The following article originally appeared in the Times Trade Supplement of August 28 last. It is here reprinted with some small additions by the courtesy of the proprietors of that Journal.

The physical conditions under which the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland was formed is a subject that has long occupied the attention of many of our leading geologists, from the time of Hugh Miller and Sir Roderick Murchison down to those of the present day. It has been variously regarded as of fresh-water and marine origin, as having been thrown down in lakes and in the open sea, or in inlets of the latter. But as yet the whole matter seems to remain an open question, which the unique physical and palæontological elements of the formation make difficult of solution.

With few exceptions, surface dislocations within the earth's crust or ‘earthquake-faults,’ have been described in connection with all earthquakes of large proportions. The Charleston earthquake of August 31st, 1886, stands out in some contrast with most others in this particular, and it is further in contrast with some other earthquakes for the reason that the phenomena recorded in connection with it have not as yet been brought into any relation with the structural geology of the district. A partial explanation of this may perhaps be found in the fact that the area most disturbed—the so-called ‘epicentral tract’—is entirely included within the coastal plain of the South-Eastern United States. Upon this plain the basement of rock is covered to very considerable depths by unconsolidated material, and it would perhaps be too much to expect that displacements upon fracture planes in the rock would be revealed in full measure at the surface.

A deep seated flow of geoplasma (bathyrheal underflow) subjected crustal blocks to recurring horizontal movements causing north-east trending faults, shearing along anticlines and rotation of the separate crustal blocks. These movements produced extensive faulting and shattering in the South Alligator River area and north of Katherine, providing suitable loci for uranium mineralization. The mineralization occurs as a late phase open fissure filling and two types occur, (i) the nickel–cobalt–native silver type, and (ii) the quartz–pyrite–galena type. These characteristics provide a guide for future prospecting for uranium in Australia.

It has been for some time a matter of surprise to me that Dr. Holl, in his exhaustive memoir “On the Rocks of S. Devon and East Cornwall,”—after once raising the question “whether the limestones” (those of our present subject) “might or might not be the same as those of Ogwell, Ipplepen, and Dartington thrown over a broad anticlinal axis of the lower slates to the North-West,”1— should have ceased following out that line of thought to what appears to me the only possible issue, since he thoroughly recognized the existence of uniclinal structures in parts of the district.

A number of rotational strike-slip faults in the Ludlovian-Downtonian deposits of the Llandeilo region, Carmarthenshire, are described.

Owing to the defective character of Sowerby's description and figure of Nautilus elegans, the latter has been variously interpreted, specimens belonging to other species having been frequently referred to it. In the present paper we shall show what is the true N. elegans, tracing the history of the type-specimen, which we have been fortunate enough to identify in the collection of the British Museum. This done, we shall proceed to describe three other species, viz. N. elegantoides, d'Orbigny, N. Atlas, Whiteaves, and N. pseudoelegans, d'Orbigny, all evidently allied to N. elegans, and forming with it a group of species which may be appropriately called the “Group of Nautilus elegans.”

Those who maintain that Till or Boulder-clay has not only originated but accumulated underneath glacier-ice may sometimes have felt puzzled to account for the preservation of beds of more or less incoherent materials below a deposit which they have so many cogent reasons for believing to be a true moraine profonde.

Owing to the impossibility of making an accurate Survey of many of the flatter and Drift-covered portions of England, in the absence of sections, the light boring tools so extensively used by the Geological Survey of Belgium have been experimentally tried during the last few months in the Isle of Wight. The results arrived at are of so much interest that the Director has requested me to draw up this preliminary notice.

The Hempstead Beds, which were thought to be confined to the outlier at Hempstead Cliff and another of unknown extent in Parkhurst Forest, prove to be much more important, indeed they occupy about half the Tertiary area of the Isle of Wight.

Palaeontological field surveys in remote regions are a challenge, because of uncertainty in finding new specimens, high transportation costs, risks for the crew and a long time commitment. The effort can be facilitated by using high-resolution satellite imagery. Here we present a new opportunity to investigate remote fossil localities in detail, mapping the optical signature of individual fossils. We explain a practical workflow for detecting fossils using remote-sensing platforms and cluster algorithms. We tested the method within the Petrified Forest National Park, where fossil logs are sparse in a large area with mixed lithologies. We ran both unsupervised and supervised classifications, obtaining the best estimations for the presence of fossil logs using the likelihood and spectral angle mapper algorithms. We recognized general constraints and described logical and physical pros and cons of each estimated map. We also explained how the outcomes should be critically evaluated with consistent accuracy tests. Instead of searching for fossiliferous outcrops, our method targets single fossil specimens (or highly condensed accumulations), obtaining a significant increase in potential efficiency and effectiveness of field surveys. When repeatedly applied to the same region over time, it could also be useful for monitoring palaeontological heritage localities. Most importantly, the method here described is feasible, easily applicable to both fossil logs and bones, and represents a step towards standard best practices for applying remote sensing in the palaeontological field.

The occurrence of perforations due to Lithophagous mollusca has been frequently observed in the Oolitic rocks, viz. in the Inferior and Great Oolite, Cornbrash, Coral-rag, and Portland beds. During a recent visit, with some of the students of the Agricultural College, Cirencester, to a quarry near there, further evidence of a similar fact was obtained. The quarry is situated near the canal on the farm land of Mr. Sargeant, and has been long worked for road stone and building stone, and, according to the Geological Survey, belongs to the Forest Marble division of the Great Oolite series, and exhibits the structure known as “false-bedding or oblique lamination,” and occasionally the flagstones in this and other neighbouring quarries show ripple-marks and tracks of marine animals.