endeavouring to unravel the tangled web of affinity which forms the connection between the recent and fossil faunas of different regions.

The last number of the 'Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham' contains a short paper by Mr. H. B. Brady "On Casts of Palæozoic Corals found amongst the Refuse of Alkali Works," which possesses considerable interest for those who investigate the means by which fossilization is produced. The specimens consist of siliceous casts of the calcareous skeletons of certain corals, and they were so completely decalcified by the process for the generation of carbonic acid, to which they had been submitted, that they remained unaltered on a second maceration in strong acid.

The contents of the 'Geological Magazine' during the past quarter have been so important that our brief notice of them here must not be regarded as at all exhausting the subjects which are brought before us in the several papers that the numbers contain. In the first place we must notice the conclusion of Dr. Lindström's paper on the Rugosa, in the September number; but we can only summarize the conclusions at which the author has arrived, namely, (1) "that Goniophyllum pyramidale is an undoubted Zoantharia rugosa, and that it coincides with the three species of the genus Calceola," which must therefore be removed from the class Brachiopoda; (2) that the Rugosa must be separated from the Actinozoa, and must form a class of their own in the great division of Radiated animals. Dr. Lindström, indeed, accepts Professor Agassiz's opinion that the Rugosa are related to the living Lucernariæ. It cannot be said that there is much evidence in support of this supposition, and we should be rather inclined to seek for the affinity of these aberrant corals in a higher rather than in a lower direction; but, however the case may ultimately be decided, Dr. Lindström's is a most valuable and welcome contribution. In the November number is a paper on a kindred subject, by Mr. H. A. Nicholson, who has discovered in the Moffat shales, Dumfriesshire, certain structures associated with Graptolites, which he interprets to be external organs of reproduction, and therefore corroborative of Professor James Hall's opinion of the Sertularian nature of the Graptolitida, and to disprove the prevalent opinion of their Bryozoan affinities.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

It would be quite useless, in this Chronicle, to endeavour to give an abstract of all the papers, thirty-three in number, contained in the last number of the Society's journal. We shall, therefore, select a few of the more interesting and important communications, more

especially as several of the others are of too technical a nature to be dealt with here.

In the first paper in the Journal, Mr. Boyd Dawkins grapples with the question of the origin of our domestic races of cattle, which he believes can only be solved by a careful examination of each of the three European fossil animals, namely, (1) the great Urus, Bos Urus of Julius Cæsar; (2) the small Short-horn, Bos longifrons of Professor Owen; and (3) the Bison, Bos bison of Pliny. He confines himself now to a consideration of the Urus, and after a careful statement of the historical evidence on the subject, he infers that this animal "probably lingered in the wilder parts of continental Europe till at least the sixteenth century."

Mr. Whitaker's paper "On the Lower London Tertiaries of Kent," deserves especial notice, on account of its value as a contribution to systematic Geology. Hitherto, over the whole of the London Basin, Mr. Prestwich's classification has been adopted, namely, in descending order, (1) Basement-bed of the London Clay; (2) Woolwich and Reading series; and (3) Thanet Sands. Mr. Whitaker shows that the beds of East Kent (Upnor, Reculvers, &c.), until now considered identical with the Basement-bed of the London Clay at Lewisham, &c., belong to a lower series, intermediate between this Basement-bed and the Woolwich and Reading series. To this new division he gives the name Oldhaven Beds; and he refers to it also the pebble-bed of Blackheath, Abbey Wood, &c., which have been referred to the same division as that of Lewisham, as well as some sandy pebble-beds in West Kent, hitherto considered to form part of the underlying Woolwich and Reading series.

The paper is extremely valuable for containing so many facts bearing on the changes of the various members of the divisions of the Lower London Tertiaries, in passing from east to west. We will just mention one instance. The only constant portion of the Thanet Beds is its lowest member,-the base-bed. In West Kent this is succeeded by the thick mass of unfossiliferous sands so familiar to metropolitan geologists; these sands, however, thin out towards the east, until, near Canterbury, they entirely disappear; and the base-bed is then succeeded by a band of loamy clay, which thins out towards the west beneath the member just noticed. But in the eastern division of Kent, the bulk of the Thanet Beds consists of two fossiliferous members, neither of which extends farther east than Rochester, beyond which the series is entirely represented by the base-bed and the great mass of unfossiliferous sands already noticed. Here, therefore, is the explanation of the fact that fossils are found in one district and not in the other, the beds are not the same, as has hitherto been supposed.

Geologists seem to have accepted with passive submission, and with one accord, Mr. Prestwich's conclusions as to the relative ages

of the valley-gravels of the Somme, the Ouse, and other rivers; but whether this docility has resulted from supineness or conviction we cannot undertake to pronounce. Mr. Tylor, however, seems to think that this state of things has lasted long enough, and in a paper "Upon the Interval of Time which has passed between the Formation of the Upper and Lower Valley-gravels of part of England and France," he endeavours to show that the value of this interval is nothing, and that the two sets of gravels are of the same age. He explains and illustrates this view by stating his belief, that the valleys themselves are of very ancient date, that subsequent to their formation they were entirely filled with gravel, and that more recently still the valleys have been re-excavated, leaving at different heights patches of gravel which have escaped being washed away. Mr. Tylor endeavours to explain the history of the valley of the Somme on this supposition, by reference to the valleys of Devonshire, just as Fluellin argued, "there is a river in Macedon; and there is also, moreover, a river at Monmouth' "and there is salmons in both."

The tendency of geological opinion on the subject of metamorphism has of late years been in favour of ascribing that phenomenon to hydrothermal action; but for the evidence in support of this theory, geologists are almost entirely indebted to chemists and mineralogists, the geological data in its favour being very scanty, and more or less vague. We have now, however, to chronicle the publication of a most important paper by Mr. J. Geikie, "On the Metamorphic Lower Silurian Rocks of Carrick, Ayrshire," which contains a generalized description of certain felspathic, dioritic, serpentinous, and calcareous rocks, treated with a view of ascertaining what evidence they may yield bearing on the cause of their metamorphism; for it is shown that these are all metamorphic, not igneous, rocks in this region. In Mr. Geikie's own opinion, the details seem to prove:-"(1) That the strata owe their metamorphism to hydrothermal action. (2) That the varying mineralogical character of the rocks is due principally to original differences of chemical composition, and not to infiltration of foreign matter at the time of metamorphism. (3) That the highly alkaline portions of the strata have been most susceptible of change. (4) That in beds having the same composition, but exhibiting various degrees of alteration, the intensity of the metamorphism has been in direct proportion to the amount of water passing through the strata. (5) That in some places the rocks have been reduced to a softened or pasty condition."

A paper "On the Structure of the Red Crag," by that veteran palæontologist, Mr. S. V.Wood, sen., contains an entirely new view (so far as we are aware) of the succession of life in those deposits which are grouped under the name of Red Crag. No man is so

well qualified to write on this subject as the author of this paper, who has spent most of his life in the thorough investigation of the Crag deposits; his inferences are therefore entitled to more than ordinary consideration.

Within the last few months, Geology has suffered from the loss of several of her followers; amongst them Mr. C. Maclaren, author of The Geology of Fife and the Lothians,' and Mr. Alexander Bryson, were men of local eminence. Don Casiano di Prado was the leading geologist of Spain, where his death will be severely felt by his small band of associates; and M. Louis Saemann, who was at the same time an accomplished mineralogist and a liberal-minded dealer in minerals and fossils, will be regretted by a large circle of friends and customers; for he was the most enlightened, most liberal, and most enterprising of all dealers; and by his death Geology has therefore sustained a severe blow of a most peculiar nature. But however much we may regret these losses, they are trifles compared with that caused by the death of Mr. William Hopkins, of Cambridge, for by this sad event it seems as if our science were deprived of a limb, this distinguished man being the founder and only master of what may be termed Mathematical Geology.

10. MINING.

AT the time when there is something more than indications that the Cornish copper mines are giving symptoms of exhaustion, we hear of the extraordinary development of copper mines in California. Fifteen counties, from San Diego to Del Norte, possess veins of copper, which will give, it is said, at least 10 per cent. of metal. The cost of transit so largely interferes with the development of those mines, that those only which are at a short distance from San Francisco are worked. Amongst those the Union Mine at Copperopolis has lately exported 110 tons of ore a-day, of which 50 tons contained 20 per cent. of metal. Notwithstanding the value of this ore, the cost of carriage absorbed nearly all the profit. Attempts have been made-and considerable success has attended them-to smelt the ores near the place of production, and we are told that cakes of copper containing from 90 to 95 per cent. of copper are obtained. Allowing for some exaggeration, there appears to be no doubt that immense deposits of copper exist in California, and that in a few years, when roads have been constructed, these will be extensively and profitably worked.

After the remarks which we made in our last, on the depressed state of mining in the British Isles, the above does not encourage the hope of any great improvement in the condition of our copper

mines. Tin mining is rather more encouraging, for, although at the present prices of that metal, the mines cannot make a profit, there is a prospect that the price will shortly improve. The Dutch candidly state that they cannot continue to import the tin from Banca and the Straits at the present low scale of prices. From some cause or other, not satisfactorily explained, there has been for some time, a gradual falling off in the quantity of tin produced in Banca. At present the supply of tin is considerably in excess of the demand, and with the depression which pervades every branch of metal manufacture, there is no immediate prospect of any large quantity of tin being consumed. But with a revival of trade, so important a metal must again be largely in demand, and the immense stores of tin existing in Cornwall may then be worked to advantage.

It is satisfactory to know that the Cornish miners are finding employment at home, instead of abroad. Nearly a thousand of these industrious men are now supplying the places vacated by the colliers on strike in Scotland, and many more are finding employment on the railways. These will, therefore, be available as soon as an improved market renders it prudent to work the Cornish mines with greater activity.

We have no discovery to chronicle this quarter in any of the mining districts of Great Britain or of the Continent.

A

It was formerly a notion amongst miners that tin could only exist near the surface of the earth, and many mines were abandoned, because, as the miners said, " tin never made in depth." At length, energy dissolved this theory, and now the largest quantities of the finest tin are obtained from the deepest mines of Cornwall. similar superstition prevails respecting the deposition of gold in quartz lodes. The gold miners will tell you that gold falls off in depth. This hypothesis appears destined to share the fate of that relating to tin.

Mr. A. Hayward, of Sutter Creek, Amadas Co., California, is working a quartz lode to the depth of 1,200 feet, not less than 300 feet below the sea level. The result is, in this instance, that the quartz vein increases in width and value in proportion to depth. The quantity of gold obtained from this mine has been to the value of six or seven million dollars, and in the galleries already opened gold quartz is standing which is valued at, at least, two million dollars.

MINERALOGY.

The Rev. Samuel Haughton has published his examination of a meteoric stone which was seen to fall at Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, * Royal Irish Academy, 1866. 'Philosophical Magazine,' No. 216, p. 260.