SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
207 
such as have been already indicated by the humeri of Theriodonts and 
Carnivores. 
L The canine tooth of the new South African reptile was six times as long as 
that of the allied form Lycosaurus ; and we have in Titanosuchus evidence of 
a carnivorous reptile of more carnassial type than Machairodus and other 
felines. The author suggests that Titanosuchus found its prey in the con- 
temporary Pareiosauri , Oudenodonts, and Tapinocephalans of the same 
locality. 
Submerged Forest on Bombay Island. — In Part IV. of the u Indian Geo- 
logical Survey Records for 1878 ” is an interesting note on a submerged 
forest lately discovered on Bombay Island during the excavation for the 
Prince’s Dock. The strata exposed in this excavation consist of some four 
to five feet of surface silt, superimposed upon a bed of dense blue clay, 
varying in thickness from 6 to 20 feet, but nearly level on the top ; this 
clay rests upon loam and “moorum” (a local term for decomposed rock), 
the waste of the rock lying immediately below it. This rock is very irre- 
gular on its surface, and consists for the most part of indurated clay nodules 
imbedded in a hard matrix. It is between this rock and the silt at the sur- 
face that the submerged forest has been discovered. The trees grew in the 
loam and “ moorum ” in which their roots are found, apparently in situ, while 
the stumps penetrate into the blue clay above, some being in an erect and 
others in a more or less horizontal position ; in no case, however, do they reach 
into the surface silt. “ For a foot or so below the level of the blue clay the 
timber was riddled by Teredo navalis, or a similarly destructive worm,” and a 
trunk was found to be charred on one side for a short distance. The largest 
trunk found measured 46 feet in length and 4 feet 8 inches in girth ; 
and some of the timber, which is of a dark rosewood colour, with a 
straight grain, was quite sound. From the fact that the roots of these trees 
were found at a level of from low-water extreme tides to twelve feet below 
that line, Mr. Ormiston, the engineer, supposes that the land must have sub- 
sided at least thirty feet; but Mr. Blanford suggests that did the trees belong 
to such forms as Avicennia or Bruguiera, they might perhaps have grown in 
a salt-marsh, a supposition supported, he thinks, by the presence of Teredo 
borings in some of the stumps, and that, were this the case, it would ma- 
terially affect the calculation of the depth to which depression has taken 
place. 
Geology of Minorca and Majorca. — M. H. Hermite gives a description of 
the geological structure of these two little-known islands ( Comptes rendus, 
December 30, 1878). Minorca is divided into two very distinct parts by a 
line running from N.W. to S.E., or from Mahon to Algairen. South of this 
line is an undulated plateau with deep ravines, formed of nearly horizontal 
calcareous strata which abut against the greatly raised strata of the northern 
region. The latter contains the oldest formations of the Balearic Islands, 
namely, about 1,000 metres of grey or greenish schists and sandstones, show- 
ing vegetable impressions ( Catamites ), and having towards the middle of 
the system some calcareous deposits containing fossils belonging to the Middle 
Devonian. The upper portion of the schists and sandstones, therefore, pro- 
bably represents a member of the Carboniferous formation. They are fol- 
lowed by fine-grained red or white sandstones with traces of plants, about 
