The specimens described below were collected by my friend Mr. J. G. Hamling, F.G.S., and kindly placed by him in my hands for description. Being casts and often much obscured by injury and distortion, their identification must be in a degree problematical, but for the most part they seem to agree with German species of the Upper Coblenzien age.

The Fayûm, one of the largest depressions of the Libyan Desert, is situated some 50 miles south-west of Cairo. It is cut out in rocks of Eocene and Oligocene age, while still younger deposits of Pliocene and Post-Pliocene date are found within the hollow. The depression owes its origin to the action of the ordinary subærial denuding agents, which I have shown in previous papers were capable of producing the oases-depressions of Baharia, Farafra, Dakhla, etc. Faulting, which has played so important a part in the formation of the Nile Valley, appears to have had little or nothing to do with the production of the Fayûm and other depressions of the Libyan Desert.

In his Illustrations of the Botany of the Himalayan Mountains, published in 1839, Royle figures several important fossil plants from the Burdwan Coalfield of India. These are of especial interest, not only as being the first mention of several of the best known fossil types from the Lower Gondwanas of India, but also as among the earliest descriptions of members of the Glossopteris flora.

On both sides of the Klip River running through this district a shale predominates, varying in colour from greyish-brown to purple, having a conchoidal fracture, and the features of Ecca Shale, as described by Dr. Molengraaf (Trans. Geol. Soc. South Africa, vol. iv, pt. 5, pp. 107–112).

I.—Specimen from one of the blocks lying on the Ecca Shale on the declivity near the Klip River at the Station Hospital, Ladysmith. This is a bluish-grey rock of close texture, with a flaky and sometimes conchoidal fracture. The broken surface does not reveal the rock's internal structure; but on the weathered surface, which appears as a brown crust, the siliceous strings and bands passing through the rock stand out in high relief. The surface effervesces freely when touched with acid.

That the Norwegian fjords were originally river valleys is a statement which scarcely admits of controversy. In their form, outline, and topographical position they are simply prolongations of the valleys which descend into the sea partly submerged; and if the land were still further submerged, as it once was to the extent of 200 metres according to Andr. M. Hansen, the fjords would be prolonged beyond their present inland limits without much variation of form.

A wrong impression is given by the question: “Why will Mr. Ackroyd not have the 19 rivers?” (Geol. Mag., November, 1901, p. 505). The data collected by Sir John Murray are admirable additions to our natural knowledge, and they are used in my last article (Geol. Mag., October, 1901, p. 448), but I contend that they are not available for use in the expression—

and I cannot accept either the minor or major limits of time arrived at in this way. Perhaps a few more lines are necessary to further amplify my reasons.