After a term of work extending over nearly half a century, Mr. Howell, the Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, has retired from the public service. It is not often that a man who has only just reached the age-limit of 65 is able to look back on such a lengthened period of official work. No member of the Geological Survey has before attained such a record. Even Mr. Selwyn, whose portrait we gave in our February Number, had reached the age of 70 when he had nearly completed his fiftieth year of work on the Geological Surveys of Great Britain, Victoria, and Canada.