xxiv Proceedings. {December 6th, i8<^j. 



^^Microscopical and Natural History Section^ 



Ordinary Meeting, December 6th, 1897. 



Mark Stirrup, F.G.S., President of the Section, in the Chair. 



Mr. John Butterworth, F.R.M.S., Shaw, near Oldham, was 

 elected an Associate of the Section. 



Mr. J. C. Melvill exhibited forty-three species of Marine 

 MoUusca, shortly to be described by him. Twenty-eight were 

 from the Mekran Coast and Persian Gulf, collected by Mr. F. W. 

 Townsend, and are described in the paper entitled " Further 

 Investigations into the MoUuscan Fauna of the Arabian Sea," 

 published in the Me^noirs of the Society. The remaining fifteen 

 were dredged by Captain E. R. Shopland in the vicinity of Aden, 

 and include a most beautiful TellinaiT. manumissa MS.) hitherto 

 compared with T. madagascariensis, a. parti-coloured Nassa 

 {N. Folychroma), and many other interesting novelties. These 

 have been described in the Ann. 6^ Mag. Nat. Hist., March, 

 1898, pp. 194-206. 



The President exhibited specimens of silicified wood found 

 in Egypt. Similar deposits occur in Auvergne, Arizona, Ireland, 

 and elsewhere. The Egyptian deposits are situate in Wadies, 

 south of Cairo. The source of the siliceous fluid is not known, 

 but it may perhaps have been derived from volcanic districts 

 lying to the East. Entire tree-trunks do not occur, only frag- 

 ments, broken up possibly by rapid changes of temperature. 



