408 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Besides tlic concurrent testimony of the workmen and of cap;iblc geologists, 
the (lint imiilenieuts bear evidence in themselves of tlieir geological age. "It 
is a pceuliarity of chalk Hints to become deeply and permanently stained and 
ciianged in colour, or to remain unchanged, according to the nature of the 
deposit in which tlicy arc embedded. In clay beds the outside of Hints 
become oj)aquely white or porccUanic ; in sand their black fractured surfaces 
remain almost unchanged, whilst in beds of ochreous and ferruginous sands 
tlie flints are stained of light yellow, tawny, or deep brown colours, as is well 
exhibited in tlie ordinary gravels of tlic London area. This change is the 
work of very long time and of moisture before the opening of tlie beds. Now 
in looking over the large series of flint-implements in M. de Perthes' collec- 
tion, it camiot fail to strike the most casual observer that those from Menclic- 
court arc almost always wliite and bright, wliilst those from Moulin Quignon 
have a dull yellow and brown surface ; and it may be noticed that \vhene\ er 
(as is often the case) any of the matrix adheres to the flint, it is invariably of 
the same nature, texture, and colour as that of the respective beds themselves. 
In the same way at St . Achcnl, where there are beds of white and others of 
ochreous gravel, the Hint implements exhibit corresponding variations in colour 
and adhering matrix, added to which, as the white gravel contains chalk debris, 
there are portions of the gravel in which the flints are more or less coated 
witli a film of deposited carbonate of lime ; and so it is with the flint imple- 
ments which occiu- in these portions of the gravel. Further, the surface of 
many specimens is covered with dentritic markings. Some few implements 
also show, like the fractured flmts, traces of wear, their sharp edges being 
blunted. In fact, the flint-implements forni just as niueii a continuous part of 
the gravel itself, exhibiting the action of the same late influences, and in the 
same force and degi-ee, as the rough mass of flint fragments with which they 
are associated." 
PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
Geological Societi' of London, March 28, 1860. 
1. " Notes about Spitzbergen in 1859." By James Lament, Esq., F.G.S. 
M. Lament flrst visited Edge's Land, which is composed of liorizontal strata 
of limestone, shale, and sandstone, with some coal. One of the glaciers on 
this coast has a frontage of thirty mUes. Black Point yielded some Carboni- 
ferous fossils. Tlie Thousand Isles are composed of greenstone, sometimes 
columnar. Stour Eiord and Walter Thymen's Straits were next visited. The 
shoi'cs consist of the same kind of horizontal strata, with trap-rocks. BeU 
Sound and Ice Sound, on the west coast, were also examined ; the former has 
high hills of grey fossiliferous limestone all round it ; the fossils, as deter- 
mined by Mr. Salter, prove to be all carboniferous. At various points on the 
coast and islands of southern Spitzbergen Mr. Lament found bones of whales 
and walrus at elevations of ten to one hundred feet above the sea, and at dis- 
tances of from a few yards to half a mile inland. The bones are sometimes 
embedded in banks of moss. Drift-wood (pine) also abounds ; some of it lies 
thirty f(^et above high-water-mark. 
In the supplement to this paper, Mr. Horner supplied a description of the 
rock-specimens brought from northern Spitzbergen by Parry and Foster in 
1S37. From the evidence thus aflbrded it appears that the islands and main- 
land about the entrance of Waigatz Straits consist of granitic and gneissic 
