182 Reports and Proceedings— carried away by the same powerful agent." This explanation of. the formation of certain valleys was given a few years ago by Prof. Phillips,1 and also by Mr. Boyd Dawkins, to account for the origin of the Chedder Cliffs, in Somersetshire, and is certainly more plausible than that of Mr. Mackintosh, which would give them a marine origin. Mr. MeUo gives a list of the minerals found in Derbyshire, and accompanies his little work with a geological map and sections reduced from the publications of the Geological Survey. Four plates illustrate some of the characteristic fossils of the New Eed Sandstone, Permian rocks, Coal-measures, and Mountain Limestone. H. B. W.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.—I. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINQ.2—Februarf 21«t, 1873.—His Grace, the Duke of Argyll, K.T., F.K.S., President in the Chair. The Secretary read the Reports of the Council, and of the Library and Museum Committee. The general position of the Society was described as satisfactory, and the number of Fellows was said to have essentially increased. In presenting the Wollaston Gold Medal to Sir Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton, Bart., F.R.S., F.G.S., the President spoke as follows:— Sir Philip Egerton,—I consider myself fortunate in being the organ of the Geological Society in presenting you with the Wollaston Medal, which has been awarded to you by the Council for the present year. The eminent services which, you have rendered to geology during a period now extending over forty years have long been familiar to scientific men, and have given you more than a European reputation. These services have been so great and so universally recognized, that the only difficulty I now have is not in assigning grounds for the vote which I have the pleasure of announcing, but in explaining why it has been so long delayed. That delay has been occasioned, I believe, solely by the fact that you have yourself been so long an honoured member of the Council whose duty it is to consider the claims of geologists for the honours of this Society; and whatever influence you have had in fhat body has doubtless been exerted in favour of others to tbe_ exclusion of yourself. It is at least some compensation for the loss winch the Council sustains in your absence that it is now able to accord a recognition which has long been due. The many papers which you have contributed to this Society from 1833 down to the present time are a sufficient indication of the wide range of your observations. But the special attention you have bestowed and the light you have thrown on the struc- ture and affinities of fossil fishes and reptiles, have been of the highest value, and have formed in the aggregate a most important contribution to our knowledge of the history of -organic life. I have the highest pleasure in now handing to you the Wollaston Medal. Sir Philip Egerton, m reply, said •:— My Lord President,—I know not whether it is owing to the poverty of the English language or to my unskilfulness in the use of it, but I am quite at a loss for words adequate to express my appreciation of the great and unexpected honour conferred upon me by the award of the Wollaston Medal, and for appropriate terms to convey to your Grace my acknowledgments for the kind, but too flattering terms you have used in communicating the decision of the Council; and my embarrassment is in- creased by the consciousness that, in comparison with those illustrious names which already adorn the Wollaston roll, I am quite unworthy of this great distinction. I cannot presume to think that the humble contributions I have been enabled to make to geological knowledge (and indeed to but a limited branch of it) can have been weighed in the balance against the labours of many others on both sides of the Atlantic, whose lives have been devoted to geological research, but who have not yet attained the distinction awarded to me to-day. In comparison with these my claims are quite 1 See GEOL. MAO. 1864, Vol. I., p. 229. 2 A brief notice of this meeting appeared in the March Number, p. 132. Geological Society of London. 183

insignificant. I must therefore look elsewhere to discern the motive which has influenced the Council in selecting my name on the present occasion in preference to others whose scientific claims are far greater than my own, and I think 1 am right in assigning it to a desire on their part to recognize, encourage, and occasionally reward the labours of those who, although their lot in life has been cast in a sphere entailing many paramount duties which ought not to be neglected, nevertheless devote their leisure time to the promotion of scientific research rather than waste it in frivolous and unproductive amusements. In this sense I interpret the mind of the Council in awarding me this Medal, and in this sense, as also as a stimulus and incentive to persevere in the cause of that science in which I take so deep an interest, and from the study of which I have derived so much intellectual enjoyment, I can, without arrogance, most gratefully accept it. May I be permitted to add, that if anything could enhance the feelings of gratification I experience in receiving this, the blue ribbon of geology, it is that it is presented by a President who, although occupying the highest social rank, and called by our gracious Sovereign to fill the highest offices of State, entailing most onerous duties and grave responsibilities, has nevertheless devoted himself to the study of scientific problems, and has inscribed for himself a name on the tablets of scientific literature, indelible so long as the Reign of Law shall continue to exist. The President then presented the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Dona- tion-Fund to J. W. Judd, Esq., F.G.S., and addressed him as follows:— Mr. Judd,—I have much pleasure in delivering to you the award of the Council of this Society in recognition of your valuable researches in the Neocomian and Jurassic rocks of England, researches which you are now extending with such marked success to the Secondary and Palaeozoic rocks of Scotland. I rejoice to know that you are to . carry to an investigation of the West coast of Scotland the experience and knowledge you have shown in your recent account of the Secondary rocks of the East coast. The scattered and broken remains of the Oolites in the Hebrides constitute a most interesting field of investigation; and a detailed examination of them conducted by you cannot fail to cast important light on many geological problems of the highest interest to our science. Mr. Judd made the following reply:— My Lord President,—The recollection of an occasion like the present may well be cherished by a student of science as an incentive to exertion second only to the en- thusiasm of research itself. Having learned to look to this Society, and never in vain, for the encouragement of sympathy and the guidance of criticism, it is with especial gratification that I receive this mark of confidence at the hands of my teachers and fellow-worker*. When I think of the origin and traditions of this bequest—the objects contemplated by its illustrious founder, the distinguished geologists who have been its former recipients, and the important researches to which it has been made contributory—I am deeply impressed by the trust which you have reposed in me. It is my hope that by earnest labour I may be able to testify that my feelings of grati- tude are not evanescent, nor my sense of responsibility light, in connexion with the great honour which you have this day done me. The President then presented the Murchison Medal to Mr. William Davies, of the British Museum, and addressed him as follows:— Mr. Davies,—I have much pleasure in delivering to you the Murchison Medal, which has been awarded to you by the Council of this Society in recognition of the services you have rendered to Palaeontology in the arrangement of the vertebrate collections in the Geological Department of the British Museum, so as to render them available for the purpose of scientific study, in the skill and knowledge you have displayed in the reconstruction of extinct forms of life. I have the more pleasure in giving this Medal, as I believe you will have the greater pleasure in receiving it, from the fact that it is the first award made under and in fulfilment of the will of the great geologist and excellent man whose loss we have all had so lately to deplore. I trust it may long serve to stimulate others to such services as you have rendered, and which have appeared to the Council of this Society to make you a worthy reci- pient of the First Murchison Medal. Mr. Davies, in reply, said:— My Lord Duke,—I desire to return my most sincere thanks to your Grace as Presi- dent, and to the Council of this Society, for the honour they have conferred upon me in awarding me the Murchison Medal. It is extremely gratifying to find that the humble services I have rendered to Palaeontological science have been so kindly 184 Reports and Proceeding*

appreciated and deemed worthy of this high recognition. The pleasure is greatly enhanced by the fact that I have never considered my scientific work of sufficient importance to deserve any recognition—the acquisition of scientific knowledge and the happiness of communicating it to others having, in my own case, been its own reward. I shall now feel it to be my duty as well as my ambition to render myself more worthy of the distinction you have this day conferred upon me—one which has also an especial significance to a servant of that great National Institution for which Sir Roderick Murchison so long and beneficially acted as a Trustee. The President then delivered to Prof. Ansted, F.R.S., For. Sec, for transmission to Prof. Oswald Heer, of Zurich, the balance of the Murchison Fund, and spoke as follows:— Mr. Secretary,—The labours of Prof. Heer in Fossil Botany and Entomology have this year been recognized by this Council in the vote of the Murchison Fund. No branch of Paleontology requires more minute research, more careful comparison, more circumspect conclusions,—and there are none, I may add, which, when so con- ducted, are richer in suggestions on the history of geological change. The frag- mentary character which generally belongs to terrestrial and especially to botanical remains, places the study of them under special difficulties, difficulties which have been met with special skill by Prof. Heer. The remains of the Miocene flora are connected with some of the most perplexing problems of our science, and the light which has been thrown upon them by Prof. Heer more than deserves the recognition which I have now the pleasure of delivering into your hands for transmission to that distinguished man. This is the second mark of recognition which this Society has given to Prof. Heer, the Wollaston Donation Fund having been voted to him in 1862. Prof. Ansted having suggested that Sir Charles Lyell, as a particular friend of Prof. Heer^s, might very appropriately speak in his name, Sir Charles Lyell, in reply, referred briefly to the nature of Prof. Heer's work, and said he was sure that gentle- man would appreciate highly this renewed expression of the interest taken by the Geological Society in his pursuits. Sir Charles Lyell remarked, further, that he was particularly gratified that this award had been made at the present time, as Prof. Heer was well advanced in years and in an exceedingly infirm state of health, so that perhaps another opportunity of showing him respect and sympathy might not occur. The President then proceeded to read his Anniversary Address, in which he dis- cussed the phenomena of denudation, referring especially to the influence of sub- terranean and other movements of the crust of the earth upon the denudation of its surface, and disputing the greatness of the denuding effects of glacial action. The Address was prefaced by biographical notices of deceased Fellows, including Prof. Sedgwick, Dr. Kelaart, Mr. Augustus Smith, Mr. N. Beardmore, and Prof. Pictet. The Ballot for the Council and Officers was taken, and the following were duly elected for the ensuing year:— President: The Duke of Argyll, K.T., D.C.L., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents : Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.S.; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen. Esq., F.R.S.; Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S.; Prof. A. C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S, Secretaries: John Evans, Esq., F.R.S.; David Forbes, Esq., F.R.S. Foreign Secre- tary: Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. Treasurer: J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq., F.R.S. Council: Prof. D. T. Ansted, M.A., F.R.S.; The Duke of Argyll, K.T., D.C.L., F.R.S.; "William Carruthers, Esq., F.R.S. ; Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.8.; Sir P. de M. G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.; R. Etheridge, Esq., F.R.S.; John Evans, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A.; J. Wickham Flower, £sq.; David Forbes, Esq., F.R.S.; Capt. Douglas Galton, C.B., F.R.S.; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq , F.R.S.; J. Whitaker Hulke, Esq., F.R.S.; J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq., F.R.S.; Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., D.C.L., F.R.S.; C. J. A. Meyer, Esq.; J. Carrick Moore, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S.; Prof. A. C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S.; R. H. Scott, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; 'Warineton W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; Prof. J. Tennant, F.C.3.; "W. Whitaker, Esq., B.A.; Rev. T. Wiltshire, M.A., F.L.S. II.—February 26th, 1873.—Prof. Eamsay, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. —The following communications were read:—1. " On the Jurassic Rocks of Syke and Raasay." By James Bryce, M.A., LL.D., F.G.S. In this paper the author described numerous sections of Jurassic rocks exposed chiefly in the sea-cliffs of Skye and Raasa, indicating the presence in those islands of a complete series of beds ascending from the Lower Lias to the middle of the Middle Oolite. He noticed the occurrence in these sections of fossils belonging to the zones of Ammonitet angulatiu and A. Bucklandi in the Lower Lias, to the zones of Geologists' Association. 185

A. Jametoni, A. eapricornis, A. margaritatus, and A. spinatua in the Middle Lias, of Upper lias fossils, including Ammonites coinmunis, falcifer, heterophyllus, and bifrons, and of others indicating beds belonging to the Inferior Oolite and Cornbrash, and to the Oxford Clay. The Loch Staffin beds were described as an eatuarine series, nearly approaching the Oxford Clay in geological age, and including a bed almost entirely made up of the shells of Ostrea hebridiea. The whole series of Jurassic rocks in these islands reposes on the Torridon sandstone of Cambrian age; and the author discussed the question whether or not the intervening beds have ever existed in this locality, and came to the conclusion that they probably existed, and have been swept away by denudation. He remarked further upon the resemblance in lithological characters of the beds described with the corresponding deposits elsewhere in Britain. The trap-rocks intruded between the Jurassic deposits he regarded as of post-Oolitic date. The paper was accompanied by lists of fossils and descriptions of some new species prepared by Mr. Ralph Tate. DISCUSSION.—Mr. Judd pointed out that, contrary to the views of that school of geologists of whom Dr. Macculloch was the leader, and which regarded the geologi- cal investigation of Scotland as almost completed, that work was only now being commenced by the application of those principles of Palaeontological geology which had been developed in England, and especially fostered by the Geological Society. He congratulated Dr. Bryce on having secured the aid of so experienced a palaeonto- logist as Mr. Tate, and bore witness to the fidelity with which his sections, especially those of the Island of Skye, were described. He also pointed out the importance of this communication as completing the history of a series of sections first so well sketched by Murchison, and in parts described in detail by Geikie, Wright, and Edward Forbes. 2. " Observations on the more remarkable Boulders of the North-West of England and the Welsh Borders." By D. Mackintosh, Esq., F.G.S. In this paper the author described the situation and indicated the probable origin of many of the more striking known boulders in Westmoreland, Cumberland, Lanca- shire, Cheshire, and on the borders of Wales. The northern boulders seem to have originated chiefly from Wastdale Crag, Criffel, Ennerdale, and Eskdale; those of Cheshire chiefly from the Lake District and South of Scotland; and many of those on the Welsh borders from the mountains of Wales. Many of the boulders noticed by the author exhibit glacial striae. The author also especially referred to the occur- rence of boulders at high levels. DISCUSSION.—Mr. Tiddeman pointed out that the course of a boulder from its original source to the spot where it was deposited was probably not always in a straight line; but the carrying agents were probably diverted by currents connected with the conformation of the sea-bottom of the period. In some cases also boulders may have had their position changed by subsequent river-action, and also by other Mr. Hicks called attention to some of the boulders to be seen in the south of Wales, which have been striated by the action of the plough and the harrow, as well as by ice, the marks of which had been almost entirely obliterated by human agency. Mr. Koch mentioned that in the late floodsi n Bohemia blocks as large as 6 feet x 4 feet had been transported by the rivers, and their surface had been striated during the process in a manner much like that produced by ice. The Chairman pointed out that in some instances the transported blocks had travelled over country higher than the parent beds from which they had been derived, and considered that they afforded some support to the theory of a great and general ice-coating, which was immediately succeeded by a period of great depression below the sea-level, and a subsequent emergence, the whole comprised within one. great glacial period. During these oscillations there must of necessity have been a series of dispersions of boulders. GEOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION. — March 7th.—Henry Woodward, Esq., F.G.S., F.Z.S., President, in the Chair.—" On the Geology of Brighton." By James Howell, Esq. The paper commenced with a iketch of the Sonth Downs, their longitudinal valleys, latitudinal coombs, and the gaps leading down the cliffs which extend from East- bourne to Brighton. The author enumerated those interesting outliers of the Plastic Clay lying between Seaford Heights and Felpham, the connecting links with the Bognor beds, showing that the Eocenes were once continuous along 'the southern 186 Correspondence—Rev. J. F. Blake.

portion of the Downs to the height of 600 feet, that is if the pebbles found on the crest of Cisbury are what they appear to be, of Tertiary origin. He considered there was no evidence from surface indications that the northern portion of the Downs has ever been submerged since its upheaval. Historical documents, submerged forests along the whole coast-line, and the snallowness of the sea-bottom afford evidence that the sea has greatly encroached upon the land at this part of the coast. The site of Old Brighton was stated to be seaward between East and West Streets, and not, as Lyell states, where the Chain Pier now stands. The coast-line at the period when the Brighton'valley was an estuary of the sea and a river was very different from what it is now. The "Level" was then covered with water, and waves dashed up beyond the site of St. Peter's Church, as proved by pebbles like those on the present beach being there found in sewer excavations. The geological formations at Brighton were stated to be six, viz. Silt in the valley, Brick-earth of Hove, the Elephant-bed, Temple Field deposit, Plastic Clay of Furze Hill, and the Upper Chalk. The present paper embraced the author's observations of the first three. In the lower portion of the Silt and the Coombe-rock beneath it are imbedded immense numbers of water-rolled sandstones similar to the Sarsen stones distributed over the surface of the Downs, but whether of "Wealden or Tertiary origin is unknown. The Brick-earth is a later formation than the Elephant-bed, upon which it everywhere rests; though the organic remains found in it are the same, viz. remains of the elephant, horse, red-deer, whale, and shells of an arctic type. If, as Mr. Godwin-Austen tells us, Brick-earth is the " wash of a terrestrial surface," how are we to account for the marine remains imbedded in it? The pebbles of Pakeozoic rocks found in the old sea-beach underlying the Elephant-bed were stated to have come from France, when that country was united to this island, having travelled a beach once extending from Brighton to Calvados. This was supported by the observation of the author of how pebbles travel along coasts assisted by sea- weed, whose roots are attached to them. In concluding his paper, Mr. Howell opposed the opinion formed by the Geological Section of the British Association during their visit to the Kemp Town section of the Elephant-bed, that this re- markable deposit was due to ice action, and considered the opinions of Webster, Mantell, and Lyell, corroborated by the fact that the materials composing the bed are all water-worn.

THE OLDEST KNOWN BEITISH TBJGONIA. SIB,—The claim of T. Lingonensis to this title does not rest on the York specimen, but on several that have Been found and recognized in situ. This is all the public can care to know; but as I identified the specimen in our Museum, you may allow me to add that it is not " an undoubted Inferior Oolite fossil." The Dogger of the Peak is very similar to the Eston Ironstone, in hand specimens; but any one familiar with both could easily distinguish them. Mr. Leckenby is probably not familiar with the latter—as there are few, if any, fossils"' from it in his magnificent Lias collection—unless he has them labelled from the Inferior Oolite. One is reminded of a remark long ago made by Williamson, that Yorkshire geology has suffered from the fossils being collected miscellaneously, and their horizon judged of by their matrix. J. F. BLAKK.

CLIFTON, TOBK, March 6tA, 1873.