Proceedings of Learned Societies. 157 



temperature — under which, indeed, they become black. Gun 



Cotton as a source of Motive Power. — M. Jules Gros has invented an 

 engine, in which motive power is derived from the g^ases evolved in 

 one reservoir by the explosion of gun cotton, and condensed in 

 another. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



Bl' W. B. TEGETMEIER. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.— June 21. 



Mammalian Remains found near Richmond, Yorkshire. — Mr. 

 Boyd Dawkins described some mammalian remains, discovered last 

 autumn on a terrace of blue clay, mixed with limestone debris, about 

 130 feet above the north bank of the river Swale, during excava- 

 tions for a new sewer. The deposit appears to be a heap of kitchen 

 refuse, the great majority of the bones being broken, while not one 

 of the numerous skulls is perfect. The collection contained bones of 

 the following species : — Bear, dog, pig, horse, red-deer, fallow-deer, 

 sheep, Bos lonc/ifrons, Bos orachyceros, Gajpra cegagrus, and the horn- 

 cores of a form of goat, which appeared to be the JEgoceros Gau- 

 casica, which had also been found by Mr. Dawkins and Mr. Sanford 

 in a bone-cavern explored by them in 1863. M. Lartet has ex- 

 pressed his opinion that these horn-cores belonged to some of the 

 diversified forms that are the result of hybridity, and stated that 

 they resembled some found in a bone-cave in the Pyrenees, which 

 appeared to belong to a hybrid between the goat and the Bouquetin. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY— June 27. 



Pigmy Eossil Elephants op Malta. — Mr. Busk communicated 

 an account of his examination of the collection of fossil elephant 

 bones made in Malta by Captain Spratt, R.N. These bones include 

 the remains of three perfectly distinct species. One was nearly 

 equal in bulk to the existing Asiatic species, and was probably 

 referable to JElephas Antiqxius. The others were remarkable for 

 their diminutive stature as compared with the existing species of 

 elephant. Neither of them exceeding the height of five feet when 

 full grown. It might be imagined that the remains were those of 

 young animals, but an attentive examination proved that their ossi- 

 fication had been perfectly completed, and that they consequently 

 belonged to full-grown and perfectly mature individuals. Both 

 these small species are distinguished by very well marked differences 

 in their dental and osteological characters. The existence of a 

 race of pigmy elephants in a European island is a circumstance 

 of considerable interest, geologically as well as zoologically con- 

 sidered. 



