yuly 15, 1886 | 
of Northampton. These fossils occur in the clay immediately 
beneath the St. Ives rock, and therefore presumably in the 
uppermost zone of the Oxford Clay. Many of the specimens are 
more or less mutilated, but some fifteen or sixteen distinct 
species have been made out. None of these have been recorded 
as British except Z7y7a Babeauz, mentioned by Mr. Etheridge 
as having been found in the Kimmeridge Clay. Seven species 
are identified as foreign forms, and seven zre new to science. 
They are distributed as follows :— 
Eryon ... 509 sec species. 
Eryma pon Sate LOT Oe or 
Glyphea se Sab AZ ” 
Magila ... 20r3 3»; 
Mecochirus 2 a 
Goniochorus... cop ” 
Undetermined ... 3 » 
Nearly all the forms being to the type of the Macrura, the Bra- 
chyura being doubtfully, if at all, represented.—Some well- 
sections in Middlesex, by W. Whitaker, B.A. Lond., F.G.S. 
Accounts of many well-sections and borings having been received 
since the publication of vol. vi. of the Geological Survey Memoirs, 
the author now gave more or less detailed descriptions of fifty-six 
_of these, all in the Metropolitan county, and all either unfinished 
‘or, in a few cases, with further information as to published sec- 
tions. The depths range from 59 to 700 feet, more than half 
eing 300 feet or more deep. Nearly all pass through the 
ertiary beds into the Chalk, and most have been carried some 
way into the latter. Papers descriptive of like sections in Essex, 
Herts, and Surrey have been sent to Societies in those counties. 
—On some Cupriferous Shales in the Province of Houpeh, 
China, by H. M. Becher, F.G.S. This communication con- 
tained some geological observations made during a visit to a 
locality on the Yangtse River, near I-chang, about 1000 miles 
from the sea, for the purpose of examining a spot whence 
“copper ore (impure oxide with some carbonate and sulphide) had 
been procured. The principal formations in the neighbourhood 
of I-chang were said to be Paleozoic (probably Carboniferous) 
imestones of great thickness, overlain by brecciated calcareous 
conglomerate and reddish sandstones, which form low hills in 
the immediate vicinity of the city. About fifty miles further 
_ west the limestones pass under a great shale-series with beds of 
oal, the relations of which to the sandstones are not clearly 
ascertained. The copper ore examined by the writer came from 
the shales, which contained films and specks of malachite and 
rysocolla, and in places a siliceous band containing cuprite, 
besides the oxidised minerals, was interstratified in the beds. 
Occasionally larger masses of pure copper ore are found em- 
bedded in the strata. The ground had not been sufficiently 
explored for the value of the deposits to be ascertained.—The 
Cascade Anthracite Coal-field of the Rocky Mountains, Canada, 
by W. Hamilton Merritt, F.G.S. The coal-field named occurs 
in the most eastern valley of the Rocky Mountains, that of the 
Bow River, and, like other coal-fields of the country, consists of 
Cretaceous rocks, which lie in a synclinal trough at an elevation 
of about 4300 feet above the sea. The underlying beds, of 
Lower Carboniferous, or possibly Devonian, age, rise into ranges 
3000 feet higher. Further to the eastward the Jurassic and 
Sretaceous coal contains a large percentage of hygroscopic 
yater and volatile combustible matter, and has the mineral com- 
sition of lignite, The average composition is :— 
i y 
p 
Per cent. 
Fixed carbon... aA 42 
Volatile combustible matter 34 
Hygroscopic water ... co xs 116 
ANS Heiss 6c0 08 a EM) 
100 
.s the mountains are approached, the amount of hygroscopic 
ater is found to diminish by about 1 per cent. for every 10 
iles, and 15 miles from the range the percentage is about 5. 
the foot-hills the lignites pass into a true coal, with 1°63 to 
per cent. of hygroscopic water, and 50 to 63 per cent. of 
ced carbon. In the Cascade River coal-field the average cha- 
er of the coal is that of a semi-anthracite, with the following 
position ;— 
NATURE 259 
P_r cent 
Fixed carbon is 8°93 
Volatile combustible matter 10°79 
Hygroscopic water G05 ee fs 
Ash 757 
100°00 
The coal-seams have been subjected to great pressure, andgthe 
change in the quality of the coal appears to be due to metamor- 
phic influence.—On a new Emydine Chelonian from the Plio- 
cene of India, by Mr. R. Lydekker, B.A., F.G.S. The author 
described the shell of an Emydine tortoise from the Siwaliks of 
Perim Island, Gulf of Cambay, which he regarded as decidedly 
distinct from any of the previously described Siwalik species, 
and proposed to refer to the genus C/emmys, with the name: of 
C. watsoni, in compliment to the donor of the specimen.—On 
certain Eocene formations of Western Servia, by Dr. A. B. 
Griffiths, F.R.S.E., F.C.S. Communicated by the President. 
A great thickness of paper-shales containing paraffin occurs near 
the River Golabara ; these extend over 30 square miles of 
country. Smali beds of clay with rock-salt are also found : the 
whole is said to resemble the paraffin and salt districts of Galicia, 
The paraffin shale is free from bituminous impurities. It, con- 
tains :— 
Per cent. 
Paraffin wax : 1°75 
Water of combination 3°02 
Ammonia ... os sae Bs ALK 
The mineral constituents of the shale are :— 
Per cen*. 
Alumina 32°86 
Iron oxide... 520 
Magnesia ... 1°26 
Lime 121 
Potash Pay) 
Soda o'4I 
Silica 56°85 
Loss 0°04 
100°00 
The brown coal of the neighbourhood, whose natural distilla- 
tion has most probably yielded the hydrocarbon in the shales, 
contains :— 
Per cent. 
Carbon eck cir, oD see AG 
Hydrogen ... atc EAL 
Water, combined ... 30°2 
Water, hygroscopic 19°5 
100°00 
The beds containing these coals have been invaded by eruptive 
porphyry and trachytic rocks, of which the former contains 75% 
and the latter 61 per cent. of silica. The clays from which the 
shales were originally formed contain abundance of marine 
Diatomaceze and Foraminifera (chiefly Nummulites), as also 
species of Ostrea, Cyrena, Cerithium, WVoluta, and Nautilus, 
together with the remains of Placoid and Teleostean fishes. 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, July 5.—M. Jurien de la Gravitre, 
President, in the chair.—Memoir on the life and works of 
Louis-Francois-Clement Bréguet, Member of the Academy of 
Sciences, born at Paris on December 22, 1804, died October 27, 
1883, by M. de Jonquiéres.—Obituary notice of M. H. Abich, 
Corresponding Member of the Section for Mineralogy, who died 
at Vienna on July 1, 1886, by M. Daubrée.—Preliminary note 
on the principles and method employed in a study on the move- 
ment of the hydro-extractor, about to be presented to the 
Academy, by M. de Jonquiéres.—Experiments on a new 
apparent paradox in hydraulics, by M. A. de Caligny.—Final 
objections to M. de Bussy's formulas on the roll of vessels, by 
M. A. Ledieu. It is pointed out that M. de Bussy’s theo- 
rising is of a purely speculative character, of very little practical 
