TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 121 



Post-glacial deposits. — These are evidently of later age than those inland deposits 

 such as at Leeds and Oxford, for no trace of the Elephant has been found. The 

 only mammalian remains discovered, in addition to those now living in the neigh- 

 bourhood, belong to Bos primigeiiius, Bos longifron?, and Cervus elaphus. Skulls, 

 horns, and bones of these animals have been found in silt, associated with several 

 submarine forest beds, which occur at various depths in different places in the neigh- 

 bourhood. A section at the North Docks shows a submarine forest bed resting on 

 the rock, at the depth of -35 feet below the high-water level of a 20-feet spring tide. 

 A section beneath the Custom-house shows a similar bed with the tnmks of trees 

 29 feet, and another 40 feet, below a tide of the same height. A section across 

 Wallasey Pool exhibits an old forest bed with remains of trees 39 feet below a 

 similar tide. The sections were all seen during the construction of the docks. The 

 Cheshire coast at Leasowe presents phenomena of the same kind, but with less ap- 

 parent subsidence, being 3 feet at Leasowe Castle, and 8 feet at Dove Point. At 

 the latter place there are two higher land sm-faces divided by beds of silt. 



From these sections the author concluded that a subsidence of the land of nearly 

 50 feet was indicated, and that it was uniform over its whole extent, a conclusion 

 confirmed by observations in other places on the same coast. The differences in the 

 amount of the depression shown by the several sections merely indicate the vary- 

 ing elevation of the original surface. The subsidence of the lowest submarine 

 forests probably caused a considerable extension of the river Mersey about the time 

 of the occupation of Great Britaiu by the Romans. The sinking of the old forest beds 

 of Leasowe, Dove Point, and Formby is known to be within the historical period. 



Notes on two Ichthyosauri to he exhibited to the Meeting. 

 By C. MooEE, F.G.8. 



The vertebrae, paddles, and other parts of the skeleton, — also the eye, the skin, the 

 contents of the stomach, and even the ink-bag of the undigested cuttle-fish, — having 

 been carefully exposed, by the carefid manipulation of one of the nodules, the spe- 

 cimens were exhibited by Mr. Moore in a developed state, — they having been exhi- 

 bited at a previous Meeting at Cheltenham in an undeveloped state, on which occa- 

 sion Mr. Moore promised to produce them at a future Meeting properly developed. 

 Another specimen commented upon was a nodide imtouched, and represented a 

 stone " mummy "' of another Ichthyosam-us, upwards of five feet long, which Mr. 

 Moore expected to find in a most perfect state of preservation when he could work 

 it out. This, he believed he could also show, fed upon the cuttle-fish millions and 

 millions of years ago. 



Information from Professor Haidiitger respecting the Present State of the Im- 

 perial Geological Institution of Vienna. {Communicated by Sir E. I. Mxjb- 



CHISON.) 



Sir R. I. Murchison said, that important Institution was one of many which were 

 very likely to have been abolished in the course of the changes which were going 

 on in the empire of Austria. That excellent Institution was foimded by his distin- 

 guished friend Haidinger, one of the fiist mineralogi.sts in Europe, who now wrote 

 that the authorities having been changed, and public opinion having been expressed 

 so strongly in favour of his Institution, the Government had conceded all the terms 

 in favour of geological science which had been formerly granted, and Ihe Imperial 

 and Royal Geological Institution of Vienna was reinstated upon its old foundation 

 of 1848. 



Maps and Sections recently published by the Geological Survey, exhibited by 



Sir R. I. MuKCHisoN. 



On a Dinosaurian Reptile (Scelidosaurus Harrison!) from the Lower Lias of 

 Charmouth. By Professor Owen, M.D., F.B.S., F.G.S. 



The author said that the reptile of which he was about to speak belonged to the 

 remarkable order exhibiting modifications of the reptilian structure as we now 



