The following analyses were made some years ago, principally with the object of ascertaining the state of oxidation of the manganese in the nodules. The nodules examined came from three different localities, two of them oceanic and the third littoral. Samples marked I., II., and III. are from nodules brought up in the trawl on board the “Challenger,” on 13th March 1874, in lat. 42° 42′ S., long. 134° 10′ E. The depth of the water was 2600 fathoms, and the temperature of the bottom water 0·2° C. The density of the bottom water was 1·02570 at 15·56° C. Being from a high southern latitude, and therefore near the source of surface aeration, the water is highly charged with atmospheric gases, especially oxygen. It contained, per litre, 18·4 c.c. of mixed nitrogen and oxygen, of which 31·81 per cent, was oxygen, and 27·33 c.c, or 53·7 milligrammes, loosely-bound carbonic acid. The position of the station is about 400 miles south-west of the nearest part of the Australian coast, and about 500 miles west of Tasmania. It was the deepest water observed in the Antarctic voyage between the Cape of Good Hope and Melbourne. The haul was a very abundant one, and a few notes which I made at the time may be interesting:—“The water was found unexpectedly deep, the bottom being red clay, with some Foraminifera.

A structural reinterpretation of Appin Group metasediments of the Dalradian Supergroup in part of the northwestern marginal zone of the Irish Caledonides is presented. No major F1 folds have been recorded although bedding occasionally faces upwards NW in S1. The structure is dominated by a series of NW-facing F2 recumbent folds and associated D2 tectonic slides. The slides, which have thrust the overlying rocks to the NW, are generally oblique to the fold axial planes and commonly cut out major F2 fold hinges. Rotation of the hinges towards the NW-SE (Caledonian) stretching direction in areas adjacent to the slides may have contributed to fold excision: an example of a major dislocated sheath fold is described. DM3 produces major SE-verging inclined folds. Although D4, D5 and D6 are of minor importance in the area D6 intensifies towards the SE to become the principal fabric in a major NE–SW-trending sinistrai shear zone that contains the c. 400 Ma Main Donegal granite. The early major structures of this area are compared with those in Dalradian Supergroup of adjacent parts of Scotland. It is suggested that the absence of a major F1 fold (analagous to the Islay anticline) and the occurrence of D2 recumbent folds and low angle thrusts in NW Ireland reflect the close proximity of the foreland, composed of the Lewisian complex, to the NW; such a situation is analagous to the Moine thrust zone in Scotland. The progressive development of low angle structures and thrusts to the W of the Scottish mainland is attributed to a westward shallowing of the Lewisian basement between the SW Highlands of Scotland and NW Ireland.

Gracilisuchus stipanicicorum Romer, 1972, from the Middle-Late Triassic of the Ischigualasto–Villa Unión Basin of Argentina, is an extinct pseudosuchian archosaur on the stem to Crocodylomorpha. The pelvic girdle and hind limb anatomy of a referred specimen of Gracilisuchus stipanicicorum is described and compared with that from a broad range of archosauriform taxa, including basal members such as crurotarsans and basal ornithodirans. The description of this specimen reveals new information on the anatomy of the pelvic girdle and hind limb of Gracilisuchus, through a detailed examination of some anatomical regions barely or not previously described, as well as reinterpretations of previous features. The phylogenetic affinities of Gracilisuchus within the Archosauria remain to be tested, but Gracilisuchus shares two putative synapomorphies with some non-crocodyliform crocodylomorphs, providing tentative support for the monophyly of Sphenosuchia (e.g., Sereno & Wild 1992; Wu & Chatterjee 1993) and the close relationship of Gracilisuchus to that clade. These characteristics are: (i) the morphology and poor development of the femoral fourth trochanter, closely resembling the condition of Pseudhesperosuchus and Trialestes; and (ii) a poor anterior development of the femoral head, shared with Pseudhesperosuchus. On the other hand there are characters that reject the inclusion of Gracilisuchus within Crocodylomorpha (Nesbitt 2011), such as the absence of an imperforated acetabulum, and that rather suggests a sister-taxon position to Crocodylomorpha.

The preliminary notices published by me in 1870 and 1872, on the action and chemistry of Strophanthus, indicated that it was likely to prove of value as a therapeutic agent; and so early as the year 1874, I had applied the substance in a few cases to the treatment of disease. Before sufficient data, however, had been obtained to justify any conclusions regarding its value as a therapeutic agent, the observations were interrupted by my leaving Edinburgh to occupy a public office in England, in connection with which it was impossible to conduct observations on the treatment of disease. In 1879, opportunities were again afforded to resume the interrupted observations, and results confirmatory of the anticipations which had been raised by the earlier physiological observations were gradually collected. The publication of a few of these results at the Cardiff meeting of the British Medical Association in 1885 has led to Strophanthus gaining a wide recognition as an important therapeutic agent, and to the production of numerous papers dealing with its botany, chemistry, pharmacology and therapeutics, not only in this country, but also in the continent of Europe and in America.

The Lower Palaeozoic tectonic history of central and eastern Europe is poorly understood because of extensive Variscan and/or Alpine reworking. The trace of the Tornquist Sea, the SE arm of the Lower Palaeozoic Iapetus Ocean, extended from NE Britain to Asia Minor. The site of this ocean is constrained by the tectonostratigraphy and faunal provinciality of Lower Palaeozoic inliers in northern Czechoslovakia, and southern Poland. In this paper, the collage of contrasting tectonostratigraphic histories of terranes in the Lower Palaeozoic of Poland is reviewed. Fossil evidence demonstrates that the Holy Cross Mountains and the Krakovian Belt display Lower Ordovician and Lower Devonian angular unconformities. Faunal data suggest that the Tornquist Suture Zone must lie south of the Holy Cross and between Upper Silesia and the Barrandian of the Czech Republic. Between these areas, in the Sudeten Mountains, a continental scale sinistral mylonite zone (along the line of the Intra-Sudetic Fault) was periodically active between the Middle Ordovician and the Upper Triassic. Various dismembered ophiolite, island arc and batholith terranes from alongside the Intra-Sudetic Fault have Ordocivian and Silurian magmatic and metamorphic zircon isotopic and fossil ages. Thus the often stated view that deformation in the Sudetes is Variscan (i.e. post-Middle Devonian) must be called into question. It is proposed instead that the Tornquist Suture is located within the Sudeten mountains, and as in the Holy Cross Mountains, much of the observed deformation is post-Cambrian and pre-Gedinnian in age, i.e. Caledonian.

A detached sporophyl and megasporangium of Mazocarpon pettycurense Benson is described. It formed twelve megaspores.

Achlamydocarpon scoticum sp. nov. is described from detached sporophylls and megasporangia. The latter opened by means of three slits in the distal region so making pollination possible.

A specimen of Cystosporites devonicus Chaloner and Pettitt is recorded from ash beds at the base of the Cementstone Group.

The animals, either wholly new, or new to Britain, described in the following communication, were taken during a yachting cruise, with our indefatigable friend Mr Macandrew, among the Hebrides, in the month of August 1850. During this voyage, which lasted three weeks, a series of observations were conducted by means of the dredge and the towing-net. Not a single new form of testaceous mollusk was procured; our exertions were amply rewarded, however, by the discovery of several remarkable Ascidians and Radiata, some of them so curious in themselves, and so important in their zoological bearings, that we have thought it desirable to lay an account of their characters and anatomy before the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Anthraconaia lived on clay grade sediments. In highly variable life assemblages of the A.prolifera group of the E German Wettin Shales (Stephanian C) organic carbon percentage of the host sediment correlates with wu/m and A/L ratios of the shell (where wu is the maximum width ventral to the line of maximum growth, m, L the maximum length measured parallel to the line of the hinge, and A the length anterior to the umbo). Decrease in the organic carbon of the sediment is associated with decrease in umbonal development, elongation of the shell along the m axis, and straightening and reflection of the ventral margin; the latter becomes subparallel to the dorsum or to the m axis with a concomitant decrease in size. These results confirm and amplify earlier work on Anthraconaia in the Appalachian coalfields. The same morphological trends in relation to organic carbon characterise the Anthraconaia modiolaris group of Britain, both within a single succession in upper Westphalian A sediments in Yorkshire, and also in three shell bands of Lower Westphalian B age in S Wales, Yorkshire and central Scotland. In the last named, above the Musselband Coal, statistical formulae (of Leitch 1940) for the species A.salteri are shown to define neither the type assemblage nor its stratigraphical position. The shell-shape/organic carbon relationship has been broadly confirmed on other horizons of lower Westphalian B age in the Scottish and Pennine coalfields. Far from embarrassing the stratigrapher, the relationship, which reflects ultimately trophic level of deltaic palaeoenvironments, contributes to our understanding of non-marine bivalve faunas, especially of the apparent regional distribution of ‘species’ of Anthraconaia.

The present communication is based principally on the results of a series of investigations into the form, dimensions, and characters of the skulls that comprise the unique collection which has been located in the Anatomy Department at the University of Glasgow for a number of years, and of which no account has yet been published. We owe the collection and preservation of this large and valuable series of crania—comprising over 700 specimens—to the zeal of Mr W. K. HUTTON, Lecturer in Anatomy, Queen Margaret College, University of Glasgow, to whom I am much indebted for permission to continue the work begun, but given up, by him. I am very grateful to Professor BRYCE for assistance and much encouragement during the progress of the research.

The Punta Peligro fauna includes some of the oldest Cenozoic South American mammals, and the oldest ones for Patagonia. In addition to frogs, turtles, and crocodiles, an unusual mammalian assemblage is formed by a mixture of Mesozoic lineages of Gondwanan origin and therians (eutherians and metatherians) derived from Laurasian immigrants. This paper describes new remains of the Didolodontidae ‘condylarth’ genus Escribania Bonaparte, Van Valen & Kramarz, 1993. The new material includes an isolated right lower third molar with talonid morphology different from the homologous structure of the type species Escribania chubutensis Bonaparte, Van Valen & Kramarz, 1993, justifying the recognition of a new species. The derived nature of the didolodontid ‘condylarths’ from the Banco Negro Inferior, their differences with the Mioclaenidae Kollpaniinae from the early Paleocene of Tiupampa, and the record of bona fide litoptherns in the Banco Negro Inferior (BNI) suggest an early radiation of the panameriungulates.

This paper reconstructs the characteristics of rivers which deposited proglacial fluvial sediments in east-central Scotland during the Late Devensian. Sediment depositional architecture and geometry, together with the relationship between high-stage and falling and low-stage depositional elements, were used to relate the proglacial sediments to the glacial meltwater discharge regime. The proglacial river systems studied were dominated by ‘normal’ ablation controlled discharge, rather than by high magnitude flood events. Consequently there is a great deal of spatial and vertical variability. Deposition occurred during short intervals of rapid aggradation, so that relatively fine-grained falling-stage sediments, as well as coarser, bar-core sediments are well preserved. Models relating the characteristics of the final deposit to the nature of the river are presented. These emphasise the role of stage changes and aggradation rates in controlling sediment architecture in braided fluvial deposits.

The procyonid †Cyonasua is endemic to South America and recorded from the Late Miocene to the Early Pleistocene. This paper studies the forelimb of †Cyonasua sp. (late Pliocene of Miramar, Argentina), using an ecomorphological approach to infer morphological adaptations linked to substrate preference and locomotory mode, as well as to grasping and digging ability. Twenty linear measurements of forelimb and pectoral girdle were taken from †Cyonasua sp. and a sample of 87 specimens of extant carnivoran families (Procyonidae, Mustelidae, Ursidae, Viverridae, Canidae and Felidae). Raw values were transformed to minimise the effect of size. Morphological variation was explored by principal component analysis (PCA); substrate preference and locomotory mode were further analysed by multivariate analysis of variance (MAV) and discriminant analysis (DA); grasping and digging ability were analysed by DA. In the PCA morphospace, †Cyonasua sp. occupied a unique position, close to extant procyonids. DA classified it as non-specialised digger with poor grasping ability. The results lead to the interpretation of †Cyonasua sp. as having a moderately stabilised elbow joint with poor pronation–supination, although some climbing skills cannot be ruled out. Thus, †Cyonasua sp. could have had generalised habits, in agreement with reconstructed palaeoenvironmental conditions.

The sediments on the floors of nine reservoirs in the Midland Valley of Scotland have been examined to establish rates of sedimentation and catchment sediment yields. Information from Cullaloe, Drumain, Harperleas and Lambieletham Reservoirs (Fife), is compared with data from Glenfarg and Glenquey Reservoirs (Tayside) and earlier studies on Hopes, N Esk (Lothian) and Kelly (Strathclyde) Reservoirs. The earth-fill dams were constructed between 1850 and 1935 below catchments ranging from 1·53 to 23·5 km2 in area. They are situated on sedimentary, volcanic or intrusive igneous rocks mainly of Devonian or Carboniferous age. In most areas bedrock is obscured by mantles of drift. Six of the catchments are dominated by moorland terrain with local afforestation. Mixed arable farming and woodland characterise the remainder. The higher basins receive on average over 1400 mm of precipitation per annum, while in the lower basins some 800 mm falls.

Measurements of thickness variations of the deposits have enabled the construction of isopachyte maps from which the volumes of entrapped materials have been derived. The computed catchment sediment yields vary from 2·l t km−2 yr−1 (Lambieletham) to 52·0 t km−2 yr−1 (Glenfarg). Sediments incorporate both mineral and organic matter, of which combustible material commonly forms 15–20% by weight. Siliceous tests of diatoms are also an important component of the deposits. The sediment yields computed are about an order of magnitude greater than those reported from rivers draining similar sizes of catchment within the Forth basin. There is a direct relationship between mean annual inflow to the reservoirs and sediment yield.

During 1904 and 1905 the author investigated the plant remains of the peat deposits in certain areas of the Southern Uplands and the Highlands. The present paper deals with similar work over large peat-covered areas in the E. and N. W. Highlands, Shetland Islands, and the Outer Hebrides.

Perhaps the most interesting feature found in the course of the work is the evidence of constant change in the character of the vegetation which has successively covered the peat areas of Scotland. Many areas in different parts of the country have been examined in order to ascertain if this succession can be accounted for by local changes in physical conditions, or whether it represents stages in a long cycle of secular changes in climate, and consequent plant migrations.

These fossils are especially interesting on account of their having been obtained from a more southerly point than any hitherto recorded. The number of specimens is nine; five of these are referable to the genus Cucullœa, one to Cytherea, one probably to Natica, and two are fragments of Coniferous Wood. With the Cytherea are other small shells which may indicate the presence of Crassatella (?) and Donax (?). Two of the pieces of Cucullœa are entirely free from matrix, while three show in their interiors a fine sandy rock which effervesces when treated with hydrochloric acid. The shells themselves have a calcedonic appearance, but, like the matrix, they effervesce strongly with acid; they are much denuded, having apparently been long exposed to the weather. The matrix within the Cytherea is coarser than that in the Cucullœa, containing, besides fragments of quartz and of a black rock, numerous fragments of shells. The Natica (?) is almost free from matrix, and is much denuded, but in some of the crevices sandy material may be seen very like the matrix of the other shells. All these genera have a wide distribution in time, and are now living, consequently they give but little clue to the age of the rocks in which they were found. Cucullœa is rare at the present day, and the few known species occur in the Mauritius, Nicobar, and China; but as a fossil it is very common and widely distributed.

In a previous communication an account was given of the sedimentary series exposed along the eastern coast-line of the Shetlands from Rova Head to Sumburgh Head. Fossil evidence was adduced which enabled the position of these beds in the Old Red System to be fixed more definitely than had hitherto been the case; they were shown to be partly of Middle, partly of Upper Old Red Sandstone age, the base of the Rova Head Conglomerate being taken as the dividing line. Since the publication of that paper additional fossils have to be recorded. Examination of the numerous specimens of the Microbrachius from the fish-beds of Shetland fails to reveal any specific distinction between that form and Microbrachius dicki Traq. occurring in the John o' Groat's Sandstone Group, and the Eday Sandstones; it is therefore an important addition to the chain of evidence linking up the Shetland horizon with those of Orkney and the Mainland. An additional record of little stratigraphical value is that of Coccosteus (sp. indet.), a single plate of which was found by Professor W. H. Lang at a horizon slightly below the fish-bed at Shingly Geo, Dunrossness.

My attention for the last few years having been specially directed to the vertical distribution of the Carboniferous Fossil Flora, it is my intention to publish a series of papers dealing with this subject.

While carrying on these investigations it has been necessary, in addition to visiting public and private collections, to visit several of the coal fields for the purpose of collecting specimens, as in almost no case have the smaller and less attractive species been secured, and, as a rule, only what strikes the ordinary collector as being “a fine specimen” is preserved, to the exclusion of many less striking but often more valuable examples. Hence our public collections, and, with few exceptions, also our private collections, give a very imperfect idea of the richness of the flora of the Carboniferous Formation of Britain.

The genus Bathydoris was created by Bergh in 1884 in his Report on the Nudibranch Mollusca collected by the Challenger. In his account of the anatomy of the new genus Bergh draws attention to the anomalous combination of characters possessed by the animal, and gives it an annectent position between the Dorids and the Tritonids, but places it among the Dorids on account of the predominance of Dorid features. The single specimen of Bathydoris abyssorum was dredged off New South Wales in 2425 fathoms. A second specimen of this peculiar genus was obtained by the Danish Ingolf Expedition and described by Bergh in 1900. This specimen came from 1870 fathoms in Davis Strait, and resembled B. abyssorum, with specific variations. Thus Bathydoris came to be regarded as an isolated genus with the characters of a connecting link, and appropriately a denizen of deep water. Our anatomical knowledge of the animal is derived almost entirely from Bergh's accounts of the two species mentioned, and is moderately extensive, considering the rather imperfect state of preservation of the material and the fact that he was dependent on single specimens in each case.

Ardsheal Hill is situated in Argyllshire amidst country of great petrographic interest. It is easily reached by road or rail, for it overlooks the main road from Oban to Port William, and is under 2 miles from the station of Kentallen on the Ballachulish Branch of the L.M.S. Railway. The area considered in the present communication is bounded by Loch Linnhe on the west and on the east by the above-mentioned road.