86 Geological Society, 



to SE., and at I'' 45™ another shot nearly due S. About I?'' how- 

 ever the sky cleared, and between that and 5^ 10™ four bright 

 meteors were seen in the immediate vicinity of Leo, of which 

 the three last had paths inclined so as to meet in that constel- 

 lation. All these were inclined towards the north, and more 

 inclined the higher in the sky. Throughout the night of the 

 ] 3-1 4th, clouds, mist and sleet prevailed and nothing was seen. 

 It may be added that Professor Nichol of Glasgow mentions, 

 that about five o'clock of the morning of the 1 3th he saw three 

 meteors, at intervals of two seconds, shoot from the centre of 

 Leo towards the south, from which he concludes that a 

 shower did take place at an earlier period of the night *. 

 Heriot Row, 7th Dec, 1837. 



XIX. Proceedings of Learned Societies, 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from vol. xi. p. 394.] 

 Nov. 1, A LETTER "On Fossil Fishes in the Lancashire Coal 

 1837. fjL Field," byW.C. Williamson, Esq., Curator of the Man- 

 chester Natural History Society, was first read. 



The author first refers to his account of the Ardwick Limestone, pub- 

 lished in the Philosophical Magazine for 1836 (L. and E. Phil. Mag., 

 vol. ix. p. 241,), where short descriptions are given of the ichthyolites 

 which had been then met vviih, consisting of scales of Megalichthys, 

 scales and teeth of Palaeoniscus and coprolites. Mr.Williamson, in con- 

 junction with Professor Johnstone, has since come to the conclusion, 

 that the bed in which these remains occur is entirely a coprolitic mass, 

 the portions preserved being such as would not be destroyed by the 

 action of the stomach. With the above remains was also described a 

 tooth oi Diplodus gibbosus, (Agassiz), numbers of which of various 

 sizes have been found at Bradford, near Manchester, in the roof of the 

 great mine, a coal four feet thick, almost the highest in the series that 

 is worked ; and the roofstone is almost entirely composed of Ento- 

 mostracous remains. The teeth resemble one figured by Dr. Hib- 

 bert in his Memoir on the Limestone at Burdie-house, and referred by 

 him to Gyracanthus. The author has met with no traces of the 

 thorny ray of this fish. The coprolites contain 72*5 phosphate of 

 hme, 12-5 carbonate of lime, 12*5 bitumen, 2*5 insoluble matter j 

 resembling the analysis given by Dr. Hibbert. 



The author, in examining, at Peel, near Worsley, the ** Black and 

 White Mine," a coal 6 feet 6 inches thick, and about 1000 yards below 

 the Rodte Todte Liegende, found, in its black roofstone, remains of 

 Palaoniscus Egertonii. The fine blue colour of the scales forms a 

 curious characteristic. Two other forms of scales have been met with, 



* In the Comptes Kendus of the 27th Nov. are some accounts of ob- 

 servations on the night of the 12th and 13th at Paris, Montpellier, Geneva, 

 and Marseilles. 



