293 



his last Memoir, identified all the groups of the Vienna basin with 

 those of our Styrian sections. The inferior blue marl (or Tegel) of 

 that basin is supposed to be the equivalent of the London clay j the 

 white coralline limestone of the Leitha-gebirge is placed on the same 

 parallel with the limestone of Wildon ; and the higher accumulations 

 of sand and gravel are compared with the upper formations of Lower 

 Styria, through which, as stated above, the basaltic and trachytic 

 eruptions have made their way. 



The papers of Colonel Silvertop, on two lacustrine deposits in the 

 province of Granada, placed before us an interesting sketch of the 

 structure of a region little known to the geologists of this country. 

 After pointing out the primary formations of the Sierra Nevada, and 

 the recent marine strata near the southern base of the chain, he de- 

 scribes the large freshwater basins of Baza and Alhama, occupying 

 two deep depressions on its northern declivity. The strata of the 

 former basin are subdivided into two great groups ; the lower com- 

 posed of marls with many fossils of the genus Cypris, and containing 

 brine springs, gypsum, and sulphur ; the upper composed of light- 

 coloured indurated marl and limestone, charged with innumerable 

 Paludince. The basin of Alhama gives very nearly a repetition of the 

 same phenomena : but among its indurated white marls is a larger 

 number of organic remains, some of which very nearly resemble those 

 of the freshwater limestone in the basins of Paris and the Isle of 

 Wight. 



It is not necessary for me to point out the importance of facts like 

 these ; and I am not called upon to follow the author through his de- 

 tails, as his communications are already published. 



On the subject of tertiary deposits, I have finally to notice a com- 

 munication by Mr. Pratt, who found, during last summer, in the 

 lower freshwater marls of Binstead in the Isle of Wight, many com- 

 minuted or rolled fragments of the bones and teeth of several species 

 of Mammalia, mingled with pulverized shells, and with the bones of 

 two or three species of freshwater turtles, resembling those described 

 by M. Cuvier from the Paris basin. Among the more perfect speci- 

 mens of these fossils, the author found a tooth of the Anoplotherium 

 commune, and the teeth of two species of Palceotheria ; thus confirm- 

 ing a previous discovery made known by Mr. Allen, and perfecting 

 the zoological analogy between the newer lacustrine formations of 

 England and central France. 



The bones of the Binstead marls do not however belong exclu- 

 sively to the order of P achy derma la ; for the author also found the 

 jaws of a ruminating animal closely allied to the genus Moschus, but 

 at the same time differing in some essential characters from every 

 species hitherto described ; and he gives us reason for sanguine hope, 

 that large additions may be hereafter made to his very important list 

 of new fossil quadrupeds. All the magnificent generalizations of 

 Cuvier, as far as they are borne out by the zoological phenomena of 

 the Paris basin, apply therefore literally to the more recent physical 

 revolutions of our own country. 



Among the papers published in the early volumes of our Trans- 



