306 

East Anglian word “ platymore ’’ were adopted for the 
underlying eroded floor of country-rock beneath a later 
accumulation of drift. The importance of this “ platy- 
more”’ surface in the correlation of Drift deposits has 
been increasingly recognised during recent years. The 
view that the lower river-terraces are later than the 
higher river-terraces is supported. Further evidence 
is also brought forward in support of the view that 
the Arctic deposits form an integral part of the Low- 
Terrace Drift. One section appears to suggest that 
the climate became nearly as temperate as that of the 
present day before the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros 
became extinct. 
April 28.—Dr. A. Smith Woodward, president, 
in the chair.-Prof. G. A. J. Cole: A  com- 
posite gneiss near Barna in the County of Gal- 
way. ‘Lhe great mass of granite west of Galway town 
is seen on its northern margin to be intrusive in a 
metamorphosed series of Dalradian quartzites, lime- 
stones, and mica-schists, and has received a foliation 
which is parallel with the bedding of this series; this 
foliation is ascribed by the author to the partial 
absorption of sheets of the bedded series into its mass. 
Traces of similar intermingling occur in Townparks 
(Galway town) and west of Barna. At Furbogh 
Bridge, the granite contains pink crystals of ortho- 
clase, at times 10 cm. long in the direction of the 
vertical axis, and these have become stranded, as it 
were, among the foliation-planes of dark green biotite- 
schist, into which they were carried by an intimate 
intermingling of the granite with the schist into which 
it flowed. Quartz and smaller felspar-crystals from 
the granite abound in the resulting composite gneiss, 
and the general effect is comparable with that of 
igneous intermixtures described from County Down 
and Skye. In the Galway instance, however, there 
is no sign of general fusion of the invaded. rock, 
which retains its original foliation and controls the 
structure of the composite mass.—Prof. S. H, Reynolds ; 
Further work on the igneous rocks associated with 
the Carboniferous Limestone of the Bristol district. 
The paper gives an account of the additional informa- 
tion, concerning the Carboniferous volcanic rocks of 
north Somerset, which has become available, largely 
through digging trial-holes, since the publication in 
the O.J.G.S. for 1904 (vol. Ix.) of a paper by Prof. 
Lloyd Morgan and the author on the subject. The 
rocks occur at five localities :—(1) Goblin Combe; (2) 
Uphill; (3) Limeridge Wood, Tickenham; (4) Spring 
Cove and Milton Hill, Weston-super-Mare; and (5) 
Woodspring or Middle Hope. At Goblin Combe, as 
the result of digging nearly forty trial-holes, it was 
ascertained that the igneous rocks form two discon- 
tinuous, somewhat crescentic masses, each consisting 
of olivine-basalt overlain by a considerable thickness 
of ‘calcareous tuff. At Uphill, the evidence obtained 
was insufficient to determine whether the basalt is a 
sill or a lava-flow. At Limeridge Wood, Tickenham, 
where only débris of basalt had previously been re- 
corded, the presence of an oval mass measuring about 
60 by 25 yards was proved by digging trial-holes, and 
the fact that it is completely surrounded by limestone 
indicates its intrusive character. Several additional 
exposures are described on Milton Hill, where the 
lava forms a band about 150 ft. thick. The lava at 
Middle Hope or Woodspring is shown to form an 
irregular and discontinuous mass. 
Royal Meteorological Society, April 21.—Capt. H. G. 
Lyons, president, in the chair.—H. Helm Clayton: A 
study of the moving waves of weather in South 
America. It is the custom in most meteorological 
services for the forecaster to make a mental estimate 
of the changes to be anticipated during the succeed- 
ing twenty-four or forty-eight hours. In order to 
NO. 2376, VOL. 95] 
NAT ORE 
[May 13, 1915 
improve on this method and to raise forecasting from: 
an art to a science, the author believes it is essential. 
to replace estimates by quantitative measurements. of 
expected changes and to make quantitative forecasts. 
He gave an interesting example of such a method 
as applied to one of the Argentine weather maps.. 
—E. H. Chapman: Correlation between changes in 
barometric height at stations in the British Isles. 
This was an attempt to discover the relationships 
existing between the changes in the barometric height 
at one place and another during the same and also 
different intervals of time. The conclusion arrived at 
is that the best information for foretelling barometric 
changes at any station is from a station south-west 
of it, the statistical measure of the accuracy with 
which such a change can be foretold being expressed 
in a correlation coefficient. 
MANCHESTER. f 
Literary and Philosophical Society, April 13.—Mr. F. 
Nicholson, president, in the chair.—H. Day: Some 
points bearing on the relationship of the fishes and the 
amphibia. The author deals with three specimens of 
the so-called parasphenoid bone in Rhadinichthys 
monensis from the Manchester Museum collection. 
The three specimens together give an excellent idea 
of both dorsal and ventral surfaces of the bone, so 
that an accurate description can be given, thus pro- 
viding material for a determination of the relations 
and homology of this bone in the Crossopterygian 
fishes and in the primitive Reptilia and Amphibia. 
It was shown that in all these groups the bone is really 
compound, consisting of parasphenoid and _ basi- 
sphenoid combined, and also that the bone is remark- 
ably constant in its form and relations. The remark- 
able constancy in form was contrasted with the 
entirely different form of parasphenoid which prevails 
in fossil and living Dipnoi, and was brought forward 
as a strong argument in favour of a development 
of the Tetrapoda from a Crossopterygian Ganoid stock 
rather than from the Dipnoi. Further, it was pointed 
out that in all cases this bone takes part in the sus- 
pension of the upper jaw, a process of the metaptery- 
goid region of the palato-quadrate uniting with the 
basipterygoid process of the basisphenoid region of 
this compound  para-basi-sphenoid bone. ‘This 
‘“pedicular’’ connection thus constitutes a form of 
autostyly common to the Crossopterygii and the primi- 
tive Amphibia and Reptilia, but totally different from 
the autostyly found in Dipnoi, which latter type is 
never found in the Tetrapoda. Hence the common 
pedicular autostyly forms another argument in favour 
of a Crossopterygian derivation of the Tetrapoda as 
opposed to the Dipnoian derivation. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, May 3.—M. Ed. Perrier in the 
chair.—Gaston Darboux : The representation on a plane 
of the surface of the fourth order with double conic.— 
G. Bigourdan : The comparison of the scintillation and 
the instrumental undulations of celestial images under 
various influences. Supplementing an earlier com- 
munication the effects of magnetic — disturbances, 
aurora borealis, barometric depressions, neighbourhood 
of clouds, azimuth, and twilight are discussed, the 
observations of various observers on these points being 
quoted.—M. de Sparre: The trajectory of projectiles 
thrown from aeroplanes or balloons.—Pierre Delbet : 
A prothetic apparatus with co-ordinated movements 
for use after amputation of the thigh. The apparatus 
described facilitates walking and conceals the de- 
formity.—J. Kampé de Fériet: A generalisation of the 
|\series of Lagrange and of Laplace.—Pierre Humbert : 
' A figure of equilibrium of fluids in rotation.—E. 

; Vaillant : The laws of flow in drops through capillary 

