268 Notices of Memoirs. 



a breccia in the same locality, 25 feet thick, which is full of fossil 

 land-shells, all such as have their representatives in the valleys 

 of Oahu, though some of the species may be extinct. Professor 

 Lyons, who first noticed these shells, concludes that " the fossils 

 belong to a period previous to that of the receding of the ocean to 

 its present level. That event may have been coetaneous with the 

 change of level in the circumpolar area which marked the close of 

 the great Glacial period, and the evidences that our climate was, 

 previously to that time, more humid than at present, are confirmatory 

 of that view." Towards the north there is a ledge of coral 79 feet 

 above the sea, at Kahe, and 730 feet distant from the water, south of 

 Puu o Hulu, he mentions another ledge 56 feet above the sea and 

 a quarter of a mile inland. At the south end of the ridge, called 

 Mailiilii, the limestone reaches the height of 81 feet; and at other 

 localities on the coast, limited areas of the same substance more or 

 less elevated have been observed. The volcanic areas are fully 

 described and illustrated. 



VII. — Glaoiation in South Africa. — The Orange Eiver Ground 

 Moraine forms the subject of a communication to the Transactions 

 of the Philosophical Society of South Africa (voL xi, pt. 2, Sept., 

 1900), from the pen of A. W. Eogers and E. H. L. Schwarz. They 

 give four excellent photographs. The deposit covers a wide area in 

 the Prieska and Hope Town divisions of the Colony, and consists of 

 a peculiar conglomerate, first noticed by Wyley in 1859. The 

 authors arrive at the following conclusions : — " The appearances seen 

 in the three localities, Jackal's Water, Klein Modder Fontein, and 

 Vilet's Kuil, at considerable distances apart, can be satisfactorily 

 explained only on the supposition that the country was traversed 

 by land-ice ; and the presence of the till-like variety of the con- 

 glomerate in the same district, probably about the same localities, 

 confirms that explanation. Unfortunately the exact nature of the 

 conglomerate at the three localities is unknown, that is, whether it 

 is a true till or whether it is a stratified rock with glaciated pebbles. 

 We only know that the rock contains numerous scratched pebbles 

 and boulders ; but this is a small point and does not affect the 

 confirmation. It is evident that the country was depressed under 

 water after the formation of the till of Prieska, and it is quite 

 possible that sedimentary rocks were deposited on a floor consisting 

 partly of till and partly of the floor from which the soft till had 

 been removed, or on which no accumulation had taken place." 



VIII. — Geology of India. — From the " General Eeport on the 

 work carried on by the Geological Survey of India for the period 

 from the 1st of April, 1899, to the 31st of March, 1900," we gather 

 a favourable impression of progress. In the Museum the minerals 

 have been rearranged and the rock collections put in stratigraphical 

 order in accordance with the new edition of the "■ Manual of Indian 

 Geology." A large amount of time was occupied by the preparation 

 of the specimens for the Exposition at Paris, which were placed in 

 the charge of Mr. T. R. Blylh. The palgeontological work of the 



