The distribution of the Rhætic rocks in Warwickshire is not represented on the existing Geological Survey maps because at the time that the survey was made their distinctness from the Lower Lias was not appreciated, and therefore they were represented by the same colour.

In the December number of the Geological Magazine, 1911, pp. 539–49, appeared an article by Professor James Park, F.G.S., on the Lower Tertiaries and Upper Cretaceous of New Zealand. As the author indicates, this article is largely a criticism of a paper on the the Younger Rock Series of New Zealand, written by Mr. R. Speight, Lecturer on Geology, Canterbury College, Mr. C. A. Cotton, Lecturer on Geology, Victoria College, and myself. You will doubtless understand from this statement that with the exception of Professor Thomas, of Auckland, with whom we had no opportunity of collaborating, all of those who are at present engaged in teaching geology in the University of New Zealand are co-anthors.

For many years past the Swedish geologists have been directing the attention of the scientific world to the curious phenomenon of the occurrence of submerged forests in certain of their inland lakes. In our own country such evidences of change of level are a familiar sight along our sea-coasts, and, if we bear in mind the extreme instability of the sea-level, their presence is little to be wondered at. In all bodies of water which hare no outlet—and the sea is only the largest of these—the surface-level is determined by the balance between supply and evaporation, and oscillation is inevitable. In the case of freshwater lakes, however, the level is determined within small limits by the overflow, and the occurrence of tree stumps in the position of growth beneath their waters presents therefore a problem of considerable interest.

The great interest excited by the recent announcement in the Times and elsewhere of the alleged discovery of a skeleton of “pre-Boulder-clay man” renders it desirable that the geological evidence should be carefully examined.

A Specimen of Echinocorys showing the plates of the peristome was exhibited at the Conversazione of the Geologists' Association in 1910 by Mr. W. H. Bennett, and has, through the courtesy of that gentleman, been forwarded to me for detailed examination. In view of the perfect preservation of the peristomial structures, and the extreme rarity of their discovery, I have thought it advisable to publish the following short description. A comparison is made between the structure shown in this specimen and that described by Lovén in the young stages of Echinocardium.

Dr. M. Remeš, of Olmütz, Bavaria, recently submitted to Dr. F. A. Bather for determination, a small suite of fossils collected by him from the Tithonian of Stramberg, Moravia. Among them were two Cirripede valves which Dr. Bather kindly handed to me for identification. These two carinal valves cannot be referred to any of the described species, and, since they differ much from each other in size and ornament, I have felt myself compelled to describe them as separate species. The specimens remain in the collection of Dr. M. Remeš, but reproductions are preserved in the Geological Department of the British Museum.

A Short time ago a Devonian fossil of considerable interest was found in the grits of the Ladock neighbourhood. It had been found by a workman in a road-heap on the Grampound Road and was placed for preservation in the Truro Museum. A cast was kindly made by Mr. C. Davies Sherborn and presented to the Museum of Practical Geology [22466]. This fossil was named Orthis sp., and is referred to as such in the Memoir of the Geological Survey on the geology of the country near Newquay (p. 35).

The following preliminary account is presented as the result of several weeks of field-work on the northern and eastern margins of the Forest of Dean Coalfield, carried out partly in 1910 and partly in the present year. The area which I have examined lies almost wholly within Sheet 43 S.E. of the 1 inch Geological Survey Map (Old Series), but extends a short distance into Sheet 43 S.W. In portions of this area, the Lower Carboniferous rocks have been studied in detail and mapped. The Coal Measures, however, have as yet been examined only in their relation to the Lower Carboniferous strata. The present communication is, therefore, confined to a demonstration of the important unconformity which exists between the Coal Measures and the Lower Carboniferous rocks, together with a brief description of the latter. I am continuing my investigations, and I hope to give at some future date a more comprehensive account of the geology of the coalfield. In the meantime, the following outline may be of interest.

2. Essexite. (a) Carskeoch type.—A small boss of essexite, of rather basic type, pierces the agglomerate of the Carskeoch vent, near Patna, Ayrshire. Macroscopically it is light grey, compact, and fine-grained. In thin section it shows a plexus of fluxionally-arranged plagioclase laths of the composition Ab An, the interstices being filled with subhedral augite of a nearly colourless variety, and fresh olivine. Here and there minute angular interspaces are occupied with turbid isotropic matter, the form and arrangement of the particles of which suggest the former presence of nepheline. A few broad plates of pale augite and crystals of olivine interrupt the general trachytoid fabric. Ilmenite and biotite occur sparsely, and a little orthoclase may be detected on the margins of the plagioclases, extending irregularly into the interspaces. This rock has a distinct individuality, and resembles neither the essexites of Lochend and Craigleith in the Lothians, nor the Crawfordjohn type described below. It is poor in alkali-felspars and felspathoids, is devoid of purple augite, and has a well-developed trachytoid fabric.