388 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 



anomalies of the Lower Carboniferous series in various parts of Ireland. It 

 shows, moreover, that this transgression reached the Bundoran district about 

 the end of the Tournaisian or the beginning of Visean times. 



2. On the Occurrence of Submerged Forests in certain Lakes in Donegal 

 and the Western Isles of Scotland. By W. B. Weight. 



[Published by permission of the Director of the Geological Survey of Iriiand.] 



The author called attention to the existence in a number of inland lakes in 

 South Donegal and the Western Isles of Scotland of submerged pine-tree stools 

 in the position of growth. They occur at a level several feet beneath that of 

 the outlet, which, being in many cases over broken rock or boulder-clay, 

 precludes any explanation of a rise in the water-level due to peat growth. 

 These cases are unquestionably similar to some described of recent years in 

 Sweden, and the author inclines to the view that they are actually the results 

 of a drier climate, during which the lakes rarely, if ever, had any overflow. 

 He points out, however, the need of caution in drawing this conclusion, as the 

 mere presence of forests in the catchment basin might, by checking drainage 

 and promoting transpiration, have in itself caused the partial drying up of 

 the lakes. 



3. On some new Rhostic Fossils from Glen Parva, Leicestershire. 

 By A. R. Horwood. 



Owing to the impending filling up of the once fine pit at Wigston (Glen 

 Parva), where the Keuper tea-green marl, rhaetic, and Lias formations are all 

 exposed in a fine section of some 80 feet of rock, extraordinary efforts have 

 been made by Messrs. A. J. Cannon and H. Siddons to investigate the contents 

 of the bone-bed and black shales of the rhaetic before this is rendered impossible 

 by the filling up of the pit with water, the brick-yard being now closed. 



Some rare and new fossils have been found which may here be briefly men- 

 tioned. In the tea-green marls Orbiculoidea townsendi was discovered. This. 

 along with the regular occurrence there of bands of fish scales and teeth in the 

 same beds, and of Estheria minxita, allies them palaeontologically with the rhaetic 

 beds in which alone the first fossil has hitherto been found. 



In the succeeding black shales amongst many plant fragments are some leaves 

 allied to Podozamites, which are new. An exceedingly interesting discovery is 

 the impression, unique as such for Palaeozoic or Mesozoic rocks, of an annelid 

 which occurs in beds filled with castings allied to Arenicola. Amongst Arthro- 

 podous remains are the chitinous body-segments of Crustacea and a scorpion-like 

 creature. That they are not uncommon elsewhere is probable. But the rhajtic 

 fauna is so fragmentary and generally so depauperate and stunted that the most 

 careful search is required. 



Ophiolepis damesii, not definitely found in situ here before, has occurred, and 

 with it some other echinoderms which may be new. Many fine examples of 

 Pholidophorus higginsi have been secured which exhibit the dermal armature 

 well, and also the fins. Some curious concretionary structures, homceomorphs 

 of orthoceratoid segments, occur here also. The usual fauna already described 

 has been obtained, some fine examples of each species having been collected. It is 

 hoped to describe the new forms very shortly. 



4. On the Shell-layer in Mollusca. By A. R. Horwood. 



Although most biologists, and many palaeontologists, e.g., Hyatt, have recog- 

 nised that Mollusca, fossil or recent, possessed shells of more than one layer, yet 

 in speaking of the layers of fossil shells almost exclusively hitherto the shell has 

 been regarded as either aragonite or calcite, as though consisting of but one 



