Oct. 



1 1. 



1883] 



NATURE 



579 



F.G.S. — This subject is brought forward for discussion both as 

 having a special local interest, and on account of the inter- 

 national importance of the subject in view of the Berlin Con- 

 gress next year, and the progress of the geological map of 

 Europe. The author, referring to previous papers in the Geolo- 

 gical Magazine during the year 1SS2, in which strong reasons 

 were given for abandoning the threefold division of the so-called 

 Permian system, and to the discussions raised in the same perio- 

 dical, maintains that the "Permian system" of Murchison, 

 which represents the group of strata as marked by three stages, 

 is inapplicable to the English rocks of Post-Carboniferous age. 

 The term " Permian " has only a local and subordinate value, 

 and scarcely applies even to the whole Russian area in which 

 these strata are developed. He considers that the application of 

 the "Permian system," as propounded by Murchison, to the 

 Post-Carboniferous rocks of Central Europe is no longer tenable, 

 any more than is its application to the British series, as the 

 author has shown elsewhere. 



On the Coloration of some Sands, and the Cementation of 

 Siliceous Sandstones. By the Rev. A. Irving, B.A. — In the 

 first part of this paper attention is drawn to the occurrence of 

 certain green-coloured sands which are frequently met with 

 below the peaty layers, at the heads of the small valleys, in the 

 Upper Bagshot sands. The local and exceptional nature of 

 these green deposits, and their relation to the decomposing 

 vegetal matter which has overlain them for a long period of 

 time, suggest the connection of the green colour with the de- 

 composition of vegetation. Chemical analysis of these sands 

 shows that the green colour is in no way connected with any 

 of the ordinary green miuerals which enter into the formation 

 of rocks, but reveals the organic- origin of the colouring matter. 

 In the second part of the paper attention is drawn to some 

 recent investigations by the author of the origin of the siliceous 

 cementing material of the sarsen sti 



Note on the Nagel Flue of the Rigi and Rossberg. By Prof. 

 T. G. Bonney, M.A., F.K.S. — The author called attention to 

 the following points in regard to the conglomerate of the-e 

 mountains: — (1) That the pebbles were not seldom indented 

 bv mutual pressure ; (2) that the pebbles in this district c ni- 

 si ted mainly of grits and limestones from the Secondary and 

 perhaps early Tertiary seriesof the Alps, with a variable amount 

 of a reddi-h granite (of whose locality he was ignorant). He 

 considers there was a close analogy between the Burner con- 

 glomerate and the nagel flue, the firmer also resembling the 

 British Old Red Sandstone, and a part of the Calciferous sand- 

 series in Scotland. As these three were admittedly fresh- 

 water deposits, he argued that the Bunter series (the parts of 

 which had some resemblance to the ordinary molasse) should he 

 reckoned among the true fluviatile or fluvio-lacustrine deposits. 



. \ 'otes on Geological Sections within Forty Miles' Radius of South- 

 fort, liy C. li. De Ranee, F.G.S. — The sections in Silurian 

 - of the Lake District and North Wales within the radius 

 are described, also those in the Carboniferous lime-tone, coal 

 measures, Permian, and the Triassic rocks, especially the 

 Keuper sandstones and works around Southport. The sections 

 in the glacial drift of West Lancashire and Cheshire are meu- 

 ti ned, and the sequence and character of the overlying post- 

 1 1 beds. Soulhport i ; built upon blown sand resting on 

 which is 79 feet below the surface at the sea-coast, rising 

 inland to the surface ; the whole series rests on the Keuper 

 marls, which have been bored into to a depth of 187 yards at 

 the Palace Hotel, Birkdale, without finding the ba-e. Frag- 

 ments of gypsum and pseudomorphous crystals of salt occurred 

 in the boring. The section in the Mersey tunnel, now in course 

 of erection, was alluded to. 



On the Pre-Cambrian Igneous Rocks of St. David's, by 

 Prof. J. F. Blake, M.A., F.G.S.— The rocks below the 

 Cambrian conglomerate have been described by Dr. Hicks 

 as bedded rocks belonging to three distinct periods. The 

 sane rocks have been recently asserted by Dr. Geikie to be 

 partly Cambrian and partly intrusive. The author contends 

 that they are Pre-Cambrian in age, but form a very complete 

 volcanic series, which may well be designated the Dimetian. 

 The basis of the series is the Dimetian granite, serving as the 

 core. This is surrounded by the more acid rocks, as the quartz- 

 felsites and the felspar porphyries (the so-called Arvonian), and 

 the more outlying portions consist of very varying materials, 

 chiefly rough ashes or agglomerate breccias — on the east side 

 finely bedded "halleflintas," and on the north side many basic 

 lava flows. These are the so-called "Pebidian." The arrange- 

 ment of these rocks shows the characteristic irregularity of 



volcanic rocks, and though many portions are bedded, they have 

 no dominant strike over the whole district. The Cambrian 

 series commencing with the conglomerates is quite independent 

 and hangs together as a whole. In no case can a continuous 

 passage be proved from tne one series to the other ; the junction 

 is in most ca-es a faulted one, and at the places where this is not 

 so, the conglomerate lies on different beds of the volcanic series. 



On a Coral Atoll on the Shore Line at Arvigland, near Dum- 

 fries, Scotland, by James Thomson, describes a band of Car- 

 boniferous limestone, with corals of several genera, which 

 form seventeen coral reefs, extending through a depth of 

 400 feet of strata. 



On the Fortner Physical Condition of Glendale, Northumber- 

 land, by G. P. Hughes, describes the River Till, as once filling 

 this valley, and forming a lake, on the site of which occurs peat, 

 forest beds, grey clays, with Bos urns, Cervus megaceros, and 

 red stag, and gravels, resting on boulder clay. 



Additional Notes on Anthracosaurus Edgei, by W. H. Baily, 

 describes a large Sauro-Batrachian from the lower coal measures, 

 Jarrow Colliery, near Castlecomer, co. Kilkenny. 



On Basalt apparently overlying Post- Glacial Beds, co. Antrim, 

 by W. T. Knowles, describes a mass of basalt twenty yards 

 in length, lying on sands and gravels ; probably is a glacial 

 erratic. 



On the Geological Relatives and Mode of Preservation of 

 Eozoon Canadense, by Principal Dawson. — The oldest known 

 formation in Canada is the Ottawa gneiss, or fundamental 

 gneiss, a mass of great but unknown thickness and of vast area, 

 ting entirely of orthoclase gneiss imperfectly bedded, and 

 destitute of limestones, quartzires, or other rocks, which might 

 be supposed to indicate the presence id lani surfaces and ordi- 

 nary aqueous deposition. It constitutes the Lower Laurentian 

 of Logan, aud may be regarded eiiher as a portion of the earth's 

 original crust, or as a deposit thereon by aqueo-igneous agency, 

 ami without any evidence of derivative deposits. Succeeding it 

 is a formation of very different character, though still belonging 

 to the Lower Laurentian of Logan. It may be named the 

 Glenville series, and includes beds of lime tone, quartzite, tin 

 ore, graphitic and hornblendic schists, with local beds of 

 pebbles ; it is in one of these great limestones that Eozoon 

 occurs. The Grenville series give distinct evidence of ordinary 

 atmospheric erosion of the older rocks, and of ordinary aqueous 

 as well as organic deposition. The author hopes to exhibit 

 specimens, now in the McGill University, to the Association. 



On the Topography and G.ology of the Troad, by T. S. Diller. 

 — The Liparites are older than the Andesites, rocks that are 

 probably pre-Cambrian from the base of the older sedimentary 

 rocks, which are much altered and often highly crystalline. The 

 more sedimentary rocks are also partially crystalline; they are 

 less important in determining the physical geography. Positions 

 of streams have varied much, but the coast-line has probably 

 changed little since the days of Trey. Mount Ida is an anti- 

 clinal with a very short axis, and is almost a dome, the summit 

 of which has been denuded. 



SECTION D— Biology 



Department of Zoology and Botany 



On the Origin and Development of the Rhinoceros Group, by 

 . Scott nd Osborne. — The very extensive series of Tertiary 

 lake deposits in the north-western United States have afforded 

 these gentlemen material for some generalisations on this sub- 

 ject. Their conclusions are as follows : — That from the 

 Rhinoceros group of the Middle Eocene there diverge three 

 distinct lines, one represented by the forms still living in the 

 Old World, the other two exclusively American and extinct. 

 The first of these lines is continued into the Upper Eocene 

 formation by the genus Amynodon. In this form the rhino- 

 cerotic features of the skull are slightly more marked ; the lower 

 canines are somewhat more procumbent and have caused the 

 atrophy of the lower incisors. The digits are four in the manus 

 and three in the pes. In the Lower Miocene follows the genus 

 Aceratherium, which, retaining the number of digits found in 

 Amynodon and many lophidont skeletal characters, is yet an 

 unmistakable rhinoceros. From Aceratherium, again, we get 

 two diverging lines, one belonging to the Old World, the other 

 to the New. These authors think that very probably Acera- 

 therium originated in America, and migrated to Asia in early 

 Miocene times. In the Old World it gave rise to the horned 

 series of genera, probably beginning, as suggested by Cope, with 



