At Messrs. Hills' brickyard, ½ mile north-north-west of Purton Station and about 4 miles north-west of Swindon, Wiltshire, a large pit in Upper Oxford Clay (Lower Oxfordian) is worked by modern methods to a depth of over 60 feet. Ammonites are for the most part preserved as white powdery or flaky impressions, as in the Jordan Cliff Clay at Weymouth, and their collection involves technical difficulty. For help with the collecting and measuring I am indebted to Messrs. C. W. and E. V. Wright, and for every facility at the pit to Mr. Hill.

ONE of the objectives of the East African Archaeological Expedition of 1934–5 was the examination of the plateau north of Lake Eyasi—the Vogel River area—where, it was hoped, a continuation of the richly fossiliferous Oldowaya Middle Pleistocene lake beds would be found. This hope was essentially realized ; deposits with an interesting Middle Pleistocene fauna a little earlier than that of Oldoway were found, with the difference that they were entirely terrestrial. The development of precisely datable beds resting upon a main Rift Valley Scarp made possible a study of physiographical changes associated with the faulting.

The Builth district was visited by one of us (O. T. J.) in the spring of 1939 with a view to arranging an excursion for the International Geological Congress which was to have been held in London in 1940. Amongst other places the magnificent range of quarries in the Ordovician volcanic rocks of Llanelwedd, near Builth, was examined. Beyond the western end of the quarries a striking boulder bed was observed which promised to give an insight into a remarkable episode in the history of the district. This bed is shown on the I in. Geological Survey Map, Old Series, Sheet 56, S.W.

Certain of the Lower Carboniferous algae are preserved as moulds in a fine-grained calcareous matrix precipitated by their own life processes. The cell walls of the alga are not preserved. This observation applies to the genera Ortonella, Mitcheldeania, Bevocastria, and Girvanella. In the case of Mitcheldeania the filaments are so close together and so parallel that an impression of a definite wall may be obtained, but occasional irregularities and a comparison of the microstructure with that of other forms leaves no doubt that this too is a precipitate.

Eight inliers of Carboniferous Limestone are situated between Ashby de la Zouch and Melbourne on the northeastern side of the Leicestershire Coalfield. They may conveniently be divided into a western group consisting of the Ticknall, Calke, and Dimminsdale exposures, all of which occupy comparatively low ground in valleys, and an easterly group, Breedon Hill, Breedon Cloud, Barrow Hill, Osgathorpe, and Grace Dieu. The first three of the latter group form prominent hills rising above the Triassic rocks which surround them. They are also remarkable for the high dips in the rocks composing them. In the other inliers dips of less than 15° are the rule, while dips of about 5° are common.

Recently I have had the opportunity of working through a large collection of Lower Carboniferous fossils, of which there appears to be no record in geological literature. The collection was made by R. H. Tiddeman from the district between Pateley Bridge and Settle, and is now in the care of the Skipton Museum. The bulk of the collection was probably made between 1890 and 1900 and has hardly been touched since.

In an article on “Limestone and the Origin of Feldspathoidal Rocks”, which appeared in the Geological Magazine ten years ago, I referred to the malignite of Poohbah Lake, Western Ontario, and was so bold as to predict that “further work at Poohbah Lake … will eventually furnish evidence of the presence of limestone in contact with the alkaline eruptives”,1 In August, 1939, I found myself at last in a position to visit the locality and see how far my prediction could be verified.

During September, 1940, there were many falls of earth and other things upon the roofs of London. An example that I had excellent opportunities of studying consisted of loam, and gravelly loam, distributed in discrete patches over an extensive area. The material must have fallen from a considerable height, for everywhere it moulded itself with flat base to suit its foundation; and, whether forming mere pellets or splashes a few feet in diameter, it developed a surprisingly uniform summit level of little more than 1 inch in height. On breaking the loam across, one always found a system of close, roughly horizontal cracks, a type of rude joint cleavage. This structure persisted despite frequent wettings and dryings, even though when wet the loam became quite sodden.

A Recent paper in this journal by K. P. Oakley (1940) has drawn attention to certain structures in Recent rhyolitic ashes of Malaya, and contraverts the earlier view that these structures represent sponge spicules. Oakley suggests tentatively that most of them are the casts of minute spherical and tubular hollows in the material of the ashes. It may be of interest, therefore, to describe comparable material from New Zealand which appears to support this suggestion.

In 1838 Johnston in the first edition of his History of British Zoophytes instituted a genus Lepralia (the middle a should from its derivation be short) with seven type species—Cellepora hyalina Linn., Berenicea nitida Flem., Berenicea immersa Flem., Cellepora coccinea Abild., Eschara ciliata Pall., Discopora trispinosa Johnst., and Lepralia variolosa nov. The genus has had a very chequered career, as well as very heavy use.