SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
191 
bones were found was at a depth of 30 ft. from the surface. From this and 
some other facts he concluded that the different species of Dinornis existed 
in New Zealand before, during, and after the great Glacial Period, and that 
in point of fact these birds, which had conquered external conditions, were 
only extinguished by man. 
The Wollaston Gold Medal and Donation Fund of the Geological Society 
has been awarded to Mr. H. C. Sorby. At the annual meeting the Presi- 
dent, Professor Huxley, referred especially to Mr. Sorby’s researches into the 
structure of rocks and minerals, and of meteorites ; and to his explanation of 
the phenomenon of slaty cleavage, now universally adopted, and fully in 
accordance with the results obtained by physical investigators who have 
approaches! the same question from a very different side. The balance of 
the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund has been presented to Mr. W. 
Carruthers, F.G.S., of the British Museum, in aid of his researches in fossil 
botany ; the President in handing it to Mr. Carruthers remarking, especially 
with regard to his researches on the structure of fossil fruits, that these are 
so valuable that Mr. Carruthers might justly look upon the award as an 
expression of gratitude for his labours. At the same time. Prof. Huxley 
observed that scientific gratitude was of the kind which had been defined as 
a lively sense of favours to come. 
Geological Survey of Ohio, U. S. — It is intended to introduce a bill into 
the American House of Representatives to provide a thorough and new 
geological survey of the state of Ohio. The former survey was made by 
Colonel Charles Whittlesy, Colonel J. W. Foster, Professor J. P. Kirtland, 
Dr. C. Briggs, Professor W. W. Mather, Professor John Locke, and Dr. S. 
P. Hildreth. The last three named of the above are dead. 
The Geology of China forms the subject of a communication made to 
the Geological Society (Dec. 23) by Mr. T. W. Kingsmill. The sedimentary 
deposits of the south of China were described as commencing at the base 
with a series of coarse grits and sandstones, having a thickness of about 
12,000 ft., and overlain conformably by limestones and shales (with coal in 
the lower part), attaining a thickness of between 6,000 and 8,000 ft. The 
whole of these rocks were described by the author as the ^^Tung-ting 
series.” In the Nanking district this formation is succeeded by sandstones, 
grits, and conglomerates, which the author has grouped together under the 
name of the Chung-shan series.” Its uppermost member contains beds of 
coal, and possesses an unknown thickness \ but the remaining beds are 
together about 2,400 ft. thick. Mr. Kingsmill described in detail the geo- 
logical relations and geographical extension of these rock-masses ; he then 
gave a sketch of the superficial deposits, which occupy an important position 
in the geology of China, and from the older of which Mammalian bones and 
teeth have been obtained \ and he concluded by stating that he had been 
uniformly unsuccessful in his frequent searches for traces of Glacial action. 
Palceontology of the Alpina Tertiaries. — Herr Reuss, in the second part of 
the great work which he lately presented to the Royal Academy of Vienna, 
deals with the Actinozoa and the Bryozoa of the Crosara beds. The beds 
belong to a lower geological horizon than the coral-beds of Castel-Gomberto. 
In the strata marked No. I, he has found but a few isolated corals of the 
genera Trochocyathus, Acanthocyathus, Flahelhmi, and Trochos7nilia. There 
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