In the early part of 1900 I received from J. H. Ponsonby, Esq., a small collection of land molluses from N.W. Borneo, with a request that I would investigate and report upon the same. This collection, the property of the Sarawak Museum, proved, on examination, to contain examples of two new genera (Wiegmannia and Isselentia) of great interest. In the case of the former genus there were only two specimens, each belonging to a different species; and as more material was very desirable, Mr Ponsonby very kindly invited the authorities of the Museum to send over, if possible, a further collection. This, in due course, arrived, but contained duplicates of Isselentia only, the remaining specimens being all new species, excepting one, which proved to be the Damayantia dilecta of Issel, which, I believe, has not previously been found since described in 1874.

The size of the protegulum on the valves of Early Palaeozoic rhynchonelliform brachiopods has previously been used as a criterion to assign various taxa to either a planktotrophic or a lecithotrophic larval mode. A more reliable quantitative character is evaluated in juvenile samples of two genera from the Ordovician Mifflin Formation, the presumed planktotrophic orthid Doleroides pervetus and the presumed lecithotrophic atrypid Protozyga nicolleti, using the coefficient of variation in measurements of protegular size. The Doleroides sample has a significantly higher coefficient of variation than does the Protozyga sample. The results are in accord with observations on living marine invertebrates which indicate that at settlement (when mineralisation of the protegular mantle in brachiopods occurs), planktotrophic larval size is more variable than larval size in lecithotrophs because of fluctuations in food availability and duration of the planktonic phase. This result confirms that protegular size variance can be used to make inferences about larval trophic mode.

The distinguished French naturalist, Professor H. Milne Edwards, in the ninth volume of his valuable Lectures on Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, published only last year, when referring to the fœtal membranes in the Cetacea, states, that much information is still required to complete our knowledge of that subject.

It may perhaps be advisable, before I commence to describe the results arrived at by my recent dissections, to give a brief account of the observations made by previous inquirers into this department of anatomy, so that we may more clearly recognise wherein our deficiencies lie, and the direction in which our researches ought to be conducted, in order to render our information as complete as possible.

The Kenmore inlier exposes the most intensely deformed part of a major Laxfordian shear zone whose NE margin occurs at Diabaig, N of Loch Torridon. The Laxfordian (post-Scourie dyke) deformation commences with two very intense deformations D1 and D2, producing LS fabrics in dykes and gneisses associated with heterogeneous, locally very large, and typically prolate strains under amphibolite-facies metamorphism. D2 also produced widespread mesoscopic folds. The finite strain was measured at 135 localities using grain-aggregate shapes in Scourie dykes. The combined D1-D2 elongation lineation plunges gently to NW or SE, and the planar fabric appears to have been sub-horizontal before the D3 deformation, which produced NW-SE upright folds under retrogressive metamorphism.

The D1-D2 structure is attributed to a major sub-horizontal shear zone with a top-to-NW movement, a minimum vertical width of 2·5 km and estimated minimum displacement of c. 19 km. The upper (NE) wall of the shear zone at Diabaig exhibits dextral-normal (NE-down) D1 movements. The D2 structures are attributed to superimposition of sub-horizontal movements on earlier inclined D1 fabrics as the shear zone evolves. The D3 refolding reflects a change to a dextral transpressive regime.

Mass balance equations are derived which link the ratios Ts/ (suspended load/dissolved load from chemical weathering) and Tb/Ts (bed load/suspended load), with any two geochemical components present in the source rock and the alluvial system. If the dissolved load is unknown the ratios can be estimated from the relatively insoluble silica and alumina. The ratio Ts/, which for large river basins depends on climate and relief, can thus potentially be determined from ancient alluvial sequences.

The equations help define the source composition of a group of 13 modern rivers for which Ts, and alluvial geochemistry are known. These rivers together drain 27% of the continental surface. For a source area with the average continental sandstone to shale ratio of 0·6 the observed average value of Ts/ is obtained when limestone, sandstone and shale are present in the proportions 6·7:21·6:35·7. The figure of 64% sediment in the source area is very similar to the 66% determined by Blatt and Jones (1975) from geological maps of the continents. The equations also show that average bed load transport rate into these 13 basins is about 27% of total transport, and into the Amazon basin about 37%. Bed load transport rates out of the basins, into the sea, are relatively very small.

Recent advances in marine acoustic survey and land-based topographic monitoring technologies have resulted in increasingly cost-effective data acquisition in coastal areas. The DEFRA-funded National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes of England are, for example, utilising swath bathymetry and airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology more routinely to survey the coastal zone around the coastline of England. The demand for data processing, visualisation and interpretation techniques to keep pace with such advances in data acquisition is clear. This study discusses collection and processing techniques for such data on the south coast of Dorset, England, which have enabled the production of a seamless, high spatial resolution digital elevation model across the coastal zone. Case studies demonstrate how this elevation model can be viewed and analysed using state-of-the-art digital techniques to allow geological mapping to be extended from onshore to offshore in unprecedented detail, effectively eliminating what is known as the ‘White Ribbon’ for coastal geological mapping. The potential for rolling out such techniques for wider surveying programmes across many environmental disciplines is significant, which could contribute towards improving the multi-disciplinary scientific evidence base in the complex coastal zone.

The Lower Permian of the Haushi basin, Interior Oman (Al Khlata Formation to Saiwan Formation/lower Gharif member) records climate change from glaciation, through marine sedimentation in the Haushi sea, to subtropical desert. To investigate the palaeoclimatic evolution of the Haushi Sea we used O, C, and Sr isotopes from 31 brachiopod shells of eight species collected bed by bed within the type-section of the Saiwan Formation. We assessed diagenesis by scanning electron microscopy of ultrastructure, cathodoluminescence, and geochemistry, and rejected fifteen shells not meeting specific preservation criteria. Spiriferids and spiriferinids show better preservation of the fibrous secondary layer than do orthotetids and productids and are therefore more suitable for isotopic analysis. δ18O of −3·7 to −3·1℅ from brachiopods at the base of the Saiwan Formation are probably related to glacial meltwater. Above this, an increase in δ18O may indicate ice accumulation elsewhere in Gondwana or more probably that the Haushi sea was an evaporating embayment of the Neotethys Ocean. δ13C varies little and is within the range of published data: its trend towards heavier values is consistent with increasing aridity and oligotrophy. Saiwan Sr isotope signatures are less radiogenic than those of the Sakmarian LOWESS seawater curve, which is based on extrapolation between few data points. In the scenario of evaporation in a restricted Haushi basin, the variation in Sr isotope composition may reflect a fluvial component.

Regional scale biotite and cordierite-bearing granites (s.l.) in the Variscan of the Central Iberian Zone (CIZ) are spatially closely associated with cordierite-rich nebulites and cordierite-bearing two-mica granites, and with cordierite-rich high grade hornfelses and cordieritites (>60% cordierite) that are relatively common in the aureoles of these granites. Building on published field evidence, petrological data are presented which, combined with new chemical and isotopic (Sr–Nd) modelling, indicate that the cordierite-bearing granites cannot be derived by simple anatexis of regional sedimentary protoliths; but the data are consistent with a process of reactive assimilation that involves the interaction of biotite granite magma with high-grade host rocks ranging from cordierite nebulites to andalusite-bearing cordieritites. The contribution of the postulated cordierite-rich contaminants to the diversity of cordierite granite compositions is modelled using the compositions of regional Lower Cambrian–Upper Neoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks that are generally chemically mature (CaO very rarely exceeds 1·4%). These rocks include specific horizons in which extreme chemical alteration is attributable to sediment reworking during eustatic falls in sea level. Such compositions may account for the presence of the high concentrations in Al that later produced cordieritites. Fractional crystallisation is also important, particularly in generating the more evolved cordierite granite and cordierite biotite muscovite granite compositions. Although assimilation in situ is normally regarded as a minor contributor volumetrically to evolving plutons, in this instance the emplacement of large volumes of granite magma into a high-T–low-P environment significantly increased the potential for reactive assimilation.

Although many European cities use urban aquifers for water supply, groundwater from shallow urban aquifers is not widely exploited. Nevertheless, shallow urban groundwater is a key environmental resource – for example, in maintaining healthy urban river flows and attenuating some pollutants – and it can also be a threat, such as through groundwater flooding. However, shallow urban groundwater is frequently overlooked or ineffectively managed, in large part because it is often poorly understood. This paper demonstrates the need to improve understanding of the shallow groundwater system in a city where shallow groundwater is not widely abstracted and, consequently, relatively little groundwater data exist. Like many UK cities, Glasgow is underlain by complex unconsolidated Quaternary deposits, which form a heterogeneous shallow aquifer system that has been extensively impacted by urban activities, typical of a former industrial city. Balancing the potential benefits and risks of shallow groundwater in Glasgow requires a better understanding of Quaternary hydrogeology in order to support the transition to a more sustainable city. This paper presents an improved conceptual model of Glasgow's shallow groundwater system within a sequence of Quaternary deposits in the Clyde valley, drawing heavily on data collected during major site investigations for land development in the city. Postglacial Quaternary sediments in Glasgow form an elongate, variably thick (up to 30m) and variably permeable aquifer system. Aquifer units with high permeability and high storage capacity are partially separated by lower permeability, but still hydrogeologically active, units. Groundwater in the system is hydraulically connected with the River Clyde. Groundwater flow occurs both longitudinally down-valley and convergent from the edge of the valley aquifer towards the river. There has been extensive anthropogenic alteration to the urban surface and shallow subsurface, which has modified the natural physical and chemical groundwater system. Pollution associated with historical industry has also extensively impacted the quality of Quaternary groundwater.

The 1800 km-long Aleutian archipelago represents a model ecosystem to track human–environmental interactions across space and through time. Defining the southern margin of Beringia across which much of the early peopling of the Americas occurred, the Aleutians present a 9000 year record of human occupation in the eastern part of the island chain, and more than 3000 years in the west. Molecular evidence demonstrates: (1) that Aleuts shared common ancestry with Chukchi and Siberian Eskimos of Chukotka; (2) the original patterns of migration into the Aleutian islands were from the Alaskan peninsula in a westward direction with no evidence for island-hopping from Kamchatka; and (3) a highly significant statistical relationship between geography and genetics, based on mtDNA sequences, was observed despite previous population disruption. Historically, the Aleutian region is a rich ecotone, with ocean fisheries, abundant populations of large marine mammals, thick kelp forests, complex near-shore ecosystems and intertidal zones, spawning streams, and a highly diverse avian fauna. Each of these environments and resources has been pivotal in shaping the adaptive strategies of human occupants of the island chain since the initial colonisation of the Aleutians from the Alaskan Peninsula. In turn, Holocene human immigration, prehistoric cultural adaptations and subsequent historic events have had reciprocal impacts on the natural systems of the Aleutians.

The remarkable fossil fish which forms the subject of the present communication belonged originally to the late Mr Powrie of Reswallie, and was acquired, along with the rest of his collection, by the Edinburgh Museum in 1892.

The specimen was obtained by Mr Powrie in a quarry of the Lower Old Red Sandstone at Turin Hill, near Forfar.

In his monograph on the Fossil Cephalaspidœ of Great Britain, published in 1870, (p. 41), Professor E. Ray Lankester refers in the following terms to the specimen in question:—

“A very remarkable specimen of shagreen-like structure has been discovered by Mr Powrie in Forfarshire, in beds which have furnished Cephalaspis. As I have not been able to assign it to Cephalaspidian fishes, though it may possibly, be connected with them, I only allude to it here. It consists of a surface covered with minute spinous tubercles, the whole having the appearance of a fossilised piece of shagreen, and its shape is more or less that of a Cephalaspid, with head and body.

While congratulating the authors for the wealth of geochemical data on a very important Precambrian lithological assemblage of India, known commonly as khondalites, which constitute a major part of the Eastern Ghats mobile belt bordering the eastern fringes of the Indian Peninsula, we have a few comments to offer on the hypothesis propounded by the authors (Dash et al. 1987).

A Summary is given of the field relations, geographical distribution and petrography of twenty-nine dolerite plugs associated with the Tertiary lava plateau of north-east Ireland. All but two of the plugs are composed of olivine dolerite. The exceptions are a pyroxene-rich dolerite and a tholeiitic type containing abundant chlorophæite. Trace-element determinations have been made on specimens from thirteen of the plugs.

Slight but definite chemical differences are shown to exist between the olivine-dolerites and the average Tertiary olivine-basalt lava of the area. The petrogenetic relationships of the two are briefly considered.

The dental morphology of the pycnodontid fish †Stemmatodus rhombus (Agassiz, 1844) from the Lower Cretaceous (lower Barremian) of southern Italy is described in detail. SEM pictures of vomerine and prearticular teeth are provided for the first time allowing the comparison with other Early Cretaceous pycnodonts, which are only known from isolated dental remains. The dentition of †Stemmatodus rhombus consists of incisiform grasping teeth on the paired premaxillae and dentaries and crushing teeth on the unpaired vomer and paired prearticulars. The vomerine teeth are arranged in five longitudinal rows, which display symmetry with a distinct median principal and two lateral rows. The prearticular bears three longitudinal rows. Teeth of the main row are much wider than those of the lateral ones. The tooth crowns are rather flat and expose a shallow apical depression, which is surrounded by a ring of widely-spaced small tubercles. The ornamentation and arrangement of teeth distinguishes dentitions of †Stemmatodus from all other pycnodonts. The wear pattern of the teeth is evaluated and the significance of the dental morphology in pycnodont taxonomy is discussed. In addition, the systematic position of †Stemmatodus is discussed.

The first and second parts of this work (7, 8), on the skeleton and muscles respectively, were published in the Transactions of the Society for 1905 and 1907. The third part would naturally have related to the viscera, and this, in fact, is in active preparation, but it is first necessary to amplify the description of the skeleton. Figs. 1 and 2 in my first part were based on dissections, which were executed very carefully, and the results checked by the examination of serial sections. It is, however, peculiarly difficult, and especially so in Myxine, to preserve the natural relations of the parts, and these drawings therefore exhibit the defects incidental to the method by which they were prepared. I mean by this, not that they are inaccurate, but that the interrelationships of the parts could not be faithfully represented. Quite apart from this, however, it became necessary to re-draw these figures.

The original, plan of the Shackleton Expedition, had it been realised, would have yielded geological results of no little value. The base would have been on Coats Land, and next in importance to crossing the Antarctic continent was the projected geological sledging trip across the Wilhelm Barrier, westwards from the head of the Weddell Sea to the southern. continuation of Graham Land. Had it been carried out, it would of course have settled finally the relationship of Graham Land to the rest of Antarctica. The besetment and destruction of the Endurance, however, put an end to the original plan, and no landing was ever made either on the eastern or on the southern side of the Weddell Sea.

Much study has already been devoted to the plumage of birds and its development, and the extensive literature to which this study has given rise might at first sight make it appear that no room is left for any new contributions to a subject which has already attracted so many investigators. The special branches of the subject, however, which have attracted most attention, have been:—(1) The histology of developing feathers, to which Studer, Davies, Wohlauer, and Bornstein have contributed; (2) pigmentation, investigated by STRONG; and (3) more recently what may be called the continuity between early “down” and adult feathers, a condition which does not appear to have been clearly realised before Jones and Gadow published the results of their researches. Recently also Waterston and Geddes, working on the embryology and anatomy of the Penguin, have touched incidentally on the appearance of down-papillæ and down at successive embryonic stages in the Penguin and the Duck; but, covering a wider field of research, they have not devoted to feather development in particular that careful observation and detailed study which the interest of the subject and the deficiencies of our knowledge appear to warrant.

The ultrabasic rocks of the southern portion of the Early Tertiary Cuillin Igneous Complex, Isle of Skye, are recognised as forming a Peridotite Series s.l. and have been separated into six distinct structural–lithological units. These units range from almost pure dunite (Unit 1, at the lowest structural level), through to feldspathic peridotites and allivalites (Units 5 and 6, at the highest structural levels). Detailed field and mineralogical studies indicate that both cumulus and postcumulus processes involving ultrabasic (picritic) magmas may be identified, and that the latter processes have significantly modified many of the primary features of these rocks.

Layering, both modal and phase, is present within all six units, although it is more prominent within the higher units, especially Units 5 and 6. Differing orientations of fabrics defined by cumulus spinel and intercumulus plagioclase layers within Unit 3 indicate the important role of compaction and intercumulus melt migration. Unit 4 is extremely heterogeneous, involving material ranging in composition from peridotite to allivalite, and provides clear evidence for postcumulus melt movement, magma-mixing, disruption and brecciation. Units 5 and 6 developed with a more porous cumulus framework, giving rise to dendritic growths involving cumulus olivine and poikilitic plagioclase.

It is concluded that postcumulus melt movement, injection and magma-mixing, involving ultrabasic magmas, were significant processes in the formation of the ultrabasic rocks of the Cuillin Igneous Complex.

The first two parts of this paper—Physical Geography and Salinity—were communicated to the Society on May 18th, 1891, and published in the Transactions, Vol. XXXVI, Part III., No. 23, pp. 641–729.

Various circumstances have prevented me from sooner presenting the concluding part of the discussion. I postponed publication again and again, in the hope that it might be possible to discuss the results more thoroughly, and deduce from them more clearly than I have been able to do the laws which regulate the heat-transactions of sea-water of varying salinity, contained in basins of differing degrees of isolation from the circulation of the ocean. At length the conclusion has been arrived at that the observations are not sufficiently uniform, regular, and close to warrant the expenditure of the time devoted to their discussion. Many months of work have been occupied in proving that some special manner of classifying and treating the data led to no definite result. Thus, it is unnecessary to describe several series of voluminous calculations, or to bring forward a great number of maps and sections on which the distribution of temperature was plotted in different ways. It is difficult to establish theoretical conclusions of a general and far-reaching kind from my work, and I have not attempted to compare it with the many memoirs published in continental journals, on the temperature of lakes, fjords, and enclosed seas.

Sediments of Carboniferous age occur in Kintyre in the district between the high ground of Southern Kintyre and the ridge of Northern Kintyre. The low ground stretching from Machrihanish to near Campbeltown is known as the Laggan of Kintyre. The Laggan runs in a series of terraces from the Atlantic to within a mile of Campbeltown, where the terraces give place to higher rounded knolls rising to a general height of 200 feet, and separated from each other by the highest raised beach. The chief platform in this plain is formed by the Machrihanish Water and its tributaries, the Backs and Chiscan Waters, and on both sides of this platform are the three terraces separating the 25-foot, 50-foot, and 100-foot raised beaches from each other and from the alluvial plain of the rivers. The 100-foot beach runs a considerable distance up the valleys leading to the higher ground to the north and south of the Laggan. To the extreme west, 3½ miles of sand dunes, higher than the plain behind them, give slight protection to the greatest stretch of cultivated land in Kintyre. Near the centre of the plain is a circular peat moss known as the Durry Moss.