Iceland—that land of Frost and Fire, an island which, though as X large as Ireland, is, apparently, but a crust of hardened lava over a seething cauldron of the same substance, bearing on its frozen surface eternal snows and glaciers—has been this year in extraordinary commotion, socially and politically, as well as physically. It has celebrated the millenary of its colonization, and for the first time in this long period received a visit from its sovereign; while it has been so devastated of late by frequent fiery eruptions, the ashes from which destroy its pasturage—the only resource of the islanders—as to have driven them, it is said, to the desperate resolve to emigrate en masse, and leave their native land for a safer, at least, if not a more genial residence, in the far North-West of the American Continent.

Shell elongated, spire composed of many convex whorls, which are very finely striated, 2 or 3 of the striæ being very distinct and wide apart in front of the sutures. The last 2 whorls have 10 or 11 and the other whorls have 14 or 16 well-marked ribs, with occasional varices. On the last whorl there is a slight angularity in place of keel. The wing exactly resembles that of A. Parkinsoni, and in this may be distinguished from that of A. Mantelli. The anterior canal is moderately long.

If the line passing through those three grand centres of volcanic action—Vultur, Vesuvius, and Epomeo—be produced to the westward, it will strike the very interesting igneous masses of the Ponza Islands. These insignificant islands, which, from the early Roman times down to the present day, have figured in history only as places of banishment for criminals, possess for the geologist the very highest interest. This is due not only to the wonderful characters of the rock-masses which compose them, but also to the admirable manner in which these are exposed to our study by the extreme denudation to which they have been subjected.

The late Professor John Phillips requested us to draw up, for an Appendix to his new edition of “The Geology of Yorkshire,” a generic list of the Foraminifera of the English Oolites. He had himself, indeed, supplied us with some good material from the clays near Oxford. We have noted the following Foraminifera from the Lower Oolite, Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays, and the Portland Limestone, in our collection.

This celebrated siderolite has recently been sawn into two nearly equal parts, and the occasion presented a fitting opportunity for an exhaustive examination of its constituent minerals, more especially of the olivine forming the chief ingredient. It was accordingly undertaken by von Kokscharow, at the desire of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and his memoir is mainly devoted to a description of the crystallographic characters of the silicate enclosed in the nickel-iron.

From time to time I have accumulated a large number of results obtained in identifying precious stones by means of their specific gravity. From these results I have selected about 70, which will be found arranged below. The observations have been made with care, and, where no temperature is given, at 15° 5 C.; an asterisk denotes those determinations in which a very accurate assay balance by Oertling was used, and in which the specimens were immersed in alcohol, not in water. In these latter determinations any error would be confined to the third place of decimals.

The necessity for a reform in the present nomenclature of the Drift is apparent from the different papers on the subject, but more especially from the note appended to Mr. Bird's supplementary paper on the “Post-Pliocene Formations of the Isle of.Man” (Geol. Mag. May, 1875, p. 228). The author of this paper states that this glacial drift is “generally marine.” May I ask how a drift deposited in the sea can be called glacial? Undoubtedly, originally, it was ice-formed, but so also are all the drifts or the major portion of them, that at the present day are accumulating in the seas round our islands, in our lakes, and in our river valleys; let them be shingle, gravel, sand, silt, or a boulder drift. A normal glacial drift must be deposited direct from ice.

In the postscript to his paper on the Post-Pliocene Formation of the Isle of Man, Mr. J. A. Birds takes exception to my classification of the Manx drifts. He states that, “ a priori, is it not against Mr. Horne's view of his Lower Boulder-clay being really such that there should be intermediate formations of sand and gravel when the cold was at its extreme, and the ice, according to his showing, from 2000 to 3000 feet thick?” To those who are well acquainted with the appearances presented by interglacial deposits, this objection cannot have any weight.