+ betwee ornw wee ae Babe aii sos moat cet oe See einen me , mts eee se adele teabetummetiieds te Re re ee Seat Po eee Ss THIET bea " 44-4 oh eee wee Suse is em © faerie ees oe s= 5 crewmen © ee ee ee ds he Ow ewin ae sm erry f Sleetadatetedaled ied Sis fee sivas Sey pada ye mai _ — sew at ARS Ho heh oa os pee wee ne me se: Sw Sw ve We ee, ~# cameo aeaes a “TUM TY Dili TOC PLATE I. FOSSIL FRUIT FROM THE LOWER CHALK OF ROCHESTER, KENT. In the National Collection, British Museum. < . Ns THE GEOLOGIST; A POPULAR ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE = @ OF GHOLOGY. EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. 1862. re | PRINTED BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. PREFACE. —__$——_ Frw people know the cost, time, toil, trouble, and determination necessary to establish a magazine. This cost, toil, and trouble have been borne by me, and that too through a period of my life when of all others I was least able to sustain it. Five volumes com- pleted, however, show what determination, perseverance, and tena- city have accomplished, and to what result we have attained. It is true our price is higher, but may we not fairly ask, Is not our quality better? Special scientific periodicals cannot be increased in circulation like ordinary periodicals by advertisements. There are but so many geologists, and advertisements do not increase their number. ‘They may increase the casual sale, but not the permanent purchasers ; and commercially ‘The Geologist’ must be maintained remunerative to ensure its permanency. I have two reasons in re- ferring to this topic at the present time,—/rst, to enjoy the grati- fication I always look forward to at this congenial season of sincerely thanking my many good friends; and secondly, that it may be distinctly known that I take the warmest interest in the profitable continuance of this Magazine; the increased success of which will yield a corresponding benefit to myself as well as to the publisher. Not the least gratifying fact is the good opinion held of this Magazine abroad. From America, France, Switzerland, Austria, aay PREFACE. Prussia, Italy, and Germany, we have received many complimentary, opinions, but these expressions will be to us only the incentive to do better work to more richly deserve them., For contributions to the present volume our best thanks must be offered to Sir Roderick Murchison, Mr. C. Carter Blake, Mr. Pengelly, Mr. J. Elliott, Mr S. P. Woodward, Mr. Andrew Taylor, Dr. Rubidge, Professor T. Rupert Jones, Mr. W. Murray, the Rev. 8. Lucas, Count Marschall Director Haidinger, Professor King, Professor Huxley, Professo1 Busk, Professors Dana and Siliman, Mr. Du Noyer, Mr. Guppy Mr. Wyatt, Dr. Wilkins, Mr. James Plant, Mr. Bensted, Mr. Johi Taylor, Dr. Gibb, Rev. Hugh Mitchell, Professor Ansted, Professo Harkness, Mr. Charles Moore, Mr. Wynne, Mr. Sorby, Mr. David son, Mr. C. B. Rose, Rev. J. Crompton, and Mr. W. Bollaert. Ss. J. MACKIE. ———OEE—————————E——————— OOO ERRATUM. In the references to the Plates in this number of the ‘Geologist,’ for Plate XIII. read Plate XIV., and for Plate XIV. read Plate XIII. THE GEOLOGIST. JANUARY 1862. SOME FOSSIL FRUITS FROM THE CHALK. WE are not ashamed to confess our ignorance when we meet with anything we do not understand. On the contrary, we regard such confessions as one of the roads to knowledge ; and we always wished it to be one of the features of this magazine that matters not under- stood should be brought before the world in its pages. We set the example ourselves in the most prominent part of our journal—its opening pages. Hew things are so little understood as fossil vegetables, and least of all are fossil fruits. Some new species from the lower chalk of Rochester have just Fig. 1. been added to the national collection in the British Museum, and we lay our drawings of them before our readers with the frank VOL. V. B 2 THE GEOLOGIST. admission that we do not know what they are, and we ask as frankly for information or suggestions. Some indeed, such as the coffee-like berries, fio like fruits, and nipadites of the London Clay, carry in themselves the palpable evidence of the classes to which they belong; but there are many specimens from other rocks remaining undescribed in many a col- lector’s cabinet from the want of the ability to give anything lke a reasonable suggestion as to what they were, and often, indeed, from the sheer incapacity to assign to them even any probable affinities. And there they will lie and rot, possibly, if their owners are not bold enough to confess their ignorance and ask for information. For them our pages offer a means of inquiry which they do not possess for us. Anonymously they can ask their questions; openly we must ask ours. These chalk fruits puzzle us, we confess it. Not because we could not soon find some fruits like them in outward form and shape, but because we really do not understand their mode of pre- servation. Any one can see from our drawings (Plate I., and wood- cut, fig. 1) that, flattened as they now are, such flattening is due to pressure in the substance of the rock, and that originally they were round inform. As they are preserved, they are roundish lumps of chalk enveloped in a dark brown ochreous skin. A superficial observer might look upon this ochreous skin as the real rind of the fruit, but these fruit-masses are perforated by large teredines (see woodcut, fig. 1), as if the central part of the fruit had been of a solid nut-like character, such as we see in the vegetable ivory. And yet, if this were so,—and teredines bore we know only in hard substances,—how is it that the central solid part has all rotted away, and its place been supplanted with the same soft calcareous chalk as the stratum in which the fossils were imbedded, while the more tender skin only is preserved ? In the same beds of chalk with the fruits, there are not Belew ec || Spain ie tele n) St o i S a) a sida (5 |) |) aoe Amorphozoa ......... Ape ea Lae | “Zoopliyta {3s3. sc. 5. ss 20 || 14 Ue ee 3 Echinodermata ...... 6 2 3 3 |... ] ee Crastacea.....0)..... SN iisaae oie | OL a eam ee | BTVOZORE. So. cese kod (pape) 1). 5 pT pa | os | 2 Brachiopoda ......... 16 || 6 | se | as |p RO) aa So Lamellibranchiata...|_ 17 2 3) 1] ND ee oe ic Aa Gasteropoda ......... \4 (fe |r eee sarees Westies [Bee ge Danse |= Vite ee Cephalopoda ......... Bypee joe fee foe | Py 4]. | we | E 97 || 46 7/3 83 8 | 8 | 34 | 33 | 56 a1 | 7 = | Every genus of the classes Amorphozoa, Zoophyta, and Brachiopoda occurs in South Devon, and with the exception of Cephalopoda it contains a greater number of genera in each class than either of the other areas. All the genera of Cephalopoda appear at South Petherwin. PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 23 The genera found in the two counties were not all confined to the Devonian period. The following table shows their Chronological dis- tribution so far as the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous deposits of Britain are concerned. TABLE VI. = 3 ComMMON TO el g . = a 5 Ze Sipe 3 a Ss, Sr eh og > == aa 5S = oS A | a Se ioe | a6 = J Sse lelors) |) ese E Se iS 3 92 | RAM | 8A a = = S) S) Amorphozoa ......... 4 3 1 sts ZOOPLA ose eaie mdse: 20 10 5) 3 2 Echinodermata ..,... 6 2 oe 3 ll @rustaced oe. ea: 8 i 5 eed 2 IBGVOZ0N. ke. s eos ff ee 5 2 Brachiopoda ..,...... 16 3 2 8 3 Lamellibranchiata...| 17 2 1 9 5 Gasteropoda ......... 14 2 11 1 Cephalopoda......... 5 iL 2 2 Botalsin s:.chzs2 97 24 14 Al 18 From which it appears that twenty-four genera,—about one-fourth of the whole series,—are peculiar to Devonian deposits, fourteen common and restricted to the Silurian and Devonian, forty-one com- mon to all three, and eighteen common and restricted to the Devonian and Carboniferous; hence a total of fifty-five Devonian genera occur in the preceding, and fifty-nine in the succeeding period. Some of the genera occur in Neozoic deposits, and a few in the existing Fauna. When the numbers of species contained in each of the forty-one genera of the fourth column (Table VI.) are tabulated in parallel columns for the three periods, the figures present themselves in four different principal forms of succession, as may be illustrated by taking the genera Favosites, Cyathophyllum, Loxonema, and Orthoceras. Sil. Dev. Carb. HAV OSIECSH cs. ces .cs +++ c0 8 5 1 a descending-descending series. Cyathophyllum ......... 9 14 8 ascending-descending. Moonee ore fee 2 8 14 ascending-ascending. DEtMOCENIS AF carats aie bora 55 12 385 descending-ascending. The first kind shows that the maximum specific development occurs im the Silurian era, the second in the Devonian, and the third in the Carboniferous ; the fourth kind may perhaps be regarded as a sort 24, THE GEOLOGIST. of irregularity, possibly arising from the imperfection of the geolo- gical record. There are eighteen instances of this in the series. There is a fifth form of successional order which may be illustrated by the figures connected with the genus Alveolites, which stand thus :—Sil. 4, Dev. 4, and Carb. 2, thus giving no maximum in any one period. ‘There are three instances of this. The genera of the Devoniau period are, as a whole, comparatively poor in species, and but few of those common to it and either the Carboniferous or Silurian, or both, have their maximum specific de- velopment during Devonian times. The following table exhibits, generally, the prominent facts of the kind just specified. TABLE VII. GuNERA. Totals. Species in a | Specific. | PNET | Development in | Sil. | Dev.| Car. |} Sil. | Dev.| Car, || Sil. Dev. | Car. Peculiar to Devonian...... 24 Oe ae = Ba ere We Common to,— Silurian and Devonian .| 14 56: BOI cl 4cch. Seale 9 2 ee Silur., Dev., and Carb.| 41 || 386] 223) 510 || 9°4| 5-4) 12°4)) 13 2| 23 Devonian and Carb. ...| 18 Del AONE O FAs loo let Lah tio ee 2| 12 Totals ee 97 || 442|347/781|| 8 | 36| 13] 22] 6| 33 The “ Totals” in the left-hand column are the same as in Table VI. The three coluinns headed “Species in’ show the aggregate number of species found in each period belonging to the total number of genera on the same horizontal line in the column of “ Totals ;” thus three hundred and eighty-six species have been found in British Silurian rocks, two hundred and twenty-three in Devonian, and five hundred and ten in Carboniferous belonging to the forty-one genera common to the three periods, and so on. The three columns headed “‘Species+ Genera” show the average number of species per genus in each period and division, and are obtained by dividing the total number of species by the total number of genera in each (fractions being omitted except when considerable); thus the averages in the case of the forty-one genera common to the three periods are 9:4 Silurian, 5°4 Devonian, and 12-4 Carboniferous. The total averages at the bottom of these three columns are obtained thus :—Of the ninety-seven Devonian genera, fifty-five (= 14 + 41) are found in Silurian beds, and these have yielded an aggregate of four hundred and forty-two (= 56 + 386) species, giving an average of eight per genus, and so on for the other periods. The right-hand three columns show the number of genera, which in the various divisions have their maximum speeific development m each period; for example, of the forty-one genera common to the three periods, thirteen had their PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 25 greatest number of species in Silurian, two in Devonian, and twenty-_ three in Carboniferous times; thus giving a total of thirty-eight, and, consequently, leaving three genera which had not a maximum specific development in any one period. lt appears, then, that the genera found in the Devonian era, as represented in Devon and Cornwall, even when those peculiar to it are included, yield a less aggregate number of species, that the ave- rage number of species per genus is smaller, and that the genera haying their maximum specific development are fewer in Devonian than in either Silurian or Carboniferous times, and that in each of these particulars the Carboniferous surpasses the Silurian age. Such appear to be the prominent facts in connexion with the sub- ject immediately before us. What is their interpretation? This is a problem more easily proposed than solved. Are we to believe that our knowledge of the geological record is too imperfect to warrant any important generalizations ? Do our museums fully represent the fossilized remains of bygone forms of life? Are all the extinct organ- isms which have been exhumed registered in the published lists? Is the record itself, inscribed on rocky tablets, so incomplete as to be altogether incapable of revealing to us the physical and organic his- tory” of our planet? Are the notions of biologists respecting specific distinctions, whatever they may be, sufficientl y mature and uniform to warrant our relying on them ? Something must doubtless be con- ceded on each of these points, but still there cannot but be a large outstanding quantity of fact incapable of being thus explained away. The problem demands some other solution. Suppose it true that in some cases the organic dissimilarity which has been described was due to a difference in the mineral character of the ancient sea-bottom, such as was mentioned in the case of Lower South Devon and Lower Cornwall; still, when we have two areas, like Lower South and Lower North Devon, consisting of con- temporary, almost contiguous, and scarcely dissimilar deposits, one rich and the other poor in the variety of its organic remains, having together two hundred and four species with no more than eight in common, some other solution is obviously required. Was there a terrestrial barrier separating the two areas? Was the central dis- trict oceupied by dry land, stretching far both east and west, while the waves of the Devonian ocean rolled over the north and south of the county? for it need not be stated that the deposits we are con- sidering are eminently marine. It may be too muc} to answer this question with an unqualified negative; it is easier to determine, at jieast, some of the ancient oceanic areas than to say where lay the contemporary continents and islands. Nevertheless, the rocks now separating the areas in question, namely, the granites, the carboni- ferous beds, and the red conglomerates (or, more correctly, breccias), are unquestionably more modern than those now under notice; nor is the structure of the latter such as to imply the immediate proxi- mity of dry land in that quarter. Besides, eight species actually did migrate from one area to the VOL: v. E 3) 2G TILE GEOLOGIST. other—eight proofs, then, that a passage did exist, unless we suppose that both areas were tenanted from some more distant centre or centres of organic dispersion. It may be asked, were not these eight remnants of an older—a Silurian—fauna, forms of life whose locali- zation had been determined by still earlier conditions ? Eight Silu- rian forms’ do make their appearance amongst the fossils of Devon and Cornwall—are not these the very organisms ? Now it so happens that they are not. The Silurians spoken of are Favosites jfibrosa, Emmonsia hemispherica, Chonophyllum perfoliatum, Atrypa aspera, A. reticulatus, Pterinea ventricosa, Clidophorus ovatus, and Ortho- ceras Sapien) whilst the species common to Lower North and South Devon are Fuvosites cervicornis, F. dubia, Fenestella arthritica, Stringocephalus Burtini, Spirifer aperturatus, ‘Sp. levicosta, Or this granulosa, and Chonetes sordida. In fact, there is not one Silurian form recorded amongst the Lower North Devon series. This solu- tion, therefore, does not seem available. Shall we hold with Professor Phillips that “this unegual diffusion of definite forms of life may often be ascribed to oceanic currents” ?* I cannot but think that fewer difficulties attach to this than to any other hypothesis which has been proposed ; it simply requires us to suppose that a persistent oceanic stream, flowing through central Devon, separated the con- temporary deposits of the north and south, and, by its thermal or other qualities, formed an ali but impeneti able barrier to the marine tribes. Moreover, whilst it would account for the limited organic distribution we are considering, it would not be out of keeping “with the facts that a comparatively great number of species were common to continental Europe and Devon and Cornwall; that of the fifty- eight species which passed over to the next succeeding Fauna, cne only occurs in the ecarboniferous shales of North Devon, whilst all the others are found in central and northern England, Treland, Bel- gium, Russia, and other distant localities ; and that a comparatively great number of forms are common to the upper areas of Cornwall and North Devon. Though, as we have seen, the test entireiy fails, at least so far as Devonshire is concerned, on which scepticism respecting the existence of a Devonian period has been founded, namely, “that the blending of Silurian and Carboniferous corals is of common occurrence,”’ yet if the word “ fossil” is substituted for “ coral,” a blending of the’ kind certainly does occur, and doubtless the fact is not without a meaning. Eight species from the preceding period, and fifty-eight from the suceeeding—a total of sixty-six—meet in Devon and Cornwall. Are they so many proofs that the rocks in which they were inhumed are not Devonian? It must be borne in mind that there are two hundred and eighty-one species that are neither Silurian nor Carbo- niferous, but of an intermediate character. The paleontological argument, then, stands thus:—There are sixty-six witnesses sup- posed to testify that the rocks are not Devonian, and two hundred and eighty-one—upwards of 4 to 1—which emphatically declare that * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xvi. p. xl. PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 27 they are. But the adverse witnesses are by no means agreed amongst themselves ; eight of them claim the rocks for the Silurian age, and fifty-eight for the Carboniferous. Is there no way of silencing, and yet satisfying, these doubtful characters? No method of so inter- preting their testimony but that of sacrificing the Devonian system altogether ? Are they not so many arguments in favour of the gradual passage of system into system? So many difficulties in the wav of a belief in catastrophes, by which I mean convulsion or other form of violence (call it what you please) which, from time to time, shook the very life out of the world, causing a series of universal and syn- chronous depopulations of our planet? May we not regard them as so many tints intermediate, both in place and quality, between the extreme bands of the rainbow, uniting them into one beautifully graduated chromatic spectrum, so softly blending as to render it im- possible to define the exact place of lines of demarcation, which, per- haps, have not, and never would have been supposed to have, an ex- istence, had not observers hastily generalized from the imperfect evidence obtained during a period of colour blindness? May we not regard them as just sixty-six pages in the old parish register connecting three otherwise unconnected portions, and sliow- ing that the population was not, during their time, cut off sharply, universally, and at once, whether by pestilence, war, or famine; but that the old inhabitants gradually disappeared, and that many of them remained amongst the new comers, discharging their accus- tomed functions under the somewhat changed conditions ? But if the Devonshire rocks were handed over to the Carboniferous or Silurian system, or divided between them, we should not be quit of the doctrine that some of the forms of one period have, at least in some instances, lived through it into the next; for the opponents of a Devonian period not only admit, but rest their case on the alleged fact that Silurian and Carboniferous forms are found blended together in Devonshire and elsewhere. When, nearly a quarter of a century ago, Mr. Lonsdale first sug- gested that the fossils of South Devon, taken as a whole, exhibited a peculiar character intermediate to those of the Silurian and Carboni- ferous groups, he was perfectly aware that amongst them were forms referable to each of these Faunas; yet he made the suggestion, not- withstanding the existence of a physical objection, subsequently removed by Professor Sedgwick and Sir R. I. Murchison, who dis- covered that the culmiferous or anthracite shales of North Devon (superposed on the rocks we have been considering) “belonged to the coal, and not, as preceding observers had imagined, to the tran- sition (Silurian) period.”’* And what has been the effect of the progress of discovery and nicer discrimination on this point? Has it increased or decreased the evidence in favour of a Devonian period? In 1846, Sir H. De la Beche, discussing this question, gave a total of a hundred and ninety species noticed in South Devon, which he thus disposed of: seventy- * Lyell’s ‘ Manual,’ 5th edition, p. 424. 38 THE GEOLOGIST. five Carboniferous forms, ten Silurian, eight common to-Silurian and Carboniferous, and ninety-seven—slightly more than half—peculiar to Devonshire.* At present (confining ourselves also to South Devon) the catalogue gives a total of two hundred and twenty-six, of which thirty-four are Carboniferous, six Silurian, and a hundred and eighty-six peculiar to the district; or putting the totais at each period = 1000, and equating the other numbers to this, the figures stand as in the following table, and show a decided advance Devonian-ward. TABLE VIII. 1846. 1860 Silurian ee eens ase eee eee. 53 26°5 Warbomiferousi.-.. eee 395 | 150°5 Silurian and Carboniferous...... 42 0:0 Peculiates: Ma eee 510 | 823°0 1000 | 1000 Doubtless the fact that the Carboniferous forms so greatly out- number the Silurian has a meaning. Does not this greater organic affinity betoken a closer connection with the more modern than with the more ancient period? Is it not an intimation that the lowest beds of Devonshire do not constitute the basement of the Devonian system ?—that the county has an ample development of Upper and Middle, but not of Lower Devonian rocks ?- Hitherto we have accepted the opinion of Professor Sedgwick re- specting the Petherwin and Barnstaple beds; namely, that they are strictly contemporary, and constitute the uppermost division of the Devonian system. It may, perhaps, be well, before closing this paper, to go somewhat fully into the arithmetic of the question. A glance at Table IX. will show the number of fossil species and genera found in the two areas. TABLE IX. PETHERWIN. BARNSTAPLE. Gen. | Spec. | Gen. | Spec. POOPY TR ea \oe nn sesess cy 3 3 1 1 Echinodermata ......... 1 it 4 6 Chustidcea: is crit etcacace’ 2 2 1 1 Bryozoa . eh nici 2 2 3 3 Brachiopoda............ 7 20 8 26 Lamellibranchiata...... ff 14 8 21 Gasteropoda ............ 6 9 7 10 Cephalopoda... ......... 5 21 2 8 Motals. kegs tasdictics 33 72 34 76 * Memoirs Geol. Survey, vol. i. p. 96. PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 29 Petherwin appears to have been richer than Barnstaple in Zoo- phyta and Cephalopoda, but poorer in Echinodermata and Lamelli- branchiata; whilst neither of the areas has yielded any fossil sponges. Assuming the higher antiquity of the South Devon and contempo- rary beds—to which, probably, no geologist will object—it follows that the fossils common to it and Petherwin, or Barnstaple, or both, were contributions from it to them. Regarded thus, the populations of the two areas were made up as is shown below. TABLE X. | | | PerHEeRwin. | BarNSTAPLE. STG TE eae ea i oe Sp. l Sp. 1 Trower Devomlanics,. 2:e60. 60000: esis ac eike New (peculiar) 2.5 seek sn osav' » 44 et! New (common)..........-+...+-- LD ee CarbonilerGus .......se00seceen Pt he eG The term “ peculiar,” in the table, is meant to denote such species as, in England, are found in Petherwin or Barnstaple only; and “common” to mark those found in both, but not elsewhere in the British Isles; “carboniferous” is used to designate the species common to the deposits of that age and Petherwin, or Barnstaple, or both; exclusive of six found also in Lower Devonian deposits. It may be remarked here that no fossil occurring in South Devon, Pe- therwin and Barnstaple, appears to have been found in Carboniferous rocks. The Carboniferous figures 138 and 16 in Table X. are not in addition to the previous numbers in the Table; the totals—72 and 76 respectively—are, of course, complete without them. In order to show the relative value of the figures just given, the following Table has been calculated on the method of putting each total 72 and 76 equal to 1000, and equating the other figures in Table X. to it. 1t should be remembered, however, that whilst this furnishes better data for comparison, it considerably magnifies the facts. TABLE XI. PETHERWIN. BARNSTAPLE. SVT Ce San eee alee ae Sp. 14 Sp. 13 Lower Devonian ................ e208 se AL iNew? (peculian)smeaty .55.5. 5h; ae GUT 21658 News (Common) ees is csaloc oi) LOT me lee: Carboniferaus 3) 23... seve sy toil aoe The Silurian figures are, of course, quite valueless further than as 30 THE GEOLOGIST. showing the very slender organic connection between the deposits under notice and those of the Silurian age. A glance at the Table shows that, of the two, Petherwin is the nearest to the Lower Devo- nian horizon, and the most remote from the Carboniferous; true, the majority in each case 1s but small—208 to 171, and 211 to 181—but it must be remembered that great ones were not expected; and that, feeble as they are individually, there is strength in the fact that their testimonies agree; if they mean anything, it is that the Barnstaple beds are somewhat more modern than those of Petherwin; a conclu- sion to which more than one eminent geologist has been led by other, and, perhaps, more reliable evidence. The fossils of the two areas belong to forty-six genera, of which _ thirty-three are represented by the Petherwin, and thirty-four by the Barnstaple series, twenty-one are common to both; hence twelve are peculiar to Petherwin, and thirteen to Barnstaple. The South Devon and contemporary beds contain sixty-four genera, of which thirteen only occur in the deposits now under notice. Taken as a whole, the forty-six genera above mentioned have a Carboniferous, rather than a Silurian, or even a Lower Devonian facies. They may be divided into, groups, namely, 1st, those characte- rized by a considerable maximum specific variety or development in some one period before or after Petherwin and Barnstaple times, that is, during the Silurian or Lower Devonian eras on the one side, or the Carbouiferous on the other; 2nd, those that are not thus dis- tinguished. For example, the rich genus Orthoceras had, in Britain, an almost equal number of species in Carboniferous and Upper Silurian times, when it was richest; hence it had no one period of maximum specific variety, and consequently belongs to the second of the groups just defined; as, of course, do also all ‘other genera simi- larly characterized, as well as those, such as Hallia, which seems never to have pads more che a very fom species at any one time. The first of tl hich alone we have to consider here— contains thirty-one genera, of which six may be said to belong to the Past, and twenty- -five to the Future, the age of Petherwin and Barn- staple being the chronological stand- point. The first, or “ Past’’ division, does not contain a number sufiici- ently great to be of service in this inquiry. The last, or “ Future, consists of two series, namely, Ist, those genera which are equally represented in the two sets of beds; ; and Ondly, t those that are not; evidently the last series alone can supply information on the question under consideration. It is made up of the fifteen genera named in the following table, in which the columns headed P., B., C., exhibit the number of species, belonging to each genus, which occur in the Petherwin, Barnstaple, and British Carboniferous beds respectively. From the table we learn that nine of these genera are found in Barnstaple only, or are more largely represented there than in Pe- therwin ; and that nineteen species represent the ten genera found in the former area, and no more than ten the six genera of the latter. Hence, the genera tell us what the species had told us be- 9 PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. | lL fore, that the Barnstaple beds are somewhat more modern than those of Petherwin. TABLE XII. GENERA. 12 B. C. PASTA LENA a sake Rain crs us 1 5) OyatWOerimMs’ is 065 asap) o selene 1 10 Rentremites: 2h .os2. cacseoscace ste 1 i GilaneconOmerss each ore Oe ao ] 5 enestella Wesel. 0. cess heen 1 beg 19 Chonetese ys 4052: Pea? ca 2 16 ESR MITCHUS Heirs, ess? ose tl. Saas ] 3 48 IM ICCCIYG) Re SE care COR 1 16 ACKAINUS UE epee ne, «cle gia ial rs 9 Wyprlcardidwtet he cee. ees it 1 9 IN icul eee te Narn ee 4 14 Sap euin lites: sedey.c oc Soostes . 2 15 oxi ema nto ecc hots a it 14 Macrocheilts) 2o.0.5..4.4.4<-508: rick 1 16 IN UMIINS eee ch cas BA eee haan ae ] hae 40 10 19 24.7 We are prepared, by even a slight acquaintance with the geogra- phical distribution of existing organisms, to find that deposits strictly contemporary, lithologically similar, and closely connected geographi- eally, have certain fossils peculiar to each; but, unless we recognize time as a factor, it will be difficult to explain the following striking results in Petherwin and Barnstaple. ‘Together they have yielded as many as one hundred and thirty-one species of fossils, yet have no more than seventeen in common; the fossils belong to forty-six genera, of which twenty-five are confined to one or other of the two areas, having amongst them the rich genus Clymenva, with its eleven species all closely restricted, in Britain, to Petherwin, yet occurring in continental Europe. The remaining twenty-one genera are re- presented by eighty-six species, but the representatives are rarely identical in the two areas, the peculiar being to the common as 69 to 17, that is,as 4 to 1. Contend that these beds are strictly centemporary, and the facts remain to puzzle; grant but the lapse of time, and, at least, part of the difficulty disappears, and thereby furnishes another argument in favour of the opinion now advocated. Returning for a moment to Tables X. and XI., it will be seen that the Barnstaple have a smaller number of fossils in common with the Lower Devonian, and even the Petherwin beds, than with the Carbo- niferous ; hence they may be considered as belonging rather to the last than to the Devonian series, or, possibly, may have to be re- garded as “ passage beds”’ between them. oe THE GEOLOGIST. ON SOME POINTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE SKULL OF FOSSIL MUSK-DEER (Cuainotherium). By Craries Carter Braxe, Esq. While examining lately the magnificent collection of fossil musk- deer, from Auvergne, in the collection of the British Maseum, in the case devoted to the specimens collected by M. Bravard from the lacustrine calcareous marls of Puy-de-Déme, a singular anomaly in the structure of the crania of the genus ainotherium met my view. All the writers who have described the osteology of the skull of ~ Ruminants have noticed those singular deficiencies or lacune which exist at the points of junction of the various bones, and which have been variously described as “ lacrymal openings’’* or “ facial inter- spaces.’ + Their function has been unknown, and their presence, although constant in each individual species, is variable in species nearly allied to each other. In the Cainotherium commune, Bra- vard (Microtherium Renggeri), nearest allied to the Hyomoschus of the present day, ossification at this lacrymal point of intersection has extended to a much less degree than in its living analogue. The interspace in Cainotherium 1s longer in proportion to its breadth than the existing musk-deer (oschus chrysogaster). In the Dorcatherium Nauti, Kaup., on the contrary, not the slightest interspace is exhibited, and the lacrymal angle is definitively closed. In some of the speci- mens named Cainotherium in the British Museum, no interspace exists. These probably belong to a separate species,{ as De Blain- ville remarks on the typical Cainotherium commune, termed by him Anoplotheriwm laticurvatum, that it possesses “ des lacunes sous-laery- males assez grandes, en forme de longues virgules.” It is most interesting to observe a similar anomalous diversity of structure exists in the recent species of ruminants most nearly allied to the Moschide and Microtheria. I need only call attention to the fact that a large lacrymal opening is present in the Llama (Awchenia Llama), and none in the Vicuna (A. Vicuna); that in the yellow-bellied musk (A/oschus chrysogaster) a large, and in the small water-musk of Western Africa (Hyomoschus aquaticus) a small interspace exists; whilst in the nearly allied Meminna Indica, Pragulus Stanleyanus, and TL. pygmeus, ossification has extended over the whole point of junction of the lacrymal (73), frontal (11), nasal (15), maxillary (21), and premaxillary (22) bones. The object of my present communication is to point out some of the reasons for this singular anomalous structure in the fossil and recent Moschide. * Gray, ‘Catalogue of Mammalia’ in collection of British Museum, part 3. + Spencer Cobbold,‘‘ Ruminantia,” in Todd’s, ‘ Cyclopeedia of Anatomy and Physi- ology,’ p. 513. t De Blainville, ‘“ Ostéographie,” Anoplotherium, p. 75. BLAKE—ON SKULLS OF FOSSIL MUSK-DEER. 33 The functional interpretation of this singular diversity of organiza- tion in animals otherwise so nearly allied to each other, may not be manifestly apparent to the philosophical zoologist. It was satisfac- torily ascertained in the year 1836* by the observations of Messrs. Bennett, Owen, Ogilby, and Hodgson, that the suborbital sinus sub- served a purpose connected with the generative functions, being dilated and swollen at certain periods of the year. But the connec- tion of the development of the glandular structure of the carneous lacrymal sinus with the degree of ossification to which the cheek- bones extend is not obvious. If however we suppose that the large periodical swelling which, according to Mr. Hodgson, forms a huge lump of flesh bigger than, and lke in shape to, the yolk of an ege, increases periodically in its dimensions, its backward pres- sure towards the cheek-bone would be seriously impeded by a bony wall, such as we find in the Tragulus pygmeus or the Auchenia Vicuna. The aponeurotic fascia which fills the lacrymal interspace in the Hyomoschus aquaticus, or the Auchenia Huanaca, would, however, yield more easily, and thus those species would in certain seasons have a greater development of their suborbital sinuses. Mr. Ogilbyt laid down the theory “as a general remark, which however he stated was not universal, that in intertropical animals the lacrymal sinus is larger than in more northern species, and in those whose range is limited to mountainous districts.” This incom- plete induction may be considered partially corroborated by the oste- ology of the Llamas: In the three varieties, Guanaco, Llama, and Alpaca, a more or less large “sublacrymal lacuna” is left. In the Vicufia, ossification has extended to such a degree as to close this completely up. How does this singular fact bear upon the theory that there is a relation between the gregarious habits of those ante- lopes and musk-deer which frequent the plains, and the presence of the lacrymal sinuses, and consequent non-ossification of the cheek- bones? The species of Auwchenia which has no lacuna, is confined to the most elevated table-lands of Bolivia and Northern Chile. The three varieties in which large lacune are exhibited, are found over the whole Andian range, the Guanaco supporting life alike under the tropical sky of New Granada, or the frozen steppes of Patagonia. Tn this species we find a large development of the lacrymal inter- space. But both the Guanaco and Vicufia are gregarious. It is therefore quite clear that the development of the lacrymal sinus, or the degree to which the lacrymal and other cheek-bones are ossified, have no reference whatever to the gregarious or solitary habits of the species. This was sufficiently proved by the table which was sub- mitted by Professor Owen to the Zoological Society (Proceedings, 1836, p. 36), in which it was conclusively shown that no constancy or correlation existed with respect to the presence or absence of the suborbital sinuses. And the facial interspace seems an equally in- * Proc. Zool. Soc. 1836, p. 34. + Proc. Zool. Soc. 1836, p. 38. MOT: Vs FE 34 THE GEOLOGIST. constant character in the antelopes, as differentiating various sub- genera or natural groups. ‘If any philosophical thinker can explain what is the vera causa which has provided for the Cainotherium and Guanaco deep pre- orbital interspaces, whilst in their congeners the Dorcatherium and Vicufia, no such interspace exists, a character originally pointed out by Dr. Ag E. Gray, and which according to my experience is the sole specific difference which ean be demionseeacd: such explanation will be of great benefit to zoological science. The above observations are made solely with a view of suggesting further inquiry on this most interesting topic. I trust that some of those writers who have so carefully studied the osteology of Ruminantia, may be led to re- consider the gees aoe and to make further observations on the func- tion of the facial interspaces in both recent and fossil ruminants. It has been suggested to me, that the two holes in the Aerothe- rium skull, as they are undoubtedly asymmetrical, might have been produced artificially or accidentally, the bone at this place being ex- ceedingly thin. Should such a theory be proved correct, the Aficro- theriwm of the Auvergne deposit would still find its nearest analogue in the existing Meminna of Ceylon, and by the demonstration of this affinity, still further corroborate the truth of Professor Owen’s gene- ralization,—‘“ The affinity of the Microtheres to the Cheorotains is nevertheless very close” (Paleontology, 2nd ed. p. 372). ON THE DISCOVERY OF HUMAN AND ANIMAL BONES IN HEATHERY BURN CAVE, NEAR STANHOPE. By Joun Exuxuiort, Esa. In a tolerably deep ravine, surrounded by trees and brushwood growing in wild profusion, was, until lately, a cave, in that member of the carboniferous formation locally called the “ Great Limestone,” and situated about one mile and a quarter north from the town of Stan- hope, in the county of Durham. The limestone is now being worked for the purpose of supplying the Weardale Iron Company with a flux used in the operation of smelting tbeir ironstone ; and conse- quently the cave has been laid bare to ‘the light of day. The cave was much visited a few years ago, both by strangers and persons living in the locality, but probably few of the visitors ever studied the excavating forces by means of which the cave was hol- lowed out of the solid limestone, and fewer still, if any, would think that they were treading on a primeval burial- place. Doubtless the excay ation must be mainly due to aqueous agency, but a reference to Sir Charles Lyell’s ‘ Principles of Geology,’ Pro- fessor Phillips’s ‘ Treatise on Geology,’ and Richardson’s ‘Geology,’ shows that our leading writers on this subject consider that the jirst — ELLIOTT— HUMAN REMAINS NFAR STANHOPE. 39 eause of a cavern must have been a fracture in the limestone rock, consequent on the upheaval of the strata, and that water then finding access to the crack, would wear it out to its present dimensions. Fractures in this case would most probably take place when the “Red Vein” was formed, which is only between two hundred and three hundred yards distant > re 2225 a) , aa 2 Ue ae eee from the cave, and crosses faa Se cape, the ravine nearly at right- i, angles. This vein, which con- tains lead-ore, iron - stone, etc., is a wide one, requiring a wide fissure, and the force necessary to produce such a fissure would be sufficient to cause rents and small dislo- cations in the rocks at con- North. Beantape Barn: siderable distances. Besides Fig. 1.—Ground plan of cavern district. this there are two other veins Pa a eh Bone, Domest: ¢ Red Yel crossing the ravine ab lesser brushwood before the quarry was worked, on hill-side ; distances from the cave, and ge er po As) degrees. these would still further in- crease the probability of an original fissure. The cave must be very old if we suppose it to have been formed by the water running down tue ravine when on a level with its mouth or opening, seeing that the watercourse is now worn down ten or twelve feet below the cave’s bottom. Again, if we suppose it to have been ex- cavated by the attrition of the wayes of the sea during some re- mote period, when the waters of the ocean stood on a level with the cave, it must still have a very Fig. 2.—Transverse section of cave. ancient origin, for the cave is : i uerel of the Burn. 4 Level of cave (from a to situated upwards of thirty miles eet). c Osseous remains in the cave, (from btoc 14 yards). d cave without remains, (from from the sea, and upwards of base of d to ground-linef' 7 ft). e Limestone. — eight hundred feet above its pre- sent level. This locality must have been submerged during the glacial period, as we have evidence of by the deposits of boulder clay ; and if the sea on receding should have remained on a level with the limestone for a great length of time, the result would have been the wearing down of the rock, or the hollowing out of crevices and caves in the exposed strata. Jn a certain place of the cave-flooring, the workmen recently came upon a large sheet of stalagmite of varying thickness, but averaging about four inches. This calcareous incrustation has been formed by the ceaseless dropping of water holding lime in solution, from the roof of the cave. On removing this crust and a small portion of fine ¢ ee ys SZ Wie oA py EY) oy Sy GF UNE ee IP Yow, ps é or = e SO 36 THE GEOLOGIST. sand and silt, the workmen exhumed a human skull and a quan- tity of bones, some undoubtedly human, and others belonging to the lower animals. The human skull, according to its phrenological de- velopment, seems to indicate a low intellectuel capacity, the forehead being low, and the circumference under the average standard. There is also a fragment of a skull which seems to have belonged to a toler- ably large animal, as it measures three and a quarter inches from the medial line to the outside beside 6 the ear, giving a breadth of six and a half inches for the whole skull; then if the integuments, hair, ete. be added, we should faa a physio- enomy little short of nine inches wide, and this creature may have been that of one of the principal tenants of the cave, and which pro- bably devoured the cthers. Inter- mixed with the remains are very a Angular piece of Limestone, Sand, etc. small pieces of bone, ae partially pire sere ce Osseous remains, Sand, Silt, ete, cemented together by calcareous d Stalagmite. ¢ Open cave. f Limestone. matter, and occurring in patches et different places ; these have the appearance of coprolites. The bones are nearly all fragmentary, and much broken; the fractures being of an ancient date, thereby showing that the remains had been subject to violence and fracture before they were imbedded in their calca- reous tomb. How long these remains have lain in the cave P- by what means they have been carried and entombed there ? whether the animal-remains belong to existing or to extinct species P and how the fractured bones are to be accounted for? are all very interesting paleontological problems. The cave has in all probability been occasionally inhabited by wolves, foxes, ete., which would sally forth, seize their prey, and re- turn to devour it, leaving the bones to be covered over by the stalag- mite as we find them ; the coprolites before mentioned seem to point to this conclusion. There seems to be not so much mystery about the animal bones being found there; but the case is quite different as regards the human. There is always something strange and start- ling in such occurrences, when human remains are found otherwise than reposing in the silent and hallowed precincts of a regular bury- ing-place. During the interment of these relics of some of the perhaps earliest members of our race, the rippling of running water on the cavern floor, the monotonous drippings from the roof, the growling perhaps of wolves, or the barking of foxes, and the bellowi ing of the wind through the gloomy chambers of the cavern, would ‘form the only requiem. Co OWW FP [6 or 7 feet wide. ] Fig. 3.—Section of cave. i | i | PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 37 Tt ought, in conclusion, to be observed, that the remains are de- posited in a certain wing or chamber of the cave, about two feet above the floor where the water runs, so that they would he dry, with the exception of the calcareous droppings from the roof, or in the case of the cavern water being swollen above the capacity of the lower channel to contain it. Although a considerable portion of the cave has been destroyed by the quarrying operations, which are still going on, there remains yet a much larger extent undisturbed, so that more remains will most likely be discovered. “est Croft, Stanhope, by Darlington. Dec. 17th, 1861. [These bones, with specimens of the stalagmite, etc., have been transmitted to us and will receive careful study and consideration. We shall shortly give a concise and ac- curate account of them.—Ep. Grot., 22 Dec. 1861.] PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. GroLocicaL Society or Lonpon.— December 4.—Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S., in the chair. The following communication was read :—‘‘ On the Bracklesham Beds of the Isle of Wight Basin.” By the Rev. O. Fisher, M.A., F.G.S. After noticing the researches of Prestwich and Dixon, the author proceeded to state that most of the “ Bracklesham beds” are displayed at low water at Bracklesham Bay; but other and higher beds belonging to the same series are to be observed in the New Forest, at Stubbington, and in the Isle of Wight. By means of the fossils, for the most part, Mr. Fisher divides the series into four groups :— 1. The uppermost abounds in Gusteropoda, and has several fossil-beds. One of these, in the eastern part of its range, is full of Nwmmulina variolaria (No. 16 of Mr. Prestwich’s Section of Whitecliff Bay, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. uu. pl. 9); the NM. variolaria bed of Selsea and of Stubbington; and the Shepherd’s Gutter bed at Bramshaw, New Forest. The beds above the last-named are—l1st, a portion of No. 19 of the Whitecliff Bay section and the coral-bed of Stokes Bay and Hunting Bridge (New Forest); and 2nd, the shell-bed at Hunting Bridge, and pebble-bed, with shell-casts, at Highcliff. The lowest bed of this groupis the ‘‘Cyprea-bed”’ of Selsea, the ‘‘Cardita-bed” of Stubbington, and the Brook bed in the New Forest. 2. This group is more sandy than the last; it has two fossil-beds, one of which contains Cerithium giganteum (at Hillhead, Stubbington; and half a mile west of Thorney station, Bracklesham Bay). 3. This is a sandy group, and is remarkable for the profusion of Nwimmulina levigata in its principal fossil-bearing beds. 4. This embraces the lowest fossiliferous sands of Bracklesham Bay. Its distinctive shells are Cardita acuticosta and Cyprea tuberculosa. Some species of mollusks pass upwards from the Bracklesham into the Barton series ; yet the Fauna of the Bracklesham beds has a sufficiently distinct facies; and the following species range through this series, and are confined to it—Cardita planicosta, Sanguinolaria Hollowaysit, Solen obliquus, Cytherea suberycinoides, Voluta Cithara, and Turritella suleifera. Pecten corneus is also characteristic, but is met with higher up. 38 THE GEOLOGIST. The Bracklesham beds seen at Whitecliff Bay were first treated of, and Mr. Prestwich’s section referred to in detail. No. 6 (a pebble-bed) of this published section is regarded by Mr. Fisher as the base of the Brackle- sham series; the upper limit being somewhere in No. 19. Descriptions followed of the beds seen at Bracklesham Bay ; the eastern side of Selsea; at the Mixen Rocks; at weil-sinkings near Bury Cross; at Stubbington (including the Cerithium-bed at Hillhead, discovered by the author in 1856) ; Netley, Bramshaw, Brook, and Hunting Bridge (where H. Keeping has lately found a fossil-bed high in the series), in the New Forest. Indications of the western range of the marine shells of “ Bracklesham” aze were quoted as occurring at Lychett, near Poole, and as very rare (one Ostrea) near Corfe. Bracklesham beds, containing marine forms, seen at Alum Bay, Isle of Wight, and at Highcliff, near Christchurch, were then described in full. The Bracklesham series is regarded by Mr. Fisher as commencing in both these sections a few feet beneath a dark-green clay (part of No. 29 of Mr. Prestwich’s section of Alum Bay) containing a peculiar variety of Nummulina planulata and many shells of the Barton Fauna. Remarks were also made on the estuarine condition of the lower Bracklesham beds in their western area; on the probable sources of their materials; on the successive deepenings of the old sea-bottom, and the formation of the pebble-beds; and lastly, on the fitness of the Brackle- sham and Barton series as a field for research in the history of molluscan species. The paper was illustrated by a series of specimens from the author’s collection. Specimens of gold in quartz-veins, of gold-dust, and of gold-ingots, from Nova Scotia, sent by Mr. Secretary Howe, were exhibited by Pro- fessor Tennant, F.G.S. CORRESPONDENCE. Northampton Sands. Dear Sir,—The November number of your valuable journal contains a paper by Mr. J. H. Macalister, on ‘‘ The Fossils of North Bucks and the adjacent Counties,’’ in which, I believe, reference is made to myself in the following passage, page 481:—‘“‘ The identity of the Northampton Sands (formerly classed with the has) with the Stonefield Slate of Oxford- shire and Gloucestershire, and constituting the lower zone of the Great Oolite;” and in a note it is added, “so classed by Dr. Wright, being separated by him from the inferior oolite, which they formerly were sup- posed to represent.” To this statement I have simply to say, that Mr. Macalister is altogether incorrect, as I have nowhere classed the Northampton Sands with the lias, nor made any reference to them. If that gentleman will refer to my memoir on “ The Paleontological and Stratigraphical Relation of the so-called Sands of the Inferior Oolite” (Quart. Journal of the Geol. Soe. vol. xii. p. 292), for 1856, he will find a full statement of the case, as regards the counties of Gloucester, Somerset, and Dorset, but no reference whatever to Northampton; and in the preface to my ‘ Monograph on. the Oolitic Echinodermata,’ p. ix., he will find it stated that ‘in every \ We \ \\j "i \ A i \ —— SSS : ‘aur ST i SECTION OF THE CHALK CLIFFS UNDER DOVER S. J. Mackie, F.G.S., del. CASTLE KENT. NOTES AND QUERIES. 39 instance, with the exception of the Northamptonshire beds, which have been carefully noted by my friend, the Rev. A. N. Griesbach, I have visited the localities given in this work,” but in no part of that mono- graph has my friend referred the Northampton Sands to the has. Mr. Macatister has been therefore altogether misinformed on this subject. I submit that it ought to be a rule with gentlemen furnishing papers to the valuable pages of the ‘ Geologist,’ in every case to refer to the original articles from which they quote. Yours most truly, THomas WRIGHT. Cheltenham, November, 1861. NOTES AND QUERIES. SUBDIVISIONS OF THE CHALK Formation.—The generally accepted subdivisions of the chalk are,—1, Upper White Chalk with bands of Flint nodules; 2, Middle or Lower White Chalk; 3, Grey Chalk or Chalk Marl. These have been in undisputed use for very many years, not because they do not require any modification to render the accordance more definite and more rigidly corresponding to the accumulation of information which has been going on since their introduction, but chiefly because chalk,—at least English chalk,—is white or of a pale grey, which when the beds are in a dry state is so nearly white, that ordinary eyes do not see the difference, and ordinary collectors do not care about it so long as they can get hold of a fine fossil. Still, however, it is very necessary, and high time that some one should take in hand to define accurately the lines of division, especially that be- tween the upper and lower white chalks. I doubt very much that the cessation of the bands of flints denotes the demarcation between the upper and lower white chalk (middle chalk of some authors): they should be properly, and must be ultimately, separated by a characteristic difference in the distinguishing organic remains. With the lowermost bands of flints (Plate IT. a) very numerous beds of veniriculites and sponges set in, and are continued far below the termina- tion of the layers of flints, down to a very thick bed of pure white’chalk (4), that rests upon a very marked and peculiar stratum about two feet thick (c), which, from the weathering out of its upper and under surfaces, forms a marked line as far as the eye can see the distinctions of bedding all along the coast. This bed, in my own note-books and in conversation, I have familiarly termed the ‘‘ two-foot stratum.” Below this we have again a thick bed of white chalk, free from flints. At least, such is the order in the section to which these remarks more particu- larly refer, namely, that presented by the East or Castle Cliff at Dover, of which we give a view in Plate II. This “two-foot stratum ” is persistent throughout Kent, and I have met withit both in Surrey and Sussex, and it will therefore probably form one of the best and most unmistakable guides in inland quarries to those particular beds of white chalk to which we wish to draw attention, for the purpose of getting all the information we can as to their geographical area, order of succession, and organic contents in other chalk districts, so that the true horizon of division, as formed by distinctiveness of organic remains, may be properly made out. 40 THE GEOLOGIST. We shall be obliged by communications, and stratigraphical lists of fossils from our readers and correspondents, to assist us in our labours in determining this interesting point of Whether the ordinary division into “white chalk with flints,” and ‘‘ white chalk without flints,” is not merely a mineralogical division, and not a proper geological subdivision cha- racterized by distinctive organic remains, and marking out a positive zone in the succession of geological events and of life-forms ; or Whether a dis- tinguishing alteration in the organic remains of the white chalk does not happen so near the horizon of cessation of flint layers, that by including or excluding some few beds of chalk, those valuable and characteristic petrolo- gical features (of chalk with, or without flints) may not be made more pre- cisely valuable and definite than at present. S. J. Macxig. Lower Sr1iurtan Fossits at Buitry.—The neighbourhood of Builth affords excellent specimens of many of the Lower Silurian fossils, espe- cially trilobites. It may be useful to inform amateur and professed geolo- gists that the little town of Builth contains a good practical geologist in the person of Mr. John Jones, gardener at Pencarrig House, who, though in humble circumstances, possesses a capital knowledge of the fossils of the district, and the localities where they may at once be found. He is willing at all times, so far as his duties permit, to become the pioneer of geo- logical visitors at Builth, and will, for a suitable consideration, forward spe- cimens to correspondents. Several amateurs of high standing, as well as professors, have availed themselves of his knowledge to the enriching of their collections. Within the last twelve months I have received from him some excellent specimens of Trilobites (Ogygia Buchii, Ampyx nudus, Trinucleus concentricus, etc.), also specimens of Didymograpsus, Graptolithus, Rastrites, etc. I make this statement that others wishing to have their collections of Lower Silurian remains added to, may know whither to look for aid.—A_ Lmom1nsTER SUBSCRIBER. Mammatian Remains.—In the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ for1715, vol. xxix., two teeth of Elephas, probably H. antiquus, are recorded to have been found in the north of Ireland, at Maghery, eight miles from Bulturbet, in digging the foundation of a mill near the side of a small brook that parts the counties of Cavan and Monaghan. They were about 4 feet underground, and about 80 yards from the brook. The bed on which they lay had been laid with ferns, and with that sort of rushes here ealled “sprits,” with which brushes and nut-shells were intermixed. Under this was a stiff blue clay, on which teeth and bones were found. Above this was, first, a mixture of yellow clay; under that a fine white sandy clay, which was next to the bed. The bed was, for the most part, a foot thick, cutting like turf; and in every layer the seed of the rush was as fresh as if new pulled. In the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ for 1754, vol. xlvii., there is a record of several bones of an elephant found at Leysdown, in the island of Sheppey, by Mr. Jacob, surgeon, of Faversham. Three or four years before, Mr. Jacob had sent the acetabulum of an elephant, which was dis- covered sticking in the clay which was partly washed away from the cliff, about a mile eastward of the cliffs of Minster. This, with other parts— vertebrae, a thigh-bone 4 feet long, too rotten to be taken up entire—all lay below high-water mark ; and as the place soon after became his property by purchase, he then went, attended by some workmen, in search of more relics, and found a tusk 8 feet long and 12 inches in circumference in the middle, besides other bones within 20 feet of those first recorded. | PLATS Ill. 3. J. Mackie del. Fig. 1. —Z Ay ANY &- 7 Fo), —~ Sri ae ——— CYPHOSOMA KCNIGT. [From the Upper Chall PI oa of Gravesend, Kent.] In the National Collection, British Museum. THE GEOLOGIST. FEBRUARY 1862. NOTE ON KONIG’S SEA-URCHIN. (Cyphosoma Kenigi, Mantell.) By S. P. Woopwarp, F.G.S. One of the commonest fossils of the chalk in the London district is the beautiful Sea-Urchin, of which we here give two figures, from examples in the national collection. It was named by Dr. Mantell, in honour of Mr. Charles Konig, the distinguished German savant, who in his youth was Librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, and became after- wards the Keeper of the Natural History Collections in the British Museum. By the country people in Wiltshire it is called the “Shepherd’s Crown.” The Konig’s Sea-Urchin belongs to a subdivision of the old Lin- nean genus Cidaris, to which the name of Cyphosoma was given by _ Agassiz (from kudos, curvus; cdpa, corpus). The five ambulacral bands are nearly as broad as the inter-ambulacral, and are ornamented with a double series of tubercles equal in size to the rest. These tubercles are placed on crenulated bosses, but are not perforated as in most of the Cidaride. The upper and under sides of this fossil Urchin are so different that drawings of them might be taken to represent two distinct species. The under side exhibits ten pairs of rows of tubercles, largest at the margin, and diminishing gradually to the central orifice. On the upper surface the tubercles are much smaller, and there are two ad- ditional rows on the inter-ambulacral bands, external to those which are continued downwards over the base. This character was pointed MOl:,: V. G 4.2, THE GEOLOGIST. out by Dr. Mantell in his original description of the species, and serves to distinguish it from another form, nearly equally common in the chalk, which is figured and described by Goldfuss as C. granulosus, but is generally regarded as a (perhaps sexual ?) variety, having a more tumid shell, and with the additional rows of tubercles on the upper surface rudimentary or obsolete. The pairs of ambulacral pores in Cyphosoma Kenigi, form ten wind- ing lines from the mouth-opening (peristome) to the apical orifice (periproct). They are somewhat crowded at the mouth, but extend in single file to a little above the circumference, and then fall into double series on the upper part of the shell. The specimen repre- sented by fig. 1 exhibits a portion of the dental apparatus, lying in the peristome, and consisting of one of the five pairs of jaws which are similar in all the Hehinide, and form the ‘ lantern’ of Aristotle. Young and half-grown specimens of Cyphosoma Kenigi are com- paratively rare. They may be recognized by the flatness of the under surface, which distinguishes them at all ages, while in the little C. corollare (Parkinson) the base is rendered concave by the curling in- wards of the margin of the peristome. In the other common little species, C. spatuliferwm (Forbes), the ambulacral pores are ranged in single file throughout their course. The spines of Cyphosoma Keenigi are awl-shaped and rather short and stout, with spatulate ends. In the second example figured, a multitude of spines of all sizes were preserved in connexion with the shell, and have been cleared from the matrix with great skill and in- genuity by Mrs. W. H. Allen. There is another specimen in the British Museum with the spines remaining i situ, which was obtained more than a century ago, and formed one of the ornaments of Sir Hans Sloane’s collection. Although common in the chalk-pits of the Thames Valley, and in those near Brighton and Lewes, the Cyphosoma Kenigi appears to be unknown to the collectors of fossils from the uppermost division of the chalk at Norwich, or in the corresponding bed at Ciply in Bel- gium, and Meudon near Paris. It is said to be found at Montolieu, in the department of Drome, at Dusseldorf, and in the island of Rugen in the Baltie. a —— a 43 SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE TORBANE MINERAL FIELD. By AnpRew Tayrtor, F.R.PS., F.B.S.E. The various corps of an army drawn up in line of battle are dis- tinguished not only by their various uniforms, but also by the dis- tinct position assigned them in the field. This greatly helps the general to the immediate disposition of sharpshooters, infantry, or artillery, as the fate of battle may require. Most of the minerals which are the basis of our commercial and mining greatness are obtained from the Carboniferous system. The industrialist obtains them from various parts of this formation. When a new substance has presented itself, having characters very different from the ordi- nary rank and file of coals, clay-bands, or fire-clays, its stratigraphi- eal position will help us to determine if it is entitled to a distinct character. If its place be distinct from those of the ordinary coals, if likewise there are indications of a different physical mode of for- mation, then its claim to be a new mineral will be greatly strength- ened. The lower carboniferous rocks of Scotland consist of shales-and sandstones more than a thousand feet thick, termed by Mr. Maclaren the calciferous sandstone series. A freshwater limestone, equivalent to that worked at Burdie House, near Edinburgh, is the predominant member of this group. This limestone runs in an elliptical area round that city for nearly twenty-four miles, extending through Fite, Midlothian, and Linlithgowshires. Part of this series extends to the south-east of the town of Bathgate, round which is the Torbane Hill mineral basin. A geological section in the Bathgate Hills, taken from Dechmont-law to Balbardie House, exhibits a limestone containing freshwater fossils, and equivalent to the one worked at Burdie House, gradually merged into another limestone containing marine fossils, which is usually recognized as the lowest bed of the carboniferous series. The axis of the hills occurs in a wooded prominence overlooking the Caputhall Bogs, and near the “ Clinking Stane.” At this point the limestones may be traced within a few hundred yards of each other, dipping north-north-west and south-south-east. The Kirkton limestone, a peculiar bed, described by Dr. Hibbert, containing both marine and fluviatile remains, intervenes. Eastward from the pro- minence just indicated, both the axis of the hills, and the connexion of the limestones, may be traced in the burn running through Ban- gour Farm, at Binny, and thence at various points to the shore of the Forth at Hopetoun. From the section described, the succession of the strata on either side of the axis, comprising the country eastward to Edinburgh on the one hand, and westward to Shotts on the other, is as follows :— 44, THE GEOLOGIST. Axis. W.NN. ‘ S.S. E. \ i] 3. Upper Lanarkshire coal measures :— 3. Sandstones, shale, and a bed of coal. Wholly fluviatile organic characters. 2. Beds of marine and fluvio-marine lime- | 2. Freshwater limestone. stone intercalated with shale, coal, ironstone, and stratified trap. 1. Shales, sandstones. 1. Shale, sandstone, tufa. On the Bathgate Hills the marine limestone is sixty feet thick, and the fluviatile limestone about twenty feet thick. But towards the south-west, on the borders of Edinburgh and Lanarkshires, the marine limestone thins into beds of from three to six feet thick, whilst the freshwater bed is above fifty feet thick. The Torbane Hill bed lies in number two of the left-hand series of strata. Along with two or three local coal-seams, it occupies a small mineral basin some two or three miles in area, lying immedi- ately above the mountain-limestone, but stratigraphically distinct from the upper Lanarkshire coal-measures. The petrological struc- ture of the surrounding strata is very unique; let us try to evolve their history. The physical changes closing the life-era of the Scott?sh old red sandstone system are difficult to determine. From various geolo- gical reasons, the chief of which are the wave-ripples on the sand- stones, and the physical structure of the surrounding mountain-chains, it has been deduced that central Scotland was a strait or frith bounded as now by the prominent peaks of the northern and southern High- lands. Islets, covered by a strange vegetation, dotted this watery cx- panse; from the eastward strong currents brought down the spoils of a now lost land, depositing the shales and sandstones so predominant round the Scottish metropolis. In this quarter, too, an intense vol- canic activity prevailed. The trappean bosses, which form so prominent a feature in the landscape round Edinburgh, were mostly erupted at this time. So, at least, the labours of Mr. Geikie and others go to prove. From St. Abb’s Head to Bathgate a chain of volcanos sent up their lurid contents into the Carboniferous sky. Nowhere was this activity more intense thin on the Bathgate hills. The freshwater series to the eastwards of our section are everywhere intercalated with trap ; some of it developed as aerial ash-beds, the rest as submarine green- stones. ‘The prominences round Winchburgh, Binny, and Linlithgow, which the railway-traveller may remember so boldly characterize the scenery, are the memorials of these eruptions. The spot pointed out as the axis of the hills was undoubtedly the vent of a very active vol- cano. Immediately above Bathgate four or five great beds of basaltic greenstone and ash lie so intercalated with the aqueous strata as to TAYLOR—TORBANE MINERAL FIELD. AS be only explicable on the hypothesis that they were emptied at the same time that the other strata were deposited. The chemical changes effected by these igneous strata on the sur- rounding rocks are likewise very curious. In many places the lime- stone is changed into a crystalline marble. One bed at Kirkton affords undoubted evidence that it was deposited by a thermal spring. The great thickness the main bed of limestone in the hills attains, may be accounted for as much from its being a chemical deposit, as one of animal origin. The sandstones and shales, too, are often curi- ously baked, showing the violence of the igneous agencies. But we call special attention to the prevalence of bitumen in the district, some- times appearing solid in the crevices of the sandstones, as at Binny ; sometimes in round circular nodules in the trap or limestones ; and sometimes oozing out liquid from trappean reservoirs. The circular type of structure is very prevalent in the aqueous rocks of the district, as in the sandstone at King’s Cavel, and amongst the ironstones. It extends throughout the rock sys- tems. It is most manifest in the oolite or roe-stone of another for- mation. However we may explain it, it is clearly the result of agen- cies at work when the sandstones and shales were depositing, and not a subsequent chemical change. This admitted, it follows that most of the bitumen of the district is contemporaneous with the igneous rocks, and that the highly bituminous sandstones and shales were saturated at the period of their deposition. The clearest proof of this is the structure of the celebrated Binny sandstone. How else can we explain the black bituminous patches appearing on its surface P The physical agency at work may have been the conjunction of two rapid currents. But it is much easier to suppose the bitumen ejected from some neighbouring volcano floated in the waters of the lagoon or river in which the sandstone was forming, and then me- chanically mingled with it ; than that the sandstone was subsequently saturated from beneath. Facts zonnected with the occurrence and formation of bitumen at the present day bear out this hypothesis. Its connection with volcanic agency is well known. The celebrated pitch-lake of Trinidad stands in close proximity to a volcano, as also do some of the bituminous localities im Asia Minor. All the three varieties of this substance float on water. Maltha, or mineral pitch, floats on the surface of the Dead Sea. Petroleum floats on the Tigris and Euphrates, so much so, that the surface of the river is often set on fire. The boatmen.on the Tigris and Huphrates are paid in this substance. Doubtless at the bottom of these rivers there are many nascent beds of richly bitu- minous shales. Given then a series of submarine volcanos ejecting out sheets of liquid bitumen, and at the same time sand and mud rapidly deposited ; let these commingle, and we have the rationale of the formation of the Binny sandstone, and the bituminous shales of Queensferry and Broxburn. ‘These forces ceased after a time. A morass was slowly formed which now constitutes the Houston ceal-bed. This indicates 46 THE GEOLOGIST. another condition under which bitumen was eliminated. In this case it is the result not of mechanical deposition, but of subsequent chemi- eal action from decaying organic substances. Again, the action of the currents was resumed, and fresh bituminous shales were formed. When the contemporaneous traps on the north-west side of our section were ejected, the same succession of physical changes con- tinued. Bitumen occurs in globules both in the contemporaneous traps and in the limestones. The limestones indicate three marked alterations in the level of the land. First, the Kirkton limestone, with its leafy lamine, and curiously baked hens of cherty porcelain, is interstratified ash, and over: -capping basalt indicate proximate vol- canic activity when forming. J luvio-marine fossils are found in it. The land then sank so far as to allow the building corals to com- mence their labours ; a reef was now formed which was added to by shells dashed in by the surf from the neighbouring sea, and the pre- cipitation of carbonate of lime from a sea surcharged from its prox- imity to a voleanic cone; thus the great belt of the limestone of the hills was formed. But immediately after the land was subject to as rapid an elevation ; as is manifest from the Stigmarias found in the upper bed of the limestone,—the lower beds abounding in deep-sea shells. Ash-beds also cover it. The hills now seem gradually to have risen above the waves, and a prevalence of freshwater strata filled the small Torbane Hill basin. But all this time the voleano did not stop its activity, as is evidenced by the thick ridges of inter- bedded basalt which may be traced terracing the country upwards from Bathgate. It is easy to suppose that sheets of bitumen, as at the prior period of the Binny sandstone, floated on the waters of this lagoon; that in one time in particular, a very large quantity was given out, and thus, aided mayhap by ejections from beneath, the Tor- bane Hill bed was formed. May not the round circular masses in the Torbane Hill mineral, which so puzzle microscopists, be the result of the action of currents, ,—only, however, on a smaller scale than those visible to the naked eye in the other rocks. of the district >? In sug- gesting this hypothesis we make allowance for the fact that at other tymes the basin was elevated so that morasses could accumulate, and thus the beds of coal be formed. The district thus exhibits evidence of both modes of the elimination of bitumen. In the upland country west of the Torbane Hill basin there is a sin- gular absence of trappean ridges. The district rises into a series of undulating hills formed solely of the upper members of the carboni- ferous system of Lanarkshire. The lower carboniferous volcano had ceased previous to their deposition ; and the Bathgate bills probably formed elevated land at the base of the great strait in which these strata were depositing. Slowly the land rose and fell, morass after morass accumulated to be compressed into future coal-beds after being covered over by sand and mud. Bitumen was thus formed through chemical agencies. Its source is manifest from the microscopic struc- ture of the coal, which is entirely of woody origin, not exhibiting traces of clay or sand from drift. The beds of this upper formation — 0g RE Wg em ee. inane RUBIDGE— SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. 47 were deposited over a wide area, and, unlike the Torbane Hill basin, with the greatest uniformity. This upper coal-basin then strikingly contrasts with the unique character of the Torbane Hill basin; and greatly aids our argument that the mineral was formed under different physical conditions from those of the true coal-beds. NOTES ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF ROCKS IN SO UME ARICA: By Dr. R. N. Rusipes, of Port Elizabeth. It is near eleven years since that in travelling through Howison’s Poort,* one of the most picturesque of the many fine mountain passes through the quartzite ranges of the eastern province of the Cape Colony, my atteution was drawn to a geological fact to which obser- vation in other parts of the Colony has since led me to attach no little importance. In the construction of the main road from Port Elizabeth to Graham’s 'Town, many deep cuttings have been made in the solid quartzite rock. In many instances the rock seen in these works lost its crystalline character gradually, and assumed that of a hard blue sandstone, and at length nearly resembled the blue fossi- liferous shales and sandstones of the Kcca. These quartzite rocks have been referred to the age of the Carbo- niferous formation of Europe by Mr. Bain (Geol. Trans. vol. vil. 2nd series, pp. 54 and 188), and both he and Dr. Atherstone (‘ Kastern Pro- vince Magazine,’ vol.i. p. 588) describe them as conformable with the slaty rocks of the district. I have no doubt whatever that they generally are so. They pass gradually into each other, and, as I have described, the quartzite traced downward loses much of its siliceous character, and gradually assumes that of the slate and of the Ecca rock. This last is by Mr. Bain dissociated from the Carboniferous formation, and made the lowermost of the Lacustrine or Karoo series, but I have the following reasons for differing with him :— 1. At the western entrance of Howison’s Poort are some beds of rock, intermediate in lithological character between the quartzite and the Hcca beds. These contain vegetable stems which have been re- cognized by many as identical with those of the Ecca. At Forester’s Farm, east of Graham’s Town, is a blue rock, just like that of the HKeeca, containing the same fossils, which passes gradually into the eneiss. The sandstone on the one side is in relation on the other with the claystone-porphyry of Bain, as is the rock at the Ecea. Near Salem, in the heart of the Carboniferous system of Bain, are similar rocks with like fossils, conformable with the quartzite. 2. The strike of the inclined rocks, quartzites, slates, and Ecca rocks is throughout the province north 60° west nearly. If we draw Poort, a natural pass through a mountain range. 48 THE GEOLOGIST. a line of eight miles through Graham’s Town and near Salem, at right- angles to this direction, it will pass through little but quartzite. If we draw a line of the same length through the Commadagga beyond the Zeurberg, it will pass through nothing but slates, Ecca rock, and claystone porphy ry 3. On the road to Graaff Reinet is a place called Wolve Krool. It is a plain, bounded by quartzite hills. Its section is this :— Here the Ecea rock contains Fig. 1. its characteristic fossils, is eon- formable with the quartzite, and } is separated from the Dicyno- don rocks by a highish moun tain of quartzite and many males of slate, porphyry, etc. I could add many other reasons for this belief, but I think these will be sufficient. What is then the true relation of the quartzite to the Ecca rock and the slates? and how is it that at one part of a line of strike the rock will be all of a blue slaty fossiliferous character, and at another all crystalline quartzite, destitute, or nearly so, of fossils ? How is it that in deep sections, natural as well as artificial, such as are made by cutting roads or by deep gullies, the slaty rocks are found below gradually passing upwards into quartzite? Of this I could give scores of instances, but I will select only one natural one. The range of quartzite on the left-hand of the section is crossed by a bye- road. This road passes for a mile or more over well-marked Ecca rock, with the high quartzite hills on either hand. The quartzite on the right-hand dies out, and the road to Graaff Reinet passes over Ecca rock in the corresponding part of the section. I found what I believe to be the key to the explanation of these facts in Namaqualand. In passing through Ezel’s Poort, between Springbok Vontein and Spectakel, | was shown a section which had been noted by Dr. Atherstone as remarkable. The gneiss hills were covered by horizontal layers of quartzose sandstone, and these were continuous on the western side of the hill with like quartzose sand- stone dipping at a high angle westward, conformably with the gneiss. Tt was clear that this change of dip was not due to any upheaval, for the horizontal sandstones were found undisturbed a few yards distant. I soon learnt to regard this juxtaposition of horizontal and inclined beds, this continuity of quartzite conformable and unconformable with its subjacent rock, as a normal state of things in Namaqualand. When I saw high mountains with like structure, I was at first a little stag- gered, but soon felt convinced that even on this scale the phenomenon was due to the assimilation to each other by a process, common to both, of rocks of widely different ages. In the Western Province I made, in a rapid journey from Cape Town to Ceres, a selection from the clay-slate to the Upper Silurian of Bain. I had reason, as far as I was able, to confirm the truth of . Mr. Bain’s section, while differing from him in the inference I drew . MN peat ae WYP, vs Quartzite. Porphyry. Quartzite. Porphyry. Heea rock. Slate. Slate, RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. . 49 from it. I believe his wide dislocation of the Ceres beds from the clay- slate to be an error into which he has been led by a state of things like that of Ezel’s Poort. I have never been able to get direct proof that this is the case here, although I have elsewhere, as shall pre- sently appear. On my return to the Eastern Province, I thought I saw evidence of the siliceous change of rocks on a much oreater scale than I had observed them in Namaqualand. I wrote a Paper on the subject, and published it in the local magazine I have quoted above (‘ Hastern Province Magazine,’ vol. ii. p. 187). I hoped it would have led my friends here, from whose sections mine differed considerabl y, to re- examine their data. A little after, I sent home a Paper which was read at the Geological Society of London (see an abstract of it in the ‘Geological Society’s Journal,’ vol. xv. p. 195), in which I eo these views, and predicted that the clay-slate of the west would here- after be found identical with the Upper Silurian of Bain, and the Car- boniferous rocks of the east identical with both, the quartzite being changed rock, sometimes slate itself, sometimes a newer unconfor- mable rock, Of this identity I was ‘enabled to send home strong presumptive proof in the shape of fossils identical with the Upper Silurian of Bain, from the clay-slate on the western shores of Francis Bay. More recently L have obtained the same fossils (pronounced Devonian at home) from various points between the Kromme and Kabeljouw rivers, St. Francis Bay, in the clay-slate, and from Chatty, near Port Elizabeth ; from Naroo, near Uitenhage ; from Blauw Krants, on the Bezuidenhouts river, on the road to Graaff Reinet ; and from the northern base of the Coxcomb in the Winterhoek range in the Carboniferous. Still, it might be objected that there may really be a difference between the clay-slate and the Devonian, though Mr. Bain may have mistaken the line of division. If refer- ence be made to the Admiralty chart of St. Francis Bay, it will be seen that the low shores of the bay are crossed by a range of moun- tains of considerable elevation. These mountains, which are quartz- ite, cross the strike at a considerable angle, nearly, in fact, for some distance at a right angle; so that on the beach and the low hills you may cross near ten miles of slate, perhaps five miles of strike, while six or eight miles inland, on the heights, the corresponding part of the section is all quartzite. The quartzite must, consequently, cross unconformably the slates, and therefore be newer than they. The reasons why they cannot be older, I need not give here, as I have given many of them above. These same quartzite hills are continuous with others of the same lithological character, which are decidedly confor- mable with the Devonian rocks, though they too cross the strike at an angle of 30°. I have not had opportunities for such an examination of the country between this and Cape Town, as to enable me to say positively that there are no beds older than the Devonian; but I think I have shown satisfactorily that the evidence on which the clay- slate is referred to a much higher antiquity is fallacious. I can safely assert that the Devonian beds of this country are crossed by lofty VOL. V. H 50 THE GEOLOGIST. ranges of quartzite, often unconformable with them, which quartzite is continuous with like quartzite conformable with the Devonian beds. Whence I infer that the rocks of a tract of country may be so altered by molecular changes common to all (probably in the instance of our rocks the infiltration of silica), that beds of widely different ages may pre- sent the same lithological character, and that when horizontal quartzose (or calcareous* or felspathic ?) rocks are continuous with inclined rocks of the same kind 7 ts not always safe to infer that beds resting conformably on the latter are much newer formation than those on which the sandstones rest unconformably, that the beds a, 6, are very far older than ¢, d, for instance. oe 2. GN (1 7 iin m\ \ WUE Mj a b It is my conviction then (though I admit that my evidence is not quite conclusive) that the inclined slaty rocks of this Colony, west as well as east, all belong one formation, which geologists at home have, on the evidence of fossils, pronounced to be Devonian; and that the quartzite is a rock which has undergone a superficial change, and may therefore be called metamorphic. This siliceous metamorphosis is associated with other changes. The clay-slaty beds are often con- verted into ochry, micaceous, and chloritic schists. There is not in the Eastern Province much evidence of ordinary metamorphic action, except in the claystone-porphyry of Bain, which I regard as a product of metamorphic action, as I shall more fully explain hereafter. At the Matland mines , about twenty miles west of Port Elizabeth, are slates like those which at Chatty contain Devonian fossils. Some of these have been converted into chloritie, hornblendic, and micaceous schists, without any evidence of the prox- _ imity of eruptive rocks. Im the planes of bedding of these schists are veins of quartz, and occasionally carbonate of lime, not very rich in copper-pyrites. I regard the hard blue crystalline limestone of the same locality, in which lead and zine ore occurs, as partially, at least, metamorphic. At George and other places intermediate be- tween Cape Town and here, granite occurs, but as I have had no opportunity of examining it, I shall trace the evidences of metamor- phic action from Cape Town northward. At Cape Town I found granite-veins varying from one to three feet to as many lines diameter running parallel with the strike of the clay-slate rocks without displacing them, showing, I think, that they had been changed zz situ. Other veins crossed “the strike. Again, * T think I saw calcareous beds of which all I have asserted of the quartzite might be predicated. RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. 51 isolated masses of slate preserved their dip unaltered in the midst of granite which appeared to have a dipinthe same direction. Passing north-westward towards Namaqualand, I saw the slate near Heer- lozement so little altered and so like some of the fossiliferous rocks of the Hastern Province that I much regretted that my engagements did not permit of a closer examination of it. At Olifant’s river the rocks, still with the same strike as in Cape Town, viz. nearly magnetic north (north 30° west), had assumed a micaceous and talcose character, and on the northern bank of the river were much impregnated with iron. Four or five miles beyond Kokonap I saw the slate for the last time till I met it at the Orange river, and here it abounded in a peculiar form of eyanite which I afterwards found in great abundance in the gneiss and mica-schist of De Kiet, near Hondeklip Bay. Some grassy country intervened between this spot and the next where rocks were visible. These were felspathic in great variety. I could not get a satisfactory observation of their dip for some days’ journey, perhaps owing to the little experience I had then of rocks of this class. There are few things I have more to regret im the wav of lost opportunities than the want of a careful examination in detail of the country within ten miles’ radius of the lowermost ford of the Olifant’s river. It would include a section from the clay-slate to the Upper Silurian of Bain which are found in the Cederberg as well as the passage of the former into the felspathic rocks of Namaqualand. Bain has no hesitation in affirming this change, and I have every reason to think that he is correct ; but believing as I do in the identity of his clay-slate and the Upper Silurian, I cannot but regret that I was unable to make a thorough examination of the country. I believe Bain’s separation of the clay-slate from the Upper Silurian (Devo- nian) are drawn here as elsewhere from the position of the quartzite crossing the slate and underlying the Devonian. Is not this evidence identical with that on which metamorphic formations are assigned to widely distant epochs in Europe P In addition to the want of time and of experience referred to, I have to regret the loss of a note-book in which my observations on the rocks in the earlier as well as later part of my journey in Nama- qualand were inserted. I cannot therefore tell from my own obser- vations how the strike of the rocks which was north 30° west at Olifant’s river, assumes a nearly east and west strike at Springbok Vontein. As we pass northwards it takes a more northerly direc- tion, and at Oograbis it is north 60° west, and at Annies, on the Orange river, it resumes its north 30° west strike with its slaty character. I have no hesitation in affirming the passage of the slate into felspathiec rock here. Assuming, then, the metamorphosis of paleozoic rocks into gneiss, mica-schist, etc., I will merely reiterate my firm belief that those of Namaqualand are the changed condition of the great mass of slaty beds which extend from the mouth of the Tish river in the east to Cape Town, and thence to Olifant’s river, and at various points con- tain fossils which have been referred to the Devonian epoch by geologists of Europe. I again admit that the evidence by which I 52 THE GEOLOGIST. have attempted to establish this is somewhat defective, but I have shown clearly that that on which it is dented is valueless. I have already described the interpolation of masses of granite among the slate of Cape Town without displacement : this phenomenon obtains to a much greater extent in Namaqualand; great masses of granite, with little if any evidence of stratification, pass gradually into eneiss on either side, and, in fact, all round, without change of dip. These are called locally “ bosses,” and their scaling off is remarkable, giving them the rounded outline, whence their name. The same thing is seen in the change of hornblende-schist into greenstone or syenite, with large crystals of hornblende. Numerous instances of this occur; one of the most striking is between Klein Pella and Oomsdrift.* I have mentioned in a former Paper that the soni of the strata in which the copper-ore is deposited occur in gneiss, and when a sec- tion is seen on a hill-side no granite is visible, but when worked to any considerable depth, the rock loses its laminated character and be- comes a felspathic granite or greenstone. A remarkable section was observed near Pella: a stream had worked a deep channel in the rocks ; the edges of the ravine so formed were of well-marked gneiss, while the water ran cver a bed of granite without trace of lamina- tion, the gneiss preserving the same dip on either side of the ravine. Indeed, it appeared to me as if metamorphosis of the rock into felspa- thie granite was the normal state below, while the gneissic lamina- tion was a superficial indication of the old stratification-planes. While on this subject I will mention what appears to me to be a singular character of our paleéozoic rocks here. The specimens I have sent home will show that all the Devonian fossils here lose every trace of their carbonate of lime. They are preserved, often very perfectly, in oxide of iron, but in my experience they are seen only on the exposed edges of the rocks, be these oreatly inclined, as at Chatty and Hermansdorp, or only slightly so, as at Coxcomb and Jeffrey’s bay. At Chatty I have seen a mass hollowed out in all directions by the decay of the encrinites on the edges, while tracing the same layer deeper in, it lost all trace of fossils. Frequent repeti- tions of this seemed to me to establish it as a rule that the fossils in the rock were only exposed by decomposition. Still it may be merely accidental. J should be glad to learn whether it is so or not. I have stated that in thie metallic twists, or saddles, I never saw eranite in what I could consider the position of an intrusive rock. In one of the accessory twists which meet the metallic saddles at various angles, and which in section on a flat surface have the appearance of a feather, the shaft (@ 6) of the feather was , gs of micaceous schist, with a few rather Me arge crystals of felspar. I have frequently seen as— irregular-shaped Suellen of mica- schist follow- aa Cire ing neither strike, nor any law that I could per- ceive, among the gneiss. Granite occurred in Fig. 3. the same way in other spots. * Drift-ford (of the Orange river). RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. 53 It is well known that prehnite is a common mineral in some parts of this colony. It occurs in the dioritic or syenitic dykes of the Dicynodon strata, and is evidently a product of the re-arrangement of the minerals of these dykes during their decomposition. The prehn- ite is found in lamine between the decomposing masses of the dykes and on their faces as digitate concretions. Unlike M. Daubrée’s zeolites it has not required heat for its formation, but, like them, it is forming at this hour by aqueous action. I have almost as little doubt that dykes and other masses of granite are forming in the same way from the re-arrangements of the constituent minerals of the gneiss. I find it easier to feel the truth of this on the spot than to convey it to others; still I will endeavour to give some reason for my faith. One mass of gneiss, near Henkrees, in which a vein of granite, terminated by an expansion about a foot square, proceeded along the gneiss. It was quite evident that there was no intrusion, no connection with any mass below. Spindle-shaped masses of granite placed between beds of felspathic, micaceous, and other rocks, were numerous and could often be entirely removed by a hammer, showing they had no connexion with any subterranean mass. Spherical lumps of granite or syenite were frequently quite isolated in the schists of the mines. I have stated before that beds of quartz- ite appeared to be intercalated by a filtration from above; some of these could be traced down till they became mixed with mica and then with felspar, and not very much deeper assumed the character of the gneiss of the country. Other masses, which seemed to be in- termediate between these, toward the spindle-shaped granite lumps above, were composed principally of quartz, with a few grains of mica and felspar, and occasionally garnets : these were surrounded by mica- schist in bent-up strata ; yet the whole mass, perhaps twenty pounds or less in weight, could be removed. These circumstances seemed to me to prove clearly that if felspathic rocks of any kind are the products of metamorphic action, then are granite, syenite, etc., trace- able to a like origin ; that if, as I think, I have clear evidence, in the Maitland Mines and other places of this neighbourhood, paleozoic rocks are convertible into micaceous, chloritic, and felspathic schists, without evidence of eruptive agencies, then are the so-called igneous rocks equally so. I think it will scarcely be disputed by any who admit the re-arrangement of felspathic rocks I have contended for, that causes by which such re-arrangement was made, may have effected the original conversion of sedimentary into crystalline rocks. We have in this province a rock which has been pronounced decidedly igneous by the highest European authorities ; it is the claystone- porphyry of Bain. Yet its position among the other rocks is, in many respects, just that of the quartzite; and, like the latter rock, its individual beds and its minor masses are conformable with the stratified rocks, while in ranges many miles in length, it crosses the strike of the strata, generally at an angle of about 30°. This fact was first demonstrated to me by Mr. Pinchin, a gentleman who has made many interesting observations on the geology of this country. 54 THE GEOLOGIST. The sections of the Zeurberg, of Van Zonder’s Plain (given above) on the Graff Reinet road, together with a somewhat imperfect re- collection of that of Graham’s Town, had led me to believe that the relation of the porphyry to the slate was constant. It is now evident that I was in error here. The fact of the masses of the porphyry crossing the slate without disturbing it seems to me greatly to strenethen my views as to its metamorphic origin by rendering the hy- pothesis of Messrs. Bain and Wylie untenable. The former gentleman supposed that the porphyry had been poured over the surface of the strata as liquid lava. Mr. Wylie referred its origin to volcanic ac- tion, producing ash, which was deposited at the bottom of the ocean, and formed this igneous-like rock with its contained granite pebbles and fragments of rock. The fact of the direction of its masses being ai: an angle of 80° with the strike seems to me to be incompatible with either of these hypotheses. The ranges of porphyry, like those of quartzite, die out and reappear. The normal position of the porphyry appears to be as in fig. 4, but I have seen it placed as in figs. 5 and Slate. Porphyry. Slate. Slate. Porphyry. Slate. Slate. Porphyry. Slate. Lee ae ee “fz HAL (i flees YIN gp LEELA IP SA fey /) | Saaee AY LE Y Wee ea V\\ UA ABSA 111 \\\ Bape, Zid pega \\\\\ oe ee Fig. 6. The character by which we all agree to recognize this rock is the presence of masses of quartz and granite of various sizes with occa- sional fragments of slate and other rocks. Sometimes these masses are as much as fifty pounds in weight, at others they are so minute as to be scarcely recognizable by the naked eye. In a recent journey to Paardenpoort I met with amass of this-porphyry which terminated in a vein about a foot thick, with very minute crystals. Now what is the character of the rock among which this porphyry is interposed or interstratified P It is such that no one acquainted with the two would pretend to diagnose them, save by the presence of the crystals above mentioned. Nor would the blowpipe, or even more careful analysis, so far as J am aware, enable him to do so. If then the base of the rocks differ so little, and there is evidence that no displacement has taken place in any known section (see Bain and. Wylie), is it not clear that this rock has originated in slow conversion? Yet I be- lieve whatever may be predicated of it may be equally so of granite ; for it contains granitic masses in great numbers, and often of large size : besides granite, veins occupy precisely the same position among rocks which I have given reasons for believing to be the same strata in the Western Province. But it will be seen above that I am not disposed to admit that the evident displacement of strata is at all times due to eruptive agency. I have given instances, on a very small seale, in which I feel sure it is not so. I hope ere long to be able to show that the infiltration of quartz from above has produced this effect, but my evidence on this" RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. 55 subject is still somewhat defective ; I will defer what I have to say on this subject till a future period. I have had but little time or opportunity for the microscopical studies which have done so much for the views on the nature and origin of granite which I am here advocating. I should hardly have ventured indeed to have given observations so crude as my own, but for a conviction that probably no country in the world offers greater facilities for studies of this kind than does this Colony, and more especially the district of Namaqualand, which is probably barer of vegetation and more intersected by gullies than any other country in the world not absolutely uninhabitable. I will give a brief réswmé of the observations wnich led me first to doubt and at length to abandon the igneous theory of granite, in which I was a firm believer ere I visited the Western Province of the Colony. 1. The undoubted change which rocks have undergone into quartz- ite and its equally evident origin in superficial and igneous agency. Mr. Darwin admits this origin of the Table Mountain sandstone. 2. The existence of beds of granite and other rocks of felspathic bases in association with sedimentary rocks in positions which it is impossible to believe they could have occupied by forcible intrusion from below. Many veins of the claystone-porphyry exceed a thousand yards in width, yet they do not in the slightest degree disturb the strata adjacent to them. At Kleinpoort I measured the slate eighteen inches from its junction with the porphyry. It dipped towards the latter at an angle of 35°, the porphyry itself having a dip in the same direction. 8. The irregular masses of granite taking the place of gneiss and not connected with the granite below. 4. The origin of prehnite and other zeolitic minerals from decom- position of igneous dykes of the Dicynodon-strata. Prehnite, as well as of quartz, is formed thus between the decomposing “ boul- ders”’ of igneous rocks. Veins of carbonate of lime are often formed in the same way. Nor can I hesitate to refer the felspathic veins and irregular masses in decomposing gneiss in Namaqualand to a like process of re-arrangement. I have there seen carbonate of lime in felspathic rocks; fluor-spar mixed with epidote and felspar ; phos- phate of lime with felspar and quartz. 5. I have mentioned the igneous dykes of the Dicynodon-strata. They have always been referred to plutonic agency, but it appears to me that there are great difficulties in admitting such origin. They take, I believe, every direction of the compass, vary from eighteen inches to some hundreds, perhaps thousands, of yards in breadth, and some of them are probably fifty or more miles in length; they are numerous, and occur frequently from near Somerset East to the Vool River, but never, in my experience, or that of any one I know, pass the boundary of the Dicynodon-strata, nor do they disturb the rocks through which they cut in the base. 6. I have mentioned the occurrence of granite-veins conformable 56 THE GEOLOGIST. with the strata among which they lie. The claystone-porphyry of Bain, appears conformable as to individual beds, while in the mass it crosses the section of the country. I have uever found igneous rocks in the positions of upheaving rocks. I have repeatedly found them in positions (4,5) where they could not possibly be so. In Namaqualand the rocks between Springbok and Concordia were per- haps more decidedly gneiss-like than in any other part of the section, except perhaps near Kok Vontein, yet I regard these two spots (the former about a mile north of Springbok Vontein, the latter two miles south-east of Kok Vontein) as the main axial lines of the country. Many facts concur to prove that whatever may have been the cause of the upheaval of strata in this country, igneous rocks have had nothing to do with it. That there are considerable difficul- ties about the stratification of this neighbourhood, I fully believe. That I have no clue to the satisfactory explanation of those difficul- ties I am obliged to confess. To mention one or two, I believe that encrinites are generally local in their distribution, that is, individual species are confined to a few beds; and that if the same species of encrinite 1s found in these spots, the rocks containing them may be safely assigned to the same age or near it. At the northern base of the Coxcomb* are some nearly horizontal beds of blue and ferru- ginous schists containing trilobites, shell-fish, and encrinites, pro- nounced Devonian on good authority. The strike of these rocks is north 60° west nearly, and this line of strike would pass through Cape Reciffe. The Chatty beds of shale, which are in hills continu- ous with those of Port Elizabeth, would nearly correspond in strike with these beds; and at Chatty two or three encrinites identical with those of Coxcomb occur. Yet at the former place the rocks dip at an angle of 45°. There do not seem to be any igneous rocks to account for this difference. At Naroos, near Uitenhage, the slaty beds are associated with quartzite, and dip at 60°-70°. Again, the beds containing spirifers or this encrinite at Kabel- jouw river’s mouth, Jeffrey’s Bay, have but a shght dip on the sea- shore; a little inland they have a greater dip, but at Hermansdorp, where the same spirifers or this of encrinite occur, they have a dip of 80° close to their junction with the quartzite. I cannot account for these things. I suppose no one in the present day would call quartz- ite an igneous or upheaving rock. Yet it is certainly my impression that if any rock in this country influences the change of dip in either rocks, quartzite does. Mr. Niven, the gentleman from whom I have the last fact, and who has done so in uch in throwing new light on the geology of this province, tells me that the quartzite, a hundred and eighty yards from the slate, dips 45°. If compelled to suggest a reason for these things, it would be, that whereas quartzite might be meta- morphosed by addition of matter infiltrated, claystone, porphyry, granite, etc., might owe their origin to mere crystalline action under the agency of water, thermo-electric currents, ete. This last is Mr. Sterry Hunt’s view, I think. | * Part of the Winterhoek range, mis-spelt Muterhoek in the abstract of my Paper. 5 ¥ } Tate ‘ ‘ = ued! 5 . citys} Godan : nS j K \ i 7 7 / 4 i NS 5 " 7 x » ' en * ‘ \ * i ‘> : ‘ " ; Y Yo XY , « Eten F 5 = a f ; } ' 3 ~ f Dy 5 viel " u a f —— " 7 7 N= i/ ; tat pe piney ; . i) Ht ht fat ern sii ht a; x x. \' } A Gi a y J i PLATE IV. MOLAR TOOTH OF ELEPHAS I BEXIANUS (N.S.) In the National Collection, British Museum. 8. J. Mackie del. ON A FOSSIL ELEPHANT FROM TEXAS (£. Teswianus). By Cuaries Carter Briaxe, Esa. The existence of a fossil species of true elephant distinct from Elephas primigenius in America has been only of late years brought under the notice of paleontologists. I have slightly ailuded to the subject in the ‘ Geologist,’ Vol. [V.p.470. For many years remains of true Elephant have been found with those of Mastodon at various spots within the New World. Cuvier (‘ Ossements Fossiles,’ ed. 1834, vol. 11. p. 145) mentions only one species of American elephant, the remains of which had been discovered in Kentucky, Carolina, Ohio, Mexico, Louisiana, Virginia, and Maryland. De Blainville (‘ Ostéographie, Eléphans, p. 157: Atlas, pl. x.) alludes to a tooth of fossil elephant from Texas, which is apparently referable to Hlephas primigenius. He also mentions other remains from Mexico, Mississippi, Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Vir- ginia, and Behring’s Straits. Leidy (‘Nebraska Fauna,’ 1852, p.9) recognizes specific distinc- tion between the European and American species of elephant, and terms the latter H. Americanus. Humboldt (¢ Cosmos,’ vol. i. p. 280) alludes to certain elephantine remains from the Mexican plateau, but gives no description which might identify the species. Dr. Carpenter (Silliman’s Journal, 2nd series, vol. 1. p. 244) de- scribes a collection of elephant and mastodon remains, collected by Mr. William Huff, from the banks of the Brazos river, near San Felipe de Austin (Texas), some of which are at present in the British Museum. Through the kindness of Mr. G. R. Waterhouse, I have been enabled to identify them as those originally alluded to by Dr. Carpenter. The most complete, elaborate, and philosophical conspectus of the affinities of the Order Proboscidea has been that from the pen of Dr. Falconer (Quarterly Journal Geographical Society, 1857, p. 319, and 1858, p. 81), in which he distinetly recognizes an American spe- cies of elephant (Huelephas Colwmbi), which he says has hitherto been undescribed. He places this apart from Hwelephas primigenius, in the same group as H. Indicus and Armeniacus, of which group he discriminates the character as having “ Colliculi approximatt, mache- ridibus valde undulatis.” The detailed exposition of his memoir has not been published up to February, 1862, although it was read on June 3, 1857. Mr. William Bollaert, F.R.G.S., who has contributed original me- moirs on the geography of Texas to the Geographical Society (Jour- nal, 1851, vol. xx. p. 115), mentions the fact that he was the dis- coverer of a tooth of “ Mastodon” from San Felipe de Austin, Texas. This tooth was carefully preserved by him, and was submitted to me VOL. V. I 58 THE GEOLOGIST. in February, 1858. At that time I had not read Dr. Falconer’s paper, yet from the remarkable appearance of the tooth, the conclu- sion that it was a distinct species of elephant, closely allied to the Indian type, forced itself on me. ‘This opinion was confirmed by Professor Owen, and after the name of Elephas Texianus had been given to the species, the specimen was deposited in the British Mu- seum, and now forms one of the most conspicuous objects in the gallery devoted to Proboscidea. Professor Owen, in September, 1858, thought fit to adopt the name of #. Texianus for the species, in his eloquent address to the British Association (and also in the second edition of ‘ Paleontology,’ p.395). From a comparison of this tooth with that already possessed by the Museum from the same locality, described by Dr. Carpenter, I think decidedly that the remains in the Museum are identical with 2. primigenius, while the tooth dis- covered by Mr. Bollaert appears to belong to the distinct species of Ei. Texianus vel Columbi. This is the only specimen which I have seen of this type, as Dr. Falconer has not stated where the specimens are on which he described his species. He appends as a doubtful synonym, “ H. Jacksoni ?, Silliman’s Journal, 1838, vol. xxxiv. page 363 ;” but after examination of the very bad drawings contained in that page, I cannot make any distinction between them and J. prz- migentus. The tooth of H. Texianus (m. 6, lower jaw) has enamel- folds much wider and much more waved and undulated than that of the EH. Jacksont. The canals of cement are consequently of much greater width, and the whole aspect of the tooth is much more like EH. Indicus. , As the British Association, in their Rules for Zoological Nomen- clature, have authoritatively sanctioned the principle that names not clearly defined, and likely to propagate important errors, may be changed, and as the name of #. Coluwmbi lays itself open to the grave charge that it is not clear whether it is named in honour of Columbus, or because it is found in Colombia (Venezuela y Nueva Granada), I trust that this name will not be accepted. That of #. Texianus, founded upon a yet unimpeached geographical distinction, if it has not the advantage of published priority, yet gives a more lucid idea of the nature of the species which it indicates. The figure by Mr. Mackie gives a better idea of its appearance than any mere verbal description. I however define it as ELEPHAS TEXIANUS, dentium molarium (m. 6), collicult undulati, mages remote quam in BH. Indico. Its association with #. Indicus and Armeniacus, by Dr. Falconer, seems warranted by its legitimate aflinities. The greater w idth between the enamel-folds may indicate a more sapid and j juicy diet than that of the larch-eating elephants of Esch- scholtz Bay. The nutritious prairie-grass of Texas did not require such formidable apparatus for its comminution as was possessed by the Siberian mammoths. The indication of this species, therefore, illus- trates the remarkable special adaptation of animals to external and climatal conditions, and may not be altogether irrelevant to the ques- tions discussed by the physio-philosophers of the present day, with regard to the origin of species. 58 ON THE MICROSCOPICAL EXAMINATION OF SOME BRACKLESHAM BEDS. By T. Rupert Jonss, F.G.S. In Vol. I of the ‘ Geologist,’ at page 249, was published a paper on the preparation of sands, clays, and chalk, for microscopical pur- poses, under the heading of “ Geological Manipulations ;”’ and, as both pleasure and geological profit are to be obtained from the exact examination of various fossil-bearing deposits, both as to their con- stituents and their contents, I beg to offer you an example of the results of such an examination of some tertiary beds from Brackle- sham. These notes I have had by me several years, and their short- comings are so great in some respects that I should not send them, were it not that they may serve as a plan to sume young care- ful observers who might feel inclined to enter upon the strict exa- mination of some definite series of fossiliferous strata. What the series under notice is deficient of, is a statement of the exact. rela- tionship of these several deposits, examined nearly twenty years ago. I received the materials at that time from a friend who was collecting “ Bracklesham fossils,’—a term which will be more definite, now that the Rey. O. Fisher, F.G.8., has indicated the exact limits of the Bracklesham formation.* The specimens were chiefly, I believe, from Bracklesham and Selsea; but some may have been brought from the Isle of Wight. By the presence of certain fossils, however, in some of the deposits, their exact place may probably be determined. However deficient in these stratigraphical requirements the following account of the deposits may be, they will serve the purpose here intended, namely, to show young beginners what to look for in sands and clays. In- structions have been already given as to how such materials are to be examined, in the first volume, p. 249. . The careful microscopical examination of a good series of succes- sive deposits, in the way that we propose, cannot but be useful both to the geologist and the paleontologist. The conditions of deposit will be elucidated by the proportions of fine and coarse materials in the beds; especially if these be traced along a considerable tract by the examination of many samples of the deposit, through its varia- tions from clay to sand (or vice versd), or in its changes from an argillaceous or arenaceous to a calcareous condition. Such variations are not always recognized with sufficient exactness by the eye or by the pocket-glass, and require mechanical, if not chemical, analysis; recourse being had to the aid of acids in determining the relative pro- porticns of lime and other constituents. Except by careful separa- tion in water, and patient sorting and picking, the minute shells and other fossils cannot be obtained in anything like a fair average ; and year by year the Foraminifera, Entomostraca, Bryozoa, and the small * See Report of the Geological Society’s Proceedings, Dec. 4th, 1861. 60 THE GEOLOGIST. fry of the Mollusca, are becoming more and more valuable as leading characteristics of strata, as our knowledge of these microzoa in the fossil and recent states advances. Such researches as these, made on any series of deposits, whether British or foreign, must be of use, either for the improvement and correction of observations already made and published, or for the groundwork of future descriptions of strata and their fossils. Schafhautl, Sorby, Ehrenberg, Reade, Bryson, and others, have worked at this subject in their own several ways, and it is to be hoped that not only will these older labourers continue to work in ““ Microgeology”’ or “ Clinology,” as the study is termed, but that others, with equal patience and acumen, will come forward to labour in this wide and promising, but as yet little cultivated field of re- search. The Results of the Examination of Five Specimens of Sands and Clays Srom the “ Bracklesham Beds” of the Isle of Wight Basin. No. 1. Light-blue sandy clay;* very friable; full of crushed shells. Quantity examined, 480 grains. Grs. Proportions. Calcareous Shells, fragments of shells, | ei and other fossils a Ree sho ae 136 ue Arenaceous NAMGE Rai ah ci. toe orcs 1388 1104 29 Arpillaceous ) WGlay§ic.-c.5.0055 cese esos — 250 ~=—-2000 52 | 480° 3840 100 No. 2. Very light-blue, friable, sandy clay. Quantity examined, 480 grains. Grs. Grs. Proportions. Calcareous Shells, etc.,and fragments 23 184 5° Arenaceous SANG erent, acerca. 185 1480 38°5 ‘Arenlageous’ -Clay?ses. os. eects owe eeoe es 272 2176 56°5 480 38840 100°0 No. 8. Dark-green clayey sand; very friable. Quantity examined, 3840 grains. Grs. Proportions. 13 Caleareous Shells ete., and fragments. ......... 497 MURDER DIES , Nov. 7 and 14, 1861. See the ‘ Moniteur,’ 1861, No. 97. (Communicated by Count Marschall.) 76 THE GEOLOGIST. REVIEWS. The Alps; or, Sketches of Life and Nature in the Mountains. By H. Berlepsch. Translated by the Rev. Leslie Stephen, M.A. London: Longman and Co., 1861. A charmingly written and entertaining book ought a book about the Alps to be; and so is M. Berlepsch’s ‘Sketches of Life and Nature in the Mountains.’ The Alps are amongst the sublimest results of terrestrial physical power, and there are but few men who know them in their real and full majesty. That unveils itself least of all where the broad military roads stretch over passes and anticlinal ‘‘ saddles,” or where the scenes of daily life are busy at the footstool of the giant mountain edifice, that towers to the skies above. You must, as M. Berlepsch says you must, penetrate into the secrets of the hidden world of mountains, into the solitude of closed gorges and valleys, where man’s power of cultivation sinks powerless as he ccom- prehends the weakness of his efforts against the majesty of Nature in the Alps. ‘ You must climb above the ruins of a primeval world, and press through labyrinths of glacier and wastes of ice into the temple sanctuary, where it strikes up freely and boldly into the sky before your wearied eyes. Then you will encounter the indescribable splendour of the Alpine world in all its vastness, till you are ready to sink under the thought of its awfulness; and when you have recovered from your first impression, when in sight of the gigantic masses, you have opened your heart, and pre- pared it to receive still nobler revelations, then question boldly those mausoleums of immemorial time: ask them what hand raised them from the depths of eternal darkness into the kingdom of hight; consult the rocky leaves of this stone-chronicle, for the history of their creation and the end of their existence. The vast dead masses will become alive for you, and a view will open for you into the endless cycle of eternity.” With the eye and understanding of a geologist look upon those enormous rock- masses. See the strata upheaved and contorted, bearing the relics of pri- meval seas, buried in the fine dust of earth, and the ground-down waste of former Jands; and ponder on the hundreds of thousands of years that those old silts and muds lay beneath the waters of the cold transparent sea. ‘Who could have witnessed those convulsions and outbursts, when in the central Alps, the very inmost kernel of the gigantic mountain fabric, the granite, gneiss, and crystalline schists were forced up from the depths of the earth’s crust, pierced by the sharp masses of the hornblende rocks, and spread out like a fan? How powerless would be the wildest natu- ral convulsions we know, how insignificant the earthquakes, storms, vol- canos, and landslips of the present time, by the side of that catastrophe, when the Alps took their present shape! Our understanding has abso- lutely no standing-point from whence to form a conception, even: faintly answering to those moments when a world was shattered... . Those majestically aspiring masses which run free and bold into the clouds, like gigantic obelisk spikes, as the lone and imaccessible Matterhorn, 17,405 feet in height, the dazzling snow pyramid of the Dent Blanche, 14,322 feet, or the nine-pointed diadem of the Monte Rosa, 15,217 feet, which never can have been protruded through the earth’s crust in their present shape, and can be nothing but isolated ruins of the primeval mountain fabric. What fearful ages of destruction must there have been, to allow the intervening masses now vanished, to be torn away, and to sink, pro- bably, into the depths whence they rose? Fora number of proofs show REVIEWS. Wik. that no influence of weather on these towers of rock can ever have so modelled and gnawed them down... . ‘Most of what is called granite in the central Alps is granitic gneiss, called in the people’s language ‘Gaisberger,’ because the highest; moun- tains climbed by the goats (G'aisen) are formed of it. It is the substance from which the atmospheric influences carve those strange towers of rock and picturesque ornaments, which in Chamouny are significantly called Aiguilles, from their sharp points. From this so-called ‘primeval mate- terial’ are formed the wondrous spikes of stone which ornament the sum- mits of different mountains, or strike up here and there hke outposts through the far-stretching wastes of névé. We should see many more of these slender rock ‘needles’ if many of them were not engulfed in the perpetual snow. Here the Achilles-heel of the apparently indestructible ‘urgestein’ betrays itself. Gmeiss is, as already stated, of stratified tabular structure. In the elevation of the Alps, the strata of gneiss were raised, and often placed vertically on the edges of the fracture, as the im- mediate envelope of the granite. The mass must have been of various hardness at different places. At any rate, whilst particular parts have withstood the action of the weather without injury, others have been over- thrown, gnawed into, and destroyed by the atmosphere to such an extent as quite to have disappeared, and left only isolated points behind. Ex- amples on a large scale are the Aiguille Verte, the Aiguille du Moine, the strangely shattered Aiguilles de Charmoz, the Aiguilles Rouges, all the mountains on both sides of the Valley of Chamouny; the Schreckhorner, and Grindelwald Viescherhorner in the Bernese Alps, the whole southern wall of the Bergell in the Grisons, etc., ete. “ But a different kind of atmospheric action attracts our attention in the Alps, and that in the most singular manner, and in places where the ex- planation is not at once obvious. This appears in the so-called ‘ Devil’s Mills’ or ‘Seas of Rock’ on the highest points of many isolated moun- tains. The Sidelhorn, close to the Grimsel, is one of the most visited points of view in the Bernese Alps. Itis easily reached from the Hospice in two or two and a half hours. The nearer one approaches to the sum- mit, the more do the vast rock ruins accumulate, piled wondrously over each other, till at length the highest point is covered with a perfect chaos of such loosely massed granitic blocks of gneiss. At times a certain dis- turbed stratification may be observed, something like plates laid upon each other ; then again, in other places, a tolerably regular step-like forma- tion, but in general they lie without recognizable order. This phenomenon, which frequently occurs on summits, is the result of a weathering of the granite, but of that kind in which more or less the scaly structure was onee predominant. The brothers Schlagintweit represent in their atlas* such disorganized scales of gneiss. As the fanciful Jean Paul employs the beautiful picture ‘ graves are the mountain-tops of a far new world,’ here in reality the mountain tops are graves of a past world. The grandest and most imposing masses of granitic rock are only to be found in the central Alps. There they often tower in such fearful sublimity, like ver- tical walls of rock palaces above the deep valley-hollows, that one is startled at their greatness. He who has never seen the dusky pyramid of the Hinster Aarhorn from the ‘Abschwung’ on the Aar Glacier, as it rises in naked sublimity from the snow-beds to the clouds; he who has not journeyed round the south-east of Mont Blanc, and seen its central mass from the Cramont or the giant rocky brows of the Grand Cornier, Dent Blanche, and Weisshorn, from the depths of the Einfischthal, will hardly * To the ‘ Neue Untersuchungen tiber die Physicalische Geographie und Geologie der Alpen.’ 78 THE GEOLOGIST. be able to construct for his imagination a right measure of their colossal relations ; and yet all these granite giants are far exceeded as to the i1m- pression which they make upon the eye by that steep abyss unto which the Monte Rosa sinks at the head of the valley of Macugnaga. It 1s the greatest vertical magnitude of the European continent. The limestone Alps, the Diablerets, Dolden and Gespaltenhorn, and Blumlis Alps, show mighty rock-fronts, but they shrink in presence of these granite walls to masses of the second order. “We called granite the historic stone of the earth. It is so in the Alps in more than one respect. Its solemn rock-walls were often memorials of great deeds, which may be compared to the sublimest moments of classical antiquity. The undaunted Russian Suwaroff, a modern Epaminondas, who would rather have been buried in the clefts of the rocks than have given up his post, when his columns had repulsed the French under Gau- din in the narrow valley of Tremolu, left the heroic words ‘ Suwarow Victor’ carved on the granite wall for an everlasting remembrance. Next day the cliffs of gneiss were witnesses of equally heroic deeds, where the Devil’s Bridge spans the stormy waters of the Reuss with its bold arch. Over the granitic deserts of the St. Bernard, Bonaparte led his army to the victory of Marengo, in May, 1800; and when the Simplon Pass, the first great Alpine road, had been pierced by his orders, he had carved in the opening of the gallery of Gondo the words ‘ Aere Italo, mpceccv., Nap. Imp.’ Andreas Hofer, the host of Passeyr, was born in the granite country, and between granite rocks he fought his glorious fights for the freedom of the Tyrol. . . . Benedict Fontana breathed out his hero-soul upon the gneiss crystals of the Malser-haide. . . . And then the mighty December fight of 1478, in the Livinenthal, when a handful of herdsmen destroyed ten times their number of Milanese under Count Borelli, till the snows of Bellinzona were red with their blood. Then the hero-graves of the three thousand Confederates at Arbeno, who sank in a despairing fight before twenty-four thousand Lombards in 1422. The double blood-baptism of the Valaisans at Ulrichen and on the Grimsel in 1422, and many other proofs of manly courage and bold deeds—are they not remembrances which have carved their memorial in letters of flame for men’s hearts on the rock-tablets of these granite colossi? “But the dull stone tells us of still more, of times lying further back, of an epoch when the Alps stood as they stand to-day, but when the human race was not. These memorial stones are the ‘erratic blocks.’” The quotations we have given will show the eloquent turn of the author’s mind ; but from them it will be readily seen that while admitting that we like the boldness of his speculations, and admire the truthfulness of some of his remarks, we cannot always assure the soundness of his geological statements. Erratic blocks, the Nagelfiuh, landslips, ban-forests, the Wettertanne, prostrate firs, and Alpine roses, chestnut-woods, cloud pictures, water- falls and mountain snow-storms, avalanches, glaciers and Alpine summits, mountain passes and Alpine roads, hospices, chalet-life, the goat-boy, the wieldheuer, the Alpine feast, timber-fellers and floaters, mountaineers and village-life in the Alps, all form topics equally delightful, treated in lan- guage as fanciful or as wild as the subjects themselves, and containing a great amount of facts and observations, to be read with interest by geologists. To the general reader this must prove a charming book; but dealing as we do with a speciality, we can nevertheless recommend. it to the votaries of our science as an admirable description of Alpine scenery and conditions, from the perusal of which they will rise with new thoughts and ideas for deep reflection. ——— ‘= —_—~ = REVIEWS. 79 Monographie des Gastéropodes et des Céphalopodes de la Craie supérieure du Limbourg. By M. J. Binkhorst. Twelve years ago M. Binkhorst took up the study of the superposition of the cretaceous beds of Limbourg, and of the special fauna which each contained. His first essay, ‘ Esquisse Géologique et Paléontologique des Couches erétacées du Limbourg et plus spécialement de la Craie tuffeau,’ was published in 1859, and the subject was further completed by a com- munication to the Geological Society of France, in the November of that year. In his first researches he felt surprise, as many of us collectors have done in England, at the few species of Gasteropods compared with the re- presentatives of other classes of marine animals. But he soon began to account for this seeming paucity. He knew that the few species cited were found in the friable beds worked.in the quarries, and that others were found in the state of casts and moulds in the hard strata which traverse the Upper Chalk in the environs of Maestricht and Heerlen. Occupying himself then with assiduous researches for many years in these beds, he offers now in this Monograph of the Gasteropods of the Upper Chalk, no less than a hundred and six species belonging to thirty-eight genera. The species described in this excellent memoir, which is illustrated by six large and beautiful plates, containing 270 figures, are :— Rostellaria papilionacea, var., Goldf.; Rostellaria nuda, n.s.; Triton Koninckii,n.s. ; Cancellaria obtusa, n.s.; Pyrula ambigua, n.s.; P. filamentosa, 0.8. ; P. tuberculosa, n.s.; P. planissima, n.s.; P. fusiformis, n.s.; Fusus Noeggerathi, n.s.; Fusus glaberrimus, Mull.; Buccinum supracretaceum, n.s.; Voluta deperdita, Goldf.; Voluta corrugata, n.s.; V. Debeyii, n.s. ; Imbricaria Limburgensis, n.s.; Cyprea Deshayesii, n.s.; Natica patens, n.s.; WV. ampla,n.s.; N. Royana, D’Orb.; N. fasciata, Goldf.; NV. cre- tacea, Goldf.; N. spissilabrum, n.s.; Chemnitzia clathrata, n.s.; Ceri- thium tubercuiatum, n.s.; C. tectiforme,n.s.; C.alternatum, n.s.; C. pli- ciferum, n.s.; C. maximum, u.s.; Nerinea ultima, n.s.; Aporrhais Lim- burgensis,n.s.; Turritella quinquecincta, Goldf.; 7. plana, n.s.; 7. Oma- liusit, Mull.; T.? sinistra, n.s.; T. nitidula, n.s.; T. conferta, n.s.; T. Halcoburgensis, n.s.; Vermetus clathratus, n.s.; Scalaria Haidin- geri, 0.8.3; Solarium cordatum, n.s.; Xenophora onusta, n.s.; Nerita Montis Sancti Petri, n.s.; N. rugosa, Hoeninghaus; N. parvula, u.s.; Turbo detritus, n.s.: T. bidentatus, n.s.; 1. Strombeckii, n.s.; T. rimo- sus, n.8.; T. granose-cinctus, n.s.; T. clathratus,n.s.; T. rudis, n.s.; T. filogranus, n.s.; T. cariniferus, n.s.; Trochus Goldfussii, n.s.; T. Montis Sancti Petri, n.s.; T. lineatus,n.s.; T. sculptus.n.s.; Infundi- bulum Ciplyanum, De Ryckholt; Delphinula spinulosa, n.s.; Emargi- nula fissuroides, Bosquet; EH. Muelleriana, Bosq.; E. supracretacea, De Ryck.; H. conica, n.s.; H. Dewalcquii, n.s.; E. radiata, n.s.; E. Heventi, n.s.; EH. depressa.n.s.; EH. clypeata, n.s.; Hipponyx (Capulus) Dunkerianus, Bosq.; Patella parmapharoidea, n.s.; Acmea levigata, n.s.; Siphonaria antiqua, n.s.; Dentalium Nystii, n.s.; Acteon granu- lato-lineatum, n.s.; Avellana gibba, n.s.; Avellana ventricosa, n.s.; Tur- binella supracretacea, n.s.; T. plicata,n.s.; Cancellaria? reticulata, n. 8.3 Pyrula nodifera, n.s.; P. parvula, n.s.; P.? plicata, n.s.; Fusus lem- niscatus, 0.8.; Ff. squamosus, n.s.; F. formosus, n.s.; F. oblique-plicatus, n.s.; Oliva? prisca,n.s.: Mitra Waelii, n.s.; M. cancellata, Sowerby ; Voluta monodonta, n.s.; Volvaria cretacea,n.s.; Natica prelonga, 0.8. ; NV. Bronnti, n.s.; Cerithium novem-striatum, n.s.; Turritella Ciplyana, n.s.; Solarium Kunredtense, n.s.; Turbo inflexus, n.s.; T. scalari- Jormis, n. s.; T. Herklotsii, n. s.; T. granuloso-clathratus, n. s.; T. 80 THE GEOLOGIST. Lekellu, n. 8.; Haleotis ? antiqua, n.s.; Emarginula Kappi, nu. s.; Ae- teon cinctus, n.s.; Acteonella, sp. All these, it will be seem, are new, except about a dozen described or quoted by Goldfuss, Hoeninghaus, Bosquet, and De Ryckholt. This fauna M. Binkhorst considers as belonging to the zone between high and low water ina littoral region of a subtropical ocean. Many of the genera which compose it are common to hot and to temperate seas, such as the Buccinum, Turbo, Hmarginula, Scalaria, etc.; but others, such as the Voluta, Pyrula, Cancellaria, Solariwm, Vermetus, Turbinella, ete., only inhabit the hot seas. The facies of the fauna indicates also, he thinks, the proximity of reefs of corals, great quantities of the debris of anthozoa- rians so fill many of the beds as almost to form them. It is probably to the high temperature of this epoch, he considers, that we owe the great species Voluta deperdita, Cerithium maximum, and those brilliant colours which many of the bivalves that he has found, have even in their ancient burial-place. “ Judging,”’ he adds, “‘ from the great number of fragment of casts and moulds belonging to species of which the determination and the description await the discovery of more perfect examples, those that we have de- scribed represent only a small portion of the mollusks of this class which were the contemporaries of the Mosasaurus.” He has also described a cephalopod, characteristic of the ‘‘marnes sans silex de Vaels,” a score of species of cephalopods from the Upper Chalk, some of which are new, and among others many of the genus Ammonites, probably the last representatives of that important and numerous family, and one species of the Acanthoteuthis, D’Orb., which with the Acanthoteu- this prisca of Solenhofen are the only fossil species known to M. Bink- horst as described up to this time, and this the only one of the cretaceous rocks. In England however an Acanthoteuthis (4. antiquus) is recorded from the Oxfordian beds of Christian Maiford and from Trowbridge in Wiltshire. Tt is not a little singular however to find these remains of Gasteropoda occurring in the hard beds of the Limbourg district, in the form of casts and moulds, exactly as the remains of Gasteropoda do in those hard beds of the English white chalk to which Mr. Whitaker has lately given the name of Chalk-rock. The great number of new species figured by M. Binkhorst should be an encouragement to the many British collectors of cretaceous fossils, to search well these hard beds for the Gasteropoda, of which in the form of casts they do, as we know personally by experience, contain great quantities. In the beds of this hard chalk at Dover or Maidstone, a cubic foot of rock cannot be broken up without some casts of what appears to be an exquisitely sculptured Trochus being found. Dentalia also are common, and small (young?) Ammonites. We hope soon therefore to see M. Binck- horst’s species matched by English examples, and some new forms added to them from our own famous chalk localities. PLATE V. a a THECUS FONTANT. RYOPI + ures. | co = o tet’s Onginal Fi ) Lai M. (From Side view of Jaw. Jaw in three pieces (top view). 3. ) ‘igs. 1 and 2. THE GEOLOGIST. MARCH 1862. FOSSIL MONKEYS. By CuHaries Carter Brake, Esq. In these days of progress, when the alleged origin of the human race from a transmuted gorilla is canvassed as a demonstrable and demonstrated theory by many geologists and zoologists, andthe pens of various distinguished writers are occupied to prove the absolute identity of man’s physiological and psychological nature with that of the beasts of the field, 1t behoves the candid student of paleontology to inquire what are the fossil members of the Order of Mammalia immediately beneath man—the Quadrumana, and whether they are such individuals as might fulfil the hypothetical condition of being his ancestors, under any of the “deriyative” theories propounded by Darwin or Lamarck. In venturing upon this field of error, doubt, and confusion, I wish dispassicnately to endeavour to divest myself of any adherence to any Humerus of Lryopithecus Fontani. (Scale % linear.) prevailing doctrine. Imbued strongly with the conviction of the unity of type of all animals, and with the probability of their common VOL. Y. M 82 THE GEOLOGIST. origin by secondary law, yet I advocate no theory which derives man- kind from any known recent or fossil species of animal. Convinced of the distinctive peculiarities of the human brain, characters not satisfactorily demonstrated in any animal, yet I do not shut my eyes to the analogy which sometimes exists between the structures in the lowest men and the highest apes. Affirming both man’s psychologi- cal supremacy, as “a little lower than the angels,” and his physiolo- gical adaptation as the highest of animals, contradicting neither the cherished and captivating precepts of Teleology, nor the bold and comprehensive generalizations of Morphology, the paleontologist who loves truth alone for truth’s sake has most need to join in the prayer of Bunsen, “Father! as upward I gaze, strengthen my eye and my heart.” Geological science, steadily progressing since the time of Cuvier, in whose time no species of fossil monkey was known, now discloses to us no fewer than thirteen species of Quadrumana, as by the an- nexed table :— Eocene. | Miocene. | Pliocene. Locality. Catarrhini (Old World Monkeys) Dryopithecus Fontani ......... = ei = France : Gers. Phopithecus antiquus ......... == — France: Gers. Mesopithecus Pentelicus ...... = e — Greece: Pikermi. Mesopithecus major ............ = as — Greece: Pikermi. Semnopithecus magnus ...... a ae = India: Sewalik. Semnopithecus sp.............+6. SS a "S India. : Semnopithecus monspessulanus| = — = * France : Montpellier. Macacus pliocenns............... = == * Engl.: Grays, Essex. Hopithecus Colchesteri ......... = — — | Engl.: Kyson, Suffolk. Platyrvhini (New World Monkeys) Protopithecus Brasiliensis...... — — s Brazil. Cebus macrognathus............ = — a Brazil. Callithrix primeevus .......,.... — = a Brazil. Jacchus grandis........ ......... — — * Brazil. It is worthy of remark that no fossil species of Strepsirhine Qua- drumana, or Lemurs, has hitherto been discovered ; but when we re- fleet on the restricted locality of the modern Lemuride to Madagascar and to a few of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, countries where the geologist’s hammer has not yet rung, we may reasonably expect that the industry of such enterprising travellers as Dr. Sandwith may procure for us evidence of fossil Lemurs. The @ priori analogy in fuvour of their existence in the tertiary strata rests upon the fact BLAKE—FOSSIL MONKEYS. 83 that they are zoologically inferior to the true monkeys, and conse- quently more likely to have existed previously to them. The fossil monkeys of the New World are all of one geological age, the later phocene. They are, moreover, analogous to the existing Platyrrhine monkeys of Brazil, thus proving that the physiological division of true monkeys into Catarrhine and Platyrrhine existed so long ago as the Pliocene age. We find no Platyrrhine monkeys in the Old; no Catarrhine in the New World. The Protopithecus Brasiliensis discovered by Dr. Lund in limestone caverns in Brazil, offers the nearest analogy to the howler monkeys (A/ycetes) which are still found in the same locality. The Sapajou (Cebus macrogna- thus), the Sagouin (Callithrix prime@vus), and the little Ouistiti (Jacchus grandis), are all Brazilian forms. No Transmutationist will assert the probable, or even possible, derivation of American types of men from the Platyrrhine monkeys. Turning to the Old World, the earliest and one of the most inter- esting forms of fossil monkey has been discovered in the Eocene sand, at Kyson in Suffolk. It is the Kopithecus Colchesteri of Owen. Its nearest living analogue, the A/acacus rhesus, is found on the banks of the Ganges. The Macacine form of monkey reappears in the pliocene beds at Grays, Essex, again reproducing a Bengal form, the Bonnet Chinois monkey (Adacacus Sinicus). The older pliocene or newer miocene beds of the Sewalik, or Sub-Himalayan range, produce two species of Semnopithecus not generally distinct from those of the pre- sent day. eine = = 5 tR oil 23° 30’ S., 68° 50’ W. as the position of Dr. Reid’s specimens (which are rid a a and there may be a doubt that they came from Imilac, which is in 28° 49’ S., ) . PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 91 that of Imilae, which may have fallen about 1820, I will now refer to Shepard’s account in 1850 of three new North American meteorites, with observatious upon the general distribution of such bodies, and on the falling of meteorites over a limited zone or area of the earth’s surface. He says :—“ Out of the fourteen depositions of meteoric matter on the American continent within the last few years, thirteen have taken place between 33° and 44° N.; one only at Maceio, in Brazil, south of the Equator,—a distribution exceedingly unequal.” He however concludes “that there is a zone or region over which meteoric falls are more frequent than elsewhere.” Run the eye easterly from the meteoric region of Atacama, on the west coast of South America, for ten degrees of longitude, and now we come upon that extraordinary deposit of solid meteoric iron of Otumpa* (about thirteen tons), of which there is so magnificent a specimen in the British Museum. Near Bahia, in Brazil, is another mass of iron of 14,000 lbs. On Arrowsmith’s old map of South America,at a distance of twenty- three geographical miles 8.8S.W. of the city of Tucuman, appears the word “ Meteores;” does this mean that meteoric iron has been found there? Antofogasta is about 2° W.N.W. of the “ Meteores,” and I have reason to believe that meteoric iron exists about there. In the map to Wilcocke’s ‘ Buenos Ayres,’ at the junction of the Bermejo and Paraguay rivers are the “ Montes de Hierro;” monte may mean mountain or forest. This locality is about 2° N.H. of Otumpa, and the iron spoken of here may be meteoric. In the ‘ Coleccion de Memorias Cieutificas, etc., por M. E.de Rivero y Ustariz’ (Brussels, 1857), there are details and analyses of several masses of meteoric iron found in the Cordillera of the Andes (of Bogota). My impression is, that when this subject of meteoric zones is worked out, more falls will have to be recorded in South America than given by Shepard. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. GroLocicaL Socizty oF Lonpon.—January 22, 1862.—Sir R. I. Mur- chison, V.P.G.S., in the chair. The following communications were read:— 1. “On some Flint Arrow-heads (?) from near Baggy Point, North Devon.” By N. Whitley, Esq., communicated by J. S: Enys, Esq., F.G.S. Immediately beneath the surface-soil above the “raised beaches’ of North Devon and Cornwall, the author has observed broken flints; and even * It is not known when the Otumpa iron fell. It was visited by Celis and Cervifio in 1783. The length of it is 34 yards, 2 yards in width, 4 feet 6 inches deep, and con- tains 93 cubic yards. This appears to be independent of smaller pieces. It is called by the natives the Masa de fierro, or mass of iron; the meteorite of the Chaco; of the Chaco Gualamba. It was discovered by people from Santiago del Estero on one of their expeditions to “malear,” or hunt for honey and wax. It is in about 27° 43/S., 2° 40! W. of Buenos Ayres. 92 THE GEOLOGIST. at the Scilly Isles such flints are found. At Croyde Bay, about half-way between Middle-Borough and Baggy Point, at the mouth of a small transverse valley, Mr. Whitley found them in considerable number, col- lecting about 200 specimens, of which about 10 per cent. of the splintered, flints at this place have more or less of an arrow-head form ; but they pass by gradations from what appear to be perfect arrow-heads of human manu- facture to such rough splinters as are evidently the result of natural causes. Hence the author suggested that great caution should be used in judging what flints have been naturally, and what have been artificially shaped. 2. “On some further Discoveries of Flint Implements in the Gravel near Bedford.” By James Wyatt, Esq., F.G.S. Simee Mr. Prestwich described the occurrence of flint implements near Bedford (‘ Geological Society’s Journal,’ No. 67, p. 366), Mr. Wyatt and others have added seven or eight to the list, from the gravel-pits at Cardington, Harrow- den, Biddenham, and Kempston. Mr. J. G. Jeffreys, F.G.S., having examined Mr. Wyatt's further collections of shells from the gravel- pits at Biddenham and Harrowden, has determined seventeen other species besides those noticed by Mr. Prestwich, and among these is Hy- drobia marginata (from the Biddenham pit), which has not been found alive in this country. At Kempston, Mr. Wyatt has examined the sand beneath the gravel (which is destitute of shells), and at 3 feet in the sand (19 feet from the surface) he found Helix, Succinea, Bithnia, Pupa, Pla- norbis, ete., with flint flakes. . 3. “On a Hyena-den at Wookey-Hoie; near Wells, Somerset.” By W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq., F.G.S. In a ravine at the village of Wookey- Hole, on the southern flanks of the Mendips, and two miles N.W. of Wells, the river Axe flows out of the Wookey-Hole Cave by a canal cut in the rock. In cutting this passage, ten years ago, a Gave, filled with ossiferous loam, was exposed, and about 12 feet of its entrance cut away. tn 1859 the author and Mr. Williamson began to explore it by digging away the red earth with which the cave was filled, and continued their operations in 1860 and 1861. They penetrated 34 feet into the cave, and here it bifureates into two branches, one vertical (which was examined as far as practical), and one to the right (left for further research). A lateral branch on the left, not far from the entrance, was also examined. The cave is hollowed out of the Dolomitic Conglomerate, from which have been derived the angular and water-worn stones scattered in the ossiferous cave- earth. Its greatest height is 9 feet, and the width 36 feet; it is contracted in the middle, and narrow towards the bifurcation. Remains of Hyena spelea (abundant), Canis Vulpes, C. Lupus, Ursus speleus, Equus (abun- dant), Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Rh. leptorhinus (?), Bos primigenius, Me- gaceros Hibernicus, C. Bucklandi, C. Guettardi, C. Tarandus (Pye 2C.- Dama (?), and Elephas primigentus were met with; remains of Felis spelea were found when the cave was first discovered. The following evidences of man were found by Messrs. Dawkins and Williamson in the red earth of the cave—chipped flints, flint-splinters, a spear-head of flint, chipped and shaped pieces of chert, and two bone arrow-heads; and the author argues that the conditions of the cave and its infilling prove that man was contemporaneous here with the extinct animals in the pre-glacial period (of Phillips), and that the eave was filled with its present contents pale by the ordinary operations of nature, not by any violent cata- Ciysim., » /, ” sane fe 5 >) rm x = - kebruary 5, 1862.—The following communications were read :— ; R. On poms \ oleanic Phenomena lately observed at Torre del Greco and Aesina.”” By Signor Luigi Palmieri, Director of the Royal Observa: PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 93 tory on Vesuvius. In letters addressed to H.M.’s Consul at Naples, and dated December 17th, 1851, and January 3rd, 1862. The author spoke of the evolution of great quantities of carbonic acid gas as seemingly coming from a great subterranean reservoir, and as bub- bling up in the sea and killing the fish. He also noticed the outbursts of springs of acidulous, and hot water; and especially mentioned the upheaval of the ground for some miles along the shore at Torre del Greco to the height of more than a métre above the sea-level. 2. ‘On the Recent Eruption of Vesuvius.” By M. Pierre de Tchiha- tcheff. M. Tchihatcheff’s observations were made at Torre del Greco and Naples from December 8th to 25th. Near Torre del Greco several small craters (9-12) have been formed close to each other in an H.N.E.—W.S.W. line, at a distance of about 600 métres EH.S.E. of the crater of 1794; and either on a prolongation of the old fissure, or on one parallel. The pheno- mena mentioned by Signor Palmieri were described by M. Tchihatcheff in detail, who also alluded to the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen, and suggested this as an explanation of the flames said to have emanated from the fissures in the ground at various places. 3. “On Isodiametrie Lines as means of representing the Distribution of Sedimentary (clay and sandy Strata), as distinguished from Calcareous Strata, with especial reference to the Carboniferous Rocks of Britain.” By EK. Hull, F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. _ The author exhibited maps of the Carboniferous rocks of England and Wales, and by means of coloured isodiametric lines showed the gradual thinning-out of the clays and sandstones in one direction,and thatof the lime- stones in another. Upon these data he urged that the formation of limestone was distinct from the deposition of littoral, or clayey and sandy, deposits. The limestones were of organic origin, and formed in the clear deeps of the sea, which those essentially rock-forming creatures the foraminifera, corals, etc., inhabited, but not necessarily formed in deep seas. Thus the condition of the strata beneath us was that of a series of overlapping wedges. The feather-edges of the clays and sands being in one direction, and those of the limestones in the other—the former thinning out from the shore into the sea, the latter proceeding from the bottom of the sea and terminating towards the shore. Shore. Sea-surface: The Deep. [-—-=—= > | ———-los 5 fi f 3 Fig. 1.—Primary Section of a Formation. Thus where the limestones were thickest, as a general rule the sandstones and clays were thinnest ; and vice versd, when there was a great develop- ment of clays and sands the limestones were usually thin. The author made a comparison of argillaceo-arenaceous with calcareous deposits, as to their distribution, both i modern and in ancient seas, and objected to calcareous strata being regarded as sediments, in the strict sense of the word. Noticing the distribution of sediments, in the Caribbean Sea, he referred to the relative distribution of limestones as compared with shales and sandstones in the Oolitic formations (comparing those of Yorkshire with those of Oxfordshire), in the Permian strata of England, and in the Lower Carboniferous strata of Belgium and Westphalia. After some observations 94 THE GEOLOGIST. on the nature of calcareous deposits, and on the contemporaneity of certain groups of deposits, dependent on the oscillatory movements of land and sea, the author described his plan of showing on maps the relative thick- nesses of the two classes of strata under notice, by means of isodiametric or isometric lines (properly isopithic, or indicative of equal thickness of the strata). ee San eae a7 4S > = > Shalz ee Sand yLinestone Sandy Liinestore Sardstone Ay I, ill y a7 SS Limestone Sandy Limestone Fig. 2.—Distribution of the Calcareous and Sedimentary Strata of the Great Oolite, Oxfordshire. Mr. Hull then proceeded to show the application of the isodiametric system of lines to the Carboniferous strata of the midland counties and north of England; showing that there is a south-easterly attenuation of the argillo-arenaceous strata, and a north-westerly attenuation of the cal- careous strata. The existence, in the Carboniferous Period, of a barrier of land crossing the British area, immediately to the north cf lat. 52°, was insisted upon; and, although this barrier was probably broken through (in South Warwickshire) in the latter portion of that period, yet it divided, in the author’s opinion, the coal-area into a north and a south portion, the latter showing a very different set of directions in the attenuation of its strata; the shales and sandstones thinning out eastward and the lime- stones in the contrary direction. In conclusion, the author stated his opinion that the source of the Carboniferous sediments was in the ancient North Atlantic Continent, for the existence of which Lyell, Godwin-Austen, and others have argued ; and he inferred that the shores of this Atlantis, composed principally of granitoid or metamorphic rocks, were washed on the west side by a current running south-west which drifted the sediment in that direction; and, on the other, by a current running south-east which carried sediment over the submerged British area. Gnoxocists’ Associatron.— February 3.—Professor Tennant, F.G.S., President, in the chair. The following papers were read :—1. “On the Cretaceous Group in Norfolk.” By C. B. Rose, Esq., F.G.S. The author, in an elaborate paper, described the general divisions of the chalk formation as exhibited in Norfolk, and following the arrangement proposed by the late Mr. Woodward, he divided the beds into Upper Chalk, Medial Chalk, Hard Chalk, and Chalk Marl. The Upper and Medial Chalk he stated to comprise the chalk with flints (the upper division of other geologists), and the author considers this distinetion legitimate, inasmuch as the uppermost bed at Norwich contains organic forms which are not met with in the medial bed. The distinguishing characteristics of the several beds with their peculiar fossils, and the local limits of each formation were fully described, and the paper was illustrated by an elaborate section of the strata of the county. _ 2 | On the Plasticity and Odour of Clay.” By C. Tomlinson, Esq. Che author pointed out some of the most remarkable considerations in re- lation to this subject, such for instance as the fact that clay is only plastic up toa certain temperature ; when heated beyond that point (which the author believes, from experiments performed by him, to be somewhere be- PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 95 tween 600° and 700° Fahr.) it loses its plasticity and acquires the property of rigidity. Moreover, having once lost its plasticity, this quality can never be restored to it by any methods known to science. Further, this property cannot be produced artificially. The constituent elements of pure clay may be combined in the proportions indicated by analysis, but the clay thus produced is not plastic. Itis commonly stated that it is the alumina which confers upon clay its plastic property, but the author showed that pure alumina whether gelatinous, or after having been dried and ground up with water, never gives a plastic paste; nor can water be the cause, since melted glass and sealing-wax both possessed the property. The author considered that the phenomenon may be due to a change in the molecular arrangement of the particles of the clay, and the conse- quent variation of the attractive force which holds them together,—the particles, under the circumstances under which clay is plastic, being nearer to one another, and the attractive force consequently greater, than under the circumstances when the clay has the property of rigidity. As to the odour ef clay, the author pointed out some difficulties in the way of the common opinion that alumina is the cause of this property, and suggested various considerations which might lead to the elucidation of this point. Liverpoot Grotoeicat Socrety.—January 14.—The papers read were ‘‘ On the Connection between Physical Geography and Geology.” By F. P. Marrat. ‘On the Geology of the Southern portion of the Isle of Man.” By E. B. Franceys. February 11.—“ On Surface-markings on the Sandstone near Liverpool, supposed to have been caused by ice.” By G. H. Morton, F.G.8. “A Brief Outline of the Geology of the country about Clitheroe, Pendle Hill, and Bromley.” By G. H. Morton, F.G.S. MancuHester Grotoaicat Society.—December 31, 1861.—Mr. Bin- ney exhibited a specimen of granite containing petroleum, sent to him by James Yates, Esq., of London. ‘The specimen was obtained in 1818, and is mentioned in Aiken’s ‘ Mineralogy’ (1815, p. 60), so that its discovery is of older date than thirty years ago. The papers read were :— 1. “On the Ventilation of Mines.” By Mr. Joseph Goodwin. The author considered that it was not new principles that were required to pre- vent the loss of life that is taking place year by year in the working of the coal-mines of this country, but attention to the simplest, oldest, and most commonplace precautionary measures. Nor were the evils arising from explosions the only ones to be guarded against; it was alike a duty to pay attention to the sanitary state of the mines and to remove as far as prac- ticable all the causes which are life-destroying, or that injure the health of the operatives. The phenomena of sudden outbursts of gas, and the velo- eity at which air-currents can be practically passed through the workings of a mine, were the chief topics of the paper. 2. ‘On the Self-extinguishing and Detector Safety Lamp for working Mines.” By Mr. George Charlton, Mining Engineer. January 28th, 1862.—Joseph Dickinson, Esq., F.G.S., President, in the chair. The following papers were read :— 1. “On the Bank Top and Hagside Pits ; and the Proving of Faults.” By Andrew Knowles, Esq. The Bank Top Collieries are about one mile from the town of Bury. One shaft or pit adjoins the Kast Lancashire sec- tion of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and is connected with it by a siding; the other is on the bank of the Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Canal, To the mine, the former pit is 130 yards deep, the latter 96 THE GEOLOGIST. 60. The mine worked is generally supposed to be identical with the Rushby Park of St. Helens, the Arley of Wigan, and the Royley of Old- ham. The Hagside Pit is 760 yards to the deep of the one that adjoins the railway ; being 280 yards in depth to the coal, and 300 to the bottom of the sump-hole. There is nothing of particular geological interest in connection with the mine, more than is usually met with in coal-mines. We find Anthracomye ina layer, about four inches above the coal; and in the strata between the ‘“‘two-feet coal” and the main bed, the author had seen several good specimens of Sigillaria. These strata vary from three feet to seven yardsin thickness. The average thickness of the mine worked is four feet six inches. In giving his opmion on the proving of faults, the author confined his remarks to the kind commonly met with in the Lancashire coal-field. The faults generally met with in this county are dislocations, whether they are large or small ones; that is, the strata are broken up, and that the coal and other measures are often found the same on each side of the fault-vein. Suppose a fault is met with. It is easily known whether it is a down- or up-throw ; if the former, the coal not unfrequently dipsa little, for a short distance, before you arrive at it; if the latter, it oftener rises to it. But supposing you arrive, without any previous indication, at a fault, the direction is generally known by the way in which the strie, or two sides of the fault-vemm, commonly called the “slippy partings,” point. Ifa down fault is met with, the direction is away from you; if up, you touch the vein first at the floor of the place where you are driving. 2. “The Ventilation of Mines.” Mr. Joseph Goodwin. As the recent catastrophe at the Hartley New Pit has called forth the sympathy of almost every subject within the British realms, and appears at the present time to be exciting the minds of all engaged in the trade, the author thought it was not out of place to consider how far it is safe to trust to a bratticed shaft for ventilating coal-mines. The system of working a colliery with only one shaft presents an unfavourable aspect, viewed from whatever point it may be; but probably the system is more at fault, in so far as it aflects the ventilation of a colliery worked upon this principle, and the risk to which it exposes both employer and employed, than if viewed from any other point. The author denounced this system through a thorough conviction that it not only immeasurably increases the risk to both employer and employed, but that, pecuniarily considered, no real advantage occurs from it of working a colliery. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. Toe Waatrs or tHE Antwerp Crac were made by M. Van Beneden the subject of his most interesting address at the last public sitting of the Belgian Academy, in which he gave a sketch of the important paleontological discoveries made during the recent excavations in the fortifications of Ant- Wwerp, and illustrated the subject by éhe interesting information he had ac- quired in a recent travel in Germany for the purpose of elucidating the re of the zp rbhs fossil cetaceans that have been found in the soil of ie environs of Antwerp. ‘awing °] i Musée Bourbon of Raskin in Ole cael a e oa eat ae rbon aples in asures quities from Herculaneum and Pompeii, with the fossil treasures of Antwerp, he proceeded to narrate the geological history of that district. “At the very place,” he said, “ where to-day roar lions, tigers, and bears in cages barred with iron, in times of FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 97 yore legions of dolphins and whales were ‘ blowing’ freely, ploughing - the surface of the sea with their broad tails, and quietly sporting without fear of man. These fossil remains are of a much higher antiquity than all the products of hnman mdustry. Man had not yet made his appearance at the period when the sea covered these latitudes ; the earth was then neither sufficiently prepared nor sufficiently solidly established to receive the ‘king of creation.” Between the present epoch and that time past when the soil which now bears the wonders of the city of Rubexs reposed at the bottom of the sea, we find numerous and incontrovertible vestiges of an intermediate period when many great terrestrial mammifers held their sway. “From the depths of Siberia to the basin of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, two great pachyderms, the Mammoth and tichorine Rhino- ceros, trod in great numbers the shallow waters and plains,* at the same time that the great bears so carefully described by Dr. Schmerling (in 1833) frequented the sombre caverns of Liége. The nearly bugs 'ske- leton disinterred two years since at Lierre : amongst bones of rhinoceros, ox, deer, horse. and hyzena, belongs to this intermediate period.t - The North Sea had not then its present limits ; England had not yet. per- haps, been subjected to that terrible convulsion which violently s eparated it from the Continent ; and judging from the considerable number of bones which are met with in certain places in the present seas, these great pachy- derms traversed freely and dry-foot from the Meuse and the Scheldt to the Thames and the county of Essex. . . . As I propose to speak of the fossil hones collected from the sand, otherwise called the § Crag,’ of the environs of Antwerp, and which forms a real catacomb of dolphins and whales, permit me to draw attention to the species which now visit our coasts, in order the better to judge of the differences which are revealed by a comparison between the present North Sea and the Sea of the Crag at that geological epoch. Who is there that. during the fine days of summer, reclining on the sand of the dunes or at the foot of the cliff, abandoned to his reveries, has not been struck with that majestic nature which, under a thousand different forms, spreads waves of life on the sea! Who has not asked himself,—This shore of to-day, is it like the shores of other day P These waters, have they always enclosed in their bosom the same fishes ? What mean these petrified bones, these tusks of mammoths which the sea throws up sometimes along the coast? As the archeologist, arrested by the majestic ruins of Thebes or Palmyra, delights in evoking the remem- brance of their peoples, and figuring to himself the forum and the temple filled with the dense crowd, so the naturalist sees the ancient seas roil their foaming waves on the dry land, the waters peopled with dolphins and sirens, “star-fish and ‘ear-shells.’ . . . All the species, cetacean or fish, mollusc or polype, buried in those vast t beds of sand, have disappear “ed from our seas, and even their analogues inhabit only much more southern regions, “The mise en scene is the same as of old: flood and ebb produce the same effects ; the surf causes the same ravages, —in a word, the ‘decorations remain, but ie actors are changed, “The phenomena most apparent to the naturalist in comparing the pre- * Oflate the study of the species of the quaternary epoch in respect to their appearances and succession has made great progress. A remarkable memoir by M. Lartet has ap- peared on this important subject, and according to this learned paleontologist the cave- bears had disappeared before the appearance of the mammoths, and man was contemporary a these species. (See Ann. des Sc. Nat., 4me Série, t. xv., cah, iii.) + Scohy, ‘ Considérations sur les Ossements Fossiles découverts a Lierre,’ 1860; and . Bulletins de Académie Royale de Belgique,’ 2me Série, t. ix., No. 4. VOL. VY. O 98 THE GEOLOGIST, sent sea with that of the Crag,is the rarity of certain species in modern times and their extreme abundance in times past. It is only at long in- tervals that we see now on our shores some stray dolphin or a whale that has wandered out of its way. The cetacean that we see stranded in our latitudes is generally an isolated individual, which its troop have rejected or the tempests have separated from its associates. It was not so when, in other times, the numerous species of the Crag sea lived; many of those great cetacea had there their regular stations, while others made periodic visitations. In respect to their abundance and regular migrations, one discovers even since the historic period very considerable changes, to which the rapacity of man perhaps has not been foreign.™ “Tt is known that in the ninth century the Basques . . . harpooned the whale in the Gulf of Gascony, and pursued it even as far as the North Sea. Different charters prove that associations of whale-fishers, known under the name of Societas or Communio Walmannorum, existed in the 11th century on the coast of France.t ‘These fisheries were so successful in the Channel, that mention is made in these charters of the sale of the fresh flesh. Nowadays it is truly an event if by chance one of these great ceta- ceans presents itself in these latitudes. Cuvier, struck with this difference, thought that the whales had fled before man, and that these animals no longer found safety except amongst the reefs of polar ice. “This explanation of the great naturalist, although generally accepted, does not, however, accord with facts. The whale of the Channel is not the same as the whale of the Polar circle. It is not without reason that for a long time my friend Eschricht has opposed the hypothesis of Cuvier; and the former, the learned professor of Copenhagen, has shown that the Ice- landers knew perfectly, as far back as the twelfth century, these giants of the Channel from those of the North. In a manuscript of that distant pe- riod,§ the Iceland fishermen specified the characteristic differences of the two species.|| . . If the whale pursued by the Basques is not the Baleine Jranche of the North—the Mysticetus—what is it then? Has it ever * Amongst the migrations which have interested us, we could cite two species which visit regularly the Feroe Isles since the most remote period, and still make their periodic visitation, According to a legend of the country, a pagan giant, vanquished by a Chris- tian, promised him for ransom and pardon to send him every year a bird and a whale which should be found nowhere else, ‘The bird is the white crow, the whale the dogling or hyperoodon,—Kschricht, Comptes Rendus, t. xlvii.; July, 1858. + Cuvier makes mention of these charters, which were communicated to him by the Abbé de la Rue. (See ‘ Ossements Fossiles,’ 4me edit., t. 5, lre partie, p. 74:.) { The illustrious savant could not speak with exact knowledge of the Mystzcetus, or of the Northern whale, because he had never seen a specimen. At the present time even there is not a skeleton of this curious animal either at Paris or in London. There is known one example at Copenhagen, and a second has since been acquired by the Royal Museum at Brussels. ‘The other chief portions of this whale known are, a fine adult skull at Kiel, another head at London, and the head of a young animal at Leyden. § “ Kong-Skug-Sio, Det Konglige Speil, den Konigligen Spiegel,’ or * Royal Mirror,’ an leelandie manuscript of the twelfth century.—B. (See also M. Reinhardt on the en: whales, “Om Nordhvalen’ (Balena mysticetus, L.), in 4to, Kidbenhavn, 861, * The Icelanders distinguish the two species of whale as that of the North (North Whale) and that of the South. The last bears on its skin white calcareous crowns, which the other never does. These white crowns are cirrhipedes, which develop and propagate themselves on the back of that marine monster. . . . Each species of Whale has its peculiar cirrhipedes. Some have the Coronula; others the Diadema ; are a aaein the Zudsiecnella,—the last bury themselves several inches deep into the skin and the fat, FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 99 been seen by any naturalist? Is it the Southern whale in which the Duich whalers have thought they have recognized their ‘ North-Caper’ ? Has it disappeared since this fishery was established, like so many other kinds which have been annihilated within historic times?* There is need of facts to dissipate these doubts; the best arguments do not suf- fice. But can one ever hope to find them for these delicate and dif- ficult questions? In these uncertainties, zoologists, not knowing whe- ther to think Cuvier right or the Iceland fishermen, were in great com- motion some years since in respect to an event which happened in the Gulf of Gascony. ‘This was in January, 1854. It is at this period of the year that the ancient whales arrive there regularly to take their winter station. A mother-whale, accompanied by its cub, made its appear- ance at St. Sebastian one day in January, and fortunately the young whale was captured. The Museum of Pampeluna made the acquisition of it. Eschricht heard this news at Copenhagen ; nothing passed in the world of whales that he was not informed of. ‘It is my Biscay whale,’ said he ; ‘ the species still exists.’ He trembled at the idea that the trea- sure might escape him. He arrived at Louvain nearly at the same time as the letter by which he informed me of the news ; announced to the Insti- tute of France the motive of his passage to Paris “+ arrived at Pampeluna, made his way at once to the coast,and buried himself in the midst of the shore in the study of the bones of the head and of the vertebre of this precious relic. The victory was his. This whale differed completely from that of the North.t It was really a remnant of those ancient legions which once on a time visited these latitudes in numerous bands, and which have since deserted these places. On our coast the whales stranded since the begin- ning of this century have been far from numerous, and we could easily enumerate them. Several years since, . . M.de Selys-Longchamps men- tioned them in his Belgian ‘Fauna.’ ‘There are but two balenoptera ; the one of Kessels, found dead at sea in 1827 by the Ostend fishermen .§ * We know that since the historie peridd many species have abandoned the centre of Europe, and that others have also completely disappeared. . .. The reindeer and elk have quitted the interior of Europe since the extinction of the mammoths. The Dodo and the Alea impennis have undoubtedly completely disappeared. We are fortu- nately not altogether certain of the latter. It is believed that the Rythina Stel/erz, the singular sirenian of the Beliring Sea, is equally lost; but we have had great satisfaction in seeing that the Museum of St. Petersburg has received a complete skeleton. Nord- mann, “Paliontologie Sued-Russlands,’ Helsingtors, 1859-60, p. 328. tT ‘ Comptes Rendus de l Académie des Sciences,’ sitting July 12th, 1858. ¢ ‘Sur les Baleines franches du Golfe de Biscaye,’ in Comptes Rendus, 1860. Ina letter dated from Copenhagen, Eschricht had the kindness to inform me of the result of his researches on the difference of these two species of whales. “The skeleton of Pam- peluna has entirely occupied me,” he wrote on the 18th May. “It is the most curious of any that I-have met. It is nearly mounted, and the enormous difference between it and the Mysticetus surpasses all I had expected before my sojourn at Pampeluna. Fi- gure to yourself,” he added, “that it is uot more developed than the skeleton of a Mys- ticetus of less than a year; the ossification of the vertebree has not advanced beyond the transverse apophyses ; and the arches, which are not even united on both sides, are still separated from the body, whilst the vertebral column is as large as that of a Mysticetus of three years and a half.” Eschricht, ‘ Developpement du questionnaire relatif aux Cé- tacés,’ in ‘ Actes de la Société Linnéenne de Bordeaux,’ t. xxii., 4me livr. § Van Breda, ‘ Kenige Bijsonderheden omtrent den Walrisch die den 5 November 1827 bij Ostende gestrand is,’ in Algemeine Konst en Letterbode, 1827, 2¢ vol. Vanderlinden, Bibl. Inéd. Nat. et Htrang., t. v.. 1028.—‘ Bydragen tot de Natu- ralische Wetensch.,’ Ade deel, 1829.—-Messag. des Sciences, 1329. Du Bar, ‘ Osteogra- phie de la Baleiue,’ Br uxelles, 1828: 100 THE GEOLOGIST. and which, prepared asa skeleton with much care by M. Paret, after having visited during twenty years the principal towns of Europe, continues at the present time, it appears, its peregrinations in the New World. Itis the Pierobalena gigas. The other balenoptera belongs to the small species, which does not exceed thirty feet in length, and which has always forty- eight vertebre ; it is the Pterobalena minor of Knox, or the Pterobalena vostrata of Fabricius.* The skeleton preserved in the Zoological Garden of Antwerp belonged to an individual stranded on the coast of Holland, and is of a third species, the Pterobalena communis. “The Academy will remember that we entertained it three years ago with the Dolphin Globiceps, found dead at sea by the fishermen of Heyst under very interesting circumstances. It was a mother, which at first they had taken for a barrel, and which was on the point of going down. “Tt is the same animal which the Feroe islanders look out for every year with such great anxiety, and whose flesh is esteemed by them a de- licious dish.§ The Grindewahl—for that is the name they give them— make their appearance in these isles with the thrushes and woodeocks else- where; with this difference, that the thrushes and woodcocks figure only on the tables of the rich, whilst the flesh of the grindewahl is the food of the poor. It is by thousands that they are taken every year; and one of the most curious spectacles which can be given to a sovereign is a fishery of the grindewahl in one of the fiords of Feroe, made in the presence of the King of Denmark when he visits these isles. But the most formidable of the cetaceans which visit our latitudes is the orca, or ork. We see it from time to time on our coasts. Two individuals of this dangerous spe- cies, a young and an adult female, were stranded in 1843-44 near Ostend, and an adult female was found dead on the strand in 1848. The ork is by far the most formidable of all the great marine animals; the colossal whale, even, is not exempt from his vigorous attacks; it is truly the con- sternation of all. Nothing is more curious than to listen to the tales of the fishermen of Greenland and Spitzbergen of the habits of these marine mon- sters. What violence in the struggle, what tenacity in the attack! One would think one was listening to the recitals of travellers in the deserts of Africa, narrating the gigantic siruggles of the great mammifers, the ter- rible assaults made by the lions and tigers on the elephants, the buffalos, or antelopes. The first of August of this year, a fine male lost itself on the coast of Jutland. Intelligence was sent immediately to Copenhagen, and Professor Eschricht made his way to the place. He wished to know above all on what this animal had fed during its last hours; and he soon disco- vered that not without reason the ork is the terror of the seas. It con- tained in its stomach (one would hardly have supposed it) thirteen por- poises and fifteen seals! My learned friend searched with a feeling of horror whether amongst this frightful mass of victims he could not find * This species comes regularly ashore on the coast of Norway. Near Bergen, they take them every year. Fabricius knew it well in Greenland, but he erred in giving it the name proposed by Linnzeus, who did not know the whales. This example shows that it is not always the name of the first author which ought to be preserved. There exists a skeleton of this species in the Royal Museum of Brussels ; another, of a young individual stranded at Ostend, is in the Cabinet of the University of Ghent; and a third, trom Greenland, formed a long time ago part of the collection of the Catholic University of Louvain, + Bulletin de ? Académie, t. xxiv., No. 3. { “Recherches sur la Faune littorale de Belgique (Cétacés).’? Mém. de Acad. Roy. de Belgique, t. xxxii. § Comptes Rendus, t. xlvii., July 12, 1858. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 101 some remains of asailor. A fine species of ziphioid cetacean known to science under the name of Delphinorhyncus micropterus, or oftener as Mesoplodon Sowerbiensis, was stranded some years since near the port of Ostend. It still uttered groans when M. Paret, the naturalist of Slykens, arrived on the spot. This animal, rare everywhere, and of which but one - complete skeleton was known, has furnished the subject of a fine memoir by our illustrious confrére M. du Mortier.* . . . Another species of the family of Ziphioids, which visits regularly the Feroe Isles, shows itself sometimes on our coasts. An individual was taken some years since, at Bergoluis, near Zierickzee, and described by M. Wesmael.¢ It is the Dogling, or the Hyperoodon of naturalists: A whole band was lost last year after bad weather on the coast of Jutland. It is this family of cetaceans which was most largely represented in the Crag Sea, and on this score it interests us in an especial manner. The porpoise is the only cetacean proper to our littoral ; and we are still ignorant if it be sedentary during the whole year on our coasts, or if it visits regularly other latitudes. very year at spring-time porpoises enter the Baltic by the Sound in the pursuit of herrings, and they only go out again in December and January by the Little Belt, between Fionie and Jutland.t As we find them on our coasts oftener in summer than in winter, it is evident that our common cetacean does not belong to those which take up their summer quarters in the Baltic. “We do not dwell on the whales in ancient times stranded in our latitudes. There is too much exaggeration in the statements of authors. “We shall only mention the cachelot or potwall, which has appeared several times some centuries ago in our latitudes, and of which Ambroise Paré has given a very recognizable figure.§ * B.C. du Mortier, ‘ Memoire sur le Delphinorhynque microptére échoué a Ostende,’ Bruxelles, 1839, in Mém. de ? Academie Royale de Bruxelles, t. x11. , + Wesmael, Mémoires de l Académie Royale de Bruxelles, t. xiii., 1840. This skele- ton is deposited in the Brussels Museum. t Eschricht, Comptes Rendus de l’Academie des Sciences, sitting of July 12th, 1858. § In 1189 a whale of extraordinary size was stranded at Blankenberghe;* in 1334 the fishermen of Ostend took a marine monster of forty fect in length.f But the most extraordinary fact is that in the winter of 1404 eight whales, mostly of seventy feet in length, were thrown on the flat sandy shore near Ostend by a tempestuous sea, and taken nearly all alive.t That which appears least doubtful, and here the species is indicated, is that in 1577 and 1598 two potwalls were cast ashore: one in the Scheldt, near Antwerp, and figured by Ambroise Paré;§ the other at Berchey, in Holland, and de- scribed by Clusius, || who first figured this animal. He had seen the one stranded at Berchey in 1598, and another at Beverwyck in 1601; the former fifty-three feet long. Albert, on the authority of Cetus, speaks of two cachelots stranded in his time; one in Friesland, the other near Utrecht ; and knew the spermaceti, or “ blanc de baleine.”” The ancients do not mention it, and probably did not know the animal which produced it.4] Piet Bor** makes mention of an infernal monster of eighty feet, stranded on the Ist of May at the Sluysche Gat, and which doubtless belonged also to the cachelots. This calls to my mind a band of thirteen young individuals, if I do not err, which lost themselves some years ago at the end of the Adriatic, and of which one head is preserved in the Museum of the University of Berlin. * Montanus, Add. ad Histor. Guicciard., p. 150, ed. Amsterdam, 1646, fol. + ‘Délices des Pays-Bas,’ t. iii. p. 15, 2d edit. + Guicciardini, Descritt. di tutti i Paesi Bassi, fog]. 331, ed. de Plautin, 1588, in-fol. § Ambroise Paré, 25e livre de ses (Huvres. || Clusius im 1605. _ 4 Cuvier, Ossem., vol. v. p. 329. ** “ Nederlandsche Oorlogen,’ 81te boek, fol. 6, 4te deel: 102 THE GEOLOGIST. “We see clearly from what has been stated that our seas are very poor in whales; we can easily count the individuals which have been stranded. But was itso in that ancient sea which deposited the red and black sand of the province of Antwerp? “We shall remark that between the seas of two distinct geological epochs there existed, in respect to their great inhabitants, considerable dif- ferences, and these differences bear at once on the number of species and the quantity of individuals: as rare as they are rare now, as they were abundant then. “Tf the chemical composition of the sea has changed like its inhabitants, we are still ignorant of it, but we shall not, perhaps, always be so. As Ehrenberg has pointed his microscope to the infusoria, and Herschel his telescope to the stars, Bunsen and Kirchhoff direct their scrutinizing prism over the entire world to find out its chemical nature, and they will soon tell us, doubtless, whether the Crag Sea contained the same chemical ele- ments as the present ocean. May we not expect this from the savants who have noted gold and silver in the sun, and have determined the absence there of the most common metals of the earth, silicium and aluminium P “We have already said, on other occasions, that the Crag Sea nourished such a great quantity of seals, dolphins, and whales, that their débris forms, in different localities, veritable ossuaries.* Bones of all dimensions are there thrown pell-mell; and we see clearly that the skeletons of these great cetacea have eee during a long time, the playthings of the water. At each tide, shreds of bones and flesh were swept backward and forward by the waves, until the soft parts were perfectly decomposed. The cetaceans only were thrown upon the greatest heights, during the highest tides; and they were sometimes buried in their integrity. “ Independently of these legions of cetaceans, a great number of fishes frequented the same latitudes; but there are scarcely any other remains than those of the Selachian fishes that have come down tous. The most curious is the Carcharodon megalodon, which was not less than seventy feet in length, and for which an ox would have been only a mouthful. Teeth of the Carcharodon have been left in the Crag, and a very curious vertebra. It is extraordinary that we find there so few remains of osseous fishes. “Perhaps we may find the explanation of the rarity of the ordinary fish in the fact that the ziphioid cetaceans predominated in that sea, and that the nutriment of these cetacea consists exclusively of cephalopodous mol- lusca. The great whales, as we know, feed only on the pteropodous mol- luses, or on particular crustacea, both of small size. “We shall not say anything of the shell-fish, nor the superb corals, which peopled at that epoch the basin of Antwerp. It is upon M. Nyst, whose conscientious labours are so justly appreciated at home and abroad, will ere the task of some day entertaining you with these interesting animals. “We should not always think that these fossil bones and their high value in a scientific point of view may not have been already appreciated by naturalists. For a long time they have been known. These bones have often been attributed to giants. Who knows if they do not even enter into the legend of the origin of Antwerp? Be that as it may, the * ‘Les Grands et les Petits dans le Temps et dans l’Espace,’ Bull. de Acad. Royale de Belgique: 2e série; t: x. + The cetaceans, of which the relics are found in such abundance at Saint-Nicolas, appear to be under these conditions. ‘Ossements Fossiles découverts & Saint-Nicolas en 1859,’ Bull. de PAcad. Roy. de Belgique, 2e série, t. viii. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 103 honour of having recognized the remains of these great animats is carried back to a learned physician of Antwerp in the seventeenth century, Goro- pius Becanus.* ; ** At the end of the last century, the Baron von Hupsch wrote upon this subject a very curious work.+ But it is, above all, to Cuvier we owe the most remarkable work on the fossil bones of Antwerp. The great natu- ralist of the Museunvhad received at Paris many which had been exhumed at the time of the excavation of the Basin of Commerce, in the reign of the First Napoleon.t ** Some years ago fossil bones of cetaceans were found in great numbers in other localities,—the Crag Sea seemingly having had a much more con- siderable extension than had been previously thought. In Holland, in the province of Gueldres, bones have been found exactly as at Antwerp; and moreover a portion of a cranium, which recently came from the Baltic,§ appears to have belonged to an animal that had a great analogy to our Plesiocetes. Similar bones have also been dug up in Russia, and described under the name of Cetotheriwm.|| ““A phenomenon of another kind, but equally worthy of remark, is a skeleton of a baleinoptera found in England, in the diluvium, at twenty- eight feet above the present high-water; and another discovered in Nor- way, near Fredericstadt, at 250 feet. above the present level of the seas.** “Tn spite of these inherent difficulties in the study of the fossil remains of cetacea, we have succeeded, however, in determining the greatest num- ber. We have attained to reconstituting some of them tolerably com- pletely. “In the first place, then, we have found out that the great species of baleinides, or cetaceans with whalebones, had then many representatives. Some weeks since, an entire head of one of these great animals was ex- posed, but, unfortunately for science, it could not be preserved. We possess in great number the vertebre of these whales from all parts of the body ; fragments of ribs and of lhmbs—comprising the shoulder-blade ; many portions of the cranium; the inferior maxillaries, nearly perfect; and, above all, the tympanic bones, , “ But the family which is most richly represented in that ancient sea was the Ziphioides. We see them of all sizes. Of these we have, first, an animal near to the cachalots of the present day, and of dimensions equally gigantic. Another offers all the characters of the existing Hyperoodon ; then we find numerous teeth singularly constituted, which we attribute to Ziphioides allied to Digplodon and Mesoplodon. Lastly, some truly dwarf species complete this curious family, and certainly these did not exceed in size the smallest dolphins of the present creation. “The. Cetodonts, or the cetacea with teeth, had also many other repre- sentatives, approaching most nearly to the long-nosed species of the tropi- eal regions. ‘'wo fine heads have been discovered at Vieux-Dieu, the per- fect preservation of which is due to the intelligent and active care of the * Goropius Becauus, ‘ Orig. Antwerp.’ T ‘ Beschreibung einiger neu entdeckten Versteinten.’ + Cuvier, ‘Ossements Fossiles,’ t. v., premiére partie, p. 352 (4to edit.). § Hensche and Hagen, ‘ Ueber einen auf der kurischen Nehrung bei Nidden gefundenen Knochen,’ Schrift. der Phys. Gicon. Gesells. in Konigsberg, Jahr i., Heft ii. He gives a list of the cetaceans stranded in the Baltic, and notices several fossil cetaceans. || Hichwald, ‘Die Urwelt Russland’s,’ St. Petersburg, 1840, livr. lre, p. 25; Brandt, Institut, 1843, No, 205 et No. 449. Nordmann, ‘ Palaontologie Sued-Russlands,’ The last is in course of publication. ** Stadstrath Hensche,’ loc, cit. page 7, 104 THE GEOLOGIST. Captain of Engineers, Cochetaux. All the bones are admirably pre- served; and, if the teeth are detached from the maxillaries, we at least have the exact indication of their number, place, and size, by the disposi- tion of the alveoles. These two heads belong to animals which ought evi- dently to form a new genus, characterized by thirty-two teeth regularly spaced in the middle part of the jaws. “Finally, among the mammifers which inhabited that sea are also found littoral species; of the seals, some of which attained to grand propor- tions, we possess divers fragments of skeletons and of teeth, which leave no doubt of the presence of these singular amphibians in the ancient seas of these latitudes.* 7 “The Government, seconded by the intelligent zeal of several officers of engineers, has specially charged the Viscomte B. du Bas, to see to the con- servation of these precious relics; and we shall have the occasion, we be- lieve, to present a tolerably complete history of one of the most singular and most interesting of the antediluvian animals which have been discovered. We speak next of the Squalodon, and we shall enter into some details of the history of this curious group of fossil carnivora. “Some years ago (1844) the Doctor Albert Koch returned from North America, with a rich cargo of fossil bones belonging to strange animals. They had been exhibited already in public before their departure for Hu- rope. They were successively shown in the principal towns of Germany, at Dresden, Berlin, and Leipsic. “This exhibition made a great noise, and one can comprehend why it could not be otherwise. An animal more than a hundred feet long, having head of an extraordinary form, jaws furnished with teeth such as were not known, and which in spite of its immoderate length, bore two small pairs of limbs :—it was a gigantic serpent suspended before and behind by a pair of fins. ‘Curiosity was raised to the highest point. The friends of the marvel- lous found in it ample food for suppositions of every kind, and the savunts themselves did not know whether they ought to believe their eyes or their principles. . ‘‘ Numerous papers were produced on the occasion. The American na- turalists, in the first place, took this animal for a reptile and gave it the name of Basilosaurus. “Three or four years after the discovery of these remains, the French and English zoologists (Dumeril, Buckland, and Owen) made of them on the contrary amammifer ; and Owen did not hesitate, after the examina- tion of a fragment, to assign it to the walruses, proposing the name of Zeuglodon, which it still retains. ‘““In Germany, after the public exhibition of these numerous pieces, opinions were divided. “In reality the vertebre of several individuals had been grouped toge- * Bulletins de Académie, t. xx., No. 6. + For the title of the principal publications on these singular animals, see the ‘Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,’ 1834; ‘Transactions of the Geo- logical Society of Pennsylvania,’ vol. i., Philadelphia, 1835; Transact. Geol. Soc. of Lon- don, vol. vi.; ‘Comptes Rendus des séances de l’ Académie des Sciences,’ Oct. 1838; Pro- ceed. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philadelphia, 1845; Carus, Resultate Geol. Anat. und Zool. Unters. tiber das unter dem Namen Hyprarcnuos von Dr. Koch zuerst nach Europa gebrachte grosse fossile Skelett. Dresden, 1847; De Blainville, ‘ Ostéographie,’ 1840, livr. vii. p. 44; Karsten’s und Dechen’s Archive, 1812; Ann. Se. Nat. iii. série, vol. v. ae “ae ‘Ueber die fossile Reste der Zeuglodonten von Nord-America,’ in-fol. erlin, 1849, FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 105 ther; the bones of the head had been placed topsy-turvy ; of dorsal and lumbar vertebre a disproportionately long neck had been formed, and sa- vants of high reputation were completely led into error. Finally, on in- vestigation it was found that the bones had been brought together from different localities, and that with the remains of several skeletons the col- lectors had tried to fabricate a single animal. “Jean Miller boldly attacked the question, and was one of the first to show the grave anatomical errors which had been committed. He had commenced his observations whilst the skeleton was publicly exposed at Berlin; but he soon had the opportunity of studying it at his ease in his cabinet, the King of Prussia having purchased it for the Museum of the University of Berlin. * A curious circumstance was related to me by Miiller, in this laboratory at Berlin, when showing me the temporal bone of the Zeuglodon. Being asked whether the Basilosaurus, or Hydrarchos as it had also been called, was a reptile or a mammifer, Muller was going through the galleries of comparative anatomy, accompanied by some friends; he held the tem- poral bone in his hand to exhibit his views of the structure of the ear, and in talking the bone slipped from him, and was broken on the floor. All were in consternation! What aloss! 7 Gervais appears not to be specifically distinct from some specimens of C. commune + Linneé, * Species Plantarum,’ 8vo, Vindobone, 1764, p. 3. 127 SECTION OF THE LIAS CLAY IN A RAILWAY-CUTTING NEAR STOW-ON-THE WOLD. By tHe Rev. 8. Lucas, F.G.S. As Mr. E. Hull of the Geological Survey, in his ‘ Geology of the Country around Cheltenham’ (1857), p. 24, complains of the scarcity of sections of the Upper Lias in that district, and as a section in the Railway, near Oddington and Stow-on-the- Wold, exhibits a section of Liassic clays, which appear to me to belong to the upper series, I beg to offer you the following rough but accurate account of the bed there exposed. The list of fossils has been made with the assistance of a geolo- gical friend in London. I believe the section here described is not at the very top of the Lias, for on the hill-side on either side of the valley the Lias ascends considerably higher than at the railway-cutting. The cutting, which is in the parish of Mangersbury, is about twenty-five to thirty feet deep, and the section is as follows :— L- Clay - . ». » . 6 feet . There are no fossils im this bed. It has been probably mostly washed down from higher ground. wae Ferruginous Bed. 1 ft. 6 in. This is almost one compact mass of shells : Belemnites elongatus, Mill.; Ammonites hybrida, D’Orb.; A. Humphreysianus (young), Sow. ; A. Henleyi (young), Sow. ; A. annulatus (young), Sow.; Nautilus ; Trochus imbricatus, Sow.; T. cyclosto- ma (?), Quenst. ; Plewrotomaria anglica, Sow. (including P. Amalthez, Quenst.); P. Pallium, Sow.; Helicina (Rotella) ex- pansa, Sow. ; Turbo euomphalus, Quenst. ; Astarte; Unicardium cardioides, Phil. ; Pholadomya Murchisoniea,Sow.; Cucullea Muensteri(?), Quenst. ; Arca Muenster, Quenst.; A. elongata, Quenst.; Myacites TInassinus, Quenst.; M. elegans, Phil. ; M. tumidus (?), Mor. and Lyc.; WM. sp.; Myoconcha psilonoti (?), Quenst. ; Car- dium multicostatum (?), Quenst.; Mo- diola Scalprum, Soc.; Anomia; Gryphea incurva, Sow.; G. obliquata, Goldf. ; Ostrea ; Plicatula spinosa (and var.), Sow.; Avicula inequivalvis, Sow.; Perna (Crenatula) ventricosa, Sow.; Pecten sublevis, Sow.; Plagiostoma Hermanni, Goldf.; P.duplicatum, Sow.; Rhyncho- ANS nella rimosa, Sow. 3. Stiff Blue Clay . dS feet . Containing an Ammonite (A. Henleyi), and only a few other fossils. 4. Hard, slightly . 1 foot . A small Unicardium (U. verrucosum), is more ferruginous very plentiful in this bed, generally oc- and impervious curring as single valves. bed. 128 THE GEOLOGIST. 5. Stiff Blue Clay . 5 feet . With Ammonites Henleyi, Perna ventricosa, and Myacites. 6. Hard stiff Blue Clay 12-14 ft. With Ammonites fimbriatus, A. margari- tatus, A. Henleyi, Perna ventricosa, and ‘ small Pentacrinite. 7. An irregular band of lime- Unicardiwn cardioides, Cardinea concinna, stone generally formed of Myacites tumidus (?), Modiola scalprum, a hea of shells Gervillia levis, Perna ventricosa, Lima (small), Ostrea (small), Pecten sublevis, Plagiostoma Hermann, Terebratula nu- mismalis, Rhynchonella furcillata, R. con- cinna, R. subconcinna, Pentacrinus. The upper shelly bed (No. 2) undulates ; the distance between the crest and the trough of the wave being about a hundred yards, and the depth of the trough about six feet. This 1s very much stained with oxide of iron. The clayey beds Nos. 3, 5, 6, have fossiliferous concretionary nodules, and are all very similar ; they contain but few fossils, and those mostly of the same species. Bed No. 7 is also stained with iron, but not so much so as bed No. 2. It is very irregular as to its composition ; the stony bed being often interrupted by coarse concretionary masses at some distance from each other. This bed I also found at Odding- ton, four miles from the railway-cutting ; and there it is only just be- neath the surface-soil, so that there must have been considerable denudation. I should think that the Upper Lias Clay is much thicker in this locality and at Chipping-Norton than is generally supposed. Mr. Bliss, the owner of the factory there, told me that he bored 500 feet without getting through the clay. This is where it crops from be- neath the Inferior Oolite. Though the beds above described may possibly belong to the Middle Lias, yet I think there is much evidence to the contrary, such as the close contiguity of the Inferior Oolite, especially the ‘* passage-sands,”’ with the ferruginous ammonite-bed. At Odding- ton, about three miles from the cutting, these sands rest directly on bed No. 7 of the section. TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. By T. Rupr Jonuzs, F.G.8. - Geologizing, with some friends, on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, a few summers since (1859), we noticed some puddles of rain-water in the clay talus of the Wealden Cliffs near Brook Point, and observed that, like other such surfaces, the partially dried clay beds of the diminished pools showed rain-prints, foot-tracks, trails, and the rings of broken bubbles. Amongst these various markings are convew trail-like lines (fig. 1), which at first appeared difficult to account JONES—TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 129 for ; but, recollecting Mr. A. Hancock’s remarks on the so-called An- nelide tracks, published in the ‘Annals of Natural History,’ ord series, vol. ii. p. 443, plates 14-19, I looked carefully on the wetter parts of the clay, along the edges of the puddles, and soon saw little beetle- like insects boring into the clay, and apparently traversing such gal- leries, just beneath the surface, as the little narrow convex sinuous markings may be due to. One of these insects I enclosed alive inits clay habitat, but I could not afterwards find it, when I had the spe- cimen of surface-marked clay at home. The cut edges of the pieces of clay show the openings of the numerous little galleries (fig. 1 4). Some of them are close to the surface ; some are an eighth of an inch or more below: in the latter case, probably the roof of the gallery received coatings of mud after it was raised up, retaining its convexity. Fig. 1.—A piece of the dried clay bed of a pond in the Isle of Wight, showing the convex roofs of small galleries made by burrowing water-insects. 14, a portion of the cut edge, showing a section of some of the galleries, (Nat. size.) At some spots the roofs of the galleries were the only markings of the surfaces ; at other places the concave trails were most abundant. The origin of these was obscure; for the pools were too temporary to be the home of molluses or crustaceans ; insects or worms, there- fore, may have caused them. The Rev. Mr. Hislop showed me, not long since, a specimen of hard reddish shale (possibly of Triassic age) from Korhadi, Central India, on which one of the many superfi- cial long, narrow, hollow trails stopped short with what certainly ap- peared to be an insect, coated with muddy matter, and entangled, as it were, in the clay whilst ploughing its little furrow. In fig. 2, we have some faint rain-prints at one corner (a),—nume- rous small bubble-rings over a large portion of the surface,—several deep, long, concave trails all over the specimen,—three or four faint convex gallery-marks, and some footprints of birds. The latest bird- track shows three footprints, deeply marked on the bubbly surface, — probably aslightly depressed area remaining moist after the other VOL. V. 8 130 THE GEOLOGIST. Fig. 2.—Another piece of dried clay, from the same pond, showing a long trail at a ; and other trails, 4, /; a bird’s footprints (c) treading in an old trail at 4, 4; a new gallery being formed at e subsequently to the bird’s impressions on the soft mud; /, old footprint of another bird under new gallery; g, orifice ; d, bubble-marks ; 2, 2, 2, rain-prints. (Nat. size.) part had become nearly dry.* In advance of these is a more faintly * This minutely-spotted surface reminds one of that portion of the woodent in plate 7, in vol. ii. of the ‘ Geologist,’ which is said to be “pitted with worm-holes in the sheltered hollows.” JONES—TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 131 marked footprint, and that it was of earlier date is shown by one ot the gallery-marks passing athwart one of its toe-prints, whilst the other end of the gallery has been trodden in by the last foot-mark of the tirst-mentioned track. Specimens of sandstone showing the casts of similar convex and concave trails are common in some of the Wealden beds * and other thin-bedded rocks formed in shallow water; but the modifications are extremely numerous, and will require much careful observation before they are elucidated. Accurate drawings, at least, should be taken of trails and other surface-markings made by aquatic animals. Mr. A. Hancock’s published sketches (above referred to) of the gallery-tracks of minute crustaceans (Suleator arenarius and Kroeyera arenaria) that bore the sand of the sea-shore, are good examples of what is required of those who would assist the geologist to decipher the obscure tracks and trails (too often termed annelid-marks) by the light of nature. Mr. Poulett-Scrope, Mr. Strickland, Dr. Buckland, and Mr. Salter have published the results of some careful comparisons of recent and fossil tracks and trails; but have not figured the recent markings on which their conclusions rest. See Geol. Proceed., vol. i. p. 317 ; iv. pp. 16, 204; Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. x. p. 208; xu. p. 246; xii. p. 199, ete. In these instances, Fishes, Crustaceans, Molluscs, and Worms have been quoted as the probable agents. In his ‘ Report on the Agriculture of New York’ (‘ Natural History of New York,’ Part V.), vol. i. (1846), p. 68, etc., plates 14, 15, 16, Professor EH. Emmons describes and figures several so-called Lower Paleozoic “ annelid-tracks,”’ such as he has since referred to the trails of larval insects. : Some sagacious remarks on fossil trail-prints are made in Mr. James Hall’s ‘ Paleontology of New York,’ 1852, vol. i. p. 26, etc. ; and numerous figures of such and other surface-markings from the Silu- rian rocks of the State of New York are given in the plates 11 to 16 of that volume.+ Indeed, of the so-called Iucoids illustrated by plates 1, 2, 3, 5, 52, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of that volume, there are some that have been referred by Mr. Salter to the work of Annelides. Mr. Hall says—“ As a fact in proof of the similarity of the trails of other animals to these supposed remains of Annelida, I may mention that the Nemapodia tenuissima of Emmons has been proved to be the trail ot some existing animal over the outer surface of the rock, removing the minute lichen which covers it, and discolouring the rock beneath.” — J. Hall, Paleont. New York, vol. ii. p. 32, note. An instance in which recent tracks have been figured in illustration * On the under-surface of a rippled sandstone shale from Stammerham, near Horsham, I have observed numerous small, thread-like cylinders of sandstone, forming an irregular reticulation, which must have been due to the fine sand, when moist, having entered horizontal galleries in a clay or mud beneath : after having hardened, the sand, on the removal of the clay, has remained in the form of delicate free cylindrical casts, attached by their ends to the under-surface of the slab. + Notes by the late Prof. E. Forbes, on some of these figures, are appended by Mr. J. Hall, at page 37. 132 THE GEOLOGIST. of fossil tracks with some good results, is to be tound in Prof. Em- mons’s ‘American Geology,’ part vi., 1857, chap. xvi, p. 185, ete. Referring to the fossil tracks found so abundantly in the sandstone of the Connecticut Valley, he says :—“ In the progress of discovery other imprints have come to light, differing in every respect from the preceding. Those in the first instance were regarded as fossil Ne- reites, Myrianthes, etc., or Annelids, whose surfaces, or exterior, possessed. a sufficient consistency to form an imprint upon a yielding surface. Most of these markings, however, are now referred to foot- or body-marks of Crustacea or Mollusca, which have been made in a manner similar to the trails of certain shell-fish, as they move over a soft bottom. Such trails are preserved upon the rocks ; but in addi- tion to these, there are many others which must be due to water- insects, or their larve. We may easily convince ourselves of the possibility of the preservation of footprints, or the trails of the bodies of larve, by the mspection of a pool of water which has stood a few days after a shower of rain. These pools, while drying, will leave frequently a smooth, glossy surface of indurated clay or mud, which will be marked by innumerable tortuous lines of different patterns, according to the character of the body and feet possessed by the animal which has travelled over this smooth impressible surface. “ As these recent trails are instructive as well as useful in explaining ancient pheno- mena of a similar kind, I propose to illus- trate their characters by the annexed figures of some of the more common form of trails which may be seen by the margins of drying pools of water during the summer season. Fig. 105 (fig. 3) is a copy of the imprints made by the larve of two different species of dipterous insects. It is, however, only of the larger that I can speak with cer- tainty ; for I have found in this trail, or by it, the dead larva. The darker spots which terminate the finer trail mark the places where is sei entered the mud. Frequently 1e larger trail terminates in a hole in ees a) the mud also. Fig. 106 (fig. 4:) is copied Oe from another pattern, having lateral | (SS fringes. This resembles very closely the imprints which haye been referred to Ne- reites. Upon this surface, also, the im- pressions of rain-drops are perfectly pre- |s served. _ “An equally interesting kind of trail is exhibited in the margin (fig. 107), which was probably made by a water- insect, or one having legs (fig. 5). The first (fig. 165) were made by Fig. 3 (105, Emmons). Fig. 4 (106, Emmons). JONES —TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 133 an apodous larva. This imprint (fig. 107) was made upon an impressible surface, but sufficiently indurated to preserve the form and character of the trail. This trail, however, is gradually changed into one having the form ex- hibited in fig. 108 (fig.6). This fact is important, and should be remembered. The change in this instance is due to the change in the consistence of the mud itself. In the last figure it is copied Hie yO Mie b amos) from that part of the trail which was made when the water still stood over it,and whea it was so liquid as to flow and fill up, in part, the imprint. The two patterns are so different that, if they were apart, they would very naturally be attributed to two quite different animals. “Tmprints upon the Taconic slates in Maine and New York do not dif- fer materially from the foregoing. So, also, those upon shales belong- ing to the Ontario division, near Utica, which I was the first to point out, and which are figured in Mr. Hall’s second volume of Palonto- logy,* appear to have been made by water-insects ; at least, they do not Risa seo differ very much, in character and Big soe 0 uamen. form, from many which we may find in drying pools after our summer showers. “ Fig. 108 is not very unlike a figure which J gave several years ago in ny ‘ Report of the Geology of New York,’ and which were made upon the green slates belonging to the Taconic system in Maine, and slates, too, which are among the oldest sediments in the world. “Tf the foregoing remarks and observations are true, it proves that the soft fragile larve of insects existed in the earliest periods, or at the time when the oldest sediments were deposited.” Going on to speak of the fossil tracks and trails in the Connecticut sandstones at Turner’s Falls, Professor Emmons expresses a belief that the tracked surfaces formed a border around and outside the main body of the sediment, and were due to the overflow of rivers and ponds after heavy rain-falls. ‘‘ This view of the subject,” he says, “is sustained by what takes place in every great freshet in the rivers of the Southern States. Here the large rivers and their tributaries, such as the Oronoko, Dan, and Cape Fear, overflow their banks, and spread over the meadows or low ground, upon which a sediment two or three inches thick is thrown down. The river, on subsiding, leaves the deposit to dry gradually; and, in the meantime, it will be tracked by insects, worms, frogs, lizards, rats, and birds, all of which will * “Palont. New York State,’ vol. ii. pl. 18, fig. 2: similar to those figured in Em- mons’s ‘ Agricult. New York,’ vol. i. pl. 15, fig. 3, and pl. 16, fig. 3. 134 THE GEOLOGIST. leave their peculiar imprints. While the mud is drying, it separates and produces what are termed sun-cracks, which are always present in the layer which has preserved foot-marks in the sandstones of the Connecticut Valley.” That the footprints and rain-marks of the Connecticut sandstone might have been made on the banks of a river or estuary, Sir C. Lyell has shown in his ‘ Travels in North America,’ vol. i. p. 254, and vol. 11. p- 168; ‘ Principles of Geology,’ 9th edit., p. 203; ‘Anniv. Address to the Geol. Society, 1851 ;’ ‘ Manual of Geology,’ 5th edit., pp. 348, 384; and ‘ Notices of the Royal Institution,’ vol.i.p.57. Dr. James Deane* (who first drew the attention of naturalists to these fossils) aud Prof. Hitchcock,t in America, have explained and illustrated these vestigial phenomena with great labour and skill. In Britain we have a plentiful supply of equally obscure phenomena in the Arenicolites, Scolites, Helminthites, and Vermiculites of the Silurian, Carboniferous, and other rocks, and in the foot-tracks in the Millstone-grit of Tintwistle, in the Coal-measures of Dalkeith and the Forest of Deane, in the Permian sandstones of Corneockle Muir, Dumfriesshire, and other places, in the New Red Sandstone of An- nandale, in the New Red deposits of Cheshire and Warwickshire, in manifold markings on the Forest-marble, and in the great trifid foot- marks and other prints in the Wealden of Sussex. That these great trifid footprints, the casts of which were found by Mr. EH. Tag- gartt and Mr. Beckles,§ and carefully described by the latter, should prove to have been made by the three-toed Iguanodon is not unlikely, Fig. 7. * “Boston Journ. Natural History Soc.,’ vol. v. p. 282. ‘Mem. Americ. Acad. Arts and Sc.,’ new series, vol. iv. p. 209 (9 plates). ‘Journ. Acad. Nat. Scienc., Philadel- phia,’ 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 71; vol. iii. p. 173.‘ Silliman’s Journal,’ vol. xlv. p. 178; vol. xlvi. p. 73; xvii. p. 292; xlvili. p. 158; xlix. p. 213; new series, vol. iii. p. 75 ; ¥ D. a “Ichnographs from the Sandstone of Connecticut River,’ 1861, Boston (46 plates.) | 7; “Memoirs American Academy,’ new series, vol. iil. p- 129. ‘Boston Journ. Nat. Bist. Soe.,? vol. viltp. D1. Elementary Geology,’ new edit., 1860, p. 181. ‘ Report on the Geology of Massachusetts,’ p. 477, ete. ‘Geology of the Globe,’ p- 98. * Silli- man’s Journal,’ vol. i. p. 105; vi. pp. 1, 201; vii. p- 1; xxix. p- 807; xxxi. p. 174; xxx. p. 174; xlvil. p. 292; 2nd series, iv. p. 46. t Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. ii. p- 267. § Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. vii. p. 117; viii. p- 396; and x. p. 456, pl. 19. PLATE VII. SLAB from the UPPER ‘arm, near Ci rtion of the Underside of a HASTINGS JONES—TRAILS, TRACKS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 135 though they may have been due to birds. I may mention, that a friend in India (Mr. R. N. Mantell, since deceased) described to me in a letter, some large, broad, trifid markings that he saw on the sand- banks of the Ganges; they were of this shape (fig. 7), shallow, and with a well-definededge. Tracing the track to where the sand was wet, he found them take the un- mistakeable and unpretending shape of ordinary bird-tracks (fig. 8); “the sole and sufficient rea- son,” said he, “of their gross ex- aggeration was the action of the Mig. 8. wind on the fine dry sand.” Trying prints of his own hand, he saw them slowly become augmented into broad caricatures of a hand-print by the same natural process. On the figured slab of Wealden rock, from the Upper Hastings Series, near Cuckfield, Sussex (Pl. VII.), we have sun-cracks, raised gallery-markings, and many obscure trails, some corrugated, some smooth. It is possible that, as a friend has suggested to me, some of these may be the marks of roots of aquatic plants; but there is no direct evidence on the subject: Root-like markings, however, small, vertical, and numerous, occur abundantly in the Hastings sand-rock, as pointed out to me by my friend Mr. J. Morris (see fig. 9). During the autumn of the same year as that in which I collected the recent trail-marked mud in the Isle of Wight, I was in the Weald of Kent, and, examining a brick-field, I saw a pond lessened b drought, and on its mud were prints of a dog’s feet, small hollow trails, and convex galleries, such as those before noticed (fig. 10). The roofs of some of these last were so thin they were split, and in some cases removed. Besides the markings above mentioned, the dry- ing clay had another interesting feature, namely, a partial coating of minute globular bodies (fig. 10 a), mostly lying closely packed in single layer, but sometimes crowded irregularly, and occasionally scattered about loosely. These are of the same colour as the clay, and are probably the ova of the Boat-fly (Wotonecta), thinly coated with clay ; and their interest hes in the fact that in Mexico allied insects are known to lay a profusion of large ova in the Lake of Tezcuco, and that there they become petrified into an oolite. The fact has been described by M. Virlet d’Aoust, in the ‘ Bulletin de la Soe. Géol. de France,’ 2e Sér., vol. xv. p. 200, etc., 1858, who, noticing the oolitic structure of the recent limestone on the margin of the salt-water lake of Tezcuco, near Mexico,* learnt from Mr. J. C. Bowring, the manager of the salt-works there, that the oolitic granules were nothing more than the eges of certain insects, encrusted and cemented toge- ther by the calcareous sediment of the lake. The eggs, too, being atiached by little stalks or pedicels, are the more readily coated with the lime all over, and keep their relative position the more firmly. * See the memoir for some interesting information on the relationships of the great freshwater and salt lakes of the Mexican plateau ; also, HE. B. Tylor’s ‘ Anahuae,’ 1859. 136 THE GEOLOGIST, These ova are deposited, according to M. Guérin-Méneville, by Hemipterous (Noto- nectid) insects; the most abundant being the Corixa femorata ; the other (which lays the larger eggs) being the Notonecta untfasciata. They are said to fly about the water in my- riads, and occasionally plunge below the sur- face to the depth of several feet, there de- positing the eggs. The Indians collect the egos, by placing bundles of reeds in the water, which in twelve or fifteen days get covered with millions of ova ; these they dry for an hour or two, and remove from the rushes, and sell as an article of food.* M. Virlet d’Aoust remarks that probably an analogous origin of oolite has existed in all geological epochs; and he points out — some of the conditions of certain oolites that favour this view,—indeed, he seems to think that nearly, if not quite, all oolites, calcareous and ferruginous, have been formed in this way. The oolitic travertine of Tezcuco is also described by Mr. E. B. Tylor, in the inte- resting narrative of his travels in Mexico, entitled ‘Anahuac; or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern,’ 1859, al- ready reviewed in the ‘ Geologist.’ At page 156, he says :— “When I look through my notes about Tezcuco, I do not find much more to men- tion, except that a favourite dish here con- sists of flies’ eggs fried. These eggs are de- posited at the edge of the lake, and the In- dians fish them out and sell them in the market-place. So large is the quantity of these eggs, that at a spot where a little stream deposits carbonate of lime, a pecu- liar kind of travertine is forming, which consists of masses of them imbedded in the calcareous deposit. The flies which pro- duce these eggs are called by the Mexicans ‘axayacatl,’ or ‘water-face.’ There was a eclebrated Aztee king who was called Axayac dicated in the pieture-writings by a drawing Q ig. 9.—Piece of white Hastings Sand, from the East Cliff, Has- tings, showing long linear ver- tical holes (4, c), in section ; a surface. (Nat. size.) atl; and his name is in- of a man’s face covered ¥ reve WD ro : eget : ‘ M. Virlet d Aoust gives much interesting information about this substance (termed Haoutl), in the culinary and antiquarian points of view. See also a notice by M. Guérin- Meneville, translated in the ‘ Annals of Nat. Hist.,’ ser. 3 + See also, ‘Geologist,’ Vol. IT. p- 738. , Vol. ii. p. 313. JONES—TRACKS, TRAILS, AND SURFACE-MARKINGS. 137 The eggs themselves are sold in cakes in the market, pounded and cooked, and also in lumps aw naturel, forming a sub- with water. a ZY | ae - ha fafe* Fig. 10.—A piece of the dried clay bed of a pond in Kent. a, a, ova of boat-flies (?) ; b, 6', 5", galleries, with raised roofs, made by water-insects ; c, c, furrow, made by a water-insect, crossing the footprint (z) at d@; at e the furrow enters a gallery, of which the roof has been broken; at fit becomes a tunnel or gallery, with convex roof, such as seen also at 4, 6; g,g, small galleries; h, h, furrows; 7, 2, holes; /%, &, shell of a Limneus ; m, m, a furrow-track. stance like the roe ofa fish. This is known by the characteristic name of ‘ alhuauhtl,’ that is, ‘ water-wheat.’ ”’ The occurrence of the eggs of insects in the Mexican travertine, VOL. V. T 138 THE GEOLOGIST. to which they add a by no means inconsiderable bulk, certainly sup- port, to some extent, M. Virlet d’Aoust’s hypothesis of the origin of organically formed oolite by means of ova, if not always due to insects’ eggs; and the entanglement of similar eggs in the clay of ponds also shows how insects may have exercised an agency, however slight, in the formation of some other stratified deposits. If to these evidences of insectal agencies, we add the probable fact, that the surfaces of many shales of various geological ages bear the trails of insects, as intimated above, pages 129 and 131, we have stronger proofs than we had heretofore of the wide-spread and long-continued existence of Insects in past ages of the world. : To get better and clearer notions, we want more carefully observed and recorded facts than we have hitherto had at command. Let us get good observations on the crawhng and burrowing creatures of the sea-shore and pool-sides, of sand- and mud-banks, and alluvial flats; let us get good dried specimens or good drawings for compa- rison ; and let us carefully collect and collate fossil surface-markinegs, noting what are real surfaces and what are casts on the lower sides of the lamine and strata, and we shall then be doing good work towards the elucidation of Zchnolites of all descriptions. Before concluding, I must offer an observation on the Climactich- nites Wilson, Logan,—a gigantic trail-like tract found in the Pots- dam Sandstone of Canada, and described and figured by Sir W. E. Logan, in the ‘ Canadian Naturalist and Geologist,’ 1860, vol. v. p.- 279, etc. In this paper, Sir Wilham lucidly deseribes the probably littoral condition of the Potsdam Sandstone, extending for many miles along the old Laurentine Hills, and its evidences of tidal phe- nomena. The Climactichnites is associated at Perth,in Canada, with the Protichnites, tracks found also in other parts of the Potsdam Sandstone of Canada, and described by Logan and Owen in 1852, in the Geological Society’s Journal, vol. xiii. p. 199, etc., plates 6-l4a. Of the Canadian Protichnites, there are six different kinds or species, according to Prof. Owen; they are all of large size, from about three to ten inches broad, and are referred to Crustaceans, possibly of the Jimuloid type, that have crawled over the surface of the sand.* Protichnites of smaller size have been found in the Silurian rocks of Scotland, at Binks, Roxburghshire, by Prof. R. Harkness (‘ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,’ vol. xii. p. 248, fig. 2); and another, from the Coal-measures of South Wales, has been figured and described by Mr. Salter, in the ‘ Memoirs of the Geol. Survey, ete.: Iron-ores of South Wales, 1861, p. 227, pl. 2, fig. 24. The Climactichnites is described as a trail about 62 inches broad; and it is not dissimilar, in its transverse bars, to fig. le of Mr. A. Hancock's plate (XTYV., see above, p. 181), illustrative of the natural gallery-track of the little sea-shore crustacean, Sulcator arenarius. I would suggest that the Climactichnital tracks were really infallen gallery-tracks, formed, like those of the Sulcator, by burrowing Crus- Simple narrow coneave trails, also, are not wanting in the Potsdam Sandstone of Beauharnois, Canada, PLATE VIII. WA a1 aa (All / t Gy ihe Wo 4, bo NA eat 4 egal if WN l A) Ne Wing ig ie nH a PP amt fy vl h in { Ril: my if “9 ae Hi Uf wy, A Bai - A i = hy. es gs var y RSS Mm HARE be) 4 i REN = } oan LAK anit CUS i” Sj! “GF is = =& ) oe "4 Lea a wt Aa THB ‘CHEESE GROTTO” OF ‘THR BIFEL, (From a Sketch by J. kK. Lee, F.G.S., of Caerleon. ] 8, J. Mackie, F.G.S., del. THE CHEESE-GROTTO IN THE EIFEL. 139 taceans, possibly some of the same animals as those that left the Protichnital trail-markings on the surfaces of the sandstone. The Climactichnites is also analogous, in respect to its transverse bars, to the Crassopodia Hmbletoni, Tate (‘ Geologist,’ vol. ii. p. 66, pl. 2, fig. 2; and ‘ Berwickshire Nat. Field-club Transact.,’ vol. iv. p- 104, pl. 1, fig. 2), which, according to Mr. A. Hancock’s views (Joc. cit., p. 456), would be an infallen gallery, probably made by a Trilobite belonging either to the genus Phillipsia or Griffithides. Trilobites, and those of large size, are present in some of the older paleozoic rocks of North America, not far from the geological horizon of the Potsdam Sandstone; and, although they do not appear to have been preserved in this littoral sandstone, yet there is the possibility of their having frequented the shallow waters of that old sea, just as the Trilobites of the Carboniferous period probably furrowed the Lower Carboniferous sands without being preserved therein. If, however, Limuloid animals made the trails above mentioned, we must remember that,according to Mr. W. H. Baily,* the so-called “ Limuli” of the Coal-period, or more properly the Bellinuri, are more closely allied to the Trilobite than to the Zamulus, having well-defined tho- racic segments ; and therefore probably true Limuli had nothing to do with the production of any of the Protichnital trails. Trilobital, Bellinucal, Amphipodal and other Crustaceans, with sea-worms and molluses, may have made most of the trails, runs, or tracks that we have to do with in the Paleozoic rocks, and even insects may have aided in some instances, as intimated by Mr. Emmons,—but we want much more information in nearly all cases. Nor are we better off as regards our knowledge of similar markings in the Secondary and Tertiary strata. It is hoped that the foregomg notes may suggest further research in the rignt direction. THE CHEESH-GROTTO OF BERTRICH-BADEN, IN THE EIFEL. The mountainous district known as the Eifel, or Hifel-Gebirge, in Rhenish- Prussia, is, as all geologists know, famous for the numerous well-preserved craters of extinct voleanos and for the lava-streams, scorie, trachyte, and basalt connected therewith. The English reader will find a short account of the tertiary and volcanic rocks of the Hifel in Lyell’s ‘Manual of Geology,’ chapter Xxxi.; and a good geological map of the Hifel and neighbouring dis- tricts is appended to a paper, by Sedgwick and Murchison, on the Rhenish Provinces, in the Transactions of the Geological Society, 2nd series, vol. vi. part 2. In the Eifel there are two extensive areas, in which volcanic activity has been especially intense. One of * Journal Geol. Soc. Dublin, vol. viii. p. 89; and ‘Explanation of Sheet 137, Geol. Surv. Map Ireland,’ p. 18, figs. 3 and 4. . 140 THE GEOLOGIST. these of irregular outline is crossed by the Rhine at Andernach. Its western and more important part is about three miles long and two broad. The Laacher See is well known as a lake occupying an old crater in this part of the country, not far from Andernach. This dis- trict was described and illustrated by Dr. 8. Hibbert, in 1853, in his ‘History of the Extinct Volcanos of the Basin of Neuwied,’ ete. The other district, characterized by volcanic rocks and craters dis- persed over an area of about four miles by three, is at a short dis- tance to the south-west, and contains several large lake-craters, such as the Gemunder Maar, the Pulver Maar, the Meerfelder Maar, ete. One of the old lava-streams in this area is met with at Bertrich, on the Ees, a small river running into the Moselle half-way between Treves and Coblentz. Consisting of columnar basalt, and being per- forated by a natural aperture, this mass of voleanic rock presents the aspect of a basaltic colonnade, and has always attracted the attention of travellers, especially as the joints of the basalt, instead of taking a regular polygonal or angular shape, are more or less spheroidal, “so that a pillar is made up of a pile of balls, usually flattened ;’’* hence the grotto at Bertrich is called the Kasegrotte, or Cheese-cave. “The basalt is part of a lava-stream, from thirty to forty feet thick, which has proceeded from one of several volcanic craters still extant on the neighbouring hills; and, having run in the valley, it has since been partially destroyed and excavated by long-continued water- action. Mr. J. E. Lee has favoured us with a pencil sketch of this interesting Cheese-grotto, from which Plate VIII. has been engraved ; and, although the grotto is well known to geological students by the woodeut in Sir C. Lyell’s ‘ Manual,’ p. 386, yet we think that as the subglobular character of the basalt is very much better shown by our correspondent’s sketch than in the little woodcut alluded to, we shall be doing good service by producing it here. In connection with the Cheese-grotto, Sir Charles alludes to the occurrence and characters of globular lavas and trap-rocks, adducing particularly the globiform pitchstone of Chiaja di Luna, described and figured by Mr. Poulett Scrope, in his account of the Ponza Isles (Geol. Trans., 2nd ser. vol. 11.). This pitchstone has the globiform structure near its junction with prismatic trachyte; and itself shows a ten- dency to the columnar division; the columns, however, separating into large globes or ellipsoids, placed one upon another, and, when weathered, readily desquamating at a touch into numerous concentric coats, having a kind of onion-peel structure. Different degrees of the prismatic or columnar condition, passing into the concentric and nodular, are observable in many basaltic and trachytic lavas, as well as in older trap-rocks (diorites, etc.); and indeed granite not unfre- quently shows a tendency to split and exfoliate in a similar manner. The explanation of the columnar and nuclear structure is well given on Mr. P. Scrope’s ‘ Considerations on Volcanos,’ etc., 1825 (an admirable work, now out of print, but about to be revived, we hope). In chapter 6, p. 184, etc., the divisionary structure assumed * Lyell’s Manual Geol. p. 387. | + Ibid. CORRESPONDENCE. 141 by lava in its consolidation is fully discussed. In a lava when cool- ing there are centres of attraction more or less affecting all the crys- talline particles; and in a uniform mass cooling throughout alike, these centres would be equidistant and tie contractile force equal. “ Tn this case all the spheres of attraction would be equally similar in size and form, and would arrange themselves as closely as possible, that is, in the manner of the cells in a honeycomb, or as the circles in the figure below. “The fissures of retreat produced by the contractile force of all the spheres, acting contemporaneously, must evidently therefore divide the consolidated layer into hexagons, each straight fissure being tan- gential to the opposite spheres of attraction between which it is formed.” CORRESPONDENCE. On the Compositicn of a peculiar Substance from the Wallabies’ [Holes, River Murray. Str,—In a recent number of ‘The Geologist’ (February, 1862) ap- peared the description and a sketch of a Tertiary limestone on the River Murray, in Australia. In this limestone are a series of holes or warrens, inhabited by hosts of wallabies, kangaroo-rats, etc., and from these cavities there exudes a peculiar dark brown, sticky, odoriferous matter, in considerable quantities. This substance has been handed to me by Mr. Rupert Jones, F.G.S., for chemical examination. The result of my analysis is as follows :— Bitumen and petroleum, with débris of mosses ., pees ACPI NW INIT TICs eactan acieiia «nfo wie fsa colores Sepesbee > siaist agaist 22°49 Phosphate of alumina, with a little oxide of iron and phosphate of lime 6°42 Carbonate of lime 142 THE GEOLOGIST. No uric acid, nor any other organic matter besides those named, is present. When treated with soda a slight trace of ammonia is evolved, which comes probably from the remains of mosses. The latter, whose weight may amount to about 4 or 5 per cent. of the whole, are in so per- fect a state of preservation that the teeth of the seed-caps and indenta- tions of the leaves, as well as the internal tissue of the same, are most dis- tinctly seen under the microscope. The bitumen belongs to the species known to mineralogists as Malthe. Tt dissolves in alcohol and in caustic soda, but is insoluble in water. When the whole mass is submitted to heat it swells and gives out much smoke, which has rather an agreeable odour. It is impregnated with a small quantity of petroleum, which causes it to stain paper like oil. The mineral matter, which amounts to nearly 60 per cent., is cemented together by the bitumen. It will be seen by what precedes that this peculiar substance is made up of natural hydrocarbons, which have cemented together a certain amount of mineral matter. It has nothing to do with the animals which infest the warrens, except perhaps that by boring into the rock they have given it a means of exit. Yours, etc., T. L. Puiprson. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL. SOCIETIES. Geotocicat Socrety oF Lonpon.—February 21.—Annual General Meeting.—Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S., in the chair. The Secretary read the Reports of the Council, of the Museum and Library Committee, and of the Auditors. The Society was shown to be in a satisfactory state, as to finances and the number of Fellows. The Wollaston Gold Medal was awarded to Mr. Robert A. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., F.G.S8., for his long- continued and valuable researches in Geology, particularly into the ancient geographical and hydrographical conditions of the Western European area in the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic periods ; and also for his acute and judicious elaboration of the theory of the presence of Carboniferous rocks at a moderate depth beneath the south-east of England. The Wol- Jaston Donation-fund was given to Professor Oswald Heer, of Zurich, in recognition of his valuable labours in the elucidation of the Fossil Plants and Insects of the Tertiary strata of Switzerland and Croatia, and espe- cially of the Fossil Flora of Bovey-Tracey, in Devonshire. The Chairman next, having read a letter from the President, regretting his unavoidable absence in Italy, expressed his sense of the great services rendered to the Society since its foundation by Mr. Leonard Horner. He then proceeded to read an obituary notice of the late Dr. Fitton. Mr. W. W. Smyth, secretary, read obituary notices of the late Rev. J. S. Henslow, Mr. J. MacAdam, Mr. Eaton Hodgkinson, Sir C. Fellows, Prof. Necker, and others. Finally, Prof. Huxley, secretary, read an Address, the prin- cipal objects of which were—to urge upon Geologists and Palzontologists the necessity of reconsidering the logical basis of several of their most ge- nerally accepted conceptions, such as the doctrine of Geological Contem- poraneity, and the assumption that the fossiliferous rocks are coeval with the existence of life on the earth,—and to test the ordinary hypotheses of the progressive modification of living forms in time by positive evidence. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 143 The Officers elected for the ensuing year are:— President: Prof. A. C. Ramsay. Vice-Presidents: Sir P.de M.G. Egerton ; Sir Charles Lyell; John Carrick Moore, Esq.; Prof. John Morris. Secretaries: Prof.'T. H. Huxley ; Warington W. Smyth, Esq. Foreign Secretary: W. J. Ha- miiton, Esq. Treasurer: Joseph Prestwich, Esq. Council: John J. Bigsby, M.D.; Sir Charles Bunbury ; Robert Chambers, Esq.; Sir P. de M. G. Egerton ; Earl of Inniskiillen; Hugh Falconer, M.D.; W. J. Ha- milton, Esq.; Leonard Horner, Esq.; Prof. T. H. Huxley; John Lub- bock, Esq.; Sir Charles Lyell; John Carrick Moore, Esq.; Edward Meryon, M.D.; Prof. John Morris; Sir R. I. Murchison; Robert W. MylIne, Esq.; Joseph Prestwich, Esq.; Prof. A.C. Ramsay; G. P. Scrope, Ksq.; Warington W. Smyth, Esq.; Alfred Tylor, Esq.; Rev. Thomas Wiltshire ; 8S. P. Woodward, Esq. February 26, 1862.—Prof. Ramsay, President, in the chair. Special General Meeting.—It was resolved that the annual contribu- tion to be paid by both Resident and Non-Resident Fellows elected after the 1st of March next shall be two pounds two shillings per annum; the composition for future annual contributions being twenty-one pounds. Ordinary Meeting.—The following communications were read :— 1. “On the Drift containing Arctic Shells in the neighbourhood of Wol- verhampton.” By the Rev. W. Lister, F.G.S. In the parish of Bushbury, at the junction of the London and North-Western, the West Midland, and the Stour-Valley Railways, is a gravel, with clay, sand, and pebbles, rolled Liassic fossils, flints, pieces of coal and of wood, and more or less fragmen- tary shells of the following species (as determined by J. G. Jeffreys, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.5.):—Astarte arctica, Cardiwm echinatum, C. edule, Cyprina Islandica, Modiola modiolus, Tapes virginea, Tellina solidula, Venus striatula, Litorina squalida, Nassa reticulata, Purpura lapillus, and Tur- ritella communis. 'Vhe Astarte and the Litorina are not now found living in our seas. Similar fossil shells have been also found by the author at Oxley Manor, half a mile to the N.W.; by Mr. G. E. Roberts at Acleton, eight miles to the S.W.; and by Mr. Beckett elsewhere. Liassic fossils have also been found in the gravel at Compton Holloway and at Wight- wick (both in the parish of Tettenhall), and at Wolverhamptcen. 2. “Ona Split Boulder in Little Cumbra, Western Isles.” By James Smith, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. The islands of Great and Little Cumbra have (like the west coast of Scotland) a cliff and terrace, indicating an ele- vation of about 40 feet above the present level of the sea, and the removal of at least 100 feet of rock (sandstone and trap); the sea at its present level having worn away the rock to the extent of only a small fraction of an inch. The terrace on the Little Cumbra has been moreover ground down and scratched by ice-action, the strie passing unobliterated under the present sea; avd on the terrace lies a split boulder, such as are known to fall from glaciers, and which the author thinks must also in this case have fallen from an escarpment of ice. 3. “On the Ice-worn Rocks of Scotland.” By T. F. Jamieson, F.G.S. The author, first referring to the eroded surface of the rocks beneath the Drift-beds in Scotland, proceeded to show that the action of ice, and not that of torrents, could produce such markings, as he had observed in the -bed of a mountain-stream in Argyllsmre, down which had poured the tor- rent caused by the bursting of the reservoirs of the Crinan Canal. He then advanced reasons for considering that the erosion of the rocks in Scotland was due chiefly to land-ice and not to water-borne ice, bringing forward remarkable instances of ice-action on the glens and on the hill-sides at Loch Treig and Glen Spean, where moraines, blocs perchés, strie, roches 144 THE GEOLOGIST. moutonnées, and boulders lifted above the parent-rocks indicate a northern direction for the great ice-stream from Loch Treig to the Spean, and then an eastern course on one hand up Loch Laggan, and a western, on the other, down the Spean. Up Glen Roy the ice had apparently passed north-eastwardly, over the watershed towards the Spey. In Knapdale, Argyllshire, similar evidence is obtained of a great ice-stream passing over hill and dale; here falling into the Sound of Jura. The author referred to Rink’s and Sutherland’s observations on the continental ice of Green- land as affording a probable solution of these phenomena c and, objecting to the hypothesis either of floating ice and of debacles being sufficient to account for the conditions observed, he thought that land-ice, moving from central plateaux downwards and outwards, has effected the extensive ero- sions referred to, both in Scotland and other northern regions, at a time when the land was at a much higher level than at present. This must have been followed by a deep submergence, to account for the stratified and shell-bearing drift-beds. March 5.—“ On the Glacial Origin of certain Lakes in Switzerland, Scotland, Sweden, and North America.” By A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S., Pre- sident of the Geological Society. The author first stated that in this me- moir he proposed to extend his theory of the glacier-origin of the smaller mountain-lakes of Wales and Switzerland (published in ‘ The Old Glaciers of North Wales’) to those greater lakes of Switzerland, which, tke the tarns above alluded to, lie in true rock-basins. Hethen explained a map, compiled from those of Charpentier, Morlot, and Mortillet, showing the ancient extension of the great Alpine glaciers across the Lowlands of Switzerland to the Jura, also over the area that surrounds the Lake of Constance, and on the South into the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. All the great lakes of Switzerland, and the lakes of Como, Lugano, and Maggiore, lie directly in the course of one or other of these great glaciers ; and, as shown by the soundings, and the levels of the rocks at their mouths or in the river-beds below, each of these lakes, like the smaller tarns of the Todten Sea and the lake at the Grimsel, was shown to lie in a true rock- basin. He then considered the question of the denudation of the Alpine and Miocene areas of Switzerland, and showed that none of the lakes lie in aboriginal undenuded synclinal hollows. Next, that they do not lie in areas of mere watery erosion. Neither running water nor the still water of lakes can scoop large hollow basins like those of the lakes, bounded on all sides by rocks. Running water may fill them up, but cannot excavate them. He next contended that they do not lie in lines of gaping fracture. A glance shows this with respect to such lakes as those of Geneva, Neu- chatel, and Constance; and, reasoning on the nature of the contortion of the strata of the Alps, he contended that, though fractures of the rocks must be common, they need not be gaping fractures. To produce such a mountain-chain, the strata are not wpheaved and stretched so as to produce open cracks ; on the contrary they are compressed laterally and crumpled up into smaller space, and the uppermost strata, that pressed heavily on the crumpled rocks now visible, would prevent the formation of wide open fractures below, these upper strata, as in North Wales, having, over a great part of the area, been mostly or altogether removed by denudation. Next, lakes of the rock-basin kind do not lie each in an area of special sub- sidence. If so, for instance, we should require one for the Todten See, one for the Grimsel, one for the ancient lake of the Kirchet, several at the foot of the Siedelhorn, many hundreds close together in Sutherlandshire, and thousands in North America. ; If then the lake-basins were formed by none of the above-named causes, FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 145 the only other agent that has affected the country on a great scale is gla- cier ice. All the lakes lie directly in the courses of the ancient glaciers. The basin of the Lake of Geneva is 950 French feet deep near its eastern end, and was scooped out by the great glacier of the Rhone, the ice of which, from data supplied by Charpentier, was, as it issued from the valley, 3,550 feet thick to the bottom of the lake. This great weight of ice ground out the hollow of the lake, which gradually shallows towards Geneva, where the glacier thinned and the grinding power was lessened. Where the same glacier abutted on the Jura, the ice-current was arrested, and it flowed to the N.E. and S.W.; and where the ice was thickest and heaviest above the Lake of Neuchatel, it ground out the hollow in which the lake hes. The lakes of Thun and Brienz lie in the course of the great Aar glacier, those of Zug and the Four Cantons in that of Altorf, the Lake of Zurich lies in that of the Linth, the Lake of Constance in the course of the pro- digious glacier of the Rhine Valleys, the numerous little rock-basin lakes near Ivrea in the line of the glacier of the Val d’Aosta, and those of Mag- giore, Lugano, and Como, in the courses of the two gigantic glacier-areas that drained the mountains between Monte Rosa and the Sondrio. The sizes of the lakes and their depths were then shown to be, in several cases, proportional to the magnitude of the glaciers that ground out the basins in which they lie, and the circumstance as to whether the pressure of ice was broadly diffused, or vertical as in narrow valleys. Finally, it was shown that rock-basins holding lakes are always exceed- ingly numerous in and characteristic of all countries that have been exten- sively glaciated. Lakes are comparatively few in the southern half of North America, but immediately south and north of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence, the whole country is moutonnée and striated, and is also covered with a prodigious number of rock-basins holding water. The same is the case in the North of Scotland, the whole area of which has been moulded by ice ; and east of the Scandinavian chain, in another intensely glaciated region, the country is covered by innumerable lakes. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. M. Melleville, the Vice-President of the Société Académique of Laon, has published an account in the ‘ Revue Archéologique’ of an object of human workmanship found in the lignites of that neighbourhood. Starting on the basis that man was contemporaneous with the great earnivora and herbivora, and that objects of his workmanship are found with their bones, he goes on to make out that the beds containing them differ from the diluvium as much in the materials of which they are formed as in the fossils they contain, and that they are more ancient than it as they are everywhere covered by it. Those deposits belong to that geolo- gical age, which immediately preceded the present era; whilst it is ad- mitted that the diluvium marks the commencement of the recent or his- toric period. The ultimate consequence he deduces from the published observations on this subject is, that there are two stone-ages—the first ante-historic, corresponding to the epoch of the formation of the lacustrine beds of the Somme, and characterized by large implements entirely cf flints chipped but never ground; the other by far more finished and vari- ous products, indicating a more advanced art and established relations OE. W. U 146 THE GEOLOGIST. between the different tribes which at that period inhabited France. These premises he merely puts forward, reserving for a future occasion the dis- cussion which alone can establish their correctness. What he desires to do now is to show that the field of discovery as to the antiquity of the human race is at least open, and that this question, already so wide from the little we as yet know, seems likely to be spread still wider by such dis- coveries as that of which he gives the details. An object “ incontestably fashioned by the hand of man” has been found at a depth of 75 métres from the soil, in a perfectly virgin bed of the lig- nites or “cendres noires’”’ at Laon, the geological age of which goes back, as is known, to the earliest times of the Paris basin deposits. Not but that objects of modern production have been found in these very beds, and he cites particularly a flint ‘“ hache,” which was found fourteen years since at 25 feet under ground, in the middle even of the lignites quarried near the village of Lille, canton of Fere, department of Aisne. But these facts, besides being so rare, are capable, in general, of being explained by accidental causes of entombment, the lignites of the Laonnois and of the Soissonois lying ordinarily at the surface or only being covered by foreign deposits of no great thickness. This is not the case with the ash-bed of Montaigu, near Laon, whence the object in question comes. “ The ex- ceptional conditions of the bedding where it was found is precisely that which gives to this discovery a special interest, and perhaps a considerable value; and it is thus necessary to give here a slightly detailed description, and to make known the method of quarrying.” “‘The lignites worked for agricultural purposes near the village of Montaigu, four leagues north-east of Laon, occupy the foot of a Tertiary hill, constituted at its base of clays, amongst which these lignites are intercalated ; in the middle, of thick masses of sand, enclosing some beds of shells; and at the summit by newer clays superposed on thick beds of hard rock—the Calcaire grossier of geologists, which form the crown of the hill. The ‘ash-bed’ is quarried by means of subterranean galleries, which extend in different directions under the hill—the principal one be- ing driven into the centre of it for a considerable distance, its extremity not being less than 600 metres from the point where it opens on the valley. ‘This bed is about 2°30 métres thick, and is covered by another bed of marly and sandy clay, full of fossil shells peculiar to that age—Cyrena cuneiformis, Ostrea bellovacina, ete., and which serves for the roof or ceiling of the quarry. This roof is sustained by means of wooden shores placed under and across as the gallery extends; the head only of the gal- lery being left free for the work of extraction. The ‘ash-bed,’ atiacked at the foot, falls down into the space called the ‘chamber,’ detaching itself cleanly from the roof alluded to; and then the ‘ ashes’ are put into small waggons running on an iron tramway. These ‘waggons’ in their turn are pushed by men out of the quarry, and the ‘ash’ is discharged and made into a heap for burning before being sold for agriculture. In the month of August last year (1861) the workmen employed at the end of the prin- cipal gallery, in throwing down a block of ‘ashes,’ observed with sur- prise an object detach itself and roll to some distance. Struck with this incident, such as had never before happened to them, they hastened to search for it, and found a ball of moderate dimensions. But their astonish- ment was increased when on examining it they thought they recognized it as the work of man’s hand. They looked then to see exactly what place in strata it had occupied, and they are able to state that it did not come from the interior of the ‘ash,’ but that it was imbedded at its point of contact with the roof of the quarry, where it had left its impression indented. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 147 Better judging than many other workmen who daily make similar dis- coveries without informing any one of them, these of Montaigu at once carried the object found to Dr. Lejeune, the proprietor of the ‘ash’ quarry, whose house was close by. It could not have fallen into better hands. At the first glance M. Lejeune saw that the ball was really of human workmanship, and he in his turn hastened to inform me of the cir- cumstances of the discovery, no similar occurrence to which, as I have said, has happened within the memory of the workmen. However, long before this discovery, the workmen of the quarry had told me they had many times found pieces of wood changed into stone (the wood which is found in the lignites is nearly always, as we know, transformed into silex) bearing the marks of human work. I regret greatly now not having asked to see these, but I did not hitherto believe in the possibility of such a fact. “T ought to add that no suspicion of deception can be entertained. The workmen who found the ball had never heard of M. Boucher de Perthes and his discoveries, nor of the high questions of archzology to which the presence of worked-flints deep in the earth have given rise. The ball of the ‘ash-bed’ of Montaigu carries also upon itself the mark of its own antiquity. It is easy to assure ourselves, on examining it with attention, that 1f it be permissible still to doubt whether its embedment dates back to the time when the bed was formed in which it was enclosed, it cannot be denied that its burial is ancient, and goes back toa period greatly re- mote from our own. The diameter of the ball is 6 centimetres, and it weighs 310 grammes, or about 10 ounces. It is of white chalk, and in this respect is distinguished from the stone-shot made use of for the ar- tillery of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These are constantly of sandstone or other hard and heavy rock. I have never seen one in chalk. Its form is imperfectly spherical, and its fracture unequal; it seems to have been fashioned with an instrument more blunt than cutting, from which one would suppose that the maker had only coarse and ineffec- tual tools. Three great splinters with sharp angles, announce also that it had remained during the working attached to the block of stone out of which it was made, and that it had been separated only after it was finished, by a blow, to which this kind of fracture is due. “The workmen declare, as I have said, that the ball before falling to the ground was placed between the ‘ash-bed’ and the shell-bed which covered it. Its examination confirms in every way this assertion. It is really penetrated over four-fifths of its height by a black bituminous colour, that merges towards the top into a yellow circle, and which is evidently due to the contact of the lgnite in which it had been for so long a time plunged. The upper part, which was in contact with the shell-bed, on the contrary has preserved its natural colour—the dull white of the chalk. “T may add, that this last part gives with acids a lively effervescence, characteristic of carbonates of lime, whilst the rest of the surface which is impregnated with the bituminous matter alluded to, remains nearly in- sensible to the action of these acids. As to the rock in which it was found, i can affirm that it is perfectly virgin, and presents no trace whatever of any ancient exploitation. The roof of the quarry was equally intact in this place, and one could see there neither fissure nor any other cavity by which we might suppose this ball could have dropped down from above through all the series of beds which separate it from the surface of the lain. f “From what we have said, it remains then at least certain, that an ob- ject, a ball of chalk, fashioned by the hands of man, has been found in the 148 THE GEOLOGIST. stratum of ‘black ashes’ of the Laonnois, at a depth so considerable under the soil and under conditions of bedding such that it is impossible to com- prehend how and by what means it could have been introduced in recent times. Iam certainly amongst those who think that science has not yet said its last word about it. But from one fact, even so well established, I do not pretend to draw the extreme conclusion that man was con- temporary with the lignites of the Paris basin.... My sole object in writing this notice is to make known a discovery as curious as strange, whatever may be its bearing, without pretending to any mode of explana- tion. I content myself with giving it to science, and I shall wait before forming an opinion in this respect, for further discoveries to furnish me with the means of appreciating the value of this at Montaigu.”—MeEttz- VILLE, Vice-President of the Academie Society of Lahon. Such is M. Melleville’s account, and we consider his resolution wise in hesitating to date back the age of man to the lower tertiary period of the Paris basin without further confirmatory evidence. M. Omboni, in his paper on the Ancient Glaciers and “ terrain erratique”’ of Lombardy, lately published by the Milan Society,* has given numerous details of the different valleys which debouche in Lombardy between the Lake of Orta and Brescia and of the glacial deposits they contain. All these have been visited by him, and he has particularly examined with great care the traces left by the glaciers of their lower limits. He indicates clearly where the enormous masses of ice, after having been long encased in the valleys of the southern flanks of the Alps, spread out and melted in the plain, leaving in front of them their terminal moraines. His principal conclusions are, that, during the Pliocene age, the valley of the Po formed part of the Pliocene Sea when the marine fossiliferous rocks of Varese, Nese, San-Colombo, and Casteneddo were deposited. With the slow and gradual dislocation by which the Alps and the Apen- nines took their present forms, the valley of the Po became a great shallow gulf, when the most ancient of the quaternary rocks were formed, con- stituting the passage-beds from the Pliocene, and enclosing the bones of large quadrupeds. Then followed the commencement of the formation and the extension of the glaciers of the Alps in consequence of a cold and damp climate. This was the first part of the quaternary glacial epoch. Next, the glaciers occupied all the valleys of the Alps and the basins of the lakes as far as the points where they now are, Sesto-Calende, Porto, Mendrisio, Como, Lecco, Iseo, etc. Great torrents dispersed the materials brought by the glaciers and formed the “ancient alluvium,” which by de- grees advanced the land and diminished the extent of the gulf. The stones brought by the glaciers lose their polish, their groovings and strize become rounded and form part of the alluvium, while the large blocks are also cones by the action of water. This was the second part of the glacial epoch, The glaciers now extend still further, denuding the upper part of the alluvium and leaving on its lower part their terminal moraines, where we still find them. The production of alluvium still went on extending the land. This was the third part of the glacial epoch. _Then a change takes place—the climate becomes less cold. The glaciers diminish and slowly arrive at their present limits, and during this period of retreat form concentric moraines nearer the high Alps. The torrents wear away the moraines which they encounter and transport the material to various distances, forming the most superficial portion, called “recent * Atti della Soc. Nat, in Milano, 1861, t. iii., with a map of the ancient extension of the glaciers, NOTES AND QUERIES. 149 alluvium.” The glaciers still occupied for a long time the deepest valleys, and prevented their being filled with alluvial deposits; then they melted, and the Lakes Maggiore, Como, and Lecco, Orta and Iseo were formed. This was the fourth and last part of the glacial epoch, which gradually merged into the present period. NOTES AND QUERIES. ConvVERSION OF CHALK INTO MarsBiE.—Gustav Rose has been making new experiments on the deportment of carbonate of lime at high tempera- tures, both with and without fluxes ;* and, from their results, he has arrived at the conclusion that rhombohedral carbonate of lime is never a direct roduct. : According to the experiments of Sir James Hall, made in 1804, this has been directly produced when chalk and compact limestone were exposed to a high temperature under great pressure. Hall’s experiment has therefore been repeated by MM. Rose and Sie- mans. A gun-barrel was charged with dry elutriated chalk, rammed into a compact mass, and the gun-barrel then hermetically sealed at both ends, and exposed to the heat of one of M. Siemans’ gas-furnaces. During the experiment the gun-barrel sprung, and in the crack there appeared a faint blue flame, evidently of carbonic oxide. The gun-barrel was then removed from the furnace, and on opening it the chalk was found converted into a light bluish-white coherent mass, slightly lustrous on the fracture, and with cracks running through the whole. The surface was covered with a snow- white, earthy, well-defined crust, and the cracks were lined with white earthy particles; these, as well as the crust, were composed of caustic lime. The compact mass, however, proved, on examination, to be unchanged in chemical properties; and in physical properties, though seemingly changed, when examined under the microscope, it showed the same small globules, and identically the same properties, as the unignited amorphous chalk. Although somewhat more coherent, the chalk was not materially altered, and in nowise converted into crystalline calcite. Another experi- ment was made with fragments of rhombohedral cale-spar, but was also in- terrupted by the rupture of the gun-barrel. M. Rose considers, from these experiments, that chalk or compact lime- stone cannot be converted into crystalline limestone or calc-spar by expo- sure to a high temperature in closed vessels; and, as a general fact, that rhombohedral carbonate of lime is not formed in the dry way. He also observes that, on comparing accurately the description of Hall’s experi- ments and Bucholz’s observations incidentally made in the production of caustic lime from chalk, probably they obtained results similar to his own, and that the slightly coherent, but otherwise unaltered mass, was er- roneously considered to be crystalline marble. But what is most singular is, that notwithstanding Hall’s experiment has been quoted and use made of it, not only in explaining geological phenomena, but in serving as the foundation of theories, it was never repeated or confirmed; and the experiments of M. Rose show it at least to have been hasty, although we do not think M. Rose’s have been as complete nor as dong continued as * For an account of Herr Rose’s experiments, see Transactions of the Berlin Aca- demy ; Poggendorf, Annalen, c. xi. 156; and Silliman’s Journal, xxxii. 112. 150 THE GEOLOGIST. they ought to have been. It is not to be disputed that at the junction with granite and basalt, compact limestone and chalk are often converted into marble, as in Paradies-backen, near Drammen, in Norway, and near Belfast, in Ireland; but, in the case of granite, the dry method of conver- sion cannot be any longer tenable, since the experiments of Sorby, Delesse, and others, have altered our conviction of its origin. Such changes, then, cannot be regarded as due to heat alone, and that they were assisted by other agencies is a conclusion arrived at also by Bischof in a different manner. In the Arniversary Address to the Geological Society, the President, Mr. Leonard Horner, commented on these experiments in the following manner :—‘ With every respect for my friend the Professor, I think that T may turn round upon him and say that he has been somewhat hasty in considering that his experiments prove that mistakes were made by Hall in his descriptions of the results of his numerous experiments, all agreeing while obtained in so many different ways; for the Professor states that in both of his experiments the gun-barrel burst (at what stage of the experi- ment, he does not say) and thus one of the essential conditions in Hall’s experiments was wanting, viz. continued great pressure. I consider there- fore that these experiments of Professor Rose in no degree invalidate those of Hall, so long considered to support, in no inconsiderable degree, the hypothesis of Hutton.” Saurtsan Remarns In THE Lower Lias.—Some remains of Enalio- sauria, recently found in the shales at the top of the Rhetic series, zone of Ammonites planorbis (Wright), exposed near Droitwich, are of more than ordinary interest. One, unfortunately much distorted, skeleton of ichthyosaurus intermedius still holds, in the space between the ribs, the contents of the stomach, which, however, do not present any different features from the example described and figured by Dr. Buckland, being chiefly scales of Photidophorus leptocephalus and some indeterminable fragments of Echinide, probably of Cidaris Edwardsii, the spines of which occur very abundantly in these shales. Jaws of Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris have also been met with in fine condition in this little-known locality. The specimens have been carefully collected, and are now in the cabinet of Richard Smith, Esq., of Westacre, near Droitwich. Fish-remains in these Lower Liassic beds should be more attentively searched for. I have just received a letter from a noted microscopist, relating to the otolithic bone of Pholidophorus, which makes a fine object in the microscope.—GrorGE E. Roperts. OriGIN oF Sprcites.—At the Zoological Society, on the 28th January, Professor Owen read a paper on the anatomy of the Aye-Aye (Cheiromys Madagascariensis). The only point of interest to geological and paleon- tological readers was the part of the paper in which Professor Owen en- tered into the evidence afforded by the peculiarities of this animal on the question of the origin of species; after showing the arguments in favour of the derivative hypothesis, and those against its mode of operation as propounded by Buffon, Lamarck, and Darwin, he came to the conclusion that, whilst the general evidence on this subject was in favour of creation by law, he was compelled to acknowledge ignorance as to the mode in which such secondary causes might have operated in the origin of Cheiromys. At the same time Professor Owen fully admitted that the attempts to dis- sipate the mystery which environed the origin of species, whether success- ful or not, could not but be fraught with great collateral advantages to zoological science. REVIEWS. Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other Researches, in New Granada, Equa- dor, Peru, and Chile. By William Bollaert, F.R.G.S. London: Triibner and Co., 1860. What has an antiquarian and ethnological book to do with geology? Something, we reply, if it contain any geological facts. And geological facts are spread about in antiquarian, and ethnological, and geographical, and many other sorts of books that appear to have no particular connec- tion whatever with the science of rocks and fossil remains. There is an old adage referring to the futility of looking for a needle in a load of hay ; and, although we should never attempt to search through the thou- sands of volumes of travels, descriptions of races, of idols, and of the dug-up relics of times gone by, for the few disseminated facts they contain, yet there is no reason why we should not adopt Captain Cuttle’s famous prin- ciple of ‘‘ when found make a note of,” and record these accidental inci- dents as they fallin our way. So it is that in noticing Mr. Bollaert’s book here, we shall offer an olla podrida of gleanings, rather than a systematic review. We shall pay less attention to the fair of Turmequé than to the emeralds which are brought there ; we shall dwell less on the exhortations of Xue at Bosa than to the rib which the Spaniards found there venerated by the Indians, and believed to have been brought thither by that person- age. Ina foot-note about emeralds, we are told the green varieties are found at Muzo, north of Bogota, and that tantalic acid and columbium occur in some varieties. Fine emeralds can be seen at Carthagena, ex- tracted from the mines of Muzo by a French company. They are found in attached and imbedded crystals in alluvium, but the finest are from veins in a blue slate, of the age of our lower chalk, in the valley of Muzo. One statue of the Virgin in the Cathedral of Bogota, besides 1358 dia- monds and other precious stones, has 1205 emeralds. Not far from the mountain of Itoco, in the country of the Muzos, were found, in a.p. 1555, two emeralds weighing 24,000 castellanos.* Three leagues from Itoco is Abissi, where emeralds are found. In the East Indies, medicinal and talismanic virtues are ascribed to this gem. The Great Exhibition of 1851 contained the finest known emerald, two inches long, weighing 8 ozs. 18 dwts., which came from Muzo, and is supposed to have been brought to England by Don Pedro, who sold it to the Duke of Devonshire. We are not informed how the Chibchas worked emeralds and other hard stones ; but the Mexicans, with tools made of copper and tin, fashioned emeralds into flowers, fish, ete. Cortez sent an emerald to Spain, the base of which was as broad as the palm of the hand. But to return to the bone of Nemterequetaba or Xue, the ancient pro- phet of the Chibchas, who came from the East, wore a long beard, and had his hair tied in a fillet, for it brings us to another topic of some interest. Mr. Bollaert takes away all the romance of this religiously-preserved relic—the Goth! ‘It is probable,” he hints, “this was the rib of a mas- todon, for bones of that animal are found in the alluvium of Suacha, where teeth and other fossil remains are also met with. Holton says this place is famous for the bones of carnivorous (?) elephants once exhumed here.” Coal exists at Cirnaga de Oro, on the River Sinu; on the banks of the Carare ; at Conejo, below Hondu; also near Bogota, and is used at Mr. Wilson’s iron-works. It also oecurs in Veraguas, Chiriqui, and Costa Rica, and on the Isle of Muerto, and at Tarraba. The coal is probably, * The castellano is 1415 grains. 152 THE GEOLOGIST. like that of Chile, of tertiary age, excepting, perhaps, that of Bogota, which may be of the carboniferous or even cretaceous period. Gold, the yellow representative of earthly riches, at once the blessing and the curse of life, in this auriferous land appears before us everywhere, ornamenting the clothes of the living and decking the bodies of the dead, covering wooden idols and hanging as jingling bells from the branches of the sacred trees; tempting the avarice of the proud Spaniard to murder and to theft, and to gather glistening treasures which should perchance make him the prey of some stronger buccaneer. The mines of Spain are closed ; even the Espiritu Santo, from which alone more gold yearly went through Panama than from all the other mines of America put together. Then there is the gold-district of Coyba; the mine at Bogota, the king’s fifth from which was 300,000 dollars; the gold-dust of Panama and Pacora; the mountain of the *‘ Block of Gold”’ in the Cano del Pilon de Oro; the streams of the Chepo, where Major Don shovelled out the gold-earth by panfuls ; and the thousands of graves in Chiriqui, abounding in golden images and earthen pots of gold beside the black dust of mouldered bodies. So much for New Granada. Now for Equador or Quito. We have here too some geological gleanings. Coal is mentioned as occurring in Amortajado, and probably in Puna, Santa Clara, Santa Elena, and the coast of Choro. Passing by Latacunga and the volcano of Cotopaxi, Quito, and the vol- eanic Pichincha, we come to the land of the mighty Chimborazo, rearing itself high above the chain of the Andes, like a majestic dome upon those ancient monuments. What mean those tales of giants which the Caras believe came to these coasts on floats of rushes, and were annihilated in their evilness by the wrath of God? Now that man’s antiquity is proven, we must seek the interpretation of such old legends ; for, like the Eastern fable of the elephant and tortoise, there may be a long-lost meaning in them. In the similitudes of these traditionary tales we shall see the race-badges of many an ancient people. Whether Manta, the seaport to Monte Christo, has derived its name from the broad mantle-like fish which is said to squeeze the pearl-fishers of Panama to death, is not to our purpose, but it is so to know that it has an emerald-mine, and that the emeralds are found in crystalsin the rock, and have something of a vein-like character. “Some are half-white, others half- green, but they get ripe and come to perfection.” At Tezcuco there was, in the “ Tribunal of God,” a skull crowned with an emerald. At Manta, too, and Punta 8. Elena, large fossil bones are met with ;* some, so Humboldt states, being those of large cetaceans. Of gold, too, we get frequent accounts, in the form of abundance of ornaments. The entire range of the Cordilleras abounds with gold, silver, and copper, and the former metal is found in every river which has its source in the high lands; the mountain-range of Llanganate (S.S.E. of Quito) is known as the “ mother” of the gold found in the streams that run from it. Quicksilver is seen to ooze out of the ground in Cuenca; and the district of Ksmeraldas only requires searching in its streams and rocks for the beautiful gems from which it takes its name. But where is the far-famed mine from which the ancient rulers of Quito drew those gigantic emeralds so valued by the Conquistadores, and some of which are treasured as the crown-jewels of Spain. That it exists there is no doubt ; but the Indians, if they know the spot, conceal it. An emerald as big as a hen’s egg fell into the hands of Pizarro’s followers: cannot modern adventurers find it * The occurrence of these remains is also referred to in a paper in the Geographical Society’s Journal, xx., 1850. KEVIEWS. 153 out? The beryl, with sky-blue and green emeralds, is found too in the Cordillera of Cubellan. It is often said that Peru is rich in emeralds, but Mr. Bollaert says that this should rather be said of Equador, as he has never known that gem to have been found in the former country. As the eleventh Inea, who died about a.p. 1475, commenced inroads on Quito, his son Huagna Capac conquering the country, Mr. Bollaert thinks this was the period at which the Peruvians became acquainted with the emerald. Paris- ite, a brownish-yellow crystal, composed of carbonate of lanthanium and didymium, with fluoride of calcium, is also found in the emerald-mines of uzo. We know nothing as to the process the natives of Quito or Peru have for eutting, boring, or polishing precious stones ; they may have had hardened copper or brass instruments, and something approaching the drill, for the regal emerald had holes drilled through it to keep it fast on the head. Wallace, in his ‘ Travels on the Amazon’ (1853, p. 278), in his account of the Uaupés Indians, speaks of seeing ‘‘ several men with the most peculiar and valued ornament—a cylindrical, opaque, white stone, which is quartz imperfectly crystallized. These stones are from four to eight inches long, and about an inch in diameter. They are ground round, and flat at the ends,—a work of great labour,—and are each pierced with a hole at one end, through which a string is placed to suspend it round the neck. It appears almost incredible that they should make this hole in so hard a sub- stance without any iron instrument for the purpose. What they are said to use is the pointed flexible leaf-shoot of the large wild plaintain, tri- turating (twirling with the hands) with fine sand and a little water; and thus no doubt it is, as it is said to be, a labour of years. Yet it must take a much longer time to pierce that which the Tushua (chief) wears as the symbol of his authority, for it is generally of the largest size, and is worn transversely across the breast, for which purpose the hole is bored length- ways from one end to the other, an operation which it is said sometimes occupies two lives. The stones themselves are procured from a great distance up the river, probably from near its source at the base of the Andes ; they are therefore highly valued, and it is seldom the owners can be induced to part with them, the chiefs scarcely ever.” In Wilkes’s ‘American Exploring Expedition,’ it is stated that, “on Bowditch Island, in the Pacific, the hand-drill is used, pointed with hard stone, for drilling shells.” ‘‘Could such an adaptation,” Mr. Bollaert asks, ae been employed by the emerald-drillers of Mexico, Bogoté, and uito P” When Mr. Bollaert gossips about the Incas and the old Peruvians, it is hard not to digress, the subject is so enchanting; but we draw the bonds of our speciality closer and resolutely resist. And that we may not be allured, we bridge over this part with a string of the Captain Cuttle sort of extracts. “There was some quillay or iron-ore particularly at Cuancha; but it was not smelted by the Indians, that being too serious an operation for them. Gold and silver were merely melted, but the chloride and sulphuret of silver, by the aid of fire and air, could be reduced by them.” “Tn vol. i. ‘Mercurio Peruano,’ p. 201, a.p. 1791, the following mines are mentioned as having been worked by the Incas :—Escaméra, Chilleo, and Abatantis, of gold; Choquinifiaé and Porco, of silver; Curahato, of copper ; Carabuco, of lead (probably the vicinity of Oruro yielded tin) ; and the magnificent iron-works (!) of Ancoriames, on the east margin of Lake Titicaca, are particularized.” “Cope, a mineral pitch, is found near Point S. Elena, and Amotape, VOM SN. Xx 154 THE GEOLOGIST. near Piura. It abounds in Realejo, and at Chumpi, near Guamanga in Peru.” “At the foot of the mountain of Curataqui is a cavern, and from the number of bones of children and animals met with, was probably a place of sacrifice. ... Walls, ruins, and roads are seen in many parts of Equador, in the plains, sides of mountains, and on their summits; the more irregular are thought to be the work of people long before the con- quest of the country by the Incas.” Peru and Bolivia now claim attention. A sandy desert runs along the whole extent of coast from Tumbez to Loa. The western Cordillera is as- cended by rugged paths to an elevation where the frozen Andean plains or paramos are found, out of which rise the colossal peaks of the Andes, covered with eternal glaciers. From the burning heat of Egypt to the icy cold of Siberia, there is here every gradation of climate. ‘ In the valleys of the coast, and those of the interior, all the species of quadrupeds and domestic birds known in Europe are now bred.” In Bolivia we have the rich barilla or native-copper mines of San Bar- tolo; and in the desert of Atacama, Dr. Philippi places the region of me- teoric iron. Near Rosario are ancient gold-mines; at Olarios, nuggets have been found of from eighteen to thirty-seven ounces. Copper and gold is worked at Conche; silver, iron, alum, sulphur, salts, borate of lime, and nitrate of soda. Guano is found at Argamo and San Franscisco on the coast. The mines of Potosi—world-wide is their fame! ‘The City of Silver” is 13,320 feet above the sea, and the “ Silver Mountain” top 15,200 feet. The mines of Conche supply the copper hammers for its busy miners. Up to 1846, the ‘Anales de Potosi’ tells us, £330,544,311 was the value of the precious metal extracted from its mines. Lipes and many another district are rich in silver mines; in gold and copper; salt-plains there are too, and lakes. In Tariga fossil bones of mastodons and mammoths are found in various places, and gold and silver are said to be met with in the mountain of Polla. But we shall fill page after page if we state half the places in this rich region where gold and silver are recorded ; and those who want to know more details—we think we have given enough—must consult Mr. Bollaert’s cyclopedia of facts, for such his book really is. It may not be written with that continuous flow of pleasant diction which gives such a charm to some books of travel; but it is one of the densest masses of facts we ever perused. For any defects of language, we may observe, we should bear in mind that Mr. Bollaert is not an English- man ; and when we remember this, we shall be more inclined to take an Depa course, and wonder at his generally accurate knowledge of our ongue. 1s . > y a‘ . ° S Essai dune Réponse & la Question du Prix proposé en 1850 par l Académie des Sciences pour le concours de 1853, et puis remise pour celui de 1856. Par M. le Professeur Bronn. i The task which the successful candidate for the above prize had to ac- complish was “to examine the laws of the distribution of organized fossil bodies according to the order of their superposition in the various sedi- mentary deposits ; to discuss the question whether their appearance or dis- appearance was successive or simultaneous ; to seek for the signification of the relations between the existing state of the organic world and its an- terior states.” This task, which to perform successfully would require the most universal knowledge of fossil and recent organisms, and in which 155 REVIEWS. ee 0S9°TLL L* he “ereUTEy O&e@ | 0008 } OOLL 0008 | 00089 | OOOT | OOOT t * * is * iP iv Bo * il il % * * & P & ; v % # f bd ze] ee = © > |e eg Z B | @ - Qu =e oa om a i Bek. ee) eelage if 24 wey Se a 3 " a is) > 5 : ~ | 8 S *@YOIGOIAI A "eyeTDOY LY (er1v0zo;Apuodg) (e11eozour0yuy ) ‘epodoyjeydag OO0ET | OOSP | OOOL | 009 | O8G | OOOT } OOOT | OOS | O8@ if ig iP ae) Me ee Sh hn * il a % igd x {0 — * op) > td es] b> i) rs) td ua 3 a = © 2 & 2 + rg eS) E. a bs] = 5 ne s } rs} Se = S g & ic) Qu j= 7 i) n S > : g oF > = = B 5. » . S 2 = "BOSTON “eqyeIpery "BULIOW (etrvozoorley) (etrvozouoy ) (etze0z0y4qq) “eLaeisuodg “' ggroedg SutrATT jo rzaquinu oarjeunxoiddy _bugboopeandK eos oy) Ur aes IOJVM YSOIf UL ta eeeesrneesace pur] uo SUIAIT ‘SHSSVIQ IVAIONIUG *SNOGCINIMANG 8 ee ee ee eS re ‘HAV'T AUVHL HOIHM NI SENANATY DHL OL ONIGUOOOV SHIONdg FO NOIWNAIMISTG AHL ONIMOHS—'[T WIAViL 156 THE GEOLOGIST. the great problem of the origin of species was indirectly involved, was un- dertakeu, in the year 1856, by two candidates. One of these treated the question in a summary manner; he merely examined a few very limited points of the question, and not the whole series of the facts, which the Academy required of him. Accordingly, in spite of many ingenious views, which were rather geological than paleon- tological, the Commission, which consisted of MM. Elie de Beaumont, Flourens, Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Milne-Edwards, and Ad. Bron- gniart, declined to receive the memoir into their consideration. The other memoir, bearing the significant inscription, or epigraph, Wa- tura doceri, being a quarto volume of nearly five hundred pages, with nu- merous tables, received the prize of the Commission, and has been since published both in the German and French languages. The French translation is now before us; and we must regard the pub- lication of this magnificent work as forming an era in paleontology. Any précis of the argument of the author is clearly impossible. We give a few of the tables which Professor Bronn employs, as specimens. Professor Bronn lays it down as a rule that omne ens ex aqua (all beings have their origin in fluid), which he says is true not merely as regards individual beings, but as regards sub-kingdoms and even kingdoms. To exhibit this truth more clearly, he offers the Table No. 1, where the proportional numbers of the inhabitants of the sea, the freshwater, and the dry land are indicated, in all the classes of the animal kingdom, so that each class is represented in its entirety by the number 4, and it is indi- cated in each class of one, two, three, or four, if its genera or species in- habit the one or other of these elements ; those media of existence which only number a few isolated inhabitants, being indicated by an asterisk (*). Bronn adds the sign (!) when respiration by gills exist, and the double sign (!!) when no specialized respiratory organ is developed. TABLE II.—SuHowine THE BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN THE CARNIVOROUS AND PHyYTOPHAGOUS ANIMALS. (Plant-eaters—Phytophaga.) (Flesh-eaters—Sarcophaga.) INSECTS. Myriapoda. Arachnids, the majority. Trachearian Arachnids in small number. Hexapoda; many Diptera, all Lepidoptera, | Hexapoda; many Diptera, most Neurop- Hemiptera, Orthoptera, half the Hy- tera, half the Hymenoptera, some Cole- menoptera, nearly all the Coleoptera. optera (Carabici), feed on other insects. REPTILES. Sea-turtles. | Most of the terrestrial types. BirDs. Most Natatores and Grallatores, Insecti- vorous Passeres ; Birds of prey. Some Natatores and Grallatores, most Gal- lineee, Pigeons, many granivorous and frugivorous Passeres; Nectariniz, MAMMALIA. Some Bruta and Marsupials, most Cheiro- ptera, Insectivora and Carnivora, some Quadrumana. Sirenia, Ruminantia, part of Pachydermata, Ghires, most Bruta, some Cheiroptera, most Marsupials and Quadrumana. REVIEWS. 157 TABLE III. SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF VERTEBRATE ANIMALS IN TIME. Carboniferous. Silurian. Devonian. Permian. Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous. Eocene. MAMMALIA. PIA GEN GANIDE! Rcasin leh esis iaciineeaeie ees PGRROGDIAI Yate siecs sn’ ces ccecisct's = J PEJUEDU EGOS) ae agae Aa nOBM ee pep ac eeE eon BPAGCEMEAAT oy. 2. cadae oo. ses sen - vee AVES. Arboricolee (nidicole) Terrestres et Aquaticee Plerseque WIGMORe..- .. ic. s. secs ess see REPTILIA. Monopnoa. CICLO so eas eee Bp eas i idcleD=-+ s'c% Cuainicie's o's vs PISCcEs. Oligobranchi. IDS, 2a nc arO cee eeen eer eee PICICOSIIE ORE cor co col iussedesesccnee Ganoidei : (Regulares) Holostei Euspondyli............... ; Hemispondyli et Aspondyli ...... (Irregulares) SHUR OM ES 1 \c Ae clea le eared de Skala Wepnalaspides = 0). ss. ee ences se Polybrancht. Elasmobranchi. Plagiostomi : Squalide et Rajide.............. Cestraciontes et Hylodontes Whimesrid sey we vacsins alec cates mo 158 THE GEOLOGIST. He concludes in the following manner :—“ The results arrived at repose on the momentaneous state of our positive knowledge of the fossil world. New discoveries may modify them, and perhaps even change some of their details. But the general laws which we have established are based now on too large an amount of facts to permit doubt of their reality, or fear lest some exceptions of inferior importance may refute them entirely. We cannot pretend that Nature, although actually following the indicated method dur- ing creation, has never made an exceptional step, for reasons which remain tous unknown. The phenomena in question are not of a nature to be able to be assigned to fundamental laws, with the same certainty and ri- gour as physical or chemical facts, which can be calculated according to the laws of attraction and affinity, or perhaps the causes which have pro- duced them are too complicated to permit us to recognize them perfectly. If the same rigorous law was the sole cause of all these facts, the know- ledge of extinct populations which the fossil remains in the earth’s strata furnishes to us would always remain defective, as we shall be never certain of knowing all the facts, which are of such importance to enable us to formulate exactly the expression of our belief. Whether the results to which we have at present arrived satisfy us or not, we have only searched for truth, and announced what we have discovered. Even when construct- ing &@ priori a series of theoretical laws, we have not sought to establish a preconceived opinion ; our object was to establish a method which would lead us to reply to all the questions in relation to our problem. Before accepting these theoretical laws, we were bound to make rigorous obser- vations, which we see confirmed by facts. For our motto has been for many years, and ever will be, Nature will teach.” If the principles actuating such noble sentiments as these were practised by all paleontologists, England might hope for a brighter future in its scientific world than promises to dawn upon us for many years. The Theology of Geologists, as exemplified in the cases of the late Hugh Miller and others. With an Appendix on the Nature and Properties of the Torbanehill Mineral, by Hugh Miller. By William Gillespie, Author of ‘The Necessary Existence of God,’ etc. etc. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black. It is wellnigh impossible to conceive the present creation devoid of man as its governing spirit. We almost inseparably associate the idea of animal life with intelhigence and reason. Were they thus united in the paleozoic ages? If this conjunction be necessary, it must have existed from the dawn of life,—and so, we by no means, prejudge the question as to man’s antiquity, or the existence of a pre-Adamic race. If the further researches of animal psychology should substantiate such a connection as we have indicated, we may expect to arrive at as strange conclusions regarding psychical life in the geologic zons, as those which the researches of Cuvier and Owen into the animal structures of the past have revealed. In thus anticipating deeper glimpses into the economy of the past than any yet attained from the mere study of fossils, we by no means wish to resuscitate the fantastic dreamings of some cosmogonists of the sixteenth century ; but would only remind geologists that animal psycho- logy is as truly an inductive science as any observational one. Laws inse- eee linking the physical and psychical life of organized beings may yet »e established ; and these will extend over past as well as present life. The psychologist, then, may yet include fossils under his cognizance. And the conclusions he may arrive at regarding the instincts and habits of the REVIEWS. 159 primeval animals may be as certain as those of the paleontologist in refe- rence totheir structure. Again, as the psychical and moral are intimately associated, the theologian, too, has claims on past life. Physiology expressly indicates a connection between physical and moral law; while Scripture as expressly declares it. And so an inquiry such as we have indicated, so far from being trifling or minute, interlaces itself with questions of the most momentous importance. The existence of such organisms as a lion’s paw or the jaw of ashark, so wondrously adapted for the purposes of rapine in a creation otherwise filled with evidences of the utmost benevolence, has led most natural theologians to conclude in the existence of an active principle of evil. This is strengthened by the statements of Scripture regarding the tree of know- ledge of good and evil, as well as the recognition by the Saviour, both in his miracles and in his didactic statements, of the power of the arch-enemy over physical nature. The evidences of death by violence in the geologic eras have given an additional importance to this inquiry. Did some dis- turbing moral element prevail in the old creations of the past ? is a question affirmed and denied by equally competent writers. The pamphlet at the head of this article is perhaps the best original exposition published in this country on the affirmative ; while the two works it specially combats— those by Hugh Miller and Paton Gloag—are the best representatives of the opposite side of the question. ‘The learned German theologian Kurtz has perhaps most fully discussed this topic; he shows that not only the past history of our globe, but also that of the whole universe, may be inti- mately connected with moral dynasties in which Satan and his angels mingled. Mr. Gillespie affirms that geology can only bear witness as to the exist- ence of the carnivorous monsters of the past; and that the theologian alone has the right to discuss the reasons why they were furnished with such implements of rapine and destruction. Hugh Miller, on the contrary, founding his whole argument of the ‘ Testimony of the Rocks’ on the doc- trine that the Mosaic creation is that referred to by geology, affirms that as all these past creations were pronounced ‘very good,” so these animals must have come direct from the hands of the Creator. Whether or not Miller has in this case departed from his usual philosophic style, our readers must judge. But to do this they must hear both sides; and they will find in Mr. Gillespie’s pamphlet ample material on a topic which will occupy more than it has done the thoughts of speculative men. A Glossary of Mineralogy. By H. W. Bristow, F.G.S., of the Geologicai Survey of Great Britain. London: Longman and Co., 1861. The public waited a long time for this work, and it has proved worth waiting for. To have a cheap book is something ; to have a good book is better. But to have a book at once cheap and good is to have all we can desire of author or publisher. The preface opens by telling us it was undertaken to supply a want which the author had often felt—and, we may add, how many others? Having felt it himself, is fortunately, perhaps, one reason of his success in supplying the concise handy manual which meets that want, and will make the stony road of mineralogy more easily trodden by future students. The work is arranged on the plan of a glossary or dictionary, with a capital introduction giving the general characters of minerals, followed by an excellent table of classification. The general characters of minerals of course are those which relate to external form and structure, and characters dependent on light; these are divided 160 THE GEOLOGIST. into optical properties ; physical properties ; other characters, such as streak, taste, odour, etc. ; characters dependent on cohesion; chemical characters; all of which are briefly but intelligibly explained. The system of classification adopted is that used by Mr. Warington Smyth in his lectures at the School of Mines, and the division is primarily into Non- metallic and Metallic minerals. The former into the five classes of—1. Carbon and Boron; 2. Sulphur and Selenium; 3. Haloids and Salts ; 4. Earths; 5. Silicates and Aluminates. The latter into four classes— 1. Brittle and difficult of Fusibility ; 2. Brittle, easily Fusible and Volatile ; 3. Malleable, not reducible by heat alone; 4. Noble Metals, reducible by heat alone. ‘This is followed by a list of symbols and signs, and explana- tions of the technical terms used by jewellers and lapidaries. The book consists of 420 closely-printed pages, and is teeming with outline illustra- tions, small, but carefully executed. Asasample of its plana single extract will suffice, and at the same time will probably convey information to some of our readers :— “CHLORITE, Werner. Hexagonal ; occurs in tabular six-sided prisms. Col our various shades of dull emerald-green in the direction of the axis, and yellowis h o hyacinth-red at right angles to it; also pure white or yellowish. Massive varieties olive-green. Semi-transparent to sub-translucent. Lustre pearly; yields to the nail, and when in powder is unctuous to the touch. Streak corresponding to the colour. H. 1 to 15. 8. G. 2°7 to 2°85. Compact chlorite is amorphous. Chlorite- slate posseses a slaty structure, and frequently contains imbedded octahedral crystals of magnetic iron, hornblende, and garnets. Earthy chlorite is composed of small pearly, glimmering, scaly particles. It has a somewhat greasy feel, and bears a striking resemblance to Green Earth. Composition. 4 (Mg Fe), Al, Fe, 2 Si, 3 H=4 Mg Si+3H. Analysis, from the Pyrenees by Delesse, Silica 32:1, Alumina 18°5, Magnesia 36°7, Protoxide of Iron 0°6, Water 12°1=100°0. Chlorite frequently contains as much as 8 or 9 per cent. of protoxide of iron ; those kinds which have more (up to 28 or 29 per cent.) are classed with Ripidolite. Before the blowpipe some lose their colour and fuse at the edges ; with borax affords an iron-reaction.—Localities. The tin mines of Cornwall, where it is well known by the name of peach. Also in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and near Llanberis in Caernarvonshire. At Portsoy, in Banffshire, it is mixed with Ser- pentine, and is frequently cut and polished.—Name. From xAepoés, green. This mineral may be distinguished from mica by its lamine being flexible but not elastic, while those of mica are very elastic. It has been proposed by Descloiseaux to divide chlorite into three groups, Pennine, Clinochlore, and Ripidolite ; to which may be added Leuchtenbergite.— Specimens. British Museum; Case 52. Museum of Practical Geology ; Horse-shoe Case, Nos. 1039—1043, 1047.” In this little book also the various names used by different authors have been introduced, as well as certain terms which, although now obsolete, are very useful for reading the works of the older mineralogists, in which they constantly occur ; while the copious lists of synonyms are very valu- able to the student in perusing the works of foreign authors. We could say much more of its merits. It is very easy to “ cut up” a bad book, a it is by no means so easy to say properly all we would of a good one. e can reco nd Mr. Bris 7 : : wae : : re oe ; : mmend Mi Bristow’s book to our student-readers; and, as its price and dimensions bring it within the reach of every one’s means, we adyise them to test the value of our praise by buying it and reading it. PLATE IX. THE FOSSIL CHPHALITES ONGE, .D at SCENT § vL DT —H t ILLUSTRATIVE OF CHALK. OF THE of Dr. Bowerbank. Collection e * 1 if fin t] THE GEOLOGIST. MAY 1862. WHAT ARE THE VENTRICULITES? The question which heads this article is not a new one. An old one, indeed, it is; and, common as chalk flints and chalk ventriculites are, it does not show much energy on the part of cretaceous—we do not know how else to single them out—geologists and paleontolo- gists, that this old question has never yet been answered. The only man who has ever worked properly on the subject is Mr. Toulmin Smith, who many years ago laboured hard and well on these curious organisms, and then retired on his laurels. But Mr. Smith, like all men who have devoted themselves to a special subject, is full of prejudices—we do not mean to say errors—and no progress in our Fig. 1.—Portion of Flint Nodule, with shells attached to Ventriculite. knowledge can be hoped to be made until these prejudices are at- tacked. Mr. Smith, having duit his castle, is not likely to strengthen it until its walls have been undermined, or at least have been battered VOL. V. ¥ 162 THE GEOLOGIST. by the artillery of able antagonists. Dr. Bowerbank is considered to be the only powerful opponent of Mr. Smith’s views ; but whether the Doctor has expressed his opinions in print or only verbally in ordinary conversation, we do not know; at any rate, the world be- lieves the anviable philosopher of Barnsbury Grove to differ in opinion from the ventriculite-anatomist of Highgate Hill. Mr. Smith be- lieves them to be highly-organized polypidoms, which in their living state were covered over with tentaculated polypes, or that at least were studded with hundreds of tentacle-surrounded heads, ever waving their tiny arms, and catching and feeding upon the tiny prey or on fragments ‘of animal substanees which came within their clutch. What Dr. Bowerbank believes them to be we need not say is—sponges. Now we quite agree with Mr. Smith in one of the opening remarks of his articles printed in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ in 1848, “that the knowledge of any creature is not merely the sight, or bare handling, or even the giving a name to a specimen; it must imply some knowledge of structure or functions.” Now Mr. Toulmin Smith did not rest content with seeing and naming these curious organisms, but he spent weeks at the Burnham chalk-pits, near Maidstone, in collecting them, and months in slicing the hard flints, in which the organized structures were best preserved, with the lapidary’s wheel, and painsfully examining thin slices and polished surfaces under the microscope. He did more than this. In the chalk, as in the flints, the fibres of the ventriculites are preserved in threads of sulphuret or oxide of iron, and by dissolving away the soft chalk with weak acid, he left the iron-threads standing out free from their calcareous matrix, and exhibiting a model in metallic rust of their former natural structure. In these ways he developed a condition of inosculatiug fibres in some specimens, which then presented an extra- ordinary anomaly in animal structure—and which remains, we do not hesitate to say, an anomaly still. These fibres were seen to form the outlines, so to speak, of octahedrons. Straight in them- selves, they first crossed each other, and then these joints were cross-braced by other fi- bres, as in the following fig. 2. The whole organism was seen thus to be made up of a Pig. 2. webbing or tissue, all the joints of the crossing threads of which were cross-braced and strengthened in this remarkable way (fig. 3); so that, of the finest, and perhaps most WHAT ARE THE VENTRICULITES ? 163 brittle, thread-wires, a structure of the most delicate nature was reared, and made rigid enough and strong enough to stand erect against the gentle currents which flowed over the deep bottom of the cretaceous sea. It is not our purpose here to describe the species of ventriculites, bra- chiolites, and cephalites which Mr. Smith has recognized ; but we want to know what as : ventriculites are, or at any rate to gather *¥/ Ac VA eg some more information about them than is at ~2 x4 present possessed. Just as into the Infu- ~ oe aw: soria naturalists put every sort of organism “Y Zs Sa whose nature they do not understand, so | geologists and palzontologists have cast on their “ muck-heap ’—sponges—every sort of round, funnel-shaped, or stemmed and ball-headed fossils which they have not knowledge enough, or have not taken the pains to place anywhere else. Now, if Mr. Smith be right in his account of this cross-braced structure and in the interpretation he has put upon it, the ventri- culites cannot be sponges. Spicula we have in sponges, but spicula are always lying loose, never cross-braced by actual junctions. More- over, sponges are of amorphous structure—they are typical of the group AMorPHOzOA; and a hundred-head tenticulated animal is not amorphous. | The case at the present hour stands much as it did fourteen years ago—namely, thus: Mr. Toulmin Smith, by devoted and admirable efforts, examined, arranged, and gave a nomenclature to these ventri- culites; and after a most rigid inquiry—carried a great way towards perfection, but never perfected—asserted these characteristic fossils of the chalk to have belonged to highly organized creatures, at least approaching to the grade of the lower Polypifera. Then Professor Morris, in his ‘ Catalogue of British Fossils,’ adopting Mr. Smith’s nomenclature and generic and specific arrangement, replaced the ventriculites in the Amorphozoa, without any written reason—such, it is but justice to say, not being within the scope of his book—and without having, as far as we know, in any other publication disputed Mr. Toulmin Smith’s facts. Professor Morris’s dictum might have been taken when he first published - his ‘ Catalogue,’ many years ago; but the dictum or judg- ment of no man ought to be taken in this year of grace 1862, when no living man is equal to the acquirement of a universal and perfect knowledge of the progress of the sciences. Fig. 3. 164 THE GEOLOGIST. Neither must we take Mr. Smith’s dictum nor Dr. Bowerbank’s. We must take the evidence before us. How does this stand? Mr. Smith has seen this octahedral structure in some species and he applies it to all. But he has not proved it by actual examination, he has not seen it in every case. Dr. Bowerbank, who has lent us the beautiful specimen of recent sponge which we figure (Plate IX.), as presenting such a marvellous resemblance in its corrugations to certain species of cephalites, we think, does not believe in the octahedral structure occurring in all the species of ventriculites, brachiolites, and cephalites; but then we are not aware whether he or any one else has ever examined, certainly no one has ever figured, the rudi- mentary structures of every species of those interesting groups. What we want, in the first place, then, is a thorough definition from some zoologist or paleontologist of what are the marking cha- racters of a sponge. As far as we ourselves can make out, sponges are amorphous animals of a globular form, or of some modification of a globular form, such as funnel-shaped, stemmed with a disk-like or ball-like head, or convoluted. They may even be angulated, like the Guettardia angularis of the chalk group of ventriculites; for the modifications of the true sponges may be regarded as modifications of the natural tendency in the true spherical sponges to form a large central perforating canal, the enlargements of which or of its walls, combined with various kinds of constrictions in them and the elon- gation of the sponge’s attachment-part into a stem, are capable of giving rise to every known modification of true sponge. There is nothing therefore in the various and sometimes intricate shapes of the Ventriculide to militate against their being sponges. But if Mr. Smith’s octahedral structure is to be met with in all, then they would seem not to be sponges; and if only some are thus constituted, then these few must most probably be taken out of that family, for it is not likely the animals which clothed such elaborated skeletons were —what those of sponges must be—amorphous. Some one of our young geologists who wants to aequire name and fame should set to work collecting in flint and in chalk specimens of every species exhibiting structure. The flints he should cut up into thinnish slices, or slit them through, and polish their surfaces for microscopic examination, and the chalk specimens should be cleared out with acid, as Mr. Smith years ago did, but we regret no longer does. Careful drawings of the structure of each species should be made, and the evidence of their aceur acy—the original specimens from which they were made—religiously preserved. WHAT ARE THE VENTRICULITES P 165 Then, and not till then, shall we have the proper data for replying to our question, WHAT ARE THE VENTRICULITES ? We would say a few words on the rigidity of the ventriculites. We know there is a tendency amongst geologists to consider the ventricu- lites as of flexible structure when living. This notion, originating with the late Dr. Mantell, has been perpetuated by their occurrence as fossils in every variety of shape, apparently of dilation or contraction. On the other hand, it has been urged that the attachment of oyster and dianchora shells and serpule prove that they must have been rigid, because otherwise such parasites could not have lived and grown on them, as the growth-lines of such shells prove them to have done. For our own part we do not see the force of either argument, for the apparent expansions and contractions may be, as we believe them, a mere accidentai kind of growth of the ventriculite, which had a general tendency to flatten or become disk-lke with age. We are not aware that any closer approximations of the constituent fibres in the so-regarded contracted specimens, or of their dilations in the equally hypothetical expanded ones, has ever been observed; and, moreover, such a complicated and braced structure, which is pointed to as a wonderful example of the Creator’s engineering skill to pro- duce a comparatively strong framework out of the slenderest ma- terials, would lose its apparent object, and certainly must have been one of the most awkward and intractable of any which could have been conceived for such a purpose as elasticity or flexibility. As to the growth of shells upon ventriculites, of all the examples we have seen, and they are many, most were decidedly attached to dead skeletons. Some few we have seen pitted by the marks of the corrugations and pores of the skin, and such evidently shows that the oyster or dianchora grew on the living ventriculite, the fry fixing themselves most probably, in the first instance, in the inter- spaces between the pores, if the ventriculite was a sponge, or between the tentaculated heads, if the ventriculite was a polypiferous organism. In some instances, and we figure an example (see fig. 1, p. 161), the oyster or dianchora growing for some time on the living skin, grew on after the death of the ventriculite ; for, if Dr. Bowerbank’s theory of the sponge-origin of flint be true, and it certainly is the best hypothe- sis yet propounded, the amorphous sponge growth enveloping the ventriculite, and since converted into flint, was prevented growing over those shell-fish by the currents produced by their gills, and the motive action of their unattached valves in opening and closing ; conse- 166 THE GEOLOGIST. quently their attached shells are found wacovered in somewhat deep depressions, or rather hollows in the flint nodule. The attachment of some very young oysters on the raised portions of the piece of flint nodule we have figured at a later period, either on the enveloping sponge after its life was arrested, or on the hardened surface of the nodule itself, is an excuse or a reason (which- ever the reader pleases) for a slight digression on the formation of flint, and which we should not make, did we not desire to figure a very instructive specimen from the collection of Dr. Bowerbank (Plate X.). It consists of the shell of a galerite imbedded in flint, a very common occurrence, though not commonly met with in such an illustrative manner. The shell evidently must have been supported, for the flint ex- tends far beneath it. It could not have rested three or four inches above the cretaceous wud without something tolerably solid under- neath to uphold it. A sponge would do this effectually; silex in a dense gelatinous state would also support it, but then the gela- tinous substance would yield to pressure, and the shell, or whatever it was which rested on it, would incline to one side or other, accord- ing to its natural angle of rest. In the example figured, a sponge has grown all round, and covered with a plastering or film the whole of the interior of the galerite, while the life-existence of it was cut off or its growth arrested for want of a proper circulation of water, when the more dense mass of sponge which grew up from the floor of the galerite attained two-thirds the height of the cavity. The growth of the supporting sponge went on outside the galerite in a flourishing condition, and the shell was at last wholly and thickly enveloped. Then the hardening into flint went on, and after the nodule had been formed the calcareous shell-matter of the galerite was slowly dissolved out—for water percolates even flints—and a cavity was formed between the thin inner film of sponge or flint and the flint cast of the exterior of the shell. This thin inner film is most valu- able evidence here, for we could not account for it by the gelatinous deposition of silex, while we can explain it by the growth of sponge. it might, it is true, be formed by the oozing through the shell of the galerite of water containing minute quantities of flint in solution. But then its evenness over the roof and sides alike would be a little strange. From the consolidation of flint around the lower parts of the stems and roots of ventriculites, much of their former living nature PAV AGH Sox SECTION OF NODULE WITH CAST OF A GALERITE, OF THE SPONGE-ORIGIN OF FLINT. So Jo MACS, WIGESo, eel: ILLUSTRATIVE rr J Pag na ELLIOTT—HEATHERY BURN CAVE. 167 is still to be learnt; and the subject we have now appended to our more legitimate remarks is by no means so irrelevant as at first sight it might seem. It is a common thing to find the roots of ventricu- lites covered over with a nodule of flint, in which holes are seen, through which the finer ends only of the separate rootlets have pro- truded. If these flints were originally sponges, first growing round the stems and roots of young ventriculites, then their very peculiar character is at once explained. But it is not by any means easy to imagine how a gelatinous mass of silex could consolidate under roots which in that case must have been imbedded in the chalk mud before any segregation of silicious matter took place beneath them. More- over, such sponge growth will explain the plugs of flint which fill the central cavities of ventriculites, and the annular disks and rings which sometimes form bands round their conical exteriors; and we cannot but think some facts are from these sources to be elicited which shall have a practical bearing on the habits and living nature of the ventriculites. FURTHER DISCOVERIES IN HEATHERY BURN CAVE. By Joun Exuiott, Esq. Since the publication of my paper “ On the Discovery of Human and Animal Bones in Heathery Burn Cave, near Stanhope,” in the ‘Geologist’ for January last, there have been further very important discoveries made in that cave. In carrying on the quarrying operations from the point where they were suspended (see F*—fig. 1) when the first discovered relics were sent to Londony the workmen found numerous frag- ments of bones, also bone pins and knives, fragments of very rude pottery, portion of an armlet, boar-tusks, bronze spear-head, pins, celts, and armlet, two coins, some marine shells, cockle, limpet, and mussels, and large quantities of charcoal, etc., all deposited under an incrustation of stalagmite, varying from 2 to 4, or at some places to 8 inches in thickness, with the exception of one or two manufactured articles, which were found in the sand not covered by stalagmite. The whole of the cave-deposits, with this trifling exception, were covered by a thick sheet of stalagmite, varying from a very dense, compact structure, to a highly crystalline, or to a more or less porous substance: some portions easily fractured by the stroke of a hammer, others yielding only to most energetic blows. The bronze armlet and the two coins were found in sand uncovered + Received by the Editor on the 14th of April. THE GEOLOGIST. 168 ‘oyIp WOIHDUY—'N W. "9S.MODIOJLM JWI —"'T Y ‘a1aY PUNOF [eooreyo Jo soryyuenb osrey [eOOTLT TIA “puvs Ur GopULIvozTIO.LG pur ysny‘s}Ja0 oztto1q UaABg—'e | nq ‘sa7ggad Lo pums OA “punoy 910M Joie Jo UoTyAod pue ‘TRooaeyo Jo soytpuLUb o8aey WLM ‘Kroyjod ‘suid ouo0g “soaruy ouog “systy ‘souoq uUvUIMY 9104 \\A—'if ‘sofqqed puv pues ur ‘surd ozuorg ‘peoy-avods ozuo01q ‘souog¢—"}{ : “QAvd oq} Jo Soplis—q O pur | V ‘JRooreyo Jo sorytpuend rosaey WLM ‘sapqqod Yyoous “PONsst 19}8m ALO M oat JO YIPLIM—O V pue pues osaroo ut “ozo ‘daoyjod ‘sysnq ‘suid ouoq ‘souoq—"y "dAVO OY} OPIS}NO OUl] ost] —'d] \i "saouatafayy “yout oY} 0} 4oay QT [kag “989 NA South. “YON, "jSUNT ‘TAVO JO NVIg-aNnoug—'T “SL ELLIOTT—HEATHERY BURN CAVE. 169 by stalagmite, but as they were deposited in what had, not long ago, been the watercourse, the stalagmite had either been denuded, or had been prevented from forming, at that particular place, by ‘the action of the stream ; the coms were under very little cover, and might have been imbedded very receutly. The stream of water through the cave has evidently changed its course many times since the cave was excavated to its present s1ze, as we find accumulations of sand and gravel (at F* and G, in eround- plan, fig. 1), about three feet above the present water- level, and about two feet above the ancient watercourse (M, N). At aa, fig. 2, there was a hillock of angular blocks, ete. covered by stalagmite, and upon this stalagmitic hillock were deposited bones, Fig. 2.— LONGITUDINAL Section ar F. (See Ground-Plan.) 30 feet. ft. in. fF. Open cave. Se e. Stalagmite en OA d. Bone bed . ye e. Stalagmite : 0 3 a. Angular blocks . 2 19 10 0 7. xz. Rock, limestone. tusks, bone knives and pins, large and small snail-shells, fragments of pottery, piece of an armlet, a cockle-shell, and large quantities of charcoal, cemented together by calcareous matter. No sand or gravel was observed amongst them; there being considerable interstices in some parts of the bed, plainly showing they had not been drifted there by water, but pointing to the conclusion that they had been pur- posely placed there by the animals or men that inhabited the cave. Part of these bones, etc., formed the subject of my former paper above alluded to, but no manufactured bones, etc., had been found when it was written. At @, fig. 1, the bones, bone pins, tusks, pottery, and charcoal were found in coarse sand and smooth pebbles, and might have been drifted while in the cave, but it is not at all probable that they were drifted into it, for every appearance connected with the deposits, such VOL. V. V, 170 THE GEOLOGIST. as the large quantities of charcoal found, and the numerous burnt stones, etc., lead to the belief that the cave had been inhabited for a considerable length of time; and that fires had been burned at diffe- rent places the thick deposits of charcoal testify. j The bronze implements found at H. and J in fig. 1, were asso- ciated with a few bones, a limpet- shell, some mussel-shells, and a large quantity of charcoal, and were deposited in sand and gravel. The deposits throughout the cave are nearly on the same re- lative level, with the exception of the hillock already mentioned ; and while the greatest part of them have only one stalagmitic covering, the hillock and a few feet towards g, in fig. 1, had a sheet under the “ bone-bed,” ex- tending over 6 6, fig. 2, where it vanished, and its place was occu- pied by sand and pebbles, as we see in the transverse section (fig. 3). The “Communion Table,” as it was called by the visitors to the cave, was a large pillar of the rock, around which the water had washed until it had undermined the base, when the pillar fell down, leaving a considerable space between its top and the roof of the cave, which had afterwards been partially refilled by pendulous stalactites from the roof, forming a junction with the stalagmitic bosses on the “table’’ (as shown at fig. 4); and on the top of the “table” there was found a tusk,- some bones, some large snail-shells, and pieces of charcoal, under an _ | incrustation of stalagmite. One ” of the workmen wondering what thickness the incrustation had attained on the “table,”’ struck 18 feet. Fig. 3.—Transverse Section at G. c, open cave, 7 feet; 4, stalagmite, 4 inches ; a, and and gravel, bones, ete., 15 inches. 18 feet. Fig. 4.—Transverse Section at H, showing his hack into it, and exhumed the above-mentioned relics to his no smallastonishment. Perhaps this is the first time that such a “Communion Table.’ e, ‘“‘ Communion Table; d, open cave, 4 feet 6 inches; ec, stalagmite, 2 or 3 inches; 4, sand, etc., 12 inches; a, rock, discovery has been made “ on removing the cover.” The appearances of the deposit at F, fig. 1, and the great thick- ness of the stalagmite—ain places 6 and even 8 inches thick—shows that portion must have taken a greater length of time to form than the rest, which was only 2 to 4 inches, while from the absence of any bronze implements, I am led to consider it of more ancient date; the probability also is, that bone implements would cease to be used when metal ones were introduced. The general appearance, on entering the cave before it was de- molished, was very interesting and grand. The fine pendent stalac- GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 171 tites from the roof; the various round bosses of stalagmite undu- lating over the floor; the gurgling of the cave-stream; and the momentary droppings of water from the crevices and joints of the rock, gave the place a very solemn and enchanting aspect. What changes in the manners and customs of the human race have taken place since the date of the cave-men! Were we to take a poetical or an imaginative view of the case, and picture to ourselves a few naked or half-naked human beings in the gloomy cavern, standing or sitting round a fire made of wood, and enveloped in its stinking smoke, with perhaps an animal’s skin flung round their bodies and secured by one of these very bone-pins we have found; making their rude repast of a boar which they had hunted down in the surround- ing forest, and the flesh of which they may have boiled in one of their coarse earthen pots, of which we have found such numerous fragments,—flayed too, probably, with those bone-knives which have thus strangely come down to us; poor creatures, who lived and died so long ago, that no Hume has chronicled the career of their race, and who probably had perished ere Cesar came to conquer: picture their condition of want, privation, and hardships, as compared with the plenty, the luxurious mode of living, and the high state of civiliza- tion which we now enjoy. What a contrast there is! But science does not sanction the play of the imagination, which is ever an un- safe guide. Well-ascertained facts and reliable observations are the data on which science rears the structures on which she plants her standards. But one can scarce refrain from speculation on a theme like this. In conclusion, I beg to tender my warmest thanks to W. H. Ware, Esq., Ashes House, near Stanhope, who kindly permitted me to have the use of the relics until their history was made out, as far as can be done; and also to thank Mr. Richard Cordner, Crawley House, near Stanhope, for the interest he took in the matter, in generously sending men to carry on the explorations.* West Croft, Stanhope, March 29th, 1862. GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. Br Tuomas Grinpiey, Esq., oF GLOSSOP. While almost every week increases our knowledge of the geology of distant parts of the earth, there is one small island in the British seas, famed for its picturesque beauty, and peculiarly interesting on account of its historical associations, of the geological features of which very little is known, and even that little scarcely ever referred to in geological treatises. This may have arisen mainly from the * These further most interesting discoveries were kindly forwarded to me by Mr. Elliott with this letter, accompanied by plans—Ep. GEOL. 172 THE GEOLOGIST. fact of there having been as yet no official survey of this island; while those portions of the geological series represented in the Manx rocks having been typically established from other localities, it did not seem to present geological features sufficiently novel or peculiar to require any special investigation. Still, in the earlier years of the science, several eminent geologists did describe, with greater or less minuteness, some of its geological appearances: for example, Profes- sor B. Forbes, who wrote a short account of Manx geology for one of the local guide-books; and a much more elaborate account was written by the Rev. J. G. Cumming, F.G.S., and published in 1848 ; but the rapid progress of the science, while it does not deprive these descriptions of all value, has in a great measure superseded them, and opened here a wide and almost untrodden field for the modern geologist. Having for several years resided on the island, and being convinced that many of the phenomena presented by the Manx rocks, if not altogether new to the geologist, are yet of remarkable interest, and capable of taking a great part in the solution of many of the problems which geologists are now endeavouring to solve, I have written the following brief account, with the view of diffusing, through the pages of the ‘ Geologist,’ a more general knowledge of the geology of the Isle of Man, and in the hope of attracting to the subject that at- tention which it deserves. Approaching the shores of the Isle of Man from the south-east, the whole of the island, with the exception of a sinall part of the north- west, too low to be distinguished at this distance, lies spread out be- fore us; first, like a long ridge of blue cloud resting upon the misty horizon, which, as the vessel brings us nearer, shapes itself into the mountains and valleys, the rocky coasts and the secluded bays, of green Mona. Right before us opens out the beautiful bay of Dou- glas, hemmed in by the lofty headlands of Douglas Head and Banks’s Howe, and relieved in the background by the highest peaks of the central range. Along the margin of the crescent-shaped bay, and capping the lofty ancient beach to the back of it, are numerous ele- gant buildings, the suburbs of the town, which itself hes clustered on a low triangular patch of alluvial land at the south extremity of the bay. Far away to the south we can distinguish in the distance the rocky islet of the Calf, with its numerous outliers, many of them worn by the waves of older seas into huge arches and long winding caverns, through which we may occasionally, even at this long way off, catch a glimpse of the bright sunlight. Between us and the Calf stretches a long line of rocky coast, with numerous tall promon- tories—Spanish Head, Scarlet Head, Langness, St. Ann’s Head, and others—rising precipitously out of the green water, whose roar, as it dashes against the rocky cliffs or rushes up the numerous caverns, falls upon our ear like the hoarse voice of old Ocean himself welcom- ing to the sea-girt gem before us. To the north, we look along a similar line of tall cliffs and sheltered bays, until the view is closed in by the wild promontory of Maughold Head, beyond which nothing is seen but the heaving restless sea, dotted here and there, it may be, GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. tyes; with a few fishing-boats, or darkened, perhaps, by the smoke of some passing steamer. Behind this long line of wild and picturesque coast rise the mountains of the great central range, occasional breaks in the tall coastline, as at Laxey, permitting us to see at a glance their vast proportions from their very bases to their cloud-capped summits. Far away in the north we can discern the sharp-peaked Barrule, and close to it the rounded head of the giant Snafield, appear- ing and disappearing as the wind drives the silvery mist across its grassy sides. Nearer still, we may mark the successive peaks of Bein-y-Phot, Garrachan, and Greebah. Directly in our front rises the pointed head of South Barrule, while in the south the range is continued through the sharp outlines of Irey-na-Lhaa, and the long swelling ridges of the Mull Hills to the Calf itself. We gaze loug and earnestly on the glorious combination of the sublime and beauti- ful before us; but we rapidly close in with the shore—the dark cliffs tower higher above our heads, and cast a broader shadow over the clear green waves; and suddenly rounding the southern corner of the bay, we fire a gun, which is responded to from the shore, and al- most at once we are in the midst of the throng and bustle of a fashion- able watering-place. The general axis of the island is from N.E. to S.W.: within this line rise the highest peaks of the mountain-range, and along its sides lie the upturned edges of the Manx rocks. At two points in this central axis the granite appears at the surface, probably in con- sequence of the overlying rocks having suffered extensive denudation —near the head of the Dhoon river, about half-way between Laxey and Ramsey, and on the eastern side of South Barrule. Between the granites of these two localities there is an essential difference, the Dhoon granite being a syenite, and of a much finer and firmer texture than that of Barrule. The granite of the latter locality is extensively quarried for economical purposes. Resting upon the granite is a series of slaty rocks, which, as we recede from the central axis, passes regularly through the successive stages of mica-schist, clay-slate, and grauwacke-slate. Respecting the exact geological age of these rocks it is extremely difficult to speak, the few organisms hitherto found in them consisting chiefly of some imperfectly-preserved fucoids and corals—very uncertain guides. Still, taking into account the character of the lower portion of the series, Which 1s undoubtedly metamorphic, and the regular passage into the upper and fossiliterous portion—and, further, from a compa- rison of the few fossils which have been found in this upper portion with those of other localities—it seems to be now admitted that the upper portion of these rocks is to be regarded as Lower Cambrian. One of the best-preserved of these organisms, obtained from the rocks of Douglas, and now in my own collection, has been lately identified by an eminent paleontologist as generically the same with an unnamed fucoid from the Cambrians of North Wales. These schists attain an enormous vertical development, probably not less than from 7000 to 10,000 feet. Their superficial development is also, 174 THE GEOLOGIST‘. very extensive, extending over more than three-fourths of the whole island. Their strike is within a few degrees of N.E. and 8.W.— that is, parallel to the mountain-range—but the direction and inten- sity of their dip is very various. Sometimes they dip seaward, as in the north of Douglas Bay; at other places they dip landward, as in the south of Douglas Bay; and in other localities, again, they dip in an intermediate direction, as in about the centre of Douglas Bay. The average intensity of the dip of these rocks is very great. At Dou- , glas it varies from about 70° to 90°. At Langnessit is from about 60° to 80°; and at Port St. Mary, still further south, it is almost equally great. At the foot of Garrachan, in the centre of the island, it is from 50° to 60°. Upon these and numerous other similar data I have founded my estimate of the thickness of these rocks. Their composition and texture is also very varied. In contact with the granite, they are “completely metamorphosed, passing regularly through the stages of a gneissose rock and mica-schist into clav- and grauwacke-schist.” In the centre of the island they are chiefly mica- slate; near Peel they form a good roofing-slate; at Spanish Head they are so fibrous and tough as to be extensively quarried in lengths of six or eight feet for piles, door-posts, chimney-pieces, etc.; and about Douglas they become hard and splintery, and are much used for building purposes. In most of these rocks the cleavage is very imperfectly developed, and in others it does not appear at all. These rocks are exceedingly rich in metals—copper, lead, silver, zine, etc., being obtained. Several veins of lead and copper are profitably worked. The mines at Laxey, about halfway between Douglas and Ramsey, are especially noted. The vein runs nearly north and south, and “ contains copper-ore, lead-ore rich in silver, varying from eighty to a hundred and twenty ounces in the ton of lead,” and an ore of zine, locally termed “ Black Jack.” To drain these mines a monster wheel, 72 feet 6 inches in diameter, stated to be the largest wheel of the kind in the world, is employed. Another mine, nearly equally important in its operations, is worked at Foxdale, near Peel. The lead obtained from this locality also contains a large amount of silver, though not nearly so much as is obtained from the Laxey ore. A third very extensive mine for copper and lead is worked on Brada Head, about one mile from Port Erin, in the 8.W. of the island; and numerous other mines of greater or less impor- tance have been in operation at different times. Many of these are now abandoned, but it is more from the lack of funds than from the exhaustion of the metals. This want of necessary funds has also prevented the opening of new veins of great richness which are known to exist. Whether the quartz-rocks associated with this series contain gold is a question of practical importance which we do not here pretend to solve. Having, however, a due regard to the generalizations of Sir Roderick Murchison respecting the gold-bear- ing rocks, and to the experience of the last few years in various parts of the world, especially in North Wales and other parts of the British Islands, it seems to us as not at all improbable that a careful search GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 175 by practical men would be rewarded by the discovery of gold in re- munerative quantities. Garnets, of a small size, are found at Greeba. Resting upon the upturned edges of the older schists are found, on both sides of the island, some very interesting deposits of the Devo- nian period. Of the intervening Silurian beds but few traces now remain’among the Manx rocks. Of their former existence, however, we have satisfactory proof in the fact that water-worn pebbles of Silurian age, containing characteristic fossils, enter largely into the composition of the overlying Old Red, particularly near Peel. The Devonian rocks lie unconformably upon the underlying Cambrian schists. At Langness, where this unconformability of the two series of rocks is beautifully exhibited, while their strike 1s almost identical, their dip is opposed—the schists dipping 8.E. at a high angle, and the overlying Old Red dipping N.W. at an angle, in this place, almost equally high. They attain their greatest development to the north of the central ridge near Peel, being there several hundred feet thick, — principally of a workable sandstone. The venerable castle and a great part of the town of Peel are built of it; but it forms a very indifferent building material, being very soft, and decomposing rapidly by the action of the atmosphere. It is in the southern basin, however, near the ruins of Rushen Abbey, and along the west coast of Langness, that the rocks of this formation present their most in- teresting features, and where their relations to the underlying schists and the overlying limestone can be best observed. Proceeding along the western shore of Langness, the schists, here of a deep claret colour, are seen underlying the Old Red, and dipping inland (S.E.) at a high angle, much contorted; while the Old Red itself dips sea- ward (N.W.) at an angle equally high. The junction of the Old Red with the overlying limestone is not well developed in this locality, still by a little careful management it may be traced in the north-eastern corner of the bay, and the direction and intensity of their dip may be seen to be identical. The Old Red, as developed in this locality, is a coarse conglomerate of quartz and other pebbles, many of them of considerable size, enclosed in a red clayey matrix. It attains a considerable thickness, but, so far as my own observations extend, contains no fossils. It is possibly the equivalent of the conglomerate beds of the typical “ Old Red” of Herefordshire, etc. Further inland, near the ruins of Rushen Abbey, founded in 1184 by the Cistercian monks of Furness, we may trace the passage of the Devonian beds into the overlying Carboniferous limestone with greater accuracy. The conglomerate has here lost its characteristic red colour, and appears as a thin bed of very small white quartz pebbles in a limy matrix, enclosing the characteristic fossils, princi- pally Orthis Sharpei, of the lowest Carboniferous rocks. About a mile higher up the Silverburn, near Athol Bridge, the passage of this grey conglomerate into the dark limestones and shales of the lower Carboniferous beds may be distinctly traced. The same appearances are also very clearly seen in ascending the Brough, a low hill over- looking the romantic valley of the Santonsburn, about two miles 176 THE GEOLOGIST. N.. of Castletown, where the Old Red is seen resting unconform- ably upon the slaty schists as a conglomerate of quartz and Silurian pebbles, enclosed first in a deep red clayey matrix, then in a grey calcareous one, and then passing conformably into the dark lime- stone above. Resting conformably upon the Old Red conglomerate are the lower beds of the Carboniferous limestone, and with such regularity does the transition take place, that the characteristic fossils of the one formation are found mingled with those of the other. The Carboni- ferous limestone is now found only in the south of the island, but it formerly existed in the north, near Peel; and there is evidence of its continuance below low-water mark off the Peel coast. In the south it covers an area of about twelve square miles, com- prehending the whole of the S.E. corner of the island from Coshna- hawin, near the mouth of the Santonsburn, round the coast to Per- wick Bay, a little south of Port St. Mary, thence along a line of fault inland to Athol Bridge, and from Athol Bridge to Coshnahawin Head, with the exception of the southern extremity of Langness. Through- out the whole of this extensive area the limestone immediately under- lies the superficial covering of Drift clay, etc., and in this locality, particularly along the coast from Coshnahawin Head to Port St. Mary, the phenomena of limestone deposits may be studied with great adventage. The differences of composition, texture, and colour among the different limestone beds of this area are very great. Thus at Derby- haven and Port St. Mary on the coast, and at Ballasalla in the inte- rior, the limestone is very dark in colour, extremely hard, and makes a remarkably useful lime for agricultural and other purposes ; while the limestone from Poolvash, in the centre of the basin, is very light coloured, rather soft, and is not equally convertible into lime. In other parts it is altered by the intrusion of Trap rock into a pure dolomite, as at Searlet and Strandhall. In the N.E. corner of Cas- tletown Bay it is of a brown arenaceous character, and highly erystal- lized in texture. A comparison of the fossil contents of these beds also indicates great differences in the physical conditions under which they were deposited. In the dark-coloured limestone of Derby- haven, ete., organic remains are comparatively rare, while in the light-coloured they are, in most places, so numerous as to form fully two-thirds of the substance of the rock itself, and to give it its cha- racteristic light colour. Out of a list of 222 species of Manx Car- boniferous fossils published by Mr. Cumming, only 76 species are found in the lower or dark limestone, while 153 are found in the upper or light-coloured beds. Further, these two series of rocks “have comparatively few species in common, and those which are common are mostly such as have a great vertical range.” Out of the 222 species collected by Mr. Cumming, only 30 or 7-4 of the whole are common to the two series of rocks. Hence Mr. Cumming, when investigating these beds in 1848, was led to divide the lower member of the Manx Carboniferous rocks into two groups—the upper : a a G | : GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 177 or light-coloured limestone of Poolvash, and the lower or dark- coloured limestone of Derbyhaven, etc. The list of the Manx Car- boniferous fossils upon which this subdivision of the Manx limestone into two groups is principally based, is of course very far from being complete; we have in our own collection several not included in it, and undoubtedly a more careful search would disclose many more ; while several designated in it as species have since been reduced to the condition of mere varieties. Yet, on the whole, it is a trust- worthy record, and the minute observations accompanying it are carefully made and generally accurate; we feel, therefore, no diffi- culty in accepting this proposed division of the lower portion of the Manx Carboniferous limestone into at least two distinct groups. Subsequent to the deposition of the Poolvash beds a great change seems to have taken place in the physical condition of this part of the southern basin. The strata were violently disturbed along a line of fault parallel, or nearly so, with the present coast-line, and a consi- derable outburst of trap took place, which has greatly altered the underlyirg limestone, in some places converting it into pure dolomite. The extreme violence of this outburst, however, seems to have soon abated, after which the voleanic ash was poured out so quietly as not to interfere to any great extent with the ordinary operations of organic life—organic remains being found imbedded in it as regu- larly as in the limestone. At the same time that this submarine eruption was thus forming in one part of the basin a thick bed of voleanic ash, a deposit of black carbonaceous mud was also being formed in another part, and these two dissimilar sources by ming- ling have formed a very curious and interesting rock, one or other of the two ingredients predominating according to the varying cir- cumstances of the case. “At one period the carbonaceous deposit seems to have entirely prevailed ; perhaps the volcanic action entirely ceased, gathering strength for a subsequent eruption. The bed then formed has its own lithological character and fossils; it is the black Poolvash marble.’ After a time, however, this period of quiet de- posit was abruptly terminated, and the volcanic action renewed with increased violence ; the trappean and mixed beds already formed were violently broken up, reduced to a fragmentary condition, and mixed up with a fresh outpouring of volcanic matter; and a sort of “trap breccia’? was formed, in which the imbedded fragments of the older rocks are considerably altered by heat. Such is a brief and very imperfect account, agreeing mainly with Mr. Cumming’s, of a remarkably interesting series of rocks over- lying the Manx Carboniferous limestone. Commencing near the Siack of Scarlet, a huge mass of columnar basalt, insulated at high water and forming the S.W. horn of Castletown Bay, stretching along the south coast to Poolvash Bay, a distance of about two miles, they include, in addition to the imbedded limestone of pure or mixed origin, almost every variety of igneous trap, from the light porous ash to the hard columnar basalt, and present an appearance wild and rugged beyond description. ayer Is. VW; 2A 178 THE GEOLOGIST. The strike of the underlying limestone is nearly due north and south, and the dip is to the west, at a generally low angle. In some places the tuff underlies the “ black marble,” sometimes 1t overlies it: in some places again they are interstratified, while in others they form beds of a mixed character. In all, the characteristic fossils are found. The black marble is remarkable as containing the only traces of coal-plants found on the island, several species of terns, calamites, and lepidodendra having been found init. This marble admits of a high polish, and is extensively quarried for architectural and other purposes. Here the palozoic series of the Isle of Man terminates. From these rocks, evidently belonging to the lower beds of the coal- measures, to the clays and gravels of the Pleistocene group, there is a great gap, which we have little hope of ever being able to fill; either the intervening deposits have never had an existence here, which is the more probable, or else they have been completely de- nuded and no trace of them now remains. Of the history of this vast period we are not, however, altogether ignorant, several of the numerous faults and dykes found in different parts clearly belonging to it; and we are thus, by tracing their effects, able to gather a few meagre particulars respecting the nature of operations which would otherwise have escaped all notice. Crossing these tufaceous beds and parallel to them are trap dykes, which in their passage through them and the subjacent limestone have greatly dislocated and contorted the strata. The interesting question thus arises, what effect, if any, these igneous intrusions had upon these beds? Again, in the north of the peninsula of Langness there is an enormous development of greenstone, and the peninsula is crossed in all directions by numerous greenstone dykes, one of them more than forty feet broad, where it emerges from under the schists. The peninsula itself is a mass of Cambrian schists, once undoubtedly covered by Devonian and Carboniferous deposits, but of which its central and eastern parts are now completely de- nuded. What connection was there between these igneous intrusions and the elevation of the peninsula, one consequence of which was the denudation of these later beds? But leaving these and many other similar speculations respecting the possible or probable effects of the numerous faults and dykes which cross many parts of the island hke network, we come to notice more particularly a great line of fault which has undoubtedly played a conspicuous part in the later geological history of the island. This great fault extends from Per- wick Bay, half a mile south of Port St. Mary, in a north-eastwardly direction, through Port St. Mary, Strandhall, and Athol Bridge, and cuts off abruptly all the Devonian and Carboniferous rocks. To the north-west of this line are the Cambrian schists, dipping, at an angle of varying intensity, to the south. To the south-east of it are the lower beds of the Carboniferous limestone, dipping, at a very low angle, to the east. The uplift is consequently to the north-west of this line. Its value cannot, with the scanty facts respecting it in our possession, be accurately estimated; but it must have been very GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 179 great, as it includes the whole of the Manx Carboniferous series, the Devonian conglomerate, and a considerable portion of the underlying schists. Subsequent to the production of this great fault, in w hat- ever portion of the missing series it took place, a great ‘denuding force passed over the island, sweeping away the whole of the uplifted rocks to the north of the fault, and reducing both its sides to the same uniform level. Of this long-continued period of denudation, we have additional evidence in various other parts of the island ; on Lang- ness, in the neighbourhood of Coshnahawin Head, ete., and particu- larly in the neighbourhood of Douglas Bay, where we have developed the uppermost beds of the clay-schists, contaiming fossils which iden- tify them with equivalent strata in other localities; these show dis- tinctly marks of very extensive denudation. It is highly probable that the granite on the east side of Barrule was laid bare at that epoch, granitic pebbles appearing for the first time, so far as is known, in the Pleistocene gravels. That this denudation took place before the deposition of the Pleistocene beds, we have the most distinct proof in these beds resting in an undisturbed position along the line of the great fault. The superficial deposits of the Isle of Man are, in many respects, peculiarly well developed, and at the present time are remarkably in- teresting. We have first a very thick deposit of boulder-clay, con- taining numerous boulders of quartz, etc., occasionally of large size; this is succeeded by alternating beds of sand and gravel, enclosing enormous boulders of both native and foreign extraction. Connected with these beds are two series of remarkable low hills, one in the south of the island extending from the mouth of the Santon’s Burn, in a south-west direction, towards the mountain-range, and the other, northerly, stretching “ from Point Cranstal to Blue Head.” Their general direction is almost parallel to the central range, and also to the direction of the glacial currents, as exhibited by the groovings and scratchings in the underlying rocks. They consist of the clay, sand, and gravel of the Boulder formation, in the usual order: first, the clay of the colour of the underlying rocks, and containing frag- ments of them partially rounded ; then sandy gravel, much of which is of foreign origin; and lastly, the Drift gravel, often enclosing large boulders of limestone, granite, etc. This order is well developed in the banks of the Silverburn, near the Creggans. Mount Strange, or Hango Hill, as it is more commonly called, at the head of Castletown Bay, is another interesting relic of the Boulder- clay formation. It rises about twenty feet above high-water, and consists of the Drift- clay enclosing numerous boulders of limestone, granite, quartz, etc., many of large size. I measured one, of dark-coloured limes stone, probably from Derbyhaven, and found it almost three feet across each way. lLalso obtained from the clay at this spot, a number of shells of the Boreal type, mostly in good preservation. This cliff is crowned with the ruins of the old place of execution, three fragments of the walls of which still remain, built of limestone, about a foot anda half thick. It is rapidly wasting away, and at the present rate a few 180 THE GEOLOGIST. years will witness its complete destruction. Some very interesting historical associations are connected with this spot, and the readers of Scott will regard it with increased interest when they remember that William Christian, of Ronaldsmay, was shot here in 1662, for surrendering the island to Cromwell’s army. Tc this period also beloug the numerous natural arches and caves found along the coast ; probably, however, most of them belong mainly to the later portion of the Pleistocene age. They are found on all parts of the island, wherever the nature of the coast-line was favourable to their formation. Many of them run considerable dis- tances into the cliffs, frequently winding tortuously; in other in- stances they are merely deep straight chambers in the rocks. They are usually but little elevated above the existing high-water mark, and appear to contain only the ordinary shingle and sand of the neighbouring shore. The most remarkable of these arches and caves are those on the western side of Langness. The rocks there are greatly dislocated by the intrusion of several greenstone dykes, two of which intersect at this spot, and the strata thus weakened have yielded to the action of the waves, an extensive series of arches and caves having been the result. One of the most remarkable of these is an arch about twenty-six feet wide, fifteen feet high, and eighteen feet deep. The floor and walls are composed of slaty schists, here of a deep claret-colour, thrown up at a high angle, and much contorted by the neighbouring greenstone ; the roof is formed of the Old Red conglomerate, which is of the characteristic deep red colour, and rests almost horizontally upon the edges of the upturned schists. This arch stands a few feet above high-water mark, but it is evidently only the relics of what was once a vast cavern, extending far below the level of the sea. Its sides (the lower portion consisting of the con- torted schists, and the upper of the coarse conglomerate) extend seaward from thirty to forty yards beyond the arch itself, a great part of this being below high-water, and the partially enclosed space much encumbered with huge masses of fallen conglomerate, evidently the débris of the broken roof. Several others of the series equal, if they do not even exceed, this one in magnitude. One in particular, roughly measured by pacing, in its entire state would have been a cave fully sixty yards deep,—twenty yards of its depth being below high-water,—ten yards wide, and, at its upper end, eight yards high. At its upper extremity it is still covered with a root for about twenty- five feet, and its walls are there nearly thirty feet high, sloping thence down to the water. These caves and arches present many features of great interest, and are deserving of a fuller investigation. The occurrence also in this locality of the Cambrian schists, the Devonian conglomerate, and the Carboniferous limestone, in their characteristic positions, together with the numerous greeustone dykes, make Lang- ness, to the geologist, one of the most interesting spots to be found in the whole island; while the wild and rocky nature of its coast, and the many picturesque views to be obtained from it of the beau- tiful bay and neighbourhood of Castletown, cause it to be a favourite place of resort for both natives and visitors. GRINDLEY—GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN, 181 Another excellent locality for the study of these arches and caves, is the coast about the mouth of the Santon’s Burn, two miles N.E. of Castletown. As at Langness, the strata are much disturbed by the intrusions of greenstone, and, in consequence, several magnificent arches and a number of moderately-sized caves have been hollowed out in the rocks. Some interesting specimens may also be found at Port Soderic, a small inlet of great beauty about four miles south of Douglas; at Spanish Head and the Calf, where are some splendid grottos, and where the remarkable one called the “ Hye” deserves particular notice; also at Peel, where many small but interesting caves have been scooped out of the Old Red conglomerate. The organic remains found in these deposits are of the usual character. In the Boulder-clay, fragments of the bones of cetaceans, etc., have been found; and in the clays and sands, shells belonging to existing species are found in great abundance, “the most frequent species being Tellina solidula, Venus cassina, Astarte Scotica, and Turritella ter ebra.” The phenomena of the Drift period may.be well studied in the great valley which crosses the middle of the island, between Douglas and Peel, and in most of the side-valleys communicating with it, par- ticularly Spring valley and the valley of West Baldwin ; also in the flat districts of the north, and in many of the valleys of the south. In some of these localities, and especially in various parts of the great central valley, the successive elevations of the post-glacial sea- bettom may be very distinctly traced, until, in very recent times, it assumed its present level. In very recent times, geologically, the sea entered this valley at both its extremities, and it was drained finally by an alteration of the sea-level, which was probably the last that affected to any great extent the physical condition of the island ; an event which seems to have taken place within the traditional age, if the name of the former residence of the Duke of Athol—Port-e- chee, the haven of peace—or the assertion of the inhabitants of Dou- glas, that the land is even now gaining upon the sea, may be received as evidence. On the low alluvial land laid bare at the mouth of the Douglas by this latest alteration of sea-level, the old town of Douglas is built, and the imhabitants state that within memory the sea has retired a considerable distance, and that houses which, when built, were close to high-water mark, are now at some distance from it. So small was this uprise, and so inconsiderable is the elevation of this valley above the existing sea-level, that a very slight depression of the land would again cover it with the waters of the sea, and again divide the island into two or more portions. This valley is drained on its eastern declivity by the Douglas, and on its western by the Neb, both of which rise close beside each other near St. John’s, and so incon- siderable is the height of their sources, that the cutting away of a foot or two of turf in this spot, would cause the Neb to flow eastward to Douglas, or make the Douglas flow westward to Peel. In connection with these oscillations of sea-level, we may also notice the fact, that in the south of the island, near Strandhall, be- 182 THE GEOLOGIST. tween high- and low-water, is a bed of turf “about a foot thick, with the trunks of trees, chiefly ash and fir, standing upright, and their roots running down into the alluvial blue sandy marl. These roots may be traced for several feet, and it is plain that ‘here they lived and died.’”? Mr. Cumming states, in 1848, that he has in his pos- session one of these tree-stumps, bearing upon it “ marks ofa hatchet ;” and he further records, on what he considers unquestionable testi- mony, that during a violent storm in 1827, the sands at a spot alittle to the west of Strandhall were swept away, and a vast number of trunks, some erect and others overthrown towards the sea, were exposed, and that “the foundations of a primitive hut” were laid bare, together with some “ antique, uncouth-looking imstruments.” These facts, taken in connection with the traditions respecting the presence of the sea at Port-e-chee, are of the highest importance in their bear- ings upon the great question of the antiquity of the human race, and would, if properly authenticated, establish the fact of great physical changes having passed over the island during the human epoch. The subject is certainly deserving of further investigation. Additional evidence of these successive uprises of the land exists at different parts of the coast in the shape of ancient beaches and beds of gravel at various elevations. Good examples of both may be found in the neighbourhood of Douglas. The old town itself is built upon the last-raised beach, and in digging for building or other pur- poses, a considerable thickness of fine sand is passed through, identical with that now found on the adjacent shore, and often containing fragments of bones much decomposed. Behind this most recent of the raised beaches there rises to a considerable height all round the bay a much more ancient one, in some places consisting of the under- lying slaty schists, and in others—near Castle Mona, for instance— of thick beds of fine sand, similar to that composing the present beach. In the interior and in the north of the island, particularly at St. John’s, between Douglas and Peel, and at Ballaugh, between Peel and Ramsey, are extensive marl-beds, in which fragments, and occa- sionally whole skeletons, of the great Irish—or rather Manx elk, as it is asserted that the first specimen of this gigantic animal was disco- vered here, and not in Ireland—are found. The most perfect speci- men known was found in a marl-pit at Ballaugh, in 1819, at a depth of eighteen feet, and was presented by the Duke of Athol to the University of Edinburgh; a magnificent head and horns from the same place is now in the British Museum. These marls are full of fresh-water shells of existing species, and occasionally become a true shell-marl. Resting upon these marls, and filling up the hollows of most of the upland valleys, are extensive peat-bogs of great thickness. They contain great quantities of trunks of trees, principally pines and oaks, proving the fact—of which, indeed, we have frequent notice in Manx history—of the woody character of the island in former times. This peat, owing to the want of coal in the island, is of great value, and is very extensively used by the natives as fuel. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 183 Near Spanish Head the rocks are rent by twelve perpendicular fissures of unknown depth, opening out towards the sea, and dividing the headland into huge pyramidal and conical masses, “ which over- hang the shore,” and seem ready on the slightest disturbance to fall headlong into the waves beneath. “In one of these recesses, which penetrates many hundred yards into the solid rock, isa circle of erect stones, appearing to have been a Druidical temple, for which, from the solitude and sublimity of the situation, no place could be more appropriate.” These “chasms” are probably the effects of an earthquake in very early times. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. Grotoetcat Socrery oF Lonpon.— March 19.—The Papers were 1. ‘On the Sandstones, and their associated deposits, in the Valley of the Eden, the Cumberland Plain, and the South-east of Dumfriesshire.” By Prof. R. Harkness, F.R.S., F.G.S. Having defined the area occupied by these sandstones, breccias, clays, and flagstones, and referred to the published memoirs in which some notices of these deposits have been given by Buckland, Sedgwick, Phillips, and Binney, the author described, Ist, a section near Kirkby-Stephen, across the vale of the Eden, where two breccias, separated by sandy clay-beds, underlie sandstones of con- siderable thickness; 2ndly, a section across Eden Vale from Great Orm- side to Roman Fell, in which the breccias, associated with sandstones, form a mass 2000 feet thick, and are succeeded by thin sandstones, shales (with fossils), and thin limestone, altogether about 160 feet, and next by sandstones 700 feet thick. This is the typical section; the fossiliferous shales are regarded by Prof. Harkness as equivalent to the Permian Marl- slate of Durham; they contain (at Hilton Beck) remains of Conifere, Neuropteris, Sphenopteris, Weissites (?), Caulerpites selaginoides (?), Cu- pressites Ullinani (?), Voltzia Phillipsii (?), Cyathocrinus ramosus, and Terebratula elongata. The breccias and sandstone beneath, previously recognized as Permian, are here referred to the Rothlegende; and the sandstones above are regarded as belonging to the Trias. Detailed de- scriptions of the sandstones and breccias in the country between Great Ormside and Penrith were then given, and the gypseous character of the clays at Long Martin and Townsend noticed. In the section across the vale of the Eden from the west of Penrith to Hartside Fell, the Permian breccias, sandstone, and flags are nearly 5000 feet thick, but the clay series is poorly represented. North of Penrith the flagstones bear foot-marks (at Brownrigg) like those of Corncockle Muir. Mr. Harkness next de- scribed several sections of these Permian rocks in the western Westmore- land; and traced them to the other side of the Solway Forth, in Dum- friesshire (as described in former papers). Some remarks on the relations of the Permian beds of Cumberland and Westmoreland with those of St. Bee’s Head, near Whitehaven, and those of Annandale and Nithdale, concluded the paper. 2. “On the Date of the Last Elevation of the Central Valley of Scotland.” By Archibald Geikie, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. After alluding to the position and nature of the raised beach which, at the height of from 20 to 30 feet above the present high-water-mark, fringes the coast-line of 184 THE GEOLOGIST. Scotland, the author proceeded to describe the works of art which had been found io it. From their occurrence in beds of elevated silt and sand, containing layers of marine shells, it was evident that the change of level had been effected since the commencement of the human period. The character of the remains likewise proved that the elevation could not be assigned to so ancient a time as the Stone Period of the archeologist. The canoes which had from time to time been exhumed from the upraised deposits of the Clyde at Glasgow clearly showed that at the time when at least the more finished of them were in use, the natives of this part of Scotland were acquainted with the use of bronze, if not of iron. The remains found in the corresponding beds of the Forth estuary lkewise indicated that there had been an upheaval long after the earlier races had settled in the country, and that the mevement was subsequent to the employment of iron. From the Firth of Tay similar evidence was adduced to indicate an upheaval possibly as recent as the time of the Roman occu- pation. The author then cited several antiquaries who, from a considera- tion of the present position of the Roman remains in Scotland, had inferred a considerable change in the aspect of the coast-line since the earlier centuries of the Christian era. He pointed out also several circumstances in relation to these Roman relies, which tended to show a change of level, and he referred to the discovery of Roman pottery in a point of the raised beach at Leith. The conclusion to which the evidence led him was, that since the first century of our era the central parts of Scotland, from the Clyde to the Forth and the Tay, had risen to a height of from 20 to 25 feet above their present level. April 2, 1862.—The following communications were read :— 1. “On some Remains of Chiton from the Mountain-limestone of York- shire.” By J. W. Kirkby, Esq. These remains consist of eight separate plates of four species of Chiton, found by Mr. Burrow, of Settle, i the Lower Scar Limestone of that neighbourhood. These new species, determined by Mr. Kirkby, are Chiton Burrowianus, Kirkby, Ch. coloratus, Kirkby, two species unde- termined, and a trace of Chitonellus(?). These appear to be the first Chitons observed in the Carboniferous limestone of England ; but fourteen others, and a Chitonellus, have been found in strata of the same age in Belgium and elsewhere, and have been described by Minster, De Koninck, and De Ryckholt. 2. “On some Fossil Reptilia, of the Order Ganocephala, from the Coal-measures of the South Joggins, Nova Scotia.” By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.G.S. The specimens described in this communication were (together with remains of Xy/obius and Pupa) obtained by Dr. Dawson, F.G.S., in 1861, from two fossil stumps of trees, and were referred to in his communication read before the Society on November 6, 1861. Professor Owen has deter- mined among the specimens submitted to him the following small Reptilian forms—ITylonomus Lyelli, Dawson, H. aciedentatus, Dawson, H. Wymani, Dawson, Hylerpeton Dawsoni (nov. gen. et sp.), Owen, and Dendrerpeton Acadianum, Owen. 3. ‘On the Occurrence of Mesozoic and Permian Faune in Eastern Australia.” By the Rev. W. B. Clarke, F.G.S. Mr. W.P. Gordon having been requested by the Rev. W. B. Clarke to searcli for fossils in his neighbourhood (between the Balonne and Maranoa Rivers) and in the Fitzroy Downs, Queensland, was successful in making a large collection of specimens at the Wollumbilla Creek. These he sent to Mr. Clarke, who forwarded them to Professor M‘Coy, at Melbourne, PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 185 for his examination. They prove to be chiefly of Lower Mesozoic genera ; there are also a few (from the Fitzroy Downs, about thirteen miles to the N.W.) which belong to lower beds. Some fossils long since obtained from the Mantuan Downs (200 mies N. of Wollumbilla) prove to be of Per- mian character (Awlosteges or Strophalosia). Productus and Cyathocrinus (Carboniferous ?) have been met with on the Dawson River. Mr. Clarke considers his unfossiliferous Wianamatta Beds, above the coal-measures, near Sydney, as being probably the equivalent of the fos- siliferous strata at Wollumbilla Creek. Professor M‘Coy regards the latter as belonging to the same formation as the coal-beds with Glossopteris. The fossils are included in the Catalogue of the Products of New South Wales for exhibition in London in 1862. 4. “On the Footprint of an Zguanodon, lately found at Hastings.” By A. Tylor, Esq., F.G.S. After alluding to former accounts of fossil footprints (and natural casts of footprints) found in the cliffs near Hastings, and having stated that Dr. Harwood in 1846 suspected these prints to have been due to the Iguanodon, the author described a large three-toed footprint, 21 inches long, by 93 in-width, lately exposed by a fall at East Cliff. A cast of this print was exhibited by Mr. C. J. Mann. Mr. Tylor alluded to Pro- fessor Owen's figure of the bones of the three-toed foot of an Iguanodon as illustrative of a foot capable of producing such imprints as those re- ferred to. The author then showed, by a newly-constructed section of the Hastings coast, that the footprints occur in at least two zones of the Wealden beds,—one of them being just above the chief sandstone (or Castle Sandrock) of Hastings, and dippimg down to the west on the top of the Bexhill cliffs ; the other zone being about 100 feet below, as already pointed out by Mr. Beckles, near Lee Ness. Mecnantcs’ Institutz, RicHmMonp, YorKsSHIRE.—1st April._—Mr. Ed- ward Wood, F.G.S., the president of the Institute, delivered a lecture in the Town Hall on “ Coal, Coalpits, and Pitmen,” to a densely crowded audience. The lecture had been originally announced for the benefit only of the members of the institute, and to be given in their own room, but at the solicitation of the Mayor, Mr. Wood consented to deliver it in the Town Hall, for the benefit of all, whether members or not. The Mayor (Mr. G. Smurthwaite, jun.) took the chair. Mr. Wood commenced by a short but very telling description of the state of the globe prior to the time when the Carboniferous series was deposited, in the upper part of which the coal-measures are placed. These were then described, and the geographical conditions of the British region in the Coal-era. ‘‘ Our coal-fields,” said the lecturer, ‘‘ are so circumscribed that, if the consumption of coal goes on increasing in the same ratio that it has been doing of late, namely, doubling itself in twenty years, we shall exhaust all the workable coal in the British Isles in less than five hundred years hence. ‘This was a most important consideration, for how much of our country’s greatness did we not owe to coal? Besides our machinery (all driven by coal), we derived heat and light from it. And from coal also, our chemists, especially Professor Hoffman and Mr. Perkin, have lately learned to derive new and beautiful dyes—mauve, magenta, solferino, and others. Gas-tar was, till within a few years ago, considered worse than useless—to touch it was to be defiled ; but our chemists now extracted the sweetest of perfumes and the most elegant of colours, which, after being concealed in the earth’s recesses for countless ages pist, are now brought out bright enough to gladden the hearts of the cardinals at Rome, im- portant enough to have materially influenced the fashion-leaders of the day, WO. V: 2B 186 THE GEOLOGIST. and brilliant enough to give a lustre even to the cheek of beauty.” With the assistance of a ground-plan of colliery workings, Mr. Wood explained the wonders of a pit, with its upcast shaft, its downcast shaft, its furnaces, engines, its cages and its levels, the wonderful and yet simple history of its ventilation, the mode of winning the coal, the colliers as they worked. It is the habit too much, the lecturer said, to blame colliery proprietors for carelessness. He believed that great and vigilant care was used, if not alone from the sense of right and duty yet at all events from the fear of accidents, which were destructive to property in a manner ruinous in the extreme. Legislative interference was, he believed, too much and some- what ignorantly asked for. Our colliery population Mr. Wood estimated at 1,500,000, of whom 400,000 were men and boys actually employed in the pits. Mr. Wood described most feelingly and eloquently the daring and endurance of the men who, day after day, worked purely from the love for their fellow-men, to rescue their poor comrades at the late accident at Hartley. He then detailed with most engaging particularity the objects to be seen within the collier’s cottage, throughout which there was mar- vellous, almost painful, neatness and cleanliness. The collier’s wife never thinks of reducing her fire ; her room is always at a roastiig temperature ; and when at last nature can no longer stand it, she opens the door, and this constantly, be it winter or summer. Mr. Wood concluded his lecture with some very amusing anecdotes. MancueEster Grotocicat Socrety.— February 25.—The propriety of forming a local fund for the relief of widows dependent upon coal-miners Jalled or hurt, was the subject of some discussion. The papers read were :—1l. “On Mr. Aytoun’s Patent Safety Cage for Miners.” By Mr. J. J. Landale, Mining Engineer, Edinburgh. 2. ‘On the Gases met with in Coal-Mines, and the General Principles of Ventilation.” By J.J. Atkinson, Esq., H. M. Inspector of Mines for the South Durham district. Liverroot Geroroeican Socrery.—Marech 24th.—The _ president, Henry Duckworth, F.L.S., F.G.S., read a paper “On Flint Implements from the Drift; being a description of a visit to Amiens and Abbeville during the summer of 1861.” Mr. Duckworth did not discover any worked flints himself, but he exhi- bited several very characteristic specimens, some of them being obtained from the quarrymen, and others presented to him by Monsieur Boucher de Perthes and Monsieur Pinsard. Mr. Duckworth also exhibited a human skull, which he disinterred from the brick-earth bed, in what was stated to be a somewhat unusual position. The paper was illustrated by drawings of sections, ete. In conclusion, Mr. Duckworth remarked that in examining these Drift beds both at Amiens and Abbeville, but more especially at the former place, it seemed to him that they must have been deposited very rapidly. There is no evidence whatever, so far as he could judge, of any very slow or gradual formation; and the impression left upon his mind was that they have been produced by some sharp and sudden catastrophe. : “On the Strata of the Storeton Quarries, near Liverpool.” By G. H. Morton, F.G.S. _After referring to the Keuper formation as it oecurs near the town of Liverpool, the strata of Storeton (in Cheshire) were described as belonging to the lower part of that formation. The base is a conglomerate, several feet thick; strata of white and yellow sandstone with several beds of shale and marl sueceed, the thickness altogether being about 200 feet. About 130 feet from the base of the formation there is a bed or band of sandstone, three feet thick, with two or three seams of marl, and PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 187 many ripple-marked surfaces. It is only in this limited band that foot- prints of the Okeirotheriwm and four other much smaller reptilian impres- sions have been found; the only other trace of a fossil that has been discovered being the remains of an Kquisetiform reed at Flaybrick, a neighbouring locality in similar strata. Higher beds of the Keuper sand- stone occur towards the east of Liverpool, where thick strata of grey and red shales, with yellow and red sandstones, form the uppermost part of the Keuper on the Lancashire side of the Mersey. In Cheshire the over- lying “ Red Marl” can be seen reposing upon still higher strata, about Greasby and other villages in Wirral. The thickness of the whole of the Keuper formation near Liverpool is probably about 550 feet. Giascow GrotocicaL Socrety.—llth April.—About thirty of the members of the Glasgow Geological Society proceeded on their first ex- cursion of the season. The ground examined extends between Bowling and the river Leven. The heights above Auchentorlie House were found to be trappean ; a donsiderable platform of white sandstone in one spot, little affected by the surrounding igneous rocks, has been quarried for building purposes. Where the sandstone is contiguous to the trap, it 1s much altered. The excursionists next struck off in a north-westerly direc- tion, skirting the bold escarpment of tlre “‘ Lang Craig;” crossing the eastern branch of the Garshake Burn, they discovered a trap-dyke intersecting and exposing a seam of the peculiar thin-bedded grey limestone of the ‘ Bal- lagan”’ series of strata, evidently underlying the thick-bedded sandstone of the higher level. A short walk brought the party to Garshake Burn. Here a highly interesting section of shale, sandstone, and limestone, ap- pears for a considerable distance along the banks of the stream. Then the party proceeded to Auchenreoch Glen, still further west. This glen di- vides into two branches, the stream which threads it flowing into the Leven above Dumbarton, and the beautiful sections of strata exposed in its banks have long attracted the attention of geologists. The ‘** Gates of Sodom,” a vertical dyke of greenstone-porphyry cross- ing the course of the stream, which flows through a breach in this natural barrier, was aa object of remark, as was also a grotesque column of tu- faceous felstone, locally known as ‘‘ Lot’s Wife.” Other trap-dykes were found intersecting and disturbing the strata, and in the lower part of the glen a seam of fibrous gypsum was discovered in the shale. The course of the stream was then followed to the low ground, where the underlying Old Red sandstone was expected to appear, but the junc- tion could not be observed on account of the superincumbent drift. Some of the members now parted for Dumbarton, but some continued towards Bowling, and after viewing the junction of the Old Red with the “ Ballagan beds” in Dumbuck Glen, and visiting Dumbuck, finished with groping by moonlight for zeolitic minerals in Bowling quarry,—not without success. Grotocists’ AssociaTtion.—April 7, 1862.—Mr. Cresy read a paper “On some ancient skulls and flint-implements found in the Essex marshes during the progress of the Northern Outfall Sewer of the Metropolitan Main Drainage Works.” The three skulls exhibited were found along the line of the sewer, one on the east, and another on the west side of the River Lea, and the third, to which the greatest interest attached, in the East Ham marshes. 3 Sle TT = = eee Section in the Valley of the Seine. a@ a, high-level gravels; d, valley gravels; 7, present river-course ; e e, chalk-rock 77 situ. parts of England and France, two lines or zones of gravels or drift deposits are met with; one at from fifty to two hundred feet above the present streams, and usually forming a terrace: the other ranging along the bottom of the valleys. ‘The elevated terraces are portions of former valleys, wider and more shallow than the present ones, scooped out by other and different causes than mere ordinary river-action. They are above the reach of the highest floods, and no other mass of water than that flowing up an arm of the sea could fill them. The Seine, at its highest flood, has 190 THE GEOLOGIST. not exceeded twenty-nine feet, but it would require the present rivers to be of a hundred times that volume to fill the existing valley. That the terraces were originally connected is proved by the isolated patches of their gravels. still lying at elevated spots between them. The author believed that the gravels were brought and distributed by ice and by the melting of the winter snows in spring pouring down great bodies of water, the gravels enclosing boulders of hard rock, brought often from long dis- tances. He also attributed much importance to the action of ground ice. He pointed out contortions in the drift-bed at St. Acheul, as formed by the pressure and squeezing force of massive ice. The characters of the gravels were then considered, in reference to the climatal condition of the drift period, which the author argued were those of a more intense cold, | by 20° or 25°, than the average of our present winters. The bearings of the geographical distribution of the animals of that period, and its com- parison with those of existing forms of life, were also assumed to confirm this inference. The use assigned for some of the largest flint implements was that of making holes in the ice,—the men of the drift-age, like the North-American Indians and the Esquimaux, being very often depen- dent upon winter supplies of fish. Since the formation of the high- level gravels, an elevation of the land has taken place, and the present valleys excavated, and the lower gravels deposited. The tendency of existing rivers was to cut deep gorges, and not valleys, with sloping sides, such as those containing the gravels. The large flint implements were no- where so abundant in the valleys as in the terrace-gravels. Flint-flakes, on the contrary, were most common in the valley-gravels,—the climate of the valley-period bemg more lenient, there was a diminished need of great flint chisels for breaking the ice. These distributions, at two periods, of different forms of implements indicated a difference in the habits of the tribes by whom they were respectively used. In the questions of time and succession the value of probabilities must be considered. The antiquity of the flints was carried back through three geological ages,—the loéss, terrace, and valley-gravels; all long periods except the loéss, the duration of which was comparatively short. The sand-pipes in the valley of the Somme were first considered as a standard of time-measurement ; and then the author commented upon the probable condition, at those periods, of the British Channel, the formation of which, while a late geological event, he was not prepared to admit to be one of the last. Even in the Pleistocene period the British Channel existed, although much narrower, and there was a line of cliffs running parallel with the present coasts. The sea being narrower, was frozen over every winter, permitting the passage of men and animals. Some of the great effects of such a cold period might already be conceived, although it might not be in our power as yet to accurately define them. In looking at a distant mountain-chain we could judge of its great magnitude without waiting for a trigonometrical survey to be assured of its exact dimensions. The author then suggested as a possible measure of time the perturbations in the increasement of heat at various depths in the earth’s crust, arising from disturbances originating with the glacial period; and he concluded by giving his impression that in the existence of this remarkable cold period preceding our own, we might possibly trace evidence of great and allwise design by the circumstance that, in this long glacial era, the earth’s crust would tend to acquire an earlier adjustment in its equilibrium, and obtain a rigidity and stability which should make it more fitting for the habitation and pursuits of civilized man. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 191 FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. M. G. de Mortillet has published* a map of the ancient glaciers of the Italian flanks of the Alps, in which the former greater extension of the glaciers in the quaternary period and their present retracted limits are marked out. The space occupied by these glaciers extended to the valley of the Stura, near to the Col de Tende, as far as the environs of Udine. The author believes that the lakes on the southern flank of the Alps have been scooped out of the soft rocks by the grinding action of the glaciers. The résumé of his theories is, that after the last upheaval of the Alps there were formed enormous deposits of horizontally stratified alluvium, which attained great thickness. These alluvial beds exist above and below the large Italian lakes; over them repose the glacial beds, with striated pebbles and unrolled erratic blocks. This deposit has been left by the glaciers, which then advanced more or less over the plain. ‘These glaciers, in clearing out the great basins filled with the ancient alluvium, have scooped the site of the present valley. They drove before them the mate- rials which they brought down, and these were heaped up in their terminal moraines. The alluvial beds deposited during the great extension of the glaciers, have formed a continuation of the ancient alluvium, and during the period of retreat the streams of water have deeply excavated the ante- rior or older deposits. They have scooped longitudinal terraces, which border their present courses, and have not been able to fill up the great depressions which now are the lakes. An “ Essai sur les Conditions générales des Couches a Aviculu contorta, sur la constitution géologique et paléontologique spéciale de ces mémes couches en Lombardie, et sur la constitution définitive de lKtage Infra- Liasien,” by the Abbé Stoppani, has been published in Milan (4to, 1861). Tt is divided into three parts—the first containing bibliographical notices, or rather an historical réswmé of the study of the beds forming the horizon of the Avicula contorta, followed by a description of the characters of these beds, and an indication of their thickness. In England they appear to be very thin; on the northern flanks of the Alps they are some twelve métres thick ; while in Lombardy they attain to eight hundred or a thousand feet. Their geographical area is of considerable extent; they are met with in England, Ireland, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, Westphalia, Luxemburg, in the departments of the Moselle and the Meurthe, Cote d’Or, Yonne. Rhone, Cévennes, Savoy, Switzerland, in the Vorarlberg, and at other points in the chain of the Alps as far as Hungary—everywhere forming a convenient and decided band. The second part of the Essay gives a more special de- scription of these Avicula contorta beds in Lombardy, where they have previously been studied by Collegno, Escher, and Omboni. In the third part the author shows that, on paleontological grounds, these beds must be placed in the Jurassic series, and that they are sufficiently important and sufficiently clearly separated from the beds above and below them to form a separate division, which he terms the Htage Infraliasien. He indicates exactly the synonyms of other countries, the principal of which are the beds of Keessen in Austria; the ‘‘ Bone-bed” and White Lias in Hngland ; the ‘‘Cloae”” of Wurtemberg ; the sandstone of Helmsingen and of Leve- lange, in Luxemburg; the sandstone of Hettange; the zone of Ammonites planorbis and A. angulatus of M. Oppel; the limestone of Halberstadt ; * Atti della Soc. Italiana de Se. Nat. in Milano, 1861, t. iii. | 192 THE GEOLOGIST. the limestone of Valognes; the “chéin batard” of Lyon; the “ foie de veau” of Bourgogne; the Sinemurien in part of D’Orbigny; the “ qua- trieme étage” of the Lias of D’Archiac; the upper dolomite of Lombardy, ete. In the tabular view which the author gives, the tage Infraliasien is placed below the zone of Ammonites Bucklandi, and is formed in the following manner :— 1. Zone of Ammonites angulatus. 2. Zone of Ammonites planorbis. 3. Zone of Terebratula gregaria. 4. Zone of Bactryllium, reposing on THE KBUPER. Henceforth, if the author’s views are correct, these Avicula contorta beds would serve as the lower limit of the Jurassic formation, and will form a datum line of great importance in studying the geology of the Alps. The Essay appears to be an extract from the excellent memoir by the Abbé, “The Paleontology of Lombardy.” M. Morlot has given an aceount, in the ‘ Indicateur de Suisse,’ of the finding of a part of a nodule of pyrites amongst the remains of the lake- dwellings of the Stone-age at Robenhausen by M. Messikommer, which was furrowed by striking it against some hard substance, probably for the purpose of obtaining fire. Many fragments of pyrites have previously been found at the same place and at Wangen. Another specimen, as large as the first, and evidently used for the same purpose, has recently also been found by M. Engelhardt, amongst a great number of different antiquities, dating from the earliest ages to our own era, in a peat-bed at Sonder Brarup, in Denmark. NOTES AND QUERIES. Cuttine Diamonps.—There still seem to be, in the minds of most per- sons, some wrong notions relative to the manner of cutting diamonds, and especially this is the case in London. Although several notices and de- scriptions of diamonds have appeared in various serials and magazines of late, none of them describe the process of cutting, except in such a vague and unintelligible manner as to impress upon the minds of readers a simi- larity of the method of cutting, to that of other stones. The principle, it is true, is somewhat the same, but the operation is distinctly different. It is also generally stated, that the workmen have such a very perfect know- ledge of the crystallography of the diamond as to enable them to cleave it very readily. The fact is they know nothing whatever of crystallogra- phy,—at least as a rule,—and only cleave the erystals by experience. As to why a diamond should cleave in a certain direction, they cannot tell, nor could they explain why they strike it on one particular spot in order to do so. It is also generally stated that diamonds are cut on the prin- ciple of “ diamond cut diamond,” two crystals being rubbed together till a facet is produced. They are certainly rubbed together to get them a little into shape; but how? If the reader rub two erystals of diamond together, he will find that he hardly makes an impression on either; but if the stones are inserted in metal and attached to a holder, and these held in the hands, which are rested on a bench, the thumbs towards each other, then it will be found that the mechanical power or leverage obtained is very great, even suflicient to crumble and break such hard material as NOTES AND QUERIES. 193 diamond ; but this process must be seen to be perfectly understood. The fragments and dust crushed off fall into a metal sieve, which separates the smaller from the larger particles ; both are used for cutting and polishing purposes,—the larger, under the name of splint, for engraving stone seals, drilling, and slitting; the finer particles, after being beaten in a steel mortar of the required fineness, for the cutting of diamonds. Diamond boart, which is the massive opaque variety, is also used for the same pur- poses as splint. The impure crystals having sharp cutting angles are used by glaziers: these are of no value as gems. With regard to cutting, it is generally stated that the diamond is first imbedded in fusible metal, the reason why is not given; but it is as fol- lows :—In cutting diamonds the soft iron wheel, which is charged with diamond powder and oil, revolves with such amazing rapidity, either by steam or some other power, that if the diamond were merely attached to cement, as rubies, sapphires, and all other stones are, to be cut, the heat caused by the friction would melt or soften the cement so that it would be impossible to cut it; but the heat generated by the wheel revolving is not sufficient to melt the metal. The smallest rose diamonds, even of 800 to the carat, or 200th of a grain weight each, have thus to be placed in fusible metal. Of these, as also small brilliants, three or more are cut at onetime. The wheels for cutting other stones than diamonds revolve at the rate of from 100 to 300 times in a minute. Another peculiarity in the process of cutting diamonds is the polishing. This is effected on the same wheel and almost at the same time as the cutting, and with the same material—crushed diamond. No other stone is so cut and polished at the same time. Some have two or three polish- ing materials, which are always much softer than the stone to be cut. These few remarks on cutting diamonds will be, I think, understood, although it is a process that ought to be seen to enable any one completely to appreciate the difference in the respective physical characters and mineralogical peculiarities of the diamond in respect to other stones.— Jamis R. GrucGory, 25, Golden Square, London. SEPARATION oF THE IstE or WieHt.—Sir,—You are of course well aware of the famous passage in Diodorus Siculus (lib. v: cap. 22), which is now interpreted by Sir G. C. Lewis and the latest German philologists as referring, not to St. Michael’s Mount, but the Isle of Wight. There ine writer expressly says that in his time the passage at low water was ry. Now we have in this neighbourhood, of which you may not be aware, various traditions to the same effect, such as that the Cistercian monas- tery of Beaulieu was built of Binstead stone, brought across from the Isle of Wight in carts at low tides. I. I should be glad to know if these assertions have any truth in them, and to what period you date the separation of the Isle of Wight, between Calshot Point and Hurst Castle, from the mainland ? Ii. Can you refer me to any good book or article on the subject ? Your constant reader, Lymington, Hants. W. B. H. Geotogicat Tasies.—The Synoptical Tables of British Geology in use by Professor King, of Galway, having been highly thought of by teachers of our science, we are happy to be able, through the Professor’s kindness, to present our readers with a new edition, which he has revised and cor- rected up to the present time, expressly for this magazine.—Ep. Got. von. V. 2 C SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF BRITISH AQUEOUS ROCK-GROUPS, ARRANGED IN THEIR ORDEI *,.* Hach Group represents a Geological Perio) Taking the smallness of its area into consideration, no country equals hans in the extent of illustrating the peoloatel : - onthe Continent. In North America the Secondar! CLASSES. SYSTEMS.” FORMATIONS.—Maring Typrs. } Deposits now forming around the shores of the British Islands. ; i POST-PLEISTOCENE | (Or Post-Pliocene)—Lyell. Blackpool (Lancashire) Shell-sands. - Belfast low-level (British) Shell- clays, Devonshire Raised Beaches. " " "2 Portrush Shell-gravel. Kelsey (near Hull) Marine Shell-sands, with Corbicula flwminalis. Howth (near Dublin) Cytherea Chione, Gravel. | PLEISTOCENE—Tyell English Midland sub-Arctie Shell- gravels. “Wicklow and Antrim Shell-clays. (Glacial—Forbes). ? Selsea (Sussex Levels) “‘ Yellow Drift-clay’”” (Godwin-Austen). ° ° ° . o ° ° e . e 2 8 Lanarkshire (Arctic) Shell-clays. : a Sy pe | PLIOCENE—Lyell. Norwich Crag. gree and Chillesford Shell-clay 2 Contains more (a large num- ia: ie ma 8 ber) existing sp. of shells | Walton Naze (Essex) B Red Crag. | Wexford Shell-gravel. Fag than occur in the two next 7 eg eee sor se <6 ea Sa = antecedent Systems. Suffolk Crag. ie) | MIOCENE—Lyeil. | Contains a less number of (Not known in British Isles: possibly swept off by denudation. Occurs existing sp. than the Plio- in France, Germany, Belgium, etc.) cene. EOCENE—Lyell. © Barton Clay. TheearliestSystemcontain-| . ....... ing living (few) species of | Bracklesham Clay. shells,—the AW OL ORS Mam en Bart ee ence rae ee isting testaceous life, London Clay and Thanet Sands. P|) jeemcepna, || Cee eee ae TS Characterized by Chalk South of England Chalk. Antrim “ White Limestone.’ bas (creta) rocks. ee Ne ee eS Gel hd CS EOM OG aed! Go| | = Gault, and Wiltshire (‘“‘ Upper”) Greensand. Antrim ‘‘ Mulatto Stone.’ 8 & § FAS oe | NEOCOMIAN. Atherfield (Isle of Wight) clay. oye deposits occur at eufchatel (Veocomum) in Switzerland. (The lowest marine portion of this System appears not to be developed in British Isles.) * The student is strongly recommended to commit the column of * Systems” fo memory. JF SUPERPOSITION AND IN CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE. By Professor Wint1am Kine. if Time, the Laurentian being the Oldest. ecords of our Earth: with a few exceptions (Miocene) it contains all the Rock-systems occurring, often widely separated, systems appear to be incompletely developed. Lirk-CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS FRESHWATER TYPES. ays DARA Of Pleistocene Ruminants, the Scotch gigantic Fossil Ox (Bos primigenius), andsmall Fossil Ox (Bos longifrons—probably Peat, Marl, and other deposits now forming in Lakes, original of our domestic breeds), lived on to latest (Histo- Rivers, etc. ric) division of this Period. P Samemay besaid of the Irish 3 Sg. (5 oo RR erecta eerie aaa Megaceros. The great Aurochs (Bison priscus) is still living Cornish Submarine Forests with Human Remains. a Lithuanian Russia, but preserved by strict protective - co Lo. SSanSORn ORE ORC Ean mE Coc Cs ene EC aws. ? Irish Megaceros Marls and Peat. P Special Organisms :—Shells—Lima excavata, Haliotis tuber- culata, Natiea Kingii, Litorina litoralis, Fusus Berniciensis, and I’. Norvegicus. British Spec. Org. !—Shells—Mya Uddevallensis, Rhynchonella psitiacea, Natica cluusa, Pecten Islandicus, etc.; Mam- mals—Reindeer, Musk-buffalo (all the foregoing are now only living in Arctic regions !),— Hlephas primigenius (Mam- moth), #. antiquus, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Hippopotamus major, gigantic Irish Deer (Megaceros Hibernicus), Cave Bear, Cave Lion (these have all died out!), and certain bovine Ruminants. The genus Homo characterizes this and the following (Post-Pleistocene) Period; manufactured flint implements having been found at Hoxne (Suffolk) and other places (also in France), under circumstances proving that a low (? extinct species) tribe lived coevally with the extinct Mammals last-named. _ River Air (Yorkshire) Hippopotamus, Alluvium. Thames Valley, Elephas primigenius, and Hoxne Flint-imple- ments Gravels. ‘ ? Maidenhead (Berkshire) “High-level Gravel” (Prest- wich). West of Ireland Escar Drift, and (? iceberg- transported) granite erratics. | North of England Boulder-drift. West of Ireland (? field and mountain glacier) Limestone-drift. Monkeys (Macacus pliocenus) still existing. A large increase of recent shells; Suffolk Crag containing 50, Walton Crag 57, and Norwich 85 per cent.! Spec. Org. :—Mammals— Elephas meridionalis (? one of the earliest British species of true Elephants), Mastodon Arvernensis (? existing not later than Red Crag), Rhinoceros Etruscus ; Shells—Astarte Omalii, Nucula Cobboldiz, Cassidaria bicatenata, Natica catenoides, Nussa reticosa, Voluta Lamberti. Earliest (Suf- folk) Crag species, Southern forms; latest (Norwich), northern ! | Happisburgh (Norfolk) Elephas meridionalis bed. | Felixstow (Mastodon) detrital bed. . . . ° Elephantine (Mastodon angustidens) and other Pachyderms, as Acerotherium (Rhinoceros-like), Dinotherium (allied to Dugong), exist; also a large Ape (Dryopithecus), exceed- ing in size the Gorilla! Recent shells mostly of sub-tro- pical forms, increase to 25 per cent. :—Special species— Leda Deshayesiana, Pectunculus crassus, Oliva Dufresnit, Proto cathedralis, Cerithium plicatum. None of these occur in British Islands ; only in France, Belgium, and Germany. Bovey Tracey (Devonshire) Lignite. Lough Neagh Lignite. ? Isle of Mull Lignite. | ? Hempstead (Isle of Wight) beds. Mammals of high types now abound (Paleéotherium, Cory- phodon, Dichobune), all belonging to extinct genera. East Indian-like Monkeys (Macacus eocenus) ; also reptiles seve- rally resembling the Gavial of India, the Crocodile of Borneo, and the Alligator of America, living in England! Vegetation that of the Indian Islands. Shells mostly of tropical types— under 5 per cence. identical with recent species: special— Cerithium giganteum, Volutilithes spinosus, Venericardia pla- nicosta, Axinus angulatus, Nautilus imperialis, Atwria zic- zac. Nummulites (Protozooins) characterize this period. Bembridge Marls. Hordweli Marls and Sands. Sheppey Clay (Estuarine). In the British Isles there is a great Life-break between the Eocene and the Cretaceous System; the former rarely contains any species of plants and animals characterizing the Secondary periods: pro- bably, in other regions there may be a closer fossil agreement between the two Systems, caused by their containing other coterminous Formations; or there may exist an intermediate System. True dicotyledonous Plants (Credneria) appear. Horn-scaled Fishes (Beryz, Gener cides) replace early enamel-scaled kinds. Ammonites much reduced in numbers, giving way to singular forms allied to them, as Zwrrilites, Scaphites, Bacu- lites, etc. Spec. Org.:—Shells—Hippurites, Magus, King- ena, Ostrea vesicularis, Inoceramus, Spondylus spinosus, Ammonites Sussexiensis, Belemnitella; Echinoderms—Ga- lerites, Micraster, Ananchytes, Marsupites. Many shells ap- proach to recent forms. Marine Lizards, few—Mosasaurus, ete.; Flying Lizards, still living, and of large size. Enormous Land Lizards (Jguanodon, Hyleosaurus) inhabiting the Palm (Clathraria), Cycas (Mantellia), and Pine (Abie- tites) forests of the region of Kent. Several small Insecti- vorous Mammals and Marsupials exist (Purbeck Marl)— Weald Clay and Hastings Sand. Spaiacotherium, Triconodon, etc. Spec. Org.:—Shells— PP bir Se hag See Cortis corrugata, Perna Mulleti, Exogyra, Pterocera Bec- ? Portland Dirt-bed and Purbeck Marlstone. klestvi, Ammonites Deshayesti, Ancyloceras, Crioceras ; Fishes—Lepidotus Fittoni, Macropoma Egertoni. + In reading this column, the student should begin with the bottom System, the Laurentian. SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF BRITISI CLASSES. | SYSTEMS. | FORMATIONS.—Mazine Typzs, ~———-—---- | | | j | Portland Dersceelnee) Oolite. Somerset Teleosaurus pe a Lias. JURASSIC. Soest 0 SE eice re is > 7 |W ell developed in the Jura | Oxford Clay. Mountains. Ca heer Ce eso OOO OO Oe GO oO Bath Oolite. ? Larne (Antrim) mixed Fossil Bedy LIASSIC. | | From Lias, the name of | | Yorkshire Alum-Shales. es certain rocks, usually in | Gioycestershire Marl-Stone. (Magillican, Portrush) and Antrim layers, the latter word | being sounded by the | quarrymen like lias. ee Rocks occur in Londonde (Cave Hill, Collin’s Glen, Ballintoy), | Lincolnshire and Somersetshire ‘Lias. : TRIASSIC. | From apparently consisting | (N Bt ows a Britains ie tp ae eerie ENE en ca | of three members (Keu- | | | per, Muschelkalk, and Ee Lancashire Red and Mottled Sandstone. "(Probably much of it freshwater.) : | | ——— _ Cheshire Marls, with Salt. Carrickfergus ditto. Gloucestershire and London: derry (Lisnagrib) Avicula contorta beds. —Mesozoie of Phillips (continued). Bunter) in Germany. ? St. Cassian (Tyrol) and Hallstatt (S. E. Salsburg) ‘Limestone. . . . SECONDARY. | : | Sunderland and | Haetdopoo! (es Crystalline and Oolitic “Rimestous | Brotherton (Yorkshire) becs. Andtrea (Tyrone) and Cultra (Down) Mag | nesian Limestone. German “ oberer Zechstein.”” Manchester Marls. | | | Humbleton and Tunstall (Durham) "« fossiliferous Limestone.” Doncaste EE eee and Pontefract (Yorkshire) Limestone. German ‘‘mittler Zechstein.” From Perm, a country in | | Russia, where a well-de- | veloped series of the Sys- | tem occurs. | Midderidge | (Durham) Marl-slate and cormpact Limestone. German Kupfer schiefer and ‘‘ unterer Zechstein.” | Gera (Thuringia) Rhyncopora Geinitziana Weissliegende. ? Ferry Hill (D r | ham) Lingula Sandstone. | | (Not known in British Isles.) ? Artinsk (Russia) Grits | CARBONIFEROUS. Redesdale (Northumberland) and" Lisdoonvarna (Clare) Shales. Ghar arg by deposits AS | Yoredale Worksite): Limestone. way (‘‘ Upper’’) Limestone, Coal or Carbon. Lo Limestone. — AN) Geek (« Lower”) Limestone | Tweedian beds ‘(Tate). ees Bantry Bay (Cork) Calcareous Schis | ; ‘ | 'e | | | Petherwin Slates South of Ireland Old Red Conglomerate. Fifeshir DEVONIAN Sandstones | —Sedgwick and Murchison. 2 elicie mces steel @t fe". ce) tier ye) tel uel kerr ke Saket tea Rna Meio! fee alien ee 4 Individu: ality of the System Marwood Sandstones. Coomhola (Cork) Grit . first m: ide out in Devon- Rtas gency ese See len wT hw epee eas Ob ih On CRC ies | shire. | Plymouth Limestone. Dingle (Kerry) beds. Caithness Schist)f7 get | Linton Sandstones. 2 i Glengariff Grits. Herefordshire Cornstone } STLURIAN—Murchison. | Wenlock Limestones Ferriter’s Cove (Kerry) Shale | Type rocks occur in a por- PRIMARY. —Palwozoic of Sedgwick. Ludlow Shales, ete. : Doonquin (Kerry) bed | tion of Wales, anciently | Llandovery Grits (Mav HillGrouw,) SaGibride (Count ara) bel |r dnhweited bp ninibe calles | andovery Grits (May Hill Group). Kilbride (Connemara) bed | Silures. | Caradoc Sandstone. Portrane ie (Dublin), ? Pomeroy (Tyrone), Chair of Kilde pare Sse Llandeilo Flags, Newtown Head, near ‘Waterfor CAMBRIAN—Se dgwick, | Tremadoe (Caernarvonshire) Lingula Flags. Shropshire ‘‘ Stiperstones.” ip ype roc ks occur in Cam- | a : e . - < 5 i: LS aye « we bria (Wales). (Huro- Longmynd (Shropshire) Rocks. Bray Head (Wicklow) Flags. Ross-shi nian, Logan; Primordial | Cong ‘lomerate and Sandstone. | zone, Barrande ; Taconic, f | #immons.) (This System probably contains more Formations. The on | | | Rocks are estimated at 26,000 feet in thickness !) '% AUREN NTI AN— Logan. ’ Forming the Laurentide | “Fundamental Gneiss” of the Island of Lewis and north-western Highlan | mountains of Canada, of Scotland. Estimated at 40,000 feet in thickness in Canada! __(Lewisian, n, Murchison. ) Third Editio: JEOUS ROCK-GROUPS—continued. LIFE-CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS FRESHWATER TYPES. oR PERIODS. Mammals still low (Marsupials—Phascolotherium), but in- creasing; Stereognathus appears to be higher. Elephant- sized Reptiles (Megalosaurus), Flying Lizards, some with membranous wings (Pterodactylus), others with fan-shaped Jeathered wings (Griphosaurus), and new paddled Saurians (Pliosaurus), tenanting the land, air, and water respec- tively. Spec. Org.:—Plants—Ovopteris, Puleozamia, and isthorp (Yorkshire) Plant-beda. others allied to Cycases ; Shells—Opis, Trigonia clavellata, Myoconcha, Pholadomya fidicula, Nerinea, Purpurina, Ammonites Humphresianus; Echinoderms—<4Apivcrinus, Nucleolites, Acrosalenia; Fishes—Pycnodus, Strophodus. Period of marine paddled Reptiles (Ichthyosaurus, Plesio- saurus, Cuttle-fish-snake-shells (Ammonites—species in vast numbers) and plumose peduncled Star-fishes (Lrtracrinus). Spec. Org. :—Shells—Hippopodium, Cardinia Listeri, Gry- phea incurva, Leda ovum, Spiriferina, Belemnites acutus (Cuttle-fish bones), Ammonites bifrons, A. heterophyllus ; Fishes—(enamelled) Hugnathus, Dapedius, (Shark) Hybodus reticulatus. Peculiar Crocodiles (Teleosaurus). The earliest period known for Mammals (Microlestes), which arelow! Totally new Reptiles—Mastodonsaurus (large and toad-like), Placodus, ete., replace earlier kinds. New Fishes Saurichthys, Cerutodos, Ischypterus) appear, most primary kinds having died out! Spec. Org.:—Shells—Myophoria, Bakevellia socialis, Allorisma musculoides, Ceratites (link between Carboniferous Goniatites and Jurassic Ammonites) ; Crinoids—Lily-encrinite. ‘lace of the German Keuper.) ° . . e . . e ° ° . . e e e e 2 ° e e e “lace of the German (Upper) Bunter.) In the British Isles there is a great Life-break between the Triassic and the Permian System; the former rarely contains any species of plants and animals characterizing the Primary periods: pro- bably, in other regions there may be a closer fossil agreement between the two Systems, caused by their containing other coterminous Formations; or there may exist an intermediate System. EE $ristol Bone Conglomerate, and Doncaster Red Sandstone| _ Me ie ew wt thw tC tlhC eC «Ce | CLife not abundant in European area; possibly due to great physico-geographical changes going on. Spec. Org.:—Rep- tiles—Paleosaurus, Thecodontosaurus; Fishes— (enamelled) - gg EY RONG S'S STA NCUR Tn eC Cee HemC innC nr rr Gaeen Paleoniscus comptus, Doryopterus, Holacanthodus ; Crabs— Shropshire Calcareous Conglomerate. Paleocrangon (no Trilobites !); Sheils—Camarophoria mul- tiplicata, Strophalosia, Aulosteges umbonillutus, Schizodus, Mea R ih bia > heir ee 6 ele we Loxonoma Swedenborgiana, Nautilus (true) ; Corals—(bryo- _resden Rothliegende. zoic) Synocladia, Phyllopora (plated) Polycelia. : Singular Plants (Calamites, Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, Sphe- meashire and Durham Coal-measures. nopteris, etc.) abound, their debris forming Coal beds! Oe AO 0 Os OO, CUO SE es eR Peay DET 5 ok nM Reptiles (Parabatrachus, Apateon) of lowest (fish-like) kinds [rish Coal-measures. ? Inferior portion of South Welsh appear! Spec. Org.:—Corals—Michelinia, Lithostrotion ; Coal-measures. Shells—Productus, Spirifer, Edmondia, Anthracosia, Gonia- LO OED FOG OO Ts oa ee ae eae ee tites ; Crinoids—Platycrinus, Woodocrinus, Pentremites ; ‘Devonshire Culm. Crabs—Griffithides (Trilobites becoming rare), Bellinurus ; Fishes—Megalichthys, Dendrodus (rivalling Crocodiles in oR Roh cao, | Oh ene eae dinburgh “ Calciferous Sandstone. size), Psammodus, Pale@oniscus. nocktopher (Kilkenny Plant-beds). Period of cuirassed (Placoganoid) Fishes (Pterichthys, Cocco- steus)! Spec. Org. :—Corals—Cyathophyllum cespitosum, Favosites Goldfussi, Plewrodictyum; Shells—Davidsonia, Calceola, Stringocephalus, Megalodon, Clymenia ; Crinoidal Echinoderms—Hezacrinus ; Trilobites—Bronteus flabellifer, Phacops latifrons ; Fishes—(enamel-scaled or Lepidoganoid) Osteolepis, Glyptolepis, Diplacanthus. Terrestrial Plants exist—Cyclostigma, Aparoxylon, etc. Period of Graptolites (Zoophytes), straight-chambered Shells (Orthoceros), and Trilobites (Asaphus, Acidaspis, Phacops). Singular helmeted (Placoganoid) Fishes (Pteraspis, Ce- phalaspis, etc.), first found in latest (Ludlow) Formation! Spec. Org. :—Corals— Heliolites, Halysites ; Shells—Penta- merus, Murchisonia, Maclurea, Lituites ; Peculiar Echino- derms (Sea-urchin Group)—Spheronites, Eucalyptocrinus, Paleaster (ancient Star-fish). Plants (apparently Sea-weeds) and Animals rare; latter more abundant in America and Bohemia. Certain low forms, viz.: (Zoophytes) Oldhamia (in Bray rocks), Dictyonema, (Shell) Lingula Davisii, (Crabs of the Trilobite group) Pa- leopyge, Conocephalus, Paradoxides, Olenus, etc., (2? a Phyl- i me lopod Crab) Hymenocaris, (Annelids) Scolithus and Histio- | derma are Special Organisms of this Period. No traces of Life yet discovered in British rocks of this Period, though strong indications occur in America (Sterry Hunt). Vorrected for the ‘ Geologist.’ 198 THE GEOLOGIST. Tur GripHosaurvus.—‘ On a New Fossil Reptile, supposed to be fur- nished with Feathers,” by A. Wagner. The above is the title of an article which occupies the most prominent position in the pages of our contempo- rary the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for April, and is translated by W.S. Dallas, F.L.S., from the ‘Sitzungsberichte der Munch- ner Akad. der Wiss.,’ 1861, p. 146. In it is detailed the account of a conversation held between Prof. Wag- ner and M. Witte, of Hanover, in which the latter gentleman described that he had seen a skeleton in the possession of M. Haberlein, of Pappen- heim, from the lithographic slate of Solenhofen, ‘‘ with such a combination of characters that nothing more surprising and odd could be imagined. This specimen, indeed, wanted the skull and the two hands, but in other respects the most important parts of the skeleton were well preserved. The most remarkable thing about it was, that a well-marked coat of fea- thers was present, both on the anterior limbs and on the tail. These feathers agreed in their configuration so exactly with those of true birds, that their interpretation as such could hardly be doubted. The discovery of feathers in the lithographic slate was of itself something unprecedented, but the mode of their union with the skeleton bordered on the incredible. Thus, the tail-feathers were attached to a tail possessing not the least re- semblance to that of a bird, but presenting a deceptive similarity to that of a Ramphorynchus. And the attachment of the wings was still more asto- nishing ; for these, on both the anterior limbs, formed a fan, radiating from the extremity of the fore-arm.” This information, coming from a man whose judgment Prof. Wagner “could not but respect as that of one well acquainted with the subject,” naturally caused doubt in the mind of the learned German Professor. The discovery by Herman vy. Meyer, of authenticated evidence of feathers in the Solenhofen slate (‘Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 74) seemed to afford an addi- tional corroboration of M. Witte’s statement. A friend of Wagner, how- ever, whose name has not transpired, sent to him a report upon the speci- men, which we transcribe verbatim :—‘‘ Skull, neck, and both hands wanting. Of the vertebral column, the greater part of the vertebre of the trunk, and the whole of those of the tail, are completely preserved. The former are of moderate length and uncovered; the tail, which measures upwards of six inches, consists of about twenty vertebre of an elongate narrow form, the dimensions of which slowly but constantly diminish, so that the last of them is the smallest. Of the anterior limbs, the humerus and fore-arm are present on both sides; they are strong bones, pretty nearly of equal length, and the fore-arm consists of radius and ulna. At the anterior extremity of each fore-arm, there is a broad, short bone, but this is uninjured. Of the pelvis only the right half is preserved ; it is but small, and is comparable, not with the pelvis of a bird, but rather with that of a Pterodactyle. On the left side, the whole hinder extremity is preserved ; on the right, only the thigh and shank. The former is a powerful and not very long bone; the latter is somewhat longer and thinner, and is simple—at least, a separation into tibia and fibula is not perceptible. The tarsus consists only of a single powerful bone, which is shorter than the shank bone with which it is in contact ; its lower extremity is consider- ably widened, and bears three articular processes, to which the three toes are attached. The latter are of moderate length, and armed with strong hooked claws. Feathers occur both on the anterior limbs and on the tail ; they have, however, left only their impressions, but these show sharply- defined outlines, and upon a passing glance they present a deceptive re- semblance to birds’ feathers. From the above-mentioned short, broad NOTES AND QUERIES. 199 bone, which lies close to the extremity of each fore-arm, there issues a radiate fan of feathers, by which, therefore, as a structure of this kind ra- diates from each fore-arm, two feather-wings are produced, having their external outline curved lke abow. ‘The individual feathers are charac- terized by their fine shafts, on each side of which the delicate striation of the vanes is seen. The largest of these feathers considerably exceed in size that described by Von Meyer. Similar feathers are attached to the tail, but with this distinction, that they do not attain the length of the wing feathers, and, which is of more importance, they do not radiate like the latter from one central point, but spring from both sides of the tail throughout its whole length, and start from it at a small angle. The tail- feathers form a group of an elongated leaf-like or oval shape, of which the narrow end issues from the beginning of the tail, whilst the posterior end is broadly rounded, and extends considerably beyond the last caudal ver- tebra.” On this report Professor Wagner, who had not seen the specimen him- self, commented at great length. The characters which, according to him, indicate the ornithic affinity of this animal are—the clothing of the an- terior limbs, and the tail with feathers, and the structure of the tarsus which forms a single bone, which has at its lower extremity three processes for the articulation of the three toes. The characters incompatible with the type of birds are—the insertion of the wing quills, not as in birds, along the whole outside of the hand and fore-arm, but only to a small bone pro- bably belonging to the wrist, from which it radiates like a fan. ‘‘ Equally strange is the mode of attachment of the feathers on the tail, from which they issue on both sides throughout its whole length uniformly amongst themselves, whilst the rectrices on the short tail of birds are only attached to the last vertebra.” Thevertebral structure is different from the ornithic type, “‘but agrees most closely with that of the long-tailed Pterodactyles (Ram- phorhynechus).” In birds, the sacro-lumbar column is firmly anchylosed. In the fossil, it is free and uncovered. In birds, the tail is short and powerful, composed of from five to eight, and rarely nine or ten vertebra, each bearing processes, the last being usually the largest. ‘‘ In the fossil, the tail is extraordinarily long, and consists of about twenty vertebre, which are all elongated, siender, and without processes, the last being the smallest.”’ Such a structure accords with that of the long-tailed Pterodactyle. In Professor Wagner’s concluding remarks, he says, ‘‘A reptile with the simple tarsal bone of a bird, and with epidermic structures presenting a deceptive resemblance to bird’s feathers, is far more comprehensible to me than a bird with the pelvis and vertebral column (especially the long slender series of caudal vertebre) of a long-tailed Pterodactyle, and with a perfectly different mode of attachment of the feathers. To this we may add, that the identity of these epidermic structures with true birds’ feathers is by no means proved; they might still only be peculiar adornments. Hiven amongst insects, we find peculiar structures to a certain extent re- minding us of feathers; why therefore not also, and in a higher stage of development, among reptiles? If nothing of the kind has yet been found in the latter class, we have already been accustomed in paleontology to meet, in recent discoveries, with previously unknown peculiarities in the structure of different organs. Consequently, until I shall be convinced by the discovery, in another specimen, of the parts wanting in the one now under consideration, I do not hesitate to regard this as a reptile of the order Sawria; and I give it the name of Griphosaurus, derived from ypupos, an enigma.” He further hints that animals analogous to the Griphosaurus may pos- 200 THE GEOLOGIST. sibly have produced the footprints of the Triassic sandstones, and concludes by suggesting that “Darwin and his adherents will probably employ the new discovery as an exceedingly welcome occurrence for the justification of their strange views upon the transformations of animals. But in this they will be wrong,” as, according to Professor Wagner, KS the interme- diate steps by which the transition of some one living or extinct animal from one class into another was effected” cannot be shown. ‘The failure of such proof, he says, induces us to reject their views ‘as fantastic dreams, with which the exact investigation of nature has nothing to do.” We have laid the above brief summary before our readers, and hope that some expression of opinion from our numerous contributors may be at once evoked. The problem is one which demands the highest efforts both of anatomists and geologists. GULAUCONITE IN THE LowER Siturian Rocxs.—Mr. Sterry Hunt, in 1858, noticed, in ‘ Silliman’s Journal,’ that glauconite was probably the colouring matter of some Silurian sandstones ; and in the Canadian Survey Report for 1859 he gave the analyses of this material from rocks of the Quebec group at Point Levis and in the Island of Orleans. In the latter rock there are layers which contain more than half their weight of soft, rounded, bright green grains, closely resembling the green sand of the Cretaceous period. ‘These area hydrous silicate of alumina and protoxide of iron, with about 8 per cent. of potash, and differ from glauconite of the secondary rocks in their larger proportion of alumina. A similar mineral is found in limestones of the Quebec group in Texas, and in the Potsdam sandstone of the Upper Mississippi. Sir Roderick Murchison has also recorded layers of green sand at the base of the Pleta limestone in Russia, and Schmidt in Esthonia and Livonia, in strata overlying the alum slates. CANADIAN PLEISTOCENE Fosstts AnD CLimatEe.—Professor Dawson has given, in the ‘Canadian Naturalist,’ a complete list of the fossils of the drift in Maine, Canada, Labrador, etc. His conclusions are, that a far greater degree of cold prevailed during the Pleistocene epoch than at pre ent The causes of this difference he attributes to great changes of evel, and in the different distribution of land and water; during the cold period the relative proportion of land in the Arctic regions being greater than at present. REVIEW. Puysico-Propueticat Essays, on the Loculity of the Eternal Inheritance, its Nature and Character, the Resurrection Body, and the Mutual Re- cognition of Glorified Saints. By Rev. W. Lister, F.G.S., Vicar of Bushbury, and Rural Dean. London: Longmans. This work deserves a notice in our pages, from the large amount of geology in it, the discoveries of which have been carefully employed in determining the meaning of some of the prophecies. We believe that many of our readers will be much interested with these portions of the work. One great feature in Mr. Lister’s volume is that it strives to fairly and fully prove that the Scriptures uniformly set before us a physical future, and that, in this respect, their authoritative declarations are in exact har- mony with the logical deductions and suggestions of science. We wish Mr. Lister’s volume success, for the work, taken as a whole, is an original one. PLATE XI. ey os ee —— S \\h\\ Ny m AN NY \ \ i) ih TELE NY H nh ey nh i) 1 it i Y, i\ i iu, y AN ( NN ct il Wi, sil 0) Hy I My a yt RH | AD ITT i HY f Hi KK : at Ht LV KK ‘ | hl PUM ee tah i i i) Mi) nn) SS = = = = —— a SS Ss Wh 4}, Yi mh) if UH Hi Hy SS S SS SS J h j aH Vo MEV GM enn, y WNW] pape nyt Lie HY f S 3S S Ss S SSS SSSSSsS~“ HUMAN SKULL FROM MUSKHAM, IN THE VALLEY OF THE TRENT. (Seale 3 linear.) (In the Collection of Dr. Bevor, of Newark. ] THE GEOLOGIST. JUNE 1862. NOTES UPON HUMAN REMAINS FROM THE VALLEY OF THE TRENT, AND FROM THE HEATHERY BURN CAVE, DURHAM. By Pror. Huxtey, F.R.S. THe skull from Muskham, in the valley of the Trent, a side view of which is given in Plate XI., like the animal bones with which it was associated, is stained of a dark-brown colour. The whole of those parts of the cranial bones which bound the cranial cavity are << A Saag \ Se i t Fig. 1.—Portion of Skull from Heathery Burn Cave. well preserved; but the facial bones, with the exception of a small portion of the nasals, are broken away, so as to expose the whole of the under-surface of the base of the skull. VOL. Vs 2D 202 THE GEOLOGIST. The considerable development of the frontal sinuses and of the dif- ferent ridges and processes of the skull, shows it to be that of an adult, and the same characters lead me to believe that it belonged to a male. Otherwise it is small enough for a female, as its extreme length does not exceed 7°2 in., its extreme breadth 5-4 in., and its horizontal cir- cumference 204 inches. The skull has a very peculiar form. If a line drawn from the glabella to the superior curved line of the occiput be made hori- zontal, the highest point of the longitudinal median contour of the skull will be seen to be situated about the middle of the length of the sagittal suture, and from this point the contour shelves rapidly downwards, to the brow on the one hand, and to the centre of the space between the apex of the lambdoidal suture and the occipital protuberance on the other. This last is the most prominent portion of the back part of the skull, the median contour below it bending forwards to the occipital protuberance, which is a very strong, project- ing, triangular process. It follows from this description that a line taken from the glabella to the occipital protuberance is shorter than one from the glabella to’a point midway between this and the lambdoidal suture. The difference between the two is about 0°3 of an inch. I find that crania differ a good deal in this respect, the occipital protuberance being in many, especially the lower races of mankind, the most backwardly situated part of the skull, when the glabello-occipital line is made horizontal, while in others, as in the present instance, the most posterior part of the skull is situated much higher up. The line of greatest breadth of the skull is situated nearly in the same plane as that of its greatest height, in the position indicated, and the auditory foramina may also be said, roughly, to be intersected by that plane. The forehead is low and narrow, but not retreating. The supraciliary prominences are very well developed and, by their form, indicate the existence of large frontal sinuses. The space be- tween the glabella and the nasal suture is not really very depressed, though on the side view of the skull it appears to be so, by reason of the projection of the supraorbital prominences. The vertical height of the skull from the centre of the auditory foramen to the vertex is 4°8 inches, and the centre of the auditory foramen lies about 0°8 of an inch below the level of the glabello-occi- pital line. The mastoid and styloid processes are well developed. HUXLEY—NOTES UPON HUMAN REMAINS. 203 The base of this skull is remarkable in several respects. The occi- pital foramen is placed far back, and its plane is directed more back- wards than is usual in human skulls. When the base of the skull is turned upwards and the glabello-occipital line is horizontal (its length being 6:7 inches), the anterior edge of the occipital foramen lies 1:5 inch above the line, and a perpendicular let fall from it would cut the line 39 inches from its anterior end. A similar line let fall from the posterior edge would cut the glabello-occipital line at 5:3 inches from its anterior end, and that edge is only 0-9 of an inch above it. Ina length of 1:4, the plane of the occipital foramen, therefore, has a fall of 0:6 towards the glabello-occipital line. In a well-formed European skull, whose glabello-occipital line measures 7:0 inches, while its extreme length is 7°25, the distance of the anterior edge of the occipital foramen from the glabella, mea- sured in the same way along the glabello-occipital line, is 3:8; of its posterior edge 5:3. The anterior edge is 1:1 vertically above the line, and the posterior edge 1:0 above it. Thus, ina length of 1°5, the occipital foramen has a slope of only 0:1 inch, so that, instead of being greatly inclined backwards, it is nearly horizontal. The skull from the Valley of the Trent belongs to a cranial type which seems at one time to have been widely distributed over the British Islands. I have seen skulls from rude stone tombs in Scot- land with similar characters, and others obtained from the Valley of the Thames. There are skulls in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons exhibiting like proportions, from the remarkable tumulus at Towyn-y-Capel, Anglesea, described by the Hon. W. O. Stanley, M.P., in the ‘ Archeological Journal’ (Institute) for 1846; and my friend Mr. Busk has shown me others from Cornwall. But the skulls which most clearly resemble the Trent cranium are some, also from river-beds, which I saw in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy and in the collection at Trinity College, Dublin, and of which my friend, Dr. E. P. Wright, the curator of that collection, has been good enough to supply me with excellent casts. Two of these skulls are from the bed of the Nore, in Queen’s County, and two from that of the Blackwater river, in Armagh, and one of the latter has the most extraordinary resemblance to the Trent skull, as the follow- ing table of measurements will show :— Trent. Blackwater. MCAT EN CGH. ee. ites Ss ee eel ee | BO Ue ieurth ot glabello-accipital:line < linear). Museum there are several skuils which resemble the Engis cranium in their configuration. It is dolichocephalic, but does not approach to any of the boat-shaped (kumbecephalic) skulls which have been afforded to us from graves in Scotland of the early “ Stone period.” Massat.—The remains from this bone-cave do not afford us any evidences which would lead us to distinguish their cranial type. Only a few teeth have been discovered associated with remains of Felis spelea, Ursus speleus, Hyena spelea, ete. Plaw (Mecklenburg).—Fig. 4.—The skeleton to which this skull belonged was found in silicious sand, six feet below the surface, associated with bone implements made out of the osseous remains of stag and boar. Dr. Schauffhausen says: “A very high antiquity was assigned to this grave, as it was wholly unprotected by any masonry, and afforded no trace of cremation having been ‘prac- tised, nor any implements of stone, clay, or metal.’ Similar argu- ments might be adduced in favour of the high antiquity of the soldiers buried at Inkerman, who, tossed into a pit naked or with a blanket round them, would afford no evidences of masonry, crema- BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 209 tion, stone, or metallic implements. The cranial appearance of the skull i is, howev er, truly remarkable, although it approaches very much to the conficuration of the cranium from Montr ose, to which I shall presently allude. It is brachycephalic, the occiput being high, and the supraorbital ridges well developed. The length from the elabella to the occiput is 6” 5 5", the breadth across the parietal tubers 5” 5'". Dr. Schauffhausen states: “ Notw ithstanding the great similarity in the form of the forehead between this skull and that from the Nean- dertha], the prominence of the supraorbital ridges in the latter is more marked, and they are completely continuous with the orbital Fig. 4.——Human skull from Plau (scale § linear). margin, which is not the case in the former. But the skulls are essentially distinguished by their general form, which in the one is long-elliptical, and in the other rounded.” A portion of the upper jaw with the teeth, and the entire lower jaw, have been preserved, in- dicating that the Plau man was orthognathous: As in most of these cases, the sole chemical evidence of the antiquity of the Plau skele- ton is, that “the bones are thick but very light, and adhere strongly to the tongue.” More exact analysis of their component parts is unrecorded by Dr. Schauffhausen. Aurignac (Gascony).—The human remains from this cavern, which were associated, but in a way not known, with those of Hlephas pri- migenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Megaceros, etc., after their discovery, fell into the hands of the mayor of Aurignac. Not regarding the in- terests of science, and in order to prevent the dissemination of any hypotheses on the subject amongst the Gascons, he carefully collected VOL. V. 25 210 THE GEOLOGIST. all the bones together, amounting to seventeen individuals, and caused them to be reinterred in the parish burial-ground. Hight years after- wards, “ not even the sexton retained any recollection of the precise spot at which these human remains had been deposited in a common trench.’ Future paleontologists will rank Dr. Amiel, the mayor of Aurignac, with the trustees of the Ashmolean Museum, who de- stroyed the last specimen of the Dodo, in Oxford. His ignorance, or superstition, has deprived Paleontology of one of the most important links of evidence ever discovered. No information consequently exists of the appearance of the bones, as denoting the race to which they might possibly appertain. 7 Mewslade (Glamorganshire)—Fig. 5.—This cranium Professor Busk describes as “ probably that of a female, found together with less perfect skulls and numerous other bones belonging to six or seven individuals of different ages, from sixty or seventy down to three or four years, in a narrow fissure in a limestone quarry at Mew- slade in Glamorganshire, and not improbably of the same period as the Fig. 5.—Human skull from Mewslade (scale 3 linear). bones of animals, ete., found in the neighbouring caverns in Gower which have been described by Dr. Faleoner and others. This cranium 18 obviously of a wholly distinct type from that of the others, though still in some respects peculiar.” The frontal region is elevated, the supraorbital ridge being only moderately prominent. The alisphenoid and the parietal join. The skull belongs markedly to the dolicho- cephalie type, and slightly reminds us of the Engis cranium. Sennen (Cornwall).—Fig. 6.—In this cranium, which was dis- covered in a subterranean peat bog or forest, thirty feet below the BLAKE—ON THE CRANTIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 211 present level of the sea, at Sennen, near the Land’s End, Cornwall, and of which Professor Busk remarks that it “ bears some resemblance to the Engis cranium of Dr. Schmerling,” the dolichocephalic cha- Fig. 6.—Human skull from Sennen, Cornwall (scale > linear). racter is strongly marked. The frontal region is retrocedent; the occiput shelving backwards. The alisphenoid and the parietal bones join for a greater extent than in most Caucasian skulls. The supra- orbital ridges are less prominent than in the Plau, more so than in the Mewslade crania. The meatus auditorius externus is large; the zygomatic arch strong and powerful. ee N zi \ \ silo i NTI NIA on onl sai i H rf] \ - | Fig. 7.—Human skull from Montrose (scale } linear). Montrose.—F¥ig. 7.—This, the most typical example of a British brachycephalic skull, was found in a tumulus, supposed to belong 212 THE GEOLOGIST. to the later part of the Stone period. In the words of Professor Wilson, it “is square and compact in form, broad and short, but well balanced, and with a good frontal development. The supra- ciliaries are moderately elevated.” Nether Urquhart (Fifeshire).— Fig. 8.— This is one of the kuwmbecephalic or boat-shaped skulls which were found in a cairn in Fifeshire in 1835. It is supposed to belong to the early part of the Stone period. This period might be called the protolithic (from Vig. 8—Human skull from Nether Urquhart (scale 4 linear). mparos, first, and Aias, stone). The long, narrow and shelving occiput, the retrocedent frontals, and the prominent supraciliaries, indicate the similarity of this skull to that from Sennen, to which I have already alluded. The researches of Professor Wilson lead him to the result that the kumbecephalic (dolichocephalic) races in Great Britain antedated the brachycephalic races in time ; those of Professor Nilsson, that the brachycephalic men in Scandinavia flourished before the dolicho- cephalic races. Plymouth.—F ig. 9.—In this small portion of a cranium, “found in a limestone quarry at Plymouth, at a depth of about six feet Mig. 9.—Human skull from Plymouth (scale 4 linear). below the present turf,’ the retrocedence of the forehead is very jamariahie. We mere Te . : 5 remarkable. The supraorbital ridges project but slightly, and are discontinuous over the nasal bone. The fractured condition of the BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 2138 cranium precludes any observation on the form of the occiput or the length of the sphenoido-parietal suture. East Ham (Valley of Thames).—Mr. Cresy, at the meeting of the Geologists’ Association on April 7, 1862, exhibited this skull, as well as two others, of supposed less geological antiquity. The conditions Fig. 10—Human skull from East Ham (scale 4 linear). under which it was found were detailed by him. The “skull was found in excavating for the foundations of the Northern Outfall Sewer, in East Ham Marshes, at a depth of fifteen feet below the surface, the strata being— 2 feet grass and mould. 5 ,, yellow clay. 5 ,, peat. 3 ,, sand and gravel in which it was found. 15 feet.” With it were discovered two “celts” chipped on the surface, ex- cepting the trenchant edges, which were ground, and the lower jaw of a cetacean animal, which will form the subject of future remarks by Mr. Cresy. Having had the opportunity, through the kindness of Mr. Mackie, of examining this skull, I give the following table of measurements, taken with tape and rule in the ordinary manner: Inches. Longitudinal diameter from between supraorbitals to inion, : ; TGs 214 THE GEOLOGIST. Inches Parietal diameter between parietal tubers . : . St Frontal diameter between anterior and inferior angles of parietal bones . : : : : : . 43 Vertical diameter from fossa between occipital condyles to top of skull P : ; : : : . 43 Intermastoid arch from one mastoid to the other, over the calvarium 4 : : 5 : . 142 Intermastoid line, measured in a straight line between the points of the mastoid processes. 4 Occipito-frontal arch, measured by a tape on the surface of the cranium from the nasal suture to the posterior margin of the foramen magnum : ‘ . 14 Horizontal periphery, by a tape round the cranium, so as to touch the os frontis immediately above the superciliary ridges, and the most prominent part of the occipital bone . : : : . 204 In the above table, I have used the system of measurement pro- posed by Dr. George Williamson.* It appears from the proportion of this (a female) skull, that the breadth was to the length as 754: 10, and that it was consequently “dolichocephalic.” The type is oval, the frontal being rounded, with a flat calvarium, and the parietal tubers moderately developed. The occiput is oval, the inion being slightly protuberant; the lower half of the supraoccipital shelves gently downwards to the foramen mag- num. The occipital condyles are flattened. The alisphenoid and the parietal join on both sides of the head, with small ossa wormiana intercalated in the suture. The frontal suture is obliterated. Above the interorbital space is a slight projection, possibly coincident with, though not necessarily an indication of the frontal sinus. Behind the coronal suture, the calvarium is slightly depressed, perhaps in- dicating the use of a constricting bandage compressing the cranium. From these characters it appears that no distinctive points can be predicted of this cranium, as differentiating it from the skulls of the existing individuals who inhabit the valley of the Thames. ‘To this skull was adherent a small amount of fine mud, apparently of the same chemical constituency as the clay-bed of the river Thames or Lea. The whole of the animal matter was present in the skull, which did not adhere when applied to the tongue. Borris (bed of Nore), Ireland—The supraorbitals here are slightly more prominent than in the Blackwater, less so than in the Valley of the Trent skull. The lambdoidal suture is very complex, and developes many ossa wormiana on both sides. The fractured condition of the skull precludes any observation as to the junction of the parietals and alisphenoids, or as to the presence of a paroccipital tubercle. Che opportunity of inspecting this skull at leisure has been afforded to me by Prof. Huxley. ws Te A e . . 5 Observations on the Human Crania contained in the Museum of the Army Medical Department, Chatham.’ Svo. Dublin, 1857, p. 73. BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 215 Bed of Blackwater River, Armagh (Ireland).—In this skull, which has been kindly lent to me by Prof. Huxley, the alisphenoid and the parietal join on the right side; the apex, however, of the parietal impinges on the alisphenoid on the left: the supraorbitals are scarcely, if at all, prominent; the retrocedent frontal, and the calvarium sloping gently upwards to the centre of the parietal bone, repeat here the characters of the Borris skull and the skull from the Valley of the Trent. In the cast, the paroccipital tubercle is slightly prominent on the right side. Valley of the Trent.—This skull repeats many of the characters of the Borris and Blackwater skulls, from which, however, it is markedly distinct. The alisphenoid and the parietal join on both sides. On the right side the jugular eminence is pronouncedly distinct, and indicates a well-defined paroccipital tubercle. The left jugular eminence is, however, broken away. The digastric fossa is deep; the inion is protuberant. Over each orbit is a ridge, discon- tinuous over the nasal suture, and which projects forwards. This contains, on each side, large, distinct, and well-defined supraorbital foramina. Along the sagittal suture is a slight elevation, or crest, analogous to that often observed in the Australian races. The low frontal bone reminds the observer forcibly of the Andaman skull,* which it does not exceed in regard to its frontal development. One of the most important differences which the cranium of the Troglodytes Gorilla presents to the human skull has been defined by Prof. Owen (Osteological Catalogue of the College of Surgeons) to be the more backward position of the foramen magnum, and its more oblique plane in relation to the base of the skull in the Gorilla, than in man. The almost horizontal direction of the foranen magnum in the human species, co-related with the character (situs erectus) applied by the Linnean definition to man, is modified in the Valley of the Trent skull, and such modification is in the direc- tion of the inferior type. ‘The angle made by a line drawn from the anterior to the posterior margins of the foramen magnum, with the plane of the basioccipital, is more oblique than I have observed in any human skull, and markedly more so than in the so-called “lowest” races of mankind, as e.g. the Australians and Andaman Islanders. This character, coupled with the powerful occipital spine, the ridged and crested surface of the lower half of the super- occipital, indicative of the action of powerful nuchal ligaments to keep the head from falling forwards, the presence of a “ par- occipital”? process for the firmer attachment of the rectus capitis lateralis, and the slightly more backward position of the occipital condyles, seem to indicate that an entirely erect position was not the normal attitude of the pre-historical contemporary of Bos primigenius in the Valley of the Trent. . The skull from the Valley of the Trent exhibits, on the right side of the upper half of the superoccipital bone, a partial retention of the suture dividing the squama occipitalis from the lower half of the * Owen, Trans. Ethn. Soc, 1862. 216 THE GEOLOGIST. superoccipital bone. This character, the “os Ince,” was first observed by Dr. Bellamy, in the skulls of the early Peruvians. Prof. Tschudi* considered it as a mark of the primeval distinction of the Peruvian race, the skulls of which, according to him, manifested this alleged “embryonic character” as in the lower mammalia. Morton observed it in a Chimu (called by him Chimuyan), and in a Cayuga skull. In the British Museum is a large handsome skull, belonging to the “ Chincha” type, in which the interparietal bone is manifest. In Mr. Edward Gerrard’s most useful and valuable catalogue, recently published, the locality is marked as from Pasadama (7. e. Pachacamac), near Lima. In the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, on No. 5711 (a Laplander), Prof. Owen remarks, “the suture between the exoccipital and supraoccipital is retained on the right side, and partially so on the left.’ Here, however, there are numerous Wormian bones in the lambdoidal suture. On No. 5390 (a New Zealander), he says, “the upper half of the supraoccipital has been developed as an inter- parietal from a separate centre, and has united by acomplex dentated suture with the lower half of the supraoccipital.” A similar confor- mation exists in a skull from the Roman burial-place at Felixstow, preserved in the Anatomical Museum at Cambridge,t and in the cranium of a Bengalee. The law which regulates the repetition of similar characters in skulls of nations aboriginally distinct is termed by Prof. J. Aitken Meigs,t of Philadelphia, “ homoiokephalic represen- tation.”’ Analogous congenital varieties or imperfections may be seen in almost every ethnic type. Dr. Williamson has described them in the Albanian, Singhalese, Timmani, Kosso, Krooman, Fanti, Ashantee, Calabar, Burmese (Malay), and Esquimaux; whilst in the Limbu tribe from Nepal, an instance has been described by Prof. Owen, in which the “interparietal”’ is divided into three distinct gwast-sym- metrical portions. Dr. Spencer Cobbold has seen a true inter- parietal bone in a skull in the Edinburgh Museum; and I have recently observed it in a skull belonging to the Ethnological Society’s collection, of which I am not yet satisfied as to the precise nation to which it belonged. A cursory examination of the bones found with the human skull, at the Valley of the Trent, has afforded to me evidence of Bos longifrons, Bos primogenius, stag, wolf, goat, and horse. Some of the horn cores of Bos longifrons appeared to me to be more curved than usual, but the majority exhibited the normal form. Heathery Burn Cave, near Stanhope.—I refrain intentionally from offering any remarks on the human remains discovered in this cave, as the geological conditions under which they were found have been ably detailed by Mr. Elliott, and the human skull will be described by Prof. Huxley.§ The condition of the mammalian remains from * Rivero and Tschndi, ‘ Autiguedades Peruanas.’ + Davis and Thurnam, p. 29. to wie ‘ Description of a Fragmentary Human Skull from Jerusalem.’ Svo. Philad. p. 2/9. § See p. 201 of this number.—Ep. Gron. BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 217 the cave at Stanhope does not indicate a high geological antiquity. Although a great range of variation is undoubtedly observable in the amount of cartilaginous matter retained in the bones, still none adhere to the tongue with the same firm degree of fixation as the hyzna remains, e.g. from the Kirkdale Cavern. Moreover, all the remains which I have myself examined indicate animals, as the ox, horse, otter, badger, water-rat, goat, roebuck, which are still found in England, or which, as the wild boar, have become extinct during a late historical period. The presence of bronze remains, analogous to those used by the early Scandinavians, however, would not leave us to infer even a high historical antiquity to these remains. The rate at which the stalagmitic formation—in this case extending to as much as eight inches of depth—might have been deposited, may possibly afford us a means of estimating the age more accurately. Practical geologists alone can determine this. The fragmentary condition of many of the bones indicates the possibility of their having been the débris of repasts. Some small hollow bones have been split longitudinally, perhaps to extract the marrow for the use of man. Another bone bears the impress of two small teeth on one, and another tooth on the other side: such small apertures or impressions could have been made with facility by the acuminate cuspid teeth of the otter, whose jaw is found in the cave. Not so by the tooth of the badger, also found in proximity, whose powerful tuberculate molars would not have punctured the bone, but crushed it; scarcely by the tooth of the water-rat (Arvicola amphibia), whose scalpriform teeth would have eroded the surface of the bone without drilling an aperture. One of the punctures is squared, and of the same dimensions asthe crown of the upper incisor of the amphibious rodent. However, the distance between the two most prominent apertures in the bone accords with the distance between the two most salient cusps of the premolar and molar series in the jaw of the otter, which, deprived of fish, would have been glad to partake of a more nutritive food. Otter (Lutra vulgaris). We have evidence of the fractured part of a skull of this species, which, as well as a ramus of under jaw, has been preserved. The jaw is nearly perfect, but the only teeth which still remain in it are the canine, the second, p 8, and the third, p 4, premolars. Empty sockets alone indicate the spots where p 2, m 1 (the sectorial tooth), and m2 have been. The jaw, as well as the fractured cranium, is fresh, and contains much of the recent animal matter. Badger (Meles taxus). The large left ramus of jaw (specimen No. 50), by the characteristic form of its first true molar, is manifestly that of the existing badger. In it the molar series is perfect, with the exception of p 2, the molar series, in place, being m 2, m 1, p 4, p 3, andp 1. The apex of the canine, as well as the crown of m 1, is much worn, indicating the age of the individual to which the jaw belonged. The incisor series is absent, and the ascending ramus of the jaw, coronoid, condyle, and angle, are broken away. RiGee.) V/, AE 218 THE GEOLOGIST. Goat (Capra hircus). The left ramus of the jaw of goat, from the Stanhope caves, exhibits m 2, m 38, and p 2, in place, the sockets of m1 and of p 8 being left broken in the alveoli, and p 1 being absent. In another fragment also of left ramus p 2 and p 38 are left m situ. Roebuck (Cervus capreolus). The broken fragment of the left ramus of the under jaw of Cervus capreolus has lost all the teeth except the second and third premolars. These exhibit the characteristic sculpturing of Cervus, and present a marked distinction to the caprine bones from the same locality. The second premolar is divided into two lobes, the anterior being the smallest, and separated from the hinder lobe by a notch on the inner side of the crown; the pos- terior lobe is subquadrate, and exhibits two islands of enamel, of which the hinder is the larger, and transverse to the axis of the jaw. The third premolar, approaching nearer to the bicrescentic form of the true molars in Ruminantia, is again divided into two lobes, by vertical depressions on both the outer and inner sides. The anterior lobe is here the largest, and developes a prominent cusp on the inner side of the tooth. In it the enamel-island is crescentiform, though not extending so far back as the lateral notch. The transverse island, in the posterior cusp, is more than double the length of its representative in p 2. The distal end of the metatarsal of a ruminant has been exposed to the action of fire—the end being charred. Evidence of the erosive action of the teeth of some carnivore is present on a vertebra, which has been gnawed to such an extent as to obscure its specific characters. Hog (Sus scrofa). Three large canine teeth of the wild boar, one of which is partially blackened, and the extremity of another canine, indicate the existence of the Sus scrofa ferus in the Durham bone- cave. Another more friable evidence consists of the blackened symphysis of a young hog, of which the right canine is in place, and all the deciduous teeth absent. In the jaw, the germ of p 4 appears, which has not yet appeared above the alveolus. Horse (Hquus caballus). The unquestionable evidence of the existence of the Equus in the Heathery Burn Cave rests upon the discovery of a “ corner nipper” (¢ 8) of the upper jaw, right side of an old horse, aged about 16 years. Water-rat (Arvicola amphibia). The numerous evidences of the presence of this elegant-skulled little rodent are so perfectly pre- served that, though fragile, the incisor teeth retain their typical yellow colour. The fore-parts of two skulls, the left ramus of a lower jaw, and two separate small incisor teeth have been preserved; and as none of the animal matter has been removed, great doubt exists whether any great lapse of time has taken place since their being imbedded in the deposit. It is not stated at what depth these remains were found, but there is no stalagmite adhering to them, and their appearance, lke that of the two copper halfpence (temp. Creo. II.), 1s very recent. Mr. J. Elliott (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 169) BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 219 has told us “ the coins were under very little cover, and might have been imbedded very recently.’ The exact depth is, however, unrecorded. The large flat plate, from (I presume) the bed of the watercourse, in the Heathery Burn Cave, is a most interesting relic. Although unquestionably modern, it is covered to the depth of + inch with a thick deposit of fish-bones, of which the centra, neural arches, and hemal arches of the vertebre can be observed, and amongst which some bones, possibly those of small frogs or tadpoles, may be detected. All these are in a very friable state. Errvria.—In the osteological department of the British Museum are four skulls, of presumed high historical antiquity, which were derived from caves in Etruria. I give the following table of their measurements, taken in the same way as I have measured the East Ham skull. This table is necessarily defective, as in the skulls marked I. M. N. and +, the apical extremities of the mastoid processes are broken away, and the horizontal periphery of the skull marked + cannot be computed exactly, by reason of the left squamosal having posthumously bulged out from the parietals. | | coos pe eee a : 5 S Sao ee Beye l Olea las Measurements, : S & : | : Zz | 2 BE z 1 q 3 aS eS eo} 8 3 a |/Soleq| a |feia Longitudinal diameter .................. 62 am ueey (eae Mele Leela Le Seiki) i 52 5z Be 52 52 5 5 LTT A 2 5 At 43 4i |) — 2 48. Wertieah diameter... )..........sses..000 4% Oe Aa Oe DE apy ittermastoia arch’ (6.002.300.0106. 149 | 142 | 148 | 144 | — 144 | 143 Kntermiastardsline), Qo5.46 d... scl sie ed 43 a | 4 A |) S A = Occipiotantalarch... io... cccecssesae: 142 | 143 | 142 | 144 | 152 | 14 153 Porizontal periphery... 3.06... ..09 212 | 20% | 20 | 203 | 21 | 20 | 208 Proportion of breadth to length, the latter being estimated as 10......... 8°518} 8°103| 7321) 7 7 |6°879) 6°666 In I. M. M. and I. M. N. the occiput is globular, and shelving gently downwards. In + it is full and oval, the lower half of the supraoccipital being flattened. No undue prominence of the supra- orbital ridge, or of the paroccipital tubercles, is observable. Small ossa wormiana are present in the lambdoid suture of I. M. M., but in I. M. N. the sutures are obliterated; nor does + exhibit any peculiarity in this respect. The frontal suture, however, in I. M. M. is present. The inion is distinctly marked in I. M. M. and in + ; not so, however, in I. M. N. In all three skulls the alisphenoid and parietal join. A slight depression of the vertex is indicated behind the coronal suture in the three skulls, and especially in I. M. M. No history of the specimens has been preserved, nor is there any geological or antiquarian evidence demonstrating their antiquity. 220 THE GEOLOGIST. The contrast between the brachycephalic skull marked O, and the dolichocephalic one marked +, from the same locality, is signifi- cant. Switzerland.—Mr. Lubbock, in his memoir on the subject, has told us “ Human bones occur in the Pileworks (Pfahlbauten) but very seldom, and may no doubt be referred to accidents, especially as we find that those of children are most numerous. One mature skull was, however, discovered at Meilen, and has been described by Pro- fessor His, who considers that it does not differ much from the ordi- nary Swiss type.* And while his work was in the press, M. Ruti- meyer received from M. Schwab four more skulls, two of which were obtained at Nidau Steinberg, one at Sutz, and one from Biel.’”’ Mr. Lubbock proceeds to say: “ Whether the Drift race of men were really the aboriginal inhabitants of Europe, still remains to be ascer- tained. M. Riitimeyer hints that our geographical distribution indi- cates a still greater antiquity of the human race.” No general statement of facts is, however, adduced in support of M. Rittimeyer’s theory, which the negative evidence, which proves that human bones are as capable of preservation as those of mammalia, tends to refute until observation and demonstration shall establish the greater anti- quity of man. A human cranium belonging to the first age of iron, from Tiefenau, exhibited exactly the same profile as the cranium from Sanderum- gaard. M. Morlot states that the height of the Swiss cranium is identically the same, and the length is a little (5 millimetres) longer than that of the Danish cranium. (Morlot, ‘Etudes Géologico-Ar- chéologiques,’ p. 317.) Objects of human art have been found at various depths in a tumulus near the Tiniére rivulet, which flows into the Lake of Geneva near Villeneuve. In order that my readers may understand more clearly M. Morlot’s reasoning, I transcribe his diagram and refer- ences. P B RN ACTUAL SECTION or THE “CoNE DE D&JECTION TORRENTIELLE DE LA TINIBRE.” From A. Morlot, ‘Legon d’ouverture d’un Cours sur la haute Antiquité, fait 3 PAcadémi quite, fait 4 Académie de Lausanne en Novembre et Décembre 1860.2 8vo. Lausanne, 1861. R. Bed of the Roman age. a ae of the Bronze age, date 3000 to 4000 years ago. S. Bed of the Stone age, date 5000 te 7000 years, in which were found, at a, a piece of pottery ; at 4, a human skeleton, which appeared to have been laid in a tomb, and of which the very small, round, and remarkably thick head presented the Mon- ov © yd a vé e 7 re 7 . gohan or 'Turanian “ brachy cephalic” type, strongly marked; at d, many frag- * Dolichocephalie BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 221 ments of very coarse pottery, much charcoal, and broken pieces of the bones of various animals—a proof that man had inhabited that precise spot. | A. Central azis of the cone, transversely bisected by the railway. It is here that the torrent flowed in ordinary times, before the dykes had been constructed. CC. Surface of the cone, when the torrent was commenced to be dyked. This line is, to a certain extent, ideal; all the others are real, and have been actually observed as they are represented in the section. MN. The iron road. V. Bridge acting as aqueduct to the torrent which crosses the railway. OPN. In this space exclusively all those distances are included which have served to establish chronological calculations. These distances, often repeated, are capable of being taken here very exactly ; they can be considered as exact almost to half an inch. The section has been interrupted at M, because it became indistinct here. Its southern extremity was complete in every relation. Kjokkenmoddings (Denmark).— Numerous human skeletons from the ancient deposits of Denmark, in which the remains of extinct ani- mals, with one exception (Bos primigenius) have not been found, have been afforded to us. The skulls are brachycephalic, and possess well-defined supraorbital ridges. M. Morlot says “that their front teeth did not overlap as ours do, but met one another, as those of the Greenlanders of the present day. This evidently indicates a peculiar manner of eating.’ The value of this assumption could only be estimated by the illustration of a drawing, showing in what way such close juxtaposition of the incisor teeth was effected. This evi- dence, however, is not given to us, and those who are acquainted with the range of dental variation in man, however they might con- sider a conformation of this sort indicative of a peculiar description of food, will hardly affirm that the builders of the tumuli had “a peculiar manner of eating.” M. Morlot, although he quotes the Greenlanders, Egyptians, and other nations as exhibiting the same dental peculiarity, the incisors being worn away. so as functionally to resemble molars, 1s evidently not aware of the fact that this confor- mation has been observed even amongst British sailors, and that it is due solely to the triturating action of the hard substances used by them as food. In the sepulchral edifices of the early Danes, carefully constructed of large hewn stones, M. Morlot has discovered numerous erania, of which, he says, the type can be established. “ It is a small head, remarkably rounded in every way, but with a rather large facial angle, and a forehead which does not bear the mark of a slightly- developed intelligence. This type reminds one of that of the Lap- lander, but it cannot be precisely affirmed to be identical with it.”’ One from Sanderumgaard, of the Iron period, in the island of Fyen, is dolichocephalic, with a slightly retrocedent frontal. Practical cranioscopists are aware that the range of variation in the skulls of the Indo-European races is such as to exhibit many crania of these two types amongst the existing races of Europe and Asia. Paleon- tologists are under a lasting debt of obligation to M. Morlot, who has, by his researches on the later geological strata of Switzerland, furnished us with an almost inexhaustible mine of information on the contemporaneity of man with the extinct animals at both the Kjok- 222 THE GEOLOGIST. kenmoddings and Pfahlbauten.* Human osseous remains have not been demonstrated in the Kyokkenméddings themselves, according to the testimony of the latest observers of these shell-deposits. The broad ground may be admitted, that the earliest Briton skulls generally exhibit a supraorbital projection, which attains in its deve- lopment, however, nothing like the size of the ridge in the Neander- thal cranium. The majority of the British, Hibernian, and Caledo- nian skulls figured by Messrs. Davis and Thurnam7 exhibit a large supraorbital ridge. ‘This character is also present in a few of the Saxon skulls. The supraorbital development of the Briton skull from Ballidon Moorf is fully equal to that of the Engis cranium. ‘The Neanderthal skull, however, admittedly stands sw generis. The Museum of Natural History at Copenhagen contains skulls of the “ Stone Period” in Denmark with an excessive supraorbital projection. | Aboriginal American races of high antiquity often exhibit a large supraorbital development. ‘l'his may be seen on examining Morton’s§ plates ofthe Peruvian from Pachacamac (“ Temple of the Sun’’), plate lia, and the skulls of mound-builders from the Upper Mississippi (plate 52), Tennessee (plate 55), and Steutenville, in Ohio (plate 68). The frontal development of the Australian race, accompanied by an absence of the frontal sinus, has been frequently noticed, and several Australian skulls have the supraorbital ridge overhanging the origin of the nasals to the degree shown in the skulls from Engis and the Valley of the Trent. Supraorbital development in the Negro is far from being a constant character. It is undoubtedly present in many of the lower Negroes, but I have now before me a skull from Ashantee which exhibits less supraorbital development than many of the skulls from the “ Stone period’ in Denmark. In India, the range of variation offered by the Hill-tribes of Nepal exhibits the supraorbital ridge under a variety of aspects. The low- caste individuals, perhaps of all nations, have a greater tendency to repeat this character than the more elevated types. In Huropeans, * A. Morlot: ‘ - ’ es r ait kG . : 1. Legon d’ouv erture d’un Cours sur Ja haute Antiquité, fait A Académie de Lausanne en Novembre et Décembre 1860.’ 8vo. Lausanne, 1861. » © Ro ane 1 “1 n 0 1 aa _Remarques sur les formations modernes dans le Canton de Vaud.’ (Bulletin de la saa aes audolge des Sciences naturelles, tome v. No. 40.) Svo. Lausanne, 1857. 0. “Ktudes Geologico-Archéologiques en Danemark et en Suisse.? 8yo. Lausanne, 1860. (Bulletin, ete., tome v. no. 46.) / c » Dna Sacdisetee ° . 7 4. “On the Post-Tertiary and Quaternary Formations of Switzerland.’ 8vo. aie ley acs ae She : ; 5. “Recherches sur les Habitations lacustres des environs d’Estavayer,’ par M. Biot de Vevay et Henri Rey, redigées par M.Morlot. (Extrait des Mémoires de la Société des Autiquaires de Zurich, tome xiii.) 4to. 7 ‘Crania Britannica.’ 4to and folio. London: 1856. t Loc. cit. Wa a Pe +¢ Apps a? y]< } 2 § *Crania Americana. Philadelphia: 1839. In a Pachacamae skull before me there is a very slight supraorbital development. BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANOIENT RACES. 223 however, of high intellect this conformation may frequently be re- marked ; and I have observed it in more than one person with whom it was correlated with a high degree of mental ability. The words of Professor Owen, applied to the Nepal crania, are also applicable to the remains from the Stone period. ‘“ There are not more than two or three skulls in the entire series which would have suggested, had they been presented to observation without previous knowledge of their country, that they belonged to any primary divi- sion of human kind distinct from that usually characterized by cra- niologists as Caucasian or Indo-European ; the majority might have been obtained from graveyards in London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, and have indicated a low condition of the Caucasian race. ... They pre- sent varieties in the proportion of length and breadth of cranium, in the development of the nasal bones, in the divarication or prominence of the malar bones, in the shape of the forehead, in the degree of prominence of the frontal sinuses and projection of the supraciliary ridge, which would be found perhaps in as many promiscuously-col- lected skulls of the operatives of any of our large manufacturing towns, and which would be associated with corresponding diversities of features and physiognomy.’’* The range of variation offered by the above skulls (the Neanderthal cranium excepted) is, on the whole, not greater than between a large series of the skulls of any given district—as, e.g., Nepal. Neither in the size of the supraorbital ridge; the extent of frontal develop- ment; the form of the occiput, whether shelving, vertical, or globular ; the persistence of an interparietal bone; the presence or absence of a sphenoido-parietal suture ; the position of the condyles; the deve- lopment of sagittal or lambdoidal crests; the size, shape, or position of the styloid or vaginal processes—have any of those differences which so prominently characterize the Homo sapiens been departed from, nor any of the simial features superadded or retained as em- bryonal characters; nor have the latest published demonstrations of the anatomical characters of these ancient crania by the ablest advo- cates of the hypothesis of direct selective transmutation afforded us any satisfactory evidence to break down the broad bridge of demarca- tion which still separates us from the inferior animals. The researches of Professor Steenstrup and others have led to the proposition of a series of periods, as exhibited in the annexed table, in which the propositions put forth by the advocates of the excessive antiquity of man are set forth in a tabular form. Direct contempo- raneity of e.g. the denizens of the Kjokkenméddings with the Natchez mound-builders is not inferred. “ It would have been very much better for geology if so loose and ambiguous a word as ‘contemporaneous’ had been excluded from her terminology, and if in its stead some term, expressing similarity of serial relation and excluding the notion of time altogether, had been employed to * Owen, ‘ Report on a Series of Nepalese Skulls.’ Transactions of the British Asso- elation, 1859. 224: THE GEOLOGIST. . . . ° e 99 denote correspondence in position in two or more series of strata,” * and Professor Huxley uses the term homotaxis as expressing such relation. pena eae oe: (Denmark) a ae | Beech. Workers in Iron. Dolichocephalic. Oak. Workers in Bronze. Dolichocephalic. Switzerland. Pine IBIAS ely ON NER Brachycephalic. Pe eres ; but ground in Stone. Nees Hatchets not ground, S Valley. but chipped in Stone. See a eY | PLIOCENE. | EOCENE. | MIOCENE. © | It has been further sought to show, that, as in Denmark and some other localities, a regular scale of division of the humatile strata into beech, oak, and pine-producing deposits prevails, each respectively coincident with iron, bronze, and stone remains, that an analogous distribution in time prevailed during the deposition of the extra- Kuropean humatile strata. Neither observation nor analogy, however, demonstrates this assumption. In the whole American continent, although we have the chipped flints and celts from Natchez and Chiriqui,} the obsidian knives from Mexico, and the arrowheads from Tierra del Fuego, the copper and gold implements from Peru and Chiriqui, the American mind never devised the plan of smelting iron from the ore, and applying the metalliferous residue to a useful purpose. The so-called “Tron Age’’ never existed in America. The division of human crania into “brachyeephalic”’ and “ doli- chocephalie” originated with the late Professor Retzius. Like the arbitrary and conventional divisions of other anthropologists into “orthognathous” and “ prognathous,” it was convenient as afford- ing easy and intelligible descriptive terms for crania of diverse races. As a test of distinction of race, however, it is an insufficient mark of distinction. The supporters of the theory have based on it the fol- lowing classification.t * Huxley, Address to Geological Society, 21st February, 1862. + W. Bollacrt and ©. C. Blake on Antiquities from Chiriqui: Ethnological Society, March 18, 1862. : £ On Fossil Man. Royal Institution. February 7, 1862. BLAKE—ON THE OCRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 225 “As types of these two varieties of crania, Professor Huxley ad- duced the West Coast African negro and the Turk. The typical cranium of the West Coast African negro is long and narrow, its transverse measurement being only six or seven tenths of the longi- tudinal, while the side to side diameter of the Turk’s skull is as much as eight or nine tenths of the fore and aft measurement. The facial angle of the skulls also was different, owing to the projection of the jaws in the negro: the dolichocephalic skull was prognathic, while the brachycephalic skull was orthognathic. The most striking de- velopments of these diversities were associated with the greatest differences of climate and situation. If a line be drawn from the centre of Russian Tartary to the Bight of Benin, the north-eastern extremity of the line would represent the centre or pole of the brachycephalic orthognathic variety, the south-western would be the centre of the dolichocephalic prognathic type. The centre of Russian Tartary was distinguished by an arid climate and great diversities of heat and cold, and presented the strongest contrast with the hot, moist, reeking swamps of the Western Coast of Africa. Now, in whatever direction we diverge from these dolichocephalic and brachycephalic centres, we find the type beginning to fade and to pass into the opposite. Thus, diverging from the brachycephalic pole, if we pass eastward into China, we notice the population be- coming more dolichocephalic and prognathic ; if we travel northward to the Aleutian Islanders, Esquimaux, and Greenlanders, we observe them more or less long-headed as compared with the Tartar type. The same divergence of type is seen on leaving the dolichocephalic centre; the peculiarities of the Western African cranial conforma- tion gradually subside and approach in proportion the other type. Another line drawn across the centre of the former from the British Islands to India would mark a population whose skulls may be said to be oval, presenting a medium between the dolichocephalic and brachycephalic conformation.” The question was then raised “ whe- ther the distribution of cranial forms had been the same in all periods of the world’s history, or whether the older races, in any locality, possessed a different cranial character from their successors.” The induction that, on the whole, the brachycephalic type of cranium is more ancient than the dolichocephalic is capable only of a limited application. The skulls from Sennen, Plymouth, and Mewslade, said to be of antiquity transcending human historical records, all belong, as Professor Busk has stated, to the dolicho- cephalic type. If brachycephalic-skulled men existed before these, their remains have not been vouchsafed to us, in England at least. In the Continent, on the contrary, the Engis skull, said to be “the oldest relic of man on record,” exhibits a dolichocephalic type. So does the Neanderthal skull, “ the lowest in rank of any human being,” exhibit, as well as can be ascertained from its fragmentary state, a long-headed or dolichocephalic type. These two types, therefore, “the oldest’? and “the most degraded,” according to the precon- ceived theory, belong to the so-called modern or dolichocephalic VOL. V. 26 226 THE GEOLOGIST. type, said to be coeval with the bronze and iron periods of man. So far their craniological nature per se fails to demonstrate their anti- uity. ; Gevesal biological analogy would not lead us to suppose that short- headed races of men first existed in this planet. We almost invariably find the “lowest ’’ races of animals first. The “dark races of man,’’* comprehending the Negros and Australians, are the lowest in our classification. They, if any, offer most affinity to the anthropoid apes. They are dolichocephalic. It would be far more consonant with analogy to suppose that the ‘dark races’’ once stretched over the tropical regions of the globe, and have left their modified de- scendants in Africa, Australia, and the Andaman Islands,} long pre- vious to the introduction, origin, or derivation of the hghter races of the Old World, than to infer the existence of a supposititious race of short-headed men with or without simial supraorbital ridges, who flourished over the whole earth (America inclusive) antecedent to historical time. Speculation on this subject must be checked till we know what are the most ancient crania of the autochthonous tribes of the earth. In America, the mound-builders of the Mississippi valley are possibly the mcst ancient aborigines of North America. They are certainly brachycephalic to a degree transcending the existing Ame- rican races. But the modern Quichua skullt (often termed Inca) is almost as short-headed, and the Quichua race has not the shghtest claim to ethnological antiquity. Antecedent to the Quichua Ney ly JIMA races, the “ Flat-heads’’ of Titicaca (not NS, l Aes Ga ui’ satisfactorily identified with the Aymaras) CARO agg” = who peopled Bolivia and Southern Peru = for ages of unrecorded duration, even 4 Pied ® giving due allowance for distortion by Hig. 12.—Mississippi mound- artificial pressure, exhibit a long-headed bulger. or dolichocephalic type. A plausible hy- pothesis has even been mooted, that the Titicacan Flat-heads dis- torted their crania, with a view to perpetuate the remembrance of the dolichocephalic character of their ancestors. Retzius has at- tempted to identify the “Ancient Peruvians” of Morton, and the so-called “ Huancas”’ of Tschudi, with the eastern dolichocephalic races of South America. This writer by no means coincided with those authors who consider the brachycephalic mound-builders of Mississippi as the remains of the typical American stock. He pointed out that in the eastern part of the American continent, from north to south, the dolichocephalic type predominated. The remains from the Brazilian bone-caves, described by Castelnau and * Knox. Raees of Men. + Possibly in Ceylon, according to Mr. Brayley, F.R.S.: Medical Times, May 10, 1862. t Fide Kthnological Socicty’s Transactions, May 6, 1862, for my paper “ On the Cran al Characters of the Peruvian Races.’—C.C.B. BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 227 Lund, with retrocedent and possibly flattened crania, are dolicho- cephalic, and, according to Retzius, represent the primeval popula- tion of Brazil. Whether the flattening of their skulls was artificial or natural, may well be doubted. If natural, the succession of crania in Bolivia, Eastern Brazil, and Peru, would be as follows :— 1st. Natural Dolichocephali. Brazilian bone-caves. Oldest builders of Tia-huanaco (?). 2nd. Artificial Dolichocephali. Titicacans, Aymaras. 3rd. Artificial Brachycephali. Pachacamac, Quichuas, Incas, Atacamans. Changos. | The mounds termed Koorgan or Bongor in the Government of Tomsk, of which the antiquity is unascertained, containing brachy- cephalic skulls, afford no evidence of bronze or chipped stone implements. “The weapons and other objects found by MM. Meynier and d’Hichthal, in the tumuli, are either of bone or iron; the ornaments are of bone, melted silicate, polished quartz, or copper; there were, moreover, in one of the tumuli fragments of pottery ; in another the remains of a wooden vessel. All the tumuli, without exception, had some remnants of iron tools or weapons, but none of bronze, the metallic ornaments found being east in copper, exactly like all others our travellers have met with in Siberia in the collections of dilettanti. The cranium bears in all the skeletons strong marks of relationship with those which Retzius has designated under the name of ‘ Brachycephali,’ their chief feature [sic in orig.| being the rectangular form of the orbital cavity, a form common to all Mongolian races. MM. Meynier and d’Eichthal are, nevertheless, inclined to believe that several different kinds of tumuli must be distinguished in Siberia, and that it would be prema- ture to consider all these tombs as pertaining exclusively to a single race.’ Supporters of a derivative hypothesis of the human race from existing species of anthropoid apes have drawn a parallel between the dolichocephalic chimpanzee, and the dolichocephalic negro of Western Africa, and also between the brachycephalic oran-outan of Borneo and the brachycephalic Malay of the same locality. Ethnic centres of specific dispersion in time have been inferred from this geographical distribution. The remarkable alleged coincidence of the long-headed ape with the most long-headed man, and the short-headed ape with his short-headed human representative, and inferred de- scendant, certainly seemed a fact which might iead anthropologists to admit a possible transmutation. Reference, however, to the simple facts of the case gives a totally different aspect to this surmise. When we examine the skulls of the young oran-outan and chim- panzee, side by side, before their typical characters have been masked by superadded peculiarities connected with their functional require- * Comptes Rendus, Acad. Sciences, 1862. 228 THE GEOLOGIST. TABLE SHOWING THE ASSOCIATION OF THE EARLIEST EVIDENCES OF THE HUMAN RACE WITH THE REMAINS OF EXTINCT AND RECENT MAMMALIA. Fossil species in italics. x | Neanderthal. x | Engis. x x © | Abbeville. Mian nee cece e scans HOMiSISPCVEO Martane | -.6\lee Ursus spel@ust .....4...)... Ursus priscus ..... Stir eel (eibal hea Hyena speleat ..... sage ite x Bones x. Works o. Domesticated Animals 4. © | St. Acheul. © | St. Roch. soe Pars ce GC x Machairodus latidenst+.\...\...|...|...|...|...|.. Machair. megantereont Bos primigeniust ... seelees OOOO Si lon 5 alte BOS VONGUTONSE or. c1chen |. Bos frontosus (7) Bison priscust Ovibos moschatust...... Elephas primigeniust...|... Lilephas antiquust ......)... Rhinoceros tichorhinus?)... Lhinoceros leptorhinus+\.. Hippopot. majort ......4... EGUUSOSSUIUS) angen en Cervus megacerost......|... Cervus strongylocerus...|... Cerv. psendovirginianus)... Cervus Somonensist Cervus Guettardi Cervus Bucklandi Cervus tarandus Cervus elaphus Cervus alces ......,. Cervus capreolus.,. Cervus dama .,, Sus*scrotaG 2 Phoca gryphus Lutra vulgaris CSTE MUD US cs ccctie dose ds Canis vulpes ............ Canis familiaris§] Felis catus9] Melibelwrie eset een eee eds lag: Mustela putorius.........)0..[... Mustela erminea | eleee eee see tee Cee ease vesieesivae eefeeetecels oe seele eae OUI OO OO Mustela martes Mustela foina Sorex vulgaris..,......... Krinaceus europmeus Hypudeeus amphibius...)...)...)...}.. seelewe vaeleee see aol Siwiel| heiate’ OOM lic cacy efewefene seston soe © | Hoxne. xe rs eres eee eee le welaae eertewelens fo) | Brixham. 2-0 | Gray’s Inn Lane. x | Mewslade. x KKK XX OC | Kent’s Hole. sfaeefeeetone eert ewe teveje epee ete el eoe seelees ~flewelecsives eeeleee Nether Urquhart. Montrose. Plymouth. weep ewaleee Valley of the Trent. Heathery Burn. welewefeeetane Oo os ee Pliocene Mammalia f. Pleistocene Switzerland. x : x x o | Maccagnone. seelees + +: ey Hole. x © | Kjékkenméddings, etc. © | Wool 5g 8 eertecetoane weelees eerbows seclees BLAKE—ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 229 TABLE SHOWING EARLIEST EVIDENCES OF HUMAN RACE, &c.—continued. 3 — aS o . f=} ~ 3 3 One & q S ais SEH G 4 3) |o/5l_| sisi ri 5 i . o i! E | doe Felis let | JE] fs /S) Ee) eye lis Bl |S] elsis}.| [8] jg) Sl4ls] ./ SP S/S Bis] al ale o| -ls(a|8iai# Slo] S| ml m|—|/e/e1 815] bp] 3] Oo] sj 8] 8 a\.2 | 0 a m| | .of) a|S1 35 Rey) =| o1p/N] o13/4 Sl hl o| S14) S| a] Stel ele S| BIE] Se) el S] BIiSlels] else | alo] las] =| S|) 5] S| 8] 0] 8) 9) 8) S10] Ss) o] 2) sis} e Ala\Sa|olalS Sa SHA Slalola alae lelal ale |= Capias pens iashic ase Ja a eabrere tetera GR Meee alate ol siatedf areal oe 0 ae a Saleem |eee lol ss lick Capra hircus] ......... coe | STE HOR he es i | eel Pl ae i (ei (Re (Se fet a (a SOME SNS seal Saatloed Antilope rupicapra ...... PURER ease nl Mullis fom Mel cect ncal are ccral aiel evel aie | arf oie {LX dels | wars fesse Ovisvamies | foM 2s... sole olla rte Bel Sisal ier eens leo Eel ipl aE re mel Bl (ee ee Mee ese (Ae (Oe to ge Ba WSUS aLetds cazcetsss>..4...|... a eeatieslneeleras tse a a al OR ea aoe See aoe (2a oA based Sed aA Mle ecenn magne: panes | cls... fo.0|.. vce .cc|:.- Helge ches aS. PE eae amelie Meta rie La cal fae ie fe (a Mie MMSE MEE em eset 5) Woe | ost |i S[o sal avs|s ccf eefelaelaen|ore [eee [oes |enrm| eon fene [er XSI ated [ik ASO SPE EUS gals oles |. chesa| onelsee|ene}os' pA al | an Me I . om Wee ie MER ei | sl. le. aPe loa cu. |niege|ves|-+-oustee Sil acles cigar Xi eealinwsleat Eveourprins sequin || 20)... |. .a[e..[ce.|-e-feee] 2s|ae-| X [eo |coadens oh PME WIEGIENAPRESUISe ok. 2. |02.12..|c.+|soxlcodlaos|acs|uaefres[eve| oes RAS Lawes ral Arvicolay pratensis! 3, ./.3./:5-|6 5h ass |et- elie) aloe nga inte 7 Py eed a POP atte ioral ce cl eal tiaal sel ee ee Lepus variabilis .........|... Py ae ase aro ake Gen eee fee Cece sa a pes ae Sec ECAR ete eel eat legssol ere inca ute Lepusicaniculus ......:...|... S| en a) al el ee oe a Ba hoc eee | GE EN ene (eeee el Fee kaze (ees ree ae ee Caste NCE o.oo 5 sce cass|ass eran Belk daa tases [eee lee « sesh esl Mie tae | steal etl tes re ogc | move dleaait Oa cel XG eke Sciurus vulgaris ..,......|... “2 || ee Sor sm ene Ie seal eadiasl meses (eats 5) (ae feel eee neta ae Bite (Peal (aa Hiquuseaballus Yi sy.. 0.0 da XP | Aen eee ar | we | Ure ae

CO 230 THE GEOLOGIST. ments, we see that the young oran-outan, gorilla, and chimpanzee have the transverse diameter of the skull proportionately equal,* and that the apparent length of the head in the chimpanzee is produced by the greater development of the supraciliary ridges than in the oran-outan. In the young gorilla, also an African ape, coincident in its geographical distribution with races of dolichocephalic negros, the transverse diameter actually slightly exceeds in Deslongchamps’ 5th plate that of the oran-outan. For all practical purposes of classification, however, it may be said that in youth, before the action of the biting muscles has altered the typical outward aspect of the brain-case, the oran-outan, gorilla, and chimpanzee exhibit skulls of which it cannot be predicted that each exceeds the others in the pro- portion of its transverse diameter. | Professor Deslongchamps says, “‘ Pour bien saisir les rapports, souvent cachés, des étres entr’eux, l état adulte ne suffit pas toujours ; dans cet état, ce sont surtout les différences qui se prononcent; dans les premiers ages, les ressemblances sont plus accusées, les affinités sont moins masquées. I] est utile, dans l’étude des animaux, d’imiter les botanistes, qui vont chercher les affinités des genres et des familles des végétaux dans les premiers rudiments des fruits, de la graine, de Yembryon, etc. Le groupe des singes anthropoides est remarquable entre tous par les changements, je dirais presque par les métamor- phoses, que subissent leurs tétes.” + The comparison of the skulls of the anthropoid simi in their young state, made by the cautious and philosophical Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at Caen, therefore, may be accepted as evidence against the hypothesis of the coincidence and derivation of the short and long-headed races of men with and from the alleged brachy- and dolichocephalic genera of Asiatic and African apes. The foregoing table is drawn up with a view to exhibit generally the number and proportions of extinct and existing mammalia which have been found in a fossil state in deposits where the remains of man have also been discovered. With no pretensions to complete- ness, it may yet serve as a convenient record, and may, to a certain extent, demonstrate the greater antiquity of e.g. the Abbeville beds as compared with the Danish Kjékkenméddings, evinced by the greater proportion of extinct species in the former deposit. It must however be borne in mind that the mammalia of the Somme valley may not have attamed a more northern range during the post- pliocene age, whilst boreal species existing in England and Denmark at the same time might leave no remains in post-pliocene strata in Gascony or Sicily. We know too little respecting the distribution of mammalia over limited areas in the later tertiary strata to entitle us to form any comprehensive generalization. In this table, 1 have made use of the researches of M. Lartet (Geol. Journal, 1860, p. 471 and 491, and Natural History Review, 1862, p. 53); Mr. Prestwich (Geol. Journal, 1860, p. 189, and Su le Gorilla, par Professeur Owen, avec six planches ajoutées par Eudés Deslong- champs. Svo. Caen, 1861, 7 woe. cit. p. 6. BLAKE—ON THRE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 23h Philos. Transact. 1860, p. 277); Dr. Falconer (Geol. Journal, 1860, ps.99); Dr. Schauffhausen (Nat. Hist. Review, 1861, p. 155) ; Mr. Busk (Nat. Hist. Review, 1861, p. 172); Mr. Lubbock (Nat. Hist. Review, 1861, p. 489, and N. H. Review, 1862, p. 26); and Mr. Dawkins (Proceedings of the Geological Society, 1862) % In the Map which accompanies this paper, I nave indicated the locality of some of the most authentic remains, the antiquity of which has been strongly advocated. It is not however intended to be conveyed that any of the remains here indicated were contem- poraneous. The contemporaneity of some of them with the extinct mammalia is hitherto undemonstrated. It is certainly significant that so many instances should occur in the extreme south-west of England, to which the early Britons were driven by their Saxon con- querors, and where the traditions of British local history and the Cornubian dialect still survive. The remains from the Land’s End, Plymouth, and Mewslade may have been those of early Britons, and their antiquity, unproven by any chemical or geological evidence, may not date further back than the period of the Saxon conquest. Not the least point of interest in the table on page 228, is the fact that in Gascony and Devonshire we have evidence of the contem- poraneity of the horse and the ass, both animals domesticated by man, with the extinct mammoths, rhinoceri, cave-lions, bears, and hyenas. The question then arises, whether the fossil horses and asses are specifically distinct from the existing, as, if identical, the commonly received doctrine that the horses and asses were intro- duced from a warmer climate must be essentially modified. It might be supposed, that the horses and asses of the post-pliocene might have been domesticated by the early pre-Gascons or pre-Devonians, and have possibly aided them to exterminate the elephants and rhinoceri. The association of human remains with those of Machai- rodus at Kent’s Hole is not a more remarkable fact than his asso- ciation with Llephas antiquus and Hippopotamus major in the Somme valley and in Sicily. Remains of Hippopotamus major have also been found in Kent’s Hole. Switzerland and the Kjékkenméddings, belonging to a later epoch in the so-called ‘“‘Stone Period,’ afford us first evidence of man’s faithful companion, the domestic dog; and the former locality indi- eates also the proof of goats and sheep, specifically indistinguishable from the existing species. With these in Switzerland are associated remains of the Bos primigenius, the Bos frontosus of Nilsson, and the Bos longifrons. ‘Vhe latter species was domesticated by the early Huropeans, and probably formed the souche primitive of our domestic oxen. Whether some primigenius blood may not possibly exist in our breeds, may be reasonably doubted; but the conclusions of Pro- fessor Nilsson, who derives an existing ‘breed of oxen from the Bos * The illustrations to this paper are taken from Professor Busk’s paper (N. H.R. p- 172, etc.); from Sqnier’s Monuments of the Mississippi valley ; and Maury’s ‘ In- digenous Races.’ I am indebted to Mr. Mackie for the use of the Muskham and Heathery Burn relics, and for the sketches of the Hastham and Engis skulls. 232 THE GEOLOGIST. frontosus, will need further discussion before their acceptance by paleontologists. With these domesticated or domesticable species of ox, flourished in Switzerland the Bison priscus, a species which the most strenuous efforts of the early Europeans would not have rendered capable of serving as a docile, milk-producing beast. The musk-buffalo Bubalus (Ovibos) moschatus, which lived in glacial clay and drift in England contemporary with the elephant, and tichorhine rhinoceros, has not hitherto been found associated with the remains of man. . Morton, in his posthumous manuscripts,* said, “ Why may we not discover the remains of man in the tertiary deposits, in the cretace- ous beds, or even in the oolites ?”—a supposition which, considering we have not yet quite proved his existence in the post-pliocene, is as probable as that “ for the real origin of man we must go immeasurably further back from the time of the existence of man amongst the Mammoths, into the great Pliocene or Miocene ages.” When we find his remains in the tertiary or secondary strata, it will be time enough to discuss the question. Till then, the negative evidence which disproves the existence of monkeys, the ancestors of man on the derivative hypothesis, in any stratum below the eocene rocks, must check our desire to anticipate the conclusions which future paleontologists may arrive at, through a slow and cautious process of induction and observation. With the broad question of the antiquity of the human race the foregoing remarks have no necessary, or even contingent, connection. A higher and more satisfactory evidence than any which the geologist or the cranioscopist can bring to bear, is furnished us by the researches of those ethnologists and philologists who have most studied the affi- liations and relations of the most ancient languages of the globe. Upon the supposition that such languages as the Sanscrit, Greco- Latin, Teutonic, Keitic, and Lithuanian, have been derived from a once-primeval “ Arian”’ stock, a vast lapse of time is necessary during which their derivation and divergence from such parent stem took place. Upon the rejection of the “Arian” hypothesis,+ and the acceptance of the doctrine of diverse ethnic centres of linguistic origin, an equal or greater lapse of time is necessary during which such a language as the Greek could have improved by ascensive development from the simple utterances of a barbarous early tongue to the Inigh grade of philological civilization when Homer wrote. Such a supposition would corroborate the conclusions to which a priort analogy would lead the geologist; but it would leave the problem of the origin of the inferior non-“ Arian” races of men un- solved. ‘The great question of the origin of these races, whether as our representatives in a state of arrested moral and mental develop- ment; whether as the scanty remnants of inferior types which, called into being ages before the advent of the “ Arian” race, have passed the fore-ordained limit which “ species” can attain, and are * Usher, in Nott and Gliddon, ‘Types of Mankind,’ p. 343. + ( a ‘ Antiquity of Man on the Evidence of Language.’ Trans. Ethnological Society, 1862. oe ‘ WYATT—THE DISPUTED BEADS FROM THE DRIFT, 233 slowly succumbing befure the superior mental force of their extermi- nators, “the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly following ’’* the extirpation of the lower race; are speculations which cannot be solved by the inspection or measurement of any series of skulls, still less from so limited a number as those which I have noticed above. Upon a review of the above facts, it appears that we may arrive at the conclusions that brachycephalic skulls did not antedate doli- ehocephalic skulls in time, throughout the whole world; that no analogy exists between the distribution of brachycephalic and doli- chocephalic skulls of man, and the distribution of brachycephalic and dolichocephalic apes; that the proofs of the antiquity of the Neanderthal and Engis skulls are not complete, the geological and chemical evidence being defective; that the persistent interparietal bone of the Muskham skull is not a mark of the lower rank of the race to which it belonged; and that large supraorbital ridges are not per se proofs of simial affinity, or anthropic degradation. The above conclusions, it may be said, are purely negative. They are so; but it must be borne in mind that we are not entitled yet to lay down general affirmative conclusions. The popular adage, “ He knows most, who believes least,” should be more generally accepted amongst scientific men. A future age alone may enable us to solve many of the difficulties which at present beset our path, and may dissipate the prevailing or the proposed theories as to the recent or ancient antiquity of man. Till then, the constant observer of re- corded fact follows his track through the devious labyrinth of An- thropology, conscious that by a steadfast adherence to exactitude he may possibly succeed in throwing some small light on the nature of the earliest evidences of the human race. The question of the nature and date of anthropogenesis, like that of cosmogenesis, will perchance not be solved for many generations yet to come. THE DISPUTED BEADS FROM THE DRIFT. By James Wyatt, F.G.S. It is not improbable that, in the eager search for flint implements, some of us may underrate the importance of objects which might serve to throw light upon the interesting subject of the antiquity of the human race. Anxiety not to lose any evidence bearing upon this point will, doubtless, be accepted asa sufficient excuse for re-opening the question as to the perforated balls found in the Drift, displaying proofs of the workmanship of man. We have had conflicting opi- nions upon these objects, but I am not aware that anything decisive has been published. It is desirable, under such circumstances, to * Darwin, ‘ Origin of Species,’ 1st edition, p. 459. vom, ¥. yh WEL 234 THE GEOLOGIST. obtain as many facts as possible, and get the question settled. My first acquaintance with these objects occurred about fifteen years ago ; for as I was uncovering some Anglo-Saxon remains in the Kempston Gravel-pit, near Bedford, 1 found several round stones perforated through; and so strongly was | impressed at the time that they were the personal ornaments of the ancient chieftain just exhumed, that I actually presented them to the Archeological Society as Saxon beads. Subsequent examinations of the Drift gravels, however, con- vinced me that the balls were of an earlier period than the Anglo- Hollow specimens of Coscinopora from the Gravel Drift of Bedford. Saxon, whether works of art or natural productions. ‘They are de- scribed by some naturalists to be specimens of the Chalk fossil named as the Coscinopora globularis ; but the great question for con- sideration is, how did they become perforated? The theory put forth by some objectors is that they were bored by an insect or worm when they were in their soft, primitive condition; but it 1s difficult to un- derstand how the most voracious insect could seize upon a perfectly round object and drill through it, most accurately, a thoroughly straight tunnel of uniform bore. I have lately examined more than two hundred specimens from the low gravel without finding a single crooked or winding bore; but on making sections of some of them I have seen markings which appeared to me to indicate drilling with a tool after the object was fossilized, rather than the gnawing of an insect whilst the sponge was soft. There are certain facts in connec- tion with these little globes to be borne in mind in the discussion of the question :—They are found in the Pleistocene Drift gravels and sands which contain the fossil bones of the extinct mammals and the flint implements ; and the perforation is not a natural condition of the sponge ; were that the case, the specimens would be uniform in that respect, whereas some are found entire, without the slightest hole. The gravel-beds of this county, as well as those of Abbeville and Amiens, contain them, and we know that they have been regarded as works of early art in France as well as England; and they are such perfect beads that general observers unhesitatingly (and not unreasonably) pronounce them to be portions of ancient necilaces. The learned Dr. Rigollot, who devoted great attention to the Drift, gave the opinion that “les petites boules avaient servi A former des colliers 4 Pusage des peuples sauvages :” but subsequently a strong objection was taken to this opinion by M. Albert Gaudry, who, in a CORRESPONDENCE. 235 communication published in the Transactions of the Institute of France, denies that there 1s any evidence for the assertion that these are works of art, and he also takes exception to the name given to them in this country. He asserts that these fossils are found in the Chalk, perforated in the same manner as those specimens found in the Drift ; and adds that this is not surprising, because the central part of the sponges is generally cellular! Surely the latter assertion cannot be accepted as a satisfactory account of the Coseinopora. Under the present aspect of the question, it may be considered as not unworthy of discussion in these pages, and with this view it is sug- gested that some account of the observations of geologists well ac- quainted with the condition of these fossils in their natural beds in the chalk should be solicited, as well as of those who find them in their transported position in the Drift. With this view I forward specimens from the gravel for comparison with any which may be obtained from the chalk; and it will be well if a microscopic exami- tion of the borimgs in both kinds be made, so as to afford some information upon the mode in which they were drilled. I think it may be taken as a certainty that the Coscinopora or Orbitolina, in its first or living state, has no hole through it, but a small indentation, which may be observed in many of those in a fossil state. But on this point valuable information could be given by Mr. Rupert Jones, who is so well acquainted with the Foraminifera, if he will pardon my reference tohim. At all events, the perfect hole through the ball is not, in my opinion, a part of the natural structure of this variety of the Orbitolina, and the question is therefore, was it a work of sim- ple art of some of the earliest tribes of the human family ? CORRESPONDENCE. The so-called Beads from the Drift. Dear Sir,—In reply to the above inquiry respecting the small, subglobu- lar, perforated bodies found not unfrequently in the gravel of chalk-districts, and particularly noticed to occur in Bedfordshire and at St. Acheul, I have to state that, as everybody knows, they have been derived from the Chalk, in which similar fossils are abundantly found, either in the perforated con- dition, or solid, or with a more or less shallow hole in their substance. They may be found by careful search in the chalk itself, on the beaches under chalk-cliffs (as at Ramsgate, etc.), and in drift beds the materials of which have been furnished by the Chalk (in the gravels above-mentioned, in more limited deposits ‘of chalky drift, as at Copford, Essex, or in the decomposed suriace of chalk and chalk-marl along the bottom slopes of the North and South Downs). These little fossils have had several names given to them, and they have usually been regarded as sponges; but, in 1860, my friend Mr. W. K. Parker and myself were led to study them in the course of our researches on Foraminifera, on account of one curious little form after another coming under our notice from different sea-sands and fossil deposits, all of which 236 THE GEOLOGIST. were related to Williamson’s Patellina on one hand, and to D’Orbigny’s Orbitolina on the other. These varieties we described very briefly in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ for July, 1860 (3rd series, vol. vi.), and we traced a strong line of natural connection between some twelve more or less distinct varieties of what we termed Orbitolina concava, Lamarck, sp. Since then, we have again worked at this subject, with Dr. Carpenter ; and, having somewhat modified our opinion as to the closeness of the pre- sumed relationship of Patellina and Orbitolina (Tinoporus, Carpenter), we do not regard the Patelline as belonging to the same species as the Orbitoline forms—making two species instead of one. But we still are fully convinced that, however spongioid it may appear, the Orbitolina glo- bularis isa foraminifer, and a variety of O. concava, Lamarck, sp. The spe- cimens usually found in the chalk and other cretaceous beds are large individuals of this very protean species, the typical form of which is con- cavo-convex, or cupuliform ; whilst other varieties have flat, plano-convex, or even biconvex and globular shapes. The concavity of the typical variety becomes, in many of the globular forms, a small cavity, a hole, or even a neat cylindrical perforation. The last feature may be due, perhaps, to the Orbitolina having grown around a smooth stem of seaweed. At all events, such perforated specimens are natural, and as abundant in the chalk as those of different conformations. In the ‘Annals of Natural History’ above referred to, after describing those Orbitoline to which De Montfort’s Tinoporus baculatus is referable, we go on to a largish sugar-loaf form from the Upper Chalk of Ciply, Bel- gium, and to a smaller and globular variety in the same deposit, thus :— ““In the same deposit are somewhat smaller and globular specimens, in which the granular growth of the septal edges is still greater; so that con- tinuous, rough, sinuous walls of division are produced, marking out irre- gular polygonal spaces, including one or more cells, the faces of which lie low down below the surface. Essentially similar septal projections con- stitute the limbate feature in Rotalia Beccaria, var. Schreteriana, and it. repanda, var. Carocolla. Similar globular Orbitoline (O. globularis, Phillips, sp.) are common in other cretaceous deposits. Millepora? globularis, Phillips (Geol. Yorksh., pl. 1. f. 12) and Wood- ward (Geol. Norfolk, pl. 4. f 10-12), Tragos globularis, Reuss (Bohm. Kreid., p. 78, pl. 20, f. 5), Coscinopora globularis, D’Orb. (Prodrom., ii. p- 284), and Morris (Catal. Brit. Foss., 2nd edit., p.27), is our Orbitolina globularis. Michelin’s Ceriopora Avellana (Icon. Zooph, p. 208. pl. 52. f. 13), from Sarthe, appears to us to be a large specimen of the same varicty. Its probably adherent habit and perforated condition are not inimical to this view. “In some of the figured specimens of O. globularis, the not unusual hole in the base is indicated. Occasionally individuals are perforated by a more or less irregular tubular cavity. The roundness of the specimens, and their holes and tubular cavities, appear to have suggested to the old Klint-folk of the Valley of the Somme, that they might be used for beads ; for such perforated Orbitoline are frequent in the gravel that yields the flint axes’ (pp. 34, 35). I may add, that the imperforate Orditoline occur in the gravels, just as much as the perforate. Also that the perforation of the non-drifted speci- mens in the chalk is often just as smooth and straight as if artificial; the interior surface is not worn, however, but consists of the natural structure of the organism. | T. Rupert JONES. Aprel 22, 1862. 237 PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. Grotoeists’ Assocration.—May 5th, 1862.—‘ On Bone-beds—their occurrence in Sedimentary Deposits, and probable Origin.” By George E. Roberts, Esq. The author described those zones of osseous and coprolitic matter which occur in parallel positions nearly throughout the range of sedimentary strata. Commencing with the most recently deposited bone- beds, he described in descending stratigraphical order those of the Eocene, Wealden, Oolitic, Liassic, Rhetic, Carboniferous, and Silurian ages; point- ing out the peculiarities in the position of each, and its range through the British area, and its relative correspondents in Europe and elsewhere. The author’s conclusions were that these deposits presented the simple and normal life-forms of the period, unaugmented, as a rule, by any drift of dead fishes and crustacea from other localities or by any cataclysmal change or local epidemic destroying life in the seas. Bone-beds he regarded as representing more nearly than other deposits the actual population of the areas in which they occur at that period of their past history, and he urged that special search should be made for life-relics in or near to such zones ; for arock, he considered, was generally not only more fossiliferous and richer in the ordinary organisms of the period in the strati- graphical vicinity of a bone-bed, but also contained intermediate forms linking together past species with those which succeeded, a consequence of change in the water from salt to fresh, or vice versd, at the time of their deposition. The probability was that all bone-beds were deposited in. shallow water, swept by light currents, under geographical conditions favouring the multiplication of fish and crustacea in Archipelagic areas, which are ever seen to be crowded with marine life, and are the great feeding grounds of fishes. Of this we have a modern example on the cod-banks of Newfoundland. 2. “On a Superficial Deposit near the Blackfriars Road.” By C. Evans, Esq. In this deposit, some mammalian bones and land and fresh- water shells of recent species have been found. The deposit consists of peat and woody clays, resting on a bed of gravel, and was exposed in the excavations for the Charing Cross Railway. Mancuester Frerp-Naturatists’ Socitrtry.—We have received the annual Report of this Society, which announces its continued prosperity both as to funds and members, and the general and deserved success of the excursions and soirées. We shall not soon forget the brilliant display of excellent diagrams and the large and instructive collections made by this Society in the Free Trade Hall on the occasion of the British Asso- ciation Meeting, and we should freely spare a page or two of our much- demanded space to notice their labours if they had given us the oppor- tunity of doing so. All the geology however they appear to have done was the picking up some Carboniferous calamite stems when the-Todmor- den Botanists fraternized with the Manchester Naturalists at Whiteley Dean. ‘So little,” says the report, ‘‘of Nature’s archeology can be read upon the surface near Manchester—scarcely any, indeed, except in the fossil herbariums of the coal-pits—that to find such relics in our path was peculiarly interesting.” However, if the naturalists do not do much geology, the Manchester geologists do—and well too, as the papers of Binney, Hall, Dickinson, Darbishire and others testify. 238 THE GEOLOGIST. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. Earthquake shocks were felt at Dijon on the 17th and 18th of April last. Professor Lecoq, of Clermont-Ferrand, has presented to the French Academy of Sciences his magnificent geological map of the Puy-de-Dome, on which he has laboured so many years. The Society of Agriculture, Science, and Art, of Poligny (Jura), have announced that they will meet on the 22nd June and hold a sort of Con- gress, to which the French geologists and paleontologists are invited. The railway works at the foot of the Jura have traversed, near the village of St. Lothaire, a tertiary basin which, upon a hassic basement, supports a moraine exhibiting all the usual characteristics, and which, in its turn, is covered by a turf deposit containing bones of Hlephas primigenius, deer, rhinoceros, etc. In the Lias shales near by, important remains of enor- mous saurians have been met with; and the Poligny Society consider it will be very interesting for the French savants to visit these interesting cuttings before the completion of the works renders their investigation diff- cult or impossible. Undoubtedly geologists at the present time are trenching, in their in- vestigations, on the domains of the archeologist and historian ; and it is diff- cult to see how, in the present exciting investigations on the antiquity of man, such trespasses are to be avoided. Many are accidental, many are designed ; but without keeping their eyes well open, to the doings of the antiquary especially, geologists cannot arrive at proper conclusions. ‘This necessity must be our excuse now, as well as on many other occasions both past and future, for including in our pages notices of subjects not strictly geological. How can it be otherwise? We have traces in the Drift of human relics; the same in peat-beds and alluvial deposits of very great antiquity ; and antiquaries, as a rule, have hitherto had no idea of going beyond the Celtic epoch. The oldest monuments, therefore, of man’s exist- ence in our own and neighbouring lands are usually assigned, with no other warranty than their antiquity, to that race. The recorded circumstances under which such early relics are found are not, however, always satisfying to the geologist of the correctness of these assignments. Such is the case with the so-called Celtic boat lately found in a fiuviatile deposit during some en- gineering works on the Upper Rhine at Cordon. This boat is formed of a single trunk ofa tree, hollowed out like the canoes of savages. It measures about eight or nine yards long by about two yards in breadth. The wood of which it is composed is said to be “completely petrified or fossil ;’ and its place of embedment in the earth is stated as being “ under a bed of sand and gravel.” The local antiquaries naturally attribute this interest- ing relic to the Allobroges, a people of Transalpine Gaul, that in the time of Cesar inhabited this part of Roman Provence—and which supposition may be right, if the ‘‘sand and gravel” mentioned be merely recent river- drift. But are not the circumstances, worthy of the scrutiny of geologists ? We have certainly seen in the gravel at Ashford (in Kent), at Bedford, near Herne Bay, and other places, seams of dark coaly bits of wood which might be the débris of piles, huts, or boats of the men of the flint-implement age. Such woody seams should be searched ; and whenever ancient canoes, and other such decisive relics, are found in or under gravel, we think it is the duty of geologists to satisfy themselves and the world of what age such gravel is. So J.M. PLATE X1L | | | | } | } | | 7 yf) my il SUD N NW | } | DECOMPOSING. BED OF BASALT Over the Giants’ Causeway, County Antrim. ! ) - = | From a Sketch by G. V. Du Noyer, F.G.S.] | S. J. Mackie, F.G.S., del | | | | NOTES AND QUERIES, 239° NOTES AND QUERIES. Decomposine Basatt.—At page 139 we gave aview of the “ Cheese Grotto” of Bertrich, Baden in the Eifel, in illustration of the peculiar spherical condition assumed in some cases by blocks of basalt. We give, in Plate XII., another excellent illustration of the phenomena presented by decomposing basalt, from an admirable sketch taken over the ‘‘ Giants’ Causeway,’ in Antrim, by our talented friend and geologist, Mr.G. V. Du Noyer. | cere Retics.—I have just received intelligence of a human skeleton having been found in a fissure in the limestone-rocks at Kellet, in Lan- eashire. The skull will be transmitted to me, and, should any abnormal peculiarities present themselves, will be described in the ‘ Geologist.’— May 26, 1862. CHARLES CarteR Brake. Mammatian Rematns.—Remains of Elephas primigenius have been found nine feet deep in ferruginous sand, at Demblans (Jura), in the rail- way-works Besancon and Bourg. These relics have been placed in the Museum at Lons-le-Saulnier. Microscopic ORGANISMS IN THE Patmozotc Rocks or New York. —At Professor Dana’s suggestion, Dr. M. C. White, well known for his devotion to the microscope, has examined various specimens of the horn- stone nodules found in the Devonian and Silurian rocks of New York, and this research has been rewarded by the discovery of abundant organ- isms referable to the Desmidiz, besides a few Diatomacez, numerous spicula of sponges, and also fragments of the teeth of Gasteropods. Among the Desmids, there is a large variety of forms of Xanthidia supposed to be the Sporangia of Desmids, besides an occasional duplicated Desmid ; also lines of cells, some of which appear to be sparingly branched. The re- searches have been mostly confined to the hornstone of the Corniferous Microscopic organisms from Palzeozoic rocks of New York. limestone; though extended also to the hornstone from the Black River limestone and that of the Sub-Carboniferous limestone of Illinois, both of which contain some organisms. The hornstone nodules from the Black River limestone (as well as the Corniferous) have been since examined also by Mr. F. H. Bradley with similar results. These observations will be regarded with much interest by geologists as well as by microscopists. hey carry back to a very early epoch forms of life which have hitherto been looked upon as belonging only to a much more recent era in the life of our planet. The analogy of these hornstone nodules to the flints of the chalk is obvious ; and the discoveries here announced may be regarded as esta- blishing their similarity in origin. The organisms figured so closely re- semble those of the flint that they might be taken for them; it is difficult in all cases to make out a difference of species. 240 THE GEOLOGIST. The extreme abundance of the hornstone nodules in the paleozoic lime- stones of America will render it easy to our Transatlantic contemporaries to multiply observations in this new field of research, which presents an interesting addition to the labours of the microscopist, while English geo- locists should at once examine the siliceous concretions which occur in our British rocks of older than cretaceous age. It will be remembered by those who undertake such examinations that the use of turpentine renders the chips of chert almost as transparent as glass. In ‘Silliman’s Journal’ for May, Dr. White publishes descriptions with figures of some of the more frequently recurring forms hitherto observed by him; some of which figures we copy here for the benefit of our readers, referring those who are specially interested in the subject to our first-class contemporary, the ‘American Journal of Science,’ for further details. REVIEW. Monographie des Gastéropodes et des Céphalopodes des Couches Crétacées Supérieures du Limbourg. By M. Binkhorst. We recently noticed (page 79) an excellent Monograph by this geologist on the Gasteropoda of the Upper Chalk of Limbourg ; since then we are indebted to M. Binkhorst for a copy of his valuable Monograph of the Cephalopoda of the same geological beds, ulustrated by six handsome quarto plates, containing ninety-one figures. The letter-press consists entirely of descriptions, lists of synonyms, and stratigraphical ranges of the following species, which are met with in that district :—Belemnitella mucronata, D’Orb.; Acanthoteuthis Maestrichtensis, n.s.; Nautilus de- pressus, 0.8.3; N. Heberti, n.s.; N. Vaelsensis, n.s.; N. Lehardu, n.s. ; NV. Danicus, Schlot.; Rhyncholithus Debeyi, Miller; R. minimus, n.s.; R.? Ruchii, Miller; Ammonites pedernalis, Buch.; A. colligatus, n.s. ; A. Decheni, n.s.; A. exilis, n.s.; A. pungens, u.s.; A. laticlavus?, Sharpe ; Aptyehus rugosus, Sharpe; Hamites rotundus, Sowerby?; H. eylindraceus, D’Orb.; Scaphites constrictus, D’Orb.; Baculites Faujasi, Lamarck; B. anceps, Lamarck ; B. carinatus, n. 8. We are very glad to know that M. Binkhorst is busily preparing a Monograph of the bivalves of these interesting beds of Chalk, and that every day his researches are rewarded with new forms, not only of Conchifera but of Gasteropods. Within the last few weeks he has added no less than thirty new species of the latter, to the number described in his Monograph, a list of which was given in our February number. Rich as this Maestricht Chalk is in genera and species, we are satisfied that the ‘* Chalk-rock” beds of ourown Upper Cretaceous Series would as richly reward English collectors as we are glad to find these Maestricht beds are rewarding our indefatigable and talented Flemish contemporary. [bsg ‘tekon ud “A ‘4 Aq yooxyS B Wor] “yuogn oD ‘AemueuunNd®$ ,, JepInog peyote ,, ee ig ee iA = SNaecoe S “ ye ig ‘\ \ a 98 49 "Jep “S'O' WT “OMe * TX ALVTd 7) THE GEOLOGIST. JULY 1862. ON THE EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL ACTION OVER THE SOUTH OF IRELAND DURING THE DRIFT PERIOD; AND OF A SUBSEQUENT SLIGHT ELEVATION FOL- LOWED BY A DEPRESSION OF THE LAND, TO ITS PRESENT LEVEL. By Grorce V. Du Noyer, Esq., M.RB.1.A. Wuen “the waters were divided from the waters” and they were called “ seas,” the level at which they were allowed to rest, being determined, has ever since remained immutably fixed. With the land, however, it is very different; its elevation above the sea, and consequent outline, | 4 a Wij) : = . vv Ney oe SESS Ss STARS NSE 3 < V4 a Wh, GSD SES OLA SSSS r a SPE 2S oe OS Rigcd. View, looking west, of the perched boulder of limestone, called ‘ Cloughvorra,”’ south side of Kenmare valley, half a mile south of Roughty Bridge. To the right is LS es bridge over the sound at Kenmare; in the distance the mountains near Sheen. WO: Vs nage 242 THE GEOLOGIST. has varied from the very moment it “appeared” or in other words arose from beneath the “waters,” and each successive geological era comprised within itself countless changes in this relative distribution of Land and Water, and many marked variations in the climatal agencies effecting the one, and in the tides and currents which sorted the shingle, sands, and finer sediments formed by the other. If proof of the truth of this be required we have but to pause before any bed of conglomerate, in any strata from the lowest to the most recent, and we have there presented to us a clear evidence of a period of local destruction in rocks previously formed and consolidated, and a consequent reproduction out of their disintegrated masses ; but should we find in that conglomerate a block of a still older conglomerate, and this, on examination, was found to contain pebbles derived from ancient fossiliferous rocks in which we discover the remains of shells and corals, we clearly see that the process of formation, consolida- tion, destruction and reproduction has been going on during count- less ages before the formation of the conglomerate we first examined. In vain we try to shape each link of this apparently endless chain of past cause and effect and effect and cause, till our imaginings are lost in what has aptly been termed “ the past eternity.” That the earth has been subjected to marked climatal changes during past geological times is proved by its fossils. Beds of coal similar in every respect to those found in Europe and containing what we believe to be tropical plants, are found in what is now the Arctic Regions, $.E. of Melville Island, and we have evidence to show that similar changes of climate obtained long before the Carboni- ferous period, as Upper Silurian rocks are found at the N.W. ex- tremity of Baffin’s Bay. In the study of geology there is this great truth, which the inquirer must never lose sight of, that the sea is the great superficial laboratory of the earth; the true Lethe in which is plunged the newly-made soul of matter, wherein it loses as it were the conscious- ness of its past state of being. The sea, ever destroying, ever creating, is a type of the Great First Cause, and the only permanent and un- alterable constituent of matter. The laws determining the physical changes which modify the outline and condition of the solid portion of the globe hold good up to the present hour; and though these changes are so gradual that the short space of human record is capable of pointing out only their most trivial results, yet in the lapse of cycles of ages, altera- DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 243 tions will be wrought by the sea at the surface, and by the earthquake power beneath the crust of the globe, far beyond the most visionary flights of imagination ever indulged in by the most accomplished philosopher of nature. The last great geological event of which we can detect the traces over the British Islands, was their gradual upheaval from beneath the sea; before that period, which comparatively speaking 1s a very recent one, we know not how often our islands and Western Europe had been submerged and elevated, or what were the outlines of the land at these different post-Tertiary periods ; neither can we fix the particular time when the Chalk of the South of England and the North-west of France was cut through to form the Straits of Dover, or the Basalt of the county of Antrim and the west coast of Scotland divided by the Irish Channel. We have however every reason to believe that what are now the British Islands formed a portion ef the European Continent before the creation and distribution of the existing Flora; and doubtless during the lifetime of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hyena, bear, etc., whose bones are found in our caves as well as in those of the Continent. While from recent discoveries it is possible that Man even may have been co- existent with these now extinct animals. The traces left by the sea during the period of the last upheaval of the land, are generally understood by the term “ Drift,” and they are such as to lead to the belief that ice floating over the sea and glaciers formmg in the mountain gorges were the chief agencies of destruction, while the former, aided by tides and currents, caused the transportation of rock masses over wide-spread areas. The presence of icebergs being once admitted, we must infer that the temperature of the sea was much lower in these latitudes then than now, and at the cessation of this period of upheaval the climatal conditions must have closely approached to those of the Arctic zone; our mountain glens were occupied by glaciers for a very long period indeed, as is proved by the extensive moraines now to be seen at their mouths, and the grooving and polishing of the rocks along their sides. ~ The last great current of the glacial sea certainly flowed from N. and N.W.toS. and 8.E.; this is chiefly demonstrated by the occur- rence of large boulders of peculiar rocks scattered on the surface to the southwards of where they are recognized in situ. By studying the contour of the loftiest mountains in the South of Ireland, such as Carrantuohill—the highest, 3414 feet above the 244: THE GEOLOGIST. sea; the Reeks of Macgillicuddy, 8000 feet ; some of the mountains to the west of the Reeks, such as Caher, 3200 feet; with Brandon Mount, 3121 feet; and Benoskee Mount, 2713 feet—both in the Dingle Promontory ; we must be struck with the singular fact, that up to an elevation of 2400 feet they are all rounded and covered with water-worn blocks, while above that level they are more or less peaked, and their surfaces rugged and bristling with the coarsest angular débris and massive rock-fiakes, evidently the result of long-continued atmospheric action; to this there is one exception in Mangerton Mount, which is 2715 feet in elevation, whose summit is completely rounded,—a fact which we may account for by supposing it to be the result of some local depression of this part of the mountain chain during the period of the “ Drift”’ action, or a subsequent upheaval after its cessation. From this peculiarity in the outline of the mountains we may suppose that before the last great upheaval, and at the commence- ment of our last or glacial “ Drift” period, the land over the South of Ireland lay submerged to the depth of about 2400 feet,—thus forming a group of islands, the highest of which was the Peak of Carrantuohill,—having shoal-water extending from them in the direction of N.E. and 8S.W., the present longest axis of the moun- tain chains, and deep channels between them, which are now our valleys. Over this sea great masses of ice floated, and carried blocks of rock to the 8S. and 8.E. from what is now the Galway mountains, and possibly other mountain chains, which lay in what is now the Atlantic, and scattered them over the islands. As the land arose gradually from the waters, its shores and shoals frequently arrested the travelling iceberg ; these, on grounding and melting, deposited the blocks attached to them; or, on being again floated off by tides, currents, and storms, carried with them any rocks which might have become attached to them or have fallen on them from any cliff at the base of which they had been temporarily arrested in their course to the southwards. At an elevation of over 2200 feet above the sea, in a remarkable hollow at the northern summit of Mangerton Mount, there now lies the lake ealled “The Devil’s Punch-Bowl;” along its northern side its waters are dammed up by a mound of very coarse subangular detritus of local grits and sandstones, having a height of 2319 feet above the sea, or 119 feet above the level of the lake. On the sum- mit of this well-marked mound there are many large angular perched DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 245 boulders poised one over the other, and these could only have been placed in their present position by having been slowly dropped from an iceberg as it melted from the heat of summer. Had such a piling of angular blocks occurred under water and within reach of any float- ing mass of ice, it would have been thrown down by the first con- cussion. As the land still slowly emerged from the sea, the disintegrated materials from its shores becaine more or less sorted by the action of the tides and currents, and arranged in certain localities most fa- vourable for their reception. Thus, the low ground which extends from Killarney to Millstreet, lying at the northern base of the mountains commencing at Carrantuohill and Skreaghmore on the west, and including the Reeks, Mangerton, Stoompa, Crohane, the Paps, and ending in the range of the Caherbarnagh mountains on the east, is covered by a thick accumulation of well-rounded, coarse Boulder- Drift, all derived from the rocks of the neighbouring moun- tain chains; being, in fact, the sweepings of the sea from out their various valleys and gorges. Although this. Drift is spread out on the Carboniferous limestone which extends along the flanks of the mountains, it is quite free from any fragments of that rock—a fact which aids in determining the origin of the deposit. The highest elevation to which this Drift reaches up the flanks of the mountains at Mangerton is about 600 feet; and in the neighbourhood of Kil- larney, along the road to Muckross, this deposit is escarped to the depth of 300 feet. One of the most clear and unmistakable examples of an erratic ice-borne block, or perched boulder, is to be seen near Kenmare, in the county of Kerry, on the hillside about half a mile to the south of Roughty Bridge (Hig. 1, p. 241). It consists of a large and nearly rectangular block of grey, thin-bedded, cherty limestone, formed of a series of beds which have come away from the main mass along two sets or joint planes, which cut each other nearly at right angles. This boulder is known by the name “Cloughvorra;’’ it measures 26 feet from north to south, 16 feet from east to west, and is now about 15 feet to its highest point above the ground. This remark- able block rests directly on purple grits and slates of the Old Red Sandstone, the beds of which dip to the N.N.W. at 60°. The ele- vation of “Cloughvorra”’ above the sea is 260 feet, while no lime- stone in the valley of the Roughty river reaches a greater elevation than 200 feet, and the average height of the limestone in the valley 24.6 THE GEOLOGIST. along the northern base of the hills, on which this boulder rests, is not more than 100 feet.* Over the whole of the Killarney district, the range of the Reeks, -Torck mountain,the mountains between Killarney Lakes and Kenmare, and between Kenmare and Glengariff, wherever rock surfaces are ex- posed freshly or denuded of the Drift, they are more or less rounded and polished, and bear the marks of glacial striz. This is very appa- rent over the rocky bosses in the Upper Lake district of Killarney, at an elevation of about 96 feet above the sea; and the striz are ob- served up the western side of Torck mountain to a height of over 600 feet, where they appear to have been produced by the impinging of ice- masses against this flank of the mountain on their passage from the glen of the upper lake to the west, and before they were deflected to the northwards through the gorge between Torck mountain and the “ Hagle’s Nest”? mountain, into what was comparatively the open sea lying to the northward. Many rounded and striated rock-surfaces are to be seen at a height of 1000 feet above the sea in this district, the strie having a general direction of N.W. and S.E., being frequently thin at the end pointing to the former, and blunt at that turned to the latter point of the compass. If we suppose that the force which produced these scratches was exerted from the N.W. to the S.E., and its motion to have been one of sudden starts or bumps, we should expect that marks having the peculiar form of those observed would be the result. In such glens and gorges as the Gap of Dunloe, and what is now the bed of the Upper Lake at Killarney, the glacial striz are invariably parallel to the longest axis of the valley, as we would expect if they had been produced by the passage of large masses of ice, or, as in the Gap of Dunloe, by the movements of a glacier. In the former there- fore the direction of the striz is N. and S., and in the valley of the latter EH. and W. At the lower or northern end of the Gap of Dunloe there is a very remarkable deposit of Drift; it consists of three lunet-shaped mounds, formed of local sand, gravel, and boulders, extending across the mouth of the glen. The two outer mounds measure- fully one mile in length from east to west, by about 100 yards in width; and they are all cut through near their centre by the River Loe. As this mass of Drift extends for the distance of fully one mile from the ab- solute base of the mountains, and the entrance to the Gap, we may * See “ Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland,’ p. 184. DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 247 suppose that its origin is twofold: first, attributable to the sea-cur- rent, and then that of the river which flowed out of this glen, and of which it is the delta; and secondly, of the glacier, which eventually blocked up this mountain gorge, when the land had been sufficiently elevated and the climate favourable for the formation of such pheno- mena. The innermost semicircular mound is, therefore, most probably the true moraine of the glacier; it measures 700 yards in length by about 150 yards in width; its height above the sea in its central part where it is bisected by the River Loe being 224 feet, and where it is escarped by the stream to the depth of 85 feet, without the rock being exposed. As the climate became less and less favourable for its formation, the glacier lessened in width and receded, and the rubbish brought down by it also decreased in amount, and it appears that the glacier ceased to be formed when its termination rested at a height of 800 feet above the sea, as its débris is found at that height on the north- ern flank of Tomics Rock. Throughout the entire extent of the Gap of Dunloe many of the rock-bosses along the precipitous flanks of Purple Mountain, and at the end of the Reeks on the western side of the gorge are rounded and striated, the striz being all parallel to the length of the Gap, or about N. and S$. Over many rock-surfaces along the shores at the head of Glen- gariff Bay, the glacial strie are well developed within a few yards of the sea-level. This is important, as it proves that the temperature of the sea and climate was Arctic after the country had assumed its present physicai features. On the northern flanks of the Tralee range of mountains, which ter- minate in the summit of Caherconree, and at the mouths of the Glens of Bartugaum and Derrymore there are exceedingly well-marked small moraines, cut through by the streams which issue from these glens, and which escarp them to the depth of from 30 to 50 feet. Glacial strie are observed in both these gorges, and in many places the Old Red Sandstone rocks are polished, rounded, and fur- rowed in the direction of the length of the glens, or N. and S. The moraines are merely single semicircular mounds, measuring nearly half a mile from end to end, where they rest on the flank of the mountain, and having a width of fully a quarter of a mile. Over the rocky promontory in the county of Cork, formed by Dun- 248 THE GEOLOGIST. manus Bay on the north and Roaring-water Bay on the south, terminating in Mizen Head, the glacial strie are very generally to be observed, their usual direction being W.N.W. and ES.E. Some of the finest examples of glacial furrowing and polishing in the whole South of Ireland appear on the east shoulder of Mount Ga- briel, at an elevation of close on 1000 feet above the sea in the gap where the road to Skull from Bantry passes; the groovings, which are some of them more than 18 inches in depth, mark the preci- pitous face of the hill with polished, architectural-looking flutings and mouldings. It is very probable that glacial scratches occur on the very summit of the mountain, which is 1339 feet above the sea. Bosses of rock, beautifully rounded and polished by glacial action are exposed over all the district around Ballydehob and Skull; and at the mouths of the rocky glens there the remains of the moraines are distinctly to be seen. On the northern flank of the Comeragh mountains, in the county aN WNINS WN \ \\ No 9 Sq ql ta ct Pe : 3 : Mig. 2. Old Red Sandstone, cleaved, and exhibiting horizontal glacial strie. Dunmanway, Co. Cork. is a narrow rocky glen facing to the N.W., which is the most clear example of the bed of an ancient glacier that I know of in the South of Ireland. The mouth of this glen is blocked up bya series of the most perfect moraines, now cut through by the small stream issuing from the gorge. PLATE XIV. fountain in the distance, N 1a ke, with Owt ROCK” and La “ SHIP-- ar} Cor (Grey Duanmanway, V by G. 7 at crete Mackie, DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 249 The extreme measurement of the moraines would be about half a mile from east to west, with a width in their central part of about a quarter of a mile. In many places the rocks in this glen are beauti- fully polished, rounded, furrowed, and striated. To the spectator standing on the mountain-side to the 8.E. of this glen, and looking down on it, the view is most striking, and the imagination need not be very vivid to complete the picture by the ad- dition of the glacier with the snow-covered mountains beyond. Over the wide mountainous promontory formed by the Bay of Kenmare on the nerth, and Bantry Bay on the south, all the rock surfaces where freshly exposed from beneath either bog or Drift, are more more or less rounded and striated; in some glens these striz are observed at the height of 1100 feet above the sea, the direction varying from N. and 8. to N.W. and S.E., and sometimes from N.N.E. to 8.8. W. The mountains to the north and west of Dunmanway in the county Cork afford some very striking evidences of glacial action. Most of the rock surfaces being observed to be polished and scratched in the direction of N.N.W. and 8.8.E., the striz being thin at the former and blunt to the latter point of the compass. The highest elevation at which [ have observed these glacial marks in this district is 975 feet, and the lowest 200 feet above the sea, thus proving that during the whole period required to elevate the ground 775 feet, or the difference between 975 and 200 feet, the conditions of the sea and climate were permanent and favourable to the formation and drifting of ice masses. Over the summit of Coolsnaghtig Hill, which is; close to Dunman- way and 975 feet above the sea, and at its eastern end, called Mount Gunnery, 757 feet high, the glacial striz are remarkably well de- veloped, and many perched boulders are scattered over both moun- tains; one large block, called “‘ Maragh,” is close to the very summit of the latter hill. All the blunt edges of the sandstone rocks over both these mountains when presented to the N.N.W. are rounded and striated, the vertical faces of the beds being marked with hori- zontal striz. Over the whole of the Dunmanway district there are very many perched boulders, and some of them of enormous size; one, called “ White Horse Rock,” is close to the village, and there are seve- ral others near to it. The largest erratic block occurs at the distance of three miles to the westward of Dunmanway, in a hollow on the west- ern flank of the mountains over Ship Lough; it is called “Ship Rock” VoL. V. 2K 250 THE GEOLOGIST. (Pl. XIII.), and there is a superstition that on All-Hallow Eve this mass floats off into the lake, returning to its present resting-place ere cockcrow. This remarkable block consists of a seriesof purple grits, and thin purple earthy layers, and now measured roughly 1s 40 x 25 x 16 feet, representing a bulk of about 16,000 cubic feet, and weighing about 1100 to 1200 tons. Originally this mass was much larger, as large flakes have fallen off its sides from the result of atmospheric action. On the Carboniferous slate district to the 8.W. of Dunmanway, at the summit, marked 964 feet to the west of Millane Hill, there is a perched boulder of hard light grey gritty slate, measuring 6 x 43 x 2} feet, which is known to the peasantry by the name of “ Gallaun Keogh.” To the north of Dunmanway in the Townland of Gurtanure, and at the junction of the Caha with the Bandon River, a rocky boss affords some very interesting examples of “roches moutonnées”’ and glacial strie. Here we find purple grits weathering into smali pinnacles on the lines of the dip, the cleavage and the cross joints, the sides and angles of which are rounded and polished and marked with well- defined horizontal striz. On the level polished surfaces of rock, we find the same peculiarity of form in the scratches as before noticed. They are fine at the end pointing to the N.N.W., and blunt at that pointing to the S.S.E., thus clearly indicating the direction from which the current came which floated the ice-masses forming them. The horizontal markings have not however this peculiarity, but area series of fine groovings and sharp scratches. Over the Carboniferous slate to the south of Dunmanway the compass bearing of the glacial strie is generally the same as that over the Old Red Sandstone, and the mountainous district to the north. This is very well seen in the horizontal and smooth rock surfaces to the north of Ballinacarriga Lough, at an elevation of 339 feet, where the strie run N. 20 W. and S. 20 E., the thin end of the scratches being presented to the former point. The accompanying illustration of a perched boulder from near Dunmanway (Pl. XIV.) is interesting in many respects; it shows how readily the sandstone yielded on the planes of the slaty cleavage to what must have been the sudden concussion of an iceberg ground- ing on such a submerged inequality in the sea bottom as this rocky boss must have been. The view is taken looking somewhat to the westward. The general form of the rock when it was submerged in the glacial sea must have been very nearly the same as now, one side DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 251 sloping to the northwards, having the southern face of the boss preci- pitous. The current sent the iceberg up the inclined plane facing to the northwards, till the shoaling of the water arrested its further progress. The sudden concussion thus given to the rock detached from off its precipitous brow facing to the southwards large flakes of rock, and threw them one on top of the other down the inclined talus at the base, just as a lot of books would lie if suddenly thrown down on their sides from a previously close and vertical position. It is highly probable that the iceberg here permanently grounded and melted away, leaving the perched boulder which we now see on the summit of the rock as the most palpable evidence of its short-lived existence.* Erratic boulders of a syenitic granite, a rock peculiar to the county Galway, lie scattered over the country to the 8. and 8.E. of it, com- prised in the counties of Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary, and some of them are to be seen as far south as the deer-park of Mallow Castle, county Cork. Hence we have a clue to the direction of at least the last iceberg current. Many Drift boulders may be considered as local, and are due to the action of shore ice, which dropped them before they had been transported far from their parent site. Of this fact we have an ex- ample in a large block of a very peculiar kind of light grey cherty limestone, with thin earthy shale layers through it, which rests in a field close to the Workhouse of Mallow. It now les on the coal measures to the south of the outcrop of the limestone, and similar limestone is observed in setw is in the deer-park of Mallow Castle, about two miles distant from the bouldér, and near the base of the Old Red Sandstone hills. The Musheramore range of mountains, lying between Macroom and Millstreet, have Drift gravelly clay resting on their southern sides to the height of 2050 feet above the sea, as is apparent on the southern slope of Mullaghanish Mountain. The southern slopes of Lacka- baun Mountain, up to an elevation of 1500 feet, are dotted over with numerous large angular boulders of purple slates and grits. On the southern slope of Lackabooma Mountain, at a height of 1270 feet above the sea, numerous large angular blocks of hard greenish grit are scattered about. And thick accumulations of gravel and boulders occur, at elevations of 1000 feet, in the various glens and river valleys along the southern slope of the mountains to the N.E. of Macroom. * See ‘ Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland,’ explanation to sheet 193. 252 THE GEOLOGIST. It is somewhat remarkable, that over this district many rocky emi- nences and ridges, which do not attain to an elevation of much more than 1060 feet, are quite free from the Drift, which in some localities reaches a height of 2000 feet and over it. Such, for example, is the case at the Hill of Carrignaspirroge, to the west of Macroom, and to the north of the head of the Bardinch River. Without doubt this deposit once covered all the hills of this range, up to their very highest summits; but some local currents must have subsequently removed it while the district was being slowly raised above the level of the sea. In the northern portion of the county of Tipperary there are some fine examples of glacial action and perched boulders. Mr. Wynne, of the Geological Survey of Ireland, in his explana- tion to sheet 135 of the Geological Map, affords us some very valuable information on this point. He remarks that Limestone Drift was recognized at considerable elevations on the northern slopes of the hills about Killanafinch. Large blocks of granite occur south of Toomeyvara, which have been transported from the county Galway. Along the high ground which rises south of Moneygall large boulders of limestone are scattered over the hills, especially about Busherstown, where they attain to a height of 500 feet above the sea. On the top of Loyer Hill, south of Moneygall, at a height of about 890 feet above the sea, a large block of limestone occupies a very conspicuous position ; it measures 12 feet x 9 x 7%, and it rests on Lower Silurian rocks. On the summit of the well-known mountain called the Devil’s Bit, near Templemore, and ata height of 1583 feet above the sea, Mr. Wynne discovered glacial strie and erratic blocks of Silurian grit on the surface of the Old Red Sandstone; the direction of the striz is from N.N.W. to S.8.E. The occurrence of glacial striae at this great elevation affords fur- ther evidence of the enormous lapse of time during which the South of Ireland lay submerged beneath the glacial sea during the last Pleistocene period; such scratches and groovings on rock surfaces were produced beneath comparatively shallow water, and the total amount of elevaticn of the land during this glacial period is thus de- fined with tolerable certainty. The facts just detailed may be regarded as the most important and obvious of those relating to the evidence of aa action over the South of Lreland. DU NOYER—ON THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 258 The last fact in the history of the recent elevations and depressions of the land, is the occurrence of submarine bog along the south and south-east coast of Ireland. From the position in which this bog is found, it is evident that the coast-line as it now appears had been Jirst formed, and that an elevation, sudden or gradual, took place, sufficiently great to lay dry the shores now under the sea for a dis- tance seaward from the cliffs, sufficient to allow of the formation of marshes and lagoons, which after the lapse of ages became covered by a dense forest ; but how far this forest tract extended from the an- cient coast-line it is impossible to say ; eventually, this forest decayed and bog was formed. The land then subsided, till, strange to say, it regained the exact level at which it stood before the existence of the bog, and the sea once more beat against its former cliffs and soon covered up the peat at their bases with sand and silt as we now find it. The most southern locality where this submerged peat is observed is at Tralong Bay, a little rocky indentation on the coast, two miles to the south-west of Rosscarbery Creek ; the bog lies close against the cliff, and is well exposed at low water. In Ross Creek, to the east of Rosscarbery, the bog at low water is denuded by the country people of the slob which covers it, and is cut and dried for fuel. Beech and hazel nuts, with small branches of these trees, are fre- quently found in the peat. To the east of this, at the head of Clo- nakilly Bay and Dunworly Creek, a similar deposit of bog is observed at low water. The same fact is noticed at the head of Courtmarshery Bay. From this place, following the coast to the N.E., we pass the entrance to Cork Harbour, and when we reach Ballycotten Bay, a distance of thirty-five miles, the submerged bog is again apparent close to the shore. Atthe head of Youghal Harbour it is again seen. lt also occurs to the north of Ardmon Head, and has lately been described by the Rev. Professor Haughton, F.T.C.D., as present in Dungarvan Bay. Still following the coast, we find it at the head of Tramore Bay ; and it appears up the mouth of Waterford estuary as far as Duncannon, a distance of eight or nine miles from the main coast-line. The occurrence of this submarine bog in a well defined estuary so far inland is very interesting, as it proves that the creek was first formed, and therefore we may argue that the general coast-line had its present outlines before the growth of the timber required to make this bog. In Bannow Bay there is a similar formation, and it again is seen in Wexford Harbour. 254. THE GEOLOGIST. The coast-line now strikes nearly north and south, and is no longer indented by deep bays with jutting headlands, yet still we find that the submerged peat is present. I have heard it asserted that the anchor brings up peat off the coast to the north of Cahore Point, in the county Wexford, and I know this to be the fact to the south of Dalkey Island, and between that place and Bray. The distance along the coast from Tralong Bay and Rosscarbery on the south to Dalkey on the north-east, over which the submerged peat has been observed, is fully 195 miles; and I have little doubt that along the south-west coast, to the west of Rosscarbery, com- prising Roaringwater Bay, Dunmann’s Bay, Bantry Bay, Kenmare Bay, Dingle Bay, and Tralee Bay, all these deep indentations were during the formation of this peat, either entirely or partially dry land, and covered with a luxuriant forest, which likewise formed a deposit layer of peat similar to that just noticed; and if we do not find traces of it at these places, the fact is due to the destructive action of the Atlantic on such an exposed coast, and the consequent removal of the peaty matter. Until we have some information as to the distance from the coast-line and the extreme depth beneath the sea at which this bog terminates, we cannot speculate on the probable amount of elevation and depression to which the south and south-east of Ireland was subjected during the growth and deposition of this remarkable for- mation. It need not however have been very great; two or three hundred feet of elevation would now, even, cause a wonderful varia- tion in the coast-line, and leave bare a wide belt of level land around it; and if the climate was more genial than at present, and other circumstances were favourable, we must suppose that it would be co- vered with forest after the lapse of ages. All that would be required is Zime, and, from all that we can understand, Nature is most lavish of this necessary aid to the production of even her latest geological works. ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. By Proresson Wiiram Kine, (Queen’s College, Galway,) Queen's University in Ireland. It would be an insult to reason to deny the power of the Omni- potent to create at once plants and animals out of inorganic or any - KING—ON. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 255 kind of matter: on the other hand, it would be equally irrational to doubt His power to ordain and sustain laws, through the instru- mentality of which originally created organisms could be modified and adapted to external changes. The two modes may be designated,— the first, Autotheogeny,—and the second, Genetheonomy. I hold that an organism, whether it typifies a species, a genus, a family, an order, or a class, is an autotheogen, if it possesses a set of characters which isolate it from other equivalent groups; also, that such an organism, through being acted on by inherent and external forces, may become more or less modified, thereby resulting in gene- theonomous forms. I see no reason why Mr. Darwin should not admit the same, notwithstanding that his present belief merely re- cognizes among animals “at most only four or five’? autotheogenous roots of apparently as many classes. On psychological grounds alone, Man must be regarded as isolated from all other organisms; hence I consider him to be an autotheogenous species. Until within the last year or two, Genetheonomy was far from sufh- ciently supported by the arguments of its advocates; those advanced by Lamarck, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and the author of the ‘ Vestiges,’ being only of partial application, or simply illustrated by a restricted group of analogies. If organisms underwent changes only during their embryonic stage, the author of the ‘ Vestiges’ would have some grounds for his theory of development “by generation”—by “a universal gestation of nature, analogous to that of the individual being ;”’ but, considering that all organisms undergo, after their birth, and throughout the entire period of their existence, successive modi- fications (less marked, it is true, in the higher Vertebrata than in the Invertebrata and Batrachia), it is manifest that the doctrine of the ‘ Vestiges’ has nothing in its favour except a restricted group of analogical phenomena. Its author has made outa case of “ parity of plan between embryonic development and the succession of life on our planet;” but he has failed, as far as I can understand the theory, in establishing “a real identity of character in the two sets of pheno- mena.’ Of late, however, Darwin and Wallace have considerably enlarged the field of well-sustained argument supportive of creation by Divine law. But does the hypothesis of the last-named naturalists sufficiently explain the various genetheonomous phenomena? My own reason- ing compels me to answer in the negative. I admit to a great extent the power of “natural selection”’ in producing a species; but I can- not divest myself of the impression that it only holds the rank of a subordinate or ancillary agent. The particular view under consider- ation, if | am not much mistaken, implies that plants and animals are modifiable by mere external influences—of course, acting by law. Entertaining this opinion, I am led to regard “ natural selection,” as widely removed from primary laws; and functionally no higher than chance or accident, as conceived by the untutored. I feel a difficulty in understanding how “natural selection’ could produce a species, unless other and higher principles were involved. 256 THE GEOLOGIST. Every individual plant and animal is confessedly acted on by forces, the precise nature of which has never yet been revealed by science. Some conception may be formed of one, paramount in my mind, by designating it progressive change. A principle of this kind appears to me to be inherent in animated nature; or, how can we otherwise explain the “ unity of plan” pervading both organic kingdoms,—the “ phenomena of parthenogenesis,’—the “advance and progress in the main’’ which our life system has undergone in past geological ages ? There is no difficulty in referring instances which cannot be recon- ciled with “an advance and a progress in the main;” but these are obviously exceptional. I cannot agree with Mr. Darwin in his view of the “ geological record ’’—of its being so “imperfect” as he seems to think. Many important connecting links, binding in close union all the members of our life-system, are undoubtedly wanting ; but, in taking a general survey of the facts revealed by marine paleontology, commencing with the earliest organic period, and closing with the resent one, it 1s to me a matter of surprise, considering how limited is the field of observation, that the “geological record’’ is so per- fect. There is apparently some difficulty in accounting for the occurrence of so many invertebrate orders—low as well as high—in Cambrian rocks; but we must not overlook the fact that such groups mow include forms of the simplest type, doubtful even as to their ordinal rank ; nor must we overlook the probability of the primordial crustacea, annelids, cephalopods, palliobranchs, corals, ete., being more closely related to each other than is the case with their repre- sentatives of later geological periods. The supremacy of progressive change may be exemplified by re- ferring to the successive modifications which the human organism passes through in its progress towards maturity ; while the ancillary or subordinate character of ‘“ natural selection ”’ is well illustrated by the changes which external agencies have effected on the same or- ganism, producing, as admitted by nearly all, the leading varieties of the human species. With respect to the varieties of man, I hold that most of them are genetheonomous degradations of the Indo-Caucasian type, developed by the physical conditions peculiar to the regions they respectively inhabit. Cogent reasons may be advanced for regarding the American Indian as having descended from the Mongolian, and the latter from the Indo-Caucasian. Even the aboriginals of Australia may be looked upon as another degraded race: those inhabiting the south and west coasts are confessedly inferior to the adjacent oceanic tribes, as they appear to be incapable of constructing canoes. From some remarks recently made by Professor Jukes, one might be led to attribute this mark of inferiority to the apparent absence in Australia of indigenous timber suitable for canoes (vide ‘ Atheneum,’ No. 1793). I believe, however, a more general cause has operated,—one involving physical conditions. Nevertheless, I certainly prefer accepting the particular circumstance stated, as one of the means which have brought about the degradation of the Australian, to adopting the view which con- CORRESPONDENCE. 257 siders him to be an advanced genetheonom of some extinct ape, even should the remains of species be found hereafter more human-like and more manipulative than the gorilla or chimpanzee. Iam disposed to regard, then, progressive change as one of the great primary modifying principles of organic nature; and “ natural selection”’ as a secondary one,—the latter subordinately operating in the production of proximately allied specific and varietal forms. Some years ago I contributed a few facts, which showed that varia- tions of physical conditions, as depth of water and nature of sea- bottom, induced in certain British shells modifications of form equal to differences prevailing between many species of mollusca;* in a paper published a year or two previously, I particularly noticed the remarkable, and, in many cases, imperceptible gradations of generic characters running through the tetrabranchiate Cephalopods;+ and in my “ Monograph,” I have pointed out the various forms assumed by Camarophoria Schlothevmi, and some other Permian fossils. These may be taken as evidences that I have not been inattentive to the vexed question of species. Of course, it would ill become any one to dogmatize on such a subject, and disbelieve in the future turning- up of facts subversive of his preconceived notions; nevertheless, I feel myself bound to declare, that all my observations and reasoning incline me to believe in the two modes of creation as herein ad- vanced. CORRESPONDENCE. Professor King’s Stratigraphical Tables. Sir,—The Table of British Rocks, by Professor King, given in the last number of the ‘ Geologist’ (pp. 193-7), I cannot let pass without saying, that however perfect it may be as regards those Irish rocks amongst which the Professor teaches, it is not as useful as might be to a student in the South-east of England. Its many imperfections will be seen on comparing it with the table given in Lyell’s ‘ Elements,’ with those of a more detailed kind scattered through the lately-published edition of Jukes’s ‘Manual,’ or with the Index of Colours of the Geological Survey. The following are amongst oe ye striking mistakes (in the Lower Tertiary and the Secondary LOCKS) :— 1. The Upper and Lower Bagshot Beds are not noticed, only the Middle Bagshot (Barton and Bracklesham) being given. The Woolwich and Reading Beds are also left out, although the Thanet Sand (of less impor- tance) is given. 2. The Lower Greensand, save its lowest bed (the somewhat local Atherfield Clay), has escaped notice. 3. The Kimmeridge Clay, the Coral Rag (with its associated beds * See Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vols. xvili. and xix. + See zbzd., vol. xiv. VoL. V. 2 1 258 THE GEOLOGIST. of Calcareous Grit), the Cornbrash and Forest Marble, and the Fullers’ Earth, and Inferior Oolite are all left out. I could point out many other mistakes ; but I think that the above are enough to show that Professor King’s Table needs to be a little more ‘“ vevised and corrected” before it can be said to be “up to the present time.” I would however remark that the good notion of giving separate columns for marine and freshwater types is in great measure marred by the formations in one column being printed on the same line with those in the other, as if they were exactly of the same age; whereas such is not always the case. Thus, the Eocene Series (in which, by the way, the main divisions of Upper, Middle, and Lower are not given) should stand as follows,—classing the Hempstezd Beds with it, and not with the Miocene :— | Marine Types. Fresh- and Brackish-water Types. Upper Hocene.. f Parts of the Fluvio-marine series of Hempstesd Bed Fiuvio-marine ne {the Isle of Wight . « .. ©» 45 | DOmbNGHe Beds sy uesoidhe | Soa ca tender Reda Isle of Wight. Upper Bagshot Sand Middle Barton Clay Bagshot Pagshot \ Bracklesham Beds Beds. 4 - Lower Bagshot Sand ower Eocene.| London Clay. Boleie 5 Woolwich and Reading Beds (part of) . ana oi eae ie a Thanet Sand. eer In this form the table shows, at a glance, that there are no purely marine formations of Upper Eocene age in Britain; but that there are beds of that age that are mainly of freshwater origin, etc. I am, yours truly, = Wie We The Trinidad Pitch Lakes. Srtr,—I observe in a paper “On the Torbane Mineral Field,” by Mr. Taylor, in the February number of the ‘ Geologist,’ a statement to the effect that the Pitch Lake of Trinidad stands in close proximity to a vol- cano. As this statement has been repeated in various works, and has ap- parently led to some false generalizations, it may perhaps be well to make the true state of the case a little better known. No volcanic substances or erupted rocks have been found to exist near the Pitch Lake; and not only is there no voleano in Trinidad, but, so far as [ am aware, no traces have been discovered either of ancient or of re- cent volcanos in the island. What may perhaps have-given rise to the statement above alluded to, is the existence of several so-called mud vol- canos, or salses, which eject only mud and water, and do not possess a temperature above that of the air, and certainly do not appear to have any connection with what is usually understood by voleanic action. The neigh- bouring parts of South America are equally free from evidences of volcanic disturbance. What I have stated may suffice to call attention to the subject ; and for details, including an excellent and lucid account of the bituminous deposits in Trinidad and their probable origin, I would beg to refer those desirous of knowing more on the subject to the “Report on the Geology of Tri- CORRESPONDENCE. 259 nidad,” being Part I. of the West Indian Survey. The salses above-men- tioned are also described in this most useful work. Believe me, Sir, Your most obedient servant, B. LecHMERE Guppy. Port of Spain, Trinidad, April 2, 1862. Archeology and Geology. Dear S1r,—Three articles in the ‘Geologist’ of June, 1862, have so far interested me as to induce a few remarks, if I do not obtrude upon your space, viz. that of J. Wyatt, Hsq., F.G.S., that of T. R. Jones, Esq., F.G.S., and that of your foreign correspondent, 8. J. M. The two former discuss the orbitolina; the latter writes on the trenching of geologists in their investigations on the domains of the archeologist and the historian. The illustrations given by J. Wyatt, Esq., F.G.8., coincide exactly with specimens in my collection which I have obtained from the Chalk in dif- ferent localities of this Island. My specimens include varieties which range in a graduated scale from the orbitolina, with a small indentation, to those with a perfect and natural hole, smoothly perforating these forami- nifera, without the intervention of artificial boring. In addition to these geological specimens, I possess also antiquarian specimens of the orbitolina, obtained from tumuli or barrows examined by me—indeed, one at least, was obtained from among the beads of a necklace found upon an Angio- Saxon skeleton, which convinced me that it had been strung as a bead among those of amber, glass, and terra-cotta, which ornamented the per- son of our exhumed ancestor. There can be little doubt that these ancient people appropriated both natural as well as artificial perforated objects for their personal adornment. From the same barrow from which I obtained my perforated orbitolina, I procured a naturally-perforated pebble, and an artificially-perforated lump of lead, while the amber beads consisted of natural lumps of unshaped amber, simply perforated for suspension. S. J. M. gives ample reasons which prove that the geologist, if he trenches upon the domains of the antiquarian, does not do so without much advan- tage to the latter, especially in these days of Drift discoveries, which, by the bye, have carried the antiquarian back to a human period of which he formerly had no conception. It is to be hoped that the geologist and the antiquarian may pursue these interesting modern discoveries in a spirit of wholesome rivalry, inasmuch as their so doig will conduce much to the elucidation of an obscure period, both historically and geologically. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Ernest P. Wixxins, F.G:S. Newport, Isle of Wight. Mammalia from Maceagnone Cave. Sir,—In the table professing to show ‘‘the association of the earliest evidences of the human race with remains of extinct and recent Mam- malia,”’ p. 228 of the June number of the ‘Geologist,’ I observe that the following species are attributed to the Grotto of Maccagnone, in Sicily, for the original description of the contents of which I am responsible :—1. Felis 260 THE GEOLOGIST. spelea; 2. Ursus speleus; 3. Hyena spelea; 4. Bos primigenius; 5. Hippopotamus major; 6. Cervus megaceros : making six out of the eight species assigned to Maccagnone. : These six identifications are simply imaginary ; not one of the species, so far as | am aware, having been as yet mentioned on authority, as occurring in the Grotto of Maccagnone. ath Such a wholesale manufacture of species, in a case of such gravity, requires no comment. Your obedient servant, London, June 23, 1862. H. Fanconer. Discovery of a Human Skeleton and other Remains in the bed of the River Soar, at Leicester. On the western side of the town of Leicester there is an old bridge, known as the ‘‘ Bow Bridge.” It has recently been taken down for recon- struction ; during the progress of the work the stream has been stopped, and a dam thrown across the channel north and south of the bridge, leaving the bed of the river dry. The upper surface was a black, muddy, alluvial deposit, but this being penetrated, the pure Drift gravel presented itself. This gravel lies immediately on the abraded surface of the Upper Keuper Sandstone, which here dips away under the town towards the Liassic hills on the eastern side. In excavating on the east side of the old bridge for the new foundations, and digging in the bed of the river, the workmen came upon ground in the Drift of a mixed character, gravel and silt. After digging out three feet of this, they came upon a human skeleton lying face upwards, the knees drawn towards the head. It was nearly entire, a few of the vertebra and the smaller bones of the hands and feet only are wanting. Near this skeleton were found the skull of a horse, ox horns, and other bones. The old bridge is of some antiquity, and is supposed to have been erected in the twelfth century. The road to which it leads is the Via Vici- nalis of the old Roman town of Rate, and leads to the “ Home Way,” another Roman road near Leicester. Over this bridge Richard the Third rode to the field of Bosworth, and his body is said to have been thrown over the bridge into the river by the multitude. Be this as it may, the navvies and common people firmly believe this skeleton to be the remains of that monarch; but as Richard’s body was “hacked to pieces,” and his age at his death was about thirty-five, and as the bones bear no appear- ance of being “hacked,” and the last molar being still in its socket, no weight can be given to such an impression. Certainly Richard the Third had cut his “wisdom teeth.’ : JAMES PLANT. Ydrd June, 1862. These remains have been transmitted to us for inspection. It is a young, and seemingly not adult, woman’s skeletoun.—Ep. Grot, 261 PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. Mancuester Grotocicat Socizty.—April 29.—1. “On the Geology of the Railway between Hyde and Marple.” The length of the line is seven miles, and some of the sections are as much as sixty feet in depth. Tt trends in a direction nearly coincident with the line of strike of the rocks. The country through which it passes undulates very much, so that the line in places crosses, at a height of more than a hundred feet, valleys worn out by denudations, probably, the author thinks, at the close of the Pleistocene age, as Drift-beds cap their summits. The geology of the railway may be set down as belonging to two widely-separated forma- tions—the Lower Coal Measures and the Pleistocene. Going along the line from Hyde, about two miles from the town, a thin-bedded argillaceous sandstone rises, overlying beds of shale. No organic remains have been found init. The dip is on the right-hand side, in a direction nearly N.W., and at an angle of 10 or 15 degrees. JIron- stone bands, several inches in thickness, frequently alternate with the shales, and along the whole length of the line these beds are not lost sight of. Towards Marple they have been affected by dislocations, and about a quarter of a mile beyond the aqueduct a downthrow fault of several feet is seen. Near Romilly the gullets are deeper, and the shale-beds are suc- ceeded by those ripple-marked flag-stones. Over these beds lie masses of sandstone rock of coarser texture, containing imperfect impressions of Calamites and Sigillarie. Two miles further on this rock is succeeded by one of a conglomerate character, and very hard,—the matrix being of a light grey colour, the imbedded pebbles red. Near Hyde, where the shales first come to view, they contain fragments of Lepidodendra and Neuropteris, with numbers of Spirorbis carbonarius and Cyprides, in company with several species of Anthracosia: the whole so commingled as to show they shared a common habitat. The Anthracosia found in the ironstone bands are interesting, from the fact that numbers show the interior of the valves, and consequently expose the hinge—a feature which is valuable in settling the various opinions maintained as to the habits of these mollusca. In tracing these apparently freshwater shales towards Marple, we find a change towards marine con- ditions, Goniatites, Avicula-pectens, etc. being mixed up with the Anthra- cosia. This fact, the author considers, goes to prove that the Unio or Anthra- cosia, formerly regarded as a freshwater shell, was in reality a marine one that lived in shallow and brackish waters. The Drift deposits which overlie the Carboniferous beds above described, are of the general character. Not much Till is met with until the aqueduct at Marple is crossed, where these beds contain huge boulders of porphyry, granite, syenite, ete. The boulders are generally rounded; the larger ones being scratched and striated. In a section about two miles from Hyde the Drift beds are cut through to a depth of thirty feet, and consist of beds of sand and clay alternating with each other, and containing marine shales, Tellina, Cardium edule, Turritella, Terebra, and Astarte. The author considers these beds are a continuation of the fossiliferous sands on the Stockport and Woodley Line, formerly described by him. Rich beds of calcareous marl, sometimes several feet in thickness, are sometimes seen capping the Drift deposits. 2. “On the North Staffordshire Corn Field.” By Mr. John Bradbury, jun. The strata of this field were minutely detailed, and a section given, with their measured thicknesses. 3. “On an improved Safety-Cage for Miners.” By Mr. T. Farrimond. 262 THE GEOLOGIST. Royat Institution.—WMarch 7.—‘‘ On the Distribution of Northern Plants.”” By Professor D. Oliver. The discourse referred primarily to the botanical evidence bearing upon the hypothesis advanced by Pro- fessors Unger* and Heery of an Atlantic communication between Europe and America at some period of the Tertiary epoch. The close analogy which is to be traced between the Miocene Flora of Central Europe and the existing Flora of the Eastern American States, these authors conceive can only be explained by assuming such direct overland connection of the two Continents. The speaker explained the basis upon which comparisons between two recent floras and between a recent and a fossil flora should rest, referring to the peculiar conditions which affect the latter comparison owing to the imperfect and partial character of the fossil element. The general cha- racter of the Tertiary Flora of Central Europe was described. In the Tertiary beds of Switzerland, according to Professor Heer{ about 800 species of Phanerogamia have been discovered, referable to 197 genera (exclusive of Phyllites, Carpolithes, etc.), of which number 154 still exist. Of these genera— 76 are common to the Swiss Tertiary, and to the present flora of . . Europe. ee : : ; ; é . Japan. Skee A : : : : . Ditto, States, America. 1205 : : : : : . Europe and Asia (taken toge- ther, and including Japan). It is to be noted that the 77 of Japan include 26 not occurring in Europe: amongst them several forms highly characteristic of the Tertiary, as Glyptostrobus, numerous Fici, coriaceous-leaved oaks and Lauraceae, Juglandee, Liquidambar, ete. The genera, common to the Swiss Tertiary and the United States, which are not found also in the Old World are Sabal, Taxodium, Bumelia, Lirio- dendron, Ceanothus, Ptelea, and Carya. But in respect to these 7 it was observed that at least 5 were very doubtful determinations. The 9 largest orders of the ‘Flora Tertiaria Helvetie’ are Leguminose, Amentacee, Cyperacee, Proteacee, Lawraceea, Graminee, Conifere, Composite, and Aceracee. Of these Orders 3 are included in the 9 largest of Europe, 4 in the 9 largest of the United States, and 6 in the 9 largest of Japan, while the remaining 3 of the Tertiary, not included in the 9 largest orders of Japan, are much more largely developed in Japan than in the United States. They are Lauraceae, Aceracee, and Proteacee. The proportion of ligneous to herbaceous species in the above floras was alluded to. Heer estimates ligneous plants to have formed about 66 per cent. of the Phanerogamic vegetation of the Tertiary in Switzerland. The speaker considered this estimate as too high, believing that sufficient allowance had not been made for the advantages that ligneous plants, Which are often tall-stemmed, possess over herbaceous species in securing access of their leaves and débris to the waters in which they had been floated, and ultimately preserved. He admitted, however, that hgneous species were relatively very numerous in the vegetation of the Tertiary period. The proportion of ligneous plants he estimates in the existing flora of Japan at near 40 per cent., in the Southern States 22, Northern States 18, Europe 9 to 12. * “Die versunkene Insel Atlantis.’ + ‘ Flora Tertiaria Helvetiz.’ ~ The Tertiary data were throughout derived from the ‘ Flora Tertiaria Helvetire’ of Professor Heer. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 263 The intimate relationship traceable between the Tertiary and Japanese floras in the numerous characteristic types common to both; the issue of the ordinal and generic comparisons given above; the larger proportion of ligneous species in the Japanese than in the Eastern American flora ; and the number of types peculiar, at the present day, to Hastern America and Kastern Asia, compared with the few restricted to Europe and America, the speaker contends, favour the view advanced by Professor Asa Gray in reference to plants and by Mr. Darwin as to animals, viz. That the migration of forms to which is due the community of types in the Eastern States of North America and the Miocene of Europe, took place to the North of the Pacific; an overland communication, it may be supposed, having existed during the Tertiary time somewhere about Behring’s Straits or the line of the Aleutian Islands. This view is confirmed by the occurrence of Miocene vegetable remains in North-west America (including genera yet growing in Japan but lost to America), which prove, further, the temperature of these latitudes to have been at that time sufficiently high to have permitted their existence so far north. The evidence in favour of the ‘Atlantis’ might, moreover, be expected to have been more marked in the existing vegetation of the Atlantic Islands than is the case. Professor Heer points out the genera Clethra, Bystropogon, Cedronella, and Oreodaphne as common to the Atlantic Islands and America. Japanese species, however, have been described of Clethra and Cedronella ; and Messrs. Webb and Berthelot limit Bystro- pogon to Atlantic Island species. Oveodaphne occurs in South Africa and adjacent islands. A connection between these Islands and Europe, at perhaps a late period of the Tertiary, may be considered as highly probable from the predominance of Mediterranean forms in their flora. The few genera characteristic of the Tertiary which they possess may have been derived during this connection ; but the hypothesis that a continent should have extended westward as far as America, the speaker considered the available botanical evidence did not in the least substantiate. Royat Instirvtion oF Great Britain.— May 23.—‘ On Coal.” By Warington W. Smyth, Esq., F.R.S. The speaker selected one portion only of this large subject; and, neglecting chemical and statistical and mining particulars with reference to this important mineral, confined him- self to the physical conditions under which it is found to occur. Mr. Smyth described the nature of the various substances with which the coal is associated ; and comparison was made between the total thick- ness of carboniferous rocks or coal-measures of different districts, as well as between the total thickness of coal (in the aggregate of the seams) ; hence we have one reason for not estimating the value of a coal-field merely by its area, as laid down in a geological map. ‘Thus, the well-known Dur- ham field, with a thickness of measures of about 2000 feet, has a total thickness of coal of 50 feet; the Derbyshire, 2000, and almost twice the thickness of coal; the North Staffordshire, 6000 feet of measures, and 130 of coal; whilst the South Welsh and Saarbricken fields exhibit thicknesses of 12,000 to 15,000 feet, with a proportionate increase, especially in the latter, of coal. A second reason for mistrusting area as a criterion of the importance of a coal-district, is the various forms into which the coal-mea- sures have been thrown or moulded by agencies operating at a later date in the earth’s crust, whence some districts may exhibit by outcrops an in- dication of the full amount of their entire contents, whilst in others the beds pass with a gradual inclination beneath newer formations, through 264 THE GEOLOGIST. which they may nevertheless by sinkings be accessible, as in the case of the vast accession of mineral wealth added, in the last twelve years, to the Westphalian coal-field, by the explorations carried through the covering of eretaceous rocks which clothe the northern side of the coal-field. The remarkable pit lately completed by the Duke of Newcastle, at Shireoak, was another example. At a distance of several miles from any visible coal-measures, it had pierced the New Red Sandstone and Magnesian Limestone, and reached the “ top-hard” coal at 515 yards in depth. Referring to the principal families of plants which are found either in, or associated with, the coal, he endeavoured to show that their occurrence throws a light on the origin of the coal-seams, a knowledge which becomes an important guide in enabling us to judge of the continuity of some fields. The position of the stigmaria in the under-clay or floor of the seam, and of the stems of sigillaria, lepidodendron, calamites, etc., in the roof strata, point to the probability of the growth of the vegetable matter in situ. The existence of numerous upright stems, and especially those occurring so often and so dangerously to the miners in the roof of certain coals, is a strong confirmation of the gradual depression of the tract in which these plants grew; and Goppert has shown that the careful examination of a number of seams proves the existence in the coal itself of every family of plant which has been met with in the coal-measures. Thus much had referred to the true Carboniferous period, in which it is commonly supposed that a vigorous vegetation first arose, but the speaker described his finding, a few months since, in the Laxey lead and copper mine, in the Isle of Man, at 120 fathoms deep, a seam of anthracite coal, three to four inches thick, in the midst of ancient schists, probably Lower Silurian. He then noticed the coaly and lignitic beds in newer formations, especially the Tertiary ‘‘ brown-coal,” which in Continental, and especially in Southern Europe, attains to great importance. The excellent preserva- tion of the vegetable remains in the lignite has enabled Professors Unger and Heer to make comparison with existing floras; and these authors show that the Tertiary flora had nothing in common with our present flora in Europe, but had an extraordinary resemblance to that of modern North America. This was especialiy to be noticed in closely similar species of the genera Liquidambar, Liriodendron, Pavia, Nyssa, Robinia, Taxo- dium, Sequoia, Juglans, Glycyrrhiza, Cercis, Laurus, Rhododendron, Cissus, and certain oaks and pines. There was hence, the speaker thought, no retreating from the conclusion, that at that portion of the Tertiary pe- riod a land communication existed between America and Europe. Frag- ments of that land, with relics of the same Tertiary flora, he considered still existed in Iceland and the Azores, with their surturbrand and lignites ; and thus the existence of that Atlantis, which is generally set down as a dream of the poets, was, according to his views, supported by the studies of the geologist. A relation of this kind at a comparatively recent pericd, throws a light on the causes of phenomena belonging to an earlier epoch, and enabled the forming of conclusions, if not upon the absolute contem- poraneity of certain beds or groups of coal-measures, at all events upon the physical connection within a given period of the agencies which were oe coal not only in the various fields of Europe, but also in North America. Giascow GroLoaicat Socirry.— May 10th.—The members had an excursion to the hills of Greenock and to Loch Thorn. The hills, generally speaking, are of igneous rock; towards their front they were found to be principally of a fine variety of amygdaloids, containing nodules of erystallized quartz, and silicates of magnesia, with indications of zeolitic PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 265 minerals. Near Loch Thorn the rocks become compact greenstone, and dark-coloured porphyry. When the excursionists arrived at the eastern extremity of the Loch, they came suddenly upon a fine section of the _* Ballagan limestones,” tilted up nearly vertical, with regular divisions of shales, which have lost much of their schistose character, and are regu- larly traversed by thin veins of calcareous spar—apparently a variety of satin spar. The remarkable uplifting of these strata is the effect of a trap dyke, visible close beside them, also a portion of an overlying sandstone converted into ‘“‘kinglé” (a mining term for indurated sandstone) by igneous action. At the opposite extremity another trap dyke appears, which ap- parently has effected this change in the sandstone. These sandstone beds are at the same angle as the other strata. The burn below exhibits the Old Red Sandstone zm situ, and Red Marl clays also much altered by igneous action, with a number of fine specimens of Red Sandstone con. slomerates. In going up the burn the route is over a bed of similar lime- stone, and the district is well worthy of future detailed examination. One remarkable feature of these Ballagan beds was the rounding of the vertical limestones, being of a flattened spherical shape, evidently the result of weathering and scaling off at the exposed surfaces. These Ballagan beds occur some miles distant at Ballagan, Campsie Hills, and arange of fine sections occurs at Auchenreoch Glen, Dumbarton; with this difference, at Loch Thorn the crystallized veins of calcareous spar are carbonate of lime, while at Auchenreoch and “ Ballagan” they are sulphate of lime (gypsum). Loch Thorn isa fine sheet of water, partly artificial and partly natural. Jt supplies Greenock and its works with water. Since the discovery of the Ballagan beds at Loch Thorn, at the time of the excursion, one of the members has visited the district, and having gone a considerable distance up the burn, reports that-other important ap- pearances of the Ballagan strata present themselves in very fine sections, and that the igneous cause of their upheaval and vertical position is exhi- bited lower down the burn than was suspected during the first rapid view taken of the strata. No doubt a more searching investigation will take place during the summer, and should any important facts present them- selves in relation to the relative position, etc., of the Ballagan beds with the Old Red Sandstone and coal-measures, the information will be for- warded to the ‘ Geologist.’ Royat Soctety.—19¢h June.—“< On the Loess of the Valleys of N. of Hrance and 8. of England.” By J. Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S. During a re- cent visit to France the author made observations which have enabled him to draw conclusions as to the formation of the Loess. In this communi- cation the author first refers to the Loess of the Rhine, concurring with Sir Charles Lyell in attributing its origin to river inundations, but draws different conclusions as to the mode and circumstances of its deposit. The greatest difficulty that has been felt in attempting to understand the spread of the Loess in England and France has been the great differ- ence of the levels at which they are found, these often being from 100 to 300 feet above the present river-courses—heights to which no river-inun- dations could attain in the present valleys. But of the former existence of less deeply-excavated valleys in the present valley-sites, the covering of Loess might lead to the inference ; and notwithstanding the extension of the Loess over the loftier ground flanking the valleys, such areas appear to be always bounded by higher hills, forming a barrier restricting the limits of the floods. The author’s opinion is that the Loess is, like the high- and low-level gravels, always connected with river-valleys ; and if, instead of starting at the present low-levels, the ancient valleys be taken at the level VOL. V. 2M 266 THE GEOLOGIST. the author in his former communication showed them to have had at the period of the high-level gravels, that is at from 100 to 200 feet above the floors of the present valleys, the difference of level then of the upper de- posits of Loess to be accounted for will be diminished to 100 or 150 feet, a a a 6 b' 6" Loess; d a high-level gravel ; c c' low-level gravels; m, 7, 0, the levels to which the river rose during inundations at different periods. —a difference still considerable ; but, on the other hand, these extremes are not always attained. At all events, this brings the whole of the Loess within the possible range of inunda- tions of the old Pleistocene rivers at different periods according to their age; the higher beds having been de- posited by the overflowings in the earliest periods and before the exca- vation of the present river-valleys, the lower beds after the present val- leys had been formed, but while the old meteorological conditions still prevailed. These deposits of Loess thus furnish a measure of the volume of water anciently brought down by the rivers during floods, and show how very far they exceeded their present representatives, and how great must have been their erosive action. Flood- deposits will always consist of shingle in the river channels; sand in sheltered places; fine silt over the area where the flood waters repose. In this manner the author considers the high- and low-level gravels and the Loess of all the levels to have been formed. This flood-origin of the Loess being admitted, it follows that as that de- posit is found at 50 to 100 feet above the highest beds of gravel, the floods of these periods must have risen like those of the Arctic regions, but to even a greater extent (50 to 100 feet), above their summer levels. The fluviatile shells found in the gravels and Loess were stated to be identical. GroLocicaL Soctery or Lonpon.—April 16, 1862.—1. “On the Position of the Pteraspis-beds, and on the Sequence of the Strata of the Old Red Sandstone Series, in South Perthshire,” By Professor R. Hark- ness, F.R.S., F.G.S. At the Bridge-of-Allan the lowest beds seen of the Old Red Series are (1) conglomerates of trap-rocks, overlaid by (2) grey sandstone passing up- wards into red sandstone. These grey sandstones have afforded to Mr. Powrie a Pteraspis (perhaps P. rostratus), and fragments of Cephalaspis have also been found in them. Next above come (3) purple shales (at Craig Arnhall); then the brown sandstones (4) of Downe Castle; and lastly at Laurick, grey sandstones (5) again. hese all have a N.W. dip, as seen along the Teith. From about Laurick to Callander the strata are best seen in the Keltie burn. They have a S.E. dip, and form the other, but steeper, side of a synclinal trough (about twelve miles wide); and here grey sandstone (5), (4) brown sandstone (at Bracklin Linns), (3) purple shale. (2) red and grey sandstone, and lastly (1) a conglomerate (here composed of felstone) present an analogous succession to that be- tween Laurick and the Bridge-of-Allan. At Callander the conglomerate lies almost vertically against the metamorphic Lower Silurian rocks of the Grampians, trap-rock intervening. The author estimates that the Old Red strata have a thickness of 7000 feet. ‘ 2. “On the Western Extremity of the London Basin ; on the Westerly Phinning of the Lower Eocene Beds in that Basin; and on the Grey- wethers.” By William Whitaker, Esq., B.A., F.G.S., of the Geol. Surv. Great Britain, PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCTETIES. 267 In the first part of this paper the author described certain outliers of Tertiary strata in the neighbourhood of Bedwin and Savernake (or Marl- borough) Forest, in Wiltshire, where in the course of the Geological Survey of the district he found that both the Woolwich and Reading beds and the London Clay gradually thinned out westward, until merely 3 or 4 inches of the latter alone remained between the Bagshot beds and the Chalk. Further eastward these are probably in direct apposition. The superficial loam and clay with unworn flints of the Chalk district along the northern side of the London Basin were then described. In the second portion of the paper it was shown, both from the published results of Mr. Prestwich’s researches and later observations made in the pro- gress of the Geological Survey, that the Thanet Sands thin out westwardly, from a thickness of about 85 feet in the Isle of Thanet, to about 35 feet at London, and to 3 feet at Chobham, disappearing altogether near Epsom. The Woolwich and Reading beds include the Blackheath Pebble-bed, ac- cording to the author: at Herne Bay Mr. Whitaker gives these beds a thickness of about 50 feet, at Croydon 45 feet, at New Cross 54 feet, at London from 40 to 70 feet, at Ealing 60 feet, at Hanwell 75 feet, at Chis- wick 90, at Reading about 50 feet, and near Great Bedwin, in Wiltshire, only 15 feet. The London Clay, with its basement-bed, is nearly 480 feet thick at Sheppey, 400 feet at London, 370 feet at Reading, 20 to 60 feet near Newbury, only 15 feet near Great Bedwin, and is represented by a few inches of its pebbly basement-bed in Marlborough Forest. The third part of the paper treated of the Greywether Stones of Wilt- shire, which the author believes must have come from the Bagshot Sand, which alone of the Tertiary beds is present there in sufficient thickness to yield these large and numerous masses of bedded rock. 3. “On a Clay-deposit with Insects, Leaves, etc., near Ulverston.” By John Bolton, Esq. The deposit described in this paper was a greenish-drab clay, lying be- neath a capping of locally derived drift and rubble of varying thickness, upon the Mountain-limestones of Low Furness. It was met with during the progress of drainage-works undertaken by the Lindal-Cote Iron-ore Company. At one locality, the clay is 93 feet from the surface, and has a thickness of 15 feet; it seems to fill a basin in the limestone. The im- bedded plant- and insect-remains and its contained Diatomacee proved the deposit to be of lacustrine origin. Fragments of wood occurred in it, stained blue by phosphate of iron. It appeared probable from the depth at which the clay was buried beneath locally derived material, upon a com- paratively level surface, that it was of great antiquity, though possibly younger than the glacial epoch. | May 7th, 1862.—The following communications were read :— 1. “ Note respecting the Discovery of a new and large Labyrinthodont (Loxomma Allmani, Huxley) in the Gilmerton Iron-stone of the Edin- burgh Coal-field.” By Professor T. H. Huxley, F.R.S., Sec. G.S. Looking over the vertebrate fossils from Burdie House and Gilmerton in the University Museum, Edinburgh, Professor Huxley came upon some reptihan specimens—a fragment of the hinder part of the upper wall of a cranium and some sternal plates of a Labyrinthodont, which, from the obliquity of its orbits, he names Loromma. The skull would be about 14 inches long if perfect ; and the animal about 6 or 7 feet. 2. “ Note on a new Labyrinthodont (Pholidogaster pisciformis, Huxley) from the Edinburgh Coal-field.” By Professor T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. ‘The specimen on which this new form has been determined was placed in the British Museum by Sir P. Egerton and Lord Enniskillen, who 268 THE GEOLOGIST. recognized it as Reptilian. Mr. Davis, of the British Museum, drew Mr. Huxley’s attention to it as being probably Archegosaurian. It is not well preserved, but on careful study proves to be an amphibian allied to Archegosaurus ; differing, however, from it in the form of the head, the extent to which the ossification of the vertebral column has pro- ceeded, and in the character of the dermal armour. This animal was about 44 inches long. . 3. “On the Land Flora of the Devonian Period m North-eastern America.” By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., E.G.S. First noticing what was formerly known of the Devonian Plant-remains in the States of New York and Pennsylvania (Hall, Vanuxem, and Rogers), in Gaspé (Logan), in New Brunswick and Maine (Gesner, Robb, Bennett, Hartt, Matthew, and Hitchcock), the author stated that with Messrs. Hartt, Matthew, and others at St. John’s, he had lately examined the productive localities near that city, and is now enabled to add largely to the aecount of the Devonian plants he had already published in the ‘Canadian Naturalist,’ vol. vi. 1861. He now enumerates about 70 species (32 genera) of plants as occurring in the Upper Devonian of Pennsylvania, New Brunswick, Maine, New York, and Gaspé, in the Middle Devonian of New York and Gaspé, and in the Lower Devonian of Gaspé. Of these 70 species, two (Psilophyton princeps and Cordaites angustifolia) are referred also to the Upper Silurian of Gaspé; and 10 (not including these two) reappear in the Carboniferous strata. The Devonian Flora much resembles in general facies that of the Carboniferous period. In the Lower Devonian series the underclays are filled with the rhizomes of Psilophyton, in the Upper Devonian with Sigillarie and Calamites (as in the Coal-measures). The Devonian Flora is less per- fectly preserved than that of the Coal-measures, and is probably as yet very imperfectly known; it presents more resemblance to the floras of the Mesozoic period and of modern tropical and austral islands than the Coal- plants present. The facies of the Devonian flora in North America is very similar to that of the same period in Europe. Among the Devonian plants of North-east America, Dr. Dawson recognizes an angiospermous dicotyledon (Syringoxylon mirabile, nov. gen. et sp.), established on a fragment of fossil wood collected by Professor James Hall from a limestone of the Upper Hamilton Group, at Highteen- mile Creek on Lake Erie. 4. “On some Upper Eocene Fossils from the Isle of Wight.” By Professor Dr. F’. Sandberger. In a Letter to W. J. Hamilton, Esq., For. Sec. G.S. The result of Professor Sandberger’s examination of a collection of these fossils, carefully named by Mr. F. KE. Edwards and forwarded by Mr. Hamilton, has been to confirm him in his opinion that the upper beds at Hempstead, Isle of Wight, are the exact equivalent of the marine beds at Weinheim, Jeurres, and Bergh (Reupélien inférieur, of Dumont). The freshwater hmestone of Bembridge and Sconce appears to correspond to the beds at Buxweilar (Alsace) and Abstadt (Baden); and the fossils from Headon Hill and Colwell Bay probably belong to the level of Dumont’s Zongrien imferieur (Lethen and Westergeln) ef supérieur (Marnes supérieur au gypse). May 2\.—The following communications were read :— 1. * On the Metamorphic Rocks of the Banffshire Coast, the Scarabins, and a portion of Hast Sutherland.” By Professor R. Harkness, F.R.S., I.G.8. The coast-section from Gamrie to Buckie was first described ; it consists mainly of folded gneiss and grauwacke sandstone and shale, with PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 269 underlying quartz-rock of great thickness, conformable, and folded with it, and seen in anticlinals at Melrose, Banff, and Dunidich, and still more in an arch between Cullen and Buckie. Two folds of limestone, obscurely stratified and not persistent, occur with the schists at the Burn of Boyne and Dunidich. The dykes of syenite, of granite, and of serpentine (Port- soy) were also pointed out in this section, as well as two outliers of the Old Red deposits at Dunidich and Cullen. The metamorphic rocks above mentioned have a predominating south-east dip, and the folds hang over to the north-west; but the author regards these strata as holding a re- versed position, the gneissose and grauwacke strata being really the upper- most of the series, as in other parts of the North of Scotland. The sec- tion from the sea at Berridale, across the Scarabins to Strath-Naver, was next described. Here the granite of Bean-na-aiglesh succeeds to the Old Red Sandstone of Berridale, and is succeeded by the gneiss and folded white quartz-rock of the Scarabins. From the Scarabins to Strath-Naver granite and gneiss alternate in laminar masses, dipping south-east towards the Scarabins, here and there bearing unconformable outliers of Old Red Sandstone. In this case also the author pointed out that a reversed dip obtained, by which the really uppermost gneissose rock was made to ap- pear lower in position than the quartzite. Professor Harkness further al- luded to the conformability of the granite with the strata in this district, and to the probability of its being rather the result of an excessive amount of metamorphic action than of plutonic origin. 2. “On the Geology of the Gold-fields of Nova Scotia.” By the Rev. David Honeyman. (Communicated by the President.) The author, at the request of the Provincial Government Commission for the International Exhibition, made some observations on the auriferous rocks at Allen’s and Laidlow’s farms, near the junction of the Halifaxand Windsor and the Halifax and Truro railways. He found chloritic schist, with vertical auri- ferous quartz-veins, and a gold-bearing horizontal quartz-vein (the “ bar- rels” of the miners) lying on the schist and overlaid by quartzite and gravel. By the neighbouring railway sections the chlorite-schist is seen to alternate in broad bands with quartzite, and to be associated with granite. Phe author thinks there is reason to believe that the quartzite may be of Lower Silurian age. 3. “On some Fossil Crustacea from the Coal-measures and Devonian Rocks of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton.” By J. W. Salter, Esq., F.G.S., of the Geol. Surv. Great Britain. One of the Devo- nian fossils is apparently allied to the Stomapods, and is named Amphipel- tis paradorus by Mr. Salter; it was obtaimed by Dr. Dawson near St. John’s, where it occurred with plant-remains; another Crustacean fossil from the same locality is a new Hurypterus, H. pulicaris. Other remains of Eurypteri have been sent also by Dr. Dawson, from the coal-measures of Port Hood and the Joggins; and with thesea new Amphipod, Diplostylus, having some characters of alliance with Typhis and Brachyocelus. 4. “On some species of Hurypterus and allied forms.” By J. W. Sal- ter, Hsq., 1.G.S., etc. After alluding to the late and complete researches on Hurypterus by Dr. Wieskowski and Professor J. Hall, Mr. Salter ex- plamed some formerly obscure points in its structure, and proceeded to describe the H. Scouleri, Hibbert, from the Carboniferous limestone of Scotland, and the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Kilkenny; the #. (Ar- thropleura) mammatus, sp. nov., from the Upper Coal-measures near Man- chester ; and LH. ? (Arthropleura ?) ferox, sp. nov., from the Coal-measures of North Staffordshire. 5. “On Peltocaris, a new genus of Silurian Crustacea.’”’ By J. W. 270 THE GEOLOGIST. Salter, Esq., F.G.S., ete. Of this form an imperfect individual, from the anthracite-shales (Llandeilo flags) of Dumfriesshire, was formerly described by the author as Dicthyrocaris ? aptychovdes. Better specimens enabled him to distinguish it as a new generic form belonging to the Phyllopods, not far removed from Hymenocaris and Dithyrocaris. A fragment of an- other larger form, from the same locality, is described by the author as Peltocaris? Harknessi. Mr. Salter also explained his views of the rela- tionship of the paleozoic Phyllopoda, among themselves and with the re- cent forms, and illustrated them by a diagram in which they were ar- ranged in chronological succession. ; 6. “On a Crustacean Track in the Llandeilo Flags of Chirbury, Shrop- shire.” By J. W. Salter, Hsq., F.G.S., etc. This track consists of nume- rous short, narrow, oblique, chisel-shaped imprints, on the ripple-ridges of the slab ; and, according to the author, it must have been caused by a small Crustacean with a bifid telson or prong-like tail. To a like agency Mr. Salter refers similar markings described by M. Brebisson as occurring in the Lower Silurian Sandstone of Noron in the Falaise (Normandy). June 4.—The following communications were read :— 1. “On the disputed affinities of the Purbeck Mammalian genus Pla- giaulax.” By Hugh Falconer, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. Referring to his former description (Journal Geol. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 261, etc.) of Plagiaulax as a rodent form of marsupial, having affinities with the existing Hypsiprymnus ; and to the very different opinion of its relation- ship expressed by Professor Owen in the 8th edition of the ‘ Encyclopedia Britannica,’ where it is said to have been ‘‘a carnivorous marsupial,” Dr. Falconer then reviewed the dental characters of Plagiaulax in detail. The incisors, in regard of number, order of suppression, collateral position, and relation to the premolars, correspond exactly with the type of marsu- pial herbivora, and are wholly at variance with the carnivorous type ; and he argued that Professor Owen’s argument drawn from Thylacoleo has no bearing on the incisors of Plagiaulax, and gives no support to the car- nivorous inference. Of the premolars, after a full comparative re-exami- nation (in agreement with his already published views) he finds reason to regard the carnivorous deduction from the shape of the premolars to be altogether untenable. The form of the lower jaw of Plagiaulax having been regarded by Professor Owen as conforming with the carnivorous type, the author showed that in the non-carnivorous Cheiromys (Aye-Aye) and Phas- colarctus (Koala) a similar form of ramus obtains; and that the coronoid and condyle of the Aye-Aye are not unlike those of Plagiaulax ; whilst in existing predaceous marsupials the condyle has a different form. The ae considered that Plagiaulax was essentially a phytophagous mar- supial. 2. ‘On some Fossil Plants from the Hempstead Beds, Isle of Wight.” By the Rev. Dr. O. Heer, Professor of Botany, Zurich. With an intro- duction, by W. Pengelly, F.G.S. These plant-remains, from the Hempstead Series, consist of seeds, cones, leaves, and twigs, and are referable to ten species, four of which have been found lately at Bovey Tracey also, namely, Sequoia Oouttsia, Heer, Andromeda reticulata, Kttin., Nymphea Doris, Heer, and Carpo- lites Websteri, Brongn. The other species are Cyperites Forbesi, n.s., Nelum- bium Buchii, Kttin., Carpolites globulus, n.s., Chara Escheri, Braun, and Ch. tuberculata, Lyell, var. Professor Heer notices that six of the above- named species are found also in the Lower Miocene (Tongrian and Aqui- taman) of the Continent ; and that this flora, as far as represented, seems NOTES AND QUERIES. 271 to indicate truly freshwater conditions for the formation in which it is found. 3. “On Glacial Surface-markings on the Sandstone near Liverpool.” By G. H. Morton, Esq., F.G.S. The author here noticed the occurrence of glacial grooves and scratches at—Ilst, Toxteth Park, the direction of the strie being N. 42° W., at 120 feet above the sea; 2nd and 3rd, at Boundary-lane and New-road, Kirkdale, the strie being N. 15° W., and at about 80 feet above the sea. NOTES AND QUERIES. CoRYLACEE IN A BED oF LigNITE UNDER Si1Lt.—The following brief description and sketch of a deposit in which I recently found nuts of the Corylacez, those of the Corylus Avellana, or common hazel-nut, may interest your readers. The lignite bed in which the said nuts are observed, is the part of the embankment of a small stream or burn in the neighbourhood of the village of Whiteinch, forming the boundary between two counties. The lignite bed appears from its position, the lower portion being on a level with the water of the burn which when in flood rises a little above it, to crop out and to be a portion of the lignite strata several feet under the surface. The embankment is only about six feet in height. In the sketch (a a) represents fine sand containing organic remains, undoubtedly cainozoie, fragments (teeth, etc.) of mammalia, coprolites, and small fossil portions of flora, perpendicular in position. Mixed with the sand I found fragments of quartz, round in shape, and belonging to that formation termed locally the till, or drift. And I may here remark that quartz balls from the drift, smoothed and perfect in form, are frequently seen in the walls or Dikes in this neighbourhood. Under a portion of the sand or clay (6) and the lignite bed (cc) the lignite is mixed with black mud, and contains flora not in a fossil state, as is the case with the fragments in the sand (a a) but in a state almost per- fect, 2. e. the portions of TI TT iii mr mini tii ooh, the hazelor birch branches =a Se are not fossilized,and have === = only lost a small portion == —————— of their bark; the position of the stems is horizontal. Intermixed with the mud of the lignite and almost on a level with the burn, are the nuts in abundance, and not in the least subject to any pressure from the lignite above them, but at the same time prevented by the mud from being removed by the water of the stream when in flood. The black dots in the sketch shows their position in the lignite, which like the lignites of the Continent exhibit the true dicotyle- donous structure. This remarkable deposit appears to be a fluvio-marine bed, or fluviatile accumulation. he lignite is undoubtedly still forming, and the position of the nuts makes me imagine that the force which pressed the silt (a a) down upon the vegetabie remains was the Drift, which appears’ from the position of the clay (4) to have come in a northern direction. After pass- ing under a bridge, the Dumbarton road, the stream joins the Clyde, which doubtless originated the low long valley-terrace, of which the lignite bed just described forms a part. ‘These terraces,” Mr. Page remarks, “have long attracted attention, and point to atime when many of our 272 THE GEOLOGIST. fertile valleys were chains of lakes and morasses, which have been drained and converted into alluvial land by the natural deepening of the river channels.” The black putrid mud in which the lignite is embedded, shows, in my humble opinion, what I could not before understand, how quartz pebbles have been introduced into coal. The mud has contained quartz pebbles, and been subjected to gradual but strong pressure, and if I may use the term, turned into coal, which retains the quartz pebbles that ever and anon crack with a loud noise in our domestic hearths.—P. 8., White- inch, near Glasgow. CLASSIFICATION oF ANIMALS.—In order that our readers may have the opportunity of examining the latest classification of animals, as expounded by the most advanced school of zoologists, the following table is inserted, which is adapted from the classification of Professors Huxley and Reay Greene (Jukes’s ‘Manual of Geology,’ pp. 376 and 710). The groups to which an RK. is attached were classified by Cuvier under Radiata. 1. Supkinegpom VERTEBRATA. 3. SuBKIneDom ANNULOSA. Province Abranchiata. Clase Mea sete Province 1. Articulata or Arthro- jp HALVES poda. » Reprinia. Class INSECTA. Province Branchiata. » Myriapopa. Class AMPHIBIA. ,, ARACHNIDA. > an PiseHs: », CRUSTACEA. 2. Susxinepom MOLLUSCA. *| Province 2. Annulata. Province 1. Odontophora. Class ANNELIDA. Class CEPHALOPODA. : », PYEROFODA. . Province 3. Annuloida. » PULMONOGASTEROPODA. » BRANCHIOGASTEROPODA. Class Scormerpa, R. Rorirera, R ° ° . 99 2) Province 2. Lamellibranchiata. EcuHInoDERMATA, R. 39 Class CoNCHIFERA. 4. Supxinep. CHLENPRRATA. Province 3. Molluscoida. Class BRaAcHIOPoDA. ot Bomyzone i Class AcTiNozoa, R. ,, ASCIDIOIDA. »- Hyprozoa, R. 5. SuBkincpom PROTOZOA. Province 1. Stomatoda. Class Inrusoria, R. Province 2. Astomata. Class Sponaipa, R. » Rurzopopa, R. » GREGARINIDA, R. MamMatian Rumatns.—A considerable quantity of bones and teeth of the extinct mammals has been found in the Ouse valley, in the vicinity of Bedford, during the past month, but the greater proportion were much broken on their removal from the eravel. The new line of railway from Bedford to Cambridge passes through several miles of the Drift, but owing FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 273 to the low level of the valley hereabouts, the excavations have not been very deep, except in parts worked for ballast. In these spots bones and teeth of the Elephas primigenius, Bos primigenius, Cervus tarandus, and Equus have been found: and also some fragments of a tusk of Hippopo- tamus major. No doubt many valuable specimens were flung into the ballast wagons, as a whole acre of gravel was excavated to the depth of several feet at Summerhouse Hill, and removed by railway trucks to form approaches for bridges and viaducts. At this spot the bones were all ex- ceedingly brittle, and we believe but few have been preserved entire. Last week some large portions of the bones of Hlephas primigenius have been taken out of the lowest gravel of the Biddenham Pit, close to the spot where flint-implements were found last year; and a molar tooth of that animal, which exceeds in size any that have been found whole in that vicinity. This specimen has a grinding surface of eight inches in length, and 34 inches in width; and the length at the base is fifteen inches. ‘The roots of the tooth were very friable, and a great portion crumbled away, but the specimen notwithstanding weighs 17% lbs. It is in the collection of Mr. James Wyait, F.G.S., Bedford. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. ‘Silliman’s American Journal of Science’ for May has an abstract from Capt. Reynolds’s forthcoming Report to the United States Government of Dr. Hayden’s remarks ‘‘ On the Period of Elevation of the Ranges of the Rocky Mountains near the Sources of the Missouri River and its Tributaries.’ The evidence, Dr. Hayden considers, makes it clear that the great subterranean forces which elevated the western portion of the American continent were called into operation towards the close of the Cretaceous period, as that the gradual quiet rising continued without a general bursting of the earth’s crust until after the accumulation of the Tertiary lignite deposits, or at least the greater part of them; after the fracture of the surface commenced and the great crust-movements began to display themselves, the whole country continued rising, or at least, though there may have been periods of subsidence or repose, there was a general upward tendency that has continued even up to the present time. There is also, in the same number, a paper by Sir W. EH. Logan, “‘ On the Quebec Group and the Upper Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Su- perior,” and a‘‘ Notice of the Rocks between the Carboniferous Limestone of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the Limestones of the Hamilton Group,” by Mr. Alex. Winchell, the State geologist of Michigan. A descriptive account of two sections made across the bed of the Scal- disian system, and of the overlying strata near the city of Antwerp, illustrated with plates, has been communicated by M. Dejardin, Captain of Engineers to the Belgian Academy. In 1861, M. Dewalque described the constitution of the Eifel system in the basin of Condroz. He has lately added a notice of the same system in the basin of Namur.* The great series of paleozoic rocks well known under Omalin’s designation of the “terrain anthraxifére,” occupy a large surface in Belgium, slightly elongated from east to west, and parted by the uprise of the schists of the ‘‘ terrain Rhénan ” of Dumont into two * Bulletin Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 1862. VOL. V. 2N 274 THE GEOLOGIST. ‘‘massives,” or incompletely-separated basins; the southern termed the basin of Condroz, the northern the basin of Namur. The former is remarkable for the thickness of its strata and the undulations which bring the same beds so often to the surface; the latter, of which the different series are much thinner, presents only one flexure of each, constituting the axis of the coal-field. It offers then a symmetrical series in a disjointed basin, of which faults sometimes obscure a portion on one side and some- times on the other. The beds now investigated by M. Dewalque corre- spond to those which M. Dumont described m 1830 under the names of ‘“‘systémes quartzo-schisteux inférieur et calcareux inférieur;” and which were subsequently united in the ‘ Carte géologique de la Belgique’ under the title of ‘“‘ Systéme eifelien,” corresponding to what is generally known as Middle Devonian. Admitting the exactitude of the fundamental points of Dumont’s classi- fication, M. Dewalque considers the observations of paleontologists must cause some modifications of details, and that it is necessary to lower the boundary between the Hifelian and Condrusian formations, the division of which, Dumont, having only mineralogical character as a guide, has gene- rally set too high. Dr. C. Malaise, of Gembloux, having collected a series of fossils from the fossiliferous beds of Grand Manil, regarded by Dumont as belonging to the ‘‘ terrain Rhénan,” but afterwards assigned to the Silurian system by M. Gonelet, who stated the occurrence there of Trinucleus allied to or- natus, a Calymene near to incerta, Leptena depressa, and five species of Orthis. The fossils found by Dr. Malaise have been determined by Pro- fessor De Koninck, and are all of Lower Devonian species, Orthis Mur- chisontt and O. orbicularis being the predominant forms. The clay-slates and fossiliferous quartzites of Grand-Manil and those of Houffalige and Ardenne, Dr. Malaise believes to belong to the Systeme Coblentzien of the “terrain Khénan,” these fossil fauna being purely of Lower Devonian. It is well known that the coal-field of Mons is prolonged subterrane- ously into France, covered by more recent geological formation, towards Valenciennes, Douai, and Béthune. Of late years researches have been made in the opposite direction, to the north of the basin, in the hope of finding coal. It is not clear on what grounds the probability of the exist- ence of a coal-basin to the north of Lille has been founded; but although five years since, when the subject was brought before the Geological So- ciety of France, this opinion was contested by Dormoy, Delanoue, and Gosselet, a boring was undertaken at Menin, about four leagues from Lille; and this has now been stopped, after having penetrated without iia 306 métres of rock, of which the last 20 consisted of blackish-blue schists. It is thus clear that further search to the north of the Menin is hope- less. The borings would come upon the Coblentzian rocks towards Thielt, or they would probably meet with the underlying or Gedinnian beds of the Rhénan formation. REVIEWS. Further Discoveries of Flint Implements in the Drift. By John Evans, F.S.A. (Extract from ‘ Archeologia,’ 1862.) The prominent part which Mr. Evans took in a brave and consistent manner at the beginning of the discussion on the important topic of the REVIEWS. 275 antiquity of the human race which the early fossil flint-implements evoked, gave him justly the leadership of British antiquaries in this warfare against deeply-rooted prejudices and inculcated opinions, in the same way as Mr. Prestwich took the lead amongst British geologists ; and, as we look to the latter for the narration and reduction of new geological facts, we look to receive from the former periodically the antiquarian view of all fresh de- tails and novelties. We do not propose to use our pages, in expressing our sense of the valuable services rendered by Mr. Evans, however justly such encomiums may be due, but we prefer to economize our space by giving without comment a summary of the “finds” not hitherto recorded or but slightly noticed in this journal, and noting the chief topics in this addition to his former excellent paper in the ‘ Archeologia’ of 1860, and which has been noticed by us, Vol. IV. p. 358. Paris.—¥lint-implements have been found by M. Gosse, of Geneva. The pits in which they were discovered are two,—that of M. Bernard, Avenue de la Motte Piguet, No. 61-63 (Champ de Mars), and that of M. Etienne Bielle, Rue de Grenelle, No. 15; in beds of sand and: gravel ana- logous to those of Menchecourt, near Abbeville; the beds are not dis- turbed, their average thickness is 20 feet. The implements and flint-flakes were found in a bed at the base of the gravel from 3 to 5 inches in thick- ness, associated with bones of Bos primigenius, Llephas primigenius, deer allied to reindeer, and a large carnivorous animal, probably cave-tiger. These observations have been confirmed by M. Lartet and Mr. Mylne. This place was signalized as a probable locality previous to M. Gosse’s discovery by M. Boucher de Perthes. At Clichy, also, one implement has been found by M. Lartet. Creil.—aA flint-implement (hachette) has been found, under similar cir- cumstances, in a gravel-pit at Précy, near Creil, in the Valley of the Oise (between Amiens and Paris), with a tooth of an elephant. Exhibited to the French Society of Antiquaries, 16th May, 1860, by M. Peigné Dela- court. Fouen.—The Abbé Cochet reports two flint-implements in the museum there, which the curator, M. Pottier, states to have come from the sand- pits of Sotteville in the neighbourhood. This requires confirmation, as Mr. Evans could not find these implements in the museum, and M. Pouchet, the director, was not aware of their existence. Mr. Evans states however the pits at Sotteville to be of ‘precisely the character that renders it probable that flint-implements may be discovered in them.” Clermont.—In a valley leading into that of the Ariége, there is a de- posit of gravel underlying brick-earth, at 540 feet above sea-level and 33 feet above the stream which now waters the valley. In this gravel, mixed with bones of EHlephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Felis spelea, Cervus megaceros, Equus, and Bos, have been found manufactured ‘ pieces _of quartzite.” Dr. Noulet says, ‘‘ One of them is 4 inches in length, 23 inches wide, and its greatest thickness 1 inch. It has been formed into shape by chipping it on only one of its faces. The second is much more important ; both its faces have been modified to bring it to the shape it now pre- sents. The side and point, which is truncated, present a bevelled edge; but the base, which is cut obliquely, has evidently been polished even with care. This is also about 4 inches long, 22 inches wide, and 13 inch thick.’’* Mr. Evans passes a comment on this statement. ‘If it be,’ he says, * See also an account of a very curious discovery, somewhat of the same nature, in M. Lartet’s ‘ Researches respecting the Co-existence of Man with the Great Fossil Mam- malia,’ in the Ann. des Sciences Naturelles, 4th ser., tom. xv. 276 THE GEOLOGIST. ‘really the case that this is in part polished, and that this polish is not due to the natural fracture, it is certainly a singular fact in connection with the implements of the Drift period, which have hitherto always been not ground. Dr. Noulet, however, has paid some attention to this class of antiquities, as he draws a distinction, on account of their rude workman- ship, between these implements and the haches gawloises ow celtiques.... Beside the chipped implements, round pebbles also occurred, which are considered by Dr. Noulet to have been used as hammers; and, though the account he gives of the whole discovery is not to my mind quite con- clusive, it appears to be a proper case for further inquiry.” Swalecliffe (1. of Sheppey).—At the end of Stud Hill Cliffs, near the Swalecliffe Coast-guard Station, Mr. Evans picked up a flint-implement of . the oval-pointed form, stained by ochreous colours, from having lain in the gravel; and in the Drift capping the highest point of the cliff, close to the farm-house at Stud Hill, a portion of tooth of Hlephas primigenius. Peasemarsh, Surrey.—One implement found by Mr. R. Whitbourn, F.S.A., of Godalming, twenty-five years ago, in a gravel-pit. “It was embedded in gravel, in a layer of sand about 4 or 5 feet from the surface, in apparently undisturbed ground.’ Mr. Whitbourne adds, ‘‘I have heard of remains of large animals having been discovered in the same beds, but not in very close proximity to the spot where it was found.” The gravel-beds of this district have been examined and described by Mr. Godwin-Austen, in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 278, in which communication he states that remains of Hlephas primigenius are fre- quently found in this gravel, and that at Peasemarsh there are traces of an old land-surface, with branches of trees and the bones of these animals uninjured and lying together. Hlorton Kirby, Kent.—An implement of the round-pointed form was found (November, 1861) on the surface of the ground at the top of the hill, on the east side of the River Darent, about a mile E.S.E. of Horton Kirby, by Mr. Whitaker, of the Geological Survey. The remainder of this valuable paper is chiefly devoted to extended illustrations of Mr. Evans’s original classification of these implements into, 1, flakes; 2, weapons with an acute or rounded point; 3, oval or almond-shaped implements, with a cutting edge all round. A plate of twenty examples, drawn to a scale of one-half linear, is given, and will be very useful to students and inquirers in conveying a correct idea of the sorts and kinds of these objects. Plates of the flint-implements from the Valley of the Ouse, Swalecliffe, and Reculvers—one of the latter formed from a large Tertiary flint-pebble—are also given. Memoir of Geological Survey. Decade X. Preliminary Essay upon the Systematic Arrangement of the Fishes of the Devonian Epoch. By Professor Huxley. A most valnable contribution this to paleontological science. From the endeavour to determine the systematic position of Glyptolemus in first de- scribing it im Dr. Anderson's ‘‘ Dura Den,” Professor Huxley has been led to the reconsideration of the classification of the fishes of the Devonian epoch, and eventually to make important modifications of the received arrangement of the Ganoidei. We give a brief summary of the Professor’s views. m Glyptolemus is regarded as a tolerably typical member of a large and Well-defined family of Ganoids which abounded in the Devonian epoch, but whose members have been less and less numerous in more modern REVIEWS. Die formations, until at present its sole representative is the African Poly- pterus. The genus which approaches it most closely is the Gyroptychius of M‘Coy. Glyptopomus is another closely-allied genus, as is evidenced by the structure of its skull. The angles of the scales of Gyroptychius are apt to become rounded off so as to present a transition from the rhomboid to the eyeloid contour. It isthen the less surprising to find fishes with eycloid scales so similar in their organization to Glyptolemus, Gyropty- chius, and Glyptopomus as imperatively to demand a place near them in any natural-arrangement. The description of Holoptychius, compared with that of Gly ptolemus, will show their essential alliance, but the scales are inform and sculpture widely different. Platygnathus is closely allied to Holoptychius. Glyptolepis, with its remarkably ornamented scales, is closely allied to Holoptychius. These six genera, then, possess characters in common, and constitute a family of Ganoids, the GuypropIPTERINI, and which may be subdivided into a rhombiferous group, containing Glytolemus, Glyptopomus, and Gyroptychius, with diphycereal tails; and a cycliferous group, containing Holoptychius, Platygnathus, and Glypto- lepis. 'The family of SavRopIPTERINI, distinct from, although allied to the Glyptodipterini, comprises not only the genera Osteolepis, Diplopterus, and Triplopterus (?), but also, Professor Huxley believes, the Mega- lichthys of the Coal. The Saurodipterini and Glyptodipterini being sepa- rated from other paleeozoic fishes as well-defined but closely-allied families, the author goes on to consider what others can be ranged with them, or, in other words, what are the limits and what the importance of the larger group formed by the association of these families. The Crenopopr- PTERINI, a family just established by Pander for the reception of Dipterus and its immediate allies, must, he considers, take its place in close juxta- position to the Saurodipterini and Glyptodipterini, seeing that it possesses all those structural peculiarities which are common to those two families ; but the former differ in the smoothness of their scales and other points, but chiefly in the peculiar form of the lower jaw, which much resembles that of a Coelacanth, and in their dentition. In the next place, the true Ca@.acantuini have ano less well-definéd right to occupy a similar position, but the Professor restricts the group to Cawlacanthus, Undina, and Ma- cropoma. ‘The type species of Celacanthus, that on which the genus was founded by Agassiz, is the C. granulatus of the Magnresian Limestone, which in all the great features of its organization is similar to Undina; so that, contrariwise, any fish which differs in essentials very widely from Undina can be no Celacanthus. As the case stands, then, there is no evidence of the supposed distinction between Celacanthus and Undina ; while, on the other hand, a recent comparison of well-preserved speci- mens of Undina and Macropoma has led to the conviction that these two genera are not much less closely allied. All the structural characters which are among the peculiarities of Undina are equally well marked in Macropoma, except that the teeth are more distinct and cylindrical. But further than this, as Dr. Mantell originally suspected and as Professor Williamson has since demonstrated, Macropoma exhibits the peculiarity, seemingly without a parallel among fishes of other families, of having the walls of its air-bladder ossified. Now Professor Huxley finds good evi- dence of the existence of a similarly ossified air-bladder, not only in Undina, but in a well-preserved specimen of a new genus of Ccelacanth* from the Lias, in the Museum of Practical Geology. Thus it appears to be certain that fishes closely allied to Celacanthus granulatus, forming a well-defined family, have ranged in time, with remarkably little change, * Holophagus Gulo, described in this Decade by Sir P. Egerton. 278 THE GEOLOGIST. from the Permian formation to the Chalk inclusive ; their special affinities being chiefly with the Ctenododipterini, the scales, the arrangement of the teeth, and the form of the lower jaw presenting many curious analogies. The Glyptodipterine family contains, as we have seen, both eycliferous and rhombiferous genera; and following out the alliances of the former sub-family, the cycliferous Ctenododipterini and Ccelacanthini have been included in the same larger or sub-ordinal group with the Glyptodipterini. On the other hand, tracing out the congeners of the rhombiferous sub-families, we have arrived at the Saurodipterini; and the question then remains, what other rhombiferous Ganoids naturally arrange themselves at this end of the series? So far as the Professor is aware, there is no other fossil rhombiferous Ganoid which comes within the scope of the sum of characters common to the Seurodipterini, Glyptodipterini, Ctenododipterini, and Ceelacanthini; but among recent fossils there is one, the Polypterus, which very nearly approaches the required standard, and is unquestionably allied to the Saurodipterini. These results are then put in a tabular form thus :-— Order GANOIDEI. Sub-orders— I. AMIADZ. Il. LreprpostTEipz. III. Crossoprerycip#. Fam. 1. PoLyprTERini. Dorsal fin very long, multifid; scales rhomboidal. Ex. Polypterus. Fam. 2. SAURODIPTERINI. Dorsal fins two; scales rhomboidal, smooth; fins sub- acutely lobate. Ex. Diplopterus, Osteolepis, Megalichthys. Fam. 3. GLYPTODIPTERINI. Dorsal fins two; scales rhomboidal or cycloidal, sculptured ; pectoral fins acutely lobate ; dentition dendrodont. SusB-Faminty A, with rhomboidal scales. Ex. Glyptolemus, Glyptopomus, Gyroptychius. Sus-Famity B, with cycloidal scales. Ex. Holoptychius, Glyptolepis, Platygnathus [| Rhizodus, Dendrodus, Cricodus, Lam- nodus |. Fam. 4. CTENODIPTERINI. Dorsal fins two; scales cycloidal; pectorals and ventrals acutely lobate; dentition etenodont. Ex. Dipterus [ Ceratodus ? Tristichopterus ?] Fam. 5. PHANEROPLEURINI. Dorsal fin single, very long, not subdivided, supported by many interspimous bones; scales thin, cycloidal; teeth conical ; ventral fins very long, acutely lobate. Kx. Phaneropleuron. Fam. 6. Ca@LacaNTHINI. Dorsal fins two, each supported by a single interspinous bone; scales cycloidal; paired fins obtusely lobate ; air- bladder ossified. Ex. Celacanthus, Undina, Macropoma. IV. CHonprostreip%. V. ACANTHODID®. REVIEWS. 279 Tn this table it will be seen that Professor Huxley adds the suborder (III.) CrossopTERYGIDE (xpocowrtds mrepvé, ‘ fringed fin’’) to those pro- posed by Agassiz to comprise the existing Polypterus and all those extinct ganoids which fall within the following definition :— “Dorsal fins two, or, if single, multifid or very long; the pectoral, and usually the veutral, fins lobate ; no branchiostegal rays, but two principal, with sometimes lateral and median jugular plates, situated between the rami of the mandible ; caudal fin diphycercal or heterocercal; scales cycloid or rhomboid, smooth or sculptured.” The fifth family also has been added by the Professor for that singular genus Phaneropleuron, described and figured in this decade. Of the group of Crossopterygide, as thus established, four families are not only paleozoic, but are some wholly and all chiefly confined to rocks of the Devonian age,—an epoch in which no fish of the sub-orders Amiade or Lepidosteide is known to make its appearance, unless Cheirolepis be one of the latter. Rapidly diminishing in number, the Crossoptery gide seem to have had several representatives in the Carboni- ferous age; but after this period, unless Ceratodus be a Ctenododipterine, they are continued high in the Mesozoic age only as a thin though conti- nuous line of Celacanthini, and terminate at the present day in the two or three known species of the genus Polypterus, which however is clearly related to the rhombiferous Crossopterygians, or to exactly that group of whose existence we have no knowledge in any Mesozoic or Tertiary formation; while the Ctenododipterini and Celacanthini, which differ most widely from Polypterus, are those which continue the line of the Crossopterygide from the Paleozoic to the end of the Mesozoic period. Both ends of the Crossopterygian series appear thus to be isolated from the modern representatives of the suborder: Polypterus being separated from those members of its suborder with which it has the closest zoological relations by a prodigious gulf of time, and from the fossil allies which are nearest to it in time by deficient zoological affinity. Professor Huxley offers the following diagram in illustration of his meaning :— PaLZOZOIC. Ctenodipterini, Phaneropleurint, Glyptodipterini, Saurodipterint. Coelacanthint. iy | y MEsozo!c. Celacanthini. TERTIARY. WY RECENT. Yo Polypterini.~ Here it is obvious, that in time the Polypterini are twice as remote from their immediate zoological affines, the Saurodipterini and Glyptodipterini, _as they are from their more distant connections, the Ccelacanthini. Pro- fessor Huxley calls attention to the many and singular relations subsisting between that wonderful and apparently isolated fish, Lepidosiren, sole member of its order, and the cycloid Glyptodipterine, Ctenododipterine, 280 THE GEOLOGIST. Phaneropleurine, and Ccelacanth Crossopterygide, and he leaves the bearing of these unquestionable facts upon the great problems of ZOO- logical theory to be developed by every one for himself. The craniofacial bones which Professor Huxley recognizes in the Devonian fishes are the Supraoccipital, Frontal, Ethmoid, Epiotic, Parietal, Squamosal, Post- frontal, Prefrontal, Supratemporal, Postorbital, Suborbital, Maxilla, Pre- maxilla, Hyomandibular, Os quadratum, Suprascapula, Operculum, Sub- operculum, Jugular, Spiracular Ossicles, and Supratemporal Ossicles. Plates are given, executed in the first style of art by Mr. Joseph Dinkel, of Glyptolemus Kinnaird, Phaneropleuron Anderson, which are described by Professor Huxley. Sir P. Egerton figures Tristichopterus alatus, Acanthodes Peachii, Acanthodes coriaceus, A. Mitchell, Climatius scutiger, Diplacanthus gracilis, and Cheiracanthus latus. The importance of this communication on the paleontological history of fishes must be manifest to all of our readers, and we hope that a Table, exhibiting the classification of Devonian fishes, showing the genera ranging throughout the different beds, and thus exhibiting at one view both the classificatory and geological aspects of the question, may be speedily given by the learned professor, whose work we have read with so much pleasure and instruction. Revue de Géologie pour 1 Année 1860. By MM. Delesse and Laugel. We cannot better explain the object and scope of this work than by uoting a portion of the preface. The authors say :—“ Every day geology extends its empire ; in all civilized countries and their colonies, even in the most remote, facts are collected with ardour which may serve to ex- plain the history of the earth. It is characteristic of modern science, and this observation is especially applicable to the natural sciences, not to pro- gress simply by the efforts of some few men of genius, but likewise to re- ceive constant impulse by the co-operation of a crowd of observers, some- times as obscure as they are devoted. . . . Without a spirit in favour of any particular system, withont preconceived opinions, we shall endeavour to present every year an impartial, faithful, and concise account of the geo- logical labours undertaken in every country. We ought to restrict our- selves within sufficiently narrow limits. If our work presents any omis- sion, we beg that it may not be imputed to any wish of our own; if it contains any inaccuracies, we shall feel obliged by being informed of them. We shall receive with gratitude all communications that may enable us to improve a work, of which we do not wish to conceal from ourselves either the difficulties or imperfection.” The well-known industry and ability of the authors should lead us to expect that this endeavour would be carried out in a satisfactory manner, and we may say with confidence that this Review for 1860 will be of great service to the students of geology. It must how- ever be borne in mind that the authors have chiefly devoted their atten- tion to what has been done out of France, especially in England and Ger- many; and that they do not pretend to give an account of the geological memoirs which appear in the widely circulated French publications. THE GEOLOGIST. AUGUST 1862. M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE EVIDENCE OF THE FLINT- IMPLEMENTS IN RESPECT TO THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN. Ir is extraordinary how many people have an obliquity in their mental vision. Some mentally never see straight at all, but look at everything askew. These are harmless people; you know them at once, and pity their defects, just as you do a person with a downright squint. But those who have a slight cast in the eye are the most dangerous; you are not aware they occasionally squint; you do not perceive, perhaps after even a close scrutiny, that there is anything amiss with their vision at all. So it is with the mental cast; you do not observe it, as a general rule, for it is only now and then it shows itself. 7 When the Antiquity of Man was first proclaimed from the dis- covery of the Abbeville flints by Boucher de Perthes, no one believed it. Hverybody thought him lke the mad man who swore all the world was mad; and so it seemed, then, as if all the world had mental obliquity of vision, which made them declare our savant of Abbeville to be labouring under a delusion. When, however, Rigollet, Prestwich, Flower, Lyell, Evans, and others of the goodly company of geologists,—as unbelieving, however, as so many St. Thomases,— went, saw, and returned believing, the fame of Boucher de Perthes’ discoveries gained ground. Some there were who hardened them- selves in their unbelief, and hazarded wild theories of ocean-waves chipping out artificial forms, and of recent objects sinking down in VOL. V. 20 282 THE GEOLOGIST. the ground, and burying themselves, and other equally untenable notions, but these waxed fewer and fewer, not by dying out, but by becoming converts to the novel truths. Others there were who enthusiastically grasped at everything that came in their way, and attempted to send back half the antiquities of the historic period to the Gravel age. These still exist, and if their labours be a little rash, they are not altogether useless. If they make a great many mistakes, they now and then drop on a new fact, and ¢ha¢ covers a multitude of failures. Others there are, and these are the best of all, saving the real workers for science, who lose no chance of collecting any- thing they think may afford useful knowledge. The people, so com- mon at one time, with the dreadful mental squint about the flint implements of the gravel age are now, as we have said, few and far between, but there are still some possessed of the dangerous slight cast of mental obliquity, if we mistake not-—that 1s, if the obliquity does not lie with ourselves. Of course we do not think it can, nobody ever does. Our worthy contemporary the ‘ Parthenon,’ who says, or rather prints a great many good things, has lately printed a translation, from the French ‘ Comptes-Rendus,’ of a paper by M. Sci- pion Gras, who brings up a question we really had thought completely settled. We knew our best men had gone to see; we knew they had come back testifying to the facts. But now M. Gras comes forward with an article “ On the Insufficiency of the Arguments drawn from the Position of the Worked Flints of St. Acheul to show the Exist- ence of Man during the Quaternary Period.” There is mental obli- quity somewhere, that is certain; we fear it rests with M. Gras, for he says he went to St. Acheul, “ desirous of enlightening his doubts” as to the conclusions drawn from the position of the flint axes there. Of course we saw the notice of M. Gras’ paper in the ‘ Comptes- Rendus,’ where it appeared a short time before our contemporary printed the translation ; we think also we saw it noticed in ‘ Cosmos,’ but we thought it best to let it alone. We saw no good in stirring up uselessly a vexed question, by a reference to a paper, the argu- ments in which were either founded on erroneous bases or altogether futile. As, however, our respected contemporary has brought the paper before English readers, who otherwise perhaps would never have heard at all of it, we cannot let M. Gras’ opinions pass without comment. M. Gras shall, however, have fair play at our hands. We will give the translation intact before our comments. He begins :— ‘There are found at St. Acheul and in its neighbourhood (leaving out of question the more elevated plateaux) two diluvial deposits which appear M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 283 to be quite distinct. The more ancient one, immediately overlying the chalk, is essentially composed of light yellowish or brown flints, for the most part rolled, disseminated through a whitish-grey calcareous sand. The relative proportion of the sand and flints varies; sometimes veins of almost pure sand alternate with flints, orcoverthem. It 1s not uncommon to find in the sand freshwater shells, almost intact, in spite of their fragi- lity,—a fact which indicates a siow process of accumulation. Ferruginous infiltrations from above have often stained the naturally clear colour of this deposit. This diluvium has a very unequal thickness, owing to the numerous erosions which it has undergone. It shows itself at St. Acheul at a height of from thirty to forty métres above the Somme; at the sand-pits of Moutiers, at the western extremity of Amiens, it descends all at once to the bottom of the valley ; finally, at Menchecourt, a suburb of Abbeville, it passes beneath the turf-beds. It results from this, that before the deposit of this transported bed, the Somme had already hollowed out its channel in the bosom of the chalk, which is seen rising right and left to a great height. The valley was even then deeper than it is now; it appears to have been entirely filled up at the time of the arrival of the rolled flints. The second diluvial bed in the neighbourhood of St. Acheul. is an argillaceous-sandy stratum of a dark brown, of which the thickness is usually from a métre and a half to three métres ; it is almost everywhere dug for brickmaking. It shows usually at its base a thinnish layer of angular flints disseminated through a brown earth, rather more sandy than the rest of the mass. This argillaceous-sandy diluvium extends crosswise at once over the lower clear grey diluvium and over the chalk; it presents all the signs of complete independence. Its deposition probably coincided with the second excavation of the valley ; it is observed, in fact, at different levels corresponding with those at which the Somme has successively flowed before withdrawing itself to its present bed.” In this account there are three topies which call forth observations. 1. There are (at least) two diluvial deposits.—There is nothing new in this. Mr. Prestwich, one of the most inquiring and eapable investi- gators of the subject, and one of the strongest believers in: the correct- ness of Boucher de Perthes’ assignment of the chipped flint-imple- ments to the Gravel age, has. already shown, that there is a “ high- level gravel” and a low-level or “ valley-gravel;’’ and in his papers before the Royal Society has shown, also, why there are these depo- sits, what are their relations to each other, the probable physical and meteorological conditions under which they were deposited, and their bearings in respect to the evidence of the flint-implements as a proof of the antiquity of man. 2. That it is not uncommon to find in the sand freshwater shells, almost intact, in spite of their fragility. —There is nothing extraordinary in this. The wonder would be if we did not find them. Mr. Prestwich has shown how much ice-action had to do with the bringing down, during the early spring floods, of the flints, rock-boulders, and other heavy materials,—probably often also the bones of animals; and if these heavier substances were frozen 284 THE GEOLOGIST. into the ice-floes, masses of fine gravel, sand, and earth, enclosing fra- gile shells, would also be brought down in the same way. Moreover the gravel deposits would chiefly be formed during the period of spring floods caused by the melting of the ice; and consequently during the summer there would be a period during which mollusca might live under the influence of the quieter river actions, which ac- tions would naturally intercalate beds and streaks of sand and clay with freshwater shells amongst the coarser gravels. 3. That the Valley of the Somme was even then deeper than wt is now ; and appears to have been filled up at the time of the arrival of the rolled flints.— All this has nothing to do with the question of man’s antiquity at all; besides there is no proof given by M. Gras. What he states as to the various deposits and their conditions go for nothing in this re- spect; they simply do not bear upon the point at all. It matters not whether the valley was hollowed out, whether it was filled up or not, before the “ rolled flints’’ were brought in, so long as the gravel deposit containing the flint-implements can be proved to be of geo- logical age—that is the point; and M. Gras, if we do not misunderstand him, admits the flint-implement-bearing beds are covered by other diluvial or alluvial deposits—a sufficient admission of their antiquity. As to a previous complete excavation of a valley before any depo- sits collected in it, such a notion in the main would be a very falla- cious one, tor the scouring action of water and rainfalls is as great beneath a deposit as it is over its surface. Rains wash away visibly the fine soil on the surface, but the water that filters through also washes away invisibly the fine disintegrated surface of the rock on which the deposit lies; so the whole mass of deposits gradually— slowly but surely—sinks into a greater and greater subterranean valley as age follows age. But to return to M. Gras—for he himself admits the position that the flint-implement gravel was covered over, in the following pas- 7re*— sage ‘ “ By the help of these details a clear idea may be formed of the position of the worked flints ; they are found in the lower grey diluvium at variable depths, and often considerably below the surface of the soil. An attentive examination of the flinty mass which encloses them yields no re-arrange- ment of materials. Moreover, everywhere above these flints there is a thickness of two or three métres of diluvium of the latest date, of a brown colour. This itself appears to be perfectly intact, and sharply separated from the grey diluvium; which excludes the possibility of the introduc- tion of foreign objects vertically through the argillaceous-sandy earth.” But here follows what certainly shows either M. Gras’ obliquity of M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 285 mental vision, or our own. If we err, however, fortunately we shall be in goodly company, for we shali be on the side of Prestwich, Ri- gollet, Lyell, Evans, and those many others who hold the like opi- nions with ourselves upon the subjects M. Gras attacks. Let M. Gras, however, speak his own arguments :— “These different circumstances, in appearance so conclusive, are not however irreconcilable with the idea of diggings having been made, at a certain epoch, in the soil. Before demonstrating this, | must dwell upon some important facts. The first is, the integrity and perfect preservation of the axes; they look as if just come from the hands of the workman. It has been inferred (the inference was unavoidable) that they were buried on the spot, or brought from very near localities. A second fact, not less remarkable, is the truly astonishing multitude of these axes. The number of them found at St. Acheul, in the compass of about a hectare (two acres), has been estimated at more than three thousand. The rich collec- tion of M. Boucher de Perthes alone contains more than a thousand. M. Albert Gaudry, who has caused diggings to be made, has seen nine of them disinterred, one after another, in close succession. The fact of the multitude of worked flints, joined to the entireness of their edges, shows clearly that there was formerly a considerable manufacture of these objects on the spot. If we adopt the hypothesis of those who would place this manufacture beyond historic times, it must needs be admitted that there existed on the banks of the ancient valley of the Somme a people of the quaternary epoch occupied in cutting axes by thousands. As evidently it could not use them all, it must doubtless have supplied them to other qua- ternary races of the neighbouring countries. But if this were so, why has this industrial population of the ancient world left no other trace of its existence except these rudely-fashioned flints? Why, above all, do we not find human remains in the diluvium? Their absence is the more astonishing, as it is not uncommon to find there the remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, and other animals. If men, so civilized as to occupy them- selves with commerce, lived on the banks of the Somme at the commence- ment of the quaternary period, they must have constructed habitations there, and these would be seen now in the mass of diluvium which at a later period filled up the valley ; they would even be perfectly preserved in it. Now this deposit has never presented the least vestige of a habita- tion, nor even of other products of human industry, excepting flint objects. Another consideration strengthens all these grounds of doubt; worked flints, similar to those which are claimed as diluvian, have been found in such a position, that it has been necessary to attribute to them a modern origin. M. Yoillez, an archeologist and engineer of Mons, possesses a collection of four hundred axes, which for the most part are rough, and do not differ sensibly from those of St. Acheul; nevertheless, they have all been collected at the surface of the soil. Is it admissible to suppose that products so similar were manufactured, the one set at the commencement of the quaternary period, the other during the now existing period, seeing that an immense interval of time separates the two epochs? ” Here again we select the points of attack:—1. The perfect pre- servation of the axes —* They look as if they had just come from the hands of the workmen.” Say “some look,” and then we shall reply, 286 THE GEOLOGIST. Quite right, M. Gras; some do look as if they had just come from the hands of the workmen. Assuredly they do—and very naturally too, seeing they have in reality just come from the hands of the workmen. We have seen abundance of forgeries, both from the val- ley of the Somme and from Yorkshire. There are indeed plenty of forgeries. Nevertheless there are some real ; these however are com- paratively few. No one ought to mistake the real geological flint- implements from the forgeries. No one who is used to break flints but ought to tell readily whether a flint was broken with an zon in- strument or not. A modern hammer will not crack or flake a flint in the same way that a stone will. Try it, reader, and see for your- self. Setting aside forgeries, there is even then no reason why the flint- implements should not be in good preservation. If first frozen into a mass of ice, then transported enveloped in, and protected by that iee-casing, then dropped on the floor of the wide-spread river-flood by the melting of the ice, then covered over perchance by the soft materials of the summer stream, or left on the verdant marshy tract during the interval between the periodical floods, what was there to weather or otherwise injure so hard a substance as flint? Nothing that we know of. Moreover, the truth is, that as far as our experi- ence goes—and we have seen more than a few of the fossil flint-im- plements—they are by no means all always so wonderfully perfect. Some are decidedly worn—even as much so as the gravel in which they are found. 2. The astonishing muliitude of these aves.—Surely, no one thinks one man made the lot, or that they were all made at once. Geologists always ery out for “plenty of time.” They ask for plenty of time—a whole geological age—for the formation of the gravel deposits. So therefore the primitive men kad a whole age to chip fiints in. The very quantity of elephant and other bones found in the gravel-beds shows nature did take an age to form them, unless we suppose a super- natural increase and growth of living beasts, followed by an equally su- pernatural and wholesale destruction. But in reality, how common are the true worked flints ? We have seen one only from all the great gravel-beds round and under London, and miles of them have lately been cut through for the sewer-works. We have seen, may be, half a dozen from Suffolk, a like number from Bedford, two or three from Kent, and less than a dozen more from all parts of England. As to the Yorkshire specimens, we must know more about them, and where they © M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 287 come from, before we can say much about them. Isuppose, however, whether ancient or modern, not more than a hundred exist from that, the largest county in England and numbering as many acres as there are words in the Bible. M. Gras says, however, that in the rich collection of M. Boucher de Perthes, there are more than a thou- sand; that M. Toillez, of Mons, possesses four hundred; and that at St. Acheul the number fownd in the compass of a hectare (two acres) has been estimated at more than 8000! Now, does M. Gras mean that at St. Acheul two acres of gravel have been excavated for flint- implements ? or does he mean that in proportion to the quantity of gravel actually excavated there, an estimate has been made of the probable number of 3000 as existing in two acres of gravel? How many feet thick? There’s a rub. Two acres, 30 feet thick, would contain some millions of tons of gravel, this proportion of flint-im- plements to the number and quantity of unworked flints and pebbles in which would be very small indeed. Take the total of 3000 in another way, and suppose each man of a tribe numbering a hundred males to make or lose one new weapon every two years, from the age of twenty to the age of forty, after which period of lifetime we will suppose every man to be either useless, superannuated, or killed in battle or by wild beasts in the chase. Then it would only take three generations of this little tribe to make or lose the quan- tity M. Gras thinks so enormous. Really there is nothing wonderful in this total after all. When we come to look into it, we only wonder it is not more. 3. That the worked flints were manufactured on the spot.—Many might have been; certainly not all. We have already disposed of the assertion of the universal preservation of their perfect sharp edges. The sharp edge of a newly-broken flint will cut your fingers—try it; we have never seen the edges of a flint axe or even a fossil flint flake that would. Some, we have said, were probably ice-borne down the annual floods. If Mr. Prestwich be right in his supposition of their being ice-chisels, in some localities where the primitive men had fishing- stations many might be dropped through the holes they were used in breaking out. As to the commercial aspect which M. Gras sug- gests, it would neither make for nor militate against the antiquity of man. We are sorry to say, hewever, that we have not so high an opinion of the intellectual capacities of these our primitive ancestors —if our ancestors they really were, and perhaps they were not—as 288 THE GEOLOGIST. to believe them capable of commercial enterprises at all. Moreover, the traffic in flint weapons presupposes the means of international communication; we doubt very much if the flint-implement men, who could do no more than chip stones,—who did not know even how to grind them,—had any means for this. The Veddahs of one tribe at this hour do not know the Veddahs of another tribe, their next neighbours; less than fifty miles of mere territory part them. For our own part, we think so poorly of the flimt-implement men as to be scarcely inclined to feel any more pride in a pedigree from them than from the much-abused and hirsute Gorilla. 4. Why has this industrial population of the ancient world left no other trace of its existence? Why, above all, do we not find human remains ?—How many skeletons of all the known species of fossil monkeys all over the globe have been exhumed from their stony tombs? Are there a hundred fragments in all the collections of all the museums and naturalists in every region and part of the earth? And have we found every kind of fossil monkey yet? No sane man will assert it. Human teeth have been found in Pleistocene strata as old as the gravel-beds; negative evidence we have seen too often to mean nothing, to trust it in a question like this. Human remains have been found with bones of the mammoth, and fossil deer and bear, although these are ignored. Those as yet found we admit may not be the remains of the flint-implement-making men. “ Wait pa- tiently, they will yet be found.’ But will M. Gras declare that there are not in the gravel-beds of the Somme seams of brittle lignite ; and will he venture to assert that-these may not be the charred remains of huts? Take another view. The beast, when he sickens to die, goes to some retired spot and leaves his inanimate carcass on the soil. There it may become embedded, or the floods may lift and strand it on some shallow bank. Nature buries it or moulders it, and returns it dust to dust in her own way. When a man dies, the case is different. The cow weeps not for the death of the bull, the lion sheds no tears for the loss of the lioness, the hippopotamus scrapes no hole in the earth to bury its lifeless mate, the gorilla lights no fire to burn to ashes the mother of its progeny. The lowest of human beings must have had human passions and human feelings. The primitive wife, little sensible as we can but conceive of anything like fine sensations, would, de- graded as ever we could possibly conceive her, naturally weep for the loss of her husband; and though no priest performed a marriage M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 289 ceremony, in such relationship notwithstanding ever stood the union of human beings. The man would mourn for the loss of his help- mate. Death to human beings would always have had a different aspect to what death has to the beast. In the human heart there would be the innate desire to lay the lifeless corpse or its ashes where its resting-place could be visited. If the flint-implement men were human, such must have been, even in the first of this pristine race, the feelings which death would evoke; and if such the feelings, burials or burnings must have disposed of the mass of that primitive race. If burials, we must look elsewhere than to the débris of floods or the alluvia of river-beds for human bones. We may search for a later but still early race near where the great monoliths and the gigantic stones of so-called Druids’ temples exhibit their weather-beaten forms; but if cremation were practised, then for all traces of the flint-implement makers, other than their works, we must trust to chance alone. The massive bones of the great beasts could not escape the eye; the teeth and skulls of smaller animals would at once attract atten- tion; but what notice would a few fragments of calcined bones amongst the débris and broken fragments obtain ? What explorer of caves, what digger in gravel-pits, has searched over the heaps of bone-bits always thrown aside as waste? In this respect we have followed the common way ; but we are not without suspicion that more than once we have missed our chance. 5. That worked flints, similar to those claimed as diluvial, have been Sound in such a position that it has been necessary to attribute to them a modern origin.—No instances are stated by M. Gras; we cannot, therefore, refute any cases to which he alludes by statements of the facts. Besides which, if such specimens exist under such circum- stances, they may be forgeries; or they may be relics—and this is not at all unlikely—preserved by more modern tribes. We know that the savage races of the present day do sometimes treasure the weapons of their ancestors ; and there are many other ways in which such occurrences may be explained when the actual circumstances are given. 6. That M. Toillez’ axes have been collected at the surface of the soil.—This is put as a “poser” by M. Gras; but strong as he thinks it, it goes down at once before a simple question. It is slaughtered by a breath. Do we not find ordinary gravel-flints in myriads on the surface of the soil? Can you go through any field, VOL. V. 2 P 290 THE GEOLOGIST. over any downs, across any chalk country, and not pick up, if you please, tons upon tons or cart-load upon cart-load? If one sort, why not the other? Is the proportion of flint-implements to unworked stones likely to be less in the disintegrated gravel-bed strewn over the soil than in the solid untouched stratum lying intact in the earth? And if not, are we less likely to find flint-implements on the surface of the soil than in the gravel-beds beneath it? We are sure we need not reply to these questions—our readers will have answered for themselves. 7. Is it admissible to suppose that products so similar were manu- factured, the one set at the commencement of the quaternary period, the other during the now existing period, seeing that an immense inter- wal of time separates the two epochs ?-—Supposing the facts to be true, —but the facts are not stated by M. Gras, as already observed,—it might be so, if it be admissible to believe that small tribes or scat- tered individuals of a nation or race of mankind could live on after the destruction or distribution of the great bulk or mass of the nation orrace. Just as some modern uncivilized tribes are presumed to be the descendants of once numerous and powerful peoples. Just as British and Celtic articles may be met with in Saxon and Roman graves; just as medieval relics are still treasured in our houses, so may we always expect to find some relics of more ancient races amongst the relics of the more modern ones. The case put however by M. Gras is a presumption, and it is futile to fill our pages with suppositions in reply to suppositions. We go on therefore to M. Gras’ final summary :— “To all these difficulties one single fact only can be opposed, that, namely, of the absence of all apparent disturbance in the diluvium; but this fact is not a peremptory reason, for it may be explained in a plausible manner. “Let us refer the manufacture of axes, which everything proves to have formerly been carried on in the valley of the Somme, to the origin of his- toric times. It is certain that the men occupied in this employment were not obliged to go very far to procure the first material that was necessary for them. By digging in the soil to a moderate depth, they found a great choice of flints ready to be cut. This was probably even the reason why this kind of industry sprang up in the country. The digging of flints might take place in two ways, by pits or by galleries. The first means was the most costly, since it was necessary to pass through the brown argillaceous- sandy diluvium before arriving at the flints, and because the removal of the rubbish must take place vertically. The digging by horizontal galleries opened on the side of the valley, taking advantage of the steep banks, was evidently preferable. The excavation of these ancient galleries is so far from being unlikely, that even at the present day such are still made for the extraction of gravel. I have seen one at St. Acheul, and I M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 291 measured its dimensions approximately: it was six métres in length by one métre ninety centimétres in height, and two métres in breadth. This gallery supported itself well without props. It may be admitted that in former times the excavations were less in breadth and height, which would render them yet more solid. « The flints freshly extracted, and not deprived of their quarry-moisture, are much easier to work than those of which the drying has proceeded to some length. Itis probable, consequently, that the ancient miners roughly formed in the interior of the galleries the axes destined to be polished. After this first labour a selection was doubtless made; the least shapely ieces, considered improper for sale, were rejected and left on the spot. hen, after a length of time, the galleries, which had served at once as shops for mining and for rough-hewing, had crumbled down, the chipped flints left on the floor were enveloped on all sides by the soil from whence they had been extracted. Supposing that the subsidence of the galleries was propagated up to the surface, the upper sand of argillaceous diluvium must have sunk a little, parallel to itself, without becoming mixed in any way with the grey flinty diluvium. If this was the real course of events, it is certain that at the end of some time all trace of disturbance must have been completely effaced. This explanation agrees well with the rude form of the flints disinterred—so rude, that it is difficult to understand how they can have been put to use in this state. It is confirmed by another peculiar circumstance, which had been held to be unimportant, but which, nevertheless, has much import. M. Albert Gaudry, who has been cited above, remarked that the nine worked flints discovered in his presence lay nearly all palpably at the same level. Was not this level that of the floor of an ancient gallery ?” This is how M. Gras looks at the question from his own point of view, after,as he presumes, he has demolished his adversaries. After De Perthes, Prestwich, Lyell, Evans, we, of the oblique vision in M. Gras’ opinion, have been out-argued and convicted of erroneous in- terpretations of the facts. Well! so, for the nonce, let us suppose the case. Is M. Gras, then, right in the views he promulgates in this summary? Assuredly not. If we are wrong, according to him, on one side of the barrier of facts, he is wrong on the other. If our geological interpretations do not agree with the evidence of facts, his historical speculations certainly do not. Whatever eyes M. Boucher de Perthes has for looking at gravel- beds,—and being the first to pick out the flint-implements would cause us to give him credit for sharp ones,—we can for a certainty speak of the capabilities of Mr. Prestwich’s organs. We have been over very many miles of gravel and drift deposits with him, over country every lane and turning in which has been familiar to us from infancy ; and we do know, from experience, that if there be anything to be seen, he will see it. For more than twenty years of his life he has been incessantly studying over England and France, as a favourite 292 THE GEOLOGIST. speciality, these very quaternary beds; and if any man’s knowledge or judgment is to be relied upon for an opinion as to the age or nature of such deposits, assuredly it is his. Cautious in the extreme in adventuring conclusions, and fastidiously painstaking in collecting facts and testing the accuracy of his observations, no cooler intellect could discuss and put in intelligible order such intricate conditions as the gravel-beds to the inexperienced present. Those who have read his late masterly communications to the Royal Society will need no comments of ours to satisfy them of the accuracy of the views ex- pressed, and of the ability of their author. But, to reply to M. Gras’ suppositions. Referring the flint-implements to historic times for their origin, M. Gras states:—1. That the makers were not obliged to go very far for their material.—True, they were not obliged, 7f—and the whole summary involves a constant use of the little conjunction —if they did make the implements on the gravel-banks in which they have been embedded. This is by no means certain; but one thing is quite sure, we have ourselves seen—and handled—a veritable fiint- implement from the valley of the Somme, which, although found in the gravel-bed, was undoubtedly and unmistakably,—we were born in a chalk district, and on the sea-coast, so we know well what flints and pebbles are,—made out of a flint nodule taken directly out of the chalk rock. In this case, therefore, the primitive manufacturer went at least to the side of the valley to get material which, according to M. Gras, he had, and quite as good, on the gravel-bank under his feet. If the manufacturer could be supposed to have worn breeches, he might be supposed to have pocketed a fine nodule which he chanced to fall in with on a pleasure-ramble ; but as he cannot be presumed to have so clothed his lower extremities, that presumption is untenable. As arule, we faney that very many of the implements were made of flints directly taken from the Chalk; such flints would be prefer- able, generally, to gravel-flints, although suitable specimens could undoubtedly be collected from the gravel-beds, but not so abundantly as M. Gras infers. That some implements were made of large quaternary flint pebbles, the specimens from Herne Bay are indubi- table evidence. 2. The digging of the flints by means of pits or galleries.—Setting aside the improbability of men digging for what they could find with- out labour on the surface, what, in the name of all mysteries, had those poor primitive savages to dig with? Flint-implements? It M. GRAS’ ATTACK ON THE FLINT-IMPLEMENTS. 293 strikes us forcibly that, with one of those poor pointed tools, a man would soon be tired of the attempt to dig a hole in gravel, much less a gallery. Half a dozen strong men——and this supposes the ancient manufacturer to have kept a staff of workmen, unless he got volun- tary help from his tribe—would make but sorry progress with those pointed flints. Even our stalwart navvies would strike from such work with such tools. But 7#—we must use the httle conjunction agvain—7f the pits and tunnels were dug, were actually made, it is not true to suppose we should have no evidence of their former existence. The gravel would not sink into the excavations and show no differ- ence of structure at those spots which had been hollowed out of the beds; for even such unsorted and heterogeneous deposits as gravel- beds are, they do distinctly show traces of former disturbances. We have clearly traced, by their appearances, disturbances made in gravel-beds by the Romans and Saxons in forming their graves or in digging for foundations of walls or pits; and what is likely to be dis- tinctly apparent after the lapse of a thousand or more years, may be presumed to be at least detectable after the lapse of far longer ages. Moreover, #f this explanation of M. Gras be acceded to, it involves the corresponding necessity of our finding the flint-implements in heaps or in narrow lines,—where the pits and galleries have been,— and not disseminated here and there, as they are, at least most usually, if not invariably. Supposing, as M. Gras does, that the subsidence into the galleries extended to the roof, there would be a furrow left at the surface,im which more recent deposits would accu- mulate, and if there were any sub-superficial coating of brick-earth under the soil, that would bulge downwards in concentric, curved lamin, such as we constantly see exposed in stone-quarries when surface-clays have sunk down into fissures, and as we constantly ob- ae serve in the sand and gravel pipes Stee Gone: es of the Chalk districts,in which too — Fullers’ earth, rolled; 4. Sand and we often find patches of older Ter- gravel, filling up a fissure in 5, Kent- , unity ish rag strata. tiary clays, containing shells that : have been embedded in the overlying quaternary drifts. The accompanying little cut of an exposure of one of these subsi- dences in Mr. Bensted’s quarry, at Maidstone, will show at once how visibly they leave their traces. 7. The rudeness of the implements suggestive of rough hewing for 294 THE GEOLOGIST. an after-finishing for sale.— Rude as they are, and this is one of the points we dwell upon in proof of their antiquity, they were used in the state in which we find them, for otherwise we should find the finished examples elsewhere, which as yet, at any rate, we have done nowhere. We find stone and flint celts, polished and ground; but those, as we long enough ago observed in this journal, were used by the broad flatend. The large fossil f{lint-implements were all worked to a point, and which point, contrary to anything we know of the use of any other stone tool, ancient or modern, was the part used. There is thus, besides the absence of chipping, one positive character at least which separates the fossil implements entirely from any other effort of savage industry. Wiull M. Gras assert he has ever seen a pointed weapon either ground or polished M. Gras further lays great stress on M. Gaudry having found nine worked flints on the same level. We might speak of levels in regularly stratified deposits, what levels are there in a gravel-bed ? Taking it for granted, however, nine were found on one level, is that number so large as to cause surprise? Jf—why may we not indulge in conjunctions ?—if there were a fishing-station on the spot, would nine be a large number to be presumed to be lost during the sojourn of the fishermen there? Or is there not an infinity of incidents which might bring together so trifling a lot? Finally, to close our comments, may we not justly ask M. Gras if the flint implements belong to historic times? Who were the men that used them ?* NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. By W. H. Bensren, Esa. The outcroppings of the Cretaceous strata in the valley of the Medway, the great quarries in the lower beds of the greensand for the much-used Kentish ragstone, the extensive chalk-pits at Burham and other places, the pottery clay-pits and the numerous brickfields, afford excellent facilities for the observation of the geological struc- ture of Maidstone and the surrounding country. By taking the road from Rochester, through Maidstone, to Linton, the outcrops of the Chalk and its subordinate beds are passed over in succession across their line of strike. * The letters from Mr. Peacock, Mr. Evans, and Mr. Blake, in last week’s ‘ Parthe- non,’ Which has been published since our remarks were in type, show that we have by no means exhausted, even in our extended article, the refutations which can be given to M. Gras’ opinions. PLATE XVI. ‘INEM ‘HNOLSGIVN LY (INOLS-DVU HSILNGM) AUUVAD NOGONVNADSI ‘JOP “S'DO'A ‘ompovyl ‘C'S BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. The chalk hills are covered, at various places, with a red, tenacious (Post-Tertiary or Diluvial) clay, in which great quantities of flint nodules are buried. At the “ Upper Bell,” on the Rochester road, the chalk hill is 620 feet above sea-level, and from this altitude the spectator’s view ranges over a great ex- tent of beautiful country. In the left bank, a large tabular bed of flint, about two inches thick, crops out. Layers of hard chalk also occur here, con- taining numerous sharp casts of fossils—Trochi, Dentalia, Hamites, Scaphites, small Ammonites, etc. This bed is also met with at Boxley and Dept- ford. It is known to but few collectors, and some perseverance in breaking up pieces of this hard chalk is necessary to obtain specimens of its fossils.* In a field at Boxley Hull, I found an Echinus in a lump of the chalk which had been strewed over the land, in the interior of which were minute shells, apparently of a species of Arca(?), that had probably gained access to the empty dead shell, as the Echinide do not swallow entire shells, but gnaw dead fishes and such-like objects with their teeth. The Spatangide live by swallowing sand and mud, deriving their nutriment from the organic particles they contain. Near here the Lower Chalk makes its appearance, and the great Burham pits, from which Mr. Toulmin Smith ob- tained many of his beautiful specimens of Ventri- culites, are about a mile off, in a westerly direction. These pits are famous for the very numerous fos- sils of high interest which they have produced. At Halling, too, on the opposite side of the Medway, considerable quantities of chalk are dug for burn- ing; the lime made from the chalk of these places being considered of very superior quality. It is known commercial lyas ‘“‘ greystone lime.” In 1839 I discovered the femur of a turtle in a pit at Halling, and also an abdominal plate at Bur- ham. These were the first remains of turtles dis- covered in the Kentish chalk. But a few years later I had the good fortune to find a most perfect specimen. ‘This unique fossil I presented to Dr. Mantell, and it is now in the British Museum. It was figured and described by him in the ‘ Phi- losophical Transactions,’ pl. 2, for 1841, and sub- * This seems to be the bed of ‘chalk-rock” referred to by Mr. Whitaker in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xvii. p. 170. —Ep. Grou. 295 gs Sand. with flints; 2. Lower Chalk; 8. Firestone, or Upper Greensand ; 4, Gault ; gstone; 7. Atherford Clay; 8. Weald Clay; 9. Hastin Fig. 1.—Srcrion From BiuE Brett Hitt tro CrowzBoroven. 5. Redsand; 6. Kentish Ra a. Tertiary Red Clay ; 4 4, Drift Clay ; 1. Upper Chalk, 296 THE GEOLOGIST. sequently by Professor Owen, in the volume of the Paleontographical Society’s publications for 1851. The chalk was dissected away, so as to admit of the removal of a great portion of the dorsal shell, and thus some of the vertebre, four plates of the plastron, and a coracoid bone were brought to view. Since the discovery of the Chelonia Benstedii, Mrs. Smith, of Tunbridge Wells, has procured from the same pit a series of marginal and ster- nal plates of a turtle of very large size. These specimens have been admirably cleared from the chalk, and now form a part of her most inter- esting and valuable collection. In 1847, another fossil turtle was found in an adjoining pit in the Lower Chalk. It corre- sponded in size and number of plates with, in- deed it was almost a facsimile of, the original Chelonia Benstedw. Perhaps the most interesting fossils found in this locality, were some long, slender, cylindrical bones, which Professor Owen considered, in the JAA first instance (1840), if they were the remains of —ZZy a bird at all, as being more allied to the Alba- — tross than to any other. The bones there no- ticed are the portion of a humerus nine inches long, with one extremity nearly entire, but the other broken completely off. The uncertainty expressed by Professor Owen was afterwards cleared up by the discoverv, by Dr. Bowerbank, of the head and teeth of a new species of Pterodactyle, described by him in the Geological Society’s Journal, 1845, when he assigned these bones, from their microscopic structure, to that extraordinary class of flying reptiles. The fine specimen of Dolichosaurus, described in the Palzontolo- gical Society’s Volume for 1851, was discovered here by Mrs. Smith, of Tunbridge Wells, in 1830. A similar fossil (probably part even of the same specimen) was obtained from this same locality by Sir Philip Egerton, in 1840, and was briefly described by Professor Owen as the remains of a lizard, consisting of a series of small vertebree in their natural position. The vertebre are united by ball-and- socket jomts, and they are proved to belong to the Saurian class of reptiles by the presence of many long slender ribs, and by the conver- sion of two vertebre into asacrum. Portions of an ischium and a pubes are connected with the left side of the sacrum, and demonstrate that the reptile had hinder extremities. These typical parts are referred to particularly, as the specimen otherwise has certainly more the ap- pearance of a serpent than a lizard. Serpents have long, slender ribs, and therefore the saurian character depends alone on the assumed Sacrum, as the extremities are wanting. In December, 1842, Professor Owen described a fossil paddle which Fig.2.—femur of Trionyx from Halling Chalk Pit. BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 297 was exhibited at the Geological Society’s meeting, as that of a marine saurian, the phalangial digits not being articulated by convex and coneave surfaces, as in the terrestrial group, but by plane faces. These were roughened, indicating ligamentous connection. Professor Owen then mentioned also the occurrence of vertebree of a large Plesiosaurus in this chalk; the late Mr. Dixon, of Worthing, haying had three or four in juxtaposition, which are now in the British Museum. He considered the specimen belonging to Mrs. Smith, of Tunbridge Wells, as probably referable to that genus. It also pre- sented considerable resemblance to another extinct genus, the Plio- saurus, but the bones were thicker and not so expanded at their extremities. There was also another large saurian of the Cretaceous epoch, the Mosasaurus ; but although fine remains of its teeth and jaws had been discovered many years ago, no extremities had ever been found. If the teeth of the Mosasaurus should be found in the locality where Mrs. Smith’s specimen was got, he thought it might indicate that the paddle above referred to belonged to that genus. The Firestone is very little developed in this neighbourhood. The only traces I have seen are thin beds, a few inches only in thickness, at Snodland, near the church. Between there and Burham Church, a bar of rock runs across the river; it is never dry, and its obstruction causes a considerable fall when the tide is low. The best section of the Gault is at a place called the Varnes, on the banks of the Medway, near New Hythe. At low-water the lowest beds are to be seen. ‘The bank is about fifty feet above low-water. Slips are frequently occurring from the effects of the weather, and the current of the river washing away the softer parts, when fossils may be found in abundance. Thence the gault may be traced to Folkestone on the one side, and into Sussex on the other, forming a valley at the foot of the chalk-downs. Its usual colour is light blue when dry, but of a very dark blue when wet. Some veins of red ochreous clay marked with Fuci (/. Targonit) occur frequently. The gault forms a stiff soil, locally known as “black land,” and its outcrop generally appears as a marshy tract. From its tenacity and its dipping under the chalk-strata, through the cracks and fissures of which the water finds its way, it forms a subterranean reservoir from the junction or lip of which the springs burst out. I would here say a few words on the spring-heads of the Maidstone, district. “These are nearly all si- = ----~. tuated in circular cavities in the ge ee BS Lower Chalk, where it projects —~~ = over the Gault, and an interesting phenomenon is observable in the ~ retrogression of the spring-head into the chalk by its erosive action. If we suppose the waters originally burst out at the foot of the hill Zi ae B, fragments of chalk would be Fig. 3.—Spring-head. carried away at that point, and as the sides grew higher the rim of VOL. V. y) Q = LEA ae 298 THE GEOLOGIST. the hole would expand upon the surface, and thus a rounded cavity would be formed, at the bottom of which the spring is now seen to issue (at A). The water of these chalk springs is highly charged with calcareous matter, obtained in flowing through the chalk fissures, and this is precipitated on the fragments of sticks, roots, and leaves, which fall into the streams. At Boxley Abbcy very fine specimens of calcareous tufa may be procured, as may be also incrustations of fir-cones, etc., by placing them in the water near the spring-head. A spring of water at Cosington, bursting from the Lower Chalk, deposits a coating upon the stones in its course of a bright crimson, which at one time was considered to proceed from an impregnation of iron-pyrites, but has now been determined to be of vegetable origin. The fossils of the Gault most common are Ammonites, Hamites, and Inocerami. At the Varnes great quantities of round nodular masses are found. On breaking these stones a nucleus with concentric waving lines is seen; they take a polish without difficulty. These nodules, so rich in phosphate of lime, have been conjectured to be coprolitic, but my opinion has long been that they are originally of zoophytic or spongeous origin, and that the presence of the phos- phate is attributable to deposition from the water of the Cretaceous sea, aS portions of ammonites and inocerami are found to contain equally considerable quantities of phosphate. We now come to the Lower Greensand.—The White or Bearsted sand lies immediately under the Gault, upon the red ferruginous sands. It is limited in extent, occurring only at certain places and in different states of purity, White Heath, near Hollingbourne, af- fording a very superior kind. I never heard of any fossils being found in it. The next deposit is the ferruginous sand, with layers of ironstone. These beds rise rather abruptly’ from beneath the Gault at Box- Wii ® ley and Sandling, at an angle or dip of 20 degrees. Sections z of these beds may be seen at the sides of most roads which i lead to the Gault, where the Fig. 4.—a a, horizontal layer of ferruginous sand has been cut through in sandstone ; b b, ete., layers in a false strati- many places. The most com- fication Feu mon fossils in these beds are casts of zoophytes or sponges, generally of a cylindrical shape. Some appear allied to Siphonia, having a bulbous head, the sand being loose or non-segregated in the interior. A few marine shells may be de- tected by close inspection, chiefly Terebratule. Trigonia aleformis occurs ina bank of this sand near Thornhills. In Sandling Wood about twenty feet of the sand is exposed, in which the ramification of a marine plant is seen to great advantage. In places rings of ironstone, circular and oblong, give an appearance of wavy lines, but by a little examination it may be seen that these lines are sections BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 299 of bundles of tubes growing together; this is proved at another part by the exposure of longitudinal portions of the tubes running together nearly horizontally for a distance of four or five feet. By a turn of the bank the ends may be seen, presenting the connections of each pipe at the side. V. In some situations at Bearsteda fine clean white and 12> nearly pure silicious sand is found, occupying a divi- “¥ sion of the red sand adjoining the gault. The white p,, 5 _ Tans. beds are sometimes not seen near the surface, but ap- pateeecan pear to be below the red sand. Veins of red sand of ironstone eross the beds of white sand in various ways. pipes. The great development of the Kentish ragstone in the Maidstone district is a most important feature. It is found at various depths from the surface, and in detached beds of different magnitudes; the first in descending order rising from under the red ferruginous sands just mentioned. The beds then become broken and separated by valleys and faults; the latter filled up with gravel, red sand, rolled masses of yellow “fullers’ earth,’ and red clay (brick-earth). The masses of stone extend across to the escarpment of the lower beds above the valley of the Wealden—a distance from Sandling to Lin- ton of about five miles. The ragstone at Barming Heath Hill has a thickness of eighty feet, and the whole series is passed through by a well sunk near the Lunatic Asylum. The valley of the Medway is bounded on each side by this rag- stone from Mill Hall to within a mile of Yalding, where the es- carpment is separated by the opening in which the drainage-waters of the Weald flow out. Besides this great valley, which runs trans- versely to the escarpment, there are two others which separate it la- terally, each giving rise to springs which fall into the Medway. A third vale or gorge has its course between the Loose Vale and the Medway. It runs from near the edge of the escarpment over the Wealden beds at Coxheath, in nearly a direct line to Tovil. This erack has very steep sides, and the ragstone is close to the surface. No water however flows in this channel, and it has all the characters of a chalk-wold. Its course is nearly parallel to the Medway. The first of these lateral valleys begins in a meadow near Lang- ley Heath, where a slight and gradual depression of the surface indi- cates the beginning of a great crack or fissure at right angles to the Medway valley. This gradually deepens until near Langley Church, where a small spring breaks out and runs on close to Boughton quarries, before reaching which however a fissure receives the water, and the stream is lost to view for some distance ; but, as several issues of water flow out below in the same valley, there is little doubt that they come from the original source. Continuing onwards, they run into the Medway at Tovil. The fall is very considerable, as in the distance of two and a half miles ten mills are supplied with power.* _ * This is a very valuable hint for roughly obtaining the level of a district —Ep. GEOL. 300 THE GEOLOGIST. The course of the second valley is nearly parallel with the first ; the spring-head is a short distance from Chislet Park. Several smaller streams, having their origin in the Lower Chalk, fall mto this valley after running over the gault and passing through channels formed by divisions or cracks in the ragstone beds. At Maidstone the stream mingles with the Medway. These two cracks or valleys in the ragstone are situated on the east side of the Medway ; the west has no such breakage of the strata into vales, but by its compactness turns the course of the river from south-east to north-west, which latter direction it takes on passing the town of Maidstone. The land is of considerable elevation on the west bank of the river, and the ragstone is found in larger beds; in some situations very near the surface. As a general rule it may be laid down that, in this district, the faults run parallel with the larger crack or valley, as is the case in all the quarries in the vicinity of Maidstone. The dipping of the strata is not always greatest according to the proximity to the line of disturbance; and but little variation is found from the horizontal position in the higher and more compact beds, although the abundance of vertical cracks and fissures testify to the great disturbances they have been subjected to at different periods of time. The Kentish Ragstone series consists of limestones, with alternating beds of soft sandstone, called “ Hassock” by the workmen. In some parts beds of dark flint or chert are substituted for the limestone. The average thickness of the layers is about 12 inches, and the stone is of various degrees of hardness and compactness, the lowest being the most fossiliferous, and having moreover characteristic dis- tinctions from the upper in colour, texture, and fossil remains. In some layers the distinctions are difficult of detection, but these ob- servations apply to the ragstone within five miles of Maidstone, and as far only as my own experience goes. The analysis made for Professor Phillips’s “ Observations on the Kentish Ragstone”’ gives the following proportions :— Carbonate of Lime, with a little Magnesia...... 92°6 Harthiy: wiat ter: ses os Sock aerate ee 6°5 Oxide Of Tron tai seck ota ek cer See ee ee 3) Carbonaceousomalter’..<... ccs.) 6 ee ee LS 100°0 It may be interesting here to describe my own quarry in these much valued stone-beds, and which is known now as the “ Iguanodon Quarry,” from the discovery in it of the gigantic remains of that enormous reptile. It is the largest in Kent, and produces stone of very excellent quality. The number of layers of building- and road- stone is 21, alternating with beds of hassock, and the vertical depth worked is 75 feet. The strata here have no dip, although they are traversed by numerous vertical cracks and fissures. A bed PLATE XVII. SIPHONIA BENSTEDII (Lower Greensand). [In the Collection of W. Bensted, Esq.] CORRESPONDENCE, 301 of Drift clay covers these stone-beds, and fills up the interstices of their openings, so that the land-surface shows no indication, by inequa- lities, of any of these faults or fissures. The distance from the Med- Fig. 6. a, Drift clay filling up fissures in Ragstone beds, ¢ ¢; 4, Bed of the Medway. way is about a quarter of a mile, and the floor of the quarry is about 160 feet above the level of that river; the land gradually sloping towards it. (To be continued.) CORRESPONDENCE. Professor King’s Synoptical Table. Dear S1r,—No doubt there is much that is incorrect in my “ Synoptical Table,’ which you have done me the honour to insert in your valuable periodical (Vol. V. pp. 193-7); but unfortunately, your correspondent ““W. W.,” who charges it with “many imperfections,” and who fancies that he has pointed out certain of its errors in his letter, published in your last number, seems to have entirely overlooked the qualifications and spirit necessary for such a task. The three instances which ‘ W. W.” parades as ‘striking mistakes,” I may be pardoned for saying are nothing of the kind, but simply inten- tional omissions. Any one referring to the Table itself will see that I purposely avoided, as much as possible, giving the subdivisions of the ** Formations.”’ I merely inserted what appeared to me to be the most characteristic ‘‘ Types” of the different Formations, ‘ Marine,” or “ Fresh- water ;”’ believing that such were sufficient for students in general. I shall be most happy to avail myself of any suggestions or corrections offered through the medium of your pages; but I regret I cannot adopt the Hocene classification, given by ““W. W.” As will presently be seen, “ it is not as useful as might be to a student in the south-east of England ;” nor is it in accordance with the views of one of the highest authorities in Tertiary Geology. The classification of the Eocene ‘‘ Formation,” as given in my Table, is fully borne out by the following remarks, extracted from the new edition of Jukes’s admirable Manual :—“ Sir C. Lyell, however, in his Supplement, thinks that it would be more convenient to retain a nomenclature common on the Continent, and to class the Hempstead series, and its contempora- neous beds as Lower Miocene, making the beds from the Barton Clay to the Bembridge series inclusive Upper Eocene, and taking the Bracklesham and Lower Bagshot beds only as Middle Kocene’’’—(pp. 651-2). Further, the latest investigations, such as may “be said to be up to the present time,” are all strongly confirmatory of the view maintained by many geo- logists, that the Hempstead beds are of the ‘‘ Lower Miocene” age, and not Hocene.—(See Abstract of Heer’s paper, and of another by Sandberger, in the same number of the ‘ Geologist ’ containing the letter of ““W. W.” !) I entertain a strong suspicion that even the Bembridge Marls, etc., are Miocene. 302 THE GEOLOGIST. True, the “‘ Upper and Lower Bagshot Beds are not noticed” in my Table ; for the simple reason, that they cannot be regarded as good “ Ma- rine Types,” like the Barton and Bracklesham Clays: one contains only a few vegetable (Terrestrial) remains; and the other rarely any fossils, ex- cept in one place, where, however, they are “in too friable a condition to bear transport or examination.” (See Jukes’s Manual, Ist ed. pp. 527 and 531; also Phillips’s Manual, p. 387.) ee In placing certain ‘“‘marine and fresh-water types” on “the same line,” the object was to show that they may be approximately “ of the same age.” When “ W. W.” takes on himself again “To spy into abuses, and shape faults That are not,” or to “point out” the “many other mistakes” which he fancies I have committed, I would feel obliged by his showing the relation between the Lower Green Sand and the Atherfield Clay. At the friendly suggestion of the Editor of the ‘ Geologist,’ I have mserted, in a new edition of the Table, now printing as a separate sheet, the Lower Green Sand, placing it at the bottom of the Cretaceous System. Permit me to embrace the present opportunity of making a few cor- rections before closing this letter. The name Rhyncopora im my Table (proposed for a genus or sub-genus, typified by De Verneuil’s Terebratula Geinitziana, the peculiar characters of which were described in my ‘‘ Notes on Permian Fossils,” published in the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for April, 1856) should have been spelled Rhynchopora. “ So- merset Teleosaurus Upper Lias,” suggested by my friend Mr. C. Moore, of Bath, was by some mistake placed in the Jurassic instead of the Lias- sic System. In my paper “ On the Origin of Species,” contained in the last number of the ‘Geologist,’ a slight mistake has occurred. The first line of the sixth paragraph ought to have been—“ There is no difficulty in referring fo instances, ’ ete. I am, dear Sir, yours very faithfully, Witiiam Kina. Belmont, near Galway, July 4, 1862. Tertiary Mammalian Remains at Dulwich. Str,—It may be interesting to your readers to know that I have lately found a front tooth (incisor or small canine) of a mammalian animal from the Woolwich Beds, near Dulwich, exposed some time since by the works for the southern high-level sewer. Mr. Rickman has found some bones he calls mammalian, but there is a doubt as to their being such. : Yours, etc., ae A. Bort. 5, Hanover Terrace, Peckham, 11th July, 1862. Sicilian Bone-Caves. . os : ; : _ Str,—I hasten to give that explanation of the error or rather confusion r « > y 7 2 Bd a My 2 7 s in my Table which Dr. Falconer, as the original describer of the Grotta di Maceagnone, has a right to demand. CORRESPONDENCE. 3803 The column marked ‘ Maccagnone”’ should have been headed ‘ Mac- eagnone and San Ciro,” and the species inserted therein are those derived from both localities. The Felis, Ursus, Hyena, Bos, Hippopotamus, and Cervus have been hitherto not referred to their species by Dr. Falconer. To obviate further mistake, I append a list of the species derived from both bone-caves, as stated in Dr. Falconer’s paper (Quarterly Journal, Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. 1860, p. 99 e¢ seq.) :-— San Ciro Cave, Maccagnone Cave, Two miles from Palermo. A mile west of Carini, near Palermo. Felis, a large species. Felis, “as large as F. speleea, but not yet , specifically determined.” Canis. Ursus. Ursus. Hyena. Cervus. pane two species. Bos. Sus. Elephas antiquus. ELlephas antiquus. le aaa \ two species. Hippopotamus. Bones of Ruminants. The liability in a table of this kind to error is obvious, when the exigencies both of space and time are duly considered. Before the unenviable employment is commenced by me of ‘‘a wholesale manufacture of species,’ I shall wait the further identification of the specimens from the Sicilian bone-caves by Dr. Falconer. Yours truly, CHARLES CARTER BLAKE. Origin of Species. S1r,—In the July number of the ‘Geologist’is a letter from Professor King, of Galway, expressing the opinions to which that high authority has arrived, after years of due thought and consideration, on the probable method of operation of continuously-operating secondary laws, which have produced the species of animals successively or progressively throughout geological time. While paying the highest tribute to the candid manner in which this eminent geologist has treated his subject, I am led to suggest that the meaning of one passage in his admirable paper may be liable to misconstruction. Professor King holds “that an organism, whether it typifies a species, a genus, a family, an order, or a class, is an autotheogen, if it possesses a series of characters which isolate it from other equivalent groups; and that inherent and external forces may modify such organism, ‘“ thereby resulting in geneotheonomous forms.” The limits within which au- aopheogeny can be predicted are, however, left unexplained by Professor ing. : A writer in 1830, reasoning from the philosophical standpoint of the state of knowledge in the time of Cuvier, would have confidently pointed 304 THE GEOLOGIST. to the horse as an “autotheogen.”’ Cuvier says, “If species have gradu- ally changed, traces of these gradual modifications would be discovered ; and between the Palgotherium and the recent species some intermediate forms would be seen; a fact yet undemonstrated. Why have not the bowels of the earth preserved the monuments of so curious a genealogy P”’ ete. ete. (Cuvier, ‘ Discours Préliminaire sur les Révolutions de la Surface du Globe,’ 6th edition, 8vo, Paris, 1830, p. 122.) Here the absence of intermediate organisms, previous to the discovery of Paloplotherium, Anchitherium, and Hipparion, is made the groundwork on which to base a theory of distinct specific origin, or ‘‘autotheogeny.” That, ‘‘on psycho- logical grounds alone, Man must be regarded as isolated from all other organisms” may be conceded. As psychological grounds however are unsafe bases for a zoological classification, and as the extent of man’s isolation is the problem which biologists are attempting to decipher, what- ever position we may assign to man, whether with Owen in a distinct sub- class Archencephala or with Huxley in a family Anthropini of the order Primates, we must at least admit that the anatomical characters of man are not more unlike those of the higher Gyrencephala than the lower Gyrencephala are unlike the Lissencephala or. Lyencephata, i.e. that man is not more unlike the gorilla than the whale is like the rat or the opossum. I therefore would be slow to recognize that Man is an autotheogenous species. I coincide with Professor King’s remarks, that ‘‘ natural selection only holds the rank of a subordinate or ancillary agent,’ but I am far from identifying the “‘ other and higher principles involved ” with the doctrine of direct creation of animals through a fiat from a Primary Cause, even though such a fiat might operate through ‘‘a principle inherent in animated nature.” Such phenomena as unity of plan, parthenogenesis, and succes- sive development are far more probably accounted for on secondary laws alone. ‘‘ He must be a half-hearted philosopher who, having watched the gigantic strides of the biological sciences during the past twenty years, doubts that science wiil sooner or later make this further step, so as to become possessed of the law of evolution of organic forms—of the unvarying order of that great chain of causes and effects of which all organic forms, ancient and modern, are the links.” * In Professor King’s ethnological remarks, no mention is made of the probabilities of a derivative origin of the lower races of man, as indicated by their physiological affinities to the higher apes. I commend the following extract from Dr. Biichner’s ‘ Kraft und Stoff’ (8vo, Frankf. p. 75, 1858) to Professor King’s consideration:— ‘‘An unbroken series of the most varied and multifarious transitions and analogies unites the whole animal kingdom together, from its lowest to its highest unit. Even man, who in his spiritual pride thinks himself raised igh above the whole animal world, is far removed from being an exception to this law. The Ethiopic race unites him by a crowd of the most striking analogies with the animal kingdom in a very unmistakable way. The long arms, the form of the foot, the fleshless calf, the long slender hands, the general lankness, the but slightly protuberant nose, the projecting teeth, the low retreating forehead, the narrow. and posteriorly protuberant head, the short neck, the contracted pelvis, the pendulous belly, the want of beard, the colour of the skin, the disgusting odour, the uncleanliness, the making of grimaces whilst speaking, the clear shrill tone of voice, and the ape-like character of the whole being, are just so many characteristic signs, which in all the corporeal forms and relations of the * Huxley, Address to the Geological Society, Feb. 21, 1862, p. 238. CORRESPONDENCE. 305 negro unmistakably show the most decided approach to the monkey genus.” The same author goes on to say, “ Without doubt, man in his earlier periods approached in his whole character nearer to animals than he does in his present condition; and the oldest excavated human skulls indicate rough, undeveloped, and animal-like forms.” Such conditions as these, agitating and seething in the minds of patient observers and reflective thinkers in France and Germany, are being forced upon the minds of Englishmen. Our best thinkers now refrain from offering any theological or metaphysical explanation of geological facts. I trust that Professor King, whose valuable tables of strata as recently published in the ‘ Geologist’ have had so beneficial an effect on science, may be ultimately led to reject the unphilcsophical theory of ‘‘ autotheo- eny. F The doctrine of ‘‘Geneotheonomy,” or the “ Derivative” hypothesis of animal causation, is now fast converting the minds of all paleontologists. Amongst its supporters can be numbered* Lamarck, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Grant, Matthew, Rafinesque, Haldeman, the author of the ‘ Vestiges of Creation, D’Omalius d’Halloy, Owen, Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Dr. Freke, Herbert Spencer, Naudin, Keyserling, Schauffhausen, Baden Powell, Wallace, Huxley, and Hooker. To these may be now possibly added those of Lyell, Fawcett, Lubbock, Mackie, Salter, Rupert J apa Blake, Biichner, Schvarez, Knox, Burke, Hutton, King, and many others. To accept, in 1862, the doctrine of the origin of species by creative fiat out of inorganic matter, is as unphilosophical as to believe in the theory - of earthquakes given out by the Muyscas of New Granada, that the earth is supported by pillars of guaiacum, on the shoulders of the deity Chibcha- cum, who, being tired, shifts the weight from one shoulder to another ;f or to the Egyptian theory, that the earth, during earthquakes, is tossed from one horn to another of a gigantic cow.{ Such theories are fast dis- appearing in the minds of those who, with Comte, “‘ substitute the study of laws for that of causes, the how for the why.” I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Micro.uEstTEs. Monography of the Geological Survey. Dear Sir,— Will you be kind enough to inform me, through your Maga- zine, if the plates to Monograph I. of the Memoirs of the Geological Sur- vey are issued or likely to be issued soon? The Monograph itself (on Pierygotus) is published without a word of notice as to when the plates are to be published, although they are referred to in the body of the paper. It seems to me there is a great want of energy about the Government Geological Survey in the matter of the publication of their Decades and Monographs. On the covers of the work alluded to it is constantly an- nounced that “ Other Decades are in the press ;” whilst years elapse be- tween the publication of two small Decades. Were the undertaking car- * List from Darwin, ‘Origin of Species,’ 3rd edition, 1861, p. xiii. : ‘ Historical Sketch of the recent Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species.” T Bollaert, ‘ Antiquities and Ethnology of South America.’ ¢ Pouchet, ‘ Pluralité des Races Humaiues.’ VOL. V. QR 306 THE GEOLOGIST. ried out in the spirit of Sir Henry De la Beche’s preface to the first De- cade, paleontologists and naturalists generally would benefit very greatly by a work so remarkable for the beauty and accuracy of its figures and the completeness of its descriptions. T dare say most paleontologists would not object to receive one Decade or Monograph at the least every three months. T am, Sir, your most obedient servant, Rk. LecHMERE Guppy. Port of Spain, Trinidad, 19th June, 1862. GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. Tn a few months—and how soon they will fly away!—the great show of the world’s industry, that daily attracts its tens of thousands of visitors, will have closed for ever, and have become lke many other beautiful things— an item of the oblivious past. As the dulcet sounds of music pass away and are never heard again, although fresh lips or fingers may bring forth other sounds as tender and as sweet, so from our eyes this exquisite vision will pass, and if in future years other and nobler displays shall take its place, this glorious scene will truly be no more. How much material of high interest for the geologist is there! as there is for the naturalist and ethnologist ; as there is for every thinking mind, for every inquiring intel- lect. In these notes it is not our intention to attempt to detail all the geology that may be learnt within those miles of walls, the catalogues show what a volume would be needed for this; nor is it our wish to fill our pages with expatiations on the wonderfulscenery. The work of the navvy and the mechanic, the work of the labourer and builder is the work that endures. We attempt to harvest in the fields of facts which other men have there recorded; facts written down for the present eccasion for their purposes; facts which we wish to gather for our science. We have mineral materials from all parts of the globe. Who has described them, figured them? Plants, trees, woods, animals, skins, bones, gems, and metals con- veying years of information to the student. Surely in these fields we may gather as much as we are able of such goodly seeds of knowledge. First, in walking through the courts, how many noble samples of our nation’s great sources of power and wealth, coal and iron, have we seen? Samples of many or of most of them we may have seen before, for they are of daily use, some or other hourly before us; but when have we seen such samples so instructively placed? Where have we seen them accompanied and illustrated by such instructive plans and sections P We have pondered long ow we should best place these various matters before our readers, and at last we have resolved to gather the good seed wherever we can find it, and to take it as it stands, to gather it as it is, and to store it in our volume for everybody's use. This we must do, or lose it altogether. Our readers may thrash it, grind it, do what they will with it; but unless we bring it in it will perish thriftless in the field where it stands. What we intend to do, then, is to take note of whatever is valuable as we meet it, we shall not attempt more. As we find good facts we shali write them down—ay, in the Exhibition itself—and send them, then and there, direct to our printers. Minerat Resources oF Tasmanta.—The bold greenstone and basaltic mountains of Tasmania, formerly known as Van Diemen’s Land, their GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 307 summits capped for many months in the year with snow, form striking objects from whatever quarter the island is approached. ‘The central part consists of a table-land, averaging 3000 feet above the sea, and on which are seven lakes, in size from 2500 to 50,000 acres, and in the aggregate equal to 112,000 acres of fresh water. These lakes form the sources of many considerable rivers. The undulating country between the lofty table-land and the sea is covered with forests of gigantic trees, extending from the hill-tops down to the water’s edge. The Tasmanian Commissioners speak of the mineral resources of that island as encouraging hopes of great advantages, especially in respect of coal, of which numerous samples are exhibited from various localities,—coal being, indeed, very generally distributed throughout it ; time and the assistance of capitalists being all that is needed for its com- mercial development. The main part of the fuel used in Hobart Town is derived from the mines of New Town, and from the Tasman’s Peninsula; but it is generally believed that better beds exist in other districts. Public attention has been of late much directed to Mount Nicholas. The seam there locally known as the “‘ Kelly Moon seam” breaks out at a height of 500 feet above the Break o’ Day Plains, about nine miles from Falkirk, and can be worked by an adit-level. The coal is highly bituminons, and is said to be well suited for steam, gas, and domestic purposes. The same seam crops out near Fingal, and other places. This coal-bed is believed to extend over an area of fourteen square miles on the north of the Break o’ Day Plains. Samples of bituminous coals are also exhibited from Douglas River and Long Point (6 ft. 10 in. thick), on the east coast; from Mersey River ; from Hamilton, about twenty miles distant, where a very good coal (4 ft. 6 in.) lies 40 feet deep. On the southern side of the island anthracite is abundant, and samples are shown from New Town, Tasman’s Peninsula, Adventure Bay in Bruni Island, and from Three Hut Point in D’Entrecasteaux Channel. The coal at Tasman’s Peninsula has been worked for twenty-five years, and the seam, 3 ft. 6 in. to 4 feet thick, is got at by a shaft 75 feet deep, and within 100 yards of the water’s edge. A new seam has been struck here, said to be of the highest quality. The coal formation of the south side of the island extends round the mouth of the Huon to South-west Cape. The iabours of Mr. Gould, the Government geologist, have of late been almost concentrated on the coal-bearing deposits, and a commission was appointed by the Parliament, in March last, for testing the comparative values of the products of the various localities. The metal collections comprise gold, which exists in various parts, especially in the Fingal district; but not, as far as is yet known, in anything like such richness as has made Australia and California such temptations for adventurers. To stimulate exploration, the Colonial Government has offered a reward of £20.000 for the discovery of a remunerative gold-field. There are abun- dance of quartz-reefs in the Fingal district, more or less auriferous, some of which will probably eventually pay for crushing. Galena and copper-ore have been found in different parts, but not hitherto in any considerable quantity. lIron-ore abounds all over the colony. At Ilfracombe, eight miles from the Tamar, there are immense masses of rich ore which will doubtless prove highly advantageous, in connection with the coal-fields of the east coast. It is said to be nearly identical with the brown hematite of Mittigong,in New South Wales. Count Strzelecki, in his excellent work on New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, draws a comparison between the agricultural capabilities of the two countries, from a considera- tion of the origins of their respective soils: the crystalline rocks, such as 308 THE GEOLOGIST. granite, compared with the sedimentary rocks in New South Wales, being as 3 to 1, while in Tasmania they are as 7 to 1. Of rocks having more than 60 per cent. of lime as compared to rocks with less, the proportion in New South Wales is 4°1 to 1; in Tasmania the case is reversed, the pro- portion 1 to 3. Count Strzelecki attributes this difference to volcanic agencies, which have beenmore prevalent in Tasmania than in the Australian continent. Some specimens of serpentine veined with asbestos, from the Asbestos Hills, show themselves susceptible of a high degree of polish. Black and white marbles from the Florentine Valley and from Chudlegh are shown; and of building stones, specimens from numerous quarries are exhibited by Mr. Calder; there are also some grindstones of large size and fine quality, and some smaller ones said to be eminently suitable for glass- cutting. The beautiful marbles exhibited have hitherto only been used for making lime, but properly polished they will be well suited for internal architectural decorations. ‘Topazes are exhibited from Flinders Island. PreMBROKESHIRE ANTHRACITE.—From Broadmoor Colliery, near Tenby, and Landshipping Colliery, Haverford West (South Wales). Analysis :— Carbon 93. Hydrogen 3:08. Azote 54. Sulphur ‘68. Oxygen 1°67. Ash 1:03. The following is the order of the strata :— BROADMOOR. LANDSHIPPING. — . Argillaceous arenaceous shales with abundant nodules of ironstone. 2. “Bright Vein,” about 4 ft. 6 in. of culm, of a clear bright aspect. 3. “ Dunstone,” or Fire Clay. i. Yellow magnesian sandstone, or lime- 4. Yellow magnesian sandstone, with a stone. few bands of shales. 2. “Rock Vein,” about 3 ft. of good 5. “Rock Vein,” about 2 ft. 6 in. of anthracite. good stone coal. 3. Dunstone (Fire Clay). 6. Dunstone (Fire Clay). 4. Argillaceous and arenaceous rock with 7. Dark argillaceous slate, or slaty earth. nodules of ironstone. 5. “Low Vein,” 1 ft. 8 in. of inferior culm. 6. Fire Clay. 7. Hard siliceous rock with a few argil- Jaceous bands. 8. Argillaceous slate with bands of iron- stone. 9. “Timber Vein,” varying from 7 8. “Fimber Vein,” an anthracite to 10 feet thick.* seam varying from 6 to 8 feet. 10. Fire Clay. 9. Dunstone (Fire Clay). 10. “Little Vein,” J ft. 8 in, of culm. 11. Dunstone (Fire Clay). : 12. Compact argillaceous rock with some bands of iron-ore. 13. Hard siliceous and calcareous rock about 2 feet. 14. “ North Vein,” 1 feet 3 inches to 1 ft. 6 in. of anthracite. There are several small seams of coal below the “Timber Vein,” the largest and most important of which are “‘the Lower Level” (=1 ft. 8 in.) and the Kilgetty (—1 ft. 8 in. to 4 feet), considered the best anthracite. The former is about 70 fathoms below the ‘“‘ Timber Vein,” and the latter * The beds printed in black letter are those of which samples are in the Exhibition. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 309 about 45 fathoms still deeper. The entire basin is about 1500 feet in thickness, with about 20 seams, containing about 28 feet of anthracite coal “stone,” or smokeless fuel, and about 123 beds of ironstone, varying from 1 to 4 inches of argillaceous iron-ore, averaging 30 per cent. of iron. (To be continued.) PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. Gerotocicat Socrety or Lonpvon.—June 18, 1862.—1. ‘‘On the Mode of Formation of some of the River-valleys in the South of Ireland.” By Professor J. B. Jukes. Mr. Jukes’s paper contained a description of the physical structure of that part of the South of Ireland south of the limestone-plain that extends from Dublin to Galway Bay. He showed that the Rivers Shannon, Barrow, Nore, and Suir, after traversing this low ground, escaped to the sea by ravines worn through lofty hills of Old Red Sandstone and Lower Silurian rocks. He also instanced the rivers Blackwater, Lee, and Bandon as each suddenly deserting the low longitudinal valleys through which they had run for many miles, and turning at right angles down ravines of Old Red Sandstone, notwithstanding the fact of the longitudinal valleys being continued with no apparent obstruction to the course of the rivers. He showed the connection of these lateral ravines with the coming of strong brooks from the higher ridges on the north into the iongitudinal valleys, and also that these brooks probably produced the ravines, having first begun to erode them over a surface above the present ridges, and before the formation of the longitudinal valleys. He considered the fact proved, that the present “form of the ground” in the South of Ireland was produced by atmospheric erosion on dry land ; and that the hmestone ground was low because the rock had been dissolved chemically as well as eroded mechanically ; and that its surface had sunk to a lower level than the other rocks, like that of a glacier melting in its bed. He proposed to extend this explanation generally to all dry land. 2. “Experimental Researches on the Granites of [reland.—Part ITT. On the Granites of Donegal.” By the Rev. Professor 8. Haughton. The author described in detail the geographical position, physical struc- ture, geological relations, and the chemical and mineralogical composition of the granite of Donegal, which consists of four minerals—quartz, ortho- clase, oligoclase, and black mica, with perhaps an unknown paste besides. The oligoclase affords evidence of the probable identity of the granite of Donegal with that of Northern Scotland and of Norway. The author also alluded to his success in obtaining a formula for the determination of the proportions of four minerals in a compound rock, from the relative specific gravities of the mass and of its constituents. 3. “On a Stalk-eyed Crustacean from the Coal-measures.” By Pro- fessor T. H. Huxley. This specimen, in an ironstone nodule, is crushed laterally, and exhibits a side view of a Crustacean, similar in all essential respects to Pygocephalus. The chief interest attaching to the specimen lies in the confirmation which it affords of the author’s interpretation of the specimens on which the genus was founded. He draws the attention of collectors to the occurrence of Crustaceans of such high rank in Carboniferous rocks. 310 TOE GEOLOGIST. 4. “On the Premolar Teeth of Diprotodon, and on a New Species of that Genus from Queensland in Australia.” By Professor Huxley. Among a collection of fossil bones from the Darling Down district, in the possession of Dr. Cotton, F.G.8., the author has observed a portion of the right ramus of the lower jaw of Diprotodon, and parts of the right and left upper jaws, with the anterior grinders in place, of distinct individuals. Hence he was enabled to offer some observations on the dentition of the genus, and more particularly upon the characters of the premolars. For the form which he finds distinct from Diprotodon australis he proposes the name of D. minor. 5. “On the Old Red Sandstone of Fifeshire.”” By James Powrie, F.G.S. Having again examined some sections of the Old Red at Whiteness, near. Arbroath, and elsewhere, the author is satisfied of a local unconformity of the Upper on the Lower Old Red, but that no other locality in Forfarshire exhibits this want of conformity; and neither in Fifeshire nor Perthshire does the author find a section distinct enough to exhibit such a break in the series. Mr. Powrie alluded to the yellow sandstone of Dura Den, and observed that though it is unconformable to the red sandstone beneath, yet he believes that it belongs to the Old Red Series. He proceeded to notice the fossil fishes of Dura Den, of which he says there are six well-marked genera (including Glyptolepis) with about seven or eight species. 6. “On some Upper Coal-measures, containing a bed of Limestone, at Catrine, in Ayrshire.” By E. W. Binney, F.R.S. Some red and purple strata near Catrine, underlying the Permian breccia of Ballochmoyle, were referred to in 1856 by the author. He has since revisited the locality, and finds that these strata at Ballochmoyle Braes, Catrine, and Sorn represent a coal-field as high as any in the English series; in fact, similar to those at Ardwick near Manchester, Uffington, Leebotwood near Shrewsbury, Buxtaby near Nuneaton, and Lane End Potteries. Mr. Binney referred to the observations made by Mr. Ralph Moore, and by Geikie and Murchison, and pointed out how far he differs from them. Mr. Moore gives 565 fathoms for the whole series in Ayrshire; the author finds reason to add nearly 300 fathoms of Car- boniferous strata (not productive of coal) to the above estimate. 7. “On the Geological Structure of the Southern Grampians.” By Professor James Nicol. The author stated that in 1844, and in subsequent years, he indicated that the Silurian strata of the South of Scotland are represented in the North by the metamorphosed or so-called primary strata; and he pro- ceeded to point out that the object of the present communication is to ex- amine the relation which the three great formations, Clay-slate, Mica-slate, and Gneiss bear one to the other as regular constituents of the crust of the earth, and especially in certain parts of the Scottish Highlands, as illus- trated by sections observed by himself. These he correlated with what is seen in other parts of the Highlands. Contrasting his published sections with the corresponding ones given by Sir R. I. Murchison and Mr. Geikie, he observes that, though represented as maintaining the identity of the gneiss of the west coast with certain mica- or chlorite-slates, yet he has in former papers, and in his published map, always regarded them as being identical only so far as both belong to the great series of metamorphic formations inferior to the red sandstone and quartzite, but still as distinct formations with peculiar features, and, it may be, of widely different age. 8. “On some Natural Casts of Foot-prints from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight, and of Swanage.” By S. H. Beckles, F.R.S. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCTETIES. oll Some of these natural casts are nearly 35 feet long, indicating not merely the imprints of the toes, but also of the sloping metatarsals. The animal must have been of great size and weight, leaving deep imprints. Little trifid imprints of only 3 inches in length, with a stride of about 13 inches, occurred to the author also in the Isle of Wight. He has found, also, trifids of the usual size in the Wealden of Swanage Bay. Mr. Beckles argued that other Dinosaurians besides the Iguanodou have left these track-marks; and he stated that from the first he has been accustomed to associate them with the various phalangial bones so abundant in the Wealden. 9. “Geological Notes on Zanzibar.” By Richard Thornton, Esq. From the coast to the coast-range (600 to 1300 feet high), the country consists of a series of strata with an easterly dip, namely (from above downwards), coral-limestone, sandstone, yellow shale, and sandstone with plant-remains. The mountain Kilimanjaro is formed chiefly of volcanic rocks. Whiie and altered sandstones, with easterly dip, are met with also in the Massai Plain. 10. “On a Section at Junction-road, Leith.’”” By W. Carruthers, F.L.S. The author stated that in the section of clay, sand, and gravel near Leith, described by Mr. Geikie as part of a raised beach elevated since the period of the Roman occupation, not only have medieval pottery and tobacco-pipes been found in the pottery-bearing deposit described by Mr. Geikie, but a medieval jar has been met with in the sand beneath. The so-called “Roman” pottery was stated by the author to be of medieval age, on the independent authority of Messrs. Birch and Franks, of the British Museum; and he believes that the beds in question are mainly of late and artificial formation; he does not, however, argue from this that there is no evidence of a late upheaval of the central part of Scotland. _ 11. “On the Death of Fishes in the Sea during the Monsoon.” By Sir William Denison, Governor of Madras, etc. Steaming between Mangalore and Cananore, on the west coast of India, the author found that for some time after the south-west monsoon the sea was offensive with dead fish, killed by the great mass of fresh water poured into the sea during the season of the monsoon. Specimens of Elephas Melitensis and Myorus Melitensis, obtained from bone-caves in Malia by Captain Spratt, were exhibited by Dr. H. Fal- coner. Mancuester Gerotocicat Society.— May 27.—Mr. Binney read “ An Account of the Excursion to Todmorden.” On reaching Todmorden, the party proceeded along that beautiful valley to Gauxholme. over sirata belonging to the lower portions of the millstone grit. At the entrance of Dulesgate strong gritstone rock was seen dipping at a considerable angle N.W., and exhibiting shakes and faults. On Pendie Hill, beyond Burnley, and at Timtwisile, near Glossop, are two natural sections which can be pretty well measured, especially the latter, where, between Rhodes Wood Quarry in the valley, and the thick bed of rock at Tintwistle Nar on the hill, are from 700 to 800 feet of strata. The whole of the deposits between the limestone shale and the upper millstone of the Lancashire geologisis (the Brooksbottom Sandstone) may be taken at 1200 feet in thickness. These beds probably attain their greatest developmezt in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. Returning again to the Gauxholme Rock. asmall seam of coal was observed, and at a further distance up the vailey another - bed of a few inches. From the entrance of the valley to the quarry on the right of the rouie (probably at the base of the Brooksbottom series of coals) cannot be here less than 1000 feet. The Haslingden flags are then 312 THE GEOLOGIST. seen, but not of great thickness or good quality. Then the “rough rock,” with the Feather-edge coal, 14 to 16 inches thick, lying imbedded in its upper portion. Above this were the ‘* Foot Coal,” the ‘ Salts,” and the «Spanish Juice” seams. The “Gannister’’ coal was next met, 5 feet 6 inches in thickness, and containing ‘‘ bullions ” in the coal, the same as the Spaw Clough, Town Head, and Carry Heyes Mines of Burnley, with nodules in the black shales of the roof full of Aviculopectens, Goniatites, etc. About ten yards above is a small seam of a few inches, and then comes the “forty yards coal,” twenty inches in thickness, with a fire-clay floor worked for bricks and tiles; further up is another small seam of a few inches, and then the upper or “Old Lawrence” series of flagstones. To. the left of the quarry, the strata are thrown up by a fault of fully a hundred yards, and the Rochdale coal is wrought by a tunnel through it. The Moor was then crossed near the Flag Quarry; the party next passing the fine cliffs of “rough rock” above Portsmouth. In the valley a cutting of the Burnley Railway has exposed an interesting section of some of the Brooksbottom coal measures, showing a small fault; and beyond Messrs. Fielden’s mill some old workings in the Gannister coal, which is there brought up by a fault of 400 to 500 yards cast, were seen. 2. “Communications respecting Safety Lamps.” By Mr. C. Bass, and Messrs. J. Abbott and Co. 3. ‘ Descriptions of Water-Balance Machines used for Winding Coal, Tronstone, etc.,in South Wales.” By J. Evans, Esq., Inspector of Mines for South Wales. : 4. “ Explanation of Model of New Safety Cage for Miners.” By the President. Mr. Farrimond exhibited a specimen of Sternbergia, and a rounded piece of white quartz, found in the centre of the Lower Mountain Mine, Dunkenhalgh Park, near Church. Mr. Binney remarked that these pebbles were once thought to be rare in coal, and in twenty years he had found but two of them; but from Dunkenfield Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Ray had brought a barrowful, and those were now in the Society’s Museum. A valuable collection of fossil fish from South America was presepvted to the Society by Mr. Eddowes Bowman. NOTES AND QUERIES. ANTHRACITE IN Sitvurtan Rocxs.—In the abstract of the lecture “ On Coal” at the Royal Institution, printed in our last number, Mr. Waring- ton Smyth is stated to have discovered anthracite coal at Laxey Mine in the midst of ancient schists, probably Lower Silurian. This is not the first case of the observation of seams of bituminous matter in strata older than the coal-measures. We have long had by us a pamphlet on the occurrence of anthracite in the Silurian strata of Cavan, by Dr. Whitty, of Dublin, who brought that instance under the notice of the British Association and the Dublin Geological Society, in 1854. In that year, Dr. Whitty visited the townland of Kill, a mile west of Kilna- leck, in Cavan. The rock throughout the district he describes as belong- ing to the “Grauwacké Slate formation,’, having an average strike of 57° K.W.E. (true meridian), and a dip at the place in question 80° 8.H. “This,” he says, “is not the true coal-formation, as every geologist knows, yet a bed of soft anthracite or culm occurs here, about four feet in thick- NOTES AND QUERIES. 313 ness, in a dark grey clay-slate, having the same dip-strike as the accom- panying rocks.” The “‘ Grauwacké” of this part of the country consists generally of stone-grey rock, alternating with beds of slate; the thickness of the masses of each kind being very variable, in some cases a few inches only of slate or hard rock, in others from fifty to a hundred feet of either. Some of the hard masses contain pebbles, usually about the size of a pea, but often as much as one or two inches in diameter. Occasionally the rock is massive, and so much altered by metamorphic action, that were it not for the pebbles it might be mistaken for a greenstone. A case similar to this was reported by Professor Harkness to the British Association in 1852, “ at Rattenside, near Greskin, about four miles above the Beatock station on the Caledonian Railway; the anthracite is seen in the Evan Water, and this can be traced E.N.E. to Hartfell, and from thence into Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire.” Of the rock which contains it he says, ‘‘ This slate extends E.N.E. and W.S.W. It is seen at Stobo, in Peeblesshire, and in the summit cutting of the Caledonian Railway, where it shows great thickness. From thence it extends westward through Lanarkshire and the north-east of Dumfriesshire to Cairn Ryan, in Wig- tonshire.” Dr. Whitty thinks, that ‘as those Silurian or Grauwacké rocks of the Pentland Hills and south of Scotland are admitted to be the counterpart of our Grauwacké rocks in the North of Ireland, and are in fact a con- tinuation of the same formation, it is more than probable that the anthra- cite of the county of Cavan is a production of the bed in Scotland, and extends all the way between them, through the counties of Down, Ar- magh, and Monaghan.” A trial pit was sunk by Dr. Whitty at Kell, and a specimen of the anthracite analysed: its composition being carbon 77°64, water 4°35, ash 18°01 (=100°00). ‘It contains no bitumen, and therefore is ill-suited for ordinary domestic purposes, but would answer well for burning lime or bricks and drying malt, when mixed with a small portion of bituminous coal or turf to ignite it. Once made red, it gives out a powerful heat, and continues it a great length of time. It will also be found most efficient for smiths’ work.” It is well worth while to keep these facts before the geological world ; and it should not be forgotten that in the south of Scotland graptolites are very prevalent in the anthracite, or rather in the anthracite shales. FourtHer Notres on Human‘Skutis From Hrarnery Burn Cave, WearpDatt, DurHam; witH A Noticr oF THE RiveER-BED SKELETON From LEtcestER.—lI have been asked to give a few supplementary remarks on the fragmentary human remains from this cave, in addition to those made by Professor Huxley (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 204). The observa- | tions made by him led him to express an opinion that the Weardale re- mains belonged ‘‘ to the same race of rather small and lightly-made men, with prominent superciliary ridges and projecting nasal bones,” as the Muskham, Towyn-y-Capel, Sennen, Borris, and Blackwater skulls. In the spirit of these observations I cordially concur. Particular description of the remains being, however, requisite, I pro- ceed to remark that no perfect skull has hitherto been found in the Heathery Burn Cave. The most perfect, though not the most charac- teristic, 1s the one of which Mr. Mackie has given an excellent drawing (p. 201), and which I shall denominate A. Another skull is only represented by the os frontis and a small part of the parietal, and is far more striking. I name this B for facility of description. The calvarium, or vertex of a skull marked A, is not that of an aged in- dividual. A large part of the frontal suture is persistent. The frontal VOL. V. 28 314 THE GEOLOGIST. region is low, but not markedly retrocedent. An even curve is continued backwards to immediately behind the coronal suture, when the same ‘‘ nost-coronal” depression is visible, as in the Mewslade and East- ham skulls. The points of attachment of the temporal muscle are scarcely visible. The coronal suture is, however, complex at the spot where it crosses the temporal attachments,—a character on which Messrs. Thurnam and Davis have laid stress in British skulls. The parietal tubers are mo- derately prominent. The superciliary ridges are not unduly developed, and the fractured condition of the skull warrants us in affirming that the frontal sinuses were small. As far as measurement can be made, the length from the glabella to the apex of the lambdoidal suture is 7 inches ; the breadth at the parietal tubers, 53 inches; at the coronal suture, 45 inches ; above the orbits, 33 inches. . | Melaphyre tufa. Lomb. Ven. 96 & 2 f Sandstone and slate ae Hyg 97 es 145 = Melaphyre. Hungary. ae Limestone. 146 8 | Porphyry. Tyrol. 98 Hlubocep. H 147 © | Green porphyry. Bohemia. 99 Branik. = G 148 8 | Porphyry. Bohemia, Carinthia. 100 g | Koneprus. sl, & 149 % | Gabbro. Hungary. 101° | Kuhelbad.: Sirs 150 & | Serpentine. 102 a Litten. s NT 151 .€ | Greenstone. 103 6 | Kossow. & i 152 ¢ | Aphanite. Bohemia. 104 1s ea sia ki oo 153 2 Diorite. 105 £2 Vinicaltostommitz (4 154 Diorite. Tyrol. Shy Wahoran, =e Daz | 155 Diorite. Austria, Banat. 106 | Brda. sls 156 ‘| Eclogite. Styria. 107 = | Rokycan. £| 2 Amphibolite. Carinth. Bohemia. 108 -= | Komorau. | ep" Md" | 157 Syenitic porphyr Boh. Ban 109 = | Krusnahora = 158 a +4 Beene iO | Given, fi Cate ie 159 Granitite. Bohemia. 111 Pribram greywacke. 160 Granite. 112 Pribram slate. B te cea it KG - : _¢ Coal or lignite. ae iE Ee } Bohemia. | 162 Pseudovoleanie localities. Boh. 115 & ) Sandstone, slate. Aust. Styr. i Se ee Eransyly. 116 “ ( Limestone. Hungary. ine g ee oe Galicia. 17 2 (Clay-slate. 166 S Slate-clay. Bohemia. 118 © Chloritic slate. 167 & Polishing slate 119 © | Talcose slate. 1630 Cee j Tienes 120 & | Amphibolic slate. hy Genes, ae 121 § | Calcareous mica-slate. Salzburg. | 179 = ae ee AviciBoh Ps Carinth. Hung. | y7] 5 eee : : ¢ oO . aly - =: ee ro ean ee 172 Magnetic iron-ore. | Bohemia. 194, 5 G nee ae 173 Porcelain earth. Austria. 125 : | Granulite. Austr. Boh. Mie Veins and massa 9 tots Bol 126 ‘ | Greisen. Raker 127 & \ Quartzite. ae Il. The Publications of the I. R. Geological Institute.—These are the— 1. ‘Abhandlungen der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt,’ of which three volumes are published, in which are contributions by Prof. A. E. Reuss, Prof. Ch. F. Peters, John Kudernatsch, Prof. F. L. Zekeli, Prof. C. Ritter von Kttingshausen, and Dr. Ch. J. Andrae, in vols. i. and ii. ; vol. iii. forming part of Dr. M. Hornes’ ‘ Fossil Mollusca of the Tertiary Vienna PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCTETIES. Bol Basin.’ It is distributed as a free gift or on terms of exchange to 130 Austrian and 170 foreign institutes or persons. 2. ‘ Jahrbuch der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt,’ of which nine volumes have been issued, containing contributions by members of the Institute and others, on the Geology of Austria, and kindred subjects, and compris- ing also the Proceedings of the Institute at its meetings, and reports of the exploratory excursions. The ‘Jahrbuch’ is distributed like the ‘ Ab- handlungen,’ but on a somewhat more extended scale, to 473 Austrian and 292 foreign institutes or individual persons. Ill. A Collection of Crystals of Salts (M. Hauer), obtained in the chemical laboratory of the Institute. IV. A Collection of Specimens of Fossil Fuel (M. Foetterle), consisting of peat, lignite, brown coal, black coal, and anthracite, of different periods, from modern deposits, through the Miocene and Hocene strata, chalk, and lias, down to the true coal-measures, and from localities in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, Galicia, Hungary, Transylvania, the Military Border, Croatia, and Hsclavonia, and along the Alps, from the Tyrol and Vorarlberg, Salzburg, Upper and Lower Austria, Stiria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Dal- matia. The collection of Specimens of Fossil Fuel was collected by the Im- perial Geological Institute at the request of the Austrian Central Exhibi- tion Committee. Letters were issued to the owners and superintendents of all the mines in the Empire, and the Institute was thus largely supplied with specimens, so that the exhibited collection fairly represents this de- partment of Austrian mineral wealth. The number of tons of coal raised in 1860 in the different provinces, as represented in the list which accompanies the specimens, is— Tons. Bohemia . : 5 ; ; ‘ : ; . 692,840 Moravia and Silesia; ; k 2 ; : - 719,300 Galicia. : : : : : : : 06,000 Hungary and Banat : P : , : . 297,100 Transylvania, Military Border, Croatia, Slavonia . Hy SLOLSO Austria. i: i é : ‘ ; P «vd 21,260 Styria ; : 5 : . ; : - . 112,080 Carinthia . i ; : : ‘ ; : yO aio® Carniola . : ; p : ‘ : - é 7370 Dalmatia . 2 : : : : ‘ : 6500 Total 2,059,120 The total amount statistically registered being about 3°5 millions of tons. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. Corrmswotp Crius.—July 23rd.—The meeting took place at Frocester Station, whence the members proceeded to the famous section of Frocester Hill locally known as the Old Quarr. On arrival there, some labourers, under the direction of Mr. EK. Witchell, cleared away to some extent the rubble which covers the thin ‘‘ammonite-bed.” Frocester Hill affords one of the finest exposures of the Inferior Oolite in the country, and yields to research an abundance of the choicest fossils; so that some of 852 THE GEOLOGIST. the most distinguished Continental savants have visited it for comparison with the foreign Jurassic sections. It comprises the ‘ cynocephala stage” of Dr. Lycett. The party were soon at work on the “ ammonite- bed,” and, after exhuming numerous characteristic specimens, struck off toward Peaked Down to examine the sands, which are of considerable thickness there. Geology and archeology as sister sciences so blend to- gether at certain points, that it is difficult to apportion the peculiar pro- vince of each; our Cotteswoldians, however, came to a halt at Coaley Hill tumulus, which, like a weir across a stream, effectually divided them into two currents of geologists and archeologists—the latter plunging with professional ardour into the cairn and its traditions; a few, we were told, even dexterously wriggled their way into the bosom of the tomb itself; while the geologists, with that gravity which befits students of the ‘‘ exact sciences,’ carefully wended along that line of neutral ground yclept the Upper Lias sands by the many, but which has been stripped of its nationality by some, and associated with the Lower Oolitic group. Their route lay across a thickness of about 200 feet of these pecu- har sands, and brought them by way of Lorigdown and Peaked Down to Dursley, where dinner-hour brought the scattered members together at the Bell Hotel. Some papers of interest were read: 1. By Dr. Lycett, of Scarborough, “ On Ammonites opalinus ;” 2. By Mr. John Jones, “ On the Land and Fluviatile Mollusca of the Gloucester District.” The latter is an elaborate paper, containing the observations of the author during a pe- riod of twenty years, and is of great value to those pursuing that branch of natural history. Duptry GroLoaicaL AND ScrentiIFIc Socirty.—It is with much plea- sure we convey to our readers the agreeable information of the establishment of a Geological Society in the classic neighbourhood of Dudley, where many of the finest organisms of the Silurian rocks have been exhumed. This well-known locality once boasted a valuable collection of fossils, and had also a society which did good work, for a short time, in developing the geological features of the district ; but the museum has long since passed from public view, and the society has become defunct. We observe that the newly established club is not merely a resuscitation of the society once existing, but is cast on a much more comprehensive plan, and will include all that belongs to the natural history and antiquities of the midland coun- ties, but particularly that part which lies within easy access of the old town of Dudley. - The inaugural meeting of the society was held on the 15th of August, under distinguished local patronage ; and a very interesting day must have been spent on the occasion. ‘The party, after a public meeting and luncheon, at which Lord Lyttelton presided, visited the Silurian beds at the well-known Wren’s Nest Hill, and made a rapid survey of the pre- sent limestone workings. After this they had an opportunity of inspecting the ruins of the Castle Hill and the Priory grounds ; and in the evening, through the kindness of the Karl of Dudley, the vast caverns beneath the Castle Hill were brilliantly illuminated. It may be mentioned that a canal runs through these vast subterranean workings, and well-kept paths enable visitors to walk through the caverns with perfect ease. The banks of this canal were lighted up with innumerable candles, as were also the vast arches in various parts of the caverns; and the strange aspect of the boat- men as they plied their rafts along this Stygian pool, and the weird figures of attendants in uncouth garb, who lit up the largest arches and caverns with coloured fires, presented an extraordinary scene. Mr. F. Smith, his lordship’s agent, gave the party a full description of the caverns, and of the mode by which the limestone has been excavated. ; NOTES AND QUERTES. 353 The society already numbers upwards of 200 members, including many well-known scientific men, who have rendered good service to science by their local investigations. We augur well for the new society, if its pro- moters only follow up their successful starting, by doing really practical work. We have no doubt it will soon become a useful institution for the important district over which its operations will extend. NOTES AND QUERIES. A Fossitirfrous Cave at Mrzina.—Another of these interesting storehouses of the relics of the Pleistocene age was brought to light last week through the researches of Captain Spratt, R.N., whose scientific Jabours in connection with the geology of these islands are so well known and appreciated. Vague rumours prevailed some years ago of the existence of a cave of this kind at Meliha, which coming to the ears of the late lamented Sir William Reid, he directed the attention of Lord Ducie and Captain Spratt to the spot, but nothing then could be found. A fossil hippopotamus tooth in the possession of Signor Pace, an Italian gentleman residing here, said to have been obtained from Meliha, led Captain Spratt to institute closer and stricter inquiries, and, while in the Bay of Meliha with his ship a few days ago, he succeeded in finding the remains of a fossiliferous cave at a short distance from the village church. It had been, unfortunately, almost destroyed to make way for a road, and the rubble used to fill up the interstices of a wall; but sufficient remains of hippopotamus bones and teeth were dug up to indicate its having been of a similar character to the Meilach cave near Crendi, regarding which we lately published some interesting particulars from the pen of Dr. Leith Adams, of the 22nd Regiment.— Malta Times, July 17. Human Rematns.—In June, 1747, the body of a woman was found six feet deep in a peat-moor in the isle of Axholm, in Lincolnshire. The an- tique sandals on her feet afforded evidence of her having been been buried there for many ages. Can any of our readers give information as to what has become of these relics, and whether any other very ancient human remains have been found in the district ? In a turbary on the estate of the Earl of Moira, in Ireland, many years ago, a human body was dug up a foot deep in gravel, covered with eleven feet of moss; the body was completely clothed, and the garments seemed, it is said, to be all made of hair. It would be highly desirable to get in- formation respecting such finds, especially whether they have been pre- served in any collection. Deer 1n Enctanp.—Mr. Richard Howse, in the committee’s address, p- 190, Trans. Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club, vol. v., p. iti. (1862), ¢.e. from the paper read in 1861, makes the following statement :—‘ On a recent visit to Newcastle, Professor Owen stated that the former was the first and only proof he had seen of the occurrence of the Moose in the fos- siliferous deposits of England.” As the word Moose alone here might lead to a natural mistake, we think it right to observe that we believe the specimens referred to belonged to the Elk or Moose (Cervus alces, Linn.). hey do not belong to the Wapiti (Cervus canadensis). i) VOL. V. Z, B54 REVIEWS. The Laws which regulate the Deposition of Lead Ore in Veins, illustrated by the Examination of the Geological Structure of the Mining Dis- tricts of Alston Moor. By W. Wallace. London: Edw. Stanford, 1861. Tt is some time since we received the handsome book produced by Mr. Wallace on the mineral district of Alston Moor, and in the interim many periodicals have passed eulogiums on it, which it well deserves. The volume in our hands has not however been laid aside, but in truth it in- volved careful reading, and that involved time—an article not always plenti- fully at our disposal. It has been thus only from time to time that we have fairly read and examined Mr. Wallace’s labours, and our meed of praise, therefore, is not the less valuable from its being tardy. Even now other urgent demands upon our space restrict our notice to the shortest limits ; but at a season when mining and mineral products are displayed so prominently before the world, and men interested in commercial pursuits are congregated in London from all parts of the world, it is only right and just to bring this excellent literary production under their notice. The opportunity, therefore, is seasonable. We are informed the book has already had a good sale, and we hcpe our remarks may cause an additional incoming to the exchequer of the author, who must have been at a con- siderable expense to have so profusely illustrated his work with the clearest and finest chromo-lithograph sections, plans, and maps. To collect, arrange, and harmonize the experience of many generations on any subject is indeed an arduous and difficult task, and it has been well remarked that it is peculiarly so with everything relating to metallic veins and metalliferous deposits. In the first place, the information required is too often either wanting or defective, and the ideas of miners, commercial and scientific men all vary, in many degrees, according to the point of view from which the aspect is taken. Large profits may be derived from a poor mine when the price of metal is high, and rich mines may not pay when prices in the metal market are low. Large profits might accrue from lead- ore scattered in the sides of a soft vein, while a far greater amount of metal would not cover the expense of extraction from a hard one; and all these classes of circumstances naturally affect the views of those who are practically engaged in mining and tinge the opinions they offer. Fortu- nately for us, this debatable ground is not our territory. From the geolo- gical standpoint in the present case, we look to that more interesting topic, how the mineral veins were produced, how they exist in the strata of the earth’s crust, and those other natural phenomena they present, which lead to a knowledge of their past history and their present conditions. Mr. Wallace begins his book at the right end. He gives us first six chapters on the formation and geological structure of the mining districts of Alston Moor, in which he treats of the laws which have regulated the deposition of the mountain limestone in Great Britain, the elevation of the rocks of Alston Moor to the position they now occupy, and the laws which have regulated the denudation of the country, the laws of the formation and direction of veins, and the formation and direction of east and west veins, with descriptions of the principal ; and then he enters into special details of the Alston Moor and Coal Cleugh cross veins, and the Quarter Point veins of Alston Moor. He next gives us ten chapters on the laws which regulate metalliferous deposits, as illustrated by an examination of the lead veins or lodes of REVIEWS. 355 Alston Moor. In these he argues, that as lead ore is not deposited through- out the whole extent of the veins, they have not always been filled with minerals or metallic substances; the deposition must therefore be the result of certain antecedents ; and he infers that the laws which have regulated the distribution of metallic ores may be different from those relating to the origination of the metal. Two theories have been proposed to account for the origin of ore-veins: the one supposes them to be segregations of me- tallic particles from the surrounding rocks, the other regards them as de- posits by sublimation from great depths and connected with voleanic in- fluences. It is certain, however, that the Jaws which have regulated the distribution of ore in veins may be of a very different character from those connected with its origination; the former may be mechanical, the latter, if metals are substances compounded from certain elements unknown in a separate state, must be chemical. If they are simple substances which have risen from the interior of the earth as gaseous emanations, then the accumulation of the ore in certain portions of the veins may have taken place after its deposition sparsely throughout the whole extent of the frac- tures in the rocks; if the metals are derived from rocks in which their ex- istence cannot be detected, then the compounding and localization of the ore may have been effected contemporaneously. The experiments of Bee- querel and others have shown that metals in solution may be crystallized and combined with other substances by electro-chemical agency, forming minerals exactly similar to those found in nature ; but interesting as those experiments are, they render no assistance to the practical miner in guiding him to the deposits of metallic ores so irregularly distributed in the veins ; they relate more to crystallography and mineralogy than to practical mining, for crystals of various kinds are found where none of the metals exist. No kind of mineral in the veins at Alston Moor varies so much in quantity in different parts of the same stratum as lead-ore. It is found plentifully deposited with quartz, carbonates and sulphides of lime and iron, fluorspar, barytes, oxides of iron, black-jack, etc., and it is frequently absent in the same stratum when the veins contain large quantities of some one or other of these minerals; hence its deposition is not dependent on the presence or absence of any of those mmerals, and it is evident that whatever caused their deposition has not prevented the operation of those causes which regulated the deposit of lead-ore. The variation in amount of lead-ore in the same vein and in the same stratum or kind of rock be- ing greater than that of any other mineral, the law of such variation is more likely to be ascertainable in its case than in any other. In Alston Moor the veins have been most productive in situations furthest removed from plutonie action; the richest deposits having been effected in the upper part of the mountain limestone, where no igneous rocks are found Bithen in the form of dykes, or of sheets intermingled horizontally with the stratified rocks. The lower part of the strata in that district includes a stratum of basaltic greenstone as well as a basaltic dyke, but the veins generally have contained very little lead-ore, where these rocks have formed their sides or walls—a circumstance, however, we should think might very probably be sometimes due to the sublimation or driving off of the lead by the heat of the injected lava in the cases of volcanic dykes. So far as the Alston Moor district is concerned, Mr. Wallace thinks there is nothing to support the theory that the lead is due to exhalations from below, or to matter injected in a fluid state among the consolidated sedimentary rocks. The nodules of carbonate of iron, so often found ar- ranged in layers of beds of shale, have generally undergone some degree of contraction in the interior ; often the exterior has been consolidated to a 306 THE GEOLOGIST. degree sufficient to limit the shrinking of the central parts of the mass. Tnto these cracks sulphides of lead, zinc, and iron, copper pyrites and cer- tain other minerals of a different class have not unfrequently been intro- duced. In such cases it seems exceedingly improbable that those sub- stances could be derived from exhalations from beneath. There can be, on the other hand, no doubt that their component parts have come by in- filtration from without. It is also evident, that these bodies or their com- ponent parts were in a soluble state when they entered the cavities formed by the cracks of the nodules. Infiltrations occur also in the cavities left by the decomposition of fossil shells, and in those formed in various other ways. At St. Agnes, Cornwall, crystals of feldspar have been removed from elvan and replaced by peroxide of tin. ‘‘ Instances of this kind,” Mr. Wallace says, ‘‘ are of a deeply important character, and are almost conclusive that metals or the elements of metals are diffused, perhaps in varying proportions, throughout the whole mass of all kinds of rocks. They indicate, probably, the existence of metals in veins as the result of ’ combinations and changes which cannot be always, if indeed ever, directly connected with volcanic influences; and although the quantities of metal infiltrated are infinitesimally small when compared with deposits in veins, they may be regarded as instuntie crucis, indicating, at least, the direction which the inquiry ought to take.” Taking up the consideration of the conditions connected with the Rampgill vein, where the lead ore occurs in the greatest intensity, he notices that the richest portions are at the in- tersections of the Quarter Point veins, and comes to the conclusion that the functions of the conditions differ from each other, those connected with the rich portion being favourable to a circulation of water, the other not so. He then proceeds to discuss the laws regulating the descent of water below the earth’s surface, and the deposition of vein-minerals, such as carbonate of lime, and barytes, in the open spaces in veins. Then the connection is traced between the laws regulating the descent and circula- tion of fluids and the deposition of lead-ore in the vems of Alston Moor. He next follows up the connection between the laws of hydrous agency and the deposition of lead-ore in veins on the east side of the Trent river, those traversing Mountain Middle Fell, and elsewhere. This is followed by investigation of the connections of the laws of hydrous agency with the deposits in the ‘ lower beds,” and, considering that metallic ores in veins traversing clay-slate and granite, must be equally subject to the same agency, he devotes a chapter to them. Dwelling on the facts, that the richest mines are in decomposed granite, and that metallic ores are sometimes found in the joints of thai rock, as is the case in the long-celebrated Carclase tin-mine, and indeed through- out the whole granite district of St. Austell (Cornwall), he remarks the correspondence as being very striking between the more decomposable parts of the Great Limestone in Alston Moor, and the decomposable gra- nite, in that instance being associated in the former case with pure and rich deposits of lead-ore, and in the latter with tin-ore of excellent quality ; and comments on the effects of atmospheric exercises as exhibited in all mineral veins generally, and in gold and silver mines more especially, sin- gling out the remarkable mine of Potosi as a prominent instance of the latter. He notices also the association of dissimilar rocks, and considers that im some instances the intruded rock may have been the source from which the metallic ore has been derived. In his concluding remarks he considers that from the evidence brought together it would appear that either lead or some basifying principle must enter in varying proportions as a component part of the rocks of the Alston Moor district, or some still REVIEWS. 357 more elementary substances, from which it is formed by the laws of che- mical combination as yet unknown; and that there is no reason why lead and zine may not be at the present time in course of deposition wherever the conditions are favourable. In the Tyne bottom mines there is reason to suppose that the lead-ore has been deposited on the flats at a compara- tively recent period, and long posterior to the glacial epoch. Such is a summary of the principal features of Mr. Wallace’s book,—a work cha- racterized by great pains and careful attention, and which we can but think must prove highly useful to those engaged in this special class of in- quiries. On the Failure of Geological Attempts in Greece, prior to the Epoch of Alexander. By Julius Schvarez, Ph.D., F.G.5S., Corr. Mem. Ethn. Soc., ete. ete. 4to. London: Taylor and Francis. 1862. In the ‘ Geologist’ for March, 1862, we had the pleasure to call the at- tention of our readers to some works on Geology and Ethnology which had been published by Dr. Schvarez in the Hungarian and Greek lan- guages. These works, translated into the English language with a mental force and vigour which almost makes our geologists and biologists blush for their laurels, naturally attracted much attention and admiration, which was heightened when the author, two months ago, appeared personally before an English public to contribute his reflections on the progress which Geology and Ethnology had made in classical times, prior to the development of that school of biological thought, which was sanctioned by the auspices of Alexander, and promoted by the researches of the Stagirite. Such considerations as these, though condemned by the healthy English mind of John Hunter,* have led Dr. Schvarez to succeed in proving that many of the beliefs of the early Greeks rested rather on a vague know- ledge of geological facts than on any subjective excogitations, working within and by the consciousness of Greek thought. The eternity, or at least the long continuance of the idéa, that other races pre-existed to the historical self-styled awtochthones of Hellas, is proved by Dr. Schvarez’s facts. The withering rebuke which he gives to the school of thinkers who are self-styled “ practical men’’—notoriously the most unpractical and the most impracticable with which a thinker can deal—we‘transcribe verbatim. The philosophers of the Socratic school certainly make a sorry figure when limned by Dr. Schvarcz, who has painted them in the darkest colours. The true spirit of a conscientious biological positive philosopher is however displayed by him, in the subjoined eloquent passage :— ** Men are to be met with in our own days whose mental structure exclu- sively fits them to observe from moral points of view,—men who are unable to rejoice at cosmical or metaphysical acquirements—who ask, pace for pace in their learned deliberation, for an application to practical advan- tage. To speak with men of this description upon scientific matters would * “People who stand up for autiquity, and want to carry all knowledge as far back as the first teachers, which knowledge really does not belong to them, instead of raising their character rather injure it. . .. If the ancients really understood any piece of know- ledge that we look upon as modern, and if their account be really so dark and imperfect that there is no understanding them without previously understanding the subject, it shows that they were much more stupid in not transmitting to us intelligibly what they knew, than if they had not understood the subject at all.”’—Hunter, J., ‘ Essays and Observations on Natural History,’ edited by R. Owen, 8vo, 2 vols., London, 1861, vol. i. p. 369. 308 THE GEOLOGIST. prove to no purpose, for such a people are born so that they do not feel the needs of science. They will never be convinced that the aim of the latter, when it looks for the distances of planets, is nothing else than to bring us to comprehend both our position and lot in space ; they wall never be con- vinced that a veritable scholar may study such things merely, therefore, be- cause he desires to know them; on the contrary, their belief was, is, and will remain for ever, that the student who proceeds this way must either pant for some personal renown, or must be a madman, or else will end by putting his brains upon the rack about a method of connecting the celestial bodies with the earth by a telegraph; in short, their belhef will always be that the student who deals with these subjects, if not ambitious and not crazed, must have a mind to make merchandise of them, and so to treat them that they may yield to him a profit. They will naturally give a par- tial and defective definition of the ‘ profit’ every earnest student of science is working to obtain, a profit which differs in every essential part from tlie one which is to their minds the only road to human greatness. To this class belonged Socrates, and him from whom we learn his historical en- gagement better than from Plato, Xenophon himself. “The ancient Greek natural philosophers were reproached by Socrates with being unable to produce, if occasionally required, wind or rain, ete., however they strain their wit in refinements about the origin of all these phenomena. According to the judgment of this ‘ wisest of all mortals,’ it would be sufficient to cultivate astronomy only as far as it may serve to the recognition of the parts of a year, month, or day ; and this knowledge might be obtained through a conversation with town-criers and steersmen. ‘o go further than this, to extend the ken of our intellectual powers to the planetary and cometary orbits, he deemed not only superfluous, but even dangerous. From geometry, likewise, he permitted only so much to be acquired as might be necessary for the affairs of purchase, bargain, ven- dition, and for the surveying of fields. To stray into problems of a more complicated nature would consume human life in vain. “We may thus regard him asa mere advocate of practical life, who spent his own in analysing the errors of almost all classes of human society, and incessantly pursuing the phantom of what he thought might be termed ‘virtue,’ without ever being able to feel, in spite of his ‘ spiritual mid- wifery,’ any nearer approach to the perception of wherein, after all, this ‘virtue’ consists. ‘““We may regard him as a mere political agitator, who never attained to the dignity of a true moral philosopher; for the latter will, when con- tinuing the direction pointed out by his own frame of mind, never assail those who cultivate the other great branches of intellectual life, the meta- physical or physical. On the contrary, he will esteem such a distribution of force necessary. His duli objections against cosmical philosophy, ut- tered in the shops of carpenters, shoemakers, saddlers, and helmetmakers,. added the stamp of quackery to his unquestionable rudeness ; his econo- mical receipts, as in the ease of Ceribus or of the steward, added to his repute nothing common to that of men like Anaxagoras. Honest enthu- siast, in other respects, as he was, he would have expressed the memory of the most distinguished adversaries of Greek cosmosophy without cankering the coming civilization of whole nations. Yet his scholars, Plato and Xenophon (the former being incomparably’greater than his master), stirred up his manes, and rendered him hateful and despicable to the noblest class of men, to natural philosophers.” : _ The progress of positive biological knowledge was thus impaired by the influence of moral poetry amongst the Greeks. ‘‘ It was the pressure exer- REVIEWS. 359 _cised by the hexameters of the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey,’ of the ‘ Homeric Hymns’ and ‘ Kpigrams,’ on the Greek, which retarded chiefly the pro- gress of cosmical investigation. As the English their Bible, so venerated they the Homeric Poems: it was more than a mere fashion to quote lines from them; and whenever the questions of the day excited alarm, the let- tered of Megalopolis and Corinth, of Argos and Milet, took not less eagerly refuge to their authority than some grave farmers of Norfolk or of Aber- deenshire to theirs for the sake of getting a quick delivery about the Go- villa Gina and the Algilops ovata, the Niam-Niam and the ‘flint imple- ments in the Drift.’ To tne same category belonged the Didactics of He- siodus. Their perusal proved still more dangerous for youth in consequenze of their being intended to substitute the cosmogonies of observing natural philosophers.” Hvyen the Peripatetic school is castigated by Dr. Schvarez. Speaking of Aristotle, the man who did more for Zoology than any other prior to the time of Cuvier, in whose works “l'histoire de |’éléphant est plus exacte que dans Buffon’* he says, “It was unfortunate for the history of the efforts made by Indo-German races to arrive at some recognition of the true scheme of the universe in space and time, that this man had an aver- sion to geology, or was too overwhelmed with researches in other branches of knowledge—the man who exhibited the best-suited mind amongst the Greeks for natural investigation, and who, freed from every preposses- sion, admitted even the myths to be veiled explanations of cosmical pheno- mena.” In some classical authors, however, a glimpse at positive facts, induc- tively obtained, redeems the character of the ancients for observational acuteness. “ Ctesias the Cnidian ascribed, in spite of all these pretended observa- tions, the black (dark) colour of Hindoos, not to the action of solar rays, though the latter have been accused by Adschylus, Herodotus before him, by Theodectes of Phaselis, and a great many authors after him, of swarth- ening the skins of nations; but he ascribed it to nature, that is, he esta- blished a scheme of ‘ permanence of type.’... Even in our own age, it appears to be now generally admitted that unity of species does not involve unity of origin; in what, then, regards the relation, in the Greek view, of human races to each other and the other groups of the animal kingdom, we must refuse every startling generalization; for J am firmly of opinion that the whole question of the origin, development, transmutation, or ex- tinction of human races, as dealt with by the greater part of ethnologists, is of a negative character, and has arisen from the reaction against a theo- logical proposition. Had sacred tradition not awakened, say, the philoso- phical theme of the origin of mankind from one single pair, scientific in- vestigators would have never accumulated around those points of view so many data of observation. ... The circumstance alone, that those philoso- phers who lived in the vicinity of volcanos always adhered to the doctrine of a final conflagration, and those who lived near the sea always to that of a final cataclysm, removes any analogy to the religious appreciation of the ‘signs of the times’ as given in sacred history. ... Anaxagoras the Cla- zomenean, being interrogated whether the Lampsacene mountains would ever become converted into sea, replied, according to the testimony of Diogenes Laertius, ‘ Yes, if time lasts long enough.’ ” It would be impossible here to notice the philosophical and metaphysical facts which Dr. ae has adduced, in favour of the cognition, by the * Cuvier, ‘Discours Préliminaire sur les Révolutions de la Surface du Globe,’ 8vo, 4th edit., Paris, 1834, p. 154. 360 TITE GEOLOGIST. ancients, of some geological ideas. The work is throughout marked by a manly, vigorous, style of thought, which alone would entitle the author to take the prominent place amongst Europe’s most philosophical thinkers he has assumed. In the confidence that future researches will speedily result from his prolonged attempts to pierce into the hidden fountains of human thought during past ages, we cannot better express the pleasure and admiration we have felt while reading the work than in this necessarily brief and imperfect notice of Dr. Schvarez’s volume. Volcanos, and the Character of their Phenomena. By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq. London: Longman. 1862. There are only two ways of reviewing a book, either thoroughly or briefly. To review Mr. Scrope’s book properly would not only occupy the space of a number, but it would be superfluous on our part ; for, as with- out exception, it is the standard work on the subject, every geologist who studies volcanic phenomena must have it. Mr. Scrope’s views are well known. He traces in all the mass of evidence accumulated the proof of the general uniformity and simplicity of the phenomena of which vol- canos and the volcanic formations are the expressions. Opposing Hum- boldt’s view of their “ isolated, variable, and obseure character,’ he mostly labours to show, that in every quarter of the globe the eruptions that have taken place are characterized by the same repeated splitting of the earth’s crust in fissures, and generaily accompanied by earthquakes and other indications of the swelling and heaving of subterranean effervescent matter, the same explosive outbursts of steam and vapours, throwing up liquid drops and cellular fragments of wholly or partially fused mineral substances or lava, or expelled in jets or streams, which flow or spread over considerable areas, or accumulate in bulky masses about ihe eruptive vent according to their degree of liquidity or gravity, and an examination of which discloses everywhere the same basalts, greystones, or trachytes, composed of the same minerals in varying proportions. He points out everywhere the same composition and structure in volcanic formations, from the smallest cinder-cones to the greatest and loftiest mountains, pre- senting the accumulated result of a long series of successive eruptions ; the same general quaquaversal dip of their component beds of lava and conglomerate from the central heights, as formed by successive outpourings and successive showers of ejected materials ; the same hollows drilled here and there through the axes of the mountain-masses by the force of explod- ing volumes of steam; and, finally, the general parallelism over the entire surface of the globe of the chief trains of volcanic vents as if the fissures through which the eruptions find their way outwardly were owing to the lateral drag occasioned by the upheaval of some contiguous superficial portion of the earth’s crust overlying a stratum of intensely heated and highly elastic matter, the tension of which, through increase of tempera- ture, had more or less overcome resistances exposed to its expansion. THE GEOLOGIST. OCTOBER 1862. LIKES AND DISLIKES. WE are told that Lord Chatham once excused himself for not pay- ing due attention to the speech of a political rival by saying, that he felt that man was responsible to the Creator that his time should not be wasted by hearing discourses which neither conveyed profit or amusement to the hearer, nor honour and dignity to the speaker. - We were reminded forcibly of this anecdote by reading in our es- teemed contemporary the ‘ Parthenon,’ a few weeks ago, a paper en- titled “ Likes and Similitudes,”’—a title very like that of an Adelphi farce. It has been observed by metaphysical writers, that every object in the world must be either like or unlike some other object, and con- sequently, there can be no difficulty in instituting either a comparison or a contrast between any two things. For those readers then, who, like the zoologists ridiculed by Forbes, have a vivid perception of analogy, but not of affinity, as well as for that far more numerous class who can but perceive differences, without being able to decide whether they are dependent upon analogy or affinity, the perusal of “ Likes and Similitudes”’ will afford insipid and innutritive mental re- past, akin in nature to that which regales poetic minds entranced over the pages of the ‘Sentiment of Flowers’ or ‘The Language of Plants.’ There may be writers who might find a congenial banquet in an account of the gambols of a malevolent monkey, or in the descriptions of the frauds practised on some of those bygone geologists whose works, VOL. V. oA 362 THE GEOLOGIST. applied in sheets by paste, now line the insides of our travelling trunks. — But to those who regard Geology and Zoology, and their kindred sciences, as the pillars of physical truth, who regard scientific exacti- tude as an object of reverence, and who inculcate scientific methods of thought as the most noble, the most worthy occupation of man’s mind, the perusal of these papers will afford a sentiment of dis- gust similar to that which the pious Bunsen felt when criticizing the predecessors of Schelling :— : ce ———— preaching dreams Like hierophants before a gaping mob.” What good can it be, when the bulk of our masses are in ignorance respecting the most elementary facts of geology, to waste the space of a popular and excellent periodical by alluding to the fact that some obsolete writer has described the “ammonite as-a silly insect with black spots’? Far better it would be for a sincere biologist,—not one who merely picks out the “pretty bits” of science,—to explain the structure of an ammonite, to define the various subgenera and the wonderful modifications of form which ammonites exhibit, or to attempt to do the useful work of unravelling the obscure synonymy of the genus. To neglect the grave problems of science merely to tell us that a chrysalis looks like a “buttoned-up cabman upside down,” or like something else right side up, is indeed to reverse the practice of Wamba the Witless in Scott’s novel, who, although passing his time of peace and idleness in jesting and folly, could | wield a powerful sword when the danger of his master was immi- nent. : One only of our modern writers seems to have had the facility of combining witticism and caricature with the more serious work. This was Edward Forbes. But the harmless waggery and real wit, which flowing from the genial pen and facile pencil of one who had done such good service, might be tolerated. No other wit, either of his own day, before his time, or since, could dare to do the same; or if he dared, would only make a bitter failure of his rashness. In the hands of, puny men such effort becomes the badge of mental weak- ness, and diminishes into reprehensible vulgarity. In Forbes’s inimi- table sketches, wit, humour, and point tell out in every stroke; but it was only the genius of the artist-wit that saved the savant from condemnation for the practice. It was the man we permitted to take such licences in his scientific works ; but zs jokes were added to his chapters, and he never made a joke of his real, good, earnest work. LIKES AND DISLIKES. 363 No scientific problem would be the better for being grinned at through a horse-collar ; and the constant joking about matters of grave im- port forcibly corroborates the truth of the celebrated aphorism of Lord Bacon,—“ Homines derisores civitatem perdunt.”’ The facile pen of our author, glib in finding that anything in science is like anything else, runs smoothly and superficially over the whole animal and vegetable kingdom. We are told that an Ento- mostracan,— “ Sida crystallina, is easily transformed into a costermonger by giving the creature legs, a pipe, and a basket of greens.” We were not previously aware that legs, pipes, and cabbages, were the only predicable characters dividing the human race from water- fleas. It is, however, but too evident that the writer is unacquainted even with the most elementary scientific facts. Thus, in the first paper, Zursius Bancanus is spoken of as being man’s progenitor. Compare the gorilla’s brain with Tarsius’s brain! Has the author of “Likes” ever read Burmeister’s monograph? has he ever seen the paltry little lemur? Again, in the second paper, he writes— “The Acidaspis Keyserlingii, a Silurian Trilobite figured by Barrande (Syst. Sil. de Bohéme, pl. 36), bears a remarkable likeness, when J give him feet and arm him with a spear, to a Polynesian savage.” We are too slow to see the likeness, but we are far from wishing to tempt the author of “ Likes and Similitudes”’ to offer us any of those artistic examples of his dementia with which his manuscript was probably suitably illustrated ; but he is evidently possessed with a pungent idea that there is some occasional connection between some individuals of the human race and the family of crabs, for he adds— « Pemplis Suessii, a crustacean of higher class, met with in the New Red rocks of Germany, figured by Von Meyer, may be claimed by Mr. Layard as an Assyrian king in an eruptive state.” The meaning of this sentence fairly baffles our limited powers of comprehension. Why Mr. Layard should feel anxious to possess an Assyrian king whose skin may be unhealthy, or who is in the process of voleanie excitement, we avow ourselves unable to fathom. We all know the unfortunate mistake a certain lady is reputed to have made by looking aé her dictionary ; the author of “ Likes”? has achieved an equally unfortunate result by not looking at his before he wrote— “The curious wing-finned fishes found in the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, belonging to the genus Plerichthys, which have been so cleverly 364 THE GEOLOGIST. described by the late Hugh Miller, were long before known to the quarry- men as petrified cherubims; for the attachment of the fins to the neck- plate gave them much the appearance of those chubby cherubs with flut- tering wings, so often carved by village cutters upon grave-stones.” We confess this anecdote is new to us; but we were fully aware of the fact, that the fragments of the large crustacean Pterygotus were termed “seraphim” by the Scotch quarry-men, by reason of the “ wing-like form and feather-like ornaments of the hinder part of the head, the part most usually met with” (Lyell, Manual, p. 419), and the words Pterichthys and Pterygotus having the four first letters in common, is perhaps sufficient excuse for the confusion between a ganoid fish and a crustacean. Does not the Welshman in Shakespeare’s Henry V. come to the reader’s mind— “Tn the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, the situations, look you, are both alike. There is a river in Macedon, and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth; it is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but it is all one, ’tis like as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.” It is too much to expect an esthetic writer who knows Tennyson better than Morris’s Catalogue, to “creep servilely after the sense” of common thinking men. Our author tries the marvellous :— «Many fungi have affinities to animal forms. Some African forms of these remarkable plants, referable to the genus Boletus, have been com- pared, in size, colour, and shape, to sleeping lions. With such resem- blances, it may be imagined that early botanists did not overlook the op- portunity of linking them with the supernatural. One amusing instance is the species of Starry Puff-ball (Geaster), figured by Sterbeeck in his ‘Theatrum Fungorum’ (1675) as a family party of Anglo-Saxons going to sea in a boat made out of the mycelium of the fungus.” May we ask, what is the supernatural instance here alluded to? Is it the “ delusive shilling sail” of the Anglo-Saxons, or is it the sleeping lions; or are mushrooms allied to lions, or to ghosts, or both to either, or what, or which? We know that witches had intercourse with the supernatural world, and went to sea in tubs; perhaps that is what is meant, but we should have been told so. We must avow ourselves on this occasion of the same opinion as Lord Dundreary on another, “that there are some things no fellow can understand.” Our zoologist, whose “study has been to describe organisms by the depths of scientific research, or to seek out the more playful phases of terrene life,” sinks rapidly to the congenial level of the dirt-pie, and tells us, “ The forms, odd and absurd-looking as they are, LIKES AND DISLIKES. 865 into which plastic clay and silica have been moulded, are replete with instruction. For the resemblances which at first seemed to assimilate classes and genera do, in fact, strengthen divisional lines and increase the value of species.” Perhaps the future attempts which our enthusiastic contributor may make to solve the mystery of the Origin of Species, may be ma- terially aided through the means of a handful of London mud. Per- haps even oyster-grottos or card-houses may have their deep mystic significations on the problem, and give the “stamp of verity and truth” to the “tracings made for the amusement of young natu- ralists.” In the meanwhile, to the tender mercies of those zoologists who have worked out the Polyzoa we commend the following descrip- tion :— * Among the oddest, though at the same time the most graceful, of natural patterns, may be reckoned the aggregated cells which make up the homes of those low-class molluscan animals, the Polyzoa-Bryozoa, or moss- corals, as they are commonly called. A living mass of this moss-coral, viewed through a microscope, looks like a screen of carven stone-work, with openings where light is needed. Keeping watch at one of these holes, presently we see a tiny beak of transparent jelly peeping through; and, if the coast is clear, rosy-tipped fingers of the same exquisite material are pushed out, to catch and entangle the floating atoms in the water. Some openings or cell-doors are hooded in rather a comical way, and each one has a living tenant, who at times ‘stands at his door in a diamond frill,’ and fishes for his dinner. One of these cellules is seen to be hooded like a calceolaria flower; another uplifts little childlike arms; a third has per- forated ears and a very mousy look.” How the ears of a Bryozoon ean be perforated—even, if it had any, how it could be mousy—we fail to perceive. To pick a last ex- ample of the many absurdities which still remain, we are told that “the head of a small Clupean fish from the Caribbean Sea presents a re- markable resemblance in facial contour to the present Emperor of the French.” Falstaff compares himself to a “ shotten herring ;” but we have too much respect for the Anglo-French alliance to endorse such an “unsavoury simile” in respect to Louis Napoleon. We like real fun and enjoy real wit as much as anybody, but we dislike to see science “made funny” for the sake of the so-many shillings a column which the proprietor of a magazine pays, in confi- dence of the ability of his contributor to send him good matter. We dislike to see science deliberately degraded. We are sorry to think that ‘ Likes and Similitudes’ emanates from the pen of an author who sometimes dates his lucubrations from the Geological Society. 366 ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF ROCKS IN THE CAPE TOWN DISTRICT, SOUTH AFRICA. By Dr. R. N. Rupipes. I gave, in a paper in the February number of the ‘ Geologist,’ a general view of the facts in the geology of this country which have led me to believe that the metamorphosis of rocks is due to a slow and gradual change in their constituents ; of which change water is one of the chief agents, and the internal heat of the earth not a ne- cessary adjunct. I now propose to describe more particularly those relations of the quartzite with the paleozoic rocks, a careful examination of which has rendered necessary an entire reconstruction of the geological map of the country. That map, published in the Transactions of the Geo- logical Society, was the work of an able man, and the evidence on which the Devonian (Upper Silurian, Bain) was separated from the Clay-slate formation was (so far as I have been able to verify it), L believe, such, that he would not have been justified in coming to an- other conclusion by any generally admitted principle of the science ; for this reason, I invite the criticism of European geologists on my facts and inferences, and their aid in solving many difficulties which still remain unexplained. | I stated in my former Paper that the plains and lower hills and valleys of the coast region, extending from Cape Town to the mouth of the Fish River, were formed of blue slaty and sandy rocks. These were all referred to one formation by Lichtenstein. Dr. Krauss, an eminent botanist and geologist, states that he made repeated sections of the country, from the coast to the Karoo, and always found the clay-slate (Thonschiefer und Grauwackeschiefer) occupying the plains and valleys, and the quartzose sandstone or quartzite (Bunter-Sandstein) the mountains. On Zwartkops heights and the Von Stadens river bergen, he remarks this was notably the case. Dr. Atherstone, in a section through the district of George, could find no reason for separating the clay-slate from the Devonian. Mr. Bain agrees with these authorities as to the identity of the slates as far eastward as the mesozoic estuary of the Gamtoos river. In his map he shows the clay-slate, interrupted (as also mentioned by Krauss) by masses of granite, and surmounted by sandstones, ex- tending from Cape Town to the edge of the mesozoie rocks,—a point corresponding to the Kabeljouw river’s mouth in the sketch. Lichtenstein, Bain, and Krauss therefore concur in believing the clay-slate and quartzite of the region between the Kromme and Ka- beljouw rivers to be respectively identical and continuous with those of Cape Town, where the highly inclined beds of slate are surmounted by nearly horizontal sandstone. Mr. Bain, differing with the others, makes both cease here. I have little doubt of the continuity of the slate from Cape Town hither. I have none (as I shall presently RUBIDGE—ROCKS IN TIE CAPER TOWN DISTRICT. 367 show) of that of the Kromme and Kabeljouw region with those of the Zwartkops heights, and thence to the Fish River. Still, Mr. Bain is too able a man, and has generally too good reason for what he does, for any opinion of his to be passed over lightly. My own observa- tions extend no further westward on this part of the coast than the region just mentioned; but as I think I can show that the relative positions of the quartzite mountain-ranges with the slate plains and valleys, clearly refer both to the hke formations in the west, and as I have fossil and other evidence of their identity with the rocks fur- ther east, I will describe this region more fully. The Kromme (winding) river runs for some miles from its source through a quartzite range, some few strata of slate here and there appearing in its bed; as, for instance, at the spot marked A in the sketch, where the slate contained vegetable stems. The main direc- tion of the range, Cougha and Baviaans Kloofbergen, is about north 80° east. It sends off a branch, the Zitzi Komma (sometime called Kromme) heights, to Cape St. Francis, in direction north 44° west : another, some of the spurs of which skirt Hermansdorp and Hankey, the main direction being north 79° west. Thus these ranges diverge at an angle of about 35°; but, taking the spur, it would be nearer 60°. The Cougha bergen are, perhaps, 1500 to 1800 feet high; the Zitzi Komma 1000 to 1300. They are of quartzite sandstone of va- rious degrees of hardness and crystalline character, often saccharine, oX , acs ules 2. ant \ Win P \\\STOE tz e ov \\il INS . Se Nil \y Nh uA if G Oy » \G i) ans Ny \\ Nu m(( Hw’ >» © \ RRR \ KR ont Me - c s Law MM nA \\ AWG SNE LSS) “ yyy sy bau A) > f . v “= —=——CAPE ) MN ; RECEIE "him M Ib, 7 h => CAPES, FRANCIS PLAN OF COUNTRY AROUND St. Franects Bay.* A. Spot in the Kromme river where fossils were found. B. Devonian fossils near this spot. C. Devonian fossils at Hermansdorp. D. De- vonian fossils at Kabeljouw river mouth. sometimes ivory-like. The line subtending this angle, drawn from near the mouth of the Kromme to the most eastern portion of the Gamtoos below Hankey, would pass over scarce anything but slate ; with a slight curvature it would pass over no quartzite. As the strike of the slate is north 66° west, and the line nearly 15 miles long and making but a small angle with it, I believe the line would cross 12 miles of the strike. The dip of the rocks is considerable here ; so * The strike is too near perpendicular to the range of mountains, and the two ranges should have diverged at right angles. 368 THE GEOLOGIST. that I think six or seven geographical miles for the depth of the sec- tion isa low estimate. A glance at the sketch would show that a few miles on in the strike a parallel line would pass through nothing but quartzite. The quartzite mountains, therefore, and their spurs, cross the slate at considerable angles to the strike of the latter, and the mountain ranges enclose large angular areas of slate. I have stated just now that two parallel lines could be drawn, at the distance of some miles apart, which should cut a corresponding portion of the strike of the slate. Taking the smaller spurs of the ranges, and giving the lines no very considerable curve, two such lines might be drawn within two miles of each other. My reason for dwelling on this relation will ap- pear presently. I would now beg of any geologist who has followed me thus far to pause and reflect on these relations of the slate and quartzite, and before proceeding to answer to himself, and if not too great a favour, to me, through the ‘ Geologist,’ the following ques- tions :— 1st, Supposing the relations just described to be correctly repre- sented,* is it not clear that Mr. Bain and the other authorities quoted are right in classing the slates with the old rocks, and making the quartzite a newer and independent formation P 2nd, If the geologist should find rocks resting conformably on the same quartzite, would he not refer them (same postulate) to a much newer formation than the slate ? This is simply what Mr. Bain has done. I will suppose it admitted that the clay-slate of the region between the Kromme and the Kabeljouw and Gamtoos rivers is probably of identical and continuous formation with that of Cape Town, and that of the quartzose rocks which cross it at various angles to its strike, are continuous and identical in character with those of Table Moun- tain. Then I think it will not be disputed that these slates must have been upheaved into their present positions long ere the deposi- sition of the quartzose sandstone or its assumption of its present con- dition, which Darwin attributes to the infiltration of silica. Let us now see what grounds we have for forming a judgment as to the age of these slates, reminding tke reader that Mr. Bain, from sections which I believe to be mainly correct, referred them to an epoch long preceding the Lower Silurian, which strata, resting on the quartzite, are supposed Upper Silurian (Devonian of European geologists), and rocks interstratified with like quartzite at the Mait- land Mines and the eastern province generally are called Carbonife- rous. Some time after the relations of the quartzite with the paleozoic and metamorphic rocks, observed in Namaqualaad and in this pro- vince, had led me to predict that the former, throughout the colony, would be found to belong to one formation, Mr. Niven, of Jeffreys Bay, undertook, at my request, to search for fossil evidence bearing * T have borrowed the pencil of a friend, Mr. R. Miller, to represent these relations more clearly to the eye. It is doubtful if the relation of the strike will be understood. - » RUBIDGE—ROCKS OF THE CAPE TOWN DISTRICT. 369 on this question. He scon discovered Phacops Kafer, Orthis pal- mata, Spirifer antarc/icus, two species of Strophomena, and several of Encrinites, which clearly established the Devonian character of the slates about the mouth of the Kabeljouw river. Last year, in a professional journey to those parts, I was fortunate enough to find fossils in the bed of the Kromme river (a), near Diep river (4), and at Hermansdorp, which, together with the section, show that all these slates, supposed to be so ancient, were Devonian throughout. At different periods the discovery of the same species at Coxcomb, in Winterhoek, at Chatty, and Naroo, and a few weeks ago near Van Stadensberg, has clearly proved the identity of the paleozoic strata in the eastern province as far as the Fish River’s mouth with the clay- slate of the region I have described, and almost certainly of Cape Town. Now, the quartzite of the Cougha range is continuous with that of the Coxcomb, and both are so with the Van Stadensberg. I could give a sketch of very nearly the same relations of these ranges with the slate as those described, but they are not quite so well marked. ‘The directions of the ranges of quartzite hills, as shown on any map of the colony, with the explanation that the strike dif- fers not very considerably throughout the province, will render this unnecessary. The quartzite ought then to be newer than the Devo- nian in the Eastern province also. Yet in this province it has never been regarded by any geologist as otherwise than conformable with the Devonian (Carboniferous, Bain). Dr. Atherstone and I believe that of the Cougha as equally conformable with the Devonian slates of the Kromme, Kabeljouw, and Gamtoos. The relations of the mountain chains I have shown to be the same in both provinces. { will now quote authorities to show that the conformability is un- mistakeable in this province. If some of the extracts are long, it must be attributed to my belief that this is the most important part of my argument. If I can convince geologists that mountains 1200 to 8000 feet or more in height, which take the direction in reference to the strike, which, as I have said, any map of the colony will show they do take, are really composed of quartzose sandstone conform- able, and at their junctions, and in valleys, interstratified with the Devonian slates they thus cross; it will, I think, be admitted that the rocks of this country (of different ages) have been subjected to a metamorphic action of a peculiar nature, and which has not received sufficient attention.* Bain.—Carboniferous System. This system differs but little, li- thologically, from the quartzose sandstones of the Silurian ranges of * In explanation of the great desire I have always felt, for the opinions of European geologists of note on the subject of these relations of our rock, 1 must remark, that | am quite a self-taught geologist, and have had uo experience in any country but this. Moreover, all the colonial geologists, while admitting the relations described, see nothing inexplicable by admitted theories in them, Dr. Atherstone, for instance, believes that the quartzose sandstones were originally deposited in the positions mentioned, interstra- tified with the slates. Mr. Bain believed them of different and unconformable formation: so does Krauss. Since he has seen the Devonian fossils, Mr. Bain is inclined to think FOL. V. 3 3B 370 THE GEOLOGIST. the western parts of the colony (except that the carboniferous rocks have no pebbles). The quartzose sandstone, which is in general characteristic of this system, passes into chloritic schist at De Stade’s and Van Staden’s rivers, where mines of galena and copper have been for some time worked, but I fear not profitably. “ No workable coal has yet been discovered in this system ; but numerous species of carboniferous plants have been found near the Kowie River, Woest’s Hill, Slowison’s Poort, and other localities in the talcose schist.”—‘ Eastern Province Magazine,’ vol. 1. p. 456, Godlonton and White, Graham’s Town. Compare with maps and description of strata, Geol. Trans. Dr. Atherstone.—“ Above the quartzose and micaceous sandstones and chloritic schists at the Maitland mines, and also along the Lorie River to Hankey, and still further on in the Gamtoos River, a dark grey fine-grained magnesian limestone is found. ... Above this lime- stone in some places, as at the Maitland Mines, Van Staden’s River, and the Lworie River, there is a hard and coarse sandstone with quartz pebbles, which makes excellent millstones.... Below the mag- nesian limestone lie conformably quartzose sandstones and micaceous shales and schists, similar to those of the carboniferous sandstones of the Zeurberg. The sandstones and schists of the Coxcomb and Win- terberg range appear more like the Old Red Sandstone formation, and are infinitely more contorted than the carboniferous rocks; and as no fossils have as yet been found in them,* and the range appears the slates and quartzites conformable, and that he has made a mistake in the boundary of the formation in the east, while he strongly affirms the accuracy of his section in the west. It will be seen by reference to former Papers, that on my belief in the truth of Mr. Bain’s section I founded the prediction that the clay-slate and Devonian would be proved one formation. When I use the word Devonian as applying to all our strata, I would explain that I make no pretension to settle the question of their age on my own authority, or to deny the possibility of there being strata as old or older than the Cambrian or older rocks in Britain. I simply mean that I have seen no reason for believing in any older rock uuconformable with the Devonian; and I hope I have shown that the position of the quartzite, with reference to the latter, 1s the same as it is to the clay-slate, which Bain and Wylie believe so much older. I ask for the aid I mention because I think the opinion of high authority would be of great value to us by showing what is regarded as eredible, and what is not. The assistant- secretary of the Geological Society, some years ago, told me that the story of quartzite metamorphosis was rejected 7m toto. I hope the labours of Messrs. Sorby, Daubrée, Hunt, and othefs, have somewhat modified opinions. At the period in question my belief in this assimilation of rocks of different ages had not been confirmed by those discoveries which rendered the map published by the Society entirely obsolete as to some of the principal formations of the Colony. It was quite natural that under such circumstances the fulfil- ment of my early prediction should have been regarded as the confirmation of lucky guesses ; but when I pointed out the fact that as to the Carboniferous and clay-slate for- mations, the result of my researches was, as I have said, to render the map obsolete, I think that in taking no notice of my communications the Society lost an opportunity. * 'The discovery of Devonian fossils at the zorthern foot of the Coxcomb, in rocks with but a slight inclination, and that of the same species close to the Van Stadensberg, in beds with a dip of 46°, with a clear section connecting them with the schists at the De Stade’s River mines, is singular in connection with this remark of my friend, and would seem to indicate that he has been misled as to the relative ages of furmations in the east, in the same manner as Mr, Bain has further west. RUBIDGE—ROCKS OF THE CAPE TOWN DISTRICT. 371 continuous with the Zwarteberg range, which I believe to be Devo- nian, I should consider them also of the same age.”—Jbid., pp. 585- 587. Mr. Wylie, Government Geological Surveyor.—“ Were” (at Goobe- loan’s northern base of the Zeurberg) “the shales disappear, and we enter upon rocks exactly the same as the Wittenbergen and the Ko- roo Poort sandstones in the western district. These continue all the way through the Zeurberg. Beside the yellowish or brownish sand- stones there are many beds of very sandy shale, usually of a bright colour. Many of the sandstones cannot be distinguished from those of Table Mountain, though the latter are of much older date.’’* “The sandstones of the Zeurbere form a great anticlinal arch; but this consists again of three great folds and two or more minor flexures. The beds may be seen dipping at all angles from 5° to 80°. On the Seaward side of the Zeurberg, between the 20th and 21st milestones, I again crossed the trap conglomerate on the southern side of the an- ticlinal. It there forms a belt in width about 500 yards, and in actual thickness is not more than 500 or 600 feet. Grey shales oecur both above and below it.’””-—‘ Notes of a Journey,’ ete., Cape Town, Saul, Solomon, & Co. (See also p. 3 of the same, and passim.) There may be some little apparent confusion arising out of the different nomenclature used by the authorities I have quoted. The fact is, that the beds which are usually blue and clayey schists, with some argillaccous sandstones, are generally altered to a micaceous chloritic or taleose character, and in the upper part, when mixed with the sandstones, are ochry. The spots in which Devonian fossils have been found, together with the uniformity of strike, prove their identity throughout. This is now admitted by all observers as to this province. Fig. 1.—Section of Pickel Vontein. The sections sent herewith are:— (Atherstone and Rubidge.) 1. Pickel Vontein, carefully observed by Dr. Atherstone and myself. 2. Chatty, measured by Mr. Pinchin and myself. 3. Section through Klein Poorden Poort, by Mr. Pinchin and myself. These have been merely sketched without measurement in the present in- stance, as I am unfortunately deprived of Mr. Pinchin’s valuable aid. A carefully exe- cuted section was sent home to the Geologi- val Society some years ago. a I will conclude this paper by showing that Fig. 2. what I have, I hope, satisfactorily proved of — (Pinchin and Rubidge.) the quartzite, is also predicable of crystalline limestone or marble—viz. the continuity of horizontal beds unconformable with the subjacent strata, with beds of the same kind interealated between the latter. * Mr. Wylie, in his section of this part of the Colony, which, though not published, is placed in the Town Tall, in Cape Town, makes the shales above spoken of conformable with the sandstones. he THE GEOLOGIST. I have described saccharine and finer-grained quartzites in this re- lation. I have now to mention that at Rodos, sixty miles from the mouth of the Orange River, strata of limestone rest in ex- tensive masses on the mountains, I was told, horizontally; while Wel below, only a Copal few a ee a y d beds of saccharine and other va- Fig. 3.—Section through Klein Poorden Poort. rieties of er ystalline limestone (Pinchin and Rubidge.) were interstratified with the aa, quartzite; 244, slate; c, porphyry (Bain) ; eneiss. d, porphyry: I should hardly have thought it necessary to contest the igneous origin of marble at the present day, had I not seen in your Magazine the account of a recent experl- ment. SOME ACCOUNT OF BARRETTIA, A NEW AND RE- MARKABLE FOSSIL SHELL FROM THE HIPPURITE LIMESTONE OF JAMAICA. By 8. P. Woopwarp, F.G:S. The fossil represented in the accompanying figures is one of that kind whose discovery severely tests the faith of the naturalist in his previous conclusions, and may appear to raise a suspicion not only respecting the sufficiency of his data, but even as to the correctness of his method of investigation. Almost any person, at first sight of the specimen, would think he was looking at a coral, and it would seem like an attempt to impose on one’s credulity to say it was a bivalve shell, like an oyster or a clam.* Yet there is no doubt it is a kind of Hippurite, although the rays give it a novel and extraordinary character. The discoverer had quite satisfied himself on this point before he brought it to England and placed it in our hands. It was found last year (January, ‘1861), by Mr. Lucas Barrett, F.G.S., Director of the Geological Survey of the British West Indies, in the parish of Portland, in the north-east of * This is not the only case of the sort. The genus Goniophyllum, one of the “ Zo- antharia rugosa,” established by Milne-Edwards, is apparently identical with Ca/eeola, the well-known bivalve fossil of the Bifel, placed by Lamarck with the “ Rudistes,” and admitted as a Brachiopod, with a sign of doubt, by Mr. Davidson and myself. Eon phyllum pyramidale is a scarce fossil of the Upper Silurian at Dudley and Malvern, but not uncommon in the Baltic island of Gothland. It was described as a Calceo/a by Girard in 1842. Another species, which is so like Calceola sandalina that Murchison and Verneuil assumed the existence of Devonian strata in Gothland, on the strength of its occurrence, has small rootlets of attachment along the borders of its “ hinge-area,’ and a vesicular interior, like Cystiphyl/um. After carefully examining a series ‘of exam- ples belonging to M. Lindstrom, of Wisby, we can only say that they are probably weither Brachiopoda nor Zoantharia, although very like each in some respects. ie ee — a Le iat f euge me uy or = é ue (up ‘ bs i F ; iy yY ee ” . e oe a ae. si + Ee a c i he A et : BARRETTIA MONILIFERA. |. Reduced figure of a group of three individuals. 3. Tangential Section. eal PLATE XX. | 4 | < i et q >") 1t - i i ; | S| SS HSS “| | af es \ . i) ; | AN A 4 : | \ \i = pt 2 2. Longitudinal Section. 4, Transverse Section of Fig. 3. WOODWARD—SOME ACCOUNT OF BARRETTIA. 373 Jamaica. This part of the island, lying to the north of the principal range of the Blue Mountains, which run east and west, is itself mountainous, rising to the height of 7000 feet. The hippurite lime- stone is well seen oa the banks of the Back river, a tributary of the Rio Grande, at about fifteen miles from the coast. It isa hard, orey rock, occurring in bands of a few inches to a yard in thickness, sub- ordinate to many hundreds of feet of shale which graduate upwards into other grey shales of the Eocene Tertiary, followed by white limestone of Miocene age.* GENERAL SECTION OF THE TERTIARY AND SECONDARY Srravra, East JAMAICA. 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Purple conglomerates. 2. Cretaccous limestone, with Hippurites. 3. Grey shales. 4. Orbitoidal limestone. 5. Miocene limestone. 6. Pliocene limestone and marls. The appearance of the hippurite limestone of Jamaica is unlike that of any English cretaceous stratum. It abounds in small, oval bodies called Orbitoides, related to the Tertiary Nummulites, but mis- taken by Sir Henry De la Beche for joints of the Bncrinite (or Hn- trochites), and so leading him to compare this rock with the moun- tain limestone of England.t The other fossils of the limestone are Radiolites, Inocerami, a large Nerinea, and an Acteéonella resembling A, levis, D?Orb. The two last-mentioned shells are also found in the island of St. Thomas. The hippurites are plentiful, but em- bedded in the solid rock, and only to be procured by blasting with gunpowder. ‘They often form groups of two or three; the smaller individuals having grown upon the sides of the larger. The example figured is five inches in diameter , and was probably eighteen inches or two feet in length. The fossil was at first broken across several inches lower down than the line of section represented (fig. 5), and when ground and polished it exhibited only a solid mass of nearly white, calcareous spar, the centre being filled up with a vesicular structure, as in the Silurian coral Cystiphy yllum. he dark-coloured, moniliform rays, and traces of the dental apparatus agreed exactly in size, number, and position with those in the section afterwards taken at a higher ‘level, but only halfway across, which shows a central eavity filled with dark limestone. There are 65 radii, alternately longer and shorter; the longest are from 1 inch to 14, and have 7 to 10 beads; the short rays have 5 or 6 beads, sometimes fewer. A third section, 3} inches in diameter, and only 8 inches from the conical fixed end of the fossil, presents fewer rays (about 46), and less distinctly beaded. In each section two radii are more important than the rest, and correspond with the two longitudinal ridges (am x) that * Quarterly Journal of the Geol. ns han p. 824. + Trans, Geol. Soc., 2nd series, vol. ii, pt. ii. p. 143, 374: TILE GEOLOGIST. are always visible in European specimens of the hippurite, which have become hollow by the dissolution of their inner layer of shell,* (fig. 7). These ridges are formed by the folding in of the outer wall of the shell, and it is evident that the numerous rays of the Jamaica fossil are produced by a repetition of the same process. They seem intended to compensate the tenuity of the outer wall, and perhaps are the cause of its reduction. Ina specimen of Hippurites cornu-vaccinum, of equal size, the outer layer of shell is an inch thick, whereas in the Jamaica fossil it measures only three lines, and in a transverse section (fig. 4) exhibiting the lateral union of three (probably small) individuals, the dowble boundary-wall is less than a line in thickness. In the sections represented (figs. 2, 5), the outer shell-wall has chiefly been removed by accident or destroyed by mining parasites, except where preserved by investing corals and small Ra- diolites. The upper end of the fossil was slightly convex, retaining the opercular valve in a somewhat damaged condition. When split lon- gitudinally through the centre, it showed the body cavity, and two shelly processes descending from the lid (as in figure 2, aa'). Of these the right-hand, or posterior, apophysis (a) projects into a cavity, which is so close to the principal inflection (mm) that part of it is shown in the same figure. The beads of the rays in the transverse section are strung together by almost invisible lines; but in this longitudinal fracture they are seen to be continuous plates, and are striated on the side by lines of growth. At the summit they must have formed a series of radiating ridges, with furrows between, bordering the in- terior of the valve. The bottom of the body-cavity was also more irregular than usual in shells. The upper valve is perforated by a few large radiating canals, with canaliculi conducting to the outer surface (x 2). After it came into my possession, a fresh section was made across that half of the cylinder which contained the dental apparatus, in order to show the exact form and position of the hinge-teeth. They are seen in the figure (5, a’) filling their sockets exactly, with the exception of small defined spaces on their outer sides, which form the only trace, at this level, of the eavities occupied by the divided cartilage (cc’). The interval between the dental sockets (/) 1s occu- pied by a solid, rectangular portion of shell, representing the single dental process of the lower valve. There is no “ligamental inflection ” of the outer shell, as in H. cornu-vaccinum, and many other species. The existence of the ligamental plate in the typical division of the genus Hippurites is accompanied by such an amount of displacement of the hinge as to justify the subgeneric separation- of those species The inner layer of shells in the families Peetinide and Chamida, as well as the pearly lining of the Aviculide, Turbinide, ete., has the constitution of Aragonzte, while the outer layer consists of Calcite, as stated by Gustav Rose, and confirmed by the observa- tions of Mr. Sorby. he bi-axial character of mother-of-pearl may usually be detected with a tourmaline in any thin, translucent section, such as a counter or the edge of a pearl paper-kuife. WOODWARD—SOME ACCOUNT OF BARRETTIA. 375 in which the plate is wanting, and the cardinal apparatus lies close to the side of the shell instead of being at right angles to it.* We have already described and figured these peculiarities on former oc- casions, and it will be sufficient now to propose the name Dorbignia for H. bi oculatus and other hippurites (figs. 6,7), which have no ligamental inflection, and a second subgeneric title, barrettia, for the Jamaica fossil, which presents the further peculiarity of an indefi- nite number of pallial duplicatures extending all round the margin of the lower valve. lt still remains to speak of the shelly process from the upper valve (a'), seen in both our sections, descending into a pit between the posterior tooth (¢) and the principal duphcature (m). In the paper previously referred to we have described this process as the support of the posterior shell-muscle, having found characteristic indications of the muscular scar within the cavity which receives. it. Since then, Professor Bayle, of the Ecole des Mines at Paris, has pub- lished a description, with excellent figures, of some very complete examples of Hippurites radiosus. These specimens do not show any peculiarity unknown before, but they are far more perfect than the best we had ever seen, and exhibit in complete relief the extra- ordinary cardinal apparatus of the upper valve, of which our previous knowledge was chiefly obtained from sections. Owing to the condition of his specimens, M. Bayle has had the good fortune to procure, in a few weeks, better illustrations than we could obtain with much labour, continued at intervals for several years. Nevertheless, the very state of our materials has compelled a closer and longer examination, which we trast has not been thrown away! M. Bayle has quoted our views very fairly, and we hope he will yet see reason to adopt them. His memoir was accompanied by a critical notice froia M. Deshayes con- taining the following passages :— “ Le travail de M. Woodward est Je plus complet qui ait été publié sur l’ensemble des Rudistes. Cependant il reste bien des parties qui auraient demandé une discussion plus approfondie, des caractéres qui, au point de vue zoologique, auraient pu étre plus largement exposés et discutés.” “Avec le travail de M. Woodward, on pouvait encore concevoir des doutes sur quelques parties, et notamment sur le nombre et la position des muscles. Ce naturaliste suppose Vexistence d’un muscle adducteur des valves de chaque cdté de la charniére, exacte- ment comme dans les Sphérulites; ce second muscle se serait at- taché dans la profondeur de l'une des cavités cardinales de la valve inféricure et au sommet de l’une des apophyses de la valve supérieure ; mais les piéces préparées par M. Bayle ne laissent plus de doute A ce sujet ; les deux impressions musculaires sont portées d’un méme eoté, par suite d’un renversement de l’animal, comparable 4 ce qui existe chez les Hippopes et les Tridacnes, ainsi que M. Bayle lui-méme a parfaitement compris ; tout l’appareil musculaire, se trouvant * “Mannal of the Mollusea,’ pt. ii. p. 279 (1854), and Quarterly Journal of the Geol. Soc., vol. xi. p. 40, 1855. (Read May 24, 1854.) 376 THE GEOLOGIST. transporté sur le cété antérieur de animal, n’est plus en antagonisme direct avec le ligament, et nous comprenons trés-bien les motifs de Vhésitation de M. Woodward a ce sujet. L’absence d’un muscle du cté postérieur de la coquille laisse 4 deviner l’usage des deux arétes saillantes dans l’intérieur du méme coté, et celui des oscules de la yalve supérieure qui leur correspondent. J’accueillerais volontiers Vidée de M. Bayle, qui suppose aux oscules la fonction de laisser pénétrer l’eau dans la cavité du manteau, et ils correspondraient aux siphons de Vanimal; c’est une vue théorique qui peut paraitre plau- sible, mais qui n’a rien de prouveé.”* It must be regretted that M. Deshayes, whose notoriety as a con- chologist was increased at the time by the circumstance of being President of the Geological Society of France, should have enunciated views which would be inexcusable in the veriest tyro in malacology. Their publication was the more surprising to me, because he had only just before examined my materials very fully and deliberately, and expressed his entire approval of my conclusions. If the author of the ‘ Mollusques Algériennes’ would have taken the trouble to read my account of the Zrzdacna,t or, better still, if he had examined for himself one of the specimens brought home by Quoy and other cele- brated voyagers, who have enriched the public museums of France, he would not have attributed to that bivalve a structure altovether incompatible with lamellibranchiate organization. The readers of the ‘ Geologist’ will pardon us for reminding them of such an elementary fact as that the bivalve shells like Chama are closed by two shell-muscles (adductors), one situated over or behind the mouth of the animal, the other zm front of the posterior portion of the digestive canal. The whole body of the animal hes between them. The posterior adductor is developed first, and is in- variably present. ‘The anterior is usually smaller, and is wanting in the “monomyary ” families, Ostreid@, Pectinide, Anomiade, Tridac- nide, and most of the Aviculide. In Mulleria it is always lost by the breaking away of the front of the valves, and sometimes it is worn away in Clavagella. In Pholas the expansion and reflection of the front margin gives the anterior adductor a position which converts it into a cardinal muscle. In Zridacna the single shell-musele is placed just as in the oyster; that which M. Deshayes has mistaken for a second adductor, is the pedal muscle, which 1s conspicuous in all bivalves spinning a byssus, or having a powerful foot. The posterior adductor of the Hippurite is situated exactly as in the Radiolite, but the supporting process projects vertically mstead of expanding horizontally, and passes down into, but does not nearly fill, the deep pit between the hinge-teeth and the projecting ridge (m), which we have compared to the muscular plate of Cucullea and other bivalves. The position of this muscle is well represented by Goldfuss (at ¢’), in his small figure of the mould of H. Lapetrousiv. * Bull. Soe. Géol. France, séance du 21 mai 1855 (published March, 1856.) + Ann. Nat. Hist., Feb. 1855, p. 100, and Supplement to ‘ Manual of Mollusca,’ p. 469. t Especially Cardilia, Megalodon, Pachyrisma, Diceras, and Caprotina. a ie ae ‘ ail Malt Sie = PLATE XXIT. \\\ } \\ ? a=—S Wily BARRETTIA MONILIFERA. Hippurite Limestone, Jamaica. (R \ / jj) | alll ML CD SS Upper Valve. INTERIORS OF educed one-fifth.) Lower Valve. HIPPURITE, ANGOULEME. ee ee ee a o> ae LE SRES ESTER TALS el as, WOODWARD—SOME ACCOUNT OF BARRETTIA. B77 (Petref. vol. ii. pl. 165, fig. 5, ce). We have before pointed out that it is essential there should be space for the alimentary canal to pass between the hinge and posterior shell-muscle of a bivalve, and we have shown that such an opening is provided in the Hippurite and Radiolite by the undercutting of the muscular apophysis, which would otherwise close the whole interval (fig. 2, 7). There is a hippurite in the British Museum which is hollow and empty, having been lined with only a thin film of spar. It is broken open at the side, and a wire has been passed round in the direction of the dotted line in fig. 5, ¢ w, which is the course that must have been taken by the alimentary canal in the living animal. The nearest approxima- tion to the hinge-structure of this genus is presented by the little Caprotine, found in soft yellow marls of Le Mans, in the Department of Sarthe, which may be cleared from the matrix without difficulty. With respect to the other suggestion, that the two depressions in the lid of the Hippurite, (the ocwli in H. bioculatus,) may be openings to facilitate the admission and escape of the branchial currents, it is only needful to observe that they have no existence as orifices, except in weathered specimens. These spots in the operculum correspond to the projecting columns in the lower valve, and fit down upon them closely. In the upper valve of H. Loftusi, figured in the ‘ Geological Journal’ (pl. 3, fig. 4), portions of the columns remain adhering to the spots; and in the specimens now represented from Angouléme (figs. 6 and 7) the removal of the inner layer of shell has exposed the cor- responding columns in each valve, while a portion broken from the lower valve is still attached to the upper, and shows the closeness of the contact at the place of the imaginary openings. The probable relation of the second column (x) to the respiratory currents of the animal was first suggested in our former descriptions. EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. PLATE XX, Fig. 1.—Barrettia monilifera ; group of three individuals, much reduced. Fig. 2.—Longitudinal section of the upper part of a large specimen, reduced one-fifth. Fig. 8.—Longitudinal section of a fragment, taken upon the line of union of three in- dividuals. : Vig. 4.—Transverse section of the same specimen. Prats XXI. - Pig. 5.—Transverse section of the same specimen as Fig. 2: 2 d, line of section; r, body-cavity of lower valve; ~, umbonal cavity; 2, dental process of lower valve; ¢ 7, dental process of upper valve; @ a’, adductor processes ; ¢ c’, cartilage pits; m, muscular inflection ; 7, siphonal inflection ; 2, probable course of alimentary canal and exhaleut cur- rent ; 2, canals and canaliculi of upper valve. Vig. 6,—Interior of upper valve of hippurite from Angouléme, with part of the wall of the lower valve adhering to it (marked x); the inner shell-layer wanting. Fig. 7.—Interior of a lower valve from the same place. VOL. V. 3 ¢ 378 THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. By W. H. Benstep, Esa. (Continued from page 341.) The lower mandible of a chimzera—the first discovered in the Lower Greensand—is now in the collection of Sir Philip Egerton, who in- forms me it belongs to the species Ischyodus Agassiz. Since this discovery I have met with many more specimens, some of smaller size ; but, from the difficulty of extracting them from the stone, L have never succeeded in getting one so perfect. Several good specimens have been procured from the Lower Chalk at Burham. The chimera approaches in form to the shark tribe, but it is far from being so ravenous in its disposition. Recent species are found in the Arctic and in some of tle European seas, and attaining the length of two or three feet. Being often taken in the company of the herrings in their migrations, it has thus gained the patronymic of “king of the herrings.” The mouth of this odd-looking fish is furnished with hard and undivided plates instead of teeth, four of which are placed on the upper and two on the lower jaw. Fossils are very rare in the succeeding “rugged flint layers,” which have an average thickness of eight inches. The next stratum in the quarry to be noticed is the “grey has- sock’”’ bed. This stone is of very good texture for building, and contains a small species of Belemnite, which I have not seen in in any other layer. In this hassock there runs a thin bed of minute polished pebbles about the size of a pin’s head, of various colours, and with them are mixed a profusion of small sharp-pointed fish-teeth. This accumulation appears to have been the result of a partial cur- rent, which carried away the small sand, leaving the larger pebbles as described. A species of Siphonia occurs in large quantities, marking the hassock with dark-grey wavy lines, but the stems are seldom dis- tinct enough to be extracted from the stone. There next follows a concretional layer, in which fossils rarely occur; then a soft hassock; and then a lower molluskite bed, similar to the upper one, with fossils. “Soft hassock, No. 18,” is a group of three layers of blue limestone, with two beds of hassock, having a total thickness of six feet. The group occupies a vertical space of about six feet. The shells found are peculiar to these beds, occurring only in them; and there is also an immense accumulation of detached spicule—the remains of dead sponges. It is in this group that the Scaphite makes its first general appearance, one specimen only having been met with higher in the series (in layer No. 2), but I have not been able to decide if that be- longs to the same species. This is followed by “soft limestone;’’? and to this, again, succeeds a second bed of “soft hassock’’ (No. 14) which presents us witha very large species of fucus or siphonia, in great profusion. It is BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 379 traced in the hassock without difficulty from its clear blue colour, and by being composed of limestone. Within the stem a pith or cavity runs fora considerable distance, and portions have a ferruginous tinge. Very large specimens show the branched form of this organism. Another “ soft limestone’’ next occurs, the same character as that recorded above. The “soft hassock”’ (No. 15) has some interest attached to it by the discovery of a tooth of the Polyptychodon, of a much larger size than the one described at page 338. ‘The enamel of this tooth is so friable that much of it shivered off in clearing away the sandstone which enveloped it, but enough remains to show the strize which are one of its characteristic features. A rolled pebble or boulder of granite was found in this bed of “ spicule hassock ;” it weighs 83 lbs., and is of a flat oblong shape, about eight inches one way by five the other, and three inches thick. Jt has some Flustra attached to its surface, and the impression of a 'I'rigonia is perceptible on one side. The latter seems to have been caused by the weight of the superin- cumbent strata pressing the shell close on the surface of the granite, although how the tracery of its form was impressed on so hard a sub- stance is not easily to be understood. The Trigonia has not entered the boulder, but the outline is on the surface. For the granite, how- ever, it is a seal identifying its locality. The occurrence of a fragment of primitive rock in a Secondary formation is interesting ; and its solitary occurrence in a bed free from pebbles, and even coarse sand, gives rise to speculative conjecture as to the means of its envelopment. The sand is of very fine texture, and contains an immense quantity of detached spicule of dead sponges. The skeleton of a marine tur- tle was found not very far off, and a tooth of Polyptychodon occurred near the same spot. We have now causes in action giving rise to similar results. The sand from the coasts of New South Wales or some parts of Africa contains abundance of spicule of all descrip- tions; the same is the case with the sand from the West India Is- lands, arising from the decomposition of myriads of spongeous bo- dies with which the bottom of the seas in those regions is covered. There can be no doubt but that the sand of the sandstone of the Lower Greensand here has been accumulated under similar cireum- stances. Skeletons of the turtles, and teeth and bones of the fishes inhabiting that ancient sea, are found mingled with the sand and de- tached spicule, but the boulder was probably rolled into its spherical figure in association and in contact with fragments of rock of equal size and hardness with itself. The presence of the cells of the deli- cate Hlustra shows clearly that it had not been rolled in the sand in which it was enveloped, and the attachment of a small shell to its surface indicates a tranquil state of the waters around it. It is dif_i- cult to account for its presence. Icebergs are known to transport fragments of rock to a considerable distance, but an objection to the iceberg-carriage is found in the present case in the high temperature of the Lower Greensand sea, which was inhabited by tropical species of shells and zoophytes. 380 THE GEOLOGIST. The “Black Greys” (border) is one of the most remarkable of the whole series of beds displayed in the Iguanodon quarry. Its sandy border contains an immense accumulation of organic remains —all marine, with the exception of fragments of wood perforated by teredines, of which animals, in most cases, the sheaths remain. The sandstone is of a dark grey, hard and coarse in texture, and about twelve inches thick. A portion is full of the casts and markings of Siphonie and Fucus Targonit. Casts of Trigonia al@formis are very abundant, and, as in the Molluskite laver, the shells are open, and of the dead mollusks the carbonaceous matter is found in large quan- tities. At the junction of the hassock with the limestone beneath it, two beds containing shells in great profusion. The first contains chiefly the shells of a Panopea, but the substance of the shell is now nothing more than a slight film of lime, which falls to dust when dry. The difficulty of vetting specimens is also ereatly increased by thes crushed condition, being almost flattened by the pressure they have undergone. Immediately under this vein of shells, and sometimes mingling with them, is seen for the first time a bed of the charac. teristic Gryphea, or Exogyra. These shells often occur in groups of considerable numbers, and I have had five good specimens within a thickness of stone not exceeding three inches. ‘This bed of shells appears to have only existed for a short period, as the occurrence of an individual in any part of the remaining portion of the layer 1s rarely seen ; and, indeed, the stone is remarkably free from any re- mains of animal life. The accumulation of Siphoniz gives the rough fracture so generally found in ragstone, but occasionally a smooth flat surface is obtained by cleavage. The hassock contains many nodules of clear blue limestone, very similar to septaria. This oc- currence in the coarse sandstone is remarkable, as the stone is of a very clear structure, light blue in colour, and in some instances of a pear-shaped figure, ‘from which I attribute their origin to zoophytic structure, although no traces of such structure has been detected. Below the last-mentioned layer the stone is of inferior quality. The fossils are of the same kind as those oceurring in the border of the “Black Greys.” The only opportunity I have had of examining them was during the sinking of a well, when water was found at twelve feet below the “Black “Greys.” Detached spicule, Trigonie, Plagiostome, stems of Siphonie, Plicatule, and Belemnites, were very pbun dant. The layers were as under :— Concretionary masses of greyish limestone, from 6 to 12 inches in thickness. Few fossils. Hard coarse hassock, 2 feet in thiekness. Siphonize in large masses ; casts of Trigonie aleformis. ; Thin layer of stone, Soft hassock, about 6 inches, with spiculee. Grey-blue limestone of clear fracture. Few shells. 6 to 7 inches thick. Hard hassock, 18 inches. Impressions of Siphonie. Water was then found in loose rubbly layers of stone. Having now terminated the description of the series found in my BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 381 quarry, we pass on to the other members of the Lower Greensand found in the Maidstone district. Below the Kentish rag beds comes the Atherfield clay. This formation is passed through in the railway- cutting at Tetsom, where it is seen basseting out from beneath the hills of ragstone. A list of the fossils of this division of the Lower Cretaceous rocks has been published by Dr. Fitton in the Transac- tions of the Geological Society, vol. iv. part 2, 1836. The junction with the Weald clay may be clearly traced at this place, and laminated beds of fawn-coloured stone are met, containing seams of small Paludins, Cyprides, teeth and bones of fish, and SrcTion or A Borine AT Mr. Fisn’s also the elytra, or wing-cases, _ BREWERY. of beetles. In 1851, the Weald 12 feet. Débris of Medway, gravel clay was met with in digging §=|————_ flints, rolled rag-stone. a drain in St. Faith’s Street (Maidstone). At a depth of from eight to ten feet, a series of slate-coloured slabs of stone 88 feet. Atherfield clay (stiff blue was found, in which Wealden ay) fossils (Cypris) were to be seen lying in close proximity. The phe edges of these slabs were round- ed, and a ferruginous border of 30 feet. Wea , gue (fine-grained @ quarter of aninch enveloped. |__| _8**)s"™ a the stone. I conjecture that __1 feet. | Red, blue, and yellow clay. it is this border which is found in a broken and waterworn state, mixed with the drift, at 30 feet. Grit and clay (greenish-grey) with Paludina. Stratum of Bethersden Watious places>round Maid-° |——-———— arbi: stone. In 1847, Mr. Fish com- 45, feet. Very hard close-grained menced a boring for the sup- brown sands. ply of water for his brewery. |— 3 tect. | Variegated clays (red and Wishing to obtain a supply [~~~ |_| white). free from the acidity of de- cayed vegetable matter, he set out with the intention of going sufficiently deep to secure that result. After passing through about twelve feet of the débris of theancient Medway, he came 90 feet. Blue clay, with crushed to a dark-blue clay of soapy shells.” texture, with veins of greyish white. No fossils were ob- tained. In this clay a supply | of water was obtained, but it v was not equal to the demand,—the water, turbid from the clay which it held in suspension, requiring a long time for its precipitation. After next passing through about 88 fect of clay, a bed of fine- 4.0 feet. Brown sand. 360 feet. 382 : THE GEOLOGIST. grained sand was met, 30 feet in thickness; the sand, when dry, was of a greyish white. Then followed a bed of clay, red, blue, and yellow, 10 feet. At 170 feet, a most interesting bed of grit and clay, of a light green, was found, with many fragments of Paludine iden- tical with those of the Wealden clays elsewhere. At 10 feet below this, astratum of hard limestone gave great obstruction to the boring. This bed, from an inspection of two small fragments, I believe to be a layer of the Bethersden marble, containing Paludine of much smaller size than those of the clay above. About 45 feet of very compact brown sands now gave great opposition to the auger, as the friction wore its edge rapidly away. Mottled clay, red and white, sometimes streaked with much regularity, was next pierced for 5 feet, and a second brown sand passed through for 40 feet. 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OSL 2 We} ea ca . ros H so [ ot eal eens oe A on oe Bee oD - Horm HH OCOnmor- ie) ees cOr EOE AC MOH E 7 [ie 8°s é UG : $9 ESL: i, 6L ' OF : OLE | ° 9°9 : OP ; 0's : 80 : 8c FP : 6'9 2 $o'L : 6°P . 8s 60°S : ca : : S WORAMDIDODSCOH BN HOOAMMIOH CO ae ine) OF [hep re SES TUBATB puB opeovyy | . . sure | . “VILVWIVdG ol rat I ' sgoqjorg aesursieyy f° * 8 g SL I C * jyoyosny "Ty | ° © * ssnyuosse yy 9 cL P : * nepiyy AY A | * [qmeureyosy, 3 09 09 08 I Es a 3 099931] T * * "09 pue 27URIyT i Of {OSL 99%L T * goTeysy pus uoysury | * : j * 1eq9r'T *qooy 9 sopiut oaenbs ysipoug? 99 UeYY e1OUL JO LOOT, OSBIDAB OY} UC youqdeyT yvoid oy} UO ssuLddIp Jo zoquinu W “WIOINUVO 009 aaa T uURULypIG pue Urloyysory | ° C * samqsorg : BUISsRSTRA JUNOD | * c - Banque g 9 oe I c * gtoqiox, toreg | * z : yOossory ra Gl 096 Tt * yrvusroeuuog yunog | * : pieyquoey 49 raGa FL it dD * godsy ssoqzunog | * : : SIMqe[g oc |sto6!l TL |° * yoqteyuomwwg |: * * staqszoA, “VIHINTAVO ° og I SinquezreMyog vourrg | * O C * nee yl eyoseiq ‘*H |! 0 : : : PLL OcL I ; “ UMOIN OUT | ° : ; * THD ; aOryeIo «s 0g $1 046 |(§°ON) L f -ossy TW preaserg (os FS 93 BL I : ; Byosnyos “| * ; ‘Wo ‘ ZL I TUBUIOIG, puR ULOASO' | * * —- ZYBISYOSIPUL AA FL él I "WUT pus ysuorpuroyy ‘ 91 1G 9F6 ii : : * UMOIY on o 9¢ 9 Il ¥ P ‘ ; coat a dt a > Arouyery resn % . . 08 81049 6 j ued dence aa PICASTOTA 02 |@S19396} T eee ee SECT f 0); Blue bind: 0 2 4 moe 1G 2711 2 6} Clinch and ironstone. 2818 0 2! Dark blue stone bind and iroustone. 29/2 1 0} Ditto bind with light stone beds. 30|6 1 0} Grey stone with smut beds. (Much water.) Jan. 26, 1855. Commenced working the first lift of 9 im. pumps. 31;0 2 O| Dark stony bind. ~ 32|3 1 5] White stone mixed with bind. 2nd tubbing corb. 1 0 10} White stone. (Much water, 1000 gallons per minute.) Oct. 8, 1855. Commenced working with two sets of 9 in. pumps. August 14, 1854. Set-out shafts 10 ft. a a Thickness ie Suis Name of Strata. ‘iyds. ft. in. May 19, 1856. Commenced pumping with four sets of 9 in pumps. Sept. 6, 1856. Stopped pumping; could not lower the water in either shaft. Nov. 22, 1858. Commenced pumping with four sets of 9 in. pumps. Jan. 27, 1859. Commenced cleaning dirt out of pit bottom. 3310 0 32| Dark clunch. 3410 0 4 | Black shale. 35 1.0) O ah0s8Coale 36|0 0 81 Soft sloome. 37|1 0 3} Clunch. 38|2 0 6| Grey stone. (Water, 300 gallons per minute.) 39 {0 O 11 | Stone bind. 8rd tubb. corb. 40 ;1 2 1 | Stony bind. 4th ditto. EO A oO Dither 41|1 2 0O| White stone. (Water, 80 gallons per minute.) 42;}0 0 3 | Ironstone. 43}1 0 8 | Dark bind. 4410 0 14) Ironstone. 45/1 0 O | Dark bind. 4610 0 14} Ironstone. 47|0- 1-11 | Dark bind. 4810 0 14) Ironstone. 49|0 2 71! Dark bind. 5010 O 14! Ironstone. 51}0 2 11 Very dark bind. 52|0 2 11 | Coal.(Water, 35 galls. min.) 538{1 2 6) Dark clunch. 5th tub. corb. » | 210) Very dark bind. 54/0 2 3 | Strong coal. 55;0 1 4 | Light clunch. 5610: 1 8] Dark bind. 57|0 1 83 | Light bind. 58'| 00 5 i@oalband ate 59/0 1 - 9) tClunche 60;1 2 6{|Grey stone. (Water, 130 gallons per minute.) 61/0 1 0Q | Stony bind. 6th tubb. corb. » |O0 O 7 | Steny bind. 62|0 1 10} White stone | Water, 110 63 3 1 6 Ribbony stones galls. min. 64); 1 0 4 | Strong blue bind. 65|0 0 2} Ironstone. 66}0 1 6) Strong blue bind. 7th tubb. corb., 29th Dec., 1859. GEOLOGICAL NOTES IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 415 PARTICULARS OF STRATA AT HIGH PARK COLLIERY—continued. ATO. Thickness ie Thickness Bg nor Bees, Namo ooStaatas of | of Strata. WaioiGh Ainake Str. vas. ft. in. Str. |vds. ft. in. 66| 2 0 10) Blue bind with ironstone | 108|2 2 0 | Grey stone. balls. 109}1 0 9 | Stony bind. 4th bricking 6711 0. 0 | Soft coal. corb, 68|1 0 6) Light clunch. » |4 2 4 | Stony bind. 69|1 2 4 | Blue bind. 110|0 1 0O/| Black shale. 70|0 1 2] Coal and bat. 1l1}1 2 4 | Light clunch. 71|1 2 6) Tight clunch. 112|3 0 6 Grey stone. 72;2 O 1) Darkstone. 113|}1 0 4 | Stony bind. 5th bricking 73|0 O 9 | light stone. corb, Aug. 22, 1860. 74|1 O 5 | Strong bind.8thtub.corb. | ,, | 2 0 9 | Stony bind. » |0 2 6} Raised pittop. Mar.1860. | 114) 1 0 2 | Dark stony bind. 75|3 1 0O| Blue bind and ironstone. | 115|0 2 3) Black shale with thin beds 9th tubbing corb. of ironstone. 76/5 0 6 Strong bindandironstone. | 116|0 1 9 | Dark stone clunch. [st bricking corb, 117;0 1 8 Cank. Aug. 28th, 1860. 7710 2 0} Black shale. 118} 1 2. 9 | Stone. ; 78|0 0 23| Ironstone. 119|2 1 4| Dark bind. 6th bricking 79|0 0O 8 | Black shale. corb., Sept. 3, 1860. 80/0 0 23) Ironstone. 120|8 0 2| Stony bind. 7th bricking 81) 0 2 9| Dark bind. | corb., Sept. 18, 1860. 82/0 0 10] Black shale. PE}. 05-2 9) Goal: 83|0 1 8| Coal. 122|0 1 0 | Dark stone clunch. 84|1 0 7/| Strong stone clunch. 123) 2 1 6 | Grey clanch. 85 |0 0 6} White stone. 124;0 1 8} Black shale. 8th bricking 86|7 1 0| Dark bind and ironstone. corb., Sept. 22, 1860. 2nd bricking corb. » |O 1 OJ Black shale. » |O 1 8] Dark bindand ironstone. | 125;0 2 8] Blue bind. 87|0 2 6} Black shale. 126)0 0 4 |-Cank. 8810 2 4| Coal. 127|2 1 8j| Black shale. 89/0 1 2| Bat. 128;4 1 6) Bind and ironstone. 9th 90; 2 1 8 | Strong clunch. bricking corb. 91;0 0 2} Bat. 129;0 2 61 Soft coal (Comb coal). 92°) Oa » 1 )-Clunch. Oct. 1, 1860. Dee! 0.0 +3.) Bat. 130 2 1 0} Clunchandironstone balls. 94}1 1 4) Stoneclunch. 10thtubb. | 181!0 1 1 | Soft roof paw hei corb. 0 O 10} Rifler aA 3 i » |0 2 1) Stoneclunch. Jul.6,1860. Q 1 10} Main hard / “y lin 95|6 2 10 | Stony bind. 0 1 4 | Bottom soft) ees 96|0 0 7| Black shale. 1382/0 0 6) Holing sloome. 97'1 0O 6) Stone clunch. LS3h) 0 2: 1) Clunch: 98|2 0O 5 | Stony bind. 134) 1 2 2/| Stone. 99;0 0 6) Bat. 135 | 2 2 11] Blue bind. 100;0 1 8 | Clunch. 136 0> Ty LV Coal. 101;}0 1 7| Bat and coal. 137 {1 1 6) Clunch. 10th brick. corb. 102|}0 2 8 | Clunch. 3rd brickingcorb, | 185) 4 1 0 | Stone bind. July 31st, 1860, 139|0 0 8 | Ironstone. 103} 1 0 8 | Stone clunch. 140} 4 1 9) Blue bind and ironstone. 1104/2 1 0} Stony bind. 11th bricking corb. 105|}0 0O 10) Coal. Bottom of sump. 106} 1 O 10) Light clunch. 141} 0 2 1/1 Dunsil coal. 107;0 1 7j| Cank. — ee 416 PARTICULARS THE GEOLOGIST. OF THE STRATA SUNK THROUGH AT COTMANHAY COLLIERY, IN THE PARISH OF ILKESTON, IN THE COUNTY OF DERBY. No Thickness pam of Strata. Ptr. | ds. ft. in. 2 9 HSI OOW OW OHO Se HH HYOoewowsd HSHOdOMH4ODWODMDWAO oor Ocoeo& bt et ECD 0 S&S CO CO 2 OD bo (=) wo (<=) rate SCOorooHrEeRoer «a S HF ooowowoco ORWROWROWE Name of Strata. Soil and clay. Coal. Soft clunch. Brown stone. Soft bind. Tronstone. Stone bind. Grey stone. Stone bind. Soft soapy bind. Soft bind with black bands of thin ironstone. Black shale. Soft white bind, Jay and coal. Dark clunch. Stone. Stone bind with iron- stone beds. Tronstone. (Whetstone rake.) Broad bind with iron- stone beds. Black bind. Tronstone. Broad black bind. Soft white bind. Black shale. White bind. Tronstone Brown Water in these measures. Black shale ‘ak Tronstone ne Bind and shale alter- nately. 0 31/0 i ww OC SOc GH WOH WHOORMAWOOWOOHOO Oo 5811 ‘lyds. ft. jae) COCCOWMWNOUWVOCOCOHFOWHKNOHDA =) Thickness "| of Strata. o> SSNS SJ CMS ae COCK HWNADAMDODOKROAAGQWODsws co Name of Strata. Coal Tire clay. Strong stoneclunch. Tub- bing corb. Strong bind with ironstone. Craw stone. Troustone. Black shale with } large balls of | eae ironstone eco Stone (bottom | **** ironstone). J Black shale. Clunch. Stone bind with ironstone. Coal (Ell). Strong stone clunch, Stone. Clunch. Coal. Stone clunch. Stone and Cank. Strong stone bind. Main smut. Soft clunch. Stone. Strong broad bind. Main soft coal. Bat. Stony clunch. Dark stone. Strong broad bind with small beds of ironstone. Hard Pothouse coal (main). BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. ON BITUMINOUS SCHISTS* AND THEIR RELATION TO COAL. By PROFESSOR D. T. Anstep, M.A., E.R.S. Rocks in which naphtha, petroleum, rock oil, bitumen, asphalte, and other mineral hydrocarbons are present in sufficient abundance to cha- * This term, “ bituminous schists,” is not altogether correct, as the minerals so called It is, however, in familiar use, and to be preferred to the term “pyro-schist ” suggested by Dr. Sterry Hunt, which is equally in- correct, without having the advantage of being familiar. do not contain bitumen properly so called. BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 417 racterize the deposit or attract attention, are widely distributed in various geological formations, and belong to no special geological period. Crys- talline and metamorphic rocks contain chapopote and other forms of bitu- men. Rock oil rises in jets from below Silurian, Devonian, and carboni- ferous rocks in North America. Bituminous limestones and schists occur in Ireland in Silurian rocks, and at Caithness in Devonian rocks, and else- where, not unfrequently in the British Islands, in carboniferous rocks. Bituminous schists are important in the Permian series in Germany, and not absent in the New led Sandstone. The Posidonia schists of the Lias and other beds are highly bituminous, and in the Oolites, the cretaceous rocks, and even in the Tertiaries, especially in Germany, the same bituminous character often prevails. Asphalte is common:in some Tertiaries ; oil rises from the nummulitic rocks in the Hast, and in the West Indies we have the Pitch-lake of Trinidad. In almost all these cases there is a marked distinction between coal, properly so called, and rocks containing: the hydrocarbons. Coal is mineral fuel, from which gas can be obtained’ by destructive, and occasionally cer- tain oils by slow, distillation. The various’ bituminous rocks or bitumens contained in rocks are not good fuel, but yield largely certain valuable products by slow distillation. Coal can be coked, and the coke, or unburnt carbon, is a valuable fuel. The best and richest of the bituminous schists will not coke, and the result of an attempt to make it is to produce an ash that will not burn. Notwithstanding this general distinction, coal passes insensibly into eannel coal, or parrot, and this again appears to pass into those peculiar shales rich in bitumen, known in Scotland as Boghead coal or Torbane Hill mineral. These remain debatable ground. ‘Specimens of them, carelessly collected, have been used as fuel; but parts of the same sample are often coal, while the rest is shale, and thus much confusion has arisen as to the fuel question. ‘They are unusually rich in valuable oils, and form a curious passage between two minerals—coal and shale, or schist—that do not ge- nerally bear any resemblance. The distinction between coal and shale is practically very important, and deserves careful consideration. I wish to direct the attention of the Sec- tion to some instances that may help to throw light upon the question. Two localities in France visited by me in the year 1861 are particularly interesting in this respect, and deserve to be better known by English geo- logists than they seem to be. The rocks in both are of the carboniferous period. The various places where the Lias schists are now worked for dis- tillation, chiefly in Germany, are also worthy of special reference, and the Tertiary bituminous shales of the Rhine are not less important. At Feymoreau, a short distance from Fontenay-le-Comte, situated in the Bourbon Vendée, betw een Nantes and Rochelle, there is a small coal- field, almost classical in respect to the important distillation of light oils by slow distillation of rocks containing hydrocarbons. It was at this spot, then far less accessible than it now is, “that M. Selligué, so long ago as in 1830, obtained light paraffine oil, heavier illuminating oil, lubricating oil, and paraffine, by # a method identical with that patented by Mr. Young in England in 1851. The works were abandoned owing to the want of com- munication with a market, and M. Selligué afterwards established works, still carried on successfully, at Autun. The Feymoreau schists underlie coal of a poor quality, and thus replace underclay, but they contain no vegetable impressions or markings. ‘They are of deep black colour, hard and tough when first exposed, but fall to pieces after a time. They burn freely, with much smoke and a long flame, VOL. V. 3 i 418 THE GEOLOGIST. but cannot be used as fuel. Externally they much resemble the better qualities of Boghead and Torbane Hill mineral, but they yield only about 15 per cent. of light oil on slow distillation. They contain 60 per cent. of ash, and some water. The schists and coal both vary in thickness, and occasionally seem to pass into each other. The schists are in some places 30 to 40 feet thick, but they do not extend far in any direction, or at least if they extend under the coal, which seems probable, they are not every- where bituminous. The Feymoreau schists agree with the rich hydrocarbon minerals of Torbane Hill and Boghead, in Scotland, in appearance, geological position, and in the fact that they occasionally alternate with coal. They differ in being far less rich in useful products, and they are always and readily dis- tinguishable as schists, never putting on the appearance of true coal. On the other side of France is Autun, where there is also a small coal- field; but where bituminous schists cf precisely the same nature as those at Feymoreau generally occur in a part of the carbomiferous series consi- siderably above the highest coal-seam, and several hundred yards above any workable bed. Below the coal at Autun are coarse grits of granite and gneiss, alternating with black shales. The bituminous shales are partly quarried, and partly obtained by drifts or headings reaching the more valuable beds. There are about ten feet of bituminous schist at Cordesse, where I visited the operations of mining and manufacture; and of these five only are valuable. Elsewhere the thickness is greater. The broken schist is black ; but at the surface, while in the bed, it is reddish-brown. The percentage of bitumen is very variable, sometimes amounting to 50 per cent. of oils of all kinds, but the average not much exceeding 6 at Cordesse, though much higher at Igornay, a place in the neighbourhood where there are also works. At Chamboy, the rich shales are nearer the coal and alternate with it. A grey limestone and grey ironstone occur in some parts of the Autun coal-field. The Autun mineral oils are moderately rich in paraffine. The shales will not serve as a fuel, and are never so employed. Some beds are rather py- ritous, and others abound with vegetable impressions, differing in this re- spect from the Feymoreau schist. The general resemblance of the Autun specimens to Boghead is very striking. _ The manufacture of schist oils and parafline candles is carried on exten- sively in more than one place near Autun, and the quantity supplied is large. The methods adopied are the same as those of Mr. Young in ge- neral principle, and are said to have been little altered for twenty years. The Tertiary shales below the brown coal on the Rhine are-found in many places to be very bituminous. They have no resemblance to coal or brown coal, and are easily distinguished from the latter. They are thin, and form the blatte, or paper coal, of the Germans. They are worked near Linz and elsewhere, and are distilled at Beul, opposite Bonn, the products being precisely similar to those obtained from the other bituminous schists, and in nearly the same proportions ; but the yield is small. The Posidonia schists of the Upper Lias are worked at present for eco- nomic purposes at Bamberg, in the north of Bavaria, and at Reutlingen, near Tubingen, in Wiirtemberg. The manufacture of light paraffine -oil, heavy oils for burning, lubricating oil, and paraffine, has been carried on with some success by the distillaticn of these schists for some years. Re- cently a similar establishment has commenced work with the schists of si- milar age at Orawicza in Hungary, near the Danube at Baziasch. The Kisleben shales, amongst which the copper slate is deposited, are not less remarkable for their bitumen. This is apparently very intimately BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 419 connected with the schists, well known to geologists for the abundance of fossil fish found in them. In this case, therefore, there seems great proba- bility of the biiumen being of animal origin. No difference has been ob- served as to the contents obtained on distillation. The Kimmeridge “coal” is an unmistakable shale, but some portions resemble lignite. It has occasionally been used for obtaining paraffine ; but, being much less rich than the Scotch shales, the result is not sufficiently encouraging to justify a continuance of the experiment. It is possible that some of the other black shales known in various de- posits may be found available, and may come into use for distillation. It is evident that bituminous schists of various dates, some associated with and resembling coal, some even passing into coal, others totally un- hke coal in every respect and far removed from it geologically, exist in various countries in considerable abundance, and admit of profitable dis- tillation at low heat for the purpose of manufacturing, illuminating, and lu- bricating oils and paraffine. It is important that such substances should be recognized as a class and not mixed up with coal, and that there should be some understanding as to what coal is, and in what it differs from the carbonaceous and bituminous minerals with which it is often loaded. I append a list of a few of the rocks and localities where bituminous schists and their products are obtained. It would certainly admit of great expansion :— Lower Silurian . Ireland and America (Utica Slates). Upper Silurian . Ditto. Devonian . . . Caithness schists. Shale with 30 per cent. of organic matter, and a residue of 8 per cent. of carbon. American rock oils (some localities). Carboniferous. American rock oils. | Torbane Hill and Boghead, etc., minerals. Lower, Middle, / Parrots and cannel coal. and Upper . | Terre houille of Belgium. Vauyvont or Feymoreau schists, La Vendée. Above coal . Autun schists. Permian . . . Hisleben shales and Kupfer schiefer. 5 to 20 per cent. of light oils. Mansfeld schists. Tias. . . . . Posidonia schists, worked in Northern Bavaria, at Banz; in Wiirtemberg, near Tiibingen; at Ora- vieza in Hungary. Oolites . . . . Kimmeridge shale (Dorsetshire), a shale used for dis- tillation to obtain paraffine, and occasionally serving as a very poor fuel. Cretaceous. . . Various schists in the Alps. Tertiary . . . Paper “coal,” near Bonn (under:the brown coal). Deposits beneath nummulitic rock in the East. I have no doubt that a little research would remind us of many other localities, but these are enough to show the presence of a certain quantity of hydrocarbons (the result, there can be no doubt, of organic matter) exhibited in this form, a part of which has sometimes been con- verted into coal, but which is more usually quite distinct from coal and unconnected with it. I have not alluded in this paper to the surface accumulations of petro- Jeum or to the asphalte with sand and in sandstone, nor to the chapapote of Cuba—a very remarkable deposit, deserving distinct notice. I have confined my remarks to the bituminous schists, to bring the subject within compass. 420 THE GEOLOGIST. ON THE SKIDDAW SLATE VEINS. By Proressor Harkness, F.R.S., F.G.S: The author pointed out the several areas where the Skiddaw slates occur in Cumberland and Westmoreland. He then proceeded to detail the na- ture of a section from Newlands, between Derwentwater and Buttermere on the south, to the carboniferous rocks at Sunderland on the north. This section exhibits two well-marked axes; and through the series of rocks which occur between these axes and the green rocks appertaining to a higher series, wherever the Skiddaw slates put on a flaggy character, these strata afford fossils. A section from the green rocks on the north of Great Dod, across Sad- dleback, the valley of the Calden, and Caldbeck Fells, through the Skid- daw slate beds, was next described. This section shows a considerable de- velopment of metamorphic rocks in-the valley of the Calden in connection with the granite of Skiddaw Forest, as alluded to by Professor Sedgwick ; and the strata in this section have for the most part a §.8.E. inclination. In this section, where the rocks are not metamorphical, and when devoid of cleavage, they also afford fossils. A section along the eastern margin of the Skiddaw slate and the super- ficial green rocks of Westmoreland was next referred to. In this section three small but separate patches of Skiddaw slates were pointed out, viz. one on the S.E. side of Ullswater; another in Rosgill Beck, and a third in Thornship Beck ; and in the two latter Skiddaw slate has been worked for slate-pencils. These also have furnished Professor Harkness with fossils, and their appearance is the result of three axes oecurring between Ulls- water and Wastdale Crag. In a fourth section across Black Comb, the arrangement of the Skiddaw slates, as these occur in their most southern position in the Lake district, was also indicated. In the Black Comb area the prevalent dips are N.N.W., and from near'the base of the Skiddaw in this section fossils were also obtained. : The organic remains which Professor Harkness procured from the seve- ral areas of Skiddaw slate consist. for the most part of graptolites. Of these, there are two genera which have been recognized by Mr. Salter as known in the Quebec beds of Sir W. Logan: and in the Lower Silurians of Australia, viz. Tetragrapsus and Dendrograpsus of Hall. Besides these there is a phyllopod Crustacean, which Mr. Salter regards as identical with a form from the Australian Lower Silurians. Professor Harkness also indicated the occurrence of tracks in the Skiddaw slates, and pointed out certain bodies which he regarded as the cases of Annelids allied to the modern Terebella. The position of the Skiddaw slates and their fossil contents justify the conclusion that they are referable to the horizon of the Lower Llandeilo. ON THE PALEONTOLOGY OF MINERAL VEINS, AND THE SECON- DARY AGE OF SOME MINERAL VEINS IN CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE, By Cuartes Moore, F.G.S. _In directing the attention of the Geological Section of the British Asso- ciation to the above subject, the author first referred to remarkable geolo- BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE, 421 gical phenomena he had noticed in the Carboniferous Limestones of the Mendip Hills. Through the whole of this district he observed that the beds had been very much fissured, and that most of them had subsequently ‘been filled in with deposits containing numerous organic remains of dif- ferent geological ages, some of which were probably as young as the Infe- rior Oolite. A small roadside section at Holwell, on the south-east of the Mendip, was described, in which, at the base, Carboniferous Lime- stone was present ; whilst resting unconformably upon it was a dense un- stratified conglomeratic deposit, containing shelis of the age of the Middle Lias, and on this rested thin horizontal beds of Inferior Oolite. The out- crop of a mineral vein was also present in this section. Near the above was a quarry 200 feet in length, within which were thirteen vertical fis- sures passing down through inclined stratified beds of Carboniferous Lime- stone: one of them being fifteen feet in breadth at the base of the quarry. These fissures, which occupied nearly one-third of the section, had been filled in by a dense variegated limestone, containing occasionally Brachio- poda, Crustacea, Belemnites, and fish and reptilian remains of secondary age. In an adjoiming quarry to the above Mr. Moore found a softer infilling, three cart-loads of which he removed to his residence, and found therein teeth of the Wicrolestes, the oldest known quadruped ; various reptilia, including Placodus and Thecodontosaurus ; more than 50,000 teeth of the Lophodus, together with an immense number of other organic remains, from the age of the Carboniferous Limestone to that of the Inferior Oolite, though they appeared chiefly to have been derived from the bone-bed of Rheetic age. In the upper portions of some of these fissures, galena, sulphate of barytes, and iron ore were occasionally present, which showed that in these cases the minerals must necessarily be of secondary age. Desirous of more fully investigating this point, the author examined the mineral deposits of the Mendips, in doing which he descended the Charter House Mine, and obtained very interesting results. The lead mines of this dis- trict had been extensively worked in’the Roman period, the slags and slimes they left being now profitably re-worked. The vein-stuff of the above mine was found to be very varied in its character. At one point it was almost entirely composed of disjointed encrinital stems, with a few corals, all much abraded by the action of water. Ata depth of 175 feet, where the working had ceased, there occurred a deposit of blue marl eight feet in thickness, which yielded 73 per cent. of lead ore. In this marl he found organic remains in the greatest abundance, and eventually succeeded in obtaining about 130 species, a few being derived from the Carboniferous Limestone, though the greater number were of secondary age. They con- sisted of an Ammonite, Belemnites, ten species of Brachiopoda, including Zellania—hitherto found only by the author in the Upper Lias and the Inferior Oolite ; also, Thecideum, Crania, Lingula, Rhynchonella, Spirifer, ete. Of univalves, there were about thirty species ; of Foraminifera, fif- teen ; fish remains were abundant, consisting of teeth, scales, and bones of probably fifteen species. In this clay were also blocks of stone containing shells and pieces of drift-wood, the latter having been converted into jet. From these facts it became evident that the Mendip lead-veins had been within the influence of the ocean during the secondary period, and that the minerals they contained could not be of more ancient date. The district around Bristol was then noticed, and it was shown that precisely similar phenomena occurred there in the Carboniferous Limestone. At Clifton, the Thecodontosaurus had been found; and it- was urged that 4.23 THE GEOLOGIST. as he had found similar reptilian remains in fissures at Holwell, the depo- sits had been formed under corresponding circumstances. At Weston- super-Mare, also, numerous remains had been found in a fissure which was being worked for lead ore. Perceiving that a general law prevailed in all the mineral deposits of the Carboniferous Limestone, the author next obtained samples from six mines in the same formation, from Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland ; and in four of them found organic remains more or less abundant. From Weardale, out of twenty-seven small samples they were obtained in fourteen—the lowest being 678 feet from the surface ; they consisted of Cephalopoda, Brachiopoda, univalves, Foraminifera, Echini, Encrinites, Entomostraca, ete. From Alston Moor similar remains were obtained from five out of eleven samples ; and from the White Mines, Cumberland, in two out of seven. ‘The most interesting results obtained from vein stuff from the north of England, were from samples for which the author was indebted to Mr. Eddey, of the Grassington Mines, Shipton. In one small sample, which, when washed, was reduced to half an ounce in weight, not less than 156 specimens were found, including the little brachiopod Zedlania, before mentioned as occurring in the Mendip vein, though never found in any stratified bed lower than the Upper Lias. Also, numerous univaives and Entomostraca, and a few minute claw-like bones or spines, similar to some he had found in one of the veins at Clifton. From this sample many Conodonts were obtained. These were supposed to be portions of crus- tacea, but they had hitherto never been found in strata higher than the Ludlow bone-bed of Silurian age. Owing to the highly mineralized character of the vein stuff from the Conolly Mines, no organisms were observed, nor were any found in that from Twaledale. From the carbonaceous-looking character of the mate- rial in the latter case, the author suspected it to have been chiefly derived from the coal-measures. Samples from a mine in Devonian, and also in Silurian strata, had been examined; but, owing to their mineralized condition, they yielded no organisms. Mr. Moore argued that all our mineral veins, from the oldest to the more recent, were due to the same general laws; that there was no evi- dence of their contents having been derived from volcanic agency, nor, as has also been supposed, by any electrical action removing them from the adjoining rocks, and redepositing them in the veins. His view was, that the fissures now containing mineral veins, when open, had, during different geological periods, been traversed by the ancient seas of that time, and their derived contents deposited; and that whilst these infillings were pro- ceeding, the minerals, which might previously have been held in solution in the water, were, by the operation of electrical or other causes, precipitated ; and that thus, instead of being due to voleanie action, they were to be attributed to aqueous and sedimentary deposition. ON THE GEOLOGY OF PART OF THE COUNTY SLIGO. By Mr. A. B. Wynne. In this paper the author stated that he had put together a few notes upon a very extensive district, which were made during a short trip in the sum- mer of 1862. He alluded to the papers by Sir R. Griffith, Bart., Arch- BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 423 deacon Verschoyle, and Mr. John Kelly, upon parts of the same country, and proceeded to describe the district as composed of a great nearly hori- zontal series of stratified rocks, consisting of sandstones below, carboni- ferous limestones of impure, thin, and shaly character above, and paler, more pure limestones of the same group overlying them; the whole sur- mounted by 400 feet of the millstone-grit series. This group of horizontal rocks forms fine tabular mountains, with picturesque valleys, and a pecu- liar likeness in all their profiles. Cutting across the country formed by these horizontal beds is the rugged chain of the Ox Mountains, extending from Mayo across the county of Sligo to the south of Lough Gill, and terminating beyond Benbo mountain, in county Leitrim. Some of the most picturesque valleys in the county are the lateral ones near this chain, running along its flanks, and dividing the old micaceous and gneissose rocks of which it is formed from the horizontal series above alluded to; and in these valleys, as well as transversely crossing the chain, occur deposits of serpentine of considerable size and interesting character. The denudation which exposed the Ox Mountains at the east end of the chain was alluded to, and the circumstance stated, that the limestone con- tained bands of sandstone which appeared to be of irregular thickness, and were most numerous in the lower part of the carboniferous series seen in the district under consideration. The occurrence of trap-dykes and mineral deposits was noticed, and also the changes of level at recent periods, as well as the manner of the occurrence of the drift, which was found, in one instance, to contain shells of the common mussel, at a considerable distance from the sea, and in con- nection with which, the horns, skulls, and other bones of fossil deer and eattle had been found. The paper was illustrated, and a list of fossils (by W. H. Baily, Esq.) found in the district was appended. ON THE CAUSE OF THE DIFFERENCE IN THE STATE OF PRE- SERVATION OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOSSIL SHELLS. By H. C. Sorsy, F.R:S. Most geologists have, no doubt, remarked, that in very many rocks certain kinds of fossil shells are well preserved, whilst others are very badly preserved, or have entirely vanished, and left nothing but casts : for instance, oysters retaining their organic structure, whilst many others, like trigoniz or most univalves, having lost their original structure, being quite crystalline, or even having been entirely removed. After having made many experiments with recent and fossil shells, the author has been led to conclude that this difference was due to the original difference in the mineral constitution of the various shells; and that when their carbonate of lime was in the state of calcite they were less prone to undergo any change ; but where it was in the state of aragonite they always have had a tendency to become crystalline, by passing into calcite, or to he entirely removed if the conditions were more favourable to the crystallization of calcite in some other place rather than in situ. ———— is =, Se Pe ee = es ta.“ *) Ma 8 i, eT Bis te 424 NOTES AND QUERIES. Tur Kyson Monxty.—A letter “On the Hyracotherian character of the Lower Molars of the supposed Macacus from the Hocene Sand of Kyson, Suffolk,” by Professor Owen, F.R.S., has been published in the ‘Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist.’ (vol. x. p. 240). Professor Owen says, “The fossil teeth from the Eocene Sand at Kyson, in Suffolk, referred by me to a species of Macacus, are most probably the lower molars of a species of Hyracotherium (H. cuniculus). The great differ- ence of shape between the upper and lower molars of Pliolophus, and the pattern on which the lower molars are differentiated in that Hyracotherioid animal, led me to suspect that the degree of difference between the upper molars of Pliolophus and those of Hyracotheriwm might be attended with a corresponding degree of difference in the lower molars of the two genera ; and that such degree might render the lower molars of Hyracotherium as much like the lower molars of Macacus as the detached two molars are which were first discovered by Mr. Colchester, and described by me. In the collection of the late Mr. Acton were a series of both upper and lower molars from the Kyson deposits; the upper ones of the Hyracotherium type, and the lower ones analogous in their modifications to those in Pliolophus, but more resembling the type of Macacus, and the same in character as the original molars, which I referred in the volume of the ‘Annals’ above cited to Macacus.” Human Sxeveton at Kewiet, 1n Lancasuire.—In the ‘ Geologist’ for June, I contributed a brief notice of the above discovery of a human skeleton under the conditions detailed in the annexed excerpt from the ‘Lancaster Guardian’ of May 17th, 1862 :— “* Discovery of a Skeleton at Kellet.—In the course of the present week the skeleton of a young woman has been found at Kellet, under the fol- lowing circumstances :—On Wednesday, Mr. Bailie, of Lancaster, coal- merchant, was looking for rockery-stone amongst the limestone-rock at Kellet Seeds, and picked up in a natural fissure of the rock a bone, which he at once concluded to be that of the leg of a human being. On remoy- ing some other stones in the fissure, a perfect skeleton was found, lying on its side, with the skull underneath, and presenting the appearance of having been jammed in with some force. There was nosign of any metal, clothing, or hair, and as there was another fissure under the one m which the skeleton was placed, it is possible that any articles which might have aided identification have fallen into the cavity below. From the confor- mation of the skeleton it was evidently that of a woman, and the state of the teeth as clearly showed the youth of the individual. There can be little doubt that this is a revelation of some deed of violence. The district of Kellet, in days gone by, was rather noted for the lawlessness of its in- habitants, which had become proverbial. It is said in the village that about a hundred years ago a young woman left her home with some show- folks, and was not heard of again. This is the only fact we can glean as at all likely to elucidate the discovery at Kellet Seeds.” Through the kindness of Captain Barrie, R.N., and of W. Bollaert, Esq., F.R.G.S., T have had the opportunity of inspecting the fractured skull. The calvarium is large, full, and is markedly brachycephalic. The frontal sinuses are large, the supraorbital ridges being undeveloped. Under the circumstances, as no implements, etc., were found with the skull, any generalization on its age would be premature. The limestone fissure being open at the top is a circumstance which throws great doubt PLATE XXIII. . |) i : | | bi | | d || } | (wl = \ wird pe ‘i roniunnnit Fig. 5. . Fig. 6. kull. 5. Frontal Bone from Heathery Burn Cave. 6. Leicester Skull. NOTES AND QUERIES. 4,25 on the discovery. It is, however, possible that it may be at least as ancient as some of the other crania, ¢.g. the one from Mewslade, to which I have already referred. I have Professor Busk’s permission to subjoin the following extract of his notes on the Kellet skull :— 6th August.— If the fissure in question were open from the top, it may be asked, why did not the body fall, or be introduced into it that way ? Except from concomitant circumstances, and, in some cases, perhaps their chemical condition, I do not think much can be predicated of a single skull, at any rate with respect to its age, from its form alone. The Mewslade skull, also found in a limestone fissure, but with many very ancient animal remains, undoubtedly its contemporaries, is not, as you are aware, of the rounded type, like the Scandinavian and Scottish stone-age crania, but moderately dolichocephalic, and flat, or rather straight, along the summit. I have not seen the Etruscan skull you mention, but presume it to be, as i hint, brachycephalic. If so, the Kellet skull will not resemble the ewslade and several of the river-bed skulls, which, there is reason to believe, are properly of a later population than the brachycephalic.” 12th August.— It is rather a curious form, being, as you say, strongly brachycephalic (about 850), and so far it corresponds with the Scandinavian stone men ; but in other respects it differs very widely from them, being in the first place far more capacious, and very wide, especially in the frontal re- gion, remarkably even in contour, and with a look altogether of higher breed- ing. ‘The superciliary arches are thin and fine, totally unlike the beetle brows of the old Danes; and the remains of the ossa nasi show that he had a prominent, thin, and, may be, aquiline nose. The lower jaw is light in comparison, and the angle prominent, as is common, I believe, in what are termed the Roman crania by Davis and Thurnam. On the whole, I am inclined to refer it to a much later period than the stone, notwithstanding the fossilized condition of the bones; but it would be very interesting to find some articles with it. . . . The shape at vertex is flattened, and not so pyramidal as the true stone skulls. “T am yours truly, “Gero. Busx.” It is, of course, hardly necessary to say that I coincide entirely in these observations ; and do not doubt that my readers will be pleased to hear that a decade of “ Priscan crania”’ is now completed, and will shortly be eonocts by Professor Busk, in addition to his magnificent ‘ Crania ypica. L am also indebted to Professor Busk, F.R.S., for the beautiful and ac- curate outline of the Kellet skull, taken in four different aspects; and to Mr. 8. J. Mackie, F.G.S., for the drawings of the frontal bone (B) from Heathery Burn, and the Leicester skull, referred to by me in the ‘ Geolo- gist,’ vol. vy. p. 313. The Kellet skull will be ultimately deposited in the Kthnological Society’s collection.—CHartes Carrer Brake. Human Remains 1n River Beps.—Sir,—No better proof can be given of the accuracy of the observations in your comments on the Geologist’s Association (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. p. 320) that the geology of the neigh- bourhood of London affords many yet unexplored topics of interest, than the following scattered facts :— John Hunter, writing about the year 1793, quotes a letter which he had oo from Sir James Hall, of Scotland, dated Rome, February 24th, 85. _ In this letter a hill is described that lies about three miles from Rome, in the road to Loretto. “It is about 300 or 400 yards beyond an old VOL. ¥. 31 4.26 THE GEOLOGIST. tower, called Torre del Quinto. A tomb, called Ovid’s, is dug into it; and 50 or 60 yards nearer Rome is a gravel-pit, which is the spot in question. — The hill terminates abruptly in a vertical crag, at the foot of which the road passes, leaving it on the left-hand as one goes from Rome. This crag exhibits the internal structure of the mass, which consists of horizontal strata. The hill is about 100 feet high above the level of the plain along which it passes :— j “Ist. The upper part, on which the vegetable earth rests, is a bed 60 or 80 feet thick, of a kind of tufa or soft volcanic stone, full of lumps of black pumice of the size of a fist, more or less. “Ind. A stratum of rolled pebbles, of various kinds of stone, some cal- careous, some flinty, and some pumice. In general they have undergone some action, which makes them crumble when taken out; in some places they are bound by a calcareous cement, and in others litle attached, and mixed with sand. This stratum is about 3 feet thick in one place, and tapers from right to left to the thickness of a few inches, on an extent of 30 or 40 yards... . “We found the bones contained in this box in the first stratum of gravel between the two beds of tufa. We got up to this place by a bank formed by the crumbling of the hill above, and the matters thrown out of the gravel-pit on the right side of it. There is the greatest reason to suppose that the place where they were found had never been moved since the tufa came there; that is, that the bones and the stones of the stratum were placed there by the same cause, and previous to the formation of the upper bed of tufa [viz. that which is 60 or 80 feet thick]. “The place in which we found the bones extends 8 or 9 feet from right to left, and probably goes further to the left in that place, where the stratum of gravel passes along the roof of the gravel-pit; but there it was inac- cessible. We did not dig anywhere above 3 feet into the bank, being afraid of bringing down the rock above by undermining it. It appears certain that the bones were brought there, along with the pebbles, loose, as bones, not in carcasses, for they lie scattered together without the least connection ; and their number is so great, compared to the space they occupy, that there would not have been room for so many bodies. “Their nature is various, and indicates the presence of at least five or six distinct kinds of land-animals, and, among the rest, two individuals of the human species.—J. Hatt.” “This hill [Hunter proceeds to say] must have been formed before the Romans took possession of this place, and probably by the formation of the hill. The Tiber made its way in this direction, for it cuts the hill across. This is probably the only instance met with of human bones being in such a state. But in future ages, when the present rivers may take a new turn [through localities] in which are deposited human bones, many may be found; for in sinking the caissons for Blackfriars Bridge a human skull was found 12 feet under the bed of the river.” * On the table of the Ethnological Society, on March 18th last, I placed, through the kindness of Mr. Sass, specimens of chipped flints from the valley of the Thames at Biackfriars Bridge, and from Teddington Lock. These flints, though not of the highest geologico-archzological antiquity, yet by their simplicity of workmanship indicated a race which had pro- gressed but little towards civilization. I am not in possession of any information as to the depth at which these remains were found. Mr. Mackie has drawn my attention to three skulls recently deposited aed ‘Essays and Observations on Natural History,’ by Professor Owen, vol. i. p. 321. NOTES AND QUERIES. 427 in the Antiquities Department of the British Museum, by Mr. Franks, which were derived from the bed of the Thames, at Battersea, I have not yet been able to give them the attention which they merit, but shall compare them with the Kast Hain, Kellet, and Leicester skulls, which they resemble more than they do the Sennen, Borris, Blackwater, Musk- ham, ete., series of true “ river-bed ” skulls. I trust that all further evidences of human bones or works that may occur in or near London will be carefully recorded, and that above all, whenever there are geological evidences of antiquity such evidences may be thoroughly sifted and properly recorded in the same careful manner as was done in the case of the Heathery Burn relics, under the effective direction of the editor of this journal.—CnHartes Carter BLaKe. Veeeraste Remains at BournremMouru.—Sir,—Making inquiries to- day of a labouring man employed in a gravel-pit, as to whether he had ever met with animal remains in the eravel, or shells below it, he gave the following as the only instance of the sort within his own knowledge: :— * About eight years ago, whilst working in a pit for white clay, w hich is sent to Staffordshire, ata place about one mile on the Poole side of Bourne- mouth, in Dorsetshire, at forty-two feet below the surface we came upon an oak-tree two feet in diameter. At first it seemed hard, but on exposure to the air it could be broken away with the nail; the /eaves were there in the clay, entire, but we could not succeed in removing any of them: they all came to pieces; although we tried every means to do so, placing them between the leaves of books, as some of the ladies there wished to have them.” Further inquiry on the spot, by any one who had the opportunity, might be interesting, if the case has not already been recorded. lam, your obedient Servant, Southampton, October 1st, 1862. W. N. Fossin Monty 1n THE Mtocrene.—The following announcement is made in Professor Owen’s recently published memoir, ‘‘ On the Osteology of the Chimpanzees and Orangs,” in the Zoological Society’s Transactions, page 18 :— ““T have been favoured by Dr. Kaup with the cast of a fossil femur from the Eppelsheim miocene, near Darmstadt, and with the request that I would compare it with the femora of the large anthropoid apes in our metropolitan museums. This femur is 11 inches 3 lines in length, is 2 inches across the proximal, and 1 inch 7 lines across the distal end; and measures 2 inches 4 lines in circumference. It retains all the lower qua- drumanal characters of the bone, with nearly-the gibbon-like proportions as to length and slenderness. The shaft is straight, without the least for- rard. bend ; the distal end becomes gradually ‘and almost symmetrically expanded, and in an inferior degree to that in the chimpanzee, gorilla, and man; the backward projection ‘of the condyles is much less. The linea aspera is as little marked as in the gibbons; the neck of the thigh-bone is as short, and the head as small, relatively, as in the gibbons; all the modifications, in fact, relating to the use of the lower limb in maintaining the erect position, and which, in their respective degrees, are found in the chimpanzee and gorilla, marking their progressive approaches to the pecu- liar human attitude, ave as completely wanting in the fossil femur as in that of the recent ungkas and gibbons ; whence we may infer that during the miocene period there existed, in the locality haunted by the ape that has left its remains at Ei ppelsheim, a richly w ooded tract, in which a gibbon, or long-armed ape, of twice the size of those of the Eastern Iudian Archi- pelago, enjoy ea a strictly arboreal life. The shape of the shaft of the AI8 THE GEOLOGIST. supposed humerus of the Dryopithecus, from the miocene of the South of France, as figured in M. Lartet’s memoir (Comptes Rendus de l Académie des Sciences, Juillet 28, 1856), agrees with that of the Eppelsheim femur.” Irish Drirt Fossits.—The rarity of the occurrence of fossils in the deposit known as the “ Drift,” which extends far and wide over the low country in Ireland, may excuse the following communication. For a long time past I have taken advantage of opportunities to search these gravels, clays, and sands, in the hope of finding even a fragment of a drift fossil, but until lately without success :—In the early part of last month, however, I was driving from the town of Sligo southwards, towards the micaceous and gneissose range (continuous with the Ox Chain), which passes along the southern shore of Lough Gill, and near the foot of these mountains having observed a tract of drift hillocks stretching from the lake to Ballysodare Bay, I stopped to examine a gravel pit in one of them beside the road, situated in the townland of Drumiskybole, and about two miles from the sea. It appeared to have been opened at first to a depth of about five feet,and a smaller pit was sunk within it to a ver- tical depth of some six feet more ; apparently, to obtain fine sand, like that on the seashore, which occurred irregularly amongst coarse gravel and small boulders of the local rocks; the sand predominating at the bottom of the pit. I searched in this sand with no better success than usual, but was surprised to find in the vertical side of the pit, within three feet of the top, a cluster of mussel shells, together with small, decayed, woody frag- ments among the coarser rubble. The place immediately over and about the shells bore no trace of having been disturbed, while a couple of feet above them the upper edge of the pit had somewhat this appearance. The shells lay in irregular positions, rather than upon their sides, in the interstices between the stones; some of which, just above them, were nearly a foot long. Many of the shells were unbroken, some were closed, and they seemed to have shpped downwards into where I found them, but there was no trace whatever of a space large enough for them to have passed through in the overlying and apparently undisturbed gravel. I have them by me now, and they resemble in almost every respect the dead shells which might be found along the seashore, except that they are not so clean. From the position in which I found them, if they were there before the pit was opened, they must have been some seven feet below the surface of the hill, and I saw nothing about the place to show that they had been artificially introduced since. The rarity of the occurrence only, led me to look about the neighbouring fields, where I saw that the ground, as is usual in that country, had been manured with seaweed, along with which such shells might possibly have been brought from the sea; but I found nothing to connect this circumstance with the occurrence of the shells in the gravel-pit, and I only mention it to show that it was not overlooked, in case there should exist a remote possibility of the shells I found having been brought in this way. On the other hand, supposing the shells to have been really zm situ, was it equally as likely that they would be found in the coarse gravel, ete., as in the fine sand beneath P The general uncertainty regarding the contents of most drift deposits would have prompted me to leave the shells where they were, if it did not seem more likely that they would come down and be carried away in some of the next few cart-loads of sand taken from the pit, than that they would ever be visited by any one so accustomed to finding drift fossils as to be able to say whether they were really in place or not. I have only to add, that such shells as have been hitherto found in the NOTES AND QUERIES. 4.32 “ drift” in Ireland, so far as I know, belong, like these, to existing species ; and amongst the few localities for them of which I have heard, to mention the discovery of shells in a fragmentary state in the drift of the Dublin Mountains, by Professor Kinahan, and the allusion made by R. Mallett, Esq., at the last meeting of the British Association, to the occurrence of whelks found by him in a gravel-pit near Moate, county Westmeath. I must apologize for the length of this note, and remain, ete., Athlone, August 22nd, 1862, A. B. Wynne. Footprints 1N Carsonirerous RocKxs.—Sir,—I send you a draw- ing of a footprint, which is upon a boulder from one of the rocks of YY Y Ww N \\ XC NS aN Wy WY AN YG WAN ZT Fig. 1.—Ground-plan of footprint. the carboniferous series. It was found in the drift, which overlies in part the Magnesian Limestone ae , Sie 2 The boulder is a hard sand- stone, bearing traces of Stig- Fig. 2.—Vertical cross section. maria.—Y ours truly, T. ; i: This footprint appears to be an interesting addition to Ichnology. The footprints from the Forest of D Dean and from near EKdin- 7 YH burgh (‘ Siluria,’ 2nd edit. p. ZY 323), are, we think, the only ZZYy known specimens in British 2777/7 coal-rocks, besides Mr. Bin- a gy C ney’s specimen from the Mill- stone Grit. In North America there are some still lower in the carboni- ferous series.— Ep. Grot. Eosaurus Acapranvs.—‘Silliman’s Journal’ for July contains an excel- lent description, with figures, of two portions of vertebrae of a new Ena- 430 THE GEOLOGIST. liogaurian from the coal-formation of Nova Scotia, by Mr. O. C. Marsh. Reptilian remains from the coal-measures have hitherto been few in num- ber, and have been nearly all regarded as Batrachian or Amphibian. The present remains were embedded in astratum of argillaceous chocolate- _ coloured shale, which forms part of Group XX VI. of the section made of the South Joggins coal-formation, in 1852, by Lyell and Dawson, and is about 800 feet above the level of the beds which have furnished the Den- derpeton and Hylonomus. These remains are those found in 1855 by Mr. Marsh, and referred to at page 110 of this journal. Great AmeErican Desert. — In their acquisitions from Mexico the Americans have acquired not only good, bad, and indifferent lands, but they have also acquired the Great Colorado Desert, extending from the base of San Bernardino south-westwards, for 180 miles, and having a superficial area of 9000 square miles. _ Hxcepting the Colorado the whole of that district is without river or lake, and the desert stretches off to the horizon on all sides without a vestige of vegetation or life. Its surface is ashy and parched; its frame of mountains rise in rugged pinnacles of brown rock, bare even of soil. Words are unequal to the task of describing its wide expanse, the purity of its air, the silence of its night, the brilliance of the stars which shine over it, the glare of the mid- day sun, and the violence of storms of dust and sand. Parts are even destitute of the latter, and present a surface of smooth, compact. sun- baked clay. Other parts are covered with heaps of sand, in depths of fifty to eighty feet high. Near the- mountains along the Colorado is a perfectly flat terrace paved with pebbles, of nearly uniform size, of por- phyry, jasper, quartz, carnelian, and agate, all rounded by the action of water, and polished till they glisten by the driven sand. The northern part of the desert is thought to be the dry bed of an ancient freshwater lake, the beach lines of which are strongly marked; and probably, at a comparatively recent period, the waters of the Californian Gulf covered all the clay portions of the area, which are still below its level; andif a channel were cut through the natural embankment of the Colorado these portions, at least, of the desert, would be doubtiess again covered. It is even proposed to effect an outflow of the river for the fertilization of this vast arid tract by an artificial irrigation. — . It is possible that the Colorado district may have been elevated within historic or immediately prehistoric times, as earthquakes still agitate that region; and in 1852 there were eruptions of mud and hot water in the central parts of the valley. Fossit Fish 1n Maenestan Limestonr.—There has recently occurred in the Magnesian Limestone at Fulwyll Hillsome interesting examples of fossil fish: The specimens belong:to three or probably four species of Paleoniscus, and to a single species of Acrolepis. Those of the former genus are by far more common, and nearly all of them belong to one species. Specimens of Acrolepis are exceedingly rare. Three species of Paleeoniscus have been described by Mr. J. W. Kirby under the names of P. varians, P. latus, and P. Abbsvi. They are all small, the largest not being more than four inches in length. Along with the fish have been found traces of terrestrial plants. Most of these fossils are found in a bed of slaty and laminated limestone, not more than two feet thick, and only a short distance from the base of the “‘ Upper Limestone.” The occurrence of fish in this subdivision is interesting, as no remains of higher orga- nization than mollusca had been previously known to exist in it; nearly all the vertebrata of the Permian series of the district being confined to the marl-slate near the bottom of the formation. They are, in fact, the NOTES AND QUERIES. 431 last, as far as is known, of the Paleozoic vertebrates; and those which approach nearest in time to the higher forms of life in the succeeding or Mesozoic period. AnimaL Remains in IrisH Peat Boas.—In the ‘ Archeologia’ (No. 1776), vol. ii. p. 359, is An Account of some Antique Curiosities found in a small Bog near Cullen, co. Tipperary,” by Governor Pownall, which consists chiefly of records of gold articles found by various poor people there. The following two passages are all that relate to animal remains. “In digging away the bog, about 6 feet deep, as far as it extended, there was nothing only trunks of different trees all rotten, except the oak and fir, which were for the most part found, and some horns, large enough to have a circle of three feet in diameter described on each palm.” ‘“ A.D. 1773. A man found in digging the bog, a skull with two horns shaped like those on Kerry sheep, but longer. No person who has seen it can tell to what beast the skull belonged.” Mammanian Rematns.—The drift-bed at Aylesford, Kent, has just yielded a lower jaw of Mammoth in good preservation, with molars in their sockets. Close to it was found a tusk much curved, eight feet long, and perfect for the entire length, no doubt belonging to the same indi- vidual. It is to be hoped these specimens will be preserved in the Maid- stone Museum. Mamuora Rematns.—In an extract from the Minute Book of the Cam- bridge Philosophical Society, 20th November, 1821, there is a notice of fossil organic remains found near Streatham, in the Isle of Ely, by Dr. Frederick Thackeray.* He says, ‘‘ The finest examples of organic remains characteristic of beds of alluvium rather rest upon the lne of junction between clay and gravel than in the gravel itself.” He adds, “A very considerable part of the skeleton of a mammoth was lately found in a gravel-pit near Chatteris.” Fossin Monxrys.—The references to Eopithecus Colchesteri, Owen (Macacus eocenus, Owen), from the Kyson sand, in Suffolk, made in my article on ‘‘ Fossil Monkeys” (‘ Geologist,’ vol. v. pp. 82, 83, 85), are can- celled, as well as any other reference to Eocene monkeys.—CHaRrLEs Carter BiuaKe. | Hrratum.—In my table of the association of human remains with those of extinct and recent Mammalia, p. 228, in the column headed ‘‘ Massat,”’ crosses should be inserted opposite Felis spelea, Ursus speleus, and Hyena spelea ; in the column headed “‘ Valley of the Trent,” the cross opposite Cervus megaceros should be erased, and crosses inserted opposite Canis lupus and C. familiaris. 'Two extinct species of Mammalia were conse- quently found with the Muskham skull, and five existing species. Cuartrs Carter Braxr. Mammorn Remains.—Mr. A. B. Ruhmond, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, records in the ‘ Scientific American’ the discovery of mammoth remains in the excavations of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway at French Creek, Crawford County. Discovertrs oF Laxer-Hapitations.—A statement appears in the ‘Anzeiger fiir Kunde der Deutschen Vorzeit,’ of Niirnberg, for July, that at Miincheberg, at a depth of 18 feet, workmen who were making an excavation for a new brewhouse discovered a Pfahlwerk, or Lake-dwelling, containing much dung, animal bones, and stags’ horns. Another pilework had been discovered in Frauenfeld (Thurgau), which has only been par- tially examined. * A fossil bone, of what species is not stated. The specimen was presented to the Cambridge Museum by Dr. Thackeray.—Ep. Guot., 432 TIE GEOLOGIST. GrotocicaL AGE oF THE AUsTRALIAN Fauna.—Mr. Ludwig Becker, in the Transactions of the Philosophical Institute (now the Royal Society) of Victoria, contributed a paper on the age of the animal and_ vegetable kingdoms of Australia relatively to that of the rest of the world, in which Professor Phillips’s belief that the fauna and flora of the Australian con- tinent is that of the long-past Oolitic age, is supported, and additional proofs given of its correctness ; the result finally arrived at by Mr. Becker being, that ‘the existing Australian fauna is the oldest living animal kingdom ; that a great number of trees and flowers, planted in Oolitic times, are still blooming in Australia; and that the present external form of this portion of the earth is the oldest aspect of the earth preserved in these times.”” As these opinions have been, to a certain extent, contested by Mr. David Page in his eloquent little work on the ‘ World’s Life-Sys- tem’ (8vo, Lond., 1861), it is interesting to find them supported by a geo- logist resident at the Antipodes. SEPARATION OF THE [stu oF Wicut.—Sir,—Might I again trouble you with the question about the date of the separation of the Isle of Wight from the mainland. I have never yet met with any specific statement of the supposed time of the occurrence, and should like to know how far science supports the curious passage in ‘ Diodorus Siculus,’ which is supposed to allude to that island; but where the writer states that in his day, at low tide, the channel between the island and the mainland was dry, and passable for carts and trafic.—A Constant Reaper, Lymington, Hants. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. The Baron l’Espine, medical inspector of the waters of Aix, in Savoy, has communicated a note to the French Academy, “‘ On the Recent Disco- very of Lacustrine Dwellings in the Lake of Bourget, near Chambery.” The lake is about ten miles long and two broad, and, amongst other objects found in the exploration of its depths, he records a fragment of coarse pottery formed of black clay, and similar to the Celtic vases in the collection of M. Boucher de Perthis. 7 Excavations have been recently made in the grotto Da Portel, in the commune of Coubens (Arriége). The grotto is situated at four hundred métres above the sea, and has but one entrance, at the extremity of the Bois de la Peyrade. By M. Troyes’ labours here there have been brought to light a few fragments of pottery, ancient and modern, and a few bones of sheep and dogs near the surface. At a further depth the bcnes of bears of three distinct sizes, two of which were at least equal in stature to the horse; the third was much smaller, but different from the bear of the present day.* The other remains comprised those of dogs, wolves, hyznas, pigs, a large kind of ox, reindeer, + and another ruminant, probably antelope.{ ‘Three implements of human manufacture have been * Query, Ursus speleus, priscus, and arctoideus. + Remains of reindeer have been found in the bone-cave of Aurignac. $ Query, the chamois (Antilope rupicapra), remains of which have been found at Massat, and in the Pfahlbauten of Switzerland. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 433 found: one a hatchet, roughly cut out of limestone; the others being ser- rated lance-heads of different sizes. No human bones have as yet been discovered, though there is reason to believe that the cavern was frequented by man from the earliest period. _ The great works which have recently been going on at the citadel of Antwerp have been made to do good service to geology by M. Dejardin, the captain of engineers in charge of them, who has rendered account of two admirable sections to the Belgian Academy. One, commencing at the old citadel on the south, follows the principal trench, approaches nearly to the new citadel on the north, and ends at one of the outworks near the Scheldt. The other section begins at the Scheldt above the city, at a place called Den Berg, in the prolongation of the principal face of No. 8 Fort at Hoboken, and terminating at the right extremity of the Campine canal. The deposits shown are— 1. Vegetable earth. Modern Period...... | 2s MSs Ons Sui 8. Peat. Diluvial Period...... 4. Campmian sand. Argillaceous sands. Grey sand. 7. Green sand, Diestian Period...... 8. Black sand. Rupelian Period ... 9. Argillaceous marl. Sealdisian Period ... 1 P The peat is, M. Dewall thinks, of very modern origin, as it contains bones of animals of species still living in the country, and arms and pottery belonging to periods not very remote. It contains also undecayed stems of vegetables. The Campinian sand is formed of grains of white quartz, coated with various substances, chiefly hydrate of iron, and indurated clay. It is entirely devoid of shells. At the base of these sands there is a bed of quartz pebbles mingled with small teeth of fishes. This is probably a band of the ‘‘ Cailloux Ardennais.” At the top of this bed there have been found mammoth grinders, and a part of a skull with gigantic horns. The Scaldisian deposits consist of an upper yellow argillaceous sand (No. 5), containing. teeth of sharks (Squalus, Carcharodon, Oxyrhina, Tii- gonodon, Lamna), seal, and ziphius, etce.; ear-bones of Balenoptera; and casts of shells in indurated clay or ferruginous sandstone. Below this are other argillaceous sands, with considerable quantities of broken shells ; and from the list of these species given by various naturalists, this deposit would seem to be the equivalent of the Red Crag or Coralline Crag of Suffolk. The fossils contained in this deposit are those in the lists nos. 33 and 34 of M. D’Omalius, in his ‘Géologie de la Belgique.’ Below these argillaceous sands is a grey sand, containing the same fossil shells and bones. At the base of this bed blocks are met with formed of grains of quartz and glauconite, consolidated probably by the dissolution of the shells, and having usually as nuclei shells, bones, or small branches of trees. The latter are often decomposed, giving rise to cavities in the stone. Amongst the fossils of this deposit are the jaws and teeth of the Squalodon Antverpiensis. Pecten Lamallii, Terebratula perforans, and a species of Spatangus, occur in great numbers. Ditrupa subulata, bryo- zoons, Lingula Dumortieri, and Tercbratula Sowerbiana, are also met with. The Sable vert of the ‘Systtéme Diestien” next follows. It contains hardly any shells or bones, and those met with are of particular species. Quantities of oyster-shells are seen, and Jsocardia lunulata is also very abundant. Between the green and black sand there is met with at Kiel a VOL. V. 3 K ABA THE GEOLOGIST. bed of ferruginous clay, about a foot thick. The “ black sand” is a very important deposit. both on account of the thickness and the number of fossils it contains. It is the equivalent of the ‘black crag” or ‘‘ glauco- nite crag.” As this deposit has nowhere been penetrated in the excavations, its thickness is not known. The chief shell is the Pectunculus variabilis. The ‘‘Systéme Rupélien” is solely represented by the ‘‘marne argil- leuse,” which is found at Fort no. 8, and in the brickfields of Kdeghem. It is a black or bronze-coloured clay, containing concretions of pyrites and septariz, often incrusting Nautilus Aturi. It also contains flint-pebbles and teeth of Carcharodon heterodon. REVIEW. Essays and Observations on Natural History, Anatomy, Physiology, Psy- chology, and Geology. By John Hunter, F.R.S. Being his Posthu- mous Papers on those subjects, arranged and revised, with Notes, by Richard Owen, F.R.S., D.C.L., Superintendent of the Natural His- tory Department, British Museum, etc. ete. John Van Voorst. The aphorism of Niebuhr, that “he who calls what has vanished back again into being, enjoys a bliss like that of creating,’ which has been quoted by almost every geologist from Lyell downwards, is nowhere more applicable than to the discovery and safe transmission to the thinking scientific men of the present day of the long-lost Hunterian manuscripts, and especially on that on Geology, to which we shall draw our readers’ attention. — John Hunter, after communicating to the Royal Society of London, in 1793, his paper “on the Fossil Bones presented to that Society by His Most Serene Highness the Margrave of Anspach”’ (‘ Philosophical Trans- actions,’ vol. lxxxiv. 1794), followed up the subject by a second memoir, summing up the conclusions which he had deduced fromhis study of ‘‘ Hx- traneous Fossils” in general. This manuscript he communicated to the Royal Society, with the following result :— “The attention of the Secretaries or Council of the Royal Society had been called, by some of the Fellows, to the expressions in the first paper, on the ‘thousands of years’ required for such and such geological phe- nomena; and, in the second memoir, the Secretaries found that a chrono- logy of the earth, widely different from the usually accepted one, was more directly and emphatically affirmed by the author, as essential to the ra- tional comprehension of the phenomena he treated of, while, at the same time, the adequacy of the chief or sole geological dynamic at that time recognised, viz. the Mosaic Deluge, to account for the presence of marine fossils on land, was called in question. Considerations for the repute and interests of the author himself may have swayed his advisers in the recom- mendation to him to submit the manuscript to a geological friend, before finally sending it in for formal acceptance and perusal before the Society. Major Rennell, author of some papers in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ on ‘Tides and Currents,’ and other geographical subjects, undertook the deli- cate task of submitting to Hunter the misgivings of the authorities mainly responsible for the publications of the Royal Society. He did it in these words: ‘ This leads me to remark that, in page 3, you have used the term KhEVIEW. 435 ‘many thousand centuries,’ which brings us almost to the yogues of the Hindoos. Now, although I have no quarrel with any opinions relating to the antiquity of the globe, yet there are a description of persons very nu- merous and very respectable in every point but their pardonable supersti- tions, who will dislike any mention of a specific period that ascends beyond 6000 years: I would, therefore, with submission, qualify the expression by many thousand years, instead of centuries. Hunter would not modify his statements, and he withdrew the paper.” An edition of this paper was hurriedly printed by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in December, 1859: the more important pas- sages are inserted in the work before us, in which Professor Owen says— “Some may wish that the world had never known that Hunter thought so differently on some subjects from what they believed, and would have de- sired, him to think. But he has chosen to leave a record of his thoughts, and, under the circumstances in which that record has come into my hands, JI have felt myself bound to add it to the common intellectual property of mankind.” The great geological principle, the coevality of the fossils with the mineral strata in which they are found, which some geologists have de- nied, was formally asserted by Hunter. He said— “ Finding upon land more parts of marine than terrestrial animals pre- served, and at considerable depth, it naturally leads to the idea of sea- animals at least having undergone this process at the bottom of the sea; and if so, then as that [stratum] i in which they are found is now land, and as we find parts of land-animals and vegetables preserved nearly in the same manner, it leads us into a more extensive investigation of the per- manency of the situation of the waters ; and in this inquiry we shall find - that wherever an extraneous fossil is enclosed or imbedded, the surround- ing native matrix was accumulated, disposed, or formed into that mass at the same time.”’ Professor Owen remarks on this— “I do not find this proposition so definitely laid down in geological writers prior to Hunter; although it was evidently appreciated in a certain degree, and with reference to particular strata, by some of Hunter’s pre- decessors. “The exceptions to the rule arise from the formation of one stratum out of the ruins of a preceding fossiliferous stratum, when the fossils of that older stratum become, together with their matrix, a part of the newer one, with which, however, those fossils are far from being coeval in respect of the period when they actually became fossil. Petrified bones of Plesio- saurus, ¢. g., have been transmitted to me, together with unpetrified bones of the beaver, from the comparatively recent ‘till’ of Cambridgeshire, the plesiosaurian remains having been washed out of the subjacent gault, when the sea finally retired from the uprising land. Such ‘derivative’ fossils were nevertheless actually enclosed or imbedded in the newer tertiary matrix when it ‘was disposed or formed into the mass,’ now called ‘ till.’ The exceptions of such derivative fossils are, however, comparatively rare, and do not affect the conclusions, as to the relativ eage ofa stratum, al flor ded by its obviously and much more abundant proper organic remains.’ * We find,” Hunter proceeds to say, ‘the remains of sea-animals in every kind of substance excepting granite. Ai find wood, bones of sea animals, bones of land-animals, in freestone, gravel, clay, marl, loam, and peat.” Professor Owen remarks — “ With regard to the alterations of climate which Hunter deduced from aes 436 THE GEOLOGIST. the supposed identification of some of his fossils with those of recent ani- mals, he was induced to refer the circumstance to ‘a change in the situa- tion of this globe respecting the sun, —in other words, to a ‘ change in the ecliptic.’ Here he departs from his principle of explaining the past phe- nomena by present causes. Newton long since declared, in reference to a similar supposition borrowed by Burnet from an Italian author, Alles- sandro degli Allessandri, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, that ‘there was every presumption in astronomy against any former change in the inclination of the earth’s axis ;’ and Laplace has since strengthened the arguments of Newton, against the probability of any former revolution of this kind. “Tt may be a question, however, whether the mental stock now to be dealt with by the geologist does not yield a truer appreciation of the dura- tion of time in which the movements of the stellar and solar systems have gone on, than could be afforded by the observations and calculations of the astronomer in the times of Newton and Laplace: whether the in- adequacy of the analogy, based by Cuvier on the knowledge of the cha- racters of a species during a period of 3000 years, of such seeming fixity of specific characters, to the effects of influences on generations succeeding each other during 300,000 years, may not be applicable to the case of New- ton, considering the results of his observations and calculations under a preoccupation of the mind by the theological age-of the world. “« Hunter’s recourse to ‘a change in the ecliptic, as well as to ‘some at- tractive external principle producing a great and permanent tide,’ such as Whiston’s comet, e.g., was however the consequence of a misconception or misinterpretation of the phenomena which those hypothetical causes were invoked to explain. “Hunter believed, for example, that the elephants’ remains found in northern and temperate latitudes belonged to the same species, or at most to a variety of the same species of elephant, as that which now lives in tropical regions. Its specific distinction from the existing tropical ele- phants was then as little understood as the specific distinction of the African from the Asiatic elephants. “The moment that zoology and comparative anatomy had made such progress as to discern constant differences interpreted as specific distine- tions, and to apply the same principle to the differentiation of the fossil elephant of northern regions from either of the existing tropical kinds, the necessity for calling in a cataclysm, either through a hypothetical shift in the ecliptic, or the attraction of the ocean upon the continents by a comet, no longer existed.” Hunter’s observations on the inadequacy of a pre-supposed Mosaic deluge to account for the manifold evidences of aqueous action which geo- logy has revealed to us, we must quote :— ‘“‘ History gives us no determined account of this change of the waters ; but as the Sacred History mentions the whole surface of the earth having been deluged with water, the natural historians have laid hold of this, and have conceived that it would account for the whole. Forty days’ water overflowing the dry land could not have brought such quantities of sea- productions on its surface; nor can we suppose thence, taking all possible circumstances into consideration, that it remained long on the whole sur- face of the earth; therefore there was no time for their being fossilized ; they could only have been left, and exposed on the surface. But it would appear that the sea has more than once made its incursions on the same place; for the mixture of land- and sea-productions now found on the land is a proof of at least two changes having taken place.” REVIEW. 437 Professor Owen, addressing his audience at the College of Surgeons on March 10th, 1855, on this subject, said,— “The close similarity, in the clear and philosophical views and words of Fracastoro, to those of Hunter (who we may safely believe had never read, or probably heard of the Italian author), are very striking. I need not trespass on your time by recounting the hundredfold additional and diver- sified testimony, which God, in his wisdom, has suffered to be made mani- fest, and to be irresistible in producing conviction according to the means of appreciating truth with which He has been pleased to endow the human understanding, in demonstrating the utter inadequacy of any of the brief and transient traditional deluges to account for observed geological and paleontological phenomena. “‘ As the astronomer in teaching his science gives the results of the ex- ercise of those faculties of observation, comparison, and calculation which have been given to him for the purpose of making known the creative operations in infinite space, without enlisting any aid or element of science from the records of Creation in the sacred history of the Jews, so ought the naturalist or geologist equally to abstain from any foregone conclusion as to mode or time of operation which he might believe himself able to derive from divine teachings given for another end. He ought to confine himself to the deductions which rest on observation and experiment, and to teach those natural truths only which he has been privileged to establish by the exercise of the talents entrusted to him for the discovery of the creative operations, or the power of God, in the immeasurable periods of the past. os W e find in the remarkable essay recovered from his posthumous manuscripts some instances of the results of the special application of those principles to particular geological phenomena. “Take those which must have most frequently presented themselves to his observation, as e. g. in the valley of the Thames, and note the broad interpretation that he gives of the facts so observed. ‘ Probably,’ he writes, ‘the whole flat tract of the river Thames, between its lateral hills, was an arm of the sea; and as the German Ocean became shallower, it was gradually reduced to a river: and the composition of this tract of land, for an immense depth, would show it, viz. a gravel, a sand, and a clay, with fossil shells in the clay 200 or 300 feet deep, all deposited when it was an arm of the sea, and above which are found the bones of land- animals, where it has been shallow.’ ’—P. xv. Owen goes on to say,— ** Hunter does not, indeed, specify the nature of the shells: they are, however, of a kind that could leave no doubt on his mind of their marine - character. With his fossil specimen of Strombus coronatus, Dfr., he has placed the recent Sivombus accipitrinus from the South American seas. He had also obtained fostellaria macroptera, Lam., from the eocene tertiary at Hordwell, Hants. ; Voluta nodosa, Sby., from the London clay ; Mitra elongata, Lam., from the eocene at Grignon, near Paris ; the gigantic Cerithium, from the same formation and locality ; the Crassatella tumida, Dh., from Nummulitic strata of the Swiss Alps; and the great Nautilus imperialis from Sheppey, so like the pearly Nautilus from the Indian seas. All these shells, selected from a hundred other specimens in Hunter’s cabinet, must have presented to their collector unmistakeable features of the marine origin of the strata containing them. “ Subsequent researches, aided by the refined conchology of modern science, have established the truth of Hunter’s conclusion. * All the shells of the London clay which forms the bottom of the tract 438 THE GEOLOGIST. through which the major part of the Thames flows, are of marine species, and most of them extinct. In the superficial gravel have been found fluviatile shells, most of them of recent species, with the remains of ele- phant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and other large terrestrial quadrupeds.”’ As regards earthquakes, as a geological dynamic, Hunter states— “ T formerly observed that earthquakes very probably raised islands; that on the surface of such there would be found shells, and in vast quan- tity, recent, dead, and fossilized... . This upraising of the bottom of the sea above the surface of the water, will also raise up along with it all the shell-fish that lay on the surface of the bottom, as also dead shells, and in the substance of the earth all the deeper-seated substances imbedded or enclosed in stone, chalk, clay, etce., which I have said constitutes the true fossil: ‘This appears to be the state of the case on and in the Island of Ascension; the whole surface of this island is covered with shells, and some so perfect as to have their ligaments still adhering. There is, besides, a vast quantity of lava, and other volcanic matter, all of which shows it most probably arose in this way ; because such recent alteration in the sea, so as to have exposed so much of its bottom, and so recently as to have the animal part of the shell still adhering, and the very name umplies its rise. I suspect that many of those shells found on land near the surface, on the tops of mountains, have been exposed in this way.’—P. xlvi. Owen remarks on the ridiculous derivation of the name of the island :— «This is very ingenious; but the superstitious Spaniard had little thought of the geological causes. of the island, when he discovered it on the evening of ‘ Ascension Day.’”’ Poor Joao de Nova Galego little expected that he should be thus mis- quoted in the eighteenth century. With respect to the conditions under which mammalian remains are imbedded in comparatively recent geological deposits, Hunter wrote— “In peat, one-could conceive that the trees had only to fall, and after- wards to sink down into it; but I believe no such wood grows in peat, therefore they must. have been brought there, and that only by water; or [they may have] grown there prior to the formation of peat. But the animals which could come there had only to die on the surface, and in time they would.also sink deeper and deeper into it ; and this I imagine might be the case with the beavers in this country, whose bones are found in the peat-mosses in Berkshire.. Or, as peat is supposed to grow, we can con- ceive it rising igher and higher above such substance. “ Bones are also found in gravel, clay, marl, loam, etc.; and as we have found the sea-horse bones | A/ppopotamus | in gravel, etc. in this country, I am inclined to think that such situations have been shores or arms of the sea, at last constituting mouths of rivers, where the animals have been accidentally swept away by floods, accidentally drowned, etc., where gravel, clay, etc. have subsided, as before deseribed ; for it gives more the idea of being a consequence of the sea leaving the land than an effect produced by a continuance of the sea in the part, according to our idea of the formation of the true fossil. But the difficulty-is to apply this to the bones of some animals that do not now exist in the same countries where they are found ; as a [to] the bones of animals that probably do not now exist in any country. “This looks like a destruction of the whole species of such animals at the time [during] which [those] animals were probably confined to such countries; and which might also be the case with the beaver in this country ; and it being a more universal animal, its species is preserved in other parts. The same observations apply to the sea-horse | Hippopota- mus], as also to the elephant.” .... REVIEW. 439 “Thus we have in many parts of this island the bones of unknown animals, such as a large species of deer [ Megaceros], as also the core of the horns, and bones of some very large animals of the bull kind” [ Bison pris- cus, Bos primigentus |. With respect to the nature of the animals imbedded in various strata,— “We may observe that the amphibia, and such as inhabit both the sea and land, as all of the Phoca-tribe, white bear, cte.,likewise sea-fowl, par- take of the before-mentioned mode of fossilization, by dying in the sea ; for wherever there has been a shore, there we shall find the amphibia; as also many of the fowl-iribe, called sea-fowl, which feed in the water, which may die in the sea near the shore, or be brought down in the rivers, will be carried into the sea, and be fossilizedaccording to the fore-mentioned method, and will be found along with the sea productions. But they will also par- take of the second situation, as in large valleys leading to the sea, which were formerly arms of the sea:or inlets, which are to be considered as having been moving shores, as the sea gradually leaves the land, leaving materials it had robbed higher land of, raising the bottom, or forming a new surface, lessening the depth of water at these places, which renders it slower and slower in its motion, as before described, at last becoming a river. Such new land will bury in it such productions, whether of sea or land, but most of those common to both, as shall either die in it, or being brought into it, constituting chiefly such animals that inhabit both land and water, as also amphibia, with land animals that came there, or vegetables that were brought there, making a heteroge- neous mixture. And I believe it may be observed in general, that the fossil bones of Jand-animals or birds are commonly found in such de- posited materials, as gravel, sand, clay,” etc.—P. xxxvii. ‘“‘ But the preservation of vegetables and land-animals is most probably not confined to such situations alone. A change in the situation of the sea most probably has been a cause in the production of such fossils, which constitutes a third situation of the production of fossils. Therefore, to preserve vegetables, bones of land-animals, and many birds, one of two circumstances must have taken place: first, a change of the situation of the sea upon the land where such productions are. But in [regard to] what may be called ‘land-birds,’ there will be a few of them [found fossil] ; for hardly any change in the land or sea can take place but what they can follow,—the new rising land, as it were, growing out of the waters, and abandoning the old, which now becomes covered with the waters.”— P. Xxxviil. The tenor of the above observations may be contrasted with those made in Lyell’s‘ Principles of Geology,’ on which the conclusions of modern geo- logists have been founded. Hunter, after hypothetically suggesting that some fossil species may be now extinct, says,— ** How they became extinct is not easily accounted for; for although we must suppose that the species of deer [ Megaceros] to which belonged the bones and horns now found in the island of Great Britain, more particu- larly in Scotland, and still more in Ireland, is lost, yet we have reason to believe they were coeval with the elephant ; for I have the lower jaw and tooth of an elephant that were dug up at Ougle [Oundle], in Northamp- tonshire, twelve feet below the surface, in a strong blue clay ; and with it, one of the horns of the large deer. ”’—P. viii. This opinion of the antiquity of the Megaceros has been confirmed by later observations: in Ireland its remains occur in the shell-marl under- lying the turbary. Hunter proceeds to express his thoughts on the nature of fossil organic 44.0 TITE GEOLOGIST. remains, as follows:—“ No definition can be given that will suit every fossil, except simply that which strikes the eye, which in‘a general way is pretty correct. For as extraneous fossils have been and can be matched by such substances in a recent state, and probably the animals most [fre- quently}, they may in a general way be distinguished ; and this arises from the part in a fossil state having been more or less deprived of the parts belonging to the,recent, which is the animal part ; and which is what principally gives colour to them: thus fossil shells have none. of those bright colours found in the recent; yet some shells retain something of their original colour, though the animal part is dissolved into a kind of mucus, which would make us conceive that both the animal and earthy parts were so disposed as to reflect nearly the same colours, but the ani- mal part is by much the brightest: for it is not simply the state in which the substance is that constitutes a fossil; but it is the state, with the mode in which it was brought to that state, that commonly constitutes a fossil ; for many things might be called an ‘ extraneous fossil’ if considered abstractedly from the manner of their being brought to that state; [and so considered] every churchyard would produce fossils.” —P. xxiv. “To establish the principles of fossils, I shall set it down first as a prin- ciple, that no animal substance can of itself constitute, or be turned into, a fossil; it can only be changed for a fossil.” The acute distinction drawn between ‘turned into’ and ‘ changed for,’ —a distinction which theo- logians and metaphysicians have long rightly drawn, but which many of our learners in paleontology find it hard to perceive,—was clearly present to the mind of John Hunter. With respect to the other portions of the work before us, not imme- diately of a geological nature, extending over two thick octavo volumes, we must be silent. We must coincide with Professor Owen that the text “‘is here and there obscure enough to test the acumen of a skilled logician to decipher the sense. But it is always a matter of interest to endeavour to make out the meaning of a deep and original thinker; and different minds, unbiassed by any suggestion of the editor, may be induced to give their views of Hunter’s meaning, and their opinions of his conclusions. It may be interesting also to some, standing on the vantage ground of seventy years’ progress, to know what such a self-taught philosopher did not know on the subjects he grappled with: and a small proportion of the present writings of Hunter may chiefly serve to illustrate his mental peculiarities and shortcomings. “To those who are conversant with Hunter’s style, other testimony of the authenticity of the present writings will be superfluous: and it has seemed to the editor that the requirements of science would be best met by presenting these writings ‘ pure and simple,’ as Hunter left them.” We have only to say that the sole qualified person in England to de- velope the thoughts of the great past English anatomist and paleontologist was the Biologist who had so long occupied the Hunterian chair at the Royal College of Surgeons, and who has so conscientiously and ably per- formed a difficult and laborious task in publishing the lost Hunterian manuscripts. THE GEOLOGIST. DECEMBER 1862. BOS FRONTOSUS. By the side of a cast of the large-fronted ox of Scandinavia, in the case of fossil Bovide in the British Museum, is a specimen found in Bawdsey Bog, near Felixstow, in Suffolk, referred to that same species —the only example mecondedt: in England, if exhibition in the cases of our national institution be a record, for it has been nowhere figured or described. That the determination of the species is correct there can be little doubt, as the specimen was seen and examined by Professor Nilsson on his late visit to this country, and the correctness of the determi- nation was verified by him. It is to this, one of the most in- teresting but least known species, that we now wish to draw atten- tion. It is interesting because it was probably a species of higher antiquity that lived on to be cowval with the early human races whose relics are found in the deposits of that remarkable border-land between the last geological ages of the Prehuman era and the oblite- rated first chapters of Human History. In the ages which elapsed immediately previous to the deposition of the glacial drift, and subsequently to that period, extending down even to the modern historical era, seven species of fossil Bovide ranged the pastures of England, as will be more clearly seen in the annexed table :— eis Pliocene} Post- Glacial Cave Hsetee Distribution of Bovide in Great Britain. Fresh- |pliocene| >) ,:¢. De- rical water. | Marl. posits. | Period. Bos giganteus s. antiquus, Owen . rei x ae oe Bos primigenius, Bojanus . . . . bw x P Ben aromosus, Nilsson . 1. . . fe x a Bos longifrons, (OU eee ee ak x ‘. 4 x Bison priscus, (0) i Se ae x ; oa ar miner, Owen... sie sk _ ae fe x Bubalus moschatus, Owen. . . . . se Oa x VOL. V. oL 4.4.2 THE GEOLOGIST. The species Bos frontosus was founded by Nilsson, and is charac- terized by the great size, length, and breadth of the forehead, and the prominent elevation between the horns, somewhat similar to that in the subgenus Bibos, or the Gours, Gayals, and Bantingers of Southern Asia. Its superiority of size, and the general robustness of the structure, sufficiently differentiate it from Bos longifrons ; whilst the direction of the horns, which curve moderately downwards, and the general proportions of the forehead, prevent confusion with Bos primigenius or Bos giganteus. Comparison of the specimen with the cast of the typical Bos fron- tosus presented by Professor Nilsson, indicates some minor points of difference. Thus, Mr. Davies points out that the space between the orbits and the attachment of the horn-cores is much longer in the cast than in the Suffolk specimen. The elevation between the horns is also higher, and the breadth between the orbits greater in the cast. 3 In Switzerland, at the present day, a small and spotted variety of ox is found, which M. Riitimeyer considers to be descended from the Bos frontosus. -We are not aware that any one has yet worked out the points of distinction between the existing breeds of oxen in England and Scandinavia, and the gigantic large-fronted ox whose remains have been figured by Nilsson; but the first British speci- men is that of which we give a portrait in Plate XV. Our impression, however, is that a closer inspection of the semi- fossilized, or rather unfossilized remains of Bovide, which are so com- monly turned up in the superficial deposits all over England, and which are now heedlessly neglected, will be found to yield more spe- cimens of this noble ox. | The gigantic ox which was found in the Hereynian forests of Ger- many, of whom Cesar speaks (De Bello Gallico, hb. 6: xxvii.) : “Ter- tium est genus eorum, qui Uri appellantur. Ji sunt magnitudine paullo infra Elephantos, specie et colore et figura tauri. ... Am- plitudo cornuum et figura et species multum a nostrorum boum cornibus differt,’’ has been generally considered to be Bos primige- nius. It may possibly be so; but Cesar, who was accustomed to the long-horned oxen of the Romagna, would hardly have noticed a dif- ference between them and the equally long-horned primigenius. The difference, however, between the horns of B. frontosus and the Italian ox would have struck him at once. | 7 It would not be fair of me to close this paper without acknow- ledging that my attention was directed to this specimen by my friend Mr. Carter Blake. aN BOS FRONTOSUS (Nilsson). From a Pleistocene deposit at Bawdsey Bog, near Felixstow. In the National Collection, British Museum. S. J. Mackie del. PLATE XV, Suffolk. 4.43 PALEHONTOLOGICAL NOTES. By Tuomas Davinson, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. I. ON SCOTTISH JURASSIC BRACHIOPODA. So little is known of Scottish Jurassic Brachiopoda, that any addi- tional information cannot fail to prove interesting. Professor Nicol wrote me on the 16th of April, 186u, that out of a pretty large collec- tion of the fossils of this period sent up to the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association, he found only two species and specimens of Brachiopoda, and both imperfect. That in Sunderland they are most common in the Dunrobin Reefs (by some thought to be Oxford clay, by others Lias), but that the stone is so friable, that the specimens fall to pieces almost at the slightest touch; and that in the sandstone at Braambury Hill, are casts of a large shell, like Zerebratula per- ovalis, but often crushed and distorted. In 1850, the late A. Robertson, of Elgin, sent me two beautifully preserved Rhynchonelle (R. lacunosa ?), from Dunrobin, and which will be found figured and described in my monograph; and about the same period, the late Hugh Miller sent me a specimen of 7’. numis- malis, from the Lias of Shendwick, and another of 2hynchonella Bouchardii, from the Lias of Cromarty. Mr. Geikie recorded like- wise a Lthynchonella tetrahedra, from the Middle Lias of the island of Pabba. It would result from the above statement, that about six species of Brachiopoda have, up to the present period, been mentioned as having been found in Scottish Jurassic strata. On the 9th of April, 1860, Captain E. J. Bedford, R.N., informed me that while surveying the island of Mull, he discovered a great number of fossils in the Middle Lias of Caisaig Bay; these he kindly forwarded for my examination, and | found among many other Mol- lusea, eight or nine species of Brachiopoda, two of which being new to Scotland, and one even so to Great Britain. I was informed, at the same time, that these fossils had been all cut out of a hardened kind of black clay, uncovered at low water; that this clay lay in lamine, which he lifted up with a little bar, and in which he found all the specimens sent up, with the exception of Terebratula punetata and some other species of Mollusca, which he obtained from hard masses of limestone scattered about the shore. The following is a list of the Mollusca from the Middle Lias of the island of Mull, which Mr. Etheridge and myself were able to determine :— Terebratula punctata. Rhynchonella rimosa. Waldheimia numismalis. Rhynchonella variabilis. Spiriferina rostrata. Rhynchonella (another species ?). Spiriferinar Waleotti. Ostrea ? Spiriferina oxyptera. Avicula ineequivalvis, Rhynchonella tetrahedra. Modiola Hillana, AAA, THE GEOLOGIST. Lima Hermannia. Gresslya anglica. Plicatula spinosa. Arca truncata. Lima acuticosta. Arca Buchmanni. Pecten priscus. Arca elongata. Pecten vellatus. Leda rostralis. Gryphea cymbium. Astarte Psilonoti ? Grypheea obliqua. Modiola scalprum. Pholadomya ambigua. Pinna folium. Pholadomya decorata. Pinna tetragona. Cardium cucullatum (Opis). Trochus anglicus. Pleuromya scotica. Pleurotomaria ? Pleuromya unionides. Ammonites raricostatus. Lima acuticosta. Ammonites Jamesonil. Hippopodium ponderosum (young). Belemnites leevigata, var. clavatus. Unicardium eardioides. Since the discovery of the above-named fossils by Captain Bedford, Mr. J. Thomson, of Glasgow, has visited the island of Pabba, where he found 7. punctata, Sp. Walcotti, th. tetrahedra, and another species, which I was unable to determine. He also found in the Bay of Luussay, four miles from Bradford, in the island of Skye, some ex- amples of Sp. Walcotte. Scottish Jurassic Brachiopoda. 1. SpretreRina rostrata, Schloth. sp. 1822, pl. xxiv. fig. 1; Dav. Mon. p. 20, pl. 2, figs. 1-21; pl. 3, fig. 1. Of this species, Captain Bedford found one perfectly characterized specimen in the Bay of Caisaig, Mull. 2, Sprrirertna Watcortt, Sow. 1823, pl. xxiv. figs. 2,3; Dav. Mon. p. 29, pl. 3, figs. 2, 3. This is a common form in Scottish liassic deposits, although rarely found perfect. It was found by Captain Bedford in the Bay of Caisaig, Mull. Mr. J. Thomson obtained it was also from the Middle Lias in the Bay of Lussay, four miles: from Bradford, in the island of Skye, and again, from the island of Pabba. It varies-considerably in size and in the number of its ribs, but is entirely similar to those found in England. 3. SPIRIFERINA OxYPTERA, Buv. 1848, pl. xxiv. fig. 4. Spirifer oxypterus (Buvignier), Mém. de la Soe. Philom. de Verdun, tom. ii. p. 14, pl. 8, fig. 8; Géol. des Ardennes, p. 584, pl. 5, fig. 5; Dav. Annals and Mag. of Nat. Fist. lii. p. 264 , pl. 15 figs. 5 56-1; 1852. Shell variable in shape, transverse and obscurely subrhomboidal ; es sein beak more or less produced and incurved; hinge-line as long as the greatest width of the shell ; cardinal angles tapering into acute points ; area subtriangular and of moderate width ; fissure partly arched over by a pseudo-deltidium. In the dorsal valve the mesial fold is formed of a single rib, to which corresponds a sinus in the ventral one. Each valve is, in addition, ornamented with from eight to twelve simple ribs, and the surface, besides being punctured, is covered with delicate spines. Dimensions variable. Our Scottish example measured nine lines in length by sixteen in width. This species is here mentioned for the first time as a British fossil, and was discovered by Captain Bedford in the Bay of Caisaig, island of Mull. The Scottish specimen above described, agrees otherwise with M. Buvignier’s type. 4. TEREBRATULA PUNCTATA, Sow. 1843, pl. xxiv. figs..6, 7; Dav. Mon. p. 45, pl. 6, figs. t-6. This isa common shell in the Middle Lias of the Bay of Caisaig, island of Mull, PLATE XXIV, Vincent Brooks, imp. lavidson,de LD PODA. e) { 5, AND TERTIARY BRACHI re, ERS) “ y, Themas Davitt: wed br ( Cesc DAVIDSON—PALHONTOLOGICAL NOTES. 44.5 where it has been collected by Captain Bedford; Mr. J. Thomson found it in the island of Pabba; and Professor Nicol states to have fonnd it near Dunrobin. The Scottish specimens are exactly similar to those which occur in England, 5. TEREBRATULA PEROVALIS, Suw. 1825, pl. xxiv. fig. 8; Dav. Mon. p- 51, pl. 10, figs. 1-6. Specimens agreeing with our Hnglish example have been found by Professor Nicol, in the Inferior Oolite of Braambury Hill, Brora. The specimen here figured belongs to Marischal College, Aberdeen. Other examples have been procured near Elgin, by the Rey. J. Morrison. 6. WALDHEIMIA NUMISMALIS, Lamarck, 1819, pl. xxiv. fig.5; Dav. Mon. p. 36, pl. 5. figs. 4-9. Specimens exactly similar to those we find in the Middle Lias of England, have been collected in the Bay of Caisaig, by Captain Bedford. It was also found by the late Hugh Miller, in the Lias of Shendwick, in Scotland. 7. RaYNCHONELLA ee Sow. sp. 1812, pl. xxiv. fig. 12; Dav. Mon. p. 93, pl. 18, figs. 5 This species is common in the Middle a of the Bay of Caisaig, where it has been found by Captain Bedford. Mr. Geikie found it, and Mr. J. Thomson obtained it from the island of Pabba, and from whence it is alluded to by Dr. Wright, in his notes on the fossils collected by Mr. Geikie from the Lias of the isles of Pabba, Scalpa, and Skye. Proce. of the Geol. Soc. vol. xiv. p. 26, 1808. 8. Ruyncnonenta Boucuarptit, Dav. 1852, pl. xxiv. fig. 9; Dav. Mon. p. 82, pl. 15, figs. 3-5. This species was found by the late Hugh Miller in the Lias of Cromarty, and agrees exactly with those found near [/minster, in England. 9. RayNcHONELLA RIMOSA, De Buch. 1843, pl. xxiv. PY. Lh Dae. Mon. p. 70, pl. 14, fig. 6. Specimens agreeing in every particular with those of England have been found by Captain Bedford in the Middle Lias of the Bay of Caisaig. It has also been found in the island of Pabba, by Mr. J. Thomson. 10. RHYNCHONELLA VARIABILIS, Schloth, 1813, pl. xxiv. fig. 10; Dav. Mon. p. 78, pl. 16, fig. 5. Oue of two small specimens, agreeing with some English individuals of this variable species, have been found by Captain Bedford, in the Middle Lias of the Bay of Caisaig, aud by Mr. Nicol, at Loch Aline, Sound of Mull. 11. Ruyncowonenra Ltacunosa, Schloth ? 1813, pl. xxiv. fig. 13; Dav. Mon. p. 96, pl. 16, figs. 18, 14. Several specimens were obtained by the late Mr. Robertson, in Oxford clay ? (perhaps Lias ?), at Dunrobin. In addition to these, eleven undeterminable fragments of another Rhynchonella were found by Captain Bedford, in the Bay of Caisaig. Such is the scanty information I am able to communicate with re- ference to Scottish Jurassic Brachiopoda, and I should feel much obliged to any Scottish geologist who could forward to me any addi- tional information. II. SCOTTISH CRETACEOUS BRACHIOPODA. For some years past I have endeavoured, with but very indifferent success, to assemble data concerning the eretaceous Br achiopoda of Scotland. 446 THE GEOLOGIST. Mr. W. Ferguson, F.G.S., noticed the occurrence of chalk-flints and greensand in Aberdeenshire, Proc. Glasgow Phil. Soc. in. p. 33, 1849, and in the Phil. Mag., May, 1850. Mr. Salter subsequently referred to the same subject in the twelfth volume of the Quarterly Journal of the Geol. Soc. p. 390, 1856, and in the same work for 1857; and we find that the following four species are recorded as having been found in Scotland :—Crania striata, Kingena lima, Rh. Mantelliana, Rh. compressa. I have not however been able to examine specimens of these species. Having communicated with Professor Nicol upon the subject, he kindly forwarded for my in- spection specimens of four others, which had been found by Mr. Murray, of Aberdeen, viz. :— 1. TEREBRATULINA CARNEA, Sow., pl. xxiv. fig. 14. Internal flint-casts in flint nodules, from Curden, Aberdeenshire. 2. TERHBRATULINA STRIATA, Wahlenb., pl. xxiv. fig. 15. Also in flint-casts, same locality. 3. RHYNCHONELLA PLICATILIS and R. octropuicata, Sow., pl. figs. 16, 17, from the same locality. | There were also some one or two other forms, which were not sufficiently well pre- served to admit of a correct determination. One of these belongs probably to RA. Cu- veri. 4. RHYNCHONELLA ... .? pl. xxiv. fig. 18. I could not determine this Rynchonella which had been found by Mr. R. Dawson, in Upper Greensand, at Curden, Aberdeenshire. Professor Nicol mforms me that the Greensand fossils are mostly found in the state of casts, and not often preserved well enough to admit of a correct determination. Iii. TERTIARY BRACHIOPODA. Brachiopoda do not appear to have been specifically as numerous during the Tertiary period as they were in the older formations, and it has been observed that the species of the first-named period are in many instances specifically identical with those still in existence. Three or four years ago, Mr. Etheridge gave me a Terebratula he had received from the island of Malta, assuring me at the same time that it had been obtained from Miocene or Pliocene deposits of that island. This shell struck me at the time as very remarkable, and this impression was subsequently concurred in by Professor Suess, to whom I showed it when he was last in England; 1 may also mention that while looking at some Tertiary fossils from Victoria, at the In- ternational Exhibition, I observed a Pliocene Terebratula, which, if not specifically identical with the Maltese species, is at any rate a very nearly related form. WALDHEIMIA GarIBALpIANA, Dav. n. sp. pl. xxiv. fig. 19. Shell somewhat obscurely pentagonal. Ventral valve convex and rather deep, divided into three portions by two diverging ridges or ribs, which commence close to the extre- mity of the beak, and extend to the front, leaving between them a slightly concave or flattened space, in which three or four longitudinal ribs are observable. The lateral por- tions of the valve become gradually and gently coucave as they approach the margin, and BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MATDSTONE. 44.7 are obscurely marked by a few longitudinal ribs. The beak is somewhat produced, in- curved, and truncated by a small foraminal aperture, which is separated to some extent from the hinge-line by a deltidium. The dorsal valve is not nearly as convex as the ven- tral one, and is likewise divided into three portions, the central one being flattened and furrowed by four longitudinal ribs, while the lateral portions become more elevated as they approach the front, and curve inwards so as to meet the valve-edges of the central lower portion of the valve. Upon each of the lateral portions of the valve may be observed six or seven ribs, which become somewhat obscured as they approach the margin of the shell. Interior un- known. Length, 1 inch 7 lines; width, 1 inch 3 lines; depth, 10 lines, Tertiary, Malta. Obs. The recent species to which this shell bears the closest re- semblance is the Waldheimia flavescens, Lamarck, now alive in myriads at Port Jackson, Australia, as well as in some other localities. The recent species is however more regularly ovate than is the fossil one, the beak is less elongated, and with a larger foraminal aperture. THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. By W. H. Benstep, Esa. (Concluded from page 382.) There only remains now to notice the post-Tertiary deposits to com- plete this account of the geology of Maidstone. The surface-soil and the earth filling in and covering over the faults and large fissures consist of clay, gravel, “sharp ” drift-sand, and fine sand, all being sedimentary deposits from water under different rates of motion. The exteriors of the highest masses of rock show the effects of a powerful erosion continued for a long period of time ; but this action was not the dashing of billows, for some surfaces of the roek, although worn to a great extent, have portions of fragile shells standing out from their surfaces, just as in the cavernous gutters of the rock masses of spicule jut out from the walls, the loose sand or soft hassock having been washed away. Old watercourses exist at a considerable depth from the surface, showing that a gra- dual lowering of the water-level of the springs ~~ d has taken place. The opinion I have formed respecting the beds of drift and sedimentary clays, which in the district are found between the masses Fig. 9.—Protrusion of Rag- Of rock, is that an elevating force has lifted stone into Drift, at Maid- these masses, bearing up the drift and clay stone. a, beds of Ragstone; (Fig. 9), and that, in some instances, the b b, drift; cece, clay; dd, f t] il re f 7} was Vine of fijats peaks of the smaller masses of rock have been protruded into the drift and clay, inet and dividing them into lines at angles parallel with their sides. 448 THE GHOLOGIST. The phenomena of these deposits offer a wide scope for considera- tion. The causes of such an accumulation of sedimentary matter, the deposit of such matter anterior to the clay, and the water-worn faces of the bluffs, could not have occurred in the present state of the surrounding country. The rush of water necessary for such events must have had a source much greater than any now existing in the district, and perhaps far distant. The quantity of water must have been vast. The conjecture that England at one time joined the continent, and that the mountains of the continent were the sources from which the supply proceeded, is therefore probable. 1+ is very interesting to find that the waters of the Medway deposit now a sediment very similar to the clay filling up the faults and covering the highest parts of the rocks. The larger débris brought down by the river is also analogous tothe gravel. Iam thus led to the infer- ence that these deposits are the relics of water having considerable motive power. The principal sources of the Medway are now in the elevated por- tions of the Weald, but we cannot attribute the ancient “ diluvial ”’ waters to so limited a source. 3 The lines of fracture, which constitute the principal faults, are parallel to the course of the Medway, and are filled almost entirely with clay (brick-earth), and contain the remains of mammalia, viz. elephant, deer, horse, and hippopotamus. The bones and teeth are found at a considerable depth in the clay, and much separated. I discovered a fragment of a jaw of a horse with five teeth in their sockets. There occurs also, at a depth varying from ten to twenty feet from the surface, a bed of freshwater shells, Lymnea, Heliz, and Pupa. These shells are rather sparingly distributed, but may be found in all the clay-pits worked on each side of the river. The general level of the bed is about a hundred feet above the present levei of the water. Transverse faults cross the main lines of frac- ture, and. these are filled with a gravelly drift of flints, chert, and ragstone, more or less water-worn ferruginous sand, and occasionally a boulder of Druid sandstone. In the gravelly detritus I have found detached fossils from the Lower Greensand. The following statement of the moving power of water, in the ‘ Civil Engineers’ and Architects’ Journal,’ gives the rates of the force required for the disturbance of matter subjected to its action :—“ A velocity of three inches per second at bottom will work upon fine clay ; six inches will lift fine sand; eight inches per second, sand as coarse as linseed ; twelve inches per second will sweep along fine gravel; and twenty-four inches per second, gravel one inch in diameter.” From the above facts it would appear that the clay, drift-gravel, etc., were not de- posited by the same forces, and consequently not at the same time. The red clay, composed of very fine particles, was deposited after the erosion of the rock. At that period, I presume, a great flow of water was wearing away the angles of those rocks which obstructed its course. When this speed diminished and the water became tranquil, the fine clay held in suspension deposited itself at the bottom; this BENSTED—ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 449 process continuing for a very long period of time, as the depth of this clay is, in the highest faults, from eighty feet upwards. The transverse faults were filled also with the same clay, but we now find them occupied by drift-gravel from half an inch to three inches in diameter. Another epoch, I imagine, then oceurred, when a force of water swept out the fine clay in the transverse faults, and deposited the drift in its place. This had its subsequent subsidence into the fissure or fault. A third period then took place, during which the land-surface was reduced to its present form; some of the faults were hollowed out, others left undisturbed. The undisturbed faults show no indication on the present surface of the subsidence of ma- terials which has taken place within their walls, and this proves that the beds of clay were at one time much higher than they are now. We find a clay similar in many respects to this, lying upon the highest summits of the chalk-hills, and at an elevation of 200 feet above the ragstone on which this lower clay reposes; but this upper clay contains chalk-flints not worn by attrition, and immense boulders of “ Druid sandstone.” I have never found any fragments of rag- stone in these upper beds of clay, which run up to the very verge of the chalk escarpment. At page 301 I have observed that in some situations no indication is seen at the surface of the land of the fault below, although this may be afterwards exposed in digging for stone; and when a section is thus made, a great subsidence is seen to have taken place, as indicated by bending lines at dd d in the diagram. Rocky Hill. River Medway. Thorn Hill, Fig. 10.—Section of the beds of Ragstone from HE. to W., Maidstone. a a represents the beds or cliffs of ragstone. ¢ e, faults filled with red clay. d, divisions of beds of fuller’s earth, gravel and sand, clay, ete., showing the lines of subsidence and of lateral pressure of the masses. The “ Druid sandstone,” of whieh rock Kits Coty house, Stone- henge, and many other Druidical remains are composed, is found scattered in great blocks over the surface of the chalk-hills, or buried superficially in the beds of clay retained in the hollows on the sum- mits of the escarpments. These blocks or boulders of siliceous sandstone are composed of granular quartz, and occasionally envelope chalk-flints and other ex- traneous bodies; they are perfectly analogous to those found in Berkshire and Wiltshire, where they are distinguished by the title of “orey. wethers.”’ Dr. Mantell, in his ‘Geology of the South-East of England,’ speaks of the “ beautiful conglomerate or pudding-stone of Hertfordshire. I have occasionally found fragments of a similar VOL. V. o M 450 THE GEOLOGIST. conglomerate on the Maidstone hills, near the sites of the ‘ grey wethers.’ ”’ The statement of the late Dr. Mantell still holds good, that “no regular stratum of the ‘ Druid sandstone’ has yet been discovered in this country, and its geological position is still undetermined.” Preston Quarry, on the south side of the Medway, offers a fine section of the effects of an elevating force, as may be seen in the accompanying sketch (fig. 11). The stone is fractured in all di- rections, and consequently large blocks are not obtainable. ‘The diagram, fig. 12, ; ee inal ; ; Prac One: the continuation of the disturbed Fig. 11.—Anticlinal a pede: arry. , black greys; 0 4, 3 , pe (0s arg slp clay The most interesting part of the and greensand, with beds of stone quarry is the bed of loamy clay, Ie RALS bored with lithodomi at c’c’; d,is about three feet in thickness, and surface falling to the Medway. — Gontains fragments of shells—oysters, terebratule, corals, etc. In detached pieces, with their edges rounded, is a layer of stones, varying in thickness of about 2 inches by 6 or Preston Quarry. Medway. Fig. 12. Section of Preston District. i2 inches across. Their upper surfaces (c¢' c’) are perforated by litho- domi, and the perforations are filled with the loam and a white pow- dery deposit. The excavations are about 2 inches in depth; and one fragment is so perforated, that not a square inch of it remains intact. CORRESPONDENCE. Origin of Flint in Chalk. Dear Str,—Flint in chalk is found as bands of nodules or thin seams separated from each other by intervals of chalk varying from a few feet to many yards; the nodules, from a boy’s marble to two or three feet in diameter. In some pits only solitary flints occur here and there ; in others, in the same upper fint-bearing chalk, there are no flints at all. We have terebratula composed of pure flint extracted from blocks of equally pure chalk. I consider it very doubtful whether the flints have been deposited suc- cessively with the beds of chalk. Flint nodules, it appears to me, are actually in process of increase at this day. Yours truly, Rost. Mortimer. Fimber, Malton, November 13th, 1862. CORRESPONDENCE. 451 Restoration of Pteraspis. My pear Sir,—I have read the Rev. H. Mitcheil’s paper on “The Restora- tion of Pteraspis”’ with great interest, but the conclusions he draws from his Scotch specimens are, I think, by no means borne out by examples obtained from English localities. I enclose you two sketches of Pteraspids from Crad- ley, in Herefordshire: one, in my own collection, showing the anterior portion of the shield; the other, exhibiting the posterior portion and surface markings, in the possession of Mr. Gregory, of Golden Square. These two sketches will be sufficient to show that the shield, as drawn by Mr. Mitchell, is wanting in some important particulars; the true form I believe to be that given in fig. 3. Mr. Mitchell seems to be under the im- pestsicn that the restoration of Pteraspis as never before been attempted, al- though first-rate specimens have been in our museums and private collections for some years. Professor Huxley, in vol. xvii. of Geol. Soc. J ournal, has given , a diagram of arestored Pteraspis, which is copied in fig. 3; he has likewise re- pt eas ferred to the subject in British Asso- Fic 1 ciation Reports, 1858, and has further Ser written a detailed account of the microscopic structure of the test in vol. xiv. of the Journal. The references in fig. 3 are as follows :—a is the snout or rostrum, united with 0, the shield-like disk ; e ec are the lateral cornua attached to the disk ; e isthe posterior spine, and ff are the orbits or perhaps the nasal apertures. The corresponding parts can be easily found in the sketches I have given of the fossil Pteraspids. I may just mention here, that the bonelike test of these fish is composed of three layers,—an external, finely striated layer, a middle cancellated layer composed of polygonal cells, and a third internal layer of a laminated nacreous substance. The specimen drawn in fig. 2 shows the external layer remarkably well; in fig. 1, parts of the middle cancellated layer may be seen; the rest of the test, which is pre- served, being the internal nacreous layer. I remain, dear Sir, yours truly, EK. R. LANKESTER. 8, Savile Row, Nov. 9. P.S.—You will observe some minute in- dentations drawn in fig. 2, on the surface 452 THE GEOLOGIST. www eos oe x Fig. 3.—Diagram of restored Pteraspis. of the shield. Professor Huxley informs me that he believes them to be the sites (if I may so say) of mucous follicles. I have thought this worth mentioning in a note, as they have never before been noticed. When and how was the Isle of Wight severed from the Mainland ? Srr,—On two different occasions inquiries have been made in the pages of the ‘ Geologist,’ as to the period at which the Isle of Wight was torn from the maimland and entrusted to the rude guardianship of the ocean. The subject is an interesting one, especially in its geological aspects ; and as I have given some attention to it, I will attempt to reply to the in- quiries of your Lymington correspondent. I am not aware that there is the least particle of historical evidence that gives countenance to the famous passage in Diodorus Siculus that has been interpreted by various writers as proving that, when he lived, the channel of the Solent was fordable at low water. As the particular island of which Diodorus is speaking, was one from which the miners of Cornwall were in the habit of exporting their minerals, and there is a small isle (St. CORRESPONDENCE. 453 Michael’s) on their own coast, to which such minerals could easily have been conveyed, and which, in its connection with the mainland, answers pretty closely to the historian’s remarks; and further, as I know of no argument worth listening to why the miners of Cornwall should have _ transported their tin to the Isle of Wight for exportation,—on all these several grounds, I think one may safely conclude that neither Diodorus, nor any other writer of note, has left any evidencv whatsoever about the fordableness of the Solent within historical times. The severance of this island from the mainland, it appears to me, was effected under very unusual circumstances, and at a very distant period. The present channel of the Solent, being pretty nearly equally deep and equally broad throughout its entire length of twelve or fourteen miles, proves at once that it was not formed in the usual way of island-severing channels, that is, by gradual encroachments of the sea on the two opposite sides of a narrow neck of land. If so formed, the middle part of the channel would naturally have been both narrower and shallower than the two mouths that first admitted the tide towards it; but this is not the ease. Nor are there any important indestructible obstructing rocks on either side of the channel that could account for this peculiar formation. It is to be accounted for, therefore, not by the excavations of a gradually ap- penne sea, but, as I shall hereafter have to attempt to show, by its eing originally the trunk or outlet of a very considerable river. Again, at the western mouth of the Solent, there is almost an immea- surable accumulation of rolled flints, with which are mingled a sufficient sprinkling of fragmental fossil shells of various genera and species to show us from whence the whole mass was originally transported. This aceumu- lation forms a sort of natural breakwater, two miles in length, one hundred yards in breadth, and many feet in thickness, extending between the main- land at Milford and a point beyond midchannel, where Hurst Castle was erected three centuries ago. Where the castle stands, this bank of flints becomes expanded so as to cover a circular space of fully twenty acres. Now all this enormous accumulation of flints, together with another one probably much larger on the island side of the main channel, and lying under the sea, in front of Alum Bay and the Needles, are formed of drift and broken fossils from the Barton beds ; the fossils themselves plainly pointing to the formation whence the whole mass was derived. It would add too much to the length of my paper, to account for this vast lodgment of drift around the mouth of the Solent; neither is this needful as respects the objects of my remarks: only I would have my readers to understand that it depends upon the flow of tide through the channel of the Solent. And when it is remembered that the annual supply of drift along the Bar- ton cliffs is comparatively small, it will then be seen that it must have re- quired a period reaching far back in time to gather together the vast accu- mulations referred to above, and consequently they may be regarded in themselves as visible and lasting memorials of the very great antiquity of the separation of the Isle of Wight from the mainland. Nay, I will venture to hazard an opinion, even though I stand without geological authorities to support me, that will place the date of the forma- tion of the Solent Sea still further back in the dimness of the past ; an opi- nion to which both the peculiarities of the channel itself above referred to, and the geological formation of the surrounding country, bear very strong testimony. Whoever as a geologist examines the vertical strata of the chalk at the Needles, nay, and throughout the whole length of the Isle of Wight, and the strata of the same rock in exactly the same unusual posi- tion on the bold white cliff on the Dorsetshire coast some twenty miles 454A. THE GEOLOGIST. westward of the Needles, will not doubt but that the two promontories were once united, forming a rocky neck of land from. Dorset to the Needles. This chain of chalk might, or might not, be so cleft in twain as to allow the rivers of Dorset and Wilts. to find a passage through them to the main ocean. My opinion, however, is that they had no such outlet, but that, at that far distant period, the entire drainage of more than two counties, embracing the rivers that join the sea at Poole and Christchurch, flowed through what is now called Christchurch Bay, down the Solent, and joined the sea at Spithead. According to this theory, the Solent was at that time an estuary some- what like the Southampton Water, having but one opening to the British Channel; but of so much more importance than the latter as it was fed by a vastly greater flow of fresh water ; and it further supposes that” the bed of the Solent was scooped out originally by a river, which from the extent of its drainage one may guess to have been little inferior to the Thames or the Humber. And this opinion acquires countenance from the circumstance that it accounts, in a most satisfactory way, for the equality of depth and breadth in the Solent Sea. Of course, according to this view, this sea would lose its original condition as an estuary at the time when the British Channel had so far made a breach through the chain of rocks connecting the Isle of Wight with Dorsetshire as to give an opening into itself for the Dorsetshire rivers, somewhere opposite to the town of Christ- church. From that time forth the Solent would become what it is at pre- sent, losing its character as an estuary, and assuming that of a long narrow sea. And at the same period, of course, the Isle of Wight would part with its peninsular character, and be severed from the mainland, but at a point far apart from that at which the severance is usually supposed to have taken place. The distant period at which such changes took place it would be hopeless to guess at, amid the dimness of the data on which calculations could be founded. It could not be less, however, than many thousands of years, seeing that since that time, the British Channel has not only made a broad breach of twenty miles through a chain of slowly yielding rocks, but has also pushed its way gradually across the broad extent of the Poole and Christchurch Bays. In conclusion, I would observe, that if your correspondent at Lyming- ton simply put his question about the separation of the Isle of Wight as an archeological inquiry, I fear he will consider my answer to it as some- what dreamy. But I am confident, if he and others who may honour me with a careful perusal of my observations, are tolerably acquainted with the geology of the neighbourhood, and have had their minds disciplined for realizing the operations of nature on a large scale and through length- ened periods of time, they will perceive in this paper opinions indicative of more than novelty, having, as I believe, very important geological facts to uphold them. Yours, etc., W. Fox. Brixton, Isle of Wight, Nov. 8. Tracks, Trails, and Imprints. Drak Srr,—At nearly the same time, probably, when I was pointing out the desirability of careful drawings and casts being made of the tracks and trails of living annelids, mollusks, insects, ete. (‘Geologist,’ No. 52, p- 138, April, 1862), for the guidance of the paleontologist in decipher- CORRESPONDENCE, 455 ing fossil surface-markings, my friend Dr. J. W. Dawson, of Montreal, must have been engaged in the useful labour of preserving faithful re- cords of the track-marks of Limulus polyphemus on the sands of Orchard Beach (Gulf of St. Lawrence), for the purpose of comparing them with the fossil tracks, termed Protichnites and Climactichnites, found in the Potsdam sandstone of Canada. The results of these well-directed researches have been described and illustrated by Dr. Dawson in the Canadian ‘ Naturalist and Geologist’ for August, 1862 (vol. vi. No. 4), p. 271, etc.; and it appears certain that the trail of Limulus on wet sand is very similar to Protichnites, except- ing that the latter has not the lateral furrows that are produced in the former by the edges of the carapace. Swimming in very shallow water, Limulus produces on the sand a trail very similar to Climactichnites ; the latter, however, showing lateral and median ridges, whilst the former has furrows instead. Dr. Dawson agrees, therefore, with Professor Owen in referring the Protichnites to a Limuloid animal; and is strongly inclined to refer Cli- mactichnites to the same agent. Still he thinks it not impossible that the large Lower Silurian Trilobite, Paradoxides, may have been the animal that produced all the marks in question. With the fact before him, that Climactichnital markings are left on a subaquatic surface by Limulus, Dr. Dawson, of course, rejects the hy pothe- sis of Climactichnites being gallery-tracks, as advanced in my paper above referred to (loc. cit. p. 139). Still these recent tracks differ from what Dr. Dawson regards as their primeval analogues, in that their “lateral and medial lines are furrows instead of ridges ;” and therefore the identifica- tion is not complete. I would ask that the question still remain open until Dr. Dawson and other good naturalists have more material at hand and a wider basis for conclusions. “J may add that the burrowing of Limulus polyphemus,” Dr. Dawson re- marks, ‘is easily effected in soft sand, but is confined toa mere burying of itself beneath a very slight smooth elevation.” The great well-known North American Trilobites (Paradoxides), however, whose bodies exactly fit in width to the Climactichnital and Protichnital trails of Canada, and whose abiding place was really the muddy sea-bed on the geological hori- zon of the Potsdam sandstone, in all probability crawled over these littoral sands, just as the Limulus frequents the existing sandy beaches in spring and summer; and (like Swleator and Krayera, loc. cit. pp. 131, 138, 139) it may have burrowed in them, with much longer burrows than Limulus makes, and in that case the in-fallen galleries would supply the raised ridges of the Climactichnite. We need not suppose the presence of Limulus, or of any unknown Limuloid animal, in the primordial sea; for there is little doubt, if any, that Paradoxides, known to have then existed, can have made the trails in question (as Dr. Dawson allows, p. 277), if they had the usual crusta- cean locomotive apparatus ; and ‘‘1t seems almost certain, from analogy, that they must have possessed such organs” (Dawson, Joc. cit. p. 277). Nor does the trail of Limulus correspond exactly with the fossil tracks ; the edges of its carapace produce, in crawling, side-furrows not ‘seen in Protichnites ; and its subaquatic trail has but a general resemblance to Climactichnites, as far as we can learn from the published observations. * Dr. Dawson, in his interesting paper before me, also notices (p. 275) the occurrence, at Orchard Beach, of “‘small Climactichnite-like tracks” that were made, as he ascertained, by a large beetle (Melolontha (Polyphylla) variolosa ?), ‘which occasionally settled on the wet sand and crept for 4.56 _ THE GEOLOGIST. some distance on its surface, apparently making the transverse tracks by means of its tarsi.” A figure of this insect-track would have been very acceptable in connection with the subject treated of n my above-mentioned paper, loc. cit. p. 182, ete. T. Rupert Jones. Royal Military College, Sandhurst. BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. ON THE CORELATION OF THE SLATES AND LIMESTONES OF DEVON AND CORNWALL WITH THE OLD RED SANDSTONES OF SCOTLAND. ; By W. PENGELLY, F.G.S. The distinguished author of ‘ Siluria,’ as geologists well know, has made a tripartite division of the slates and limestones of Devon and Cornwall, as well as of the Old Red Sandstones of Scotland, South Wales, ete., and given chronological equivalency to the upper, middle, and lower groups of each respectively. Thus he places the Barnstaple and Pether- win beds—the latter being characterized by the presence of Clymenia and Cypridina—on the horizon of the Upper Old Red, with its Holopty- chius and Phyllolepis ; the limestones of Torquay, Newton, and Plymouth, in which are found Stringocephalus, Calceola, Bronteus, Acervularia, etc., are made to synchronize with the deposits of Caithness, etc., containing the remains of Asterolepis, Coccosteus, etc. ; whilst the slates of Meadfoot, etc., in South Devon, and Looe, etc., in Cornwall, distinguished by the re- markable Coral Pleurodictyum problematicum, are regarded as the equiva- lents in time of the Lower Old Red rocks of Forfar and the North-east Highlands, which are charged with Cephalaspis, Pteraspis, and Onchus.* Though this co-ordination may be said to have met a large acceptance, it is not in keeping with the opinions of some who laboured long and sedu- lously amongst the older rocks of Devon and Cornwall, nor is it un- challenged by some existing writers. The late Sir Henry Dela Beche re- garded ‘the bulk of the Devonshire and Cornish rocks as,-at least in part, equivalent to the lower beds of the Carboniferous Limestone, to the passage beds between the Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous Lime- stone of Ireland, South Wales, etc., and also to some portion of the higher part of the Old Red Sandstones of Herefordshire and adjacent districts.’*+ The Rey. David Williams considered “the Devonian system as occupying an enormous interval between the Old Red Sandstone and Mountain Limestone.”{ Mr. Page says, ‘“‘ We shall use the term ‘ Devo- nian’ as applying more particularly to the strata as developed in the south of England, and the term ‘ Old Red Sandstone’ as more especially applicable to those of Scotland ;. believing, as we do, that the Caithness and Forfarshire beds are on a lower horizon than the English Devonians, and that it requires both developments to constitute the ‘system’ as at present understood by European and American geologists.”§ Mr. Bete Jukes says, ‘‘ It is quite possible that the slates and limestones of Devon, * “Siluria,’ 3rd edit., p. 433. + Memoirs Geol. Survey, vol. . p. 1038. ¢ Report Royal Geol. Soc. of Cornwall, 1843, p. 128. § * Advanced Text-Book of Geology,’ p. 123. nt es BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. “457 and the red sandstones of South Wales, although each deposited within the same great period, are not strictly contemporaneous, but were formed at different parts of the period. Or it is possible the red sandstone series of South Wales is not a continuous series; that the lower part of it, at all events, is older than any of the Devon series, while the upper part may be newer than much of that series.’”* That some—that much—diversity of opinion should exist, respecting the time relations of the two systems of rocks now under notice, is what - might be expected when their lithological and paleontological dissimi- larities are remembered; the northern beds are eminently arenaceous, whilst those in the south are almost exclusively argillaceous or calcareous ; the former teem with fossil fish, and the latter with the exuvie of mollus- cous and radiate animals; but, according to our fossil registers, Scot- land does not yield the shells, corals, or sponges so abundant in De- vonshire; nor are the ichthyolites of the former found in the latter area : they have no organic remains in common. It will doubtless be remembered, however, that in his ‘ Palzeozoic Fossils of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset,’ Professor Phillips has figured and described as a scale of Holoptychius, a fossil found in the slates of Meadfoot, near Torquay, in South Devon.} It would seem that this iden- tification has not been considered perfectly reliable, since the fossil has not found a place in subsequent works on the Devonshire beds, or in Pro- fessor Morris’s ‘ Catalogue of British Fossils.’ This dissimilarity of the organisms of two not very widely separated, and, as has been supposed, contemporary sets of deposits, is, to say the least, very remarkable. The mineral and mechanical characters of the Old Red rocks may sufficiently explain the absence, in them, of mollusks, and other dwellers at the sea-bottom; but there seems no satisfactory mode of accounting for the non-appearance of fishes in the slates and limestones of Devon and Cornwall. Various solutions of the problem have been at- tempted. We are asked by one to suppose that some geographical diffi- culty or barrier separated the two areas and prevented the migration and mingling of their inhabitants ; whilst another suggests that the Old Red fish were probably at home in fresh water only, and ought not to be looked for in beds so decidedly marine as those of Devon and Cornwall. The interesting and important discovery, by Sir RK. I. Murchison, of the intermixture, in the same Devonian bed in Russia, of the fish of the Upper and Middle Old Red of Scotland with the shells of Devonshire,f leaves the difficulty untouched ; nor does it appear that the synchronism of the representative beds in Britain necessarily flows from it. It proves, of course, that the fish and shells lived at one and the same time in Russian, not that they did so in British, waters. We may have an example, here, of the distinction between geological contemporancity and synchrony, so ably pointed out, on a recent occasion, by Professor Huxley.§ It is possible, for instance, that the fish commenced existence before the shells ; that they appeared in Scotland long before their descent upon Russia; that slowly changing conditions compelled them tardily to abandon their ear- lier home for a more congenial one; and that, on their arrival, they found there the invertebrate tribes which subsequently migrated to where the foundations of the future Devon and Cornwall were being laid. Be this as it may, some geologists, recognizing the synchronism of the * ©Manual of Geology,’ 2nd edit. (1862), p. 492. + Pal. Fossils, pl. 57, fig. 256, p, 183. ¢ ‘Siluria,’ 3rd edit., p. 382. § Anniversary Address, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xvii. part 2. Wiis. Vs 3°N 458 THE GEOLOGIST. two systems of deposits, and believing that no sufficient reason had heen assigned for the absence of the Old Red fish in Devon and Cornwall, have never failed to cherish the belief that, sooner or later, they would be found there; and, indeed, we have heard from time to time that at length the wished-for ichthyolites have been exhumed in the southern area. At the meeting of the British Association held at Cork, m 1843, Mr. Peach brought under the notice of the Geological Section, certain fossils which had then recently been found by Mr. Couch, in the Devonian slates, near Polperro, in Cornwall. The paleontologists to whom they were then sub- mitted considered them to be remains of fishes; and, indeed, the late Mr. Hugh Miller subsequently found a specimen amongst them, of which he said that ‘‘if he had found it in the Old Red Sandstone of Cromarty, he would have no hesitation in regarding it as a fragment of some dermal plate ef Asterolepis.” These fossils were found in great numbers in cer- tain localities, and extended along the Cornish coast, at by no means wide intervals, from Fowey Harbour to the Rame Head ; they were constantly spoken of as the “ Polperro fish,” and the slates in which they were found as the “ Polperro fish-beds.” At length, Professor M‘Coy and Mr. Carter of Cambridge subjected them to a rigorous microscopic scrutiny, and pro- nounced them to be nothing more than sponges belonging to their new genus Steganodictyum, of which they formed two species, S. Cornubicum and S. Carteri. It may be doubted, however, whether certain fossils found with them were not true ichthyolites ; indeed, one specimen which, a few years since, I found in the Steganodictywm beds at Looe, in Cornwall, has been pronounced, by Sir P. Egerton and others, to be a decided ich- thyodorulite.* It has not been identified, however, even generically. A few weeks since, I had the good fortune to find a fossil in the Plewro- dictyum slates at Meadfoot, near Torquay ; that is, in certainly the lowest group of the rocks of South Devon and Cornwall, and which Sir R. Mur- chison has placed on the horizon of the Cephalaspidian and Pteraspidian beds—the lowest of his divisions of the Old Red of Scotland. From the first, | believed it to bea fish-scale or plate; and very recently, Mr. Davies, of the British Museum, has not only confirmed this, but has identified the fossil as a scale—or rather, a portion of one—of Phyllolepis concentricus, a fish known only by its fossil scales, and which had hitherto been found aM a ane Clashbennie beds, belonging to Sir R. I. Murchison’s Upper ed. This fossil then appears to necessitate the belief, either that the organism which it reprezents had a greater vertical range than has been supposed,— that is, that it belonged to the Lower and Middle, as well as Upper Old Red fauna,—or that the Pleurodictyum beds of Devon and Cornwall, in- stead of being on the horizon of the Lower, are on that of the Upper Old Red series of Scotland. To accept the first of these, apparently the only two alternatives, would be to accept the difficulty of supposing that Phyllolepis dates from Cepha- Jaspidian times ; that it witnessed the extinction of this family as well as the subsequent introduction and withdrawal of Coccosteus, Asterolepis, and others ; and yet that, unlike its early contemporaries, it failed to leave be- hind any trace of its existence in the Old Red rocks, save only in the upper of their three groups. Rejecting this hypothesis, however, we seem compelled to adopt its rival, which amounts to this:—there are in Devon and Cornwall no representa- tives of the Lower and Middle Old Red rocks of Scotland, but the lowest—the Pleurodictyum beds—of the former are on the horizon of the * See ‘ Geologist,’ vol. iv. pl. vi. p. 346. BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 4.59 upper division of the latter; an opinion probably in harmony with that of Sir H. De la Beche already quoted. Lied In an earlier paper on this subject—based exclusively on the statistics of the invertebrate fossils of Devon and Cornwall, considered both specifi- eally and generically—I expressed the opinion, that the lowest beds of Devonshire do not constitute the basement of the Devonian system, and that the Barnstaple beds were rather Carboniferous than Devonian, or were, perhaps, ‘‘ passage-beds ” between them.* It is not without interest to find this opinion supported by the more reliable, because vertebrate, evidence now produced. It will be remembered, too, that the indications of the Holoptychian seale, already mentioned as having been described by Professor Phillips, and which was also found in the Meadfoot slates, are to the same effect. Like the Old Red Sandstone fish found in Russia by Sir R. Murchison, the Phyllolepis scale was surrounded with marine shells,7 and also by corals of the family Oyathophyllide ; the ancient fish to which it belonged was therefore not incapable of living in the sea. NOTICE OF FOSSILIZED MAMMALIAN REMAINS FROM THE BED OF THE GERMAN OCEAN. By C. B. Ross, F.G.S., Ere. It has for a very long period been known that, during the degradation of the cliffs of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, teeth and bones of various mammals have been exhumed, and more largely those of pachyderms. In Queen Hlizabeth’s time, huge bones were found at Walton, near Har- wich. They were then considered to be those of giants. In the ‘ Philo- sophical Transactions’ for 1745, a Mr. Baker records the finding of a fossil elephant at Mundesley Cliff; and, in 1746, Mr. Wm, Arderon, of Nor- wich, makes mention of similar remains discovered at Hasborough and Walket, on the Norfolk coast. My present object is, to lay before you a few of the specimens which have been brought up from the bed of the German Ocean, entangled in the trawling nets of the Yarmouth fisher- men. Had they been more portable, I would have exhibited tusks and other large remains of these huge beasts, of which there are some fine specimens in the collection of Messrs. Owles, Steward, Nash, and my own. The late Miss Gurney, of Northreps, was the possessor of a large collec- tion of fossil mammals from the cliffs of Cromer and its vicinity, and which may now be seen in the Museum at Norwich. The Rev. John Gunn, of Irstead, has made an extensive and rich collection of similar remains, from Mundesley and Hasborough. In the course of years vast numbers of teeth and bones have been col- lected. The late Mr. Woodward, of Norwich, says, in his ‘Geology of Norfolk,’ ‘“‘ Mammalian remains have been dredged up on the Knole Sand, off Hasborough. This spot presented us, in 1826, with the finest tusk of the mammoth; it measured 93 feet along its curvature, and weighed 97 lbs.” But off Dungeness a tusk was dredged up which measured 11 feet in length, and yielded some pieces of ivory fit for manufacture. The oyster- bed off Hasborough was discovered in 1820, and, from the number of grinders of the elephant found there, Mr. Woodward felt himself war- * ‘Geologist,’ vol. v. pp. 28 and 3k. + ‘Siluria,’ 3rd edit., pp. 883 and 4338, } This scale has been transmitted to me and will shortly be figured.—Lp. Grou, 4.60 THE GEOLOGIST. ranted in concluding that upwards of 500 animals were deposited in that limited space. The coloured map of the German Ocean exhibited at the meeting, showed the localities whence the organic remains are chiefly taken; certain spots marked thereon are the fishing-grounds, and, therefore, the depositories of the fossils with which we are made familiar; but we cannot doubt that these exuvie are more generally distributed over the sea-bottom. The following specimens were exhibited:—Teeth of three species of ele- phant, Elephas primigenius, E. antiquus, and EH. meridionalis ; cervical and dorsal vertebre of the same genus; two teeth of a hippopotamus (a dorsal vertebra has since been brought up); a dorsal vertebra of a whale ; a unique specimen of a lower jaw of the Trichechus rosmarus ; heads of the Megaceros Hibernicus, male and female; an anterior dorsal vertebra of ditto (an antler, 4 feet 6 inches long, has since been brought me) ; atlas of ditto; a fragment of an antler of Cervus tarandus; the humerus of a gigantic ox; a portion of the head of the Hquus fossilis; and a fine speci- men of Castor Europeus, the head. The colour of these specimens might lead us to believe that they belonged to the Mammaliferous Crag period ; but colour is not a decisive criterion. It is probable that they may have lain in close proximity to a bed of crag ;* they are unquestionably from a Pleistocene deposit. And, now, as to how these organic remains came to be at the bottom of the ocean. Ata not very remote geological period our island was united with the continent; a catastrophe took place which separated them and led to the formation of the German Ocean. This gap has been continually enlarging, from the crumbling down of the cliffs on either side; the fossils have thus been exhumed, carried out to sea during storms by retiring waves, and there deposited. No doubt, also, that many remains which lie buried in the land that omginally united us to the continent sank bodily with it, and consequently they are met with when the sea-bottom is raked over by the trawling-nets of the fishermen. P.S.—I give the measurement of three tusks. One, belonging to Mr. Owles, measures—length of external curve, 7 feet 5 inches; girth at proximal end, 18 inches; radius of inner curve, $ feet. I possess two perfect tusks—one, length, 6 feet 3 inches; girth, 17 inches ; radius of curve, 3 feet 3 inches: the other, length, 6 feet; girth, 125 inches; radius of curve, 4 feet 2 inches. These proportions indicate that my specimens are from two distinct species of the elephant. A femur of the mammoth in my possession measures 3 feet 5 inches, minus the head of the bone, which is gone. The late Rev. Mr. Layton possessed the finest collection of mammalian remains from the Norfolk coast. At his death it was purchased for the British Museum. NOTES ON DEEP OR ARTESIAN WELLS AT NORWICH. By tHE Rev. J. Crompton. The object of this paper is to put on record the facts connected with the attempt now being made by Messrs. J. and J. Colman, of London and N orwich, to bore a deep well through the chalk to the Lower Greensand. Mr. Rose, of Yarmouth, in the ‘Proceedings of the Geologists’ Associa- * The atlas of the Megaceros has a Turritella incrassata (Crag fossil) sticking in the canal for the vertebral artery. BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 461 tion,’ No. 8, 1862, has mentioned some of these facts, but it seemed worth while to throw them together in a distinct memorial, if only to draw atten- tion to an enterprising and patiently-conducted operation of great extent, by a single commercial firm, in obedience to geological principles. The wells (for there have been two attempts) are situated at the foot of Carrow and Bracondale Hill, Norwich, within a few yards of the river Wensum, the object of the deep sinking being to obtain a water, for use in the manufacture of starch, perfectly free from the impurities of that found within the range of the chalk of the neighbourhood. The operation chosen is that of boring by Messrs. Mather and Platt’s machine. This machine consists of an iron boring-head, 8 or 10 feet in length, armed with strong chisels, suspended by a flat rope wound round a drum; the hammering or “jumping” motion being given by a special steam piston. The neck of the borer is formed with a screw, on which a collar connected with the flat rope works, the effect being that the borer is gradually twisted when at work, so that the chisels constantly strike on fresh points, and more thoroughly break up the materials met with. When a sufficient quantity has been thus broken up, the boring-head is removed and a *‘shell-pump” is let down having a valve at the base. On the pump being set in action, the loose material is forced into the shell and brought to the surface. In the hard chalk the rate of penetration accomplished was 20 to 25 feet a day for 500 feet. The first well failed in consequence of the iron tubing employed to case the bore slipping across and completely obstructing the action of the ma- chine, at a depth of 775 feet. The second is being sunk a few yards off, on the same level as the first. After a few feet of alluvium the borer passed through hard chalk, with flints at distances of about 6 or 7 feet apart, for 700 feet, with the exception of 10 feet at the depth of 500 feet, where the rock was soft, “like white lead,” and of a rusty colour. Thence the hard chalk continued, with flints thicker together, viz. about 4 feet apart, to the depth of 1050 feet. Then 102 feet were pierced, of chalk free from fiints, to the Upper Green- sand, a stratum of about 6 feet, and next the gault for 36 feet: the whole boring being full of water to within 16 feet of the surface. In this gault, however, the greatest obstacle has been met, and the com- pletion of the work arrested for a considerable time past. This stratum is soft, so that the chisels, effective in the harder upper strata, are of little use. The material caves in from all sides as the instrument proceeds, and, unfortunately, the rope has broken more than once, leaving the boring- head below, and one now lying across the bore baffles the engineer’s efforts to remove it. The strata passed through are— Feet. Alluvium . . . } 2 - 5 lr Hard chalk, with flints : : . . 483 Soft chalk : : : : : risaaeu Hard chalk, as before : : . 190 ¢ 1042 Hard chalk, with flints; in closer layers . 350 | Chalk, without flints . ; ; : Sa Upper Greensand , : : : anal Gault, not yet passed through . ; . 36 1198 The fossils brought up have not been very numerous, as might be ex- pected from the smallness of the bore, viz. twenty-one inches in diameter. 462 THE GEOLOGIST. The larger proportion have been from the lower strata, especially the rault. . From the chalk the ordinary fossils, as the Spatangus cordiformis, have been taken; three sharks’ teeth, one that of Zamna Mantelliit. From the gault, as noticed by Mr. Rose, characteristic small Belemnites, with Ammonites lautus, Ammonites symmetricus, and fragments of Inoceramus. The Foraminifera as yet detected by my friend Mr. Kitton, of Norwich, whose accuracy of observation as well as kindness I have to thank, are— in the gault, Orbulina (common); Lagena (rare) ; Nodosaria (not uncom- mon); Frondicularia (rare); Dentalina (not uncommon); Hntosolenia (rare); Rotalina (not uncommon); Polymorphina (ditto); Textularia (common) ; Globigerina (ditto). Fragments of Bryozoa occasionally oc- cur. In the chalk at 500 feet depth the Foraminifera are more sparsely dis- tributed, and much more injured than in the gault. They consist princi- pally of two genera, Globigerina and Fexrtularia. Rotalina are somewhat morerare. The same is the case with the samples examined from 110, 400, and 1000 feet in depth. The work, from the unfortunate cause mentioned, is arrested apparently on the point of success, to the great annoyance of the enterprising proprie- tors ; and, although our business here is with the scientific facts presented, the geological section will not hesitate to recognize one more instance in which the science of geology bas received practical homage from a private commercial firm in a work of considerable boldness, carried on for three years in the face of temporary defeats, with admirable courage and faith in the dictates of geology. The other papers read in the Geological Section were :— Opening Address by Mr. J. B. Jukes; ‘On a Whittled Bone from the Barnwell Gravel,” by Mr. Harry Seeley; ‘On Tertiary Coal,” by Prof. Ansted ; “ Alluvial Deposits on the Rhine,’ by R. H. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S. ; “On an Ancient Sea-beach at Fort William,” by Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys; ‘Glacial Deposits of Highlands of Scotland,” by Rev. 8. W. King; “On Wookey Hole Hyena Den,” by Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins; ‘“ Last Eruption of Vesuvius,” by Dr. Daubeny ; “ Extinct Voleano in Upper Burmah,” by Mr. W. T. Blandford ; ‘ Comparative Structure of Artificial and Natural Igneous Rocks,” by H.C. Sorby, F.R.S.; ‘‘ General Review of Cambrian Rocks,” and ‘Older Metamorphic Rocks and their Fossil Contents,” by Dr. Bigsby ; “Contributions to Australian Mesozoic Geology,” by Mr. C. Moore ; * Correlation of Iron-slates and Limestones of Devon and Corn- wall with Old Red Sandstone of Scotland,” by Mr. W. Pengelly ; “ Six- inch Maps of Bronan district, Co. Clare,” by Mr. F. J. Foot; “Gold- fields of Auckland” and “ Gold-fields of Otago,” by Dr. L. W. Lind- say; “Tooth of Mastodon from Tertiary Marls, Shanghai,” by Prof. Owen; “New Recent Echinoderm and its probable Paleontological Affinities,” by Dr. Allman ; “ Identity of Upper Old Red Sandstone with the Uppermost Devonian, and of the Middle and Lower Old Red with the Middle and Lower Devonian,” by Mr. J. W. Salter ; “ Skull of Rhinoceros tichorhinus,” by S. P. Saville ; “‘ Supplementary Report on Slaty Cleavage,” by Prof. Phillips ; ‘Composition of Granite of Donegal,” by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt ; “ Ossiferous Caves in Malta,’ by Dr. Falconer; “Glacial Phe- nomena of Upper Indus,” by Captain Godwin-Austen ; “ Fossils of Boul- der Clay in Caithness,” by Mr. C. W. Peach; “ Mammalian Remains from Bed of German Ocean,” by Mr. C. B. Rose; ‘“ Flint Implements PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 463 from North Devon,” by Rev. J. Dingle; ‘ Veins in the Models of Fora- minifera,” by Dr. Pritsch; ‘‘ Diluvial and Alluvial Deposits of Central Germany, and on the Climate of the Period,” by Dr. von Seebach ; “On Petroleum of North America,” and “ Structure and Origin of Certain Limestones and Dolomites,” by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt; ‘“ Plesiosaurus from Lias of Whitby,” by Mr. F. J. Foot; “ Flint Implements from the ‘ Oyle’ Cave, Tenby,” by Mr. G. N. Smith; “ Scutes of Labyrinthodon from Keuper Bone-Breccia of Pendock,” by Rev. W. 8. Symonds; ‘ New Fossil Fishes from Old Red Sandstone, Caithness,” by Mr. C. W. Peach. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. Grotoaicat Socrrty.— November 5, 1862.—Professor A. C. Ramsay, President, in the chair.—1. ‘‘ Descriptions of some Fossils from India, discovered by Dr. Fleming of Edinburgh.” By Dr. L. de Koninck. The author gave a detailed description of 44 species of fossils from the western end of the salt-range of the Punjaub, on the right bank of the Indus, discovered by Dr. J. Fleming and Mr. W. Purdon. The same mixture of Mesozoic with Paleozoic types observed by Mr. Davidson, who described the Brachiopoda (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xviii. p. 25), was also noticed by the author in these fossils. He therefore suggests the pos- sibility of a further examination of the strata showing the existence of two intimately associated formations, belonging respectively to the Carboni- ferous and Lower Mesozoic periods. 2. “On a Deposit containing Diatomacer, Leaves, etc., in the Iron-ore Mines near Ulverston.” By Miss E. Hodgson. The object of this paper was to show that this deposit, which was first described by Mr. Bolton in the Society’s Journal, vol. xviii. p. 274, and considered by him to be of lacustrine origin, was deposited in a large cavern or chain of caverns by a subterranean stream originating probably in a brook called the “ Poaka Beck.” 3. “On the Geology of a Part of the Masulipatam District.” By Capt. F. Applegarth, Madras Army. 4. ‘On the Association of Granite with the Tertiary Strata near King- ston.” By J. G. Sawkins, Esq., F.G.S. A granitic formation traverses Jamaica in a direction from 8.E. to N.W., being the same as that of the earthquake-shocks. It pierces the Carbona- ceous series, and also the Tertiary strata, whence the author concludes that it is of Tertiary age. Mawncuester GrotocicaL Socrety.—June 24th.—Mr. Hull, of the Geological Survey, drew attention to the presence of Goniatites, Avicu- lopecten papyraceus, and other marine shells in the upper coal-measures at Dukinfield. It has always been considered that these marine fossils were confined to the lower coal-measures, and to the series of strata below the Arley mine. Mr. Binney delivered an address ‘‘On the Geology of Manchester.” The surface around Manchester was covered by drift, except in the valleys, where the rivers have cut through the drift. The drift of the district Mr. Binney divides into— 1. Valley gravel.—A bed of coarse gravel, composed of various-sized Azoie, Paleozoic, and a few Triassic rocks, well rounded, parted with layers of 4.64: THE GEOLOGIST. fine sand, without pebbles, exhibiting every appearance of having been de- posited by water; most frequently stratified, but sometimes unstratified. It has generally two well-marked terraces above the waters of the present rivers, as well as some minor terraces. On the top of this is generally found about three or four feet of silty loam. 2. Forest sand and gravel.—A deposit of sharp forest sand, parted with layers of gravel of same rocks as No. 1, and having every appearance of a regular deposit by water, distinguishable only from No. 1 by its being Fig. 1. found at greater elevations, containing more sand, and being generally more regularly stratified. It sometimes contains thin beds of “till” lying in it, and much drifted coal. 3. Till. Till,” a mass of strong brown clay, in which are mingled the same kinds of rocks as those in Nos. 1 and 2, of sizes from six tons in weight to small pebbles, some rounded and partly rounded, and others quite angular, especially coal-measure and magnesian limestone rocks, with- out any order of deposition, great and small stones being mixed together indiscriminately, quite impervious to water, and well known as valuable brick clay, and from its being the deposit which yields striated or scored stones. Several beds of fine laminated silt and patches of sand are found in it. | 4. Lower gravel.—A hed of sand or coarse gravel, having the pebbles (consisting of the same kinds of rocks as Nos. 1, 2, and 3) well rounded, sometimes, but not always, occurring under the brick clay, often stratified, and at other times unstratified. It affords good springs of bright water. Probably the deposits mentioned above will not always be found in the perfect order there laid down; no doubt some of them may be wanting at places, especially Nos. 4 and 2, which have often been removed. The kind of gravel found here is somewhat similar to that in the north of France yielding flint implements. Many things have been found in these gravels, but have always been considered of doubtful origin. Some of the old beds of the course of the present river Irwell have been dug out, but little attention has been given to collecting anything from them. It is to be wished that attention were directed to these lowest terrace beds, with a view of ascertaining whether they contain any flit implements or fossil remains. Mr. Barr had stated that he had found a marine shell (Cardiwm edule) in the gravel of Stockport. On the top of the gravel is a bed of silt, three or four feet thick, and this seems to have been derived from floods, when the river overflowed its banks and deposited the silt. In the upper terrace there are very often found thin beds of peat, and beds of silt between. The great body of gravel, about the level of the waters of the Irwell, has been moved about in the valley as the river has changed its course from time to time. 2) tu 1 SN SS A nee ee eas Notes and Queries :— Decomposing Basalt, Giants’ Causeway. (With a Plate.) . area : . 239 Mammalian Remains at Demblans_ : : - : - : : . 239 Microscopic Organisms in the Paleozoic Rocks of New York. | : . . 239 Review :— Monographie des Gastéropodes et des Céphalopodes des Couches Crétacées Supé- rieures du Limbourg. By M. Binkhorst . : ; . : . : . 240 CORRESPONDENTS. Communications received from W. W. WuitTakeER, Esq., F.G.S., Gravesend; G. H. West, Esq., Rugby; C. Exton, Esq., Holt; C. C. Buaxz, Esq., Brunswick Square ; J. Cresy, Esq.; W. N. Lawson, Esq.; G. V. Du Noyzr, Esq., Enniscorthy ; THomas PURDUE, Esq., Whitney ; GEORGE W11soN, Hsq., Wakefield ; Professor W. Kine, Gal- way; J. MusHen, Esq., Birmingham; Dr. Bevan, Llanellen, Abergavenny ; EDwaRpD Woop, Esq., Richmond; JamMEs Horne, Esq., Glasgow; Miss MacNEILuiz, Rostrevor ; Miss A. B. WELLWooD; GEoRGE TaTE, Esq., Alnwick. BOOKS RECEIVED. Recherches sur |’ Eau dans |’ Intérieur de la Terre. Par M. DELESSE. Geology of the Railway from Worcester to Hereford. By the Rev. W. 8S. Symonps. London: Hardwicke. 1862. ; Anniversary Address to Geological Society. By Professor Huxtry. London: Taylor and Francis. 1862. Défense des Colonies. Part II. By M. J. Barravpr. Prague: Kleinseite. 1862. On the Teeth in Man and the Anthropoid Apes. By Dr. WzsB. Monographie des Céphalopodes des Couches Crétacées Supérieures du Limbourg. By M. Van DEN Binkuorst. Brussels: Muquardt. 1862. VOL. V. No. 55.] JULY, 1862. [Pricer ls. 6d. THE GEOLOGIST. AN ILLUSTRATED POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF GEOLOGY. i Fn gre ep a Ee, EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., FS.A. “Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, _undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.”—Herschel : Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & OO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD, BERLIN: ASHER & CO. PRINTED BY J. B. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEBN STREET, LONDON. TO GEOLOGISTS. Large and Small Collections, or Single Specimens of SILURIAN FOSSILS, from the neighbourhood of Ludlow, for Sale; apply to A. MARSTON, CAVE STREET, LUDLOW. SAMUEL HIGHLEY, SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONALIST, MICROSCOPE & PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, Invites attention to his Collections of APPARATUS MODELS, NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS, Etc., now on View in Classes 13, 14, and 29, AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue (six Stamps) on application. 70, DEAN STREET; SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. Just Published, BRITISH CONCHOLOGY; or, An Account oF tHE Mo.uusca which now inhabit the British Isles and the surrounding Seas, with Particulars of their Habits and Distribution. By J. GWYN JEFFREYS, F.RS., F.GS., ete. Vol. I., containing the Land and Freshwater Shells, post 8vo, with nine plates. Price 12s. JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. NOTICE. BRITISH CONCHOLOGY.—Lovett Reeve begs to announce that his ‘Manual of the Land and Freshwater Mollusks of the British Isles,’ which has been three years in preparation, will be published in the Autumn. It will be illus- trated with a series of highly-finished wood-engravings of the living animal of each genus, and with two or more views, between three and four hundred in all, of the shell of each species. Price 10s. 6d. In a volume on the same subject, by Mr. Jeffreys, just published by Mr. Van Voorst, illustrations are not given of the species, on the ground, as stated in the Pre- face, that ‘‘the cost and price of the work would have been greatly increased, except by resorting to the inartistic and unsatisfactory substitute of woodcuts.” Mr. Reeve is happy to be able to state that this stricture cannot apply to his woodcuts, as the proofs of nearly the whole of them were examined and highly approved of by Mr. Jéffreys before the production of his work was even meditated. LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. New and Enlarged Editions. I.—A new Edition, being the Frrrn, Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 1s. 9d., cloth, INTRODUCTORY TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY. By DAVID PAGE, F.GS. II.—A New Edition, being the Taran, Enlarged and more fully illustrated, price 6s., ADVANCED TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY, DESCRIPTIVE AND INDUSTRIAL. By DAVID PAGE, F.GS. Wit1iiam Buackwoop snp Sons, Edinburgh and London. Of whom may be had, by the same Author, HANDBOOK OF GEOLOGICAL TERMS AND GEOLOGY. 6s. THE PAST AND PRESENT LIFE OF THE GLOBE: being a Sketch in Outline of the World’s Life System. 6s. , R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . &2 2 O *200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays area a aM a 8tG Sy ab. O 300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 0 400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches of ae a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the world. * A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, ete. PALAOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, ete. In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. Tt is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in Mining pursuits or practical Geology. SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins, sq. a 0770 MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in “ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,” by the Rev. Wattrr Mitrcurrt, M.A., and Proressor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WarErnovuse Hawxkrns’s GEo- LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct AniMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 8s. 6d. extra. SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawsrns, F.L.S., etc., adapted for Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. Hawxins’s RestToRATION oF Extinct AniImats. Price 12s. Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopic Objects, etc., can be supplied to the Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy and Geology can be had. CONTENTS. Glacial Action in South of Ireland. By G. V. Du NoryEr. (With two Plates Mee Woodcuts.) . : : er pane : : : . 0 . ; . 241 Origin of Species. By Professor Kine . : ; : : 5 ; : . 204: Correspondence :-— Trinidad Pitch Lakes . : : ; : ; : ; ; ‘ ; . 258 Human Skeleton at Leicester : : 5 : 5 5 ; : ‘ . 260 Proceedings of Geological Societies :— Distribution of Northern Plants. By Professor OLIVER. . : é . 262 On Coal. By W. W. Suytu, F.RS. . : : : z : . 263 On the Loess of North of France and South of England. By J. PREsTwicu, E.R.S. (With Woodcut.) : é 4 : : Bele ai : . 265 Notes and Queries :— Corylacez in Lignite near Glasgow. : ; ; ; : . 272 Mammalian Remains at Bedford . : : ‘ poi gs : ; . 273 Foreign Intelligence :— Date of the Elevation of the Rocky Mountains . 4 : . : . . 273 The Coal-field of Mons : : : ‘ 5 : ; : ; . 274 Reviews :— “Further Discoveries of Flint Implements,” By J. Hvans, F.S.A. . . 274 “ Fishes of the Devonian Period.” By Professor HUXLEY .. : : . 276 “Revue de Géologie pour l’Année 1860.” By MM. DenzssE and LAUGEL. . . 280 CORRESPONDENTS. Communications received from Dr. R. N. Rupipes, Port Elizabeth; C. CARTER BLAKE, Esq., Brunswick Square; Dr. Fatconer; G. V. Du Noyer, Esq.; J. Puant, Esq., Leicester. BOOKS RECEIVED. Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science. Edited by Rev. Professor Haventon. July, 1862. Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society. No. 14. 1862. Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Masson, Paris. 1862. VOL. V. No. 56.] AUGUST, 1862. [Price 1s. 6d. THE GEKOLOGIST. AN ILLUSTRATED POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF GEOLOGY. EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.G.S., F.S.A. “Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.’—Herschel : Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & OO. PRINTED BY J. B. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUERN STREBT, LONDON, NOTICE. BRITISH CONCHOLOGY.—Lovett Reeve begs to announce that his ‘Manual of the Land and Freshwater Mollusks of the British Isles,’ which has been three years in preparation, will be published in the Autumn. It will be illus- trated with a series of highly-finished wood-engravings of the living animal of each genus, and with two or more views, between three and four hundred in all, of the shell of each species. Price 10s. 6d. In a volume on the same subject, by Mr. Jeffreys, just published by Mr. Van Voorst, illustrations are not given of the species, on the ground, as stated in the Pre- face, that “the cost and price of the work would have been greatly increased, except by resorting to the inartistic and unsatisfactory substitute of woodcuts.” Mr. Reeve is happy to be able to state that this stricture cannot apply to his woodcuts, as the proofs of nearly the whole of them were examined and highly approved of by Mr. Jeffreys before the production of his work was even meditated. LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. SAMUEL HIGHLEY, SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONALIST, MICROSCOPE & PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, Invites attention to his Collections of APPARATUS MODELS, NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS, Evc., now on View in Classes 13, 14, and 29, AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue (six Stamps) on application. 70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. JURY AWARDS TO SAMUEL HICHLEY. CLASS XIII.—A MEDAL “ For Stupents’ Microscopes combin- ing cheapness and good workmanship, and for excellence in other Optical Instru- ments,’ comprising IMPROVED POLARISCOPES, SPECTROSCOPES, TELESCOPES, ELECTRIC and OxXY-HYDROGEN Lecturers’ DEMONSTRATING LANTERN, etc. CLASS XIV.—HONOURABLE MENTION “ For excellence of Apparatus exhibited,’ comprising PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THE Magic LANTERN, PHOTO-MICROGRAPHIC CAMERA, and LENSES, etc. CLASS XXIX.—A MEDAL “ For the excellence of his Educational Collections,” to illustrate CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, OSTEO- LoGy, ZooLoey, ete. A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue of the Objects Exhibited, post free for four stamps. S. HIGHLEY, 70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, PRIZE MEDAL for Connections or Mineratogy anp GEOLOGY was awarded to JAMES R. GREGORY, 25, Golden Square, London. In Class XXIX., No. 5597, a number of small elementary collections, il- lustrating the manufacture of various materials from minerals, etc.; also for the study of Mineralogy and Geology. In Class I., No. 181, is exhi- bited a unique series of Fossil Old Red Sandstone Fishes, and some very fine specimens of Minerals. Larger collections, single specimens, Ham- mers, Diagrams, Books, etc., can be obtained at the museum at the above address. R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :-— 100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 0 *200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays Pe ember ke ee 5 5 O 300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the world. * A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz Tourmaline, Spinel, Caleareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, ete. NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zine, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, ete. ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. PALAMOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Ciay, Crag, ete. In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE, Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, consisting of 38000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass ease on the top for large specimens, price £2000. It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in Mining pursuits or practical Geology. SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 The same, 4. ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins, sq. 5 0 0 MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ by the Rey. Watter Mitcwe., M.A., and Prorrssor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WatErHoUsE Hawktns’s Gro- LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5. 5s. Packing case, 8s. 6d. extra. SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawkins, F.L.S., etc., adapted for Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. HAwkIns’s REsTORATION OF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, ete., can be supplied to the Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy and Geology can be had. CONTENTS. | Page M. Gras’ Attack on the Evidence of the Flint-Implements in Respect to the Anti- quity of Man . ; . 281 Notes on the Geology of Merdetone. (With ie eliniees) By W. H. Ten, ben . 294 Correspondence :-— 7 Professor King’s Synoptical Table é j : ‘ . 5 : : . 801 Tertiary Mammalian Remains at Dulwich . : i ‘ : ; : . 802 Sicilian Bone-Caves . : ‘ : 6 ; : ‘ ; : « p oaeeO2 Origin of Species : : ; : 5 : : é . 803 Monoeraphy of the Cablontcal Sst ey. : ; : : ; : F . 805 Geological Notes in the Great Exhibition : : : 4 , : : . 306 Proceedings of Geological Societies . . . . ‘ ; : : : . 309 Notes and Queries :— Anthracite in Silurian Rocks : 5 : : . 312 Further Notes on Human Skulls from Heather: Bare Bey ete. . : ; . 313 Fossils from Treflach Quarry é A , ; A fs : : . . 316 Sharks’ Teeth at Panama . : : : : ; 3 : : : . 316 Bituminous Sandstone 6 ; : : , > 5 : : : . 316 Human Remainsin Alluvium . : ‘ : : ; , ‘ : a BRT Foreign Intelligence j , as as : : : : : : : saad) Reviews :— On the Zoology of Ancient Europe. 5 < : 5 5 : . 318 Proceedings of Geologists’ Association, No. 8 : . Secrest : : . 319 CORRESPONDENTS. Communications received from Rev. J. 8. Tats, Markington Rectory, Ripley, York- shire; J. Horne, Hsq., Glasgow ; J. WYATT, Esq., P.G.8., Bedford ; THOMAS GRINDLEY, Esq., Glossop; C. JickEs, Esq, Woodlands; C. C. Buakr, Esq.; Mr. J. Exziorr, Stanhope. BOOKS RECEIVED. On the Zoology of Ancient Europe. By A. Newron, M.A. Macmillan. 1862. On Isodiametric Lines as Means of Representing the Distribution of Sedimentary Clay and Sandy Strata as distinguished from Calcareous Strata, with Special Reference to the Carboniferous Rocks of Great Britam. By Epwarp Hott, F.G:S8. Bulletin del’ Académie Royale de Belgique. No. 5. Bruxelles. 1862. Transactions of the Manchester Philosophical Society. No. 13. 1862. Bulletin de ? Académie Royale de Belgique. Nos. 2,3,4. 1862. The Law of Increase and the Structure of Man. By Dr. Liwarzix. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association. No. 8. Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society. No. 14. On the Failure of Geological Attempts in Greece prior to the Epoch of Alexander. By Dr. J. Scuvarcz. Part I. London: Taylor and Francis. 1862. Theoretical Considerations on the Conditions under which the Drift Deposits contain- ing the Remains of Extinct Mammalia and Flint-Implements were accumulated, and their Geological Age. (From Proceedings of the Royal Society.) By Jos—EPH PRESTWICH, Hsq., FR. S. 1862. Flint Implements in the Drift, being an Recor of Further Discoveries on the Conti- nent and in Hugland. (From the ¢ Archeologia.’) By Joun Evans, F.S.A. 1862. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. Several mistakes having occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested that in future all swbseriptions and communications relating to the supply of the ‘ Geologist’ be addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co., 5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. The Price of the ‘ Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. each number. It is sent postage free to regular subscribers for 18s. per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. MOL. N. INO.07. | SEPTEMBER, 1862. [Prick 1s. 6d. THE GEOLOGIST. AN ILLUSTRATED POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF GEOLOGY. EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. “Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.”— Herschel : Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. PRINTED BY J. BR. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON, ee eee ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES. Director—SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, D.C.L., M.A., F.R.S., ere. During the Session 1862-3, which will commence on the 6th of October, the following COURSES of LECTURES and PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATIONS will be given :— . Chemistry—By A. W. Hofmann, LL.D., F.RB.S., ete. . Metallurgy—By John Percy, M.D., F.R.S. . Natural History—By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. ie ; By Warington W. Smyth, M.A. F.B.S. . Geology—By A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. . Applied Mechanics—By Robert Willis, M.A., F.R.S. . Physics—By J. Tyndall, F.R.S. Instruction in Mechanical Drawing, by Mr. Binns. The Fee for Students desirous of becoming Associates, is £30 in one sum, on entrance, or two annual payments of £20, exclusive of the Laboratories. Pupils are received in the Royal College of Chemistry (the Laboratory of the School), under the direction of Dr. Hofmann, and in the Metallurgical Laboratory, under the direction of Dr. Percy. Tickets to separate Courses of Lectures are issued at £3 and £4 each. Officers in the Queen’s Service, Her Majesty’s Consuls, acting Mining Agents and Managers, may obtain tickets at reduced prices. Certificated Schoolmasters, Pupil Teachers, and others engaged in Education, are also admitted to the lectures at reduced fees. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has granted two Scholarships, and several others have also been established. For a prospectus and information, apply at the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London. TRENHAM REEKS, Registrar. BONonLwondr BRITISH CONCHCLOGY.—ILLUSTRATED INDEX OF BRI- TISH SHELLS. By G. B. Sowrrsy, F.L.8. Impl. 8vo, extra cloth gilt, 30s., containing 700 coloured engravings of 600 species, being all known of Land, Fresh- water, and Marine. The only other work, containing nearly all the species, is nearly eight times its price, and gives fewer species by about forty. One work recently published at 12s. contains the Land and Freshwater species only, with few illustra- tions. Another is promised of the same division, to be illustrated by uncoloured woodcuts. In reviewing the former of these two, the ‘ Atheneum’ speaks inciden- tally of ‘‘ Mr. Sowerby’s Illustrated Index, which, on account of its beautiful illus- trations, would form an excellent companion ” to that work. Yet although little more than an index, as its name implies, it contains in a condensed form all the essential inforniation respecting names, synonyms, localities, and important distinctions ; and all of every genus is seen at a glance. London: Simpkin and Co. Paris: Roth- schild and Co. Or, to be had with advantage, direct from the proprietor, G. B. Sowerby, Naturalist, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury. NOTICKH. © BRITISH CONCHOLOGY.—Love zi Reeve begs to announce that his ‘Manual of the Land and Freshwater Mollusks of the British Isles,’ which has been three years in preparation, will be published in the Autumn. It will be illus- trated with a series of highly finished wood-engravings of the living animal of each genus, and with two or more views, between three and four hundred in all, of the shell of each species. Price 10s. 6d. LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. YAMUEL HIGHLEY, SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONALIST, MICROSCOPE & PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, Invites attention to his Collections of APPARATUS MODELS, NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS, eErc., now on View in Classes 13, 14, and 29, AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue (six Stamps) on application. 70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 O *200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays eee A oh tatiay Oe 630 300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers Mahl ee | wi) pA Cima 400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet withtwelve drawers . . . . 21 0 O More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches of seience, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the world. * A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Talc, Topaz, Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, ete. ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, ete. PALASOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, ete. In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass ease on the top for large specimens, price £2000. Tt is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in Mining pursuits or practical Geology. SOPWiTH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 ~ The same, 4. ins, sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 5S Oen.0 MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ by the Rey. WaLtTER Mircuett, M.A., and PRoFrEssor TENNANT, F.R.G:S. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. Warrrnovusr Hawkrns’s Gro- LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, [gyuanodon, Megalosaurus, Plesiosaurus (two species), Lchthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 8s. 6d. extra. SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawxrns, F.L.S., ete., adapted for Edueational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. Hawxins’s Restoration oF Extincr Animaus. Price 12s. Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, being a list of those in the private collection of J. TENNANT, F.G.S. Price 2s. All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, etc., can be supplied to the Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy and Geclogy can be had. CONTENTS. Page Supposed Footprints in the Cambrian Rocks of the Isle of Man. By J. Tayror, Esq., Member of the Council of the Manchester Geological Society . . 321 Past Life in America. By C. Carter Buakz, Esq., Lecturer on Zoology at the London Institution . 5 ; : . 823 Excursion to Reculver. By Dr. E210, Gisp, F.GS. : : 4 : . 330 Notes on the Geology of Maidstone. (Continued.) By W. H. Buenstep, Esq. (With two Plates.) . : : : 334 Correspondence :-— Muskham Skull . : : 6 . 4 : : : : 5 , . 841 Yorkshire Flint Implements. . 5 5 : : ‘ ; : ‘ . 342 Geological Notes in the Great Exhibition :— South Australia, . 5 : : j é : ‘ : : . 5 . 344 Geological Institute of Austria . : : 5 4 F : . 847 Proceedings of Geological Societies . : ; : : ‘ ; : . . 351 Notes and Queries :— Fossiliferous Caye at Meliha ; : : : 5 : : : : . 353 Human Remains ; 5 : : : : : eis : : . 353 Deer in England . : : . . : 5 ; 4 . . : . 353 Reviews :— . The Laws which Regulate the Deposition of Lead-ore in Veins, illustrated by the Examination of the Geological Structure of the Mining District of Alston Moor. By W. Wallace 354. On the Failure of Geological Attempts on Greece, prior to the Epoch Of Mlexander By Julius Schvarez, M.D. . : ; : . : : : : . 857 Volcanos and the Character of their Phenomena. By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq. . 360 CORRESPONDENTS. Communications received from M. Ep. DE VERNEUIL, Paris; Mr. GroreE Tate, Aln- wick; Mr. W. Benstrep, Maidstone; E. Woop, Esq., Richmond; C. C. BLaKE "Esq. London; Joun Taytor, Esq., Crewe; Dr. EH. D. Gipp; W. WHITTAKER, Esq., Gravesend. BOOKS RECEIVED. Explanations to accompany Sheet 145 of the Maps of the Geological Survey of Iveland illustrating part of the County of Tipperary. By Messrs. Jukes, WYNNE, and BAIey. London: Longman and Co. Faune Primordiale dans la Chaine Cantabrique. Par MM. CasiAno DE Prapo, ED. DE VERNEUIL et J. BARRAUDE. ; Coupes du Versant Méridional des Pyrénées. Par MM. Dz Vurnevit et KnYSERLING. Géologie du Sud-est de ? Espagne. Par MM. DE VeRNEvin et ConLoms. On the Ancient Flint Implements of Yorkshire and the Modern Fabrication of Speci- mens. By the Rev. THos. Wiutsaire, M.A., F.G.S., ete. Nols sur pnt Partie du rae Basque-Espagnol, accompagnée d’une Carte. Par MM. DE VERNEUIL ; CoLLOMB et TRIGER, et suivie d'une description d échi DEAE Gomis ? = ption de quelques échinodermes. 5 Menee ul Be eae une Partie de la Sierra Morena et des Montagnes eToléde. Par M. Castano DE PRADO; suivi d’une description d i is’ 2 eontrent. Par MM. DE VERNEUIL et BARRAUDE. Pinon, des: tSeateeutns) 22h On the Western End of the London Basin, and on the G ch By W. Wiirraker, F.G.8. 1862. : SUAS SU SERS 22 aRLE Hsquisse d’une Description Physique et Géologique de l’Arrondissement de Mont- béliard. Par Dr. Cu. ContEsEAN. Leipzig: J. Rothschild. 1862. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. Several mistakes having occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested that in future all subscriptions and communications relating to the supply of the “Geslogist : he addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co.,5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden The Price of the ‘Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. cach number. It is sent postage free to regular subscribers for 18s. per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. VOL. V. No. 58.] OCTOBER, 1862. [Price ls. 6d. THE GHKOLOGIST. AN ILLUSTRATED POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF GHOLOGY. EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. “Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.’”—Herschel : Discourse on Study of Natwral Philosophy. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD, BERLIN: ASHER & CO. PRINTED BY J. B. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEBN STREET, LONDON, ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES. Drrector—SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, D.C.L., M.A., F.RS., pre. During the Session 1862-3, which will commence on the 6th of October, the following COURSES of LECTURES and PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATIONS will be given:— . Chemistry—By A. W. Hofmann, LL.D., F.R.S., ete. . Metallurgy—By John Percy, M.D., F.R.S. . Natural History—By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. Mie i By Warington W. Smyth, M.A., F.R.S. . Geology—By A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. . Applied Mechanics—By Robert Willis, M.A., F.R.S. . Physics—By J. Tyndall, F.R.S. Instruction in Mechanical Drawing, by Mr. Binns. The Fee for Students desirous of becoming Associates, is £30 in one sum, on entrance, or two annual payments of £20, exclusive of the Laboratories. Pupils are received in the Royal College of Chemistry (the Laboratory of the School), under the direction of Dr. Hofmann, and in the Metallurgical Laboratory, under the direction of Dr. Percy. Tickets to separate Courses of Lectures are issued at £3 and £4 each. Officers in the Queen’s Service, Her Majesty’s Consuls, acting Mining Agents and Managers, may obtain tickets at reduced prices. Certificated Schoolmasters, Pupil Teachers, and others engaged in Education, are also admitted to the lectures at reduced fees. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has granted two Scholarships, and several others have also been established. : For a prospectus and information, apply at the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London. TRENHAM REEKS, Registrar. ONO WNEe AE INERALOGY.—KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.—Professor TENNANT, F.G.S., will give a COURSE OF LECTURES ON MINERALOGY, with a view to facilitate the study of GEOLOGY, and of the application of Mineral Substances in the ARTS, The Lectures begin on WEDNESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 818, at Nine o'clock They will be continued on each succeeding Friday and Wednesday at the same hour. Fee, £2. 2s. R. W. JELF, D.D., Principat. On the 15th will be published, price 5s., PHOSPHORESCENCE ; OR, THE EMISSION OF LIGHT BY MINERALS, PLANTS, AND ANIMALS. By DR. T. L. PHIPSON, F.C.S., ere. With numerous Illustrations. LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. SAMUEL HIGHLEY, SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONALIST, MICROSCOPE & PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, Invites attention to his Collections of APPARATUS MODELS, NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS, eErc., now on View in Classes 13, 14, and 29, AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue (six Stamps) on application. 70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 0 *200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays ee ee ets, Ts 5 5 0 300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 0 More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the world. * A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, Tourmaline, Spinel, Calecareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, ete. NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, ete. PALAOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Ciay, Crag, ete. In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in Mining pursuits or practical Geology. SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 O Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 5 0 0 MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ by the Rey. Waiter MircHett, M.A., and Prorrssor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. Scientific and other Institutions can be supphed with Mr. WarerRnouse Hawkins’s Gro- LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE HxtT1ncT ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a scale of one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.53. Packing case, 8s. 6d. extra. SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawxrns, F.L.S., ete., adapted for Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s. Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 imches by 28 inches) of W. Hawkins’s RESTORATION OF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopic Objects, etc., can _be supplied to the Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy and Geology can be had. CONTENTS. Page Likes and Dislikes . : : 6 5; : : . : : . 361 On the Metamorphosis of Rocks in the Cape Town District, South Africa. By Dr. R. N. RuBIDGE Wig S00 Some Account of Barrettia, a new Fossil Shell from the Hippurite Limestone of Jamaica. By 8S. P. Woopwarp, Esq. (With two Plates.) . ; : . 872 Notes on the Geology of Maidstone. (Continued.) By W. H. BensteEp, Esq. . 378 Geological Notes in the Great Exhibition :— Canada j ; ; ; ; : : ; ; : : i ‘ : . 382 Zollverein . : : : ; : 3 : : A : : P . 891 Notes and Queries :— Human Remains in Peat . : : 6 : : : brie dele : . 396 Reviews :— Geology of Montbéliard. By Dr. C. Contejean . : : ; : : . 397 CORRESPONDENTS. Communications received from A. B. Wynne, Esq., Athlone; Count Marsenatt, Vienna; M. HarpinerEr, Vienna; Mr. Rozerr Mortimer, Frimley ; Professor Kine, Galway; W. H. Brnstep, Esq., Maidstone; Dr. G. B. Bzvan, Abergavenny; Dr. RupipGE, Port Elizabeth; Mr. Kp. Trypaut (too late for insertion) ; C. W. CRocKERBY, Chichester ; C. C. BuaKsz, Esq.; Dr. G. D. Gips. BOOKS RECEIVED. Wisconsin ; its Natural Resources and Industrial Progress. Madison: State Printing Office. 1862. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. Several mistakes having occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested that in future all subscriptions and communications relating to the supply of the < Geologist 3 be addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co.,5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. The Price of the ‘ Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. each number. It is sent postage free to regular subscribers for 18s. per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. VOL. V. No. 59.] NOVEMBER, 1862. [Price ls, 6d, THE GKOLOGIST. AN ILLUSTRATED POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF GEOLOGY. ———— . EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.GS., F.S.A. “Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.”—Herschel : Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD, BERLIN: ASHER & CO. PRINTED BY J, EB. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON. Just Published, 2 vols., with Maps and Wood Engravings, 26s., THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. BY PROFESSOR C. PIAZZI SMYTH, F.R.SS.L. & E., ASTRONOMER ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND, AUTHOR OF ‘TENERIFFE, AN ASTRONOMER’S EXPERIMENT, ETC. NOTICES OF THE PRESS. “Tt abounds with pleasant humour, and contains passages of powerful descrip- tive writing. ’—Atheneum. “The volumes before us are likely to promote a better understanding of Russia and the Russians than any book that has lately appeared on the subject... . The chapter devoted to ‘Struve’s Vertical Circle’ is penned with the zeal of a man of science animated with the enthusiasm of a poet.” —Critie. “The present work will be even more popular [than ‘ Teneriffe ’], inasmuch as it mainly consists of graphic descriptions of manners and places in Russia, scientific matters being only incidentally touched upon.”— Parthenon. «The advantage of knowing what to observe, and how to observe, to a writer of travels, is inestimable. The Astronomer Royal for Scotland possesses this quality in an eminent degree, and it gives a special value to his work.” — Daily News. ~The worth of the book is, that it enables us to realize what life in Russia is, and gives colour and form to our generally very vague impressions of one of the greatest of modern nations.” —Guwardian. “‘The scientific portions of the book are, we think, the best and most interest- ing. His interview with the Grand Duke Constantine was mm every way satis- factory. In Astronomy, Geology, Mineralogy, Zoology, and the application of science to the wants of our daily life, Professor Smyth reports much information gathered in this journey.” —G'lobe. ‘“We have risen from the perusal of his volumes with a livelier, and, we believe, truer, impression of the great Russian Empire. Its history, politics, religion, art, literature, science, climate, and resources, pass under his review; and his easy, natural, graceful pen gives light to whatever he touches. The philo- sophical and scientific observer is everywhere in these volumes; nowhere the formal statist or dry chronicler of facts. It only varies the subject of our agree- able communicative traveller that he at times emerges upon us as the Astro- nomer Royal in a description of the Pulkova Observatory, or by a peep at the Russian heavens through some of its great instruments.’— Witness. LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA ST., COVENT GARDEN. [NICE STINEE Daas Oa EXHIBITION.—On and after NOVEMBER 3rd, THE MICROSCOPES, SPECTRUM ANALYSIS, POLARIZATION OF LIGHT, ELECTRO-MAGNETIC, PHOTOGRAPHIC, and LECTURERS’ DEMONSTRATING APPARATUS, The extensive Series of SCIENCE and ART PHOTOGRAPHS for the MAGIC LANTERN, and the SCIENTIFIC NATURAL HISTORY EDUCATIONAL COLLECTIONS, Exhibited by SAMUEL HIGHLEY, For which T'wo Prize Medals and Honourable Mention were awarded, Will be on SALE in CLASSES 13, 14, and 29, at the Building. A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue by Post, for Four Stamps, on Application to 79, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, i W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . »« £2 2 0 *200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays NEA Oy oh i Mees | 5 5 O 300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . More extensive Collections, either to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the world, * A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, Tourmaline, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. PALASOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, etc. In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE, Mr. Tennant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, Canada, Wales, etc., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, consisting of 38000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass case on the top for large specimens, price £2000. It is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in Mining pursuits or practical Geology. SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 The same, 4ins.sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins, sq. 5 0 0 MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ by the Rev. WattER MitcnHet, M.A., and PRoressor TENNANT, F.R.G.S. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. Warrrnovuse Hawxrns’s Gro- LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a pale one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, 8s. 6d. extra. ‘SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawkins, F.L.S., ete., adapted for Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1. 10s, Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. Hawkxins’s Restoration oF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopic Objects, etc., can be supplied to the Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy and Geology can be had. CONTENTS. The Dragon-Tree of the Kentish Rag. By the Epitor. (With Plate.) : . 401 On the Restoration of Pteraspis. By Rev. Huen Mircuett, M.A. H : . 404 Correspondence :— Origin of Flint-Veins in Chalk : ; - ‘ ° . ‘ . . + 406 Red Sandstone Blocks of phe ae : ; ; : : 5 ; . 407 The Kirkdale Cavern . : : : : : . 5 ; . 408 Geological Notes in the Great Exhibition : — The Coal Mines of Austria . ; : , : : ‘ 5 : : . 408 Strata of High Park Colliery ‘ : A , S35) He 5 3 . 414 British Association Meeting at Geirace — On Bituminous Schists and their Relations to Coal. By Professor ANSTED . . 416 On the Skiddaw Slate Veins. By Professor Harkness, F.R.S. . : : . 420 On the Palxontology of Mineral Veins. By Cuartes Moors, Esq., F.GS.. . 420 On the Geology of Sligo. By A.B. Wynne, Esq. . ; . 422 On the Cause of the Difference in the State of Preservation ‘of Fossil Shells. By H. C. Sorzy, Esq., F.R.S. . : : : : ‘ s ’ ; . 423 Notes and Queries :— The Kyson Monkey . 5 . 425 Human Skeleton at Kellet. “By 0. Canrer Fas Tied? ana Prof, Busx, E.R. g. A2A Human Remains in River Beds. By C. Carter BuaxKE, ve : . - . 425 Vegetable Remains at Bournemouth , : sais ee : . 427 Fossil Monkey in the Miocene . : Shi eps eae Seis, Sh at sore Trish Drift Fossils. By A. B. Want ORG 5 5 ; : . ; » 428 Footprints in Carboniferous Rocks . : 5 : : : : 5 . 429 Eosaurus Acadianus . : 5 ; : » : : : : ; . 429 Great American Desert 5 5 . 5 : : 5 ; : : . 430 Fossil Fish in Magnesian Limestone . . : . ; ; : 5 » 430 Foreign Intelligence :— Excavations at Antwerp. 5 é 5 ° . : : : : . 432 Review :— Essays and Observations on Natural History, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, and Geology. By John Hunter, F.R.S. With Notes by Professor Owen . 434 CORRESPONDENTS. Communications received from J. PENGELLY, Esq., F.G.S., Torquay ; J. W. SALTER, Esq., F.G.S.; C. Carter Buaxe, Esq.; Prof. W. Kine, F.G.S., Galway; Prof. HarK- ness, F.G.S., Belfast; W. 8S. Mryrr, Godalming; W. PENGELLY, F.G.S., Torquay; C. Moore, Hsq., Bath. SOOKS RECEIVED. Apergu Géologique du Département de la Moselle. Par C. Frriprict, Professeur aux Keoles municipales de Metz. Paris: J. Rothschild. 1862. Etude de ’Etage Kimméridien dans les Environs de Montbéliard et dans le J ura, la France et V Angleterre. Par Cu, CONTEJEAN. Leipzig : J. Rothschild. 1859. The Earth : its Mechanism. By H. Worms, E.R.A.S., F.G.S8. London: Longman. 1862. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. Several mistakes haying occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested that in future all subscriptions and communications relating to the supply of the ‘ Geologist’ be addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co., 5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, The Price of the ‘ Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. each number. It is sent postage free to regular subscribers for 18s. per annum: or if paid yearly in advance, 16s. ; half-yearly, 8s. 6d. VOL. V. No. 60.] DECEMBER, 1862. [Prick ls. 6d. THE GEOLOGIST. AN ILLUSTRATED POPULAR MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF GEOLOGY. WN PO ae WGNIS, Wh) we ; he} EDITED BY S. J. MACKIE, F.G:S., F.S.A. “Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats undoubtedly ranks in the scale of the sciences next to Astronomy.’—Herschel : Discourse on Study of Natural Philosophy. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. PARIS: J. ROTHSCHILD. BERLIN: ASHER & CO. PRINTED BY J. BE. TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEBN STREBBT, LON DON. | LS Just Published, royal 8vo, cloth, price £1. 1s., Tlustrated with Geological Map of Swaledale, and numerous Geological Sections. DEPOSITION OF LEAD ORE: AN INQUIRY INTO THE DEPOSITION OF LEAD ORE IN THE MINERAL VEINS OF SWALEDALE, YORKSHIRE. By LONSDALE BRADLEY, F.G:S. LONDON : EDWARD STANFORD, 6, CHARING CROSS, S.W. ee ind aan EX HIBITION.—On and after NOVEMBER 3rd, THE MICROSCOPES, SPECTRUM ANALYSIS, POLARIZATION OF LIGHT, ELECTRO-MAGNETIC, PHOTOGRAPHIC, and LECTURERS’ DEMONSTRATING APPARATUS, The extensive Series of SCIENCE and ART PHOTOGRAPHS for the MAGIC LANTERN, and the SCIENTIFIC NATURAL HISTORY EDUCATIONAL COLLECTIONS, Exhibited by SAMUEL HIGHLEY, For which Two Prize Medals and Honourable Mention were awarded, Will be on SALE in CLASSES 13, 14, and 29, at the Building. A Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue by Post, for Four Stamps, on Application to - 70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. Just Published, Price 1s. (by post free), A DESCRIPTIVE ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF SAMUEL HIGHLEY’S EDUCATIONAL COLLECTIONS OF SPECIMENS, APPARATUS, PHOTOGRAPHIC MAGIC LANTERN VIEWS, etc., to illustrate MINERALOGY, GHOLOGY, ZOOLOGY, MICROSCOPY, ete. LONDON: SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 70, DEAN STREET, SOHO SQUARE, W. Just published, price 5ds., PHOSPHORESCENCE; OR, THE EMISSION OF LIGHT BY MINERALS, PLANTS, AND ANIMALS. By DR. T. L. PHIPSON, E-C.S., Enc. With numerous Illustrations. LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. R. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, W.C., has greatly improved his elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, which are well suited for scientific Presents, and can be supplied on the following terms :— 100 Small Specimens, in cabinet with three trays . . . . . £2 2 0 #200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with five trays te Tie Peer 5 5 O 300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with eight drawers . . . . 1010 O 400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet with twelve drawers . . . . 21 0 0 More extensive Collections, cither to illustrate Mineralogy or Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas each, with every requisite to assist those commencing the study of these interesting branches of science, a knowledge of which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the world. * A Collection for Five Guineas, which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by Buck- land, Murchison, Lyell, Mantell, Ansted, Page, and others, contains 200 Specimens, in a Mahogany Cabinet, with five trays, comprising the following specimens, viz. :— MINERALS which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :—Quartz, Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, Mica, Tale, Topaz, Tourmaline, Spinel, Caleareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, Strontia, Cryolite, Salt, Sulphur, Plumbago, Bitumen, Jet, Amber, Coal, etc. NATIVE METALS, or METALLIFEROUS MINERALS: these are found in masses, in beds, or in veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following Metallic Ores are contained in the Cabinet :—Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zine, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, etc. ROCKS :—Granite, Gneiss, Mica-slate, Clay-slate, Porphyry, Serpentine, Sandstones, Limestones, Basalt, Lavas, Clay, Conglomerate, etc. . PALMOZOIC FOSSILS, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and Carboniferous Rocks. SECONDARY FOSSILS, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. TERTIARY FOSSILS, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay, Crag, ete. In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select, EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF MINERALS FOR SALE. Mr. Trnnant bought at the Stowe Sale the Duke of Buckingham’s Collection of Minerals, which he has greatly enriched by a Collection of Coloured Diamonds, Gold from Australia, Canada, Wales, ete., and many other specimens of great value and interest. The Collection, consisting of 3000 Specimens, is in two cabinets, each containing thirty drawers, with a glass case on the top for large specimens, price £2000, Tt is well adapted for any public Institution, or for any Gentleman taking an interest in Mining pursuits or practical Geology. SOPWITH’S GEOLOGICAL MODELS, IN WOOD OF DIFFERENT COLOURS. Sold in Cases, bound and lettered to resemble large octavo, quarto, or folio volumes. Set of Six Models, 3ins.sq. £2 0 0 Twelve Models, 3ins.sq. £4 0 0 The same, 4 ins, sq. 210 0 The same, 4 ins. sq. 5) On0 MODELS OF CRYSTALS IN GLASS AND WOOD. To illustrate the section on Crystallography and Mineralogy in ‘ Orr’s Circle of the Sciences,’ by the Rev. WaLTER Mircne tt, M.A., and Professor Tennant, F.R.G.S. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS’S MODELS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. Scientific and other Institutions can be supplied with Mr. WarrrnousE Hawkrns’s Gro- LOGICAL RESTORATIONS OF THE Extinct ANIMALS—Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Plesiosaurus (two species), Ichthyosaurus, and Labyrinthodon,—seven models, reduced to a ari one inch to a foot, from those of the Crystal Palace. Price £5.5s. Packing case, s. 6d. extra. SIX DIAGRAMS OF THE EXTINCT ANIMALS, by W. B. Hawkins, F.L.S., ete., adapted for Educational Purposes. Size of each Diagram, 40 by 29 inches, in double-tinted Lithography. Price £1, 10s. Just Published. A coloured Lithographic Print (size 34 inches by 28 inches) of W. Hawkins’s RESTORATION oF Extinct ANIMALS. Price 12s. Lately Published, a Catalogue of 2000 of the most common fossils found in the British Isles, being a list of those in the private collection of J. Tennant, F.G.S. Price 2s. All the recent Works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany; also Guide Books, Scientific Portraits, Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, Electrometer and Magnetic Needles, Glass-top Boxes, Brass and Steel Forceps, Acid Bottles, Microscopie Objects, ete., can be supplied to the Student in these interesting branches of Science, by JAMES TENNANT, Mineralogist by Appointment to Her Majesty, 149, Strand, London, W.C.—Practical Instruction in Mineralogy and Geology can be had. CONTENTS. Page Bos frontosus. By the Eprror. (With a Plate) . ¢ f an Scottish Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Ter os Brachiopoda. By T. Davrbson, Fag, »E.R. g, (With a Plate) - . : : . 443 Geology of Maidstone Gueacaay a W. H. Buns1zp, Bsq. : ; : . 4A7 Correspondence :— Origin of flmt in Chalk . ° : : : : A . 450 On Restoration of Pteraspis. By E. R. Lanxuster, Hsq. (With Ji eres) 451 When and How was the Isle of Wight severed from the veaad P By Rev. W. Fox . . 5 ; . 452 Tracks, Trails, and eaves By Brofeseor eee J ONES : é i . 454: British Association Meeting at Cambridge :— On the Correlation of the Slates and Limestones of Devon and Cornwall with the Old Red Sandstones of Scotland. By W. Prnertty, Esq., F.G.S. . . . 456 Notice of Mammalian Remains from the Bed of the German Ocean. By C. R. Rosz, F.G.S. . : : : : d : : : : : . 459 On Artesian Wells at Nonpith By Rev. J. CRoMPTON : : : . 460 Notice of other Papers read in Section G. . : : : . ; : . 462 Proceedings of Societies :— Geological Society of London. ; : : : : : A 5 . 463 Manchester Geological Society . 5 : : : : ° . 463 London Institution: Mr. Brayley’ S Tiecbaros, : Betas ; : : . 463 Notes and Queries :— Kellet Skull : 3 : ; : 5 : : : : wee Te re Gault Black Ven i : 4 : : , : ‘ ; : s . 469 Fossil Man, Illinois. 5 ; ; : i : a ; ; : . 470 Bone Caves of Malta . ‘ : ; f : : : ‘ : é . 470 Foreign Intelligence. , : : 5 rec aes : i : 4 : . 471 Review :— Carte Géologique du Département de la Loire-Inférieure. Par M. Cailliaud . 472 Die Wunder der Urwelt, eine populire Darstellung der Geschichte der Schopfung und des Urzustandes unseres Weltkorpers, etc. By Dr. Zimmermann . . 473 Ueber Placodus gigas, Agassiz, und Placodus Andriani. By Dr. Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Braun . : a : : : . ATA Apercu Géologique du Département ae la Moselle. By C. Fridrici . : . 474 CORRESPONDENTS. ECanmuntations received from Rev. R. T. Dz ta Toucus, Stokesay, Salop; J. W. Sauter, Hsq., F.G.S8.; C. Carter Brake, Esq. BOOKS RECEIVED. Ueber Thierfahrten und Crustaceen-Reste in der unteren Dyas, oder dem unteren Roth- liegenden, der Gegend von Hohenelbe. Von Dr. H. B. GErnitz. Carte Géologique du Département de la Loire-Inférieure. Par M. F. Carnuiaup, Direc- teur-Conservateur du Musée d’ Histoire Naturelle de Nantes. Leipzig : J. Rothschild. on ah i NOTICHK TO SUBSCRIBERS. Several mistakes having occurred in consequence of subscriptions and communications having been forwarded to the Editor instead of the Publishers, it is particularly requested that in future all swbseriptions and communications relating to the supply of the ‘ Geologist’ be addressed to the Publishers, Lovell Reeve and Co., 5, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. ‘Che Price of the ‘ Geologist’ is 1s. 6d. each number. 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