bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the Sub-escarpments of the Ridgway Range, and their Contemporaneous Deposits in the Isle of Portland
Authors: Weston Charles Henry
Published: October 2009

Since I had the honour of presenting to the Geological Society some remarks on the nature and superposition of the formations at Ridgway, I have had another opportunity of examining that locality, and the following are the conclusions to which I have been led.

I.

That the entire valley of Upway, although disturbed, is yet one of
denudation
and not a
synclinal trough
, as hitherto considered.

II.

That the section of the Ridgway cutting exhibits, more or less, the normal structure of the whole range.

III.

That my views respecting the extension of the Purbeck group to the most westerly limits of the Corton Hill and Whaddon Ridge, have been confirmed; and

IV.

That the same Formation, on the other side of the great anticlinal axis of this district, does not terminate at the centre of the Isle of Portland, but exists also at the Bill, its most southerly point.
On the Southern Border of the Highlands of Scotland
Authors: Sharpe D.
Published: October 2009

Having lately visited many of the passes leading into the Highlands, I found the arrangement of the rocks along the border so different from what I had been led to expect by what has been published on the subject, that I venture to offer the following remarks upon the Border formations, although I am far from having materials for a complete account of them.

Mr. Nicol's ‘Guide to the Geology of Scotland’ gives us a good summary of what was known on the subject up to 1844, and little or nothing has been added since; his account, therefore, will often be referred to.

In MacCulloch's Map of Scotland a band of blue colour, indicating “Clay-slate or Greywacke,” stretches across Scotland from Stonehaven to Bute and Arran, bounded on the south by the Old Red Sandstone, and on the north by mica schist, and within this clay-slate are represented the bands of limestone of Loch Lomond and Aberfoyle. Mr. Nicol's map includes in the same band of clay-slate the limestones of Callander and that on the South Esk near Cortachie. Mr. Buist's Map of Perthshire, published in the forty-fifth number of the Journal of the Highland Society, draws into the same Clay-slate Formation the limestone between Dunkeld and Blair Gowrie.
On the Meaning of the term “Silurian System” as adopted by Geologists in various countries during the last ten years
Authors: Murchison Roderick Impey
Published: October 2009

As in the last memoir printed in the preceding number of this Journal my old friend Professor Sedgwick has animadverted upon some of my proceedings in establishing the Silurian System and in afterwards extending its application to British tracts beyond those in which it was originally formed,—I now offer, with the permission of the Council, a reply, which shall be very brief, and which, in vindicating my scientific credit, will be little more than a reference to documents published in successive years on this subject. Being perfectly sure that, whatever may have been the strength and pungency of his expressions. Professor Sedgwick had no intention to hurt my feelings, I am also certain, that he will be pleased that I thus have an opportunity of explaining what I consider to be the history of the origin and final establishment of my own Silurian classification.
On the Upper Tertiaries at Copford, Essex
Authors: Brown John
Published: October 2009

Of the geological features of the county of Essex, none are more interesting than its various freshwater deposits, especially those of Grays, Clacton, and Copford. Notices of these deposits have appeared at various times, and a general description of the freshwater beds and erratic tertiaries of the last-named place forms the subject of the present paper.

The Copford freshwater beds have been for several years extensively excavated to obtain brick-earth, and an idea of the relative position of the beds exposed by these excavations is given by the accompanying section. The clay or “earth” is obtained from three extensive workings, hereafter referred to as the western, eastern, and southern sections respectively. Other sections of these beds have also been obtained by casual excavations and by borings, to the west and south of the brick-field. This brick-field is about half a mile N.W. of Stanway Church, and lies between the railway and the high road, occupying about five acres. The ground slopes from the high-road northward to the flat marshy ground which is crossed by the railway embankment.
On the Origin of the Soils which cover the Chalk of Kent
Authors: Trimmer Joshua
Published: October 2009

In a Report on the Agricultural Geology of England and Wales, lately published in the ‘Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,’ I have collected, from the Reports to the Board of Agriculture and other agricultural authorities, evidence of the existence of a great variety of soils, calcareous as well as non-calcareous, on the surface of the Chalk in its range through England. It is thus proved by the testimony of a number of independent observers, that calcareous soils are the exception, and are confined to certain elevations and forms of surface.

I have also, in a recent communication to this Society, “On the Origin of the Soils which cover the Chalk of Kent,” combated the dogma, that these soils were formed by solution of the rock
in situ
, and that the non-calcareous varieties are the residuum of such hypothetical solution.
On the Ornithoidichnites of the Wealden
Authors: Beckles S. H.
Published: October 2009

Since the publication in January 1851 of the notice of the peculiar trifid bodies occurring in the Hastings rock, the author has added several specimens to his collection, some of which appear to afford additional evidence in favour of the opinion of their being natural casts of the prints of birds′ feet.

To the west of St. Leonard's the specimens occur on small blocks lying on the beach and subjected to tidal action. These as yet have presented solitary ornithoidichnites only. To the east of Hastings, however, the trifid bodies are found under more favourable circumstances.

At a distance of between six and seven miles from St. Leonard's immense blocks of stone, some of them several tons in weight, lie for some distance along the beach in confused masses, immediately at the base of the cliff and above high-water-mark. On these blocks the ornithoidichnites are frequently found, and sometimes in pairs or groups. The following specimens have been selected as being of most interest.
On the Geology of the Southern portion of the Peninsula of Cantyre, Argyllshire
Authors: Nicol James
Published: October 2009

The peninsula of Cantyre forms one of the most anomalous features in the physical conformation of Scotland, whether we regard its geographical or geological peculiarities. The mountain ridges which give their character to other parts of the country have all, more or less, a direction from north-east to south-west. On the other hand, this peninsula runs nearly north and south from the Crinan Canal to the Mull, a distance of fifty-five miles, with an average breadth of only six to eight miles. It thus forms a narrow ridge of no great elevation, separating the Firth of Clyde from the open expanse of the Atlantic, whose waves during storms from the west heat with awful fury on its western shores. None of its mountains rise high, and in some places it is almost separated into several islands by low transverse valleys. Thus at Loch Tarbet the isthmus is only about a mile in breadth, and both there and at Campbeltown a depression of a few feet would convert it into several detached islands ; which was probably its condition at no very remote geological date. Although forming a portion of the Scottish Highlands, its termination lies further south than some parts of the north of England.
On some Swallow Holes on the Chalk Hills near Canterbury
Authors: Prestwich J.
Published: October 2009

T
he
occurrence of swallow holes on chalk and limestone hills is a phænomenon almost too well known and too general to call for any special notice; but there exists, in a locality not hitherto cited, near Canterbury, a group of these stream-absorbent cavities of so remarkable a character, that, as this question also bears so materially upon the subject of the next communication I have to make, I beg to lay before the Society a short account of them.

I came upon this spot whilst tracing, a few years since, the Thanet Sands through East Kent. Around Feversham and Canterbury the country consists essentially of chalk, but the high ground between these towns consists of tertiary strata, forming a tableland of a few square miles in extent. The area to be noticed is merely that portion of the hill which lies south of the high-road, and which is in part marked by a wood named on the Ordnance Map “Fish Pond Wood,” extending over the London clay and Lower Tertiary sands down to the edge of the chalk. The drainage from this clay surface is carried off by several small brooks† having art easternly or a southerly direction. It is to the latter that I would particularly direct attention. Skirting the wood from Nick-hill Farm westward to Lower Elmsden, there are to be found within a distance of about a mile as many as six or seven of these water-courses, all of which, without exception, disappearjust within the edge of
On the Geology of the Gold-Bearing District of Merionethshire, North Wales
Authors: Ramsay A. C.
Published: October 2009

T
hat
part of Merionethshire to which this notice refers lies between Dolgelli and the Moelwyn and Manod range, north of Ffestiniog*.

A small part of this area has for some years been distinguished by discoveries of gold, of more or less importance. Its geological relations are as follows:—On the N. and W. of the lower part of the River Mawddach lie the lower part of the Lingula-flags and the Cambrian rocks. The latter consist of the coarse, thick-bedded, greenish-grey grits of Barmouth and Harlech. Their upper boundary is marked by a sinuous line which strikes in a north-easterly direction from Barmouth to Rhaiadr-Mawddach, and from thence trends northerly a little E. of Trawsfynydd to the turnpike road about a mile S. of Ffestiniog. The line then strikes S.W. to Morfa Harlech, on the coast of Cardigan Bay. These grits are overlaid by that part of the Lower Silurian rocks known as the Lingula-flags, which here consist mostly of blue slaty beds, generally more or less arenaceous, and partly interstratified with courses of sandstone. A well-marked portion of the series, composed of rusty ferruginous slate, occupies part of the cliffs of Moel Cynwch that overhang Dol-fawr on the Mawddach.

Both Cambrian and Silurian rocks have been penetrated by numerous greenstone-dykes. Many of them are of a light grey colour and highly calcareous. Others assume the colour and texture of ordinary greenstone. Some of them are magnetic. Among the Cambrian sandstones they run in all directions, sometimes with, but more generally across
On the Geology of the Mayence Basin
Authors: Hamilton William J.
Published: October 2009

T
he
insulated position of the Mayence Basin and the abundance of its fossil remains, particularly the marine molluscous fauna, had long ago invested it with an interest for the geologist far beyond what its limited extent would have led us to anticipate; and which the investigations of the last few years, while they have made us better acquainted with its fossil contents, have not yet exhausted.

Since the time when Brongniart first called attention to the fossils of the Weisenau strata, the geologists of Frankfort, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Mayence, Hanau, and other places in the neighbourhood have contributed their share towards the investigation of the peculiar features of this formation. The results, however, are not generally known in this country; and, having lately had several opportunities of visiting some of the most interesting localities in the district, I propose in the following remarks to lay before the Society the results of my inquiries. The subject is as yet, however, far from being exhausted; many localities require a more searching examination, the fossils need a more careful and exact comparison with those of other tertiary districts; and the relations of the formations to those of the north of Germany demand further examination.

I propose in the following observations, in making which I have been indebted for many valuable suggestions to Mr. R. A. C. Austen, who accompanied me on my last visits to ttochheim and to Alzey, in the first place, to describe the physical features of the district and the stratigraphical
On Remains of Fish in Flints
Authors: Alexander Henry
Published: October 2009

I
n
the year 1850, being in Swaffham, my friend Mr. Rose first called my attention to the existence of fish-scales in flint. A lithographic plate of scales, &c. was afterwards presented to me, which I found to be correctly figured. This plate appears in the Annals of Natural History (No. ix. 1838); and is one of two plates illustrating a paper “On some new Organic Remains in the Flint of Chalk,” by the Rev. J. B. Reade, F.R.S. At this period I was residing at Diss in Norfolk, and understood that only solitary scales, teeth, and fragments of bone had been discovered. Having mentioned the circumstance to a friend, Mr. Amyot, also of that town, we commenced to examine very perseveringly the flints of that neighbourhood, more particularly those collected from the fields and placed in heaps by the sides of the roads. Many hundreds of these flint-stones we broke, and at a rough calculation I consider that about one in forty or fifty yielded fragments of fish, from one inch to four, five, and six in length. These fragments consist of scales (cycloid and ctenoid), teeth, fragments of the head, vertebræ, fins, one tail, and various bones. I have found no specimen in which the head or even a portion of it has remained attached to the vertebral column.

The tail above-mentioned is small, but perfect (homocercal), about an inch in length. I have also found the right lower jaw of a fish or reptile ; a drawing of
On the Geological Structure of part of the Bavarian Alps; with Remarks on the Erratic Phænomena
Authors: Schlagintweit Adolphe
Published: October 2009

The observations a brief account of which I have now the honour to lay before the Society refer chiefly to that portion of the Bavarian Alps which includes the affluents of the Loisach and Ammer, and partly of the Tsar, to the south of Munich.

The group of the Zugspitze and the Wetterstein, between the Loisach and the Tsar, forms the greatest elevation in the outer zone of the Alps from the Lake of Constance to the Salzach. It presents a peculiar attraction to the geologist from its very complicated and irregular structure.

The following observations were made in the autumn of 1852 and in the course of the summer of 1853, more particularly during the latter period. In my investigations I was especially guided by the works of Escher von der Linth and Studer, of Schafhaütl, Emmrich, Von Hauer, and by the excellent memoir of Sir Roderick Murchison, which gives such a clear outline of the succession of the sedimentary strata of the Alps, and of the enormous dislocations and disturbances to which they have been subjected.

In the latter part of my paper I have offered some general remarks upon the diluvial and erratic deposits, and upon the polished and striated rocks connected with this subject.
On some Fossil Reptilian and Mammalian Remains from the Purbecks
Authors: Owen
Published: October 2009

T
he
fossil remains which form the subject of the following descriptions were kindly transmitted for my examination by W. R. Brodie, Esq., and Charles Willcox, Esq., of Swanage, by whom they were discovered—the mammalian fossils exclusively by Mr. Brodie—in certain members of the Purbeck formation at Durdlestone Bay, near that town.

I propose to commence with the reptilian fossils, and first with those transmitted by Mr. Willcox, to whom I owe opportunities of describing many rare and interesting remains from the rich locality which he has so successfully explored.
On the Distinctive Physical and Palæontological Features of the London Clay and the Blacklesham Sands; and on the Independence of these two Groups of Strata
Authors: Prestwich Joseph
Published: October 2009

T
he
fact of the London Clay proper having been considered, until within a comparatively recent period, synchronous with the clays and sands of Bracklesham and Barton, gave rather naturally greater weight and prominence to the resemblances than would attach to the differences, in the character of the fauna of these several beds. Not that the differences were overlooked, but they were, owing to this presumed synchronism, referred to changes dependent upon geographical distribution, depth of water, and variations of sediment; and their true value was in consequence hardly sufficiently allowed This supposition, which levelled the distinction of age, led to the union of the three distinct faunas of the above-named deposits.; and consequently, both here and abroad, the comparison of this associated group with the continental tertiary faunas almost necessarily caused the three, as a whole, to be considered synchronous with that deposit with which it possessed a majority of fossils,
i
.
e
. the
Calaire grossier
; whilst by a natural reaction the differences in the faunas thus wrongly parallelled were inevitably referred to such causes as had been used to account for the anomalies arising from associating together the clays of London, the sands and clays of Bracklesham, and the clays of Barton, under one name of
London Clay
.

Although I had endeavoured, in 1847, to prove that these three deposits were not synchronous, but in a definite order of superposition, still, owing to the circumstances named above and to the confusion produced by the difficulty of unravelling organic
On the Ornithoidichnites of the Wealden
Authors: Beckles S. H.
Published: October 2009

I
n
two former papers communicated to the Geological Society I observed that certain large trifid bodies, presenting a resemblance to the casts of the impressions of birds′ feet, were numerous in the cliffs to the east and west of Hastings; and I suggested, from certain uniform peculiarities which these gigantic tridactyle impressions, or rather casts of impressions exhibited, that they might be really foot-marks of birds.

Up to the date of my first notice, my discoveries of these colossal casts were limited to the east of Hastings and Bulverhithe, but my continued investigations enabled me to announce in my second communication that I had successfully traced them through the entire section of the Wealden rocks exposed on the coast, from Cliff's-end on the east of Hastings to Pevensey Sluice on the west.

Although these tridactyle casts were collectively numerous, they occurred for the most part on detached blocks of sandstone, and never on a surface sufficiently large to admit of three or four consecutive marks; and, although their number and regularity of form afforded good presumptive evidence of their being organic in their origin, yet these circumstances were insufficient to establish a truth where sequence of arrangement, distinct evidence of a phalangeal structure, or some other organic characters were indispensable; hitherto, therefore, these trifid bodies were not supposed to fulfil the necessary conditions of
footmarks
.

The uniformity of character, however, in the casts that I first examined had such an obvious connexion with a definite cause, as to convince me
Description of the Cranium of a Labyrinthodont Reptile (
Brachyops laticeps
) from Mangali, Central India
Authors: Owen
Published: October 2009

T
his
Fossil was obtained by the Rev. Messrs. Hislop and Hunter in the sandstone at Mangali, about sixty miles south of Nagpur, as mentioned in the foregoing paper. It consists of a considerable portion of a skull, wanting chiefly the tympanic pedicles and the lower jaw. It is embedded in a block of bright brick-red compact stone, with its upper surface exposed. The skull is broad, depressed, and of an almost equilateral triangular form.

The breadth of the occiput is 4 inches 9 lines; and the lateral border of the skull measures, in a right line, 4 inches 6 lines. The muzzle is rounded and obtuse. Most of the cranial bones are impressed with radiating grooves, the intervening ridges being in some parts broken up by communicating grooves into tubercles. The orbits are entire and situated in the anterior half of the skull. Portions of small, conical, pointed teeth form a single series along the alveolar border of the upper jaw.

In investigating the structure of the occiput, the Professor succeeded in developing two well-defined occipital condyles, not so close together as in the great
Labyrinthodon salamandroides
, but separated as in
Trematosaurus
and
Archegosaurus
.

After a detailed description of the several parts, as far as the abraded and otherwise mutilated condition of the fossil would allow, Professor Owen states that it allows so many characters of the skull of the labyrinthodont batrachians to be determined as can leave no reasonable doubt of its true nature and affinities ; and he gives it the appellation of
Brachyops
*
breviceps
, in reference to the shortness of the facial part of the skull anterior to the orbits.
On the Occurrence of Gold in the Trap Dykes intersecting the Dicynodon strata of South Africa
Authors: Rubidge R. N.
Published: October 2009

I
n
the early part of this year some rumours arose of the discovery of gold near Smithfield, a newly established town in the Orange River Sovereignty. It was stated, that some persons, riding over a flat, had seen some fine specimens of quartz, turned up by a jackal in scratching a hole in the earth. The quartz brought in as a curiosity was recognized by a person who had been in Australia as similar to that found in the gold regions of that country. This induced search, which was at length rewarded by the finding of gold in several spots; and, a portion of the quartz first found being broken, a piece of gold was obtained from it. A pit was sunk in the centre of a large shallow valley, and some gold was found at a depth of 15 feet in the gravel.

These accounts excited great interest in the colony. Mr. Bain happened to be on the frontier at the time, and a deputation waited on the Governor in Graham's Town and suggested the propriety of sending him to the spot, to report on the alleged discovery. His Excellency, however, appears to have doubted the truth of the report, and declined detaining Mr. Bain from his duties; he accordingly returned to his post in the western districts.

Gold in small quantities continued to be found; and some nuggets reaching this place, with greatly exaggerated accounts of the success of the diggers, caused great excitement, particularly among the younger
Notice of the Discovery of a Reptilian Skull in the Coal of Pictou
Authors: Dawson J. W.
Published: October 2009

T
he
reptilian specimen described by Prof. Owen (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 38. p. 207. pl. 9) is the upper part of a head found by me in 1851, at the Albion Mines, in a heap of rubbish extracted from a band of carbonaceous clay iron-stone and coarse coal, occurring in the main coal-seam, about 5 feet below its roof, and known to the miners as the “
holeing-stone
.” This band is marked No. 5 in the detailed section of the Albion main coal given by Mr. Poole and myself in the Geological Society's Journal, vol. x. p. 47. It varies in thickness in different parts of the mine, from 2 inches to about 18 inches; and it contains much coprolitic matter, and a few scales, teeth, and spines of fishes, as well as minute Spirorbis-like shells, similar to those found in the Joggins coal-measures attached to plants*. None of these fossils, however, are by any means abundant; and the vegetable remains contained in the “holeing-stone” have in general been reduced to the state of homogeneous coal, or of mineral charcoal. There can be little doubt that this remarkable band indicates a somewhat protracted submergence of the area of coal then accumulating under the waters of a lake or lagoon.

As stated in a note which accompanied the specimen, when forwarded to the Geological Society in 1852, the matrix split in such a manner as to leave the upper part of the skull adhering to the larger portion of the block,
On the Gold-bearing District of Coromandel Harbour, New Zealand
Authors: Heaphy Charles
Published: October 2009

Physical Geography of the District
.—The Peninsula of Coromandel stretches for about fifty miles in a general direction of N. 30° W. and S. 30° E., and is the northern extremity of a high range which extends from a mountainous centre near the Taupe Lake and Boiling Springs in the interior of the Northern Island of New Zealand. The peninsula forms the eastern shore of the Frith of the Thames, on the western coast of which, about forty miles distant, the Settlement of Auckland is situated.

The peninsula varies in breadth from four to twenty-two miles, and is mountainous in its whole extent ; a main range, but very little deflected from a northerly and southerly direction, and of an average height of 1500 feet (the highest summits being about 3000 feet above the sea), runs along its centre, throwing off spurs of inferior heights to the eastward and westward. Detached hills occasionally take the place of the spurs, and the direction of these is in one instance prolonged by a chain of islands extending in a line parallel with the main range.

In several places the continuity of the main range ceases, and detached hills of an equal height flank the gap. A second range, however, rises after the interval of a mile or more, and is prolonged in the general direction of the first.

In several places the continuity of the main range ceases, and detached hills of an equal height flank the gap. A second range, however, rises
On a Fossiliferous Bed of the Drift Period near the Reculvers
Authors: Prestwich Joseph
Published: October 2009

T
his
deposit is, like the one described p. 101, spread over the base of a hill, which here slopes down to the marshes separating this part of Kent from the Isle of Thanet. It is exposed in two pits near Wear Farm (see Ordnance Map), on the road from Chislet to the Reculvers. The height of the ground above the level of the adjacent marsh or of the sea, does not exceed 20 to 30 feet.
Notice of some New Reptilian Fossils from the Purbeck Beds near Swanage
Authors: Owen
Published: October 2009

H
aving
received from Mr. W. R. Brodie, of Swanage, a second collection of fossils from the Purbeck beds at Durdlestone Bay for examination, I find amongst the Vertebrate specimens some Ichthyolites and two examples of
Reptilia
the latter seem worthy of a woodcut ; they are small, and may be described as follows :-

Specimen A
, from the “dirt-bed*,” no. 93 in Mr. Austen's stratigraphical list†. It indicates a Lacertian genus and species, for which I propose the name of
Saurillus obtusus
. This lizard is represented by the right dentary bone of the lower jaw (see fig.), containing 13 moderately long, conical, blunt-pointed teeth, differing in form from those of the
Nuthetes
and
Macellodus
described in a former communication‡, and from the same formation and locality.

The teeth in
Saurillus
are not so long nor so reeurved as in
Nuthetes
, nor are they compressed as in that genus ; and they are not broad and fiat as in
Macellodus
. On the outer side of the dentary bone are six nervo-vascular foramina in a longitudinal row, relatively as numerous and large as in the
Iguanodon
, and indicating, as in that and other Saurian reptiles, the scaly covering of the jaws and the equally reptilian condition of the salivary apparatus in the little
Saurillus
. Supposing the fossil to have come from a mature individual, the size of the animal must have been equal to that of the common European lizard
Lacerta agilis
. It was most probably insectivorous. The specific name refers to
On the Geology of portions of the Turko-Persian Frontier, and of the Districts Adjoining
Authors: Loftus William Kennett
Published: October 2009

The notes from which the following paper has been compiled were made in the years 1849–52, during the progress of a joint Commission appointed by the English, Russian, Turkish, and Persian Governments for the demarkation of the Turko-Persian Frontier.

For the greater part of the first three years various political questions detained the Commissioners on the alluvial banks of the Lower Tigris, where but little scope exists for the labours of the geologist. When at length the running survey of the mountainous portion of the frontier was proceeded with, it advanced with such rapidity that the party was seldom two days encamped upon the same spot; thus there occurred no opportunities for minute geological investigation.

Other difficulties of no ordinary nature presented themselves. Our route lay through the midst of those wild mountain tribes who from time immemorial have never acknowledged law or subjection, and who regarded our movements with infinite distrust. Owing to the insecurity of the country, habitations were so few that we were frequently obliged to carry provisions for many days together. Add to these facts the ruggedness and inaccessibility of the passes and mountains, as well as the intense heat of the climate (sometimes reaching 124° Fahr. in the shade), and it may be conceived that our labours were attended with considerable danger as well as difficulty. Under these circumstances, I trust that every allowance will be made for the imperfect nature of this communication.

In this place I cannot omit returning my sincere thanks to
On the Palæozoic and their Associated Rocks of the Thüringerwald and the Harz
Authors: Murchison Roderick Impey , Morris J.
Published: October 2009

The advice given by a distinguished French savant many years ago to one of us, then full of zeal to discover geological phænomena unknown to his contemporaries, was,—“Examine the travelling map of the region in which you may happen to be, and wherever you see a tract void of all post roads, go thither, and you will infallibly meet with something new to science.”

This suggestion has since been our guiding rule in many excursions, including several visits to the insulated mountain-tracts of the Thüringerwald and the Harz, which in bygone years were traversed by no post roads, and which in these days of rapid locomotion are avoided by all railroads.
Notice of Fossils from the Keuper Sandstone of Pendock, Worcestershire
Authors: Symonds W. S.
Published: October 2009

T
he
Keuper sandstone quarry from which the fossils here referred to were obtained is situated in the village of Pendock, about three miles from the base of the south end of the Malverns, and exactly opposite the Holly Bush Pass. These sandstones are quarried to the depth of 14 or 15 feet. They dip under the Upper Red Marls and Lower Lias of the Berrow Hill, at an angle of from 5° to 6°. Their position as regards the Bone Bed, at the base of the Lias, cannot be less than from 250 to 300 feet below that deposit.
Description of some Cretaceous Fossils from South Africa; collected by Capt. Garden, of the 45th Regiment
Authors: Baily William H.
Published: October 2009

T
he
late Professor Edward Forbes having entrusted to my examination the interesting series of fossils collected on the coast of South Africa, near Natal, and brought to England by Capt. Garden, to whose exertions and liberality we are indebted for this valuable addition to the Colonial Department of the Museum of Practical Geology, the following communication has been drawn up on the plan of Prof. Forbes's able “Report on the Fossil Invertebrata from Southern India §,” to which collection of fossils the series here described bears a close affinity, as also to the fossils from the greensand of Blackdown in our own country, and the
Craie Chloritée
of France.
On the Physical Geography and Pleistocene Phænomena of the Cotteswold Hills
Authors: Hull Edward
Published: October 2009

It would appear that, in order to explain all the phænomena of the denudation and the post-tertiary or pleistocene accumulations of the district, it is necessary to suppose the following vertical movements of the land:—
A first elevation
; dating, perhaps, as far back as the commencement of the Tertiary epoch, during which the more marked physical features were produced, accompanied with an enormous destruction of Secondary rocks. This was followed by a
submersion
, which appears to have been only partial, during which the Northern Drift, with ice-transported boulders, was spread over the area under water. Next,
a second elevation
; towards the close of which the estuarine mammaliferous gravels were formed along the valleys, and round the flanks of the hills. During this latter elevation the relative positions of land and sea occurred which have been described above, the period finally terminating with the introduction of the present physical features of the country.
On the Geology of the Hudson's Bay Territories, and of portions of the Arctic and North-Western Regions of America; with a Coloured Geological Map
Authors: Isbister A. K.
Published: October 2009

In submitting to the Society a Geological Map of this extensive region, with a few explanatory remarks, my object has been to recapitulate very concisely the various observations of the geologists and travellers who have explored, and of the naturalists who have examined the organic remains of, this portion of the American Continent, and to present as completely as possible the results which have been hitherto attained in the study of its geological formations. The numberless difficulties inherent in such an undertaking, embracing a range of country so vast and so difficult to explore, or even to obtain access to, must necessarily render any attempt of this nature very imperfect; but I have been induced to undertake it in the belief that, in the absence of any general view of the geological structure of this extensive but interesting region, even the most cursory classification of its formations might be useful to those employed in developing the structure of the crust of the earth,—the more especially as it is not probable that the attention of practical geologists will soon be directed to this distant and almost inaccessible field of investigation.
On the Geology of New Zealand; with Notes on its Carboniferous Deposits
Authors: Forbes Charles
Published: October 2009

Coast-line of South and Middle Islands
.—In a country in most places so difficult of access, and so thickly wooded, as New Zealand, little more can be done than simply to specify the names, and as nearly as possible the relative positions, of the various rocks which present themselves along the sea-coast ; for, with the exception of an occasional landslip, there are no other means of arriving at a knowledge of the geological formation of the country. The water-courses are either precipitous torrents, or gentle streams flowing through alluvial deposits ; in no ease showing a regular and well-defined series of sedimentary rocks. The nearest approach to such a section was found at the foot of Mount Grey in Port Cooper Plains; it will be alluded to hereafter.

The rocks which appear to be the fundamental rocks of the Middle Island, are—granite, gneiss, mica-slate, elayslate, and other metamorphic schists, with rocks of igneous origin, including basalt, amygdaloid, porphyritic lavas, volcanic tufts, obsidian, serpentine, and greenstone (jade). Associated with these on the sea-coast are carboniferous deposits, made up of limestones (generally fossiliferous), sandstones, grits, shales, and seams of lignitie and imperfectly formed coal, covered in most places by a remarkable deposit of gravel, composed of water-worn pebbles, which are chiefly, and in some places entirely, of white quartz. This deposit in many places is several hundred feet in thickness. It is found in Massacre and Blind Bays, at the Wairoa Plain, and again covering the plains from Port Cooper district to
On the Geology of the Port Nicholson District, New Zealand
Authors: Crawford James C.
Published: October 2009

I
n
the southern end of the Northern Island, metamorphic or greywacke rocks bound the shores of the harbour of Port Nicholson, and constitute the range, from 500 to perhaps 2500 feet high, running to the N.N.E. from Port Nicholson, and forming abrupt mountains with precipitous and narrow gorges. The stratification is irregular, contorted, and sometimes nearly perpendicular. The rock is frequently siliceous, sometimes argillaceous, and is often traversed by veins of quartz and by igneous rocks. This range is continued also to the S.S.W. in the Middle Island, on the other side of Cook's Straits, and appears to form its central ridge.

Between the greywacke range at Port Nicholson and the western coast are tertiary sands and clays, probably resting on the greywacke rocks. This country is low and level, until reaching Wanganni, 110 miles from Wellington. The level of the country from thence to Taranahi is higher, forming cliffs, in which the strata are distinct and fossil trees are found protruding from them.
On the Occurrence of numerous Fragments of Fir-wood in the Islands of the Arctic Archipelago; with Remarks on the Rock-Specimens brought from that Region
Authors: Murchison Roderick Impey
Published: October 2009

O
n
the present occasion I cannot attempt to offer any general, still less any detailed description of the rocks and fossils of the north- western portion of that great Arctic Archipelago whose shores were first explored by Parry and Sabine. The specimens they brought home from Melville Island, and which were described by Mr. König, first conveyed to us the general knowledge of the existence there of fossiliferous limestones and other rocks analogous to known European types in Scandinavia. Since those early days, the voyages of Franklin, and of the various gallant officers who have been in search of our lamented friend, have amplified those views, and have shown us that over nearly the whole of the Arctic Archipelago these vast islands possess a structure similar to that of North America. We shall soon, I believe, be made acquainted with the characters of the specimens collected by the expedition under Sir Edward Belcher, who is preparing a description of the natural-history products of his survey. My chief object now is to call attention to the remarkable fact of the occurrence of considerable quantities of wood, capable of being used for fuel or other purposes, which exist in the interior, and on the high grounds of large islands in latitudes where the dwarf willow is now the only living shrub.

Before I allude to this phænomenon, as brought to my notice by Capt. M'Clure and Lieut. Pim, I would, however, briefly advert to a few rock-specimens collected by the latter officer
On Sand-Worn Granite near the Land's-End
Authors: Fox R. W.
Published: October 2009

O
n
a recent visit to the Land's-End, I noticed some striking evidences of the influence of drifting sand in wearing away the surfaces of hard granite rocks.

A little to the northward of Land's-End Point is Whitsand Bay, the shore of which is covered with pulverized shells mixed with minute grains of quartz, forming together a sand of dazzling whiteness. The hill which rises behind this hay is clothed with very short herbage, springing from a thick stratum of similar sand; and it is partly intersected by a ravine or glen, increasing in width and depth as it descends rapidly in a W.N.W. direction to the bay or beach; and a little stream runs through the middle of it. The steep sides of the glen, instead of being covered with herbage, consist of fine white shelly and quartzose sand, like that on the beach, and numerous granite rocks appear above the sand, many of them rising only a few inches out of it, with nearly plane surfaces, sloping with the sand. Other masses of granite rise many feet above the sand; but all the rocks are worn, and more or less polished, on those surfaces which are inclined in any degree towards the beach, whereas their opposite sides, facing towards the head of the glen, whether sloping or vertical, are neither polished nor worn. It is evident that the dry sand, driven by the currents of wind rushing up through the glen, has produced these effects ; and, moreover, owing
Remarks on the Brown Coal of the North of Germany
Authors: Beyrich Professor , Hamilton W.J.
Published: October 2009

H
aving
received from Professor Beynch a letter, in which reference is made to the Brown Coal of North Germany, and of which the following communication is an extract, I think it right, for the purpose therein mentioned, to lay it before the Society.
On the Tilestones, or Downton Sandstones in the Neighbourhood of Kingdom, and their Contents
Authors: Banks R. W.
Published: October 2009

On a reference to the Geological Maps of the Ordnance Survey of the Counties of Radnor and Hereford, it will be seen that the line of junction of the Old Red Sandstone with the Ludlow rocks proceeds in a north-easterly direction from the Painscastle Hills to Kington, and thence skirts the range of hills which run in the direction of Shobdon and Richards Castle, to Ludlow. The present notice will be mainly confined to an account of the junction-beds in the neighbourhood of Kington.

At Kington a tongue-like portion of red sandstone runs out northwardly from the general mass to Bradnor Hill. The extreme point of it is marked on the Geological Survey Map as Tilestone. The quarry from which the remains hereafter mentioned were obtained is situated on this spot, between Bradnor Farm and the Quarry House.

The lane which leads from Newton to Bradnor Hill in the direction of the quarry affords a good section of the beds which here immediately underlie the tilestone.
Note on the Gravel near Maidenhead, in which the Skull of the Musk Buffalo was found
Authors: Prestwich J.
Published: October 2009

The Valley of the Thames, broad and open in the tertiary area as far as Maidenhead, there contracts into the comparatively narrow and circuitous gorge through which the river traverses the chalk hills by Henley, Reading, and Pangbourne. To this point also extends an extensive mass of ochreous gravel, stretching in a continuous and un-interrupted sheet from the sea to Maidenhead, a distance of 50 miles, from 2 or 3 miles to 8 or 9 miles wide, and with a thickness of from 5 to 15 feet.
On the Permian Character of some of the Red Sandstones and Breccias of the South of Scotland
Authors: Binney E. W.
Published: October 2009

At the conclusion of the paper on the Permian beds, printed in our Manchester Memoirs this last summer, I gave the following as the greatest thicknesses of the different beds in the descending order:—

feet.

1. Red and variegated marls, with gypsum in the north, and thin beds and nodules of limestone in the south of the district
300

2. Magnesian limestone, resembling the Yorkshire deposit
10

3. Conglomerate
350

4. Lower New Red Sandstone, of a soft crumbling character; some of the beds flaggy; the lower beds passing into red laminated marls at Westhouse

500

1160

Below these occur the red and variegated sandstone of Whitehaven, which at present I do not include as Permian. In my paper I state that I am convinced that the conglomerate, or rather breccia, at Craigs and in the Cleuden near Dumfries are of the same geological age as the sandstones and conglomerates of Belah, Brough, Westhouse, and Humphrey Head, and I quote Professor Harkness on the thickness of some of those deposits.

Since the time you were in Manchester I have been down into the South-west of Scotland, and, after looking at the country, I have come to the conclusion that the red sandstone of Canobie on the Esk, Lockerbie, Corncockle Muir, Dumfries Thornhill, near Sanquhar, and Mauchline, as well as those of the West of Scotland generally, with the exception of the Annan beds containing tracks of the
Labyrinthodon
, will have to be classed as Permian, instead of Trias as they appear on most geological maps.
On the Section exposed in the Excavation of the Swansea Docks
Authors: Moggridge M.
Published: October 2009

Ancient legends which point out different courses for the Swansea and Neath Rivers from those which they at present take, induced me to watch the progress of the excavations made for the Swansea Docks from their commencement. Of my success in tracing the old bed of one if not both of those streams I need not here speak,—the
geological
features are those to which I would draw attention.

The Swansea Docks consist of a “half-tide-” and a floating-basin. They are situated on the brink of the sea, which lies to the S.E., while the N.E. boundary is the harbour through which flows the river Tawe. The entrance is from the harbour into the half-tide basin; and thence, through a large lock, vessels will pass into the main dock. The greater part of the stuff which has been removed consists of gravel and rolled stones, many of which have been transported full twenty miles.

The sections exposed varied greatly in different parts of the cuttings, but the best and most regular occurred at the N.E. end of the main docks exhibiting (August, 1853):—

1.

Made ground, sand, and loose gravel of variable thickness from 20 feet to 6 feet.

2.

Peat, with leaves, trees, &c., 2 feet.

3.

Blue marine clay, 8 feet 6 inches.

4.

Peat of rather greater density than No. 2, 10 inches.

5.

Blue marine clay, 4 feet 1 inch.

6.

Peat with trees, 3 feet 1 inch.

7.

Brown clay and gravel, not penetrated.
Notice of the Recent Eruption of Mauna Loa, in Hawaii
Authors: Miller W.
Published: October 2009

The late volcanic eruption in the Sandwich Islands broke out in August last, near the summit of Mauna Loa, which is 14,000 feet high and sixty miles from Hilo, Byron's Bay, in Hawaii.

The stream of lava, having a breadth of from two to three miles, continued to flow in a north-east direction until the end of October, when the lava-current, after having traversed a great part of the dense forest, appeared to have been checked in its progress at about ten miles from the town of Hilo.
Experimental Researches on the Granites of Ireland
Authors: Haughton Samuel
Published: October 2009

The granitic rocks of Leinster, or South-east of Ireland, occur in the counties of Dublin, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wicklow, and Wexford, and may be divided physically into two distinct groups (see Map, fig. 1, p. 172):—

1.

The main chain of granite-hills, extending from Booterstown, county Dublin, to Poulmonnty, in the south of the county of Carlow, within five miles of New Ross. This granite-chain is unbroken throughout its extent, and has a length of sixty-eight miles, and a breadth varying from eight to fifteen miles.

2.

Besides the main chain there are about twenty isolated granitic

districts in the counties of Wicklow and Wexford, forming small islands, as it were, of granite, which have penetrated and broken through the Silurian slate of those counties. The general axis of each of these granitic outbursts is parallel to that of the main chain; these secondary granitic rocks are found at intervals for a distance of forty-three miles, from Ballinaclash, county Wicklow, to Camaross Hill, county Wexford.

I propose to give a short mineralogical sketch of these two groups of granitic rocks, which, considered as groups, are distinguished from each other by well-marked chemical differences, not hitherto observed.