The invaluable Presidential Addresses by Professor H. H. Read, entitled “Meditations on Granite”, Parts I and II, read to the Geologists’ Association in 1943 and 1944, seem to have aroused a great deal of interest in petrological quarters, more especially as these “meditations” are painted against the lively background of the historical development of ideas embracing a whole century and a half. Professor Read’s “meditations” are the more remarkable since they lead him to conclusions almost diametrically opposed to those propounded by Professor P. Niggli in an address delivered to the Zürich Geological Society at the February meeting of 1942, although both reviewers rely on about the same scope of historical “evidence”.

The River Amber on its way from the Erewash Valley Coalfield to its junction with the Derwent near Ambergate crosses the upturned edges of the Millstone Grit Series. Near the point where the river enters the grit belt at Bullbridge a boring for water was put down in the grounds of the Amber Dye Works during the latter half of the year 1936. My thanks are due to the directors of Stevensons (Dyers), Limited, for giving me every facility for examining the core, and to Mr. S. G. Clift for assisting me in the examination and in collecting. My thanks are also due to Dr. C. J. Stubblefield for valuable criticisms and suggestions during the writing up of this note.

In a previous paper (Wright, 1935, p. 193) it was remarked that the crinoids of Coplow Knoll, Clitheroe, mainly consist of calices or thecae only and that specimens showing any part of the arms are extremely rare. In the paper cited, photographs were given of two specimens with arms, one being referred to a new species Cyathocrinus patulosus and the other to Pachylocrinus aff. longidactylus (Austin). Flexible crinoids belonging to the genus Euryocrinus, with part of the arm structure preserved, have also been recorded and a Poteriocrinid assigned to Pachylocrinus conicus (Phillips) (Wright, 1928, 1942). The latter species and P. aff. longidactylus mentioned above will probably have to be removed to another genus but it is not intended to discuss them at present. All these specimens were found at rather long intervals. I was therefore agreeably surprised on a recent visit to Coplow to find two fairly well-preserved crowns belonging to the genera Taxocrinus and Synbathocrinm and since the species represented by these specimens appear to differ from known forms they are now described in the present paper. An excellently preserved specimen of a species of Platycrinites was also found. This specimen shows a good part of the arm structure and although it is not possible to determine with certainty its specific identity the type of preservation exhibited by it is so rare at Coplow that it is here deemed worthy of being placed on record. Another specimen with arms, probably belonging to the same genus and found a few years ago is also recorded (Plate VII, fig. 1; Plate VIII, fig. 4).

In his monograph published in 1898, “Description des Ammonites des Couches à Peltoceras transversarium (Oxfordien Supérieur) de Trept (Isère),” A. de Riaz figured just under 100 ammonites, in 19 folio plates, of which 15 were devoted to the genus Perisphinctes. This work made known to geologists one of the most important Upper Oxfordian ammonite localities in the world, of special interest from its position in the Rhone valley, on the borderland between the Jura and the North-West European and Tethyan provinces. But in spite of the excellence of de Riaz’s photographs, their value is much reduced by the lack, in most cases, of either ventral views or whorl-sections, and by the failure to show septal sutures. Further, many of the photographs are more or less reduced, although stated to be of the natural size. The difficulty of identifying species from de Riaz’s work, therefore, is great; especially since for identification of members of the genus Perisphinctes a series of specimens at different growth-stages is usually indispensable.

During an investigation of the upper part of the Sabi Valley made just before the war in company with my son, the late C. F. Mennell, two well-marked ring structures and indications of others were met with. Reference to these was made in a communication to the Rhodesia Scientific Association in 1938 before the investigation had been concluded or any of the rocks collected had been sliced. The suggestion was then made that they owed their remarkable features to the action of the enclosing granite on the limestone still forming their cores.

Recent writings by Cotton (1944, 1945) and Richardson (1945) have drawn the attention of geologists in this country to the Pleistocene history of West China, and in particular to the river terraces and their mode of formation. Harland has now re-stated the problems of the physiographical history of Western Szechuan, and drawn attention to the gaps in our knowledge. This paper 1 is both complementary and supplementary to that of Richardson (1943; reviewed by Cotton, 1944). During the past two years I have had opportunity to study the geomorphology of the Border Ranges of north-western Szechuan, and this review is, therefore, accompanied by a discussion of certain points in the light of my own findings and the work of other writers.

During the war the Directors of the Netherlands Coal Mines had given to a number of young geologists the opportunity for geological studies at both Institutes of the Geological Foundation (Geologische Stichting), the Geological Bureau, Heerlen, and the Department of Geological Maps, Haarlem.

Etruria Marls of N. Staffordshire, by W. O. Williamson, Geol. Mag., lxxxiii, 1946, p. 23, line 25, for quartz veins read quartz grains.