The extent to which a country suffers denudation at the present time is to be measured by the amount of mineral matter removed from its surface and carried into the sea. An attentive examination of this subject is calculated to throw some light on the vexed question of the origin of valleys and also on the value of geological time. Of the mineral substances received by the sea from the land, one portion, and by far the larger, is brought down by streams, the other is washed of by the waves of the sea itself.

In the following pages, I am anxious briefly to make known certain new facts bearing on the history of the Crags which I have recently ascertained, and also to make some obervations on papers lately published relating to those beds.

Pyrgoma cretacea, H. Woodw.—In my first Report on Fossil Crustacea (Brit. Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, 1865, Reports, p. 321), I called attention to the occurrence, in the Upper Chalk of Norwich, of a sessile Cirripede belonging to the genus Pyrgoma. This unique example—for which I proposed the name of pyrgoma cretacea—was discovered by Mr. T. G. Bayfield, of Norwich, who forwarded the specimen to the British Museum where I had the good fortune to detect its character. As no other specimen of this new species has been met with, I have thought it advisable (although only an imperfect example) to place it on record in the hope that better ones may be found. It is represented in the accompanying Plate XIV., Figs. 1 and 2, of the natural size.

The little duchy of Nassau, so recently annexed to the kingdom of Prussia, has long been famous for its mineral wealth. It yields yearly about 350,000 tons of iron ore, principally Hematite, and about half that quantity of Manganese. Of its natural mineral water from Seltzers it exports above a million bottles annually. In its north-western corner are the Brown-Coal deposits of the Wester-wald; and to these sources of wealth must now be added more valuable and extensive deposits of phosphate of lime, which, though not long since discovered, have already attracted the attention of the leading agricultural chemists of this country. This discovery has its scientific attractions, as well as its commerical advantages; and, as I have lately had an opportunity of examining these deposits in detail, it may be of interest to the reader, if I record a few particulars concerning them.

Omey is a half-tide island off the coast of Galway. It is chiefly a Porphyritic Granite rock, on the north-west portion of which are wind-blown sands that are for ever changing their positions, the houses of the inhabitants being covered to such an extent by them, that, in order to reach the interior, they are compelled to descend through holes, like large rabbit-burrows. The oldest record we have in connection with the island is, that St. Fechin built an Abbey there previous to A.D. 664. This abbey is said to be buried in the sands, but its exact site cannot be pointed out; however, there is a supposed fifteenth-century church, that is now sunk 12 feet deep in the sand.

In a paper on “Cretaceous Brachiopoda,” published in the first volume of the Geological Magazine, page 249, I noticed the occurrence of a species of Waldheimia in the Lower Greensand of Surrey, under the name of Waldheimia Moutoniana, which at the time appeared to me to answer to the figure and description of Terebratula Moutoniana of D'Orbigny.

Having frequently visited Upware during the past fourteen months, for the purpose of collecting from the Lower Greensand, in which I have been very successful, having obtained for this Museum a beautiful and choice collection, I have had every opportunity of observing the progress of the excavations, and of noting the relative position of the beds.