SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
433 
with. The author thought much of the deposit might fairly he ascribed to 
the beaver working and making dams, in the old valley of the Lea. 
Professor Phillips's Exeter Lecture. — The lecture on Vesuvius which Pro- 
fessor Phillips gave at Exeter was perhaps the best illustration of a popular 
lecture that could be conceived, It dealt with the modern views of volca- 
noes, and was illustrated by some apt experiments — one of a working model 
of a geyser afforded much amusement by shooting out a stream of hot 
water, which deluged a number of those on the platform — and was given 
in a vein of humour which kept the audience thoroughly awake throughout. 
The Geological Society. — It would be impossible to give abstracts of the 
numerous papers read at the meeting which took place as our last number 
went ^‘to press” (June 23). But we may refer to a few of the more im- 
portant. One of these was a note on a very large Saurian humerus from 
the Kimmeridge clay of the Dorset Coast, by J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., F.G.S. 
This stupendous limb bone, 31 in. long, was obtained from Kimmeridge Bay 
by J, C. Mansel, Esq. It had a subcylindrical shaft, a transversely elon- 
gated proximal, and a cubical distal extremity. The distal end is mapped 
out by a wide shallow posterior groove, and a narrower but deeper anterior 
notch, into a couple of condyles, of which the inner or posterior is the 
larger. The anterior border of the shaft towards the proximal end rises, as 
if to form a deltoid crest. The cortical tissue of the shaft is remarkably 
dense and polished. There is not any medullary cavity, but the interior of 
the cortex is filled with cancellous tissue. The author pointed out that the 
form of the terminal surfaces removed the bone from all the Enaliosaurians, 
and brought it into close relation to the humerus of existing Crocodilians, 
from which, however, it differed in its being less curved and by its great 
size. He next referred to its differences from the humerus of the Dinosaurus, 
Iguanodon and Hylseosaurus, and remarked that it most nearly resembled 
the large limb bone on which Mantell founded his genus Pelorosaurus. — 
Another paper was by the same author, on some fossil remains of a 
Gavial-like Saurian from Kimmeridge Bay, establishing its identity 
with Cuvier’s Denxieme Gavial LHorvfleur and with Queenstedt’s Dako- 
saurus. The fossils which formed the subject of this communication 
were also collected by Mr. Mansel in Kimmeridge Bay. They demon- 
strated the existence of a Saurian having long subincurved, subretro- 
curved, laterally compressed, unequally convex teeth, with an anterior 
and posterior finely serrated edge, loosely implanted in distinct and sepa- 
rate sockets, and vertically replaced by young teeth rising into the base 
of the large open pulp-cavity of the fang of the old tooth. The lower jaw, of 
which the greatest part of the right half is preserved, is about 40 in. long. 
The symphysis is very long, and includes the opercular bone. The upper 
jaw shows a terminal undivided nostril, not inflated laterally as in the 
Teleosaurus. The lines of the jaws seem to merge into the cranium less 
abruptly than in the living Gavial, which gives [the outline of the head a 
greater resemblance to Mecistops. The vertebrce are biconcave, and the 
outer surface is hollowed and somewhat overhung by the roundish articular 
surfaces. The transverse processes are long and directed out•^^ards, and 
slightly backwards and downwards; their posterior border tliick, the 
anterior thin. The ribs have bifurcated spinal ends. The femur, 14 in. 
r F 2 
