266 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
liar tyipe and fresli appearance at Moulin-Quignon has led to questions 
having been lately raised as to the age of the gravel-beds, and the antiquity 
of these remains. Mr. Prestwich showed how conflicting had been the 
evidence in support of the views formerly entertained, and d\Aelt upon the 
appearances which had raised the doubts as to the genuineness of certain 
implements and the fossil nature of the jaw. He also gave aTrei-M^ne of 
the proceedings of the conference lately held at Paris and Abbeville, and 
remarked that the intrinsic evidence appeared to prove the spurious nature 
of the objects, while the evidence derived from the study of the beds had 
led to the opposite conclusion. 
The author then show ed that, from the physical configuration of the dis- 
trict, corroborated by the presence of extinct mammalia distinctly of con- 
temporaneous age, the modern age assigned to these beds by some geolo- 
gists could not be maintained ; and that, from the occurrence of freshwater 
sliells in both tlie high- and low-level gravels, their formation must have 
been due to river-action, and not to a wave of translation or other modifi- 
cation of marine action. 
Mr. Prestwich concluded by stating that, whatever may be the conclu- 
sions drawn from the jaw and the flint-implements, the age of the deposits 
is to him perfectly well determined as being of the early quaternary or 
post-pliocene period, older than the Menchecourt gravels, and anterior to 
the excavation of the valley of the Somme ; and as some flint-implements, 
the genuineness of which is not doubted, have been found in these depo- 
sits, the question of the antiquity of man will not be aff'ected, whatever 
the conclusions arrived at with regard to certain others. 
The following specimens were presented : — 
Cretaceous fossils from !Ras Fartak, on the south-east coast of Arabia ; 
fossils from the Somali Mountains, collected by Messrs. Burton and 
Speke ; fossils from the north bank of the river Kerbudda ; and Tertiary 
fossils from Travancore, by Dr. H. J. Carter, F.E.S ; fossils from the 
Yalley of Kelat, by Dr. Cook, of H.M. Bombay Army. 
NOTES AND QUEEIES. 
New Ossifeeous Caveen. — Sir Lawrance Palk, Bart., M.P., has placed 
a limestone cavern, recently discovered on his property at Torquay, under 
the care of Mr. Pengelly, who has undertaken to explore it. 
[Bones are numerous, and the highest interest will undoubtedly attaeh to the results 
of the exploration in Mr. Pengelly's able hands. — En. Gkol.] 
EooTS OF Lepidodendeon.— At page 107 of the April number of the 
' Geologist' for the year 1861, which has just fallen into my hands, it is 
there stated by Mr. Salter, in his lecture on Coal, that he believes Halonia 
to be the root of Lepidodendron. I have had in my possession for about 
three years a good specimen of Lepidodendron, Mitli roots of Halonia 
attached, which puts the matter beyond a doubt. It may also be pleasing 
to those geologists to inform them that I shall take an especial interest in 
showing it. — James "Wild. 
Pleasant Spring, Sed Tan Nook, Oldham, May ZOth, 1863. 
The Eeptiles of the Chalk. — The reptiles of the Chalk, although 
they are not so abundant or so varied in that formation as reptilia are 
both in forms and numbers in the Liassic and Oolitic beds, nor so grand, 
