As some months will elapse before the results of my investigations of the Inferior Oolite and contiguous deposits of the district between Doulting, near Shepton Mallet, and Stroud, are published, in order to show from which beds the Prosopon described by Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., was probably obtained, it appears desirable to give an outline of certain of these results.

Any science which cannot express its conclusions by means of number must still be regarded as in its infancy. Such an expression is the only test of precision and accuracy of thought on the part of its workers, and such important characters only develop, as in the human mind, when the romance and rashness of youth have given place to the more cautious and matter-of-fact features of maturity. It is therefore a sign of healthy development when those engaged in the study of petrology begin to turn their attention towards careful numerical calculation as a basis of classification.

In the Geological Magazine for 1906 a key of the published figures of the Cretaceous forms referable to the genus Entalophora was offered in the hope that by means of it the difficulties attendant on the determination of the species of this genus might be obviated.

The projecting mass of land between Tramore Bay and the mouth of the River Suir consists of Old Red Sandstone, and the cliffs are mostly high, bold, and precipitous. The valleys which descend to the sea are more or less filled with Boulder-clay and other drift materials, testifying to their pre-Glacial oxcavation. The geological history of these valleys and of the large shallow lagoon lying inside the long spit of sand dunes which nearly cuts off the head of Tramore Bay deserves a separate article, and we will therefore here commence with the description of the eastern shore of this bay stretching from Summerville to Brownstown Head. Messrs. Wright & Muff in their paper on the pre-Glacial shore-line of the South of Ireland made no reference to this portion of the Waterford coast.

The cliff below Summerville House is composed of the usual type of Boulder-clay of the district, but devoid of any large boulders; it is capped by 4–8 inches of whitish to yellow marl without any stones; above this comes 1–2 feet of wind-blown sand immediately beneath the thin soil. The Boulder-clay here is only about 6 feet thick, and the total height of the cliffs is only 8–12 feet. The line of these drift-formed cliffs recedes inland behind the large triangular area of grass-grown hummocky land which projects seawards at Bass Point; this area represents a comparatively recent accumulation of sand which has been built outwards for some 200 yards from the base of the cliffs so as to narrow the channel of Rinnashark Harbour leading into the Back Strand lagoon.

Of all the problems with which the practical geologist has to deal, none is of greater importance at the present time than the discovery of fresh sources of iron ore supply. Every inhabitant of the United Kingdom, of the United States, and of Germany requires annually about a quarter of a ton of the iron of which the world last year produced 60,000,000 tons, the result of the smelting of over 120,000,000 tons of ore. Year by year the production and consumption are increasing, and many of the deposits of the richer ores are showing signs of depletion. The question of ascertaining how the demand for the vast supplies of iron ore that will in the future be needed will be met calls, therefore, for very serious consideration, and a few statistical notes may be useful as a contribution to a discussion of the subject.

Alecto dichotomoides was the name given by d'Orbigny in 1849 to a specimen figured by Michelin in 1841 from the Bajocian of Bayeux, or of Moutiers, Calvados, Normandy, and identified by Michelin as A. dichotoma, Lamouroux.

When the members of the “Jorullo Excursion” of the Tenth International Geological Congress were in the city of Morelia, in Mexico, they visited the College of St. Nicholas (founded in 1540), in the buildings of which is the Museo Michoacano. One of the most interesting objects in the Museum in question is a piece of basaltic lava containing remains of maize, which has been described by Dr. M. M. Solórzano, the Curator of the Museum, in an article entitled “Breve noticia acerea de algunos productos volc´nicos de las immediaciones de esta ciudad” in the “Boletin de la Sociedad Michoacana de Geographia y Estadistica,” Tomo ii, Núm. 8, Morelia, Julio 15 de 1906, pp. 59, 60.

Whilst examining the tract of Lower Palæozoic rocks and metamorphic schists around Killary Harbour, in Connemara (an examination primarily undertaken to ascertain the relations of the fossiliferous sediments to the schists in that area), an extensive tract of Arenig rocks has been discovered on both sides of the harbour. In 1905 Didgmograpti of the extensus and superstes types were found, and during last Summer several specimens, of Phyllograptus and Tetragraptus also, together with many other forms.

While travelling over the country it may be noticed that the land is not uniformly fertile. In some places there is greater luxuriance and greater variety of plant life than in others. The question which such observations call forth is what is the cause of these differences? An attempt has been made to give some sort of answer to this question in the following manner:—A limited area has been selected which is traversed by a number of geological formations, and the plants growing on that area have been catalogued. The area selected in the present instance is the county of Surrey, that being the county which is best known to me. Surrey is too small a county to have any difference of climate. The differences of altitude would probably bring about some variety in the flora, but the differences of latitude could scarcely have any appreciable effect. The county is, however, large enough to include a dozen different rock formations within its boundary, and it seems fair to presume that these may have a considerable influence in determining the distribution and variation of its flora.

In a paper wliich I read before the Edinburgh Geological Society on 26th January, 1880, and which appears in the Transactions, vol. iii, pp. 304–325, a general stratigraphical account is given of the extensive scries of interbedded volcanic rocks of the Bo'ness Coalfield in Linlithgowshire.