Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/639

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. April 27th, 1870.

Robert Logan Jack, Esq., of the Geological Survey of Scotland ; George Alexander Lebour, Esq., of the Geological Survey of England and Wales ; Coles Child, Esq., of the Palace, Bromley, S.E., and Harry Rivington, Esq., 22 Finsbury Square, N., were elected Fellows of the Society; and Prof. Joseph Szabo, of Pesth, was elected a Foreign Correspondent.

The following communications were read : —

1. On the Species of Rhinoceros whose Remains were found in a Fissure-cavern at Oreston in 1816. By George Busk, F.R.S., F.G.S.

In the year 1816, during the course of the quarrying of the lime- stone-rock at Oreston for the construction of the Plymouth Break-water, a cavernous fissure was opened, containing numerous more or less fragmentary remains of Rhinoceros, but none of any other animal.

Notice of this discovery was given by Mr. Whidbey, the engineer of the works, to Sir Joseph Banks, at whose instance the bones were submitted to Sir Everard Home for examination, by whom a short paper on the subject was communicated to the Royal Society, which was published in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1817.

This paper contains little more than a mere enumeration of the bones and teeth, which are all assigned to Rhinoceros ; and it was considered probable by Sir Everard Home that they belonged to three individuals.

In 1821 several other cavities in the limestone, of the same kind, were encountered, in one of which, amongst other mammalian remains, chiefly of Bear, a single tooth of Rhinoceros was met with, "lying apart from the rest;" this is described by Sir E. Home as the " fourth grinder from the front, right side, of the Single- horned Rhinoceros."

VOL. XXVI. PART I. 2 L