GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 251 



and inr/ens (a bird standing the height of nine feet) were always 

 found at a lower level than the bones of Dinornis diJiformis (Owen), 

 of only four feet high. I have the pleasure of showing you, here, a 

 leg of Dinornis grassus. I have since had my collection of bones 

 increased by various contributions from Messrs. Wells, Haycock and 

 Ogg, and a nearly perfect specimen of Dinornis ingens presented by 

 the Nelson Museum to the Imperial Geological Institution of Vienna. 

 These gigantic birds belong to an era prior to the human race, to a 

 post-tertiary period. And it is a remarkably incomprehensible fact 

 of the creation, that whilst at die very same period in the old world, 

 elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami ; in South America, gigantic 

 sloths, and armadillos ; in Australia, gigantic kangaroos, wombats, 

 and dasyures were living ; the colossal forms of animal life were re- 

 presented in New Zealand by gigantic birds, who walked the shores 

 then untrod by the foot of any quadruped." 



GEOLOGY OF THE VICINITY OP OXFORD. 



Processor Phillips has read to the British Association a paper, 

 first calling attention to the value and extent of the collection of 

 fossils acquired by the late Dr. Buckland in this locality ; and stating 

 that, although the systematic arrangement of them was not com- 

 pleted, they might form some idea of their vast number by the fact 

 that 50,000 of them Lad already passed through his hands. The 

 Professor said that as the geologist would travel with deep interest 

 those parts of this neighbourhood from which Dr. Buckland had 

 made his collection of fossils, he would confine himself to those 

 points. He then gave a general sketch, descriptive of the district 

 round Oxford, commencing at the lias, and extending to the fresh- 

 water sands at Shotover-hill. He admitted that it was a question 

 whether the latter were of the age of the lower green sand or Weal- 

 den, and that it was open to discussion, but his own views inclined 

 to the latter opinion. The Professor stated that at Stonesfield the 

 bones of some enormous animals had been discovered, embedded in 

 slate, and exhibited some fine and valuable specimens, including one 

 of the foot-bones of the Megalosaurus, and an extreme claw of the 

 foot of the Cetereosaurus, both of which gave indications that these 

 creatures were partly terrestrial. — Oxford University Herald. 



BLENHEIM IRON-ORE. 



Mr. E. Hull has read to the British Association a paper on the 

 Blenheim Iron Ore, and the thickness of the formations below the 

 Great Oolite at Stonesfield. The author showed that the economic 

 importance of the liassic and oolitic iron-ores is yearly on the increase, 

 owing to three causes — the expansion of the British iron trade, the 

 local curtailment in the supply of clay iron-stone of the coal-measures, 

 and the extension of the railway system, which has rendered avail- 

 able iron-ores far removed from the boundaries of the coal-fields, and 

 which were almost unknown till within the last few years. From 

 the mineral statistics of Great Britain, collected by Mr. Hunt, it 

 appears that in 1857 the quantity of ore raised from the Cleveland, 



