The shell for which I propose the above appellation was considered to be Strombus pugilis by Mr. Carrick Moore. The name was misprinted fragilis in his paper in the Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xix. p. 511. In my papers on the Tertiary fossils of Jamaica and the West Indies, the species was recorded under the name Str. pugilis. In ordinary specimens like those usually found in Jamaica, Haiti, and elsewhere, the only well-marked differences that can be noticed between the fossil shell and the recent Strombus pugilis are that in the former the last whorl is usually devoid of the spiniform tubercles, and that the shell is of shorter and broader figure. But some examples, supplied me by my friend Mr. Vendryes, exhibit an unexpected character. They show chevron-shaped bands of colour, about 12–15 on the last whorl. Each band takes the shape of a V, the apex of which occurs near the middle of the whorl, and forms an angle of about 30° pointing backwards or away from the aperture. These bands of colour are about two mm. wide and the spaces between them are about three mm. Numerous specimens of the recent Str. pugilis have passed through my hands, but I have never noticed the slightest approach to such a character. The recent shell is pale red or pink only relieved by an indistinct band of paler tint following the middle of the whorl. A less constant difference may be found in the low rounded lamellar dentition inside the outer lip which is very faint or altogether wanting in Strombus pugilis, but more marked in the fossil.

It will be remembered that, in the Geological Magazine for 1873, Vol. X. p. 2, Pl I. Figs. 1, 2, I described a fossil Butterfly from the Stonesfield Slate under the name of Palæontina oolitica; the type was in the possession of Mr. E. Charles worth, who subsequently discovered that the twin impression had been obtained by Mr. J. W. Judd, F.G.S., who presented it to the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street.

This very handsome rock forms almost the whole surface of the Island of Lambay and of the adjoining coast, a few miles to the north of Dublin Bay. It is also laid open in the railway cutting at Donabate Station; and has received considerable notice owing to its intrinsic beauty as an ornamental stone, and its proximity to the Irish metropolis. I am informed by Kev. Dr. Haughton that he has identified specimens from the tessellated pavement of St. Kevin's Church, Glendalough, of the seventh century, which were submitted to his in spection by Sir W. Wilde. A polished table, together with a large block presenting two sides cut and polished, are placed in the gallery of the Royal College of Science in St. Stephen's Green; where, to those familiar with the marbles of Italy and Greece, the appearance of these specimens cannot fail to recall the green porphyry (Marmor Lacedæmonium viride) so largely used in ancient decorative works of art, and often reset in modern ones, the source of which is in the neighbourhood of Sparta and Marathon. The two rocks, however, though resembling each other in appearance, are essentially distinct as regards mineral composition, M. Delesse having proved that the Grecian porphyry contains augite as an essential, and is apparently a porphyritic basalt, while the Irish porphyry is altogether destitute of this mineral. As regards geological age, the Lambay porphyry appears to have been intruded amongst the Lower Silurian rocks at a period antecedent to that of the Old Bed Sandstone, as this latter formation overlies the porphyry without appearing to have undergone any alteration along the surface of contact.

Having received permission from the Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, I exhibited before the Geological Section of the British Association at Belfast in August last, the Maps and Sections of the rocks forming the hill-country of West Galway and S.W. Mayo, and gave a description of the district, of which the following is an epitome.

In the Geological Magazine, Vol. VIII. 1871, p. 247, I gave a short account of the composition and structure of a Phonolite which forms the mass of the Wolf Rock lying between the Land's End and the Scilly Islands. The account there given has been noticed by Prof. Zirkel in a work recently published, in which he refers to my description of some of the crystals stated to be nepheline, and suggests that they may be nosean. The passage to which, he refers is as follows:—“The grey dust filling some of the crystals is frequently collected together so as to form a dark or even black mass in the centre, the edges of which are sharply defined, and correspond exactly with those of the crystal. Hexagonal crystals, for example, exhibit a border filled with a fine grey dust, and a central portion occupied by a well-defined black hexagon, or there is sometimes a black band running parallel with, and at some distance from the sides.” To this I may now add, that some of the crystals and irregular grains are traversed by a number of very fine straight lines of a bluish-black colour, and that with a high magnifying power these lines are resolved into rows of extremely minute dark granules similar to those forming the dust. This remarkable structure, combined with that previously given, is so thoroughly characteristic of nosean that there can be no doubt of its presence in the rock; the mineralogical composition of which is thus found to be in complete accordance with that of the large series examined by Zirkel.