TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 91 



the Arctic Sea north of Siberia is rapidly rising, and exposing banks of sand con- 

 taining Mammoth-remains, the land is rapidly gaining on the sea along the whole 

 coast-line, and successive terraces or beaches are mentioned by Wrangel and 

 other travellers. The appearance of the tundra seems to point to a not very dis- 

 tant submergence of the whole of Siberia, as far south as the high lands, which 

 roughly mark the present northern limit of trees. 



This being so, we have to ask ourselves what causes led to the change of con- 

 dition of things, and to the extinction of the Mammoth. The hand of man is 

 quite inadequate, and we must seek for it in the draining of the vast Mediter- 

 ranean sea, which once existed from the Euxine to the Klingar Mountains, of 

 which the author gave descriptions from authorities. The drainage of this sea 

 must have been sudden and overwhelming, and not gradual ; for we find the Mam- 

 moth remains aggregated in hecatombs on the pieces of high ground, and not 

 scattered indiscriminately. This alone would account also for such an immediate 

 change of climate (from an insular one to a continental) as should allow the 

 bodies of the mammoths to be immediately frozen and thus preserved intact. 



On the Source of the Quartzose Conglomerate of the Neiv Med Sandstone of the 

 Central portion of England. By Edward Hull, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The source of the peculiar quartzite pebble?, which form the largest proportion 

 of the Conglomerate beds of the Bunter Sandstone of England, had formed a sub- 

 ject of inquiry for geologists from the days of the late I)r. Buckland downward. 

 Professor Ramsay, F.R.S., had shown that the quartz rock of the Lower Lickey 

 could not have given birth to the vast supplies of these pebbles of quartz, which 

 were originallj'^ spread over several hundred square miles of country, as this ridge 

 was buried imder Permian strata at the Triassic period ; and Mr. Hull had come to 

 the conclusion, on mineralogical grounds, that neither the Carboniferous or Silu- 

 rian rocks of the north of England or south of Scotland were capable of supply- 

 ing pebbles of the nature of those found in the Bunter Conglomerate. 



With the exception of a few fragments of Carboniferous and Silurian rocks, the 

 Bunter Conglomerate was found to consist of rounded pebbles of coloured quartz- 

 ite. Their invariably roimded form and small size (seldom exceeding 6 inches in 

 diameter) had for some years suggested to the author that they might have been 

 subjected to attrition during more than one geological period, and he had antici- 

 pated that in the Old Red Conglomerate of Scotland the source of these pebbles 

 might be found. 



Recent visits to the Old Red Conglomerate of Dumbartonshire and the district 

 of Lesmaliago had conlirmed this anticipation. In these districts the formation 

 was found to be composed for the most part of pebbles and boulders of quartzite, 

 precisely similar to the peculiar " liver-coloured " * quartzite pebbles of the New 

 Red Sandstone ; and in proof of this, specimens of the pebbles from the two 

 formations were exhibited to the Section t- 



This view of the northerly drift of the quartzite pebbles was shown by tlie 

 author to be in harmony with the stratigraphical arrangement of the Bunter 

 Sandstone of England, which thins away towards the south-east of the country-; 

 and the absence in this formation of any of the large boulders of coloured quartz- 

 ite, such as were found in the Old Red Conglomerate, was attributed to the addi- 

 tional wear and tear to which the boulders had been subjected in travelling from 

 Scotland into England, or to the inability of a probably weak oceanic current to 

 impel blocks of large size to the required distance from their source. 



On the Crag Formation. By Chaeles Jecks. 

 The author considers that the Crag- is but one formation divided into many 



* A term often applied to them by the late Professor Jukes. 



t These conglomerates have been described by Sir E. Murchison and Mr. A. Geikie as 

 they occur in the Lesmahago district, and by Prof. Nichol and Dr. Bryce in the district of 

 Dumbartonshire. 



