184 Beports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



marine deposits that cloak so mucli of the eastern side of the rock had heen weathered 

 into subaerial sand-slopes, large blocks were detached from the cliffs and steep slopes, 

 and these dropped down upon the sand and were soon drifted over. By and bye the 

 blocks fell in such quantities that the sand-slopes in many places were completely 

 buried under a talus of limestone debris. This was subsequently consolidated by 

 infiltration into a solid agglomerate, in the same way as the underlying sands were 

 hardened into sandstone. These sandstones contain a few blocks of limestone only in 

 their upper portions. In their horizontally bedded and lower-lying portions no lime- 

 stone blocks occur. 



This later agglomerate bears every stamp of great antiquity, and could not have 

 been formed under present geographical and climatic conditions. The surface is 

 honeycombed and worn, just like that of the solid limestone and the older limestone 

 agglomerate. Since its accumulation the climate has greatly changed, the present 

 being characterized by the absence of frost. 



In concluding the authors discussed at length the cause of the cold conditions that 

 gave rise to the great limestone agglomerates, and argued that this cause could not 

 have been elevation of the land. They also pointed out that a submergence of the 

 Sahara would be equally incompetent to bring about the desiderated climatic con- 

 ditions, and that even a former much greater elevation of the land, combined with 

 the appearance of a Sahara sea, would fail to supply us with the severe winter climate 

 that was necessary to produce the great agglomerates. They thought that the most 

 probable explanation of the phenomena described is that the cold conditions referred 

 to were contemporaneous with that general refrigeration of climate which took place 

 over so vast an area in our hemisphere during Pleistocene times. The limestone 

 agglomerates they look upon as the equivalents of those glacial deposits that occur so 

 plentifully in our own and other countries, and the bone-breccias, which are inter- 

 mediate in date between the lower and upper limestone agglomerates, are paralleled 

 by the interglacial beds of the British Islands, Sweden, Switzerland, etc. 



2. "Notes on the Geology of Japan." By J. G. H. Godfrey, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author stated that Tesso, the most northern island of the Japanese group, had 

 been geologically surveyed under the direction of Mr. Lyman, but that the geology 

 of the other islands was chiefly known from Richthofen's general description. He 

 finds that the classification of formations proposed by Lyman for Yesso holds good in 

 all the other islands. Thus, going from newer to older deposits, he distinguishes : — 



1. New alluvium, formed by existing rivers. 



2. Old alluvium, formed by ancient rivers. 



3. New volcanic rocks, consisting of basalt and rhyolite. Most of the Japanese 

 volcanos are extinct, but a few, such as Asamoyama, are in the solfatara stage ; hot 

 springs abound, and earthquakes are frequent. 



4. Toshibetsu group, middle or lower Tertiary sandstones, clays, and conglomer- 

 ates, containing lignite and petroleum. 



5. Old volcanic series, rhyolitic rocks, often distinctly bedded, covering a vast 

 area, and with numerous lodes and deposits containing gold, silver, copper, lead, and 

 blende. 



6. Horimui group, a coal- and lignite-bearing series of considerable extent, ap- 

 parently best developed in the western part of Japan, and especially in the north of 

 the island of Kiushiu, where the deposits are shown by fossil evidence to be of Cre- 

 taceous age. 



7. Kamoikotan or metamorphic group, consisting of various schistose and gneissic 

 rocks, distinctly stratified, and usually showing a dip of upwards of 60°. Owing to 

 the absence of fossils the age of this group is still undecided ; Richthofen regards it 

 as Silurian or Devonian. Granite and diorite are frequently intruded into this 

 series, and they contain some important mineral veins. 



The author went into considerable details upon the useful minerals of Japan, 

 noticing their mode of occurrence and the quantities in which they are produced. 

 The most important of them are : — coal and lignite, copper, silver, gold, iron, petro- 

 leum, lead, and tin ; those of less consequence are : — sulphur (from the old craters), 

 antimony, mercury, kaolin, and salt. 



