TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 83 
within the influence of the ocean during the Secondary period, and that the minerals 
they contained could not be of more ancient date. Somewhat similar results at- 
tended an examination of the districts around Bristol and Weston-super-Mare. 
The author next examined samples furnished from six mines, in Carboniferous 
Limestone from Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland. From Weardale, out of 
twenty-seven small samples, organic remains were obtained from fourteen, the 
lowest being 678 feet from the surface ; and the same result occurred from Alston 
Moor and the White Mines, Cumberland. In one small sample from the Grassing= 
ton Mines, Skipton, which when washed was reduced to half an ounce in weight, 
‘not less than 156 specimens were found. These include the author’s genus Zellania, 
hitherto never observed in any stratified bed lower than the middle lias; and nu- 
merous Conodonts, which have never been found higher than the Ludlow bone-bed. 
It was argued that we had no evidence of the contents of mineral veins having 
been derived from volcanic agency, nor by any electrical action removing the mine- 
rals from the adjoining rock and redepositing them in the veins. The author's 
view was, that what are now mineral veins were once open fissures which were 
traversed by the ancient seas of the period, and their derived contents deposited ; 
and that whilst these infillings were proceeding, the minerals, which might pre- 
viously have been held in solution in the water, were by the operation of electrical 
and other causes precipitated, and that thus, instead of being due to volcanic action, 
they were to be attributed to aqueous and sedimentary deposition. 
Contributions to Australian Geology and Paleontology. 
By Cuartes Moors, £.G.S. 
After noticing the evidence recently obtained of the presence of Mesozoic rocks 
in Australia by Mr. Gregory, the Rey. W. B. Clarke, and Mr. Hood, the author 
remarked on the paucity of organic remains that had yet been obtained from these 
rocks—in the whole probably not more than thirty species. He then referred to a 
series of fossils he observed being exhibited at a meeting of the Somersetshire 
Archeological and Natural History Society, by Captain Sanford, of Nynehead, to 
whom they had been forwarded by Mr. Shenton from Western Australia. They 
appeared to have been chiefly derived from beds of oolitic age, and probably from 
ne same district as those sent to the Exhibition by Mr. Gregory; the Trigonia, 
Cucullea, Belemnites, &c., being of the same species. Captain Sanford’s collection, 
including a number of duplicates, comprised about sixty specimens, and also a block 
of stone about 10 in. by 6in., which, on being closely examined, showed that the 
bed from which it was derived must have been very rich in organisms; for on its 
surfaces the author was able to make out about thirty species, or as many as had 
previously been discovered from all the Australian Mesozoic deposits. It con- 
tained an Ammonite, Trigonie (allied to 7. costata), Pecten, Lima, Cucullea, Avicula, 
Ostrea, Turbo, and other univalves, Rhynchonella variabilis, Pentacrinites, &e. 
Amongst the Ammonites in this collection were several allied to the A. radians, 
and appeared to indicate for the first time the presence of the Upper Lias in 
Australia. There were also several specimens of the Myacites liasianus, found only 
in the ironstone zone of the Middle Lias in this country ; and, singularly, the matrix 
containing the Australian specimens yielded 52 per cent. of metallic iron. 
In the absence of sections, and from the different lithological characters of the 
shells, the author supposed them to have been obtained bot beds of different 
geological ages, and that, from their abraded character in some instances, they were 
probably found in derived deposits, and not in the parent rock; and that it was 
not improbable, for the same reasons, that this applied also to the other Mesozoic 
remains that had hitherto been found in Australia. 
On the Fossils of the Boulder-clay in Oaithness. By C. W. Peacn. » 
The author first mentioned that, as so little was known of the fossils of this for« 
mation, he thought that a short communication on the subject might be acceptable 
to the Section. The Boulder-clay occurs more or less all over Caithness. In some 
places it is very deep, especially on the banks and estuaries of rivers, sides of burns, 
&c., where it is found in some places to the depth of 60 or 80 feet, and at various 
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