Natural History Society of Montreal. 187 



describing the terrestrial reptiles, insects, and mollusks discovered in 

 tlie Nova Scotian Coal-fields, Dr. Dawson's name is so intimately 

 associated with the discovery of these interesting remains that we 

 cannot imagine a fitter subject for so able a lecturer, or one to which 

 he could do greater justice. 



The Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field-club held 

 their third meeting on February 24th, — the Eev. L. Jenyns, President, 

 in the chair, when papers were read by Mr. McMurtrie on " The 

 Faults and Contortions of the Somersetshire Coal Field," and by 

 Mr. Chas. Ekin on " Chemistry in connection with Geology." Mr. 

 McMurtrie, whose practical knowledge of the Coal-measures to the 

 south of the Kingswood anticlinal enabled him to speak with so 

 much authority on the subject, gave a condensed account of the 

 various coal beds divided into the upper and lower series by the 

 intervening permanent sandstones. The main object of the paper 

 was a minute description of the numerous disturbances and contor- 

 tions to which the whole field has been subjected. The Farnborough 

 *' Fault," with a downthrow of 600 feet, and the great feature of the 

 Somersetshire coal field, the Eadstock "overlap fault" in the upper 

 division, were the principal points dwelt upon. But the chief in- 

 terest centred in the contorted, dislocated, and folded strata of the 

 Lobster series in the lower division, — every conceivable variety of 

 disturbance seems to have its focus here, and produces the extraor- 

 dinary result of coal actually won beneath the Carboniferous lime- 

 stone. The anomalous position of this patch of limestone was ac- 

 counted for by the great upheaval to which the whole Mendip range 

 has been subjected, — an upheaval which may have been either gra- 

 dual or continued at long intervals, but of such vast magnitude and 

 force as to cause the limestone and superincumbent sandstone to be 

 folded bach on themselves, so that the natural floor of the bed be- 

 comes the roof of the workings. Mr. McMurtrie, in conclusion, 

 stated that the approximate and probable origin of these "faults" 

 and contortions had been discovered by Mr. Moore in the existence 

 of volcanic rocks in the Mendip anticlinal, and that the same agent 

 which upheaved the Carboniferous limestone of the Mendips was, in 

 his opinion, the source of the great disturbances in the adjoining 

 Coal-basin. The date of this upheaval was, he considered, at the 

 close of the Carboniferous period, and previous to the deposition of 

 the New Eed Sandstone, and other overlying secondary rocks. The 

 horizontal position of these rocks, reposing on the upturned edges of 

 the strata beneath, was given in evidence of this conclusion ; and the 

 fact that the New Eed Sandstone has been deposited on a compara- 

 tively level surface would seem to indicate that great denudation had 

 taken place after the disturbances to which the Coal-measures were 

 subjected. — Mr. Ekin's paper on " Chemical Geology" was then read, 

 and in it the author traced the changes that have taken place in our 

 globe, from the time when it existed in space in a gaseous state to its 

 condition at the present day ; he showed how existing nebulas were 

 proved to consist of gases in a state of incandescence, and the pro- 



