XXXll 



visited the Geological Museum at Penzance, he examined a speci- 

 men in Dr. Boase's collection (No. 733) said to have been found 

 at Porthalla, in the parish of St. Keverne. He at once pronounced 

 it to be fossiliferous, and, on having it polished, he saw that it 

 contained encrinites and coral. Years since, he had expressed 

 an opinion that fossiliferous rocks would be found in the vicinity 

 of the Nare ; and if the specimen he had referred to was really- 

 found in situ at Porthalla, it confirmed his opinion that that dis- 

 trict was fossiliferous. The quartz and calcareous rocks there 

 were similar in character to the fossiliferous rocks of Gorran 

 Haven. 



Mr. Peach next stated that, some seven-and-twenty years 

 since, he pronounced that certain fossils discovered in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Powey and Polperro were fishes ; and that opinion 

 was confirmed by Murchison and Forbes. But Professor M'Coy, 

 after microscopic examination of the fossils, declared that they 

 were sponges, and not fishes. More recently, however, he (Mr. 

 Peach) had re-examined these fossils from the Devonian or Old Eed 

 Sandstone of Cornwall; and the result — (he had found among 

 them Pteraspis and Icthyodoriilites) — confirmed his former opinion 

 that the fossils were, in fact, fishes ; and fishes they had been 

 pronounced to be, by Professor Huxley and others. They were 

 of gigantic size, in comparison with similar species found in the 

 Old Red Sandstone of Hereford and Scotland. 



Mr. Peach further mentioned, that he had recently found in 

 a collection of zoophytes belonging to Miss Elizabeth Carne, of 

 Penzance, a specimen of branched coral which in some measure 

 resembled a coral that he had found, some time since, when dredg- 

 ing with Mr. Jeffery, off the coast of Shetland ; he had reason 

 to believe the one he now exhibited was a new species. — Mr. 

 Peach then exhibited, a beautiful specimen of Gorgonia, which had 

 been given to him very recently by a fisherman at Gorran Haven, 

 on Avhich were suspended padlock-shaped 7iidi of a marine animal ; 

 the bow of the lock was clasped round the branches of the 

 Gorgonia. 



Meteorology. Dr. Barham made some observations, illus- 

 trated by tabulated records, concerning the exceptionally hot 

 summer of 1868 in this country, contrasted with the extraordinary 

 cold which prevailed contemporaneously on the northern shores 

 of France and in various other parts of the continent. The sun- 

 shine, in this county, in every month from April to September, 

 had exceeded the average of the previous 1 7 years ; but, notwith- 

 standing the summer drought, the rainfall during the year had 

 been four inches above the average. In some parts of Cornwall, 



