138 Reports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



subtropical species began to return ; a still warmer sea-temperatur© 

 inaugurating the Pliocene. " The end of the Pliocene is the 

 beginning of the Glacial epoch. The Pleistocene of Florida shows 

 a change for a cooler and an elimination of the most purely tropical 

 forms from the fauna, but nothing like the clean sweep at the 

 beginning of the Miocene. The latter is the sharpest and most 

 emphatic faunal change since the Cretaceous on our coasts." The 

 curious discordance between Tertiary climatic changes, as evidenced 

 in America and as recognised in Europe, is a striking commentary 

 on any attempts to trace secular climatic variations in successive 

 faunas in a limited district. The influence of changes in physical 

 geography must be enormous; but probably in the case of Florida 

 quite exceptional, as is recognised by Professor Dall. One wonders, 

 however, whether any echo of these geographic changes reached 

 our shore, diverting ocean currents and perhaps reversing the 

 climatic changes on this side of the Atlantic. 



i^EiI=>OI^Ts .A-jsriD iPJEeoGEiiazDiisrG-s. 



I. — Geological Society of London. 



1.— January 6th, 1904. — Sir Archibald Geikie, D.C.L., D.Sc, 

 Sec. K.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. The following com- 

 munications were read : — 



(1) "On a Pal£eolithic\ Floor at Prah Sands, in Cornwalh" By 

 Clement Reid, Esq., F.R.S.\f.L.S., F.G.S., and Eleanor M. Eeid,B.Sc. 



Pnh Sands lie about Tviniles east of Penzance, and have long 

 been known as exhibiting a g©e4-section of ' head ' or rubble-drift, 

 over raised beach, which rests on a wave-worn rocky platform. 

 Recent storms have cleared away the talus at the foot of the cliflF, 

 and have exposed, between the ' head ' and tlie raised beach, a Palaeo- 

 lithic land-surface, consisting of loamy soil penetrated by small 

 roots. In and above this occur black seams full of small fragment* 

 of charcoal and bone ; these are particularl}' abundant round groups 

 of large flat stones, which seem to have formed ancient hearths. 

 The black seams contain implements made of vein-quartz. For 

 a few feet above this land-surface the angular 'head' consists 

 mainly of loam with fragments of vein-quartz, some of which are 

 worked. This seems to be the first record of PalEeolithic man in 

 Cornwall. 



(2) " Implementiferous Sections at "Wolvercote (Oxfordshire)." 

 By Alexander Montgomerie Bell, Esq., M.A.,F.G.S. 



This section shows the following beds : — (1) Oxford Clay ; (2) old 

 surface, in which are pits or troughs chiefly filled with gravel and 

 enveloped in weathered clay ; (3) a large river-bed, containing 

 gravel at the base, and laj'ers of clay above ; (4) Neolithic surface- 

 layer, 2 feet thick. The gravel of the river-bed contains quartzite 

 pebbles, some of exceptional size, and is covered by a thin lenticular 

 layer of peat and sand, yielding thirty flowering plants and many 



