PROCEEDINGS 



OP 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



April 20, 1882. 



THE PRESIDENT in the Chair. 



The Presents received were laid on the table, and thanks ordered for 

 them. 



The President condoled with the Meeting on the great loss which 

 Science and the Society had sustained through the decease of their 

 distinguished Fellow, Charles Darwin ; and mentioned that a proposal 

 for interment in Westminster Abbey had been made to the family of 

 the deceased and to the Dean, which he trusted would be brought to 

 pass. 



The following Papers were read : — 



I. " On the Formation of Ripplemark." By Arthur Roope 

 Hunt, M.A., F.G.S. Communicated by Lord Rayleigh, 

 F.R.S. Received March 28, 1882. Read April 20. 



Fossil ripplemarks are often appealed to by geologists as evidence 

 that the winds and waves that formed them cannot have differed 

 much in intensity from those that produce similar corrugations on the 

 sands of our modern beaches ; but, although considerable value is 

 attached to the evidence afforded by these relics of ancient seas, 

 authorities differ much as to their origin. 



According to Sir Charles Lyell ripplemark originates in the " drifting 

 of materials along the bottom of the water," and "is usually an in- 

 dication of a sea beach, or of water from 6 to 10 feet in depth, though 

 this rule he proceeds to say is not without exception, as recent ripple- 

 marks have been observed at the depth of 60 or 70 feet. The crossing 

 of two sets of ripples the distinguished author ascribes to the new 

 direction in which the waves are thrown on the shore consequent on a 



vol. xxxiv. b 



