Mr. R. Mallet—whose theory on the source of volcanic heat was noticed in a former number of this Magazine—has followed it up by a second paper, read before the Royal Society in June last, and published in the last number (155) of the Proceedings, upon “The Mechanism of Stromboli,” one of the Lipari Islands, well known for the permanence of its volcanic activity, which seems to have been incessant for the last two thousand years at least. This insular and conical mountain rises more than 3,000 feet above, from a depth of nearly 2,000 feet below, the level of the Mediterranean, and exhibits the usual structure of a volcano, having an old breached crater on one side, from the bottom of which red-hot scoriæ and fragments of lava are thrown up, together with much steam, by explosions occurring at irregular intervals of from two or three to thirty or even occasionally forty minutes.

Palæontology, like most other sciences, has attracted a large number of students since the first pioneers cleared the way for inquiry and brought the fossil remains into something like connected order. This increase in the number of inquirers has borne fruit in the immense variety of fossil remains that are scattered about in museums and private collections, the variety being now so great that it has become almost impossible for one person to study the whole of them, in consequence of which the majority of students confine themselves to the fossils of one formation or to the remains of a natural order, as Invertebrata or Vertebrata. Here, again, the application of a number of investigators to one distinct branch is bringing a further increase to our knowledge in that branch. Take the case of fossil fishes. It was quite possible twenty or thirty years ago for the great palæontologist Agassiz to describe and figure what, as the result of seventeen years of close study, was then known of the fossil fishes of all formations; but the stimulus that resulted from the publication of his work has piled up the list in a wonderful manner, so that it would be well-nigh impossible for any ordinary palæontologist to describe them all now in anything like a satisfactory way. This great amplification necessitates inquirers to confine themselves to the fish remains of a single formation, or to a particular part of the fish, as for example, the teeth.

The specimen (No. 37,958 of the British Museum Collection), which forms the subject of the present notice, is from the Blackband Ironstone of Airdrie, and, I understand, from the same bed which yielded the first known specimen of Anthracosaurus Russelli. The fossil is unfortunately very imperfect, though it displays a considerable portion of the body of a large fish lying on its right side. Both the head and the caudal extremity, however, are gone, nor is the ventral margin shown; but the line of the back is pretty nearly intact, and is seen to be bordered by the long dorsal fin characteristic of Phaneropleuron and of Uronemus. What remains of the body shows a confused mass of ribs, spinous processes, and inter-spinous ossicles, compressed against a groundwork of what are apparently large and very thin rounded scales. The specimen, measuring 15½ inches in length, by 5½ inches in breadth at its broadest part, presents thus a considerable part of the abdominal, with the anterior part of the caudal region of a fish, which, when entire, must have been in all probability more than two feet long.

Having been engaged for many years in collecting and studying the corals of the Mountain Limestone of Scotland, I propose, in the present communication, to describe some of the new species which have come under my notice. Some of these were discovered in a thin bed of shale from five to nine inches thick, which overlies the low post of limestone in Trearn Quarry, near Beith, Ayrshire. Indeed, this horizon throughout Great Britain may be safely said to be the zone in which simple corals existed in greater abundance, and attained greater dimensions, than in any other section of the Mountain Limestone. There are a few forms found in the upper members of the period. So far, however, as my investigations have gone, these are limited both in genera and species; and, with only one or two exceptions, are all more or less simple in their organization. It is not my intention at present to enter into any elaborate stratigraphical arrangement of beds, or classification, or distribution of the different genera or species. That will form matter for a memoir, in which I hope to delineate not only the almost imperceptible gradation from one species into another, but also the persistent modifications that occur between the different genera. Indeed, those modifications are so constant, that it often becomes difficult to say where one genus begins, and its next ally ends. This is a result that can only be safely attained by examining an extensive collection of specimens, all of which must be sectioned with great care. From my own personal observations, assisted by my friends, I shall be able to note the stratigraphical distribution of the genera and species throughout the three kingdoms. Such a memoir is a great desideratum; and it can only be prepared from personal investigation and examination of sections. Only thus can we ascertain in what condition the genera and species are found.