§6 Geological Society. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Nov. 17th. — " A notice was read On some beds associated with 

 the magnesian limestone, and on some fossil fish found in them," by 

 the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian Professor, F.G.S. 



This notice professes to be an abstract of a longer paper hereafter 

 to be presented to the Society. (1.) It first describes a deposit 

 which extends through Yorkshire and Durham and separates the 

 magnesian limestone from the coal measures. It is principally com- 

 posed of sand and sandstone : but in one or two instances red marl 

 and gypsum have been found associated with it. Its general cha- 

 racter in Yorkshire is intermediate between the gritstone of the car- 

 boniferous order, and the harder beds of the new.red-sandstone. 



In the county of Durham it is said to appear in the form of a 

 yellow incoherent sand of very variable thickness, which throws very 

 great difficulties in the wa)' of all mining operations within the limits 

 of the magnesian limestone. On a great scale it is considered un- 

 conformable to the coal strata, and nearly co-extensive with the 

 magnesian limestone ; on which account it is classed with the latter 

 formation. (2.) Next described is a deposit in some places of shell- 

 limestone, alternating with variously coloured marl, — and in other 

 places of thin-bedded, nearly compact limestone alternating with 

 bituminous marls. In the county of Durham this deposit is asso- 

 ciated with an extensive formation of marl slate. In this marl- 

 slate many specimens of fish have been discovered ; some of 

 which appear to be identical in species with the fish in the marl, 

 slate of Thuringia. In the same deposit have also been found many 

 vegetable impressions. (3.) The great deposit of yellow mag- 

 nesian limestone is briefly noticed ; and it is said not uncommonly 

 to exhibit traces of the muriates of lime and magnesia, a fact which 

 is supposed to connect it with the new-red-sandstone. (4.) The 

 deposit of red marl and gypsum imbedded in the formation of the 

 magnesian limestone is briefly described, (5 ) Lastly is noticed the 

 deposit of thin-bedded limestone which surmounts the gypsum, and 

 in which magnesia is not so uniformly diffused as in the inferior mem- 

 ber of the formation. Traces of this deposit are said to have been 

 discovered in the county of Durham. And in Yorkshire beds of ga- 

 lena have been found subordinate to it, and worked with advantage. 

 (6.) Over these deposits comes the great formation of red marl and 

 new-red-sandstone, which appears to be so intimately interlaced 

 with the preceding subdivisions of the magnesian limestone, that 

 the two formations cannot in any natural classification be separated 

 from each other. The fossils found in various parts of the magne- 

 sian limestone are noticed, and are supposed to form a suite which 

 more nearly resembles that of the carboniferous limestone than has 

 generally been imagined. 



A paper was read entitled " Observations on the bones of hyaenas 

 and other animals in the cavern of Lunel near Montpelier, and in 

 the adjacent strata o? marine formation," by the Rev. W. Buckland, 

 D.D. Professor of Mineralogy and Geology, University of Oxford, 



In a recent journey through France in the month of March 1826, 

 the author visited the cave of Lunel near Montpelier, (to which his 



attention 



