PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



425 



orderly conduct, good temper, and the pleasure evinced by the twenty- 

 eight inhabitants of the Home.' We would commend Mr. Corbyn's 

 narrative to the study of those who, like Sir W. Denison, enter the lists 

 in a mild fashion against Mr. Darwin and Professor Huxley, in defence of 

 the dignity of the race and its generic difference from the gorilla. If Mr. 

 Corbyn's record is to be trusted, the fact that the most degraded speci- 

 mens of humanity yet discovered can be taught in a few weeks to show 

 extraordinary memory 'and quick intelligence,' to distinguish the letters 

 of our alphabet and read words of two syllables, will not be overlooked by 

 those who hold the old-fashioned belief that God made man in His own 

 image." 



Southampton, 3rd October. 



Mr. Guppy' s Article on Trinidad Rocks. 



Mr dear Sir, — I am very sorry to see by your last number that Mr. 

 Guppy has most unaccountably misapprehended the tenor and purpose of 

 my former letter to you. I was perfectly aware that Mr. Guppy was not 

 the authority for the correlation of the beds in question with the Neo- 

 comian of Europe ; nor do I for one moment raise any objection to the 

 connection of the two series of rocks. I merely objected to the use of the 

 term " age ;" and without dissenting in one particular from Mr. Guppy 's 

 statements, took the opportunity of referring to Professor Huxley's views 

 on " homotaxis." Your correspondent himself states that he has held 

 views similar to those in question ; and I am, therefore, surprised that he 

 should have troubled himself to enter into an explanation on other matters, 

 which was alike unnecessary and uncalled for. 



Let me assure Mr. Guppy that I concur in all that he has written 

 on this matter, saving the one word " age ; " and I am sorry that he 

 should have thought it worth while to correct an error which had no 

 existence but in his own imagination. Yours truly, 



E. R. Lankester. 



8, Semite Bow, W. 



PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



Liverpool Geological Society. — The abstracts of the proceedings of 

 this useful society, for the sessions of 1861-2 and 1862-3, have just been 

 printed ; they commence with the Report of the Excursion to Holywell 

 on the 11th July, 1861. 



The mountain limestone of that neighbourhood contains many species 

 of the ordinary fossils in profusion, — Productus giganteus, P. semireticu- 

 latus, IAthostrotion has alti forme, and Syringopora geniculata being the 

 most common. The formation is there divided into the following 1 sub- 

 divisions : — 1, numerous beds of Chert ; 2, Shale and Limestone, with con- 

 cretions of chert ; 3, Black Limestone ; 4, White Limestone. The position 

 of the chert nodules in No. 2 is similar to that of the flints in the Chalk, 

 but their form is different, being round flat concretions, thick in the centre, 

 and gradually thinning towards the circumference. 



Next follows the Report of the Excursion to Coalbrookdale, on July 31st. 



VOL. VI. 3 t 



