Scientific Intelligence, Sfc, 46^ 



in undisturbed stratified deposits, the embedded organic remains 

 must necessarily have existed contemporaneously; and upon this 

 evidence^ solely, important conclusions have been drawn respecting 

 the bones of elephants, associated with the shells of existing species 

 of Mollusca, in a deposit in Yorkshire."* 



The next point adverted to in the paper is the presence of 

 secondary fossils in the upper or red crag. During the formation 

 of this deposit, causes similar to those now in existence appear to 

 have been in operation ; and effects have there been produced which 

 exactly correspond with the author's deductions as to the nature of 

 the formations at this time in progress round some parts of the 

 British coast. 



This introduction of secondary shells in the tertiary beds of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk has been detected solely by an attention to 

 lithological characters ; and the evidence derived from this source is 

 no longer available when there is reason to suspect an admixture of 

 organic remains helon^ng exclusively to rocks of the supra-cretaceous 

 series. 



The species which are common to the chalk and red crag are very 

 few when compared with those which are common to the red crag 

 and to the subjacent tertiary strata. In the latter case, however, 

 we have no means of ascertaining whether those individual species 

 which occur in separate formations existed throughout distinct 

 periods, or, like the fossils of the chalk, were, by the natural process 

 of degradation, removed from their original matrix, to be again 

 entombed with the races of a more recent epoch. Unless this diffi- 

 cult problem is solved, it is clear that the application of the per- 

 centage test may be attended with the most fallacious results. To 

 what extent erroneous conclusions may already have been formed, 

 from the neglect of those considerations so obviously necessary in the 

 examination of the crag, must be a subject for future investigation. 



The author lastly notices some questions which have already been 

 discussed by Professor Phillips in the Encyclopcedia Metropoli- 

 tana.'\ The most important of these is the physical relation existing 

 between any one fossiliferous deposit, and the locality in which the 

 living types of its fossil species occur. 



II. — Belfast 3fuseum. 



The eighth public meeting of the Natural History Society was held 

 in the Museum, on Wednesday, the 25th of May; about one hundred 

 and twenty members and visitors being present. After several 

 donations had been presented, one of the Secretaries read the follow- 

 ing Report of the Council : — 



• " That these quadrupeds, and the indigenous species of Testiicea associated 

 with them, were all contemporary inhabitants of Yorksliire (a fact of the greatest 

 importance in geology), has been established by unequivocal proofs, by the Rev, 

 W. V. Vernon, who caused a pit to be sunk to the depth of more than 200 feet 

 through undisturbed strata in which the remains of the mammoth were found 

 embedded together with tlie shells, in a deposit which had evidently resulted 

 from tranquil waters." (LyeU's Geobgy, vol. i. p. 96. edit. 1.) 



t Vide Article Geology. 



