30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 4, 



voyage of a vessel of the same name, in which Dr. Meyen was a passenger (Reise 

 um Erde, Th. i. s. 54) on the 27th of October 1830, the sails were observed to be 

 stained by a powder, which Dr. Meyen considered to be a minute Cryptogamic 

 plant : the date would lead me to believe that in this case the phaenomenon was 

 diiferent from that of the dust described in this paper. 



(■*) Proceedings of the Geolog. Soc. vol. iv. p. 145. The dust described bv the 

 Rev. W. Clarke fell February 2nd to the 4th, 1839, when between (lat. 21° 14' N., 

 long. 25° 6' W.), and nearly (lat. 12° 36' N., long. 24° 13' W.). The direction of 

 the wind has been already given in the paper ; as it also has been, when the dust 

 was collected by Lieut. James and myself. Mr. Clarke has since written a com- 

 munication on the subject for the * Tasraanian Journal' (vol. i. p. 321), to which I 

 am indebted for two references. 



(^) Nautical Magazine, 1838, p. 824. 



(6) Nautical Magazine, 1837, p. 291. Mr. Burnett, on February 12th to 15th, 

 in saiUng from (lat. 4° 20' N., long. 23° 20' W.) to (lat. 8° N., long. 27° 20' W.), a 

 distance of 300 miles, with the wind N.E., preceded by a S.E. squall which veered 

 to E.S.E. and then to N.E., had the sails, rigging and mast covered with red dust. 

 The dust began to fall as soon as the wind became N.E. : the atmosphere was very 

 hazy. The nearest land was 600 miles distant. The same phaenomenon was ob- 

 served by Mr. Burnett in April 1836. 



Mr. Forbes gives an account (Sharon Turner's S. Hist, of the World, p. 149) of 

 dust which fell on a ship when 600 miles from the coast, between C. Verd and 

 the R. Gambia : the wind all the previous night had been N.E. 



In the Edinb. New Phil. Journal (vol. vii. p. 402) there is another account of 

 dust which fell in considerable quantities on March 29th, 1821, in lat, 11° 3' N., 

 when 300 miles from the nearest part of Africa. 



In Howard Malcolm's Travels (vol. ii. p. 200) there is a similar account of 

 dust which fell during several days in February on a ship north of the equator, 

 when more than 1000 miles from the coast of Africa : the wind was N.E. 



(^) Horsburgh's East Indian Directory, p. 11. 



(^) In Tuckey's Narrative of the Congo Expedition (p. 10), a discoloured sea 

 and a hazy atmosphere are described on the 9th of April in lat. 22° N. and long. 19° 

 9' W., when 32 leagues from the main-land. 



It may be worth here recording that Sir A. Burnes (Travels in Cabool, p. 223), 

 in describing Khoten, a region of Upper Asia, adds, " it is said that its productive- 

 ness depends upon clouds of red dust, which always fall or are hlovra in this part 

 of Asia." But he thinks that the statement requires confirmation. 



2. On two Species of Microscopic Shells found in the Lias. 

 By H. E. Strickland, Esq., M.A., F.G.S. 



a. Oi'bis infimus, Strickland. b. Po^ymorphina liassica, Strickland. 

 N.B. The figures are greatly magnified, the small dot beneath the letters being the natural size. 



The shells of the microscopic order Foraminifera, which occur so 

 abundantly in the cretaceous and tertiary series, are found much 

 more rarely as we descend through the secondary formations. Exam- 



