TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 7^ 



On the Topography of Ancient Tyre. By W. R. Wylde, Esq. 



Queries respecting the Gravel in the neighbourhood of Birmingham. 

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



The author commenced this paper by referring to the division of 

 superficial gravel into marine and fluviatile., which he had found to 

 prevail in the S. of Warwickshire and Worcestershire. (See Reports 

 of the Sections, vol. vi. p. 61.) In the hope of ascertaining how far 

 the same division v/ould hold good in the neighbourhood of Birming- 

 ham, he proposed the following queries, to which, however, no answers 

 were given. 



1. Does the gravel near Birmingham ever contain chalk-flints, frag- 

 ments of oolite, &c., which may indicate a southern origin, or is it 

 purely of northern extraction ? 



2. Does it ever contain marine shells ? 



3. Are these shells of existing or extinct species ? 



4. Does it ever contain bones of land animals, or freshwater shells ? 



5. What are the circumstances of position, material, &c., of the 

 gravel (if any) in which mammalian bones or lacustrine shells are 

 found, and is it distinguishable in any respect from the gravel in which 

 marine remains are found ? 



6. Are mammalian remains ever found in company with marine 

 shells ? 



On Microscopic Vegetable Skeletons found in Peat near Gainsborough. 

 By Mr. Binney, of Manchester. 



Mr. Bowman read a paper on some skeletons of fossil vegetables 

 found by Mr. Binney in the shape of a white impalpable powder, under a 

 peat-bog near Gainsborough, occupying a stratum of four to six inches 

 in thickness, and covering an area of several acres. It remained 

 unchanged by sulphuric, hydrochloric, and nitric acids, and by heat, 

 and was concluded to be pure silica in a state of extremely minute sub- 

 division. On submitting it to the highest power of the compound mi- 

 croscope, it was found to consist of a mass of transparent squares and 

 parallelograms of different relative proportions, whose edges were per- 

 fectly sharp and smooth, and the areas often traced with very delicate 

 parallel lines. On comparing these with the forms of some existing 

 Confervce of the tribe DiatomacecB, which are parasitical on other Algoe 

 both marine and fresh water, but so minute as to be individually invi- 

 sible to the naked eye, the resemblance was found to be so strong as to 

 leave no doubt of their close alliance, if not perfect identity. To en- 

 able the Section to judge for themselves, Mr. Bowman exhibited highly 

 magnified drawings of some living species from the works of Dr. Gre- 

 ville, and also of the powder, which fully bore out the conclusion he 

 had arrived at. They are therefore the counterparts of the fossil infu- 



