Proceedings of the British Association. 109 



cal with or nearly allied to, the tribe Diatomaceae, which grow abundantly 

 on other Algse, both marine and fresh-water, but are so minute, that 

 individually they are invisible to the naked eye. To enable the Section 

 to judge for themselves, Mr. Bowman exhibited highly-magnified draw- 

 ings of some of these, from the works of Dr. Greville, and also of the 

 powder, which showed the resemblance to be complete. They are, 

 therefore, the counterparts of the fossil Infusoria of Ehrenberg, and 

 occupy the same place in the Vegetable kingdom as those do in the 

 Animal. 



The President observed, that, as far as he was aware, the discovery was 

 quite new to science. He instanced, that some minute floating Confervse 

 had been found on the Lake of Neuchatel ; and Mr. Bowman said he had 

 observed something similar in the lakes near Ellesmere, which annually 

 took place, and rendered it probable that a like deposition of their re- 

 mains was now going on. 



Sir Charles Lemon reported, that an interview had taken place 

 between the Government and the Committee appointed at the Newcastle 

 meeting for taking steps towards the preservation of mining records ; 

 and Mr. De la Beche mentioned, that a person had already been appoint- 

 for the purpose, and would enter on the duties of his office next year. 



Mr. Murchison then exhibited a Geological Map of Europe, coloured 

 by Von Dechen, and the first part of a work on Petrifactions, collected 

 by M. von Humboldt, in South America. This latter work has led to 

 some important conclusions — no oolitic or Jurassic strata seem to exist 

 in South America, or perhaps even in North America ; but there is a 

 large development of the tertiary series, and a still larger of certaceous 

 in the southern continent. Specimens of Silurian fossils have been 

 brought to the present meeting of the Association, collected in North 

 America, by Prof. Shepard, of Newhaven. 



In reference to the map of Europe, Mr. Greenough gave it as a highly 

 probable opinion, that under the morasses of Northern Germany a 

 valuable coal-field may exist. 



Mr. Murchison then called the attention of the meeting to a section of 

 part of Germany which he had lately visited. Mr. Murchison stated, 

 that having, with Prof. Sedgwick, examined the older rocks of Western 

 Germany and Belgium, it is their intention to lay before the Geological 

 Society of London a memoir, illustrated by fossils, on the classification 

 of those ancient deposits, a succession of the Carboniferous, Devonian, 

 and Silurian systems. His present communication bore only on one 

 point of this analysis, offering to prove the geological position of the 

 anthracite or culm-bearing strata of Devonshire and Cornwall. Trans- 

 verse sections, in descending order, from the productive coal-field of 

 Westphalia on the N.N.E., to the uppermost division of protozoic 

 rocks on the S.S.W., were explained ; and one from Dortmund, by 

 Schelke, to the neighbourhood of Limburg and Iserlohn, was specially 

 adduced, in which the various masses of strata are clearly exposed, viz. 



