TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 109 



temporaneous with man. The author, however, showed that their presence in such 

 a position waa accidental, and proved too much ; for if these bones were contem- 



Sorary with the antiquities, they were also contemporary with the coins, which come 

 own to 400 A.D.— a time at which we are certain, from history, that there were no 

 such animals m England. The present evidence from these caverns of man's con- 

 temporaneousness with such animals was not to be trusted. 



A succinct account of the Geological Features of the neighbourhood of Man^ 

 Chester. Bij E. W. Binnet, F.B.S., F.Q.8. 

 The author described the several beds of gravel, sand, and clay forming the super- 

 ficial covering of the district in the following (descending) order : — 1st, The valley 

 gravel, with its successive terraces, reaching to a thickness of .36 feet ; 2nd, the 

 widely-distributed upper sand and gravel, 135 feet ; 3rd, the till, boulder- or brick- 

 clay, 90 feet ; 4th, the lower gravel and sand, 40 feet. The underlying rocks or 

 skeleton of the coimtry, known chiefly by boring operations, were then noticed : — 

 1st, the pebble-bed of the Trias, about 600 feet thick. 2nd. The Permian series, con- 

 sisting of marls containing beds of limestone and gj'psimi, about 300 feet in thick- 

 ness j conglomerate, 25 ; and soft red sandstone, about 600 feet. These may be 

 considered as the upper part of the Permian beds of Lancashire, but the equivalents 

 of the lower series m Yorkshire. Below them come in soft red sandstones and 

 beds of pebbly grit containing coal-plants, seen at Astley and Bedford, but not met 

 with in the immediate vicinity of Manchester. The beds of conglomerate and soft 

 red sandstone are found to thicken out northward in Lancashire, Westmoreland, 

 Cumberland, and Scotland to several thousand feet in thickness. 3rd. The coal- 

 measures of the Manchester coal-field, 1G50 feet thick, as proved by sinkings and 

 borings, and the few natiu-al sections at i\j'dwick and elsewhere. All these 

 strata are much dislocated, one fault being certainly a downthrow of 3150 feet at 

 one point, and only 150 at another not many miles off. Some faults show evidence 

 of great lateral motion. He regarded these faults as having been made for the most 



Eart immediately after the close of the Carboniferous era ; they were further shifted 

 efore the deposition of the Trias, and no doubt had been frequently moved after- 

 wards. The author illustrated his remarks by a geological map of the district, 

 showing the distribution of the superficial clays, gi'avels, and sands j another map 

 showing the arrangement of the lower rocks as far as yet determined ; and by three 

 sections of the district — one from Trinity Chm-ch, Hulme, to Waterhouses, another 

 &om the Exchange to Smedley, and the third from Eccles to Kersal Moor. 



On the Extinct Volcanos of Australia, By J. Boitwick. 



Having lately visited the extinct volcanos of Italy and France, as well as having 

 observed the active cone of Vesuvius, the author did not think he was wrong in 

 calling the south-western part of Victoria and the adjacent portion of South Aus- 

 tralia the burnt fields of Australia. The coimtry referred to lies chiefly between 

 the slate and gi-anite dividing range of the diggiug-s and the tertiary limestone of 

 the sea-coast, having an area of nearly half the size of England. It extends from 

 the Bay of Port Phillip, near Melboimie, and Geelong, to beyond the western border 

 of Victoria, by the Glenelg. The great basaltic plain of the west has few interrup- 

 tions from the bay to the border and from the shore to the central range. The 

 basalt is of all varieties, and furnishes in its decomposition the finest soU to the 

 agricultmist. He had seen an island of basalt in a sea of slate, so to speak, which 

 abounded with farms, though sun-oimded by heartless woods and shingle soil. 

 Many dome-shaped lava hills are foimd on the plateau of the dividing range. Ca- 

 verns, nearly 500 feet in length, exist in the basaltic floor of the plains. On the 

 south-west side of the great salt lake Corangamite, there are basaltic rises. These 

 are huge baniers fi-om 10 to 60 feet in height, fonning a vast labyrinth of rocks, 

 15 miles long by 12 broad. The natives in olden times retreated to these inacces- 

 sible retreats with the sheep they stole from the flocks in the neighbourhood. The 

 ash or tufa has the same appearances as those the author observed at Lake Albano, 

 near Rome, and at Pompeii. It is occasionally sufficiently solidified to become 

 building-stone. Carvings are very commonly made of it in the district. The 



