In recording the regret which the world of science feels at the loss of Sir Richard Owen, we seem to stand in a more intimate and personal relation to him than many others, from the fact, that he was not only one of the early and frequent contributors to the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, but also was the official colleague of the writer during a quarter of a century.

The genus Coryphodon, established by Owen in 1846, is of great importance alike to geologists and palæntologists. It represents a remarkable group of large ungulate mammals now known to have lived both in America and Europe during early Eocene time. The remains are found in a distinct horizon, essentially the same in each, continent. This horizon is so well marked that geologists may use it as a base for determining the age of other strata. The Coryphodont mammals themselves are of special interest to anatomists, owing to the primitive characters shown in the skeleton. Perhaps their greatest importance lies in the fact, that these large hoofed mammals make their appearance suddenly in great numbers at the base of the Tertiary, without a hint as to their ancestral line, and with only diminutive generalized forms for their Mesozoic predecessors.

In 1885 Dr. C. A. White, F.C.G.S., Palæontologist to the U.S. Geological Survey, supplied me with some of the siliceous residue of a limestone belonging to the freshwater Jurassic Atlantosaurus-beds in Colorado, from which several casts of small Ostracoda were figured and described in the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, Dec. III. Vol. III. April, 1886, pp. 145–8, Pl. IV. Since that time Dr. White has kindly sent me somewhat similar material, obtained in like manner, by dissolving in dilute acid pieces of an impure limestone, which lies at the base of the Upper Cretaceous Series, from Cokeville, a hamlet in South-Western Wyoming, and belongs to the Bear-River Formation. The Ostracoda selected are figured in Plate XV. Figs. 1–9, 11–13, and 15. These casts represent the whole carapace in many if not all instances.

It is well known that the crushing teeth of the Pycnodont fishes as a rule are arranged with striking regularity upon the bones which bear them, the vomer in the upper jaw and the splenials in the lower jaw. They are disposed in longitudinal series, gradually increasing in size backwards, and there is only one genus satisfactorily known (Mesodon) in which there is any marked tendency towards the frequent disturbance of this linear arrangement.

Mr. Damon of Weymouth having recently received a third consignment of fossil fishes and Fish-remains from the Devonian Rocks of Canada, an interesting selection has been made for the Edinburgh Museum, and I am thus enabled to contribute some additional notes regarding the palæozoic ichthyology of this region. The specimens were, as before, collected by Mr. Jex.

Many ways of measuring geological time have been attempted by various geologists of eminence; but however diverse their methods, so far as I know, all finally hinge upon either the rates of denudation or accumulation. It is urged as an objection to this that in past ages such actions have gone on more rapidly, and therefore the calculations based upon present rates are valueless. Physicists on the other hand have sought to put a limit to the age of the earth much below what geologists generally demand. Reasoning from certain data which are necessarily more or less hypothetical, they say, that from the thermal condition of the globe at present, it cannot be more than from ten to twenty million years since it was at a temperature in which life on it would have been impossible. Geologists can hardly be blamed if they attach greater weight to their own observations and data and to reasoning that is more familiar and appears more certain and satisfactory to their minds.

Although it is now nearly twelve years since I left India, my interest has not abated in the scenes and subjects of former labours in that country, and I am still careful to note anything which is published in reference to them. This practice enabled me to add some facts to the history of the two above-named volcanoes in my Second Notice, besides quoting from the account by Mr. F. R. Mallet, the principal results of his survey made in conjunction with Captain Hobday, eleven years after my visit to them, which took place in the year 1873.

The commencement of the thirtieth year of the publication of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE appears to be an appropriate occasion to offer a short account of the life and work of one who for the first twelvemonths Edited, with Henry Woodward, this Journal, and has, ever since, been one of its most regular contributors.

The conclusions as to the stratigraphical relations of the volcano of Rhobell Fawr, north of Dolgelley, in Wales, which were arrived at by Mr. T. H. Holland and myself, have received kindly recognition from Sir Archibald Geikie in his Presidential Address to the Geological Society of London in 1891; and we may now consider that the great ring of Arenig volcanoes, Cader Idris, the Arans, Arenig Fawr, and Moelwyn, rose upon an area already shattered by sporadic Cambrian outbursts. After again visiting Rhobell Fawr in 1892, in company with Mr. Mervyn Marshall, I feel able to give some account of the rocks that build up that volcano and its outlying fort-like masses.

Our venerable friend Professor Prestwich, who has now attained his 82nd year, may serve as an admirable illustration of the law of “the survival of the fittest,” for years have failed to dim either the brightness of his eyes, or the clearness of his intellect; the only sign of advanced longevity being the inability to undertake those long walks over the Chalk Hills around Shoreharu, in which he, till lately, delighted to indulge.

The Phyllocarida, from North Wales, referred to in the lastReport (for 1892, p. 299) as having been lent by Mr. G. J.Williams, F.G.S., of Ffestiniog, have been duly examined, and several described and figured, together with some other specimens, in the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE for May, 1893, pp. 198–203, Plate X., by T. R. Jones and H. Woodward. These comprise Peltocaris Salteriana, sp. nov. (Fig. 1), Dipterocaris Etheridgei, J. and W., 1884 (Fig. 3), Aptychopsis Williamsii, sp. nov. (Fig. 7), Ceratiocaris insperata, Salter, 1866 (Figs. 8 and 9); besides a fragment? (Fig. 6), an undetermined specimen (Cut, p. 203), a Conularia (Fig. 2), and two Mytiloid shells (Figs. 4 and 5).

The Rev. Richard Baron, F.G.S., of the London Missionary Society, has sent to the British Museum some interesting reptilian remains from the Jurassic rocks of Madagascar, which he obtained during 1891, at Andranosamonta village, a locality situated in the north-western part of the Island. They were enclosed in a tenacious slielly limestone, so that before their examination could be proceeded with it was necessary to submit them to careful development and cleaning, a work whioh has been most ably carried out by Mr. Richard Hall, the Assistant Formatore of the Geological Department.

The following notes have been drawn up from a study of specimens which were collected by G. F. Scott Elliot, Esq., during the earlier of two recent expeditions in Africa. He followed the Nile to somewhat beyond the second cataract, and brought back more than 130 examples of various rocks. The collection was sent to University College for examination, which I was allowed to undertake by the kindness of Professor Bonney, to whom I am further indebted for much help and advice on points of difficulty. A detailed description has been furnished to Mr. Scott Elliot to be included in the account of his journey, which it is to be hoped will be published before long. It may, however, be useful to have a short summary of the chief points of geological interest for general reference in an easily accessible publication.

Of the fossil fish now described I know only two specimens, of which one is in the Manchester Museum, Owen's College, the other in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London.

A number of restorations of dinosaurian reptiles have been recently made by the writer, based upon American specimens which he has personally investigated. Reduced figures of three of these restorations have already appeared in this Magazine; namely, Brontosaurus and Stegosaurus from the Jurassic, and Triceratops from, the Cretaceous. Three others of interest are given in the present Number; Anchisaurus from the Triassic, Ceratosaurus from the Jurassic, and Claosaurus from the Cretaceous.

Since the year 1885 the various zones of the Gault at Folkestone have been systematically examined by one of us for the purpose of recording the Foraminiferal fauna of that deposit; the report upon which is now being published in the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society.

In 1886 the author, during a visit to Ilfracombe, obtained some specimens of Middle-Devonian limestones which, at the time of collecting, he supposed to be formed of Syringopora, on account of the granulated weathered surface, and especially since the coral named had been recorded from the locality.

The genus Tapirus of all the recent Ungulata, is the most discontinuous in its distribution over the Earth's surface. Wallace, in his great work on the “Geographical distribution of Animals,” in referring to extinct Tapirs, remarks: “the singular distribution of the living species is thus explained, since we sea that they are an old world group, which only entered the American continent at a comparatively recent epoch.” He reaches this conclusion by the fact that at the time his work was written (1876) the only known remains of the Tapiridse in America were from the Post-Pliocene deposits.

Some of this miscellaneous series of old fossils have been in the collections in the British Museum many years; but, owing to their small size and doubtful characters, they have not found an abiding place in any special zoological group.

In a paper read by me before the Geological Society of London on November 26th, 1890, I mentioned that I had obtained evidence during a recent visit to North Devon which had led me to believe that far too little importance had hitherto been assigned to the results of movements in the earth's crust as affecting the succession of the rocks in that area. I mentioned also that the supposed continuous upward succession from the rocks on the shore of the Bristol Channel to those in the neighbourhood of Barnstaple, including, according to some authors, no less than ten distinct groups, was an erroneous interpretation; for the beds are greatly plicated and faulted and several times repeated. Therefore instead of being one continuous series with a regular dip to the south, the beds are much folded in several broken troughs.inthis paper I purpose giving some examples of the folds and faults near Ilfracombe which will enable those who visit that neighbourhood to verify the statements which I have made in regard to some of the rocks in that area.