One of the results incidental to the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Dover in September last was a visit paid to Folkestone by the members of Section C (Geology). Among the ladies present was Miss Caroline Birley, well known both as a traveller and for the deep interest which she has always taken in palæontological research; she is also the owner of an excellent private museum of minerals and fossils, mostly collected by herself. Miss Birley was fortunate in obtaining from Mr. J. Griffiths, the resident geological collector, a small but well - preserved carapace of a Gault Crustacean, believed at the moment to be the usual Necrocarcinus Bechei (Deslongsch., sp.), a form about as abundant in that locality as the Palæocorystes Stokesii (Mantell, sp.). The specimen, enlarged twice natural size, is clearly depicted in the accompanying illustration in the text.

An interesting collection of shells, numbering more than fifteen hundred specimens, obtained by the officers of the Geological Survey of Egypt from the raised beach deposits of the Red Sea, has recently been examined by the writer at the request of Captain Lyons, R.E., the Director—General of the Survey.

In August, 1898, it became known that what is perhaps the clearest and most instructive section in the famous high-level drift deposits at Moel Tryfaen must in a short time be swept away in the course of the quarrying operations. There are two slate quarries on Moel Tryfaen, the “Alexandra” and the “Moel Tryfaen” Quarries, excavated in the same line of strike of the slates. Gradually expanding, they had approached each other so nearly as to leave a narrow bank between them with no more than a yard or two of uncut turf upon it. Now the drift sections thus in danger of destruction are exceedingly important for the following reasons: (1) They are at right angles to the strike of the slates, and thus display the character of the underlying rock surface; (2) they show the nature and position of the junction of the shelly sands and gravels with the overlying Boulder-clay; (3) the false bedding and other structures in the sands and gravels are best seen along them; (4) they have been more accessible than the other sections in the quarries. A Committee was therefore appointed to preserve, by photography, supplemented by a written report, an impartial record of the phenomena displayed in these sections. The Committee have much pleasure in acknowledging their obligations to Mr. Menzies, the manager of the Alexandra Quarry, who, with a large-minded appreciation of scientific work for which geologists cannot be too grateful, offered to suspend operations in that part of the quarry for three months, besides showing the Committee every hospitality and facilitating their work by all means in his power.

In the Geological Magazine for March, 1891, p. 119, I drew attention to the occurrence of a large Greywether in Moscow Street, Bayswater. Another and smaller example has lately been discovered in the foundations for the new buildings of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. The excavations show:

Made ground and soil, about 5 feet.

Gravel, full thickness about 20 feet.

London Clay with cement stones.

In the “Catalogue of the Cambrian and Silurian Fossils in the Woodwardian Museum,” compiled by J. W. Salter, F.G.S., and published in 1873, many new specific names occur, in some cases accompanied by a few words of description, but frequently by none at all. Although several of these species have been described by subsequent writers, there yet remains a large number which are only known by their names, some of which have found their way into geological literature. It therefore seemed desirable to rescue these forms from their present unstable position, and to issue a detailed account of their characters to avoid future confusion. The original specimens are in the Woodwardian Museum, and though in many instances they are in a poor state of preservation, rendering the precise and minute diagnosis of the species difficult, yet the subsequent acquisition of further specimens of the same forms has enabled me to make the descriptions more complete.

I am indebted to the Rev. Ashington Bullen, B.A. (London), F.G.S., for eight samples of sands and loams from the Plateau Gravel of Kent, which he has placed in my hands for examination with the microscope. They were carefully collected by Mr. B. Harrison, of Ightham; and for convenience they are here lettered A–H.

The low, but rocky headland of Dwlban Point forms the western corner of Red Wharf Bay, on the east coast of Anglesey; and is on the coastline of the principal tract of Carboniferous rocks in the island, not very far from the boundary fault which runs out to sea beneath the sands of the bay. The Carboniferous Limestone near the Point is for the most part a light-grey, crystalline rock, with abundant crinoids, corals, and other marine fossils. There are, however, four beds of sandstone, varying from 2 to 9 feet thick, and some of the Limestone itself also contains scattered grains of quartz. The sandstones are clean white rocks, generally fine, but with occasional thin seams of small pebbles.

Nautilus truncatus was described and figured by J. Sowerby in the “Mineral Conchology,” vol. ii, p. 49, pl. cxxiii, April, 1816, his description and remarks being as follows:—

“Spec. char. Thick, flatted, plain, umbilicate ; back flat, mouth elongated, four-angled : siphuncle nearest to the inner margin of the septum.

The sources of information are given below.

D. From T. Rupert Jones's Catalogue of the Foraminifera from the Chalk and Chalkmarl in the Second Edition of Dixon's “Geology and Fossils of Sussex,” 1878, pp. 284 and 285.

The following descriptions are based upon a collection of foraminiferal limestones, chiefly nummulitic, from Sinai, which were sent to the British Museum for description and determination by Captain H. G. Lyons, R.E., F.G.S., Director of the Geological Survey of Egypt.

The Limestone of the foreshore at Dwlban Point is magnificently glaciated, the ice-worn surfaces being preserved for a distance of some yards from the Boulder-clay. The striæ where undeflected run N.N.E.-S.S.W., which is in agreement with the general direction of the glaciation on that part of the coast.

In connection with the revision of the Silurian area in Ireland, at present in progress by the staff of the Irish branch of the Geological Survey, a number of rock-specimens of the dykes occurring on the coast of Co. Down were lately petrographically examined by the writer, who detected in one of the slices a blue amphibole of secondary origin. As a mineral of this kind was not hitherto known to occur in sitû in Ireland, it may be of interest to put its discovery on record here and to give also a few details respecting its characteristics.

Distribution.—Red Sea, East Africa, Ceylon, Java, etc. (Tryon); Red Sea, Persian Gulf, East Africa, Polynesia, Fiji Islands, etc. (E. A. Smith). Coll. Geol. Surv. Egypt: raised beach 80 feet above sea, Camp 6, north of Wadi Gueh, west of Kosseir (Nos. 1,651, 1652, Box No. 79j).

In taking my first walk over West High Down, near Freshwater Bay, in May of last year, I found that the ground had been ploughed up by traction engines drawing heavy guns to some new forts on the Needles Point, then in course of construction. Thinking that there might be some Neolithic implements turned up, I examined the ruts, when almost the first thing I saw was a Palæolithic implement. It was ovate in form, 3¼ inches long by 2⅜ inches broad, thin, very slightly twisted, well made and symmetrical though not elaborately finished, and ochreous and almost unabraded in condition. So far as I am aware, this is the first Palæolithic implement that has been found in the district.