304? Geological Society. 



and serpentine are a prolongation of the system of southern Ligu- 

 ria, and have been protruded by igneous action among the depo- 

 sitory rocks, after the period of the oohtes. 



Among the contributions to our knowledge of the structure of 

 foreign secondary deposits, I must lastly notice the communica- 

 tion of Mr. Murchison on the bituminous schist and fossil fish of 

 Seefeld. This singular rock rises to a great elevation among the 

 bare calcareous peaks of the Tyrolian Alps, and contains such a 

 quantity of bituminous matter, probably derived from the animals 

 imbedded in it, that some of its strata are broken up and exposed 

 to a process of distillation, by which a great quantity of what may 

 be called mineral fish oil is extracted for economical use. Among 

 the fossil fish INI. Valenciennes of Paris discovered at least four 

 species ; one a clupea, and three distinguished by quadrangular 

 scales, without articulating points, and resembling the Esox osseiis ; 

 but differing from that genus, both in the form of the tail and the 

 position of the fins. 



There is a large family of fish, made up of many genera and 

 species, and distributed from the old red sandstone to the magne- 

 sian limestone, which belong to the order MaJacopterygii obdomi- 

 nates, and are particularly distinguished, like the JEsox osseus, by a 

 pointed tail, the lower side of which alone is supplied with ra3's. It 

 is obvious from this description that the Seefeld fish are not com- 

 prehended in that family. And as they are not identified with the 

 fossils of any known formation, we must consider their place as 

 still undetermined. This is at least a safe conclusion : and minera- 

 logical indications in the calcareous regions of the Alps are of very 

 small value in determining the question. 



During the past year, we have received from Dr. Buckland several 

 additional notices, drawn up with his well known sagacity and sin- 

 gular felicity of illustration, on the characters and distribution of 

 various specimens of coprolites. The results of his inquiries are 

 published in the last Part of our Transactions ; and on that account 

 I am precluded from any further remarks upon them. They belong, 

 indeed, to important discoveries of the former year, and have al- 

 ready been noticed in the Anniversary address of my predecessor 

 in this chair. 



From the same pen we have also a description of the bones of 

 the Iguanodon and other large reptiles, discovered at Sandown 

 Bay in the Isle of Wight, and near Swanwich in the Isle of Furbeck. 

 In both localities the formation is the same with that of the sand- 

 stone of Tilgate Forest, in which Mr. Mantell first discovered the 

 remains of the Iguanodon, an herbivorous reptile of extraordinary 

 stature. Dr. Buckland describes an external metacarpal bone (six 

 inches in length, five inches in its greatest breadth, and six pounds 

 in weight) of the right foot of some reptile, supposed, from the 

 stratum in which it is found in Sandown Bay, and from the bones 

 with which it is associated, to be an Iguanodon. It is in linear 

 dimensions twice as large as the corresponding bone of a large 



elephant : 



