Reports & Proceedings — Mineralogical Society. 141 



The Balance of the Proceeds of the Barlow- Jameson Fund is 

 awarded to Mr. Henry Dewey, in recognition of his contributions to 

 the Greology of the South- West of England and of his researches in 

 connexion with Quaternary Deposits. 



III. — Mineralogical Society. 

 January 16, 1917. — W. Barlow, F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



A. Holmes and Dr. H. F. Harwood : The Basalts of Iceland, 

 Faroe Islands, and Jan May en. The basalts described fall into four 

 well-marked types based on the presence or absence of olivine and 

 the porphyritic or non-porphyritic character of the structure. They 

 resemble the Greenland basalts previously described by the authors, 

 and the whole series is closely matched by the basalts of Skye and 

 County Antrim. Chemically the most striking feature of the lavas is 

 their high content of titanium dioxide, which in the seven analyses 

 made varies from 2-36 to 5-68 per cent. The olivine-free rocks are 

 remarkable for their abundance of titaniferous magnetite. In the 

 olivine basalts this mineral is less abundant, and much of the 

 -titanium is presumably in the pyroxene, which in the olivine 

 varieties only is of a purple-brown tint. A peculiarity of the olivine 

 basalts is their comparative richness in alkalies, a feature that brings 

 them into relationship with the titaniferous-olivine basalts of the 

 Western Mediterranean described and analysed by "Washington. 

 The Arctic province, however, is distinguished by the abundance of 

 alkali-poor basalts, which in spite of the fact that their silica 

 percentages are low are thoroughly over-saturated rocks. 



Professor H. Hilton : On the use of the Orthographic Projection 

 in Crystallography. The method of preparing a projection and its 

 use in the drawing of crystals were explained, and the advantages 

 of this projection of the sphere were pointed out. 



J. V. Samojloff : Palgeophysiology, the Organic Origin of some 

 Minerals occurring in Sedimentary Rocks. In connexion with the 

 exploration of the phosphate deposits of Russia, the occurrence of 

 barytes has been noted over a wide area in the governments of 

 Kostroma, Kazan, and Simbirsk, and also further to the north-east 

 in the basin of the Pechora River. The mineral occurs as nodules in 

 the clays and marls of the Upper Jurassic, and is confined to the 

 Oxf ordian - Sequanian horizon, though extending up to the Kim- 

 meridgian in some of the districts. Nodules of barytes have been 

 dredged from the sea-floor off the coast of Ceylon, and granules of 

 barium sulphate have been detected in the bodies of certain marine 

 organisms, namely the Xenophyophora. If, therefore, during the 

 Upper Jurassic period such organisms, capable of extracting barium 

 salts from sea- water, were more abundant, they would account for the 

 accumulation of barium in these strata, where the barytes occur as 

 a primary mineral. Similarly, the mineral celestite has been found 

 over a very wide area in Turkestan in beds of Upper Cretaceous age. 

 The presence of strontium sulphate has been detected in the skeletons 

 of the Acantharia, a group of the Radiolaria. It is conceivable that 



