Abundant as are the localities in which garnet is found in Scotland, there are but few which yield specimens such as can be analysed.

This is on account of an intermixture of quartz—for the most part in a granular form—the granules being promiscuously scattered throughout the mass of the crystals. In three localities the intermixture is not promiscuous, but has been governed by some intermittent crystalline action. These localities are Glen Skiag in Ross, where, around a central nucleus of leucitoidal crystals of garnet, translucent quartz is arranged in layers which alternate with those of the garnet, conformably to the figure of its crystal.

The two other localities are the first and third granitic veins to the east of Portsoy; in both of which garnet of a pale brown colour is laced with quartz, which is arranged in a graphic manner, as in the felspar from an adjacent vein. At no other locality do I know of such an occurrence. The appearance of a section of a rhombic dodecahedron is somewhat like the figure.

Having had the privilege of examining the type specimens of Turrilepas scotica, Etheridge jun., and T. Peachi, Etheridge jun. and Nicholson, in Mrs Gray's collection, and in addition to them a large number of examples of the genus recently collected by Mrs Gray from the Girvan area, as well as many specimens in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, from several horizons in the Haverfordwest district and from the Dufton Shales near Melmerby and from Bala beds of other localities, some important new features have been recognised in these curious fossils which help to throw light on their structure and relations.

1. In the course of some inquiries concerning the power of metallic substances to conduct intense electrical explosions, an account of which was honoured by a place in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1827, I sought to obtain a comparative measure of the conducting power, in the heat evolved by the metal, at the time of transmitting the charge. The instrument employed for this purpose, was, in principle, that of a common air thermometer, the given metal, the subject of experiment, being drawn into a wire, and passed air-tight across its bulb. This simple contrivance, I have since extended to the general purposes of an electrometer, so as to estimate the force of any ordinary electrical accumulation. The results arrived at with voltaic combinations, seem, for the most part, of much practical utility; and therefore some account of them may, I trust, be found worthy of the attention of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The Brachiopoda of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition of the S.Y. Scotia (1902–1904), though in some cases somewhat scanty in number of individuals, are of particular interest, mainly on account of increasing very materially our knowledge in regard to the geographical range of certain forms, as well as of adding other species to those already known from the Antarctic coast-line.

The volcanic rocks of Iceland have been grouped by Tyrrell and Peacock (1928) into:

3. The Recent, Post-Glacial and Late Interglacial Eruptives.

2. The Early Glacial Breccia or Palagonite Formation.

1. The Pre-Glacial Kainozoic Basalt Plateau.

Group 1 consists of nearly 10,000 feet of basalts with lignite beds, acid extrusives and acid and basic intrusions. In the east and west of Iceland the old plateau is exposed, but centrally it is down-faulted and covered with more recent tuffs and lavas.

Group 2 contains a varied assemblage of deposits comprising tuffs, breccias and lavas, moraines, boulder clays and fluvioglacial sediments (Nielsen and Noe-Nygaard, 1936 a). The lower part of this formation consists of over 2000 feet of basaltic lavas with interbedded glacial and fossiliferous deposits, and the upper part of glacial and fluvio-glacial deposits with doleritic lavas.

Group 3 is made up mainly of basaltic lavas but with occasional acid phases. In the ice-covered highlands the volcanoes have continued to produce tuffs and breccias.

An opinion has been entertained by some of the modern French philosophers, and, among others, by the late celebrated Marquis de La Place, that it was only when far advanced in years that Sir Isaac Newton turned his attention to the study of Theology; and it has been lately assumed by M. Biot, in an account of Newton and his discoveries, contained in the “Biographie Universelle,” as a fact which can scarcely be doubted, that, at one period of his life, he was actually in a state of mental derangement.

Before giving a description of the specimen which forms the subject of this communication, it seems desirable that a brief summary of the literature dealing with the internal structure of Sigillaria, and some general remarks on the classification of the genus, should be given.

More for the purpose of convenience than on scientific grounds, the genus Sigillaria is usually divided into four groups. These groups were originally supposed by their founders to be of generic value, but experience has shown that the characters on which they were founded are more or less common to all four divisions, and in some cases the distinctive divisional characters even occur on the same specimen.

The Lower Ordovician (Oeland Series) type species of Lamanskya, L. splendens Moberg & Segerberg 1906, was described originally as an articulate brachiopod, but it is here redescribed and referred to the lingulid Family Elkaniidae. L. splendens ranges from the late Tremadoc to the early Arenig in Baltoscandia (Norway, Sweden, Estonia, and the St Petersburg district of Russia). Aulonotreta kuraganica Andreeva 1972 from the Lower Ordovician of the Ural Mountains is also redescribed and referred to Lamanskya. The genus Dictyobolus Williams & Curry 1985, from the Lower Ordovician of Ireland, is a junior synomym of Lamanskya. All species of the genus are strongly biconvex, and have a well-developed ornamentation of elongate lenticular pits. The problematic Genus Volborthia von Moller 1870 is also considered tentatively to belong within the Elkaniidae.

In order to elucidate how mineralogy and composition of crustal sources influences production of leucogranite magmas, we modelled the potential fertility of a sequence of metapelites and metagraywackes from the Black Hills, South Dakota, U.S.A., using a least-squares mixing approach. Rocks analogous to the Black Hills schists were the sources of the Harney Peak leucogranite. Both muscovite and biotite fluid-absent melting reactions (MM and BM, respectively) were investigated. Using the Harney Peak Granite composition as the melt analogue and mineral compositions from the schists for mixing calculations, it is shown that MM of metapelites would lead to highly variable residue mineralogy in the investigated samples. The average residue includes 36 wt.% biotite, 32 wt.% quartz, 12 wt.% plagioclase, 8 wt.% K-feldspar, 9 wt.% sillimanite and 2 wt.% garnet. Melt production ranges from 5% to 23% with an average of 14%. It is limited by the amount of H2O that must be in the melt at the conditions of melting, relative to the amount that is in muscovite in the source rocks. Plagioclase-rich metagraywackes contain little to no muscovite, thus MM cannot occur in them.

Although BM is continuous over a wide temperature range, for the purposes of modelling melting at 975°C and 10kbar was chosen. The temperature is near the terminal stability of biotite, thus the calculations give near-maximum melt production. At this temperature, the mineralogy of the model residues from both metapelites and metagraywackes is dominated by garnet. The potential melt production in the metapelites ranges from 0% to 58% with an average of 32%. It is limited by the availability of plagioclase in the source rocks. Potential melt production in the metagraywackes ranges from 9% to 37% with an average of 23%. At the chosen conditions of melting, melt production is limited by the available K in biotite, although at lower temperatures, the available H2O limits melt production. The total potential melt production (MM + BM) in the metapelites is higher because they have on average a low normative An/Ab ratio (0·14) that approaches the ratio in the leucogranites (0·04). The paragonite component in muscovite significantly contributes to the low ratio in the metapelites. The higher ration (0·27) in the metagraywackes is denned by the feldspar composition.

Using the calculated melt fractions and residue mineralogies, we modelled the concentrations of Rb, Sr and Ba in the melts, as these elements are important indicators of melt-generating processes. The results indicate that both Sr and Ba are likely to be heterogeneous in extracted melt batches and will be depleted in partial melts relative to their pelitic sources, irrespective of whether the melting is fluid-absent or fluid-present.

The rocks which form the Maltese islands have been at various times referred to very different parts of the Cainozoic group. At first they were all assigned to the Eocene, but a further knowledge of their fossils led to the transference of the whole series to the Miocene, in which system they have been included by most English writers. Herr Th. Fuchs, However, who first attempted any precise determination of the horizons of the subdivisions, correlated the Upper Limestone with the Leithakalk and the Blue Clay with the Schlier, and included the two lowest beds in the Oligocene. Dr Murray, however, in the course of his recent Memoir, has explained the striking palæontological differences between the faunas of the different deposits as due to altered conditions of formation rather than to lapse of time, and seems to follow earlier authors in including the whole series in the Miocene.

The Echinoidea of these deposits were originally described by Dr Wright in 1855,§ with additions and corrections in 1864; but since that time much work has been done on the allied faunas.

Popular and scholarly information concerning the life of James Croll has been accumulating slowly since the death in 1890 of the self-taught climate change pioneer. The papers in the current volume offer thorough assessments of topics associated with Croll's work, but this contribution seeks to provide a personal context for an understanding of James Croll the man, as well as James Croll the scholar of sciences and religion. Using archival as well as published sources, emphasis is placed upon selected components of his life and some of the less recognised features of his biography. These include his family history, his many homes, his health, participation in learned societies and attitudes to collegiality, financial problems including the failed efforts to secure a larger pension, and friendship. Life delivered a mixture of ‘trials and sorrows’, but it seems clear from the affection and respect accorded him that many looked upon James Croll as a ‘man greater far than his work’.

The Galway Granite Complex is unique among the British and Irish Caledonian granitoid terranes, as it records punctuated phases of magmatism from ∼425–380 Ma throughout the latest phase of the Caledonian Orogeny. Remapping of the Omey Pluton, the oldest member of this suite, has constrained the spatial distribution and contact relationships of the pluton's three main facies relative to the nature of the host rock structure. The external contacts of the pluton are mostly concordant to the limbs and hinge of the Connemara Antiform. New AMS data show that a subtle concentric outward dipping foliation is present, and this is interpreted to reflect pluton inflation during continued magma ingress. Combined field, petrographic and AMS data show that two sets of shear zones (NNW–SSE and ENE–WSW) cross-cut the concentric foliation, and that these structures were active during the construction of the pluton. We show that regional sinistral transpression at ∼420 Ma would have caused dilation along the intersection of these two fault sets, and suggest that this facilitated centralised magma ascent. Lateral emplacement was controlled by the symmetry of the Connemara Antiform to ultimately produce a discordant phacolith. We propose that regional sinistral transpression at ∼420 Ma influenced the siting of smaller intrusions over NNW–SSE faults, and that the later onset of regional transtension caused larger volumes of magma to intrude along the E–W Skird Rocks Fault at ∼400 Ma.

The Glasgow area has a combination of highly variable superficial deposits and a legacy of heavy industry, quarrying and mining. These factors create complex foundation and hydrological conditions, influencing the movement of contaminants through the subsurface and giving rise locally to unstable ground conditions. Digital geological three-dimensional models developed by the British Geological Survey are helping to resolve the complex geology underlying Glasgow, providing a key tool for planning and environmental management. The models, covering an area of 3200km2 to a depth of 1.2km, include glacial and post-glacial deposits and the underlying, faulted Carboniferous igneous and sedimentary rocks. Control data, including 95,000 boreholes, digital mine plans and published geological maps, were used in model development. Digital outputs from the models include maps of depth to key horizons, such as rockhead or depth to mine workings. The models have formed the basis for the development of site-scale high-resolution geological models and provide input data for a wide range of other applications from groundwater modelling to stochastic lithological modelling.

Thirteen specimens of type and/or figured Hexapoda from the Rhynie chert are housed at The Natural History Museum, London, UK. They are listed along with a complete bibliography of where they have been cited and figured. Two taxa are present: Rhyniella praecursor Hirst & Maulik 1926 (Collembola); and Rhyniognatha hirsti Tillyard 1928 (Insecta)

The Cape Granites are a granitic suite intruded into Neoproterozoic greywackes and slates, and unconformably overlain by early Palaeozoic Table Mountain Group orthoquartzites. They were first recognised at Paarl in 1776 by Francis Masson, and by William Anderson and William Hamilton in 1778. Studies of the Cape Granites were central to some of the early debates between the Wernerian Neptunists (Robert Jameson and his former pupils) and the Huttonian Plutonists (John Playfair, Basil Hall, Charles Darwin), in the first decades of the 19th Century, since it is at the foot of Table Mountain that the first intrusive granites outside of Scotland were described by Hall in 1812. The Neptunists believed that all rocks, including granite and basalt, were precipitated from the primordial oceans, whereas the Plutonists believed in the intrusive origin of some igneous rocks, such as granite. In this paper, some of the early descriptions and debates concerning the Cape Granites are reviewed, and the history of the development of ideas on granites (as well as on contact metamorphism and sea level changes) at the Cape in the late 18th Century and early to mid 19th Century, during the emerging years of the discipline of geology, is presented for the first time.

The Rosroe Formation comprises a series of Lower Ordovician (Llanvirn) conglomerates and sandstones, that lies on the southern limb of the South Mayo Trough, within the Iapetus Suture Zone of western Ireland. Trace element chemistry of granite boulders within the formation indicates a continental, rather than a volcanic arc character that can be correlated to latest Precambrian granites within the Dalradian Metamorphic Block, part of the deformed Laurentian margin. A minority of the clasts may correlate with syn-collisional granites, similar to, but older than, the Oughterard Granite of Connemara. Pb isotope compositions of K-feldspar grains within the sandstones, measured by both ion microprobe and conventional mass spectrometry, show a clear Laurentian affinity, albeit with greater source variability in the sand grains compared to a limited range in the proximal boulders. Palaeo-current indicators demonstrate dominant derivation from the NE, with a significant axial E–W flow. We propose that the Rosroe Formation records unroofing of a rapidly exhuming Dalradian metamorphic belt in North Mayo, following extensional collapse of the Grampian Orogen starting at ˜468 Ma, with minor input from a southerly arc source. The lack of metamorphic input from the S until deposition of the Derryeeny Conglomerate argues that the Connemara terrane was not positioned S of South Mayo Trough through strike-slip faulting until after the end of Rosroe sedimentation (460–443 Ma).

Sebecus icaeorhinus possessed a narrow, elevated snout and laterally compressed, serrate teeth, unlike modern crocodilians, but superficially similar to those of theropod dinosaurs. Lever arms of the mandibular adductors were generally relatively greater than those of Crocodylus niloticus. Some of the adductors and the depressor mandibulae were relatively larger than in Alligator mississippiensis. Thus Sebecus may have had a stronger bite than the modern forms examined. The form of the teeth suggests use in cutting. Some theropod dinosaurs are similar to sebecosuchians in the possession of relatively deep, narrow snouts and laterally-compressed, serrate teeth. However, the adductor structure was substantially different from that of Sebecus. The presence of muscle and tendon attachments in Sebecus suggests the adductor structure of mesoeucrocodylians is conservative and was established before divergence of the sebecosuchian and neosuchian lineages. No results presented here contradict the interpretation of sebecosuchians as land-dwelling predators.

Sir Joseph Banks, to whose indefatigable ardour for the advancement of natural history, the philosophical world is so much indebted, made a voyage to Iceland in the year 1772, to enquire into the productions of that remote part of the world, and particularly into those of its famous volcano. When he returned, he brought from thence, among many other natural productions, some petrified vegetables, and incrustations, formed by the waters of the boiling springs; and he was so good as to present a part of them to his friends here, who were surprised to find them composed of siliceous earth. As this was the first example observed, of water containing this earth in such quantity as to form siliceous petrifactions, it raised a strong desire to have an opportunity of examining the water, and of learning by what means this siliceous matter was dissolved in it; and this opportunity was at last given us by John Thomas Stanley, Esq; who, excited by motives similar to those of Sir Joseph Banks, equipped likewise a vessel, and made a voyage to Iceland, during the summer 1789.

The following paper contains the results of an inquiry which has occupied me at intervals for somewhere about ten years. It was carried out in part at the expense of the British Association, and I have already reported results to that body in 1869 and 1871. But these provisional reports referred to very short ranges of temperature only, and the experiments were made with faulty thermometers, for which I had not the corrections which had been carefully determined by Welsh at Kew.

The inquiry arose from my desire to extend to other metals the very beautiful and original method which Principal Forbes devised, and which the state of his health prevented him from applying to any substance but iron. Forbes' experiments gave a result so very remarkable, and (as it seemed to me) so theoretically suggestive, that I wished to extend them to other pure metals, and also, in one or two cases at least, to alloys.

I believe that Principal Forbes had at least two reasons for undertaking his investigations:—(1.) When he commenced his inquiry, there was no really accurate or trustworthy determination of the absolute conductivity of any body whatever for heat. (2.) FORBES had himself, in 1833 and subsequent years, pointed out a very remarkable analogy between the conducting powers of metals for electricity and for heat, and had shown that these were almost precisely proportional to one another—that is to say, that the list of the average relative conductivities of different metals for electricity differed, from that of their relative conductivities with regard to heat, certainly not more than did the several electric lists furnished by different experimenters, and certainly less than the corresponding thermal lists. Hence it was natural to suppose that temperature might have a marked effect on thermal conductivity, as it was known to have such an effect on electric conductivity.

The worms which form the subject of the present communication were forwarded to me, in a living condition, from Kew Gardens.

I have received lately a considerable number of living Oligochæta from those Gardens, through the kindness of Mr Dyer, who permitted me to have the earth arriving from different parts of the world in the Wardian cases, in which plants are packed for travelling, thoroughly sifted, with a view to preserving the worms which had been accidentally included. By these means I have succeeded in obtaining some very interesting new forms, as well as a number of others which are still imperfectly known. The species which I describe in the present paper appears to be a new species of Eisen's genus Ocnerodrilus. The genus Ocnerodrilus was formed by Eisen in 1878 [1] for a small worm found in Fresno County, California. The specimens were all met with in “an irrigation box,” where they were found crawling among the algæ which covered the boards. It is evidently, therefore, aquatic in its habits, but Eisen contrasts its slow movements with the rapid swimming of Lumbriculus and Rhynchelmis, comparing it in general appearance with a small species of Lumbricus.