Geological Society. 449 



Mr. Gardner, the well known geographer, has drawn our attention 

 to the curious fact, that of the land on the surface of the globe only 

 Jyth part has land at its antipodes. 



Sir David Brewster has communicated to us his interesting ob- 

 servations on the properties of the diamond, from which it would 

 appear to be of vegetable origin, — the cavities whence these proper- 

 ties are derived being found in amber, but not in any product either 

 of igneous fusion or of aqueous solution. 



Home Geology. 



Dr. Mitchell has laid before the Society a detailed account of the 

 geology of Harwich in Essex, of the Reculvers in Kent, of Quainton 

 and Brill in Buckinghamshire. Mr. Dadd has described the Vale of 

 Medway and its neighbourhood. Dr. Fitton, who published in the 

 early part of the year, a geological sketch of the vicinity of Hast- 

 ings, has supplied us with an account of some instructive sections 

 recently exposed to view at St. Leonard's. Mr. Woodbine Parish 

 has sent to us portions of the Iguanodon and Lepidosteus from the 

 well known " White Rock," situate in the same district, and now 

 almost destroyed. Our knowledge of the inland Extent of the 

 Wealden Formation has been enlarged by a paper of Mr. Strick- 

 land, accompanied by specimens of Paludina from the ferruginous 

 sand of Shotover Hill. 



Mr. Strickland has also rectified the boundaries of some of the 

 strata near Bewdley, and traced a line of fault from the north of 

 Bredon Hill to Little Inkbarrow. 



Sir Philip Egerton has supplied us with further information in 

 respect to the lower portion of the Connaught Coal -district. Be- 

 neath the coal at Kulkeagh in the county of Fermanagh is a shale 

 600 feet thick, with subordinate layers of black marlstone and clay- 

 iron ore towards the top, and a thin stratum of micaceous grit near 

 the bottom. All the beds are replete with ammonites, orthocera, 

 producta, encrini, corals and calamites. This deposit lies on sand- 

 stone separated by the mountain limestone from another bed of 

 shale marked by characteristic fossils, and the entire system there- 

 fore appears to bear a strong resemblance to the lower portion of 

 the carboniferous beds in the South-west of England. 



In the carboniferous strata of Coalbrookdale, Mr. Prestvvich has 

 described a heterogeneous assemblage of plants and shells both of 

 fresh- and salt-water species. A band of ironstone, nearly in the 

 centre of this series, contains four genera of Trilobites: in the same 

 coal-field Mr. Anstice has recognised two genera of insects. On 

 the opposite side of the Severn, Mr. Murchison has found at Pontes- 

 bury, Uffington, Le Botwood and other places, a band of compact 

 limestone, between two beds of coal, resembling the lacustrine 

 limestone of central France, and containing freshwater shells. These 

 discoveries may throw light on those which have been since made at 

 Burdie-house and elsewhere in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 



The structure of other coal-fields has been illustrated by Mr. 

 Murchison, Mr. R. J. Wright, and Mr. England. 



Third Series. Vol. 4. No. 2i. June 18S4.J 3 M 



