THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
169 
poses to term the substance Molluskite, and states that it con- 
stitutes the dark spots and markings in the Sussex and Purbeck 
marbles. 
On the Geological position of the Mastodon giganteum and as- 
sociated fossil remains at Bighone Lick, Kentucky, and other local- 
ities in the United States and Canada.^^ By Charles Lyell, Esq., 
V.P.G.S. 
With a view to ascertain the relations of the soil in which the 
bones of the Mastodon are founds to the drift or boulder forma- 
tion, whether any important geographical or geological changes 
had taken place since they were imbedded, and what species of 
shells are associated with them, ]\Ir. Lyell visited a number of 
places where they had been obtained. In this paper he gives the 
result of his researches. 
The most celebrated locality visited was Bigbone Lick, in the 
northern part of Kentucky, distant about 25 miles to the S.W. 
of Cincinnati, situated on a small tributary of the river Ohio 
called Bigbone Creek, which winds for about 7 miles below the 
Lick before joining the Ohio. A Lick is a place where saline 
springs break out, generally among marshes and bogs, to which 
deer, buffaloes, and other wild animals resort to drink the 
brackish water and lick the salt in summer. The country 
around Bigbone Lick, and for a considerable distance on both 
banks of the Ohio, above and below it, is composed of blue ar- 
gillaceous limestone and marl, constituting one of the oldest 
members of of the transition or Silurian system. The strata 
are nearly horizontal and form flat table-lands intersected by nu- 
merous valleys in which alluvial gravel and silt occur ; but there 
is no covering of drift in this region. The drift is abundant in 
the northern parts of Ohio and Indiana, but disappears almost 
entirely before we reach the Ohio. 
Until lately herds of buffaloes were in the habit of frequent- 
ing the springs, and the paths made by them are still to be 
VOL. II. NO. XVII, s 
