The wide geographical distribution of the Milleporidæ is a clearer proof of the geological antiquity of the group than any evidence yielded by palæontology. For Millepora has no known Mesozoic or certain Lower Oainozoic representative, and is thus separated by a great gap from the Palsezoic Hydrocorallinas, whence it is probably descended. But the Stromatoporoids disappear at the end of the Palaeozoic, and I am not aware that any coral has been described which helps to connect that group and the Oainozoic Milleporids.

The substance of the following paper was given at a meeting of the Geological Society of Edinburgh on January 20th this year. Its object is to show that the group of Lower Scottish Limestones about Dunbar and round the Midlothian Coalfield does not represent any part of the Mountain Limestone of Yorkshire, but is the equivalent of the upper part of the Yoredale Series of Phillips, while the Edge Coals and Upper Limestones of Midlothian represent a series of beds which in Yorkshire and Northumberland lie above the true Yoredale Series of Phillips, and which were included by him in the Millstone Grit. It necessarily follows from this correlation that the lower part of Phillips' Yoredale Series, together with the Scar or Mountain Limestone of Yorkshire, are represented in Scotland by the Calciferous Sandstone Series, which is mainly a fresh-water deposit.

At Portsea Island a change takes place in the character of the drift, the 5 to 6 feet of gravelly clay forming the “Head” on the Old Beach to the east, being replaced on the same level by a bed of gravel, which, according to Mr. T. Codrington, attains a thickness of 27 feet, and still contains some boulders similar to those of Hayling Island, together with blocks of sarsenstone. to the west of Gosport the ground rises and the low cliffs of Stubbington and Hill Head are capped by 10 to 15 feet of gravel of a somewhat different character. No foreign boulders are to be seeninit, though I have found pebbles of quartzite derived apparently from the Triassic strata of Devonshire, as also some small subangular fragments of granite and other old rocks, large blocks of Tertiary Sandstone, and a few worn fragments of a fresh-water limestone containing small Lymneæ. There are no shells either fluviatile or marine, and no beach underlies the gravel which rests directly on the Tertiary strata. It is intercalated with seams of sand and loam roughly bedded, and contains flint implements. It is evident, therefore, that we have here some important changes in physical conditions, and that a considerable alteration in the characters of the drift-beds likewise commences. This has led to the belief that the gravel on the coast from this point to Bournemouth and Poole is the Alluvium of an old river, which, before the removal of the Chalk ridge that extended across the bay of Christchurch, blocked the rivers flowing southward, and diverted them into a main stream flowing eastward, passing along the line of the present Solent and debouch in g in the area now occupied by Spithead.

I. Introductory.—The researches of previous investigators have had the result of showing that the platform on which are planted the British Isles and adjoining parts of the European continent was formerly connected by land with Iceland through the Shetland and Faeröe Islands, and this again with Greenland. This former connection is placed beyond doubt by the character of the fauna and flora. Dr. Wallace includes Iceland in his Palæarctic region, which embraces the British Isles and Europe; and, as Professor Newton has shown, all the land mammalia, with only three exceptions, are European. The exceptions are those of Arctic habitats–the polar bear, the Arctic fox, and a mouse (Mus Icelandicus). Amongst the birds, the peculiar species are allied to those of Europe and the Faeroes. The botany and entomology of Iceland have been described in the Transactions of this Institute by the Eev. Dr. Walker, F.L.S.,3 and his observations bear witness to the former land connection of Iceland with the British Isles. He remarks that “the first thing that strikes a visitor from the latter country is not the number of Arctic species, but the great abundance of plants that are very rare and local in Britain, such as Saxifraga cmspitosa, Lichnis alpina, and Erigeron alpinum, etc.” The disappearance of the former glacial conditions from the British Isles and their continuance in Iceland account for the remarkable abundance of the plants referred to.