96 Correspondence — Prof. T. G. Bonncy. 



liarl it not been for a small slip. I well remember the slipped mass 

 sinking lower and lower until it reached the beach. 



Prof. Judd says that the importance of the marine bed has been 

 much overrated, as it is not a distinct formation, but only one of 

 numerous local intercalations of brackish-water bands among the 

 Oligocene strata. 



To this I reply that although I have so constantly worked this 

 area, I have never once met with any but this one zone, and have 

 never until now heard of snch. 



I could say much more, but it reallj'^ seems a waste of time, and of 

 your valuable space, since one of my critics admits that he has not 

 visited the neighbourhood since 1845, and the other writes as though 

 he had never seen the place at all. H. Keeping. 



"WOODWAEDIAN MuSEUM, CAMBRIDGE. 



PIKKITE. 

 SiK, — I am glad to learn that Capt. John Plant has discovered the 

 rock Pikrite (it is not a mineral, as twice stated in his letter) in situ 

 in Anglesey. As I have specially studied the rock, and am aware 

 of more than one variety of it which occurs in Anglesey, I shall 

 be greatly indebted to him if, before he publishes his "map and 

 explanation," he will permit me to examine his specimens. 



T. G. BONNEY. 



:M:isc:BXjXj.A.zsr:E]OTJS. 



Professor Sir Eichard Owen, K.C.B., M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., 

 r.R.S., F.G.S., etc., etc., etc. — Professor Oweu, who was appointed to the post of 

 first Superintendent of the Natural History Departments in the British Museum in 

 May, 1856, an oflfice specially created for him, retired from official connection with 

 the National Museum on the 31st December last, after 28 years' service. He had 

 previously filled the office of Conservator of the Museum and Hunterian Professor 

 at the Eoyal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields, for about 25 years Although 

 Professor Owen's labours as a Zoologist and Comparative Anatomist and Physiologist 

 are so important and extensive, yet he will be more especially remembered for his 

 great and original researches into the extinct forms of life which peopled our earth 

 in the old times, and his British Fossil Mammaliii, Fossil Eeptilia, his Extinct 

 Gigantic Edentata of South America, his Fossil Eeptilia of South Africa, his Fossil 

 Marsupialia of Australia, and his Fossil Wingless Birds of New Zealand, alone form 

 a stupendous monument of patient and masterly labour. His Memoirs on the Pearly 

 Nautilus, on Spirula, on Limtdus, on Camerated Shells, etc., betray the same extensive 

 powers of observation. His memoirs upon the fossil long-tailed bird, Archceopteryx, 

 and those on the great horned lizard, Megalcmia prisca, from Australia, specially 

 deserve to be mentioned. The title of K.C.B. conferred upon him by his Sovereign 

 is a fitting recognition of his lifie-long scientific labours. Sir Eichard Owen will 

 complete his 80th year on the 20th July next.^ 



^ We hope to give a full account of Professor Owen's life and work in a later 

 Number, with a portrait of this distinguished Palseontologist. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



