76 REPORT— 1870. 



should be held as distinct from it ? When we find that 103 shells are common to 

 the Red and Coralline Crags which are not found in the Norwich Crag, whilst 

 only two are common to the Red and Norwich Crags, and are not found in the 

 Coralline, surely such a fact directly implies not only a connexion, hut one almost 

 as close between the Coralline and Red as the Red and Norwich Crags. There 

 seems, indeed, every reason to believe that the transition from the Coralline to 

 the Red Crag was gradual ; if there were now to be an elevation of sea-bottom, 

 including what we call the Coralline and Laminarian zones, the former would 

 naturally become Laminarian, while the latter would become a Littoral zone, and 

 this in all probability without any really sudden change in species, but by a slow pro- 

 cess of elevation ; nay, is there any sudden change now observable in the species 

 inhabiting these zones ? do they not gradually commingle ? and if this be so as 

 regards the Coralline and Laminarian zones of the present time, is it not quite aa 

 likely to have been so with regard to the Coralline and Red Crags ? 



Sir C. Lyell, in his sixth edition of the ' Elements,' seems distinctly to favour 

 the idea of the unity of the Crag, in the following extract : — " The shells of the 

 Crag exhibit clear evidence of a gradual refrigeration of climate, which went on in 

 the area of England from the time of the older to that of the most modern Pliocene 

 strata." 



"With regard to the objection, that the denudation of the Coralline, as e\-inced 

 by the unconformability of deposition of certain parts of the Red Crag, shows a 

 certain break, as it were, in the continuity of the deposit, would it not be obviated, 

 in some measui-e at least, by the fact of there having been many changes in the 

 conditions of life in the Coralline Crag species owing perhaps to the intrusion of 

 other species and consequent distm-bance in their mutual relations, so that in 

 course of time they would die out, together with a gradual, long continued, but 

 decided change in climatal conditions i^ Upon the whole, then, it seems probable 

 that the period from the commencement to the end of the Pliocene is one of 

 gradual transition, of which the Coralline, Red, and Norwich Crags represent so 

 many stages, not distinct and separate, but more or less connected together by 

 various changes in the relations of one organism to another, caused by variation 

 of species under natural selection, and also by changes in climatal conditions and 

 nature of sea-bottom. 



JRemarJcs on Newer Tertiary Fossils in Sicily and Calabria. 

 By J. GwYN Jeffreys, F.B.S. 



During the last deep-sea exploring expedition in H.M.S. ' Porcupine,' in the Bay 

 of Biscay and along the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal, Mr. Jeflreys pro- 

 cured at considerable depths, and especially from 994 fathoms, many species of 

 Mollusca in a living or recent state, some of which had been previously regarded 

 as fossil only, and extinct, and all of them belonging to the newer tertiaries of 

 Sicily and Calabria ; and he believed that a record of the fact might lead to the 

 discovery of the geological phenomena which had caused the fossilization of such 

 species in that limited area. Several of these species inhabit northern and even 

 arctic seas ; and among them are Terehratula cranium, T. septata, Pecten aratus, 

 P. vitreus, Lima excavata, Mytilus vitreus, Leda friyida, Litnopsis aurita, L.horealis, 

 Dentalium abyssoruin, Puncturella noachina, Hela tenella, and Pleu)'ototna carinata. 

 Other species now found in a living or recent state are Terehratula sphenoidea, 

 TelUna compressa, Verticordia acutecostata, V. yramdata (the last two being Japan- 

 ese), two species of Fksurisepta, Ti-ochus sutiiralis, Turho Jilosus, Omphalus mono- 

 cinyulatus, Scalaria pumila, Cyclostoma delicatum of Philippi (Rechcsia ?) , and 

 Pleurotoma hispidtda. One of the species in the second list or category (Fissun- 

 septa papulosa) had been also dredged by Mr. Jeffreys last autumn at Drobak, in 

 Norway ; and he was of opinion that our knowledge of the arctic marine inver- 

 tebrate fauna was very imperfect. The newer Tertiary fossils of Sicily and 

 Calabria had been to a great extent investigated by Dr. Philippi formerly of Cassel, 

 Prof Seguenza of Messina, the Abb^ Brugnone of Palermo, and Dr. Tiberi of 

 Resina near Naples ; and their collections had been examined by Mr. Jeffreys. 

 Two suggestions or questions were submitted by the author of the present paper, 



