330 Reports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



Uotherium clearly must have possessed a functional femur which 

 was probably not employed exclusively in swimming, but shows 

 that tliis undoubted Sirenian may have been to some extent 

 amphibious. Moreover, this pelvis is extremely similar to that of 

 Mwritherium, a nearly contemporary Proboscidean, a circumstance 

 that constitutes another piece of evidence in favour of the view tliat 

 the Sirenia and Proboscidea have a common origin. 



Finally, the fourth part of the memoir is devoted to the con- 

 sideration of the genus Ifetaxytherium, and the result that the 

 author arrives at is, that, while Mnnatus is in many respects 

 different from the other members of the group, Eotherinm, Eosiren, 

 Halitherium, Metaxi/therium, Felsinotherium, Halicore, and Bht/tina 

 form a closely related series. 



The memoir is illustrated by excellent photographic plates 

 illustrating some of the more important series of modifications in 

 different elements of the skeleton. C. W. A. 



s,e:poi2,ts jlh^hd :ps,OG:E3:E!iDii>rc3-s. 



Geological Society of London. 



L— May 10th, 1905.— R. S. Herries, M.A., Vice-President, in 



the Chair. 



The Chairman announced that the Council had resolved to award 

 the Proceeds of the Daniel Pidgeon Fund for 1905 to Thomas Vipond 

 Barker, B.A. Oxon., who proposes to investigate the deposition of 

 crystals of minerals and other substances in regular position on each 

 other, with special reference to such groups as those of calcite, 

 barytes, aragonite, etc. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "The Geology of Dunedin (New Zealand)." By Patrick 

 Marshall, M.A., D.Sc, F.G.S. 



The paper opens with an account of the physiography of Otago 

 Peninsula and the adjacent mainland, in which the origin of the 

 land-forms is briefly discussed. The author then passes on to 

 a detailed account of the petrography of the district. The age of the 

 oldest rocks seen, mica-schists, is not definitely known ; they have 

 been referred to the Archaaan and to the Silurian systems. They 

 are followed by about 1,000 feet of Tertiary sandstones and lime- 

 stones, which contain sufficient fossils to class them with tlie 

 Oamaru system of Oligocene age (Hutton) and with the Cretaceo- 

 Tertiary of the Geological Survey. Fine, plant-bearing shales 

 succeed unconfoimably ; and upon these, again, rests a pumice or 

 light scoria bed. These rocks are in their turn covered by the 

 igneous rocks next described. 



The rocks described include an ill-exposed, gold-bearing syenite ; 

 a diorite, with an uneven and weathered surface, underneath the 

 lavas ; rhomb-porphyry containing anorthoclase, and partly intrusive, 

 partly interbedded ; tinguaite, in the form of dykes ; hypabyssal 

 tiachydolerite, containing nepheline and a^girine, and sometimes 

 sodalite and analcite ; a teschenite dyke ; and trachyte, notably 



