Geological Society. 143 



measures of the county of Kerry were referred to the transition se- 

 ries ; the correctness of this statement was questioned at the time, 

 and various inquiries were instituted and persevered in, without 

 leading however to any very decisive result. Since the commence- 

 ment of the session, the author on re-examining the district, has 

 with great candour acknowledged himself to have been in error. More 

 diligent investigation brought into view a well-characterized band 

 of old red sandstone, intervening in one part of the coal-field, be- 

 tween the carboniferous and the transition strata. 



Mr. Jephson has transmitted to us an account of a remarkable 

 spring at Mallow in the county of Cork, the temperature of which 

 varies from 67° to 71 T V°« !• breaks out in limestone. 



An ample and able account of the recent progress of our science 

 on the Continent will be found in the Report of M. Boue to the 

 Geological Society of France. I shall, therefore, confine my ob- 

 servations on this head almost exclusively to the Papers which have 

 been read at our evening meetings. 



The first in order relates to the loamy deposit, called in the val- 

 ley of the Rhine, Loess, a term as yet scarcely naturalized among us, 

 and which, I believe, is correctly represented by the word Silt. 

 This paper, from the pen of Mr. Lyell, has since been published 

 entire in Jameson's Journal. 



Intimately connected with this is a communication by Mr. Horner, 

 on the nature and quality of the solid matter actually suspended in 

 the water of the Rhine. To ascertain them the author made experi- 

 ments during the months of August andNovember,bringing up about 

 a gallon of water from different depths and drying slowly the solid 

 matter obtained from it. With whatever attention to accuracy such 

 experiments are conducted, they must, I conceive, be multiplied al- 

 most indefinitely before we can arrive in safety at any general con- 

 clusion upon so intricate a problem*. 



From Colonel Silvertop we have received a description of certain 

 tertiary deposits, which in the kingdom of Murcia, in Spain, occupy 

 extensive plains, bounded by discontinuous ridges of nummulitic 

 limestone, transition rocks and mica-slate : the author divides these 

 deposits into four districts, and each of these is separately treated. 

 M. Deshayes refers their imbedded fossils to the second and third 

 deposits of tertiary formation. 



In a work on Spain, published during the past year by Captain 

 Cooke, will be found a brief account of the mines and rocks of that 

 hitherto partially examined country. 



I may also be permitted to notice among the additions which 

 have been made to our library, an excellent Memoir by M.le Che- 

 valier Albert de la Marmora, on the constitution of the Balearic 

 Islands. 



No communication has been made to us from Asia since the last 

 Anniversary. 



[* Notices of Mr. Horner's paper will be found in Lond. and Edinb. 

 Phil. Mag., vol. v. p. 211, and vol. vi. p. 396.— Edit.] 



