s6o 



NATURE 



[October 3, 1S95 



on the new Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, 

 exposing Rh.vtic rocks in Nottinghamshire, and gave a list of 

 fossils derived from these beds. 



The first part of Monday's sitting was devoted to jiapers by 

 authors from France and Belgium. M. G. F. DoUfus con- 

 sidered that in l.'pi)er Tertiar)- times there were two great seas 

 in Western Europe ; one was to the east, not very far from 

 Eastern England, in Miocene times, and extended over the 

 Netherlands and North Germany ; the other, or old Atlantic, 

 was to the west of England, and extended in gtilfs into F'rance 

 and Portugal, prolably communicating with the Mediterranean 

 Sea along the Guadalquiver Valley. In I'liocene limes the seas 

 iiccupied similar positions, but the land was rather higher, and 

 a gulf on the .Vtlantic side ajipears to have reached Cornwiill. 

 The English Chaimel w.as closed, and the Eastern Sea appears to 

 have been open only towards the north. M. \an den Broeck's 

 pajier descrilx.'d the pre.scnt state of knowledge of the Upper Ter- 

 tiary strata of Belgium. He had determined that the Upper Oligo- 

 cene strata did not exist in Belgium, but that the Upper Pliocene 

 was probably present there. He concluded that the line of 

 march of the Miocene fauna was from east to west, for Miocene 

 forms present in Belgium were absent from England. That the 

 Miocene formation had l)ecn once present in England he inferred 

 from the fact that half the Belgian Miocene fauna was to be 

 found in the Coralline Crag. A communication from M. M. 

 Boule described the finding of remains of Elephas iiu-ridioiialis 

 and E. aniii/iiiis in association with worked flints, some of them 

 of elaborate workmanship, but others of St. ,\cheul ty|)e, and 

 mammoth tusks, one of which was Z'Sj metres in length ; one 

 flint was fuund under a tusk of E. iiicridioiialis. 



Prof. John Milne's re|x)rt on Jajxinese earthquakes was given 

 in full to Section A, but a short account of his work was com- 

 municated to Section C. The author h.is prepared a catalogue 

 of S331 shocks recorded in Japan between 1SS5 .and 1892. The 

 instruments used have recor<led earthquakes which must have 

 travelled right through the earth with a velocity greater than 

 if its interior were com|x>sed of glass or steel. They also indicate 

 movements corresp<jnding with variations in barometric pressure 

 and strong winds, and even a diurnal variation ]x)ssibly due to 

 the evaporation of moisture and the condensation of dew. 



Dr. H. J. Johnston-I^avis reported on the .activity of Vesuvius 

 during 1895. (The substance of his report has already appeared 

 in Natirk for August 8). The Committee on coral reef explor- 

 ation presented an interim report on the negotiations between 

 the Royal Society and the Admiralty as to beginning the work 

 of sounding and Iwring. .Mr. Osmund Jefl's reported that a 

 number of the geological photographs collected by his Committee 

 had found a home at the Museum of Practical Geology in 

 Jermyn-street, and that the rest would shortly be deposited 

 there. I'rints to the number of 1200 had been received and 

 catalogued, but numerous localities, and particularly the Eastern 

 Counties, were as yet (xjorly represented. The report contained 

 some valuable recommendations for the apparatus suitable for 

 continuing the work, and the Committee proposed lo carr)' on 

 its collection, and to make special eflbrts to induce local societies 

 and individuals to fill up the blanks in the collection, and to make 

 it a thorough photographic survey of geological phenomena 

 throughout the United Kingdom. A valuable appendix lo the 

 report contained a list of such of the photographs as had been 

 employed in illustrating geological works. I)r. I latch's paper 

 on the auriferous conglomerates of the Wilwatersrand showed that 

 gold <jccurred only in ihe matrix of these r<xks, and nol in the 

 |)ebblcs ; it had pmbably been introduced by subsefjuent infil- 

 tration. Mr. E. A. Walford, in a repirt and paper, described 

 the succession of limestones, clays, and sandstones which have 

 Ijtcn revealed by sinking between the Stoncsfield slate and the 

 Inferior Oolite in Oxfordshire, and tr.tced these divisiims north- 

 west and southeast, correlating the up|)er calcareous division 

 with the Fullonian, and the middle sandy division with Ihe 

 Norlhamptrmshire I'.sluarine scries. 



The c-arly |)arl of Tues<lay was devoted lo pajwrs on deep 

 borings, and the later part to work chiefly on invertebrate pake- 

 onloU;gy. The President descrilicd the .succession of rocks 

 rcvcalcn by the experimental boring at Stullon. The section 

 which hearls the lop of the next column gives that succession. 

 The lowest rocks are likely to be of Carlmniferous or .Silurian 

 age, but III' .1.,.!.., ,,f fossiU renders it iin)H)ssible lo Ije sure 

 which of • IPS they really belong to. The Ixiring has 



now Ixicii ■ All to a depth of 1356 feel, mostly in highly 



inclined and even vertical strata of the same doubtful character. 



NO. 1353. VOL. 52] 



Feet. 



Drift (river gravel) 16 



London cl.iy and Reading beds ... ... ... 54 



Upper and middle chalk ... ... ... ... 720 



Lower chalk, with very glauconitic marl at the 



Ijase (almost a green sandstone) 154J 



Gaull 49i 



Pahvozoic rock, with a high dip. 



Mr. J. F'rancis gave the methods and results, hitherto unpub- 

 lished or incorrectly stated, of the attempt to determine the dip 

 of .strata met with in deep wells at Ware and Turnford. After 

 rejecting various magnetic and mecli.inical appliances, the 

 following device was hit upon. The boring tools were lowered 

 with extreme precautions to prevent any torsion during the 

 lowering, and by means of steel |ioints connected with them the 

 direction of a known diameter was marked by vertical cliases on 

 the circumference of the core while still in situ : during the 

 raising of the tool no twisting occurred ; a wax mould of the 

 top of the core in sitii was then taken, and again the lowering and 

 raising were done without twisting. The core was then broken 

 and lifted, and by means of the diameter marked on il in sttii^ 

 confirmed by a known line on the wax mould, the direction and 

 amount of dip was ascertained. To test the method ihe boring 

 was continued, and after the top of the core had been ground to 

 a flat surface, steel-punch marks along a known diameter, main- 

 tained by careful lowering and raising with the same precautions, 

 were impressed on the surface, and again the core was broken 

 and lifted. This observation w.as witliin a degree of the previous 

 one; so that there is |)robably only a negligible error, or none, 

 in the observations. The dip of the Silurian rock at Ware at 

 828 feet below the surface was 1° west of south, at an angle of 

 41°. Similar experiments at Turnford, carried out with rather 

 less success, gave the dip of the Devonian rocks at 994 feet as 

 17° west of south at 25 from the hori/on. The.se dips corre- 

 s]x)nd with those of the Secondary rocks ofi" the Wealden axis. 

 The south-easterly dip which has been published for one of 

 these instances is incorrect. Mr. Harmer, in a paper which fol- 

 lowed, advocated that the survey of deep scateil rocks by borings 

 should be systematically carried out liy the Geological Survey, 

 the expense being provided for indirectly by the appreciation of 

 real property, and directly by royalty, wherever success attended 

 the operations. 



Prof. Clay))ole described some whole specimens of Cladodonls 

 from the Devonian rocks of Ohio, which showed that many 

 species hitherto defined from single and isolated teeth can no 

 longer be maintained. The Upper Devonian shales of the same 

 region have yieldeil many genera of large PlaciKlcrms ; the head 

 ol Diniihthys measured from 2 to 3 feet in length ; Titaniihthys 

 was still longer : and the jaws of Goigoni<htliys alone measured 

 24 inches in length, ending in teeth or points from 6 lo 9 inches 

 in length. -Ml these genera are closely allied to Coccoslfiis. 



One of the most im]iurtant papers of the meeting was that by 

 Prof. Nicholson and Mr. Marr on the I'hylogeny of the Graplo- 

 liles. They are led to believe Ih.at a character of essential im- 

 portance in <lealing with the classification of iheGraptoliles, and 

 one which, in all i)robability, indicates the true line of descent) 

 is founil in the sha|>e and structure of the hydrothece, the |X)int 

 of next importance as indicating genetic relationship being the 

 " angle of divergence " ! These views are illustrated by reference 

 to forms belonging to the "genera" Ihyografitxs, Difilograptiis, 

 'J'ctragraplin, and Diiiymograptiis, which appear in turn in this 

 sequence. <Jut of nine Te/yagrap/i (unA the authors know of 

 no other forms referred to this genus which are represented by 

 well-preserved examples), eighl are closely represented by forms 

 of Didymograpltis, which are closely comparable with them as 

 regards characters of hyilrothecic and amount of "angle of 

 divergence," whilst the ninth is coni|)arable with a Didymo- 

 graptm: .as regards "angle of divergence" only. Moreover, 

 four of the /'ilra/papli are comparable as regards the two 

 above-named important characters with forms of Diclioj^aptiis 

 and Jiryoj^af'lus with eight or more branches, an<l the 

 authors confidently predict the discovery of forms belonging 

 to these or closely allied many-branched "genera," .agree- 

 ing wilh the remaining 'J'clriigropli in what Ihey regard 

 as essential characters. They give details .showing points 

 of agreement of each groiqi of the various series, includ- 

 ing a two-branched, a fiiurbranched, and a many-branched 

 form, anil point out how iliflicult it is to understand how the 

 extraordinary resemblances between the various species of 

 Tetragrapliis and Didymograpliis (to take one example) have 



