In the Summer of 1900 the present writer on a visit to Newquay casually observed a deposit containing land shells near the Lifeboat House by Towan Head. The description of the little section was included in a joint paper by Mr. A. S. Kennard and himself on the “Post-Pliocene Non-marine Mollusca of the South of England” and fortunately assigned in error to the Pleistocene period.

One of the most beautiful features at the Giants' Causeway, from an artistic as well as a geological point of view, is the broad red zone that divides the Lower from the Upper Basalts. As is well known, this zone of lithomarge, bole, and laterite is remarkably persistent in north-eastern Ireland, and represents an interval of Eocene time when volcanic activity was lessened and when the basalts ceased to appear at the surface. At the same time, however, sporadic eruptions of rhyolite occurred, and some of the cones of acid lava supplied material for an interbasaltic conglomerate of rhyolite pebbles, which was discovered several years ago by Mr. A. McHenry near Glenarm.

The Lower Old Red Sandstone of Forfar and Kincardine is upwards of 14,000 feet in thickness. No indication of a base or natural top is seen in the district. The characteristic fossils of this series have all been obtained from its middle beds within a vertical range of less than 4,000 feet. There is no palæontological evidence of the age of the beds above or below that zone. It is concluded, on physical and palæontological grounds, that the fossiliferous beds of the Orcadian area are really younger than those of Forfarshire, but there is no proof that the higher part of the Forfarshire series was not contemporaneous with the Orcadian deposits.

The folding of the Lower Old Red strata into the syncline and anticline parallel to the Highland boundary fault took place subsequently to the deposition of the whole of those strata. This folding, and denudation to the extent of 8,000 feet over the anticlinal axis, were accomplished after the deposition of the Lower and before the beginning of the Upper Old Red. The surface on which the Upper Old Red rests, in Forfarshire, is broadly horizontal, but very uneven—evidently an old land-surface.

The rocks composing Basutoland belong to the Stormberg Series of the Karroo System. They cover a much larger area than Basutoland, extending into the Orange River Colony on the west and north, on the south and east into Cape Colony and Natal, and, I am informed, across the Vaal into the Transvaal. The area is thus not less than 45,000 square miles. The whole of that part of the Orange River Colony known as “the Conquered Territory,” east of a line drawn from Thaba 'Nchu to Vrede, is occupied by the whole or portions of these rocks.

I have occasionally drawn attention to the effect produced on the relative level of sea and land by variations of pressure on the surface, such as would be occasioned, for example, by the increase or diminution of the loads of ice which existed during the Glacial period. I argued that the position of the surface must be always tending to an exact equilibrium between the upward and the downward pressure, and that any variation in the superincumbent load must result in some change, however small, in order to rectify the balance. For if the balance was not perfert, motion must necessarily ensue, either up or down as the case might require.

A few fossil reptilian bones discovered by Dr. Jango Fischer in 1902 at Santa Maria da Bocca do Monte (Serrito) in the Rio Grande do Sul, which have been submitted to me by Dr. H. von Ihering (San Paulo Museum), are of much interest. They not only appear to determine the geological age of the formation from which they were obtained, but also foreshadow the discovery of an early Mesozoic South American land fauna, which has long been expected.

In October, 1907, the Rev. J. Magens Mello, F.G.S., kindly took me to the Lower Keuper section on the bank of the Avon at Guy's Cliff, near Warwick. These sections are very instructive in a special sense.

The four years 1904–1907 were marked by the occurrence of three considerable earthquakes, one of which (the Derby earthquake of July 3rd, 1904) disturbed an area of about 25,000 square miles, another (the Doncaster earthquake of April 23rd, 1905) an area of about 17,000 square miles, while the third (the Swansea earthquake of June 27th, 1906) was felt over an area of 66,700 square miles, and, with the exception of the Hereford earthquake of 1896, was the strongest felt in this country during the last twenty years. Besides these, there were 56 others of less intensity, 9 of which originated in England, 44 in Scotland, and 3 in Wales. The total number for the nineteen years 1889–1907 is thus 214, or 50 in England, 137 in Scotland, and 27 in Wales.

More than sixty years ago Mr. G. B. Sowerby, jun., described and figured a unique specimen of a remarkable fossil Cirripede from the Chalk of Kent which he named Loricula pulchella. It was obtained by Mr. N. T. Wetherell, F.G.S., of Highgate, and was subsequently acquired with that gentleman's collection by the British Museum (Natural History). Mr. Wetherell's Loricula was again described and figured by Charles Darwin in his “Monograph on the Fossil Lepadidæ or Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain.”

Upon Sheet 339 (Devonshire) of the new Geological Survey maps, one instance out of the very numerous outcrops of igneous rocks thereon indicated proves to be of unusual interest by reason of its peculiar constitutional modifications in different parts of the same mass. The rockin question occurs about four and a quarter miles 15° north of west from Newton Abbot, near to the hamlet of Bickington, within the limits of a farm named Lurcombe. It is an intrusive amidst the shales and grits of the Culm, occurring almost on the junction-line between that series and the Devonian, whose massive limestones and volcanics dominate it in elevation within a quarter of a mile on the south-east.

Corallum conical and, as a rule, gently curved, though often straight; a short broad outline is not uncommon. The epitheca has well-marked longitudinal ribbing, sometimes obscured by fine annular striations in the neighbourhood of the calyx; slight constrictions of growth may occur, but there is never an interrution in the continuity of the epitheca. Good figures are given both by Milne-Edwards & Haime and by de Koninck.

Of the places where undidtrubed limestone trested on older rocks, the most important visited by us was the valley of Hount-Sainte on the Spanish slope. This does not appear to have been considered by Carez, nor to have been hitherto described in detail. The fololwing sequence is clearly exposed, in descending order:—

4. Palæozoic—Devonian and Carboniferous according to Bresson. Shales and limestone in the lowest part, the base evidently a plane of disturbance.

During the last few years there have passed through my hands for determination many specimens of a twig-like fossil-plant from the highest Silurian flaggy-sandstones of Victoria. These were usually too fragmentary to afford any very decided evidence as to their affinity, although their surfaces showed a close-textured and well-defined structure, referable to that of prosenchymatous wood-cells, and the stem had a definite central vascular axis, such as was first noticed by Hugh Miller in similar fossil remains from the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland.

The specimen herein to be considered is one of great historical interest, for it was the first specimen of an Edrioasteroid made known to science. It was discovered by Dr. J. J. Bigsby in limestone now recognised as of Lower Trenton age, forming Table Rock at the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River at Ottawa (then called Bytown). Canada, in 1822. Brought by Bigsby to England, it was figured and described, though not named, by G. B. Sowerby in 1825. E. Forbes, who had the speciman for study, referred to it in his memoir “On the Cystideæ of the Silurian Rocks of the British Islands,” since the “aspect” of his Agelacrinites Buchianus “immediately called [it] to mind”; he even went so far as to say that there could “be no question … of its being generically allied” to that species. Considering the not unnatural inadequacy of Sowerby's description and figure, the reputation that Forbes had as an authority on echinoderms, and the comparative imperfection of the first found specimens of Edrioaster, it was not surprising that E. Billings in 1856 should have supposed a new Trenton fossil, undoubtedly congeneric with Agelacrinites Buchianus, to be of the same species as that found by Bigsby and should therefore have applied to it the trivial name ‘Bigsbyi,’ while giving to a fossil of obviously different structure the name ‘Agelacrinites Dicksoni.’ In February, 1858, Billings travelled to London with the fossils in question, and found that Bigsby's specimen was not, after all, the same as his Cyclaster Bigsbyi, but was specifically identical with his A. Dicksoni. He redescribed the species, and had his type-specimen, as well as Bigsby's fossil, figured by C.R. Bone.

The New Red gravels of the Tiverton type extend from Warbrightsleigh and Chimney Down on the north to Thorverton and White Down Copse on the south. Further south they are replaced by breccias and sandstones or covered by the higher beds of the New Red series. Throughout the whole of this area of nearly 100 square miles the gravels contain fragments of sandstone and grit with Upper Devonian fossils. These Devonian fragments are most common in the north-east of the district, and are comparatively rare further south. They are found at the entrance of the Crediton valley, but do not appear to be present further west.

All the fossils that have been identified are known to occur in the Pilton and Marwood Beds of North Devon. The only Trilobite found (Phacops latifrons, Bronn) is practically the only Trilobite occurring in the Pilton Beds, where it is very common. Spirifer Verneuili, Murch., Spirifer Urii, Flem., Rhynchonella (Camarotæchia) Partridgiæ, Whidb., and Productus prælongus, Sowerby, are the commonest Brachiopods both in the gravels and in the Pilton Beds. The little Gasteropod Euomphalus vermis, Whidb., is also common in the gravels and Pilton Beds. Bellerophon subglobatus, M'Coy, is a characteristic fossil in the Marwood Beds of the Barnstaple district; it is also common in the grits that occur further east near Wiveliscombe, and in the grit fragments found in the gravels.

At Chimney Down, in the north-east of the district, fossiliferous fragments of Upper Devonian sandstone and grit are extremely common, whilst trap fragments appear to be absent. This fact, as well as the wide distribution of the fossiliferous fragments, completely disposes of the Rev. W. Downes' theory of volcanic ejection. The facts tend, rather, to prove a drift from the north-east during the period of deposition of the gravels. The grit and sandstone matrices suggest a derivation from the Wiveliscombe end of the Pilton Beds rather than from the more slaty beds found further west. The Devonian fragments in the gravels may even have been derived from a still more easterly extension of the Pilton Beds, now buried under Triassic deposits.

In Professor Gregory's interesting presidential address contained in your journal for October, there is a reference to the origin of the Sudbury ores, in which he expresses the opinion that they were deposited from solution long after the first consolidation of the rocks with which they are associated. As the Sudbury ore deposits are perhaps the best examples in the world of the magmatic segregation of sulphide ores it seems a pity that the weight of Professor Gregory's authority should be given against the correct view. Probably he has not read the reports on the region by Dr. Barlow and myself in which incontrovertible proof of the magmatic origin of these ores has recently been given. In the report prepared by myself it is shown that all the ore bodies are found at the lower edge of a laccolithic sheet of norite, blending upwards into micropegmatite, or on dike-like projections from this sheet. The laccolithic sheet is 37 miles long, 17 miles wide, and has dozens of ore bodies connected with its basic edge. The adjoining rock may be granite, gneiss, green schists, graywacke, etc., without affecting in any way the monotonous character of the ore. The ore bodies may contain fragments of the adjoining rocks and sometimes also of the norite, for some crushing and faulting has taken place; but everywhere the solid ore passes into pyrrhotitenorite, and then into norite spotted with blebs of ore. The sulphides have sharp boundaries against the adjoining rocks, but blend into the norite.

One of the most characteristic features of the great oceans is the presence of what have been aptly termed ‘deeps,’ enormous depressions in the ocean bottoms. Having in my “Evolution of Earth Structure” discussed their distribution and probable origin, I was naturally attracted by the notice in Nature of the surveys of the vessel “Edi” and the cable-ship “Stephan” during 1903 and 1905 in the western and south-western parts of the Pacific Ocean. Drs. G. Shott and P. Perlewitz, in a paper recently issued in the Archiv der deutschen Seewarte, taking into consideration previous work by U.S. ship “Hero” and of the German vessel “Planet,” consider that these soundings throw a great deal of new light on the configuration of the sea bottom in those regions. They state that the troughs forming the deeps are usually about 10 miles wide, excepeting the Guam deep, which is as much as 20 across. The most interesting statement to me is that in their opinion the troughs are the result of subsidence occurring on an enormous scale along lines of fracture, and that is probable the disturbances which produced these structures are comparatively recent.

Amongst the foreign Jurassic fossils in the Sedgwick Museum, acquired or presented many years ago and but rarely referred to, some specimens labelled “Himalayan Lias” recently came under my notice. They were marked as having been presented by Mr. J. Leckenby in 1872, and had been carefully kept together with the old label, giving the locality and history. Some of them had at some subsequent date been mounted and identified with well - known European Liassic species.

My observations at Gavarnie commenced with the detection of the great fault of the Cirque, sketched in Bull. Soc. Géol. of 1868, and are summarized in my “Pyrenean Geology,” pp. 169, Dulau & Co., completed to 1907. The Hippurite limestone having been classed and mapped as typically metamorphosed Cambrian, on the ground that my maps and descriptions are à priori inexact, I have recently been concerned with the rectification of the simultaneously asserted Triassic age of the gypseous marls, which I have found to be Tertiary and Cretaceous, from Biarritz to Cardona. Before 1868 the Hippurites of Gavarnie and Heas were already described as anomalous by Leymerie in his Manual and papers, and by Frossard in his “Guide du Géologue.” The only specifically determined specimen mentioned by Bresson is from “near the Hourquette d'Alans,” a point touching the never-questioned Cretaceous beyond the great fault, and situated at 600 metres above the anomalous sheet in question, as it is figured on Bresson's largest sections. The only fossil of his basal Ordovician I had long previously ascertained to be in a fallen fragment from a peak to the west, outside the rocks in dispute. His ‘fundamental section’ east of Gedre is a local accident due to a fault, and his section of the Cirque is wildly in contradiction to the real stratification, as well as his section of the Spanish slope of the pass of La Canao and the Hount Sainte. All these errors are corrected on his definitive map of the French Survey, and in the report of the meeting of the Société Géologique in the Pyrenees in 1906. At that meeting the theory founded by M. Carez on the contradiction of my description of Eaux Chaudes, of Bull. Soc. Géol. of 1893, was explicitly acknowledged to be baseless and untenable by that writer himself, as well as by all present.

During the last few years several papers have been published which throw much light on the early history of the whales, a matter about which there have been great doubt and difference of opinion. Two important points appear to have been settled: first, that the Zeuglodonts (Archœceti) are descended from the primitive group of land-carnivores, usually known as the Creodonta, and, second, that the Toothed-whales (Odontoceti) are really derived from the Zeuglodonts. On this second point there may still be room for doubt, although in the opinion of the present writer the evidence brought forward by Professor Abel in several papers, is at least sufficient to demonstrate the extreme probability that the Archæoceti are really ancestors of the Odontoceti. The origin of the Baleen-whales (Mystacoceti) is still obscure, but the fact that numerous true teeth are found in the unborn young, points to the probability that these animals also may have originated from the same, or a closely related stock as that from which the Odontoceti have descended.