Soon after the publication of The Origin of Species it was realised by Huxley and others that convincing evidence of the fact of evolution might be obtained by a systematic investigation of the ancestral history and development of the Equidæ. From studying material in the British and other Museums Huxley announced at the end of the ’sixties that he believed “the Anchitherium, the Hipparion and the modern horses constitute a series in which the modifications of structure coincide with the order of chronological recurrence in the manner in which they must coincide if the modern horses really are the result of the gradual metamorphosis in the course of the Tertiary epoch of a less specialised ancestral form.” But this conclusion was soon profoundly modified. When in 1876 Huxley had the opportunity of examining the Yale and other collections of the fossil horses of America, he was satisfied that “we must look to America rather than to Europe for the original seat of the Equine series,” and “that the European Hipparion is rather a member of a collateral branch than a form in the direct line of succession.”

The principal descriptions and figures of the Ordovician and Silurian brachiopods of the Girvan district are found in Davidson's Monograph on the British Fossil Brachiopoda, completed about thirty years ago, and issued by the Palæontographical Society. The third volume of this work (published 1866–1870), and the Supplement to the fifth volume (published 1882–1883), dealing with species from Ordovician and Silurian beds, contain descriptions of many Girvan forms, but not apart from those occurring in other British localities. No independent and comprehensive treatise on this group as represented in the Girvan area has been published, though many short papers have dealt with a few species or portions of the fauna. Especially noteworthy are the papers and works by M'Coy and Salter, mentioned in the list at the end of this memoir.

Benguella is a province of Angola, the chief Portuguese colony in western Africa. From the chief town, Benguella (lat. 12·35° S.) and from Catumbella (lat. 12·25° S.) old-established trade routes go inland on to the Benguella plateau, and across it along the watershed between the Congo and the Zambesi to Katanga and the Upper Congo. The geographical pioneers in this part of Africa showed that the land rises in steps from the coast to a high plateau, which consists of a foundation, of ancient crystalline and sedimentary rocks, and is flanked by younger marine beds along the coast.

The special features of interest attaching to the Tertiary igneous rocks of Mull have been made known to geologists mainly through the classic descriptions of Professor J. W. Judd and Sir Archibald Geikie. The point of view of these two investigators is, however, essentially geological, and they refer but little to the occurrence of minerals and rarely give precise localities. It is clear, too, that the late Professor M. F. Heddle did not make an exhaustive examination of many localities in Mull, for his collection in the Royal Scottish Museum contains very few specimens from that island. With a view to filling up this gap I have paid several visits to Mull, and this paper deals with some of the material which I collected. The officers of the Geological Survey who are at present mapping the island have helped me considerably with information and material; and to Mr J. B. Richey, B.A., who has surveyed the area from which a large part of the material was obtained, I am particularly indebted for assistance in collecting specimens from somewhat inaccessible localities.

Very little is known of the petrography of the Portuguese West African colony of Angola, and of its three provinces that of Benguella is probably least well known in this respect. Granites, gneisses, schists, limestones, and red sandstones have been recognised by the earlier observers of the geology of the region, and detailed descriptions of rocks from Angola, and especially of its northern province, Loanda, have been given by Berg and Holmes. From Benguella itself J. P. Gomes has described the collection of R. P. Leconte, wich contained granites, amphibolite, adinole with epidote veins, various schists, quartzites, diabase-porphyrite, and basic eruptives. Senhor J. P. De Nasciamento in 1912 recorded granite, diorite, basalt, and quartzite on the Benguella plateau.

The embryo, as represented by the model, is bent upon itself, at the level of the cranial border of its umbilical orifice—that is, at the caudal end of the pericardial region; and, as a result of the bending, the general outline of the embryo, when viewed from the side, is hook-shaped.

The dorsal and longer limb of the hook is formed by the more caudal portion of the embryo—that is, the part which would lie caudal to the cranial margin of the umbilicus if the embryo were unbent.

Depuis la publication de mon mémoire sur les Spongiaires de V Expedition antarctique nationale écossaise (9), j'ai reçu de M. le Dr. W. S. Bruce quelques Eponges antarctiques faisant aussi partie des collections de la Scotia mais dont le triage s'était trouve retardé.

Indépendamment de fragments en double d'espèces mentionées dans mon mémoire, ce second lot contenait plusieurs formes qu'il me paraît utile de signaler ou de décrire.

The investigations recorded in this communication were begun some years ago, and arose chiefly as the result of two papers published on the Geology of the Forest of Wyre by Mr T. C. Cantrill, B.Sc.

In the latter paper Mr Cantrill, after carefully summarising all the available data respecting the age of the so-called “Permian” of the Forest of Wyre (= Enville), arrives at the following conclusions:—

I. That these “Permian” rocks are of the same age as those at Hamstead in South Staffordshire.

II. That the Hamstead red rocks were shown by their flora to be Upper Coal Measures.

The following notes have been prepared as the result of a study of a small collection of fossils belonging chiefly to the Pelecypoda and Gastropoda, which were obtained by Professor J. W. Gregory, F.R.S., from the Cretaceous rocks of the neighbourhood of Lobito Bay, situated to the north of Benguella, in the province of Angola. At first sight the specimens appeared to be of too unsatisfactory a character for determination, on account of their fragmentary condition, besides often consisting of natural casts. From a closer examination, however, it has been possible to trace some details of structure which have afforded clues to the identification of certain genera and species, a record of which will assist in extending our present limited knowledge of the Cretaceous conchology of this region of Africa. During the progress of these researches, a few further specimens from the same locality were added to Professor Gregory's collection, having been specially obtained by Mr E. Robins, of the Benguella Railway Company. So far as the literature of the subject is concerned, we appear to be indebted to the memoirs of Professor Paul Choffat of Lisbon for most of our information on the Cretaceous fauna of Angola, although reference should also be made to a small and important paper by M. Stanislas Meunier issued in 1888, which contains the earliest known figures of Cretaceous mollusca (Cephalopoda) from Angola, consisting of Schloenbachia inflata, J. Sowerby, Desmoceras cuvervillei, Stan. Meun., Hamites virgulatus, Brongniart, and H. tropicalis, Stan. Meun. These specimens, obtained from the limestones of Lobito Bay, north of Benguella, were considered to be of Albian age, the forms of S. inflata being regarded as identical with a variety of that species which had been figured by Szajnocha from the Elobi Islands, situated off the north-west territory of the French Congo.

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 specimens which form the subject of this paper were collected on voyages to and from Australia on board the s.s. Orsova and Otway of the Orient Line. Sea-water was being constantly pumped on each ship, by a rotary pump, from an inlet about 18 feet below the water-line to a large tank on the boat deck, and I was allowed to run off, through a plankton net, as much of the water as I desired in order to collect the organisms contained therein. For this privilege, of which I availed myself to a liberal extent, I beg to thank Captain J. F. Healey and Captain F. S. Symons. The small organisms suffered comparatively little by their passage through the pump and pipes, and were, for the most part, in a living and active condition when examined.

After my return from my first voyage, namely, the Scottish Antarctic Expedition of 1892–93, for which I was chosen as naturalist, I had the advantage of coming closely in touch with Mr J. Y. Buchanan, who then trained me in his Edinburgh laboratory in the use of his hydrometer. During the past twenty years I have been in constant touch with him regarding problems relating to the physics of the ocean. As a consequence, before my departure for a voyage to, and wintering in, Franz Josef Land during 1896–97, I was well trained in the use of his hydrometer, and obtained during that expedition observations of considerable interest. I also carried out all the hydrometer work on board the Prince of Monaco's yacht Princess Alice during his Arctic voyage of 1898, under the direction of Mr J. Y. Buchanan, who was also on board during that cruise, and also during the Prince of Monaco's second Arctic cruise during 1899, when I was solely responsible for that work. Consequently, I was thoroughly familiar with hydrometer work when I set sail in the Scotia.

The study of human teratology has always been rendered difficult by the relative scantiness of available material; consequently it is of great importance that such cases as can be obtained should be fully utilised and recorded. It has seemed to us that in this respect the employment of X-rays is likely to prove of service, for the abnormalities of the skeletal structures can then be readily and fully studied without interfering with the integrity of the specimen or its utility in the investigation of other elements. We therefore desire to place on record the skiagraphic findings of several series of developmental anomalies in the human subject, in order that they may be available for future workers.

The specimens here described were collected by Professor J. W. Gregory in Angola, and belong to the series described in the paper by him on the geology of that country.

The horizon of the beds from which the limestone was obtained is Albian.

The specimens are of a yellowish pisolitic limestone. In hand specimens the weathered surface has a warty appearance—the diameter of each knob being about 1 cm. A fractured surface shows circular forms varying in size and having decided concentric markings. These concentric markings are, however, less evident in microscopic sections, and this is probably due to the effects of preservation. A similar case has been described by Mr H. Yabe, where the genus Metasolenopora is affected in this way. These circular forms make up the greater part of the rock, and are cemented together by a fine calcareous paste in which are fragments of shell and quartz grains, with occasional grains of other minerals, such as felspar and muscovite. The specimens of limestone examined varied to some extent in texture, some being more compact, and even slightly siliceous, but the contained organisms are present in similar amounts regardless of the texture of the rock.

Nine species of Echinoidea were described by De Loriol From Benguella and mainly from the neighbourhood of Dombe Grande.

1. One of his species, Epiaster catumbellensis, is common in the Lobito district. It is recorded by Be Loriol from the Inflata beds at Catumbella, and the younger Cyprina ivensi sandstone at Dombe Grande. It is a variable species. According to the dimensions given by De Loriol, the length varies from 25 to 36 mm., and the breadth varies from 88 to 94 per cent, of the length and the height from 66 to 77 per cent, of the length. His illustrations show that the species has two chief forms: in one the shape is depressed and the posterior margin is nearly vertical; in the other the posterior interambulacrum is subcarinate, and the posterior margin is more sloping owing to the projection of the lower posterior corner. In De Loriol's figure, pl. viii, No. 4, the posterior margin has a slope of only 7° from the vertical; in his fig. 5 this slope is 15° from the vertical.

In Part I of a Memoir “On the Craniology of the People of Scotland,” published in the Transactions of the Society twelve years ago (vol. xl), I described the anatomical characters of 176 skulls, the majority of which had been obtained in the counties south of the Clyde and the Tay. The dimensions, form and proportions of the cranial box and of the face were examined, the cranial and facial indices were computed, several of the skulls were figured from the vertex, lateral aspect and face, and mesial sagittal sections of the skulls with radial and other measurements were reproduced. The Memoir gave the fullest account of the characters of the skulls of the modern Scottish people which had been produced up to that time. In the concluding paragraph I stated that I had formed a collection of skulls of the prehistoric in-habitants of Scotland, which I proposed to describe to the Society in Part II of the Memoir, and to discuss the general ethnographical relations of the Scottish people. From various causes the presentation to the Society of this Part has been too long delayed.

I am indebted to the kindness of Dr Leonard Doncaster, F.R.S., for the opportunity to examine the present collection of Terrestrial Isopoda from the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology.

The Terrestrial Isopoda of Spain have received considerable attention in the past at the hands of L. Koch,* Budde-Lund,† O. De Buen,‡ and Dollfus,§ and present many features of great interest, one of the most striking of which is perhaps the large size of the various species, particularly in the genera Porcellio, Latreille, and Armadillidium, Brandt, and to these I am now able to add the genus Cubaris, Brandt.