Feb. 2Q, 1872] 



NATURE 



355 



before the society (see Q. J. G. S. xxvii., p. 109), the author 

 commenced by stating that his former opinion as to the Juras- 

 sic age of the rocks of Antequera is fully borne out by later 

 researches upon their fossils. They apparently belong to 

 the Portlandian series. The author made considerable 

 additions to his description of the Torcal, near the foot of which 

 he has found a sandstone containing abundance of Ciyp/itea 

 '■irxula and Ostna deltoidta. This he regards as equivalent to 

 the Kimmeridge clay. In the Torcal he has also found a soft, 

 white, calcareous deposit, overlying the limestones of supposed 

 Poitlandian age, and containing a fossil which he identities with 

 the Tithonian Tt-rebratula diphya. The author discussed the 

 peculiar forms assumed by the rocks of the Torcal under denuda- 

 tion, which he supposed to be due originally to the upheaval 

 caused by the rising of a great mass of greenstone, portions of 

 which are visible at the surface on both sides of the range. 

 2. " On the River-courses of England and Wales," by Prof. .A 

 C. Ramsay, F. R. S., The author commenced by describing 

 the changes in the physical conformation of Britain during 

 the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and the relations 

 which the deposits found during those periods bore to the 

 Palaeozoic rocks of Wales and the north-west of England. He 

 stated that the Miocene period of Europe was essentially a 

 continental one, and that it was closed by important disturbances 

 of strata in central Europe, one effect of which would be to give 

 the lecondary formations of France and Britain a slight tilt 

 towards the north-west. To this he ascribed the north-westerly 

 direction of many of the rivers of France ; and he surmised that 

 at this period the rivers of the middle and south of England also 

 took a westerly course. The westerly slope of the cretaceous 

 strata of England was also, he considered, the cause of the 

 southern flow of the .Severn, between the hilly land of Wales 

 and the long slope of chalk rising towards the east. The Severn 

 would thus establish the commencement of the escarpment of 

 the chalk, which has since receded far eastward. The author 

 believed that after the Severn had cut out its valley the cretace- 

 ous and other strata were gr.adually tilted eastwards, causing the 

 easterly course of the Thames and other rivers of southern and 

 eastern England. In these and other cases adduced by the 

 author, the sources of these rivers were originally upon the chalk 

 near its escaqiment ; and it is by the recession of the latter 

 (which was followed by the formation of the oolitic escarpment) 

 that its i>resent relation to the river-courses has been brought 

 about. The author also referred to the courses followed by the 

 rivers of the more northern p.art of England, and indicated their 

 relations to the general dip of the strata. 



Geological Society, February 16. — Mr. Joseph Prestwich, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The Secretary read the reports 

 of the council, of the Library and Museum Committee, and of 

 the auditors. The general position of the society was described 

 as satisfactory, although, owing to the number of deaths which 

 had taken place among the Fellows during the year iSyi, the 

 society did not show the same increase which has characterised 

 former years. In presenting the Wollaston gold medal to the 

 Secretary, Mr. David Forbes, for transmission to Prof. Dana, 

 of Vale College, Connecticut, the President said : — " I have 

 the pleasure to announce that the Wollaston Medal has been con- 

 ferred on Prof, Dana, of Yale College, Newhaven, U.S. ; and in 

 handing it to you for transmission to our Foreign Member, I beg 

 to express the great gratification it affords me that the award of the 

 Council has fallen on so distinguished and veteran a geologist. 

 Prof Dana's works have a world-wide reputation. Few branches 

 of geology but have received his attention. An able naturalist 

 and a skilful mineralogist, he has studied our science with advan- 

 tages of which few of us can boast. His contributions to our 

 science embrace cosmical questions of primary importance-— 

 pateontological questions of special interest — recent phenomena 

 in their bearings on geology, and mineralogical investigations so 

 essential to the right study of rocks, especially of volcanic 

 phenomena. The wide range of knowledge he bi ought to bear 

 in the production of his excellent treatise on Geology, one of the 

 be^.t ot our class books, embracing the elements as well as the 

 principles of geology. His treatise on Mineralogy exhibits a like 

 skill in arrangement and knowledge in selection. In conveying 

 this testimonial of the high estimation in which we hold his 

 researches to Prof. Dana, may I beg also that it may 

 be accompanied by an expression how strongly we 

 feel that the bonds of friendship and brotherhood 

 are connected amongst all civilised nations of the 

 world by the one common, the one universal, and the one 



kindred pursuit of truth in the various branches of science." — 

 Mr. David Forbes, in reply, said that it was to him a 

 great pleasure to have, in the name of Prof Dana, to return 

 thanks to the society for their highest honour, and for this mark 

 of the appreciation in which his labours are held in England. It 

 had rarely if ever occurred in the history of the society that the 

 Wollaston medal had been awarded to any geologist who had 

 made himself so well known in such widely different departments 

 of the science, for not only was Prof Dana pre-eminent as a 

 mineralogist, but his numerous memoirs on the Crustaceans, 

 Zoophytes, coral islands, volcanic formations, and other allied 

 subjects, as well as his admirable treatise on general Geology, 

 fully testify to the extensive range and great depth of his 

 scientific researches. — The President then presented the 

 balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston donation fund to Prof. 

 Ramsay, F. R. S., for transmission to Mr. James Crol], and 

 addressed him as follows: — "The Wollaston fund has been 

 awarded to Mr. James CroU, of Edinburgh, for his many valuable 

 researches on the glacial phenomena of Scotland, and to aid in 

 the prosecution of the same. Mr. CroU is also well known to 

 all of us by his investigation of oceanic currents and their bear- 

 ings on geological questions, and of many questions of great 

 theoretical interest connected with some of the great problems in 

 Geology. Will you, Prof Ramsay, in handing this token of the 

 interest with which we follow his researches, inform Mr. Croll of 

 the additional value his labours have in our estimation, from the 

 difficulties under which they have been pursued, and the limited 

 time and opportunities he has had at his command." — Prof. 

 Ramsay thanked the president and council in the name of Mr. 

 Croll for the honour bestowed on him. He remarked that Mr. 

 CroU's merits as an original thinker are of a very high kind, and 

 that he is all the more deserving of this honour from the cir- 

 cumstance that he has risen to have a well-recognised place 

 among men of science without any of the advantages of 

 early scientific training ; and the position he now occu- 

 pies has been won by his own unassisted exertions. The 

 President then proceeded to read his Anniversary Address, 

 in which he discussed the bearings upon theoretical Geology 

 of the results obtained by the Royal Commission on Water- 

 Supply and the Royal Coal Commission. The Address was pre- 

 faced by biographical notices of deceased Fellows, including Sir 

 Roderick I. Murchison, Mr. William Lonsdale, Sir Thomas 

 Acland, Sir John Herschel, Mr. George Grote, Mr. Robert 

 Chambers, and M. Lartet. — The ballot for the Council and 

 Officers was taken, and the following were duly elected for tlie 

 ensuing year : — President — The Duke of Argyll, K. T., F.R.S. 

 Vice-Presidents— Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R S., Prof. A. C. 

 Ramsay, F.R.S., Warington W. Smyth, F.R.S., Prof. John 

 Morris. .Secretaries — John Evans, F.R. S. , David Forbes, F. R. S. 

 Foreign Secretary, Prof. T. D. Ansted, F.R.S. Treasvu'er — J. 

 Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S. Council— Prof T. D. Ansted, F.R.S., 

 the Duke of Argyll, F.R.S., W. CaiTuthers, F.R.S., W.Boyd 

 Dawkms, F.R.S., Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., R. Ethe- 

 ridge, F.R.S., John Evans, F.R.S., James Fergusson, F.R.S., 

 J. Wickham Flower, David Forbes, F.R.S., Capt. Douglas 

 Galton,C.B., F.R.S., Rev John Gunn, M.A., J.Whitaker Hulke, 

 F.R.S., J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., Sir Charies Lyell, Bart., 

 F.R.S., C. J. Meyer, Prof John Morris, Joseph Prestwich, 

 F.R.S., Prof. A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S., R. H. Scott, F.R.S., 

 W. W. Smyth, F.R.S., Prof. J. Tennant, Heniy Woodward. 



Zoological Society, Februaiy 20, Prof. Flower, F.R.S., 

 in the chair. — The secretary read a report on the additions that 

 had been made to the society's menagerie during the month of 

 January, 1872, and called particular attention to a young king 

 penguin {Apterodytcs pcnnaiiti), presented by Mr. F. P. Cobb, 

 of Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, and to a collection of African 

 land tortoises, transmitted by Dr. Grey of Cradock, Cape 

 Colony. — The secretary also called attention to the female 

 Sumatran rhinoceros {Rhinoccios sniiialiensis) just added to the 

 society's menagerie. — A paper was read by %\x. J. W. Clark, 

 on the visceral anatomy of the hippopotamus, as ob- 

 served in the young specimen of this animal which had died in 

 the society's gardens on the loth January, 1872. After giving 

 an account of the morbid appearances noticed, Mr. Clark de- 

 scribed in detail the stomach of this specimen, which appeared 

 to differ in some points from those examined by previous authori- 

 ties. — A communication w.as re.ad from Dr. J. S. Buwerbank, 

 F.R.S., containing the second part of his " Contributions to a 

 General History of the Spongiadae," in which was contained a 

 full account of two species of the genus Ceodia. — A paper by the 



