Having devoted several weeks to the study of the magnificent collection of the remains of Ichthyopterygians preserved in the British Museum (Natural History), I purpose on this occasion to give a brief notice of some of the conclusions at which I have arrived, since a considerable interval will elapse before the publication of that part of the Museum “Catalogue of Fossil Eeptilia” in which my observations will be more fully recorded.

Writers on Fossil Corals seem to ignore the existence of Corals in our later Tertiary formations. They are certainly not common. The following reference and species have come under my notice: Caryophyllia clavus, Scacchi var. boreal is, Flem., Lancashire drift (see Geologist, 1843, p. 124). Caryophyllia clavus var. Smithii, Stokes, Kaised beach, Portrush, Co. Antrim (Portlock, Geol. Londonderr, etc.). Sphenotrochus Wrightii, Gosse, from the Clyde beds, by Messrs. Crosskey and Robertson. to these I may add a fine calice of the Norway branching Coral Lophohelia prolifera, Ed. and H., from the interglacial sands of King Edward, N.B., and a single young example of Sphenotrochus Macandrewanus, E. and H., from the Raised sea-bed, Largo Bay, Fife.

Dr. Davidson, assisted by the writer, gave a provisional sketch of the classification of the spiral-bearing Brachiopoda in the volume of the Palæontographical Society for 1883. As Dr. Davidson then, said, our design was “to assist those palæontologists who might feel inclined to continue the subject.” The following notes have been written by me for the same end, and I think that if they are carefully read and compared with the figures in Dr. Davidson's Carboniferous, Devonian, and Silurian Supplements, they will give a tolerably clear idea to the student of a very complex and difficult subject. I have perhaps some claim to write upon this subject from the years of close and continuous investigation which I have devoted, to it, and from the fact that I have discovered a large proportion of what is now known concerning the spirals and their connections.

At several places along the north-eastern coast of the Isle of Wight the Osborne Beds crop out on the shore to some extent and admit of examination. From the great difficulty which is usually experienced by geologists in getting at any workable section or outcrop of these beds but little, one might say almost nothing, is known about them. There are few divisions of the Tertiary strata of the Island which present so many variations both of composition and of fossil contents as do the Osborne Beds at their various outcrops; and at the three places where they are most usually examined—at Whitecliff Bay, at St. Helen's, and at Alum Bay—they yield few fossils, and there is nothing extraordinary about the composition of the clayey strata.

A highly interesting and remarkable instance of altered Coal measures, due to impregnation by hydrous and anhydrous oxides of iron, infiltrated by water from the overlying Permian strata, can now be seen in situ in the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Coal-field, and I think it should be made known in order that those who may wish to study such phenomena may have the opportunity of doing so. The following is a general description of the section.

In the short description of the Mynydd Mawr rock given in the May Number of this Magazine (p. 221), I drew attention to a remarkable blue hornblende, which I was unable to refer to any known variety. In the character of its absorption and pleochroism it differed widely from both glaucophane and arfvedsonite, although allied to them in some of its properties, such as its extreme fusibility, splinters melting easily in the flame of a candle.

In the first paper of this series were described several dykes from the shores of the Menai Straits, belonging apparently to one system of intrusions, and some of them cutting Carboniferous strata. Their precise age, however, can be fixed only on the supposition that they may fairly be correlated with certain post-Carboniferous but pre-Permian dykes in the Anglesey Coal-field. These latter rocks have a strong general resemblance to the Menai Straits dykes, and as they are by no means easily accessible, they will not be described in detail. Only one will be selected, as offering a rather pronounced type: the specimen is from the Henslow collection.

During a recent visit to the University Museum at Oxford, I observed in the Grindrod Collection an interesting small fossil apparently adding to the known fauna of the Ledbury Passage Beds a remarkable type of fish, hitherto only met with in the Middle and Upper Devonian of the United States. Through the kindness of Professor Green, I have since had the opportunity of studying this specimen in London; and it is shown, of twice the natural size, in the accompanying Woodcut. It may be regarded as an imperfect example of the so-called “intermandibular arch” of the extinct ganoid, Onychodus, described by Prof. Newberry from the Corniferous Limestone of Ohio, and the Chemung Group of Delaware County, New York.

As not much appears to be known about the geology of Somali Land, a description of some specimens, forwarded by Col. M. Gosset, and collected by Capt. King, the Political Officer at Zaila, may be of interest. These specimens were sent to Prof. Rupert Jones, who requested Professor Bonney to undertake the description of them. As, owing to unexpected pressure of work, he found it difficult to spare time for this purpose, he placed them in my hands, and the work has been done at University College under his superintendence.

The dyke in question occurs at the extreme north end of Pentreath Beach, which is about a quarter of a mile to the south-east of Kynance Cove.

The dyke forms a portion of the “granulitic group” of Prof. Bonney, which is now known to be of igneous origin, and consists of banded gneissic rocks, some of which are like a granite, other portions like a diorite, the latter always more or less porphyritic.

The remarks made by Mr. Haddow in the GeologicalMagazine, Decade III. Vol. IV. p. 519, seem to demand a reply.

1.—He complains of the multiplication of generic or subgeneric names of Ammonites.

2.—He laments the confusion which appears to have arisen concerning what have hitherto been regarded as recognizable species.

3.—He suggests that the trinomial system would obviate the necessity of any of these changes and be at the same time an advantage.

Geologists, who are again and again forced to deal with the most minute or fragmentary specimens, and who find it impossible to cultivate, during their surveys of the earth, the methods perfected by the mineralogist in his learned leisure, have fully recognized the importance of Prof. Szabó's tabulation of the flame-reactions of the felspars. Since the accuracy of the results obtainable depends largely upon the position of the mineral-particle in the flame, I venture to call attention to a form of support that has proved in practice as convenient and efficient as it is simple.

The little Coral here described was discovered in Kaufman County, Texas, in strata of the Kipley Group, by Dr. R. H. Loughridge, and presented by him to me, together with a few characteristic molluscan species of that group which he found associated with it. The Ripley Group is the uppermost division of the Cretaceous series in the States which border upon the Gulf of Mexico; and probably represents approximately the Upper Chalk of England. Regarding it as a new generic form I herewith give a diagnosis and figures of it; and being the only species known to me, the diagnosis is necessarily based upon this alone.

I Have been very much interested in reading Mr. Russell's two communications published in the Geological Magazine for August and September last. The analogy which he draws between the history of the Dead Sea valley and that of some of the lake valleys in the western part of North America is instructive as showing how similar physical features can be accounted for on similar principles of interpretation over all parts of the world. Mr. Eussell very properly draws attention to the paper by his colleague Mr. G. K. Gilbert on “The Topographical Features of Lake Shores,” in which principles of interpretation of physical phenomena are laid down applicable to lakes both of America and the Jordan-Arabah valley. With some of Mr. Russell's inferences regarding special epochs in the history of this valley I am very much disposed to agree; more particularly in reference to the mode of formation of the Salt Mountain, Jebel Usdum; or rather, of the salt-rock which forms the lower part of its mass. If this interpretation be correct, it removes the difficulty of understanding why the rock-salt is confined to one small corner of the lake, which, at the time the salt was in course of formation, was vastly more extensive than at present.

The teeth known as Cladodus (type C. mirabilis, Ag.) have a flattened, transversely elongated, sub-elliptical or reniform base, the anterior margin being straighter than the posterior and often slightly excavated in the middle. Anteriorly the base is thick, and generally shows a groove separating the truly basal from the coronal portion, while the posterior margin is thin owing to the downward and backward slope of the ripper surface. From this upper surface anteriorly spring a number of cones or denticles, of which the median is the longest; it is flanked by lateral denticles, of which an outer one on each side is longer than those intermediate. The larger denticles, at least, are flattened antero-posteriorly and have lateral cutting margins.