1 B I Geological Society : — 



of several hundred atmospheres may facilitate some of the chemical 

 changes involved in the transformation of water and carbonic acid 

 into the organic compounds met with in animals and plants of low 

 organization found at great depths in the ocean, and thus to a 

 certain extent compensate for diminished light. I, however, most 

 willingly admit that very much remains to be learnt before we can 

 say to what extent the principles I have described are applicable ; 

 and yet, at the same time, cannot but think that henceforth they 

 must be taken into account in many departments of chemical and 

 physical geology, and will readily explain a number of facts which 

 otherwise would be very obscure. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 74.] 



Decemberl6, 1863. — R. A.C. Godwin- Austen, Esq., Vice-President, 



in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "On the Pebble-bed of Budleigh Salterton." By W. Vicary, 

 Esq., F.G.S. With notes on the Fossils, by J. W. Salter, Esq., 

 F.G.S. 



. The south coast of Devonshire from Petit Tor, near Babbacombe 

 Bay, to a little beyond Sidmouth, exhibits cliffs of New Red Sand- 

 stone, one of the beds of which, near Budleigh Salterton, is com- 

 posed of pebbles of all sizes and of a flattened oval form ; this bed 

 attains a maximum thickness of about 100 feet, and some of the 

 pebbles composing it were found by Mr. Vicary to contain peculiar 

 fossils. 



Mr. Vicary gave a description of the physical features of the area 

 over which the pebble-bed extends, and entered into the strati- 

 graphical details of this and the associated strata, referring to 

 Mr. Salter's Note for information upon the affinities of the fossils. 



In his Note, Mr. Salter observed that, on comparing the fossils of 

 the Budleigh- Salterton pebbles with those from the Caen sandstone 

 in the Society's Museum, he found that all the species contained in 

 the latter collection were also represented in the former. The 

 general aspect of the fossils was stated to be quite unlike that 

 exhibited by English Lower Silurian collections ; and Mr. Salter 

 therefore suggested that the exact equivalent of the Caen sandstone 

 does not exist in England. This difference in the two faunas ap- 

 peared to him to favour the theory of the former existence of a 

 barrier between the middle and northern European regions during 

 the Silurian period. 



2. " Experimental Researches on the Granites of Ireland. — Part 

 IV. On the Granites and Syenites of Donegal, with some remarks 

 on those of Scotland and Sweden." By the Rev. Samuel Haughton, 

 M.D., F.R.S. 



The author discussed in detail the mineralogical composition of 



