May 1 6, 1872J 



NATURE 



55 



horizon, and with which, as seen in northern Michigan, and in 

 the Green Mountains, I have found the rocks of Anglesea to 

 ofier remarkable lithological resemblances. 



It may here be noticed that the gold-bearing quartz veins in 

 North \Vales are found in the Menevian beds, and also, accord- 

 ing to Selwyn, throughout the IJngula flags. These fossiliferous 

 strata at the gold mine near Dolgelly appear in direct contact 

 with diorites and chloritic and talcose schists, which are more or 

 less cupriferous, and themselves also contain gold-bearing quartz 

 veins (Mem. Geol. Survey, part 2, pp. 42, 45, and Siluria, 4th 

 ed , 450, 547). 



The following table gives a view of the lower paloaozoic rocks 

 of Great Britain and North America, together with the various 



nomenclatures and classifications referred to in the preceding 

 pages. In the second column, the horizonal black lines indicate 

 the positions of the three important pakvontological and strati- 

 graphical breaks signalised by Ramsay m the British succession 

 (Mem. Geol. Survey, iii. part 2, page 2). In a table by David- 

 son in the Geological Magazine for 186S (v. 305) showing the 

 distribution of organic remains in these lower rocks, he gives, 

 as the Fesliniog group of Sedgwick, only the Dolgelly .and 

 Maentwrog beds of Belt (the Upper and Middle Lingula flags), 

 and makes of the two divisions of^the Tremadoc rocks a separate 

 group ; the whole being described as the Upper Cambrian of 

 Sedgwick. This, however, is not the present grouping and 

 nomenclature of Sedgwick, nov was it his earlier one. So far as 



Lower PAL.^£ozoIC Rocks of Europe .\nd North America 



Ludlow. 

 Wenlock. 

 Upper Lla 



Lower Helderberg. 

 Niagara, Clinton, 

 Medina, Oneida. 



Hudson-River, Utica, 

 Trenton, Birdseye, 



Silurian, 6'.y/^-:. 



Upper Siluri, 



Mmxhison 



Upper Cambrian ( 

 Bala group, Sedgiv 

 Lower Silurian, 

 MurchisoJi. 



Middle Cambrian or 



Fesliniog group. Scdg^mck. 



Primordial Silurian, 



Murchison. 



and St. John. ^ Lower Cambrian or 



' Bangor group, Sedgwick. 



Cambrian, Munhison, 





Third fauna, 



including 



Etages H, G, F, E. 



Second fauna, 

 including 

 Etage D. 



First fauna. 



Primordial fauna, 

 including 

 Etage C, 



and probably also 

 Etage B. 



VIII. VII., 

 or Regiones 

 E, and DE. 



VI. V. IV., 



or Regiones 



D, C, and BC. 



Regiones 

 B, and A, 



regards Middle and Upper Cambrian, this discrepancy is ex- 

 plained by the fact already stated, that in 1S43 Sedgv.'ick pro- 

 posed as a compromise the name of Cambro-Silurian for his Bala 

 group, previously called Upper Cambrian ; by which change the 

 Festiniog or Middle Cambrian became Upper Cambrian. When 

 the true relation between the Lower Silurian of Murchison and 

 the Bala group was made known, Sedgwick, as we have seen, 

 re-claimed for the latter his former name of Upper Cambrian ; 

 but this had meanwhile been adopted for the Festiniog group, in 

 which sense it is still used by Lyell, Phillips, Davidson, Hark- 

 ness, and Hicks. tTlie Festiniog group, or Middle Cambrian, as 

 defined. by Sedgwick, however, included not only the whole of 

 the Lingula flags, but the Upper and Lower Tremadoc rocks 

 (Philos. Mag. IV. viii, 362). 



The only change which I have made in the groupings of the 

 British rocks adopted by Sedgwick and by Murchison, is in separat- 

 ing the Menevian or Lower Lingula flags from the Festiniog, 

 and uniting it with the Bangor group or Lower Cambrian. In 

 this I follow, with Lyell and Davidson, the suggestion of Salter 

 and Hicks. 



In the third column, llie sub-divisions are those of the New 

 York and Canada Geological Surveys ; in connection with which 

 the reader is referred to a table published in 1863, in the "Geo- 

 logy of Canada," p. 932. Opposite the Menevian I have placed 

 the names of its principal American localities, which are Brain- 

 tree, Mass., St. John, New Brunswick, and St. John's, Newfound- 

 land. With regard to the classification of Angelin, it is to be 

 remarked that, althou.i;h he designates II. asA'i-ov<' Olciioruiii, and 

 III. as Rcgio Conocoryphariiin, the position of these, according to 

 I.innarsson, is to be reversed ; the Conocoryphe beds with Para- 

 do.xidcs being below, and not above, those holding Oleniis. The 

 Kt-gio Fucoidaruiii in .Sweden has lately furnished a brachiopndous 

 shell, Lingula nionilijcra, besides the curious plant-like fossil, 

 Eophyton Linnaanum. (Linnarsson, Geol. Mag., 18C9, vi. 393.) 

 T. Sterry Hunt 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Zoological Society, May 7.— Prof Newton, V.P., F.R.S., 

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

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

 March, 1872, amongst which were two red-necked bustards 

 (Eiipodotis denhami), presented by Mr. C. D. O'Connor and 



Governor Ussher, and a Beatrix antelope {Oryx elialri~\) 

 from the Persian Gulf, received on deposit. — Mr. P. L. 

 Sclaler exhibited and made remarks on a skull of the Hairy 

 Tapir of the Andes ( Tapinis roulini) obtained by Mr. Buckley 

 during his recent expedition to Ecuador. — Prof. Owen read the 

 eighteenth of his series of memoirs on the extinct birds of the 

 genus Dinornis and its allies, in which was contained the descrip- 

 tion of the pelvis and bones of the leg of Dinornis gravis, a 

 supposed new species allied to D, erassns, and a general i-aunu' 

 of the described species of the genus Dinornis. — The Viscount 

 Walden, F. R.S., communicated an appendix to his paper on the 

 birds c>f Celebes, read at a former meeting of the society, and 

 containing an account of twelve species to be .added to the Cele- 

 bean Avifauna. This raised the total number of known species 

 of Celebean birds to 205. — Mr. Henry Buckley exhibited the 

 eggs of three species of North American birds, which he believed 

 had never previously been obtained. The eggs were those of Faloo 

 polyagrits, ElanoiJcs fnrcatns, and Dtinia Mississippicnsis. — Mr. 

 H. E. Dresser exhibited the egg of Qucrqucdula niarniorata, col- 

 lected in Spain by Major Irby, this being probably the first 

 authenticated instance of the breeding of this bird in Spain. — 

 A communication was read from Air. W. H. Hudson, con- 

 taining field notes on the habits of the swallows, of the genus 

 Frogne, met with in the -'\rgentine Republic. To this was added 

 some notes on the species Ijy Mr. P. L. Sclater. — A communica- 

 tion w-is read from Mr. G. French Angus, containing descrip- 

 tions of ten new species of land and marine shells, mostly 

 from Australia. — A second communication from Mr. Angus con- 

 tained the description of a new species of Volula, proposed to be 

 called ] 'olnta hargravesi. — A paper by Mr. H. Adams was read, in 

 which he described a new species of Gcotroclius from the Island 

 of New Britain, proposed to be railed G. fcrgusoni. — A commu- 

 nication was read from Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., containing a 

 descrijition of Pcllastcsforstcni, a species of land tortoise from 

 Celebes. — Two communications were read from Mr. J. M. 

 Brazier, giving descriptions of land and marine shells col- 

 lected in Australia and Lord Howe's Island. — A communica- 

 tion was read from Mr. A. Anderson, containing some addi- 

 tional notes on the Raptorial birds of North Western India. 

 — A paper by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R..S., was read, describing a 

 young Tapir Irom the Peruvian Amazons, which he proposed to 

 call 'Fapirus terrestris pcrnvianus. — A communication was read 

 from Dr. J. E. Bowerbank, F.R.S., containing the third part of 

 his contributions to a general history of the Spongiad,r, 



