PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



145 



charred wood, Maori stone hatchets, or "celts" of clinkstone, Lydian stone, 

 or nephrite, eggs and bones of moa mostly long bones, bones of man, 

 native dog, seal, fish, and various birds — mostly existing species pen- 

 guin, albatross, rail, apteryx, etc. ; bones partly charred, calcined, gnawed, 

 broken, or marked by stone hatchets. 



VIII. Insuflicient data for accurate chronological grouping of rocks of 

 Otago, arising, first, from a great portion of province remaining to be ex- 

 plored, and the very limited portion of settled districts yet geologically 

 examined, and those only superficially; and secondly, from the difficulty of 

 determining European equivalents, and thereby age, in the present un- 

 satisfactory state of geological classification and nomenclature. 



IX. Provisional chronology of chief rocks of Otago, as known to the 

 close of 1801. 1. Eecent, superficial alluvium, brick-clays, certain moa-bone 

 deposits. 2. Cainozoic, auriferous drift, upper and lower ; lignite beds and 

 associated strat a, certain volcanic (Trappean) rocks, fossiliferous limestones, 

 and clays, scptaria beds of Moeraki, moa-bone and kauri-gum deposits. 

 3. Mesozoic, certain fossiliferous limestones. 4. Paheozoic, metamorphic 

 slates, quartziferous and auriferous, possibly certain fossiliferous lime- 

 stones, etc. The preponderance of strata were of the Palaeozoic and Caino- 

 zoic age, especially of the auriferous slates and their " drifts.'' 



Manchester Philosophical Society. — March 11. — Mr. Crookes, 

 F.C.S., exhibited a specimen, weighing 450 grains, of the new metal, thal- 

 lium, whieh he discovered by spectrum analysis. He stated that he had 

 found this element in comparatively large quantities in the deposit from 

 the flues of Mr. Spcnce's pyrites burners. E. W. Binney, F.R.S., the 

 President, said that of late years considerable attention had been devoted 

 to the examination of the beds of sand and gravel found in the valleys 

 formed since the deposition of the till or boulder clay. Sir Charles Lyell, 

 in his valuable work 'On the Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man,' 

 lias given us many facts connected with these valley gravels, especially re- 

 lating to the terraces of the higher and lower level gravels found in the 

 valley of the Sonime, in which the flint implements have been met with. 

 As these two deposits are seen in the neighbourhood of Manchester, he 

 wished to direct attention to all excavations that were being made in them, 

 in order that any remains or implements whieh might be met with should 

 be preserved. Doubtless, many interesting specimens have perished, owing 

 to the parties finding them being ignorant of their value. Many years 

 since, a former member of this society, the late Mr. F. Looney, F.G.S., in 

 speaking of the superficial gravel found in this neighbourhood, at p. 23,* 

 says: "Imbedded in the gravel near the river-courses are occasionally 

 found the stone celts of the ancients, from which it is presumed that the 

 rivers, since the country was inhabited, have either sawn their beds deeper 

 or much exceeded their present volume of water. Several large trees havo 

 been dug up from the sand and gravel ; part of one is now lying near the 

 residence of the Rev. J. Clowes, at Kersal Moor, which was dug from the 

 Show Field on his estate, at upwards of 23 feet elevation above the present 

 level of the river. A case more illustrative of this was beautifully shown 

 in the winter of L820, during the cutting away of part of the high ground 

 at Castlefield, near the tunnel month, tor L6 feet below the level of the 

 grass a wooden box was found. It w as square and formed of four upright 

 posts, driven into a bed of clay ; the sides and bottom were closed in with 

 logs of wood: the logs were rudely hewn, had been riven, not sawn, from 



* 'List of Organic Remains,' etc., ami where found, to accompany Mr. EHiaa 1 bill's In- 

 troduction and Map, by Mr. Francis booucy, member of ilic Literary ami Philosophical 



Society of Manchester, published in L886. 



VOL. VI. U 



