.58 Oeological Society. Soluble in acid . . 44^1 Insoluble in acid 55|# per cent, per cent. 63 tA carbonate' of lime. 63H-f silica. It onlj remains for me to express my hope of being able, on a future occasion, to enter more fully into the various remarkable changes which are observable in the materials enclosed within both the perfectly and the only partially closed nodular cham-bers. I also hope to be able to furnish a series of perfected analyses of the solid materials, and of that most interesting portion of the sealed-up nodular contents — namely, the water handed down to us from that grand old ocean, — all these details being inseparably connected with the flint-question as a whole. June 16, 1881. PROCEEDINGS OF LEAENED SOCIETIES. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. May 11, 1881.— Robert Etheridge, Esq., E.R.S., President, in the Chair, The following communications were read : — 1. " Notes on the Eish-remains of the Bone-bed at Aust, near Eristol, with the Description of some new Genera and Species." By James W. Davis, Esq., E.S.A., F.G.S. The fossil fishes described in this paper are from the Rhsetic bed at Aust Passage, The stratum containing the fish-remains is rarely more than 9 inches thick, often considerably less, and is composed of rounded masses of hardened clay or marl, which, at the time of their deposition, were soft enough to receive the impressions of the coprolites and fish-remains. There are large numbers of coprolites and bones of fishes, as well as some remains of Saurians, mingled with each other indiscriminately. The fishes belong to the orders Plagiostomi and Ganoidei, some of the former being of considerable size. It is inferred, from the intermixture of Saurians and fishes, that the deposit is the result of shallow water existing near land, in which the fishes lived and the Saurians occasionally disported themselves. Besides the fossil remains of the animals which lived during the deposition of the Aust beds, there are also others which appear to have been derived from the Mountain Limestone and the Coal-measures, representing such genera as Psammodus, PscpJiodus, Belodus, and Ctenoptycliius. Fossil teeth of these genera occur scattered rather sparingly through the mass ; they are very perfectly preserved, and
BioStor
