Geological Society. 307 



parts in which any diluvium can have been accumulated, and there 

 dig lhroufl;h the stalagmitic crust, and seek for teeth and bones 

 in the mud and pebbles that lie below. lie also proposes as a test 

 for distinguishing bones of this antiquity, their property of ad- 

 hering to the tongue if applied to them after they are dry ; — a 

 property apparently derived from the loss of animal gelatine they 

 have sustained, without the substitution of any mineral substance, 

 such as we find in bones imbedded in the regular strata. This test 

 extends equally to the bones of the osseous breccia of caverns and 

 fissures, and to those in all superficial deposits of diluvium, ex- 

 cepting such as are too argillaceous to have admitted the per- 

 colation of water ; but the property of adhesion is rarely found in 

 bones from recent alluvium, or from peat-bogs, nor does it exist 

 in human bones, which the authour has examined from Roman 

 graves in England, and from the druidical tombs of the ancient 

 Britons, nor in any of the human bones which he has discovered in 

 the caves of Paviland and Wokey Hole. 



Dr. Buckland proposes to apply this test to the much disputed 

 case of human bones, said by M. Schlotheim to have been dis- 

 covered in the cave of Kostriz in contact with those of the 

 Rhinoceros and other animals. 



Dr. Buckland also found, in the collection of Professor Fargeaud 

 of Besancon, some teeth of fossil Bears from a mine of Pea-iron- 

 ore in that neighbourhood ; but could not visit the spot to ascer- 

 tain whether this ore was extracted from a bed of superficial 

 diluvium, or from a fissure. Such Iron-ore abounds in the dilu- 

 vium of the east of France; and in fissures at Plymouth, and 

 near Spa. 



Ma^ 4. Thomas Bell, Esq. F.L.S., was elected a Fellow of the 

 Society. 



June 15. A Notice was read. On some fossil bones of the Ele- 

 phant and other animals^ found near Salisbury., by Charles Lyell, 

 Esq. F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. 



Bones and teeth of the Elephant, Rhinoceros, and Ox, have 



been found for many years past in the brick-earth at the village of 



Fisherton Anger, at the distance of about three-quarters of a mil<^ 



from Salisbury cathedral. Several pits sunk in this brick-earth 



u 2 



