BY far the larger proportion of the Carboniferous fossils described and figured by the late Professor John Phillips, F.R.S., in the second volume of his “Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire,” and published in 1836, are contained in the collection of the late Mr. Gilbertson, of Clitheroe, now deposited in the Geological Department of the British Museum. The early date of publication of this work renders the collection described in it one of the most important, next to those of Sowerby, Ure, Martin, and one or two others, to students not only of British, but equally so of Continental Carboniferous Palæontology. Unfortunately the descriptions of Prof. Phillips are so abbreviated and unsatisfactory, and the figures in many instances so mearge, that it is with great difficulty anything like an accurate determination of a species can be made by the aid of them. Under these circumstances the following notes made directly from the type specimens will probably be found of use; it would, however, be far more satisfactory to have the specimens refigured. For convenience sake I shall commence with those composing plate vi., and then take the others composing plate v.

Recent studies of the glacial phenomena as exhibited in the State of New Hampshire and adjoining regions enable us to maintain the following propositions.

The two important papers by this accomplished veteran of science, which have appeared in the American Journal of Science (vol. xvi. November and December, 1878) [noticed in this present number of the Geological Magazine pp. 222–225], though, as might be expected, of the highest value, are in one or two respects, as it seems to me, open to question. Professor Dana approaches the subject as a chemical mineralogist: I venture to criticize as a field who checks his conclusions by using the microscope.

The best description of St. Michael's Mount, as it now exists, that I can find, is by Mr. Wm. Pengelly, F.R.S.,1 as follows: “The Mount is an isolated mass of granite measuring about five furlongs in perimeter at its base. At high-water it plunges abruptly into the sea, except on the northern or landward side, where the granite comes in contact with the slate, into which it sends veins and dykes, as may be well seen on each side of the harbour.Here there is a small plain occupied by a village, adjacent to which is the harbour, built in 1726−7, and as Mr. Johns, the harbour-master, has been good enough to write me, capable of receiving ships of 500 tons burthen” Its sityation is described as follows: “ The distance between the neatest point of Marazion Cliff and spring-tide high-water mark on the Mount is 1680 feet. A tidalb isthmus (Hogus) of highly inclined Devonian slate and associated rocks, in most cases covered with a thin layer of gravel or sand, is at spring-tide, in still weather, 12 feet below; and at low-water 6 feet above the sea-level. This ridge is dry in fine westher from four to five hours every tide, but occasionally during stoms and neap tides it is not passable for two or three days.”

The remains of a Tortoise from that peculiar fluviatile deposit on the Norfolk coast, known as the “Mundesley River Bed,” have lately been placed in my hands for determination by Mr. C. W. Ewing, of Eaton, near Norwich, and, although the European freshwater tortoise has already been recorded as occurring in a fossil condition in Norfolk (Prof. A. Newton, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1862, ser. 3, vol. x. p. 224), yet it seemed desirable that some notice should be taken of this most interesting discovery. The specimen was obtained by Mr. Ewing from the peaty bed in the cliff section at Mundeseley, so long ago as 1863; but it was only quite recently that it was for the first time exhibited, at one of the meetings of the Norwich Science Gossip Club.

The “Pennine Chain” is the name (restored about fifty years ago by Conybeare and Phillips from the “Alpes Penini” of the Romans) for that hilly tract of country that stretches from the borders of Scotland on the North to the centre of Derbyshire on the South. This important range possesses the structure of a great, though complex, anticlinal, the result of a meridional movement of upheaval that took place at a remote period in the physical history of our island.This axis of elevation, which ranges a little west of Narth through North Derbyshire and Yorkshire, throws off the Coal-measures of Yorkshire and Derbyshire on the one side, and those of Lancashire and North Staffordshire on the other, with a steeper did on the West, and a gentler inclination on the East. The maximum of this upheaval is attained in North Derbyshire, where a dome-shaped mass of Mountain Limestone has been exposed at the surface at an altitude of 1500 feet above the sea.

This cast indicates a fusiform turrited shell adorned by discontinuous varices; the spire is wanting; it also shows that the shell was transversely ribbed and corrugated; the outer lip was strongly plicato-dentate internally; the aperture rather small; canal moderately long.

Kames, åsar, and minor topographical features.—Kames and åsar are usually found associated. Indeed, the one class of elevations shades into the other so gradually that it is sometimes impossible to draw the line between them. Though the kames may occur singly, they are often in ranges of several, perhaps extending for miles. Each is usually elliptical in outline, and its longer axis corresponds in direction with the range. The åsar are frequently intercepted by channels of erosion, by which they are divided into ranges of oblong hills, the direction of which is very nearly the same as that of the kames proper. In Dubuque county, Iowa, where these features have been most thoroughly studied, this direction is about S. 75° E. Within 40 miles south-west from there the direction changes to abut S. 45° E., and in the next 50 miles the direction becomes a trifle west of south; and this is the general direction over the greater part of the region examined.

The following observations of the Cornish Cliffs are given in order, proceeding round the coast from Plymouth. The numbers and letters have been prefixed to facilitate subsequent reference.

In the Geological Magazine for February will be found a “Note in Press,” appended by Mr. Kinahan to his paper on the “ Silurian Rocks of Ireland,” read some time ago before the Royal Geological Society of Ireland, and which I had an opportunity of hearing and replying to. On that occasion I pointed out some of the numerous defects and erroneous views which this paper contains; and could have wished that the matter had rested here, because I consider it highly unbecoming that the Director of the Survey should enter into a public controversy with one of his staff on points connected with the geological structure of the country which has been entrusted to him for elucidation. on the english and scotch surveys such conduct is happily unknown, and however the field surveyors may differ amongst themselves, and maintain their opinions in print, there has always existed a sufficient feeling of respect for the heads of the survey, as well as a just consideration of the interest and credit of the survey itself, to prevent open controversies with the heads of the survey in the public prints the solitary exception. I cannot take blame to myself for having provoked the “Note in press” to which I have referred, because there is nothing in my paper, published in the Geological Magazine, Decade II. vol. v. 1878, p. 529, to call forth the statement on the part of Mr. Kinahan that I had made “various errors in reference to the Irish rocks.”

In Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1877, pp. 906, et seq., Prof. Bonney describes a Gabbro from Coverack, on the eastern coast of the Lizard peninsula, which he remarks bears, macroscopically and micropically a close resmblance to the Forellenstein of Volpersdorf. I order to investigate further the nature the rock, I made, at his suggestion, an analysis of it. The piece selected had proved on microscopic examination to be almost free from pyroxenic constituents. No. I. was decomposed by fusion with alkalies. No. II. by hydrochloric acid. The residue in this case was white, and probably consisted of undecomposed felspar, showing that at any rate it was not all anorthite. No. III. is an analysis of the Volpersdorf rock quoted by Zirkel (Lehrb. der Petrog. ii. 139).

The following account of the discovery of an underground lake in Algeria went the rounds of the newspapers in July, 1879.

a. On the east of Carrack Olu Point, a bed of pebbles, 1 foot thick, is shown under Head, at from 2 to 5 feet above high water. The greenstone composing the Point is capped by a Head of yellowish-brown loam with angular fragments of greenstone.

The evidence under this head is necessarily a compilation; the very exceptional exposure of the old forest ground, and the nature of stream tin sections, leaving no room for personal investigation. The names of the observers are in most cases sufficient vouchers for the accuracy of their statements. The submerged forestare given first stream tin gravels to the general growth of the forests. The forest bed overlying the stream tin which Mr. Carne rightly synchronizes with the forest beds on the coast may represent a very brief portion of a long period of forestial growth.

Proceeding round the coast from Plymouth.

1. Par. A low range of sand dunes separates the alluvial tracts from the Par sands.