The fossils, which will be described hereafter by Dr. Günther, F.R.S., Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., H. Woodward, F.R.S., and H. B. Brady, F.R.S., were found in the years 1873 and 1874 partly in rocks of the “Padangsche Bovenlanden” (Highlands of Padang), Government of the West Coast of Sumatra, and partly in marls and limestones of the Island of Nias.

In my paper on Glacial Erosion lately laid before the readers of the Geol. Mag. (pp. 323 and 356), I have endeavoured to prove that the origin of nearly all the more prominent surface characteristics of the rock scenery in the Yorkshire Dale District admits of a simple and complete explanation by the theory of the modification of pre-existing subaerially eroded surfaces by Glacial Erosion. At the same time it was shown that the character of many of the phenomena is entirely opposed to any theory of their origin by means of Subaerial Denudation alone. In the present communication it is proposed to inquire how far this Glacial Erosion theory may be applied to explain the origin of the deep, semicircular recesses that are commonly found in all well-glaciated mountainous districts, and are variously known by the names of Coums, Corries, or Cirques.

It is probable that the history of this fall has unfortunately been lost to science. Vom Rath has recently endeavoured, but without avail, to gather information from Gemrnellaro, of Palermo, respecting what now appears to have been a shower of stones rather than the fall of a single meteorite, as hitherto supposed. Gemmellaro was unable in 1869 to discover any persons who witnessed the fall; as, however, it appears that two years after the occurrence Greg was informed that an account had been printed in a Sicilian scientific journal, more particulars of the fall may yet be obtained.

Professor Quenstedt, in his Handbuch der Petrefaktenkundo (1852), first described and figured, under the name Cotylederma, a remarkable fossil, which he found adherent to the surface of Ammonites striatus in the upper region of the Lias c. It formed a flat, sessile, cylindrical little bowl, composed of five plates, with five blunt angles, and was referred by him to the class Echinodermata and the order Crinoidea. The learned author, in his “der Jura” (1858), says that he has found it attached to Ammonites lineatus and A. striatus in the upper region of Lias γ, at Aselfingen, and that it was comparable to the calyx of a crinoid.

In the spring of the present year M. Albert Gaudry communicated an interesting paper to the Geological Society of France, on some newly discovered remains of true Batrachia found in the older rocks of that country, and which paper has just been published, with two plates, in their Proceedings. This discovery is paléontologically important; as the author observes that up to the present time no remains of actual typical Batrachia have been found in any rocks of earlier date than the Tertiary Period. It has also been a subject of surprise, that Vertebrates of so low an organization should have appeared so late upon the earth, and this supposed faot has been used as an objection to the theory of progressive development. However, this discovery, he thinks, shows structural characters, such as an evolutionist would expect to find in an ancient rock. The tail very short, the bones of the trunk and limbs resembling those of the Salamanders, whilst on the contrary the bones of the head have the characters of those of the Frog; thus lessening the distance which appears to separate the Urodela from the Anoura. He further remarks, that the incomplete ossification of the centra of the vertebræ, the want of ossification of the epyphyses of the limb bones, and probably, also, the cartilaginous state of the carpals and tarsals, reveal a type of which the evolution is not yet completed.