Some time since Prof. T. Rupert Jones directed my attention to a curious fossil in the British Museum, obtained by Mr. Bain from Styl Krantz, Sniewe Berg, South Africa. The matrix is of the same nature as that in which the Dicynodonts are so commonly found, and exhibits the greater part of the skeleton, but unfortunately not the skull, of a Lacertilian reptile, not more than seven or eight inches in length. It is represented of the natural size in Plate XI., Fig. 1. The trunk is about two and a half inches long, and appears to have attained hardly more than one-third the length of the tail, which is bent round into three-quarters of a circle, and consists of vertebræ, which are very stout near its root, but become attenuated at its termination (a). The centra of these vertebræ appear to have been slightly constricted in the middle, and are about one-tenth of an inch in length. The anterior caudal vertebræ present strong and long transverse processes. The dorsal vertebræ can hardly have been fewer than eighteen or twenty, and seem also to have possessed hour-glass shaped centre. They are for the most part provided with long curved ribs, the hindermost four or five pair of which become gradually shorter. One of two vertebræ in front of the sacrum may have been devoid of ribs.

During the last few years, in lecturing on geology at Rugby School, I have frequently given an explanation of the causes that produce contortions and faults, which I find, to my surprise, is not given in the ordinary text books, and yet seems to me an extremely obvious explanation.

The next group of agates which I have to describe belongs to the nested series; but is distinguished from all other varieties of that series by having a pure chalcedonic surface (unaffected, except in the form of it, by the material of its gangue); and by uniformity of colour; consisting only of white and transparent grey bands, wholly untinged by more splendid colours. But nearly all the agates of this group which now occur in the market have been dyed brown or black at Oberstein, to the complete destruction of their loveliest phenomena.

The following is taken from a MS. by the late Mr. John Brown, F.G.S., of Stanway, Essex, and given by him to ProfessorHenslow, who gave it to me. The actual measurements are not mentioned, but I believe the scale to be about an eighth of an inch to a foot. It is valuable as having evidently been made when the beds were better seen than usual. Moreover, the constant waste of the cliff alters the section continually.

Some years ago, Dr. Dawson, who has himself been very successful in the discovery of insect-remains, described and figured fragments of a species of myriapod under the name of Xylobius sigillaria. The remains, many of which occurred in coprolites of reptiles, were obtained at the Joggins, in upright Sigillaria trees, between coal-groups fourteen and fifteen of division four in Dr. Dawson's detailed section of the Nova Scotia formations. As his descriptions of the animal and its mode of occurrence are easily accessible to English geologists, it is needless to refer to them more explicitly. The coprolites, however, yielded some true insect remains; these, as well as fragments of insects, not coprolitio, were kindly sent me for examination by Dr. Dawson. They consist almost entirely of crushed and indeterminate masses of chitinous matter; the few detached and connected abdominal segments which can be distinguished in variably show that the abdomen was slender and the insect of medium size. Beyond this, little can be said of them. I noticed, however, two remains of eyes; one crushed, distorted, and ill-defined, the other, the beautiful fragment mentioned by Dr. Dawson, whose original size it is difficult to determine. The facets are large and regularly disposed, somewhat resembling the Perlidœ; but the proportion of the eye to the body varies so much in insects that it is impossible to judge of the size of the animal to which this fragment belonged. A few articulations of an antenna are seen on one of the stones; they probably belonged to a very small or very young cockroach. All the remains of insects appear to be neuropterous or orthopterous. I believe I have distinguished five different kinds. There were also two leeches belonging to distinct genera.