bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Silurian Uniserial
Stomatoporæ
and
Ascodictya
Authors: Vine George Robert
Published: October 2009

The genus
Alecto
was founded by Lamouroux in 1821 for a group of adherent Polyzoa. In 1814 Leach had used the word
Alecto
for a genus of Echinoderms; and Mr. Hincks says that it is still employed in connexion with the Crinoidea. On this account its further use for species of Polyzoa is objectionable. In 1825 Prof. Bronn used the word
Stomatopora
, and in 1826 Goldfuss used
Aulopora
, as names for individuals of the same genus as that founded by Lamouroux. For uniserial species d'Orbigny employed Prof. Bronn's name; but Blainville, Johnston, Milne-Edwards, Busk, and Defrance used the original word “
Alecto
” for species described by them in their various writings.

The generic characters of
Stomatopora
have been given by various authors ; and additions have been made from time to time. The rather full description given by Goldfuss of
Aulopora dichotoma
,together with figures of the species, renders identification comparatively easy. But somehow there has been a confusion in later identifications, and the
Aulopora intermedia
† type of Münster has been mixed up with Goldfuss's type. Both of these are present inthe Jurassic formation; and it is, I will admit, rather a difficultmatter to say where the one ends and the other begins. If, however, authors would distinguish between the two types, we should be able to get at the true range of the species, because each has an individual facies of its own. Hall, in describing the species foundin the Trenton Limestone of Americas (Trenton Falls, Oneida county), makes this distinction:—
The Reptile Fauna of the Gosau Formation preserved in the Geological Museum of the University of Vienna
Authors: Seeley H. G.
Published: October 2009

The Gosau formation, nearly corresponding in age to the Upper Greensand of this country, is represented at Neue Welt, near Wiener Noustadt, by freshwater deposits full of such freshwater shells as
Melania
and
Unio
, and land-plants such as
Banksia
and
Pecopteris
. The formation and its fauna have been described by Profs. Suess, Zittel, and many others; but, although the late Dr. Stoliczka detected a tooth imbedded in the coal of the formation, no important knowledge was obtained of the vertebrate fauna of the Gosau beds until Prof. Suess was so fortunate as to obtain the assistance of Bergverwalter Pawlowitsch in conducting excavations. These were carried on with admirable skill; timber drift-ways were driven into the rocks, with the result that they penetrated into a perfect cemetery of the remains of Cretaceous reptiles. The remarkable collection thus obtained was intrusted for description to Dr. Emanuel Bünzel, whose memoir upon it was published in 1871 in the ‘Transactions of the Imperial-Royal Geological Institution.’ Subsequently more specimens were discovered; and in Easter 1879 my honoured friend, Prof. Suess, invited me to visit Vienna to examine these specimens, with the object of making them available for the advancement of knowledge by publication. With the assistance of the Royal Society I gladly undertook this work, and spent a month in Vienna studying the thousands of fragments which had been obtained. The great, mass of these, mere comminuted bones, proved of but little value; or, rather, the time that I could give to their study enabled
Description of a Peat-Bed interstratified with the Boulder-drift at Oldham
Authors: Hollingworth Geo. H.
Published: October 2009

In the early part of September last Mr. James Nield, of Oldham, called my attention to a bed of peat which he had discovered on the site of the railway-extensions then being made by the London and North-Western Railway Co., at Rhodes Bank, Oldham.

The length of the section exposed to view was 53 feet in a north-to-south direction, and the maximum depth 14 feet; but the depth of the drift, as proved at the colliery about 100 yards to the west, is
34 1/2 feet.

The deposit is situate in the valley of the Medlock, about 25 feet above its present level ; but it has not beeen exposed by that brook,at this point, where there is from 2 to 6 feet of the upper clay still resting upon the peat. The upper clay, peat, and lower clay have probably been denuded by the action of the brook some yards to the west. The upper clay is continuous to the east for at least 200 yards, and was proved to be about 4 feet thick for 15 yards to the east of the section by the operations of the Railway Company in search of sand. At that point the sand was more than 6 feet in thickness, thc bed of peat having run out. The boulders are mostly thickness, thc bed of peat having run out. The boulders are mostly thickness, thc bed of peat having run out. The boulders are mostly from a distance (porphyries, granites,&c.) ;
On the Geology of Anglesey.—No. 2
Authors: Hughes T. McKenny
Published: October 2009

In a former paper on the Geology of Anglesey, which I had the honour of reading before the Society on February 25th, 1880 (Q. J. G. S. vol. xxxvi. p. 237), I endeavoured to fix the geological position of some of the sandstones and shales which overlie the granitoid, gneissic, and schistose rocks of the central axis. I gave lists of fossils and brought forward stratigraphical evidence to show that we had at the base of the series a conglomerate and grit succeeded by sandstones containing fossils which, in the present state of the grouping of those variable zones, would be referred to Tremadoc, and that these were followed in ascending order by black slates and shales, in which I found one Graptolite zone, which was referred to a known horizon in the Arenig.
On an Extinct Chelonian Reptile (
Notochelys costata
, Owen), from Australia
Authors: Owen Richard
Published: October 2009

Hitherto the fossil reptilian remains transmitted to me for description from Austrralia have been limited to parts of the skeleton of asteh great horned Lacertian (
Megalania prisca
, Ow.).

The first evidence of a Chelonian from that continent was sent in the present year (1881), by our fellow Member Professor Archibald Liversidge, of the University of Sydney, New South Wales. He kinldy permitted a mould to be taken of the specimen, with the request that the original should be returned to him after a description and figure bad appeared. The mould and casts are in the British Museum, Cromwell Road.

The specimen was found in a formation at Flinders River, Queensland; but the nature and age of the deposit are not stated. It is petrified and, with the imbedding matrix, of great weight.

The fossil consists of an anterior portion of the carapace (fig. 1) and of the plastron (fig. 2) brought into unnaturally close contact by phosthumous pressure.

The preserved part of teh plastron includes the right and left coalesced hyo- and hyposternals (fig. 2,
hps,r
, and
hps, l
), indications of teh episternals and the entosternal; and, anterior to these parts of the plastron, both scapulo-acromial bones(
51
) have been brought into view.
Additional Discoveries of High-level Marine Drifts in North Wales, with Remarks on Driftless Areas
Authors: Mackintosh D.
Published: October 2009

Summary of Facts and Inferences

In speculating on the origin of the high-level marine drifts described in this and in previous papers, the following facts and inferences ought to be duly taken into consideration:—

1.

High-level marine drifts, in addition to directly local stones and stones from neighbouring areas, consist to a greater or less extent of far-travelled erratic stones, while in none of them are the stones entirely local.

2.

The stones are generally much rounded, and that frequently over large areas.

3.

All the great drift-areas contain a considerable, and some of them a large percentage of granite, especially Eskdale granite, which is at least partly owing to the extent to which the Eskdale area is covered with granite fragments and pebbles in positions favourable to removal by floating ice.

4.

All the great drift areas (so far as yet known) are situated on or towards the outer slopes of mountain districts.

5.

In the interior of mountain districts high-level drifts are either absent or limited to patches.

6.

The drift-areas are more or less bounded above and below, as well as longitudinally, by areas in which the stones are angular or subangular.

7.

None of them are situated further south than latitudes in which both land ice and floating ice may at one time have existed.

8.

In all the areas there is a tendency to a knoll-shaped configuration, and in a greater or less number of instances a tendency in the knolls to occupy perched positions.

9.

The gravel and sand generally contains very few large boulders; but the latter are common in and on the surface of the clay, which generally overlies, but in many instances graduates (on the same horizon) into gravel and sand.

10.

The shells found in the drift are almost universally fragmentary, and that often, if not generally, in proportion to the roundness of the associated stones. They are likewise often confined to particular spots, as if elsewhere they had never been present, or had been destroyed by the stranding of floating ice, as is the case on many Arctic sea-shores at the present day.

11.

The idea of shell-fragments having been pushed up hill along with portions of existing sea-beds is opposed by so many facts as to render it altogether untenable.

12.

The extent to which the form of the ground has been preserved since the close of the great submergence can only be explained by supposing that either the time which has elapsed since that event, or the rate of subaërial denudation during that time, has been overestimated; in other words, the denudation must have been slow in proportion to the length of time in order to account for the little-altered surface-configuration of the drift-areas described in this and in my former paper.
On a fossil Species of
Camptoceras
, a Freshwater Mollusk from the Eocene of Sheerness-on-Sea
Authors: Godwin-Austen H. H.
Published: October 2009

I have now had by me for a long time, waiting for description, some very interesting fossils, obtained by Mr. W. H. Shrubsole near Sheerness; and I owe Mr. Shrubsole some apology for retaining them so long unnoticed. In July 1880, when looking over some of Mr. Shrubsole's fossils from the above neighbourhood, he showed me this specimen, which, he informed me, had very much puzzled several naturalists to whom he had submitted it. It recalled at once an East-Indian form with which I was familiar; but I could not at the moment give Mr. Shrubsole the name. On returning to town on the 2nd of August I looked up the genus in my collection, and wrote (confirming my original opinion) that I considered the shells to belong to Benson's genus
Camptoceras
. Dr. H. Woodward saw the same specimen in September 1880, and expressed the same opinion in a letter of the 23rd to Mr. Shrubsole; and on hearing I had previously seen the specimen and identified the genus, he forwarded the same to me in February 1881. I may also mention that Messrs. Etheridge and Newton in October, having seen Mr. Woodward's letter and reexamined the specimen, were also of the same opinion.

As it is the first record of the genus occurring fossil, I shall enter somewhat fully into an account of it, giving Benson's original description, and noticing the species now known to us.
On the Chalk-masses or Boulders included in the Contorted Drift of Cromer, their Origin and Mode of Transport
Authors: Reade T. Mellard
Published: October 2009

Though for many years engaged in the study of Drift, it was not until the summer of last year that I found my way to the cliffs of Cromer.

The sections to be seen along the Cromer coast have formed a stock subject with geologists since R. C. Taylor, in 1827, and Lyell, in 1840, wrote upon them. Nevertheless they are not likely to lose their interest; for the phenomena they present are so strange and striking, and so out of the usual run of drift sections, that he would be a very unimaginative geologist who failed to be impressed by them.

Since my return I have looked up the literature of the subject. Perhaps I ought to have done so first: but there is a certain advantage in one's mind being as a blank sheet; for then the impressions come direct through one's own eyes instead of being coloured by the views of others.

The result of this examination leads me to think there is still room for further description, as well as for a reconsideration of the origin and mode of transport of the so-called “Boulders,” or Chalk-masses—a question that has been so far, it seems to me, treated in a very general, cursory, or inadequate manner.

The term “Boulder” is, of course, used by writers in its geological sense of a transported mass; but as in the vernacular it means a rounded and waterworn stone, the use of the term is very likely, without due warning, to create an image of something very different from what the Norfolk cliffs disclose.
On the Geology of a part of Costa Rica
Authors: Attwood George
Published: October 2009

Conclusions

The conclusions at which I have arrived from a personal survey and examination of the country which I have just described, and also from the analyses and microscopical examinations made by Mr. W. H. Hudleston and myself are as follows:—

1st.

The country rock, or the general representative rock of the country, is a consolidated volcanic ash associated with augite-andesite.

2nd.

The filling of the fissures, now mineral lodes, in the Aguacate Mountains took place in the Tertiary age, and most probably in the Pliocene.

3rd.

The augite-andesites of the Aguacate Mountains are probably contemporaneous with, and have thus contributed largely to the mineral deposition and formation of the metalliferous lodes. The veinstone being found more or less mixed up with the decomposed rock, appears to indicate that their ages may be identical.

4th.

The quartz-trachytes and sandstone are recent, and most certainly Post-tertiary.
On
Neusticosaurus pusillus
(Fraas), an Amphibious Reptile having Affinities with the Terrestrial Nothosauria and with the Marine Plesiosauria
Authors: Seeley H. G.
Published: October 2009

Conclusion

In endeavouring to estimate the value of the various resemblances to Crocodiles which I have attempted to indicate, it must be remembered that in discussing an animal which lived in the beginning of the Secondary period, comparison has had to be made with a type which still exists, and which, therefore, can scarcely give much clue to the actual modifications which its ancestral forms presented in Triassic times. But as the Crocodiles are traced back through the Teleosaurs and Belodonts there is a nearer approximation of structure towards Plesiosaurs, which may especially be seen in the conformation of the skull, form of the vertebræ, articulation of cervical ribs, and development of transverse processes from the neural arch in the dorsal region, no less than in the conformation of the elements of the pectoral and pelvic girdles. The proportions of the limbs, too, become more those of a Crocodile in such a genus as Neusticosaurus; and this genus demonstrates, I think, that the Plesiosauria must have had ancestors which lived entirely upon land, before the limbs came to be used for natation. That those animals were more nearly allied to Crocodiles than to any existing reptilian order, seems to me highly probable.
Note on the Os Pubis and Ischium of
Ornithopsis eucamerotus
Authors: Hulke J. W.
Published: October 2009

In four communications on remains of this remarkable aberrant form of Dinosaur which the Society has published in its Quarterly Journal, I have described and figured its cervical and thoracic vertebræ, and noticed the affinity which these suggest with
Ceteosaurus oxoniensis
, and also with certain North-American Dinosaurs described by Profs. O.C. Marsh and Cope. At the date of my last communication (1879), I was unable to lay before the Society any information respecting the vertebræ behind the thorax, or the girdle- and limb-bones. None of these had been found by Mr. Fox or myself in such close association with vertebræ of the forms I described as to demonstrate that they were parts of one skeleton; and in the absence of this, the expectation that the posterior vertebræ and the other bones should exhibit a textural and constructive agreement with the vertebræ known to us constituted during several years an insuperable obstacle to their identification.

The removal of this prejudice we owe to the recovery in Colorado of a large series of remains of allied forms, in excellent preservation, which demonstrate in the posterior vertebræ the absence of the side pits and chambers that are so conspicuous a feature in the cervical and thoracic centra, and the solidity of the posterior centra, as also of the girdle- and limb-bones.
On the Relations of the Eocene and Oligocene Strata in the Hampshire Basin
Authors: Judd John W.
Published: October 2009

Conclusion

The Lower Tongrian, as is well known, has no marine representative in the Paris basin, the great freshwater gypseous series occurring on this horizon; but in the small basin of the Cotentin, as M. G. Dollfus has so well shown, the Lower Tongrian or Brockenhurst series is represented by the “argile à Corbules”.

The Headon series, including both the sands and overlying clays, contains a fauna which, by Hébert, Sandberger, Mayer, and other authors, has been recognized under the name of the zone of
Cerithium concavum
. The Brockenhurst series contains a fauna which has been quite as universally recognized as agreeing with that of the continental Tongrian or Lower Oligocene.

Now, if my interpretation of the section be the true one, the beds containing the Tongrian fauna in the Hampshire basin overlie those containing the fauna of the zone of
Cerithium concavum
and this is the relation which is believed to exist between their continental representatives. Most geologists, indeed, group the zone of
Cerithium concavum
with the Upper Eocene or Bartonian, and the representatives of our Brockenhurst series with the Lower Oligocene.

But, according to the views of Messrs. Keeping and Tawney, the beds which in this country contain the Lower Oligocene fauna form a thin and very inconstant bed in the midst of the strata containing the fossils of the zone of
Cerithium concavum
.
On the Origin of Valley-lakes, with especial reference to the Lakes of the Northern Alps
Authors: Irving A.
Published: October 2009

This paper is intended as nothing more than a supplement to a paper by the author on the Mechanics of Glaciers. The main strength of the position taken up by the advocates of the glacier-excavation theory is derived from arguments which labour to show that it is the only feasible hypothesis. I have endeavoured to show in my previous paper that this hypothesis is inadmissible on mechanical and physical grounds; all I attempt to do here is to show that we are not shut up to the hypothesis; for many agencies can be pointed to which may have cooperated to form lake-basins, some of which have hardly been considered with sufficient care, while others would appear to have been ignored. In dealing more especially with the lakes of the Northern Alps, I have simply selected a region which abounds in lakes occupying expansions of river-valleys which I know pretty intimately from direct observation, including a district already treated more in detail by Prof. Bonney. Nor do I pretend either that all which is here advanced is new to geology, or that I am able to give an exhaustive account of all the agencies which have helped to form lake-basins past and present. Many lakes also, for example such as those which occupy the craters of extinct volcanoes in the Eifel and elsewhere, are excluded from consideration here by the title of the paper.

I shall first draw attention to what appear to me defects in the arguments of the excavationists
On Generic Characters in the Order Sauropterygia
Authors: Owen Richard
Published: October 2009

The progress of knowledge of the species of Reptilia associated by De la Beche under the collective name Enaliosauria, led to the subdivision of that maritime group into the orders Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia, these terms being significative of their characters of resemblance respectively to Fishes and to Saurians.

Large accessions of species have since been made known in both orders. With regard to the first, I have not deemed the modifications in the dentition, in the shape and structure of the sterno-coraco-scapular frame, in those of fins, or the gradations of general bulk, sufficient, as satisfactory characters, for generic subdivision.

In the Sauropterygia, besides gradations of size, ranging, for example, from
Pleisiosaurus Hawkinsii
to
Ples. Cramptoni
, there is a difference in the proportional lenght of the neck and number of its vertebræ relating to the size of the head it supports. In
Pleisosaurus homalospondylus
, for example, the cervical vertebræ are thirty-eight in number; in
Ples. rostratus
they are twenty-four. This character alone would not have obtained a generic separation: but a shortening of the neck, due not only to decreasing number but to altered proportions of the cervical vertibræ when associated with a well-marked modification of the teeth, of the sterno-coraco-scapular frame, and of the paddle-bones, called for separation of the Sauropterygia into
Pliosaurus
was proposed, indicative of the nearer approach which its species made to a generalized Saurian type.

In the Crocodilia, for example, a common character of the teeth is to have the usually simple conical crown, whether finely ridged or not, provided with a pair of enamel-ridges stronger than the rest, and placed on opposite sides of the crown.
On the Lower Carboniferous Rocks of the Forest of Dean, as represented in Typical Sections at Drybrook
Authors: Wethered E.
Published: October 2009

In this paper I shall first refer to a series of arenaceous and calcareous shales which lie between the Old Red Conglomerate and Lower Limestone Shales, and which represent the true basis of the Carboniferous rocks in Gloucestershire. (2) I shall refer to some beds in the Lower Limestone Shales which may serve as horizons for correlation with other coalfields. (3) I shall consider some features in the Millstone Grit.

1.

The Old Red Conglomerate at Dry brook dips to the south-east at an angle of 38°. It is made up of “vein-stone” quartz pebbles, grains of ordinary quartz, measuring about ·021 of an inch in diameter, plates of mica, and a little felspar. Of the quartz grains about fourteen per cent. can be recognized as crystals; but the rest are waterworn. The grains are coated with oxide of iron; but on this being removed by acid, cavities are exposed to view, some of which contain bubbles. In addition to the deposition of oxide of iron on the grains, silica is often found attached to them in minute well-defined and clear crystals.

The Old Red Conglomerate passes conformably into a series of loose sandy beds and light and greenish-coloured calcareous shales, dark shales being absent. A section of these beds, carefully measured by the late Mr. John Jones and Mr. W. C. Lucy, F.G.S., showing 247 feet and 108 divisions, appeared in the Proceedings of the Cotteswold Club for 1867. They are there termed “Transition Beds.” Sir H. de la Beche
On the Relation of the so-called “Northampton Sand” of North Oxon to the Clypeus-Grit
Authors: Walford Edwin A.
Published: October 2009

The diverse lithological conditions of the deposits in the three great sea-basins of the Bajocian period, the Anglo-Norman, the Cotteswold, and that of the north-eastern counties, have for a long time engaged the attention of geologists in the correlation of their various subdivisions. The Anglo-Norman basin, however, with the rich molluscan fauna of its marly limestones, will not come within the scope of the present paper. It is to that border-land where the estuarine character of the deposits of the northern area becomes merged and lost in the marine strata of the Cotteswold type that I wish more particularly to direct your attention. The greater part of this section of the Midlands, North Oxfordshire, is embraced in sheet 45 N.W. of the Geological Survey.

It may perhaps be worth while to pause for a few moments to review the present subdivisions of the Inferior Oolite. Resting upon the sands for which Mr. Witchell has appropriately suggested the name of the Cotteswold Sands, and which, throughout the Cotteswold area, cover the Upper Lias Clay, are the well-known pisolitic beds of the
Murchisonæzone
. They are exceedingly local in their range, and are soon overlapped by the succeeding Lower Freestone beds. These find their equivalents, according to Prof. Sudd and Mr. Sharp, in the lower part. of the sandy beds of the Midlands known as the Northampton Sands, and northwards in the equally well-known Dogger of the Yorkshire coast. The succeeding Corteswold stage, the Oolite Marl of the Sowerbyi-zone, passes from its marly
On the Dinosaurs from the Maastricht Beds
Authors: Seeley H. G.
Published: October 2009

In 1871 the Geological Department of the British Museum acquired the celebrated collection formed by Professor van Breda at Haarlem. It was especially rich in the remains of fossil reptiles from Maastricht; and among the bones of
Mosasaurus
were arranged five other specimens, which Mr. William Davies, F.G.S., soon recognized as Dinosaurian. So far as is at present known, these are the most recent evidences of the Dinosaurian order in geological time; and in view of this fact, I am happy in having the permission of Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., the Keeper of the Department, to offer the Geological Society some account of the structure of the last known survivors of the group. I avail myself the more readily of this permission, since I do not remember to have seen in any of the continental museums other specimens exhibited which would add materially to the British-Museum evidence or modify my conclusions.

These five bones belong to two types. One femur is Megalosaurian; and although it is quite possible that other parts of the skeleton may enable their discoverer to refer the animal to a new genus, I have not felt justified in differentiating the genus from
Megalosaurus
on the evidence of one bone, imperfect distally, and with the proximal end worn. The other specimens are Iguanedont. I have referred them to an Iguanodont genus
Orthomerus
; and I have no doubt that the remainder of the skeleton will eventually show them to belong to a new generic type. for more certain reference, I give the
The Bagshot Beds of the London Basin
Authors: Monckton Horace W.
Published: October 2009

The opening of several new railways during the last few years has greatly increased the opportunities for studying the geology of the Bagshot district. The railway-cuttings, however, are rapidly becoming overgrown or obscured by fallen materials, and I think that a description of some of the sections may interest the Society. In compiling these notes I have been greatly assisted by Mr. Herries; and the lists of fossils are from our joint collection.

The Lower Bay shot beds
, 100 to 150 feet thick, consist of yellow and white siliceous and micaceous sand, without green grains, with beds of greyish sandy clay, often laminated, and with more or less distinct vegetable impressions. On the western borders of Bagshot Heath the base of these beds is marked by

(
a
)

Coarse, often ferruginous sand, occasionally laminated with nearly white clay and sometimes with pieces of wood.

(
b
)

Irregular and extensive masses of rolled flint pebbles.

(
c
)

Dark-coloured stiff clay, named Ramsdell clay by the Geological Survey.

The railway-cuttings at Goldsworthy Hill, at Ascot, and at Wellington College afford good type sections in the lower part of these beds, and show that the above subdivisions, though varying in thickness, are very persistent. The Goldsworthy-Hill section was described by Prof. Prest.wich in 1847 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. p. 382). The subdivision C in the above table is there represented by a “coarse greenish sand with a few flint pebbles” two feet thick ; the subdivision D by Prestwich's bed 2, foliated clays eleven feet; E
The Age of the newer Gneissic Rocks of the Northern Highlands
Authors: Callaway C.
Published: October 2009

Introduction

In the summer of 1880 I commenced an investigation into the relations between the fossiliferous limestone of Darness and the great gneissie series which was alleged to overlie it. A portion of my first results I communicated to the Society in a paper in which I endeavoured to show that the sections at Durness and in Assynt did not display a true ascending series, the limestone in both localities being separated by a fault from the rock which was supposed to conformably succeed it. On the relation of the limestone to the quartzite I formed no opinion ; but in the two sections described I found them brought together by faults. As the quartzite passed with apparent conformity below the eastern gneiss on the east of Loch Erriboll, I hinted, in accordance with the views of Murchison, which I had not then seen reason to abandon, that the quartzite might belong to the metamorphic series. From these limited observations I carefully abstained from drawing a general conclusion ; and I was convinced that no satisfactory result could be achieved without a detailed survey. Accordingly I devoted a fortnight in 1881, and two months in 1882, to the districts which appeared most promising ; and I have now the honour to submit the conclusions to which I have been led.

The published theories on the relation between the Durness limestone and the eastern gneiss are the following :—

1.

1. That the eastern gneiss conformably overlies the limestone
Notes on a series of Rocks from the North-west Highlands, collected by C. Callaway, Esq., D.Sc., F.G.S.
Authors: Bonney T. G.
Published: October 2009

In describing this interesting series of rocks I shall endeavour, as far as possible, to gather them into groups in order to save the repetition of details. A lengthy description will in most cases be unnecessary, because the majority of the specimens belong to types which have already been described with considerable fulness by Mr. T. Davies and myself.

The first group is a series of coarse, rather granitoid gneisses, generally admitted to be representatives of the Hebridean series. These rocks are rather coarsely crystalline in texture, generally not conspicuously foliated, containing a variable amount of hornblende or of black mica, but occasionally having a white mica as the third constituent.

Under the microscope, the minerals are well crystallized internally, but do not, as a rule, exhibit externally a definite crystalline form. Those ordinarily occurring are quartz, felspar, mica, and hornblende, with commonly some sphene and epidote, and, occasionally, apatite. Some granules of magnetite, hæmatite, or, perhaps, ilmenite are usually present.

The quartz occurs as rounded to rather elongated grains of variable size, often grouped. Commonly, as seems to be usual in these very ancient rocks, they contain so many minute enclosures as to have a rather “dusty” aspect. Some of these may be microliths of various minerals (a micaceous one among them); but others are certainly cavities, not seldom very irregular in form. These frequently contain bubbles relatively as well as absolutely of very small size, which move freely.

The felspar occurs in grains
Fossil Chilostomatous Bryozoa from Muddy Creek, Victoria, &c.
Authors: Waters Arthur Wm.
Published: October 2009

The fossils to be described were collected by Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson, of Geelong, who obtained them from Muddy Creek, Hamilton; Bird Rock, near Geelong; and Waurn Ponds,—all from the formation which has been called in Australia “Miocene.”

As I had already described Australian Bryozoa from beds of the same age, I undertook the examination of these when Mr. Wilson so kindly sent them to me; and perhaps it would have been better for science if I had not so readily done so, but if a careful observer like Mr. Wilson, who is near the localities, had himself undertaken the description of the collection.

They were sent to me for description with the request that the collection should afterwards be handed over to the Museum of the Geological Society; and I am sure I am only expressing the general feeling of the Fellows when I say that the Society is much indebted to Mr. Wilson for presenting them with collections upon which he had already spent much labour.

Perhaps the most interesting forms are the
Catenicellœ
, a genus which Mr. Wilson was the first to point out occurred fossil (Journ. Micr. Soc. of Victoria, vol. i. p. 60, 1880), giving descriptions of 12 species. Shortly after this I described and figured a few species which I found in the material from Curdies Creek (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxvii. p. 309).

In order to understand the fossil
Catenicellæ
, which are represented by 13 species, it became necessary
On a Group of Minerals from Lilleshall, Salop
Authors: Woodward C. J.
Published: October 2009

The Carboniferous Limestone at Lilleshall has for very many years been worked, partly as a flux for iron-smelting, partly as a source of lime for agricultural purposes.

Various workings in the neighbourhood have, from influx of water, been abandoned; and there remains now but one mine, known as Stump Leasow. It is situated by the canal, near a spot marked “Old Farm” on the one-inch Survey map.

There are two distinct beds of limestone, known as White and Grey, lying one above the other, separated by a distance of 40 yards.

The upper bands of the lower bed, or grey, are fall of vertical joints, which in many cases, speaking from memory, run from six inches to a foot in width. It is in these joints that the minerals occur.

Quartz
is extremcly rare. I have, in fact, met with but one minute crystal. It showed under the microscope both prismatic and pyramidal faces.

Erubescite
. Only a few minute patches in the massive form have been met with.

Copper pyrites
is met with occasionally. It occurs in more or less defined spheroids. One specimen has a peculiar radiated structure.

Iron pyrites
is not by any means common. It occurs in radiating masses of from
2/3
to
1 1/2
inch diameter, showing faces of the cube, octahedron, and other forms. I have one specimen of the decomposed iron pyrites, which in old mineralogical books is called “hepatic pyrites.” This hepatic pyrites is in cubes and octahedra.

Hæ
. Occurs in minute
Notes on some Fossils, chiefly Mollusca, from the Inferior Oolite
Authors: Whidborne G. F.
Published: October 2009

In surveying the Inferior Oolite as it appears in the West of England generally, the conditions of deposition seem to differ from those of the Great Oolite as displayed at Minchinhampton, where, in the great frequency of rolled and broken organisms and the extreme false bedding, we have indications of a shore-deposit formed by a roughish sea. The fossils of the Inferior Oolite, on the other hand, are usually better preserved and unbroken; they are often crowded, and lie one inside another, but rarely show great signs of being rolled; so that they do not seem to have been much exposed to actual breakers. At the same time the strata would appear to have been often laid down in shallow water; such shells as oysters, pectens, and astartes are frequent; the univalves are often spinose and nodular; signs of vivid colouring occasionally remain; corals and sponges commonly occur; and the shell-structure of many species is massive, owing to their not being deep-sea forms.

It is interesting to notice the great definitiveness with which beds of different shells succeed each other. For instance in the iron-shot beds of Dundry there is hardly a sign of a
Terebratula
or of the common form
Pholadomya Heraulti
, while in adjacent beds these two fossils occur in crowds; a little higher up corals are common, while the mollusca are, to a great degree, absent. In the same way in Dorsetshire beds appear very full of sponges, though these are very
On the Section at Hordwell Cliffs, from the top of the Lower Headon to the base of the Upper Bagshot Sands
Authors: Tawney E. B. , Keeping H.
Published: October 2009

The Hordwell cliffs have been more or less cursorily examined by Webster, Lyell, and Searles Wood, and they were described some time ago by Dr. T. Wright. Nevertheless the beds do not seem to be so well known to geologists as the interest of their fauna demands. Tho cause may perhaps be that observers have of late years failed to find many of the extinct Ruminants which in former times were the especial feature of the freshwater beds at Hordwell. The description of these deposits by the late Marchioness of Hastings contains the best information concerning the exact beds in which the vertebrate remains were found.

Last autumn we measured the section bed by bed, and the results are here laid down (p. 567). Wc have adopted the graphical method as an aid, because it alone enables an observer to identify with facility and without loss of time any bed mentioned in the letterpress, and to compare it with the exposure in the cliff. The cliffs in no one spot offer an escarpment where the beds are so accessible that they could be measured vertically from base to summit. Our method has therefore been to measure as much as could be conveniently effected at one place, and then move the position of observation horizontally. Of course, owing to variation in the thickness of beds when followed horizontally, any pretension to minute accuracy is altogether prceludcd. Absolute accuracy is not feasible in geological sections, nor is it necessary. if
On the Relative Ages of Certain River-valleys in Lincolnshire
Authors: Jukes-Browne A. J.
Published: October 2009

In a country which is traversed by a series of escarpments or hill-ranges, the valleys by which its drainage is effected are usually separable into two sets or systems, one parallel to the strike of the ridges, and the other more or lees at right angles to the same. The origin of these longitudinal and transverse valleys, and the process by which escarpments have been intersected by river-valleys, were first explained by Mr. Jukes. He showed also that in the case of a river cutting through a ridge or escarpment, and receiving tributaries from the longitudinal valleys which are parallel to this ridge, the primary or first-formed stream is that opposite to the breach in the escarpment, and that the longitudinal branches, though often of much greater length than this primary stream, are really of secondary or subsequent origin.

Stated in general terms, his theory amounts to this, that the original direction of all rivers which cut through ridges was determined by the general slope of the ancient surface over which they began to run, and that when the slope was transverse to the strike of the beds, the channels cut by the earliest rivers necessarily had a similar transverse direction, while the channels in the longitudinal valleys were formed subsequently and concurrently with the development of the ridges or escarpments.

A further Corollary to this may, I think, be considered as generally true, viz., that those portions of a river-valley which intersect the same ridge date from the
On some Postglacial Ravines in the Chalk Wolds of Lincolnshire
Authors: Jukes-Browne A. J.
Published: October 2009

I
n
a paper recently read before this Society I pointed out that the disposition of the Boulder-clays (Purple and Hessle series) along the eastern border of the Chalk Wolds enables us to determine the relative age of the valleys which intersect the hills, and proves that some of them are older and some newer than the formation of those Clays.

Most of the larger and wider valleys are occupied by deposits of glacial clay and gravel, which are continuous with the main mass or sheet of these beds lying to the eastward, and are, in fact, mere arms or prolongations of that sheet; it is clear therefore that all such valleys are of anterior date and must have existed prior to the formation of the East-Lincolnshire Boulder-clays. It would not be safe, however, to call them Preglacial, because these particular Boulder-clays are believed to be the latest glacial beds in England, and therefore the valleys may be really of Interglacial age. On the other hand such valleys or portions of valleys as can be proved to have come into existence after the formation of these Clays may safely be termed Postglacial

There are several short valleys, from one to three miles in length, which open eastward on to the Boulder-clay plain, which are probably of Postglacial date ; for the boundary line of the Boulder-clay passes straight across their mouths ; no tongues of clay are thrust westward into these valleys, which are completely free from any trace of glacial
A Delta in Miniature—Twenty-Seven Years’ Work
Authors: Reade T. Mellard
Published: October 2009

Introductory
.—The rate of sedimentary accumulation has in all cases that I know of been calculated from the amount of sediment held in suspension in river-water and the mean annual discharge of the river.

It is true, history has furnished examples of towns that have once been sea-ports becoming inland towns through the extension of river-deltas; but the information has not been sufficient or accurate enough to found an estimate of the rate denudation has proceeded at in the river-basins in question.

The Rake-Brook Delta
.—In June 1883 Mr. Joseph Parry, C.E., who has charge of the Rivington Waterworks supplying Liverpool, called my attention to the great amount of deposit that had taken place in the Rake reservoir since 1856, the year it was filled.

On visiting the locality in his company, I found that where the two forks of the Rake Brook joined the reservoir, a corner of the reservoir was cut off by the public road from Bolton to Withnell, the communication being by a culvert, stated to be 8 feet high under the road, but then nearly silted up with deposit. The following plan will explain my meaning more fully. The whole corner of the reservoir on the south side of the road, at A on plan (fig. 1), was filled to considerably above the level of the crown of the arch of the culvert (fig. 2) with a beautifully stratified deposit of peaty matter, gritty sand, gravel shingle and boulders, as shown in the
Ripple-marks in Drift in Shropshire and Cheshire
Authors: Reade T. Mellard
Published: October 2009

A
mong
all the published notices of drift deposits that I have read, I cannot call to mind any description of ripple-marks as forming features in that formation. Of course if the drift was formed under land-ice we should not expect to see them; but if, as I maintain, a very large part of it has been laid down in water, then, under favourable conditions, they should be found.

I was much pleased on examining, in the early part of 1883, a section in the Old-Park-Field sand-hole, at Ketley, near Wellington, Shropshire (to which I had been directed by my friend Dr. Callaway), to notice in a stratified deposit of drift-sand three distinct beds of ripple-marked laminæ, most beautifully displayed in section. The following is a sketch of the deposit (fig. 1). The position of this sand-pit is on the south side of Watling Street. I measured one of the ripple-marks in bed No. 1, and found it was 9 inches from crest to crest, and 1¼ inch high; the fall of the wave indicated that the wind producing it was from the N.W. The figure below (fig. 2), drawn to a scale of inch to the foot, will more fully explain its form.

In July 1883 I had the further pleasure of seeing in a cutting in Low-level .Boulder-clay and Sands at Tranmere, Cheshire, in one of the approaches to the Mersey Tunnel, ripple-marks in hard fine loamy brown sand, forming the flank of what must
Further Notes on Rock-Fragments frm the South of Scotland imbedded in the Low-Level Boulder-clay of Lancashire
Authors: Reade T. Mellard
Published: October 2009

I
n
my paper on the Drift-beds of the North-West of England, Part II., I gave certain identifications of granites from Criffel and the neighbourhood of Dumfries made by Mr. Patrick Dudgeon from specimens I forwarded to him in 1882, these being confirmatory of Mr. Mackintosh’s previous discovery of Criffel granite in the Lancashire Drift. In August of this year I had an opportunity of travelling from Dumfries through Kirkcudbright to Wigtonshire, when I paid special attention both to the rocks
in situ
and to the boulders lying about the country, with the following results.

In Kirkcudbright there are two large and distinct masses of granite, rising through the Silurian strata, which generally rest nearly vertical and are repeated in fold after fold. The easternmost of these granite masses rises 1800 feet above the sea, and forms the grand isolated mountain called Criffel. The westernmost mass, occupying not less than 50 square miles, rises to 2331 feet in the mountain called Cairnsmore of Fleet, which is also an isolated granite boss; but the surrounding Silurians rise to a higher level than at Criffel. The Cairnsmore granite is of a coarser nature than that of Criffel; though in a vein at Creetown, no doubt connected underground with the main granitic mass, is a quarry, belonging to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, which has supplied for many years the granite used in the construction of the Liverpool Docks, which is of a more compact nature and finer grain.

All round Criffel in the low country and near the coast are to be found numerous granite boulders, all of them more or less rounded, and none showing marks of glaciation either by plane surfaces or striations. At Kirkbean I took chippings of several, which were used in the building of a field-wall; among them were a dark granite and a reddish-coloured granite, no doubt all variations of Griffel granite, and such as I could match from the Lancashire Drift. Close by a road-stone quarry in the Silurian Greywackes, about 5 miles S.E. of Dalbeattie, there were many boulders of a dark red granite, which I can also match by specimens from the Lancashire Drift; and I take these also to be local variations of the Criffel granite.

The Dalbeattie grey-granite quarries are also in the Criffel-granite mass, and I believe we have all these varieties of granite rocks in the Lancashire Drift.
Appendix C. Pisces
Authors: Newton E.T.
Published: October 2009

In Mr. Headley’s collection were many teeth and other remains of fish. These were nearly all obtained from the sandy patches, and were in many cases much water-worn and rounded, being sometimes reduced to mere pebbles. Some, however, were quite unworn, and in an excellent state of preservation.

Nearly the whole of the remains of Fishes from Bridlington seem to be either Norwich-Crag, Red-Crag, or London-Clay forms. And seeing that so many of the Crag Vertebrata have been originally derived from the London Clay, it is quite possible that all the Bridlington Fishes have been derived directly from the Crags. I should doubt whether any of them were contemporaneous with the Bridlington deposits, and the mineral condition and polished surface of the specimens are characteristic of Crag fossils.

This would seem to point to the destruction of older Tertiary beds during the formation of the gravelly sand containing the arctic fauna.

Dr. S. P. Woodward, in a note to his list of shells in the ‘Geological Magazine,’ vol. i. p. 49, 1864, mentions the occurrence of
Platax Woodwardi
, sharks’ teeth, and an otolith resembling those of the Haddock. This is the only previous record of fish-remains from the bed known to me.