PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



185 



for his examination. They prove to be chiefly of Lower Mesozoie genera j 

 there are also a few (from the Fitzroy Downs, about thirteen miles to the 

 ISr.W.) which belong to lower beds. Some fossils long since obtained from 

 the Mantuan Downs (200 miies N. of Wollumbilla) prove to be of Per- 

 mian character (Aulosfeffes or Strophalosia). Vroductiis and Cyatliocrhms 

 (Carboniferous ?) have been met with on the Dawson Eiver. 



Mr. Clarke considers his unfossiliferous "Wianamatta Beds, above the 

 coal-measures, near Sydnej, as being probably the equivalent of the fos- 

 sil iferous strata at Wollumbilla Creek. Professor M'Coy regards the 

 latter as belonging to the same formation as the coal-beds with Glossojoteris. 

 The fossils are included in the Catalogue of the Products of New South 

 Wales for exhibition in London in 1862. 



4. " On the Footj^rint of an Irjuanodon, lately found at Hastings." By 

 A. Tylor, Esq., F.G.S. 



After alluding to former accounts of fossil footprints (and natural casts 

 of footprints) found in the cliffs near Hastings, and having stated that 

 Dr. Harwood in 1846 suspected these prints to have been due to the 

 Iguanodon, the author described a large three-toed footprint, 21 inches 

 long, by 9| in width, lately exposed by a fall at East Chff. A cast of 

 this print was exhibited by Mr. C. J. Mann. Mr. Tylor alluded to Pro- 

 fessor Owen's figure of the bones of the three-toed foot of an Iguanodon 

 as illustrative of a foot capable of producing such imprints as those re- 

 ferred to. The author tlien showed, by a newly -constructed section of the 

 Hastings coast, that the footprints occur in at least two zones of the 

 Wealclen beds, — one of them being just above the chief sandstone (or 

 Castle Sandrock) of Hastings, and dipping down to the ^^■est on the top 

 of the Bexhill cliffs ; the other zone being about 100 feet belov^-, as already 

 pointed out by Mr. Beckles, near Lee Ness. 



Mechanics' Institute, Eichmond, Yorkshire. — 1^^ April. — Mr. Ed- 

 ward Wood, F.G.S., the president of the Institute, delivered a lecture 

 in the Town Hall on " Coal, Coalpits, and Pitmen," to a densely crowded 

 audience. The lecture had been originally announced for the benefit only 

 of the members of the institute, and to be given in their ov^n room, but 

 at the solicitation of the Mayor, Mr. Wood consented to deliver it in the 

 Town Hall, for the benefit of all, w-hether members or not. The Mayor 

 (Mr. Gr. Smurthwaite, jun.) took the chair. 



Mr. Wood commenced by a short but very telling description of the 

 state of the globe prior to the time when the Carboniferous series was 

 deposited, in the upper part of which the coal-measures are placed. These 

 were then described, and the geographical conditions of the British region 

 in the Coal-era. " Our coal-fields," said the lecturer, " are so circumscribed 

 that, if the consumption of coal goes on increasing in the same ratio that 

 it has been doing of late, namely, doubling itself in twenty years, we shall 

 exhaust all the workable coal in the British Isles in less than five hundred 

 years hence. This was a most important consideration, for how much of 

 our country's greatness did we not owe to coal? Besides our machinery 

 (all driven by coal), we derived heat and light from it. And from coal also, 

 our chemists, especially Professor Hoffman and Mr. Perkin, have lately 

 learned to derive new and beautiful dyes — mauve, magenta, solferino, and 

 others. Gas-tar was, till within a few years ago, considered worse than 

 useless — to touch it w as to be defiled ; but our chemists now extracted the 

 sweetest of perfumes and the most elegant of colours, which, after being 

 concealed in the earth's recesses for countless ages pist, are now brought 

 out bright enough to gladden the hearts of the cardinals at Kome, im- 

 portant enough to have materially influenced the fashion-leaders of the day, 



VOL. Y. 2b 



