v 
: 
May 25, 187%] 
NATURE 
77 

a fine series of skulls of Ursus spelcus from the Belgian caves 
contained in the Museum at Brussels. —Mr. Whitaker describes 
the chalk of the cliffs from Seaford to Eastbourne in Sussex, 
which he illustrates by a section, and compares with that of the 
Kentish cliffs.—In a paper (illustrated with a map) on the De- 
nudation of the Coalbrook Dale coal-field, Mr. Daniel Jones 
endeavours to explain the puzzling arrangement of the coal mea- 
sures in that locality by demonstrating that the southern portion 
of it has been largely denuded, and subsequently overlain by 
coal measures of younger age, so that the deposits are not 
uniform and persistent.—Mr. W. Davies gives us an alphabetical 
catalogue of type specimens of fossil fishes in the British Museum, 
in continuation of the similar lists already published by Sir 
Philip Egerton and Lord Enniskillen of the type specimens in 
their collections.—The remainder of this number is occupied as 
usual by notices, reviews, reports and correspondence. 
THE Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Series II. No. 
2 of vol. i. has just been presented to the members. This 
Part contains Mr. Andrews’s notice of the capture of Zip/ius 
Sowerbi. The President’s Annual Address. W. Archer ‘On 
some new or little-known Freshwater Rhizopods (Plates 12 and 
13). Mr. R. C, Tichborne, Laboratory notes. G. J. Stoney 
“*On the Cause of the Interrupted Spectra of Gases.” Prof. R. 
Ball ‘‘ On the Motion of Vortex Rings in Air.“ C. E. Burton 
“On Results obtained by the 4gosfa Expedition to observe the 
Recent Solar Eclipse.” Principal Dawson, Note on Zozé02 Cana- 
dense, Prof. T.S. Hunt, Notes on Messrs. King and Rowney 
on Zozdon Canadense. Prof. Macalister, ‘‘On Human Muscular 
Anomalies.” The Appendix contains the minutes of the Pro- 
ceedings of the Academy, and the Correspondence relative to 
the Bombardment of Paris. 
In the Fournal of Botany for May, Mr. C. E. Broome de- 
scribes a new British fungus Scleroderma Geaster, with a litho- 
graph. The contributions to local botany are a continuation of 
Mr. More’s Supplement to the ‘*‘ Flora Vectensis,” and Notes of 
plants of the neighbourhood of Oxford, by Prof. Thistleton- 
Dyer. We have also a further instalment of Dr. Hance’s 
**Sertulum Chinense,” and the usual short notes, reports, reviews, 
and proceedings of societies. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Zoological Society, May 16.—Prof. Flower in the chair,— 
The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made 
to the society’s menagerie during the month of April 1871 ; and 
called particular attention to a female of the lately-described 
Prince Alfred’s deer (Cervus alfredi), which had been received in 
exchange, and was stated to have been originally brought from 
the Philippines.—An extract was read from a letter addressed to 
the secretary by Dr. R. A. Philippi, Director of the National 
Museum at Santiago, stating that no species of the tortoise was 
known to occur in Chili, and that the specimens upon which the 
so-called TZestudo chilensis had been based had been received 
from Mendoza, in the Argentine Republic.—Prof. T. H. Huxley 
communicated a paper by Dr. P. Martin-Duncan, F.R.S, con- 
taining descriptions of the Madreporaria (stony corals) dredged 
up during the expedition of H.M.S. Porcupine in 1869-1870.— 
Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., F.Z.S., read a paper on Speke’s 
Antelope (Zragelaphus spekiz) and the allied species of the genus 
Tragelaphus, in which the distinguishing characters of these 
animals were pointed out, and their synonymy and distribution 
given.—Mr. P. L. Sclater communicated some notes on a collec- 
tion of birds made in the vicinity of Lima, Peru, by Prof. W. 
Nation, of that place, with notes on their habits by the collector. 
—A second communication from Mr. Sclater contained a con- 
tinuation of his notes on rare or little-known animals now or 
lately living in the society’s gardens. Mr. Sclater also gave the 
description of a new parrot, now living in the society’s gardens, 
which he proposed to call ZLortus tibialis.—Mr. R. B. Sharpe 
read a note on Macheirhamphus anderssoni, a very rare Accipi- 
trine bird from Damara Land, and gave a history of the two 
species of Macheirhamphns now known to science.—Mr. J. 
Gould exhibited and pointed out the characters of a new hum- 
ming bird, lately discovered by Mr. H, Whitely in Peru, which 
he proposed to call Helianthea osculans ; and likewise charac- 
terised five other new species of the same family of birds, 



Geological Society, May 10 —Prof. Morris, vice-president, 
in the chair. Dr. Henry Nyst, of Brussels, was elected a 
foreign member, and Prof. G. Dewalque, of Liége, a foreign 
correspondent of the Society. The following communications 
were read :—1. On the Ancient Rocks of the St. David’s 
Promontory, South Wales, and their Fossil contents, by Prof. R. 
Harkness, F.R.S., and Mr. Henry Hicks. In the Promontory 
of St. David’s the rocks upon which the conglomerates and 
purple and greenish sandstone, forming the series usually called 
the ‘‘Longmynd” and ‘‘ Harlech Groups,” repose, are highly 
quartziferous, and in many spots so nearly resemble syenite 
that it is at first difficult to make out their true nature. The ap- 
parent crystals are, however, for the most part angular fragments of 
quartz, not possessing the true crystalline form of the mineral, The 
matrix does not exhibit a crystalline arrangement, and contains a 
very large proportion of silica, much exceeding that which is ob- 
tained from rocks of a syenitic nature. “These quartziferous 
rocks form an E.N.E and W.S.W. course. The arrangement 
of these rocks, which seem to be quartziferous breccias, is some- 
what indistinct. Inthe immediate neighbourhood of St. David’s 
they have associated with them irregular bands of hard, green- 
ish, ashy-looking shales, much altered in character, but often 
presenting distinct traces of foliation. Ina ridge running from 
the S.E. of Ramsey Sound in a north-easterly direction, the 
greenish shales are more compact, and resemble earthy green- 
stones. The quartziferous breccias and their associated shales 
form two anticlinal axes, contiguous to each other, and have on 
their S.S.E, and N.N.W. sides purple and green rocks. The 
order of the rocks from the quartziferous breccias upwards, when 
not disturbed by faults, is as follows :— 
Lower Cambrian. 
1. Greenish hornstones on the S.E., and earthy Greenstones on 
the N. W., forming the outermost portions of the so-called 
Syenitic and Greenstone ridges, 
feet, 
2. Conglomerates composed chiefly of well-rounded 
masses of quartz imbedded in a purple matrix . 69 
3. Greenish flaggy sandstones C 5 5 » 460 
4. Red flaggy or shaly beds, affording the earliest traces 
of organic remains in the St. David’s Promontory, 
namely, Lingulella ferruginea and Leperditia cam- 
brensis . 6 6 . . 9 F : 50 
5. Purple (sometimes greenish) sandstones, . + 1000 
6. Yellowish-grey sandstones, shales, and flags containing 
the genera /lutonia, Conocoryphe, Microdiscus, Ag- 
nostus, Theca, Protospongia . - c . - I50 
7. Grey, purple, and red flaggy sandstones, containing, 
with some of the above-mentioned genera, the genus 
Paradoxides . A c c : ° 1500 
8. Grey flaggy beds. 2 5 4 : . Ay) ize) 
9. The true beds of the “ Menevian Group,” richly fossili- 
ferous, and the probable equivalents of the lowest 
portions of the Primordial Zone of M. Barrande 550 
The discovery of a fauna specially rich in trilobites, among 
these rocks of the St. David’s Promontory, affords very im- 
portant information concerning the earlier forms of life of the 
British Isles. Until the discovery of this fauna, these rocks and 
their equivalents in North Wales were looked upon as all but 
barren of fossils. We have now, scattered through about 3000 
feet of purple and green strata, a well-marked series of fossils, 
such as have nowhere else been obtained in the British Isles. 
In the Longmynds of Shropshire the only evidence of the 
existence of life during the period of their deposition is in the 
form of worm-burrows, and in the somewhat indistinct impres- 
sions, which Mr. Salter regards as trilobitic, and to which he has 
given the name of Paleopyge Ramsayi. If we assume the purple 
and green shales andsandstones, with their associated quartz rocks 
of Bray Head and the drab shales of Carrick M‘Reily, county 
Wicklow, to represent the old rocks of St. David’s, they afford 
only very meagre evidence of the occurrence of life during the 
period of their deposition in the form of worm-burrows and tracks, 
and in the very indeterminate fossils which have been referred to 
the genus O/dhamia. One very prominent feature about the 
palzontology of the ancient rocks of St. David’s is the occur- 
rence of four distinct species of the genus Paradoxides ; and this 
is in strong contrast with the entire absence of the genus Olenus. 
On a comparison of the palzontology of the St. David’s rocks 
with those of the continent of Europe and of America, which 
seem to occupy nearly the same horizon, we have like features to 
a very great extent presenting themselves, With reference to 
