124 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



tend naturally to render less surprizing the impressions of birds' feet 

 in the variegated sandstone on the banks of the Connecticut ; * and 

 these observations are in perfect harmony with the discoveries of the 

 remains of Saurians, which, after stopping for a long while at the German 

 Zechstein, and reaching afterwards to the coal-formation, have at lasfc 

 furnished us with homs of crocodiles in the uppermost Old Red Sand- 

 stonet of Scotland, without speaking of the impressions of footmarks 

 already observed in the old red sandstone^ of the Alleghanies, and in 

 certain sedimentary rocks, probably more ancient still, on the borders 

 of the great lakes of North America. § And again, by a sort of contrary 

 progression, certain organic forms, originally regarded as characterising 

 some of the most ancient sediments (Orthoceratites, Spirifer, &c.), 

 have lately taken an incontestable place in the Couches Keuperiennes 

 of St. Cassian, and in the Lias of other countries. Far from lessening 

 palaeontology, these discoveries, on the contrary, enlarge its boundaries, 

 which were formerly established on a plan both narrower and less 

 rational than that which progressive observation points out to us." 



A new Saurian has just been discovered in the Permian strata of 

 Lodeve, in France. The slate-rocks of Lodeve, essentially formed of 

 Permian schists, had never before presented us with any but vegetable 

 fossils. M. Paul Gervais, the distinguished naturalist of Montpellier, 

 has, however, just discovered in them a new species of lizard, which he 

 cd\\^ Aphelosaurus Luterensis. This animal belongs to Paul Gervais' 

 family of Ilomeosaurides, a family formerly established for certain 

 reptiles which, up to the present time, had not been found out of the 

 more modern of the Jurassic strata. 



The size of the Aphelosaurus is about that of the largest occelated 

 lizards that have hitherto been foimd in the south of Europe ; it 

 may also be compared to that of the Varans and Iguanas of average 

 dimensions. 



PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



Geological Society of Loxdoj^, February 2d, 1859.— The following commu- 

 nication was read : — 



"On the Mode of Formation of Volcanic Cones and Craters." By G. Poulett 

 Scrope, Esq., M.P., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The author commenced by saying that he should not have referred agam to this 

 subject, ah-eady briefly treated by him in a paper read to the Society in April, 



I ^ee our article in the GeoloCxISt for January and February, 1858.— T. L. P. 



t The exact age of the sandstone at Elgin, in which the remains of Stagonolepis 

 occur, IS as yet a question among the best geologists acquainted mth the district. 

 — iiD. Geol. See also the Geologist, Vol. II. jip. 46 and 89. 



X This red sandstone, termed " Old Red" by Dr. I. Lea, belongs to the Lower 

 tarboniterous series, according to the Professors Rogers.— Ei). Geol. 



^ M. E. de Beaumont probably here alludes to the tracks in the Potsdam sand- 

 stone, and described as being those of Crastaceans by Owen and Logan.— Ed. Geol. 



