150 Geological Society : — 



Ordinary Meeting, — Col. Portlock, President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " Note on a Section of Mont Lacha near Mont Blanc." By 

 Major S. Charters, F.G.S. 



In a letter to Dr. Fitton, the author enclosed a section of the 

 anthraciferous schist of M. Lacha (containing Ammonites and 

 Belemnites), that he had taken during a tour five years ago, and 

 which shows the strata dipping northward at an angle of 75° ; whilst 

 the lines of cleavage are perpendicular to the stratification. At first 

 sight, says the author, the cleavage-planes might easily have been mis- 

 teiken for stratification, but the strata are evident on careful obser- 

 vation, and do not dip towards or under Mont Blanc, but their dip 

 is normal, supposing Mont Blanc to be the centre of upheaval. 



2. " Notice of the late Eruption of Manna Loa, Owhyhee." By 

 W. Miller, Esq., H.M. Consul, Sandwich Islands. (Forwarded from 

 the Foreign Office by order of Lord Clarendon.) 



In a letter dated January 9, 1856, Mr. Miller stated that the lava- 

 stream originating in the eruption which broke out in August last, 

 continued flowing to the date of his letter, at which time it appeared 

 to have been arrested in the forest at a distance of about ten miles 

 from Hilo. In a later communication, dated March 1, 1856, Mr. Miller 

 describes the lava- stream as being sixty miles in length, and as 

 having now reached within five or six miles of Hilo. There still 

 intervenes about three miles' width of dense forest between it and 

 the open ground towards Hilo, Byron's Bay. It has burnt its way 

 through the forest at the rate of about one mile in two weeks. 



3. "On the Geology of Varna and Neighbourhood, Bulgaria." 

 By Capt. Spratt, R.N., F.G.S. 



Capt. Spratt first noticed a series of whitish calcareous sandstones 

 and marls, nearly 1000 feet thick, overlaid by reddish sands and 

 marls. The former are of marine origin and of Eocene tertiary 

 date ; the latter are chiefly of freshwater origin. Near Varna the 

 freshwater beds have been much denuded, and are not anywhere 

 more than 200 feet thick. At Cape Aspro, fifteen miles south of 

 Varna, both of the series — the grej' and the red deposits — are seen 

 disturbed, and dipping to the south, but unconformably, one series 

 (the lower) having an angle of 30°, whilst the upper dips at 20°. 

 At Cape Emineh, south of Cape Aspro, and forming the termination of 

 the Balkan, these beds are still more disturbed and dip to the north. 

 Capt. Spratt then described the geological appearances along the 

 coast southward. At the Gulf of Bourgas and in the vicinity are 

 igneous rocks, and deposits formed from their waste. Granite occurs 

 on the southern point of the bay. 



Returning to Varna, Capt. Spratt pointed out the localities of the 

 fossils collected in the neighbourhood. The calcareous sandstones 

 abound in casts of shells and in Oysters and Pectens immediately 

 around Varna ; and contain Nummulites in profusion at the upper 

 part of the Lake near AUahdyn. In this last-named neighbourhood 

 the uppermost strata, left by the denuding agencies that have afi'ecte^ 



