Geological Society, 517 



the rise of the strata, or by subsequent denudation, or by these causes 

 united. 



2ndly, The surface was covered with a forest of birch, oak, and fir. 



3rdly, The forest was destroyed, or it decayed, and a peat bog was 

 formed. 



4thly, A rush of sea buried the bog beneath a mass of loam and 

 gravel, containing fragments of existing marine shells and granite 

 boulders. 



In conclusion, the author draws attention to the natural sections 

 on both sides of the Severn, west of Shrewsbury, about one mile above 

 the Welsh Bridge, in one of which he obtained, after much search, a 

 few fragments of shells j and he begs geologists in general, both in 

 England and Ireland, to institute a patient examination of the super- 

 ficial gravel of their neighbourhood for fragments of shells, however, 

 comminuted. 



A paper was also read, entitled, " Description of some Fossil Crus- 

 tacea and Radiata j" by William John Broderip, Esq., F.G.S. F.R.S., 

 &c. 



Lord Cole and Sir Philip Egerton having placed in the author's 

 hands some fossils which they had lately found in the lias at Lyme 

 Regis, a detailed account is given, in the memoir, of those which he 

 considers to be new. 



Crustacea. — The first specimen described consists of the anterior 

 parts of a macrourous Decapod, between Palinurus and the Shrimp 

 family, but of a comparatively gigantic race j and its organization 

 being considered by the author to be sui generis, he has assigned to 

 the fossil the name of Coleia antiqua, with generic characters which 

 are given in the " Proceedings". 



The collection contained the remains of other macrourous Decapods. 

 One of these specimens consisted of a fragment of the post-abdomen, 

 approaching nearest in sculpture to Palinurus, and equaling in size 

 the sea crawfish : and two others are peculiarly interesting from their 

 exhibiting the tips of the four larger branchiae, and of the four smaller 

 ones below, pointing towards the situation of the heart, and proving, 

 the author observes, that this Crustacean did not belong to the Am- 

 phipoda, but to the highest division of the Macroura, of the arctic 

 forms of which it reminds the observer. 



Radiata. Ophiura Egertoni. — This species, Mr. Broderip states, 

 approaches very nearly to the recent Ophiura texturata, and differs 

 from Ophiura Milleri of Phillips, in as much as, among other dif- 

 ferences, the disk of the latter is lobated according to the figure given 

 in the " Geology of the Yorkshire Coast." The specimens were found 

 about half a mile west of Bridport harbour, in masses of micaceous 

 sandstone fallen from the cliffs. — Cidaris Bechei. 



A letter from Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P., 

 V.P.G.S., addressed to the President, " On the Discovery of Ichthyo- 

 lites in the South-western Portion of the North Staffordshire Coal- 

 field," was then read. 



These ichthyolites consist of teeth, palatal bones, and scales, be- 

 longing to the Placoidian order, and to the Sauroid and Lepidoidian 



