418 Reports and Proceedings — 



The three great lead systems near Ballarat further indicate an 

 ancient system of rivers, con'esponding approximately to existing 

 drainage courses ; the southern corresponding to the Yarrowee, the 

 western to the Burrumbeet, and the eastern to the Moorabool water- 

 sheds. 



In concluding this brief notice of the Eeport, we cannot omit Mr. 

 Brough Smyth's pertinent remarks — " The value of a geological 

 survey is not to be measured by any discoveries of minerals which 

 may be made by the surveyors. The primary object is to make 

 known observed facts relating to the structure of the earth's surface, 

 and to place in due order of succession the several rock formations 

 which present themselves to view. All the aspects of each forma- 

 tion should be shown, and here the aid of the palaeontologist is 

 indispensable. To prosecute a geological survey with no other 

 object than that of discovering minerals of economic value, is a 

 mean avoidance of the duties which we owe to others who are 

 labouring with different aims in all parts of the globe." J. M. 



s.E:poie,TS JLDNTID iPi^oaEiBiDii^rcH-s. 



Geological Society of London. 



I.— June 10th, 1874.— John Evans, Esq., F.E.S., President, in 

 the Chair. — The following communications were read : — 



1. " On the Occurrence of Thanet-beds and of Crag at Sudbury, 

 Suffolk." By William Whitaker, Esq., B.A., F.G.S. 



After referring to some passages in papers by Mr. Prestwich, in 

 which the jorobable existence of Thanet-beds in North Essex is 

 mentioned, the author described certain sections near Balingdon, on 

 the right bank of the Stour, which exhibit sands belonging to this 

 series. The principal section at the Great Chalk-pit, Balingdon, 

 shows, in descending order, beds belonging to the London-clay, 

 Eeading-beds 9 feet, and Thanet-sands about 14 feet, resting on 

 Chalk. No fossils occur in the Thanet-beds, and their identification 

 is founded on the uniformity in the character of the sands, their 

 resemblance in fineness, compactness, and colour to the Thanet- 

 sands of West Kent, the presence at the base of the series of a green- 

 sand resembling the " base-bed " of the Thanet-sand, and the oc- 

 currence immediately beneath it of a layer of tabular flint, as is 

 usual where the Thanet-sand caps the chalk. 



The Crag-beds described by the author are found on the left bank 

 of the Stour, in Suffolk, and consist of ferruginous dark reddish- 

 brown sand, with layers of ironstone, slightly false-bedded, with 

 here and there light-coloured grit with broken shells. In the lower 

 part there are layers of flint-pebbles, phosphatic nodules, and phos- 

 phatized bones, which also form a bed about one foot thick at the 

 bottom. These beds rest on deposits belonging to the lower portion 

 of the Thanet-sands, and these again on the Chalk. In one pit a 

 considerable number of fossils occur, but not in a condition to enable 



