Geological Society of London. 135 



recent glaciation of South Africa described by Mr. Stow, and also to Mr. Belt's 

 popular exposition of the hypothesis of bipolar glaciation, and suggested that the 

 earth's passing through cold stellar spaces might perhaps be the real cause of 

 glacial epochs. 



Mr. Drew wished to know what were Mr. Blanford's views as to the land from 

 which the river came that deposited the strata with which the plant-remains were 

 associated. With such great thicknesses as 11,000 and 15,000 feet of flu viatile 

 beds, the occurrence of which implied a corresponding amount of sinking, there 

 must, he thought, at one time have been very high land, which was thus drained 

 and denuded. He inquired what portion, if any, of this land now remains. 



Mr. Carruthers said he thought that in South Africa there are four distinct plant- 

 beds, and that the base-bed is higher than the Permian, belonging to the Jurassic 

 series, and probably to the Oolite. 



Mr. Woodward was pleased to find that the author had added further evidence, 

 derived from the fossil flora of the Mesozoic series of India, in corroboration of the 

 views of Huxley, Sclater, and others as to the former existence of an old sub- 

 merged continent ("Lemuria"), which Darwin's researches on coral reefs had 

 long since foreshadowed. Mr. Blanford's observations on the former existence 

 of glaciers at much lower levels than the present snow-line of India added another 

 valuable piece of evidence to those collected by Mr. T. Belt in Nicaragua and 

 elsewhere. But any theory pretending to account satisfactorily for the glacial 

 epoch must not only explain the lower level of former glaciers in the tropics, but 

 the former existence of a warm, temperate, and even subtropical fauna and flora 

 in high northern latitudes, as shown by Heer, McClintock, and others, not to be 

 provided for by Croll's theory or that of Balfour Stewart, but by periodic variation 

 in the inclination of the earth's axis, as suggested by Belt, and long since by the 

 Rev. Prof. Haughton in the Society's Journal. 



Mr. Bauerman considered that the author's conclusions were, in the main, borne 

 out by the evidence afforded by those portions of the Indian coal-fields with which 

 he was acquainted. He thought, however, that there was a difficulty in the precise 

 correlation of the Coal-bearing series of Western India with those of Bengal, owing to 

 the absence of the best physical horizon in the Ironstone series in the western 

 district. From what he had seen of the Talchir section in the Nerbudda valley, 

 he was not inclined to agree with the author as to their glacial origin ; but he was not 

 acquainted with the other section referred to in the Godavery valley. He con- 

 sidered that the author's conclusion as to the age of the volcanic series of the 

 Deccan was confirmed by the evidence of rocks of similar character occurring in 

 Eastern Africa on the south side of the Gulf of Aden. 



Dr. Murie thought the evidence derived from the living forms of animals was in 

 favour of their migration to or from Africa through Arabia, but not by way of the 

 Maldive group. 



The author, in reply, remarked that the ancient continent would not furnish 

 glaciers unless it was of very great height. He suggested that the boulders referred 

 to might have been due to the action of winter ice. 



II. — January 13, 1875. — John Evans, Esq., E.E.S., President, in 

 the Chair. The following communications were read : — 



1. "On the Kimmeridge Clay of England." By the Rev. J. E. 

 Blake, M.A., F.G.S. 



The author described in considerable detail the development of the 

 Kirnmeridge Clay in various parts of England, dwelling especially upon 

 the palseontological phenomena presented by it in the different locali- 

 ties. He arrived at the conclusion that the Kimmeridge Clay in Eng- 

 land is divisible only into two sections, Upper and Lower ; but when 

 it is preceded by the Coral Rag, it possesses a basal series of no great 

 thickness, which may be designated the Kimmeridge Passage-beds. He 

 compared his Upper Kimmeridge with the lower part of the " Vir- 

 gulien" with foreign authors. It consists of paper shales, paper slabs, 

 bituminous shales, and cement stones, with interstratified clays, and 

 may attain a thickness of at least 650 feet. Its fauna is characterized 



