96 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DeC. 17, 



sembling that around Tunbridge Wells. Between these bands are 

 beds of clay and laminated clay-shale, and seams of shelly argilla- 

 ceous limestone of a bluish-gray colour. The usual shells of the 

 Wealden and the remains of several species of Cypris abound in 

 these strata, and the laminated character and general appearance of 

 the clay beds and their fossils will remind the observer of the strata 

 at Brook and Sandown Bay. 



" These strata continue through the tunnel which then succeeds and 

 for a considerable distance on the other side, and both in the sand- 

 stones and clays, stems o{ Equisetum Lyelli (a plant first discovered 

 by me at Founceford in Sussex) are abundant. They are invaria- 

 bly carbonized, and thin seams and blocks of lignite, evidently de- 

 rived from accumulated masses of the same species, are thickly 

 interspersed. 



" Beyond the tunnel and after passing under a small bridge, blocks 

 of marly sandstone may be observed containing remains of Equise- 

 tum. of Cypris, and of minute bivalves (^Cyclas parva of Dr. Fit- 

 ton). The surface of the shales and clays is often deeply rippled 

 •and covered with slight markings resembling worm-tracks, but these 

 when freshly exposed have a carbonaceous coating indicative of 

 their vegetable origin. The position of the strata in these Tunbridge 

 sections is interesting, as it exhibits in a striking manner the undu- 

 lated condition of the beds so commonly to be observed throughout 

 the Wealds of Kent and Sussex, — a result of those earthquake waves, 

 if we may so say, to which this region must have been long ago 

 subjected. 



" In the line that extends from Tunbridge to Maidstone, good sec- 

 tions of Wealden strata are exhibited in several places. At Water- 

 ingbury, as Mr. Bensted first pointed out, the clays and marls 

 abound in Paludince, Cyclades, scales of fishes {Hyhodus), &c. ; 

 and in some of the slabs of marlstone from this place, sent to me by 

 Mr. Bensted, I found elytra of two or more species of Coleoptera, 

 which are the only vestiges of insects I have obtained from the 

 Wealden deposits of the south-east of England." 



December 17? 184'5. 



John Morris, Esq., and Dr. Edward Kellaart were elected Fellows 

 of this Society. 



The following communications were read ;— 



1. On the supposed Fossil Bones of Birds from the Wealden. 

 By Prof. Owen, F.R.S., F.G.S. &c. 



Having lately, in a re-examination of the Wealden fossil described 

 in the Transactions of this Society*, chiefly on my authority, as the 

 tarso-metatarsal bone of a Bird, exposed by the detachment of the 



* 2ncl Series, vol. v. p. 175. pi. 13. figs. Icr, 1*. 



