Geological Society. 215 



The concretions described are more or less spheroidal, fusiform 

 and cylindrical, many of them amorphous masses of a fine-grained, 

 compact, dark brown ferruginous claystone. Their surfaces are 

 smooth, often polished, and they sometimes include organic remains. 

 Prof. Henslow regards them as of coprolitic origin. Resembling 

 them are certain silicified masses, which prove to be the petro-tym- 

 panic bones of extinct Cetacea ; and Prof. Owen has determined that 

 Prof. Henslow's specimens belonged to no less than four distinct spe- 

 cies of whales of the genus Baleena. 



Jan. 3, 1844. — The following papers were read : — 



1. " On the occurrence of the genus Physeter (or sperm whale) in 

 the Red Crag of Felixstow." By Mr. Charlesworth. 



In the collection of Mr. Brown of Stanway, is a remarkable fos- 

 sil, which Prof. Owen proved to be the tooth of a cachalot, and in 

 the Report of the British Association for 1842 states to have been 

 procured from the diluvium of Essex. Mr. Charlesworth, having 

 examined the specimen in question, considers it a genuine crag fossil 

 from the same deposit with the Cetacean remains, described by Prof. 

 Henslow at a previous meeting, as just noticed. 



2. " On a Fossil Forest in the Parkfield Colliery, near Wolver- 

 hampton." By Mr. H. Beckett. 



The author announces the discovery of a remarkable assemblage 

 of stumps of fossil trees in the Parkfield Colliery, all upright and 

 evidently in situ. There are two fossil forests, one above the other. 

 In the upper, Mr. Beckett counted seventy-three trees in about a 

 quarter of an acre, and in the lower they appear to be equally nu- 

 merous, 



3. " On the Remains of fossil dicotyledonous trees in an outcrop 

 of the Bolton coal, at Parkfield Colliery." By W. Ick, Ph.D. 



This paper relates to the same locality with the last, and includes 

 numerous details of the state of the fossil forest, its geological rela- 

 tions and accompanying fossils. Dr. Ick describes three distinct 

 beds of coal, each exhibiting on its surface the remains of a forest, 

 all included in an assemblage of strata not more than twelve feet in 

 thickness. He considers the trees to have been mostly coniferous, 

 and concludes that they grew on the spot where they are now found. 



4. " On a fossil tree found in the coal-grit, near Darlaston, South 

 Staffordshire." By Mr. J. S. Dawes. 



This remarkable fossil, although not entire, is thirty-nine feet in 

 length, and its greatest breadth not more than twenty inches. The 

 wood is coniferous. 



5. " On the Trap-rock of Bleadon Hill, in Somersetshire." By 

 the Rev. D. WilUams. 



In consequence of some remarkable facts disclosed by the railway 

 cutting through the western point of Bleadon Hill, the author's 

 views respecting the origin of trap and other aggregate rocks, ad- 

 vanced in former papers, have undergone a material change. In this 

 paper he details the phaenomena which lead him, among other con- 

 clusions, to maintain that the lime rocks, in the cases under consi- 

 deration, have been reduced in situ by tranquil fusion, and subse- 

 quently converted into the trap which now replaces them. The 



