Trilobites, appear to have been among the very earliest recognized fossils, not only in this country, but on the Continent, their name having been given them by Walch, in his “Natural History of Petrifactions,” published at Nuremberg a hundred years ago.

The valuable paper by Professor Harkness on “The Middle Pleistocene Deposits of Britain,” published in the pages of this periodical, was a completely successful attempt to synchronize the members of the Drift series of Ireland with those of England and Scotland. He shows that there exist in the East of Ireland detached portions of an Upper Boulder-clay resting on the shelly sands and gravels of the “ Middle Drift,” and that in other localities these sands and gravels may be observed resting on the Lower Boulder-clay, which is generally supported by rock with a glaciated surface. The order of succession of the members of the Drift series is, therefore, precisely similar to that of the North-western counties of England, where we have at the base (a) Lower Till or Boulder-clay; (b) Marine Sands and Gravels; (c) Upper Till or Boulder-clay; —an order of succession which I have for some years felt satisfied would be found ultimately to hold good over the whole of England.

It has frequently been found that in cases of depression or elevation of land the records of historians have corroborated the inferences of geologists. The works of the ancient geographers have also been of use in this way. It is, however, more rarely that a tradition receives confirmation at the hands of geological observers, and this it is which leads me to call the attention of the readers of the Geological Magazine to the subiect of the present paper.

Boulder-scars.—From Maryport to Parkgate, the E. coast of the Irish Sea at intervals exhibits accumulations or concentrations of large boulders, which are locally called scars. They may be seen in all stages of formation, from the denudational area, where they are in course of being left by the washing away of the clayey matrix, to the depositional area, where they have become half-covered with recent sand and shingle. In many places (as between Seascale and near Silecroft) there are so many boulders within a small area as to show that a considerable thickness of the clay must have been removed. With the exception of having tumbled down as the cliffs were undermined and worn back by the sea, many of the boulders may still rest nearly in the positions they occupied in the clay, but (as is evidenced on the coast at Parkgate) others, up to a great diameter, may have been shifted horizontally. Some of the scars exist where the Boulder-clay would appear to have risen up into ridges or mounds, as no clay is now found opposite to them at the base of the sea-cliff. Others are clay and boulder plateaux, visibly connected with the cliff-line. Most of the scars, I believe, are remnants of the great Lower Brown Boulder-clay. The most conspicuous boulder in the scars S.W. of Bootle, is Eskdale-fell granite, accompanied by a little Criffell granite, and a great number of the usual felspathic erratics.

Having formed one of a party of sixteen, who have lately further explored the recently discovered caverns at Stainton, notices of which have appeared in the Times and other journals, I wish to furnish a few details of the exploration, which may possibly prove interesting. The caverns are in the Carboniferous Limestone formation, and situated at a point one mile and a quarter south-east of the Dalton station of the Furness Railway, Lancashire.

Perhaps no question in English Pliocene geology has caused so much inquiry as the exact relation of the Red and Norwich Crags. The latter term I prefer as more palæontologically correct than the older one of “Mammaliferous,” and it is now becoming generally used. In the year 1865 I divided the Norwich Crag into two divisions, an Upper and a Lower, and endeavoured to show that the latter was the true Fluvio-marine Crag, the former being distinguished by its purely marine character, and also by its containing a larger per-centage of Northern shells. This Upper Crag was subsequently termed the “Chillesford Crag” by Mr. Searles Wood, and by this name it is usually known. In my paper above mentioned my purpose was to show that this Upper or “Chillesford Crag” connected the latest of the older crags with the lower Drift-beds. The Fluvio-marine beds were formed along the floor of an estuary, but the Upper Crag was deposited along the sea-bottom, when the same area had been depressed. As a consequence, this Crag had a wider and more extensive geographical development. I was unaware at this time that Mr. Searles Wood was working at the same subject; and I subsequently found that he, with his usual indefatigability, had arrived at a similar conclusion respecting the Upper bed of Norwich Crag.

Errata in Geological Magazine, June, 1871, p. 267, lines 43 et sequi, for “but in the granitic-felstone the rock is often thin, very fine or coarse,” etc., etc, read “but in the granitic-felstone the rock is often in thin, very fine, or coarse bands, striping the rock, like ribbon, they differing, etc., etc.”—At p. 247, line 20 from foot, for “; their,” read “. The”.