Ii6 Geological Society. 



only a pair of plates, or in preference copper pyrites and zinc, were 

 employed to produce the voltaic action ; but a constant battery con- 

 sisting of several pairs of plates was much more effective. Among 

 the veins thus produced in clay, Mr. Fox mentions oxide and car- 

 bonate of copper, carbonate of zinc, oxides of iron and tin. Veins of 

 carbonate of zinc Avere formed, sufficiently firm to admit of being 

 taken out in plates of the size of a shilling. Mr. Fox then describes 

 a vein formed in pipeclay, by Mr. Jordan, by five pairs of cyUnders, 

 in three weeks. The clay divided an earthenware vessel into two 

 cells, into one of which, containing the copper plate, a solution of 

 sulphate of copper was put ; and into the other, or zinc cell, a solu- 

 tion of common salt. Well-defined veins were thus produced of 

 carbonate and oxide of copper, and carbonate of zinc, parallel to the 

 laminae into which the clay divided ; as well as another of carbonate 

 and oxide of copper at right angles to them. On dividing the mass 

 of clay in the direction of the principal horizontal vein, the carbonate 

 of zinc was found on the negative side, or towards the copper plate ; 

 and the carbonate of copper nearest the zinc plate : and as the for- 

 mer must have been derived from the zinc plate, it is curious to ob- 

 serve such a complete transposition of the respective metals. 



Mr. Fox is of opinion that these results have a strong bearing on 

 the numerous mineral veins and beds which are found conformable 

 to the direction of the laminae of the containing rocks, as well as on 

 those veins which traverse the laminae of the conformable veins. 



An extract was afterwards read from a letter addressed by Captain 

 Alexander to the Secretary, explanatory of casts of portions of 

 Mastodon teeth from the crag, and on the occurrence of a particu- 

 lar bed containing Echini in the coralline crag * at Sudbourne. 



The larger cast was taken from a Mastodon tooth found on the 

 shore at Sizewell Gap, about seven miles from SouthM'old. "When 

 the original came into Captain Alexander's possession, crag adhered 

 to it in considerable quantity; and he has no doubt that it had been 

 washed from Easton, about 1 1 mile north of Southwold. The weight 

 of the tooth is 2 lbs. 5| oz." its length is about 6 inches, and its 

 breadth 3^ inches ; and although it had been washed eight miles, 

 only three of the crowns had been injured. The other cast is from a 

 fragment of a young tooth found by the author in the crag at Bra- 

 merton. 



Capt. Alexander found also the canine tooth of a large carnivo- 

 rous animal in the crag at Easton. At Bramerton he obtained also 

 five crabs, three of which were almost perfect. At Sudbourne, near 

 Orford, in a bed of very fine coralline crag, he found several beau- 

 tiful Echini ; and in a thin, argillaceous layer in the centre of the 

 same bed, the greater part of the vertebral column of a fish, the re- 

 mains of crabs, and the ear bone of a whale, which had apparently 

 been water-worn before it was enclosed in the crag. To this stratum 

 Captain Alexander calls particular attention, as he believes it would 

 be found to be rich in organic remains, if it were properly examined. 



Dec. 5th 1838.' — A paper was first read, entitled " A few brief 



[* See Loud, and Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. vii. p. 83.— Edit,] 



