1865.] Geology and Palceontology. 677 



Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, off Unst, in Shetland, from a depth of 85 fathoms, 

 and occurs fossil in our Coralline Crag and in the Miocene beds of 

 Germany, is also common in the Australian deposits. The Corbula 

 sulcata now lives on the west coast of Africa ; with it and the fore- 

 going species occur the recent Pectunculus laticostatus of New Zealand, 

 and the Eocene Dentalium Mississippiense of Vicksburg. If the re- 

 maining species have similar extraordinary ranges, it will be rather 

 difficult to determine how they became associated in the Miocene 

 Australian sea. 



Of recent local memoirs, we have a large number before us, all 

 deserving of notice ; but we must content ourselves with glancing at 

 the following :— Mr. Boult's paper " On the alleged Submarine Forests 

 on the Shores of Liverpool Bay and the Biver Mersey," reprinted 

 from the Journal of the Polytechnic Society, is an attempt to show 

 that the three beds of peat occurring at Dove Point, &c, are not the 

 remains of so many submerged forests, but are the results of the 

 bursting of peat-mosses, similar to that of Chat Moss, described by 

 Leland as having occurred in the beginning of the sixteenth century. 

 The author considers also that these forest-beds and the intercalated 

 silts are not sufficient evidence of a depression and subsequent re- 

 elevation of the country. His arguments are ingenious, but rather 

 dogmatically expressed ; they do not carry conviction to our mind, 

 and we cannot think that his view is the right one ; but his paper is 

 well worth reading, as it forces one's train of thought off the rails on 

 which it usually runs, and happily the inevitable collision with the 

 author's ideas does us no bodily harm. 



Mr. Hull's paper on the Drift-deposits, &c, in the neighbourhood 

 of Manchester, has some connection with the one just noticed, as it 

 contains a sketch of some very recent gravel and sand beds at Heaton 

 Mersey, containing an interstratified bed of peat which may represent 

 an old land-surface, but may be due to a former extension of the river. 

 The chief object of the paper is, however, to extend, and in some 

 measure to correct, Mr. Binney's previous observations and classifica- 

 tion of the drift-beds of this district. The two classifications are as 

 follow : — 



Binney. Hull. 



Eecent. . . 1. Valley-gravel and Kiver- 1. Valley-gravel and River- 

 terraces, terraces. 



/ 2. Upper Boulder-clay. 



2. Forest sand and gravel. 3. Middle Sand and gravel. 



Post-pliocene ;3. Till or Boulder-clay. 4. Lower Boulder-clay or Till, 

 or Drift . \ 4. Sand and Gravel, more in- 

 constant and less impor- 

 tant than No. 2. 



The last of these papers that we have room to notice is Professor 

 Buckman's Essay " On the Geology of Gloucestershire in reference to 

 Agriculture and Rural Economy," reprinted from the Bath and West 

 of England Agricultural Journal. To the farmers of Gloucestershire 

 it must be a welcome little guide, and we should be glad to hear that 

 its author had expanded it into a more exhaustive text-book. Professor 



