Jtdy 4, 1872] 



NATURE 



f95 



from tlie other group?, as a Middle Silurian division, this was 

 the most natural and props r position. — " On the Silurian Rocks 

 of the English Lake District," by Prof. Alleyne Nicholson. In 

 this paper the author classified the Silurian rocks of the English 

 Lake District as follo\\s, commencing with the lowest : — (i)Thc 

 Skiddaw Slates, (2) the Borrowdale Series, or Green Slates and 

 Porphyries, (3) the Coniston Limestone and associated shales, 

 (4) the Graptolitic Mudstcmts, (5) the Coniston Flags, (6) the 

 Coniston Grits, (7) the Ludlow Rocks. Each of these members 

 of the series was described lithologically and palceontologically, 

 and its geological position discussed, not only with reference to the 

 other beds of the district, but also to the Silurians of Wales and 

 North America. 



Society of Biblical Archasology, June 4. — Dr. Birch, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. "On a Religious and Politi- 

 cal Revolution which took place in Egypt prior to the 

 reign of Kameses HL, having a probable connection with 

 the rise of the Jewish religion, p'rom the te.\t of the 

 Harris Papyrus," by Dr. August Eisenlohr. This mag- 

 nificent Papyrus contains an account of the reign of Rameses 

 III. 'and the events preceding his accession to the throne. 

 Among these he finds a most marvellous account of a politico- 

 theological revolution made by a Syrian hero, who, after a period 

 of general disorder, made himself chief of the whole country, 

 and abolished the existing religion and the sacrifices then in uie. 

 The father of Rameses ILL, King Scti-nekht, suppressed this 

 revolution and restored the country to its former religious in- 

 stitutions. The striking resemblance of this story with the 

 narrative of the return of the Hykshos, which was extracted by 

 Josephus from Manetho's work, and was held by nearly all 

 authorities to be connected with the establishment of the Jewish 

 religion is very remarkable. Dr. Eisenlohr considered these 

 passages in the Harris Papyrus as representing the Egyptian 

 view of this and oiher grtat events which were the immediate 

 cause of the Exodus, in which case the Papyrus would consti- 

 tute the first Old Egyptian document hitherto discovered to bear 

 upon the subjects treated of in the Book of Exodus. And it is 

 therefore an additional gratification to learn that the Trustees of 

 the British Museum l>ave recommended to the Treasury the 

 purchase of this invaluable document. — "Observations on the 

 Dimensions of the Gieat Pyramid and the Royal Coffer," by 

 Mr. Solomon M. Drach. — "The XXXVH. Aamu in the Tomb 

 of Chnum-Hotep, at Beni-Hassan, identified Avith the family of 

 Israel," by the Rev. Daniel H. Haigh. The learned author main- 

 tained that the said group, representing 37 Aamu or Mestemmu 

 from the land of .Shu, depicted no other than the patriarch 

 Jacob and the thirty-six legitimate members of his family (the 

 offspring of his wives Leah and Rachel), \^■ho entered Egypt at 

 Joseph's invitation ; the concubines and their children holding a 

 decidedly inferior rank, and regarded as slaves and slave-born, 

 not being counted, reducii^g the legitimate family of Jacob to 

 that number. Shu he supposed to be the " East ;" Mestemmu 

 he compared with Beto-Mestham (Judith iv. 6), in the territory 

 of Dothan, conquered by Jacob (Gen. xlviii, 22). In a supple- 

 ment to this paper, Mr. Haigh described a Babylonian cylinder 

 brought from Hidah, engraved by Mr. Layard in his "Travels," 

 and translated the cuneiform inscription as representing Terah and 

 his children, Abraham, &c. The names Iscah and Milcah 

 (Queen) he considered might be one name in duplicate, the re- 

 sult of a marginal gloss (one sign in the cuneiform writing repre- 

 senting the sounds is and iiiil). 



Glasgow 

 Geological Society, May 2. — Mr. James Thomson read 

 some notes " On an Undescribed Platycriniis from the Mountaiir 

 Limestone of Fifeshire," which he had fimnd in a quany to the 

 west of Kirkcaldy. It difiers in several respects from M'Coy's 

 Platycrimts pKiu'talns. The plates of the test of that author's 

 form are punctate, while those of the form exhibited are smooth 

 and destitute of surface 01 namentaticn. It also differs in the 

 form of the plate?.— -Mr. Thomson also laid before the .Society 

 a curious shell, which he discovered on the same occasion. It 

 was of somewhat laige dimensions, being join, long, by 7?. in. 

 in width at the broadest part. At first sight it seemed to be a 

 variety of Nautilus, but he could not find any trace of the septa 

 which characterise that important group of Cephalopoda. He 

 was, however, disposed to view it as belonging to that group, 

 but one which, so far as he was aware, had not been described 

 in any work on PalaeoLtology. — Mr. David Robertson read, the 

 following papers : — i. " On the Clay Beds at Kilchattan in 



Bute." Mr. Robertson gave an enumeration of S6 species 

 which had been obtained from the locality, including 40 species 

 of MoUusca, 16 of Ostracoda, 18 of Forminifera, and 12 of other 

 orders. The prevailing shells of the deposit are Tdliiia cakarca, 

 Axiniis JlcxKOSHs, Scobriciilaria prismotica, Cyprina islaiidica, 

 Mya triiiiiala, and Ulticulus obliaus. 2. " On a Fossiliferous 

 Clay Deposit near Campbeltown." The chief interest of this 

 section is that, contrary to the usual position of the boulder clay 

 in the West of Scotland, here it overlies shcU-bearing clay. The 

 latter is dark grey in colour, and contrasts strongly with the 

 overlying boulder clay, which is of a full reddish brown. The 

 shell-bearing clay, as exposed in ^the bed of a little burn or 

 streamlet in 1 angy Glen, about six miles from Campbeltown, is 

 seen standing up in the boulder clay like a little knoll, and has 

 doubtless been brought to that form by abrasion. It can be 

 traced for a distance of 60 or 70 yards ; its exact depth could 

 not be ascertained, but as the rock is seen at a short distance on 

 either hand, it is probably not more than a few feet deeper than 

 what is expo.':ed. The boulder clay overlies it to a height of 50 

 or 60 feet. The latter consists of 50 per cent, of fine mud and 

 50 percent, of sand and gravel, while the shell-bearing clay gives 

 So per cent, of fine mud and only 20 of sand and gravel. The 

 fossils are but thinly met with in this deposit — molluscs in par- 

 ticular are comparatively rare, the few found being chiefly Lcda 

 pygiiiaa, with an occasional Lcda pcniula and a few fragments 

 of other species. Ostracoda and Foramintfeia are better repre- 

 sented, 18 species of the former and 26 of the latter having been 

 obtained. A remarkable feature of the Ostracoda iir this de- 

 posit is that they have much in common with those found in the 

 clays on the east coast of Scotland, which have been held to 

 represent more strongly Arctic types than those generally found 

 in the West. Amongst these are Cytheroplcron Hloittrosiensc, 

 Cytheroplci on vespcrlilic, and CytluTOpuron ^orlyaiia. None of 

 these have hitherto been met with m the clays of the West of 

 Scotland, with the exception of one specimen of C. Mcnirosiaisc, 

 which had been found in the excavations for Messrs. Randolph 

 and Elder's new dock near Govan. This specimen was found at 

 a depth of iS feet in a lower bed of clay dipping away from the 

 river. An upper bed, which dipped to the river, contained only 

 more recent forms c< mmon to our raised beaches and present 

 seas. He might add that C. vcspa-iilio and C. Sorbyaiia are 

 common species in the clays of Norway. The chairman obser\"ed 

 that this additional discovery of Arctic marine shells below the 

 lower boulder clay of the West of Scotland was a further con- 

 firmation of the interesting fact that an Arctic or northern fauna 

 had spread over certain tracts of the existing sea bottom before 

 the lower Till of the country was deposited. 



Philadelphia 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, Oct. 17, 1S71. — The presi- 

 dent, Dr. Ruschenberger-, in the chair. " Remarks on Fossils 

 from Oregon." — Prof. Leidy directed attention to some fossils, 

 part of a collection from Oregon, submitted to his examinatiorr 

 by the Rev. Thomas Condon, and indicated in the "Proceed- 

 ings" of Oct. 18, 1870. One of the fossils, a brain cast, or 

 rather a cast of the interior of the cranium of a large mammal, 

 has about the same form and size as that of the horse. The 

 cerebral hemispheres are nearly as much convoluted as in thi; 

 latter, and measure about 4)7 inches in length aird breadth. It 

 may pertain to a large tapiroid animal, though I suspect it be- 

 longed to an oreodont. A large atlas, perhaps belonging to the 

 same animal as the former specimen, measures 5 inches in breadth 

 between the outer prominent borders of the articular concavities 

 for the occipital condyles, and it is about 4I inches from the 

 netiral tubercle to the hypapophysis. It differs in several im- 

 portant points from the atlas of the rhinoceros, horse, ox, &c. , 

 and the want of sufficient means of comparison prevents a deter- 

 nrination of its near relationship. Another fossil, labelled 

 "Alkali Flats," consists of the greater part of the crown, appa- 

 rently of a last upper premolar, or perhaps of a transverse pair 

 of lobes of a true molar-, of an animal as large as that to which 

 the preceding specimens belonged. The tooth approaches in 

 character the corresponding portion in the oteodonts, but differs 

 in the proportionately less degree of development of the inner 

 lobe of the crown as compared with the outer one, and iir the 

 greater degree of development of the inner basal ridge. The 

 crown measures \\ inches in transverse diameter. These fossils 

 appear to indicate an unknown pachyderm, which may be desig- 

 nated by the name of IladroJiyiis supnmus. Among the Oregon 

 fossils there are a number oi imperfect remains, of wluch it was 



