336 



as that at San Ciro. In one respect they possess much interest. They 

 are situated at a greater height than the tertiary rocks have attained 

 in that neighbourhood 3 and neither the caves themselves nor the 

 bone-breccia have any appearance of marine action. The author 

 thence infers that the breccia at Beliemi was above the surface of the 

 sea at the time that the breccia at San Ciro was beneath it ; and that 

 their present heights mark the extent to which the tertiary formation 

 at that part has been raised by the great convulsion, by which a 

 large portion of Sicily has been elevated. 



8. The last formation noticed by Dr. Christie is diluvium, of which 

 he distinguishes two kinds differing in age. The older diluvium — an- 

 swering, he conceives, to the terrain de transport ancien of Elie de 

 Beaumont — consists of large rolled fragments of sandstone, with a 

 few fragments of the tertiary rocks cemented by a sandy clay, is of 

 the same age as the conglomerate and bone breccia, and occupies 

 considerable heights on the sides and summits of the hills. The newer 

 diluvium is quite distinct from the preceding, occupies only the bottom 

 of the valleys, sometimes to great depth, and consists partly of rolled 

 fragments of older rocks, even of the conglomerate, together with a 

 great quantity of grey clay. They may both be distinctly seen in the 

 valley of the Limetus. 



In addition to the general conclusions already mentioned in the 

 history of the bone-breccia, the author considers his observations as 

 affording complete confirmation of the views of Elie de Beaumont re- 

 garding the epochs of elevation of the Sicilian mountains. The prin- 

 cipal chain, extending across the island to the north of Castro Novo 

 and Nicosia towards Messina, is not only sensibly parallel to the 

 principal chain of the Alps, whence alone, according to Elie de Beau- 

 mont, the date of elevation must be the same; but the author con- 

 tends that both chains were elevated posterior to the formation of the 

 conglomerate and older diluvium, and therefore that their periods of 

 elevation are identical. 



Nov. 16. — Martin Tupper, Esq. of New Burlington-street, and 

 Lord Ernest Bruce, of Grosvenor Square, were elected Fellows of 

 this Society. 



A paper was read " On a large species of Plesiosaurus in the 

 Scarborough Museum," by John Dunn, Esq. V.P. Scarborough 

 Philosophical Society, and communicated by Roderick Impey 

 Murchison, Esq. P.G.S. 



The animal was discovered by Mr. Marshall, of Whitby, im- 

 bedded in a hard rock belonging to the upper lias beds, situate 

 between Scarborough and Whitby, near the place where that gen- 

 tleman had formerly discovered the remains of a crocodile. The 

 skull and cervical vertebras are wanting, but the rest of the skeleton 

 is pretty entire and measures from the anterior dorsal to the last 

 coccygeal vertebra nine feet six inches. The entire animal, with the 

 head and neck, is estimated to have been nineteen feet long, and it 

 is considered by the author to be identical with the gigantic species 

 from Havre and Honfleur, described by Baron Cuvier, particularly 



