Vol. 50.] PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 7 



3. ' Physical and Chemical Geology of the Interior of Australia : 

 Recent Subaerial Metamorphisrn of Eolian Sand at ordinary 

 atmospheric temperature into Quartz, Quartzite, and other stones.' 

 By James Parkinson, Esq., F.G.S., F.C.S. 



[Abstract.] 

 South of the Flinders Range fragments of stone of all sizes are 

 found on the ground, the origin of which the Author discusses. He 

 maintains that they were formed by subaerial metamorphisrn of 

 Eolian deposits. 



Discussion. 



The President said that this was rather a startling communication, 

 though he was by no means prepared to say there was nothing in 

 it. He alluded to the well-known effects of hot climates in this 

 respect. 



Mr. R. D. Oldhaji said that a quartzitic induration at the surface, 

 similar to that described by the Author, was noticeable in the more 

 arid parts of India. In the desert of Western Rajputana he had 

 found the soft Upper Jurassic sandstones locally indurated into hard 

 glassy quartzites, and the change appeared to be superficial. In 

 the diamond mines of Southern India the superficial nature of the 

 alteration was evident, for the miners, after penetrating the quartzitic 

 rock near the surface, found the deeper-seated portions to be soft 

 and easily worked. The cement was in every case siliceous. 



Prof. T. Rupert Jones remarked, with regard to the rough, 

 cylindrical holes traversing some of the quartzitic rock in different 

 directions, that they reminded him of similar cavities which he had 

 seen in septaria of the London Clay ; and were probably due to the 

 imbedment of tough, wrinkled stems of long seaweeds or other 

 rope-like plants. 



Dr. Henry Woodward drew attention to the collection sent homo 

 by Mr. Parkinson, and suggested that the cavities in sandstone, 

 referred to by the Author, may have been formed by stems of plants 

 which have since decayed, or they may be annelid tubes. He 

 pointed out certain casts of bodies resembling the so-called ' fucoid ' 

 (Harlania Halli) from Niagara Falls, also met with on the Gold 

 Coast, W. Africa, and in the Mokattam Quarries, near Cairo. 

 These are probably all due to annelids. 



Mr. Marr, Dr. G. J. Hinde, and Mr. E. T. Newton also spoke. 



The following specimens were exhibited : — 



Entomostraca from the Rhaetic and Lower Lias of Warwickshire, 

 Gloucestershire, etc., exhibited by the Rev. P. P>. Brodie, M.A., 

 F.G.S., the Rev. H. H. Winwood, M.A., F.G.S., Edw. Wilson, Esq., 

 F.G.S., W. Cunnington, Esq., F.G.S., and Prof. T. Rupert Jones, 

 F.R.S., F.G.S., in illustration of the paper read by the last-named. 



Specimens exhibited by James Parkinson, Esq., F.G.S., F.C.S., 

 in illustration of his papers. 



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