The Mines Department announces the formation of an Advisory Committee to assist the Secretary for Mines in matters relating to the Metalliferous Mining Industry. Never was the mining of metalliferous ores in this country in a more parlous condition, for, with the exception of iron ore and ironstone mining and quarrying, practically all the metal mines of the country are shut down, for the very good reason that the cost of production of the dressed minerals is higher than the price at which they can be sold. The high price of production is to be ascribed partly to the increased cost of labour, partly to the high price of materials; while the low price offered for the products is due partly to the low level at which the metals stand in the markets of the world (they are down in some cases nearly to pre-war level), and partly to the high returning charges of the smelters, whose costs have been heavily increased both by the high price of labour and the excessive cost of fuel. Mr. Bridgeman is to be congratulated on being able to get together such a representative body to advise the Mines Department.

THE appearance of a new part (No. 20) of Geological Literature added to the Geological Society's Library in 1913 will be welcomed by all who are actively engaged in geological work. In the interests of research it is to be hoped that the issue of the records for 1914 and subsequent years will not be long delayed, as this publication is of the greatest possible value, in fact one might almost say indispensable to all who desire to keep up with the current developments of their particular branch of the subject. Our thanks are due to the anonymous compiler of this part; only those who have had experience in bibliographical work can form any idea of the amount of time and trouble which its preparation must have involved.

During the period of about ten years which included that of Mallet's death—say, five years before and five after—the study of earthquakes made rapid progress. Among the more prominent contributors were M. S. de Rossi and G. Mercalli in Italy, F. A. Forel and A. Heim in Switzerland, E. Suess in Austria, J. F. J. Schmidt in Greece, T. Oldham in India, and C. G. Rockwood and C. E. Dutton in the United States. Their work, however, was mainly carried out on the old lines. For the introduction of new methods of study and of a new spirit infused into seismology, we are indebted to the small band of early British teachers in Japan, to J. A. Ewing, T. Gray, and, above all, to J. Milne. In the new epoch, now opening, when seismology demanded the whole energy of its supporters as well as their active co-operation, it is not, I think, too much to claim that Milne lifted the science to an altogether different and higher plane.

A Collection of fossils from the area of Pusht-i-Kuh, on the western border of Persia, has been forwarded recently to Glasgow University by Dr. W. R. Smellie.

WHILE Michell's interest in geology lasted until at least 1788, he made no further known contribution to the study of earthquakes. He must have been aware of the disastrous Calabrian earthquakes of 1783, but he would no doubt regard them as timely illustrations of his theory. The eighty years which followed 1760 were, indeed, somewhat barren as regards the progress of seismology. Among the more important contributions during this period were Dolomieu's report on the Calabrian earthquakes of 1783, Darwin's memoir on the connexion of certain volcanic phenomena in South America (1838), and the well-known chapters in Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830).

In commencing a new volume the Editors desire to convey their thanks for the generous support they have received during the past year from contributors and subscribers. They still, however, find themselves faced with financial difficulties of a serious nature, arising from the continued increase in the cost of production, For the first half of 1920 a small profit was made, but this was almost wiped oyt by a considerable further rise in the cost of printing in the middle of the year. An important item in expenses is the cost of plates, and they are regretfully compelled to inform their contributors that it will under persent conditions be impossible to produce plates at the expense of the magazine. They feel sure, however, that their friends will not hesitate to incur the expense involved in meeting the cost of the illustrations, which are so voluntarily in the past, and the editors trust that even under the present conditions, that bear so heavily on people of moderate means, they will be able to continue to provide them.

WE regret to have to record that our colleague, Dr. Henry Woodward, died at his home at Bushey, Herts, on 6th September, in his 89th year. He retained his active interest in our work almost until the end, and passed away peacefully in the presence of his family.

Several quarries in the neighbourhood of Shildon, near Bishop Auckland in South Durham, display interesting sections of the Lower Magnesian Limestones and the beds on which they rest. At present the most instructive is that at East Thickley, near Shildon railway station, and as there seems a probability in the near future of this quarry becoming obscured by pit refuse, a record of the section exposed in it seems to be desirable. A large part of the rock-face has already been so obscured. A short distance south-east of this one other quarries exist closely adjoining the railway, but they are now almost entirely filled up with rubbish though sections in the railway cutting may still be seen. About a mile south-west of Thickley across the railway a quarry is at present being worked near Midderidge Grange, and seems to be the one in which important reptilian and other vertebrate remains were found in the Marl Slate many years ago. Notable among these is the headless skeleton of Proterosaurus Huxleyi Hancock & Howse, each bone of which has the interior filled with galena. This and other important specimens are now in the Hancock Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne. At present, however, the only rock visible in Midderidge Quarry is the dolomitic Lower Magnesian Limestone, in which no fossils are to be seen. These quarries are either, as in the case of East Thickley, situated on the junction of the Permian with the Coal Measures, or, in the case of Midderidge, very close to the junction.

DURING the year 1920 two contributions on the subject of Irish Glacial Geology have appeared, differing greatly in scope and treatment. Mr. Wright's paper on “Minor Periodicity in Glacial Retreat” is frankly speculative, but his speculations are based upon an accurate and fairly exhaustive survey of the glacial evidences in the country about the head of Kenmare River, the deep ria lying between Bantry Bay, Dingle Bay, and the lake region of Killarney.

Rocks rich in magnesium are abundantly developed in a certain few areas of the world, whereas they are rare or absent in the remaining areas. With reference to the abundance of magnesian rocks in Southern India, for example, Holland has stated:—

The Eocene deposits of the Paris region group themselves naturally into six cycles:—

In the great chains of mountains belonging to the alpine system, stretchin from the Armenian upland throught Eastern Mesopotamia, Western and Sourthern Persia, and Baluchistan up to the Indus, then—in a great curve—encircling the Indian tableland in the Kirthar and Suleiman ranges and the Himalayas, then in the east turing south to Burma—there are several regions rich in oil, following the foot of the mountain-ranges on the border of the plains extending in front to the south. The most important of these oil-regions arrange themselves into three chief groups: the Mesopotamian-Persian region, the Baluchistan-Punjab region, and the Burmese region.

Landenian.—The Landenian is represented by the Thanet Sands and Woolwich and Reading Beds. The former seem to correspond to the two lower zones of the French Landenian, whilst the marine Bottom Bed of the Woolwich Series corresponds to the zone of Cyprina scutellaria. The present writer. has given reasons for believing the pebble-bed separating the two to be due to a movement of uplift in the Wealden area.1 In the east of the London district the marine Bottom Bed passes up into clays and marls crowded with estuarine fossils (Woolwich Beds); to the west into unfossiliferous mottled clays and fluviatile sands (Reading Beds). The extensive transgression at the time of the zone of Cyprina scutellaria is noticeable in the London Basin as it is in the Paris and Hampshire Basins.

Figs. I–VII give a graphic representation of the average silica percentage of a number of igneous rock types, so arranged as to show the relation between silica-percentage and rock nomenclature. All the analyses used were obtained from the 1917 edition of H. S. Washington's Chemical Analyses of Igneous Rocks”. This book contains some 8,000 rock analyses from many parts of the world. They are divided into two classes, superior and inferior. Only those of the former category (some 6,000 in all) have been utilized.

IN an earlier paper a description of certain dolomites and calc-magnesian silicate rocks of the oldest group recognized in southern Eyre Peninsula—the Hutchison series—has been given.