A Considerable length of section of the river valley-gravel has recently been laid open in the grounds of St. Edward's School, Summertown. It is only 200 or 300 yards distant from the Suvnmertown brick-pit, where the same gravel is exposed, and which is there close on the edge of the Thames valley; nevertheless, this section presents features which have not been observed there or at any other place, numerous as are the sections of the superficial gravel and sand in the neighbourhood of Oxford.

The remains of the genus Spermophilus have been so rarely found in Britain that an account of another example could not but be of interest to geologists; but the specimen described below is especially noteworthy as it has been obtained from a deposit only recently discovered, and from which no vertebrate remains have as yet been recorded. The deposit referred to is the “Arctic Freshwater Bed,” discovered near Mundesley, by Mr. Alfred Nathorst (vide Journ. of Botany, vol. iii. 1873, p. 225), and investigated by my colleague, Mr. Clement Eeid, during the survey of the Norfolk coast (GEOL. MAG. for Dec. 1880).

I do not hesitate to say that Dr. Eoberts could not have written the letter which appears in this Magazine for December, 1881, if he had read my papers on Anglesey with care. Not only does he confound together things which I have expressly made to differ, but he attributes to me opinions which never existedineither my thoughts or my writings. I must remove some of these misapprehensions, before discussing the real questions in dispute.

In the volume of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE which appeared in 1875, I published a digest of the literature relating to the meteorites which fell between 1869 and that date, as well as an examination of the work done during that interval of time on meteorites which had fallen before 1869. I purpose now to direct the reader's attention to what has happened or been done during the intervening years, 1875 to 1881, and bring the supplement down to the present time.

Having examined the various theories of the origin of the Loess, which have been current, and found them wanting, I would, with great deference, propose another which has not hitherto been suggested by any geologist, and which offers at least a probable solution of our untractable problem. In previous papers of this series, if we have not proved, as we think we have, that the evidence in favour of the Mammoth and his companions having been suddenly overwhelmed by a great diluvial movement is unanswerable, we claim to have at least shown a very strong á priori probability in favour of such a view.