Those who have attempted a geological exploration of a new country can best appreciate the difficulties which must be overcome by the geologist, and the value of every scrapof fossil evidence met with, however fragmentary, which may serve as an indication of the probable horizon of the strata around him

Many attempts to revive and improve the classification of our rock-groups have been made from time to time, and the International Geological Congress will doubtless make a further effort in the same direction.

The remarks by Professor Bonney on Dr. Sterry Hunt's recently published “Geological History of Serpentines,” which appeared in the September Number of the Geological Magazine, open up a very wide question—a question which broadly divides the nonchemical from the chemical geologists and petrologists. Dr. Sterry Hunt is well able to take care of himself in this discussion, and certainly I have no present desire to take part in it except so far as it relates to the Cornish areas, some of which are therein referred to. These I have especially studied, and with respect to them I feel bound to say that I find myself able entirely to agree with the conclusions of Dr. Sterry Hunt.

Disregarding for convenience the internal volcanic forces of the earth, let us take for granted that we have an unlimited supply of fused silicates at a very high temperature; what will be the changes and effects produced in the escape of such matters upon the earth's surface ?.

That, at the great sources of volcanic material the igneous mass is in a completely fused state there can hardly exist any doubt. By this is meant that the magma is an intimate mixture of various chemical elements and compounds that have not yet assumed any other than the fluid state, or, in other words, that the molecules move freely amongst each other and have not arranged themselves in any definite crystalline form.

A Cave in the south escarpment of the Great Ormes Head has been in gradual processof exploration by a person named Kendrick. In its silt and breccia he has discovered fragments of human skeletons, indicating by their dimensions that the individuals to whom they belonged were about five feet six inches in height. Some of their tibiæ are still to be seen imbedded in situ. There has also been found a considerable quantity of swine's teeth, each marked on the fang with fromfour to six transverse lines, and perforated at the extremity with a hole throughwhich ran probably a tendon of a reindeer or some other ligament stringing them together as a necklace. There is a similar one, composed of human teeth, in the Christie Collection in the British Museum, worn by the inhabitants of the Solomon Islands. From the same cave deposit there have been extracted several bears' teeth, with a hole in each of them for their suspension as ear-rings, and two lower equine jaws with the enamel of the four incisors highly polished, and with zigzag marks on the surfaceof the maxillary bone. These were probably hung also from the necks of the cave-men as ornaments. The wholecavern, or a portion of it, has been considered to have formed a burial-place for someIberian tribe; but the careless and irreverent manner in which the dead in it appear tohave been disposed of seems to indicate that it might have been the habitation of a raceof cave-men akin to the Eskimos, whom Professor Boyd Dawkins, in his“Early Man in Britain,” describes as so indifferent to the sepulture of their deceased relatives that they sometimes cover up their bodies with snow and leave them to be eaten by dogs or foxes.The cave, which contains a natural reservoir of water, has only been partially excavated, and further researches seem most desirable, as they might lead to the finding of very important relics of its original inhabitants, as well as settleany doubts which may have arisen as to the accuracy of the present explorer's statement, on which the truth of the discovery of the above-mentioned remains in that particular cave rests.

Before offering a short account of the Struthious, or Ostrich-like Birds, commonly called “Wingless Birds,”I propose to say a few words about Birdsas a class. Every one who has paid attention to the anatomy Birds has been struck by the marvellous uniformity of the Class.

Every one who has paid attention to the anatomy of Birds has been struck by the marvellous uniformity of the Class. Embracing as it does almost countless numbers of species, these are found upon examination to pass insensibly, by the most delicate differences, the one into the other, so that it often is most difficult to distinguish genera and species.

In the gravel at Barrington, about seven miles S.S.W. of Cambridge, numerous remains of Hippopotamus have been found, associated with Rhinoceros, Bison, Cervus, etc. A description of this gravel and its included fossils has been given by Mr. Fisher. But since Mr. Fisher's paper was written, the number of bones and teeth found has been very largely increased. Most of these remains have been deposited in the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge