In a previous article, a sketch has been given of what is known concerning the origin and history of the early manuscript maps of William Smith. I have shown that concerning these maps, though they were not published, in the technical sense of that term, there exists a satisfactory body of external evidence with regard to the period of their preparation, while they furnish in themselves abundant proofs that they must have been constructed at the dates inscribed upon them. These facts have been so generally recognized that—since the clear statements on the question which have been made by Fitton, Parey, Sedgwick, and Phillips—no one has ever thought of either questioning the antiquity of the maps or denying to William Smith the honour of being the first to construct a true geological map of England and Wales.

When recently examining a series of igneous rocks for the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, I required a ready method for the determination of potassium in the felspars, whether they occurred as porphyritic crystals or as microlites in the groundmass. The ordinary flame-reaction has always been recognized as unsatisfactory in the presence of sodium, and the use of blue glass has been long recommended, of a sufficient thickness to cut off a sodium flame, the potassium flame then coming through alone.

The genus Oudenodon of A. G. Bain, 1856, was adopted by Sir Richard Owen, and defined as comprising Anoinodont reptiles of the type of Dicynodon, but absolutely toothless. Still, they were referred to a family Cryptodontia, under the belief that the teeth were immature and had their development arrested, so that they never descended to the adveolar margin. a transition might easily be made from the caniniform production upward of the alveolar border seen in Oudenodon to the small teeth in Dicynodon dubius and D. recurvidens, which areincontrast to the great lateral ridges formed by the roots of the teeth in most species of the genus.

Proceeding in a westerly direction from Tammerfors, we stopped near the station of Siuro to examine some railway cuttings where good sections of gneissose rock and mica-schist, both of Pre-Bothnian age, occur. Macroscopically, the gneissose rock is distinctly and regularly foliated, having small, lenticular, streaks of quartz abundantly disseminated. Locally, however, the section in the field exhibits much contortion; and thin, irregular, veins of quartz, manifestly of secondary origin, are not uncommon.

In September last the Committee appointed by the British Association to “examine the conditions under which remains of the Irish Elk were found in the Isle of Man” commenced excavating at Close-y-garey, near Poortown ; but owing to the unusual amount of water, considerable labour and expense were incurred in the preliminary work of draining, and by the 25th September the grant was exhausted.

The Red-Deer (Cervus elaphus), or common stag, is a native of the more temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and North America, lu Great Britain it has its freedom limited to the Highlands of Scotland, where, however, it is carefully protected, and affords the crême de la crême of British field-sports to the practised rifleman and mountaineer.

In describing “An Interesting Contact-Rock” (Geol. Mag., March and April, 1895) I gave its analysis, showing:—

And in this rock also the great relative increase in soda corresponds with the appearance of albite among the new minerals.