1874.] Geology. 275 
perhaps even from an earlier period. In the early Permian there is evidence 
in the shape of boulder-beds and breccias underlying the lowest beds of the 
Talchir group of a prevalence of cold climate down to low latitudes in India, 
and as the observations of geologists in South Africa and Australia would 
seem to show in both hemispheres simultaneously. With the decrease of cold 
the author believed the Flora and Reptilian Fauna of Permian times were 
diffused to Africa, India, and perhaps Australia; or the Flora may have existed 
somewhat earlier in Australia, and have been diffused thence. The evidence 
he thought showed that during the Permian epoch India, South Africa, and 
Australia were connected by an Indo-oceanic continent, and that the first two 
remained so connected, with at the utmost some short intervals, up to the end 
of the Miocene period. During the latter part of the time this continent was 
also connected with Malayana. The position of the conneéting land was said 
to be indicated by the range of coral reefs and banks that now exists between 
the Arabian Sea and West Africa. Up to the end of the Nummulitic epoch, 
except perhaps for short periods, no direct connection existed between India 
and Western Asia. 
Mr. J. W. Judd has carried his investigations into the structure and age of 
Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh; he believes that in it we have the relics of a 
volcano, which was at first submarine, but gradually rose above the Carbo- 
niferous Sea, and was the product of a single and almost continuous series of 
eruptions. 
Palzontology.—Messrs. Hopkinson and Lapworth have described forty-two 
species of Graptolites from the Arenig and Llandeilo rocks of North Wales. 
The Arenig rocks contain a number of species, which ally them to the Quebec 
group of Canada. 
The publication of a series of decades, or numbers containing ten plates, 
illustrative of the paleontology of Victoria, has been commenced by Professor 
M‘Coy. ‘The first decade contains figures and descriptions of Graptolites, 
Marsupiata, Mollusca, Plants, and Star-fishes. Nearly all the species of 
Graptolites can be identified with species found in England or America. 
Extiné forms of Kangaroo and Wombat are described. Amongst the Mollusca, 
species of Voluta seem scarcely distinguishable from our Eocene forms. The 
plant-remains described include species of Zamites and Lepidodendron ; the 
star-fishes belong to the family Urasteride. 
Obituary.—By the death of Sir Charles Lyell, geological science has lost its 
greatest leader, one who, for a period of half-a-century, has been devoted to 
its advancement. He was born in £797, and in 1819 was elected a Fellow of 
the Geological Society of London; he was President in 1835, and again in 
1849. Sir Charles Lyell is deservedly designated the Historian of Geology; 
the amount of original research in the shape of detailed investigation which 
he performed has been exceeded by many of our distinguished geologists of 
the past and present; but the experience gained during travel, and the philo- 
sophical deductions he was enabled to draw in explaining the past history of 
the earth by the light of the present, in his ‘ Principles of Geology,” and in 
bringing together, in his ‘‘ Elements” and ‘* Manual,” the known faéts of geology, 
enabled him to influence the progress of the science more than any other man. 
The‘ Antiquity of Man, or early History of the Human Race,” place all undera 
great debt of gratitude to the illustrious author. Although to the last he lost 
none of his interest in the progress of science, yet evenin 1866, when he received 
the Wollaston Medal, he observed that every year he felt less able to keep pace 
with the ever-increasing rate at which geology is expanding, together with the 
numerous sciences which are so intimately connected with it. 
Professor Marsh has recently returned from an expedition to the Rocky 
Mountains, where, south of the Black Hills, a deposit of Miocene age was 
found to be exceedingly rich in Mammalian remains. Nearly two tons of 
fossil bones were collected, including several species of gigantic Bron- 
totheride. Professor Hayden has, however, lately expressed his opinion that 
the genus Brontotherium of Marsh is synonymous with the Titanotherium of 
Leidy, of which there are probably not more than two species. 
