10 



diately after the lower green sand, or the gault, without the inter- 

 vention even of the oolite : and near Landrethun the distance from 

 the chalk to the limestone beds is not more than a quarter of a mile. 

 In some cases, when the incumbent mass of oolite is removed, the 

 surface of the limestone beneath is found to be smooth, or slightly 

 waved like the sands of the shore after the tide has retired ; and the 

 rock is pierced by tubular perforations evidently the work of marine 

 animals ; a proof that the surface must have been exposed to their 

 activity for some time before the oolite was deposited. The beds of 

 mountain limestone of the ordinary character, in some places alter- 

 nate with dolomite, precisely resembling that which is found in the 

 same geological situation near Dublin. And the fossils of this for- 

 mation in the Boulonnois are the same with those of Derbyshire, 

 Gloucestershire, and Dublin. 



On comparing in a general view the strata of the opposite coasts, 

 it will be seen that those of the Boulonnois do not occur upon the 

 English shore, except in the vicinity of Weymouth : and if the line 

 of elevated strata which extends from that part of the coast of Dor- 

 setshire, through the Isle of Purbeck and the Isle of Wight, were 

 continued to the eastward, it would reach the French coast near 

 Gris-nez ; — just at the place where the same beds arise, and where 

 it is remarkable their position is likewise very highly inclined. 



Jan. 5. — A notice was read, accompanying some specimens from 

 the Hastings-Sand Formation, with a copy of a work on the fossils 

 of Tilgate Forest ; by G. Mantell, Esq. F.R., L. and G.S.,— in a 

 letter to R. I. Murchison, Esq. Sec. G.S. 



The author states that his principal object in the present volume, 

 is to give a correct and extended view of that division of the Has- 

 tings Sands, distinguished by him in the strata of Tilgate Forest, 

 the relations of which he illustrates by the section of a quarry at 

 Pounceford, where the Ashburnham limestone with bivalves, &c. is 

 seen overlying sandstone and calciferous grit (Tilgate stone). 



A recapitulation of the animal and vegetable remains (in which 

 the author particularly notices that gigantic Saurian the Iguanodon) 

 shows the vast preponderance of land and freshwater exuviae in the 

 Hastings strata over those of marine origin - } a circumstance in strict 

 accordance with what is now constantly occurring in all deltas and 

 estuaries of great rivers. — A description is given in the concluding 

 chapter of the work, of the probable condition of the country ante- 

 rior to the epoch of this deposit. 



The reading of a paper was commenced, entitled " On the 

 coal-field of Brora, in Sutherlandshire, and some other stratified 

 deposits of the North of Scotland ;" by R. I. Murchison, Esq. Sec. 

 G.S. F.R.S. 



Jan. 19. — The Meeting intended for this evening was postponed 

 in consequence of the decease of his Royal Highness the Duke of 

 York. 



Feb. 2.— Lord Ribblesdale, of Ribblesdale Park, Yorkshire, and 



