Large-scale extractions from a limestone quarry immediately east of the village of South Cornelly have provided sections of the Dibunophyllum Zone (probably the top of D1 Subzone) showing deep piping at two separate horizons. On the lower sides and floors of some of the larger pipes, the limestones and pseudo-breccias have been metasomatically replaced by a thin layer or by irregular pockets of haematite up to a foot in thickness. All the evidence points to two periods of emergence and sub-aerial erosion followed by lagoonal conditions with a Keuper-like environment when the irregularities of the underlying rock surface were filled with marl.

Several aspects of the Queensland serpentinites are discussed, including the significance of a suite of serpentinite-breccias, the formation of antigorite, and the general problem of serpentinization and mode of emplacement of the ultramafic rocks.

This note records a number of observations of orientation of current-bedding in the Moine Series of Inverness-shire, Wester Ross and Sutherland, in the North-Western Highlands of Scotland. The foreset beds have been found to have a dominant dip towards the north, thus suggesting that the Currents responsible for the transport of the material forming these beds flowed from the south.

Petrofabric analyses of marble specimens from three widely separated localities in Mid-Strathspey and Strathavon are recorded. Preferred orientation of [0001] in the constituent grains of calcite conforms to a B-tectonite pattern, the symmetry axis (B) of which coincides with the b axis of the megascopic fabric (lineation and fold axis) at each locality. Development of {011¯2} lamellae in calcite grains is attributed to late minor compression, the direction of which is more or less horizontal and trends between N.E.–S.W. and E.N.E.–W.S.W.

This paper describes the development from the initial prosicula of the rhabdosome of Diplograptus cf. (Amplexograptus) maxwelli Decker. Points of comparison with other diplograptid astogenies are noted. Evidence about the structure of the interthecal septum is brought forward and so stages in the formation of one thecal segment can be defined. Mention is made of some abnormal specimens.

Re-examination of the nephelinites of Etinde, Cameroons, carrying a composite structured “nepheline” mineral shows that the feldspathoid is a genuine nepheline, in part exhibiting twinned intergrowths, and not a potassic orthorhombic feldspathoid phase. Analysis indicates a composition with a mol. ratio of 3·6. Comparison is made with other nephelines in contrasted host environments.

Selected morphological features in the test of zonal assemblages of Echinocorys scutata Leske from the Upper Chalk of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, and Wiltshire, have been examined and measured. The results suggest that the changes observed in these characters at certain levels in the Chalk would have made Echinocorys more suited to a burrowing or partially burrowing habit. These adaptations are associated with lithological indications of shallow water deposition. It is suggested that the shallowing of the sea was the environmental stimulus behind the adaptations towards a burrowing mode of life.

The cross-bedding of the Lower Cretaceous sands between Leighton Buzzard and Hunstanton has been studied. This paper describes new evidence which throws further light on the depositional environment and palaeogeography of these sediments.

Both cross-bedding and grain size distribution were investigated in detail in the Woburn Sands (Aptian). These beds lie between Cambridge and Leighton Buzzard (Cameron, in Kirkaldy, 1939, p. 407), and are the youngest “;Lower Greensand” of East Anglia. Rather less attention has been paid to the pre-Barremian Sandringham Sands (Downham to Hunstanton). Unfortunately, the Carstone of Hunstanton shows no cross-bedding.

Of the three main lithological units on Cuilcagh, namely, Millstone Grit, Yoredale Sandstone, and Yoredale Shale, particular attention is paid to the latter which attains a thickness of 700 feet. Numerous goniatites were collected from the lowermost 450 feet of it and these establish the existence of the P1b, P1c, P2, E1a zones and possibly the E1c zone also. Higher beds are very poorly fossiliferous and their age is uncertain. Brief comparisons are also made with Yoredale Beds in England and in other parts of Ireland.

It is considered that some fossils, e.g. Orbulina and Miogypsina, are good indicators that beds containing them are of post-Oligocene age, and that the ages of some beds in certain parts of the world require reconsideration; mention is made of successions in Morocco, Venezuela, and Peru. It is recommended that the use of the term “Aquitanian” be restricted to beds of basal Miocene age.

An occurrence of chrysotile asbestos in the Usushwana river valley some 10 miles west of Mbabane, has been sporadically prospected since its discovery in 1946. No fibre of economic grade has, however, been discovered but certain features concerning the genesis of this deposit are described and may prove of value in the further search for this valuable mineral.

Cross-fibre asbestos is confined to narrow mylonitized apple green serpentinite (totally serpentinized) occurring as sharply demarcated bands in dark blue-green serpentinite (partially serpentinized). As these mylonitized bands decrease in width they pass out into fractures less than an inch thick filled by verde antique, sometimes with traces of slip fibre. The widest mylonitized band located was 18 inches wide in which were up to a dozen seams of fibre of maximum width ½ in.

The features of the occurrence suggest that fault or shear action has been primarily responsible for the localization of this deposit.

Limestone inclusions in granite show a skarn armour made up of definite mineral zones. From the limestone side these are in order: grossular zone (with or without idocrase), clinozoisite zone, plagio-clase-pyroxene zone, and finally a hornblendic or dioritic zone that passes into the biotite-granite or granodiorite of the district. These different zones were not static but moved into the limestone, each zone replacing the one preceding it and being replaced by the zone following it. A mechanism by which limestone inclusions disappear in granite is clearly exemplified.

A new species of Lepidostrobus, L. zea, is described. Two cones, from Yorkshire and from Ayrshire, and some isolated megasporangia are known. The megaspores have long been known, occurring isolated in coal, and have been described as Triletes auritus Zerndt. The microspores, also known previously from coal macerations, are of the type described as Endosporites globiformis (Ibrahim) (E. zonalis (Loose) and the C1 type of Raistrick). Endosporites has hitherto been regarded as cordaitalean (gymnosperm) pollen, and this is the first record of Endosporites from a lycopod.

The picrite of the Garbh Eilean–Eilean an Tighe sill occurs at a number of points not previously recorded. Its junction with the overlying picrodolerite is not gradational and it does not maintain a uniform level in the sill.

The diorites and Sron a' Chro' granite of the Glen Tilt complex enclose hornblende-schist xenoliths derived from the Dalradian epidiorites of the country rock. Small hornblendite xeoliths are found in the complex but are restricted to the diorite outcrop. Porphyroblastic hornblende is developed within the schist xenoliths and reaction zones rich in hornblende are formed around the xenoliths. The mineralogical and textural characteristics of these reaction products suggest that the typical two-hornblende generation appinites of the complex represent modified hornblende schist. A similar origin for the quartz-orthoclase-appinite of the complex is rejected and their development from hornblendite is indicated.

West of Armidale occur a number of dykes which intrude Woolomin Group greywackes and which are genetically associated with Permian granite. The rocks are similar to bostonites and quartz-bostonites and show remarkably developed flow structures which indicate the condition of the magma at the time of intrusion. It is shown that intrusion probably took place by laminar flow despite the occurrence of a pseudo-turbulent structure in one dyke and it is suggested that evidence of turbulent flow is unlikely to be preserved in intrusions even if such flow did occur.

Hornblende-schists, probably intruded as dolerite sills, have been permeated by trondhjemitic material. Conversion to rocks of dioritic aspect is the end-stage of this process, but the intermediate stages are more common. The conversion has been effected with little displacement so that all varieties can be observed in their correct sequence.

Well-defined genera of ammonites from the Toarcian, Bathonian, Oxfordian, Kimeridgian, and Tithonian are diagnosed and named.

Optical methods are employed in the re-determination of the composition of the olivines throughout the Garbh Eilean Sill. The olivines in the upper picrodolerite and the crinanite are zoned. The range of zoning and the iron content of the olivines increase progressively with height in the sill.