PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 

 Vol. II. 1835— 18S6. No. 43. 



Dec. 16. — Lord Charles Harvey, of Trinity College, Cambridge; 

 James Brogden, Esq., M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, and of 

 Lower Brook-street ; George Woods, Esq., of East Dulwich ; Henry 

 Thomas, Esq., of Cushion-court, Broad-street; Edward Charlesworth, 

 Esq., of North Buildings, Finsbury Circus ; the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, 

 M.A., F.L.S., of Swaffham-Bulbeck, Newmarket ; Charles Car'dale 

 Babington, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., St. John's College, Cambridge ; 

 Charles James Fox Bunbury, Esq., of Great Barton, Suffolk ; and 

 James Edmonstone, Esq., of George-square, Edinburgh, were elected 

 Fellows of this Society. 



A paper, entitled ''^Notes on the Geology of Denmark," by Dr. Beck 

 of Copenhagen, and communicated by the President, was first read. 



The only part of the Danish dominions in which gneiss and gra- 

 nitic rocks like those of Scandinavia appear, is in the north-east of 

 the Island of Bornholm. To the south and south-west of these for- 

 mations in the same Island, are beds considered to be of the age of 

 the Silurian system of Mr. Murchison ; and on the eastern side of it 

 are strata of the cretaceous period, all the intermediate groups being 

 wanting. 



Respecting the exact age of the lower part of the cretaceous beds 

 in Bornholm, much difference of opinion has existed. By some it 

 has been referred to the old carboniferous formation, on account of 

 the presence of large quantities of coal, and impressions of ferns; by 

 others to a lignite deposit of a very new or diluvial period ; by M. 

 Alexander Brongniart to the age of the lias ; by Dr. Pingel to the 

 iron sand of Messrs. Conybeare and Phillips ; and by Dr. Beck to the 

 English strata, from the Hastings sand to the upper green sand in- 

 clusive. The fossil ferns found in these beds belong to the genus 

 Pecopteris, and some of the species have been named by M. Adolphe 

 Brongniart. The seed-vessel of a monocotyledonous plant of com- 

 mon occurrence in these strata, and considered by Dr. Beck to belong 

 to the family Restiacese, is identical with one in Mr. Mantell's collec- 

 tion obtained at Heathfield in Sussex. The few shells associated with 

 the ferns which the author has examined are marine ; and he conceives 

 that these Bornholm beds were deposited in the sea at some distance 

 from the mouth of the river which formed the Wealden system of 

 England. 



VOL. n. u 



