a a 
F 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 67 
from having afforded abundance of insect remains, resembling those of ordinary 
occurrence in temperate climates. The plants associated with these insects at 
Strensham in Worcestershire are Ferns (Otopteris), Calamites, Confervee, Naidita 
lanceolata, Brodie, Hippuris, and Equisetum Brodiei, Buckman. The ferns occur in 
fragments, and may have floated from some distance; the rest are small aquatic 
. plants, which confirm the opinion that this limestone was deposited in an estuary, 
and in a temperate climate. 
On some Experimental. Borings in search of Coal. 
By Prof. Buckman, F.G.S. 
The first experiment was made four miles from Droitwich in Worcestershire, on an 
estate purchased by a gentleman mainly from belief in a prevalent tradition that coal 
had been found there many years before. Having sent into Staffordshire for some 
practical miners, a boring was made to the depth of 100 yards, and not being attended 
with success, Mr. Buckman was consulted, and by his advice the undertaking was 
abandoned. In this locality the lower lias approached closely to the experimental 
ground, so that, in order to reach the coal-measures, the whole thickness of the Keuper 
marls and new red sandstone must have been passed through. 
A second attempt for coal was made near Malmsbury, Wilts, where former unsuc- 
cessful trials had been made, and where, as upon all Crown-lands, ‘‘ mining rights” were 
reserved at sales! The formation at this place is Oxford clay, which occasionally con- 
tains small beds of lignite; a shaft had been carried to a depth of nearly 100 yards 
without getting below the Oxford clay, when Mr. Buckman was consulted, and the 
attempt given up. 
On Marginopora and allied Structures. By Dr. CARPENTER. 
On a Peculiarity in the Structure of one of the Fossil Sponges of the Chalk, 
Choanites Konigi, Mantell. By WitLiam CunNINGTON. 
The author requests attention to some peculiarities in the structure of those fossil 
‘sponge-like bodies of the chalk-formation to which Dr. Mantell, in his ‘ Geology of 
Sussex,’ gives the name of Choanites. 
He describes them as being of a subcylindrical form, with root-like processes, and 
having a cavity or sac which is deep and small in comparison with the bulk of the 
animal. The inner surface is studded with pores which are the terminal openings of 
tubes, disposed in a radiating manner, and ramifying through the mass. 
“The species named by Mantell C. Kénigi is figured in the ‘ Geology of the South- 
East of England,’ tab. 16, fig. 19 and 20. A partially decomposed specimen of one of 
these fossils, which I discovered some years ago, disclosed a long spiral canal winding 
round the siliceous cast of the central cavity. This I was at first disposed to think was 
the shell of a Serpula, but subsequent investigation, and the dissection of a large series, 
have convinced me that it forms part of the original fabric of the Choanite itself. It 
commences near the base of the central cavity, and quickly attaining its full diameter 
(about the eighth of an inch), it ascends with considerable regularity in a spiral 
direction, and terminates on the upper surface at a short distance from the centre. In 
large specimens there are as many as five or six volutions. Many of the tubes, which 
radiate from the central cavity, anastomose with the spiral canal, and an intimate 
connection is thus established between it and the other parts of the sponge. I have 
not found a similar structure in Polypothecia, Hallirhoa, or any of the allied genera 
which are associated with the Choanites in the chalk and chalk-flint. With regard 
to the purposes which this remarkable canal served in the economy of the animal, 
I can only conjecture that it may have been connected with the reproductive system, 
probably constituting the ovarium.” 
Reply to an Objection of Mr. Hopkins to the ‘ Chemical Theory of Volcanos,’ 
contained in the last volume of the Transactions. By Dr. DAUBENY. 
The difficulty in question, which, as Mr. Hopkins states, was first suggested by 
M. Gay-Lussac, has never, in his opinion, been explained away. It consists in 
