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162 Reports of the Proceedings of Geological 162 THE GEOLOGIST. Walton, given in the stratigraphical charts as the ear-bone of Batena emarginata. What is known of thisanimal ? and from what part of the body does this bone come ? I imagine it is named from its shape, which is like that of an elongated human ear. I fear my questions must seem very trivial to experienced geologists, but they may have occurred to other beginners, who, like myself, would be glad to have them answered."—It is not easy always to state the source of iron in rocks. One might generally attribute the presence of that metal to the disintegration and waste of the previously existing rock-masses. The crag most probably derived its ferrugi­ nous character from the oxides of iron which extensively permeate the London clays, and from the dark brown beds at the base of the London tertiaries, which are as rich in iron as many valuable ores. The fossil to which a Young Inquirer refers is really a cetotolite, or ear-bone (os petrosum) of a kind of whale. Otolites is a term applied to the little loose internal bones in the ears of fishes; these, from their hard structure, often resist decay. The hard bone coincident with the ear- bone in mammals, the os petrosum, being of a harder substance than the rest, is also often preserved in the fossil state. REPORTS OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY CF LONDON.—February 19, 1858, Annual General Meeting. Major-Gen. Portlock, President, in the chair. After the usual reports were read and adopted, The President announced the award of a Wollaston medal to Herr Hermann von Meyer, of Frankfort-on-Maine; and in doing so, alluded to Von Meyer's successful Palseontological labours during the last twenty-five years. Sir C. Lyell having been requested by the President to transmit the medal to Herr v. Meyer, stated that it would give him great pleasure to take charge of the medal which had been awarded to his distinguished friend; to some of whose works he then particularly alluded, especially the great monographs on the Carboniferous, Per­ mian, and Triassic Reptiles. The President then announced the award of another Wollaston medal, and the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund to Mr. James Hall, For. Mem. G.S., the State Geologist of New York, and requested Sir Roderick Murchison to trans­ mit it to the Medallist, of whose long-continued and successful labours among the Palaeozoic rocks and fossils, and of whose important services to Geological Science, Sir Roderick then spoke warmly, expressing the gratification he felt in the adjudi­ cation of the highest honour the Society can bestow to so eminent an American geologist. The President proceeded to read his Anniversary Address, and commenced with biographical notices of some of the lately deceased fellow3 and foreign members of the Society, particularly the Very Rev. Dean Conybeare, the Earl of Ellesmere, Mr. H. J. Brooke, Mr. Joshua Trimmer, Mr. W. Bald, M. Dumont. M. Dufrenoy, M. A. d'Orbigny, and others. The ballot for the Council and Officers was taken, and the following were duly elected for the ensuing year:—President, Prof. John Phillip*, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents, John J. Bigsby, M.D.; Hugh Falconer, M.D., F.R.S.; Leonard Horner, Esq., F.R.S.L. and E. ; Sir R. I. Murchison. G.C. St. S., F.R.S. and L.S. Secretaries, Thomas Davidson, Esq., F.R.S.; Warrington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A. Foreign Secretary, William John Hamilton,Esq., F.R.S. Treasurer, Joseph Prest- wich, Esq.,F.R.S. PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 163 February 24, Ordinary General Meeting.—Prof. Phillips, President, in the chair. The following communications were read:— 1. " On the gradual elevation of a part of the Coast of Sicily, from the mouth of the Simeto to the Onobola." By Signor Gaetano Georgio Gemmellaro. Com­ municated by Sir C. Lyell, F.G.S. In this paper the author described in detail the physical evidences observed by him along a great part of the eastern coast of Sicily, which prove—1st, yiat from the shores of the Simeto to the Onobola undeniable characters of the former levels of the sea in the recent period are traceable from place to place. 2ndly. That great blocks of lava, with blunted angles, and rolled and corroded on the surface, a calcareo-siliceous shelly deposit, and a marine breccia, which are seen at different heights, above the present sea-level, are the effects of the continued and daily action of the waves of the sea at successive levels. 3rdly. That the existence and disposition of the holes of Modiola lithophaga, Lamarck, in the calcareo-siliceous shelly deposit, and the local presence of shells, both gasteropods and lamellibran- chiates, in their normal positions, support the view of a slow and gradual elevation of the coast. 4thly, and lastly, that the lithodomous molluscs and the calc-siliceous deposit being found on the Cyclopean Islands (Faraglioni) up to the height of almost 13 metres, and large rolled blocks of lava, invested with Serpulae being also found there to the height of 14 metres, a mean height of 13 metres and 5 decim. is established as the greatest extent of the now undeniable gradual elevation of this portion of the coast of Sicily during the present period. 2. " On the occurrence of Fossil Shells and transported Pebbles and Boulders at high levels in Aberdeenshire." By T. F. Jamieson, Esq. In letters to Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S. The author stated that he had found indications of the district having been sub­ merged beneath the sea to the height of about 430 or 450 feet for a considerable time during the later Tertiary period. Extensive ridges or hillocks of water-worn gravelly debris, bearing large boulders on their surfaces, occur in Aberdeenshire. Beneath the gravel of these mounds the author has found beds of sand and clay, containing marine shells, generally broken, such as Nucula tenuis, Leda pygmosa, Lucina ferruginosa, Cyprina Islandica, Mactra, Pecten, and Mangelia. At higher levels, to the elevation of 800 feet at least, Mr. Jamieson has found striated pebbles and boulders, but unaccompanied by deposits similar to the above. The last change of level in Aberdeenshire seems to have been one of depression, indicated by beds of peat passing below the sea at various places between Aberdeen and the Moray Firth. 3. Mr. Kennedy Macnab, of Inverness, communicated, in a letter to the Secre­ taries, the fact of flint arrow-heads and whelk-shells having been found at the depth of about 3ft. 6in. beneath the surface of a moss, covered with wood, in the parish of Abernethy (Inverness and Elgin). 4. Mr. Richard Mason, of Tenby, in a communication to the Secretaries, offered a rfaumt of the evidences, both traditionary, historical, and physical, of—1st, the probable depression at some pre-historic period of an extensive tract of country, covering the site of the Bristol Channel and Cardigan Bay; and 2ndly, of the more recent elevation of the land in the neighbourhood of Tenby, South Wales; the elevated district being apparently confined to that lying on the carboniferous limestone. Evidences of a comparatively recent depression of the Cardiff area was also alluded to. March 10th.—1. " On the Geology of the Gold-fields of Victoria." By A. E. C. Selwyn, Esq., Geologist to the Colony of Victoria. (In a letter to Professor Ramsay, F.G.S.). The author stated, that in the Colony of Victoria, from a line east of Melbourne to some distance west of that place, he has traoed a succession of fossiliferous 164 SHE GEOLOGIST. palaeozoic rocks, commencing with schists, much cleaved and contorted, and con­ taining Lingular and Oraptolites, passing through a series of schists, and sandstones with Trilobites and many other fossils characteristic of the lower, middle, and upper Silurian series of Britain, and terminating with Devonian and carboni­ ferous rocks ; and he remarked that the younger or Oolitic (?) coal-bearing beds on the west rest unconformably on the palaeozoic rocks. A list of about sixty genera of Silurian fossils, including many new species was appended. The gold-bearing quartz-veins of the Silurian rocks appear to the author to bo dependent more on their proximity to some granitic or other plutouio mass than on the age of the rocks in which they occur. Quartz-veins do not appear to traverse the Oolitic (f) coal-rocks, which are of newer date than the granites of this district. The author's observations refer chiefly to Bendigo, Ballaarat, and Steiglitz gold-fields, where Oraptolites and Lingulcs occur in the schists, which are traversed by the gold-quartz-veins. The granites here do not contain gold; and though they have altered the slate-rocks at the line of junction, yet they do not seem to have affected their general strike or dip, but appear to have themselves partaken of the movements which have placed these Silurian rocks in their present highly inclined and contorted positions, and given them their very uniform meridional direction. Mr. Selwyn recognises gold-bearing drifts of three distinct ages. The lowest contains large quantities of wood, seed-vessels, &c, at various depths, to 280 feet, and is associated with clays, sands, and pebbles. These are overlaid by sheets of lava. A more recent auriferous drift, containing also bones of both extinct and living marsupial quadrupeds, overlies these lavas in some places; in others it rests on the older drifts ; and at Tower Hill, near Warnambool, marine or estuary beds of probably the same age are overlaid by volcanic ashes.
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