During a detailed examination of the tests, and in particular of the ambulacra, of the common British species of the Echinoidea Holectypoida, I have found two series of structures the correlation of which, with those known in recent forms, seems difficult. Since I am engaged in the preparation of a description of the British Pygasteridæ, I have thought it advisable to publish now an account of these peculiar features, in the hope that others may be able to throw light on points that seem to me obscure.

In a report on a visit of the Geologists' Association to the exhibits of Polyzoa and Corals in the Geological Department of the British Museum in February, 1913, the author had occasion to mention two related and unnamed species of uniserial Chalk Polyzoa that hitherto had appeared in records as Hippothoa dispersa (von Hagenow). neither of which was this species, nor did either belong to the genus Hippothoa, Lamouroux. Since one of these two forms is very common in the English Chalk and the other not rare, it is time for a description of them to be published, that collectors may have distinctive names for them. In addition, a third form that has occurred in England is described, and the rest of the species included in the genus are mentioned, so that an idea of the genus as a whole may be formed.

Though ecology has been studied for a long period on the Continent it is only within the last ten years that it has become an important branch of botany in this country. Now, however, it is one of the most ardently pursued sciences, and has made great progress. That branch of it which deals with soil factors, or the distribution of plants upon different soils and a knowledge of the nativity of plants upon particular soils, has received considerable attention, and sufficient data have been accumulated to state the principle that each rock-soil supports a characteristic flora: so that the type of soil may be regarded as an index to the type of vegetation of any district where that rock-soil is dominant; and in the same way it is possible to state by a recognition of the type of vegetation the character of the rock-soil.

Everyone knows that ice floats in water, is able to carry some amount of materials attached to it, and if lifted by rise of the water-level is able to lift them with itself. Lyell describes this in the Principles (ch. xvi, xxxi), and probably it is mentioned in every textbook. But ice is also able to lift attached materials without rise of the water-level. It requires no tides, no floods; it can lift without external aid, by its melting alone.

When a crust of ice 1 foot thick has formed on a sheet of fresh water it floats with its upper surface about an inch above water-level, its lower surface about 11 inches below. If by any cause this ice-crust is melted over its upper surface, the products of melting flow off, the upper surface sinks a little, but the lower surface rises through about eleven-twelfths of the thickness melted off. Take an ice-floe uniformly 6 feet thick: its lower surface will be floating, if the water be fresh, at about 5½ feet below water-level. Suppose it reduced by melting over the upper surface till only 6 inches thick, the lower surface will now be about 5½ inches below water-level; this lower surface will accordingly have risen more than 5 feet. If any objects or materials were attached to that lower surface they will have risen with it: they will have been lifted. This is undeniable and obvious. It is undeniable and obvious that ice is able to lift materials by simple melting, independently of any other power or action.

The geological importance of this boring lies in the fact that it is the deepest which has yet been made in the Bovey Basin, that the site is nearly in the middle of that basin, and that it is evidence of the great depth of the syncline or trough in which the Bovey deposits lie. Although it did not reach the base of these deposits it is highly desirable that we should know the exact depth to which it was carried, as it is the only means of estimating the minimum depth of the basin.

In the Cairo Scientific Journal the first chapter of Professor Walther's new edition of Das Gosetz der Wüstenbildung was considered in some detail. His second chapter, “Die Abtragung in der Wüste” (pp. 111–218), is no less stimulating to thought and replete in observation. He opens this section of his work with a statement of the facts which point to great climatic stability in Egypt during historical times. Two of these are specially mentioned. First, the presence of a small sack of salt in a grave of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the analysis of which agreed absolutely with that of the salt at present obtained from the lakes of the Wadi Natrun. This occurrence, according to him, proves that the same salt mixtures were being formed at periods 3,500 years apart. A statement as to the nature of the resemblances which lead to so wide a conclusion would have been of interest. Secondly, attention is also called to the total absence of water in the Tombs of the Kings since they were first excavated, pointing to the underground water having stood for many thousands of years at more than 50 metres below present valley level.