8 Notes and Comments. 
nation, appear to show coniferous characters. Some twenty- 
three species of mollusca have been determined, all of which 
exhibit a southern facies, including ten gastropods and thirteen 
pelecypods: the latter embrace a new Dosiniform shell belong- 
ing to the genus Sinodia, the relationships of which are entirely 
confined to the Indian Ocean regions of Southern Asia. 
Eighteen of the species, or about 80 per cent., trace their origin 
from the Vindobonian stage of the Miocene; ten, or about 
40 per cent., may be regarded as extinct ; whereas twelve, or 
50 per cent., still exist in recent seas. The majority of the 
species are fairly evenly distributed in both the Coralline and 
the Red Crag formations of East Anglia, although, on account 
of so large a number being extinct, and bearing in mind their 
southern facies, it is thought that the rock must be of older 
age than Red Crag. Additional support is given to this view, 
because such shells as Avrcoperna sericea, Tellina benedeni, 
and Panopea menardi are not known of later age in this 
country than the Coralline Crag. The occurrence aiso of the 
extinct gastropods Streptochetus sexcostatus and Ficus (Pyrula) 
simplex, which are particularly characteristic of the Upper 
Miocene or Messinian deposits of Northern Germany, con- 
stitutes further evidence in favour of a greater antiquity for 
this limestone than that of the Red Crag: it is, therefore, 
considered to be of Coralline Crag age. 
POSSIBLY OF GLACIAL ORIGIN. 
Mr. G. W. Lamplugh congratulated the author on his very 
notable addition to our scanty knowledge of the rock-fioor of 
the North Sea. Geologically, this area was as essentially part 
of Europe as the land above water, and deserved every possible 
effort to determine its structure. Much of the Glacial Drift 
on the margin of Eastern England has been dragged in from 
seaward, and gave some indication of the character of the 
sea-floor. This material included transported patches of early 
Glacial marine deposits along with masses of Jurassic and 
Cretaceous strata ; but in no case had the speaker seen, in the 
Drifts between the Tees and the Humber, any rock resembling 
that now exhibited. It seemed unlikely that any bed of rock 
like that shown existed beneath the southern part of the 
North Sea, and the present discovery certainly added a new 
and important factor to the geology of the whole basin. He 
asked whether the author had considered the possibility that 
the rock might originate from a detached mass carried by the 
ice-flow from the Baltic basin, as the site of the discovery lay 
in the right position for such transport. Personally we con- 
sider Mr. Lamplugh’s attitude the correct one, and that it 
would be unwise to form any conclusions as to the probable 
geological history of the North Sea floor based solely on an 
isolated fragment of rock dredged up by a trawler. 
Naturalist, 
