470 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



genera Cyclonema Itajphistoma, EcculiompJmlus, several bracLiox^ods, 

 amon<^st tliem Leptcena sericea, StropJiomena depressa, TJieca, and the 

 branching variety of small coral, Stenopor a fibrosa. These latter beds Mr. 

 Baily considers of Bala or Caradoc age, and therefore to overlie the Grap- 

 tolite slates. Other Lower Silurian localities and fossils are noted in these 

 districts in the paper. 



Geology of Moffat. — In the ' Edinburgh Ncm^ Philosophical Journal' 

 for July, Mr. Wm. Carruthers, F.L.S., has described the geology of Mof- 

 fat, in Dumfriesshire. Within a radius of four or five miles round the vil- 

 lage, Silurian, Permian, a trap dyke, and the Boulder clay and gravel are 

 met with. Peat also is abundant in the district. In the low grounds it 

 contains the trunks of trees of species still growing in the district, namely 

 hazel and birch. 



Fossil Man. — La Salle Presse states that, in Macoupin county, Illinois, 

 the bones of a man were recently found on a coal-bed capped with two 

 feet of slate rock, ninety feet below the surface of the earth before the run 

 cut any part. The bones, when found, were covered with a crust or coat- 

 ing of hard glossy matter, as black as coal itself, but when scraped away 

 left the bones white and natural. 



Bone Caves of Malta. — The excellent account of the fossiliferous caves 

 of Malta, by Mr. Andrew Leith Adams, surgeon, 22nd Eegt., read before 

 the Dublin Eoyal Society in November last year, is printed in the October 

 number of the ' Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science.' Tlie caves described 

 are on Maghlak, 300 feet above present sea-level, Ghar Hassan's, and one 

 near Zebbug ; and mammalian relics are noted from Crendi, Dingli, and 

 Gozo. " We know not," says Mr. Adams, " and may never probably dis- 

 cover with any degree of accuracy, ivhen the important phenomena oc- 

 curred which ended in forming the Malta and Sicily of our times. That 

 there was a connection between the two islands and Africa during the later 

 Tertiary epochs seems highly probable — the fact of the African elephant 

 having been found near Palermo, as well as complete skulls of a species of 

 hysena very like the animal of Africa, leads us towards the supposition that 

 there was also a union between Sicily and that continent." Two plates, 

 containing figures of the skull, teeth, lower jaw, etc., of Myoxus Meli- 

 tensis, accompany the paper. 



The Exhibition Fe,og. — Sir, — Lately there have been a great many 

 letters in the ' Times ' and other newspapers, regarding the fi^og stated to 

 have been found in coal that has been displayed in the Exhibition. The 

 difi'erent writers have different opinions, but amongst all of them I did 

 not see the name of one practical geologist. May I ask one question — In 

 the formation of coal, would there not have been an amount of heat pro- 

 duced that would inevitably have burnt the frog to a cinder ? — C. W. 



[In Vol. I. of this magazine, our inquirer will find a convincing argu- 

 ment against the absurd idea of living frogs embedded in coal. The 

 reptiles of the Coal period were of labyrinthodont structure, and if it 

 had been possible that a frog could have been embedded alive for myriads 

 of years, which of course it is not, it would have had distinguishing laby- 

 rinthodont characters, and would not have been of a common recent 

 Batrachian species. It does not follow, nor is it likely, that a high tempe- 

 rature must have been produced in the formation of coal. Many chemical 

 operations accomplished speedily by high temperatures are effected natu- 

 rally by long -continued action at lower temperatures. — Ed. Geol.] 



Human IIemains at Engihoul. — M. Malaise, a Belgian palaeontologist, 

 exploring in the province of Liege, has recently discovered certain frag- 

 ments in a cave at Engihoul, which are valuable as evidence. The cave 



