Sept. 14, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



291 



their beat from what might be termed, according to his views, a 

 volcanic focus, but in this case one from which only benefit to man- 

 kind was received. 



The Eighth Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. R. 

 Etheridge, Mr. Thomas Gray, and Prof. John Mii.ne, Sec, 

 appointed for the Purpose of Investigating the Earthqua e and 

 Volcanic Phenomena of Japan, was then read. 



Mr. O. H. Howarth communicated a 'paper on The Recent 

 Volcanic Structure of the Azorean Arch'pelago. The object of the 

 author's notes upon the relation of the Azorean group to the other 

 islands cf the West Atlantic was to indicate a line of inquiry by 

 which some approximation might be made to the intervals separating 

 the great eruptive changes; and to determine any modifications in 

 the type of flora during that important succession of volcanic pro- 

 ducts, which has been evolved since the Upper Miocene period 

 assigned to the islands generally. A field for such inquiry seems to 

 be offered by the present phase of action in the Furnas district, in 

 the eastern centre of St. Michael's, where existing activity is 

 associated with some of the oldest forma' ions in the series. The 

 author has traced in that valley a series of beds of vegelable origin 

 dating back from the most recent changes, immediately connected 

 with the present boiling-spring area, to a period antecedent to the 

 formation of the Furnas Valley itself. The intermediate intervals 

 of repose are now represented by peaty beds and subaqueous vege- 

 table deposits, interstratified with the successive lava streams, tuffs, 

 and pumice beds of various date?, within and prior to the historical 

 period. From the more recent of these, buried trunks and 

 branches have be'n ob'ained which represent the intervals of recent 

 eruptions ; whi'e in one of the o'der tuffs, underlying nearly the 

 whole series at that portion of the idands, a tree (probably an 

 Pried) has been found, presumably in situ, and offering possibilities 

 of a subjacent soil for examination, which would be contempo- 

 ranerus with the earliest vegetation of the island. 



Pro'essor G. A. Leeour presented the Report of the Committee 

 appointed for the purpose of considering the Advisability and Possi- 

 bility if Establishing in other parts of the Country obseriations 

 upon the prevalence of Earth Tremors, similar to those now being 

 made in Durham. The report was brief and preliminary only. 

 The Committee, it seemed, has hitherto been engaged in considering 

 the question of the best instruments adapted for the work, and their 

 investigations being still incomplete, they did not as yet make any 

 special recommendation. While some carefully finished seismoscopes 

 would be needed, it would be only in comparatively small numbers, 

 while on the other hand a larger number of instruments would be 

 required of less delicate character. Next year the Committee 

 would be in a position to give a more definite report, when they 

 would ask for a grant, the rough outline of the proposal being to 

 have a number of small observing stations where time records of 

 tremors would be registered, and a few very carefully selected 

 stations, where the intensity as well as the time would be recorded. 



Geological Department. 



Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., presiding. The following papers 

 were read : — 



The Watcombe Terra-Cotla Clay. By Mr. W. A. E. Ussher, 

 F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of England. 



Beds exposed in the Southampton Neiv Dock Excavation, By 

 Mr. T. W. Shore, F.G.S., F.C.S. 



Fossil Arctic Plants from the Lacustrine Deposit at Hoxne, in 

 Suffolk. By Messrs. Clement Reid, F.G.S., and H. N. Ridley, 

 M.A, F.L.S. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr J. W. Davis, Mr. W. 

 Cash, Dr. H. Hicks, Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, Mr. Clement 

 Reid, Dr. H. Woodward, and Mr. T. Boynton, appointed for 

 the purpose of investigating an Ancient Sea-Beach near Bridlington 

 Quay. Drawn up by G. W. Lamplugh, Secretary. 



Professor H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., contributed a paper on The 

 Origin of Oolitic Texture in Limestone Rocks. The author stated 

 his belief that Oolitic textures have originated in many ways. It 

 is found occasionally in Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous 

 rocks ; but it is most characteristic of the Inferior and Great Oolites, 

 Coralline Oolite, and Portland Oolite. The structure is not limited 

 to limestone, being found in carbonate of iron and oxide of iron. A 

 similar structure has long been known in the Dolomitic rocks of 

 Durham, but some of the concretions are of large size, and this 

 condition is seen in the Sprudelstein at Carlsbad. Experiment has 

 shown that carbonate of soda may be the basis of concretions of 

 carbonate of lime if they are suspended under suitable conditions in 

 solution of chloride of lime. Dr. Carpenter regarded Oolites as 

 Foraminiferal limestones in which the foraminifera are invested with 

 calcite. Dr. Sorley regarded the grains as pellets formed.by current 

 drifting, and the author attributed the small size of the grains to the 



small force of the currents. The author considered that the micro- 

 scopic structure of nullipores was practically identical with Oolitic 

 grains, so as to suggest that in some cases Oolites may be organic 

 rocks. 



Professor Gilbert desoibed the Ooli'e now forming in the Great 

 Salt Lake, and Mr. Wheeler, U.S.A., the Chairman, Mr. 

 Woodward, Mr. Wethered, and Mr. Wedborne spoke on the 

 subject. 



Tuesday, September iith. 



The Rev. H. H. Binwood presiding. 



The first paper read was on Professor F. Bassani's Researches tn 

 the Fossil Fish of Chiavon, Vicentino. 



These fos;iliferous marls were first discovered by Biron Zigno in 

 1852, who referred them to the Lower Miocene, since which time 

 Heckel, Herr Suess, Sauvage, and others have studied their fauna 

 and flora. The abundant materials investigated were derived from 

 many public and private museums, and represented plants and 

 animals, amongst which were a few crustaceans badly preserved, 

 very few insects, many beautiful fish, two bones of birds, and some 

 amphibia. An examination of the list shows that the Chiavon fauna 

 include no Ganoids, and is constituted of Chondropterygeans and 

 Teleosteans. The whole list is comprehended in fifty-eight species, 

 distiibuted in thirty-two genera and fifteen families. Comparing the 

 fish fauna of Chiavon with twenty-one other analogous deposits of 

 Europe, the author has come to the conclusion that they are in age 

 Aquitanian, or belong, like the strata of Sotzka, to the base of the 

 Lower Miocene. 



The report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. R. Etheridge, Dr. 

 H. Woodward, and Professor T. Rupert Jones (Secretary), on the 

 Fo'sil Phyllopeda of the Palaeozoic Rocks, was read, as was also the 

 report on the Flora of the Carboniferous Rock* of Lancashire and 

 West Yorkshire, by Piofessor"Williamson. 



Professor H. G. Seeley, F. R.S., gave an elaborate description of 

 an Ichthyosaurus from Mombasa, with observations on the vertebral 

 characters of the genus. 



Mr. A. Smith Woodward, F.G.S., F.Z.S., read an interesting 

 paper, in which he drew a Comfari:on of the Cretaceous Fish-fauna 

 of Mount Lebanon with that of the English Chalk. He also read 

 a paper on Bucklandium diluvii Konig, a Siluroid Fish from the 

 London Clay of Shcppey. 



Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, in the course of a few incidental 

 remarks, alluded to the curious inversion of parts noticeable in some 

 fishes, and instanced the common sole, which by dint of continual 

 squinting caused the eye to travel right round the orifice to the 

 upper surface in a curiously inverse fashion. 



Mr. W. Terrill (Swansea) and Dr. Johnston-Lavis asked 

 for and obtained further information. 



Dr. C. Ricketts, F G.S., read a paper on A Probable Cause of 

 Contortions of Strata. The amount of compression to which the 

 crust of the earth would be subjected as the effect of subsidence, by 

 the presence of faults and olher causes, as well as by the secular 

 cooling of its mass (Rev. O. Fisher, Phil. Mag., Jan., 1888), 

 is too inconsiderable to develop the great contortions and foldings 

 certain strata have undergone. 



When accompanied by cleavage, the distortion of contained 

 fossils and the displacement of included rock fragmenfs (the flat 

 sides lying parallel to the cleavage planes) indicate that the change 

 occurred whilst the clay deposits were in an unconsolidated or 

 plastic condition. 



It is suggested that these flexures miy be dependent on irregular 

 pressure, caused by the local distribution of larger and heavier par- 

 ticles on accumulations cf unconsolidated muddy deposits, in a 

 similar manner to what may be demonstrated by spreading layers of 

 clay of various colours, dried and reduced to powder, in a trough ; 

 when, on the admission of water, the clay has become plastic, sand 

 is heaped on some special part and extra weight applied, which in 

 the experiment is necessary. The heavier substance subsides into 

 the plastic mass, and at the same time the clay beds are squeezed 

 outwards, causing the layers underneath to be formed into films, 

 which are still continuous with those on the sides, though these are 

 rendered considerably thicker than in their original state, and are 

 curved into folds, even to reversal of the beds, representing on a 

 small scale what are frequently met with in stratified rocks. The 

 experiment so coincides with natural phenomena - that it is reason- 

 able to expect that it will prove to be a true and frequent cause of 

 the cortortions of strata. 



The paper was accompanied by models, the result of experiments, 

 and Mr. A. S. Reid and Mr. W. W. Watts spoke on the subject. 

 The latter said the experiments made by Dr. Ricketts required to 

 be modified be f ore they actually represented the facts as they 



