REVIEWS. 



213 



dwelt largely on subjects of geological interest. The curious fact was mentioned 

 that crystallized Borium (derived from boracic acid) had recently been obtained so 

 like the diamond, that it was difficult to distinguish the crystals of borium from 

 the crystals of carbon. An interesting case of metamorphozed Caradoc rock (^now 

 called Llandovery beds) had recently been brought to light, near the Wind's 

 Point, by the excavations conducted by Captain Johnson, and wliicb Professor Morris 

 had been induced to sui-vey and report upon. The rock, as exhibited, was an 

 impure limestone, forniing thin bands, interstratified with greenish clays or marls ; 

 although generally unfossiliferous. a lower bend was thicker, and more calcareous, 

 and this argillaceous limestone contained numerous casts of OrtJds and Pentamerus. 

 No portion of the original shell remained ; the casts and moulds of the fossils, as 

 well as many of the cavities of the rock, being coated with rhomboidal crystals of 

 dolomite. In some cavities, groups of crystals are piled one on the other according 

 to ascertained laws of crystalline arrangement ; the surface of the dolomitic crystals 

 lining the cavities being occasionally spotted with minute crystals of pyrites, 

 generally tarnished. In some of the cavities of the limestone ^:lender crystals of 

 arragonite were observed. The dolomization of the rock had been suggested by Prof. 

 Morris as due to the influence exerted by intrusive dykes. In alluding to these 

 metamorphic deposits, the p>resident said he had always believed that the Malverns 

 had existed as a submarine reef of upheaved syenite, at a period anterior to 

 the deposition of those very ancient strata, the uppermost Caradoc bed ; nor was 

 it possible to have examined the remarkable section at the \Yinds' Point without 

 coming to the conclusion that those strata were deposited on the syenite, and in 

 the hollow which now constitutes the Winds' Point ; and, further, that the syenite 

 and sandstones had been gradually upheaved to the position they now occupy. In 

 further review of geological matters, the " Holly-bush standstone " was men- 

 tioned as a probable equivalent of the " Longmynd rocks," which had been 

 considered devoid of fossils until Mr. Salter detected in them remains of 

 crustaceans, zoophytes, and fucoids. The Holly - bush Hill strata had 

 furnished j-elics which, hitherto passed over as fucoids, were now deter- 

 mined by Mr. Salter to be tubes of annelides, and have been named by that 

 gentleman Trachyderma antiquissima. Mr. Salter, it was stated, had noticed, last 

 year, the occurrence of the " Ludlow bone-bed" at Hales-end, where it occupied the 

 same relative position, in respect to the fossiliferous upper Ludlow rock below, 

 and the Downton sandstones and tilestones above it, as at Rockhill. 



The " Old Red " formation was next commented upon, and the interesting dis- 

 coveries of Cephalaspides, and other ancient fish remains at Trimpley, by Mr. G. 

 E. Roberts, of Kidderminster, noticed. The discovery of a new species of 

 Pterichthys, by Mr. Baxter, of Worcester, in the yellow sandstone below the 

 mountain limestone at Farlow was a^so referred to, and the president concluded 

 his resume of scientific proceedings with an account of antiquarian and botanical 

 matters of much local interest. 



E E Y I E W S. 



Omphalos ; or An Attemjot to Untie the Geological Knot. By P. H. Gossl. London: 



J. Van Voorst. 1857. 

 *' You have not allowed for the wind, Hubert," said Locksley, in " Ivanhoe," or 

 that had been a better shot." " The master of the brig Elizaleth, which was 

 wrecked on the coast of Newfoundland some five-and-twenty years ago," says Mr. 

 Gosse, "had made a good observation the day before, which had determined his 

 latitude some miles north of Cape St. Francis. And so in spite of fog, the captain 

 steered boldly on until his ship struck on the rocks and came to destruction." 



