Introductory .—It is only recently that the materials have been obtained for a complete comparison between the different members of the Carboniferous group as they occur in Ireland and Great Britain. Much misconception has, for example, prevailed in some quarters regarding the true position in the series of those beds which, in the south of Ireland, immediately overlie the Carboniferous Limestone; and by some means or other, which I have not fully been able to ascertain, the term “Coal-measures” has come to be applied to all the beds from the top of the Limestone up to the coal-bearing measures of the Leinster Coal-field and of the corresponding beds of Kerry, Limerick, and Clare. The consequence is that it has sometimes been supposed that the coal-bearing districts of the south of Ireland are much more extensive than is actually the case. As far as the maps of the Geological Survey are concerned, we are now taking steps to give to the public a truer idea of the actual limits of the coal-bearing strata, and also to correlate with the British series the strata between them and the Limestone. Mr. Hardman has nearly completed a resurvey of the coal-districts of Carlow, Kilkenny, and Tipperary, resulting in a more accurate and detailed representation of the different divisions; and I hope a similar revision will ultimately be extended to that large area in the south-west occupied by similar beds, with very little true Coal-measures at all, but which has been described only rccently as “one

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Notwithstanding the small amount of information contained in this communication, it becomes of great importance, when taken in connexion with the well-known coal-field of Heraclea. If we draw a line, N.E. and S.W., from Heraclea to the head of the Gulf of Nicomedia, all the hitherto known Devonian and Palaeozoic formations of this part of Asia Minor will be found on the N.W. side of this line, whereas the greatly-developed systems of Cretaceous and other rocks extend on the E. and S.E. of this line. A considerable development of the Carboniferous formation may therefore be looked for in the direction between Heraclea and the Gulf of Nicomedia, with great probability of finding other valuable coal-fields in the intervening district. FW. J. H.]

The Author, after referring to the investigations of previous authors, especially of Mr. Codrington and the officers of the Geological Survey, with which he in the main agrees, points out that the origin and mode of formation of the gravel-terraces of the Isle of Wight and of the New Forest district are still open to discussion. He points out that the levels of the higher beds on both sides of the Solent, up to about 400 feet, indicate the amount of subsidence of the whole area at a time when the stratified gravels, composed mainly of rolled flints, were formed at the margin of the uprising ridges of the Chalk in the post-Glacial Epoch, for this part of England. Preceding this was the great uplift indicated by Godwin-Austen, by which the British Isles were joined to the continent as land. By this uplift the English Channel was laid dry, and along its centre there ran a river from its source about the Straits of Dover to its outlet into the ocean through the Continental Platform. This river-channel is laid down on the Admiralty Charts under the name of ‘the Hurd Deep’ for a distance of 30 miles of its course, and has been named by the Author ‘the English Channel River.’ The Author considers the gravel-beds of this region to be the representatives of the High-level Gravels of the Midlands and Cromer; also of the ‘Interglacial Gravels’ of Cheshire and Lancashire; and of the shell-bearing beds of the Denbighshire Hills, and of Moel Tryfaen in Wales, at levels of about 1200 feet above the sea.