When reading the very interesting article in the “Student” for October last, “On the Deep Sea,” by Dr. Carpenter, I was struck by the description of an Echinidan, which had been dredged up, and which is represented as looking “externally like a sea-egg flattened by pressure; it was about five inches in diameter, and of a brilliant crimson hue. Its test being composed of plates, separated by membrane, instead of being united by suture, was quite flexible, so as to resemble an armour of chain mail rather than the inflexible cuirass with which the ordinary Echinida are invested.” This statement as to the flexibility of the test so corresponds with what I have long suspected to be the case with some, at least, of the Crinoids, that I have been induced carefully to reexamine a large number of specimens, both of heads and columns of fossil, and to make some experiments on recent Crinoids; and I propose now to state shortly the result, and to suggest some points for the consideration of those who may take an interest in such subjects, and who are better qualified than I am, by their knowledge of the animal kingdom, to give an opinion on them.

The rock described in the following paper is, I believe, new to British petrology; and as the value of microscopical analysis is not yet fully recognized, a detailed description may be acceptable to many readers of the Geological Magazine. The specimens examined were kindly sent to me by Mr. J. A. Phillips, together with a chemical analysis, which, with his permission, is also added.

The following is a continuation of the results of observations in the Lake District and neighbourhood, made during the greater part of last year, and the beginning of the present year.

Certain opinions have been put forth during the last few years which do not seem to be quite in accordance with some facts which have come to our knowledge in working out systematically, various pits and sections in the Red Crag district, and we propose discussing in the following paper a few of the more salient points bearing upon the fauna, and the position in time and place of this particular series of deposits.

It appears evident from the history of the metamorphic, granitoid, and granitic rocks of Scotland, written exactly halfa century ago by MacCulloch, that those rocks are very similar to rocks of the same classes in West Galway, Ireland. This acute observer evidently examined the Scotch rocks most minutely, as the groups, sub-groups, and varieties of his “primary rocks” are carefully classed and described. Still, however, his arrangement seems to require modification, as many of the rocks he has put among his granites seem not to be true granites, but rather granitoid rocks, due to the metamorphism of igneous rocks.