Geological Society. 47 1 



His Flora Germanica has a high reputation, but it only extends 

 through the class Triandria. There is a very useful elaborate list of 

 the botanical writers of Germany at the commencement. The Flora 

 Britannka of Smith is s])oken of in Germany as inferior only to the 

 Flora Germanica of Schrader. 



At the election which subsequently took place. 



His Grace the Duke of Somerset was re-elected President; Ed- 

 ward Forster, Esq., Treasurer j Francis Boott, M.D., Secretary ; and 

 Richard Taylor, Esq., Under-Secretary ; and the following five gen- 

 tlemen were elected into the Council, in the room of others going 

 out, agreeably to the by-laws -.viz. Walter Buchanan, Esq. • William 

 S. MacLeay, Esq. ; the Lord Bishop of Norwich ; Richard Owen, Esq. j 

 and Henry F. S. Talbot, Esq. 



( 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The regular order of our report of the proceedings of this Society 

 having necessarily been interrupted by the Anniversary Proceedings 

 of Feb. 1 7th, we now return to the papers which had been read pre- 

 viousl}' to that time, in continuation from p. 141. 



Nov.30, 1836. — A paper "On certain elevated Hills of Gravel con- 

 tainingMarineShells in the vicinity of Dublin," by John Scouler, M.D., 

 Professor of iVineralogy in the Royal Dublin Society, and communi- 

 cated by Robert Hutton, Esq., F.G.S., was first read. 



The object of this communication is to give a brief account of phae- 

 nomena which, although frequently described in other countries, have 

 been but recently observed in Ireland. Before entering on the im- 

 mediate subject of the paper. Dr. Scouler gives a general description 

 of the formations constituting the district under examination. They 

 consist of granite, porphyry, quartz rock, micaceous, talcose, and 

 argillaceous schists, greywacke, which near Lyons is succeeded by a 

 very ferruginous conglomerate, and mountain limestone, called, near 

 Dublin, calp. 



The principal points at which the author examined the shelly de- 

 posits are, the promontory of Howth, Bray Head, and the valley of 

 Glenismaule. On the south side of the promontory of Howth, where 

 the limestone or calp approaches the quartz rock, is a deep depression 

 occupied by an exceedingly tenacious and very ferruginous clay, which 

 also extends across the peninsula, filling up fissures in the limestone. 

 It is unstratified, and does not contain any transported fragments of 

 rocks, but abounds with nodules of oxide of iron, iron pyrites, and 

 oxide of manganese J the last being extracted for oeconomical pur- 

 poses. Resting upon this clay, the limestone and the quartz rock, 

 is a thick accumulation of shelly coarse gravel and fine sand, extend- 

 ing about half a mile in length, but separated into two parts by the 

 hollow in which is situated the village of Howth. The highest portion 

 of the deposit is about eighty feet above the level of the sea. The 

 gravel consists chiefly of limestone, differing in no respect from 

 the limestone of the district j pebbles of argillaceous schist are not 

 uncommon ; and rounded fragments of granite, the hard chalk of An- 



