J, B. Scriccnor — Odsidianifes in Malay Peninsula. 411 



there can be no possible comparison with the Brockenhurst Corals. 

 The Molluscan fauna of the Lower Oligocene is exactly identical with 

 the Tongrien inferieur of Belgium, and is very rich (I described 756 

 species), that of our Ilupel Clay being rather poor, so that it is quite 

 impossible that a larger number of fossils could pass from the former 

 to the latter (which contains about 200 species, 70 of which are common 

 to the Lower Oligocene, as I stated in my monograph, p. 1443), and the 

 Upper Oligocene has a well-characterized fauna discovered last year 

 as far west as Boncelles, north of Liege. I must therefore object to 

 separating the Oligocene only into two divisions and to the putting 

 the Brockenhurst Beds in the Upper Eocene. 



It is a mistake or mispi'int that I once cited the Venus Bed from 

 the Lower Headon Series, instead of the Middle ; the Lower may 

 belong to the Eocene, which is otherwise represented in the most 

 northern parts of Germany by clay with Crabs and a few Mollusca 

 of the London Clay and basaltic tufa, as in Denmark (Moler). The 

 important beds of brown coal between Halle, Magdeburg, and 

 Brunswick are still doubtful, though I rather believe them to be of 

 Eocene age. 



As to the Aquitanien, I am not sure that it is everywhere cleai'ly 

 defined, so that it may belong partly to the Upper Oligocene and 

 partly to the Lower Miocene, containing mostly brackish and fresh- 

 water beds, which so often form " des terrains de passage", or inter- 

 mediate beds. 



VII. — Obsidianites in the Malay Peninsula. 



By J. B. ScRivEXOR, M.A., F.G.S.. Geologist to the Federated Malay States 

 " Government and formerly of H.M. Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. 



rpHE appearance of Professor E. Weinschenk's paper ^ at the close of 

 J_ last year on two specimens of Moldavite from Kuttcnburg, in 

 Bohemia, affords a convenient opportunity of recording occurrences of 

 the related ' obsidianites ' (referred to by Professor Weinschenk as 

 Billitonite and Australite) in the Malay Peninsula. 



Tbe literature dealing with the occurrences of obsidianites in the 

 Malay Archipelago and Australia is unfortunately scattered. The 

 subject has been fully treated, however, and in view of the origin 

 suggested for Moldavite by Professor Suess and supported by Professor 

 Weinschenk, namely, that these peculiar pieces of glass fell on the 

 earth as meteors, it is interesting to note the lunar- volcanic origin 

 suggested for obsidianites by Dr. Verbeek in 1897,- and the admission 

 of the probability of a meteoric origin hj Dr. Krause in 1898.^ On 

 the other hand, Mr. E. S. Simpson,* while describing West Australian 



1 " Die kosmische Natur der Moldavite und verwandter Glaser " : Centralblatt 

 f. Min. Geol. u. Palaeontologie, December 15, 1908, No. xxiv, pp. 737-42. 



2 R. D. M. Verbeek, " Glaskogels van Billiton-Jaarboek v. h. Mijnwezen in 

 Nederlandsch Oost-Indie " : Wetenschappelijk Gedeelte, 1897, pp. •235-72, pi. i. 



^ P. G. Krause, *' Obsidianbomben aus Niederliindisch Indien-Jaarboek v. h. 

 Mijnwezen in Nederlandsch Oost- Indie " : Wetenschappelijk_ Gedeelte, 1898, 

 pp. 17-31, pi. i. 



* E. S. Simpson, Geol. Survey of Western Australia, Bull. No. 6, Notes from 

 the Departmental Laboratory, 1902, pp. 79-85, pis. i, vi-viii. 



