Modern detailed stratigraphical studies have demonstrated very clearly the long and involved tectonic history of the majority of the main structural units of England. It has been proved that, in certain areas, the thickness and the lithology of the sediments were partly determined by repeated pene-contemporaneous folding along definite axes, and thus it has been possible to trace the gradual growth of some of the main fold lines of the country. The Weald is typical of these areas, whose structure, at first sight simple enough, reveals on closer study much complexity of the minor folding and faulting and also gives evidence of long continued movement along certain lines; movement contemporaneous with the deposition of beds which were involved in the final crescendo of tectonic activity.

A general description of the drifts of Gower has been given in the memoirs of the Geological Survey,1 in which, however, no distinction was made between deposits of different ages. But it has long been known that there are at least two series of Glacial deposits in South-Western Britain, though until recently their relative extents were only surmised: in South Wales the relations of the drifts have been determined only within the last few years.2 As a consequence of this recent work it is clear that the Newer Drift does not extend into Gower much beyond the Sketty-Fairwood-Mumbles neighbourhood, and while the margin of this Newer Drift as determined by Charlesworth may be questioned in detail, especially further west along the Towy Valley,3 yet it is at least certain that the greater part of Gower is (or was) covered by Boulder Clay and gravels of the older drift. The general absence of deposits characteristic of terminal moraines, the “ mature ” topography, and the great amount of erosion that the drift has suffered are sufficiently distinctive, even apart from the extensive mounds of sand and gravel that mark the boundary of the Newer Drift further east.

IN December of 1932 a paper was published in the Geological Magazixe (1) dealing with a number of Tertiary orbitoidal foraminifera from N.W. Peru, which had been presented to the British Museum. During the examination of the material it was noticed that there were no forms present comparable to Lepidocyclina R. Douvillei Lisson in regard to the size of the embryonic apparatus, although a large number of the specimens had been collected from Lisson’s type locality. All the forms examined from Mount Organos and from contemporaneous deposits in the neighbourhood proved to have a much smaller apparatus and were found to be identical with Lepidocyclina peruviana (Cushman) when compared with the type material in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge.

No one who has not had personal experience of it can imagine the amount of labour thrown on the editor of a scientific periodical by the variation in the methods used by authors to indicate special kinds of type, and indeed, if the truth must be told, by the mistakes made by many authors as to what kind of type should be used. Quite often it is necessary, before a manuscript goes to the printers, to alter nearly every indication given as to the use of italics, capital headings, and so on, simply because the wrong signs are employed.

In the summer of 1931 the Oxford University Hudson Straits Expedition spent five weeks on Akpatok Island, Ungava Bay, North-Eastern Canada. It was then that the writer made notes which result in the following communication.

In the Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, No. 1254, of 16th December, 1932, Mr. L. R. Cox described certain siliceous boulders, and their Lower Tertiary fauna, collected for the most part at Hudi, north of the Atbara, by Mr. G. V. Colchester and others. As Mr. Grabham pointed out, the implications that the nature of the boulders and their fauna involve are of supreme importance to the geology of this part of the Nile Basin and, for that matter, of Africa.

THE fossiliferous boulders of Neocomian age in glacial deposits at Moreseat, in the parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire, have been known from the middle of last century and have engaged the attention of many workers, but from nowhere else in Aberdeenshire have, until now, Lower Cretaceous rocks been recorded.

Sula Sgeir consists of hornblende-gneiss with occasional biotite and augite. The whole is intersected by small pegmatite veins which merge along the borders into the gneiss. Though evidence is small, it seems probable that the island, together with North Rona, came under the influences of the Quaternary ice.

The Flannan Islands consist also of hornblende gneiss, biotite being a fairly common accessory. Numerous and varied pegmatite Veins occur throughout the islands, and in certain cases have affected the foliation of the gneiss. Owing to the proximity of the islands to the Lewis and the Harris, and the presence of adeposit of cemented sand on Eilean Ghobha, it seems probable that the Quaternary ice also reached these islands.

Viewed in the light of the Doctrine of Trends some interesting facts seem to emerge from the consideration of the graptolites characteristic of some of the zones or successive assemblages of these fossils. These seem to illustrate so clearly one of the fundamental tenets of the doctrine—namely, the necessity for a large degree of independence in the different characters—that they may be worth placing on record.

The following is a description of the conglomerates which crop out at Allt Goch and Mathrafal-ffrîdd near Meifod (Montgomeryshire) and which were examined on the suggestion of Professor W. B. R. King. Allt Goch is about 4 miles north of Mathrafal-ffrîdd, and the two localities lie on opposite flanks of the anticlinal structure which passes through Pont Robert and which, brings up Ashgillian and Caradocian rocks. The conglomerates themselves are at, or near, the base of the Valentian. At other places in the neighbourhood the basal member of the Silurian consists of coarse deposits (sandstones, etc.), but “they very probably do not represent the lowest zones that are found in Central Wales” (I).

In the spring of 1930 the International Expedition to the Bahamas made several traverses over the shoals west of Andros Island in order to study the sedimentation of calcium carbonate in this region, and along three of these lines water samples were collected at regular intervals. The chlorine content of each of these samples was determined by the author in the Chemical Laboratory at the University of Princeton, New Jersey, and the total salinity was obtained by calculation.

Only lately did I become aware of a note On the Sub-Bothnian Unconformity in Finland, by Dr. William J. McCallien, in the June number for 1932 of the Geological Magazine. May I be allowed here to answer his objections, which I think are based on insufficient observational material?

Tinto hill by reason of its height, its massive but shapely form, and its splendid isolation, dominates the whole of middle Clydesdale. It forms an east-west ridge of tadpole-like outline—massive and lofty towards the eastern end and tailing away towards the western extremity, the only point at which it makes contact with the neighbouring uplands. On the east it rises directly from Clydesdale, where its lower slopes pass into a drift-mantled bench, which is from 1 to 2 miles in width. The lower and flatter portions of this bench are covered by a sheet of sand and gravel 30 or more feet above the Clyde flood-plain. The gravel spread extends into the broad open valleys which isolate Tinto to north and south, and is there undergoing dissection by the Glade Burn and Garf Water. The dissection is, however, hardly more than begun, and the undulating and sometimes moundy character of the surface of the gravel sheet reflects the uneven nature of the original deposition. Rising sharply from this surface are certain striking mounds and ridges which have received some mention in geological literature under the name of the Thankerton Kames. They were first noted by Sir Archibald Geikie (2, p. 44),1 and later described, with a map indicating their extent and distribution, by Professor Gregory (3, p. 474). They have been further discussed by Professor Charlesworth (1, pp. 31–37), who is unable to accept Professor Gregory’s interpretation of the facts. More recently they have been mapped by the officers of the Geological Survey (4), together with the better-known Kames of Carstairs, and in this connection a note by Dr. M. Macgregor on the latter (6) is of some interest.

When looking through the bibliography referring to the crypto– volcanic phenomena of Swabia we find that it has been quite customary to explain the origin of the “Steinheim Basin” by the well–known facts which have been ascertained in the Ries of Nördlingen. When doing so one important fact has been deliberately ignored, viz, that only the Steinheim basin is actually cryptovolcanic, whereas the Ries of Nördlingen exhibits undeniable proofs of extensive volcanic activity. There are rhyolitic tuffs, weathered– out lava cords and lava slabs, partly absorbed crystalline rocks, et alia. In the case of the Ries of Nördlingen the explanation of the vast caldera and the various geologic abnormalities must obviously be sought in volcanic activity.

The Quaternary deposits of the Fenland, consisting of silts, clays, and peats, offer several problems of correlation. Large exposures of these beds have been rare, and hitherto no attempt at dating individual beds has been made, although from the descriptive point of view the whole of the Fenland deposits were dealt with very fully by Skertchley in 1877 (1).

The following article is an account of an area of some 1,000 square miles in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, crossed by latitude 13·30 N. and longitude 35·00 E. which was surveyed on the 1/50,000 scale during the years 1930 to 1932 by W. H. Tyler, who has published a brief note on the general geology (13).1 W. H. Wilcockson is responsible for the petrology.

GUTENBERG is not a geologist but, as a geophysicist, he is directly interested in several of the broader questions of geology. He has been impressed by the simple way in which Wegener’s drift theory seems to solve many geological problems, but he finds it impossible to accept that theory in its entirety. He has, therefore, tried to formulate another theory which is more in accordance with geophysical data, and which still solves the same geological problems. “Continental Spreading,” a name suggested by Dr. Harold Jeffreys, expresses very clearly its dominant feature.

The Tablazos or Quaternary raised beach deposits of the West Coast of South America have attracted attention for a considerable time, as evidence of recent changes in sea-level. Early accounts of those occurring on the more southerly portion of the Continent are given by d'Orbigny in his Voyage dans l'Amérique méridionale and by Charles Darwin in his Observations on the Geology of South America. The Tablazos of Peru received considerable attention in Dr. Bosworth's work (1) and a brief sketch of the fauna was given.