Reports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 45 



Geological Society of London. 



I.— November 23, 1898.— W. Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S., President, 



in the Chair. 



Sir A. Geikie drew attention to some specimens on the table 

 which had been collected by the Geological Survey from the Silurian 

 rocks of County Tipperary. These contained impressions that bore 

 a close resemblance to flattened and drawn-out graj^tolites, and 

 others that might be taken for mollusca or phyllopoda enlarged bv 

 cleavage. It seemed to him, however, extremely doubtful whether 

 these forms were truly of organic origin. They were exhibited in 

 the hope that the palasontologists in the Society might be able to 

 throw some light upon them from the zoological side. 



Dr. G. J. Hinde exhibited and commented on specimens of 

 Devonian rocks sent by Prof Edgeworth David and Mr. Pittman. 

 from the railway section at Tamworth, New South Wales, which 

 had been received since their paper was read. The specimens 

 included radiolarian shales and submarine tuffs containing impres- 

 sions of Lepidodendron cmsirale ; similar shales with bands of tuff 

 regularly interstratified ; radiolarian chert irregularly broken up and 

 intermingled with tuff; and hard shale with numerous radiolaria 

 weathered out on the surface. Microscopic sections prepared from 

 these rocks were also exhibited. 



The following communications were read : — • 



1. "Note on a Conglomerate near Melmerby (Cumberland)." By 

 J. E. Marr, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



In this paper the author describes the occurrence of a con- 

 glomeratic deposit which shows indubitable effects of earth-move- 

 ment, not only on the included pebbles, but also on the surface of 

 one of the deposits. The rocks are coloured as basement Carboni- 

 ferous rocks on the Geological Survey map. The Skiddaw Slates 

 are succeeded by about 30 feet of a roughly stratified conglomerate, 

 followed by 20 to 30 feet of rock with small pebbles, and that by 

 a second coarse conglomerate. The pebbles possess the outward 

 form of glacial boulders, but many of them are si icken sided, 

 fractured, faulted, and indented. The striae are often curved, 

 parallel, and covered by mineral deposit ; the grains of the matrix 

 are embedded in the grooves, while slickensiding often occurs 

 beneath the surface of the pebbles and the strise are seen to begin or 

 end at a fault-plane. The surface of rock beneath the upper con- 

 glomerate was found to be slickensided. The way in which the 

 surfaces of some of the pebbles have been squeezed off suggests the 

 possibility that their angular shape may be partially or wholly due 

 to earth-movement. 



2. " Geology of the Great Central Railway (New Extension to 

 London of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway) : 

 Rugby to Catesby." By Beeby Thompson, Esq., F.G.S., F.C.S. 



In this paper the portion of the line, 10 miles iu length, from 



