GEOLOGY AFD MIZvEltALOGY. 307 



SCIENTIFIC AND LITEBAEY NOTES. 



GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY 



THE WOLLASTOM MEDAL. 



At the Aniversary meeting of the Geological Society of Loudon on the 17th of 

 last February, the president, Mr. Hamilton, placed the W ledal in the hands 



of Sir Roderick Murehison for transmission to our provincial geologist, Sir \V. E. 

 Logan. This additional honor, the highest iu the power of the Geological Society 

 to confer, must be gratifying to all who wish well to Canada. We are glad to 

 learn that, in accordance with theprinciples embodied in Mr. Langton's late report, 

 sufficient means will now be placed at Sir William Logan's disposal, to enable him 

 to carry on our Canadian survey with undiminished success. The projected Dal®: 

 ontological publications under the partial superintendance of i rofessor James 

 Hall, whose assistance in this department, Sir William has been so fortunate as to 

 secure, will add still more, if possible, to the reputation already acquired by the 

 Survey in European circles. 



ORIGIN OF TOE CARBONATE OE IBOH OP TKK COAL MEASCItES. 



At a late meeting of the Bo3ton Society of Natural History, Prof. W. B. Rogers 

 communicated some interesting observations on the probable origin of the ironstone 

 bands and nod ales of the coal measures. Assuming that the actual amount of iron 

 in a given thickness of the coal-bearing rock3 is not in excess of that present in an 

 equal thickness of the permian or other sandstone strata, Professor Rogers adopts 

 the conclusion, that the originally diffused sesquioxide of iron was converted into 

 the proto-carbonate by the conjoint action of caiburetted hydrogen and carbonic 

 acid evolved from the intermixed vegetable matters. And, secondly, that by solution 

 in percolating waters charged with this carbonic acid, the process of segregation into 

 bands and nodules, or the dep^: he ironstone above impermeable layers 



was more or less readily effected. 



r. musk ox. 



The existing musk ox — Bos or Bubalvs moschatus—'\t is well known, is a denizen 



of the inhospitable regions of our American con t of the parallel 60°. 



Fossil remains of this species occur however in the Post-tertiaries of various parts 



of Europe, and in Siberia. A well characterised cranium, the first British example 



was discovered at the close of last year in a gravel bed at Maidenhead iu Berkshire, 



England. Professor Owca in describing the fossil specimen at a meeting of the 



Geological Society, first offered his reasons for regarding the so-called musk-ox, as 



having been unnecessarily separated from the buffaloes, and chen gave an account 



of the few fossil skulls of the musk-buffalo yet known— viz, those figured by Pallas, 



Ozeretskowsky, and Cuvier. A comparison wa3 then made of the fossil remains 



with recent crania; and, although the skulls somewhat differ in a few points, es- 



illy in the relative curvatures of the horn-cores, yet the author was led to 



• conclude that, as far the materials for comparison at hie command would serve, 



the differences between the fossil and recent musk buffaloes are not of specific 



value; that the Bubalui moscliatut of the Arctic legions, with its now restricted 



range, is the slightly modified descendant of the old companion of the mammoth 



and the Tichorine rhinoceros, which, whh them enjoyed a much wider range, both 



in latitude and longitude, over lands that now form three divisions or continents of 



northern hemisphere ; and that the circumstance* which huve brought nbeut 



