PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [NoV. 1 



2. On the Occurrence 0/ Copper in Tennessee, U.S. 

 By W. Bray, Esq. 



[Communicated by the President.] 



[Abstract.] 



The gneiss and mica-schist of Eastern Tennessee strike south-west 

 and north-east (ahout 47° E. of N.), and dip to the south-east (at 

 angles of about 25°), running parallel to and forming an outer range 

 of the Alleghany Mountains. Veins of copper and iron ores, with 

 occasional quartz veins, lie in the schists, dipping parallel with them, 

 and consisting of porous oxide of iron at top, with iron pyrites and 

 carbonate and sulphuret of copper lower down. The veins are 

 described as being sometimes 45 feet wide, and traceable for upwards 

 of 70 miles ; but they are worked chiefly in the extreme south-east 

 corner of Tennessee, in the township of Duckton, in the county of 

 Polk, a district ceded by the Indians to the States about four years 

 ago. 



3. Notice of the Discovery of a Reptilian Skull in the Coal 

 o/PiCTou. By J. W. Dawson, Esq., F.G.S. 



The reptilian specimen described by Prof. Owen (Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. No. 38. p. 207. pi. 9) is the upper part of a head found 

 by me in 1851, at the Albion Mines, in a heap of rubbish extracted 

 from a band of carbonaceous clay iron-stone and coarse coal, occurring 

 in the main coal-seam, about 5 feet below its roof, and known to the 

 miners as the ^' holeing-stone.'* This band is marked No. 5 in the 

 detailed section of the Albion main coal given by Mr. Poole and 

 myself in the Geological Society's Journal, vol. x. p. 47. It varies 

 in thickness in different parts of the mine, from 2 inches to about 

 1 8 inches ; and it contains much coprolitic matter, and a few scales, 

 teeth, and spines of fishes, as well as minute Spirorbis-like shells, 

 similar to those found in the Joggins coal-measures attached to 

 plants * . None of these fossils, however, are by any means abundant ; 

 and the vegetable remains contained in the " holeing-stone " have in 

 general been reduced to the state of homogeneous coal, or of mineral 

 charcoal. There can be little doubt that this remarkable band 

 indicates a somewhat protracted submergence of the area of coal 

 then accumulating under the waters of a lake or lagoon. 



As stated in a note which accompanied the specimen, when for- 

 warded to the Geological Society in 1852, the matrix split in such 

 a manner as to leave the upper part of the skull adhering to the 

 larger portion of the block, while the palate bones and teeth came 

 away in fragments. Believing at the time that the fossil had be- 

 longed to a fish allied to Holoptychius, and that it was interesting 

 chiefly as an illustration of the exceptional fact of the occurrence of 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 39. 



