TKANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 723 



age, the remainder of (4) and the whole of (-J) must be of Tviai3sic age aLso. (3) 

 lies indiliierently upon eitlier member of (:2) or upon the upper part of (1). It is 

 therefore slightly unconformable to the beds below. These are admitted on all 

 hands to be Permian; therefore the break between the Trias and the Permian is at 

 the base of (3). The author considers that the whole of these rochs form the 

 natural basement beds of the Neozoic rocks, and that the dividing line between the 

 PalfEOZoic rocks and those of Neozoic age should be taken somewhere between the 

 Red rocks of the Salopian type (to which he would restrict the term Permian) 

 and the true New Ked, as the term is here employed. lie considers that the New 

 Red proper bears the same relation to the Jurassic and Rha^tic rocks that the 

 upper Old Red Sandstone does to the Carboniferous, and that the Salopian Permian 

 may possibly occupy the same relatiou in regard to the Carboniferous rocks as the 

 Glenijarilf Grits do to the Silurians. Some at least of tlie Salopian rocks may be 

 simply Carboniferous rocks stained by infiltration from the New Red. 



The author regards the St. Bees Sandstone as mainlj- equivalent to the Bunter, 

 and proposes that the term Bunter Marls should be applied to the marls which 

 here (and in Devonshire, Sec.) occur at the base of that subdivision. 



4. The Sequence of Gneissose JiocAs. Bij J. J. H. Tkalt., F.B.S., F.Q.S. 



Supposed Txadiolarian Ji'emains from the Slates of Hoictli. 

 Bij Professor W. J. Sollas, F.KS., F.G.S. 



Suppof^rd liadiolarlan licmains from- the Culdnf Limestone. 

 JJij Professor W. J. SoLLAS, F.B.S., F.G.S. 



7. Oil some Dlcynodont and other Reptile Remains from the Elgin 

 Sandstone. -By E. T. Newtox, F.Q.S., F.Z.S. 



At the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association in 1885 Dr. Traquair 

 called attention to the skull of a dicynodont which had been discovered in the 

 Elgin Sandstone of Cutties' Hillock ( = New Spynie). Since that time several 

 other specimens have been obtained from the same place, some of which are the 

 property of the Elgin Museum,'while others belong to the Geological Survey of the 

 United Ivingdom. These specimens are now being worked out bj' the author, and 

 this communication is a preliminary note on the interesting results which have 

 been obtained. 



All the reptile remains obtained from Cutties' Hillock are in the condition of 

 hollow casts, the bones themselves having been dissolved away ; this, it will be 

 remembered, was the case with some of the examples of Stctgonolepis from the 

 Elgin Sandstone, described by I'rof. Huxley, and the method of taking casts from 

 the hollow cavities, which was adopted in that case, has been found of great 

 advantage in the present instance. The blocks when brought from the quarry 

 were more or less split open, exposing portions of the specimens. In some cases 

 these cavities were traced out and developed with the chisel, while in others they 

 were farther split open, thus allowing casts to be taken. lu many ca.ses these 

 casts had to be made in several parts and afterwards fitted together. The time 

 and labour involved in this task have been repaid by the restoration of the skulls 

 and parts of skeletons of several Dieynodunts and one or two other equally 

 remarkable forms of reptiles. 



In most of these specimens, including that noticed by Dr. Traquair, the skulls 

 are similar in form, although diflering in minor details, and have a general resem- 

 blance to the South African Bicynodon and Oudetiodon , some of them having small 

 tusks in the maxillary bones. Vv'ith most of these skulls parts of the skeleton have 



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