bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Notes on the Geology of Natal, South Africa
Authors: Sutherland P. C. 
Published: October 2009

T
he
sea-coast of Natal, to a distance of twenty to thirty miles inland, appears to be composed of beds of sandstone and shale alternating with trap-rock, the former containing thin layers of woody coal and very faint vegetable impressions. These beds of trap and sedimentary matter are not individually of great extent. Six of each sometimes occur in a linear space of a quarter of a mile.

The best specimens of the coal yet found are only slightly bituminous; and much is of very inferior character. The thickness of the seams varies from a mere film up to about 2½ to 3 feet. Where the best coal exists, three seams crop out in a space of 20 feet; the aggregate thickness of which is upwards of 4 feet. From the manner in which they run into each other, thin out, again thicken, and are separated by lenticular deposits of arenaceous shale and grit, I have hopes, by following them, we may find them passing permanently into one or more thick beds. The distance, however, of this locality from a sea-port (200 miles) is such, that the value of the coal will not repay the expense of working and carriage. It is of importance, however, for use in the Colony [Natal], and since it began to be wrought the imports of coal into Natal have ceased.
Judging from the cursory examination I have been able to make of the impressions of leaves and stems contained in the shale, they resemble the
Notice of the Occurrence of Coal near the Gulf of Nicomedia
Authors: Sandison D. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract

H
earing
of the existence of fossil coal in this District, I lately sent to a person of some experience in such matters to make research, and trials, by digging up a certain quantity where seams might be found; for which purpose he was furnished with the necessary orders from our Kaïmakam.

The result was, that he met with one or more coal-seams in the Sub-district of Bazarkuy, about three hours distant from Ghio, and three to four hours from Yallova in the Gulf of Nicomedia, and sent some horse-loads to Ghio, whence the first report I received was, that the coal was superior to that of Heraclea, and gave promise of being serviceable for steam-navigation.
With respect to the coal last received at Ghio, and taken, I believe, also from the surface, the information which has just reached me is not so favourable. There has been no time, however (particularly with the agitation prevailing here since the earthquake shocks commenced), for me to get the coal-bed in question, which has been reported as extending over many miles of country, and containing various sorts of coal, visited by a competent person worthy of confidence.
Some previous attempts have been made, seven to five years ago, to extract coals from seams belonging to the same bed, but were not followed up, either from the coals proving worthless, or on account of the expense of land-carriage to the sea-side, and subsequent transport to the capital, coming too high to answer at the low rate then paid for coals from England.
Notwithstanding the small amount of information contained in this communication, it becomes of great importance, when taken in connexion with the well-known coal-field of Heraclea. If we draw a line, N.E. and S.W., from Heraclea to the head of the Gulf of Nicomedia, all the hitherto known Devonian and Palæozoic formations of this part of Asia Minor will be found on the N.W. side of this line, whereas the greatly-developed systems of Cretaceous and other rocks extend on the E. and S.E. of this line. A considerable development of the Carboniferous formation may therefore be looked for in the direction between Heraclea and the Gulf of Nicomedia, with great probability of finding other valuable coal-fields in the intervening district.
On the Fossil Cranium of
Dicynodon Tigriceps
, Owen, from South Africa
Authors: Owen  
Published: October 2009

Abstract

I
n
this paper Professor Owen described in detail the cranial bones of a large species of
Dicynodon
from South Africa. The specimens described were transmitted by A. G. Bain, Esq., to England in 1849, and are now in the British Museum. The skull surpasses in size that of the largest walrus, and resembles that of the lion or tiger in the great development of the occipital and parietal ridges, the strength of the zygomatic arches, and the expanse of the temporal fossæ,— all indicating the possession of the temporal (biting) muscles as largely developed as in the most powerful and ferocious of the carnivorous mammalia. Hence Prof. Owen names this species
Dicynodon tigriceps
. Like the smaller forms of
Dicynodon
, already described by the author, this species has two long, curved, canine tusks in the upper jaw; the jaws being otherwise destitute of teeth.
Notice of some Raised Beaches in Argyllshire
Authors: Bedford E. J. 
Published: October 2009

Abstract

T
wo
of these raised beaches are in the Lunga Islands, one of them in Lunga Proper, the other in North Fullah. Their present altitude was calculated to be 40 feet 8 inches above high water mark. A third was found in Kerera Island, and has the same height as the former. These were illustrated by highly finished sketches by the author, which also indicated the position of other raised beaches, in Oronsay at 38 feet 6 inches in elevation, in the south-western angle of Jura at 34 feet 8 inches, and at Loch Tarbert, in Jura, at 42 feet 1 inch, and 105 feet 5 inches.
On the connexion of the Umret Coal-Beds with the Plant-beds of Nágpur; and of both with those of Burdwan
Authors: Hislop S. 
Published: October 2009

I
n
the observations on the Jurassic Formation of the Nágpur Territory, which I had the honour to submit to your Society, I showed that it consisted of four members in the following descending order:
a
, thick-bedded coarse ferruginous sandstone with a few stems of trees;
b
, laminated sandstone, exceedingly rich in vegetable remains:
c
, clay-shales, of various colours, in which are found the traces of reptiles and worms; and
d
, limestone, which within our area is generally crystallized from its contact with plutonic rocks. At the time of penning these remarks, not having had an opportunity of inspecting any of our Indian coal-measures, I was inclined to regard them as the equivalents of our argillaceous strata marked
c
; but having recently enjoyed this privilege, while out on a mission tour with my friend the Rev. R. Hunter, I propose to communicate the modifications which have, in consequence, been wrought on previously-formed views.

Our tour extended abont 120 miles N.N.W. of the city of Nágpur, —a distance which carried us past the carbonaceous strata near Umret, as far as the bituminous shales at the south base of the Pachmadi or Mahádewa Hills. These localities had both been visited by Dr. Jerdon and Lieut. Sankey in 1852, and the results of their investigations have been laid before your Society*.
The coal-field of Umret is about five miles north of the village, near a small hamlet dignified with the name of Bari, or Great, Barkoi, to distinguish it from Chhoti, or Little, Barkoi
On the Coal of the North-western Districts of Asia Minor
Authors: Poole H. 
Published: October 2009

Mr. Poole, in his Reports to Government on the result of his journey to Asia Minor to examine into the probability of workable coal being found in the country near Brussa and Ghio (Bithynia), in which coal had been reported to occur, states that he travelled from Ghio inland along the south bank of the river flowing from the Lake Ascanias, around the shore of the lake by a south-east route, passing Nicæa and along the north shore, until he returned to the village of Ortokol, without finding any trace of coal. Marble and limestones prevailed along the whole line, except at Solis, where a narrow band of nearly vertical sandstone cropped out. On the south and east sides of the lake a conglomerate occurred, dipping with a slight inclination towards the lake. Ouram Mountain, in the rear of Nicæa, appeared to be composed of tufa. Tufa also occurs on the shore near Keramid.
Between Ghio and Brussa the prevailing rocks are limestone, conglomerate, and sandstone.
In consequence of rumours of the existence of coal near the Lake of Apollonia, Mr. Poole travelled round that lake, but met with none. Limestone and sandstone prevail there.
On some Geological Features of the Country between the South Downs and the Sussex Coast
Authors: Martin P. J. 
Published: October 2009

The object of this paper is not so much to give a minute description of the district I am about to review, as to promote a discussion amongst the members of the Society here present on some of its phænomena, which seem to be singularly illustrative of the superficial changes that have been effected in the south of England by dynamic forces of comparatively modern date.
The district is to be found in the ninth section of the Ordnance Map, and extends from near Portsmouth to Shoreham, or that flat country which is to be seen from any part of the tops of the South Downs from Portsdown Hill eastward to the Shoreham River.
Notice of a Visit to the Dead Sea
Authors: Poole H. 
Published: October 2009

Mr. Poole went to this district to look for nitre, which was reported to occur there; but he met with none, and found reason to suppose that the report was unfounded. The same word in Arabic means “bitter or rock salt,” as well as “nitre,” hence possibly the erroneous information. Further, the cave (at Usdum) in which the nitre was said to have occurred is called “the cave of the Gun-men,” not from the Arabs getting their nitre there for gunpowder, but as the spot from which they watch for the crossing of the hostile tribes across the plain.
Mr. Poole and Mr. E. Mashallam spent nearly two days at Usdum, going to several caves (in which fine stalactites of salt occur), climbing nearly to the top of the mountain, and walking about the shore, but in no instance could they find a deposit or even a sample of nitre. Mr. Finn, H.M. Consul at Jerusalem, also informed Mr. Poole that he had never seen any; nor had the Sheik Aboo Daook and his men. The Arabs generally make their own nitre by boiling the dung of goats; others scrape it off old walls or limestone-caves, but never in any large quantity.
The Arabs charge 60 piastres or 10 shillings for a camel-load of salt, about 500 lbs., delivered in Jerusalem, and the purchaser pays the Turkish government 15 piastres more for duty. Each camel will make about twenty-four trips in a year, thus carrying altogether 12,000 lbs. a year.
On the Lowest Strata of the Cliffs at Hastings
Authors: Beckles S. H. 
Published: October 2009

The strata of which this communication is intended to be a very brief notice form the base of that range of cliff which extends from Hastings to Cliff End.
The group that I am about to describe consists of sandstone and clays, remarkable for their great diversity of hue, and are subordinate to those beds of conglomeratic shale and ironstone which Mr. Webster has described as the lowest strata visible in the series. They are supplemental, therefore, to the strata comprised, or intended to be comprised, in that author's notice. At the date, however, of his Memoir they were partially disclosed, although perhaps not at those detached points where he traced his lowest strata.

Mr. Webster, in speaking of the strata to the east of Hastings, remarks, that “the lowest strata visible in this series consist of a dark-coloured shale (
m, m
), which is seen at the Govers and at Cliff End, and contain small roundish masses of sandstone, together with several layers (two of them from two to three inches thick) of rich argillaceous iron-ore.” On the west of Eaglesbourne this last bed rises, in an arch, to the height of about twelve feet and then descends to the east. At Cliff End it reappears, and may be traced at low-water, forming a ledge.
On the Formation of Craters, and the Nature of the Liquidity of Lavas
Authors: Scrope G. Poulett 
Published: October 2009

It is now some thirty years since I published two works upon the Phænomena of Volcanos, Active and Extinct. I described in them, as accurately as I could, by pen and pencil, what I had observed during a residence of some duration among the volcanic districts of France and Italy; and explained, in considerable detail, the laws which, from those observations, I believed to regulate the remarkable developments of subterranean energies usually called volcanic, which have played so important a part in the construction of the superficial crust of our planet.
The general principle on which I proceeded in the theoretical portion of these works was the same which had been previously employed by Hutton and Playfair, and was subsequently adopted, with signal success, by Sir Charles Lyell,—namely, to refer, so far as is possible, appearances the origin of which has not been witnessed, to such causes as are seen or known to produce analogous appearances in the present day,—instead of resorting for the purpose to imaginary hypotheses.
On Trap-dykes intersecting Syenite in the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire
Authors: Symonds W. S. 
Published: October 2009

Among the varied phænomena described and registered respecting the Malvern Hills in Prof. Phillips's admirable work in the ‘Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain’ (vol. ii. part 1), I am not aware of any notice of the effect of injected and intersecting trap upon the syenite of which the great mass of the Malverns is composed.
I had for some time been aware that greenstone and trap-dykes traversed syenite in a quarry worked between the Winds-point and the Obelisk, and to which last autumn I directed the attention of Mr. C. J. Fox Bunbury. Having been requested by Sir W. Jardine to examine the site of the great Malvern bonfire of January last, in order to discover whether any signs of the vitrification of the rocks were visible, I did so, and was immediately struck with the appearance of the roasted syenite which formed the platform, and the similarity presented by the baked mineral to syenite in contact with dykes of trap and greenstone at the quarry at the back of News Wood, half-way between Winds-point and the Obelisk.
I was accompanied during this investigation by a Swiss geologist, Dr. De la Harpe, well accustomed to metamorphic phænomena; he was much struck with this most interesting quarry.
I may here mention that a high wind prevented the flames of the Beacon fire ascending to any height, and I was informed by those present that an intense glow was concentrated upon the syenitic platform.
On the Occurrence of Crystallization in a Stucco-Casting
Authors: Buist G. 
Published: October 2009

In 1847–48, having been much engaged in plaster-casting at Bombay, in the spring of the latter year I had thrown out a multitude of useless fragments, when, on the 28th and 29th of March, a furious thunder-storm and fall of rain occurred at the setting in of the monsoon. A week or so afterwards, as soon as the weather slightly cleared up, what was my astonishment to find nearly all the fragments presenting crystals of semitransparent selenite on their surface! These, on examination, were found partly imbedded in the earthy mass of stucco, in part protruding above its surface. When the specimens were taken indoors, the crystallization extended itself, and the whole mass became covered over with fine pearly spicula, like the crystals of the finest actinolite, only not radiating from points.
The stucco was prepared from a hard crystalline gypsum brought from the Persian Gulf; deprived of its water in the usual way, by being heated a little short of redness, then ground and sifted, and treated in the customary fashion. It was so absorbent that the rain disappeared from its surface almost as rapidly as it fell, so that the crystallization could not have arisen from saturation, in the ordinary sense of the term, or deposition from a menstruum.
On the Occurrence of Allophane at Charlton, Kent
Authors: Morris J. 
Published: October 2009

For some time past a substance, having at first sight the appearance of amorphous carbonate of lime, has been noticed as occurring at the chalk-pit near Charlton, and to which the workmen applied the term “petrified water.” It was found in more abundance than at present during the progress of the old workings through some parts of the pit, although it is still to be obtained.
This substance, which has been carefully analysed by Mr. Dick, of the Metallurgical Laboratory of the School of Mines, Jermyn Street, proves to be allophane, which has not, I believe, hitherto been recorded as a British mineral. A. brief notice of its mode of occurrence may therefore be useful to those who are interested in the formation of minerals, and may possibly stimulate some farther inquiry as to its origin.
Allophane and the allied species are hydrous silicates of alumina, which differ in the relative quantities of silica, alumina, and water they contain, the latter ranging above 40 per cent. in scarbroite and allophane.
The nature and position of these minerals would seem to indicate that their origin is due to the slow action of chemical and other agencies upon the rocks with which they are associated, or more generally, as in the present case at Charlton, on the strata superposed to the rock in the fissures of which latter the mineral is deposited.
On the Newer Tertiary Deposits of the Sussex Coast
Authors: Godwin-Austen R. 
Published: October 2009

Summary
It was only a very short time since, and that, too, in the most advanced treatises on systematic geology, that certain superficial accumulations of every European district were grouped together, as belonging to “the diluvial period.” Recent investigations are now beginning to assure us of the great amount of physical change which is referable to that period, and also that it was not transitory, nor convulsive, as it has been frequently represented. Already it is separable into stages and subdivisions, whereby the lapse of time is becoming clearly marked out.

The knowledge we possess of the history of these later changes is as yet a very imperfect one, and it is not perhaps too much to assert, that, of all geological periods, that which comes nearest to our own times is the one which is the
least
understood. If the accumulations themselves in these regions are wanting in those vertical dimensions which speak directly to the eye as to the vast duration of the older palæozoic, secondary, and tertiary periods, the very fact of great physical changes having taken place during comparatively much shorter periods of time is in itself a consideration which renders the earth's recent history even more strange than its remoter one.
Further Notice of the Eruption of Mauna Loa
Authors: Miller W. 
Published: October 2009

This communication is a letter addressed to and transmitted by Mr. Miller, H.M. Consul-General at Woahoo. It describes some remarkable volcanic eruptions in the Island of Hawaii (Owhyhee), of which Mr. Coan was an eye-witness, during the last sixteen years; and includes an account of the great eruption of 1855–56. Mr. Coan has been the Resident Protestant Missionary at Hilo for twenty-one years; and was attending at the Annual Meeting in Honolulu when he wrote his letter.
In a despatch from Mr. Miller, dated July 30, 1856, the eruption in Hawaii is stated to be still active; and a copy of ‘The Pacific Commercial Advertiser’ newspaper, accompanying this despatch, contains a further notice of the eruption, which will be quoted in the sequel.
On the Freshwater Deposits of Eubœa, the Coast of Greece, and Salonika
Authors: Spratt T. A. B. 
Published: October 2009

In a paper recently sent to the Society, containing geological notes, collected during the war, on the Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea, and on the coast of the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles, I have referred to some extensive freshwater formations in Eubœa and on the western coast of the Archipelago, which I examined some years ago, but the results of which examination were not communicated to the Society. I have now put together my notes made when examining these several localities; but not having the fossils before me, this communication is necessarily imperfect.
The fossils were deposited with my lamented friend E. Forbes, at the Museum of Economic Geology, soon after they were collected; but as he had in view their publication in connexion with some contemplated work of his own on the Ægean, the localities have remained undescribed; and, this object being now lost by the premature death of my deeply lamented companion and friend, the notes are now drawn up, especially on account of their connexion with the specimens from the eastern point of the Archipelago, and the accompanying memoir, recently communicated to the Society.
They are also connected with the notes on the freshwater deposits of the shores of the Smyrna Gulf, and the islands of Samos and Eubœa, already published in the Society's Journal.
On Annelide-burrows and Surface-markings from the Cambrian Rocks of the Longmynd. No. 2.
Authors: Salter J. W. 
Published: October 2009

In a former communication (March 1856) I described a few obscure traces of animals from these old rocks in the Longmynd, and have now to add some further information, gathered during the last summer in the same locality.
The markings which were in that paper referred to the burrows of Annelides have been found in the greatest profusion, and through a much greater thickness of strata than before, not less than a mile in vertical measure; and they have been detected too in places considerably to the south and west of the localities before given.
I am glad of the opportunity of again drawing attention to the subject, partly because the woodent-section in the former paper, at page 247, Journ. No. 47, was accidentally made so as to exclude the most important beds, and partly because these annelide-markings have, during the present year, been sedulously searched for, and similar ones found, by my friend. Dr. J. R. Kinahan, of Dublin, in the undoubted Cambrian beds of Bray Head, Wicklow. His paper appeared in the January Number for 1857 of the Proceedings of the Dublin Geological Society.
The Section here given has numbers corresponding to the beds enumerated in the former paper; and the overlying Silurian strata (10, 11, 12) are introduced to show their relations to the highly inclined Cambrian beds under notice.
On the Occurrence of Bones of Mastodon in Chile
Authors: Bollaert W. 
Published: October 2009

But few instances of the occurrence of fossil bones on the Western side of the Andes have been recorded. During my late visit to South America, I made inquiries as to the existence of fossil bones in the Isthmus of Darien, but I could not learn that any had been met with, although railway-cuttings across the Isthmus were in progress.
Old Spanish writers speak of “bones of giants” having been found at Manta, on the coast of the Pacific, 0° 59′ S., 80° 40′ W., and at Punta St. Elena in 2° 11′ south of the equator and also on the Pacific. Humboldt, from the information of others, states that these bones are remains of great cetacean animals.
South of this, in the desert plains of Tarapacá (19° to 22° S.), where something like fossil wood has been met with, and where also large excavations for nitrate of soda have been made for years past, some vestiges of fossil bones have been found.
Dr. Phillipi, who was lately commissioned by the Chilian government to explore the Desert of Atacama, does not mention the existence of fossil bones in that very large of country.
My late journey (1854) extended to south of Arauco in Chili, but no fossil bones of land animals could I find; nor could I learn that any had been met with.