The knowledge of the internal structure and development of the different forms of Graptolites is very incomplete, owing to the unfavourable method of their preservation, Graptolites, in almost all cases, being found embedded in shale.

Hyænodon is one of the genera of fossil mammals which has been for a long time imperfectly known. Excellently preserved skulls have been described and figured by Leidy and Filhol, and some of the limb-bones and vertebræ by De Blainville and Schlosser. Material was, however, lacking for a satisfactory restoration of any of the species, and the specific refeŕence of the scattered bones found has always remained more or less uncertain. In the season of 1894 Mr. Hatcher had the good fortune to discover in the White River beds (Oligocene) of South Dakota a number of remarkably fine specimens pertaining to several species of Hyænodon, which at length enable us to gain an idea of the appearance of this most remarkable animal.

The writer of these notes had hoped to have been able long ago to let the vexed questions respecting Eozoön repose in peace in so far as he was concerned, and he is now induced to offer a short summary of the evidence in the case only with the view of correcting some misapprehensions that seem to have arisen in regard to points well established, and which, independently of any question as to the nature of Eozoön, belong to the certain data of geology. These misapprehensions lead to the confounding of the structures originally discovered by Logan with things in no way related to them, and from which they had been clearly distinguished by my own original studies, and by those of Hunt, Carpenter, and Rupert Jones. New facts relating to pre-Cambrian life have also been coming to light from time to time, and many of these are connected, either directly or indirectly, with the evidence respecting Eozoön.

Mr. Dugald Bell, F.G.S., has been so good as to send me a copy of his paper on the “Shelly Clays and Gravels of Aberdeenshire,” on which I beg leave to offer a few observations, as it deals with a subject in which I take much interest, namely, the origin and mode of formation of such deposits. His paper is mainly based upon one by Mr. T. F. Jamieson, of Ellon, also published in the same journal, and on a recent memoir by the Geological Survey of Scotland. There is no difference amongst these authors of any importance as regards the structure and composition of these post-Tertiary deposits, which are found adjoining the coast of Aberdeenshire; and they may be briefly described as follows, in descending order:—

Near the crest of the ascent to the lake the road divides: one branch passing to the left and south ascends over the rim of the basin of the lake, and skirting the lake for about a quarter of its circumference passes over the hill to the south-west, as described by Mr. Manross. The right-hand branch follows the flow of the pitch and enters upon the lake simply by a change of grade from a sharp ascent to a very slight inclination upwards towards the centre of the lake. I was particularly impressed with this fact, and took pains to verify my first impression upon a second visit, as it proved conclusively that, notwithstanding the vast quantities of pitch that had been removed from the lake, there is still a movement out of the lake, glacier-like, down the slope to the sea.