bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Closing remarks
Authors: KENT PERCY EDWARD
Published: October 2009

I
n summarizing
the afternoon’s proceedings Dr Kent commented that the greater part of the new information produced had related to the Keuper, on which it now appeared that an agreed country-wide correlation would fairly easily be achieved. The amount of new information produced on correlation of sandstone bands and their dating by various of the new methods should make this objective achievable with little further work, and the relationship of the Waterstones to the Continental standard sections was well on the way to satisfactory definition. For the Bunter the only major contribution had been that of Professor L. J. Wills, whose proposal to correlate by means of cyclothems, although subject to further discussion, did appear to offer the possibility of progress on a country-wide scale. It may be hoped that the dating of major units of this kind would be eventually checked by palynological results—especially if the palynological determinations came down to species level.

The base of the Trias remained a matter of considerable difficulty. He (the speaker) had always felt that the base of the Bunter Pebble Beds was most unreliable as a datum, and in practice was quite difficult to identify in open sections because of interdigitation of facies over tens of feet. The paper presented to The Royal Society, by M. E. Geiger & C. A. Hopping of Shell supplemented by additional unpublished work carried out by L. G. Horobin of B.P., suggested however a fair probability that the basal Bunter Brockelschiefer of Germany should be
Note on the Alpine Orogeny in Calabria, southern Italy
Authors: BURTON ALFRED NORMAN
Published: October 2009

Three main Alpine movement phases are described, a Lower Miocene paroxysmal phase, a strong lower Middle Miocene phase and a relatively weak Ponto–Pliocene phase. The main movement direction is outwards from the Tyrrhenian Sea, but during the last two movement phases 'argille scagliose' probably moved inwards towards the Tyrrhenian. This latter view is not generally accepted among Italian and French geologists who have worked in the Calabro–Sicilian area.
Gravity measurements in the north Irish Sea
Authors: BOTT MARTIN HAROLD PHILLIPS , YOUNG DAVID GEORGE GARROW
Published: October 2009

This paper presents a Bouguer anomaly map of most of the north Irish Sea, based on under-water gravimeter measurements. The map incorporates earlier surveys in the northern part of the region and new work in the southern part. The new work reveals that the previously discussed Manx–Furness gravity 'low' (now renamed the East Irish Sea 'low') extends southwards to the coast of North Wales. Newly observed detailed profiles across the north-western margins of the 'low' show that it is caused by a partially fault-bounded composite sedimentary basin between the Isle of Man, Lancashire and North Wales, with a local region of basement uplift 30 km southeast of Douglas. High Bouguer anomalies are observed over a wide area between the Isle of Man, Anglesey and Ireland, suggesting a region with relatively shallow basement rocks. A negative gravity anomaly of –4o mgal amplitude occupies an elongated oblong area 40 × 30 km
2
in dimension off the east coast of Ireland near Dublin. The steep gravity gradients and other characteristics of the anomaly suggest that it is caused by a sedimentary basin about 3 to 4 km deep. The high density contrast required to explain the anomaly implies that Permo–Triassic and/or later sediments form the main infill of the basin. This anomaly is called the Kish Bank gravity 'low'.
Potassium–argon ages of slates and phyllites from south-west England
Authors: DODSON MARTIN HENRY , REX DAVID CHARLES
Published: October 2009

Potassium-argon dates from slates and phyllites will give the date of dynamic metamorphism provided that all radiogenic argon was expelled from the rocks at the time of metamorphism and none has been lost since. Where whole-rock slate ages can be compared with ages on separated mica the agreement is normally quite good. Some instances of incomplete argon loss are known, but these are mostly associated with other evidence of incomplete recrystallization. Significant losses due to continuous diffusion in a stable geological environment have not been observed, but post-metamorphic losses may occur in a tectonic environment. In general K–Ar dates from slates are thought to give useful younger limits to the age of metamorphism, provided that certain statistical and petrological criteria can be satisfied.

Sixty slates from south-west England have been dated by the K–Ar method. Material from the Torquay area and north Devon gave scattered results, but the remainder fall into four quite well defined regional groups. (1) A 365–345 m.y. group from the Dodman phyllites and Gramscatho Beds in south Cornwall, associated with
sw
–
ne
structural trends, probably corresponds to a ‘Bretonic’ phase of folding in the Upper Devonian or Lower Carboniferous. (2) A group in the range 340–320 m.y. from the
e–w
Devonian slate belt on the southern limb of the synclinorium, considered in relation to stratigraphical evidence, suggests a Namurian (‘Sudetic’) phase of tectonism. (3) The Start schists and associated slates give 290-310 m.y., but the character of the event which these figures represent is not known. (4) Dates in the range 270–310 m.y. from Port Isaac, the Boscastle–Tintagel area and the southern boundary of Culm, represent minimum ages for the known late Carboniferous folding, and may in part date uplift and cooling at the end of the orogeny.
Lateritization and landscape development in Kyagwe, Uganda
Authors: McFARLANE MARGARET JOAN
Published: October 2009

In Kyagwe the ‘high-level’ laterite capped mesas, the remnants of the Buganda Surface, do not belong to a monocyclic land surface. The nature of the ground-water laterite on the sloping summits of the remnants varies altitudinally. Vermiform laterite is followed downslope by spaced and then packed pisolithic laterite. Further downslope the sequence is repeated.

Study of the ‘low-level’ ground-water laterites suggests that (1) the pisolithic laterites are immature and form in association with a gently lowering water-table and (2) the vermiform variety is a mature formation associated with a stable water-table.

The development of the vermiform laterite of a planation surface is outlined.

The ‘high-level’ laterite sequence on the mesas is interpreted as belonging to two erosion cycles. The two laterite profiles, consisting of vermiform overlying spaced pisolithic laterite, have been truncated and reworked to form continuous sheets
•
The immature spaced pisolithic laterite and mottled zone which underlies the vermiform laterite of a planation surface is believed to form as the water-table commences lowering upon initiation of the succeeding cycle. Each profile is therefore bi-cyclic. The formation of the underlying pallid zone is discussed in terms of a post-incision modification by leaching through the carapace.

The two planation surfaces represented by the mesas of the Buganda Surface are discussed in relation to the denudation chronology of Uganda.
On the Geology of Cape Breton
Authors: Brown Richard
Published: October 2009

In a letter to MK Lyell, dated Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, Oct. 20. 1843, the author stated—

“I have made a survey of some forty miles of coast on the eastern side of our coal-field; and have since devoted a few days to the examination of the shores of the Island of Boularderie, which is four miles wide, and twenty-six miles long, and exhibits natural sections on both sides from end to end. Nothing can be more definite than the position of the masses of gypsum in this island. I have examined them this summer in four different places, scores of miles apart, and find the following, with little variation, to be a section of the accompanying strata:
On the Lower Carboniferous Rocks, or Gypsiferous Formation of Nova Scotia
Authors: Dawson John William
Published: October 2009

The coal formation of the eastern part of Nova Scotia consists of a great thickness of sandstones, shales, and conglomerates, of various reddish and grey colours, the former being most prevalent. The lower part of the series is distinguished by the presence of limestones with marine shells and gypsum. Its central portion is characterised by a greater prevalence of grey and dark colours, and by containing an abundance of vegetable fossils and beds of bituminous coal. The upper portion of these productive coal measures appears to pass into a thick deposit of reddish sandstones and shales, containing few fossils, either animal or vegetable. To examine the structure and relations of the lower, or gypsiferous part of this series, is the object of the present paper: it will, however, be proper in the first place to notice the general disposition of the rocks of the Carboniferous system, in the region more particularly observed, which extends along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, from Tatmagouche to Antigonish Harbour.
On Concretions in the Red Crag at Felixstow, Suffolk
Authors: Henslow J. S.
Published: October 2009

I place on the table a selection from a large assortment of a peculiar description of concretions obtained from the Red Crag at Felixstow, in Suffolk. In 1842 I was much puzzled to account for the nature of these concretions. At a cursory glance one might almost be inclined to pass them by as waterworn pebbles, as they lie abundantly interspersed among the comminuted shells which form the upper parts of the cliffs. I found more than one eminent geologist disposed to agree with me in considering them to be rolled masses of London clay which had been indurated subsequently to their deposition in the crag. On my again visiting Felixstow during the summer of the present year (1843), I determined to give them a particular examination; and although a formation which has been so thoroughly worked as the crag is not likely to afford a casual visitor the opportunity of gleaning much of novelty, I believe I have satisfactorily ascertained the origin of these concretions, and have added to the list of crag fossils the petro-tympanic bones of at least four species of Cetaceans. These latter, I am persuaded, have been overlooked among the many concretions of this formation. They are, however, of a different composition, and closely resemble, in this respect, the silicified fragments of bone so abundant in this locality.
Appendix to Professor Henslow's Paper, consisting of a Description of the Fossil Tympanic Bones referable to four distinct Species of
Balæna
Authors: Owen Richard
Published: October 2009

The fossils from the Crag at Felixstow, which have been submitted to my inspection by Professor Henslow, are the tympanic portions of the petro-tympanic bones of large Cetacea.

The tympanic adhering to the petrous portion by only two small surfaces is easily detached, and may be recognised by its conchoidal shape and peculiarly dense texture; the recent bone breaking with almost as sharp a fracture as the petrified fossils.

None of these are entire: the thin brittle outer plate which bends over the thick, rounded, and, as it were, involuted part, like the outer lip of such simple univalves as the
Buliæ
and
Leptoconchi
, is broken or worn away in the best specimens, all of which are rolled and waterworn.

We are led by the size of the specimens to the largest of the existing Cetacea for the subjects of comparison, as the Grampus, the Hyperoodon, the Cachalots (
Physeter
) and the true whales (
Balænoptera
and
Balæna
)

Two or three of the specimens are fortunately sufficiently entire to show the form of the tympanic cavity bounded by the overarching plate, with the proportion and direction of its anterior or Eustachian outlet, and most of them have the opposite or hinder extremity entire.
Description of the Remains of numerous Fossil Dicotyledonous Trees in an Outcrop of the Bottom Coal at Parkfield Colliery, near Bilston
Authors: Ick William
Published: October 2009

At a depth varying from forty to fifty yards below the Ten-yard stratum of the South Staffordshire coal-field, there are usually found three deposits of coal, called the
Top
, the
New Mine
, and the
Bottom Coal
. When these beds can be readily worked, they are scarcely inferior in value to the Ten-yard coal, the Top and New Mine deposit, with the intervening shales and partings, often forming a series of strata eight yards in thickness. Below this a few beds of ironstone occur; then a bed of fire clay about three yards in thickness, and immediately under this the
Bottom Coal
.

At Parkfield Colliery, 1 ½ miles west of Bilston, and at about the same distance south of Wolverhampton, there is a fine outcrop of this
Bottom Coal
, which is now being got in open work. In one part the overlying fire clay has been removed, and the surface of the coal exposed, over an area of a somewhat triangular shape, for about 2,700 square yards.

This terrace of coal exhibits on its surface one of the most remarkable accumulations of the fossil remains of the vegetation of the coal period ever exposed to view. There are upwards of seventy trunks of trees, apparently dicotyledonous, broken off close to the root, and several of them are more than 8 feet in circumference; the prostrate trunks lying across each other in every direction.
On the Thickness of the Lower Green sand Beds of the South East Coast of the Isle of Wight
Authors: Simms F. W.
Published: October 2009

The last time the Green sand beds below the Chalk were the subject of discussion before the Society, great diversity of opinion was expressed concerning the thickness of the group of beds denominated “The Lower Green sand.” To remove all doubt on this point, Dr. Fitton proposed revisiting the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, and requested my co-operation in determining their thickness. The following vertical section of the strata, seen in the cliffs of the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, and including the three entire groups, viz:—

1.

The Upper Green Sand,

2.

The Gault,

3.

The Lower Green Sand, was made in company with Dr. Fitton, Mr. Mackeson of Hythe, and the President of our Society, during a visit we made to that coast in July last

The horizontal line over which these measurements extended, that is, from Atherfield point to the Cliff on the south of St. Catherine's Down, is about three miles in length. Along nearly the whole of this line, the coast is bounded by mural cliffs, except where slips have taken place (and these are often of considerable extent), and except where “Chines” (as they are called), that is to say, deep precipitous gullies, worn by the action of brooks in the argillaceous sands, open into the sea.
Remarks upon
Sternbergiæ
Authors: Dawes John S.
Published: October 2009

In the autumn of 1838 certain specimens of vegetable remains were discovered in the coal grit at Oldbury, near Birmingham, which appeared to show, very distinctly, the internal structure of those remarkable fossils, the Sternbergise. The circumstance was considered, at the time, completely to corroborate the opinion that they were distinct plants, but having recently examined these specimens with more attention, and having had an opportunity to compare them with others, since discovered, I am enabled, I believe, to point out that these curious columnar forms are merely casts of the medullary cavities of stems or branches of trees, similar to that at Darlaston, lately described; for, upon one of the fossils alluded to, the interior of which is composed of a series of horizontal plates, we find that a part of the woody tissue of the tree is still attached to the column, and another specimen which shows, upon its exterior, traces of the characteristic rings, exhibits also a considerable portion of adhering wood. But more direct evidence is afforded by a branch, now converted into ironstone (see fig.
a
), down the centre of which a distinct arrangement of similar plates may be observed, occasionally anastomosing or rather merging one into the other, exactly as the external forms of Sternbergiæ would lead us to expect; and a smaller specimen from another district (North Staffordshire) appears still more clearly to show this connection.
On Two Fossil Species of
Creseis
(?.) collected by Professor Sedgwick
Authors: Forbes E.
Published: October 2009

Creseis is a genus of
Pteropodous Mollusca
established by M. Sander Rang to include several species of simple, more or less acicular shells. Their surface is smooth or transversely striated, rounded, and sometimes presenting a longitudinal groove. The animal resembles that of
Hyalæa
, but is not furnished with the two caudiform lateral appendages with which the
Hyalæa
is provided. All the species are small, none being more than an inch in length. They are oceanic animals, free swimmers, and their remains are found in abundance in the fine mud of great depths.
Note on the Fossils collected by Lieut. Spratt in the Freshwater Tertiary Formation of the Gulf of Smyrna
Authors: Forbes Edward
Published: October 2009

Lieutenant Spratt has found eleven species of fresh-water shells (all univalves) and a cast, apparently of a Helix, in the fresh-water limestone of Vourla.

Of these, two belong to the genus
Limneus
, one of which agrees with the
Limneus longiscatus
of the Paris basin and the Isle of Wight fresh-water bed, and the other is apparently the
Limneus ventricosus
of Brongniart; also a Paris basin shell.

Five species belong to the genus
Planorbis
. One of these is
Planorbis rotundatus
, a well-known eocene fresh-water fossil. Three are closely allied to, if not identical with, Paris basin fossils, and one is new.

Two belong to the genus
Paludina
. One of these appears to be the
Paludina atomus
of the Paris basin. The other is new.

One belongs to the genus
Melanopsis
. It is the
Melanopsis buccinoidea
, a species which, commencing its range in the oldest tertiary strata, has lived on to the present day, and is now a common inhabitant of western Asia, northern Africa, and the southern parts of Europe.
On the occurrence of a Bed of Septaria, containing fresh-water Shells, in the series of Plastic Clay, at New Cross, Kent
Authors: Warburton Henry , F. E.
Published: October 2009

Having occasion, in the Spring of 1843, to travel along the South Eastern Railway, I observed at the distance of about 200 yards to the south of the New Cross Station, on the western side of the cutting which there lays bare the junction of the London and Plastic Clays, and at the very foot of that cutting, what seemed to be a continuous bed of stone, forming a part of the Plastic Clay series.

I applied, in consequence, to Mr. Simms, a Fellow of our Society, (who, as one of the resident engineers, had ready access to every part of the line), to procure for me specimens of this bed; and he not only complied with this request, but also made a vertical section of the beds exposed in the cutting, extending from the base of the London Clay to the bed of stone in question.

The specimens which Mr. Simms procured contain, imbedded in the substance of the stone, two fresh-water shells, a Paludina and a Unio, which Professor E. Forbes has examined and described. The stone proved, on examination, not to form a continuous stratum extending to any distance, but to occur at intervals only; and to be, in fact, a bed of Septaria, of a texture considerably more earthy than the Septaria of the London clay usually are.
Report on the Fossils from Santa Fe de Bogota, presented to the Geological Society by Evan Hopkins, Esq. F.G.S.
Authors: Forbes Edward
Published: October 2009

The fossils from Bogotá presented by Mr. Hopkins are all remains of Mollusca. They are embedded in a very dark and compact limestone; and are all, apparently, from the same formation. They include 17 species, most of which are in very good preservation. Of these, 9 are described species, and are identical with fossils from the same neighbourhood, described in the memoir by M. Von Buch, “On the Fossils collected in America by MM. Humboldt and Degenhardt,” in the paper entitled “Notice of the Oolitic Formations in America,” by Mr. Isaac Lea, printed in the “Transactions of the American Philosophical Society for 1841,” and in the account of the fossils collected in Columbia by M. Boussingault, given by M. Alcide d'Orbigny, in the Palæontology of his South American Voyage, published in 1843. All these papers have been consulted in the preparation of this Report.

The formation in which these fossils were found has been referred by M. Von Buch to the Cretaceous era, by Mr. Lea to the Oolitic period, and by M. d'Orbigny to the Neocomian epoch of the Cretaceous era. The result of an examination of Mr. Hopkins's specimens, more especially of such as are new, bears out the view of their cretaceous origin first taken by M. Von Buch, and afterwards adopted by M. d'Orbigny.
On the Junction of the Lower Green Sand and the Wealden, at the Teston Cutting
Authors: Simms F. W.
Published: October 2009

The Author in this communication mentions that the beds resting on the “Wealden in this locality (near Teston turnpike, on the Maidstone junction of the South-Eastern Railway), seem to be identical with the marine clays found at Hythe and at Atherfield in the Isle of Wight. He adds, “There is also a bed of stone, not a continuous bed, but in concretionary masses, just above the junction, from which I obtained fossils, and which, I consider, represents the Atherfield rocks. This bed is also similar to the blocks taken from the cutting in the vicinity of Red Hill, near Reigate.” He adds, that the same junction can be traced from the Teston Cutting in the direction of Maidstone, to near the Farley Cutting through the Kentish Rag. The junction of the Wealden and greensand clays is at the bottom of the valley, near the banks of the river Medway.
On Fluorine in Bones, its source, and its application to the determination of the geological age of Fossil Bones
Authors: Middleton J.
Published: October 2009

The accumulation of fluoride of calcium in fossil bones constitutes a very interesting and important subject of inquiry in reference to Geology, since it seems to involve the element of
time
, so interesting in all geological investigations. It was with a feeling of this importance that I some time ago commenced a series of investigations, which are not yet completed, in order to ascertain the proportion of fluoride of calcium in bones that had been preserved for various periods, with a view to infer, if possible, from the mineral condition, the relative ages of the specimens.

The bones hitherto examined by me with this view consisted of some from the Sewalik Hills furnished to me by my friend Dr. Falconer, and some, for the permission to examine which I am indebted to the authorities of University College, London, in the chemical laboratory of which institution my investigations have been conducted. Among these last were the bones of a Greek, who had lived, it is supposed, about the time of the second Peloponnesian war (a coin of that period being found under the jaw of the skeleton), and a part of an Egyptian mummy in a remarkably perfect state of preservation. The Sewalik fossils were of the soft kind, those embedded in the clay in that locality, as they seemed better suited for comparison with bones of recent and known age and with those of early tertiary periods.
Notice of the Raised Beaches on the Western Coast of Ross-shire
Authors: Jeffreys J. G.
Published: October 2009

About two miles above Craig Inn, and eleven from the present termination of Loch Carron, there is a level platform extending for some distance in a parallel line with the valley up which the loch at present flows, elevated about 50 feet above the present sea level, and sloping at an angle of 45°, and its breadth seems the same as that of the present beach at its foot. Sixteen miles from the termination of the loch is a similar platform with the same direction and slope, but apparently at a higher level; and on the opposite side of the loch (which is about half a mile wide in that part) is a corresponding platform, similar in every respect to the other. This is outside the loch, about a mile below Strome ferry, which forms the entrance to it. Some miles further down the main channel of the sea, at a place called Plockton, the same appearances present themselves; and here the elevation is about 60 feet above high-water mark.

On examining this latter platform, I found underneath the superficial stratum of earth a bed of coral and shells two or three feet thick, and precisely similar to the beds which, as I ascertained by dredging, exist in the adjoining sea. The depth of the sea varied from three to upwards of a hundred fathoms.
Catalogue of Lower Greensand Fossils, in the Museum of the Geological Society, with Notices of Species New to Britain, Contained in other Collections
Authors: Forbes Edward
Published: October 2009

In the following list, after the name of the founder of the species, the best figure in a British work, or if there be none, in a foreign work, is quoted. Wherever there is a possibility of doubt, a note of interrogation is affixed. The localities quoted are those from which there are specimens in the collection. Other localities are given between brackets. The donors′ names will be given in a list at the termination of the catalogue.
Remarks on the Geology of British Guiana
Authors: Schomburgk Robert
Published: October 2009

The district alluded to by the author in this paper extends along the shore of the Atlantic from the mouth of the Amazons river to the embouchure of the Orinoco, its greatest length (between Cape North and the confluence of the Rio Xie with the Rio Negro) being about 1090 geographical miles, and its breadth (from the mouth of the Orinoco to the confluence of the Rio Negro with the Amazons) 710 miles. Throughout this tract no organic remains have yet been discovered, the whole being occupied by primitive rocks.

The banks and low lands near the chief rivers of Guiana are described as consisting at the surface of a bluish clay, impregnated with salt and mixed with decayed vegetable matter, forming a very productive soil. The delta of the Orinoco, and the embouchure of the Essequibo, present the same appearance.

The blue clay just described is usually succeeded by other clays of variegated colour, and these again by sands, composed of transparent white quartz. Water has been frequently obtained by boring through the clay to these sands, and in such cases the depth from the surface to which it has been necessary to sink varies from 120 to 230 feet.
Description of Some Fossil Remains of
Dinotherium, Giraffe
, and other Mammalia, from the Gulf of Cambay, Western Coast of India, Chiefly from the Collection Presented by Captain Fulljames, of the Bombay Engineers, to the Museum of the Geological Society
Authors: Falconer H.
Published: October 2009

During the late meeting of the British Association, at Cambridge, I made a communication to the Geological section on some new additions to the Fossil Fauna of India, from Perim Island, in the Gulf of Cambay. Among these were mentioned a species of
Dinotherium, Giraffe
, and a new Ruminant genus of a size nearly equalling the
Sivatherium
, found associated with remains of
Mastodon, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus
, and several species of Ruminants. The occurrence of
Dinotherium
in the extinct Fauna of India, is a point of such interest, that no delay ought to take place in laying before palæontologists the evidence upon which the statement is founded; and as the Geological Society possesses the largest collection of Perim Island fossils to which I have had access, including remains of most of the species to be noticed in the sequel, the pages of its journal are the fittest place for this communication, the main object, indeed, of which is to do justice to the meritorious labours of Captain Fulljames, of the Bombay Engineers, one of the earliest and most successful explorers of the ossiferous beds of Perim Island. This is the more called for, as considerable delay has occured in the description and determination of the remains which that officer collected and transmitted to England several years ago.
On the Palæozoic Deposits of Scandinavia and the Baltic Provinces of Russia, and their relations to Azoic or more ancient crystalline Rocks ; with an account of some great features of dislocation and metamorphism along their northern frontiers
Authors: Murchison Roderick Impey
Published: October 2009

The views of my friends, M. de Verneuil, Count Keyserling, and myself respecting the geological structure of large portions of Russia, particularly in reference to the palæozoic succession of that country, have been already laid before the Society. In those communications allusions were made to the absence of a well-defined base line for the Silurian rocks of the Baltic and the eastern governments of the empire, owing in some instances to the interposition of arms of the sea, or great interior lakes; in others, to great masses of detritus, which occupy the surface along the boundary line ; and in others again to the prevalence of eruptive rocks, which have to a great extent metamorphosed the sedimentary masses conterminous with the crystalline rocks of Lapland.
Description of certain Fossil Crania, discovered by A. G. Bain, Esq., in Sandstone Rocks at the South-eastern Extremity of Africa, referable to different Species of an extinct Genus of Reptilia (Dicynodon), and indicative of a new Tribe or Sub-order of Sauria
Authors: Owen Richard
Published: October 2009

The most remarkable character in these fossils is the presence of two long curved and sharp-pointed tusks, which, like those of the Walrus, descend one from each superior maxillary bone, and pass on the outside of the fore part of the lower jaw, a character rare even in Mammals, and hitherto only met with in that class; but in these specimens combined with a structure of the cranium, proving that the animals belonged to the class Reptilia, but were members neither of the Crocodilian nor Chelonian orders. The Lacertine Sauria offer characters for comparison, but the minor deviations from the ordinary Lacertian structure are so numerous, the mode in which Crocodilian and Chelonian characters are interwoven upon an essentially Lacertian base is so interesting, and the individual and distinctive characters of the Dicynodons so striking and peculiar as to require a detailed osteological description for their complete illustration.

In these animals, the Crocodilian structure is chiefly manifested in the occipital region of the skull, and gives place to the Lacertian characters in the upper and fore part; but in regard to these deviations it must be remembered, that the distinctive features of the Crocodilian type are most broadly manifested in the existing representatives of the order, and are modified and rendered less salient in the more numerous and varied extinct members.
On a new Species of
Pterodactyl
found in the Upper Chalk of Kent.
Authors: Bowerbank J. S.
Published: October 2009

I have recently obtained from the upper chalk of Kent some remains of a large species of
Pterodactylus
. The bones consist of—

1.

The fore part of the head as far as about the middle of the
cavitas narium
, with a corresponding portion of the under jaws,—many of the teeth remaining in their sockets. (See Plate, fig. 1.)

2.

A fragment of a bone of the same animal, apparently a part of the coracoid. (Fig. 2.)

3.

A portion of what appears to be one of the bones of the auricular digit, from a chalk-pit at Halling. (Fig. 3.)

4.

A portion of a similar bone, from the same locality as No. 1. (Fig. 4.)

5.

The head of a long bone, probably the tibia, belonging to the same animal as the head No. 1. (Fig. 5.)

6.

A more perfect bone of the same description, not from the same animal, but found at Halling. (Fig. 6.)

The latter specimen appears to me to be the same description of bone as that described by Professor Owen in the Geological Transactions (2nd Ser. vol. vi. p. 411, and pl. 39. fig. 1). The mutilated condition of the figured specimen would not allow Professor Owen to speak of its identity with the bird tribe with great certainty, and he at the same time points out its discrepant characters.
Notice of the Discovery of the Tusk of an Elephant in the Gravel near Rochester
Authors: Charlton W. J.
Published: October 2009

In this notice the author mentioned the fact, that many specimens of the bones and tusks of elephants have been found in the gravel near Rochester, about two furlongs from the banks of the Medway. The fragment in question was about three feet in length, and measured ten inches across at the larger and nine inches at the smaller end.
On the Geology of Gibraltar.
Authors: Smith James
Published: October 2009

The continent of Europe is terminated on the south and that of Africa on the north by a secondary formation of considerable extent, which is cut into two by the Straits of Gibraltar. The prevailing rock on both sides is siliceous sandstone, generally of a yellowish brown colour, which is associated with limestone and shale in different states of induration, and also with subordinate beds of chert and coal. Judging from external character I should pronounce it to belong to the true coal-measures, but the indications furnished by organic remains point rather to the Jurassic group. The evidence however is by no means conclusive; fossils are of such rare occurrence and in such an imperfect state, that no certain inference can, in the present state of our knowledge of its organic remains, be drawn from them. The Gibraltar limestone contains casts of marine shells, chiefly Terebratulæ, one of which appears to be the
T. fimbria
and the other the
T. concinna
of the ‘Mineral Conchology,’ both belonging to the lower oolite. A coal-pit has lately been opened about four miles to the north of Gibraltar, but hitherto with no other success than the discovery of a bed of arenaceous shale, with thin flakes of highly crystalline coal. The late Mr. Drummond Hay, the British consul at Tangier, informed me that there are also indications of coal on the African side of the Straits.

The hills round the Bay of Gibraltar rise to an elevation of between 200 and 3000 feet,
On the Geology of the neighbourhood of Tremadoc, Caernarvonshire
Authors: Davis J. E.
Published: October 2009

The little town of Tremadoc (in the northern part of Cardigan Bay) is beautifully situated on the north side of a valley formerly covered by the sea. Mr. Maddock having in the year 1813 made an embankment across the wider valley of Traeth Mawr, of which, on the western side, the Tremadoc valley was an inlet, the sea was barred out, the valley brought under cultivation, and the town erected. On approaching this district of Caernarvonshire from the east, it does not require the eye of a geologist to be assured that the sea once, and at a comparatively recent period, extended many miles inland. The succession of cliffs with steep escarpments facing the present line of coast, and extending inland up the eastern side of Traeth Mawr, one behind the other, for several miles, are striking features in the scenery of this romantic neighbourhood.

the stratified rocks of the district have a general strike from north-west to south-east, with a north-east dip. They consist of slates, shales, flags and sandstones, but, from the almost total absence of organic remains, the determination of the age of the beds must be a work of considerable diffuculty and time, and is one in which great caution is requisite, for all these rocks have apparently undergone great change of structure in many places, and that which is the same formation or bed, presented under a new aspect, may be easily mistaken for a totally distinct deposit.

Although some of the rocks are described
On the Strata called “Jackstones” at Merthyr Tydvil
Authors: Dickinson Jos.
Published: October 2009

Considering these stones in connexion with the ironstones and other strata with which they are associated, they are chiefly remarkable for the peculiarity of their structure and the great quantity of carbonate of lime which they contain. Few of the ironstones and scarcely any of the other strata in the coal-measures in this locality contain five per cent. of carbonate of lime, whilst these Jackstones contain forty-five.

Their usual structure is conical, the stones being made up of a series of distinct cones with serrated edges inserted into each other, having the apex of each cone directed towards the top of the stratum, although this is not invariably the case. The height of the cones is various, but those most perfectly formed seldom exceed four inches. Towards the upper and lower surface of the stratum, the conical structure frequently disappears and an even arrangement ensues.

These stones are disposed in seams similar to those of clay ironstone. They are of a brown and sometimes of a grey colour. They generally lie underneath and in contact with ironstone, and occasionally they intervene as a band in the middle of a seam, in which case, as well as in the former, there is generally a distinct line of division at the junction of the two stones. In many examples, however, the two stones blend imperceptibly with each other.

The thickness of a stratum of Jackstones seldom exceeds nine inches, and probably not more than three or four different strata could be enumerated
On Markings in the Hastings Sand Beds near Hastings, supposed to be the Footprints of Birds
Authors: Tagart Edward
Published: October 2009

This communication was in the form of a letter addressed to the President, and accompanied a specimen of one of the bodies described. The markings in question appear to have been observed by several persons at Hastings; but they have not been found consecutive, or having any distinct relation to one another. They are of large size, the one presented to the Society measuring sixteen inches in length; but there does not appear, either from this specimen or from the account communicated by the author, any decisive evidence as to their origin.
On the Superficial Detritus of Sweden, and on the Probable Causes which have affected the Surface of the Rocks in the Central and Southern portions of that kingdom
Authors: Murchison Roderick Impey
Published: October 2009

In the work on Russia and the adjoining countries published by M. de Verneuil, Count Keyserling and myself, the subject of the erratic and superficial phænomena of Scandinavia and the northern regions has been discussed at some length, the facts being derived from our joint observations in Russia, and also from personal researches of my own in Poland, Norway and Sweden during the summers of 1843 and 1844. Having since revisited Sweden, and having examined certain districts of that country in company with M. de Verneuil, I beg to lay before the Geological Society some additional data which we there collected, confirming and enlarging the views at which I had previously arrived, and still further elucidating the subject.

The superficial phænomena of Sweden so remarkable, that, to say nothing of native authors, few foreign .geologists have visited that kingdom without recording the ilnpresslon which their inspection produced. M. Alex. Brongniart published in the year 1828 a memoir on the erratic blocks of Sweden, in which, referring to De Luc, De Saussure, and others who had treated generally of the distribution of coarse detritus, he cites MM. Escher and yon Buch (particularly tile latter) as having well considered the northern examples. In this memoir M. Brongniart, after describing the linear form of the Osart, and the size, form and nature of their materials, specially calls attention to the fact, that their chief mass is composed of completely rounded water-worn gravel, often very coarse and containing boulders of some magnitude; and states,
Description of the Dukinfield Sigillaria
Authors: Binney E. W.
Published: October 2009

The fossil described in this communication was discovered in the colliery of Messrs. Swire, Lees and Co., at Dukinfield, about seven miles east of Manchester. It was found in the Victoria pit at a depth of 1100 feet from the surface, and in the floor of the Cannel or Two-feet mine. The following is a section of the beds in the vicinity of the tree:—

The dip of the strata is nearly due west, at an angle of 29°.

The Cannel or Two-feet mine consists of sixteen inches of good cannel and ten inches of ordinary coal. The floor is a dark-coloured fire-clay, called by the miners “tender metal,” containing numerous nodules of ironstone. Its depth I traced to between three and four feet, and it may extend much deeper. The geological position of the Cannel-coal is in the lower part of the middle division of the Lancashire coal-field, about 120 yards above the last thick seam in the series, a position nearly the same as that of the deposits in which the St. Helens' trees were discovered, but the distance between the two localities in a direct line is about twenty-eight miles.

The fossil in question was first examined and noticed by Mr. M. Dunn, and the tree had been removed and brought to Manchester before I went down into the mine to view the place where it was ibund.

I examined the bed of fire-clay and the spot where the fossil had lain, and found traces of the
On a Group of Erect Fossil Trees in the Sydney Coal-Field of Cape Breton
Authors: Brown Richard
Published: October 2009

In a hasty sketch of the geological structure of the island of Cape Breton, which appeared in the second number of the ‘Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,’ I stated that excellent sections of the Sydney coal-measures were exhibited in the sea-cliffs extending from Miray Bay to Gape Dauphin. I have recently examined one of the most interesting sections within those limits, viz. that afforded by the cliffs on the N.W. shore of Sydney Harbour, which runs directly at right angles to the strike of the strata, exposing almost every individual bed from the old red sandstone, through the overlying carboniferous limestone, millstone grit and coal-measures.

The total thickness of the coal-measures, calculated from the highest bed of the millstone grit to their abrupt termination on the sea-coast, is 1843 feet, their dip being N.E. at an angle of 8°.

In this section erect fossil trees are found at various levels, but they are more particularly abundant in a stratum of arenaceous shale lying almost immediately under the main coal, where within a space of eighty feet, measured along the base of the cliff, eight erect trunks are seen with roots and rootlets attached to them.

Fig. 1 is a section of the strata under the main coal, showing the relative positions of the trees at right angles to the planes of stratification~ as they appear in the face of the cliff, the upper part of which overhangs and prevents us from observing how far the stems continue upwards. In
On the Newer Deposits of the Southern States of North America
Authors: Lyell Charles
Published: October 2009

In a communication formerly made, I gave a short notice on the Alabama coal-fields; I now propose to say something, but very briefly, of the newer deposits of the South, the post-pliocene and tertiary, so far as I have examined them in my present tour.

First, in regard to the post-pliocene occupying the coast and the lowest lands for some leagues inland in Georgia, the marine shells contained in deposits of clay and sand differ in no way from those of the adjoining sea. They are found arranged in groups, littoral and pelagic, as now on or near the shore. Such is observed to be the case in the island of Skiddaway, which is part of the delta of the Savannah river, and in the country between the mouth of the. Alatamaha and the Turtle river in Glynn county, Georgia. These marine sandy deposits resemble exactly those which must be now forming off the neighbouring coast, and are covered in some spots by dark-coloured clay containing the remains of quadrupeds of extinct species, the Megatherium, Mylodon, Mastodon giganteus, Elephasprimigenius, the Horse and others, with a large Chelonian.I visited numerous localities on the Brunswick canal, near Darien, in company with Mr. Hamilton Couper, to whom we owe the discovery and careful exhumation of these remains, nearly all of which he has munificently presented to several public museums in the United States, especially those of Washington and Philadelphia. Everywhere I observed that there is no intermixture of the deposit containing the land
On the Silurian and Associated Rocks in Dalecarlia, and on the Succession from Lower to Upper Silurian in Smoland, öland, and Gothland, and in Scania
Authors: Murchison Roderick I.
Published: October 2009

Having already communicated the additional knowledge I obtained last year (1845), concerning the drift and erratic blocks of Sweden*, I propose in this memoir to give the results of the examination of those palæozoic and associated rocks in several parts of that country which fell under the joint observation of my friend M. de Verneuil and myself during the same period.

Two of the districts under review have not been critically examined since they were described by Hisinger; and this memoirs being the Swedish language, with which few persons are familiar, and having been written before the palæozoic classification was established, no apology is required for the present attempt to group correctly all the ancient sedimentary deposits in those tracts, and to show what additions have been made to our knowledge of them by recent researches*.

In a memoir communicated to this Society in the year 1844, and in the first chapter of the work on Russia, I endeavoured, partly by personal exploration, and partly by the inspection of fossils in the Museums of Stockholm and Christiania, to group the palæozoic masses with Lower and Upper Silurian strata. But as an additional survey could not fail materially to improve my acquaintance with these deposits (particularly as I was on the last occasion accompanied by my able associate, M. de Verneuil), I now place the main results of our last tour before British geologits. These results coincide with the general view of the Scandinavian succession which was before propounded, and which
Additional Remarks on the Deposit of Œningen in Switzerland
Authors: Murchison Roderick Impey
Published: October 2009

Referring to a memoir published by him in the Transactions of the Geological Society eighteen years ago, the author explained that, with the consent of Dr. Mantell, he had requested Professor Owen to examine critically the original specimen of the so-called “Fossil Fox of Œningen,” which has never been out of his possession. This request was made in consequence of a recent work of M. Hermann von Meyer, who, judging from the drawing alone of that animal, had named it
Canis palustris
. In alluding to certain criticisms of M. von Meyer, Sir Roderick admitted that he had misconstrued the ideas of M. Karg respecting the freshwater deposit in which the Œningen fossils are found, the opinion of that author having to a great degree anticipated his own. On the other hand it was shown, that M. von Meyer had misinterpreted the meaning attached to a diagram published in the paper referred to in the Transactions of the Geological Society, presuming that it was intended to represent the Molasse sandstone and the conglomerate, on which the freshwater deposit reposes, as being made up of highly inclined strata. Not having such intention. Sir Roderick stated that he merely wished to indicate that the underlying rocks were essentially different from those above them; since these inferior strata could be followed eastwards to the south side of the adjacent lake of Constance, where they are highly inclined and charged with fossils exclusively marine. They thus differ entirely from the superposed marls of Œningen, which