Reports of Societies. 



175 



similar permission for Castle Howard ; and to the committee of the 

 Literary Institute for use of rooms. Mr. G. T. Porritt, F.L.S., having 

 presented a volume of the Linnean Society's Journal to the library, 

 thanks were voted for this and some pamphlets presented by other 

 members. Mr. Thomas Hick proposed and Mr. W. Prest seconded a 

 resolution that a memorial be drawn up, and signed by the president, 

 congratulating Mr. Darwin upon his having lived long enough to see the 

 twenty-first anniversary of the publication of the " Origin of Species," 

 and to witness the impetus given thereby to the development of biological 

 science. Prof. Williamson, saying that he could not have been more 

 gratified than by such a resolution being proposed on the first occasion on 

 which he occupied the chair, delivered an eloquent tribute to the genius 

 of his friend Mr. Darwin, after which the resolution was passed unani- 

 mously. The president, Mr. Hick, and Mr. J. W. Davis were chosen as 

 the sub-committee to draft the memorial, to submit to a future meeting. 

 The president then delivered an address, in which he contrasted the 

 scientific activity of York and the towns on the coast in the days of John 

 Phillips, Wm. Bean, John Williamson and others, with their present 

 inactivity, and hoping that the residents of the North and East Pidings 

 would take up and complete the work begun by their scientific fore- 

 ruimers. The reports of Sections were then taken. Mr. James Spencer, 

 secretary of the Geological Section, having left, his report was taken as 

 read. It stated that Malton is situated on the coralline oolite, which is 

 well exposed in the neighbourhood in quarries and cuttings. The rock is 

 generally a cream-coloured coarse-grained limestone, but varies consider- 

 ably, sometimes passing into a sandy freestone, used for building 

 purposes, and sometimes becomes very hard and flinty. In a lime quarry 

 at Old Malton were obtained many fossils, including a species of the 

 spiral Phasionella, CucuUsea, and an ammonite a foot in diameter ; 

 another quarry yielded some fish-teeth, whilst a third, in the drift, 

 chiefly composed of the debris of local rocks, also furnished some 

 travelled boulders. Interbedded with the drift is a bed of pure 

 loamy clay, and in one place, near the surface, what appears to be a 

 lacustrine deposit, with many modern shells. The most interesting 

 object furnished by this quarry was a fine neoUthic stone hammer-head, 

 about half-way down the face of the deposit. There can be no doubt 

 of the genuineness of this find, but the peculiarity is its being in a deposit 

 considered to be of Paleolithic age. — The Vertebrate Section was not 

 represented, and the only observations made were of a numerous colony 

 of sand-martins in a quarry near Castle Howard station ; a blindworm 

 and young, noted by Mr. W. Cash, near Castle Howard. The Concho- 

 logical Section was represented by Mr. W. Cash, F.G.S., president, and 

 Mr. J. Darker Butterell of Beverley, secretary. They reported that 33 

 species had been observed — nine fluviatile, and 24 land-shells — aU of 

 them being of the common types. As, however, very few members of 

 this section were present, and a large district had to be rapidly gone 



