92 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



at the Scilly Isles sucli flints are found. At Croyde Bay, about half-way 

 between Middle-Borou?h and Baggy Point, at the mouth of a small 

 transverse valley, Mr. Whitley found them in considerable number, col- 

 lecting about 200 specimens, of which about 10 per cent, of the splintered, 

 flints at this place have more or less of an arrow-head form ; but they pass 

 by gradations from what appear to be perfect arrow-heads of human manu- 

 facture to such rough splinters as are evidently the result of natural causes. 

 Hence the author suggested that great caution should be used in judging 

 what flints have been naturally, and what have been artificially shaped. 



2. "On some further Discoveries of Flint Implements in the Gravel 

 near Bedford." By James Wyatt, Esq., F.G.S. Since Mr. Prestwich 

 described the occurrence of flint implements near Bedford (' G-eological 

 Society's Journal,' K"o. 67, p. 368), Mr. Wyatfc and others have added 

 seven or eight to the list, from the gravel-pits at Cardington, Harrow- 

 den, Biddenham, and Kempston. Mr. J. Gr. Jeflreys, F.G-.S., having 

 examined Mr. Wyatt's further collections of shells from the gravel- 

 pits at Biddenham and Harrowden, has determined seventeen other 

 species besides those noticed by Mr. Prestwich, and among these is Sy- 

 drohia marginata (from the Biddenham pit), which has not been found 

 alive in this country. At Kempston, Mr. Wyatt has examined the sand 

 beneatli the gravel (which is destitute of shells), and at 3 feet in the sand 

 (19 feet from the surface) he found Selix, Succinea, ^ithnia, Pupa, Pla- 

 norhis, etc., with flint flakes. 



3. "On a Hyseua-den at Wookey-Hole, near Wells, Somerset." By 

 W. Boyd Hawkins, Esq., F.G.S. In a ravine at the village of Wookey- 

 Hole, on the southern flanks of the Mendips, and two miles jN".W. of 

 Wells, the river Axe flows out of the Y/ookey-Hole Cave by a canal cut 

 in the rock. In cutting this passage, ten years ago, a cave, filled with 

 ossiferous loam, was exposed, and about 12 feet of its entrance cut away. 

 In 1859 the author and Mr. Williamson began to explore it by digging 

 away the red earth with which the cave was filled, and continued their 

 operations in 1860 and 1861. They penetrated 34 feet into the cave, and 

 liere it bifurcates into two branches, one vertical (which was examined as 

 far as practical), and one to the right (left for further research). A lateral 

 branch on the left, not far from the entrance, was also examined. The 

 cave is hollowed out of the Holomitic Conglomerate, from which have been 

 derived the angular and water- worn stones scattered in the ossiferous cave- 

 earth. Its greatest height is 9 feet, and the width 36 feet ; it is contracted 

 in the middle, and narrow towards the bifurcation. Eemains of Kymia 

 spchpa (abundant), Canis Vulpes, C. Lupus, Ursv.s spelceus, Hquus (abun- 

 dant), Bhinoceros fic/iorht'nus, Rh. leptorJunv.s (?), Bos pyinii genius, Me- 

 gaccros Illben icus, C. BucMandi, C. Guettardi, C. Tarandus (?), C. 

 Danux (?), and JElejylias pr'nnigenius were met with; remains of Felis 

 spt'I<ra were found when the cave was first discovered. The following 

 evidences of man were found by Messrs. Hawkins and Williamson in the 

 red earlh of the cave— chipped flints, flint-splinters, a spear-head of flint, 

 clup]ir(l and shaped pieces of chert, and two bone arrow heads; and the 

 autlKu- argues tluit the conditions of the cave and its infilling prove that 

 man was contemporaneous here with the extinct animals in the pre-glacial 

 pcrujd (of Phillips), and that the cave was filled with its present contents 

 ^^ o\^ly by (ho ordinary operations of nature, not by any violent cata- 

 clysni. 



Khnuiry 5, 1862.— The following communications were read: — 

 1. "On some Volcanic Phenomena latelv observed at Torre del Greco 

 nnd Kcsina. ' By Signor Luigi Palmieri, Hirector of the Koyal Observa^ 



