 1901–1902
Authors: Lake Philip
Published: October 2009

The trilobites brought home by Dr. Evans are comparatively few in number, but nevertheless they form a valuable addition to our limited knowledge of the Lower Palæozoic faunas of South America. Several horizons are represented, and it is worthy of remark that, while the earlier forms show affinities with the contemporaneous European fauna, the Devonian species are much more closely allied to those of South Africa and North America. This observation is borne out by an examination of the trilobites described by Prof. E. Kayser from Argentina, by Dr. A. Ulrich from Bolivia, and by Dr. J. M. Clarke from Brazil.

The following forms have been identified:—

Peltura
sp.

Symphysurus Apolonista
, sp. nov.

Trinucleus boliviensis
, sp. nov.

Ogygia
sp.

Phacops
cf.
arbuteus
, Lake.

Dalmanites Paitúna
, Hartt & Rathbun (?).

Dalmanites Maecurúa
, J. M. Clarke (?).

Dalmanites
sp.

The specimens were obtained from the following localities:— (1) Cochaiya, about 3 miles north-east of Pata, on the track from Apolo to Pelechuco
via
Pata, Province of Caupolican, Republic of Bolivia.

Two specimens of
Peltura
were obtained in soft, pale-violet or purple shales in this locality. The beds clearly belong to the Upper Cambrian, and are probably on the horizon of the Dolgelly Beds or Upper
Lingula
-Flags.

(2) Large blocks of sandstone (not
in situ
) about a mile from Apolo, Province of Caupolican, in a
On Graptolites from Bolivia, collected by Dr. J. W. Evans in 1901–1902
Authors: Wood Ethel M. R.
Published: October 2009

The graptolites collected by Dr. John W. Evans from Bolivia, and sent to me for inspection, are marked as coming from five separate localities.

The best-preserved forms occur in black pyritic shales exposed at ‘a halting-place on the right bank of the Rio Coranhuata, known as Culi, on the up-stream side of the Puente de Culi (J. 28/4/02).’ The rock is cleaved, and the graptolites are in consequence somewhat distorted, but the well-known species
Didymograptus bifidus
, Hall, is recognizable. Associated with this abundant form there is one small fragment of a slender extensiform
Didymograptus
, apparently of the type of
D. affinis
, Nich., but too fragmentary to admit of specific identification.

Black shales occurring at another locality ‘on the left bank of the Rio Coranhuata, on the down-stream side of the Puente de Culi (H. 28/4/02),’ are crowded with graptolites, but unfortunately much distorted and in a poor state of preservation.

On one slab from this spot several examples of a species of
Phyllograptus
are recognizable, and one of
Glossograptus
. The commonest graptolitic form present, however, is one which it is difficult to assign to any known genus or species. It belongs to the family of the Diplograptidæ, and possesses three conspicuous spines at its proximal extremity together with a long virgula distally produced. It is, perhaps, most closely allied to the genus
Cryptograptus
; but all details as to the form of the thecæ are obscure, and the specimens are too distorted to allow of description.

Another slab from the same
Brachiopod Homœomorphy
Authors: Buckman S. S.
Published: October 2009

To be able to arrange, in the Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural History), the species known as
Terebratula diphya
and
T. diphyoides
, with their allies, it was necessary to ascertain the generic and specific names which such shells should bear. The following remarks are partly the results of such enquiries, partly of investigations carried on at other times in connexion with other collections. The work has led to finding certain overlooked specific designations, while there seem to be disclosed not only notable cases of homœomorphy, but an interesting course of Brachiopod evolution.

To deal with the specific synonymy:—The name
diphya
, Colonna, is pre-Linnean, and therefore cannot remain. The first post-Linnean designation for some of the shells in question is given by Bruguière in 1792 [3]. He named and figured a non-perforate shell
Terebratula pileus
(p. 424), and a perforate one
T. cor
(p. 425) These figures, with others of
Terebratulæ
were reproduced in the ‘Encyclopédie Méthodique’ [4], being drawn under Bruguière's direction, as he states in the ‘Journal d’Histoire Naturelle’ p. 419. They were published in 1797 [33], without any names, and were accompanied by figures of another perforate
diphya
-like fossil.

In 1819, Valenciennes [36] wrote the articles on the
Terebratulæ
in Lamarck's ‘Animaux sans Vertèbres’: he named the last-mentioned fossil (Ency. Méth. pl. ccxl, fig. 4)
Terebratula deltoidea
; to the reproduced figures of Bruguière's
T. pileus
(Ency. Méth. pl. ccxli, fig. 1) he gave the name
T. triangulus
; and the reproduced figures of Bruguiére's
T. cor
he
The Constitution of the Interior of the Earth, as Revealed by Earthquakes
Authors: Oldham Richard Dixon
Published: October 2009

I. Introductory.

Of all regions of the earth none invites speculation more than that which lies beneath our feet, and in none is speculation more dangerous; yet, apart from speculation, it is little that we can say regarding the constitution of the interior of the earth. We know, with sufficient accuracy for most purposes, its size and shape: we know that its mean density is about 5 1/2 times that of water, that the density must increase towards the centre, and that the temperature must be high, but beyond these facts little can be said to be known. Many theories of the earth have been propounded at different times: the central substance of the earth has been supposed to be fiery, fluid, solid, and gaseous in turn, till geologists have turned in despair from the subject, and become inclined to confine their attention to the outermost crust of the earth, leaving its centre as a playground for mathematicians.

The object of this paper is not to introduce another speculation, but to point out that the subject is, at least partly, removed from the realm of speculation into that of knowledge by the instrument of research which the modern seismograph has placed in our hands. Just as the spectroscope opened up a new astronomy by enabling the astronomer to determine some of the constituents of which distant stars are composed, so the seismograph, recording the unfelt motion of distant earthquakes, enables us to see into the earth and
The Eruption of Vesuvius in April 1906
Authors: de Lorenzo Giuseppe
Published: October 2009

After the great, eruption of April 26th, 1872, the exhausted volcano lapsed into comparative repose for three years, a repose marked by merely solfataric phenomena, to awaken again in 1875, however, to a state of strombolian activity, which continued until the beginning of this present month of April, punctuated now and then by phases of lateral outpourings of lava, such as those of the years 1885,1889, 1891, 1895, etc. In the course of these the great cone was fissured, and there flowed from the fissures month after month and year after year, piling up on itself, a lava mostly of the Pahoehoe type, dense and pasty, that is, insufficiently saturated with steam and superheated water.

Meanwhile, however, the quantity of this water was slowly increasing within the subterranean furnace, as was proved by the great outbursts from the principal crater, which took place in May 1900 and September 1904. As the amount of this steam and the degree of its tension continued to increase, on May 27th, 1905, fissures were rent in the north-north-western wall of the cone, whence rivulets of lava began to pour forth, from an altitude of about 3600 feet. This went on until the beginning of the present month of April, the new lava finding its way down the little valley which runs between the two hills of lava heaped up by the eruptions of 1891 and 1895, and flowing also westward in such wise as to cut the electric railway along that portion of the
On the Relations of the Chalk and Boulder-Clay near Royston (Hertfordshire)
Authors: Bonney T. G.
Published: October 2009

In a paper read before the Geological Society in 1903, Mr. H. B. Woodward described three sections exhibited in pits on the Chalk-uplands to the south of Royston, which in his opinion indicated that a great ice-sheet, as it advanced from the north, had sheared off large masses of Chalk and left them mixed up with its ground or englacial moraine (the Chalky Boulder-Clay). I am aware that authorities may be cited in support of such an association ; but as I have visited more than one alleged instance of it without becoming a convert, and am doubtful whether any British ice-sheet ever extended so far to the south, I venture to state why I am still unconvinced. I carefully examined, in July 1904, the pit lying ‘south-west of Newsell’s Park and north of Barkway’: selecting this because it evidently afforded the strongest support to Mr. Woodward’s view, and came away less than ever a believer. Last October I returned thither in company with my friend, the Rev. E. Hill, then but recently back from his third visit to Möen, in order to have the benefit of his experienced eye; and from this pit we went on to that at ‘Pinner's Cross, Smith's End, south of Barley.’ He took some photographs, which have been useful to me in checking my diagrams; and I may add that, in all important respects, he agrees with the views expressed in this paper.

It will save time to state at the outset that I
The Phosphatic Chalks of Winterbourne and Boxford (Berkshire)
Authors: White Harold J. Osborne , Treacher Llewellyn
Published: October 2009

I. Introduction.

In the latter part of July 1905 we remarked, among the fossils exhibited in the recently-founded Museum at the Cloth Hall, Newbury, a group of guards of the belemnoid
Actinocamax granulatus
(Blainville), labelled ‘Winterbourne’—the name of a village 3 1/2 miles to the north-west of the above-named town. To us, these specimens were objects of more than usual interest, inasmuch as our examination of the Upper Chalk in the western part of the London Tertiary Basin, so far as it then extended, had shown us (1) that
Actinocamax granulatus
was a rare fossil in that area; (2) that it was there confined to beds of the
Marsupites
-Band and of later age; and (3) that such beds, although well-developed to the south of the Kennet, were cut out, by the Eocene overstep, to the north of that river, along a line passing 2 or 3 miles south of the parish of Winterbourne. Assuming the guards to be correctly labelled, they seemed to indicate the existence of an outlying mass of
Marsupites
-, or newer, Chalk rather rich in belemnoids, within a tract of country where the Eocene deposits were known to be generally in contact with some part of the older,
Micraster cor-anguinum
- Chalk; and as we had but recently given some attention to just such a mass in the shape of the Phosphatic Chalk of Taplow, the possibility of the recurrence of phosphatic conditions near Newbury at once presented itself to our minds.

On our making
On the Occurence of Limestone of the Lower Carboniferous Series in the Cannock-Chase Portion of the South Staffordshire Coalfield
Authors: Cockin George Marmaduke
Published: October 2009

The South Staffordshire Coalfield embraces a district 26 miles in length, and includes the southern portion of Staffordshire as well as portions of Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Shropshire. Over the southern portion of this coalfield the Coal-Measures rest directly upon the Silurian limestone. This is known to be the case as far north as the Great Bentley Fault, north of which a deep sinking and borehole at No. 2 pit, Cannock-Chase Colliery, proved a thickness of 1212 feet of Coal-Measures below the Deep Coal-Seam, succeeded by 102 feet of limestone-rock, said to be Silurian limestone.

It has been thought up to the present time, in the absence of any proof to the contrary, that the Lower Carboniferous rocks are altogether wanting in this area. Jukes, in his Geological Survey Memoir on the South Staffordshire Coalfield, 2nd ed. (1859) p. xii, says:— ‘These vast formations of Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous Limestone (to say nothing of the lower part of the Coal-Measure Series or Millstone Grit) are altogether absent in South Staffordshire, neither is there the slightest reason for supposing that any part of them ever existed in that district.’

Dr. Charles Lapworth & Mr. A. Sopwith, in Part III of the Report of the Royal Commission on Coal-Supplies, published in 1905, make the following statement:— ‘Neither Carboniferous Limestone nor Millstone Grit are known to occur within the limits of the South Staffordshire Coalfield. The oldest beds yet recognized are certain Ganister-like strata associated with the deepest Coal-Measures in the borings in
The Ordovician Rocks of Western Caermarthenshire
Authors: Evans David Cledlyn
Published: October 2009

I. Introduction

This little contribution to the geology of Caermarthenshire is the result of leisure-work done during some years’ residence in the district.

The ground dealt with is practically identical with that examined by the late Thomas Roberts, M.A., whose notes were published in the Quarterly Journal of this Society for May 1893 (vol. xlix): that is, from the River Cywyn on the east to the Tave on the west, and from the base of the Old Red Sandstone on the south to the top of the
Dicranograptus
-Shales on the north—roughly, a rectangular tract of country 11 miles long by 6 miles wide.

(1) Previous work done.—George Owen, of Henllys, as long ago as the year 1595, had given some attention to the economic geology of the district, and in a manuscript, an extract from which is appended to Richard Fenton's ‘Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire,’ refers to certain limestone-bands that occur here, noting, by the way, the proximity of limestones to the coal-deposits of the country. This inference has, from time to time, led to much expenditure of labour and money in a futile search for coal. Levels were driven and pits were sunk; but, of course, no coal was found—except in the fertile imagination of credulous though well-meaning people.

The district was examined by the officers of the Geological Survey in 1842, and the results of their labours are recorded in Sheets xli (Map) and 13 (Sections).

John Phillips, in his Memoir on the Malvern and Abberley Hills, records
The Kimeridge Clay and Corallian Rocks of the Neighbourhood of Brill (Buckinghamshire)
Authors: Davies Arthur Morley
Published: October 2009

A few miles east of Oxford the Corallian limestones and sands disappear abruptly, and for a long distance to the east and northeast the whole of the Upper Jurassic Series between the Cornbrash and the Portland Beds consists of clay, with some local rock-beds intercalated here and there. With this disappearance of stone comes a great falling-off in the number of exposures; therefore it is not surprising that, while the Portland and Purbeck Beds of Brill and Aylesbury have attracted much attention, the strata below them have been neglected by geologists. In the Geological-Survey memoir on the Middle and Upper Oolitic rocks of England (1895), Mr. H. B. Woodward ends a brief account of the district between Wheatley and Quainton with the sentence ‘Further research in the district is desirable’ (p. 135). It is as a contribution to this further research that this paper is offered.

The eleven years that have passed since that memoir was published have brought some changes to the district. At that time perhaps the most difficult of access of any so near to London, it is now traversed by two main lines of railway, while a third is on the point of being constructed. Large brickfields have been opened up for the supply of London and the residential districts of Buckinghamshire. On the other hand, the closing of small stone- and brick-pits continues, to the sorrow of the geologist.

I began the study of the strata below the Portlandian in this district in 1899, and
Notes on the Raised Beaches of Taltal (Northern Chile)
Authors: Evans Oswald Hardey
Published: October 2009

It is well known that the coast of Western South America presents, practically throughout its entire length, phenomena usually considered as being evidences of recent elevation, and the researches of Darwin long ago rendered familiar the shell-beds and terraces of Coquimbo, Huasco, Caldera, and other localities on the Chilian seaboard. Between Caldera and Iquique, however, the coast-phenomena have had little more than passing references bestowed upon them, the minor settlements of the Atacama Desert being seldom visited by travellers until of late years.

At Iquique, Darwin found shells at a height estimated between 150 and 200 feet, and A. d'Orbigny observed recent shells in Cobija at 300 feet above sea-level. David Forbes states that, between Mexillones and Arica, the evidences of elevation above 40 feet are unsatisfactory.

During a residence of two years at Taltal, I devoted much of my leisure to the study of the geology of the district. In communicating the following observations on the raised beaches, I have to mention with regret the entire loss of all my notes and photographs and practically the whole of my collection of fossils, in the Valparaiso earthquake of August 16th, 1906. Having, therefore, to depend almost entirely upon memory, I have been careful to confine myself to statements which I know to be correct, but am nevertheless fully conscious of the imperfection of the paper necessarily resulting from the lack of my original notes.

The town of Taltal, formerly insignificant but becoming daily of more importance as a port for
The Age and Origin of the Plateaus around Torquay
Authors: Jukes-Browne Alfred John
Published: October 2009

Having lately paid special attention to the hills and valleys of the Torquay district, I have been struck with the fact that the hills fall into two categories: first, those which rise above the level of a certain inclined plain or plateau; secondly, those which seem to have been carved out of this plateau. In the first category are the Warberry and Lincombe Hills, and the high ground above Kilmorie which bears no special name, but may, for the sake of convenience, be called ‘Kilmorie Hill.’ In the second category are nearly all the other hills within the Torquay watersheds; few of these hills rise much above 300 feet, and many of them are flat-topped, such as Daison Hill and Lummaton Hill.

Besides these flat-topped eminences, there are also definite plateaus which cannot be called ‘hills,’ but are obviously portions of one or more ancient plains. As instances of these, I need only mention the Babbacombe Downs, and the smaller tract which is known by the rustic appellation of Daddy-Hole Plain.

The plateaus around Torquay, and the problems which they offer to the student of physical geography, did not escape the notice of William Pengelly, who referred to them ill 1864 as ‘terraces of denudation.’ He seems to have regarded them as submarine platforms produced by the planing action of sea-waves at a time

‘not very remote geologically—when the entire district was below the sea-level.’

In 1866 he developed the idea still further in a paper on ‘Lithodomous Perforations... in
Note on the Cervical Vertebra of a
Zeuglodon
from the Barton Clay of Barton Cliff (Hampshire)
Authors: Andrews Charles William
Published: October 2009

In the year 1876, Prof. H. G. Seeley published in the Journal of this Society a short account of a small
Zeuglodon
from the Barton Clay of Barton Cliff. This specimen, which was made the type of the species
Zeuglodon
Wanklyni, was discovered in 1872 and came into the possession of Dr. Arthur Wanklyn, by whom Prof. Seeley was requested to draw up some notes on this important find. Fortunately he did so, for at Dr. Wanklyn's death all trace of the specimen was lost, and it was no doubt on this account that the notes had to be published without illustrations.

In 1881, Prof. J. W.,Iudd 2 gave an account of the discovery of a cetacean vertebra in the Brockenhurst Beds of Roydon (Hampshire) : this specimen was described by Prof. Seeley under the name
Balænoptera Juddi
, but he now, no doubt rightly, regards it as belonging to a
Zeuglodon
. Until quite lately no further remains of Zeuglodonts had been found in Britain, but some months ago Mr. H Eliot-Walton, who has done much collecting in the Hampshire cliffs, found a cervical vertebra of
Zeuglodon
, and it is to this specimen that the present note refers.

The vertebra is a posterior cervical, probably the sixth. The centrum is roughly oval in outline, its greatest width, which is situated nearer the ventral than the dorsal surface, being greater than the height.

The anterior face is almost flat, with a median depression, and marked by irregular ridges
On the Cretaceous Formation of Bahia (Brazil), and on Vertebrate Fossils collected therein
Authors: Mawson Joseph , Woodward Arthur Smith
Published: October 2009

I. Stratigphy. [J. M.]

At the end of the year 1859, Mr. Samuel Allport communicated to the Geological Society his discovery of a series of fossiliferous rocks, apparently of Mesozoic age, in the neighbourhood of Bahia (Brazil). In 1870 the same formation was more adequately described by Prof. C. F. Hartt, who regarded it as probably equivalent to the Neocomian of Europe; and, in 1878, the whole of the Cretaceous basin of Bahia formed the subject of a memoir by Dr. Orville A. Derby. The work of all these authors emphasized the importance of systematic collecting from the highly-fossiliferous deposits of the series in question; and it has been my pleasure and privilege, at intervals during the past thirty years, to devote considerable time to this task. Most of the fossil mollusca thus obtained have been monographed by Dr. C. A. White, while the fossil vertebrata have been described by the late Prof. E. D. Cope and Dr. A. Smith Woodward. No summary of results, however, has hitherto appeared; and, as my opportunities tor continuing the work are now almost at an end, I venture to offer to the Geological Society some general observations, to precede a discussion of my collection of vertebrate fossils, which has been prepared by Dr. Smith Woodward

As already remarked by Allport, the Cretaceous rocks of Bahia have a general north-westerly dip, but the series is so much disturbed and contorted that the actual dip differs in almost every section. It was, in fact
On a New Dinosaurian Reptile (
Scleromochlus Taylori
, gen. et sp. nov.) from the Trias of Lossiemouth, Elgin
Authors: Woodward Arthur Smith
Published: October 2009

Althought so many types of reptiles have been obtained during recent years from the Triassic sandstones of Elgin, Mr. William Taylor has lately discovered two examples of a new form which represents still another group. Through his kindness I have had the privilege of studying these two specimens and comparing them with two more imperfect skeletons of the same animal, which occur on a slab of Elgin Sandstone in the late Mr. James Grant's collection, now in the British Museum (No. R 3.146). All the specimens show merely impressions of bones in the rock, but they occur in counterpart slabs, and many of their most important features can be readily understood with the aid of wax-squeezes taken from the cavities.

The four individuals of this new reptile already known are approximately of the same size, each measuring about a decimetre in length to the root of the tail, which is long and slender. They therefore represent a comparatively-diminutive species; and the lightness of the skeleton, with its hollow bones, suggests an animal of remarkable agility (see the accompanying text-figure, p. 141). The head is relatively large, and the neck short. The fore-limbs are small and delicate; while the hind-limbs are very. large, and evidently adapted for a bipedal running or leaping gait. The more important measurements, in millimetres, are as follows:—

The large head viewed from above or below, as in the type-specimen (P1. IX, fig. 1), is elongate-triangular in shape, with a sharply-pointed snout. None of its external
The Geology of the Zambezi Basin around the Batoka Gorge (Rhodesia)
Authors: Lamplugh George William
Published: October 2009

I. Introduction.

At the request of the Council of the British Association, I undertook to examine the country in the neighbourhood of the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi River before the meeting of the Association in South Africa in the summer of 1905. Through the helpful cooperation of the British South Africa Company and the aid afforded to me by its officers in Rhodesia, I was enabled to make good use of the short time available to me for the task; and by rapid traverses of the wild country eastward of the Falls I gleaned much information regarding the geology and physiography of this little-known region. A preliminary account of the exploration was presented at the meeting of the British Association in Johannesburg, and has since been published in the ‘Report’ of that body. In this account the objects of the exploration and the circumstances of the journey are stated, and therefore need not be repeated here; but of the geological results it was only possible at that time to give a bare outline, pending the further examination of the material collected. My present object is to deal more adequately with the geological evidence.

The traverses occupied seven weeks in July and August, 1905, during which time a distance of over 600 miles was covered, partly on the northern and partly on the southern side of the Zambezi, as shown on the sketch-map (P1. XVII), the area embraced within these traverses being over 2000 square miles. In exploration of
The Toadstones of Derbyshire: their Field-Relations and Petrography
Authors: Arnold-Bemrose Henry Howe
Published: October 2009

I. Introduction.

In June 1894 I read a paper before this Society, ‘On the Microscopical Structure of the Carboniferous Dolerites & Tufts of Derbyshire’ Quart. Journ. Geol. See. vol. 1, pp. 603-44 & pls. xxiv-xxv. At that time I had made no attempt to establish the relations in the field between the igneous rocks and the limestones in which, they occurred. During the interval which elapsed between the acceptance of my paper by the Council of the Society and the reading of it, I had the pleasure of taking Sir Archibald Geikie over some typical parts of the district. He pointed out that some of the toadstones were contemporaneous with the limestone, others intrusive, and others represented the vents through which the volcanic material was brought to the surface; and that, in order to arrive at the history of the toadstones, careful re-mapping of the whole district would be necessary.

In 1897, in his ‘Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain’ vol. ii, p. 12, Sir Archibald expressed the opinion that

‘the number of successive platforms on which igneous materials appear will never be satisfactorily determined until the stratigraphy of the Derbyshire Carboniferous Limestone is worked out in detail. When the successive members of this great calcareous formation have been identified by lithological and palæontological characters over the whole district, it will be easy to allocate each outcrop of toadstone to its true geological horizon.’

Since November 1894, I have mapped the toadstones on the 6-inch Ordnance maps and
The Crystalline Rocks of the Kukuruku Hills (Southern Nigeria)
Authors: Parkinson John
Published: October 2009

In this paper a preliminary account is given of the crystalline rocks lying to the north of the Benin Sands of the Central Province of Southern Nigeria, and between 5° 20′ and 6° long. E. (for route, see map, p. 310).

Comparison of this district with that of the Oban Hills goes to show that we have to deal with differences rather of degree than of kind. In each area we find a group of schists intruded into by a series of later gneisses of acid composition; in each the latter are associated with pegmatites and basaltic dykes.

In the Kukuruku district (Owo, Otua, etc.) there is a striking development of quartz-schists, unknown up to the present in the Oban Hills; a difference to be naturally accounted for by the conditions under which the original sediments were deposited.

The evidence for the intrusive nature of the gneisses of the Kukuruku Hills rests upon sections along the banks of the Ayi-ossi and the Ossi.

The petrographical characters of the schists (quartz-schists, sillimanite-schists, etc.) show that they were originally sediments. A partial analysis of a very ferriferous mica-schist from Otua yielded:

In many respects the gneisses recall those of the Eastern.. Province.

Near Utchi in the Ogbese Valley the foliation of the gneiss trends N. 45° W. (true), and on the Ossi west of Iduani the trend of the foliation is approximately the same.

D
iscussion
(O
n
T
he
T
hree
F
oregoing
P
apers
)

Dr. J. W. E
vans
referred to the advantages of the system, by
The Swansea Earthquake of June 27th, 1906
Authors: Davison Charles
Published: October 2009

Local earthquakes in the mining districts of South Wales are not uncommon. They are probably due to slight fault-slips precipitated by mining operations, and, if so, are partly of artificial origin. True tectonic earthquakes are of less frequent occurrence, and none, I believe, is recorded from December 30th and 31st, 1832, until June 27th, 1906, when one of the strongest shocks of the last twenty years disturbed all Wales, the West of England, and the south-eastern corner of Ireland.

Besides this earthquake, which occurred at 9.45 a.m., several others of less intensity are reported on the authority of single observers: but, in the absence of corroborative records, they should, I think, be regarded as of doubtful seismic origin. They occurred at the following times :—

June 26th, about 8 p.m: Aberavon.—A slight shock.

June 26th, about 11.30 p.m.: Ferryside.—An unusual sound was heard, as if coming from the earth.

June 27th, about 12.45 a.m.: Ferryside.—The same.

June 27th, al~out 1 a.m.: Aberavon.—A slight shock.

June 27th, about 2 a.m.: Llandeilo.—A slight shock, with a rumbling noise like thunder.

June 27th, about 8.15 a.m.: Ferryside.—A shock accompanied by a heavy thud.

June 27th, 10.14 a.m.: Ystalyfera.—A very slight shock.

June 28th, 2.5 a.m.: Lower Cwmtyrch (Swansea Valley).—A slight shock.

June 30th, 11.30 p.m.: Neath.—A slight shock.
The Flora of the Inferior Oolite of Brora (Sutherland)
Authors: Stopes Marie C.
Published: October 2009

The object of this paper is to place on record the discovery of a bed containing plant-impressions in the Oolites of Brora in Sutherland, which represent a flora bearing a strong likeness to that of the Inferior Oolites of the Yorkshire coast, and to give a short description of the Scottish plants.

In Prof. Judd's (73) classic memoir on the Secondary rocks of Scotland, the description given of the district round Brora in Sutherland shows that it is the most favourable locality for studying the Secondary formations of the country. Near the little town of Brora the beds are well exposed, and are of economic importance on account of the workable coal and building-stone which they supply. It is not necessary to point out how little there is left in Scotland of the rocks of Oolitic age.

Notwithstanding its inaccessibility, the Brora district had been referred to by geologists even before the time of Murchison, the coal-pit having been first sunk in the Oolitic coal in 1598 by the Countess of Sutherland. Repeated borings have been made since, and the mine, although stopped down in the early part, of the nineteenth century, is at present again in active work. This practically unique case of an extensive coal-mine in the Oolites has attracted the attention of geologists, yet remarkably little is to be found in the literature about the fossil-plants of the coal-bearing beds.

In a paper by Hugh Miller (62) in his well-known book, some plant-impressions are mentioned, but most
The Inferior Oolite and Contiguous Deposits of the District between the Rissingtons and Burford
Authors: Richardson Linsdall
Published: October 2009

I. Introduction

The upland district between the Rissingtons on the west and Burford on the south-east is much furrowed by combes, but, owing to the highest beds that have escaped denudation having been inclined south-eastward, the surface has a general slope in that direction.

On the north-east lies the southern portion of the Morcton Valley, on the west the flat-bottomed Vale of Bourton. The one valley is strewn mainly with sand and pebbles brought from a distance, the other with material of purely-local orion. Both valleys have had a somewhat similar origin: the Moreton Valley has resulted from the denudation of an anticline, along which the Inferior-Oolite rocks must always have been thin, the Yale of Bourton from the denudation of an ellipsoidal pericline.

The western and north-western limits of the district converge to the north, conjoining at the promontory-like Iccomb Hill, which overlooks the narrow valley traversed by the railway between Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping-Norton Junction. On the south is the Barrington-Taynton Valley, and on the south-east the neck of high ground that joins the tract under consideration to the main hill-mass.

The ‘solid’ rock that floors the Vale of Bourton, the valley to the north of Iccomb Hill, and the Moreton Valley, is Lower Lias. A gentle slope leads up to the Marlstone platform, upon which Little Rissington is wholly, and Great Rissington is partly built. The Marlstone platform extends from Dodd's Mill northwards along the eastern side of the Bourton Valley, round Iccomb Hill, past Iccomb village, and
On the Origin of Certain Cañon-like Valleys associated with Lake-like Areas of Depression
Authors: Harmer Frederic William
Published: October 2009

The discovery of the Glacial origin of some gorge-like valleys in North-East Yorkshire by Mr. C. Fox Strangways and Prof. P. F. Kendall has suggested a new method of physiographical research.

It is clear, moreover, that such cases must be typical and not anomalous. In all glaciated regions, whether in Great Britain or abroad, the invasion of any district by an ice-sheet, especially where its movement was upstream, would obstruct the natural drainage, producing lakes, the level of which would rise until an outlet for the water was established in some new direction. In some instances the overflow might take place over the advancing ice, or between it and the hillsides; in others, where the obstruction was of sufficient thickness, water might escape laterally, in a direction at right angles to the longest diameter of the lake and to the course of the pre-existing stream.

An overflow-channel so caused, excavated rapidly by a considerable volume of swiftly-running water, would assume a gorge-like character, and originating no farther back than Glacial times would present a comparatively recent appearance. It would differ essentially from the Midland type of valley with gently-sloping contours, produced by the gradual and combined processes of atmospheric and fluviatile erosion.

Typical examples ofeachkind are here given. Fig. 1 (p. 472), from a photograph taken a short distance above Bath, shows the valley ia which that city stands. :Excavated out of the Jurassic limestone of the Cotteswolds, it has rather a rapid fall, presenting, nevertheless, a characteristic example of
Brachiopod Homœomorphy: ‘

Spirifer Glaber

’
Authors: Buckman S. S.
Published: October 2009

It is easy, but it is very dangerous, to group together under one name a series of shells of similar appearance, especially when they are in the smooth catagenetic stage; because this smooth stage may have been attained by the loss of different distinctive features, pointing to polygenetic origins. An instructive case in this respect is found in the series of forms called
Spirifer glaber
.

As
Spirifera glabra
, Davidson figured a series of shells which do not all agree in being smooth; for, though most of them are smooth, some are radially costate. And they do not agree in shape: some have a pronounced mesial fold, others hardly any; some are very transverse, others are narrow. Then in his synonymy he combined under this name many species of other authors:
Sp. obtusus, Sp. oblatus
, Sowerby,
Sp. linguifera, Sp. symmetrica, Sp. decora
, Phillips,
Sp. lævigatus
, von Buch.

Of late years this
glaber
-series of the Carboniferous, and certain smooth Spiriferids of the Devonian, have been ranged in M'Coy's genus
Martinia
.

A somewhat similar series of Spiriferids is grouped under
Reticularia
, M'Coy: their distinguishing character is a reticulate surface. Davidson makes the principal species
Spirifera lineata
(Martin), and ranges under it
Terebratula (?) imbricata
, Sowerby,
Spirifera elliptica
and
Sp. mesoloba
, Phillips,
Reticularia reticulata
and
Martinia stringocephaloides
, M'Coy.

In
Reticularia
the ornament is in the catagenetic stage, decreasing in intensity; so that partially or wholly smooth
Reticulariœ
are to be expected.

There is good evidence that several of the forms ranged under
Spirifera glabra
On a Collection of Fossil Plants from South Africa
Authors: Seward Albert Charles
Published: October 2009

1. I
ntroduction
.

Since the publication of my account of the ‘Fossil Floras of Cape Colony’ in the fourth volume of the ‘Annals of the South African Museum’ (1903) additional records of some of the floras have been obtained from several localities by members of the Geological Survey of that Colony. It is this recently-acquired material, forwarded to me for examination by the Director of the geological staff, Mr. A. W. Rogers, which forms the subject of the present communication. The majority of the specimens were collected from the Molteno Beds and from the Burghersdorp Beds; a few were obtained from the Uitenhage Series, a higher geological horizon; and others from the Lower Karroo rocks. The Lower Karroo plants are dealt with in a separate paper by Mr. Leslie and myself on the Vereeniging flora; the Uitenhage species are described elsewhere. With the exception of
Schizoneura africana
, a Permian species from the lowest beds of the Beaufort Series, we are now concerned with the Molteno and Burghersdorp species alone.

It is customary to divide the Karroo system of Cape Colony into three sections: the Lower Karroo, comprising, in ascending order, the Dwyka Series and the Ecca Series; the Middle Karroo or Beaufort Series; and the Upper Karroo or Stormberg Series. The uppermost strata of the Beaufort Series have been named the Burghersdorp Beds, from the typical development of the rocks in the neighbourhood of Burghersdorp, a small town about 30 miles south of the frontier of the Orange-River Colony, on the
Permo-Carboniferous Plants from Vereeniging, Transvaal
Authors: Seward Albert Charles , Leslie Thomas Nicholas
Published: October 2009

1. I
ntroduction
.

The township of Vereeniging, on the northern bank of the Vaal River, close to its junction with the Klip River, is situated on the southern boundary of the Transvaal Colony, rather more than 40 miles south of Johannesburg on the railway which runs to Bloemfontein and Naauw Port. Geologically, Vereeniging is important as the locality from which the greater number of Palæozoic South African plants have been obtained; the species hitherto described are frequently cited by authors—not always with the same conclusions—in reference to the geological age of the strata in this part of the Transvaal.

The large striated boulders weathered out of the surrounding matrix on the bank of the Vaal River afford a striking demonstration of the nature of the Glacial Conglomerate, the term advocated by Mr. E. T. Mellor in preference to that of the Dwyka. We are not concerned with the precise method of formation of the conglomerate, but we are convinced that Sutherland was correct in his opinion, expressed more than 40 years ago, that the boulder-beds owe their origin to the action of ice, and this (we believe) is the view of those geologists who have had an opportunity of examining the evidence at first hand. The conglomerate, as shown in the accompanying section (fig. 1, p. 110), is succeeded by coal-seams, sandstones, and shales; it is mainly from the sandstones that the plants have been obtained. Most of the specimens were found in a sandstone-quarry a mile and a half from
On the Structure and Relations of the Laurentian System in Eastern Canada
Authors: Adams Frank Dawson
Published: October 2009

1. I
ntroduction
.

When Sir William Logan, in the early years of the Geological Survey of Canada, was gradually unravelling the stratigraphical succession as displayed in the Dominion, he found that at the base of the whole column lay the crystalline rocks of the Laurentian Mountains. The name ‘Laurentian Mountains’ had been previously given to that great stretch of iron-bound coast which lies along the north of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and is not, properly speaking, a mountain-range at all, but is merely the margin of a great rock-plateau—the Laurentain peneplain—which forms a portion of the northern protaxis of the North American continent. Logan's studies in the Province of Quebec led him to believe that the Laurentian System, as he termed it, consists of a series of highly-crystalline limestones interstratified with quartzites and gneisses, which in their turn overlie a great thickness of foliated orthoclase-gneiss, the foliation of the latter being regarded by him as the survival of an almost obliterated bedding.

He subsequently found in Eastern Ontario a series of rocks which he considered in all probability to represent the Grenville Series in a less altered state, and to this he gave the name of the ‘Hastings Series.’ Later investigations showed that the anorthosite of the Laurentian System is of intrusive origin; but little further light was thrown upon the relations of the underlying limestone-series (which is now termed the Grenville Series) to the Lower or Fundamental Gneiss. The relation of the Grenville and the Hastings Series also remained