Along the coast of North Cardiganshire, between Aberystwyth and Borth, numerous rock surfaces bearing “curious marks” have been found during the last few months. One such surface from this region has already been described, but except for a solitary fragment of rock from Transbaikalia this was apparently the only occurrence known anywhere until quite recently. The coast and inland exposures in the neighbourhood of Aberystwyth were explored at the time of the original discovery, but nothing of the same kind was found except a few indefinite traces; however, a more intensive search has now shown that these curiously-marked surfaces are by no means uncommon here.

In the Summer of 1901 my friend Mr. Edward Whymper, the well-known traveller, mountain explorer, and writer, paid a visit to the watershed of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and during a stay at Field, the highest pass reached on the Canadian and Pacific Railroad, he examined the slopes of Mount Stephen, and at a height of 6,000 feet on its northern side found numerous Trilobites, and brought home a considerable collection.

The fossil insects of Palæozoic times are but little known, in consequence of the small number of specimens which have been discovered in the various Carboniferous deposits of the globe.

Coast Ice of Newfoundland.—Icebergs have an advantage over coast-ice in their imposing appearance, which has perhaps been in part instrumental in raising them to the high position which they now occupy as workers of Geological changes. Many Manuals of Geology, and many diagrams drawn to illustrate the same science, have oft-times portrayed a well-known flat-topped berg, carrying a rock, in the Antarctic regions; but neither books nor lecture-diagrams, taken collectively, give any adequate idea of coast-ice as a similar agent. From what I have seen of coast-ice and of its effects. I feel persuaded that it is an agent of at least as great, if not of greater universality than either glaciers or icebergs, and taken as a whole perhaps also as an agent of equal power. Of the various forms of sea-ice known as “berg-ice,” “floe-ice,” “pack-ice,” and the like, the portion I would more particularly draw attention to is that variety which forms a narrow belt along the shore, known in Greenland as the “Ice-Foot.”

During the earliest periods concerning which we have historical records in Southern Europe, Vesuvius was certainly inactive, its true character, indeed, long remaining wholly unsuspected; nor do the eruptions of Etna at this epoch appear to have been of such a character as to have powerfully arrested the attention and excited the imaginations of the oldest inhabitants of the district. Far otherwise was it, however, with the volcanos of the Lipari Islands; in these the manifestations of igneous activity had been so constant and striking, that priests, poets, and philosophers had successively associated the locality with their most marvellous stories.

The new species of Fossil Tubicolar Annelides, from the Lower Silurian strata of America, figured and described by Prof. H. A. Nicholson in the October and February Numbers of the GeologicalMagazine, has tended to throw light upon a closely allied form found in the Carboniferous Limestone strata of the West of Scotland. This species, as far as I am aware, has not hitherto been figured or described.

Some of this miscellaneous series of old fossils have been in the collections in the British Museum many years; but, owing to their small size and doubtful characters, they have not found an abiding place in any special zoological group.

The Highland Border Ridge is a present day positive physiographic element whose activity can be traced back to Devonian time. A change from a distant Lower Dalradian to a nearby Middle and Upper Dalradian source area during Lower Old Red Sandstone times reflects the initial development of the ridge. A model for ridge uplift is outlined and some of its implications discussed.

The hypostome of a specimen of Encrinurus variolaris (Brongniart) from the Wenlock Limestone (Silurian) is described with particular reference to the intricate shape of the lateral wing. This lies very closely underneath the axial furrow of the cephalon in the region of the anterior pit, but it is unlikely that there was a direct articulation of the wing with the pit or the furrow during life.

(a) The insoluble residues from the limestones contain detrital quartz, amorphous, cryptocrystalline and microcrystalline silica, siliceous pseudomorphs after organic remains, sponge spicules, fluor, magnetite, pyrites, zircon, ilmenite, tourmaline, muscovite, biotite, and felspar.

(b) No megascopic chert occurs.

(c) The succession contains more arenaceous and argillaceous rocks than occur in the Avon section. They contain magnetite, rutile, zircon, ilmenite, tourmaline, muscovite, and staurolite among the rarer constituents

(d) Oolites have a notably small average percentage of insoluble residues, probably owing to their rapid formation, in clear water.

(e) The detrital material in the Avonian rocks of Sodbury has probably been derived, directly or indirectly, from some Pre-cambrian complex to the north or north-west.

The rock surface to be described in this paper was discovered under boulder-clay during excavations for a new reservoir for the City of Cardiff Waterworks at Rhiwbina, 5 miles north of Cardiff. The relation of rock to boulder-clay proved so unusual, by reason of a curious jointing in the rock-surface, that it appeared to be worthy of record.

The zonal pattern of metamorphism in the Scottish Highlandsis more complex than that suggested by Chinner. It has been disrupted by major tectonic dislocations and cannot be interpreted as a simple thermal anticline. Retrogression and inversion of zones seen in NW Scotland may resulteither from structural perturbation or the interference effects of superimposed metamorphism. A sinistral displacement of the Great Glen Fault still seems to match the metamorphic patterns in the opposing blocks, even if allowance is made for a major downthrow to the SE.

In the erection of a new home of rest—St. Monica's, in the grounds of what was formerly Cote House, near the top of Westbury Hill, an interesting section1 of the upper part of the Old Red Sandstone and of the lower Avonian rocks up to the top of Zx was exposed in digging the foundations. Although the section lies only a little over a mile north-east of the Avon section and the general succession of the two is very similar, the Westbury section is of considerable interest, particularly as certain levels were well seen which are not exposed in the Avon section. In all the following tables the strata are described from below upwards.

Some time ago the writer was favoured by Monsieur A. Houzeau de Lehaie with the opportunity of studying his extensive collection of teeth and other remains of fishes from the Bruxellian Eocene, near Brussels, and the “Craie brune phosphatée de Ciply,” near Mons. Monsieur Houzeau has generously presented a fine series of these fossils to the British Museum, and the following notes are based upon the collection.

We may pass next to the Sam Meylltern district, to examine the patch which Dr. Hicks on his sketch-map [Q.J.G.S. vol. xxxv. p. 297] has indicated as Dimetian with a strip of Arvonian along the north side. We read [l.c. p. 300], “Eastward (sic) of this, and as we approach the so-called altered Cambrian, rocks of a more felsitic character come in abruptly, and it is probable that these are of Arvonian age.” At the north end of the patch, by the Cromlech and Amwlch Lodge, the rock is however of the type which Dr. Hicks has termed Dimetian, and as it varies much in character at different parts of its course, I think we must ask for further proof that there is a second bed of rock of different age, in this area.

Although the old-fashioned ideas as to the association of different minerals held by Breithaupt and others have been found to require much modification, there are still certain rules which hold with a high degree of generality. They are, indeed, merely consequences of the principle that the most important of the factors which determine the mineralogical constitution of an igneous rock, is the chemical composition of the magma from which it is formed. Roughly speaking, we may say that original free silica and acid silicates occur characteristically in acid rocks, more basic silicates in basic rocks.

WHILE recently investigating the contact metamorphism of the scattered Carboniferous liestone outcrops in the neighbourhood of Carlingford and Barnavave, Co. Louth, some striking rocks containing large crystals of mica and calcite, and small crystals of pyroxene and spinel were found by the writer at the south-east end of Barnavave Mountain. During the microscopic examination of this material the minerals in question were detected, and it is the purpose of this note to place this interesting occurrence on record.