84 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 17, 



nological division of the newer Tertiaries into older Pliocene, newer 

 Pliocene or Pleistocene, and Post-pliocene is untenable ; too much 

 stress having been laid by authors upon the shell-evidence on this 

 point. At the same time, it is not meant to be implied that all the 

 species of the fauna ranged everywhere throughout the area : some 

 in all probability were peculiar to the south, and others to the north. 



The presence of Hippopotamus major in the pliocene deposits was 

 pointed out as being of great importance in indicating the character 

 of the pliocene land, which, extending between England and the 

 Continent, must have afforded a great system of rivers and lakes, 

 and probably had a comparatively warm temperature, as late as the 

 deposition of the Grays beds, where also (as is well known) occur 

 some southern freshwater shells, now extinct in England. 



After some remarks on the negative evidence afforded by this mam- 

 malian fauna with regard to the supposed refrigeration of the land 

 during the Pliocene period, Dr. Falconer reviewed the opinions of 

 some English geologists on the physical conditions and faunae of 

 this region during the newer Tertiary epoch, especially the views of 

 Mr. S. Wood, Mr. Prestwich, and Mr. Trimmer ; and concluded 

 with a few remarks on the occurrence of E. antiquus in the Cefn 

 and Kirkdale Caves, and of E. primigenius in Kent's Hole, and on 

 the non-existence of E. primigenius south of the Alps, and its restric- 

 tion in the United States of America to the Northern and Central 

 States. In the Southern States and in Mexico a distinct fossil species, 

 E. (Euelephas) Columbi, hitherto undescribed, occurs along with 

 remains of Mastodon, Mylodon, Megatherium, Horse, &c. 



June 17, 1857. 



Charles Preston Molony, Esq., Capt. Madras Army, Holies Street, 

 Dublin, and George Ilobbins, Esq., Grosvenor Place, Bath, were 

 elected Fellows. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. On some Comparative Sections in the Oolitic and Iron- 

 stone Series of Yorkshire. By John Phillips, M.A., 

 LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., Reader in Geology in the University of 

 Oxford. 



[Plate VI.] 



Introduction. — A geologist well versed in the Oolitic groups of 

 the South of England or the North-west of France finds himself per- 

 plexed by the first aspect of the coeval strata in the north of York- 

 shire, which are so rich in bands of ironstone, layers of coal, and 

 hundreds of beds of gritstone and shale, as to resemble a tract of old 

 carboniferous, rather than a terrace of oolitic rocks. Nor are the 

 features and physical geography more similar in the two districts — 

 broad mountainous moor-lands in one, rich corn-laden hills in the 

 other. On further research, the strong contrasts which thus appear 

 between the series of the north and south of England are found to 



