186 ReporU and Proceedings — 



In the second group are placed numerous papers wbicli may 

 roughly be classified under the following headings : — Miscellaneous 

 Geology, Foreign and Colonial — a somewhat exhaustive division, 

 comprising about a score of papers, dealing with many subjects in 

 different parts of the world. African geology, especially, comes to 

 the front in this group. Miscellaneous Invertebrate Palaeontology — 

 a score of papers may be thus classified. Most of these matters are 

 for the consideration of specialists, relating to corals, crinoidea, 

 brj'ozoa, ostracoda, cephalopoda, and to siliceous organisms. In 

 PaloEohotany there has only been one paper of any importance ; 

 whilst under the heading Dynamical Problems are a few papers 

 dealing with the movement of material. A notice of the Inverness 

 earthquake, and a communication on the origin of the basins of the 

 Great Lakes of America complete this category. 



The detailed consideration of the first group commences with the 

 Newer Paleozoic Eocks. The Carboniferous system has not yielded 

 any important stratigraphical papers of late years, but there have 

 been some interesting communications respecting the Coal-measures. 

 Questions as to the origin and faunal character of these are discussed 

 by more than one writer, and very important deductions as to the 

 delimitation of the marine and fresh-water beds have been drawn. 

 The subject of Coal in the South-east of England was considered, 

 a propos of a paper read at the Society some years ago, and the 

 prospects of coal-getting at Dover and elsewhere in this part of 

 England discussed. In Devonian geology, the structure and 

 peculiarities of the South Devon Limestones form the subject of 

 an interesting communication ; and there are also important strati- 

 graphical papers in this connection, more especially one written 

 subsequent to the visit of a party from the International Geological 

 Congress of London. 



In the Older Palseozoic Rocks a considerable amount of work has 

 been done, more especially amongst the Silurian and Ordovician of 

 the North-west of England, where additional evidence has been 

 furnished of the value of Graptolite-zones as a means of comparison 

 with the Older Palseozoics of distant areas ; and a further contri- 

 bution has also been made to our knowledge of beds of this age 

 in the Cross-Fell inlier. The papers dealing with the fossiliferous 

 Cambrian are not numerous, but they are of great importance, 

 including the recognition of a very low Cambrian fauna at the top 

 of the Penrhyn quarries, and Sir J. W. Dawson's correlation of 

 American with European Cambrians. The discovery of Olenellus 

 in the " fucoid beds " of the North-west Highlands also serves to fix 

 the Cambrian age of the Durness Limestone, to which formation the 

 Altered Limestone of Strath in Skye, at one time regarded as of 

 Liassic age, is now held to belong. The physical relations and 

 the post-Cambrian metamorphism of the rocks of the North-west 

 Highlands are also considered under this heading. 



The Fundamental Rocks are roughly divided into three categories, 

 viz. : the sedimentary series, the volcanics, and the ci'ystalline schists. 

 The first includes the Torridon Sandstone, the Longmynd rocks, the 



