Although the existence of coal in Spitsbergen has been known for a very long time, it is only of recent years that development has been undertaken on any considerable scale. As early as 1610 explorers brought back with them small amounts of coal to burn on the voyage home, and in 1614 the islands were formally claimed for James I by the Muscovy Company. The coal was also described from the scientific point of view by Nathorst and others at various dates, but no attempt was made to work it till about 1904, when the Arctic Coal Company, an American concern, opened a mine at Advent Bay.

Recent events have again called attention to the enormous strategic and economic importance of the iron-fields of Lorraine; on these much of the commercial prosperity of Germany has been built up in the past, and on their possession her future as an industrial nation largely depends. For many years the output of iron-ore from tlie part of Lorraine under German control has been immense: in 1912, German Lorraine produced approximately 20,000,000 tons, while the output of Luxemburg, which, for all practical purposes, is German, was about 6,500,000 tons. In the same year the French portion of the Lorraine iron-field yielded 17,300,000 tons, making a grand total for this area of 43,800,000 tons of ore. During the War the whole of the French productive region has been occupied by the enemy, and there is no means of ascertaining what has actually happened there, but certain inferences can be drawn from published facts and on a basis of probability.

As already stated in the first part of this paper, a regular gradation may be traced from the cassiterite-wolframite lodes to wolframite-quartz veins without cassiterite, a type which appears on the whole to be more common in America than elsewhere. In many cases this difference is clearly due to a more complete differentiation of the magma, but in other instances a purely igneous origin is less conclusively established. In Cornwall and other granitic areas a tin-wolfram lode can sometimes be traced continuously into a wolfram lode, and this again into a pure quartz vein. Here the pegmatitic origin of the lodes is demonstrated, and as a rule the wolfram is accompanied by'fluorite and other recognized pneumatolytic minerals, as well as by sulphides similar to those found in the tin lodes. Thus the genetic connexion with the tin-bearing types is beyond doubt. In a few instances only wolfram is found in association with gold ores; the significance of this will be discussed in a later section.

In 1849 Professor J. D. Dana described certain leaves from the Illawarra District and Newcastle, New South Wales, occurring in the Upper Coal-measures. To these he gave the name of Noeggerathia spathulata and N. media. Long after, in 1879 to be exact, Dr. O. Feistmantel established his genus Noeggerathiopsis for the reception of similar leaves from the Talchir-Kararbari Beds of the Lower Gondwana System, and from his remarks it may, by inference, be concluded that Dana's were included in the new genus also. This inference is justified by Feistmantel's later definite reference of these leaves to Noeggerathiopsis; at the same time he added another species, N. prisca, from the Lower Coal-measures at Greta. He believed them to be closely allied with Cycadeaceae.

The second edition of J. W. Dawson's Acadian Geology (1868) contains some notes communicated by C. F. Hartt. One of these, on p. 643, runs as follows:

“Eocystites primçvus, Billings, Coll. Hartt (Fig. 220). The little plate with radiating sculpture, represented somewhat enlarged in the figure, is regarded by Mr. Billings, to whom the specimens have been submitted, as indicating anew genus of Cystideans.”

In this perfunctory manner, without diagnosis or description, was the genus Eocystites founded. Since a named species was mentioned, that species, E. primçvus, must be taken as genotype, and the generic name is thereby validated.

Vicarious avicularia, that is to say avicularia substantially as large as zoœcia, have rarely been figured among the Cretaceous Cribrilinidse, the only good instances I call to mind being Escharipora incrassata, D'Orb., Membraniporella (Cribrilina) Falcoburgensis, Perg., the illustration of which shows a clear case, although no reference is made to it in the text, and Cribrilina ostreicola, Bryd. They are not, however, by any means so rare as this might suggest, and the four following species are probably not the only instances which will ultimately be added from the English Chalk.

During the last six or seven years a series of valuable papers bearing on the origin of laterite has appeared in the Geological Magazine. The conclusions arrived at have been somewhat diverse and contradictory. Dr. Fermor, on the one hand, regarded the laterites of India as residual in character, and believed that they represented the insoluble residues left in the process of rock weathering after the soluble constituents had been removed in solution. Mr. Simpson, at the other extreme, suggested that they represented the soluble material, leached out of the subjacent rocks during weathering under peculiar conditions, and deposited as a chemically-formed rock by precipitation at the surface of the earth.

Zoarium incrusting, with a tendency to grow in bands: the general surface stands high and shows no trace of zoœcial boundaries; it is much rumpled, apparently unsysteniatically, but is only broken by the zoœcial peristomes; these are short tubular prominences inclined slightly forwards but bent upwards at the ends so as to end in a plane parallel with the general surface: the apertures are on the whole circular, but very rarely truly so, and occasionally very irregular; they vary in internal diameter from -08 in a small specimen such as Fig. 2 up to -15mm. in a large specimen such as Fig. 3; the peristomes are thick and each has from one to four pores in it; these pores are generally small and round, but occasionally among the larger ones are found definite instances of arrowhead shape which makes it possible that all are avicularian: round the edges of the zoarium there is a fairly complete fringe of simple shallow Membraniporiform zoœcia, with the general surface either ending abruptly above them or sloping gradually down to them.

The exploitation of tungsten ores on a large scale is of comparatively recent development. Till lately the industrial applications of this metal and its compounds were very limited, and they were regarded rather in the light of chemical and mineralogical curiosities. In fact, the tungsten minerals were considered a nuisance by miners, owing to the difficulty of separating them from other valuable and equally heavy ores occurring in close association with them. Sodium tungstate was manufactured to a certain extent and used as a mordant in dyeing and for rendering textile fabrics fireproof, and tungstic oxide was sometimes employed in the making of yellow glass. About the year 1905 a demand arose for the metal for electric lamp filaments, but at the present time by far the most important application is in the metallurgy of steel. The addition of a small quantity of tungsten, not more than 7 or 8 per cent, together with about 5 per cent of chromium, has a remarkable effect on steel, rendering it both hard and tough and suitable for high-speed cutting tools. Since the beginning of the War the demand for the ores for this purpose has enormously increased, as also has the price; new sources are being sought for and opened up in many localities; in Colorado and California there was a few months ago a tungsten boom recalling the gold rushes of the early days.

It has frequently been asserted that the “born geologist”—as distinguished from the geologist made by education and training—owes his conception chiefly to the formation on which he happens to be born. Nor is it the beauty of the scenery and the attractiveness of firth and fell, mountain and glen, that usually give the impulse in the making of the geologist. It comes in most cases from the fossils he sees strewn around him in quarry or hillside—things that can be collected and fascinate the youthful mind even more than the rocks themselves. But whether the strata or the fossils are the stimulus required, it is beyond dispute that Yorkshire—in which both are conspicuous — takes a leading place in England as the birthplace of so many eminent geologists in the past century, and amongst them the subject of our present sketch worthily deserves to find a place.

But while it is difficult to collect fossils in situ in the upper part of the Lower Lias, a very good knowledge of the fauna is obtained from the material which may be collected on the tunnel heaps between Old Dalbyand Saxelby. I have been permitted to study the large collection of specimens from these heaps which are preserved at University College, Nottingham, and the Engineer of the Midland Railway Company gave me leave to make small excavations. The following lists give some idea of the fauna, which contains abundant Ammonites, especially of the genera Tragophylloceras, Polymorphites, and Platypleuroceras. The Foraminifera likewise are unusually interesting; a list of genera identified by Wilson has already been given by Quilter; according to the list given by H. B. Woodward no Textularia-like form is known from the Lias of any other British locality.

All geologists are familiar with those changes effected in argillaceous rocks under the influence of heat from igneous intrusions, changes that result in the formation of such rocks as chiastolite-slate, andalusite-hornfels, etc. It is therefore somewhat surprising that the changes produced during the artificial heating of clays should remain comparatively unknown to the body of geologists, although such changes are produced every day on a large scale during the baking of clays for the manufacture of pottery of various kinds. These changes have, indeed, been very little studied from the mineralogical standpoint. It might at first sight be expected that any changes brought about artificially by the action of heat on a clay would compare somewhat closely with those resulting in an argillaceous rock when subjected to contact-metamorphism—at any rate in the normal case of the latter change—when there is no transference of material from the igneous to the sedimentary rock. Yet such is hardly the case; there are certainly points of resemblance, but there are also very notable differences. It must be made clear that the clays used in the experiments to be described were selected on account of their importance for certain industrial uses, and not on account of any special similarity to those argillaceous rocks usually affected by contact-metamorphism. They are therefore clays of a special type with certain chemical characteristics that distinguish them from the more commonly occurring, and therefore more commonly metamorphosed, argillaceous rocks. Nevertheless, the lithological correspondence is close enough to institute certain comparisons.

In the district north of Ashby-de-la-Zoueh dolomitized Carboniferous Limestone crops out where the Leicestershire border adjoins that of South Derbyshire. The dolomites, which attain a thickness of nearly 900 feet in this area, have hitherto received very little attention. I therefore propose to give a short description of them with a view to ascertaining how far their mode of occurrence and structure afford additional examples of, or exceptions to, the usual conclusions adopted concerning the origin of dolomite. With this object in view I propose to give a brief resumé of the evidences generally relied upon to explain the origin of dolomite, before proceeding to describe the Leicestershire rocks.

In the three preceding papers of this series descriptions have been given of the perignatliie girdles of familiar representatives of the three families into which the Holectypoida are at present divided. From the scanty evidence available, it would appear that in respect of this structure Plesiechinus is typical of the Pygasteridæ (even including Anorthopygus). The girtile of Holectypus seems essentially similar, thereby differing from that of the Discoidiinse; but as yet the perignathic structures of the Cretaceous Coenholectypus are unknown.

Twenty-One years ago Dr. Flett in a valuable paper (Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc, vol. vii, 1897) described an exceedingly beautiful hypersthene andesite from the volcanic series of the Lower Old Red Sandstone at Dumyat in the Western Ochils. In the following brief communication I propose to give a short petrographic account of a strikingly similar rock that has occurred to me in the field in a more easterly portion of the same range of hills and which is of the same geological age.

Specimens I, 1–8 were studied. Probably those measured under Dr. Reed's heads I and II refer to 1 and 3 respectively. Specimen I is hereby selected as Holotype.

The present paper deals with some 30 square miles of land situated in Caernarvonshire and embracing the drainage area of the River Ogwen and parts of adjacent river-basins. It is doubtful if any part of Great Britain presents in such a small area so many interesting topographical features and such beautiful and diversified scenery as this part of North Wales. It is in part a thoroughly mountainous region accompanied by characteristics that belong to mountains, and it is a glaciated mountain region with typical glacial topography. But adjoining the mountains is an area of entirely different characteristics, and the change from the one to the other is sudden and complete. An upland plain abruptly terminates against a range of mountains without the interposition of foot-hills, the crags and pinnacles rising precipitously from the level land; or, in other words, the plain cuts as it were a shelf in the mountainous masses.

At the request of Professor J. W. Gregory, F.R.S., of Glasgow University, the following report has been prepared dealing with some microscopical organisms entering into the composition of certain limestones from Central New Guinea. The material studied, comprising Foraminifera and Nullipore (Lithothamnium) remains, has been obtained from some rolled limestone pebbles which were collected in river-beds of the upper reaches of the Fly River by the Right Hon. Sir William Macgregor, G.C.M.G., during an expedition carried out in the years 1889 and 1890. Being desirous that these limestones should be scientifically examined, Sir William submitted them to the Geological Department of the University Glasgow in the hope that Professor Gregory and his staff might issue a statement as to their structural and geological value. In accordance with this request, therefore, the corals were first examined and described in a joint paper by Professor Gregory and Miss J. B. Trench, while some remarks on the Foraminifera and associated structures have been postponed for the present occasion. At the time when the corals were in course of description, the writer was appealed to for an opinion as to the geological age of one of the pebbles (No. 1), exhibiting corals and some smaller organisms, although to give aid in this direction it was necessary to prepare microscopical sections of the limestone for examination by transmitted light.