256 Geological Society. 
and is it not their function to survive these unfavourable con- 
ditions and thus serve, not only for the preservation of the 
individual, but also for propagation ? 
I think we may answer all these questions in the affirma- 
tive, and regard these fragments as formations analogous to 
what is known to us from Prof. Allman’s* observations on 
the spontaneous fission of Schizocladium ramosum and Cory- 
morpha nutans, as a means of reproduction by fission. In 
Schizocladium ramosum the upper portion of a branch becomes 
detached as a little cylinder, just in the same way as in Obelia 
flabellata; and then, after having ruptured the perisarc, this 
free portion departs from the colony, forms the perisare again, 
and becomes transformed into an individual. 
[To be continued. ] 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
April 11th, 1877.—Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.RB.S., 
President, in the Chair. 
The following communications were read :— 
2. “ The Bone-caves of Creswell Crags.’—Third Paper. By the 
Rey. J. Magens Mello, M.A., F.G.S. 
In this paper the author gave an account of the continued ex- 
ploration of these caves, and of the completion of the examination. 
of the Robin-Hood Cave, noticed in his previous communications. 
Five deposits could be distinguished in the Robin-Hood Cave, 
namely, when all present :— 
1. Stalagmite, 2 ft. 
2. Breccia, with bones and flint implements, 1 ft. 6 in. 
3. Cave-earth, with bones and implements, 1 ft. 9 in. 
4. Mottled bed, with bones and implements, 2 ft. 
5. Red sand, with bones and quartzite implements, 3 ft. 
Variations both in thickness and in character occur in different 
parts of the cave. The surface-soil yielded traces of Romano-British 
occupation, such as enamelled bronze fibule, fragments of pottery, 
&c. The most important discoveries were made in the cave-earth ; 
and chief among these was a fragment of bone, having on it a well 
executed outline of the head and neck of a horse, the first recorded 
discovery of any such work of art in this country. The cave-earth 
also yielded a canine of Machairodus latidens, hitherto obtained in 
England only in Kent’s Hole. Numerous remains of the Pleistocene 
Mammalia already recorded were found, together with a great 
* Allman, “ Reproduction by Fission in Hydroids,” Brit. Assoc. Report, 
1870; and Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. 1871, pl. ii. figs. 2, 3. 
