The statuary marbles of Carrara have been repeatedly asserted to be metamorphic limestones of earlier Mesozoic or later Palæozoic age. Similar statements were once frequent in regard to other mountain regions, but they have one by one dropped out of geological literature. This, however, is such a hardy perennial as to be still repeated in petrological and other textbooks. Doubts, however, were felt by the first author in 1878, and these became almost certainties after 1886, but as each visit was only for a few hours, and did not allow of a proper examination of the rocks in situ, he deferred writing on the subject till he could spend a longer time at Carrara. That opportunity, however, never came, and is not now likely to occur ; but on finding not long since that his friends, Professor Boyd Dawkins and the Rev. H. H. Winwood, had visited the quarries in 1898, and the latter had published an account of the district, with a sketch-section drawn by the former, he communicated with them, and the following paper summarizes the experience of the three, which it is hoped may help in laying another metamorphic ghost.

The object of this essay is to outline the connexion between earthmovements and the formation of the River Tyne drainage area; the period of its formation is also alluded to, though it is less definable. This object becomes more accessible on dividing the area into the following parts and considering each separately

A. The Main Valley of the Tyne.

B. The Watersheds South of the Main Valley.

C. The Watersheds North of the Main Valley.

D. The Earth movements considered stratigraphically.

E. The Eelationship to other Drainage Areas.

The recognition of teschenites in the Midland Valley of Scotland, first by Teall and later by several other petrographers, has led to the discovery of numerous varieties of analcite-rich rocks in th same area. One of the most interesting of these is the unique rock discovered in an old quarry at Barshaw near Paisley, during the remapping of the district by the officers of the Geological Survey of Scotland. A preliminary description of this rock as a weathered theralite was given by Mr. E. B. Bailey in 1909. In the previous year a chemical analysis by Mr. E. G. Radley had appeared. A fuller description is given in the Survey Memoir on the Glasgow District (1911). According to Mr. R. G. Carruthers the theralite is probably part of an igneous mass which is persistently found at the Hurlet Limestone horizon of the Carboniferous Limestone Series in the Paisley district. Tlie petrography of the rock, as investigated by Mr. Bailey, makes clear its relationship to the melanoeratic ijolites of Madagascar described by Lacroix, and named ‘bekinkinite’ by Rosenbusch. It is considered as a special modification of the Paisley teschenite or dolerite.

Up to the present marine fossils have been recorded in Middle Coal-measures in the South Lancashire Coal-field at two horizons only. They are (1) in the banks of the Tame, near Ashtonunder-Lyne, found by Professor A. H. Green, and at Ashton Moss Colliery, about 750 feet above the Great Mine, discovered by the late George Wild. (2) Mr. H. Bolton, F.R.S.E., informs me that the Californian or Thin Bed of Fulledge Colliery, Burnley, which is 410 feet above the Arley Mine, is a marine horizon.

This paper gives the results of investigations made during the early part of the present year with the object of elucidating the relation of the Coal-measures to the Lower Carboniferous rocks in the Clapton and Clevedon districts of Somersetshire.

The resemblance of the oral face of an Edrioasteroid to an Asteroid has not merely been remarked on by nearly every writer on the group, but has led many of them to far-reaching conclusions (e.g. Steinmann, 1888 ; Neumayr, 1889). None the less no exact comparison of the structures has yet been made ; nor indeed was such possible until accurate descriptions were available. These have now been provided for various recent and fossil Asterozoa by many writer referred to in the sequel, and especially by Mr. W. K. Spencer (1914, “Monogr. Brit. Palæoz. Asterozoa” Palæontogr. Soc).

The rocks described below were collected by Colonel Andrade, in 1904, on the road which begins at Senza do Itombe on the Loanda-Malanji Railway, and runs in a north-easterly direction to Bango.