For many years palæontologists have anxiously awaited the reconstruction of the complete skeleton of Diprotodon by Dr. E. C. Stirling, Mr. Zietz, and their colleagues in the South Australian Museum. In 1893, when it was announced that numerous nearly complete skeletons of this gigantic extinct marsupial had been discovered in the arid interior of South Australia, it was hoped that all details of its osteology would soon be known; but the difficulties of excavating and transporting the fragile bones, and the skill and patience needed in preparing them after they reached the Museum in Adelaide, were so considerable as to necessitate long delay in obtaining satisfactory results. At last, however, a mounted reproduction of a skeleton has been completed in plaster, and Dr. Stirling has published three excellent photographs of the specimen in the “Report of the Board of Governors of the Public Library, Museum, and Art Gallery of South Australia for 1905–6,” lately received. The Governors of the South Australian Museum have given a copy of this restoration to the University of Cambridge, where it is now mounted in the Museum of Zoology. They have also generously presented to the British Museum a set of actual limb-bones and caudal vertebræ, with sufficient plaster casts to complete the reconstructed skeleton which is shown in Plate XV. As this restoration differs in some respects from that in Adelaide, it appears to need a brief explanation.

In the “Third and Final Report, of the Geological Survey of Natal and Zululand” that has just been published the Cretaceous rocks and their fauna receive considerable attention; Mr. William Anderson, F.G.S., the Government Geologist, gives an excellent summary (pp. 47–64) of all the information he had been able to obtain respecting the Cretaceous rocks of Natal and Zululand, and there are two contributions on the fauna of some Cretaceous deposits in Zululand, one by Mr. R. Etheridge and the other by the present writer. Before referring particularly to the Cephalopod fauna of the Cretaceous rocks of Ratal and Zululand it may be of interest to give a brief sketch of the distribution of these rocks as recorded by Mr. Anderson.

The general direction of glaciation in the north-east of Anglesey is from about N.N.E. to S.S.W., with local variations of a few degrees on either side. These are but of minor importance, the general trend being remarkably steady, so much so as even to indicate before-hand the existence and approximate position of unknown occurrences of certain rocks by thin trains of boulders.

One is frequently asked the question, how long ago is it since certain geological phenomena took place in which the questioner is interested for the time being. How long ago were the great coal-beds deposited, or how long ago is it since the chalk was formed at the bottom of the sea?