In 1908 Dr. Rowe published an account of the Chalk of the Isle of Wight with a zonal map in which the zone of Belemnitella mucronata was shown as entirely absent at some points but generally present in substantial thickness. At the two ends of the island actual measurements were made, of 150 feet at Culver Down and 475 feet at the Needles. How much of the latter thickness was measured in the cliffs and how much is made up of somewhat less satisfactory measurements at low tide on weed-covered reefs is not clear, but at any rate there must be well over 300 feet in the cliffs. This figure is sufficient to show how great a ravining of the pre-Tertiary surface of the chalk would be required for the repeated disappearances of the zone as mapped. It seems justifiable to pay some critical attention to the evidence on which such a state of things is alleged.

DURING 1931 the writer had occasion to make several journeys across the western part of the coastal belt of British Somaliland, southward from Zeilah to Buramo, near the Abyssinian frontier.

Study of the punctation mosaics of Moorellina granulosa (Moore) and Moorellina ornata (Davidson), revealed by serial sectioning and stereoscan photomicrographs, shows that the apparent random distribution of punctae may be reconciled to two superimposed regular insertion patterns. Careful plotting of the endopunctae of M. granulosa from serial, cellulose acetate peels, reveals the presence of impersistent punctae. A new model is proposed, based on superimposed insertion patterns and offering an explanation for impersistence of punctae.

The possibility of change in the position of the Earth's axis seems periodically to attract attention. This is happening now. Professor Haughton has written upon this subject, Sir William Thomson has alluded to it, while two important papers have been read upon it, one by Professor Twisden before the Geological Society, the other by Mr. George H. Darwin before the Royal Society. This article is an endeavour to exhibit to the general reader the assumptions with which they have started, and the results they have obtained.

Four species of Monograptus are described and the age of the strata shown to be that of the zone of M. nilssoni of the Lower Ludlow of Great Britain.

In this specimen one valve (the left) and a part of the dorsal region of the other, remain visible; the rest of the right valve being bent down, broken, and imbedded in the matrix. This is a finely micaceous, non-calcareous, grey mudstone, weathering ferruginous towards one edge, which probably abutted on a crack open to water and atmosphere.

The fossil, in the grey portion is darker than the matrix, and fairly represents the test of half of the carapace, with only a very thin lamina wanting, a broken edge of which is traceable (with a lens) near the ventral margin. This left valve measures 9·2 by 7·4 mm. It is subcircular, more boldly curved on the ventral than on the posterior margin, whilst the front margin is somewhat truncate, having a nearly straight edge from above downwards before it bends round into the ventral curve.

The mountain mass known as the Tarntaler Köpfe, situated about 20 kilometres south-east of Innsbruck, is distinctly isolated from other high ground in the vicinity. The peaks rise to heights approaching 2900 metres above sea-level. The geologic features above the level of 2000 metres are of special interest. The adjacent country is occupied by crystalline phyllites, chiefly displayed on the north, and highly foliated calcareous schists developed mostly on the south of the mountain.

Among instances of the bodily deformation of rocks by lateral pressure, the case of the phyllade aimantifère of Monthermé is well known. By its strong cleavage this rock gives evidence of considerable lateral compression. Professor Renard has shown that prior to this compression the magnetite crystals already existed in the rock, and were surrounded by a coating of chlorite. The crystals yielded to the pressure much less readily than their matrix, and the latter, having already a firm consistence, became separated from the crystals, carrying the chlorite with it, and was displaced along the planes which are now cleavage-planes, that is, in a direction at right angles to that of the pressure.

The National Museum of Wales has not existed, as a working institution, long enough to have accumulated an extensive series of type and figured fossils, but since recent developments have rendered available for reference geological collections that were hitherto packed in store rooms, it is felt that the time is opportune for the publication of a note concerning the geological material which the Museum possesses, with special reference to the specimens that have been described or figured.

The tendency among some modern authors to suppress the well-known genus Stephanoceras, Waagen, 1869, is due to sundry misconceptions, combined occasionally with a complete disregard of the Rules of Nomenclature. This raises matters of general interest, and thus a review of the vicissitudes of that genus and a discussion of some related questions may be acceptable to all palaeontologists.

A Porose corals have, with few exceptions, received little attention in Britain since the publication of works by P. M. Duncan and R. F. Tomes, during the latter half of last centary. The newer methods of investigation by means of thin slices and serial sectioning, so successfully employed by Drs. Stanley Smith and W. D. Lang, and others, in the Rugosa, were not then in use, and so very little is known of the internal structures–the only basis for classification and comparison–or of the developmental stages of the Aporosa.

3. Third Period of Volcanic Activity in the Lipari Islands.

Although, as we have already seen, the older volcanic formations of the Liparis present us with features of no little interest, yet it is on account of the cones and lava-streams, composed of rocks of singular beauty and almost unique character,—which are the product of the latest developments of igneous action in these islands, that the attention of geologists is most frequently directed to them.

The scientific proceedings of the Eighteenth Session of the International Geological Congress included twelve series of Sectional Meetings, open meetings of the Association of African Geological Surveys, and of the International Paleontological Union, and special discussions on the Geology and Mineralogy of Clays. Summaries of these Sectional and other meetings, prepared by their officers, are published in advance in the full Report of the Session.

The Rayfield-Gona granite of the Jos Plateau, Nigeria, formerly regarded as an independent intrusive body, is now thought to be a roof facies of the Ngell granite. This explains several phenomena, such as the gradational contact between the two, and the distinctive mineral assemblage of the former.