bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Notices of Memoirs
Authors: Davies W. , Morris J. , Thomas Da Vies
Published: May 2009

In the spring of the present year M. Albert Gaudry communicated an interesting paper to the Geological Society of France, on some newly discovered remains of true Batrachia found in the older rocks of that country, and which paper has just been published, with two plates, in their Proceedings. This discovery is paléontologically important; as the author observes that up to the present time no remains of actual typical Batrachia have been found in any rocks of earlier date than the Tertiary Period. It has also been a subject of surprise, that Vertebrates of so low an organization should have appeared so late upon the earth, and this supposed faot has been used as an objection to the theory of progressive development. However, this discovery, he thinks, shows structural characters, such as an evolutionist would expect to find in an ancient rock. The tail very short, the bones of the trunk and limbs resembling those of the Salamanders, whilst on the contrary the bones of the head have the characters of those of the Frog; thus lessening the distance which appears to separate the Urodela from the Anoura. He further remarks, that the incomplete ossification of the centra of the vertebræ, the want of ossification of the epyphyses of the limb bones, and probably, also, the cartilaginous state of the carpals and tarsals, reveal a type of which the evolution is not yet completed.
III.—On the Classification and Nomenclature of Rocks
Authors: Allport S.
Published: May 2009

In the September Number of the Geol. Mag. pp. 425, 426, there are some remarks by Mr. G. H. Kinahan on the nomenclature of certain igneous rocks, on which I should like to offer a few observations. The rocks referred to belong to the acidic group, and are mentioned under the various names of granite, nevadite, granitic rhyolite, liparite, trachyte, elvanite, siliceous elvanite, felstone, bottleite, trachalite; the two last being synonymous, for it appears that bottleite is the local name for a vitrioid rock pronounced to be trachalite; but several of the other names are also synonymous or useless, for we are told that nevadite—a proposed new addition to our granitic rocks—is characterized by a more or less crystalline felsitic matrix inclosing crystals of quartz, one or two felspars with mica or amphibole.
V.—Notes on Some Sarsden Stones
Authors: Jones T. Rupert
Published: May 2009

I. Concretionary with Calcareous Cement.—Last autumn the Rev. John Adams, of Stockcross, kindly took me to see the interesting specimen of Sarsden Stone in situ at Langley Park, north of Newbury, Berks, which he described in the “Transact. Newbury District Field Club,” vol. i. 1871, p. 107, and in the Geol. Mag. Vol. X. p. 200; and which has also been described by Mr. W. Whitaker in the “Memoirs Geol. Survey,” vol. iv. p. 193. This concretionary Sarsden Stone, belonging to the “Woolwich and Reading” series, consists of quartz grains with a Calcareous cement. This is an unusual circumstance for “Sarsden Stone”; and points to the former presence of Shells, perhaps, or of calciferous waters, in that portion of the Lower Eocene series.
I.—On the Diamond Fields of South Africa
Authors: Jones T. Rupert
Published: May 2009

Diamond Region.—The diamond-bearing region in South Africa, as at present known, is chiefly within the valley ofthe Vaal River and some of its tributaries (as the Modder and the Vet); but it is known also to extend down the Orange (Gariep) Valley for a few miles after the junction of its two great branches, the Ky Gariep (Vaal) and the Nu Gariep (CradockRiver). Bloemhof on the Vaal, two hours (12 miles) south-west of Potscherfstroom (Trans-vaal), is the reported locality ofthe most northern diamond-find. Below, for a distance of 370 miles, the plain has yielded diamonds, at several places, on both sides of the river, at Hebron, Klipdrift (near Pniel), Zitzikammsi, Vogelstmis Pan, Sitlacomie's Village, Sikoneli's Village, Nicholson's Farm, Kalk Farm (near Litkatlong), etc.; and on the south side of tie Orange River, they have been found some miles north-west of Hopetown, at Probeerfontein, Roodekop, David's Pan, etc. Diamondsare also said to have been found a few miles east of Fauresmith, on a branch of the Modder, about 100 miles south by east of Litkatlong; also a few miles south of Winburg (also in the Orange River Free State), in the upper drainage of the Vet River, about 80 miles from the Vaal.
II.—Notes on Fossil Ostracoda from the Post-Tertiary Deposits of Canada and New England
Authors: Brady George Stewardson , Crosskey H. W.
Published: May 2009

We are indebted for the material from which the following notes have been compiled to Principal Dawson, of Montreal, and to the Secretary of the Portland Society of Natural History, to whom our best thanks are due for the opportunity thus afforded us of comparing the fossils of the North American Clay Beds with those of our own country. By carefully washing theclays kindly forwarded to us, we have obtained many specimens in excellent condition for examination.
III.—On some new Phyllopodous Crustaceans from the Palæozoic Rocks
Authors: Woodward Henry
Published: May 2009

During last summer I visited the interesting and ancient town of Ludlow, where, under the guidance of Mr. Robert Lightbody, F.G.S., I had the opportunity of seeing the admirable Public Museum, belonging to the Ludlow Natural History Society, and also the rich private collection of Mr. Lightbody and that of Mr. Humphrey Salwey. In the Society's Museum, my attention was directed by Mr. Lightbody to a truly remarkable fossil from the collection of Mr. Henry Pardoe, and obtained by him from the Lower Ludlow, Church Hill, Leintwardine. It consists of seven body-segments and three caudal spines, of the largest example of Ceratiocaris I have ever seen; exceeding in size the C. Bohernicus of Barrande, or C. Murchisoni from the Upper Ludlow Rock, Ludlow and Wenlock Shale, Dudley, figured and described by me in the Geological Magazine, 1866, Vol. III., PI. X., Fig. 8, pp. 203–205. The figure (taken from a sketch made at the time) given on Plate III., Fig. 3, being only one-third the size of the fossil, conveys but a very inadequate idea of this interesting Crustacean remain. The seven body segments together measure eight and a half inches in length, and nearly two inches in breadth; they are nearly quadrangular, and are covered with fine and delicate parallel slightly waved striæ. The first segment is three-quarters of an inch long; the second, half an inch; the third, three-quarters of an inch; the fourth, fifth, and sixth, one inch each in length; and the seventh, two and three-quarter inches long.
I.—Notes on a Visit to the Royal Museum of Natural History at Brussels, with some account of the “Mammoth” discovered at Lierre, and reconstructed by M. Dupont
Authors: Woodward Henry
Published: May 2009

Having had the good fortune to visit Brussels in January last, I availed myself of a few hours' delay to pay my respects to M. E. Dupont, the Director, and M. A. de Borre, the Secretary, of the Museum of Natural History in that city, by whom I was most kindly received and introduced to M. Henri Nyst (whose descriptions of the Tertiary formations of Belgium and tiieir invertebrate fauna have rendered his name familiar to almost every English geologist).
IV.—Alphabetical Catalogue of Type Specimens of Fossil Fishes in the British Museum
Authors: Davies Wm.
Published: May 2009

The fine series of Fossil Fishes in the National collection is exhibited in and constitutes the principal feature of Boom II. in the Northern Geological Gallery. The arrangement adopted is in accordance with the classification of Prof. L. Agassiz, as indicated in his great work, “Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles,” but with such modifications as the subsequent investigations of ichthyologists have rendered necessary. These modifications occur chiefly among the fishes of the older formations.
IV.—On the Drifts of the West and South Borders of the Lake District, and on the Three Great Granitic Dispersions
Authors: Mackintosh D.
Published: May 2009

Boulder-scars.—From Maryport to Parkgate, the E. coast of the Irish Sea at intervals exhibits accumulations or concentrations of large boulders, which are locally called scars. They may be seen in all stages of formation, from the denudational area, where they are in course of being left by the washing away of the clayey matrix, to the depositional area, where they have become half-covered with recent sand and shingle. In many places (as between Seascale and near Silecroft) there are so many boulders within a small area as to show that a considerable thickness of the clay must have been removed. With the exception of having tumbled down as the cliffs were undermined and worn back by the sea, many of the boulders may still rest nearly in the positions they occupied in the clay, but (as is evidenced on the coast at Parkgate) others, up to a great diameter, may have been shifted horizontally. Some of the scars exist where the Boulder-clay would appear to have risen up into ridges or mounds, as no clay is now found opposite to them at the base of the sea-cliff. Others are clay and boulder plateaux, visibly connected with the cliff-line. Most of the scars, I believe, are remnants of the great Lower Brown Boulder-clay. The most conspicuous boulder in the scars S.W. of Bootle, is Eskdale-fell granite, accompanied by a little Criffell granite, and a great number of the usual felspathic erratics.
III.—The Sea against Rivers: or the Origin of Valleys
Authors: Mackintosh D.
Published: May 2009

In a former article I endeavoured to show that the more abrupt inequalities of the earth's surface, so far as they consist of escarpments with their associated phenomena, are chiefly due to the former action of the sea. Before proceeding to consider the origin of Valleys, I find it necessary to refer to a statement I made in the last article about Raised Beaches (page 69). My object was merely to show that the preservation of numerous terraces in the Cretaceous districts of Wilts and Dorset furnished an evidence of limited subaërial denudation since these terraces were formed. The terraces to which I alluded, principally occur at comparatively low levels; and that they are raised beaches can, I think, be clearly proved. But this is not necessary, so far as the present controversy is concerned; for the preservation of terraces in gravel (more easily worn away than chalk, according to the subaërialists), which all admit are either raised sea-beaches, or glacial-lake-beaches (such as those of Glenroy), afford an equally convincing proof of the impotence of rain as a denuding agent.
V.—On the Formation of Ravines by Recent Drift Accumulations
Authors: Kinahan G. Henry
Published: May 2009

It is not unusual in drift deposits, banked on hill slopes, to find a deep cut occupied by a very minute stream. These outs or ravines are supposed to be due to the streams; having been excavated by them in the banks of drift. If a ravine of this class is formed in one of the older drifts—namely, the Boulder-clay-drift or the Moraine-drift—it must apparently have been cut by a stream, but much of the drift banked on hill slopes is quite recent; that is formed by meteoric abrasion, and being added to at the present day. In these recent drifts, ravines are of common occurrence, and I would suggest that, instead of the stream cutting its ravine, meteoric abrasion has heaped up the banks, and the only action capable of being done by such a stream, is to keep its channel clear. Such accumulations of drift are very frequent in association with Maums, or connecting gaps across mountain-ranges, and there are always ravines in the banks,—yet by no arrangement of the water-supply, could streams be formed that would have the power to excavate them. In the accompanying sketch of Maumgeeha, Yar-Connaught, there is a maum, below which is a recent drift-bank with a ravine and its accompanying stream. None of the surface drainage of the hills on either side of the maum can get into the stream, it being fed by a spring, while the surface drainage of the mountains flows as represented by the arrows, and yearly the shed from the hills adds to the height of the banks.
II.—On a Raised Beach at Portland Bill, Dorset
Authors: Whitaker W.
Published: May 2009

In 1850, Mr. H. W. Bristow recorded, on sheet 17 of the Geological Survey Map, the existence of “conglomerate” and “recent stone” at Portland Bill.—(See Plate XIV. herewith.)
IV.—On the Denudation of Western Brittany
Authors: Lebour G. A.
Published: May 2009

Geology.—Stated roughly, the geology of the Department of Finistère may be said to consist of two masses of granite, one to the north and one to the south, enclosing between them nearly the whole of the sedimentary rocks of the district. These consist of Cambrian slates and gneiss, Lower, Middle, and Upper Silurian slates and grits, and very small and unimportant patches of Upper Carboniferous shales. The entire mass of these deposits has an east and west direction, and occupies the central part of the Department.
IV.—On the Middle Pleistocene Deposits
Authors: Harkness
Published: May 2009

The superficial deposits of the Co. of Wexford, containing a rich marine fauna, have been referred to in Professor E. Forbes's Memoir on “The Geological Relations of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles.”
VII.—On the Occureence of Albite in the Granite of Leinster
Authors: Westropp W. H. Stacpoole
Published: May 2009

During the past summer, I had the good fortune to detect Albite (Soda-feldspar) in some blocks of granite in the wall of the west pier at Kingstown, Co. Dublin. As the pier is built of rock from the Dalkey quarries, the mineral can be referred, with tolerable certainty, to its original locality. I was induced to look closely at the above-mentioned blocks, through noticing that they contained a mineral of a purple colour; this proved to be fluor, which occurs sparingly throughout the Leinster granite. Associated with the fluor was a pretty considerable quantity of a white mineral, occurring in aggregations of minute crystals; this appeared to me to be so like Albite that I considered it deserving a careful examination.
I.—The Volcanoes of Barren Island and Narcondam in the Bay of Bengal
Authors: Ball V.
Published: May 2009

Although it is now nearly twelve years since I left India, my interest has not abated in the scenes and subjects of former labours in that country, and I am still careful to note anything which is published in reference to them. This practice enabled me to add some facts to the history of the two above-named volcanoes in my Second Notice, besides quoting from the account by Mr. F. R. Mallet, the principal results of his survey made in conjunction with Captain Hobday, eleven years after my visit to them, which took place in the year 1873.
III.—The Condition of the Arctic Lands in the so-called Glacial Age
Authors: Howorth Henry H.
Published: May 2009

In my recently published book on the “Glacial Nightmare” I have tried, among other things, to show that the traces of glacial action in the northern hemisphere, instead of being circumpolar, are in fact limited to one half only of the hemisphere, namely, that bounded on the East by the White Sea and on the West by the river Mackenzie. This conclusion is of course not new, and I have merely collected and condensed the evidence of many witnesses to it. I have further suggested as possible, that while Scandinavia, Finland, and the British Islands were the homes of very large and extensive glaciers, the lands now occupying the Polar Sea were in a very different condition, and anything but the homes of widespread ice action.
II.—Walker's Specific Gravity Balance for Rocks and Minerals
Authors: Walker Wm. N.
Published: May 2009

The determination, by means of the chemist's balance, of the specific gravity of rocks and minerals, now more than ever an important element in their classification, is an operation of some difficulty. Various instruments of different kinds have been devised to obtain the same results more easily and expeditiously, and as amongst these there is one I had constructed some time ago and of which I have lately had very favourable reports from practical workers, perhaps an account of it may interest some of the readers of the Geological Magazine.
V.—Traces of a Great Post-Glacial Flood
Authors: Howorth Henry H.
Published: May 2009

These difficulties are assuredly most embarrassing for those who conclude that the shell-beds point to the positions where they are found having once been the sea-bottom, and especially for those who argue that its submergence and re-emergence were the result of causes operating for thousands of years. We must remember that if Sir Charles Lyell's calculations are of any value, they understate the problem, for many of the shells found in these beds are not littoral, but deep-water shells, and the land must not only have sunk to the level of the sea, but much below, to render it a fit habitat for them. We are to believe, then, that a whole continent, which was submerged for ages in this way, has nothing left to show the fact save these shreds left at different levels and always near the present coast-lines. In regard to the differing levels at which they occur, my acute friend, Mr. Darbishire, well says:—
I.—A Faulted Slate
Authors: Teall J. J. Harris
Published: May 2009

It is well known that the slates of the Borrowdale series in the Lake District furnish beautiful illustrations of faulting on a small scale; but so far as I am aware, no description of them, from this point of view, has as yet appeared. The accompanying Plate has been produced in Autotype from one of these slates, the surface of which was first most carefully smoothed and afterwards varnished. Every detail of the faulting is shown in the most perfect manner, and the general tint of the slate is also reproduced. The specimen was purchased at the village of Rosthwaite in Borrowdale; but I was not able to learn the exact locality from which it was obtained. I have little doubt, however, that it came from the Honister quarries. Mr. De Rance tells me that similar slates occur at Tilberthwaite, near Coniston. The plate is of the natural size. The face represented is a cleavage plane, and neither the bedding nor the fault planes are at right angles to this face. The bedding planes make with it an angle of about 40°.
III.—The Long Mead–End Bed. Further Remarks
Authors: Wood S. V.
Published: May 2009

By the kindness of Dr. Henry Woodward, Keeper of the Geological Department of the British Museum, I have been furnished with a list of shells which have the locality “Mead End” attached to them in the Edwards Collection in that Museum.
IV.—Dust and Soils
Authors: Reid Clement
Published: May 2009

In Darwin's recently published work on vegetable mould, allusion is made to the fact that “In countries where the summer is long and dry, the mould in protected places must be largely increased by dust blown from other and more exposed places.” A few lines further on, however, he states that “In humid countries like Great Britain, as long as the land remains in its natural state clothed with vegetation, the mould in any one place can hardly be much increased by dust.” To this statement no exception can be taken, if we remember that it only applies to a period when the climate is humid, and to a country clothed with vegetation.
I.—On the Wing of a Neuropterous Insect from the Cretaceous Limestone of Flinders River, North Queensland, Australia
Authors: Woodward Henry
Published: May 2009

I Am indebted to R. L. Jack, Esq., F.G.S., the Government Geologist of North Queensland, for permission to examine the remains of a Neuropterous wing (figured on Plate XI. Fig. 1), and which forms one of a collection of Cretaceous fossils transmitted by him to my colleague Mr. Robert Etheridge, jun., for description.
II.—Notes on some Mollusca from South Australia, obtained near Mount Hamilton and the Peak Station
Authors: Hudleston Wilfrid H.
Published: May 2009

The molluscan fossils figured on Plate XI. were transmitted to the Editor by Mr. Hy. Y. Lyell Brown, F.G.S., Government Geologist for South Australia. They are from two localities in that Colony, one near Mount Hamilton, 20 miles S.W. of Lake Eyre, but the greater part came from 40 S.W. of the Peak. There is nothing in the collection which could be quoted as absolutely decisive of their age, though we may fairly regard them as Mesozoic. The conditions of fossilization remind us of the Jurassic fossils of this country, and the general facies is not dissimilar. But these resemblances should not be taken for more than they are worth, the more so since we fail to trace absolute specific identity.
III.—Note on the Remains of Trilobites from South Australia
Authors: Woodward Henry
Published: May 2009

Having, some time since, been favoured by Professor Ralph Tate, A.L.S., F.G.S., of the University of Adelaide, South Australia, with two fragments of Tribolites from the Parara Limestone, Yorke's Peninsula, I venture to place the same on record, and to add a few notes on their probable affinities
IV.—Principal Characters of American Cretaceous Pterodactyls
Authors: Marsh O. C.
Published: May 2009

The first remains of Pterodactyls discovered in this country were found by the writer, in the autumn of 1870, near the Smoky Hill River, in Western Kansas. These belonged to a gigantic species, which was described by the writer in 1871, and is now known as Pteranodon occidentalis. The geological horizon of these fossils was in the Middle Cretaceous, in the same deposits that contain the Odontornithes, or Birds with teeth. In the following year, additional specimens were secured by the writer in the same region, and referred to two new species of the same genus
VI.—On Some Carboniferous Entomostraca from Nova Scotia
Authors: Jones T. Rupert , Kirkby James W.
Published: May 2009

The Entomostraca that form the subject of the following remarks are from the Carboniferous rocks of Nova Scotia, and were submitted to us for examination, at different times, by Principal Dr. J. W. Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S., of McGill College, Montreal.
VII.—On a new Metamorphic Area in Shropshire
Authors: Callaway C.
Published: May 2009

The occurrence of two Archæan groups in Shropshire is now well known to geologists. The chain of hills which strikes to the south-west from Lilleshall, north-east of Wellington, to the region south of Church-Stretton, is mainly composed of bedded volcanic rocks; but gneissic and granitoid types have been recognized at the Ercal and at Primrose Hill, the elevations forming the opposite extremities of the Wrekin, and a small exposure was detected near Hope Bowdler, east of Church-Stretton. A second axis of the old rocks, ranging parallel to the Wrekin chain, consists of volcanic ejecta and highly indurated grits, which are probably to be referred to the younger of the two Archæan groups hitherto recognized in the county. The relations between the volcanic and the gneissic systems is clearly defined by the Charlton Hill (see map) conglomerate (a band in the volcanic series), which contains numerous well-rounded pebbles of rock precisely similar to the granitoid gneiss of Primrose Hill. This fact implies a considerable break between the two groups.
II.—Traces of a Group of Permian Volcanos in the South-West of Scotland
Authors: Geikie Archibald
Published: May 2009

Although volcanic rocks of Permian age have long been known to occur abundantly in Germany, their existence in Britain does not appear to have been recognized up to the present time. Trapdykes, indeed, are far from rare among our Permian strata; there occur likewise many igneous masses penetrating the higher portions of the Carboniferous formation; but the former are evidently later than the Permian period, while the latter may be anterior to it. The history of volcanic action in the British isles, so far as I am aware, embraces as yet no clear evidence of Permian volcanos. In the present communication I propose to fill up this gap by showing that during the formation of the Permian sandstones a series of small but active volcanos was scattered over the south-west of Scotland.
II.—On the Cudgegong Diamond Field, New South Wales
Authors: Taylor Norman , Etheridge R.
Published: May 2009

The next appearance of the older lead is at the “Rocky-ridge,” where the river, after running northerly for three-quarters of a mile, along the strike of the metamorphic beds, turns abruptly to the west. This ridge is a basalt-capped hill on the north side of the river, running in a north-west direction; it is about a mile long, with a bold rocky escarpment on its west side, facing the Sandy or Cudgebeyong Creek. Some tunnels have been driven in, and shafts sunk on this hill, and tolerably rich deposits of gold were found, but never followed out.Only in the southern half of the hill have diamonds been found(all more or less spotted).The drift is remark-able for the number and size of the agates it contains.The northern half of “the ridge” is underlaid by another outlier of the before-mentioned doubtful purple conglomerate, into which some tunnels have been driven in the western escarpment.The basalt is merely a fringe here, resting against the flank of the conglomerate, in which a small quantity of nuggetty gold was obtained;and form one to two inches thickness of lignite, or carbonaceous clay, is seen between it and the bottom of the basalt. Tte basali is intersected by numerous veins of a mineral allied to kaolin. The purple con-glomerate is similar in character to that near “the flat”and contains, on some of the joint faces, smll spherical crystalline aggreations of chalybite(carbonate of iron).At the extreme north ead of “the ridge”are great quantities of ironstone and conglomerate, but, from their Carbpniferous series, which is largely developed further north.The first diamonds which found their way to Melbourne were obtained.
V.—Origin of Pipe Ore
Authors: Lesley J. P.
Published: May 2009

The following account of the discovery of an underground lake in Algeria went the rounds of the newspapers in July, 1879.
II.—A Contribution to the Tertiary Flora of Australia
Authors: von Ettingshausen Constantin Baron
Published: May 2009

The series of fossil plants from the Tertiary strata of New South Wales and Tasmania, to which these remarks relate, were sent to Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., at the British Museum, for examination partly by Prof. Liversidge, of Sydney University, and by Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, F.G.S., Government Geologist for New South Wales, whilst the remainder already formed a portion of the National Collection.
V.—The Lincoln Lias
Authors: Carr W. D.
Published: May 2009

The Lias in the vicinity of Lincoln is well exposed in the several brick-pits that lie at the foot of the “cliff” or in the steep slope beneath the escarpment of the Northampton Sand and Lincolnshire Oolite which go to form the cliff; the exposures however show us nothing below the Ammonites capricornus zone of the Lower Lias, the limestones and lower beds of this division lying several miles away to the west. The whole of the series, Upper, Middle, and Lower, is almost purely argillaceous, the usual sandy beds of the Middle and Lower Lias being entirely absent or only very feebly represented. The following is a description of the beds. Zone of:—
I.—The Secret of the Highlands
Authors: Lapworth Charles
Published: May 2009

In those parts of Britain upon which all geologists are agreed with respect to the natural order of their ascending series of rock-formations, the stratigraphy is of a comparatively simple character. The beds are either gently inclined, or but slightly convoluted. The rules by which the original sequence of the strata is worked out have been settled by common consent. The nature and effects of those physical accidents which have affected the rocks subsequent to their deposition have long since been almost exhaustively worked out. The rules and conclusions thus developed are now-a-days part and parcel of the working material of every field-geologist worthy of the name.
VI.—On “Overlap” and its Related Phenomena
Authors: Goodchild J. G.
Published: May 2009

It must be sufficiently obvious to the readers of the Geological Magazine that any modification of the original meaning of a descriptive term that may serve the purpose of enabling us to convey a specific idea with less chance of ambiguity is a distinct gain to both author and reader. This is especially the case when other specific terms are forthcoming to fill the vacancies in descriptive terminology caused by the restriction in meaning of the term in question, and when it is possible at the same time to supply a suitable generic term sufficiently comprehensive in its meaning to embrace the common characteristics of the whole.
III.—Origin of the Archœan Rocks
Authors: Marr John E.
Published: May 2009

It is somewhat remarkable that, just as physicists are assuring geologists that the latter will have to quicken their forces, so as to bring the geological history of the globe within the definite limits assigned by the physicists themselves, the geologists reply by adding several thousand feet more rock in various parts of the world to the already thick column of sediment, and many would assure us that these ‘Archœan’ rocks were produced in a manner similar to the fossiliferous rocks, from which they differ in such important particulars.
I.—On an Outline of the Skull, Basal View, of Thylacoleo
Authors: Owen
Published: May 2009

I have just received from Mr. C. H. Hartmann, of the “Range Nurseries, Toowoomba, Queensland,” a neighbour of my friend Mr. G. F. Bennett, to whom I am indebted for fossil remains from that locality (Megalania, e.g.), an outline of the entire skull of a Thylacoleo. It is a basal view of the skull in which the teeth of the upper jaw are indicated in situ, determinativeof the genus and apparently species. The writer states, “I have only just drawn a pencil outline round the skull soas to give you the right dimensions1—the most remarkable appearance is that there is scarcely any brain, bu very strong and thick bones.”
III.—On Eskers or Kames
Authors: Holmes T. V.
Published: May 2009

The gravel mounds and ridges known as Eskers or Kames are, though conspicuous where they do occur from the variability of their outlines, very irregularly distributed in the districts in which they are found. Having been familiar with eskers in Cumberland, I was asked by Mr. H. B. Woodward to visit him at Fakenham this spring for the purpose of seeing whether certain ridges and mounds in the neighbourhood of Glandford and Blakeney were such as are called eskers in the north. And I found that Mr. Whitaker had also met with ridges of doubtful character a little west of Great Massingham. Having just had, accordingly, the advantage of visiting both the localities mentioned, in the company of Messrs. W. Whitaker, H. B. Woodward, and J. H. Blake, this seemed a good opportunity of introducing the subject of eskers to the Norwich Geological Society. The extreme irregularity of their distribution is well illustrated by the fact that not one of the gentlemen named had hitherto met with any esker-like ridges in East Anglia. As eskers are far more numerous and varied in Cumberland than in Norfolk, I will first give some description of those of Cumberland and afterwards refer to the ridges of Norfolk.
V.—Description of Three Species of Polyzoa from the London Clay at Highgate in the Collection of N. T. Wetherell, Esq., F.G.S.
Authors: Busk G.
Published: May 2009

The plate containing the figures of the Polyzoa here described was prepared some years since by Mr. J. De Carle Sowerby, but has never been published, and no description of the fossils themselves has as yet been given. I have, therefore, been requested by my friend Mr. Woodward to draw one up; and the specimens have been kindly placed in my hands by Mr. N. T. Wetherell for the purpose.
III.—On the Relation which the East Essex Gravel Bears to the Structure of the Weald Valley
Authors: Wood Searles V.
Published: May 2009

In the former paper I adverted to the evidence which the Thames gravel afforded, that the channel in which it was deposited opened out over the Wealden area, and the corroborative evidence which the East Essex gravel furnished of a similar state of things.
I.—The Parallel Roads of Glen Roy
Authors: Dakyns J. R.
Published: May 2009

Last summer I paid a visit to the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, and saw certain features which must, I think, have hitherto escaped notice. It has been asserted that the roads consist of, or are cut out of, mere superficial detritus; and that they never appear where the solid rock appears; and much discussion has arisen as to the mode of formation of the roads on this supposition, viz. that they consist of detritus merely.
III.—On the Occurrence of the Keuper Basement Beds in the Neighbourhood of Nottingham
Authors: Wilson E. , Shipman J.
Published: May 2009

Hitherto, exposures of the junction of the Bunter formation with the Keuper, in the Nottingham district, have shown the brown sandstones and red marls of the “Waterstones,” with a band of dolomitic conglomerate at the base, resting directly on an eroded surface of the Bunter Pebble Beds. Recently, howeve, between these formations there have been observed to intervene certain deposits that agree both in mineral composition and in physical characters with the white sandstones and conglomerates, known as the “Basement Beds,” that form so important a feature in the Keuper of the West Midlands.
III.—On Columnopora, a new Genus of Tabulate Corals
Authors: Nicholson H. Alleyne
Published: May 2009

Gen. Char.—Corallum aggregate, massive, composed of hexagonal corallites, which have distinct walls, but are firmly united with one another. Septa well developed and close-set, but short and not nearly reaching the centre of the theca. A row of large and closely-approximated mural pores between each pair of septa. Tabulæ horizontal, not vesicular or infundibuliform, apparently incomplete. Epitheca unknown. No coenoenchyma.
VII.—Landslips and Sinkings in Cheshire
Authors: J. M.
Published: May 2009

Landslips are important agents in modifying the surface of the earth, frequently adding to the picturesque appearance of the district in which they occur, and occasionally causing considerable mischief by the destruction of villages, or the covering of fertile ground, as the fall of Rossberg in Switzerland in 1806, and in our own country the landslip near Axmouth, and the undercliff of the Isle of Wight, are familiar examples. They are generally caused by the action of water dissolving or loosening and carrying away some bed low down in the local series, when the upper strata, being no longer supported, break by their own weight, and slide down to a lower level, the amount of their displacement and the rapidity of their movements being determined by the inclination of the underlying beds.
II.—Notes on Carboniferous Lamellibranchiata (Monomyaria)
Authors: Etheridge Robert
Published: May 2009

Sp. Chars.— Shell ovato-elliptical, or suborbicular, slightly convex in the median line, Flattended towards the margin; ears small, pointed, depressed, tringular, subequal, conate, their apices elevated above the level of the general periphery of the shell, both separated from the body of the shell, with their outer edges convex; umbones simple, straight, and pointed; muscular impression large, and situated near the beaks and posterior margin; shell thin and delicate; surface ornamented with numberous close, fine, concentric lines.
I.—Measurement of Geological Time
Authors: Reade T. Mellard
Published: May 2009

Many ways of measuring geological time have been attempted by various geologists of eminence; but however diverse their methods, so far as I know, all finally hinge upon either the rates of denudation or accumulation. It is urged as an objection to this that in past ages such actions have gone on more rapidly, and therefore the calculations based upon present rates are valueless. Physicists on the other hand have sought to put a limit to the age of the earth much below what geologists generally demand. Reasoning from certain data which are necessarily more or less hypothetical, they say, that from the thermal condition of the globe at present, it cannot be more than from ten to twenty million years since it was at a temperature in which life on it would have been impossible. Geologists can hardly be blamed if they attach greater weight to their own observations and data and to reasoning that is more familiar and appears more certain and satisfactory to their minds.
IV.—The True Horizon of the Mammoth
Authors: Stirrup Mark
Published: May 2009

In some recent articles contributed to the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, Sir Henry H. Howorth has sought to establish by a great array of authorities, both British and foreign, the pre-Glacial, or at least pre-Boulder Clay, age of the Mammoth.
II.—On the Supposed Occurrence of Pholas Burrows in the Upper Parts of the Great and Little Ormesheads
Authors: Bonney T. G.
Published: May 2009

In a paper entitled “On Traces Of Glacial Action near Llandudno,” printed in the Geological Magazine, Vol. IV. p. 289, I described certain indications of glacial action (as they appeared to me) upon the two masses of Carboniferous Limestone, well known to visitors at Llandudno under the name of the Great and Little Ormesheads. The principal conclusion at which I arrived was that, “after the limestone hills of the district had acquired their leading forms by upheaval and marine denudation, the whole district was depressed. The summits of the low rocky islets thus formed became capped with ice-fields, which in places descended in glaciers into the sea. At times, very probably, they were united to the mainland by pack or coast ice.” I then supposed that, after some minor changes, “the whole was gradually upheaved above the sea, probably—at any rate, in the case of the Great Ormeshead—not quite uniformly.”
I.—The Leinster Coal-field
Authors: Meadows J. McC.
Published: May 2009

Having been connected with, mining works in this district, the writer offers the following particulars in reference to its seams of Coal, and resources for supply of fuel.
III.—Glacialoid or Re-arranged Glacial Drift
Authors: Kinahan G. H.
Published: May 2009

In many places in Ireland, but conspicuous in the S.E. portion, there is a Glacialoid drift (that is, a drift very similar in aspect to some of the typical Glacial drift). This drift will be found in places above the shelly drifts of Wicklow and Wexford, and has led Prof. Harkness, F.R.S., to believe that in those counties there is evidence for two distinct periods of glacial drifts, one below and the other above the shelly drift. His classification has been adopted by Mr. A. Bell and others; still there does not appear to be evidence in Ireland for two distinct ages of glacial drift, separated by an interval, represented by sub-aqueous accumulations (sand, gravel, marl-clay, &c.), and the reasons for this conclusion will be given in this paper.
IV.—Descriptions of New Fossils from the Devonian Formation of Canada
Authors: Nicholson H. Alleyne
Published: May 2009

“Shells having the general form, of Productus, but uniformly with a narrow area on each valve, a foramen or callosity on the ventral area, small teeth, and more or less distinct teeth-sockets. The reniform vascular impression, rising from between the anterior and posterior occlusor muscular impressions, curves gently outwards, and, following a curvature somewhat parallel with the margin of the shell to below the middle of its length, is abruptly re-curved, and the extremity, turned a little backwards, terminates about halfway between the margin and the anterior extremity of the mesial septum. The cardinal process, seen from the inner side, is bilobed, and from the exterior side each of these divisions is usually bilobed.
II.—On the Tertiary Brachiopoda of Belgium, etc
Authors: Davidson Thomas
Published: May 2009

In the seventh volume of the Geological Magazine I gave a description, accompanied by illustrations, of all the Brachiopoda then known to me from the Tertiary formations of Italy. I would now offer some notes and figures relative to those that occur in Belgium.
I.—The Elevated Shell-Bearing Gravels Near Dublin
Authors: Close Maxwell
Published: May 2009

The elevated Drift deposits near Dublin have been brought under the notice of the Society by other observers. The late Mr. John Kelly has described in our Journal (vol. vi. p. 133) part of the gravels which form the subject of this paper; including the collection at Caldbeck Castle, 1300 feet above the sea. I have already mentioned before the Society (in 1867) the fact of having found marine shells in the Pleistocene gravels near Dublin, at heights of 1000 and 1200 feet above the present sea-level; but I did not wish to offer a paper on the subject until I had collected what might seem sufficient materials for one. These shells are not only in a very fragmentary condition, but also scarce, so that they easily escape notice; and it is necessary to pay several visits, at sufficient intervals, to the few places where the shells are accessible, in order to obtain from thence even a limited collection of detenninable species.
IV.—The Volcanic History of Ireland
Authors: Hull Edward
Published: May 2009

Carboniferous Period.—The Lower Carboniferous rocks, both of the North of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, afford examples of contemporaneous volcanic action of considerable intensity. The so-called “toad-stones” of Derbyshire, and the great sheets of melaphyre, porphyrite, and ashes of the central valley of Scotland, forming the Kilpatrick, Campsie, and Dairy Hills, appear to have been erupted over the bed of the same sea as that in which were poured out similar materials in County Limerick, forming the well-known Carboniferous volcanic rocks of “the Limerick Basin.” These rocks have been already so fully described by several observers, that I shall confine myself to a very short description, such as is essential to the brief history of volcanic action which I am here endeavouring to draw up.
V.—Note on a small Raised Estuarine Beach at Tramore Bay, Co. Waterford, Showing Traces of Several Oscillatory Movements During The Recent Period
Authors: Hardman Edward T.
Published: May 2009

While spending a few days in the Autumn at Tramore, I chanced to meet with a well-marked example of recent alteration of shore-level; and as on subsequent examination I find it only partially noticed on the Six-inch Map, and not referred to at all on the published One-inch Sheet, or in the Memoir of the Geological Survey of the District, I thought of laying a short note on the subject before this Society.
III.—On the Microscopic Structure of the Lambay Porphyey (or Porphyrite)
Authors: Hull Edward
Published: May 2009

This very handsome rock forms almost the whole surface of the Island of Lambay and of the adjoining coast, a few miles to the north of Dublin Bay. It is also laid open in the railway cutting at Donabate Station; and has received considerable notice owing to its intrinsic beauty as an ornamental stone, and its proximity to the Irish metropolis. I am informed by Kev. Dr. Haughton that he has identified specimens from the tessellated pavement of St. Kevin's Church, Glendalough, of the seventh century, which were submitted to his in spection by Sir W. Wilde. A polished table, together with a large block presenting two sides cut and polished, are placed in the gallery of the Royal College of Science in St. Stephen's Green; where, to those familiar with the marbles of Italy and Greece, the appearance of these specimens cannot fail to recall the green porphyry (Marmor Lacedæmonium viride) so largely used in ancient decorative works of art, and often reset in modern ones, the source of which is in the neighbourhood of Sparta and Marathon. The two rocks, however, though resembling each other in appearance, are essentially distinct as regards mineral composition, M. Delesse having proved that the Grecian porphyry contains augite as an essential, and is apparently a porphyritic basalt, while the Irish porphyry is altogether destitute of this mineral. As regards geological age, the Lambay porphyry appears to have been intruded amongst the Lower Silurian rocks at a period antecedent to that of the Old Bed Sandstone, as this latter formation overlies the porphyry without appearing to have undergone any alteration along the surface of contact.
II.—List of Palæozoic Fishes
Authors: Barkas W. J.
Published: May 2009

Palæontology, like most other sciences, has attracted a large number of students since the first pioneers cleared the way for inquiry and brought the fossil remains into something like connected order. This increase in the number of inquirers has borne fruit in the immense variety of fossil remains that are scattered about in museums and private collections, the variety being now so great that it has become almost impossible for one person to study the whole of them, in consequence of which the majority of students confine themselves to the fossils of one formation or to the remains of a natural order, as Invertebrata or Vertebrata. Here, again, the application of a number of investigators to one distinct branch is bringing a further increase to our knowledge in that branch. Take the case of fossil fishes. It was quite possible twenty or thirty years ago for the great palæontologist Agassiz to describe and figure what, as the result of seventeen years of close study, was then known of the fossil fishes of all formations; but the stimulus that resulted from the publication of his work has piled up the list in a wonderful manner, so that it would be well-nigh impossible for any ordinary palæontologist to describe them all now in anything like a satisfactory way. This great amplification necessitates inquirers to confine themselves to the fish remains of a single formation, or to a particular part of the fish, as for example, the teeth.
III.—On Uronemus magnus, a New Fossil Fish from the Coal-Measures of Airdrie, Lanarkshire
Authors: Traquair R. H.
Published: May 2009

The specimen (No. 37,958 of the British Museum Collection), which forms the subject of the present notice, is from the Blackband Ironstone of Airdrie, and, I understand, from the same bed which yielded the first known specimen of Anthracosaurus Russelli. The fossil is unfortunately very imperfect, though it displays a considerable portion of the body of a large fish lying on its right side. Both the head and the caudal extremity, however, are gone, nor is the ventral margin shown; but the line of the back is pretty nearly intact, and is seen to be bordered by the long dorsal fin characteristic of Phaneropleuron and of Uronemus. What remains of the body shows a confused mass of ribs, spinous processes, and inter-spinous ossicles, compressed against a groundwork of what are apparently large and very thin rounded scales. The specimen, measuring 15½ inches in length, by 5½ inches in breadth at its broadest part, presents thus a considerable part of the abdominal, with the anterior part of the caudal region of a fish, which, when entire, must have been in all probability more than two feet long.
I.—On the Discovery of a Secondary Reptile in Madagascar: Steneosaurus Baroni (n. sp.); with a Reference to some Post-Tertiary Vertebrate Remains from the same Country recently acquired by the British Museum (Natural History)
Authors: Newton R. Bullen
Published: May 2009

The Rev. Richard Baron, F.G.S., of the London Missionary Society, has sent to the British Museum some interesting reptilian remains from the Jurassic rocks of Madagascar, which he obtained during 1891, at Andranosamonta village, a locality situated in the north-western part of the Island. They were enclosed in a tenacious slielly limestone, so that before their examination could be proceeded with it was necessary to submit them to careful development and cleaning, a work whioh has been most ably carried out by Mr. Richard Hall, the Assistant Formatore of the Geological Department.