been partially elevated to form a seashore, battered about, 
and tinally deposited in the upper coal measures. Mr. 
Cossbam, in corroboration of this view, stated that the coals 
above the pennant were bituminous, and below it anthracitic, 
and that the pebbles of coal and coal drift found in the 
upper measures were anthracitic, proving that they must 
have come from the lower. He also stated his belief, in 
answer to a question by Mr. Stoddart, that the Severn was 
at one time wide enough to denude the strata on the side of 
Coalpit-heath nearest to it. 
Mr. W. W. Stoddart then read a paper on Fossil 
British Land and Frcbh- water Mollusca. He commenced by 
observing that nearly all the shells in fossil collections were 
of marine origin, tor the following reasons :— Marine species 
were numerically much more numerous than terrestrial, and 
were placed at ibeir death under much more favourable con- 
ditions Ur preservation, being at once covered bj sand or 
mud, instead of being exposed to the disintegrating effects 
of atmospheric influences. Many aquatic mollusca, too, 
were annuals, large numbers being buried each winter, while 
the terrestrial often lived for two or three j ears. All the 
land mollusca belonged to the order Pulmonifera, of which 
in Britain three-fourths were land and one-fourth fresh- 
water species, and which embraced all air-breathing 
mollusca. The breathing organ , was simply a large cavity 
lined with a network of blood-vestels, communicating with 
the external air by an orifice, closed by the mantle, or en- 
tirely open, a difference made use of to separate the order 
into two divisions— the first, including Helix, Bulimus, 
Lymnea, Planorbis, was hermsiphrodite, and had no oper- 
culum ; the second, Cyclostoma and Acicula, was unisexual 
and operculated. The author thus showed grounds for 
believing that geological formation had not so much to do 
as was generally supj) sed in the distribution of the species, 
loopercuiated pulmonifera had seldom been found earlier than 
the Wesilden, nor operculated earlier than Eocene strata. -In 
the Upper Tertiaries, including all stratafrom the coral crag to 
the alluvial and peatdeposits, nine species of aquatic bivalves, 
34 of aquatic univalvesj and 80 terrestrial univalves had been 
found, the whole taken together indicating that the climate 
of this country was, very probabl}', arctic ; in addition to 
this number, the middle Eocene yielded many more. Mr, 
Stoddart then adverted to the unique collection which he 
exhibited, containing 150 species of operculated and non- 
operculated pulmonifera, limacidse, and fresh water bivalve^', 
as well as a few Gasteropods. The greater part had been 
collected in Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent, curing a period 
of eight or nine years, and contained nearly all the known 
genera and species. Many shells from our own neighbourhood, 
now undergoing fossilisation, resembled very strongly those 
from the Headon and Hurdwell beds in Hampshire. 
After a short discussion, the remainder of the evening 
was spent in conversation, and the examination of speci- 
mens and maps. 
WAJ. LANT CARPENTER, 
Honorary Reporting Secretary, 
