80 



deposition of those formations ; but he also shows that tlie ravines 

 have been subsequently acted upon by a body of water, forming 

 what he terms valleys of denudation in valleys of elevation. 



In describing the defile of St« Vincent's Rocks, near Bristol, the 

 author states, that he has discovered two lines of fracture indepen- 

 dent of the one noticed in the memoir of Dr. Buckland and Mr. 

 Conybeare on the south-western coal-field*. He says that the prin- 

 cipal evidence which he has of the existence of these two faults, 

 rests on the beds of clay, belonging to the lower limestone shale, 

 occurring twice on both sides of the ravine between the first fault 

 and the commencement of the shale beds in their true position 

 beneath the mountain limestone. 



In alluding to the bone-caves and fissures of the Mendip Hills, 

 the author conceives that they were formed contemporaneously 

 with the ravines ; and that he had found among their organic 

 contents the remains of the Mastodon. 



April 23.— Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., M.P., of Rolleston Hall, 

 Staffordshire; and Edward J' Anson, Esq., of Burntwood Grange, 

 Wandsworth Common, were elected Fellows of this Society. 



A paper was first read, " On the Tertiary Formations of the 

 Kingdom of Murcia, in Spain," by Charles Silvertop, Esq., retired 

 Brigadier in the Spanish Service, K. R. O. C. HI., F.G.S. 



This memoir is a continuation of papers on the tertiary formations 

 of the South of Spain, read before the Society during the last and 

 preceding Sessionsf. The district described is situated in the south- 

 eastern portion of the kingdom of Murcia, and consists of extensive 

 plains and valleys of tertiary formations, bounded by discontinuous 

 ridges of mica slate, transition rocks, and nummulitic limestone. 

 The tertiary deposits the author divides into four districts, which 

 he names from the principal towns situated in their immediate 

 neighbourhood, viz. Lorca, Totana, Alhama and Mula, and Car- 

 tagena. 



The tertiary strata of Lorca he separates into two systems, one 

 characterized by the beds being horizontal, the other by their being 

 highly inclined. The horizontal beds consist of reddish friable 

 sandstone and greyish marl. In the sandstone the author noticed 

 no organic remains; but near the eastern boundary of the district he 

 observed, in a mass of clay mixed with sand, innumerable small 

 oysters ; and in a yellowish, calcareous freestone, corals, clypeas- 

 ters, pectens, and oysters. The best points for examining the 

 argillaceous beds are stated to be in the ravines between Lorca and 

 Velez Rubio, where they consist of about fifty feet of marl, con- 

 taining a few thin strata of reddish pulverulent sandstone, and 

 inclose shells belonging to the genera Pecten, Ostrea, Venus, 

 Tellina, Murex, Emarginula, &c. Upon the argillaceous strata 

 rests a bed of conglomerate in which the author found the long- 

 hinged oyster, so abundant in the newer formations of the South of 



* Geol. Trans., 2nd Ser., vol. i. p. 241. 



t Proceedings of the Geol. Soc, vol. i. pp. 216, 234, 485. 



