136 Reports and Proceedings. 



ten miles soutli of Hunstanton, in artificial sections, blue Gault lias 

 been found resting upon the Carstone, whilst rather nearer to 

 Hunstanton the same place was occupied by a red clay, connecting 

 the two dissimilar deposits, which, however, were shown by analysis 

 to contain nearly equal quantities of iron. If the Upper G-reensand 

 be represented in the Hunstanton section, the author considered that 

 its place must be in the band numbered 2, containing Siplionia para- 

 doxica and Avicula gryphceoides. 



Discrssiox. — Tlie President remarked that the Tcrtebrse from the Eed Chalk, 

 noticed and exhibited by Mr. "Wiltshire, were tmdoubtedly those of Plesiosaurus 

 lafispinns of the Upper Greensand, but associated with these were other bones which 

 he could not identity with any part of the skeleton of Flesiosaurus. 



Mr. Etheridge spoke in conhrmation of the author's views, referring especially to 

 the Pal;ieontological evidence. 



Mr. S. Hughes mentioned a boring near Hitchin where a hard sandstone, re- 

 sembliag Carstone, was found immediately below the Gaiilt, the latter having a 

 thickness of 280 feet. 



Mr. David Forbes remarked on the similarity ia the amount of iron present in 

 rocks so dissimilar as the Eed Chalk and the blue clay of the Gault. 



Prof. Morris noticed the similarity of the Carstone of Hunstanton, and its equiva- 

 lent beds, to the HHsthon and Hilsconglomerat, especially in their containing 

 abundance of pisoUtic iron-ore. He then adverted to the marked ditference of the 

 Lower Greensand of the Midland districts from that of the southern and northern 

 areas in England, in which that formation is developed, — the southern exhibiting 

 the entire series of deposits, which seem to reappear in the northern area, while in 

 the Midland district the lower members have not been observed. 



Mr. Judd remarked that the conditions of deposition in the north and south had 

 been ditFerent ; the Eed Chalk increases northwards, from 4 feet at Hunstanton to 30 

 feet at Speeton. He considered that the Carstone does not represent the Tealby 

 series of Lincolnshire, and that it is probably Aptien or Upper Xeocomian, but con- 

 taining in its lowest part fossils derived from the disintegration of Lower Xeoeomian 

 beds, in the same manner as the deposits of phosphatic nodules at Potton and 

 Upware. 



Mr. "Wliitaker objected to the use of chemical characters in the identification of 

 beds, and thought that the presence of the same fossils did not necessarily prove the 

 identity of the Eed Chalk and the Gault. 



Mr. "VTiltshire, in reply, maintained the sufficiency of the Palaeontological evidence, 

 that famished by the species of Ammonites being especially remarkable. 



Edixboigh Geological Society. — I. The third ordinary meeting 

 of this Society was held on the 17th December, 1868 ; Archibald 

 Geikie, Esq., F.E.S., etc., in the chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "Xotes on some Fossils from the Oolite of Yorkshire." By 

 James Gowans, Vice-President. Mr. Gowans described some Fossils 

 found by him at Lethring-ton Howe, near Xew Malton. 



2. •'•'Eemarks on a specimen oi Ascoceras ftom the Coal-measures." 

 By George Lyon. 



Mr. Lyon exhibited and described a magnificent specimen of 

 Ascoceras from the Coal-measures of Lanarkshire. He pointed out 

 that the discovery was of great interest, because hitherto this genus 

 had only been been found in Silurian rocks. He made a few obser- 

 vations on the family Ortlioceratidce. 



Dr. Page remarked that the Ascoceras just described by Mr. Lyon 

 was the third perfect specimen he knew of that had been found in 

 the Lanarkshire Coal-measures. 



