bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Note on two Skulls from the Wealden and Purbeck Formations indicating a new Subgroup of Crocodilia
Authors: Hulke J. W.
Published: October 2009

A
n
examination of the crocodilian skull exhibited last session by Mr. Willett, and of an undescribed skull in the British Museum, No. 41,098*, has brought to light a peculiarity in the posterior nares which, so far as I am aware, had been previously recognized only in the small crocodilian skull from Brook, Isle of Wight, in the Jermyn Street Museum, described by Prof. Huxley in a paper communicated to this Society on 28th April, 1875, and figured in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxi. pl. xix. fig. 3.

This, and the great probability of the correctness of Mr. Willett's reference of his acquisition to
Goniopholis crassidens
, the skull of which was before quite unknown, have seemed to me to invest these skulls with sufficient interest to warrant me in offering a short account of them to the Fellows.

I.
Mr. Willett's Crocodilian Skull (Goniopholis crassidens, Owen
?). (P1. XV. figs. 1 & 2.)

Viewed from above, the outline of this skull has the form of a slender isosceles triangle, the base of which, taken between the extreme outer posterior angles of the quadrate bones, measures about 13 inches, and the nearly straight sides from the same points to the premaxillary suture 25 inches. The uniform convergence of the sides is broken by a slight inbend in front of the orbits, by a small outbend at the 6th, 7th, and 8th maxillary teeth, reckoned from before backwards, and by the abrupt expansion of the præmaxillæ occasioning a deep lateraI notch
Contributions to the History of the Deer of the European Miocene and Pliocene Strata
Authors: Dawkins W. Boyd
Published: October 2009

General Conclusions

We may gather from the study of the fossil Cervidæ the important fact that in the Middle Miocene age the Cervine antler consisted of a simple forked crown only. In the Upper Miocenes it becomes more complex, but is still small and erect, like that of the Roe. In the Pliocene it becomes larger and longer, and altogether more complex and differentiated, some forms, such as the
Cervus dicranios
of Nesti, being the most complicated antlers known either in the living or fossil state. These successive changes are analogous to those which are to be observed in the development of the antlers in the living Deer, which begin with a simple point and increase their number of tynes until their limit be reached. It is obvious from the progressive diminution in size and complexity of the antlers in tracing them back from the Pliocenes into the Upper and Middle Miocenes of Europe, that in the latter period we are approaching the zero of antler development. In the Lower Miocenes I have failed to meet with evidence that the Deer possessed any antlers.

It is further evident from the preceding remarks that the Capreoline type of antler is older than any other.

It is also a point of singular interest to observe that the nearest living analogue of the Miocene Deer is the Muntjak, now found only in the Oriental region of Asia along with the tapir
Cervus dicranoceros
also coexisted with that animal in the Upper Miocene forests of Germany.

With one exception all the Pliocene Deer which can be brought into relation with living forms are closely allied to the
Axes, Rusœ
, or others, which also are dwellers iu the Oriental Region. They belong to a fauna now met with only in the forests of India, China, Japan, and the Malay archipelago. The exception is the
Cervus cusanus
, which possessed an antler not very far removed from that of the Roe, an animal now so widely spread over Europe and Northern and Central Asia. I should infer from this that the Oriental Region has offered a secure place of refuge to the Axeidæ, so abundant in the Pliocenes of France and Italy, from those changes in their environment which compelled them to retreat from Europe. The fact of the presence in this quarter of the world of a group of animals now met with only in warm regions, confirms the conclusions as to the warm climate of Pliocene Europe which M. le Vicomte de Saporta has recently arrived at from a study of the vegetation.
On the Influence of the Advent of a higher Form of Life in modifying the Structure of an older and lower Form
Authors: Owen Richard
Published: October 2009

I
n
tracing the modifications of structure in a series of animals so similar to one another as to be termed a ‘natural group,’ one is led to consider the relations to such modifications of concomitant changes in external influences during the geological period of the existence of such group. A difference in the density of the parts of the earth's surface habitually trodden by hoofed quadrupeds has been suggested, for example, as a concomitant, if not causal condition in the transmutation of a five-hoofed perissodactyle (
Coryphodon
, e.g.) to a three-hoofed one (
Palæotherium
, e. g.), thence verging in simplification, through
Hipparion
, to the existing single-hoofed Equines*. Thus it has been observed:—“As the surface of the earth consolidated, the larger and more produced mid hoof of the old three-toed pachyderms took a greater share in sustaining the animal's weight; and more blood being required to meet the greater demand of the more active middle toe, it grew; whilst the side toes, losing their share of nourishment, and becoming more and more withdrawn from use, shrank, and so on, according to the hardening of the ground, until only the hidden rudiments of metapodials remained, and one hoof became maximized for all the work”†.

To this it may be objected that demonstration of such progressive gain of hardness and resistance in parts of the earth's surface, trodden by successive Tertiary forms of hoofed beasts, has not yet been had.

There is, however, another series of conditions which is demonstrated, and which may be legitimately
Note on certain Modes of Occurrence of Gold in Australia
Authors: Daintree Richard
Published: October 2009

I
n
a paper read before the Geological Society in April 1872, on “The Geology of Queensland,” it was pointed out that a large area of Devonian rocks existed in that colony, and that numbers of goldfields had been opened on such areas.

Attention was, however, drawn to the fact that the auriferous tracts were entirely confined to such of those Devonian districts as were found to be penetrated by certain plutonic rocks, principally pyritous diorites.

In these diorites, and at and near their intersection with the Devonian strata, auriferous quartz, calc-spar, and pyritous reefs had been examined, and were proved to be rich in gold, whilst the extension of such veins at any considerable distance from the intrusive rocks was found to be barren.

Instances were also adduced to show that the pyrites sporadically distributed through the diorites were occasionally decidedly auriferous, and by their decomposition and degradation had yielded alluvial drifts containing gold in paying quantities to work.

Since this was written I learn from Mr. C. Wilkinson, the Government Geologist of New South Wales, that the same facts hold good for those New-South-Wales gold-fields which lie in Devonian or Upper Silurian areas; and Mr. G. Ulrich, the talented Curator of the Technological Museum in Melbourne, in his Catalogue of the rocks in that Museum, gives details which prove beyond doubt that the Upper Silurians of Victoria owe their auriferous character to the same cause.

He describes the diorites as occuring in Victoria, mostly as dykes varying in thickness
On the Chronological Value of the Triassic Strata of the South-western Counties
Authors: Ussher W. A. E.
Published: October 2009

I
n
no part of the south-western counties is a more detailed section of the Triassic rocks exhibited than on the South-Devon coast. It is the district in which the subdivisions seem to have attained their maximum thickness; and though they may be traced in unbroken conformity to Williton, near the shores of the Bristol Channel, the absence of the lower members of the group to the east of Taunton, and a study of the variable relations of land and water during the period in different parts of the area, render the proof of the following propositions a necessary supplement or second part of the paper which I have already had the honour of communicating to the Society*.

F
irst
P
roposition
.—That the South-Devon and West-Somerset Triassic area was not connected with that of Gloucester and the midland counties till the later stages of the Keuper period.

Proof.
—(a) The tailing-off of Triassic. sediments towards the Mendip country.

(b) The representation of the Trias on the north of the Poldens by marls alone, the Dolomitic conglomerate being a contemporary beach.

(c) The abnormal thinning-out of the Trias on the north of the Mendips. Thus at Tyning pit, near Radstock†, it was bottomed at 186 feet; at Norton-Hill pit at 172 feet; at Batheaston (under Rhætic) at 54 feet ; in Mangotsfield cutting at 25 feet. The general results arrived at by Mr. Moore give an average thickness of 50 feet to the Trias within the coal-basin.

(d) The fact that these marls, being in
On the Geology of Gibraltar
Authors: Ramsay A. C. , Geikie James
Published: October 2009

I
ntroduction
.

A
t
the request of the Colonial Office, we visited Gibraltar in the autumn of 1876, for the purpose of inspecting and reporting upon the water-supply to the town and garrison. In order to do adequate justice to this important subject it was found necessary to make a complete geological survey of the Rock, and to lay down the details on a map in the usual way, and also to construct a series of sections on a true longitudinal and vertical scale. The report subsequently furnished by one of us to the Colonial Office contained a general account of the geology of the Rock; but from this many interesting details were necessarily omitted, as only those features which bore more or less directly on the question of water-supply were treated of at length. It is the object of the present paper to give a more detailed account of our observations, and to point out the very remarkable connexion which seems to us to obtain between certain Pleistocene deposits of Gibraltar and the glacial accumulations of the mountainous regions and more northerly latitudes of Europe.

The most detailed account of the geology of Gibraltar which has appeared is that given by Mr. J. Smith, of Jordan Hill, in an early volume of this Society's Quarterly Journal. Mr. Smith's paper is of considerable value, more especially as it contains an account of various deposits which are now no longer visible, the operations of quarrying, scarping, and building, which are always going on,
Notes on the Geology of Japan
Authors: Godfrey J. G. H.
Published: October 2009

O
ne
of the first published accounts of the geology of Japan is contained in the paper read by Baron von Richthofen before the Geological Society of Berlin in 1873.

That author stated his belief that the backbone of the Japanese islands was formed by three systems of mountain-ranges composed chiefly of Silurian and Devonian strata accompanied by granite. The first and main system, of which the axis trends from W. 30° S. to E. 30° N., extends through the island of Kiushiu, and afterwards continues up to the great bend in Nippon, the largest island of the group. This first system is intersected at either end by another which runs S.S.W. to N.N.E. On the west it commences in Kiushiu and extends southward in the direction of the Liukiu Islands, whilst on the east it constitutes the northern branch of the main island, and with a slight deviation in its course continues through the islands of Yesso and Saghalien. A third system, not properly belonging to Japan, is indicated by the S.W. and N.E. line of the Kuril Islands. The first system, where it occupies the country for itself alone, is comparatively free from volcanoes; the second is accompanied by volcanoes; but the greatest accumulation of volcanic rocks as well as extinct volcanoes is found in the places of intersection, or those regions where the lines of two systems cross each other, and also in that region where the third system branches off from the second.

Amongst the details regarding
Geology of the Coasts of the Arctic Lands visited by the late British Expedition under Captain Sir George Nares, R.N., K.C.B., F.R.S.
Authors: Feilden H. W. , De Rance C. E.
Published: October 2009

T
he
Laurentian rocks described by Sir William Logan occupy an area of 200,000 square miles in Canada, and attain a thickness of 40,000 feet in two series, the one unconformable to the other, and, stretching northwards, form the fundamental rocks of the Polar area.

Fringing the North-American coast they plunge beneath the Silurians and Carboniferous rocks of the Parry archipelago, reappear in the gneiss cliffs of Cape Isabella, form the entire coast of Ellesmere Land, rising to heights of 2000 feet, and underlie the Miocene rocks of Port Foulke, the Miocene and Cretaceous rocks of Disco Island, Noursoak peninsula, and the Oolites of Pendulum Island, in East Greenland.

Cape-Rawson Beds
.—The vast series of ancient rocks occupying the country between Scoresby Bay and Cape Cresswell, in lat. 82° 40' N., appear to represent in time the Huronian epoch of North America; for they are evidently newer than the gneiss and crystalline rocks of the Laurentian, and older than the fossiliferous Silurians. In Nova Scotia Prof. Yule Hind has shown that the Laurentian gneiss is unconformably overlain by micaceous schists, waterworn quartz-pebbles, and gneiss-conglomerate, made up of fragments of the ancient rocks beneath, proving the very ancient period to which the metamorphism of the gneiss must be referred; and he has also shown that these gneissic conglomerates are further overlain by 9000 feet of quartzites, grits, black slates, and thin beds of auriferous quartz, which, in their turn, are probably unconformable with the gneissoid conglomerates beneath. The black slates, often gold-bearing, attain
Palæontology of the Coasts of the Arctic Lands visited by the late British Expedition under Captain Sir George Nares, R.N., K.C.B., F.R.S.
Authors: Etheridge R.
Published: October 2009

I
ntroduction
.

I
t
is no easy matter to parallel or attempt to correlate the older Palæozoic rocks of the northern extremity of British North America with the probably contemporaneous rocks extending as far northward as within 7° of the Pole, much more with those of Northern Europe and Britain.

The collection made by Capt. Feilden, Lieut. Aldrich, Drs. Coppinger and Moss, and Mr. Hart clearly shows that great masses of metamorphic and Palæozoic rocks occur, and occupy an extensive area, both in Grinnell Land, Grant Land, and Greenland, Whether these can be shown to be a continuous portion of the Laurentian* or Huronian rocks of Canada, or the fundamental or oldest gneiss of the north-west coast of Scotland and the Western Islands, remains yet to be proved. There is every probability that these ancient hornblendic schists do extend from North Britain to North America, and underlie the greater part, if not the whole, of the North Atlantic and Polar Sea.

Hitherto the Laurentian type of Canada has not been discovered in the British Isles, neither have we amongst the ‘Alert’ and ‘Discovery’ collections any specimens that can be said to agree with the Magnesian and Eozoonal conditions of this fundamental rock. The North-Atlantic Ocean, which occupies so large an area, may, indeed, rest upon a great expansion of our Hebridean Gneissose series, and Huronian or Cambrian and Silurian rocks may overlie this ; and probably, if clear sections could be seen, and superposition determined, they would be found to pass upwards
On the Great Flat Lode south of Redruth and Camborne, and on some other Tin-deposits formed by the Alteration of Granite
Authors: Foster C. Le Neve
Published: October 2009

F
ew
persons who have visited West Cornwall can have failed to notice the marked hill known as Carn Brea, about a mile S.W. of Redruth. This hill forms part of a mass of granite about four miles long, in a direction E. 30° N., generally about five furlongs wide, but terminating both east and west in a long narrow tongue. The granite is surrounded on all sides by the so-called killas or clay-slate. To the north of the hill are numerous famous mines, such as Dolcoath, Cook's Kitchen, Tincroft, and Carn Brea; and to the south, again, mining operations have been carried on to a considerable extent. I propose to describe some of these latter workings, which possibly form part of one great mineral vein stretching for more than three miles from Perseverance Mine on the east to South Tolcarne on the west.

The accompanying plan and section (Pl. XXX.), which have kindly been compiled for me from the originals by Mr. Thomas B. Provis, Assoc. Inst.C.E., show the situation of the workings ; for the sake of clearness levels on other lodes have been omitted. From a cursory inspection of the plan it would appear doubtful whether all the workings belong to one and the same lode; the West Wheal Frances drivages, for instance, are not in a line with those at similar levels to the E. and W. This shift of a portion of the lode to the south may have been caused by north and south faults
Note on an
Os articulare
, presumably that of
Iguanodon Mantelli
Authors: Hulke J. W.
Published: October 2009

M
ore
than forty years have passed since the late indefatigable Gideon Mantell's discovery of a tooth first brought to light the former existence of the Iguanodon. Since then the remains of this great Dinosaur have been plentifully obtained from the Wealden districts in Kent, Sussex, and the Isle of Wight; and of most segments of its skeleton we now possess a better knowledge than we have of the bony frame of any of its larger contemporaries.

It is of the heads of these Dinosaurs that our knowledge continues to this day very defective. Tooth-bearing portions of the mandibles and maxillæ of
Iguanodon Mantelli
are now to be seen in the principal public and in some private collections; but of crania proper which can with much probability be referred to
Iguanodon
, the only remains known to me are a mutilated base, with side-walls, and several fragments of the vault and sides of the skull in the Rev. W. Fox's collection, obtained near Brixton, Isle of Wight, and the skull which, several years ago, I brought under the notice of this Society, and of which a figure is given in vol. xxvii. pl. xi. of the Quarterly Journal. It came from the Wealden clay at Brooke.

The articular element of the mandible is one of the missing parts which has escaped recognition (no mandible yet figured, or, so far as I know, in any collection, possesses i t ); and I am happy to have now an opportunity, through the courtesy of
On the Quartzites of Shropshire
Authors: Callaway Charles
Published: October 2009

Introduction

T
he
geology of South Shropshire, though it has received considerable attention from geologists, has been seriously misunderstood. This is owing partly to the disturbing influence of great south-west faults, partly to the obliterating influence of metamorphism, and partly to mistaken views of the causes of metamorphism.

In attempting to unravel the complexities of this disturbed area, I have arrived at some definite results, the first of which I communicated to this Society in a paper entitled, “On a new Area of Upper Cambrian Rocks in South Shropshire, with a description of a new Fauna” (See vol. xxxiii. p. 652, of the Quarterly Journal of the Society). In that paper I showed that a part of the so-called Lower Caradoc rocks south of the Wrekin were of the age of the
Dictyonema
-shales of Malvern and Pedwardine, and that a part of the so-called “quartzite” of the Wrekin consisted of Hollybush Sandstone. I deferred discussion on the true quartzites and on the igneous rocks of the district. The latter I hope to be able to prove in a future paper are only to a slight degree disruptive, and mainly consist of a great bedded series of lavas and tuffs of Precambrian age. My second instalment of information is the announcement that the so-called Caradoc quartzites of the Wrekin and Church-Stretton area are of Cambrian or Precambrian age. In this connexion I shall notice the quartzites of the Stiper Stones, so as to include, so far as I know, all the quartzites of Shropshire.
On the Serpentine and associated Igneous Rocks of the Ayrshire Coast
Authors: Bonney T. G.
Published: October 2009

Introductory

I
n
the twenty-second volume of this Journal is a paper by Dr. J. Geikie on the metamorphic Lower Silurian rocks of Carrick, Ayrshire. The author endeavours to prove that the rocks of the district, with some few slight exceptions, are of sedimentary origin, a “felspar porphyry” being the “maximum stage of metamorphism exhibited by the felspathic rocks of the district.” The “dioritic rocks,” “diorite and hypersthenite, both of which are occasionally foliated,” are also regarded as of metamorphic origin; and, lastly, the “compact serpentines, like the altered strata with which they are associated, are truly bedded rocks.” This view is also very clearly enunciated in the ‘Descriptive Catalogue of Rock Specimens collected by the Geological Survey of Scotland, and exhibited in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art’ (ed. 1870), p. 49 &c., from which I quote a few sentences. “The altered rocks of this district may be grouped into three classes—felspathic rocks, dioritic rocks, and serpentine. The felspathic rocks are by far the most abundant, and vary much in structure and aspect; the diorites and serpentine have a more definite character, and are often interbedded or closely associated. But the one class shades into the other, and no strongly marked line of division between them can be drawn upon a map. The metamorphic changes which have affected these Lower Silurian strata can hardly be exhibited in hand specimens, but must be studied in the field.”

The paper referred to above was severely handled on chemical and mineralogical grounds
Remarks on
Saurocephalus
, and on the Species which have been referred to that Genus
Authors: Newton E. T.
Published: October 2009

I
n
the year 1824 Dr. Harlan described a portion of a fossil jaw which had been obtained in 1804, during an expedition up the Missouri, from what were believed to be Secondary rocks (Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1830, vol. iii. p. 331). Dr. Harlan thought this specimen showed reptilian affinities, and compared it with certain species of
Ichthyosaurus
; but, believing it to be generically distinct, he named it
Saurocephalus lanciformis
. Prof. Owen subsequently showed (‘Odontography,’ p. 130, pl. 55) that this specimen was to be referred to the group of Fishes.

There has been so much misunderstanding about the genus
Saurocephalus
, to which certain specimens in this country have been erroneously referred, that it has been thought desirable to bring together all the known facts, in order, if possible, to correct the synonymy of the species.

Dr. Harlan (
l. c.
p. 335), after giving the measurements of the bone above mentioned (now known to be a maxilla), says :—“There are eighteen teeth in different states of preservation; the longest are seven tenths of an inch, two tenths only projecting above the bone, the projecting part enamelled, smooth, and shining, lanciform; the edges are very sharp. . . . The bodies of the teeth are all hollow, and are firmly fixed in a longitudinal groove, there being no distinct separate alveolæ. The bodies of the teeth are in
close contact throughout
. . . . The body of the bone is not perforated by a canal for the inferior maxillary nerve
On new Species of
Procolophon
from the Cape Colony preserved in Dr. Grierson's Museum, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire; with some Remarks on the Affinities of the Genus
Authors: Seeley Harry Govier
Published: October 2009

D
r
. T
homas
B
oyle
G
rierson
transmitted to me for description three more or less perfect small skulls, which all belong to the genus
Procolophon
, instituted by Professor Owen for some small reptiles from the Tafelberg. Dr. Grierson's specimens were collected by Mr. Donald White from Donnybrook, Queenstown District, Cape Colony. They are contained in a hard red ironstone matrix, often crystalline, which is apparently concretionary, and invested one skull much in the same manner as the clay-ironstone of our own country often invests Carboniferous fossils. The matrix can be removed only in part, because the bones and the cavities between them are frequently filled with brittle and crystalline carbonate of lime. Hence the thin film of external bone is often broken away in the endeavour to develop the specimens.
On the Metamorphic and Overlying Rocks in the Neighbourhood of Loch Maree, Ross-shire
Authors: Hicks Henry
Published: October 2009

I
n
a paper communicated to the Geological Society on December 5th, 1860 (and published in vol. xvii. p. 85 of the Quarterly Journal), by Professor Nicol, a section on the north side of Loch Maree is given, with the order of succession of the rocks and their supposed relations to the underlying metamorphic series. This section is there referred to by him, with others, as offering evidence in the support of views which he had previously communicated to the Society, and as opposed to the idea of a conformable upward succession from the limestone series to the so-called Upper Gneiss of Sir Roderick Murchison. The section is taken in a direction from W. to E., and the following is the order in which the rocks are described:—
a
, gneiss;
b
, red sandstones unconformable on
a
;
c
, quartzite conformable on
b
;
d
, limestone conformable on
c
;
s
, diorite (intrusive); then a fault; and beyond this the western gneiss,
a
, again brought up by the fault.
On the Section of Messrs. Meux & Co.'s Artesian Well in the Tottenham-Court Road, with Notices of the Well at Crossness, and of another at Shoreham, Kent; and on the probable Range of the Lower Greensand and Palæozoic Rocks under London
Authors: Prestwich J.
Published: October 2009

I
n
1851* I expressed an opinion that, as the Upper and Lower Greensands, with the intermediate Gault, cropped out from beneath the Chalk both on the north and south of London, the same strata, in all probability, passed beneath the chalk-basin without break, and that the
Lower Greensand
might be found available as an additional source of water supply to London. The boring made shortly afterwards at Kentish Town† by M.M. Degousée and Laurent, of Paris, showed, on the contrary, that while the Upper Greensand and the Gault were prolonged as expected, the Lower Greensand was absent, and was replaced, at a depth of 1114 feet, by strata of
hard micaceous red and variegated fined-grained sandstones and clays
. These were traversed for a thickness of 188 feet, when the work was abandoned.

In the absence of fossils, and the confusion produced by the introduction from above of debris and extraneous fossils from the Gault and Upper Greensand, much uncertainty prevailed for a time with regard to the age of these sandstones, which were considered by some as modified forms of the Lower Greensand or the Wealden, and were referred by others to Permian or Triassic strata. From a subsequent examination of the
Old Red Sandstone
in the neighbourhood of Frome, I came to the conclusion that they belonged to strata of that age‡ as I found the Kentish-Town specimens agreed closely with the Mendip beds in lithological characters, whereas there was, on the whole, a want of agreement with the
On Concretionary Patches and Fragments of other Rocks contained in Granite
Authors: Phillips J. Arthur
Published: October 2009

No one who is in the habit of visiting granite-quarries, or who has had frequent opportunities of examining granite, either in a dressed or in a polished state, can have failed to observe that it frequently contains patches which resemble imbedded fragments of older rock. These patches or nests are usually, although not always, darker in colour than the granites in which they occur, while their form may be either rounded or more or less angular. In the first case the patch resembles an enclosed pebble, while in the second it often presents the appearance of a fragment of slate or mica-schist. Such patches most frequently have their outlines clearly and sharply defined, but they occasionally merge by almost insensible gradations into the enclosing granite.

They are usually finer in grain than the granites in which they are found, and, from being less easily attacked by atmospheric agencies, not uncommonly stand out in considerable relief from the surfaces of weather-worn boulders. The union of the enclosed patch with the enclosing rock is generally complete, and their cohesion is so perfect that it is seldom difficult to obtain hand specimens exhibiting the line of junction of the two.

Such bodies sometimes enclose crystals of felspar similar in all respects to those of the enclosing granite, excepting that in the majority of cases their angles are more distinctly rounded; patches of this kind occasionally contain others either of a lighter or of a darker colour than themselves. The inclusions in granitic rocks,
On the Correlation of the Drift-deposits of the North-west of England with those of the Midland and Eastern Counties
Authors: Mackintosh D.
Published: October 2009

Introductory Remarks

My paper on boulders*, in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. for August 1879, terminated abruptly, owing to my having been advised to postpone the concluding part, on the Correlation of the Drift-deposits, which will form the main subject of this paper. But before dismissing the special subject of boulders, I would refer to a letter received from Mr. Charles Darwin, F.R.S. &c. (who was the first to elucidate the boulder-transporting agency of floating ice), containing an account of the great Ashley-Heath boulder (see p. 442 of paper), which he was the first to discover and to expose, by excavating on one side and beneath it, so as to find that the block rested on fragments of New Red Sandstone, one of which was split into two and deeply scored. I have little doubt that this boulder went south from some of the mountains around Ennerdale, as I have seen boulders resembling it on Dent Hill, near Cleator. The facts mentioned in the letter from Mr. Darwin would seem to show that the boulder must have fallen through water from floating ice with a force sufficient to split the underlying lump of sandstone, but not sufficient to crush it.

Southerly Extension of the Upper Boulder-clay of Cheshire &c. into South Shropshire
.

In the western part of the plain of East Denbighshire and Shropshire the Upper Boulder-clay degenerates into a loamy gravel, which in many places covers the middle sand-and-gravel formation, as around Whittington, Oswestry, &c. South of Ellesmere it
On the Geology of Anglesey
Authors: Hughes T. McKenny
Published: October 2009

The rocks to which these notes chiefly refer were described by Prof Henslow under the heads of Quartz Rock, Chlorite-schist and Grauwacke, in a paper read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1821. He evidently considered them to be distinguishable members of one group, drawing attention to the passage from the quartzite into the schists, and to the generally coinciding dip of the clay slate and schists, even where, as at Porth Corwg, there is a small discordancy between the two, caused by a fault. He points out that green slates and brecciated conglomerates occur in the upper part of the black-slate group; but he records no fossils from which the geological horizon of the beds described can be determined, and his sections do not give much more than the geographical succession of the rocks over the areas referred to in this paper.

Prof. Ramsay (Mem. Geol. Surv. vol. iii. p. 175) describes the Cambrian and Silurian Rocks of Anglesey as in great part resembling those of Caernarvonshire. The Cambrian rocks, he further remarks, are, as a rule, highly metamorphic, like those in the promontory of Lleyn (Cambrian in his nomenclature includes only the Harlech group). The Silurian (
i. e.
the Lingula-flags and all above them), he goes on to say, are also sometimes metamorphosed into mica-schists and gneiss, while in other places they are rich in Caradoc or Bala and Llandeilo fossils. Unfortunately the genera and species of the Graptolites are not recorded except from one locality mentioned in
On the Cambrian (Sedgw.) and Silurian Beds of the Dee Valley, as compared with those of the Lake District
Authors: Marr J. E.
Published: October 2009

In comparing the beds of the Dee valley* with those of the Lake district, we find a strong similarity in strata referred to the same age, as we might expect, considering the proximity of the two areas. The chief differences appear to be due to the two areas having been affected by intense volcanic action at somewhat different periods, the effects of which were felt throughout the ages which followed the period of outburst. This had the effect of causing a local physical break to occur earlier in the northern than in the southern district. But such local breaks as occur in volcanic districts, although more apparent than breaks more widely spread in extent, which are frequently somewhat obscure (owing probably to a uniform action of upheaval, and hence a check of denudation), cannot be of any thing like such value as the latter in assisting classification.

The end of the period of great volcanic activity in the Lake district, being soon followed by a period of depression (during the deposition of the Coniston-Limestone series), did not allow of much denudation of the volcanic materials. On the other hand, in the North Welsh area, the period of great vulcanicity was soon succeeded by a period of upheaval (viz. that at the end of the Cambrian epoch); hence the products of volcanic activity were not covered by much sediment, but suffered great denudation; and in consequence of this the Silurian beds of the Dee valley are, as a general rule, composed
Notes on the Strata exposed in laying out the Oxford Sewage-farm, at Sandford-on-Thames
Authors: Cobbold Edgar S.
Published: October 2009

The strata under consideration consist of the upper and middle members of the Oxford Oolites, together with the Kimmeridge Clay; and though little novelty can be expected in a paper on such well-studied and readily accessible deposits, it is hoped that at least one or two important facts may be put on record.

The area treated of is only about 1½ mile in length from east to west, and one mile from north to south. It is situated about 4 miles S.E. of Oxford, on the south side of the Thame and Aylesbury branch of the Great Western Railway, and east of the turnpike road from Oxford to Dorchester & Henley. Though small, it presents some interesting variations in the strata.

Previous to the laying-out of the 350 acres selected for sewage-irrigation, a number of trial-holes were dug to ascertain the nature of the subsoils and substrata, and subsequently a complete system of land-drainage was carried out, necessitating the digging of trenches from 3 to 8 feet deep and not more than 66 feet apart all over the land. There was therefore ample opportunity for obtaining accurate information on the superficial development of the various strata.

At Headington a generalized section of the beds appears to be somewhat as follows :—

In the neighbourhood of Sandford and Littlemore, the Coral Rag and part of the Coralline Oolite are replaced by marls which are in places full of small oysters and
Serpulœ
, with a few other fossils, but show no trace*
The Precarboniferous Rocks of Charnwood Forest.—Part III. Conclusion
Authors: Hill E. , Bonney T. G.
Published: October 2009

In our former communications on this region we gave a general description of the northern district. Though some points were worked ont in detail, yet less time was devoted to this than to the more accessible districts, and several difficulties remained, on which we hoped that renewed work and wider experience would throw some light. Accordingly, during the last two years we have repeatedly visited the neighbourhood, and added largely to our collection of rocks and slides*; the present paper contains the results of these studies, which we venture to hope will not be without interest.

(1)
The Northern District
.

In our brief notice of the beds in the Blackbrook and Charley region, as we had paid no minute attention to them, we followed previous writers in calling some of them quartzites. As will appear from the descriptions below, no rock here can properly be called a quartzite; and we propose to denote this important group, apparently the lowest visible among the Charnwood beds, simply as the Blackbrook series. The normal rock is a pale-greenish sandy-looking rock, commonly much stained with ferrite from the Trias, more or less finely banded, and somewhat cleaved. It is best seen near the Blackbrook toll-gate, on the Ashby and Loughborough road, and here is of a pale greenish grey colour, with reddish stains, somewhat compact and decidedly like a quartzite. Under the microscope it exhibits a clear matrix full of very small microliths (belonites &c.) of a very pale green colour, with irregularly disseminated
On Annelid Jaws from the Wenlock and Ludlow Formations of the West of England
Authors: Hinde George Jennings
Published: October 2009

I
n
the paper which I had the honour to bring before the Society in the early part of last year, on Annelid jaws from the Palæozoic rocks of Canada and Scotland*, I ventured to express an opinion that these small bodies would be very likely found in rocks of similar age in this country. Since that time I have had the opportunity of searching various exposures of the Silurian rocks at Dudley, Much Wenlock, and Iron Bridge, in Shropshire, all well-known localities for Wenlock fossils ; and in each place I have discovered Annelid jaws more or less abundantly. In quarries at Stoke-Edith, and near Ludlow, the rocks of Upper Ludlow age also yielded these remains, though by no means so abundantly or in such a good state of preservation as the Wenlock rocks—a result perhaps rather owing to the less favourable character of the matrix for their preservation and to the more limited exposures of the rock-surfaces than to any deficiency in the number of the Annelids. Altogether, from the above-mentioned localities my search produced between two and three hundred specimens of these minute remains : but the greater number of these proved on examination to be only fragmentary specimens ; many perish in the process of cleaning them away from the matrix ; and thus only about one fourth of the total number are available for description. It is a matter of surprise that these fossils, occurring thus numerously in a district renowned as a classical hunting-ground for
Note on
Psephophorus polygonus
, v. Meyer, a new Type of Chelonian Reptile allied to the Leathery Turtle
Authors: Seeley H. G.
Published: October 2009

W
hen
I was in Vienna in the spring of 1879, Franz Ritter von Hauer, the Director of the Imperial Geological Survey, requested me to examine and described the remarkable organism on which Von Meyer had founded the genus
Psephophorus
, which, although noticed by himself, by Von Meyer, and more recently, by Dr. Fuchs, has never been figured. Its nature was at first sight so problematical that opinion loaned to the conclusion that it was the dermal covering of an Edentate closely allied to the Armadilloes. The dorsal surface of the fossil was perhaps insufficient to settle this question without a good deal of comparative work; but Von Hauer courteously allowed me to partially develop some fragments of bones, which are imperfectly preserved on the underside of the intractable sandstone matrix of the slab; and these fragments of procœlous vertebræ proved to be altogether reptilian; and though differing from the vertebrae of known reptiles, yet, by forward projection of the zygapophyses, they indicate the animal to be Chelonian, and therefore show the fossil to be more nearly allied to
Sphargis
than to any other type in the Chelonian order.

When Von Meyer first gave a name to this genus (‘Jahrbuch,’ 1846, p. 472), it was only known to him by isolated dermal plates ; but subsequently a drawing was sent to him by Partsch, and on that he made a further note in the ‘Jahrbuch’ for 1847 (p. 579). This specimen, then in Pressburg, he describes as a fragment of a
On a new Theriodont Reptile (
Cliorhizodon orenburgesnis
, Twelvetr.) from the Upper Permian Cupriferous Sandstones of Kargalinsk, near Orenburg in South-eastern Russia
Authors: Twelvetrees W. H.
Published: October 2009

T
he
fossil to be described in this paper was found, in the summer of 1879, in the copper-mine of Roshdestvensk, about thirty miles N. of the town of Orenberg. The mine forms one of several groups known collectively as the mines of Kargalinsk. The steppe in which it is situate is composed of Upper Permian beds of marl and sandstones resting upon limestone containing Zechstein fossils. Copper-mines in this steppe have been worked from time immemorial. Organic remains are only found in the runs of copper-ore and are everywhere absent from the bare sandstones. I have resided several years in the neighbourhood and am acquainted only with the following:—

Calamites

Lepidodendron.

Leaves of
Aroides crassispatha
, Kutorga.

Conifer trunks and twigs

Unio
, sp., allied to
U. umbonatus
, Fischer.

Amblypterus
, sp.

Platysomus
, sp.

Remains of Labyrinthodonts.

Remains of Saurians undetermined, including
Rhopalodon
, Fischer, and
Deuterosaurus
, Eichwald.

Description.

The fragment under consideration is a portion of a reptilian jaw, apparently comprising parts of the maxillary and premaxillary bones. When it first came into my possession it only presented to view vertical sections of the roots of the canine and molars split down longitudinally. Experimental chiselling disclosed the fine canine crown (
c
), besides the crown of an incisor (
i
) and crowns of two of the molars (
m
5 & 6). The form and implantation of the rooots had already led me to the conclusion that the animal belonged to the Theriodont order; and this inference was confirmed by the appearance of the canine
On the Zones of Marine Fossils in the Calciferous Sandstone Series of Fife
Authors: Kirkby Jas. W.
Published: October 2009

T
he
presence of marine beds in the Calciferous Sandstones of the east of Scotland has been noticed by various authors. The officers of the Geological Survey, for example, draw attention to their occurrence in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh and in East Lothian, in their memoirs of those districts. The Rev. Thomas Brown also gives an account of several beds containing marine fossils in his paper on the Carboniferous strata of Fife; and, more recently, Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., has published a paper, in the Journal of this Society, on the Invertebrate fauna of the rocks of this series in the vicinity of Edinburgh, which includes all the marine species known to him from that district.

As supplementary to these and other notices, I propose in this paper to describe the marine beds that I have met with in an examination of the Calciferous Sandstones of the east of Fife. These beds I shall notice in their descending order of position, together with such details of the intermediate measures and fossils as may assist in the attainment of a general idea of the palæontology of the formation.

In the east of Fife these rocks form the coast-line from near St. Monan's, on by Fife Ness, to St. Andrew's ; but the most complete section is that exposed at their first outcrop, at a point east of the first-named place to Anstruther, a distance of two miles or more. The strata of this section dip to the west, usually at a high
Notes upon the Coal found in Süderöe, Faröe Islands
Authors: Stokes Arthur H.
Published: October 2009

I
n
the following paper I have the honour to lay before the Society the result of a recent exploration of the coal-seams found in Süderöe, one of the Faröe Islands.

In the summer of 1873 (a few months before my connexion with H.M. service commenced) I visited Süderöe for the purpose of reporting upon this coal-field. During my leave of absence from official work this summer (1879) I again visited the island, and also two other islands forming part of the group called Faröe. The island to which this paper specially refers is the most southern, and lies in the parallels of latitude 61° 25′ and 61° 42′, occupying a geographical extent of about 20 miles by 5 miles.

Any paper bearing upon the extension of the area of coal-seams within reach of countries using that fuel must possess peculiar interest, and the details of some observations made in a recent visit to Süderöe may not be uninteresting to the Members of this Society.

The position of the coal-fields will be best understood by reference to the map (p. 621), the shaded part indicating the extent, or area, under which coal is found.
The Glaciation of the Orkney Islands
Authors: Peach B. N. , Horne John
Published: October 2009

Introduction

I
n
a former paper which we communicated to the Society on “ The Glaciation of the Shetland Isles,” we endcavoured to show how the evidence supplied by the striated surfaces, the
roches moutonnées
, and the dispersal of the stones in the Boulder-clay points to the conclusion that Shethland had been glaciated by Scandinavian ice. It was further argued that during the climax of glacial cold the Scandinavian and Scotch ice-sheets coalesced on the floor of the North Sea, and that the great outlet for the combined ice-sheets was towards the north-west by the Pentland Firth and the Orkney Islands.

In the course of the autumn of 1879 we visited nearly all the Orkney Islands for the purpose of continuing our researches with reference to the extension of the ice in the North Sea in the Glacial period. In the paper now presented to the Society we purpose to give a summary of the results of our observations. At the outset we may state that they furnish a remarkable confirmation of the conclusions already arrived at regarding the westerly and northwesterly movement of the ice. Moreover, the presence of stones in the Boulder-clay, which must have been derived from the mainland of Scotland, and the discovery of abundant remains of marine shells in the same deposit, though in a fragmentary state, are of the utmost importance in guiding us to a satisfactory solution of the question.

No description of the glacial phenomena of Orkney has hitherto been published. Some references were
On Remains of a small Lizard from the Neocomian Rocks of Comén, near Trieste preserved in the Geological Museum of the University of Vienna
Authors: Seeley H.G.
Published: October 2009

Professor Eduard Suess, F.M.G.S., recently received from Comén, near Trieste, a specimen showing the hinder half of the skeleton of a lizard which he has desired me to describe. Unlike the two fine-slabs from the island of Lesina, preserved in the k.-k. geologische Reichsanstalt, which are in a pale yellowish limestone matrix, this specimen is from a limestone slab nearly black; the animal shown upon it has lain exposed for some time in the quarry and suffered by the solvent action of the rain. Prof. Suess mentioned to me that the colour merely indicated one of the many alterations in the limestone, and that, since it was collected by a former pupil, no doubt could attach either to its stratigraphical or geographical position. Prof. Kornhuber does not appear to have been quite certain as to the position of the Lesina rocks in the Cretaceous series ; but while I was in Vienna, Professor Pisani mentioned to me that he had identified thirteen species of fish with Upper Neocomian species ; and as fish constitute the chief fossils of the deposit, this must be held conclusive evidence of the geological age of these lizards.

This new fossil (P1. IV. fig. 1) at first sight presents a considerable resemblance to the
Hydrosaurus lesinensis
of Kornhuber, as was pointed out to me by :Prof. Sucss; but the differences are so remarkable and important that I find myself unable to include it. in the same genus. The specimens in the Museum of the Imperial