Upper Rhætic. SECTION OF TRIASSIC BEDS, EAST LEAKE TUNNEL, NOTTS. K-Marls, grey, sandy, weathering light grey, and breaking with a somewhat Ft. in. 12 O Apparently rnfossiliferous. 3 in. to 0 6 Nemacanthus monilifer, Agassiz-spines. Gyrolepis albertii, Agassiz-scales. Labyrinthodon, sp.-parts of jaws and teeth, and some other portions not yet determined. LOWER LIAS. To the south of the tunnel, several minor and one major fault have let down the Rhætic and Lower Lias-which is here exposed as part of the great Hoton and Buckminster fault-with an inverted downthrow. The beds of the Planorbis zone, as usually exhibited in Leicestershire, are here present, resting on disturbed Upper Rhætic grey, sandy marls, with the usual septariform nodules. The writer defers, however, the full consideration of this portion until certain sections, now in progress, are united to give the proper sequence. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16. The following Papers and Reports were read : 1. Probable Extension of the Seas during Upper Tertiary Times Taking into consideration the position and nature of all the outliers of Upper Tertiary age, the author is led to the following conclusions as to the extension of the Neogenic seas in Western Europe. During Miocene times England was united to France, and we have proof of the existence of two seas in the western part of Europe; one on the east extended over part of Belgium (Bolderian system), Holland, and north of Germany-probably this sea was not very far off the eastern coast of England; the other sea, the Western, or old Atlantic Sea, was off Ireland, penetrating in various gulfs into France, as in some part of Côtentin, Brittany, in the Loire valley, in the gulf of the Gironde, but there was no way of communication with the Mediterranean basin crossing France. In North Spain there are no Miocene deposits, in Portugal Miocene beds are purely littoral. The communication with the Mediterranean Sea was certainly by the valley of the Guadalquivir. The Gibraltar Strait had not exactly its present place. The fauna of these Miocene coasts was warm and very similar to the existing fauna of Senegal and Guinea. We can divide Pliocene time into three periods, but the situations of the seas were not very different. England was always in direct continental communication with France, the English Channel was not open at all. All the Pliocene deposits of Belgium, North France, or England, even the Lenham beds, are on the side of the North-Eastern Sea; we find all these patches on the northern side of the great anticlinal line of the Artois, Boulonnais, and Weald. The fauna is different from the Miocene, and colder-it even turns more and more cold during the progress of Pliocene time. On the western or Atlantic side we have little gulfs leading the sea into the land, but not so frequently and not so far as during Miocene times. The Cornwall deposits, Côtentin beds, and the Brittany patches are very limited; the basin of the Gironde contains no trace of Pliocene beds, and we have no trace of recent marine beds at the foot of the Pyrenees. In the north of Spain there is also no trace of Pliocene beds. The continent seems to have been higher, and the Atlantic tolerably distant. All the Portuguese sands recently discovered are littoral, and only on the Algarve coast and south of Spain do we find proof of the probable communication with the Mediterranean. The Gibraltar Strait was not always in the same place during Pliocene time; in the beginning probably the Guadalquivir valley to Murcia continued to be the strait, but later the rock of Gibraltar was separated from Africa and a new road was open; this way was certainly deeper than the former one, and as deep as the existing strait. By this depression the cold fauna of the depths of the Atlantic penetrated into the Mediterranean Sea as far as Sicily and Italy with Cyprina Islandica. The geology of Morocco is unknown, but we have plenty of information on Algeria. We have there great Miocene deposits raised along the Atlas Chain up to a great altitude, and a little lower a good and very long band of Pliocene beds of marine and continental origin. Quaternary deposits, similarly continental and littoral, occur lying along the actual coast, pointing out the south side of the Mediterranean connection. In a few words, the English Channel has been opened very recently, and no sea occupied its place before. No sea has crossed France or central Spain, and we are obliged to seek for an outlet for the Eastern Sea during Miocene time by way of Germany, Galicia, and South Russia, or by the north of Scotland. During the existence of the Pliocene seas there was no other communication for the Crag seas than the northern one, for the western, the south, and eastern sides were undoubtedly shut in by land. 2. On the Present State of our Knowledge of the Upper Tertiary Strata of Belgium. By E. VAN DEN BROEK. 3. On the Discovery of Fossil Elephant Remains at Tilloun (Charente). By MARCELLIN BOULE. 4. On Earth Movements observed in Japan. By J. MILNE, F.R.S. 5. Reports on the Volcanic and Seismological Phenomena of Japan. See Reports, pp. 81, 113. 6. Final Report on the Volcanic Phenomena of Vesuvius. 7. Report on Earth Tremors.-See Reports, p. 184. 8. Interim Report on the Investigation of a Coral Reef. 9. Report on Geological Photographs.-See Reports, p. 404. 10. The Auriferous Conglomerates of the Witwatersrand, Transvaal. By FREDERICK H. HATCH, Ph.D., F.G.S. The general geological features of these now famous deposits are more or less familiar to most readers. The beds of the 'Main Reef Series' have been closely studied from one end of the Rand to the other, and are now being worked in an almost continuous series of prosperous gold-mining companies, the whole distance covered by mines in active operation amounting to forty-six miles. The beds have the usual characteristics of conglomerates, being composed of pebbles which present every sign of having been water-rolled and worn smooth by attrition. The pebbles consist of white or smoky quartz, and lie imbedded in a sandy or quartzitic matrix. The older rocks, from the waste of which these conglomerates are derived, were probably members of the Primary Formation, on which the Witwatersrand beds lie. That these older rocks were largely veined with quartz is evident from the nature of the pebbles, and that they were not the source of the gold is evident from the fact that the quartz pebbles do not carry gold, the metallic contents being confined to the matrix. There is little doubt that the gold was introduced subsequently to the deposition of the beds by means of mineralising solutions, which ascended the planes of disruption and fissuring which resulted from the disturbance of the beds during their upheaval. A considerable amount of basic igneous matter was also introduced, and now appears in the beds in the form of dykes and intrusive sheets. The angle of dip of the auriferous beds at their outcrop is generally high (50°-80°), but the lowest workings of the mines evidence a considerable flattening of the deposits, the average dip in the lowest levels being at present not more than 30°. It is probable that the flattening will continue, and that the dip in the deep level workings will be found to be not more than 25°. As these deep levels will probably be worked to a vertical depth of 4,000 to 5,000 feet, the zone of workable auriferous deposit must be at least 1 mile wide. 11. Report on the Stonesfield Slate.'-See Reports, p. 414. 12. On the Strata of the Shaft sunk at Stonesfield, Oxon, in 1895. By EDWIN A. WALFORD, F.G.S. Since 1860 no continuous section of the upper beds of the Inferior Oolite, and of the limestones intervening between them and the Stonesfield Slate, has been exposed in Oxfordshire. In 1860 but brief record seems to have been made of the character of the beds pierced. The lower part of the section made by the aid of the British Association 1894-95 resolves itself readily into three divisions: 1. Compact buff-coloured limestones. 2. Sandstone and sandy limestones with vertical markings and borings. Series 1 extends to the north-west as far as Long Compton, in Warwickshire and on the north to Sibford in Oxfordshire. Around Chipping Norton it is bes developed, but its vertical boundaries are hardly determinable. I take it to repre sent the Fullonian clays and limestones of the South and South-west of England Just as at Port-en-Bessin and Caen, in Normandy, we see at one place the argil laceous and argillaceo-calcareous series, and at the other the calcareous and siliceo calcareous series, so also from west to east in England the deposits change fron argillaceous to calcareous, and with a poorer fauna. Series 2, generally underlying the limestones, may be traced as far as Banbury, and has a wide range over Northamptonshire. A bed of Trigonia (T. signata) mark is found around Hook Norton, Chipping Norton, and Long Compton, the lowe part of the sandy series, with Ammonites Parkinsoni and remains of marsh plants The higher sandy limestones are recognised by the presence of long annulater stems of Algae (P), extending also through the Northamptonshire deposits, an characterising the higher beds there. The blue and white sandy limestone Stonesfield is full of vertical markings of plants-markings which are promine: in every section of the Estuarine sands of Northamptonshire. The successi of these to the bed with Trigonia signata may be seen in a quarry at Sharpshi between Brailes and Hook Norton, where a well-marked band of siliceous limesto, 6 with Trigonia signata, Ag., T. Lycetti, Walf, is covered with two feet of shattered siliceous stone pierced with vertical markings. These are the Oxfordshire representatives of the Northamptonshire Estuarine Sands. So far, then, the Stonesfield section enables us to get a better understanding of the relationships of the Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire Inferior Oolite. Though the zones of the Northamptonshire Inferior Oolite appear at present to be ill-defined, we may hope in Sharpe's Series D to recognise the representative of the well-known Clypeus grit of West Oxfordshire and the Cotteswolds. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17. The following Papers and Reports were read: 1. The Trial-boring at Stutton. By W. WHITAKER, F.R.S. This, the first attempt of the Eastern Counties Coal-boring Association, is in the low ground southward of Crepping Hall, and has been successful in reaching the base of the Cretaceous beds at the depth of 994 feet, and in proving that these are at once underlain by a much older rock. The Tertiary and Cretaceous beds passed through are as follows: : Lower Chalk, with very glauconitic marl at the base (almost a Beneath this is Paleozoic rock, with a high dip, which has been pierced to the depth of over 200 feet. an at The thickness of both Chalk and Gault is slightly less th Harwich, and there is also a little less of the Tertiary beds. A full account will be brought before the Geological Society. 2. The Dip of the Underground Paleozoic Rocks at Ware and at Cheshunt. By JOSEPH FRANCIS, M.Inst.C.E. Ordered to be printed in extenso.-See Reports, p. 441. 3. On the Importance of extending the Work of the Geological Survey of Great Britain to the Deep-seated Rocks by means of Boring. By F. W. HARMER, F.G.S. The systematic exploration of the subterranean geology of these islands is equally important from a scientific and a practical point of view. At present our knowledge of the structure of the rocks which form the foundation of our island home is due either to isolated and occasional borings, such as that of the Ipswich Syndicate in search of coal, or to deep wells sunk by mercantile firms, but the latter do not reach further than is necessary to obtain a supply of water, and the work is generally suspended just where it becomes geologically most interesting. But such a Survey is important practically, because unsuspected sources of wealth may be hidden under our very feet. It is a mistake to suppose that a discovery such as that of a new coal-field would enrich only the landowners of the district, because whenever any appreciation of real property takes place, the State at once claims its share of the increased |