320 Reports and Proceedings — 



Wheal Vor. By William Argall, Esq. This variety of ore is rarely 

 found in lodes, and never at so great depth, as in Wheal Vor. Some 

 six or seven years since traces of it were discovered in the mine 180 

 fathoms from the surface, and within the last few months more has 

 been found 20 fathoms below this. 



Papers were also read by Dr. Hudson, the Eev. Dr. Bannister, 

 Mr. J. J. Eogers, Mr. E. Hearle Eodd, Mr. N. Hare, Dr. Barham, 

 and Mr. E. N. Worth. The authors of papers and donors to the 

 library and museum were thanked, and the services of Dr. Jago for 

 presiding were acknowledged. 



II. — Geological Society of London. 

 (1). — April 30, 1873. — Joseph Prestwicli, Esq., F.E.S., Vice-President, in the 

 Chair. — The following communications were read : — 1. " On the Permian Breccias 

 and Boiilder-beds of Armagh." By Prof. Edward Hull, F.R.S., F.G.S., Director of 



the Geological Survey of Ireland. 



In this paper the author describes certain breccias occurring in the vicinity of 

 Armagh, which he referred, both on stratigraphical and physical grounds, to the 

 Lower Permian series, considering them to be identical with the "brockram" of 

 Cumberland, and the Breccias of Worcestershire and Shropshire. The lower beds 

 rest on the denuded surface of the Lower Carboniferous Limestone, and consist of 

 a breccia of limestone pebbles in a reddish sandy paste, sometimes becoming a bedded 

 calcareous sandstone with pebbles. These beds, which are 10-12 feet thick, are over- 

 lain by soft rudely stratified conglomerate and Boulder-beds, of subangular and 

 rounded blocks of grit, felspathic sandstone, vein quartz, and limestone. In some 

 places the breccia graduates up into the overlying Boulder-beds, but sometimes its 

 surface is eroded. These beds are overlain by JBoulder-clay of the Drift period. 

 Within the city of Armagh well-borings, etc., have revealed the existence of New 

 Eed Sandstone above the Breccia and Boulder-beds. In the author's opinion the 

 only agent which could have brought the blocks of Silurian and Old Eed Sandstone 

 age found in the Boulder -beds from their place of origin is floating-ice. The author 

 further referred to the extensive denudation which the Carboniferous beds have under- 

 gone in Armagh, and also alluded to the occurrence of beds of Permian age near 

 Benburb, between Armagh and Dungannon. 



Discussion. — The Chairman inquired whether in the Permian beds there were no 

 limestone pebbles, such as in all probability would have been striated had they been 

 of glacial origin. 



Mr. Godwin-Austen remembered that at the Meeting of the British Association a 

 Falceonisctcs catopterus and an Ustheria were produced which were thought to identify 

 the Irish beds with analogous red beds on the other side of the water. He was not 

 prepared to accept the beds to which the name of Permian had been applied as distinct 

 in their origin from those below and above them, and therefore worthy of a distinc- 

 tive name. The conglomerate bed of the Eoth-todt-liegende was only a littoral 

 deposit of that period, and a mere analogy of character did not prove identity of date, 

 as the same parent rocks, when broken up at different times, would yield similar 

 breccias and conglomerates. He regarded the Zechstein period as one of extensive 

 lake systems, though with occasional incursions of salt water. The Eed Sandstone 

 deposits, as a rule, were in the west, formed in fresh water ; and in more eastern 

 districts, as in Eussia, they were of salt-water origin. He agreed with Prof. Eamsay 

 as to the climatal conditions of that period, and had in the West of England seen 

 blocks of porphyry which had been deposited in the midst of small detritus, and 

 these he thought could not have been transported by any other agency than that of ice. 

 Mr. Hopkinson mentioned the Permian breccias of the South of Scotland, which 

 are overlain by a deposit of Glacial age, so similar to the breccia below as to be with 

 difficulty distinguished from it. 



Prof. T. Eupert Jones argued that without exact evidence, the mere character and 

 constituents of the conglomerates afforded no sufficient criterion as to age. In reply 

 to Mr. Godwin-Austen, he insisted upon there being direct evidence in Germany and 

 elsewhere of a distinction between the Permian and Triassic series. 



