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' pee, feo : ‘ tPdaree fae . . ’ ‘ wae ree db + eee 7 7 ‘ 7. 2205 tee & a $ . as ts ' : boop . aun ts A ate o cara 5 Pet. ea al hak vor ' . =r? 7 ae, ee ‘ ; ; 1 4.3 i . os E . t so, $ Late rte : , fF Capiye? = rat ree ‘ ' . ei oge jee be -f 60 hare ‘ oe TP ve ec ubgrts 8 as 6 Oe De a ‘ > 8 8 -« S$ Mee @ oO Ce ere .e & © 6 7 e § wwe. foe 8 FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION FOR SCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ay is m4) , ai Al | . : | Ky ty a D it nal a, , “het i Wer aay Viti aL! Dis: Hina a > On ee a As i i ay h i 7 he NN Ipieaa ae oe Mted (0 Sead . “weve fe hates FOSSIL FRUIT FROM THE LOWER CHALK OF ROCHESTER, KENT. In the National Collection, British Museum. O Q T \F 7. SP) real = S J. Mackie, F.G.S.,d 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. = * * “¥ J ; > 4 - 7 . a. 6 — 2 3 “ye i i 4 * : ‘i : r9 : - +. - . ee | Y a . ”. 7 us ; ee ee = e+ ae + ae | | : a ‘ - espa j Y 7 A . $ <3 , [a pa § . x © 4 a ake ¥ ED iy’ pc = a <7. * ion ri => ’ . a & 22-39053- Ou, 9 PRINTED BY ie JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS. ‘i * « . a Re A *, = “* - -_ a i ‘. - b < ~ ~ = f « OE | PREFACE. —>——_ Frew 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 maintaimed remunerative to ensure its permanency. I have two reasons in re- ferring to this topic at the present time,—/irst, 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, iv 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 Rey. 8. Lucas, Count Marschall, Director Haidinger, Professor King, Professor Huxley, Professor Busk, Professors Dana and Silliman, Mr. Du Noyer, Mr. Guppy, Mr. Wyatt, Dr. Wilkins, Mr. James Plant, Mr. Bensted, Mr. John Taylor, Dr. Gibb, Rev. Hugh Mitchell, Professor Ansted, Professor Harkness, Mr. Charles Moore, Mr. Wynne, Mr. Sorby, Mr. Dayid- son, Mr. C. B. Rose, Rev. J. Crompton, and Mr. W. Bollaert. S. J. MACKIE. 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. Few 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. Y. 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, fig-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 like 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 he 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 roundinform. 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 uncommonly to be met with fragments of fossil wood, reduced likewise to thin skin-like ochreous layers, and bored too, through and through, by teredos. These not only show the rotting away of the solid fibrous wood, but also its reduction to the film-like state in which we see it spread on the surface of the chalk. But these wood-fragments might have lain on the still, slowly accumulating surface of the cretaceous ocean-bottom, and have rotted down to their last pellicle in the ponderous lapse of time. Not so the fruits: they, if solid, — MACKIE—FOSSIL FRUITS FROM THE CHALK. 3 have been hollowed out to their shells and then filled in. Whether these fruits and other vegetable remains in the chalk be so rare as has been thought, I somewhat doubt. Ihave myself collected frag- ments of fossils from the lower chalk of Dover and of Maidstone, which I believe, since I have seen these specimens, to have been fruits like them—and some few of these I think are still in the Folkestone collection—but in all cases the specimens seem to have suffered much decomposition from long-continued immersion before they were com- pletely imbedded. Here then, at the very outset, we are met with a difficulty which must be surmounted before we can compare with any usefulness these relics of the arborescent vegetation of the far-distant Cretaceous age with the fruits of any living class of trees. There are some in the botanical collection in Kew Gardens which present many points of similarity, but we should by no means be inclined to say of identity. The greatest mischief to fossil botany has arisen from the fact that many, if not most of our fossil species, have been named and described by men who were not botanists; and as so little is known of the vege- table remains preserved in the English chalk, we refrain from giving, and should hesitate long before we assigned, botanical characters to any new form from that formation, especially when so vaguely pre- served as those before us. We would however suggest that the film-like character of the ochreous envelopes of these fossils may be thus explained :—Sup- posing the fruits to have been solid nuts contained in a husk like the nipadites,—and in the cases of the British Museum there are fine spe- cimens of nipadites from the middle eocene of Brussels, well riddled with teredines; the same is well known to be the case with the nipadites and other nut-like fruits of the London clay,—while the nuts were in the earliest stage of decay, a film of sulphuret of iron was deposited in the empty interspace between the nut and its outer husk, forming thus, when solidified, a thin metallic paper-like pellicle or case, having on its interior surface the impression of the exterior surface of the kernel, and on its exterior surface that of the interior of the husk. The fruit and husk might both then wholly decay away, and leave this metallic shell to be imbedded and filled in by the na- tural deposition of the cretaceous mud. Thus it will be desirable in searching for further specimens to look carefully for, and to preserve any fragments of real wood or black charcoal, however small, which may be attached to the inside or outside of the ochreous film, as in these fragments we might get some traces of structure to aid us. 4 THE GEOLOGIST. That something like this has taken place seems indicated by the film-like character of such specimens of wood as those we have referred to, in which cases the sulphuret of iron was probably de- posited in the fine parting between the wood and the bark. More- over, the casts of the teredo-holes are covered over with the same film of red oxide of iron, which has resulted from the decomposition at a subsequent period of the sulphuret. Although we attempt not then to determine their family or genera, we are not doing bad service to science in drawing attention to these fossil cretaceous fruits. The very knowledge of their existence will stimulate other observers to seek for more illustrative examples. What one is defective in, another may possess, and so from one to the other we may gain a general knowledge of the whole organism long before any perfect specimen has been brought to light. In the present case we submit our plates and figures of these fruits, and leave the honour of naming them open to him who can really tell us What they are. ON THE INAPPLICABILITY OF THE NEW TERM “DYAS” TO THE “PERMIAN” GROUP OF ROCKS, AS PROPOSED BY DR. GEILNITZ. COMMUNICATED BY Siz Roprerick Impry Mourcuisoy, F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., Bre., Director-General of the Geological Survey of Britain. In the year 1859, M. Marcou proposed to substitute the word “ Dyas” for “ Permian,’ and summed up his views by saying that he regarded “the New Red Sandstone, comprising the Dyas and Trias, as a great geologic period, equal in time and space to the Paleozoic epoch or the Greywacke (Silurian and Devonian), the Carboniferous (Mountain-limestone and Coal), the Mesozoic (Jurassic and Creta- ceous), the Tertiary (Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene), and the recent deposits (Quaternary and later)” !! * As that author, who had not been in Russia, criticized the labours and inductions of my associates De Verneuil and Von Keyserling, and myself, in having proposed the word “ Permian” for tracts in which he surmised that we had commingled with our Permian deposits much red rock of the age of the Trias, I briefly defended the views * See ‘Dyas et Trias de Marcou,’ Bibliotheque Universelle de Genéve, 1859. MURCHISON—ON THE NEW TERM DYAS. 5 I had further sustained by personal examination of the rocks of Permian age in various other countries of Europe.* Tt was, indeed, evident that M. Marcou’s proposed union of the so- called Dyas and Trias in one natural group could not for a moment be maintained, since there is no conclusion on which geologists and paleontologists are more agreed, than that the series composed of Roth-liegende, Kupfer-Schiefer, Zechstein, etc., forms the uppermost Paleozoic group, and is entirely distinct in all its fossils, animal and vegetable, from the overlying Trias, which forms the true base of the Mesozoic or Secondary rocks. Owing to such a manifest confusion respecting the true paleonto- logical value of the proposed “ Dyas,” we should probably never have heard more of the word, had not my distinguished friend, Dr. Geinitz, of Dresden, recently issued the first volume of his valuable pale- ontological work, entitled ‘ Dyas, oder die Zechstein-Formation und das Rothliegende.’t In borrowing the term “ Dyas’ from Marcou, Dr. Geinitz shows, however, that that author had been entirely mis- taken in grouping the deposits so named with the Trias or the Lower Secondary rocks, and necessarily agrees with me in considering the group to be of Paleozoic age. As there is no one of my younger contemporaries for whom I have a greater respect as a man of science, or more regard as a friend, than Dr. Geinitz, it is painful, in vindicating the propriety and use- fulness of the word “ Permian,” to be under the necessity of pointing out the misuse and inapplicability of the word “ Dyas.” The term “ Permian” was proposed twenty years ago for the adoption of geologists, without any reference whatever to the litho- logical or mineral divisions of the group; for I well knew that a cer- tain order of mineral succession of this group prevailed in one tract, which could not be followed out in another. After surveys, during the summers of 1840 and 1841, of extensive regions in Russia in Europe, in which fossil shells of the age of the Zechstein of Germany, and the Magnesian Limestone of England, were found to occur in several courses of limestone, interpolated in one great series of red sandstones, marls, pebble-beds, copper-ores, gypsum, etc., and seeing that these varied strata occupied an infinitely larger superficial area than their equivalents in Germany and other parts of Europe, I sug- gested to my associates, when we were at Moscow in October, 1851, that we should employ the term “ Permian,” as derived from the vast government of that name, over which and several adjacent govern- ments we had traced these deposits. In a letter addressed to the late venerable Dr. Fischer von Wald- heim, then the leading naturalist of Moscow, I therefore proposed the term “ Permian,’’{ to represent by one unambiguous geographical * See ‘American Journal of Science and Arts,’ 2nd ser. vol. xxviii. p. 256,— the work of M. Marcou having attracted more attention in America than in England. + Leipzig, 1861. { See Leonhard’s ‘ Jahrbuch’ of 1842, p.92; and the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ 6 THE GEOLOGIST. term a varied mineral group, which neither in Germany nor else- where had then received one collective name* adopted by geolo- gists, albeit it was characterized by one typical group only of animal and vegetable remains. As the subdivisions of this group in Ger- many consisted, in ascending order, of Rothliegende, with its over- lying strata of Weissliegende, Kupfer-Schiefer, and Lower and Up- per Zechstein, and in England of Lower Red Sandstone and Magne- sian Limestone, with other accompanying sands, marls, etc., so well described by Sedgwick,t the name of “ Permian”—purposely de- signed to comprehend these various strata—was readily adopted, and has since been generally used. Even Geinitz himself, as well as his associate Gutbier, published a work under the name of the ‘ Per- mische System in Sachsen.’f Naumann has also used the term in reference to the group in other parts of Saxony; whilst Goppert has clearly shown that the rich Permian Flora is peculiar and charac- teristic of this supra-carboniferous deposit. In England, France, and America no other term in reference to this group has been used for the last fifteen years. The chief reason assigned by Geinitz for the substitution of the word “ Dyas” is, that in parts of Germany the group is divided into two essential parts only—the Rothliegende below, and the Zech- stein above, the latter being separated abruptly from all overlying deposits. Now, not doubting that this arrangement suits certain localities, I affirm that it is entirely inapplicable to many other tracts. For, in other regions besides Russia, the series of sands, pebbles, marls, gypseous, cupriferous, and calcareous deposits form but one great series. In short, the Permian deposits are for ever varying. Thus, in one district they constitute a Monas only, in others a Dyas, in a third a Trias, and in a fourth a Tetras.§ In this way many of the natural sections of the north of Germany differ essentially from those of Saxony; whilst those of Silesia differ still more from each other in their mineral subdivisions, as explained vol. xix. p. 418, “Sketch of some of the Principal Results of a Geological Survey of Russia.” * It is true that the term Pénéen was formerly proposed by my eminent friend, M. d’Omalius d’Halloy; but as that name, meaning sterile, was taken from an insulated mass of conglomerate near Malmédy in Belgium, in which nothing organic was ever discovered, it was manifest that it could not be con- tinued in use as applied to a group which was rich in animal and vegetable pro- ductions. + Trans. Geol. Soc. London, New Series, vol. iii. p. 37. f{ I may here note that the great Damuda formation of Bengal, with its fossil Flora and animal remains, including Saurians and Labyrinthodonts, described by Professor Huxley, has recently been referred (at least provisionally) to the Per- mian age, by Dr. Oldham, the Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India. In fact, Dr. Oldham actually cites the plant Teniopteris, of the “ Permian beds of Geinitz and Gutbier in Saxony,” in justification of his opinion. See ‘ Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India,’ vol. ii. p. 204. § See ‘Siluria,’ 2nd edit., 1859, and ‘ Russia in Europe and the Ural Moun- tains,’ 1845. MURCHISON—ON THE NEW TERM DYAS. 7 in ‘Siluria,’ 2nd edition, particularly at p. 842. Near the northern extremity of the Thiiringerwald, for example, and especially in the environs of Eisenach, an enormous thickness of the Rothlegende, in itself exhibiting at least two great and distinct parts, is surmounted by the Zechstein, thus being even so far tripartite, whilst the Zech- stein is seen to pass upwards to the east of the town, by nodular limestones, into greenish and red sandy marl and shale, the “ Lower Bunter Schiefer’’ of the German geologists. The same ascending order is seen around the copper-mining tract near Reichelsdorf, as well as in numerous sections on the banks of the Fulda, between Rotheburg and Altmorschen, where the Zechstein crops out as a calcareous band in the middle of escarpments of red, white, and green sandstone.* But in showing that in many parts of Germany, as well as in England, the Zechstein has a natural, conformable, and unbroken cover of red rock, I never proposed to abstract from the Trias any portion of the Bunter Sandstein or true base of the group, as re- lated to the Muschelkalk by natural connection or by fossils. I simply classed as Permian a peculiar thin red band (Bunter Schiefer), into which I have in many Jocalities traced an upward passage from the Zechstein, and in which no triassic shell or plant has ever been detected. On my own part, I long ago expressed my dislike to the term Trias ; for, in common with many practical geologists who had sur- veyed various countries where that group abounds, I knew that in numerous tracts the deposits of this age are frequently not divisible into three parts. In central Germany, where the Muschelkalk forms the central band of the group, with its subjacent Bunter Sandstein and the overlying Keuper, the name was indeed well used by Al- berti, who first proposed it; but when the same group is followed to the west, the lower of the three divisions, even in Germany, is seen to expand into two bands, which are laid down as separate depo- sits on the geological maps of Ludwig and other authors. In these countries, therefore, the Trias of Alberti’s tract has already become a Tetras. In Britain it parts entirely with its central or calcareous baud, the Muschelkalk, and is no longer a Trias; but, consisting simply of Bunter Sandstein below, and Keuper above, it is therefore a Dyas; though here again the Geological Surveyors have divided the group into four and even into five parts, as the group is laid down upon the map—No. 62, ‘ Geographical Survey of Great Britain.’ The order of succession in the Permian group all along the western side of the Pennine chain or geographical axis of England proves the impossibility of applying to it the word “ Dyas;” for over wide * On two occasions (1853-4) Professor Morris accompanied me, and traced with me these relations of the strata ; subsequently, when Mr. Rupert Jones (1857) was my companion, we saw other sections clearly exhibiting this upward transition which I have described. Since then, Professor Ramsay, when at Hisenach, con- vinced himself of the accuracy of the fact that the Zechstein passes up conform- ably into an overlying red cover. My note-books contains many additional evidences, which I have not thought it necessary to repeat. 8 THE GEOLOGIST. areas in Shropshire and Staffordshire it is one great red arenaceous series, with a few subordinate courses of calcareous conglomerate. Following it to the north, Mr. Binney has demonstrated that the fossils of the Zechstein show themselves in the heart of red marls which occupy on the whole a superior part of such a red series; and in tracing these rocks northwards he has demonstrated that there are, besides, two great underlying masses, first of conglomerates and breccias, and next of soft red sandstones, the latter attaining, as he believes, a thickness of not less than 2000 feet. Here then the Per- mian may be considered a Trias. Professor Harkness, in a memoir he is preparing, estimates the thickness of these Lower Sandstones and conglomerates to the N.E. of West Ormside, in Cumberland, at 4000 to 5000 feet, and shows that they are surmounted by marl-slates bearing plants, thin-bedded red sandstone, grey shale, and sandstone and limestone, the latter—the representative of the Magnesian Limestone—being covered by red argillaceous shale.* Now in all these cases the Permian is a series divisible into three or more parts. But when we follow the same group into Scotland, it there parts with its calcareous feature, and, becoming one red sandstone of vast thick- ness, is again a Monas. I have entered into this explanation because my friend Dr. Gei- nitz has seized upon one illustration in my work ‘Siluria’ which shows that in certain tracts, where the Zechstein or Magnesian Limestone is subordinate to an enveloping series of sandstones, the Permian of my classification is there as much a tripartite Paleozoic group as the Trias of Central Germany is a triple formation of Meso- zoic age. Unless, therefore, the data to which my associates and self have appealed, in the work on ‘ Russia and the Ural Mountains,’ and which I have further developed in Memoirs read before the Geological Society, and in my two editions of ‘Siluria,’ be shown to be inaccurate, I hold to the opinion that there are tracts in which the Zechstein is simply a fossiliferous zone in a great sandstone series, to which no division by numerals can be logically applied. Even if I do not appeal to the natural evidences in England, Russia, and parts of Germany, but refer to those tracts where the Zechstein or Magnesian Limestone has no natural red cover, I may well ask, does not the word “‘ Permian,” in the sense in which it was origi- nally adopted, serve for every tract wherein the uppermost paleo- zoic fossil animals and plants are found, whether the strata of which the group is composed form, as in Russia and Silesia, one great series of alternations of plant-bearing sandstones and marls in parts con- taining bands of fossiliferous limestone, or whether, as in other tracts, the Zechstein stands alone (as near Saalfeld), or in others, again, where the group is tripartite, and even quadripartite? Quite * The red clay or argillaceous shale which covers the limestone is surmounted at Hilton, in Cumberland, by five hundred feet of red sandstone, which, though perfectly conformable to the subjacent Permian rocks, he considers to belong to the Bunter Sandstein of the Trias. Here, then, as in Germany, the limestone may have a red cover, and yet the Bunter Sandstein be intact. MURCHISON—ON THE NEW TERM DYAS. 9 irrespective, however, of the question of whether there are or are not localities in Germany where the Zechstein passes upwards into a red rock, which forms no true part of the Bunter Sandstein of the Trias, we have only to look to the environs of Dresden, on the one hand, and to Lower Silesia on the other, to see the inapplicability of the word “ Dyas”’ to this group. Near the capital of Saxony, Dr. Geinitz himself pointed out to me that the Rothliegende is there divided into two very dissimilar parts; and these, if added to the limestone which is there inter- polated, or to the true Zechstein of other places, constitute a Trias. Again, Beyrich, in his Map of Lower Silesia,* has divided the vast Rothliegende of those mountains into Lower and Upper, the two embracing eight subdivisions according to that author. In repeating, then, that the word “ Permian” was not originally proposed with the view of affixing to this natural group any number of component parts, but simply as a convenient short term to define the Uppermost Paleozoic group, I refer all geologists to the very words I used in the year 1841, when the name was first suggested. In speaking of the structure of Russia, | thus wrote :—“ The Car- boniferous system is surmounted to the east of the Volga by a vast series of beds of marls, schists, limestones, sandstones, and conglo- merates, to which I propose to give the name of ‘ Permian System,’ because, although this series represents as a whole the Lower New Red Sandstone (Rothe-todte-liegende) and the Magnesian Limestone or Zechstein, yet it cannot be classed exactly, whether by the suc- cession of the strata or their contents, with either of the German or British subdivisions of this age.’’+ After pointing to the governments of Russia over which such Permian rocks ranged, 1 added:—“ Of the fossils of this system, some undescribed species of Producti might seem to connect the Permian with the Carboniferous era; and other shells, together with fishes and saurians, link it more closely to the period of the Zech- stein, whilst its peculiar plants appear to constitute a Flora of a type intermediate between the epochs of the New Red Sandstone or Trias and the Coal-measures. Hence it is that I have ventured to consider this series as worthy of being regarded as a system.’ f In subsequent years, having personally examined this group in the typical tracts of Germany as well as of Britain, I felt more than ever assured that, from the great local variations of mineral succes- sion of the group, the word “ Permian,’ which might apply to any number of mineral subdivisions, was the most comprehensive and best term which could be used, the more so as it was in har mony with the principle on which the ‘term Silurian had been adopted. Apart from the question of the substitution of the new word * See also ‘Siluria,’ 2nd edit. p. 343. + Phil. Mag. xix. p. 419. t In my last edition of ‘ Siluria’ I have spoken of the Permian as the upper- most Paleozoic group, but have not deemed it a system by comparison with the vast deposits of Carboniferous, Devonian, and Silurian age. VOu. Vv. C 10 THE GEOLOGIST. “ Dyas” for the older name “ Permian,” I take this opportunity of expressing my regret that some German geologists are returning to the use of the term “ Grauwacke Formation,” as if years of hard labour had not been successfully bestowed in elaborating and esta- blishing the different Paleozoic groups, all of which, even including the Lower Carboniferous deposits, were formerly confusedly grouped under the one lithological term of the “ Grauwacke Formation.” Respecting as I do the labours of the German geologists who have distinguished themselves in describing the order of the strata and the fossil contents of the group under consideration, I claim no otber merit on this point for my colleagues De Verneuil and Von Keyserling, and myself, than that of having propounded twenty years ago the name of “ Permian”’ to embrace in one natural series those sub-formations for which no collective name had been adopted. Independently therefore of the reasons above given, which show the inapplicability of the word “ Dyas,” I trust that, in accordance with those rules of priority which guide naturalists, the word “ Permian” will be maintained in geological classification. London: Belgrave Square. Noy. 30, 1861. THE GEOLOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL DISTRI- BUTION OF THE DEVONIAN FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. By W. Pence ty, F.GS. The limestones, slates, and associated sandstones of North and South Devon and Cornwall have, as is well known, caused much perplexity as to their real place in the chronological series of the geologist. Thanks, however, to the labours of Professor Sedgwick, Sir R. I. Murchison, Mr. Lonsdale, and others, the problem 1s now generally admitted to be solved; the rocks in question are the re- presentatives or equivalents of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland and elsewhere; they belong to what is known as the Devonian age of the world. Some little difficulty, however, exists—or rather once existed—in the way of the full acceptance of this chronology. The rocks of Devonshire are crowded with the remains of invertebrate animals, especially shells, corals, and sponges; whilst the supposed contemporary deposits in Scotland and the adjacent islets are so rich in fossil fish that, in the language of the late Hugh Miller, “Orkney, were the trade once opened up, could supply with ich- thyolites, by the ton and the shipload, the museums of the world.’’* But the fossils characteristic of either of these districts are not found in the other; there are no organic links connecting the two localities, * © Footprints of the Creator,’ p. 2. PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 11 Scotland does not yield the mollusks or zoophytes of Devonshire, nor is there recorded in the latter district more than the faintest trace of the ichthyolitic wealth of the North. Though this fact may still have difficulties connected with it, they have ceased to be chronological, for Sir R. I. Murchison tells us “that the same fossil fishes, of species well known in the middle and upper portions of the Old Red of Scotland, and which in large tracts of Russia lie alone in sandstone, are in many other places found intermixed, in the same bed, with those shells that characterize the group in its slaty and calcareous form in Devonshire, the Rhenish country, and the Boulonnais. This phenomenon, first brought to light in the work on Russia, by myself and colleagues, demonstrates more than any other the identity of deposits of this age, so d:fferent in lithological aspect, in Devonshire on the one hand, and central England and Scotland on the other. The fact of this intermixture completely puts an end to all dispute respecting the identification of the central and upper masses at least of the Old Red of Scotland with the cal- careous deposits of Devonshire and the Eifel.”* In a paper “On the Slate Rocks of Devon and Cornwall,” read before the Geological Society of London in 1851, Professor Sedgwick stated his views respecting the division of these rocks into three groups, as follows :— “The first and oldest of these groups may be conveniently called the Plymouth group, using these words in an extended sense, so as to include all the limestones of South Devon, and the red sandstones superior to the Plymouth limestones. The equivalent to this group in North Devon includes, I think, the Ilfracombe and Linton lime- stones, as well as the red sandstones of the north coast. “The second group includes the slates expanded from Dartmouth to the metamorphic group of Start Point and Bolt Head, and is, so far as I know, without fossils; 1t may be called the Dartmouth group, and its equivalent in North Devon is found in the slates of Morte Bay, which end with beds of purple and greenish sand-rock and coarse greywacke. It ranges nearly east and west across the county. “The third group is not, I think, found in South Devon; but in North Devon it is well defined, commencing on a base line of sand- stone beds, which range nearly east and west from Baggy Point (on the western coast) to Marwood (which is a few miles north of Barn- staple), and thence towards the eastern side of the county. This group is continued in ascending order to the slates on the north shore of Barnstaple Bay; but its very highest beds are seen on the south shore of the bay, dipping under the base of the culm measures. “The equivalent of this third and highest Devonian group is found to the south of the great culm-trough, in a group, near the top of which appear the limestone-bands and fossiliferous slates of Pether- win. It may be called the Barnstaple or Petherwin group.’ t * ‘Siluria,’ 3rd edition, p. 382. + Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc. vol. vill. p. 3. 12 THE GEOLOGIST. Professor Sedgwick, in the same paper, recognizes the Plymouth group in the slates of Looe, Polperro, and Fowey, in Cornwall.* Accepting, at least provisionally, this chronology, we have, when considered chronologically as well as geographically, what, as a mat- ter of convenience, may be called five fossiliferous areas; namely, a deposit of the age of the Plymouth group in each of the districts, South Devon, North Devon, and Cornwall; and one of the Barn- staple age in each of the two latter. To avoid repetition, they will be spoken of throughout this paper as Lower South Devon, Lower North Devon, Lewer Cornwall, Upper North Devon, and Upper Cornwall. The terms “ Upper” and “ Lower” are to be understood as applied relatively to the rocks of Devon and Cornwall only, and not as embodying or implying any opinion respecting the co-ordina- tion of these rocks with deposits of the Devonian age elsewhere. Had existing materials warranted, it would have been desirable to have made a further division, namely, one having reference to the mineral character of the deposits, as well as to fume and place; for it is certain, as might have been expected, that in the same area some fossils are peculiar to the argillaceous beds, and others are found only in the calcareous strata; thus, for example, I learn from Mr. Godwin-Austen that he has found the remarkable coral Plewro- dictyum problematicum in the slates, but not in the limestones, at Ogwell, in South Devon. My own experience is in harmony with this. J have found specimens of the same fossil in the slates at Tor- quay, and hundreds of them occur in rocks of the same character at Looe, in Cornwall, but not a trace of it in limestone anywhere. The two species of sponges belonging to the genus Steganodictyum of Professor M‘Coy occur in the slates along the entire coast of Cornwall, from Fowey Harbour to the Rame Head; at Bedruthen Steps in the north of the same county; and at Mudstone Bay, near Brixham, in South Devon; but have never been met with in eal- eareous strata. At present, however, it would be premature to at- tempt a division of this kind. My present object is to give some account of the amount and character of the Devonian population of the five areas as above defined, when the census was last taken. The inquiry as to cha- racter goes no further than to ascertain to what extent they were a migratory or colonizing race. Having spent a considerable portion of the leisure I have been able to command during the last twenty years in collecting and studying the fossils of the districts under consideration, especially along the entire line of coast extending from Polperro in Cornwall to Torbay in Devonshire, and also at South Petherwin, I have natu- rally been led to pay some attention to their distribution in time and space; and several concurring circumstances have recently brought the subjects more prominently before me. Amongst other things I may mention a passage in the recent address of Professor * Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 14. PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 13 Phillips, as President cf the Geological Society of London, and also one in Professor Haughton’s Appendix to the ‘ Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas.’ Professor Poillips, when discussing the influ- — ence of ancient currents of the sea, remarks that “ only : a small pro- portion of the fossils of North Devon occur in South Devon;’* and Professor Haughton says, “I do not believe in the lapse of a long interval of time between the Silurian and Carboniferous deposits,— in fact in a Devonian period. “ The same blending of corals has been found in Ireland, the Bas Boulonnais, and in Devonshire, where Silurian and Carboniferous forms are of common occurrence in the same localities.’’+ It should be remembered that the statement with which we have here to deal is, “that the blending of Silurian and Carboniferous corals” (the word is not fossils) “is of common occurrence in Deyon- shire.” I have consulted such registers as I have been able to command, and have thrown so much of their contents as bear on the questions before us in the following tabular form; for which, of course, no higher value is claimed than attaches to the original documents. The materials have been mainly derived from Professor Morris’s ‘Catalogue of British Fossils, published in 1854, in which are embodied the results of the labours of Mr. Lonsdale, Professors Phillips and M‘Coy, and Messrs. Edwards and Haime. The liberties taken with the ‘ Catalogue’ have been but few; such, for example, as the removal of the Devonian Stromatopores from the class Zoophyta to Amorphozoa, Spheronites tessellatus from Echinodermata also to Amorphozoa, and the addition of a few localities to those already registered. I have great pleasure in acknowledging the prompt and kind assist- ance of Mr. Salter, of the Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, Lon- don, in certain matters on which I consulted him. Every geologist is, of course, aware of the numerous and elaborate tables and ratios introduced by Professor Phillips in his ‘ Paleozoic Fossils of Devon and Cornwall, when discussing questions akin to those under consideration. In the preparation of this paper the author has in no way made use of the valuable data these tables contain. It appears from the three left-hand columns of figures, headed “Totals,” Table L., that, taken together, the five areas have yielded three hundred and forty-seven species, belonging to ninety-seven- genera and forty-nine families, of nine classes of animals; namely, three classes of the sub-kingdom Radiata, one of Articulata, and five of Mollusca; hence fifteen of the twenty-four classes into which the existing animal kingdom is commonly divided are totally unrepre- sented in the series, as is the entire vegetable kingdom also. It may be as well to state here that, in conformity with Morris’s * Quarterly Journal Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. p. xl. + ‘ Voyage of the Fox,’ Appendix No. iv. p. 387. 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It is scarcely necessary to remark that the fossils of Devon and Cornwall do not fully represent the organisms of the Devonian age, as seven other classes—Pisces, Pteropoda, Cirrepedia, and Annelida, amongst animals, and Cellulares, Monocotyledones, and Polycotyle- dones amongst plants—have been found in rocks of this age else- where; and of these the two first and the fifth have been met with in other British localities. ‘The reptiles Steganolepis and Telerpeton, of the Elgin Sandstone, are not enumerated here, as some doubt attaches to the question of their chronology, if indeed they are not certainly Triassic. The single articulated class, Crustacea, is by no means rich in any way; with one exception, all its genera are Tri- lobites, and commonly contain but one species each. The most important class numerically is Brachiopoda, to which one hundred and eight species belong, that is, thirty-one per cent. of the entire series. The families and genera of Cephalopoda are richer in species than those of any other class, averaging sixteen for each family, and ten for each genus. The most striking fact in this connection is the specific abundance of Brachiopoda and Cephalopoda, and the paucity of the classes Lamellibranchiata and Gasteropoda, as compared with the numerical rank of the same classes in the existing Fauna. This fact will, perhaps, be most strikingly exhibited by the following table, which has been thus computed: in the left-hand column the aggregate number of the species of fossil mollusca found in Devon and Corn- wall has been put = one thousand, and the numbers belonging to each class computed to this; the right-hand column has been formed on the same principle, and is based on the data given by Forbes and Hanley in their ‘ History of British Mollusca.’ TABLE II. Devonian Mollusca of Devon and Existing British Cornwall. Mollusca. 6 a is SRE RPE ee 42 72 oo a 410°5 15°5 Lamellibranchiata................. 186 359°5 SS eS Pee Pen 179 521°5 SIMIC a. owen ncdanatvdascess 182°5 31°5 | 1,000 1,000 It appears, then, that within existing British seas the Lamelli- branchiates are about twenty-four times more numerous specitically, than the Brachiopods, whilst within, what may be called, the same area, the latter were to the former, during the Devonian period, 16 THE GEOLOGIST. somewhat more than as two to one; that is, thev were then fifty times more abundant than at present in comparison with the other great class of Acephala. In like manner it is seen that, relatively to the Gasteropoda, the Cephalopoda were, in this early age of our planet, seventeen times more numerous than now. It may be added that, within the district under notice, the registered species of Devonian Brachiopoda absolutely, and in a high ratio, exceed those belonging to the same classes within existing British seas; and the fact is the same for the world at large. The five columns of Table I., headed “ Peculiar to,” and distin- guished by the initials of the five areas respectively, show the number of fossil species which, so far as England is concerned, are peculiar to each; from which it appears that the fossils of Devon and Corn- wall have a very limited and unequal distribution. Two hundred and ninety-seven species, that is, eighty-five per cent. of the whole, are peculiar to one or other of the areas, whilst no more than fifty species, or scarcely fifteen per cent. of the entire series, are distri- buted amongst them. Lower South Devon monopolizes no fewer than one hundred and ninety-one species in this way, or, in other words, fully sixty-four per cent. of the two hundred and ninety-seven, species thus limited, or fifty-five per cent. of all the known Devo- nians of the two counties are restricted to this single area. Lower North Devon, on the other hand, appears to be equally remarkable for its fossil poverty. It is unnecessary to say that five areas taken two, three, four, and five together are capable of making twenty-six different combinations, namely, ten two together, ten three together, five four together, and one five together. The ten combinations, however, headed ‘“ Common to,” in Table I., are all that are required to show the distribution of the fifty species not confined to one single area. Not asingle species of this ancient Fauna is common to the five areas, and only one, the coral Cyathophyllum celticum, is found in each of four of them. The well-known coral Favosites cervicornis is the only fossil found in each of the three contemporary deposits of Lower South and North Devon and Cornwall. Of two areas only, Upper North Devon and Upper Cornwall have the greatest, and Lower South Devon and Lower Cornwall the least, number in common; in the former a total of seventeen, and in the latter of eight species only. Dissimilar as are the organic distributions in these two pairs of areas, they are pro- bably just what might have been expected. In each pair the two areas are pretty closely connected geographically, and are supposed to be contemporary, as their names imply ; ; but in the former the mineral character is much the same in each area, and we have a greater organic similarity than ordinary ; in the latter the deposits are very unlike—Lower South Devon being rich in limestone as well as slate, whilst in Lower Cornwall the fossiliferous beds are all but exclusively argillaceous—and there are very few organic remains in common ; a marked instance, probably, of the influence of the mineral character of the ancient sea-bottom on organic existence. Though PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 17 less varied, the fossils are frequently as numerous individually in the slate as in the limestone. It must be understood that any one of the ten columns just noticed shows, not the ¢ofal number of species common to the areas the initials of which stand at its head, but simply the number at once common and restricted to them collectively ; thus the second of these columns, headed L. 8. D., L. C., shows that five species are common and restricted to Lower South Devon and Lower Cornwall, but in the third column we find one species common to them and also to Lower North Devon, in the fourth one common to them and to Upper North Devon, and in the eighth one found in each of them and also in Upper North Devon and Upper Cornwall; hence there are eight species common to the two areas instanced, five of which are restricted to them collectively, and three not. The same expla- nation applies to the other areas. The total number of species found in any area will be ascertained by adding the figures in all the columns marked “ Peculiar to”’ and “Common to,” at the heads of which the initials of the area are found; thus, for example, a total of forty-seven species of Zoophyta occurs in Lower South Devon, of which forty are not found elsewhere in Devon and Cornwall. More- over, as the column marked “Species”? shows that the two counties have yielded forty-nine species belonging to this class, it is evident that two of the total number have not been met with in Lower South Devon; and so on for the other classes and areas, as is shown in the five columns headed “ Totals,” and distinguished by the initials of the areas. Ranged according to their peculiar specific fossil wealth the areas stand, in descending order, thus:—Lower South Devon, Upper North Devon, Upper Cornwall, Lower Cornwall, and Lower North Devon; the order is the same when the total number of species found in them is considered, with the single exception that, in that case, Lower North Devon and Lower Cornwall are equal. Of the three hundred and forty-seven species, sixty-seven are met with in various parts of continental Europe, and seven in North America; six of the latter being included in the European sixty-seven, and one of the six is also found in New South Wales; thus making a total of sixty-eight species common to Devon and Cornwall and districts beyond the British Isles.* Comparatively few of the Devonian fossils of Devon and Cornwall appear to have been derived from the Silurian Fauna; eight species only—just enough to suggest a problem or two—are referable to that earlier period; namely, three Corals, two Brachiopods, two Lamellibranchiates—one from each of the sections Monomyaria and Dimyaria—and one Cephalopod. The three corals are Favosites fibrosa, Emmonsia hemispherica, and Chonophyllum perfoliatum. The first has been found in Lower Silurian rocks at Landovery, in the upper * See in Table I. the columns headed Eu. (continental Europe), Eu. Am. (Europe and America), Am. (America), Eu. Am. Au. (Europe, America,and Australia.) VOL. Y. D 18 THE GEOLOGIST. deposits of the same system in various parts of the typical Silurian country, in eight counties of Ireland, in Russia, and in three North American localities. During the Devonian era it existed in several parts of Devonshire, in France, and Germany. Apparently confined to Britain during the earliest stage of its existence, it became more adapted to the world, or the world to it, during the Upper Silurian age, when it reached the maximum of its migratory powers (by no means an ordinary one), and visited many distant parts then; declining in vigour, or satiated with travel, it retired within the European borders during the Devonian period, and there received its dismissal from the stage of life. mmonsia hemispherica seems not to have begun life quite so early as its friend which we have just dismissed ; its origin dates in Upper Silurian times, when it seems to have been confined to the area of modern America, ranging from the State of Ohio to Tennessee ; having outlived the Silurian period, it sent colonies to Spain and Britain, and greatly extended its range in America. Chonophyllum perfoliatum differs from the two former in having always lived within narrow geographical limits ; it occurs in Upper Silurian rocks at Wenlock, and in Devonian beds at Rams- ley, near Newton Abbott; but its appearance elsewhere is not re- corded. The wide geographical range of the two first of these corals would seem to imply hardy plastic constitutions, fitting them for distant travel and existence under varied circumstances; there is therefore nothing surprising in their extended vertical range; the second, however, seems to have disappeared when at the very zenith of its widely extended power. The very limited distribution in space of the last of the trio would scarcely suggest the thought that such an organism would be likely to be capable of enduring thermal and other physical changes such as, there are reasons for believing, considerable lapses of time intro- duce into any given area, changes probably not dissimilar to those experienced in passing to a distant locality in any one and the same period. On the other hand, the well-known fossil coral Favosites Goldfusst occurs in Devonian rocks in Devonshire, at Nehou and Visé in France, at Millar in Spain, in the Oural in Russia, in the States of Ohio and Kentucky in North America, and in New South Wales ; it was the most decided cosmopolite of the Fauna to which it belonged, the greatest traveller of its day, the earliest Devonian that cireumnavigated the globe, the prototype of the Drake of a Jater age. It seems to have successfully struggled with the varying con- ditions consequent upon change of place, and might have been ex- pected to be just as capable of contending with such as depend on lapses of time ; nevertheless, the facts do not harmonize with such conclusions. Chonophyllum perfoliatum formed part of the Silurian and Devonian Faunas, but was confined to the British area; Fuvosites Goldfussi was at home in every part of the world, yet it commenced and terminated its career within the Devonian period. The rocks of Devon and Cornwall have fifty-eight species of fossils PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 19 in common with those of the Carboniferous group, namely, six Echi- noderms, one Crustacean, six Bryozoons, twenty-four Brachiopods, four Iamellibranchiates, ten Gasteropods, and seven Cephalopods, but no corals or sponges ; so that it cannot be said that “there isa blending of Silurian and Carboniferous corals in Devonshire,’ what- ever there may be elsewhere ; for though, as has been stated, three Silurian corals have been found, not one referable to the Carboniferous Fauna has been met with there. This assertion is made on the au- thority of Messrs. Edwards and Haime, who, in their monograph on ‘The British Fossil Corals from the Mountain Limestone,’ state that “seventy-six species have already been found in the deposits apper- taiaing to this geological division, and the presence of none of these corals has as yet been satisfactorily proved in beds belonging to any other period.”* Again, in their monograph on ‘ British Devonshire Fossil Corals,’ they say,—“ Three of these Devonian fossils exist also in the Silurian rocks, but all the others appear to be peculiar to the Devonian period.’’+ This was the language, in 1853, of the zoophytologists selected by the Paleontographical Society to prepare a monograph on this branch of paleontology, who were thoroughly acquainted with the literature of the subject, and who had had access to almost every public and private museum and collection in the United Kingdom. The fifty-eight species which passed from the Devonian to the Carboniferous period are found in the three principal fossiliferous deposits of Devon and Cornwall, as exhibited in the following table :— TABLE III. Totals L.S.D U.N. D. U.C Echinodermata.................++- 6 3 2 1 EE is Relviansekoweiaaxncn 1 1 ” val RMT Edin k onan ne caleces S00, 6 3 2 2 PMOOIOGD oii.) oecccde conee ne. 24 15 8 7 Lamellibranchiata ................ ae 2 ee 2 | ABCFOPONR 6 a. disse ee. s ens eniene 10 | 6 3 3 BEMMMMEDIINL, wo. sos ancnersecserse 7 4 2 3 | 58 34 17 18 | | It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that the five areas have a smaller number of organic forms in common with one another—closely con- nected as they are both in space and time—than they have, as a whole, with Devonian deposits in continental Europe and elsewhere beyond the British Isles, or with the Carboniferous rocks of Ireland and central and northern England. * Monograph of British Fossil Corals,’ by Messrs. Edwards and Haime, p. 150. + Ibid. p. 212. . 20 THE GEOLOGIST. Table I., to which attention has so frequently been directed, repre- sents, so far as is at present known, the absolute distribution of the fossils in the two counties in which they occur; but, for purposes of geological chronology, it is probably of greater importance to ascer- tain their relative distribution, which may differ widely from that shown by the figures, since the various classes of animals represented in the fossil series were not equally rich in species, and perhaps differed much in, what may be called, their distributivity. The relative distribution is exhibited in Table 1V., which has been calculated from the data contained in Table I., thus: the total num- ber of species in each class is put = 1000, and the figures in the other columns equated to this. Ranged in descending order, according to their relative specific prevalence in each era, the classes stand thus :*— Lower South Devon: Zoophyta, Amorphozoa, Crustacea, Gastero- peda, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Cephalopoda, Echinodermata, and La- mellibranchiata. Lower North Devon: Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, Zoophyta, and La- mellibranchiata. Lower Cornwall: Amorphozoa, Crustacea, Zoophyta, Echinoder- mata, Brachiopoda, and Gasteropoda. Upper North Devon: Lamellibranchiata, Echinodermata, Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, Gasteropoda, Cephaloda, Crustacea, and Zoophyta. Upper Cornwall: Cephalopoda, Lamellibranchiata, Gasteropoda, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Crustacea, Echinodermata, and Zoophyta. Both relatively and absolutely each class has its maximum specific development in South Devon, with the exception of Lamellibranchiata only, which has its greatest specific variety in Upper North Devon.t South Devon is the only area in which each of the nine classes oc- curs; Lower Cornwall and Lower North Devon are each poor in classes as well as species, the latter yielding representatives of four classes only. When ranged in descending order, so as to show, relatively, the transmission of species from the Devonian to the Carboniferous era, the classes stand thus:—Bryozoa, Echinodermata, Brachiopoda, Gasteropoda, Cephalopoda, Crustacea, and Lamellibranchiata. And When similarly arranged for the species derived from the Silurian Fauna, they take the following order :—Zoophyta, Lamellibranchiata, Cephalopoda, and Brachiopoda. The class Amorphozoa is the only one in the Devonian Fauna which does not contain either Silurian or Carboniferous species.f From Table IV. it appears that fifty-six genera are peculiar to one or other of the three areas Lower South Devon, Upper North Devon, and Upper Cornwall ; and that, of these, forty-six, or very nearly one- half the total ninety-seven, are restricted to Lower South Devon. No genus is confined to Lower North Devon or Lower Cornwall. * See in Table LV. the columns headed “ Totals.” { See in Tables I. and 1V. the columns headed “ Totals.” + See in Table 1V. the columns headed “ Silurian” and ‘“‘ Carboniferous.” 21 PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. ——————— eee =x mmEEnEE (ummm Unmnammmnneremmamemammmmmemnenenan. ‘mar memmmaamacreaE, ! opr ite fo | | WOT [ser (LoL | | ledp te Pye Le ee te pe pe te yo ieee ioet |" yo" (de aes Rome ee ee Si ee leet terete té— 1" lees Pe a] | ees fee | | ee ties: eee te is pec gegen epodosoqses) 2g ie |i | | lept jigs laze |“ Ite [Zoe [te joe || Joe ite | | | | |igpe [eee |“ Je joog [ei ByBryouBAgTpouUETT eee let ||“ | °° (6 [est jiset |t¥s |4s les joo jog j6 |" jor [4s igo |‘ | Je |om |[99 Jost jse [83 [Leg [ui wpodorourg, CpG eee aoe one eee 6 Z8L LZ eee 16 929 16 eee eee wee eee wee tee wee vee 16 [6 , Z8L eee a GPS Aaa ES mS pee BOZzZOkIg Tepe Poe dee fe tte Heer tte: fear fo fete fo Pe fe fee fee fee tte fee tte P Ulese (8 |e fee foso pees agovivears OOP eee ee eee eee COT L9 OOP L9 eee LOW wee eee eee eee wee wee wee eee wee eee L9 OOF L9 LOP ld vainguesinip et arg eee “ I79 |loe jos es |Zo¢ |t9 loz j|zot io joe |] |" joe | itm ft | tt fos fue fos |] | fO8. JOS, OTS [cee sauioog TRG AP ga | gO a MP | BLL nomtdborie 2} @iinyfaylmying | a} ale ye Pe ape) eye ele ep eee dd) eee = | ad al 4{a|4l ei al alm] m|m|m| om) m|mimialy|a| 4/2 E| Fi vw} [BI PTelS|/PIP/S|Pl S| SiFl eS] jel jes E alaleidlalda|/ ei ei els P a] | 2) |e) 4) Pe) a) ere bial S| S| > : ‘sassV19 a) 2 etl Sla Sl} oe a ga OL NOWNOD “STVLOT, oL NOWHOD OL AVITAONT ‘TTVMNUOO GNV NOAA AO STISSOM NVINOADG AHL AO “AOVdS ANV AWIL NI ‘NOILAAIMISIC TAILVTAZX AHL ONIMOHS “AI GTa@Via 22 THE GEOLOGIST. The fifty-six genera thus limited are generally poor in species, the ageregate number belonging to them being no more than ninety-two ; that is, fifty-eight per cent. of all the genera contain no more than twenty-six per cent. of the total number of species. Forty-one of these fifty-six genera contain each but a single species in the British Devonian deposits. The only genera thus limited that can be said to be rich in species are Stromatopora, Acervularia, and Clymenia. The first, a genus of Amorphozoons, contains five species, all limited to South Devon; the second, a group of corals belonging to the great Paleozoic family Cyathophyllide, contains five species, all peculiar to South Devon; and the last, a genus of Cephalopod mollusks belonging to the family Nautilide, contains eleven species, all found at South Petherwin, not one being met with elsewhere in Britain. With the single exception of Cyrtoceras rusticum, found at South Petherwin— and this probably a synonym for Orthoceras arcuatum—the genus Cyrtoceras is restricted to South Devon, where it is represented by twelve species. The distribution of the ninety-seven genera of fossils found in the two counties is exhibited in the following table :— TABLE V. | PECULIAR TO Torats. S| = a | sala f Aa A eila|/alo}4/o | a | a |o | Soa efata?a!p [s ]4@ | a] a eae Amorphozoa ......... 4 || 3 rr ere 4 1 ‘a Zoophyta ............ 20 || 14 oe | tee | 20) De Echinodermata ...... 6 || 2 | 3 |... 3 1 | Aves Crustacea ............ 8 | 6 | os ee Oe ‘Bees ae eee 7 3 | 1}... # 5) 1 13. | ae Brachiopoda ......... 16 || 6 s+ | wa || 16q) @ Peo) ae Lamellibranchiata ...| 17 5 | 37 I 11) 2)... eee Gasteropoda ......... 14] 7 ot 33 .. | a Cephalopoda ......... ih. os, 1} 4 | 97 || 46 oe | 83 | 8 | 8 | 34 | 33 56 41 97 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. = ‘ ComMON TO .) = E 3 so cae tre: 3 |.3 3 A | 2 aoe 3. 5 ° Be od. 2s s | « | 2 |28| $3 |e | ee | Seat EE | es Ss om =a Or | 2 2 S 2 oP gAD | gA Se | = 'S) | o = es | Amorphozoa ......... 4 | 8 1 - Beophiyta ..c...5. 20. | 20 10 5 3 2 Echinodermata ...... bee 2 os 3 1 Crnataces 5.602555: | 8 1 5 _ 2 Bryoz0a.: ....:....... 7 *y 5 2 Brachiopoda ......... | 16 3 2 8 3 Lamell:branchiata...) 17 2 1 9 5 Gasteropoda ......... [a 2 11 1 Cephalopoda ......... 5 1 2 2 | |} ——_ | ——_—_—_ ee, 97 | 24 | 14 | 41 | 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 culumns 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. Co ee 8 5 1 a descending-descending series. Cyathophyllum ......... 9 14 8 ascending-descending. Loxoneina ............... 2 8 14 ascending-ascending. ree 55 12 35 descending-ascending. The first kind shows that the maximum specific development occurs in 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 Devonian 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. ; Maxi GENERA. Totals. | Species in a Specific | enera. Development in | si. {Dev.| Car. || Sil. |Dev.| Car.|) Sil. | Dev. | Car. Peculiar to Devonian...... 24 45 | oe, Deer Common to,— | Silurian and Devonian .| 14 56] SO; ... |] 4 1-8 im 9 2 | ies Silur., Dev., and Carb.) 41 |) 386 | 223 | 510 || 9°4| 54/124) 13 2} 23 Devonian and Carb. ...| 18 49/271 ]) ... | 27) 15 | ... 2) 12 Weis eld ct 97 |/442|347/781|| 8 | 36] 13 22] 6| 35 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 specific development in 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 having 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, sufficiently 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 occupied 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 much to answer this question with an unqualified negative; it is easier to determine, at least, 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 26 THE 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, Plterinea ventricosa, Clidophorus ovatus, and Ortho- ceras imbricatum ; whilst the species common to Lower North and South Devon are Fuvosites cervicornis, F. dubia, Fenestella arthritica, Stringocephalus Burtini, Spirifer aperturatus, Sp. levicosta, Orthis 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 unequal 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 all but impenetrable 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, one only occurs in the carboniferous shales of North Devon, whilst all the others are found in central and northern England, Ireland, 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 entirely 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 succeeding—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. Soc. 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 way 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 SHAT ETE as 5. «ota adh sees ce ieee 53 26°5 Carbomimergus: |. oa... on: .t02. ces 395 | 150°5 Silurian and Carboniferous...... 42 0:0 Pecaliie.. 2 2k ee 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. Zopphyta..) det AG. 3 3 1 1 Echinodermata......... 1 1 4, 6 OPOSbPR SS coeanc Saas 2 2 ] 1 ESPVOUOS «5. eins Shanes 2 2 3 3 Brachiopoda............ 7 20 8 26 Lamellibranchiata...... 7 14 8 21 Gasteropoda ............ 6 9 | 10 Cephalopoda........... 5 21 2 8 | Totals coco 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. PETHERWIN. BAnNSTAPLE. Lat rn a a Sp. 1 Sp. 1 Lower Devonian................. tos his wales New (peenliar):.,. 0.065 «2. <0 5 » 44 » 90 New (common)................5- Cae »» 12 Carboniferous .........:...2..... Prihee ¢: =. a0 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 cominon 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, NMED ress aih akc teases» Sp. 14 Sp. 138 Lower Devonian................ 3° 208 30 DFS New. (peculiar) .............8:-.- gt GL 656 DSM (COMMON) so. anise ne. onee eine =. 208 CArNOUMOCTOUS «oc... .ncsncss a: 4). eae wo ek 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 is 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 had more than a very few species at any one time. The first of these groups—which 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 suffici- ently great to be of service in this inquiry. The last, or “ Future,” consists of two series, namely, 1st, those genera which are equally represented in the two sets of beds; and 2ndly, 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- PENGELLY—FOSSILS OF DEVON AND CORNWALL. 31 fore, that the Barnstaple beds are somewhat more modern than those of Petherwin. TABLE XII. GENERA. | Pr, | B | C. | PIN ny 5h grids Dont 0 1 | wees oe EC 1 3 | 10 PRUNES ec onco-.. be 1 ll a 1 5) ee ae ne eee 1 a6 19 So ea ee ae ee 2 16 | ee IO Ae hee REPT Pus sto k 3 48 _ ee ee ee pe re 16 le ae eel ie os 1 i 9 | Cypricardia..............eseee. Z 9 a 4 14 Sanguinolites .................... he 2 15 Oe, ee ee 3 1 14 PARCrOPRCUOR | oo. scx endsiesi- see 1 16 TE eee 1 | 40 10 | 19 | 247 | We are prepared, by even a slight acquaintance with the geogra- phieal distribution of existing organisms, to find that deposits strictly contemporary, lithologically similar, and closely connected geographi- cally, 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 Clymenia, 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 contemporary, 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, og, possibly, may have to be re- garded as “ passage beds”’ between them. 32 THE GEOLOGIST. ON SOME POINTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE SKULL OF FOSSIL MUSK-DEER (Cainotherium). By Casares Carter Brake, Esa. While examining lately the magnificent collection of fossil musk- deer, from Auvergne, in the collection of the British Muse eum, 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 Cainotherium 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 “ fazial inter- spaces.” } Their function has been unknown, and their presence, s ponh constant in each individual species, is variable in species nearly allied to each other. In the Cainotheriwm 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 is longer in proportion to its breadth than the existing musk-deer (Joschus chrysogaster). In the Dorcatherium Nau, 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,t as De Blain- ville remarks on the typical Cainotheriwm commune, termed by him Anoplotherium laticurvatum, that it possesses “ des lacunes sous-laery- males assez grandes, en forme de lonques 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 (dAuchenia Llama), and none in the Vicuna (A. Vicuna); that in the yellow-bellied musk (Moschus 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, Tragulus Stanleyanus, and T. 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 ébllection of British Museum, part 3. + Spencer Cobbold,“ Ruminantia,” in Todd’s, ‘ Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physi- ology,’ p. 513. ¢ 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 like in shape to, the yolk of an egg, 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 Awchenia 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. In this species we find a large development of the lacrymal inter- space. But both the Guanaco and Vicuiia 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 au equally in- * Proc. Zvol. Soc. 1836, p. 34. 7 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1836, p. 38. VOL. V. F 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. J. E. Gray, and which according to my experience is the sole specific difference which can be demonstrated, 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 question, and to make further observations on the fune- tion of the facial interspaces in both recent and fossil ruminants. It has been suggested to me, that the two holes in the Merothe- 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 Miero- thertwm 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 Prefessor 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 Ex.iort, 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 their 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 excavation 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 jirs¢ ELLIOTT— HUMAN REMAINS NEAR STANHOPE. 35 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 eo Gps SP three hundred yards distant from the cave, and crosses the ravine nearly at right- 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- North. Stanhope Burn. Fig. 1.—Ground plan of cavern district. a Mouth of Cave. 6 Bone Deposit. ¢ Red Vein. d Where the water issues from the cave. e e Trees and brushwood before the quarry was worked, on hill-side ; angle of slope 45 degrees. South. cations in the rocks at con- siderable distances. Besides this there are two other veins crossing the ravine at lesser distances from the cave, and 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 the 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 waves of the sea during some re- “ mote period, when the waters of the ocean stood on a level with Oa Ne ee aie ote Spe ) —a «fs ees i as me: % i. a LWW 0 a, eer XK ele > I AY <> SB ie hie ut Ni of = te o CNM, oy ‘Gat WY aN AL ! CT te NG d ame rg, MAsse ) pe Oe a the cave, it must still have a very ancient origin, for the cave is situated upwards of thirty miles from the sea, and upwards of 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 b 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 Fig. 2.—Transverse section of cave. a Level of the Burn. 5 Level of cave (from a to b 10 feet). c Osseous remains in the cave, (from btoc l4yards). d cave without remains, (from base of d to ground-line f 7 ft). e Limestone. 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 intellectual 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 ’ 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 have a physio- gnomy 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 Mee of bone, ete., partially Stalagmite. c Osseous remains, Sand, Silt,ete. cemented together by calcareous d Stalagmite. e Opencave. 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 ? by what means they have been carried and entombed there ? whether the animal-remains belong to existing or to extinct species ? 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, etc., 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 bellowing of the wind through the gloomy chambers of the cavern, would form the only requiem. [6 or 7 feet wide. ] Fig. 3.—Section of cave. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 37 It 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 lie 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. West Croft, Stanhope, by Darlington. Dee. 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 ace curate account of them.—Ep. GroL., 22 Dec. 1861.] PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. GroLoaicaL Society oF 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 Rey. 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. ii. pl. 9); the WV. variolaria bed of Selsea and of Stubbington; and the Shepherd’s Gutter bed at Bramshaw, New Forest. The beds above the last-named are—lst, 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 ‘‘Cypraa-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 Nwmmulina 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 Hollowaysii, Solen obliquus, Cytherea suberycinoides, Voluta Cithara, and Turritella sulcifera. 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 well-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” age 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 Si1r,—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 lias) 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. xu. 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 ES ee oe ed Aneel el a car a a ar aM Boras MY es A a ace PW LS coli oe et PLATE IT. = MMe SECTION OF THE CHALK CLIFFS UNDER DOVER CASTLE, KENT. S. J. Mackie, F.G:S., del. 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 lias. Mr. Macaiister 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 ventriculites 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. Mackie. Lower Situr1an Fosstts at BurittaH.—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, ete.), 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 LrominsTER SuBscrIBER. MammMatian Remartns.—In the ‘ Philosophical Transactions’ for 1715, vol. xxix., two teeth of Elephas, probably F. 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 30 yards from the brook. The bed on which they lay had been laid with ferns, and with that sort of rushes here called ‘“‘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. xlviii., 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 tle 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— vertebre, 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 III. | | | | CYPHOSOMA KCNIGI. [From the Upper Chalk of Gravesend, Kent.] In the National Collection, British Museum. | S. J. Mackie del. THE GEOLOGIST. FEBRUARY 1862. NOTE ON KONIG’S SEA-URCHIN. (Cyphosoma Kenigi, Mantell.) By 8. P. Woopwarp, F.G.S. One of the commonest fossils of the chalk in the London district is the beautiful Sea- Urchin, cf 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 K6nig’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 VOL. V. G 42 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 Kaenigi, 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. spatuliferuwm (Forbes), the ambulacral pores are ranged in single file throughout their course. The spines of Cyphosoma Kenigi 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 7m sitw, 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 Konigi 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 Montolien, in the department of Drome, at Dusseldorf, and in the island of Rugen in the Baltic. 43 SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF THE TORBANE MINERAL FIELD. By Anprew Tartor, F.R.P.S., F.B.S.E. The various corps of an army drawn up in line of battle are dis- tmguished 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 paits 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, 1ts 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 Fife, Midlothian, and Linlthgowshires. 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 :— 4.4, THE GEOLOGIST. Axis. W.NN. /\ S.S. E. /|\ 3. Upper Lanarkshire coal measures:— | 38. 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 ex- 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. 45 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 in 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 Euphrates 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 coal-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 beds of cherty porcelain, its interstratified ash, and over-capping basalt indicate proximate vol- canic activity when forming. Fluvio-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 volcanic 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 volcano 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 hills 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 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 SOUTH AFRICA. By Dr. R. N. Rustipesr, 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 attention 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 Ecca. These quartzite rocks have been referred to the age of the Carbo- niferous formation of Europe by Mr. Bain (Geol. Trans. vol. vii. 2nd series, pp. 54 and 183), and both he and Dr. Atherstone (‘ Eastern 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 Eowaare 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 Ecca 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 Ecca, containing the same fossils, which passes gradually into the gneiss. The sandstone on the one side is in relation on the other with the claystone-porphyry of Bain, as is the rock at the Ecca. Near Salem, in the heart of the Carboniferous system of Bain, are similar rocks witb 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 porphyry. 8. 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 Ecca rock contains Vig. 1. its characteristic fossils, is eon- formable with the quartzite,and \ \\ \ \ pyre | LLL) is separated from the Dieyno-, \\\ | ES, don rocks by a highish moun-’ tain of quartziteand many miles oa oS . = ~ + of slate, porphyry,etc. Icould 38 . 2B & S 2 a . | 2 Sy 3s 5 2&2 add many otherreasonsforthis £ 8 § 8 oa Cam BA Cm & 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 Eeca rock in the corresponding part of the section. I found what I believe to be the key to the explanation of these facts im Namaqualand. In passing through Ezel’s Poort, between Springbok Vontein and Spectakel, I 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 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 greater 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 (‘ Eastern Province Magazine,’ vol. ii. p. 187). I hoped it would have led my friends here, from whose sections mine differed considerably, to re- examine their data. A little after, 1 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 explained 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 I 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 tmstance 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 i is 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, b, are very far older than e¢, d, for instance. Fig. 2. ——____ 5 UES LT | nT PRN BE A|NIMN, wwii ‘ d 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. In 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, | 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 én sitw. Other veins crossed the strike. Again, b g * T think I saw calcareous beds of which all I have asserted of the quartzite might be predicated. ; . | RUBIDGE—SOUTHU-AFRICAN ROCKS. 51 isolated masses of slate preserved their dip unaltered in the midst of granite which appeared to have a dipinthesame 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 Eastern 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 cyanite 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 in the way of lost opportunities than the want ofa 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 ? 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 felspathic rock here. Assuming, then, the metamorphosis of palzozoic 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 Fish 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 denied 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.* [ have mentioned in a former Paper that the twists 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 over 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 paleozoic 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 greatly 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. I should be glad to learn whether it is so or not. I have stated that in the metallic twists, or saddles, I never saw granite 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 (@ 0) of the feather was | composed of micaceous schist, with a few rather KS Ll / | / large crystals of felspar. I have frequent! Sk large crystals of felspar. ave frequently seen 4-5 z irregular-shaped patches of mica-schist follow- a Toy ing neither strike, nor any law that I could per- ' He 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 lt 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, palzozoie 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 strengthen 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 voleanic 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 at 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. FS P <font “Z ” ! \ H ; Af Y/, ; f , i Wise yg j' t | ' . ‘ Lg Sy : A AY) sy. | \\ UEEEBLT HO \ eeg¢ 162 ZAIN . - N ~ MA 4? Py A wae Tage 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 a mass 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? 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 I am aware, enable himto 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 scale, in which I feel sure it is not so. J hope ere long to be able to show that the infiltration of quartz from above has produeed this effeet, but my evidence on this — RUBIDGE—SOUTH-AFRICAN ROCKS. bids | 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. 3. 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 TILE 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 never 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 is 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 slight 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 much 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. | eo a eee = ; REA TGAL BAN PLATE IV. MOLAR TOOTH OF BELEPHAS TEXIANUS (N.58.) In the National Collection, British Museum. S. J. Mackie del. ON A FOSSIL ELEPHANT FROM TEXAS (2B. Tezxianus). By Cuarzies Carter Buaxe, 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. 1V. 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. 1. 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 Elephas 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 distine- tion between the European and American species of elephant, and terms the latter #. 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. i. 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 distinctly recognizes an American spe- cies of elephant (Hwelephas Columbi), which he says has hitherto been undescribed. He places this apart from Ewelephas primigenius, in the same group as HL. Indicus and Armeniacus, of which group he discriminates the character as having “ Colliculi approximati, 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 EZ. 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 E. 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, “EH. 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 £. pri- migenius. The tooth of KH. Textanus (m. 6, lower jaw) has enamel- folds much wider and much more waved and undulated than that of the E. Jacksoni. The canals of cement are consequently of much greater width, and the whole aspect of the tooth is much more like Ei. Lndicus. 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 H. Colwmdz 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 EtEpHas TEXIANUS, dentiwm molarium (m. 6), colliculi undulati, magis remoti quam in HK. Indico. Its association with HL. Indicus and Armeniacus, by Dr. Falconer, seems warranted by its legitimate affinities. The greater width between the enamel-folds may indicate a more sapid and 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. 59 ON THE MICROSCOPICAL EXAMINATION OF SOME BRACKLESHAM BEDS. By T. Rurerr Jones, 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. J 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.S., 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 microscopica] 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 versé), 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- portions 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. Sckafhautl, 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. Grs. Proportions. Calcareous Shells, fragments of shells, ] and other fossils * . I sa see - Arenaceous Sand] LAS Rae aoa 138 1104 29 Argillaceous Clay §*:.cnsR8.cccause, 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 : Arenaceous Sand 185 1480 38°5 Argillaceous > © Clay.) .721i5.23i.. ee 272 2176 56°5 eee 480 38840 100°0 No. 3. Dark-green clayey sand; very friable. Quantity examined, 3840 grains. ee ee ee ee ry Grs. Proportions. Caleareous Shells etc., and fragments ......... 497 13 Flint eGR Sees ot ao atvinemti aot 20 ; APPIROCONS - 9 gah GRR ON nT) Oe eens es30s O° Argilacesns . , Clay S322 AE. cit. AIAG ee 793 23°5 3840 10070 * The clays and sands in this paper are described as they appear when dry. + The specimens No. 3, 4, and 5 being given in lots of 3840 grains, Nos. 1 and 2 (which were examined in lots of 480 grains) are given also as 3840 grains for the sake ofcomparison. With regard also to Nos. 1 and 2, their lists of fossils must be regarded as less perfect in relation to the other specimens, on account of the small quantity of the deposit examined. t For the list of fossils, see the table further on. § The sands of all the lots are chiefly composed of green grains (silicate of iron ?) and quartz sand. Further details respecting the relative size, angularity, etc., of the sand- grains in the several specimens ought to have been given. RUPERT JONES—ON BRACKLESHAM BEDS. 61 No. 4. Reddish-yellow sand, very friable, abounding with large Nummulites. Quantity examined, 3840 grains. Grs, Proportions, Caleareous Shells* ete., and fragments ......... 878 2: Pebbles of flint, greenstone, iron- Arenaceous { stone, and brown pellucid quartz... 23 58 2 A IS le ay 2205 Ferruginous concretion ............ 12 19 Ot a een ee ene 722 3840 100 No. 5. Light-blue sandy clay; hard, but easily separated in hot water. Quantity examined, 3,840 grains. Grs. Proportions. Calcareous Shells, etc., and fragments ......... 16 Arenaceous Sand (very fime) .................0..200 1296 33°8 Pyritous concretion .................: 10 (13 RMA MINE Cg ir sas Soin oh ete cd Ds wo avy ween ce 2428 63°2 3540 100°0 TABLE OF THE FOSSILS RROM THE FIVE SPECIMENS OF “ BRACKLESHAM BEDS.” No. 1. No. 2. | No. 3. No. 4. No. 5. Fish Bones. | Fish Tooth and | Fish Bones, Fish Bone and | Fish Bones and Otolite. Teeth, and Otolite. Otolites. Otolite. MOLLUSCA: GASTEROPODA. Murex. Fusus ? Ringicula. Ringicula. Ringicula. Pleurotoma. Pleurotoma, 2 s. Voluta. Natica. Natica. Natica. Natica. Cerithium. Cerithium. Potamis. Potamis, 2 sp. Turritella. Turritella. Turritella. Turritella, 3 sp. | Turritella, 2 sp. Solarium. Solarium ? Solarium. Solarium. Infundibulum. Dentalium. Dentalium. Dentalium. Dentalium. Dentalium. Planorbis. Bulla (minute). Bulla. * The shells in this specimen are larger than in the other lots. In the latter the shells, etc. found in this examination were chiefly of small size, although larger shells, of course, are sometimes abundantly distributed in the mass of the beds. 62 Ostrea. Pecten. Crassatella. Venericardia. Cytherea. Corbula. Cellepora petiolus. Venericardia. Corbula. —. ‘a 7) Le 6 A ee THE GEOLOGIST. LAMELLIBRANCHIATA. Ostrea. Ostrea. Area. Cuculleea. Cuculleea. Chama. Cyprina, 2 sp. Crassatella. Venericardia. Venericardia. Venus ? : Cytherea. Cytherea. Corbula, 2 sp. | Corbula, 2 sp. Panopeea ? Pholas. BRYOZOA. Flustra. Lunulites. ENTOMOSTRACA, ECHINODERMATA. Echinoderm. Echinoderm. ANNELIDA. | Serpula ? CORAL. Turbinolia sul- cata. Ostrea. Pinna ? Cucullzea. Astarte ? Venericardia. Corbula. Cellepora petiolus. Cythere scabro- papulosa. C. costellata. C. horrescens. C. cornuta. Cytherella com- pressa. C. Muensteri. Echinoderm. Turbinolia sul-— cata. MURRAY—WALLABIES’ HOLES IN AUSTRALIA. 63 FORAMINIFERA. Nummulina N. levigata. leevigata. Nummulina N. scabra. N. scabra. scabra. Nummulina N. variolaria. N. variolaria. variolaria. Miliola (Trilo- Miliola (Quin- culina). queloculina). Guttulina. Guttilina. Rotalia obscura | (and others). Lignite. Lignite. Pyrites. Pyrites. Pyrites. Should one wish to take in hand the examination of a series of the tertiary strata of any part of the Isle of Wight basin, in the manner above suggested, well assorted samples, collected and labelled with care, can be readily obtained of Henry Keeping, of Freshwater, who is an intelligent and trustworthy collector, and whose charges are moderate. ON THE OCCURRENCE OF A PECULIAR SUBSTANCE IN THE LIMESTONE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. By W. Murray, Esgq., C.E. Taking a section across the Murray River Valley, in South Austra- lia, for a distance of about forty miles from west to east, we have (as shown in the accompanying diagram) two parallel ranges, and on the °« @®,°* @ ° © ea 9 zg =| So s, he hy > me me a >) =| 2s mos @ al Ps = o + : 3) ® O aw ~ = — ~ og > us} 2 2a 4 Ss mam AAS q n Rs < a SaRQSm Re <o : ; ; cs 2 re ! LC. i ly | B ee ; 8, By iS j SZ lw ING . Fig. 1. outer flank of the western range there are at some places micaceous strata (4), having a steep inclination, resting against the contorted strata of the range, sections of which are seen in gaps and gullies, with steep sides, in some instances 800 to 1000 feet deep. These 64 THE GEOLOGIST. hills are partly granitic; the granite is reddish, very readily decom- posed, and worn by the rain and weather here and there into strange grotesque figures. There are well-defined metallic lodes in this range. East of these hills are three terraces leading down to the river. The first is the broadest, extending about two-thirds the distance, and falls twenty feet to the river. It is composed chiefly of sand; but rocks similar to those of the western rock crop out here and there. The second terrace averages about two-ninths of the distance between the range and the river: it falls about thirty feet; some- times not more than ten or fifteen feet ; at places, however, more than fifty feet. The third or lowest terrace is only one-ninth of the dis- tance, and nearly level with the river: in fact, it is overflowed when the water is up. The river itself flows slowly, having a fall of about one foot a mile. It is at the fall or escarpment between the second and the third terrace, on an exposed face of friable limestone, that the peculiar substance referred to in this notice is found. The whitish limestone (similar to the bryozoal limestone of the Mount Gambier district) has its exposed edges excavated by innumerable burrows of wallabies, kangaroo - rats, opos- sums, ete., which live and breed here in count- less numbers, far in the body of the rock, and the upper part of the openings of these bur- AA Wallabies’ Holes. | River Murray. roe: eee Bee Fig. 2. terial, which appears to be the concreted exhalations and effluvia coming from the heated in- teriors of these long-inhabited and thickly tenanted burrows. The concretion is thickest just within and at tlie mouth of a burrow, and dies away upwards on the face of the rock, just as the stain of smoke coming from a crevice is dark at the fissure, and becomes fainter and fainter up the side of the wall. This material is several inches thick, and, owing to the dryness of the climate, is not washed away by rain. In England the specimens brought over are somewhat deliquescent. It has not yet been examined chemically. This curious concomitant of cave-habitats in a warm and dry cli- mate seems worth notice as connected with the subject of bone-caves. The same country (South Australia) is likely to afford valuable in- formation relative to the origin and early condition of subterranean | caves and fissures; tor the limestone of the Mount Gambier district is extensively excavated by subterranean drainage, on which the coer eel of the towns and stations is, to a large extent, depen- ent. The samples of brown material referred to in the above remarks were obtained from a place on the River Murray, near the Reedy Creek (Toongell) or the Thirty-nine Sections, called Pontarra, or Green CORRESPONDENCE. 65 Corner, and at Cooloodee. It is about fifty miles due-east of Adelaide, and about 35° south latitude, and 139° 20’ east longitude. I found it while making my surveys for the direct eastern line of railway from Adelaide to the River Murray (see Council Paper, No. 47, Septem- ber 10th, 1858, S. A.). The River Murray and its tributaries drain an immense district in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, discharging it- self into the Lake Alexandria in South Australia; thence to the sea it is navigable for 1500 miles. [Our readers are referred also to the Journal of the Geological Society, No. 63, August, 1860, pages 252-261, for some account of the geology of the South-Australian district above referred to.— Epir. GEOLOGIST. | CORRESPONDENCE. The Accumulation of Cave Deposits. Dear Srr,— Without offering any opinion on the Rev. H. Eley’s spe- culation, in the December Number of the Gzotoartst, on the mode of “ The Accumulation of Cave Deposits,” I presume it is quite safe to conclude that it could only apply, at most, to caverns which were inhabited by animals. Now, though we have satisfactory evidence that some caverns—Kent’s Hole near this place, for example—were the homes of carnivora, others, and some of them very famous, are entirely destitute of any such indica- tions, whilst their distinctly stratified deposits were certainly due to the long-continued action of water. Amongst the numerous caves near the sea-level which occur in the lime- stone cliffs between Berry Head and Mudstone Bay, near Brixham, there is one into which the sea only enters at spring-tide high-water, or during very heavy gales. It is only accessible from the sea, and is situated at the apex of a small cove, the mouth of which is a passage, probably about twenty feet wide, between two walls of limestone ; within it is somewhat wider. Except at high-water, a small, steep, terraced, shingle beach lies between the sea and the mouth of the cavern. The cove is simply a gallery, at least eighty feet long, about four feet wide, in some places not more than three feet high, but commonly high enough for a man to stand erect. In fact, it is nothing more than one of the north and south joints, or lines of fracture, so common in the district, eroded into a tunnel. A considerable drip of water, apparently free from earthy matter, enters through the roof. When recently visiting it, I found the floor, consisting of fine sea sand, more or less covered with fresh seaweed, which was most abundant at the inner end. About halfway in, I picked up several disjoined bones, pro- bably parts of the same animal, undoubtedly a terrestrial mammal, and, judging from the state of the epiphyses, a young individual. I have still some of them by me. With one exception they are quite free from all marks of abrasion. The sea had also carried in some evidences of the existence of man; VOL. V. K 66 THE GEOLOGIST. amongst other things I remember a portion of a tin kettle and a fragment of a basket, of the coarse kind used on board colliers and other ships. Here, then, is a cavern which the sea is at present filling, and in which it is depositing relics of man and portions of terrestrial mammals, but not, so far as I could discover, any marine organism, excepting the seaweed. Probably a careful search might have detected some small shells and other sea-offerings amongst the weeds, but I certainly saw nothing of the kind, nor were there any of the larger mollusks so constantly cast up on our beaches. There appears no reason, &@ priori, why some caves belonging to earlier periods may not have received their contents in a similar manner. Again, those who have visited the Cheddar Cliffs, in Somersetshire, probably remember that a considerable body of water issues from the foot of the right-hand cliff, not far above the village of Cheddar. This stream commences its subterranean journey about two miles off, where it enters a ** swallet.” It is scarcely possible to believe that it fails to introduce specimens of the natural history of the district into this cavern, or that it does not deposit organic relics, together with mud and stones, in at least some of the shel- tered nooks and recesses which probably occur along its course of fully two miles. I have no doubt that, at least, one of the celebrated caves of this county was in this way furnished with the materials which have rendered it famous. I am far from believing that the history of any cavern can be regarded as generally typical. Neither of the agencies above described could have produced the phenomena observed at Orestone, near Plymouth, where, in all probability, the fossils and the materials in which they were inhumed found a passage through an open fissure into the cavernous interior of the limestone. It would not be safe to generalize from any individual case, whether it be Kent’s Hole, Windmill Hill Cave at Brixham, the caverns at Orestone, or a dirty dog on a study hearth-rug. I am, yours, etc., Wu. PENGELLY. Lamorna, Torquay, December 14th, 1861. Northampton Sands. Dear Sir,—In replying to Dr. Wright’s communication in the last number of your excellent periodical, I offer him my apologies. The origin of my mistake was, in carelessly reading that part of Mr. Aveline’s ‘ Me- moir on the Geological Survey of a part of Northamptonshire,’ where he speaks of the confusion that formerly existed with regard to these sands. These beds have been assigned to the Upper Lias, although not by Dr. Wright, and are so coloured on more than one geological map. For in- stance, in Reynolds’s ‘ Geological Atlas,’ lately published under the revision of Professor Morris, all the country over which the Northampton sands are so well displayed has been coloured, with the Lias, brown, a mistake which should be avoided if asecond edition of that neat and otherwise useful little work is contemplated. The fact is, no one knows exactly where to place or with what to class these sands. Lias they assuredly are not. Mr. Aveline considers them to be equivalent to the Stonesfield Slate of Oxfordshire. This seems likely, ee SS PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES, 67 both from their position and their organic remains. But a deal yet remains to be done with them; they have yet to be accurately traced, searched, and studied. Strata which yield, as they do, such valuable iron-ore, de- mand attention and examination. Yours very truly, Joun H. Macatister. Oxford, January \st, 1862. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. Gerotoeists’ Assocration.—The ordinary monthly meeting was held on Monday, December 2nd, at 5 Cavendish Square. The Rev. Thomas Wiltshire, M.A., F.G.S., President, in the chair. The following papers were read :—‘*‘ On two beds of re-deposited Crag Shells in the vicinity of Yarmouth, Norfolk,” by C. B. Row, Esq., F.G.8. “On a Newly Dis- covered Outlier of the Hempstead Strata on the Osborne Estate, Isle of Wight,” by Dr. E. P. Wilkins, F.G.S. “On the Exchange of Fossils among the Members,” by A. Bolt, Esq., A.A. Professor Tennant exhibited several specimens of gold recently forwarded from Nova Scotia to this country. He read extracts from a Report which has made by Mr. Howe to Lord Mulgrave, the Governor of the Colony,in Septem- ber last, from which it appears that the gold-discoveries made in the colony in 1860 were unimportant, the gold being found in quantities so small as not to afford a satisfactory return for the labour of seeking for it. The exitement had accordingly subsided. Last March, however, a man acci- dentally discovered a piece of gold among the pebbles at a brook; this led to further investigation, and it is now generally believed that gold in abundance exists in the colony within an easy distance of means of trans- port, and Mr. Howe considers that-the Government will be warranted in assuming that at the localities where the chief working has been hitherto carried on, viz. Tangier, Lunenburg, Lawrencetown, and Lake Thomas, gold-mining will be permanently established as a new branch of industry, tempting to the capitalist and attractive to the emigrant. The gold is found in quartz veins and in the sand on the shore. Specimens of gold in the matrix, and some of the gold grains found in the sand were exhibited, as also two ingots of pure gold cast from that discovered in the above- mentioned workings. Mr. Rickard exhibited a machine recently patented, the object of which is to render peat available as fuel, to the same extent as coal, at a greatly reduced price. Mancuester Literary anp Puitosopnicat Socrety.—November 26th, 1861. J. P. Joule, LL.D., President, in the chair. A Paper was read by Mr. E. W. Binney, F.R.S., entitled ‘“‘ Additional Observations on the Permian Beds of South Lancashire.” This was a continuation of two previous papers read before the Society. Since that time the author had made further observations on the Permian strata at Heaton Norris, near Stockport ; Medlock Vale, between Ashton and Manchester; Chorlton- upon-Medlock, and Ordsal near Manchester; and Skillaw Clough and Bentley Brook, near Newburgh, in the west of Lancashire. At Heaton Norris, in the sand delf of Mr. Howard, near the railway station, the lower New Red Sandstone was seen dipping to the south-west at an angle of 25°. This was succeeded by red and variegated marls having 68 THE GEOLOGIST. a similar dip. These last-named strata were overlapped by the Trias, which dips to the south-west at an angle of 12°. ; At Heaton Mersey the following section was met with :— Feet MINS oe Sk chan oven tae there eee ange s+ cpt eee see eee eeceesen eee eeenes 45 Permian—Red and varigated marls containing limestones ............ 129 Lower New Red Sandstone grooved ............seseeeeeeees 402 576 The Permian beds were cut off by a fault near the railway station at Heaton Norris (first noticed by Mr. Hull, of the Geological Survey), which brought in the Trias. This rock occupied the district between that town and Goyt’s Hall, in the Marple valley, where the lower part of the middle coal-measures was seen in nearly a vertical position. The author considered Mr. Howard’s sand delf to be a likely place for ascertaining whether a coal-field worth working existed under the town of Stockport. The next was a section made by Mr. John Wood, at Medlock Vale, be- tween Waterhouses, near Ashton-under-Lyne, and Manchester. It was as follows :— Feet. In Ls) a ee Peer ores wer its ty eerie 26 O PP TIAS oo gin éeiowis woe ss oa es duviclex'lo6 Saunas sae eee ae ee 23 0 Permian—Red marls, with beds of limestone and five beds of SYPSUM ... .. «ns +e sansa ges aR 246 3 Lower New Red Sandstone <2... .2..0s.. aqeueeeaeneeetaeeas eae 375 11 Coalsmeastires 22: ccx.<c...acconanise waces depen eee eee about 90 0O 761 2 What these coal-measures were, whether above or under the Bradford Four-feet Mine, it was at present impossible to say; but it was to be hoped that some mine would be met with to enable us to determine the value of the great tract of coal-measures lying between Ashton-under- Lyne, Oldham, Middleton, and Manchester. Mr. Wood had done more than any other gentleman to clear up this point, and it was to be desired that he should meet with a good seam of coal, both for his own sake and that of the public. The third section mentioned was at the sugar-works of Messrs. Fryer and Co., in Chester Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. The fol- lowing beds were there met with :— Feet TEAS 28 aw on wo Gees » «i x'e « 20d ca EES aL seal eee aria ae ae fe 114 Permian—Red marls with limestones.........0.....c.cececeecenueecueees 237 Coarse red sandstone with pebbles...................ceeeeeee 45 Coarse red sandstone’. ).0.7 stuck: uct ee eae 24 Coal-measures, consisting of red shaly marls and limestones (Ard- WIE) ©. alse eb cc ckvnecaawccseqds neve dane ope an ee Renae ans 126 546 The limestones in the last-named strata contained specimens of Micro- conchus carbonarius and scales of Palezoniscus, which clearly proved them to be similar beds to those of the upper coal-field at Ardwick, to which they bear every resemblance in physical character. The oceurrence of coal-measures on the south side of the city of Man- chester is quite new and of great importance, showing that such strata at PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. . 69 places are met with under Permian and Trias deposits much nearer the surface than was previously suspected, and where the upper rocks gave no evidence of their proximity. ‘he above bore has proved beyond doubt that a band of coal-measures lies under the south of Chorlton-on-Medlock, and possibly extends to Heaton Norris, being probably brought up by the great Pendleton fault, which most likely passes through the south of Man- chester and joins the fault seen near the railway station at Heaton Norris previously alluded to. In the fourth section, at Ordsal, Messrs. Worrall found the Trias beds four hundred and sixty feet in thickness without going through them. At the bottom of the bore the water became so salt that they discontinued the work, it being no longer fit for dyeing and such-like purposes. This is the first instance, to the author’s knowledge, where salt water has been met with in the Trias near Manchester. The fifth and sixth sections were at Skillaw Clough and Bentley Brook, to the north of the Newburgh station on the Manchester and Southport railway. ‘These were some time since discovered by Mr. E. Hull, of the Geological Survey, and described shortly by that gentleman in the sheet explaining the map of the district. Further particulars were given of the details of both sections, and an analysis of the limestone was produced, which showed it to differ in its chemical characters from the thin ribbon- bands found in the Permian marls near Manchester, Patricroft, Astley, and Leigh; it was very like the yellow magnesian limestone found at Stank, in Furness, North Lancashire. Probably it might prove to bea different bed, and more like the great central deposit of magnesian lime- stone of Yorkshire than the thin beds previously alluded to. December 24th, 1861.—J. P. Joule, LL.D., President, in the chair. Mr. Binney stated that many years since he had communicated to the Society a description of some markings on the surface of the Kerridge flags. He afterwards published, in Vol. X (New Series) of the Memoirs, a Paper on similar markings, found in the Upholland flags, near Wigan, and attributed then to the burrowing of an animal similar to the common lug-worm of our coast, the Arenicola piscatorum. Similar holes have since been found in rocks of various ages, from the Cambrian upwards. The position of the Kerridge flags is, probably, one of the best ascer- tained in whole coal-field. It is in the lower division above the millstone grit. In the lower coal-field there are two main beds of flagstones : the first, or lower, the Rochdale series, under the ‘‘ rough rock ;” and the upper, or Upholland or Kerridge series, above the same rock, the chief workable beds of the lower coal-field of Rochdale and other districts, often termed the *‘mountain mines,” lying midway between these two flag-deposits. This series of coal is now, and has been for many years, wrought under the Kerridge, flags so as prove beyond doubt the position of the latter. Some discussions have lately taken place at Macclesfield as to whether the Ker- ridge beds were Permian or Carboniferous. No one who ever saw Per- mian beds, could ever for one moment suppose Kerridge flags to belong to those strata. It is possible that Permian beds may exist in the low dis- trict lying between Kerridge and Macclesfield, as they have been met with at Hug Bridge on the south, and Norbury Brook on the north, but up to this time they have not been proved to be there. Considerable interest has been excited by the discovery of what were supposed to be the foot-marks of some animals on the surface of the flags. He had been induced to make two journeys to Kerridge for the purpose of examining them; but although plenty of worm-holes and ripple-marks are to be found on the surface of the Kerridge flags, as yet he had seen no tracks of animals upon them. 70 THE GEOLOGIST. Mr. Edward Hull, B.A., called attention to instances of glacial striations recently discovered by Mr. G. H. Morton, at Liverpool. During a recent visit to that town in connexion with his duties on the Geological Survey, Mr. Hull was kindly conducted by Mr. Morton to the spots where the striz are visible. One of these is at the south, the other at the north side of the town, and at the latter the extent of surface exposed is several hundred square yards. The rock-surfaces had been protected by a thick coating of boulder clay, which has been removed for brick-making. It is owing to the protection thus afforded to the rock that the striations are preserved in all their original freshness. The rock belongs to the New Red Sandstone, and is a moderately hard reddish-brown and yellowish building-stone. There are two systems of strie, the primary one ranging N.N.W., the secondary nearly east and west. Of the latter, the markings are comparatively unimportant, but are very clear and sharp. The primary strie run in remarkably straight lines—in the form of deep groovings and scratches, and the whole surface of the sandstone is worn down to one uniform gently-sloping plane. It appeared evident, from the directions of the striz, that they had been produced by icebergs coming from the north, in all probability from the Cumberland mountains, where glaciers are known to have existed during the period of the boulder clay, or rather earlier. The secondary groovings might have been produced by bergs coming from North Wales, but this appeared very problematical. The interest attached to these cases of gla- ciation was stated to arise from their position at so great a distance from the Cumberland range. In the immediate neighbourhood of these moun- tains, as also in that of North Wales, ice-moulded surfaces have frequently been observed, but never before on the New Red Sandstone of Lancashire or Cheshire. Mr. E. W. Binney referred to the existence of similar striations on the Carboniferous limestone of Great Orme’s Head, where the groovings were found to range northward, or outwards from the mountains of the mterior. He also noticed the distribution of the Shap granite, blocks of which he had lately seen on the high Silurian and Carboniferous ranges to the south and south-east of Shap Fell. Mr. Brockbank stated that, on the high lands of Yorkshire and Derby- shire, he had observed erratic blocks which could be traced to their northern sources. Mr. Hull said, it had been shown, by a large number of facts, that the direction of the erratic blocks of the Drift period was from north to south, so that there must have been some predominating influence in operation, either prevalent winds, or, more probably, oceanic currents, tending to impel southward the icebergs and rafts which were the vehicles for th transportation of the erratic boulders and pebbles. ; GroLoeicaL Society oF Lonpon.—January 8, 1862.—Sir C. Lyell in the chair. The following communications were read :—1l. “On the Car- boniferous Limestone of Oreton and Farlow, Clee Hills, Shropshire.” By Professor John Morris, V.P.G.S., and George E. Roberts, Esq. With a Note upon a new species of Pterichthys, by Sir P. de M.G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.G.S. The rocks described in this paper are a series of thin beds of limestone and sandstone lying between the Old Red Sandstone of South Shropshire and the Millstone Grit which forms the basement of the Titter- stone Clee coal-field. In consequence of the opening of new quarries and the cutting of a roadway through the Farlow ridge transversely to the strike of these deposits, the authors were enabled to add somewhat to the de- scription of the locality given in ‘ The Silurian System.’ The series of de- PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES, 71 posits from the Old Red “ cornstone,” upwards, was shown by them to be: —1. Laminated yellow sandstones, with pebble-beds and sands. 2. Bright- yellow sandstones, containing Pterichthys. 3. Brecciated yellow sand- stones, pebble-beds, sandy layers, and laminated sandstones. 4. Sandy and concretionary limestone. 5. Grey oolitic limestones, containing pala- tal teeth of great size. 6. Clays, with ferruginous bands. 7. Shaly cri- noidal limestones. 8. Clays with limestone concretions, and shaly lime- stones. Against the last-mentioned bed the Millstone Grit rests uncon- formably. These beds thicken out at Oreton, a mile east of this Farlow section, and are there extensively worked for various economic purposes, the oolitic limestones, locally termed ‘ jumbles,” being used for decorative purposes under the name of Clee Hill Marble. In describing the physical conditions of the localities, mention was made of the “ Mole river,” which, losing itself at the west end of the ridge, takes a subterranean course nearly parallel with its axis, and reappears at its lower end, a mile distant. An interesting fact was communicated to the authors by the Rev. J. Wil- liams, of Farlow, of an accidental accumulation in the hollow of its inlet of a body of water estimated at 1,635,000 cubic feet, the whole of which was carried away in forty-eight hours by the sudden clearance of the channel. In describing the paleontology of these rocks, the authors specially drew attention to the fortunate discovery, in the yellow sand:tone of Farlow, of Pterichthys macrocephalus (spec. nov., Egerton), made while reducing the thickness of a large ripple-marked slab sent them by Mr. Weaver Jones in illustration of the physical conditions of the deposit. This Pterichthys pro- ving identical with the fragment previously found in the Farlow Sandstone by Thos. Baxter, Esq., F.G.S., they attached to the paper a descriptive note on that fossil, by Sir Philip Egerton, in which the Farlow Pterichthys was contrasted with that of Dura Den, and additional proof given of the identity of the genera Pamphractus and Pterichthys. In addition to pterichthyoid remains, scales of two species of Holoptychius, one probably new, had been found by them. The richness of the overlying limestones in palatal teeth was shown by a fine series of examples, amongst which Orodus ramosus, of unusual size and in perfect condition, and an undescribed Pecilodus, of great magnitude, were most conspicuous. Other genera represented were Helodus, Psammodus, Cladodus, Cochliodus, Petalodus, and Ctenopty- chius. Ichthyodorulites, of large size and rich ornament, chiefly belong- ing to the genera Cfenacanthus and Oracanthus, accompany these teeth. The notices of the invertebrate fauna given by the authors proved the as- sumed lowness of the Oreton Limestones in the Mountain Limestone series —the zone of Rhynconella pleurodon being well marked, crinoidal and bryozoan remains abundant though fragmentary, and corals nearly absent. A large series of Pterichthyes and of rock-specimens were exhibited in il- lustration by Mr. George E. Roberts; and a collection of palatal teeth was liberally sent for exhibition by W. Weaver Jones, Esq., of Cleobury Mortimer, and by Edward Baugh, Esq., of Bewdley. 2. “On some Fossil Plants, showing Structure, from the Lower Coal Measures of Lancashire.” By E. W. Binney, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. After noticing the views taken of the structure of Lepidodendron by Hooker and others, the author proceeded to describe three portions of calcified stems, Lepidodendroid in external appearance, two of which exhibit in section a central axis composed, not of cellular tissue, but of large, transversely barred, hexagonal vessels. These two specimens the author refers to anew species, Sigillaria vascularis. The third specimen differs from the others in the absence of the thin radiating cylinder of barred vessels around the central axis ; this he terms Lepidodendron vasculare. Microscopical pre- parations and photographs of sections were supplied by the author. 72 THE GEOLOGIST. 3. “Supplemental Notes on the Plant-beds of Central Asia.” By the Rey. S. Hislop. Ina Letter to the Assistant-Secretary. Mr. Hislop, in noticing the discovery of more remains of plants, insects, and fishes at Kota on the Pranhita, stated that he certainly now thought that the ich- thyolitic beds of Kota (probably Lower Jurassic in age) are higher in rela- tive position than the plant-sandstone of Nagpur, which, with the Sironcha sandstone underlying the Kota limestone, belong to the Damuda group. He remarked also that, in his opinion, the Teniopteris of Kampti would prove that the Damuda and Rajmahal groups cannot be widely separated. NOTES AND QUERIES. Mammuarian Rematns.—Fractured bones of Bos primigenius have been found on the road between Kelvedon and Coggesham, Essex, by W. H. Thelwall, Esq., who has submitted them to me for identification.—Yours faithfully, CHarLes Carter BraKe. Fosstt Cocoons or Lrerecures.—Dr. Gergens, of Mayence, has lately suggested that the so-called fossil eggs of snakes, found in some of the freshwater deposits of Germany, may be fossil cocoons of leeches (N. Jahrb. 1861, p. 670). Under these circumstances it may be worth while for those who possess specimens of the egg-like bodies found in the freshwater strata of the Isle of Wight (and which have been thought to be either coprolitic or the eggs of Bulimus, or of freshwater tortoises), to re-examine them, and compare them with the sponge-like oval cocoon of the common leech. Mr. F. E. Edwards figures several of these oviform bodies in his Mono- graph on the Eocene Gasteropods, published by the Palzontographical Society.— Hirvpo. HampsuHiré Bastn.—S1r,—Would you kindly solve the following ques- tions for me, to which [have not been able to find any satisfactory answers in the text-books which are commonly available ? 1. What was the extent of the Hampshire Basin; and when did the up- heaval of the present range of chalk hills to the north and west take place; and did the sea, which covered the present New Forest district, ever wash against these latter ? 2. When did the severance of the line of chalk between Ballard Head, = oo and St. Christopher’s Cliff,in the Isle of Wight, take place} 3. Could the following animals be said to be coexistent at any period of the Middle Eocene formation (and what ?),— Dichodon cuspidatus, Hyeno- don, Paloplotherium annectens, and Spalacodon ? 4. What was the climate of the country when the freshwater deposits took place at Hordell >—Your constant reader, W. B. H., Lymington. 1. The Hampshire basin was not an isolated area, but continuous with the London basin; the deposits in the two areas differing according to depth of sea, presence of rivers, etc. The uprise of the chalk hills took place probably during some portion of the Pliocene period. The New Forest district, as now existing, has been covered either by the sea or by a lake in the Pleistocene period. 2. In the Pleistocene period. 3. Yes; during the Middle Eocene period Paplotherium, Paleotherium, and others, existed with Hyenodon, in the western European area. 4. Probably much warmer than at present—subtropical. NOTES AND QUERIES. 73 Norrce or Human Remains 1n Connwatu.—Dear Sir,—While read- ing the Autobiography of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, I met with the following passage in one of her letters, which, as bearing on a most in- teresting subject at the present time, deserves to be further investigated by those of your readers who reside near the place mentioned, in order to discover the truth of her statement. In describing her journey from Truro to Falmouth, she says, “‘ Near Gwennap is a place worth seeing, called Carnon Stream Works. Instead of mining for tin, they here direct streams over the sides of the hills, so as to wash down the loose tin, which is here termed ‘stream tin.’ Here have been found many interesting antiquities,—a pickaxe made of elk’s- horn, flint arrow-heads, and human skeletons,—buried beneath several strata (alternately of fresh-water and marine shells), twenty-four feet from the present surface of the ground.” This was written in 1825. Yours truly, R. D., Berwick-upon-Tweed. Tue Coat Trape.—The total shipments of coal foreign and coastwise last year are estimated at 19,161,615 tons, as compared with 18,159,488 tons in 1860, and 17,218,972 tons in 1859. Newcastle last year shipped 1,916,588 tons of coal and 128,773 tons of coke oversea, and 2,345,017 tons of coal and 20,972 tons of coke coastwise ; Sunderland, 1,023,495 tons of coal and 39,319 tons of coke oversea, and 1,881,299 tons of coal and 268 tons of coke coastwise ; the Hartlepools, 595,674 tons of coal and 18,566 tons of coke oversea, and 1,402,258 tons of coal and 6,508 tons of coke coastwise ; Liverpool, 650,106 tons of coal and 9,582 tons of coke oversea ; - Cardiff, 1,123,557 tons of coal and 5,153 tons of coke oversea, and 880,961 tons of coal and 7,976 tons of coke coastwise; Swansea, 411,377 tons of coal and 1,398 tons of coke oversea, and 190,612 tons of coal, 53 tons of coke, and 51,902 tons of culm coastwise ; Newport, 213,585 tons of coal and 22 tons of coke oversea, and 711,225 tons of coal and 2,040 tons of coke coastwise ; Shields, 56,589 tons of coal and 2,133 tons of coke oversea, and 23,746 tons of coal coastwise ; Blyth, 147,440 tons of coal oversea, and 133,065 tons of coal coastwise; Seaham, 60,837 tons of coal oversea, and 620,465 tons of coal coastwise ; Middlesborough, 106,506 tons of coal and 37,159 tons of coke oversea, and 198,958 tons of coal and 3,082 tons of coke coastwise; Hull, 129,849 tons of coal and 422 tons of coke oversea, and 10,262 tons of coal coastwise; Llanelly, 106,376 tons of coal and 4,797 tons of coke oversea, and 262,201 tons of coal and 11,922 tons of culm coast- wise; Glasgow, 81,171 tons of coal and 1,542 tons of coke oversea; Port Glasgow, 16,852 tons of coal oversea; Greenock, 65,245 tons of coal and 899 tons of coke oversea; Grangemouth, 71,045 tons of coal and 377 tons of coke oversea ; Alioa, 58,635 tons of coal and 37 tons of coke oversea, and 9,334 tons of coal coastwise; Whitehaven, 2,498 tons of coal oversea, and 182,146 tons of coal and 1,203 tons of culm coastwise; Maryport, 374,801 tons of coal and coke coastwise; St. David’s, 55,898 tons of coal oversea, and 5,166 tons of coal coastwise ; Ardrossan, 35,800 tons of coal oversea, and 79,906 tons of coal coastwise ; Charlestown, 60,305 tons of coal over- sea, and 53,632 'tons of coal coastwise; Inverkeithing, 24,499 tons of coal oversea, and 8,295 tons of coal coastwise ; and Borrowstonness, 28,645 ton- of coal and 234 tons of coke oversea, and 53,476 tons of coal coastwise. TortLe: Remains In THE Upper Greensanpd.—The phosphatic noduies of the Upper Greensand of Cambridge are well known to geologists from their extensive commercial use in the manufacture of super-phosphate of lime for agricultural purposes. The nodules have been secreted in or around various organic remains, many of which, such as the bones, were often, probably, broken up before the concretion of the phosphatic matter VOL. V. L 74 THE GEOLOGIST. around them, and both they, and the nodules subsequently, have appa- rently been not uncommonly subjected to a considerable amount of rollmg and degradation. Numerous kinds of shells are common in these nodules, as are bones of pterodactyles and other reptiles. Our attention has lately been drawn to very numerous fragmentary remains of turtles, consisting chiefly of the crania and lower jaws, with numerous fragments of the cara- pace, ribs, and many vertebre. The predominance of the skulls and lower jaws in the collection we refer to, which was made by Mr. Farren, of Cam- bridge, and has just been purchased by Mr.-Gregory, is probably the mere accidental result of the collecting of what might be deemed saleable speci- mens, or that these portions being the most readily recognized, attracted attention, while the other fragments of the limbs and body, more ob- scure in their aspect, were left in nodule-heaps.. Professor Owen has made out distinctly, not less than four species, namely,—Chelone sulcimentum, C. altimentum, C. uncimentum, and C. depressimentum. But the point to which we want to draw attention is, the district and the land-shores on which these turtles lived. The Upper Greensand is a marine deposit, and the beds at Cambridge seem closely allied to the grey chalk, especially as that member of the cretaceous group appears developed in Kent and Sussex, and therefore should have been formed under some considerable depth of water. Now all the Cheloniz are of littoral habits, and as these greensand- nodules, like the phosphate-nodules from the Gault and Lower Greensand, and all the other deposits from which we have seen them, frequently have oyster and other shells attached to them, it would seem that they had been brought to a hardened state before they were imbedded in the strata where we now find them. We ought therefore to look to some of the older for- mations as the land whose coasts they inhabited. The turtles of the Wealden have never been properly collected, and it is with a view to inducing some one to take up the search for them and their comparison with these Upper Greensand fragments, that we have pub- lished this note; for to the Wealden lands @ priori, it is that we should be inclined to turn for the shores on which these ancient turtles lived, and from which their concreted remains were probably washed down by the tides and currents into the lower depths of the Wealden sea, where some portions of the Upper Greensand were contemporaneously being deposited. Fossitn FratHer.—From the lithographic stone of Solenhofen, in Bava- ria, Hermann von Meyer has obtained a fossil impression of a feather, on the two opposite surfaces of a split slab. This he cannot distinguish from the feather of a bird. This interesting relic will be described and figured in the ‘‘ Paleontographica.” Devonian Fosstts.—Errata. In the title, for Geological read Geo- graphical. Page 19, line 14, for Devonshire read Devonian. Page 20, line 14, for era read area. Page 20, line 5 from bottom, for Table IV. read Table V.-W. PENGELLY. FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. Professor Schreetter communicated to the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna, on the 17th October, that a litha-mica, containing more than three per cent. of rubidium, cesium, and lithium, has been lately found in Saxony, and that samples of it had been sent to Professor Bunsen, at Hei- FOREIGN CURRESPONDENCE. 75 delberg. Mr. Seybel, the owner of an extensive chemical manufactory at Liesing, near Vienna, has lately procured a large quantity of lepidolite from Rozena, Moravia, and of lithium-mica from the Zimwald, Bohemia, for the preparation of the three metals above-mentioned. From the re- sults of Professor Peters’ recent examination of the miocene strata of Hidas, in southern Hungary, and from the observations made by M. Hant- ken on the foraminiferal strata in the Cerithian limestone series, near Buda-Pesth, there appear additional proofs of the existence, in Hungary, of marine deposits containing a fauna analogous to that of the Cerithian strata in the older marine deposits of the Vienna basin.* Dr. Lorenz has given the following information regarding the Gulf of Quarnero :*—“ This gulf, situated at the north-east end of the Adriatic, between the Illyrian and Hungarian shores, a square degree in extent, re- ceives uniformly cold freshwater currents, which impart to the waters of the gulf a temperature below the average of that of the Adriatic. The at- mospheric currents affecting it are either regular or casual; among the latter the ‘Bora,’ coming from the north, after having passed over the south Alpine ranges, is remarkable for its impetuosity and low temperature. The difference between high and low water, as observed during five succes- sive years along the whole coast from Quarnero to Lesina, does not exceed a foot and a half. The tide rises only once in twenty-four hours, loses two days every month, and does not seem to be more influenced by lunar phases than by winds or other transient causes. The drift-currents depend chiefly on the atmospheric pressure and currents obtaining within the nar- row channels separating the islets from cach other; and, by taking into account the existing meteorological condition, they may be easily known and foreseen; a great advantage to the vessels navigating this small archi- pelago. “The vegetable organisms in the Quarnero are distributed among one super-littoral and four marine zones, having their maxima at the respective depths of $, 8, 20, and 45 fathoms. The higher these zones the more they number new forms and bear a characteristic type. ‘The Diatomacee, ana- logous in this respect to the animal organisms, follow a different rule of distribution, their new forms becoming more numerous with increasing depth. The habitats of nearly 600 species of Alg@ (among which are above 300 Diatomacee) have been ascertained. “ The 700 animal species (Infusoria excepted) which have been observed in the Quarnero (the greatest depth of which is not above 50 or 60 fathoms) differ in their distribution from the vegetables ; the maxima of their sub- marine zones having the depths of 3, 4, 15, 30, and 50 fathoms. “The organic character of the Adriatic shores is different from the fa- cies of other less cireumscribed seas, chiefly in consequence of its anomalous tides ; a circumstance to be specially considered if ever artificial oyster- breeding should be intended, such as already exists on the Atlantic coasts of France under quite different physical conditions.* * A small colony of ‘ Boreal’ forms, characterized by the presence of Nephrops Norvegicus, has taken possession of the depths wherever springs of cold freshwater, rising from the bed of the Gulf, bave afforded them fa- vourable conditions of existence. If compared with other marine faune, the fauna of the Quarnero shows notable differences only in its higher zones. At 30 fathoms depth it is nearly identical with the Baltic fauna of the same zone; and at 50 fathoms the faune of all European seas may be regarded as being quite uniform in character.” * Proceed. Vienna Imp. Acad., Oct. 10,1861. Proceed. Imp. Acad. Sciences, Vienn®, 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. Gariccech 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 com- 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 light; 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 fabrie, 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, hke gigantic obelisk spikes, as the lone and inaccessible 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? For a number of proofs show | | — eS lo REVIEWS. TT 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 (Gaisen) 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 like 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. Gmneiss 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 Schreckhérner, and Grindelwald Viescherhorner in the Bernese Alps, the whole southern wall of the Bergell in the Grisons, ete., 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 anda half hours. The nearer one approaches to the sum- mit, the more do the vast rock ruins accumulate, piled wondrously over eack 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 once 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 Finster 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 Blane, 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 tier 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 im- 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 is 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, mpcccy., 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 sciencé 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 Crate 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 crétacées 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, n.s. ; P. tuberculosa, n. s.; P. planissima, n.s.; P. fusiformis, n.s.; Fusus Noeggerathi, n.s.; Fusus glaberrimus, Mill.; Buccinum supracretaceum, n.s.; Voluta deperdita, Goldf. ; Voluta corrugata, n.s.; V. Debeyti, n.s. ; Imbricaria Limburgensis, n.s.; Cyprea Deshayesii, n.s.; Natica patens, n.s.; lV. ampla,n.s.; N. Royana, D’Orb.; N. fasciata, Goldf. ; NV. cre- tacea, Goldf.; N. spissilabrum, n.s.; Chemnitzia clathrata, n.s.; Ceri- thium tuberculatum, u.s.; C. tectiforme, u.s.; C.alternatum, n.s.; C. pli- ciferum, n.8.; C. maximum, n.s.; Nerinea ultima, n.s.; Aporrhais Lim- burgensis, n.s.; Turritella quinquecincta, Goldf.; 7’. plana,n.s.; T. Oma- liust, Mill.; 7? sinistra, n.s.; T. nitidula, n.s.; T. conferta, n.s. ; T. Falcoburgensis, n.s.; Vermetus clathratus, n.s.; Scalaria Haidin- gerti, n.8.; Solarium cordatum, n.s.; Xenophora onusta, n.s.; Nerita Montis Sancti Petri, n.s.; N. rugosa, Heninghaus; N. parvula, n.s. ; Turbo detritus, n.s.: T. bidentatus, n.s.; 7. Strombeckii, n.s.; T. rimo- sus, n.s.; T. granose-cinctus, n.s.; T. clathratus,n.s.; T. rudis, n.38.; 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 fisswroides, Bosquet; E. Muelleriana, Bosq.; FE. supracretacea, De Ryck.; EH. conica, n.s.; EH. Dewalcquii, nu.s.; EH. radiata, n.s.; EF. Hevenii, n.s.; HE. depressa.n.s.; E. clypeata, n.s.; Hipponyx (Capulus) Dunkerianus, Bosq.; Patella parmapharoidea, u.s.; Acmea levigata, n.s.; Siphonaria antiqua, n.8.; Dentalium Nystii, n.s.; Acteon granu- lato-lineatum, nu. s.; Avellana gibba, n.s.; Avellana ventricosa, nu.s.; Tur- binella supracretacea, n.8.; T. plicata, n.s.; Cancellaria ? reticulata, n. s.; Pyrula nodifera, n.s.; P. parvula, n.s.; P.? plicata, n.s.; Fusus lem- niscatus, n.8.; F. squamosus, n.8.; F. formosus, n.8.; 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, n.s. ; NV. Bronnii, n.s.; Cerithium novem-striatum, n.s.; Turritella Ciplyana, n.s.; Solarium Kunredtense, n.s.; Turbo inflexrus, n.s.; T. scalari- Sormis, n. 8s.; T. Herklotsii, n. s.; T. granuloso-clathratus, n. s.; T. 80 THE GEOLOGIST. Zekellii, n. s.; Haleotis ? antiqua, nu. s.; Emarginula Kappi,n.s.; Ac- teon cinctus, n.s.; Acteonella, sp. All these, it will be seem, are new, except about a dozen described or quoted by Goldfuss, Heeninghaus, 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, Emarginula, Scalaria, ete.; but others, such as the Volula, Pyrula, Cancellaria, Solarium, Vermetus, Turbinella, etc., 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 (A. antiquus) is recorded from the Oxfordian beds of Christian Malford and from Trowbridge in Wiltshire. It 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 easts 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. Ss oF. EMb. L “4 eo, / eae APSE RAW PARK, vu) tae \ + SE Wor. = New YORK. ry. jd ; ir A A Sy _ — fi $\ y oe LAWS - PLATE V. PITHECUS FONTANT. DRYO t’s Original Figures. ] om M. Larte (Fr Side view of Jaw. Figs. 1 and 2. Jaw in three pieces (top view). 3. THE GEOLOGIST. MARCH 1862. FOSSIL MONKEYS. By CHartes 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, and the 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, it 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 “ derivative” theories propounded by Darwin or Lamarck, In venturing upon this field of error, doubt, and confusion, I wish dispassionately to endeavour to divest myself of any adherence to any Humerus of Dryopithecus 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. V. 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. i Catarrhini (Old World Monkeys) | | Dryopithecus Fontani ......... =x Tha ® — France : Gers. Phopithecus antiquus ......... mat) ee — France: Gers. Mesopithecus Pentelicus ...... +52 | = Greece: Pikermi. Mesopithecus major ad * Greece: Pikermi. Semnopithecus magnus ...... =a — - India: Sewalik. Semnopithecus sp.............05: — — - India. Semnopithecus monspessulanus; — — = France : Montpellier. Macacus pliocenus............... = = = Engl.: Grays, Essex. Eopithecus Colchesteri ......... ws — — | Engl.: Kyson, Suffolk. Platyrrhini (New World Monkeys) Protopithecus Brasilieusis...... = = + Brazil. Cebus macrognathus............ as — > Brazil. Callithrix primeevus ............ — — . Brazil. Jacchus grandis.,...... .......4. oes — = Brazil. It is worthy of remark that no fossil species of Strepsirhine Qua- drumana, or Lemurs, has hitherto been discovered ; but when we re- flect 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 favour 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 pliocene. 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 (J/ycetes) which are still found in the same locality. The Sapajou (Cebus macrogna- thus), the Sagouin (Callithrix primevus), 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 Aacacus 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 (Macacus 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. A third Semnopithecus is found in the pliocene sands at Montpellier. In the miocene beds of Pikermi, at the foot of Penteli- con, in Greece, are to be found the remains of two species of Aleso- pithecus, a genus which Professor Wagner considers as intermediate between Hylobates and Semnopithecus; but Professor Owen has pointed out that the third lobe of the last molar is as well developed in Mesopithecus as in Semnopithecus. Hitherto we have only had to deal with tailed monkeys, mostly of small dimensions, and not differing much in type from those of the present day. Evidence has however been afforded to us of the occur- rence of two forms of fossil Gibbons (Pliopithecus and Dryopithecus), one of which has been regarded by more than one distinguished natu- ralist as approaching nearer to the human type than even the Gorilla. The illustrious Sir Charles Lyell has stated “ that in anatomical struc- ture, as well as in stature, the Dryopithecus came nearer to man than any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, before known to zoolo- St THE GEOLOGIST. gists.” Professor Owen’s examination however of the plates figured in M. Lartet’s memoir* has led him to a very different conclusion. Stress has been laid upon the inferior size of the canine in Dryopt- thecus, compared with the Chimpanzees, Gorillas, and Orangs, as in- dicating its affinity to man; but the inferior monkeys also often exhibit this character, and “it is by no means to be trusted as sig- nificant of true affinity, even supposing the sex of the fossil to be known as being male.’”’t The characters in which Dryopithecus approaches to the lower form Hylobates are,—the cylindric form of the humerus; the verticality of the forepart of the jaw; the shape of the forepart of the coronoid process, slightly convex forwards, causing the angle which it forms with the alveolar ‘border to be less open than in Man, the Gorilla, and Chimpanzee, and the mode in which the molar teeth are developed. Professor Owen sums up by stating,—‘ There is no law of correla- tion, by which, from the portion of jaw with teeth of the Dryopithecus, can be deduced the shape of the nasal bones and orbits, the position and plane of the occipital foramen, the presence of mastoid and vaginal processes, or any other cranial characters determinative of affinity to Man; much less any ground for inferring the proportions of the upper to the lower limbs, of the humerus to the ulna, of the pollux to the manus, or the shape and development of the iliac bones. All those characters which do determine the closer resemblance and affinity of the genus Troglodytes to Man, and of the genus Hylobates to the tailed monkeys, are at present unknown in respect of the Dryopithecus.” As regards Pliopithecus, no doubts can exist as to its affinity with Hylobates. We have thus amongst the fossil species of Stmiade no form sufii- ciently allied to Man to have served as his ancestor; no form which approaches so near to him as the Gorilla or Chimpanzee. The theory which would identify man as the descendant of any of these existing species has been often and satisfactorily disproved. The analogy of the genesis of the whole human race to the genesis of each particular individual is obvious. Knowledge is denied to each of us how we came, from what we came, whence we came, whither we go. The feeble and obscure light of analogy seems to im- dicate an origin analogous to that of all animals—the cell. Through * Comptes Rendus Acad. Scienees, Paris, vol. xliii, + Owen on Gorilla, Proce. Zool. Soc. 1859. PEATE Wa. PLIOPITHECUS ANTIQUUS. (From M. Lartet’s Original Figures.) Fig. 1. Top view of Jaw. 2. Side view (nut. size). 3. Side view of Jaw of recent Gorilla. (Seale 4 linear.) BLAKE—FOSSIL MONKEYS. 85 what ancestry man may have been derived from such primordial form he knows not. Suffice it to say that it is neither to Gorilla, to Koo- loo Kamba, to Orang, to Dryopithecus, nor to any known recent or fossil ape he can claim his descent. But the mind of the paleontologist, still aiming at a solution, re- ealls the hideous ape-like character of the Neanderthal man, and strives to divest himself of the idea that this frightful being belonged to the same race as himself. Demonstration is lacking of the mode by which even so low and degraded a type could have been derived from the apes. Whether demonstration will ever afford us such a solution is the object towards which Anthropologists, Zoologists, and Geologists are directing their best endeayours,—with what success remains to be seen. GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF FosstL MONKEYS, Strata. Europe. Asia, America. | Africa. Australia. Pleistocene :— | Historical .| Man Man and Man /Man and | Man | Orangs. /Chimpan- | | | Zees. Prehistorical.) Man Man ? “—~,4 : | © a] Pliocene . .| Macacus Protopithecus S| 2 | Semnopithecus Cebus | 2 S | Callithrix 2 | hy Jacchus ¥r “B | ciate eH Miocene . .| Dryopithecus Semnopithecus ee ) Pliopithecus ee 2 Mezopithecus | ma © | ‘o = Eocene. . .|Kopithecus | za / o Zi | When we view the skeleton of man, when we trace the points of difference between his form and that of the anthropoid apes, we are struck with the “all-pervading” unity of plan and “similitude of structure,—every tooth, every bone strictly homologous,’’—which is presented by these organs throughout their diversified adaptations. We can trace out in both the human jaw and that of the ape the same canine tooth: e. g. as the modified representative and homologue of the canine in Hyenodon, now subserving its duty in the gorilla as an almost carnassial laniary, now dwarfed in man into the semblance merely of a more conical incisor. In each bone of the metacarpals 86 THE GEOLOGIST. and metatarsals of Homo is seen a repetition of the same structure in Troglodytes. Few but those who have studied the subject with the anxiety of the practised observer, can appreciate the pleasure with which the morphological student detects in the gorilla skull a strue- ture, however trivial, which he has also found in man, even when he recognizes such an organ as the styloid process of the temporal in man in the angular termination of that “ ridge which extends from the ectopterygoid along the inner border of the foramen ovale in the Gorilla,’ such “styloid” being absent in the Chimpanzees, Orangs, and Gibbons, and probably in the fossil Dryopithecus. In every structure that shows on the part of the lower forms of man an ap- proach, either in degree or in kind, with a similar structure in the higher Quadrumana, the disciple of unity of descent finds a basis for his arguments ; whilst he who abides, and may be working out, a demonstration of the mode of origin of species, accepting the evidence of their origin by law, and the maintainer of the faith in special crea- tion, gives due weight to, and watches for the distinctions which limit the sub-class Archencephala. GEOLOGY OF CASTLETON, DERBYSHIRE. By Joun Tayior, F.G-S. Now that the “season” is fast approaching for field-work, a few remarks concerning the geology of the above locality will doubtless be acceptable to many of our readers: Such of them who ma have broken ground on it will remember with pleasure its beautiful scenery and the peculiar charms which attract the naturalist to it. That it is interesting in more respects than a merely geological one, is shown by the botanists who wander there in search of rare and beautiful plants, and the antiquarian who finds in its old keep and other more ancient relics sub- jects for thought. Above all “ Moultrassie Hall” and “ Pe- veril Castle’? hold an _ ho- ~~ noured place in our literature =~ enshrined by the genius of Scott. The flora of the locality is particularly interesting, es- pecially that of the lower class. Maidenhair, spleenwort, and rue-leaved spleenwort gow upon almost every wall; and the cystopteris in several species 1s also common, whilst the adder’s-tongue and the little moonwort are exceedingly plentiful Fig: 1.—The “ Peak” Cavern. TAYLOR—GEOLOGY OF CASTLETON, DERBYSHIRE. 87 in the richer pastures. The number of mosses is exceedingly great. The beautiful Bryum dendroides and others abound in the moister spots of the Cave Dale. In fact, the botanical character of the vege- tation hereabout is so peculiar to the three formations which are found as to form a geological map to the underlying rocks, coloured by nature herself! The limestone clothed with its short and beautiful carpet of green; the black shales of the Yoredale rocks covered by their stunted and brown vegetation; and the millstone-grit in the glowing summer-time quite purple with the flowers of the heather. And for land shells no other locality can compete with it. From the robust Helix aspersa to the diminutive Pupa numerous species in- tervene; some of them, such as Clausilia and Pupa, being more nu- merous in individuals than any other place that I have visited. But to the geologist the rocks present treasures of fossils most beautifully preserved. I have found the Zerebratula hastata retaining its purple colour-bands as beautifully as when alive in the carboni- ferous seas; and in some places every slab that is turned up is matted with Retepora and Fenestrella. Coming here from Manchester, along the new road from Chapel-en-le- Frith, the first place where we meet with the limestone is about a mile and a half distant from the town. This hill, Trecliff, is about six hundred feet in height, and the dip of the beds is about 25° in a direction N.N.E. It is in this hill that the “ Blue John” mines are situated; and is the only locality in the country where this peculiar mineral is met with. It lies in “ pipe-veins,”’ having the same inclination as the rocks which the veins traverse. One of these veins lies in a sort of clayey stratum, and another seems to be imbedded in the nodule state in a mass of indurated débris. Besides these, the whole of the limestone masses are fractured and cracked, and, in addition to the pipes, the sides of the cavities are lined with the most perfect and beautiful sky- blue cubes of fluor, and the rhombic crystals of calcite. I remember scarcely anything with greater pleasure then an adventure in search of minerals a year or two ago, in one of these caverns, which was richly rewarded. Witherite, fluor-spar, varying in colour from trans- parency to rose, blue, violet and other colours, selenite, and occa- sionally phosphate of lead, are all found in the lead-mines of the neigh- bourhood. Some varieties of calespar have the property of double refraction, like Iceland spar. Nearly all the characteristic fossils of the carboniferous limestone abound, as may be seen by glancing at the names of the localities given in Professor Phillips’s ‘Geology of Yorkshire. The richest localities for obtaining them is just below the “Blue John cavern,” and in the gorge at the back of the town, which goes by the name of the Cave Dale. In geologizing along the side of Trecliff hill, one cannot but be struck with the various groups of fossils which the different beds present. The lower beds contain great quantities of Phillipsia—heads, carapaces, etc., being very frequently met with, and occasionally they are found whole. Just as we should have expected from knowing that the family of Trilobites died out with the moun- 88 THE GEOLOGIST. tain limestone, as we continue our researches higher up in the beds we find their remains becoming more scanty, until at the top they are exceedingly rare. One bed is rich in zoophytes, another in goniatites, whilst another is composed of the broken fragments of Sanguino- laria, and the whole of the beds contain numbers of Spirifer imbricatus, which connects them like a huge bracket from top to bottom. Some rare geologizing may be had along the lower beds; almost every stroke of the hammer lays open something novel. The remarkable fissures which occur in the limestone of Derbyshire have afforded matter of speculation to the curious for centuries ; the most remarkable one is called the Winnats, and is about a mile dis- tant from Castleton. It gives rise to the most sublime scenery, for the fissure is caused by the splitting of a hill in twain, and the steep precipices on either hand for the distance of a mile and a half, resem- ble the ruins of old towers and buttresses, in some places clad wita ivy, and tenanted by bats and owls. Another such fissure is at the back of the town, and has been already referred to. In some places the passage at the bottom of this is not above three yards in width, and is much of a character, in other respects, with the Winnats. Much speculation has arisen as to the origin of these rents ; they occur at nearly right angles to the line of strike, and have doubtless been | formed in the first instance by the upheaval and desiccation of the rocks, thus :— Subsequent to this they have been worn and channelled by at- mospheric and aqueous action. They have been attributed to plutonic agency, but it needs little geological knowledge to see that the above theory is the true one. Along the lower beds in the Cave Dale there is another good spot or two for the geologist. Here are found numbers of trilobites, some quite entire; groups of the entomostra- can Cythere, and that rare fossil the Cyclas radialis. One bed seems quite a nest of Plewrorhyncus armatus, although they are very fra- gile and require great care to extract them with the cone entire. Plutonic action has not been absent in the neighbourhood, for at the top of this fissure are beds of greenstone, and an imperfectly columnar basalt, whilst the limestone around seems to be somewhat crystallized by the heat to which it has been subjected by the in- trusion. Old Mam Tor, the “Shivering Mountain,” in geological position lies just above the limestone. The shales which compose it are speedily decomposed by atmospheric agency, and hence have given rise to the popular name which the mountain bears. The inclination of its beds is E.N.E., and the intensity of their dip about 40°. These BOLLAERT NEW MASS OF METEORIC IRON. 89 beds can be traced through Hope on to Hathersege; and along the brook side, below Mam Tor, a good section is displayed, where they are seen abutting against the lower limestones. Along the stream at Hape good sections are also exposed, and they are seen in several places on the road to Bradwell. The bottom beds of the shales are intercalated with stony bands composed of the remnants of encrinite-stems and fragments of shells, and have been caused by the denudation of the limestone during their formation. The bottom shales are rich in Aviculo-pectens, Goniatites, Posidonia, etc., and the numerous iron-stone bands higher up the hill are rich in small gonia- tites, which are frequently found pyritized. The most striking peculiarity of these shales is the fact that about a couple of miles from Castleton, where they rest upon the limestone, the bitumen which has steeped them has also percolated and oozed out into the limestone, turning it quite black, as also the fossils which, when split open, are often seen to contain a little globule of bitumen. Here we see the decomposed remains of two subdivisions separated by a great gulf of time, mingling together, both testifying to the great law of death which has prevailed since the dawn of life. When the fossils of the limestone are cleft open, they are often seen to contain a little globule of bitumen. Do not all the labours of the geologist prove that death is as much a natural law as that of birth, and that creation has been concomitant with extinction, as with indi- viduals has been life and death ? NOTES ON A NEW MASS OF METEORIC [RON FROM THE CORDILLERA OF COPIAPO, CHILE, By Wm. Boruarrt, F.R.G.S., Cor. Mem. Univ. Chile and Amer. Ethnological Society, eéc. This was found by a muleteer, in June, 1858, when passing the Cordillera from Catamarca to Copiapo, and brought by him to the latter city. He took it to be a rodado, or piece of silver-ore that had been broken from a vein and rounded by being washed with stones, say in the bed of a river; but on its being examined by Dr. David Garcia (a pupil of Domeyko), at Copiapo, he pronounced it to be a mass of meteoric iron. Dr. D. Garcia is the manager of the “ Tran- sito”’ maquina or silver amalgamating works, and has this specimen in his possession. Mr. Ba Abbott tells me it is We considered a most inte- resting specimen, being so perfect (nota broken fragment), and whole, Meteorite from Copiapo. VOL. Y. a 90 THE GEOLOGIST. The mass is covered thickly with a series of shallow pits or depres- sions, about 1 to 3, of an inch deep. The spaces between the holes are bright like steel. Its weight is about 12 or 13 lbs. In consequence of finding a difficulty in fixing the position or po- sitions of the Atacama Meteorite in 1826, I gave Peine, Guanaquero, Chala, and two other spots north of Challa, all in the desert of Ata- cama; also Mifio, to the east of Mani, near the Peruvian and Bolivian boundaries. I tried to get across the desert in 1828, from the coast of the Pacific, in the hope of examining the localities of Guanaquero and Peine, near to one or other of which places I hoped to find the meteoric deposit. J was lest for awhile in the desert of Atacama, and had to return to the coast. Near to Toconao, north-east of Peine, was supposed by Sir W. Parish to be the spot; but in 1853, Dr. Philippi determined Imilac, a few miles south-west of Peine, to be the spot, or one of the spots of the fall of the Atacama Meteorite. A very large specimen from Atacama is in the possession of Domey- ko, in Santiago, in Chile; some others I have seen. as well as many small fragments which fell at Imilac ; as to my small specimen obtained in 1826, when I was in Tarapuca, it may or may not have been col- lected at Imilac.* The large specimen of the Atacama Meteorite deposited by me in the British Museum, I procured on the west coast in 1854. I have had some doubts as to whether Imilac ought to be given as the locality of its fall. I made this observation in my paper to the Meteorolo- gical Society, 1858, as to this specimen; the same will apply to a slice of meteoric stone in the same Museum, and that in the Museum of Practical Geology. The information I had was what I let the Bri- tish Museum have, that it (and others, one weighing over 50\bs.) were brought to Cobija by a muleteer, from “‘ somewhere to the east in the desert of Atacama, and it was thought there were several similar deposits in the track to Antofogasta.”’ These specimens have the external mechanical character of the Imilac specimens, but the metallic part is dark, as if much oxidized, and the earthy part is more crystalline. Nicol, in his ‘ Mineralogy,’ gives an analysis by Rivero of meteoric iron from “ Potosi :’’—iron, 90°24; nickel, 976 = 100-0. Domeyko gives for the Atacama one (Imilac) :—iron, 84:54; nickel, 8°24; co- balt, 1:14:; silica,0-16. From this difference of composition compared with that of the one from “ Potosi,” we may say that Imilac was not its place of deposit. I advert in my paper to the Meteorological Society to three stones found four leagues inland from Playabrava (23° 35’), two round and porous, the other porous, flat, and triangular. I suspect them to be meteoric (for they are said to be of “iron’’), and the locality they were found in, although near the latitude of Imilac, is much further to the west. Having disposed of these amygdalo-peridotic varieties, * I gave 23° 30’ S., 68° 50’ W. as the position of Dr. Reid’s specimens (which are were ol and there may be a doubt that they came from Imilac, which is in 23° 49’S., PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCTETIES. 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 8S.8.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.E. of Otumpa, and the iron spoken of here may be meteoric. In the ‘ Coleccion de Memorias Cientificas, 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. Grotoeicat Socrety 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 9$ 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. Heace 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. Since 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-Hole, 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 cave, filled with ossiferous loam, was exposed, and about 12 feet of its entrance cut away. In 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 bifurecates 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 (?), C. Dama (?), and Elephas primigenius 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 cave was filled with its present contents ovey by the ordinary operations of nature, not by any violent cata- clysm. february 5, 1862.—The following communications were read :— 1. “On some Volcanic Phenomena lately observed at Torre del Greco and Resina.”’ 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, 1861, 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 thana 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 E.N.E.-W.S.W. line, at a distance of about 600 métres E.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 Isodiametric 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 E. 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, ete., 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, e tet proceeding from the bottom of the sea and terminating towards the shore. Shore. » Sea-surface. The Deep. 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 in 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). Sandstone a mee rr Shalz Sand 7 Limestone < Sandy Limestore Sandstone and Shale < ———_ - SS Lume stome 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 isodiametrie system of iines 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 of 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 ; aud 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-éast which carried sediment over the submerged British area. GroLoeists’ Association.— 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 distinction 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. The 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 hiin, 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 of 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. Liverroot Groxtoeicat Society.—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.S. “A Brief Outline of the Geology of the country about Clitheroe, Pendle Hiil, and Bromley.” By G. H. Morton, F.G.S. MancuHester Geotoeicat Soorty.—December 31, 1861.—Mr. Pin- 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- city 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 East 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. 160. 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 opinion 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 dips a 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 striae, or two sides of the fault-vein, commonly called the * slippy partings,” point. If a down fault is met with, the direction is away from yous 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 affects 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. THe WHALES OF THE ANTWERP Crag 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- werp, and illustrated the subject by the interesting information he had ac- quired in a recent travel in Germany for the purpose of elucidating the history of the numerous fossil cetaceans that have been found in the soil of the environs of Antwerp. Drawing a comparison of the riches of the Musée Bourbon of Naples in its treasures of antiquities from Herculaneum and Pompeii, with the fossil treasures of Antwerp, he proseeded 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 human industry. 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 Rubens reposed at the bottom of the sea, we find numerous and incontrovertible vestiges # 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 complete ske- leton disinterred two years since at Lierre amongst bones of rhinoceros, ox, deer, horse, and hyena, belongs to this intermediate period.f .. . The North Sea had not then its present limits ; England had not yet, per- haps, been subjected to that terrible convulsion which violently separated 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 bones 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 days? 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 eyoking 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 beds of sand, have disappeared from owr 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 the 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 with these species, (See Aun. des Sc. Nat., 4me Série, t. xv., cah, iii.) + Scohy, ‘ Considérations sur les Ossements Fossiles découverts 4 Lierre,’ 1860; and * Bulletins de l’Académie Royale de Belgique,’ 2me Série, t. ix., No. 5. vou. V. 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 Sociefas or Communio Walmannorum, existed in the 11th century on the coast of France.ft 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.f “This explanation of the great naturalist, although generally accepted, does not, however, accord with facets. 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 Mysticetws—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,—Eschricht, 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 savané could not speak with exact knowledge of the Mysticetus, or of the Northern whale, because he had never seen a specimen. At the present time even there is uot 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 Icelandic manuscript of the twelfth century—B. (See also M. Reinhardt on the : gual whales, ‘Om Nordhvalen’ (Balena mysticetus, L.), in 4to, Kidbenhavn, * 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 ; and others again the Zubicinel/la,—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 Duteh 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 ;f 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.{ 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 historic period 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 A/ca impennis have undoubtedly completely disappeared. We are fortu- nately not altogether certain of the latter. It is believed that the Rythina Stel/eri, the singular sirenian of the Behring 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, ‘ Palaontologie Sued-Russlands,’ Helsinglors, 1559-60, p. 828. + ‘Comptes Rendus de Académie des Sciences,’ sitting July 12th, 1858. t ‘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 not 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, ‘ Eenige Bijsonderheden omtrent den Walrisch die den 5 November 1827 bij Ostende gestrand is,’ in Algemeine Koust en Letterbode, 1827, 2¢ vol. Vanderlinden, Bibl. Inéd. Nat. et Etrang., t. v., 1028.—‘ Bydragen tot de Natu- ralische Wetensch.,’ 4de deel, 1529.-—Messag. des Sciences, 1329. Du Bar, ‘ Osteogra- phie de la Baleiue,’ Bruxclles, 1828. 160 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. It is the Pterobalena 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 rostrata 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.f “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 woodcocks 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 stvanded 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 lis 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, from Greenland, formed a long time ago part of the collection of the Catholic University of Louvain. + Bulletin de l’ Académie, t; xxiv., No. 3. ¢ ‘Recherches sur la Faune littorale de Belgique (Cetacés).’ Mém. de l’Acad: Roy. de Belgique, t. xxxii. § Comptes Rendus, t. xlvii., July 12, 1858. , a a eee 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. Every 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, ‘ Mémoire sur le Delphinorhynque microptére échoué a Ostende,’ Bruxelles, 1839, in Mém. de |’Académie Royale de Bruxelles, t. xii. + Wesmael, Mémoires de ]’Académie Royale de Bruxelles, t. xiii., 1840. This skele- ton is deposited in the Brussels Museum. ¢ Eschricht, Comptes Rendus de l’Académie 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.{ 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 ancieuts do not mention it, and probably did not know the animal which produced it.{ 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, fogl. 331, ed. de Plautin, 1588, in-fol. § Ambroise Paré, 25e livre de ses Ciuvres. || Clusius in 1605. | Cuvier, Ossem., vol. v. p. 329. ** “Nederlandsche Oorlogen,’ 31te 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 it so 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 ? * 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 been, 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, 4 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 devolve 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 |’Hspace,’ 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 a Saint-Nicolas en 1859,’ Bull. de Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 2e série, t. viii. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 103 honour of having recognized the remains of these great animals 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.t 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 Museum had 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 sirayioadl > 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 Cetotherium.|| **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 fect above the present level of the seas.** “In spite of these inherent difficulties in the study of the fossil remains of cetacea, we have succeeded, however, in determining the greatest num- . oss 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 limbs—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 Dioplodon 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- cal regions. ‘Two 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.’ + ‘ Beschreibung einiger neu entdeckten Versteinten.’ + Cuvier, ‘Ossements [ossiles,’ t. v., premiere partie, p. 352 (4to edit.). § Hensche and Hagen, ‘ Ueber einen auf der kurischen Nehrung bei Nidden gefundenen Knochen,’ Schrift. der Phys. (con. Gesells. in Kéuigsberg, Jahr i., Heft ii. He gives a list of the cetaceans stranded in the Baltic, and notices several fossil cetaceans. || Eichwald, ‘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.* ‘‘ 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 Ku- 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 savants 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 4mammifer ; 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 l’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, Resultaéte Geol. Anat. und Zool. Unters. iiber das unter dem Namen Hyprarcuos 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. Sc. Nat. iii. série, vel. v. a : a ‘Ueber die fossile Reste der Zeuglodonten yon Nord-Ameriea,’ in-fol. erlin, ; 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 Miiller 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 Miller, in his 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, Miller 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 inconsternation! Whataloss! <A unique piece of such importance destroyed! They picked up directly the pieces with the greatest care, but what was the astonishment of the professor and those who surrounded him, when it was seen that the cochlea of the internal ear was exposed, showing its twist and spiral turns. An accident had transformed the bone of the ear into a fine anatomical preparation, and the demonstration of the nature of the animal was thus made. The Hydrarchos could only be a mammifer. “In Europe, a short time after, a paleontological discovery not less im- portant was made. Don Grateloup.. . discovered, in 1840, at Leognan, near Bordeaux, a fragment of the cranium, which he thought should be assigned to an animal belonging both to the fish and the reptiles, to which he gave the name of Squalodon !* ** Since then, the remains of similar or allied animals have been disco- vered at Lintz,t in Upper Austria, by M. Ehrlich; in the environs of Montpelier ; at St. Jean de Végas,t by Paul Gervais; and in Holland, in the province of Gueldres,§ by M. Staring. * Grateloup, ‘ Description d’un fragment de miachoire fossile d’un genre nouveau de Reptile (Saurien) voisin de lIguanodon,’ Bordeaux, 1 Mai, 1840; Actes de l’Acad. des Se. de Bordeaux, 2e année, 2e trimestre; De Blaiuville, ‘Ostéographie,’ t. vii. p. 44, 1840. Passing accidentally through Bordeaux that same year in company with the Viscount Felix de Spoelberch, on returning from a tour in the Pyrenees, I remarked to Dr. Grateloup that the Sgua/odon, instead of being a reptile or a fish, presented all the characters of a Mammifer allied to the dolphins, and I wrote on this point a letter from Bordeaux to M. de Blainville which the illustrious professor has reproduced in his * Ostéographie.’ + Ehriich, ‘ Eilfter Bericht titber das Museum Francisco-Carolinum,’ s. 13; Troschel’s Archiv, Jahresbericht, f. 1850, p. 82, Berlin, 1851 ; Carl Ehrlich, ‘ Ueber die nordéstlichen Alpen,’ Linz, 1850, p. 12; * Geognostiche Wanderungen ... Linz,’ 1856, p. 81; ‘ Die geognostische Abtheilung des Museums,’ p. 10; ‘ Beitrage zur Palaontologie,’ Linz, 1855, “8. i + Gervais, ‘ Paléontologie Frangaise.’ § Staring, ‘ Versteningen uit den tertiairen Jeem yan Eibergen en Winterswyk in Gel- derland,’ Bodem, van Nederland, ii. p. 216. M. Staring has recently made a re-survey of the localities where bones of the quaternary age have been discoyered: Apercu des Ossements fossiles de l’époque diluvienne, trouvés dans la Néerlande et les contrées voisines ; extrait des ‘ Bulletins et Comptes Rendus de !’Académie Royale des Sciences,’ vol. xii., Amsterdam, 1861. VOL. V, P 106 THE GEOLOGIST. “The Squalodon and the Zeuglodon evidently resemble each other in the singular conformation of their dental system. But what is the degree of their affinity? To what family do they belong? Or do they form a type completely lost ? and, in the case of an affirmative, what place ought to be assigned to them ? NG ‘These questions, and many others, wait for solution ; and it will be readily conceived what high value is attached to the discovery of some bones of the Sgualodon in the Crag of Antwerp. « We are fortunately now in possession of many important portions of the head, the extremity of the upper maxillary, the intermaxillary with its teeth, the posterior part of the palate, many fragments of the inferior maxillary, and other parts of the skeleton. «Lastly, to make out every possible part of these precious relics, the Government has, at the request of the Academy, commissioned me to visit the principal Museums of Germany and Austria; and we hope shortly to produce a work containing a reply to these different questions. The museum which most interested us in our last journey is the Vaterlandisches Museum of Lintz, which contains the most precious remains of the Squalo- don that are known. ‘They were deposited there by M. Ehrlich. Thanks to the intelligent and active care of that able naturalist, this Museum con- tains, moreover, other fossils of high interest from the basin of Lintz. “We have found there two much-broken portions of the cranium of the Sgualodon: knowing before the base of the palate, and possessing frag- ments of the jaws with the teeth, and moreover the upper maxillary, it was not difficult for us to reconstruct the head of this aquatic carnivore. The dental system of these animals is equally well known to us now, even to the principal differences the species present between each other,—at most only a doubt remains on the subject of one of the molars. “We will say a word on its characters. “The cranium is greatly depressed ; the parietals form a part o. the ce- phalic box, and the frontal bones extend regularly forward and over the side, without being folded back (vefoulés) by the nasal cavities, as in the true cetacea. The zyomatic arches are large, but incomplete. The teeth are of three kinds, but put on only two different forms; the incisors and the premolars are like the canines; six incisors are implanted in the bone of that name, and of these six incisors the two middle ones are directed for- wards in the direction of the axis of the body, not like the sword of the narwhal, but more like the great incisors of the shrew-mouse. The canines are succeeded by five simple premolars, regularly spaced ; then seven true molars with two fangs and a compressed and crenulated crown (chiefly on the hinder edge) complete this singular dental system. “ We have been able to convince ourselyes, also, from the tolerably perfect head of the Sqgualodon at Lintz, that, contrary to our anticipations, the nasal holes are directed from back to front, and differed in this respect from the existing blowing-whales. In the latter we know the cavity of the nostrils rises straight up, or even slightly backwards, and that it is this direction which permits their spouting perpendicularly their columns of water, or rather of vapour, from their nostrils. If we wished to figure the Squaledon as the dolphins are commonly represented, it should be drawn ejecting columns of vapour obliquely forwards, and not upwards. We endeavoured to profit, also, by our sojourn in Germany, in learning what were the other inhabitants of the sea which nurtured the Sgwalodon, in order to compare it with our Crag Sea. There is in the same Museum at Lintz a cranium of the highest interest in this comparative study. All the posterior portion is tolerably complete. It approaches closely by its size FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 107 to our commonest plesiocetes ; but, in the conformation of the drum of the ear, in characters of the fragments of the inferior maxillary which had not been recognized, as also by the vertebre from different regions of the body, this cetacean differed notably from all that the Crag Sea contained. We are able even to add, that it had nothing in common with the Ba- lenodon of Owen.* “The Balenodon of Lintz is rather a ziphioid, and we doubt much if the tooth which has been assigned to it belongs really to that animal. The tympanum of this pretended Balenodon indicates the existence of characters far removed from the whalebone-whales of the Crag, and ally it to the Hyperodon or the ziphioids. For the rest, we believe we have recognized, among the undetermined bones in the Museum of Lintz, fragments of the inferior maxillary remarkable for their height and their great flatness, and which leave hardly any doubt on the subject. Since our journey, this Balenodon has been designated in our manuscripts under the name of Az/locete, on account of the cranial furrow. “In the same sea of Upper Austria is found also a delphinoid which is unknown to science ; but unfortunately it is represented by a single tooth. ** In the fine Museum of Stutgart we have found yet two other remark- able cetaceans of the same sea, the Arionius servatus of H. von Meyer,f . . . and anew ziphioid that we hope soon to see described. The latter has the seven cervical vertebre isolated ; and the drums of the tympanum, still in place, are remarkable for their form, their large size, and, above all, for the great thickness of their solid walls. . . But of all the inhabitants of the seas of that age, undoubtedly the most interesting are the fossil sirenians known under the name of Halitherium. They inhabited the coasts, or rather the embouchures of rivers, which they could ascend some distance at need. To judge of them by the numerous relics found in dif- ferent localities, at Darmstadt amongst others, these strange animals in- habited in abundance the Sea of the Molasse, whilst the Crag Sea has not harboured any of their remains. In the present creation we see the sirenians chiefly in the tropical regions. The Senegal and the Amazon foster them abundantly. The finest skeleton known of the Ha- litherium is in the Museum of Darmstadt; it shows the pelvis and a femur, of which the extremity is lodged in a cotyloid cavity. We are pleased to learn that Dr. Kaup, by whose pains so many paleontological treasures have been connected together, proposes to model completely this important relic of the ancient world. The Sirenians lived together with the Squalodons in the Sea of Lintz; but it is probable that these bones at Darmstadt belong to individuals which had mounted high up the river, and which thus are found far from the other marine animals. It is pos- sible, also, that the waters below which these sands were deposited at Lintz and Darmstadt were brought by two opposing streams, like the Rhine and the Danube of the present day. . . All the bones at Lintz have been found in a thick bed of coarse sand, situated immediately below the quater- * Hermann von Meyer has described this head at Lintz under the name of Ba/eno- don Lintanus, believing these remains ought to be placed with those which Owen had found in the Crag. But what we do not comprehend is that this learned paleonto- logist has been able to find more affinity between the Ba/enodon and the Zeuglodon than between it and the Sgualodon. See also C. Ehrlich, ‘Geognostische Wanderungen,’ Linz, 1850, p. 83, pt. ii—iv.; ‘ Beitrage zur Palaontologie,’ Linz, 1855, p. 8. + H.von Meyer, Ariouatus Servatus, ‘Kin den Delphinen verwandtes Meeres Siuge- thier,” N. Jahrb. 1841, p. 315; ‘Paleeontolographica,’ vol. vi., Cassel, 1856-58, p. 31, pt. vi. 108 THE GEOLOGIST. nary strata, and known under the name of molasse. This molasse cor- responds, without doubt, chronologically with the Crag... “We will say in conclusion, that the Pompeii for us Belgian paleontolo- gists is the geological basin of Antwerp. There anew world reveals itself to the attention of naturalists. Marine forms there alternate with terrestrial, and the species of the Brussels basin, of which the remains have been so carefully collected by the intelligent perseverance of M. le Captaine Le Hon, had long disappeared, when the Crag Sea was peopled with its new and curious inhabitants. «To the fauna which has been buried in the clay of Boom and of Ru- pelmonde, and which is distinguished by its superb remains of marine turtles, succeeded a fauna of elegant cetaceans; after the appearance of these giants of the sea, the soil was prepared to receive the mammoth and tichorine rhinoceros,—to finish in that which alone could complete the grand work. Millions have been spent in clearing out ruins and passages; let us profit by the millions spent in the national defences and set our- selves to the study, not of temples and forums; but of sandy shores fre- quented of old by that old-world creation, so rich in variety of forms, so full of the power of primitive nature. « Let us found in the capital a Belgian museum, and unite our efforts to those of the Government to preserve in the same locality all the treasures of our soil. The galleries of the Belgian Museum should be spread beside the strata—those leaves of the grand book of our country, and the mineralogical and paleontological collections located with the actual fauna and flora; and by the side of these products of the soil should be shown the chefs-d euvre of art and the marvels of industry.’’* NOTES AND QUERIES. TRAVELLED Bovutpers.—In the January number of the ‘ Geologist,’ the editor states in his interesting article on “Some Fossil Fruits from the Chalk,” that it is one of the features of the Magazine, “‘ that matters not understood should be brought before the world in its pages.” ‘The follow- ing remarks, if they do not give information, may, at least, cause some in- telligent reader to answer certain questions regarding what have been termed travelled or scratched boulders. Sir C. Lyell, in his ‘ Principles of Geology,’ has given a map, showing the extent of surface in Europe which has at one period or another been covered by the sea since the commencement of the deposition of the older or Kocene Tertiary strata. In his interesting and valuable description of this map, he remarks that the researches of Mr. James Smith, of Jordan- hill, and others, among the northern deposits, enable us to discover the signs of a climate colder than tliat now prevailing. The Jordanhill here mentioned is a small estate in the neighbourhood of the city of Glasgow, not far from the river Clyde, and occupies a very small part of the area which can be proved by geological evidence to have been covered by the sea. The talented and highly respected proprietor above mentioned has published, in the Proceedings of the Geological Society, etc., descriptions of the arctic shells discovered by him when examining the till, or boulder- clay, on his estate and in the neighbourhood. The scratched or rounded travelled boulders found in the till at Jordan- * Bull. de Acad. des Sc. de Bruxelles. NOTES AND QUERIES. 109 hill give also, in my humble opinion, evidence of the existence, at one time, of a large mass of ice. The following sketch shows the strange manner in which granite can be smoothed and polished by natural causes. The sketch represents a granite boulder found several feet under the sur- face in the immediate neighbourhood of Jordanhill House, where it now lies not far from the garden-wall. The questions, What kind of force rounded this piece of granite, Does the fact that a portion of it—the vein almost in the centre—has not been removed, prove the said force to be ice P are questions not easily answered. The vein of quartz, a a, has been left un- ze touched by the force that has removed the granite 3) originally on a level with it, 6 6; the force that _p has done this appears therefore to have been too A) weak to cut the vein of quartz. A stronger force may have previously cut the vein, or, what is more likely, the force that was polishing this travelled boulder, has sent it into a groove or furrow, which has prevented the vein of quartz from being lessened so quickly as _ the granite on each side of it. I am inclined to imagine that this boulder and other similarly scratched boulders, brought to the surface in this neighbourhood, proves the exist- ence of stones carried along upon ice, called in Switzerland the “‘moraines”’ of the glacier. Sir C. Lyell asserts that “all sand and fragments of soft stone which fall through fissures and reach the bottom of the glaciers, or which are interposed between the glacier and the steep sides of the valley, are pushed along, and ground down into mud, while the larger and harder fragments have their angles worn off.” This quotation is taken from the last edition of the ‘ Principles of Geology. —P. 8. Whiteinch, Glasgow. PrerManency oF VeGetaste OrcGanisms.—The powder of a brick found on the site of the ancient Egyptian town of EHileithyix, examined under the microscope, proved to contain several fragments of animal and vegetable remains, among which those of eight species of plants were still in a state fit for specific Kaichakiaii, These eight species are in no way different from those at present growing and cultivated in Egypt and Nubia ; a proof that a period of 3500 to 4000 years (the probable age of the brick under examination) has passed away, without any notable change taking place in the climate and vegetation of Egypt. More extensive examina- tions of similar materials may be expected to throw new light on the former flora of this seat of ancient culture.—Pror. Unezr, Imp. Acad. of Science, ' Vienna, Jan. 9th, 1862. EartuHQquake PHEenomeNnNA.—Dear Sir,—It is with some reluctance [ venture to trouble you with an inquiry, but I know of no other from whom I could expect a reply which would be of equal value to me. 1. Suppose the direction of earthquake undulation were from east to west, would there be any probability of a valley or deep chasm being formed at right angles with the direction of the earthquake, z.e. from north to south P 2. Would it be probable that earthquake waves would run parallel with the mountain systems with which they were associated ? 3. Suppose an earthquake to emanate from a given point, would there be a tobability of its undulation extending in opposite directions from that point P—SusscriBer. 1. Earthquake undulations (7.e. shocks) are incapable of forming valleys or deep chasms, by their direct action, at all. Whatever chasms or fissures are produced are due to “secondary ac- 110 THE GEOLOGIST. tions ;’—viz. to land-slips, or dislocations of rocky masses by gravitation, operating upon shaken country. All such are in directions on the surface tending towards transverse of shock. 2. Earthquake shocks traverse furthest and most powerfully in the axial lines of mountain chains, and vice versa, by reason of the fact that in the former lines the rocky masses are most solid and homogeneous. 3. Every earthquake emanates from a centre, which is practically a point or line, or sma// area or surface ; and the waves of pulse, necessarily, are propagated in all directions outwards from such centre of impulse, therefore in opposite directions. Weshould suggest to our correspondent to study Mr. R. Mallet’s papers on, 1. ‘ The Dynamics of Earthquakes,” Trans. Roy. Irish Acad. 2. The article ‘‘ Earthquake Observations,” by the same author, in the ‘ Admi- ralty Manual.’ 3. Mr. Mallet’s first and subsequent reports on “The Facts of Earthquakes,” Trans. Brit. Association. EarTHQUAKE-SHOCKS were felt at Cosenza (Calabria Citerior) on the 14th October, and at Ravenna on the 16th October last. On the 29th, a water- spout passed over Rome, causing much damage; the day after there oc- curred a violent tempest, and the magnetic instruments were greatly agi- tated. M. Alexis Perrey, Professor at Dijon, who for many years has fur- nished an annual statement of the shocks experienced by our globe, has sent to the Royal Academy of Belgium, a new “ Note sur les tremblements de terre en 1859.” | ; PLEstIosaurus IN CuiLE.—A caudal vertebra of Plesiosaurus Chilensis has been transmitted to me for identification by W. Bollaert, Esq., F.R.G.S., from San Vicente, near Talcahuano, in the neighbourhood of Concepcion, Chile. This species was founded by Gay (Historia fisica y politica de Chile), on various vertebral bones, which were found at the small island of Quiriquina, off Cape Talcahuano, in the Bay of Concepcion. The vertebra from San Vicente appears to present no specifie difference from the Ple- siosaurus Chilensis of Gay. A fragment of paddle-bone was found in the same locality.—CuHarLEs Carter Buake. Savrorp Remarns.—Professor Agassiz, in a letter to Dr. Silliman,* describes some new Sauroid remains of very great interest, discovered by Mr. O. C. Marsh, a student of Yale College, from the coal-formation of South Joggins. These are two vertebre, which have excited Professor Agassiz’s interest in the highest degree. He says, “I have never seen in the body of a vertebra such characters combined as are here exhibited. At first sight they might be mistaken for ordinary Ichthyosaurus vertebre ; but a closer examination soon shows a singular notch in the body of the vertebra itself, such as J have never seen in reptiles, though the character is common in fishes; we have here undoubtedly a nearer approximation fo a synthesis between fish and reptile than has yet been seen. . . . The disco- very of the Ichthyosauri was not more important than that of these verte- bree ; but what would be the knowledge of their existence without the ex- tensive comparisons to which it has led? Now these vertebre ought to be carefully compared with the vetebre of bony fishes, with those of sauroid fishes, of selachians; of batrachians, of the oolitic crocodilians, of the newer crocodilians, of the ichthyosaurians, and of the plesiosaurians, and all their points of resemblance, and difference stated ; because I do not be- lieve there is a vertebra known thus far, in which are combined features of so many vertebre in which these features appear separately as character- istic of their type.” * Published in the ‘ American Journal of Science and Art.’ January, 1862. NOTES AND QUERIES. Tit New Canapran Lower Srtvurtan Fosstts.—Mr. Billings has described, in a bulletin recently issued (Montreai, November, 1861), the following new species from the Potsdam group (Primordial-zone), at Straits of Belle Isle, north-east coast of America :—Palazophycus incipiens, Archeocyathus atlanticus, A. Minganensis, Obolus Labradoricus, O. chromatica, O. cingu- lata, Conocephalites miser, Bathyurus senectus, B. parvulus, Salterella rugosa, S. obtusa, and S. pulchella.* From Vermont :— Paleophycus congregatus, Orthisina fistinata, Camerella antiquata, Conocephalites Adamsi, C. teucer, C. arenosus, and C. vuleanus. From rocks of the age of the Trenton, Chazy, and Black River Limestone :—Hospongia Roemerit, F. varians, Astylospongia parvula, Lingula Perryi, Lituites Fanisworthi, L. imperator, and Ampyx Halli. The new genera are Hospongia, Archeocyathus, Obolella,and Saltereila. The second includes small Brachiopods allied to Obolus (of Eichwald), but differing internally. ‘The fourth is for a group of small conical bodies, possibly Pteropoda, and related to Theoa, Morris, and Puginuculus, Bar- rande. CarBoniFerous Beps oF Dinant.—M. E. Dupont, a young naturalist, has collected an immense quantity of fossils from the carboniferous lime- stone of Dinant. His notice, communicated to the Belgian Academy, com- mences with the description of twelve localities, Celles, Hayont, Furfooz, Fossés, Freyr, Pauquys, Matignolles, Flavion, Corenne, Yves, Anseremme, and Awagne, and is accompanied by lists of the species most common in each locality. To it is appended a table showing the number of species met with in each of those localities, and the names of those which have been determined. Two hundred and seventy described species belong to 57 genera and 8 classes, and are from localities hitherto little known; while 255 others, belonging to 36 genera, are probably new species, by which our paleontological records will be enriched. The labours of M. Dupont, moreover, make apparent a very remarkable fact in Natural History, namely, the difference of the animal populations in very near localities at the same epoch, and on a ground-bottom of the same nature ; for although the author only occupied himself with a district not more than eight leagues square, and has confined his investigations to the calcareous rocks of one geological stage—the Calcaire de Tournay—each of these twelve sections presents a fauna with peculiar characters. , Duties or Minera AGrents.—Many works on the improvement of estates treat fully on agriculture and forestry, but all either wholly neglect or only cursorily touch upon the mineral resources. The ‘ Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science,’ for January last, contains an excellent article ‘‘On the Duties of Mineral Agents,” in which there is a variety of useful, practical information. The subjects treated are,— 1. The Mineral Agent’s Relations with the Mine-Lord. 2. Mineralogy. 3. Table of Characters of Ores. 4. Mining Geology. 5. Mineral Chemis- try. 6. Mine-surveying. 7. An Appendix containing Forms of Take- Notes, Mining-Leases, and Licenses, ete. Saurian Remains IN THE JurRA.—M. Chepard, one of the engineers of the railway now constructing in the vicinity of Poligny, has noticed in the ‘ Sentinelle du Jura,’ the discovery, in making one of the cuttings for the line, of the remains of a large Saurian, which, from the dimensions of the bones, he considers to have been from thirty to forty metres (?) in length. The remains consist of three claws of from eight to twelve centi- metres in length, several phalanges with fine articular surfaces, a part of * He has also identified from the same place, Scholithus linearis and Barrandia (vel Obolus) Thomsoni, and B, (v. QO.) Vermontana, 112 THE GEOLOGIST. — the tarsus and metatarsus, two vertebre, and various fragments. “These remains,” he says, ‘‘lay in the upper strata of the Keuper, visibly over- lapped by the Lias. This formation has hitherto been considered as de- void of organic remains in this country (France), where it contains gypsum and rock-salt. Nevertheless, some years ago, M. Pidancet, a geologist of the Franche-comté, found in these same strata large bones, which he depo- sited in the Museum of Besangon, and which he considers as belonging to the same species. A few months ago, while opening a ditch for the rail- road near Domblans, a similar fragment was found; and M. Lauckardt, one of the employés, has seen also at the same place other bones much larger, which he could not displace on account of their fragility. Mammattan Remarns.—M. Froment, the Mayor of Saint-Lothaire, has found bones of mammoth and deer in a bed of sand and marl contain- ing boulders of quartz and numerous fragments of terrestrial and freshwater shells. —‘ SENTINELLE DU JURA.’ Nopvutar Bopirs From THE Crac.—Sir,—Could any of your readers inform me as to what causes certain bodies of this shape in the . Red Crag of Suffolk ? I have met with them in great numbers along the cliffs at Bawdsey. They are made up of the same materials as the rest of the crag, but seem to be harder and contain more oxide of iron. They are hollow in the middle, and measure from an inch toa foot in length. Their origin, perhaps, is the same as the Sabella tubes mentioned in a former Number by Mr. Brent. They are exposed only by the action of wind and water on account of their superior hardness. I should be glad of any information concerning them, however small.—I remain yours, etc., VoLvTa. [We handed this query over to a correspondent, who pon- dered over the reply to be given on the origin of these mystical bodies until he fell asleep and dreamed that at a considerable outlay of time, trouble, and expense, he had submitted it to va- rious competent authorities, and by special trains, electric messages, etc., had been favoured with the following answers :— “Sponges,” J.S. B. “ Annelid-tubes,” J. W. 8. ‘ Cephalaspid tails,” G. E.R. “Casts of tree-roots,”’ C. B. ‘“ Lightning-tubes,” G. D. G. “ Effects of Water-spouts,”’ J.T. ‘ Klongate-ovate Crystalloids,” H.C.S. ** Alveoline,’” W.B. ©. ‘‘Ovoid bodies of Teredines,” N. T. W. “ Nests of Entomostraca.” T. R. J. ‘* Horn-cores of Bos,” H. F. ‘ Derived fos- sils from the Coal” and “Casts of bore-holes of Saxicava, in place,” J.M. ‘ Fossil wasp-nests,” I.O. W. ‘“Coprolite of a Gorilla,” R. O. “ Not a Coprolite of a Gorilla,” J. E.G. “ Cases of Caddis-worm (Phry- ganea Hercules),” H. T. 8S. “Joint of Cragocrinus,” E.W. ‘“ Foetal Whales,” T. H. H. “Casts of Swallow-holes,” J. P. “ Objects of Human Industry, such as rusty spikes, tenpenny nails, marling-pikes, sounding- leads, or such like,’ B..de P. ‘‘ Prochronic Tailor-birds’ Nests,” P. G. “ Darwinian Hau-de-Cologne Bottles,” F. W. H.] Grotoey Brizrty Expuainep.—The following admirable and succinct epitome of our science, in use by Professor King, at Queen’s College, Galway, will be found very useful by many of our younger readers, and for lecture purposes by our elder ones. Definition of the Science.—Geology (from ge, the earth, and logos, a dis+ course) treats of the nature and order of arrangement of the rocks composing the crust of the globe; of the physico-geographical changes which its surface has undergone ; and of the various plants and animals with which the lands and waters of by-gone periods have been tenanted, as well as the NOTES AND QUERIES. 1138 order of theircreation. (The last section is termed paleontology, from pa- laios, ancient, and onta, beings.) It is necessary to mention that geology throws no light on the origin of the world, or on the nature and state of the materials occurring beneath its crust, or on its condition anterior to the setting-in of ordinary physico- geographical agencies—those are hypothetical subjects. The following are some of the principal geological deductions :— 1. The rocks forming the known portion of the crust of the earth are of two kinds, as regards the origin of their present condition. One con- sists of masses which have been subject to a high temperature ; and the other of materials deposited by the agency of water. They are respec- tively termed Igneous and Aqueous. Principal Igneous rocks: granites, syenites, porphyries, diorites, felstone, basalt, obsidian, ete. Principal Aqueous rocks: limestones, sandstone, shale, slatestone, salt, gypsum, marl, chalk, ete. 2. The formation of Igneous and Aqueous rocks has been going on from an immeasurably remote epoch, and still continues, The existence of some kind of Igneous rocks in a refrigerated and con- solidated condition, anterior to the formation of Aqueous deposits, can only be hypothetically assumed. 3. Certain Igneous rocks, as granites and the like, extend, en masse, below the surface of the earth to unfathomable depths; and wherever ob- served in contact with Aqueous rocks, they form the foundation of the latter ; others, as basalts and lavas, have been ejected from great depths ; and they generally occur overspreading other rocks. The dopiiitie of the Igneous origin of granite and allied rocks has been much contested of late; there is little doubt, however, of their having been subject to a high temperature (see 6th deduction). 4. Aqueous deposits, occurring nearly everywhere, and often several thousand feet in thickness, have been derived from previously existing Igne- ous rocks, or from prior-formed deposits of their own class, through the me- chanical and chemical action of atmospheric agents, springs, rivers, lakes, and seas. In this way, huge mountain-masses have been worn ‘lown (de- nuded), and valleys excavated ; while their materials have been trans- ported to the mouths of rivers, or disseminated over the bottom of lakes and oceans. The remains of plants, corals, shells, and other organisms (fossils) frequently enter into the composition of Aqueous rocks: some- times beds are entirely made up of such remains. 5. Aqueous rocks, with few exceptions, have been slowly and gradually deposited in more or less horizontal beds (strata) ;—the order of superpo- sition of the beds being the order of their successive formation ; while their relative position denotes their relative period of deposition in the scale of geological time. 6. Subterranean heat and heated vapours, in many cases emanating from proximate igneous sources, have frequently penetrated deep-seated mane rocks, producing in them molecular re-arrangements, and a more or less crystalline structure, or a change of chemical composition ; thereby obliterating many of their original characters, and otherwise metamor- phosing them. List of Metamorphic rocks: gneiss, mica schist, hornblend schist, quartz stone, statuary marble, ete. Possibly all known Igneous rocks were originally Aqueous deposits that have been completely melted. The surface of the earth has repeatedly undergone both slow and sudden upheavals and depressions. The former movements have raised wide-spread horizontal beds from the bottom of seas, often several thou- VOL. ¥Y. Q 114 THE GEOLOGIST. sand feet above their original level, throwing them into high angles, as well as dislocating, fracturing, squeezing, and crumpling them: in this way, vast continents and mountain-chains have been formed. On the other hand, movements of depression have plunged beds far below their original level. Both kinds of disturbances have often been followed by extensive climatal changes, which have materially affected the life-system of our planet. : 8. Vegetable and animal life has existed on the earth during an im- mense and undefinable period. 9. The plants and animals, whose remains are entombed so frequently in Aqueous rocks, have in general lived while the deposits containing them were in process of formation. 10. Successive creations and extinctions of plants and animals have taken place ; so that, of the innumerable kinds (species) which have been in existence, only a comparatively small number is now living. 11. The life-system of our earth, in its various phases, has undergone ‘‘an advance and progress in the main,” REVIEWS. Works of Julius Schvarcz, Ph.D. 1. A Fajtakerdes Szinvonala hérom ér elétt. Pest, 8vo, 1861. 2. Foldtani Elméletek a Hellénségnél nagy sdndor Kordig. Pest, 8vo, 1861. 3. Recherches sur les Théories géologiques des Grecs. Mémoire présenté al Académie des Sciences. Vienna, 8vo, 1861. 4. Lampsacusi Strato, adalék a tudomdny térténetehez. Pest, 8yvo, 1861. 5. La Géologie Antique, et les Fragments du Clazoménien. Mémoire présenté @ la 28° Session du Congrés Scientifique de France. Pest, Ato, 1861. It is with much pleasure that English geologists and paleontologists re- ceive the intelligence that the controversy on the Origin of Species, car- ried on with increased vigour and animosity since the publication of Mr. Charles Darwin’s deservedly esteemed work, has spread its exciting influ- ence as far as the base of the Carpathians. Dr. Julius Schvarez, a learned Hungarian, has recently published the works the titles of which we give above, and which embody the matured reflections of the most advanced paleontological school. This gentleman’s works are published in the Magyar language; we believe that it is the first time that this ancient Tgrian dialect has been used to disseminate the principles of Natural Selection. The Age of Man, his contemporaneity with the extinct animals, the Abbeville discoveries, and the distribution over the surface of the globe of fossils monkeys, are all discussed in these works with an erudition sur- prising to English geologists, who are not prepared to find that the war- fare carried on in the Zoological Section of the British Association in 1860 attracted attention in Hungarian scientific circles. The principles of Dr. Schvarez seem ultra-transmutationist. He dates the creation of man to a period far transcending in remoteness the historical period, and endorses the opinions of Sir C. Lyell and Mr. Darwin. The most interesting work of his is that one (Recherches sur les Théories Géologiques des Grecs) in which ial a, REVIEWS. Et he strives to demonstrate that the volcanological theories of modern geolo- gists were anticipated by the early Greek authors. This work is entirely written in the Greek language, with which Dr. Schvarez seems more fam- liar, we fear, than many of our most fervent labourers in Geology. ‘‘ The theory of Progressive Development was warmly adopted and sustained by nearly ail the ancient naturalists.” This is consolatory to those who be- lieve with Professor De Morgan that ‘‘ for a science to become respectable, _ it is necessary that it should be founded by somebody whom nobody ever heard of, and whose works nobody has ever read.” It is impossible, how- ever, that the classical writers could have been possessed of the funda- mental truths of geology by any other method than an @ priori guess. We are positively afraid that if Dr. Schvarcz demonstrates that our pro- gressive development theories are due to the comprehensive generalizations of Empedocles, some of the less philosophical hypotheses of the nineteenth century may also claim classical descent, and we cannot forget that Mr. Gosse’s ‘Omphalos’ was anticipated in the time of the author of ‘ Hudi- bras.’ However this may be, we cannot fail to render justice to the clas- sical and geological acquirements of Dr. Schvarez. He writes upon a subject ‘‘ nemine axtea trito solo,” and with the exception of the late Pro- fessor Lassault, and Englishmen are now proud to add Sir George Corne- wall Lewis, no writer has hitherto ventured to discuss questions fraught with such deep interest to the geologist, paleontologist, antiquarian, and classicist. We cannot forbear remarking that the beauty of the paper and typography of these voluminous Hungarian works, might do credit to nations more familiar with scientific requirements. On the Tenby Bone Caves. By a Pembrokeshire Rector. London: Kent & Co. A small unpretentious pamphlet, containing a great many valuable facts and suggestions, as the following extracts will show :— ** Among all the wonders that the prevailing study of the earth’s con- struction has brought to light, there is not one more striking than the persenoe here in England of great quantities of the bones of wild animals, nown to inhabit tropical regions, which are found collected together in certain natural caves. “ At Tenby the fact appears in its most striking aspect; for such caves occur, and such bones have been obtained from them in Caldy Island. Now to suppose that herds of elephants, and hippopotami, and families of lions, tigers, and hyznas, could have lived and been sustained on a small island which is all but-a mass of solid rock, is as impossible to imagine as that - the human inhabitants of the earth should find room to dwell there together. ** Be the answer what it may, here, beyond all doubt; are the bones of these creatures, taken from certain caves in Caldy Island, and in the main- land ; some from ‘ the Oyle,’ on a spur of the Ridgeway ; and quantities from caves in Gower, and elsewhere. No less than 1100 horns of deer, mostly shed horns, have been lately exhumed from one cave in Gower a The first of these caves... was discovered about twenty years ago by the quarrymen in blasting the cliff overhanging the sea on the north face of the island. It had no external opening at that time apparent. ‘The walls were vertical, or nearly so; the strata being ... perpendicular to the plane of the horizon. This cave was formed by a portion of the stratum, of considerable thickness, having disappeared at the place. Both the walls 116 THE GEOLOGIST. and the roof have since been removed by the quarrymen, and transported in the routine of their trade to Ilfracombe or Barnstaple ; so that no cave exists there now; and the old earthy floor which contained the bones... is covered with soil and fragments of the blasted rock. * Bones of the following animals were extracted from it :—Mammoth (Elephas primigenius), rhinoceros (Rhinoceros leptorhinus), lion, or tiger (Felis tigris), hyena (Hyena spelea), bear (Ursus speleus), horse (Equus caballus), ox, deer, wolf, fox—in short, the usual cave osseous remains of extinct, together with bones of pigs, sheep, and other recent animals, some identical with those which still inhabit the district. There also were found bones of fish, and dorsal spines of a species of ray. The elevation of this cave is upwards of 100 feet above the sea, and some of the bones in this collection show the same teeth-marks described by Buckland on those of the Kirkdale caves. Several have been gnawed by larger animals, and some bear marks as of the teeth of a rodent, some rat perhaps. «The circumstances of this cave in general, and of some of the bones in particular, did not confirm, but rather contradict, the conjecture that it had once been a den of hyenas, by whom they were collected together. Hyenas’ bones lay about precisely in the same state as the others. The whole seemed to have been forcibly carried into the cave by the action of water. Some of the bones were wedged into the fissures of the rock at the cave’s.ends, just as pieces of drift-wood and wreck are observed to be on the shore beneath. Even had the dung of the hyena been observed here, as in those caves described in the ‘ Reliquie Diluviane,’ and in Dr. Falconer’s report of the ossiferous caverns in Italy, the inference would have been hasty, and probably altogether wrong, that it therefore had been an hyena’s den. The hyena is by nature a bone- rather than a flesh-eating animal: the dung-balls consequently are almost entirely formed of phosphate of lime, and are so hard that they resist the tempo- rary action of water almost as well as the bones themselves—perhaps, being round, even better. Moreover, if these cave-dwellers, which live in pairs and are not gregarious, follow the habits of canine animals, and of the badgers and foxes which abound still in this part of the kingdom, they would instinctively have sought external, and even distant places. Dogs are notorious for their cleanly habits in respect to their sleeping- places, when they are not chained up; and badgers retire to some place distant from their holes, and to that same place every night, till at length the ground even glitters in the sunshine with the elytra of the beetles, chiefly the Scarabeus stercorarius, which in summer-time forms their prin- cipal food, as earth-worms do in the winter. “The impression of the writer of this notice is, that all these ancient bones were drifted into the cave by the force of water, after they had been gnawed and mumbled outside of it, and that the dung-balls of the hyena were drifted in with them. Careful observers will have noticed how water-floods collect together into the still places animal remains and light substances at all times. “We may account for the filling of these caverns in more ways than one. There are in this neighbourhood, and in other parts of England, at this moment, certain holes and natural openings in the earth, particularly where the mountain-limestone lies near the surface, into which rain-tor- rents discharge themselves, thick with the red mud, and with lighter sub- stances and small stones, which they bear along down the watercourses leading to them. These watercourses formed many of the ancient byeroads and lanes of the country. ‘There is one so situated that has engaged the writer's attention in flood-time for more than twenty years; nor is the ee os ee’ =e REVIEWS. 117 eave yet filled to which it doubtless belongs, if we may judge from the fact that it still continues to receive the winter streams of muddy water. This hole is double, and each opening not more than a foot or eighteen inches in diameter. “ Or, again, there might have been anciently some lake in the vicinity of this cave...to which these animals resorted nightly to quench their thirst, and bathe their unwieldy bodies. On its shores many would perish, some from old age, some from weakness induced by long journeys, espe- cially in times of drought; the mud through which they had to struggle to the life-giving wave would be too much for them; they would be ‘ stagged,’ to use the common term applied to horses and cattle so cireumstanced in the lowlands of... Esséx and elsewhere; some would become the prey of other animals.... Then, when the lake became enlarged by winter floods ... many of these bones might be forced into the cave, and so preserved. * At the time this cave was first discovered, geology had not so far pro- gressed as to suggest the probability of finding human remains, which therefore were not noticed if present: neither did any flint weapons here attract attention. ‘But when new opportunities of examining caves occur, as they are likely to do at Caldy Island, and at Lydstep, the examination should be conducted with much care, and reported with the greatest fidelity. Every circumstance is worthy of note: human bones may be found deep beneath the stalagmitic floor, and surrounded with the bones of extinct animals; but if it is forgotten that man in rude times was accustomed to bury in such places, and the state of the soil and surface, whether dis- turbed or otherwise,.be not considered, of course false inferences will be drawn. “As to the junction of Caldy with the mainland, it was distinctly re« membered by old labourers twenty years ago, that at very low tides carts used to cross from Giltar to St. Margaret’s ; which latter island was con- nected with Caldy in such a way as to be also reached by carts, if we may infer as much from the remains of a road there. “The vale of St. Florence too, it may be worth recording, appears to have recently undergone considerable changes of level. There is a place on the hill-side, halfway up that ancient estuary, still bearing the name of ‘The Old Quay.’ “ Let us look around us as we stand on the Castle Hill—or rather think what meets the eye of the mind from that elevation, at all points. How many remains of terrestrial vegetation are exposed to view by the equi- noctial tides all around the coast. They occur, for instance, at Caldy in front, at Portclew to the right-hand, and at Amroth to the left; indeed, everywhere stumps and prostrate limbs of the oak and fir, not even greatly altered in colour internally, are constantly to be seen; together with the remains of a thick growth of underwood, the hazel roots yet retaining about their forks the very nuts that grew upon the branches. These can- not be very old: the shore then must recently have sunk beneath the sea in which these stumps stand rooted. Have we here the vestiges of those ancient forests we were looking for just now, in which the animals roamed, whose bones filled the caves we are describing? And did such areas as Broadmoor, and Kingsmoor, and some of the water-levelled valleys that terminate in the sea hereabouts, form the beds of those great lakes and rivers we were just now inquiring after, in which they wallowed? One thing is certain, that in dredging among these stumps in the bay the horns of ancient deer, corresponding with those of the cave deposits, are found ; as in like manner the teeth of elephants are frequently dredged up on the 118 THE GEOLOGIST. Norfolk coast ; whole trees, capable of being used for building purposes, are dug up in the adjoining valleys. “A question here suggests itself: Have not the students of these pleis- tocene strata neglected a little too much the written documents still in pos- session of the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the country—the Welsh, or British, strictly so called? Of the Cantrev-y-Gwaelod there is not only a general tradition, but even the names of certain of the ‘ hun- dred overwhelmed towns and cities,’ of the harbours, and of the eminent men who governed the district, are still preserved in the poems and triads which have been collected and published in the ‘ Myvyrian Archaiology,’ and elsewhere... . All this then seems to suggest the possibility that the time when the animals lived here, whose bones are collected in the caves of Tenby, may not have been very long ago; and though it is not intended to imply that these extinct animals lived here in England within the mo- dern historic period, much less at the time of the subsidence of the bay of Cardigan, about the year a.p. 500, yet may not those recent subsidences of the land be but the continuation of that action which separated us from the continent, and examples of the way in which that separation was last effected ? “A very brief notice of the second cave at Caldy, chiefly to record the discovery and site of it, will be sufficient, because when it was broken into for the first time, about two years ago, the quarrymen shovelied the sur- face bones, of which there were a good many, into the sea, and it shared after a little time the fate of the first cave, except that the floor is said to be still intact. A few bones and teeth have however been preserved. ‘Of the third cave, perhaps the particulars at this time will be most interesting, because it contained, with the remains of some of the carni- vora mentioned above, flint implements of human construction. “ This cave is situated on the mainland, and has a large open entrance always known to the inhabitants by the name of ‘the Oyle.’ It runs far into the rock, and is easily entered to the distance of forty-eight yards, and further with a little difficulty. It was first examined archeologically, about twenty years ago, by Major Jervis, and a brother officer. Three celts were dug up, two of stone, and one of metal. During the present year a somewhat careful examination was made of the contents of the water-washed earth at the bottom of one of the chambers which consti- tute the cave, and which chambers alone contain any deposit, for the nar- row parts are bare to the rock. ‘Teeth of the bear were obtained, with a great quantity of the bones of recent animals. Here also were fish-bones, mixed with such modern littoral shells as the Patella, Cardium, Purpurea, Capilla, Mytilus, Littorina littoralis, L. litorea, Natica monilifera, etc., most of which, it is worthy of notice, are also found in the raised beaches which appear at heights above the sea, from one hundred to two hundred feet or so, all round the adjacent coasts, and up the Bristol Channel. “‘ Indiscriminately mixed with these remains, were found some smaller flint chips, and bolt or arrow-heads. “On the question then of the antiquity of man upon our earth, our caves here at Tenby give as yet no testimony, because though works of art have been found mixed with these bones of huge animals, the cave- | eee eae been so disturbed, that their original position cannot be ascers tained.” REVIEWS. 119 The Intellectual Observer. No.1. February. London : Groombridge and Sons, 1862. ‘Recreative Science,’ the first of the popular serials on popular science, emanated from these publishers, and attained a large circulation. Some- what too juvenile in character, it could not have been expected long to maintain a stand against such higher flights as Mr. Hardwicke’s ‘ Popular Science Review.’ The ‘Intellectual Observer’ is ‘ Recreative Science’ sprung into manhood, and a vigorous forcible manhood too, ready and able to compete with any rival. We have a decided horror of popular (?) science—or rather that kind of trash which unfortunately goes by that name. We believe that real science 7s popular, is a household god whose presence is universally felt in this land, though its face is less often recognized than it might be. In the curtains that screen the light from our rooms, the carpets we tread on, the paper that lines our walis, in our coals, our furniture, in every object around us down to the handles of our doors and the pulleys of our window- blinds, the teachings of real science le hid, althongh their effects add un- ceasingly to the pleasures of life. The able writer—editor, we presume too, although his name does not appear as such upon the work—Mr. Shir- ley Hibbert, opens the volume with a survey of last year’s work. Messrs. McGawley, Cobbold, Thos. Wright, Couch, Gosse, Slack, Humphreys, and Webb follow with excellent papers: a staff of good quality for popu- lar science work, and able to it well if they work sincerely, as they ought to do. The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art. By John Timbs, F.S.A. London: Lockwood & Co., 1862. A small book of 288 small pages in very small type, full of information gleaned from at least double that number of sources, some of which are acknowledged; some—the best sometimes—not so. Some critics have found fault with Mr. Timbs for putting in extracts just as he took them. We do not. At least it is honest, when the title of the work is given; it is useful, because we can go to the source itself for more information if we want it, which is better than wasting one’s time in wondering where we have read the matter before, as we do after perusing hundreds of the mo- dern short cooked-up notices of other people’s labours so generally in vogue. We would add the wish rather that the date of the publication should be also given. Mr. Timbs, at any rate, knows good from bad— which is more than most compilers do—and so, if his book be a book of selections, we can recommend it as having very much that is useful in it, Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Geology of parts of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. (Sheet 13.) By Edward Hull and W. Whitaker. Geology of parts of Berkshire and Hampshire. (Sheet 12.) By H. W. Bristow and W. Whitaker. London: Longman and Co., 1862. The numerous splendid geological maps and sections which the Govern- ment Surveyors have already produced, show the perseverance and energy of that small but talented staff, and testifies to the ability with which they are directed. But there are many other ways, besides in the execution of their regular duties, that the Survey officers are benefiting the students of our science. The museum in Jermyn Street is being admirably arranged by Mr. Etheredge on a plan at once effective and novel,—that of marking, by placing them on differently coloured tablets, the characteristic fossils 120 THE GEOLOGIST. of each stratum. The collection is, as our readers well know, arranged on a stratigraphical plan; and by the use of coloured tablets, in walking past cases we see at a glance the fossils we ought to find in any ordinary lo- eality of every geological formation. To the student this is a facility of the highest value, and enables him, whether studying for a class or pre- paring for a full excursion, to learn with certainty and ease the essentially. typical fossils of every stratigraphical group or of the district he is visiting. Not a less happy idea was it to illustrate or rather to explain the map- sheets of the Survey, by short memoirs of the geology of the dis- tricts they represent. Thus, the fluvio-marine beds of the Isle of Wight have been described by Edward Forbes; the country round Chelten- ham, by Mr. Hull; parts of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, by Profes- sor Ramsay ; the South Staffordshire Coal-field, by Mr. Jukes; the War- wickshire Coal-field, by Mr. Howell; the country round Woodstock, the country round Prescot, in Lancashire, parts of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, _ and the Wigan Coal-field, by Mr. Hull; part of Leicestershire, and parts of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, by Mr. Aveline. The West Indian surveyors have followed this excellent example, and we have had a me- moir on the geology of Trinidad, by Messrs. Wall and Sawkins. Two others just issued are before us, ‘The Geology of Parts of Oxford- shire and Berkshire (Sheet 13),’ by Messrs. Hull and Whitaker ; and ‘ The Geology of Parts of Berkshire and Hampshire (Sheet 12),’ by Messrs. Bristow and Whitaker. The Geologists’ Association are about to take again their summer ex- cursions: how admirably instructive it would be to take one of those geo- logical spots in Berkshire or Hampshire, which Mr, Bristow so faithfully and accurately describes in this little eightpenny Memoir; and with the geological map of the district, Mr. Bristow’s descriptions of the sections and other exposures of the strata, of their order, sequence, and mineral characters, and Mr. Etheredge’s lists of fossils, how much more instruction would be got out of some of those pleasant holidays than can ever be at- tainable under the best desultory leadership! In Mr. Hull’s ‘ Oxfordshire’ a small coloured geological map is inserted, reduced by photography from the larger Ordnance sheet, so that we have in it map and text for a week’s good geological labour. In Mr. Bristow’s Memoir, the cretaceous rocks and tertiaries from the Eocene of Woolwich and Reading to the alluvium of the Kennet, is treated in a masterly man- ner, and illustrated by well selected woodcuts. The cretaceous deposits and tertiaries, as also the oolitic series, form the topics of Mr. Hull’s ‘Memoir on Oxfordshire and Berkshire,’ and, we need scarcely say, are treated in an equally able manner. THE GEOLOGIST. APRIL 1862. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. It would be obviously inappropriate to discuss in the pages of the ‘Geologist’ the theories propounded in Dr. Pouchet’s celebrated work,* with respect to the heterogenetic production of beings of simple organization from inorganic particles; but as the learned author has devoted the whole of his sixth chapter, comprising sixty- seven octavo pages, to the discussion of the “ geological proofs” on which he has based his theory, we cannot avoid offering to our readers a slight sketch of the arguments M. Pouchet so eloquently pro- pounds. His theory is thus stated :—At various epochs, of which no chro- nology can offer an idea, inert matter has been formed into organized beings, without the aid of any pre-existent organism. ‘This, he says, is a natural consequence of geology, which none will dispute. He further deduces that there has been, subsequent to this first act of creation, other generations, and that perhaps at the present day new species are being called into existence. Ifa Supreme Being, who manifests His unity over every portion of the globe, has eternally and universally presided over all the phenomena which take place on its surface; and if it has been His pleasure to people the earth with tribes of plants and animals which have succeeded on it, why may He not be repeating at the present day that which He has already done during past times? As P. Gorini has said, spontaneous generation * <Hétérogénie, ou Traité des Générations spontanées, basé sur l’expérimentation ; par le docteur Felix A. Pouchet.’ 8vo. Paris. VOL. V. R 133 TILE GEOLOGIST. is not a more marvellous phenomenon than ordinary reproduction ; and M. Pouchet cannot conceive why it is regarded as such an extra- ordinary act. Nature is not abandoned to the disorder of chance; she is governed by harmonious laws, and each act which is accom- plished in her depths is connected with the past and is lost in the future: each generation which appears is only the corollary of that which has preceded it (p. 461). He goes on confidently to affirm that “ the theory of the formation of the earth is not at present the subject of any doubt on the part of geologists. It is evident that our planet has been originally an in- candescent mass, surrounded with an immense atmosphere of gas and vapour; and that, in cooling, it has endured all the physical or che- mical conditions which necessarily resulted from its change of state.” His argument goes on to say, that certain parts of the globe having been upheaved at different periods, each has separately originated a fauna peculiar to itself, the degree of perfection of which is in the ratio of the antiquity of the continent supporting it. Thus, the infe- riority of the Australian men arises, according to M. Pouchet, from the Australian continent having been upheaved later than the other parts of the world, and the men consequently being more modern, have not yet reached their summit of development, like the old races of Europe and Asia. The same argument applies to the marsupials of Australia, who are, so to speak, the embryo forms of the placental mammalia of the Old and New Worlds. This theory is almost the reverse of that adopted by many geologists, who speak of Australia as being a “belated” portion of the earth’s surface, isolated from the rest of the world at an early period, and bearing the emblems of a bygone Fauna of Cestracions and Trigonie, analogous to those of the old Oolitie period. Our readers will have seen that it is rather as a Biologist than as a Geologist that M. Pouchet has a chance of securing disciples in England. Turning however to his researches on the means of pro- duction of animals from inorganic matter (heterogenesis), his facts and arguments seem insurmountable. We confess ourselves unable to detect any flaw in the chain of testimony which he brings for- ward, and regret that the nature of this periodical precludes us from offering some of his experiments in detail. All the objec- tions which were made by previous writers have been disposed of by M. Pouchet. The animals produced belong to the lowest forms of Acrita, and the flaws in the experiments of Schultze and Crosse have been carefully obviated. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 1238 We are anxious to remove the supposition that there is anything like absurdity in the physiological argument, however there may be in the geological deductions of our author. The facts recounted by him are only those which a pains-taking observer would collect, and the work is (fora Frenchman’s) singularly devoid of any imaginative flights. Hasty Biologists condemn the theories of M. Pouchet, without giving due weight to his arguments. Such writers will never range in the list of advocates of spontaneous generation, amongst whom M. Pouchet triumphantly quotes “ Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus, Aristotle, Pliny, Lucretius, Diodorus Siculus, Kircher, Rondelet, Aldrovandus, Matthioli, Fabri, Bonanni, Burnet, Gassendi, Morison, Dillen, Buffon, Guéneau de Montbéliard, Need- ham, Priestley, Ingenhousz, Gleichen, Stenon, Baker, Wrisberg, Fay, Werner, O. F. Miller, Braum, Rudolphi, Bremser, Goeze, Necs von Esenbeck, Eschricht, Unger, Allen Thomson, De Lamétherie, Cabanis, Lavoisier, Lamarck, Saint-Amans, Turpin Desmouling, Latreille, Bory St. Vincent, Dumas, Dugeés, Eudes-Deslongchamps, Gros, Tiedemann, Treviranus, Bauer, J. Miller, Burdach, Carus, Oken, Valentin, Dujardin, and A. Richard.” Pouchet remarks that the antagonists of spontaneous generation have always treated its partisans with a severity with which a just cause is never defended; they have often represented the theories of spontaneous generation as the mere fruits of insanity ; nevertheless, the illustrious names who ayow their belief in it merit a greater respect, and the opinions of men who have so much honoured science should be carefully examined before they receive so disdainful a re- probation (p. 5). Cheyreul has remarked that truth for all right-minded men, what- ever their position in life, is the most precious of all objects: for sooner or later it will triumph over error. Descartes wished to examine all scientific theories, even the most unlikely and the most false, “to the end,”’ he said, “that he should know their just value and guard against being deceived.” The same favour M. Pouchet implores; and he demands, as a right, that his work shall not be judged until after it has been read and considered. Professor Owen has told us, “If it be ever permitted to man to penetrate the mystery which enshrouds the origin of organic force in the wide-spread mud- beds of fresh and salt waters, it will be, most probably, by experiment and observation on the atoms which manifest the simplest conditions of life.... Whether an independent, free-moving, and assimilating 124 THE GEOLOGIST. organism, of the grade of structure of a germ-cell, may not arise by a collocation of particles through the operation of a force analogous to that which originally formed the germ-cell in the ovarian stroma, is a question worthy all care and pains in its solution. Pouchet has con- tributed valuable evidence of such production, under external in- fluences, of species of Protozoa. With regard to the species of higher organisms, distinguishable as plants and animals, their origin is as yet only matter of speculation.” — Paleontology, 2nd ed., pp. 18 and 441. In these liberal and advanced sentiments, we must cordially con- cur. We recommend our readers to examine M. Pouchet’s work carefully, and, if possible, to test his experiments over again. English minds too often exhibit an excessive reluctance to truths which on the Continent have been generally accepted. Trust- ing that this work may receive “a fair field and no favour,” we con- clude our remarks, with the hope that many more volumes of equal scientific importance may proceed from the gifted pen of the Director of the Museum of Natural History at Rouen. FURTHER NOTES ON THE GENUS CAINOTHERIUM. By Cuyaries Carter Buaxe, Esq. The genus Cainotheriwm was founded by Bravard in the year 1835. Since his time it has received the following names :—Cyclognathus, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 1835; Microtheriwm, Herm. von Meyer, 1837; Oplotheriwm and Plectognathus, Laizet and De Parieu, 1838; whilst the characteristically synthetic mind of De Blainville reunited it to the genus Anoplotherium, under the title of latecurvatum. Gervais* says it is probable that many species, and not one only, can be recognized amongst the remains which have been discovered, and that this conclusion has been admitted by all palxontologists who have studied these small pachyderms. Pomel} urges strongly the necessity of distinguishing many spe- cies among the Cainotheria, properly so called. He excludes from this genus “the C. Cour toisii, which he erects into a type apart (Hye- gulus). Gervais, on the contrary, gives merely to the genus Cazno- therium a subgeneric value, subordinating it to Dichobune in his system. M. Pomel does not give any certain characters by which his five species can be distinguished. I translate his characters, such as they are :— * © Zoologie et Paléontol. Francaises,’ 4to, Paris, 1859, 2nd edition, p. 92. + Comptes Rendus de |’Académie des Sciences, Paris, t. xxxiii. p. 7. BLAKE—ON THE GENUS CAINOTHERIUM. 125 C. laticurvatum : head large, especially towards the frontals, with a straight profile as far as under the orbits, depressed towards the fronto-parietal surface. CO. commune (= OC. latecurvatum, De Blainville): smaller; head more lengthened, and more elevated towards the parietal region. C. elegans : of the size of the preceding: head still more convex towards the fronto-parietal suture: palatines more sloping: limbs more slender. C. metapiwm (? metopium, from petadruov, forehead) : size of the pre- ceding ; head more concave in front of the orbits; forehead conse- quently more elevated; zygomatic arch very short. C. gracile : one-third smaller ; mandibular bone very narrow, sym- physis shorter, more projecting beneath ; limb-bones very short. I have recently made a careful examination of the Cainotheria in the British Museum, where M. Bravard’s and M. Pomel’s specimens are deposited, with a view to detect any specific differences which might be visible. I have not had the opportunity of knowing on which specimens M. Pomel’s conclusions were founded. I merely record my conviction that the British Museum collection does not contain more than two species at most, the Cainotheriwm commune and O. metapium, if the specific distinction of the latter species is to be admitted. Some of the specimens in the British Museum collection are named C. majus by M. Pomel. Another, apparently not specifi- eally distinct from the C. commune, M. Bravard terms C. leptheliciwm. One of the Museum specimens, by the degree of concavity or depres- sion of the preorbital space, may belong to the C. metapium of Pomel, but this is very doubtful. No dental distinction has been detected by me, even though aided by astrong lens. The few slight differences which otherwise exist are merely referable to age. The degree of backward inflection of the coronoid process of the jaw varies, so to a less extent do the proportions of the limb-bones, but not more so than between the skulls of musk-deer at various ages. The generic name Microtherium must clearly give place to Cuino- thertum, which was invented two years earlier. Of the identity of the species there can be no doubt. The specimen of Microtherium Renggert in the British Museum, from the Miocene of Haslach, in Wurtemberg, being the right upper maxillary, with m 3 coming into place, is in no manner specifically distinct from the Cainotheria from Allier, in the same case. Whether the genus Hyegulus of Pomel rests upon a correct ap- preciation of its generic value, may be much doubted. The mere fact of the scaphoid and cuboid bones being confluent would scarcely merit generic distinction, and the alleged deeper sculpturing of the hinder molars in Hyegulus murinus is far from visible on M. Gervais’ plate. The teeth of Cuinotherium Courtoisit might very well belong to the young of Cainotherium commune, before the molars have been abraded by use. The abrasion of the molars in some of the Museum specimens might lead a hasty species-maker to form several species. None but the practical worker can appreciate the difficulty of 126 THE GEOLOGIST. identifying the lower jaws with the forms to which they belong. No specific dissimilarity im size or position of the teeth meeting each other has been noticed by me. None of the limb-bones can be iden- tified to belong to the same individuals as the crania or lower jaws. I give the characters of the genus from Gervais, and the synonyms according to my own views :— CAINOTHERIUM, Bravard. “Teeth in continuous series; certainly z molars [= premolars a molars oI, four toes, of which the two median digits are the largest, and similar to each other; the two last very slender.”—Ger- vais, loc. cit. 1. CAINOTHERIUM COMMUNE, Bray. memoir on Cainotherium—= following species :—C. laticurvatum, Pomel, loc. cit. C. elegans, Pomel, l.c. ©. gracile, Pomel, Ll. ¢. C. leptorhynchum, Pomel, ‘Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France,’ 1846, t. iii. p. 369. C. medium, Brav., l.c. C. minimum, Bray.,l.c. * ? Hyegulus col- lotarsus, Pomel, l.c. * ? Hyegulus murinus, Pomel, l. c. = C. Cour- toisti, Gervais. Oplotherium laticurvatum, Laizet and De Parieu. Oplotherium leptognathwm, Laizet and De Parieu. Microtherium Rtenggert, H. v. Meyer. Microtherium concinnum, H. v. Meyer. Cainotherium majus, Pomel, MS.? Cainotheriwm lepthelicium, Bravard, MS. ? 2. CAINOTHERIUM METOPIUM, Pomel, J. c. A very doubtful species. In British Museum ? The problem of specific creation and extinction can be best worked out upon such genera as Cainotherium. Speculation might lead a Natural-Selectionist to imagine how the four-toed Cainotheria of the Miocene, by reason of their firmer footing in a muddy soil, might have been able to go deeper in a river in quest of food, and have supplanted and caused the extinction of the Dichobunes of the Eocene, who had only one small digit at the back of their foot, making three toes in all. The differences between, e.g. Cainotherium, Dichobune, Xiphodon, and Dichodon, and Aphelotherium, are such as we might suppose might be altered through the lapse of long generations. Whether such altera- tion was slow and gradual by Natural Selection or any similar process, or whether it was not rather due to a more rapid and sudden method of operation, is the problem which the latter half of the nineteenth century may perhaps solve by experiment, observation, or logical de- monstration. In the meanwhile, to those who bear in mind the Lin- nzean maxim, Omnis vera cognitio cognitione specifica innitatur,+ the study of the minute differences of the Cainotheria affords an instruc- tive topic. * T have not seen any authentic specimens of these species. The C. Courtoisi of Gervais appears not to be specifically distinct from some specimens of C. commune + Linné, ‘ Species Plantarum,’ 8vo, Vindobone, 1764, p. 3. 127 SECTION OF THE LIAS CLAY IN A RAILWAY-CUTTING NEAR STOW-ON-THE WOLD. By tue Rev. 8. Lucas, F.G.S. As Mr. BE. 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 :-— 1% Clay - » « « . & feet . There are no fossils in this bed. It has been probably mostly washed down from higher ground. Z. 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. Amalthei, Quenst.) ; P. Pallium, Sow.; Helicina (Rotella) ex- pansa, Sow. ; Turbo euomphalus, Quenst. ; Astarte; Unicardium cardioides, Phil. ; Pholadomya Murchisonie,Sow.; Cucullea Muensteri(?), Quenst.; Arca Muensteri, Quenst.; A. elongata, Quenst.; Myacites Liassinus, Quenst.; M. elegans, Phil. ; M. tumidus (?), Mor. and Lyc.; M. 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- Pei nella rimosa, Sow. 3. Stiff Blue Clay .3feet . 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. G. Hard stiff Blue Clay 12—14ft. With Ammonites JSunbriatus, A. margari- tatus, A. Henleyi, Perna ventricosa, and small Pentacrinite. 7. An irregular band of lime-- Unicardium cardioides, Cardinea concinna, stone, generally formed of Myacites tumidus (?), Modiola scalprum, a mass of shells Gervillia levis, Perna ventricosa, Lima (small), Ostrea (small), Pecten sublevis, Plagiostoma Hermanni, 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 is 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. Rupvrerr Jones, F.G.S. 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 convex 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,’ 3rd 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 in its 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 6). 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. 1, 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 Rey. 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 (@),—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 a slightly 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, 3; a new gallery being formed at e subsequently to the bird’s impressions ou the soft mud; /; old footprint of another bird under new gallery ; g, orifice; d, bubble-marks ; 2, i, ¢, 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 woodcut 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