While we have in the deposits described no signs of any line of drainage conterminous with the valley through which the Thames now finds its way from London to the sea, until after a series of diverse conditions, and until a most recent date,—that of the Marsh clay, we shall find, in the physical structure of the valley, evidence corroborative of that afforded by the deposits; and showing that the present valley of the Thames is a creation subsequent to all the deposits which it contains that are older than the Marsh clay.

Professor Gregory's kindly review of the Carlisle memoir raises once more the vexed question of the structure of the New Red rocks of that district. Two borings, one at Abbey Town and the other at Bowness, prove a thick series of variegated shales in the drift-covered western part of the area. A third boring proved red beds beneath the Lias at Great Orton. As Professor Gregory points out, the correlation of these red beds with the Abbey Town shales is uncertain. Though expressing the same caution, he had nevertheless previously adopted the correlation, his section through Great Orton, here reproduced, showing the beds at the two places as continuous. In what follows it will be easy to distinguish the evidence relating to Great Orton from that dealing specifically with the Abbey Town shales.

Zoarium always unilaminate, nearly always adherent.

Zoœcia broad, length ·65–·8 mm., breadth ·45–·55 mm., aperture primarily semicircular but tending to quadrangular by thickening of the upper lip, and with a semicircular collar, the two ends of which are expanded into large perforated spine bases: the arched front wall springs from the inside of the side walls and is pierced along its edge by a row of large pores, and at a short distance inside this row by a row of smaller pores in fairly close correspondence with the outer row; the centre of the front wall is pierced by a very variable number of fine pores, which sometimes give clear indications of a third row corresponding to the two outer ones; the zoœcia always have common side walls of considerable width; in immature stages (Fig. 1) the front walls rise high above the side walls, and small beak-shaped avicularia are scattered irregularly between them; in a further stage of development (Fig. 2) the side walls are greatly thickened and raised above the front walls, absorbing the avicularia, and the perforated spine bases at the corners of the aperture grow inwards until they meet, and are fused into a stout bar across the aperture, so qualifying the species for admission to the Steginoporidæ; in the stage of maximum development (Fig. 3) the bar develops a stout denticle in the middle of the lower edge.

It is more than a century since the “Dudley Locust,” or ‘Trilobite,’ was first figured and described, 1 and the locality where it it is found, is rendered famous by the researchs and writings of Sedgwick, Phillips, Forbes, Murchison, Salter, Davidson, and a host of other geologists and palæontologists, who have been attracted thither at various times by the grand geological features of the district or by the matchless beauty and endless diversity of its well-preserved organic remains.

The four years 1904–1907 were marked by the occurrence of three considerable earthquakes, one of which (the Derby earthquake of July 3rd, 1904) disturbed an area of about 25,000 square miles, another (the Doncaster earthquake of April 23rd, 1905) an area of about 17,000 square miles, while the third (the Swansea earthquake of June 27th, 1906) was felt over an area of 66,700 square miles, and, with the exception of the Hereford earthquake of 1896, was the strongest felt in this country during the last twenty years. Besides these, there were 56 others of less intensity, 9 of which originated in England, 44 in Scotland, and 3 in Wales. The total number for the nineteen years 1889–1907 is thus 214, or 50 in England, 137 in Scotland, and 27 in Wales.

It is remarkable, considering the enormous development of igneous rocks in South Africa, that so little has been written concerning the features they present in the field or under the microscope. Right away from Cape Town into the tropics, plutonic masses, dykes, and lava-flows interrupt the continuity of the sedimentary deposits with astonishing frequency. Some of these rocks, like the Cape Town granite and dolerite, are probably of pre-Silurian age; others, like the Kimberley lavas, were erupted during the Secondary period: while others, again, like the dykes and lavas of the Zambesi Valley, are probably of late Tertiary or even geologically recent date, as evidenced by the numerous geysers and hot springs which represent the final phase of not long antecedent volcanic activity. They appear to bear the same relation to the volcanoes of Central Africa as the British Tertiary lavas do to those of Iceland.

The pebble-bed of the Lower Greensand of Godalming has been already referred to (‘Geologist,’ vol. vi. pp. 53, 54) as a singular deposit, underlying the Bargate-stone series of that neighbourhood, remarkable alike on account of its peculiar organisms and its (probable) relation to other distant, though somewhat similar, beds; its position in the Greensand is fortunately well-marked, being immediately at the base of Fitton's ‘Upper or Ferruginous division;’ or, following the nomenclature of the Geological Survey, at the base of the ‘Folkestone Beds.’ in composition, it may be roughly described as a mixture of sand and small subangular pebbles, either loosely bedded or variously concreted. Its thickness at Godalming varies considerably, thinning out rapidly to the south of the town, but increasing on the north, in approaching the Hogsback, to a thickness of 8 or 10 feet; occasionally passing into, and alternating with, the lower layers of the Bargate-stone.

The sources of information are given below.

D. From T. Rupert Jones's Catalogue of the Foraminifera from the Chalk and Chalkmarl in the Second Edition of Dixon's “Geology and Fossils of Sussex,” 1878, pp. 284 and 285.

The question of the water supply of the town of Stratford-on-Avon has for years past presented many difficulties. The town is situated on the uppermost beds of the Upper Keuper Marls, and the water derived from the wells sunk in these gypseous marls, or from the alluvial gravel of the river valley, contains an amount of solids equal to about 170 grains per gallon, of which about 125 grains consist of calcium sulphate. Up to a very few years ago this intensely hard water was alone available for domestic and manufacturing purposes, but the main supply of the town is now derived from catchment basins and reservoirs at Snitterfield on the adjoining hills about four miles north of Stratford. In years of average rainfall a fair supply of moderately soft water is obtained from this source, but it is one which, as regards organic impurity, bears unmistakable signs of its surface origin, and during dry seasons the town supply has to be supplemented with the hard well-water I have already referred to.