March 16, 1871 | 

NATURE 
399 

of these phosphates are being used in America, and also im- 
ported into this country, for the manufacture of artificial manures. 
The deposit from which they are taken is found along the banks 
of many of the rivers in South Carolina, and immediately under 
the surface soil of the land lying between; and is supposed to 
underlie a large portion of the coast and sea-island region of that 
part of America. It consists of layers, varying six inches to 
several feet in thickness, of irregularly rounded nodules, mixed 
up with an immense quantity of bones—ribs, vertebrae, tusks— 
of various species of animals, all more or less petrified. The 
nodules yield 50 to 60 per cent. of bone phosphate ; while from 
some of the bones as much as 8o to 85 per cent. of this fertilising 
substance had been obtained. The Chairman said there could be 
no doubt this remarkable deposit of phosphates belonged to the 
Tertiary period ; and probably its earlier division, the Eocene. 
The Tertiary formation is largely developed along the southern 
coast of North America, stretching in a belt of considerable 
breadth from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico, and leaving 
the coast-line only at the delta of the Mississippi. The whole 
series of fossils, like those before them, indicated a much warmer 
climate than now prevailed in that part of the world, and showed 
that the waters of the sea were teeming with large and powerful 
forms of life. 
DUBLIN 
Royal Dublin Society, February 20,—Dr. Croker King in 
the chair. Prof. Macalister delivered a discourse ‘‘ On Recent 
Advances made in Comparative Anatomy.” He alluded to the 
investigations of Kowalersky published in the Transactions of 
the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg as tothe relationship that 
exists between the Ascidians and Vertebrates ; also to the many 
recent investigations into the comparative myology of the upper 
and lower extremities, and alluded to a very simple yet neat 
nomenclature of the muscles of these parts. 
Natural History Society, March 1.—Rey. Dr. Haughton, 
F.R.S., inthe chair. A paper was read by Mr. G. H. Kinahan on 
ferns observed in Yar or West Connaught, the part of Co. Galway 
that lies west of Loughs Mask and Corrib, with localities of a 
few rare ferns in south-west Sligo.—Mr. W. Andrews read a 
paper, ‘‘Notes on the Ichthyology of the South-West Coast of 
Ireland.” It is always of interest to bring to notice any new 
facts either in the zoology or botany of a country or district, but 
more especially so when any discovery can be recorded which 
presents new features of animal or vegetable life, the existence 
of which had not been previously known. The chief remark 
conveyed in this paper is with reference to the capture in January 
last on the south-west coast of several specimens of a fish 
of extremely rare occurrence, the Zrichiurus lepturus ; the oc- 
currence of Centrolopus pompilus in numbers off the coast of 
Dingle was also mentioned, and also that of a fine specimen of 
the tunny caught in Brandon Bay, October 1869. The author 
gave many details as to the structure of the Zrichiurus, and con- 
cluded with stating that he felt confident that we have not yet 
gleaned the extent of interest that exists in the marine zoology of 
our shores, or of the deep water of our coasts. 
Royal Zoological and Geological Societies of Ireland, 
March 8.—Prof. Hull, F.R.S., in the chair. The Rev. Dr. 
Haughton, F.R.S., read a paper on the Mechanism of Flight in 
the Albatross (Diomedea exulans), considered in relation to its mus- 
cular anatomy.—Prof. Macalister read a paper on some Para- 
sites found on Animals from the Dublin Zoological Gardens.— 
Rey. Dr. Haughton made some remarks on the recent death of 
four lion cubs in the Society’s gardens.—Prof. Traquair 
exhibited a collection of carboniferous ganoid fishes from Wardie, 
in Scotland. 
HALIFAX, Nova ScCoTIA 
Institute of Natural Science, February 13.—J. M. Jones, 
F.L.S., President, in the chair. Dr. Honeyman, F.G.S., read 
a paper, ‘‘On the Geological Formation of the Picton Coal 
Field,” which was a continuation of his record of geological 
discovery in Nova Scotia, delivered at the November meeting of 
the Institute. The present paper showed that the Devonian was 
absent, and that the underlying formations were Upper and 
Middle Silurian, arranged in several anticlinals, synclinals, and 
monoclinals. The lithological character of these formations at 
the time of the deposition of the overlying Carboniferous strata 
was as it now exists. The strata were more or less metamorphic, 
and the system of folds was, as has been indicated, and were 
washed on the north, south, and west, by the seas of the 

Carboniferous period. Lower Carboniferous conglomerate and 
grit succeeded by gypsum were deposited on Lower Helderberg 
strata (Upper Silurian), highly fossiliferous at Irish Mountain. 
Argillaceous shales with overlying limestones were formed on 
Lower Helderberg strata (very fossiliferous), and rather higher in 
the series than the strata of Irish Mountain. In Springville 
there are two localities where the Silurian strata on the same 
horizon as Irish Mountain (possibly a little lower) are overlaid 
directly by Lower Carboniferous limestone. Farther up the river 
there are three localities where Lower Carboniferous limestone 
overlies Silurian strata ; in two cases, a breccia is formed with 
the limestone and metamorphic slates belonging to the lowest 
part (or nearly so) of the Middle Silurianage. In the remaining 
case, in the river at Pleasantville a great band of Lower Car- 
boniferous limestone lies unconformably on Lower Helderberg 
or Upper Silurian, highly metamorphic. In Cross Brook, Irish 
Mountain, Lower Carboniferous sandstones with limestone overlie 
Clinton strata of the Irish Mountain Silurian series with fossils, 
and also the denuded axial greenstone. At McLellan’s Brook, 
Lower Carboniferous grits succeeded by limestone come up against 
the back of Clinton strata of the other side of the Irish Moun- 
tain anticlinal. At the lowest falls of Sutherland’s River, Lower 
Carboniferous conglomerate comes up against the back of the 
Medina slates, metamorphic, apparently non-fossiliferous of Wier’s 
Mountain of the monoclinal series. Higher up Sutherland’s River 
at McPherson’s is the passage from the Picton into the Merigomish 
Carboniferous area. Here Lower Carboniferous grits containing 
a brine spring come up against the back of Medina strata, very 
little altered with characteristic Petraia and Lingule. These are 
succeeded by Clinton shales with cone in cone concretions and 
lingulze nodules in abundance. In this district are two moun- 
tains with porphyry. Conglomerate, grit, argillaceous shale, and 
limestone of Lower Carboniferous age, have thus been formed 
contemporaneously. Then succeed alternations of sandstone 
and limestone and gypsum. Thus are formed limited areas of 
limestone in different geological positions and entirely discon- 
nected. The order of formation of the representative beds of 
limestone appears to be as follows :—1, The Black pyritiferous 
limestone in closest contact with the Lower Helderberg slates 
having obscure brachiopoda visible, particularly by weathering. 
2, The Lithostrotian limestones of Springville and McLellan’s 
Brook. 3. Limestone strata with intercalary shales, below 
Springville Factory on the river, highly fossiliferous, containing 
Orthocera, Bellerophon, Gasteropoda, Conchifera, Crinoidea, 
and Fucoids. 4. Thick bedded limestone formed of an agglo- 
meration of minute Conchifera and Crinoidea. Above this are 
strata with teeth of cochliodus. This limestone appears to be 
of the same age as similarly formed limestones on the West 
Branch having Conularia. In the Silurian formation on separate 
anticlinals are—1. An apparently valuable bed (?) of limonite. 
2. A bed of fossiliferous iron ore of considerable thickness. 
3. Pockets of specular iron ore. ‘These, although separated, 
are of the same geological age—Clinton. The Medina and 
Lower Helderberg strata of the area examined, in their passage 
across rivers and brooks, form numerous waterfalls, some of 
which are mill sites. Fine exposures of Lower Helderberg 
fossiliferous strata in McLellan’s Brook and Sutherland’s River, 
form the foundation of a mill dam in the brook and formidable 
rapids in the river. The Picton Coal Field is well known 
through the writings of Dawson and others. Its thick coal 
seams have been represented by columns in the International 
Exhibitions of London, 1862, Dublin, 1865, Paris, 1867. In 
the discussion which followed, the President called attention in 
an interesting zoological fact mentioned by Dr. Honeyman to 
one part of his paper, viz.—the common cattle of the neighbour- 
hood in which he had found a brine spring, resorting to such 
fountain and greedily drinking its waters. The same habit was 
also to be observed in the wild buffalo of the western prairies, 
which annually resorted to certain well-known “* salt licks” for 
a similar purpose. 
BERLIN 
Berlin Society of Anthropology, Ethnology, &c.—Prof. 
Virchow continues (Zeitschr. fiir Ethnologie, 1870, vi.) his com- 
munications on the subject of the urns with sculptured faces, 
already treated by himself, by Nilsson, and by Kupfer; and 
also read a paper on ‘* Settlements belonging to the Stone age 
in Nieder-Lausitz,” &c., and a third on a visit to the West- 
phalian bone caverns. Among the same transactions may 
be noted a letter from Fisch on the Framea, in which he 
derives the word from the old Gothic fram (the English 
