112 



thor from these phaenomena assigns the deposit to the newer plio- 

 cene era ; and from the fluviatile habits of some of the shells, he con- 

 ceives that it occupies the site of an ancient river-bed, and not of a 

 lake. In the course of his paper he points out the inferences which 

 may be drawn from these deposits, respecting the greater change 

 which has taken place in the mammifers of this island than in the 

 molluscs, since the era when the gravel was accumulated ; and the 

 little variation which the climate appears to have undergone since 

 the same epoch. In conclusion he notices the published accounts 

 of similar deposits at North Cliff, near Market-Weighton, and at 

 Copford, near Colchester, and states that he was informed at Bath, 

 that freshwater shells had been discovered under gravel, in sinking 

 for foundations in the lower part of the city. 



A notice was afterwards read, " On the Bones of certain Animals 

 which have been recently discovered, in the calcareo-magnesian Con- 

 glomerate on Durdham Down, near Bristol," by the Rev. David 

 Williams, F.G.S. 



The author observes that the calcareo-magnesian conglomerate 

 of the neighbourhood of Bristol has hitherto been singularly deficient 

 in organic remains ; but is of opinion that the nature of the conglo- 

 merate will account for their absence. He mentions the recent disco- 

 very of bones in this deposit on Durdham Down, which Dr. Riley and 

 Mr. Stutchbury have ascertained to belong to Saurians. These 

 bones, he says, as well as the associated fragments of mountain 

 limestone, are angular, and so intimately incorporated with the 

 latter as to constitute a bone-breccia. He has ascertained that the 

 bones belong to at least three animals, varying in their proportions, 

 from those of the Dracena of Lacepede, to the lesser varieties of 

 Monitors. He afterwards describes a fragment of a small jaw found 

 by himself, which exhibits six distinct alveoli separated by bony 

 partitions. One of the alveoli contains a young tooth, which had 

 made its way to the summit of the jaw : it is hollow from the base 

 to the apex, and consists of a very thin plate of ivory coated by a 

 thinner sheathing of enamel. The form is triangular, the point sharp, 

 and the margin on each side regularly crenated from the apex 

 downwards. From these characters the author conceives that the 

 animal to which the jaw belonged, may have formed a link between 

 the crocodiles and the lizards proper. 



January 7th, 1835. — James Pulleine Esq., King's Bench Walk, 

 Temple; Thomas Starkie Thomson, Esq., of Primrose near Cli- 

 theroe; and the Rev. George Gleig, M.A., Chaplain of the Royal 

 Hospital, Chelsea; were elected Fellows of this Society. 



A letter from Dr. Bostock, F.G.S., addressed to George Bellas 

 Greenough, Esq. P.G.S., containing an account of the analysis of a 

 mineral water from the Island of St. Paul, in lat. 38° 45' S. and long. 

 77° 53' E., was first read. 



The island of St. Paul is stated, on the authority of Capt. Ford 

 and Mr. Houslip, to be of volcanic origin^ very rugged in its outline. 



