The labours of Mr. Jex in the Eskdale fish-beds have brought to light another beautiful new fish, now in the British Museum. This is a Ganoid of the genus Elonichthys, and though represented as yet only by a single specimen, this is fortunately a very perfect one.

The two chief difficulties in taking serial sections are to ensure that the successive sections are all parallel to each other and to obtain reliable drawings of them.

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 Fuller's Earth Clay of the Whatley district nowhere rests directly on the Palaeozoic rocks, but is always underlain by Inferior Oolite. The Fuller's Earth Rock of the district contains two distinctive and successive faunas, the upper of which bears a suite of ammonites hitherto unknown from rocks of this age. It is correlated with the Wattonensis Beds of the Dorset Fuller's Earth.

The extraordinary abundance of Bryozoa of the order Cheilostomata which occurs throughout the Cainozoic era,incomparison with their scarcity in earlier formations, has often been remarked. Interesting explanations of the suddenness of their appearance have, moreover, been offered by those who do not attach so much importance, as do some, to the imperfection of the geological record. Cheilostomata are not unknown from earlier deposits: the Cretaceous system has yielded a fair number, while even as early as the Silurian species have been found. Though doubts have been thrown on these early records, there seems no sufficient reason to discredit them. Even if Prof. Nicholson's Hippothoa inflata (Hall) should turn out to be a Stomntopora, which, if the figure be correct, is most unlikely, there remain many species in later Palæozoic deposits: such are those belonging to Prof. James Hall's genus Paleschara? which Mr. Ulrich accepts as Chilostomatons, though Prof, von Zittel includes it doubtfully with the Ptilodictyonidæ. Some of the specimens of Lichenalia, etc., figured by Hall, as well as the same author's Cystopora geniculata, may also belong to this order.

Fragments of coal found in contexts of the third century A.D. at the legionary fortress of Caerleon (Isca) are assigned from intrinsic evidence to a local source. A brief comment on the use of coal in Roman Britain follows.

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.

From remotely sensed images of rock surfaces at coasts it is possible to map some characteristics of different rock types. To do this a selection must be made of those parts of the image that correspond to the rock surfaces prior to interrogation of their geological information content. A comparative study of satellite-acquired multispectral Thematic Mapper data and aircraft-acquired multispectral scanner data at four test sites on the Pembrokeshire coast was made. The spatial resolution of the Thematic Mapper data (30 m) proved to be too coarse to provide any continuity of mapping over several kilometres of rock exposures, whereas the 10 m resolution of the aircraft data was adequate to do this. Using the aircraft scanner data, neighbouring Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous (mainly carbonate) rocks could be discriminated in both three-band and principal components images. Furthermore, it proved possible to distinguish between limestone and dolomite lithologies in the Carboniferous succession and between some of the mudstones and sandstones in the Old Red Sandstone. Airborne multispectral scanning of rocky coasts is a new potential tool for geological mapping in exploration projects in which it would be best integrated with the acquisition of airborne geophysical and field geological data.

A form of natural rock marking is described from a site on the coast of Fujian in China. Having been defined as rock art, it has now been found to be natural, caused by the release of massive kinetic energy in collisions between large blocks of granite. A combination of compressive and tensile stresses has yielded geometric changes to the fabric of the rock, and the selective weathering of modified parts of the rock has produced visually distinct, large surface markings resembling a rising Sun. The processes involved are considered in the light of research into the similar effects of explosives on rock.