Fragments of coal found in contexts of the third century A.D. at the legionary fortress of Caerleon (Isca) are assigned from intrinsic evidence to a local source. A brief comment on the use of coal in Roman Britain follows.

Two isolated thecal plates of a Comarocystitid paracrinoid are described from the Starfish Bed, Girvan. The discovery extends the stratigraphic and geographical range of the family Comarocystitidae and class Paracrinoidea.

The lithological and faunal changes through the transition from non-marine Hangman Grits to marine Ilfracombe Beds of North Devon and West Somerset suggest the presence of a major depositional marine transgression. A fauna of thick-shelled lamellibranchs and gastropods occurs in beds lying stratigraphically between the flu-viatile Hangman deposits below, and the shallow-water marine Ilfracombe Beds above, and is considered to indicate an intermediate phase of intertidal depositional conditions. The transgression appears to have advanced across the region in a north-north-easterly direction during Lower-Middle Givetian times following coastal subsidence and possibly an associated rise of sea level.

Reconnaissance work carried out in north-east Southern Rhodesia has shown that the Umkondo System, previously known in the Mozambique Belt, extends into the Zambesi Belt. It is further demonstrated that the two belts were broadly continuous in structure and metamorphism during the important orogeny c. 500 m·y. The possibility that the mobile belts were active considerably earlier than 500 m·y. is discussed.

A number of rotational strike-slip faults in the Ludlovian-Downtonian deposits of the Llandeilo region, Carmarthenshire, are described.

Lower Palaeozoic rocks in the Langkawi Islands have been subject to three generations of deformation. In the slightly dynamo-meta-morph slates in the south-east two generations of cleavage folding have been developed with a N.N.W. trend. The first resulted in a recumbent folding with a subhorizontal slaty cleavage, whereas during the second generation the slaty cleavage was deformed in open folds and a crenulation cleavage developed in the steep limbs. The two deformations were probably not formed at exactly the same time, but seem to be related with each other. Boudinage of granite sills was contemporaneous with the development of the slaty cleavage.

In the unmetamorphosed northern part of the area cross-folding is found. Flexure folds with a N.W. trend are superimposed on folds with a N.N.E. trend. In the Upper Palaeozoic sediments such deformations are missing. The Permian and Carboniferous strata show only a slight warping around the granite batholith which was intruded during Jurassic time (Pacific orogeny). A similar warping is found in the large low-angle overthrust, in which Silurian was thrust over Permo-Carboniferous. Consequently this thrust plane is dated as pre-granitic and post Permo-Carboniferous. Contact metamorphism by the granite intrusion has resulted in hornfelses in the Permo-Carboniferous sequence and in the development of oriented minerals, mainly clinozoisite, in the Ordovician-Silurian slates. Knick zones and intense jointing parallel with the mineral orientation (third generation structures) are also a result of the granite intrusion.

The first two generations of folding, which are not present in the Upper Palaeozoic beds, are products of an erogenic phase, “the Langkawi folding phase,” during late Silurian-Devonian time. The lack of Devonian strata in Thailand and the incompleteness of the Devonian sequence in Malaya (recently a few outcrops of probably Middle-Upper Devonian strata are found along the west coast of Malaya) can be an indication that the Langkawi folding phase is not restricted to the Langkawi Islands.

Cooling cracks form at high temperatures when a basic magma is either viscous or crystalline and hot. It is postulated that fine-grained margins form along the fractures by release of gas through the fracture network. This takes place (a) by raising the liquidus-solidus boundary due to release of volatiles, (b) by expansion of the released gas with consequent cooling. Granitic material introduced along the fractures post-dates and may recrystallize the “chilled” margins.

The paper describes reaction zones at a contact between the Older Granodiorite of Donegal and an included mass of metadolerite. The metadolerite has been converted to a biotite-rich rock and the granodiorite has been converted to a leucotrondhjemite. Chemical analyses and petrographic descriptions are given for each of the rock types.

A quarry face in County Antrim appears to show that the toe of a Tertiary lava flow has ploughed into the weathered top of the underlying lava and carried some of the weathered material forward.

Three sub-provinces are recognized in the volcanics of the southern half of Kenya as follows:—

(a) the Miocene phonolite sub-province, (b) the Mount Kenya phonolite/basanite sub-province, and (c) the Rift Valley trachyte/olivine basalt sub-province. Mela-nephelinitic lavas in the two phonolitic sub-provinces are shown to differ significantly in mineralogy, chemistry, and associated volcanics. The type of volcanic association likely to be related to carbonatite occurrences is briefly discussed.

Areas of exposed Miocene phonolite and Plio-Pleistocene trachyte are much greater than those of associated basic lavas, while intermediate types are almost lacking. Calculations show that assimilation of gneissic basement rocks by basanite (or olivine mela-nephelinite) and by olivine basalt may contribute to the development of phonolite and trachyte respectively. Available supporting evidence is discussed, both from Kenya and from similar volcanic provinces elsewhere. The additional amount of salic derivatives “which can be produced in this way is small, however, relative to the volume of basic parent involved.