Royal Astronomical Society. 385 
terest, especially in reference to the geological age of the trap 
rocks with which they are locally associated. Mr. Murchi- 
son has described these shales with a careful attention to their 
position below the great masses of fossiliferous Caradoc 
sandstones, and (evidently assimilating them in his mind to 
the black schists of South Wales, whose position appeared 
nearly similar) sought earnestly for traces of fossils which 
might justify the collocation of these Malvern shales with the 
flaggy series of Llandeilo. 
In diligent and repeated examinations for the same object, 
I have been able to add many facts regarding the history of 
these shales, their place in the Palzeozoic series, and their re- 
Jation to the trappean masses; but it is only within this month 
that I succeeded in extracting a single trace of fossil organi- 
zation from their innumerable lamine. Perhaps but for the 
accident of a bright sunshine falling on a long crumbling 
bank of the shales, I might not have resumed what seemed a 
hopeless search. However, my good fortune prevailed, and 
I had the pleasure to collect in little weathered bits of the 
shale abundance of Agnosti and parts of minute Trilobites. I 
must reserve till a period of more leisure the description of 
these treasures, only remarking that they offer no very obvious 
analogy with the Llandeilo fossils. The Trilobites are not the 
Asaphi or Trinuclei of Llandeilo; perhaps the Agnosti are 
equally peculiar. No Orbiculz, no Graptolites, no Euomphali 
(seldom wholly absent from the schists of Caermarthenshire) 
have been yet found here. Neither does there appear any 
marked analogy between the fossils of the Malvern shales and 
those well known in the Caradoc strata incumbent. Upon 
the whole, I believe it may be recommended to those who are 
reasoning on the classification of the most ancient fossiliferous 
strata of Wales, to reserve their final judgement till the Ord- 
nance surveyors have measured the thicknesses of all the di- 
stinguishable beds between the Vans of Brecon and the shores 
of the Menai, and extracted from the slates, shales and con- 
glomerates all the evidence they contain of the systems of life 
which prevailed during their deposition. 
Ledbury, April 11, 1843. 
LXVII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 
Nov. ll, HE following communications were read :— 
1842. I. ‘A few Remarks on the ‘Total Eclipse of the Sun 
observed at Nice, July 8, 1842.” By Captain John Grover.—These 
will be found in the Monthly Notices of the Society, vol. v. p. 207. 
