1874.] Geology. 271 
GEOLOGY. 
Physical Geology.—Perhaps the most important contributions to geological 
science made of late years are the observations of Mr. J. W. Judd, on the 
* Ancient Volcanoes of the Highlands, and their Relations to the Mesozoic 
Strata,” which he has recently communicated to the Geological Society of 
London. The vestiges of the secondary strata on the west coast of Scotland 
have been preserved, like the interesting relics of Pompeii, by being buried 
under the products of volcanic eruptions. The deposition of these strata was 
both preceded and followed by exhibitions of volcanic phenomena on the 
grandest scale. The rocks forming the great plateaux of the Hebrides are 
really the vestiges of innumerable lava-streams, and it is proved that these 
lavas were of sub-aérial origin, by the absence of all contemporaneous inter- 
bedded sedimentary rocks, by the evidently terrestrial origin of the surfaces on 
which they lie, and by the intercalation among them of old soils, forests, 
mud-streams, river-gravels, lake-deposits, and masses of unstratified tuffs and 
ashes. Mr. Judd points out that the great accumulations of igneous 
products, which in places exhibit a thickness of 2000 feet, must have been 
ejected from great volcanic mountains, and in the course of his observations 
he has endeavoured to determine the sites of these old volcanoes, to estimate 
their dimensions, to investigate their internal structure, and to trace the history 
of their formation. 
Origin of Lake Basins.—Mr. J. Clifton Ward, in discussing the origin of the 
basins of Derwentwater, Bassenthwaite, Buttermere, Crummock, and Lowes- 
water, pointed out that they were not moraine-dammed lakes, but true rock- 
basins, and, considering all the features they presented, he was of opinion that 
the immediate cause of the basins was the onward movement of the old 
glaciers in the neighbourhood, ploughing up their beds to the comparatively 
slight depth of the basins which now form the lakes. 
Geological Record.—A Record of Geological and Paleontological Literature 
is being carried out under the direGtion of the British Association. It is to 
embrace brief abstra¢ts of all papers published abroad or in the provinces, and 
will appear regularly in the ‘‘ Geological Magazine,” after which it will be 
‘issued in a separate form. Two parts appear in the February and March 
numbers of the Magazine. 
Mr. Whitaker has rendered great service to geologists by preparing lists of 
papers published on the Geology, Mineralogy, and Paleontology of different 
counties and districts. He has published those relating to Devonshire, the 
Hampshire Basin, and Cambridgeshire. 
Geology and Parish Boundaries.—The relation of the parish boundaries in 
the south-east of England to great physical features, and particularly to the 
chalk escarpment, is a subject to which attention has been called by 
Mr. Topley. He has shown how the earliest settlements, and the manorial 
and parochial boundaries, have been dependent upon the original state of the 
country, whether wooded or open land, and upon the easily accessible water- 
supply, features which are intimately connected with geological structure. 
Palezontology.—Mr. Henry Woodward has described a new star-fish, 
Helianthaster filiciformis, from the Devonian rocks of Harbertonford, South 
Devon. 
Mr. A. Wyatt Edgell has made some additions to the list of fossils from the 
Budleigh-Salterton pebble-beds. These include species of Modiolopsis, San- 
guinolites ?, Aviculopecten, Pterinca, Palearca, Avicula, Cleidophorus ?, Lunu- 
locardium, Ctenodonta, and Orthonota? The peculiar assemblage of fossils 
found in the pebbles of this triassic bed was first pointed out by Mr. Vicary, 
whilst Mr. Salter assigned their parentage to beds on the coast of France. 
Mr. Edgell notices the accordance between many of the pebbles of Budleigh- 
Salterton and beds occurring on the opposite side of the Channel, in Brittany. 
In the discussion which took place after the reading of his paper at the 
Geological Society of London, Mr. Godwin-Austen observed that, in the same 
manner as the shingle of Lake Superior is carried away and re-deposited by 
