In the region east of the south-western belt of Ceylon, garnet is stable in biotite-bearing pelitic rocks which belong to the hornblende-granulite subfacies. In the south-western belt, which includes Zone B of the eastern part of the Gampaha sheet, garnet is unstable in biotite-bearing pelitic rocks, garnet reacting with biotite to produce cordierite which has a widespread occurrence in the belt to which it is confined. To accommodate the stable cordierite-bearing pelitic assemblages the erection of a cordierite-granulite subfacies is necessary. Wollastonite-bearing rocks, which commonly occur in the belt and are confined to it, belong to the cordierite-granulite subfacies.

The beginning of melting of mineral assemblages of alkali feldspar, plagioclase and quartz in the system Ab-Or-Q-An cannot be treated in terms of eutectic points in subsystems which are defined on the basis of the ratio Ab/ An. Such subsystems do not exhibit unique melting temperatures or unique compositions of the first liquid produced. It is shown theoretically and demonstrated experimentally that these three minerals may coexist with liquid over a considerable portion of the melting range.

Tholeiitic contact rocks and a wide zone (White Allivalite) rich in primary precipitate calcic plagioclase are marginal to a layered allivalite series in a funnel-shaped intrusion. The high structural level apparently precludes the possibility that the ultrabasic layered rocks are the basal part of an accumulate from a tholeiitic magma. It is suggested, therefore, that a suspension of calcic plagioclase in a liquid more basic than basalt gave rise to an approximately equal volume of layered ultrabasic rocks by fractional crystallization. Emplacement was probably initiated as a tholeiitic cone-sheet complex, followed by the injection of the ultrabasic suspension in a volume sufficiently large to form a funnel-shaped body within the cone-sheet complex.

Upper Palaeozoic (Permian and possibly Carboniferous) basal sandstones and carbonate rocks rest with angular unconformity on Hecla Hoek rocks in the south-western part of the island of Nordaustlandet, Spitsbergen. Upper Palaeozoic rocks are in turn disconformably overlain by Lower Mesozoic (Triassic and possibly lowermost Jurassic) shales, siltstones, and minor sandstones. The Upper Palaeozoic-Lower Mesozoic sequence thins by sedimentary convergence north-eastward from more basinal areas in Vest-spitsbergen to a stable shelf in Nordaustlandet.

Evidence for the growth of andalusite and staurolite porphyroblasts prior to the first penetrative movements in the rocks of the Mt. Lofty Ranges is presented. The implications of this unusual observation are discussed.

Cruziana semiplicata (Salter) is recorded, generally in abundance, from previously known and new localities within Upper Cambrian (Ffestiniog) sediments in Snowdonia, and the Portmadoc area, North Wales. C. furcifera (D'Orb) is recorded for the first time in the British Isles from four localities within Lower Ordovician (Arenig) sediments on St. Tudwal's Peninsula, North Wales.

It is shown that each of these species is of limited but different range, and it is suggested that they could be useful in distinguishing between otherwise unfossiliferous Cambrian and Ordovician strata.

Tracks believed to have been made by a crawling gasteropod are described from a loose block of Upper Carboniferous grit from Soyland Moor, near Todmorden, Yorkshire.

Five faunal lists of conodonts recovered from isolated Viséan outcrops in the north of England are presented. The fauna of the Bowland Shale at Burnsall, Yorkshire, and that of the Orionastraea Bed at Bordley, Yorkshire, are representative of the Gnathodus mononodosus Assemblage Zone. The fauna of the Bollandoceras hodderense Bed (B1), and that of a limestone near the top of the Worston Shale Group (B2) at Little Mearley, Lancashire, represent the Mestognathus beckmanni-Gnathodus bilineatus Assemblage Zone. The presence of conodonts in the reef limestone of Swinden, Yorkshire, is also noted.

The discovery of species of Kootenia and Bailiella known from the Middle Cambrian of western Newfoundland (“Pacific Province”) and southeastern Newfoundland (“Atlantic Province”) in limestone within volcanic rocks near New World Island, eastern Notre Dame Bay, is the first demonstration of the presence of Cambrian in the volcanic belts in North America, and also shows the mixing of forms from the two provinces.

In the Jimberlana Norite the heteradcumulate and adcumulate rocks are found in adjacent layers. The heteradcumulate occur immediately before the heterad minerals appear as cumulus grains in an adcumulate rock. It is considered that both heteradcumulate and adcumulate textures result from supercooling in the magma. Heteradcumulates develop when seeds of the heterad mineral are not available in the magma and adcumulates after they have formed.

Monograptus hipposideros sp. nov., a new Lower Llandovery monograptid, is described from Coal Pit Bay, Northern Ireland. With distinct “horseshoe” curvature and simple thecal shape it is similar to, and is compared with Monograptus cyphus s.l. Lapworth, M. gregarius Lapworth and M. leei Hsü.

Farsundite from the type locality in southern Norway is described. The use and abuse of the term is discussed. It is recommended that the term should be restricted to use as a local specific name for the granitic rocks of the Farsund area.

Fresh information on the ecology, sedimentology and structure of the Lower Silurian (Llandovery) Purple Shale of Shropshire has emerged as a result of large-scale excavations. The griestoniensis Zone is proved, and correlated by shelly fossils with the C5 substage of the type Llandovery area. Current directions indicate a source area up-slope to the south-east. Most of the fauna constitutes a Clorinda community, but towards the top of the sequence a Clorinda/Stricklandia mixture is developed.