TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 337 



On the subject of life, the author was only able to record, from the beds in 

 question, doubtful impressions of a shell, strongly resembling Pullastra arenicola 

 of the Rhsetics, and annelid burrows; but he had hopes, after more minute 

 research, that further remains would be discovered in some of the more highly 

 developed beds of the series, which would throw fresh light on their structure, and 

 tend to establish their marine or estuarine origin. 



From the fact of the same line of dip existing between the ' pebble beds ' and 

 the Lower Keuper Sandstone, notwithstanding the absence of the intervening 

 Upper Mottled Sandstone and ' Muschelkalk,' the author inferred that the beds in 

 question were deposited at a period of great and long-continued tranquillity, an 

 inference which was borne out, he considered, in this part of England at least, by 

 the position and contents, as well as the general configuration and line of dip, not 

 only of the Rhsetic beds above, but of the several Liassic, Oolitic, and Cretaceous 

 strata beyond, and on through the Tertiary deposits to the present time. 



8. On a Northerly Extension of the Bhcetic Beds at Gainsborough. 

 By F. M. Burton, F.G 8. 



At the meeting of the British Association at Nottingham in 1866, the author 

 announced the discovery of beds of the Rhsetic age at Gainsborough, a full account 

 of which will be found in the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for 

 1867.* These beds occur to the south of Gainsborough, on the Great Northern line 

 between Doncaster and Lincoln, and were discovered through the lowering of the 

 gradients of that line in 1866. The author has since found them in a cutting of the 

 Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway at Blyton, about five miles to the 

 north oi Gainsborough, where they must have been exposed since the making of 

 that line in the year 1848, though hitherto they have remained unrecorded. 

 Though much defaced by vegetation and the action of the weather, they appear to 

 be of the same thickness as those at Lea, to the south of the town, and doubtless 

 are of the same character and composition. The Keuper escarpment, in which 

 these beds are situate, continues northward through Lincolnshire, east of the river 

 Trent, to the south bank of the Humber, and extends on the other side into York- 

 shire ; and though, at present, these beds have escaped detection, the author had no 

 doubt that, wherever the true junction of the Keuper marls and Lower Lias is 

 laid bare, there beds of the Rhfetic series will be found. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1879. 



The following Reports and Papers were read :— 



1. Fifteenth Beport on the Exploration of Kent's Cavern, Devonshire. 



See Reports, p. 140. 



2. Beport on the Bone Caves of Borneo. See Reports, p. 149. 



3. On the Bone Caves of Derbyshire. 

 By Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.B.8. 



The author gave an account of discoveries in the bone caves in Derbyshire. The 

 first cavern brought into light in Derbyshire, he said, was the famous one of 

 1879. z 



