REVIEWS. 
213 
dwelt largely on subjocts of geological interest. The curious fact was mentioned 
that crystallized Rorium (derived from boraoic acid) had recently been obtained so 
like the diamond, tliat it was difficult to distinguish the crystals of borium from 
the crystals of carbon. An interesting case of mctamorphozcd Caradoc rock (now 
called Lhmdovery beds) had recently been brought to light, near the Wind's 
Point, by the excavations conducted by Captain Johnson, and which Profcs.sor Morris 
had been induced to survey and report upon. The rock, as exhibited, was an 
impure limestone, forming thin bands, interstratified with greenish clays or marls ; 
although generally unfossiliferous, a lower bend was thicker, and more calcareous, 
and this ai-gillaccous limestone contained numerous casts of Orthis and Penlmnerus. 
No portion of the oi-igiual 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 slender crystals of 
arragonite were observed. The dolomization of the rock had been suggested by Prof. 
Morris as due to the iniiuence exerted by intrusive dykes. In alluding to these 
metamorphic deposits, the president 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 Winds' 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 relics which, hitherto passed over as fucoids, were now deter- 
mined by jVIr. Salter to be tubes of aunelides, and have been named by that 
gentleman Trachydcrma anliquissim.a. 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 tilcstones above it, as at Rockhill. 
The " Old Red " formation was next commented ujion, 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 also referred to, and the president concluded 
his rhim^ of scientific proceedings with an account of antiquarian and botanical 
matters of much local iuterest. 
REVIEWS. 
Omphalos ; or An Aiicmjit to Untie the Gtoloyical Knot. By P. H. Go.sse, 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 Elizabeth, which was 
wrecked on the coast of Newfoundland some flve-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." 
