130 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [NoV. 29, 



section taken between the village of Truro and the valley of the Stie- 

 v^^acke, which I have found to be as follows. 



Distance 10 miles. 



A similar section presents itself northward of Truro. At the St. 

 Croix River in the comity of Hants, the Silurian slates are succeeded 

 by conglomerates, the conglomerates by gypsum and fossiliferous 

 limestones, like those of the Shubenacadie, and the whole by coal- 

 measures, which I believe embrace workable beds of coal. The dip 

 and order are such as leave no doubt on my mind of their true posi- 

 tion. It is my intention, as soon as my time will allow, to make a 

 communication to the Society, and to supply such facts as will, I 

 presume, set the matter at rest. 



2. A comparison of the structural features of disturbed districts in 

 Europe wrtf^ America. By Henry D. Rogers, For. Mem. G.S., 

 Professor of Geology in the University of Pennsylvania. 



[In consequence of Professor Rogers's return to America, the publi- 

 cation of this paper is postponed for the present.] 



November 29, 1848. 



Charles Timms, Esq., was elected a Fellow of the Society. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. On Fossil Plants from the Anthracite Formation of the Alps of 

 Savoy. By C. J. F. Bunbury, Esq., F.G.S. 



The question which I propose to bring before the notice of the So- 

 ciety on this occasion may be considered one of the most curious in 

 geology, with relation to the distribution of organic remains and their 

 value in determining the age of rocks. Attention was first called to 

 it by the celebrated French geologist, M. Elie de Beaumont, in a 

 paper which was published in the fourteenth volume of the ' Annales 

 des Sciences Naturelles,' in the year 1828. He described the strata 

 observed in the neighbourhood of the village of Petit Coeur, near 

 Moutiers in the Tarentaise, and stated that beds of black schist, which 

 abound with im.pressions of ferns and other plants identical with 

 those of the coal formation^ are there found interposed between beds 

 of argillaceous limestone containing belemnites. He appears to have 

 completely satisfied himself that the strata containing ferns and those 



