134 Reports and Proceedings. 
thence under Keynsham into Somerset. Having alluded to the fact 
that a very rich lode of iron-ore had recently been discovered in 
the Pennant at Frampton Cotterell, and that good coal had been found 
in it in some places, the author proceeded to inquire into the source 
of this remarkable bed. He was disposed to regard it as having 
been formed chiefly by the denudation of the Old Red Sandstone, 
and during the action of a more violent sea than that which assisted 
to form the Coal-measures above and below it. It was destitute of 
fauna, but abounded in remains of hardy and less succulent plants, a 
list of which Mr. Cossham promised to complete and forward to the 
Society. 
A discussion on this able paper then ensued, in the course of 
which Mr. Stoddart referred to the presence of mica in the 
Pennant, and of remains of Carboniferous Limestone. Mr. W. 
Sanders then spoke of the occurrence of beds of drift-coal, and even 
of pebbles of coal, in the Pennant, and in the Upper Coal-measures, 
which seemed to imply that the Lower Coal-measures had had time 
enough to consolidate, had then been partially elevated to form a 
sea-shore, battered about, before the deposition of the Upper Coal- 
measures. Mr. Cossham, in corroboration of this view, stated that 
the coals above the Pennant were bituminous, and below it anthra- 
citic ; and that the pebbles of coal and the coal-drift found in the 
Upper Measures were anthracitic, proving that they must have come 
from the Lower, He also stated his belief, in answer to a question 
by Mr. Stoddart, that the Severn was at one time wide enough to 
denude the strata on the side of Coalpit-heath nearest to it. 
Mr. W. W. Sroppart then read a paper On British Fossil Land 
and Freshwater Mollusca. 
IV. Geological Section, Dee. 22.--_Mr. W. Sanders, President, 
in the chair. Mr. Krat read a paper On the Cambrian and Cam- 
bro- Silurian Strata ; followed by an account of The Paleontology 
of the Earlier Epochs of the Earth’s History, by Mr. W. W. Stop- 
DART.—W. L. C. 
Berrast Firip-Natoracists’ Cius.—The Third Evening Meeting 
of this Society for this session was held in December, Professor 
Wyville Thomson in the chair. Mr. Wi~tiam Gray read a paper 
on the Megaceros Hibernicus, commonly known as the Irish Elk, 
with special reference to the specimen lately found at Island- 
magee, Co. Antrim. Mr. Gray introduced the subject with some 
remarks on the geological age of the animal in relation with the age 
of man ; and stated that similar remains were abundant in the centre 
of Ireland and in the Isle of Man, and occurred also in England. 
He treated of raised sea-beaches and their relation to Eskers, and 
showed that the ossiferous accumulations in caverns were successive 
deposits after the Drift-period. The finding of the Megaceros in 
Islandmagee was fully described. A great distinction, the author 
pointed out, existed between it and the Elk proper, the Reindeer, 
and the Fallow-deer, to which species it was most closely allied. 
The dimensions of the Megaceros found at Islandmagee were very 
