In December, 1890, I had the good fortune to describe a new Sphasromid discovered by Mr. Thomas Jesson, B.A., F.G.S., in the Great Oolite of Northampton, which I named Cyclosphæroma trilobatum (see Geol. Mag., 1890, Dec. III, Vol. VII, pp. 529–533, PL XV). This specimen, which is redrawn on the accompanying PI. XIV (Fig- 1), is remarkable for its rounded outline, which induced me to apply to it the name Cyclospharoma.

Great was my joy when, in March last, I received from my friend Mr. E. J. Garwood, M.A., F.G.S., another Jurassic Isopod, of which both the intaglio and the, relievo had been obtained by him in the Purbeck beds near Aylesbury. This remarkably beautiful Crustacean proves to be a more perfectly preserved example of the same Sphseromid which I had described in 1890, from the Great Oolite of Northampton, and it needs but to compare Figs. 1 and 2 upon our Plate to perceive that in Fig. 1 the thoracic segments are much compressed together posteriorly, and that the hinder part of the telson is wanting; otherwise the resemblance between it and the newly-found and much more perfect example from the Purbeck beds of Aylesbury (PI. XIV, Fig. 2) is unmistakable.

A reference to the diagnosis of the genus (as given in Geol. Mag., 1890, p. 530) will show that it must now be amended in consequence of the discovery of the more complete specimen by Mr. Garwood.

From America and from many different localities on the continent of Europe the occurrence of Orthite or Allanite as an accessory mineral in crystalline rocks of different kinds has been frequently described. But so far it does not seem that its occurrence in Great Britain has been recognized, or at any rate I have failed to find any mention of it. Quite recently two instances of Scottish orthitebearing rocks have come under my notice which I wish to describe briefly in the present communication. Both are in acid holocrystalline rocks—granites and gneisses—and in both it is associated with the closely allied mineral epidote, as is usually the case. For specimens of the granite of Fell Hill I am indebted to Mr. James More, jun., M.Inst.C.E., Edinburgh, who sent sections of this rock for microscopic examination to Professor James Geikie, Edinburgh University. Although only two in number, the sections contain at least eight recognizable crystals of orthite, besides smaller pieces about the identity of which there might be room for doubt, and some of these are fortunately so cut as to render possible not only a certain identification of the mineral, but also a fairly complete account of its optical properties.

In 1861, the late Dr. T. C. Winkler, of Haarlem, published a memoir on some fishes from the well-known Upper Miocene fresh-water formation of Oeningen, and among other new forms he believed he could recognize an extinct species of the Cyprinodont genus, Poecilia. This peculiar fish not being known elsewhere beyond the fresh waters of tropical America, the determination of a Miocene representative in a European fresh-water deposit excited some interest both among geologists and ichthyologists; and the occurrence of Poecilia oeningensis in Baden has been almost universally quoted in textbooks and treatises as a fact worthy of special note.

In his memoir Dr. Winkler mentions that he founds the species in. question on a series of specimens, partly in the Teyler Museum, partly in the collection of Van Breda. As the latter collection was acquired by the British Museum in 1871, four of the specimens studied by Winkler are destined to be included in the forthcoming vol. iv of the “Catalogue of Fossil Fishes.” They have thus been recently examined during the preparation of this work; and the result is so completely at variance with Winkler's interpretation of the fossils, that it seems advisable to publish an amended description of the fish without delay.

A Collection of Invertebrate fossils, obtained from various horizons and localities in Egypt and consisting principally of molluscan remains, has been sent home for examination and description by Captain H. G. Lyons, R.E., Director of the Geological Survey of that country.

The oldest specimens represented belong to Upper Cretaceous rocks, and are dealt with in the present communication. They include one species of Gasteropod and eight Lamellibranchs, two of the latter group being regarded as hitherto undescribed forms. It need hardly be stated here that most of our knowledge respecting these groups of Mollusca as represented in Egypt during this period has been ably summarized by Professor Dr. von Zittel, in his elaborate memoir, “Beiträge zur Geologie und Palaeontologie der Libyschen Wiiste und der angrenzenden Gebiete von Aegypten,” published in the Paleaontographica for 1883. For subsequent details we are mainly indebted to the researches of Professor Mayer-Eymar and Prof. Johannes Walther: to the former for his monograph, “Zur Geologie Egyptens,” which includes a list of Cretaceous shells from the neighbourhood of the Great Pyramid; and to the latter for his paper, “L'Apparition de la Craie aux Environs des Pyramides,” containing a list of molluscan species from the same distinct and horizon, though particularly localized as Abu Eoasch, Golea, etc.

A paucity of Gasteropod species is noticeable in the faunistic lists of the Upper Cretaceous period of Egypt, with, however, a large representation of bivalve mollusca. The most abundant forms appear to belong to the genus Ostrea and its allies, a fact also observable in the corresponding faunas of Algeria and Tunis. In all three countries a similar conchological facies is apparent, whilst some species show a marked resemblance to Syrian forms. Certain difficulties have arisen in assigning a satisfactory horizon to the Egyptian species here discussed, though the evidence appears to be in favour of a Turonian age—an opinion somewhat suggested by the palaaontological work of M. Jules Welsch, who has discovered in Algeria, Sphærulites (Sauvagesia) Sharpei, Bayle, a typical Turoniiin shell of Portugal, associated with Ostrea acanihonota, O. Boncheroni, etc. This author, therefore, inclines to the belief that the majority of Algerian species hitherto recognised by Coquand, Peron, and others as of Santonian age, are more probably Turonian. If this be accepted, then the Cretaceous rocks near Cairo (Abu Roasch, etc.), containing similar shells, which have been considered as Senonian by Schweinfurth, Walther, etc., should equally be regarded as Turonian, though apparently the Portuguese mollusc, Sauvagesia Sharpei, has not yet been identified in Egypt.

[For a period of nearly sixty years Sir Joseph Prestwich recorded his geological observations in a series of notebooks. These records, together with the illustrative sections, were afterwards copied, in many instances, into folio volumes dealing respectively with the Eocene and Miocene, the Pliocene and Post-Pliocene formations, and with well-sinkings, springs, etc. The systematic arrangement and indexing of his very copious notes no doubt greatly facilitated the labours of the author. The majority of his notes and sections have been published, but here and there among the notebooks and MSS. there are records of pits and railway-cuttings, as well as some statements of opinion, which appear never to have been printed. A selection of these is now given, together with references to published papers dealing with the same subjects. All additions are put in square brackets.

It was the desire of Sir J. Prestwich to have dealt more fully with the phenomena of the Glacial Period, but owing to the many calls upon his time, and to his aim invariably to obtain and to submit fully to his readers all the evidence bearing upon his subjects, he was led to postpone for many years his more elaborate works. Thus his important papers on the Crag formations were issued long after most of his observations had been made. Meanwhile other geologists had entered the field and made known many of the facts which he had previously gathered, a proceeding natural enough and one by no means to be regretted. Thus Sir J. Prestwich remarks in his paper on the Westleton Beds, Part I (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xlvi, 1890, p. 86), that “The Memoirs of the [Geological] Survey, to which I shall have frequent occasion to refer, now supply a mass of valuable details, which greatly facilitate the task and do away with the necessity of much local description.” The notebooks rarely contain any particular expressions of opinion; they simply record facts and only occasionally suggest correlations. The conclusions were for the most part worked out subsequently and embodied in various published papers.

Among the MSS. left by Prestwich is the rough draft of the Table of Contents of a paper dated 1892. It includes the following heads:—]