ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixxi 



mation that Nummulites were also found overlying the Cerithia. 

 He consequently made a fresh examination of the beds of La Cordaz. 

 This, he considers, has led to a clear and definite result, suffi- 

 ciently explaining the difference of opinion which had prevailed re- 

 specting the relative position of the two formations. The result is as 

 follows : — The bed with large NaticcB at La Cordaz, which is the same 

 as the Cerithium-bed of the Diableretz, is intercalated between two 

 hummulitic beds, of which the upper and most recent is by far the 

 thickest. This idea had already been entertained by M. Studer, 

 who had truly anticipated that this bed is only a local appearance, 

 for in many places it is altogether wanting, and the thick bed of 

 nummulitic limestone lies directly on the Gault. "With regard to its 

 age, M. Renevier only repeats what he and M. Hebert had already 

 stated ; viz. that the Cerithium-bed contains a mixture in nearly 

 equal proportions of the fossils of the Sable de Beauchamp and 

 the Fontainebleau sand. It is therefore probable that this nummu- 

 litic formation of the Vaudoise Alps forms a connecting link between 

 the eocene and miocene formations, and thus corresponds in age with 

 the gypsum of Montmartre and the palseotherian fauna of Maurmont. 



M. Renevier adds a list of the fossils from those nummulitic 

 beds, containing 70 species ; observing that there are from 1 5 to 20 

 more, of which the remains are too imperfect to be determined. 



M. Ange Sismonda has communicated a letter to M. Elie de 

 Beaumont on the Nummulitic rocks (Bull. Soc. Geol. France, vol. xii. 

 p. 807), in which he gives the results of his brother's palseontological 

 researches on these beds. The nummulitic formation is divisible into 

 two great zones. The lowest has many characteristic species, with a 

 few of those also found in the eocene formation, as the beds of the Cor- 

 bieres, Biaritz, and Nice. The upper zone may be divided according 

 to its fossils into two subdivisions ; the lowest of these has also some 

 species peculiar to it, mixed with a proportionately greater number of 

 eocene species. To this belong the beds of Saint Bonnet and Faudon 

 in France, Pernant and Entrevernes in Savoy, Cordaz and the Diable- 

 retz in Switzerland, Ronca, Castel-Gomberto and Montecchio-Mag- 

 giore in the Vicentin. The upper bed of the second zone contains a 

 much smaller number of species exclusively nummulitic, with a few 

 species peculiar to it, and a certain number of miocene species. To 

 this belong the beds with Nummulites of Acqui, Dego, Carcare, and 

 other places in the valley of the Bormida. Of these two great num- 

 mulitic zones M. Sismonda considers the lowest to be anterior to the 

 elevation of the Pyrenees ; this is the " Mediterranean nummulitic 

 formation" of M. Elie de Beaumont, whilst that of Acqui is subse- 

 quent to this great elevation, and corresponds with the period of 

 M. E. de Beaumont's nummulitic formation of the " Soissohais." 



We are indebted to Mr. Daniel Sharpe for an interesting com- 

 munication on some of the more recent pheenomena exhibited in the 

 alpine valleys. Having, during the past summer, again visited the 

 Alps with the view of carrying out those observations which he had 

 so successfully commenced last year, Mr. Sharpe' s attention was 

 directed to the numerous phsenomena visible in most of the alpine 



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