tROCEEDINOS OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCEITIES OF LONDON. 441 



detail ; namely the Laiirentian (Portland series), Huronian (Cold- 

 brook group), Lower Silurian (St. John group). Upper Silurian, 

 Middle and Upper Devonian (including the Bloomsbury group, Little 

 Eiver group, and Mispeck group), Lower Carboniferous and Car- 

 boniferous. The only important hiatus is, therefore, that wherein 

 the Trenton limestones and Hudson Eiver shales should fall, and 

 those formations probably form part of the Lower Silurian rocks 

 already known. Mr. Matthew then stated that it is now a well- 

 established fact that throughout Palaeozoic time the centre of the 

 North American continent was comparatively stable, the whole series 

 of formations being found in continuous and conformable succession, 

 from the base of the Silurian to the summit of the Permian. The 

 stratigraphical peculiarities of the several formations in regard to 

 their mutual relations were next described, and the author inferred 

 the existence of at least three breaks, and possibly a fourth (between 

 the two sections of the Carboniferous system) in the Palaeozoic 

 series of Acadia — namely, between the Huronian and the Silurian, 

 between the Lower and Upper Silurian, and between the " Middle 

 and Upper Devonian" and the "Lower Devonian and Upper 

 Silurian." 



2. "Eesults of Greological Observations in Baden and Eranconia." 

 By Dr. P. Sandberger, Por. Cor. Gr.S. Communicated by the Pre- 

 sident. — In this paper Dr. Sandberger communicated the results he 

 has arrived at by the study of the Palaeozoic, Triassic, and Jurassic 

 Beds of Baden and Franconia. The so-called "transition formation" 

 of the Black Porest he had previously ascertained to be Lower Car- 

 boniferous ; it is immediately succeeded by the strata of Berghaupten 

 near Offenberg, which also occur in Alsace. Near Oppenau occurs 

 a species of Pterophyllum three feet long, which affords a new proof 

 of the close connexion between the Ti-iassic and Palaeozoic floras ; 

 and to this fact may be added the discovery of a true Schizopteris in 

 the Letten-coal near Wiirzburg. This connexion Dr. Sandberger 

 also considers more perceptible in the fauna than has hitherto been 

 supposed. The Wellenkalk, Muschelkalk, and Letten-coal appear 

 better developed in Pranconia than elsewhere in Grermany, and the 

 clearness of the stratification leaves no doubt about the order of 

 succession. Amongst the results of a comparison of the Thiiringian 

 and Swabian types with those near "Wiirzburg is the discovery of 

 the fauna of Eecoaro and Mickelschiitz in the Middle "Wellenkalk ; 

 and the author remarks that as the rocks of the Alpine so-called 



