TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 105 
composed ehiefly of sand, and in it there are no organic remains ; that 
furthest from the mountain is red marl, and the remains of shells are 
found in beds in it. These shells are associated together exactly as 
those are which at present exist in the neighbouring sea. There is 
even an exact correspondence between the elevated tertiary tract and 
the present sea bottom. The latter for from two to four miles 
from the shore is composed of sand with groups of boulders, to which 
laminariz are attached, thinly scattered in places. Beyond the sand 
commences a great bed of living shells on a clayey or gravelly bot- 
tom, exactly corresponding to the position and nature of that part of 
the marl in which the shells are found. In the mar] the shells most 
abundant and characteristic are Nucule ; which also occur on the shell 
bank ; but there is also this important difference, that the species are not 
identical. The Nucula oblonga characterizes the fossil bed, the Wueula 
margaritacea the recent. The pleistocene bed appears to correspond ex- 
actly with those of Cheshire and the Clyde. Near Ramsay it is bordered 
for about one mile by a triangular tract of gravel and clay. This tract 
was formed within the memory of man, in consequence of changing 
the course of Culby river. Itis most interesting in a geological point 
of view, as it presents all the appearance of a pleistocene clay-bed, con- 
taining shells now extinct on the Manx shores, for the diversion of the 
course of the stream has caused the destruction of Listera compressa 
and Zellina solidula, two shells not now found alive on that shore. 
Mr. Forbes concluded by illustrating the importance of the dredging 
researches now going on, by the circumstance of the committee hav- 
ing this summer settled the question of the identity of Phytocrinus 
with Comatula, the sub-committee engaged in dredging on the coast of 
Ireland having fully proved the former animal to be the young of the 
latter. 
On the Stratified Deposits which occupy the Northern and Central 
Regions of Russia. By Roperick Imeey Murcuison, F.RS., 
F.G.S., General Secretary to the British Association, and E. pr 
VeERNEUIL, Membre de la Société Géologique de France. 
Mr. Murchison, accompanied by M. E. de Verneuil, having just 
completed a tour of considerable extent in the northern and central 
districts of Russia, undertaken with a view to determine the general 
relations of the Paleozoic or older stratified deposits of that empire, 
took this first opportunity of giving a brief outline of the chief results 
at which his friend and himself had arrived, in anticipation of an ex- 
tended memoir, which they purpose to prepare in the ensuing winter, 
and which will be read before the Geological Society of London. 
The geologist accustomed to the diversified outlines which charac- 
terize those countries of Europe in which the older sedimentary rocks 
exist, and who has often had great difficulty in working out their suc- 
cession and classification, in consequence of the disturbances and alter- 
ations to which they have been subjected, is surprised to find in 
Russia these strata spread in horizontal, unbroken sheets over so wide 
a portion of the earth’s surface; each great formation trending for 
