152 Geological Society. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 72.] 

 Juue 7, 1876. — Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., President, 



in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 



1. "On the British Fossil Cretaceous Birds." By Harry Govier 

 Seeley, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S., Professor of Physical Geography in 

 Bedford College, London. 



2. w On two Chinueroid Jaws from the Lower Greensand of New 

 Zealand." By E. T. Xewton, Esq., F.G.S., of H. M. Geological 

 Survey. 



3. " On a Bone-bed in the Lower Coal-measures, with an enume- 

 ration of the Fish-remains of which it is principally composed." By 

 J. W. Davis, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S. 



4. " Note on a species of Foraminifera from the Carboniferous 

 formation of Sumatra." By M. Jules Huguenin. 



5. " On the Triassic Bocks of Somerset and Devon." By "W. A. E. 

 Ussher, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author stated that the Trias of Devon and Somerset was 

 divisible into three groups, occupying distinct areas. 



The first lies north of the Mendip Hills, where the Trias is 

 thinnest and assumes its simplest characters, consisting of marls and 

 Dolomitic conglomerate, the former predominating, the latter not 

 only occurring as a basement series, but in some cases persisting 

 continuously upwards as the marginal equivalent of the marl, as 

 Bhaetic beds overlie both alike. South of the Mendips the Trias is 

 similarly constituted, but is of much greater thickness. 



The second area embraces the country south of the Polden Hills as 

 far as a north and south line through Taunton. 



The chief portion of the Trias in this area, as in the northern, 

 consists of marls ; but unless the breccias of Wembdon, near Bridge- 

 water, are portions of a basement series, faulted up, but elsewhere 

 concealed, the lower division consists of sandstones found resting on 

 the flanks of the Quantoeks, flanking outliers of the older rocks, 

 and here and there faulted up. 



In the lower parts of the marls in the Yale of Taunton and other 

 places occasional beds of sandstone are found, which from their 

 position may be regarded as equivalent to the Upper Keuper Sand- 

 stone of Professor Hull. The sandstones of this area differ from the 

 conglomerates of the Mendip country in occupying a definite subor- 

 dinate horizon to the marls, and not dovetailing into them. 



The third area, bounded on the north by the Bristol Channel, on 

 the south by the English Channel, on the east by the Blackdown 

 range, and on the west by the Culm and Devonian highlands, 

 presents the most complex relations of the Trias in the south- 

 western counties. 



The upper member of the series, as in the other districts, consists 

 of marls ; they contain occasionally thin beds of sandstone towards 

 the base, which may be considered, although apparently of local 



