Below the “Coniston Limestone Series”—if we include under this general title not only the Coniston Limestone proper, but also the “Style End Grassing Beds” of Long Sleddale and the “Dufton Shales” of the Cross Fell area—no fossiliferous beds have hitherto been detected in the Lake—district till the horizon of the Upper Skiddaw Slates (Llanvirn Series) is reached. Between these two horizons are placed the thick and varied volcanic rocks which have usually been grouped together under the name of the “ Borrowdale Series ” (the “ Green Slates and Porphyries ” of Prof. Sedgwick); though it may be taken as certain that this name covers more than one series of volcanic ejecta. Up to the present time, no strata containing fossils have been detected in connection with any of the rooks which have been included under the general title of the “ Borrowdale Series.”

During the recent construction of a new highway linking Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks a number of deep cuttings have had to be made in the Little Belt Mountains. Some nine miles south-south-east of the once prosperous mining town of Neihart the road crosses the divide at King's Hill (7,400 feet O.D.) and, passing from Cascade County into Meagher County, starts a long and gradual descent into Sheep Creek. Along the side of the creek for a distance of several miles a series of sections reveal that the country rock is here cut by igneous intrusions with interesting contact-metamorphic effects. The mineralogy of the contact rocks has already been described by the author (l): the present communication describes the field relations and considers some problems of paragenesis.

A few years ago I described some remains of Antelopes from the Pliocene Siwaliks of India, when I employed the generic term Antilope in the wide sense in which it was used by the older zoologists and palæontologists. At a later date I was enabled to refer two of the species thus designated to two of the genera of Antelopes as at present classed; and at the same time mentioned some other forms. A recent examination of all the remains of this group from the same deposits contained in the British Museum has enabled me to make a more exact determination in the case of another of the species mentioned in my first notice, and also to indicate the existence of other forms closely allied to existing African Antelopes. These new forms I hope to have an opportunity of describing on a future occasion, and, therefore, now content myself with merely giving a list of the species which I can at present recognize. The ill-defined character of some of the genera of existing Antelopes renders it in many instances a matter of extreme difficulty to be quite sure as to the affinities of their fossil relations.

The first references in any detail to the nature of the Chert in Carboniferous rocks appeared in 1878, when Messrs. Hull and Hardman published a joint paper on the subject, treating more particularly of the Chert in the Upper Carboniferous Limestone of Ireland. Prof. Hull gave a general description of the distribution and mode of occurrence of the Chert, and a detailed notice of its microscopic structure, as shown in fifteen thin sections of the rock from various localities in Ireland. Prof. Hull gave a general description of the distribution and mode of occurrence of the Chert, and a detailed notice of its microscopic structure, as shown in fifteen thin sections of the rock from various localities in Ireland. The author reached the conclusion that the Chert is essentially a pseudomorphic rock, consisting of gelatinous silica replacing limestone of organic origin, chiefly foraminiferal, crinoidal, and coralline; the replacement was believed to have taken place before the shales overlying it were deposited, whilst the limestone was in a more or less plastic condition, admitting the fine percolation of water holding silica in solution. The sea was believed to have been largely charged with silica in solution, and the chemical process was accelerated by the warm surface waters of a shallow sea. The origin of the Chert from the siliceous skeletons of Biatomaceas, Polycystinas, and the spicules of sponges is distinctly denied, and it is affirmed that it can only be considered as a secondary product due to the replacement of lime-carbonate by silica.

Silicified beyrichiocopid and podocopid ostracods from limestone nodules derived from the middle part of the Ichinotani Formation within the Hida Gaien Terrane of central Honshu Island, Japan, are associated with fusulinid foraminifera that indicate strata of the middle Moscovian (Pennsylvanian, Carboniferous). This is a rare record of ostracods from the Palaeozoic of Japan and the first systematic description of ostracods from the Carboniferous of the Hida Gaien Terrane. The fauna comprises six ostracod species (two new) assigned to the genera Amphissites, Kirkbya, Bairdia, Aechmina and Healdia, and additional material of possible cavellinids. The numerical dominance of ornamented beyrichiocopids such as Kirkbya and Amphissites, along with smaller numbers of smooth podocopids such as Bairdia, indicates an ‘Eifelian mega-assemblage’ ecotype (sensu G. Becker), that is typical of mid Palaeozoic shallow marine, high-energy environments in a fore-reef ecosystem.

Dehée (1929, p. 26) has pointed out that there has been much confusion and difficulty in distinguishing A. concentrica from A. (Cleiothyridina) roissyi, and Weller (1914, p. 473) referred to Davidson's too broad interpretation of that species. One impression [H. 251] from Poleshill which Whidborne figured (1897, pl. xviii, fig. 3) under the latter name does not possess the characteristic spinosity of A. (Cl.) roissyi, but agrees instead with A. concentrica which is a typical Devonian species characteristic of the Upper Devonian, as Dehée remarks who figures examples of it (1929, p. 26, pl. iv, figs. 4−6) from Etroeungt.

For many years the New Red Sandstone of the Vale of Clwyd was shown upon the maps as resting generally on Carboniferous Limestone, but frequently overlapping it so as to pass on to the surrounding Silurian strata. No faults were indicated, and the structure of the Vale, as represented, suggested that a pre-Triassic syncline here existed, within which a remnant of Carboniferous rocks had been preserved from denudation and which had formed a bay in the Triassic coastline.

Among the many valleys of Daghestan that are interesting to the geologist there are none more remarkable than the channel by which the river Sulak passes through the chain of Cretaceous and Jurassic mountains which borders Inner Daghestan. Just above the entrance of this defile the four rivers Koissu unite in one stream, which in a series of cataracts tears through a stupendous chasm some fifteen miles in length, cutting the huge ridge almost at right angles to its axis.

The sub-genus Lycophoria was founded by Lahusen (1886, p. 221), and referred to the Strophomenidae, the only species described, Lycophoria nucella (Dalman, 1828, p. 130) being the genotype. Part of the original diagnosis runs: “Klappen convex; Rückenklappe stärker gewölbt, am Stirnrande ein breiter flacher Sinus. In der Bauchklappe eine kleine dreiseitige Area mit dreieckiger offener Deltidialspalte. Schlosszähne von zwei divergirenden Zahnplatten gestützt, die in ihrer Fortsetzung am Grunde der Schale eine längliche, durch eine kurze Mittelleiste getheilte Muskelgrube umgrenzen. In der Rückenklappe ein starker, hakenförmiger Cruralfortsatz, innen durch eine Längsfurche getheilt und auf der Rückseite mit einem kleinen, zahnartigen Schlossfortsatz verbunden” (Lahusen, 1886, p. 221). Lycophoria has also been discussed by Hall and Clarke (1894, p. 230), by Kozlowski (1929, p. 131), who placed it with the Porambonitidae in the Telotremata, and by Schuchert and Cooper (1932, pp. 105–6), who regarded it as the sole representative of a new family of the Orthacea. The close external similarity to Porambonites and the fact that Lycophoria had also been referred to the Pentameracea, led the writer to investigate Lahusen's genus in a search for possible ancestors of the pentamerids.

It seems to be one of the chief objects of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in changing the place of meeting every year, to bring more prominently before the members of its respective sections such points of interest in their own department of Science as are afforded by the various localities. In accordance with this principle, I beg to lay before you some observations concerning the geology of a district not more distant than about two hours' railway journey from Dublin, which will, I trust, be of peculiar interest on the present occasion. The district I refer to is the hill country north of Dundalk, of which Slieve Gullion forms the most prominent feature. This mountain is a somewhat isolated mass, attaining an elevation of about 1900 feet, and is situated to the north-west of the hilly and picturesque country lying between the bays of Dundalk and Carlingford, or due west of the more remarkable group of the Mourne Mountains.

Rocks rich in magnesium are abundantly developed in a certain few areas of the world, whereas they are rare or absent in the remaining areas. With reference to the abundance of magnesian rocks in Southern India, for example, Holland has stated:—

To the recently published paper by my father, “Palæontology of the Coasts of the Arctic Lands visited by the late British Expedition,” etc., I contributed some notes on the Polyzoa obtained during the progress of the Expedition from the Palæozoic rocks of the regions visited. Amongst other forms I referred at some length to Dr. F. Toula's genus Ramipora, and pointed out its affinities to various genera of Palæ Polyzoa, and more particularly to Synocladia, King, in the following words:—“ It appears to differ from the first of these” (i.e. from Synocladia) “in the absence of dichotomization of the stem and primary branches, so far as the remains of it are known to us; secondly, in the bilateral symmetry of the latter; thirdly, in the fact that the cells all open on the same plane on each side the median keel, whereas in Synocladia the stems and branches are divided longitudinally by several carinæ, between which the cell apertures occur. Again in Ramipora both aspects of the polyzoarium are carinate, but in Synocladia only one. Lastly, in Synocladia the dissepiments all appear to be regularly celluliferous, but in Ramipora this does not appear to hold good to the same extent.”

The occurrence of a goniatite horizon in the Yoredale Series exposed on Ingleborough can now be recorded. The goniatite, Neoglyphioceras cf. spirale (Phillips) was found in shales underlying a limestone which may probably be the Five Yard.

During last winter (1937) at Cottesloe, a seaside suburb of Perth, Western Australia, a large sand-dune was being levelled. This provided the writer with an excellent opportunity for observing the movement of sand grains by wind.

The purposes of this short paper are to place on record and to bring to the notice of geologists a deposit of sands and gravels containing numerous marine shells which is exposed on the Durham coast north of Easington. Marine shells (Littorina, Cyprina, etc.) have been collected before from sands and gravels lying above sealevel on this coast, but the deposits containing them have usually been removed in the course of quarrying operations, and no collecion of shells has been preserved in any museum; it is therefore of interest that a deposit has lately been observed which can be examined at any time by geologists, and from which specimens of shells can easily be obtained. It is also of importance that the exact mode of origin of these particular deposits should be determined.

Near San Sebastian, northern Spain, are outcrops of a system of deep-water fans deposited beyond the mouth of a submarine canyon from southward flowing currents. The sandstones consist of mixed siliciclastic detritals and carbonate fragments. The latter includes a derived heterogeneous marine fauna. Carbonate content varies and has played a major part in diagenesis. Early cementation by limited quartz and to a greater extent calcite involved local expansion. Later compaction has led to prominent pressure-solution phenomena of calcite and quartz with formation of microstylolites. Leaching owing to weathering has led to removal of some carbonate and formation of kaolinite from micas.

An enhanced concentration of phosphorus has been found at the stratigraphic level of the disappearance of Ediacaran taxa in two areas, the Cis-Dniester region and the Moscow syneclise, on the East European Platform (EEP). The isotope composition of neodymium was determined in Fe sulphide and phosphorite in the same beds. Measured εNd(t) values in diagenetic phosphate nodules are similar to those in iron sulphide from the same layer. During the Ediacaran − Early Cambrian, accumulation of radiogenic Nd in the epeiric basins on the EEP increased progressively from −17.9 and −19.4 in pyrite from the sequence bottom to −7.9 and −8.5 in the Early Cambrian pyrite of the central part of the EEP. The Ediacaran phosphate nodules show εNd(t) ranging from −12.9 to −15.0, while that in the Early Cambrian nodules is typically c. −9.0. These data indicate the secular change in Nd isotope composition of the water reservoir on the EEP from Ediacaran to Cambrian.