356 Notices of Memoirs. 



bones and sandstone nodules of the Suffolk Bone-bed — an old 

 Eocene clay furnishing the so-called coprolites, crabs, etc. 



The Eev. J. Gunn speaks of the '' sio«e-bed" at Sutton in a recent 

 letter to this Magazine. It is better to keep "stone-bed" for the 

 Norfolk area, and to speak of the "Suffolk 6ojie-bed," since their 

 identity is not proved. Mr. Eoper's collection is no doubt interest- 

 ing, but Mr. Prestwich's discovery of Mammalian remains beneath 

 the Coralline Crag needs no confirmation. In 1862 I worked in the 

 Suffolk bone-bed in that position, and, in two separate papers, in 

 1865, had pointed out the fact of its occurrence with Mammalian 

 and other remains, at the base of both Crags, three years previously 

 to Mr. Prestwich's recent paper. One would suppose that this 

 relation of the beds in question should be now an accepted fact, and 

 I therefore cannot regard it as "a singular coincidence" that Mr. 

 Eoper obtained Mammalia from Sutton. 



A cast of the Mastodon tooth noted in this communication has 

 been placed by me in the British Museum. It is intended to figure 

 and describe it fully elsewhere. 



Mr. Baker's fine collection also contains another (making three 

 specimens known) premolar of the upper jaw of my Hycena antiqua. 



ZtTOTICES OIF nvLEiMionas. 



I, — The Centbnakt of Wm. Smith's Birth. 



W. SMITH, born Maicli 23, 1769. Died Aug. 28, 1839. 



" If in the pride of our prese.'it strength we are disposed to forget our origin, our 

 very speech would bewray us; for we use the language which he taught us in the 

 infancy of ooir science." 



—Sedgwick, on presenting the WoUaston Medal to W. Smith. 



IN March last (within a few days of the hundredth anniversary of 

 Smith's birth) a lecture was delivered at the Eoyal Institution, 

 Bath, on " Wm. Smith, the Father of English Geology, during his 

 residence near Bath," by W. Stephen Mitchell, LL.B., E.L.S., 

 E.G.S.' The object of the lecture was to revive the memory of 

 William Smith in Bath,^ and to call out all local reminiscences. We 

 especially select for notice the sketch of the growth of his geological 

 ideas. 



The Lecturer pointed out that the sources of information were — 



1. The memoir of W. Smith, by Prof. Phillips, his nephew. 



2. The address of Sedgwick in announcing the award of the Wol- 



laston medal. 



3. Eeminiscences of early life written by Smith himself, some of 



which are printed by Fitton in Phil. Mag. 1833, p. 38, etc. 



^ The notice of the Lecture has been purposely delayed as it was anticipated that 

 further local information might have been added. With the exception, howeyer, of 

 some dates obtained by Mr. Mitchell from the minute-book of the Coal Canal Com- 

 pany, this hope has not been realised. 



2 Since this was put in type, we hear that the Committee have agreed to place a 

 tablet on the walls of the Institution in Bath, to commemorate Smith's connection 

 with that city. 



