bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On some Fossil Foraminifera from Chellaston near Derby
Authors: Jones T. Rupert , Parker W. Kitchen
Published: October 2009

Having thus pointed out that, judging from these specimens obtained at Chellaston, the minute
Nodosarinœ
and other
Foraminifera
of the Triassic period have continued to exist through the intermediate ages to the present day without losing any of their essentially specific features, we will observe that the
Nodosariœ
are present in rocks of still greater age than the Trias—namely, the Permian and Carboniferous, and probably even the Lower Silurian,
Nodosariœ
and
Dentalinœ
abound in some of the Permian limestones of Durham and the Wetterau in company with
Textulariœ
.
Nodosaria
occurs also in the Carboniferous Limestone of Ireland, according to M’Coy; and the green sand of the Lower Silurian series near St. Petersburg has yielded to Ehrenberg casts of chambers something like those of
Dentalina
, together with unmistakeable casts of Textularian and Rotalian shells. We may remark, too, that the
Fusulina
of the Russian, North American, and Arctic Mountain-limestone carries back the pedigree of the
Nonionina
-group to the palæozoic periods, and that it is accompanied with other
Foraminifera
of known types, amongst which the
Nummulina
is not absent. This last-named type has rare representatives in the Lias and the Oolite; it acquired great potency in the Tertiary seas, and is not extinct now.

Altogether we have here some remarkable instances of the persistency of life-types among the lower animals. Though the specific relations of the Palæozoic
Foraminifera
require further elucidation, we feel certain that the 6 genera represented in this Upper Triassic clay of Chellaston by about 30 varieties stand really
On the Coexistence of Man with certain Extinct Quadrupeds, proved by Fossil Bones, from various Pleistocene Deposits, bearing Incisions made by sharp Instruments
Authors: Lartet M. E.
Published: October 2009

Y
ou
have been good enough to offer to communicate to the Geological Society of London the observations which I have for some time past made upon fossil bones exhibiting evident impressions of human agency. The specimens of them which I showed to you yesterday were those only whose origin is authentic, and which were obtained from deposits well defined in regard to geological relations. Thus the fragments of the Aurochs exhibiting very deep incisions, apparently made by an instrument having a waved edge, and the portion of the skull of the
Megaceros Hibernicus
, in which I thought I recognized significant marks of the mutilation and flaying of a recently slain animal, were obtained from the lowest layer in the cutting of the Canal de l'Oureq, near Paris. These very specimens are figured or mentioned by Cuvier (Oss. Fossiles, 4to. 1823, torn. iv. pi. 6. fig. 9, M.
Hibernicus
); and Alex. Brongniart (Descr.des Environs de Paris, 4to. 1822, p. 562, pl. 1
a
. fig. 10) has given a detailed description of the deposit, consisting of distinct layers, which he considers to be of higher antiquity than those of the valleys. The bones of the Aurochs and the
Megaceros
were found in the same layer as the remains of the Elephant (
Elephas primigenius
) of which Cuvier has given figures of two molars, which, according to that author, had not been rolled, and were found under circumstances which showed that they were in an original and not in a
remanié
deposit. I have
On some Arrow-heads and other Instruments found with Horns of
Cervus megaceros
in a Cavern in Languedoc
Authors: Lartet Mons. E.
Published: October 2009

I
n
a cavern of the limestone at Massat, near Tarascon in Languedoc (Department of the Ariège), examined by M. A. Fontan, the floor was found to consist of a blackish earth, with large rounded pebbles, among which were mixed, in great disorder, bones and horns of a Chamois,
Cervus pseudovirginianus, C. megaceros
, and
Bos
, together with implements of stone and bone, to which MM. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and E. Lartet have referred in the ‘Comptes Rendus’ of May 10, 1858.

M. E. Lartet, in his letter, has furnished drawings and descriptions of some barbed arrow-heads of bone, some having indented grooves, probably for the appliance of poison; also needles, and a flute-bevelled tool of bone, a splinter or knife of hard flint, and the horn of an Antelope hacked at the base, probably when the animal was flayed.
On some small Fossil Vertebræ from near Frome, Somersetshire
Authors: Owen
Published: October 2009

I
was
favoured a short time since by receiving from Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S., the discoverer of teeth like those of
Microlestes
in a probably Triassic deposit near Frome, an additional series of specimens, including, together with teeth unequivocally mammalian and having the characters of those of
Microlestes
, some vertebræ, more or less mutilated, of corresponding size, and similar mineral condition. These were discovered in a fissure containing derivations from the “Bone-bed” and from earlier (Mountain-limestone) and later (Oolitic) deposits.

A small glass tube, numbered “5,” was stated in Mr. Moore’s list to contain “two little vertebræ.” These I first examined. One (and the most perfect specimen, figs. 1–5) is a dorsal, the other a caudal vertebra; both are biconcave (
i. e.
the articular ends of the centrum are cupped); and in both the neural arch is confluent with the centrum.

The body of the dorsal vertebra is laterally concave both vertically and lengthwise (fig. 3, c), the lower surface (fig. 5) being narrow, prominent, like a smooth obtuse ridge, slightly concave lengthwise, expanding somewhat, like the rest of the centrum, at the articular extremities,
c
: these are deeply cupped, of a circular figure, with a smooth, almost polished surface. A narrow parapophysis begins very near the fore part of the side of the centrum, and is continued upward and a little backward, contracted and ridge-like, to the di-apophysis on the side of the neural arch, figs. 1, 2, 4,
d
; or, the parand di-apophyses are connected by an intervening
On the Denudation of Soft Strata
Authors: Fisher O.
Published: October 2009

The author first described the general features of the north-eastern portion of Essex, which consists, in part, of table-lands of gravel, with valleys cut into the subjacent London Clay and terminating seaward in tidal rivers, and, in part, of a gently undulating surfaee of London Clay, from which the gravel has been mostly swept clean away, except in places where flat outlying tracts of gravel still remain: these features extend also into the neighbouring county of Suffolk. The tidal rivers are evidently nothing more than a continuation of the valleys beneath the sea-level; and the same may be said of irregularly shaped inlets of the sea, like that behind Walton-on-the-Naze, which is a submerged valley in the part of the district where the surface is composed of London Clay.
On an Undescribed Fossil Fern from the Lower Coal-Measures of Nova Scotia
Authors: Dawson J. W.
Published: October 2009

In a paper on the Lower Carboniferous rocks of British America, published in the 15th volume of the Geological Society's Journal, Dr. Dawson noticed some fragmentary plant-remains which he referred with some doubt, the one to
Schizopteris
(Brongn.), and the other to
Sphœreda
(L. and H). With these were also fragments of a fern resembling
Sphenopteris (Cyclopteris) adiantoides
of Lindley and Hutton. Since 1858 the author has received a large series of better-preserved specimens from Mr. C. F. Hartt; and from these he finds that what he doubtfully termed the frond of
Schizopteris
is a flattened stipe, and that the leaflets which he referred to
Sphenopteris adiantoides
really belonged to the same plant. Mr. Hartt's specimens also lead Dr. Dawson to suppose that what he thought to be
Sphœredœ
were attached to the subdivisions of these stipes, and may be the remains of fertile
pinnæ
, borne on the lower part of the stipe, as in some modern ferns. This structure he regards as being something like what obtains in the Cuban
Aneimia adiantifolia,
as pointed out to the author by Prof. Eaton, of Yale College. No sporangia are seen in the fossil specimens.

Dr. Dawson offered some remarks on the difficulties of arranging this fern among the fossil
Cyclopterides, Nœggerathiœ
and
Adiantites
; and, placing it in the genus
Cyclopteris
, he suggested that it be recognised as a subgenus (
Aneimites
) with the specific name
Acadica
.
On the Sections of Strata exposed in the Excavations for the South High-Level Sewer at Dulwich; with Notices of the Fossils found there and at Peckham
Authors: Rickman Charles
Published: October 2009

In the autumn of 1859, open cuttings were made at Peckham, in connexion with the “Effra branch of the Great South High-level Sewer,” for the “main drainage” of the metropolis south of the Thames; and in the following spring a tunnel (330 yards in length) was being constructed under the Five-fields at Dulwich. The beds exposed in both sections belong to the “Woolwich and Reading Series” of the Lower London Tertiaries (Prestwich).

Four shafts were sunk to facilitate the driving of the tunnel; and the following beds were exposed; but, as some of the beds are not persistent, but die out even within the extent of the tunnel, the several shafts differed as to the sections obtained from them.
On the Geology of Bolivia and Southern Peru
Authors: Forbes David
Published: October 2009

In laying before the Society a statement of the observations made during an examination of Peru and Bolivia, in the years 1857, 1858, 1859, and 1860. I may observe that the present memoir is to be considered as the first part of a report of the results, obtained during my travels in South America during these years; and, consequently, it is believed that the conclusions here arrived at will have more weight when considered in conjunction with the observations on the geology and mineralogy of the neighbouring republics of Chile and the Argentine provinces, which subsequently I shall have the honour to lay before the Society,—more particularly as several of the geological formations not well developed or examined into in the district forming the subject of this memoir exhibit themselves much more characteristically further south.

Many points will be found not so elucidated or examined into as could be desired, and might appear to have been neglected; this, however, has not arisen from oversight, but is due to the great difficulties and frequently severe privations encountered in exploring a country in many parts entirely uninhabited or in next to a savage condition, and further by my having been limited as to time and pecuniary resources, and hampered by other occupations and by the political state of the country.
On the Position of the Beds of the Old Red Sandstone developed in the Counties of Forfar and Kincardine, Scotland
Authors: Mitchell Hugh
Published: October 2009

The time has now come for us safely to pronounce, from palæontological evidence, upon the place of those fossiliferous flagstones, with their associated sandstones and conglomerates, which are spread over a large territory in the counties of Forfar and Kincardine, and which are referred to in a paper read by Prof. Harkness before the Geological Society on the 18th January of this present year.

The superficial area of country referred to in this paper is almost the same as that in the paper of Prof. Harkness, namely a district, comprehending all the lowland parts of the two counties, bounded on the north by the Grampian Mountains, impinging on the west on the County of Perth, and bounded on the south and east by the German Ocean. The objects of the papers are, however, very different. Prof. Harkness illustrated the stratigraphical arrangement of the rocks by numerous sections along the northern boundary-line, where they lean against the crystalline schists of the Grampians; our attention is now directed more to the beds as spread out and exhibited in the beautiful tract of country to the south-east of the mountains, and which have of late years begun to yield not a few characteristic and important fossils. It is now wished to state the palæontological data, collected by the writer in the course of several years, which lead to certain conclusions, in his opinion, sufficiently determining the position and the importance of these rocks in the geological scheme.
On the Distribution of the Corals in the Lias
Authors: Brodie P. B.
Published: October 2009

From observations made by himself and others, the author was enabled to give the following notes:—In the Upper Lias some Corals of the genera
Thecocyathus
and
Trochocyathus
occur. The Middle Lias of Byfield, Northamptonshire, and Ilminster, Somersetshire, has yielded a few Corals. The uppermost band of the Lower Lias, viz. the zone with
Ammonites raricostatus
and
Hippopodium ponderosum
, contains a
Thecocyathus
, numerous at Cheltenham and Honeybourne in Gloucestershire; and a
Montlivaltia
in considerable abundance at Down Atherley in Gloucestershire, at Fenny Compton in Warwickshire, and more rare at Aston Magna in Worcestershire, and at Kilsby Tunnel in Northamptonshire. The middle members of the Lower Lias appear to be destitute of Corals. In the zone with
Ammonites Bucklandi
, called also the Lima-beds, a
Cladophyllia
is found at Down Hatherley and Bushley in Gloucestershire; and in the same beds at Inkberrow, Evesham, Binton, Wilmcote, and Harbury, in Warwickshire, and at Shepton-Mallet in Somersetshire, an
Isastrœa
occurs. Dr. Wright states that
Isastrœa Murchisoni
has been met with in the next lowest bed of the Lower Lias, namely the White Lias, with
Ammonites Planorbis
at Street in Somerset; and another Coral has been found in the same zone at Whitnash and Itchington in Warwickshire. Lastly, in the “Guinea-bed” or “Guineas” at Binton in Warwickshire another Coral has been met with.

The
Montlivaltiœ
of the Hippopodium-bed and the
Isastrœœ
of the Iima-beds appear to have grown over much larger areas in the Liassic sea than the other Corals here referred to.
Note on the Fossil found in the Worcester and Hereford Railway Cuttings
Authors: Salter J. W.
Published: October 2009

The tunnel through the hill (near Malvern) has given me a better idea of the Woolhope beds than I ever had before. The quantity of fossils is extraordinary. Our own collector, Mr. Gibbs, of the Geological Survey, Dr. B. B. Grindrod of Malvern, and other friends have obtained a great many, and in the most perfect state of preservation. Of Corals there are only a few—the ordinary Wenlock species (for the Woolhope limestone is nothing else than a lower Wenlock rock). Of
Cystideœ
the little
Echinoencrinus armatus
is frequent enough, Trilobites are abundant.
Illœnus Barriensis
attained its full size here. The strawberry-headed Trilobites (
Encrinurus
) are in great perfection, also
Cheirurus, Sphœrexochus mirus
with its globular jiead,
Acidaspis, Lichas
, and four species of
Phacops
, including
P. Downingiœ
, the well-known Wenlock and Ludlow form.

The most common shells are, of course,
Brachiopoda
, as in all these muddy sediments.
Lingula Lewisii
and
L. Symondsi
(MS.) are plentiful;
Atrypa
, four species of Strophomena (of large size),
Discina, Crania
, three species of
Spirifer
, four species of
Orthis
, six or seven of
Rhynchonella
, just as in the Wenlock limestone:
Pentamerus
linguifer
and
P. rotundus
are the most plentiful of all; the latter we have hitherto thought a rare species.

Of the other bivalve shells there are
Cardiola, Mytilus, Pterinea, Avicula
, and
Nucula
. Aviculce, of two or three species, are the most common.
On the Gravel and Boulders of the Punjâb
Authors: Smithe J. D.
Published: October 2009

In the Phimgota Valley (a continuation of the Great Kangra or Palum Valley) the Drift consists of sand and shingle with boulders of gneiss, schist, porphyry, and trap-rock, from 6 inches to 5 feet in diameter. Some of the boulders, having a red vitreous glaze, occur in irregular beds.

This moraine-like Drift lies on the Tertiary beds, which, here dipping gently towards the plains, gradually become vertical, and are succeeded by variegated compact sandstones, gradually inclining away from the plains; next come various slates, at a high angle; and gneissic rocks lie immediately over them.
On
Pteraspis Dunensis (Archæoteuthis Dunensis
, Roemer)
Authors: Huxley Thomas H.
Published: October 2009

The fourth volume of the ‘Palæontographica’ of Dunker and Von Meyer (1856) contains a memoir on “
Palœoteuthis
, a genus of Naked
Cephalopoda
from the Devonian rocks of the Eifel,” by the well-known paleontologist Dr. Ferd. Roemer. The fossil upon which this genus is founded is described as an oval, convex, symmetrical, shield-like body, marked by two diverging longitudinal elevations or keels, and exhibiting on its surface a peculiar ornamentation, consisting of curved parallel ridges, so fine that there are as many as 8 or 10 to a line. All traces of any deeper layer than that which exhibits these ridges had disappeared. In discussing the affinities of this fossil, Dr. Roemer decides in favour of its being the internal shell of a Naked Cephalopod, upon the grounds, first, of its general form, and secondly, of the presence of the diverging keels, in both of which respects he considers the fossil to resemble the internal shell of a
Sepia
.
On the “Chalk-Rock,” the Topmost Bed of the Lower Chalk, in
Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire
, &c.
Authors: Whitaker William
Published: October 2009

The bed to which I have elsewhere given the name of “Chalk-rock,” I believe to form the division between the Upper and Lower Chalk, and to be the topmost bed of the latter. I have described it as “hard blocky chalk, jointed perpendicularly to the plane of bedding, with lines of irregularly shaped, hard, calcareo-phosphatic nodules, which are green outside, but cream-coloured within.” It breaks with an even fracture, rings when struck with the hammer, and is of a pale cream-colour (the nodules being darker than the rest).

For some time I thought that this bed had escaped the notice of geologists; but Mr. Prestwich tells me that he has long known of it. It has also been noticed by Mr. Evans, of Hemel Hempstead, and Mr. W. Cunnington, of Devizes. However, I believe that no account of it has yet been published, with the exception of the short description above referred to.

My own observations have been confined to the counties of Wilts, Berks, Oxon, Bucks, and Herts—that is, to the northern side of the western part of the London Basin,—in which area I found that the Chalk-rock reaches its greatest thickness to the west, gradually thinning eastwards.
On the Altered Rocks of the Western Islands of Scotland, and the North-western and Central Highlands
Authors: Murchison Roderick I. , Geikie Archibald
Published: October 2009

In former memoirs upon the crystalline rocks of the north of Scotland, read before this Society, it was shown by one of us, that in the county of Sutherland, in addition to the existence of a fundamental gneiss and an unconformably superposed Cambrian sandstone, there is a conformable ascending series, from certain Lower Silurian quartz-rocks and limestones, up into a group of micaceous and gneissose schists. It was also pointed out, in a general sketch-map of the Highlands, that the order thus observable in the north-western regions of Scotland probably extended southwards across the mountainous tracts to the south of the Caledonian Canal. But this application of the classification of the rocks of the north-west was based on general observations only of earlier years; and a more exact survey was called for before it could be held as proved that the great mass of the Scottish Highlands displayed the same order of succession as had been demonstrated to exist in the north-western tracts.

It was also necessary to trace the development of the Sutherland-shire series to the south-west, through Boss-shire, so as to complete the base-line from which the rest of the Highlands should be worked out in detail.
On the Rocks of Portions of the Highlands of Scotland South of the Caledonian Canal; and on their Equivalents in the North of Ireland
Authors: Harkness R.
Published: October 2009

The recent labours of Sir Roderick Murchison in the N.W. Highlands of Scotland have so greatly increased our knowledge of this portion of Great Britain, as to place the age and arrangement of the rocks in this country in an entirely new aspect. The result of these investigations has been made known so lately that it must be visibly impressed on the mind of every geologist, and consequently will require no special reference to be made thereto. In the memoirs in which these labours have been detailed, there is a “hypothetical view” expressed concerning the mass of metamorphic rocks which constitute the great bulk of the Scottish Highlands; and in this hypothetical view these rocks are looked upon as the equivalents of the “upper gneiss” found reposing upon the quartz-rocks and limestones of Assynt and Durness, and which occupies so large a portion of the north of Scotland.
On the Succession of Beds in the “Hastings Sand” in the Northern Portion of the Wealden Area
Authors: Drew Frederic
Published: October 2009

Having for the last two years been engaged (in the course of the progress of the Government Survey) in examining part of that large tract in the south-east of England which is made by the outcrop of the Wealden strata, and having now become acquainted with many details concerning that formation, I wish to bring before the Society an account of its lithological character and of the order of succession that prevails in it.

As regards this part of England, the Wealden formation has long been divided into three members, namely—

The “Weald Clay,” the “Hastings Sand,” and the “Ashburnham Beds.” The first, the “Weald Clay,” is much the same through all its thickness; where there is variety in it, it has been well described by Dr. Fitton, Mr. Martin, and Dr. Mantell. The lowest member, the “Ashburnham Beds,” which may, perhaps, be classed with the Purbeck formation, does not appear in that district in which I have more particularly been engaged. I shall therefore say little of these two, and almost confine myself to the “Hastings Sand,” and to the northern part of the Hastings Sand country, a district, 50 miles long and varying from 3 to 12 or more in width, lying between and in the neighbourhood of the towns of Tenterden, Cranbrook, Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead, and Horsham.
On the “Symon Fault” in the Coalbrook-dale Coalfield
Authors: Scott Marcus W. T.
Published: October 2009

This paper comprises observations on a section through a part of the Shropshire Coalfield in nearly a straight line from north to south—commencing at the Greyhound Pit, near the Oakengates Tunnel of the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway, and terminating at John Anstice & Co.'s Halesfield Pits near Madeley; but it is more particularly intended to explain the nature of the “Great East Fault,” or “Symon Eault,” as it is locally called.

The district of which the section forms a part has been explored and brought before this Society in a paper “On the Geology of Coalbrook Dale,” by Mr. Prestwich, published in the ‘Transactions of the Society’ 2nd ser. vol. v. part 3, which fully treats also upon the fossil fauna and flora. My object is therefore not to enter into detail further than is necessary to explain the true nature of the “Symon fault,” alluded to and described by Mr. Prestwich (
loc. cit.
p. 432) as far as the data then obtained would allow.

In May, 1843, I commenced my labours in the district, as check-viewer and surveyor for the owner of the Malinslee and Stirchlee Royalties, extending over an area of upwards of 1200 acres (within the dotted line on the Map D, Pl. XIV.). Since 1843 I have made half-yearly surveys and plans of the workings in the coals and iron-stones, and have had opportunities of obtaining details necessary for my object.
On the Geology of a Part of Western Australia
Authors: Gregory F. T.
Published: October 2009

In presenting to the Geological Society the accompanying collection of specimens and this sketch of the geology of a part of Western Australia, I feel that some apology is due for laying before them a work so imperfect in its composition and arrangement, and I beg to state that I have only been induced to make the attempt in consequence of the almost total absence of any published information regarding the geological structure of this portion of the Australian continent.

During a residence of thirty years in Western Australia, my acquaintance with its geology has been almost entirely restricted to the practical observation of its various stratified formations as presented to my view in the course of official and professional avocations, which led me over the whole of the known portion of this province; but, although thus enabled to accumulate a vast amount of notes and details, I have not had the opportunity of classifying them with any degree of certainty by the comparative study of its geology with other countries where the nomenclature and limits of the formations are well-known and established. The difficulty attendant upon the collection and preservation of fossils while travelling rapidly through a wild country has also been another obstacle in the way of my endeavours to assign exact limits to the several formations.
On the Occurrence of Large Granite Boulders, at a Great Depth in, West Rosewarne Mine, Gwinear, Cornwall
Authors: Salmon H. C.
Published: October 2009

AT West Rosewarne Mine, in the parish of Gwinear, Cornwall, some remarkable granite-boulders have been met with in the 50-fathom level below the adit ; the adit being 24 fathoms deep from surface, this 50-fathom level is consequently 74 fathoms from surface.

The sections given in the accompanying figs. 1, 2, 3, show the form and position of these boulders in the level. Their full size cannot be ascertained, for they extend, as will be seen, into the roof and south side of the level; but, taking those parts which are exposed, there appear to be two large boulders, about 4 inches apart, the eastern one projecting down 3 feet into the level, and the western one projecting down 2 feet, as shown in the vertical section, fig. 2. The length and width of these in the back of the level are shown in the section (horizontal), fig. 3. The length of the eastern bolflder is 4 feet 2 inches, and that of the western boulder 3 feet 10 inches : the width which they extend across the back of the level, from the south side, is the same for both, viz. 2 feet 9 inches. The particular form of these boulders, and their relative position to each other, are fully shown in the sections; the vertical transverse section in fig. 1. across the great eastern boulder, shows the manner in which it, and a smaller granite mass beneath it, originally penetrated across the level—the dotted lines marking the portions
On an Erect
Sigillaria
from the South Joggins, Nova Scotia
Authors: Dawson J. W.
Published: October 2009

The erect trees so frequent in this celebrated coast-section, though often distinctly ribbed, rarely show the minute markings of the leaf-scars in a sufficiently perfect state to enable them to be compared with those of the flattened trunks seen in the shales and ironstones. This, no doubt, arises in part from the circumstance that the bases of the trunks of
Sigillariœ
did not always retain their characteristic markings, and in part from the unfavourable influence of an erect position in coarse and often laminated sediment. The specimen, to which this note relates, and which I obtained in 1859 from a sandstone in Group XIV. of my section of the South Joggins, affords an exception to the generally imperfect condition of these trunks sufficiently remarkable to merit a short notice.

The specimen measures 3 feet in height, and is
10¼ inches in diameter at the base, 9 inches in the middle, and
7½ inches at the top, where it was abruptly broken off. At the base it shows the usual
tendency to divide into four main roots; but these have been nipped off or flattened by pressure,
not having been filled with sediment. The trunk retains its form on one side, but on the other the
bark has been rent from top to bottom, and in part folded inward. This seems to have been caused by the pressure of the surrounding sediment, and has probably somewhat diminished the diameter of the stem.
On the Lines of Deepest Water around the British Isles
Authors: Everest E.
Published: October 2009

By drawing on a chart a line traversing the deepest soundings along the English Channel and the Eastern Coast of England and Scotland, continuing it along the 100-fathom-line on the Atlantic side of Scotland and Ireland, and connecting with it the line of deepest soundings along St. George's Channel, an unequal-sided hexagonal figure is described around the British Isles, and a pentagonal figure around Ireland. A hexagonal polygon may be similarly defined around the Isle of Arran. These lines were described in detail by the author, who pointed out that they limited areas similar to the polygonal form that stony or earthy bodies take in shrinking, either in the process of cooling or in drying. The relations of the 100-fathom-line to the promontories, the inlets, and general contour of the coast were dwelt upon; and the bearings that certain lines drawn across the British Isles from the projecting angles of the polygon appear tov have on the strike and other conditions of the strata were described.
On the Outburst of a Volcano near Edd, on the African Coast of the Red Sea
Authors: Playfair R. L.
Published: October 2009

At Edd, lat. 13° 57′ N., long. 41° 4′ E., about half-way between Massouah and the Straits of Bab-el-Mandel, earthquake-shocks occurred on the night of the 7th of May or the morning of the 8th, during about an hour. At sunrise fine dust fell, at first white, afterwards red; the day was pitch-dark; and the dust was nearly knee-deep. On the 9th the fall of dust abated; and at night fire and smoke were seen issuing from Jebel Dubbeh, a mountain about a day's journey inland, and sounds like the firing of cannon were heard. At Perim these sounds were heard at about 2
A.M.
on the 8th, and at long intervals up to the 10th or 11th. The dust was also met with at sea; and along the entire coast of Yemen the dust fell for several days. Several shocks were felt on the 8th at Mokha and Hodaida.
Notice of the Occurrence of an Earthquake on the 20th of March, 1861, in Mendoza, Argentine Confederation, South America
Authors: Murray C.
Published: October 2009

At about ¼ to 9 o'clock, the first shock, preceded by a thunder-clap, destroyed the city of Mendoza, killing (it is said) two-thirds of its 16,000 inhabitants. Altogether there were eighty-five shocks in ten days. The land-wave appears to have come from the south-east. Several towns S.E. of Buenos Ayres felt slight shocks. No earthquake took place in Chile; but travellers crossing the Upsallata Pass of the Cordilleras met with a shower of ashes; the pass was obstructed by broken rocks; and chasms opened on all sides. At Buenos Ayres, 323 leagues from Mendoza, and elsewhere, it was observed in watchmakers' shops that the pendulums moving N. and S. were accelerated; those moving E. and W. were not affected.
On the Increase of Land on the Coromandel Coast
Authors: Dykes J. W.
Published: October 2009

In the districts of the Kistna and Godavery, the land presents a parallel series of ridges and hollows near the coast, not in relation to the rivers but to the coast-line. These may have been formed by sedimentary deposits similar to what are now taking place on the Coromandel coast. By the strong currents alternately running N. and S., according to the monsoons, lines of sediment parallel with the coast are formed; and by the occasional interference of winds and tides dams are thrown across the hollows, and the latter soon become filled up. These parallel bands of coast-land become, in time, upheaved and more or less affected by atmospheric agencies.
Notice of the Discovery of Additional Remains of Land Animals in the Coal-Measures of the South Joggins, Nova Scotia
Authors: Dawson J. W.
Published: October 2009

In the long range of rapidly wasting cliffs at the South Joggins, every successive year exposes new examples of erect trees and other fossils; and, as the removal of the fallen débris is equally rapid with the wasting of the cliff, it is only by repeated visits that the geologist can thoroughly appreciate the richness of this remarkable section, while every renewed exploration is certain to be rewarded by new facts and specimens. The present notice is intended to record the gleanings obtained in my last visit, in connexion with the presentation to the Society of a suite of specimens of the fossil Reptiles and other land-animals of the locality, which I desire to deposit in the Museum of the Society, that they may be more fully studied by comparative anatomists, and may remain as types of the species, accessible to British geologists.

In the bed which has hitherto alone afforded reptilian remains in its erect trees, two additional examples of these were exposed. One was on the beach, and in part removed by the sea. The other was in the cliff, but so far disengaged that a miner succeeded in bringing it down for me. In the first comparatively little was found. It afforded only a few shells of
Pupa vetusta
, and scattered bones of a full-grown individual of
Dendrerpeton Acadianum
.

The second tree was more richly stored ; and, being
in situ
, was very instructive as to the mode of occurrence of the remains. Like all the other
On the Bovey Deposit
Authors: Key J. H.
Published: October 2009

Introduction
.—Singularly enough, as geologists approach our own era the difficulty of determining the relative age of a particular stratum generally increases; and it is in the more modern tertiaries, or deposits succeeding to these, that the greatest amount of difficulty occurs. Among the strata not yet referred to any certain epoch, but broadly designated “tertiary,” are the clay-, sand- and lignite-beds, known to geologists as the “Bovey deposit.” Having been for the last ten years engaged in working and boring the various beds of clay, I may have become possessed of facts not generally known to geologists, bearing on the origin and nature of the deposit, and which may assist in some degree to fix its relative age.

The Thysical features of the basin
.—The Bovey basin is a depression beneath the level of the surrounding country; its length, from Bovey-Tracey to about two miles south of Kingskerswell, is about 10 miles; its breadth at the
upper end about 2½ miles, becoming miles, becoming much narrower towards its southern extremity. Two rivers, the Teign and the Bovey, both having their sources in the granite of Dartmoor, run into this basin, meet above Stover, and fall into the sea at Teignmouth. The Teign, the larger and more circuitous, for about 13 or 14 miles before entering the Bovey basin, flows through the slate ; and the Bovey River, rising near the centre of the moor, crosses for a short distance the slate, and rims into the
On some Flint Arrow-heads(?) from near Baggy Point, North Devon
Authors: Whitley N.
Published: October 2009

Beneath the surface-soil (at the depth of 18 inches from the top) above the “raised beaches” of North Devon and Cornwall, the author has observed broken flints; and even at the Scilly Isles such flints are found. At Croyde Bay, about half-way between Middle-Borough and Baggy Point, at the mouth of a small transverse valley, Mr. Whitley found them in considerable number, collecting about 200 specimens. About 25 per cent. of the splintered flints at this place have more or less of an arrow-head form, but they pass by insensible gradations from what appear to be perfect arrow-heads of human manufacture to such rough splinters as are evidently the result of natural causes. Hence the author suggested that great caution should be used in judging what flints have been naturally, and what have been artificially shaped.
On some Volcanic Phenomena lately observed at Torre del Greco and Resina
Authors: Palmieri Luigi
Published: October 2009

The evolution of gases, the outburst of springs of acidulous and hot water, and particularly the upheaval of the ground at Torre del Greco to a height of 1·12 mètre above the sea-level, are mentioned in this communication.
On Iso-diametric Lines, as means of representing the Distribution of Sedimentary Clay and Sandy Strata, as distinguished from Calcareous Strata, with special reference to the Carboniferous Rocks of Britain
Authors: Hull Edward
Published: October 2009

§ 1. —
Introduction
.—A large and interesting field of inquiry is open to us in comparisons of the relative distribution of the calcareous and the truly sedimentary members of diffcrent geological formations. We have, as it appears to me, been too much in the habit of classing limestones (whether coralline, crinoidal, shelly, or oolitic) as strictly sedimentary; yet it will be found, by such comparisons as those alluded to, that the relation which is borne by sandstones and shales to limestones is one, not of similarity, but of contrast. In other words, that where we have a group of strata, as, for example, the Lower Carboniferous, composed partly of "sedimentary" and partly of calcareous members, it will generally be found that the one series is complemental of the other, and developed from opposite directions. This arises from the differences in the origin of the two classes of stratified rocks, the calcareous being essentially organic, and the "sedimentary " essentially mechanical ; so that where the forces and agencies tending to the accumulation of the latter are in active operation, these very forces and agencies are in direct antagonism to the other, and, as a result, calcareous strata are either not formed or only sparingly*.

(
a
.) Of these two ever-acting principles we have numerous examples both in recent and in geologic periods. If we take as an illustration the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indian Islands, we find he sediment brought down by the Mississippi forming deposits of sand and clay
On a Split Boulder in Little Cumbra, Western Isles
Authors: Smith James
Published: October 2009

Split erratic blocks are of frequent occurrence in Switzerland. The only explanation of this phenomenon which I have met with is that of M. Charpentier, in his “Essai sur les Glaciers.” Speaking of the blocks, he says, “Quelques uns sont fendus, mais la direction des fentes prouve jusques à évidence que les ruptures sont le résultat d'une chute et nullement d'un choc horizontal” (p. 180). M. Charpentier offers no conjecture as to the height from whence the blocks could have fallen; but where there is no superincumbent precipice of rock near, it must have been from one of ice. Indeed, I may say that I obtained proof that such was the case; for upon examining the fragments which lay at the foot of the escarpment of ice which terminates the Glacier of Grindelwald, I observed one which, from the freshness of the fracture, I concluded must have fallen very shortly before my visit, and obviously from the surface of the glacier.

Such blocks occur occasionally in the basin of the Clyde, in situations where there is no adjoining height from which they could have fallen,—a circumstance which I can only account for by supposing the former existence, in the same localities, of ice in the shape of glaciers, icebergs, or coast-ice. I may add that some of the split boulders are also scratched, exhibiting additional proofs of glacial action.

To one of these blocks I wish to call the attention of the Society, on account of the peculiarity of the
On the Date of the Last Elevation of Central Scotland
Authors: Geikie Archibald
Published: October 2009

That the central districts of Scothland, together with the greater part of the British Islands, have undergone a movement of upheaval within a comparatively recent geological period is a fact which has long been familiar to the geologist. A line of raised beach, with shells of living species still in a perfect state of preservation, fringes many parts of the coast, at a height of from 15 or 20 to upwards of 40 feet above the present sea-level. This difference of elevation may point either to different periods of upheaval or to one great upward movement which varied in intensity in different parts of the island. For facts so well known it is only necessary to refer here to the papers of Mr. Smith of Jordan Hill, Mr. Maclaren, Mr. Chambers, and others who have described the evidence which different parts of the Scottish coast-line furnish as to a recent rise. The object of the present communication is to inquire how far we have data for ascertaining the time at which at least the later stages of this rise took place.

Ever since the pubhcation, in 1838, of Mr. Smith's great paper on the last changes of level in the British Islands ~, the belief has been universal that no alteration of the relative position of sea and land has taken place within the last two thousand years, the coast-line being the same now as it was at the time of the Roman invasion. I shall have occasion have occasion
Description of Specimens of Fossil Reptilla discovered in the Coal-measures of the South Joggins, Nova Scotia, by Dr. J. W. Dawson, F.G.S., &c.
Authors: Owen
Published: October 2009

The following specimens were transmitted to the Museum of the Geological Society by Dr. Dawson, in a series of boxes and parcels, most of which are numbered according to a list accompanying them, and have been submitted, by his desire, to my inspection. The descriptions will follow in the order of that list.

“Box No. 1.—
Hylonomus Lyelli
, Dawson.„

This specimen is imbedded in a portion of a thin layer of carbonaceous matter, measuring six inches by four inches. It consists of scattered parts and impressions ofvertebrm, ribs, limb-bones, and part of a cranium crushed, including part of a maxillary bone with teeth (P1. IX. figs. 1-5). Not any of the bones are entire: all the long bones, even the ribs, are hollow; and the cavity is enclosed by a compact wall of almost uniform thinness throughout each bone, indicative that such cavity was not properly a medullary one, in the sense of having been excavated by absorption after complete consolidation of the bone by the ossifying process, but was posthumous, and due to the solution of the primitive cartilaginous mould of the bone, which had remained unchanged by ossification in the living species. I conclude, therefore, that these hollow long bones (and, indeed, the bodies of the vertebrm seem only to have received a partial and superficial crust of bone) were originally solid, and composed, like the bones in most Batrachia, especially the Perennibranehlates, of an external osseous crust, enclosing solid cartilage. The body of the vertebra (figs. 1
On the Footprint of an Iguanodon, lately found at Hastings
Authors: Tylor Alfred
Published: October 2009

The occurrence of ichnites or footprints in the Wealden strata has on previous occasions been brought before the notice of the Geological Society by both Tagart and Beckles; and these remains have also been alluded to by Mantell in his ‘Geology of the Isle of Wight’ (1st edit., 1847, pp. 247, 328).

A notice of the recent discovery of similar impressions may be interesting, and may assist in throwing some light upon their nature and character, as well as lead us to some general observations on the strata in which they are found.

By the earlier observers these footprints were referred to gigantic birds, but subsequently the probability of their being reptilian has been advanced. This idea is supported by the abundant occurrence of numerous bones of the Iguanodon and other Dinosaurians in the Wealden deposits. By Dr. Mantel's exertions many of these remains were brought before the scientific world; and more lately Professor Owen, in a monograph published by the Palæontographical Society, has figured and described, among other fine specimens, the bones of the foot of a young Iguanodon, obtained by Mr. Beckles in the Isle of Wight. This foot has three toes, measures 21 inches in length and 9½ in width, and would form a print or “spoor” similar in outline to that shown by the imprint now exhibited, and by the several other imprints and natural casts of imprints found in the Wealden rocks.

The footprints recently observed near Hastings were upon detached blocks of sand-rock which
On the Position of the Pteraspis Beds, and on the Sequence of the Strata of the Old Red Sandstone Series of South Perthshire
Authors: Harkness R.
Published: October 2009

Introduction
—In the ‘Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,’ vol. xvii. p. 541, Mr. Powrie mentions the occurrence, for the first time, of
Pteraspis
in the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, as developed in the neighbourhood of the Bridge of Allan in Perthshire. The specimens obtained by this geologist I had an opportunity of seeing in his possession in the early part of this year. Being under the impression that this area was occupied by that portion of the Old Red Series which is so extensively developed in Fife and Kinross, and which appertains to the upper portion of the series, it occurred to me that either there was something anomalous in the position of these Pteraspidian remains, or that the true horizon of the strata in this portion of the southern margin of the Old Red Sandstone north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde had yet to be determined.

Under this impression, I was induced to examine the district around the Bridge of Allan; and I was also induced to extend my observations north-westward, across the Old Red Sandstone area of this part of Scotland, to the metamorphic rocks of the southern margin of the Grampians, as these occur N.E. of Callander. The result of this has been to ascertain the position of the Pteraspis-beds, and likewise to show a variation in this section from the lithology which usually obtains in the deposits which make up the Old Red Sandstone areas lying to the N.E. of the line of
On the Western End of the London Basin; on the Westerly Thinning of the Lower Eocene Beds in that Basin; and on the Greywethers of Wiltshire
Authors: Whitaker William
Published: October 2009

Introduction.—The above three subjects are closely akin to one another. The sections that will be described in the first part of this paper show that the "thinning" treated of ~n the secoucl is greater than has been hitherto thought; and the extent of this latter must much change our notions as to the formation from which have come the greater part of those loose blocks of Greywether-sandstone that, in many places, lie on the surface of Cretaceous and Tertiary beds. The age of the sands noticed in the thud part may also have some bearing on that of the Greywethers. The data on which a great part of this paper is founded have been in my hands for some time ; and the conclusion that I have come to with regard to the age of the Greywethers at the western end of the London Basin has been shortly given in the Geological Survey Memoir on Sheet 13 (p. 48). I have great pleasure in knowing that Prof. Ramsay wholly agrees with my views of the beds in that district, to which this paper chiefly refers. The thinning-out of the London Clay in Marlborough Forest has also been noticed at p. 54 of the above-mentioned memoir. The new points of this paper, which treats of the London Tertiary District alone, are—the proof of the occurrence of the London Clay and the Lower Bagshot Sand further westward than they have been before noticed; the thinmng of the Woolwich and Reading Beds west