We are informed by M. Ferry that d'Orbigny was supplied with, the greater part of the Corals of his Bajocien by M. Eugene Beabeau, of Langres, who has stated of the present species that it was first named Calamophyllia glomerata by d'Orbigny, and afterwards by an error Synastræa consobrina, and further, that he at the same time described in his Prodromus another species under the same name. MM. Milne Edwards and Haime, it appears, were misled by this error, and referred the Coral sent by M. E. Beabeau, to the Synastræa consobrina of the Prodromus. This in brief is the statement of M. Ferry, and it is obvious that the Synastræa consobrina of the Prodromus, and the Clausastræa consobrina of MM. Milne Edwardsand Haime are not the same, and that the latter is the Coral forwarded by M. E. Beabeau from Langres.

Locality.—West end of the Midland Railway cutting, between Nuneaton and Stockingford.

Several fragmentary specimens of this Trilobite, differing in size, yet exhibiting similar characters, have been collected from this locality. The most perfect, although one of the smallest, is best fitted for description.

During the summer of 1885, in excavating for a small reservoir for colliery purposes at Moira, three miles west of Ashby-de-la Zouch, au interesting deposit of a kind of Limonite Iron-ore was met with, the following description of which may interest some of the readers of the Geological Magazine.

The bed occurred about five feet below the surface soil, near a small stream, at a place called “Hanging Hill” [see Geol. 1-inch Map, Quarter-Sheet No. 63, N.W.]. In thickness it hardly reached a foot, but its extent was not proved; it rested unconformably upon stiff blue clay of the Coal-measures, and was overlaid by yellowish clay, loam, sand, etc., unstratified, containing a few pebbles and other drifted matter; it was principally composed of nodules and fragments of nodules of earthy yellowish brown ironstone, of similarly formed pieces of very hard and compact light grey siliceous stone having a thin crust or shell of compact dark brown iron-ore, (probably göthite), of sandy nodular masses largely composed of limonite; of fragments and small nodules of fossiliierous hard red hæmatite generally coated with a bright red skin which is often powdery; also specimens of compact brown iron ore having a yellow ochre coating, sometimes the compact red and yellow hæmatites are associated in the same sample, the latter variety appears to form a kind of shell to the red ore, though occasionally the two kinds exist in thin alternating bands.

The block of stone in question, like another exhibited by Mr. A. B. Wynne, was obtained by Dr. Warth, at Chel Hill, in the Punjab Salt Range. This specimen was sent by Dr. Warth to Mr. H. B. Medlicott, Director of the Geological Survey of India, who forwarded it to the present writer, in the hope of learning the views of those who have most experience of similarly marked boulders, and of ascertaining whether the peculiar characters of the present specimen are due to any particular form of ice action or to any other agency.

In order to interchange our views, and arrive at a common understanding on the question of the connection of glaciers with the formation of lakes, we undertook a joint excursion in Upper Bavaria, in the district of the Ammer Lake, Wuerm Lake, Staffel Lake, and Eieg Lake, and later, in the month of September, we visited together the shores of the Lake of Zurich, partly accompanied by Dr. K. I. V. Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, Dr. A. Wettstein and Dr. E. Brueckner, of Hamburg. We have drawn up a short protocol, both on the facts observed and of our views respecting them, which we here propose to communicate.

In the present communication I propose to describe the petrographical characters of some hornblende-bearing rocks which occur as intrusive sheets and bosses in the limestones and quartzites of the Assynt district. These rocks have been referred to under various names by the different writers on the geology of the district. Prof. Nicol speaks of them as greenstone and trap, and Sir R. Murchison, as syenitic greenstone. Mr. Hudleston indicates their character more definitely by speaking of them as a “kind of diorite.” Prof. Bonney, in an appendix to Dr. Callaway's paper “On the Newer Gneissic Eocks of the Northern Highlands,” describes the microscopic structure of a specimen from the Traligill Burn near Inchnadampf, and designates the rock a hornblendic porphyrite. Dr. Hoddle gives some valuable information as to the distribution of the rocks, and calls attention to the perfection of form exhibited by the hornblende in certain varieties. He gives a figure of the hornblende which shows the forms (110), (010) and (011). With regard to the relations of the rocks to the associated strata he speaks somewhat doubtfully, but evidently inclines to the view that they are intrusive. That this is the case seems proved by the absence of vesicular structure and associated tuffs, and by the fact that although they keep as a rule parallel with the bedding, cases occasionally occur in which they can be seen to move from one horizon to another.

Only a short time since there was discovered in the Lower Coalmeasures at Idle, a magnificent specimen of Megalichthys Hibberti; and now, at Clayton, near Bradford, has been found one of the grandest examples yet seen of a fossil Sigillaria tree. It was in the Fall Top Quarry, at Clayton, worked by Messrs. Murgatroyd and Sons, that this remarkable fossil was discovered, and these gentlemen deserve the highest praise from all geologists for the skill and extreme care with which they have bared the fossil, and also for their kindness in allowing it to be inspected. This quarry is not far from the edge of a bold escarpment overlooking the Thornton Valley, and the well-known Elland Flagstone is worked here for landings, flags, etc. Between the Better-Bed-Coal and the Flagstone there is a great thickness of sandstones, shales, etc., of various characters, and it was in these measures that the fossil tree was discovered about 12 feet below the surface. The sandstones just referred to are of little commercial value, many being irregularly bedded, and others very perishable in their nature; the better kinds are used for rough walling, the remainder being merely rubbish to fill up other excavations. The marketable flagstone is at a considerable depth in this quarry, and blasting operations have to be carried on to remove rapidly the overlying strata. After one of these explosions, Messrs. Murgatroyd observed part of a large fossil tree exposed, and, profiting by their knowledge of geology (which, by the work of the Yorkshire Geological Society and also of the Leeds Geological Association, is rapidly spreading throughout the entire county), they immediately suspended further operations, and, instead, gave orders to their workmen to carefully bare the remainder of the roots.

The few recorded Madreporaria of the Upper Lias possess considerable interest on account of the great generic as well as specific differences which exist between them and those from the Middle and Lower Lias, though it might seem probable that the discovery of a greater number of species would diminish that discrepancy. Such a conclusion has not, however, by any means been substantiated by further acquaintance with those from the Upper Lias of the district of which I am about to speak.

The late Mr. Charles Moore in his exhaustive paper, “On the Middle and Upper Lias of the South-West of England,” gives sections of the Upper Lias exposed in quarries on the hills at Stanley and Dumbleton.

The best reply that I can make to Prof. Hughes’ remarks, in the Geological Magazine for November, on the Ffynnon Beuno Caves, is to publish the substance of the report presented to the British Association, especially as an opportunity will be given to those interested in the inquiry to examine the section during the further explorations to be carried on, probably in the month of June next year. Some of his statements—especially as regards the position of the fence, which is entirely at the opposite end of the cavern to that at which the flint flake was found, also as to the position of the flake, and. the nature of the deposits overlying it—are so entirely misleading, that I can only account for such statements being made by the fact that Prof. Hughes did not visit the section, though strongly urged by me to do so, until it had been almost entirely covered over, and work for the time suspended, and by his hasty survey of the surrounding conditions.

This section, which was completed last year, appears of such value and interest to students of the Tertiary strata of the London Basin, that I have thought it worth while to offer a description of it to the readers of the Geological Magazine. Through the courtesy of Dr. Barton, the Governor of the Asylum, I have had free access to the specimens preserved of the various strata passed through, and very careful use of them has been made in the preparation of the tabulated statement which follows; much of the information having been kindly furnished from the engineers who were employed. The Asylum is situated at Knap Hill, about a mile and a quarter from Brookwood Station on the South-Western Eailway, and is on the Upper Bagshot Sands. The mouth of the well is in the valley just below, about 140 feet above O. D., and about the same level as that at which the Middle Bagshot Beds occur in the famous Goldsworthy section, which furnished Prof. Prestwich, some forty years ago, with the clue to the succession of the beds of the Bagshot Formation. It is about a mile and a half distant therefrom. The evidence as to the horizon in the Bagshot Series, at which the well commences, is very clear to those who are familiar with the stratigraphy. The widely-extended pebble-bed at the base of the Upper Bagshot Sands occurs here very near the top of the well, and I saw it exposed again at about the same level in an excavation made by the side of the high road which runs along the western side of the Asylum Estate. The same greenish loamy sand was intermingled with the pebbles in both cases. In the ploughed field a stiff yellow loam, such as so commonly occurs above this pebble-bed in the Bagshot area, crops out in the valley where the well is situated. The ‘brown sandy bed’ which occurs at the top of the section is probably a portion of this, re-constructed by later drift action, and mingled with more sandy materials washed down from the sandy strata situated at higher levels on the slopes of the valley.

Our attention has been devoted exclusively this year to the fossil flowering or phanerogamous plants. The results of our researches point to the conclusion that while that section known as Gymnospermous, to which the Coniferæ belong, is of the highest antiquity, being almost coeval with the first definite remains of plants in the Palæozoic age, there are no Angiospermous plants in British rocks of greater antiquity than the Secondary period, if we except the problematic plant known as Spirangium. Even down to so late as the Lias we have been unable to ascertain that any indisputable Angiosperm has been discovered within our area, for we are led to the conclusion that the supposed Monocotyledons from the Rhætics, near Bristol, hitherto referred to the family of Pond-weeds under the name Najadita, are really cryptogamic plants of the moss tribe, closely allied to the river moss Fontinalis. This group had not previously been found fossil, and, so far as it goes, would indicate rather a temperate climate. It is important to notice that these conclusions are shared by such high authorities on fossil plants as Prof. Williamson, Mr. Carruthers, and by all botanists who have examined them, as well as Mr. Brodie, the possessor of the specimens. The Lilia, Bensonia, and other supposed Monocotyledons of similar age are very imperfectly preserved and, doubtless referable to Cycads, a family which abounded then.

Hydrosoma bilaterally developed. Branches regular, always furnished only with a single series of hydrothecæ (Monoprionidian). Hydrothecæ rectangular, touching one another, their inferior margin slightly curved. Sicula generally persistent; its free, pointed, downwardly directed end at the proximal extremity of the hydrosoma.

In 1851 M Coy (Brit. Pal. Foss. p. 9) proposed the generic name Didymograptus for two-branched species with one row of cells “sometimes on the inner, sometimes on the outer side of the branches.” Nearly at the same time Geinitz established his genus Cladograptus to include all two-armed or furcate Graptolites.

The Triassic strata which form the country surrounding Birmingham consist of the usual divisions of sandstone and marl; the sandstones predominating below, the marls above. In the immediate neighbourhood of the town, the sandy beds are divided from the marly or clayey strata by a dislocation or line of fault which runs from north-east to south-west, taking a line from Erdington to Rubery, and traceable altogether for a distance of about twenty miles. The fault runs through the town of Birmingham nearly parallel to the River Rea, and from a quarter to half a mile west of the present bed of the river. The Lower Keuper sandstone, which forms a surface band one to two miles in width on the west of this fault, is a porous stratum about 200 feet in thickness. It is underlain by the Bunter Pebble Beds, 300 to 400 feet in thickness, which crop out further to the west, andwhich contain an inexhaustible supply of water. From three deep wells in the suburbs of Birmingham —two on the north at Perry and Witton, and one on the south near Selly Oak—the Corporation Waterworks obtain daily a supply of over eight million gallons of water, most of which comes from the Pebble Beds, which occupy the lower portion of each well or bore-hole. The water is of good quality, showing from nine to fifteen degrees of hardness.

The habits and distribution of this marine molluscan pest chiefly concern the engineer and ship-builder at the present day, but in the past their presence is a considerable guide to the geologist as to the conditions under which many of the Eocene beds were deposited. It does not seem to have existed in the Gault sea, for though the driftwood of this period is riddled by some of its destructive ancestors, such as Teredina, Lamarck, and perhaps Xylophaga, it is far less completely destroyed than when the true ship-worm has been at work. Something very like it is present in the Chalk; but when we come to the Eocenes, there is no longer any possibility of doubt as to the animal which has made its home in the drifting logs, for they are riddled in the way peculiar to the true ship-worm, and its shell is frequently left in the bore-holes

Much confusion and difference of opinion appears to exist with regard to the classification and nomenclature of the strata which form the lower part of the Cretaceous system, and the chief element of this uncertainty and confusion is the misconception which prevails respecting the proper signification and application of the term Neocomian. The object of the present paper is to explain the continental usage of this name, and by showing its inapplicability to any of our English strata, to prepare the way for a more satisfactory grouping of our Cretaceous rocks.

For many years English geologists were content with the nomenclature employed by the earlier students of the Cretaceous system— Webster, Murchison, Mantell and Fitton. In 1864, however, the French term Neocomian was introduced by Prof. Judd, who adopted it for the Cretaceous portion of the Speeton Clay, and Sir Charles Lyell subsequently used it as a synonym for the whole Lower Cretaceous series in England as distinct from the Upper Cretaceous series or the beds lying above the Lower Greensand.

Professor Hull, soon after his return from Palestine, was good enough to place in my hands, for microscopic examination, a collection of twenty sections of rocks prepared from specimens obtained in the course of his expedition. Subsequently I had the advantage of receiving thirteen small specimens of the rocks from which some of the sections had been cut; and respecting these rocks some lithological notes have been published as an appendix to Prof. Hull's Memoir. At a later date I received seven other rockspecimens, representing the remaining sections in my charge; but for want of time these were laid aside unexamined until it was too late to refer to them in the published work. The object of the present notes is therefore to offer brief descriptions of these remaining rocks. At the same time I gladly seize this opportunity of correcting some errors which unfortunately crept into the previous descriptions.

In the case of a vertical cliff, Mr. Fisher has shown that the uneroded surface of rock underneath a talus is in the form of a semi-parabola.1 The object of this note is to show that the form is parabolic, even if the cliff be not initially vertical, assuming, with Mr. Fisher, (1) that the cliff-face is weathered uniformly at all points, and (2) that the disintegrated material is spread evenly over the surface of the talus, so as to maintain it always at the same slope. The proposition may be proved analytically, as in Mr. Fisher's paper, or geometrically as follows.

About, or nearly, forty years ago, two deep wells (with borings) were made at Brentford, which, passing through Gravel, London Clay, and the Lower London Tertiaries, reached the Chalk at a depth of about 315 feet, and were carried some way into the last.

One of these wells is at the Brewery on the southern side of the High Street, now known as the Royal Brewery, and it continued in use till its water became unfit for brewing-purposes, from the cause noted below. The other is 99 yards off, north-eastward, at some printing-works at the back of the houses on the other side of the street. This one was made for a Distillery which has long ceased to exist; the well too having been abandoned, at least for its original purpose of water-supply.