216 Notices of Memoirs. 



V. — Geology of Bas-Boulois;Nais. 



By M. E. EiGAux. 



Notice STEATiGRAPHiauE sur le Bas-Boulonnais, par E. Eigaux. [Bulletin 

 de la Societe Academique de Boulogne, No. 4, 1865.] 



THE Bas-Boulonnais occupies a small Jurassic basin, resting on 

 PalEeozoic strata, in tlie Cretaceous area of the nortk-east of 

 France. 



M. Eigaux gives numerous sections of, and lists of fossils from, 

 all the strata exposed in this region. 



The Palaeozoic formations are (1) the Devonian, v?"hich extends 

 from Blacourt stream, near the road between Calais and Boulogne, 

 and disappears near Fiennes (at Caffiers it is overlain by Gault) ; 

 and (2) the Carboniferous, consisting- of, first, a Dolomitic bed, 

 then a mass of Limestone, then Coal, and above that another bed of 

 Limestone, similar to the one below. This succession M. Eigaux 

 believes to have been due to a disturbance which has caused an in- 

 version of the strata, so as to make the same bed of Limestone 

 appear above, as well as below the coal. 



The Jurassic rocks, comprismg the Bathonien, Callovien, Ox- 

 fordien, Corallien, Kimmeridgien, Portlandien, and Wealden stages, 

 are then described. A table of the strata is given, showing their 

 lithological divisions, and the zones characterised by particular 

 species of fossils. — H. B. W. 



VL QUAKTERLT JoTIRNAL OF SCIENCE. 



THE April Number of this Joui-nal opens with a long article, en- 

 titled " Darwin and his teachings," accompanied with a litho- 

 graphed portrait of that distinguished naturalist. His writings, 

 consisting of original observations on nearly every branch of Na- 

 tural History, but princij)ally his " Origin of Species," are here 

 discussed. 



There is also a paper " On the Antiquity of the Volcanos of Au- 

 vergne," by Dr. Daubeny, F.E.S., etc., and in giving a notice of 

 his conclusions we cannot do better then quote the following para- 

 graph : — 



"Everything therefore concurs to bespeak a high antiquity for 

 these formations, and to indicate a long-continued operation of de- 

 nuding forces upon the beds of igneous matter since their eruption ; 

 and yet all these events must have been posterior to the formation 

 of some at least of the fresh-water beds of the Auvergne country, 

 formations which Sir Charles Lyell refers to the Eocene period. It 

 seems, indeed, most probable that these eruptions of igneous matter 

 had broken out at the time when the district was covered by ex- 

 tensive sheets of fresh water, like the great lakes of North America, 

 and hence may have been derived their greater compactness, as com- 

 pared with the more modern volcanic j)roducts before alluded to, an 

 indication of their having been erupted under a pressure greater 

 than that of the atmosphere." 



Amongst other articles is one on " Comparative Philology as indi- 

 cating the Antiquity of Man/' by Mr. David Parkes. 



