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[ 73 J 



XI. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from vol. xlii. p. 4-50.] 



November 4th, 1896.— Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., President, 



in the Chair. 



HE following communications were read : — 



1. 'Additional Note on the Sections near the Summit of the 

 Furka Pass (Switzerland).' By T. G. Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.K.S., 

 Y.P.G.S., Professor of Geology in University College, London. 



The author, during a visit to Switzerland in 1895, had taken the 

 opportunity of completing the examination of the sections on the 

 western side of the Furka Pass, and of glancing again at those 

 previously studied. The white, sometimes slightly quartzose or 

 micaceous, marble which, as already described, crosses the summit 

 of the Pass, descends towards the west, but forms a cliff for some 

 little distance by the roadside till it is crossed by the latter, and 

 disappears under debris and turf. Above it is a greyish limestone, 

 at most only subcrystalline in aspect, and retaining traces of 

 organisms, as already noticed. Higher up is a small outcrop of a 

 whitish rock, more like the marble in a very crushed condition 

 than a Jurassic limestone ; next comes indubitable Jurassic lime- 

 stone, and lastly gneiss. In one place the top of the lower mass of 

 marble could be seen within a few inches of dark shaly Jurassic 

 rock. On the eastern side of the Pass two small pits had been 

 opened since the author's last visit ; they also showed the top of 

 the marble underneath the Jurassic rock. Both rocks were rather 

 shattered near the junction, but were as different as they well could 

 be. The one resembles the marble, associated elsewhere in the 

 Alps with crystalline schists ; the other, a member of the Jurassic 

 system. There is not the slightest sign of a passage between them, 

 but much to suggest faulting. The field evidence is confirmed by 

 study, macroscopic and microscopic, of the specimens. Accordingly 

 the author adheres to the view already expressed, that the white 

 marble is a rock much older than the Mesozoic era. 



2. ' Geological and Petrographical Studies of the Sudbury Nickel 

 District (Canada).' By T. L. Walker, Ph.D., M.A. 



Sudbury is a small town situated in Northern Ontario, in the 

 centre of the nickel-mining district. North of the Great Lakes 

 granite and gneiss form almost boundless terranes, interrupted 

 only by belts of Huronian rocks, which are in turn associated with 

 post-Huronian eruptives, the most important of which are the 

 large nickel-bearing massives. 



The Huronian rocks in the vicinity of Sudbury were examined 

 by Prof. Bonney, who published his results in the Quarterly Journal 

 of this Society (vol. xliv., 1888). These rocks form a large belt 

 extending from the northern shore of Lake Huron north-eastward 

 for several hundred miles. In the immediate vicinity of Sudbury 



Phil. Maa. S. 5. Vol. 43. No. 260. Jan. 1897. * G 



