454 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [June, 



from the great oolite to the newer sandstone ; and the whole of 

 the district occupied by lias is traversed and intersected by simi- 

 lar vallies in such a manner as to divide it into numerous insu- 

 lated platforms based upon the sandstone, and often crowned 

 with lofty summits of oolite, these summits being frequently 

 many miles from the main chain of the oolite formations. These 

 insulated groups minutely correspond with each other, the same 

 strata being always found on the opposite sides of the valleys 

 dividing them in the continuation of the same planes. 



These circumstances are strongly insisted on as affording a 

 proof almost demonstrative that the valleys in question owe 

 their origin to some cause which has excavated them subse- 

 quently to the deposition and consohdation of the strata which 

 have been thus removed by intervals once occupied by them. 



Alluvial detritics is less abundant than might have been 

 expected in such a country. The flats in which it might have 

 been looked for being generally covered with marshes ; deposits 

 of it, however, are scattered in several places, which have 

 afforded the usual remains of elephants, &c. The most remark- 

 able accumulation of this kind occurs under veiy peculiar 

 circumstances, occupying a fissure and cavern in the mountain 

 limestone of Hutton Hill, one of the Mendip chain. This cavern 

 is nearly filled with an ochreous deposit so pure as to have been 

 an object of extraction, mixed with boulderstone and pebbles : 

 dispersed through this mass were found great abundance of 

 bones of land animals : magnificent molar teeth of the elephant, 

 and an entire skeleton of an animal of the dog tribe, probably a 

 fox. There can be very little doubt that the famous sKeleton of 

 the rhinoceros discovered at Plymouth really occurred under 

 similar circumstances, although the workmen neglected to 

 notice the exterior opening of the cavity in which it was buried, 

 which might, perhaps, have been closed by stalactites, a sub- 

 stance easily confounded by such observers with the native 

 rock. 



The caverns of Hutton Hill are no longer open, but they are 

 minutely described in the MSS, of the Rev. Mr. Calcott, pre- 

 served in the city library of Bristol ; and numerous specimens of 

 the fossils are deposited in his cabinet in the same building. 



ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AT PARIS. 



An Analysis of the Labours of the Royal Academy of Scie7ices 

 of Paris during the Year 1818. 



I^Continued from p. 388.) 



BOTANY. 



The first known and the most useful of the palms is undoubt- 

 edly the date tree ; it is one of the most valuable productions of 



