Reports and Proceedings — Edinhurgh Geological Society. 189 



obtained through the kindness of Sir Archibald Geikie from borings 

 in the possession of the Geological Survey : Lower Lias, Oxford 

 Clay, Kimmeridge Shale, Purbeck and Wealden strata, Gault, Chalk 

 Marl, and London Clay. Apart from the interest due to the great 

 depths from which the samples were obtained, and the evidence which 

 they afford of the enormous accumulations of combined nitrogen, they 

 possess the further and greater value of representing the materials 

 out of which large areas of soils have been derived. Calcium- 

 carbonate varies from 82 •! to per cent., organic carbon from 

 1-229 to 0-229, and nitrogen from 0068 to 0021; the highest 

 proportion of carbon to nitrogen is 40'3 to 1, and the lowest 

 8-9 to 1. It would be important to determine, in the case of these 

 older deposits, whether any of the organic matter at all is in the 

 form of humus. 



in. — MiNERALOGiOAL SooiETY, February 3rd. — Professor H. A. 

 Miers, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. Mr. L. Fletcher gave 

 an account of the fall of a meteoric stone on August 22nd, 1902, at 

 Caratash, Smyrna ; and also contributed a note on the history of 

 the mass of meteoric iron found in the neighbourhood of Capera, 

 Patagonia. Mr. H. L. Bowman gave the results of determinations 

 of the refractive indices of pyromorphite and vanadinite by means 

 of artificially ground prisms having an angle of about 30°. For 

 red light the refractive indices of pyromorphite were w = 2-139, 

 e = 2-124; and of vanadinite, w = 2-354, e = 2-299. Mr. T. V. Barker 

 described quartz crystals of peculiar habit which were collected by 

 Lieut. E. G. Spencer-Churchill near De Aar, South Africa. Two 

 crystals were remarkable as exhibiting faces seldom observed on 

 quartz, one in the zone mz and the other in the zone rz. 



IV. — Edinburgh Geological Society. Special Meeting, 

 5th February, 1903. Dr. Home, F.R.S., in the Chair. Lecture 

 on " The Fassa-Monzoni District, or Simultaneous Duplex Crust 

 Movements." By Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, D.Sc, Ph.D., Aberdeen. 



The lecture was illustrated by Mrs. Gordon's lantern views, 

 geological maps and sections, rock specimens, and mineralogical 

 slides. In describing the succession of Triassic strata Mrs. Gordon 

 pointed out two distinct advances made by her work — (1) She had 

 discovered the presence of Wengen-Cassian marls with characteristic 

 fossils in the midst of the Middle Triassic limestones, whereas 

 hitherto these fossiliferous marls had been reported to be absent 

 in Fassa ; (2) she had determined the presence of a definite band of 

 fossiliferous marls and crinoidal and oolitic limestones between the 

 Lower and Middle Trias, as a constant member in all undisturbed 

 sections. Hitherto these limestones had been regarded as un- 

 fossiliferous, and described as a rarely present, abnormal facies of 

 the lower horizons of Middle Triassic limestones. The establish- 

 ment of this definite passage zone between Lower and Middle Trias 

 was an important addition to the geology of South Tyrol. Further, 

 it corresponded to the horizon of ' Eeichenhall limestone ' and the 

 ' Myophoria beds ' in North Tyrol, and probably also to the well- 

 known ' Roth ' horizon in the North German Trias. Throughout 



