286 Reports and Proceedings, 



mounds of Denmark, the Orkneys, Scotland, and Ireland, containing 

 abundant remains of land-animals, and birds, as well as the bones of 

 fishes and the shells of mollusca, together with the rude weapons of 

 stone and bone left by the aborigines, many of which strongly remind 

 us of the weapons brought by our Arctic explorers from the shores 

 of Arctic America, and used by the Esquimaux of to-day. 



Dr. C. A. White gives an account of certain lake -like hollows and 

 depressions found in Iowa, supposed to be of artificial origin, some of 

 which are now dry, and some still occupied by sheets of water. 

 They have obtained the name of "walled lakes" from the heaping 

 up of the large boulders along the shore in the direction of the pre- 

 vailing winds, and the washing away of all the finer portions of the 

 glacial drift in which these lake-basins have been formed. Dr.White 

 shows that the action has continued since the Glacial epoch, and is 

 going on at the present day. He gives an interesting account of the 

 ancient river-terraces, also cut through the glacial drift, which covers 

 a large portion of Iowa. 



3. The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, New Series, 

 Yol. III., No. I., contains a useful comparison of the icebergs of 

 Belle-Isle with the Glaciers of Mont Blanc, with reference to the 

 Boulder-clay of Canada, by Principal Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., 

 F.G.S. No. 3. On the Geological Formation of Lake Superior, by 

 Mr. Thomas Macfarlane. On a subdivision of the Acadian Carboni- 

 ferous Limestones, by Mr. C. Fred. Hartt, A.M. 



Several of the papers published in this periodical have already 

 been noticed in the pages of the Geological Magazine, and we 

 shall take any early opportunity to notice the others, whenever space 

 permits. 



:KE:poI^TS j^istid :PI^ooEEIDIIs^C3-s. 



Geological Society of London. — I. April 8th, 1868. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "On the Affinities and probable Habits of the extinct Austra- 

 lian Marsupial, Thylacoleo carnifex, Owen." By W. H. Flower, Esq., 

 F.R.S., F.G.S., etc. 



Thylacoleo was first described by Prof. Owen in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1859, from an imperfect skull, the characters of 

 which led to the conclusion that it was " one of the fellest and 

 most destructive of predatory beasts," having its nearest affinities 

 among existing marsupials with Dasyurus ursinus, although the 

 interval be still very great between them. In a subsequent descrip- 

 tion of a more perfect skull, Prof. Owen's views of the affinities, 

 though not of the habits and food of the animal, were modified. It 

 was stated to be more nearly related to the Diprotodons, Nototheres, 

 Koalas, Phalangers, and Kangaroos, but at the same time to exem- 

 plify " the simplest and most effective dental machinery for preda- 

 tory life and carnivorous diet known in the Mammalian class." 



The author of the present paper, while entirely concurring with 



