In his last published volume on the Vertebrata of the Territories,1 Prof. Edward D. Cope has figured and described many new and remarkable forms of the Order Ungulata from the Eocene of Wyoming. The most important and interesting among the numerous species described being the genus Phenacodus, of which the nearly entire skeletons of two species have been discovered, namely P. primœvus, represented in our plate (Plate II.) and P. Vortmani.

I Heard this communication read at the Geological Society in June last, and I made some remarks upon it which are noticed in the Proceedings of the Society. A considerable portion of the paper consisted of criticisms of some of my work which appeared in the British Fossil Corals (2 ser. Pal. Soc. part ii. Nos. 1 and 2, 1869–70). Some specimens were exhibited, in the author's absence, which were presumed to afford evidence of a satisfactory kind. But it was observed that the very imperfect and bad condition of the fossils did not substantiate the author's statements.

Since the publication of William Smith's Map of Norfolk in 1819, the sections around West Dereham and Shouldham have been accepted as proving the occurrence of true Gault in this part of West Norfolk. Messrs. Rose,2 Fitton,3 and later writers, all accept this determination. Mr. Teall,1 writing in 1873, points out the close relation of the fossils from the “Coprolite Bed” of West Dereham to those of the “Ammonites mammillaris zone” of Folkestone, and correlates the overlying blue marly clay with the Gault, from the occurrence in it of Ammonites interruptus.

The Lower Lias in Leicestershire commences with clays and limestones (Strenshain Series), succeeded by clays and shales. In its palasontological characters, as well as in its petrological features, it agrees in the main with the Lias of contiguous districts. The following life-zones are apparently represented, viz. zones of Ammonites planorbis, angulatus, Bucklandi, semicostatus, oxynotus, armatus, Jamesoni and capricornus.

In the case of a vertical cliff, Mr. Fisher has shown that the uneroded surface of rock underneath a talus is in the form of a semi-parabola.1 The object of this note is to show that the form is parabolic, even if the cliff be not initially vertical, assuming, with Mr. Fisher, (1) that the cliff-face is weathered uniformly at all points, and (2) that the disintegrated material is spread evenly over the surface of the talus, so as to maintain it always at the same slope. The proposition may be proved analytically, as in Mr. Fisher's paper, or geometrically as follows.

Those interested in the geology of the Upper Tertiaries must have noticed the divergence in the views entertained by different writers as to the succession of the various strata of which they are composed. Sundry causes may be assigned for this, such as the disposition in some quarters to regard the “lapse of time occupied in the accumulation of even our later Tertiary deposits” “as representing but a very brief chapter in geological history,” or the massing of the several groups of strata in bulk, or putting aside as of little value the organic evidence they contain, which, even where this is appealed to, is too narrowly treated, as where one author— a specialist in his own branch — asks, “Could the more modem Tertiaries be classed by their Invertebrata?”