Geological Society. 69 



gerous processes are elongated, and three, four, or five of the verte- 

 bras which precede the sacrum are ribless, and consequently reck- 

 oned as lumbar vertebrae : in the lacertian Sauriae there are never 

 more than two lumbar vertebrae, and those which have ribs support 

 them on short convex processes or tubercles. 



In the fossil from the chalk, the ribs are articulated with short 

 processes of the kind just mentioned, resembling tubercles, and they 

 are attached to the sides of the anterior part of all the vertebrae, 

 except the one immediately preceding the sacrum. These charac- 

 ters, Mr. Owen says, in conjunction with the slenderness and uni- 

 form length of the ribs, and the degree of convexity in the articular 

 ball of the vertebrae, prove incontestably, that the fossil is part of a 

 Saurian, appertaining to the inferior or lacertian group. 



The under surface of the vertebrae is smooth, concave in the axis 

 of the spine, and convex transversely. As there are twenty-one 

 eostal vertebrae anterior to the sacrum, including the single lumbar, 

 the fossil, Mr. Owen observes, cannot be referred to the genera 

 StelliOy Leiolepis, Basiliscus, Agama, Lgriocephalus^ Anolis, or Cha- 

 mceleon, but that a comparison may be instituted between it and the 

 Monitors, Iguanas, and Scinks. In conclusion, he states, that in the 

 absence of the cranium, teeth, and extremities, any further approxi- 

 mation of the fossil would be hazardous, and too conjectural to yield 

 any good scientific result. 



June 10, 1840. — A memoir descriptive of a " Series of Coloured 

 Sections of the Cuttings on the Birmingham and Gloucester Rail- 

 way," by Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author commences by expressing his regret at the irre- 

 coverable loss, which science has experienced, in full advantage not 

 having been taken of the valuable geological information, which has 

 been exposed by the railway cuttings in different parts of England 

 during the last ten years ; and he suggests the propriety of each 

 line of railway being systematically surveyed by a competent ob- 

 server, while the cuttings are in progress. 



Anxious to contribute towards so desirable an end, Mr. Strickland 

 gladly yielded to a request made to him by Captain Moorsom, the 

 chief engineer of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, to un- 

 dertake a geological survey of the line ; and he expresses his obliga- 

 tions to that gentleman and to Captain J. Vetch for the valuable as- 

 sistance they afforded him. The line was originally surveyed by 

 Mr. Burr, when only the trial shafts had been sunk, and before the 

 cuttings were commenced ; but Mr. Strickland bears testimony to 

 the accuracy of the account which Mr. Burr laid before this So- 

 ciety. — (Geol. Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 593. 



The direction of the railway ranges nearly parallel to the strike 

 of the strata, and therefore intersects only the new red sandstone 

 and red marl, the lias, and superficial detritus. 



New red sandstone and red marl. — The lowest rock exposed be- 

 longs to the new red or bunter sandstone, resting on the anticlinal 



