In mapping the boundaries of the Lias in that part of Yorkshire where the Cretaceous rocks overlap the Jurassic, the Red Chalk becomes extremely useful as a guide, especially as the springs constantly break out beneath it, and give good opportunities for its examination and that of the subjacent strata. Some points of interest have thus obtruded themselves upon one's notice. Its range in Yorkshire may be described as first northwards and then eastwards. Though much covered, by Boulder-clay in the latter portion, it may be traced almost step by step along the former, except where it appears to be absent.

There are unfortunately few graptolites that have retained their original chitinous periderm;when these are preserved in rocks of suitable composition they may be isolated from the matrix, and having escaped distortion, may then be studied more or less in their original condition, and much of our knowledge concerning the structure shown by this group of fossils has, in recent years, been derived from such specimens;these, since they are preserved more or less in relief, differ greatly in appearance from the film-like fossils which are of far commoner occurrence, and which can rarely be taken at their face value, but require some degree of interpretation before identification is possible. Lapworth and Nicholson both recognized this, and it is much to be deplored that modern palaeontologists too often ignore this necessity for interpretation and take graptolites at their face value, with the result that specimens that are only views of well-known species are described as new species or varieties, and the literature of the subject is again being burdened with a number of names of no scientific value or significance.

For many years I have been interested in the colloidal nature of coal. As long ago as 1914, in discussing the coal resources of Korea State in the Central Provinces of India, I suggested that the bright bands of the Korea coals are colloidal. It is suitable to quote here the exact words used:—

Observations have shown that some garnets in the micaceous schists of the Chor area, Himachal Pradesh, India, still retain the continuity between the Se and Si planes. The Se and Si surfaces are continuous surfaces and not merely statistical as has been assumed by some.

The genus Pseudoglyphea was established in 1860 by the late Dr. Albert Oppel, of Munich, for certain remains of Crustacea occurring in the Oolite and Lias formations of Bavaria, &c., previously referred to the genus Glyphea, from which, however, he has separated them on account of the difference in the direction of the furrows which mark the regions of the cephalothorax. Whether these characters will be found to be supported by others, or, to be in themselves of sufficient importance to justify the retention of the genus, must be determined by more ample materials and a better acquaintance with the entire animals belonging to both genera than we are at present able to command.

On the northern margin of the Firth of Forth, opposite Edinburgh, a line of steep craggy slope sweeps round from behind the village of Burntisland to the shore about half a mile eastward. The highest and most precipitous portion rises to a height of 631 feet; and the space between its base and the shore is so short that when seen from a short distance, the hill seems to shoot almost directly out of the sea. Hence these heights form conspicuous landmarks all over the Lothians. Their scarred fronts and verdurous slopes bear all the characteristic features of the minor hills in the lowlands of Scotland — a union of brown mouldering crag, often steep and bold, with soft green hollows, and with shelving sides that are either cumbered with ruins from the cliff overhead, or dotted with bushes of golden gorse. Such scenery is to a geological eye eminently ‘trappean;’ it at once suggests beds of greenstone, basalt, and ash, with the other concomitants of ancient volcanic eruptions. And truly amid all the rich development of volcanic phenomena in these Lowlands, the rocks of the Burntisland shore deserve to stand up as conspicuous landmarks. They have been laid bare by rains and frosts and the waves of the Firth along some miles of the coast-line, where they can be studied, bed after bed, in the minutest detail. I know of no such section in any other part of the kingdom.

“With regard to the probability of coal under cretaceous W rocks in the South of England it seems hardly possible to conceive that the commercial enterprise of Englishmen could have failed to discover it long ago if it had been in existence.”

Various uplift markers suggest asymmetrical uplift of Tenerife Island, with stable conditions in the north but significant uplift of up to 45 m in the south over the past ~42 ka. Fossil shells in beach deposits uplifted by 7.5–9 m were 14C-dated at a Holocene age of 2460±35 bp (1σ). This confirms earlier results and documents very young, and probably still ongoing, uplift of southern Tenerife potentially caused by ascending magma. This underlines that southern Tenerife is probably undergoing a further cycle of volcanic activity that started ~95 ka ago.