Royal Microscopical Society, 91 



Barholmen, off Drobak, was described at length as one of the most 

 interesting and important localities. Masses of the Finmark coral, 

 Oculina proUfera, are there found, rising to a height of 1 20 feet, and 

 attached to the rock at the bottom of the fijord, at a depth of 10 to 

 15 fathoms. This coral never lives at a less depth than from 150 to 

 300 fathoms ; and its occurrence as a fossil at Barholmen thus proves 

 an elevation of the land (since the extreme glacial epoch of the pre- 

 ceding group of beds) to an extent of about 135 fathoms. Asso- 

 ciated with this coral, are the shells belonging to a similar depth of 

 water, such as Lima excavata; Pecten aratus. In fact, the isle of 

 Barholmen was formerly a sea-bottom, 135 fathoms deep, inhabited 

 by a fauna similar to that now native to the deeper waters of Fin- 

 mark. Shells, indeed, are common in this fossil bed which are now 

 dying out in Finmark itself. As indicative of similar elevation, the 

 occurrence of Balani attached to the rock, in Aremark, at 450 feet 

 above the sea, was also noted. The general conclusions submitted 

 from the details given in the paper were (1) tbat the same physical 

 causes were at work in Norway as in Scotland during the Glacial 

 epoch. (2) The subsequent changes in climate took place by degrees, 

 each alteration leaving its mark on some point in the series of shell- 

 clays. (3) The classification of the shell-beds, which can be made out 

 in Norway, is applicable to Scotland, and their order of succession is 

 the same in both countries. (4) The south and south-west districts 

 of Norway were much colder than at present ; and the climate in 

 Scotland shared a kindred intensity of cold. (5) The elevation of 

 the land since the close of the period of extremest cold has been not 

 less than 800 feet. In conclusion, Mr. Crosskey described the ascent 

 of Gousta, 6,000 feet in height, and the peculiar level character of 

 the surfaces of the ranges of mountains commanded by it ; and the 

 waterfall of the Kjukan Foss, where a considerable river plunges 

 over a precipice 900 feet in height. — J. A. 



EoYAL Microscopical Society. — At the meeting on the 8th inst., 

 James Glaisher, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the chair, a paper was 

 read by Professor T. Rupert Jones *' On Recent and Fossil Bivalve 

 Entomostraca." The Professor said that the word Entomodraca 

 (shelled-insects) applied to them was a misnomer, for that although 

 they were originally believed to be water-insects, and from their 

 jumping motion some of them were called water-fleas, they are not 

 insects at all, but hold a place amongst the Crustacea. He described 

 the structure of different kinds of these small Crustacea, especially 

 referring to the various uses of the limbs. Nature always makes 

 one part or organ useful, if possible, for more than one purpose, and 

 thus one of these limbs may be made to serve as a jaw, or as a foot 

 or organ of motion, as a branchia or organ of respiration, or as an 

 instrument for holding the eggs beneath or above the body. He 

 alluded to the wide-spread distribution of Entomostraca over the earth, 

 not only at the present day, but in ages long gone by. From an early 

 period of the existence of life on our globe, these little creatures have 

 filled the seas and rivers in immense numbers. They are found in 



