d oe 
British Association: for the Advancement of Science. 305 
this cavern did not militate against | the received theory of the for- 
-_mation of osseous breccias. It may have been a. place of ancient 
sepulture, the bodies: pi let down cane a stratum of wed z 
‘and gravel. — 
The next communication was on the Nifoeatile, nie field, by 
Mr. John Buddle. This coal field occupies a tract in the coun- 
ties of Northumberland and Durham of about 700 square miles. 
Mr. B.’s very valuable essay was fully illustrated by a profusion 
of accurate and highly-finished drawings, plans and sections. | 
A paper was received from Prof. Von Baer, of St. Petersburgh, 
entitled “ Recent Intelligence respecting the frozen ground in 
Siberia.” Additional experiments on the temperatures during: 
the year at different depths have recently been commenced at 
Yakutsk; details of which we shall have hereafter. 
' Mr. Lyell, the President of the Section, read a paper on verti- 
cal lines.of tie smragneng horizontal strata ia Chalk, near 
Norwich. 
Mr. Webb ea a short notice of Lunar Voleanoes. ‘He had 
for some time examined the moon with an excellent five-feet 
achromatic, and had found that several volcanic vents existed not 
laid down in Schréter’s lunar map ; and also, that several vents, 
which had been so laid down, were now much enlarged in di- 
‘mensions. On the whole, iowever, he considered that the moon 
and the earth were. dentin in this respect, viz. that volcanic ac- 
tion was now less violent than it had been in by. gone periods.’ 
The secretary réad-a brief account of a Mandingo, native of 
Nyani-mari, on the River Gambia, by Capt. Washington, R. N. 
This man, after many adventures, is now in England. As al- 
ready observed by Goldberry and Laing, of the Mandingos gene~— 
rally, he resembles-in his features the Hindoos more than the 
blacks of Africa in general. His features are régular and. open, 
his person well-formed, full six feet in height, his nose Roman, 
with the nostrils rather flattened, not thick lips, beautiful teeth, 
hair woolly, color a good clear black, not jet. With the aid at 
Mr. Renouard, a vocabulary of about 2000 words and. phrases in 
the Mandingo language had been gathered from this native, be- 
sides itineraries in various parts of his country ; and when ‘we 
consider how extensively. spread is this language, perhaps the 
- Most so of any of the 36 families of languages into which au- 
thors’ have divided the 115 languages of Africa; and that hith- 
Vou. XXXV.—No. 2. 39 
