TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 261 



interesting relations to the Sliabh Croob and Morne granites, by which they are 

 invaded. He had noticed also the existence of anthracitic beds in them, but was 

 unable to produce any well-marked fossils in proof of the Silurian age of the beds. 

 That they were of this age, however, there seemed no reasonable doubt, from the 

 fact long ago established by Buckland and Conybeare, that they are in direct con- 

 tinuation of the great slate-bands of the South of Scotland, in which Silurian fossils 

 have been of late years abundantly found. Since the period referred to, a more 

 active examination of the rocks has been set on foot. At the request of the author 

 and his friend Mr. James M'Adam, F.G.S., of Belfast, the well-known collector 

 Mr. Patrick Doran had examined certain favourable localities, and, with his usual 

 success, had brought to light several well-preserved fossils, the greater number of 

 which seem to be Upper Silurian forms. There are several Trilobites and Graptolites, 

 two Mytili, a Sanguinolaria, an Orthoceras, and the Loxonema obscura, a charac- 

 teristic Upper Silurian fossil. The author described a section reaching from the 

 triassic beds of Belfast Bay through the Carboniferous and Permian formations, 

 brought into contact near Holywoad by a fault, and across the Silurian tracts of 

 the middle of the country to the two granitic protrusions already mentioned. On this 

 section, between Comber and Ballynahinch, in the townland of Tullygirvan, the fossils 

 were discovered. A more detailed account was promised at an early period. 



On the newly discovered Reptilian Remains from the neighbourhood of Elgin. 



By Thomas H. Huxley, F.R.S., Professor of Natural History, Govern- 

 ment School of Mines. 



The author described the principal features of the large series of Reptilian remains 

 from Elgin, which had been placed in his hands for examination, and the greater 

 part of which were exhibited to the Section. They consisted of portions of the skull 

 with teeth, of cervical, dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebra?, and ribs, coracoid, scapula, 

 and bones of the extremities, together with dermal scutes from various parts of the 

 body, of Stagonolepis Robertsoni. The anatomical characters of all these remains were 

 shown to be in entire agreement with that view of the true affinities of Stagonolepis 

 which the author had been the first to propound, and demonstrated that it departed 

 from the Crocodilian type even less than he had at first supposed. 



An account was then given of the structure of the Lacertian, Hyperodapedon 

 Gordoni from the same locality ; and its resemblances to, and differences from, the 

 Triassic Rhynchosaurus were discussed. 



The foot-prints in the Elgin sandstones were also described, but their relation to 

 either of the reptiles just mentioned was left an open question. 



With respect to the geological age of these remarkable reptiles, the author ex- 

 pressed his conviction that, while their generic distinctness from any known Reptilia 

 rendered it unsafe to make any very positive assertion upon the point, the affinities 

 of Stagonolepis with the Liassic Crocodilia, and of Hyperodapedon with the Triassic 

 Rhynchosaurus were so close, that nothing but the most conclusive stratigraphical 

 evidence could justify the assumption of the Devonian age of the rocks in which 

 they were found. 



Numerous lithographic plates, forming a part of the illustrations of a forthcoming 

 memoir upon these remains, were exhibited to the Section. 



On the Section of the Coast between the Girdleness and Dunnottar Castle, 



Kincardineshire. By the Rev. Dr. Longmuir. 

 This communication was illustrated by a diagram of the different kinds of rocks 

 occurring between these two points, and of the stratification in the harbour at the 

 Cove, of the scenery atMuchalls, and of the junction of the Old Red Sandstone and 

 conglomerate in the south side of the bay of Stonehaven. There was also a series 

 of the different kinds and varieties of the rocks along the coast, which nearly 

 extended along the whole side of the table. Beginning at the Girdleness, the Doctor 

 stated that the Dee ran for several miles in the hollow formed between the granite 

 and the gneiss, so that it was impossible to examine their union. A little to the 

 south of the lighthouse, there occurs a reddish granite, enclosing masses of con- 



