Geological Society of London, 131 



Sir Charles Lyell hnd boon struck with tho Kimiliirity of tho bods at Chillosford and 

 at Aldcby, in which also tho sheila, though '10 in one c;i.s<; and 70 in the other, were 

 very similar in character ; but in neither was Tcllina baUhiva found, thou;,'h common 

 in the glacial beds. He called attention to the condition of the shells as they occurred 

 at Aldeby, and suggested that where the two sliells of a bivalve were found in contact, 

 they would probably afford some evidence whether they were derivative or no. 



Mr. Searlcs V. Wood, Jun., was inclined to differ to a large extent from the 

 author, especially with regard to the beds above the Chillcsford Clay. The sands 

 containing Tcllina soUdiila he placed as the lowest member of the glacial series ; the 

 fauna they contain is different from that of the Chillcsford bed. lie regarded the 

 sand-beds at Kessingland as above the lower Boulder-clay and contorted Drift of 

 Cromer, and considered that it might be traced as occupying this position along a 

 great part of the coast of Norfolk. Ho had, in company with Mr. Ilurmer, surveyed 

 a great part of the Norfolk and Suffolk district, and they intended to place their maps 

 and sections at the disposal of the Geological Society and the Survey. He recom- 

 mended that any examination of the country should commence from the east rather 

 than fi'om the west. 



Mr. Boyd Dawkins, speaking of the fossil mammalia of the Crag, mentioned that, at 

 the base of the Crag at Horstead, immediately om the Chalk, was a bed exhibiting aa 

 old land-surface, and in this were found the principal perfect mammalian remains, 

 whereas in the Crag above they were water worn. But though these bones occurred 

 in the marine deposit, the animals had lived on the land, and there was no evidence 

 but that they belonged to a much earlier period than that at which it was submerged. 

 He thought that the facies of the Cervidae found at Horstead was that of an early 

 Pliocene age. The mammals of the London Clay had in some cases become con- 

 founded with those of the Suffolk Crag, but these he regarded also as belonging to au 

 old Pliocene land-surface. He differed from the author in not regarding the forest- 

 bed as Quaternary, as the remains of Rhinoceros etruscus, Ursics arveniensis, and 

 Elephas ineridionalis, &c., had occurred in it in many cases in fine condition. He 

 could see no reason for splitting up the Cainozoic series into four divisions, as there 

 was no break in the life between the Tertiary and Quaternary periods. Though 

 there might be a break in England, the forms of life were continuous from the Miocene 

 of Pikermi on the Continent. 



The President suggested that if we were to admit a Quaternary period, we must go 

 back to the Miocene, as the mammalian fauna of that period was the direct ancestor 

 of that of the present day. 



Mr. Prestwich, in reply, remarked that he did not quite agree with Mr. Jeffreys as 

 to the number of derivative species in the different members of the Crag. The fauna, 

 however, required further investigation. "With regard to the objections of Mr. "Wood, 

 he had not on this occasion intended going into details as to the beds above the Chil- 

 lcsford clays ; his object had rather been to show that these latter extended over a 

 large area, and contained, in other places than Chillcsford, the same shells as those 

 occurring there. He did not attach the same value to the presence of Tellina balthica 

 as did Mr. "Wood, it being a shell now living, and found on the coast. He had not 

 overlooked the importance of the mammalian remains, but, like Mr. DawkinS) he had 

 felt the uncertainty which, in the case of the Crag, so often attached to their origin, 

 and therefore had not much insisted on them. He thought the divisions of Miocene 

 and Pliocene were well known and generally accepted, and though the division was 

 arbitrary, he thought the setting in of the Glacial period a good epoch at which to 

 commence the Quaternary period. If we were to go back to some break in the forms 

 of life, we might go back indefinitively. 



n. February 9th, 1870.— 1. "On tlie Fossil Corals (Madre- 

 poraria) of the Australian Tertiary Deposits." By P. Martin Dun- 

 can, M.B. Lond., F.E.S., Sec. Geol. Soc, Professor of Geology in 

 King's College, London. 



■ The author noticed the history of our knowledge of the South 

 Australian Tertiary Deposits, and indicated the general distribution 



