Geological Society, 239 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from vol. xxii. p. 405.] 



November 6, 1861 Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S., in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "Note on the Bone-Caves of Lunel-Viel, Herault." By M. 

 Marcel de Serres. Communicated by the President. 



These bone-caves in Miocene limestone, on the Mazet estate, 

 near Montpellier, discovered about 1823, and described in 1839 by 

 MM. Marcel de Serres, Dubreuil, and Jean-Jean, comprise a large 

 cave and some smaller fissures, containing a red earth with pebbles 

 and an abundance of bones and coprolites of Hyaena, Lion, Bear, 

 Wolf, Fox, Otter, Boar, Beaver, Rhinoceros, Horse, Deer, Ox, &c, 

 with Birds and Reptiles. The author expressed his belief anew that 

 the association of pebbles with the bones in caves is a common 

 phenomenon, and an evidence of the accumulation of the materials, 

 gnawed bones and coprolites included, by the running water of violent 

 inundations, — the caverns being of Tertiary origin, the detritus being 

 contemporary with the old alluvium of the Rhone, and the fauna 

 indicated by the bones having been antecedent to the latter. 



2. " On the Petroleum-springs in North America." By Dr. A 

 Gesner, F.G.S. 



x\fter some observations on the antiquity of the use of mineral oil 

 in North America and elsewhere, and on the present condition of 

 the oil- and gas-springs and the associated sulphur- and brine- 

 springs in the United States, the author stated that 50,000 gallons 

 of mineral oil are daily raised for home-use and for exportation. 

 The oil-region comprises parts of Lower and Upper Canada, Ohio, 

 Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New 

 Mexico, and California. It reaches from the 65th to the 128th de- 

 gree of long. W. of Greenwich, and there are outlying tracts besides. 



The oil is said to be derived from Silurian, Devonian, and Car- 

 boniferous rocks. In some cases the oil may have originated during 

 the slow and gradual passage of wood into coal, and in its final 

 transformation into anthracite and graphite, — the hydrogen and some 

 carbon and oxygen, being disengaged, probably forming hydro- 

 carbons, including the oils. In other cases, animal matter may have 

 been the source of the hydrocarbons. 



Other native asphalts and petroleums were referred to by the 

 author, who concluded by observing that these products were most 

 probably being continually produced by slow chemical changes in 

 fossiliferous rocks. 



3. " Notice of the Discovery of some additional Land Animals in 

 the Coal-measures of the South Joggins, Nova Scotia." By Dr. 

 J.W.Dawson, F.G.S. 



Two additional fossil stumps of trees have been examined by the 

 author from the same group of the Coal-measures as that which has 

 already afforded Reptilian, Molluscan, and Myriapodal specimens. 



