146 Geological Society: — 



time when it uncovered the plateaux of Norfolk and Suffolk, appeal- 

 ing for the probability of this to the condition of South America, 

 where the inland ice passes in glaciers to the sea in the Straits of 

 Magellan and adjoining channels through dense forests. He also 

 pointed out that the evidences of the Newer Pliocene period, as traced 

 by him, lend no support to the climate-theories of Dr. Croll, Mr. 

 Wallace, or Mr. Murphy, but, on the contrary, conflict with them, 

 as do the respective extensions of the areas of glaciation in "Western 

 Europe and Eastern America, while they are equally repugnant to 

 any theory of climate based on changes in geographical conditions ; 

 and he concluded by insisting on the British origin of all the ice 

 connected with either glaciation in England, and on the existence 

 of an open north sea throughout. 



June 7.— J. W. Hulke, Esq., E.E.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. The President read the following note, forwarded by Don 

 Manuel E. dc Castro, Director of the Geological Survey of Spain : — 

 " On the Discovery of Triassic Eossils in the Sierra de Gador, 

 Province of Almeria, Spain."'* 



" The metalliferous limestone of the Sierra de Gador, owing to no 

 fossil remains having been found prior to this occasion, has been a 

 perfect puzzle to all geologists for the last fifty years. 



" MM. Maestre, Amar de la Torre, Pernolet, Ansted, and Cooke 

 considered these limestones to belong to the Transition series, the 

 former taking it as a representative of the Mountain Limestones of 

 other parts of Europe. M. Prado hinted that they might be De- 

 vonian : whilst M. "NVillkomm, in the geological map published to 

 accompany his botanical researches in Spain, considered them Silu- 

 rian. Lately MM. Botella and Yilanova, in their respective maps, 

 have marked them as belonging to the Permian series ; whilst M. 

 de Yerneuil, coming nearer to the truth, took the whole of the lime- 

 stones to the south of Granada and the Sierra de Gador as Triassic, 

 though in doubt (" Trias ineertain"). 



" Under these circumstances, I was commissioned by the Director 

 of the Geological Survey of Spain to investigate the S.Y\\ portion of 

 the Province of Almeria, which comprises the Sierra de Gador. In 

 February last I had the good fortune of discovering abundant fossil 

 remains in different parts of the Sierra de Gador, which perfectly 

 fix the age of the metalliferous limestones of this part of Spain. 



" The whole series of rocks forming this sierra, resting on the 

 mica-schists and slates of the Sierra Nevada, is a succession of black, 

 white, and purple talcose schists at the base, which alternate with 

 some beds of yellowish and porous limestone, and which pass 

 through a considerable thickness of grey limestones and slates, and, 

 precisely where the fossils have been found, to the metalliferous 

 limestone of Sierra de Gador. which appears to form the top of this 

 interesting formation. 



" The fossils found belong to the following genera : — JIi/op7iori<( 



