PJ?OCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
185 
for his examination. They prove to be chiefly of Lower Mesozoic genera 
there are also a few (from the Fitzroy Downs, about thirteen miles to the 
jN^.W.) \\ hich belong to lower beds. Some fossils long since obtained from 
the Mantuan Downs (200 miies N. of WoUumbill.i) prove to be of Per- 
mian character [Aulosfeges or Strophalosia). Troducius and Cyathocrinus 
(Carboniferous ?) hare been met with on the Dawson Eiver. 
Mr. Clarke considers his unfossiliferous Wianamatta Beds, above the 
coal-measures, near Sydney, as being probably the equivalent of the fos- 
siliferous strata at Wollumbilla Creek. Professor M'Coy regards the 
latter as belonging to the same formation as the coal-beds with Glos&opteris. 
The fossils are included in the Catalogue of the Products of Is ew South 
Wales for exhibition in London in 1862. 
4. " On the Footprint of an Iguanodon, lately found at Hastings." By 
A. Tylor, Esq., F.G.S. 
After alluding to former accounts of fossil footprints (and natural casts 
of footprints) found in the cliffs near Hastings, and having stated that 
Dr. Harwood in 1846 suspected these prints to have been due to the 
Iguanodoi}, the author described a large three-toed footprint, 21 inches 
long, by in width, lately exposed by a f^iU at East Cliff. A cast of 
this print was exhibited by Mr. C. J. Mann. Mr. Tylor alluded to Pro- 
fessor Owen's figure of the bones of the three-toed foot of an Iguanodon 
as illustrative of a foot capable of producing such imprints as those re- 
ferred to. The author then showed, by a newly -constructed section of the 
Hastings coast, that the footprints occur in at least two zones of the 
Wealden beds, — one of them being just above the chief sandstone (or 
Castle Sandrock) of Hastings, and dipping down to the west on the top 
of the Bexhill cliffs ; the other zone being about 100 feet belo\^', as already 
pointed out by Mr. Beckles, near Lee Ness. 
Mechanics' Institute, Eichmond, Yorkshire. — \st April. — Mr. Ed- 
ward Wood, F.G.S., the president of the Institute, delivered a lecture 
in the Town Hall on " Coal, Coalpits, and Pitmen," to a densely crowded 
audience. The lecture had been originally announced for the benefit only 
of the members of the institute, and to be given in their own room, but 
at the solicitation of the Mayor, Mr. Wood consented to deliver it in the 
Town Hall, for the benefit of all, whether members or not. The Mayor 
(Mr, G. Smurthwaite, jun.) took the chair. 
Mr. Wood commenced by a short but very telling description of the 
state of the globe prior to the lime when the Carboniferous series was 
deposited, m the upper part of ^^ hich the coal-measures are placed. These 
M ere then described, and the geographical conditions of the British region 
in the Coal-era. " Our coal-fields," said the lecturer, " are so circumscribed 
that, if the consumption of coal goes on increasing in the same ratio that 
it has been doing of late, namely, doubling itself in twenty years, we shall 
exhaust all the workable coal in the British Isles in less than five hundred 
years hence. This w as a most important consideration, for how much of 
our country's greatness did we not owe to coal ? Besides our machinery 
(all driven by coal), we derived heat and light from it. And from coal also, 
our chemists, especiall}^ Professor Hoffman and Mr. Perkin, have lately 
learned to derive new and beautiful dyes — mauve, magenta, solferino, and 
others. Gas-tar was, till within a few ye?irs ago, considered worse than 
useless — to touch it was to be defiled ; but our chemists now extracted the 
sweetest of perfumes and the most elegant of colours, which, after being 
concealed in the earth's recesses for countless ages pist, are now brought 
out bright enough to gladden the hearts of the cardinals at Kome, im- 
portant enough to have materially influenced the fashion-leaders of the day, 
VOL. V. 2 b 
