bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
VIII.—Phyllade, Phyllite, and Ottrelite
Authors: Cole Grenville A. J.
Published: May 2009

In his article in the last number of the Geological Magazine Mr. A. R. Hunt points out a number of differences in the use of the terms “schist, slate, phyllite, and foliation.” The usage of English-speaking peoples has long ago restricted the word “schist,” so that it is no more an equivalent of the French “schiste” and of the German “schiefer” than “mutton” is of “mouton.” Prof. Bonney's position is, however, one of exceptional restriction, as he himself has always carefully pointed out. The terms “phyllade” and “phyllite” are surrounded by less controversy. I regard both as unnecessary, seeing that we cannot have names for every gradation from a clay-slate to a mica-schist; but it is fairly clear that the original “phyllades” were slates containing some mica. The term was used in 1813 by Brongniart (“Essai d'une classification des Roches mélangées,” p. 35), who ascribes it to the joint authorship of himself, Brochant, and D'Aubuisson. He gives as a synonym, “Thonschiefer mélangé des minéralogistes allemands,” and defines the rock as having a ground of clay, with mica, quartz, felspar, amphibole, chiastolite, etc., in it, either together or separately; “structure feuilletée.” None of the types which he describes are free from mica. D'Aubuisson de Voisins (“Traité de Géognosie,” tome ii, p. 93) in 1819 devoted one of his elaborate disquisitions to Phyllade, giving as synonyms “Thonschiefer; Clay-slate; Ardoise, schiste de Saussure et des anciens minéralogistes; Schiste argileux de M. Brochant.” D'Aubuisson objects to the restriction of “schiste” to any one species of rock, and keeps phyllade distinct from those clays which are derived as detritus from pre-existing rocks. He says that the surface of phyllade is sometimes smooth, sometimes deeply striated, as if puckered up (“froncée”); and he shows how the true type of the rock is approached by gradations from mica-schist, until the mica and quartz are so finely divided as be indistinguishable, save for some flakes of mica and granules of quartz embedded in the apparently homogeneous ground. The justification for using “phyllade” as a term intermediate between mica-schist and common slate is to be found in the passage (p. 97) “Le phyllade passant du schistemicacé à l'ardoise, par des nuances insensibles et diversifiées sous tous les rapports, le nombre de ses variétés est presque indéfini.” D'Aubuisson believed the fissile structure to be parallel to the stratification, and combated the acute views of Voigt, who had observed a strong divergence between the two structures in Thuringia.
II.—The Mineral Springs of the Baden District (Switzerland)
Authors: Du Riche Preller C. S.
Published: May 2009

As is well known, there are in Switzerland a good many cold mineral, but very few powerful thermal springs, a fact which is in a great measure due to the scarcity of the younger series of eruptive rocks, such as give rise to the abundant hot springs of Bohemia, the Taunus and Eiffel districts, Auvergne, the Pyrenees, and other localities possessing similar geological features.
V.—Woodwardian Museum Notes
Authors: Cowper Reed F. R.
Published: May 2009

A Long the branch which is marked earlier by Cyrtometopus and Cheirurus (sens. str.), the last stage of development corresponds with Salter's subgenus Crotalocephalus. This is almost entirely restricted to Devonian beds, but it is linked to Cheirurus (sens. str.) in time and zoological characters by Ch. Sternbergi (Boeck) and Ch. Quenstedti (Barr.), in which the glabellar side-furrows hardly meet in the middle of the glabella. The important subgeneric characters of Crotalocephalus are the continuous first and second side-furrows, the triangular basal lobes which nearly or quite meet in the centre of the glabella at their apices, and the nearly straight obliquely-directed third side-furrows of the glabella. The earlier forms of the subgenus have their triangular basal lobes still separated by a median portion of the glabella, as in Ch. Quenstedti, from Étage E. This species has a rather curiously specialized kind of pygidium, with only two pairs of long spinose pleuræ the third pair is very short and rudimentary, and of the fourth pair there is no trace. It is a noteworthy point that the pygidia of this subgenus are, as a rule, almost identical with those in the group of Cheirurus (sens. str.), with three equal pleuræ with free ends (vide antea), and do not show the enlargement of the first pair, as in the Russian Cheirurus (sens. str.).
I.—The Morphology of Triarthrus
Authors: Beecher C. E.
Published: May 2009

Most of the recent advances in the knowledge of trilobitestructure have come from the study of Triarthrus. Since Valiant's discovery of the antennæ, and its announcement by Matthew in 1893, the writer has published a series of papers on the detailed structure of this trilobite. Much time has also been spent in carefully working out the numerous specimens from the abundant material in the Yale Museum. Altogether upwards of five hundred individuals with appendages more or less complete have been investigated; and at the present time, it may safely be said that the important exoskeletal features have been seen and described.
I.—A Note on the Geology of Somali-land, based on Collections made by Mrs. E. Lort-Phillips, Miss Edith Cole, and Mr. G. P. V. Aylmer
Authors: Gregory J. W.
Published: May 2009

Since the famous expedition of the late F. L. and W. James, of E. Lort - Phillips and G. P. V. Aylmer, in 1884–5, opened the Somali plateau to European exploration, the country has been repeatedly traversed. A valuable series of geographical memoirs, hunting journals, and bluebooks has described the main features in the topography of the country, and given many suggestions as to its geological structure. The collections of Dr. Révoil and Prof. Keller have proved that Neocomian beds occur there, and thus have shown that it is of greater interest than most of the monotonous unfossiliferous wastes of East Africa.
II.—On the Occurrence of an Indian Jurassic Shell, Parallelodon Egertonianus, in Somali-land, Eastern Africa
Authors: Newton R. Bullen
Published: May 2009

Mrs. E. Lort-Phillips, during her journey in Africa, collected some well-preserved Arca-like shells from a riverbed at Bihin, in Somali-land, which have been entrusted to me for determination. The specimens, belonging to one species, are of various sizes, quite black in colour, and covered in places with a lightish-brown matrix.
VIII.—Analysis of a Spherulite and the Matrix in a Natural and an Artificial Rock
Authors: Hyndman H. H. F. , Bonney T. G.
Published: May 2009

The differences in chemical composition between spherulites and the matrices which contain them have been determined by many analysts. Michel Lévy, in a long and comprehensive paper, quotes some former analyses by Delesse, comparing them with his own, which they closely resembled. Lagario gives many analyses which are especially valuable, as he compares results from acid with those from intermediate and basic rocks, and finds a distinct difference between them. The relations of these results will be briefly considered at the end of the present paper.
I.—Preliminary Notice on Fossil Monkeys from Madagascar
Authors: Major C. I. Forsyth
Published: May 2009

During my excavations in the marshes of Sirabé (Vakinankaratra District, Central Madagascar), my assistant, Mr. A. Robert, came upon a small fragment of a right upper jaw of a mammal, containing the two anterior true molars, which presented the well-known pattern of the Old-World Cercopithecidæ. The presence of true monkeys, as contemporaries of the Æpyornis, in very recent deposits, appeared to be such an extraordinary fact that I anxiously looked forward for further and more conclusive evidence. This fortunately has since been forthcoming, by the subsequent discovery of more complete remains. Two of the most important pieces, viz. the anterior part of a skull, broken off behind the nasals and the molar series, and a left mandibular ramus, are here figured and briefly described.
I.—On some Crush-Conglomerates in Anglesey
Authors: Geikie Archibald
Published: May 2009

The important observations made by Mr. Lamplugh among the “crush-conglomerates” of the Isle of Man suggest that the phenomena described by him may have a much wider range than had previously been supposed. Ever since I had the opportunity of going over his Manx evidence with him, I have suspected that some of the fragmental rocks which I myself have regarded as volcanic agglomerates might prove to be due, not to volcanic explosions, but to the same kind of underground movements which have undoubtedly given rise to the enormous masses of “crush-conglomerate” in the Isle of Man. The breccias of Anglesey seemed to me likely on renewed examination to prove to belong to the latter series. Accordingly I recently took occasion to revisit these rocks, both in the centre and along the north coast of the island. The result was entirely confirmatory of my suspicions. The breccias in question are, I now feel convinced, true crush-conglomerates.
I.—A Case of Metamorphism of Chalk
Authors: Gough Geo. C.
Published: May 2009

Cases of metamorphosed limestones where the calcium carbonate has been converted by contact with some igneous magma into a calc-silicate rock are by no means rare, one of the best known being the conversion of the Coniston Limestone of the Lake District by the Shap Granite into a rock with various calc-silicate and other minerals such as Wollastonite, Omphacite, etc., as described by Messrs. Harker and Marr. But as far as I know, no case has been recorded where ordinary white chalk has been similarly changed. Dr. Hibsch describes a case of baculite marl containing Foraminifera which has been altered by contact with dolerite. The Foraminifera disappear and the rock becomes a granular limestone with epidote, forming a calc-silicate hornstone. This seems the nearest case to the alteration in co. Antrim I am about to describe.
V.—The Fauna of the Bokkeveld Beds
Authors: Reed F. R. Cowper
Published: May 2009

It is useful from time to time to take stock of our knowledge in connection with such a geological problem as that of the fauna of the Bokkeveld Beds, so that we may ascertain to what stage in the process of its elucidation we have arrived, and may note the direction in which the evidence is pointing. An indication of the principal gaps in our knowledge may also be obtained in this manner, and new suggestions as to the more promising lines of investigation. The conclusions arrived at from such a survey may be employed tentatively as working hypotheses, but it may be premature to base upon them confident generalisations. Approaching the question of the composition, relations, origin, and distribution of the Bokkeveld fauna in this spirit of caution and with the foregoing objects in view, we find firstly that a considerable advance has been made in our knowledge of it and allied faunas during the last few years. The researches of Ulrich, Kayser, Clarke, Katzer, Thomas, and others in South America have given us an immense amount of fresh information on the Devonian faunas of that continent, and the South African fossils themselves have been studied by Lake, Schwarz, and the author. Their general poor state of preservation is a matter of regret, but the increase in the material available has cleared away some of the difficulties met with by Salter and other previous workers. Much undoubtedly remains to be learnt from work in the field, and we may expect further yields of new species from different localities in the immense area still to be explored.
V.—The Occurrence of Glacial Clay on the Cotteswold Plateau
Authors: Callaway C.
Published: May 2009

Mr. L. Richardson, F.G.S., having informed me that he had seen gravels at a high level on the road leading from Stow-on-the-Wold to Burford, I visited the locality, accompanied by Mr. J. W. Gray, F.G.S. About 3⅓ miles north of Burford, at the corner of the turning to Tangley, we came upon a deposit of clay with northern erratics in a quarry of oolite. As the position of such a formation was unexpected, and might be important, it seems desirable to record the discovery.
V.—On Stomatopora Antiqua, Haime, and its Related Liassic Forms
Authors: Lang W. D.
Published: May 2009

Stomatopoba Antiqua was first described and figured by Haime from specimens occurring on Gryphæa in the Lower Lias of France. I have not been able to find any record of an English specimen except that in the Survey memoir on the Lias of England and Wales. But recently several specimens of a Stomatopora resembling S. antiqua, Haime, were found in the collection of the late Mr. E. F. Tomes. The fact that all the specimens were encrusting Gryphæa is remarkable; for though many hundred specimens of various molluscs from the Lower Lias were searched, and of these all sorts of oysters with especial care, Gryphæa was the only form encrusted by Stomatopora.
IV.—Sedgwick Museum Notes. A New Species of Cyclus from the Carboniferous Limestone of Ireland
Authors: Reed F. R. Cowper
Published: May 2009

A Specimen of Cyclus has lately been acquired from the Carboniferous Limestone of St. Doulaghs, co. Dublin, which indicates a new species, though it is allied to several which have been described by Dr. Henry Woodward. The latter gave in 1894 a review of our knowledge of this curious little Crustacean genus, and his view that it is an Entomostracan and probably one of the Phyllopoda has been generally accepted, though more recently (1905) he has suggested that the members of this genus are but the larval stages of Coal-measure Limuloids.
V.—The Age of the ‘Old or Grey Granite’ of the Transvall and Orange River Colony
Authors: Sandberg C. G. S.
Published: May 2009

It may be taken for granted that everybody agrees with Dr. Molengraaff when, in discussing Dr. Hatch's paper on “The Oldest Sedimentary Rocks of the Transvaal,” he says: “There must exist, or have existed, a formation older than the Witwatersrand Beds, because even at the very base of the Hospital Hill series conglomerates are known, the pebbles of which cannot obviously have been derived from the Hospital Hill series by denudation.” It has, therefore, I take it, not been the intention of various authors to prove this self-evident truth, but only to try and definitely settle the still open question whether this older rock is yet represented in the geological sequence of the country, and, if so, what strata should be identified as such. The relative age of the ‘old granite’ or ‘grey granite’ has been the base and the cornerstone of controversy on this subject, and it therefore becomes imperative to put on record and to continually keep in mind the only reliable mode of determination of the age of eruptive rocks which we yet possess. It would be out of place here to insist upon the origin of abyssal eruptive rocks of the granite family (Rosenbusch's Tiefengesteine).
VI.—A Simple Form of Permanent Magnet suitable for the Separation of Weakly Magnetic Minerals
Authors: Crook T.
Published: May 2009

The separation of the weakly magnetic minerals of crushed rocks, sands, etc., is best effected by using an electromagnet, which, if suitably constructed, is, for any given size, much stronger than a permanent magnet. The electromagnet exerts no attractive force when the current is shut off, and for this reason the process of separation is made easy, as the grains which have been attracted to the poles drop when the current is switched off.
IV.—On the Origin of the Nile Valley and the Gulf of Suez
Authors: Ball John
Published: May 2009

“In a trough from 2 to 10 kilometres wide and 100 to 300 metres deep lies the Nile, meandering through a flood plain formed by yearly deposits of silt brought down from the Abyssinian table-land by the Blue Nile and the Atbara. This trough was determined in the first instance by fractures of the crust which caused a strip of country from about Edfu (lat. 25° N.) to Cairo to be depressed, leaving the plateau standing high above it, just as the Red Sea and the gulfs of Suez and Akaba were formed, probably about the same epoch. This interference with the drainage of the country doubtless produced a series of lakes in the low-lying area, while the drainage of the eastern plateau commenced to excavate the valleys which now exist as dry desert wadies, their development being in many cases far from complete, as shown by the cliffs which interrupt the slope of the valley when a harder bed of rock than usual is met with.
II.—On Two Deep Well-Sinkings at Leckhampton Hill, Cheltenham
Authors: Richardson L.
Published: May 2009

Those who are acquainted with the detailed zoning of the Upper Lias and Inferior Oolite of the Cotteswold Hills have long desired to know the precise date of the Upper-Lias deposit at Leckhampton Hill, Cheltenham, upon which the Inferior Oolite rests. At last the desired-for information is to hand. The Inferior Oolite at Leckhampton Hill rests directly upon the Variabilis-Beds of the Upper Lias.
IV.—Note on a Mounted Skeleton of a Small Pliosaur, Peloneustes Philarchus, Seeley, sp
Authors: Andrews C. W.
Published: May 2009

The skeleton figured on Plate XII is that of a small Pliosaur, Peloneustes philarchus, Seeley, sp. This specimen was obtained from the Oxford Clay in the neighbourhood of Peterborough by Mr. A. N. Leeds, F.G.S., to whom the British Museum is indebted for a great series of more or less perfect skeletons of many species of Oxford Clay Reptiles, including the beautifully preserved and nearly complete examples of Cryptocleidus oxoniensis and the remains of Cetiosaurus leedsi, now mounted in the Gallery of Fossil Reptiles. So far as I am aware, this is the first skeleton of a Pliosaur that has been mounted so as to show the true form of the body in those reptiles. All the bones belong to a single individual, but the left-hand paddle and the distal portion of the other paddles being wanting, they have been represented by plaster models made from the paddles of another individual, which are exhibited on the floor of the case. The left ischium has been modelled from that of the opposite side.
VI.—On the Occurrence of Aragonite in the Middle Lias of Leicestershire; with some remarks on the calcareous character of the spinatus beds
Authors: Horwood A. R.
Published: May 2009

The Liassic strata generally are so barren of any minerals of importance or of an appreciable size or extent that the record of the discovery of one not hitherto known to occur in a crystalline form, apart from the part it plays in the formation of shell-layers at that horizon, is assuredly of interest. Hitherto the Liassic strata have not yielded any minerals unassociated with shell-structure, except selenite, which occurs commonly in some Upper Liassic clays, whilst it is not unusual to find fossils converted into iron-pyrites or marcasite, especially at certain horizons. The Doggers of Yorkshire are noteworthy instances of this kind. In the Middle Lias, zinc, nickel, and cobalt are found in the iron-ores of the Cleveland district.
I.—Notes on some Upper Cretaceous Fish-remains from the Provinces of Sergipe and Pernambuco, Brazil
Authors: Woodward Arthur Smith
Published: May 2009

I am indebted to Professor Orville A. Derby for the opportunity of studying some fish-remains from the Cretaceous of North-East Brazil, which were examined by the late Professor Cope and partially described by him, without illustrations, in 1886. I had the privilege of seeing some of these fossils at Philadelphia in 1890, and made a few notes which were incorporated in the British Museum Catalogue of Fossil Fishes. I have now undertaken a renewed and more detailed study of the collection, which suggests the desirability of publishing the following supplementary observations.
III.—Notes on the Osteology of Ophthalmosaurus icenicus, Seeley, an Ichthyosaurian Reptile from the Oxford Clay of Peterborough
Authors: Andrews C. W.
Published: May 2009

During the last few months the preparation of a descriptive catalogue of the magnificent collection of reptilian remains obtained by Mr. A. N. Leeds in the Oxford Clay of Peterborough, has rendered it necessary to examine in some detail the fine series of more or less complete skeletons of Ophlhalmosurus preserved in the British Museum. In the course of this examination a certain number of new facts have come to light, and since it will be some time before the detailed description can appear it seems desirable to give a brief account of some of the more interesting points.
I.—Notes on the Invertebrate Fauna of the Uitenhage Series in Cape Colony
Authors: Kitchin F. L.
Published: May 2009

The rich invertebrate fauna of the Uitenhage Series has long attracted attention, owing to the conspicuous nature of some of its components and the divergence of opinion which has arisen in the various attempts to bring it into correlation with Secondary faunas in the European area. A recent examination of the fossils collected from the Uitenhage Beds by the Geological Survey of Cape Colony has afforded an opportunity of reconsidering, in the light of extended knowledge, the conclusions of those who have previously studied this question of correlation. A comparative study of the fauna, with an account of some new species, based principally upon the materials collected by the members of the Survey, will shortly be contributed to the fourth volume of the “Annals of the South African Museum”; but in the meantime, the following brief notes, in which are embodied some of the principal results, may be of interest to a wider circle of readers.
III.—North Norfolk Geology: The Chalk and its Dislocation
Authors: Howorth Henry H.
Published: May 2009

Mr. Clement Reid's explanation of the broken and contorted condition of the Chalk seems to me quite incomprehensible. Let us analyze the position rather more closely. The champions of ice as the cause of the phenomenon we are discussing appeal to it in two forms—ice-sheets and icebergs. Mr. Eeid was, I believe, the originator of the notion that the dislocations of the Norfolk Chalk were due to an ice-sheet, which means an ice-sheet occupying the North Sea.
IV.—Australian Palæontologists on Silurian Ophiurids
Authors: Bather F. A.
Published: May 2009

Some interesting Ophiurids from the Melbournian rocks of Victoria are described by Mr. F. Chapman in Part viii of his valuable series of articles on “New or little-known Victorian fossils in the National Museum” [Melbourne] (Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, n. ser., vol. xix, p. 21; Feb., 1907).
V.—Preliminary Note on Overthrust Structure at Langkofl in the Dolomites
Authors: Ogilvie Gordon Maria. M
Published: May 2009

Geologists who are familiar with the Dolomites of South Tyrol will know the transverse sections of Langkofl and Plattkofl Dolomite given by Geh. von Mojsisovics (“Dolomit-Kiffe,” 1879, pp. 191–204). Mojsisovics describes the Schlern Dolomite of Langkofl as resting conformably upon south-dipping Lower Musehelkalk and Werfen strata, and concludes that the Schlern Dolomite here represents a dolomitic facies of all the Mid-Triassic geological horizons—viz., the Mendola, Buchenstein, Wengen and Cassian horizons. The Lower Musehelkalk and Werfen strata then bend northward with a steep flexure and, according to Mojsisovics, conformably underlie the same Mid-Triassic series of Mendola, Buchenstein, Wengen, and Cassian horizons, but the Buchenstein horizon is here present in the nodular limestone facies, and the Wengen and Cassian horizons in their tufaceous facies.
II.—Nathorst's use of Collodion Imprints in the Study of Fossil Plants
Authors: Bathee F. A.
Published: May 2009

The following note is based on two papers by Professor A. G. Nathorst and on further details which he has kindly communicated by letter. For the loan of the block (Fig. 1) thanks are due to Dr. H. Munthe, Secretary of Geologiska Föreningen i Stockholm.

By the term ‘collodion imprint’ is meant the impression of any surface on a thin film of collodion. Such an impression is obtained by letting a drop or two of collodion dissolved in ether fall on the surface to be copied. The ether evaporates rapidly, so that in two or three minutes the film is hard. If it does not of its own accord come loose at the corners, it is easily raised by a needle or sharp knife. It is then lifted on to a glass microscope-slide and preserved dry under a cover-slip held in position by gummed strips of paper or by Canada balsam. When the imprint is very sharp, the film can, if desired, be preserved in glycerine-jelly without its distinctness being greatly affected. Some films may be less successful than others, and some may curl too much, so that it is as well to take more than one imprint. In any case it is advisable to throw away the first made, since it usually retains some dust from the surface of the object, whereas following films will be free from this. If the collodion solution is too thick it may be thinned by the addition of ether or of ether and alcohol.
III.—Recession of the Niagara Falls
Authors: Spencer J. W.
Published: May 2009

For many years Niagara Falls and the Great Lakes of America have been special subjects of my researches. These at last have been completed under the Commission from Dr. Robert Bell, acting Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, and later of Mr. A. P. Low, Director, with results beyond anticipation. These were obtained through precise instrumental measurements, borings, and soundings, not hitherto undertaken.

My recent survey of the crest-line (1904–5), compared with that of Professor James Hall, 1842, shows the mean rate of recession to have been 4·2 feet a year, with the average breadth of the gorge produced by the falls being 1200 feet. But a longer record (agreeing with the more recent) has been found by Mr. James Wilson and myself in discovering the position of the Falls in 1678, from the crude description and picture made by Father Hennepin at that time. Between 1890 and 1905 the rate of greater recession diminished.

I succeeded in making soundings under the Falls and throughout the Gorge by the use of Tanner-Blish self-registering tubes, depending upon the hydrostatic pressure, as the current was too strong for the use of an ordinary line. At the Whirlpool, and at some other places, it was necessary to work from a cable swung across the Gorge. Under the Falls themselves, the sounding tubes were inserted in a specially designed buoy which the force of the Fall drove down to the rocks, that had collapsed beneath the Falls themselves. These were reached at 72 feet, while the floor of the river beyond varied from 84 to 100 feet below the surface of the river.
II.—The Tygerberg Anticline
Authors: Schwarz Ernst H. L.
Published: May 2009

Round the south-western corner of Cape Colony there is a belt of mountains which exhibit a number of exceedingly interesting features. The ranges meet almost in a right angle, the one set trending north and the other east, from a point near Ceres village; this is what Suess calls a ‘Schaarung,’ and I believe nowhere else in the world does this structure show itself in such a simple manner. Each range is composed essentially of an S-shaped bend, the syncline on the coast side and the anticline on the inner side, while subsidiary folds are added in various places, without, however, obscuring the general nature of the mountain structure. The central axes of the ranges are composed ofa coarse grey false-bedded sandstone, the Table Mountain Sandstone resting on the outer side on Pal-Afric beds, slates, phyllites, and intrusive granite, and dipping under later and conformable beds on the inner sides. The age of the Table Mountain Sandstone is uncertain, as, with the exception of indeterminable bivalves found by Griesbach in Natal and possibly a Patella, no fossils have been recorded from the series; the overlying beds, however, the Bokkeveld Beds, contain a rich fauna belonging to the American type of Devonian species. On top of the Devonian conies another series of sandstones, the Witteberg Beds, strongly differentiated from the older sandstone series by their yellow and red tints, and the amount of shaly matter intercalated between the sandstone banks.The Witteberg Beds, although strictly conformable to the Bokkeveld Beds, contain a flora which is referable to the Lower Carboniferous, the conformity being supposed to be the result of the ocean floor, during the period occupied elsewhere with the deposition of the Middle and Upper Devonian, having sunk below the area, or rather out of reach of deposition of land detritus.
II.—The Relationships of the ‘Sparassodonta.’
Authors: Matthew W. D.
Published: May 2009

The Sparassodonta are an interesting group of extinct mammals found in the Tertiary formations of Patagonia. They appear to have taken the place of true Carnivora in South America during most of the Tertiary period, as the Carnivorous Marsupials do in the modern fauna of Australia. Their relationship has been in dispute since they were first made known to science by the distinguished South American paæontologist Florentino Ameghino. In dental formula and other characters of the teeth and jaws they agree with the Carnivorous Marsupials, and show a high degree of adaptive specialization for predaceous habits. Dr. Ameghino was able to determine, however, from specimens in his collection, that the replacement of the premolars, in certain genera at least, was more complete than in modern marsupials, and approached that of the placental carnivora. He regarded them, therefore, as an intermediate group, ancestral to the Creodonta and modern Carnivora. Mr. Tomes, in his interesting study of thb enamel structure of the Creodonta and allied groups, has recently shown that in one genus of Sparassodonts the enamel shows the more highly differentiated structure of the true Carnivora, instead of the more primitive structure of Marsupial Carnivores. The collections made by the Princeton and American Museums in the Santa Cruz formation of Patagonia contain a splendid series of Sparassodont remains, including skulls and skeletons of the principal genera, which have recently been exhaustively studied by Dr. Sinclair. These show that the Sparassodonts agree with Marsupials, and especially with Thylacinus in almost all the distinctive features of dentition, skull, and skeleton characters by which they are separated from the placental mammals.
I.—Relics of the Great Ice Age in the Plains of Northern India
Authors: La Touche T. H. D.
Published: May 2009

It may seem strange to dwellers in this country under its present conditions to speak of relics of a Glacial Period being visible in the plains of the Ganges Valley, where the mean annual average temperature is about 77˚ F. and we all know what the maximum may rise to; and at the outset I must guard against misapprehension by saying that I do not mean to imply, by the title of my discourse, that the plains of India were ever, within geologically recent times, covered with snow and ice. We have evidence, it is true, that in long distant ages, at the beginning of the period that saw the filling up of the valleys of the old Gondwana continent, part of which still exists as the Peninsula of India, that is to say, when the deposits of clay and sandstone, supporting a luxuriant vegetation, now transformed into the coal of Raniganj and other localities, were beginning to be laid down, the higher ground of the Peninsula was under snow and ice, and that glaciers descended into the low ground and probably sent off icebergs into the surrounding seas. Traces of these events, which took place in what is known to geologists as the Talchir Period, even the old rock-floors grooved and striated by the passage over them of fragments of rock embedded in moving ice, have been found at the base of the Coal-measures in the Central Provinces and in Rajputana, while a bed containing striated and polished boulders, exhibiting unmistakable evidence of ice action, is known in the Salt Range of the Punjab. But with these, and with traces of what may prove to have been a still older ice age, of which Sir T. Holland brought some evidence before this Society in August, 1908, discovered by him near Simla, I do not propose to deal on the present occasion.
VII.—Note on a further extension of the ‘Transition-bed’ and Crinoidal Limestone Band in the Middle Lias of Leicestershire
Authors: Horwood A. R.
Published: May 2009

Allusion has been made in a previous paper to the crinoidal limestone band and Transition bed at Billesdon Coplow, and to the existence of the former at Tilton Hill near Lowesby Station. At the latter place, though the Transition-bed is not exposed in situ, the position of the crinoidal limestone bed (after making full allowance for Drift deposits), is low enough, with beds normally horizontal or with a slight easterly dip, to adduce without any doubt the extension of the Transition-bed above it at this point. Thus the crinoidal limestone band had been traced at three points — Tilton (vide Wilson, ibid.), Billesdon Coplow, Tilton Hill—in the southern portion of the exposed area of the Rock-bed in Leicestershire, up to the time when the second paper, contributed by the author dealing with this bed in Leicestershire, was written. That is to say, it had only been found in the southern series of bold escarpments or spurs into which the district is divided. For the Twyford brook, running more or less west and east, divides the two series to which reference is directly made into a northern and a southern series, or if we include the Belvoir, Stathern, Eastwell, Holwell, and Waltham tract still more to the north, into three, with a central tract north of the Twyford brook.
I.—Some Notes on the Aptychi from the Upper Chalk
Authors: Blackmore H. P.
Published: May 2009

In 1853–6, when Mr. Sharpe published his monograph on the Cretaceous Cephalopoda of England, the various species were roughly placed according to the divisions of the Chalk formation as described by Conybeare and Philips. This, unfortunately, led to many mistakes: amongst others, Mr. Sharpe described Belemnitella mucronata as occurring “everywhere in the Upper Chalk of the South of England,” whilst Belemnitella quadrata is only noticed as occurring in the Middle Chalk of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex; the fact being that Belemnitella quadrata is not found in the Middle Chalk, and Belemnitella mucronata is restricted to the highest zone of the Upper Chalk.
II.—The so-called Middle Sands and Glacial Gravels of Eastern England
Authors: Howorth Henry H.
Published: May 2009

IN a previous paper I have discussed the post-Tertiary Clays of Eastern England. In that paper I endeavoured to show that these clays, varying as they do in texture, composition, and contents, mark a varying geographical distribution and substratum rather than a succession of changes in time; that, so far as we can tell, they are for the most part on the same horizon, and interlock with each other, with occasional local overlaps; while they are united by one common element, namely, the presence of certain foreign boulders of the same general type in them all.
V.—On the Exmoor Earthquake of January 23, 1894, and on its Relation to the Northern Boundary Fault of the Morte Slates
Authors: Davison Charles
Published: May 2009

A Slight earthquake of intensity IV, according to the Rossi-Forel scale, was felt in and near Exmoor at about 9 a.m. on January 23, 1894. Its interest lies, not so much in the seismic phenomena presented by it, as in its connection with the northern boundary fault of the Morte Slates.
I.—The Origin of the Nile Valley in Egypt
Authors: Hume W. F.
Published: May 2009

The article which appeared by Dr. Ball in the February number of the Geological Magazine (pp. 71–6), strongly urging the origin of the Egyptian Nile Valley as due to erosion rather than faulting, is the first public expression of a widespread feeling that the familiar rift theory is based on comparatively feeble foundations, and either requires strengthening or withdrawal. It must be remembered that when the Geological Survey of Egypt commenced its operations in 1896 the relation of deep African depressions to rifts was an accepted theory which had been found applicable in a number of striking instances. As one who has studied portions of the Nile Valley and the neighbouring deserts of Egypt for some years, I submit these few remarks, adopting a somewhat more personal point of view than is usual in papers of this nature, not from a desire for controversy, but because the subject is one worthy of discussion.
VII.—Note on a Section in Probable Bagshot Beds on Shooters Hill, Kent
Authors: Leach A. L.
Published: May 2009

In 1905 trenches for electric mains were carried up the northeastern slope of Shooters Hill, along Shrewsbury Lane to “The Bull”, and thence down the western hill-slope along the Dover Road. From about 350 O.D. in Plum Lane to 424 O.D. at “The Bull” the trench ran for nearly two-thirds of a mile along the junction of the London Clay with the overlying group of sands, pebbles, and clayey gravels which form the ‘gravel cap’ of Shooters Hill. Neither the exact age of these superficial deposits nor their mode of formation—whether marine or fluviatile beds—is as yet known, but the general coarseness of the sands, the presence of pebbles of Lower Greensand chert, and the very stiff clayey matrix of the gravel distinguish them from typical Bagshot Beds, and moreover throughout the greater part of the section a sharp and irregular junction could be traced between them and the brown London Clay. At a few points, however, the top of the London Clay was seen to pass into pale-brown and yellowish sandy clays, sometimes of significant thickness. Thus in the Dover Road, about 100 yards above Christ Church, below the thick red clayey gravel of the ‘cap’, lay about 3 feet of yellow loam, the lower part of which became a pale-brown clay passing quite gradually into normal blue or brown London Clay with septarian nodules. In the same series of excavations (1905) a trench at the junction of Shrewsbury Lane with the Dover Road showed the Shooters Hill gravel resting irregularly on a bed of fine clean yellowish sand quite unlike anything previously noted in the numerous pits and trenches opened upon the Hill, but as unfortunately the trench was only a few feet deep the relation of this fine sand to the London Clay could not then be made out.
V.—The Geology of the Titterstone Clee Hills
Authors: Dixon E. E. L.
Published: May 2009

The following is a preliminary account of the rocks overlying the Lower Old Red Sandstone of the Titterstone Clee Hills, Shrops.
IV.—The Post-Pleistocene Flora and Fauna of Central England
Authors: Horwood A. R.
Published: May 2009

The central position of Leicestershire gives it not only a peculiar relationship in regard to river-drainage, streams radiating from its plateau-frontier on the one hand to the north, flowing into the Humber, and on the other to the south into the Bristol Channel, separated alone by a now comparatively insignificant divide in the neighbourhood of Lutterworth. Also the very fact that this divide is given, by the otherwise lowland character of the tract to the north and south, a barrier-like aspect, renders it highly probable that the flora and fauna in this basin-like area is more or less homogeneous. That it has been uniform in character, no doubt from pre-Glacial times, when doubtless the existing drainage systems (though probably still more ancient fundamentally) received their most recent stamp, having been little modified (except in depth or width) during Glacial or later times. For this purpose we must needs summarize all that is known as to the occurrence of plants or land and fresh water Mollusca in post-Pleistocene alluvial deposits.
IV.—Oceanic ‘Deeps’
Authors: Reade T. Mellard
Published: May 2009

One of the most characteristic features of the great oceans is the presence of what have been aptly termed ‘deeps,’ enormous depressions in the ocean bottoms. Having in my “Evolution of Earth Structure” discussed their distribution and probable origin, I was naturally attracted by the notice in Nature of the surveys of the vessel “Edi” and the cable-ship “Stephan” during 1903 and 1905 in the western and south-western parts of the Pacific Ocean. Drs. G. Shott and P. Perlewitz, in a paper recently issued in the Archiv der deutschen Seewarte, taking into consideration previous work by U.S. ship “Hero” and of the German vessel “Planet,” consider that these soundings throw a great deal of new light on the configuration of the sea bottom in those regions. They state that the troughs forming the deeps are usually about 10 miles wide, excepeting the Guam deep, which is as much as 20 across. The most interesting statement to me is that in their opinion the troughs are the result of subsidence occurring on an enormous scale along lines of fracture, and that is probable the disturbances which produced these structures are comparatively recent.
VI.—Facts observed by Lieut. Damant, R.N., at the Sea-bottom
Authors: Hunt Arthur R.
Published: May 2009

Taking into consideration the apparently hopeless tangle in which the ripplemark and submarine erosion questions had become involved, I submitted to the Devonshire Association in July last a paper entitled “The Ripplemark Controversy,” in which I attempted to bequeath the subject to posterity in such a form that anyone interested in the enquiry could pick it up where it had been dropped. It was, at any rate, my own farewell, or was so intended to be.
I.—A Giant Sub-Fossil Rat from Madagascar, Myoryctes rapeto, gen. et sp. nov.
Authors: Major C. I. Forsyth
Published: May 2009

Amongst the vertebrate remains which I found in the marshes of Sirabé (Central Madagascar), a large Rodent is represented by two right ossa innominata, one of which (B.M. M 7085) is fairly complete, only the free portion of the pars dorsalis of the ischium being broken off.
III.—On some Fossil Reptilian Bones from the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Authors: Woodward Arthur Smith
Published: May 2009

A few fossil reptilian bones discovered by Dr. Jango Fischer in 1902 at Santa Maria da Bocca do Monte (Serrito) in the Rio Grande do Sul, which have been submitted to me by Dr. H. von Ihering (San Paulo Museum), are of much interest. They not only appear to determine the geological age of the formation from which they were obtained, but also foreshadow the discovery of an early Mesozoic South American land fauna, which has long been expected.
V.—Preliminary Note on some Unrecorded Exposures of the Quartz-Felsite in North-West Carnarvonshire
Authors: Badger A. B.
Published: May 2009

During an investigation of the rocks of North-West Carnarvonshire older than the Llanberis Slates, the detailed results of which I hope soon to publish, I have discovered certain exposures of quartz-felsite which are not marked as such on the maps of the Geological Ordnance Survey, nor have been described, as far as I know, by other observers.
VIII.—Mottled Foraminiferous Limestone in West and North Lancashire
Authors: Jackson J. Wilfrid
Published: May 2009

Early in 1904, whilst spending a holiday at Silverdale, near Carnforth, I noticed at the roadside near the Silverdale Hotel several heaps of a peculiar mottled limestone which was being broken up for road-metal. The resemblance to specimens I had seen from Derbyshire struck me at once, and I was not long in locating the quarry from which the material had been derived. The exposure of the rock is situated near the turn of an old cart track leading from Silverdale Green to Burton Well. When I visited the place there was a section visible of about 12 to 14 feet long and 2 to 3 feet deep. On the top was a thin layer of surface soil with vegetation on it. The floor of the quarry was also of the same mottled limestone. The strata here and in the immediate neighbourhood are rolling with a general dip of 10° E.
IV.—On Lifting by Ice-Melting
Authors: Hill Edwin
Published: May 2009

Everyone knows that ice floats in water, is able to carry some amount of materials attached to it, and if lifted by rise of the water-level is able to lift them with itself. Lyell describes this in the Principles (ch. xvi, xxxi), and probably it is mentioned in every textbook. But ice is also able to lift attached materials without rise of the water-level. It requires no tides, no floods; it can lift without external aid, by its melting alone.

When a crust of ice 1 foot thick has formed on a sheet of fresh water it floats with its upper surface about an inch above water-level, its lower surface about 11 inches below. If by any cause this ice-crust is melted over its upper surface, the products of melting flow off, the upper surface sinks a little, but the lower surface rises through about eleven-twelfths of the thickness melted off. Take an ice-floe uniformly 6 feet thick: its lower surface will be floating, if the water be fresh, at about 5½ feet below water-level. Suppose it reduced by melting over the upper surface till only 6 inches thick, the lower surface will now be about 5½ inches below water-level; this lower surface will accordingly have risen more than 5 feet. If any objects or materials were attached to that lower surface they will have risen with it: they will have been lifted. This is undeniable and obvious. It is undeniable and obvious that ice is able to lift materials by simple melting, independently of any other power or action.
V.—The Boring at Heathfield, Devon
Authors: Jukes-Browne A. J.
Published: May 2009

The geological importance of this boring lies in the fact that it is the deepest which has yet been made in the Bovey Basin, that the site is nearly in the middle of that basin, and that it is evidence of the great depth of the syncline or trough in which the Bovey deposits lie. Although it did not reach the base of these deposits it is highly desirable that we should know the exact depth to which it was carried, as it is the only means of estimating the minimum depth of the basin.
VI.—Professor Walther's Erosion in the Desert Considered
Authors: Hume W. F.
Published: May 2009

In the Cairo Scientific Journal the first chapter of Professor Walther's new edition of Das Gosetz der Wüstenbildung was considered in some detail. His second chapter, “Die Abtragung in der Wüste” (pp. 111–218), is no less stimulating to thought and replete in observation. He opens this section of his work with a statement of the facts which point to great climatic stability in Egypt during historical times. Two of these are specially mentioned. First, the presence of a small sack of salt in a grave of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the analysis of which agreed absolutely with that of the salt at present obtained from the lakes of the Wadi Natrun. This occurrence, according to him, proves that the same salt mixtures were being formed at periods 3,500 years apart. A statement as to the nature of the resemblances which lead to so wide a conclusion would have been of interest. Secondly, attention is also called to the total absence of water in the Tombs of the Kings since they were first excavated, pointing to the underground water having stood for many thousands of years at more than 50 metres below present valley level.
I.—On ‘Cleat’ in Coal-Seams
Authors: Kendall Percy F.
Published: May 2009

My interest in cleat was first aroused by the study of the Geological Survey memoir on the coals of South Wales (1908), from which it became clear to me that the subject of the origin of anthracite was intimately bound up with that of cleat. The object of the present communication is, however, not directly connected with the anthracite question, upon which I hope to have something to say when researches upon which I am engaged with Mr. E. J. Edwards, M.Sc., of Cardiff, have reached a more advanced stage.