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THE GEOLOGIST. 



Mr. W. H. Baily, F.G.S., Palseontologist to the Irisli Geological Survey, 

 " On Splienopteris Hookerii and Ickthyolites, from Kiltorkau Hill, Kilkenny." 



Dr. Brice, "Notice of the discovery of Upper Silmian Possils in the 

 Devonian Slates." 



Dr. Anderson, of Newhurgh, " On the Remains of Man m the Superficial 

 Drifts." His main object in bringing the subject before the meeting was to 

 give a condensed view of the discovery of human remains in the superficial 

 accumulations of pre-historic origin. Undoubted cases existed of human 

 remains enclosed in hard compact concretionary rocks, buried deep in the silts 

 of rivers, and high up in caverns, associated with the bones of elephants, lions, 

 tigers, hyenas, and other extmct carnivora. As to the instances occurring in 

 the beds of lakes, rivers, and seas, he_ contended that a few years, or even 

 months, often sufl&ced for the formation of a compact durable mass of calca- 

 reous and siliceous rock, in which human bones, skeletons, pottery, coins, and 

 implements were embedded. He referred to a case betwixt Aberdour and 

 Burnt-island, in Fife, which he examined a few weeks ago, where an incrusta- 

 tion was now forming of great depth, in which are embedded land-shells, 

 branches of trees, and where on the face of the encrusted cliff, twigs of 

 livmg trees are becoming entangled in the calcareous breccia. The Bev. Doc- 

 tor quoted the case of a cannon-ball — a 32-pounder — lately presented to him 

 by a fellow-townsman, deeply encrusted with ferruginous mud, and completely 

 indurated, which was raised by an anchor in the harbour of Copenhagen. The 

 skulls at Amiens and Abbevilie, the remains in the_ caverns of Torquay, and 

 those in Scilly, the flint- weapons in veined-limestone in Cantyre, and the arrow- 

 heads with eiephant-remains in Suffolk, were then successively brought under 

 review. He saAV no evidence deducible from the superficial drifts to warrant a 

 departure from the usually accepted data of man's very recent introduction 

 upon the earth. 



"Mr. Henry C. Hodge, "On the Origin of the Possiliferous Caves of the 

 Plymouth Limestone." The author traced the origin of the caves to the de- 

 composition of a variety of irregularly-distributed dolomite containing the 

 carbonates of iron and manganese; and expressed an opinion, from an ex- 

 amination of the geological position of the limestone and its relations to sur- 

 rounding rocks, that at the time the bone-caves were formed they must have 

 been situated at a much higher level than at present, and contained no stalag- 

 mite during their habitation by carnivora. He attributed the introduction of the 

 remains in the caves to the agency_ of carnivorous cave-inhabiting animals; 

 but admitted that in some previous instances the evidence appeared to show 

 that the animals had fallen into fissures. He adduced facts which, he thought, 

 showed that the bone-caves had been re-opened for the admission of stalactite 

 after the enclosure of their ossiferous contents, and he argued that the facts, 

 if properly considered, would help to demonstrate that not merely was there 

 no geological evidence whatever to prove the co-existence of the extinct animals 

 with man, but that all the apparently powerful arguments based upon the 

 occurrence of his remains in ossiferous caverns might be merely deceptive, and 

 of no real significance or certainty whatever, as their presence in them might 

 be easily accounted for through the operation of still existing causes. 



Mr. D. Page, P.G.S., gave in a report on the exploration of the Upper 

 Silurians of Lesmahagoe, in terms of the Association's grant to Mr. Slimon. 

 During the last summer Mr. Slimon and liis son had diligently explored the 

 fossiliferous tract of Upper Silurian strata in the parish of Lesmahagoe, and 

 the result of their operations had been to exhibit still further the highly fos- 

 siliferous character of the Nilberry Silurians, and to give ample indication of a 

 very varied and curio\is crustacean fauna, altogether new to palEeontology. 

 The Rev. Dr. Longmuir, " On the Restoration of the Pterichthys." 



