A study of the succession within the Lake Baringo Basin shows that the lake deposits originally described as Miocene by J. W. Gregory are of Middle Pleistocene age. In addition an examination of the relation between these deposits, the volcanic episodes and the periods of faulting, shows that climatic change has not been the major factor responsible for past fluctuations of the lake level.

Foraminiferal evidence in the past has been held to suggest that the Gault is a deep sea deposit—a view which conflicts with the belief held by many on geological and other palaeontological grounds that the Gault was laid down in fairly shallow water. This contradiction is due to a misinterpretation of the foraminiferal evidence which, in the opinion of the writer, favours a temperate, relatively shallow marine environment for the deposition of the Gault, at least in South-East of England.

The south-eastern margin of the Glen Tilt mass consists of a series of diorites showing a considerable variation in mineralogical and chemical composition. Associated with, and enclosed within, the diorites are a number of small masses of coarser hornblende-felspar rocks which are described as appinites. There is an absence of sharp contacts between the various rock types of the complex and a hybrid origin is suggested to account for the mineralogical assemblage of the appinites.

Recent published work on the origin of the South Wales coals has shown that the “original deposition theory” is invalid; the pronounced devolatilization of the coals is due to a cause which operated after the formation of all of the seams and the rate of change of the volatiles is governed by a function which can be expressed as an empirical equation. Nevertheless minor variations in coal seam volatiles arising from differences in original composition of vegetation are recognized, and of several examples one is given from the Northumbrian geo-syncline where the highest volatiles are in the lowest Carboniferous Limestone coals and where the extreme variation throughout a sequence of 7,000 feet of coal-bearing strata is 11%. The minor variations lessen progressively if the coal seams become devolatilized. As illustrated by examples from American and European fields, a most important factor in coal seam devolatilization is orogenic pressure with incidental frictional heat.

The present basis of comparison of essential coal-substances (fixed carbon and volatiles) is shown to be empirical; a mathematical comparison should be based on the original composition of the coal (not peat) substance. it is shown that 50% fixed carbon and 50% volatiles (d.a.f.) constitute good average figures for the original composition of the coal substance of Carboniferous coals. Loss of weight in devolatilized coals is suffered only by the volatiles so that the best basis of mathematical comparison is the 50% fixed carbon (d.a.f.). The volatile percentages of the South Wales seams when calculated on this basis all show a pronounced drop in values, and on the 50% fixed carbon basis it is necessary to find a new controlling function for the rate of change of volatiles in coal seams lying in vertical sequence. It is found that this is best expressed by the following exponential equation:

where v2 and v1 represent the volatiles of the lower and upper seams respectively, y is the vertical distance in feet of v2 below v1; and θ is the angle of dip of the zero plane previously determined in South Wales as 5°.

An abnormal lithological development of the Chalk Rock occurs in the neighbourhood of Winterborne Abbas, South Dorset, where it contains pebbles of Upper Greensand material. Two exposures of this rock have previously been recorded but further information regarding this variant of the Chalk Rock was obtained during the resurvey of the area in 1936. A possible source of origin for the derived material is suggested.

It has previously been thought that in Sind the Meting Limestone Laki Limestone succession was equivalent to the Bolan Limestone, and that argillaceous beds, which are occasionally developed above the Laki Limestone and below the overlying Khirthar, represented the Ghazij Shales. Recent evidence indicates that these higher argillaceous beds are the representatives of the Shales with Alabaster of the Western Punjab, that in Sind the Ghazij Shales are cut out at the Laki/Ranikot unconformity, and that the Meting Limestone-Laki Limestone succession represents calcareous horizons higher up in the Laki series than the Bolan Limestone.

A section from the extinct waterway of the Little Ouse to the former Red Mere in west Suffolk is described, which shows that the lake mans succeed the clay flanges extending from the roddon silts. Thus the Fenland Meres formed in the course of the Coastal or Upper Silts transgression of the Fenland Basin, during which raised banks of silt were built along the tidal waterways, and these ponded back the fresh water. The Meres are shown to be roughly similar in age and manner of formation to the Norfolk Broads.