Elhuyar, born in Spain in 1755, received a thorough training in mining geology at several of the leading European mining schools. He was appointed to an important post in New Spain (Mexico), where he arrived in 1788. There he devoted himself to reorganizing the administration of the mining industry and then to founding a School of Mines in Mexico City. This was opened in 1792, and in 1811 moved into the magnificent new building known as El Palacio de Minería, which now houses the Engineering School of the University. When an independent government was set up in Mexico in 1821, Elhuyar returned to Spain, where he continued to work for the government as a mining consultant. He prepared a report on the Rio Tinto mines and was responsible for the planning of the School of Mining Engineering in Madrid.

A large number of Devonian and Carboniferous limestones from the West and South-West of England have been sampled for conodont faunas. Only 15 yielded conodonts, but the faunas show striking similarities to those of America and Germany. The presence of “Ordovician” forms in these assemblages is noted and an explanation offered.

The rocks are coarse-grained deposits of Cementstone and Fell Sandstone age. The succession in the Rerrick outlier consists of the Wall Hill sandstones (900 ft.) unconformable on Silurian, followed by the Orroland Limestone Beds (80ft. +) yielding fossils indicative of Cambeck age. The succeeding coarse red Barlocco conglomerate (210 ft. +) is capped by the Rascarrel beds, some 1,200 ft. of felspathic sandstones and arkoses, with coarse conglomerates. The rocks of the three outliers to the east are of Barlocco-Rascarrel facies. All four outliers are downfaulted against Silurian and have a regional dip to the south-east.

This paper records details of measured sections across the Old Red Sandstone-Carboniferous junction in the neighbourhood of Cardiff.

By studying the current bedding in the hornfelsed rocks surrounding the ortho-gneisses of the Carn Chuinneag and Inchbae masses it has been possible to obtain some indication of the stratigraphic order and the nature of the folding of this part of the Moine series.

A study of Devonian faunas from North Cornwall shows that a considerable area of beds hitherto regarded as Upper Devonian are of Middle Devonian age. Goniatite localities at Trevone Bay and Portquin correlate with the Upper Maenioceras Stufe of Germany: other localities within the area mapped as Grey Slate by the Survey are also Middle Devonian. Only the area marked as Purple and Green Slate by the Survey has yielded Upper Devonian goniatites.

In the Hecla Hoek rocks of Prince Charles Foreland, field evidence indicates that chloritoid has developed only where conditions of extreme stress have affected pelitic rocks of a certain type. Microscopic examination confirms that many of the chloritoid-bearing rocks are extremely strained, and demonstrates that growth of the mineral was contemporaneous with movement. The distribution of chloritoid is in complete discordance with the pattern of regional metamorphism.

Chemical analyses and petrographic data are given of the eastern granites of the Mourne Mountains. It is shown that the main bulk of the granite is a uniform highly siliceous biotite-bearing type and that the intrusion of this was preceded by a smaller amount of less siliceous and more variable hornblende-bearing granite. The ferromagnesian minerals have a high iron to magnesium ratio.