The publication by the Geological Society of America of that momentous work by the late A. C. Veatch and P. A. Smith (1939) with its beautifully executed charts, following closely Douglas Johnson's stimulating contribution on the subject (1938), again focuses attention on those stupendous erosion-features—the “Submarine Canyons”. Through stressing the relatively brief space of time available for their evolution, this latest pronouncement only renders more of an enigma those gigantic furrows that would now seem to fringe so much of the continental margins. As Daly has remarked (1936, p. 402), they appear to be planetary and not merely regional. It is in the Atlantic, however, that they have been most thoroughly studied.

The petrography and stratigraphical setting of the Nutfield fuller's earths were recently described by E. F. Newton (I) who also made a complete study of the accessory minerals associated with the actual “fuller's earth material”, which is the main constituent of the native earths processed at Redhill, Surrey.

Close to Waterfoot and about one and a quarter miles south of Cushendall, in Co. Antrim, a bifurcating dolerite dyke of Tertiary age outcrops on the shore approximately 750 feet south-west of Red Bay pier (see text-fig. 1). The dyke is intruded into practically horizontal beds of Triassic sandstone which contain abundant fragments and pebbles of schist and quartzite. As shown on the map, text-fig. 1, the dyke bifurcates and encloses a lenticular portion of these Triassic beds. Where unaltered by the dyke, that is in the low cliff adjoining the sea-wall to the south-west of the dyke and in that portion of the enclosed mass adjoining the south-western branch of the dyke, the Trias is a friable yellow sandstone, rich in fragments of schist and quartzite ranging in size from a few inches down to microscopic dimensions. On the south-western side of the north-eastern branch of the dyke, however, a marked change takes place. The Trias here changes in colour from yellow to grey and becomes hard and compact; and, as the dyke is approached, the fragments and pebbles become less distinct and eventually merge into the matrix of the rock. This change begins between eight and nine feet from the contact. Within a foot from the contact the alteration is so intense that the main part of the rock has a compact homogeneous appearance, so that at first glance it resembles an igneous rock with sparse xenoliths of white quartzite. The schist fragments are here represented by dafk patches which merge, often imperceptibly, into the matrix of the rock.

Kodarma is one of the most important centres for the production of muscovite mica in the mica-belt of the Hazaribagh district of Bihar. The Kodarma Reserve Forest, the petrology of which is here described, begins about 2 miles north-east of Kodarma Station and extends for a further distance of about 10 miles in that direction. It occupies an area of about 57 square miles.

During the excursion of the Sedgwick Club to Pembrokeshire at Easter this year the junctions between certain of the rock groups were examined under unusually favourable conditions with interesting results.

There has been some confusion between the trilobite genera Staurocephalus and Sphaerocoryphe. This is probably due to a similarity in the bulbous character of the anterior glabellar lobe common to both genera as well as to the genus Deiphon and the Australian form Onycopyge. King (1920, pp. 532–4), in view of the character of a hypostome of Staurocephalus preserved in the British Museum and figured by Salter, was of opinion that this genus should be removed from the Cheiruridae, but hesitated to place it in the Encrinuridae. Raymond, in Eastman's Zittel (1913, p. 725), includes Staurocephalus and Sphaerocoryphe in his subfamily Deiphoninae, which he defines as Cheiruridae with a bulbous anterior lobe. His diagnosis of Staurocephalus is “Glabella with two pairs of lobes behind the bulbous portion. Cephalon with a denticulate border, and pygidium similar to that of Pliomera”. Sphaerocoryphe has only one pair of lobes behind the bulbous anterior lobe. It is necessary to consider the characteristic features of the genotypes of the two genera.

Among the numerous volcanic necks of County Antrim, two—Tieveragh and Tievebulliagh in the neighbourhood of Cushendall—are particularly interesting, the one because it has metamorphosed the country rock into buchite, and the other because of the existence on its scree of a rock of problematic origin. In connection with the buchite of Tieveragh a general note on the name buchite, its origin and its application, has been included at the end of this paper. The paper itself makes no claims to do more than open up the study of these rocks.

A recent examination of drift deposits south of Edinburgh has revealed the presence of boulder clay overlying fluvio-glacial sands and graveis. This does not appear to have been the subject of any previous publication. The relevant exposures are almost entirely in working sandpits, and are liable to be obscured soon after the latter are abandoned. Accordingly it is thought worth while to place on record a description of the sections at present available for examination.

The Beatrice Mine at Selibin in the Federated Malay States formed a unique type of tin deposit characterized by its richness in cassiterite and the striking paragenesis of its contained minerals. The mine, now worked out, was developed in a pipe representing a replacement of Permo-Carboniferous dolomite near the margin of the Kledang granite of the Kinta Valley and a systematic account of the geology and petrology of the deposit has been given by Mr. E. S. Willbourn, Director of the Geological Survey (F.M.S.).1 In this account the principal minerals of the pipe were shown to be tremolite, talc, mica, fluorite, and a “hydrated magnesium borate” with cassiterite and arsenopyrite as the chief ore minerals.

Although our present knowledge of British Guiana— particularly in detail and in the southern part of the country—is far from complete, it appears timely to attempt a synthesis of some of the major facts that are known. The following account seeks to summarize some of the more pronounced features of form and structure; it raises the question of a large discontinuity or break from south to north along the course of the greatest river—the Essequibo; it seeks to interpret the meaning of the contrasted river-systems west and east of the Essequibo; it raises the question of subsidence in the Berbice Valley, and of the early Amazon drainage; and discusses the problem of continental drift from Africa in the light of du Toit's criteria.

In a recent paper (1940) I discussed the origins of the Indus, Jhelum, and Sutlej rivers. I suggested that the upper Jhelum resulted from the final severing of marine communications with Tibet by the rise of the north-west Himalayan axis at the close of Laki (Lower Eocene) times. The upper Indus probably originated rather later, from the overflow of Tibetan drainage ponded by the rise of this axis. The upper Sutlej I held to be much younger, and due to a geologically recent collapse of the main Himalayan axis along the line of an old (Gondwana) fault-trough.

At a locality about three miles south of Mawchi, in the Kantarawaddy State, a unique specimen of a large Spiriferoid was found a few years ago by Mr. Vernon Hobson, then working for the Mawchi Mines Co., in an area where previously no fossiliferous rocks were known to exist. This specimen was sent me by him in 1936 for determination; and in the hope that some other fossils would soon be obtained from this locality which would throw more light on the age of the rocks, the publication of any description of the fossil was post-poned. For unfortunately, the specimen was not found in situ, though Mr. Vernon Hobson, in a letter to me dated 19th June, 1936, stated that he was satisfied that it was not a residual fossil, and that the rock-matrix in which it is imbedded was thoroughly typical of the beds developed for miles round in this area. Moreover, he stated that there are no overlying formations within twelve miles, and that these lie at lower elevations, while pendants of younger rocks do not occur in the area, so that “there is no evidence that overlying rocks existed close above [the present surface rocks] prior to the present phase of erosion”.

The existence of the Crossopterygian fish Eusthenopteron in the Old Red Sandstone of the Moray Firth area has been recorded recently by the writer (Westoll, 1937). Since that time new material has been found in the collections of the Royal Scottish Museum; the specimens comprise a “parietal” shield and other remains from Boghole, and an imperfect “fronto-ethmoid” shield, of which the provenance is unknown. Dr. A. G. Stephen, of the Royal Scottish Museum, has been most kind in allowing the writer to study this and other comparative material.

During the course of a petrological investigation by one of us (J. C. G.) of the glacial deposits in South-West Wales, samples from a sandy boulder clay at Ludchurch in South-East Pembrokeshire were found to contain abundant grains of a platy colourless mineral with a specific gravity greater than 2·9, a perfect pinacoidal cleavage and high double refraction. This was ultimately diagnosed as diaspore, with which were associated various iron ores, zircon, rutile, chlorite, various tourmalines (brown, green, and pink being the commonest), pyroxenes, amphiboles, staurolite, kyanite, brookite, anatase, topaz, garnet, apatite, muscovite, and andalusite, an assemblage typical of the Irish Sea Drift of this district. A search through the literature for a description of detrital diaspore showed that there did not appear to have been published any detailed description with figures of the detrital forms.

While studying certain Martinia-like brachiopod shells from the Permian of Iran, I have been struck by the apparent uncertainty that exists among many authors as to the relationship between the various genera represented in the Spiriferid subfamily Martiniinae of Waagen, and the following note is intended to draw attention to some of the anomalies of nomenclature and classification.