Roslyn or Roswell Hill Clay-pit has long been a standing puzzle to Cambridge geologists. I have visited it several times, and have notes upon it made in 1853 and in 1856. I was there in November, 1866, having, by Professor Sedgwick's permission, the the assitance of Mr. H. Keeping.

The little duchy of Nassau, so recently annexed to the kingdom of Prussia, has long been famous for its mineral wealth. It yields yearly about 350,000 tons of iron ore, principally Hematite, and about half that quantity of Manganese. Of its natural mineral water from Seltzers it exports above a million bottles annually. In its north-western corner are the Brown-Coal deposits of the Wester-wald; and to these sources of wealth must now be added more valuable and extensive deposits of phosphate of lime, which, though not long since discovered, have already attracted the attention of the leading agricultural chemists of this country. This discovery has its scientific attractions, as well as its commerical advantages; and, as I have lately had an opportunity of examining these deposits in detail, it may be of interest to the reader, if I record a few particulars concerning them.

The following is taken from a MS. by the late Mr. John Brown, F.G.S., of Stanway, Essex, and given by him to ProfessorHenslow, who gave it to me. The actual measurements are not mentioned, but I believe the scale to be about an eighth of an inch to a foot. It is valuable as having evidently been made when the beds were better seen than usual. Moreover, the constant waste of the cliff alters the section continually.

It is of the first importance in Natural History to adopt a precise, and if possible a received terminology, and strictly to adhere to it. From the very different opinions that have been entertained regarding the nature of graptolites, a curiously mixed set of terms have been employed on their description, some being suggested by their supposed resemblance to plants, others being obtained from their affinities to animals. Discarding these I shall employ the terminology proposed by Allmann and Huxley for the Hydrozoa now generally adopted, asking the reader to take here for granted what I hope presently to establish, that these fossils have their nearest allies in this class, and consequently that the terminology is suited equally to both. As the terms, however, have not yet been generally introduced into text books, it is perhaps desirable to give definitions of those that I shall have to use in this paper.

Were the diamonds said to be found at the Cape, and sent to England, really found in South Africa? I have just returned from the so-called diamond district, to which country I proceeded from England, being deputed by Mr. Harry Emanuel, the diamond merchant, of Bond-street, who is well known as a most indefatigable scientific enquirer on the subject of precious stones, and who naturally felt a great desire to develop a new source of supply of a commodity in which he is so largely interested. During the time I was in South Africa I made a very careful and lengthened examination of the district where the diamonds were said to have been found, but saw no indications whatever that would warrant the expectation of the finding of diamonds, or of diamond-bearing deposits, at any of the localities.

The states of semi-crystalline silica are so various, and so connected in their variety, that the best recent authorities have been content to group them all with quartz, giving to each only a few words of special notice; even the important chapters of Bischof describe rather their states of decomposition and transition than the minerals themselves. Nevertheless, as central types, five conditions of silica are definable, structurally, if not chemically, distinct; and forming true species: and in entering on any detailed examination of agatescent arrangements, it is quite necessary to define with precision these typical substances, and their relation to crystalline quartz.

In the following brief remarks on the range and distribution of Brachiopoda in British strata, and in the accompanying tables, the classification of Dr. Davidson has been mainly followed; and the calcuations of the numbers have been prinicipally based on the researches of that great authority, though the recent discoveries of Mr. C. Moore and others have been duly taken into consideration. These numbers must, of course, only be regarded as showing the present state of knowledge on the subject, as the active search which many observers are making will doubtless materially alter the figures here given.

The following notes on the Weathering of Rocks near the Sea, culled from my note-books, appear to be facts unobserved by the various writers on subaërial denudation. Those agents would seem to act differently near the sea than away from it, not only in the quantity of the work done but also on the colouring matter in the rocks.

Some years ago, Dr. Dawson, who has himself been very successful in the discovery of insect-remains, described and figured fragments of a species of myriapod under the name of Xylobius sigillaria. The remains, many of which occurred in coprolites of reptiles, were obtained at the Joggins, in upright Sigillaria trees, between coal-groups fourteen and fifteen of division four in Dr. Dawson's detailed section of the Nova Scotia formations. As his descriptions of the animal and its mode of occurrence are easily accessible to English geologists, it is needless to refer to them more explicitly. The coprolites, however, yielded some true insect remains; these, as well as fragments of insects, not coprolitio, were kindly sent me for examination by Dr. Dawson. They consist almost entirely of crushed and indeterminate masses of chitinous matter; the few detached and connected abdominal segments which can be distinguished in variably show that the abdomen was slender and the insect of medium size. Beyond this, little can be said of them. I noticed, however, two remains of eyes; one crushed, distorted, and ill-defined, the other, the beautiful fragment mentioned by Dr. Dawson, whose original size it is difficult to determine. The facets are large and regularly disposed, somewhat resembling the Perlidœ; but the proportion of the eye to the body varies so much in insects that it is impossible to judge of the size of the animal to which this fragment belonged. A few articulations of an antenna are seen on one of the stones; they probably belonged to a very small or very young cockroach. All the remains of insects appear to be neuropterous or orthopterous. I believe I have distinguished five different kinds. There were also two leeches belonging to distinct genera.

Gold is said to have been found in South Africa, and very probably it is. I have myself an undoubted specimen from the copper mines in Namaqualand, in which the gold is imbedded and associated with silicate of copper or chrysocolla; but with regard to the “diggings,” as they are called by the Cape papers, and which are situated some considerable distance up beyond the Great Orange River, and north and west of Natal, the question is whether the gold is in sufficient quantity to pay for the labour and expense of its production. It is certainly very premature to call this auriferous district “Gold diggings” and “Gold fields,” when really not ten ounces of gold have as yet been produced altogether in something like twelve months. Parties have been up and returned, each on some very trivial excuse. Some travellers describe the gold quartz as containing gold in large quantities, and yet they have not obtained satisfactory specimens themselves, although these “rich beds (it is said) extended over many miles of country, and rich gold quartz could be had almost for the trouble of picking it up.” The great idea seems to be in getting persons to come out on a wild-goose-chase, when nothing definite is known about these wonderful “diggings.” Ancient furnaces are said to be found in the neighbourhood, and of course plenty of fuel!!

The fossil about to be described was obligingly sent to me by Dr. Bull, of Hereford, having been happily rescued from the remorseless hammer of the road-mender, by Richard Johnson, Esq., the Town Clerk of that city. It exhibits the shell in section, fractured longitudinally, and embedded in a hard compact mass of dark blue Woolhope Limestone, which may be seen well exposed in situ in the Little Hope quarries, near Woolhope, from whence the block which contains the fossil was derived. Dr. Bull informs me that the Woolhope Limestone from these quarries is always used for road-metal in the surrounding district.

The accompanying figure (1) represents a fossil in my possession obtained with some insect remains, by Mr. W. R. Brodie, of Swanage, from the Lower Leaf-bed of the Lower Bagshot beds, Studland Bay, Dorsetshire. It bears a general resemblance to the examples found by Mr. W. S. Mitchell, at Alum Bay and Bournemouth; and to those figured by Heer as Porana (Flora Tertiaria Helvetiæ, plate 103), from the Swiss deposits, except in its havingbut four instead of five lobes. It resembles somewhat in outline the recent Porana volvbilis, and, as the absence of the fifth lobe might be merely an abnormal Condition of the individual example, it seemed, at first, scarcely sufficient to separate it from the genus with which all the other similar forms from the Tertiary bedshad heretofore been identified.

The discovery of fossil insects in North America is of very recent date; even now, scarely a hundred specimens have been brought to light, and they have occured, with few exceptions, as solitary individuals. The Reports of State and provincial geologists, which have added so richly to our knowledge of the palæontology of North America, have hardly mentioned these fossils. As descriptions of them are scattered through many publications—doubtless difficult of access to English geologists— and as most of the specimens referred to have passed under my eye, I have prepared this general resumé of what is known and have accompanied it with critical remarks.

No one, I think, will deny that geology is far behind all the other sciences in the classification of those substances which form its special study, viz., rocks. No two authors agree on the subject, and no one seems to have attempted to form a scientific classification, based on a natural system.

The occurrence of invertebrate animal-remains in the Somersetshire Coal-field has not, I believe, been very frequently noticed. With the view of drawing attention to the subject, I send a brief notice of a few remains which I had the pleasure of collecting during a visit with Mr. J. Prestwich to this district, hoping that the local geologists, or members of the Natural History Societies, may be induced to record the observations they have made, or further prosecute enquiries into the occurrence of the animal-remains, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which may be associated with the rich and interesting flora of this Coal-field. Casts of bivalve mollusca (Anthracoptera?) were detected in the coal-shale at Twerton, near Bath, but I was not fortunate in finding any similar shales at the other coal-pits visited. Remains of Entomostraca were, however, tolerably abundant at one or two localities, and I have little doubt would yield a rich harvest to any local investigator.

The gravel beds of Finchley, which belong to the Drift or Boulder-clay series, have yielded to the researches of Mr. N. T. Wetherell, of Highgrate, many specimens of Flints, containing fossils of the Chalk formation,—of these, the genera Inoceramus and Pecten are most abundant, associated with which are casts of Ammonites, and specimens of Terebratula, Rhynchonella, Dianchora, Lima Hoperi, Spondylus spinosus, and many Echinoderms, as Micraster, Cardiaster, (similar to one from Northfleet,) two or three species of Cidaris, Cyphosoma, Ananchytes, Galerites, but with these it is important to notice there are sometimes found silicified specimens of Venericardia planicosta, a condition in which these shells are rarely found in their original Eocene beds.

Omey is a half-tide island off the coast of Galway. It is chiefly a Porphyritic Granite rock, on the north-west portion of which are wind-blown sands that are for ever changing their positions, the houses of the inhabitants being covered to such an extent by them, that, in order to reach the interior, they are compelled to descend through holes, like large rabbit-burrows. The oldest record we have in connection with the island is, that St. Fechin built an Abbey there previous to A.D. 664. This abbey is said to be buried in the sands, but its exact site cannot be pointed out; however, there is a supposed fifteenth-century church, that is now sunk 12 feet deep in the sand.