PROCEEDINGS 



OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



57 



The study of the glacial periods may be considered a most sublime and 

 interesting subject, connected as it is so intimately with the history and 

 antiquity of man. The cataclysms and many other physical phenomena 

 which occurred in these latitudes are amazing ; and perhaps it were a mis- 

 fortune, for the sake of truth and the advancement of science, that the 

 genus Homo existed during the above periods in a low and debased form 

 of organization. For countless ages he trod the earth, in all climes, a 

 wandering savage ; and almost the only records left of him as works of 

 art or design, which serve to distinguish him, in point of intelligence, 

 from the brute creation, are a few specimens of rudely-chipped Hint- 

 instruments, that were used by him alike for offence, defence, hunting, and 

 other purposes. 



From later researches, if the conclusions of the antiquarian and geolo- 

 gist are to be accepted, it would appear that we must remove still further 

 back in geological time the chronology of the human epoch. One species 

 of a low form is mentioned as having become extinct, while it is affirmed 

 that the genus was represented by species in the Pliocene and even the 

 Miocene period. Towards the Eocene beds of Suffolk, this vexata 

 qucestio seems to be trending; since in them, according to a certain 

 theory, there is to be found a fossil that may be the earliest prototype of 

 the .Bimana. I am, dear Sir, yours respectfully, 



J. D. Sainter. 



Macclesfield, January 5, 1864. 



PliQCEELHNGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



East Kent Natural History Society. — At an evening meeting, 

 held at Canterbury, on November 24th, a lecture " On the Tertiary Beds 

 of Kent " was delivered by W. Whitaker, B.A., F.G.S., of the Geological 

 Survey of Great Britain, of which the following is an abstract : — 



The sedimentary rocks are divided by geologists into three groups, 

 Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. The formations belonging to the first 

 and oldest of these periods do not occur in the south-east of England, but 

 are confined to the north and west. Of the Secondarj- period, only the 

 higher formations (the Wealden and Cretaceous rocks) crop out to the sur- 

 face in Kent. Of the Tertiary beds, on the contrary, only the lower divi- 

 sions are known for certain to occur in this county, where, however, they 

 are better developed and exposed than anywhere else. 



Before treating of the Tertiary formations, it is needful to say a few 

 words of the underlying Chalk, the highest of our Secondary rocks. It is 

 a sea-deposit, rich in fossils, of which many are such as must have lived at 

 a great depth and apparently in the sea of a warm climate. From the fact 

 that the fossils of the overlying beds are altogether of different kinds from 

 those of the Chalk, it has been inferred that those beds were not at once 

 deposited on the Chalk, but that after the deposition of the latter, a long- 

 time passed away before other beds were formed over it. 



The Kentish Tertiaries belong to the " Eocene," or Lower Tertiary 

 series ; and consist, in ascending order, of the Thanet beds, the Woolwich 

 beds, and the basement bed of the London Ciay, — grouped together by 

 Prestwich (to whom we owe nearly all our knowledge of these beds) under 

 the name of " Lower London Tertiaries," — the London Clay and the Lower 

 Bagshot Sand. 



VOL. VII. I 



