The petrology of the Mid-Jurassic sands in the south-west of England has been described both by Professor P. G. H. Boswell and Dr. J. G. A. Skerl. Professor Boswell has dealt with the Toarcian-Aalenian sands from various localities between Cheltenham and the Dorset coast; Dr. Skerl with certain Bajocian and Bathonian beds in the North Cotteswolds. The present paper gives some account of the lithology and terrigenous minerals of the oolitic limestones of Dundry, an area approximately midway between the Cheltenham region and the south coast. Dundry Hill is an isolated patch of Oolite some 8 miles west of the Bath Hills, and Dundry village, which stands on its crest, is 5 miles south of Bristol. The geology and palaeontology of the area have received the attention of many geologists from the time of Conybeare and Phillips, but here only the work of S. S. Buckman and E. Wilson need be referred to, since these authors fully review the previous literature. Buckman and Wilson described the rocks in great detail, and their classification of the strata has been utilized here.

To meet the ever-growing needs of London for an adequate supply of water, the Metropolitan Water Board has recently constructed a new storage reservoir at Littleton, near Staines.

While working for several years on Palaeozoic Bryozoa with the aim of establishing the Palaeozoic stratigraphy of the Altai Mountains on the basis of the Bryozoan faunas, I have always been aware of a great contradiction. The works of American authors showed clearly that the stratigraphic importance of the Bryozoa is not inferior to that of any other group of fossils, whilst in the works of newer European authors the Palaeozoic Bryozoa were not only deprived of any significant rôle, but often even quite ignored. Owing to this, there arose a question whether the Palaeozoic Bryozoa have a universal distribution like, for instance, the Brachiopoda; or whether there is in North America a special Bryozoan fauna of stratigraphic importance locally, but absent from other parts of the globe. The study of the Siberian Palaeozoic Bryozoa showed a number of forms so far known only from North America, and this suggested that the apparent absence of “American” forms in the other parts of the globe is owing to the lack of intensive study given to the Palaeozoic Bryozoan faunas outside North America. Through the kindness of Dr. Nalivkin, who handed over to me several Bryozoa collected by him in the Middle Devonian of Germany, I was able to confirm this suggestion and I decided to examine, if possible, the existing collections of Palaeozoic Bryozoa of Europe. This appeared the more necessary because, although Palaeozoic Bryozoa were originally described by European authors, yet the species described by them were quite ignored by later American writers. Clearly then, if a comparison of the European with the American Palaeozoic Bryozoa were made, it would be likely that the trivial names of some American species would be replaced by the prior trivial names of European species. To make this comparison, I visited during the winter of 1928–1929 some of the most important museums of Europe, in which I could find either the type specimens of the European Bryozoa, or merely rich collections of topotypes. A revision of the material contained in the museums of Berlin, Munich, Bonn, Prague, Paris and London wholly confirmed my view, namely, that the “American” forms of Palaeozoic Bryozoa were universally distributed, but hitherto had been described and figured, often quite incorrectly, as distinct genera.

Dr. Dixey, in his interesting paper on the “Geology of the Lower Shire-Zambezi Area” in the February number, remarks upon the resemblance shown by his Nachipere Series (first mentioned in the Annual Report for 1926, p. 6) to the series of completely metamorphosed sediments described by me under the name “Turoka Series” in 1913 (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., lxix, p. 534).