280 Report fi and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



commission agent, manager of a general business, wine merchant, 

 diamond dealer, and auctioneer. Meanwhile he had seized all 

 opportunities for geological studies ; he had obtained remains of a 

 Labyrinthodont named Micropholis Stowi by Huxley, and had been 

 engaged in an expedition in Griqu aland, which led to his most important 

 publication, "Geological Notes upon Griqualand West," read before 

 the Geological Society of London in 1873. Ultimately Stow was 

 officially engaged in geological surveys of the countrj' between the 

 Yaal and Modder Elvers in the Orange Free State, and became the 

 discoverer of tlie Vereeniging coalfield. He died on March 17th, 

 1882. The story of his life is full of interest and pathos, and we 

 commend it to our readers. 



I^EIPOK-TS .A.nsriD :E>I?,OCEEIDIITGrS- 



I. — Geological Society of Londox. 



I.— March 4fh, 1908.— Professor W. J. Sollas, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On Metriorhynchus hrachyrhynchus, Deslong., from the Oxford 

 Clay near Peterborough." By E. Thurlow Leeds, B. A. (Communicated 

 by i)r. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., F.G.S.) 



This species was first described by E. E. Deslongchamps in 1868, 

 and was based on an imperfect skull, obtained from the department of 

 Calvados, Lower I^ormandy. He was led to distinguish it from other 

 species by the shortness of its snout. He mentions one other mutilated 

 skull found near Poitiers, and there is a third in the Museum de la 

 Faculte des Sciences at Caen. Two skulls have recently been obtained 

 by Mr. A. N. Leeds, F.G.S., from the Saurian zone of the Lower 

 Oxford Clay, in the neighbourhood of Dogsthorpe, Peterborough. 

 No other parts of the skeleton were found with them, even the 

 mandibles being missing. The two specimens belong to the same 

 species, and after comparison with descriptions, figures, and photo- 

 graphs of the specimens above mentioned, they have been referred to 

 Metriorhynchus hrachyrhynchus. This is believed to be the first 

 recorded occurrence of the species in England ; and the specimens 

 help to throw additional light on the cranial osteology of the species, 

 especially in the parts which are wanting in the type - specimen. 

 They are therefore described in order to amplify Deslongchamps's 

 description. The skulls are neither of them perfect, but one fortunatelj' 

 supplements the other, and both are perfect in one of the most 

 interesting parts — the frontal region and the part from the nasals 

 to the premaxillse. The specimens are compared and contrasted 

 throughout with M. superciliosus. It is found that these specimens 

 possess the main characteristics determining Deslongchamps's species, 

 although the prefrontals, which are in keeping with the general 

 massive development of the skull, are wider than be supposed ; and it 

 is possible to reconstruct with almost absolute certainty the region of 



