466 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



It does not exist throughout the entire mass, but merely coats the grains of 

 sand. As far as he had yet noticed these deposits, they appear to occur most 

 frequently in bands of from a mere line in thickness to \ inch ; but they 

 are also found distributed in patches and small lumps throughout the mass 

 of the rock. In several pieces the black sandstone was distributed much 

 in the same manner as currants in an ordinary cake. The deposits de- 

 scribed must not be confounded with other dark-coloured portions of the 

 sandstone. Some sandstones undoubtedly owe their dark colour to the 

 presence of organic matter, derived from the overlying vegetable mould, 

 whence it is extracted by water and convej^ed to the rocks beneath. In 

 some dark-coloured sandstones protoxide of iron may also be found. 



" Description of the Footprints of Cheirotherium, and of an Equisetum, 

 found at Storeton, Cheshire." By Mr. Morton. — The author referred to the 

 original description of the Cheirotherium footprints found at Storeton, as 

 given by John Cunningham, Esq., F.O.S., in 1838. He proposed the pro- 

 visional name of Cheirotherium Storetonense for the smallest of the follow- 

 ing three, from different places in Cheshire, — Cheirotherium Hercules, 

 Tarporley ; C. Kaupii, Lymm ; C. Storetonense, Storeton. About the 

 time the footprints were discovered, the reed-like stem of a plant was 

 found at the same place. Lithographs of both were published by the late 

 Natural History Society of Liverpool. The fossil reed is now in the mu- 

 seum of the Royal Institution. It has been examined by Mr. E. M. Webb, 

 who described it as the upper portion of an Equisetum, but without any 

 remains of fructification. In Professor Morris's catalogue of British fossils 

 there is no species of the genus, but one from the Keuper of Wiirtemberg 

 is inserted. The author proposes the name JEquisetites Keuperina. 



"On the Corals of the Silurian Sea." By Mr. Morton. — The author 

 remarks " that if the great development of the septal arrangement in the 

 Zoantharia indicates a higher organization of the polyp, most of the Silu- 

 rian corals certainly belong to lower forms of that order than those com- 

 mon at the present time. We must, however, remember, that as we find 

 the two suborders, tabulata and rugosa only, in the Devonian, Carbo- 

 niferous, and Permian systems, it cannot be said that the Silurian differs, 

 except by the addition in its upper strata of Palseocyclus ; and if we include 

 that genus in the suborder Aporosa, the coralline fauna as a whole 

 is absolutely higher than that of any other more recent palaeozoic epoch. 

 If Palseocyclus really belongs to the family Fungidse, it is very remarkable 

 that no recurrence of the suborder Aporosa has been noticed until after 

 the close of the Palasozoic period." 



"The earliest Llandeilo corals known seem to belong to Zoantharia 

 tabulata, and do not differ materially from those of the same suborder in 

 the Upper Silurian. Pyritonema is a peculiar genus, while Heliolites 

 catenularius occurs from the Llandeilo to the Weulock strata inclusive. 

 No early examples of Zoantharia rugosa have been discovered, and it does 

 not appear that the earliest forms of coralline bodies were the lowest 

 of their order. Eew and fragmentary, however, are the corals of the 

 Lower Silurian, and not even a trace has come to light from the still more 

 ancient Cambrian, so that our knowledge after all is very scauty and 

 uncertain about them." 



Manchester Philosophical Society. — October 20. — "Further Ob- 

 servations on the Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic Strata of Cumber- 

 land and Dumfries," by E. W. Binney, F.E.S., F.G.S. When, in 1848, the 

 red sandstones of the neighbourhood of Dumfries first came under the 

 author's observation, in company with his friend Professor Harkness, 

 doubts came into his mind as to the propriety of their being classed with 



