﻿152 Geological Society : — 



2. " On worked Flint flakes from Carrickfergus and Lame." By 

 G. V. Du Noyer, Esq. 



These flakes have been found by the author in two very distinct 

 positions, namely : — the older in the marine drift (sand and gravel) 

 skirting the shores of the county Antrim and county Down, the 

 maximum elevation being about 20 feet above the sea ; and the more 

 recent in the subsoil clay at all elevations up to 600 feet, near Bel- 

 fast, Carrickfergus, Larne Lough, and Island Magee. The former 

 are of the rudest forms, highly oxidized or white on their entire 

 surface, but, though imbedded in marine drift, having the chippings 

 around the sides and angles generally sharp. The latter have a 

 comparatively fresh look, though still possessing the characteristic 

 porcellanous glaze ; they are regarded by Mr. Du Noyer as possibly 

 the rough materials out of which the historic races in Ireland manu- 

 factured the spear- and arrow-heads which are found with their 

 sepulchral and other remains. 



3. " On the Diminution in the volume of the sea during past 

 geological Epochs." By Andrew Murray, Esq., F.L.S. 



In opposition to Sir Charles Ly ell, the author submitted that, instead 

 of the proportion of dry land to sea having always been the same, 

 and its volume above the level of the sea a constant quantity, they 

 are constantly increasing, while both the mean and extreme depths 

 of the sea are constantly diminishing, the cause being the extreme 

 afhnity which water has for the constituent elements of minerals. 

 In illustration of his view, he quoted the so-called upheaval of coral- 

 islands as being really caused by a diminution in the volume of 

 the sea. 



4. " Has the Asiatic Elephant been found in a fossil state ? " 

 By A. Leith Adams, M.B., F.G.S. With a Note by G. Busk, Esq., 

 F.B.S., F.G.S. 



An elephant's tooth in the possession of Dr. Fischer, of St. John, 

 New Brunswick, which had been found in Japan at a distance of 

 40 miles from the sea-shore, between Kanagawa and Jeddo, and at 

 the base of a surface coal-bed, appeared to the author referable to the 

 Asiatic elephant ; and he accompanied his description of it by a 

 drawing and plaster cast. In his note appended to the paper, Mr. 

 Busk gave some further details of the characters exhibited by the 

 cast, and agreed with Dr. Leith Adams in regarding it as probably 

 referable to Elephas Indicus rather than E. Armeniacus, a fossil 

 molar of which had been found in China; but he concluded that it 

 was the antepenultimate upper left molar, and not the penultimate, as 

 inferred by Dr. Leith Adams. 



5. " On the Characters of some new fossil Fish, from the Lias of 

 Lyme Regis." By Sir Philip de M. Grey Fgerton, Bart., M.P., 

 F.K.S., F.G.S. 



The species described in this paper were the following : — 

 1. Ostecrachis macrocephalus, gen. et spec. nov. — A Sauroid fish, 

 chiefly remarkable for the massive dimensions and complete ossifica- 

 tion of the bodies of the vertebra?, and characterized by the large 

 size of the he?d nnd the multiplicity of the teeth. 



