The collection of fossil corals from British Somaliland described in the following paper was made by Mr R. A. Farquharson, M.A., M.Sc., F.G.S., Government Geologist, during his survey of the country in 1923–24.

The first known fossil coral from Somaliland was collected in 1894–95, and in 1898–99 a collection of Jurassic, Eocene, Oligocene, and Pleistocene corals was made by Mr and Mrs Lort-Phillips, Miss Cole, Mr Aylmer, Miss Gillet, and Captain Marshall, and described by Professor Gregory, F.R.S. In 1907 Mr T. W. Vaughan described some Pleistocene and Recent corals from French Somaliland. A further large collection of Jurassic, Oligocene, and Pleistocene corals was made by Mr B. K. N. Wyllie, B.Sc., and Dr W. R. Smellie, both geologists on the staff of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and described in 1925 by Professor Gregory.

The fossil cockroaches (Blattodea), praying mantises (Mantodea) and earwigs (Demaptera) are described from the Insect Limestone (Priabonian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Three new species of cockroach are described in the family Ectobiidae – Phyllodromica protosardea sp. nov., Balta protosimilis sp. nov. and Malaccina? wightensis sp. nov. – and a further nine indeterminate species are presented (based on ten specimens). The only known specimen of praying mantis is described as Protohierodula crabbi gen. et sp. nov. in the family Manteidae, which constitutes the first record of Mantodea from the UK. The only known specimen of earwig is an incomplete juvenile belonging to the superfamily Forficuloidea.

In the fourth part of these researches, I described a new base produced by the action of sodium upon picoline, to which I gave the name of Parapicoline, because it has the same composition as picoline, although the circumstances of its formation appeared to show that it had been produced by the combination of two molecules of that substance, so that its true formula would be C12H14N2. Unfortunately, its high boiling point, and tendency to decompose when distilled, made it impossible to determine its vapour density, which afforded the only means of ascertaining whether this hypothesis was correct; and it was only assumed, because similar cases of polymerisation had been established beyond a doubt in the case of other classes of organic compounds. In the hope of obtaining a similar base of lower boiling point, and therefore better adapted to the necessary experiments, I have submitted pyridine to the action of sodium, and the results of the inquiry are contained in the following pages.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, attempts have been made recently to bring Œnotheran cytology into lino with the parasynaptic theory of meiosis. Boedijn (2, 3) has described a peculiar conjugation of the chromosomes which he identifies as parasynaptic; Kihara (23) prefers to suppose the “doppelketten” origin of chromosome rings, such as he has found in Rumex; while Darlington (7) has put forward an extension of Belling's (1) hypothesis of segmental interchange.

An in situ magnetic susceptibility survey of Unit 10 of the Eastern Layered Intrusion of the Isle of Rum, in a line perpendicular to the strike, was carried out as a guide to selecting sampling sites for subsequent laboratory magnetic studies. These laboratory studies indicate that the dominant magnetic phase is magnetite. An effective particle size of the magnetite was derived from the magnetic data: it was found that high concentrations (∼0·3%) of magnetite in the perioditites were achieved by the presence of fewer but larger particles. The regions of lower magnetite concentration (∼0·01%), which are mainly in the plagioclase-rich rocks, contain more abundant but smaller particles.

The variations in magnetic properties correlate with the abundance and inferred temperatures of formation of hydrothermal alteration minerals in the rocks. Petrographic observations indicate temperatures of alteration of 500–800°C in the olivine-rich peridodites in the lower part of the Unit, but of the order of 300°C in the plagioclase-rich rocks at the top of the Unit.

These relationships between magnetic mineralogy and hydrothermal alteration suggest that the magnetite was produced by olivine oxidation during hydrothermal alteration. It is proposed that variations in the magnetic properties of layered cumulate rocks may be used to map out variations in the temperature and intensity of hydrothermal fluid flow. The variations in the Unit 10 rocks studied are interpreted as indicating control of high-temperature hydrothermal fluid flow through them by contrast in permeability between brittle peridotites and quasiplastic plagioclase-rich rocks.

La Scotia a rapporté de son expédition au pôle sud une très importante collection d'Holothuries; nous remercions bien vivement M. W. S. Bruce de l'honueur qu'il nous a fait en nous en confiant l'étude.

Cette collection ne renferme pas moins de trente-quatre espèces, dont vingt et une, c'est à dire près des deux tiers, sont nouvelles. Cette proportion aurait été probablement plus grande, mais par suite de l'action de quelques agents conservateurs employés (formaldéhyde et acide acétique glacial) certains échantillons sont indéterminables: leurs corpuscules calcaires ayant été complètement dissous par les liquides acides. Pour la même raison nous avons décrit quelques nouvelles espèces sans pouvoir fournir daus la diagnose les caractères de leurs spicules. Mais la majeure partie des exemplaires et surtout ceux de grandes profondeurs sont en bon état et très bien préparés.

There is no department of natural science which is so defective in its general scheme of arrangement as mineralogy; and its sectional grouping is, if possible, still more defective.

Such correlations as are expressed by the terms, “the Micas,”—“the Felspars,”—“ the Garnets,” &c., are only admissible if the substances united in such groups are included under one general formula, and function in a more or less similar manner as rock-formers.

During the last half century, observations on the polarisation of the atmosphere were made by several eminent observers—by Arago, Delezenne, Babinet, and Zantedeschi; but no result of special importance was obtained till Arago made the great discovery that there existed in the atmosphere a point, or spot, in which there is no polarisation. At sunrise or sunset he found that this neutral point was 20° or 30° above the point opposite to the sun, or what we may call the Antisolar point. The name of Arago's neutral point has been given to this spot without polarisation. It is best seen after sunset. At St Andrews it is above the horizon all the day, between the middle of November and the end of January.

Two species of Tetraconodontinae dispersed in the early Late Miocene from Eurasia into Africa. Tetraconodontinae then became the dominant pigs in the African Late Miocene and Pliocene. Although the dispersal to Africa must have come from SW Asia, no Tetraconodontinae were known from the area dating from the time of this dispersal.

In this paper, a tetraconodontine tooth from the Nuri Yamut locality near AlÇitepe in European Turkey is described. In morphology, size and in geographical and stratigraphical position this tooth is close to a form that is ancestral to part of the African Tetraconodontinae. The tooth is assigned to cf. Conohyus giganteus, one of the species that dispersed to Africa.

The dispersals of these Tetraconodontinae seem to be more or less coeval with that of Hipparion and are assumed to be allowed for by a change in global climate.

During the revision of the Midlothian coalfield by the Geological Survey, special attention was directed to the plant remains occurring in the Millstone Grit, with the view of obtaining evidence bearing on the probable boundary line between the Upper and Lower Carboniferous rocks. Mr Tait collected a number of plants from certain horizons in this division of the Carboniferous system, which were submitted to Mr Kidston, F.R.S., for determination. Those from the lower part of the Millstone Grit were regarded by Mr Kidston as belonging to the Lower Carboniferous flora, and those from the upper portion, to the Upper Carboniferous flora. While carrying on his work in the field, Mr Tait found certain fossiliferous bands in the basal portion of the Millstone Grit, charged with lamellibranchs, brachiopods, and other marine organisms, and associated with Lower Carboniferous species of plants. These observations were of service in tracing the base line of the Upper Carboniferous rocks round a large part of the Midlothian basin. It ought to be clearly understood, however, that this boundary line is based solely on the evidence supplied by the plants and fishes as determined by Mr Kidston and Dr Traquair respectively.

A diverse millipede (diplopod) fauna has been recovered from the earliest Carboniferous (Tournaisian) Ballagan Formation of the Scottish Borders, discovered by the late Stan Wood. The material is generally fragmentary; however, six different taxa are present based on seven specimens. Only one displays enough characters for formal description and is named Woodesmus sheari Ross, Edgecombe & Clark gen. & sp. nov. The absence of paranota justifies the erection of Woodesmidae fam. nov. within the Archipolypoda. The diverse fauna supports the theory that an apparent lack of terrestrial animal fossils from ‘Romer's Gap' was due to a lack of collecting and suitable deposits, rather than to low oxygen levels as previously suggested.

The analogies existing between elements belonging to one “family,” such, for instance, as the nitrogen family or the sulphur family, have long been recognised, and are pointed out and insisted upon even in elementary textbooks; but the very important analogies existing between substances of different quantivalence are apt to be forgotten or overlooked. For illustrations of such analogies we may point to boron and silicon, elements closely resembling one another in themselves and also in their compounds,—differing, indeed, in little else but that the one is triad and the other tetrad. A similar relation exists between gold and platinum.

The elementary substances, sulphur and phosphorus, have many points of similarity: both fuse at a comparatively low temperature, both are transformed by heat into amorphous insoluble modifications, and both have anomalous vapour densities.

The Ordovician and Silurian successions between Falahill and Galashiels encompass six flysch-dominated formations: the Upper Ordovician Portpatrick and Shinnel Formations representing the Leadhills Group, the Llandovery Mindork, Garheugh, and Buckholm Formations together comprising the Gala Group, and a formation indeterminate of age within the Hawick Group. Southward ensialic andesitic volcanic arc and northward low- to medium-grade sialic sources contributed sediment, whilst ophiolitic and subduction-related sources made minor contributions. Deposition took place firstly, in a SE-migrating back-arc basin bordering the northerly source, the Laurentian continent. Subsequent NW-directed underthrusting led to formation out of the back-arc basin of an imbricate thrust stack which migrated southeastwards. Ultimately a foreland successor basin formed ahead of the rising thrust stack.

Flysch units are typically associated with linear outcrops of Moffat Shales which are the loci of major steep SE-translating reverse faults, two of which participate in a late-stage sinistral strike–slip duplex with large-scale imbrication. The faults divide the succession into a sequence of tectonostratigraphic blocks, successively younger to the SE. At least six of the ten blocks customarily recognised in the Southern Uplands, Blocks 3–8, are represented, some of which coincide with single or complete formations.

In the following paper ninety-eight rocks collected by Mr F. W. Anderson from the Tertiary lavas and intrusions on the south-eastern margin of the Vatnajökull, and from the Pleistocene and Recent lavas, tuffs and sediments of Kverkfjöll Eystri on the northern margin of the ice-sheet, are described. Interest in the geology of the Vatnajökull region has been revived by several recent expeditions.

The existence of active volcanoes under the Vatnajökull, and the eruptions that occasionally break through the ice-sheet, offer unexampled opportunities for the investigation of the peculiar igneous and sedimentary products which are the results of the contest between ice and volcanism, and for the solution of the “Palagonite Problem”, with which several authors have recently dealt.

For the parasites which form the subject of the present communication, I am indebted to my friend Professor Morrison Watson, who found them in a male specimen of Proteles cristatus, Sparrman, of whose myology he has since published an account. Before entering upon a description of the entozoon, it may be allowable to say a word or two with respect to its host, which is not an animal of everyday occurrence. It was first described a little more than a century ago by Sparrman, the Swedish traveller, as occurring in South Africa, where it is known to the farmers as the “grey jackal”; he gave it the name Viverra cristata. The only point in his description of any present interest is that its stomach “ had nothing but ants in it, or to speak more properly, the white termites,” which might be a valuable hint for any one who had the will and opportunity to investigate the life history of the parasite before us.

The glaciation of the South Orkneys is very similar in its general character to that of Graham Land, and it will be convenient, before going on to the detailed description, to give a short summary of already published accounts of the glaciers of that region.

The power of making such a representation of any object, as shall give a distinct idea of its form, is a faculty which artists possess in different degrees of perfection. The principal difficulty is, to get a first delineation of any subject; from this a copy may be made in various ways, with less exertion of talent than was required for the composition of the original.

Various geometrical and optical inventions have been proposed to assist the artist in making an outline of an object which he wishes to represent. The Reticulated Square and other contrivances, for placing every point of the thing to be represented in its proper place in the picture, belong to the first class; the Camera Obscura and the Camera Lucida to the second. When a design is to be copied, a different kind of contrivances will in general be more convenient. It is only of these that I propose to treat here.

So far as regards number of individuals, and their size, this is one of the largest collections of Ascidians brought back in recent years from Antarctic seas. It contains almost exactly the same number of species of Ascidiacea (Ascidiæ Simplices + Ascidiæ Compositæ) as the Discovery collection—viz. fifteen or sixteen—but whereas in the latter collection nearly all the species were represented by single specimens, in the Scotia collection most species can show long series of individuals—in all there are about two hundred specimens, as against the thirty-three brought home by the Discovery.

Ring complex granites of the Peruvian Batholith are tabular bodies with flat roofs emplaced by cauldron subsidence. Marginal precursory ring dykes extend upwards above roof level and a typical intrusion is “H”-shaped in cross-section. Advance of magma by repeated subsidence would give a ladder-shaped profile for such intrusions above the brittle-ductile transition. Close relationships exist between intrusion geometry, emplacement process and petrogenetic evolution. Initially a granodioritic magma chamber lay beneath the present erosion level, trapping a rising mass of dioritic magma. Expansion of granodioritic liquid resulted in the injection of microgranite and tuffisite cone sheets accompanied by roof uplift within a ring fault. Next, during subsidence within the ring fault, liquids from deeper levels in the underlying chamber rose by stoping along the outer margin of the fault to form a ring dyke. Prior to intrusion, this liquid was vertically zoned from rhyodacite downwards to diorite and these liquids became partially mixed during emplacement. Finally, granodioritic magma rose to the present level by subsidence of a roof slab bounded by the ring fault. The precursory ring structures preserve evidence of significant but transient events in the underlying chamber. Liquid differentiation may be significant in the evolution of many large plutons.

The first appearance of dinosaurs during the early Late Triassic coincided with marked faunal changes in terrestrial ecosystems. Most of the major groups of extant tetrapods (or their proximate sister-taxa), including mammaliaforms, crocodyliform archosaurs, lepidosaurs and turtles, also first appeared in the fossil record during the Late Triassic. On the other hand, a number of Palaeozoic ‘holdovers’, such as procolophonid parareptiles, dicynodont therapsids and many groups of temnospondyls, vanished near or at the end of the Triassic. The tempo and mode of this faunal turnover have long been debated, but there has been growing acceptance of a rather sudden event, although the precise dating of such an event remains controversial. However, new discoveries have cast doubt on this assumption. The persistence of non-dinosaurian dinosauromorphs alongside dinosaurs well into Norian times hints at a more protracted turnover. New data on Triassic insect assemblages indicate that turnover among insects may also have been more protracted and possibly not co-incident with the faunal changes among tetrapods. Future work directed toward improved absolute age assessments for major faunal assemblages will be critical for a better understanding of the transition from therapsid-dominated to dinosaur-dominated communities during the early Mesozoic.