An interesting discovery has just been made in this district. A short time since some workmen from Cumnor brought to the Museum a basketful of bones which they said they had found in digging the clay at the brick works, now in course of large extension, at Cumnor Hurst, three miles west of Oxford. On cleaning the specimens, the characteristic vertebræ and teeth of Iguanodon were recognized. A large number of the vertebræ are entire, but the jaw is in fragments, with many teeth, however, in position. The skull is wanting, except a small fragment. One of the feet, with the claws, is almost complete. The larger bones are almost all broken, buty we hope to be able to reunite many of the fragments, as there is reason to belive that the skeleton was entire or nearly so. The smaller bones and the extremities of the larger bones are in a beautiful state of preservation. It is a smaller animal than the Wealden Iguanodon Mantelli, but whether owing to age or difference of species remains to be determined. It seems to be indicate a different species, with smaller and more delicately-formed bones.

The Whetstones (Meule) of Bracquegnies, Belgium, are upon the same geological horizon (zone of Ammonites inflatus, Sow.) and are identical lithologically with the well-known Whetstones of Blackdown; like to the latter deposits they are characterized by the prevalence of Trigoniæ which are allied to, but are for the most part not strictly identical with the species of Devonshire.

Among the many relics of Palæozoic life-forms which the Carboniferous formation has yielded to the palæontologist, none is more remarkable than “Scouler's Eidothea,” or the Eurypterus Scouleri of Hibbert.

The two important papers by this accomplished veteran of science, which have appeared in the American Journal of Science (vol. xvi. November and December, 1878) [noticed in this present number of the Geological Magazine pp. 222–225], though, as might be expected, of the highest value, are in one or two respects, as it seems to me, open to question. Professor Dana approaches the subject as a chemical mineralogist: I venture to criticize as a field who checks his conclusions by using the microscope.

a. On the east of Carrack Olu Point, a bed of pebbles, 1 foot thick, is shown under Head, at from 2 to 5 feet above high water. The greenstone composing the Point is capped by a Head of yellowish-brown loam with angular fragments of greenstone.

In the GeologicalMagazine for 1877, Dec. II. Vol. IV., pp. 410, 456. there is an article on the “Geology of the Isle of Man,” by Mr. Henry H. Howorth, to which I desire to call attention. Most geologists are aware that the late Rev. Joseph G. Cumming, M.A., F.G.S., wrote a work entitled “The Isle of Man,” in 1848, and that it contains a geological description of the island. In this work, and in a papaer by the same author, published in the “Journal of the Geological Society” for 1846, vol. ii. p. 317, there is a minute description of the Carboniderous formation developed at the south of the island, near Castleton, illustrated by maps and sections.

I regret that I have not had an earlier opportunity of replying to a paper in the GeologicalMagazine for February, p. 62, by Mr. William Swanston, F.G.S., on the above subject. I shall now try to compress my remarks into the smallest possible space.

The object of this paper is to show that the received explanations of the structure of mountain chains will not account for the formation of certain Precambrian ranges, and to state facts in support of a new theory of the origin of some mountains. A brief summary of the ordinary views of the subject will first be necessary.