536 Meeting of the British Association. [ Oct., 
Intermittent Discharges of Petroleum and large Deposits of 
Bitumen in the Valley of Pescara,’ which runs up from the 
Adriatic to a narrow and important gorge of the Apennines, about 
35 miles from the sea. Near the gorge the rocks are limestones 
overlying chalk. The former are cavernous, and bitumen exudes 
freely in summer from the exposed surfaces wherever there are 
cracks. A couple of miles from the valley to the south there are 
water-courses down which much water rushes after rain. There 
are many swallow holes into which water enters, and from openings 
in the rocks below large bodies of water sometimes issue. From 
one of these, when rain has fallen, the water comes out mixed with 
petroleum. The author saw about 1,500 gallons collected in two 
days, or 1,000 gallons of available petroleum, yielding valuable 
light and heavy oils and asphalte on distillation. At Letto, about 
half way towards the coast, and within an area of five miles’ radius, 
are enormous deposits of bitumen and much sulphur. At Letto 
itself there is a vast gorge filled up with little else than a dyke of 
earthy and some very pure varieties of black and brown bitumen, 
which the author traced 1,600 yards. On the north wall of the 
dyke was an enormous deposit of native sulphur in crystals. 
Tn asecond communication, the same author gave an account of 
a “ Mud Volcano close to the South-western Extremity of the Layas 
on the Flanks of Etna,” about 600 feet above the sea, and which 
was in a state of eruption in January last. It commenced by the 
outburst of a strong jet of muddy water, which rose about six feet, 
ata boiling temperature. Several such jets followed from other 
places a few yards off. The temperature diminished slowly from 
the commencement. There was neither noise, flame, visible vapour, 
stones, nor lumps of solid matter, but much gas bubbling through 
the water, and some naphtha. The gas was chiefly carbonic acid, 
which, in large bubbles, issued by puffs of about 40 per minute. 
A multitude of smaller-jets came out from cracks in the ground at 
various points within an area of about twenty acres. 
Mr. H. Woodward, in his “Second Report of the Fossil Crus- 
tacea,” described a new species of the genus Avger from the Lias of 
Charmouth; a new genus of Phyllopodous Crustacea from the 
Lower Silurian Shales of Dumfriesshire; the oldest known British 
Crab, from the Forest Marble of Malmesbury, Wilts; and six 
species of the genus Hryon—five from the Lias, and one from the 
lithographic stone of Solenhofen. The author stated that having 
lately had the opportunity to examine specimens of Limudli from the 
Coal Measures, he was enabled to demonstrate the connection 
between this division of Crustacea and the more ancient Hurypteride 
on the one hand, and the recent King-crabs on the other. 
Mr. Burton’s paper on “The Occurrence of Rheetic Beds, &c., 
