Reports and Proceedings. 233 



Its western border was the Eocky Mountains, and its eastern 

 margin not far from the 99th meridian. The strata in this basin are 

 all nearly horizontal, and indicate deposits formed in quiet waters. 

 They attain 300 feet in thickness, and rest nnconformably on strata 

 referred by Prof. Marsh to the Cretaceous coal-bearing series of 

 the Rocky Mountains. 



The fauna of the White River Lake-basin indicates a much less 

 tropical climate than that of the Eocene lakes. The Brontotheridce, 

 the largest known Miocene mammals, are peculiar to this deposit. 



Another Miocene lake occurs on the Pacific slope near the centre 

 of the State of Oregon. 



A far larger Pliocene Lake-basin was formed directly over the 

 eastern Miocene Basin, but extending much further east and south ; 

 covering an area at least five times as great as the older lake. The 

 Pliocene deposits, which attain 1500 feet in thickness, and lie nearly 

 horizontal, indicate by their fauna a warm temperate climate. The 

 more common mammals are the Mastodon, Rhinoceroses, Camels and 

 Horses, the latter were especially abundant. 



It is earnestly to be hoped that the vast collections of fossil 

 remains secured with so much labour by Prof. Marsh from these 

 and the subjacent Cretaceous deposits may ere long be published for 

 the satisfaction both of European and American naturalists. 



BEPOBTS _A.:£T:D IFIROOIEIEIDIItTGrS. 



Geological Society oe London - . — I. — February 24th, 1875. — John 

 Evans, Esq., V.P.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



Before proceeding to the business of the Meeting, the President spoke 

 as follows : — 



I cannot proceed to the ordinary business of this evening without 

 making some allusion to the melancholy event by which so deep a 

 gloom has been cast over all of us since the Anniversary Meeting on 

 Friday last. I little thought that in speaking of the services rendered 

 to this Society fifty years ago by Sir Charles Lyell, services which in 

 various ways he has ever since continued to render, that we should so 

 soon have to lament his irreparable loss. By every one of us he was 

 regarded as the leader of our science, by most of us as our trusted 

 master, and by many of us as our faithful friend. He has lived to see 

 the truth of those principles for which he so long and earnestly con- 

 tended accepted by nearly all whose opinions he valued ; and in future 

 times, wherever the name of Lyell is known, it will be as that of the 

 greatest, most philosophical, and most enlightened of British, if not 

 indeed of European geologists. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On the Murchisonite Beds of the Estuary of the Exe, and an at- 

 tempt to classify the beds of the Trias thereby." By Gr. Wareing 

 Ormerod, Esq., M.A., F.Gr.S. 



This paper may be regarded as a continuation of one read by Mr. 

 Ormerod before this Society in 1868. After noticing the mineralogical 

 character of the Murchisonite, Mr. Ormerod described, first, the Red 

 Sandstone beds by the sea-shore. To the east of Exmouth he con- 



