To the old volcanoes of East Fife Sir Archibald Geikie assigned a Permian age. In the course of a characteristically able series of investigations he discerned that on the shore at Lundin Links one vent had penetrated some of the highest members of the Scottish Coal Measures, whereas at Kennoway another could be seen to have risen through the Millstone Grit. There further appeared to be a general similarity in the lithologic and petrographic characters of the materials of the entire group, thus linking them together, and they seemed to have taken birth after the inception of the tectonic features of the area. Only one simple conclusion emerged from a consideration of these facts, namely, that the vents must be referable to some period of post-Carboniferous time. In support of that opinion he pointed especially to the Largo district, where he thought he could detect a sheet of fragmental volcanic material resting with a distinct unconformability upon the folded and denuded Carboniferous strata, which supposition, of course, could it be confirmed, would render further discussion upon the matter unnecessary. But in the East Fife Memoir it is stated that the sections which might be expected to furnish critical evidence are not clear.

The Geological Department of the British Museum is much indebted to Dr. Cowper Reed for his careful description of the Girvan fossils which he assigns to Cornulites (Geol. Mag., Vol. LX, 1923, pp. 268–76). A slight correction, unfortunately, is necessary. Various specimens received from Mrs. Robert Gray as “Tentaculites” were registered in the Department under the numbers correctly quoted by Dr. Reed. He himself, in returning the specimens to us, pointed out, also correctly, that some of them were of quite different nature. He omitted, however, in some instances, to remove those numbers from the lists that he quoted. To prevent further confusion, the numbers to be cancelled are given below. At the same time, opportunity is taken to quote the number of the specimen that is hereby selected as the holotype of each new species. The numbers then remaining will denote the paratypes.

The publication of Dr. Stamp's Introduction to Stratigraphy has confirmed certain doubts we have for some time entertained concerning the mechanism which he believes to have been responsible for the cycles of sedimentation during the Eocene Period. When reading through the proofs we made known to him our doubts, but as the theory appears in an unmodified form in the book, we feel justified in reopening discussion of the subject.

The alnoites form one of the rarest groups of dike rocks. Owing to their restricted distribution, they have remained comparatively little known, outside of the original alnoite of Alnö I., and a few North American occurrences, until the last few years. Recently, owing to discoveries in Canada (near Montreal), and near the Bohemian Mittelgebirge (in the Polzen valley), a great deal of interesting information regarding the alnoites has come to hand, which shows that the alnoites form a composite group of great interest; that the field relations of the alnoites indicate that absorption of limestone may have had an important effect in establishing the type of magma from which the alnoites are derived; and that absorption of limestone has undoubtedly given rise to a number of interesting rock types, which are to be regarded as branches of the main alnoitic stem. Most of these new rock types have been described by Scheumann (1), from the Polzen district. Some have been found near Montreal, and have been described by Harvie (2), Bowen (3), Howard (4), and the writer (5). The description by the writer of a plutonic rock (okaite) from near Montreal, which is clearly related to the hypabyssal alnoite group, adds interest to a general view of this group of lamprophyre dikes, and suggests ideas which may be extended to the monchiquite, fourchite, and camptonite groups of dike rocks.