252 TEAR-BOOK Or FACTS. 



Whittey, and Northamptonshire districts, reached the amount of 

 nearly one and a half million of tons, or nearly one-tenth of the total 

 quantity raised in Great Britain. It may safely be predicted that, 

 ere long, Oxfordshire will also rank as an iron-producing county. 



In a new geological map of the county of Oxford, exhibited to the 

 Geological Section by Sir R. Murchison, the iron-ore in the Blen- 

 heim estate is clearly shown. Mr. Bull, who had taken part in the 

 preparation of the map, described the geological features of the 

 county as shown in the map. He particularly noticed the Blenheim 

 iron- ore, which was of a very valuable character, and he had no 

 doubt it would at some future day exercise a great influence upon 

 the productions of this part of England. — Oxford Universltij Herald. 



FOSSILS OF THE LOWER ROCKS. 



Mb. Ash, who is known to Silurian geologists for his zeal in col- 

 lecting fossils around Tremadoc, North Wales, has discovered re- 

 mains of a Cheirurus (a 6pecies of trilobite) and Conularia (a ptero- 

 pod mollusc) in association with Ai/nostus 2>istformis, in the Lingula 

 beds at Maentwrog Waterfalls, Caernarvonshire. This discovery 

 takes the date of Oheirurua considerably lower down in the Lower 

 Silurian scale than it had been previously fixed, although Murchison 

 has already figured Cheirurus chirifrons among Lower Silurian trilo- 

 bites. Conularia, too, is remarkable in this early age. The Lingula 

 flags become more and more closely united with the Lower Silurian 

 rocks, of which, as Murchison observes, " they form the true fossili- 

 ferous base." 



FOSSIL VEME13R.E IN SOMEHSKT. 



Professor Owen has read to the Geological Society a paper " On 

 some small Fossil Vertebra? from near Frome, Somersetshire." In 

 this communication the author described three minute vertebrae dis- 

 covered by Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S., in an agglomerate occupy- 

 ing a fissure of the Carboniferous Limestone near Frome, in Somer- 

 setshire, in company with teeth of a sinall Mammal allied to the 

 Microlatet of Plicninger. The vertebra are stated to correspond in 

 size with the teeth of Microlcstes; but to have Reptilian characters, 

 especially in their biconcave structure — a character common in Meso- 

 zoic Saurians, but, ran: in the existing genera. There appears to bo 

 but very slight grounds for supposing that such a character mav have 

 ever belonged to any Mammals, although some of the existing 

 Mono/n iiictd have peculiar vertebral modifications somewhat resem- 

 bling, in these respects, the structural features of Reptiles. In their 

 large and anohylosed neutral arch, however, these little vertebraj 

 pros* nt a mammalian char:. 



Remains also of small Saurians and Fishes occur in considerable 



numbers with the vertebra in question, as well as the more rare 



mammalian teeth. 



surri.v 01 OOAL. 

 M. di caiina!., a Prussian mfafag engineer, has prepared some 



of mining. He asserts that the quantity of Coal 



