42 Reports and Proceedings. 



facies of its fossils, and their importance as a group. He was ratlier doubtful as to 

 specific determinations arrived at from casts. Though the species of many fossils from 

 Queensland procured by Mr. Daintree did not correspond with those "of European 

 areas, yet some of the corals were identical with those of South and North Devon, 

 as were also the lithological characters of the containing beds. 



Mr. Seeley objected to any attempt to supersede the arrangements of the South 

 African rocks in accordance with the local phenomena, by correlating them too closely 

 with any European series. The recognition of the correspondence in forms seemed 

 to him more to prove a similarity of conditions of life than any absolute synchronism. 

 As to the connexion between the Devonian and Carboniferous systems, he agreed 

 with Mr. Austen in regarding the one as merely constituting the natural base of the 

 other. 



2. " On the Geology of Fernando Noronha (S. lat. 3° 50^ W. 

 long. 32° 500." By Alexander Eattray, M.D. (Edin.), Surgeon 

 E.N. Communicated by Prof. Huxley, F.E.S., V.P.G.S. 



The author described the general geological structure of Fernando 

 Noronha and the smaller islands which form a group with it. .The 

 surface-rock was described as a coarse conglomerate, composed of 

 rounded basaltic boulders arid pebbles, in a hard, dark-red, clayey 

 matrix. This overlies a hard, dark, fine-grained basalt, which forms 

 the most striking of the bhififs, clifis, and outlying rocks. The 

 highest peaks in the gi'oup consist of a fine-grained, light-grey, 

 granite. The author remarked upon the possible relation of the 

 geology of these islands to that of the neighbouring continent of 

 South America, and stated that there is evidence of the islands 

 having been elevated to some extent at a comparatively recent period. 



3. " Note on some Ichthyosaurian remains from Kimmeridge 

 Bay, Dorset." By J. W. Hulke, Esq., F.E.S., F.G.S. 



The author noticed some teeth found, with a portion of an Ich- 

 thyosaurian skull, in the Kimmeridge Clay of Dorsetshire. The 

 fragments of the snout were said to indicate that it was about three 

 feet long, and proportionally stout. The author indicated the charac- 

 ters by which these teeth were distinguishable from those of various 

 known species of Ichthyosaurus, and stated that they approached 

 most closely to those of the Cretaceous I. campylodon. 



Discussion. — Mr. Seeley did not consider that, in the main, the teeth of reptilia 

 afforded any criteria for specific determination. In the Cambridge Greensand, though 

 there were five species of Ichthyosaurus, possibly including a second genus, the teeth 

 found were so closely similar that it would have been impossible, from them only, to 

 identify more than one species. 



Mr. Boyd Dawkins recognized in the specimens exhibited by Mr. Hulke a form of 

 tooth he had found in the Kimmeridge beds of Shotover, near Oxford, but whicb he 

 had been hitherto unable to attribute to any recognized species. He could not fully 

 agree with Mr. Seeley as to the absence of specific criteria in the teeth of Saurians, 

 as, from his own experience, he was inclined to attribute so.me importance to their 

 external sculpturing. 



4. " Appendix to a ' Note on a new and undescribed Wealden 

 Vertebra,' read 9th February, 1870, and published in' the Quarterly 

 Journal for August in that year," By J. W. Hulke, Esq., F.E.S., 

 F.G.S. 



The author generically identified this vertebra with Ornithopsis, 

 Seeley, Streptospondylus, Owen, and Cetiosaurus, Owen, taking the 

 last to be typified by the large species in the Oxford Museum. He 

 remarked that if this be the type of Cetiosaurus, C. hrevis, Owen, can 



