In his Last Journals, referring to the formations of Portuguese Nyasaland west of the Lugenda River, Livingstone writes: “The elevated plains among these mountain masses show great patches of ferruginous conglomerate, which, when broken, looks like yellow hæmatite with madrepore holes in it.” He also notes that the same formation is responsible for the prevailing reddish tint assumed by the soil. In Mozambique, the province of Portuguese East Africa south of Nyasaland, lateritic deposits of the kind described by Living-stone are very abundant. In view of the wide interest which the superficial deposits known as laterite have aroused among geologists during recent years, no excuse seems necessary for placing on record a few notes dealing with their modes of occurrence and associations in Mozambique. The country was explored during the year 1911, Mr. D. A. Wray, Mr. E. J. Wayland, and myself accompanying the expedition as geologists. My former colleagues have kindly placed their notes on the superficial deposits of Mozambique at my disposal, and I wish here to express my indebtedness to them for the help thus afforded.

M. Stanislas Meunier, in a paper entitled “Examen Chimique d'eaux minérales provenant de Malaise. Mineral d'etain de formation actuelle”, describes analyses of two waters brought by M. J. Errington De la Croix from Ayer Panas and Cheras, Malay Peninsula, and also of a mineral specimen found in one of the springs.

The specimen dealt with in this paper was obtained some years ago by Dr. L. Moysey, of Nottingham, and was sent by him to Dr. Henry Woodward, who has been so kind as to entrust it to me for examination.

It may be of interest to the readers of the Geological Magazine to know that the specimens collected by Mr. H. E. Strickland during the years 1835–6 in the Ionian Islands, the Bosphorus, and the neighbourhood of Smyrna are now preserved in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge.

The controversy which has raged round the problem of the Eoliths seems little nearer a satisfactory solution than it was upon the publication of Sir Joseph Prestwich's papers of 1889, 1891, and 1892. The present article is an endeavour to place certain sceptical considerations before the readers of the Geological Magazine.