The age of the sandstones and conglomerates, containing copper and other ores, at Alderley Edge, has until lately been a matter of some uncertainty; and, as far as I am aware, no detailed account of the formation has yet been published. Some few years since I made an examination, in company with Mr. E. W. Binney, F.R.S., of the beds in question, and on the first opportunity afterwards I hazarded an opinion, at a meeting of the Geological Society of Manchester, that the copper-bearing beds were referable to the age of the Lower Keuper Sandstone of the Trias. My brother-geologists, I had reason to think, received this opinion with some amount of distrust, as the rock, being in some places a quartzose conglomerate, and in others a soft whitish or yellowish sandstone, had much more the appearance of Bunter Sandstone than of the uppermost member of the Trias. My conjecture was not made, however, at hap-hazard, but was founded on evidence of position and petrographical characters, as the conglomerates, with their underlying bands of red shale, reminded me of the basement-beds of the Keuper division in the somewhat distant region of Alton Towers, and the Churnet Valley in Staffordshire.

During the preparation and arrangement of a series of Lovenia forbesi from the Australian Miocene (presented to the Geological Department by Professor F. J. Cole), a peculiar interambulacral structure was displayed. Two of the specimens are severely weathered, with the result that their surfaces are smooth (except for the areolæ of the large tubercles), while the sutures are clearly outlined in dark brown across the pale background of the plates. In this way there is revealed the surprising fact that plate-crushing and resorption, of a type similar to that often found in Echinoid ambulacra, occur in four of the interambulacral areas. There is no corresponding development in the ambulacra.

I have been asked by Professor Gregory to examine and describe two pebbles which he has collected from the pre-glacial gravel of Little Hayes, in the Crouch Valley, South-East Essex. Examined in thin section under the microscope, one of these pebbles agrees very well with the typical chert of Arngrove (Bucks) and Studley (Oxon) in size of spicules, their mineralization, their number in a given field, and the proportion of angular sand-grains.

In a paper on “The Physical Conditions under which the Cambrian and Lower Silurian Rocks were probably deposited over the European Area,” Mr. Hicks has recently put forth some opinions on the lowest fossiliferous rocks of Scandinavia and Russia, and their relations, as to age and stratigraphical characters, to those of Britain, which I think ought to be somewhat modified. The chief assertions in Mr. Hicks's paper are, that at the Pre-Cambrian period a large continent existed in Europe; that a subsidence began in the south-western part, and gradually extended to the north-eastern, which was not submerged until the Tremadoc group had been deposited over the western areas; and, finally, that the marine faunas migrated from the south-west. In order to prove these generalizations, Mr. Hicks makes a comparison between the most important Cambrian districts of Europe. He thinks that the British Cambrian rocks are the oldest, that the lowest Swedish beds are probably equivalent to the British Menevian group, and that the Russian are not older than the Arenig. Though the scantiness of the organic remains in some instances makes it very difficult, or, indeed, impossible to parallelize with certainty the oldest deposits of the various countries, it seems, however, from the palæontological facts already known, quite unquestionable that the lowest rocks of Scandinavia and Russia are older than Mr. Hicks has supposed them to be in comparison to those of Britain.

In the neighbourhood of Foxdale, Isle of Man, and especially on Granite Mountain, the ground is strewn with numerous blocks of quartz. Many of them are of large size, 10 feet or more in diameter.

On the slopes of South Barrule similar blocks are found in great profusion, and they can be traced across the hills to the west coast. North of Foxdale other bands are found, some of which are inserted in the geological map. They lie principally in the altered slates of the Barrule Series, and have a general trend corresponding with the main axis of the island, from north-east to south-west. In places they are seen to be in sitû, and where the granite mass of Foxdale intervenes the general direction changes, and is principally tangential to the intrusion.

Numerous micro-granite dykes extend along the axis of the island in the same direction.

In an old quarry at Renshent on the north margin of the granite several quartz veins are seen to traverse the granite itself. They can be traced along the floor of the quarry and up the vertical face about 30 feet high.

One of these, about 3 feet in width, shows perfectly sharp margins when cutting through the granite, dips at 65° W., and strikes 10° E. of S. It consists mainly of quartz, some clear and some white and opaque, but on entering the granite it changes locally to a pegmatite. The pegmatite contains, in addition to the quartz, large felspars, some over 3 inches long, perfectly formed, and showing crystal faces, and mica in crystals over an inch in diameter.

The last Study brought out many resemblances between Edrioasteroidea and Asteroidea, much closer than have been recognized even by some who have suggested a derivation of the latter Class from the former. In the present Study it is proposed to inquire whether that hypothesis, or any similar hypothesis, is tenable.

The investigations which I have carried out in the Ipswich district of Suffolk, and certain discoveries (to be described shortly) made during the past year at Mundesley, Norfolk, have impressed upon my mind the possibility that the ordinary platessiform and batiform palæolithic flint implements found usually in river terrace gravels are older geologically than has been generally imagined. This, however, is not altogether an original opinion, as the late Professor James Geikie, F.R.S., the late Mr. S. B. J. Skertchly, and Mr. A. S. Kennard, basing their views upon evidence other than that upon which I rely, arrived at a similar conclusion. As is well known, it was stated authoritatively many years ago that our English river-valleys containing implementiferous gravel beds were cut through, and are therefore later than the Chalky Boulder-clay.

The great Valley of the Thames has long been known to contain deposits of gravel intermixed with freshwater beds; but the true Geological age both of the valley of its deposits was long in doubt. Latterly the view expressed by Mr. Prestwhich (in which he was of accord both with Professor Morris and Mr.Trimmer), that the whole was newer than the Boulder-clay, has met with acquiescence. The general structure of the deposits in this valley, although they form the most extensive of the Post-Glacial series in England, has not however yet been shown in any comprehensive manner.

The extent of the glaciation in the Western-Midland Counties of England during the formation of the Chalky Boulder-clay has yet to be determined in detail. No accurate survey has at present been made of the various Drifts that are scattered over the country from Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire on the east to Worcestershire and Gloucestershire on the west; but the observations of Strickland, Brodie, Lloyd, Lucy, and others, have made known the characters of the superficial deposits at numerous localities in and around the vale of Evesham, while the probable limit of the action of land-ice during the period of maximum glaciation has been delineated on a small map by S. V. Wood, jun.

During the Late Cretaceous Andean orogeny, the compressive deformation associated with the shallowing of the subducting slab caused the development of the arc-related igneous rocks known as the Naunauco Belt. This study presents petrographic, mineralogical and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility data for the Varvarco Intrusives (the Varvarco Tonalite, Butalón Tonalite and Radales Aplite), which crop out in the Cordillera del Viento, Neuquén Province, Argentina. The assembly of plutons was formed by mafic magma episodic injection. Amphibole and biotite compositions suggest that the Varvarco Tonalite is related to calc-alkaline, I-type magmas, typical of subduction environments. Different geothermobarometers based on amphibole and plagioclase compositions for the Varvarco Tonalite suggest shallow emplacement conditions (∼2–3 kbar, equivalent to ∼12 km depth). Apatite fission-track analyses give exhumation ages of 67.5 ± 8 Ma for the Varvarco Tonalite and 50.3 ± 5.9 Ma for the Butalón Tonalite. A calculated continuous fast exhumation rate of at least 330 °C Ma−1 is consistent with the shallow emplacement conditions, textural data and geobarometric estimations. In agreement with the thermal profile, the magmatic system was exhumed by ∼12 km within c. 2.1 Ma implying a geothermal gradient of ∼62.5 °C km−1. The last step of exhumation occurred between ∼65.3 and 56.9 Ma. The magmatic fabrics observed in the studied plutons reflect mostly magma chamber processes. The Varvarco Intrusives represent satellite calc-alkaline plutons of the North Patagonian Batholith which were emplaced syn- to post-tectonically with respect to a major deformation stage of the Southern Central Andes.

(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.

During a study of a Carboniferous blastoid fauna from Grassington, Yorkshire, over a thousand blastoids were collected, of which 45 individuals were referred to the genus Codaster. This study has left no doubt that the two species Codaster acutus McCoy and Codaster trilobatus McCoy are synonymous. Codaster trilobatus (in the sense of McCoy's original description), is an old age form, its characteristic feature only being attained by a minority of long-lived individuals. Codaster acutus McCoy is the valid name, being the first described, and is also the type-species for the genus. In order to supplement observation on these specimens, biometrical methods have been employed to study the relative growth of the height, diameter, and number of hydrospires.

The mineral cordierite occurs in Pre-Cambrian gneisses, granulites, and granites of the Guyana Shield in British Guiana. In the Acid Biotite Gneisses and Acid Granulites forming the Kanuku Group, the mineral was formed during regional metamorphism. Considerable enrichment of cordierite occurs in the contact aureole around the South Savanna Granite. Cordierite of xenocrystal origin also occurs in the South Savanna Granite and its apophyses. The 2V and optic sign of the mineral varies widely, and no definite pattern in relation to the paragenesis of the mineral is recognized. Untwinned cordierites are predominant in regionally metamorphosed rocks while lamellar, interpenetration and sector twins are characteristic of cordierites in contact hornfelsed aureole rocks.

The series of slates, schists, and grits, of the Isle of Man, which are regarded as identical with the Skiddaw Slates of the Lake District, have hitherto yielded no traces of fossils, if we except the rare worm-like markings known as Palasochorda. The writer during the month of August last, took the opportunity of a visit to the island (in connection with the geological mapping by Professor Dawkins) to search very closely the least altered slates of the series along their northern outcrop.

A few months ago both geologists and archæologists, and especially the latter, were surprised to hear of the discovery in the valley of the Little Ouse, between Thetford and Brandon, of certain cavities in beds of gravel, in which flint implements of the forms peculiar to the Palæolithic or river gravel were found, and which it seemed possible might have been the habitations of the early race of men who formed these implements.