A Discussion on the geological features of a locality between one who has never been on the spot and another who has seen so little of it as not even to know which is the bottom or top of an elaborate section which he has designed to illustrate these very features, is not likely to prove particularly instructive to the geological public, and for these reasons I would gladly have avoided it, had not Mr. Green thought proper to bring my name prominently forward in a paper entitled “Notes on the Geology of part of Co. Donegal,” in last month's GeologicalMagazine; which paper, it' may be remarked, was read and discussed on the 20th June last at the meeting of the Geological Society, although the Society subsequently declined to print it in the Quarterly Journal.

These Foraminifera were obtained from fifteen zones of the Jurassic strata, between Solothurn, in Switzerland, and the Eichberg, in Baden: three Liassic zones (Black or Lower Jura); six in the Brown or Middle Jura; and six in the White or Upper Jura; beginning with the Turneri-zone of the Lower Lias, and ending with the Pteraspis-zone of Schaffhausen. The Numismalis marl, Amalthei-clay, Murchisonæ-bed, Discoidei-marl, Crenularis-bed, the Coral-limestone, and the Virgulian stage yielded few or no traces of Foraminifera.

The subject of denudation is so important that I propose giving a few instances of denudation and of the transport of material that have actually come under my own observation or that of my friends. Where one sees the same familiar crags and pinnacles year after year, apparently quite unchanged, one may perchance fancy that denudation is at a standstill; but anyone who, in scrambling across the screes that clothe many a steep hillside, finds them moving beneath his feet, or perhaps has clattering about his ears a shower of stones dislodged by some wandering sheep, will at once perceive that it is not so: for it is obvious that if the mere tread of such a small beast as a sheep, shepherd or other pedestrian, can set scree rolling downhill, it must be in a very unstable state, and may be expected to move in a conspicuous manner under more potent forces than the tread of animals. Observation shows that this is the case. Not a year passes without some conspicuous fall of scree or of solid rock, owing chiefly to great downpours of rain. Leaving general statements, I will now give actual instances of the fall of rock or movement of scree that have recently taken place in the Snowdon district.

A new interpretation of a polygonal pattern of ridges in the Marble Hill Dolomitic Limestone, at Ballymore, suggests that it was formed by a soft-bodied, worm-like organism.

Although the Rhætic beds are not exposed continuously along the eastern boundary of the Keuper outcrop, they have been proved at many points from the River Trent in the north on the Nottinghamshire border to Glen Parva in the south. South of this point there is so much drift, and borings within the Liassic outcrop have been so isolated or shallow, that there is a gap in our knowledge of the intervening ground between the last point and the Rugby district. The Countesthorpe boring, carried to a depth of over 600 feet, encountered Upper Keuper beneath the Drift, with no intervening Rhætics. Commencing in the north in the Gotham district the two outliers are capped above the Red Marl and Tea-green Marl with Rhætic beds, and Lower Lias Limestone (Ps. planorbe zone) above. At Ash Spinney at the south end of the southern outlier, and at the east end of Crownend Wood, Black Shales with Avicula contorta crop out; and on the west side septaria are seen. On the north-west side of the northern outlier at Cottager's Hill Protocardium phillipianum has been found in a well-section near the lane. Rhætic shales are seen in the shafts driven for gypsum works about Gotham.

With the removal of certain genera the Illaenidae has become a very homogeneous family. Attempts have been made to group genera into subfamilies, the most important of which was that made by Salter in 1867, but these efforts have not met with general approval. Thus Warburg (1925, pp. 97–100) has given a recent summary of the Illaenid classification and discussed the previous literature, and this author endorses the opinion expressed by Raymond in 1916, “that it is still too early to make any natural classification.” Whittard (1938, p. 89) follows Holm and Warburg and meantime would only admit Illaenus and Bumastus as valid genera and suggests that Salter’s genus Ectillaenus might be retained for species of Illaenids in which visual organs were either absent or vestigial.

So much confusion has occurred in the past over the identification of the genera which we have been discussing, that a list of some figured species from the Jurassic rocks, arranged in their proper sub-genera, may be useful. The only previous attempt at a list of this sort, so far as I am aware, is that by Professor Rollier, who was only able to enumerate five species. He called all these Beushausenia, but two are not Beushausenias but true Parallelodons, while a third belongs to a different genus.

A few species of Lamellibranchs were recorded by Messrs. Marr and Koberts from the Trinucleus seticornis Beds of Haverfordwest; and though some new species may now be added to their number with the aid of the numerous specimens collected by Mr. V. M. Turnbull, yet a complete list of the species is at present impossible owing partly to the imperfect condition of many of the fossils and partly to the unsatisfactory state of our knowledge of this class as developed in British Ordovician rocks.

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 excavations for the foundations of the new Infirmary in the grounds of Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh, have disclosed several Boulders, which appear lying in the Diluvial-clay. This is a marly clay, and has been dug to the depth of about five feet, in several horizontal terraces, down the slope from north to south. These Boulders were of sufficient size to be left behind in situ by the labourers, and about six large ones were found in the north and twelve in the south area of the grounds. They were of trappean rock chiefly, being rounded on the angles and sides, and of a dark green crystalline structure internally, A large one in the north area was of a metamorphic granitic character; one in the same area of a buff-coloured sandstone; and another in the south was composed of the same rock, and grooved also.

A study in the deformational patterns of oolites from the Krol Series of the Simla Himalayas has been made in the type area. The deformation in the oolites is the result of the tectonic phenomenon coupled with folding movements during the Himalayan orogeny. The deformation varies with the amount and type of the matrix surrounding the oolites. The angle between the long axis of the ellipse and the principal tectonic extension is smallest in the axial regions of the folds.

Previous to 1858, the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield was considered to be destitute of any fauna other than the usual non-marine type. In 1858, J. W. Kirkby gave the first indication of marine fossils in this coalfield. He obtained specimens of Lingula credneri (Geinitz) from shales some 17 feet above the Five-Quarter seam during the sinking of a shaft at Ryhope, 3 miles south of Sunderland (9). Some of these specimens are figured by T. Davidson (2).

Last Autumn, on our way to St. Cassian and the Dolomites, we remained for two or three days in the Eifel. The little town of Gerolstein is well known to all geologists. Mr. Winter, one of the inhabitants, who pays considerable attention to the natural history of the place, was kind enough to present me with a nodule which, though apparently it is very insignificant, yet, on further examination, seems of great interest; it contains, in fact, part of the scale of a Pteraspidean. Any one who has worked amongst the Old Red Sandstone fishes of Monmouthshire and Herefordshire will at once recognize many of the characteristics of the Pteraspidean scales.

The International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature aim at the “elimination of all possibilities of discussion”; and in troubled times like the present, when it is impossible to secure decision on a knotty problem by the International Commission, automatic solution of any nomenclatorial difficulty should be particularly welcome. We all know of certain genera that have caused trouble to revisers because they were based on several species, subsequently found to belong to more than one genus; likewise species have often been based on a number of differing specimens, some of which have in course of time been relegated to other species or genera. Now Opinion 88 claims that the procedure to be followed in such cases is well known, but on this point there appears to be some doubt, and I therefore propose to discuss the two species mentioned in the above title1.

No better example could perhaps be quoted of fossil plants which have given rise to a number of species and even genera founded on imperfect and fragmentary specimens than the Sigillariæ and Lepidodendra.