[ 226 ] 

 XXXIII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from p. 153.] 



Dec. 18, A PAPER was afterwards read, entitled, "Observations 

 1839. -*"* on the locality of the Hyracotherium," by William 

 Richardson, Esq., F.G.S. 



In 1829, when Mr. Richardson first examined the coast from 

 Whitstable to Herne Bay, it presented an uniform, geological struc- 

 ture, composed of a capping of vegetable mould, under which was a 

 stratum 3 or 4 feet thick of yellow brick earth, containing in the 

 upper part rolled and angular flints, mammalian remains and fossils 

 derived from secondary strata ; and beneath, forming the mass of 

 the cliff, was London clay of a dark brown colour, abounding in 

 septaria, selenite, pyritous wood, teeth and vertebrae of fishes, Nau- 

 tili with other characteristic marine testacea, Encrinital and Penta- 

 crinital remains, and crustaceans. 



The whole of the line of coast undergoes rapid degradation in con- 

 sequence of the encroachment of the sea and land springs ; and the 

 changes thus annually produced.effect great alterations in the physical 

 outline of the cliffs. The geological structure, however, presented by 

 them in 1829 remained for the greater part the same in the autumn 

 of 1839, except at the part called Studd Hill. At this point, the dark 

 brown incoherent clay had been removed, and a deep blue, tenacious 

 one exposed. A change had also taken place in the character of 

 the fossils, the marine remains having gradually become less promi- 

 nent and been replaced by others of a fluvio -marine character. In 

 the autumn of last year, Mr. Richardson could not find a single ma- 

 rine shell, and only a few fragments of crinoidal stems. Terrestrial 

 vegetables have, however, become so prodigiously abundant, that 

 he has obtained at different times above 500 fossil cones, fruits, and 

 other seed-vessels ; and fragments of small trees converted into py- 

 rites occur in so great quantities, that they have been removed by 

 barge loads for ceconomical purposes, and become a source of con- 

 siderable profit to the neighbouring peasantry. These remains pre- 

 sent no indications of having been transported from a distance. 

 Neither land nor fresh-water shells have been observed. 



From the abundance of vegetables, and the knowledge that Nature 

 ever directs her means as well in number as in fitness to particular 

 ends, Mr. Richardson inferred, that remains either of quadrupeds or 

 birds would be found in Studd Hill ; and though his search was long 

 fruitless, it was at last rewarded by the discovery of the portion of 

 the Hyracotherium described by Mr. Owen in the preceding memoir. 



January 8, 1840. A paper was first read, on the carboniferous and 

 transition rocks of Bohemia, by David T. Ansted, Esq., F.G.S. 



After alluding to the difficulties which beset the researches of a 

 geologist in a country so little frequented as that visited by himself, 

 and noticing the granite and gneiss mountains which constitute the 



