"ay 
Geological Society of London. 141 
reconstructed beds (sands and clays) composed chiefly of the débris 
of the Woolwich and Reading heds, and in part of the basement bed 
of the London Clay. The author noticed especially the traces of 
fluviatile action displayed in these reconstructed Tertiary materials, 
and the fossil-remains found in the sands and gravels, which included 
traces of Elephas primigenius, Bos primigenius, Equus fossilis, and 
? Rhinoceros tichorhinus, besides numerous portions of trunks of 
trees, in some parts of which traces of coniferous structure had been . 
recognized. The characters presented by this pit were of interest, 
as adding another to the scattered evidences of the existence in post- 
glacial time in the valley of the Thames of a larger river occupying 
that valley, and flowing at from 20 to 380 feet higher than the pre- 
sent river. 
Il.—February 4.—The President announced that a circular had 
been sent to the Society, stating that certain old students of Freiberg 
were endeavouring to collect the means for erecting a monument in 
Freiberg to the memory of the late Prof. Bernhard von Cotta, and, 
further, of establishing a Fund for the assistance of needy students 
at the Mining Academy of that place. 
The following communication was read :— 
“On the Oligocene Strata of the Hampshire Basin.” By Prof. 
John W. Judd, F.R.S., Sec. GS. 
The study of the succession of strata in the fluvio-marine series of 
the Isle of Wight and the New Forest is attended with considerable 
difficulties, partly on account of the inconstant character of the beds 
composing estuarine formations, and partly because of the thick 
superficial deposits which everywhere cover them. By Webster a 
Lower Freshwater Series, a Middle Marine, and an Upper Fresh- 
water Series were recognized; but Mr. Prestwich showed, in the 
year 1846, that at Hamstead Cliff we have both freshwater and 
marine strata lying above all these; and, in 1853, Edward Forbes 
proved that the marine and freshwater strata seen at Bembridge 
Ledge were not, as had previously been supposed, the equivalent of 
those of Headon Hill, but occupy a distinct and higher horizon. 
Hitherto, however (in spite of some suggestions to the contrary 
which were made by Dr. Wright and Prof. Hébert), the strata 
exposed at the base of Headon Hill have been believed to be a 
repetition, through an anticlinal fold, of those seen at Colwell and 
Totland Bays. 
In the present memoir it is shown, both by stratigraphical and 
paleontological evidence, that the Colwell- and Totland-Bay beds 
are distinct from and overlie those at the base of Headon Hill. The 
distinctness and importance of the purely marine series exposed at 
Whitecliff Bay, Colwell Bay, and several localities in the New 
Forest is pointed out; and it is shown that, among the 200 forms of 
Mollusca which they contain, only one-fifth are found in the Barton 
Clay below. For this important division of the strata the name of 
the Brockenhurst Series is proposed. . 
--In consequence of the detection of an error in the accepted order 
