In connection with the preparation of the second edition of “Acadian Geology,” I have obtained, from friends who have been engaged in geological investigations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, some interesting illustrations of the entomology of the Carboniferous and Devonian Periods, which I have thought it might be useful to publish in advance of the appearence of my work.

As the remains of insects are rarely found in Carboniferous strata, a short account of three imperfect specimens, which have been discovered in the Durham coal-field, may not be deemed valueless. Indeed, with the exceptions of the specimens described from Coal-brook Dale by Prestwich, twenty-five years ago, and the examples of Xylobius sigillariœ of Dawson,—discovered by Mr. Tindall, in the Lower Coal Measures, near Huddersfield, and by Mr. Thomas Brown, of Stewarton, in the Upper Coal Measures of Kilmaurs,—I am not aware of any other fossils of this class having been noticed as occuring in Carboniferous rocks in England.

The district selected for this article embraces a very unusual variety of geological phenomena, consisting of different kinds of recent gravels and Tertiary deposits, Greensand table-lands and patches, Triassic sandstone and conglomerate, rocks belonging to the interval between the Trias and uppermost Silurian strata, trap, and granite.

At a time when those curious forms often assumed by the upper beds of limestone rocks are thought worth attention, and are brought forward by some geologists as evidences of sea-action, it may not be wholly without interest if I re-introduce a curiously moulded bed of this rock, occuring near Ulverstone.