bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Metamorphosis of Dolerite into Hornblende-schist
Authors: Teall J. J. H.
Published: October 2009

The object of this communication is to describe the gradual change from dolerite to hornblende-schist as it may be observed in two more or less parallel dykes which occur in the Archæan gneiss of the north-west of Scotland, near the village of Scourie in Sutherlandshire.

The northern promontory of Scourie Bay is named on the Ordnance map Creag a'Mhail. Near this point two dykes of basic igneous rock may be seen. The one to the south is about 30 yards wide; it has been more affected by denudation than the surrounding gneiss, and its course is thus marked by a depression which is occupied by the sea at high tide. A short distance to the north of the actual promontory is another dyke, about 20 or 30 feet wide, of similar character, which terminates westward in a vertical cliff. This may be traced in a south-easterly direction down to a small beach where the southern dyke is again seen, and from this point the two dykes may be followed, running parallel to each other towards the south-east, for a distance of a quarter of a mile or more. The prevalent strike of the gneissic banding in this district is E.N.E. and W.S.W., with a moderate dip to N.N.W. The dykes therefore cut across the strike and cannot possibly be regarded as bands in the gneiss.

On the opposite shores of Scourie Lake (Loch a' Bhaid Daraich) and close by the side of the road to Laxford Bridge (three quarters of
On Fulgurite from Mont Blanc; with a Note on the Bouteillenstein, or Pseudo-chrysolite of Moldauthein, in Bohemia
Authors: Rutley Frank
Published: October 2009

An interesting paper by Mr. J. S. Diller, of the United-States Geological Survey, upon fulgurite from Mt. Thielson in Oregon, appeared in the ‘American Journal of Science,’ vol. xxviii. Oct. 1884, in which allusion was made to the effect of lightning upon hornblende-schist on the summit of Mont Blanc, as noted by De Saussure.

On reading this, I remembered that some years ago Mr. James Eccles gave me two or three small specimens showing evidence of fusion on their surfaces, which he at the time considered to be due to the action of lightning. They were collected by him on the summit of the Dômedu Gouté from small peaks of rock rising out of the snow at a height of 14,000 feet above the sea-level. These peaks form part of the chain of Mont Blanc. The fragments are small and consist of hornblende gneiss ; for they contain some felspar, and one of the specimens is traversed by coarse irregular foliations of felspar. Mr. Cuttell has made several attempts to prepare a section through this specimen with the thin fulgurite film adhering to it, but unfortunately failed, the fulgurite crumbling away in each trial. The cuts made through the specimen at various points show, however, that the fulgurite is quite superficial, no trace of fusion being visible below the original surface when the cut surfaces are examined with a lens. Indeed there appears to be no alteration of the rock from the electric flash, except on the actual surface itself
On Brecciated Porfido-rosso antico
Authors: Rutley Frank
Published: October 2009

This well-known rock, the porphyrites of Pliny, the typical porphyry of the earlier, and one of the typical hornblende-porphyrites of more recent petrologists, has already been described in considerable detail by numerous writers, especially in an admirable paper by the late Prof. Delesse. His observations upon a large number of specimens collected at Djebel Dokhan, the Porphyrites Mons of the ancients, by M. Lefebvre, are remarkable for the precision with which they were made at a period when the microscopic examination of thin sections of rock was unknown, or at all events in the very year (1850) when such sections were first made by Dr. H. C. Sorby.

The observations of Delesse were made chiefly with low magnifying-powers upon polished surfaces of the rock, and by reflected light. Brief descriptions of it, based on the examination of thin sections, have also been published in several works. On looking at a section recently prepared from a specimen of this rock, I was surprised to see that it consisted, not of a continuous section of hornblende-porphyrite, but of fragments of that rock held together by a micro-crystalline granular cement. On referring to Delesse's paper, I found that he described two kinds of the Porfido-rosso antico, one being the rock in its normal condition, the other a brecciated variety. It is to the latter that I would now direct attention.

The specimen is of reddish-brown or maroon colour, flecked with small white or reddish-white crystals of felspar and dark hornblende crystals, which as
On hollow Spherulites and their Occurrence in ancient British Lavas
Authors: Cole Grenville A. J.
Published: October 2009

It is now quite unnecessary to call attention to the fact that many of the Silurian “felstones” of North Wales were originally lavas of a highly glassy type. The investigation of their characters by Mr. Rutley and Prof. Bonney, and their comparison with volcanic rocks of far later periods, has fairly removed them from the convenient class of felstones, and given them a stricter position as altered rhyolites, trachytes, or obsidians. Perlitic, spherulitic, and banded structures have been recorded in them; the present paper deals with a structure which has been often noticed, and which is far more obvious to the eye, its original character being, however, veiled by much subsequent alteration.

Every one who has examined the group of Bala lava-flows in the Pass of Llanberis, notably at the foot of Esgair-felen, the great spur of the Glyder-fawr, or on the slopes leading to Cwm-glas, must have observed whole masses of the compact grey rock crowded with white or brownish spheroids. These are especially conspicuous on weathered surfaces, or where a great joint-plane has made a section through some hundreds, their diameters ranging from less than a tenth of an inch to fully two and a half inches. Some are evidently radial aggregates, whether concretionary or amygdaloidal it would be hard at first to say; but others, and by far the most striking, are mere hollow nodules, giving the rock a coarsely vesicular aspect. Clear quartz-crystals often line the inner surfaces, and it is noteworthy that the matrix has
On the Granitic and Schistose Rocks of Northern Donegal
Authors: Callaway C.
Published: October 2009

In my paper on “The Age of the Newer Gneissic Rocks of the Northern Highlands,” I suggested that a study of the old rocks of Ireland would probably aid in connecting the Scottish types with those of South Britain; and, in the summer of 1884, I visited the north of Ireland to ascertain how far my suspicion was justified by the facts. As Professor Hull had announced the discovery of Laurentian gneiss in the same area, I included the relations between this group and the schists in my investigation. A continuance of stormy weather prevented the completion of my plans; but I obtained satisfactory proof of the nature and relations of the chief granitoid mass, and collected partial material for the study of the schistose rocks. As the result of a month's work, I came to the conclusion that the schistose rocks of Northern Donegal were separable into two groups, and that the so-called “Laurentian” was merely a mass of granite intrusive in the older of them.

The President (Professor Bonney), with his usual kindness, has examined fifty-five microscopic sections of Irish rocks, and he permits me to use at my discretion the rough notes which he has furnished. It is to be regretted that pressure of other work has prevented him from undertaking a more elaborate investigation.

I.
The
Granite
.

1.
State
of Previous Opinion.

Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., claims a metamorphic origin for this rock.

Mr. E. H. Blake takes the same view.

In a subsequent paper
On a Skull of
Ovibos moschatus
from the Sea-bottom
Authors: Dawkins W. Boyd
Published: October 2009

In a discussion on my essay “On the alleged Existence of
Ovibos moschatus
in the Forest-bed, and its Range in Space and Time”, doubts were thrown on the specimen on which the paper was founded as having really been derived from the Forest-bed. On the one hand it was argued by Prof. Prestwich that it was possibly derived from some newer deposit, and on the other by Mr. Evans that it was a dredged specimen. Since the publication of the paper Mr. Clement Reid has carefully re-examined the specimen, and agrees with me in concluding from the matrix that it is “a genuine Forest-bed specimen,” and that it has not been dredged. The interest attaching to the discovery of so arctic a species in the Forest-bed has led me to search for further evidence, and the search has resulted in the discovery of another skull, which is the proximate cause of this communication.

Shortly after the publication of my essay on
Ovibos moschatus
in the Journal of the Society, Professor Newton told me of the existence of an undescribed specimen of
Ovibos
in the University Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge. Mr. J. W. Clarke has been kind enough to send it to me with the accompanying note. “My assistant saw it hanging up outside a general store and curiosity shop in Barnwell, and gave 2
s
. 6
d
. for it. The proprietor of the establishment could give no account of it.” An examination of it, however, leaves no doubt
On the Geological Position of the “Weka-pass Stone” of New Zealand
Authors: Hutton F. W.
Published: October 2009

The northern part of Ashley County, in the Province of Canterbury, is, to the geologist, one of the most interesting districts in New Zealand; for, as Dr. yon Haast has truly remarked, it “offers us the key to unravel the relations in which our young Secondary and old Tertiary beds stand to each other.” And as all the more important of the New-Zealand coalfields belong to one or other of these groups of rocks, the district becomes highly important from an economic point of view.

The district in question is bounded on the north by the Hurinui River and on the south by the Waipara River, so well known to geologists as the locality whence
Plesiosaurus australis
, Owen, was obtained by Mr. Cockburn Hood. It is crossed by the railway and road from Christchurch to Nelson, which here pass over a low range of hills by means of a depression called the Weka Pass, which gives the name to the limestone that forms the subject of this paper. In it there occurs a white, flaggy, argillaceous limestone, known as the Amuri limestone, which at both the Waipara River and Weka Pass lies conformably on green sandstones. All geologists who have visited these localities agree that the Amuri limestones and the green sandstones are parts of the same rock-system, which is called the Waipara System by Dr. von Haast and myself, and forms part of the Cretaceo-tertiary System of Dr. Hector and the officers of the Geological Survey of New Zealand
On an almost perfect Skeleton of
Rhytina gigas
(
Rhytina Stelleri
, “Steller's Sea-Cow”), obtained by Mr. Robert Damom, F.G.S., from the Pleistocene Peat-deposits on Behring's Island
Authors: Woodward Henry
Published: October 2009

The extinction of any group of animals by the influence of man or other agencies cannot fail to be a subject of interest to the palæontologist. Unfortunately the list of exterminated species has now become extremely large, and it seems impossible to doubt that in a few more years all the larger Mammalia not reduced to domestication, or under protective legislation, will have succumbed to man the destroyer.

The musk-sheep, bison, giraffe, African elephant, wild deer, antelopes, and the large-horned wild sheep of the Alpine ranges, are all eagerly stalked down by the modern sportsman; whilst the hunter, in search of ivory, horn, bone, furs, or hides, wages a ruthless war of extermination against them all. The “fur-seal” and the “whale-fisheries” are still pursued; and though the pursuit of the latter is now much diminished, the steady destruction of all the Pinnipedia in both the northern and the southern hemisphere continues with unabated ardour.

I wish, very briefly, to draw your attention this evening to a remarkable animal, now extinct, the
Rhytina gigas
(=
Rhytina Stelleri
), commonly known as “Steller's Sea-cow.”

This interesting species of marine phytophagous mammal, once no doubt abuudant along the shores of Kamtschatka, the Kurile Islands, and Aliaska peninsula, but now entirely extinct, was first discovered by the eminent German naturalist Steller, who, in company with Vitus Behring, a captain in the Russian Navy and a celebrated navigator of the northern seas, was with his vessel and crew cast away upon Behring's Island (where behring died), in
Supplementary Notes on the Deep Boring at Richmond, Surrey
Authors: Judd John W. , Homersham Collett
Published: October 2009

At the time when our former communication to the Society was published (November 1884), we were able to report that this very interesting well had, on the 15th of October, reached a depth of 1409 feet. We now propose to chronicle the subsequent progress and termination of the undertaking, adding some new observations which have an important bearing upon the subjects discussed in that paper.

Subsequently to the date mentioned, many very serious difficulties were unfortunately encountered in carrying on the work; but, in spite of these disappointments, the Richmond Vestry, acting under the advice of their engineer, Mr. S. C. Homersham, determined to persevere in their efforts so long as they felt justified in incurring the necessarily large outlay. After many vexatious accidents and consequent delays the work had, by the end of the year 1884, reached the depth of 1442 feet. At this point the Richmond Vestry, to whose spirit of enterprise geologists are so greatly indebted for the important evidence afforded by this undertaking, decided that they could no longer incur the responsibility of further expenditure, and gave orders to stop the work.

The work did not come to an end immediately, however ; for the contractors, Messrs. T. Docwra and Son, with great public spirit, offered to attempt to make further progress with the important undertaking at their own expense and risk. All their efforts, however, succeeded only in deepening the well to the extent of 5 feet, and the boring was finally abandoned when it
Note on the Zoological Position of the Genus
Microchœrus
, Wood, and its Apparent Identity with
Hyopsodus
, Leidy
Authors: Lydekker R.
Published: October 2009

In 1846 the late Mr. S. V. Wood described and figured the palate and left ramus of the mandible of a small mammal from the Upper Eocene of Hordwell, under the name of
Microchœrus erinaceus
, and considered that it was allied to
Hyracotherium
; although the specific name appears to indicate that he had a suspicion of other affinities. In 1870 Prof. J. Leidy proposed the generic name of
Hyopsodus
for a small mammal from the reputed Upper Eocene of Wyoming, the remains of which were figured and described in a later work, and were also regarded as indicating an animal allied to
Hyracotherium
. A recent comparison of the type specimens of
Microchœrus
, which are now in the British Museum (No. 25229), with Prof. Leidy's figures of
Hyopsodus
has convinced the writer that the two forms are extremely closely related and, in his own opinion, generically identical. The English form, of which the right upper dentition is figured on an enlarged scale in the accompanying woodcut, agrees in size with
Hyopsodus vicarius
, Cope § and the resemblance is so close that it is difficult to point out even specific differences ; the former shows, indeed, a minute accessory column in the valley external to the true main outer columns in the upper true molars, which is wanting in Prof. Leidy's figure of
H. paulus
, but whether present or absent in
H. vicarius
cannot be determined from Prof. Cope's figure. In any case the absence or presence of this column would not,
On the Igneous and Associated Rocks of the Breidden Hills in East Montgomeryshire and West Shropshire
Authors: Watts W. W.
Published: October 2009

The rocks described in this paper occur in a district on the borders of Shropshire and Montgomeryshire, on the east side of the Severn, about 12 miles W. of Shrewsbury and 6 miles N.E. of Welshpool. They are mapped by the Geological Survey, but no detailed description, except a few notices in Murchison's works, has yet been published.

There are three chief parallel ridges running N.E. and S.W. The two westerly ones, called the Breidden or Rodney's Pillar Hill (1143′) —extending northwards as far as Brimford Wood—and the Criggan, are composed of intrusive basic rock, and of this there are also one or two other little hills,—the Garreg near Trewern and Foel Coppice to the south, Belan Bank rising out of the alluvial plain of the Severn, and two small hills to the north. The easterly ridge, whose chief summits are Moel-y-Golfa (1199′), Middletown Hill, Bulthey Hill, and Bausley Hill, consists of lavas, ashes, and conglomerates of an intermediate type. Associated with these igneous rocks are shales, sandstones, and mudstones, which appear to be an inlier of the Bala rocks of Shelve reappearing under the Silurian synclinal of the Long Mountain to the S.E., which also seem to reappear as a tiny inlier at Buttington, and are apparently continued further to the S.W. in a strip of similar rocks to the E. and S.E. of Welshpool.

In this paper I propose to describe the contemporaneous and intrusive igneous rocks of the region, and to give a short account of the
On the Correlations of the “Curiosity-Shop Bed” in Canterbury, New Zealand
Authors: Hutton F. W.
Published: October 2009

The River Rakaia, after leaving the mountains, flows in a south-east direction across the Canterbury Plains. In cutting its way down through the shingles and silts of these plains, it has come across and exposed on its left bank a small patch of calcareous and arenaceous rocks, which are so full of fossils as to have given the name “Curiosity-Shop” to the locality. It is situated between five and six miles below the bridge over the Rakaia Gorge.

I visited the Curiosity-Shop in February 1873, and made the accompanying section (fig. 1). All the exposed beds dip 20° E.S.E., and they appeared to me to be]ong to a single series.

Mr. A. McKay, of the Geological Survey, has given a detailed description of these beds, which I have embodied in the following Table :—

1.

River-gravels.

Pareora Series.

2.

Loose grey quartz sands, 15 feet thick, with a bed of badly preserved shells.

Upper Eocene Series.

3.

Soft calcareous sandstone, 10 or 12 feet thick; in the upper part highly charged with glauconite; passing downwards into irregular beds of tufaceous clay.

Cretaceo- Tertiary Series.

4.

Calcareous sandstone without glaueonite grains.

.

Loose grey or yellowish-brown sands; 35 feet thick.

Nos. 2 and 5 are much obscured by shingle-slips from the high river-bank.

The upper part of No. 3 is the principal horizon for fossils, although they are also found in No. 4. & list of
On the Fossil Flora of Sagor, in Carniola
Authors: von Ettingshausen Constantin Baron
Published: October 2009

Having recently brought the third and last part of my work on the Fossil Flora of Sagor before the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, I take the liberty of reporting to the Geological Society on the facts which may be considered interesting to the science of Palæontology, and on the principal results which have been obtained from my investigations upon the subject. The fossil plant-remains which were brought to light, mostly by my method of impregnating the stones with water and splitting them by freezing, came from fourteen localities:—

1.

Beds called “Friedhofschichten,” beneath the Brown Coal of Sagor. They occur near the churchyard of Sager, and consist of yellowish-grey indurated clay. They contain many well-preserved plant-remains belonging to 40 species, many of which have also been found at Häring and Sotzka, and in the Lower Tertiary beds of Switzerland. Among the specimens I have examined there are cones of
Actinostrobus
, seeds of
Embothrium leptospermum
and
Hakea macroptera
, flowers of
Celastrus protogœus
, fruits of
Terminalia Fenzliana
, and leaves of
Corylus MacQuarrii, Quercus cuspidata, Ficus primœva, Cinnamomum lanceolatum, Grevillea hœringiana, Dodonœa salicites, Zizyphus undulatus, Eucalyptus hœringiana, Dalbergia primœva, Cœsalpina Haidingeri
, &c.

2.

Beds called “Bachschichten,” near Sagor. These and all the following beds here enumerated lie above the Brown Coal. Their plant remains indicate a flora which in no respect differs from the fossil flora of the Wetterau, of the Brown-coal formation of the Lower Rhine, and of the Aquitanian Tertiary beds of Switzerland.
Notes on Remains of
Elephas primigenius
from one of the Creswell Bone-caves
Authors: Owen Richard
Published: October 2009

Cuvier, in his chapter “Sur les Eléphans Fossiles”, notices a fossil molar tooth discovered at Fouvent as having come from a very young individual and as being “une vraie molaire du lait;” a figure of the grinding-surface is given, of the natural size, in pl. xii. fig. 2. The antero-posterior extent of that surface is 22 millim., the extreme transverse extent is 13 millim.

The difference of size between the tooth figured by Cuvier and that preserved in the jaw in Mr. Metcalfe's specimen is such as to suggest one of specific value; but the greater degree of wear to which the Cresswell-cave fossil has been subject, during life, and the inability to compare it with the original of the figure above cited, prevents such conclusion. The second detached molar figured by Cuvier, and noted as a “second molar of a young mammoth,” shows no such increase of size: it is stated to have been derived from the environs of Toulouse.

Subsequent figures and indications of the first and second molars ascribed to
Elephas primigenius
represent, like Cuvier's, detached teeth or tooth-crowns, leaving it undetermined whether they be from the upper or the lower jaw.

In the account of the succession of the molar teeth of the existing Indian Elephant, the first molar, upper jaw, has a crown 20 millim. in antero-posterior diameter, 13 millim, transversely; the crown consists of four principal plates and a fifth smaller one, or “talon”. That the
Elephas primigenius
had a similar first grinder of
Note on the Animal Remains
Authors: Davies W.
Published: October 2009

The animal remains found in both caves comprise teeth and bones of 11 genera and 16 species, as shown by the annexed list:―

If the animals here enumerated, three are extinct, viz. the Irish Deer, Woolly Rhinoceros, and the Mammoth. The Spelæan Lion and Hyæna were considered by Goldfuss and the older naturalists to be also extinct species; but later investigations show that their remains are undistinguishable from bones and teeth of the existing Lion and the Spotted Hyæna respectively. Other species now extinct in Britain are the Wolf, Bear, Wild Boar, and Reindeer, also the Wild Ox or Bison.

With regard to numbers, the teeth and bones of the Horse, Rhinoceros, Hyæna, and Reindeer are respectively the most numerous in the order here presented. That the Hyænas for a long period had entire possession of the caves is proved by the paucity of the remains of the Bear, another cave-haunting animal, thus showing that there had been no joint or alternate occupation by these animals as in some recorded instances.

The state of preservation of the bones, apart from the imbedding matrix, resembles that of similar remains from other caves in limestone rocks, and inhabited by Hyeenas. Few are entire ; many of the limb-bones have their softer ends gnawed away, leaving the hard and denser bone of the shafts still bearing the marks of teeth. Others appear to have been fractured both longitudinally and transversely by some force when the bone was fresh, as if for the extraction of the marrow; and, again, a few crushed specimens, by
On the Occurrence of the Crocodilian Genus
Tomistoma
in the Miocene of the Maltese Islands
Authors: Lydekker R.
Published: October 2009

In the collection of the British Museum there is the terminal 13 inches of the rostrum of a large Crocodilian, from the Miocene of Malta, to which Prof. Sir R. Owen has applied the name
Melitosaurus champsoides
, but of which, so far as I am aware, no description has ever been published. The name is, therefore, really a manuscript one; but since it has been quoted by Mr. J. W. Hulke and the late Prof. Leith-Adams, and the type specimen referred to as affording grounds for specifically distinguishing another specimen, it seems advisable to take (with the proviso noted below) Sir R. Owen's specific name as dating from the first quotation.

The specimen, which is figured on a reduced scale in the accompanying plate (P1. II. figs. l, 2), shows the cranial and mandibular portions of the rostrum. The former has lost all the teeth with the exception of one, but shows eight dental alvcoli on the right side; while the latter shows six teeth
in situ
in the left ramus the whole of the premaxillæ, and the anterior narial aperture, together with the anterior part of the nasals and maxillm, are preserved. It will perhaps suffice to say that the specimen is nearly double the size of an adult skull of the existing
TomistomaSddegeli
(Strauch), and that it agrees with the latter in every essential respect. Thus the rostrum is extremely long and narrow; the first and fourth mandibular teeth are larger than the others, and arc received into
On some Borings in Kent: a Contribution to the Deep-seated Geology of the London Basin
Authors: Whitaker William
Published: October 2009

It will be of interest therefore to give a full account of these borings, of which only short notices have yet appeared, and to review the bearing that the result of the later one has on our knowledge of the underground formations of the London Basin.

The borings are about 210 yards westward of the Factory Basin, in what was, until the extension of the docks was made, the marsh on the southern side of the former St. Mary's Creek, that creek having also been included in the new dockyard. The surface of the ground is about ten feet above Ordnance Datum.

The earlier boring, which reached Lower Greensand at a depth of over 903 feet, being of small size, in the lower part at all events, it was resolved to put down another and larger one near by, in order to get a large amount of water from the Lower Greensand; and it is to the second boring that this paper chiefly refers, because of the unforseen result.

One would have thought that Chatham was favourably placed for getting a large suply of water from the Lower Greensand, which formation has a broad outcrop only a few miles to the south. It was therefore with some surprise that one heard that, after passing through only 41 feet of sandy beds (below the Gault), a mass of clay was reached at the depth of 943 feet.

At first this clay was naturally taken to be either a very clayey development
On the Gabbros, Dolerites, and Basalts, of Tertiary Age, in Scotland and Ireland
Authors: Judd John W.
Published: October 2009

Among igneous rocks of every variety of chemical composition, the most highly crystalline types appear to have been formed in those cases only where the liquid magmas have cooled down with extreme slowness and under enormous pressure. Such conditions of slow cooling and great pressure it would seem must have existed when the rock has consolidated at great depths within the earth's crust; and hence it follows that the highly crystalline rocks now seen at the surface have been exposed through the removal, by denudation, of the vast deposits which originally overlay them.

Bearing these principles in mind, it is not difficult to find an explanation of the undoubted fact that the igneous rocks of Tertiary and recent date,
as a general rule
, exhibit far less perfectly crystalline characters than those which belong to the older geological periods.
Cæeteris paribus
, the older a deep-seated igneous rock is, the greater will be the chance of its being exposed at the surface, through the removal by denudation of the mass of materials under which it was originally formed.

Further than this, it must be remembered, as Allport and others have so well shown, that the older a rock-mass, the greater is the probability that its constituent minerals will have undergone alteration, from the action of those chemical forces which are everywhere at work within the earth's crust. In this way the aspect, the structure, and even the mineralogical constitution of a rock may be so completely changed that its real relations with
Note on some recent Openings in the Liassic and Oolitic Rocks of Fawler in Oxfordshire, and on the Arrangement of those Rocks near Charlbury
Authors: Bather F. A.
Published: October 2009

This account was written to bring before the notice of practical geologists some new sections on the works of Messrs. Bolton and Partners, at lawler. The district treated of lies in quarter-sheet 45 S.W. of the Survey Map, and was described by Prof. Hull in his accompanying memoir, 1859, to which nothing was added by Prof. Green in his memoir, 1864. Accurate description rather than speculation has been aimed at; still, as some alteration seems necessary, its probable lines are suggested from personal examination of the neighbourhood. The Evenlode valley exposes Liassic rocks to about ¾ mile below Pawler, where Great Oolite is brought down by a fault. Since the locality is well known, I proceed to describe the sections in ascending order.

The cores of the boring were not preserved; they were, I am told, of the same character throughout. The line of junction of beds є and ζ is 14 ft. above the bed of the river.

Section B, in a coombe across the road N.E. of the brickyard, clearly marked on the map by a branching-off of the Lias and Inferior Oolite into the Great Oolite plateau. A deserted opening extends S.W. by N.E., along the north side of this coombe for nearly 200 yards. The strata here are so variable in thickness that no definite section can be given. The lowest is marlstone rock-bed δ, varying from 8 to 10 ft., but in one part so displaced that it appears in vertical section 12 ft. thick.
On a recent Section through Walton Common exposing the London Clay, Bagshot Beds, and Plateau-gravel
Authors: Hudleston W. H.
Published: October 2009

During the past autumn the London and South-Western Railway Company has been engaged in widening the line between Walton and Weybridge stations, and consequently there has been an excellent exposure of the beds composing the Walton-Oatlands plateau. The communication now made to the Society relates only to such portion of the railway-cutting as extends from Walton station in a west-south-west direction to the boundary of Oatlands Park, and more particularly to that portion of it known as “America.” The total length, as measured on the 6-in. Ordnance map, is 1070 yards. This distance is divided unequally by the railway bridge on Walton Common known as “Sir Richard's.” The distance between Walton station and the centre of this bridge is 710 yards, whilst the distance from this point to the boundary of Oatlands Park is 360 yards, or thereabouts.

For the purposes of description and convenience of reference, the entire section may be divided into
four
blocks.

Block A extends from Walton station to where the unaltered London Clay in seen to occur
in situ
—a distance of 313 yards.

Block B extends from this to the point where the Bagshot Beds are first seen
in situ
—a distance of 345 yards.

Block C extends from the above to the point where the Bagshots are first cut through to the level of the line, and the hollow filled up with Plateau-gravel—a distance of 165 yards.

Block D exhibits the relations of the Bagshots to the Plateau-gravel, where the latter is most fully developed—a.
On the Pliocene of Maragha, Persia, and its Resemblance to that of Pikermi in Greece; on Fossil Elephant remains of Caucasia and Persia; and on the Results of a Monograph of the Fossil Elephants of Germany and Italy
Authors: Pohlig H.
Published: October 2009

I. In 1884 I had the opportunity of making a geological tour in Persia, espeeially in the northern provinces, one of my principal objects being to excavate a deposit of Pliocene mammals discovered about 30 years ago by the Russian travellers Göbel and Khanikoff near Maragha, to the east of the lake of Urumia. Abich, Brandt, and Grewingk have already published short notes upon the subject, but the locality where these fossil bones were found has not been exactly specified.

Arrived at Maragha I found several deposits of fossil bones, and excavated them as long as the season permitted. The results obtained I first announced in two letters sent from Maragha to Prof. yon Lasaulx† and to Dr. Tietze‡, including a preliminary list of the Plioeene mammals of Maragha which had been obtained up to that time, and so far as I could determine them on the spot without means of comparison. The collections made by me in Persia are now mostly deposited in the Museum of Prof. yon Fritseh at Halle.

In the course of last year a young German residing in Persia successfully continued my excavations at Maragha, and it was a portion of the bones collected by him that M. Gaudry saw in the Museum at Vienna (see Geol. Mag. December 1885, p. 558).

As I am now engaged in preparing a monograph on the fossil mammals of Maragha, I wish in this paper to give a sketch of the deposits containing these remains and also a
On the Alteration of coarsely Spherulitic Rocks
Authors: Cole Grenville A. J.
Published: October 2009

As has been previously stated, all the phenomena that accompany spherulitic structure on an ordinary scale appear reproduced among lavas that may be called coarsely spherulitic. Ill-defined segregations, differing little from the matrix, the fluidal and banded structures of the rock running indifferently through both, are found measuring an inch or two in diameter, equally with forms of marked radial or concentric character. The scale on which certain processes of decomposition and reconstruction, especially those that affect differently the spherulite and the matrix, are revealed in these bold examples, and the interest attaching to their effect upon the ultimate character of the mass, have led me to bring together a few observations on the alteration of coarsely spherulitic rocks. Some of the finest instances, moreover, may be found in our own British lava-flows of Palæozoic age, and with these the field-worker is not unfrequently called upon to deal.

The well-known black pitehstone of Planitz, near Zwickau in Saxony, which is of Permian sge, contains angular aggregates of calcite and chalcedony enclosed in large brown nodlfles. These remarkable occurrences were referred to by Cotta as early as 1849†, and his figure was copied by Delesse in a comprehensive paper on “Les Roches globuleuses”‡ Cotta considered the nodules surrounding the chalcedony as inclusions of an adjoining porphyry, like those in the pitehstone of Spechthausen ; but the microscope proves them to be in reality large brown spherulites, often 3 centims, in diameter, and differing only slightly from the glass. Why the agents of
On the Pliocene Beds of St. Erth
Authors: Kendall Percy F. , Bell Robert George
Published: October 2009

In presenting this paper for the consideration of the Geological Society, we desire to state at the outset that it is intended only as a report upon reaching a stage in the investigation of this interesting deposit, and that any speculative remarks which we may venture to offer are intended rather as indicating certain directions to which inquiry may be turned with a prospect of useful result, than as well-matured conclusions to which we are prepared rigidly to adhere.

The materials at present available do not warrant us in taking a less guarded attitude, the list of fossils which we bring forward, though very large, being, we are convinced, capable of considerable increase by a more extended examination of the beds than we have hitherto been able to make.

The attention of the Society was first directed to the St. Erth deposits by a communication from the late Mr. S. V. Wood, which was read at an early meeting last session. That paper was considered by Mr. Wood to be of a tentative character, nothing very accurate being known of the physical conditions of the deposit, nor was there anything like a good knowledge of its contents, and it was his hope that the attention of competent geologists might be drawn to its occurrence, so that it might be worked out and surveyed in a better manner than, in his invalid condition, he was able to perform. Shortly afterwards Mr. Wood died, and by his desire the whole of the material
The Melbourn Rock and the Zone of
Belemnitella
plena from Cambridge to the Chiltern Hills
Authors: Hill W. , Jukes-Browne A. J.
Published: October 2009

The Melbourn Rock was described by one of us in 1880 as a band of rocky chalk occurring in Cambridgeshire at a distance of about 80 feet above the Totternhoe Stone, and forming the base of a middle division of the chalk. Since then the outcrop of this rock has been traced south-westward through the counties of Hertford, Bedford, Buckingham, and Oxford, and has been found to be remarkably constant in its character and behaviour. It is generally found at the top of a well-marked feature or slope, and where it recedes into coombes, these are generally steep-sided; at the head of such valleys there are frequently powerful springs, which are thrown out by the marly beds at the base of the rock, so that it is of practical importance as a water-bearing stratum.

While one of us has been engaged in drawing this line of outcrop for the Geological Survey and in noting the exposures along its course, the other has carefully compared these sections, as they were discovered, with those previously described in Cambridgeshire, has collected such ibssils as were to be found, and has cut and examined under the microscope numerous slices from the different beds of rock and from the chalk below and above. In the present communication, therefore, we propose to offer the results of our combined observations on this rocky band and the beds associated with it ; and for permission to make use of the information gained during the official survey of the
On additional Evidence of the Occurrence of Glacial Conditions in the Palæozoic Era, and on the Geological Age of the Beds containing Plants of Mesozoic type in India and Australia
Authors: Blanford W. T.
Published: October 2009

The two subjects mentioned in the title of this paper are accidentally connected, the evidence of contemporaneous origin in certain Indian and Australian beds that contain plants of Mesozoic types being strongly supported by peculiar physical characters believed to be due to the action of ice. The last number of the ‘Records of the Geological Survey of lndia,’ contains several contributions to the history of the question, and these appear to me to form an addition to our knowledge of general stratigraphical geology of importance sufficient to justify my calling the attention of the Society to them. The subject is one to which I have given much attention in past years, and which I have discussed at various times, and this will, I trust, serve to excuse my writing upon it, although I have no new observations of my own to produce.

The principal papers to which I wish to call attention are, first, one by Mr. Richard Oldham entitled “Memorandum on the Correlation of the Indian and Australian Coal-bearing Beds,” chiefly giving the results of a visit to Australia by a geologist who had had the advantage of seeing some of the Indian Gondwána beds; and, secondly, one by Dr. W. Waagen, with the title of “Note on some Palæozoic Fossils recently collected by Dr. H. Warth in the Olive Group of the Salt Rauge.” A paper by Mr. Griesbach on rocks near Herat, and a recent observation of Mr. E. Oldham's in Northern Rajputána, furnish some additional facts of value.
On two Rhætic Sections in Warwickshire
Authors: Brodie P. B.
Published: October 2009

A few years ago a very interesting section of the Rhætic beds, the best yet laid open in the county, was exposed in a cutting on the railway at Summer Hill, between Stratford and Alcester, near the village of Binton. The line runs nearly east and west; the strata are much disturbed at the east end of the cutting, and have a considerable dip to the south-east. On the east the Insect-bed, probably the bottom one of the series, with insect remains, viz. wings of
Libellula
and elytra of Coleoptera, is seen, the section dipping towards Binton Hill, and in that direction, at the extreme end, being on a level with the line. This is underlain by the firestone and
Estheria
-bed, succeeded by a considerable thickness of Rhætic black and grey shales, some parts of which are highly charged with pyrites and loaded with the usual characteristic fossils. A band of blue nodular stone in the shales probably represents the
Pecten
-bed. I did not observe the Bone-bed; but if any opening had been exposed towards Bidford, on the west, it might have been present where the underlying New Red Triassic marls come in. Apparently there was no sandstone, as at Copt Heath, near Knowie, at the base of the shales with
Schizodus cloacinus (Pullastra arenicola)
; but on the whole these shales are several feet thicker than in any other sections hitherto exposed in Warwickshire. The Rhæ fossila are better preserved here than usual, certainly better than at Wainlode and Wetsbury
On a Mandible of
Machærodus
from the Forest-bed
Authors: Backhouse James
Published: October 2009

About two months ago I obtained from the Forest-bed of Kessingland, Suffolk, a specimen which I take to be the right mandibular ramus of a species of
Machærodus
(Plate X.). As I believe that no example of the lower jaw of any species of this genus has been met with in this country, I venture to send the following description of it.

Length from posterior margin of condyle to upper edge of symphysis at insertion of second incisor 204 mm.

Vertical depth below premolar at shallowest part of ramus 38·25 mm.

Depth at middle of diastema 51 mm.

Depth at lowest point of symphysis 63·75. Originally the depth at this point has apparently been 70, if not 75 mm.

The diastema is large (41 mm.) and, like the portion of the ramus immediately beneath it, curved inwards; it presents a fossa of 6 or 7 mm., from the direct line between the canine and cheek-teeth, for the accommodation of the upper canine. The anterior foramen is large, and in a line parallel to the adjoining base of the ramus. The condyle is imperfect, the length of the remaining portion being 38·2 mm., and the vertical thickness 19·1 mm. The coronoid process has lost its upper third, the remaining portion being 25 mm. in height and 38 mm. in width at the base.

In regard to the teeth, the sectorial has an antero-posterior diameter of 32 mm.; it is much worn diagonally by the action of the corresponding upper tooth, and
On the Existence of a Submairine Triassic Outlier in the English Channel off the Lizard
Authors: Worth R. N.
Published: October 2009

It is with great pleasure that I am able to report to the geological Society the existence of a submarine Triassic outlier in the English Channel, off the Lizard. The possibility of the presence of Triassic rocks in the Channel-area has been more than once suggested, and the occasional dredging of a fragment of sandstone has strengthened the hypothesis: no distinct evidence has, however, until now been procured.

A short time since Mr. Matthias Dunn, of Mevagissey, who is intimately acquainted with all the conditions of the Channel fishery, called my attention to the fact of the frequent occurrence of sandstone fragments in the bed of the Channel in a certain direction, and at my desire promised to supply me with a series of specimens. This he has now done, and the facts thus revealed are of a very remarkable character. All the examples were brought up entangled in the hooks of the fishermen's “long lines,” which are laid along the sea-bottom for distances ranging even up to six miles. The positions from which the rocks come can therefore be ascertained with considerable precision; and each specimen or group of specimens was accompanied by its compass-bearing on some well-known point of the land, and the distance thence in miles. The bearings are magnetic and strictly correct; the distances are estimated, and therefore liable to a certain amount of error; though from constant practice and their knowledge of the peculiarities of the sea-bottom the fishermen are singularly accurate in these estimates.
On the Glaciaton of South Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Welsh Border
Authors: Strahan Aubrey
Published: October 2009

South Lancashire and Cheshire
.

The occurrence of glacial striæ in the neighbourhood of Liverpool was first recorded by Mr. G. H. Morton, F.G.S., in 1859, though they had been previously noticed by Mr. J. Cunningham, F.G.S. In 1862 Mr. Morton described before this Society and the Liverpool Geological Society striæ on both sides of the river Mersey. Prof. Hull in 1864 § recorded the strim of Bidston Hill, pointed out to him by Mr. Cunningham, remarking that they point in the same direction as those of Liverpool. These had been previously noticed by Mr. Morton as having the precise direction N. 30° W.

In consequence of his discovery of striee on both sides of, but at no great distance from, the Mersey, Mr. Morton in 1866∥ advocated the hypothesis of a glacier having descended the valley of the river; but in 1870 ¶ having discovered similar markings away from the river, adopted the theory of an ice-sheet having passed over this part of the country from S.E. to N.W.

In the same year Dr. Ricketts, F.G.S., recorded striæ at Thatto Heath, and stated that the moving power which produced them had taken a course from south-east to north-west, the evidence of this being that grooves larger and deeper than others passed away from small indentations, which may have been the impressions of pebbles, in a north-west direction.

In 1872 Mr. Mellard Reade, C.E., F.G.S., described cross striæ at Bootle, running E.N.E. and N. 22° W., and advocated the hypothesis of
The Bagshot Beds of the London Basin
Authors: Monckton H. W. , Herries R. S.
Published: October 2009

The following communication is intended as a supplement to a paper read before the Society by one of the authors in 1883 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxix. p. 348), and the two together form an amplification of an article on the same subject by Mr. W. H. Herrics (Geol. Mag. dec. ii. vol. viii. p. 171).

In our last paper we devoted our attention almost entirely to the Upper and Middle Divisions of the Bagshot series. We now propose to treat more fully of the Lower Division, and to show that the occurrence of pebble-beds is by no means confined to one horizon in the Bagshot series, as would seem to be supposed by some observers.

In the interval much has been written about the geology of the Bagshot district, no less than five papers by the Rev. A. Irving, and one by Mr. Hudleston, having appeared.

The views lately advanced by Mr. Irving are very much at variance with the hitherto accepted interpretation of the geology of this district, and to a great extent we find ourselves compelled to differ from him. He considers (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xli. pp. 506, 507) that the Upper and Middle Bagshot beds, in some places, overlap the Lower Bagshot Beds, and rest directly on the London Clay, which had been thrown into a slight syncline previous to the deposition of the Lower Bagshot strata. He founds his argument partly on the relative thicknesses of the Lower Bagshot beds and the