Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 223 



2. " On the Lower Carboniferous Eocks in the Forest of Dean, as 

 represented in typical sections at Drybrook." By E. Wethered, 

 Esq., F.G.S., F.C.S. With an Appendix by Dr. Thomas Wright, 

 F.E.S., F.G.S. 



The author described a series of beds overlying the normal Old 

 Eed Sandstone and underlying the normal Lower Limestone Shales 

 in the above district. They differ from the ordinary Old Eed Sand- 

 stone in two particulars : — (1) No fossils characteristic of this series 

 have as yet been discovered in them. (2) The materials of which 

 the Old Eed of the neighbourhood is formed are well waterworn, 

 while those composing the beds referred to are not so ; they also 

 contain calcareous material ; and the author considered them to corre- 

 spond, in time, with the Calciferous series of Scotland, for the follow- 

 ing reasons in addition to their stratigraphical position : — (1) with 

 those of Berwickshire in the rapid succession and variation in the 

 colour of the beds; (2) the presence of certain Polyzoa and of 

 Rhynchonella pleurodon in a limestone wbich succeeds them. The 

 author also described a section in the Millstone Grit at the Morse 

 railway-cutting. Here the Millstone Grit dips at about 40° ; rest- 

 ing on it is a rose-coloured sandstone passing up into a pebble-bed 

 dipping at 19°. The pebbles are vein-quartz and a quartzite like 

 that of the Lickey. The Old Eed Sandstone, Calciferous Sandstone, 

 and Millstone Grit appeared to him to have derived their materials 

 from a common source, viz. ancient granitic rocks. 



An Appendix by Dr. T. Wright described the organisms in speci- 

 mens of the above-named limestone of Drybrook. Polyzoa are 

 abundant, individuals being numerous, but species few. Rhabdo- 

 meson gracile and Fenestella tuberculata are abundant in one specimen, 

 the. other containing in addition Ceriopora similis. Fragments of 

 a Crinoid, referred to Poteriocrinus crassus also abound. There are 

 a few crushed shells of Rhynchonella pleurodon, and spines, possibly 

 of a Productus. The organisms of a slab from the Bristol district 

 were also described. This contains R. gracile with one or two other 

 Polyzoa, and numerous Crinoidal fragments. 



XXXII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



PHOSPHOROGRAPHY OF THE INFRA-RED REGION OF THE SOLAR 

 SPECTRUM: WAVE-LENGTH OF THE PRINCIPAL LINES. BY 

 HENRI BECQUEREL. 



"VY^HEN, [ n a dark room, the solar spectrum is projected during 

 ' ' a few seconds upon a screen coated with a phosphorescent 

 subtance which has previously been exposed to the light, and then 

 the luminous rays are suddenly intercepted, the phosphorescence 

 is observed to have been rendered brighter in the region struck by 

 the violet and ultra-violet radiations, while in the red and infra- 

 red region it has been destroyed ; the image of this portion of the 

 spectrum then appears dark on the bright ground of the screen. 

 These phenomena were discovered long ago by my father, and 

 permitted him to determine in the infra-red spectrum the position 

 of several lines and bands analogous to the dark lines of the visible 



