428 Reports & Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



E.EE'OI^TS .A.3SriD I='I^OOE!E13Z>I3^TGrS. 



Geological Society of London. 

 Jane 25, 1913. — Dr. Aubrey Strahan, T.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. C. Dawson, F.S.A., F.G.S., exhibited zinc-blende occurring in 

 ironstone nodules which contain plant-remains, in the celebrated 

 plant-bed of the Fairligiit Clays, Fairlight, near Hastings. He 

 remarked that the form is crystalline and the ore is frequently found 

 filling up cavities left by the decayed vegetable matter. Zinc-blende 

 is not known to occur at other horizons in the Weald, nor anywhere 

 else in the South-East of England. It is probably segregated from 

 older rocks of which the Wealden strata are composed. 



He also exhibited pisolitic limonite, which occurs in considerable 

 quantities at one or two horizons in thq Fairlight Clays, near 

 Hastings. On the shore at Pett Level, near Fairlight Cliff end, 

 a very large deposit is found, just above tlie ordinary high-water 

 mark. The deposit consists of minute spherical grains or nodules of 

 sand-like condition. These, on being analysed, prove to contain 

 60 per cent of iron-oxide. In the cliff the iron-ore occurs in bands, 

 the grains of which it is composed forming a compact grey con- 

 glomerate that turns dark brown on exposure. Many pieces of tlie 

 conglomerate are to be found on the shore in a rolled condition. 

 When disintegrated, they are deposited by the joint action of the 

 eastward drift of the tide and the south- westerly wind along the 

 shore. The deposit last year measured about half a mile in length, 

 by about 30 or 40 yards in width, and was 3 to 4 feet deep. 



The following communication was read : — 



" The Miocene Beds of the Victoria Nyanza and the Geology of 

 the Country between the Lake and the Kisii Highlands." By Felix 

 Oswald, D.Sc, B.A., F.G.S. ; with Appendices on the Vertebrate 

 llemains, by Charles William Andrews, D.Sc, F.R.S. ; on the Non- 

 Marine Mollusca, by Hi chard Bullen Newton, F.G.S. ; and on the 

 Plant-remains, by Miss N. Bancroft, B.Sc, F.L.S. 



Tlie Miocene beds of the eastern coast of the Victoria Nyanza, 

 south-east of Karungu, form a narrow zone (covered with black earth) 

 at the foot of cliffs of overlying nepheline-basalt, and are only 

 exposed in a few gullies. Tlie whole series is conformable, dipping 

 8^ north by west. 



1. Beds 1-12. An upper group, about 70 feet thick, of grey and 

 brown clays and shales, with occasional current-bedded sandstones 

 containing terrestrial shells {Tropidophora, Cerastus), as itlso calcified 

 tree-stems in the uppermost bed. 



2. Beds 13-25. A middle group, about 30 feet thick, of red and 

 grey clays, with white sandstones in tlie lower half. No bone-bed, 

 but fragmentary Chelonian and Crocodilian remains occur sparsely 

 throughout the series. Persistent horizons are a travertinous marl- 

 stone (No. 14) containing AtupiiUaria and Lanistes ; a thin sandstone 

 (No. 16) yielding Hj^racoid jawbones; and a gravel (No. 24) yielding 

 teeth of Dinoilierium, Protopterus, crocodile, etc. 



