Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/650

468 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 27, which very considerably exceeds that of the same bone in either R. tichorhinus or R. hemitoechus, whilst it is quite in proportion with that of the metacarpal above described.

I have carefully surveyed the other bones in the Oreston Collection, but think it unnecessary to say more concerning them than that they seem to me to be all in accordance, as regards proportions, with the metacarpal and metatarsal, hoping that what I have ventured to remark concerning those bones and the teeth will be enough to establish the proposition with which I started.

Discussion.

The Chairman remarked that at one time the Oreston Rhinoceros was referred to R. tichorhinus, but that Buckland, although mentioning the Rhinoceros, never gave it a specific name. The Chairman also said that the Oreston fissures were not caves, but mere fissures which had been filled in ; an entire skeleton occurred at one spot, and the animal must have fallen in.

Mr. Boyd Dawkins had been struck by the non-tichorhine character of the Oreston specimens some years since. He confirmed Prof. Busk's determination, and remarked that five British species of Rhinoceros are known, namely : — 1. R. Schleiermacheri, from the Red Crag of Suffolk (in the Miocene at Darmstadt) ; 2. R. etruscus, from the Forest Bed = R. Merckii (Von Meyer) ; 3. R. megarhinus (Christol) = R. leptorhinus (Cuv.) ; but the latter name includes also R. etruscus and R. hemitoechus ; so that the adoption of De Christol's name gets rid of a difficulty ; 4. R. hemitoechus ; and, 5. R. tichorhinus = R. antiquitatis (Blum.).

Prof. Busk, in reply, stated that Oreston was a fissure -cavern, and noticed the successive openings in 1816, 1821, and 1826. He did not agree with Mr. Boyd Dawkins in preferring the name megarhinus to Cuvier's leptorhinus. He did not know of the occurrence of two species of Rhinoceros at Oreston.

2. On two Gneissoid Series in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, supposed to be the Equivalents of the Huronian (Cambrian) and Laurentian. By Henry Youle Hind, Esq., M.A.

(Communicated by Professor Ramsay, F.R.S., F.G.S.)

[Plate XXX.]

Contents.

I. Introduction.

II. General Sketch of the Distribution of the supposed Huronian and Laurentian Series.

III. Sequence of Formations. The Upper Silurian. The Lower Silurian, including the Gold-bearing Rocks.

IV. The Cambrian, or Huronian Series.

V. The Laurentian Series. The Eozoon canadense (?). Cape-Breton Island.

VI. Relation of the Gold-districts to the Gneissic Areas.