i 8 / 9*1 Proceedings of Societies . 813 
would be more rapid, and meteoric agencies would produce 
greater effects in a given time. 
A discussion ensued, in which the President, Mr. Evans, Prof. 
Prestwich, Dr. Hicks, Prof. Bonney, and Capt. Galton took part. 
In replying, Mr. Mallet said he did not suppose any part of the 
original crust of the globe remained at present visible at the 
surface. Such geological deductions as were made in his paper 
were only illustrative, and might be open to question. The 
epoch at which the phenomena occurred to which his paper re- 
ferred was long anterior to the existence of either animal or 
vegetable life upon our globe. What he affirmed as certain was 
that the method he had indicated, requiring for its data a more 
extended experimental knowledge of the relations between tem- 
perature and pressure in aqueous vapour, and a more exact 
knowledge of the total volume of water now upon our terraqueous 
globe, affords the means of determining the temperature of our 
oceanic water at every period, from that of the primordial ocean 
to our own day. 
A paper “ On the Fish-remains found in the Cannel Coal in 
the Middle Coal-measures of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
with the description of some New Species,” was contributed by 
James W. Davis. The remains described by the author were 
from a bed of Cannel coal about 400 feet from the base of the 
Middle Coal-measures, and were chiefly obtained from this bed 
at the Tingley Colliery. The author described the general geo- 
logical structure of the district. The following are described as 
new forms : — (1) Compsacanthus triangularis, (2) C. major, and 
(3) Ostracacanthus dilatatus, the type of a new genus resembling 
Byssacanthus, Agass. 
Prof. R. Owen, C.B., F.R.S., read a paper “On the Skull of 
Argillornis longipennis , Owen,” in which he described a frag- 
mentary cranium from the London Clay of Sheppey, from which 
it was procured by W. H. Shrubsole, Esq. 
Institution of Civil Engineers. — At the second meeting of 
the Session, held on the 18th of November, Mr. W. H. Barlow, 
F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair, the paper read was on 
“ Tunnel Outlets from Storage Reservoirs,” by Mr. C. J. Wood, 
M. Inst. C.E. The subject was divided into the consideration 
of culverts in a direct line through an embankment, and tunnels 
round the end of the embankment as a distinct work. The 
author advocated the tunnel clear of the embankment, and valve- 
towers of masonry and iron, as the best and safest, if more 
costly, plan. The paper contained some remarks on the works 
for the supply of water to Bradford, Yorkshire, which was ob- 
tained from three districts. A High Level Supply was taken 
from the hills above Oxenhope ; an Intermediate Supply from 
Manywell Springs, and a Low Level Supply from Skipton dis- 
trict. The high-level reservoirs afforded instances of tunnel 
