The part of the province of Simbrisk lying to the north of Alatyr, in the angle between the Soura and the Alatyr rivers, is formed of Lower Cretaceous strata, chiefly Neocomian clays, covered by Boulder-clay (which is not rich in boulders), and part by Glacial and Æolian sands. The same Neocomian clay expands widely to the south and to the east from the town of Alatyr. Upon the northern border of the Alatyr valley, and on the right side of the Soura river, these clays are covered by ancient alluvial sands, deposited probably at the time when the great ice-sheet dammed the course of the Soura in the lower part of its valley, and caused colossal overflowings of its waters, the traces of which are preserved in the great masses of alluvial sands covered with fir wood, and much resembling the “Haidesand” of Northern Germany.

The question of the water supply of the town of Stratford-on-Avon has for years past presented many difficulties. The town is situated on the uppermost beds of the Upper Keuper Marls, and the water derived from the wells sunk in these gypseous marls, or from the alluvial gravel of the river valley, contains an amount of solids equal to about 170 grains per gallon, of which about 125 grains consist of calcium sulphate. Up to a very few years ago this intensely hard water was alone available for domestic and manufacturing purposes, but the main supply of the town is now derived from catchment basins and reservoirs at Snitterfield on the adjoining hills about four miles north of Stratford. In years of average rainfall a fair supply of moderately soft water is obtained from this source, but it is one which, as regards organic impurity, bears unmistakable signs of its surface origin, and during dry seasons the town supply has to be supplemented with the hard well-water I have already referred to.

A Short time ago I read a paper before the Geological Society, of which an abstract appeared in the Proceedings, in which I discussed some questions of critical interest in the geology of East Anglia.

I Am tempted to offer a few notes with the conclusions I arrived at during some weeks residence this summer in the Isle of Wight, having been struck with the remarkably definite data which the island affords regarding the maximum depth of the submergence (or height of emergence) during the post-Pliocene period. The “plateau-gravels,” which are the main factors in the determination of the amount of submergence, have now been mapped by the Geological Survey, together with the other post-Tertiary deposits; but as regards their mode of formation the Survey (I believe) in its collective capacity refrains from expressing an opinion. I, for my part, have no hesitation in bespeaking for them a marine origin—(1) because of their wide distribution; (2) because of their elevated position, as shown by Mr. Codrington, Prof. Prestwich, and other writers, which is far beyond the reach of the rivers past or present; (3) because of their stratified structure and their composition. There remain the two other hypotheses, both equally out of the question—that they are lake deposits, or that they are of glacial origin. The absence of shells in the higher levels, reaching to 300–500 feet, is easily explained, and is no argument against marine conditions of deposition, as the percolation of subærial waters through such open and porous beds must necessarily have dissolved away the material of which marine organisms are mainly formed. As regards the geological age of the plateau-gravels of the Isle of Wight and Dorset, there can be little doubt that they are post-Tertiary, as they are found resting indiscriminately on all Tertiary strata of those parts. Prof. Prestwich classes them under the head of “Southern Drift,” and distinguishes them from his “Westleton Beds” on the ground mainly of difference in the composition of their constituent pebbles, and their separation from the Westleton Beds of the East of England and the Thames Basin by a barrier along the Wealden ridge. But even admitting this separation, the beds may be representative as regards age; and as for the absence or presence of certain pebbles (such as white quartz, etc), it can scarcely be expected that in any beds of conglomerate of wide extension there should be no variation in the composition of the constituent pebbles. Perhaps, on reconsideration, Prof. Prestwich might be inclined to admit that the plateau-gravel of the south and the Westleton gravel of the centre and east may be contemporaneous. With these preliminary observations, I proceed to the evidence of submergence and emergence afforded by these beds in the Isle of Wight.

The question of the affinities of the Wealden Vertebrate Fauna having been re-opened by Professor Marsh in his paper on the Dinosauria, read before the last meeting of the British Association at Ipswich, it may be of interest to place on record a complete list of the species of fishes now known from the English Wealden deposits. This is more extensive than any previous list, being based on the unique collection in the British Museum, which has only lately been examined in detail. Unfortunately, however, none of the specimens, except a few examples of Lepidotus, are labelled to indicate the precise horizon from which they were obtained; and scarcely any of the names of localities are very definite.

In June, 1895, Mr. G. H. Morton, F.G.S., of Liverpool, submitted to me three specimens of Crinoidea, registered No. 681 in his collection. One of these specimens was a stem-fragment, impossible to determine; but the other two appeared of such interest that Mr. Morton very kindly allowed me to make a detailed study of them. The results, though not so complete as might be wished, are now submitted to geologists and zoologists, in order that the former may look out for further specimens, and the latter give us the benefit of their opinion.

In Mallet's great “Catalogue of Recorded Earthquakes,” the name of Comrie first appears under the date September 2, 1789, and, from that time until the present day, the village has been widely known as a centre of earthquake shocks and sounds. For many years past, however, they have become more and more rare: the shocks, when they have occurred, have been exceedingly slight, and the disturbed areas correspondingly small. Several persons living but a few miles from Comrie inform me that they have never felt a shock; and those who reside in the village itself often speak of “hearing” the earthquakes, as if the vibrations did not generally exceed that limiting degree when they are perceptible only to the ear.

In his article in the last number of the Geological Magazine Mr. A. R. Hunt points out a number of differences in the use of the terms “schist, slate, phyllite, and foliation.” The usage of English-speaking peoples has long ago restricted the word “schist,” so that it is no more an equivalent of the French “schiste” and of the German “schiefer” than “mutton” is of “mouton.” Prof. Bonney's position is, however, one of exceptional restriction, as he himself has always carefully pointed out. The terms “phyllade” and “phyllite” are surrounded by less controversy. I regard both as unnecessary, seeing that we cannot have names for every gradation from a clay-slate to a mica-schist; but it is fairly clear that the original “phyllades” were slates containing some mica. The term was used in 1813 by Brongniart (“Essai d'une classification des Roches mélangées,” p. 35), who ascribes it to the joint authorship of himself, Brochant, and D'Aubuisson. He gives as a synonym, “Thonschiefer mélangé des minéralogistes allemands,” and defines the rock as having a ground of clay, with mica, quartz, felspar, amphibole, chiastolite, etc., in it, either together or separately; “structure feuilletée.” None of the types which he describes are free from mica. D'Aubuisson de Voisins (“Traité de Géognosie,” tome ii, p. 93) in 1819 devoted one of his elaborate disquisitions to Phyllade, giving as synonyms “Thonschiefer; Clay-slate; Ardoise, schiste de Saussure et des anciens minéralogistes; Schiste argileux de M. Brochant.” D'Aubuisson objects to the restriction of “schiste” to any one species of rock, and keeps phyllade distinct from those clays which are derived as detritus from pre-existing rocks. He says that the surface of phyllade is sometimes smooth, sometimes deeply striated, as if puckered up (“froncée”); and he shows how the true type of the rock is approached by gradations from mica-schist, until the mica and quartz are so finely divided as be indistinguishable, save for some flakes of mica and granules of quartz embedded in the apparently homogeneous ground. The justification for using “phyllade” as a term intermediate between mica-schist and common slate is to be found in the passage (p. 97) “Le phyllade passant du schistemicacé à l'ardoise, par des nuances insensibles et diversifiées sous tous les rapports, le nombre de ses variétés est presque indéfini.” D'Aubuisson believed the fissile structure to be parallel to the stratification, and combated the acute views of Voigt, who had observed a strong divergence between the two structures in Thuringia.