The occurrence of two Archæan groups in Shropshire is now well known to geologists. The chain of hills which strikes to the south-west from Lilleshall, north-east of Wellington, to the region south of Church-Stretton, is mainly composed of bedded volcanic rocks; but gneissic and granitoid types have been recognized at the Ercal and at Primrose Hill, the elevations forming the opposite extremities of the Wrekin, and a small exposure was detected near Hope Bowdler, east of Church-Stretton. A second axis of the old rocks, ranging parallel to the Wrekin chain, consists of volcanic ejecta and highly indurated grits, which are probably to be referred to the younger of the two Archæan groups hitherto recognized in the county. The relations between the volcanic and the gneissic systems is clearly defined by the Charlton Hill (see map) conglomerate (a band in the volcanic series), which contains numerous well-rounded pebbles of rock precisely similar to the granitoid gneiss of Primrose Hill. This fact implies a considerable break between the two groups.

In recent Numbers of the Geological Magazine has appeared a paper by the Rev. O. Fisher, “On Faults, Jointing, and Cleavage,” which, it seems to me, should not be left to stand unchallenged. It is one of those in which mathematical symbols are made to do duty for arguments. Some idea is started, a few W's and P's are scattered about, an equation is written down, it leads to nothing, and then the conclusion is triumphantly reached. Sometimes, however, there is no conclusion at all; but statements come in incidentally which will hereafter be quoted with the introduction “I have shown.” Surely there must be many geological birds too old to be caught by such chaff; but the “Magazine” is also for the nestlings. Such papers, too, are otherwise harmful, for the wideawake soon learn that credit may be gained by work unfinished, and speculations that are crude, and they are tempted so to seek it rather than by harder labour. So goes our science down and loses caste.

[The following list of localities in New Zealand where the remains of the Dinornis have been discovered has been most obligingly drawn up for me by Mr. Charles Smith, an old resident in New Zealand, and I gladly publish it as a useful list for reference. —Edit. G. M.]