GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 97 



comes to these conclusions chiefly on comparison of the fossils with those 

 of Belgium, France, and Germany. Immediately above these sands 

 there is a very remarkable bed, called the Cephalopoda bed, which has 

 a considerable persistence through the district, and whose fossils have 

 decidedly a Liassic character. 



With respect to Palaeontology, I have already alluded to the most 

 important discoveries of new fossils in the Cambrian strata of England 

 and Ireland, by Messrs. Salter and Kinahan. 



Professor Owen, in the twelfth volume of the "Proceedings of the Lon- 

 don Geological Society," describes a skull of the musk ox, found in a 

 gravel quarry near Maidenhead, and the original fossil is now preserved 

 in the Museum of the College of Surgeons. It does not appear to differ 

 very much from the living variety of the musk buffalo. 



The same distinguished naturalist describes the tibia of a very re- 

 markable gigantic bird, nearly the size of the ostrich, found in the lowest 

 bed of the Paris Calcaire grossier, resembling the Dinornis Gassuarinus 

 and other extinct birds in some respects, the gallinaceous birds in 

 others — a new distinct genus. He gives it the name of Gastomis Pa- 

 risiensis. 



He also describes, in the same volume, a remarkable collection of 

 mammalian remains, from the red clay of Suffolk, which he pronounces 

 to be, for the most part, of Miocene date. Among these are extinct spe- 

 cies of Ehinoceros, Tapir, Wild Boar, Horse, Mastodon, Decranoceros 

 (an extinct deer), Felis, Canis, Bear, and several genera of Cetacea. 

 However, the most interesting discovery to us is that of a bone of the 

 left antler of a deer, resembling the Megaceros Hibernicus. This would 

 give the animal an immense range, from the Miocene almost to our 

 times. Professor Owen also mentions that this animal has been found 

 in the Pleistocene brick-earth of Essex. 



I cannot conclude without drawing your attention to a most valua- 

 ble treatise by Mr. Dominick M'Causland, which has been published 

 during the year, and is entitled " Sermons on Stones." I have perused it 

 with great interest ; and, although he does not profess to have made any 

 discoveries of new facts, the views he adopts are original, and illustrated 

 in a clear and eloquent style. 



Starting from the proposition that — " Whatever has been written 

 under the Divine inspiration cannot be inconsistent with anything 

 created by the Divine Hand — God is truth, and His Word cannot be re- 

 futed by His works," — the chief difficulty is the precise meaning of the 

 word "Day." 



Buckland and Chalmers have taken it in a natural sense, and have, 

 therefore, contended that Moses' narrative was not an account of the 

 events which occurred from the beginning of the Creation, but only of 

 certain events which occupied the period of the six natural days which 

 preceded the birth of Adam. 



Mr. M'Causland explains it as a period of indefinite duration, in 

 which sense it appears to be frequently used in the sacred volume. 



VOL. iv. o 



