The selection of a base for the Devonian System has evoked much controversy, and summaries of the literature are given in several papers. The subject has acquired a new significance recently through the work of Ch. Barrois and his coadjutors in the north of France, and that of W. W. King and L. D. Stamp in England. The matter has been argued at length in the papers referred to, and it is impossible to appreciate all the factors involved without reference to them.

A detailed description of an important specimen of Euphoberia ferox (Salter, 1863) is given. The fossil consists of nine consecutive segments in natural association exhibiting not only dorsal structures but also some of the less-known ventral features.

Reference has been made in previous articles (1, 2) to the discovery of fossil fishes in the sandstone immediately overlying the basal conglomerate of the Keuper near Nottingham. The upper portion of this sandstone splits into slabs two or three inches thick along filmy partings of greenish clay. The specimen described and figured below was found lying upon the surface of one of these slabs with its head partially buried in the sandstone itself. After being carefully cleaned it proved to be a well-preserved specimen of Semionotus differing to a sufficiently marked degree from previously described species to merit the creation of a new species.

In preparing a course of lectures in elementary Palaeontology, the present writer found himself to be vague as to the general terminology of the most elementary part of his subject—the forms of preservation in which fossils occur. To his surprise he found, on referring to the leading text-books, that there was no such general terminology; at least, not in the sense of a terminology in general use.

A calcareous sandstone is found at intervals along the coast of Palestine and Syria from Gaza to Lattakia, a distance of about 300 miles. It may be a thick deposit, extending for miles along the coast and covering a wide area, as at Beirut, or it may be thin and of small extent. Some parts of the coast are entirely without it. It is the principal building stone of the coast towns. It has been mentioned by various writers. Hull (Geol. and Geog. of Arabia Petraea, Palestine, etc., Pal. Expl. Fund, 1889, p. 9) refers to it as the “Calcareous Sandstone of Philistia”. No geologist, however, has noted the remarkable holes, which in some places penetrate it in great numbers.