358 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— 0. 



The results are strikingly of the opposite tendency. All the normal lignites, coals 

 and anthracites (excluding the cannel group) form a single continuous series with a very 

 long range of composition. There is no sign of more than one general line of chemical 

 alteration, or of more than one general type of parent material. It is suggested that the 

 graphs give very strong support to the view that the chief grades of normal coals 

 owe their main distinctive features to varying degrees of alteration. 



The distinct character of the cannels is readily seen. 



The method throws some light on the nature of the chemical changes produced 

 at successive stages. 



20. Dr. H. M. Ami. — The Cambrian Fossils of Canada, and the Remarkable 



Faunas they represent. 



21. Mr. A. W. CoYSH. — The Petrology of the Avonian Rocks at Sodbury, 



Glotwestershire. 



The Lower Carboniferous succession in the Sodbury railway-cutting has been 

 investigated from a petrological standpoint. 



The insoluble residues from the limestones have been examined microscopically, 

 yielding interesting results. 



Three ' Modiola-phasea ' occur in the sequence, in Km, C2 and Si, and S^. They 

 include a good deal of sandstone, especially in Si and S2, which has yielded magnetite, 

 rutile, zircon, ilmenite, tourmaline, muscovite, and stauroUte among its rarer con- 

 stituents. 



The significance of this assemblage is discussed, and the probable conditions of 

 deposition of the rocks are dealt with, field evidence being described. 



22. Dr. K. S. Sandford. — Preliminary Remarks on Early Man in relation 



to River Gravels and other Deposits of Upper Egypt. 



Pre-Pleistocene limestones, travertines, marls and conglomerates have now been 

 traced in almost unbroken continuity in the Nile Valley from a point south of Luxor 

 nearly as far north as Assiut and up the great Wadi Keneh towards the Red Sea Hills ; 

 they rise to a height of 200 ft. or more on the valley sides. In them are cut the great 

 river- terraces, of Pleistocene age, in the Nile Valley and W. Keneh (which carried a 

 very heavy run-off from the Red Sea Hills to the Nile). Study of these terraces and 

 their gravels over a wide area has led to the discovery of worn and unpatinated imple- 

 ments in them, as well as surface sites upon them. The preliminary sequence arrived 

 at (levels approximate) is : — • 



100-ft. terrace containing rolled Chellean implements. 

 50-ft. ,, ,, ,, Acheulean ,, 



10-ft. ,, ,, ,, Mousterian ,, 



There are other intermediate terraces, in particular one at 25-30 ft. which contains 

 rolled Acheulean implements, with surface working sites of Mousterian age (the imple- 

 ments thus occurring at the foot of this terrace, rolled, in the 10-ft. terrace). There 

 is a buried channel of the Nile, of which the depth is unknown. 



North of Luxor igneous material from the Red Sea Hills is a typical constituent of 

 the Nile gravels. 



The terraces mark ' pluvial periods,' which have now been ' dated ' by the imple- 

 ments, and they are likely to prove of great significance. 



The work was carried out by camel reconnaissance under the auspices of the 

 British School of Archaeology in Egypt, vital assistance for the desert journeys being 

 given by Dr. W. F. Hume, Director of the Geological Survey of Egypt, and Dr. Ball, 

 Head of the Desert Survey. 



23. Mr. Maurice Black. — The Structure and Conditions of Deposition of 



the N.E. Yorkshire Estuarine Series. 



The Estuarine Series of N.E. Yorkshire consist in the main of inconstant though 

 level-bedded strata, but at some horizons intense current-bedding is found as a result 

 of the prolonged action of shifting river- channels. The sequence of Middle Jurassic 



