bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the Tibia of
Megalornis
, a large Struthious Bird from the London Clay
Authors: Seeley Harry Govier
Published: October 2009

Dr. Bowerbank, in 1854, in the ‘Annals of Natural History’, gave a figure and description of the middle part of the shaft of a right tibia from the London Clay of Sheppey, which Prof. Quekett had found to have strong resemblances to that of the Emu. This specimen Dr. Bowerbank named
Lithornis emuianus
; though, as the genus
Lithornis
had previously been constituted by Prof. Owen for a Raptorial bird, this struthious animal must now be referred to some other genus. In the year 1865, when accompanying Prof. Sedgwick in his first and only visit to the Isle of Sheppey, it was our good fortune to obtain from a “copperas-picker” at Eastchurch a portion of a tibia which corresponds so exactly with Dr. Bowerbank's specimen as to leave no reasonable doubt that they are portions of the remains of the same individual bird, though an interval of so many years passed between the two findings. Our bone is less like the Ostrich's than the Emu's, is more robust than in the Emu, and shows distinctive characters which led me to institute for it the genus
Megalornis
.

I do not strongly urge that it should be so named; for the specimen is not well preserved, and I think that some doubt may attach to its identification as a struthious skull, and that an exhaustive comparison would be required to prove that it is a bird's skull, and is not the skull of a fish. Such a comparison I have had no opportunity
Additional Remarks on Boulders, with a particular Reference to a Group of very large and far-travelled Erratics in Llanarmon Parish, Denbighshire
Authors: Mackintosh D.
Published: October 2009

Towards the close of a paper in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. for August 1873, I briefly referred to a number of boulders on the Welsh borders*. Since then I have devoted a considerable time to a sytematic survey of the erratics found in the eastern part of North Wales, from the river Ceiriog on the south to Moel Fammau on the north. But before proceeding to this subject it may be necessary to make a few remarks on the

Boundary-line between the Northern and Welsh Drifts
.- I have noticed northern erratics between the Menai Strait and the Snowdon range as far south as Moel-y-Tryfan (on the summit of which, in one of the Alexandra slate quarries, both Eskdale and Criffell granite may be found); and, according to Mr. Trimmer, the northern drift may be traced as far as the extremity of the Caernarvonshire peninsula. Pebbles and small boulders of Eskdale and Criffell granite are thinly strewn along the north Welsh coast from Angesey to the Point of Air; but nowhere have they penetrated into the Welsh valleys, excepting to a trifling extent into the Vale of Clwyd. From the Point of Air in a S.S.E. direction, they increase in number and size along the coast; but with the exception of a few granite and other pebbles, scarcely and northern drift has reached the summit of Halkin mountain*, or penetrated further into the Principality in a westerly direction. The western boundary of northern boulders, including Eskdale and Criffell granite, may
Notes on the Physical Features and Mineralogy of Newfoundland
Authors: Milne John
Published: October 2009

By the kind permission of the Directors of the Newfoundland Land Company I am enabled to place before this Society the following notes on the mineralogy and geology of Newfoundland, which were collected whilst exploring in that country during the summer of 1873. The communication is generally unsystematic; more especially so is the portion referring to the mineral deposits, which are spoken of in the order in which they were visited. The geological characters of many of the places referred to having already been so thoroughly described by Mr. Murray in his reports on the geology of this island, or else remaining to form at some future period the subject of such reports, it is purposed in this communication to omit all that has already been written, and only to touch briefly on the remainder. My chief object, however, is simply to make known a number of facts which would be of use to explorers visiting Newfoundland.
Notes on a Railway-section of the Lower Lias and Rhætics between Stratford-on-Avon and Fenny Compton, on the Occurrence of the Rhætics near Kineton, and the Insect-beds near Knowle, in Warwickshire, and on the Recent Discovery of the Rhætics near Leicester
Authors: Brodie P. B.
Published: October 2009

A short distance from the Railway Station at Stratford-on-Avon, on the branch line to Fenny Compton, the red marl (new red sandstone) appears with overlying Keuper sandstone, capped by the usual drift. The Lower Lias comes in a little further on, where the strata are much disturbed and are thrown up in the form of a small anticlinal, and are displaced for a short distance on each side of the axis of disturbance, but are horizontal on the opposite of the cutting. Near the station at Eatington the Lima- and other beds are exposed in a cutting about sixty feet deep, consisting of the usual series of bands of limestone divided by shales here undisturbed, the lowest strata cropping out to the west with a dip to the east. They contain the usual characteristic fossils, though these are not very numerous. About a mile and a half from the station, in an easterly direction, the Rhætic (Penarth) beds make their first appearance, and are here composed of whitish shale, twenty feet thick, with irregular included nodules of limestone with
Estheria
, overlain by the White Lias much shattered and broken, which has evidently been redeposited with some intermixture of drift. At Walton Hill the black shales are seen underlying the “Estheria-bed;” but only a small portion is exposed, and the thickness is unknown; but possibly the “bone-bed” might be found lower down in the river Dene below.
Note on the Occurrence of a Labyrinthodont in the Yoredale Rocks of Wensleydale
Authors: Miall L. C.
Published: October 2009

Labyrinthodont fossils have now been reported from various deposits of Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic age. They occur, as amphibian remains might be expected to occur, chiefly in the fluviatile, estuarine, or shallow marine formations: hence they are comparatively abundant in the Coal-measures and Keuper Sandstone, but absent, so far as we yet know, from the Carboniferous Limestone and Lias. In England and Ireland the bones of the Carboniferous species have hitherto occurred only in the true Coal-measures. In Scotland they are found also in the shales and iron-stones of the Carboniferous Limestone series, which is probably of earlier date than the English Coal-measures, but deposited under conditions generally similar.
On the Granitic, Granitoid, and Associated Metamorphic Rocks of the Lake-district. Parts III.–V
Authors: Ward J. Clifton
Published: October 2009

Introduction

The Skiddaw Granite occurs over several detached areas of small extent in the mountain tract on the north side of Skiddaw and Blencathra, much of which is known as Skiddaw Forest, the birth-place of the river Caldew. The alteration in the surrounding Skiddaw Slate extends in every direction for two or three miles from the central mass, and is necessarily somewhat varied in character by the changeable nature of the slate, which not unfrequently contains beds of a sandy or even gritty texture. This last fact must be carefully borne in mind when we consider the metamorphism which has been effected.

As in the last part of this memoir, the subject shall be dealt with under the three heads of:—I. Examination in the field. II. Microscopical Examination. III. Chemical Examination.

In an Appendix short notices are given of similar researches on these and kindred rocks.

I.
Examination in the Field
.

1.
Unaltered Slate
—The general character of the unaltered clay-slate is that of a bluish grey cleaved rock, seldom forming slates of any value, but generally weathering into small flakes and chips or into pencil-like fragments. The sandy or gritty beds are usually uncleaved—but are very inconstant in character, and over the area in question do not form beds of any thickness.

2.
First Stage of Alteration
:
Chiastolite Slate
—On approaching the Skiddaw-granite area from the south, as on walking up the valley between Skiddaw and Blencathra, the first trace of alteration met with is the appearance of small faint
On the Discovery of a Fossil Scorpion in the British Coal-measures
Authors: Woodward Henry
Published: October 2009

The paucity of the remains of any class of terrestrial air-breathing animals preserved in a fossil state, has given to such organisms a special interest in the eyes of geologists, not only as marking the probable position of old land-surfaces, but also as giving us some slight indication of the climatal and zoological conditions of this, to us, otherwise
terra incognita
.

But this interest is greatly enhanced when such remains occur in strata of palæozoic age, in which evidences of land-dwelling animals are extremely rare. Indeed, but for our palæozoic coal-strata, we should have little left, save evidences of marine life, older than the Trias.

I have now the pleasure of announcing the discovery, in two distinct localities in England, of the remains of a fossil Scorpion in strata of Coal-measure age, and possibly in a third locality in Scotland.

So long ago as 1835, Count Sternberg published the discovery of a remarkable fossil Scorpion in the Coal formation at the village of Chomle, near Radnitz, Bohemia, afterwards named and described by Corda as
Cyclophthalmus senior
(Corda in ‘Böhmischen Verhandlungen,’ 1836, and ‘Wiegmann's Archiv,’ 1836, ii. p. 360).

This is the first authentic record of an Arachnide in the Coal-measures. It has been figured in the ‘Transactions of the Royal Bohemian Museum;’ and these figures were reproduced by the late Dr. Buckland in his ‘Geology and Mineralogy’ (1836, plate 46′ and 4′′. fig. 13).

“This fossil Scorpion,” writes Buckland, “ differs from existing species less in general structure than in
Geological Notes from the State of New York
Authors: Lloyd T. G. B.
Published: October 2009

The following notes of various geological facts occurring in the northern part of the State of New York were collected during a residence there some five or six years ago.
Evidence of a Carnivorous Reptile (
Cynodraco major
, Ow.) about the size of a Lion, with Remarks thereon
Authors: Owen
Published: October 2009

S
earching
over the residuary, more or less shapeless blocks of matrix from the Karoo lacustrine deposits of South Africa, transmitted by their discoverer the late Andrew Geddes Bain, Esq., F.G.S., I came upon a lump about the size of one's fist, in which the sole indication of organic remains was a pair of mutilated canine-shaped teeth.

Part of the outer enamelled surface was exposed to view, and suggested that the block might contain a fragment of the upper jaw of a
Dicynodon
. On clearing away the matrix from the teeth, how- ever, they presented a difference of shape from the tusks in that genus: the crown was narrow instead of round; the transverse section was a long oval (Pl. XI. fig. 3) with the small end pointed: when the whole of the outer side of the crown became exposed, the shape of the best-preserved canine (
ib
. fig. 2) resembled that in
Machairodus
, and most so that of
Machairodus latidens
. On carefully relieving the hinder trenchant margin of the tooth from the matrix, I was much interested in finding that it carried the resemblance to the canine of the extinct feline mammal to correspondence in the minute serration of that margin (
ib. ib. c′
).

A small part only of the non-enamelled base was preserved, the canines having been broken off a little above their exit from the socket; but the breadth of the broken base and the reduction of the pulp-cavity to a linear trace were indicative of a long and
On the Presence of the Forest-bed Series at Kessingland and Pakefield, in Suffolk, and its position beneath the Chillesford Clay
Authors: Gunn John
Published: October 2009

T
he
following remarks, together with the accompanying section and the Elephantine and Cervine remains exhibited from the soil of the forest-bed at Kessingland and Pakefield, are intended to be supplementary to a paper “On the Relative Position of the Forest-bed and the Chillesford Clay in Norfolk and Suffolk, and on the Real Position of the Forest-bed”*. I have but little to add to that paper and nothing in it to withdraw or alter. My object is to describe the rootlet-bed, part of the freshwater formation, which succeeded the Forest-bed, and to exhibit the Elephantine and Cervine remains as proofs that the soil of the Forest-bed lies beneath the Chillesford Clay.

As far back as 1868 Professor Huxley, then President, in discussing a paper by Mr. Prestwich on the Red Crag of Suffolk, observed that Mr. Gunn had stated as “a fact, and a very important fact,” that he had seen the Forest-bed exposed on the beach at Easton Bavent, Kessingland, and Pakefield underlying the Chillesford Clays and Sands. This was opposed by Mr. Prestwich, who said he had seen the roots of trees in the Chillesford Clay, which he considered to be a proof that the Forest grew above it and upon it. It has also since been stated by others who have visited the spot, and have not been able to see the Forest-bed in consequence of its being covered with beach-sand and shingle, that Mr. Gunn's
ipse dixit
could not be accepted. I determined therefore to collect all
On Columnar, Fissile, and Spheroidal Structure
Authors: Bonney T. G.
Published: October 2009

T
he
subject of the columnar jointing and spheroidal structure of rocks has of late received considerable attention, the most important papers on the subject being those by Professor James Thomson* and by Mr. R. Mallet†. The former explains the columnar structure by a contraction of the mass in cooling, and advances a novel theory to account for the cup-and-ball structure observed in, cross-jointing, viz.—that the fracture commenced at the centre, owing to a longitudinal tensile stress, starting often from a “small [included] mass of stone different in texture and in hardness from the rest” of the rock, and proceeded outwards towards the periphery. The cause of this tensile stress he considers to be, probably, chemical action set up by infiltration of water, which has produced an expansion of the outside of the column, so that the outer part, growing longer, has strained and finally snapped the interior. The spheroidal structure, often manifested in decaying basalts, he considered not to be “an original concretionary structure, but due to decomposition penetrating from without inwards in blocks or fragments, into which the rock has been fissured.”

Mr. R. Mallet commences his paper by an ingenious mathematical demonstration of the cause of hexagonal fracture in the contracting body. He then passes on to consider the cup-and-ball structure. This he regards as a further product of contraction from loss of heat in a prism which is now cooling from the sides as well as from an end, so that the curved surface of the joint
Observations on the Unequal Distribution of Drift on opposite sides of the Pennine Chain, in the country about the source of the river Calder, with Suggestions as to the causes which led to that result, together with some Notices on the High - level Drift in the upper part of the Valley of the river Irwell
Authors: Aitken John
Published: October 2009

F
or
many years past the attention of geologists has been more or less directed to the fact that a marked difference exists in the distribution of drift on opposite sides of the Pennine chain, a difference amounting in some instances to an entire absence of that material on the easterly slopes for many miles from the watershed of the country, and over a considerable portion of its length, notwithstanding that these deposits overspread the great plains of Lancashire and Cheshire in great force, and are found mounting up upon the flanks of those hills on their western sides to very considerable elevations, approaching closely in some cases to the culminating ridge, and in others, where the chain is crossed by intersecting valleys, to some hundreds of feet in excess of the summit-level of these gorges. It would further appear from facts hereafter to be adduced, that although some of these cross valleys attain to only very moderate altitudes, no communication existed during the glacial period of such a character as to permit of the passage of a body of land ice from one side of the chain to the other. Whilst, however, these phenomena have not wholly escaped the notice of those observers who have, more particularly of late years, directed their attention to the surface accumulations of the northern counties of England, allusion having been made to the subject by Messrs. Binney, Tiddeman, Green, Foster, Dakyns, Goodchild, and others, yet no serious attempt has, I believe, so far been
Notes on the Physical Geology of East Anglia during the Glacial Period
Authors: Penning W. H.
Published: October 2009

I
ntroduction
.

I
n
submitting to the consideration of the Society the following observations, I would remark that they are intended to form, not a full description, but a sketch of the physical geology of East Anglia during the glacial period. The evidence upon which they are founded is derived from deposits that either have been, or will be, mapped by the officers of the Geological Survey. Full descriptions will appear in their published maps and memoirs; therefore the subject will here be treated generally, and all details omitted.

The object I have more especially in view, is to offer an explanation of the origin of a somewhat puzzling series of gravels and sands, classed by Mr. S. V. Wood, Jun., as “Middle Glacial” to give a reason for their occurrence in certain areas and non-occurrence in others, and to account, on mechanical grounds alone, for the almost total absence therefrom of any (except derived) fossil remains. I wish also to remark briefly on the probable means of formation of the so-called “Denudation gravels.”

The subject is divided, for reasons that will appear, into two parts; the first relates to the district south and east, and the second to that north and west, of the great Chalk escarpment.

By the term “East Anglia” is meant a tract of country, north of the Thames, which may be considered to be bounded on the west by a line passing from London through Hertford, Royston, and St. Ives to the estuary of the “Wash,” and
On certain Alluvial Deposits associated with the Plymouth Limestone
Authors: Worth R. N.
Published: October 2009

I
n
the ingenious paper on the Drift of Devon and Cornwall, read by Mr. Belt before this Society in November last, that gentleman speaks of the lowland gravels of Devon and Cornwall as showing “signs of sudden and tumultuous deposition.” Whether he is right or wrong in this assumption can best be settled by a reference to detail in various localities; and it is with the view of aiding in this work that I would direct attention to certain alluvial deposits associated with the Plymouth limestone, which seem, so far as that locality is concerned, to negative Mr. Belt's hypothesis.

The limestone of Plymouth, and that of Yealmpton (which commences about two miles distant from the eastward termination of the first), abound in fissures and caverns. Some of the latter have become celebrated by their ossiferous contents. Some of the former contain the alluvial deposits to which I refer, and which, denuded off elsewhere, are therein preserved.

The best examples of these deposits have occurred in connexion with Plymouth Hoe, where the so-called drift-gravel fills sundry fissures, and has been found to entomb remains corresponding very closely to the fauna of the Oreston caverns, which are less than a mile distant, on the other side of the Cattewater.

The chief deposit occurs about midway on the Hoe, and fills a huge “pocket” in the limestone. Beneath the turf there is a bed of clayey soil containing pebbles, which range from a very small size up to boulders a dozen pounds.
The Bone-caves of Creswell Crags.—2nd Paper
Authors: Mello J. Magens
Published: October 2009

I
had
the honour last June of reporting to the Society my discovery of some interesting bone-caves and fissures in Creswell Crags, in the Lower Magnesian Limestone of N.E. Derby shire, which contained a large number of species of Pleistocene mammalia, together with some traces of the presence of man. I was able on that occasion to exhibit portions of some 15 or 16 species belonging to no fewer than 12 genera obtained from one cave alone, locally known as the Pin-hole, so called from a curious custom which prevails amongst some of its visitors of dropping a pin into a small water-filled hollow, removing at the same time a pin deposited by some previous visitor. Amongst the animals which had left their remains in this cave the most important were the Irish Elk, the Glutton, and the Arctic Fox; together with these were a large number of Hyæna remains, and also bones and teeth of the Mammoth, the Woolly Rhinoceros, the Brown Bear, the Reindeer, the Urus, and of some other animals. During the past summer I have been able to carry on the work of exploration, assisted by Mr. Thomas Heath, F.R.H.S., Curator of the Derby Museum, who has been able to devote a good deal of time to it, and whose skilful help has been of great value in carrying on the researches ; and I must also acknowledge the energetic assistance given us by Mr. F. Tebbet, superintendent at the Creswell quarries, who from the beginning
On the Triassic Strata which are exposed in the Cliff-sections near Sidmouth, and a Note on the occurrence of an Ossiferous Zone containing Bones of a
Labyrinthodon
Authors: Johnston-Lavis H. J.
Published: October 2009

I
n
describing the locality and geological position of the vertebrate fossils which were obtained from the Triassic rocks near Sidmouth, perhaps it would be as well to commence with a description of the coast-sections for a short distance east and west of that town.

Starting from the east, we find that the Marl (which is the upper-most subdivision of the Trias of South Devon) makes its appearance at Branscomb Mouth, exposed beneath the Greensand and Chalk in the cliff-sections, and in the ramifying valley cut through by the small stream which runs out to sea at this point. It now forms the lower portion of the cliff under Littlecomb Hill and Branscomb Hill, being overlain by the Greensand and Chalk until it is exposed inland at Weston Mouth by the action of the little stream called Weston Water, which runs out here.

It again forms the base of the cliff under Dunscomb Hill, being still overlain by the Greensand and a small patch of Chalk; again it is exposed and partly excavated by the little brook at Salcomb Mouth; thence it forms the base of the cliff under Salcomb Hill, being now capped by the Greensand alone; it is then largely exposed on the surface in the valley of the river Sid.

A few yards east of where the Sid runs into the sea, the Upper Sandstone (of Mr. Ussher) crops out, forming a cliff overhanging the Sid, and constituting the bed of the stream for half a mile from
On the Posterior Portion of a Lower Jaw of
Labyrinthodon
(
L. Lavisi
), from the Trias of Sidmouth
Authors: Seeley Harry Govier
Published: October 2009

N
otwithstanding
all that has been done of late years by Prof. Huxley and those who have continued his labours, for the elucidation of the Labyrinthodontia, less is probably known of the structure and affinities of that group than of any other long-established Order of vertebrates. It may perhaps be an open question whether Labyrinthodonts can rightly be referred to an existing class of animals; for the nature of the affinities of these fossils with Amphibia, Palæosauria, and Reptilia is a subject rather for inquiry than for dogmatism; and unfortunately the new materials now to be described are too few to do more than slightly modify accepted surmises.

No apology seems to be necessary for the restoration of Prof. Owen's name
Labyrinthodon
, because neither Prof. Huxley nor Mr. Miall have attempted to justify either its suppression or reconstruction, while I am inclined to urge that demonstration is wanting that any foreign Labyrinthodont genus, such as
Mastodonsaurus
, has ever occurred in the British Isles. The single dermal plate figured by Mr. Miall, so similar to one hereinafter described from Sidmouth, seems to me no evidence; for Labyrinthodonts like Crocodilia and Teleosauria may well have resembled each other in the dermal armour of allied genera; and in describing an English fossil closely allied to one of those originally described by Prof. Owen from Warwickshire, it seems better to refer it to the genus Labyrinthodon as constituted by Prof. Owen, there being no evidence adduced or available for the subdivision of that genus in
Note on the Phosphates of the Laurentian and Cambrian Rocks of Canada
Authors: Dawson J. W.
Published: October 2009

T
he
extent and distribution of the deposits of apatite contained in the Laurentian of Canada and in the succeeding Palæozoic formations, have not escaped the notice of our Geological Survey, and have been referred to in some detail in Reports of Mr. Vennor, Mr. Richardson, and others, as well as in the General Report prepared by Sir W. E. Logan in 1863. Some attention has also been given, more especially by Dr. Sterry Hunt, to the question of the probable origin of these deposits. My own attention has been directed to the subject by its close connexion with the discussions concerning
Eozoon
; and I have therefore embraced such opportunities as offered to visit the localities in which phosphates occur, and to examine their relations and structure. I would now present some facts and conclusions respecting these minerals, more especially in their relation to the life of the Laurentian period, but which may also be of interest to British geologists in connexion with the facts recently published in the ‘Journal’ of this Society in relation to the similar deposits found in the Cambrian and Silurian of Wales.

In the Lower Silurian and Cambrian rocks of Canada phosphatic deposits occur in many localities, though apparently not of sufficient extent to compete successfully for commercial purposes with the rich Laurentian beds and veins of crystalline apatite.

In the Chazy formation, at Alumette Island, and also at Grenville, Hawkesbury, and Lochiel, dark-colourcd phosphatic nodules abound. They hold fragments of Lingulæ, which also occur in
On the Ancient Volcano of the District of Schemnitz, Hungary
Authors: Judd John W.
Published: October 2009

I
ntroductory
.

W
hen
, two years ago, the conclusions at which I had arrived concerning the relations of the so-called plutomic rocks to those of undoubted volcanic origin in the Scottish Highlands were laid before this Society, it was suggested by the late Sir Charles Lyell that probably no series of igneous rocks would be found to offer better illustrations of the phenomena which I then described, or would furnish more valuable opportunities for testing the truth of the general conclusions to which I had been led, than the old volcanic masses encircled by the mountain-ranges of the Carpathians. From Mr. Poulett Serope, ever ready with generous aid to those who devoted themselves to the studies which he had himself so successfully prosecuted in earlier days, a suggestion from his life-long friend was always sure to meet with a ready response; and thus I found myself afforded an opportunity of continuing the examination of these interesting questions, by a careful study of the volcanic rocks of Hungary and Transylvania. From both the friends I was privileged to receive muoh valuable advice in preparing for the work I proposed to undertake; and when the one was taken from our midst, the other seemed to redouble his efforts to counsel and aid me in its execution. In laying before this Society the first portion of the results of an investigation, in the conception and eonduet of which these fathers of our science so warmly interested themselves, it is impossible to avoid giving expression to
On some Fossil Reef-building Corals from the Tertiary Deposits of Tasmania
Authors: Duncan P. Martin
Published: October 2009

A
description
of a very remarkable species of
Dendrophyllia
from the Tertiary deposits of Table Cape, in North Tasmania, was read before this Society on June 9, 1875; and shortly afterwards I received a parcel of other kinds of corals from the same locality, accompanied by a request from the Royal Society of Tasmania that I would undertake their examination. I was then made aware, from an abstract of a paper read before the Royal Society of Tasmania, that all these corals had been under the careful hands of the Rev. Julian Woods, to whom the palæontology of the Australian province is so much indebted.

The Rev. Mr. Woods gave his reasons for believing the Table-Cape deposits to be of the same Lower Cainozoic age as that which I had given them, and supported his opinions by references to the similarity and identity of the species of Echinodermata, Mollusca, and Corals found in them and in the Lower Cainozoic deposits of the mainland. As my inferences were derived second-hand from Mr. Woods, he clearly has the priority of having decided the geological position of the Table-Cape beds. He stated that, after a comparison of the Tasmanian and Australian specimens, he found in the deposits of both countries such well-known forms as
Hemipatagus Forbesi
, Woods & Dunc.,
Cellepora gambierensis, Pectunculus laticostatus, Cuculleea concamerata, Dentalium Hicksii, Trigonia semiundulata, Corbula sulcata, Cyprcea eximia, Voluta Hannafordii, Voluta antiscalaris, Conotrochus M'Coyi
, and a large
Placotrochus deltoideus
. This is a fauna which is characteristic of the
Appendix to “Note on a Modified Form of Dinosaurian Ilium, hitherto reputed Scapula”
Authors: Hulke J. W.
Published: October 2009

A
recent
discovery of
Iguanodon
-remains in the Isle of Wight by the Rev. W. Fox has solved the riddle of the bone which, in the above note, I brought under the Society's notice towards the close of last Session, and it has also completed our knowledge of the pelvic elements of Mantell's
Iguanodon
. It will be remembered that Mantell and, later, Owen had regarded the bone as a scapula, first of
Iguanodon
, and afterwards of some unknown reptile, that this decision seemed to be untenable, and that the balance of all the evidence I could up to that time collect respecting it favoured its being an ilium.

This fresh material, which Mr. Fox has courteously permitted me to examine, consists of a series of vertebræ, of fragments of large flat bones which cannot be any thing else than pieces of the ilia, of a pair of ischia, the former clavicles, and a pair of the bones in question.

The vertebræ comprise the sacrum and a few of the adjoining lumbar and caudal vertebraæ. Their form, and also that of the isehia, agree so closely with those of the types of Mantell's Iguanodon in the British Museum as to leave no doubt of their generic identity. The third pair of bones in the pelvic girdle, which are neither ilia nor ischia, must be pubes (fig. 1, P). Their shape closely repeats that of the smaller of the two specimens illustrating my note (pl. xxxii. fig. 1, vol. xxx.). Inverting the bone
On the Triassic Rocks of Somerset and Devon
Authors: Ussher W. A. E.
Published: October 2009

I
ntroduction
.

T
he
Triassic areas of Devon and Somerset may be divided into three lithological districts:—the first, on the north and north-east of the Polden Hills; the second, on the north-east, east, and south-east of the Quantocks; the third, comprising the rest of the Triassic area, lies between Watchet and the south coast of Devon, being bounded on the west by the Devonian and Culmiferous highlands, and on the east by the Quantock and Blackdown ranges.

The first of these districts is too well known to call for more than a general description in this place. In the Geological-Survey Memoir on the Bristol Coalfield it has been already treated of, the labours of Conybeare and Phillips, De la Beche, and the late Mr. Wm. Sanders, with those of Messrs. Moore and Etheridge having left little to be desired as far as the description of the Triassic strata is concerned. With reference to the last-mentioned districts, of which we purpose to give a more detailed though far from exhaustive description, it is different, the relations of the Trias not having been before established, except so far as might be inferred from a study of the splendid section along the coast between Seaton and Torquay.

Sir Henry De la Beche, in his report upon the geology of Devon and Cornwall, gives a very general description of the Trias, without attempting a classification of its component marls, sands, and conglomerates, which the greater time occupied in the resurvey of the district has enabled me
On the Discovery of Melonites in Britain
Authors: Keeping Walter
Published: October 2009

I
n
the appendix to a paper read before the Geological Society, June 9, 1875, I noticed the discovery of a large Urchin, nearly allied to the American genus
Melonites
, from the Carboniferous Limestone of Derbyshire, and preserved in the museum of the Geological Survey. I have since been permitted to examine the specimen more carefully, so as to determine it to be a new species of Melonites, a type of Echinoids characterized by its numerous ranges of ambulacral plates, which until now was unknown beyond the boundaries of the New World.

Another fragment, smaller, but well preserved and presenting all the characteristics of the species, may be seen in the British Museum.

Description of the specimens
.—The larger specimen is a confused mass of stout plates covering an area of seven and one-half inches by 7 inches. Among these may be seen some broad bands and broken masses of another set of plates, which are each perforated by a pair of pores. From the arrangement of this latter system of plates, converging, as they do, rougMy to the centre of the specimen, we see that this is the remains of one large Echinoid broken up and much disarranged, the larger scattered plates having formed its interambulacral areas, the masses of smaller plates its ambulaeral zones.

The interambulacral plates (figs. 3, 4) are very numerous, and are all about the same size, which shows that new series of plates were intercalated to form the increasing circumference towards the equator of the test, where there
The Glacial Climate and the Polar Ice-cap
Authors: Murphy Joseph John
Published: October 2009

I
n
a paper “On the Nature and Cause of the Glacial Climate,” in the Journal of the Society for 1869 (p. 350), I gave my reasons for thinking that the glacial climate was not one of intense cold, but of snowy winters and cold summers, with a small range of temperature —in four words,
not Siberian but Fuegian
. I agree with Mr. Croll that a glacial epoch is one of maximum eccentricity of the earth's orbit, and that the northern and southern hemispheres, during such an epoch, are glaciated alternately. Where I differ from him is, that while he thinks the glaciated hemisphere has its
winter
in aphelion, I maintain, on the contrary, that the glaciated hemisphere is that which has its
summer
in aphelion. Mr. Croll, in his work on ‘Climate and Time,’ has replied to me; and I propose in this paper to supplement my former one and give a fuller exposition of my views, showing also where I think he has fallen into error.

I quote the following from ' Climate and Time' (p. 54) :—

“According to the calculations of Leverrier, the superior limit of the earth's eccentricity is 0"07075. Lagrange's determination makes the superior limit 0"07641. Recently the laborious task of reinvestigating the whole subjcct has been undertaken by Mr. Stockwell, of the United States. Be has taken into account the disturbing influence of the planet Neptune, the existence of which was not known when Leverrier's computations were made; and he finds that the eccentricity
On an associated Series of Cervical and Dorsal Vertebræ of
Polyptychodon
, from the Cambridge Upper Greensand, in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge
Authors: Seeley Harry Govier
Published: October 2009

T
he
rarity of vertebræ of
Polyptychodon
in the Cambridge Greensand is out of all proportion to the relative abundance of teeth. In the Woodwardian Museum alone more than a hundred teeth are arranged in illustration of the dentition of the genus, about half of which (probably the remains of one animal) were found at a Phosphatite washing on the Huntingdon Road. Many hundreds of teeth have probably been collected, all in a state of black mineralization; and these can only be referred to several individuals. The vertebræ collected do not appear to be the remains of more than two individuals; and these probably represent two species. They consist of the bones so admirably described by Professor Owen in the publications of the Palæontographical Society for 1860, which were found near Haslingfield, and the associated series of remains from the Huntingdon Road, belonging to a somewhat smaller animal, catalogued at p. 45 of my ‘Index to Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia,’ which latter are the subject of the present notice. All the vertebræ are in a condition of somewhat pale mineralization. I mention this fact, because it is within my own knowledge that different parts of the same specimen are sometimes differently mineralized, and the condition has no importance as indicating a native or derivative origin of the fossils.

The Atlas and Axis.

Professor Owen's figure represents the atlas and axis as being more excellently preserved than they are, and as showing a clear separation between the atlas and axis, which is
On
Macrurosaurus semnus
(Seeley), a Long tailed Animal with Procœlous Vertebræ from the Cambridge Upper Greensand, preserved in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge
Authors: Seeley Harry Govier
Published: October 2009

A
bout
twelve years ago the Woodwardian Museum acquired from Mr. W. Farren a series of some 25 associated and successive caudal vertebræ, found at one of the deeper phosphatite washings on Coldham Common, Barnwell. At the same date, the Rev. W. Stokes Shaw, M.A., Caius College, obtained from a similar working at Barton, a locality a few miles westward, another associated series of 15 smaller vertebræ showing identical characters, and of such size as to exactly join on to the first series and complete the tail. These latter vertebræ, not improbably part of the same individual, being presented to the Museum, I arranged both sets in a continuous series. Very few appear to be missing in any part of the sequence, though the extremity of the tail is probably not preserved, and there are no means of estimating how many vertebræ may have intervened between the last of the sacral region and the earliest caudal which is preserved. The tail probably included 50 vertebræ, and may have reached a length of 15 feet, which would have amounted to one half the length of the animal if the proportions of modem crocodiles obtained. A few isolated vertebræ have also been collected; but no distinctive portions of the skeleton have come under my notice. The affinities of the animal are at present somewhat obscure; for the only available data from which a determination could be made are the following facts:- The articulation of the earlier vertebræ is procœlous; this character gradually changes
On the Mode of Occurrence and Derivation of Beds of Drifted Coal near Corwen, North Wales
Authors: Mackintosh D.
Published: October 2009

A
bout
four years ago the late Mr. Jones, of Angharad, directed my attention to the remarkable fact that beds of drifted coal are to be found in sand and gravel around Corwen, at a great distance from any
known
coal
in situ
. The belief that this coal was of
local
derivation had led to unsuccessful mining operations in the Wenlock rocks of the neighbourhood.

Positions occupied by the Drifted Coal.
-Around Corwen the lowest drift consist of yellowish (occasionally bluish) clay, irregularly alternating with beds of coarse gravel. Many large boulders are to near its summit. The former are often rounded and local; the latter subungular, or angular, and erratic (chiefly from the Arenig hills to the west). Above this drift there is a deposit of clean sand and fine gravel, which, in other parts of the Dee valley, often graduates into very coarse gravel with boulders. In many places around Corwen this deposit is covered by an irregular kind of brick clay. The coal is generally found in the sand and fine gravel. Immediately to the east of the mountain-limestone quarry (about a mile and a half to the west of Corwen), a roadside section shows fine gravel and sand with streaks of decomposed coal. In the Dee valley, some distance east of Corwen, and not far from Carrog station, consideraqble quantities of coal may be found in
many
other places around Corwen; but the principal instance occurs to the north of the town, and near to where the Denbigh
On an Adherent Form of
Productus
and a small
Spiriferina
from the Lower Carboniferous Limestone Group of the East of Scotland
Authors: Etheridge R.
Published: October 2009

I. O
n an
A
dherent
F
orm of
P
roductus
.

1.
Introduction.
—The habits and mode of life of the
Producti
have been a fruitful source of speculation to the various authors who have written on the genus. Some writers contended that the various species lived a free and independent life; others, on the contrary, conceived that they were attached by muscular fibres passing from the interior of the shell, and in fact acting the part of a byssus, whilst yet others believed that their position during life was at least aided by the long tubes or spines which usually ornament their surface.

I have now much pleasure in announcing the discovery (by Mr. James Bennie, of the Geological Survey of Scotland) of an adherent form of
Productus
, which, although not an entirely new fact in connexion with this genus and its allies, has not, so far as I am aware, been observed in so complete a manner before. Notwithstanding that the facts now brought to light will not warrant us in applying the principle to the whole of the
Producti
, they yet conclusively prove that at least one form spent a very considerable portion if not the whole of its existence adhering firmly by its spines to extraneous bodies.

The specimens were met with by Mr. Bennie in the Lower Carboniferous Limestone group at two localities in East Lothian, at one of which the form occurs rather abundantly, as the collections of the Geological Survey of Scotland and Museum of Practical Geology now
The Section at the High Force, Teesdale
Authors: Clough C. T.
Published: October 2009

I
t
has been my duty, in the course of Survey work, to examine the ground near the High Force. In doing this, several facts have come to light which will, perhaps, he not uninteresting, as they refer to a somewhat classical district, and correct ideas which have been hitherto erroneously held on the authority of Phillips's section at the High Force. These ideas have lately acquired a special importance from their hearing on the subject of “selective metamorphism;” and in correcting them I may be helping, in some small degree, to clear the way for the formation of a theory to satisfactorily account for those instances of selective metamorphism which stand undoubted.

In Phillips's ‘Geology of Yorkshire’ (1836), part ii. pp. 78, 79, the following passage occurs in connexion with the section at the High Force:-“Shale or plate is so much altered at the High Force in the relation of the joints that most persons mistake a part of the prismatic masses, really composed of metamorphic shale, for trap, and suppose the latter to rest on limestone. The true series is as follows, proceeding downwards:—

“
a.
Basalt, rudely prismatic, grey with lichen.

b.
Thin plate, not very much indurated.

c.
Bed of plate, subprismatic.

d.
Beds of plate, laminated.

e.
Thin limestone bed, with a superficial layer of pyrites.

f.
Bed of hard pyritous limestone.

g.
Several beds of common dark limestone, with white shells and corals.”

(Among the Dalesmen the word “plate“ is equivalent to “shale,” and the basalt referred to is part of the
On the Permians of the North-East of England (at their Southern Margin) and their Relations to the under- and overlying Formations
Authors: Wilson E.
Published: October 2009

T
he
main object of the present communication is to bring under the notice of the Society a capital section (see figure), exposed by the Great Northern Company's Derbyshire Extension line, the peculiar interest of which is that it exhibits the whole series of the Permians of this district, and their relations to the under- and over-lying formations.

The section begins at the Hempshill cutting near Cinderhill, and ends at Kimberley West station. It bears, roughly speaking, north-west for a mile, and then gradually curves round and bears south-west, and throughout corresponds approximately in direction, with the dip of the red rocks exposed.

Going west we get the following succession of strata :—

Characteristic mottled and obliquely laminated
Lower Bunter
sandstone (ƒ
1
), about 30 feet exposed, including its lower brecciated portion. The breccia, which is alternately sandy, marly, and calcareous, expands near fault No. 1, to 5 feet, including sandy interstratifications, but locally disappears on the east, where it becomes very difficult to separate the Lower Bunter from the next underlying deposit.

The breccia contains semiangular green, blue, and purple slates, more or less rounded grits, quartzites, quartz-breccia, and numerous white and discoloured slabs and nodular ,balls of fossiliferous Carboniferous-Limestone chert. Seeing that the yellow chert-balls are the chief eentres of cementation, and are deeply indented by the adhering pebbles, it appears probable that their conversion into chert took place after being deposited in the breccia. Beneath the breccia comes a series of
comparatively
hard red-and-yellow-mottled and soft grey
sandstones
, becoming,
On the Relation of the Upper Carboniferous Strata of Shropshire and Denbighshire to Beds usually described as Permian
Authors: Davies D. C.
Published: October 2009

The strata I am about to describe occur in the north-west corner of Shropshire and in the adjacent south-east corner of Denbighshire. They are cut through by the rivers Ceiriog and Dee; and a good section of a portion of them may be seen along the banks of the Dee, from the mouth of the Ceiriog downwards towards Erbistock.

I directed attention to these beds in the year 1873. Since that time I have been engaged constantly in colliery operations in the district and strata then referred to; and I propose in this communication to narrate the results of my observations during the interval, and also to inquire into the relative position of these strata with others which are usually described as Permian.

The order of the beds and their relation to the underlying Coal-measures will be understood by a reference to the horizontal section which accompanies this paper (Pl. I. B). This section extends from the Brynkinallt Colliery, near Chirk, on the west, past the new sinkings of the Ifton-Rhyn Collieries on the east. The line of the section was carefully surveyed by Mr. F. B. Henderson, F.G.S.; and the geological details are supplied by the section of the Brynkinallt Colliery on the west, the Hafod-y-bwch pit-section on the north, the recent sinkings and borings at Ifton on the east, taken together with the outcrops of the strata which are visible along the line of the section.

Section no. 11, of the Diagram of Sections (Pl. I.), gives in