140 Geological Society: — 



the upheaval of Australia and New Zealand was approximately syn- 

 chronous with that of the great mountain- chains of the Old World, 

 with the closure of the Panama area, and the depression of the areas 

 on either side of the American continent. 



2. " Note on a new and undescribed Wealden Vertebra." By 

 J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., P.G.S. 



The author in this note describes a very large Wealden vertebra 

 which he obtained last autumn at Brook, Isle of Wight, remarkable for 

 its great size, its extremely light structure, and the extraordinary de- 

 velopment of the processes connected with the neural arch. It con- 

 sists of a thin outer shell, enclosing a very open cancellated tissue, 

 having extremely large spaces, comparable with those of Ptero- 

 sauria, and surpassing those of the cancellous tissue in any of the 

 known larger Dinosaurs. A wedge and notch, similar in principle 

 to the ophidian zygosphene and zygantrum, but differently placed, 

 are superadded to the ordinary articular processes. A broad hori- 

 zontal platform stretches along the side of the arch from the trans- 

 verse process to the postzygapophysis. The neural spine is com- 

 posite ; all the outstanding parts are supported and strengthened by 

 thin bony plates. Only a small part of the centrum is preserved, 

 so that the form of this, and in particular of its articular faces, is 

 not determinable. The author notices, in conclusion, certain tex- 

 tural resemblances between the vertebra and a peculiar Strepto- 

 spondylian vertebra in the British Museum, from the Weald of the 

 south-east of England. 



3. " Note on the Middle Lias in the North-east of Ireland." By 

 Ealph Tate, Esq., A.L.S., F.G.S. 



The author remarked that hitherto no higher member of the 

 Jurassic series than the Lower Lias has been detected in Ireland. 

 He stated that he had received from near Ballintoy some blocks of 

 a grey, marly, micaceous sandstone, containing an assemblage of 

 fossil forms, indicating that the rock from which they were derived 

 belonged to the lowest part of the Middle Lias. The origin of these 

 specimens, which were obtained " from cultivated fields and patches 

 of drift," was said to be still unknown : and the occurrence of Hip- 

 popodium ponderosum, associated with Middle-Lias species, as in the 

 Island of Skye, coupled with the agreement in lithological composi- 

 tion between the Irish blocks and the Pabba shales, led him to 

 suggest the possibility that the former may have been transported 

 from the Hebrides by glacial action. 



Pebruary 23rd, 1870.— Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 

 1. " Additional observations on the Neocomian Strata in York- 

 shire and Lincolnshire, with notes on their Relations to the Beds of 

 the same age throughout Northern Europe." By J. W. Judd, Esq., 

 P.G.S. 



This paper embodied the results of the author's further study of 



