Byne Hill, two miles south of Girvan, Ayrshire, is composed of Lower Ordovician igneous rocks which form partof the Girvan-Ballantrae igneous series. Byne Hill consists of serpentinized harzburgite, gabbro, diorite and trondhjemite which probably form a N.E.–S.W. elongated dome with trondhjemite occupying the core. There are transitional passages from gabbro into dioritic gabbro, diorite, quartz diorite and trondhjemite with no sharp contacts, and gabbroidal minerals and textures persist into the marginal hornblendic phases of the trondhjemite. The mineralogical changes are mainly progressive amphibolization and albitization of the gabbro accompanied by increases in SiO2 and Na2O. Geochemical culminations of FeO, MnO and P2O5 occur in the intermediate dioritic gabbro and diorites. Comparing the intermediate rocks with similar rock series from other areas suggests that mineralogical and chemical criteria do not always distinguish intermediate rocks of metasomatic origin from those produced by fractional crystallization. On Byne Hill the textural evidence suggests that the intermediate rocks are hybrids produced by reaction between crystalline gabbro and silicic sodium-rich solutions related to the trondhjemite, although there is evidence that the trondhjemite is itself metasomatic in origin. Serpentinization and rodingitization of the Byne Hill gabbro at contacts with serpentinite are described, and it is concluded that the gabbro was emplaced into the ultrabasic rocks prior to their serpentinization.

The present report deals with the whole of the Schizopoda and Stomatopoda in the Scotia collections, and with those Isopoda which were taken in localities outside the limits of Antarctica. I am indebted to the courtesy of Dr W. S. Bruce for the opportunity of examining and reporting on these collections. The report on the Antarctic Isopoda is being prepared by Mr T. V. Hodgson.

I also include a few notes on a small collection of Schizopoda which were taken by the Discovery on its outward journey to the South Pole, for the opportunity of examining which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr W. T. Calman, of the British Museum. These latter records are most appropriately included here along with those of the species which the Scotia captured on her outward journey, over very nearly the same ground.

The material brought home by the Scotia and available for examination consists in all of fifty-five samples of deposits from the floor of the ocean. The majority of these consist of true “deep-sea” deposits, i.e. material from depths of over 100 fathoms; but, for convenience, the description of a few samples from shallow waters (mostly in the neighbourhood of the S. Orkneys) is also included in this report.

The number of deposits is considerably less than the number of soundings taken by the Expedition, because, for various reasons, a sample of deposit was not obtained in every case where a sounding was taken.

Chemostratigraphical correlation provides valuable insights into the status of the Colonsay Group, which field and structural studies have left unresolved. Using published discriminant functions, major and trace element data support previously proposed correlations of the Colonsay Limestone with Appin Group (Lower Dalradian) limestones, and particularly with the Ballachulish Limestone Formation. They also tend to preclude correlations with other nearby Dalradian carbonate formations, with marbles of the early Precambrian Lewisian complex, and with miscellaneous unassigned limestones in a similar structural position to the Colonsay Limestone, astride the Great Glen fault.

The present part of this memoir contains descriptions of four additional specimens of Osmundites which have been obtained from various sources.

We are indebted to Dr G. Nathorst for the material of Osmundites spetsbergensis, Nathorst MS., which was first collected by Dr G. Nordenskiöld on the Spitzbergen Expedition of 1890 at Nordenskiöldsberg, and subsequently by Dr B. Högbom in 1910 at Van-Mijensberg, Spitzbergen.

Our thanks are also due to Dr A. Rothpletz, Director of the Geologisch-palaeontologische Staatssammlung, München, for kindly placing in our hands the type specimen of Osmundites Carnieri, Schuster, for investigation and redescription.

We are never more disposed to give credit to a philosophical system, than when we meet with a case of its successful application, unknown to the author, or containing circumstances which he had not taken into account when he formed that system.

The facts brought forward in the following paper, which, according to my view of the subject, clearly indicate the operation of immense torrents, can be accounted for, I think, in a very satisfactory manner, by the Huttonian Theory, and consequently afford some very powerful arguments in support of it.

Surface sediments from a 160-km stretch of the River Clyde, Scotland, were analysed for persistent organic pollutants to investigate distribution, source and environmental effect. Glasgow's urban tributaries polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) ranged from 2.3 to 4226mgkg–1, total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) 72 to 37879mgkg–1 and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) 3 to 809μgkg–1, which were more polluted than the upper River Clyde PAH that ranged from 0.1 to 42mgkg–1, TPH 3 to 260mgkg–1 and PCB 2 to 147μgkg–1. Intermediate values of the inner Clyde estuary PAH ranging from 0.6 to 30mgkg–1, and PCB ranging from 5 to 130μgkg–1, were attributed to point sources and sediment transfer from the urban tributaries. Comparison with sediment quality criteria suggested possible adverse effects on aquatic biota. PAH isomeric ratios confirmed a pyrolytic source throughout the Clyde and benzo[a]pyrene/benzo[g,h,i]perylene ratios >0.6 confirmed that upper, urban and estuarine domains all to a lesser or greater extent accumulated PAH from traffic emissions. The degree of chlorination determined from PCB homologues differed in each of the three domains, suggesting variable source or that the process aerobic/anaerobic degradation varied in each of the three domains. The anthropogenic impact of the city of Glasgow can be quantified in that the urban tributary sediment mean values were 60 (PAH), 33 (TPH) and 11 (PCB) times higher than the rural upper Clyde counterpart.

Dermaptera (earwigs) are described from the Triassic of Australia and England, and from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of England. Phanerogramma heeri (Giebel) is transferred from Coleoptera and it and Brevicula gradus Whalley are re-described. Seven new taxa are named based on tegmina: Phanerogramma australis sp. nov. and P. dunstani sp. nov. from the Late Triassic of Australia; P. gouldsbroughi sp. nov. from the Triassic/Jurassic of England; Brevicula maculata sp. nov. and Trivenapteron moorei gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Jurassic of England; and Dimapteron corami gen et sp. nov. and Valdopteron woodi gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Cretaceous of England. Phanerogramma, Dimapteron and Valdopteron are tentatively placed in the family Dermapteridae, and Trivenapteron is incertae sedis. Most of the specimens of Phanerogramma heeri are from the Brodie Collection and labelled ‘Lower Lias'; however, some were collected from the underlying Penarth Group, thus this species spans the Triassic/Jurassic boundary. The palaeobiogeography of the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic of England is discussed.

1. A year ago last April, Prof. Tait proposed that I should undertake to derive from Mr Kirkman's polyhedral drawings the alternate ± knots of eleven crossings, thus doing for order 11 what had been done so admirably by himself in orders 8, 9, and 10.

2. The work has been a very protracted one, because of the great number of forms involved—more than three times as many as in all preceding orders combined. Mr Kirkman's manuscript contains 1581 forms, of which 22 are bifilar and 16 duplicates. I find from the remainder 357 knots with 1595 forms as shown in the following table:—

As this is an odd order, perversion doubles these numbers, making 714 elevenfold knots, with crossings alternately over and under.

3. It has been thought unnecessary to show upon the Plates more than one form of each knot; all, however, have been drawn. Knots of each class having the same number of forms are grouped together to make more simple the identification of a particular elevenfold. A small figure following the series number upon the plates indicates how many distinct forms each knot can assume. Knots 84, 357, and 2386 are misplaced.

Probably no department of Analytical Mechanics presents greater difficulties than that which treats of the motions of fluids; and hitherto the success of mathematicians therein has been comparatively limited. In the theory of the waves, as presented by MM. Poisson and Cauchy, and in that of sound, their success appears to have been more complete than elsewhere; and if to these investigations we join the researches of Laplace concerning the tides, we shall have the principal important applications hitherto made of the general equations upon which the determination of this kind of motion depends.

The observations which were made in Loch Earn during August 1911 and described in the Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xlviii, p. 629, demonstrated that in that loch there was during autumn a fairly definite temperature or density discontinuity, and suggested that the loch was a peculiarly suitable one in which to observe in greater detail the boundary waves occurring at the discontinuity. The previous investigation had for its main purpose the demonstration of the existence of standing oscillations at the discontinuity, and in that was entirely successful. The observations showed, however, that in addition to the primary standing oscillations there were other less regular movements about which the observations gave little information, as they were not made at sufficiently close intervals of time.

Protoclepsydropsis kidstoni (Bertrand) Hirmer is a small fossil fern with a slender stem about 3 mm. diameter bearing petioles of a Clepsydropsis type in a ⅖ phyllotaxy.

Larger isolated Clepsydropsis petioles from the same rocks probably belong to a larger related plant. In these the petiolar bundle is sometimes oval in cross section with protoxylem groups nearer one tangential surface. Occasionally roots are borne on these petioles. A resemblance to the petioles of Asterochlœna laxa Stenzel is pointed out.

The fossiliferous bed in the Upper Comley Sandstone, described by Cobbold & Pocock (in 1934) as the ‘Paradoxides forchhammeri Grit’ and correlated by them with the Andrarum Limestone of the late Middle Cambrian (P. forchhammeri Stage) in Scandinavia, is shown to be a shallow-water development of the older punctuosus Zone (medial Middle Cambrian, P. paradoxissimus Stage). It is here re-named the ‘Rushton Brook Bed’. The trilobite fauna, formerly considered comparable with that of the Andrarum Limestone, is reviewed and found taxonomically distinct, the supposed similarities being attributable to facial and preservational factors.

Distribution patterns of eye-lenses are compared from forty-two preserved visual surfaces of the new phacopine trilobite Phacops (Phacops) tafilaltensis n. sp. from the Late Devonian of Tafilalt, Morocco. In this species, variation in the lens pattern is most common on the ventral and posterior parts of the visual surface. Post-larval specimens typically have seventeen or eighteen files of lenses, but the number present is not correlated with specimen size. Several individuals display seventeen files in one eye and eighteen in the other. The smaller number of files in one eye may reflect incomplete development of that visual surface. The length of the active section of the generative zone and its pattern of growth control the number of dorso-ventral files of lenses and their relative height. Cases of asymmetry in lens distribution are observed in six individuals. The capacity of these organisms to correct both environmental or genetic stresses appears to be weak for this character. The existence of individuals with eyes exhibiting a different number of files confirms that file number is the result of a genetically controlled developmental program. In Phacops (Phacops) tafilaltensis n. sp., the lenses are normally arranged in a regular pattern of hexagonal close packing, their size varies within the visual surface of individual specimens and their number increases during ontogeny. Variation in the timing of lens emplacement accounts for the observed irregularities in lens distribution, i.e. in ventral and posterior parts of the visual surface. Characteristic patterns of the lens arrangement on the visual surface relate to systematic categories and probably reflect evolutionary relationships.

The holotype and only known specimen of Rhachiosteus pterygiatus Gross is partially redescribed and new restorations are given. Attention is drawn to important points in its osteology and the possible development of a cutaneous sensory system. A definition of the family Rhachiosteidsæ Stensiö is given. This family differs from all other described groups of euarthrodires in the lack of posterior lateral and posterior dorsolateral flank plates. Rhachiosteus is a pachyosteomorph brachythoracid, as defined in the text, and may be fairly closely related in some way to the (coccosteomorph) family Coccosteidsæ. There is no indication that it is closely related to any other known pachyosteomorph, or to other groups of arthrodires, such as the Rhenanida and Ptyctodontida, in which there are no posterior flank plates.

Proximal braided stream deposits of the Old Red Sandstone of central Scotland are characterised by a variety of upward coarsening units formed during downstream migration gravel bars. Transitional variations in thickness, grain size and structure of these units, and their associated sediments are used to establish facies and paths of facies change (lineages). Three facies lineages are recognised which are interpreted as recording the downstream changes the structure of sediments of three different types of braided river systems. Lineages differ from each other in proportion of sandstone, channel depth and the structure of upward coarsening units: lineage 1 represents alluvium formed in a river system which produced texturally mature gravels and which increased in depth downstream; lineage 2 comprises sediments deposited in shallow channels which become shallower downstream; lineage 3 represents a downstream change from conglomerate to sandstone and from an unchannelled to achannelled regime.

Stream depth and ratio of sand to gravel exert fundamental controls on the structure of alluvium. Thick (thickness >50 m) sections showing vertical changes in clast size often comprise single facies lineage. Thick upward coarsening sequences are found with lineages 2 or 3 and upward fining with lineage 1 or 3.

A necessary preliminary to the study of the complex problems involved in the biology of lakes is to ascertain the facts. The collection of the bathymetrical data was begun many years ago by Sir John Murray and Mr Pullar, and is nearing completion under the Lake Survey. The next thing is to take a census of the inhabitants. This we are now trying to do by compiling lists of the animals and plants living in the lakes. The study of the problems after the data are collected falls outside the province of a lake survey, and within that of some permanent biological station. This present compilation is one step in the accumulation of the facts.

1. To complete the census of knots of any given order, that is, minimum number of crossings, it is necessary to include not only those in which the crossings are taken alternately over and under (Alternate ±), but also the Non-Alternate ±, those in which two or more consecutive crossings are alike over or alike under. Professor Tait has figured the forms of the alternate ± knots, of orders three to nine inclusive, on Pl. XLIV. vol. xxxii., Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.; the object of this paper is to describe the non-alternate knots of these orders.

Depuis la publication de mon mémoire sur les Spongiaires de V Expedition antarctique nationale écossaise (9), j'ai reçu de M. le Dr. W. S. Bruce quelques Eponges antarctiques faisant aussi partie des collections de la Scotia mais dont le triage s'était trouve retardé.

Indépendamment de fragments en double d'espèces mentionées dans mon mémoire, ce second lot contenait plusieurs formes qu'il me paraît utile de signaler ou de décrire.