2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 9, 
having a conchoidal fracture, hard, and not soiling the fingers. Its 
colour is black, velvet-black or brownish black. One portion has a 
beautiful lustre and high polish. It is described’ by Mr. Logan as 
burning with a clear flame, occasionally greenish, and with a slight 
decrepitation. It was found by a Penang Siamese, on the southern 
coast of the island of Junk-Ceylon (well-known for its tin). He said 
he had found a layer of it three feet thick close under the surface, — 
and offered to import it into Penang at the rate of 12s. 6d. per ton. 
On submitting a portion of a specimen of this coal to a rough in- 
vestigation, it appears to be of very admirable quality. It yields an ash 
amounting only to 1°32 per cent. The quantity of sulphur, if any, 
is too small to be appreciated. It is very bituminous, and appears 
as if it would coke well. There can therefore be little doubt that if 
the specimen is fairly selected, and the quantity be sufficient, this 
mineral fuel may be applied to many highly important economic 
purposes. 
JUNE 9, 1847. 
George Richardson, Esq., and John W. Kershaw, Esq., were elected 
Fellows of the Society. 
The following communications were read :— 
1. Microscopical Observations on the Structure of the Bones of PTr- 
RODACTYLUS GIGANTEUS and other Fossil Animals. By J.S. 
BoweERBANK, F.R.S., G.S. &e. 
On the 14th of May 1845 I had the honour of exhibiting to the 
Geological Society a portion of the head and other bones of a gi- 
gantic Pterodactylus from the lower chalk* near Maidstone, Kent, 
and subsequently these specimens were engraved and published, ac- 
companied by a short description, in vol. u. p. 7. Pl. I. of the Quar- 
terly Journal of the Geological Society. In that memoir I expressed 
an opinion, that the bone represented by fig. 6 in the Plate illustratmng 
my paper was of the same description of animal, and corresponding 
in position with that figured and described by Prof. Owen in the 
Transactions of the Geological Society, 2nd Series, vol. vi. Pl. 39, as 
a portion of the shaft of the humerus of a longipennate bird, and 
consequently that it was probable that the latter bone would ulti- 
mately prove to belong to a Pterodactylus. Since the expression of 
this opmion, I have had the pleasure of seeing several fine specimens 
of similar bones to those described by Prof. Owen, in the possession 
of Mr. Charles of Maidstone, Mrs. Smith of Tunbridge Wells, and 
Mr. Toulmin Smith, and I have been favoured by the latter two 
eminent and liberal collectors with the free use for examination and 
comparison of many beautiful specimens of such remams. Several 
of these bones, especially those from the rich collection of Mrs. 
Smith and Mr. Toulmm Smith, agreed so perfectly im all respects 
* By an error on my part, the bones are described in the first memoir as being 
from the Upper Chalk, while in truth the pits from which they came are, I am 
informed, considered:as Lower Chalk. 
