TKANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 85 



of reptilian remains, -wliicli Prof. Huxley has referred to the g-enus Hyperodapedon. 

 This evidence goes a long way towards supporting the conclusion that the Lossie- 

 mouth sandstones near Elgin are of a much newer age than their stratigTaphical 

 arrangements would seem to indicate, and that they belong to the Trias rather 

 than to the Old Red Sandstones, to which they have previously been referred by 

 many geologists. 



In Devonshire also we have a better development of Miocene strata than is to 

 be found elsewhere in the British Isles ; and the locality where these strata occur 

 is within a short distance of Exeter : I refer to Bovey Tracey and its lignite beds. 

 These latter have been made the subject of a valuable communication to the Royal 

 Society by Mr. Pengelly. The plant-remains which have been obtained therefrom 

 have been described by the eminent Swiss botanist, Dr. Oswald Heer ; and, thanks 

 to the generosity of that noble-hearted lady Miss Burdett C'outts, who is alike de- 

 sirous to promote science and to alleviate himian suffering, the fossils obtained from 

 these Bovey Tracey lignites are now well known to geologists. The plant-remains 

 which these strata contain are the relics of a vegetation which, during the Lower 

 Miocene epoch, spread over a large portion of the Continent of Europe, and ex- 

 tended into the arctic regions of America ; a vegetation which clothed not only 

 Em-ope with lofty forest trees, and a rich undergrowth of smaller plants, but which 

 also covered Greenland and Spitzbergen, lauds which are now the abode of ice and 

 snow, with an equally rich vegetation. 



This extensive ditiusion of similar forms of plants during the older Miocene 

 period, speak to us of widely extended uniform climate, contrasting strongly with 

 the climates which now prevail in the temperate and arctic zones of the Northern 

 Hemisphere. 



There is another matter connected with the geology of Devonshire which has 

 special interest — the caves of this county and their contents. These have been 

 made the subjects of many valuable communications to this Section by Mr. 

 Pengelly, and the gentlemen who are associated with him on the Committee for 

 the Exploration of Kent's Hole. 



Met, as we now are, in a locality so near the source from whence so much of in- 

 terest has come, I believe that this Section will again have before it important 

 matter referring to Kent's Hole and other Devonshire caverns ; and I cannot doubt 

 that many Members of the British Association -will avail themselves of the oppor- 

 tunity of examining the spot from whence so much valuable information has been 

 derived, bearing upon the early history of the human race. 



Geology and archseology are now blending into each other ; and although the 

 early history of nian remained for a long time, like distant land, dim and ill- 

 defined, of late, owing to the labours of Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John Lubbock and 

 others, we are now acquiring a clearer conception of our early ancestors, of their 

 mode of life, and of the conditions under which they existed. 



0)1 the Elevation and Depression of the Greenland Coast. By Robert Bkown, 

 F.B.G.S., Geolorjist to the West Greenlatul Expedition (1867). 



The author in this paper attempted to reconcile the conflicting statements ot 

 difi'erent writers regardmg the elevation and depression of the Greenland coast. 

 The American explorers in Smith's Soimd declare that the coast is rising, while 

 it is a notorious fact, observed by the author and others, that in the Danish pos- 

 sessions, south of 7.3° N. lat., the contrary holds true. Both statements were par- 

 tially correct, but not in an exclusive se'nse. I. That there is a depression going 

 on is proved by (a) the walls of old houses being submerged, O) houses choked 

 in by ice, where no native would now build them, (y) poles on which the Eskimo 

 Kayaks are suspended being submerged; and amongst numerous other similar 

 instances quoted, (8) it was mentioned that the blubber-house of Claushavn, in 

 lat. 69'' 7' N., originally built on a little island off the shore, had in 1866 to be 

 removed, the lower floor being invariably submerged at high tide. From various 

 data supplied, the author did not consider that the rate of depression was more 

 than five feet in a century. 



II. This depression had been noted as far as the Danish trading-posts extended 



