The author, who has long been engaged on the Palæozoics of West Cornwall, divided the killas extending westward from Gerrans Bay into four groups that formed a natural sequence. Moreover, as they included definite Lower Silurian horizons, as characterized by the fossiliferous quartzite of Carne, these divisions were linked with the Lower Palæozoics. They consist of the Veryan, Portscatho, Falmouth, and Mylor groups. On the latest issues of the old Survey maps the area occupied by the first of these divisions is coloured as Silurian, and the region occupied by the remainder as Devonian. That colouring, however, was not adopted by De la Beche, who surveyed the region, nor was it the result of any subsequent survey of the area. In the original Geological Survey map of Cornwall the killas was separated by De la Beche into two divisions, viz., a grauwacke group and a carbonaceous series. Thus, the former lying below the Culm-measures was undifferentiated for the reason, as explained in his Report, that the progress of geology at that time only warranted the broadest generalizations. He moreover expressed the opinion that the terms Cambrian and Silurian should be restricted to the areas that gave rise to the prolonged researches of Murchison and Sedgwick, and deprecated the extension of that nomenclature to districts that had not received the same detailed investigations. In a later and undated issue of the map the grauwacke group is divided into Devonian and Silurian, presumably by the authority Sir Roderick Murchison. The Devonian colour was not only applied to fossiliferous strata in East and Mid Cornwall, but was extended over the unfossiliferous strata in the west. The Silurian tint, on the other hand, was restricted to a zone that had yielded organic remains. Murchison, however, was of opinion that the older zone extended far beyond those limits into the barren strata coloured as Devonian, and it is evident that the latter tint was adopted as a matter of convenience, as no re-examination of the area seems to have been undertaken. The known Silurian region was confined to the coastal belt between Chapel Point and Gerrans Bay, a boundary connecting those localities admitting of the ready isolation of that zone from the rest of the country. That such a broad generalization, however, was only regarded as provisional may be inferred from the absence of a line on the map between the two divisions. It will be seen, therefore, that the subdivision of the killas, as the result of the recent survey, neither invalidates the map published by De la Beche nor the subsequent conclusions of Murcliison. It has, on the other hand, not only brought their generalizations within more definite limits, but has carried the investigation a step farther by demonstrating the relations between the older and newer Palæozoics of Cornwall.

Having frequently visited Upware during the past fourteen months, for the purpose of collecting from the Lower Greensand, in which I have been very successful, having obtained for this Museum a beautiful and choice collection, I have had every opportunity of observing the progress of the excavations, and of noting the relative position of the beds.

Bedding mullions have been produced by compression parallel to bedding in the hinge region of a large recumbent fold. Geometrically, the mullions are a combination of parasitic folding, with characteristic gadrooned profile, and cleavage planes. The cleavage is not an axial plane structure, but where fully developed produces a perfect slate fabric in rocks of appropriate lithology. The mullions are found on both sides of a bed of inferior slate sandwiched between two beds of good roofing slate. Boudinage structure results where the mullions are exactly back to back, and the planes of separation provided by the cleavage are infilled with coarse calcite. The slates are interbedded and interlaminated with limestone.

Such boudins are unusual in that they occupy the hinge region of a fold and result from compression parallel, rather than at right angles, to the bedding.

A not uncommon fossil of the Chalk, in both the upper and lower divisions, is an elongated, and more or less undulating body, composed of the scales and bones of fishes confusedly mingled one with another, and known to the quarrymen as “Petrified Eels.” Dr. Mantell was the first to discover and describe these singular objects; he says, “A long cylindrical fish, of which neither the fins nor the extremities have been discovered, is one of the most frequent, but most imperfect of the Sussex ichthyolites. The specimens are of a subcylindrical form, rather flattened by compression, from six inches to two feet in length, and about one inch wide. They occur abundantly in the Upper Chalk, and occasionally in the siliceous nodules. They are, for the most part, perfectly straight; but some specimens are undulated, as if the fish had been suddenly enveloped in the Chalk while in a state of motion. The surface is covered with small delicate smooth scales, confusedly mixed together; not one instance having been noticed in which they are disposed with any degree of regularity.”

The East Asian Cretaceous lamellibranch genera Trigonioides and Hoffetrigonia are discussed after examining new material of the former, and the conclusion is reached that both belong to the Unionidae and not to the Trigoniidae. A proposal to include them in a new family is withdrawn.

Several nearly complete skeletons of the primitive teleostean fish Portheus molossus are now known from the Chalk of Kansas; but none is better preserved than a remarkable trunk, nearly 12 feet in total length, lately obtained for the British Museum by Mr. Charles H. Sternberg. The specimen is shown, of about of the natural size, in the accompanying Plate XVIII, where it is seen mounted with the head of another fish of the same proportions. All the bones remain embedded in the matrix exactly as they were found, and there is no restoration beyond slight repairs.

This study focuses on the Tianshifu Basin, eastern Liaoning, China, which is filled with Lower–Middle Jurassic fluviolacustrine sediments rich in macroplants. Our aim is to explore the continental climate features of the late Early Jurassic period. The composition of the Early–Middle Jurassic flora and the carbon isotopic ratios of organic matter, total organic carbon, total organic nitrogen and sulphur of the rock samples from the Changliangzi section (the upper part of the Lower Jurassic deposits) have been investigated. Based on the flora, eastern Liaoning was generally characterized by temperate and humid conditions during the Early–Middle Jurassic period, but with rising temperatures during late Early Jurassic time. The sediments of the Changliangzi section show a transformation from shallow-lake facies to deep-lake facies. A positive organic carbon isotope excursion correlates with the deepening of this palaeolake, considered to be caused by climate warming. The late Early Jurassic climate warming indicated by floral and isotopic evidence corresponds to the climatic events recorded elsewhere in marine and continental sequences during the Toarcian Age, the so-called Toarcian Anoxic event, and may be associated with enhanced global greenhouse warming. This study provides new continental data supporting global warming during the late Early Jurassic period.

Solenopora.—The discovery of this genus in the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Westmorland is of considerable interest, as its occurrence here gives us some insight into the history of its wanderings between the time when we last recorded it in the Gotlandian rocks of the Baltic area and its subsequent reappearance in the Lower Oolite of Gloucestershire. Whether it lived in the Baltic area during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods is, however, still unknown. The fact of its occurrence in the Caradoc, Carboniferous, and Jurassic rocks of the British Isles would appear to point to its existence not far off during the intervening periods.

The tufa that forms the subject of these notes occurs on the eastern side of Park Brook in Upper Old Park Wood, 2 miles north-west of Lydney (6 in. O.S. Sheet, 47 N.W. Glos.).

My interest in cleat was first aroused by the study of the Geological Survey memoir on the coals of South Wales (1908), from which it became clear to me that the subject of the origin of anthracite was intimately bound up with that of cleat. The object of the present communication is, however, not directly connected with the anthracite question, upon which I hope to have something to say when researches upon which I am engaged with Mr. E. J. Edwards, M.Sc., of Cardiff, have reached a more advanced stage.

The Cornbrook Sandstone of Titterstone Clee Hill has plants of Westphalian (Middle Coal Measures) age. It is thus probably a correlative of the lower Kinlet Group of the Forest of Wyre. The base is unconformable to the Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous Limestone while the top is apparently conformable with Productive Coal Measures of the Sweet Coal Group, also of Middle Coal Measures age.

Recently Mr. A. Stuart (1927, PP. 545–57) has published an account of the variation in a large number of specimens of Volutospina spinosa from the Calcaire Grossier of Grignon. In his study of that group he emphasized the variation in the ontogeny of the individual, and suggested the importance of such studies in relation to the more philosophical aspects of biology and in relation to the application of ontogenetic evidence to the problem of classification. The group studied by Mr. Stuart was one in which the latitude of variation in any character was particularly small.

In a paper dealing with some phases of volcanic action in North Wales, it was urged that contemporaneous eruptive rocks occurred on Cader Idris at lower horizons than the acknowledged base of the Arenig, although the actual vents from which they had arisen were lost and concealed under later accumulations. It was pointed out that the mass of Rhobell Fawr was of composite character, but was probably distinct from the series on Cader Idris. The fragmental character of much of its material having been recognized by the author of the Survey-Memoir, several theories are discussed in that work to account for its stratigraphical position. In spite of the lack of detail, when compared with other areas, with which Rhobell Fawr has been represented on Sheet 75 S.E. of the Map of the Geological Survey, the ashes, “breccias,” and other materials piled here upon the edges of the Lingula Flags are fully dealt with in the text of the Memoir, and we are left finally to select the most probable explanation of those put forward.

Modal analyses of nine specimens of Ghosh's Type I and six specimens of his Type II Carnmenellis granite indicate that there is no significant difference between the average compositions of these two facies.

Three acid breccia-bodies which are emplaced within the basaltic agglomerate of the Kilchrist vent of Tertiary age are described. They are considered to be of pyroclastic origin. Petrographic evidence which relates to the probable mechanism of emplacement of the breccias is discussed.

In the Geological Magazine for June of this year I proposed the new specific and generic names Anthracosiro woodwardi for a Carboniferous Arachnid represented in the British Museum by a single specimen (No. 1551) from Coseley, near Dudley, that formerly belonged to the collection of Mr. Henry Johnson. A further communication from Dr. Friĉ, of Prague, drew my attention to three additional specimens, with the same history, numbered 1554, 1555, and 1556, and ticketed Eophrynus, sp. nov. No. 1555 is the under-side of a scorpion, without the tail; the others are referable to the genus Anthracosiro.