554 Robert G. Bell — Notes on Pliocene Beds. 



came into my possession weighed 1170 grammes. In form it is 

 rather rectangular, with rounded angles and prominences, being- 

 thicker in the middle of the stone. The interior is of a fine-grained 

 granular structure of a bluish-grey colour, and contains several of the- 

 veins or faults like the meteorite of Chateau Renard and others, and 

 belongs to the chondritic class of meteorites ; it contains a compara- 

 tively small amount of iron, which is evenly disseminated through- 

 out the mass, the crust is of a moderate thickness and of a dull 

 black colour ; about one-half of which is covered with a brownish 

 stain, probably where it rested on the soil, a character frequently 

 observed in other meteorites. A single stone apparently only fell, at 

 least no others were found. The fragment broken off was said to 

 be for the purpose of analysis, but the result is not known, as no 

 public notice has been made of this fall. 



YI. — Notes on Pliocene Beds. 

 By Egbert George Bell, F.G.S. 



POE some years past the Upper Tertiaries of England have not 

 received such a liberal share of attention as was bestowed on 

 them at one time by the older geologists, probably in part because 

 of the impression unwittingly encouraged by some of the authorities 

 in science, that little original work in the way of discovery can now 

 be done in connection with the organic contents of the Upper 

 Tertiary deposits, the number of species already recorded being 

 very large. 



Other considerations, such as the comparative shortness and 

 insignificance (geologically considered) of the period of time during 

 which these deposits were forming, have also doubtless tended to 

 divert the attention of the younger students of geology to the more 

 difficult and less known faunas in older formations. 



And yet the termination of the discovery of new species would 

 seem to be as far off" as ever. Very little is actually known of the 

 fossil forms of many of the lower classes of organisms ; indeed, 

 excepting in the Mollusca, the information that has at present been 

 published is extremely meagre, our knowledge of the Annelids,- 

 Echinoderms, Polyzoa, and many other groups of the Invertebrata, 

 in which the Pliocenes of Britain are very rich, is in fact astonish- 

 ingly behind that which has been attained as regards Mollusks and 

 Vertebrates. 



Independent of fresh discoveries, there is a line of research which 

 may with advantage be followed by the palseontologist dealing with 

 material already identified, and about which much is known. He may 

 seek to trace out the life history in time and space of a species or 

 group of species, which, having appeared in some antecedent 

 period, has lived on to our own time. For such purpose the present 

 generation possesses many advantages, the numerous recent deep- 

 sea explorations having revealed facts respecting geographical and 

 bathy metrical distribution which help to elucidate the condition of 

 the Tertiary seas, and thus to enlarge our acquaintance with the 

 zoological history of many fossil forms. 



