Xl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIEXT. 



cially due to ice-action; and he points also to the existence of 

 Roches moutonnees and moraines in British KafFraria and adjacent 

 districts. 



Mr. C. L. Griesbach has given an excellent account of Natal, 

 and describes the succession of beds, commencing with the granitic 

 and gneissic rocks and mica-schists, overlain by great plateaux of un- 

 disturbed sandstone, often capped by basalt. The sandstone is suc- 

 ceeded by the Karoo formation, containing occasionally subordinate 

 beds of coal, and then near the coast by beds of Cretaceous age. 

 Eeference is made to various interesting theoretical questions con- 

 nected with the former distribution of land and water between 

 Africa and India, and to the economical mineral products (graphite, 

 coal, gold, and copper) of Natal. 



Some notes on the Diamond districts of the Cape of Good Hope 

 have been given us by Mr. Gilfillan. 



We have had only one communication from Australia, by Dr. 

 Krefft, on certain of the later fossil Mammalia, including several 

 species of Wombats and Wombat-Kangaroos of that remarkable 

 continent. 



The relations of the two gneissoid series of rocks of Nova Scotia 

 have been discussed by Mr. H. Youle Hind, who believes them to 

 be of Laurentian age, and covered in patches only by the Huronian 

 or Cambrian rocks. The gold is found in Lower Siluriaa rocks, 

 which formation is there 1200 feet thick, and is destitute of any 

 great beds of limestone. 



The Rev. T. G. Bonney describes the general appearance of the 

 Lofoten Islands. Instead of being composed of granite, he thinks 

 that, with few exceptions, the strata consist of highly metamorphosed 

 rocks — quartzites and gneiss. 



Foreign Palaeontology. 



Professor Owen has described some fossil mammals of late Ter- 

 tiary or Quaternary age found in China. Among them are new 

 species of Stegodon, Hyoena, Tapir, Rhinoceros, and Chalicotherium. 



Principal Dawson has sent us the result of his further examina- 

 tion of the structure of the SigiUaria, Calamites, and Calamoden- 

 dron of the Nova-Scotia Coal-field. A specimen of Sigilhria was 

 described having a transversely laminated pith of the Sternbergia- 

 type, the immediately surrounding tissues much resembling those 

 of Cycads. He agrees with the opinion generally held with re- 

 gard to Calamites, that their affinities were with Equisetacece, as 



