bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geological Features of the Country round the Mines of the Taurus in the Pashalic of Diarbekr described from Observations made in the Year 1843
Authors: Smyth Warington W.
Published: October 2009

In that part of Asiatic Turkey, where the provinces of Anatolia, Armenia, Kurdistan, and Mesopotamia unite, the chain of the Taurus is bounded on the one side by the Euphrates and on the other by the Tigris, and this district, being now out of the way of the main roads of commerce, has until within a few years been almost entirely neglected.

The interest, however, attached to these regions in the present precarious state of the Ottoman- empire, and the difficulty of obtaining information concerning them, will excuse the imperfect condition of the sketch now offered of the geographical and geological configuration of the country; but I have to regret that my absence during some years from England prevented my being acquainted with the valuable information to be obtained from the published routes of Messrs. Brant and Ainsworth.

The line of road which I took enabled me to complete the section of the country in a direct line from the Euphrates to the town of Sivas, and a Stay of some weeks put it in my power to obtain some interesting details concerning the important mines of copper at Arghaneh Maden, and of silver at Kebban Maden, as well as others more or less neglected, which lie in various parts of Armenia and the N. E. of Asia Minor.
Observations on the White Limestone and other Eocene or Older Tertiary Formations of Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia
Authors: Lyell Charles
Published: October 2009

The tertiary deposits occupying a lower position than the Miocene strata described in the last paper, were first referred by Mr. Conrad to the Eocene period, in the “Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences” for 1830. Some of these strata have been observed by Mr. Conrad on the Potomac at Fort Washington in Maryland (“Fossil Tertiary Shells,” p. 30.); but the most northern which I myself examined were in Virginia, at Richmond, at Petersburg, and at several points on the James River. The formation in this region consists in great part of greensand and marl, containing green earth, so precisely like that which characterises the cretaceous strata of New Jersey, that were it not for the distinctness of the fossil shells, it would be impossible in many places to separate these deposits by mere reference to their mineral composition.

Farther south, in N. and S. Carolina, and in Georgia, the eocene formation acquires a larger development and a new mineral type, consisting of highly calcareous white marl and white limestone, and passing upwards, especially in Georgia, into red and white clays, ferruginous sands, with associated layers of burrstone and siliceous rock.
On the supposed Evidences of the former Existence of Glaciers in North Wales
Authors: Macintosh Angus Friend
Published: October 2009

The author states, that having noticed some remarkable phenomena in a part of North Wales, which seemed to militate strongly against the theory advanced by Prof. Agassiz, and supported by Dr. Buckland, on the subject of glaciers, he was induced to examine carefully the district in question, and that, after long investigation, he has formed a decided opinion that the district affords no sufficient proof of the former existence of glaciers in any part of it. He then considers
seriatim
the different points of evidence that have been adduced and their value.
On the Coal Beds of Lower Normandy.
Authors: Austen R. A. C.
Published: October 2009

Several tours in Lower Normandy have enabled me to observe the geological structure of that district, and to trace the distribution of fossil forms through several groups of strata. It was my intention to have embodied these facts in two separate memoirs, of which one would have related to the Palæozoic group, and the other to the Cretaceous; but in the autumn of 1844 I revisited many parts of Belgium and Rhenish Prussia, and have, in consequence, been induced to alter my original plan of describing the Cotentin and part of Calvados separately; and instead of this I now propose to lay before the Society two
general memoirs
on those two groups, as they are developed in Western Europe. I have therefore detached the short notice of the Littry and Plessis coal-fields, which form the subject of the present communication, from the memoir of which it originally formed part.

My last visit to Lower Normandy was in the autumn of 1843. I had then expected to find a line of section taken northwards from about Balleroy as far as the coal-mines of Littry would have given a good ascending section, and have exhibited the distinct relations of a true carboniferous series, to the older slate rocks of Calvados : such however was not the case. The road in this direction lies partly through the forest of Cerissy, across a tract which preserves a very uniform level, and which is covered superficially with acculumations of siliceous grits rounded into pebbles, mixed
On the Geology of Lycia.
Authors: Forbes Edward , Spratt T. A. B.
Published: October 2009

The district explored by the authors extends over two degrees of longitude and one of latitude. It is chiefly occupied by a series of alpine plains and mountain ridges, broken up by four great valleys, which open seawards. The mountain mass of Cragus rises to 7500 feet, that of the Lycian Taurus to 7000 feet, that of Massicytus to 10,000, Soosoos-Dagh to 7000, and Mount Solyma to 7000. The plains or
yailahs
which these mountain ridges wall in, vary in elevation from 2000 to 6000 feet above the sea. They have no outlets; the rivers which water them pour into caverns, and reappear again at the bases of the mountains in the low country near the sea. Geologically, they appear to be valleys of elevation.

sedementary rocks
.—The oldest stratified rock in Lycia si the
Scaglia
or
Apennine limestone
, usually referred to the cretaceous epoch. It forms the great mass of the country and the highest mountains, 10,000 feet above the sea; it is usually a cream-coloured compact limestone, sometimes a gray or pink stone of looser texture, and in place brecciated. In Milyas it degenerates into soft chalky limestone, resembling chalk, and difficult to distinguish from the freshwater tertiary limestones. Near Lake Caralitis the harder and softer beds of the scagli are interstratified : the more compact scaglia is usually very thick-bedded. The strata dip at all possible angles, and are often much disturded and contorted : the dip is generallyfrom the axis of the mountain chains. Fossils are very
On the relation of the New Red Sandstone to the Carboniferous Strata in Lancashire and Cheshire.
Authors: Binney E. W.
Published: October 2009

Latterly much attention has been devoted by English geologists in endeavouring to trace the upper boundary of the carboniferous strata, and to show the connexion of the latter with the beds of the overlying new red sandstone formation. This subject, although it has often been treated upon, still possesses great interest, as by it alone can we obtain certain information with regard to the probable extent of our valuable coal-fields, all of which, on their dip, disappear under the new red sandstone.

At the Manchester meeting I had the pleasure of showing to some of the members of the British Association an excavation exhibiting the lower new red sandstone in contact with the coal-measures. In the present paper it is my intention to describe all the similar sections that I have met with in the counties of Lancaster and Chester. Before doing this, however, it will be desirable to give a general sketch of both the new red sandstone and carboniferous groups on the west of the penine chain. The new red sandstone formation occupies nearly the whole of the county of Chester, and a considerable portion of Lancashire.

It may be conveniently divided into—The deposits marked
a
and
b
, so far as they are yet known, have been found too be conformable to each other, but there is reason for believing that the latter deposit is not always conformable to the underlying waterstones. The last-named beds also are conformable to the upper new red sandstone, can be seen at
An account of the Fine Dust which often falls on Vessels in the Atlantic Ocean.
Authors: Darwin Charles
Published: October 2009

Many
scattered accounts have appeared concerning the dust which has fallen in considerable quantities on vessels on the African side of the Atlantic Ocean. It has appeared to me desirable to collect these accounts, more especially since Professor Ehrenberg's remarkable discovery that the dust consists in considerable part of Infusoria and Phytolitharia. I have found fifteen distinct statements of dust having fallen; and several of these refer to a period of more than one day, and some to a considerably longer time. Other less distinct accounts have also appeared. At the end of this paper I will give the particular cases, and will here only refer to the more striking ones and make a few general remarks.

The phænomenon has been most frequently observed in the neighbourhood of the Cape Verd Archipelago. The mnost southern point at which dust is recorded to have fallen is noticed by Capt. Hayward, on whose vessel is fell whislt sailing from lat. 10° N. to 2° 56′ N.; the distance from the nearest of the Cape Verd Islands being between 450 and 850 miles. respecting the northern limit, the water fro the great distance on both sides of C. Noon (in lat. 28° 45′) is discoloured owing in part, according to Lieut. Arlett, to the quantities of falling dust. Hence the phænomenon has been observed over a space of at least 1600 miles of latitude. This dust has several times fallen on vessels when between 300 and 600 miles from the coast of Africa
On two Species of Microscopic Shells found in the Lias.
Authors: Strickland H. E.
Published: October 2009

The shells of the microscopic order
Foraminifera
, which occur so abundantly in the cretaceous and tertiary series, are found much more rarely as we descend through the secondary formations. Examples of them have indeed occurred both in the oolitic and the palæozoic series, but I believe that these fossils have not hitherto been met with in the lias.

The Rev. P.B. Brodie, while pursuing his interesting and successful researches into the fossil insects of the lower lias, was the first to discover these minute objects. In a bed of yellowish shaly stone, a few feet above the ‘insect limestone’ of wainlode cliff, Gloucesrtershire, he detected small white dots about 1/50th of an inch in diameter, which when examined by a powerful microscope prove to discoid spiral shells, apparently unattached, with five to six smooth, rounded, narrow volutions, devoid of striations or any other distinctive characters. As there are no traces of concamerations, we perhaps ought to refer them to the
serpulidæ
rather than the
Foraminifera
, although their extreme minuteness would point to be latter family as a more probable clue to their affinities. It has been suggested to me that their characters resemble those of the genus
Orbis
of Lea, and I will therefore denominate the fossil provisionally
Orbis infimus
(see figure a). These fossils also occur ina similar bed of shaly limestone near the base of the lias at Cleeve Bank, between Evesham and Bidford. Along with them I here obtained one specimen of an equally minute fossil, which
Remarks on the Level of the Piræus Harbour near Athens, and of the country adjacent
Authors: Everest Robert
Published: October 2009

The author in this paper directs attention to certain appearances which he considers afford evidence of a depression of land along certain portions of the Mediterranean coast. These appearances consist of the foundations of some ancient buildings now observed to be below the water-line, and of sarcophagi now also below the sea-level.
On the Occurrence of a Fossil Petro-tympanic Bone of a Whale from the Crag near Ipswich
Authors: Rose C. B.
Published: October 2009

During a visit to the Crag district of Suffolk in July 1844, while travelling up the Orwell towards Ipswich, and at a short distance below Holywells, a celebrated Crag locality, I observed a patch of crag on the upper part of a somewhat lofty portion of the bank of the river, and went ashore to examine it. I had not long searched the mass, which consisted chiefly of broken shells, ere I found a heavy nodule, which I soon recognised as the tympanic bone of a Cetacean. It is nearly perfect, having only a portion about an inch in length broken from one end of it. Its fractured extremity exhibits the following characters:—The central portion is of the colour of ferruginous clay; there is next a band of dark ferruginous stain, and exterior to the last a layer of an ochrey colour, somewhat darker than the central portion, and which is easily chipped from the dark-coloured layer; innumerable minute indentations are visible upon its surface, more particularly upon the involuted portion. The colour of the different layers observed in my specimen is undoubtedly derived from a ferruginous infiltration; the texture is that of exceedingly dense bone,—a solidity appropriate to the function of the organ to which it belongs, and very unlike the texture of some coprolitic (?) bodies I possess from the Crag, which exhibit somewhat similar concentric bands, but a decidedly
crystalline
fracture, particularly in the dark-coloured bands.

The long diameter of my fossil is three and a quarter
On the Scratched Boulders and Rocks of the Coal-field of Scotland.
Authors: Smith James
Published: October 2009

The phænomenon of scratched boulders has of late attracted attention from its supposed connexion with glacial action; but before the researches of Professor Agassiz had excited so much interest on the subject, it had been but little attended to. When he visited Scotland in 1840, with the object of searching for proofs of the former existence of glaciers in that country, and their connexion with the erratic blocks and the so-called diluvium or till, his attention was immediately arrested by the striæ which were observed upon some of the blocks. He however admitted to me then, as he has since done in his paper on the subject, that the deposit in which these boulders occurred “was not produced by true glaciers, although intimately connected with the phænomena of ice.” He also states, in the above-quoted paper, that “the erratic blocks in Switzerland are always angular,” which is just what might have been expected if they were transported by ice, whether upon glaciers or icebergs. The erratic blocks in Scotland, on the other hand, are rounded, and we have two problems to solve,—how have they been rounded? and how have they been scratched? Before attempting to answer these questions, it is necessary that we should be made acquainted with all the circumstances under which these blocks are found; we can then compare the facts with proposed solutions, and by excluding those which are inconsistent with well-established facts, be driven at last to that solution which explains them all.

Every person has
Description of Footmarks and other Imprints on a slab of New Red Sandstone, from Turner's Falls, Massachusetts, U.S., collected by Dr. James Deane of Greenfield, U.S.
Authors: Mantell Gideon Algernon
Published: October 2009

Having recently received from Dr. James Deane a small slab of stone covered with Ornithichnites belonging to two species, and some of these imprints exhibiting the character of the surface of the dermal integument more distinctly than any other specimen brought to this country, I am desirous of submitting it to the examination of the Society, with the following description which accompanied it.

The slab is about two feet in diameter and half an inch in thickness. On the upper surface there are two rows of small elegant footmarks, of the species termed by Professor Hitcheock
Ornithiehhires gracillima
; one row consists of five, and the other of six consecutive impressions. There is also a row of four footprints of a much larger species, the O.
fulicoides
(so named from their resemblance to the ibotmarks of the recent cinereous coot,
Fulica Americana
). These are arranged around the circumference of the slab, and their alternate order proves that they have been impressed by the same individual. ‘There is a rare peculiarity displayed in these larger impressions that adds greatly to their interest: it is the markings of the papillæ, and folds of the cutaneous integument, which are very distinct; and this character,’ says Dr. Deane, ‘I have only observed in two other examples. The papillæ may be seen most distinct in the first, second, and fourth footstep ; particularly in the last of the series, on the top of the slab.’ The three rows of footprints above-described embrace fifteen impressions, and
On the Geology of the Island of St. Mary's, one of the Azores.
Authors: Hunt T. Carew
Published: October 2009

The island of St. Mary's, the easternmost of the Azores, is about seven miles in length from east to west, and five in breadth from north to south, and is divided naturally into a plain and an elevated district, which, taken together, mark its aspect from the sea. The plain occupies about one-third part on the west side of the island, the other part being formed of an elevated ridge running from north-west to south-east, which rises to a double peak (Pico Alto) 1889 feet above the sea, and of which the sides decline on the north, east and south to mural cliffs of considerable height.

The base appears to be a dark blue compact basalt, containing minute crystals of olivine. This basalt has in some parts assumed a contorted columnar structure and near the town of Villa do Porto a distinct prismatic character. Above this bed is a coarse red wacké, passing to a cellular brown amygdaloid, its softer parts thickly imbedded with splendent crystals of augite, and the cells of the harder mostly filled with arragonite in three varieties of crystallization, and carbonate of lime. In both are occasional imperfect crystals of hornblende. This would seem to be the second bed of the island, and to it succeed deposits of marine shells of variable thickness, in which the most conspicuous shells are the lesser and greater scallop, mixed in parts with an arenaceous cement and rounded nodules of basalt, breccia and amygdaloid, and interstratifled with films and layers
Description of some Fossil Fruits from the Chalk Formation of the South-east of England.
Authors: Mantell Gideon Algernon
Published: October 2009

The small number of plants hitherto discovered in the Chalk formation of England renders any addition to the Cretaceous flora important; I am therefore induced to lay before the Society descriptions and figures of three fruits from the Chalk and Lower greensand of Kent and Sussex, that an authentic record may be preserved of these unique and interesting relics.

1. Zamia Sussexiensis, Mantell. Plate II. fig. 1. from the lower greensand at Selmeston, Sussex.

More than twenty years since I discovered a deposit of calcareous wood in the strata of greensand near Willingdon, a village about three miles to the north-west of Easrbourn, in the country of Sussex : a similar accumulation of fossil wood occurs in a sand-bank in the adjacent parish of Selmeston, at the junction of the lower green-sand with the gault, and is described in my ‘Fossils of the South Downs’ (p.76). The specimens collected from these localities consist of waterworn fragments of stems and braches, which are generally more or less perforated by boring mollusca.

The structure of the wood is decidely coniferous : transverse sections present concentric circles and medullary rays, and a reticulated surface composed of distinct cellules, varying in form from the circular to the elliptical. In a longitudinal division the tubes or woody fibres are seen to be uniform, and to have their walls studded with nearly circular dises or areolé disposed in double rows, the discs being irregularly alternate, as in the recent
Araucaria
. In a few examples spiral vessels
A Stratigraphical Account of the Section from Atherfield to Rocken-end in the Isle of Wight.
Authors: Fitton Wm. H.
Published: October 2009

The south coast of the Isle of Wight, it is well known, exhibits the whole series of deposits from the chalk down to the Wealden; the section, especially of the lower greensand near Atherfield, being of greater thickness than any other in England, while it is continuously exposed and accessible in all its parts. The object of the present communication is to describe this remarkable section anew; the author stating, that from the time and labour recently employed in extending his collection of the fossils, he believes it to be the most complete that has yet been brought together. The description is illustrated by a sectional drawing, and by a tabular list of the strata and of the fossils, so arranged that the succession of the beds and stratigraphical place or places of every species may be seen at one view. Such a document being a picture of nature, and representing only what has been actually observed, suggests of itself various general views respecting the order and distribution of the fossils, and may be employed as a test of the soundness of speculations connected with them; and it is shown that some of the opinions expressed in former numbers of this Journal derive support from the more extensive series of facts thus displayed.

The fossils here enumerated contain a very large number of those considered as characteristic of the corresponding groups on the continent of Europe, to which, in Switzerland and France, the name of ‘Neocomian’ has been applied ;
On the circumstances and phænomena presented by the Granite of Lundy Island, and of Hestercombe in the Quantock Hills, compared with those which characterise the Granites of Devon and Cornwall.
Authors: Williams D.
Published: October 2009

The author commenced by referring to two former papers read before the Society, in which he pointed out the condition of mountain limestone and new red sandstone at their contact with trap-rocks, and expressed his opinion that the trap was itself in great measure or entirely an altered condition of the rock which it seems to penetrate. He now states that he has found very numerous instances of similar reciprocal effects or mutual metamorphism in Devonshire and Cornwall, whenever the sedimentary strata are intersected by dykes of igneous rock, or contain it in an imbedded form, but that very different effects are observable when these strata have been invaded by so-called granite veins or vein-like processes. He proposes therefore to select two instances in confirmation of the evidence formerly adduced, and he wishes these two to be taken merely as examples. He considers the hypothesis of injection insufficient to account for the phænomena presented by the amygdaloidal traps and their association with the new red sandstone in the quarries about Exeter, Crediton and Tiverton.

The granite or syenite of Hestercombe in the Quantocks was first described, many years ago, by Mr. L. Horner. It is true dyke extending at first for about a quarter of a mile in a direction north-east by east and south-west by west, cutting the slate-rocks obliquely. It may then be traced by the rubby tillage land above in a direction due west, as far as a little glen and rivulet about a furlong and a
On the Age of the newest Lava Current of Auvergne, with remarks on some Tertiary Fossils of that Country.
Authors: Lyell Charles
Published: October 2009

Until my recent visit to Auvergne in 1843, I was never able to hear of the discovery of any fossils so connected with the most modern class of volcanic cones and currents of lava, as to enable us to assign to them any other than a very indefinite geological date. But when in the course of my last tour I inquired of the Abbé Croizet, well known as an eminent comparative osteologist, if he had yet found any fossil bones or shells in gravel lying immediately under the newest lava-streams, he replied that he had recently met with a great number of mammiferous remains at Nechers, in a bed of reddish sandy clay, which rested against the side of the long and narrow coulée which has issued from the Puy de Tartaret. This hill, as the readers of Scrope's ‘Geology of Auvergne’ will remember, is one which, by its position in the bottom of a valley at the lower end of the Lac de Chambon, and by the integrity of its heap of loose scoriæ, has all the characters belonging to the class of most modern cones, those which have been least altered by time. The lava issuing from it forms a narrow stripe, occupying for more than thirteen miles the bottom of the valley in which the river Couze de Chambon flows, and at length terminating at the small town of Nechers, about six miles north-west of Issoire. At a short distance above the end of the current in
On the supposed Fossil Bones of Birds from the Wealden
Authors: Owen
Published: October 2009

Having lately, in a re-examination of the Wealden fossil described in the Transactions of this Society, chiefly on my authority, as the tarso-metatarsal bone of a Bird, exposed by the detachment of the matrix that adhered to its extremity some characters not visible when the fossil was first submitted to me, and having been led by those new characters to institute a more extended and rigorous comparison of the fossil than it was in my power to do ten years ago, I believe myself in a condition to demonstrate my former error in ascribing it to the class of Birds, and I therefore lose no time in rectifying it. The character mainly relied on as proving the fossil in question to be the lower end of a tarso-metatarsal bone of a wading bird, was the rough oval spot marked
o
in fig. 1
b
, pl. 13, of the above-cited volume, and this, if interpreted as the articular surface for the hind-toe, would indicate a form of metatarsal bone like that of the restored figure given by Dr. Mantell, by the dotted outline in the above-cited plate.

But the characters since brought to light prove the bone (fig. 1) to have terminated much nearer the oval spot (
o
), since they consist of
two portions of the distal smooth articular
surface, one (
a
, fig.1 & 3) situated near the margin of one side of the joint, at right angles to the axis of the bone; the other surface (
b
) being a smooth
On Amber and on the Organic Remains found in it.
Authors: Göppert
Published: October 2009

Amber appears to be a product formed during the period of the Molasse. The forests in which the trees grew whence this substance was derived, were situated in the south-eastern part of what is now the bed of the Baltic, in about 55° north latitude, and 37°–38° east longitude. With the commencement of the diluvial period this forest was gradually (probably at long intervals) destroyed, being swept away by diluvial torrents, and possibly also by storms coming from the north and north-east, and the amber was thus drifted to the south and south-west, on the coasts and in the countries where we now find it. Amber was a resinous exudation from an extinct pine,
Pinites succinifer
, most nearly allied to
Pinus abies
and
P. Picea
, but differing from these in several respects. The resin exuded chiefly from the root stock, but also from the bark and the wood, as is still the case with the resin called
Copal
, and others. The different colours of amber are derived from local circumstances of chemical admixture.

Among the fragments of vegetable matter contained in this substance those of dicotyledonous trees are chiefly abundant, and the tribe of
Coniferæ
no doubt occupied a great part of the amber forest. Of Pine there are at least four species, and with these we find
Cypress, Taxodium, Thuia
(five species), and also
Juniper
and
Ephedra
. Of leaf-bearing trees we find
Quercus, Fagus, Carpinus, Betula
and
Populus
; and of underwood,
Ericacæ
with coriaceous leaves &c., forming in the
On the Occurrence of Nodules (called Petrified Potatoes) found on the Shores of Lough Neagh in Ireland
Authors: Buckland
Published: October 2009

The author stated that these peculiar nodules seem to be limited in their occurrence to the space between high and low water on the margin of Lough Neagh. Their average size is from two to three inches in diameter; they are irregularly spherical or suboval, with the surface occasionally indented. They are composed of a grey marlstone interspersed with black and green sand. They effervesce with acids.

Extraneous fragments occasionally project from them and are half imbedded in their sides. On being broken they are found to be intersected with cracks, like septaria, probably the result of desiccation, and subsequently filled by crystalline carbonate of lime.

The author explains the origin of these stones by referring to the analogous concretions of clay described by him many years ago, and occurring on the sea-shore at Lyme Regis. These latter are coprolitic, containing within them undigested scales and bones of fishes; but the Lough Neagh stones, although only containing fragments of stone, are, like these marine Bezoars of Lyme, formed by the rolling action of the waves of the lake on balls of clay, which gather up any extraneous substance that may come within their adhesive contact.

They have been subsequently hardened by exposure to the drying action of sun and wind in summer, and afterwards have again undergone attrition by the waves when the waters of the lake have once more reached them, perhaps at the return of winter.
On the Classification of the Fossiliferous Slates of Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire (being a Supplement to a paper read to the Society, March 12, 1845)
Authors: Sedgwick A.
Published: October 2009

Introduction.—An abstract of my former memoir on this subject having been published in the first volume of the Geological Journal*, I am spared the necessity of entering on many details by way of introduction. Since however the subject before me is one of great complexity, I may be permitted to enumerate the results I before arrived at, and to illustrate them by sections.

The general section through the great Cumbrian cluster of mountains gives us three distinct groups of slate rocks.

III. Upper system of slates, with a few calcareous bands full of fossils, the whole deposit more or less fossiliferous.

II. Green roofing slate and contemporaneous porphyry, &c.

I. Skiddaw slate, the lower part of which is metamorphic. The superficial extent of these three groups is represented on the maps of Cumberland and Westmoreland which I have had the honour to present to the Society, and the lowermost (I .) has no exact parallel in Wales. The one marked II. is put on the parallel of the Snowdonian slates, but in Cumbria contains no fossils. The next (I I I .) commences with beds of the age of the Caradoc sandstone, and ends with rocks obviously of the age of the Upper Ludlow rocks and tilestone of the Silurian system: it therefore includes the whole or nearly the whole of that system. The subdivisions of this great physical group (I I I .) were described in detail in the paper just alluded to, and were in the following order
Notices of some Fossils found in the Coal Formation of Nova Scotia
Authors: Dawson John William
Published: October 2009

Ichnolites
.—The coal-formation of Nova Scotia has already yielded ichnolites of three species, specimens of which, all unfortunately very imperfect, have been presented to the Geological Societby Mr. Logan and the writer of the present paper ~. Desiring toadd to the value of this discovery, I spent several days of last summer in a careful re-examination of the red sandstones at Tatmagouche, which had formerly afforded these fossils, and in explorinsome other localities in which beds of the same age appear. The results of these examinations are,
first
, the discovery of a few additional footmarks of one of the species of which specimens were sent last winter to the Geological Society. These new specimens are not however more distinctly marked than those formerly found at the same place.
Secondly
, the discovery, in a bed of coarse reddish shale immediately overlying the bed containing ichnolites, of some coprolitic bodies, probably of common origin with the footsteps. One of these coprolites, on analysis, was found to consist chiefly of carbonate of lime and argillaceous matter, with a considerable proportion of phosphate of lime, and traces of chlorine and organic matter. The figure of a well-marked specimen is given in the accompanying Plate, fig. 1.
Thirdly
, a confirmation of my previous belief of the carboniferous dute of these beds with footmarks, by finding in them impressions of a species of Neuropteris common in our coal-formation, and fragments of
Sternbergia
and of a lycopodiaceous plant found in carboniferous beds, in various other parts of this
Notes on the Fossil Plants communicated by Mr. Dawson from Nova Scotia
Authors: Bunbury C. J. F.
Published: October 2009

The observations of Mr. Dawson on the fossil roots having the characters of Stigmaria are curious and important, as corroborating the statement communicated by Mr. Binney to the British Association in June 1845, respecting the tree with similarly marked roots which was discovered at St. Helens in Lancashire. Mr. Binney's statement, clear and positive as it seemed, has nevertheless been doubted by some of our most eminent geologists, who have believed the connexion of the supposed stem and roots to be merely apparent or accidental; and it is possible that similar doubts may be thrown on Mr. Dawson's observations. He appears however to have satisfied himself, that one of the Stigmaria-like specimens now before us did actually proceed in the manner of a root from the base of the stem. These specimens differ in some degree from the best-characterized forms of Stigmaria, their scars not having the distinctly circular and umbilicated form that is usual in that fossil: the appearance is as if the leaves or rootlets (whichever they may be) had not been disarticulated, but broken off abruptly; yet the symmetrical quincuncial arrangement of these scars, the presence of the excentric axis, and the general appearance of the fossils, leave no doubt that they are referable to the supposed genus
Stigmaria
.

It has been urged, that the symmetrical arrangement of the scars is a fatal objection to the idea that these bodies were roots, which never emit their fibres with any degree of regularity; but, unless we suppose that
On the Tertiary or Supracretaceous Formations of the Isle of Wight as exhibited in the Sections at Alum Bay and White Cliff Bay
Authors: Prestwich Joseph
Published: October 2009

In the London tertiary district there are but few good sections of the middle and upper Eocene strata; and there is no part of it in which the order of superposition is so well shown, or can be so conveniently studied, as in the coast sections of Hampshire and of the Isle of Wight. Owing to this better and more permanent stratigraphical evidence, it may be desirable, before treating of the London tertiaries, to fix the subdivisions of the contemporaneous Hampshire series, in order that they may serve as types and points of reference. I therefore beg to submit to the Society the following observations made in the autumn of 1839, which I should have brought forward at an earlier period, had I not hoped to have rendered them more complete by a further examination of the district, which however I have not had leisure since to resume.

The general details of this subject are well known. I will briefly note the results obtained by former observers, and then examine in succession the development and nature of the organic remains, conjointly with the changes of lithological characters and of dip, and I hope these may tend to remove some of the uncertainty and doubt which seem still to exist, particularly on the continent, on the subject of the fauna of these strata, and on the period of the disturbance by which they have been affected. Their age and synchronism with the Paris groups also require, I think, some material revision.
Contributions to the Geology of North Wales
Authors: Sharpe Daniel
Published: October 2009

The author made a tour in North Wales, having two objects principally in view: the first, to classify the stratified rocks of that country; the second, to ascertain what are the beds that lie below the Silurian rocks of Sir R. Murchison, and whether those beds contain any organic remains.

After first observing the structure of those parts of the country where the order of superposition in the beds was already known, he proceeded to examine other districts where the arrangement of the rocks is more obscure and complicated.

Upper Silurian Rocks.—Llangollen district

He began by studying the Llangollen district, described by the late Mr. Brown. He agrees that geologist in referring the Upper Silurian rocks in that neighbourhood, partly to the Ludlow and partly to the Wenlock series of Sir R. Murchison.

Ludlow series. — This series, in descending order, consists of

1.

Thin, grey, micaceous beds, containing Terebratula navicula, Leptæna lata, several species of Cypricardia, and other fossils

2.

Liver-coloured shales.

3.

Blue shale

The distinction which exists in the English border countries, between the Upper and Lower Ludlow beds, cannot her be made out; nor is there any trace of the Aymestry limestrone. There are so few fossils in the greater part of the Ludlow amd Wenlock series in North Wales, that it is by differences of colour or minieral composition that one is often obliged to distinguish them. The Ludlow series is of soft texture, is
On the Wealden Strata exposed by the Tunbridge Wells Railway
Authors: Prestwich J. , Morris J.
Published: October 2009

In Dr. Fitton's valuable memoir “On the Strata below the Chalk,” it is incidentally observed, that “the relations of the strata at Tunbridge Wells, and in the tract on the north of it towards the valley of the Weald, are well-deserving of attentive examination.” (Geol. Trans., 2nd Ser., vol. iv. p, 171, note.) At that period no extensive sections were visible by which the superposition of the beds in this district could be accurately traced; but the deep cuttings for the Tunbridge Wells branch railway, traversing some of the longitudinal ridges of the Wealden sandstones, have fortunately afforded some information on the subject, a brief account of which is now laid before the Society, as exhibiting some interesting sections of the Upper Wealden series, as well as a remarkable flexure and fault by which these beds have been affected. Our object in the present communication is simply to record the details of structure and superposition of the strata cut through; and if their correct superposition with reference to any given line can be established, they may then be connected with other deposits whose position with regard to the same base may have been already determined.

The Dover railway traverses the Upper Wealden district from a short distance beyond the Redhill station nearly to Ashford, the branch line proceeding southward to Tunbridge Wells, deviating fi'om it nearly at a right angle about a quarter of a mile beyond the Tunbridge station.

It is well-known that the strata of the Wealden consist
On some Footmarks and other Impressions observed in the New Red Sandstone Quarries of Storton, near Liverpool
Authors: Cunningham John
Published: October 2009

The author, in a communication dated January 5, 1846, and addressed to Dr. Buckland, observes, “the small slab which I herewith send contains an impression
in intaglio
of what I conceive to be the footprints of small birds. They are the only impressions having a resemblance to those of birds that I have hitherto been able to detect among the numerous indications of reptiles associated with them in one of the beds of the Storton quarries, and if they should prove to be Ornithichnites, I do not despair of finding the larger impressions in some of the strata of Storton Hill; but the other quarries around Liverpool are quite barren of all impressions.”

In a further communication made on the 30th of March, Mr. Cunningham states, “I am glad to inform you, that on Saturday last, being at Storton, I discovered on the face of a slab three most distinct indurated impressions of a bird's feet of pretty large size, measuring two inches and a half in length. The feet had three toes; the intermediate space between two impressions is ten inches, and so far as they go, the impressions are right and left. There can, I think, be no doubt of the animal that produced them having been a bird, and probably one of the
Grallæ
. There was no appearance of a web between the toes.

“This discovery I consider important, as proving beyond a doubt the existence of warm-blooded animals in this country during the period of the
Description of a New Species of Plesiosaurus, in the Museum of the Bristol Institution
Authors: Stutchbury Samuel
Published: October 2009

The animal about to be described in the following pages was discovered in the grey lias, which is largely quarried throughout Somersetshire for building-stone and other economic purposes.

The remains of Enaliosaurians are distributed through the whole Liassic period, and it has been observed in the majority of cases as relates to the two genera Plesiosaurus and Ichthyosaurus, that specimens of the first-named genus are mostly found lying upon their backs, while the Ichthyosauri are generally lying upon their sides; but in a few instances the parts of the skeletons of both have become dislocated and detached from one another, not even retaining in any manner their relative position.

In the first of these cases I imagine, that after the death of the animal, gases, evolved principally among the abdominal viscera, have been retained by means of the tough dermal covering, aided by the support of the sterno-costal arcs, and the body becoming gradually water-logged, was quietly deposited on the muddy bottom and afterwards silted up.

The fact of the Ichthyosauri possessing a more fish-like form, the depth in their supero-inferior diameter being greater than their lateral width, accounts for their being so constantly found lying upon their sides; and the occasional dislocated condition to which I have alluded results from their tough integuments having held together until the interior of the body was so much macerated as to disunite the whole skeleton, which would then be similar to a number of loose bones held in a bag or sack.
On Foot-marks discovered in the Coal-measures of Pennsylvania.
Authors: Lyell Charles
Published: October 2009

I intended to draw up a paper on what I have learned and observed respecting the proofs alleged to have been found of the existence of mammalia, birds and reptiles in the Pennsylvania coal-field; but I cannot do this until I receive my specimens, and have had more time to make sections and maps, in order to do the subject justice. I must therefore content myself with this brief notice. The discoveries of the impressions to which I shall refer were made by Dr. King, a physician of this place, whom I have seen, and who has been most anxious to facilitate my investigations, and to give me every help in arriving at the truth, which was his only thought, whether I confirmed or invalidated his conclusions. I shall first speak of the reptilian foot-marks.

The quarry where they were found is about five miles S.E. of Greensburg, in the county of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. The stone quarried is a sandstone which rises up from beneath the main or Pittsburg seam of coal, which has been worked at its outcrop in the immediate neighbourhood There are several other seams of coal, which lie at lower levels, and impressions of Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, Stigmaria, Calamites, Ferns, and other plants have been found in the beds which lie above and below the sandstone containing the foot-marks. The slabs of sandstone, which are extracted in the quarry for paving, are separated by parting layers of a fine unctuous clay, such as would be admirably fitted
Description of a Fossil Chiton from the Silurian Rocks, with remarks on the fossil species of the genus
Authors: Salter J. W.
Published: October 2009

The discovery of a species of Chiton in beds of undoubted Silurian age appears to be a fact sufficiently important to be brought under the notice of the Geological Society, not only from the rarity of the genus in a fossil state, but because it carries back to an earlier date another of the many families we are in the habit of considering as characteristic of later epochs. The shell I have now to describe presents peculiarities distinguishing it both from recent species, and also from those found in the carboniferous rocks. In introducing the subject I propose to glance at the ordinary characters of the family, for so this group must be considered, in order to show the relation of the fossil with the living species.

The Chiton is one of the lowest forms of Gasteropodous Mollusca, and is considered by naturalists as closely allied to the genera
Patella
and
Lottia
, and as forming with them a distinct order of
Mollusca
under the name of
Cyclobranchia
(Cuvier), distinguished by the arrangement of the branchiæ. The Chitons have a double generative system, terminating (according to Blainville and Rang) on either side of the body. This is a very marked character, and one indicating strongly the the low position the group holds in the order to which it belongs. The shell is of course the only part with which we have to do (in treating of fossil species), and its variations are fortunately accompanied by differences in the structures of the
Notice on the existence of Purbeck Strata with remains of Insects and other fossils, at Swindon, Wilts
Authors: Brodie P. B.
Published: October 2009

The indications of Purbeck deposits in this neighbourhood, although the beds are neither very extensive nor of any great thickness, are more clearly defined than has been generally supposed. There area bout thirteen feet of strata decidedly freshwater, containing Cypris, Paludina, Planorbis, and remains of vegetables, chiefly Thuytes and small seed-vessels. The western end of the great quarry at Swindon presents the following section in descending order:

There can be no doubt therefore that these beds are representatives on a small scale of a portion of the Purbeck formation. The surface of the Portland strata has been greatly denuded previously to the deposition of the overlying group, for in many cases the latter is deposited in hollows and cavities where the Portland sand has suffered erosion by water, on which it reposes at very irregular intervals.

The top of the Portland oolite is composed chiefly of whitish sand containing layers of Trigonia and other marine shells, and this includes harder nodules full of shells, chiefly
Trigonia incurva
,
Lucina Portlandica
,
Cytherea rugosa
and
Nerita angulata
, often retaining their shelly covering though decomposed and friable. These masses too are very unevenly dispersed.

No. 5 in the section, which in its lower part is highly carbonaceous and resembles vegetable mould, is to al appearance a kind of ‘dirt bed,’ and may be considered as the representative of one the dirt beds in the islands of Portland and Purbeck. It also contains numerous small pebbles which are likewise found in it on the coast