Varieties of the Creechbarrow Limestone.—There are considerable extremes in this respect, ranging from a soft marly deposit, which soils the fingers like whitening, to a hard compact rock, which takes a good polish. Unquestionably the most dense and compact lime-stone is that near the summit, whilst the soft marly beds are on the northern slope, and especially near the 500 feet contour, where some of them are earthy and contain a considerable amount of impurity, so that they may at least be called marly limestones. On the other hand, there are compact white limestones, where nests of dog-tooth spar form no inconsiderable portion of the mass. Quartz grains may be noted on most of the weathered surfaces.

The more compact and denser limestones, which prevail near the summit, may be roughly divided into non-pisolitic and pisolitic rocks. Thus, for instance, I have before me (Group 1) specimens of a very heavy and partially calcitic rock. It is a hard whitish limestone without pisolites, but largely interspersed with buff-coloured patches, not unlike some dolomites. Calcitic nests and strings occur, and also strings and stars of black oxide of manganese: the external surface is rough and somewhat honeycombed, and full of curious impressions, some of which may have had an organic origin.

Group 2 comprises those specimens where the pisolitic character is indicated, but not very obviously. A characteristic specimen may be described as follows:—A large fragment of a creamy white tufaceous limestone, with specks and threads of black oxide of manganese in places: flattened pisolitic bodies in brownish calcite are numerous, but not very distinct.

The problematical fish-spine, Listracanthus, has already been found in the English Coal-measures; but neither the specimens from this country nor the earlier discoveries elsewhere are sufficient to show the exact nature of the fossil, or even to determine its complete form. Two groups of remains of this spine, recently discovered by Mr. John Ward, F.G.S., in the Middle Coal-measures of North Staffordshire, are therefore of much interest as tending towards a more satisfactory knowledge of its characters.

For some years it has appeared to me that in the Order Theriodontia as generally accepted there were included a number of forms not at all nearly related to the typical genus, Galesaurus, and in a number of papers I have referred to these as ‘Primitive Theriodonts.’ The best known genera are Ælurosaurus and Ictidosuchus, but as in neither of these have the details of palatal structure been very clearly made out, it has been impossible to say how far they differed from the typical Theriodonts.

Ocean Island, which is also known as Banaba or Paanopa, lies in the Pacific west of the Gilbert group, in lat. 0°52′S., long. 169° 35′ E. Our knowledge of it is but scanty; Darwin briefly mentioned it, and it is not the same Ocean Island as Dana described, for the latter lies in lat. 28°25′ N. and long. 178° 25′ W. It may be therefore of some interest to record a few notes on a small collection of specimens of phosphatic and coral rocks made on it by Capt. R. Tupper, R.N., of H.M.S. “Pylades,” who hoisted the British flag there in the year 1900. I am also indebted to him for a description of the island, and to the Pacific Islands Company, Ltd., for kindly furnishing me with further particulars of its physical features and analyses of the phosphatic rocks.

The form of the deposits that are taking place on the sea-bottom at the present day is one of the essential elements required to be known when we wish to interpret the submarine contours, as throwing light on the submergence or elevation of the land in late geological times, or when we propose to use the variation of thickness of the strata deposited during any epoch as an indication of the position of the shore-lines at that time.

In the case of deposits in small or temporary masses of water, their form and arrangement may sometimes be observed directly; but in the case of the deposits in the sea, where we can neither remove the water nor make borings beneath it, we can only avail ourselves of theoretical considerations.

It might have been expected that the original form of various sedimentary deposits would have been considered in detail long ago, but as a matter of fact the few writers who have touched upon the question have mostly been content with the assumption that deposits taken as a whole are thickest near the source of supply, and the figures given in illustration of the arrangement of various kinds, and thereby the shape of each, are remarkable for their variety.

As the theoretical results at which I have arrived differ fundamentally from the ordinary assumptions, it is to be hoped that some one will be able to point out the fallacy, if any, which has led me astray, and to explain more satisfactorily the observed features which appear to confirm the theory.

In the course of my work in the deserts of the Fayûm during the last two years I found that over a certain area to the north of the eastern end of the Birket el Qurun lake flint implements, many of very fine workmanship, were of frequent occurrence. The accompanying Plates illustrate the common and most perfect types (reduced to about one-third).

In the collection of Mr. Alfred Brown, of Ariwal North, which I had recently the pleasure of looking over, I came across the right lower jaw of a small mammal which Mr. Brown had discovered in sandstone near Ariwal. Though unfortunately the teeth are lost, there is evidence of there having been a large canine. The most remarkable character of the jaw is its extreme shortness, and in its general proportions it agrees much more with the jaws of some of the small carnivorous Eutherians than with those of the small carnivorous or insectivorous genera already known from the Secondary rocks. The angle is well developed and but very slightly inflected. The condyle is practically in a line with the alveolar margin.

After the appearance of Mr. T. H. Holland's paper on Laterite in the Geological Magazine, February number (pp. 59–69), we can at once give the results of our analysis of Indian laterite, without further introductory remarks. They are as follows:—

Professor lindström in a recent paper has described sense organs discovered by him on the hypostome of very many genera of Trilobites. His description is as follows:— “In the plurality of species there are two tiny patches or maculæ, sometimes elevated above the surrounding surface like tubercles, and so they have also been called by some authors. But I have preferred to use the name ‘macula’ for them, as the plurality does not form tubercles. They are generally smooth and glossy, and situated next to the anterior groove, either above it or in it, at a regular distance from each other and the lateral margins. They may form a sunk spot, or, as commonly, an ovoid or elliptic area surrounded by a linear elevated border.” “Common for a great number of maculæ in various groups, whether they show any organic structure or not, is the excessive thinness of their shell in comparison with that of the surrounding hypostoma. This is also in accordance with the tenuity of the cephalic eyes in relation to the test of the cheeks.”

Among a large number of Canadian fossils sent to me by Col. C. C. Grant, of Hamilton, Ontario, for transmission to the British Museam (Natural History Branch), there were three particular specimens of fossiliferous limestone worthy of careful examination. These came from a glacial drift at Hamilton, known as ‘Bala Drift.’ There being no real ‘Bala’ strata in Canada, the appellation of ‘Bala Drift’ at Hamilton applies to a glacial drift containing fossils more or less allied to those of Bala, most probably to the Trenton Limestone, a Lower Silarian (or Ordovician) formation.

In writing my little paper on vein-quartz I was particularly anxious not to introduce controversial matter, but to be strictly orthodox throughout. After the paper was published I was much perturbed to find that I had unwittingly come into collision with two incidental remarks in General McMahon's most interesting paper on the Satlej granite, which was the subject of his address to Section C at Belfast. My oversight arose owing to the said remarks being incidental, and no stress having been laid upon their paramount importance.

The labours of Mr. Benjamin Harrison around Ightham, in Kent, have been before the scientific world since May, 1889, when Sir Joseph Prestwich read his now historic paper before the Geological Society “On the occurrence of Palæolithic Flint Implements in the neighbourhood of Ightham, Kent; their distribution and probable age.”

This is the Progenetta incerta of Depéret, which requires a new name, as it is far from identical with the Mustela incerta, Lartet, from Sansan, with which Depéret identified his specimens from La Grive.

The paper written by the Rev. W. R. Andrews and myself, published in 1894, gave a more complete account of these beds than had previously been attempted; we showed that they were divisible into Lower, Middle, and Upper groups, comparable with those established by Professor E. Forbes in the Purbecks of Dorset, and characterized by the same species of Cyprides. This paper was based on the joint examination of exposures visible in 1890, though one of us, being then resident at Teffont, had observed and collected from these exposures for many years.

In the following year (1895) Mr. H. B. Woodward's memoir on the “Middle and Upper Oolitic Rocks” was published, and his account differed from ours in several particulars, notably as regards the thickness of beds referable to the three several divisions, as to the interpretation of the section near Dinton Station, and as to the total thickness of the formation. We refrained from comment at the time, partly because we were prepared to accept such corrections as were based on the freshly cut exposure near Dinton, and partly because the mapping of the distriot had not then been completed, and we were content to wait till this was done, in the expectation that Mr. Woodward would then reconsider some of the points on which we were not in agreement with him.

The mapping of the area was completed in 1900 by Mr. C. Keid, and this year (1903) the map (Sheet 298, new series), together with an explanatory memoir prepared by Mr. Reid, have been published.

From time immemorial a remarkable accumulation of bones in the province of Teruel, Spain, has attracted attention. It is especially conspicuous in the low range of hills near Concud, and the people of that village seem to have generally regarded it as marking an ancient battlefield. So long ago as 1754 Torrubia briefly described this deposit in his Spanish Natural History; but his curiosity seems to have been aroused not so much by the bones themselves as by the crystalline calcite found occupying many of their cavities. Twenty years later an Englishman, William Bowles, again referred to the same bone-bed, and described it as containing the remains of men and women mingled with the bones of horses, donkeys, oxen, and smaller domestic animals. He also observed that the limestone above the bone-bed was filled with land and fresh-water shells. Cuvier quoted Bowles' description in his treatise on fossil bones, and after an examination of some teeth and bone-fragments collected by Proust at Concud, he was inclined to believe that these fossils really represented domestic animals as already determined, though he found no associated evidence of man.

In the “Geology of the Country around Ipswich, Hadleigh, and Felixstowe” Mr. Whitaker drew attention to the probable existence of Oldhaven Beds at Ipswich. On p. 11 he gives particulars of a section in Stoke brickyard. Below the London clay at this spot occurred fine buff sand separated from the Clay by a thin pebble-bed containing fragments of shells. The buff sand was doubtfully referred to the Oldhaven Beds, while it was thought that the pebble-bed should also be included with these rather than regarded as a basement-bed of the London Clay. Below this doubtful Oldhaven sand occurred sands and mottled clays of the Reading Series. It was shown in the memoir that this pebble-bed occurred over a great part of this district with an outcrop along the valleys of the Gipping and the Brett. As a rule it rests on sands referred to the Reading Series, and is classed by Mr. Whitaker sometimes as basement-bed of the London Clay and occasionally as Oldhaven Beds.

Recently in Ipswich I came across a very clear section of these beds in one of the brickfields, and as they here show a rather unusual facies it seems worth while to draw attention to the section, especially as the beds contain many fossils at one spot. The section occurs on the north side of Messrs. Bolton & Laughlin's brickfield between the Norwich and Henley Roads. The brickfield is situated almost due north of Brook's Hall, and about 100 yards south of the railway line, but apparently at the time of the Geological Survey there was no brickfield at this spot; the pebble-bed, however, was shown in another pit (which still exists) a little further westward, and was included in the basementbed of the London Clay by Mr. Whitaker.

Reference to the Geological Survey map, Sheet 44, will show the exact position of the quarry: to the south of the junction of the road from Condicote to Scarborough with that leaving the main road opposite the lane which comes past Rook Pool Barn (now Kinetonhill Farm) and Rook Pool. The area in which the quarry is situated is thus indicated as being composed of Inferior Oolite rocks. The fauna contained in Bed 2, and especially the Rhynchonella and Terebratula, clearly shows that this is an error. I am indebted to Mr. W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., for kindly examining the Gasteropods. Their state of preservation only allowed of their being identified approximately, but, as Mr. Hudleston observed, “they certainly wear a Bathonian facies rather than that associated with the Inferior Oolite.” Mr. R. F. Tomes, F.G.S., kindly determined the corals. The specimen of Trigonia obtained agrees with that figured by Lycett in his “Monograph of the British Fossil Trigoniœ,” pl. xxxiv, fig. 9, as T. pullus; but not with the T. pullus of Sowerby.

During the early part of 1899 extensive excavations were made on the south side of Tooley Street, Bermondsey: just east of Shand Street, and on the site of Nos. 156–164, Tooley Street. The spot is about 250 yards from the present bank of the Thames. The whole area was excavated to a depth of about 10½ feet from the level of the pavement; below this, trenches and holes for the foundations were dug to a further depth of 6 to 8 feet. The section on the south side of the excavation is here given.

I am a stranger in the field of speculation, and am quite unacquainted with the intricacies of its authorized boundaries. It is therefore with some hesitation, lest I should tread upon forbidden ground, that I venture to offer a suggestion on one point in Professor Sollas's paper on “The Figure of the Earth.”

It has long been observed that mountain ranges and chains of islands (which, indeed, are only mountain ranges partially submerged) are generally curvilinear in form, but Professor Sollas is, I believe, the first to show clearly that the curve often coincides almost exactly with an arc of a circle. Such a mountain chain is frequently defined along its convex margin by a great reversed fault over which the mountain mass has slid forward; and in these cases, at least, we may safely adopt Suess's conception, and look upon the chain as the crumpled edge of a ‘scale’ of the earth's crust which has been pushed forward over the part in front of it. The surface along which the movement has taken place is called a thrustplane. If this surface really is a plane, then the edge of the ‘scale’, that is the mountain chain itself, must necessarily be circular in form; for if any plane cuts a sphere, in any position whatever, the outcrop of the plane on the surface of the sphere will always be a circle. There can be no deviation from the circular form unless the ‘sphere’ is not truly spherical, or the ‘thrust-plane’ is not a true plane.