landicum and angustatum, Tellina prætenuis, Saxicava norvegica, Fusus altus, antiquus (dextral form), and norvegicus, Trophon scalariforme, Buccinum cyaneum, Purpura lapillus, Mangelia rufa, Admete viridula, Ringicula ventricosa, Littorina littorea, Trochus tumidus, Scalaria grænlandica, Natica clausa, and (var.) occlusa, helicoides, and catena, Acteon tornatilis, and Conovulus pyramidalis, &c.

In the newer horizon at Butley, the vicinity of land is apparent, this marine bed having yielded to the author Pupa marginata (2), Planorbis complanatus (2), Limnaus pereger (1), truncatulus (1), and an unfigured? form.

The quiescent nature of the Red Crag seas may be judged from the exquisite state in which every species (not specimen) may be obtained, and the number of perfect bivalves to be obtained in situ, as Terebratula, Mytilus, Cardium angustatum, and edule, Astarte, Gastrana, Solen, Mactra, and Pholas.

A list of all the species of Red Crag shells known was appended to the paper.

Recent Geological Changes on the British Islands.

By the Rev. JAMES BRODIE (Monimail, Fifeshire).

In this paper the author arranged his observations and conclusions under the following propositions:

1. There has been no elevation of the coasts of Britain in consequence of subterranean agency since the time of the Roman occupation.-St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall is now, as it was in the time of the Greek historian, an island at high water, and a peninsula at the ebb. The remains of Roman buildings, roads, embankments, and fortifications which have been discovered in Kent, in Norfolk, in Lincolnshire, in the valley of the Forth in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and of Stirling, and on the other side of the island in the valley of the Clyde in Lanarkshire, show that the level of the sea and land, at the time when they were formed, was the same as it is at present. On the north-east coast of Scotland, rude sculptures on rocks, kitchen middens, and other traces of the prehistoric races who were contemporary with the Romans, are found in such situations as show that there has been no alteration of the coast-level since they were formed. We therefore conclude that there has been no elevation of the coast of Britain, either sudden or gradual, since the Roman occupation.

2. The last elevation of the Scottish coast was sudden.-In the valley of the Forth, near Stirling, several skeletons of whales have been found imbedded in a bed of clayey loam, which is from 15 to 20 feet in thickness. The bones are so entire, and lie in such regular position, as clearly to prove that they must have been enveloped in the clay that surrounds them, while the ligaments that bound them together were still entire. They cannot have been exposed for any length of time to the action either of the water or of the air. If the elevation of the coast had been slow and gradual, as soon as the bed of loam came to be exposed to the action of the wind and wave, it would have been washed away, and the skeletons thus left unprotected, the bones would have been weather-beaten, broken, and scattered. A similar argument may be employed in regard to some shell-beds which have been found in the same neighbourhood. These beds lie sometimes in loam, sometimes in sand. They are from 5 to 15 feet above high-water mark. The shells are numerous, and remain in the same position they occupied when the animals they contained were alive. In the valley of the Clyde, near Glasgow, similar beds of shells are found. In that quarter also a number of ancient vessels have been found imbedded in loam. Some of them were 20 feet above highwater mark. These vessels evidently owe their preservation, like the Stirling skeletons, to the clay that surrounded them, and we conclude that, like them, they must have been suddenly elevated.

3. The extent of this elevation was between 30 and 40 feet.-The surface of the bed of clay in which the skeletons are imbedded, in its higher parts, is 28 feet above ordinary high-water mark. As that surface must have formed the bottom of the estuary before the elevation took place, we cannot estimate its amount at less than 30 or 40 feet.

4. This elevation took place some two thousand years ago.-Among the vessels

found in the valley of the Clyde there were two which were artistically constructed, and had the appearance of ancient galleys. In one of the vessels was a plug of cork. We may therefore conjecture that these were trading-vessels from some of the Carthagenian settlements in Spain; and we are led to suppose that the date of the catastrophe that destroyed them was some centuries before the Christian era.

There are indications that some time previous to this elevation the coast of Scotland must have been subject to earthquake tremors, like those that recently occurred at Tortola in the West Indies, but of greater violence and extent. There are also evidences of a succession of elevations and depressions of a remarkable kind that must have previously taken place.

While the coasts of Britain exhibit no trace of subterranean agency since the time of the Roman occupation, previous to that date they must have been subject to very violent and extensive convulsions.

On the Western Asia Minor Coal and Iron Basins, and on the Geology of the District. By Dr. HYDE CLARKE.

The author describes the extensions of the basins first discovered by him, and which includes an area of 120 miles by 120, extending over the districts of the Mæander and Hermus. Dr. Clarke, referring to his former observations on the extension of mica-schist across the Bosphorus into Europe, suggests the possible connexion of the Hurbklea coal-mines and the Asiatic shore of the Black Sea, and the lignite formations on the European shore. The latest discoveries in the main basin are of coal at Birdik in the upper course of the Mæander, and that at Kayejik in the district of Chiordes, illustrating the easterly extension, Dr. Clarke expresses his firm conviction that this old gold district of Pactolus will be found a productive field.

On the Skeleton of a Fossil Whale recently exhumed on the Eastern Coast of Suffolk. By EDWARDS CRISP, M.D.

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The skeleton of this hale (the first perfect skeleton found in England) had recently been exhumed by the author; it was found in the Chillesford clay, about 10 feet below the surface. It was 31 feet in length; measurements, drawings, and models of all the bones, as they were in situ, were taken. Many of the bones, the vertebræ especially, were so soft that they fell to pieces on removal; but the whole skeleton, the author said, could readily be partly restored by means of the clay models and plaster casts.

Dr. Crisp had examined and measured all the skeletons of modern whales in the British Museum, and in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, and he came to the conclusion that this was a new species of Balana. A careful comparison had been made of the tympanic bones of this whale, and the same bones of many fossil and modern whales, and they differed from all at present examined. Fossil shells, impressions of shells, and fishes' bones were found in the clay around the skeleton. Very careful investigations were needed, and much work had to be done, the author said, before accurate conclusions could be arrived at. The paper was illustrated by numerous drawings; and some of the vertebræ, portions of the ribs, and the tympanic bones were exhibited.

On the Parallelism of the Cretaceous Strata of England and the North of France, with those of the West, South-West, and South of France and the North of Africa. By Prof. HENRI COQUAND, of Marseilles. Translated by JOHN WICKHAM FLOWER.

In this paper the author observes that the divisions of the Cretaceous beds, which were originally established by English geologists, and which have been generally accepted on the continent of Europe, are, in fact, altogether insufficient, in a great measure, and inapplicable as regards any other district than England and the north of France. Thus, for example, as we approach the west of France

extensive beds of limestone and sandstone, characterized by Ostrea biauriculata (and which are entirely wanting in England and the north of France), known as the Grès du Mans, are found interposed between the base of the Lower Chalk and the highest beds of Chalk-marl.

Proceeding towards the Pyrenean basin more important modifications occur. The Grès du Mans is much more largely developed, and comprises a great abundance of Rudistes. Above this layer are found the marly beds of the Lower Chalk; and above these again, the Angoumien, Mornasien, and Provencien strata, equivalent together to a thickness of 2000 feet.

In the basin of the Loire another horizon is found, which, in its turn, supports a solid limestone abounding in other species of Rudistes; and with this, the Craie moyenne of the south-west and south of France terminates.

The author then proceeds to describe the Upper Chalk as composed of four distinct layers, each characterized by a distinct fauna, and neither of which are met with in England or in the basin of the Seine. In the west of Provence these beds are largely developed; and M. Coquand has given diagrams and lists of the characteristic fossils, which seem to differ essentially from those found in similar beds elsewhere.

M. Coquand then gives a description of the Upper Chalk of Provence, dividing it into Coniacien (ferruginous limestone), Santonien (of which the upper portion is fluviatile), and Campanien and Dordonien, both consisting of freshwater limestone, with eighteen distinct beds of lignite, and attaining a thickness of from 1500 to 1800 feet. The Campanien and the upper part of the Santonien furnish large quantities of coal; and, indeed, Marseilles and the surrounding district are entirely dependent upon these beds for their supply of this mineral.

The cretaceous beds of Algeria are next described, and their correspondence, as regards their fauna and position, with the Provençal strata before described is shown; and after observing that by a comparison of Algeria with Provence, Provence with Charente, Charente with Sarthe, Sarthe with Paris, and Paris with England, we shall be able to recognize the various links of the Cretaceous system, M. Coquand suggests that the divisions hitherto recognized by English geologists are altogether inadequate to indicate the true character of the chalk, and that if a general classification of these strata were now to be established, the preference ought to be given to Provence, on account of the facility of finding those divisions larger and more numerous, and, in short, presenting more classical types.

On the Formation of certain Columnar Structures. By J. CURRY.

On the Genus Clisiophyllum.

By Dr. P. MARTIN DUNCAN, F.R.S., F. and Sec. Geol. Soc.

Great numbers of specimens of several species of this genus abound in the Lower Carboniferous limestone of the Scottish coal-field at Beith, Ayrshire, Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Bathgate, Linlithgowshire.

Mr. J. Thomson, of Glasgow, whose photographs of sections of Carboniferous Corals were exhibited at the last Meeting of the Association, has forwarded me about 200 fine specimens, carefully cut in sections, and in excellent order.

A careful examination of these has enabled me to arrive at the following conclusions:-Dana, the great American zoophytologist, originated the genus, and M'Coy, following Dana, gave new species of it to science, and had sections of his types lithographed in Sedgwick's celebrated work on the Paleozoic fossils.

Milne-Edwards and Jules Haimes retained Dana's name Clisiophyllum in their description of the genus in the Introd. Pal. Soc., in their Des. des Pol. des Terrains Palæoz., and in their Hist. Nat. des Corall. But they have added a most important structural peculiarity to the genus. Doubtless they had better specimens than Dana and M'Coy; for nothing can be more evident than the existence in the axis of the corals of the genus of a great lamella, ending at the bottom of the calice in a prominent ridge. The ridge was noticed by the previous authors, but not the lamella. Yet this lamella determines the peculiar construction of the central parts of the coral. M'Coy, in the description of one of his species, says that a

large septum exists across the central area, but in another place, and in his drawings there is nothing of the kind.

Those paleontologists who study from M'Coy are therefore at a very great disadvantage. The correctness of the views of Milne-Edwards and Jules Haimes is beyond a doubt, and Clisiophyllum of Ed. and H. is thus readily separable from the closely allied genera Aulophyllum and Cyclophyllum. The genus is interesting, because the apparent prolongations of the septa over the central boss to the columella are indications of the pali which abound in many Mesozoic genera, and also because it is closely allied, from its minute structure, with the well-known compound forms of Lonsdaleia and Lithostrotion. This alliance was asserted by Dana. The specimens prove that, although they may be arbitrarily divided into three species, still the gradation of structure between the types of these species is perfectly shown in some of the numerous examples. Moreover, the variation in some of the structures, which are generally considered sufficiently stable to be safe guides in species-making, is immense. In fact no better proof can be given that a species is the sum of a greater or less amount of variation, instead of a fixed and definite matter, than that afforded by these Scottish corals.

The specific differentiation must be decided, not by the shape, or size, or septal number of the corals, but by the size of the central area, the obliquity, straightness, and quantity of the endotheca generally, and the number and direction of the septa which cover the central area.

On the Denudations of Norfolk. By the Rev. O. FISHER.

The author first called attention to the denudations upon the land surface, stating that a certain amount of the fine material was being carried into the rivers, and by them deposited at the heads of the broads or in the sea. This denudation by pluvial action was undoubtedly greater where the land was under the plough than it would be otherwise. Upon the coast the sea was reducing the solid surface to a uniform level. Where the land was high it cut away the bottoms of the cliffs, which then foundered down, and the fallen matter was in its turn carried off; and where it was low the general contour of the coast was being continued by sand dunes or "Marram Hills; so that where the end of a valley was submerged, its bottom was being raised seaward, and reduced to a uniform level and continuous coast-line. But when the waves had played their part, the action of the sea was not ended. As the sea cut further into the land, the ground laid under water became subject to the action of tides, so as to be kept, on the whole, at a uniform depth for a given distance from land. If the waste of the shore was prevented by artificial means, the sea was found to deepen rapidly, and the inclination of the bottom from the shore to be increased. This marine action, if considered, did not appear possible to give rise to any very great inequality of surface, but, on the other hand, it must tend to reduce those already existing.

All great inequalities of the sea-bottom must either have been caused by the land having become submerged more rapidly than the sea had time to move its coast-line, or else by elevations and depressions taking place beneath the ocean, or, in a few instances, by powerful currents confined by local circumstances to a narrow course. Since the tides deepen the sea below the level to which the waves act upon the coast, it must follow that the harder rocks must be lowered more slowly than softer ones, and shoals be formed. It was to such a denudation as that just described that the form of the surface of this county might be supposed to be due at the period preceding the deposition of the Crag. It might be safely supposed that the sea-bottom at the period of the Crag consisted of a shoal bottom of chalk, nearly level on the eastern side of our area, while the same stratum rose as dry land to a considerable elevation towards its central and western portions. But there was no distinct indication of the position and ancient coast-line of the Crag sea, though, no doubt, it extended further inland than Norwich, Horstead, and Coltishall; indeed the author saw no reason to doubt that the remnants of ferruginous shelly gravel adhering to the surface of the chalk on the beach at Lower Sherringham belong to it. The appearance of the chalk at Bungay and of the Upper Norwich Crag at Aldeby, near Beccles, would place the junction of the two deposits somewhere between Beccles and Bungay.

There were no data for determining the coast-line of the Crag, but it was probably a line of cliffs extending in a direction somewhat paralled with the present eastern coast of Norfolk, and about twenty miles westward of it. At Yarmouth, where the London clay covered up the chalk, a different condition of things must have obtained. Indeed, in early postcretaceous times, there seems to have been a depression of erosion in course of the valley of the Waveney and the Little Ouse. There is no evidence that the sea of the Crag period occupied any part of the present estuary of the Wash. It is probable, on the other hand, that the chalk must have extended considerably to the westward of its present escarpment. Immediately upon the chalk at Thorpe, where the Crag rests upon it, is a thick bed of angular flints, which appears to be the accumulated result of the removal of the chalk intervening between several successive layers. It is amongst these flints that numerous bones, teeth, and tusks of Mastodon and Elephas meridionalis and other mammalia occur. The author's opinion was that the chalk to which these flints are due was removed by the erosion of currents, which were not strong enough to remove the flints. To account for the bones found amongst these flints there was the alternative that the chalk formed a land surface on which bones were left, the flints being accounted for by subaerial solution of the chalk. After discussing the difficulties which this supposition raised, he proceeded to consider the succession of events subsequent to the period of the Crag. As to the Chillesford clay, the author recanted his formerly published view (referred to by the President of the Section), and added that, although he agreed with Messrs. Wood regarding the sequence downwards from the Chillesford clay to the Crag, whether red or fluviomarine, he did not think that its position relative to the Forest-bed and glacial series above was yet satisfactorily made out, and expressed an opinion, rendered probable by the occurrence of whales' bones in both, that it might be identical with the soil in which the preglacial Forest-bed was rooted.

The author then traced the course of events until the close of the glacial period, adopting Mr. S. V. Wood, jun.'s views of their division into "Lower," " Middle," and" Upper Drift." He showed that the contortions in the lower drift were chiefly due to the precipitation of large masses of gravel, chalk, &c. upon a soft bottom, and proved that Mr. Trimmer's supposition of the sinking of blocks of ice was a necessary result of the thawing of masses containing a portion of earthy matter; and he explained the anomalous position of patches of shelly gravels, containing abundance of Tellina solidula, by supposing them portions of frozen beach deposited unthawed at the bottom of the sea.

The author subsequently referred to the denudations by which the present contour of the surface has been formed. He thought that we must look to the action of the sea for the removal of the greater part of the strata which have disappeared, but to subaerial action for the present contour; and, referring to his published views, attributed the latter to the action of land-ice. To this he considered due the peculiar disturbed condition of the first three or four feet of almost every section, and the furrows often extending to more than twice that depth, filled with materials from higher ground in rear. He adduced also the recurved edges of vertical slate-beds, to be met with even on level ground, as evidences of the same action.

The author then remarked upon some of the peculiarities of the surface-contour of Norfolk, especially its Broads and Meres, and suggested that they had probably a glacial origin, and arose from the occupation of the surface hereabout by ice at a later date than in other parts of England, as now the January Isothermal of 32a F. approaches nearest to this part of England. It must be premised that a low mean temperature is necessary for the production of land-ice, although not for floating ice, which is carried by currents into temperate regions. He likewise attempted to explain the remarkable flat valley occupying the watershed at Lopham Ford by glacial denudation.

On the Skull and Bones of an Iguanodon. By the Rev. W. Fox. The object of this paper was to show that the author has discovered a new species of Iguanodon. In proof of this he exhibited a skull, which, from the character of its teeth, there could be no doubt belonged to an Iguanodon. The skull,