434 



NATURE 



[August 31, 1882 



is said by the author to have one fauna, and the Headon Hill 

 Venus bed another. This determination I hold to be untenable, 

 all fossil and physical evidence being to the contrary, and show 

 that they are one and the same bed. On both sides of Bi amble 

 Chine the " Venus bed" is fully developed. Mr. Blake calls it 

 the "oyster bed." Below these come thin bands of gratified 

 marl, with abundance of Cerithia and Cyrcna (not Cyclas, as 

 stated). The Widdick Chine sands can be no other than the 

 Headon Hill sands, and not the Upper Bagshots. The altitude 

 of these sands above the sea Mr. Blake estimated at 100 feet ; 

 this is certainly loo great an elevation, 70 feet being the received 

 measurement by independent oh ervers. Such difference, if it 

 existed, would alter the reading and sequence of succeeding and 

 higher beds in the section. The author seems to have omitted 

 the Triginocalia and Neritina bed immediately above the How 

 Ledge limestone and below the thick oyster band. These cor- 

 respond with the Warden Cliff section, and determine continuity 

 of deposition, or are a confirmation of the identity of the beds. 

 This is a crucial point in the continuity and equivalency of the 

 marine series in Totland and Colwell Bays. The Trigonoceelia 

 bed here is on the same horizon as in Warden Cliff and Colwtll 

 Bay, associated with Cerithiitm pseudocinctum, Melanopsis fusi- 

 formis, and Natica labttlata, &c. The lower or Neritina concava 

 bed, with Melanopsis fusiformis and Coibicula ova/a, occurs also 

 in the same position near the base of the series at Warden Cliff 

 and Colwell Bay. " This can only be explained by admitting 

 that the Marine seties in Tolland Bay and Colwell Bay are 

 identical." The occurrence of "Cerithiitm ven.'rieosum at the 

 top, and the Neritina [tV. eoncava\ and Tiigonoecelia [T. 

 deltoidea] at the base — identical in physical and fossil characters, 

 are strong presumptive proof of this." It is extremely doubtful 

 if Cerithiitm margarataeeum, mentioned on p. 6 of Mr. Blake's 

 paper, occurs in the Coin ell Bay section, or in the western area 

 of the Isle of Wight — the Cerilheum cinctum is really C. ps< udo- 

 cinetum, and Cyclas obovata should be Cyrena obovata. The 

 genus Cyclas does not occur. In correlation the.-e are important 

 items, especially with a continental fauna. It will also befuund 

 that the oyster beds do not rest immediately on the How Ledge 

 limestone as asserted — the Trigonocalia and Neritina beds inter- 

 vene, and as at Colwell Bay, determine or prove the succession 

 and identity of the series. At pp. 156-7 Mr. Biake remarks upon 

 the similarity of the succession of the Colwell Hay beds with 

 those of Headon Hill, and is " tempted to come to the conclusion " 

 that the two "Venus beds are identical;" [they bare always 

 been so believed and recognised] ; he at the same time states 

 that " it would beabsurd to argue that they are identical because 

 they contain similar common fossils," when it has been "deter- 

 mined by Prof. Judd that the faunas are remarkably distinct." 

 We have no other method whereby to determine the age and 

 synchronism of deposits ex> ept through organic remains, and the 

 fauna; of the " Venus beds " at botb localities are to me identical, 

 and Prof. Blake depends upon fossil evidence all through his 

 paper, yet evidently he has not carefully examined the more 

 complete fauna of the "Venus bed" at both localities. In 

 another paragraph, on p. 157, the author states the proposition 

 " that the Colwell Bay 'Venus bed' is not certainly identical 

 with that at Headon Hill, but may occupy a higher horizon. 

 Mr. Blake suggests that the Headon Hill bed corresponds to the 

 series intervening between the Colwell Bay bed and the How 

 Ledge limestone ; and that the Colwell bay bed corresponds to 

 the slightly fossiliferous sands immediately below the Headon 

 Hill limestone. This position i r suggestion certainly cannot be 

 received. In this case the so-called two " Venus beds " » uld 

 be superposed on each other and nothing to separate them. 

 The sands referred to are those at the base of the Upper Headon 

 series, and are freshwater, for they contain Unio. Again, Prof. 

 Blake's suggestion would thus place the Colwell Lay "Venus 

 bed" below the Great Lime.-tone, whereas Piof. Judd in his 

 paper would place it above. 



The author does not find any equivalents of the Colwell Bay 

 opster beds abo-iit the Headon Hill limestone at Headon Hill, 

 indeed that would be impossible, for they are indisputably the 

 Osborne marls of Prof. Forbes, and capped by the Bembridge 

 limestone. 



As regards the terms Eocene and Oligocene, and their relation 

 to each other, and the correlation of British strata and fossils 

 with that of Germany, &c. , it is far too intricate a questi ,n to be 

 passed over, although without doubt the fluvio-marine strata of 

 the Hampshire basin will ere long receive critical supervision 

 with reference to similar deposits on the Continent. So far back 



as December, 1863, Herr Adolf von Kdnen prepared and reaa 

 his paper on the correlation of Oligocene deposits of Belgium, 

 North Germany, and the South of England, and endeavoured 

 to show that in Britain we had an assemblage of fossils in our 

 so-called Middle Eocene at Brookenhurst, Lyndhurst, and 

 Roydon in the New Forest, that could be stratigraphically corre- 

 lated with beds of the same age termed Oligocene in Northern 

 Germany. The author believed that these Brockenhurst beds 

 were of the same age as the Middle Headon beds of Colwell 

 Bay and Whiteeliff Bay. This view has led to much controversy, 

 arising from the fact that no Brockenhurst species occur in 

 Colwell Bay. The rich cahinet of Mr. F. Edwards then afforded 

 von Kdnen every facility for the comparison and determination 

 of the species occurring common to Britain and Germany. Bt y- 

 rich established the name Oligocene for the fossils of this age in 

 Germany. The Lower Oligocene is well developed, wiih a true 

 marine fauna, in Belgium, near Tongres (North of Liege), and 

 in the North of Germany, between Magdeburg, Bernberg, 

 Egeln, and Helmstiidt (near Brunswick). This Lower Oligocene 

 contains 700 species of mollusca besides other groups. The 

 most characteristic of these, the author asserts, are found 

 at Brockenhurst, and in Mr. Edwards's cabinet, fifty-six 

 species occur, twenty-one of which are Barton clay forms, and 

 forty-three of the fifty-six species occur in the Lower Oligocene 

 of Germany. 



SECTION D 



Department of Anthropology 



Address by W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., 

 F.S.A., Professor of Geology and Paleontology 

 in the Victoria University, Vice-President of 

 the Section. 



On the Present Phase of the Antiquity of Man — In taking the 

 chair in this department of the biological section of the British 

 Association, two courses lie o en before me. I might give an 

 address which should be a history of the progress of anthro- 

 pology during the last year, or I might devote myself to some 

 special branch. The swift development of our young and 

 rapidly growing science, which embraces within its scope all 

 that is known, not merely about man, but about his environ- 

 ment, in present and past times, renders the first and more 

 ambitious course peculiarly difficult to one, like myself, labour- 

 ing under the pressure of many avocations. 1 am therefore 

 driven to adopt the second and the easier, by choosing a subject 

 with which I am familiar, and which appears to me to be appro- 

 priate in this place of meeting. I propose to place before you 

 the present phase of the inquiry into the antiquity of man, and 

 to point out what we know of the c mditions of life — though 

 our knowledge of them is imperfect and fragnentary — under 

 which man has appeared in the Old and in the New Worlds. 

 The rudely chipped implements left by the primeval hunters in 

 the beds of gravel of Hampshire and Wilt-hire, and along the 

 shores of Southampton Water and elsewhere, are eloquent of 

 the presence of man in this district, at a lime when there was no 

 Southampton Water, and the elephant and the reindeer wandered 

 over the site of this busy mart for ships ; when the Isle of Wight 

 was not an island, and the River-drift hunter could walk across 

 from Portsmouth to Coues, with no obstacle excepting that 

 offered by the rivers and morasses. I propose to enter up n the 

 labours of Prestwich, Evans, Stevens and Blackmore, Codling- 

 ton, Read, Brow n, and other investigators in this country, and 

 to combine the results of their inquiries with those in other 

 countries, and with some observations of my own which I 

 was able to make in 1SS0, during my visit to the United 

 States. 



The Limitation of the Inquiry. — The most striking feature in 

 the study of the Tertiary period is the gra ual and orderly 

 succession of higher types of Mammalia, so well defined and so 

 orderly, that I have used it as a basis for the classification of 

 the Tertiary period. We find the placental mammals becoming 

 more and more specialised as we approach ihe frontier of history. 

 The living orders appear in the Eocene, the living genera in the 

 Meiocene, a few living pecies in the Pleiocene, and the rest 

 in the Pleistocene. The characteristics of this evolution of living 

 forms may be summed up in the following table : — 



