680 CJironicles of Science. [Oct., 



Drifts ; " but in other respects the author draws a parallel between 

 the two series. Dr. Bryce attributes to the Boulder-clay a glacial 

 origin on land, and he ingeniously accounts for the differences in 

 the Arran and Clydesdale series according to his theory of the 

 formation and origin of their remaining members. 



The next paper, also by Dr. Bryce, " On Beds in the West of 

 Scotland beneath the Boulder-clay," is the result of an examination 

 into the question whether the Elephant-remains which have been 

 found near Kilmaurs really occurred in the Boulder-clay, or in beds 

 beneath it, and he again succeeds in convincing himself that the 

 Boulder-clay contains no fossils. In all probability Dr. Bryce is 

 right, and the beds in which these Elephant-remains were found, 

 and which occur beneath the Boulder-clay, no doubt come into the 

 Pre-glacial period of Mr. Jamieson, who, by the way, infers in his 

 paper, just noticed, that the Elephants whose remains are said to 

 have occurred in the Boulder-clay must have lived previous to the 

 accumulation of that formation. Dr. Bryce suggests that the strata 

 containing the Elephant-remains may correspond with the Cromer 

 forest-bed ; and Mr. Jamieson infers the correlation of certain shell- 

 bearing beds in Aberdeenshire with our English Bed Crag. 



The Bev. H. W. Crosskey's paper may be considered an appendix 

 to those of Dr. Bryce, as the subject is the same, though the locality 

 is different. In 1850, Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill, described the 

 occurrence of a bed of clay containing Tcllina calcarea, intercalated 

 between two masses of true Boulder- clay, and Mr. Crosskey now 

 discusses the question whether the upper mass was really Boulder- 

 clay. He comes to the conclusion that the upper deposit is a wash 

 from a higher ridge of Boulder-clay, and that the shell-bed, which 

 is on the slope of such a ridge, occupies the same position as the 

 common shell-beds of the Glacial epoch in the West of Scotland ; at 

 any rate, he submits that the contrary has not been proved. 



Considering how often the complaint has been made that the 

 classification of our Post-tertiary deposits is in a more unsatisfactory 

 state than that of any other portion of the geological series, we rejoice 

 to find that the geologists of Scotland are working so hard and so 

 earnestly at the subject ; and we sincerely hope that the reproach will 

 soon cease to be applicable to their series. At all events we have in 

 this number of the Society's Journal four papers of very great value, 

 and as they have appeared together, the date of their publication will 

 doubtless mark an epoch in the history of the Post-tertiary beds of 

 Scotland. 



The next paper we shall notice is that by Mr. E. Bay Lankester, 

 " On the Sources of the Mammalian Fossils of the Bed Crag, and on 

 the Discovery of a new Mammal in that Deposit allied to the Walrus." 

 Its author is a very young palaeontologist of great promise, who has 

 already published two or three papers containing descriptions of new 

 mammals from the Bed Crag. In pursuing his researches he has 

 been tempted, like some of his predecessors, to speculate on the 

 sources whence this strangely heterogeneous fauna was derived. In 

 the Bed Crag we have, as Mr. Lankester remarks, " not one fauna, but 



