1871.] EATTEAT — PEENANDO NOEOIs^nA. Bl 



system the Carboniferous, during the deposit of both of -which the 

 globe presented the same physiographical conditions. 



Mr. Etheeidge did not agree with Mr. Austen as to the supreS- 

 sion of the name of Devonian system, and commented on its wide- 

 spread distribution, and on the peculiar facies of its fossils, and their 

 importance as a gToup. He was rather doubtful as to specific de- 

 terminations arrived at from casts. Though the species of many 

 fossils of Queensland procured by Mr. Daintree did not correspond 

 with those of European areas, yet some of the corals were identical 

 with those of South and Korth Devon, as were also the lithological 

 characters of the containing beds. 



Mr. Seeiet objected to any attempt to supersede the arrange- 

 ment of the South- African rocks in accordance with the local phe- 

 nomena by correlating them too closely with any European series. 

 The recognition of the correspondence in forms seemed to him more 

 to prove a similarity of conditions of life than any absolute syn- 

 chronism. As to the connexion between the Devonian and Carboni- 

 ferous systems, he agreed with Mr. Austen in regarding the one as 

 merely constituting the natural base of the other. 



2. On the Geology of Fernando Noeoxha (S. lat. 3° 50', W. long. 

 32° 2b'). By Alexander Eatteay, M.D. (Edin.), Surgeon, R.N. 



(Communicated by Prof. Huxley, F.E.S., F.a.S.) 



H.M.S. 'Bristol,' Barbadoes, Sept. 9th, 1871. 

 Although the visit of H.M.S 'Bristol' to Eernando Noronha, 

 situated in the South Atlantic, was limited to one full day, the 

 following notes on the geology of the seldom visited group, of which 

 it forms by far the largest, may be of some interest. So little Icnown 

 are these islands, except to whalers, and the Brazilians, who have 

 converted them into a penal settlement, that the present Admiralty 

 chart, an imperfect one from Erench authorities, dates as far back 

 as 1735. The chief object of the ' Bristol's ' visit was to ascertain 

 the height of the principal peak (one of singular shape) and the 

 nature of the anchorage, &c.* 



Eernando Noronha itself is about four miles long, and on an 

 average one mile broad, and consists chiefly of an undulating 

 plateau from 100 to 300 feet above the sea-level, sloping steeply 

 towards sandy beaches and bays, or ending in bold bluffs or cliffs, 

 and rising occasionally into what the inhabitants term " mountains," 

 of which there are four or five, from 500 to 700 feet high. At the 

 eastern end of Foronha lie the remaining islets, five or six in number, 

 chiefly small and almost unused. 



The surface rock of the group appears to consist of a very coarse 

 conglomerate, composed of large rounded basaltic boulders and 



* The result of this has been the issue of a new Admiralty chart, dated Jan. 1, 



1872. 



