1815,] Geological Society, 229 



talned a description of a number of species of fish observed by Dr. 

 Mitchell, and which are caught on the coast or in the rivers. 



On Tuesday the 16th of February, a letter was read from Sir 

 J. E. Smith to Mr. Macleugh, in which he shews, from a manuscript 

 of the late Dr. Sibthorpe, that the lignum rliodium of Pococke, 

 though not that of the ancients, is the liquidaniber styraciflua. 



At the same meeting, the conclusion was read of M. Vieillot's 

 Novi Systematis Ornithologici Prolusio. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Dec. \G, 1814. — Specimens from Maestricht from the Rev. E. 

 Honey were presented, and a notice relative to the mountain of 

 St. Pierre, near Maestricht, by the same, was read, and the thanks 

 of the Society were voted for the same. 



The mountain of St. Pierre is a hill about 1 50 feet high, which 

 commences within a mile of Maestricht, and extends about three 

 leagues in the direction of Liege. On the side next to the Meuse, 

 it forms nearly vertical clifts, and thus affords excellent sections of 

 the strata, which are almost horizontal, having only a very slight 

 dip to the norch. 



The lower beds are decidedly chalk ; alternating at every two or 

 three feet, with beds of flint nodules : the fossils of this chalk, 

 though less abundant, appear to exhibit the same species as those 

 wlilch occur in the chalk of England. Above these are beds re- 

 sembling the former in colour, but harder, and gritty to the touch. 



Upon these lie a series of beds of calcareous free-stone, of 

 which the mass of the hill is composed, and in which the extensive 

 subterranean quarries are situated. This stone, in the quarry, is 

 yellowish, and so soft as to be readily cut with a knife ; but, by 

 exposure to the air, it becomes both whiter and harder. Interposed 

 between these beds are thin ones, composed chiefly of fragments 

 of madrepores and shells. Beds of flint also occur here, as in the 

 chalk ; but the distance between each bed gradually increases, so 

 that those at the top of the series are separated by an interval of 

 eight or ten feet. The fossils of the free-stone are very numerous ; 

 the most common are madreporites, fungitcs, bclemnites, nummu- 

 lites, echinltcs, ostreltes, and pcctinites. 



The top of the hill is covered by a bed of gravel, in some places 

 of considerable thickness; containing rolled pebbles of flint, of 

 quartz, of grey-wackc ; witii veins of quartz, and of red sand- 

 stone. 



The whole of this series of beds, with the exception of the 

 gravel, is considered l)y Mr. Honey to belong to the chalk for- 

 mation. 



The reading of Dr. Macculloch's paper on Glen tilt was begun. 

 Jan. G, 1H15. — The reading of Dr. Macculloch's paper on Glen 

 tilt was continued. 



ROYAL OKOLOGICAL SOCI KTV OF CORNWALL. 



Since our last rejwrt of this Soeietv. we have to communicat c 



