Among the many distinguished geologists and men of science whom one has been accustomed to meet, year after year, at the gatherings of the Geological Society, the British Association, and the Geologists’ Association during the past forty years, none has, by good camaraderie and hard work both in the field and study, established a better claim to our warm personal regard and esteem than Mr. Whitaker, whose portrait we present to our readers this month.

In my Address to the Geological Society in 1905 I proposed the use of the terra Ashgillian for the uppermost series of the Ordovician System, but did not discuss therein at length the exact relationship of the beds to which the term was applied, with the underlying and overlying strata. An examination of the literature treating of these rocks showed that there was a considerable amount of confusion with regard to these strata, and it is the object of this paper to clear this up and to indicate what deposits are actually referable to the Ashgillian division.

In August last, at the meeting of the British Association at York, I gave a general account of the zonal succession of the Carboniferous Limestone as developed in Westmoreland and North Lancashire, and I instituted a comparison with beds of a similar age in the Ingleborough and North Pennine districts.

In a communication to the Geological Society in 1900 I had occasion to compare the rocks of the south-eastern coast of Jersey with the hornblende gabbro, diorites, and granites of Northern Guernsey; and to point out that in general terms the petrographical types of the two islands bore a close resemblance to each other, group for group, in sequence and general relations. Since work abroad renders it improbable that I shall be able to devote much additional time to this subject, the following notes are given as a possible aid to future observers.

In November last Mr. L. Richardson, of Cheltenham, very kindly sent me (with other fossils for inspection and determination) the carapace of a small Crustacean from the “Clypeus-Grit” of the Cotteswolds, which had been picked up and given him by Mr. C. L. Walton. As Mr. Richardson anticipated, the species proves to be new to this country, and I readily obtained his permission to describe the same.

As some months will elapse before the results of my investigations of the Inferior Oolite and contiguous deposits of the district between Doulting, near Shepton Mallet, and Stroud, are published, in order to show from which beds the Prosopon described by Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., was probably obtained, it appears desirable to give an outline of certain of these results.

Whilst examining the tract of Lower Palæozoic rocks and metamorphic schists around Killary Harbour, in Connemara (an examination primarily undertaken to ascertain the relations of the fossiliferous sediments to the schists in that area), an extensive tract of Arenig rocks has been discovered on both sides of the harbour. In 1905 Didgmograpti of the extensus and superstes types were found, and during last Summer several specimens, of Phyllograptus and Tetragraptus also, together with many other forms.

The recent development of mining in the central area of the Ballycastle Coalfield in Co. Antrim has given rise to several articles in the daily Press, and it seems worth while to point out that the occurrence of coal-seams in the interior of the field was long ago proved by borings (see Geological Survey Memoir to Sheets 7 and 8, Ireland, published in 1888); while Mr. Symes's longitudinal section, Sheet 30, published by the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom in 1890, indicated faithfully the geological conditions. The possibility of farther development is also mentioned in “Ireland, Industrial and Agricultural,” published by the Department of Agriculture for Ireland in 1901.