﻿Reports and Proceedmgs. 89 



With this piling up of the drift over these last records a period 

 was reached when Man appeared on the scene. Then came the Pile- 

 builders, and constructed their villages in the Swiss lakes, the history 

 of which has been so admirably told for ns by Keller, and trans- 

 lated by Mr. J. E. Lee, F.S.A. But of all this, and of the Glacial 

 Period in the Swiss valleys when the Alpine flora and fauna came 

 down the mountain sides into the sheltered valleys, and ice and snow 

 increased greatly, let those who desire to know more, read Prof. 

 Heer's interesting volumes. 



To the lover of Switzerland an additional charm will be added to 

 each fresh visit by this insight into its ancient history teeming 

 with matter of interest alike for the pal^ontological and geological 

 student. H. W. 



.H-IEIPOiaTS JLIl^ID I=I^OCSEIDII^^C3-S. 



GEOLOGicATi Society of London. — L — December 20th, 1876. — 

 Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The President read to the Meeting a copy of resolutions passed at 

 the Meeting of the Council of the Koyal Society held on December 7th, 

 relative to the administration of the Government Fund of £4000, 

 voted for the advancement of Scientific Eesearch. He stated that 

 the Secretaries of the Eoyal Society were prepared to receive applica- 

 tions for a portion of the sum so liberally voted by Government for 

 the advancement of science, and added that the Council of the 

 Geological Society would be glad to receive any hints or suggestions 

 bearing upon the disposal of this fund. 



The President also announced that the late Dr. Barlow, whose loss 

 must be deplored by all the Fellows of the Society, had left to the 

 Society by will the sum of £500, to be invested and to constitute a 

 Fund under the title of the " Jameson-Barlow Fund," the proceeds 

 to be applied annually, or at intervals of two or more years, at the 

 discretion of the Council, in such manner as shall seem to them best 

 for the advancement of the study of Geology. Dr. Barlow also left 

 to the Society, under certain restrictions, his Collections of geological 

 specimens, and a selection of books from his Library. 



The President further announced the donation to the Society by the 

 Earl of Enniskillen of the drawings made by Mr. Dinkel, from Sir 

 Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton's collection, for the illustration of Prof. 

 Agassiz's great work on Fossil Fishes, presented in accordance with 

 the promise made by his Lordship at the meeting of the 24:th May, 



The following communications were read : — 



1. On " Pharetrosjpongia Strahani, a fossil Holorhaphidote Sponge 

 from the Cambridge Coprolite Bed." By W. J. Sollas, Esq., B.A., 

 F.G.S. 



The sponge described by the author, which had been long labelled 

 as a Chenendopora in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge, is a 

 fossilized siliceous sponge, characterized by an irregularly reticulate 

 fibrous skeleton, the fibres of which in the living state were com- 

 posed of a number of siliceous acerate spicules, lying parallel to each 



