258 
PROCEEDINGS 1849 — 1858. 
altogether from the minute concretions forming the oolitic rocks, 
which are composed of alternating concentric layers of more or less 
impure calcareous matter, round grains of sand or fragments of shell 
or coral, and Dr. Sorby considered he had every reason for thinking 
these bodies had been minute shells. They may have been forami- 
nifera, although he had been unable to detect any internal divisions 
into chambers, or anything to indicate that they are detached forami- 
nifera cells such as are sometimes met with. These small shells have 
been filled with calcareous or silicious iufiltrations, as already 
described, and in the same manner as the chambers of the larger 
ammonites which are found in the same rock. 
Mr. H. C. Sorby, F.G.S., made a communication on the Oscillation 
of the Currents drifting the sandstone beds of the south-east of 
Northumberland, and on their general direction in the coal-field in 
the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. The author in this paper explained 
that the peculiarities of structure in sandstones indicate the direction 
and velocity of the currents which deposited them. Tranquil water 
deposited level bedded" sandstones. If, however,. the current moves 
over the surface of the sand at the bottom, with a certain moderate 
velocity, systems of waves are found on it, trending on an average, 
perpendicular to the line of the current, in the same manner as when 
a breeze blows over water. When for a short interval the velocity 
becomes less, these ripples become permanent, and their layers may 
be deposited conformably over them, gradually becoming level, having 
a structure which he called " ripple laminated," The author traced all 
the forms of bedding in sandstones from these small beginnings to 
"false bedding," and by observing the direction of these markings and 
beddings infered the direction in which the current moved, and also its 
velocity. The strata in the neighbourhood of Newcastle and Edin- 
burgh are described ; and it is shown that there was a strong current 
of considerable velocity northwards from the former place, and that 
near Edinburgh the coal strata exhibited evidence of currents running 
north with 4° east. 
Mr. Theodore West drew attention to a large number of circular 
cavities on Appletreewick Moor, running in a line nearly east and 
west, along or near the edges of the limestone beds. Theories as 
