One of the commonest fossils of the chalk in the London district is the beautiful Sea-Urchin, of which we here give two figures, from examples in the national collection. It was named by Dr. Mantell, in honour of Mr. Charles König, the distinguished German savant, who in his youth was Librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, and became afterwards the Keeper of the Natural History Collections in the British Museum. By the country people in Wiltshire it is called the “Shepherd's Crown.”

The König's Sea-Urchin belongs to a subdivision of the old Linnean genus Cidaris, to which the name of Cyphosoma was given by Agassiz (from κυϕὸς, curvus; σῶμα, corpus). The five ambulacral bands are nearly as broad as the inter-ambulacral, and are ornamented with a double series of tubercles equal in size to the rest. These tubercles are placed on crenulated bosses, but are not perforated as in most of the Cidaridæ.

The upper and under sides of this fossil Urchin are so different that drawings of them might be taken to represent two distinct species. The under side exhibits ten pairs of rows of tubercles, largest at the margin, and diminishing gradually to the central orifice. On the upper surface the tubercles are much smaller, and there are two additional rows on the inter-ambulacral bands, external to those which are continued downwards over the base.

The various corps of an army drawn up in line of battle are distinguished not only by their various uniforms, but also by the distinct position assigned them in the field. This greatly helps the general to the immediate disposition of sharpshooters, infantry, or artillery, as the fate of battle may require. Most of the minerals which are the basis of our commercial and mining greatness are obtained from the Carboniferous system. The industrialist obtains them from various parts of this formation. When a new substance has presented itself, having characters very different from the ordinary rank and file of coals, clay-bands, or fire-clays, its stratigraphical position will help us to determine if it is entitled to a distinct character. If its place be distinct from those of the ordinary coals, if likewise there are indications of a different physical mode of formation, then its claim to be a new mineral will be greatly strengthened.

The lower carboniferous rocks of Scotland consist of shales and sandstones more than a thousand feet thick, termed by Mr. Maclaren the calciferous sandstone series. A freshwater limestone, equivalent to that worked at Burdie House, near Edinburgh, is the predominant member of this group. This limestone runs in an elliptical area round that city for nearly twenty-four miles, extending through Fife, Midlothian, and Linlithgowshires. Part of this series extends to the south-east of the town of Bathgate, round which is the Torbane Hill mineral basin.

It is near eleven years since that in travelling through Howison’s Poort,* one of the most picturesque of the many fine mountain passes through the quartzite ranges of the eastern province of the Cape Colony, my attention was drawn to a geological fact to which observation in other parts of the Colony has since led me to attach no little importance. In the construction of the main road from Port Elizabeth to Graham’s Town, many deep cuttings have been made in the solid quartzite rock. In many instances the rock seen in these works lost its crystalline character gradually, and assumed that of a hard blue sandstone, and at length nearly resembled the blue fossiliferous shales and sandstones of the Ecca.

The existence of a fossil species of true elephant distinct from Elephas primigenius in America has been only of late years brought under the notice of palæontologists. I have slightly alluded to the subject in the ‘Geologist,’ Vol. IV. p. 470. For many years remains of true Elephant have been found with those of Mastodon at various spots within the New World.

Cuvier (‘Ossements Fossiles,’ ed. 1834, vol. ii. p. 145) mentions only one species of American elephant, the remains of which had been discovered in Kentucky, Carolina, Ohio, Mexico, Louisiana, Virginia, and Maryland.

De Blainville (‘Ostéographie,’ Eléphans, p. 157: Atlas, pl. x.) alludes to a tooth of fossil elephant from Texas, which is apparently referable to Elephas primigenius. He also mentions other remains from Mexico, Mississippi, Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and Behring's Straits.

In Vol. I of the ‘Geologist,’ at page 249, was published a paper on the preparation of sands, clays, and chalk, for microscopical purposes, under the heading of “Geological Manipulations;” and, as both pleasure and geological profit are to be obtained from the exact examination of various fossil-bearing deposits, both as to their constituents and their contents, I beg to offer you an example of the results of such an examination of some tertiary beds from Bracklesham. These notes I have had by me several years, and their short-comings are so great in some respects that I should not send them, were it not that they may serve as a plan to some young careful observers who might feel inclined to enter upon the strict examination of some definite series of fossiliferous strata. What the series under notice is deficient of, is a statement of the exact relationship of these several deposits, examined nearly twenty years ago. I received the materials at that time from a friend who was collecting “Bracklesham fossils,”—a term which will be more definite, now that the Rev. O. Fisher, F.G.S., has indicated the exact limits of the Bracklesham formation.

The specimens were chiefly, I believe, from Bracklesham and Selsea; but some may have been brought from the Isle of Wight. By the presence of certain fossils, however, in some of the deposits, their exact place may probably be determined. However deficient in these stratigraphical requirements the following account of the deposits may be, they will serve the purpose here intended, namely, to show young beginners what to look for in sands and clays. Instructions have been already given as to how such materials are to be examine, in the first volume, p. 249.

Taking a section across the Murray River Valley, in South Australia, for a distance of about forty miles from west to east, we have (as shown in the accompanying diagram) two parallel ranges, and on the outer flank of the western range there are at some places micaceous strata (A), having a steep inclination, resting against the contorted strata of the range, sections of which are seen in gaps and gullies, with steep sides, in some instances 800 to 1000 feet deep. These hills are partly granitic; the granite is reddish, very readily decomposed, and worn by the rain and weather here and there into strange grotesque figures. There are well-defined metallic lodes in this range. East of these hills are three terraces leading down to the river. The first is the broadest, extending about two-thirds the distance, and falls twenty feet to the river. It is composed chiefly of sand; but rocks similar to those of the western rock crop out here and there. The second terrace averages about two-ninths of the distance between the range and the river: it falls about thirty feet; sometimes not more than ten or fifteen feet; at places, however, more than fifty feet. The third or lowest terrace is only one-ninth of the distance, and nearly level with the river: in fact, it is overflowed when the water is up. The river itself flows slowly, having a fall of about one foot a mile.