356 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— C. 



succeeded by cultures of Upper Palaeolithic age ; Proto-Solutrian and 

 Upper Aurignacian in character. 



Mother Grundy's Parlour and a rock shelter recently excavated at 

 Whalley, confirm the evidence of the Pin Hole and indicate that man 

 continued to occupy the area throughout the final cold period and to do so 

 until early Mesolithic times. 



Dr. C. Fenner. — Australites : a unique shower of glass meteorites (11.45). 



The small glass objects, known as tektites, which have been found pro- 

 fusely scattered over small localised areas of the earth's surface, are not 

 generally agreed upon as being glass meteorites. On the Continent, such 

 objects are displayed in museums as glass meteorites. In North America 

 they are not represented at all. And in Britain the tektites are displayed 

 alongside the meteorites, but not finally accepted as being of cosmic origin. 

 The purpose of the present paper is to support the theory that tektites are 

 glass meteorites, and more particularly to describe the characters and dis- 

 tribution of the great shower of glassy blebs, called Australites, that was 

 strewn across the southern half of Australia at some time geologically recent 

 but historically remote, most of the objects being to-day found upon the 

 surface. 



There are several series of tektites known : Moldavites, Billitonites, 

 Indo-chinites, Rizalites, Australites, Darwin Gl ss. Ivory Coast Tektites, 

 ? Libyan Glass, ? Columban Tektites, ?? Texan Tektites. Each series has 

 well-marked characters of form, composition, and distribution. It is 

 suggested that the only theory consonant with all the known facts is that 

 which accepts tektites as glassy meteorites. 



Dr. J. E. RiCHEY. — The tuffs in the volcanic vents of Ben Hiant, Ard- 

 yiamiirchan (12.15). 



The present investigation extends an observation of H. H. Thomas that 

 a tuff from Ben Hiant contained much quartz and white mica. In addition, 

 garnet is now recorded. The source of these minerals is concluded to be 

 the Moine Schists, which underlie the Tertiary Plateau Basalt Lavas. The 

 latter rocks form the walls of the great craters at the level of the tuffs. 

 A tiny fragment of garnetiferous quartzose-schist in a tuff strengthens the 

 conclusion. The tuffs also contain much finely divided basalt and trachytic 

 and glassy materials. The last-mentioned belong to the explosive magma. 



The tuffs alternate with agglomerates in flat layers, filling two craters, 

 and in the later crater andesitic pitchstone lavas occur at intervals. The 

 layers show no bedding internally. An agglomerate layer mainly with 

 trachytic rock-fragments grades upwards into tuff, at the top of which, at 

 the base of the overlying agglomerate, a dividing-plane is usually apparent. 

 Each pair of layers of agglomerate and tuff is regarded as the product of a 

 single eruption. Their thickness averages 20 to 30 ft. 



The exceedingly fine grain of the tuffs indicates that the later phase of 

 each eruption was highly explosive. This, coupled with the composition 

 of the tuffs, suggests gaseous erosion of the volcanic pipe such as F. A. Perret 

 observed in the 1906 eruption of Vesuvius. 



Prof. S. H. Reynolds.— yl collection of reptilian bones from the Oolite near 

 Stow-in-the-Wold, Glos. (12.45). 



The remarkable series of bones described below was obtained by Mr. 

 C. I. Gardiner, the Curator of the Museum at Stroud, where they are now 



