TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 59 



On the New South Wales Coal Field. By J. MACEJiirziE. 



Oh the Geology of the South -West of England. By C. Mooee, F.G.S. 

 The author pointed out certain physical featui-es which led him to the conclu- 

 sion that the Mendip Hills had performed an important part in modiij-ing the phy- 

 sical geology of the West of England, and that it was probable that that range of 

 hills had proved a barrier to the incursion of the Secondary seas which washed theh" 

 southern slopes. He then observed that, whilst the Secondary rocks outside the 

 coal-basin were generally deposited couformabh', those on the outer edge, and 

 within the Somersetshu-e coal-basin, afforded evidences of general unconformability, 

 and were found under very abnormal conditions, his view being that the Mendips 

 were at times only so far depressed as to admit of occasional irruptions of the sea 

 within the coal-basin, the thick deposits of the New Red Sandstone and the Rhfetic 

 and Liassic seas being very thinly represented therein. The Rhajtic beds were 

 proposed by Mr. Moore for a group of rocks intermediate between the Lias and the 

 Trias. Though thinly represented in this country as compared with the Continental 

 beds, they were shown to be of great interest in a palaeontological point of view. 

 Mr. Moore described the contents of three cartloads of deposit of this age he had 

 found washed into a fissure of carboniferous limestone near Frome. From this he 

 exhibited twenty-niue teeth of the oldest mammals, three only having been pre- 

 %-iously found — together with nine genera of reptiles, most of" them new to this 

 coimtry, and fifteen genera of fishes. Mr. Moore produced to the Meeting 70,000 

 teeth of the Lophodus alone as the result of his labour, and stated that the three 

 loads of clay had j)robably yielded him one million specimens. He then refen-ed 

 to the ironstone of the Middle Lias in the North of England, and remarked that 

 one landed proprietor alone possessed there a quantity which, it had been calculated, 

 when converted into iron and sold at the present price of iron, woidd bring in 

 money enough to pay off the national debt. The same beds, he remarked, occun-ed 

 around Bath and in the West of England ; but, from their not containing quite so 

 much ii-on, and fi-om their being thinner, the fair city of the West would be spared 

 the mortification of finding blast furnaces springing up aroimd. Passing to the 

 Upper Lias, the author described a very remarkable bed containing insects, fi-uits, 

 Crustacea, fishes, and reptilia. In doing this he produced a number of nodular 

 stones, and was enabled to say that one contained the tail of a Pachi/cormtis, that a 

 second contained a head of the same fish, a third a perfect fish, whilst another held 

 in its stony enibrace a cuttle-fish, which it was prophesied would contain the cut- 

 tle-bone and ink-bag. Mr. Moore proceeded to open them, when the fish he had 

 previously indicated was discovered ; and the most interesting specimen was that 

 which contained the cuttle-fish. When Mr. Moore broke open the stone, not only 

 was the cuttle-fish visible, but the inky fluid (the sepia) was discovered, as in a 

 fish of the same kind that might be taken out of tlie sea at the present day. There 

 was as much of it as woidd fill an ordinary-sized ink-bottle. He then' produced 

 some very perfect specimens of the Ichthyosauri found in the neighbourhood of 

 Bath, and a specimen of a fish, about the size of a salmon, of six or seven pounds 

 weight. It was so perfect in its form and appearance and shape that, but for its 

 colour, as Mr. Moore said, it might be handed by mistake to the cook to dress ; 

 and yet millions and millions of years must have elapsed since this fish lived and 

 moved about in the water. In the mammal di-ift, which entirely sun-oimded Bath, 

 the remains of extinct mammalia were abundant, and Mr. Moore exhibited many 

 specimens. 



Note on the Occurrence of the same Fossil Phnts in the Permian Rods of West- 

 moreland and Durham. By Sir R. I. MuKCHisoif, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D , 

 F.B.S. 



Traces of Glacial Drift in the Shetland Islands. By C. W. Peach. 

 Having last summer accepted the kind invitation of Mr. .1. Gwjn Jefli'eys to be 

 his guest on a dredgimr expedition to these northern isles, I was induced, by a re- 

 quest from Sir R. I. Murchison, to look out for traces of glacial action there. The 



