bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the Brick-pit at Lexden, near Colchester
Authors: Fisher O.
Published: October 2009

Description of the Strata
.—The Brick-pit at Lexden is situated on a plateau upon the south side of the valley of the Colne, about a mile west of Colchester. The table-land around Colchester, elevated somewhat more than a hundred feet above the level of the sea, upon the south side of the Colne, consists of thick beds of gravel and sand resting upon London Clay. This gravel is for the most part well rolled, and its stratification is very regular. Its upper and lower portions are stony, while the middle consists principally of false-bedded strata of sand. Fine sections are exposed by the drainage-works now going on at the new cavalry-barracks at Colchester, and in pits in the suburbs. The lowest bed, resting on the London Clay, is a coarse gravel, well seen at Wivenhoe ballast-pit.

I believe this extensive bed of gravel to be the old gravel which elsewhere underlies the Boulder-clay. It crops out towards the southern part of Essex, ranging from Danbury, where it attains a considerable elevation, by Tiptree Heath to Colchester. It is seen near the railway-station at Hadleigh in Suffolk, and in the same county forms an extensive heath near Dunwhich.
On the Fossil Corals of the West Indian Islands.—Part I
Authors: Duncan P. Martin
Published: October 2009

It has been noticed that the
Testacea
sent from Antigua with the Corals have been stated to belong to the present age. This is correct; but there are a few Shells and casts of Shells of an older date. A
Helix
, common as a fossil, is not now, according to Dr. Nugent, an inhabitant of the island; and the extinct
Melaniæ
are found in great abundance with silicified Woods.

Both in Jamaica and in San Domingo there are late Tertiary Shells and Corals, but it is impossible to bring these facts in antagonism with those which give a more remote age to the strata whence the specimens described were obtained.

So with regard to Antigua, Barbuda, and Barbadoes, it is not correct to give the whole Islands a Pliocene or Postpliocene age because recent and subfossil Shells are found in them.

As yet, the
Testacea
have not assisted in determining the geologic age of the three coral-formations of Antigua; but Mr. C. Moore has given a Miocene age to the
Mollusca
from the San-Domingan shales, whence the Corals here described were derived. The Alabama Eocene Shells and Corals are distinct from those of the raised Coral-beds of the West Indian Islands; and it is worthy of remembrance that, although there are genera and species of Corals in Antigua, San Domingo, and Jamaica belonging to the great European Miocene Coralage, still there are a few European Miocene genera of Corals which are not as yet known to belong to the West Indian Miocene.
Notice of a New Species of Dendrerpeton, and of the Dermal Coverings of certain Carboniferous Reptiles
Authors: Dawson J. W.
Published: October 2009

The following notes relate to new facts ascertained in the course of a re-examination of the remains of Reptiles from the Coal-formation of Nova Scotia, made in the preparation of a resume of the characters of these creatures, which is in course of publication. I desire now to communicate these facts to the Geological Society, as they are connected with, and supplementary to, the descriptions published at various times in its Journal.
On the Upper Old Red Sandstone and Upper Devonian Rocks
Authors: Salter J. W.
Published: October 2009

I was engaged for three summer months in 1854, and again for a short tune last year, in examining carefully the lower beds of the Mountain Limestone and the uppermost beds of the Old Red Sandstone, with a view to establish, if possible, the correlation between the Upper Old Red and the corresponding portion of the Devonian series —a relation which has been called in question by good observers.

The memoir of Sedgwick and Murchison was, indeed, a full statement of the identification of the Old Bed Sandstone, as a maas, with the Devonian; a comparison first suggested by Lonsdale from a consideration of the fossil evidence, and ably supported by Godwin-Austen from his Rhenish explorations, though afterwards called in question by him. The identification is repeated in the later edition of ‘Siluria.’ Yet, over the North-European districts, there is a singular deficiency of proof of the superposition of the Devonian to the Tipper Silurian rocks, and more especially of the gradual passage, at any one point, of the Old Red Sandstone into rocks of the Devonian type.
On the Occurrence of Organic Remains in the Laurentian Rocks of Canada
Authors: Logan W. E.
Published: October 2009

T
he
oldest-known rocks of North America are those which compose the Laurentian Mountains in Canada and the Adirondacks in the State of New York. By the investigations of the Geological Survey of Canada, they have been shown to be a great series of strata, which, though profoundly altered, consist chiefly of quartzose, aluminous, and argillaceous rocks, like the sedimentary deposits of less ancient times. This great mass of crystalline rocks is divided into two groups, and it appears that the Upper rests unconformably upon the Lower Laurentian series.

The united thickness of these two groups in Canada cannot be less lhan 30,000 feet, and probably much exceeds it. The Laurentian of file West of Scotland also, according to Sir Roderick Murchison, attains a great thickness. In that region the Upper Laurentian, or Labrador series, has not yet been separately recognized; but, from Mr. McCulloch's description, as well as from the specimens collected by him, and now in the Museum of the Geological Society of London, it can scarcely be doubted that the Labrador series occurs in Skye. The labradorite and hypersthene-rocks from that island are identical with those of the Labrador series in Canada and New York, and unlike those of any formation at any other known horizon. This resemblance did not escape the notice of Emmons, who, in his description of the Adirondack Mountains, referred these rocks to the hypersthene-rock of McCulloch, although these observers on the opposite sides of the Atlantic looked upon them as unstratified. In the
Additional Note on the Structure and Affinities of
Eozoön Canadense
Authors: Carpenter W. B.
Published: October 2009

T
he
careful examination which I have made—in accordance with the request you were good enough to convey to me from Dr. Dawson, and to second on your own part—into the structure of the very extraordinary fossil which you have brought from the Laurentian rocks of Canada*, enables me most unhesitatingly to confirm the sagacious determination of Dr. Dawson as to its Rhizopod characters and Foraminiferal affinities, and at the same time furnishes new evidence of no small value in support of that determination. In this examination I have had the advantage of a series of
sections
of the fossil much superior to those submitted to Dr. Dawson; and also of a large series of
decalcified specimens
, of which Dr. Dawson had only the opportunity of seeing a few examples after his memoir had been written. These last are peculiarly instructive; since, in consequence of the complete infiltration of the chambers and canals, originally occupied by the sarcode-body of the animal, by mineral matter insoluble in dilute nitric acid, the removal of the calcareous shell brings into view not only the internal casts of the chambers, but also casts of the interior of the “canal-system” of the “intermediate” or “supplemental skeleton,” and even casts of the interior of the very fine parallel tubuli which traverse the proper walls of the chambers. And, as I have remarked elsewhere*, “such casts place before us far more exact representations of the configuration of the animal body and of the connexions of its different parts
On the Mineralogy of certain Organic Remains from the Laurentian Rocks of Canada
Authors: Hunt T. Sterry
Published: October 2009

T
he
remains of
Eozoön Canadense
, a Foraminiferal organism recently discovered in the Laurentian limestones of Canada, present an interesting subject of study, both to the mineralogist and the geologist. For a zoological description of this organic form the reader is referred to the preceding description by Dr. Dawson.

The details of structure have been preserved by the introduction of certain mineral silicates, which have not only filled up the chambers, cells, ard canals left vacant by the disappearance of the animal matter, but have in very many cases been injected into the tubuli, filling even their smallest ramifications. These silicates have thus taken the place of the original sarcode, while the calcareous septa remain. It will then be understood that when the replacement of the
Eozoön
by silicates is spoken of, this is to be understood of the soft parts only, since the calcareous skeleton is preserved, in most cases, without any alteration. The vacant spaces left by the decay of the sarcode may be supposed to have been filled by a process of infiltration, in which the silicates were deposited from solution in water, like the silica which fills up the pores of wood in the process of silicification. The replacing silicates, so far as yet observed, are a white pyroxene, a pale-green serpentine, and a dark-green alumino-magnesian mineral, which is allied in composition to chlorite and to pyrosclerite, and which I have referred to loganite. The calcareous septa in the last case are found to be dolomitic, but
Notes on the Causes which have led to the Excavation of deep Lake-basins in Hard Rocks in the Southern Alps of New Zealand
Authors: Haast Julius
Published: October 2009

T
he
author first states his views respecting the changes which had taken place in the physical features of New Zealand during the later geological periods. He considers that, after the deposition of the Pliocene strata of those islands, the country emerged, its chief physical feature being a high mountain-range, but with depressions which existed before the previous subsidence, though now partly obliterated, and which in most cases ran either on the junction-line of two formations or along faults, or else on the break of bold anticlinals.

It is then observed that several causes had combined to produce a great accumulation of
nevés
as soon as the higher portions of the country had risen above the snow-line, especially the equatorial north-west and polar south-east winds coming, charged with moisture, in directions at right angles to the principal mountain-range of the islands, which runs from north-east to south-west.

The sequence of changes effected by the glaciers is then traced, and attention is called to the fact that they soon formed for themselves channels in the plateau-like mountains, and that, running in these channels, they gradually became narrower and deeper; the specific gravity of the ice became greater, and consequently its scooping and triturating power much more considerable; thus, a constantly increasing quantity to detritus would be furnished for the formation of moraines. The loose Tertiary strata lying in the course of the advancing glaciers would soon be removed, unless protected by favourable circumstances. The existing depressions were widened and made straighter by
Notes to a Sketch-map of the Province of Canterbury, New Zealand, showing the Glaciation during the Pleistocene and Recent Periods as far as explored
Authors: Haast Julius
Published: October 2009

D
uring
the last four years I have occupied the autumn months in tracing some of the rivers of this Province to their glacial sources, hitherto entirely unknown. The accompanying map, which is a reduction of a larger one, shows the principal results which I have already described, in their geographical relations, in a paper read last March before the Royal Geographical Society of London.

Although the size of the principal glaciers is enormous, considering the narrowness of the central chain, the astonishment of the geological observer increases on meeting everywhere the signs of a still more considerable glaciation during the Pleistocene period.

It is not my intention to enter here into a detailed description of this most remarkable feature of our Alpine regions, for I hope to lay this at some future time before the Society, as this ancient glaciation will illustrate in a remarkable manner many subjects of the highest interest, being generally very distinct and undisturbed; but I may be allowed to point out some of the most striking phenomena.

The central range runs nearly from north-east to south-west through this island, and the lakes on both sides of it lie in the same line of direction. Most of the valleys are straight, and very little inferior in breadth to the lakes where the former Pleistocene glacier terminated. Most of these valleys run from north to south.

According to information received from Mr. Arthur Dobson, my former assistant, who is at present surveying the wester slopes of the
On the Drift of the East of England and its Divisions
Authors: Wood S. V.
Published: October 2009

In this paper the author divides the Drift of the country extending from Flamborough Head to the Thames, and from the Sea on the east to Bedford and Watford on the west, as follows:—
a
, the Upper Drift, having a thickness of at least 160 feet still remaining in places,
b
and
c
, the Lower Drift, consisting of an Upper series (
b
), having a thickness of from 40 to 70 feet, and a Lower series (
c
), with a thickness, on the coast near Cromer, of from 200 to 250 feet, but rapidly attenuating inland,
c
comprises the Boulder-till and the overlying contorted Drift of the Cromer coast, which along that line crop out from below
b
a few miles inland. In an attenuated form,
c
also ranges inland as far south as Thetford, and probably to the centre of Suffolk, cropping out from below
b
by Dalling, Walsingham, and Weasenham, and appearing at the bottom of the valleys of central Norfolk,
b
consists of sands, which on the east coast overlie the Fluvio-marine and Red Crag, but change west and south into gravels, which pass under
a
and crop out again on the north, south, and centre of Norfolk, and west of Suffolk and Essex, extending (but capped in many places by
a
) over most of Herts. The Upper Drift (
a
) consists of the widespread Boulder-clay, which overlaps
b
for a small space on the south-east, in Essex, and again at Horseheat, near Saffron Walden, but overlaps it altogether on the north-weset, resting on the secondary rocks in Huntingdonshire and Lincolnshire. The distribution of
b
indicates it as the deposit of an irregular bay, afterwards submerged by the sea of a, which over-spread a very wide area.
a
now remains only in detached tracts, having been extensively denuded on its emergence at the beginning of the post-glacial age, so that wide intervals of denudation (separating the tracts) indicate the post-glacial straits and seas which washed islands formed of
a
. The author considers the so-called Norwich Crag of the Cromer coast as
not
of the age of the Fluvio-marine Crag of Norwich, but as an arctic bed forming the base of
c
) into which it passes up uninterruptedly. The author regards the beds
b
as identical with the Fluvio-marine gravels of Kelsea, near Hull, and thinks that the Kelsea bed is not above
a
, as hitherto supposed, but below it, having been forced up through
a
into its present position. He also regards the Upper Drift (
a
) as the equivalent of the Belgian Loess, and the beds
b
as the equivalent of the Belgian Sables de Campine.
On the Occurrence of Beds in the West of Scotland beneath the Boulder-clay
Authors: Bryce James
Published: October 2009

A
n
examination of the Drift-beds in the island of Arran, undertaken last summer with the view of determining their true sequence, led me to the conclusion that the lowest bed there—the lower Till or true Boulder-clay—did not contain any fossils. Having noticed, while conducting the inquiry, how many difficulties and causes of error are met with, which an observer does not encounter in the case of rocky strata, I began to doubt the accuracy of the statements so often put forward that fossils occur in this bed, and to consider that the supposed cases which are on record might be explained in various ways. Other drifts with boulders, though superior in position, may readily be mistaken for the Boulder-clay. The upper surface of this last-named bed undulates violently; and shells in part of the overlying Arctic-shell bed, occupying a hollow in the undulation, might seem to be in the older deposit, especially if, as in Arran, the laminated clay, which usually in Clydesdale divides the Boulder-clay from the shell-bed, happened to be absent,—the observer being, of course, supposed to overlook the undulation. And, further, the wash or facing, formed over the whole surface of a drift-section by atmospheric causes and runlets of water, might contain shelly fragments from the bed above, which, adhering to the surface merely, would yet appear to be in the Boulder-clay. There was yet another explanation. It was possible that fossils said to be deep in the Boulder-clay might really be in beds beneath it, of
On the
Tellina calcarea
Bed at Chappel Hall, near Airdrie
Authors: Crosskey Henry W.
Published: October 2009

O
ne
of the most perplexing cases in Scotland, upon any theory of the formation of Boulder-clay, has been the alleged occurrence at Chappel Hall, near Airdrie, of a bed of clay containing
Tellina calcarea
, intercalated between two masses of true Boulder-clay.

The facts relating to the discovery of these shells have been recorded by Mr. Smith in a paper read before the Geological Society, April 24th, 1850. The present paper will simply examine the question whether the superincumbent matter was, without doubt, the true Till.

By the true Till is meant that formation covering so large a part of Scotland, possessed of the following characteristics, and to which it is proposed that the term “Boulder-clay” should be entirely restricted:—

(1)

The clay contains a large proportion of striated stones, even pieces of soft shale having been so firmly and yet gently held that they have been polished and striated without being broken.

(2)

The stones on the whole are not far travelled, a small proportion being traceable to the more distant mountains, and the greater part to the flanks of the nearer ridges.

(3)

There is no stratification, although there are occasional patches of sand.

(4)

The colour as well as the general character of the enclosed stones is determined by the mineral character of the district.

(5)

It is closely compact, and hard to be worked, even with the axe.

The true Boulder-clay thus appears to represent a force extending from a distance, and yet acting with local
Note on the Geology of Harrogate
Authors: Phillips John
Published: October 2009

D
uring
more than forty years the uncommon arrangement of the strata about Harrogate has attracted my attention, and I have made frequent examinations of the surrounding country to learn the peculiarities of structure of the Upper Palæozoic rocks which are there exposed. Of late years the information furnished by many quarries has been increased by the cuttings on the North-Eastern Railway, and thus not only the ranges of Millstone-grit, calcareous roadstone, and Yoredale shales have been settled, but some light has been thrown on the relation of the Permian grits to those of the older series, which was formerly doubtful. The mineral springs are also much more surely referable to a deep source along an axis of movement than was possible when, now almost thirty years since, I published my map of the north-western tract of Yorkshire*.

Founded on a mass of particular notices, I propose now to offer to the Society a few results relating to this district, such as it may be well to consider before the closer scrutiny of the Geological Survey shall have completely mapped out and measured the whole of the large region of elevated Mountain-limestone, Millstone-grit, and Coal-measures of the North and West Ridings.

On the map of this part of Yorkshire, and further to the west, the whole country south of the Craven fault, for a length (E. to W.) of fifty miles and a breadth of twenty, is marked by many nearly parallel anticlinals, by which the Great Scar limestone and the
On the Species of Mastodon and Elephant occurring in the fossil State in Great Britain. Part II. Elephant (imperfect)
Authors: Falconer Hugh
Published: October 2009

I. I
ntroduction
.

I
n
the remarks introductory to the preceding part of this essay, I adverted to the importance, for sound reasoning in geology, that every Mammal found in the fossil state should be determined specifically with precision, and I endeavoured to illustrate the point by the entanglement and confusion of the Faunas of the Miocene and Pliocene periods, which had arisen from so many distinct forms of different ages having been ranged by Cuvier and later palæontologists under the common name of
Mastodon angustidens
.

The observation applies with still greater force to the case of
Elephas primigenius
, to which a scope in space and time, taken together,
has been assigned, without a parallel, I believe, within the
whole range of the Mammalia, fossil or recent. D'Archiac, in his
excellent ‘Histoire des Progrès,’ so late as 1848, gives a brief
summary of the localities in which the remains of the “Mammoth
(
E. primigenius
) have been said to occur, namely, from the British
Isles across the whole of the temperate zone of Europe and of Asia,
and along all the coasts and islands of the Icy Sea, as far as the
frozen cliffs of the east coast of Behring's Strait; in Escholtz Bay;
in Russian America as high as 66° of N. lat.; over most of the
United States of North America; in the great valley of the Mississippi; and along the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico”*. Struck with
the extent of this vast area, including all the emerged lands between
On the asserted Occurrence of Human Bones in the ancient Fluviatile Deposits of the Nile and Ganges; with comparative Remarks on the Alluvial Formation of the two Valleys
Authors: Falconer Hugh
Published: October 2009

§ I. F
luviatile
D
eposists of the
N
ile
.

1. General Remarks.—The object of this communication is to bring together the few instances on record of the occurrence of Mammalian fossil remains in the valley of the Nile, and to institute a comparison between the Nilotic alluvial deposits and those of the upper part of the valley of the Ganges which have come under my own observation. Fossil human bones have, according to certain statements, been met with in both of these subtropical valleys; and it may be useful, at the present time, to consider to what general inferences the cases lead, as a guide to future observation.

The explorations conducted by the French authorities in Algeria have brought to light numerous remains of
Hippopotamus
and of other Mammalia, extinct or living, from the later deposits of that part of Africa; but it is not a little singular that the valley of the Nile has heretofore been so unproductive, considering the stream of intelligent travellers which flows up the river every season from Alexandria to the Cataracts, and the not insignificant number of accomplished explorers, German, French, and English, who have traversed the country, as high as the confluence of the “Blue” and “White” rivers, and latterly above it. The alluvial deposits along the banks appear in many places to be developed in great force; and the lowermost present characters which would refer their origin back to a high antiquity. But although fossil wood and shells of land and freshwater Mollusca have
On the Chalk of the Isle of Thanet
Authors: Whitaker William
Published: October 2009

Introduction
.—Besides Professor Morris's account of the faults in Pegwell Bay* the only note on the Chalk of the Isle of Thanet that I can find is by the late Rev. W. D. Conybeare, who says,“The north- eastern cape, called the North Foreland, forms the loftiest point (of the cliffs)* * * between this point and Margate the lowest strata are exhibited, the Chalk without flints making its appearance: hence the strata gradually decline, though under an imperceptible angle, towards the south-west, in which direction the upper beds of the Chalk sink and disappear beneath the more recent formations†.”

Unfortunately this, which, as far as I know, has never been contradicted, is in groat part the reverse of the truth, as I found whilst carrying on the Geological Survey in East Kent in 1863; for there is no “Chalk-without-flints” in the island, the comparatively flintless Chalk of Margate is
above
the more flinty Chalk of Broadstairs, and the beds
rise
southwards at first, toward the middle part of the island, though they afterwards sink again further in the same direction: the island is in fact a very flat arch (or perhaps the half of a dome, of which the eastern part has been worn away by the sea), as shown by the section. The late Mr. P. J. Martin noted the fact of the Isle of Thanet being an elevated mass of the Chalk*.

The higher division, or, as it may fitly be called,
The Margate Chalk
, contains but a very
On the Chalk of Buckinghamshire, and on the Totternhoe Stone
Authors: Whitaker William
Published: October 2009

I
know
of but two short notices of the Totternhoe stone, and the older of these is merely to the effect that “the indurated Chalk Marle is extensively quarried at Totternhoe, in Bedfordshire*.”

Prof. J. Phillips, however, has been led to class this stone and the accompanying marl with the Upper Greensand, his words being as follows:—“In Bedfordshire the Chalk Marl produces a bed of siliceous chalky stone, which may probably be analogous to the firestone of Mesterham (Merstham), in Surrey, which is determined to belong to the Upper Greensand.”* * * * * “It is easy to understand how so variable a mass of sand (the Upper Greensand) placed immediately below the Chalk, and clearly in many places graduating into that calcareous rock, should in several instances become so cretaceous as to be hardly distinguishable from the Chalk itself. This happens in Bedfordshire, where the Tattenhoe (Tottenhoe†) stone appears to be the representative of the Upper Greensand‡.

I would remark that the name “Chalk-marl” is, I believe, used strictly for the lowest and more clayey part of the Chalk, and therefore that bed can hardly be analogous to the Upper Greensand which occurs beneath it.

The mapping of the Upper Greensand in Buckinghamshire gave much trouble to the Geological Survey, and it was only after repeated visits, by the help of fresh sections, and from a knowledge of a great length of country along the foot of the Chalk ridge, that the difficulty was cleared up, happily, too, without
On the Character of the Cephalopoda of the South-Indian Cretaceous Rocks
Authors: Stoliczka F.
Published: October 2009

N
early
twenty-five years have elapsed since the fossiliferous Cretaceous deposits of the Carnatic first received attention through the zealous labours of Messrs. Kaye and B. Cunliffe, and since this first notice of fossils in the neighbourhood of Pondicherry and Verdachellum much has been done for the study of these rocks.

From Mr. H. F. Blanford's report* we know that the entire series of the Cretaceous deposits either rests immediately on the crystalline rocks, or is in some places only separated from them by a small thickness of plant-bearing beds. Dr. T. Oldham† identified three species of the plants from these beds with others occurring in the Rajmahal series in Bengal. From this identification he regards the plant-bearing beds of Trichinopoly as being of the same age with the Rajmahal group, which is generally believed to be at least Jurassic, the exact age, however, not being as yet settled. Above the plant-beds we have the Cretaceous deposits, which have been examined by Mr. H. F. Blanford and other officers of the Geological Survey, in the Trichinopoly and South Arcot districts, and near Pondicherry. In the two first-named districts Mr. Blanford separates them into three divisions—the Ootatoor, Trichinopoly, and Arrialoor groups. Near Pondicherry only two groups have been traced out, namely, the Valudayur and Arrialoor. The Ootatoor and Valudayur groups are the lowest and oldest among the whole series, the others being successively younger.

Since the extensive collections of South-Indian Cretaceous fossils, brought together from several localities by Messrs. Kaye and Cunliffe
Notes accompanying some Rhomboidal Specimens of Iron-Sandstone, &c. presented to the Society
Authors: Herschel J. F. W.
Published: October 2009

M
ost
of these specimens came from a quarry at Clanmullen, near Edenderry, King's County, and the remainder from the Collingwood Quarry, in the Weald of Kent. The Irish specimens are siliceous, containing some oxide of iron and a little manganese, and are homogeneous throughout. They all agree in the sharpness of definition and the exact parallelism and evenness of the flat surfaces; but, like those from the Weald, they are not constant in form or size, and sometimes are very irregular in angle and in the parallelism of opposite sides. The Wealden specimens, however, are all closed boxes, each containing a rhomboid of hardened sandstone, the outer case being highly ferruginous—in fact, the “Ironstone of the Weald.” Sir John Herschel endeavoured to account for the formation of the boxes, and Captain Dames added a Note stating the circumstances under which the Irish specimens occur.
Results of Geological Observations in Baden and Franconia
Authors: Sandberger F.
Published: October 2009

Introduction
.—The great interest which the Geological Society of London has for many years taken in my labours renders it imperative on me to make known to them, from time to time, those results of my observations which have any claim to general importance. I therefore propose, in the following pages, to communicate as briefly as possible the more important results of the study of the Palæozoic, Triassic, and Jurassic beds in Baden and Franconia, which I have recently made, both at Karlsruhe and at Würzburg.

Palœozoic beds
.—In 1856 I ascertained that the so-called Transition formation in the southern portion of the Black Forest did not deserve this name; but that from its containing
Calamites radiatus
, Brongn.,
C. transitionis
, Göpp.,
Sagenaria Veltheimiana
, Göpp., and other typical plants, it shouldbe considered as Lower Carboniferous (Culm). This conclusion has been recently confirmed to its full extent by Schimper's beautiful monograph on the extension of these beds into the Vosges (‘Le terrain de transition desVosges,’ Strasbourg, 1862), fo~mded chiefly on a comparison with the Baden specimens which I had communicated to him. The Transition formation in the Black Forest is therefore only represented by black unfossiliferous slates in the south, and by green slates alternating with red limestone in the northern portion of the mountains near Baden, the precise geological age of which cannot for the present be ascertained.

The next division of the Coal-formation, in ascending order, is the deposit of Berghaupten, near Offenburg, which also occurs in Alsace; it contains, together with
On the Changes rendered necessary in the Geological Map of South Africa by recent Discoveries of Fossils
Authors: Rubidge R. N.
Published: October 2009

I
t
may be necessary to remind those not specially interested in the geology of the Cape of Good Hope, that in a paper read to this Society in 1854, on the metallic deposits of Namaqualand*, I pointed out a peculiarity in the relation of the quartzose sandstones with the gneiss of that district—namely, the occurrence of horizontal beds of sandstone resting on the upturned edges of gneiss, and continuous with inclined sandstone, of like kind, interstratified with the gneiss.

In 1857† I gave reasons for thinking that this relation of the quartzose sandstones existed on a much greater scale in other parts of the Colony, and that it had misled geologists; that, for instance, the separation of the schists of the Bokkeveldt from the Clay-slate formation was an error of this kind.

The section published in 1856 in the Society's Transactions‡ I believe, from personal observation, to be nearly correct. The quartzose sandstones of Table Mountain rest unconformably on the edges of the slates and granites, which are generally believed to be of the same age as the above-mentioned gneiss, as they do at Cape Town and at Bain's Kloof; but at this place, Mitchell's Pass (or rather in the last range through which the pass winds), the sandstone is found highly inclined, and passing under the Bokkeveldt schists, which rest on it.

On account of this relation, the schists were supposed to be much newer than the clay-slate. Their fossil contents seeming to Mr. Bain to be Upper Silurian
On some Additional Fossils from the Lingula-flags
Authors: Salter J. W.
Published: October 2009

I
n
my last communication, of March 1864, I described all the fossils then known from the Lower Lingula-flags of Pembrokeshire. There are now several more forms to communicate, some of which are generically new, and others are new species of old and well-known genera. I must confine myself in this paper to one or two species of which a better knowledge has been obtained, and the description of which it is desirable to amend, as the forms differ in some marked peculiarities from any of the Trilobite-group hitherto described.

The new genus
Anopolenus
(see vol. xx. p. 36) was supposed, and with good reason, to be a blind Trilobite allied to
Paradoxides
, without facial sutures or head-spines, and with truncate body-segments not produced into spinous appendages as in most of its congeners (see pl. xiii. of the vol. above quoted, figs. 4, 5). All this was true so far as I then had materials; but the subjoined description, by my friend Mr. Hicks, of a new species of the genus will show that I then only had a part either of head or body of this curious animal, which turns out to be more truly intermediate between
Paradoxides
and
Olenus
than was before supposed, while it also presents characters contradictory to those of either genus. It possesses eyes, facial suture, and expanded pleuræ; but the arrangement of these is abnormal, as Mr. Hicks's description will show.

Before giving his description of them, however, I would call the attention of the
On a new Genus of
Eurypterida
from the Lower Ludlow Rock of Leintwardine, Shropshire
Authors: Woodward Henry
Published: October 2009

T
he
specimen which forms the subject of this paper is in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, and through the kindness of Professor Huxley I have been permitted to describe it.

Its discovery was referred to by Mr. J. W. Salter, in 1857 (under the MS. name of
Limuloides
), in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ in a paper “On some New Palæozoic Starfishes,” but the genus has never yet been described (except by myself at the British Association, Bath, 1864). The great interest, attached to this new Crustacean is, that it appears to offer just the link we needed to connect the
Xiphosura
with the
Eurypterida
.

Limuli
, apparently differing but little as regards the carapace from the recent species of China and America, occur as early as the deposition of the Solenhofen limestone of Bavaria; and in the Coalmeasures of England and Ireland several species of
Bellinuri
occur, in which the cephalic shield is composed of the cephalo-thorax; and the segments of the abdomen if not anchylosed in all, are so in most.

But in the specimen under consideration we have the cephalic, thoracic, and abdominal divisions still remaining distinct, and apparently capable of separate flexure. This important character at once separates it from
Limulus
and Bellinurus.

I have on this account (
with the concurrence of Mr. salter
) considered his MS. name of
Limuloides
inappropriate as a generic appelation, and adopted the name of
Hemiaspis
(from
ἥμισνς, half
, and
ἀσπìς, a shield
), reserving Mr. Salter's name of
On some Remains of large Dinosaurian Reptiles from the Stormberg Mountains, South Africa
Authors: Huxley
Published: October 2009

I
n
a box of fossils sent to Sir R. I. Murchison, Bart., by Mr. Alfred Brown of Aliwal North, South Africa, and submitted to me for examination and determination, I found certain fragmentary large reptilian bones, to which a very considerable interest attaches.

The most important of these are two femora, a right and a left. The articular ends of both of these bones are wanting; and the shaft of the left is far less complete than that of the right, to which the following remarks more particularly apply.

It is broken into four pieces; but these, when carefully fitted together, have a total length of 25·5 inches; and it may be safely assumed that the length of the entire femur exceeded 30 inches, as its distal extremity is only beginning to widen for the condyles. At 20·5 inches from the proximal end, the transverse diameter of the shaft is 5·1 inches, the antero-posterior diameter 4·2 inches. The contour of the transverse section at this point is a transversely elongated oval, the posterior face being so much more flattened than the anterior as to make it almost semilunar.

Viewed sideways, the shaft of the bone is, for the greater part of its length, nearly straight, though its dorsal contour is a little convex. But towards the proximal end it becomes widened and flattened from above downwards, while, at the same time, its longitudinal contour becomes concave above and convex below.

In its dorsal, or upper, aspect also, the greater part
On some Flint Implements lately found in the Valley of the Little Ouse River, at Thetford, Norfolk
Authors: Flower John Wickham
Published: October 2009

I
n
consequence of the recent discoveries of flint implements of the St. Acheul type at Hoxne on the river Waveney, and at Icklingham on the Larke, it seemed to me probable that they would also be found in the valley of the neighbouring river known as the Little Ouse—a stream which, rising at Lopham, in the marsh in which the Waveney has also its source, flows in a direction nearly parallel with the course of the Larke (distant about nine miles), and, running from Thetford to Brandon, falls into the Great Ouse between Ely and Lynn.

During the last two or three years I have frequently looked for these implements in the gravel-beds on the banks of this river; but my search was for some time unsuccessful, having been chiefly directed to the left bank, on which they very rarely occur. About six months since, however, several of them were found in the gravel-pits on the right bank by a labourer who had gone from Icklingham to work at Thetford. They were taken by him to Mr. Henry Prigg of Bury St. Edmunds, who at once recognized their true character and their close resemblance to those found in the valley of the Somme. In December last Mr. John Evans and Mr. Prigg found amongst the gravel several other good specimens, both of the oval and pointed forms; and within the last three months I have been able to procure upwards of fifty others. Mr. Evans and Mr. Prestwich have also
On a New Specimen of
Telerpeton Elginense
Authors: Huxley
Published: October 2009

I
am
indebted to my friend the Rev. Dr. Gordon, of Birnie by Elgin, for the opportunity of examining the very beautiful and important specimen of
Telerpeton Elginense
, of which I propose to give a description in the present paper. It is the property of Mr. James Grant, General Assembly Teacher, in Lossiemouth, Elgin, who has been good enough to entrust it to Dr. Gordon for transmission to me; and it was obtained from the well-known reptiliferous beds of Lossiemouth, along with some highly interesting fragments of
Stagonolepis
and
Hyperodapedon
.

The fine-grained sandstone in which the fossil has been imbedded is broken irregularly into five pieces; and the several bones are represented by sharp and well-defined casts, the original osseous substance having disappeared, or being represented only by pulverulent bone-earth, or by oxide of iron. The body is curved towards the right side, and the head and neck are bent dorsad in a plane different from that of the trunk.

The length of the skull is 1·65 in., that of the vertebra] column, from the atlas to the anterior margin of the sacrum, is 4·5 in. From the front margin of the sacrum to the end of the undisturbed part of the tail is 2 inches. To this total of 8·15 in. it is probable that 2 inches more, at least, must be added for the distal moiety of the tail, which would give the entire animal a length of not less than between ten and eleven inches.

The fore
On the Age of the Lower Brick-earths of the Thames Valley
Authors: Dawkins W. Boyd
Published: October 2009

§ 1.
Introduction
.—While engaged in accumulating materials for the definition of the range in space and time of the British Pleistocene Mammalia, I was forcibly struck by the peculiar character of those found in the Brick-earths and gravels of the lower part of the Thames Valley, as compared with those from low-level deposits in other parts of Britain which seem stratigraphically to be of the same date, and which occupy the same horizon above the sea. I propose, therefore, to bring before the Society an analysis of my notes relating to the remains found on the north side of the Thames, at Ilford and Grays Thurrock in Essex, and on the south side at Crayford, Erith, and Wickham in Kent, together with some notices of the strata in which they occur.

§ 2.
Literature
.—The first to call attention to these deposits was Professor Morris, who published a valuable paper on Grays Thurrock, in 1836*, and extended his investigations in 1838† to the other localities under consideration. After a careful analysis of the evidence afforded by the mollusca, he inferred that “their connexion with the ancient beds of gravel was a subject requiring further elucidation,” and abstained from drawing any conclusions about their exact age. Dr. Falconer, in 1857‡, in his masterly treatise on the Mastodon and Elephant, recognized “the true Pliocene assemblage of species” at Grays Thurrock and the lower beds at Brentford, and thence inferred that they were of an earlier age than any part of the Till or
On the Occurrence of Consolidated Blocks in the Drift of Suffolk
Authors: Maw George
Published: October 2009

As a contribution to the evidence on the geological position of the blocks of saccharoid sandstone scattered on the surface of many parts of the chalk-districts, I beg to lay before the Society a brief account of the occurrence of similar blocks of large size in the Drift of Suffolk, both
in situ
and on the surface. In the chapter on “Druid Sandstones” or “Sarsen Stones,” in Mr. Prestwich's paper on the Woolwich and Reading Series (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 123), the original source of these remarkable blocks is assigned to the sand-beds of the Woolwich and Reading Series, but less from the direct evidence of their actual occurrence
in situ
than from the mineralogical resemblance of the consolidated blocks to the Woolwich and Reading Sands, and from their geographical distribution pointing to a derivation from the Lower Tertiaries. A case is also mentioned of the occurrence of such blocks in Drift, in which that author considers that they were derived from the Woolwich and Reading Sands.

Blocks of saccharoid sandstone also occasionally occur in the Bag-shot Sands, from which they appear to have been consolidated. The blocks, of similar mineral character and structure, about to be described from the Quaternary Drift of Suffolk, are so placed as to render it certain that they were composed from the sands and gravels of the drift where they now lie; it would appear, therefore, that such masses are not limited to any particular deposit, but have been consolidated from
Notes on some Chemical Analyses of Variegated Strata
Authors: Maw George
Published: October 2009

T
he
author gave the results of some analyses for the determination of iron in the light and dark parts of variegated slates, sandstones, and marls, the colour of which is due to oxide of iron, and in which the variegation appears to be disposed independently of mechanical arrangement. The analysis in each case exhibited the fact that the lighter blotches, spots, and stripes contained a smaller proportion of the colouring oxide than the average mass, a proportion which implies an actual difference in the percentage of the metallic iron, and which could not be accounted for by any mere difference in the state of its combination. This shows an actual departure of a part of the colouring oxide out of the colourless patches, and a dispersive process which seemed to be the very reverse of the segregation of nodules of carbonate of lime and carbonate of iron out of a clayey matrix. Among the forms of variegation referred to were:—(1st) that resulting from the segregation of dark blotches out of a lighter matrix, the evenness of colour of which does not appear to have been materially affected by the withdrawal of a part of its colouring-matter; (2nd) that resulting from the segregation of dark blotches out of a lighter ground, each of which is concentrically surrounded by a distinct and well-defined zone lighter than the general ground; (3rd) strata variegated with light blotches containing a smaller proportion of colouring-matter than the general ground, but not arranged concentrically round a darker nucleus; (4th) the variegation of coloured strata with both light and dark blotches, containing respectively a smaller and larger proportion of the colouring oxide than the general ground, but which are not arranged, as in the second case, concentrically with each other.
Notes on the Geological features of Mauritius
Authors: Clark George
Published: October 2009

M
auritius
is well known to be of volcanic origin, as is also the neighbouring island of Réunion, where there exists a volcano in constant activity. There is this great difference between the two islands: Mauritius is surrounded by coral-reefs, which protect nearly the whole of its coast, and by their shelter form excellent harbours, while the coast of Réunion is exposed to the full force of the ocean. The action of the waves is so strong on its shores that not a particle of the basaltic sand which strews them presents an angle. Its beach exhibits nothing but a mass of pebbles, varying in size from a foot or more in diameter to particles almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

The reefs of Mauritius support various islets, which have been generally regarded as forming an integral part of them, though rising to as much as thirty feet above the sea-level.

Gabriel Islet, is partly basaltic and partly calcareous; and it is on the latter that the late Dr. P. Ayres discovered the fossilized remains of a forest, of which he gave an account at the Meeting of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius, in 1860.

Egret Island stands on a calcareous bottom surrounded by sand between the reef and the shore, about a mile from the former and half that from the latter, with a depth of water varying from half a fathom to a fathom. This island, which rises to a height of about thirty feet,
On the Discovery of Coal on the Eastern Slope of the Andes
Authors: Wheelwright W.
Published: October 2009

I
n
this paper the author reports the occurrence of beds of Coal on the eastern slope of the Andes, between the cities of Cordova and San Juan, about 25 leagues east of the latter city.