The occurrence of this crustacean in a perfect condition is extremely

rare.

Mr. James Bennie exhibited a fossil fruit-Trigonocarpum—and pieces of carbonised wood from a truly marine shale in Shiels Quarry, East Kilbride. He also exhibited a series of pyritized twigs from the marine shales of Lickprivick, East Kilbride.

The Chairman presented and explained a map of Great Britain which he had prepared at the request of the Royal Coal Commission, to illustrate his views regarding the extent and depth to which the coal-fields of England stretch beneath the Mesozoic formations. The map showed that while there is a large area in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Notts, and Yorkshire formed of Triassic and Permian rocks overlying the coal, yet that this mineral does not extend under the eastern and southern counties of England, which are considered to be formed of newer formations resting on rocks of older age than the Coal-measures. The map is to accompany Mr. Hull's evidence when published in the "Blue book."

A communication was read from Mr. Alexander Currie, one of the members, on the recent discovery of ancient canoes near Bowling. Mr. Currie gave an historical resumé of the occurrence of ancient canoes in the bed of the Clyde, and in lakes and marshes throughout the other parts of the country. An account was then given of the discovery by the writer of the canoes, which formed the special object of his paper. Two of these he had exhumed from the bed of the river near Dunglass. They were found lying abreast of each other, embedded in tenacious clay, containing water-worn boulders, overlain by a deposit of alluvial mud. The longer of the two consists of a rough undressed tree, 23 feet in length, and 11 feet in mean girth, the inside being beautifully hollowed out. The lesser canoe measures 13 feet in length, 3 feet in width, and is shaped like the modern fishing cobble, with square stern. The third canoe had been found opposite Dumbuck, by parties in Dumbarton, from whom it had passed into the possession of the writer. Like the last, it is formed out of a dressed oaken log, and measures 23 feet in length and 31 inches in breadth, its depth not being ascertainable owing to its sides being in an imperfect state. The remaining portion of the paper contained his speculation as to the people by whom these relics were fashioned, and the probable time which had elapsed since they became entombed in the river-silt. J. A.

DUDLEY AND MIDLAND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.-This Society held the first of the series of winter meetings, in the Museum, on Friday, the 27th November. The chair was taken by H. Beckett, Esq., F.G.S. Mr. Hollier exhibited the Trilobite from the Dudley Limestone, described by Mr. H. Woodward in the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, for November, as Calymene ceratophthalma, having all the characteristics of the well-known Calymene Blumenbachii, but with eyes placed on the end of long peduncles. This curious specimen gave rise to an animated discussion, in which all the speakers expressed themselves as dissenting from Mr. Woodward's views; but whether

the so-called eye-peduncles were really the reversed cheek-margins of the same Trilobite, or belonged to another individual, seemed to admit of some doubt. Several interesting illustrations in confirmation of the latter of these opinions were exhibited. There seems to

be no doubt that the fossil in question has been mutilated, as Mr. Johnson stated that when he first saw it the margins of the sessile eyes of the common Calymene Blumenbachii were distinctly visible.' Among the fossils exhibited may be mentioned one which Mr. Beckett considered as a Calamite, from the Dudley Limestone, though the absence of all remains of land-plants in these early measures pointed rather to the specimen exhibited being an Orthoceras. Mr. Hollier exhibited a number of beautiful Trilobites and several Limuli from the Coal-measures. Mr. Ketley also exhibited a specimen of Phacops Downingiæ, var. spinosus, only one specimen of which is recorded, and that from the Ludlow rock.-Dudley Herald, Dec. 5, 1868.

MONTREAL NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.-The usual monthly meeting of this Society was held on Monday evening, Oct. 26th, 1868. The President, Principal Dawson, F.R.S., etc., etc., in the Chair. E. Billings, Esq., F.Ĝ.S., read a paper entitled, "Note on the Bones of a Mastodon found near Dunnville, Oct., 1868."

On reading the announcement in the papers of the discovery of the bones of a Mastodon, near Dunnville, two weeks ago, I left Montreal by the first train for the locality. On arriving there, I found that the accounts were somewhat exaggerated. The remains were not so large as had been reported, and besides were in a very poor state of preservation. The tusks had almost entirely disappeared-there remaining only two or three small fragments, about a foot long and one or two inches thick. No part of the head remained except the posterior portion of the right ramus of the lower jaw. There are seven molar teeth with the enamel, as usual, well preserved. There is a nearly perfect thigh bone and several other bones of the legs and feet, most of them more or less broken and decayed. There are a few of the vertebræ, some fragments of the ribs, and a number of other imperfect bones.

On examining the teeth, I found the remains to be those of the common American species Mastodon Ohioticus or Trilophodon Ohioticus, according to Dr. Falconer's classification. Judging from the size of the teeth and femur, I should say that this animal was a Mastodon of medium size, perhaps nine feet in height. I do not think the tusks could have been fourteen feet long. The longest and most perfect skeleton of this species known is that which was mounted by the late Dr. Warren, of Boston, and which is now, I believe, in one of the museums of that city. It measures seventeen feet in length from the front part of the face to the insertion of the tail, and is a little over eleven feet in height. The tusks are about eleven feet in length, and it seems probable, therefore, that those of the Dunnville skeleton were not so long.

See Mr. Woodward's letter in Correspondence, page 43.

The remains were found in a swamp, about one and a half mile north of Dunville, partly imbedded in a layer of fine sand, holding fresh water shells of species now living in our rivers, lakes and ponds. The sand is two and a half feet thick, rests upon Boulderclay, and is overlaid by one and a half feet of black vegetable mould. None of the bones, as I understand, were found in the clay, but they partly projected up out of the sand into the mould. It is clear, therefore, that this animal lived long after the close of the Glacial period.

From Dunville I went to the Niagara Falls, where there are preserved in Mr. Barnett's museum, a nearly perfect lower jaw of a small Mastodon from St. Thomas, Ontario. The molars are all in place, and the specimen is interesting, as it retains the two small tusks that are seen in the lower jaw of the young Mastodon, but not in the adult. Mr. Barnett has a number of other teeth and lower jaws, both of the Mastodon and Mammoth, which he has collected from different places in the western parts of Ontario. There are three molars of the Mastodon in the Provincial museum from London, besides the collection of Mammoth's bones from Hamilton. These are all the fossil elephantine remains that have been collected in Canada to my knowledge.

It is worthy of note that none of these remains were collected east of the western extremity of Lake Ontario. It would seem that when the Mastodon and Mammoth roamed over Canada, the distribution of land and water was somewhat different from what it is now. The great escarpment (usually called the Niagara ridge) which runs from Lewiston to Hamilton and thence to Owen Sound, formed a shore of only a few feet in height, and all west of it was a low flat country abounding in swampy land, where grew the cedar, spruce, and other evergreens, upon whose leaves and twigs the Mastodon appears to have subsisted. Easterly there was a great fresh-water sea that covered a large area of the present dry land of Canada, and of the neighbouring states. No remains of these animals have been found in Canada at any place east of Hamilton; and it is not difficult to show that those collected there had been drifted down from the interior by the river that once flowed through the ravine at Dundas. In the States they have been collected in numerous localities all over the country, to some point as far east as Massachusetts. A line drawn north-easterly from Hamilton to New Brunswick would, according to our present knowledge, form the north-western boundary of the country inhabited by the Mastodon and Mammoth in the Dominion.

Principal Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c., exhibited some specimens of graphite from Buckingham, Q.C., and remarked on the parallelism between its mode of occurrence, whether in beds or veins, with that of the occurrence of bituminous matter, of organic origin, in limestones and shales, and in the veins or fissures traversing such rocks; arguing that if the graphite of the Laurentian rocks is assumed to be of organic origin, these rocks, when originally deposited, must have held vast quantities of vegetable debris, and

must have constituted highly bituminous limestones and shales, the volatile matter of which had probably been dissipated and the carbon brought into the state of graphite, before the commencement of the Silurian period. In evidence that such a change might be effected without any great amount of heat, he adduced the fact that in the Devonian rocks of New Brunswick, trunks of trees and even the most delicate leaves of ferns have been converted into graphite without obliterating their structure.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.-15th December.-DR. James Hunt, President, in the Chair.-Dr. Carter Blake, F.G.S., Hon. Memb. A.S.L., made a communication on the skull, jaw, and limb-characters afforded by the specimens recently discovered at CroMagnon (Les Eyzies), France, and contrasted them with those of similar, and in one case greater, age from the Belgian bone-caves. He pointed out that whilst the Belgian caves afforded evidence of man in some degree pithecoïd, yet, on the whole, exaggerating the characters of the lower Sclavonian races; the French remains were entirely sui generis, and were those of men who, although presenting some simial characters, yet, in cerebral capacity, were superior to most existing races, and in some respects resembled the Celtic crania of the present day.

CORRESPONDENCE,

GLACIERS IN SOUTH DEVON.

SIR,-As the question whether there are traces of glacial action in Devon is occasionally mooted, I send a few lines relating to that point. My own practical acquaintance with Glaciers is confined to one hurried visit to Switzerland, and on that account I did not venture in my paper "On the Geology of the Valleys of the Upper part of the River Teign and its feeders" (Quarterly Journal, vol. xxiii. p. 418), to ascribe any of the gravels, or transported rocks, to that cause, but named the gravel, deposited before the "re-excavation" of the valley,." old gravels." Since the meeting of the British Association, an eminent continental geologist paid me a visit to examine the granite of Dartmoor, and on passing a place where the "old gravel" is exposed, said, "this is a Moraine; a Swedish or a Swiss geologist would say this is a Moraine." He examined other "old gravel" sections, and gave similar opinions on the spot, which he confirmed on further consideration, and on examining the map of the district; for "old gravels," therefore, the word "moraines" may probably be substituted. I do not feel justified in publishing the name of my friend, as I omitted to ask his permission so to do, but enclose it for your private satisfaction; and I trust that your readers will rely on me when I say that he was a well-known Professor, on whose opinion the most eminent geologists would place the greatest reliance. G. WAREING ORMEROD.

CHAGFORD, EXETER,

SUSSEX AND SUFFOLK TERTIARIES.

SIR,-1. In the course of the last summer I obtained from the Red Crag at Butley, near Chillesford, the following forms:

Pupa marginata, L.

Limnaa pereger, Müll. truncatula, Müll.

Limnæa sp.
Planorbis complanatus, L.

All" the above are new to the Red Crag except the last. They were intermixed with marine shells.

Resting on the London Clay in the coast near Felixtow, I found a freshwater river deposit, containing amongst other shells Cyclostoma elegans and Helix aspersa. The bed is overlain by about two feet of gravel, and that again by the surface soil. The river has undercut the Boulder-clay to a considerable extent on each side.

The bed is worth notice, as the evidence that the above shells occur fossil in Britain is very meagre.

2. To the Shells listed by Mr. Godwin-Austen from the Muddeposit at Selsey, I can add the following, two being altogether new to Britain, but living with Lutraria rugosa and Pecten polymorphus in the Mediterranean, making four southern forms, only found in this deposit.

Pleurotoma (Mangelia) rupa, Montagu.

Littorina rudis, Mason.

obtusata, Linné.

Lacuna puteolus, Turton.

Rissoa parva, Da Costa.

Trochus exasperatus, Pennant.

Adeorbis subcarinata, Montagu.

Solarium pseudo-perspectivum, Brocchi
Turritella communis, Risso.

Utriculus obtusus, Montagu.

Patella vulgata, Linné.

Chiton marginatus, Pennant.

fascicularis, Linné.
siculus, Gray (New).

Anomia ephippium, Linné.
Ostrea edulis, Linné.

Cytherea chione, Linné.

Syndosmya tenuis, Montagu.

Saricava rugosa, Linné.

Corbula gibba, Olivi.

[(New).

For the determination of the more critical forms I am indebted to

Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys.

29, GRAFTON STREET, FITZROY SQUARE.

ALFRED BELL.

DISCOVERY OF BOS PRIMIGENIUS IN THE LOWER BOULDERCLAY OF SCOTLAND.

SIR, Mr. Geikie, in reply to my note on the above subject (in the October Magazine), reads a lecture on my assumed ignorance of what constitutes Boulder-clay-the gratuitous assumption cannot alter the facts of the case in question. If a Glacier has deposited the beds of sand and earthy clay that fill two small basins that overlie the stratified bed, in which the Bos was found, it must have been very different from the one that preceded the stratified bed. The latter has left evidence of its passage on the rocks of the valley; the former has left none on the soft mud-bed, over which it must have passed-this stratified bed being as smooth and undisturbed, as if newly deposited in a quiet lake. Not wishing to enter into a controversy with Mr. Geikie, I merely point out this fact for his consideration. ROBERT CRAIG.

LANGSIDE, BEITH, Nov., 1868.