It may seem strange to dwellers in this country under its present conditions to speak of relics of a Glacial Period being visible in the plains of the Ganges Valley, where the mean annual average temperature is about 77˚ F. and we all know what the maximum may rise to; and at the outset I must guard against misapprehension by saying that I do not mean to imply, by the title of my discourse, that the plains of India were ever, within geologically recent times, covered with snow and ice. We have evidence, it is true, that in long distant ages, at the beginning of the period that saw the filling up of the valleys of the old Gondwana continent, part of which still exists as the Peninsula of India, that is to say, when the deposits of clay and sandstone, supporting a luxuriant vegetation, now transformed into the coal of Raniganj and other localities, were beginning to be laid down, the higher ground of the Peninsula was under snow and ice, and that glaciers descended into the low ground and probably sent off icebergs into the surrounding seas. Traces of these events, which took place in what is known to geologists as the Talchir Period, even the old rock-floors grooved and striated by the passage over them of fragments of rock embedded in moving ice, have been found at the base of the Coal-measures in the Central Provinces and in Rajputana, while a bed containing striated and polished boulders, exhibiting unmistakable evidence of ice action, is known in the Salt Range of the Punjab. But with these, and with traces of what may prove to have been a still older ice age, of which Sir T. Holland brought some evidence before this Society in August, 1908, discovered by him near Simla, I do not propose to deal on the present occasion.

It is believed that the ancient Britons and the Welsh were fully aware of the precious metal which lay among their hills. Three Welsh chieftains are known to have possessed chariots of gold, and it is inferred that this gold was derived from mines which the Welsh worked at an early date. Many gold ornaments have from time to time been unearthed, and as their style differs entirely from that customary at the early Christian period, they are believed to belong to a time long anterior to that of Christianity. Again, it is known that the Romans under Julius Cæsar worked minerals in various parts of Britain, and there are many evidences of Roman mine-workings where gold must have been the principal, if not the sole, object of search. One of the most remarkable of these is outside Merionethshire, at Gogofau, near Pumpsaint, in Carmarthenshire, where the traces of Roman occupancy are undoubted. Another locality, this time in Merionethshire, is reported by Ramsay (12, p. 64) as on the banks of the Allt-y-Wenallt.

A small collection of fossils was made a few years ago by Mr. V. M. Turnbull from a cutting on the Alston Road, near Melmerby, and the author has already described a new species of Lichas (L. melmerbiensis) which was included amongst them. Several more new species of trilobites and other groups are now described, and the complete list of the fauna is as follows:—.

The great copper-mining district of Southern Spain and Portugal has been studied by several eminent geologists, and the problems presented in the geology of the field and of its ore-deposits have given rise to conflicting opinions. The three most debated points have been the origin of the ore-deposits, the relations of the igneous rocks, and the age of the sedimentary formations. The present paper, the field work for which was carried out during the last summer season, deals in the main with the two latter points, and the writer takes this opportunity of expressing his indebtedness to Professor W. W. Watts and to Dr. C. G. Cullis for their advice and suggestions during the subsequent petrological studies at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.

The city of Nottingham is built upon the outerop of the Trias. Building and road-making operations consequent upon its rapid growth often lead to the laying bare of the underlying Bunter, Keuper Waterstones and Marls. Unfortunately the wort is usually carried on with such rapidity that good exposures are often missed. A temporary cessation of activities in one part of the Sherwood suburb, however, left a beautiful exposure of the Waterstones. A careful examination of this during the past few months has led to the discovery of footprints and fish-remains. The footprints are of a type which does not seem to fit into the generally used system of classification. In 1857 the Rev. A. Irving found a Cheirotheroid print in the railway cutting at Colwick. This is the only record of the previous discovery of footprints in this district.