Geological Society. A'5S 



lowest formations of other countries be possible, may perhaps be 

 (for the present) more doubtful. 



I have spoken of Mr. Murchison's work as if it had formed part 

 of our Proceedings, as indeed almost every part of it has done, al- 

 though it now appears in a separate form. And I \\\\\ add, that it 

 is impossible not to look witli pleasure upon the form in which the 

 work appears, enriched as it is in the most liberal manner, with 

 every illustration, map and section, picturesque view and well-marked 

 fossil, which can aid in bringing vividly before the reader all the 

 instructive and interesting features of the formations there described. 

 The book must be looked upon as an admirable example of the 

 sober and useful splendour which may grace a geological mono- 

 graph. 



Having been tempted to dwell so long on this subject from my 

 conviction of its importance, I must the more rapidly proceed with 

 the remainder of my survey. Mr. Bowman sent us, " Notes on a 

 small patch of Silurian Rocks to the west of Abergele." In this 

 investigation, which is interesting to us as the first application of 

 Mr. Murchison's Silurian Sj'stem, the author found strata of which 

 some could be, by means of fossils, identified with the Ludlow rocks. 

 Mr. Malcolmson has, by the remains of fossil fishes, shown that the 

 calciferous conglomerate of Elgin represents the old red sandstone 

 of Clashbinnie, as the Rev. G. Gordon had already supposed. Fi- 

 nally, proceeding to higher strata, we have to notice a trait of the 

 fossil history of the coal strata near Bolton-le-Moors, contributed 

 by Dr. Black. A stem of a tree thirty feet long, and inclined at 

 an angle of 18° in a direction opposite to the strata, was discovered, 

 having upon it a Sternbergia, about an inch in diameter, extending 

 the whole length of the stem, Avhicli had been, while living, a para- 

 site plant, like the mighty existing creepers of the tropical regions. 



The most curious addition to our fossil characters of strata, are 

 the footsteps discovered on the surface of beds of the new red 

 sandstone. It is well known that several years ago such marks 

 were discovered at Corncockle Muir, in Dumfries-shire. Since that 

 time similar discoveries have been made at various places, and espe- 

 cially in 1834, in the quarries of Hesseberg near Hilbergshausen ; 

 and to the animal which had produced the impressions then disco- 

 vered, the name of Ciiirotherium was provisionally applied by Pro- 

 fessor Kaup. In the quarries of Storeton Hill, in tlie peninsula of 

 Worrall, between the Mersey and the Dee, marks were discovered 

 strongly resembling the footsteps of the Chirotherium of Kaup : 

 tliesc were described by a conmiittee of the Natural History Society 

 of Liverpool, and drawn by J. Cunningiiam, Esq. Mr. James 

 Yates has also described footsteps of four other animals from the 

 sanu; rjuarrics ; and Sir Philip Egerton has given us a description 

 of truly gigantic footsteps of the same kind, which he terms tlie 

 C'h Ir other iiim Hercidis. 



Mr. Strickland gave us a notice of some remarkable dikes of cal- 

 careous grit which occur in tlie lias schist at Ethie in lloss-shirc, 

 und whicii liad already been remarked by Mr. Murchison, in his 



