Throughout the western portion of the South Island of New Zealand there extends a series of high ranges made up very largely of unfossiliferous greywacke and argillite, with rarely limestone. Parts of these formations have been variously grouped as the Aorere and Mount Arthur series and considered to be of Ordovician age.

A Question of considerable importance in the geology of the Greater Antilles has lately re-arisen and concerns the following alternatives:— 1. Whether in Jamaica an old granitic and metamorphic pre-Mesozoic (possibly pre-Palaeozoic) basement exists and can be recognized in the present structure of the island. 2. Whether the granite, serpentine, marble, and other igneous and metamorphosed rocks of the island are the result of Cretaceous and Tertiary intrusion and metamorphism.

Last summer Miss D. L. Reynolds kindly organized an excursion of ten, all told, to discuss her recent paper on “The Eastern End of the Newry Igneous Complex”(Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., xc, 1934, p. 585). We were introduced in most helpful fashion to both field exposures and microscope slices. In some particulars, differences of interpretation arose; and at the conclusion I circulated a brief memorandum. This by request I now offer, with trifling changes, for publication. Page and figure references, unless otherwise defined, apply to Miss Reynolds's paper.

The genus Oncograptus was founded by T. S. Hall (1914, p. 109) with the species Oncograptus upsilon T. S. Hall as type. The original definition reads: “Hydrosome at first biserial, but later dividing into two uniserial branches. Thecae long, narrow, and slightly curved. The form of the genus is quite different from that of any other graptolite. The form of the thecae and the great width of the branches seem to remove it from the Dicranograptidae.” In the same description Hall remarks upon the resemblance of the thecae to those of Isograptus (Didymograptus) caduceus, and observes that concrescence of the branches of D. caduceus would result in the formation of a rhabdosome “somewhat similar” to Oncograptus.

The scarcity of shells in the Denbighshire Coalfield has been commented on by a number of observers, and though numerous Carbonicola and Naiadites are to be found at certain horizons Anthracomya is exceedingly rare, particularly in the lower part of the Middle Measures. This lack of molluscan remains has made the zoning of the Coal Measures in Denbighshire a matter of considerable difficulty and only one occurrence of A. phillipsi (Williamson) has hitherto been recorded, namely from the Coed-yr-allt Beds, the middle division of the Upper Coal Measures.