The granite of the Dicq Rock is traversed by several veins of fine grained aplogranite. These in turn are cut by a large dolerite dyke, which has been intruded into a brecciated fault zone within the granite. Three large blocks of granite occur within the dolerite; these originally formed the southern boundary of the fault. The petrography of these rocks, and the influence of the micro-breccia upon the textures found in the marginal and central part of the dolerite, are considered in detail.

Small species of Chonetes are frequently found crowding the limestones in the lower part of the Avonian Succession round Bristol and in the Mendips. Of these Ch. cf. hardrensis (Phill.) is the most persistently abundant throughout its range Km-Zl, but the two other species, Ch.failmulensis sp. nov. and Ch. stoddarti, Vaughan, here mentioned, occur in equally large numbers at particular levels within that horizon. The following notes are the outcome of the study of the material recently collected by Professor S. H. Reynolds, and myself, at St. Monica's Home of Rest, Westbury-on-Trym, but this has been considerably supplemented by specimens obtained from other localities in the district.

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.

In a former article I endeavoured to show that the more abrupt inequalities of the earth's surface, so far as they consist of escarpments with their associated phenomena, are chiefly due to the former action of the sea. Before proceeding to consider the origin of Valleys, I find it necessary to refer to a statement I made in the last article about Raised Beaches (page 69). My object was merely to show that the preservation of numerous terraces in the Cretaceous districts of Wilts and Dorset furnished an evidence of limited subaërial denudation since these terraces were formed. The terraces to which I alluded, principally occur at comparatively low levels; and that they are raised beaches can, I think, be clearly proved. But this is not necessary, so far as the present controversy is concerned; for the preservation of terraces in gravel (more easily worn away than chalk, according to the subaërialists), which all admit are either raised sea-beaches, or glacial-lake-beaches (such as those of Glenroy), afford an equally convincing proof of the impotence of rain as a denuding agent.

In the months of May, June, and October, 1855, and again in July, 1856, Stromboli was visited by M. C. Ste.-Claire Deville. He fully confirms the great variations in the intensity of the explosions of the volcano.

Eighteen potash felspars from the potash felspar gneisses of the Connemara migmatite belt have been partially analysed and the associated plagioclase optically determined. Comparisons have been made with seventeen similar felspar pairs from the Galway Granite. Albite components are expressed graphically in an attempt to illustrate sodium distribution between associated felspar phases. On such a plot it is possible to contrast the “magmatic” felspars of the Galway Granite with those of the migmatitic gneisses; the separation of the two fields being a function of total rock chemistry. Crystallization temperatures have been determined by the two felspar method and the range 460 to 480° C. is thought to represent retrograde amphibolite conditions in the migmatitic gneisses, while petrographic evidence supports 550° C. as the temperature of amphibolite facies metamorphism in these rocks. Triclinicity measurements have also been made on the analysed potash felspars.

During a preliminary traverse of the Lower Cretaceous outcrop in the Midlands last June, I visited Faringdon for the first time, and examined the famous sections in the ‘Sponge-gravels.’ My chief aim was to obtain some evidence by which the relative position of these beds in the Lower Cretaceous series might be determined. The greater part of the fauna was so anomalous and peculiar that it afforded little or no assistance towards this purpose, and the only common fossil which gave definite promise of service was the fragmentary Belemnites, which I found in unexpected abundance. It is true that I had previously noticed a few specimens among the Faringdon fossils in the Natural History Museum (from the Caleb Evans’ Collection) and in other public collections, and had seen references to Belemnites in descriptions of the ‘Spongegravels’; but I went with the impression that its occurrence was rare and exceptional, whereas I found that it could be collected plentifully from every pit, though always in a more or less worn and fragmentary condition, and generally encrusted with small oysters, serpulæ and polyzoa, and perforated by marine borers. The scant attention which the fossil has hitherto received is probably due to the prevalent opinion that it is derivative from the Jurassics, but this opinion is almost certainly erroneous, as I shall now try to show.

In the large number of specimens which I obtained only one species appears to be represented, and this species cannot, I think, be matched among Jurassic Belemnites.

An account of the lithological succession of the rocks of the Avon Gorge was given at the Bournemouth meeting of the British Association in 1919, and a summary of the rock-characters mainly from the lithological aspect was published in the Geological Magazine (1919, p. 523). Further work has now been done, and a full account of the rocks is published in the current issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. The following summary prepared for the above paper was considered redundant owing to the fact that the matter it contains is already incorporated in the text of the paper. In view, however, of the importance and accessibility of the Avon Section it is thought that a brief statement such as the following, in which the rock-characters are summarized firstly from a stratigraphical and secondly from a lithological aspect may be useful.

The limestone hills of the Kinta Valley, standing up with white cliff faces from an almost level plain, form a prominent and picturesque feature of this prolific tinfield, and attract attention and present a varying scene as viewed from different points in the valley of the Kinta River. Their mode of origin has been the subject of marked divergence of opinion amongst geologists acquainted with them, as has also their age in relation to the series of metamorphic sediments found in the same valley.

Recently, when examining some weathered fossiliferous limestone shale from the Lower Carboniferous strata of East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, my attention was attracted to some fragments of the valves of Spirifera trigonalis, Martin, in which I noticed, on the hinge-line of the dorsal valve, a row of small, round, hollow pits, and on the hinge-line of the ventral valve, a corresponding row of small, projecting, rounded denticles. These characters I had not noticed before, and on searching further, I found other fragments of the valves showing the same thing. This led to an examination of more perfect specimens of this Spirifera, contained in my own collection, and that of Dr. J. R. S. Hunter, of Braidwood, Carluke, and in one example, where the valves had slightly opened through pressure, on clearing away the shale, I found, on the outer edge of the ventral valve, a distinct row of small projecting denticles, that had evidently fitted into hollow pits or sockets in the dorsal valve, but from the way the valves had shifted in this specimen these were not seen. These denticles, when looked at externally, are nearly as numerous, and much of the same size, as those seen in many of the hinge-lines of shells of the genus Area, only in this genus, the teeth are the same in each valve, and lock into each other.

Charges of Fe-tremolite, sulphur and water sealed in gold capsules and run at 600°C and 1 kb confining pressure for one month yielded talc, anhydrite, pyrite and quartz as principal mineral phases. It is concluded that in a S-rich environment talc is stabilized rather than diopside by the strong preference of Ca to form anhydrite.

Besides the series of Membraniporellæ last described there are several other Cribrilinidæ which develop a secondary aperture in the same way, and the next four species are instances.

Matherella (?) acuticostata sp. nov. is described from the Lower Ordovician of Trefor, near Bryngwran, in mid Anglesey.

The following account of the Proboscidea, by Prof. E. D. Cope, appeared in a recent number of the “American Naturalist” and is so interesting, that we venture to give the more important part in full, and some few of the illustrations.—Edit. Geol. Mag.

The question of the origin of the Archæan rocks is one of such great interest that it will not be thought unimportant on the one hand to record any facts that may bear upon it, and on the other to examine somewhat severely all the evidence that may be from time to time brought forward on the subject. Among the facts which may be adduced in support of the view that the Archæan rocks are altered sedimentary strata, the occurrence of breccias and conglomerates may well claim a foremost place; and a vast amount of superincumbent theory must rest on a very shaky foundation if there be any doubt whether some of those ancient fragmental beds be true conglomerates or not. The manner of occurrence, the mode of formation, and the character of pseudo-breccias and pseudoconglomerates become therefore questions of first importance.