The exploitation of tungsten ores on a large scale is of comparatively recent development. Till lately the industrial applications of this metal and its compounds were very limited, and they were regarded rather in the light of chemical and mineralogical curiosities. In fact, the tungsten minerals were considered a nuisance by miners, owing to the difficulty of separating them from other valuable and equally heavy ores occurring in close association with them. Sodium tungstate was manufactured to a certain extent and used as a mordant in dyeing and for rendering textile fabrics fireproof, and tungstic oxide was sometimes employed in the making of yellow glass. About the year 1905 a demand arose for the metal for electric lamp filaments, but at the present time by far the most important application is in the metallurgy of steel. The addition of a small quantity of tungsten, not more than 7 or 8 per cent, together with about 5 per cent of chromium, has a remarkable effect on steel, rendering it both hard and tough and suitable for high-speed cutting tools. Since the beginning of the War the demand for the ores for this purpose has enormously increased, as also has the price; new sources are being sought for and opened up in many localities; in Colorado and California there was a few months ago a tungsten boom recalling the gold rushes of the early days.

At the request of Professor J. W. Gregory, F.R.S., of Glasgow University, the following report has been prepared dealing with some microscopical organisms entering into the composition of certain limestones from Central New Guinea. The material studied, comprising Foraminifera and Nullipore (Lithothamnium) remains, has been obtained from some rolled limestone pebbles which were collected in river-beds of the upper reaches of the Fly River by the Right Hon. Sir William Macgregor, G.C.M.G., during an expedition carried out in the years 1889 and 1890. Being desirous that these limestones should be scientifically examined, Sir William submitted them to the Geological Department of the University Glasgow in the hope that Professor Gregory and his staff might issue a statement as to their structural and geological value. In accordance with this request, therefore, the corals were first examined and described in a joint paper by Professor Gregory and Miss J. B. Trench, while some remarks on the Foraminifera and associated structures have been postponed for the present occasion. At the time when the corals were in course of description, the writer was appealed to for an opinion as to the geological age of one of the pebbles (No. 1), exhibiting corals and some smaller organisms, although to give aid in this direction it was necessary to prepare microscopical sections of the limestone for examination by transmitted light.

The pith-casts of Calamites are common Coal-measure fossils, sometimes of use in helping to fix the horizon of certain coals. They are, however, notoriously difficult taxonomically, and in several cases there is difference of opinion among authorities both as to the essential characters of a particular type of pith-cast, and also as to what is the most nearly correct name to apply to it. Immense space is still taken up by arguments as to what, exactly, some ancient and often manifestly rough drawing, supposed to represent a type, really depicts—with a view to maintaining a strict priority as regards nomenclature. If the original specimen is now lost, as is not infrequently the case, the guessing still continues. Some workers are not content to start their synonymies chronologically with the next oldest figure, the original of which still survives and the nature of which is agreed to on all hands.

Along the narrow belt of Upper Chalk that forms the northern margin of the Vale of Ham (or Shalbourne), a sunken and picturesque lane passes from the village of Inkpen in a direct line to Shalbourne. At a distance of about a quarter of a mile west of the cross-roads in the village (and about the same north-west of the church), the 500 ft. contour crosses this road. On the new series Survey map (Sheet 267) a quarry is marked on the northern side of the road near this point, and a northerly dip of 25° is recorded. The quarry is now almost completely grassed over, but about 100 yards to the east of it (practically on the line of the shaft of the arrow on the map) there is an open road-cutting, giving access to the Chalk, on both sides of the road.