3"74 Reports and Proceedings. 



nexion existed between the shores of the Atlantic as admitted of ti 

 migration of organized beings from one side to the other, although 

 the continents may not have been absolutelj^ joined. 



8. " On the discovery of new Gold-deposits in the district of 

 Esmeraldas, Ecuador." By Lieut.-Colonel Neale, Her Majesty's 

 Charge d' Affaires in Ecuador. Communicated by the Foreign 

 OfBce. 



The author stated that unworked and hitherto unknown gold 

 deposits had been discovered in the district of Esmeraldas, Ecuador : 

 and that the President of the Eepublic, who had received specimens 

 of the gold of a very pure quality, pu.rposed sending a scientific 

 commission to report on the probable yield of the gold-district. 

 Further, he recorded a recent influx of immigrants from California 

 and Nevada to the gold mines of Barbacoas in New Grenada. 



9. " On bones of fossil Chelonians from the Ossiferous Caves and 

 Fissures of Malta." By A. Leith Adams, M.B., F.G.S. 



The remains of more than one species of Eiver Tortoise, agreeing 

 in their character with the Elodians and Potamians, were stated to 

 occiu: in the Maltese caves and fissures associated with exuviae of the 

 fossil elephant, Hippopotamus Pentlandi, Myoxus Melitensis, and birds 

 — the last chiefly aquatic, including Cygniis Falconeri, a Lizard, and 

 one or more frogs. The author considered that the nature and 

 axrangement of the deposits and the conditions of their fossil fauna 

 clearly show that they had for the most part been conveyed into the 

 above situations by the agency of large bodies of water, which at 

 one time overflowed the greater portion of the eastern half of the 

 island. 



10. " On the discovery of remains of Halitherium in the Miocene 

 beds of Malta." By A. Leith Adams, M.B., F.G.S. 



The four upper beds of the Miocene formation of the Maltese 

 group, more especially the Sand-bed and Nodule-Bands of the cal- 

 careous sandstone, have yielded several forms of Cetaceans, teeth of 

 Zeuglodon, one or more species of Dugong allied to recent forms and 

 Balcsnai ; to these the author has added a tooth, an ear-bone, and some 

 caudal vertebrse of the HalitTierium. 



11. " On the affinities of Ghondrosteus, Ag." By John Young, 

 M.D., F.G.S. 



The object of this communication was to show, from the cha- 

 racters of the skeleton, that Ghondrosteus belongs not to the Chon- 

 drostean division of the ganoids as stated by Agassiz, but to the 

 Holostean division, since it posseses a well ossified basi-occipital ; 

 and the lateral walls of the cranium are composed of bones answer- 

 ing to the cartilage bones of ordinaiy Teleosteans. 



12. " On new Carboniferous genera of Crossopterygian Ganoids." 

 By John Young, M.D., F.G.S. 



In this paper the following new genera were described : — BJiizo- 

 dopsis, Strepsodiis, Dendroptychius, and BhomboptycMus ; all of which 

 were provisionally named some years ago by Professor Huxley. 

 Their generic distinctness has been fully established by specimens 

 recently discovered. The relation of Bliomboptychius to Megalichthys, 



