308 Proceedings of the British Association for 1850. 



Section C. — Geology and Physical Ceography. 

 President. — Sir Roderick 1. Murchison. 



Vice-Presidents. — Professor Jameson, Sir Philip De Grey Eqerton, Mr C. 

 M'Laren, Professor Sedgwick. 



-Sfecre«aWe«. —Professor NicoL, Mr Hugh Miller, Mr A. Keith Johnston. 



CommtMee.— The Duke of Argyll, Captain Sir G. Back, Messrs R. Allan, IJinney, 

 Dr Black, Mr J. Bryce, Count Breunner, The Earl of Cathcart, Mr R. Cham- 

 hers, The Earl of Enniskillen, Sir C. Fellows, Professor E. Forbes, Professor 

 Hitchcock, Messrs Hopkins, J. Hogg, J. B. Jukes, Sir C. Lemon, Sir C. 

 Malcolm, Mr M'Adam, Dr Mantell, Mons. Martins, The Marquis of North- 

 ampton, Mr J. B. Pentland, Professor Oldham, Professor Phillips, Messrs 

 S. P. Pratt, G. W. Ormerod, Professor Owen, Professor Ramsay, Major Raw- 

 linson, Mr Smith. 



Sir R. I. Murchison gave an account of " the discovery 

 of carboniferous fossils in the crystalline chain of the Forez, 

 France, and on the age of lines of dislocation between the 

 lowerjand upper carboniferous deposits of France and Ger- 

 many." He stated that no French geologist had noted the 

 occurrence of a fossil in the crystalline chains of the Forez, 

 but that on his first visit to the banks of the Sichon — a tri- 

 butary of the Allier — he (Sir Roderick) discovered that cer- 

 tain peculiar and hard grits of the tract contained encrinites; 

 and in a second examination he farther detected in the 

 schists a few remains of bivalves, univalves, trilobites, and 

 corals. The form of one of the best preserved of these bodies 

 has a resemblance to a Silurian Leptoena or Chonetes ; but 

 the occurrence of a productus, of a form very nearly allied 

 to P. Jimbriatus (Sow.) — so identified by M. de Verneuil — 

 leaves no doubt that the deposit belongs to the lower part 

 of the carboniferous epoch. Another fossil resembles the 

 palaeozoic cypricardia, but approaches nearest to the Pleu- 

 rophorus costatus (King) of the Permian system. A por- 

 tion of the head of a Trilobite belongs to the genus Phil- 

 lipsia (Portlock , so characteristic of the British mountain 

 limestone ; and thus the age of these rocks may be consi- 

 dered to be determined. In the geological map of France 

 these rocks are placed as old transition and crystalline ; and for 

 such, or for the lower Silurian rocks, they might unquestion- 



