268 Meyer — On Cretaceous Brachiopoda, 



These seem to have been knives for flaying animals, but as stone 

 knives have to a very recent period been used on the Islands of Arran 

 for similar purposes, these cannot be relied on to prove the antiquity 

 the Midden, more especially as there is a tradition that formerly the 

 oysters were shelled at stations along this coast, previous to being 

 preserved for foreign consumption ; and what gives a colour to 

 this tradition is, that in the neighbourhood of the Kenmare Kiver, 

 the same tradition is found in reference to the heaps of oyster-shells 

 which occur there also. If this is the true history of these heaps, 

 might not the ashes found in such quantities among the shells be 

 the remains of the fires used in the preserving process. 



On the islands near the entrance to the Bay, the principal shells 

 in the heaps are Patella vulgata and Liiorina litorea. On Gorumna, 

 in the vicinity of the church called Ballynakill Abbey, there is a large 

 heap composed of these shells, with some bones of the cow, sheep, 

 pig, etc., and on the east shore of Greatman's Bay there is a remark- 

 able Midden 50 feet in diameter, 15 feet high, and forming a flat-topped 

 hillock, composed seemingly entirely of the shells of the limpet and 

 periwinkle. On the Arran islands, heaps are very numerous, some near 

 the old Pagan, and more near the early Christian dwellings, while 

 others are in the vicinity of what may have been, comparatively 

 speaking, modern erections ; among the latter, being one on the 

 middle island, in which a coin with the date 1610 was found, among 

 the more ancient, may be those near Dubhcaher [anglice black city), 

 supposed to be the oldest settlement on the islands, and to have been 

 inhabited previous to the Christian era ; but what is probably the 

 most ancient, is one lately discovered by the Eev. W. Kilbride, 

 Yicar of the Island, which has been buried for ages under the sand- 

 hill on the south of Killany Bay — as I have not seen this, I cannot 

 give you any information about it." 



From this it will be seen that the heaps are probably of all ages, 

 some being of modern construction — more of medieval age — while 

 others may be very ancient. In favour of the last supposition, it 

 may be mentioned that W. Harte, Esq., F.E.G.S.I., has explored and 

 described various very similar Kitchen-Middens on the coast of 

 Donegal, in which the only implements found were made of stone. 

 {See Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science, Vol. IV., p. 189 et seq.). 



VI. — Notes on Cretaceous Brachiopoda and on the Develop- 

 ment OF the Loop, and Septum in Tekebratella. 



By C. J. A. Meyer, Esq. 



IN a paper on "Cretaceous Brachiopoda," published in the first 

 volume of the Geological Magazine, page 249, I noticed the 

 occurrence of a species of Waldheimia in the Lower Greensand of 

 Surrey, under the name of Waldheimia Moutoniana, which at the 

 time appeared to me to answer to the figure and description of 

 Terebratula Moutoniana of D'Orbigny. 



The identification of this species has been, however, severely 



