C 72 ] 

 IX. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from vol. viii. p. 570.] 



November 5, 1879,— Henry Clifton Sorby, Esq., F.B.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



HPHE following communications were read : — 

 *- 1. " On the probable Temperature of the Primordial Ocean of 

 our Globe." By Eobert Mallet, Esq., E.R.S., F.G.S. 



According to the latest hypotheses as to the quantity of water on 

 the globe, its pressure, if evenly distributed, would be equal to a 

 barometric pressure of 204*74 atmospheres. Accordingly water, 

 when first it began to condense on the surface of the globe, would 

 condense at a much higher temperature than the present boiling- 

 point under ordinary circumstances. The first drops of water 

 formed on the cooling surface of the globe may not impossibly have 

 been at the temperature of molten iron. As the water was pre- 

 cipitated, condensation of the remaining vapour took place at a 

 lower temperature. The primordial atmosphere would be more 

 oblate and less penetrable by solar heat than the present, and the 

 difference of temperature between polar and equatorial regions 

 would be greater ; so that, in the later geologic times, ice may have 

 formed in the one, while the other was too hot for animal or vege- 

 table life. Thus, formerly the ocean would be a more powerful 

 disintegrant and solvent of rocks, mineral changes would be more 

 rapid, and meteoric agencies would produce greater effects in a given 

 time. 



2. " On the Eish-remains found in the Cannel Coal in the Middle 

 Coal-measures of the West Biding of Yorkshire, with the descrip- 

 tion of some new Species." By James W. Davis, Esq., F.G.S., &c. 



3. " On the Skull of Argillornis longipennis, Owen." By Prof. 

 E. Owen, C.B., F.E.S.. F.G.S., &c. 



November 19. — Henry Clifton Sorby, Esq., F.E.S., President, in 

 the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " Supplementary Note on the Vertebrae of Orniihopsis, Seeley 

 (=Eucamerotus, Hulke)." By J. "W. Hulke, Esq., F.E.S., F.G.S. 



2. " On the Concretionary Patches and Fragments of other Bocks 

 sometimes contained in Granite." By J. Arthur Phillips, Esq., 

 F.G.S. 



Patches resembling fragments of other rocks frequently occur in 

 granite, sometimes angular, sometimes rounded, sometimes with 



