Fossils have been known to occur in the early “post-Caledonian” sediments of Cowie Harbour, Stonehaven, for more than sixty years. Dr R. Campbell (1911, 1912 a, b, 1913) gave an account of the stratigraphy and recorded a number of fossils, including plant-fragments, arthropods (subsequently discussed by Steamer, 1934, 1935), and fishes (Traquair, 1912; Kiaer and Heintz, 1932 a; Heintz, 1939). The fossinferous “Dictyocaris-band,” exposed on the tidal foreshore, has been visited repeatedly by members of this department, who have collected a considerable quantity of fragmentary remains. During the last few years interesting new forms have been obtained by Dr F. H. Stewart, by the writer, and by senior and research students. Faunal lists and a discussion of the age of the beds occur later in this paper. The Dictyocaris-band outcrops also in the Tewel Burn. A cephalaspid scale from this section (Geol. Surv. Scot., T. 2738c and T. 2739c) is described below.

Late Yanshanian magmatism in SE China includes three stages of thermal event induced by the interaction between the continental margin of Eurasia and the paleo-Pacific plate during the Cretaceous period. Products of syn-orogenic magmatism (130–110 Ma) include high-Al gabbros (HAG), and gneissic tonalite, trondhjemite and granodiorite (TTG), which intruded into the deep basement (18–24 km). Rocks of the post- and an-orogenic magmatism are shallow-level (6–8 km) I-type granitoids (110–99 Ma), and miarolitic A-type granites plus rhyolite-dominate bimodal volcanics (94–81 Ma), respectively. Geochemically, HAG and TTG belong to the medium-K calc-alkaline affinity with high Sr/Y, whereas other granitoids are mainly high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic rocks with low Sr/Y. Sr and Nd isotope compositions suggest different sources of HAG and TTG from other rocks. Progressive depletions of Ba, Sr, Eu and P from I- to A-type granites reflect partial melting of felsic granulites from hydrous to dry conditions, whereas high Sr/Y in HAG and TTG are compatible with dehydration melting of amphibolites. Tectonic models which accommodate HAG and TTG may involve thickening of the lithosphere to convert the pre-existing lower-crust basic rocks into amphibolites. It was followed by basaltic underplating which is attributed to delamination of the thickened lithosphere and led to triggering of crust melting under exten

Ash-free-dry-weight determinations for a representative range of living brachiopod genera have revealed that a consistently high proportion of total organic mass is contained within the shell, partly as the organic matrix for biomineralisation and partly as minute extensions of the mantle tissues (caeca) housed within hollow endopunctae permeating the shell. On average 40% to 50% of the total organic mass of both articulate and inarticulate brachiopods is situated within the shell. This is true even for a rhynchonellid brachiopod which does not possess endopunctae, but which has a more dense protein matrix in its shell. The effectively hidden constituent of brachiopod tissue mass which is included in this component has often been overlooked, and as a result total metabolic tissue mass has been underestimated. This throws into question some previous interpretations of brachiopod respiratory and metabolic data.

The oxygen consumption rates of several living brachiopods have been measured, and when respiring tissue in caeca in the shell is taken into consideration, it is clear that brachiopod metabolic rates are low when compared with other marine invertebrates (e.g. between 10% and 50% of the oxygen uptake of comparable gastropods and bivalve molluscs held in similar conditions). This low rate cannot be attributed to a slower pumping rate by the brachiopod lophophore, as has been suggested, because the rate of water movement is comparable to that across the bivalve gill.

Nitrogen excretion rates have also been measured for a few living brachiopods, allowing a comparison with rates of oxygen consumption and providing an indication of the metabolic substrates used. These data on oxygen: nitrogen ratios suggest that one Antarctic brachiopod utilises exclusively protein as a metabolic substrate, while a temperate latitude species uses mainly protein during winter but lipids and carbohydrates during summer months. Histological observations, particularly of Terebratulina retusa from temperate waters, show that a specialised tissue layer in the brachiopod outer mantle epithelium proximal to the shell may be the site of storage of the protein that is metabolised during winter, and of carbohydrate mobilised during gonadal development in summer. The caeca have also been suggested as sites of storage of metabolites, and the possible relationships between these areas of mantle are discussed. It seems that the ability to store nutrients in the mantle, combined with flexibility of substrate utilisation and an inherently low metabolic rate, have been important factors in brachiopod evolution.

Three new genera and seventeen new species of trilobites from the Flags with Valcourea confinis (Salter) of the Girvan District are described and named, and thirty-six species are figured. The genera constitute a normal Middle Ordovician assemblage for the Girvan District; none of the species is known elsewhere. There is a close resemblance to the fauna of the Lower Edinburg Formation of the Appalachian Valley of the U.S.A., and many of the generic stocks are known earlier only from the Chazy and Lincolnshire Formations of North America.

Dr James Hutton was the son of Mr William Hutton, merchant in Edinburgh, and was born in that city on the 3d of June 1726. His father, a man highly respected for his good sense and integrity, and who for some years held the office of City Treasurer, died while James was very young. The care of her son's education devolved of course on Mrs Hutton, who appears to have been well qualified for discharging this double portion of parental duty. She resolved to bestow on him a liberal education, and sent him first to the High School of Edinburgh, and afterwards to the University, where he entered as a student of humanity in November, 1740.

My object in this paper is not, as the title might suggest, to give a comparative study of the fresh-water lochs of Scotland from the point of view of temperature. I had hoped at one time that this would be possible, and I may again return to this part of the subject of lake temperatures; but the more I have considered the question the more am I convinced that such a comparative study from the observations at my disposal would be based on assumptions too fundamental and too uncertain to make the conclusions reached of any great value. Consider the factors which go to produce variations of temperature as they are given by Professor Forel. Briefly, these are the indirect action of the sun in heating up the atmosphere and the surroundings of the loch, radiation from the loch, the effect of warm or cold water brought into the loch by rivers and by rain.

Approximately 700 samples from five slate, three marble and five quartzite units have been analysed for 26 elements to determine the use of geochemistry in stratigraphic correlation. Statistical treatment of the data has established that for all the slates and marbles, and certain of the quartzites, geochemistry is a viable method of distinguishing units of similar lithology. The most useful elements for distinguishing the four main slate units are P, Cr. Zn, Cu and, to a lesser extent, Rb, Sr, Y, Nb, Ba, La and Ce. Sr may indicate climatic changes or variable organic activity. The three marble units were considered as three limestone and three dolostone types. Dolostones are distinguished by high insoluble residue contents and the elements that distinguish between the dolostones are heavily influenced by these. Limestones, however, have very large differences in Sr. SiO2, Al2O3, K2O, Cr, Mn, Cu, Rb, Sr, Y and Zr have been used in discrimint function analysis. These parameters are strongly controlled by the insoluble residue with Al2O3, K2O, Cr and Rb being correlated with shaley impurities and SiO2, TiO2 and Zr with sandy impurities. Sr, Pb, Y and Zn, and to a lesser extent S and Mn, appear to be associated with the carbonate fraction.

The quartzites were found to be of three major types: (1) a very variable deltaic deposit (Appin Quartzite Formation), (2) marine bodies of immature quartz sands (Glen Coe and Eilde Quartzite formations) and (3) highly mature quartz sands (Binnein Quartzite Formation and northerly outcrops of the Glen Coe Quartzite Formation). It is possible to distinguish these three types on the basis of some trace elements (Zn, Rb, Sr, Y, Ba, La, Ce) but it is not feasible to distinguish between the Glen Coe and Eilde quartzites purely on geochemistry. The Eilde Flags, an immature estuarine sandstone, has a geochemistry intermediate between that of the quartzites and the pelites, although with higher CaO, Zr and Ba than either.

Viscosities of liquid albite (NaAlSi3O8) and a Himalayan leucogranite were measured near the glass transition at a pressure of one atmosphere for water contents of 0, 2·8 and 3·4 wt.%. Measured viscosities range from 1013·8 Pa. s at 935 K to 109·0 Pa. s at 1119 K for anhydrous granite, and from 1010·2 Pa. s at 760 K to 1012·9 Pa. s at 658 K for granite containing 3·4 wt.% H2O. The leucogranite is the first naturally occurring liquid composition to be investigated over the wide range of T-X(H2O) conditions which may be encountered in both plutonic and volcanic settings. At typical magmatic temperatures of 750°C, the viscosity of the leucogranite is 1011·0 Pa. s for the anhydrous liquid, dropping to 106·5 Pa. s for a water content of 3 wt.% H2O. For the same temperature, the viscosity of liquid NaAlSi3O8 is reduced from 1012·2 to 106·3 Pa. s by the addition of 1·9 wt.% H2O. Combined with published high-temperature viscosity data, these results confirm that water reduces the viscosity of NaAlSi3O8 liquids to a much greater degree than that of natural leucogranitic liquids. Furthermore, the viscosity of NaAlSi3O8 liquid becomes substantially nonArrhenian at water contents as low as 1 wt.% H2O, while that of the leucogranite appears to remain close to Arrhenian to at least 3 wt.% H2O, and viscosity–temperature relationships for hydrous leucogranites must be nearly Arrhenian over a wide range of temperature and viscosity. Therefore, the viscosity of hydrous NaAlSi3O8 liquid does not provide a good model for natural granitic or rhyolitic liquids, especially at lower temperatures and water contents.

Qualitatively, the differences can be explained in terms of configurational entropy theory because the addition of water should lead to higher entropies of mixing in simple model compositions than in complex natural compositions. This hypothesis also explains why the water reduces magma viscosity to a larger degree at low temperatures, and is consistent with published viscosity data for hydrous liquid compositions ranging from NaAlSi3O8 and synthetic haplogranites to natural samples. Therefore, predictive models of magma viscosity need to account for compositional variations in more detail than via simple approximations of the degree of polymerisation of the melt structure.

Since we had the pleasure of working out the Mollusca obtained by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, Dr W. S. Bruce has kindly transmitted to our care some additional material, overlooked in the first instance, and taken (a) from deposits from jars in which Sponges were placed; (b) from Algæ and other growths, principally coming from Scotia Bay; and (c) from a new species of Cephalodiscus.

My dear Sir,

As I see by a notice in your Journal, No. 13., which has just reached my hands, that your attention has been occupied by the phenomena of Coloured Flames, and the Absorption of Coloured Light by Diaphanous Bodies; and that you have been successful in the very valuable discovery of a manageable flame, discharging a homogeneous yellow light of an invariable character, I shall perhaps be excused, while the contents of your paper are unknown to me more particularly, for stating some phenomena Which I have myself observed, relative to this highly interesting department of physical optics.

Palynological investigations were made at two sites in south-west Scotland where peat bogs overlying late Quaternary marine clays and sands were dated by reference to the established British pollen zonation. The “25 foot” shoreline was formed during late Zone VI and early VIIa near Dumfries (c. 8100 to 6600 years B.P.), while the “50 foot” beach near Campbeltown has been referred to Zone III (ending c. 10,000 years B.P.). Close-interval analysis of the upper sections of the pollen diagrams has allowed the recognition of human interference with the vegetation. Minor short-term changes in Zone VI have been tentatively referred to Mesolithic activities, while from Neolithic times (Zone VIIb) onwards there is evidence for an increasingly effective modification of the natural environment. The pollen diagrams allow some conclusions to be drawn about the types of farming (including cereal cultivation) which were characteristic of the settlements near Dumfries and in south Kintyre.

A major transcurrent fault in the zone of the Iapetus suture in eastern Ireland separates Ordovician (pre-Ashgill) terranes. The stratigraphy of each terrane belongs to a dismembered volcanic arc system: the northern terrane is characterised by acid plinian eruptions and derivative sediments which are displaced relative to the andesitic southern terrane volcanism. Each was a separate palaeoenvironment with its own lithostratigraphical character and faunal elements which were juxtaposed across the fault. However, the late Ashgill to Silurian sediments in both terranes form part of a regional overstep sequence which links across the suture zone, such that the palaeogeographical contrasts were eliminated by the Silurian. The inference is that the detached terranes were gradually amalgamated by late Ordovician transtensional movements. This occurred when regional scale subduction-related volcanism had ended. Final assembly by early Devonian sinistral transpressive movements juxtaposed a northern terrane, akin to the Lake District/SE Ireland calcalkaline volcanic province, with a southern terrane in the tholeiitic province of eastern Ireland. As distinct from a singular fault trace, the Iapetus suture is regarded as a 100 km wide zone of anastomosing late Caledonian transcurrent faults whose precursors were active during late Ordovician (i.e. Taconic) terrane amalgamation.

The stem turtle Eileanchelys waldmani is known from the Bathonian deposits of the Kilmaluag Formation, Isle of Skye, Scotland. A description of all the currently available material, including several skulls and shells, is provided herein. Eileanchelys waldmani is characterised by a mosaic of plesiomorphic and derived features. The former include a flat vomer, a reduced posterior extension of the pterygoid, the absence of flooring of the cavum acustico-jugulare, the absence of proper recessus scalae tympani, wide vertebral scales, a vertebral 3–4 sulcus on neural 6, a pair of mesoplastra meeting medially, and platycoelous cervical vertebrae. Derived features include a prefrontal–vomer contact, an elongate postorbital skull, a well-developed antrum postoticum, and a slender processus interfenestralis of the opisthotic. Eileanchelys waldmani also possesses unique features such as a possible ninth neural or supernumerary suprapygal of unusual shape, as well as a broad first suprapygal that contacts the peripherals laterally. Additionally, E. waldmani documents the evolution of the vomer and basicranium from basalmost turtles to the crown-group.

For the opportunity of examining these specimens I am indebted to Dr W. S. Bruce, the leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902–1904. I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to him, and also to Dr Marett Tims for his assistance during the preparation of the paper.

The layered syenites in the Klokken intrusion consist of horizons of fine-grained, granular-textured ferroaugite syenite showing inverted cryptic layering, interleaved with coarser, laminated, more fractionated hedenbergite syenite. Distribution of hydrous mafic phases indicates build-up of water in parallel with magmatic evolution, and druses and pegmatitic segregations in the laminated syenites are evidence for late development of a gas phase. Feldspar bulk compositions are close to the minimum on the Ab-Or binary, with An decreasing from An7 to An1 with fractionation, and normal zoning in cryptoperthite crystals. Feldspars in granular syenites are transparent coherent cryptoperthites or braid microperthites; An-content is probably the main control of fine-perthite coarseness. Laminated syenite feldspars are turbid, coarse patch microperthites with rare relics of braid textures. This non-coherent coarsening was caused by interactions between feldspars and water entrapped at magmatic temperatures which was retained within the original lithologies to low subsolidus temperatures. Fe-Ti oxides reflect this water distribution, with regular trellis ilmenite-titanomagnetite intergrowths in less fractionated rocks and ragged granule exsolution in more advanced syenites. The sharp change in exsolution textures at granular-laminated syenite boundaries implies steep water-gradients within these interleaved rock types. Water was unable to penetrate the granular layers and did not circulate freely in the cooling intrusion.

The anatomy of the soft worms variously arranged under the Nemertean Order has, even in recent times, not been carried out with that completeness necessary for their thorough elucidation, a state of matters partly due to the confounding of the structure of one family with another, and predicating of the series what investigation has but proved in one group. Few British comparative anatomists have paid much attention to these animals; indeed, Dr George Johnston, Mr Harry Goodsir and Dr Thomas Williams, are the only three who have left researches of any moment on the subject. The observations of the first-mentioned naturalist were made many years ago, with the aid of inferior instruments, and, though conscientious enough, are very meagre and unsatisfactory; and those of Dr Williams, while also showing the defects just noted, bear evident traces of imagination. Mr H. Goodsir's interpretation of structures was, from his limited observations, likewise very erroneous. On the Continent, again, the investigators have been more numerous, and a long list of distinguished names attest the interest which the subject has received at their hands.

The Clyde Plateau Lavas which are part of the Lower Carboniferous succession in the west of Scotland form the main mass of the Campsie Hills in Stirlingshire and the Kilpatrick Hills in Dunbartonshire. Below the lavas at the western end of the Campsie Hills are cement-stones and sandstones of the Ballagan Series. These are the lowest beds of the Carboniferous in this area, and in places are seen to overlie without apparent unconformity the Upper Old Red Sandstone. Few fossils have been found in them; the only plants so far recorded are Asterocalamites scrobiculatus Schloth. sp. and Alcicornopteris convoluta Kidst. (Walton, Weir and Leitch, 1938, p. 1345). All that may be said with certainty is that these beds are part of the Calciferous Sandstone Series and are probably the equivalent of the Cement-stone Group. In the Edinburgh area Alcicornopteris convoluta has been found at the base of the Cement-stone Group in beds which lie conformably on the Upper Old Red Sandstone. In the Kilpatrick Hills there are sandstones, shales and thin coal seams below the lavas in Glenarbuck and near the Loch Humphrey Burn. From the latter locality Scott (1924, p. 569) has recorded Calamopitys radiata Scott, C. zonata Kidston, Bilignea solida Kidst. and B. resinosa Scott, which were found in coarse volcanic ash.

Eldeceeon rolfei gen. et sp. nov. a primitive anthracosaur from the Brigantian of East Kirkton, Scotland, is described. Uniquely among non-mammalian tetrapods, its ribs are restricted to the anterior half of the presacral column. Eldeceeon lacks the diagnostic features of the two suborders of anthracosaur, the Anthracosauroideae and Seymouriamorpha, and may represent their sister group.

Morphological and physiological features indicate Metriorhynchidae as the only group of crocodylomorphs with a pelagic lifestyle. Some of these features have evolved convergently in several clades of tetrapods secondarily adapted to aquatic life. One striking feature of metriorhynchids as compared to other crocodylomorphs is the morphology of the pelvic region (i.e., ventrally deflected sacral ribs and reduced pelvic girdle), which increases significantly the depth of this region. This morphology, as a whole, resembles that of other viviparous Mesozoic marine reptiles not phylogenetically related to metriorhynchids. We tested two alternative hypotheses of reproductive strategies in this clade: oviparity vs. viviparity. Given the lack of direct evidence supporting one or the other, we explored the use of evidence that may disconfirm either of these hypotheses. Using this counter-inductive approach, we found no cases contradicting viviparity in metriorhynchids, except for their phylogenetic position as archosaurs. A survey of reproductive modes amongst amniotes depicts the evolutionary plasticity of the transition to viviparity, and a widespread occurrence among tetrapods secondarily adapted to a marine life. Assuming oviparity for metriorhynchids implies egg-laying out of the water. However, their postcranial morphology (i.e., features of fore and hind limbs, pelvic girdle, and tail) contradicts this possibility. In this context, we rejected oviparity for metriorhynchids.

The early developmental history of the ferret up to the present has not been made the subject of a detailed critical description. The early stages of certain other Carnivora have been described, and Professor Hill (1924) in the introduction to his paper, “The Early Development of the Cat,” gives a summary of the literature of the subject.

The only papers relating to the early development of the ferret are a short paper by Professor Robinson (1925) and four papers by Professor Mainland (1930, 1931a, 1931b, and 1932).