Geological Society. liT 



The first of these is the Strand Wolf or Strand Jut of the colo- 

 nists ; and is named by the author Hycena villosa. Some of its 

 habits are noticed in confirmation of the conjectures of Professor 

 Buckland. 



An account was also read of a pair of hinder hands of an orang 

 outangof unusual size, deposited in the collection of Trinity House, 

 Hull ; by J. Harwood, M.D. F.L.S. &c. 



In this paper the author corrects the statements of Dr. Abel 

 (Phil. ^lag. and Annals, vol. i. p. 21 3) respecting the height of the 

 orang outang ; and maintains that ihe Pongo is not the Simia Snty 

 rus Linn, as supposed by Cuvier and others, but in reality a distinct 

 species. The Pongo at the College of Surgeons has five vertebrae, 

 while all the skeletons of Simla Hatyrus have but four : there are 

 also material differences in the cranium and scapulae. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



April 20.— Lieut-Gen. Sir Rufane Donkin, K.C.B. &c. of Park 

 Street, Grosvenor Square ; Major T. L. Mitchell, of the Quarter 

 Master General's department, Assistant Surveyor General of New 

 South Wales; and the Rev. W. Whewell, M.A. F.R.S., Fellow of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, were elected Fellows of the Society. 



The reading of Professor Sedgwick's paper, on the Magnesian 

 Limestone, was continued. 



A paper was read giving an account of the discovery of a num- 

 ber of fossil bones of bears, in the Grotto of Osselles, or Quingey, 

 near Besan9on in France, by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, Professor of 

 Geology in the University of Oxford. The author visited this 

 cave in October 1826, for the purpose of applying to it the method 

 of investigation, which his experience in other caverns had taught 

 him to adopt with success in the pursuit of fossil bones. 



The Grotto of Osselles is of vast extent, nearly a quarter of a 

 mile in length, and made up of a succession of more than thirty 

 vaults, or chambers, connected together by narrow passages, and 

 running almost horizontally into the body of a mountain of Jura 

 limestone, on the left bank of the Doubs near Besan^on. 



The only entrance to the grotto is by an irregular aperture about 

 the size of a common door, in the slope of the hill about 60 feet 

 from the river. The abundance and beauty of the stalactite in 

 many parts of this cavern, have rendered it one of the most cele- 

 brated and most frequented of any in France ; but before Dr. Buck- 

 land, no one had ever sought for bones beneath the crust of sta- 

 lagmite, which in most of the chambers covers the floor. 



On breaking for the first time through the stalagmite, the guides 

 were much surprised to find the author's prediction verified, as to 

 the existence of a thick bed of mud and pebbles, beneath what 

 they had considered to be the impenetrable pavement of the cave, 

 and still more so, to see that in every one of the only four places 

 which he selected for inve.stigation, this diluvium was abundantly 

 loaded with the teeth and bones of fossil bears. These lay scat- 

 tered through the mud and gravel, in the same irregular manner as 



U 2 the 



