A brief summary is given of the origin and geological history of the Red Sea Graben area, based on personal observations in Egypt during the periods 1937–1940 and 1947–9. The author is inclined to believe that the graben zone was formed in its initial stages at the end of the L. Eocene; the movements continued at least till Pleistocene times. The mechanism of the graben is explained as a combination of regional shearing faults together with regional updoming followed by stretch-faulting.

A study of the succession within the Lake Baringo Basin shows that the lake deposits originally described as Miocene by J. W. Gregory are of Middle Pleistocene age. In addition an examination of the relation between these deposits, the volcanic episodes and the periods of faulting, shows that climatic change has not been the major factor responsible for past fluctuations of the lake level.

Metamorphism of the South Wales coals is considered to be due to depth of burial and not to a thrust. Dr. Trotter's data are used to calculate the metamorphic gradients at different places. The differences in these gradients, which are calculated in two different ways, are discussed. The South Wales gradients together with data from New Zealand are used to estimate 18,000 feet as being the total depth to which the 4 per cent anthracite was buried. Maximum depth of burial is considered due to cover unconformable to the coal measures except in the southern part of the coalfield.

During the course of researches upon the Cainozoic faunas of Burma, Pakistan, India, and Ceylon, the writer has compiled a list of all the species that have been recorded, and has assessed the accuracy of the information from the points of view of both specific identification and age. As a consequence, he has been led to believe that current opinions as to the ages of certain horizons may have to be modified, and that in other cases the evidence of age is much less certain than was believed. The faunas here discussed are those of the Miocene beds of Ceylon, of the Quilon limestone, of the Pliocene of Karikal, and of the Cuddalore sandstones.

Fossils collected during the past sixty years from the uppermost division of the approximately 2,000 ft. thick Llanberis Slates have been re-examined. All but one fossil came from the famous Penrhyn Quarries at Bethesda, Caernarvonshire. The fauna is described as containing Pseudatops viola (H. Woodward), Eodiscus sp., cf. Protolenus howleyi (Walcott), Hyolithes cf. hathewayi G. F. Matthew, H. sp., and a fragmentary crustacean. The last offers no evidence of age but the remainder are considered to indicate a high Lower Cambrian horizon. Illustrations of some of these fossils are given for the first time. The Hyolithes is interpreted as carrying a pair of fin-like skeletal outgrowths and the morphological significance of these is discussed in a statement which comments on the obscure systematic position of the Hyolithidae.

This paper is an elaboration of the author's contribution to the 1938 British Association discussion on the distribution and migration of British Lower Palaeozoic faunas. It concerns mainly the faunas of Western Europe and North America and presents in summary the author's conclusions regarding faunal affinities and directions of immigration of the Asterozoan element in those areas. There is a notable agreement with Stubblefield's conclusions regarding the trilobite element, especially as concerns the Ordovician. The scope of the discussion is here extended to include notes on Devonian and Carboniferous faunas and some Cystid references. The paper concludes with some systematic notes, and three new generic names are proposed.

It is claimed that the Bathonian gastropods recently assigned to Bathonella Yen do appear to not differ from Viviparus in any marked features of generic importance, and that there is really no satisfactory evidence to show that they and certain associated organisms lived in the sea rather than in fresh or brackish water.

A synopsis is given of the most recent developments from micropalaeontological research on the coal-bearing Upper Carboniferous (Namurian C—Westphalian C) of Westphalia. The hope is expressed that a wider use of the technique of breaking down the mudstones into mud and isolating the fossils will, in conjunction with the important palaeontological results obtained in the English coal-basins, facilitate correlation between the Upper Carboniferous (Westphalian A to C) of England and Germany; also that the same technique will enable deep borings to be correlated in greater detail.

Foraminiferal evidence in the past has been held to suggest that the Gault is a deep sea deposit—a view which conflicts with the belief held by many on geological and other palaeontological grounds that the Gault was laid down in fairly shallow water. This contradiction is due to a misinterpretation of the foraminiferal evidence which, in the opinion of the writer, favours a temperate, relatively shallow marine environment for the deposition of the Gault, at least in South-East of England.

During the preparation of the second part of the Catalogue of Ammonoidea of the Trias, several hundred thin median sections of ammonites were prepared and examined. Structural features of such sections are shown to have helped in the interpretation of Didymites, Lobites, and Paraganides, and some reference is made to characters of other genera, mainly Trachyceratida.

Stromatolitic structures in the late Pre-Cambrian Yandanooka Series of Western Australia have been identified as calcareous algae of the genus Collenia. They are the first organic remains recognized in the Pre-Cambrian of this State. Distribution of the sediments containing these algae has been traced over 200 miles between Perth and Yandanooka. Erratic blocks of this material occur in the Permian tillites.

The south-eastern margin of the Glen Tilt mass consists of a series of diorites showing a considerable variation in mineralogical and chemical composition. Associated with, and enclosed within, the diorites are a number of small masses of coarser hornblende-felspar rocks which are described as appinites. There is an absence of sharp contacts between the various rock types of the complex and a hybrid origin is suggested to account for the mineralogical assemblage of the appinites.

The mechanism of the compaction of sediments is discussed, with special reference to the rôle played by adsorbed water, under both normal conditions and conditions of erosion and tectonic force. The effect of adsorbed water on the migration of oil and gas, and the possible relation of sediment-compaction to submarine slumping and sedimentary volcanism are also reviewed.

Gypsum crystals containing 62 per cent by volume of sand are described from a late Raised Beach, where they were found by digging shallow coastal wells. An account is given of their crystallographic form and of the circumstances in which they have been produced. Gypsum has not only been deposited in the voids of the sand but has even moved the individual grains apart. A review is given of earlier records of sandy gypsum crystals, sometimes called “desert roses”, and comparison is made.

The principal tectonic terms employed are defined. A specimen of sheared quartzite from Corshellach is described. Shear-planes, drag-folds, and lineation are syngenetic. Their geometric relations show that the lineation is in b. Also described is a specimen of folded marble and graphite schist from Urlarmore. Elongated bodies of graphite schist represent tectonic thickening along the antiform hinges. Their maximum dimension, which is much greater than any other, is parallel to the lineation, but they have not suffered extension in this direction. The form of folds and rotated bodies shows that the lineation is again in b. The sense of the movement was towards the south-west. It is believed that throughout mid-Strathspey and Strathavon similar lineations bear the same relations to the kinematic directions.

A large basic sill intrudes the Shineton shale (Cambrian) at Maddocks Hill, east of the Wrekin, near Wellington, Shropshire. An old quarry exposes the contact and reveals that the shale close by has been recrystallized to a hard, compact hornfels, the intensity of alteration decreasing away from the contact. Thin sections show that the metamorphic effect was solely thermal, the rock having been completely recrystallized, and biotite having been generated under conditions of the amphibolite facies. The metamorphism is compared with that brought about by other basic hypabyssal intrusions.

Dr. Bartenstein's results show considerable progress in the recognition of marine horizons within the belt of Westphalian strata lying between the Sarnsbank Coal Gastrioceras subcrenatum Marine Band and the Katharina Anthracoceras vanderbeckei Marine Band. Kukuk (1938, pp. 166–171) recognized in this stratal belt but twelve marine or Lingula horizons, whereas the author from his foraminiferal finds in the same strata adds evidence of six more marine incursions in Westphalia.

An account is given of nepheline-monzonites and essexites from S. Vicente and S. Tiago in the Cape Verde Archipelago.

Quartz sand, sodium aluminate and water were heated together in a bomb to above the critical temperature. The apparatus was designed to give a temperature difference of about 100°C. between the two ends of the bomb. Quartz, albite, and analcite were formed in the low temperature end of the bomb.