The ostracods described in this paper have all been obtained from the Goniorhynchia boueti bed, as exposed at the little peninsula known as Herbury (“Herbeyleigh” in some of the older geological literature), near Langton Herring, some five miles to the west of Weymouth. The bed is at sea level at the north-west corner of Herbury, and is there about one foot thick. It is from this point (national grid ref. 30/610810) that the samples were taken for the separation of microfossils. Polyzoans, baby brachiopods, foraminifera, “vertebral” ossicles of ophiuroids, radicles of echinoids and minute gastropods, make up as diverse and interesting an assemblage as that formed by their better known macroscopic contemporaries.

The Ashgillian as the name for the uppermost series of the Ordovician system was proposed by Marr in his address to the Geological Society in 1905, and subsequently further justified by him in a paper in the Geological Magazine in 1907.

The metamorphism of the Durness dolomite horizons in the aureole of the Beinn an Dubhaich granite of Skye has long provided one of the best known examples of dedolomitization and progressive thermal metamorphism of siliceous dolomites recorded in the literature. Harker's study (1904) concerned itself primarily with assemblages regarded as derived without notable accession of material during metamorphism and the occurrence of products of metasomatic origin at the contact of the granite has hitherto received but little notice in print. Yet as long ago as 1897, Geikie had written of this contact: “… the most abundant and interesting deposits are metalliferous. Fragments of a kind of ‘gossan’ may be noticed all along the boundary line of the boss, and among these are pieces of magnetic iron ore and sulphides of iron and copper. The magnetite may be seen in place immediately to the south of Kilbride. A mass of this ore several feet in diameter sends strings and disseminated particles through the surrounding granophyre and is partially coated along its joints with green carbonate of copper” (Geikie, 1897, p. 384). It is of interest to note further that a record of “a mineral resembling humite” from this same contact is made in the Annual Report of the Geological Survey for 1896 (1897).

The Rosroe Peninsula, on the south side of Killary Harbour, Co. Galway, is formed of the Rosroe Grits, mapped by the Geological Survey of Ireland (1875) as “Lower Silurian”. Kilroe (1907) in a rapid revisionary survey of Galway and Mayo, described the succession on Rosroe as inverted (op. cit. p. 154, n. 3):—

“ Mr. McHenry informs me that the fossils (graptolites) on the south side are indicative of Upper Llandeilo, while those on the north side are Lower. This being the case, the order of the beds is inverted, as they dip northerly.”

During a recent excursion to Shropshire members of a Sedgwick Club party collected a number of graptolites, and some of these, supplemented by specimens collected by the writer many years ago, now seem worth recording.

The formation of a fold mountain chain is, essentially, a thermal phenomenon, as may be deduced from the internal locus of the forces involved, the frequent association of magrriatic activity with erogenic movements, and the widespread thermal and regional metamorphism of the sediments within the deeper parts of the mountain belt.

The topmost band of sandstone in the Weald Clay at Capel (6) is now exposed for 100 yards, and varies in thickness from 8 inches at the southern end of the face to 1 foot at the northern end. The stone is glauconitic and highly micaceous, and carries so much fresh biotite on certain bedding-planes that they are heavily darkened. Flakes of biotite and muscovite commonly reach 2 mm. in diameter, and occasionally 3 mm. No petrological facies like it is known in the older Hastings Beds outcropping to the south and south-east. The petrography of the sandstone therefore merits description, and some discussion of the problems which it raises.