544 Geological Society : — 



absorbing atmosphere. May not also some of the variable lines 

 visible in the solar spectrum be due to absorption in the region of 

 spots ? and may not the spectroscope afford us evidence of the exist- 

 ence of the " red flames " which total eclipses have revealed to us in 

 the sun's atmosphere, although they escape all other methods of 

 observation at other times? and if so, may we not learn some- 

 thing from this of the recent outburst of the star in Corona ? 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 475.] 



November 21, 1866.— Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., 



President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On marine fossiliferous deposits of Secondary Age in New 

 South Wales." By the Rev. W. B. Clarke, M.A., F.G.S. 



In Australia, until the year 1860, the existence of deposits of 

 Secondary age had not been demonstrated, although Sir T. L. 

 Mitchell, in 1846, collected Belemnites and a few other fossils, 

 which are now said to belong to a Lower Secondary formation. 

 Since the year 1860, Secondary fossils have been collected by several 

 explorers ; and the author therefore gave a history of their discovery, 

 with lists of the genera and of some of the species found in each 

 locality. His own investigations of the country near the Maranoa 

 River, in Queensland, and the examination of collections sent to 

 him from localities between there and the Flinders River, have led 

 him to the belief there exist in that area formations ranging from 

 the Trias up to the Cretaceous. Mr. Clarke also stated that the 

 deposits occurring on the eastern and western sides of Australia do 

 not seem to be identical, fossils of the age of the Lias and Inferior 

 Oolite having alone been obtained from the latter. 



2. " On the Madreporaria of the Infra-lias of South Wales." Bv 

 P. Martin Duncan, M.B. Lond., Sec. G.S. 



Referring first to Mr. Tawney's paper on the Sutton Stone, and 

 his own note on the Corals, appended thereto, as having been the 

 firstfruits of the recent researches on the Infra-lias in South Wales, 

 Dr. Duncan stated that in preparing this communication he had 

 been largely indebted to Mr. Charles Moore for the specimens 

 which he had examined, as well as for a considerable amount of 

 information embodied in the descriptions of the deposits. He then 

 described the strata of Brocastle and Ewenny, giving lists of their 

 fossils, and especially of the new species of Madreporaria described 

 in this paper, and illustrated by lithographs prepared for the Palse- 

 ontographical Society ; he then stated his views of their geological 

 position, their relations to, and differences from the zone of Am- 

 monites Bucklandi and the strata in France and Luxembourg which 

 have the same homotaxis, and gave a general view of the distribution 

 of the Madreporaria from the Keuper to the zone of Ammonites 

 Bucklandi. The chief conclusions were: — (1) that the fossiliferous 

 beds of Sutton, Southerndown, Brocastle, and Ewenny are important 

 members of the series which intervenes between the Trias and the 



