In the present paper I propose to give the results of a series of investigations carried on in the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Aberdeen. Through the kindness of Professor Nicholson, I have had access to his admirable collection of specimens of Solenopora, Dyb., and I have also had the privilege of using his extensive series of microscopic preparations of the same. With such material, and with additional preparations, I have been enabled to examine, not only species already described, but also a number of new species, of which I shall in this paper give brief descriptions. From examination of all these forms, I find it now practicable to determine the true nature of the genus Solenopora, Dyb.

From the “Annals of British Geology,” 1892, No. 533, p.294, I find that Prof. T. Bonney doubts the occurrence of sandgrains in the Guspis micaceous gneiss, as stated by me in various reports on the geology of the St. Gothard Tunnel, and repeated on p. 17 of my “Remarks on Prof. Bonney's paper on the Crystalline Schists and their relation to the Mesozoic rocks in the Lepontine Alps.” The question being of some general interest, and not only of importance for the comprehension and classification of the crystalline schists in the Lepontine Alps, I think it desirable to repeat here the observed facts, and to present to the notice of the readers of the Geological Magazine some autotype prints of the rockinquestion. I am the only geologist who has seen these bedsinsitu, when they were opened by the St. Gothard Tunnel; and it would be rather difficult for anyone to make out their outcrops along the line of profile through the Guspis Valley and below the actual moraine of the St. Anna glacier, without taking into consideration the faults and thrusts in this tract, which are indicated on my geological map of the St. Gothard Railway and on the profile of the tunnel.

There has been a long and sustained discussion among geologists as to whether the Mammoth and its companions were pre-Glacial, inter-Glacial, or post-Glacial, or whether they could not,infact, claim to have been both pre- and post-Glacial, and to have lived through the Glacial age, whence the name of Dicyclotherium proposed for the Mammoth by one writer.

I wish to make some corrections and additions to my recent paper on the Tertiary insects from Gurnet Bay, and to mention others from older formations. I have recently had an unexpected and gratifying visit from my friend Mr.Scudder, the eminent American palæ-eutomologist, and if I had been aware sooner of his coming to England I should have deferred my notice of some of our British Tertiary Arthropoda until he had examined the large and varied seriesinmy Collection.

In the February Number of this Magazine, Mr. Hatchings announces that he has identified as Cordierite the mineral which constitutes the conspicuous “spots” in the metamorphosed slates of Wasdale Beck near the Shap Granite.inthis connection, it may be of interest to record another occurrence of the same mineral, discovered by Mr. Marr and myself a year or two ago. It is in the metamorphosed Skiddaw Slates of the Caldew Valley in Cumberland, the locality of our specimens being south-west of the farm of Swineside. The cordierite occurs there in crystals of quite irregular shape, charged with various inclusions, original and secondary, and stained with limonite.

In the twentieth volume of the Bulletin de la Société geologique de France (p.277) a valuable paper with the above title was published. It contains three plates with a number of species, six of which are said to be new. That I cannot agree with all his conclusions Dr. Haug knows well, for, before the work appeared, the author kindly sent me copies of his proof plates for my opinion, and several letters passed between us on the subject; that he cannot agree with all my opinions on matters palæontological the author readily confesses in the present paper. Nevertheless in two cases of importance this paper does bring us more closely into agreement, as I will point out presently.