The geology of the Bermuda group of islands has been so exhaustively treated by Professor Verrill, Dr. Alexander Agassiz, and Lieutenant (afterwards General) Nelson (in what will always be the classic memoir on the subject) that it may seem presumptuous for another description to appear. However, as there are some new facts to record, and nothing has yet appeared in the GeologicalMagazine on the geology of Bermuda, a paper may be not altogether out of place.

The specimen represented in the accompanying figure was obtained I from the Coal-measures of Westhoughton, near Bolton, Lancashire, and has been kindly lent to me by Mr. Thos. Midgley, of the Chadwiek Museum, Bolton. It is the nearly complete abdomen (opisthosoma) of an arachnid of the order Anthracomarti. The concavity of the outer margins of the pleural laminæ, producing the scalloped outline shown in the figure, indicates at once that the specimen must be assigned to the family Brachypygidæ; but it is less obvious to what genus it may belong. Mr. Pocock's monograph (see preceding footnote) gives only two genera as known in the family, namely Brachypyge, Woodward, and Maiocercus, Pocock. Comparison between these two is rendered difficult by the fact that of the former only the dorsal surface is known, of the latter only the ventral; of neither has any part but the opisthosoma yet been recognized. Accordingly, in differentiating his genus Maiocercus from Brachypyge, Mr. Pocock was compelled to fall back upon two characters—the general shape of the opisthosoma and the angles made by the anterior pleural laminæ. Brachypyge is defined as having the “opisthosoma much longer than wide; pleural laminæ of the second and third pleura-bearing terga inclined slightly backwards” Maiocercus as having the “opisthosoma much wider than long; pleural laminæ of the first, second, third, and fourth sterna inclined slightly forwards”.

Whilst engaged on the new Geological Survey in the neighbourhood of Mariow, I had the good fortune to come across an exposure of Chalk Rock yielding an exceptionally rich fauna, including a single specimen of an ammonite which appeared to be new to science. This ammonite was therefore shown to Dr. Kitchin, Mr. Crick, Dr. Rowe, and Mr. H. Woods, none of whom had seen the species before or could recognize it as a form already described. The discovery of new Cephalopods from the Chalk is now so rare that it seems worth while to draw attention to this, although the whole of the accompanying fossils have not yet been identified.

Non-marine Mollusca are extremely rare in the Pliocene deposits of this country, which fact must always be a matter of regret to the Palæontologist, since they are of the utmost importance in connexion with the origin of our present fauna. Unfortunately, in addition to their rarity, they are often decorticated or fragmentary, whence no doubt the differences in opinion as to their correct determination. A re-examination of all the available material has convinced us that there is still much to be done before it will be possible to reach finality. In these matters so much depends on one's standpoint. If one starts with the preconceived idea that the Pliocene shells must be identical with the recent forms, it is easy enough to identify them, even if one has to go to Japan or Greenland to find its present habitat. If, on the other hand, one considers it better to study carefully the results of recent work on other branches of the fauna, it is obvious that different results will be arrived at. Hence we are quite prepared for any differences of opinion as to the correctness of our views or the wisdom of creating four new species, as we now venture to do.

In the course of working through the large collection of Coal-measure fossils in the Manchester Museum I have recently discovered a number of interesting, and hitherto unrecorded, forms from the well-known ‘Marine Band’ in the Middle Coal-measures of Ashton-under-Lyne. The most interesting of these additions is undoubtedly Archæocidaris, a genus which is not at all common in the Coal-measures of this country, though fairly abundant in North America. Hitherto it has only been recorded from the North and South Staffordshire Coal-fields; its discovery, therefore, at Ashton constitutes the third record for the British Isles.

Some time ago the Manchester Museum purchased a selection of Coal-measure Fishes from the executors of the late Mr. John Ward, of Longton, and included with these were gutta-percha casts of two species of Arthropods. These were mounted on wooden tablets covered with green paper, one specimen being labelled: “Limulus trilohitoides, Buck. (Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii, pl. xlvi, fig. 3). Roof of the Upper Bent Mine, Middle Coal-measures, Hunt Lane, near Oldham. Original in the cabinet of E. W. Binny, Esq.” The other: “Limulus rotundatus, Prest. Coal-measures, Oldham.”

I am glad that my short article dealing with the occurrence of aragonite in the Middle Lias has evoked some interest. Professor Grenville Cole, who notices (with Mr. O. H. Little) this paper, has evidently delved deep, and I only hope that the publication of my preliminary note on aragonite in the Middle Lias has not prematurely precipitated that of his earlier research upon the matter from a more general point of view.