Notices of Memoirs — F alceontology . 271 



on the Lower Silurian slates; for a short distance it occupies a 

 horizontal position, and then sinks gradually below the beach. Above 

 the Boulder-clay, and resting conformably upon it, is a bed of dark 

 Bandy mud, which likewise dips under the beach. At low water, 

 and when a storm has removed the loose shingle, portions of trees, 

 mostly of the alder and willow, are to be seen imbedded in the upper 

 surface of the mud. The author considers that there must have 

 been a greater elevation of the land at the time when the trees were 

 growing, to the extent of at least eight feet above the present level, 

 and that subsequently a subsidence to the extent of at least thirty 

 feet took place, and again an elevation to the level at the present 

 time. H. B. W. 



Brief Abstracts — C. Pal^egntolggt. 



11. — Winkler, Dr., Memoire sur des Dents des Poissons de Terrain 

 Bruxellien. In the Archives du Musee Teyler, vol. 3, part 4, 

 1873. 

 Dr. Winkler gives a list of 44 species of fish teeth belonging to 

 the Sharks and Kays, from the Terrain Bruxellien (Middle Eocene) 

 of Belgium, of which five are new and fully described in his memoir, 

 viz. : Corax fissuratus, Galeocerdo recticonus, Otodus minutissimus, 

 Lamna gracilis, and Plicodus Thielensis, the latter being a new genus 

 belonging to the Cestracionts, and closely related to the genus Orodus 

 from the Carboniferous Limestone of Bristol, but of which no inter- 

 mediate or similar form has been found in the long series of inter- 

 vening strata. J. M. 



12. — Macloskie, Eev. Dr.G-. The Silicified Wood of Lough Neagh, 

 with Notes on the Structure of Coniferous Wood. Proc. Belfast 

 Nat. Hist, and Phil. Soc. for the Session 1871-72, pp. 51-65. 

 [1874.] 



The silicified wood is found in the drift deposits at Sandy Bay 

 and other places inland, on the eastern and noi'thern borders of the 

 Lough ; it is only found on the beach on the western side of the 

 water. In certain places near Sandy Bay the silicified wood has 

 been found in connexion with lignites, but it is not co-extensive 

 with them, nor does it, like them, occur intercalated between the 

 masses of trap rock. The author considers that there is an intimate 

 connexion between the silicified wood and the lignites of Antrim, and 

 that the former is probably a representation of Miocene vegetation. 



The original wood was coniferous, of the type Cupressoxylon, and 

 may have been of the genus Sequoia, but this is uncertain. The 

 process of silicification was, in Dr. Macloskie's opinion, probably due 

 to cold water holding silica in solution; a rapidly running river 

 containing silica in solution, and having logs of trees in its channel, 

 would, he thought, afford favourable conditions for the production 

 of silicified wood. In conclusion he pictures the conditions under 

 which these remarkable fossils may have been deposited in the 

 positions in which they now occur. H. B. W. 



