384 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



633. A comet in the form of a sword was seen. — (Weber, 

 Discursus Guriosi, etc.) 



634. On September 22 a comet appeared near /3 Aquarii 

 and a Equulei, and a Aquarii and e, Pegasi ; it passed through 

 Aquarius, and disappeared on October 3. — (Gaubil.) 



639. On April 30 a comet was seen between the Hyades 

 and Pleiades. — (Ma-tuoan-lin.) 



641. On July 22 a comet was seen in the region near /3 

 Leonis; it approached Coma Berenicis, and disappeared on 

 August 26. — (Ma-tuoan-lin.) De Mailla dates this comet a 

 month earlier, and Gaubil says it was in the ft Leonis region on 

 August 1. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. —Nov. 4. 



Ox SOME ICHTHYOLITES FROM NEW SoUTH "WALES. — Sir P. de M. 



Grey Egerton exhibited some specimens and photographs of Ichthyo- 

 lites from New South "Wales ; these enabled him to distinguish four 

 genera, two of which are new, and allied to Acrolepis and Plalysomus 

 respectively ; the known genera being Urosthenus, Dana, and 

 PaloBoniscus, Agass. Sir Philip was of opinion that these genera 

 were sufficient to stamp the deposit in which they occur — namely, 

 the Coal formation of New South Wales — as belonging to the 

 Palaeozoic period, if they may be regarded as representative genera 

 living at the same period as, but geographically distant from, their 

 nearest allies ; but, as regards the actual age of the formation, the 

 allied genera are more abundantly represented in the Magnesian 

 Limestone and the Kupferschiefer than in the Coal measures. 



Ox the Geology op the Nile Valley north of the Second 

 Cataract, in Nubia. — Dr. A. Leith Adams' paper on the Geology of 

 the Nile Valley described the physical features of the district, be- 

 ginning at Selsileh and proceeding southwards, and then the litho- 

 logical and stratigraphical characters of the Nile sandstone, as well 

 as its mode of junction with the granite, noticing also the evidences 

 of the Nile having shifted its bed, and of other physical changes 

 occurring in Nubia. Near the Second Cataract were abundant 

 proofs of the river having formerly IlovVed at higher levels, the 

 author having found river shells, sucli .as Ci/rena jlnminalis, l J aJu- 

 dina bulimoid> sa, Jridina Nilotica, and (Etlieria semi-lunata (the Nile 

 Oyster), as also liulimun pullus and a Unto like U.pictorum, in beds 

 of alluvium on elevated plateaus at various heights, ranging up to 

 180 feet, above the highest inundations of the present day. 



