The Millstone Grit of the North Wales Border follows the eastern slope of the Carboniferous Limestone, from Crickheath and Sweeney, South of Oswestry, to the shores of the Irish Sea; it is also thrown up into the range of hills which the traveller by the Great Western Railway may see to the west of the line between Oswestry and Chester. This range serves as a natural boundary between this part of England and Wales, and forms a second line of natural fortification, strengthened on the English side by numerous outposts of low hills of clay, gravel, and sand, which give place, upon the Welsh side, to precipitous escarpments of Mountain Limestone, beyond which the change in the language, dress, and manners of the people is marked and sudden.

We must consider that the ice from Scotland and England was but a fraction of that which entered the North Sea. The greater part of the ice of Scandinavia must have gone into this sea, and if the ice of our island could not find water sufficiently deep in which to float, far less would the much thicker ice of Scandinavia do so. The Scandinavian ice, before it could break up, would thus, like the Scottish ice, have to cross the bed of the North Sea and pass into the Atlantic. It could not pass to the north, nor to the north-west, for the ocean in these directions would be blocked up by the Polar ice.

The following is a very brief statement of the results of nearly two months' observations on the granitic and porphyritic drift of the north and north-west of Cumberland.

The acute observation of the late Professor J Beete Jukes, combined J with his power of reasoning from Nature, and by Nature's laws, enabled him at once to be capable of explaining the relations of complicated strata, over which others might puzzle for months: neither was he unwilling to. impart his knowledge to others, for nothing seemed to give him greater pleasure than teaching and explaining away difficulties, by pointing out the similarity between the former and present agents at work fashioning the surface of our earth.

In the spring of 1869 Mr. William Adams, F.G.S., of Cardiff, sent to me for examination several pieces of Coal-shale, bearing some minute organisms which had been recognized as Entomostraca by Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S.

Sir,—The Geological Magazine for August, p. 394, contains a report of a paper communicated by the Rev. J. M. Mello to the Geological Society, on the 22nd June, 1870, on the above subject. On the 7th September, 1869, I had the honour to read a paper on the same subject to the Natural Science Section of the Nottingham Literary and Philosophical Society. Hence I beg to claim priority in publication on behalf of the above Society. Apart from this, I, of course, do not complain that Mr. Mello should happen to select a very interesting section like that in Tideswell Dale, no doubt being quite unaware that I had already published an account of the same. The sole, though rather dubious, deduction that the author is reported to have made, is “that the columnar clay-bed may perhaps be a local development of that which forms partings in the limestone near Litton Tunnel.”

The Paper “On the Formation of the Chesil Bank,” which appeared in the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE for October last, is prefaced by a statement that the authors (Messrs. Bristow and Whitaker) do not propose to enter into the question of the way in which the shingle was heaped up. But the way in which the shingle was heaped up is intimately connected both with the formation of the Chesil Bank and with its position in advance of the shore line, and, if rightly understood, any speculations on the waste of the coast behind the bank by sub-aerial denudation are superfluous.

The valuable paper by Professor Harkness on the Middle Drift deposits of Great Britain does not include a notice of their occurrence in Cheshire. About six years ago, a paper of mine on this subject was published in the Reports of the Geological Society of Manchester. I revert to it again, inasmuch as the only locality little dwelt on by Professor Harkness bears out so thoroughly the chief peculiarity about the beds in question.

The confusion which has of late years resulted from the multiplication of names for the same geological stratum, formation, or system, sufficiently indicates the necessity for the adoption of certain rules by which our geological nomenclature may be reformed and brought into a state of something like uniformity. When this necessity is acknowledged, but little doubt can arise as to the principles on which such rules must be based; the law of priority, with certain necessary limitations and exceptions, will be made to govern the terminology of Geology, as it already does that of almost every other Natural Science.

The following interesting communication relating to this wonderful line of Railway (forming part of a letter from F. B. Meek, Esq., of the Geological Survey of Illinois, U.S.A., to Dr. J. J. Bigsby, F.B.S., author of the Thesaurus Siluricus), has been forwarded to us for insertion by the kindness of Dr. Bigsby.

The Extensive Excavations For Sewerage purposes, which have been X going on for nearly two years, have brought to light several peculiarities in the relative water-bearing properties of the various strata in the neighbourhood of Norwich.

The Buchholm Sandstones.—These beds are characterized by the evidence they afford of having accumulated in shallow water. They consist generally of gritty greywackes and light green or red, sandy, incoherent shales and mudstones.