bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Contribution to the Physical History of the Cretaceous Flints
Authors: Wallich
Published: October 2009

Some years ago, whilst endeavouring to clear up the obscure points in the history of the Cretaceous flints, I naturally turned for guiding data to such analyses as were forthcoming of the Chalk and Globigerine ooze of the Atlantic. But the further my inquiries were pursued in this direction, the stronger grew my conviction that no more fallacious test of the percentage of silica originally present in the White Chalk could be resorted to than that of assuming as a standard the percentage it now contains, and hence that any comparison of the calcareous mud with the ancient Chalk, instituted with the view to determine this percentage, must necessarily prove equally fallacious.

This result, however, was only to a certain extent unlooked for, inasmuch as I had long previously suspected, on entirely distinct grounds, that the almost complete absence of silica in the flint-bearing Chalk did not arise from any deficiency in it of that substance whilst it was yet in a plastic state at the bed of the ancient sea, but was due to certain special conditions, which led not only to the continuous elimination of the siliceous material for a time mechanically associated with the calcareous mud, but to its consolidation in the stratified layers alternating with the Chalk, which constitutes by far the most striking and, at first sight, unaccountable feature in this formation.

In directing attention, at the outset of my observations, to the writings of those who have preceded me in this line of inquiry,
Petrological Notes on the Vicinity of the Upper Part of Loch Maree
Authors: Bonney T. G.
Published: October 2009

The relations of the rocks on the western border of Ross and Sutherland have long been a subject of controversy. Into the details of this it is needless to enter on the present occasion, as they have been recently recapitulated to the Geologists′ Association and published in their Proceedings*. The materials for this sketch are mainly contained in our own Journal; and the last contribution to the subject was a paper read by Dr. Hicks on May 22, 1878†. After listening to the ingenious theory put forward by that author, it occurred to me that the question was one on which the testimony of the microscope ought to be especially valuable. According I spent some days last summer at Kinlochewe, in order to examine the rocks in the field and to obtain specimens for microscopic work. I have now the honour of laying before the Society the results of these investigations.

(1)
Syenite of Glen Laggan.

Previous writers on the above section have agreed in stating that a mass of igneous rock makes its appearance on the floor of Glen Laggan, about two miles from Kinlochewe, and extends for some distance up the bed of the stream, apparently cutting off the quartzite from the newer group. This rock is called diorite by Nicol, syenite by Murchison, Geikie, and Hicks; it is shown by the last author upon a section‡ as intrusive among the calcareous series which overlies the quartzites.

Almost immediately on reaching the spot where the “syenite” first appears
Undescribed Fossil Carnivora from the Siválik Hills in the Collection of the British Museum
Authors: Bose P. N.
Published: October 2009

The able descriptions by Falconer, supplemented of late by Rütimeyer and Lydekker, have made the Sivālik Ungulates widely known in the scientific world; but the remains of the Carnivora, partly on account of their comparative rarity and, perhaps, partly because they mostly belong to forms which do not strike the imagination so forcibly, have had less attention bestowed on them. As long ago as 1836, Falconer and Cautley described two of the larger forms under the names of
Felis cristata
and
Ursus sivalensis
*. The latter was afterwards raised to the rank of a genus, called by Falconer,
Hyœnarctos
, evidently in opposition to De Blainville, who, under the designation of
Sivalarctos
, placed it at the head of his new suborder Subursidæ. Subsequently Dr. Falconer described another novel and highly interesting Carnivore under the title of
Euhydriodon sivalensis
. All these descriptions will be found in the first volume of the Palæontological Memoirs†. Owing to the untimely death of Dr. Falconer, science was deprived of the rare advantage of a description of the remaining Carnivora from the pen of that gifted comparative anatomist. Most of them, however, had been figured by Mr. Ford for the ‘Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis’‡, but were never published. At the suggestion of Prof. Judd and Mr. Etheridge, I undertook an examination of these; and through the courtesy and liberality of Dr. Woodward, of the Geological Department, every facility was afforded to me for my investigation. I have also to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Davies, of the Geological Department
On the Portland Rocks of England
Authors: Blake J. F.
Published: October 2009

U
nlike
the Kimmeridgian and Corallian rocks, the Portland series has been frequently examined in all its localities by competent observers, and there might seem, at first sight, to be little additional or desirable information to obtain. Yet when all the extant materials are put together they seem to serve but slightly towards the history of the deposits in their varying relations to each other and to similar rocks abroad. There is first the masterly work of Fitton, forming the basis of our present knowledge; yet many questions have arisen since its epoch which wait for a reply. The typical sections along the coast have been touched on by several authors—as Buckland and De la Beche*, Bristow†, and Damon‡ and the Portland stone has been well described; but the lower part of the series has been neglected. The district of the Vale of Wardour has attracted little attention, though it has been mapped by the officers of the Geological Survey. Of the important exposures in the neighbourhood of Swindon many descriptions have been given§; but they do not agree with each other, and are all defective. Little addition has been made to our knowledge of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire area, although Prof. Phillips in 1871|| added the names of several and the figures of a few species from the series, which he took no pains to compare with those of foreign authors. The most important event in relation to these rocks was the visit of M. Sæmann to this country in
A Review and Description of the various Species of British Upper-Silurian Fenestellidæ
Authors: Shrubsole George William
Published: October 2009

I have been recently engaged in investigating some of the Palæzoic Polyzoa, more particularly the Upper-Silurian Fenestellidæ: the result I beg to lay before the Society.

The Silurian group of the Fenestellidæ has by no means proved hitherto so interesting a field for research as the Carboniferous series. I find that only three palæontologists have entered the field—Lonsdale, Portlock, and Prof. M'Coy. The former, in Murchison's ‘Silurian System,’ gives an account of four species of
Fenestella
and two allied forms, which are most likely
Fenestellœ
. Prof. M'Coy, in the Cambridge Catalogue, describes two more species, and Portlock one from the Silurian strata in Ireland, making nine species in all, viz.:—

Fenestella antiqua,
Lonsd.
, Murch. Sil. Syst. pl. 15. fig. 16.

—Milleri,
Lonsd.
, ibid. pl. 15. fig. 17.

—prisca,
Lonsd.
, ibid. pl. 15. figs. 15, 18.

—reticulata,
Lonsd.
, ibid. pl. 15. fig. 19.

Retepora infundibulum,
Lonsd.
, ibid. pl. 15. fig. 24.

Gorgonia assimilis,
Lonsd.
, ibid. pl. 15. fig. 27.

Fenestella rigidula,
M'Coy
, Brit. Pal. Foss. pl. 1
c.
fig. 19.

—patula,
M'Coy
, ibid. pl. 1
c.
fig. 20.

Gorgonia regularis,
Portl.
, Geol. Londonderry, p. 324, pl. 22. fig. 3.

Prof. M'Coy's portion of the work has the advantage of being full, clear, and definite. On the other hand, Lonsdale, from causes to which I shall allude, has not been so fortunate or successful in his descriptions. Indeed the work of Lonsdale in arranging the
Fenestellœ
of the Murchison collection can only be regarded as provisional. With the scanty material
On the Geological Relations of the Rocks of the South of Ireland to those of North Devon and other British and Continental Districts
Authors: Hull Edward
Published: October 2009

Having in a former communication to this Society* endeavoured to prove that the great series of purple and green grits and slates which form the southern highlands of Ireland belong to the Uppermost Silurian period, and that between them and the succeeding beds of the Old Red Sandstone there occurs everywhere a wide hiatus (a gap of unrepresented geological time), indicated not only by visible unconformities but also by absence of intervening beds at various points, it now becomes desirable to inquire, and, if possible, to determine what formations in other districts may be supposed to fill up the hiatus above referred to, and then, having determined this point, to see what inferences may be drawn concerning the physical geology of the regions referred to at the various stages indicated both by the presence and the absence of consecutive strata.

This inquiry naturally leads one to cast a glance at the neighbouring coasts of England and Wales as the districts where light may be looked for on these questions; and I propose in the following pages to make a comparison of the series of beds in both countries, namely the South of Ireland and North Devon, and adjoining districts north of the Severn†. It will also be desirable, with a view to a fuller investigation, to refer, when necessary, to the Devonian and Carboniferous series as it occurs in Belgium and Scotland, and to see how far it is comparable with, and sustains our observations of, the Devonshire section.

Views
On the Schistose Volcanic Rocks occurring on the west of Dartmoor, with some Notes on the Structure of the Brent Tor Volcano
Authors: Rutley Frank
Published: October 2009

After examination of the schistose beds of rock on the western margin of the Dartmoor granite, I experienced great difficulty in coming to any satisfactory conclusion concerning the origin and real nature of many of them. These rocks had already been described by Sir Henry De la Beche, in his Report on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon, and W. Somerset, as schistose ashes; and his well-known keenness in detecting lithological peculiarities naturally induced me to accept his opinion, especially as it seemed in some instances to be a very correct one. There was, however, one point which caused me considerable perplexity. I could not reconcile the very frequent occurrence of a densely amygdaloidal structure with the persistently schistose character of these rocks. If the amygdaloidal condition implied a once vesicular structure, and if the rocks should on this account be regarded as lavas, how then was the schistose character to be accounted for? I was not then acquainted with any instance of schistose lava. On the other hand I could not understand why, if these rocks were ashes, they should be amygdaloidal. In my memoir* on the eruptive rocks of Brent Tor and its neighbourhood I endeavoured to account for the schistose structure in lavas, and for the amygdaloidal condition in ashes, and in many places expressed my doubt about the true character of these rocks. Ever since those lines were written I have been anxious to ventilate this matter, and, if possible, to arrive at a more satisfactory solution
The Gold-leads of Nova Scotia
Authors: Poole Henry S.
Published: October 2009

The character of the auriferous rocks of Nova Scotia was a subject of some discussion a few years ago*, when it was suggested that the gold obtained was from “quartz beds of contemporaneous age with the quartzite and the slate with which they are interstratified.”

Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, reporting on this province the year before the subject was brought to the attention of this Society, wrote:—“So far as my present observation goes, I think that to describe the gold-lodes otherwise than as interstratified beds would be to give a false notion of their geognostic relations. The laminated structure of many of the lodes, and the intercalation between their layers of thin continuous films or layers of argillite, can hardly be explained in any other way than by supposing these lodes to have been formed by successive deposition at what was, at the time, the surface of the earth.”

This description well expresses, the appearance of our gold-districts; but the theory that the “leads,” as the lodes are locally called, are contemporary beds with the slates and quartzite has not since been generally accepted; nor has it gained ground with the further knowledge derived from working, nor been adopted by any of the miners, among whom are men experienced in other gold-producing countries.

My position having enabled me to visit frequently the several districts and see the leads in their varying stages of exploitation, I have kept in mind the theory in question, and especially examined the relation of the
On the Occurrence of Marine Shells of Existing Species at Different Heights above the Present Level of the Sea
Authors: Jeffreys J. Gwyn
Published: October 2009

While engaged in working out for the Zoological Society the Mollusca of the Expeditions which I undertook in 1869 and 1870 in H.M.S. ‘Porcupine,’ I was much struck by the discovery, at great depths in the North Atlantic, of certain shells in a living state which had been previously known only as Subapennine and South-Italian fossils, and were considered extinct.

To give some idea of the extent to which such changes of sea and land must have taken place within a geologically recent period, I subjoin an extract from my paper on some of the ‘Porcupine’ Mollusca, which was published in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society for 1879, pages 586 and 587. With reference to
Malletia excisa
, I said, “It will be seen that the last species, as well as many other deep-water shells which have been noticed in the present paper, are Calabrian and Sicilian Tertiary fossils. Besides these species, others of the same kind, and which had been also considered extinct (viz.
Leda
or
Tindaria solida
, Seg.,
Nucula glabra
, Ph., and
Malletia dilatata
, Ph.), occurred in the ‘Challenger’ Expedition. The communication between the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean must have been formerly very different from what it is now, when a barrier or ridge in comparatively shallow water exists outside the Straits of Gibraltar, between Capes Spartel and Trafalgar. It is improbable that deep-sea Mollusca, even in their embryonic state, could have migrated or been transported under such conditions from one sea to another. The south of
A Review of the Family Diastoporidæ for the purpose of Classification
Authors: Vine George Robert
Published: October 2009

The Diastoporidæ are a group of adherent Polyzoa belonging to the suborder Cyclostomata. Busk defines the generic characters thus:—“Zoarium crustaceous or foliaceous, discoid or indefinite in outline; adnate and sessile, or pedunculate and erect;
no cancelli
”*. This restricted definition limits the group to almost a single genus; for the
Mesenteripora
of Blainville is the only other genus classed by Smitt and Busk among Diastoporidæ, and the non-cancellated surface separates this small family from the Discoporellidæ.

In this review of the recent and fossil Diastoporidæ we must bear in mind the restriction formulated by Busk, because as we go backward in time the necessity of this caution will be apparent. The family was never prolific either generically or specifically; but in nearly all the seas, from the Lower-Silurian era to the present, representatives of the family are generally found in deep-sea deposits. Their geographical range now is chiefly northern; and their bathy-metrical range in the past was as variable as now.

In his definition of the genus
Diastopora
, Busk says :† “Zoarium adnate, discoid or flabelliform, centric or excentric, margin entire or lobed; cells towards the centre wholly immersed, usually suberect, and partially free towards the margin; mouth elliptical or suborbicular, horizontal or oblique”† As there is no typical species in which the whole of these characters are preserved, we are compelled to seek them in the five species catalogued as recent and fossil by: Busk. But there are specific characters not embraced in the generic definition, to which I wish
On the Structure and Affinities of the Genus
Protospongia
(Salter)
Authors: Sollas W. J.
Published: October 2009

S
alter
, who was the first to introduce this Sponge to our notice, describes it as exhibiting a loosely reticulate skeleton, composed of large cruciform spicules, the rays of which lie all in one plane and cross each other at an angle of 80° He adds that the only sponge resembling it is his
Amphispongia
, which he regards as allied to
Grantia
—a view quite in accordance with his ideas in general on the Palæozoic sponges, most of which he seems to have referred to the Calcispongia. In a foot-note he gives a quotation from a letter by Dr. Bowerbank, who, in equal accordance with his general opinions as to the affinities of fossil sponges, regarded
Protospongia
as allied to the recent horny sponge
Spongionella
, Bwbk., its orginally horny fibres having, according to him, been replaced by iron-pyrites.

H
icks
describes some spicular remains which he thinks may belong to
Protospongia
, and gives a diagrammatic figure of a fine specimen which he had discovered of Salter's original species,
P. fenestrata
.

Z
ittel
places these Sponges with the Hexactinellidæ, and in his group Dictyonina, which is nearly equivalent to Carter's Vitreo-hexactinellidæ . He further more closely defines its relations by placing it in the family Euretidæ. Certainly the resemblance of the ordinary specimens of
Protospongia
to my
Eubrochus clausus
, also a member of the Euretidæ, is very great, and at one time, long before the publication of Zittel's monograph, led me to regard them as allied; fresh facts, however, have since shown me that this is not correct
The Classification of the Tertiary Period by means of the Mammalia
Authors: Dawkins W. Boyd
Published: October 2009

1.
Introduction
.

T
he
. classification of the Tertiary, or the third of the great life-periods, sketched in outline more than fifty years ago, and since then altered in no important degree, seems to me not to be in harmony with our present knowledge; and the definitions of the series of events which took place in it have been materially modified by recent discoveries in various parts of the world. The terms Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene* no longer express the idea of percentages of living species on which they were based, and Quaternary, Post-Tertiary, and Recent are founded on an assumed great break in the life-history between the present day and the Tertiary period, comparable to that which separates the Secondary from the Tertiary or the Primary periods, a break which has been disproved by more recent inquiries. It has therefore seemed to me opportune to lay before the Society the results of the investigations which I have carried on for some years into these questions, and to propose a classification of the Tertiary period of Europe by appealing to the Mammalia, by applying the same method by which the Pleistocene and the Prehistoric periods have already been defined*.

2.
The Value of Invertebrates and Vertebrates in Classification
.

The Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene divisions of the Tertiary period are based upon the varying percentages of living Mollusca in a comparison of three thousand fossil with five thousand living forms ; and the term Pleistocene† was subsequently invented to imply a nearer approximation
Iguanodon Prestwichii
, a new Species from the Kimmeridge Clay, distinguished from
I. Mantelli
of the Wealden Formation in the S.E. of England and Isle of Wight by Differences in the Shape of the Vertebral Centra, by fewer than five Sacral Vertebrœ, by the simpler Character of its Tooth-serrature, &·c., founded on numerous fossil remains lately discovered at Cumnor, near Oxford
Authors: Hulke J. W.
Published: October 2009

These fossils, which Mr. Prestwich has kindly given me an opportunity of studying, are, for the extent of information they convey of nearly every part of the skeleton, the most important Iguanodont remains yet discovered at any one time in this country. The only others that may vie with them are those in the well-known Mantellian Maidstone block, in the British Museum, and some, said to represent the greater part of a skeleton, reported to have been found several years since at Hastings, preserved in a private collection, inaccessible, which in their entirety have not, so far as I can learn, ever been examined by an anatomist.

The Cumnor fossils appear to have formed part of one skeleton. They represent an animal between 10 and 12 feet long, which had not reached maturity. Its head was lizard-like, with large eyes and capacious nostrils. Its neck was very flexible and moderately long. Its trunk, particularly the thoracic region, was long, and borne on stout clawed limbs, of which the hinder were much stouter than the fore. The tail, of considerable length, tapered very gradually; and for more than half its length it was flattened laterally.

Unfortunately, as too frequently happens, the removal of the fossils by the unskilful hands of day-labourers has occasioned much damage and many losses. The bones had been already much crushed by the pressure of the beds ; but many of the fractures are plainly quite recent. These injuries are not, however, without some compensating circumstances ;
The Newer Pliocene Period in England
Authors: Wood Searles V.
Published: October 2009

T
he
movements by which the conditions of sea and land have changed in England from the time when the Red Crag began to form appear to me to have been so continuous that the formations from this point onwards can be studied with advantage only as one geological group; and as these have all accumulated during one great movemeat of depression and reelevation, the Newer Pliocene period seems to me the most suitable term for the lapse of time which they mark.

The commencement of this Crag ia England is marked by the accumulation of those beds of which a small remnant is preserved in the cliff at Walton Naze. During its progress the continuous destruction of the antecedent accumulations of the same formation, as well as of the beds of the Coralline Crag, furnished that peculiar mass of comminuted shell of which the successive portions of the formation are made up. The character of the beds, and the highly and often continuously oblique character of the bedding, with other evidence on which I do not stop here to dwell, indicate that nearly all that part of the formation to which the term Red Crag (as distinguished from the part represented by the Chillesford beds) has been applied was accumulated between high- and low-water marks, when the rise and fall of the tide was considerable.

The Walton bed, as my fat;her has shown, is destitute of many species of Mollusca which occur in the Red Crag of the northern(or .
On the Old Red Sandstone of the North of Ireland
Authors: Nolan Joseph
Published: October 2009

I
n
the North of Ireland there are two distinct kinds of rock, classed both on Griffith's and Portlock's Geological Maps as Old Red Sandstone. The lower and larger member of this group occupies a considerable area, having an extent of about thirty miles in length by an average width of ten miles, from Lough Erne north-eastwards to Pomeroy in Tyrone. It consists for the most part of dark red and purple conglomerates, often coarse and massive, and of purple, and sometimes, though rarely, greenish-grey, pebbly and fine-grained sandstones, often micaceous and in some cases calcareous, with sandy shales. The pebbles in the conglomerate, which vary from the smallest size up to blocks over a foot in diameter, consist of purple felstone, grits, schist, and quartzite. Of all these the felstone pebbles are by far in greatest proportion, the rock being in some places almost entirely composed of them; and their source is unquestionably certain tracts of igneous rock which will be presently described.

On the north and north-west these conglomerates, sandstones, &c.are bounded by metamorphic rocks, from which they are separated by a fault ; but in the north-east, near Pomeroy, they rest unconformably upon fossiliferous slates and grits of Lower Silurian age. Though the discordance between these formations is not actually seen in section, yet there can be no doubt of its existence, the southern extension of the Lower Silurian rocks occupying a semicircular area, in which the strike is east and west, while the red sandstones that margin
On a Second Precambrian Group in the Malvern Hills
Authors: Callaway C.
Published: October 2009

T
he
Herefordshire Beacon, situated a little south of the middle of the Malvern range, sends out towards the east and south-east several buttresses or spurs; they occupy an area of about one mile from north to south and half a mile from east to west. In the summer of 1878 I visited the Malvern Hills to compare the rocks with those of Shropshire, and I was sanguine, from Dr. Holl's description of this district, that I should find in it some equivalents of the younger Precambrian group of that county. In his valuable and thoroughly scientific memoir on the Malvern Hills, published in the Journal of this Society in 1865, Dr. Holl describes the area in question as “occupied by baked rocks* of the probable age of the Hollybush Sandstone and Black Shales,” the alteration of the rocks being supposed to be due to immense trap-dykes—a very natural interpretation of the facts when we consider the vague ideas of petrology and of metamorphism which prevailed 15 years ago. On my first visit I had the advantage of Dr. Holl's guidance.

I found that he had advanced beyond his original position, and was quite prepared to consider a new reading of the district. I saw at a glance that the rocks were quite of a type with which I had been familiar in Lilleshall Hill, the extreme north-easterly summit of the Salop Precambrian chain. The prevailing variety is a very compact, flinty, hornstone † (note 1, p. 538) of a grey
Note on the Cranial Characters of a large Teleosaur from the Whitby Lias preserved in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge, indicating a new Species,
Teleosaurus eucephalus
Authors: Seeley H. G.
Published: October 2009

T
he
Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge has long contained the cerebral region of the skull of a large Teleosaur from the Lias of Whitby, which differs in important characters from the Teleosaurs hitherto described, and adds some interesting points to our knowledge of the cranial characters in this extinct suborder of animals. Attention was briefly drawn to the specimen at p. 121 of my ‘Index to the Fossil Remains of Reptilia &c. in the Woodwardian Museum’ 1869. The skull has been transversely fractured anteriorly, posterior to the suture between the parietal and frontal bones, so that no part of the frontal region is preserved, and therefore no indication is given of the anterior expansion of the skull beyond the long temporal fossæ. The crest of the parietal bone appears to have been more than usually wide and strong, but that, too, is imperfectly preserved. The quadrate and squamosal bones are broken away at the sides; the base of the occipital region is fractured, and the pterygoid bones are absent; but the very imperfections of the specimen led to its being sawn through in the median line, so as to display a vertical section of the brain-case. Care has been taken to make the section so as to throw light on the lateral modifications of the brain-case; and I now venture to submit to the Geological Society some account of the characters thus displayed. In existing Crocodiles the brain-case is relatively small, owing to the shortness of the parietal
Interglacial Deposits of West Cumberland and North Lancashire
Authors: Kendall J. D.
Published: October 2009

Seldom do we find the whole three members present in one section. Sometimes the Lower Boulder-clay alone is found ; at others this is overlain by sand or gravel or clay, or by some or all of these rocks. In other cases we find the series complete. They occur almost continuously, in more or less completeness, from the sea-shore to an altitude of 500 feet ; and from that level they appear in patches up to 1000 feet above the sea.

The two Boulder-clays have the ordinary character, and are very much alike, except that the lower is tougher than the upper and contains larger boulders. The character of the included stones is the same in both clays, as well as in the middle sands and gravel.Some most remarkable facts are presented by the distribution of these boulders.

Associated with these glacial beds, and occurring at various places, sometimes inland, sometimes along the sea-coast, between high- and low-water marks, there are a number of deposits of vegetable matter, which hitherto have been almost entirely neglected by geologists.

When occurring on the sea-shore, these deposits usually pass by the name of “submerged forests.” I am, however, inclined to doubt the accuracy of this appellation. After a long and careful investigation into the nature of these deposits, I have come to the conclusion that they are not forests at all, nor the sites of forests,as will appear further on.

2.
Observed Facts

Lindal deposit
. —The first of these deposits to which I shall
On the Serpetine and associated Rocks of Anglesey
Authors: Bonney T. G.
Published: October 2009

1. A
nglesey
with H
olyhead
I
sland

T
he
serpentine from the vicinity of Rhoscolyn, though known within a limited area as an ornamental stone, does not appear to have received much attention from geologists. It is dismissed in Professor Ramsay's memoir on North Wales in a few brief sentences, and has not, so far as I know, met with fuller notice in any other quarter. On the Geological-Survey map it is delineated as forming an elongated lozenge-shaped patch about a mile and three quarters in length from E. to W., extending inland north of Rhoscolyn from the west shore of Holyhead Island, and occurring in several smaller patches on or near the opposite coast of Anglesey. In each of these localities I have studied the rock in the field, and have examined microscopically the specimens there collected. The results, I hope, may be of some use, though, after three separate visits, I have not been able to visit every one of the outcrops or examine minutely every part of the district. Owing to the intricacy of the coast in certain places, a map on a considerably larger scale than 1 inch to the mile would be required before an elaborate study could be undertaken.

The questions which I have attempted to solve (as in all former studies of serpentine), were (1) its relations to the other associated rocks, and (2) its nature and origin.

The ordinary rock in the vicinity of these masses of serpentine is a dull bluish or greenish schist,
On the Terminations of some Ammonites from the Inferior Oolite of Dorset and Somerset
Authors: Buckman James
Published: October 2009

During the progress through the press of D'Orbigny's ‘Paléontologie Française, “Terrains Jurassiques,” I was busily engaged in collecting the fossils of the Inferior Oolite and Lias in the neighbourhood of Cheltenham. In both of these rocks I had the good fortune to find a somewhat large series of Ammonites, the greater proportion of which I could readily identify from D'Orbigny's figures.

But as these fossils were in bad condition, especially when compared with the French drawings, I was at first almost led to think that these latter had been somewhat unjustifiably made up or, as we should say in plain English, “fudged.”

Thus, in reckoning up the plates of admitted Inferior Oolite Ammonites in the ‘Paléontologie Française,’ we find them to be thirty-eight, out of which no less than twenty species (a little over two thirds of the list) are drawn with the mouth of their shells more or less perfect; and yet, strange to say, I do not recollect a single example of their Cotteswold prototypes having occurred to me in this perfect condition.

Since those days of scepticism, however, D'Orbigny's book has become my constant and trusted companion, as the specimens in our Dorsetshire list of Ammonites appear to be in much the same condition as those figured by that talented author.

During the last seventeen years my lot has been cast in them pleasant county of Dorset; and, curiously enough, the farm that I have occupied is situate on the Inferior Oolite; the Halfway-house quarry is within
Notes on the Locality of some Fossils found in the Carboniferous Rocks at T'ang Shan, China
Authors: Carrall James W.
Published: October 2009

The fossils which form the subject of this paper were found at Tang Shan, Ch'iao Chia T'un, in Lan Chow of the Province of Chih Li, and about 120 miles from the treaty port of Tientsin, in a N.N.E. direction from that port.

A Chinese company has been formed, known as the “Chinese Engineering and Mining Company,” to work the bituminous coal deposits there found on the European system.

Mining operations were commenced in 1878 by ascertaining the locality of the coal-seams by boring with the diamond boring-machine. The bore-holes, three in number, averaged about 400 feet apart; the third and deepest of the three driven reached a depth of 536 feet.

The seams dip at an angle of 45° to the north, calculated by the angle of the strata found in the bores.

The thickness of the coal-seams, not taken at the slant but parallel to the beds, is as follows :—

The seams are in curves or folds ; one seam that comes to the surface at the back of the colliery, again appears above ground halfway from the colliery to Kai P'ing (say three miles from the first outcrop), and again five miles further on, trending in a northerly direction.

Some very good magnetite, containing between 45 and 50 per cent. of metallic iron, has been found at Pal Mah Shun, about seventeen miles from T'ang Shah. I t is intended to erect rolling-mills near the colliery, and place them also under foreign superintendence, trams being laid
On the Beds at Headon Hill and Colwell Bay in the Isle of Wight
Authors: Keeping H. , Tawney E. B.
Published: October 2009

I. I
ntroduction
.

In a recent; communication laid before the Society the opinion was expressed that a serious error had been made by almost all previous writers in regarding the marine beds at Colwell Bay and Headon Hill as on the same geological horizon ; we read:—“We shall now demonstrate that the Colwell-Bay marine beds are not, as has been hitherto supposed, the equivalent of those of Headon Hill and Hordwell Cliff, but that they occupy a distinct and much higher horizon.” Upon the correction of this supposed error a new classification and nomenclature for the Upper Eocene formation of Britain was proposed.

The author further, after a review of the palæontological evidence, arrived at the conclusion that, on the one hand, the fossils in the Headon Hill and Hordwell Cliffs were identical, while, in the second place, those of Colwell Bay, White Cliff, and Brockenburst presented the closest agreement among themselves. Then, comparing the former two localities, taken together, with the latter three, taken together, he considered (1) that the fauna of the first group was largely estuarine, and that of the second group marine; (2) that less than half the forms found in the former occur in the latter; (3) that the fauna of the former approximated more to that of the Barton beds, having about
one third
in common with them, while not more than
one fifth
of those from the latter three localities occur at Barton; (4) that the fauna of the former two agreed with that
On a Boulder of Hornblende Picrite near Pen-y-Carnisiog, Anglesey
Authors: Bonney T. G.
Published: October 2009

L
ast
summer, through the kindness of Professor Rosenbusch, I was able to examine several specimens of picrite in the Geological Museum at Heidelberg, and to study the rock in the field, near the village of Schriesheim, a few miles to the north of that town. In September I was walking with some students along the road which leads out of the village of Pen-y-Carnisiog northwards to Bwlyn (Anglesey), when I observed, in a field on the left, the fractured face of a boulder, in which a number of large crystals resembling augite, glittering in the sunlight, in a dull dark matrix, recalled at once the characteristic aspect of the Schriesheim pierite. The boulder had been broken, apparently rather recently, into three pieces, one much smaller than the other two; and its volume must have been not much less than a cubic yard. In its weathered surface and toughness under the hammer it also resembled the Schriesheim rock. In both, the larger crystals (which are often about two thirds of an inch long) contain a number of dark serpentinous-looking enclosures, giving to the cleavage-faces an interrupted lustre somewhat resembling (except in the absence of a metallic gleam) that of bastite. The Pen-y-Carnisiog rock looks a little more decomposed ; but macroscopically the resemblance between my two specimens is so great that one could believe them to have been broken from different parts of the same mass.

When the Pen-y-Carnisiog rock is examined microscopically, the difference between the two is rather more
On the
Cladophora
(Hopk.) or Dendroid Graptolites collected by Professor Keeping in the Llandovery Rocks of Mid Wales
Authors: Lapworth Chas.
Published: October 2009

The forms of Cladophora collected by Professor Keeping from the Llandovery rocks of Cardiganshire are, regarded collectively, of a type almost new to British palæontology. Although intimately allied to the well-known dendroid species of the Quebec and Arenig formation, they are very distinct in their minor features. They are essentially of a Silurian (Upper) facies, and they remind us strongly of a group recently made known to us through the researches of Mr. Spencer, of Toronto, which characterizes the Clinton and Niagara Groups of New York and Upper Canada.

None of our examples shows the complete polypary, or affords distinct proof of the presence of all the more minute classificatory features; but there is satisfactory evidence of the presence of at least four distinct genera and seven species. The genera represented are
Dictyonema
, Hall,
Calyptograptus
, Spencer,
Acanthograptus
, Spencer, and
Odontocaulis
, Lapw.
Dictyonema
is a well-known British genus; the remainder are new to British palæontology.
Calyptograptus
and
Acanthograptus
have been already briefly noticed from American strata by Mr. Spencer, but have not hitherto been figured.
Odontocaulis
is a new genus, of a peculiar type.

Of the seven distinct species recognizable, four (viz.
Dictyonema z.orrugatellum, Caly_ptograptus plumosus, C. digitatus
, and
Odontocazdis Kee_pingii
) are as yet peculiar to the Mid-Wales area. The remaining three have already been recognized by myself in the Silurian rocks of the south of Scotland.
Dictyonema venustum
certairdy occurs in the Upper Gala group of Selkirkshire (Llandovery-Tarannon), and doubtfully in strata of a little older date in the Girvan
Further Notes on the Carboniferous Fenestellidæ
Authors: Shrubsole George Wm.
Published: October 2009

In a former communication to the Society I endeavoured to show that, as the result of a careful comparison of the existing individual forms, as figured by previous describers, with some tolerably perfect specimens in my own possession, it would be necessary to redescribe the species of
Fenestella
and considerably reduce their number. I accordingly append a redescription of the more prominent species; but before introducing that, it will be necessary to say something about the foundation of the genus
Fenestella
, since it can readily be imagined that the same causes which have thrown confusion into the species, have tended also to obscure the genus—namely the fragmentary and imperfect state of the specimens examined, and the want of attention to the stages of individual growth and other details. Accordingly I find the existing descriptions of the genus
Fenestella
inaccurate in many essential details. The genus has been defined by several palæontologists, but each time with reference to the fossils of a particular period; and no one description is sufficiently comprehensive to embrace all the members of the family Fenestellidæ as they occur in the various Palæozoic formations. A fresh description of the genus therefore appears to be desirable.

Without entering upon a full history of the genus
Fenestella
, I may mention that the first to describe it as such was Lonsdale, in 1839, who adopted the name from the MS. of Miller of Bristol, who had been engaged on a work on the Corals of the Mountain Limestone, which he
Description of Parts of the Skeleton of an Anomodont Reptile (
Platypodosaurus robustus
, Owen). Part II. The Pelvis
Authors: Owen R.
Published: October 2009

The pelvis of
Platypodosaurus
, which has been relieved from the matrix since the communication of the former paper, includes five sacral vertebræ (Pl. X. fig. 1,
1–5
), the right “os innominatum,”
62–64
, and a large proportion of the iliac constituent of that of the left side. Of the first, or foremost, sacral vertebra,
s
1
, the part of the centrum in advance of the transverse processes,
d
1
, is broken away, but so as to show the apex of the anterior conical articular cavity. The lumbar vertebra, which was articulated therewith, but had become dislocated therefrom, is preserved in the contiguous matrix; and the shape and depth of the articular cavity of its centrum are exposed (Pl. X. fig. 5).

The transverse process of the first sacral,
d
1
, including both di- and pleurapophysial elements, is short and massive: measuring one inch and a half in antero-posterior diameter at its middle and narrowest part, it rapidly expands to its articulation (and what appears to be its confluence) with the ilium,
62
. Behind the transverse process the centrum is moderately constricted, but expands to form the joint with the second sacral, of which joint the transverse diameter is 2 inches. The breadth of the entire vertebra is 4½ inches.

The centrum of this second sacral vertebra (
s 2
) shows a greater degree of contriction and a narrorew inferior or vebtral surface. The transverse process (ib.fig1,
d 2
) extends from the anterior two thirds of the upper part of the side
Additional Observations on the Superficial Geology of British Columbia and adjacent regions
Authors: Dawson George M.
Published: October 2009

In two papers previously communicated to the Geological Society, the results of observations on the glaciation of the northern portion of the American continent from Lake Superior to the Pacific have been given *. The geological work of which these observations formed a part was carried on first in connexion with the North-American Boundary-Commission Expedition, and subsquently on the Geological Survey of Canada. In continuing the exploration of British Columbia on the Survey last named, during the seasons of 1877, 1878, and 1879, many additional facts of interest have been gathered, which it is proposed here briefly to summarize and discuss with special reference to the second of the two papers above mentioned, in which a description of the salient physical features of the province of British Columbia has been given, and a map published; to these, which it is unnecessary here to repeat, reference should be made in considering the points now brought forward.

Observations on the Southern part of the Interior of British Columbia.

In the more detailed examination of that part of the southern portion of the province extending from the Fraser eastward to the Gold ranges, and including the whole breadth of the region formerly called the interior plateau, traces of a general north-to-south glaciation have been found in a number of additional localities at high levels; and it would appear that the ice, whether that of a great glacier or water-borne, pressed forward to, or even beyond, the line of the 49th parallel, notwithstanding the
Notes on New Erian (Devonian) Plants
Authors: Dawson J. W.
Published: October 2009

The principal purpose of the present paper is to add a few new facts to our knowledge of the Precarboniferous flora of Eastern America. Since the publication, in the Journal of this Society, of my paper, “Further Observations on the Devonian Plants of Maine, Gaspé, and New York” (1863), and that on “Fossil Ferns of the Devonian” (1871), a large addition was made to the knowledge both of the species of plants and of the general character and conditions of Devonian and Upper Silurian vegetation in my “Report on the Devonian and Upper Silurian Plants of Canada”. In a subsequent report on the “Plants of the Lower Carboniferous and Millstone Grit”, I endeavoured, by the aid of the American formations, to remove the perplexities that had been caused by the disputes respecting the age of the Kiltorcan beds in Ireland and the so-called “Ursa-stage” of Bear Island, difficulties which, however, still appear to constitute subjects of discussion.

In 1878 I contributed a paper to the Geological Society of Edinburgh, entitled “Notes on Scottish Devonian Plants,” comparing these plants with those of America, and at the same time establishing the genus
Ptilophyton
for those remarkable pinnately-leaved Lycopodiaceous plants of which
Lycopodites Vanuxemii
of the Devonian of New York and
L. plumula
of the Lower Carboniferous of Nova Scotia are types, and of which
Pt. Thomsoni
is a Scottish representative described in the paper above referred to.

Since the publication of these reports and papers several interesting new forms have come into
On Soilcap-Motion
Authors: Coppinger R. W.
Published: October 2009

I wish to call attention briefly to a phenomenon which, so far as I am aware, exists to an unparalleled degree about the shores of Western Patagonia, and whose presence there is in a great measure due to the exceptionally wet nature of the climate. I allude to a slippage of the soilcap, which is, I believe, continually taking place over the basement rock wherever the latter presents a moderately inclined surface. Some of the effects of this soilcap-motion are apt to be confounded with those due to glacial action; for the soilcap takes with it in its progress not only its clothing of trees, ferns, and mosses, but also a “moraine profonde” of rocks, stones, stems of dead trees, peat and mud, whereby the hills of this region are being denuded, and the valleys, lakes, and channels, gradually filled up.

On arriving at the Patagonian archipelago my attention was directed to this subject on noticing that the lower branches of trees fringing the sea-shore were in many places withering from immersion in the salt water, and that in some cases entire treeshad perished prematurely from their roots becoming entirely submerged.On looking more closely I observed that the soddensnags of dead timber, mingled with stones, were often to be seen at the bottom of the inshore waters, and that the beds of freshwater lakes were plentifully strewn with similar fragments of wood,the remains of forests prematurely destroyed. As the soileap, by its sliding motion, reaches the water, the soluble portions