1867. j Geology and Pahwntohgy. 119 



endeavouring to unravel the tangled web of affinity which forms 

 the connection between the recent and fossil faunas of different 

 regions. 



The last number of the 'Natural History Transactions of 

 Northumberland and Durham ' contains a short paper by Mr. H. 

 B. Brady " On Casts of Palaeozoic Corals found amongst the Befuse 

 of Alkali Works," which possesses considerable interest for those 

 who investigate the means by which fossilization is produced. The 

 specimens consist of siliceous casts of the calcareous skeletons of 

 certain corals, and they were so completely decalcified by the pro- 

 cess for the generation of carbonic acid, to which they had been 

 submitted, that they remained unaltered on a second maceration in 

 strong acid. 



The contents of the 'Geological Magazine' during the past 

 quarter have been so important that our brief notice of them kere 

 must not be regarded as at all exhausting the subjects which are 

 brought before us in the several papers that the numbers contain. 

 In the first place we must notice the conclusion of Dr. Lindstrom's 

 paper on the Bugosa, in the September number ; but we can only 

 summarize the conclusions at which the author has arrived, namely, 

 (1) " that Goniophyllum pyramidale is an undoubted Zoantharia 

 rugosa, .... and that it coincides with the three species of the 

 genus Calceola," which must therefore be removed from the class 

 Bracliioj)oda ; (2) that the Bugosa must be separated from the 

 Actinozoa, and must form a class of their own in the great division 

 of Badiated animals. Dr. Lindstrom, indeed, accepts Professor 

 Agassiz's opinion that the Rugosa are related to the living Lucer- 

 narim. It cannot be said that there is much evidence in support 

 of this supposition, and we should be rather inclined to seek for the 

 affinity of these aberrant corals in a higher rather than in a lower 

 direction; but, however the case may ultimately be decided, Dr. 

 Lindstrom's is a most valuable and welcome contribution. In the 

 November number is a paper on a kindred subject, by Mr. H. A. 

 Nicholson, who has discovered in the Moffat shales, Dumfriesshire, 

 certain structures associated with Graptolites, which he interprets 

 to be external organs of reproduction, and therefore corroborative of 

 Professor James Hall's opinion of the Sertularian nature of the 

 Grajptolitidee, and to disprove the prevalent opinion of their 

 Bryozoan affinities. 



Proceedings of the Geological Society. 



It would be quite useless, in this Chronicle, to endeavour to give 

 an abstract of all the papers, thirty-three in number, contained in 

 the last number of the Society's journal. We shall, therefore, select 

 a few of the more interesting and important communications, more 



